Fathers Day

Shohei Ohtani on Saturday announced that he will leave the Angels and join the Los Angeles Dodgers; he will sign a contract of $700 million over 10 years. The 29-year-old Japanese star established himself as a modern-day Babe Ruth. He can pitch, he can hit, and he does both at an elite standard at the highest level of the game. Ohtani, a two-time American League MVP, hit 44 home runs in 2023, while also making 23 starts as a pitcher until his season was cut short by an elbow injury. The injury will keep him off the mound for at least the 2024 season, but he is expected to be the designated hitter while his elbow heals throughout the year.

***

chimerize

MEANING:
verb tr.: To form something from parts that are very different.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Chimera, a fire-breathing female monster in Greek mythology who had a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail. From Greek khimaira (she-goat), ultimately from the Indo-European root ghei- (winter), which also gave us chimera (literally, a female animal that is one winter or one year old), hibernate, and the Himalayas, from Sanskrit him (snow) + alaya (abode). Earliest documented use: 1651.

Also: chimera

***

There are said to be 600,000 homeless in the U.S., 37% Black, 27% Hispanic, 90% men

***

Fathers Day

The world of gambling often gives fascinating insights into human beings, a mix of the heart and 'analytics.'

One area I think would be worth looking into is hockey's 'Dads' Week' where the team members' fathers travel with the team for a while. There's usually an anchor home game and then the fathers follow the team to several away games, stay and eat with the team, and have their own section in the away arena.

I have not been able to find much info on these trips and how the sons do but the Golden Knights(Vegas!) are 9-0-1 on Father's Night. And the struggling Pens are 2-0 this week. (Just ignore last night's disaster.)

A new betting indicator!

Internet Comments on the Stanley Cup

The Playoffs are now over. In a time where Trump and Hillary are running for President, the Penguins won the Stanley Cup. One element the Penguins adopted was unusual--at least for them: their decision to increase their strong points before the Playoffs. Usually they would trade their strengths to bolster their weaknesses (usually skill for muscle and aggression) but this year they enhanced their strengths and gave up on their weaknesses; they didn't go out and find support for Simon Dupres, they traded him for more speed.
Here are some stories, one-liners and comments from the Internet. Toronto is especially bitter:

I made a *minor* mistake of scrolling through a couple pages of Sid-related comments and it was a cesspool green with envy. Sid cements his legacy as one of hockey greats. [Globe & Mail]

As Phil Kessel lifted the Cup in triumph, his many loud critics were conspicuously silent. [CBS Sports]

 

The decisions on who gets the Cup first after the captain are often emotional ones and some of them linger for a long time in the fans' memories. There was a sad reason Sidney Crosby handed off the Cup to Trevor Daley first. His mom is battling cancer and not doing well, and it meant a lot for her to be able to see this. Sending love to the Daleys. [AP]

 

City of Pittsburgh has now renamed Murray Avenue, Matt Murray Avenue for a day to honor the goaltender.

 

Underachiever was never a label that should have been attached to Sid and Geno, but the Pens stars took it all the same. [CBS Sports]

Letang joins Gretzky, Beliveau and Milt Schmidt as players with points on winning goals in all 4 games of a Stanley Cup final.

 

Marc-Andre Fleury, Pascal Dupuis and Matt Cullen are much-loved members of the Penguins family. One of them knows his future, but what does it hold for the other two? [PPG]

Our happy tide came at the expense of two stars who've waited forever for a chance at the Cup. For Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton, losing the Cup was devastating and you could see it on their faces last night. [SJ Mercury News]

 

San Jose only had 6 shots on goal in 32 minutes after Kris Letang scored to give the Penguins the lead.

 

But where to begin with these Penguins? The head coach who assumed control on Dec. 12, summoned from the minors to rescue a team facing its nadir, now toppling the franchise with which his NHL career started? The captain who added the Conn Smythe trophy to his overflowing arsenal, seven years to the day after leading Pittsburgh to the title at age 21? The first teammate who took the grail from him, the one with the broken ankle and ailing mother, or the second, the one whose career ended due to blood clots? The rookie goaltender? The redeemed sniper? The general manager who took so much heat last season, now remembering how he wound up here?(SI)

Of the 20 players on the roster when the Pens clinched the Cup with that 3–1 win over the Sharks in Game 6 Monday night, just six were holdovers from the group that Rutherford inherited  in the summer of 2014.

 

Former Capitals defenseman Sergei Gonchar also had an opportunity to raise the cup as a member of the Penguins coaching staff, as well as former Capitals defenseman Steve Oleksy..

 

“Pretty much everyone said since the beginning of the year, ‘Oh wow they got Phil Kessel, their forwards are great, but man their defense is a huge question mark,’” Ian Cole said. “‘Their defense will be their downfall. Their defense is terrible.’ I think you saw this series, especially this series but obviously the whole entirety of the playoffs, going through teams like Washington and Tampa Bay and a team out here that had the most goals per game, the most shots per game, was unstoppable. I think we did a fantastic job shutting them down.”

