Happy Birthday Marty Frey and my Stanley Cup Picks for the Conference Finals...

Okay, first off today I need to give a shout out to my main man Marty Frey. Marty's birthday is today and you all should drop him a line at marty.frey@nbc.com. He would love that. Marty is a member of the Entourage that will never be announced and is the hook up for everything hollywood. Green Bay Born, Hollywood living, kick your ass in a heart beat for badmouthing the Pack Marty Frey.

He told me he will be tipping a few of his new favorite beers tonight. He also told me that today is the first time in 10 years of living in hollyweird, wow, has it been 10 years? Anyway, the first time he has EVER seen clouds or rain in May. Well just consider that a gift from all of us who actually see snow in the winter up north. Cool. Happy Birthday homie. Have a great day.

NEXT: Now, I know the third round started yesterday and Chicago and Philly are both up a game in their series. Who cares, still does not change my picks. As long as I am giving out shout outs, I would be remiss not to mention the man, the myth the legend, Cory Blashill who has been trekking all across this country following the road to the Stanley Cup. He is currently in Philly for the East Final and if you want to send him your love. Drop him a note and tell him he is doing a hell of a job at blashill@rogers.blackberry.net. Fill his blackberry up. Give him something to read on those lonely nights at the bars after the games. He would love that. Keep it up Cory. I loved the video of the Wings fan giving Gene Principe shit for bringing out the broom. That was awesome.

Here are my picks..

EASTERN CONFERENCE FINAL

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS (6) vs MONTREAL CANADIENS (8)

Now, I have been picking against the Canadiens for three rounds now. You would think I have learned my lesson. Kinda. I think they are not good enough to beat either team out west and I think that they are not the world beaters that every rioting Canadien fan thinks that they are. In fact I loved the Philly fans giving them the business singing their song in the rink on Sunday. That was AWESOME. But, Philly has a BACKUP FREAKING GOALTENDER. One of these days he is going to fall to earth and I think it will be soon. I hate Montreal but I am taking them in 6.

WESTERN CONFERENCE FINAL

SAN JOSE SHARKS (1) vs CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS (2)

Back to my 'NEVER ROOT FOR A SOUTHERN TEAM' rule. Screw the Sharks and their stupid Shark Tank. I know that Donnie Granato said that he did not think that they could go deep into the playoffs because of their goaltending but I am going to disagree with Don this time and take the Blackhawks in 7. San Jose cannot go to the final because whoever does from the west will win the Cup. I do not want some other lily livered, stupid ass team from the south winning the Cup. Give it to Kane, Toews, and the Hawks. Love it.

NEXT: I found this video in my personal archive and I thought I would share it. It is a line brawl from the Gamblers versus Suck City Mousketeers back in around 1997. I think. I did not shoot this video but I sure as hell kept the tape. Classic Gambler Line brawl. I want you all to notice that Chad Stauffacher, the Captain (21), started this fight on the bench. He sure as hell did not end the brawl there. Loved to watch Chad stir the shit.

Enjoy...

Gamblers Line Brawl from hamiltongbp on Vimeo.

Now have a great work week and

GET BACK TO WORK!!!!

Game 6...Victory!!!

So game six is over and done and so are the San Jose Sharks. In incredible fashion the Oilers defeated the Sharks 2-0 at home to Rexall Place. A shutout for Roloson (a Packer fan). He made some amazing saves in this one. Off to round three in Anaheim. Gonna see my pal Marty. Gonna be nice.

Oh and the fans here in Edmonton instead of booin the US anthem stood up and cheered the crap out of it. I could not hear a word that Paul was singing. It was incredible. Just a few man tears shed. I will put up audio of it when I can.


Steve Merko scopin the ladies

Back from San Fran...

Exit to Atari


So I drove back from San Jose to San Fran today. Flight at 6:30 pm. Nice short drive. I snapped a pic of the exit to Sunnyvale California. Home of Atari vidoe games. I wanted to go to Cupertino to see Apple Computers today, but work got in the way. Oh well.


Big planes

San Fran Airport is kinda nice. That is all I have to say.


Wow

The Canadian Rockies are amazing from the ground, but from the air, unbelievable. I had to snap a pic. Unbelievable.

Game 6 wednesday. The Oilers have a chance to finish the sharks off. Can they do it? I think so.

Oh, I almost forgot...

