#bruce perreault | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thornescratch · 6 years

Note

I want to watch old Washington Capitals games but I don't know which. If you have any favourite games from the past, would you mind recommending some? It could be your favourite because they won, or they were hilarious while loosing, or even because something memorable or amusing happened at the game. I am asking you because you obviously have a lot of passion for this team, and also because you might have fellow Caps fan followers who might be willing to offer recs too. Thank you in advance!

Oh! This is a super fun question, so thank you. Hmm. This is hard because I know I’m going to write a ton and then remember “I LEFT OUT SUCH AND SUCH GAME” as soon as I hit post. So, yeah, if anyone’s reading this and wants to chime in with their favorite Caps games, please feel free!

And I’m not sure how you’re going to watch these games– hell, I’m not sure all the ones I’d recommend are available, but, I’ll try to be cognizant of that. So. That said. I should probably take this moment to note that if you want to have an actual convenient DVD, Amazon sells one of the 10 Greatest Capitals Games. You used to be able to buy it in the team store, but I haven’t seen it there in a couple years, so.

That particular DVD is very much geared to the Ovechkin era, which I don’t really see as a bad thing, but I don’t know you. And if you’re looking for much more of a deep dive into past Caps history, the DVD does include some of the most exciting and seminal games, but it’s much more current in general. I do get the mindset of people who have been around for this entire franchise and scoff at only focusing at 2005 on. I do get it! But the thing is, when you try to watch old games, you run into the fact they’re one, hard to find, two, generally of terrible video quality.

…Also the reviewer on Amazon who bitches because they think it should include the 4 OT Easter Epic should be soundly donkeypunched. Look, buddy, we all signed up for a disproportionate amount of disappointment as Caps fans, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be memorialized on a DVD. With that said, here are the games I love to rewatch or remember or I just think they’re neat. I’ll start with the DVD games because that’s convenient, and then go on with some other ones I like

Here’s what the DVD includes. All of these are good games to watch.

4/16/1988 - Dale Hunter scores the series’ winner in overtime as the Caps beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-4 to win Game 7 of the Patrick Division semi-final. This was the one they used in that “History will” series of NHL commercials because we have so few good playoff highlights.

4/17/1996 - In the Eastern Conference quarter-final against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the team rallies from a three-goal deficit to win 6-4.

6/4/1998 - Joe Juneau scores the overtime winner in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals, and the Caps go onto their first (and only) Stanley Cup appearance.

10/5/2005 - Ovechkin’s first NHL game. He scores two goals, hits a dude so hard the glass pane falls out, and Caps beat Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2.

11/23/2007 - First Bruce Boudreau coaching game, an overtime win against Philadelphia. Ah, Bruce.

1/31/2008 - Ovechkin’s (first) four goal game against the Habs, where he broke his nose (again) and won the game in OT.

4/5/2008 - Caps win 3-1 against the Florida Panthers to gain their first playoff appearance in five years, after having to win 11 of 12 down the stretch and pushing to the last day.

4/11/2008 - Ovechkin’s first NHL playoff game, with him leading the team to a come-from-behind win over Philadelphia.

4/28/2009 - Russian legend Sergei Fedorov, in his first and last season with the Caps, provides the game-winning goal in Game 7 against the New York Rangers, leading the Caps to win 2-1 in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. God, that goal. (Also, don’t look now, but that was a Game 7 the Caps won.)

5/4/2009 - The Ovechkin-Crosby dueling hat tricks playoff game with the Caps winning 4-3. (This was also where Crosby complained about hats being thrown on the ice. Like, there are many other reasons he’s never going to be on my Christmas card list, but this was him at some of his whiniest and pettiest, and when I think of reasons why I don’t care for the dude, this one tends to flash across my mind. Because I am also petty. EXCELSIOR.)

OTHER PLAYOFF GAMES.

HEY YES I KNOW EVERYONE MAKES FUN OF US ABOUT THE PLAYOFFS WELL HERE ARE SOME PLAYOFFS GAMES YOU CAN WATCH AND ENJOY.

4/20/2011 - Game four of the series with the New York Rangers. Yeah, yeah, the Caps have had their share of OT pain with the Rangers. But this comes from one of the shorter playoff series the Caps enjoyed in the Ovechkin era, and hey look, it’s a double OT WIN, which came about after the Caps had fallen behind 3-0 in the game, and then forced OT and won it on what was described as a “freaky sort of development play”. Marian Gaborik, in an attempt to clear the puck, accidentally yanked it away from Lundqvist and passed it directly to Jason Chimera, who promptly put it back in the net, and then skated the length of the ice in basically two seconds while his teammates tried to catch him for hugs. (Game 5 of that series was also pretty good because it’s one of the few times where the Caps were closing out a series and never looked worried during it. Just a nice solid win.)

4/25/2012 - Game Seven of the series with the Boston Bruins. Yeah, yeah, the Caps and Game 7′s. HERE’S ONE THAT WE ACTUALLY WON. This series was so fucking close and insane and it was the NHL playoff debut of a young Braden Holtby who came storming up from the AHL after both Tomas Vokoun and Michal Neuvirth went down to freak injury and went on to become the Bruins’s worst nightmare. (If you love Braden Holtby, you should remember that ex-Cap then-Panther Marco Sturm falling on Michal Neuvirth is what propelled Holtby into the playoffs out of necessity, and therefore most Caps fans probably owe him a drink.) And of course, this was the game of Joel Ward’s OT winner, with a helping of Mike Knuble’s gigantic ass in Tim Thomas’s face, (and I’m frankly still amazed the Caps didn’t get boned with a GI call on it), and man do I love me some Joel Ward.

4/27/2015 - Game Seven of the series with the Islanders. ANOTHER GOOD OUTCOME GAME SEVEN. This game seven on the other hand wasn’t as close (though every Caps fan was puckered and freaking during it) and the Caps were dominating. Joel Ward scored first for the Caps, and they outshot New York and were handling the Isles with ease, only to have everyone almost lose their shit when Holtby made a mistake and let Nielson tie. However, just as the Bruins series was Holtby’s debut party, the Isles series was Evgeny Kuznetsov’s Big Show. He scored with just over seven minutes left in the game on Halak, the goalie who’d tortured the Caps in 2010, and it was another successful Game 7 and series win. Since we don’t have a ton of those, enjoy it.

4/18/2016 - Game Three of the series with the Flyers. This was the, uh, Bracelet Game. But it was also a game where the Caps scored five goddamn powerplay goals to win 6-1 and took a 3-0 series lead for the first time in– well, ever. (At least in the seven game series era.) This is why it narrowly beats out Game Two, which had the Steve Mason “OH NO” goal given up to Jason Chimera.

