Weekend Warrior

Mike Delisi once called me a weekend warrior one time when I attempted to make my drinking habits seem ok. This weekend required the warrior in me. It started off with Justin McDizzle knocking at my door around 1:30 Thursday AM. Two greasssyyyy spider monkeys and an Abe Lincoln later and Friday night was upon us. Nemy's wedding night.
wow what a photo of Nem there huh?
A splendid affair which featured the best Clark Kent rendition by Mac. Camille had quite a strong impression on his person as well. Together they operated machinery that had not been in use in quite some time.

Yes Dance got hitched Friday and it was a glorious affair overlooking Lady Liberty Harbor in New York. I sang Lazy Mary by Lou Monte in token to my friendship. I said Yes. Just say Yes!

The wedding night saw many old friendships come back together. Many gestures came out that we hold so high here at the 2man heart. Why just yesterday, James Wisniewski new member to the Islander D-core exemplified to Sean Avery some remnants from the Wedding.

Perhaps our best group rendition of the photo at the Piers displaying the Rangers in 94 after they won their last stanley cup. Notice how I use the word Last!

Then there is Brian Kinahan doing his best impression of everything in this photo.What about me snaking Brad Boyes in the 15th plus round of every single draft I had this year. Come on dude. Buying on a pullback year. The man will have a 30 and 30 at the worst.

Ovy's game winner last night and all is back and right with the world as it should be.

My weekend continued the following night at another great friends wedding out on Long Island whose highlights included my Pops in a fire red tie, Sternberg head butting me after many drinks and the calming presence of Geno Malkin on a powerplay in mid-February. My neck and knees are sooo soar from dancing that I am just sitting out of life this week. I am on the verge of either leaving my job or getting fired and I figure thats fine because as Nemy always said the Josef Vasicek show we did is pulling in a ton of royalities from the networks so I got that going for me.

I met up with Leonard the Cat recently and he tried to make me remember to look at bright side of everything. He wasn't always a billionaire. He didn't always have the largest emerald mine in the world or the largest collection of subterranean bug faces but what he did always have was his integrity, beliefs and good nature. He and Camille recently ventured to the Falkland Islands to one of Leonards many summer retreats to discuss business ethics and the crisis in the Middle East. They bought the only liquor store on the main island and locked themselves in the house for a week. It ended with a Matt Moulson hat-trick, a goal, assist and a snot rocket before Camille boarded his space ship and headed for the hedge.

This Saturday the 2man crew will head to the Coliseum for a cancer night against the powerful Avalanche army. We go in rememberance of a fallen comrade. A great man whose spirit is strong and steady in the after life. A man who would always cheer me up after a college game that I felt I hadn't played well in. He would always help me get over it with a smile or a laugh. Well this Saturday we shall pour some out for him and maybe eat one too many brownies in honor of him. When I think of the Islander team in my lifetime I think of a few select memories. Pat Lafontaine, Trottier, Nystrom, Tambellini, Bruno, Dan Bressler and his old school mesh jerz, my grandma bathing me in her sink during games when I was a pup so I could see the tv and Al Bressler with his jolly old smile and good nature. Travis Green is in there too with maybe Mic Vukota or Rich Pilon...weird.

Well until next time...fight the trend and FUCK the haters!

Barbone

What you missed last night

Predators over the Red wings 3-1
Erat gets some space and rips


Isles over Leafs 4-3 in OT (Roloson with 7000 saves)
Jeff "the Truth" Tambellini rips high glove.


Rangers over Jackets 7-4
Jared Boll with a goal and 2 fights.


Bruins beat the Blues 4-2
Savard's first game back. Lucic continues to dominate.


Avalanche over Flyers 5-4
Flyers claw back to make it close. Jeff Carter with 2.

The Oil over the Coyotes 4-0.
Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers with the SO.

Ducks beats the Flames 3-2 in the shootout.
We love Iginla. He starts the rush then finishes the play to send the game to OT. Jokinen's pass wasn't meant for him! What a captain.


