The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Tonight, 1,500+ fans went to Carleton U to take in a sold-out NCAA basketball. Sort of. See, when I initially agreed to go, I thought I was going to see an exhibition game between two NCAA schools. Since Carleton U has taken home five consecutive CIS championships, I figured the Americans might feel Carleton is now a basketball mecca up north so it would make sense to showcase the teams up here.

I was surprised to hear that I'd be witnessing the Carleton Ravens play the U of Illinois. Surprised because I thought the Ravens would have absolutely no chance in hell of competing against them. A Canadian team against the Americans? Aren't all the good Canadian players already picked up by NCAA colleges? But I was completely wrong. They put on a great show. Twice they were down by nine points in the 2nd half but they battled hard, tying it up to force overtime. They lost the game by a mere two points with seconds left on the clock. It was a great effort from the players and they just as easily could have won.

Of course, I have no idea if Illinois dressed their best players or if they were mailing it in and could care less about the outcome. Still, there were only a few points away from beating a storied NCAA team. An outcome that definitely would have been a feather in the cap for the Carleton Ravens.

(Sidebar: Jeff Jordan, son of Michael Jordan, played 19 minutes and recorded 6 points. He was the probable reason for the sellout, but he didn't particularly stand out during the game)

There are some hands, no matter what your opponent does, you will go broke on. Take, as an easy example, a player who raises all-in while you hold pocket Aces. You're calling it, doesn't matter if it's a large or short stack, if someone has already called before you or how many chips you have in front of you. If somehow their pocket 8s catches another 8 on the flop, it was just extremely bad luck. You put your money in with the best of it and in the end, that's all you can do. (If you're playing a satellite or you're "on the bubble", that's a different story, but for now, we're talking about the middle or early stages of a tournament).

Imagine for a second a multi-way pot is developing while you hold J-10 suited. If you can limp in for cheap, this is a great hand to get to try to catch a flush or straight and win lots of chips. So we'll say no one raised and the flop comes:

J-5-J rainbow

Aside from flopping the aforementioned straight or flush, this board can't get much better for you. With no straight or flushes for other players to draw on, this is an excellent flop for your hand. Think back to how many times you flopped three of a kind. It hasn't happened much because the chances are only 1 in 73, or 1.35%.

So if the betting costs you all of your chips when your opponent flips over pocket 5s for a full house, well, dem's da breaks.

I personally am not a good enough player to know whether my J-10 is the second best hand in this situation. I'll give in to more likely explanations, such as my opponent holding an over-pair to an outright bluff, before I think my three of a kind is no good.

Landing these types of hands doesn't happen often, so if you've got a strong hand and you're getting action, don't be afraid of it. With the blinds creeping up on you all the time, you always have to accumulate chips when you can. Play these hands like you're holding the best one, and more times than not, you WILL be holding the best hand and you'll have big stacks of chips in front of you to prove it.

I placed an order for new kitchen cabinet doors! They were such a good price I'm going to jump into buying a new countertop once they're installed

I never heard of dog-fighting until Micheal Vick was charged with various crimes relating to it; I never heard of Michael Vick until he got charged

A friend from Australia is currently in palliative care due to cancer. I want to send a card but what exactly do you write on it?

I read if you can beat Madden 2008 at the highest difficulty level, a special code is revealed so you can order a championship ring through Jostens. I guess that's one way a Titans fan can win a ring...

There is no seven card stud tournament in Atlantic City so it'll just be No Limit hold em.

Kevin is back from Japan after a year and it was great to see him again. It's too bad for us he's going to be living in Toronto.

Last weigh-in, I'm down to 206 lbs

Myself, RT & ET are splitting a Sens ticket package. I'll be seeing Montreal, Philadelphia, Toronto, Tampa Bay and the season closer against the Bruins.

They say you should have about 11.5 feet of viewing room between yourself and the television if you have a 55" TV. My living room gives me 10 feet. But I don't care!

