I’ve watched a lot of Oiler hockey since I’ve moved to Edmonton, hell the hockey team for the most part drives the city, people there eat, sleep, and breath Oiler hockey.  I’d say I’ve probably been to about 95% of all home games in the previous 6 years with obviously the highlight being 2006 coming one game short of winning the sixth Stanley Cup in franchise history. Sadly though no matter how great that cup run was our hockey team was still on the fortunate side of sneaking into the playoffs (in 8th as usual) thanks to a dismal collapse by the Vancouver Canucks.

Yet every glaring problem this team has had seems to have been washed away by the success of 2006.  Before the CBA was in place we all preached that we couldn’t compete without a salary cap.  Low and behold the lockout arrives and we lose hockey for a season before returning with a vengeance acquiring such stars as Chris Pronger and Michael Peca.  Finally we can compete.

Wrong.

There is one reoccurring theme with this team.  No matter what personnel we have on the ice it’s always the same result.  2006 playoffs aside (largely because I think players run more on adrenaline) we as fans continue to sit back through the same mediocre piss poor performances through the first four months of the regular season before realizing its going to take one miraculous streak to even attempt the final playoff spot.

Sadly unless by miracle something happens to the Edmonton drinking water this doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon which has me as a fan seriously doubting my Oiler faith.  Two years we’ve missed the playoffs, once by going on some odd 21 games before winning in regulation.  You’d think in professional sports where a coach and GM get paid big money to produce wins there may be some job security issues with a finish like that but those rules don’t seem to apply in Edmonton as the owners appear to be dwelling on the past believing that the legends both Kevin Lowe and Craig MacTavish helped build will somehow translate to on ice success in the new day and age of hockey.

I’ve sat on the fence for the last couple years biting my lip trying to give both the benefit of the doubt.  I’ll admit that both have had there moments.  Kevin Lowe got us Chris Pronger for practically nothing but then followed that up with giving him away for next to nothing.  Craig MacTavish got us to the Stanley Cup final but that was largely in part from Chris Pronger and Dwayne Roloson not the tactics he implemented.

But let’s face it this whole situation is a mess.  Feel free to chime in but I know I’m not alone when I say the Oilers really have no systems. What are systems you ask?  Watch a Detroit game.  Even former Oiler defensemen Cory Cross who ended up having a stint with the Wings a few years back was quick to praise how nice it was to play in an organized system.

Then of course we have the dreaded playing favorites.  I’m all for it if your name is Vinny Lecaviler or Sidney Crosby but when you’re a third and fourth line player at best on any other team you shouldn’t be seeing powerplay time.  Guess what though, if you play for the Oilers they’ll reward you with powerplay, penalty kill, and the majority of even strength shifts with a lengthy high priced contract to boot!

The Shawn Horcoff signing is an absolute albatross and it’s already starting to make me cringe watching him night in and night out.  I’ll be generous enough to give him to the all star break to turn it around since he’s coming off major shoulder surgery but can someone out there please explain to me how or why Kevin Lowe thinks he is worth 6.5 million a year when his highest point total is 73? Jesus, the guy is going to be making Iginla money and the two as players arent even remotely comparable.  Throw in the Dustin Penner signing, who lost us a slew of draft picks and truthfully to me isn’t that good of a hockey player to begin with.  Both he and Horcoff are the beneficiaries of playing with great linemates, Hemsky, Smyth, Getzlaf, and Perry to refresh your memory.

I’m truly nervous for the future of the Oilers, here we have a group of overpriced grinders who are making superstar money while the one actual superstar we have on the team in Hemsky makes just over 4 million a year. We lose him at any point in the season we are headed down a dark path as it painfully obvious Gagner, Cogliano, and Nilsson aren’t what we all expected.

