2020 Stanley Cup Conference Finals

NY Rangers, ,

And now we’re in September with the Final Four! Weird to say that as we are at the traditional point of the year when the NHL starts their training for the coming season in October.

The second round in the East ended more or less how I thought it would. Tampa vs Islanders should be excellent. NY has been on a tear, and Tampa knocked Boston out in 5 games. They’ll have about a week off when Game 1 starts and that may or may not be in their favor. A lot more rest (NY gets a day off) but they could be rusty. That may not be a factor for long. I’m not sure who will win it could go either way and I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes 7 games. I think I’d rather see NY win as the haven’t won the Cup since 1984 (the end of the dynasty team) and this is their longest Playoff run since the mid 90s. That’s a long drought!

The betting odds are in Las Vegas’ favor. Strong year (which isn’t that relevant with the COVID shut down of 4 months, the playoffs are basically a new season) and strong playoff games. Dallas is the underdog and have been proving their worth over the last month of play. Vegas is on their third playoff run in three years of existence which is nuts. Last year ended in a Round 1 controversial loss and it feels like they are on the cusp of making history again, they are that good. I think Dallas has their work cut out for them, but they can do it.

Prediction: Vegas vs Tampa for the Stanley Cup.

Movie Ketchup

Movies, Netflix Original

An American Pickle– When Herschel Greenbaum immigrates to the United States and starts a family, he gets a job at a pickle business (plant?) and accidentally falls into a brine vat. He’s perfectly preserved in the juice and wakes up 100 years later in modern Brooklyn, NY.

In this new world Herschel discovers that his wife died several decades ago but his son went on to have a family. He meets Ben, his great-great-grandson and they begin to live together while Herschel starts his life over (he’s basically the same age as Ben).

Seth Rogen plays both Herschel and Ben, doing a fantastic job as both. It’s a cute story that, I think, works better as a drama than a comedy. It got a few chuckles out of me and there is some really absurd things going on (besides the whole premise). The best is the relationship between the distant relatives. First Ben teaching him about modern life, them finding things they have in common and then Ben becoming jealous of Herschel’s surprising successes. The fish out of water story is an ages old one, but I found Pickle to use it well for family and social commentary. It’s a creative and fun story (based on a short story by the great Simon Rich) that’s worth watching.

Project Power– I wanted to like this way more than I did. The problem is it doesn’t do much that’s new or that interesting.

On the streets of New Orleans, a pill that gives the user superpowers for 5 minutes suddenly appears. The superpower given is different for everyone–and it could be deadly. It might make you explode right away or give you an ability that is so strong (and dangerous to anyone around you) the body can’t handle it and you more or less fall apart.

There are three main characters navigating this situation and their paths all cross, leading them to uncover where the Power pills are coming from and why they’ve hit the streets on New Orleans (the most interesting part of the story, in my opinion).

Frank the cop (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Art the ex-soldier(Jamie Foxx), and Robin the teenage Power dealer (Dominique Fishback). The cast is great, no complaints there. They do their best with what they are given. The problem is that each character is the textbook cliche of each description. They aren’t interesting, at all. If you’ve seen a movie in this genre that’s been made in the past 40 years or so, you’ll be able to guess each character’s background stories just by the first sentence of this paragraph. So it becomes a waiting game for them to come together as a 3 piece and see what the fallout and twist of the story are if any. I did like the ending so that’s a plus.

The standout parts of the movie are the special effects. There are some wild transformations on display that are done really well. That makes the action fun to watch and punches up the interest. Basically what kept me from turning the movie off and moving on to something else. It felt like this script was just a set up for a larger universe. A message of “I know, you just have to sit through this so I can set this up for a better sequel. Please stick with me.” That’s not a good message.

Guns Akimbo– If you’re in the mood for anarchist hyper-violence, take a long trip to crazy town with Miles when he gets forced into playing the real-life death match game, Skizm.