For a mere $40, hockey players between the ages of 12-18 years old can learn how to drop 'em while on the ice.

Derek "The Boogeyman" Boogaard and his younger brother, Aaron, both NHL enforcers, claim they teach kids safety if they end up having to engage in a fight during the course of a game. In the two-hour session, kids watch a Boogaard fight tape to observe the "science" of an on-ice brawl. Each participant is given a full-face shield and one boxing glove to practice proper technique.

Boogaard also lets kids in on the "code" of fighting if it wasn't already clear. No kicking, no punches when the linesmen are in-between breaking it up...stuff of that nature.

The camp organizers claim they are not trying to promote fighting, but since it is allowed at the NHL level, it does make sense to show kids how to properly protect themselves if they get in that situation.

Hockey Canada isn't impressed and wants to see the camp stopped.

Myself, it was alarming to hear about it at first, but then again, it probably shouldn't come as a surprise. If fighting is allowed, every team has someone who can be counted on to do it. Those hired by the NHL, like Boogaard, are the best at it and earn tremendous salaries. There is a level of skill and technique involved, even if it isn't so obvious to the audience. You do need to know what you're doing if you're going to make a living out of it, so why not get it right when you're young?

Maybe this camp makes perfect sense.

Baby-doll tops:






Unless you're pregnant, this is a WTP (What's The Point?) special....

Andrew Dice Clay was my idol.

I'd like to emphasize the word was in that last statement because clearly, back when I was in grade 9 for the 1989-90 school year, I was clearly misguided. He was racist. He was sexist. Perhaps I knew how to take a joke and while laughing at his many zingers regarding women staying at home to do laundry, I didn't take it seriously, but Clay probably felt what he was saying had truth to it. If you look at the crowd not so much laughing as they are cheering at his act on one of his stand-up tapes, it truly wasn't all that funny.

Anyway, when he made a full-length motion picture that was released in the summer of 1990, I had to see it. My old school friend Cedrik, clearly having a healthy appetite for raunch as I did, needed no convincing to attend. So we took the #2 bus to the Vanier Cinemas, paid the $4.25 admission and shared a theatre with four other people. The movie itself, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, actually wasn't that bad and had some good laughs. After the show, we hopped on the bus to head home.

On the way back, I saw a sign on the new plaza built in Blackburn. It read Videoland. Cool! Another video store in the Hamlet! More movie and Nintendo games available for rent! However, the store wasn't yet open, but a sign up sheet for those interested in employment was attached to the door. I signed myself up, thinking how cool it would be to work renting out movies.

I got the job, liking it so much I'd work an extra hour or two after my normal shift for no charge. Yeah, just a little bit too excited. I ended up working there for eight years, seeing it transform from Videoland to Videoflicks and growing to twice its initial size. I helped Alex and Steve land jobs there and it fed our deep appreciation for film. No longer was I interested in the latest installment of the Predator franchise. After seeing so many films, I developed a discriminating taste for some movies and got to appreciate films that didn't have machine guns in it.

And for all that, perhaps I need to thank Andrew Dice Clay.

This is what laser eye surgery will do to you...you start taking photos of yourself at your worst possible state!

Today at Scotiabank Place, the Senators showed off their new Reebok Edge jerseys and SBP was there as a Sens journalist should be.

So, I'm not too excited about them. I do like the shoulder patches that sport the old school "O" logo with the barber pole colours as tribute to the vintage Sens days (not too visible in the above shot), but overall they look like practice jerseys. I miss the horizontal stripes that usually finish off the sweater. But, let's not kid ourselves. I'll likely pick one up (probably a white one, as I already have red and black jerseys) sometime in the near future.

Anyway, here's a pic of Kevin and Darren enjoying their free t-shirts they got by attending the jersey unveiling. As you can tell, they did not have kid sizes:

Go ahead...click on "comments", and ask SBP your inner-most questions....

