Apr

30

CROSBY VS. OVECHKIN – - The NHL Wins Either Way

Filed Under NHL, Russ Cohen, Sports | Leave a Comment

This is the matchup that everybody has been waiting for. The NHL has been hoping for this and now they have it. The Pittsburgh Penguins are playing the Washington Capitals in the playoffs. That means Alex Ovechkin will face Sidney Crosby  and by the time the series is over fans will hopefully have seen a very memorable series and not just a bunch of isolated cameras on the two superstars of the sport.


I feel bad for Evgeni Malkin because he is the low profile superstar in this battle but the NHL has something to market here and I suspect most of this series will be played out on NBC and that could mean big ratings which could mean a bigger television contract down the road. If you want to hear a discussion about this tune into the Business of Hockey on XM 204, Sirius 208 1PM est on Saturday or 5PM est on Sunday.

These two players are polar opposites and yet they both have helped to elevate the coolest sport. Crosby does things the right way and he’s not very demonstrative and he plays the game the way purists want to see it played. Even with their quotes there is a tremendous difference. When Crosby won the Winter Classic in a shootout two year’s ago he had this to say.

“Yeah I think that we all watched the Edmonton-Montreal game and I think a lot of guys wished that they were a part of it and we were lucky enough to get to have that opportunity,” said Crosby. “You know for me growing up, I played a lot outside and a lot of their guys did too and when you see 70,000 people jammed into a stadium to watch hockey it’s a good sign.”

He signed some autographs right after the goal in the tunnel. He is an ambassador for the game to one segment of fans.

But that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t get mad, take bad penalties, and lose his cool from time to time. He does take a pounding from the Philadelphia Flyers fans and he once had this to say about that.

“It’s always a challenge coming in here,” said Crosby. “It’s always a hostile crowd here. You have to respect that. These are fun games to play in.”

Ovechkin  on the other hand wants to be the center of attention, that doesn’t mean he’s not a team player because he is, but he is also an ambassador for the game and he reaches a different segment than Crosby. One time he was getting booed by a particular fan in Philadelphia for most of the game. Some players would ignore that, some would yell back, but “Ovie” handled it in a very different way.

“Well it’s for the fans,” said a happy Ovie. “The guy who I gave the stick to, he called me not such a good player. (as he signaled the thumbs down sign). It doesn’t matter I gave him the stick because he is a little boy. He was surprised and he took my stick. It was nice.”

Sure he drives fast, and he jokes around and he annoys Don Cherry with his goal celebrations but this anomaly never gives up and last year when his team was down 3-1 against Philadelphia in the playoffs he took responsibility for his game.

“The puck was behind the net and I just tried to go down, and it was delayed so…It was my mistake,” Ovechkin said with pain in his voice. “We don’t give up and it’s not over yet.”

With his team down 3-1 he obviously took that same approach against the New York Rangers this season and this time he came out on the winning side of the ledger.

This series will offer so much to so many fans, hardcore and otherwise. Even if you aren’t a fan of either player, you will watch. You know you will.

Apr

10

Social Media Overload

Filed Under Cyberstalk, Geekdom, Internet | Leave a Comment

Social media has been a slice of the internet that I have tried my best to avoid. Maybe it was the pixel-fairy filled mush that MySpace threw in my face? Maybe it is the fact that by all accounts I’m not the most social person in the world?  I take pride in the relationships I have had and that, by-in-large,  they have crumbled to dust. OK, maybe not pride but it really isn’t anything I lose sleep over. So the art of reconnecting with former friends, co-workers, and people that I may have met once or twice…ehh, I’d would rather pass. I have a hard enough time being social with people I actually like.

MySpace, to me, was the ultimate cluster-fuck of poor design and annoying gimmicks that I bailed out 10 minutes after agreeing to their terms of service. Maybe I was too old for that scene but even if I were a  young man again I still don’t think it would appeal to me. Spammers, wanna-be thugs and rappers, teenage whores, and about a million guys thinking they might have a shot at those teenage whores really turned me off to the whole idea of sharing anything of any substance about my life online.