If you understood that sentence than you are probably in a certain age bracket that this movie caters to. When it comes to making an action movie, you need a hook. As you read above, Project Power didn’t work well for me. Guns Akimbo approach is to throw everything into the wind a try to film all of it at once as the debris falls all over the place. I wanted to see this because Daniel Radcliffe stars in it. He always does his best when doing an American accent and it always sounds weird. I find that charming–what can I say I’m a fan.

So Dan’s my entry point in this video game scenario put to film. Miles talks trash online and one time he does so to the organizer of a viral online gladiator show called Skizm where two people literally fight to the death. The guy bolts handguns to Miles’ hands and forces him to fight the current reining Skizm champion, Nix. He has 100 bullets and 24 hours to do it, or he’ll be killed. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

So Miles is well un-equipped for this. He’s far from a fighter and having guns bolted to your hands is insane and makes for many everyday problems. The whole movie is Miles running around the city trying to survive and find a way out of this mess.

Everything about this movie is absurd. The set up, the characters, the action, the violence. It’s a video game made with people instead of pixels (there’s some really great stylized animation integrated too, think Scott Pilgrim Vs The World). When the guns start firing the camera takes off with it. Kinetic direction is what I would call it.

While I appreciate what the movie does and the attempt at social commentary (GTFO the internet, it desensitizes you) it gets exhausting to watch. Blood and bodies and cursing all over the place. It’s sensory overload after sensory overload (which the John Wick series runs up to but pulls off with stunning style and reservation) that in the end doesn’t mean much. The desensitization of violence warning of the script is on full display with the final product of the movie. Not a bad movie per say but a one and done experience for me.

Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 2

NY Rangers, ,

Vancouver knocking out the defending champions, St. Louis Blues, is probably the most surprising result of the first round. The remaining series should all be close contests and it may come down to a war of attrition with such an aggressive playing schedule. The biggest break is if you finish a series in 5 or less games, then you could get 4 days off in a row. Round two starts today with Colorado and Dallas. Dallas beat Calgary on Thursday (2 days ago) and Colorado 3 days ago. Vancouver is only getting a day off, like Dallas whereas Vegas got 4 days (beat Chicago in 5 games). Now everyone remaining will play a game every other day. That is a grind.

I thought Philly would beat Montreal easily but they put up a major fight and the Islanders are now firing on all cylinders (which is amazing because when the season stopped in March they were a train wreck). This should be a battle. I’m leaning towards Philly still but the Isles could easily take it if Philly lets too many turnovers happen.

I had no idea how Vancouver was this year, I never see their games. Vegas has been my West coast favorite so if Vancouver can keep their roll going (tremendous Game 6 win against the Blues) Vegas is not going to skate through.

I think Colorado is long overdue to get to the Championship so I think they’ll best Dallas.

Tampa Bay is playing with venom in their veins from last season (and many other recent failed cup runs) so they are my favorite over Boston. Boston has seemed a little listless until recently so they’re going to have to come correct at minute one or they’re going to be digging themselves out of a hole the entire season.

Alexis Lafreniere

NY Rangers, ,

The New York Rangers Win The First Draft pick.

This is a massive development. The young man on the top of the prospects is Mr. Alexis Lafreniere from Saint-Eustache, QC, Canada. The 6′ 1″ 193 pounds, LW player has been turning heads for some time now, with many calling him a “generational talent.” That’s about the highest praise you can get for an athlete and while he’s only 18 and time will tell of how he does in the NHL, he’s at the very least a natural talent. Take a look!

The Rangers head office would have to be crazy not to pick him. This is happening at a great time for the team and adds a new piece to work with for at least the next 3 seasons. The offensive line is more and more stacked, the focus on renewing/trading/letting players has to be on the defensive line now. There are big holes in the Rangers defense that need to addressed to get this team to be a Cup contender.