My friends Marc & Tracy are attempting to raise funds through something called "Hike for a Cure", where all money raised goes to cancer research. This specific event involves them taking a 100km hike starting from Parliament Hill through Gatineau Park until they reach Wakefield to camp overnight and then return home.

One of their fundraising ideas they wanted me to pass along is their poker tournament that will take place on Sunday, September 9th @ 1pm. This cost is $20 with a voluntary 50% contribution of this fee to Hike for a Cure. It should be a fun afternoon, and yours truly will be one of the many (hopefully!) participants that day.

If you're interested in playing, please send Mark an email (below) and he'll provide you with further details. Cheers!

Everyone who knows me knows just how much I love to play No-Limit hold em. I totally admit to being swept up by the poker craze after Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event Championship. It was hard to say if the popularity of poker would slow down and perhaps just be another fad much like chess was in the 70s and 80s. But it looks like it isn't going anywhere. In fact, at this year's WSOP, the players still showed up despite the anti-online gambling laws the US government passed.

The problem with everyone playing NLHE is just that...EVERYONE plays it. Thousands of players head to the NLHE tournaments and ignore the other games. Which got the hamster running inside my head.

Every poker player's dreams is to win a World Series of Poker bracelet. But with thousands of players in your tournament, the chances are pretty slim. So I started taking up another game: 7 card stud. And I've had pretty good results.

A couple of weeks ago, I entered a 1240 player stud tournament and managed to win the whole thing. Now, it was just for playchips, and it didn't cost me anything and I didn't win anything from it. But after playing for a solid 6 hours in that one game, I managed to beat a ton of players. And it felt pretty sweet.

The following week, I played a freeroll stud tournament in which about 4,000 or so players entered and I finished exactly in 100th place. I tell ya something, if it was a real tournament I'd have finished in the money and gotten a nice percentage of the payout. And it showed me I was playing pretty consistent stud.

Stud doesn't have as much skill as NLHE. The betting is fixed, so you don't have the worry of calling off all your chips if you aren't 100% if you have the best hand. But, you still try to get into pots with the best of it, you make your best guesses as to what the other players are holding while you look at your three starting cards. And based on what up-cards you can see as the betting starts, you make your best guesses as to your odds of making the flush, straight or trips amongst other hands. It's a faster paced, high-action game that is a lot of fun to play. There are some fundamentals from NLHE you can take with you, especially when it comes to starting hand requirements, but on the whole it is a very different game.

So, while I'm planning to play a NLHE circuit event tournament in Atlantic City this December, I'm hoping there will also be a 7-card stud tournament I can play. Maybe I'm jumping the gun a little after my most recent stud results, but I feel I'd have a pretty good shot of placing well if given the opportunity.

Have you seen The Exorcist?

I remember the first time I ever saw it. I rented it from Video Heaven, the mom & pop video store in Blackburn just before I started working for Videoland a short time later. If memory serves me correctly, my grade 9 religion teacher, Mr. Parlato, talked about how this film disturbed him and how riveted the audience was after seeing it.

So of course, I had to see it. And perhaps because I am Catholic and believe in some (not all) of its teachings, I watched that movie and could barely get myself to sleep that night. I definitely believe in the possibility of demonic possession and the act of exorcism, so while I was watching it the realism of the film really got to meet me. The scene with Regan and the crucifix was (and perhaps still is) the most disturbing piece of film I have ever witnessed.

I remember recommending this film to some customers at the video store that were around my age, and when they returned it the next day they told me they thought it was funny. Funny!? Perhaps the special effects hadn't aged well, and it just wasn't gory enough for them to be scared. The Exorcist can't hold a candle in terms of the blood and gore today's horror films show these days. I guess audiences are too desensitized to be shocked like I was back in 1989.

In any case, I don't think another horror film can grab me like this one did. It truly is the most terrifying movie I've seen.

No matter how beautiful, how sexy, how irresistible a woman is, the moment she pulls out a pack of smokes and lights up, bleah, the attraction is over.

I've tried many times over my dating career to overlook this when I've either dated a girl or considered dating a smoker. It is such a turn off. And usually I walk away.

