2013 NHL Playoff Predictions – Repeat edition!

For the past few years (2011, 2012) I have been posting my NHL playoff predictions before the start of the playoffs. Round by round, all the way to a cup champion. So, here we go with the 2013 edition.

First round

Western Conference

Blackhawks – Wild: Congrats Minnesota on making the playoffs on the last day of the year… No worries, you’ll be golfing in about 10 days. Chicago’s got this one.

Ducks – Red Wings: I don’t care for either of these teams. But, since both can’t lose in the 1st round, I’ll go with Detroit to take out Anaheim in this one.

Canucks – Sharks: Another series where I just don’t like either team. Because it’s fun to watch San Jose lose their minds each year in the playoffs, let’s go with Vancouver to advance.

Blues – Kings: It’s been 2 years since the Blues have beat the Kings even once. No chance they’ll find a way to do it 4 times in 2 weeks. Kings are moving on.

Eastern Conference

Penguins – Islanders: I like the Islanders. I think they are an up and coming team. But, the Pens are just going to be too much for them this year. Pens will make this a short series.

Canadians – Senators: Is this the first all-Canadian series in quite a while? I don’t know a lot about either team, so, gonna just pick based on seeding here. Go Habs! whatever.

Capitals – Rangers: I actually think this may be a really exciting series to watch. I’m on the fence about who wins this. Think I have to go with Lundqvist to carry the Rangers through.

Bruins – Toronto: I think the Bruins’ playoff experience is going to carry them past the Maple Leafs in this one.

Second Round

Western Conference

Blackhawks – Red Wings: End of the line for the Red Wings. Hawks got this.

Canucks – Kings: This should be another real good series. Kings moving on.

Eastern Conference

Penguins – Rangers: Crosby will be back by this time. Rangers won’t be able to contain him. Penguins go through.

Canadians – Bruins: Wouldn’t it be neat if the Canadians were the only Canadian team to make it to the third round? Too bad it’s not going to happen. I’m going black and yellow here.

Third Round

Western Conference

Blackhawks – Kings: Congrats to the Hawks for being the best team in hockey during the regular season. Now, let me introduce you to the Playoff version of the kings. Kings will upset the Blackhawks on their way back to the finals.

Eastern Conference

Penguins – Bruins: Short and sweet. Penguins moving on.

Cup Finals

The Kings are a better team this year than they were last year. And, last year I didn’t listen to my heart and pick the Kings to win it all. This year, I’m not making the same mistake. I’m going with the Kings to repeat.

So there ya go. That’s my picks. Think I’m spot on? Think I’m crazy? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

8150 days: A Los Angeles Kings fan tale

After purchasing some concert tickets from a broker/buddy he asks me, “Hey, I have an extra pair of tickets for tonight’s Kings game, do you want ‘em?” I had never been to a Kings game before, but wasn’t about to turn down free tickets. My wife Chris and I went to the game and watched the Kings beat the Quebec Nordiques 7-1. We had a blast and were both instantly hooked on hockey. The date was February 17th, 1990.

Over the years we have had the pleasure of being at several memorable Kings games:

  • The game outdoors at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas
  • The night they retired Luc Robitaille’s jersey
  • The game where Jari Kurri scored his 500th goal
  • The amazing night where Wayne Gretzky scored goal #802 (I played hockey on the Forum ice after that game, but that’s a story for another time)

All of those were pretty special to be at, but nothing can compare to what happened over a stretch of 30 days this post season.

Kings are in the 3rd round

For the first time in 19 years, the Kings had made it past the 2nd round of the playoffs. They had beat the #1 and #2 seeded teams in the West and we were starting to think that we were watching something really special. For as rocky as their regular season had been, the Kings looked damn good in the playoffs going 8-1 to that point.

John and Chris in Phoenix for game 1

The day before Mother’s day we were sitting on the couch watching game 7 of the Rangers vs Capitols series. The Kings were set to start the 3rd round on the road in Phoenix the next day. Chris says, “We should have looked for tickets in Phoenix.” [Side note, is there any question why I love this woman?] Both amazed at what she just said, and just as amazed that I didn’t think of it myself, I dashed upstairs to grab the laptop and started looking for tickets. There were still several seats available for both game 1 and 2, but when I looked at TicketExchange (a spot where season seat holders can sell their seats), I was blown away by 2 things; how many were available and how inexpensive they were. I bought a pair of seats 10 rows off the ice for game 1, we packed a bag and headed to Phoenix the next morning. The game was awesome. After the game we had dinner with a friend, crashed at the hotel and headed back to Vegas the next morning. While on the road back I told Chris, “If the series goes 5 games, we have to come back.”

Decent seats for game 5 in Phoenix

About a week later we were back on the couch watching game 4 of the series against Phoenix. After two periods the Kings were down 2-0 and it wasn’t looking good. I dashed back upstairs and grabbed the laptop again and headed back to TicketExchange. Amazingly I was able to get seats in the 5th row, on the goal line for less than I paid for the 10th row tickets for game 1. I made the purchase and then we made a pretty crazy decision. Since the west coast games start so early (5pm), we’d get out of the game early enough that we don’t really need to pay for a hotel. Instead, we’ll just leave right from the game and head back to Vegas. With that in mind, we didn’t book a hotel. It’s not like playoff games have the possibility of going in to multiple overtimes, right? Right?

When we were there for game 1 of the series, even though the Kings won, the crowd was pretty jovial. It was only 1 game, plus, this was the most successful season in Coyotes history. Well, in game 5, at 17:42 of the first overtime the Kings scored. It happend shortly (12 seconds) after a controversial hit by a Kings player that injured one of the Coyotes and that jovial attitude we experienced in game 1 was gone. The fans were pissed, but we were elated! The Kings were going to the Stanley Cup Final for only the 2nd time in team history.

