Jolt Country

Halfway through the third period of game 2. It's 6-0 Avalanche, and the game is not as close as the score would indicate.

An utter dismantling.

Wait, it went to 7-0 while I was writing that.

If Tampa can win four out of five after this, then good for them.

These teams are not playing the same game.

It amused me for two seconds to learn that the entire stadium sings a pop punk song to the Avs each game. Then I recoiled in horror as the song they picked is one of the greatest abominations ever created against the human ear.

Everything about hockey (and all professional sports) is terrible and stupid except when they play the game.

Well, the Avs are getting slaughtered so far in game 3 but I'm more interested in this:

How is Emily Kaplan allowed on the air? This dumb blonde bitch sounds like she's reading a third grade book report when she's asking insightful questions like "how do you think your team will respond in the next period?"

How is it possible she has a job. On television. Saying things.

And people ask why I keep the sound off.

Who was that comedian that did a stint on Monday Night Football (no google)? It's bad enough that they have a guy telling you what you are seeing, which is pointless on a visual medium. Then they have other people telling you what the players did after they did it. And to add to that, thay have other other people doing on-the-spot interviews. And then commercials

Dennis Miller is probably who you were thinking of. He was great and MNF needed him a lot more than he needed that cruddy show. Football announcing is so, so, so awful and has greatly contributed to the overall awfulness of the sport as a whole. I think football's well below baseball and hockey for me now. (Good work, Goodell.)

After getting obliterated in game 3, the Avs struggled to reach overtime in game 4 and then hung out in the Tampa zone for the entire overtime until Nazim Kadri scored a goal nobody noticed because it got caught in the top of the net.

3-1. Emily Kaplan was worse than ever, but hopefully we only have to deal with it for one more game.

I watched overtime and I was blown away how different the Avalance are than a typical Sabres game (the only team I watched this year with any regularity was Buffalo).

It is difficult to explain the difference in getting the puck out of Colorado's zone (almost instant, constantly, regularly) and the dicking around Buffalo does. I don't see Colorado ever "dump and chase." The skill level on every Av in overtime was through the roof. I have tried to figure out how they got these guys because they were just as bad as Buffalo a few years ago. What a rebuild.

They do look more like a videogame than any team I've ever seen.

I dunno what happened, but they've looked like garbage the last three games and were lucky to get that OT win to go 3-1.

They're up 2-1 in game 6 with one period to go.

I really don't know. This could go either way.

By the way, Tampa coach Jon Cooper whined like a bitch after both Colorado goals, and whined like a bitch after the Avs won game 4, and whines like a fucking bitch after anything that happens that he doesn't like, and is a whiny bitch.

Fuck yeah.

This is the first time since 1991 that any team I liked won the championship of their sport.

The Avs won in 1996 and 2001, but I hated them then. Sometimes you come late to the party, but this was a fun party.

At least Tampa Bay went out with dignit--

https://streamja.com/oeqgN

God, I hate TB teams.

Saving this for later. It's from April of 2020, right when there was the most unknowns about the pandemic. The Pelugas own the Buffalo Sabres.

As Pegulas face business challenges, employees describe a ‘toxic culture’ at PS
Tim Graham
Apr 20, 2020
Last January, within a couple of weeks of the Buffalo Bills reaching the playoffs for the second time in three seasons, owner and president Kim Pegula spoke to her employees about tightening their belts.

Over the course of a few days, Pegula addressed various departments via video conference from the family’s home office in Boca Raton, Fla. She explained raises and bonuses should not be expected aside for those, such as coaches and players, contracted to receive them. Budgets would be scrutinized.

Times ahead were going to be difficult, Pegula stressed, and sacrifices must be made. The tone underscored worries that had been circulating among workers at various Pegula Sports and Entertainment properties. They already feared Terry and Kim Pegula were eyeing additional cutbacks to right-size a sports, media and hospitality empire that expanded too rapidly.

Kim Pegula’s video presentation included a rundown of organizational objectives. One particular slide, titled “Pegula Family Goals,” shook executives and lower-level employees alike. A handout version of the slide, obtained and verified by The Athletic, listed the Pegulas’ three chief objectives: win championships, sustainability, return on investment.

Pegula, current and former employees say, explained that return on investment included maintaining the family’s lifestyle.

“People were walking out of those meetings like they’d been punched in the gut,” a Bills management source said. “We just made the playoffs in the NFL, where it’s impossible to lose money. We’re firing on all cylinders. Now we have to pinch pennies?