I'm no sure why I put such importance of it. It is the physical ailments it causes? The bad stench? The thought of locking lips with an ashtray?

Most of my friends know SBP doesn't indulge much in life's variety of vices available. Perhaps I'm missing out on something. But, I guess I don't think what I'm potentially missing out on is all that enticing.

So ladies, if you want a shot at SBP, better put out your smokes.

"Dare to Dream"
- Jason Spezza, for Jubilee Jewelers

GM Bryan Murray need only to say a few words, "I've been speaking to his agent", and the excitement in Sens fans for the season to start (only six weeks away) is mounting.

When he says "his", of course, he's referring to Peter Forsberg.

The thought of having a one-two punch of Spezza & Heatley on one line, with Alfredsson & Forsberg on the other, is enough to make one drool similar to when Homer Simpson views a succulent doughnut.

So will it happen?

The stars need to align just about perfectly. First, Ottawa has to find cap room. Martin Gerber is the obvious target here; some might also say Wade Redden but Murray has recently commented he's looking at signing him to an extension. There are no takers for Gerber's services at the moment, so it may be up to Eugene Melnyk to send him to the minors and pay his salary in Binghamton; that way his contract won't count towards the cap.

Peter Forsberg has listed Philadelphia, Detroit and Colorado as his choices. Ottawa hasn't been mentioned too often, however, last year it was reported he wouldn't mind playing for a Canadian team before he hangs up the skates. Of course, he also wants to play for a contender, and there isn't too many better up north than the Eastern Conference Champions. He's also friends with Captain Daniel Alfredsson.

But the most pressing issue is his health. He barely plays 1/2 the season anymore and his ankle hasn't fully healed. Forsberg has won Stanley Cups and led Sweden to gold medals at the Olympics, and has made his fame and fortune playing hockey. Maybe he feels there is no reason to jeopardize his long-term health and may decide not to return.

Some say it is a needless risk if the Senators managed to sign him, that he cannot be depended on to play and will likely be injured even if he does sign a contract. But...risks are what makes champions. I still think Ottawa is a legitimate contender even without his services. But if you a good thing and have a chance at making it even better...why not roll the dice on a guy like Forsberg? I assure you Melnyk wants to win a Stanley Cup for his team, and as a fan of the Senators, I would welcome this move.

The team is too young to be messing around with the logos, but I guess with the league-wide move to the new Reebok Edge jerseys (more streamlined, form-fitting, doesn't retain moisture), a subtle change may even be expected. In any case, these logos were leaked in advance of the August 22nd plan to unveil the new Sens jerseys to fans at Scotiabank Place. Not sure if I like that cheekguard thing on the 3D logo, but I don't mind the flowing cape and the "angrier" look on the 2D sideview logo (which some are speculating might be the shoulderpatch) which looks a little bit less like a box of Trojan condoms.

This guy has done it all. Stanley Cups. Olympic Gold. World Championships. Norris and Conn Smythe Trophies. What is there left to accomplish? This guy is going into the Hall of Fame once he retires.

And he's seriously considering it. Retiring, that is. GM Bryan Burke of the Anaheim Ducks still doesn't know what his plans are and a decision will come soon.

But when he does retire, I can't blame him. This guy has brought Stanley Cups to cities where it matters most. The New Jersey Devils were the pulse of what a hockey town should be, so much so a move to Newark could be the only way to make a good thing even better. Fans upon fans packed the arena. Sellouts for the repeated trips to the Stanley Cup final were commonplace. There was so much pressure, but despite the plethora of reporters from ESPN reminding him of how important the Cup is to the state of New Jersey, he still got the job done.

He decided though, that winning in New Jersey was too easy. So easy he was willing to go where hockey is like breathing to its citizens: Anaheim. But, he has a big heart, he wants a chance to win the Cup with his brother, Rob. Despite the scrutiny he'd face in the state of California, he still went for it. It's ok that everywhere he turns there's a microphone in his face or a pesky fan wanting an autograph. He wanted to win Lord Stanley for a city that cares and to share it with his bro.

