Jets Suck & Nabokov is a Douche

Sunday Funday!  I kinda like watching football on Sundays.  No wait, that's not entirely true.  When Danny would watch like 3 straight games starting at 1pm on a Sunday afternoon... that wasn't quite as fun (hehehehe). But when there's just ONE game that I'm somewhat interested in watching on a Sunday evening, I like it!  For example, tonight's Steelers vs. Jets game, to decide which team will make it to the Super Bowl.  I am a Giants fan, so I don't much care for the NY Jets.  Plus that coach Rex Ryan is just a big talker and he's kinda creepy.  At least the Giants coach looks like a mean dinosaur instead of the Pillsbury Doughboy, and doesn't make strange foot fetish videos.  So I was pretty gleeful when the Jets lost tonight.

Yeahhh I got bored and took a bunch of really retarded DSi photos with effects and posted them on Facebook.  I'll probably regret that tomorrow lol!  xD

Anyway so that's not the only sports topic on my mind right now.  I'm a bit baffled by the Waivers system in the NHL.  You see, this goaltender named Evgeni Nabokov had been placed on waivers by the Detroit Red Wings... and when you're on waivers, it means that another team can swoop in and snag the contract.  So the Islanders claimed Nabokov off waivers, and this fucking goalie is being a HUGE diva bitch about it.  Clearly he doesn't want to come to Long Island.  He said:

"Right now, that's right. I was surprised they picked me up. I was like, 'Wow, what's the point?' " Nabokov told ESPN. "It's nothing against the Islanders and their organization. It's just that I'm at the point in my career where I want to help a team win in the playoffs. I don't see how I could help the Islanders or what I could do for them."

I say... first of all, guy, it's not up to you to determine why a team picked you up.  We have our reasons - mainly that our main goalie Rick DiPietro's ability to play is pretty uncertain, and our 'baby goalies' aren't doing so hot either.  Lawson (the better rookie) is kinda injured and I don't even KNOW the other goalie's name.  So we need a more, uh... 'reliable' goalie.  It's not like a player can be placed on waivers and then give dibs to a team that's in playoff contention.

So anyway, this guy Nabokov is refusing to report to my team.  He even hung up on the General Manager, Garth Snow:

Snow, however, also confirmed what owner Charles Wang had told reporters a few minutes earlier, that Nabokov - the longtime Sharks goalie who started this season in the Russian KHL - had hung up on him during an initial phone call made Saturday. Before talking to Snow Sunday, the 35-year-old Nabokov told ESPN he hadn't been contacted by the Isles or received any voice messages from Snow.

"(Nabokov's agent Don Meehan) called me and told me it was uncalled for and that he would get to the bottom of it," Snow said. "He called me back 15 or 20 minutes later, saying '(Nabokov) didn't know it was you.' I just gave him the benefit of the doubt."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/hockey/2011/01/23/2011-01-23_islanders_owner_charles_wang_reveals_gm_garth_snow_confirms_evgeni_nabokov_hung_.html#ixzz1BvV5oJgs

I say, child please.  This is the most obnoxious move I've ever seen by a hockey player, and that's saying a lot, considering how much crap NY Ranger Sean Avery has pulled in the past 5 years or so.  I always figured that [most] hockey players were humble and down to earth.  At this point I don't want this fuckhead Nabokov on my team - he's clearly a selfish bitch, and that doesn't fit my team's mentality.

I hope the league forces Nabokov to honor his contract that is now owned by the Islanders, and then I hope the Islanders suspend him for the rest of the season for being a douchebag.  That way he can sit on his ass and mope around for the next 3-4 months and not play for ANYONE, let alone a playoff team.  That's what you get for being a selfish asshole.

*end rant*  :D

That's Enough, Chris Botta

In more Islanders related news, there was once a blogger named Chris Botta.  He had a sort of an indie-style blog, but he was covering the Islanders team and often went to morning skates and posted 'insider info' that you wouldn't find on the Islanders team website or other news sites.

Recently, however, the Islanders decided that Chris Botta was getting a little out of control.  He was posting overly negative opinions about the movements the team had made, and apparently he had done some player interviews outside of the designated areas for press.  Garth Snow (the GM of the Islanders) made the decision to close down Botta's Blog and remove his press credentials for covering the team.

Chris Botta is not handling this situation like a grown up.  He's been practically begging to speak with Garth Snow and ask for his credentials back, but Snow is standing firm.  (From Twitter: ChrisBottaNHL  I'm told Garth Snow standing firm on his ban. Looks like I'll be barred from a second game. Ok, back to Springsteen box set.)  Botta has been posting similar whining posts across the web.  The fans are starting to get sick of it.  Personally, I was never a fan of his and I'm glad to see him removed from the Islanders.

My friend Gina came up with this hilarious idea, and requested that I make a little photoshop ditty to send Chris Botta a message.  (I take no credit for the Family Guy reference or the idea to sub in Botta's name for John Mayer's.)  I sent this to Botta via TwitPic but I figured I'll post it here as well for your viewing pleasure:

I don't know if it will get him to stop being a baby, man up, and accept his fate... but I always enjoy sending this dude a piece of my mind.  :)

Islanders Lose 11 Straight

My favorite hockey team is the NY Islanders.  Too bad they SUCK right now.  As of last night, we've now lost 11 straight games.  We got one OT loss point in this downward spiral, but the rest were all regulation losses.  It's totally bullshit.

On Tuesday, the team fired the head coach, Scott Gordon.  (That was after we'd dropped 10 straight games.)  I was not only shocked by this drastic move, but even more so by who the team named as the interim coach.  They called up Jack Capuano, who was the head coach of the Islander's minor league affiliate team, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

Now, if you didn't know, Scott Gordon had also been a minor league coach before he was named head coach of the Isles a couple years ago.  Obviously things weren't working out with him, so I can understand that they reassigned Gordon to a desk job.  But how is it any better to name yet ANOTHER minor league coach as the replacement?  Even on a temporary basis, it makes no sense to me.

I felt this was evidenced last night.  We still lost.  My team ALWAYS plays with heart and effort, and last night was no different.  But that's not any different from when Gordon was coach - they put in the same effort for him, too.  I didn't really see any real differences between how the team played for Gordon and how they played for Capuano.  Obviously, they are still playing the same 'system'...  but the reason they got rid of Gordon was to get a "new voice" in the locker room.

Call me impatient, but after one game, I didn't see any impact that this new voice might have made.

I also didn't really understand why Capuano didn't put Rick DiPietro in goal.  Sure, Roloson has been playing all right the past few games, but he hasn't been stellar.  Maybe if he'd only given up 1 or 2 goals for the past 4 games, I'd be more understanding.  But he gave up 4 goals in the game before this most recent one.  I thought Rick deserved a chance in net, even if he hasn't been playing that amazingly so far this season.

I think they should have at least considered trying the goalie change before deciding to make a coaching change.