Michigan State v. Minnesota (@ MSG) recap; more retail/sports news

Well, for once within these past few weeks, it wasn't "sub-zero" outside, so, yesterday (Sat.), I was able to head over to MSG for Michigan State v. Minnesota in relative "comfort", being that the outside temperature throughout the afternoon hovered right around 50 degrees, only seemingly dropping down into the mid-40s closer to game time, despite being quite windy all day long, which was a much-needed, and very welcome, change from the "sub-zero" temperatures from my recent Princeton (2x)/L.I. hockey visits!

This time around, I returned to MSG, this time for Michigan State v. Minnesota, and, immediately upon entering, I noticed just why MSG/Ticketmaster only listed openings in the 100-level seats: because the 200-level seats were completely closed for this game, apparently owing to MSG not expecting as many people from either of those schools, compared to those from the northeast, or, again, surprisingly, North Dakota, although, to make up for that "contraction" in attendance, security seemingly ended up being slightly more permissive than usual in letting people change sections (except for the bands, which were stuck in opposite corner sections the whole game - Michigan State's band in 110, and Minnesota's band in 120 - now that I mentioned it, I should probably also mention that the "playlist" throughout the night was about 70-75% bands, and 25-30% "pre-recorded"...)... Also, along with the bands, the Big Ten Network provided a live telecast, the audio of which was actually broadcast throughout the Garden, the same way professional teams tend to broadcast their radio feeds live (fun fact: the network's debut telecast was the famous/infamous Appalachian State over Michigan football game to start that particular 2007 season), both school's mascots appeared, mostly greeting fans of their own teams, and both cheerleading squads also made the trip, although Minnesota's squad was much more "influential", since, as they apparently do back in Minneapolis, when welcoming the Minnesota players back to the ice after each intermission, quite literally ignored the Michigan State players doing the same, as they lined up on either side of the center ice red line, turned facing the 8th Ave. end seating sections, and welcomed all of the Minnesota players back to the ice before retreating back into the tunnel and up into those sections!

Early on in the game, there was an ejection, of all things, as a Michigan State player did a little bit of, as they say in the military, "headhunting", or at least an attempt at doing so, as, again, one of them hit one of the Minnesota players up top, leading to a bit of a conference among the officials, who then gave a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct for said hit! Michigan State somehow ended up killing off the entire major, yet Minnesota opened the scoring almost immediately after the end of the five minutes, and the rest of the opening 20 minutes largely passed uneventfully, with Minnesota hanging on to the lone goal of the period through its end!

Minnesota evened up the shot totals early on in the second period, eventually taking the lead there, along with the scoreboard, although a chance to extend the lead to 2-0 fell short courtesy of an absolute highway robbery of a glove save by Michigan State's goaltender on another wide-open Minnesota "man advantage" opportunity (albeit of the two-minute variety); in the end, Minnesota would keep the same 1-0 lead it initially took halfway through the opening period of the game!

It became Michigan State's turn to narrow the shot total difference early in the final period, slowly moving in on the Minnesota crease, seemingly, with each chance, and, indeed, midway through the period, it was one of those "point-blank" opportunities that would end up tying the game for Michigan State, although Minnesota ended up retaking the lead for good on a very similar opportunity a few minutes later, leading to a frantic finish in which Michigan State had, expectedly, pulled its goaltender for an extra skater, but, in the end, even that couldn't get either an empty-netter for Minnesota, or another tying goal for Michigan State!

(incidentally, Ohio State defeated Minnesota in the basketball game in the afternoon, meaning that Minnesota split its pair of sporting events inside MSG this weekend!)

Michigan State recap

Minnesota recap

Michigan State highlights

Minnesota's pair of goals

(on a slightly unrelated note, I found this, this, and this a few days ago; also, Disney's former CEO is now turning the fortunes of a 2nd-tier English soccer club...)

(also, from Ohio State's business school, an interesting "Best Buy v. Circuit City" discussion, from around the time that the original CC was winding down its operations a little under a decade or so ago, after the whole "financial crisis" nationally)

$750K, courtesy of a Miami-based real estate firm, for the Macy*s location in Bangor, Maine;

...this past week or so also ended up being the end of Sears Canada after 66 years (26 of them, 1952-1978, as part of Simpsons department stores), and, with that, there were stories about many people and places:

a 21-year-old obsessed with Sears' appliance sections

a Saskatoon mall suddenly tasked with replacing its 2nd-biggest space

the ends of the Bathurst/Saint John, NB, locations

the rest of New Brunswick

same in Charlottetown, PEI

catching up with an employee who worked at the Saskatoon location for a half-century

DirectBuy still exists?