He's since done that. Now, there's nothing left. Why go to Canada and try to win a championship there for one of the six Canadian teams when there's clearly a lack of interest in the NHL? And why bother showing up to play in Vancouver in 2010 for a shot at Olympic gold? First, he already has a gold medal, second, the arena will be so empty you could hear a pin drop. The thought of winning a gold medal on Canada's home turf will simply put the country to sleep. That "turf" is reserved solely for the BC Lions...maybe the U-20 Canadian soccer team as well.

Hang up the skates Scotty. You truly have nothing left to do.

"I am disrespectful to dirt! Can't you see that I'm serious?"

"Are you saying 'Boo' or 'Boo-urns'?"

"Would anybody else like a bite of banality?"

"Barney's movie had heart, but 'Football in the Groin' had a football in the groin!"

"I hate it when the waffles stick together"
"Sticking together is what makes the waffles good!"

"I'm here for my free birthday sundae!"
"Eat it and get out!"

"This place isn't a faux dive. This is a dive!"

"Being a cop isn't something your earn overnight. It takes a solid weekend of training to earn that badge."
"ENOUGH WITH THE BADGES! WHEN DO WE GET THE FREAKIN' GUNS!!?!?"
"Hey, I told you you're not getting a gun until you tell me your name!"
"I'VE HAD IT UP TO HERE WITH YOUR 'RULES'!!!"

"Poor predictable Bart, always takes rock"
"Good ol' rock. Nothing beats that!"

"It's funny 'cause it's true!"

"Ah Ziggy. Will you ever win?"

"Hey chief, let's talk, why not?"

"Diagnosis...delicious!"

"Worst episode ever!"

"Say Homer, do you like football?"
"Do I ever!"
"Do you like nachos?"
"Yes"
"Do you like beer?"
"Yes Mr. Ford!"
"Well, why don't you come over and watch football, and we'll have nachos. And then, some beer."

My good friend Alex, no doubt inspired by SBP, has now created a new blog and he will discuss any topic he feels is worth covering. It won't be daily like yours truly, but with his eight weeks "vacation" coming up, good a time as any to get one started. With his dry wit and fluid writing style, I'm sure you'll find his posts entertaining and informative. I've also added it to my links.

Things that happened in SBP's world recently:

My ultimate team got spanked 15-4

I tried caulking my lone bathroom toilet and it appears to have worked

Cara had her ACL surgery today and I wish her a speedy recovery!

Rented Letters from Iwo Jima and it was extremely well done.

I wasn't there to see it, but Finleigh took her first steps just a couple of days ago

I'm likely going to Atlantic City in December to play a $300 World Series of Poker Circuit Event

I'll be seeing Cirque de Soleil on Sunday with Holly, Jason and Gen

After getting my haircut yesterday, I drove to Best Buy just to look at that big TV I want

This information was released about a month ago, but the sports section of the Ottawa Sun just reported today that the Senators own Jason Spezza will grace the cover of NHL 2K8 for the Xbox 360, Playstation 2 and Playstation 3.

This is a pretty big deal. There are over 600 players in the NHL and they decided to go with a player from Ottawa. A lot of Sens fans wanted Spezza traded all year long; I recall even Lowell Green having his talk show after the Cup final declaring Ray Emery and Spezza needed to pack their bags. But this demonstrates how much the hockey world covets a player like Jason Spezza and how Ottawa fans shouldn't take him for granted.

The game will be released next month, and even though I don't own a 360 or Playstation 3, I just might rent one just to give it a try. The graphics are truly jaw dropping. Check out this shot of Joe Thornton, the detail is phenomenal:

Remember when Rod Bryden would hold a press conference and beg, PLEAD the Ottawa fans and business community to buy Ottawa Senators tickets to keep the team in town? That was about 4-5 years ago. This year, owner Eugene Melnyk made the bold prediction that every Sens game would be a sellout this season. Easy to see why: Ottawa just came off their best season and the bandwagon is filling up. No problem selling tickets.