The Stanley Cup Final

I was rooting for the New Jersey Devils to win their 3rd round series against the New York Rangers. I felt that both teams were going to be a tough match, but with the Rangers, they have a goalie who has the potential to go on a run and win a series by himself. That’s not to take anything away from Martin Brodeur, the Devils’ goalie who is one of the best in history. But, Marty is 40, and as great as he is still playing, I think it’s fair to say that his best days are behind him.

The Devils won their series and since they were the higher seeded player, Game 1 and 2 of the Finals would be played in New Jersey. As they had done in the 3 previous series, the Kings won the first 2 games on the road. They then came back to LA and won game 3. Since only 1 team in history has come back from being down 3 games to none in the Finals, at this point, as you would expect, LA’s bandwagon was overloaded and it was a foregone conclusion that the Kings were going to win game 4 as well.

I knew it was going to be expensive, but I went back to TicketExchange to see how painful it was going to be to get 2 tickets for game 4. I was prepared to spend a fair bit to get tickets, but when I saw that nosebleed seats were going for $1600 each, as much as I wanted to be there, I just couldn’t justify it.

Well, a funny thing happened in game 4. OK, it wasn’t funny at all. The Kings lost. The celebration had to be put on hold. But surely they were going to win game 5 in New Jersey, right? I spent a few minutes contemplating a trip to New Jersey to watch game 5. Sanity won out and I never even got to the point of looking up flights or seats for the game.

We interrupt your hockey for some family time

LA Kings Tattoo

Game 4 took place on a Wednesday. On Thursday morning we woke up early and drove to Los Angeles to attend our niece’s high school graduation. Our hotel was in Anaheim, the graduation was in Palos Verdes and dinner was in Beverly Hills. To say we did a lot of driving that day is an understatement. On Friday we got up late and I spent the day getting an LA Kings tattoo at House of Ink with my buddy, Scott. [Before we get to the tattoo shop, Scott tells me, "You're going to have to let me go first because if you go first, I can't guarantee we'd both get tattoos" - classic] The shop owner, Sean, is a HUGE Kings fan and was giving a 50% discount for any Kings tattoo. He also made an offer that if the Kings win the cup, he’s giving away free Stanley Cup tattoos. The story got picked up by nhl.com. Pretty cool. Saturday we drove back to Vegas and watched game 5 on the couch. Sadly, the Kings lost.

On Sunday, I decided I wanted to get a new Kings t-shirt to try and change the Kings’ luck. They played well in both games 4 and 5, but the bounces weren’t going their way. We drove all over Vegas and weren’t having any luck finding Kings gear. We then got a call from a friend who was in from out of town. We headed over to meet up with him for a late lunch. After lunch we walked around Town Square and found a shop that had Kings shirts. Excellent, we were set! We got home in the early evening and I sat down at my desk to do some work. Well, work quickly turned to reading every article I could about the Kings. Apparently, after the game 5 loss, people started ejecting from the Kings bandwagon at record speed. You would have thought that the series was over and the Devils had won it. Even though the Kings were up 3 games to 2, it didn’t seem like anybody was giving them a chance. I then read something very interesting… ticket prices for game 6 were drastically lower than for game 4. STOP EVERYTHING. Wait, what?

Before even looking at ticket prices, I tell Chris this news. Knowing that I have a HUGE amount of work backed up on my plate, she gives me that look. The one that says, “you know you are talking crazy right now, right?” I sit on the idea for a while, trying to focus on work. It’s not working. I headed over to TicketExchange once again. Fingers crossed, please let there be some affordable tickets available. Seat location didn’t really matter. In the building was my only requirement. The search results popped up, and there they were… tickets. Bunches of them. They weren’t cheap, mind you, but there were a handful of seats available for a price I was willing to pay. I haven’t hit the buy button yet. I tell Chris about it. She says, “Well, let me know what you decide and if I need to go to sleep so I can drive in the morning” [again, so awesome. She was willing to drive so that I could get some work done on the way.] – I made some calls to see if I could get one of my developers to take care of some work for me. He says he can. It’s settled then. I bought 2 tickets. After I stopped dancing around the room I decide that it would be best to drive to California immediately so I could get some sleep and then work from a coffee shop during the day. So, 90 minutes after having the idea to look for tickets and just barely more than 24 hours after getting home from Los Angeles, we were back in the truck and heading BACK to Cali.

Game Day

Without question, we are about to watch the biggest game in the 45 year history of the Kings franchise. If they lose game 6 and have to head back to New Jersey for game 7, well, I don’t like their chances.

Even though I was exhausted, I couldn’t sleep. I woke up way too early and headed to a coffee shop and got to work. Amazingly, I was able to concentrate and got a handful of things knocked off my list. I was shocked, really. But by noon I was realizing that I forgot to bring a jacket and LA was MUCH cooler than Vegas. I packed up the laptop, went and picked up Chris and we hit up the mall for a sweatshirt. Yes, a Kings sweatshirt, if you must know. By this time though, the lack of sleep was catching up. We headed back to my Sister’s house and I was able to take a nap before it was time to head to Staples Center for the game. Once again, the game was going to be an early start, so we decided to pack up all our stuff with the idea that we would head directly back to Vegas after the game. Ambitious, I know.

The Sandly Cup

We got an early start because we didn’t want to get caught on traffic and wanted to be able to find a place to park. We got to Staples Center 2 hours before game time and were able to get a great parking spot inside the Staples garage. I had all sorts of random thoughts about what might happen if the Kings win and the crowd starts to riot. It’s sad we even have to consider these things, but we do. So getting to park in the garage at least gave me a sense of security. Not to mention, it made for a pretty short walk to the arena. Since we got there so early, we spent some time walking around LA Live, which was pretty cool.