In more retail news, there's a different department store chain (in other words, not JCPenney or Kmart/Sears) that might be near a bankruptcy/restructuring declaration soon:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-12/bon-ton-creditors-are-said-to-propose-bankruptcy-within-weeks

...also, a previously collapsed former consumer electronics retailer might be on the verge of a slight comeback soon, starting in the Dallas/Fort Worth, TX, "metroplex" region:

http://clark.com/shopping-retail/circuit-city-comeback-smaller-stores-relaunched-website/

(although, if the moronic "state bank" idea that's been floated here in N.J. these past few months actually gets started, then you can expect every construction/re-development project everywhere to get caught up in all sorts of "bureaucracy"...)

(on the other hand, I'd say the decriminalization/legalization of marijuana might be as helpful to the state, in my opinion, as the whole "Bank of N.J." idea would be harmful to the state!)

...also, sad news in the local drag racing "universe":

http://www.etownraceway.com/mydocuments/nappfamilyrestructure.pdf

...there's also a "friendly" between Iceland and Peru scheduled for late March at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, and a rugby match scheduled between South Africa and Wales somewhere in Washington, D.C., this upcoming (early) June - either the as-yet unfinished Audi Field, future home of MLS D.C. United, or RFK Stadium, the former home of many local teams down there:

http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/red-bull-arena-set-to-host-iceland-and-peru-in-advance-of-2018-fifa/n-5289781

http://www.americasrugbynews.com/2018/01/11/wales-play-south-africa-washington-dc/

As for hockey, well, I believe I mentioned Arizona State visiting Yale early next month, and being curious about how that program runs "live", although Princeton will actually have spent this entire month away from home (so too, will Quinnipiac, only to return home at the end of the month to face...you guessed it, Princeton!), not scheduled to return until February, when St. Lawrence, Clarkson, RPI, and Union (all the NYS D1 schools), in that order, will all end up visiting the historic rink complete, now, with a new scoreboard, so any one of those games, as of right now, might very well be when I'll bring you my next recap!

Army v. Sacred Heart (@ Nassau Coliseum)/Canada v. Sweden (Buffalo, N.Y./online) recaps

temperature at puck drop: 9 degrees; wind chill: -8 degrees; dew point/"feels like": -11 degrees; wind speeds: 15 MPH/NW; gusts up to 25 MPH/NW; (relative) humidity: 37% (measured at about 6:50 P.M. EST (NWS), so actually slightly before the start of the game, which didn't start until closer to 7:15)

after the game: 7 degrees; wind chill: -7 degrees; dew point/"feels like": -9 degrees; wind speeds: 10 MPH/NW; gusts up to 22 MPH/NW; relative humidity: 45% (this time around, measured between about 9:50 and 10 P.M. EST)

(...this might be a good time for me to mention that our place appears to be about a mid-century (1950s/60s) build, meaning that it's just old enough to still have steam pipes, like so, except silver, instead of white, and it sometimes takes a while for heat to get "pumped" out of them, along with producing these "clanging" noises every so often, but, considering how plain old those steam pipes are now, having had the boilers changed some years ago, and having to be supplemented with electric "space" heaters, they're still more than effective!)

attendance: 1,353, which, honestly, seemed quite the reasonable estimate this time, despite most people having to travel fair distances, and the brutal cold outside - the arena itself was actually warm to the point that I actually started sweating a tiny bit right around the end of the opening period, leading me to remove all of the winter weather "equipment" I entered the arena with from then on up until after the game!

"...what was I wearing?", you might be asking right now: Smith's WorkWear either flannel or fleece-lined denim; Old Navy thermal undershirt; the ol' Hartford Whalers' (dark) blue with green/grey/silver/white striping/trim; Northern Explosion (light) blue polyester vest (like this, except, again, in blue); Brave Soul "black label" "varsity"-styled jacket, like you might see college/H.S. athletes wearing, except in a "generic" format, not produced by any school(s); two pairs of gloves; ski hat/"ski mask" (face covering/etc.)

Last night, as mentioned, I was back at the Nassau Coliseum in Hempstead/Uniondale, on Long Island, for the first time, myself, since this 2011 game; this time, however, the competing teams were Army West Point, and Sacred Heart University, which, as you know, I had already seen both in various capacities within the months leading up to now - watching Army football smash Fordham back around Labor Day, and then watching SHU hockey defeat UConn about a month and a half later, but what made this particular game weird from the start was that it ended up being a Sacred Heart "home" game, despite being played on Long Island - literally the only reason I could think of for that being the case was the NHL's Islanders having had their AHL affiliate in Bridgeport since 2001, and Sacred Heart moving its (actual) home games there from both Milford and North Branford, CT, to Bridgeport in 2016... The arena itself almost has this "exoskeleton" look to it now, also, after the renovations of a few years ago, with everything inside having been changed since the Islanders left back in 2014, and, in fact, you wouldn't be far off for confusing it for the Barclays Center, over in Brooklyn, since the operating group over there actually manages most of the "new" Coliseum's facilities now!

