Well, after skipping the second weekend of this month of January for what turned out to be just about nothing, weather-wise, despite the initial forecasts, I headed off to New Haven, CT during what turned out to be an even weirder winter weather weekend, with what basically amounted to the "kitchen sink" of winter weather being thrown at the region; this time, it was St. Lawrence, located just about as far upstate in New York as possible before reaching Ontario, traveling to New Haven to face Yale, in a game that honestly should have been postponed, at least in my opinion, to avoid the weather, but I digress...
The opening period actually seemed fairly even, given St. Lawrence's struggles entering the game, with illnesses and injuries sidelining over half the team's roster, but, again, you wouldn't know that from the way the first 20 minutes went, as both teams pretty much "traded" hits and shots on goal, including a shorthanded breakaway by one of St. Lawrence's players a few minutes into the game that ended up getting stopped, only for Yale to get a pair of those later in the period, which also got stopped, although, again, overall, the period went just about as even as possible, all things considered, with St. Lawrence getting a trio of "point blank" chances stopped in the final seconds to make the first period end in a scoreless fashion despite all those late chances!
The next period, though, seemed to see St. Lawrence almost moving on "eggshells", as the same skaters ended up having to take more shifts than usual to make up for the aforementioned injuries, and, indeed, Yale would take advantage of that situation twice, only about a couple of minutes apart, to take a 2-0 lead, and actually hold St. Lawrence without any shots for long stretches, as Yale would not only keep its lead, but also hold a double-digit shots on goal advantage then, to the tune of 25-5 in the middle frame alone; again, along with suddenly having taken a ginormous "shots" lead, Yale led 2-0 after two periods!
After that, though, despite Yale extending its lead to 3-0 a few minutes into the third period, it seemed as if Yale then decided to "sit back" on defense, and, sure enough, St. Lawrence would convert not just once, but twice at different points within the final 20 minutes to suddenly make what had previously been headed for a rout in favor of Yale into a one-goal (3-2) game; St. Lawrence couldn't convert with the extra man near the end of the period, though, and Yale would escape in the end with a 3-2 win!
(...also, if you ever find yourself in New Haven in the future, especially during the summer months, then this seems like just the place for you!)
(soccer news)
Last night, as mentioned, I returned to MSG, this time to catch Michigan and Penn State in action in the latest annual Big 10 conference basketball/hockey doubleheader there (Illinois defeated Maryland in this year's basketball game, 78-67); this game was just plain weird, though, as you'll notice upon getting through this latest recap! Before that, though, I'll mention that my usual "Penn Station 'people-watching'" sessions that I've ended up engaging in before just about all the games I've attended there these past few years in order to sort of "gauge the crowd", so to speak, produced surprisingly few "results" this time around, as I noticed just about nobody sporting apparel from either school involved in said game; along with Michigan and Penn State both facing each other once again at MSG, along with each of them having lost to Cornell there in different years, the game also gave each team a turn with the "designated home team" distinction, which I've personally always considered just plain dumb, and, so, if it were up to me, that whole "designation" would just plain not exist in supposedly "neutral-site" games such as, you know, Big 10 conference teams traveling to MSG...
Last night, as mentioned, I returned to MSG, this time to catch Michigan and Penn State in action in the latest annual Big 10 conference basketball/hockey doubleheader there (Illinois defeated Maryland in this year's basketball game, 78-67); this game was just plain weird, though, as you'll notice upon getting through this latest recap! Before that, though, I'll mention that my usual "Penn Station 'people-watching'" sessions that I've ended up engaging in before just about all the games I've attended there these past few years in order to sort of "gauge the crowd", so to speak, produced surprisingly few "results" this time around, as I noticed just about nobody sporting apparel from either school involved in said game; along with Michigan and Penn State both facing each other once again at MSG, along with each of them having lost to Cornell there in different years, the game also gave each team a turn with the "designated home team" distinction, which I've personally always considered just plain dumb, and, so, if it were up to me, that whole "designation" would just plain not exist in supposedly "neutral-site" games such as, you know, Big 10 conference teams traveling to MSG...