Holy shit, the Kings won the Stanley Cup!

Our seats were about 4 rows from the top of the arena, but we were right at center ice. Two rows below us were the press boxes where the TV announcers sit and call the game. What I didn’t know at the time and wish I had, Bob Miller and Jim Fox, the were sitting in the press boxes just behind us calling the game. It would have been awesome to at least give a wave to Bob and Jim. They are the voices of the Kings and they feel like old friends.

I’m not gonna lie, I was a nervous wreck. When the Kings hit the ice for warm up, just hearing the announcer say “Your Los Angeles Kings” in his familiar voice, I got a little choked up. Then again when they hit the ice for the game, during the national anthem, and when they scored goals 1, 2 and 3 in the first period. I was a mess. The entire time we were there I felt like I was seconds away from either vomiting, screaming or bursting in to tears. After the first period, the Kings were up 3-0. Knowing that anything could still happen, I turned to Chris and said “This game is NOT over.” In the second period the Kings made it 4-0 and I think at this point you could start to get the feeling that this was going to happen.

But wait! The Devils scored to make it 4-1. Then, right at the end of the 2nd period, the Kings took a penalty. I think the crowd was holding their breath during that penalty kill. A goal early in the 3rd period would have given the Devils a big boost and that would have made the 3rd period a nail-biter. I don’t know if I could have handled that. But, as they had done so many times this season and playoffs, they killed off the penalty and from that point on, the Kings took it to ‘em. They would go on to score 2 more goals late in the 3rd to send the crowd in to an absolute frenzy.

John and Chris at game 6 of the finals. About to watch the Kings lift the Stanley Cup

For the final few minutes of the game, the crowd stood and cheered. I have never heard a louder crowd. Not just at the end, but during most of the game. When the announcer would be announcing the goal scorers and assists, we could barely hear him. So it’s no wonder we could hardly hear when he said “One minute. One minute remaining in the 3rd period.” But you could tell when he said it because the volume went up again. Then, as the clock wound down, the crowd counted down the last 10 seconds. And when the clock struck 0.00, the buzzer sounded, the streamers and confetti came from the rafters, and tears filled my eyes once again. The Kings are the Stanley Cup Champions.

Exactly 8,150 days after watching our first Kings game, Chris and I got to watch the Kings lift the Stanley Cup.

What a journey.

Visiting enemy territory

It was the day before Mother’s Day and my wife and I were sitting on the couch watching the Ranger’s game on TV. Playoff hockey is always great, but this year is even better than usual because the L. A. Kings had beat their first two opponents and had advanced to play the Phoenix Coyotes in the third round, which was set to start the next day. During a break in the action my wife says, “We should have looked in to buying tickets to see the Kings play in Phoenix.” I leapt off the couch so fast, there was probably a cloud in the shape of my body left behind. I grabbed the laptop and was shopping for tickets. To my absolute amazement, there were still tickets available for the game. We purchased a pair and then tried to contain our excitement. No chance. We were positively giddy!

We woke up early and made the quick (4.5 hours) drive to Phoenix. We stopped for lunch, checked in to the hotel and then headed to the arena. Of course, 95% of the people were wearing white, and here we come strolling in wearing our Kings colors with pride.

Walking in, grabbing some concessions and making our way to our seats, there was some occasional light hearted banter with some Coyotes fans. The people seated around us, more of the same. But really, most of the Coyotes fans were in high spirits because it was the first time their team had ever made it this far in the playoffs. When the Kings scored, we stood and cheered. When the Coyotes scored, we sat quiet. When the fans chanted “Let’s go Coyotes”, we countered with “Go Kings Go”. The mood remained upbeat and light hearted, even after the zings won the game.

Fast forward a week. The Kings had won the first 3 games of the series. The Coyotes then took game four in Los Angeles. Game 5 was set for Tuesday, back in Phoenix. Not wanting to miss an opportunity to catch another playoff game, especially at the relatively inexpensive prices in Phoenix, we bought two tickets and headed out Tuesday morning.

Game 5 and the Kings are up 3 games to 1. One more win and they are headed to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in 19 years. This is going to be awesome!

We got to the game and had a very similar experience as the first game as we headed to our seats. The crowd around us this time, however, wasn’t in as great a mood as before. Their team was on the ropes, and I think everybody was feeling it. As the game went on and the lead changed hands and the crowd had a decidedly more aggressive feel. The game went in to overtime. The atmosphere was already a bit tense. The refs made a couple calls that went the Kings’ way, and the crowd wasn’t pleased.

With only a couple minutes left in the first overtime, the was a bit of a controversial play. One of the Kings hit one of the Coyotes and it injured their player. The crowd wanted a penalty to be called, and when there wasn’t one, the got even more vocal. The tension in the atmosphere shot up.

Then, as if scripted, 12 seconds later the Kings scored to win the series. We jumped up and cheered as some of the fans near us started heading for the exits. The Coyotes fans began booing and throwing things on to the ice. A Kings fan in our section ran down to the glass and started banging on it and a guy in our row (big dude, I might add) starts yelling at the Kings fan and ends up throwing a half-full water bottle at the guy. Not hard enough to injure anybody, but, to be honest, I wasn’t sure how quick or how high this was going to escalate. As the guys next to us passed us to leave, one of them says to my wife “Piece of shit.” (she took it as being directed at her, while I think he was pissed at the Kings player who had injured the Coyote player)

We watched the handshake line and the presentation of the Western Conference trophy. By then a fair amount of the Coyote fans had left. As we made it in to the concourse, the tension was still pretty high. Just before we made it out the door we saw a security guard talking to a fan who had blood running down his nose. He was obviously in some sort of altercation and was NOT pleased. We walked to our car with no incident, got in and made our way to the freeway and headed back home.