Despite all that, though, the majority of the crowd was rooting for Army, which makes sense, given the shorter trip from West Point to Hempstead/Uniondale, compared to the Bridgeport -> those two places trip, yet the Coliseum showed the majority of replays in favor of Sacred Heart, including playing the same intro video as seen in Bridgeport, and, in a quite petty move on its part, not showing any replays for any of the Army goals throughout the game, along with only playing (a rather crappy recording of) the Islanders' long time "goal horn" after Sacred Heart goals, and the PA announcements even had different "tones" to them, depending on what happened (Army goals and Sacred Heart penalties were announced in a very "straightforward"-like manner, while Army penalties and Sacred Heart goals got a bit of "emphasis"), although, in a sense, there was some "karma" there, as the camera operators increasingly seemed to almost "run out" of Sacred Heart fans, and replays in favor of the team, to show later on in the game, and they ended up showing anybody/thing they could get in the late stages, although, honestly, it was better that way, in a tiny sense, since it seemed to "galvanize" the Army fans who made the trip from wherever to make that much more noise after Army goals, and even hits, which, as you'll find out, there were more than a few of during the game!

Alright, after all of that, it's time, once again, as always, to recap the game itself, and I'll start off this one by saying that the first about 10 minutes or so of the game almost seemed like a bit of "feeling out" time between the teams, mostly appearing to go in Sacred Heart's favor overall, which is ironic, though, since the teams skated to a 5-5 tie in Bridgeport earlier in the season, although Army got the first "man advantage" of the game, which ended up being unsuccessful, but Sacred Heart soon thereafter converted on the first Army penalty of the game to open the scoring midway through the period, after which Army fought back, though, and got a "man advantage" equalizer of its own a few minutes later, and then managed to take the lead from about five minutes remaining through the first intermission!

During the middle frame, the hitting suddenly increased, especially in terms of hits right in front of either team's bench, and Sacred Heart tied the game just about five minutes in, albeit at even-strength both ways, soon committing another penalty, although Sacred Heart managed to catch Army's power play unit "napping" right at the end of those two minutes, and got a "breakaway" goal just after the conclusion of the aforementioned penalty, to give Sacred Heart the lead once again, and, despite Army dominating the shot count after that, the period ended with Sacred Heart still holding the 3-2 edge that "shorthanded" goal ended up creating earlier in the period!

The final 20 seemed to start off in much the same fashion as the game itself did, with both teams suddenly trying to "feel out" each other once again, and, in doing so, ended up committing a bunch of penalties, even with some more hits, one of which Army ended up converting on to tie the game once again, this time at 3-3, although, as was the case throughout the night, Army just plain refused to shoot the puck, preferring to just move it around this sort of "umbrella" formation it kept setting up in with each "man advantage", finally getting said goal with just seconds remaining on the penalty, and only after hearing quite a few of the Army fans suddenly getting quite restless, and calling for more power play shots from their team! That would be it for those 20 minutes, however, leading to, for me personally, yet another game featuring another five-minute overtime period!

The overtime period seemed to be "a tale of two halves", almost, with Sacred Heart dominating early, and Army dominating later on, although both goaltenders were quite up to the task standing in front of them, both stopping everything that came their way then, to create, again, for me personally, another game ending in a tie, this time 3-3, just like St. Cloud State @ Princeton, game 1/2, from the previous weekend!

box score (Army)

Army recap

Sacred Heart recap

some images from the Coliseum's in-house photographer (you'll see little arrows off to either side of those images; merely click to move through them!)

some highlights

(also, thankfully, none of these made the trip...)

My next game, now, would be Michigan State v. Minnesota @ MSG, Sat. night, 1/20, except nothing appears to be left in my usual center ice/200-level sections there (only the 100-level end seats, followed by corners, and then center ice, so I'm not sure at this point whether to even bother with that game, given those circumstances!)

