Monthly Archives: February 2016

Sports

Tortorella Tenure Reaches 50 Games

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Saturday’s game with the Ottawa Senators marked the 50th game since John Tortorella took over as head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets. The change came after a disastrous 0-7 start to the season under Todd Richards, in which the franchise failed to even take a game to overtime, which would’ve meant at least a point. By hiring the winningest American coach in NHL history, analysts viewed the coaching change as a much-needed wake-up call for the Blue Jackets, who have a history of slow starts to new seasons.

At the 50-game mark, Tortorella’s record with Columbus stands at 23-21-6, with 52 points. They are not the worst team in the league as of February 14, but still face a monumental climb if they want to challenge for a playoff spot. The New York Islanders have a 12-point advantage on the Blue Jackets for third in the Metropolitan Division, while the Penguins lead Columbus by 11 points for the second wild card slot.

It’s been a habit for the Jackets to make late-season streaks at the end of campaigns. At the end of the shortened 2012-13 season, Columbus was arguably the hottest team in the NHL, but their poor start meant they lost out on a tiebreak to Minnesota for a playoff berth. The following year, their hot streak began in mid-January, allowing the team to make the playoffs for only the second time. Last year, a dismal November meant their winning run towards March & April was not enough to qualify for the postseason.

In 2015-16, the biggest problem for Columbus has been late-game collapses or giving up the first goal of a game early. On more than one occasion, players have said they found a way to lose a game, rather than win. Tortorella made a bold move earlier this season, bringing in defenseman Seth Jones in a trade that sent one-time fan favorite Ryan Johansen to Nashville. Jones has adapted well to Columbus, playing a key role in the past two games; a shootout win over Anaheim and a regulation win over the Senators.

The Blue Jackets have won four of their past five games, so making this the start of a big run could spell a postseason berth. Perhaps most incredible is the fact that both Sergei Bobrovsky and regular backup Curtis McIlhenny are both injured, but both Joonas Korpisalo and Anton Forsberg have shown at times they have futures in the NHL.

Columbus has two more games remaining on their current homestand, hosting Boston on Tuesday and Buffalo on Friday. They’ll have a matchup at Detroit on February 23rd on NBCSN, which could prove to be either an important statement or an embarrassment on national television. It’s make-or-break for the Blue Jackets, and what a turnaround it would be for Tortorella to take the franchise to the playoffs after that disastrous start.

News

Movie Review: Hail, Caesar!

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Brothers Joel & Ethan Coen have been lauded for their unique approach to filmmaking. They are well known for covering multiple genres – often whether one movie – with smooth transitions when addressing topics. Upon receiving the Best Picture for Oscar with No Country for Old Men, the brothers thanked the Academy for allowing them to “play in (their) corner of the sandbox,” and their movie techniques continue to be praised by critics and moviegoers alike.

The Coens’ latest film, Hail, Caesar!, is a comedy told in the brothers’ unique style. It’s a 1950s “film-within-a-film” about a Hollywood film studio, and how its head of production struggles with the pressure of overseeing several productions, while keeping potentially embarrassing secrets about the actors under wraps. When the star of the studio’s epic drama goes missing, the studio head’s efforts to locate him take a humorous turn.

Coen brothers films have employed certain types of “Coen-isms”; much like the way Quentin Tarantino sticks to casting certain films in most, if not all, of his films, the Coens do the same. George Clooney portrays the kidnapped star actor masterfully, while Tilda Swinton excels playing twin rival newspaper writers, one trying to establish herself as more than a tabloid gossip columnist, while the other embraces that role. Other actors also perform very well; Josh Brolin, as the studio’s head of production, portrays a man cool under pressure despite receiving offers for a more prestigious job unrelated to the film industry. Alden Ehrenreich succeeds playing a Western-style actor (some websites referring to his character as a “Kirby Grant-type”) who tries to change his image by appearing in more dramatic films. Channing Tatum also does well as an actor who typically appears in musicals, a Gene Kelly-sort of character.

The film makes seamless transitions addressing different topics. The main topic to the plot deals with Communism and the Red Scare that gripped much of the country, and especially the film industry, throughout the 1940s and 50s. It also showcases the state of the film industry during this period of change, as television sets slowly but surely began finding their way into American homes, and how movie studios brainstormed new ways to continue drawing huge crowds.

