Opening Face-Off

TigerBlog was stunned by the conversation in his office Tuesday afternoon.

The subject was sports movies. TigerBlog had quote a line from one, and his colleague Warren Croxton 1) couldn't identify the movie and 2) once told what the movie was said he didn't like it.

Didn't like it? Didn't like "Hoosiers?" What the heck, Warren.

Who doesn't like "Hoosiers?" TigerBlog texted Warren a clip from YouTube later that day. It was THIS ONE.

Maybe he should have sent him THIS ONE too.

No offense, Warren, but "Hoosiers" is such a great movie that TigerBlog can even look past the fact that Norman Dale is one of the worst game coaches of all time. He waited until his team was down big in the state final  and still needed his players to tell him that maybe they should get the ball to Jimmy?

Warren, and TB's colleague Cody Chrusciel, said that they thought that "Major League" was a great sports movie. TigerBlog would agree.

In fact, back when TigerBlog was in the newspaper business, he wrote a big story about sports movies and which ones were his favorites, on the day of the Academy Awards one year (maybe 1990 or 1991, so long before "Miracle."). He had a chart with nominees in the five major categories and then picked the ones he thought should have won. "Rocky" won for Best Picture, by the way.

He also wrote a story about his favorites and least favorites. He said that he never liked "Field of Dreams" and that "Major League" was very underrated.

He got more mail - actual U.S. Mail - from that story than he did from every other story he wrote in his 11 years in the newspaper business combined. His top five sports movies, by the way, were "Rocky," "Hoosiers," "The Natural," "Heaven Can Wait" and "Knute Rockne All-American."

As TB said before, the movie "Miracle" hadn't yet been released when he wrote that story. The movie is the story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic men's hockey team's "Miracle on Ice," which is the greatest sports event of TB's lifetime. Nothing, by the way, will ever compare.

The movie, therefore, had a lot to work with, but that could also have been a detriment, since it could have come across as cheesy. That wasn't the case. Not with scenes like THIS ONE.

A little closer to home, the Princeton men's hockey team opened its season with a 4-2 win over Holy Cross this past Sunday. TigerBlog was there. He did the entry for StatCrew, the official stats program that is used for almost every NCAA sport.

Most of the programs work the same way in terms of how to start a game, load rosters, do live stats, create game and season stat reports. There are subtle differences in the in-game piece from sport to sport, and then there are differences between the rules for sports.

TigerBlog has very little experience doing StatCrew for hockey, but because of fall break, the regular enterers (students Anna and Delaney) weren't there.

TB would give himself a solid B for the effort. Hockey has lots of things that lacrosse doesn't have, like plus/minus, two assists on a goal and, within the program, having to return players to the ice after a power play. Oh, and he kept forgetting to reset the clock on face-offs, at least until the third period.

And the trickiest of all is when the goalie leaves the ice during a delayed penalty. You have to remove the goalie and make it an empty net and then put the goalie back in during the power play. 

But hey, he had the score right. Princeton 4, Holy Cross 2.

It's a different season for Princeton. A year ago, Princeton was the last team in Division I to get a win. This year, the Tigers are 1-0. And Holy Cross is no pushover. The Crusaders came into the game 3-0-2, with a win over Dartmouth included.

Princeton had a turnaround season a year ago. Now the Tigers are expected to challenge for a top four spot in the ECAC, and there was an expectation of winning the game Sunday, which something different that the team will have to figure out this season.

A big difference was that Colton Phinney wasn't in goal for this one, after he started for four years and shattered the program record for career saves. In his place was a freshman, Ryan Ferland, who made 38 saves against the Crusaders. Another freshman, Reid Yochim, scored the third goal of the day. The other three were scored by familiar names - Max Veronneau, Eric Robinson and Jackson Cressey.

The Tigers are definitely an exciting team to see, and this weekend will be one of the more exciting ones, as Colgate and Cornell come to Hobey Baker Rink. Colgate, you might recall, was the team that Princeton knocked off in a thrilling three-game ECAC playoff series last season, so you know the Raiders will be ready. And Cornell is always a big game.

The high temperature today in Princeton is supposed to be 75. It'll be 72 tomorrow. But it's hockey season regardless.

And it'll be heating up quickly this weekend in Princeton.