The previous night (Friday), though, Canada defeated Sweden in even more frigid Buffalo, N.Y., in front of arguably the only "sellout" crowd of the whole tournament late last year into this one, which seems to be "more of the same" there, after tons of complaints from fans attending games in Montreal and Toronto during the 2016-17 tournament, when the IIHF and partners reportedly charged "NHL-level" prices, to win this year's IIHF World Junior Championships, and, having "binged" on highlights from a bunch of those games within the day or so leading to the U.S. smashing the Czech Republic in the bronze medal game in the aforementioned tournament, 9-3, leading into Canada squeaking past Sweden to win the championship/gold medal game, the one constant I kept hearing from the TSN crew (since, like, I'm sure that only dozens of people here even have the NHL Network, meaning that one basically must find live streams of TSN, and, by extension, Gord Miller and Ray Ferraro, who've called the gold medal game together across Canada for what seems like an eternity now - Miller alone, in fact, started calling Canada/gold medal games all the way back in 2002, so, in an industry where it seems most of the "lifers" have started either dying of old age, or just plain retiring, it seems as if that broadcast pairing will end up being one of the few "longtime" partnerships...) was that winning, whether it's bronze, as the U.S. did on each occasion in Buffalo, defeating Sweden back in 2011, and, again, the Czechs this year, is much better than losing, as Canada found out in epic fashion back in 2011, blowing a 3-0 lead to Russia all within the final 20 minutes, made even worse, if you ask me, by the fact that they had to listen to an air raid siren the whole period, whenever the Russians scored, which, in a sense, seems fitting, but doesn't make that any less unnerving of a sound, historically speaking... Also, after the game, everybody piled on the Swedish captain for first accepting his silver medal, but then going fling!, and tossing it into the front row, which, honestly, is an extreme way to express one's frustration, even though the Canadian fans all ganged up on the officials after their team defeated Russia in Toronto in 2015, when they accepted their "sportsmanship" medals, so, honestly, in my opinion, they don't have much ground to stand on, when it comes to defining "class" in those situations!

Also, in still more sadly inevitable retail news, it looks like Macy*s is joining the much-maligned in recent years Kmart/Sears duo in shutting down dozens of locations early this year - specifically, Macy*s is said to be set to close about 100 locations, while Kmart will be shuttering 64 locations, and Sears 39, for a total there of 103 locations between them, at least for now; in non-department store updates, Mattress Firm apparently learned its lesson from buying Sleepy's "the hard way", since it's also planning on shutting down somewhere between 100 and 200 locations very soon, and Toys "R" Us is reportedly set to close somewhere in the 100-200 location range itself very soon, so that's just yet another "nail in the coffin" of physical retail, and another win for online retail going forward!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/toys-‘r’-us-is-said-to-consider-closing-at-least-100-stores/ar-BBGZhVb

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/macys-announces-5000-job-cuts-more-store-closures/ar-BBHRtZV?ocid=sf

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/04/here-are-the-stores-macys-is-closing-next.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/04/sears-is-closing-more-than-100-more-stores.html

(enough negativity, though; how 'bout some retail nostalgia?)

St. Cloud State (MN) @ Princeton doubleheader recap, and some *stunning* political news

(part 1 of 2; Fri. night, 12/29/17)

temperature at puck drop: 18 degrees; "feels like": 15 without wind; about 5 with wind (about 5 MPH); cloud cover: 26%; relative humidity: 45%

after the game: 15 degrees; "feels like": same; light wind breezes (still only about 5 MPH); cloud cover: still 26%; relative humidity: 56%

attendance: listed as 2,048; most likely less than that, however...

"...what was I wearing?", you might be asking right now: Smith's WorkWear either flannel or fleece-lined denim; U.S.P.S. turtleneck, if you'll allow me to get "specific" there; U.S.A. 1980 Olympics white with blue/red trim replica sweater (incidentally, the "junior" team defeated its Canadian counterpart, 4-3, coming back from 3-1 to do so, in a shootout, outdoors, in front of 44,000+ incredibly brave human beings, in Orchard Park, N.Y., while also wearing Buffalo Bills (NFL)-styled sweaters); Old Navy flannel "trench coat"

In all seriousness, though, despite the ridiculous cold outside (probably the one time a hockey rink would actually be warmer than the "great outdoors"), the first game between St. Cloud State (MN) and Princeton was quite the fast-paced contest - Princeton, surprisingly, started out with more offensive zone pressure than the (current) #1 team in college hockey, although St. Cloud State withstood it long enough to convert the first goal of the opening frame, taking a 1-1 tie into the intermission after it only took Princeton about another three minutes to answer!

Princeton only turned the possession and shooting up a notch in the second period, however, scoring not just once, but twice, during that frame, including converting on a pair of St. Cloud State penalties, to turn the 1-1 tie into a 2-1 lead after two, and ended up taking a 3-1 lead, and certainly setting off many "upset alert" alarm bells, through most of the third period!

Once Princeton took said 3-1 lead, though, St. Cloud State just absolutely took over the offense for the rest of the game, scoring twice itself to wipe out the lead that Princeton had just a few minutes earlier on in the final frame, getting a pair of "man advantage" goals of its own (although not on the penalty that came right after the 2-1 goal), along with practically all of the shots in those few minutes, to send the game to overtime...

