Monthly Archives: April 2012

Random Thoughts: 4/27/12

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What a great night I had yesterday.  I got home just in time to see the New York Rangers defeat the Ottawa Senators in game 7.  I also found out that my favorite show currently on television, Fringe, has been renewed for a 5th and final season on Fox.

Onto a few thoughts:

- I love the NFL, but can’t really get into the draft like others can.  Even in years where my team drafts later on, I don’t find it all that compelling to watch.  It made it even worse when I knew several months ago who the Colts were going to draft.  I haven’t seen video of the announcement, and have no desire to.  The draft is great for the NFL, ESPN, NFL Network, and the fans who watch…but it is not for me.

-  Notre Dame WR Michael Floyd was picked up by the Arizona Cardinals.  If they could get a high quality QB, they would be sitting great with two outstanding receivers to throw the ball to.  A tandem of Larry Fitzgerald and Floyd could prove deadly.

-  NHL Playoffs, round 2, begins tonight with Phoenix hosting Nashville.   Two hot goaltenders from the previous round could mean several tight games.  Nashville is better though and they win in 5.  I’ll also take St. Louis over Los Angeles in 5, New York Rangers over Washington in 6, and Philadelphia over the New Jersey Devils in 7.

Community was brilliant. Every detail of Law and Order was executed perfectly.

-  Community spoofed Law and Order on NBC last night and it was simply amazing.   As a fan of L&O for years, it was incredible how detailed this episode was.  Everything from the intro to the one-liners and the detectives/D.A at the hot-dog stand was well done.  This was a gem of an episode.  I now have a problem with where to place this episode all time.  It surpasses the pillow/blanket fort documentary but was it better than the timeline episode?  Tough call.

-  All has been pretty quiet on the gaming front lately.  Nothing of too much interest, from my perspective, has been happening.

More NHL Playoff Predictions

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Even after a single day of playoff games, every series has a story already.  I’m talking about Pittsburgh blowing a 3-0 lead, Shea Weber’s head smash and Vancouver’s discipline.

Tonight however, we progress to a new set of games.

#8 Ottawa vs. #1 New York Rangers

A mismatch on paper in nearly every single way.  This was unfortunately the worst opponent for the Rangers.  Among the possible first round matchups, the Senators are the one team who have had New York’s number.  They are 3-1 against the Blue Shirts this season.

Not many pucks get this view.

Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist had a magnificent regular season.  He posted career bests in save percentage (.930) and goals against average (1.97).  He is a heavy Vezina trophy favorite and he led the team to the number one seed in the East.

The Senators meanwhile have a high potent offense.  They even have an offensive blue line led by defenseman Erik Karlsson who led the league at his position with 78 points.

This Rangers club is stacked with offense and goaltending, but can they stop the barrage of shots that the Senators will put on them?  This will be a wake up call for the NYR.  New York in 7.

#7 Washington vs. #2 Boston

The defending champion Bruins stumbled badly out of the gate this season, but nearly ran the table in November.  They’ve been one of the most inconsistent teams in the league.  They also have Tim Thomas who has stolen quite a few games this year.  However, there is something about this team that doesn’t seem right.

Washington meanwhile saw its star, Alexander Ovechkin have a downright dreadful year in comparison to his past.  The phrase “what have you done for me lately” comes into play here though.  10 goals in his final 13 games and a streaking Capitals team whose playoff hopes were nearly dashed 3 weeks ago.  They’ll also be going with an unproven netminder in rookie Braden Holtby.

It is impossible to ignore the playoff stigma that the Capitals have had in the Ovechkin era. Peaking at the right time though is huge in sports.  Going against the champs, a rookie in net, a history of failure…something’s gotta give…and it just might.  There hasn’t been a repeat champion since Detroit in 1998 and this year will be no different.  Washington in 6.

#7 San Jose vs. #2 St. Louis

What can you say about the St. Louis Blues?  They’ve been simply amazing since hiring Ken Hitchcock as their head coach.  It seems like nearly every time you see the nightly scores, the Blues had won.  Quite often, they’d win via shutout.  In fact, the Blues shutout the Sharks twice this season…and swept the 4 game series.

There’s no doubt the goaltending of the Blues has been a huge part of their success.   Between Jaroslav Halak and Brian Elliott, the team never has an issue sending out the wrong goaltender.  This could easily be the best duo of all time.  Halak, who took the Montreal Canadiens deep into the playoff a couple years ago, will start game 1.

For the Sharks, this season was nearly a massive disappointment.  A team who you can pencil into home ice advantage in the first round, barely made the playoffs.  The fact is, they are getting old.  But with age, comes experience.  Don’t overlook players like Dan Boyle, Patrick Marleau, and Joe Thornton.