The story of the first 20 minutes of the game, at least, involved Michigan (A) more than doubly out-shooting Penn State, yet (B) constantly turning the puck over, and, surely, even as Michigan put forth what would end up being a 22-8 shots on goal advantage after 20, Penn State jumped out to a 3-0 "scoreboard" lead at the same time, courtesy of, again, many turnovers, in order: (1-0) one deep in one of the corners next to the Michigan net to open the scoring; (2-0) a poke check leading to a breakaway to double the lead for Penn State; (3-0) just after the expiration of the only penalty of the period, a little bit of "springing" of the player who had just left the penalty box, leading to a 2-against-1 opportunity to further extend the Penn State lead after the opening period, in which, again, Michigan more than doubled Penn State's shot totals!
Early on after that intermission, though, things only ended up getting even more lopsided, as another Michigan turnover led to another Penn State goal to make it a four-goal lead then - well, alright, maybe it was a bit more of a "deflection" then, but, either way, Penn State ended up taking advantage to make it 4-0, although Michigan would finally get on the scoreboard only about a minute later, capitalizing on a rebound to make it 4-1; Penn State would get a shorthanded goal about halfway through the game, courtesy of, you guessed it, yet another turnover, that time when Michigan had the "man advantage", of all situations, to extend the Penn State lead back to four, at 5-1, and, along with that scoreline, Penn State would end the period having cut considerably into Michigan's shots on goal advantage!
Michigan returned things to a three-goal game, at 5-2, on another "point-blank" opportunity, but, after that, the game ended up just slowing to a crawl, as, by then, Penn State kept getting its chances stopped by Michigan's backup goalkeeper, and Michigan kept shooting high and wide of the net more often than not, along with having many passes just skip past sticks and out of its offensive zone; the early Michigan goal would end up holding the rest of the period, meaning that Penn State would end up leaving MSG this time having won, 5-2!
Penn State highlights/recap
In a bit more of a "historical" sense now, I e-mailed MSG a few days ago asking why the venue has hosted just about everything but the NCAA national hockey tournament:
"Advance apologies if I happen to be e-mailing the wrong e-mail address for these types of things, since this is the only "general" address I could find - I've attended quite a few events at "the Garden" myself, particularly these past few years (2016 FDNY-NYPD game first; Cornell v. Harvard last Thanksgiving weekend most recently; Michigan v. Penn State this upcoming weekend, so, actually, now that I've mentioned those, pretty much all hockey games of some sort), and, in checking the College Hockey News "almanac" listings for MSG, I came to a rather surprising conclusion that I've come to question you about - why in the absolute heck has MSG never hosted the NCAA hockey semifinals/national championship game?
I mean, in checking those lists, there seemed to be quite a few "high-profile" games such as Boston College v. North Dakota in December 2016 that got large crowds considering the circumstances, so if your venue could pull off games like that, which got many people to travel halfway across the country (and gave yours truly, a recent college graduate myself, arguably one of the most entertaining experiences, dare I say, of my entire life up until now), then, surely, you'd be able to pull off a trio of NCAA "national" semifinal games, plus the national championship game, given how "world-famous" MSG is without anything "specific" being attached, like, say, the Knicks/Rangers in the NBA/NHL, or the multitude of college basketball games hosted in the building historically; again, given that I just went through my college years myself within these past few years, you don't even want to know how excited I would be for something like that to make its way to MSG, again, especially if it had happened recently!"
