2007 in Music

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's the last week of 2007, and time to wrap things up with some best of lists. We're starting off with the best songs of 2007. I'm kind of sad my series of songs is over, but I can start planning for the 2008 list in a few weeks.

20. Beautiful Girls-Sean Kingston

19. Dance Tonight-Paul McCartney

18. Thnks Fr Th Mmrs-Fall Out Boy

17. Rehab-Amy Winehouse

16. Grace Kelly-Mika

15. The Sweet Escape-Gwen Stefani

14. Ayo Technology-50 Cent

13. Big Girls Don't Cry-Fergie

12. Hey There Delilah-Plain White T's

11. Won't Go Home Without You-Maroon 5

10. Hot-Avril Lavigne

9. Apologize-Timbaland ft. One Republic

8. How Far We've Come-Matchbox 20

7. The Good Life-Kanye West

6. This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race-Fall Out Boy

5. Say It Right-Nelly Furtado

4. The Way I Are-Timbaland

3. Stronger-Kanye West

2. Umbrella-Rihanna

1. Irreplaceable-Beyonce

NHL Reflections on the year to date

As I continue to reflect on the year past, I decided I'd take a look at the NHL season to date. Even though the All-Star break is still awhile away, the season is almost half over. Here are my thoughts on awards, surprises and disappointments so far:

MVP
Jarome Iginla-He's got his team in a playoff spot. He scores and creates plays. He bruises it up and eats up minutes. I was never the biggest Iginla fan (a fan, just not insane over him), but right now he is one of the best players in the league.

Other Nominees- Vincent Lecavalier, Henrik Zetterberg

Norris Trophy
Niklas Lidstrom-The guy is just awesome. Lidstrom has 30 points and is +19, on the best team in the NHL.
A close 2nd, Sergei Zubov
other contenders-Dion Phaneuf, Chris Pronger

Vezina
This one is too close to call. The front runners;
Chris Osgood-I know he's splitting time with Hasek, but look at the stats. 15-1-1, 1st in Goals against average, and 2nd in Save Percent. If I had to pick one guy right now it would probably be him, or...
Henrik Lundqvist- 6 Shutouts, and the only reason the Rangers are doing anything.
Evgeni Nabokov, Martin Gerber, Roberto Luongo.
Honorable Mention-Pascal Leclaire. The guy has 6 shutouts, but only 10 total wins, and he's on a team that looks like once again they won't make the playoffs.

Calder
Patrick Kane, and Jonathon Toewes are definitely the class of this years rookies. Nicklas Backstrom, and Carey Price also deserve a mention.

Pleasant Surprises
Paul Ranger, Brian Campbell, Thomas Kaberle 3 guys all on teams that aren't great, but having very respectable seasons.
Mike Richards, Cory Stillman (and really a lot of Hurricanes) Sean Horcoff.
Nik Antropv-Playing on an average (some would say bad) team, Antropov has still managed to put up 35 points, and his career best is 45.

Disappointments (There are a lot of these)
Goalies-Kari Lehtonen, Ray Emery, Marc Andre Fleury. Lehtnonen started the year bad, as did the whole team. Emery hasn't played that much but when he has he's looked shaky and has the stats to show it. Fleury has got to be the most disappointing. A lot of people were expecting big things from the Penguins, and he's the main reason they're where they are right now.

D-Men
Bryan McCabe-12 points, -4
Francois Beauchemin- A young guy that was supposed to be getting better, 12 points, -9
Ryan Whitney- 15 points, -3
Phillipe Boucher- 11 points, -2
Jay Bouwmeester- I keep waiting for this guy to become an elite defenseman. Last year he had 42 points and was +23!!! This year, 10 points, -6

Forwards
Alexander Semin, Todd Bertuzzi, Petr Prucha, Jordan Staal, Jonathon Cheechoo, Andy McDonald, Patrik Elias, Dustin Penner, Jason Blake, Patrick Marleau, Marian Hossa, Thomas Vanek.

New York Ranger Players
Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, and Jaromir Jagr are making a combined $25, 460, 000 this year. They also have a combined 73 points. Their projected season ending total is 181. That works out to $140, 663 per point. Not a good return on your investment.

