Hey, Jerry, Sometimes You Talk Too Much

Back in August, TigerBlog wrote about the most romantic moments in movie history.

If you forgot about it, you can read it HERE.

Either that, or he can just say that his top three were:

* the end of "Notting Hill," where Hugh Grant goes to the press conference to win Julia Roberts back
* the scene in "The Best Years Of Our Lives" where Homer shows Wilma what every day life is like without his hands and she only falls more in love with him
* and of course, when Richard Gere literally sweeps Debra Winger off her feet at the end of "An Officer And A Gentleman"

TigerBlog was flipping around the TV yesterday morning when he stumbled on the last scene of another movie, and he cannot believe that 1) he didn't remember it back in August and 2) that nobody pointed this one out to him.

As TigerBlog got to the channel, the cab was just pulling up in front of Dorothy's house, and out popped Jerry Maguire. Then he walked into the house and proceeded to say, first, "hello," and then follow that up with why Dorothy shouldn't give up on him.

Jerry went on from there and started doing what it is he has a tendency to do - talk too much. It didn't matter though. She was already so in love with him that it didn't really matter what he was saying, talking about how she completes him and all. He'd already made his point.

So what did she say?

"Shut up. Shut up." And then? You know what she said.

"You had me at 'hello.' "

Watch it HERE. You know you love it.

TigerBlog had actually just finished watching Episode 6 of "Good Behavior" on demand before he saw the end of Jerry Maguire. That's a really good show, if you haven't seen it yet.

It's been a big month of TV for TigerBlog. He still hasn't talked about the "Gilmore Girls" sequel yet, and then he's seen two other shows too. He'll follow up on those in the next few days.

Why not? It's a slow time of the athletic year.

Christmas is right around the corner. There are only three athletic events this week - men's basketball at Monmouth tomorrow and Bucknell Thursday and women's basketball home with Wagner in another Wednesday at 6 start.

As you know, TigerBlog loves the earlier midweek starts. The 5 pm tip for St. Joe's was great, as have the three Wednesday at 6 women's games.

This past weekend, the men's hockey team played its final games of the 2016 calendar year. To say that Princeton ended on an upswing would be an understatement.

As of Thanksgiving, Princeton had a record of 1-18-4 for the calendar year of 2016. Its only win was a 1-0 win back in January against American International.

For the 2016-17 season, Princeton was 0-6-1. Then Thanksgiving came and went.

Now the Tigers are a different team. In the first 23 games of 2016, Princeton scored a total of 40 goals. Of those 40 goals, 13 came in the first seven games of this season.

Since Thanksgiving, Princeton has been playing a different team.

The Tigers have played 10 games since Thanksgiving and have gone 7-2-1. TigerBlog saw a note last week that said going into Thanksgiving, Princeton was the only winless team in Division I men's hockey and that since Thanksgiving the Tigers had the most wins in Division I.

What's most amazing is that Princeton's wins have come against some of the best teams in the country. Princeton has five wins in that stretch against teams who were ranked, including four against teams in the Top 10 - two each against Bemidji State and Quinnipiac.

Princeton has been scoring goals at a much different rate of late.

In fact, Princeton has scored 39 goals in the 10 games since Thanksgiving, or one fewer than in the 23 other games in this calendar year. If you want to go by averages, then Princeton went from 1.74 goals per game in the first 23 to 3.9 (that's more than twice as many) in the last 10.

This past weekend, Princeton hosted Minnesota State-Mankato, who came to Baker Rink ranked 19th. Princeton promptly won 6-1 Friday night and then lost 5-4 Saturday night in a game that saw Princeton twice rally from a two-goal deficit to tie things, before the Mavericks won on a third-period goal.

Still, that's 10 more goals in two games. And this is with a young team.

TigerBlog is not a hockey guy. He likes to watch the games, though, and he can say that there was nothing fluky about the wins over Quinnipiac or the way Princeton played this weekend. This team is getting there.

What happened to flip the switch? TB has no idea.

Princeton has four games in January before exams, four big games, with a trip to Dartmouth and Harvard and then a home weekend with Colgate and Cornell. Princeton went 0-3-1 against those four the first time around.

Regardless, Princeton is on the verge, it seems, of taking a giant step forward in men's hockey. It's Year 3 of the Ron Fogarty era, and it seems like it's starting to click.

TigerBlog once read a story about Hobey Baker that referred to him as "the most romantic figure in the history of American college sports." For some reason, that description has always stuck with TB.

Maybe it's because he's such a romantic guy himself.

Anyway, the word to describe the men's team that plays in the rink named for Hobey Baker might not be romantic.

Exciting? Yes? Surging? Yes.

Winning?

Even better.