At the end of the season, I will give out the following awards: MVP, Best Acquisition, Best Forward, Best Defenseman, and Best Other. There may be some more that I haven’t thought of, but if you have any suggestions for awards or nominees for these awards, let me know in the comments section.I’m also adding the Most Unsung Guy, Best Call-Up, and maybe another.
Hey everybody!I know that I haven’t written in a while, but I’d like to take the time to tell you why the Hurricanes made the trade of the deadline period when they acquired Joe Corvo along with Patrick Eaves from the Ottawa Senators for Mike Commodore and Cory Stillman. As of March 28, 2008, Joe Corvo has 43 points this season. Through 51 games, he had 27 points with the Senators. Through 18 games in Carolina, he has 16 points. Hmm…. Mike Commodore, after leading the Hurricanes in defense scoring last year, is struggling in Ottawa. Corvo was underappreciated in Ottawa. Players such as Wade Redden, Christoph Schubert, and Andrei Meszaros made Corvo expendable. His 27 points with Ottawa in those 51 games was more than all but 10 of the Hurricanes (of which he is one) at this point in the season. The closest at this point is Jeff Hamilton, with 22 through 55 games (remember Hamilton was sent down earlier this season).Corvo provides something more than just points overall. He makes the power play much better. Carolina’s power play is currently 10th in the NHL with 18.3%. Since the trade, in 97 chances, the Hurricanes converted on 20.6% of their chances, including 6 straight games from Feb.28 to Mar.12 when the ‘Canes scored at least 1 power play goal and one game where they scored 4 out of 7.The Hurricanes have definitely benefitted from the play of Corvo. In those 51 games in Ottawa, he was +13, while most likely playing 2nd or 3rd pair. Now, in a more open role in Carolina, he’s +7 in 18 games. He “leads” the Hurricanes with +20, if you can call it that. Based on his time with the Hurricanes, he’s tied with Dennis Seidenberg at +7. Dennis has played only 44 games and acheived that. Joe did that in 18.Well, I know that there have been better players who have done well. Brian Campbell is averaging almost a point a game in San Jose since the trade. Much has been made about Brad Richards and Marian Hossa’s success in Dallas and Pittsburgh, respectively. But it is hard to see that any one player has made an impact on a team like number 77, Joe Corvo.Oh, by the way, he was only the third Whaler/Hurricane defenseman to score a hat trick in a game. This happened March 16. And he was the subject of the Forslund Focus, a segment in the in-game presentation at the RBC Center where TV play-by-play guy John Forslund highlights players making a difference on the team.I’m surprised we don’t have him in the shootout yet. Just look at his hat-trick sealing goal on the 16th against former ‘Cane Martin Gerber. Great move.
Here is my long awaited review of the most recent episode of LOST, “Meet Kevin Johnson.” At the end of the previous episode, “Ji Yeon”, it was revealed that Michael Dawson, who left the Island at the beginning of Season 2, was back and on the freighter that carried Charlotte Lewis, Daniel Faraday, Miles Straume and the pilot Frank Lapidus to the Island. He was working as Ben’s spy, which was implied in “Ji Yeon” but confirmed in this episode by Locke, who supposedly got the word from Ben. Back to the Michael story. He is living in New York City by himself. It is apparent that Michael revealed to his son that he was the murderer of Ana Lucia Cortez and Libby (which took place in Season 2). Walt does not want to see Michael and is living with his grandmother. This is interesting because Walt is mature. His dad killed them to save his son, yet Walt sees through the “heroism” to the raw facts. Anyway, Michael tries to jump off the metaphorical window ledge by crashing his car into a dumpster with a note pinned to his chest. He tries more times to kill himself before being found by Tom, one of Ben’s people on the Island. He is apparently getting a little vacation time. Tom offers him a job on a freighter with the ability to get back to the Island. His job is to get rid of the people on the boat, who, according to Tom, are working for Charles Widmore, the wealthy father of Desmond’s long-lost girlfriend Penny. Interesting how things get connected. I won’t tell you what happens next, but I will tell you that Sayid takes serious action for the first time since he tortured Sawyer in Season 1 and Jack, Juliet and Kate do not appear for the first time in a while. This is a very good episode and one that I wouldn’t watch again and again, but enough so that I catch everything. Harold Perrineau does well in his return as Michael and we see Tom since his death by shooting by Sawyer at the end of Season 3.
Going into Sunday’s games, I feel pretty confident. I currently have 320 points in ESPN points. I only have 2 Sweet 16 picks wrong so far: USC and Duke. Duke is also one of my Final Four teams, so my bracket’s already dead. BTW, my brother picked Siena. He said he analyzed their strengths and weaknesses based on what ESPN said and he picked Siena. Too bad I didn’t and chose American over Tennessee. Stanford almost killed me last night. That almost completely destroyed my bracket. I have all the top seeds winning today: Memphis, Carolina, Texas, G-town, Louisville. If Butler pulls off the upset and beats Tennessee then my pick of American isn’t too killer. About my first round losses, I feel pretty good about myself. No one saw the Tampa Torrent coming, so I’m just like everyone else. My upset picks (American over Tennessee, G. Mason over Notre Dame, and Oral Roberts over Pitt) were all not well-founded. The Indiana-Arkansas was, well, i don’t know. St. Mary’s over Miami didn’t happen like I thought. Miami was looking shaky to me after a 5th place finish in the ACC tourney (they got in over Virginia Tech, which I thought was robbery).
You know NCAA Brackets? You try to pick upsets but they don’t happen. Well, that happened to me. I had American over Tennessee. I figured, “Hey, Tenn just got beat by Georgia in the BE tourney. They could be vulnerable.” Hmm… . I picked the “experienced” George Mason over Notre Dame. Hmm… . I guess it’s my UNC fandom thing. OR a reverse. IDK. I got hit by the string of upsets like everyone else, but Duke’s to West Virginia today and Drake’s last second loss to Western Kentucky on Friday killed me. I had them in that region’s championship game! Gosh. 1 of my Final Four is already out, Duke. At least my two championship game teams are in: Carolina and…. (you’ll never have guessed it) Stanford. I figured the Lopez’s will do better there than in Atlanta (i.e. Javy Lopez got sent to the Braves’ minor league camp today).
I have never really been a huge fan of the New York Yankees. I never truly hated them. I’m more a Red Sox fan than a Yankees fan. (In truth, my team is the Los Angeles Angels). But I have been changed by an exhibition game that took place on March 18th, 2008. It was a blowout, 11-0. But the Virginia Tech Hokies couldn’t have been more happy to see the pinstripes than on the 18th. The New York Yankees took on Virginia Tech in an exhibition game on Tuesday. It was something that made me think a little different about George “The Boss” Steinbrenner (I think that’s how you spell it). Before the game, the Yankees visited the memorial of the victims of that attack on April 18th. Just 11 months after the shooting, Derek Jeter said, “People always ask, ‘Well, what can you do? How does this help?’ I really don’t know. If it just makes people smile or enjoy themselves for the three hours that we’re here, it’s all worthwhile.”
So, let’s all look at the Yankees with a good heart for a little bit. VT head coach Peter Hughes said, “It’s going to be hard to root against the Yankees ever again.” Here here Mr. Hughes, here here.
…not post my book. But what I will do is follow the examples of my blog colleagues and write what I think after every LOST episode and every Hurricanes game. Possibly UNC games. Coming first is the Carolina Hurricanes @ Atlanta Thrashers game on Wednesday.Happy trails!
