For those of you who might have been looking forward to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, don't worry yourself. As it turns out, the Boston Bruins are all set to claim their first title in 37 years, defeating the upstart Chicago Blackhawks in six games in the Stanley Cup Finals.
How do I know it's true? Well, because EA Sports told me so.
Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.
In a different U.S. hockey landscape, we might speak about Parise's performance with the revered tones we reserve for Mike Eruzione and Jim Craig. Which brings me back to an annual quandary when World Juniors rolls around: Is this the kind of pure, unexpected and unpretentious joy that's been missing since the professionals took over the Winter Olympics?
(Coming Up Next: Scandalous and Hilarious Puck Headlines, A Reason for Steve Montador To Worry, Why Fighting Can Help TV Ratings, Tonight's Must-See Games and an In-Depth Review of "Blades of Steel" ... about 20 years too late.)
Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.
Think of a festering wound -- a deep gash that refuses to scab over. Now picture an old friend from Boston coming to your house and pouring some sea salt and a few squeezes of lemon juice into that wound, and adding a few extra paper cuts for good measure. If you've followed my instructions, you should now be picturing rookie goalie Tuukka Rask's victory last night in Toronto, his first for the Boston Bruins and his first in the NHL.
(Coming Up Next: Last Night's Losers, Scandalous Puck Headlines, What the League Really Wants To See in New All-Star Jerseys, Most Embarrassing Stat Line of the Night, The NHL's Most Boring Team, Games You Need To Watch Tonight and Why Does Gary Bettman Look Like Barack Obama?)
Being a professional hockey player requires one to keep their body in peak condition to withstand the rigors and speed of the game.
Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule.
Mario Lemieux? His idea of a good off-season diet was to cut out french fries. Robert Svehla? A steady mix of beer and golf in the summer didn't stop him from being a minute-munching top defenseman.
You can now add Senators forward Jason Spezza to the mix as talented players who train about as hard as the average fan that pays $80 to go watch one of their games.
Put on the narcissistic hot seat, Spezza was asked if he plays as the Senators, taking control of his miniature doppelganger, or chooses another team when no one's looking. "I always play as Ottawa, of course," he said, then admitted to sneaking in a few skates with retro teams like the Pittsburgh Penguins during the Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr days.
It's tempting to turn yourself into a superstar and chase the NHL's all-time records, but Spezza claims he resists and uses the stock version of himself created by the game developers.
"When I was first in the game, in my first year, I was awful. They gypped me with the attributes," he said. "But now I can play as myself and I'm okay. I've improved a lot."
Well, Spezza is good enough that he doesn't have to cheat. Me? I'll cheat like crazy and give myself 99 skating and checking, so I can smash Spezza through the glass and ruin his handsome boy good looks ;)
I've got to admit, I don't know a thing about video games. Except for that it's bad for a player to appear on the box, since it invariably results in injury or other doom. So you can imagine my dismay when I found out, via The Biz of Basketball, that Amare Stoudemire will grace the front of NBA '08.
Then again, it's almost like a big inside joke. Amare's recovery from microfracture surgery last season was among the most dramatic-and encouraging-in NBA history. Putting his likeness on the cover of a game seems to say "yeah, we know about your jinxes. But Amare's already been through it all, and he survived. He's played your game already, cruel video game gods!"
Also, Stoudemire went from certain failure and shell of himself to First Team All-NBA. If that's not beating the odds, I don't know what is. So even if this kind of curse is all but inevitable, Amare's just the guy to buck the trend and prove, as he did with the microfracture procedure, that giving up is for quitters. Or people with less otherworldly physiques.
They just don't make commercials like they used to, do they?
There's just some real goofy innocence about some of these old commercials, before psychologists got involved to make commercials more savvy and less laughable.
How about this gem for the Ice Hockey game on the Atari 2? Not only do you get the totally stylin' 80's clothing and desperate-for-a-good-role overacting, but you can see just how far we've come in terms of video game graphics. Contrast the below video to the new NHL 2008 trailer.
Is it me, or do the 'players' like like well-dressed Yale preppies playing a game of pickup hockey in the 1920s?
(Edit: The actor in the the glasses looks a lot like the late Phil Hartman. Is it? Man, how did he ever survive that commercial?)
It's that time of the year where certain fans feel serious withdrawal pains, helped by the free agent frenzy, and need to get their fix somehow.
For many fans, the upcoming NHL 2008 will allow them to live out some of their fantasies, and experience gaming action on the newest generation of gaming consoles (PS3, XBOX360).
Well, to whet your appetite, EA Sports has released its "Sizzle" video trailer, complete with drooling graphics and highlight reel plays.
Damn, those graphics are sweet!!