I gotta say if San Jose wins this series, it would be the biggest upset in round one no matter what happens with everyone else.  The goaltending is too much and the Sharks simply don’t execute the way they used to.  If they get lucky and catch Halak on a bad night, they’ll simply have to deal with Elliott.  St. Louis in 5.

#6 Chicago vs. #3 Phoenix

Well someone had to win the Pacific division and get the 3 seed in the West.  The Coyotes edged out fellow division foes Los Angeles and San Jose.

This is how you do a proper “white out”

The big story with the Blackhawks is Jonathan Toews.  He’s been out with concussion symptoms since mid-February but hopes to return tonight for game 1.  This would be a huge boost to the high powered Hawks offense.

The Coyotes haven’t won a division since the team was in Winnipeg.  They’ve also never won a playoff series.  Home ice advantage means one of my favorite playoff traditions for the WPG/PHX franchise, and that is the White Out.  I’ve always found it to be quite awesome that the tradition carried over when the team moved to the desert.

Mike Smith, goaltender for Phoenix, could mean the difference.  He’s had an up and down season but has been as good as ever down the stretch.  He boasted 3 consecutive shutouts, including a 57 save performance against Columbus.  Playoffs are about goaltenders and if he can play up to that level, the Coyotes can go far.

Unfortunately, the Chicago offense may be too much to handle over a 7 game series.  The Hawks are the better team who played in a much better division, and that will show as the series unfolds.   Chicago in 6.

NHL Playoff Time

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Well after being completely shattered and disappointed by the results of the NHL draft lottery, we proceed to the Stanley Cup Playoffs which begin tonight.  Remember that for the first time in what seems like forever, all playoff games will be broadcast to a national audience on NBC, NBC Sports Network, CNBC, and NHL Network.

I’ll give my predictions on the first three series to get underway tonight.

#5 Philadelphia vs. #4 Pittsburgh

Has there been more anticipation for a series than this?  Here is a quick look at the brawl from the regular season.

Not only have these games been hard hitting and intense, but they’ve been up tempo and high scoring as well.   This series has the makings of a classic.  The Flyers also have a ridiculously good record AT Consol Energy Center.  Philly also won 4 of the 6 contests this year.  Jaromir Jagr will be hungry in his first playoffs in 5 years…especially against a team where he shined for a majority of his career.

On the flip side, there is a healthy 50 goal scorer in Evgeni Malkin for Pittsburgh.  Of course a healthy Sidney Crosby adds a deadly combination to the offense.

Will offensive threats Daniel Briere and James van Riemsdyk be able to play?  This could swing the series.

I expect an all out effort from both clubs in a series that hopefully will live up to the hype.  Philadelphia in 7.

#5 Detroit vs. #4 Nashville

The matchup of these two Central division opponents was inevitable weeks ago.  The question was who would get home ice advantage.  17 regulation losses combined for these teams at home is how good these teams are in front of their own fans.  Detroit broke the NHL record for consecutive home wins while the Predators were fantastic with the combination of Rinne and Music City fans.

The season series is identical, each team 3-3.  They are 2-1 on home ice.

All eyes in this series should be on Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard.  While I think he is completely overrated and nearly any goalie could have been in his skates this year and be successful, the playoffs are a different animal.  Howard has never been successful in the playoffs as a professional, even in Grand Rapids.

Obviously the premiere goaltender in this series is Nashville’s Pekka Rinne.  Rinne won a league high 43 games and could very well be a Vezina trophy finalist this year.  The team is built around defensive hockey and if they jump on the board early, they could give the Wings fits.

Detroit has defeated Nashville in the playoffs in both of their previous meetings.  This is a vastly improved Predator club and they won’t go down without a fight.  Nashville in 6.

#8 Los Angeles vs. #1 Vancouver

Vancouver has been on a tear lately, going 8-1-1 down the stretch to obtain the best regular season record by a game.  Home ice throughout the playoffs is always something to be excited about.

The regular season saw only 15 goals scored (excluding shootout winners) and the Canucks winning by a narrow 2-1-1 margin.  The playoffs generally translate into lower scoring games so I’d expect to see at least one 1-0 game between the teams.

Roberto Luongo was one win away last year.

Los Angeles has thrived this year thanks to a defensive game and goaltender Jonathan Quick.  Leading the NHL in shutouts (10), Quick will be a favorite to take home the Vezina.

Vancouver meanwhile has Roberto Luongo who has a stigma of less than stellar play in the playoffs.  This despite the fact that the Canucks took the champion Boston Bruins to game 7 in the finals last year.  With Cory Schneider sitting on the bench, Luongo will have to be no less than awesome to avoid having the best backup in the league take his place.

