The View From Wisconsin

So I finally get a good solid chunk of sleep after doing some biking this morning. When I wake up, my mouth feels like it's all dry - but like it's coated with gunk.

I go into the bathroom just to brush my tongue off. When I spit, it comes out red.

Turns out that I had a blister on my tongue. I'd apparently burned it last night when my Dinty Moore Beef Stew got overcooked, and my first bite had done a number on it. The brushing broke the blister.

Now I'm on lidocaine for the pain. Joy, joy.

Something I've managed to mess around with a bit: I call it "Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Wrap Bites".

Ingredients:

• 1 Flatbread wrap (like Flat-Out Wraps)
• 2 tbsp. creamy peanut butter
• 1 tbsp. semi-sweet chocolate chip morsels

Using butter spray or a canola oil spray like Pam, coat the chocolate chip morsels in a small container. Microwave on 50% power for two minutes.
Spread the peanut butter on the wrap, then pour the softened morsels on the peanut butter. Spread the mixture evenly over the wrap, then roll up the wrap.
Lightly flatten the wrap, being careful not to make the peanut butter-chocolate mix ooze out the open ends.
Microwave on high power for about 20-30 seconds, or place in a toaster oven on low setting.
Refrigerate in a small snack back or other covered container for about 10-15 minutes until cool.
Remove from fridge and cut into four pieces.

One serving is approximately 153 calories, 9.1 g fat, no cholesterol and 15.5 g carbohydrates; approximately 1 starch exchange and 1 fat exchange.

(I know - a recipe on a blog about sports? Well, I'm a renaissance man, myself.)

Finally got around to doing the AHL stats, and here's the results:

Because the AHL does not track Minutes Played, players' HART points (called Cunningham Points in the AHL) were adjusted based on position: 18 minutes/game for centers, 17 for right wingers, 16 for left wingers, 12 for forwards and 22 for defensemen.

Goaltenders CNG points were tallied as usual; the Vezina Trophy Point totals are renamed the Bastien.

The league-wide PPG/PIM constant for 2007-08 was 0.046376.

• Center: Jason Krog, Chicago (126.6 GC, 84.6 CNG; AHL Cunningham Award winner)
• Left Wing: Pascal Pelletier, Providence (91.9 GC, 57.7 CNG)
• Right Wing: Pierre-Alex Parenteau, Hartford (92.2 GC, 63.0 CNG)
• Defenseman: Andrew Hutchinson, Hartford (88.9 GC, 77.1 CNG; AHL Shore Award winner)
• Defenseman: Joel Kwiatkowski, Chicago (67.5 GC, 63.2 CNG)
• Goaltender: Pekka Rinne, Milwaukee (1.6 GC, 215.5 BAST, 77.2 CNG)
• Goaltender: Wade Flaherty, Rockford (3.0 GC, 103.7 BAST, 14.7 CNG)
• Rookie of the Year: Teddy Purcell, RW, Manchester (81.4 GC, 54.4 CNG)
  

I was at Miller Park yesterday - an off day for the Brewers - and went into the Fan Zone to look around at a few things. I walked out with a Cerveceros cap (Spanish for "Brewers"), a Media Guide for 2008 and the Topps team baseball card set.

As I was buying the set, one of the guys behind the counter said, "Uh, you do know that there's an error in this set, right?" I looked at him quizzically and he told me the problem - the card shown at left.

Now, I'll bet that the photo checker for Topps just saw the "2" and didn't think anything about the card being right or wrong. However, that is NOT Bill Hall on the card - and just about any Brewers fan worth their salt would be able to tell you right away that it's Rickie Weeks.

The key factor is that he's standing on second base; Hall hasn't played a game at second or shortstop since 2006. However, if you look closely at the card, you can see the top of the 3 just to the right of the 2 on the jersey.


As if the whole Kazuo "First of April" Uzuki card bit wasn't bad enough...

It's that time of year again: time for the Goals Created/Hart Trophy Points All-Star Team.