Of course, graphics mean little if the game isn't fun and very playable (which is why so many enjoy NHL94). Recent NHL games have been much more about sizzle than steak.
Hopefully, NHL2008 fixes some of the problems with the 07 version, such as some dependable and actual defensive AI for your own team, and not having every player under 5'10" skate faster than Peter Bondra on Red Bull. Even a 6'6" version of myself, complete with maximum speed and acceleration, skated slower than Jassen Cullimore after a hit of Marijuana.
Yes, the smaller the player, the better they skated. With so many problems and annoyances, I went back to earlier games to have a more enjoyable time.
It's hard for me to say this, but I hope Georgia play-by-play man Larry Munson never retires. It's hard for me to say that because I'm a Tennessee fan and some of Munson's most memorable calls have come at the detriment of my Vols (hobnail boot, anyone?). Still, in an age where everyone is trying to be everything to everybody, Munson's unabashed homerism is refreshing. Even though he's still no better than 50-50 on announcing games for UGA this fall, and an interim replacement -- Munson's sidekick Scott Howard -- as been named should he need to be called upon, I'm still hoping the "Voice of the Bulldogs" sticks around a little longer. And here's a reason why: some ingenious Dawg fan has used NCAA '07 to re-create Georgia's game-winning touchdown against Georgia Tech from last year, and dubbed Munson's call over it.
Video games and Munson, who would've thought. Now if someone does this for the hobnail boot call, I'll kick his ass and buy him a beer, though I'm not sure in which order.
Fellow Fanhouser Brian Cook's been doing a great job keeping us updated on EA Sports' NCAA 08. But while many of us will give in and plop down the $50 for this year's version, there's a game that most of us will never get to play, and it sounds way cooler than anything you'll find at the local video game store.
XOS Technologies, a company who produces everything from ticket distribution systems to scouting software, has joined with EA Sports to develop a training simulation based on the NCAA/Madden platform. Basically, it sounds like an interactive version of traditional (read: boring) film study, according to XOS co-founder Dan Aton:
Now instead of having to use video of actual plays, coaches can create their own virtual situations and challenges "but still have it feel very realistic to the player and to be very interactive which is something that the video didn't allow us to do," Aton said.
Coaches can create "a full instructional experience where stop points can be set, you can quiz players and can ask them to read defenses or pick up blitzes of whatever it might be that that coach wants to accomplish with his players. From the players perspective, it would look very much like (EA Sports') NCAA football or Madden on the PC version," he added.
Sounds like it might keep Cook from complaining about the unrealistic features of EA's games. Now if only he were a Division-I football player, he might could get his hands on it.
The West Virginia Mountaineers use the 1-3-1 zone defense better than anyone else in college basketball. WVU has adapted it to be heavy on forcing mistakes and turnovers and limiting scoring by the opponent. Explaining it, can be a pain, mainly because people's eyes tend to glaze over with mention of zone and tactics in college basketball. That and trying to explain it without visuals is never easy. And personally, I am not about to break out video for someone and do game tapes.
This explanation of the use of the 1-3-1 in College Hoops 2K7 is one of the better, more effective I've come across. Using screen shots, it does a great job of breaking down the effectiveness of the 1-3-1. It also explains the wrinkle in the WVU usage that allows more turnovers, but also why they are such a low rebounding team.
The Mountaineers like to place their point guard directly under the basket instead of using a taller player. The reason they place their point guard under the basket is because they want as much speed as possible to stop any penetration to the baseline. Unfortunately, West Virginia gets outrebounded almost every game, but the defense is so complex that they make up for the lack of rebounds by creating turnovers.
The way they break it down actually simplifies the understanding better than anything Digger Phelps tries to say about the 1-3-1.
Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.
Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.
Being a professional hockey player requires one to keep their body in peak condition to withstand the rigors and speed of the game.
I've got to admit, I don't know a thing about video games. Except for that it's bad for a player to appear on the box, since it invariably results in injury or other doom. So you can imagine my dismay when I found out, via The Biz of Basketball, that Amare Stoudemire will grace the front of NBA '08. 
Fellow Fanhouser Brian Cook's been doing a great job keeping us updated on EA Sports' NCAA 08. But while many of us will give in and plop down the $50 for this year's version, there's a game that most of us will never get to play, and it sounds way cooler than anything you'll find at the local video game store.
The West Virginia Mountaineers use the 1-3-1 zone defense better than anyone else in college basketball. WVU has adapted it to be heavy on forcing mistakes and turnovers and limiting scoring by the opponent. Explaining it, can be a pain, mainly because people's eyes tend to glaze over with mention of zone and tactics in college basketball. That and trying to explain it without visuals is never easy. And personally, I am not about to break out video for someone and do game tapes.