Stars over the Hurricanes 2-0
Morrow sets the tone early!


Senators beat the Caps 4-3 in OT
Fisher keeps tearing it up.


Penguins over the Panthers 3-2 in OT
The new Florida 3rd unis. Sick!





- Nemmy

Happy Friday

I'm just going to see where this one takes me.

I know many people are against the shootout to determine regular season winners. BUT if you spent money to go watch the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers battle to a 0-0tie at the end of regulation I think you deserve to see a little show at the end. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy defensive battles and scoring chances and goalie duels. But to think that some parent spent $200+ bucks to take their kids to an ice hockey game without Savvy and Black Booth and didn't see one tally makes the shootout okay with me.

So my boss and I were partners in a company-sponsored beer pong tourney for all the credit trading guys. Everyone else was in suits and ties at Down the Hatch - yeah. Negative 1,000. Anyways since they made us partner up and sign up we thought there would be a structure and brackets and maybe a trophy. Wrong! We might as well have been drinking in Somalia. So my boss and I dominate and lose one game to 2 guys who didn't use the whole pitcher to fill their cups. I'm still salty about it. Here's my point/question:

We were down 2 cups to 1 at our final game and my boss and I go back to back hitting the final 2 cups. Now the team across from us had one cup to hit and they took their turn and one hit the final cup thinking they forced OT. Shouldn't we have gotten something for hitting back to back on the final 2 cups? I thought we should have gone again because we brought it back and if we hit a cup it would have been a walk off. It really doesn't matter because we were ossified and looking to go home. Don't get me started on people leaning over the table. If your tie is in your beer you need to step back. Why are you still wearing a tie????

Chris Neil has 60 PIM already. With some luck he'll go 250+ this season. That's why I have him on my fantasy roster. Look at his steak head. He wants to fight your mother. Every roster needs a PIM machine like Neil. You know what the difference between you and Chris Neil is? If Neil was in your seat he'd have a casein/whey mix in in that file cabinet. He wouldn't be excited for the premiere of Lopez Tonight and he wouldn't be wasting his day reading shitty hockey blogs.

I just got this email from my fiance:

"i just remembered that i really liked this song in high school. do you still want to marry me?"


Yikes

Scotty told me that the rumor floating around is that Kovy, Ovy, Gonchar, Malkin, etc. are all taking their time with injuries because they are saving themselves for Vancouver 2010. I'm sure there's nothing to it but the fact that team Russia may be up to shady ish makes this rumor awesome.

I was going to make a big deal that 2Man buddy, Vinny Bruiser picked up Jeff "the Truth" Tambellini in our fantasy league because the truth is a 2Man favorite. Vinny dropped him 4 hours after picking him up.

Who will be the first NHLer with a leaked sex tape?

92.3 used to be an awesome station in the New York area. They used to play rock music and have Howard Stern in the morning. Now it's top 40 no guitar Long Island girls with platform sandals BarNone bouncers and guys with gel drinking Corona shit. I'm at the gym from 8-9:30 a few days a week and some guy named Chunky on "92.3 Now" plays the same shit over and over. I'm sure Chunky is a good guy but every time I hear the Black Eyed Peas and Britney Spears back to back I want to break my face open.

So this kid DuckDude8 has a ton of videos on youtube where he's scoring on some goalie that is probably his little brother. The video is short and there's not much going on but I love how the goalie gets beat and stays on the ground the whole time.



Look at our current goalie options for Vancouver:
Ryan Miller leading in Save % and GAA. Timmy Thomas is tied for the lead in shutouts and Craig Anderson is tied for the lead in wins. Anderson is making everyone forget about John Quick.

Can someone explain that bear pong issue to me?

- Nemmy

Weekend Wrap Up OR The Gov't is trying to change Halloween to just be the last Saturday of Oct. - I can support that

Hands down, the best goal of the weekend was this:




I even "tweeted" about it.