Goals Created are simply points, plus Plus/Minus rating, minus Penalty minutes times the league constant for power-play goals per PIM. In 2007-08, that total was 0.054499. Hart Trophy Points uses that total and another formula (known basically as "Fantasy Points"), and multiplies it by Average Time on Ice, divided by 60.

Goaltenders have a different set of ratings known as Vezina Points and two sets of Hart Trophy Points (one offensive, one for goaltending).

EASTERN CONFERENCE

C – Evgeni Malkin, PIT (82 gp, 137.5 GC, 105.5 HART)

LW – Alex Ovechkin, WAS (82 gp, 138.8 GC, 128.2 HART) [HART POINT WINNER]

RW – Daniel Alfredsson, OTT (70 gp, 103.5 GC, 86.9 HART)

D – Sergei Gonchar, PIT (82 gp, 77.6 GC, 81.3 HART)

D – Zdeno Chara, BOS (78 gp, 64.5 GC, 78.9 HART)

G – Martin Brodeur (77 gp, 4.0 GC, 9.5 OHART, 89.92 GTR, 162.2 VZNA, 55.9 HART)

G – Rick DiPietro (63 gp, 6.0 GC, 16.2 OHART, 78.73 GTR, 91.9 VZNA, 33.6 HART)

WESTERN CONFERENCE

C – Pavel Datsyuk, DET (82 gp, 137.5 GC, 107.1 HART)

LW – Henrik Zetterberg, DET (75 gp, 121.1 GC, 104.4 HART)

RW – Jarome Iginla, CGY (82 gp, 124.2 GC, 107.2 HART)

D – Nicklas Lidstrom, DET (76 gp, 109.7 GC, 106.8 HART) [NORRIS POINT WINNER]

D – Dion Phaneuf, CGY (82 gp, 71.5 GC, 92.2 HART)

G – Evgeni Nabokov, SAN (77 gp, 2.0 GC, 6.9 OHART, 91.22 GTR, 131.4 VZNA, 56.3 HART) [VEZINA POINT WINNER]

G – Marty Turco, DAL (77 gp, 3.0 GC, 9.8 OHART, 85.63 GTR, 100.4 VZNA, 34.7 HART)

HONORABLE MENTION

C – Jason Spezza, OTT (76 gp, 117.4 GC, 94.4 HART)

LW – Dany Heatly, OTT (71 gp, 114.3 GC, 99.4 HART)

RW – Alexei Kovalev, MON (82 gp, 101.1 GC, 83.0 HART)

D – Brian Rafalski, DET (73 gp, 81.5 GC, 77.0 HART)

D – Brian Campbell, SAN (83 gp, 69.7 GC, 64.8 HART)

G – Henrik Lundqvist, NYR (72 gp, 0.0 GC, 0.5 OHART, 87.68 GTR, 128.2 VZNA, 51.1 HART)

G – Tomas Vokoun, FLA (69 gp, 6.0 GC, 12.7 OHART, 80.64 GTR, 106.8 VZNA, 42.1 HART)

C - Nicklas Backstrom, WAS (82 gp, 81.8 GC, 55.7 HART) [CALDER POINT WINNER]

NO-STARS (Min. 40 gp/20 gp in goal)

C – Marcel Goc, SAN (51 gp, -7.0 GC, -2.0 HART)

LW – Brad Larsen, ATL (62 gp, -13.0 GC, -3.5 HART)

RW – Sami Kapanen, PHI (74 gp, -4.0 GC, -0.9 HART)

D – Steve McCarthy, ATL (55 gp, -16.0 GC, -5.2 HART)

D – Matt Jones, PHX (45 gp, -11.0 GC, -4.7 HART)

G – Hannu Toivonen, STL (23 gp, 0.0 GC, 0.4 OHART, 63.60 GTR, 37.4 VZNA, 4.2 HART)

G – Fredrik Norrena, CLB (37 gp, 1.0 GC, 1.8 OHART, 64.42 GTR, 44.9 VZNA, 8.3 HART)

DISHONORABLE MENTIONS:

D – Rory Fitzpatrick, PHI (19 gp, -11.0 GC, -4.1 HART)

D – Garnet Exelby, ATL (79 gp, -14.0 GC, -2.1 HART)