Friday!

I really love Fridays. I half ass work on Fridays, as I am sure many Americans do, just to get out of the office unharmed. I bet on Fridays, Mike's students learn little more than his football picks and Kevin's orders are lucky to be correct (kidding!) This weekend will be another sports blowout (sorry Stacey!) with the AFC/NFC Championships and the back-to-back MSU/OSU hockey games. Let's get this shit started!

I think everyone is surprised but in agreement that the NFC Championship Game is more exciting than the AFC. (Sad fact: when I wrote that last sentence, I spelled out ACT instead of AFC. Job habit, I guess) As for the Patriots/Chargers - boo, haven't we already seen this before? Last year's playoffs, week 2, and the AFC Championship game? Does anyone care about Rivers and Tomlinson (or is it Volek and Turner)? Does anyone think the Chargers will win? Patriots win 34 - 20.

I realize the Packers and Giants played in week 2 as well, but both of these teams are very different teams now. Growing up on wrestling, I love storylines in sports. It brings the importance of the game to a whole new level. I really want to see Brett Favre make one final go at the championship and retire. But that's not likely - I bet we'll see him again next year. (Sorry Aaron Rodgers) Packers win 24-17

Can anyone else explain to me why the Conference Championship games are both on Sunday? When did this happen?

I am really excited to see THE National Championship Spartan Hockey team tonight. Prediction for the weekend - win tonight, tie tomorrow. Thank you OSU fans for not giving two shits about hockey so I can get 4th row center ice tickets!

**Update**
They were actually 2nd row center ice tickets (I love when row "d" means 2nd row). It was a great feeling being heckled by stupid Ohioans knowing that my team was the better team. MSU came out and put 2 goals up early - they were clearly bigger and better than OSU. The Buckeyes finally put one on the board before the end of the first period. At the intermission, the band came out and formed "script Ohio" on the ice; nobody fell, so it was a disappointment. OSU came out strong at the beginning of the 2nd and had much more energy. They had a lot of chances, but MSU squashed their spirit by scoring another goal. In the end, they scored an empty netter as well to bring the final Score to 4-1. I stand by my prediction for a tie tonight. I am guessing it will be 2-2.

**Update 2**
I was correct about the number of goals scored on Saturday, but wrong about the final score. They won 4-0 with an impressive shutout from Lerg. Keep in mind he's 5'6" - he does this funny thing when he gets bored before the game and during breaks where he puts his arms on the crossbar and swings back and forth in the air. During player intros, they called out "Rich Comley" which pissed me off. There were about 9,000 people on Friday, which I later found out was more than twice their previous high attendance this season. Their student spirit section is about 15 people, which has to be the lamest type of student - "lower sport crazy fan" - they do all of the cheers and dances. It is cool if you're a part of a large section, but it just looks forced when you are doing it with your row and the row behind you.

The most impressive thing from the game was holding OSU to 0-7 on the powerplay (and going 2-5 themselves). I saw something I've never seen before - they were shorthanded and had a rocket of a shot that sounded like it went off the crossbar - no goal was called and play continued. At the next whistle, they had the Dance cam or something so everyone was being loud. They announced that the play was under review and I knew they were going to call it a goal. Nobody in the crowd noticed and about 2 mins later the ref signaled the 4th goal of the night (which still went unnoticed). They put back the correct time on the scoreboard and kept playing.

Overall, the team is a very finesse team - excellent passing, good vision, good speed, and clear the puck defensively. They do tend to have 5 min. lapses and aren't very physical. Lerg makes some great saves, but I think the more impressive thing is that other teams don't seem to get good bounces because he doesn't give up bad goals. U-M and Miami are at the top of the league - they play U-M in a home-and-home series next weekend.

It was so much fun to go to the games because seeing my team live made me feel closer to home. The best feeling was the pride I felt in knowing that they were going to win so I could be as boastful as I wanted around the OSU fans.