But hey why make changes when you’re consistently bad and fine with it.  Horcoff was recently quoted as saying something along the lines of “If you told me 20 games into the season we were .500 I’d take it”.  Are you kidding me???  Does anyone think Detroit would be satisfied with nonsense like that?  Just tonight against the Kings Cogliano thought the team got off to a good start…what game were you watching?  This all stems from head coach Craig MacTavish who in his post game press conference tried to tell us that the effort was there…no Craig it wasn’t and it hasn’t been there all season.  The only real gutsy effort I’ve seen from this team this season is the back to back Battle of Alberta games earlier in the season.  The Oilers dont skate, cant pass, and certainly dont hit anyone.

I cant recall anytime in my life where I remember actually turning off the Oilers to watch another team.  Sadly since I’ve been in Phoenix thats precisley what I’ve been doing in favor of the Chicago Blackhawks.  Sure a lot of that was largely in part of Matt finally getting some ice time but truthfully even if he wasn’t playing the more I watch their games the easier it is to get excited to watch a televised hockey game, even my old man has been saying they remind him of the 80’s Oilers with there skill and speed up front and on the backend.   I can say with a straight face that if any of you are getting sick of the constant piss poor hockey games the Oilers play flip the channel to Chicago (or ask me where to watch them for free online) and what you’ll see is what the Oilers should be.  Fast, young and talented, hard hitting, and a never say die attitude.  This isn’t an exaggeration when I say that some of the best games I’ve watched in recent memory have been the last 4 or 5 Blackhawk games.

And yet sadly I still hold out hope for the Oilers but am truly getting frustrated with the lack of discipline the organization upholds.  Here we have MacT who calls out his players in the media with tongue lashings and high profile healthy scratches yet does he ever have to worry about any scrutiny himself from upper management?  Nope. Who are we kidding though, even if MacT or Lowe get canned they’ll just be replaced with Huddy, Buchburger, or some other old Oiler plug who cant coach.  I’ve heard it from Flames fans calling this organization a circus and I’m quickly beginning to believe it.  Did all these guys make pacts that once they finished there careers each one would help each other out by giving them a job?

I’ll tell you on thing. If Mactavish finishes his contract or gets fired and replaced with a former Oiler I’ll be turning into Randy Quaid from Major League 2.

The past week has been an absolute blast, while I love sitting in the sun and all one has to get out and walk around so he doesn’t get pasted to the couch and have to have some poor soul come in and flip you over with a broom handle so you can get your back side washed or at the very least pee between the couch cracks.

What?

This past week I’ve been to Monday Night Football, the pool, golfing twice, and creep stared enough girls to be charged with a felony.  I’ll say first and foremost that the Monday Night game was as exciting as anything the Oilers put forth in 06.  Being Canadian some of you who have no care for football in this world will probably think of it as a stretch but the game unbelieveable and fans down here are more so passionate about football then we are of hockey.  Oh did I mention the game came down to the last 4 seconds? Was back and forth, close, the Cards won, I witnessed a beauty fight on the concession, with the best part of all being the 20oz Bud Light Lime beers for 4 quarters.  Truly a winning philosophy, the only thing missing in my NFL experience is rolling into the arena at 9am and tailgating till game time.

The last couple of days have been HOT.  I’ve spent a couple of days at the pool showcasing my healthy computer glow which I’m quite proud to say I may have scared off some wildlife or at the very least alerted the International Space Station (yeah it was that bad).  Just today I spent some time at a small course called Greyhawk in Scottsdale.  Some of you may have heard of it, I believe the PGA was here about a month back for a stop, thankfully there are two courses and we wussed out and took the easier course of the two.  I’ve had the privilege of golfing a lot of different courses in the past couple of years whether it be in Edmonton, Phoenix, Misquite, or Palm Springs but this course really ram rodded me up the rear.  After having seen my club disappear when it sunk into the rough I realized that it was probably the worst set of out of bounds golfing I’ve had to endure in recent memory.  I’d be willing to bet if it was the usual foursome of golf I roll with we’d all be shooting high scores with Naughty coming up the rear with an even keel 200.

Greyhawk golf course in Scottsdale

Im being generous Naughty.