Most Disappointing Teams
Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Tampa Bay

Most Surprising Teams
Carolina, Boston

My Year in Music: 2006

Okay, we're almost at the stage to unveil the 2007 list. Before that though, we have to get through 2006. This is the biggest list I've put on here so far. There were so many good songs I felt they all deserved being mentioned, so we've gone a few past 15.

Best Songs of 2006

27. Red Flag-Billy Talent

26. Alfie-Lilly Allen

25. Who Knew-Pink

24. I Don't Feel Like Dancing-Scissor Sisters

23. Never Went to Church-The Streets

22. LDN-Lilly Allen

21. Jimmy Gets High-Daniel Powter

20. Valerie-The Zutons

19. Promiscuous-Nelly Furtado

18. (Here) In Your Arms-Hellogoodbye

17. America-Razorlight

16. Dani California-Red Hot Chili Peppers

15. Messages-Xavier Rudd

14. Naive-The Kooks

13. Bad Day-Daniel Powter

12. How To Save A Life-The Fray

11. Over My Head-The Fray

10. Hips Don't Lie-Shakira

9. SexyBack-Justin Timberlake

8. Chasing Cars-Snow Patrol

7. Sophia-Nerina Pallot

6. The Long Way Around-Dixie Chicks

5. What Hurts The Most-Rascal Flatts

4. Smile-Lilly Allen

3. When You Were Young-The Killers

2. Crazy-Gnarls Barkley

1. Not Ready To Make Nice-Dixie Chicks

College Football Chaos

Well folks, I don't know what else to say. Once again, for the 3rd time this year, the number 1 and 2 teams have both lost on the same day. This time it has really screwed things up. I had anticipated Missouri losing to Oklahoma, but West Virginias loss to Pittsburgh is the one that's really ruined everything. There's now about 5 teams that can make legitimate cases to be number 2 and get a National title shot. I've thought long and hard about who I would make number 2, but in the end it was a fairly easy decision. The National Polls had Georgia ahead of LSU this week, and now they don't know whether to have LSU jump back over the Bulldogs. I, on the other hand, never moved Georgia above LSU. So for me, it's easy LSU will move back up to number 2. I really wanted it to be Oklahoma. For one, they are one of my 3 favourite teams, but that's not why, I have to be impartial. I really think they are playing good football, they just beat the number 1 team in the country, and probably wouldn't have lost to Texas Tech if their QB had not gone down. So for me the decision for number 2 was between Oklahoma, who is coming off of the biggest quality win, and LSU. It was close, but I've got to go with LSU (even though I don't want to, Les Miles is a jack ass).

So, my final rankings before the Bowls look like this:

25. Tennessee (9-4)
24. Cincinnati (9-3)
23. Boise St. (10-2)
22. Brigham Young (10-2)
21. Texas Tech (8-4)
20. Auburn (8-4)
19. South Florida (9-3)
18. Wisconsin (9-3)
17. Virginia (9-3)
16. Clemson (9-3)
15. Texas (9-3)
14. Boston College (10-3)
13. Illinois (9-3)
12. Arizona St. (10-2)
11. West Virginia (10-2)
10. Hawaii (12-0)
9. Florida (9-3)
8. Missouri (11-2)
7. Kansas (11-1)
6. USC (10-2)
5. Virginia Tech (11-2)
4. Georgia (10-2)
3. Oklahoma (11-2)
2. LSU (11-2)
1. Ohio St. (11-1)


The final thing to touch on is the BCS bowl selections and how they may look this afternoon when they're announced. The biggest winner right now from my viewpoint is Illinois. With my predicted title game of Ohio St.-LSU, the Rose Bowl will get first selection to replace the Buckeyes. Previously I had the Rose taking Georgia over Illinois, but this was when the Sugar Bowl had not lost their champion to the title game. In my scenario they will. Not wanting to step on any toes, I think the Rose will allow the Sugar to grab Georgia, sticking with their SEC connection, and the Rose will now stick with it's Big Ten connections and take Illinois. Biggest loser, besides Missouri, will be Arizona State. West Virginia still won the Big East, and therefore still has to get a BCS berth. With the changes in place at the top there're now more deserving teams, and Arizona St is screwed. So we have:

National Title Game- Ohio State vs. LSU

Rose Bowl- USC vs. Illinois

Sugar Bowl- Georgia vs. Hawaii

Orange Bowl- Virginia Tech vs. Kansas

Fiesta Bowl- Oklahoma vs. West Virginia