What a difference between the two games. These were the first two games I had ever attended where we were rooting for the visiting team. I didn’t put too much thought in to it as we bought our tickets. I can’t say that I ever felt like we were in danger, but at the same time, there was definitely a chance that it turned in to a situation.

We have plans to purchase tickets to see the Kings play during the regular season in Phoenix next season, but I will think twice before purchasing playoff tickets in the enemy’s building in the future.

2012 NHL Hockey Playoff Predictions

Last year I posted my 2011 NHL Hockey Playoff Predictions, and I ended up going 7-1 in the first round. I came up with Vancouver playing Boston in the finals, but my finals prediction ended up failing. Still, a pretty good showing.

With the playoffs getting set to start on Wednesday, it’s time to give my predictions for this year’s playoffs. Everything after the first round is a bit of a crapshoot because of the way the NHL reseeds the teams before the next round. But, whatever… here we go:

Round 1 – Western Conference

Los Angeles Kings (8) vs Vancouver Canucks (1)

Last year I voted with my head when I picked my beloved Kings to lose to the Sharks. Well, this year, I’m going with my heart. I think Jonathan Quick is going to steal this series for the Kings.

Winner: Kings in 6 games

San Jose Sharks (7) vs St Louis Blues (2)

If you would have told me at the beginning of the year that the Blues would have been within 1 game of winning the Presidents trophy as the best overall team in the league, I would have ruptured something laughing at you. But, here we are. All I can say is, good luck Sharks. Wait, I hate the Sharks. It’s going to be fun watching them live up to their annual playoff disappointment!

Winner: Blues in 5 games

Chicago Blackhawks (6) vs Phoenix Coyotes (3)

The Coyotes goalie has been INSANE recently and I have a feeling the Blackhawks are going to have a tough time getting pucks behind him. Never bet against a hot goalie.

Winner: Coyotes in 6 games

Detroit Red Wings (5) vs Nashville Predators (4)

I think these are the two teams that nobody in the west wants to play right now. It’s nice that only one of them will make it through to the second round. Nashville is a gritty team and their power play is one of the best. Detroit is just getting back a bunch of healthy players. This is the series to watch in the west in the first round. It’s going to be a great one.

Winner: Predators in 7 games

Round 1: Eastern Conference

Ottawa Senators (8) vs New York Rangers (1)

Last year I picked the Rangers in the #1 slot to get upset by Washington. It was my one error in last year’s opening round. I made the biggest mistake. I bet against the hot goalie. Dumb. This year is different though. Lundquist isn’t standing on his head like last season. I think this is going to be a really tough, high-scoring series. And, as much as I’d like to say we’re gonna see another 8 knock off a 1, I just can’t.

Winner: Rangers in 6 games

Washington Capitols (7) vs Boston Bruins (2)

Tim Thomas has kinda come back down to earth after his amazing season/playoffs last year and Washington finished the regular season strong after playing pretty mediocre most of the year. But sadly for the Caps, they’re goalie situation is a mess.

Winner: Bruins in 4 games

New Jersey Devils (6) vs Florida Panthers (3)

Congrats to the Panthers for finally making it to the playoffs. Enjoy the next few games. They’re the only ones you’ll be playing in the playoffs this year.

Winner: Devils in 4 games

Philadelphia Flyers (5) vs Pittsburg Penguins (4)

Holy crap, it’s like Christmas in April. If you don’t already have a DVR, go get one. Now. These teams hate each other. This series should be the most entertaining of the first round. Hell, maybe of the entire playoffs. I know there’s not usually many fights in the playoffs, but I’m gonna say this series breaks that rule. Oh, and for my prediction, I’m going with goalies on this one.

Winner: Penguins in 7 games (man, I hope it goes 7 games)

Round 2: Western Conference

Kings vs Blues

The Kings played the Blues really tough this year. But, I still think the task may be a bit too big this time around.

Winner: Blues in 6 games

Predators vs Coyotes

I think the Preds are gonna wear down the Coyotes and score a bunch on the power play.

Winner: Predators in 6 games

Round 2: Eastern Conference

Devils vs Rangers

This should be a pretty fun series to watch. In the end, the Rangers are gonna be too much for the Devils

Winner: Rangers in 5 games

Penguins vs Bruins

Let me just say, I think this series is going to decide who wins the cup this year. I’m going to go with the Penguins to light up Tim Thomas for a bunch of goals. If I’m wrong and the Bruins win this one, you can switch my picks to Bruins to repeat.

Winner: Penguins in 6 games

Western Conference: Round 3

Predators vs Blues

This should be a pretty good series. I think it’s going to be a really close one. I’m gonna go for the upset here.

Winner: Predators in 7 games

Eastern Conference: Round 3

Penguins vs Rangers

The media circus around this series should be an absolute blast! How about this for a great finish: game 7, overtime, in New York… Crosby scores and immediately points at Tortorella on the bench who’s head explodes.

Winner: Penguins in 7 games

Stanley Cup Finals

Predators vs Penguins

You may not think so, but I think this would be a really entertaining final. In the end, I’ll have to go with playoff experience to come through.

The Champs will be: Penguins in 6 games

So there ya go. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Oh, and if you have your own predictions, leave ‘em here, too.

 

2011 NHL Hockey Playoff Predictions

As a fan of the LA Kings, this has been a really entertaining season to watch. The Western Conference has basically been in ‘playoff mode’ for the past few months. For a while there were something like 8 teams separated by less than 10 points. Completely nerve-wracking as a fan. But also, completely awesome!

