SQUIRREL part deux.

Who knew that "SQUIRREL" was such an insult.

P Bruins squirrel of the game Brad Marchand knew it.

From the King's opening salvo of, "Marchand you're a squirrel.  A SQUIRREL."  It was on.

During the pre-game warmup, he started chirping back.  "I'm not a squirrel, YOU ARE!"  Which caused the rejoinder "I'm rubber, you're glue."
Hey, if a player kicks it grade school style, we're ready, brother.

At one point it looked like he was going to climb over the glass.  He had to be restrained by teammates going down the tunnel.

He was talking to the Kings all game.  He spit at the boys during the second period, hitting the gentleman in front of them, Mike Hollweck.  After the game he was still screaming at us.  I've never seen a player get that bothered by a chirp.

I'd say that "Squirrel" is a winner!

Most athletes have a pretty thick skin.  It's a necessary part of playing any sport.  Your opponents chirp you, their fans chirp, during practice your teammates chirp you.  Show that you can't take the guff and you've made your life hell.  I can almost guarantee that Mr. Marchand is going to be hearing squirrel in the locker room & practice for the rest of the year.

Man, I love our job.

Grizzled Vet

SQUIRREL!!!

Last night was DisGraceland Night at the Giant Center.  Not officially, of course, but it sure seemed planned.

Ranger Scratch dropped the ceremonial puck dressed as Elvis.  I've been told that Scratch is a lynx, but honestly he could be any furry mammal.  Seeing him dressed in a black jumpsuit with a huge pompadour was amazing.

Greg Mace from ABC 27 filmed a teaser at our tailgate.  Then he filmed the boys entering the GC, the Royal Processional around the concourse, and interviews with the King and yours truly.

Then he miked up the King for the first two periods of the game.  I saw him walking around during the second intermission and he said  "Does he ever stop heckling?  I have 30 minutes of good footage already."

If that wasn't enough, the staff sought us out to be the sumo wrestlers for the first intermission.   Rink King and I went head to head for three rounds and ended up with a split decision.  We won four tickets to WWE Raw on Monday Nov 23 that we are auctioning off on our facebook group to raise money for the American Foundation for Children with AIDS.  To bid go here.

So what does the title of this post mean, you ask.  In honor of absolutely nothing we have decided to label the shortest player on the opposing team, "Squirrel" and yell it at him every time he touches the puck.  The King is informing the chosen player of this honor every time he goes to the bench, in addition to his other chirp duties.  The Bruins player to be squirreled is Brad Marchand #17.  Feel free to welcome him to the GC on Wednesday.

My highlights of the night, in no particular order.

Having Kip Brennan throw us his stick after we rode him like a rented mule all night.

Sumo wrestling with Rink King.  Funnest thing I've ever done at a hockey game.

Having Ed Coffey announce that we were auctioning off the tix to raise money for AFCA.

Having Greg Mace include AFCA in our interviews.

Having the entire Springfield bench shaking their heads at my attempt to draw up a play during a time out.  "Look coach this is what you need to do:  PUT THE PUCK IN THE NET!"

Having my huckleberry, Peckham, fall as he went over the boards.  "Watch out Peckham, that white stuff is slippery."

Grizzled Vet

DisGraceland on TV.

A local television station is doing a piece on DisGraceland this Saturday.  They will be filming while the boys are pumping up the fans, pregame, on the rail.

We'll be tailgating by the blue arrow on the map below.  Tailgate will be from 3:30 to 5:30 followed by the Royal Processional of the Kings into their castle.

Come on out and join us, usual tailgate rules apply.  Who knows you might make the news.

Remember to vote for DisGraceland's official charity here.
Grizzled Vet

Can a brother catch a break?

A Bears favorite does it again.  Quintin Laing stopped a Michal Rozsival slapshot in the Rangers/Caps game last night with his face.

The result is a broken jaw and he'll be out for several weeks.  You may remember that Lainger lacerated/ruptured his spleen playing for the Caps last year.  It was months before he was healthy enough to play again.  He plays the game with reckless abandon so accidents are bound to happen, but it's sad that such a nice guy has to deal with this again.

I was looking for video of the incident and then decided that I really didn't want to watch it.  Pucks to the melon are never fun.  