So when I got in touch with some friends to look into getting a 20 ticket "flex package", where you buy 20 vouchers and redeem them for games as you like, well, it isn't as easy as it first appears.

Between us, we wanted to see Detroit, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Montreal amongst others. All of these games are in "group C", where out of 20 tickets, the Senators will allow you to use only 4 of your vouchers towards them.

So when the account manager from the Sens emailed me asking why I haven't responded, I told him there's too many restricted games we want to see, so we'll take a pass. "Let me see what I can do" was the response, and asked me for my game selection. So I sent it in: 1/2 the vouchers would be used for the restricted games, including a pair for Toronto, Montreal and Pittsburgh and four for Detroit. I didn't think they'd go for it, but since Toronto is the money game for the Sens, the fact I only asked for two for the Leafs might make my request reasonable. "Looks good", was the email answer, "I'll contact you Tuesday".

Well, that's today. And the email read "you've pick too many games from this section...can I suggest switching this, this and this...". Boo! I wrote him back, stating you shouldn't have told me my games list "looks good" and then tell me to change my choices. If it was no good in the first place, just say that. So I won't be getting a ticket package. If I'm plucking down several hundred dollars for tickets, I'd like to pay for games I want to see.

So anyway, with the ticket demand high, no need to bend over backwards for the customer anymore. Five years ago I bet Bryden would have hand-delivered the stubs himself. But now that every game is going to be a sellout like Melnyk thinks it will, there' s no need to take my money when it can come elsewhere.

I went to the Simpsonize Me site to see what my Simpsons likeness would look like. Quite an ingenious marketing tool for The Simpsons Movie. Anyway, I uploaded a pic of me that was taken over the weekend and this is what I got. I tweaked a few things (my hair appeared blonde at first) and gave myself a green shirt. I'm not sure how much it resembles me, but it's fun to give it a try regardless.

This is the big TV I currently have my eyes set on: a Samsung HL-T56875 56" Widescreen 1080P LED DLP HDTV.

Doesn't mean I'm buying it (read: put on credit card) anytime soon.

Just thought I'd show ya.

"It's funny cause it's true!"

"Do you want to be called Homer Junior? The kids can call you Ho-ju!"

"Wait! There's plenty of Millhouse to go 'round!"

"I'm so hungry I could eat at Arby's!"

"Entirely my fault"

"And the winner for the most weight gained: Homer Simpson! Homer, how did you do it?"
"I discovered a meal between breakfast and brunch!"

"Duff beer for me, Duff beer for you. I'll have a Duff...you'll have one too!"

"Homer, you told me I could do anything, so long as I put my mind to it"
"Now that you're a little older, let me tell you that's nothing but a croc. No matter what you're good at, there's about a million other people better at it than you"

(Bart pressing electronic key chain)
"Shut up! Shut up! Go to hell! Go to hell! Shut up! Kiss my butt!"
"Dad, I will never get tired of this"

"I was teasing them, singing off key to them...Ma mi ma mo, ma moo ma mi!"

"The Webster's dictionary describes 'Wedding' as the process of removing one's weeds from your garden"

"Lookin' outside the window; that's a paddlin'. Passin' a note in class; that's a paddlin'. Paddlin' the school canoe; you better believe that's a paddlin'!"

"Hot dog, we have a wiener!"

Four weeks after taking my cholesterol drugs and trying to make better decisions with my eating, I put myself on the scales and in total I've lost 9 pounds, weighing in today at 210lbs. You know, I remember a time back in 2001/02 where the scales told me I was at 229 or so. I didn't exercise at all after stopping Tae Kwon Do and didn't make very smart decisions with food.

