Oh Canada.

It was a great night for the two Canadian teams in action last night in the NHL Playoffs. It looks like there might be some hope that we'll see a cup come back north of the border for the first time since 1993.

Montreal shocked the world by beating Washington in overtime and, although they may not have deserved it, they fought hard and got their reward.

The first period was ugly and it looked like Montreal were little boys playing against Washington's men but they steadied the ship eventually, mainly thanks to Jaro Halak who was spectacular.

Full marks also to Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta who were great in leading the team. The fourth line also played really well and earned some big time minutes in the third period.

For Washington, Alex Ovechkin was brutal. I don't know what it was but he looked lost out there and didn't even get a shot in like 27 minutes of ice? If he doesn't wake up, the upset is possible.

Meanwhile, the Canucks are sweet, period. Big overtime win against a plucky LA team who played hard.

Quick was solid in the net for the Kings who surprised me with their toughness. Drew Doughty in particular kind of pissed me off with his lipping off at every whistle and I don't think Alberts should have been thrown out but, either way this looks like it will be a good series.

Oh, and Michael Samuelsson is a god.

Tonight the Blackhawks should hammer the Preds and I think the Pens even things up against Ottawa. The Sens used to be so likable but now they're just sort of annoying...

Devils, Pens, Hawks win tonight.

keith.

Dreams come true.

In the spirit of the hockey playoffs, this is a story I wrote for my journalism course a while ago at a moose game. It is an incredible story of a man from Winnipeg who got to work as an official at the Gold Medal Hockey game. Thanks to Gerald Andrews, the subject of the story, for being so great with me and telling the tale. Hope you enjoy.

Tuesday night’s clash between the Worcester Sharks and the Manitoba Moose at the MTS Centre was a unique home coming for American Hockey League off-ice official Gerald Andrews. It was his first game back on the job after what he calls the thrill of a lifetime working as an off-ice official for the men’s gold-medal game at the Olympics.

Andrews has worked for the AHL part-time for four years after being recommended by Wade Flaherty, a former Moose goaltender who lived with Andrews while playing for the team. At work, Andrews keeps stats on things like goals, assists, penalty minutes and plus-minus. He says, he saw the opportunity to work on one of the sport’s biggest stages and went for it.

“It sounded like a great opportunity so I started the process of a lot of interviews a couple of years ago and was lucky enough to get chosen,” he says.

“It was an incredible thrill, obviously, for a regular guy like me to get to basically help referee Olympic hockey. You just kind are shocked,” added Andrews who kept stats on face-offs during the Olympics in both men’s and women’s games.

Mid-way through the festivities, Andrews was told he had been chosen to work the final. He says that while it now ranks as a great memory, he was so caught up in his job that he was unable to be a true fan at the time.

“It was something that was pretty spectacular, obviously, but as you’re watching you have to be doing your job,” he says.

“Even when the winning goal was scored it was like it was just another goal. You had to do your job and record everything properly,” he adds before describing how he was sure to take tons of pictures of the celebrations afterwards.

Scott Brown, director of corporate communications & hockey operations for the Moose says the organization is thrilled to have guys like Andrews on their team.

“To know we have people who work that hard and are that good at their jobs, it’s something we are happy to brag about,” he says.

“Not a lot of people realize the work that goes on and the pressure these guys face to get stats out that people take for granted every day,” he adds.

Moose fans haven’t been able to take much for granted in this up and down season but Andrews was able to record a 3-1 win for the home team in this game, the second victory in a row for the inconsistent Moose.

Andrews story drew little coverage in major local media outlets. He says he isn’t surprised and doesn’t really care, happy to get back to his normal life.

“I don’t want to be famous or anything. As long as I know and my family knows and we can share these special memories than I don’t need anyone to know my name,” he says.

While this may be true, it’s clear that Andrews will never forget his time in Vancouver.

“It doesn’t get bigger than that. I mean, I was a part of history,” he said.

keith

Blog is Back.

This semester in CreComm has been so crazy that i've been neglecting this blog out of sheer lack of time to do otherwise. That is ending now.

I am doing a blog for my IPP next year and am determined to end this years blog with a bang. Besides, what better topic to blog about than the NHL playoffs which started yesterday!

First off, how did the Sens beat Geno and the pens? Someone forgot to tell them they were supposed to roll over I guess. Same goes for the Avs who...oh wait...they are playing the Sharks. I can see that noose tightening around the perennial choke artists' neck as I type. 

Anyway, tonight features two games that I am stoked about, the habbies go into Washington to try and take down Ovechkin and caps. After that, the Canucks start their march towards immortality (yeah I said that) against the Kings.

I smell a couple Canadian winners! Check back later for my thoughts on the games.

peace out.

Keith

Finland...what happened? Olympic analysis

As I type the USA are hammering Finland 6-1 with plenty of game still to play. The Finns basically threw in the towel before they even started as they were down 6-0 within the first 15 minutes. Frankly, I am shocked.

This is a Finnish team who are, or at least had been awfully good in this tournament. Sure they didn't have as much skill or talent as some of the other countries but they did have the best work ethic, the best defensive system and the best goalie. Or so we thought.

Plain and simply, the United States beat Finland at their own game.

