Thursday Thingies

Yo! Nice to see y'all again.

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The Saskatchewan Roughriders have named Brendan Taman as their new general manager, while giving head coach Ken Miller the added title of vice president of football operations. Details a plenty at http://rodpedersen.blogspot.com/.

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The NFL tournament continued last weekend with divisional round games. On Saturday, Indianapolis beat Baltimore 20-3 and New Orleans blasted Arizona 45-14. On Sunday, it was the Jets over San Diego 17-14 and Minnesota over Dallas 34-3.

For the AFC crown, the Jets play at Indianapolis and for the NFC title, Minnesota is at New Orleans. Both games are on Sunday. The AFC game is on CBS and the NFC game is on Fox. The Super Bowl rolls on February 7th on CBS.

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Tampa Bay has split their two games so far this week. On Monday, the Lightning won at Carolina 3-2. Ryan Malone, Vinny Lecavalier and Steve Downie scored for the Bolts, who got 20 saves from Antero Niittymaki. Tampa Bay then left the offense, defense and goaltending in Florida, going down 8-2 to the Rangers Tuesday in New York. Vinny Lecavalier and Alex Tanguay scored for the Lightning, while Antero Niittymaki got the start in goal, stopping 15 of 20 shots. Rookie Dustin Tokarski played the third, stopping 5 of 8 shots.

Tampa Bay is now 19-20-10 for 48 points, 4 points behind the Islanders for the final playoff spot in the East. The Lightning are now home for four games, starting when host Toronto tonight at 7:00pm, Atlanta Saturday at 7:30pm. Both games can be heard on 620 AM WDAE Radio and seen on Sun Sports in HD.

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In the USHL, Green Bay is 13 points ahead of Cedar Rapids in the East, while Omaha is now just 3 points ahead of Fargo in the West. Tri-City's lead over Sioux City in the race for the last dance card in the West is down to 2 points, and the Muskies have 3 games in hand. Sioux City is at Green Bay and Chicago this weekend, while Tri-City takes it's annual trip to Indianapolis(That, along with the annual weekend in Green Bay, are the ones I miss the most).

Speaking of Indy, they host the USHL all-star game next Tuesday.

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Is it just me, or is the All American Hockey League this biggest lost cause in sports these days? They started last season with a different name and four teams. This year, they started with six teams, but have lost two(actually, I think that's three, but they took two teams and made them into a new one) the latest coming earlier this week when Madison called it quits. Way, way, WAY too many stories of players, coaches and skeleton staffs not getting paid, with seemingly just as many stories of the league not properly checking the background of potential owners, if they even check them at all. Then, those owners, convinced they can make an easy score, turn things over to others, then predictably disappear when the going gets tough.

Also, you have league officials who have to have other jobs on the side, a (now former) league president who is very publically preparing (and has been for quite awhile) to move his team into another league, people who swear on a stack of bibles they have nothing to do with operations, then get named executive of the year, announcements saying big news is coming soon, and on and on and on. All this abortion of a league needs is a calliope, and then it will truly be the circus most consider it to be.

Several people much smarter than me never expected this fiasco to make it to year two. Now, if the league actually survives (in spite of itself) and plays a third year, the Earth will truly spin off it's axis.

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Jimmy says hi! He loves to play with video tapes more than watch them, he'd still rather feed himself with his fingers than use a spoon and he now says "Night Night!" when it's time to go to bed. He plays with the dogs nicely, but still gets a bhit too rambunctious from time to time. What a little Super Toddler he is!

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Next Monday is my birthday. Jimmy will spend the day at Gamma's, while my wife drives me to Orlando for my colonoscopy. What a way to celebrate, eh?

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Still waiting for one final piece of the puzzle to fall into place before starting my new job, while my wife awaits word on her possible new gig. Keep us in mind when you say your prayers please.

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That's it for this week. See ya real soon!