Miss a few days and everything goes to hell

Lately some real life crap has kept me away from the computer, but I think that's all past me now so on we go.

Checking out the scores from last nights games, I see on off ice note of interest but I'll get to that in a few. First up the games of note:

Pittsburgh v Islanders. I hate how the Islanders seem to be showing up now. Why can't they continue to suck and just let teams I want to beat them soundly do it? They played a hell of a game last night (which by the by, DVR are awesome - I got home after the game started so I just started the recording over from the beginning and go to buzz through all the annoying commercials - watched the A&L motors ones though because no matter how bad they are, I still laugh) only to lose it in the last two minutes.... I long for another 9-2 game. Ah well, still a good showing for missing Sid and Whitney (which overall, isn't probably a loss because it 1. got Tanger back in and 2. Whit really isn't all that good right now).

Detroit v fishies: As much as I'd love to see SJ go all the way, it's still good to see the home boys put another dent in the Sharks' armor. Granted it was at the expense of losing Hossa with "concussion like symptoms". Wonderful. Babcock says he's fine but we'll just have to wait and see how the Wings best scorer does in the next few days.

Now, the off ice stuff that made me go WTF. The Craps seem to have this female fan club going. "Dedicated to the Caps' female fanbase" this site gives women a closer look to the players and offers special educational events to help them learn the game. At first blush, this was sorta ok - we need more women as fans of the game to support one another against the crush of male bias. Then I got to thinking about this and it pissed me off. Yes, sometimes it's hard to be taken seriously as a female hockey fan because men sometimes don't get it that we're all about the game. But is this sort of thing really gonna help? Are beefcake shots of the players really going to help educate women to know what a decent power play looks like? This just smacks of glittery "I heart so-and-so" signs and posters offering marriage or other services from bunnies who think they are cute.

Look, I'm all for finding the players attractive, but seriously, that's a book/cover sort of thing. Is Adam Foote any less of a defenseman because he's not OMGHOT? Hell no. I'd take him on my team any day. Does Roddy Brind'Amour win face offs because he's cute? Um yeah, no. He does it because he works his ass off every single day.

I've said for a long time the league needs to showcase the players more - not just in a my what a handsome boy he is, but some of these guys are down right characters and I love that. The NHL Network has a show called "Day in the Life" which shows an average day of certain players. This is a great show because you get to see the players interact with each other and their personalities (not muscles or tattoos) shine.

Teach women how awesome this GAME is and the love for the players will follow. It rarely works the other way around.

/sandbox moment.

That being said, I give you this: after watching the Sabres against the Ducks the other night....damn they need Miller back in a big way. Not that I don't think LaLa is capable, but they are a much different team with Crunchy in net.