 

And then Daley handing it to Pascal Dupuis, who thought he was going to cry but held back. "This is as good as we could have done without him playing," Crosby said. "That was special."(SI)

 

San Jose had allowed 40 shots in a game only twice all season; the Penguins got 40 three times in these six games.

 

A funny article form Edmonton:

http://www.coppernblue.com/2016/6/13/11916978/dear-justin-schultz

 

The Sharks defense pair that, by all accounts, got exposed the most by Pittsburgh was the slower pairing of Brenden Dillon and Roman Polak.

 

In one first-period sequence, Jones stopped Crosby, Conor Sheary, and Kessel from point-blank range, keeping his desperate teammates within a goal of tying it.

 

Even if Fleury is given the chance to compete for his old job in training camp, it’s possible the Penguins would lose him in an expansion draft in 2017. Consequently, it’s conceivable that he will ask to be sent elsewhere, despite having a limited no-trade clause in his contract.
“I don’t know,” Fleury said after Game 6. “We’ll talk to management before I leave town, I guess. That’s it.”

And a picture of Dupuis with the caption: "Pascal Dupuis skating off the ice for the last time in a Penguins uniform."

When he was just 19 years old, and starting with the Boston Bruins, Kessel was diagnosed with testicular cancer.  But he made it through that and won the 2007 Masterston Trophy for dedication and perseverance in the face adversity.
Then came his time in Toronto, where, and there’s really no nice way to put this, he became a punching bag and a joke, a scapegoat for a team that had too many problems and no easy answers.
People made fun of his conditioning, they mocked his weight and they ridiculed him for being shy and less than polished with the media.
Now, he’s a Stanley Cup champion that probably should have won the Conn Smythe Trophy. (A Toronto blog, I think)

"It's a long year, but it's the best year I ever had," an emotional and fully bearded Kessel said on the ice at SAP Center as the Penguins celebrated the Cup on Sunday night.

Since 1996, only 13 players have produced more points per game in the post-season (minimum 40 games) than Kessel (0.94). The Wisconsin native sits a touch below Alex Ovechkin (0.98), but ahead of similar scorers, past and present, like Dany Heatley, Corey Perry, Paul Kariya and Brett Hull, albeit in significantly fewer games.

With 30 points, Couture became the fourth player in the last 20 years to reach that many in a single playoff run. Letang assisted on all three game-winning goals in the Final. He finished with 15 points in 23 games, second among defensemen.

A trade summary

Kessel was acquired on July 1, 2015 in a massive trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Less than a month later, the Penguins robbed the Vancouver Canucks by grabbing Bonino in a trade that featured Internet whipping-boy Brandon Sutter.

After realizing that the David Perron trade wasn’t really working out, the Penguins and Ducks concocted an “everyone wins” move as Hagelin became a Penguin in January.

Justin Schultz has  been worth the look for a third-round pick.

The Penguins also acquired two blueline fixtures on March 2, 2015: Ian Cole and Ben Lovejoy.

And replacing Mike Johnston with Mike Sullivan was a “trade” of sorts

What's Wrong with Hockey

"If you're going to slash him, break a bone. If you're going to hit him from behind, give him a slight concussion." -- Mike Milbury, NHL TV analyst

There is a lot wrong with the sport of hockey. For starters, the puck is small and moves so fast that it does not translate well to television. Since TV is where sports make most of their money, that is a problem and will limit its popularity and growth. As will the games foreignness. Most of its potential audience have never skated; everybody has thrown a ball.
But there is a bigger problem, the problem of how the game--and the players--see themselves.
First, there is a gap between how players regard each other in hockey as opposed to other sports. Somehow hockey players transcend sportsmanship. Yes, they have an uplifting handshake after the series and they interview well and charitably. But they unquestionably try to hurt each other for advantage. There is some of that in all sports--"wearing the other guy down," hit him on every play," "throwing the pitch inside"--but nothing like hockey. Hockey allows--encourages--the athletes to harm each other. Harm. Athletes who respected the game and each other simply would not do that. It is the difference between Navratilova and Harding, Musial and Marishal. But Harding and Marishal are notable exceptions; such players are the rule in hockey, so much so that some teams hire skating bodyguards to protect their players.
Secondly, sportsmanship is not encouraged by the league. Blatant assault, a crime on the street, is a two minute penalty on the ice. And this is constantly reinforced by the league in its decisions as it splits hairs over split skulls. A league comment on Cooke's felonious hit on Savard implied Savard did not play correctly, that his skating style invited injury.
Finally, there is the league's purposeful public face. This is nowhere more obvious than the league's handling of Sydney Crosby. Crosby is the game's premier talent. His level of play, his devotion to the game, his suffering through unending physical abuse are all tributes to him. More, he is a nice guy that any sport would love to have as its face. Never troubled. Never a problem. No outrageous off-ice behavior. Yet the league does nothing to protect him. He is always hampered in playoffs when the game mysteriously changes and is suddenly judged by rules quite different from the rules that created the playoff competitors. He is held, interfered with, obstructed, concussed and sometimes injured so he cannot play. Imagine what would happen if Curry or Harper or Djokovic became purposeful targets for injury. Only a seriously arrogant--or benighted--league would be willing to sacrifice the play and presence of its premier players.
Not only do they stand by as willing accomplices to his nightly muggings and near-death experiences, they criticize him and his exceptional play. This, from NHL commentator, Jeremy Roenick--a guy whose hiring is approved by the league. “If I were Sidney Crosby right now,” Roenick said, “I’d watch the work ethic that Jonathan Drouin has on a nightly basis.” Drouin? Drouin is having a good series but has had a bad year. The forward was sent to the minors, decided to request a trade, then deserted the team’s American Hockey League affiliate for five weeks. Drouin? Work ethic? The one element of Crosby's game I have never before heard criticized is his work ethic.
No other sport abuses its stars physically and verbally. No sport would allow it--because they might not survive it.

