Junior's Reading And Viewing List: February 12 - 14, 2010

Last Update - February 16, 2010 at 9:22 PM EST

February 12 through February 14, 2010 was a big weekend. The last pre Olympics NHL Hockey games were played, before players jetted off to Vancouver, Canada, and this year's World Rally Championship racing got underway in Sweden. Links to what was posted to the web are included in the 'Reading And Viewing List' below.


February 14, 2010

Ford team boss hails Hirvonen's Sweden win
Posted at WRC.com

BP Ford Abu Dhabi team director Malcolm Wilson has heaped praise on his lead driver Mikko Hirvonen for a performance in Sweden he believes was his best ever.

Hirvonen and his co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen started their 2010 WRC campaign by winning the opening round by 42.3sec from arch rival Sebastien Loeb. The win, Hirvonen's 12th, moved Ford level with Lancia at the top of the all-time manufacturer wins table - on 74 WRC victories apiece...

For the Caps’ GM, a Pause To Ponder
By pucksandbooks at On Frozen Blog

This morning commences perhaps the most interesting 15 days in the Capitals’ career of General Manager George McPhee. All NHL rosters are frozen until 11:59 p.m. on February 28, coincidental to the Vancouver Winter Olympics, at which time NHL clubs will have less than three full days to tinker with their rosters before the league’s March 3 trade deadline...

ELP's Keith Emerson & Greg Lake To Undertake
Unplugged U.S. Tour
By Nightwatcher at Nightwatcher's House Of Rock

Rock legends Keith Emerson and Greg Lake are to tour the U.S. starting on April 1, 2010 in an exclusive intimate evening of musical retrospective highlighting the iconic music of Emerson Lake and Palmer, the Nice and King Crimson...

Hirvonen wins in Sweden!
Posted at WRC.com

Ford Focus RS WRC driver Mikko Hirvonen got his quest for the 2010 World Rally Championship drivers' title off to the best possible start today by winning the opening round of the series, Rally Sweden.

Hirvonen, team-leader of the BP Ford Abu Dhabi Team, took the lead on Friday and successfully fought off a two-day attack from defending champion Sebastien Loeb, who finished second, 42.3sec behind in a Citroen C4 WRC...

Axl Slams Slash Ban Rumours
By mdome at Classic Rock

Axl Rose has hit out at people who are perpetuating the myth that anyone wearing Slash merchandise was barred from venues on the Guns n’ Roses tour of Canada.It had been reported that fans turning up with Slash T-shirts were forced to turn them inside out...

SS17: Hirvonen fends off Loeb's attack
Posted at WRC.com

Rally Sweden leader Mikko Hirvonen did a successful job of defending his position on Sunday opening stage, preventing a hard charging Sebastien Loeb from taking any more than two-tenths from his 16 second advantage.

Running first and second through the 21.87km Rammen test, the pair left the other competitors trailing in their wake - with third fastest Dani Sordo 9.7sec further back...

The feeling is coming, says Raikkonen
Posted at WRC.com

Citroen Junior Team driver Kimi Raikkonen believes his times on the second day of Rally Sweden show progress is being made in his bid to make it as a top line WRC driver.

The Finn ended Saturday's second day of the rally more than 34 minutes behind the leaders after going off the road and getting stuck in a snow bank during Friday's competition. But after a series of promising stage times on Saturday, including one sixth-fastest time on SS15, the 2007 Formula 1 World Champion felt he was starting to get the hang of his new Citroen C4 WRC...

Boudreau: Bradley expected to be 'okay'
By Tarik El-Bashir at Capitals Insider

The Olympic break has arrived, and not a moment too soon for the Capitals, who played their best game of the road trip but still lost, 4-3, in the shootout at Scottrade Center in St. Louis...

February 13, 2010

Postgame Notebook: Blues 4, Capitals 3, SO
By Mike Vogel - Senior Writer at WashingtonCaps.com

Break Time – The Caps finished off a three-game road trip with a 4-3 shootout loss to the Blues in St. Louis on Saturday. The Caps came from behind three times to gain a point, but picked up a loss when the Blues’ David Perron scored the lone goal of the shootout in the fourth round...

Washington Capitals Players Talk To Media After Loss
To St Louis Blues
Posted on Caps365 at WashingtonCaps.com

Bruce Boudreau Spoke To Media After Loss To St Louis Blues
Posted on Caps365 at WashingtonCaps.com

Washington Capitals at St Louis Blues Game Highlights
Posted at Comcast SportsNet - Washington, DC

Right click on video to choose full screen option.