4/19/2017 - I feel like I should include a Leafs playoff series game here from 2017 for completeness sake. Uh. Hmm. Let’s go with Game Four, since it had Tom Wilson saving a goal, then going down ice to score a goal, and was high-scoring, super-close, and barely squeaked away from going to OT.

OTHER REGULAR SEASON GAMES

1/1/2011, 1/1/2015 - Both Winter Classics. CAPS ARE UNDEFEATED IN OUTDOOR GAMES. Plus, they both serve as a good excuse to rewatch the HBO 24/7 and Epix Road to the Winter Classic specials.

2/7/2010 - Snowvechkin. Ovi had a hat trick against the Pens, the Caps had to come from behind, there was bizarre reffing, and Caps won. This was all the more impressive because DC was essentially under two feet of snow at this point and for the intrepid souls who basically walked into the city on foot to see the game, they got a real gem.

2/6/2011 - The Caps shut out the Pens 3-0 on Superbowl Sunday, but more dramatically, shaved ape on skates and career injury-causing cockmonger Matt Cooke tried to go knee on knee with Alex Ovechkin in the process and Nicklas Backstrom did his best to punch everliving shit out of him for doing it. It’s great seeing Backstrom get in Cooke’s face and throw hands afterthe shot on Ovechkin. If “ice in his veins and murder in his eyes” Backstrom is that visibly emotional,then somebody done done somebody wrong.

3/7/2011 - Holtby comes on in relief of Neuvirth in a game against the Bolts, when Neuvirth takes a shot off the mask and gets a sliver of metal in his eye. He held the Caps in it, and went on to help get the shootout win, 2-1. This was the very beginning of his career, and he’d go on to start the post-season against the Bruins and really blossom.

1/24/2012: Matty Perreault tricks the Bruins. This was an interesting game because it was one of the games Ovechkin was suspended for, after the NHL decided to make an example out of him and suspend him for a hit on Michalek but still require him to go to the ASG. Ovechkin not eager to play the NHL game of cookie-cutter villain / showdog to trot out and make money (boy, if you ever want to get an earful of rant, start me off on that particular suspension because I will not shut up about it, ever) and withdrew from the ASG. With Ovechkin out for suspension and Nicklas Backstrom concussed by noted shitstain Rene Bourque, and Mike Green also injured, it wasn’t looking good– until diminutive hero Matty P stepped up (and later got a shaving cream pie, courtesy of his proud captain who essentially rushed out of the press box in his suit and down to the ice to do it) to win the damn game with his hatty.

Fun fact with this game: Perreault somehow managed to high-stick Chara in the face during this game.Ponder that one for a minute. One might wonder how Perreault could even high-stick someone who routinely gets calls from Logan Airport to please move his head sothe planes can take off, without sneaking a ladder onto the ice or something.

2/24/2012 - Caps beat Habs 4-1. There’s an Ovechkin pretty goal in this one, but this real thing I remember is that Mike Green was itching to get back at Rene Bourque for concussing Backstrom, and boy did he. Green was playing Bourque because of the puck coming his waynear the net, but as soon as he saw the puck was past and out of danger, heturned his full attention to absolutely nailing Bourque and shoving him face-first into the goal-side. It was awesome.“Oh, did I fling you into the goal post? My bad, man.”

3/29/2012 - Matt Hendricks wins the shootout for Washington 3-2 and completely turns Tim Thomas inside out. At that point, you expected players like PKane or Datsyuk or Oshie to make beautiful, awe-inspiring SO moves.Matt Hendricks? Well, that’s a secret Caps fans knew and reveled in, and then welaughed at the other teams when they went, “Matt Hendricks, seriously? That’swho you're—oh, fuck. Fuck! fuuuuuuck! Where the fuck did that come from?!”

4/16/2013 - Ovechkin nearly tears Jay McClement’s head off for boarding Backstrom. This was a Caps 5-1 win over Toronto, and you’ve probably seen the clip in question. It was encouraging to see how much the team rushed to start a line brawl for Nicky’s sake. Backstrom, it should be noted, stood right back up and threw himself after the guy throwing himself at Ovi, so it went both ways.

12/10/2013 - I could describe all of Ovi’s four goal games, but this one against the Bolts, a 6-5 shootout win, was super dramatic and his first since 2008, a five year span. I’m just going to quote the RMNB recap of it: First, Mike Green committed a penalty and the Lightningscored. Then, Mike Green committed a penalty and the Lightning scored. Then, ina Shyamalany plot twist, Mike Green was on-ice when the Lightning scored. Holtbywas like, “Sick of you, Mike,” and he peaced out; Grubauer in. AlexOvechkin put the team on the board with an instant-score following a faceoff.Okay, buckle up. Here we go.

Troy Brouwer proved unable, so Nick Backstrom finished off the powerplay for him. Then, Alex Ovechkin happened. After Richard Panik earned a 5-minute major for boarding Karl Alzner, the Russian machine made Tampa pay. Twice. First, he laid up a cross-ice pass from Marcus Johansson, then he took a one-timer from Green to tie the game. Hats rained down. Another three-goal second period for the Washington Capitals.

Ondrej Palat put the Bolts back up in the third, taking advantage of some observational Capitals defense, but the Caps weren’t done. With the Caps net empty, Alex Ovechkin struck again, scoring his 4th goal of the night. HIS FOURTH FOARTH GOAL OF THE NIGHT.

12/13/2014 - Backstrom’s natural hat trick against the Lightning. He’s just so silky smooth.

10/23/2015 - Evgeny Kuznetsov’s hat trick and five point night against the Edmonton Oilers.

11/16/2016 - Nicklas Backstrom has another 5 five point night as the Caps skull the Penguins 7-1. Fun fact: At that point in time, Backstrom had had five five-point games, one more than Ovechkin, equaling Crosby, and one less than Malkin. And… no All Star Game appearances or Selkes, because the NHL is stupid.

If you want to know his other five point games up until then, they were:

11/16/2016 against Pittsburgh Penguins – 2 goals, 3 assists12/10/2013 against Tampa Bay Lightning – 1 goal, 4 assists02/04/2010 against New York Rangers – 1 goal, 4 assists12/05/2009 against Philadelphia Flyers – 1 goal, 4 assists11/15/2008 against New Jersey Devils – 1 goal, 4 assists

1/7/2017 - Backstrom’s 500th assist, on a TJ Oshie goal. It’s harder to pick out favorite Backstrom games because his game is so quiet and focused on operating in the shadows. Usually he’s having some kind of tremendous game that people focus on the dudes scoring the goals off the magical moves he’s making.

