How not to play goalie: lesson 15

Jon Quick is usually pretty reliable, but his greatest weakness has always been a propensity to be out of position as a result of committing too early. Dallas' second goal tonight came on a very wide, very delayed play from a sharp angle. Brandon Segal skated around the net, held the puck, and then shot it off Quick and into the top of the net from just past the goal line. How?

Red circle is puck, green is open net as a result of bad positioning.

Quick went for a poke check. The problem with a poke check is that goalie sticks are heavy. It's easy to pull your hand to the back of the stick and push it forward, but not as easy to pull it back and into position. Quick got caught when Segal didn't shoot right away and moved out of poke check range. He had already committed to a poke check and decided to stay down, when what he needed to do was pop out of the butterfly and take away the left side of the net.

Ultimately, it didn't matter, as the Kings won 5-2. But I'm just sayin'.


World Series

The Rangers are proof that the division and championship series' are too short. Just a fundamentally bad team out of an awful division with a terrible bullpen.

Oh jesus

Here they come.


We'll be talking broomball and hockey tomorrow.

Let's see here

Yankees "vaunted" lineup shut down by Cliff Lee? Check.
Phillies lineup enjoys right field at Yankee Stadium? Check.
New York bullpen exposed, again? Check.

A closer look at the numbers:

• Cliff Lee went all 9, allowing 6 hits, one for extra bases, and one unearned run. 10 strikeouts. 0 walks. An "NL pitcher," indeed.
• CC Sabathia had an impressive, although uneconomical, start. 7 innings, 3/6 walk to strikeout, 4 hits, all for extra bases. He also threw 113 pitches.
  
• The Yankees bullpen is crap, and they proved it again tonight. Over two innings, five pitchers combined to give up 4 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks. Damaso Marte got the only strikeout of the relief corps. Outside Mariano Rivera, there is nobody in that bullpen who can be trusted.
• Chase Utley hit two homers to right. Both were actual homers in non-Little League parks, and both came on nearly identical pitches. Considering his defense, Chase Utley is a franchise second baseman.
  

Today's post goes in order of national importance

Phillies 5, Rays 4
Phillies 10, Rays 2

Color me surprised. I really didn't think the Phillies had much of a chance against the Rays' starting staff, but they sit one win away from capturing a World Series.

Saturday's game featured a five-man infield in the ninth, an exciting gimmick that typically doesn't work. The Phillies scored on a fielder's choice swinging bunt to Evan Longoria. He made a good effort to get to the ball but then underhanded it into the stands, and that was that.

Tonight's game had two things I did not expect at all.

1.) A good pitching performance from meatballer Joe Blanton.
2.) A home run from pitcher Joe Blanton.

The Angels regularly faced Blanton while he was with Oakland. He was not good. Frankly, he still isn't good, but he managed to keep men off base when the Rays homered and did a good job creating some offense for himself. Plus, you've gotta love when former A's win while the current Oakland club is rebuilding...again.

Philadelphia sends out heartthrob Cole Hamels to face Scott "Stoner" Kazmir tomorrow evening. As the sun rises on William Penn, the sun sets in St. Petersburg.


Patriots 23, Rams 16

I do not subscribe to the school of thought which states a midseason coaching change can make a real difference. The Rams are still bad, newfound "fire" and "desire to win" aside. The fact remains that the Patriots are a very average team who still beat St. Louis thanks to solid field position and excellent special teams play.

Cassel had a better game than the 2 interception linescore shows. The first interception was a weird bounce off a defender, and the second was the result of Wes Welker being on the ground instead of finishing his route. It happens. Matty C also threw a touchdown pass to Randy Moss which Moss promptly dropped, although he had a pretty solid game with 106 receiving yards.

New England is now 5-2 and tied for first in the AFC East as Buffalo lost to Miami (!) today. Miami is not good, but they're sure as hell better than they were last year.

The Pats play in Indy next week. The Colts will be on a short week as they play unbeaten Tennessee tonight on Monday Night Football. The Titans are the worst 6-0 team of all time, except for, perhaps, the 1972 Miami Dolphins. Going undefeated against crappy teams does not a great team make. And Mercury Morris needs to go away.


Huskies 5, Maine 0
Huskies 2, Maine 1

A weekend sweep in Orono is about as unlikely as Matt Cassel beating an NFL team. Which is to say, considerably more likely considering the level of competition. Maine is absolutely horrendous this year, with neither goalie filling the void left by 6'7" Ben Bishop. Bishop, incidentally, just got his first NHL win as the starting goalie for the St. Louis Blues. The Blues' usual starting goalie Manny Legace was injured on a carpet intended for Sarah Palin.

I'm not even going to touch that.

Friday night's game was not as lopsided as the score suggests, but the Huskies did get contributions from 5 different players. Freshman Alex Tuckerman notched his first collegiate goal, and Rob Rassey scored in his first start this season. The Huskies also got goals from Mike Hewkin, Chris Donovan, and David Strathman.