Happy Mothers Day

Oh, yesterday was mothers day, and we were all working but we all managed to take time out to call our moms on the phone to wish them a happy day. So Cory and I decided to give a shout out to our moms today with a pic and a smile.

So Happy Mothers Day, Cory's mom, my mom, and our wives who are at home being mom and dad while we are gone. Also to all the moms out there taking care of business. Thank you all.


Happy Mothers Day

Game 5...

Game 5 at the Shark Tank

Well game 5 has come an gone an the Oilers have now taken a 3-2 lead in the series. The really outplayed the Sharks in this one from top to bottom. I know there has been some controversy about whose rink is louder, San Jose, or Edmonton. Well I will let you decide. I taped a bit of the open here in San Jose and you can listen to that then go back and listen to the sounds of Rexall in an earlier post. You decide.

Oh, I will mention that I was dissappointed in the fans at the Tank when they booed the Canadain National Anthem. Bush league. The Sharks best players are Canadian and they were not happy with it. For the record the fans at Rexall do not boo the Star Spangled Banner. They just are noisy as hell. They also are noisy during the Canadian Anthem. They sing like crazy.

So here is the clip. You decide if you think Rexall is louder...

I will also mention that our lives went good, except, the a-hole who when he was pulling out his cables at the bulkhead just jerked my cable right out and cut me off the air live. Thanks jerk. I just love these guys who think they own the rink that they are in and just do whatever they want. I tore a strip up and down and showed her what she did wrong but she just did not care. She just wanted to go home and did not care who she screwed over when she pulled her trunk out. My video patch was wrapped around hers and she just jerked it clean out of the bulkhead. If I was a fighting man I would have punched her for her ignorance. Oh well, next time.



Noise at the shark tank on Vimeo

Cory takes care of Cory...

The Garza Suite

"Cory takes care of Cory." - Roger Millions 05/14/2006

Thats right. When Cory travels he does it right. He was skilled enough to parlay a suite at the Fairmont San Jose for the regular rate. That is all they had available so he pulled the trigger. Cory is a travel warrior. And for this travel warrior, when he is tired after a long day of live hits, Canadian Boom Pole making(patent pending), and post game scrums, he needs a room that fulfills all of his needs.



This suite comes complete with a separate beedroom, two TV's, a hall way, a huge closet, a newspaper that comes in a nice little bag with the Fairmont logo, and two full bathrooms. Nice.



We can all learn something from Cory.

Flying in to San Francisco...

smog in San Fran

Well I flew in to San Fran today. Lots of smog, but you can see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz in the photo. Kinda. Not a bad flight. Had to wait for an hour and a half to get my carnet stamped. That sucked.


the famed 101?

Drove the 101 south to San Jose which wasn't a bad drive. I saw Sunnyvale California, home to Atari. I also saw Cupertino, home to Apple Computers. I am going to try to get over there for a tour on monday. I can't wait.

Oh I probably should not be driving and taking pictures but oh well. I am not from here.



Cory called me as I was driving and told me to check out the rig in front of my hotel and that is what I saw. That truck is way cool. Come to find out, it is the hotel managers. cool.

Game Four...

Game four seats

As you can see, our seats for the games are moving farther and farther away from the middle of the ice. Each game leads us deeper into the depths as more media from out of town attend the games.

Game four had the Oilers falling behind a quick two goals in the first, but they battled back and won the game 6-3 chasing Vesa Toskola from the game. Unbelievable game and the rink was sooo loud my ears were ringing most of the next day. Back to San Jose we go even up at two.

I would also like to add that Tom Preissing, a defenseman for San Jose, signed a stick and gave it to me. Class act. You may remember him from an early podcast. He was on the show with Ty Conklin and Matt Greene. All former Green Bay Gamblers. I will put the stick in a place of honor in my house. I know Donna is already rolling her eyes at having something else in the house. I love her so much for putting up with my collecting. She rules...

Flying back to San Jose on Saturday.

Off Day making boom poles...

The Canadian Boom Pole is taking off. We already have several orders and many admirers. If you think you want one, just give us a call and we will custom make one for you and your wireless system. If you have a certain players stick that you want that will of course raise the price of the stick. The original version was the Stephan Yelle special. The one pictured above and below is a Spachek edition. I am currently using a Scott Hannen limited.