With the playoffs starting tomorrow, I wanted to put together a quick post about my predictions for this year’s playoffs.

Round 1: Western Conference

Vancouver Canucks (1) Vs Chicago Blackhawks (8)
It’s great that the defending champs squeaked in to the playoffs… The bad part is, they get to face the top team in the league. Sadly, the first round is all the Blackhawks are going to see.

Winner: Canucks in 5 games

San Jose Sharks (2) Vs Los Angeles Kings (7)
For the first time in history, 2 teams from California are playing each other in the playoffs. As much as I love the Kings, with their recent injuries and their recent lack of ability to score goals, I just can’t see them getting past San Jose. (I hope I’m wrong on this one!)

Winner: Sharks in 6 games

Detroit Red Wings (3) Vs Phoenix Coyotes (6)
The Coyotes are one of the most impressive teams this season. Finishing 6th in the West is a HUGE accomplishment considering they have only one player who scored 20 goals this season. Unfortunately for them, the Wings are a playoff hockey machine.

Winner: Red Wings in 6 games

Anaheim Ducks (4) Vs Nashville Predators (5)
With the Ducks in the playoffs, this marks the first time that all 3 California teams have made the playoffs in the same year. Both of these teams are tough, tough teams. I think these guys are going to beat each other up in a grueling series that I expect to see multiple overtime games.

Winner: Predators in 7 games

Round 1: Eastern Conference

Washington Capitals (1) Vs New York Rangers (8)
I think the Caps are a much better team this year than they were last year. They cut back on the run-and-gun style and play a much better brand of defensive hockey that should take them far… Unfortunately for them, I think they are going to have a difficult time scoring against the Rangers who’s goalie is an absolute monster. Upset time!

Winner: Rangers in 6 games

Philadelphia Flyers (2) Vs Buffalo Sabres (7)
This is a toughy. Philly is really strong, but in the goalie department, it’s hart to bet against Ryan Miller in Buffalo. If this was strictly a goalie game, I’d go with another upset here. But, I think Philly’s overall team is going to be too much for Buffalo to overcome.

Winner: Flyers in 6 games

Boston Bruins (3) Vs Montreal Canadiens (6)
How lucky are we that these two teams that hate each other SO MUCH [remember this hit?] get to play each other in the first round? Man I love playoff hockey! I think this is going to be the most entertaining series. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s going to be a very long one.

Winner: Bruins in 5 games

Pittsburgh Penguins (4) Vs Tampa Bay Lightning (5)
Sidney Crosby missed 41 games (half the season) and still lead the Penguins in scoring. Makes you wonder where this team would have finished had be been healthy all season. Unfortunately for the Penguins, I think the’re going to get the opportunity to go hang out with Crosby pretty soon.

Winner: Lightning in 6 games

Western Conference: Round 2

Vancouver Canucks (1) Vs Nashville Predators (5)
I’m predicting a few lopsided victories in this one.

Winner: Canucks in 5 games

San Jose Sharks (2) Vs Detroit Red Wings (3)
I think this is going to be the best series of the 2nd round. And, I think this series is going to send the Sharks faithful in to a deep depression. Once again, their regular season greatness is going to come up short.

Winner: Wings in 6 games

Eastern Conference: Round 2

Philadelphia Flyers (2) Vs New York Rangers (8)
This should be another entertaining series, but I think the Flyers are going to prove to be too much for the Rangers and their goalie just isn’t going to be able to save their bacon this time.

Winner: Flyers in 6 games

Boston Bruins (3) Vs Tampa Bay Lightning (5)
I’ve been rooting for both of these teams all year (I had both goalies on my fantasy team), so this is going to be a fun series to watch (for me, anyway). I think Tim Thomas is going to steal the show this time around.

Winner: Bruins in 5 games

Western Conference Semifinals

Vancouver Canucks (1) Vs Detroit Red Wings (3)
I think this is a series that could easily see some games with scores like 5-4, 6-3, etc…

Winner: Canucks in 6 games

Eastern Conference Semifinals

Philadelphia Flyers (2) Vs Boston Bruins (3)
This is another series I’m really looking forward to. I think this may be a really physical series with a lot of bumps and bruises. I’ll go out on a limb and say the home team wins every game in this series… except the last one.

Winner: Boston Bruins in 6 games

Stanley Cup Finals

Vancouver Canucks (1) Vs Boston Bruins (3)
This isn’t about playing it safe. This isn’t about just riding the top team in the league all the way through the playoffs. But, Vancouver is a pretty amazing team. This season they scored the most goals (262) and allowed the fewest goals (185) of any team in the league. Curse of the president’s trophy be damned!

Skating with the Cup: Vancouver Canucks in 5 games.

So that’s my predictions. Agree with me? Think I’m crazy. Leave a comment and tell me who YOU think is going to win.

A date with The Goonies

In order to maintain your geek cred, there are a number of movies that are required viewing. The list is really long and won’t even begin to list them all here. One movie that most geeks will agree is on the list would be The Goonies. I am a tad bit embarrassed to say that I have never seen it. I feel shame.

I am not sure how I missed seeing it when it came out. But after that, it somehow had always slipped through the cracks. Last year when we had our 24 hours of movies marathon, Todd was going to bring it over, but got sick and missed the marathon. We scheduled another movie marathon earlier this year, but it got cancelled and has yet to be rescheduled. So, it’s not for a lack of trying, it just hasn’t happened. But that is about to change.