1/22/2017 - Ovechkin’s 1000th point. 35 seconds in, against the Pens. FUN FACT I WAS THERE FOR THIS ONE. I have a good friend from out of town who is a Pens fan (I’m as shocked as you), and for the past couple years she’s come to town from across the country when the Caps play the Pens, and my record with her was ABYSMAL. Until this game, I had never seen the Caps win in person at Verizon while she was there, but then this one happened, and she very kindly didn’t shove me over the ledge of the nosebleeds to my death, as she would have probably been in full rights to do after all the hooting and capering I was doing.

LOSSES? UH….

I don’t have a lot of recs for Caps losses because, well, I’m not a masochist. But if you must, I would recommend two particular ones first because the fights were bonkers.

11/21/1998 - Caps vs. Bruins. These is notable because of the goalie fight. Most notably, the one that’s been called “The Dance” between Byron Dafoe and Olie Kolzig, since– well, you’ll know it when you see it. The backstory is, Dafoe and Kolzig were close friends– best men at each other’s weddings, even. And when the Bruins and Caps threw down in their line brawl, Dafoe grabbed Dale Hunter (Dale Hunter having been just momentarily pried out from the dogpile and had just been separated from Ken Belanger) and Kolzig came down the ice to get in on the action. However, Kolzig decided to fight Ken Belanger (since the refs had turned around to deal with Dale Hunter) which was… uh, probably not a good idea.

Dafoe and Hunter had simultaneous “Ho-shit, son,” realizations, immediately stopped fighting each other, and flung themselves at Kolzig and Belanger respectively. Dafoe grabbed Kolzig and basically waltzed him away from Belanger before he could get his head smashed in, and Hunter went back to fighting Belanger. Kolzig and Dafoe pulled each other’s jerseys off while Kolzig seemed torn between trying to yell at Dafoe for yanking him out of the fight and laughing at his friend. Everyone on the ice got tossed and the Caps lost 5-4 in OT.

1/12/2010 - Caps vs. Bolts. You actually don’t really have to watch this whole game, which was a 7-4 loss. You just need to watch Steve Downie and Alex Ovechkin drop the gloves and prepare to fight, only to have Matt Bradley come streaking in at the last second and literally steal the fight out of Ovechkin’s hands. Dan Steinberg did a great write-up of it for the Sportsbog. It’‘s kind of hilarious because, well, Ovi and Downie were both completely taken by surprise. If you catch any of the later analyst clips, you can see Bradley watching Ovi and Downie yell at each in the box, keeping an eye on the unfolding events like a hawk, screaming urgently at Eric Fehr to get the hell off the ice so he can get on without getting the instigator, and then just making a direct beeline for the fight so he can get in front of Ovi and punch Downie in the face.

12/16/2014 - The never ending fucking shoot out with the Panthers. Ugh. I refuse to even google this to find highlights. WE WENT THROUGH THE ENTIRE GODDAMN ROSTER. EVEN BROOKS FUCKING ORPIK SCORED. ON A TRIPLE DEKE. I still refuse to believe the entire thing wasn’t a fever dream from the mind of Roberto Luongo while passed out on the can. It did at least give us the notable mic’d up quote of “Coach Korn has a pitched tent in the stands right now,” though.

WAIT IT’S BAD LUCK TO END ON A LOSS, LET’S END WITH SOME MORE WINS.

1/08/2016 - This game had everything I say, in my best breathy Stefon voice. A quick two goal lead for the Caps. Giving up three goals to fall behind. Nicklas Backstrom slamming in a loose puck with less than ten seconds left to tie it. OT madness. Nate Schmidt and his skate helping Holtby save an almost slam dunk Ranger goal off the faceoff in OT. Ovechkin grabbing the saved puck and going end to end to score in OT. Ovechkin falling on his face. Happy, huggy chaos by the Caps on Madison Square Garden ice. Ovi one away from 500 goals…

1/10/2016 - Ovechkin’s 500th. This might be my favorite game (for now…), not because it was a blowout win, not because Ovechkin actually had two in this game, one of which involved dangling Erik Karlsson’s pants off, but watching the team come to celebrate with him, seeing how much they loved him and were overjoyed for him and had actually planned it out in advance without his knowledge… that’s just something special. It was just a really, really good moment that very little can spoil for me, no matter what.

#Anonymous #links #Washington Capitals #old Caps games #milestones

32 notes · View notes

junker-town · 7 years

Text

Winnipeg Jets’ emerging offense a solid starting point for their future

Patrik Laine is only the beginning for Winnipeg.

It’s that time of the NHL season where a few fan bases start buying playoff tickets while the rest turn their attention to MLB spring training. Elimination is no fun. But it shouldn’t color your whole fandom with tears. Just most of it. Seventy percent of it.

This is the 30 percent: SB Nation NHL Silver Linings, where we send hockey’s eliminated teams into the offseason with five good things to remember from this season.

The 2016-17 season showed us just how dangerous the Winnipeg Jets can be as a franchise. Sure they were eliminated from the playoffs with a few weeks to go, but the league has been put on notice.

A year after falling to the second-last spot in the league, the Jets climbed to just within reach of batting .500. And hey, no one expected Winnipeg to contend this year, but right off the bat they were a fun team to watch.

Oh, and they might have the Calder Trophy by season’s end too. Imagine that.

Patrik Laine became the latest rookie wunderkind

Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

That Calder Trophy we mentioned? Yeah, Laine’s likely going to win that. Maybe. It’s really more of a tossup. But still! Laine is tied for the NHL scoring lead with 61 points with Toronto’s rookie sensation, though Laine has done it in seven less games.

No one’s really sure now who will get the Calder, but it’s sure got to mean more to Laine in a year where the Jets are no longer contending. And even if he doesn’t win, Laine’s cemented himself as an offensive player to watch for years to come.

Plus, Laine was at the centerpiece of sparking a rivalry flame between two young, talented teams. Canada really bounced back this season, eh?

youtube

The rest of Winnipeg’s offense announced themselves too

James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports

Get ready to hear the names of Mark Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers for a long time. The pair emerged this season as an offensive threat worthy of mention. Scheifele especially, who has 76 points in 73 games to lead the Jets offense as a 23-year-old.