Call now!!! Operators standing by... 1-800-CDN-POLE


Custom orders availble

Game 3...

Nice shot of Rexall

Game three of the series finds us back in the loudest rink in the league. NO doubt, it hit 114 decibals in here. This game went to three overtimes with Shawn Horcoff scoring the winner. Ryan Smyth lost three teeth and still finished the game. Only in the NHL. I got home at about 3 am. Good thing I had to work the next day. These playoffs are killing me.

Denver Airport Podcast...

Podcast crew

So we did a podcast for you to listen to. CLICK HERE to witness the hilarity. We were bored and we needed to be creative. Or just waste some time.

Enjoy.

Glad to be home. But we still have work to do. Game three goes on Wenesday.

Weidman the road warrior

Long flight home...

Ohhh my head...

It was a long flight home on Tuesday. Excedrin all around. Maybe a bit too much revelry the night before. Airports are nice and all but I would not want to live here. Really, I can't wait to get home.

Drinking at Flanagans for free...

Flannagans guy

So after the game. We decided to go to a bar and have a few drinks before we went back to the hotel. We chose Flannagans just up the street. It was a good irish bar with a patio. The guy who 'runs' the joint. I put quotes on it because we were not sure if he actually ran the joint. Anyway he found out we were from Canada and said all drinks on the house. Well, this guy should know better than to offer free liquor to a bunch of Canadians.


Jerk in a pink shirt and JJ Hebert

The Canadians in question were Cory, Jordi(Score), Ken(CFRN), JJ Hebert(Oilers PR), Barry(CFRN), Sergio(TSN), Duane(Score Vancouver), Pat (Oilers PR), Bradley(Sportsnet), Craig(sportsnet), and Langer(Oilers Training Staff). After about a 500+ dollar bar tab I think he realized his mistake. We had one more shot of Jagr at about 2am and then moved on. Great time in the bar. Except for the guy who said F#ck Canada and Ken's stupid ass pink shirt. I like Jagr. JJ was too chicken to drink his so I drank it for him. JJ is a lightweight.


Cory and Jordi 'Happy'


Craig and Bradley

Game two and a live hit, or two...

Game Two

Game two went off and the Oil looked better, but not quite there. Some Alberta Beef hit the ice during the anthems so the trend is catching on. We had crappy seats again. SJ rink puts us in a really crappy spot. You can only see half the ice. So you have to stand up on the riser, and for me, I hit my head on the cieling. So it sucks.


Jordi live and direct

Our live hits went off so that was all good. They fixed the problem with the bulkhead so my 300 foot cable run came up.


Media Stick Rack

As you can see the stick rack was full last night.


Slapshot rules

Also the 'Canadian Boom Pole', as we are calling it, is taking off. There will soon be a patent pending and if you are interested in a 'Canadian Boom Pole' just let us know and we will custom build one for your needs.

Flying home today so I will see if I am inspired on the 7 hour flight back to Canada.

Johnny Rockets, mmmmm good...

beef is yummy

I happened to have one of the best hamburgers I have had in a long time. Just outstanding. That is all I have to share, I just enjoyed the burger.

This old live hit with Cory Blashil...Part Two

media stick rack

I don't know if you have ever been in a hockey locker room, but usually there is a stick rack somewhere near the door. So you don't have sticks all over the room to trip on and such. Well, we in the media also have a stick rack. Above is our stick rack. On the way down I tried to get my boom pole into the tripod case for travel but it was too long. So I found an old hockey stick. A Stephan Yelle stick and taped a mic holder to the end. Well Cory Blashil saw it, ridiculed me for it, then decided to do one better. He made one himself. Of course if you saw episode one of 'this old live hit' you know he just didn't make one, he made, THE ONE. He fashioned it after an actual stick complete with the hockey tape and the knob on the end of the stick. Nice job Cory, you did it again.


Game On!!!

Not even close...

Shark Tank

The game was okay, the Oil lost 2-1. They played poorly. The noise in the Shark Tank is not even close to the noise in Edmonton. NOT EVEN CLOSE. The one cool thing is that they project video onto the ice here. That was very cool. I am going for food now, leave me alone.

This old live hit with Cory Blashil...

HP Pavillion in San Jose

So here is the rink. We got there early today because there was supposed to be some parade going on downtown with about 75,000 people there. We did not see the parade but we saw the low riders. That was cool. See below to witness the hilarity.

