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Thursday Link-Off: Time Warp

Your regular mid-week links were pushed back to today so I could push our Save Community campaign. There is a Phase 2 for that but it can wait until next week. For now, here are Alison Brie and Gillian Jacobs from Community.

By now, everyone has seen or heard Bob Costas’ interview of Jerry Sandusky. Was that a good idea to help his defense? (Sports Illustrated)

As I pointed out yesterday, NBC has pulled Community from the mid-season schedule. Here are the stages of Community grief. (Uproxx)

The NHL All-Star Game voting started this week. It’s time to begin Project Mayhem. (Puck Daddy)

After the jump, fun with Peter King, fun facts about Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the rejected Top Gear theme song. Continue reading →

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Sunday Link-Off: At Week’s End

Well, it’s definitely been an interesting week in the world. We can’t come close to wrapping it up so we’ll just give you some interesting stuff. For example, Ana Hickman popped up on our radars this week which was a very interesting development.

Seeing what a film department has done for the NFL and NASCAR, the NHL is creating its Original Productions department. This can only be a good thing. (The Big Lead)

Following the farce that the Flyers created in their game against Tampa, DGB breaks down the unique defensive strategies of other NHL teams. (Down Goes Brown)

And speaking of unique things, this WWF table-top hockey game could be the greatest piece of merchandise ever. (Puck Daddy)

After the jump, Gina Carano is a great quote, the economics of the McRib and Liam Neeson is a funny guy. Continue reading →

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Hockey Fighting By The Numbers (Infographic)

We’ve all heard the old joke “I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.” Well, this infographic by Hockey Monkey shows that there may be some truth to it. Over 37% of NHL games last season had a fight in it. That’s just one of the many interesting statistics on fighting in hockey that are in the following infographic. Continue reading →

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Sunday Link-Off: Cancelled

Since I made such a big deal about the misguided “morality” behind the recent cancellation of The Playboy Club, here’s TPC star Amber Heard. I don’t think she’ll be unemployed for too long.

Well, shit has hit the fan in Boston. The Boston Globe has written an expose about the ills of the 2011 Boston Red Sox and why it cost them a playoff spot. (Deadspin)

The NBA could cancel the whole season if David Stern thinks progress hasn’t been made in negotiations this weekend. That would a lot fast a cancellation than the NHL’s cancellation which is on this list of the 10 most significant sports strikes/lockouts. (Midwest Sports Fans)

Not even Google’s employees like Google Plus. One publicly posted on his G+ account about how G+ was an afterthought by the executives. (Gizmodo)

After the jump, how to fix The Simpsons, Portal 2 had a unique original concept and Shanaban’s about to start handing out suspensions. Continue reading →

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2011-12 NHL Preview The Musical: 30 Teams, 30 Songs

The new NHL season is just a couple of days away after a spectacular seven-game Stanley Cup Final saw Boston lift the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1972. For the first time in a few years, it doesn’t look like much of a changing of the guard heading into this year. Around here, we have a unique way to preview the upcoming season. We compare every team in the league to a song. Continue reading →

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Sunday Link-Off: Big Hits

Believe it or not, I’ve actually gotten a complaint that the photos I’ve been running are too tame. Hopefully Canadian model Daria Werbowy will satisfy all.

I’m no baseball fan by any stretch of the definition. However, even I thought the final day of the regular season was amazing. If you missed the final minutes of the season (or just want to relive it), here are the final two games in the AL wild card chase as they happened in real-time. (Deadspin)

A study says that hockey players are more aggressive when wearing black jerseys. That can’t be right. Philly wears orange jerseys. (Larry Brown Sports)

Florida Panthers prospect Rocco Grimaldi isn’t making a splash for trying to make the league as a 5’6″ forward but for his Twitter rants. Grimaldi is a pretty serious Christian and doesn’t like women running around in revealing clothing. (Puck Daddy) Two things: 1) Rocco, your team doesn’t suck because they’re distracted by pretty ladies; and 2) Ladies, keep wearing whatever you want. He’ll see the light eventually.