 

Corsi, Crosby and Malkin

Corsi is a statistic originally invented by Jim Corsi, who was the goaltender coach for the Buffalo Sabres. Corsi is essentially a plus-minus statistic that measures shot attempts. A player receives a plus for any shot attempt (on net, missed, or blocked) that his team directs at the opponent's net, and a minus for any shot attempt against his own net. Among the statistics that are currently collected by the NHL, Corsi is the single-best predictor of future team winning percentage. Studies from past seasons or single games have also shown that it is also a proxy for things like scoring chances, puck possession and zone time.
The Penguins carry a 50 percent corsi and a 42.1 percent goals rate without Malkin, and those numbers plummet to 47.2 percent and 31 percent when Crosby isn't on the ice. Those numbers would be 25th and dead last in the league, respectively, if carried over a whole season.

Crosby and the All Star Game

Sydney Crosby, the best hockey player on the planet and the face of the league has missed five straight All-Star Games and has only played in one during his 10-year NHL career. His high ankle sprain in 2008 kept him out of the Atlanta All-Star Game and sidelined him for 6-8 weeks. In 2009, it was a left knee bruise; he missed a game immediately before the All-Star break. In 2010, there were Olympics. He missed 2011 and 2012 with concussion symptoms. Then another lockout. Then the Sochi Games. And now he misses the Columbus All-Star Game because of a minor injury ("minor" as the team says they expect him back next week, potentially missing two games but nothing more.)
The experts are miffed. They feel that Crosby is not showing loyalty to the organization he represents--but also feeds him. They are clearly experts because we simple slugs would say he is getting the hell kicked out of him, he needs recovery time whenever he can get it and any league that allows intentional injury of its showcase stars as a game tactic deserves no loyalty.

Mumps

Sydney Crosby has the mumps. So do almost 20 other players and referees in the NHL. The disease is rare. Most kids are vaccinated against it twice; first at the age of 1, and again around the age of 5, when they receive the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, rubella) before starting kindergarten. Mumps is spread in respiratory droplets, often in the form of a sneeze. Symptoms can take up to three weeks to develop. Symptoms include glandular swelling (face, testicles) and sometimes encephalitis can occur. What is going on? Here is a nice summary from Matt McCarthy, an assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical Center:

In 2006, thousands of college kids in the Midwest became infected with mumps, despite the fact that most had received the vaccine. This phenomenon is called vaccine failure, and scientists divide it into two categories: primary and secondary. Primary vaccine failure occurs when the body doesn't produce antibodies in response to the initial immunization, but this is relatively rare with the mumps vaccine. Secondary failure occurs when the body fails to maintain an adequate level of antibodies, despite having an initially strong response to the immunization. This is what we're seeing in the NHL.

Back in 2006, researchers found that college students who came down with mumps had been immunized more than ten years earlier than roommates who didn't contract the disease. A subsequent study confirmed this, revealing that protective antibodies were much lower in students who'd been vaccinated fifteen years earlier compared to students who'd been vaccinated just five years earlier. The takeaway here is that the mumps vaccine works, we just don't know how long it works. 

Staal

The Staal trade is more complicated than it appears. Staal  turned down a huge ten year offer from the Pens and then went public with his refusal. Then he stated he wanted to go only to Carolina. That destroyed his trade value and forced the Pens' hand. In a year he would be unrestricted and would be worthless to the Pens. The rumors in Pittsburgh are that Shero, the GM, was furious. Staal had publicly undercut them and had made his value to them considerably less.  Staal was Shero's first Pen pick and these guys take their relationships seriously. So, after composing himself, he did a deal with Carolina, replaced his brilliant third line center with a real--if lesser--third line center, picked up a promising defense-man and got a high draft choice.

The question is, Why did Carolina do it? They likely had Staal next year for nothing. It is possible they did it to establish his value to them. If this year he does not reveal himself as a first line center then maybe they would be able to negotiate a reasonable deal. But it was an expensive decision. The Pens got fair value for him and it did not have to go that way. (When the trade was announced in the Pittsburgh stadium where the draft was held, the fans--who loved Staal--cheered.)