In that overtime, instead of only partially dominating, St. Cloud State literally completely dominated those last five (extra) minutes, notching all 14 shots in the extra session, although, almost amazingly, Princeton's defense just "collapsed" in on the crease, and, what did get through, the Princeton goaltender just absolutely robbed, in order to allow Princeton to survive and take a 3-3 tied final score through the following 18 hours or so!

In other college hockey news right now, as you very well might have heard/seen by now, Erie, PA, just got slammed by feet of snow a few days ago, so the doubleheader between Mercyhurst, based in Erie, and RIT (the Rochester Institute of Technology), this weekend's visitors there, has been postponed "until further notice", according to both schools - there's just one problem, though; neither has any open weekends throughout the entire spring semester half (or so) of the schedule, leading into the conference playoffs!

Princeton box score/recap

St. Cloud State recap

(part 2 of 2; Sat. night, 12/30/17)

temperature at puck drop: 21 degrees; "feels like": 16 without wind; about 5 with wind (about 7 MPH); cloud cover: 65%; relative humidity: 67%

after the game: 21 degrees; "feels like": 12 degrees; light wind breezes (still only about 8 MPH); cloud cover: 2%; relative humidity: 59%

(all weather figures, both Fri. and Sat., courtesy of AccuWeather)

attendance: listed as 1,897; more truthful than calling the previous game a "sellout", when none existed, but still most likely less than that, however...

snowfall measurement(s) that night: about two inches

"...what was I wearing?", you might be asking right now: Smith's WorkWear either flannel or fleece-lined denim; Old Navy thermal undershirt; Eddie Bauer yellow cotton sweatshirt; U.S.A. 1980 Olympics white with blue/red trim replica sweater; grey/red North Face fleece jacket (I actually found a grey/white one of those a few weeks ago); Old Navy flannel "trench coat"

This time around, however, St. Cloud State sure showed itself more as playing like the #1 team in the entire college hockey nation, taking the majority of the shots during the first period, although with nothing to show for it, as Princeton made sure to mostly immediately clear its zone the entire time, through a parade of penalties both ways at various points during the frame, leading to a scoreless opening 20 minutes of action...

St. Cloud State opened the scoring just a short while into the second period, though, but Princeton suddenly decided that late in that period would be the perfect time to close the gap in the shot totals, and that sudden "offense-first" mentality gave way to the tying goal for Princeton, as an extended bit of offensive zone pressure led to a backhanded rebound that got put home, and then, suddenly, a late St. Cloud State penalty set up an interesting start to the final (regulation) period of hockey this (calendar) year!

Indeed, Princeton would convert that late second period penalty into the go-ahead goal for the second time in as many nights, just a half-minute into the final period, although St. Cloud State would once again answer after a brutal penalty call to tie the game once again, with numerous chances on both ends not getting turned into game winners, meaning that there would be a second consecutive overtime session played between the teams!

Unlike the previous night's game, though, when St. Cloud State just put out an absolute blitz against the Princeton "D", only to not get a game-winning goal to show for it, this five-minute overtime period was much more even, with Princeton edging St. Cloud State, shots-wise, yet, again, despite some very close calls on both nets then, the teams skated to another tie!

Princeton box score/recap (with a rather "matter-of-fact" title)

St. Cloud State recap

The following weekend, I'll be at the "new" Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, out on Long Island, for Army vs. Sacred Heart, specifically in sec. 119/row 5/seat 10, since, in checking out a few images online from people attending games for the Long Island Nets there (the minor league affiliate of the formerly-Meadowlands-based basketball team), the 200-level seats there seem to have some obstructed views, particularly up top, in the rafters, so, in order to avoid such a situation for myself, I decided to "spring" for something in the 100-level seats!

(also, Bentley University will be opening a new 2,000-seat arena on its campus in Waltham, Mass., this upcoming February, with the last games at its old rink to take place against Air Force Fri. 9 and Sat. 10, and the first games at its new rink the following weekend against Army...)

http://www.uscho.com/2017/12/20/long-time-coming-new-bentley-arena-going-to-be-as-good-as-any-facility-in-division-i/

Also, not sports-related, but Peru went from having the national soccer team's qualification for next summer's FIFA (soccer) World Cup over in Russia, to having its government pull a stunt that might very well have happened quite often over in the old Soviet Union/current Russia, as the current President, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who defeated the by then-twice defeated Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the disgraced/jailed former Peruvian President, the half-Japanese/half-Peruvian, Alberto Fujimori, himself already standing trial for bribery charges related to the infamous Odebrecht construction firm over in Brazil - basically, the Latin American equivalent of the massive Enron collapse up here back in the early 2000s - since he inexplicably pardoned Alberto Fujimori just over the Christmas weekend! Not saying Peru will become Latin America's next "collapsed" country/economy overnight, or anything, simply as a result of that sudden pardon, but, if it wasn't for Sebastian Piñera winning the most recent Chilean Presidential election over a self-proclaimed socialist, Michele Bachelet, recently, it would seem that Latin America re-entered the "dark ages" of the 20th century all over again, when military regimes ruled practically every country on that continent, and all the currencies down there were hyper-inflated, along with, in this case, a fascist former military officer, Jair Bolsonaro, poised to advance to the "runoff" round of next year's Brazilian Presidential election voting, who has issued statements in the past openly defending the Brazilian military regime that existed between 1964 and 1985 ("officially", since the hyper-inflation that it brought about lasted beyond its existence, into the early '90s, forcing Brazil to drop the "cruzeiro" as its currency)...