Their supporting cast is quite talented too, with the likes of Blake Wheeler, Dustin Byfuglien, Bryan Little, and Mathieu Perreault playing big parts in making the Jets offense the eighth deadliest in the NHL this season.

Add some college hockey standouts in Andrew Copp and Kyle Connor to the mix, and Winnipeg’s offense has never been deeper in this incarnation of the franchise.

Ondrej Pavelec’s days as a Jet are nearly over

Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

And they almost were, as the Jets rolled with Connor Hellebuyck and Michael Hutchinson for most of the season. Winnipeg’s goaltending was certainly their biggest weakness of the season, but head coach Paul Maurice finally seemed to realize that their goaltender of the future was not going to be Pavelec.

Hellebuyck has shown flashes of greatness, and stability, while Hutchinson can live as a capable backup. It’s not perfect, but Hellebuyck especially is young and still developing. Not everyone can have a Matt Murray at the outset of their goaltending careers.

They’ll be healthy again come next season

Bruce Fedyck-USA TODAY Sports

Winnipeg could have been in a position to take a run at the Western Conference playoff standings, but their health deteriorated over the last few months. Eight players, including Laine and Byfuglien, have fallen prey to the injury bug.

Would the Jets have made the climb to the postseason even with their key players uninjured? Who knows. But no one likes losing almost double digits in players to injury, especially over a few weeks time. Just ask the Penguins.

All of their biggest names are signed through next season

Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

With the offseason near, and Vegas throwing a wrench into the draft plans, most teams will likely be scrambling to sign and make deals to accommodate their biggest players. The Jets, however, will have just four unrestricted free agents to deal with and have a projected $6.3 million in cap space to deal with.

The only big named UFA coming off the books at the end of the season will be Pavelec, and with their cap space they’ll have plenty of room to get Marko Dano, Copp, Brandon Tanev, Ben Chiarot, and Hellebuyck under contract. Some smart management this offseason can set them up well for a bright future.

0 notes

thrashermaxey · 5 years

Text

21 Fantasy Hockey Rambles

Every Sunday, we'll share 21 Fantasy Rambles — formerly 20 Fantasy Thoughts — from our writers at DobberHockey. These thoughts are curated from the past week's ‘Daily Ramblings’.

Writers: Michael Clifford, Ian Gooding, Cam Robinson, and Dobber

1. Habs’ Phillip Danault had a four-point game this week with one goal and three assists. He has tied his career-high of 40 points set back in 2016-17 and is now two goals shy of tying a career-high 13. Danault’s two-way game is very much underrated, though his upside in fantasy will always be capped as long as he’s not on the power play. (feb8)

2. The St. Louis Blues have rebounded from a poor start to the point where they now occupy a playoff spot in the Western Conference. A key reason for that success has been the unexpected success of Jordan Binnington, who, with a win on Saturday, has now reeled off five consecutive Ws and sports an impressive 9-1-1 record.

Binnington’s recent success has pushed the inconsistent Jake Allen off the grid for a while. In fact, until today’s match versus Nashville, Allen hadn’t seen any playing time since January 17!

Reminder: Always be sure to check Goalie Post for your goalie starters info and more. (feb10)

3. Binnington’s save percentage is a neat .931 in 13 games. Stats like his HDSV% and GSAA are all very stellar, as well.

It’s still far too early to tell but if Binnington can be their goalie of the future, and with the way this team is playing right now, the Blues could be a dangerous team if they sneak in the playoffs. (feb8)

4. It’s been quite the fascinating season for Gustav Nyquist. There were absolutely no expectations for him this year in Detroit, coming off three straight seasons producing under 50 points and never more than 21 goals. He’s currently on a 70-point pace, though, and has been dynamic on the top line with Dylan Larkin.

Teams looking for Nyquist wouldn’t necessarily be looking for a goal scorer, they’d be looking for someone to facilitate other goal scorers. A guy who can get out of his zone, and into the offensive zone, with possession of the puck to look for trailers, seam passes, or to start the cycle. Who fits that bill? Two teams from the Central.

It’s no big secret that Nashville needs more secondary scoring. Being able to put Nyquist on the second line with Kevin Fiala and Kyle Turris could help them both going as playoffs start to roll around.

Winnipeg has really struggled since the Nikolaj Ehlers injury and Patrik Laine has been mired in a brutal slump. Adding a rental like Nyquist would allow for one of Ehlers or Kyle Connor to slide to the third line and play with Mathieu Perreault, and it would give Laine a legitimate playmaker at five-on-five and provide insurance in case of another injury like the one Ehlers suffered. (feb5)

5. Evander Kane is on quite a run with 29 points (15g-14a) over his last 23 games. Kane is only six goals away from reaching the 30-goal mark for the first time in his career.

The Sharks’ winger has been an absolute beast in multicategory leagues with top-5 numbers in both penalty minutes (105) and shots on goal (214), and he’s also in the top 50 in hits (117). (feb10)

6. Anders Nilsson’s goaltending performance is worth mentioning.

Nilsson was acquired as an injury replacement for Craig Anderson, but he seems to be forcing a timeshare in the Ottawa net, something that hasn’t been possible during much of Anderson’s time in Ottawa.

Nilsson has earned more playing time than a typical backup, posting a 1.88 GAA and .949 SV% over the past month. In spite of that success, he’s still widely ignored in Yahoo leagues (just 8 percent owned). (feb10)

7. Patrice Bergeron made game No. 1,000 one to remember. The Bruins’ all-everything center scored the overtime winner and added two assists with a plus-3 and seven shots on goal in a 5-4 win on Saturday.

For fantasy purposes, Bergeron has been like fine wine in that he has gotten better with age. After scoring 53 points in 78 games two seasons ago (0.68 pts/GP), Bergeron scored at a point-per-game pace last season with 63 points in 64 games. He has surpassed that even further this season with 50 points in 39 games thus far (1.28 pts/GP).

Assuming he stays healthy for the rest of the season, Bergeron is on pace for 84 points even though he can only play a maximum of 66 games. (feb10)

8. Neal Pionk, the Rangers’ leading scorer among defensemen, was ‘healthy scratched’ twice this past week — he has just one assist since December 23, a span of 14 games.

Pionk has been slowed by a lower-body injury that resulted from blocking a shot in a game just after Christmas, but he was having a fine season before that with 19 points over his first 32 games.

The recent struggles of Pionk combined with the underachieving Kevin Shattenkirk have resulted in the Rangers trying a five-forward power play at one point this season.

9. Jet Patrik Laine is hardly the only scorer owned in most fantasy leagues that is having trouble turning on the red light.

