For those familiar with the grievances, this may not come as a surprise, but I have been a little out of the loop on my own life, so we are going to play catchup. Starting with, ehh let’s go with the Sens. We’ll get to Mason Ramsey later.
The Sens Continue to Sens
Since we last spoke, the Sens have lost to the Bruins, whooped the Capitals, and I thought they’d beaten the Leafs but I think someone just retweeted the final score graphic from that big comeback a year ago. (Side note: Should I call them the Leaves? Would that be an own?)
The big news (aside from the whooping of the Capitals, which is news! the Caps are good!) is that Thomas Chabot is out tonight against the Blues (game in Ottawa, 7:00 PM EST, ESPN+, and yes, Chabot’s absence is the real Blues of the affair) after taking a big hit from Tom Wilson. The hit was evidently clean, but it still feels like an I’m-a-real-hockey-fan moment to have my favorite team’s backbone taken out by Tom Wilson. The best part of the moment was that Brady Tkachuk and Nick Paul both immediately moved to fight Wilson, with Paul ultimately doing the fighting. Would love to have heard that discussion over who got to do the fighting.
Is there a Putin/Ukraine metaphor here? Maybe so. Maybe Tom Wilson is the Vladimir Putin of the NHL, and the world has to take turns lining up to fight him when he does his thing, and he won’t stop doing his thing but he will have to do a whole extra fight for doing it. Maybe he likes that. Maybe he doesn’t. We don’t know. It doesn’t really change anything, but we keep doing it. In this instance, Tkachuk played the U.S. and the U.K. and Paul played Emmanuel Macron and we’ll see whether it actually did anything but it probably didn’t.
Anyway, big underdogs against the Blues tonight. Just the way we don’t actually like it but say we do because we have no choice and it’s funny to win these ones.
Burnley Got a Little Burnleyed
Burnley didn’t play too badly against Liverpool on Sunday, losing only 1-0. Maybe I’m grasping at straws here, but if there is a grand scriptwriter at play, it feels like the Clarets’ healthy goal differential (-12, 15th-best in the league) is a gun hanging on the wall that may be fired in Burnley’s favor come May. That said, Newcastle won on Sunday, Burnley’s finally up to 50% in FiveThirtyEight’s relegation odds (which I don’t think account for Newcastle’s retooling), and I’m starting to wonder if Leeds (two points ahead of Newcastle, nine ahead of Burnley) or Brentford (three points ahead of Newcastle, ten ahead of Burnley) is a better target than the Magpies. In the meantime, Watford and Norwich are still ahead of the lads and the lads have to go to Brighton on Saturday. Trying times, could really use a point out of this weekend, the most optimistic outlook (drawing with the ten best teams, beating the other nine) doesn’t have Burnley able to get to a point-per-match again until April 9th, nine matches from now (out of 17 remaining), and a point-per-match might not even be enough to avoid relegation this year if they do get there.
In other news, I guess Matt Bee is no longer the women’s team’s manager. Resigned in December. I believe the team moved up from the fifth tier to the third tier under his care, but regardless of specifics, they’re becoming more of a professional club, which is exciting, and it sounds like he was great and hopefully whatever he’s doing next goes well for him. Missed that, wanted to note it.
Joe Kelly: Curler?
We should have known Joe Kelly would show up at the Olympics, and according to my brother yesterday, he did, appearing as a Swiss curler named Valentin Tanner. The best part is that per my brother, he was “exclusively chucking chaos shots.”
May the same be said of us all.
Pitchers and Catchers Don’t Report
In other baseball news, pitchers and catchers didn’t report this week. The lockout winds on. I’ve lost track of it again. Too busy taunting West Virginia fans (we’ll get to that).
Boog and J.D. Forever
In other baseball news that doesn’t fill me with an overwhelming sense of dread, the Cubs will have Boog Sciambi and Jim Deshaies in the television broadcast booth for the foreseeable future, as Marquee announced today that they’ve extended the pair. Great thing for those of us who work from home and blog about baseball (specifically, the Cubs) to hear.
