Jason Harris

I agree. I wasn't sure, but didn't see any separate threads.

Gordie Howe, AKA Mr. Hockey, just died at 88. My funny story about him happened fifteen to twenty years later. I was visiting a friend and had the following exchange: Tails: "Jason, you remember the time we sat behind Gordie Howe?" Me: "No." Tails: "Yeah, you were giving him and Jean Ratelle grief." Me: "I did?!?" Tails: "Yeah, Ratelle was a scout for the Bruins, so you were asking how he thought the B's would do that year." Me: "Okay, I do kinda remember that!"

I'm not really a fan of tattoos, but that's crazy! Yours is such a great combo.

Just get on an HGH program, wait four months, and voila!

The Dark Knight Rises: With about half-an-hour to go, I noticed a guy about three seats down start to text. I lean over and say, "Hey, man, put it away!" I found out from my wife that he had been texting the entire movie, but he was the caring sort who dimmed his screen while he carried on his saga. Taken 2: A kid sits in the front of the theater, then twice pulls out his phone to show his buddy what was on Facebook, so everyone behind him could be distracted by the blue light. The first time I ran down and told him to put it away, but an hour later his phone was out and he was flashing it to his buddy again, so I ran down again and shook his chair this time as I told him to turn his phone off. I could get away with it because I knew I was much bigger than the kid, but I am getting so tired of paying exorbitant prices, only to be distracted by idiots with cellphones. The amazing thing is the second kid seemed to have a surprised look that someone might be angry at a cellphone being used in a darkened auditorium. Once I got my iPhone, I began turning off the phone to remove all distractions -- calls, text and mail -- but when it was just a cellphone, I'd leave it on vibrate and know that I'd had a call during the movie. Pretty simple, except the one time my phone buzzed three times consecutively; I figured something was wrong, so on the third ring I went out into the hallway to answer the call. That seems to be pretty simple courtesy, but lost on a segment of the population. All I'll say is the theaters better figure this out, because if I find one more time of an idiot thinking it's okay to ruin the experience for the rest of us, I think I'm going to be done with movies at the theater. I have a ten-foot screen and a hi-def projector; it may not be the same experience as seeing a movie when it's still newly released, but it's close enough.

Mine is a RANT - YIPPEE! - RANT RANT 1: As I was installing an update last Monday, my iMac wouldn't reboot, and Applecare told me take it to the store. My hard drive was failing, so the tech asked if I had a backup. I told him that I had online backup, but it was so interminablly slow that I didn't feel like having to wait three weeks to retrieve my important documents. As such, I drove the thirty minutes home to grab my external HD, waited two-and-a-half hours as the relevant files copied, then returned home. I had been told my computer would be ready in the morning. The next morning I called to see if the hard drive was replaced. Yes it was, sir, but our tech knocked something off the mother board, so we need to replace that for you; it should be ready tomorrow. Called the next day, not yet ready. Finally was able to pick it up Friday morning. YIPPEE!: If you think about it, having a new hard drive and motherboard is nearly like getting a new computer. I probably got another two to three years life out of it. RANT 2: They upgraded the operating system on me. I had been holding off on installing Lion for a while, since some people had reported issues, but I actually was probably going to do so in the very near future. The problem is when they updated the software, I no longer could just drag and drop all the files I had copied onto the hard drive, because i would then be overwriting new files with preferences from the older operating system. So for the past two days, I've been coming across countless issues of applications not loading (so I have to find install disks and serial numbers), applications not working as inspected (because all preferences have returned to default), or websites missing logins and passwords (since those were all wiped away. As I said, it's like I was given a new computer, but what a pain it's been! I have to agree with Chadd about it being a Hallmark invention. I don't know if The Big D and I have EVER done anything on Valentine's Day. We seldom bought Christmas or birthday presents for the first 10-12 years because it wasn't really in the budget, and haven't bought a lot since then because we're finally at a point where we don't need much, so maybe we'll say, "Here, wrap up this blouse and put it under the tree for me." I was reminded about my last anniversary when I saw it listed on the side on Facebook: "Today is The Big D's anniversary." Yet we both agree we have a great marriage. It's all about values, and a contrived holiday doesn't fall under important enough value to be considered a terrible BF/GF.

If by "triumphant" you mean you just tapped it into the empty net, he's a real jerk with anger issues. If, however, you mean you raised your stick triumphantly after scoring, he's still a real jerk with anger issues, but celebrating would have set him off.

I don't know whether it's worse in some cities or the microphones are placed in such a way that it sounds louder in certain arenas, but it's such an annoyance while watching on TV. I'm confident the players don't even pay attention to it, so all it results in is the drunk skunks waking up with red hands and the TV viewers waking up with a migraine.

Jesus, will someone please tell these yahoos in the newer cities that NHL players don't hear them when they pound on the glass??? Only the yahoos watching do. Make it a Public Service Announcement like turning off cellphones at the movie theater.....

I think some of you guys are going to scare the kid into thinking he can't play if he's not Charles Atlas. I've always described the difference between the two as "Skating out is a burnout. You skate hard, exhaust yourself, then recover to start all over. Playing goalie is more like a leak in your tire that is slowly letting out the air." If you're in decent shape, I think you'll find that 95% of the play isn't exhausting by itself; it's just the sum total of 90 minutes of excess weight and heat that combines with all the movement to sap your energy. However, you will have some flurries (5%) with five shots in twenty seconds that leave you panting. It's times like those when you're really hoping for the puck to clear the zone so you can get a chance to recover.

I don't think there's anything crazy about it if you play in enough pickups to hone your skills. In other words, I don't think a month's worth of twice a week would be enough, but six month's worth probably would. So I would find pickups that have openings, meaning there are some pickups with regular goalies who'd probably be irritated with someone cutting into their playing time, particularly someone new. Conversely, there are pickups like the one I play in when I wait until fifteen minutes to go, hoping that goalies will show, because I've become the designated goalie if we need one. Then you need to work on positioning. I feel that solid goaltending is like solid outfield play. Just as a great fielder makes a catch look routine by sprinting to a spot and catching the ball while standing, versus timing and diving, a great goalie puts himself in such a position that he doesn't have to flash out glove, stick or legs, because he's left the player with nothing to shoot at. Of course, following up on some of the rebounds might require a little flash.....

They still might end up with the third pick, although the final Central Scouting rankings suggests number three might not be that bad, either. They said that Brett Connolly might have been in the same conversation with Hall and Seguin if he had been healthy all season; on the other hand, they have no idea how lingering his groin injuries will be. There's an interesting sidebar where they discussed which NHL player that each prospect reminded them of. The top three were: 1. Tyler Seguin, C -- Steve Yzerman (retired) 2. Taylor Hall, LW -- Zach Parise, Devils 3. Brett Connolly, RW -- Peter Forsberg (Sweden)

I've been scoreboard watching to see how well the Leafs are protecting our pick. I believe whenever two teams have the same number of points, the team with more wins will be seeded higher. If that is correct, then we need the Panthers and Lightning to split against each other; that would give them both 76 points and 32 wins, which Toronto would not be able to beat. However, if either of those teams loses its final three games, I believe all we'd need is for Toronto to lose one of its remaining games against the Rangers or Habs. Losing both would be better, of course. At that point, the worst the B's would pick would be third in the draft, with around an 18% chance of getting the top pick. Is this correct?

It struck me last night that Lucic is finally beginning to resemble the player from last year. Hopefully, this doesn't turn out to be a three-game teaser.

You know what? I could accept them losing every game of the year if they would just play close to the passion they showed yesterday. It was a thoroughly entertaining game to watch, simply because they were engaged.