After the jump, Ken Dryden talks head injuries, political stupidity and what would happen if computer problems were real? Continue reading →

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Join The Lowdown Blog 2011-12 Fantasy Hockey Pool

It’s time once again for the annual Lowdown Blog Fantasy Hockey Pool. We’ve created our fantasy hockey league over on the TSN/ESPN fantasy website. It’s a public pool so anyone can join. As with last year, if we run out of space in the first pool, we’ll create a second one. It’s a head-to-head league with the winner of each match-up based on winning the most of the nine categories (G, A, +/-, PIM, SOG, STP [Special Teams Points], W, GAA, SV%) in play kinda like the old Yahoo pools we all used to play. Each team has 20 roster spots with nine forwards, four defencemen and two goalies starting each night. Continue reading →

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Lowdown BlogCast: September 28, 2011

With the 2011-12 NHL season set to kick-off in a week’s time, we’re back with out annual Lowdown NHL season preview podcast. In this edition of the show, the boys start by picking the top fantasy hockey players for the upcoming seasons, some sleepers for the later rounds and where to draft injured players like Crosby and Kesler who will get you a point per game but might miss a significant portion of the season. The talk then turns to the alleged link between fighting and player deaths and discussion as to whether the connection is there or this is the media trying to make money without substantial evidence. Entertainment is up next as Jackie previews the new fall TV season while getting sidetracked constantly by Steve. When Steve takes over entertainment, he leads the discussion about nude celebrity self-portraits that mysteriously “leak” to the internet. After that, we’re back to hockey as the boys pick their division and conference champions and predict the individual award winners. They also talk in-depth about the playoff chances of the Flyers and Maple Leafs. At the end of the show, things go off-track again as Steve and Jackie talk about who would win in a war between zombies and vampires.

In total it’s a whopping 162 minutes of Lowdown action for you to digest. That’s nearly two-and-three-quarters hours of the classic Lowdown fun and frivolity in one podcast.

Click here to download The Lowdown BlogCast.
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Wednesday Link-Off: The Big Game

It’s the middle of the week which must mean it’s time for another Wednesday Link-Off. Let’s kick off with Yvonne Strahovski. She’s not in Maxim because of Chuck though. A quality TV program like that is above their heads. That’s why those Maxim morons will spend Mondays at 10:00 watching something plotless with generic eye candy like The Playboy Club instead of a show with substance and a quality lead actress like Stana Katic in Castle. Alright, rant over. On with the links.

EA Sports’ NHL 12 is out this week. There’s all sorts of buzz about this year’s game because of the addition of the Winter Classic and the legends. But the story recently gaining traction is one girl’s letter which caused EA to add women as created players. (Globe and Mail)

Of course, like the last few NHL games, EA is really going for realism. For example, they have specific tweaks to the Be A GM mode for Canadian teams. (The Leafs Nation)

Deadspin founder Will Leitch (who probably hates being introduced as that) wrote a great piece on homosexuality and sports. (New York Magazine)

After the jump, Serena goes nuts again, SpongeBob rots your brain and George Lucas can’t stop screwing with the classics. Continue reading →

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Lowdown BlogCast: August 9, 2011

To show that we don’t always take months between podcasts, here’s another episode of The Lowdown BlogCast. This edition starts on a serious note as Steve and Jackie talk about the colossal failure that is the solution to the US Debt Crisis. They then debut the new Lowdown Pub Quiz in which Steve and Jackie compete in a battle of inferior intellect. (Well, at least in Steve’s case.) Hockey talk starts up with a quick analysis of the Winnipeg Jets’ new logos. The boys look at Philadelphia’s “Dry Island” policy that allegedly led to Mike Richards and Jeff Carter getting traded and what say should have in their players’ personal lives. Entertainment features Lights as Jackie’s single of the week and a throwback to the guys’ childhoods in It Came From YouTube. Lights also leads the boys to look at the schedule for UWO’s 2011 O-Week and how it’s changed since their O-Week in 2005. They talk about film nudity after news came out that Olivia Wilde’s nudity in The Change Up was CGI’d in. Entertainment wraps up with a discussion of the upcoming Battleship movie and director Peter Berg’s credits. The show wraps up with the return of the Car Wall as the boys break down another website’s list of eight cars guaranteed to pick up women and determine that it’s catastrophically wrong. In total, we have over two hours of great Lowdown action.

Click here to download The Lowdown BlogCast.
Click here to download the podcast quality version.

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