Minnesota 3 Ohio State 1

We live in a crazy, mixed-up world of cameras in phones, reality televsion, and Thursday hockey. Minnesota took on Ohio State tonight in hockey. I caught the first and third periods of the game, and watched The Office in between. Here were my thoughts.

1st period

Minnesota employed a tricky, crafty strategy of "skating behind the net" and Ohio State seemed perplexed. The first goal was a pretty bad defensive breakdown on the Buckeyes part, when a defenseman got caught chasing a guy around the net. The Buckeyes covered better on the second goal, though maybe too well, since the puck went in off a Buckeye skate. The goal was reviewed for some inexplicable reason. Pat White probably deserved an assist on that goal for forcing a turnover on the forecheck.

Ohio State's only offense of the period consisted of about 5 rushes up the ice. They skated offsides on four of them. To be fair, there's no such thing as a "blue line" in Ohio.

David Fischer absolutely lit up his own goalie. I don't think I've ever seen somebody hit their own goalie that hard.

The Office

I've kind of been disappointed with the first couple episodes this season. I thought this week's episode was a step in the right direction. They're finally letting Ed Helms sing again, which I always think is great. The Second Life stuff was pretty funny too. I just wish the show would go back to being funny office humor instead of being all about relationships.

Third period

After watching the first period, I expected to come back to a 5-0 game. Instead, each team scored in the second to make the game 3-1.

FSN is trying this new thing where people send text message questions to the FSN crew to be answered on the air. Generally, this sums up my opinion of texting, but someone asked the Wooger whether he'd rather have a player like Jay Barriball or Phil Kessel.

Wooger's response was two minutes of rambling about Phil Kessel having a foot stuck in a bucket or something. If I had Tivo, I would have saved it for Emmy committee.

At one point, I was watching Ohio State's Erick Belanger on one station, and Minnesota Wild forward Eric Belanger on another station. It was like The Twilight Zone.

Ohio State pretty much carried the play in the third period. They had a lot of decent chances, but were never able to find the puck in a scramble in front of the net. If the Buckeyes could have cut the lead to one, I think it might have been a more interesting game, but Minnesota looked like they were on cruise control after they built up the 3-0 lead, and never seemed to be in too much danger.

The late surge by Ohio State has to give them some confidence heading into tomorrow night's game though. They came out looking like they excepted a repeat of last year's route, but as they game wore on, I think they started to realize that they could play with the Gophers.