Last One (Caps Game) Before the Olympic Break Tonight
In Saint Louis
By Usually Frustrated Caps Fan at Mark's Musings

...The Eastern Conference leading Washington Capitals (89 Points, 41-13-7) will meet the Western Conference 12th place Saint Louis Blues (63 points, 27-25-9) tonight at ScottTrade Center in Saint Louis tonight at 7:00PM Central Time. For both teams it is their last game before the 2 1/2 week break for the Olympics. It's also likely the only meeting this season between the two teams...

WRC: Hirvonen takes 16 second lead into the final day in Sweden
Posted at WRC.com

Ford team-leader Mikko Hirvonen will take a 16.6 second lead into Sunday's final day of Rally Sweden, an advantage his chief opponent, Citroen driver Sebastien Loeb, acknowledged will be difficult to overturn on the five stage which remain.

Saturday's second day of the rally featured two identical loops of four stages in the Varmland region of central Sweden, clustered around the Hagfors Service Park. Under clear blue skies and in temperatures than plunged to -22ºC, crews tackled 117.76km of ice and snow covered gravel stages...

The TV Numbers Don’t Lie
By pucksandbooks at On Frozen Blog

Word late this week arrived of just what all this stylized winning by Washington’s hockey team translates to: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic delivered the highest-rated Washington Capitals game in network history for its coverage of the team’s game in Montreal on Wednesday night...

WRC: Hirvonen leads at Rally Sweden midpoint
Posted at WRC.com

With 12 of the 21 stages of Rally Sweden completed, Ford team-leader Mikko Hirvonen holds the overall lead by 4.2sec from Citroen's defending world champion, Sebastien Loeb.

The overnight leader, Hirvonen started Saturday's competition 6.2 seconds in front, and increased this to more than 10 seconds on today's opening stage, but gave away a little to Sebastien on Loeb on each of the three that followed...

SS9: Hirvonen flies through Saturday's opener
Posted at WRC.com

On Saturday's opening stage of Rally Sweden, overnight leader Mikko Hirvonen almost doubled his lead over second placed Sebastien Loeb, taking it to more than 10 seconds for the first time.

Day two of the rally began in darkness at 0600hrs, when drivers left Karlstad for the 85km drive north to Hagfors and a 15 minute service. With the sun rising, and in a temperature of -21 degrees Celsius, they then embarked on the 18km journey west to the start of Vargasen...

Caps Play The Blues
By Mike Vogel - Senior Writer at WashingtonCaps.com

Washington will conclude a three-game road trip and the pre-Olympic break portion of its 2009-10 schedule on Saturday night when it visits St. Louis for a date with the Blues...

February 12, 2010

SS8: Leaders clear the Super Special hurdle
Posted at WRC.com

Three and a half hours after the last forest stage, SS7, Friday's competition on Rally Sweden concluded with a second night-time blast around the Super Special in Karlstad.

As they had on Thursday night, thousands of spectators braved sub zero temperatures to watch the drivers tackle the ice covered figure-of-eight track two at a time...

Free Nelson Mandela
By Ted Leonsis at Ted's Take

Here is a great documentary film about the life and times of Nelson Mandela.

Watch this film this weekend. It is relevant as we celebrate the anniversary of his freedom...

SS7: Hirvonen holds day one lead in Sweden
Posted at WRC.com

With only the short 1.9km Super Special Stage to run tonight, Ford team-leader Mikko Hirvonen holds the day one lead of Rally Sweden, having overturned the early advantage of his Citroen rival Sebastien Loeb...

Stan Lee To Star In 'Super Seven' Comics And Animated Series
By Blair Marnell at MTV's Splash Page

Marvel Comics' living legend, Stan Lee will create and star in "Super Seven", a new comic property produced by Lee's Pow Entertainment, A Squared Entertainment and Archie Comics...

Gary Moore Ready To Rock Sweden
By mdome at Classic Rock

Gary Moore is to play Sweden Rock as well as Classic Rock’s High Voltage festival this year.

What’s more, the guitarist will perform a hard rock set at both events, concentrating on his albums from the 1980s and also Thin Lizzy songs. No blues at all...

Daltrey: I Didn’t Enjoy Who Super Bowl Show
By mdome at Classic Rock

While there’s been a mixed reaction to The Who’s performance at the Super Bowl in Miami last Sunday, one man was very unhappy with it all – Roger Daltrey...