The Canucks have too much fire power and so much playoff experience on the team and Daniel Sedin is expected to return for game 1.  The Kings were 29th in the league in goal scoring.  Unless Quick plays even better than he did in the regular season, they’ll be exiting very quickly soon.  Vancouver in 4.

 

 

NHL 12′s Shortcomings

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The annual releasing of sports games has been going on for over 20 years now.  It can be argued that no game really benefits from this type of release.  Just look at Madden and NCAA Football as prime examples of games who have been negatively impacted by annual releases.  The money is made by game publishers for annual releases and that is the bottom line.  Unfortunately for EA’s NHL series, this is also the case.

As I’ve mentioned before, NHL is a game I get every year without hesitation because I know I’ll play it more than any other.  The series has been high quality since NHL 07′s complete overhaul on Xbox 360.  They’ve even made significant strides since then.

NHL 12 introduced goaltenders who can be hit, net battles, and um…goalie fighting.  A pretty substandard year as far as new gameplay features are concerned.

NHL 12 dedicated resources to adding females into the game. *sigh*

So as we are now halfway through the game’s life cycle and I really question how good NHL 12 actually is.  I’ll start with the meat of the game, online team play.

I’m more and more convinced that the guys at EA Vancouver have either never seen a hockey game, or are dead set on making it impossible for the defense to be effective.  I should preface this by saying I play this game to simulate a real hockey game.  I want to cycle the puck, make smart hockey plays and simply play it the right way.  I have 800 games played and I have a vast knowledge of the sport.

First off, the glitches.  My goodness these have become bad.  I’ll start with the worst offender…the goaltender simply doesn’t hold the post on the short side.  It’s incredibly frustrating to see this exploited on a regular basis.  Despite playing optimal defense and keeping the shooter to the outside, they manage to score a ridiculously high percentage of the time.

How about the pull back wrister that has more or less been in the game for 4 years now?  How is this still in the game???  First off, no one pulls the puck back like that in real life.  Secondly, why does the goaltender wave and miss and this shot so often?  I get the fact that being in the slot should create greater shooting percentages but going 4 for 4 isn’t right.

Many will say “play better defense.” Yeah?  I think my defense is just fine.  I rarely go for a hit, I play positional and yet the stupidest shots still go in.  I shouldn’t have to get to a certain spot on the ice and prevent an easy shot from being taken.  I want to play hockey, not “stop the cheater.”

Defense is so non-existant in this game as well.  The game is so offensively slanted it is insulting.  Poke checking, even with a stat category of 99 is incredibly difficult.  Stick lifting, which was admittedly overpowering in NHL 11, is simply useless in this game.  Even positional defense doesn’t work because highly rated skaters can just do figure-eights all day long and wait to make their move, all while staying on their skates and never losing an edge.

The offense was helped out even more by the fact that passes are no longer bobbled like they were in NHL 11.  In fact, last year’s passing was the best the series ever saw.  If you powered up a pass for too long, the recipient would likely have issues corralling it depending on their hand-eye stat.  This year, you can charge a pass as long as you want and they will receive it with no problem.  Simply put, this was a terrible decision.

Speaking of creating your online player…Remember the first couple weeks of the release? The game played great and at a realistic speed.  This is because most of the XP wasn’t earned yet.  Now it is an end to end circus with players who have perfect balance and puck control.  One of the best things they can do is significantly reduce the amount of XP earned.  You shouldn’t be able to max 6 or 7 categories in your stats.  This is a major offender when it comes to game play.

There are so many things that bug me in this game but I thought I’d mention the significant ones.  However, I’d be doing a disservice if I failed to mention the A.I. in online team play.  Is it really hard to make them actually play defense when they are assigned that spot?  They are rarely in position, and they get beat so badly at the blue line.  On offense, they shoot the puck every time they touch the puck and make no effort to do anything else.  It really is atrocious that we’ve gotten to this point.

After seeing this, you’re probably wondering why I play such a shoddy product.  The truth is that the game can be fun.  When you aren’t playing against a team of exploiters and cheaters, it really is an enjoyable game.

Now I’ve given up on playing the other portions of the game.  For some reason they dedicate so much time to adding legend mode and the money grabbing Hockey Ultimate Team.  Franchise mode is pretty decent with the right sliders but after 29 games, I couldn’t advance the schedule due to a freeze.

If this series would not be forced to meet a September release deadline, perhaps they could fix these issues that have been plaguing the series for years now.  I can’t for the life of me believe these games are being tested.  If EA really believe this is how hockey is when it comes to the glitches I’ve mentioned above, we have some bigger problems.  Of course a lack of competition in the video hockey market is an obvious factor.