everything moved to the new platform

all postings will be made there.

FanGirl in the Middle of Nowhere

Changing Platforms

Don’t get me wrong, I like wordpress for some stuff, but it’s hard to do fun things with the blog, like make changes, without spending any money. I just don’t have that. So, I am moving this blog to blogger. It is a slow process (I’m trying to work at the same time). As soon as it is finish, I will update here.

FanGirl in the Middle of Nowhere (Blogger style): http://cbjfangirl.blogspot.com/

Poll: Which Blue Jackets, Blackhawks, and Indiana Ice games should I go see?

Alright, post your opinions or suggestions in the comment box please.

I narrowed it down to games which are feasible for me to go see from late September to mid-October (while my other half is away visiting family). Considerations I made in narrowing it down are the following:

• Is it a Monday-Thursday game or Friday-Sunday game?
• What time is the game?
• Do I have time to drive there (if working that night) and get home at a decent hour?
• Can I afford it?
• How much vacation time will I have?
• Chicago is a 2 hour drive; Indianapolis is 1 hour, and Columbus is 4 hours
• I am on Eastern Time, Chicago is on Central Time
• I work 9-5pm, M-F
• I can afford more Indiana Ice (USHL, junior hockey) games than NHL games (or at least can afford better seats at Indy)
• At least one game in Chicago, one game in Columbus, maybe one game where Chicago & Columbus are playing against each other, and maybe 2-3 games in Indianapolis

So, the game choices are:

• Pre-Season Games
  • Columbus @ Chicago, Tuesday, September 23, 8:30 pm ET (I will probably be in Chicago that day anyways)
  • Minnesota @ Chicago, Friday, September 26, 8:30 pm ET
  • Nashville @ Columbus, Friday, September 26, 7pm ET
  • Dallas @ Chicago, Sunday, September 28, 7pm ET
  • Buffalo @ Columbus, Thursday, October 2, 7pm ET
  • Colorado @ Chicago, Sunday, October 5, 7pm
  • Toronto @ Columbus, Sunday, October 5, 5pm
• Regular Season Games
  • Nashville @ Chicago, Monday, October 13, 8:30 pm
  • Nashville @ Columbus, Friday, October 17, 7pm
  • Vancouver @ Chicago, Sunday, October 19, 7pm
• Indiana Ice Games (all games at 7:30 pm)
  • Cedar Rapids @ Indy, Saturday, October 4
  • Fargo @ Indy, Friday, October 10
  • Fargo @ Indy, Saturday, October 11
  • Waterloo @ Indy, Friday, October 17
  • Des Moines @ Indy, Saturday, October 18

Good Luck in Buffalo…

Patrick Lalime.  It was such a delight watching you play for Chicago.  I will certainly miss that, and too bad I didn’t get to see you play in person.

Welcome to Columbus….

• Kristian Huselius
• Mike Commodore
• Christian Backman
• RJ Umberger
• Raffi Torres
• Fedor Tyutin
• Nikita Filatov
• (and although drafted last year) Jakub Voracek

I wish you all the luck and success in Columbus and hope that you will finally get us into the playoffs very soon

(still waiting on Pascal Leclaire to resign…..)

Oh Captain My Captain (Blackhawks style)

Jonathan Toews named captain of the Blackhawks squad, becoming the third youngest in league history.

So though Kane has the Calder Trophy, Toews got the big C on his uniform.

Arab Cup of Hockey

Yes, believe it. It is currently taking place this week in the United Arab Emirates, between UAE, Kuwait, Algeria & Morocco. I’m rooting for Algeria (my other half is Algerian, that’s why).

The scores so far (partly from National Teams of Ice Hockey and partly from various forum(s) posts of someone involved directly):

June 16, 2008

• Kuwait vs. Algeria – 8 to 2
• UAE vs. Morocco – 9 to 0

June 17, 2008

• Morocco vs. Kuwait – 3 to 6
• Algeria vs. UAE – 2 to 6

Note: The rosters for Morocco and Algeria are filled with Moroccan or Algerian expats who lived & played in France or Canada (with the exception for a French guy who lived in Morocco for a very long time with his family). The rosters for UAE and Kuwait includes a whole line filled with players from Belarus & Czech Republic. Not very fair, don’t you think? Money buys nationality, I guess.

Links:

• Official Algerian Ice and Inline Hockey Federation
• Wikipedia: Arab Cup of Ice Hockey
• Hockey Oases in the Sahara
• Arab Cup of Hockey MySpace page
• Algerian Ice & Inline Hockey Federation MySpace Page
• Both Arab Cup of Hockey & Algerian Ice & Inline Hockey Federation has Facebook pages.

“I want to make speech longer but my English short.”

-Pavel Datsyuk (with nods to Bethany’s Hockey Rants for posting the quote)

(x-posted but edited from my other blog)

Updates since last posting (I apologize but things have gotten crazy here):

• Detroit won the Stanley Cup: BOOOOOOOO!!! HISSS!!! (obviously I am not a Detroit fan)
• Dominik Hasek (G-DET) is retiring (now I have to find another good goalie for my fantasy team)
• Patrick Kane won the Calder Trophy!!! YES!!! He was so awesome to watch last season. I’m so happy for him (Other NHL trophy winners listed here and of course Ovechkin is carrying around a lot of metal)

The many suits of Don Cherry

x-posted on my other blog

Love him or hate him, there are just no words to describe Don Cherry’s clothing style:

Don Cherry’s Fashion Statements

Battle of the Goalies

x-posted on my other blog

I think it was Don Cherry who said (or at least re-iterated) that great teams have great goalies. This year’s Stanley Cup finals are no exceptions. It is the battle of the goalies: Chris Osgood for Detroit and Marc-Andre Fleury for Pittsburgh.

Game 6 starts tonight, and so far it’s Detroit ahead 3 games to 2. Here is a numerical comparison between Osgood & Fleury so far in this final series:

• Chris Osgood: 3 wins, 2 of them shut-outs. 112 saves against 120 shots, so the save average is 93.3%.
• Marc-Andre Fleury: 2 wins. 178 saves against 192 shots, making the save average 92.7%

So, as you can see, despite Osgood’s 2 shut-outs, the save average are close to each other.

Osgood has been good to me on my fantasy teams when Hasek was benched for various reasons this past season. But in this final series, I have much greater respect for Fleury, and it’s not because he’s a Quebecois goalie (I do like French goalies a lot, like Patrick Roy when I was much younger & Pascal Leclaire currently). Fleury, I think in this series, is a better goalie than Osgood. He has been bombarded by the Detroit offense and have made countless great saves. A team’s best defense is their goalie, and since Pittsburgh’s defense is not as strong as Detroit, Fleury has pretty much kept the team’s chances alive. And quite frankly, Detroit’s defense pretty much makes Osgood’s job easier.

Though I’m not a Pittsburgh fan, I am definitely not a Detroit fan (though I have had their players on my fantasy team and they had been good to me). With that I must say:

Go Penguins!