Thursday morning I received an email from Netflix letting me know that they had received the last movie I had sent back. About an hour later I received another email informing me that The Goonies is on the way. Since I had a flight to Chicago scheduled for Friday afternoon, I knew I wouldn’t be seeing the movie until I returned on Sunday evening. But then, something funny happened. Ryan sent the following tweet:

Celebrating 25 Years of The Goonies

So, it seems that my destiny was to see The Goonies for the first time on the 25th anniversary of its release. I have been looking forward to seeing it for a long time, but one more day won’t kill me.

See ya tomorrow, Goonies.

Membership has its privileges: beer

When you live in Las Vegas, you tend to take some things for granted. Like having 24-hour access to world class dining and entertainment. The idea of “last call” is completely foreign to us. But on a recent trip to Texas, I ran in to something I had never had to deal with before; a dry county.

I am a big fan of several bands who frequently play in Texas. So as soon as we booked our trip, the next thing I did was check the tour schedules for the bands. At first I was thrilled when I found out all but one of the bands was playing in Texas the week I would be there. But then geography class came rushing back and I realized that “in Texas” didn’t mean “close to where I will be in Texas.” Luckily, Mickey and the Motorcars were going to be playing in Denton which was only 90 minutes away. So we headed out early and made our way to the Rockin Rodeo.

After stopping for some awesome BBQ at Rudy’s, we made our way to the bar, arriving at 8:00 exactly. The sign says the doors open at 8, and I’m surprised to find there is nobody there. The doors are locked and we have to wait about 10 minutes for somebody to finally open them.

We are greeted by the cashier. She asks for our IDs and $10 for the cover charge. Todd is first to hand her his ID. She swipes it in a machine, prints out a receipt and asks Todd to fill in his name, address and phone number. As he is filling it out, it dawns on him to ask, since we are paying cash, why would she need this information. She goes on to explain the following:

“This is a dry county, so in order for us to be able to sell alcohol, we are designated as a private club and to enter you need to become a member.”

OK, this isn’t the first time I have seen places bend rules to fit their needs. Hell, we have laws in Vegas that say you can’t smoke in places that serve food, but I know a dozen places where you could still ask your waitress for an ashtray. Even still, I found it entertaining that they were dancing their way through this loophole.

We were probably the only people in the club for the next 20-30 minutes. It finally started to fill up an hour or so later, and the opening band hit the stage. We noticed that several of the patrons had writing on the back of their hands. In big black marker it said “X-18″. We found out that the club isn’t restrict to 21 and over. People who are “of age” get a fluorescent green wristbands that let’s the bartender know it’s cool to sell you beer. While the youngsters get a marking that will last through a week of showers. I had to laugh when I saw one of these under-aged guys drinking a beer using the hand with the huge marking. I would think he would want to stuff that hand I’m his pocket while drinking the beer to keep from getting thrown out…

One other oddity about the club were the restrooms. I have been to sporting events were the restrooms have a trough that dudes line up at to take a leak shoulder-to-shoulder. But, if a place goes to the trouble to install urinals, I have become accustomed to having dividers between them. Not here.

The show was great and the place, oddities and all, was really pretty cool. I could definitely see myself going to another show there. Why not, I am already a member!

Viva Elvis review

viva-elvis

On New Year’s Eve we had the chance to go check out the latest Cirque Du Soleil show, Viva Elvis. New Year’s Eve isn’t a day I would normally head down to the Las Vegas Strip since they close off the streets around 6:30 when the mayhem starts to happen. But, these tickets were for the 4:00pm show, so we figured we could high-tail it out of there and be back home long before the crazyness began. Lucky for us, that is exactly how it happened!

We left the house extra early since we were going to a brand new casino, on the strip, on New Year’s Eve. We figured we’d need extra time, and boy were we right. It took us over an hour to get from our house in to the valet parking at Aria. This drive should normally take us no more than 25 minutes. Once we were parked we headed inside. The new casino is gorgeous, of course. We made our way to the theater and quickly found our seats in the balcony.

A few minutes before the show started, one of the characters from the show walks through the crowd handing out prizes for correctly answering an Elvis trivia question, singing like Elvis or for giving your best Elvis lip curl. The fan interaction is always fun and I’m glad that aspect got added in to the show.

I’m not going to dissect the entire show, but I do have some constructive criticism I’d like to share:

First up, the stage/seating. In most of the Cirque shows, the stage itself plays a pretty big part in the show. If you have ever seen ‘O’, Mystere, Love or especially Ka, you know what I’m talking about. In some of the shows the people sit on all sides of the stage, in others the stage moves and contorts to change the dynamic of a scene. In Viva Elvis there are a few times where the stage has sections that raise or lower, but for the most part it’s flat and the audience is sitting all on one side like you were seeing a movie.

Next up, the dancing. If you ask people who have never seen but only heard about a Cirque show what they are all about, they’ll most likely tell you about the amazing acrobatics. This show has a couple acrobatic segments, but there are far more dance sequences than there are acrobatics. Not trying to take anything away from the amazing trampoline segment, but that’s a pretty small portion of the show compared to how many times you’ll see formations of dancers shaking their stuff. I’m not saying they aren’t good at it. But throw in some back flips or something. :)

And finally, the narration. Most of the Cirque shows tell a story or take you on a journey, but, they don’t necessarily do it with spoken word. They do it with creativity. In Viva Elvis they use an actor playing the part of Col. Tom Parker, Elvis’ manager. He walks in and out of scenes throughout the show walking you through the life of Elvis. I’ve always thought that Cirque shows were meant to be enjoyed universally no matter what language you spoke.

I certainly don’t mean to bash the show. We both enjoyed it and there are definitely some bright spots to be found. For example, the two drummers in the show are absolutely fantastic. The trampoline scene, like I said before, is great. I could have watched those performers for hours! They also have some great footage of Elvis that they intertwine with the show nicely.

