Nice day off for me here. Rare that i get a Sunday.
20 thoughts on “March 29, 2015: Play Button”
Wild Playoff Watch: Just Keep Winning Edition
The Wild won again last night, 4-1 over LA. I didn't get to see it, but I'm sure it was spectacular.
Their playoff magic number is 7 with 6 games left. Things looks good.
The win also moved the Wild past Chicago for third place in the division. The Wild's Magic number for the Central 3 seed is 16 (they still need at least minimal help from Chicago).
For the very greedy among you, the Blues lost last night, so the Wild are four points behind St. Louis for second place in the division (St. Louis has a game in hand).
Anaheim and Nashville clinched playoff spots last night with wins.
The game last night did not look like a 4-1 win. Actually, the Kings were pretty dominant for a long stretch. But the Wild did the same to them earlier in the year and came away with loses, so it felt like things were balancing. And there was some spectacular penalty killing by the Wild which made all the difference. That was exciting to watch.
I think this was the first Wild game I've seen this season, although it was only in the last month or so that I really wanted to see one. Great first period by the Wild. Kings announcers were trying to blame it on the Kings have 1 day off. Whatever. Kings, as expected, came out a lot stronger in the second period. Wild were fortunate the game didn't get tied up when they were killing penalties for nearly 4 minutes. A Kings player had a wide-open net but Jonas Brodin pretty much blindly through a stick in the way and managed to deflect it away. You could really sense the energy and excitement at the X.
In the past nine weeks, the Wild is an NHL-best 24-5-1 to become the toast of the NHL. It hasn’t lost by more than a goal since Jan. 19, hasn’t lost consecutive games since Jan. 19-20 or consecutive games in regulation in 34 starts by Dubnyk (26-6-2).
Under Dubnyk, the Wild has outscored its opponents 104-57 for a league-best (by far) plus-47 goal differential. To be clear: 57 goals allowed in 34 games from a team that allowed 58 in the 14 games before Dubnyk’s acquisition.
Hello from LA LA Land. Stayed over with my friends Dr. and Mrs. T and will be taking the Boy to LAX in about 4 hours. Had a most excellent dinner last night of "Vietnamese tapas" at a place in Culver City. And, uh, a beer or several back at the house.
Didn't make time to do anything on the way home but dump the Boy at the Int'l terminal. The 405 was ... busy getting out of town on the way home, and it was a long drive (7+ hours with only two short stops).
The 405 was my home for several years. Karma has been paying me back now during these telecommute years.
We had:
BANH XEO (tasty)
BABY OCT & BRUSSELS (zomg!)
BELLY & EGG (dude, it's pork belly!!!1111one111!!!)
IMPERIAL ROLLS (good, but...)
WOK CHARRED OXTAIL (ARE YOU KIDDING ME???)
PHO BAGUETTE (cute, messy, tasty)
CAULIFLOWER & LONG BEAN (crazy good)
KALE SALAD (very good; good enough to forgive the kale craze)
a salad not appearing on this menu, with grapefruit and shrimp and I forget what else, but was outstanding.
I don't know how we managed to go home and drink beer afterwards. Oh, and Mrs. T made key lime pie while we were drinking beer. Seriously? Yes, seriously.
Logan Darnell made four starts for the Twins last year and won't even make the AAA rotation this year, which will be Meyer, Mays, Taylor Rogers, Jason Wheeler, and ??? If Berrios isn't in the AAA rotation, whoever the fifth starter is (possibly Greg Peavey) will be just keeping it warm until Berrios' promotion. Rochester will also most likely have Hicks, Rosario and Pinto and could be joined at some point by Sano and Buxton.
He is not a starter, but noteworthy
Mike Berardino @MikeBerardino
#MNTwins have outrighted RHP Stephen Pryor to Rochester. Now at 38 on 40-man roster, just in time to add Boyer and Robinson.
The lady friend is leaving St. Paul in the next few hours to visit Austin in her spring break. Only crappy part is she's landing in San Antonio (an hour away) at midnight.
At this point, I'm going to need Wisconsin beating Michigan State in the finals to have a shot at the B and B bracket title. Might need Duke to win it's game as well.
Who would have thought the B1G would have two teams in the Final Four.
I feel less bad about my horrible brackets for work pools. (Not as bad as the WGOM bracket, but...)
There are enough Sconnie homers and B1G partisans that a final four with two teams would be too crowded for me to be competitive anyways.
(After a few years of competing in the work pool, I learned that the competitive advantage was picking against Wisconsin teams, B1G teams, and northern BigXII teams.)
I had 13 of 16, then 6 of 8, and now none of the final four. Well, it was fun while it lasted.