I'm at the stage where I'm starting to feel a little less guilty for "cheating" with my meals. The first couple of weeks, I'd hardly eat. I ate cereal and toast & jam for dinner. Now, I have more savoury meals, trying to make sure I have less portions. And I allow myself for special occasions: for example, last weekend at Alex and Kerri's cottage I threw back some beers and enjoyed chocolates and chips, seeing that I was vacationing. As long as you don't indulge all the time, like I used to, I figure it's ok to "cheat" once in a while. I've stuck with my doctor's suggestion of having fish at least once a week. Even snuck in some salmon with grilled vegetables at the cottage. Who would have thought a year ago SBP would actually recommend fish for dinner?

I've infrequently visited the gym the last month after going about two times each week before, but I figure since the holidays have pretty much come to a halt it will go up again.

Anyway, my goal is to weigh in at 200lbs at some point, and it looks like I may be able to pull it off before year's end. We'll see how she goes, but so far, so good.

GM Brian Burke didn't care too much for the offer sheet Kevin Lowe of the Edmonton Oilers put forward to land Dustin Penner, a Stanley Cup winner who was making less than $500,000 last season. He didn't care for it because he knew with his team being close to the $50 million salary cap, and more importantly, because of the type of player Penner is, he couldn't justify keeping him. Penner's salary just shot up 10x because of Edmonton's inability to sign a unrestrictedfree agent over the summer.

Are the Oilers desperate? Absolutely. Is Penner overpaid? He had 45 points last season and while he was a key in the Ducks' playoff run, wasn't exactly the player who tipped the scales. His foward linemates, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, I think are better players. You damn right he's now making too much money (of course, this is all relative. Every player in the NHL makes too much money).

But really, what choice did the Oilers have? They had plenty of draft picks this year (interestingly enough, because of the Oiler deal that sent Pronger to Anaheim) and have enough youth to build on in the AHL, so they can afford the draft picks they have to give to Anaheim as compensation. They needed to show their fanbase they are trying to build a winner, so this move made sense. They have plenty of cap space, so the price for Penner is almost a moot point.

In the end though, I don't think Penner is the answer. He's a big guy who can throw lots of hits and play a tough, gritty style, but it ends there. He's just not the prolific scorer the Oilers need. He's a decent penalty killer but he doesn't have the skill to rack up points on the powerplay. Sure, maybe put him in front to create traffic, but who does Edmonton have up front that can consistently score goals?

Maybe there's potential in Dustin Penner that I just don't see, and for Oiler fans I hope that's the case, but I just think Edmonton won't make the playoffs again and Kevin Lowe will have to try another drastic move to try to make Edmonton a contender again.

Finally, after much anticipation, I paid $4.20 to head to the theatre to take in The Simpsons Movie. By the way, that's a great price to pay to see a flick. If you don't mind dealing with the large crowds on Tuesdays, it's definitely worth it.

The run time is 90 minutes or so, which is roughly 4 episodes of the Simpsons without commercials. If this movie's jokes were condensed to 30 minutes, it could be the funniest episode ever aired. But it stretches out the plot, tries to cram screen time for every character in the Simpsons (for example, the part in the trailer where Apu asks Mr. Burns to "look into your heart" is the only scene he's in and any other character could have easily done that part), and a lot of the good jokes are given away in the commercials.

So does this movie live up to the hype? Probably not. But is it enjoyable? Absolutely. There are many funny parts and moments where I laughed out loud. There are some instances though where the scenes drag and there are simply no laughs. I guess you can't expect it to hit every time, but when the Simpsons played on TV during its heyday in the early 90s, it did seem to nail every joke in the script. I haven't seen too many episodes for the last 7 or 8 years, and never make an effort to watch the new ones they air Sunday nights. So it's probably not as good as it was in its prime, but still solid nonetheless.

This could be one of those movies that get better with time. I remember when I first watched Monty Python's Meaning of Life and The Holy Grail. I smiled, some laughs, nothing more. But talking about it with others, reciting the lines and visiting it again and again made the movie better. I think The Simpsons Movie just may fit under that same category.

Score: 7/10 (you saw that coming!)