Anyway, that was on Sunday. Lets take a seat in the ol time travel machine to Friday. I was at the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame Show at MSG. Sick. Also, luckily the beer line I would visit in between sets happened to have the Islander game on in the background. I caught this save.




I like those saves. Mr. W would is freaking out right now. He hates saves. I wonder if he would even hate this one:



I love how Emery gets to the rebound with a quick kick save.


That was from Saturday. Saturday also had some fun fights. Crosby fought Zidlicky. Crosby obviously learned how to fight from the Mighty Ducks movies. Look how quickly he pulls the jersey.



Also on Saturday, Shane Doan got wrecked



and then fought the guy who did the wrecking (Wisniewski)




Also on Saturday night, Jeff Tambellini NHL hat-trick. His third was such a snake job.



I know I would do the same to get the trick!

What did I miss?

Bress

What you missed last night while trying to figure out the post below

Maple Leafs beat the Ducks, 6-3: Now the only team without a win in regulation are the Islanders. Are the Ducks really that bad this year? What are they missing? I'm going to go with goaltending. Neither Giguere nor Hiller is playing at the level of last year. I bet both guys think that they deserve the starting nod and the focus of the competition isn't there anymore.

Canadiens beat the Islanders in OT, 3-2: Only good thing for the Islanders is Jeff Tambellini scoring. Nice sauce pass from Cammaleri to Hamrlik for the game-winner.

Rangers win over the Coyotes, 5-2: The sports section of NYMag has a great description of the Gabby hat-trick. A goal, an assist, and an injury. It was fun while it lasted ranger fans.

Hawks beat the Wild, 3-1: Pat Kane is this generation's Gretzky. Maybe, eventually, he'll score like Wayne, but its more in the sense that a guy that small could play so well. How does Kane do that? He scored a goal last night coming from behind the net and turning and tucking a shot short-side high. Sick! But how does he not get knocked around more.

what you missed last night while you were flipping over taxis

Canucks beat the Hawks, 3-2: The Hawks had this game and then Willie Mitchell stepped out of the box and lit up John Toews. Clean hit, but unfortunate for the Hawks. It rattled the team and I guess goalie Anti Niemmi. The game-tyer and game winner were low stick side saveable shots (alliteration!). Cheesy line of the night from Ray Ferraro, after the play-by-play guy talked about the crowd cheering for Niemmi, "They're not anti Niemmi, they're pro-Niemmi." Meh.

Islanders beat the Hurricanes in the shoot-out, 4-3: I predicted a shoot-out loss for the Isles after the 2nd period when they were up by 2 goals. I guess I'm happy I was wrong. I really like Eric Staal's goal - making sure he put that puck in the open net. All three Isle's shoot-out goals were sweet and different: The Truth's snipe, the danish prince went top cheese on the back hand, and the future (patent pending) had a nice move, bar and in on the forehand.

Stars beat the Ducks, 4-2: Are the cameras at the Honda Center the farthest away in the league? I hate watching games on TV from there. It's like I'm pretty much overhead. Anyway, both goalies gave up goals by misplaying the puck.

Bruins beat the Predators, 3-2: This is the kind of game the Bruins are going to have to play with Savaard and Lucic out. All the goals were dirty, garbage goals. I loved it.

Sabres run over the Panthers, 5-2: Surprisingly, Bryan McCabe was NOT a minus 5 in this game.

Wild beat the Avalanche 3-2 in the shoot-out: How sweet are those Minny third jerseys? It was fun watching Boogard beat up Koci in one. It made the fight a bit more classy. Koivu's game tyer was a great tip, but I think the shot-pass was intended for the far post.

Post Merica weekend and into the summer swelter

Can someone tell me what a welter weight is?

There has been some crazy movement since the draft, my goodness!