An advert featuring Mel Allen pitching for Atari. How about that!
If you want a silver lining, there’s this: We haven’t seen a top four in the AL Central look this strong in years, so if the Twins want to rebuild — and they definitely do — now’s the perfect time to start.
They are going to start the rebuild now?
I think that's just poor word choice. It's clear by the rest of the article he knows the Twins have been rebuilding
Wild Playoff Watch: Just Keep Winning Edition
The Wild won again last night, 4-1 over LA. I didn't get to see it, but I'm sure it was spectacular.
Their playoff magic number is 7 with 6 games left. Things looks good.
The win also moved the Wild past Chicago for third place in the division. The Wild's Magic number for the Central 3 seed is 16 (they still need at least minimal help from Chicago).
For the very greedy among you, the Blues lost last night, so the Wild are four points behind St. Louis for second place in the division (St. Louis has a game in hand).
Anaheim and Nashville clinched playoff spots last night with wins.
The game last night did not look like a 4-1 win. Actually, the Kings were pretty dominant for a long stretch. But the Wild did the same to them earlier in the year and came away with loses, so it felt like things were balancing. And there was some spectacular penalty killing by the Wild which made all the difference. That was exciting to watch.
I think this was the first Wild game I've seen this season, although it was only in the last month or so that I really wanted to see one. Great first period by the Wild. Kings announcers were trying to blame it on the Kings have 1 day off. Whatever. Kings, as expected, came out a lot stronger in the second period. Wild were fortunate the game didn't get tied up when they were killing penalties for nearly 4 minutes. A Kings player had a wide-open net but Jonas Brodin pretty much blindly through a stick in the way and managed to deflect it away. You could really sense the energy and excitement at the X.
Hello from LA LA Land. Stayed over with my friends Dr. and Mrs. T and will be taking the Boy to LAX in about 4 hours. Had a most excellent dinner last night of "Vietnamese tapas" at a place in Culver City. And, uh, a beer or several back at the house.
LAX? Dude, make time to stop at Brewsters.
Doc mike?
Yup.
Didn't make time to do anything on the way home but dump the Boy at the Int'l terminal. The 405 was ... busy getting out of town on the way home, and it was a long drive (7+ hours with only two short stops).
The 405 was my home for several years. Karma has been paying me back now during these telecommute years.
dinner was at East Borough on Washington.
We had:
BANH XEO (tasty)
BABY OCT & BRUSSELS (zomg!)
BELLY & EGG (dude, it's pork belly!!!1111one111!!!)
IMPERIAL ROLLS (good, but...)
WOK CHARRED OXTAIL (ARE YOU KIDDING ME???)
PHO BAGUETTE (cute, messy, tasty)
CAULIFLOWER & LONG BEAN (crazy good)
KALE SALAD (very good; good enough to forgive the kale craze)
a salad not appearing on this menu, with grapefruit and shrimp and I forget what else, but was outstanding.
I don't know how we managed to go home and drink beer afterwards. Oh, and Mrs. T made key lime pie while we were drinking beer. Seriously? Yes, seriously.
Logan Darnell made four starts for the Twins last year and won't even make the AAA rotation this year, which will be Meyer, Mays, Taylor Rogers, Jason Wheeler, and ??? If Berrios isn't in the AAA rotation, whoever the fifth starter is (possibly Greg Peavey) will be just keeping it warm until Berrios' promotion. Rochester will also most likely have Hicks, Rosario and Pinto and could be joined at some point by Sano and Buxton.
He is not a starter, but noteworthy
The lady friend is leaving St. Paul in the next few hours to visit Austin in her spring break. Only crappy part is she's landing in San Antonio (an hour away) at midnight.
At this point, I'm going to need Wisconsin beating Michigan State in the finals to have a shot at the B and B bracket title. Might need Duke to win it's game as well.
Who would have thought the B1G would have two teams in the Final Four.
I feel less bad about my horrible brackets for work pools. (Not as bad as the WGOM bracket, but...)
There are enough Sconnie homers and B1G partisans that a final four with two teams would be too crowded for me to be competitive anyways.
(After a few years of competing in the work pool, I learned that the competitive advantage was picking against Wisconsin teams, B1G teams, and northern BigX
IIteams.)I had 13 of 16, then 6 of 8, and now none of the final four. Well, it was fun while it lasted.
An advert featuring Mel Allen pitching for Atari. How about that!
httpv://youtu.be/8TXTPx88TdA
Jonah Keri in his preview of the AL Central:
They are going to start the rebuild now?
I think that's just poor word choice. It's clear by the rest of the article he knows the Twins have been rebuilding