Ni(c)klas Backstrom: You Thought You Could Fool Us

In a summer where we we’re rocked with the scandal of finding out Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin were brothers (on the logic Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp were brothers) we’ve now discovered one more Matrix-like mind bending truth.

Niklas Backstrom and Nicklas Backstrom are the same person…

Yes, indeed according to this, umm shall we say “lovely”, site Niklas Backstrom, Minnesota Wild goalie (and apparently one of the best dressed players in the NHL,) and Nicklas Backstrom, Washington Capitals angelic center are one in the same.

How did I not realize it before? Niklas Backstrom brunette, Finnish, square jawed, 32 years old, and goalie thin. Nicklas Backstrom blonde, baby faced 22 year old, round face of a cherub, Swedish. They look exactly the same! How could have I been so duped?

The only question is which Nicklas/Niklas is the real one? If it is Nicklas surely there is no devious plot to his playing two teams, look at that fun loving face, no evil could come from that man. But if it is Niklas… well surely a man who looks so at home in formal wear must only be so because he is an evil villain.

Either way our minds are quite blown.

10 Things: Road Trip!

This weeks SnapShots asked the guys about what hockey players like to bring on road trips. (http://capitals.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=810&id=57148) But, here are some other things you might want to bring along on road trips.

1. You HAVE to bring Gary the Bear along. He might get lonely all by his self.

2. You bring DA FUNK.

3. Bring bubble gum for the air plane ear.

4. Snacks for the ride… like cheese?

5. Your hitchhiking thumb in case you miss the team bus. (It happens ask Patrick Sharp)

6. And, you might want to bring the sweet chick magnet car.

7. Hair Gel… lots and lots of hair gel.

8. Sunglasses… Sunglasses…. Sunglasses…Moustache! Okay, maybe not the moustache.

9. The Sass… always have the sass.

10. And, you ALWAYS bring your jazz hands!

Ten Things Green Will Be Doing NOT at the Olympics

Mike Green was recently “snubbed” by Team Canada and not put on the roster. So here’s ten things Mike Green will be doing NOT at the Olympics.

1. Writing some emo songs for the Baby Blue Sound Crew. Maybe he’ll write Team Canada a love song like the One Semester of Spanish Spanish Love Song.

2. Eating his weight in green jello and what ever flavor green ice cream is

3. Paint sad clown paintings

4. Hug Gary the bear

5. Get more flowery, I mean manly and totally not embaressing, tattoos

6. Catch up on some reading

blue·line or blue line (blln) n. Either of two blue lines running across an ice-hockey rink, usually 60 feet from each goal, and dividing the rink into defensive, neutral, and offensive zones.

7. Moonlight as a bartender

8. Hang out with another person who won’t be at the Olympics

Ohhhh I went there Pen’s Staal…

9. Go to the movies.

10. Make more commercials where he creeps in the backround!

Les Capitals

Caps won in the shoot out 4-3 over the Canadiens. I only saw the 2nd and 3rd period so apparently I missed the only good period. I will say it Green played much like he should be playing. He made a pretty sweet bit of stick handling while on his butt against the board with a guy looming over him. Let’s keep it up, eh, Green?

Other wise the Caps looked a very hot mess. I was highly disapointed. Nicklas Backstrom however I think has got his mojo back. Though he did not score a regulation or even OT goal he scored the winning shoot out goal that was very beautiful and I think he finaly turned that corner he needed. He was going on an almost month long goal-less streak. Yeah it didn’t count but I think it was the mental thing he needs.

But our Weagle scout of the game is:
Eric Fehr! For netting two goals including the tie goal.

Really Cool Deal

I’m at home during the day for a while thanks to Thanksgiving and I am easily bored here’s a list of links to some good stuff;

Hockey Is My Boyfriend will give the most horrid mental picture of Green with a flat top fade away hair cut; Hockey Is My Boyfriend

Punch in the Face does a fight stat comparison between the Hershey Bears and the Caps;

Hot Messes Our Boys

You leave them alone for two seconds jeez;

Neuvrith, insert my happy dance here, is getting his first big team call up of the season for Jose who has personal matters that required him to return to DC. While I am HAPPY that Neuvirth is up here I really hope there is nothing seriously wrong with Jose and his family. Also we assume that Varlamov gets the start. In the end this may work out because Varlamov seems to do particularly well against the Rangers and Jose, even when he’s doing well, seems to do particularly badly against them.