What would happen if all of the U.S. states suddenly split?

How far from the edge of a state do you live? If the country were to split 50 ways, that would become an international border where you'd have to stop, show papers, have your vehicle be inspected, and potentially pay taxes to cross into the next state or come home. (and this wouldn't be like the easy U.S.-Canada border.)

When you go to the store, do you know where all the stuff in the stores comes from? Nearly everything probably doesn't come from the state you live in. It'd have to cross half a dozen borders if not more just to reach you. A lot of our food comes from California, and manufactured goods are shipped from Asia to the West Coast. Now, however, food and goods and medicine would have a similarly lengthy journey. The train would have to go through customs and import taxes to get into Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, and finally into Illinois. That's pretty stupid compared to being able to it just having to cross the border once in the port in California, and then be driven without stopping the rest of the way to your local area.

Countries all have their own currencies and independent economies. The stock market in N.Y.C. wouldn't matter anymore unless you live in N.Y. State. Whatever retirement or savings you have would vaporize, since it probably isn't in the currency of your state or even located in your state. Banks would suddenly have to deal with accounts in 50 different currencies. The value of the currencies would all fluctuate dramatically for a while as it takes time to figure out exactly how worthless Mississippi and Alabama and Nebraska dollars are compared to California and N.Y. dollars. Instrest rates would go haywire and it'd be difficult and costly to sell your house or buy one if you have to move. Depending on what state you live in and what sort of industry and economic activities it has, your smartphones might stay the same price or they might become astronomically expensive along with everything else, if your state tends to import everything, because in general, the value of the currency will settle where imports balance exports. If your state has to buy (import) everything but doesn't have much to sell (export), then your currency is not going to have much value which makes exports (all the stuff from outside your state) expensive.)

(Consider Greece and Spain. They don't have much industry so they have to import a lot of stuff (sending their money out of their countries). How do they get money to come into their country? They specialize in tourism. They get people to come to them for vacations and spend their money in their countries. This might work in Hawaii and Florida. How are places like Mississippi and Alabama and West Virginia going to attract tourists? Also, being a citizen of a state means you're stuck in that state unless another state allows you to immigrate to it. You can't move to where there are jobs. So if you live in Indiana, you're sinking or swimming in Indiana.)

Business will become very difficult and a lot of jobs will be lost. Right now we're part of a 320 million person economy. The average state is like 3-5 million people. (Poland isn't on the 'booming' side of Europe, and it has 38 million people, which is bigger than even California.) So now your country, rather than being the huge and powerful U.S.A., is going to be another Iceland (without the ocean and volcanoes and beautiful scenery). Congrats! 

See right now, a business only has to set up one operation somewhere in the US and has potentially 320 million customers. You can take a risk and start a business or new industry that doesn't have any customers, but you only have to find your customers as a tiny fraction of our giant market to get a toe-hold to stick around. If we become 50 separate countries, now Mr. Big European or Chinese Company will set up in only the bigger states (like California, Texas, N.Y., Illinois, Pennsylvania, Florida) because those are the only ones where it is economical to set up a business--where there are enough customers to justify the hassle of setting up a business in a foreign country.

If you're a healthcare company, you only have to get your new medicine certified and approved once and now you can sell it to 320 million people. If we're 50 countries, now you have go get your medicine approved by 50 different organizations. Or for some states, it'd probably not be practical to have many regulations, so then those states would be awash in quack medicine. Same thing with patents. You'd have to patent your new invention or improvement in 50 different patent offices. That's 50 different lawyers you'd have to pay. What if your competitor beats you to the office in a few of the states? Now you can sell your product in like Georgia, Colorado, and Virginia but not in North Carolina, Massachusetts, or Montana. Does that even make sense?

It's not just poor or rural or small states that'd do poorly. Even if you live in California or N.Y. or Texas or Florida, your great economies are going to go into the crapper as well. The finance district in Manhattan is the size of a finance district for the whole U.S.. If the rest of the U.S. isn't part of N.Y. anymore, then all of that would close, because most of it wouldn't be needed anymore, along with much of the rest of the office space going vacant. It isn't needed there in N.Y.C.. Hollywood is making movies for a 320 million person country. How many movies does a 35 million person country need? Also, now all the other states will be pushing their own industries, like their own home film companies.

