Offsetting Minors

New Issue

2009-10-04T03:34:00.001-04:00

New Issue of ODESSA STEPS.

Not a hoax. Not an imaginary story.

Debuting at the Baltimore Comic-Con.

greatest of all time

2009-01-12T13:39:00.000-05:00

And now for something completely different

2008-04-07T19:32:00.002-04:00

A hockey-playing bear not in Hershey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0x9mMNJSEM

And now for something completely different

2008-04-07T19:32:00.001-04:00

A hockey-playing bear not in Hershey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0x9mMNJSEM

Hockey Day in Canada

2008-02-09T15:27:00.000-05:00

Hooray.

My favorite hockey day of the year.

Had to buy the one day Center Ice package (dont have the regular package this year).

Some of the better-known hockey/comics/nerdverse connections:

* Although people always associate PEANUTS with baseball, St. Paul native Charles Schulz was a big hockey enthusiast, owning a rink in Southern California and was even inducted into the US Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993.

* Todd McFarlane used to a partial owner of the NHL Edmonton Oilers and even designed their one of their alternate logos. And there was the Tony Twist Lawsuit.

* James Kolchaka and the Zambonis’ song “Hockey Monkey.”

* Hockey is a big part of Kevin Smith’s View Askew Universe, from playing rooftop hockey in CLERKS to the skating demons in DOGMA.

We know there are more but it’s almost time for the prime-time games to start on CBC. Gotta go.

Good Night, Coach Knight

2008-02-04T20:07:00.000-05:00

If you are indeed gone this time, au revoir.

Trivia Note:

I broadcast two games on the campus radio station as a freshman at Indiana. They ended up being Knight's 500th win and Knight's 400th win at Indiana.

great coach, yes.

big jerk, yes.

I was a benefit of his donation his shoe contract money to the IU Library, yes.

horrible

2007-10-06T19:09:00.000-04:00

Whoever decided it was a good idea to get a doo wop group to sing O CANADA tonight for the Leafs/Habs game should be rapped with a cane across the rulers.

To me, no one beats the guy in Ottawa or the guy in Edmonton.

Bears Game 1: Pens 5, Bears 4

2007-10-03T21:53:00.000-04:00

Listened to the game on the computer. Sorry, really don't want to pay $6 a game for B2, at least tonight.

Sounds like a crappy way to end the game -- an own goal in the third period.

Two goals for Bourque.

A goal and a fight for Robitaille. (His first goal was later changed to Bourque)

Arsene made an interesting and opinionated color man for John Walton. I wonder how long that will last.

Bears Preseason Game vs WBS

2007-09-30T21:05:00.000-04:00

-- The Bears rested a good number of their front line players (including Chris Bourque). We'll just say this was a contributing factor for their loss to the WBS Baby Penguins today at Giant Center.

The game was very chippy.

These two teams open the AHL season Wednesday night.

Expect more of the same.

Bears Preseaon Game vs Norfolk

2007-09-29T22:40:00.001-04:00

Thoughts from tonight’s presason game in Hershey:

– Bourque looked great. Scored the first goal less than a minute into the game. Really buzzing around on the PP.

– The Ice was also in pre-season form. Lots of slipping and sliding. When I was in Giant center earlier this week, they were having a food show there and there were hundreds of tables covering the ice. Jay Stewart, at the beginning of the third, slid like 10 feet into the empty Hershey net like he was a bowling ball.

– A couple altercations between Chris McAllister and Brett Angel. In the first fight, McAllister seemed to get tangled up in his new sweater.

– The Bears PK got a lot of work, as the ref seemed to call a lot of hooking penalties.

All is right in Chocolate Town

2007-09-25T21:09:00.000-04:00

made the trek up to Giant Center and got my Bears season tickets today.

Yippee.

Season starts next week, but the first home game is not for a few weeks.

caps win first pre-seaon game

2007-09-23T15:21:00.000-04:00

Wash over Tampa Bay

listened to part of the game on the Caps' website, with Vogs doing color on the broadcast. Check out his blog for more about last night's game.

