AlphaLackey
Registered User
This GDT is dedicated to the memory of Adam Johnson, who tragically lost his life in a playoff hockey game in Britain. I strongly suspect that to him, his time playing hockey overseas was a continuation of him chasing his dream, and not a worthless consolation prize for an all-too-brief NHL career; the outpouring of love from the British hockey community certainly defends that position. And at 29, he still had so much further time to chase the next chapter in his life. A shame and a damn crime.
I'm putting this in as a bit of a mea culpa because I have to be honest, during the Montreal game when Brendan Gallagher was up to his usual bullshit from the bottom of a scrum, I semi-seriously blurted out "why is it no one can ever step on *his* neck?". Suffice it to say when I saw the news the next day, it was like a slap in the face to wake me up a bit. Getting all bent out of shape about theatric and sporting villains can be a lot of fun, or even cathartic, but it doesn't take much to realize that the nasty things you might ask for can happen all too soon, and then you've got some reckoning to do.
At the end of the day, it is just a game, and it is supposed to be fun. Our heroes make it fun, but so do our friends, our fellow fans online, and the time we spend in our social clubs -- of which this is among the greatest I have ever been privileged to be a member of.
And so, hopefully, we'll have a little fun with this one tonight
May Adam now begin to rest in peace.
Adam Robert Johnson
b. 1994 June 22
d. 2023 October 28
Thank you for your time.
"Overture, curtain, lights!
This is it, the night of nights!
No more rehearsing and nursing a part;
we know every part by heart.
Overture, curtain, lights!
This is it, we'll hit the heights,
and oh, what heights we'll hit;
On with the show, this is it!
Tonight, what heights we'll hit!
On with the show, this is it!"
That's right, Ladies and Gentlemen, at long last I've taken up the Rangers game I'd been meaning to take last year.
Now I confess that when I first took it, I thought I would be taking the one in New York, so of course there was going to be a whole Broadway theme, because of course why not? "West Side Story" during Jets / Sharks games is just too obvious, even for me.
HOWEVER, having realized I took the Rangers game in Winnipeg, there was no reason I couldn't keep the theme -- more or less -- and save something even more potentially gigantic for the Rangers home game, which will be coming up later this year.
And after all, you don't have to be directly on Broadway to get the full-fledged musical experience, you can be off-Broadway. Or, as it turns out, WAY off of Broadway.
But consider this: You're in the mood for some musical theater, but you just can't stomach Yet Another Revival of the tired old standards in their usual two-year runs.
"Wouldn't it be nice", you might muse, "if someone ever did The Muppet Show by way of H.P. Lovecraft?"
And quicker than you can try but fail to say "Cthulhu R'yleh!", you hear this coming from some dusty old music hall:
"It's time to burn the incense!
It's time to slay the sheep!
It's time to wake the Muppets
from a thousand years of sleep!
It's time to raze existence!
It's time to banish light!
It's time to call the Void in
on the Muppet Show tonight!
So tell us, where's your God now?!
I guess you'll never know.
Your life becomes a torture,
when we begin the show!
And now, let's get things started!
Why don't you get things started?!
It's time to get things started
on the aberrational
no-salvational
incantational
Muppet-ational,
this will be your final Muppet Show!"
But once you get so far off Broadway, enough to come back home, you realize that we've got a Broadway of our own! And while it's not quite the pathway to greatness it is in New York, it IS a pathway to Portage West, and THAT'S gotta count for something, right? Besides, we have our own stories here in Winnipeg that, if ever told, would surely rival any sung about on that "other" Broadway. For instance, there's our own Zeke The Hobo, Prince of Donald Street(*) who we all know and love(**) and there was that time he tried to get into a Jets game despite being, like, 97 sheets to the wind(***)
* - Not his real name
** - Maybe not even a real person
*** - Might actually have been me; the wife refuses to tell me more until after the hearing
... and who better than old Barbara Streisand, old Babs herself, to bring you..
... by the holy light of the AARP, if it isn't professional wrestling legend Chris Jericho! Why the hell are you here -- what POSSIBLE relevance could you have to this GDT?
"Well, I've got a list for you, ya stupid jackass. #1, what team did my father play for? #2, what team do I always cheer for? #3, why the hell are you boring a group of pro sports fans with a Barbara Streisand parody?"
A lament on the death of traditional masculinity from a live theater actor whose last name is the same as a Hilary Duff song? HowEVER will I recover?!
Ahem.
Christopher Keith Irvine is a professional wrestler, commonly known as Chris Jericho, who is both an ardent hockey fan and, even more importantly, a supporter of Winnipeg. So much so that, he will often turn down free camera time by wearing Jets jerseys on road games in American markets, where a Rangers or Bolts jersey surely would have garnered him more attention. Not that he doesn't already get enough attention barging his fat head into GDTs that have nothing to do with him...
