With yet another off day at hand, giving the Kings an apparent much-needed respite after having less than 40 hours to recoup from their Game 7 (even though Sunday was their first game outside of the state of California in a month and their first night in a hotel in nearly 3 weeks), it’s time to look at some more nerd numbers to render actually watching the game unnecessary.
At the end of 2013, the acting world lost one of its venerable presences and voices when James Avery died due to complications from heart surgery. And while he’ll be remembered for his imposing stature, deep bass voice, and full, proud beard, he’ll mostly be remembered just as Uncle Phil.
Just cleaning up some discussion points from Sunday’s opener.
-While some are claiming the Hawks won yet another game where they were outplayed for long stretches, I’m not so sure. Yes, the 2nd period wasn’t pretty (and that’s something the Hawks will have to correct), but everything around that looks pretty all right. The first period saw the Hawks better in Fenwick 10-7, and the 3rd period was even at 6-6.
What is more encouraging is that once the Hawks took the lead, the shot-attempt per Fenwick was only 11-8 in favor of the Kings. Being even in the 3rd when the Hawks had the lead they weren’t completely bombarded, though maybe it felt like that at times. We know this was an issue against the Blues, and against the Wild the Hawks actually didn’t have the lead that much late (only in Game 5 did they protect a one-goal lead late, and once they did they were out attempted 12-5).
We lamented about the shell in the first two rounds, but yesterday the Hawks saw it out through suffocating, aggressive defense which then got the killer goal as the Kings pressed at the wrong time (thank you, Jake Muzzin!). I like that.
Originally from New York, Jordan Peele followed the path of so many other performers and moved to Chicago to perform at The Second City and ImprovOlympic. Through his studies, Peele would move to Amsterdam to perform at Boom Chicago before being brought back to the states for a role on MadTV, where he would stay for 5 years. During his run on MadTV, Peele became known for his impressions leading to a chance to audition for SNL due to his solid work as Barack Obama. For whatever reason, SNL chose to stick with Fred Armisen and Peele would remain at MadTV until the end of its 13th season.
Starting in 2012, Peele was given his chance to perform his impressions and other characters as he, along with MadTV co-star Keegan-Michael Key, were given their own show on Comedy Central, aptly named Key & Peele. The show was a success almost immediately and has recently been renewed for a fourth season. Though rarely bearded in the show (a major detriment if you ask me), Peele is often seen with a respectable stubble though he has been known to rock a full beard, like in his supporting role in David Wain’s Wanderlust.
With the finish line coming into view once again, the Blackhawks came out in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals as though they knew the chance to repeat is no longer 10 steps down the road. They controlled play for the better part of the first period and save for Marian Gaborik getting a couple clean looks in the slot, they did a good job of keeping the Kings to the outside and negating any kind of forecheck with clean breakouts.
When the shit hit the fan
It was all I could stand
Yeah, well I’m a frequent flyer
My body’s breathing while it can
But what I don’t understand is that
My world ain’t gettin’ no brighter
An I’ll try to paint a story
Got your pictures to tell
Yeah you got to make a living
With what you bring yourself to sell
Diamonds and fast cars
Money to burn
I got my head in the clouds
I got these thoughts to churn
Got my feet in the sand
I got a house on the hill
I got a headache like a mother
Twice the price of my thrills