2/3rds of the egg line will be back in play up in Montreal. Gomer and Gionta and I assume that at the start Cammaleri would be a good fit until proven wrong because he is quick and so is Gomer and Gio. This line could be sneaky spicy this season. Knuble to DC...grab him next season...he WILL be playing with OVY and Backstrom. 1000! on that line as well. Hossa - 12 years! Jeez. They lost Havlat but picked up Hoss. More positive than negative but not THAT much more positive. Injury prone Havlat so maybe HUGE positive in that respects.

The Rangers grabbing Gaborik is sick for them. Obviously the injury prone disaster that he is...but what if he isn't for 3 seasons...HIGHLY unlikely but what if he averages high 60 low 70 game seasons. He is a one man show and he gives the Rangers something that they haven't had in a long time. A one man goal scoring I don't need a center crazy person. Believe me it will help if he has a center but 100% does NOT need one to get 40 on the board this year. Huge pick up for them.
Pronger PIMS to dirty gritty Philly. With him back there the Islanders aren't even gonna come close to beating them this season. All jokes aside, thats a big move for them...they gave up a decent amount for him but I think that it works more than it doesn't. Look for the coming of the Power "I" Mike Richards at the coming of the fourth light with Gandolf the White, Philly will be stark and staunch as usual.

J Black Bouwmeest moving to the northwest. Going to be a different type of landscape for him but I think he will fit in just fine. That powerplay point with Bowmeest and Phaneuf is goign to be very cement like...very intimidating and very Olympic starting D-pair-like for Canadia.

Ryan Smyth to the Kings - pulled pork sandwich without the pork - whatever.

Havlat to the wild - he's probably never gonna play there anyway so whatever again.

Keva Rosenberg from Robocop - an unemployed person depciting the dregs and poverty in Detroit of the future from RoboCop - amazing. Amazing before this morning when it became 10,000 when Weinbrom found out that it was Eddie Van Halen playing this role. Can anyone speculate as to how he got this bit-part. Did he say yes to some producer wasted at an afterparty or something. Best part of July so far.



And this quick one line scene at the end of the movie with Cop and the CEO of the company just gives me the chills...I don't know why. The music fades in...the leg holster...his walk out.

And off RoboCop until maybe Friday and onto this past Thursday night out on the island. Me and my boyz (non-2man affiliates) but very much in the nuclear family headed to this new bar/club/sheaky spot nearing black out points throughout the evening. Chateau Briand, a nice place. We get there and no joke there is at least 150-200 people waiting outside the doors. It's a complete joke until Aaron leads us in thru the side where we walk in, without being ID'd and stopped or questioned. Right up to the main bar and into 1000. Before we approached the main bar Jeff Tambellini looks up and spots me and I the same. A nice embrace of familiarity and onto some drinks. After some chat about his summer plans and me trying to convince him to buy a house (Why, I don't know) Oh I know the shot girl in the short white skirt that was killing us all night long! Weinbrom asked Jeff what he thought of Tavares and such and he seemed very serious about his potential. High hopes and aspirations and long and strong into this upsetting Monday back from a long lengthy awesome weekend. So think of Keva Rosenberg and getting Tan. Think of a glass of Jack and a chicken qusadilla. Think of Thursday and Friday night. They will be here soon. I went to court this morning to get points off a ticket and need someone to guide me from here becuase I'm lost.

- Barbonite

Weekend Wrap Up OR Who didn't have a hat-trick?

A quick rundown of players that had a hat-tricks this weekend:

Ray Whitney - I loved all 3 of his goals, the great pass on this one...



But the walk in slapper top shelf. It doesn't get better than that


Eric Staal - the very next night! and he had 4. But in a 9-3 win, you don't get the video highlights

Sean Bergenhiem - 2 against Brodeur and 1 (the prettiest) against an empty net

Rick Nash - All unassisted

David Booth - Just got it done.


Some more questions about the past weekend?

How bad was Calgary this weekend?
Gave up 11 total goals to Atlanta and Carolina and only scored 3. 2 of those were from Iggy.

Will Scotty's little brother be in love with Bobby Ryan the way Scotty loves Mikey Mo?


