Back, and (kind of) liveblogging Game One!

7:15p According to the Detroit Arena announcer, it is time for a ceremonial face-off with the captains, Nick Lidstrom and Steven Crosby.

STEVEN?! How do you get an arena job if you have apparently never before been exposed to the NHL?

7:19p I miss Georges!

7:35p In terms of playoff beards, Detroit is clearly way ahead. In terms of play, pleasingly matched so far. That Steven guy hasn't done anything amazing yet, but I retain high hopes. I'm also pleased that two such intense hockey towns got to the final--the shot of Pittsburgh fans filling their arena to watch on TV says we have some deserving fans this year.

7:49p Terrible call against Detroit--waving off that goal. If Holmstrom interfered with Fleury, I have too several times already this evening. I'm kinda slightly rooting for Pittsburgh, but I'd hate to see a call like this impact a game.

8:00p I highly approve the giant inflatable octopus in the rafters of Joe Louis Arena. At the end of the first period, I'm very excited overall about the series. This should be an excellent matchup over however many games, and I'm quite happy to give my holiday weekend over to the first two games.

I base my excitement/quality meter of a game on how much danger is posed to my rug by the beverage in my hand. There's been a lot of flailing with the wineglass this evening so far, and I blame it on how well both teams are focused on neutralizing the threats from the opposing bench. I've never seen it executed so consistently before and it truly pleases me.

8:05p Messier still doesn't know how to look into the camera when he speaks. it's endearing.

8:36p Bee-you-ti-ful goal Detroit! Best way to counter a lame call against. Good thing I'm drinking white and not red wine.

8:41p The Vs. announcers may have given away something key about themselves, describing Samuelsson's visiting father and brother from Sweden as "a couple of happy humans." Oh, those hue-mons. It is hard to predict what will make them happy.

8:46p D has observed astutely that Fleury is fighting hard to keep his team in this. I love young crazy goalies.

8:55p After two periods, though I have not kept entirely accurate count, I think I can estimate having seen approximately 400 ads for WEC Ultimate Cage Fighting. I'm your target demographic for that, Vs. Network? Really?

The Swedish players speak English in interviews with much better accents than I do. Then again, I do have the disadvantage of having been born in Boston.

9:05p Whoa... ad for what looks like a terrible new Mike Myers film that appears to be hockey-themed and featuring a pile of Daily Show correspondents and alums. Pity.

9:20p Crosby looks frustrated on the bench, like he expected things to be hard but not this hard. Detroit is playing tight sharp hockey, and not to flog the lamest of cliches, but the fans are the biggest winners tonight.

9:46p Well, this one is over. I admire and fear the Redwings. It's okay, Steve--Sid. There's always Monday.

Meanwhile, I have always enjoyed the silliness that is closed-captioning of hockey announcers when watching the game in bars (BP for example), since it's always garbled into some language even more fantastical than the usual nonsense the announcers spew. That said, these announcers tonight (suspiciously wowed by humans as they are) are one-upping things by speaking like closed-captioning.

"The Redwings don't want to allow him to guy to carry the puck to make plays"

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you your new robot hockey announcers.

Whoa-kay.

This kind of fandom? Crossing waaaaaaaaay over into the bad kind of crazy.

NASHUA, N.H. (AP) -- A woman accused of running down a man in her car after a Red Sox-Yankees argument in a bar never hit her brakes as she accelerated toward the small group he was in, a prosecutor said Monday.

"She never braked, and she accelerated at a high speed for about 200 feet. She went directly at this group of people," prosecutor Susan Morrell said of Ivonne Hernandez, who is charged with reckless second-degree murder in the death early Friday of Matthew Beaudoin, 29.

MarriedtotheOil has been on hiatus, due to pressing work and dental concerns. We hope to return to posting at least once a week throughout the offseason by next week. In the meantime, Go Pens. Crosby.