Coach Boudreau had some nice things to say about him:

From NHL.com staff writer Dan Rosen

"I mean, what a courageous guy," Boudreau said. "You could see it from the bench that he was turning and Rozsival shot it and we were hoping it just sort of skimmed off of him but when he got up his jaw was pretty swollen."

Peerless has some facts about broken jaws.

Justin Bourne quit professional hockey and became a blogger after breaking his jaw.  (btw: I highly recommend his blog.)

As part of DisGraceland's charitible giving this year, we're going to take up a collection to get Quintin one of these.

Seriously though remember to vote for AFCA on facebook here.

Grizzled Vet

Nylander saga coming to a close.

To some of us in Bear country, the name Michael Nylander doesn't mean too much.  He's a center for the Caps who hasn't played much.  That's about it.

For others, the mere mention of his name sends them in to uncontrollable fits of rage.

Here is a little background on the story in case you don't know it.  Nylander was signed as an UFA (unrestricted free agent) by the Caps in 2007 for a little less than $20mil for four years.  His salary cap hit is $4.875M/year.  He has a "no movement" clause in his contract which means that he cannot be waived, sent to a lower league, or traded without his approval.

Nylander was signed to be Ovechkin's center.  He's a typical, old school, Swedish centerman; pass first, shoot next, go in the corners never.  He likes to play a controlled game on the ice.  This doesn't fit into Coach Boudreau's system at all.  This resulted in Nylander being put on the shelf for most of last year and all of the current season.

He took a conditioning assignment to Grand Rapids in order to show him off to overseas scouts.  Since he hasn't played in the NHL this season, he is allowed to be loaned to a team overseas.  The Caps will still be responsible for his contract, although the team he is loaned to can pay some/all of it.  The upside for the Capitals is his salary cap hit will come off of the books for the remainder of this season.  That will work out somewhere in the $3.5 million range.

In order to be loaned overseas, Nylander had to be put on and clear waivers.  He cleared last week.  Now they just have to find a team to take him.  Dinamo Minsk seemed to be the frontrunner.  They waived Josef Boumedienne in order to make room for him.  KHL rules only allow five non-Russian players per team.  So far, though, there hasn't been any movement.

What does this mean for the Bears?  Well, the only reason that Karl Alzner is playing for us this season is because the Capitals couldn't fit his salary under the cap.  With Nylander off of the books, Alzner is gone, like right freaking now.  They probably won't even let him go home to pack up.

It also gives them the flexibility to keep prospects up without playing them.  Personally, I don't think that they would do this.  The Caps are very good about making sure that their prospects get playing time in order to develop, but the possibility exists.

The new cap room also raises the chance that the Caps could look to strengthen weaknesses by trading.  If this happens, names like Carlson, Neuvirth, Perreault, Holtby, Osala, and Gordon would be the chips on the table.

So far, GM George McPhee has resisted the siren's call of "must win now" and kept his prospects in the pipeline.  Alexander Semin and Nicklas Backstrom are going to be RFAs at the end of the season, and keeping them both will be difficult.  GMGM may decide that this year is going to be the best shot of winning a cup and raid the cupboard to get that extra piece to push them over the top.

Bottom Line?  If/When Nylander leaves the Caps, nothing good will happen for the Bears.

Time to give back.

Some of you might have noticed DisGraceland hanging around Dru Stokrp's raffle table on Saturday.  They were raffling off the Xbox 360.

Dru is a friend of ours and is having kidney transplant surgery today, Tuesday, November 17th.  We ask for your prayers for his recovery.

Dru is a member of Lebanon Area Evangelical Free Church and serves as a senior high youth leader.  When his church found out about Dru's need several people volunteered to donate a kidney to him.  Another youth leader, Brad Kresge, was determined to be a compatible match, and he is undergoing surgery today as well.

Dru started having problems with his kidneys in high school, about 10 years ago, but it wasn't until two years ago that they diagnosed him with Alport syndrome.  This was controlled by medication until last April.  The meds stopped working, and he had to have a permacath implanted and needed to have four-hour-long dialysis treatments three times per week, until the surgery.

A kidney transplant costs around $250,000.  Then he will need follow-up care and anti-rejection drugs for the rest of his life.  If you are able to help out, you can do so at the National Foundation for Transplants.