My live hit at 4 did not go so well. I got the video up but the audio did not show up. It was nothing I did wrong but faulty rink stuff. The bulkhead was not working well. I still feel responsible because it is my job to get it done, and I did not so it is on me. Even if it was the bulkhead that was broken. Cory did a whole bunch of work to help me get the shot up but it did not materialize. Cory is awesome and did not have to help me but he did. A good friend. He works for the competition but his advise and guidance on this trip has been amazing and I owe him big. Thanks man.


HP Center's live area

What you see above is the before picture. That's right, Cory is the master of lighting a live hit. As you can see above, the area is pale and drab with all the flourescent light and bad white walls. Mr. Blashil enters the room, asseses the situation and within minutes the area is transformed into a light filled colorful area of live hit brilliance. No really. It is. Have a look.


Brialliance I say, Brilliance

AS you can plainly see in the photo a once drab boring area has been transformed into a brilliant light filled area fit for the most professional of mic monkeys. The key to this set up is the light stands suspended from the ceiling panels. No light stands on the floor for people to trip on.

As we were finishing our masterpiece all the boys from the Corps (CBC for you Americans) came by to admire our work. We pay their salary with our tax dollars and today we gave them a big tip on their wages with a lesson in lighting. That's right, we kick ass. As one of the boys from the CBC said, "The Olympics in Turin wasn't lit this good".

Someday gentlemen, someday.

Low rider is cool...

Low Rider jumping on Santa Clara on Vimeo

Cory and I were making a trek during the afternoon to KFC so I could get some of those heavenly mashed potatoes and that cornbread that makes me weak when we saw this dude cruising Santa Clara Avenue. I asked him to make it jump and he obliged. It was awesome. The cars cruising around here are amazing.


I love KFC

By the way, it has been 7 years since I have had KFC's mashed potatoes and cornbread. That's right, seven years. You see in Canada they do not serve mashed potatoes they serve fries. They also do not have cornbread. Crazy isn't it? Yes it is. I had some today, and it was everything that I missed and more. In fact, I am considering starting a petition to force KFC of Canada to have to serve mashed potatoes and cornbread. Join with me will you? Cornbread is a right not a privelidge. Power to the people.

A few words about my hotel room at the De Anza...

my place of slumber

I would just like to take this time to share a few things about my room here at the Hotel De Anza. I will say right off the bat that it is very spacious and nice. As you can see, a nice big bed and mints on the pillow. The hotel is located in downtown San Jose on Santa Clara street. I have a wonderful view.


a nice view

I am on floor seven and as you can see in the picture the tall biege building on the right is the Adobe building. Adobe builds software like Acrobat, InDesign, Illustrator, Pagemaker, and Photoshop. They all run on my mac, better than they would ever run on a PC. Anyway, I am getting off the point. One other feature that is outstanding is the can.


I wish I had a TV in the can

They must have had me in mind when they built it. A phone AND a TV in the can. The only time I have a TV in the can is on Super Bowl Sunday. You need one in there so you do not miss the commercials.


the mini bar and TV stand in my room

Now on to the issue I have with this hotel. The mini bar. Now don't get me wrong, I do not have an issue with mini bars in general, I am VERY pro mini bar. This one here is hiding something very serious. In side the mini bar written on the fridge is what is called proposition 65. Here is a wide pic...


Proposition 65

The whole deal is basically telling the resident of the Hotel De Anza that there is hazardous chemicals in the hotel. Which I see is not a problem, but putting it in the mini bar on the fridge is a bit shady. The only way you would see it is if you go down to the front desk, get a key, and then go back up to the hotel and open it up. I did not even know where the bar was until someone showed me.


nice words from the hotel

The last paragraph says "This building contains chemicals to cause cancer and/or reproductive harm." Nice. Thanks for that. You would think that something like that would be on the back of the door or somewhere a bit more conspicuous. I am sure some lawyer came up with that idea. Lawyers. Sorry Nick, but I said it.

Oh well, having a great time working my ass off. Game one is tonight and I have live hits before and after the game. I will make sure that I have some good pics for you of that event.

Oh, Cory says hi. He is hung over. I drank last night also, but I usually do not hang the next day. I rule. Oh, and still looking for the White Castle. I need White Castle. You know you will see pics of that when I get what is coming to me.