Beagle’s call up I’m a little less versed on but from what I understand Steckel took a slap shot to some part of his body during the skate this morning in New York and left early. Though I recieved that information third hand and may be mistaken. Either way Beagle has been called up.

Semin skipped the “optional” skate which by “optional” generally means the old men like Knuble rest up and the young guys get their legs under them for the day. When asked about if he would play Bruce said he didn’t know. This troubles me because if Semin skipped because he is ill or injured then I hope he is feeling better soon; if he just skipped I’m pratically begging Bruce to scratch him.

Ovie was in the text alert I recieved earlier was a still “might” but it was an excited “might” in the text message so we have hope.

Capitals against the Rags at seven on Versus. Which no matter your opinion on Versus means we return to the modern world after the weekend of stone age CSN+.

Most People Don’t Call This Vaction They Call It Punishment

I heard through the grape vine, and am waiting for photographic evidence, that Nicki has indeed become some what un-fudgeballed over the summer. NO! pretty much sums up my opinion on that. No, Nicki you HAVE to be a fudgeball there are a few things I know in this world and one thing is that Lars Nicklas Backstrom is a blond Swedish fudgeball. What is the world coming to if Nicki isn’t a fudgeball?! Come on buddy you remind me of my three year old pudgy cousin who says the darn’dest things;

You are so adorable (“He is good man… for… for the women”). So if a mysterious gift basket of bake goods shows up on your door step one morning just send your thank you card to me.

AND FINALLY! The biggest mystery of the summer and the biggest story we had ever broken in our blogs little life; Green Life 52 and its accompanying twitter is indeed Mike Green. He himself confirmed it through the Washington Post’s DC Sports Blog. Danke Schon and you know what; craaaaap. Mike Green, Mike Green, Mike Green I had hope… I’m going to miss the mystery. And in that case since it really is you;

Dear Mike Green,
I enjoy your enthusiasm about things like loving DC and going to Nats games. I like the fact you like to express these things on Twitter. But we are really going to need to talk about your exclamation point use. You see one exclamation point is just as effective as several but with out the annoyance of looking like a twelve year old girl when using them excessively.

Your grammar is also atrocious, even worse then mine so that’s saying a lot, one tweet was so terrible I threw up a little in my mouth. (See here; http://twitter.com/GreenLife52/status/3854268910) You didn’t capitalize DC, a name of a chef, or the name of this mans restaurant, you didn’t use any verbs, and you completely ignored the use of the period. It was pretty bad. It looked like a war time telegram… maybe you thought it was. Do not be confused by technology we whippersnappers are here to help. Now please get your crap together you damn hot mess.

Love Always Your Faithful Blogger,
Meghan

I’m glad Ovie didn’t run anyone over during his Zamboni ride. I’ve heard/seen many a tale of his driving skills (or lack there of) and was fully expecting to turn on the six o’ clock news to the words “And, now watch this dramatic video; A promotional stunt for the NHL in New York City went terribly wrong this afternoon…” so I’m glad to hear all went well. And, seeing as every blog and their grandmothers have covered the event I’m sure you read it somewhere else and don’t need to hear it again.

I probably won’t be around the blog until Tuesday (part of the reason why this post is so long) because I will be in all likely hood cut off from Internet due to my going up the northern way to attend my cousins wedding. And, even if I do have Internet access I really hate typing on my Ipod Touch (WiFi in a convenient pocket size Ipod frick yes) so unless something really interesting/devastating happens (or I get really bored) I probably won’t be posting.

And, since for some reason my cousin is having like a wedding palooza or some crap I’m going to be gone from Friday morning until Monday evening. That way I won’t only be behind in hockey news; I’ll be very behind in school and means I can’t attend Veteran camp, which is the worst crime of the three, like I had been planning since about April. You can send your angry letters too…

My extended family are not hockey fans. I give them some slack because my great grand parents on both sides were right off the boat (we’re pretty new to this country if you think about it) so I guess for the older generations of my family this new fangeld North American sport is still a bit of a mystery.. Though my uncles reaction when he came to visit a year or so ago was pretty priceless.
He walked in to see me watching hockey and asks “Are you watching hockey?”
No, I thought, I’m obviously watching Rocky and Bullwinkle (Yeah I just dropped a Rocky and Bullwinkle reference) but I like my Uncle so I say “Yup.”
“You like hockey? Seriously?” in a really incredulous tone
“Yeah I do.”
He gives me a very strange look and walks out then back tracks looks at me one more time and says “No seriously?”
So you have some idea of my extended families attitude towards this sport… its going to be a long weekend.