Bears beat Baby Pens in first pre-season game

2007-09-23T15:20:00.000-04:00

Tim Leone's story in today's Patriot-News.

Camp is open!

2007-09-20T22:02:00.000-04:00

Washington Capitals camp began a few days ago.

Hershey Bears camp started today. We hope to make it up there one day next week.

Tomorrow is the first day of Autumn.

HOCKEY IS ALMOST HERE~!

Jose out at Chelsea?

2007-09-19T19:33:00.000-04:00

Apparently so.

Guess that draw in the Champions League was a bigger deal than some thought.

Rugby world Cup

2007-09-07T20:28:00.000-04:00

you can see it on Versus. Yes, the channel no one can find during hockey season.

schedule

I guess the New zealand all blacks are the favorite.

How about those Nats?

2007-09-05T22:49:00.000-04:00

Win # 63 tonight.

This clinches a season where they will not lose 100 games.

At the beginning of the season, not many people would have believed that.

Cue Nelson

2007-09-01T18:13:00.000-04:00

Hey Big Blue...

HA HA ~!

RIP Wild Bill Hagy

2007-08-20T17:18:00.000-04:00

from the Baltimore Sun:

The Orioles organization is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of "Wild Bill" Hagy. While leading cheers from "The Roar from 34" at Memorial Stadium, Wild Bill became a Baltimore institution. He was one of the great characters of the Baltimore sports landscape and was a true die-hard Orioles fan, supporting the club year in and year out. He will be missed by everyone who knew him and by everyone for whom he led the "O-R-I-O-L-E-S" cheer. All of us in the Orioles organization extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends.

A moment of silence will be held in his memory before tonight's Orioles-Rangers game. William G. Hagy was 68 years old.

Wings' new sweater

2007-08-15T18:03:00.000-04:00

from the freep

thankfully, no real break from tradition. I can live with the "c" on the other side of the jersey.

NHL TV Schedule is out

2007-08-15T17:42:00.000-04:00

NHL.COM

What a surprise.

Lots of Penguins games on NBC.

"In Canada, CBC’s “Hockey Night In Canada” on Thursday, Oct. 4 presents a special mid-week doubleheader beginning at 7 p.m. ET with the Ottawa Senators hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs in Ottawa, followed by the Philadelphia Flyers taking on the Flames in Calgary at 10 p.m. ET. The remainder of CBC’s 85-game broadcast schedule includes 18 regional match-ups, 23 all-Canadian match-ups, 10 afternoon games, Saturday night doubleheaders all season long, seven tripleheaders, the All-Star Game and more games than ever available in HD."

Futbol season is here.

2007-08-10T19:15:00.000-04:00

The (insert Sponsor's name here) Premier League starts tomorrow. i would have tried to write a preview, but I've been out of town.

sadly, I think ManU will win again. Too many injuries for Chelsea will put them behind the eight-ball before the season is six weeks old.

Last year, I picked DerbyCounty as my (sponsor's name) Championship team and now they are up in the Premier League. Well, for now. Most pundits think they are the odds on favorite to be relegated. I'd like to disagree, but it's hard to argue.

Go Toffees.

How to name your fantasy team

2007-07-25T17:40:00.000-04:00

from kissing suzy kolber

I'm feeling the pressure this year with a name. Last year, in love with Adam Carolla's morning show, our leagues had Aceman-related names: Attack Crows and Helmet is not a Chair.

This year, not sure yet. No Michael Vick names though.

more hockey TV news

2007-07-24T18:45:00.001-04:00

from today's Globe and Mail:

* reduced roles for Cole and Neale on HNIC
* a revamp of Hot Stove Intermission
* no pre-game show for NBC

CBC re-ups mike vets

2007-07-19T19:24:00.000-04:00

from CBC.ca:

Hall of Fame play-by-play commentator Bob Cole and analyst Harry Neale will be back on Hockey Night in Canada next season.

