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By Mark D, July 23, 2012 10:48 pm

So as you might expect, I am a registered voter who tends to vote in every election. I recently moved from one county to another, and the other day got a letter in the mail from the county board of elections. Since I had filled out a mail forwarding address with the post office, they had my new address. What did this letter say? Quite simply that if I was no longer living at my former address, I would be purged from the voter rolls.

That’s pretty much it. No offer to forward my information to the board of elections in my new area. No new voter registration form that I could full out and send in to update my registration. Nothing at all helpful about the form they sent me, other then confirming to them that I live at my new address. This is a joke and is horrible in this day and age with the internet and about a million different ways to possibly have me update my info.

Add that to the fact that PA is one of the states that have created the strictest laws requiring Voter ID (to combat the non-existent voter fraud) at the booth now. I happen to be lucky, in that despite not having a drivers license (or an ability to get a State ID due to transportation problems) I do have a Passport. But trust me, it wasn’t exactly easy, especially since I don’t have a way to get around. I mostly had to rely on friends and family to get me around to places and get the stuff I needed.

All of this because all that happened was that my former roommate took my license when they moved out by accident and could never find it. My car was already dead, and when I got a friend to take me to replace the license in PA, they wouldn’t until I handed in my Jersey license which I couldn’t get or replace. So getting a license has been fun to say the least.

I can see how a lot of people can have trouble getting IDs just to vote. Of course voters who don’t have IDs skews largely to the minority and poor voters. Ironically for me, most of the places I needed to get to to get a Drivers License are nowhere near mass transit. You’d think they would try to build these places closer to Mass Transit hubs so people who don’t drive could get to them easier.

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By Mark D, May 21, 2011 9:49 pm

I consider myself a connoisseur of bad NHL trades. Especially with the time I have spent breaking down Milbury trades. Now in my opinion, nothing was worse then the Olli Jokinen/Roberto Luongo for Mark Parrish/Oleg Kvasha. Jokinen and Luongo both became All-Stars, while Parrish and Kvasha did almost nothing. But the standing notion is that the worst NHL trade in history is the Lindros trade to the Flyers for Forsberg  and a handful of prospects/picks. The common stance is that while the Avs became an elite team and won Multiple Cups, the Flyers only made the Stanley Cup Finals once and were swept by the Red Wings.

I think this is horribly slanting things against the Flyers. Lindros made them an elite team and had some great seasons. Unfortunately the failing of the Flyers was the always changing situation in Net. While the Sabres had Dominik Hasek, the Rangers had Richter, The Pens had Barasso, the Caps had Kolzig, the Panthers had Beezer, the Devils had Brodeur, the Leafs had Potvin and Joseph, and so on. While the east seemed to be overflowing with elite goalies, the Flyers were alone in not having a really great goalie. Now while Hextall was good, his time had passed. At the same time Snow, Boucher and the other Flyers goalies were good but not that good. It’s not surprising that in a period of time in which the league seemed to rely on clutch and grab and top goaltending, that the Flyers struggled.

But the Flyers still managed to make a good run of things. Meanwhile the Avs managed to fleece Patrick Roy, widely considered the best goalie in the league, who became the cornerstone of their runs to the Cup. One can only imagine what might have happened if Roy was playing for the Flyers instead of Snow for the season they made it to the Finals.

How do the two teams line up? It’s time for a breakdown of their standings from 92-93 to 99-00

92-93
Nordiques 47-27-10 104 .619 Lost in Round 1
Flyers 36-37-11 83 .494 out of playoffs

93-94
Nordiques 34-42-8 76 .452 Out of Playoffs
Flyers 35-39-10 80 .476 Out Of Playoffs

95
Nordiques 30-13-5 65 .677 Lost in Round 1
Flyers 28-16-4 60 .625 Lost in Round 3

95-96
Nordiques 47-25-10 104 .634 Won Cup
Flyers 45-24-13 107 .628 Lost in Round 2

96-97
Avalanche 49-24-9 107 .652 Lost in Round 3
Flyers 45-24-13 103 .628 Lost in Finals

97-98
Avalanche 39-26-17 95 .579 Lost in Round 1
Flyers 42-29-11 95 .579 Lost in Round 1