Mike Once Agian

Soo-ho-ho-ho as you all may know I dislike the Washington Post and newspaper in general has gone completely done the journalistic toliet in my humble opinion but Tarik El-Bashir of Capitals Insider, AKA my mortal enemy, reported that Mike Green is going to be on an episode of MTV Cribs, face palm but I digress I’ve seen his Redline Monday Cribs thing I am not incrediably interested in that I’ve seen what there is to see.

What caught my attention is that the Post basically said “Mike Green’s” now immortal website is legit in not so many words. Okay I’m not sold because I’m basically thinking the Post has completely disregarded the most basic of journalistic standards the proper fact check as usual. I really really need to hear someone like Mike or a part of the actual Capitals administration or a newspaper USE it’s fact checkers and say “and we talked to blah blah blah who confirms that the site is yada yada…”

Until then you’ve not got me sold.

Plus I had no idea Cribs was still on TV. That’s how hip I am.

Chains of Doom, Footy meet Face, Green Is the color of Hot Mess

So greenlife52.com has caught on like wildfire and I’d like to think we pushed it along a little. It’s added a lot of flavor to my otherwise boring Sunday watching every ones different reactions, most were amused, some where horrified, a few I believe may have thrown up in their mouths a little but mostly people seem to find it highly amusing. I don’t know if we the Chronicles started this craze but I think we helped start a chain reaction of doom which is totally awesome because I’ve wanted to do that forever. Next on my check list? Start a completely ridiculous trade rumor that some how people believe.

But that wasn’t what this post is about. I like to read as many blogs or websites as humanly possible, for all different teams, written by all sorts, and I was looking for some new Maple Leafs blogs to read to supplement my meager Leafs knowledge. I’ve always meant to learn more about the Leafs because I have a soft spot for them and the fact that seemingly no matter what they do something always goes horribly horribly wrong (like the Browns), well no I take that back its more that I have a lot of love for their fans. Why those poor bastards hang on is beyond me and they all seem to have extremely good senses of humor and they have to seeing as their Leafs fans.

So I stumbled upon a few new blogs but one brought to my attention a new player who has some how flown under the radar up until now

Well who is this adorable young man? Matt Stajan, awesomely difficult last name sir, apparently he has a pension for falling on his face and breaking sticks and like a lot of the Leafs players had very high expectations then got to Toronto and the proceded to stink. And apparently he sprained his face by getting hit by a soccer ball… Are we sure the Leafs aren’t gypsy cursed like Hossa?

No seriously he sprained his face by getting hit by a soccer ball? What was he doing that presented him with a soccer ball hurtling towards his face hard enough to hurt him that it took him out for a couple games?! I mean sure I’ve been hit by a soccer ball in the face before, every kid whose ever played soccer has, but I’ve never seen someone seriously mess up their face enough. I mean I’ve been hit by a basketball in the face, a more than a couple times actually, which is a lot thicker and I never even broke my nose! I mean the only face/sport related accident that caused true damage I’ve had is when I was playing tennis and I got hit in the nose by the tennis ball, thanks DAD, but heck I just popped that sucker back in place and went back home to wash off my face. And I was a thirteen year old at the time. And I’m a girl with little athletic training.

Speaking of the Leafs has there been any word on whether Olie Kolzig is offically retiring or not? I’ve heard rumor and he hasn’t signed with anyone and the season starts in a month or so.

And I’d like to the thank Hockey is My Boyfriend for linking this interview: http://www.complex.com/blogs/2009/04/15/the-complex-7-mike-green-of-the-washington-capitals/

Mike Green you are a hot mess! Stop making me love you, then dislike you, then pity you, then love you, then mock you, then love you for letting me mock you, then dislike you, and now I just don’t know. Just get your stuff together you HOT MESS.