Stanley Cup 2020 Brackets

NY Rangers, ,

Here are our potential champions.

My favorites are Vegas in the West and Philadelphia in the East. The East is stacked though, there are a lot of monsters sitting right there. I think Montreal and Carolina have the most odds against them. There is no way Chicago is beating Vegas. It’s been a long time since Arizona has been in the Playoffs and I have no idea how good they are (Dallas too). It’d be fun to see Calgary go far, and hey Vancouver has a chance too. It’s been ages since a Canadian team has won the Cup. I haven’t seen a single Vancouver game so I don’t know how they stack up against the defending Champions.

The tournament is off to the races already with Tampa’s 5 OT (!) win against Columbus.

Carolina 3 Rangers 0

NY Rangers, , ,

Oh the crushing feeling of disappointment. Just a glaze of malaise that seeps into ever pore. A sweep in the first round. It doesn’t really get any worse than than that. I had a weird feeling this was going to happen in the week leading up to the tournament. The NY Rangers historically beat Carolina, the win/loss ratio is far in the Ranger’s favor. Lundqvist has an amazing record against them. In the regular season the Rangers swept Carolina 4-0. Goals against was something like 17-9. Here? 11-4 for Carolina.

The first period was great. The second period started with a blast, Chris Kreider scoring, putting the Rangers in the lead for the first time in the series. Then, nothing went the Rangers way.

I had no confidence that the Rangers were going to make it to the finals this year. Getting to the first round, absolutely. If the Rangers ran into the Flyers, there’s no way they would win. Clearly the better team won in this contest and whoever plays them next has a major challenge in front of them (Carolina went really far last season).

It is what it is. There are still 2 months of Stanley Cup playoffs to go. The 2020-2021 season could start in November. That’s not too far away for the Rangers to be back on the ice and there’s only going to be like 2 months of no hockey from the end off the playoffs to the start of the season (if all goes well).

There is a ton of action for the Rangers in the off season. How is the goalie situation going to play out? Shesterkin is without a doubt the future. Does Hank hang on to end his contract leaving Georgiev to be traded? Or will Hank move on? Cap space is a major concern. With losing so much revenue this season, no team is getting more money to work with. There are a few guys the Rangers probably won’t be able to afford to keep (DeAngelo, Strome). There are a few rookies that should be able to play…the players they don’t keep could be replaced with this new talent. Plus, with losing in this play-in round, the Rangers get put into an advantageous place in the draft.

There are a lot of ice shavings that are going to settle in the next few months.

Carolina 2 Rangers 0

NY Rangers, , ,

Now it’s time to panic. Very little changed from the first game.

Lundqvist allows another first, early goal which forces the emotional deficet of trying to catch up. The first period was actually good/decent other wise. Fewer penalties and mistakes but Carolina largely remained in control.

Going into the second period it’s tied and then a stupid offensive zone penalty gives Carolina a power play and right off the face off, they score. Another mistake off losing control trying to clear the puck gives Carolina another chance right in front of the net and they score. Less than 2 minutes after the PP goal. This puts the Rangers into a 3-1 pit the never get out of.

The rest of the game isn’t worth talking about. The Rangers lose 4-1 in a game where it looks like Carolina has the Rangers completely scouted. Superior defense in every way, breaking up passes, better passing, double-teaming Panarin, all-star goaltending (at least 3 robberies) never letting up the entire 60 minutes of play. Sebastian Aho made a smart play every shift he was on the ice. The only Ranger player I saw stand out was Tony DeAngelo. He made moves.

The only time the Rangers scored was on a 5-3 advantage. You better score with that massive advantage. They were able to have space to set up and execute a play. The rest of the game they were smothered and struggled to get any long offensive push going. Forget trying a long across the center ice pass with Carolina, they are all over it.

Big coaching changes need to be done for the Rangers tonight. Their approach has been figured out and stuffed 2 games in a row. The veteran players need to show up and lead the charge or it’s a wrap.

