Guilty Pleasures Podcast
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Author Archives: Gus Beauchamp
Guilty Pleasures Podcast
New Music Now – Fionn
Beyond the Sidelines – Building the Culture of Brotherhood
Beyond the Sidelines – Culture in Highschool Football
Post Game Autopsy on the Seahawks Jaguars Game
It was a must-win game and the Seattle Seahawks came to play. Seattle ended up dominating the Jaguars 31-7 in the least dramatic game the team has played since week 1 against the Indianapolis Colts. With a dominating performance like this, there would have been a good chance Geno Smith would have seen snaps either way, much like he did in week 14 against the New York Jets last season. Earlier this week I wrote about how with Russell Wilson out this week with a finger injury that the Seahawks’ defence would need to come out and stop Trevor Lawerance and the Jags offence and that Alex Collins would need to have a solid day on the ground much as he did in week 6 against the Pittsburg Steelers. Well, one of those two things happened for sure.
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Alex didn’t quite have the same game he did two weeks back only rushing for 44 yards on 10 attempts, which isn’t quite his 100 plus yard performance from week 6. However, he still did average 4.4 yards per carry which is still a solid stat to hold. The defence on the other hand pulled off an amazing performance. Only allowing one touchdown which came in the final minutes of the fourth quarter when the Seahawks were playing looser defence due to their lead. The surprise from the game came from starting quarterback Geno Smith who in the first half went 14/15 for 137 yards 1 passing TD and 1 rushing. Much improved compared to his starts against the Steelers and Saints in the past 2 weeks. Geno made terrific use of Seattle’s 2 start wide receivers, delivering the ball quickly and decisively. Geno’s performance is 100% the reason why this game was such a comfortable win. The Seahawks now move on to 3-5, still a rough spot to be in. But, with a bye week next week and the hope of Russell Wilson returning for week 10 against Green Bay, this win definitely put hope back into the air in Seattle.
Canucks Need to Win and they Need to Win Now
The Canucks are currently 3-5-1 and are sitting at the very bottom of the pacific division and 3 from the bottom in the whole western conference. Now Vancouver started off on a 6 game road trip and found some mild success going 3-2-1, not bad to start off the year. But, since arriving home Vancouver has lost 3 straight. The main cause for this is not a lack of defence or poor goaltending because all 3 of these losses have been by only one goal, and without stellar netminding, from Thatcher Demko, these games could have ended up a lot worse. The main source of the Canucks troubles stems from their lack of offensive production, especially from star players.
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Right before the start of this offseason the Jim Benning and the Canucks signed young star forward Elias Pettersson to a 3 year 7.35 million dollar per year contract, this makes him the 2nd highest-paid player on the team and the top paid player on the team. Since signing said deal Pettersson hasn’t produced on the level that he should be, only scoring 1 goal and 3 assists and a +/- of -2. Definitely not an ideal start to a season that had high expectations for the young forward. Despite Elias being the young star with high expectations, he’s not the only player who needs to start producing more. Fellow Lotto line members J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser have only combined for 3 goals and 9 assists. This is not nearly enough as these are the players who are expected to bring the offensive magic that we saw in the back in the bubble. All is not lost however, the NHL has a long season and we are only 9 games in. But, the Canucks do need to get their rear in gear and come out with a couple wins in their first home stint of the season.
A Chance at the World Series
The Atlanta Braves have taken a 3-1 series lead over the Houston Astro’s in the MLB World Series and tonight they have a chance at taking home the trophy. Atlanta even gets the opportunity to win it all at home. This comes as the braves went 88-73 through the regular which is the worst record of any team that ended up making the playoffs. Essentially every team in the American League East division had a better regular-season record except the Baltimore Orioles. That includes Canada’s team the Toronto Blue Jays who had a final record of 91-71. It goes to show you that sometimes the luck of your division plays a hand in your ability to get into the postseason.
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The Atlanta Braves also have history on their side with forty of the forty-six teams to take a 3-1 series lead winning the world series. However, the Braves players are not so quick to forget blowing a 3-1 series lead last year’s National League Championship to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Despite the so far commanding performance in this series it still won’t be an easy win for the Braves, whose pitchers will have to go up against MLB batting average leaders Yuli Gurriel .319 and Michael Brantley .311. With the first pitch set for 5:15 pm PST on Halloween night, the odd makers in vegas currently have the Astros as the projected favourite at -115 on the money line. Personally, I feel as if tonight’s game could be a toss-up but I’m leaning towards the Atlanta Braves taking home the championship to see that they currently have all the momentum in the series in winning the past 2 games.