Also let's say California, Texas, Florida, and N.Y. all manage to do OK. Are California and Texas going to put down the money to build and maintain a system of quality highways that run between them in the foreign countries of Arizona and New Mexico? Probably not. So now it becomes that much harder for California and Texas to do business with each other.

Internationally, foreign countries would see how much distress the various US states are in, and start to buddy up with some of them. Let's say Japan became friends with Washington and Oregon, while China became friends with California. Now you could see Japan and China fighting each other by stirring up people and trouble on our west coast - people from Oregon and California wasting time and effort fighting each other over stupid reasons that have nothing to do with any of us.

I've read some stuff about what people think would have happened if the North lost the Civil War and the South did become its own country. Some people think the ripe-to-industrialize North would have fallen in with industrial Germany, while the South would have remained close trading partners with the U.K. and France. Well, WWI was only 55 years after the Civil War. Can you imagine how horrible it'd have been if the same sort of trench warfare of WWI was fought similarly along the Mason-Dixon line? In addition to all the economic benefits of being one large country, being one large country and not fragmented keeps us all from having to fight wars with each other. The last major wars fought in North America were the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, and the Mexican Revolution, and two of those were domestic wars not affecting the other countries in North America. The U.S., Canada, and Mexico, right now, in essence have a huge fortress all to ourselves that is surrounded by ocean. We are so lucky, historically speaking.

Mercyhurst @ AIC recap; discussing retail news and out-of-place "holiday" advertising

My most recent game, despite me telling you that I would stick to either N.Y.C. or Philadelphia this weekend, in order to be able to check out all the usual "holiday lights" in Manhattan, instead came in downtown Springfield, MA, at the former Springfield Civic Center turned MassMutual Center, which is just old enough (opened 1972) to have hosted the then-New England Whalers, before the team moved to the NHL in 1979, as part of the NHL/WHA merger, and Hartford, CT, in 1981, respectively, when the NHL basically "decreed", under pressure from the Boston Bruins, that the team change its name to reference its specific location...

Springfield, in general, reminds me of Bridgeport, CT, except with more "colonial" buildings, owing to the city's role in this country's earliest era after independence, although, obviously, Boston has since grown much bigger than Springfield, and also at a much faster pace than Springfield and other New England-based cities!

Also, I (sort of) made up for not making it to the James Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame (located just about five minutes from the arena location), by checking out, as you'll see in the most recent additions to my little "virtual photo gallery", the Springfield Hockey Hall of Fame, which honors just about every professional hockey coach/official/player to have passed through the city, specifically with the: (Springfield Indians; Springfield Falcons; New England Whalers; Springfield Thunderbirds; AIC Yellow Jackets)

This game pit Mercyhurst University (Erie, PA) against American International College, which itself moved into the MassMutual Center in 2015, after outgrowing the "community" ice rink it had previously called home! Even weirder than that was the timing of this game: part of a back-to-back pair of 2 P.M. opening faceoffs, which you would expect to "stunt" the attendance figures, but not nearly to the extent it did this weekend!

The game itself almost seemed more like a boxing or wrestling match, instead of a hockey game, with tons of hits throughout the game, mostly from AIC, which opened the scoring before anybody had even entered the building (insert "attendance" joke here), and, indeed, all the hitting helped AIC "open up" Mercyhurst's defense to the point where AIC got another "point-blank" goal later in the opening period, including one during a Mercyhurst penalty slightly more than halfway through the period; Mercyhurst also had a goal denied due to the controversial "intent to whistle" rule, which happened after AIC had already opened up its 2-0 advantage...

The middle period saw no goals, and also saw Mercyhurst's defense "stiffen", forcing AIC to the outside, along with getting a few shots of its own on AIC's defense, most of which got held on to by the goaltender, along with drawing a few penalties of its own then, which largely contributed to the smaller disparity in shot totals then...

Lastly, the final period mostly served as a continuation of the preceding one, as Mercyhurst finally got on the scoreboard slightly more than halfway through the period, only to not have too many more shots the rest of the way, except for the last two minutes of the game, when Mercyhurst pushed AIC almost to the "breaking point" with an extra attacker on for the goaltender, although AIC "sealed the deal" with an empty-net goal with only about a pair of seconds remaining, taking what was essentially a 2-1 win, given the timing of that goal, out of what was probably the least-attended college hockey game anywhere in many years!