Overall, Hail, Caesar! is a film well put together. For those who are unfamiliar with the Coen brothers’ work, it may not be the best way to introduce their style of filmmaking, but fans will appreciate the production elements that could potentially make it a Coen brothers classic.

News, Sports

58 Years Since ’58

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February 6, 1958 is one of the most tragic days in world soccer history. It’s when Manchester United were involved in a serious plane crash that claimed the lives of eight “Busby Babes,” along with several other club employees. The team was returning home after a victorious European Cup tie in Serbia, but when the plane stopped in Munich to refuel, it crashed on the ensuing takeoff attempt.

For the 50th anniversary of the tragedy, Sky Sports put together a montage of United legends reciting the poem “Flowers of Manchester.”

The full lyrics to the poem:

One cold and bitter Thursday in Munich, Germany,
Eight great football stalwarts conceded victory, 
Eight men who will never play again who met destruction there,
The flowers of English football, the flowers of Manchester

Matt Busby’s boys were flying, returning from Belgrade,
This great United family, all masters of their trade,
The Pilot of the aircraft, the skipper Captain Thain,
Three times they tried to take off and twice turned back again. 

The third time down the runaway disaster followed close,
There was a slush upon that runaway and the aircraft never rose,
It ploughed into the marshy ground, it broke, it overturned.
And eight of the team were killed as the blazing wreckage burned.

Roger Byrne and Tommy Taylor who were capped for England’s side.
And Ireland’s Billy Whelan and England’s Geoff Bent died,
Mark Jones and Eddie Colman, and David Pegg also,
They all lost their lives as it ploughed on through the snow.

Big Duncan he went to, with an injury to his frame,
And Ireland’s brave Jack Blanchflower will never play again,
The great Sir Matt Busby lay there, the father of his team
Three long months passed by before he walked again.

The trainer, coach and secretary, and a member of the crew,
Also eight sporting journalists who with United flew,
and one of them Big Swifty, who we’ll ne’er forget, 
the finest English ‘keeper that ever graced the net.

Oh, England’s finest football team its record truly great,
its proud successes mocked by a cruel turn of fate.
Eight men will never play again, who met destruction there,
the flowers of English football, the flowers of Manchester.

Manchester United would recover from the tragedy, as coach Matt Busby (who was read his Last Rites at one point) led the team to a European Cup success in 1968. United won another Cup in 2008, 50 years after the disaster and 40 years after the first taste of European glory.

Sunday, the Red Devils travel to Chelsea – arguably their top English rival in terms of success since the turn of the century. Expect an emotional performance as United aims to honor their fallen predecessors.

Sports

Super Bowl 50: A Major Event

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Even if one isn’t a football fan or an NFL fan, most of America is aware that 2016 is the year of Super Bowl 50. A golden anniversary is always historic, and with an entity as popular as the National Football League, the hype for the game has been present since the beginning of the season. With the way the regular season and the postseason played out, Sunday should mark a celebration of the game of football, and NFL execs hope a celebration of the league as well.

Either the Carolina Panthers or the Denver Broncos will have the distinction of lifting the Lombardi Trophy on Sunday night. The Panthers have only been a franchise for two decades, but this is their second trip to the big game, having come close on several other occasions, too. Boasting the league’s best record and what seems like the runaway choice for MVP in Cam Newton, Carolina may be regarded favorites to win. However, Denver is the sentimental favorite; they have veteran quarterback Peyton Manning, who is likely to retire after the game, win or lose. The Broncos sent John Elway out as a two-time Super Bowl champion; Manning already has one ring with the Indianapolis Colts, and has two disappointing losses in Super Bowls XLIV & XLVIII. A win Sunday will end any doubts of how his legacy should be regarded.

It’s an important day for CBS too, as the broadcaster for Super Bowl 50. The current TV agreement involves all three network NFL broadcasters airing the Super Bowl every three years, and 2016 just happens to be the turn of CBS. No doubt Fox or NBC would treat the occasion the same way, but with CBS being one of the channels that broadcast Super Bowl I (NBC did as well, with a separate announcing crew), it will be a day everyone with that network will remember. Jim Nantz will call his fourth Super Bowl since becoming the #1 play-by-play man for their NFL coverage, and while some say he’s better as a golf announcer, he has definitely grown in his knowledge of the NFL.

Will Super Bowl 50 live up to the hype? Only a few days until fans find out the answer.