Regular readers know that DisGraceland's main charity is the American Foundation for Children with AIDS.  The King, Beanie Boy, and I all volunteer at their warehouse sorting medical supplies.  AFCA does this the first Saturday of every month from 10-2.   A while back, I asked for donations to help us win Parade magazine's America Giving Challenge.   I was disappointed that no one donated.  Very disappointed.  I'm restraining myself from going into one of my patented rants over the issue.

Here's your chance to redeem yourself.  No money required.  If you're on facebook click this link.  Don't ask questions, click it!

That should take you to Chase Community Giving page on fb. Now click the vote for this charity button.  Painless right??  Where are you going?  We're not done with you yet.

Click this link.  Copy this:  "American Foundation for Children with AIDS".  Paste it in the "enter your charity of choice" block.  Click the radio button next to the block you entered it in.  Enter your email address.  Enter your zip code.  Uncheck the box to receive info from Good Earth (unless you want info from Good Earth).  Click Cast your Vote.

There, that wasn't so hard, was it?  Now go and feel better about yourself for the rest of the day.

BTW, AFCA is at Step Into Africa, an exhibit about the AIDS crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa, currently showing at West Shore Evangelical Church in Mechanicsburg.  Stop by and check it out if you're in the neighborhood.  It's FREE, just like the clicks you just did!!!

Grizzled Vet

Bears Roller Coaster

Welcome to the new ride at Hershey Park, the Hershey Bears Fan Coaster.   The ride is one of the new electromagnetic coasters which shoot you out of the gate going from 0-60mph in two seconds.

The launch for the Bears this season had us riding high.  Three wins out of the gate, including an 8-1 smackdown of Binghamton, had me dreaming of a 140-point season.

Then we hit the top of of the loop and back down we came.  Losing 4 out of 5 with the one win in overtime against Bingo, had me searching for what was going wrong.

The boys were outshooting their opponents for the most part, which is a good sign.  Our penalty kill ranks in the top five in the AHL, so that's not the problem.  So what is?

A couple things pop out immediately.

Problem one: Power Play.  At one point during the downturn, they were ranked 23rd in the A on the PP.  Today, they are only in 17th with a PP% of .138.  That means that the Bears score on one of eight power play opportunities.  I don't know what kind of benchmark Coach French has set for his PP unit, but I'm betting it's going to be closer to .225 than .125.  The Hartford Wolfpack is leading the league with a .295 percentage, which is exceptional.  With the offensive talent on this team, we should be able to come close to that.

Problem two: Goaltending.  Michal Neuvirth is a Hershey hero.  He stood on his head during the Cup run last season.  He looked great in training camp, pushing Semyon Varlamov for the number two spot in Washington.  Then he got hurt.  His injury was undisclosed, but rumors were it was a groin injury.  He came back to Hershey.  When his injury healed, he went out and lost three of four games, and didn't look good doing it either. Groins are the worst possible injury for butterfly style goalies.  Think about it.  Up/down, up/down, push to the side, up, rest.  That's a goalie's action for a game.  The up/downs take the most effort.  That's why you don't see goalies going down in the butterfly during warmups that often.

The ride bottomed out of the loop and back up we went.  Four wins on the bounce.  Jason Bacashihua decided that he was going to be the rock they needed in net and went out and stoned the opposition.  He was the #1 goalie in the AHL with a .948 save percentage after four games.

The saying goes, "What goes up, must come down."  Last night, we caught the express drop on Farenheit.  Losing 5-0 to Portland hurt.  Watching the game on atdhe.net, I didn't see too many let downs that would contribute to that score.  Again we were outshooting the Pirates, but nothing was going in.  JP Lamoureux was outstanding in net for the opponents.  He should have been arrested after the game for grand theft on one Osala shot.

To address some comments that I'm sure I'm going to get:  Portland's third goal was called correctly.  I'll admit that when it happened I thought that our boy Koharski had been eating too many donuts again.  But a thorough search through the rulebook found that as long as the net's pegs are still on their moorings, play isn't stopped.  If an offensive player tipped the goal over Cash, that would have been a minor penalty for goaltender interference.   But, since it was Ammo tipping it over, no call.  I hate being wrong on the rules of hockey.  I hate the fact that my least favorite ref made the right call.  However, I'm man enough to admit that in this one instance, Mr. Koharski knew the rules better than me.

DisGracefully Yours,
Grizzled Vet