Chicago Blackhawks: Not All Doom And Gloom This Summer

So, it looks like this could be another cruel summer for the Hawks. Not as bad as last year’s cup win and mass exodus, mind you, but there’s still a few cuts to be made to an ever-adapting team, and by the looks of things, Hawkey Nation won’t have to wait too long for another visit from Lord Stanley. I take a look at some of the more simpler likely scenarios that face the Hawks this off-season*.

* obviously this doesn’t allow for trades or anything of an unpredictable nature.

New Blackhawks T-Shirt Arrived!

So yeah guys, here’s the t-shirt I won from Hockey Broad. And it’s about as big as my (Small) Hawks jersey. The shirt’s an XL. Eek indeed.

My 2010-11 Calder Trophy Candidates

So with it being Christmas, and the halfway point in the hockey season fast approaching, I figured I’d draw up a shortlist of who I’m looking at for this year’s Calder Trophy, given to the best rookie of the season.

London: A Brief Summary

Wow, this month’s actually really flew by hasn’t it? I never actually posted on what I got up to or how I got on in London, so I guess it’s time to get up to speed on that.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Many regard it as one of cinema’s greatest masterpieces. I’d heard about it. It created a meme. It’s intro music has been used in pro wrestling for nearly 4 decades. But I’d never seen it before. Not until last night.

Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”. A movie I went into near-blind, only knowing as much about what happens as you could grasp from a trailer or an advertisement. And my oh my was I astounded by what I saw. It literally shook me to the core, but more on that later.

This post will inevitably contain spoilers. Proceed at your own risk if you haven’t already seen the movie, but I highly recommend that you see it first.

Time To Drop The Puck!

Those are the exact words you hear every time it comes up to around the 8th of October. That magical time of the year when the Zambonis are serviced, the skates sharpened, the sticks flexed, and the bodies checked. Oh yes, October means only one thing: hockey is BACK.

I’ve been a fan of hockey for about 9 years now, after playing a chance demo of NHL 2001 on the PS2 (I’ve just reviewed the latest iteration, NHL 11 over on Press X Or Die if you’re interested in that). It’s a game that captivated me at the time: high-action, high-tempo, high-contact sport, miles away from football (that’s soccer), yet still required a great deal of knowledge of specific rules as to how you can and can’t hit, pass and so on. There’s always so much happening that it’s kinda hard to keep up with, but enough to keep you at the edge of your seat instead of sitting through say, 70 minutes of build-up and only 20 minutes worth of serious offense.

With the season being only a few weeks old though, I must have a bit of concern over these rules on the hitting. As much as I like the heavy-handedness of hockey, some of what I’ve witnessed this season’s been above and beyond what’s necessary. A lot of rough hits, fights and injuries, and controversy. Time to have a look at some of these bruise bringers.

Tay Zonday Banned For Life From Facebook

This is Tay Zonday. You may recognise him for his music career he launched on the back of his successful YouTube videos, namely Chocolate Rain. Yesterday, he got banned from Facebook. And this has conspiracy written all over it.

Holy Crap, I’m Going To London!

I can’t believe it’s nearly that time already! I’d thought about for ages, talked about it for ages, and on Wednesday I’ll finally be going! And my oh my has it taken its sweet time about doing so.

At The Risk Of Sounding Like An Asshole…

Right, I just had this conversation with someone I haven’t talked to for the guts of about a year:

Him: Hey
Me: Hey, what’s up? Long time no speak!
Him: Just finished watching Family Guy saeson 9, you?
Me: Well, since I last saw you I dropped out of college, started writing a gaming blog, got picked up by another blog, am struggling finding work days at my day job, and somehow can still afford to go to London next week.
Him: Not so bad.

[/conversation]
[rant]

Cracked

It started with a pinhole

The other side

Applied some pressure

Momentum was gained.

Expansion occurred

As the area surrounding

Started to give way

It begins.

Slowly it widens

Until forced the full way

Pinhole no more

Large scale erosion.

No further resistance

The flow advances

The dam walls burst.

I cried when you left.

EPIC WIN: Your Life As An RPG

You may remember the whole way back in February when I linked to a talk by game designer Jesse Schell, about how games can change people’s every day lives. Looks like someone took that initiative, sandwiched it around a(n overused) meme, and created what’s probably the best “useless” app I’ve ever seen – EPIC WIN.

Car Crash Culture – Why It Needs To End Soon

The debris from a car accident where - luckily - 7 people escaped with their lives. Image credit: TV3/The Irish Times

As an Irishman, it’s pretty much a rare occasion when you go a week without hearing of an accident on our country’s roads. Many of which involve people under the age of 25, with the majority of that sector again being under the age of 20. What is it with teenagers and going too fast and too dangerous on roads? Do they have a death wish of sorts?

Kevin Myers from the Irish Independent published a fantastic piece about this in last Thursday’s Irish Independent (you can read it online in its entirety here), claiming that if speeding on the road wasn’t made out to be as glamorous as it’s made out to be, and their deaths and funerals weren’t highly publicised (at least at national level in the media), perhaps they’d think twice about doing it. And I have to say, he’s bang-on.

The Stig Is Revealed

So in the news yesterday, the BBC lost a court case against tame racing driver, The Stig, pertaining to the attempted blocking of the release of a book by the Man in White. Had the Beeb won, the book would have been blocked for release, and the Stig would have remained anonymous. This was not the case, as the Stig has won his legal battle, and revealed his identity.

Some say… that he’s a failed scientific experiment to bring back Ayrton Senna from beyond the grave (?)… and that he survived 2 weeks in a gym bag in training for MI-6, but rejected it, as talking was part of the job description… All we know is, he’s called…

Will You.. Teach Me.. To Football?

American Football. Ask anyone I know and there’ll be a high chance that nobody likes it, or nobody understands it, so something like that. I was like that too. Until about 2 weeks ago.

Talking to a few of my American friends online, they were naturally amped for the release of the newest Madden NFL game, counting down the days to Madden Tuesday, one of the most popular non-holidays of the year, and the one day that the rate of calling into work sick skyrockets off the charts. EA were counting down to it as well, and celebrated the release in lavish fashion with Madden Gras (a play on Mardi Gras) in New Orleans, home of current NFL champions, the Saints. I had to get in on the action. I had to figure out Football.

Meanwhile.. at Press X Or Die

So as I mentioned before, I’ve started writing news snippets and stuff over at Press X Or Die. Here’s a run down of what I’ve been up to while this place has been on the slow-burn.

• The infamous Duke Nukem Forever legal battle is over, and work on the game can resume if so desired by 3D Realms
• Chicago Blackhawks centre Jonathan Toews has been confirmed as the cover athlete on EA Sports’ NHL 11
• Sony announced they’re killing the Eye Of Judgment’s online servers in September
• An online store in the UK was taking a Fable 3 preorder for a whopping £925 (UPDATE – Since I’ve written that, they’ve removed it)
• Lara Croft & The Guardian of Light sees its release as the main event during the Xbox Summer of Arcade
• And lastly, Famitsu Magazine revealed new info on Monster Hunter Freedom 3

Be sure to subscribe to Press X Or Die in your RSS or e-mail for all of my – and my fellow writers’ – updates.