Playoffs, whatever. Also, Kings and broomball coverage

Ordinarily, the playoffs excite me.

But not this year.

The Angels play Boston and New York plays Minnesota, and ultimately New York will play whoever comes out of the NL and slaughter them in 4, maybe 5, games.

It's boring. And the irritating part of all of it is that, when the Angels inevitably lose to Boston, Boston's just going to get mauled by New York. It's not going to be close. And I can't even whine about the Yankees' payroll. It's lower than it was last year.

A salary cap might not be a terrible idea.

With that out of the way, I would like to say this to the Angels:

Hey guys. It's me. I know I whine a lot about the way you guys play, but I really do actually like you. And because of that, I think you need to understand that you guys play terrible baseball every October. You think too much. Stop thinking. Have fun. You're playing a kid's game and making millions of dollars, there is no reason to tighten up and start gripping the bat so hard it breaks off in your hand. Relax. Nobody expects you to win anything anyway, so you have nothing to lose by pretending it's June and playing relaxed. If you can't beat the Red Sox, well, there's always next season, and maybe you'll finally have a good enough team come out of the Central or West to pick up a wild card spot and keep the New Boston Yankee Sox complex out of the playoffs so we can watch entertaining, small market baseball, for once.

Love,
Marcus


Kings 6, San Jose 4

I don't know what happened with me this offseason, but where I was only mildly interested in the NHL before, I am now captivated. Thanks to the ol' Slingbox, I watched the LA/San Jose game on the sixth while fending off various attempts by the mouse in Kira's apartment to eat my power cable.

It needs to be said that Jon Quick had a brilliant game. Yes, he gave up 4 consecutive goals to tie the game. Yes, he only saved 25 shots. But my goodness, his positioning and movement were flawless. All four goals came on the power play. He stopped a couple breakaways. And he showed none of the nervousness he displayed during the first game.

It's not often you can watch a goalie give up 4 goals and think he's playing on of the best games of his life. But he was.

Regardless, after the Sharks tied it up, I wasn't feeling great about the Kings coming back. They might be improved over recent years, but they're still the Kings, and any team that gives back a 4-0 lead to the reigning Western Conference points leaders frankly deserves a loss. But Teddy Purcell (yes, from Maine) took a shot from behind the goal line that caromed through backup goalie Thomas Greiss's five-hole in a textbook example of How Not to Hold Your Stance When Play Is Behind You.

That, and a Davis Drewiske career-first NHL goal into an empty net, gave LA two points on their march to the playoffs this season. They play the Wild tonight in a game I'll probably miss courtesy of another never ending Angels/Red Sox game.

Also, Ryan Smyth remains the Kings' best player thus far. What a great pick up.


I Killed Mufasa 1, Just Beezy 3

One of the reasons I enjoy goalie so much is the intense awareness that comes with playing such a stats-based position. That awareness is one of the things that lets a goalie separate a good game from a bad game, or a good goal from a bad goal, seconds after it happens.

It also lets me feel good about a game even when we fail to score more than one goal for the millionth time.

This was probably the best game I've played, and that includes my first-start shutout from two seasons ago. I made around 30 saves, 4 or 5 of those on breakaways, and had some poke checks that I couldn't have made until after my first hockey game.

It all came from a modified stance I use when I play hockey, something I haven't been comfortable enough to try in broomball until this week. It certainly looks a lot cooler, because the whole butterfly slide thing translates pretty well.

With a clean sheet through the first period and a half, their first goal came on a screen shot after a scramble...I was already out of position after having made a couple saves during the preliminary shots. The second goal came pretty quickly after, a nice top-shelf wrister that was put in the only place I couldn't get to. It is what it is. The last goal went straight five-hole and would've been a save with my old stance, but I'm learning to live with those for increased corner coverage.

We missed a penalty shot. Again.