Grand Rereopening

Good news from Tom Gulitti, David Clarkson should be returning to the lineup on Tuesday. To celebrate ClarksonNation has built a new bank. We eagerly await our emporer-god to cash some checks, make some deposits, and bail out the Devils from their preolympic recession.

D Is For Doc

I've heard that some fans don't like Doc Emrick on NBC. Understandable, especially since he has to work with Pierre (didn't I make a good point, Edzo?) McGuire. But to get a true appreciation for Doc, you have to observe him in his natural setting:

Now how often on NBC hockey coverage does somebody sing a Sesame Street song? Yeah, Doc, I don't know where Chico was going with that either. My only guess is that the shot went top shelf where you hide the cookies?

Not that NBC is all bad. Games on the peacock are the only ones I get in HD, so they got that going for them.

Oh, and nice assist by that new guy wearing 17. I hear he's pretty good.

"Merry Christmas!” Indeed!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!


That is all.

Missing the Party

I can't believe it. When were you planning on telling me? I just found out that you are having a Viewing Party for tomorrow nights game against the Predators. I have other obligations and it's too late to do anything about it. You're almost as bad as my family who would call to see if I'm coming over to Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving dinner after they already carved the turkey. Now I don't want to hear your excuses, I've heard them all before. "We didn't think you would want to drive the 800 miles. I lost my phone so I didn't have your number. I thought so and so told you. It's not you, it's us."

I'm not bitter though. I sincerely hope you have a fabulous party and everyone enjoys themselves. Just raise a toast to me, who won't even be able to catch the game on Center Ice as I'll be stuck in the second row of section 105.

No, Mr. Lamoriello, Thank You

My sincerest congratulations to Lou Lamoriello for being inducted into the Hockey Hall Of Fame.
Just in case you haven't seen or read these yet, here are some links:
Conference call
Induction speech
Spotlight by Tom Gulitti
Brodeur's thoughts

Lou Lamoriello is so humble and classy that he thanks everybody from Gary Bettman to his parents to the fans. Well as a fan, I just want to say, thank you. No matter if I'm going to a game at the friendly confines of the old CAA or the Prudential Center, a more neutral place like Hershey, or even hostile territory like Philadelphia, I can don a red, black, and white sweater with the NJ on the crest with pride.

Can It Still Be Called a Clarkaround?

Last year the Ookies made a very bold prediction:

It’ll be kickstarted by a coast-to-coast wraparound goal against the
Hurricanes. Mark our words. (Seriously, the Devils play the Canes on January 6.
You can mark it on your calendar in pen: Clarkson will get the goal of the year
in that game.)

So I went to the archives to see how that turned out. Not very well I'm afraid. Clarkson did not score a goal at all. The only marks he got on the score sheet were a 2:00 hooking penalty and a secondary assist on a too little/too late goal. I couldn't just leave it at that so I decided to watch every goal that Clarkson scored last season (regular and postseason) on nhl.tv and take some notes.

Let's toss out the statbities:
When in the game was Clarkson scoring: 10 goals in the 1rst period, 5 in the 2nd, 4 in the 3rd, 0 in OT.

How was he scoring: Slap shots-3, wrist shots-7 *, deflections-5, garbage(knocking in loose pucks/rebounds in and around the crease)-4, wraparounds-0.


That's right ladies and gents, there was not a single Clarkaround scored at all last season. I can assure you that it wasn't because there were not any attempts. If my memory serves me correctly, I think somebody (Zubrus?) scored a goal off of a rebound from a Clarkaround attempt. I can also assure you that Clarkson did not score anything that would fall in the "goal of the year" category. But what would be David's best goal of the year? After careful consideration, I would say it was this one:


Just kidding, that would be filed under: easiest goal. I'm the only one who would have wiffed on that gift. But now, without any further adieu, I give you my countdown of Clarksons top five goals of the 2008-09 season.


#5 - 11/15/08 vs Washington



#4 - 4/21/09 vs Carolina



#3 - 2/15/09 vs San Jose



#2 - 10/22/08 vs Dallas



#1 -12/17/08 vs Buffalo (GWG)



*I counted this controversial goal as a wrister even though it was fanned on.

Hat tip to John Fischer for his review of the previews that sent me to the quoted Interchangeable Parts Blog archive.

Braaaaaains

To pass the time during the hockeyless summer I have been playing a lot of video games. The newest game that I have become addicted to is Call of Duty: World at War. When it comes to bang for your buck, this game ranks in my top three. There is the single player campaign, cooperative campaign (play through the missions with others online or split screen, and many different kinds of online team based games (team death match, capture the flag, domination, etc.). It's your basic first person shooter set in the WWII era but the sick bastards at Activision included another type of game play that should be illegal in 34 states, Zombie Mode. I don't want to sound like I am bashing the game, in fact, this is a huge compliment. This is the first video game that has actually scared me. Between the night time setting, crazy glowing zombie eyes, and the perfectly matched background music, the zombie mode is just plain eerie. You start off in a room/building with all of the windows boarded up and your objective is to hold off the zombies for as long as you can.

Video Games Call of Duty World at War Zombies

XBox 360 Playstation 3 Nintendo Wii

Notice how the player in the video keeps frantically running back and forth to all of the windows. The very first time that I played zombie mode, I was at home by myself and playing solo. I actually jumped in my seat and probably screamed like a little girl when I turned from a window to see a zombie right behind me.

This mode also has multi player so that you can play with up to three other people, but it doesn't reduce the eerie factor by much. No matter how well you all play as a team, sooner or later, they are going to get you. The claw-like tally marks that appear at the bottom left of the screen tell you what round you are on. Each round the number of zombies increases and they get faster and tougher to kill stop.

Mad props to the programmers of Call of Duty. Zombie mode may only be a "mini game", but it's still ten times better/scarier than any other zombie type game I've ever played.