Sadly it doesnt end.  Next up is the jobing.com arena to watch Mrs. Champs Chicago Blackcocks (Matt’s Chicago Blackhawks) before hitting up the New York Giants and Arizona Cardinals this Sunday. Throw in some mention of my actual birthday and the question begins to weigh if I should stay down here for it or fly north to celebrate in the snow with all you yahoos (or by myself).

Unless of course some of you want to come celebrate down here I’d be all for that too?

Until next time kiddies.

Thats how i see it

Naughty

I was surprised to see the other day upon looking that Hotstickybun will enter it’s 5th year of existence in 2009.    It’s funny to think that on that momentus March 22nd 2004 when I released the website I never had any idea I would build it to what its become…yes, you’re correct, I built it into a steamy pile of bull shit.  Five years and now a record 8 different versions I thought I would take a trip down memory lane for those of you who have managed to make me stick it out and reach 10,000 uniques monthly (yeah yeah I know it’s nothing compared to other blogs but I’d feel guilty promoting this website with all the attacks and insults on minorities, women, and generally anyone who annoys me).  Let’s begin…

2004 - The First

Originally dubbed as “Voyeurs House of Filth” the website started out more so as a community amongst friends. Back in those days numerous people were living in Edmonton which resulted in ridiculous weekends and more importantly crazy Wing Wednesdays. At the time the website was nothing more then a place to post pictures (highlighted by our first ever Madden Bowl party), videos, and a place to get to know the 6 or so of us who made up the entourage that lived Edmonton life.

2005 - Experimentation Begins

After the fairly decent success and feedback I received on the initial launch of hotstickybun my mind began to wonder what if the website could grow into something more. Thus I began to add things like a message board and enlisted the help of some friends to write up some blogs. I’ve mentioned it before and I’ll say it again that there has been nothing I have ever written that garnered as much attention as Jmoe’s Trop Ten and Trav’s rants. To this day people still talk about them. Unfortunately at the time in early 2005 I was heavily interested in Macromedia Flash and stumbled across a website called cartoon smart which taught the finer art of tooning in Flash and thus spurred this version, which was quickly dismantled because the pain in the ass it was to maintain.

2005 - Third Times a Charm

This version of the website finally got my head wrapped around using a programming language and database to control all of the content which made life a lot easier. While I started pumping out more articles others who were writing before hand stopped which made updates sparse. This version touted the introduction of videos from our antics and the highly sought after hockey fights of one Matt Walker.

2006 - Video Video Video

It wasn’t until late 2006 that I introduced what would be the fourth version of hotstickybun and ironically still one of the better ones I feel I did. It was this version that introduced me to the grungy feel of design and since then I have replicated a lot of work after it. Gone were the other bloggers which left me to handle all blogging, I opened up to ask if anyone out there wanted to help contribute to the website but at the time no one would even consider writing an article , strange how things change with people writing blogs almost daily now. While I had included video in the last design this version of the website pumped out more custom videos then I could keep up with thanks to Flash Video (the same video you see today), sadly with the amount of multimedia being produced I needed an easier way to add it to the website.

2007 - The Worst One Yet

I’m not sure what I was thinking when I designed this one, I think I rushed into it wanting to introduce the new video sub section which ultimately led to one shitty user experience. The only good thing about this website was how it introduced me to a program called Wordpress which I still use till this day and ironically install on most client websites as a CMS.

2007 - Pink Anus Pudding

Experimenting with some new colors and going after the web 2.0 look (don’t ask, it’s a nerd term) I kept the condom logo in play and added some more vibrant colors. Nothing overly changed within the guts of the website, there was still photos, forums, videos, and my blog but while I was somewhat satisfied with how it worked out I eventually got sick of the mess and clutter of everything I was trying to accomplish.

