The Morning Skate, Aug. 8: Back to work folks
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Right? Back to work?
Or are you one of the lucky ones?
Welcome back to the work week if so. Congratulations on your extended holiday otherwise.
Let’s get skating.
The Home Team
I helped a guy out.
Daniel Wagner is on vacation this week with his family. To help fill the content hole over at his Famous Sports Blog, he enlisted me and a few others to pick all-time Canucks teams.
Here’s part one.
(If all-time Canucks rings a bell…hey remember Canucks 101?)
— Profile here of Petrus Palmu from the official IIHF site.
“My goals were to learn something every day and work hard,” Palmu told IIHF.com after the Canucks Summer Showdown Top Prospects Game at Rogers Arena. “I think I did a good job. This time of the summer, your workouts are going hard for summer training. It was nice to have one week to be on the ice with the team. It was fun.”
— Hey look, a photo of Michael Garteig in summer goalie camp:
— The Canucks won’t appear on NBC this season. (No surprise there.)
— Calm down, he’s from here:
Whitecaps getting rolling?
So the Rapids aren’t good.
Just look how high the Whitecaps got on attack on Saturday:
That’s a sign of a back line under siege.
But as I note in my piece today, they’re looking a lot better on attack. They’re still chasing quality, not quantity, and that’s a difficult approach all things considered, but given everything so far they’ve found themselves in a decent spot.
They’ve got this far and were under powered much of the way. Now they’re far better powered and you’d be ok placing high expectations on the rest of the season.
One key cog looks to be, finally, Tony Tchani: as Farhan Devji noted on Sunday, the big Cameroonian has put up four fantastic passing performances in recent weeks.
I’d wager Yordy Reyna has something to do with this.
Think you have it tough?
Jonathan Tanenwald tells the story of a Philadelphia Union player who seen a lot in his life.
This is Haris Medunjanin:
“My mother, she almost died,” he said. “I didn’t even think.”
A few moments later, it dawned on him that something bad might happen. But what actually happened was the exact opposite.
“This guy told me, ‘Never pick up a gun. Never do something stupid. Try to think positively. Try to do some sports,’ ” Medunjanin said.
MLS travel does suck
How long until Major League Soccer gets their teams on charters? Following last week’s big Adidas deal, surely they can’t be far away.
Last year, for instance, the Whitecaps made 16 flights involving connections.
Saves are stupid
Three cheers!
Prices for guys with (seemingly) big save totals didn’t command huge prices, Nate Silver notes. (I know Silver is busy with his site and writing about politics, but I do hope we can get him on baseball more often.)
No, guys like Troy Percival just don’t have the same value anymore.
Percival was the kind of guy who only ever showed up in the ninth inning, with a save on the line.
Kenley Jansen might have been used like that once upon a time, but now he’s being used more like an old-school fireman.
The Ringer’s Michael Baumann wrote about the revolution way back in April.
What have you done with yourself?
That’s a rhetorical. It’s not pointed at dear JPat.
Sid the Kid is a wonder still.
Some kind of anniversary
Incredible photo:
Incredible response:
From the Boston Globe that day:
Jim Rice acted quickly. He darted to the railing and the child was passed into his arms. Rice carried the youngster through the dugout runway, into the Red Sox clubhouse and into the trainer’s room. Red Sox physician Dr. Arthur Pappas, who’d been watching from his customary box seat, beat Rice to the trainer’s room, called Children’s Hospital and ordered an ambulance. Pappas estimated that the child was in the ambulance less than two minutes after being hit.
According to Pappas, Keane was conscious when he left Fenway. Officials at Children’s Hospital reported that Keane suffered a laceration over the left eye and a fractured skull, but was in “good condition.”
Pappas said he didn’t think the injury was life-threatening, but added, “The big problem now is how much bleeding and swelling will occur over the next few hours,” said Pappas.
Incredible.
The Last Lap
— The Commonwealth Games are next spring (or fall in Australia).
— This is how you go out:
— Lots of kind words in memory of Don Baylor and Darren Daulton this weekend.
— This two will really be linked forever:
— Make every day your birthday:
Happy Tuesday everyone!
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