SS4: Hirvonen fights back as crews reach Friday's midpoint
Posted at WRC.com

Ford team-leader Mikko Hirvonen ended Citroen's run of stage wins on SS4, taking his first fastest time of the rally and moving up to second overall.

The Finn rounded off Friday morning's loop of stages with a time through Torntorp four-tenths quicker than that of his closest rival, rally leader Sebastien Loeb...

SS2: Loeb takes the lead on Friday's opener
Posted at WRC.com

Defending World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb moved ahead of his Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo into the lead of Rally Sweden after setting the fastest time though the first forest stage of the event...

Blues Vs Capitals 12/18/2008 Review

Capitals celebrate Viktor Kozlov's second goal of the game.

Blues 2 - Capitals 4

The Washington Capitals won their 20th game of the season at home while facing the St. Louis Blues last night. They managed to hit the mark in just the 33rd match of the current season. Last season, it took until January 17th and their 46th game to get 20 wins. It also gave Washington's goaltender Simeon Varlamov a 2-0 record, after having won in his first NHL game played in Montreal versus the Canadiens this past Saturday.

The first period went by rather quickly. The stoppages in play during this game were held to a minimum in part by the referees, who only awarded one penalty in the first. You could say they were "economical" with their calls for most of the game. Late in the period, Nicklas Backstrom won a battle for the puck at the sidewall and sent it to nearby Viktor Kozlov. Kozlov put it past Blues' netminder Ben Bishop via five hole, while using a defender as a screen. The Capitals have scored the first goal in 10 of their last 12 games. Nine of those goals came in the first period. Like Varlamov, this is Bishop's first season in the NHL.

Simeon Varlamov makes stick save for Washington.

David Backes put St. Louis on the scoreboard at 9:09 in the second period. Varlamov was set to stop the shot by Jay McClement, but Backes deflected it past a surprised Varlamov. Late in the period, Washington went back ahead for good. Tom Poti sent an outlet pass to Kozlov, who fed the puck to rugged forward Boyd Gordon. Gordon forced his way to the front of the net with a defender all over him. Gordon fired off a shot and Kozlov followed up with his second goal of the game, sending the rebound past Bishop at 17:06. Just 40 seconds later, Tomas Fleischmann put the Caps ahead by two. David Steckel won a draw in the Blues end. After regaining control of the puck, Steckel dropped it to Eric Fehr. Fehr sent a centering pass to Fleischmann, and Flash fired a shot that banked off of both posts before heading to the back of the net. That's 11 goals for Fleischmann this season. He had 10 in all of last season.

Washington started the third period with a full two minutes of power play time because Michael Nylander held onto the puck at the end of the second, during a delayed penalty call. The Caps only needed 13 seconds of it though. After Alexander Semin got a shot off and the big rebound sent the puck all the way out to Kozlov at the point, Viktor passed rink wide to Alex Ovechkin. When Ovechkin got to the faceoff circle, he snapped the puck into the net for his 20th goal of the season.

Tomas Fleischmann scores goal versus Ben Bishop of the St. Louis Blues.

Unfortunately, the referees were suffering from temporary blindness (again) around nine minutes into the third period. It didn't cost Washington the game, but they lost Semin to injury again as a direct result of the refs economizing on calling penalties. I don't understand how all of the officials missed it when Backes intentionally tripped Semin, and then seconds later cross checked him in his recently injured back, sending him awkwardly down to the ice in pain. Semin was helped off the ice and eventually back to the dressing room, but no penalties called on Backes. Sure enough though, when Coach Bruce Boudreau complained from the bench, an official gave Washington a two minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for "abuse of officials". Of course, the Blues scored during their ill gotten power play. The goal was awarded to Brad Winchester, but after the puck happened to hit his stick, it actually deflected in off of Alex Ovechkin's. Washington held on to their two goal lead for the rest of the game.

Alexander Semin wasn't the only player taken out of the game due to injury. Apparently, Mike Green has also been injured again, as he didn't play in the third period. Both players are listed as "day to day".

The win is Washington's fifth straight. They are now 13-1-1 at home. The Caps don't face the Western Conference team St. Louis very often, and this was the first time since December 1997 that Washington beat them within regulation. Viktor Kozlov had a three point night, with two goals and an assist. Brent Johnson may get the next start in net if he's healthy enough, when the Caps play the Flyers in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon.

December 18, 2008 Photos by Luis M. Alvarez / Associated Press