2008 - Grunge Is Back in Style

Once again I came up with a grunge look which focused more on my stuff and my work and less on trying to entice people to join the website to help contribute. It was at this time I soon realized the message board was dead, It didn’t take long for me to figure out that people come to my website to either read my blabber, check out my pictures (cause I wont post them on Facebook), or view any videos I might have added. With the explosion of Facebook there was no point to have a message board or any reference to MSN, Email, or Skype for that matter because people just dont use it anymore. Communication consists of either posting on someones wall or sending them a text message. Thanks to wordpress plugins I was able to expand my tastes a little and got to showcase what I was currently listening to music wise, latest photos, digg articles, my twitter updates, etc.

Which Brings Me To Today

And what you see here. While I can flat out say this website isn’t entirely finished it will be probably pretty soon once I finish the handful of projects I got on the go. I’m somewhat relieved to have some other people contributing again (even if they dont last) as it gives me time to catch up on some things and bring in some new ideas. What new ideas you may ask?

Well maybe not a new idea so much but more so something brought back into the fray. For anyone who remembers a few years back I was in the business of designing t-shirts and logos for the eventual release of what would be a Stickybun store. The problem I had was finding a supplier and printer for the eventual finished product, something which I have since located. Needless to say the first print turned out relatively well and I’m quite anxious to see if there is any steam behind this.

As always I’m always listening to ideas so if anyone has any ideas of something they would like to see feel free to shout out a comment below. In the meantime let me know what you think of my first print.

Secondly I was amazed nearly every riding has a Green Party member running. Wow what a feeling to be runing for a party with such a diverse political platform. I wonder what there stand on foreign policy is, maybe if North Korea points a Nuke at Canada the would sprinkle Bio Diesel on the front lines, or recycle enough to convince the North Koreans to give Peace a chance. What a crock of shit, I personally do not see the point of having all of these start up political parties. Im not an expert on all of this stuff but i know for sure there exists a Marijuana Party, Communist Party, and probably more that i don’t know about. What kind of f#$%ing retard expects a semi educated voter to vote for a political party centered around an illegal drug? You cant even have a trace of this substance in your possession by law, yet lets create a political party centered around lt. Imagine if they ever got to power, once they legalized pot then what? Head over to England and toke up a reefer with Tony Blair and the Queen? Get F@#*ed. Communist party? Im pretty sure It doesn’t make any sense to base a party around a form of government completely contradictory to the type of government it is tryingto get ELECTED underneath.

So the election came and passed with as much excitement as a case of diarrhea, and we are left in the same position as before it happened. The Conservatives had an underlying plan as to there election timing, and don’t gobble up the propaganda of the possibility to achieving a majority government. They knew with pre electoral polls what the public’s opinion was, they called this election with one thought in mind only, U.S.A. If you were the conservative party holding a minority government, would you not desire to have the election come and go with no one paying enough attention to change the elected political party. You have in the States a huge and might I say very Interesting, campaign going on at the moment(a whole different blog topic). With a Black candidate on one side and a women VP candidate on the other, no shortage of news created there. So Harper calls an election, right in the middle of it all. Stephan Dion has verbal down syndrome, and any non french speaking voter would have noticed that. So Harper kept pretty quiet, did not say much and waited for Dion to dig his own grave. Then like a true gentlemen, jumped all over him on issues like the proposed “Carbon Tax”. Valiant and noble Indeed. I found it  humorous how when the markets crashed not much was said, of coarse Dion jumped all over it and blamed the Conservatives. Then after it rebounded a bit and never took the dive of some of the other nations, Harper comes out as the hero?

Anyway enough rambling, the Conservatives got what they really wanted more time in power. The liberals got smoked and you will see Dion stepping down shortly. The NDP gained more seats as did the Greens, and even the independents got 1 more seat. So what is the Canadian public left with? A increasingly inefficient minority government. More seats for MP’s with different party values, which by assumption would mean more inefficiency when trying to govern the country. A will stay impartial on this blog as to which party i support, but either way i think a mojority government would be more useful in governing this country.

Oh Canada, Thats the way I see it.

Chaio