Yes, Crosby

Looks like an Ottawa writer's trying to start some business between the Pens and the Sens, suggesting they aim for his Crosbiness' ankle. Classy. However, genuinely classy is the reaction of the Pens. I say if this guy's so eager for somebody to get really hurt, why not offer himself up? It reminds me of those "you'd never make it in the NHL" ads they ran last year. Yeesh.

Goilers and goodnight

I'm out of town tonight for work reasons and won't be seeing the last game for the year. Sad.

It's been a long, hard year, with some devastating losses and some exhilarating wins. What I love about this team was really driven home to me Tuesday night, and brought some genuine joy on an otherwise heartrending evening.

We dressed out in our Oilers jerseys and settled in with pasta and wine in front of the tv. Eternally pessimistic, I suspected what might be coming but wanted to believe in the possibility of happy outcomes at least. MLB Extra innings, (which I had been debating subscribing to) was in a free preview on nearby channels to the Oilers feed, and I was flipping back and forth to the Red Sox game during the intermissions and commercial breaks.

I'd watched the Red Sox/A's opening series in Japan, and was bothered by my lack of emotional engagement with the team/games. I like all the guys on the club, and it was fun to watch them win the World Series last year, but there was something about the fawning of the announcers over the team and the way it seemed assumed the Sox would be winning most of their games this year that left an off taste in my mouth. And tonight was no different. I'd watch an out or two as the Sox kept utter control of the game, and then I'd go back to the Oilers almost with a sense of weird relief, even as they made me cry a few times. There was no way to be as sure of what would happen with them as I felt with the Sox.

And then I realized that there really is such a thing as winning too much.

I always hated the Yankees and their fans (our Falmes analogs all the way) for the bizarre sense of entitlement they projected. During the late 90's it was pretty unbearable. It was assumed the team was going to the World Series every year and anything short of that was complained about bitterly by fans and press alike, like something had been stolen from them. How dare other teams take away their rightful glory! I cheered for the late 90's Red Sox like crazy and hoped for every sign of Yankees collapse and hubris coming due. The 2004 World Series seemed like a dream come true (since 1918, people!) and last year's win was exhilarating too. But with two WS under our belts in four years, I'm a little worried that Red Sox Nation is becoming a little too... entitled. We expect a winning team every year now, and gotten accustomed and even a bit inured to consistent excellence.

This year's Oilers were anything but consistent except in one category: fun. They have been consistently fun, and it's been a pleasure and a privilege to watch a fine crop of rookies mature over their first NHL season. They've broken my heart more times than I can count, but I've watched every game in total suspense and often incredulity.

I'm not getting MLB Extra Innings this year. I'm sure the Sox will have a great season and I'll enjoy a lot of games on ESPN but whatever they do, I doubt they'll surprise me. It's not their fault: it's a structural thing.

The Oilers were not always good this year, but they kept it interesting. Thanks boys, for a year full of surprises. And I bet your Moms are proud.


(I will be posting at least once a week during the off-season, with a few surprises of my own.)

Flashback: Stortini vs. Sarich

Because I need a good laugh today and maybe you do too.

The problem with my NHL/MLB teams is...

...that this time of year I can get walloped with a double let-down in twelve hours as easy as that.

It got me thinking about the cycle of the seasons though. There's something about difficult losses that feels just that much worse at the beginning or end of a season. The middle is when all might still be possible, even more so than the beginning, because at least in the middle you've settled in with the team, you know them, and you can tell yourself wonderfully convincing stories about how they'll bounce back tomorrow. At the beginning of the year, early catastrophe can seem like a portent of the season to come, quite irrationally.

And at the end, late catastrophes leave almost no wiggle room for hope. Almost.

Opening Day or more of the same?

I settled in today to watch the Red Sox/A's season opener from Japan on ESPN, and discovered I'm rusty on watching baseball. I'm timing trips for coffee and meals badly, and having trouble keeping track of outs. Thanks, hockey.

But before I succumbed to any level of disorientation, it became surprisingly easy to regain my bearings. After all, the announcers kept going on and on about some player named Crosby, and the game couldn't be decided in a regulation frame.

Now this, I know.

Goilers, GoSox.