Getting Their Shit Together

When it comes to the sporting world no one has ever confused me for an optimist. Where some see the glass half full, I see dangerous glass shards which will be used to rip out the eyes of the high scoring winger carrying my favorite team. So, as you can imagine, my choosing to write a sports blog is more like therapy than anything else. It gives me a chance to vent, or hyperventilate, depending on my mood of course.

However, every so often one or more of the teams I follow begins to put things together. Right now I have the good fortune to have two teams doing that, which is sort of difficult for a curmudgeon.

The Blues have won five in a row, and have generally played real well since their defensive corps all got healthy. Obviously, Roman Polak is a huge part of the Blues success. The Blues are 9-2-2 this season when Polak is in the lineup. When you compare that to the record when the Blues' seventh defenseman (Tyson Strachan) plays (9-8-2) the difference is remarkable. With Polak in the lineup the Blues are on a pace to get 126 points, without him only 86 points.

Welcome back Roman. Please stay healthy.

However, the Blues are not the only team I follow moving in the right direction. After their usual share of early season turmoil Notts County is really starting to string together some results. Since they lost at home to Tranmere on Nov. 20th the Pies are undefeated in 5, going 3-0-1 in the league and advancing in the FA Cup in the other game. I didn't know what to expect when Paul Ince was made manager, but the team certainly seems to have responded. The table in League One is so bunched up right now, a playoff spot for Notts is not out of the question, though neither is the relegation zone if they begin to slip.

See? I'm starting to fret about relegation already.

Everything's back to normal for me.

Comments

A Note of Optimism About the Note

If you have been trying to watch the St. Louis Blues attempt to play hockey of late it would be hard to believe the word optimism could ever be in play. The losses continue relentlessly, often in the "never in the game" style, but increasingly in a "lose from winning position" flair which is enough to make someone turn on the news for an upbeat change of pace. (Wow, plane crashes and LUNACY!) This team still can't score with the regularity needed to win consistently in this league. The coaching staff knows they have precious few natural goal scorers (one is precious few), so they attempt to make up for it by getting what I call "process" goals, i.e. goals scored by virtue of constant pressure, crazy bounces, accidental deflections, etc. Basically, any goal you can get from a player who doesn't have the knack for scoring them on their own. The Blues are something like zero for their last 12-15 breakaway chances, and zero for their last 25-30 2 on 1...

Matt Damon: "James Bond Should Be A Wuss, Like Me."

Alright, maybe Damon didn't say that exactly, but he might as well have : Hollywood star Matt Damon has dismissed James Bond as being stuck in the past. The actor, who appears in the Bourne thrillers, said: "The Bond character will always be anchored in the 1960s and in the values of the 1960s." The suave spy was "so anachronistic when you put it in the world we live in today", he said, but added that Bourne was no better or worse than Bond. Damon was speaking in London, where The Bourne Ultimatum, the third film in the franchise, is having its UK premiere. "Bond is an imperialist and a misogynist who kills people and laughs about it, and drinks Martinis and cracks jokes," he told reporters. "Bourne is a serial monogamist whose girlfriend is dead and he does nothing but think about her." Bourne mooning over his dead girlfriend is something we should be excited to see? Give me a break. At least Bond lives in a world where it is killed or be ki...

Blues Beat Bugbear

The St. Louis Blues have not had many out-of-character results so far this season. For the most part they have been handling the teams they usually handle and doing nothing against the teams that seem to always have their number. There is some solace to be had just knowing that you are going to probably beat Calgary, and will probably lose to Columbus, just as the sun will most likely rise in the East tomorrow. Granted that isn't an ideal set of affairs for a sports team, but Blues fans have learned to take what they can get. Which is why it is fair to say last night's victory over Utah was unusual. The Blues do not play well against that collection of players. Ever. So, any victory would be noteworthy in this matchup, but the resilience they showed last night was an added bonus. The Blues still have crappy puck luck, but last night they didn't let it get them down and, miracle of miracles, the puck luck evened out for the game. For a change the PK wasn't always runnin...

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