98-99
Avalanche 44-28-10 98 .598 Lost in Round 3
Flyers 37-26-19 94 .567 Lost in Round 1

99-00
Avalanche 42-28-11-1 96 .585 Lost in Round 3
Flyers 45-22-12-3 105 .640 Lost in Round 3

For much of Lindros’ time with the Flyers they were pretty much on an even footing with the Avs. But the goaltending struggles is obviously the difference here. For an Example, here’s Patrick Roy’s save percentages in the playoffs for the Avs: .921 .932 .906 .920 .928

In Comparison here’s Hextall’s playoff save percentages:
.904 .915 .892
Boucher’s:
.917
Snow’s
.892
Beezer:
.938

Look, if you put Roy on the Flyers, they are probably just as dominate as the Avs were. The thought that the Lindros to the Flyers trade is “One of the worst” in NHL History is overblown. Both teams joined the elite of their conference not too long after the trade. The rise of the Nordiques was long in coming as they were bad for years before. It ignores all their drafts (including the addition of Joe Sakic) and movements of their own to get better.  The Lindros deal in the end was basically Forseberg for Lindros. There were a lot of spare pieces, and the draft picks became Fiset and Baumgartner.

For a trade to be truly bad, it should dam near destroy one team and make another a powerhouse. Head to Head the Flyers matched the Avs/Nords almost every season. The difference was Roy in net. Had the Flyers ever had an answer to the struggles in net they probably would have won at least 1 Cup. There’s nothing in this trade that says if the Flyers don’t trade for Lindros they win the Cup instead. If anything they might have finished even worse then they did.

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By Mark D, June 7, 2010 4:35 pm

So I’ve been a fan of the Islanders since the 93 season (When I was all of 12 years old).  To this point it’s still the highlight of my following the Islanders.  When I moved in with my current roomie, it was during the Flyers run behind Biron to the Conference Finals. It was amazing, as the Flyers basically turned around one of the worst teams in the league the season before to one of the final four. It’s amazing that teams like the Devils and the Red Wings have been good for so long. The Blackhawks took one shot at rebuilding (once their penny pinching owner died) and managed to make a cup contender. Yet since 93 there have been quite a few rebuilding efforts by the Islanders.

Rebuilding #1

GM: Don Maloney
Began: When Maloney traded for Kirk Muller, trading popular center Pierre Turregon. He proclaimed that the league was heading towards a period of Defense first, and that defensive forward Muller was an improvement over recently hurt Pierre.
Ended: When Maloney was fired because Muller refused to play for the Islanders.
Pros: We did get Eric Fichaud
Cons: Everything else about Maloney. Also this opened the door for mental midget Mike Milbury

Rebuilding #2

GM: Mike Milbury
Began: When Milbury was promoted to replace Maloney. He promised a five year plan which would have us in Cup Contention by 00/01.
Ended: When Milbury ran out of patience and traded Bertuzzi and McCabe for Trevor Linden to “Win Now”. He also fired Rick Bowness and put himself behind the bench. The team proceeded to collapse and miss the playoffs.
Pros: Nothing wrong term. Anyone from this rebuilding/period was traded or dumped.
Cons: The win now mentality also included the trade of Berard for Potvin and other short term deals.

Rebuilding #3

GM: Mike Milbury
Began: The trading of Linden for a 1st round pick in 99, the first of 3 such picks added to the Islanders pick that year.
Ended: Take your pick, either the deal of Conolly and Pyatt for Micheal Peca or Chara and a first rounder for Yashin.
Pros: We did get 4 first rounders in 99, considered one of the all time weakest drafts.
Cons: Once again Milbury lost patience and dealt a bunch of youth for Vets who were just good enough to win a handful of playoff games. Worst of all the Isles are still paying for Yashin.

Rebuilding #4

GM: Garth Snow
Began: When Nolan was replaced with Scott Gordon, DiPietro couldn’t recover and Ryan Smyth decided to go elsewhere.
Ended: Not yet
Pros: Garth has shown patience so far and the ability to find surprising FAs. Home growns Kyle Okposo, Josh Bailey and John Tavares, along with surprise pickups Matt Moulson, Mark Streit and Rob Schremp have show potential.
Cons: None yet

So in 17 years of watching the Islanders, they’ve announced rebuilding 4 separate times. That means on average every 4 years there’s a fresh group of players who are finally supposed to lead us to the promised land. This might almost be more re buildings then every team in NY during the same time line combined. Although the Mets with their “Generation K” might come close. Here’s to next year!