If you'll allow me to comment on the attendance now, yes, it was an afternoon game, but so was the start of the 2016 NJSIAA state high school ice hockey championship day at the Prudential Center, which was on a Monday afternoon, and, as such, in the middle of the school day for every school not on spring break that week (which I'm sure some of those schools weren't), so, if the NJSIAA and Prudential Center could get quite a few just students, much less other "regular" fans of the competing schools, or hockey in general, then, surely, AIC and the MassMutual Center, and even the Atlantic Hockey conference in general, which stretches out to Colorado Springs, home of the U.S. Air Force Academy, could, especially in this "social media age", which allows anybody to access anything, anytime, anyway, and anywhere, promote each game just about equally, making everybody who will be in, say, Colorado Springs, aware of games on any given day!

"I don't know what the paid attendance is today, but whatever it is, it is the smallest crowd in the history of Yankee Stadium, and this crowd is the story, not the game." - (Red Barber, New York Yankees' play-by-play announcer for channel 11 in N.Y.C., 9/22/66 - the Yanks lost to the Chicago White Sox that afternoon, 4-1; Barber would get fired a week later by CBS VP of diversification/Yankees' CEO/President, Edmund Michael Burke, whose first game in charge of the team was that one, largely due to that statement)

AIC recap

Mercyhurst recap

highlights (some of them, at least)

In other news now, the entire state of California practically looks like "**** on earth" right now, with wildfires raging north, south, and central, potentially threatening both L.A.-based NFL teams' games, since the Chargers were in the "soccer stadium" otherwise known as the StubHub Center, while the Rams were in the old L.A. Coliseum Sunday afternoon, and, surely, the Arizona Cardinals/Denver Broncos, being the closest "other" teams to L.A., would have objected to games (potentially) being moved closer to their respective stadiums!

In (more) retail news, Toys' "R" Us has apparently been victimized by the same things that Kmart/Sears have both been hit by - the rise of "e-commerce" sites like Amazon and eBay, yet left itself in a much better position to actually restructure its debts (with the exception of the company's Times Square "megastore", which I was actually inside of during the very last week of 2015/that store's existence, which, surprisingly, didn't have any of the usual "banners"/"signs" associated with such sales, but, unfortunately, didn't have too many "deals", either), instead of going through this painfully slow "winding-down" process, like Kmart and Sears this decade!

If you'll allow me to recap this past Thanksgiving/Black Friday weekend now, again, it was mostly a "boring/low-key" Thanksgiving Day itself here, and taking the day after as a bit of a "lazy day", instead of trying to "brave the crowds" out hunting for so-called "deals", when, in reality, as sad as it might be, physical retail is fast getting replaced by online retail, not exactly boding well for things like this from Apple, which I'm sure you already saw (or, I should say, got "force-fed" across every NFL game that weekend, along with a few other telecasts, like the NHL's Friday afternoon national telecast then, although the company seems to have "regained its senses" since then, and cut the thing down to 30/45 seconds), and saw me complaining about late that week, since:

(A) haven't we, as a society, always complained about being "bamboozled", yet letting things like that commercial, which you'd think would promoting either jewelry, and all the "romance" that has been associated with that historically, or something in the "performing arts", definitely not some little technological devices (Apple "AirPods" wireless earbuds, specifically) slip by most viewers;

(B) with all the "headlines" about celebrities/politicians being caught "behaving inappropriately", to say the very least there, you'd think a company as "image-conscious" as Apple wouldn't put forth something that might "trigger" (I honestly couldn't think of any other words there...) some people into seeing such "intimacy" as being "off-limits" for them, personally, given past events;

(C) the just plain "surrealism" on display there - I dare not just you, but anybody, to tell me, after seeing it, that that commercial was actually filmed outdoors, given all the "fancy" sound/visual/etc. effects on display there, along with its very "melancholic" tune;

(D) Apple's calling that its "holiday" ad for this year (2017), when, again, see point (A) - at least the company's "holiday" ads in previous years actually mentioned/referenced the "holiday season", instead of trying to push some totally B.S. "narrative/storyline", and, worst of all, making it a minute long, and then just cramming it into the middle of (mostly) live telecasts those few days/the long weekend!

Well, this appears to be it for me for now, since college sports usually take the Christmas/New Year's Eve/Day part of the year off (except for the New Year's Day college football "bowl" games, including the "playoff" games this New Year's Day), so, now, I'll just tell you to finish this year off on a "high" note, along with passing along some holiday season greetings, at least on a "just-in-case" basis, and tell you to "stay tuned" for my next report, which will come no later than the 1/6-1/7/18 weekend, when Army (or the U.S. Military Academy, to use its "official" name here) will face off against Sacred Heart inside the "new" (as in, "renovated") Nassau Coliseum out on Long Island! (other potential games within that timeframe: Maine @ RPI twice right before New Year's Eve (12/29-30, both @ 4 P.M.); St. Cloud State @ Princeton twice those same evenings (both 7 P.M. starts); UConn @ Boston College the afternoon of 12/30)