I know the show is new and I write this hoping that they see it (everybody reads my blog, right?) and can make some edits to the show to make it awesome. It has a good base, it just needs some polish.

In my best Elvis voice, ‘Thank you very much.’

2009 – a year in photos

2009 was an awesome year for me. I did a ton of traveling, I met dozens and dozens of really great people, I learned a ton of new stuff and, in general, I had a really great time. When I sat down to try and write a recap, the only way I could really remember all the cool things I did was to go back through my blog archives and my flickr feed. Photos seemed like a lot more fun, so here’s a recap of 2009… with photos.

January – WordCamp Las Vegas

I was absolutely blown away be the response I got from putting together WordCamp Las Vegas. That smirk on my face is definitely me thinking, “Did I really just pull this off? Yeah, I think you did.” The success of that event is something that I’m very proud of and the list of people I would need to thank for their support would take too long so I’ll just say a collective ‘thanks’!

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January – Beer ‘n Blog

One of the best parts of running WordCamp was sparking the interest of a group of Las Vegas bloggers to get together on a weekly basis to talk tech over a couple pints. I think this was taken at the first event. We had nearly 50 people in attendance. What a blast!

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February – Twestival Las Vegas

One of the great things about social media is the ability to bring people together offline. When you tell people that they can come out and have some drinks and all the money goes to charity, well, I’d call that a no-brainer.

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February – Photo Safari Noobs

Take 4 guys, throw them and all their camera gear in an FJ Cruiser and point them towards Denver. Stop everywhere along the way that looked like it might make for an interesting photograph. That’s exactly what we did. It. Was. Awesome.

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February – WordCamp Denver

WordCamp was the thinly veiled disguise that we used in order to sneak away for the Photo Safari trip. Here we are at lunch with Micah Baldwin, Ben Huh, Austin and Jeanna  during a break at WordCamp. The lady in the foreground has kicked Todd out of his seat so she could get a photo with Micah because he’s awesome. Yes, we made fun of him for it.

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March – Redondo Beach

My family has owned and operated a fish market called Captain Kidd’s in Redondo Beach for the past 30+ years. I grew up working there and even after 10 years of eating there 5 days a week, it’s still my favorite place to eat. This is us with 4 generations of our family getting together for some seafood.

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April – WordCamp Reno-Tahoe

Yeah, I know. This isn’t a photo. But, it WAS the first time I got to stick a badge on my website that said I was speaking at an event. WordCamp Reno was one of my first public speaking events. I wasn’t as nervous as I was expecting to be. I am very appreciative of Colin Loretz for the invite to to speak.

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May – WordCamp San Francisco

The granddaddy of them all. WordCamp San Francisco. There were nearly 800 people at that event! It was so big that there were people there I was TRYING to find and wasn’t able to. That’s a pretty big event in my book. While we were there we took some time to play the part of tourists. We went to Alcatraz and the Height/Ashbury district, but can you believe that we didn’t get to see the Golden Gate Bridge? Next year, I guess…

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June – Paxton graduates

One of the proudest days of my life, that was. Watching my Son cross that stage as they called is name and handing him his diploma. That’s something I never did. I dropped out of school long before graduating. I don’t regret the decision I made all those years ago, but, I am sorry that my parents didn’t get to experience what I got to experience that day.

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July – Whuffaoke in a trailer park

When Tara Hunt decided to move cross country, she didn’t just pack her stuff and drive. No, she sent her stuff with some movers and she drove a Winnebego from one side of the country to the other stopping at very spots to bring karaoke to the masses. Thanks to some last minute changes of plan, we ended up singing karaoke in the RV park at Circus Circus in 115 degree heat. As crazy as that all sounds, we had a great, great time!

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September – Breakfast in Utah

Have you ever asked your spouse “Where would you like to go for breakfast tomorrow?” and have
her respond with a restaurant in a different state? Me, too. One Friday night we decided that having breakfast just outside of Zion in Utah sounded like a good idea. We got up early, threw the kids in the car and off we went. The best part is, we didn’t even go to Zion. We had breakfast and basically turned around and came home. This was a bench a stopped to photograph on the way back out of town.

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September – WordCamp LA

Lots of travel this month. We headed back to Los Angeles for WordCamp. We all crashed at my sister’s house and then spent Saturday on the Loyola Marymount campus which was really nice. The night before we introduced some friends to the family restaurant where we BS’d for hours. This photo was taken during Shayne’s presentation a few hours before I spoke at the event. I had plenty of time to get him back… but I’d save that for later…

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September – WordCamp Portland

Since moving to Las Vegas, I have said many times that I don’t think I could live anywhere else. Portland changed my mind on that one. I instantly felt like I fit in perfectly with the tech scene they have up there. When I mentioned that to some people back here in Vegas they reminded me that the sun comes out only a couple times all year up there… That may be an issue since I hate being cold… The move is currently on hold. This is a shot of the amazing streaming video that Portland provided. From what I was told, this was the best live feed of any WordCamp to date. Kudos to them!

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October – BlogWorld / WordCamp Las Vegas

Running WordCamp as part of BlogWorld was certainly not as smooth as I would have liked it to have been. But, for all the troubles, there were some really great sessions that came out of that event. One other great thing about the event was that Shayne was planning on attending. Time to plot my revenge. The shot below is a 9 foot tall, 8 foot wide mural we made out of Shayne’s avatar. We hung it on the wall in our photo studio and then had him drop by for a tour.

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November – WordCamp Phoenix / New York

Many months earlier I was offered the opportunity to speak at WordCamp Phoenix. I gladly accepted. A couple months later I was invited to speak at WordCamp New York. I accepted that, too. It wasn’t until I was booking airline flights that I realized these two events were on back to back days… nearly 3000 miles apart. I made both events but vowed to check calendars BEFORE agreeing to future events. And here’s a shot of the store directly next to the hotel we stayed at in New York.