It’s Daytona Week
More to come on this (Thursday, I’m estimating), but the Daytona 500 is coming up this weekend, and I’m excited as always. It’s always the best Sunday in February, and I mean that with complete sincerity. The Daytona 500 is one thousand times better than the Super Bowl. Which makes the Super Bowl, were it played in Daytona, the Daytona 0.5.
NIT Talk
The NIT picture is so fast and fleeting that it’s hard to comment on too much, but let me just say that St. Bonaventure’s sweep of the Saint Louis Billikens brought even more questions to an already question-crowded table. What a world. Here’s our bracketology from yesterday:
And here’s tonight’s Game of the NITe:
Memphis @ Cincinnati (7:00 PM EST, ESPN+, everything we want to watch is on ESPN+ tonight at 7:00 PM Eastern)
It’s a big game for the defending NIT champions, who may have accidentally vaulted the NIT field with their upset of Houston over the weekend. Also a big game for the defending 1955 NIT third-place finishers (no one has claimed that crown, and they’re therefore defending it) who need to win this if they’re going to stay anywhere near the picture in Wes Miller’s Ohio debut. (Given Miller once played in the British Basketball League and has almost exclusively lived and coached in former British colonies, should we be asking this man where his loyalties lie re: Lexington & Concord? Because I’m starting to wonder.)
Other games of note:
- Texas @ Oklahoma, just watching as a hater, probably no NIT implications. Did say recently that Chris Beard is likable, and I meant that. I like Chris Beard. Wish Texas had replaced Shaka Smart with someone less likable. But then again, maybe they’d be a better coach? Not that Beard isn’t, it’s just…Texas isn’t that good and it’s hard to see them having a better roster down the line than the one they have now. 7:00 PM EST, ESPN2.
- Wisconsin @ Indiana, Indiana’s got a shot, still. 9:00 PM EST, ESPN2. Late night for those young men.
- Iowa State @ TCU, both have a shot but as the home team it’s on TCU to not lose. 9:00 PM EST, ESPNU. Pray for Joe and all those who will spend the two hours hoping for the Cyclone offense to score points.
- Utah State @ San Diego State, the Aggies need a win badly, the Aztecs could enter the picture in a big way, and I mean the picture we use as the backdrop for that NIT Bracketology graphic above, because it’d be fun to make that an Aztec on Friday. 10:00 PM EST, CBSSN.
- Florida @ Texas A&M, Buzz Williams is in the same situation as Wes Miller minus the Benedict Arnold side plot, Florida’s in kind of a confusing place but I would advise that they lose, and while I don’t care about them I don’t say that to mislead the guys. Lose, Florida. And wink twice if that’s your plan so I can bet on the A&M moneyline.
- Iona @ Saint Peter’s, Iona has lost two straight now and while you might think that’s a good thing, it’s actually a bad thing, because it means Iona is vincible, and that means Rick Pitino might coach in the NIT, and that means Rick Pitino might kill me. 7:00 PM EST, ESPN+.
- VCU @ Fordham, Ram on Ram action, Fordham isn’t in the NIT picture but VCU is and Fordham’s coached by a man named Neptune. Last name, but still. 7:00 PM EST, ESPN+.
There are others involving NIT teams, but I think that’s my threshold for today. Expect a short video of me rambling at one of these fanbases later this evening on Twitter, a la our address to West Virginia last night (#StayWildStayWonderful). Might not happen, of course, but it also might, so expect it. Vibe it into existence.
How Does Mason Ramsey Feel About Stan Kroenke?
Noted butthole-and-a-half Stan Kroenke is, as many of you know, a butthole-and-a-half. Part of this is evident from him carpetbagging the Rams from St. Louis to Los Angeles, which is relevant here, because Mason Ramsey—from southern Illinois, St. Louis sports country—was supporting the Rams on Sunday:
Some St. Louisans have forgiven, or just chose to carry on with the affiliation. Is Ramsey one of them? Or, being we believe only sixteen years old, does he just not care? I hope it’s the latter. The youth have too much on their plate. Which is part of why we love Mason Ramsey.
