Thursday, May 8, 2008

Henrik Tallinder is Mine, All Mine!

Most of the Buffalo blogging community seems to know about the Hockey-Reference.com sponsorships - I got two emails, a comment here, and a comment on another blog encouraging me to sponsor Henrik Tallinder - but in case you're not in the know, here's a quick explanation. In order to raise the funds necessary to run the website, Hockey-Reference.com is allowing people to sponsor pages of that person's choosing. For your fee you get a little ad space where you can put a link to a blog or website and a little message of some sort. The fee varies depending on the page with the more popular pages carrying a higher price tag. Anyway, since you were all demanding it, I am now sponsoring Hank. I love saying that because it makes it sound like he's either starving on the streets of Sweden or a little guy trying to raise money to help pay for his hockey equipment and ice time. I can't wait until he comes over for dinner when he's back in Buffalo. I'm pretty sure that's part of the deal.

Hank was cheap enough that I decided to sponsor someone else but the two I really wanted were already taken. The Willful Caboose stole Lindy Ruff and Bfloblog swiped Rob Ray. Booooooo! All the other current Sabres I like enough to drop cash on had also been scooped up so I went with sentiment and picked an old favorite. My link and message aren't up for him yet though so I'll save the link for another day. I doubt either guy will bring a lot of traffic my way - that's part of the price of loving defensive defensemen - but hey, it's fun and it's a pretty neat way to get people to contribute to the site. Well played, Hockey-Reference.com.

Quick thoughts on the Conference Finals:

I haven't really watched much of the Red Wings this season, even in the playoffs. I watched a couple of games in the Nashville series and not one second of the Colorado series. But I understand they're pretty good. The one area where I would give the Stars a definite edge is in goal but when I was looking up stats to help me decide what goalie to play in my playoff pool this week I was shocked at how few shots Chris Osgood is seeing in comparison to other goalies. Detroit's defense and puck control would appear to take a load off of Osgood. Stars fans, if the question was who do I want to win, I'd say Dallas. But who do I think will win? DETROIT IN SIX.

I fully expect the Pittsburgh-Philly series to be a bloodbath. They don't like each other, their fans don't like each other... It should be awesome. I'm not going to disregard the Flyers as easily as I did in the first two rounds but I still think the Penguins are ultimately going to triumph. I do think it's going to go all the way though with a lot of close games. PITTSBURGH IN SEVEN.

Honestly, I could see any of the four teams left advancing though. I'm not at all secure in these picks.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wanna buy Matty(Hee)but he's $40! That seems like a lot. I'm tempted though. Maybe I'll go for Alex Burrows instead...

Heather B. said...

alix, $40 is a little pricey. My guys were both $10 each. I probably would've paid $40 for Hank but I definitely would've had to think about it more and I wouldn't have bought anyone else.

Even if you don't buy Matty I'll know he belongs to you :-D

Gambler said...

Hey Heather, how long did it take before your ad showed up? I bought Marty yesterday, and it's telling me it's still being approved.

Am I allowed to take a guess at your other guy? Does his name rhyme with Blay BlKee?

Unknown said...

he's either starving on the streets of Sweden or a little guy trying to raise money to help pay for his hockey equipment and ice time.

Or its bail money in case of any other unfortunate off-ice incidents. (I kid, I kid. Hank's a good guy.)

And I'm agreeing with Gambler Blay BlKee has to be the other guy, right?

dani said...

haha I thought of you when I first heard of that. I'm glad you got him! Take good care of him.

M.J. said...

http://www.hockey-reference.com/players/r/ryanmi01.html

AM ALL OVER THIS. Thank you for bringing this awesomeness to my attention!!

Heather B. said...

Gambler, your ad is up now but in case you buy more, the FAQ basically said they go up when someone gets around to approving them - could be 24 hours, could be a few days.

Amy, of all people to make a Hank joke like that! :PPP (Lucky for you it was funny.) And I guess you and Gambler will just have to search "Blay Blkee" and see if a link to Top Shelf pops up.

MJ, have fun!

Jennifer said...

Congrats Heather! Take good care of Hank and let me know if you need donations to help keep him supplied with skates and, most importantly, cups. :)

Anonymous said...

You should have sponsored Jennifer Connelly's brother or Alexander Mogilny.

Anonymous said...

Wow, hockey reference must not be very popular. If you search for Hank on Google you'll get the Willful Caboose on the second page of results, Top Shelf on the third and Hockey Reference on the sixth.

Patty (in Dallas) said...

DETROIT IN SIX.

Ow! Right in the heart!

Congrats on getting Hank! And Bloever-else-you-bought. :D

Heather B. said...

Wait, wait, wait! THE WILLFUL CABOOSE comes up before ME on a Google search for Hank?! I have a post called WHY I LOVE HOCKEY: HENRIK TALLINDER! for crying out loud! This has to be rectified immediately.

Lee, I thought about buying Mogilny since he was Mark's favorite player when he was a kid but then I decided Mark can buy his own player :P I wanted someone I actually remember playing. (Someone not named Tim Connolly. Sorry.)

Patty, it should go without saying that I hope I'm wrong! I'd much rather see the Stars win, I promise.

Katebits said...

AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA! No wonder Hank called me up yesterday and asked me if I would like to be his BFF! He must have just contacted the first blogger he found when he Googled himself. :P

Heather B. said...

Kate, it's not funny! I'm heart-broken here!