Along with the game, there was a "shakeup" in the television broadcasting industry recently (well, honestly, at this point, over a month ago, but, anyway...), as Nexstar Media Group (owner of 171 television stations) agreed to buy Tribune Media (the owner of 42 television stations, including WPIX (channel 11) locally in the N.Y.C. region, which infamously almost got bought by the very sinister Sinclair Broadcast Group, the only media owner ahead of Nexstar, with 193 stations, last year), with the deal expected to close sometime this summer, after which the very originally re-named "Nexstar-Tribune Media" group will combine the operations of the 42 and 171 stations between each current group sometime later this year; unfortunately, it seems as if most media columnists consider Nexstar to be a bit "cheaper" generally in terms of how it runs its television stations compared to Tribune, but at least there most likely won't be as much controversy, overall, over things like "divestitures" of stations in certain markets, and little "backroom deals"/"wheeling and dealing" to groups suspiciously close to one of the media groups, since both of those situations existed to eventually end up killing the aforementioned Sinclair Broadcast Group-Tribune Media merger around the middle of last year! (article)
In retail news now, all from the same site this time, since I'm honestly feeling a bit lazy right now, in the "topsy-turvy" weather here recently, to scour multiple retail-related websites, so, without further ado, here, now, are (some of) the latest retail headlines:
- Shopko, the Midwestern discount retailer, reportedly owes a supplier $65M, leading to the chain filing for C11 bankruptcy this past week;
- Gymboree, the '90s shoe retailer, is preparing for what analysts refer to as "C22" - that is to say, a second C11 bankruptcy filing;
- Pier 1 Imports, the home furnishings chain, is also facing bankruptcy risks after getting removed from the NYSE listing for not remaining above $1/share;
- Another stock listing, the S&P, downgraded Charlotte Russe, the teen/20-something girls' apparel retailer, over possible debt default concerns for the chain;
- J.C.Penney's recently-arrived CEO assembled a few "team meetings" within the past few days over the department store chain's credit rating also getting "downgraded" recently, reportedly unable to take advantage of either (A) the continued decline of Sears Holdings, or (B) JCP's partnership formed a few months ago with sports apparel manufacturer Fanatics, which was supposed to have included "store-within-a-store" Fanatics sections; speaking of Fanatics, I got this recently via a sports shop in Brampton, Ontario, Canada - the "crests" on those seem a bit more "flexible", for lack of a better term, overall, than the rest of the NHL's manufacturers over the years, especially CCM, in my opinion, which seemingly made the team logos on the front of just about everything it made quite "sturdy";
- Sears Holdings just won yet another "reprieve" from liquidation this past week, as creditors galore have suddenly started discussing suing chairman Eddie Lampert over his continued "buy-back" bids to keep Kmart and Sears from reaching liquidation, which they, and I'm sure just about every (sane) person in this country right now, consider(s) "delaying the inevitable";
- Lastly, Payless ShoeSource is apparently considering selling itself, or, if that falls through, then just plain re-structuring, as its "Palessi" stunt last November, and a seeming inability to obtain loans for its remaining locations, have dented the shoe chain's "bottom line";
(...the good news in all those headlines, though, is that consumers reportedly still prefer to "feel" the things they might be considering buying, with Target and Walmart (about 35% holiday market share each) especially beating out Amazon/eBay/etc., which only got about a quarter of total holiday retail sales last month!)
In more personal news, I suddenly had a surgery scheduled for a bunion I've pretty much always had right below my right big toe, which has forced me to mostly wear "wide" footwear my entire life (most notably these Reebok sneakers originally released back in 2000, which I bought right after my high school graduation in 2013, and unfortunately had to dispose of after my aforementioned "Dominican Republic bathroom stall incident"); originally, I thought the surgery might have ended up interfering with me attending the aforementioned Michigan v. Penn State @ MSG contest, along with things generally these next few months, including my aforementioned plans to check out the Hockey East conference's championship weekend, and attend said game, in Boston in a couple of months; in the end, though, there ended up being an agreement to push that back by just a few days (the surgery), though, to wait until after said game (1/26) and allow things to remain more "normal" throughout the weekend, including, obviously, the game; going forward, however, I'm sure I won't be able to do much of anything for at least the next few days after whatever surgery occurs; beyond the first month or so, though (most likely by the end of February), I'm sure my right foot will be at least somewhat "back" to the point when I'll be able to start doing more "long-distance" things again; most importantly, though, the timing of the procedure shouldn't interfere with me attending the graduation ceremonies for the past year's college graduating "classes of '18/'19" right before Memorial Day!
Lastly, in getting my latest "health checkup" this past Friday, I got news on just about everything happening to my body right now, from my skin being bone-dry recently, to my blood pressure, particularly the "lower" of those two numbers, being a bit too high, and my foot bunion surgery officially being set for next week, so despite me feeling "refreshed" once again after having gotten my hair cut once more a few days ago, it seems as if just about every other part of my body has had things go wrong these past few months!
Lastly, in getting my latest "health checkup" this past Friday, I got news on just about everything happening to my body right now, from my skin being bone-dry recently, to my blood pressure, particularly the "lower" of those two numbers, being a bit too high, and my foot bunion surgery officially being set for next week, so despite me feeling "refreshed" once again after having gotten my hair cut once more a few days ago, it seems as if just about every other part of my body has had things go wrong these past few months!