For example, would you consider the Wild’s Mikael Granlund hot or cold at the moment? If you value assists, you’d consider him hot, as he has five of those in the last seven games. Bruce Boudreau doesn’t seem to care, though, as he identified Granlund as ice cold with two goals in his past 38 games.

During Granlund’s breakout two seasons ago, I suspected that he had experienced some good luck in the shooting percentage department with a near-15 percent shooting accuracy. This season, Granlund is shooting more in line with career average of 10 percent while his current goal total (12) puts him on pace to finish under 20 goals for the first time in three seasons.

Don’t panic if you’re in a roto league, though. For starters, Granlund may experience better puck luck soon. In addition, both his 32 assists and 15 power-play points lead the Wild, and his current shot total (124) puts him on pace to finish with around the same number of shots he took over the previous two seasons.

This is a case of a coach expressing frustration over his team’s inability to rise above the pack of teams that are drifting aimlessly around the wild-card spots in the Western Conference. Besides, Granlund’s career assist total is over double his career goal total. Hopefully you understood that ratio when you drafted him.

10. Speaking about Laine, he was moved off the top PP unit in favor of Jack Roslovic this past week. I know this is in response to Laine’s current slump (two goals in 22 games) and it’s undoubtedly temporary, but this kind of move never made sense to me. One of the best goal scorers in the league is in a shooting percentage drought, so you take him out of the best situation he has to score? I would better understand moving Laine down the lineup at even strength and playing him with Mathieu Perreault or Adam Lowry. (feb8)

11. The Nashville Predators are starting to look like the team many hope they can be, and that’s just largely a function of getting their players back. Viktor Arvidsson has put his injuries behind him, P.K. Subban looks great as always, and now Kyle Turris has returned to the lineup, too. (feb8)

12. I remember before the season I was debating keeping Kevin Fiala over Arvidsson in one of my keeper leagues. I am still very high on Fiala but sometimes the obvious choice is obvious for a reason. There’s a fantasy sports lesson to be learned here. (feb8)

13. The Kings are not expecting Jeff Carter to play anytime soon but there’s hope he can return to the lineup by the end of their current road trip on Monday in Washington. Michael Amadio took his spot on the second line but honestly, I wouldn’t even be reaching that far. This is a dead zone of fantasy value. The L.A. Kings are the AT&T of fantasy hockey. (feb8)

14. Before the season, I was very much gung-ho on Jake DeBrusk in the anticipation of top power-play minutes. That Ryan Donato (remember him?) earned those minutes early on worried me but I was still drafting DeBrusk. He’s still on pace for a 20-goal campaign but his ice time has been declining of late. He still has those top PP minutes, and the question is whether he can turn it on down the stretch.

The problem with the decline in ice time is that there’s a similar drop in his shot rate as he’s now below two shots per game over his last 11 games. It’s not only a function of his ice time drop, but over the last four weeks, his shot attempt/minute rate has gone down by about 20 percent.

What gives me hope is Boston’s upcoming schedule. Out of their next 20 games or so through the third week of March, not even half of them are against teams currently in a playoff position (with only a few of those games are against top defensive teams). At best, those teams have one good defensive line which should be swallowed up by Boston’s top line, allowing DeBrusk and his linemates to run wild on the depth. (feb8)

15. It’s been a brutal year for Rickard Rakell. He had averaged 24 five-on-five goals over the previous two seasons and would be on pace for eight this year had he been healthy all season.

While injuries have been a factor with the Ducks all year, the conditions are there for Rakell to rebound. His issues this year are almost all driven by shooting percentages, but it is worth noting that his individual expected goal rate is a four-year low (via Corsica), and considerably lower than the previous three seasons. (feb8)

16. The Oilers are a favorite punching bag of many, and rightfully so. All the same, Oscar Klefbom is an excellent talent and he still plays on a team that boasts Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. He cannot be ignored.

The question for Klefbom is where he fits. He just returned from injury, but Darnell Nurse has maintained his role on the top PP unit. They’re going to ease Klefbom back into his minutes but when he’s back to full gear, he should be back to 24-25 minutes a night.

When McDavid has been on the ice with Klefbom over the last season and a half, the Oilers generate about six percent more shots, and though it hasn’t led to more goals (it’s close), I will usually bet on the side of volume.

Give it another week or so for Klefbom to get some games under him and then see if he can be had for cheap in your leagues. He’s a guy that can be had for the price of a fourth or fifth defenceman with the upside to be a No.2 over the next two months. (feb8)

17. I suspect Mikko Koivu’s season-ending injury means that Minnesota ‘may’ pack it in at some point soon? They are currently in a wild card spot but there are nine teams within eight points and they’re already without Mathew Dumba.

This probably means Eric Staal is to be traded by the deadline, which is just a couple of weeks away. He’s a pending UFA and they can always re-sign him. I guess we’ll know more soon. If they go on a big win streak, it’ll make the decision tougher. If they start to lose ground, it makes it easier. (feb7)

18. The biggest news this week was the signing of Auston Matthews, who signed a five-year deal with an AAV over $11.6-million.

That might seem like a weird deal given that the Leafs would likely have wanted to keep him around for eight more years rather than five, unless he signs another extension down the road. But as Cam Robinson pointed out in his Ramblings yesterday, the team only bought one year of unrestricted free agency, which kept the cap hit down. If they buy more UFA years, that number of $11.6-million goes even higher, and this is a team that needs every bit of cap space they can manage for 2019-20. (feb7)

19. With Thatcher Demko on a plane back to Vancouver to have an MRI on his knee, the Canucks used an Emergency Recall on 19-year-old, Michael DiPietro.

In the last nine months, DiPietro has suited up for the Windsor Spitfires and Ottawa 67s of the OHL. He was the third netminder for Canada at the 2018 World Championships, as well as the starter for the Canadians at the recent World Junior Championships. Now, the back-up gig in the NHL.

You know he’s had a massive smile on his face for all of it. (feb6)

20. Over in the college ranks, the state of Massachusetts was buzzing with the annual Beanpot tournament this week. This annual tourney pits the top NCAA schools from the region against one another for the prestigious 65-year-old trophy.

Last Monday saw Boston University and Northeastern square off and Canucks’ prospect, Tyler Madden was the hero in overtime as he converted on a breakaway.