BC Lions Push for the Playoffs
With the BC Lions coming off a 32-29 loss to the Toronto Argonauts it’s time for the team to win out or pack their bags and book a vacation. With Saturday’s loss, the Lions fall to 4-7 which makes them 4th in the west, with the Calgary Stampeders holding the 3rd and final playoff spot. The good news is that in the next 3 weeks the Lions play the Stamps and the Elks at home, which means no bad Alberta weather. Also on the upside is that these are both winnable games, with Calgary and BC exchanging wins so far this year there is no reason why Mike Reilly can’t repeat the team’s August 12th win. The week 16 matchup against the Edmonton Elks shouldn’t even be a contest as the Elks sit at 2-8 and face the 2nd place Saskatchewan Roughriders in back-to-back weeks. Meaning that their playoff dreams are likely to be snuffed out and they will be vying for a higher draft pick.
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In recent weeks the Lions offence has been an area of concern with quarterback Mike Rielly having no touchdown passes in the past 3 weeks and only averaging 150 yards through the air in the same stretch. However, Mike came back to life in Saturday’s game going 20/38 for 290 yards, 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. Aside from the 1 interception that is the type of quarterback play that the Lions need to see in order to make the playoffs. The issue in the game against the Argo’s was the kicking, kicker Jimmy Camacho missed 3 field goals that surely would have won the Lions game. This trend of missing kicks isn’t new to Jimmy as he has missed 5 of his last 6 field goal attempts, which is an unacceptable amount. If the BC Lions want a shot at getting the 3 seed in the west they are going to have to fix their kicking, let’s just hope that Jimmy Camacho can turn things around much like how Mike Rielly did.
Oilers At Canucks
The Saturday night match-up between the Edmonton Oilers and the Vancouver Canucks started off as a fast-paced high-intensity game. With just over 10 minutes left in the first period Edmonton, who has the best powerplay in the league, moved on to the powerplay after a Tyler Myers hooking penalty. After being bailed out by a big-time save by Thatcher Demko the Canucks proceeded to take control of the powerplay by controlling the puck. However, despite the solid penalty kill the top Powerplay unit in the NHL was still able to find the back of the net with 1 second left to spare. The rest of the opening period looked more like a game of volleyball than hockey as both teams volleyed the puck from zone to zone with only minor pressure applied. Although Edmonton did have a slight upper hand registering 12 shots on goal compared to the Canucks 8.
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The second period brought some consistent offence from the Vancouver Canucks with 2 big shifts that created solid pressure on Edmonton’s goalie Mikko Koskinen. This pressure could have easily put the Canucks up a couple of goals or at least tied the game up if it wasn’t for some good saves and some unlucky bounces. However, the same goes for the opposite end of the rink, the Oilers created some great chance and if it wasn’t for the Canucks saving grace Thatcher Demko this game could have gotten completely out of hand. With just over 2 minutes left in the 2nd, OEL was sent to the box on a high-sticking penalty, a dangerous position for the Canucks to be in while already being down a goal. While Vancouver did a decent job at preventing the Oilers from setting up in the offensive zone, it’s still difficult to stop the best powerplay unit in the league. Top 3 Oiler goal scorer Leon Draisaitl put a one-timer into the back of the net. Putting the oilers up 2-0 going into the second intermission.
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The storyline from the second period continued into the second. Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers throwing everything they have at Thatcher Demko while the netminder stands up strong and shuts out the Oilers for the rest of the game. However, the second-period storyline didn’t quite continue as much for the Canucks offensive unit, until in the final seconds of the game when Brock Boeser put in his second goal of the season to stop the Canucks from being shut out. The Canucks put together a semi-decent game, getting unlucky with some bounces that didn’t go their way and solid goaltending from Koskinen. The Canucks are now 0-3 at home with 4 games left in this home stint and if they are going to win a game they need their playmakers to start getting pucks into the back of the net.