..... alright, alright... anyways. His father is Ted Irvine, another proud Winnipeg alum, who indeed played the bulk of his career with the Rangers. Ted, much like his son Christopher, have both mastered the art of ripping on the road city's sports teams as a way of generating cheap enmity with the crowd. Sure, it's crude and unsophisticated, but so is smashing someone in the head with a hockey stick -- something I suspect a 657 PIM in 724 GP player did once or twice -- yet that doesn't make it hurt any less.
Nevertheless, I think I'll take Christopher's good advice, and set aside the saga of Zeke to show Mr. Irvine at his best. And now I mean this sincerely -- it says a lot about a man's comic chops when he can mine humor from the very notion of compiling AND reading a very large list.
... but finally, to close this WAY Off Broadway spectacular, I would like to share (and slightly alter) a song from the first musical I ever heard. As a young boy, my Grandpa, Richard Forrest Davis, gave me the gift I'd long cherish: an album pressing from the then-Broadway smash "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown".
And aside from one sports-based line which is all too relevant to us Jets fans ("I don't think it's good for a team's morale, to see the manager cry"), the closing number "Happiness" is a perfect way for me to remind you all, once again, how much I love and appreciate you.
How truly magnificent it is to be part of the best social club on the internet.
And a reminder, as I lament the passing of a 29 year old man hockey player who shared my birthday, to remember not to let minor grievances sully this otherwise wonderful time.
I hate that Brendan Gallagher upset me that much yesterday. I really do.
I hate that I've ever been that upset with any of you in the past. I really do.
And of course, all this goes out the window the instant the first goal is scored
but for now, it's as worthy a big finale as ever 
Hit it!
"Happiness is waking on game day,
wiping the sleepies
out of your eyes.
Happiness is game-day prediction;
'4-2 Jets, Scheifele'? WHAT a surprise!
Happiness is ranting at length about "must win" games,
and how surely "it's the real test!" once again.
Happiness is checking the schedule,
praising the Lord for a normal start time.
Happiness is Game-Day-Thread posting,
@kanadalainen busting a rhyme
Happiness is being online every now and then,
and happiness is posting there with friends.
Happiness is sharing your passion,
daytime and nighttime too,
for happiness is any post, in any thread at all,
that's shared with you.
Happiness is Hellebuyck starting,
@White Out 403 hawking him true.
Happiness is @sipowicz asking if Ehlers plays at all.
and happiness is those who post "he do."
Happiness is Jets games on Sportsnet,
Or HNIC too,
for happiness is any game, in any year at all,
that we watch through."
You're a good man, Ch... err, Go Jets Go!
FIN
I'm putting this in as a bit of a mea culpa because I have to be honest, during the Montreal game when Brendan Gallagher was up to his usual bullshit from the bottom of a scrum, I semi-seriously blurted out "why is it no one can ever step on *his* neck?". Suffice it to say when I saw the news the next day, it was like a slap in the face to wake me up a bit. Getting all bent out of shape about theatric and sporting villains can be a lot of fun, or even cathartic, but it doesn't take much to realize that the nasty things you might ask for can happen all too soon, and then you've got some reckoning to do.
At the end of the day, it is just a game, and it is supposed to be fun. Our heroes make it fun, but so do our friends, our fellow fans online, and the time we spend in our social clubs -- of which this is among the greatest I have ever been privileged to be a member of.
And so, hopefully, we'll have a little fun with this one tonight
May Adam now begin to rest in peace.
Adam Robert Johnson
b. 1994 June 22
d. 2023 October 28
Thank you for your time.
"Overture, curtain, lights!
This is it, the night of nights!
No more rehearsing and nursing a part;
we know every part by heart.
Overture, curtain, lights!
This is it, we'll hit the heights,
and oh, what heights we'll hit;
On with the show, this is it!
Tonight, what heights we'll hit!
On with the show, this is it!"
That's right, Ladies and Gentlemen, at long last I've taken up the Rangers game I'd been meaning to take last year.
Now I confess that when I first took it, I thought I would be taking the one in New York, so of course there was going to be a whole Broadway theme, because of course why not? "West Side Story" during Jets / Sharks games is just too obvious, even for me.
HOWEVER, having realized I took the Rangers game in Winnipeg, there was no reason I couldn't keep the theme -- more or less -- and save something even more potentially gigantic for the Rangers home game, which will be coming up later this year.
And after all, you don't have to be directly on Broadway to get the full-fledged musical experience, you can be off-Broadway. Or, as it turns out, WAY off of Broadway.
But consider this: You're in the mood for some musical theater, but you just can't stomach Yet Another Revival of the tired old standards in their usual two-year runs.
"Wouldn't it be nice", you might muse, "if someone ever did The Muppet Show by way of H.P. Lovecraft?"
And quicker than you can try but fail to say "Cthulhu R'yleh!", you hear this coming from some dusty old music hall:
"It's time to burn the incense!
It's time to slay the sheep!
