Evil prevails in Game 3.

The Ottawa Senators won game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.  They beat the Anaheim Ducks 5 to 3 in Ottawa.  The game was played Sunday morning in Wuxi.  The Ducks had a three-two lead before I went to teach a class.  When I came back from class, it was to see the game was over and the Ducks had lost.

The Blue Bar showed the game in the evening.  Les Dingle had managed to download the game of the Internet and show it on the Bar's big screen which is attached to a lap top.  I went but I kept my mouth shut.

My prediction for game 4.  I hate to say it but Ottawa 5, Anaheim 1.  I would be happy if I am very wrong with this prediction but Ottawa came on strong in the last half of the game.  Also, Chris Pronger gave a stupid elbow to one of the Ottawa players that was not caught by the refs but will probably result in a suspension later.  Pronger's dirty elbow is a sort of thing that  transfers all momentum to the opponents by inspiring them with a thirst for revenge and with  moral righteousness.

Ducks win!

Maybe, I was a little pessimistic about the apocalypse coming apond us.  The Ducks have taken a two-nothing series lead in the Stanley Cup Final.  As I predicted in the previous entry, the game was won on its only goal.

Hockey, phone-shopping, water.

The water still smells this morning.  Washing dishes is going to be tortuous.

I am listening to game two of the Stanley Cup Final on the Internet.  The score is nothing-nothing late in the second period.  The first team to score will win this game. And so with a probable 1-0 score line, I should say this is the second leg of the UEFA semifinal.  It is the Anaheim's station broadcast that I am listening to.  The Ducks' play-by-play man is uninspiring.  And so I can't believe I am listening to a Stanley Cup Final game.

I have had my mobile phone for over two years now, and so my wife says it is time to buy a new one.   My old phone, a Motorola V220, was never good.  I had to replace the CPU once and I have never been able to have a phone conversation where I don't ask if I could be heard.  The past year, I have put the phone's speakers on, anytime I have had to talk.  The phone also looks so worn and battered that it gets gasps from students when I show it to them.  The wife ordered me to visit phone stores, of which Wuxi has many, and find a suitable model that she likes and hopefully I like too.

Yesterday, I wandered on Zhongshan Road looking for phones.  The choice of models I saw was overwhelming.  But I have narrowed down the brand names to Nokia or Sony-Ericson.  The students and expats have told me that Nokia phones are the most reliable.  I would also  like a phone that has MP3 capabilities, has clear listening for conversations, and is  a clam-shell or flip phone.  Most phones, these days, have MP3 capabilities.  Flip phones seem to be out of style as most of what I can see in the shops are the face phones where you have to lock and unlock the keypad anytime you use the phone.  My name starting with "A", I have had numerous people phone me from unlocked phones in their pants, so I hate flat faced phones.  I did not see any Nokia phones that suited the budget and had the features I wanted.  They all looked ugly to me, as well.  I did see a Sony model, the Z558c, that suits all my requirements, but the wife thinks it is ugly and she is dead-set on me getting a Nokia.  The Chinese must also have some prejudice against Sony.

Together, the Wife and I will look at phones today.  It will be a battle of wills where my wife gets her way.  And so she will chose a model and purchase it for me after my pay day.

Stanley Cup Final

Ottawa making the Stanley Cup Final has put me in a pessimistic mood, hockey wise. I am thinking that if the Senators (that nickname makes me cringe!!) win the Cup, I will give up on the sport of ice hockey. I won't want my son Tony to have anything to do with the sport. I hope he becomes an all-American type Linebacker. (I don't want him becoming a right handed power hitter because alas baseball with its dark tops and wild-card has declined as a sport)

Now that I think of it, the game of hockey has declined since the famous 1972 USSR-Canada hockey summit. Though, Canada may have won the series, we all now look like Communists, everyone forced to wear helmets and all goalies wearing a Tretiak bird-cage to protect their heads. Guy Lafleur's career took off after he took off his helmet. Could you imagine Bobby Orr, Maurice Richard, Phil Esposito and Gordie Howe wearing helmets? They would look emasculated if they did. And what goalies were cooler looking than Ken Dryden, Tony Esposito and Gerry Cheevers in the 1970s? Now for whatever reason their aesthetic is now only used by silent mentally deranged killers in Jason and other slasher movies. Now, you see goalies and you don't see the net they are supposed to protect - so bloated has their equipment become.

Back to the final, the Ducks did win the first game but their performance was unimpressive. The Senators will probably dominate the rest of the series and the Civil Servants, paper-pushers, bureaucrats, red-tapers, patronage beneficiaries and Socialists of the world will celebrate. Not a good thing for humanity whatsoever.