April 2011 Archives

Of course, I'm talking about sudden death overtime in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Even better when the OT-winner wins the Cup. (Thank you, Jason Arnott.)

For years, I've had a purely unscientific theory about overtime in the playoffs. Simply, that most goals in sudden death overtime are scored in either first five or final five minutes of the 20-minute period.

• First five because the teams have come off the between-period rest and are skating on a fresh sheet of ice improving puck control and movement.

• Last five because the prospects of heading into another overtime period focuses everyone to try and close the deal.

This year, I'm going to start documenting this to put some math behind my musings. To date in the 2011 playoffs, there already have been eight games go into overtime and the first round is still in play. Five (62.5%) meet my criteria and two others miss by 31 seconds or fewer.

More to come.

X wrote "Year 1." We'll call this year two.

Over the past two weekends, I've spent about 4-5 hours in my yard hoping for a better outcome than last year. Mr. Sun, this is on you, too. Into pots, instead of the ground, went hop rhizomes; two each of Fuggles and Goldings. Hopefully have found a sunny corner of the yard and will worry about the needed 10'-12' trellis later. The balance of time was spent weeding. Oy, weeds and dandelions, the bane of my existence, horticulturally speaking, of course. The Columbine seeds (you can take the boy out of Colorado...) I planted in the fall did nothing. I'll chalk that up to more 2010 bad mojo. But on the bright side, my cherry tree has the hint of many blossoms to come. Will cherry blossoms lead to actual cherries?


So, it's April. April showers and blah blah blah. And we've had more than our fair share of rain so far this month and year, Seattle or no. Can I amend the couplet to read, April showers brings May beer? Breaking out of my usual home brew experiments in English ales, I'm attempting my first German-style beer, a maibock, or May Bock. With adequate lagering, I should be able to sample by Memorial Day.


Happy spring!