I know nothing about stick and puck. This time I'll talk about stick and ball.

Armando Galarraga pitched against the Indians tonight. The last time he squared off against them it ended up being a memorable evening. This is what he had to offer about that game in an interview tonight.

“I will always feel happy about that game—it was a great moment for me,” Galarraga said. “I’d change the last call so I pitched my perfect game, but I’d never change anything else about that day.”


Would you? That's bold, Armando. Thanks for that.


Sorry, but that's all I've(That sounded like Sven. Something has to I guess. He sure doesn't anymore. Yeah. I called you out.). If I get bored I'll come up with my fantasy hockey roster, but don't count on it.

The bar has been set...

During the first period of tonight's Rangers/Devils game, they showed a graphic for Henrik Lundqvist's stats for his last seven starts. The topic brought on this exchange between the two commentators. These aren't exact quotes. I'm just trying to type what I heard, but it's close enough. Also, I don't know the names of the commentators, so we'll use some completely generic names.

Pilot Inspektor: "Is there a save percentage level that really defines the good goalies from the so-so goalies?"

Paradorn: ".920 is really the minimum save percentage to have to really say you're giving your teammates a chance to win. A really good save percentage level is around .940."

Ok. So three goalies in the league so far this year are posting "really good" save percentages. Are you ready? They are Anton Khudobin, Mike Brodeur, and Justin Peters. This trio has a combined 8 starts this year. I believe it might be worthwhile to eliminate Mr. Tremendousson's brother from another mother, small sample size. Let's try that.

Using a 20 game minimum as a requirement(which is still pretty conservative, since that's less than 1/3 of the club's games thus far), there are zero goalies that have a "really good" save percentage. In fact, Ryan Miller's league-leading .932% isn't even close to being "really good." Scoring must be up this year, because these lousy goalies just don't stack up. Vokoun? .930%? Don't make me laugh. Ha ha ha...too late!

Here is a list of the top save percentages in the NHL since save percentage became a stat, with a minimum of 30 games. Hasek's .937% in 1998-99 tops the list. Apparently we have yet to see a "really good" goalie. Can't wait! I know this guy Shane, and he's looking really promising. I don't know his last name, but I'm just saying, if there's a Shane in the NHL in a few years posting .940+ sv%, you read it here first. Also, there's this one kinda small guy who always wears a blue jersey...he's a beast when it comes to ball hockey. Speaking of small guys, there's another one who doesn't like to pay league fees. I heard he was interested in Matt's DVD player though.

Now, let's take a look at how many goalies are posting a .920+ save percentage, using the 20 game minimum as a guideline. Here's the list.

Ryan Miller, Tomas Vokoun, Evgeni Nabokov, Tuukka Rask, Jaroslav Halak, Jimmy Howard, Miikka Kiprusoff, Craig Anderson, Henrik Lundqvist, and Ilya Bryzgalov. Ten goalies are doing the "minimum to really say they're giving their teammates a chance to win," and two of them(Rask and Halak) aren't even leading their team in games played. How do teams even win with these lousy goalies? Bring back the trap! We need to get some decent goalies out there!

To be honest, I'm actually kinda surprised there are ten on this list. I expected it to be closer to five or six.

Ask Someone From South Dakota If They Know How to Spell "Jaromir"

People in Columbus couldn't do it 5 years ago, I wonder if they do now. Or even "Kris Russell", we'll ease 'em back in.

New York Times' Stu Hackel might want to spend less time blogging and open an atlas.

When critics try to explain what they feel is wrong with the N.H.L., they often say the league does not market its stars in the United States as other pro sports do. Showcase their personalities, the argument goes, and the N.H.L. will rise in popularity.

Who are "they"? I (notice no quotations) would say the NHL tries hard to promote Crosby, Ovechkin, Kane, et al. The problem is the NHL is thought of as a 2nd rate sport. And don't give me that "one of the 4 major sports" stuff. The NHL has a lousy national TV deal and struggles to remain relevant to the generic sports fan. The are doing some good things. The Winter Classic is a hit. The Rangers did a top 10 on Letterman recently.

The NHL promotes within its own fanbase very well. The problem is again that enough people don't recognize hockey as an important sport. Soccer is a great example. MLS signed Beckham to a huge deal, then they ran ads on billboards in LA, in newspapers, on ESPN, and still no one cared.

Mr. Hackel isn't agreeing or disagreeing, but that is my 2 hundredths of a loonie.

Whether or not that is true, whether or not it is realistically possible and whether or not it would have an an appreciable impact is the subject for another post, but one thing is certain — as the Coyotes failure to sell tickets by making Wayne Gretzky their coach demonstrated — promoting the personality of someone other than a player is not likely to advance a team’s or a league’s profile.

Ok, sure, but having Wayne Gretzky as their coach sure did give them a little bit more face time. Maybe if they'd sucked less they would've had a profile "advance" but I think Gretzky being their coach at least allowed for the mention of their franchise in, like say, for example a blog in the New York Times or something.

So what’s with Toronto’s obsession with Brian Burke?

Hey, Stu, remember the good ol' days when you suggested the N.H.L. might be struggling to promote itself in the U S of A? And then you went and said Toronto was obsessed with Brian Burke?

There is a Toronto in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, and South Dakota. There used to be a Toronto, Indiana, but according to its wikipedia page it's extinct. Probably because everyone lynched each other when the Leafs started off with 6 losses under Brian Burke.

Look, Toronto is a hockey mad city. In the U.S., people know who Mitch Kupchak, Donnie Nelson, Jerry Krause, Billy Beane, Brian Cashman, and Theo Epstein are because they are GMs/Executives for very popular US teams. In the NFL, the owner is often the GM. Maybe you've heard of Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft or Al Davis.

Anyway, he goes on to talk about how bad the Leafs are. They are bad, but how many words of Burke's the city of Toronto hangs on has nothing to do with the United States.