Madden is making a claim to be the best value pick from the 2018 class. Taken 68th overall by Vancouver, he’s been dynamite as the top line centre for the Huskies this season, and was a swiss army knife for the Americans at the WJC. He sure looks to have a future as a top-six forward. Keeper leagues, take notice. (feb6)

21. My theory on Erik Gustafsson’s odds of long-term success is something I’ll coin the 45/55 theory. It’s one I apply to a defenseman that is lesser-touted and/or to a late-bloomer enjoying really strong success for a team with a handful of high-quality offensive prospect defensemen on the way.

Will Henri Jokiharju, Adam Boqvist, Ian Mitchell or Chad Krys steal the spotlight? Well, if Gustafsson finishes the season with 45 points, I think he’s vulnerable. If he gets to 55, though, he’s bulletproof.

There’s something prestigious about a defenseman hitting the 55-point mark that keeps him safe from reduced PP time and faltering coach confidence. Gustafsson’s current pace is 52, but that is with a slow start due to gaining the coach’s confidence (and thus ice time), so I’d accept it. If he reaches those lofty totals come April, then the next wave of highly-skilled kids will have to be the Ivan Provorov to Gustafsson’s Shayne Gostisbehere (say that three times fast). Or, the Sam Girard to Gustafsson’s Tyson Barrie. And so on. (feb4)

Have a good week, folks!!

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/21-fantasy-hockey-rambles/21-fantasy-hockey-rambles-4/

0 notes

yahoo-puck-daddy-blog · 6 years

Text

What We Learned: Everything going wrong for Tampa

The Washington Capitals are taking it to Tampa Bay in a way many thought impossible. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

I know it’s allergy season and all that, but it’s probably not a good idea for every guy on the Lightning to take a Benadryl right before puck drop.

In two straight games, it’s not just that the Lightning — who dismantled both the Devils and far superior Bruins — has been outplayed by the Capitals, but they’ve been brutalized by this Washington team.

It’s now 2-0 Caps in the series, with goalscoring sitting at 10-4 to the underdogs who, I guess, aren’t underdogs any more. There’s not much here that’s worth breaking down except to say that it looks like Tampa didn’t have access to game tape. The Capitals are doing what they did, more or less, against Pittsburgh and it’s working very, very well for them. Better than anyone had any right to expect.

To be fair though, these were two games that, much like Winnipeg/Vegas on Saturday, didn’t feel close even when they were technically close. Tampa being up 2-1 in the first period, for example, felt like something that wasn’t going to last too long.

Scoring 70 percent of the goals in any given two-game set is certainly within the capabilities of a Caps team with this much top-end talent both up front and in net. But to do it looking this good is the kind of thing only an unabashed homer would have said was likely to happen.

Also, of course, the Capitals’ power play is running at such an incredible level as to be unbelievable. When they scored to make it 4-2 right at the death of the second period, it marked the 12th game of their last 14 with a power play tally. If you can get your man advantage running like that, you’re going to put yourself in position to win games.

It’s funny, because Tampa’s power play has also been very good in this series, but if you can’t win the non-special-teams battle, this Washington team also going punch-for-punch on the man advantage has to just be demoralizing.

This is the kind of thing that’s not always easy to write about because it’s like, “Well, look, we all see what’s happening here.” Could [insert player name here] be better for the Lightning? Absolutely, but much like the scoring dried up for the Bruins in the last round, that’s a little bit of what’s happening here. The Bolts have one 5-on-5 goal in the first two games of this series and have no answer for the Caps’ forecheck at the other end of the ice.

The wild thing is that the Lightning were the heavy favorites here and they haven’t been presented with anything they had any right to be surprised by, and yet here we are. The NBC intermission show made a point of praising Chris Kunitz as the Lightning’s best player in the first two games, which normally comes off as “We have to talk about someone and he at least appears to be trying hard,” but in this case it was like, “Yeah, no, Kunitz probably has been one of the two or three best players on their roster.” Which, if that’s not a sad commentary on the state of their series, nothing is.

It should be said here, by the way, that Andrei Vasilevskiy has been rather bad in this series, but if he should have given up, say, three fewer goals I’m not sure it makes all that much of a difference. Too many power play goals (obviously), too many odd-man rushes (obviously), and it’s not just the Backstrom and Ovechkin lines doing it. Lars Eller, Devante Smith-Pelly, Jay Beagle. These are not guys who should be torturing a top-three team in the league and yet here we extremely are.

And look, obviously Alex Ovechkin is playing at such a high level at this point that he cannot go unmentioned, but even his having a goal and an assist in each of these games wasn’t really what was moving the needle. Things are going that comprehensively poorly for Tampa that one of the best players of the era scoring two points a game wasn’t the primary reason they lost. Not even close. Amalie Arena sounded like a mausoleum for most of the third period, and that honestly felt like the fans who stuck around kind of not wanting to pile on their guys.

The really telling stat in all this is that in Game 1, high-danger chances were 13-5 in all situations. The Capitals were getting to the prime real estate with ease and the Lightning were not. Factor in the fact that Tampa trailed by multiple goals for most of that game and the problem becomes almost inexplicable. Things went much better in that regard last night (they tied 8-8) but a good chunk of those scary chances were on the power play — much was being made of the Bad Calls in the early going — and more importantly still not anywhere near good enough to make these games competitive.

So the question becomes what you need to fix if you’re Jon Cooper. The good news is that you have no shortage of areas in which to tinker. The Caps are making your team-that-was-among-the-best-all-year look, in this Eastern Conference Final, look like the tanking Sabres on a Wednesday night in February. You can lean on literally everyone and demand better performances, and luckily they can’t really get worse on you in response.

As mentioned earlier, I don’t know how you get this team to be more Engaged because Washington isn’t doing anything special or tricky. They’re picking off passes in their own end and crashing hard on the forecheck when the Bolts try to break it out. Pretty straightforward hockey and it’s not materially different from their approach at any point this season. It’s just all all all working for them right now.

At some point you just have to ask, “Is it because they got Tom Wilson back from suspension?” It would be hard to prove that isn’t. Checkmate.

What We Learned: Playoff edition

Tampa Bay Lightning: Can’t imagine there are too many higher seeds that lose two straight games at home — regardless of how it happens — and then go on to win their series. This is still a really good team, obviously, but you just can’t get bulldozed like this for two games against a team like Washington. The difference in this series, as it is for the Western Conference Final, was supposed to be depth, and specifically how much of it Tampa has. Not hard to remember how only like a week ago we were saying, “What is Smith-Pelly even doing in the NHL?” and now this. You figure it out!