CBC Sports confirmed Thursday that both agreed to two-year contracts, extending a partnership which began in 1985.

RIP Dave Fay

2007-07-18T18:44:00.000-04:00

Washington Times hockey writer David Fay passed away at the age of 67 from cancer.

Many great tributes today. Check out some of the blog links on the right.

RIP John Ferguson Sr

2007-07-15T12:52:00.000-04:00

TSN article

2007-07-09T14:26:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday, Wiffle Ball~!

2007-07-08T16:01:00.000-04:00

First, the America's Cup.

Now, Wimbledon.

Give it up for the cuckoo clock-makers.

RIP Chris Benoit

2007-06-25T20:29:00.000-04:00

Chris Benoit and his family were found dead this afternoon in suburban Atlanta.

deadspin interviews Harold Reynolds

2007-06-18T14:17:00.000-04:00

here

Good news

2007-06-17T19:05:00.001-04:00

According to the Vancouver Sun, Brett Hull is done on NBC.

Yippee. Skippee.

NHL can't win for losing

2007-06-14T21:11:00.000-04:00

due to a problem with the feed, VS is now going to be showing the NHL Awards show on tape delay. Instead of Martin Brodeur and Sidney Crosby, we get an MMA show.

When it rains, it pours.

get your Hamilton Preds tix?

2007-06-14T15:22:00.000-04:00

From Jamie Mirtle's blog:

Season Ticket deposits for Hamilton being taken

The new fixutres are in. The new fixtures are in.

2007-06-14T14:56:00.001-04:00

2007-2008 EPL SCHEDULE

from Premier League.com

Don't Talk about Fight Camp

2007-06-08T16:51:00.001-04:00

From the Regina post, via Jamie Mirtle's Blog:

Fight Camp

"REGINA - When Aaron and Derek Boogaard take a wannabe tough guy to school, they usually do it on the ice.

The venue switched to the classroom this week when the Boogaard brothers - who make the Hansons of Slapshot fame look like lightweights - staged their inaugural hockey fighting camp at a Regina training centre."

What if they played a game and no one came?

2007-05-29T11:54:00.000-04:00

From the Globe and Mail, an article showing just how few papers are covering the Stanley Cup finals.

article

20 May live report -- Hershey PA

2007-05-20T21:54:00.000-04:00

hershey bears vs manchester monarchs

game 2 -- AHL Conference playoffs

what a horribly referee job tonight by tonight's official. Manchester penalties - 7. Hershey penalties -14.

Fortunately for the Bears, they only gave up 1 goal on the PP and it was 5-on-3. there was a lot of those tonight, probably at least five.

Not surprisingly, the fans let referee Dean Morton hear it all night long. There were a couple "BULLSHIT" chants the other night against WBS, but there were double or triple that amount tonight. And who can blame the hometown fans when they see such an unbalanced show of officiating.

Bears D Dean Arsene was making up for lost time tonight, after missing most of the playoffs so far. He was hitting anything that moved and was really hot under the coller a couple times over the ticky-tack calls made by the referee.

The three stars of the game tonight were:

1. HER - M. Green
2. HER - F. Cassivi
3. HER - D. Steckel

Hard to argue with any of those.

Monarch's goalie looked poor again today, but was not nearly the sieve he was in game one. On the other hand, Freddy Cassivi made a bunch of great saves, again magnified by all the short-handed situations tonight.

Game 3 is Wednesday night in New Hampshire. The series only comes back to Hersey
for games 6 and 7 and it doesn't look like that is very likely.

In the other series, Hamilton has won the first two games on the road against Chicago.

It appears that the Calder Cup will be a rematch of the 1997 Finals, won by Hershey over Hamilton 4 games to 1.