Saturday's game was stolen by NU in the third, with Rassey getting his second goal and IPNO favorite Ryan Ginand netting the gamewinner on a nasty backhand wraparound. Northeastern was badly outshot yet again, this time 27-13. This isn't a huge concern as they're obviously making their shots count, but I'd like to see them throw the puck at the net a little more often, particularly on the power play.

Brad Thiessen. Still awesome. That is all.


Wildabeasts 3, Kappa Sigma 2

I told Jeff before the game I'd need 3 goals to win. And even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes.

We tripled our career-best goals/game against a mediocre team, but we probably could've scored a couple more minus some bad bounces. The W sure looks nice now, though, as we're 2-1-1 with one game left. A win probably puts us in the playoffs.

As far as my actual play, I got to the arena about an hour early and tried to do the whole athlete thing, complete with heavy metal-laden iPod and hooded sweatshirt. I have to say, I was definitely more focused at the onset of the game, but I was feeling unusually tired even early in the first. As a result, I wasn't popping up quickly enough and was leaving way too much of the net open.

The first goal I allowed was an absolutely unacceptable squibber through the five-hole. I almost let in another but finally closed it up, making the save with my calves and the ball behind my body. I don't know what my deal is, but I just wasn't squaring up quickly enough the whole game.

The second goal was more respectable, although frankly still a shot I should've saved. They had a 2 on 1 breakaway, but I decided to stay deep in the net because I forgot that passing is damn near impossible. So instead of challenging the guy with the ball, I sorta stayed back and a shot flicked up over my weak side foot. I got a piece of it, but not enough, and had I come out and gotten closer I would've cut the angle and possibly even been able to poke it away. It didn't end up mattering, but that was not a fun goal to surrender.

My third period was generally solid. I had a sorta cool save where a liner hit me in the chest and popped up, so I sorta swatted it away with the stick with a forward incoming. It looked cool, although the right choice would've been to pull the glove over and pull it out of the air entirely. My last save was a nervous one on a high shot that I knocked down and then had to dive on. My teammates look nervous about those, but I can guarantee I'm more nervous about letting one of those squirt away onto the stick of an opponent.

The next game's not for a couple weeks, so I'll need to find a way to stay focused and maintain my mechanics.

World Series Game 2

Rays 4, Phillies 2

As I predicted, the Phillies can't keep up with Tampa Bay's starting pitching. Brett Myers was average, maybe below average, and Jason Werth made a bad error in right that allowed the Rays two score two runs on groundouts in the first. James Shields, on the other hand, was nigh unhittable, with the Phillies scoring their only runs off David "Nastyman" Price in the eighth and ninth.

Jaime Moyer will lose to Matt Garza because Matt Garza is a good pitcher and Jaime Moyer is old, at best.

The more I watch them, the more the Rays remind me of the 2002 Angels. Young, stud arm out of the bullpen (Frankie--Price), relative unknowns contributing big hits (the Rays roster--the Angels roster), and losing the first game of a series only to come back. The primary difference? The Rays are younger and have much, much better starting pitching. Granted, they aren't playing in the middle of the steroid era, either.

More analysis post-FEA test.

Belated World Series Preview

This World Series will be a refreshing date with baseball where I don't actually care who wins. It's markedly more fun to watch baseball when you don't hate either team playing. Here's what I think is going to happen in Games 2-7, after a brief discussion of tonight's 3-2 Philadelphia victory.

Phillies 3, Rays 2

Scott Kazmir made one bad pitch to Chase Utley in the first inning and BJ Upton hit into a pair of rally killing double plays, one with the bases loaded. That's really all you need to know about this game. Cole Hamels is a good pitcher, but not great, and got out of jams with the aforementioned Upton double plays and a weird strike zone.

This game should concern Phillies fans. Why? Sure, they won, but they only scratched out 3 runs against Tampa Bay's worst starter this postseason. Shields, Garza, and Sonnanstine are all more reliable than former staff ace Kaz, and the Phillies don't have a single starter other than Hamels who doesn't, well, suck. Joe Blanton is absolute crap, and the Rays have seen him before while he was with Oakland. Jaime Moyer would not be a major league starter in the American League at this point in his career. Brett Myers is a below-league average pitcher who got rocked by the Dodgers in his last start.

The Rays obviously aren't happy about tonight's loss, but I have a hard time seeing Philly win any game not started by Whole Camels-sorry, Cole Hamels. Their offense is mediocre with a visibly struggling Ryan Howard, and Jimmy Rollins has done absolutely nothing in the postseason thus far.

Rays in 6.

Also, let it be noted that umpires have no idea how to call a balk. At all. Carlos Pena was erased on a pickoff play that was clearly a balk, as Hamels dropped his foot three-fourths of the way towards home and threw to first. We need a line on the mound.