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November – Jamaica

The internet access was expensive and terrible so we didn’t bother using it. The resort offered a bunch of activities but we didn’t take part in any of them. For the first time in I can’t begin to think how long, I did nothing. To borrow a line from the movie Office Space, “I did absolutely nothing, and it was everything that I thought it could be.” Even though we took the trip over the Thanksgiving holiday, this trip was in honor of my wife’s and my 20th wedding anniversary.

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December – Chicago

My company was kind enough to send me to Chicago for a conference. I can’t really blame them that the conference was scheduled for December in Chicago. I want to blame somebody, though. Look at that photo above… Now, look at the photo below. These were taken only about 10 days apart. This just isn’t right, folks. For the record, the day I left Chicago it was 4 degrees with a –18 wind-chill factor. :-/

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December – Holiday party

For the past couple years my company has really nailed the holiday party! No sit-down dinner needed. Just some snacks and an open bar at a club in one of the Las Vegas casinos. This year was at the Palms. We were responsible adults and rented ourselves a room so we wouldn’t have to try to drive. That turned out to be a good thing since there are parts of the evening that I can barely remember. That’s when you wake up and dread the “You were tagged in a photo on Facebook” notices… Thankfully, we didn’t have that issue… this time. ;)

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I’ve already got my camera ready to document 2010 as it unfolds!

Happy New Year!

- John

Blog World Expo: The Party Edition

One of the greatest parts of any conference is the after parties. Have your conference in a town like Las Vegas and it’s not hard to imagine that the amount of parties available to you is mind boggling. We definitely did our share of partying, too!

Here’s what our weekend looked like:

Wednesday Night
Mural of ShayneWe had friends arrive on Wednesday, so after I went to the Track Leader Orientation, we all headed out for dinner and a nice long chat. We followed that up by surprising Shayne with a 8′ x 9′ mural of his Twitter avatar in our photo studio. If you ever want to make a mural yourself, let me tell you that this was 120 sheets of paper and 4.5 hours of cutting/taping/hanging. But it was worth it!

Thursday night
Ted Murphy & John HawkinsThis was the first official day of Blog World Expo. I spent a few hours at the convention center, but mainly just to meet up with and say hello to a few friends in from out of town. The fun began around 5:30 when we met up at Bar Louie for our weekly Beer n Blog meetup that was set to kick off the WordCamp weekend. We had a turnout of about 60 people including a few people I had beer really looking forward to meeting; TechnoSailor (Aaron Brazell) and Ted Murphy from Izea (pictured with me here). Both of which, as expected turned out to be really nice guys. After spending 4 hours downing Blue Moons with the group, we headed home to rest up for the marathon day we expected on Friday.

Friday Night
Jeep hitting beam in parking lotAfter a full day at WordCamp/Blog World, we headed out to the Hard Rock Hotel. You know it’s going to be a good night when you are pulling in to the parking garage and the guy in front of you is towing a Jeep on a flat bed and you get to watch the Jeep hit the “7′ clearance” sign followed by the next 3 concrete beams. Ahh, welcome to Vegas. (sorry the photo isn’t better on this one!)

Once inside the Hard Rock, we headed to the poker room where Blogs With Balls crew had organized a charity poker tournament for Ante Up For Africa. Pro poker player Annie Duke co-hosted the event and brought along a dozen big name poker pros to play in the tournament as well. Each table had 1 pro poker player and 1 pro blogger. They had put bounties on each of the pro bloggers, so if you knocked them out of the tournament you’d win a gift basket. I’m happy to say I knocked out our table pro and took home 7 xBox 360 sports games! We had a great time it was all for a great cause! HUGE thanks to Dan Levy for getting me and my friends in to the tourney and for putting on such an awesome event! Check out the video on YouTube.

Saturday Night
After WordCamp/BlogWorld ended it was time to strap on the party boots just one more time before sending everybody home. We started off hitting up the official BlogWorldExpo BBQ that went on poolside at the Hilton. They had an open bar and a HUGE spread of great food. The party was well attended by tons of speakers from BlogWorld which was nice since I was busy running WordCamp all weekend, I wasn’t able to chat with many of them during the previous 2 days. I really enjoyed getting to chat with Darren Rowse in person since I’ve been reading his blogs for such a long time. It’s was also nice to be able to chat face-to-face with people I don’t get to see in person too often like Jim Kukral, Aaron Hockley, Shayne Sanderson, Austin Passy, Darin Hardy and at least a dozen others.

Aaron Brazell & Jeremy Wright signing KaraokeOnce the BBQ was over we had to make a tough decision between two events that both sounded like a lot of fun. In the end we opted for the one that required zero driving. We walked inside the Hilton and headed over to the spot where they were doing #TechKaraoke. Nobody from our group sang, but we amused ourselves by watching the drunk geeks singing (I use that term loosely) and by having a “Fake ReTweet war”. Don’t know what that is? Well, the bar had a large screen (10′ x 10′ -ish) where they were showing Twitter messages that people had tagged with #bwe09. So, what you do is write up a tweet in the form of a retweet of your buddy. For example:

RT @my_buddy: Wow, I sure hope this rash goes away! Another great time in Vegas! #bwe09

This would then scroll across the screen and we would laugh our heads off. There is nothing like childish humor plus alcohol to make for an incredibly fun evening!

After a few hours of Karaoke and fake tweets, it was time to head back home and spend Sunday resting up! We were a tired crew after 4 long days and nights. But, we are looking forward to doing it all again next year!