| 13 December 2009
Hockey season is finally upon us. But damn it, weekends exist all year round. And just because the NHL has decided to schedule games on said weekend doesn’t mean our schedules are magically freed up for 24/7 snark. We’ve got basements to clean, and our respective mothers learned everything they know from Mike Keenan. So on Monday mornings, you will get a recap post and a picture of noted thespian Terry Kiser. Enjoy.
Now I know some of you are concerned about the new 'look' of MYFO. All the bright colors and vivid graphic design elements - these are not the MYFO you've come to know and love like tolerate. But as our patron saint of Monday recap posts has taught us, every once in a while you uncover insurance fraud and get invited to Block Island for the weekend.
Sure, you're drinking for the weekend just like you used to, but now you're just doing it with a martini bar and the most random group of party extras in the history of cinema. No biggie.
Recaps after the jump.
Todd Bertuzzi: Procrastinator. On two straight evenings, Detroit's Todd Bertuzzi waited until overtime to net the game winner. On Friday night, T-Bone (I gave him this nickname because he's an athlete and his name begins with T.) scored a minute in to the extra frame to down Anaheim in Motown 3-2. 24 hours later, the Wings traveled to Nashville to battle the Predators. In overtime, Weekend Hero stripped David Legward, split the D and beat Pekka Rinne to end yet another game with a W. This is all well and good but we have to ask: why the hell can't Bertuzzi just do this in regulation. I mean, I can understand delaying having to walk to your car when in Detroit. But Nashville? C'mon, T-Bone! We've got live country music to go see!
Name a Russian! In the post-game presser after the Coyotes handed San Jose their fifth straight defeat, Coach Dave Tippett praised his netminder, Ilya Bryzgalov. "Bryzzie was good and we got a couple goals. Thanks." Look, I know that NHL players and personnel are the most creative with the nicknames - most consist of adding a -ey or shortening the name and adding an -s - but Bryzzie? Really? You make him sound like a gay Pokemon or at the very least, a reject member of Bone Thugs 'n Harmony. Anyway, Robert Lang and Radim Vrbata - they're the future - netted goals to keep Phoenix winning. Make Ice Edge proud, boys.
Holding Out for a Headline. You can always tell which NHL recap stories are written by AP guys that are rifling through box scores and which ones are penned by people actually watching the game. The Canadien Press' coverage of the Vancouver-Minnesota tilt was titled Henrik Sedin's Three Assists Lead Canucks Past Wild. Don't get me wrong, assists are an important part of the game and are the reason for many goals. But do you think Coach Todd was in the Wild locker room chastising his team with "Boys, we can't let #33 pass to other players in the offensive all the time. It will be the death of us!" It warrants mentioning that as important as assists are to goals, we wouldn't have assists without the goals, either. Daniel Sedin, Alex Burrows, and Mason Raymond did the important part of the puck transaction in a 4-3 decision.
In Soviet Russia, Old Gets You! When the Miracle on Ice happened, I was less than a year old. So it's safe to say that I haven't been carrying a strong recollection of players and jersey numbers from that game through my youth. So when I saw Miracle a few years ago, I was surprised to see a Russian extra with the name "FETISOV" skating around. There's now way that that could be the very same Fetisov that plagued me with New Jersey and Detroit through my teenage years. Could it? COULD IT?
Holy crap, it could. And what's more, he played for CSKA Moscow over the weekend at the age of 51. Let's see you do that, Eruzione.