Then Twitter came along and changed that notion I had built up. It was still pretty new so it wasn’t overloaded with the retards of the earth and your updates where short and sweet. 140 characters was (is)  all you got and while that might be a bit small, I think it weeded out a large number of people who , quite honestly, aren’t interesting. Twitter started out with mostly members of the Tech/Geek world and for me that was fine. Sharing links about gadgets and technology was perfect for me and while I used ( and currently use ) Twitter to let friends and family into my little sports world it still soothed that geeky itch I had.

Twitter has taken off in the past few months with loads of people seeing the value of a quick update to share with others. While you always have the option to follow another Tweet , I hope that the large influx of new users doesn’t mean another service that becomes more of a bother than a positive.

On the other side of the social media world is Facebook, a site I tried to avoid at all costs. All the fears and loathing I had felt with MySpace I channeled into my avoidance of Facebook. I wanted no parts of the reconnecting with high-school classmates. I wanted no parts of being a “friend” of a former co-worker who I may have talked to twice in all my years of employment there. I could think of nothing more awful, nothing more of a waste of time than that. Yet, this year, I created an account and have 125 “friends” on Facebook. Fuck me.

The thing about Facebook ( and I guess more about me) is that there is a bit of a “lurker” element that I enjoy. I don’t have to accept requests for a “friends” cause, I don’t have to accept stupid-ass “Fish” or “drinks” or any of that Myspace-ish bullshit. I can sit back and watch the car-crash, watch the freak-show, and laugh at my “friends” at how BORING their lives are. I mean honestly, you need to update your status with ” I am stuck in traffic” or “I am picking up the kids from school” or other mind-numbing garbage. Now that is not to say I don’t have people I enjoy seeing updates from…and those people know who they are…but jeez, there are plenty of “friends” I keep on Facebook just to thank the powers-that-be that my life didn’t turn out like theirs.

Apr

3

Top 5 People I Follow On Twitter

Filed Under Cyberstalk, Geekdom, Internet | Leave a Comment

So I am on Twitter and oddly enough a few people follow me. How odd, in that I might be the most boring person on the silly site. Yes, I cover sports but what the hell does that mean? Like I’ll have some scoop of a hot trade or something. What is also sad is that I have picked up a few followers because of this link on HockeyBuzz. So these followers are looking for some hot hockey gossip and I give them garbage like ” I love Ron and Fez”. I can see my followers dropping like rats off a sinking ship.

The thing about Twitter is that , unlike Facebook, the majority of the people I follow and who follow me, I don’t know personally…and unlike Facebook, the people I follow on Twitter are a thousand times more interesting than the creeps who are my “friends” on Facebook. Let’s see…check in on what Trent Reznor is doing or read an update about how traffic is bad or how much they are wishing it was Friday.

Speaking of Mr. Reznor, here are the top Twitter users I follow:

Trent Reznor (trent_reznor) – The man who represents all that is good with the melding of music and technology gives us all things Nine Inch Nails.

Gregg “Opie” Hughes (OpieRadio) – One third of the Opie and Anthony show on XM/Sirius

Alex Ovechkin (ovi8) - He hasn’t posted since the All-Star game but to get updates from the greatest player in the world today is something worth waiting for.

Shaquille O’Neal (THE_REAL_SHAQ) – Some of his words of wisdom : “Ok I admit it I stay up at nite because I watch snapped Lol” and “ I wanna b a underwear model I will b n 3 months trust me I will b the finest 37 year older n da world”. Fucking priceless.

ComcastBill (ComcastBill) – Ok maybe an odd pick with the other four but hear me out. I had an appointment for Comcast to install cable cards on my HD Tivo but for whatever reason they didn’t bring the cards. So after a bit of a rant post on Twitter, ComcastBill hits me up and gets the ball rolling to have another tech (with the cards) stop out that same night. That was nice work.