Crosby or Datsyuk?

Datsyuk or Crosby?
As I sit and watch the Philadelphia Flyers playing against the Pittsburgh Penguins, I have to listen to all this dribble about how great Sidney Crosby is. I am not going to say that he is a bad player, he is good, but I think Pavel Datsyuk is better.

First off, Datsyuk’s offense may be a little bit below Crosby’s, but not by much. Let’s say I was scoring them out of 100, Crosby would be at 95, Datsyuk would be a 93. But the defense doesn’t even compare. The most notable thing you can say here is that Datsyuk was finally recognized as being the top defense forward in the league last year and given the Selke Trophy.

Second off, he plays on every penalty kill. He’s rarely in the box himself yet he led the league in take-aways, in a hook-calling-happy league too. If there were a 5 on 3, Datsyuk would be called upon, either in a defensive or offensive capacity. If you want your best player on the ice at all times, shouldn’t that be for defense too? Datsyuk +1.
With a franchise center/player, you also want leadership. Crosby talks a lot and is quite vocal on the ice. Honestly, I think he does a bad job of it because you should lead with your play, not your voice. Watching the greatest hockey leader ever for his entire career, Steve Yzerman that is, I got to witness what it takes to be a leader. During Yzerman’s career, he was a 95 on offense too. Guess who has the highest point total in a single season behind Gretzky and Lemieux, that’s right Yzerman! He was told by Scotty Bowman, great coach in history, that is he wanted to be truly great, he needed to become a more complete player and play better defense. Well he did, and let the Wings to 3 Stanley Cups. His leadership was through what he did on the ice, when he did have to say something, it was needed and it was definitely heard. That’s the way Datsyuk leads, quiet and confidently on both sides of the ice. Datsyuk +1.

Some people may think that Crosby is better along the boards too, he’s more physical some may say. Watch a Red Wings game closely and witness how physical Datsyuk is. I used to think he would never be any good in the playoffs because he didn’t posses the physical prowess that’s required during the playoffs. He has proved me wrong. He can give hits, but rarely receives a big one because he knows where he is, his teammates and opponents too. He’s like a Barry Sanders if he does get hit, he seems to just slide off of them. When he goes to the boards to get the puck, 90% of the time he will come out with it or just make a play from right there, making the other team look stupid in the process. Crosby is physical, but he seems to be stupid about it. Trying with brute force rather than outthinking the opponent. Datsyuk +1.

One thing that Crosby does have an advantage in is his age. Crosby is 10 years younger, which may account for some of his youthfulness I’ve described. Crosby +1.
In the end, as of right now, I would take Datsyuk for a first center to build my team around rather than Crosby. With 2 championship rings and a 3 to 1 scoring, Datsyuk wins!

(As a side note, this was a topic in a Detroit Free Press article today, here’s a snippet of the article: “His relentlessness with and without the puck has helped pull the Wings ahead, 2-0, in the first-round, best-of-seven series against the Blue Jackets, which shifts to Columbus for Tuesday's Game 3. Datsyuk's eight hits rank second on the team to nine from Darren Helm, the young fourth-line center.
Datsyuk has picked up where he left off in last year's playoffs, when he had 56 hits in the 22-game Stanley Cup run, second among Wings to defenseman Brad Stuart's 59. After 76 hits over 81 regular-season games, Datsyuk is averaging four a game.”

Guys behind the guys...

While I was watching the NCAA Championship last night, it was hard not to notice all the morons on their cell phones trying to get into the camera frame. This was taking place while the cameras were on the commentators during the pre-game and halftime show. This is not the first time I have seen this, if you watch the College Gameday show, it’s pretty much a phenomenon.

I like the funny signs in the background the most I think, some of them are just ripping on friends and quite creative. The dumb ones are trying to incorporate CBS or ESPN into an acronym so their sign will get on camera. Most of these numbskulls can’t even get these letters at the beginning of each word, like “College Basketball RuleS in North Carolina!” or some stupid crap like that.