Is this the nicest saucer pass you've ever seen?


I wish they showed the end-zone view.


Does Pierre Maguire fawn over everything?


How Guerin doing in Pitt?
Pretty darn well. He and Crosby have some chemistry:

And old-school billy black showed up as well:


This isn't a question, but Steve Ott is awesome. The Stars lost in spite of him yesterday. He drew 3 penalties... in the first period alone. And lets not forget about the offensive skills he has (from Fridays game):

AND



So, what did I forget?

-Bress

What you missed last night while you were stuck in the snowstorm

So, yeah, I missed doing a weekend wrap up yesterday - sorry. Scotty, pretty much summed up my feelings anyway. Last night on Versus, the only game in the entire league and it accurately was... a race to the bottom.

Islanders beat the Avalanche, 4-2: It was a good night to be an Islander fan. Well not, if you had tickets and were trying to get to the game. Note to Versus - don't use arena-wide shots at the Coliseum, its just depressing to see that many empty seats. Also note to Versus - why would you put the Islanders color guy, Billy Jaffe on sideline duty? Anyway, here's who scored for the Islanders Dean McCammond (rocking the "A" - a strong move of respect to the vet), Jesse Joensuu (pronounce yo-en-su), Bruno Gervais (the eventual GWG), and Jeff Tambellini (not in a shoot-out!). Ryan Smyth had both goals for the Avalanche and they were Smyth-esque to say the least, right on top of the goalie, just stuffing them in. Anyway, besides McCammond, the rest of the Islanders that scored are young, and how they scored were prime examples of what they could be in the future. Jess J. (not spelling that name again) played his first game in the NHL. Hes a huge Finnish kid with a ridiculous shot. He shared a van with us in training camp and I think I scared him because I knew who he was. Anyway he played pretty well last night for his 4th game in 4 days (thank you AHL schedule). He crashed the net (he's a big body, its good to see he doesn't have Bertuzzi-itis) and shot the puck. His goal was a simple rebound put back. Bruno's goal was the result of him seeing the opportunity to jump in the play and a great shot on net by Jon Sim, a rebound was right on Bruno's tape. The Truth's goal was a great little toe drag and snipe - bar and in. Hopefully this win doesn't affect the Isles number 1 draft pick hopes. And for gosh sakes who the hell is Billy Guering getting traded to?

What you missed last night while you were trying to wrap your head around Kyle Okposo's move

In a scrimmage last night I tried doing the Okposo shoot-out move and failed miserably. I can't rap my head around that move.
Anyway, onto Friday's Hockey Haikus (sorry for the delay today, I had busy morning at the dayjob)

Devils shut-out the Avalanche, 4-0:
Parise's goal - WOW
Brodeur is back and got the
shut-out. Jers feels good.

Maple Leafs beat the Islanders in the shoot-out, 5-4:
Tambellini can
snipe, not in-game though. Blakes spin
is bush. Witts elbow - ouch.

Panthers come back to beat the Rangers, 2-1:
Shoulders hunched, arms crossed
that is the Tortorella
losing press meeting.

Hurricanes win over the Sabres in the shoot-out, 2-1:
For teams outside of
the playoffs, these three point games
must be killing them

Capitals beat the Thrashers, 4-3:
Ovy did not score
but tried to fight the wrong guy
when he got high sticked

Bruins shut-out and dominate the Ducks, 6-0:
Hard work always beats
skill. Example... Bitz outworks
Neidermayer, scores.

Sharks beat the Senators, 2-1:
Roenicks goal is hockey
Fake shot from point is pass to
Thornton, to slot, goal.

Predators beat the Coyotes, 4-1:
All of a sudden
the Predators can score or
maybe the Yotes suck

Blues win over the Stars, 3-1:
Steve Ott always does
something and contributes on
the scoresheet... sometimes.

Blues Jackets shut-out the Oilers, 1-0:
Big win for Jackets
and for Mason. He leads the
league in shut-outs, now.