Triangulation: In Memory of Pierre Pellaton
Pierre Pellaton, hockey coach for more than 30 years, died last night. He will be sorely missed. Pierre was the one coach that everybody loved. I really do mean everybody – players, parents, other coaches, the NJ Devils Youth Hockey board, refs, the Zamboni guy. It was impossible not to like him, with his outsized [...]
Depth of Field
Digital imaging is the greatest enabler for one of my favorite hobbies – sports photography. I’ve been taking pictures at football games since 1986, but historically the process was: buy high speed film, take a lot of pictures, get the prints made and $150 later, throw out half of them that included a referee’s head, [...]
Season of Joy
It’s a fall Saturday afternoon and I’m typing rather than lugging a telephoto lens up and down the sideline of a football field. High school football season has ended for our Montclair Kimberley Academy Cougars, after a semi-final playoff loss last night. To balance the feeling that last night was the last time some of [...]
Numbers Game
I’m continually amazed by the number of people who put money at risk without understanding the mathematics of expected return and vigorish (or commission, house advantage, or retailer markup, take your pick). I witnessed the most egregious violation during a recent trip to Atlantic City, where they they offer blackjack with a variety of side [...]
Career Goals and Points
I stand corrected – a few weeks ago I posted that 2011-2012 would be the last year in Patrik Elias’ contract with the Devils. It’s not; I was off by a year and inadvertently rushed him out the door. No, no, no, no didn’t want to do that. Let’s just say that a guy who [...]
Empty Ne(s)t
Bubba and I have been Devils season ticket holders since the summer of 1999, when I saw a classified ad in the town newspaper looking for someone to split a ticket package. We didn’t realize that we’d buy into a Stanley Cup run, Scott Gomez’ Calder-recognized rookie year, and Patrik Elias’ breakout season. Going to [...]
Not With A Bang But A Whimper
This is the way the 2010-2011 hockey world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper (and apologies to T S Eliot). For the first time since we began following our hometown hockey boys, there is no April joy, no second season, no reason to start watching out of market games because of their scheduling [...]
The Right Way To Lose
Sunday night, the Seven Seals played our first-round adult ice hockey league playoff game against the top-seeded team, who had previously beaten us by baseball and football scores (13-0, 12-2, 9-1 to provide some illustration). However, our last two games against the same team were both 1-goal losses, and we actually held them scoreless for [...]
Hitting The Long Clubs
This is a golf story that’s also not a golf story. I was lucky enough to be able to play golf very frequently this summer. Like at least three days a week on the practice range, and about once a week on a county course with my father. It was the best form of work [...]
Hope For The Devils
The bad news: Parise is likely done for the year, Taormina is probably also done after ankle surgery (12 week recovery from that one, been there, done that), Salvador may have suffered a Scott Stevens-like concussion, and the team is still dead last in the NHL. But there’s good news, for the first time since [...]