"Buck Up Or Stay In The Truck"

Taibbi on the teabaggers:

"We're shaking up the good ol' boys," Palin chortles, to the best applause her aging crowd can muster. She then issues an oft-repeated warning (her speeches are usually a tired succession of half-coherent one-liners dumped on ravenous audiences like chum to sharks) to Republican insiders who underestimated the power of the Tea Party Death Star. "Buck up," she says, "or stay in the truck."

Stay in what truck? I wonder. What the hell does that even mean?

Read it, it's as awesome as you'd expect.

Caps make it hurt so good

Photo courtesy of Puck Daddy (http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy)

Fortunately, I wasn't at last night's 4-2 Capitals loss at the hands of the despicable Philadelphia Flyers. Unfortunately, the H.B.I.C. (Head Blogger In Charge) was, along with friend of the blog K Bizzle. While it's never a good feeling to lose to Philly, especially the way we did last night, games like that are what make a rivalry great and also serve as very important warnings to a team like the Caps to not get to big for their britches just yet.

Last night's loss was just the sort of wake-up call we needed. Firstly, we were so sorely reprimanded for taking shifts/periods/games off. Up 2-0 midway through the second period and cruising, the Caps rested on their laurels a bit too much and were stung for it by a Claude Giroux goal to draw the Flyers to within one. After a series of wasted chances, our defense went to shit in the third frame, Theo lost his confidence after a 2-1 lead turned into a 3-2 deficit in two minutes and before you could blink it was 4-2, Philly. In truth, we're lucky the scoreline didn't end up at 5 or 6-2.

The second thing we learned was that we need to acquire a veteran backup goalie. Like right now. This is no indictment of Jose Theodore, who has played very, very well since being pulled from the Rangers game on Dec. 23. I even thought most of the goals last night weren't his fault, apart from the bizarre fourth goal in which he either dropped his stick or had it kicked out of his hands before flailing awkwardly at Arron Asham's shot.

The problem with Theo is that he's extremely hot and cold. Cold for much of the season before Christmas (maybe inconsistent is the more accurate word here), he has been rock solid in the time since. However, you need your goalie to get hot right in the middle of the playoff swing - and then stay hot through them - for a successful postseason run. I'm worried that the other shoe is going to drop with plenty of time remaining before the playoffs actually start and without Brent Johnson, all we have are two very talented, but very young and inexperienced options. Plus, if Theo got hurt right now, what would we do? Perhaps Varlamov and Neuvirth are ready for a trial by fire, but I would prefer it if there was at least another option for us in case they aren't.

The enduring lesson of the night, though, was that the Caps HAVE TO BECOME MORE DISCIPLINED when it comes to taking silly, lazy and sloppy penalties. Plain and simple, committing nine to ten penalties per game is not going to lead to many wins, especially when those penalties include too-many-men-on-the-ice and delay of game (playing the puck out of the rink in the defensive zone). I know that Semin was unlucky to play it off the ice last night as replays appeared to show the puck come off his stick completely wrong and purely accidentally. But good lord, the Capitals continue to shoot themselves in the foot in this department and one has to wonder how many wind-sprint filled punishment practices it takes to get them to correct it.

All in all, the Caps are still alright. If they are able to learn from these lessons moving forward and continue to beat the teams they're supposed to, then games like this are actually beneficial. But as sweet as this past Sunday's win over Pittsburgh was, it was just as sour to fail to make an enormous statement to the rest of the NHL that the Caps are a legitimate force. Wins over Boston and Detroit this year have already done that; missing an opportunity to dispatch two of our biggest rivals in consecutive home games definitely hurts.

Lane Kiffin is not very bright

Today:

"Just so you know, when a recruit is on another campus, you can't call him," Kiffin said. "I love the fact that Urban had to cheat and still didn't get him."

That would be a pretty damning quote if calling a recruit on another campus WAS a violation:

Kiffin's accusation is false, because there is no NCAA rule that prohibits a coach from calling a prospect while he's visiting another school during a contact period. This past weekend was a contact period.