Carolina 1 Rangers 0

NY Rangers

I had a feeling the first game was going to go down like this. Fast, very aggressive, a stupid amount of penalties (14).

Also not surprising, the Rangers taking the entire first period to realize they are playing a hockey game. Everything felt off with terrible passing, and an offense that couldn’t get anything started. That left everything to the defense to save every botched push.

It got better in the second period with improved passing and communication. Carolina always looked one step ahead though, most of the game it felt like the Rangers were trying to catch up (which was true on the score board).

Shesterkin didn’t start in net, which was a surprise. The bigger surprise is that he was listed as “unfit to play” which is the official title for any kind of illness or injury (the league says no one has tested positive for COVID). Georgiev was the backup. Hank locked it down despite the 3-2 score. The first one was the only one I consider legit. The shot hit his right shoulder and flipped over and in. He could have/should have stopped it. The second was a redirection in a pack of players, it was impossible to see. The third bounced off of Staal’s skate as he was trying to defend–it went through Hank’s legs as he was playing the shot as it was coming in. There was nothing he could do. Staal did make up for it by scoring a goal (I think his third of the season).

It could have gone to overtime. The Rangers could have won in regulation. 1-7 on the power play for Carolina and 0-7 for the Rangers. That can’t happen again. All those opportunities missed (4 of those power plays, Carolina had no problem defending) and being on the penalty kill that many times is too much stress and exertion to go through.

Adjustments will be made for Game 2 on Monday. I’m not too worried as I expected this series to be very close and nothing too alarming happened today. If they can put a stop to their season long curse of having terrible first periods, it’ll make a big difference. You can’t give a team a 20 minute advantage in a series that only takes 3 hours to get knocked out of.

Through The Exhibition, On To The Ice

NY Rangers

The exhibition game on Wednesday with the New York Islanders went as I expected it to. Neither team went full force, saving the energy (and avoiding injury, except for Brendan Lemieux who felt that–even though he’s going to sit for a 2 game suspension from the regular season–a fight was necessary to get into ) to make sure the start of the tournament on Saturday will be the strongest each team can be. Islanders beat the Rangers 2-1 so the Rangers were able to compete for the full hour.

The first period was the best for the Rangers, the Islanders didn’t pick up their standard game until the 2nd. Fast, some decent hits, and more shooting than average from the Rangers. While they had some opportunities here and there, the Rangers never found their stride. No streaks of good plays, more like the parts of the team working independently than together. Once the Islanders cinched up their defense, the Rangers couldn’t get anything done. The Islanders have a defensive system (smother) that the Rangers don’t know how to handle.

Shesterkin let one goal in on 7 seven shots and Lundqvist let one in as well. Igor’s was a pretty soft goal while Hank’s was blistering shot across that was right on the money. Really hard to stop. Both goalies looked good but the team has work to do. The penalty kill was terrific–5 for 5–but the power play did nothing of note. Panarin and Zibanejad were on the ice but hardly visible.

With the best of 5 series with Carolina starting tomorrow, whatever team plays like a team first will win. It could go either way but the Rangers have to play like they were at the end of the season or they have no chance. Kreider is back to 100% and Kakko is well-rested and looks more relaxed so these two pieces could make the difference with 2 of Carolina’s most potent defensemen injured.

I have high hopes–as I always do–for the Rangers and the long term stats are in the Rangers favor. The Rangers swept Carolina in the regular season. The Rangers are always a challenge for Carolina to beat. But this tournament isn’t a regular tournament. These teams have now played one hockey game in 4 months. There is no room for error, 3 games to win and that’s it. The pressure is high as ever because this is the Stanley Cup playoffs.

It’s a treat to have hockey back!

DC Universe

Movies, TV,

DC made their own media streaming service a little less than 2 years ago. A collection of all things DC (with major exceptions because of prior licensing deals with networks for tv and movies) it was designed for major DC fans to come to one location. There’s a comic book reader with an ever-changing library, movies, TV shows, merch and a community section.