Vegas Golden Knights: Okay so that game on Saturday night was some real “superhero fights the bad guy for the first time in a movie” stuff. Winnipeg looked like it had played in an entire different league from Vegas this season, specifically a much better one. Let’s put it this way: The Golden Knights trailed by two for basically the entire game and only put 21 shots on goal. They scored once at 5-on-5, only generated eight high-danger chances in 60 minutes of hockey, and didn’t really control the game at any point except for a few minutes here and there around power plays and the like. Compare to: Superhero gets new powers, sees the bad guy doing a bad thing, tries to intervene and gets punched so hard he lands six city blocks away. Turns out the Pacific was the first 20 minutes of Spider-Man Homecoming. They just better hope this series doesn’t end like Infinity War.

Washington Capitals: Honestly the difference in this series comes down to two numbers for me: .929 for Braden Holtby, and .855 for Andrei Vasilevskiy. Again, you can’t put it all on Vasilevskiy because if you face 21 high-danger chances in two games you’re going to run into some problems, but c’mon man. Eight fifty-five. Washington’s all-situations PDO in this series is 107.3. Even as that’s obviously not going to last forever, the gaps in their expected save percentages and the fact that Tampa’s home-ice advantage is torched can’t have you feeling good here. Yikes.

Winnipeg Jets: This was exactly what seemed to be the most likely outcome for the Jets in Game 1: The top line went punch-for-punch with Marchessault, Karlsson, and Smith, and the depth lines really cleaned up after that. In particular, it seemed to me that the Tanev-Little-Perreault line just didn’t let anyone from Vegas’s depth group get anywhere near the net. Which was always going to be the problem. Winnipeg is going to score on the power play, that’s unavoidable, so it was important to score with the Jets’ top line off the ice. Not sure that’s gonna happen too much going forward.

Play of the Weekend

This just kinda tells you everything: This 2-on-1 looked so easy it might as well have been a 2-on-0, and that was Anton Stralman as the man back. Not too shabby.

Gold Star Award

Boy you know who was phenomenal on Saturday night? Big Buff. Just great.

Minus of the Weekend

Can we stop celebrating Bobby Hull? Like, Time’s Up and all that stuff. He sucks — here’s one reason and here’s another — and shouldn’t be shown on TV or talked about or honored or anything except “shunned.” Fire him into the sun.

Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Week

User “Dornhoeffer” wants to make some moves.

PHI trades Pick 14 and Travis Sanheim and 2019 2nd to OTTA for Pick 4

PHI trades Pick 4, pick 19 and Wayne Simmonds to CAR for Pick 2

PHI selects Andrei Svechnikov

Signoff

Ahhhh, well, that was wonderful. Good time was had by all. I’m pooped.

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All stats via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)

#_revsp:21d636bb-8aa8-4731-9147-93a932d2b27a #_lmsid:a077000000CFoGyAAL #_author:Ryan Lambert #_uuid:9b29afa6-1b0e-3b0b-a140-504a7781ecfe

0 notes

e-barnsey-blog · 7 years

Text

One Buffalo

Buffalo, NY has two major professional sports teams, the Buffalo Sabres and Buffalo Bills. The two teams draw a lot of people to the area and have given a huge economic boost to the city. In 2011, Terry Pegula and his wife, Kim Pegula, bought the Sabres franchise and 3 years later in 2014, the two also became owners of the Bills. Together they coined the term, ‘One Buffalo’ with the hope of uniting and strengthening the teams. The goal for both teams is to create stronger, win-generating teams to bring increasing success to the area.

The Buffalo Sabres, their NHL hockey team, was founded in 1970. Originally their home ice was stationed in what was known as the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, or the ‘Aud.’ However, Key Bank Center (their current arena) was built in 1996 and the Aud has since been demolished. A time period of importance for the Sabres was when their best known line, known better as The French Connection, sprung into action. It consisted of Gilbert Perreault, Rick Martin, and Rene Robert. These 3 were so talented that their numbers have all been retired and a statue has been placed in front of the arena.

The Buffalo Bills, their NFL football team, was established in 1960. They are the only team playing in their home state of New York at New Era Field in Orchard Park, NY. Along with that, they are also the only team to win four consecutive conference championships and lose four consecutive Super Bowl games. Their field was originally named after their previous owner, Ralph Wilson, until he passed away in 2014. Key players include quarterback Jim Kelly, whose multiple cancer diagnoses and fights became highly publicized, and defense end Bruce Smith. These are the only two numbers that the Buffalo Bills have retired.

Overall, the teams and the City of Buffalo have thrived from the union of the teams through owner/CEO Terry Pegula and owner Kim Pegula. The two of them have created a family business which helps people relate to them and believe the goal they’re trying to accomplish.

0 notes

nofomoartworld · 7 years

Text

Hyperallergic: Looking Back at the Strange and Surly History of Bay Area Funk Art

View of the Funk show (1967) in the Powerhouse Gallery at U.C. Berkeley (image courtesy BAMPFA)

SAN FRANCISCO — It was sometime after 8:15 pm on April 28, 1967, in the Physical Sciences Lecture Hall at the University of California, Berkeley. In progress was a symposium about Funk, the latest art show exhibited in the school’s University Art Museum. The symposium seemed to promise a lively discussion among several of the artists with work in the show, while moderator duties were covered by Peter Selz, Funk’s curator and the executive director of the museum. Instead, the symposium delivered total chaos.

The conversation went off course as the panelists let slip their grievances with the way Selz had approached the show. Figurative painter Joan Brown felt that Funk failed to present funkiness in context. Avant-garde ceramist Peter Voulkos decried that funk was strictly delimited to a Bay Area oddity. Experimental assemblage-maker, filmmaker, and altogether creative outlaw Bruce Conner denied the premise of Funk altogether. For Conner, the art was too diverse to fit under an umbrella so small and outdated. Conner was probably the most vocal of the artists who believed that whatever art qualified as funky was out of style years before the opening of Funk. Painter and ceramist Jim Melchert went on record with, “[Good funk] attempts to resolve those two essences of mankind: one a striving toward perfectibility, the other a kind of gross realization that we’re all just animals.” Melchert drilled down further into this by wryly lamenting all the funky artists that Selz had left out— like William Shakespeare and Albrecht Dürer.

Funk Symposium, April 28, 1967; University of California, Berkeley (photo by Ron Chamberlain)

Things fell apart when the artists voiced their dissent more creatively. A shoe flew across the stage. Someone began an impromptu jam session. One of the artists poured a glass of water over their own head. Despite the histrionics, the panelists had a great point. The premise of Funk was flawed. “Notes on Funk,” the essay Selz authored for the show’s catalogue, offers clues regarding where this creative fissure might have occurred.

