Hockey results for November 3

 ...2011. I said I wasn't really missing the NHL season and it's still true while I have many other things to occupy me this fall (...winter? ...spring?), a random look through what was happening exactly a year ago in the NHL does hurt a bit. I'd grab a few screenshots from every game I watched online, and the NHL.com posts at the end of the night. I haven't looked at NHL.com in months now.

Chicago Blackhawks were at Tampa Bay Lightning, and it was an uneventful game until the second:

Then...too eventful. Damn, I'd forgotten this one. Eight goals in one period, including a hat trick for Steven Stamkos:

And Lightning won in overtime, 5-4. Wait, no goals in the third either? That doesn't sound like a good game exactly, but it's the kind of ridiculous one I miss.

Meanwhile in St. Louis, it was the game with an appearance by recent World Series champion Cardinals (a World Series that was actually exciting, unlike the final series in 2012):

The NHL.com headlines. There was a 7-6 OT game too? Damn.

And the little thing showing the top video highlights. There's a typo, not uncommon, but I was always impressed everything was up so fast on the site:

I'd always screenshot the three stars of the night. Two hat tricks!

I also liked getting screenshots of the standings at the end of the night. Yeah, 2011 started off very strangely. The top of the table shows many teams that didn't make the playoffs, and defending Stanley Cup Champion Boston off to a rough start:

And this was from the night before and concerns the offense struggles of Islanders and Red Wings, but I winced. I'm sure those fans would prefer that to the extremely dead NHL October we just had.

game 3, Vancouver

needed to get this up as fast as possible, from @stevewsop on Twitter, symbolizing the Vancouver Canucks' loss to Chicago tonight (why hadn't I seen a Canucks fail-whale sooner? coincidentally, Twitter was down for a bit after the game tonight and fail-whaled for a while...):

(no kidding: I just had to try uploading that twice, because the first time I got a "failed" message, which I haven't gotten the entire time I've been putting images on this blog)

but more important than the Canucks losing...Blackhawks winning 5-2, with a hat trick by...Dustin Byfuglien?! his first points of the 2010 playoffs (photo via official Blackhawks Facebook page), and the Blackhawks first road-trip playoff hat trick since Denis Savard vs the St. Louis Blues in 1988:

I heard Boston won 4-1 vs the Flyers, making them the second team in the 2010 playoffs to be up 3-0. the first team? well, I saw that game in person...if there's ever a time to get photos up in a timely manner, it's for that--I'll see if my computer will even let me upload them. seeing a game in person meant I couldn't get back in time to see much of Wednesday's NHL games, but it was well worth it!

glad I don't have to write sports headlines, #16 in an ongoing series

are the headlines for the west coast games written by severely sleep-deprived east coast writers? I don't know, but this seemed like a goofy one, highlighting L.A.'s Dustin Brown's second career hat trick, in a 8-3 drubbing of Vancouver. (two of the Canucks goals were Kyle Wellwood's; I kind of hoped he'd get the hat trick too.)

 

 

replaced by a duller headline later:

 

congrats to Brown! though as a Blackhawks fan it's less about the Kings having a big win than the Canucks having a huge loss. I enjoyed this one so much (was on the phone at the start of the game; tuned in in the second when Kings were up 4-0) that I put both the Kings AND Canucks feeds on online (well, and it was the only game on by that point).

 

although the Hawks lost to the Blue Jackets last week by as bad a score, at least in that game "only" 7 of the goals were when Huet was playing, and one during Niemi's shift. I wonder if this is the most goals allowed by one goalie this season...

not April Fools

edited to add: 1) I saw a man on a CTA bus today wearing a White Sox hat and a baseball shirt reading Cubby Bear on the front/Wrigleyville on the back (Cubby Bear being a popular bar in Wrigleyville)--was that April Fools'? I honestly don't know, given all the odd things I see on the CTA.
2) even long after I wrote this, I still managed to fall for a 4/1 piece on the Chicago Wolves' website (about a bunch of players supposedly not available for the rest of the year. scared me!)
3) I remembered it was the birthday of the friend who first took me to a hockey game and called him tonight. I wonder if anyone does anything special for an April Fools' birthday...

I've had a lot of long bus rides recently in which I could have come up with an April Fool's post, but didn't. (as a colossal nerd, my favorite April Fools' every year is wondering what NPR will come up with--and this year it was a piece on "a box set of NPR's entire history of funding credits.") I'd rather get a joke to spread on Twitter anyway, since it's quite easy to do so (such as, RIP for celebrities who haven't actually died, a hoax about the anonymous questions site formspring being a hoax), but it's easier to do so on a day when "April Fools" and "Fooled" and such aren't trending topics.

I'm considering the previous post with the NHL mistake (they never responded, and I don't know if they corrected it) to be a joke. or at least it worked nicely as a reverse-jinx, and the Blackhawks DIDN'T lose four straight--hell, they won with a shutout last night! and I was there! because I was there I missed getting to watch a bunch of games online, so I missed this...not a joke:

 

in an uncertain world...

...it's nice to know there are some things you can count on:

all screenshots taken during a very busy night of watching hockey online, 11/28/09. the hat trick was of course Crosby (for an eventual 8-3 defeat of the Rangers, on Fleury's birthday, too!)--wow, all that hat-picking-up really takes up time in a game. bonus cliche--a feature during a Penguins game where they show cute pictures with the Stanley Cup, which I'm sure no one is tired of seeing, unless they're a fan of any of the other 29 teams:

last night also featured shootouts in 6 of the 13 games. in fact, I watched three different games where the home team led 3-2, then the visiting team tied it with less than a minute left in the third period, then no one scored in OT, and it went to SO. (even eerier, two of these, Senators @ Bruins and Capitals @ Canadiens, were virtually at the same time) visitors won two (Caps, and Red Wings @ Blues), but fortunately the Bruins won theirs.

now, I can't say I wanted the Wings to win, of course, but I was getting worried for the mental health of the Wings bloggers I read. the team was on their longest scoreless streak since 1977, so many of these bloggers probably hadn't seen them do that badly in their lifetime...

wait, haven't there been Hawks games recently too? yes, yes, that'll be a separate post. (as will a special one-month-of-a-little-chippy! post tonight. time to get more chai, or whiskey)

they'll go well with those "Phillies Back-to-Back Champs" shirts sent there too

from fuckyeahpittsburghpenguins on Tumblr:
But where do the hats go? Have you ever wondered about the hats thrown on the ice after a hat trick? http://bit.ly/2SrO7Y