I’ve been a subscriber on and off since the start. The big draw to the service is the comic book reader and the original programming. Getting access to a big comic library that’s easy to read is great but it’s pretty limited. Many story lines aren’t complete, only a few issues of a series are available. The reader is very good, much better than when it first started. There are multiple ways to navigate a page which is really welcome.

I write this not for the comics, but to talk about the original shows and what’s going to happen to this services. Long story short, I don’t think DCU is going to stay open until the end of the year. WB, who owns DC, has given birth to its future recently and that is HBO Max. They’re downsizing all of their apps (HBO Now and HBO Go) into one (the way it should have always been) and DCU is kinda left floating around looking for mainstream popularity. Some programs have already made the move: Doom Patrol and Harley Quinn. Stargirl, the first live-action project for this character was meant as an exclusive has been also airing on The CW network. So the expansion is already happening. And that’s good because more people need to see this stuff. Being on DCU, it’s pretty buried.

Titans was the first out of the gate with the launch of the platform. It’s arguably the weakest of the batch. It’s not Teen Titans, which has an enormous fan base, but follows mostly those same characters (Robin, Beast Boy, Raven, Starfire, Hawk and Dove who aren’t in the cartoon) at an older age. Timeline wise, Robin has broken ways with Batman and is more or less on the verge of going solo (creating Nightwing). The show starts with a very strange tone. There’s cursing that usually feels misplaced. Like the writer’s got permission to curse and they just stuck in f bombs because they could. It feels unnecessary I guess you could say. I did enjoy the first two seasons even if it’s a bit slow. Robin is a terrible leader, there is a ton of internal strife in the group because of a previous mission gone terribly wrong and Raven is a whole new world of trouble discovering her powers. I think season 2 was quite a bit better.

Swamp Thing is awesome. It frequently leans into horror which you don’t see much in this genre (especially live action comic book adaptations). There’s not much else out there like this, which made it really refreshing. I liked everything about this show and it got cut off at it’s knees. It cost a fortune to make and apparently the executives in charge got nervous about it and bailed. This came out right after Titans and I think a low subscriber count made them want to cover other expenses. The season was cut short and the show canceled. The season ended with a limp and it’s so disappointing for this to have happened. My big wish is that somehow, this show comes backs.

Young Justice: Outsiders is an animated show that continues the hugely popular (and stupidly cancelled) Young Justice. Those first two seasons were awesome and while this run is good, I don’t think it meets the story standards of the series. Great animation though.

Doom Patrol is weird and that’s why I love it. An atypical team superhero group, nothing that happens on this show is expected. Misfits and broken people, the group is held together by Chief (played by Timothy Dalton!) who has more than his fair of flaws and secrets. It’s really hard to explain this show, you really need to see it to “get” it. It turns the super hero genre on it’s head and shakes it to make the candy come out. I think for people who don’t like super hero anything, might get a real kick out of this. Now that it’s on HBO Max, it’s much more accessible. Please check it out so they make more (season 2 is airing now).

Harley Quinn is a riot. Animated and filthy, this is the closest answer to the Deadpool movies that DC has right now. It goes way further than the Birds of Prey movie and is really funny. Where Doom Patrol is a weird thinker, Harley is anarchy come to colorful life. A ton of DC characters show up and the way they are portrayed is brilliant (I love Bane). Long time fans are sure to eat this up as they will get all the inside jokes. Not to say it’s unacceptable to new comers, but it helps some of the jokes land harder. The writers got permission to do pretty much whatever they want, so don’t think every character will make it through a season alive. There is literally nothing like this on American TV (the closest might be Rick & Morty) and I was shocked at how well this turned out. Hits HBO Max in August, please check it out so more are made!

Let’s Go Hockey!