Funk April 28–May 29, 1967; Powerhouse Gallery, University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley (photo by Ron Chamberlain)

“Funk art,” Selz wrote, “so prevalent in the San Francisco-Bay Area, is largely a matter of attitude.” I agree with Selz that this notion is a fundamental component of funk. There are no goals or agendas, only a je ne sais quoi accepted on a pass/fail basis. Conversely, as of this writing, the Wikipedia page for Funk Art offers a digest of how the subject is all too often conveyed: as a movement with certain practitioners. Both of these terms imply a shared goal or motive. However, there was neither a credo nor manifesto behind funk that would inspire the pursuit of perfection. If anything, funk artists avoided being labeled funky. The only definition for funk with staying power seems to be, as phrased by Selz in “Notes,” “When asked to define Funk, artists generally answer: ‘When you see it, you know it.’”

Despite the diffuse nature of funk, Selz takes a page of his essay to explore the pedigree for the show’s eponymous attitude. Marcel Duchamp’s readymades as well as the works of Jean Arp, Joan Miró (especially “Object” from 1936), and Méret Oppenheim are each singled out as possible prototypes, or distinct examples of funk. Selz continues by citing recurrent themes in funky art, especially: private metaphor, self-deprecation, “erotic and scatological” motifs, ambiguous intent, and moral ambiguity. Selz emphasizes this last point by opening the catalogue with a quote from The Bald Soprano (1950) by the absurdist playwright Eugène Ionesco:

Mrs. Martin: What’s the moral?

Fire Chief: That’s for you to find out.

Selz wanted to respect the spirit of the artwork by steering the show away from making “a definitive statement” about funk. Nicole Rudick quotes Selz in her essay in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition What Nerve! (2014) at the Rhode Island School of Design: “I was merely interested in pointing out something that was going on right now with a few examples … from the background that have to do with the developments as I see it [sic].” The point of Funk was to offer viewers the chance to judge the art at face value. Selz amassed nearly sixty objects (we now recognize funk as extending into any medium, but Selz focused his exhibition on sculptural objects) for the exhibition and implicitly gave each equal billing under the singular title of Funk. Some pieces were small, while others were gargantuan installations. Some were created by Beat writers in the mid-1950s while others were created by hippies in the mid-‘60s. Some of the objects were pale while others were as brightly decorated as a venomous creature. Some were figurative, some surreal, and some vaguely squishy. The diversity of works ensured that a single definition of funk was impossible. If everything in Funk was funky, then sure, why not throw in the works of Shakespeare and Dürer?

Peter Saul “Relax in the Electric Chair (Dirty Guy)” (1966) exhibited at the Funk show (image courtesy Israel Valencia and the di Rosa Preserve)

No one, Selz included, presumed that the show would make an impact beyond its run through May 1967. Selz said years later, “We never expected that [Funk] would become a part of art history.” After the show, knowledge of the aesthetics associated with it quickly spread across the country. Reviews of the exhibition appeared in Artforum, Time magazine, Chicago Daily News, New York Times, and outlets abroad. While some of these were unflattering (Artforum was scathing, which Selz pinned on the magazine’s permanent relocation from Los Angeles to snobby New York City), the march of funk from sea to shining sea continued.

The term “funk artist,” first entered the American lexicon as shorthand for anyone with work in Selz’s 1967 show. The most famous example is John Perreault’s 1967 article titled “Metaphysical Funk Monk,” about a William T. Wiley show in New York. Notoriety followed the designation as Funk artists later showed with increasingly prestigious institutions and gained representation in the Big Apple. Joan Brown, for example, was in the Whitney’s Young America 1960 exhibition prior to Funk, while ceramist and painter Robert Arneson and ceramist David Gilhooly showed there just a few years later. Over the years, the definition of funk expanded, until today, when any artist whose art is difficult to categorize is at risk for being labeled funky, or worse, inspired by the funk “movement.”

To be clear, none of this historical account is meant to suggest that funk is bunk. A very real phenomenon of art that could be considered funky cropped up around the San Francisco Bay Area in the mid- to late-1950s. This art was made during a short period of time between the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, roughly aligning with the rise and collapse of Beat culture in the Bay Area. Artists went to New York to sell out, but they made the pilgrimage to San Francisco to create. Between World War II and the early 1960s, two or maybe three real galleries made up the corpus of the Bay Area art market. Despite this paucity of places to show their work, and a very small chance to earn a living off art alone, artists poured into the area seeking camaraderie and the freedom to pursue their vision. Artists felt the financial squeeze of trying to make a living in a small city without art buyers and a dearth of available day jobs. So, many sought refuge in the ivory tower. Teaching not only provided a steady income, a sense of community, and encouraged the free flow of ideas, but also offered artists the opportunity to use school facilities for their own projects after work. Most funky artists crossed paths while teaching or studying at the San Francisco Art Institute or the University of California, Davis.

Teaching was supplemented by the artists’ fascination with life outside the classroom — the streets, coffee houses, and houseboats or abandoned garages hosting single-serving exhibition spaces. In Selz’s words, funk looked “at things which traditionally were not meant to be looked at.” Without patrons or buyers to impress or woo, artists were open to risks. They experimented with challenging materials and unconventional ideas. They made art that was ugly rather than beautiful, rough rather than refined, and funny rather than respectful. The art was intimate, meant for very few eyes or no eyes at all. This is the essence of true, honest-to-god funk art.

Harold Paris, “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme” (1966) plastic and rubber, 4 x 5-1/2 in., (courtesy of University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, gift of the artist)

It is disheartening to see this fiftieth anniversary of Funk pass by without so much as a nod from the art world. No heavy tome about funk is set to roll off the presses, no symposium gather to discuss funky tropes, and nary one prominent museum open an exhibition to celebrate funk and explore the directions of its scholarship. Still, some modern and contemporary art museums have examples of funk or funk-adjacent art, and some of the best are in Northern California. If you are in the area, check out the excellent Recent Gifts exhibition at the brand new Manetti Shrem Museum in Davis (which is free) and book a viewing for the di Rosa Collection outside Napa Valley (not free, but still very good). Further examples are on view at the Cantor at Stanford University and hither and yon in San Francisco MOMA.

The lessons of funk are available to contemplate if we find the art and, as Selz suggested, make up our own minds.

The post Looking Back at the Strange and Surly History of Bay Area Funk Art appeared first on Hyperallergic.

from Hyperallergic http://ift.tt/2pwtCd3 via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Hyperallergic

0 notes