25-Cent Wings > Ovechkin > Cloverfield

What better way to get back on the blogwagon than with a recap of the latest Flames-Sharks donnybrook and my Jack & Coke enhanced trip to the Caps-Habs game? I'm glad you agree.

Now, I'll be honest, Wednesday was 25-cent wings night at Stetson's, just a scant 2 blocks from the 400 square feet of space I call home. So, after going for a pre-gorge run, I sat down at the bar, ordered a PBR draft, and basically resigned myself to missing a good chunk of the game. I mean, why would a bar in DC with three TVs be showing the Flames-Sharks game? Makes no sense.

But then, in mid-conversation with my friend (thanks Rach, I owe you $30), I noticed that the olde tyme TV at the end of the bar was showing a hockey game. The Caps were off that night so it couldn't be them, and a basketball game had been on the TV earlier (no idea who was playing) so I assumed it was just the next game on that channel and paid it no mind. Until that is, I saw the score. San Jose 1, Calgary 0. Whaaaaaaa? The TV is tuned to FSN Bay Area? It was all very confusing, but a pleasant surprise, despite the score at the time. So I was able to watch most of Owen Nolan turn-back-the-clock night (first hat trick since the Clinton administration, or Chretien administration in Canada) and made it home in time to watch the Flames nearly squander a 3-goal lead as they ended up winning 5-4.

And if you think this is all just pretense to post a grainy cell phone picture of a pyramid of chicken wing bones, then congratulations, you are correct:




Twenty wings right there kids, that's Black Widow-esque.

Now then, on to last night's trip to the Verizon Center. Basically, I'm willing to concede best player in the world status to Alex Ovechkin, even if I do think Iggy is the most complete player in the league. But OV is a freak. How the Habs left him wide open for a one-timer on the game's first goal I'll never know. It was a goal by the time it left Milan Jurcina's stick on the cross-ice pass; the shot was simply unstoppable. And then OV followed up with three more scores, including the OT game winner. Just a ridiculous performance where he was ten times better than anyone else on the ice. I'm still not sure how I missed the score going from 4-2 to 4-3, which led to the Habs eventually tying it up at 4 with a little over 30 seconds left to play, but I'll take a booze fueled mini-blackout like that anytime if it means seeing a performance like I saw last night. It even made the decision to see Cloverfield after the game seem reasonable. SPOILER ALERT.....



The Cloverfield people were retarded, they deserved to die.

Sharks Weak

There was a time, I think, when the San Jose Sharks were able to win games at home. And they definitely didn't have any trouble winning home games against the Flames, racking up a gaudy 8-1-0 mark the last nine times Calgary visited the Tank. But those days have apparently gone the way of Hillary's presidential hopes, as the red hot (red hot, red haaaahhhhhhtt) Flames picked up the 3-2 OT win, dropping Thornton & Co. to 6-9-4 at home. I was going to give a brief recap of the scoring and goaltending, but it's late, and this is pretty much all you need to know anyway...



Two more goals, including the game winner, to make it 31 on the year. Mazel Tov, Iggy. And hey, I wear size 14 shoes too; we should go shoe shopping when the Flames come to DC in March. You know, as friends, nothing weird.

Red Hot!!!

This video comes courtesy of Chicago's very own David Banks. This should answer any questions as to how a young, impressionable upstate New York boy became a fan of southern Alberta's finest pro hockey club. I'm pretty sure this is where Spoon got the idea for the horn section on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.

Sir Barry Melrose