Bye Bye Buffalo

2007-05-19T17:51:00.000-04:00

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

He loves only Gold

2007-05-13T16:54:00.000-04:00

IIHF World Championship -- Canada 4, Finland 2.

Relegation Day

2007-05-13T15:03:00.000-04:00

Wigan saves itself from relegation by beating Sheffield United.

So, how do things shake out?

Champions League -- the big four (Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal)

Europe -- Spurs, Everton, Bolton

Intertoto -- Blackburn

Relegation -- Sheffield United, Charlton, Watford

Hershey 7, WBS 6 (OT) live notes

2007-05-11T23:57:00.000-04:00

live notes from the game

-- possibly the sloppiest playoff game I have ever seen in person. at least 1/2 the goals (on both sides) could be categorized as "very soft."

-- so many penalties. lots of "BULLSH**" from the crowd, led by someone on the scoreboard. My friend who was with me is from Philly and said "if we did that and tey showed it on the scoreboard, there would be sportswriters complaining for a week."

-- good game by Barney (Hat trick) and Fleishmann (5 points). Bourque was also his usually grippy self.

-- WBS has an agitator (#28) who is near the equal of Robitaille.

Oh, the humanity

2007-05-06T19:01:00.000-04:00

Goodbye, Smurfs. You will not be missed.

Go Sens Go!

1 May Champions League

2007-05-01T21:01:00.000-04:00

Stupid Chelsea.

I will now root for Liverpool (sadly) vs. the winner of ManU/Milan.

What a bad Everton fan I am.

Choking Dogs

2007-04-29T19:49:00.000-04:00

Derby County loses and gives up the chance for automatic promotion to the Premiership. Sunderland (with Roy Keane) and Birmingham will make the jump next year.

Fulham remains a relegation candidate after losing to Arsenal today.

Take that, barbaro

2007-04-29T18:43:00.000-04:00

Thank you, Smurfs and Banana Slugs, for playing 2OT and removing a tribute to a dead horse from our TV screens.

Glad it was a good OT, since I couldn't decide who I wanted to win, since I hate both teams.

Coming up soon... Ducks and Canucks.

Round Two Predictions

2007-04-24T14:51:00.001-04:00

East:
1. Buffalo Sabres in 6
4. Ottawa Senators in 6

West:
1. Detroit Red Wings in 7
2. Anaheim Ducks in 5

Champions League

2007-04-24T14:26:00.000-04:00

Man U vs AC Milan

I would be great if neither team could win.

Game Seven -- the first of the season

2007-04-23T19:52:00.000-04:00

I guess I'm rooting for Vancouver tonight.

Vancouver is a Canadian team.
Dallas employs Eric Lindros.

On the other hand, if Dallas wins, we get CHEECHOO vs. TEEMU. (thank you Dave Dameshek)

Playoff Report -- 18 April -- ALB @ HER

2007-04-18T23:04:00.000-04:00

quick game report

Hershey played like crap for 2 periods, trailing 2-1 to Albany going into the third.

Then, they outshot albany 20-2 in the third, scoring the tie and gw goals.

best thing all night was dave steckel scoring a 3 on 5 SH goal to start the 2nd period.

worst thing all night was some of the bears sporting Mohawks and (curse you Sanjaya) Faux Hawks.

I'm sailing away...

2007-04-15T22:29:00.000-04:00

The America's Cup starts tomorrow.

http://www.americascup.com/en/

No Aussie boat this time around. We won lots of money betting on Kookaburra once upon a time.

Sunday 15 April games

2007-04-15T22:14:00.000-04:00

* Is Detroit that good or is Calgary already looking for tee times? As a Wings fan, I should have more faith, but there have been too many first-round upsets for my liking.

* Ottawa reclaims home-ice advantage.

* Anaheim wins again. My pick of Minnesota in 7 is alive, but barely.

* Hooray. Versus is picking up the CBC feed of the Vancouver/Dallas game. Too bad we won't get to see Grapes or Kelly Hrudey during intermission.