The great people in the background to watch are the face/body painters. You know these guys are into team spirit. Especially when they guys are half naked during a football game in late November wearing nothing but jean shorts and a thick layer of body paint. Does that stuff insulate? The people I want to punch are the ones talking on their cell phones to their buddies at home and positioning themselves just right to look stupid and right when they have it, the camera cuts away from them.

This also leads to people at hockey games that are on the same side of the arena as the cameras. They are sitting in the lower bowl and when the camera pans across the ice to follow the play, some silly bastard has to stand up with his back to the camera and wave. Too bad someone doesn’t de-pants them when they stand up, then it would be funny to see.

Everyone lives for their 1.8 seconds of fame now, it used to be 15 minutes until we went into a recession. I really can’t say I blame of lot of these people, I admire their spirit, tenacity and obvious lack of better things to do. I would be right there with them if I could. :)

Go Green!

Go White!

Enough said.

Technology gone astray...

So the iPhones and iTouch are a great thing, apparently. I have no iDea if these are cool or not, honestly I just got a cell phone at the end of last summer. Getting back to these things that people go crazy over, they have "apps" you can download to the phone and use. Most of them look pretty cool from the commercials. I also have a co-worker that says they are awesome. Although, in case you want to fix a wobbly shelf, there is a leveling app, most likely called the iLevel.

The most useless thing I have ever seen in my life was a Braille drivers' manual. I think people are generally getting dumber as we evolve, not the other way around. Well, I thought that was the dumbest thing I would ever see. Until I caught a glimpse of this $200 leveler.

Friend: Hey, I’m going to level this picture, it looks a little off.
Me: Thanks man, I assume you need a level then?
Friend: No, I have my iPhone and my new app I got just for this sort of thing!
Me: Do you have an app to identify morons?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are very useful and great apps available for this, but why would anyone in their right mind need their phone to level something? Oh man, that shelf is 0.3 degrees off! Who cares? Call me old school, but it seems like technology is taking a lot out of society today as far as knowing how to do things by hand or manually. Technology is a wonderful thing, but doesn’t it seem like it sometimes gets carried away?

iE this example here:















Watch Idiocicy, just the first 60 seconds and you’ll see what I’m mainly talking about here.

Parent = Rocket Scientist

Every parent loves to get their kids toys and likes watching them play with them. Be it a simple ball to throw around to a letter learning – talking caterpillar. What every parent always forgets when they get these toys for them is that “some assembly” turns into nightmarish hours spent trying to get these stupid things together while the kids are wining that they want to play with it.

As kids, we don’t understand that not everything is ready right out of the box. I think that’s why Easy Mac was invented, why does it take so long to make something, I wanted it 5 minutes ago. It seems like our society of wanting everything right away is spilling over into childhood. Remember getting Lego sets and knowing that it would take some time to put it all together? Or waiting for the water to boil for mac and cheese? Or watching the grass grow and paint dry?

The days of patience are behind us, everything is now now now! Which brings me to the topic of this post. In order to stop your kid from wining, which in large part is parenthood in general, you need to be quick at putting complicated plastic things together. I remember a toy from Chik-fil-A that was more complicated than origami. It was supposed to be a bee, ooo – I spelled those correctly Mom!, and the stupid thing took 35 minutes to put together! It comes in a kids meal but requires the understanding of aeroelastic flutter and schlierin photography, both topics which I learned about today actually.

Another thing we have run into with going through both kids birthdays recently are the toys that are put together come in packages that require the knowledge of breaking into safety boxes. Who designs these things? I’m guessing it’s someone that doesn’t have kids and just like to torment the general population.

Mad Scientist with crazy white hair and lab coat thinks while designing packaging for a ruler: “I’m going to put these twist tie things at 3 different points along the ruler to keep it in place, then put it in the plastic that requires an angle grinder to get through! Haha, those imbeciles will never penetrate my fortress of security!!”

Parent’s thoughts that buys said ruler for child: “Why the @#$! did I buy this piece of *&^%? Whoever designed this packaging needs a severe beating.”

Too bad it’s not socially acceptable to give beatings to people that really need them. The world would be a better place if it was.