It's time to wake the Muppets
from a thousand years of sleep!
It's time to raze existence!
It's time to banish light!
It's time to call the Void in
on the Muppet Show tonight!
So tell us, where's your God now?!
I guess you'll never know.
Your life becomes a torture,
when we begin the show!
And now, let's get things started!
Why don't you get things started?!
It's time to get things started
on the aberrational
no-salvational
incantational
Muppet-ational,
this will be your final Muppet Show!"
But once you get so far off Broadway, enough to come back home, you realize that we've got a Broadway of our own! And while it's not quite the pathway to greatness it is in New York, it IS a pathway to Portage West, and THAT'S gotta count for something, right? Besides, we have our own stories here in Winnipeg that, if ever told, would surely rival any sung about on that "other" Broadway. For instance, there's our own Zeke The Hobo, Prince of Donald Street(*) who we all know and love(**) and there was that time he tried to get into a Jets game despite being, like, 97 sheets to the wind(***)
* - Not his real name
** - Maybe not even a real person
*** - Might actually have been me; the wife refuses to tell me more until after the hearing
... and who better than old Barbara Streisand, old Babs herself, to bring you..
... by the holy light of the AARP, if it isn't professional wrestling legend Chris Jericho! Why the hell are you here -- what POSSIBLE relevance could you have to this GDT?
"Well, I've got a list for you, ya stupid jackass. #1, what team did my father play for? #2, what team do I always cheer for? #3, why the hell are you boring a group of pro sports fans with a Barbara Streisand parody?"
A lament on the death of traditional masculinity from a live theater actor whose last name is the same as a Hilary Duff song? HowEVER will I recover?!
Ahem.
Christopher Keith Irvine is a professional wrestler, commonly known as Chris Jericho, who is both an ardent hockey fan and, even more importantly, a supporter of Winnipeg. So much so that, he will often turn down free camera time by wearing Jets jerseys on road games in American markets, where a Rangers or Bolts jersey surely would have garnered him more attention. Not that he doesn't already get enough attention barging his fat head into GDTs that have nothing to do with him...
..... alright, alright... anyways. His father is Ted Irvine, another proud Winnipeg alum, who indeed played the bulk of his career with the Rangers. Ted, much like his son Christopher, have both mastered the art of ripping on the road city's sports teams as a way of generating cheap enmity with the crowd. Sure, it's crude and unsophisticated, but so is smashing someone in the head with a hockey stick -- something I suspect a 657 PIM in 724 GP player did once or twice -- yet that doesn't make it hurt any less.
Nevertheless, I think I'll take Christopher's good advice, and set aside the saga of Zeke to show Mr. Irvine at his best. And now I mean this sincerely -- it says a lot about a man's comic chops when he can mine humor from the very notion of compiling AND reading a very large list.
... but finally, to close this WAY Off Broadway spectacular, I would like to share (and slightly alter) a song from the first musical I ever heard. As a young boy, my Grandpa, Richard Forrest Davis, gave me the gift I'd long cherish: an album pressing from the then-Broadway smash "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown".
And aside from one sports-based line which is all too relevant to us Jets fans ("I don't think it's good for a team's morale, to see the manager cry"), the closing number "Happiness" is a perfect way for me to remind you all, once again, how much I love and appreciate you.
How truly magnificent it is to be part of the best social club on the internet.
And a reminder, as I lament the passing of a 29 year old man hockey player who shared my birthday, to remember not to let minor grievances sully this otherwise wonderful time.
I hate that Brendan Gallagher upset me that much yesterday. I really do.
I hate that I've ever been that upset with any of you in the past. I really do.
And of course, all this goes out the window the instant the first goal is scored
but for now, it's as worthy a big finale as ever Hit it!
"Happiness is waking on game day,
wiping the sleepies
out of your eyes.
Happiness is game-day prediction;
'4-2 Jets, Scheifele'? WHAT a surprise!
Happiness is ranting at length about "must win" games,
and how surely "it's the real test!" once again.
Happiness is checking the schedule,
praising the Lord for a normal start time.
Happiness is Game-Day-Thread posting,
@kanadalainen busting a rhyme
Happiness is being online every now and then,
and happiness is posting there with friends.
Happiness is sharing your passion,
daytime and nighttime too,
for happiness is any post, in any thread at all,
that's shared with you.
Happiness is Hellebuyck starting,
@White Out 403 hawking him true.
Happiness is @sipowicz asking if Ehlers plays at all.
and happiness is those who post "he do."
Happiness is Jets games on Sportsnet,
Or HNIC too,
for happiness is any game, in any year at all,
that we watch through."
You're a good man, Ch... err, Go Jets Go!
FIN
Last edited:
Since its Halloween tomorrow i thought a gif from a movie that scared me as a kid , the Shining. And it also shows our frigging weather right now.
Go Jets Go.
I enjoyed his time here. Welcome back cappy.