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By Mark D, January 6, 2010 11:49 pm

So in celebration of my 100th post to this blog, I decided to write up my trip home from the Burbs of Philly to Staten Island. Now this isn’t normally much of a problem, as I take Septa to Trenton Via Philly, then NJTransit to the east coast of Jersey and meet someone to get back to Staten Island. Now in the past I had taken the River Line which connects Camden and Trenton cause its cheaper. This year I decided to take it because I was going to stop over and visit a friend and exchange gifts in Burlington NJ.

Ahh, the beautiful Link Belt train station. Its where this wonderful journey begins. I’ve seen this station about a million times by now. The park almost always has something interesting going on. Sometimes the Hockey/Basketball court will have a soccer game going on till one or two in the morning. So this was where I met my train going into Philly

So after getting off at Market East (Not pictured, its not that interesting). Its then a hike through The Gallery till you get to Market & 8th Patco station. For months I never knew the Gallery connected both and would walk upstairs and travel across two streets in freezing windy Philly weather. The pics are the inside of the Patco station and I think the Ben Franklin Bridge which the Patco goes over. The first time I took Patco it was late at night and I didn’t know it went over a bridge. I’m deathly afraid of heights and was sitting next to a window on the water side. I freaked.

So once I got to Camden its up out of the dreary darkness of the tunnels. To a change of scenery with dreary Camden. I should have known something was up because we seemed to wait forever for a high speed line to come through. Camden is one of the places I hate stopping, everything is just falling apart and the cops seem to be trying too hard in the wrong places.

So that whole waiting too long for a train? Ended up that there was a split in the line between two stations. If you took a good look at that pic you can see the workmen up ahead. We had to wait almost forty minutes for a bus to take us pretty much two or three blocks up the road. Then when we got back in the train we had to wait another thirty five minutes. I should mention that by the time I got to Camden it was a little after two PM, I figured I’d easily be to my friends stop in Burlington before four.

Beautiful Main Street Burlington. Its an improvement on Camden. That big building actually has Piano lessons. While I was waiting I saw some kid get dropped off by her mom and then yell at her to leave. The kid went to the door and shockingly the place was still closed and she had to get back in the car with her mom. So I call my friend twice, and on the second try I get in touch with her. Ends up I missed an email and she wouldn’t be able to hang out. Unfortunately the train to Trenton had JUST passed moments before I made the call. So now its almost five after I had left home around noon. I grab the next train to Trenton

Trenton Train Station. I got in the door at about 6:25 and saw on the board that the next train going my way was due for 6:28 but was 10 minutes late. So I figure I have time to call my parents to pick me up. I tell them I’ll be at the station in like 45 minutes and they say no problem. They were only just about to sit down and have dinner with some friends. Oops. So as I wait for this train to show up, it gets canceled. But no big deal, there’s another one coming in at 7:16 or so and I’ll probably be fine. It pulls up and I find out that its not stopping at Rahway. Rinse and repeat as the next train that pulls up (due in at 7:26 but not in till 7:35) is also not stopping at Rahway. Finally more then an hour since I called my parents the 7:43 pulls in and is making all stops. I figured worst cause my parents were waiting at the station a bit longer then I thought they were.

Finally I get out at my final destination beautiful Rahway.I get out and I see no sign of them whatsoever. I give them a call and they tell me they are close but in traffic. I decide to make a quick run over to the Chinese place across the street. Of course they don’t take cards but l have just enough change left over to get some dumplings. I wait about a half hour and my mom finds me and they parked in the back away from where I was sitting. I get into the car and its about nine-fifteen a good nine hours after I had started this trek. It ended up that my parents had their own wonderful journey. An accident on Route 9/1 made it a parking lot. Add to that the section they were in didn’t even have some side road that they could go on and try to get around it. It took them an hour and a half to get to me and fifteen minutes to get home.

So what did we learn? Never take mass transit after a major blizzard.