The USA are winning at these Olympics because of speed, grit, good system play and a white hot goaltender in Ryan Miller. With Miller playing this well and their young team coming together so well. Who is to say they can't win the whole thing? Players like Kane, Kesler, Parise are the next generation of hockey and they look awesome.

In tonights big game, I would caution Canadian fans against being so confident of a big win over Slovakia. This is a Slovak team who have beaten Russia and Sweden already in this tournament and have some great players. Gaborik. Hossa. Chara. Palffy. Demitra, Handzus. The list goes on.

The biggest Slovakian surprise has to be Jaroslav Halak who has had an unreal tournament. Carey Price must be watching (in between his partying instead of trying to get better at hockey) back in Montreal and wondering what he will have to do to get his job back. Halak seems to be establishing himself as the true top goalie the habs need.

That said, Canada should and will win. 5-2 is my prediction.

Then every Canadians dream of getting another shot at our southern neighbours will actually come true. Gold medal style.

keith

But...there isn't any snow...

Remember when the Winter Olympics were in the Winter?

Apparently the IOC didn't when they awarded the games to a city where its always warm by this time of year. Watching the Olympic coverage in the CTV studio, it looks like they are in Hawaii when you look through the back window. 

I am not being anti-Canadia or anything and I bet it's a party out there but really? Come on. Refunding tickets cause there is NO SNOW on the mountains? Ridiculous.

Sort your life out Vancouver. 

Facebook and Twitter...What's the Deal?

Facebook and Twitter eh? What's the deal there? 

I admit, I use Facebook and Twitter for all the wrong things. I use Facebook to chat with friends and look at photos instead of doing work. I use Twitter purely to see what Bob Saget is up to. 

First off, if this is wrong, I'm not sure I want to be right. That said, I do understand that Facebook and Twitter have a ton of useful issues. I just sometimes feel they are overstated.

First off, what are Facebook and Twitter? Well reader...since you asked...

Facebook is basically a site that you can use to post pictures, information and talk to others. It is like an extension of you.  You become friends with people, you can talk to them, you can join groups etc. It is like an online version of yourself. For this reason, I like it better than Twitter which is where you post little 140 character tweets about whatever. I don't get Twitter and I don't like it. There just isn't enough you can do. Both of them have faults but at least Facebook is comprehensive and has tons to do. I can actually interact on Facebook. On Twitter, I can just tell people what I ate for breakfast.

 In my opinion, it takes a special kind of person to really use either for all of their good features; someone who is genuinely interested in PR, newtorking and the like. 

I think a lot of people still use Facebook to "creep" other people's profiles, try and get dates, post rowdy pics and chat with buds. Ok fine, by "a lot" I mean pretty much everyone I know.

None of my friends use Facebook to communicate or network or do anything like that really. They use it as a time filler. There are still some major kinks to be worked out before that changes, I think. Right now, Facebook is too much like a playground. There's too much to do that is fun but just wastes time. It really needs to be tightened up if it is going to be used for what a lot of people say it should be used for.

Maybe I am not professional enough yet? Who knows. I just see Facebook more as fun than as productive and I think a lot of people feel the same. 

If Facebook has problems with people not using them effectively, than Twitter is a train wreck. 

Very few people use Twitter for anything other than following celebrities. The celebrities just use it because they are self centered ego-maniacs.

Twitter could be used to tweet on major issues and share super useful information with others but, with the exception of a minority, is it? Not really. Unless you count how many guns Gil Arenas bought today as useful...

To sum up:

Facebook can be super useful in PR by allowing you to learn a lot about someone, see what interests them and what interests large blocks of people, make a page for your organization with features you think will attract an audience etc. 

It can also be a way to try and pick up chicks and look at photos from your drunken escapades.

Sadly, the latter seems to have too much control and I think it will be a while before this changes.

Twitter can also be useful with bite sized news, links to solid information and the ability to follow people you can learn from.

It can also provide you with a chance to see what hair gel John Stamos used last night.

In this way, I don't really see Facebook and Twitter as competing with one another. They are both striving to be the best they can in being effective social media outlets. They do it different ways but their goals are the same. They both want to bring people together in effective ways. Unfortunately, the features they offer are easily manipulated into pointless time wasting exercises that are just easier for the audience. Down the road, they may have to make some changes to truly be what they want. I think Facebook is closer to the destination, but still has some way to go.

In closing, Facebook and Twitter are big in the present but are also the future. Until more of us really understand what they are about and stopping using them to mess around (I include myself), that future will always be just out of reach.

Cheers.

keith

Anxiety...

Crecomm is insane. 

Assignments are coming thick and fast and it's getting a bit mental. 

Don't get me wrong, most of them are fun to do. The radio drama assignment was especially fun with my group of myself, Jeremy, Jim and Alexa taking forever but doing an awesome job and eventually getting picked by our class mates. It was so much fun putting it together and getting picked was maybe the most fufilling part of crecomm so far for me.

Other assignments like our magazine article, radio presentation and Zooey and Adam stuff are also rad. 

I am super freaked out about IPP, Montage and Newsletter though. I have like zero ideas for these and Im definitely feeling the pinch.

Oh well, I'll take this weekend to chill, watch the Colts win the Superbowl and get back at 'er on Monday. 

Until then,

Keith.