NY Rangers, , , , ,

I haven’t written a word about the NHL since the season was stopped in march for COVID-19 because it was impossible to say anything concrete about what was going to happen with the conclusion of the 2019-2020 season. There’s been a lot of behind the scenes action in the last two weeks or so that’s become official. The run for the Stanley Cup is scheduled to start on August 1st. That’s only 2 weeks away.

The pandemic has borked every sport on Earth. Everyone is trying to get the ball running and the NHL is on the cusp of starting play. Training Camps opened on Monday. As for the Rangers, the entire team has been coming back to New York over the last two weeks or so. Because of their standings at the cutoff, they have enough points to enter the Cup Qualifiers with the other 5 bubble teams. August 1st will be the pop off date for the best of 5 series against Carolina. The non-bubble teams that had enough points to make it into the playoffs at the halt of the regular season will play a few round-robin games to establish seeding.

The two hub cities for all games are up North in Toronto and Edmonton. One for the East and West conferences. The Cup Finals will be played in Edmonton.

So now the goal is to keep everyone healthy into the travel date to the Hub City for everyone. Once there, the bubble is made. Players and staff won’t be able to go out much besides the rink and hotel. Family won’t be allowed in until well into the playoffs to keep outside contact to a minimum.

This also means the pressure is on. No one has played a hockey game in more than 4 months. In two months, it’s hit the ice hard or GTFO. This is for the Cup! The teams that can come together the fastest will have a huge advantage. With a best of 5 series to start, the bubble teams have no room for error. Lundqvist has to hit his apex in camp to earn his spot to play over Georgiev (Shesterkin is a shoo-in (skate-in?) to be back up goalie at the very least). The Rangers beat Carolina every game this season but with that momentum gone, it’s anyone’s game. Take a team for granted and you’re going to get beat.

This whole ordeal has spun the finances of the NHL into a black hole. A ton of money has been lost and that makes the payroll cap for every team a huge question mark for the next few years. Right now, the 2020-2021 season is scheduled to start in December. That’s if everything goes well. The NHL is going to be reorganizing things for the next few years so any kind of “normal season” is way down the line. The foreseeable future is going to be an effort in keeping the lights on (many teams make very little profit or operate in the red). Right now we can only hold tight and see what happens. I am so excited for hockey to come back.

It’s been a while

Life, ,

I didn’t write a blog post for all of June! I don’t think I’ve missed a month in years if any. Time to break the dry spell. The good news is, I was busy. I picked up an editing gig and that took up a lot of my time.

This is the 4th book and 3rd author I’ve worked with and my system of content editing is improving with each one. It’s always interesting to navigate through someone’s work for the first time. A lot of notes are necessary, especially for a first draft, which is what I worked on. A lot isn’t clear or well defined so it takes some extra time to put the dots together when they are often too far apart or even non-existent. First drafts tend to be overwritten and also lacking in detail. What an author thinks is important, may not be to the reader. In most cases, the author thinks they’ve covered enough of a topic or idea for a reader when they haven’t. The second draft is largely filling in those gaps, moving things around, overall getting the pacing right.

Writing the report is an effort of giving useful advice and suggestions without being terrible about it. It’s easy to criticize and when it comes to first draft, there’s a lot of it. That can be brutal to read through so much negative feedback. So writing the report is about become a teacher. Explain things well, don’t just say “this is wrong.” That doesn’t help and it’s not wrong, it’s just not complete. Finishing the first draft doesn’t mean the story is done. That’s the basis I use for all of my notes. Why don’t I think this works and what can be done about it? Say what works and how that can be expanded.

I can frequently find the thread that an author lays out. My job is to grab it, shake it to see what sticks to it, and then do my best to figure out how the author can get more to stick to the thread so they can get their intended message across. One of the worst things to hear from a reader is that they see a character completely different from the way you intended. That has to be fixed.

I handed all the material back last week and it has been received positively. Mission complete!