"There is no rule that would prohibit Coach Meyer from calling a prospect at Tennessee on a Friday or Saturday during an official visit during a contact period," said Jamie McCloskey, UF's NCAA compliance director. "There's never been a rule. I've been doing this for a long time. Not only has there never been a rule, there's never been a discussion about having a rule.

But Lane "5-15" Kiffin wasn't done:

Kiffin also took aim at Alabama coach Nick Saban and suggested that Saban should "thank" new Tennessee assistant Lance Thompson for the Crimson Tide's No. 2-ranked class. Thompson was one of Saban's best recruiters at Alabama before leaving to join the Tennessee staff in January.

Look, I have no problem with coaches who talk shit. But you need to back it up with something.

A national title?

A conference title?

A winning season?

A season with more than four wins?

Hell, that's so easy even last year's Tennessee team could do it!

In addition to the hilariousness of Kiffin "calling out" two of the most successful coaches in the modern era (3 BCS titles between them), you have to wonder if he knows what he's getting into.

If there are two coaches that I would not want to piss off, it's Meyer and Saban, who have been fairly ruthless at getting their revenge.

You can ask Knowshon Moreno how that turns out:

This is not the type of team you should be giving extra motivation.

Sports musings

A few things going on in the world of sports lately:

• The San Antonio Spurs were able to pip the Hornets to the Western Conference Finals last night, defeating New Orleans 91-82 in Game 7. Without a doubt, I was rooting for the Hornets, hard, as was much of the rest of the country. In addition to the sentimental reasons still attached to all New Orleans franchises in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Hornets were the biggest surprise of the NBA season, spearheaded by phenomenal young guard Chris Paul. When the Hornets easily dispatched of a seasoned Dallas team, there was a feeling that maybe this was a team of destiny that could ride an incredible wave of momentum beyond the defending champs. The Spurs are just too good, though. I still don't know why they are branded as boring (I really think it might be their drab uniforms). The fact of the matter is that San Antonio plays great team basketball, Greg Popovich is undeniably one of the great head coaches of our time and their series against Los Angeles should figure to be another one for the ages.

• D.C. United is clearly in disarray after yet another loss over the weekend. At 2-6 overall and riding a three-game losing streak, it should only be a matter of hours, not if not minutes, before Coach Tom Soehn is fired. Not that this is really his fault, it's just not good enough for the recent winning tradition for the team. I'm not going to waste everyone's time by going over the 30 different reasons the team is struggling. It really all boils down to one factor; lack of team chemistry. For all the new players brought in during the offseason, D.C. has had virtually no time to gel or get a feel for each other. The lineup is so vastly different than what it was last season that growing pains are only natural. United has a home-and-home against Toronto FC (in the T-Dot tomorrow, then back at RFK on Saturday) to get its shit together. Anything less than two wins from two and Soehn is fired. Grim, I know, but the good news is that the MLS regular season is so worthless that a few wins a month from here on should be good enough to make the playoffs.

• All quiet on the Redskins front... which I gotta say is how I like it to be. Apart from some front office moves, there is nothing else to really talk about. As boring as that is for Skins fans, I would always rather come in under the radar as opposed to being the lead story on Sportscenter every night in May. In the draft we took a lot of pass catchers and I would have liked to see us strengthen our offensive line, secondary and D line a little more, in that order, but when was the last time the Redskins amassed 10 draft picks? I can't remember.

• Detroit vs. Boston in Game 1 tonight of the Eastern Finals, as well as... drumroll please... the NBA Draft Lottery! What's that? The Wizards aren't in it? Oh yeah, jeez sorry. Just mental conditioning. All those years of anxiously awaiting the draft lottery has made it tough to remember that Washington isn't always involved in it. There's also a game between two teams I hate more than almost anything in soccer's biggest club cup competition tomorrow at 2:30pm. Finally, Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals between Detroit and Pittsburgh is Saturday night, which I absolutely can't wait for.