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Some raw footage of the quiet efficiency of a Coen Brothers set.
Greenock Morton travel to New Douglas Park to face Hamilton Academical. The Accies have been on a bit of a slide lately and have relinquished first place to Dundee. Morton have been on a slide since Week Two.
When Kenny Shiels came in as Greenock Morton's new manager he brought an unserved touchline ban with him from Kilmarnock, and had to manage last weekend's game from a seat in the directors' box. Luckily Cappielow is small and his voice carries. Morton supporters were pleased to see the new manager screaming instructions at the players, just like them.
Nacho Novo and Mark McLaughlin have been released. Barrie McKay and Darren Cole have been signed.
[Hamilton win 1 - 0.]
There were no Boxing Day fixtures in the Championship this year, though the Premiership teams were all in action. Boxing Day games are not generally the norm for Morton. According to Fitba Stats the Ton have played only 24 over the years, or about two a decade, winning 10, losing 6, with 8 draws. The big story on Boxing Day though was Rangers 1, Stranraer 1, at Ibrox, which ends Rangers' winning streak at 20 in all competitions. They were defeated by Forfar in the League Cup August 3rd, and subsequently won 15 League One matches, 3 Challenge Cup matches, 2 Scottish Cup matches and a partridge in a pear tree.
Tomorrow it's the semifinals of the Emperor's Cup: Yokohama F Marinos versus Sagan Tosu; FC Tokyo versus Sanfrecce Hiroshima. Sagan Tosu have never won the cup. FC Tokyo have won it once. Sanfrecce Hiroshima have won it three times. Yokohama have won it nine times: five times as Nissan Motors FC, once as Yokohama Marinos, three times as Yokohama Flügels, but never as Yokohama F Marinos. [Yokohama and Hiroshima advance to Wednesday's final.]
1996 Rochester Americans jersey, European edition. Source.
It's Spengler Cup time. This year's teams are Davos, Genève-Servette, Vítkovice Steel, CSKA Moscow, Team Canada and the Rochester Americans.
Host Davos is currently 4th in the NLA. Davos has only one Canadian on the roster this season, Ryan O'Connor.
Genève-Servette is 8th in the NLA. Les Aigles last participated in the Spengler Cup in 2010. Canadians: Daniel Vukovic, Alexandre Picard, Cody Almond, and Matthew Lombardi. Latvian Kaspars Dauvagins, ex of the Ottawa Senators is also on the team.
Vítkovice is 7th in the Czech Extraliga. The Steel played in last year's tournament, winning their group but losing in the semifinals. No Canadians, but they do have a guy who played major junior in Charlottetown.
CSKA Moscow is 3rd in the KHL's Bobrov Division. They won the 1991 Spengler Cup. Canadian Brandon Reid plays for them.
Team Canada is made up of Canadians playing for the other clubs in the Swiss league, and one each from the German, Italian and Norwegian leagues, plus two from the AHL. Here's the full roster. They are the defending champions.
The Rochester Americans appear for the second time. They took part in the 1996 tournament, finishing third with two wins and two loses, beating Leksands IF and Jokerit. They remain the only American professional club to play in the Spengler Cup, though the US Olympic team and the University of Minnesota and the University of North Dakota have sent amateur teams. The 1996-97 Amerks included Vaclav Varada and Rumun Ndur, and coach John Tortorella. They finished first in the Empire State Division that year. The Americans are the top farm team of the Buffalo Sabres, currently the NHL's worst team. Rochester won an outdoor game against the Lake Erie Monsters of Cleveland earlier this month. The Amerks and Monsters are currently second and third in the AHL's North Division. Rochester's top scorer is Phil Varone.
Every Spengler Cup final of the 21st Century has featured either HC Davos or Team Canada or both. However, since 2010 when the tournament was expanded from five clubs to six by adding a second Swiss club, there's the chance of an all-Swiss final, which has only happened four times before, all of them during World War Two, when Davos and ZSC each won twice.
[Genève-Servette beats CSKA in the final. Rochester loses all three of its games.]
Watch this video on Bill Kobayashi, designer of the Coleco table hockey game.
She would have aced Marshall McLuhan's seminar course. Video.
Ginger bread house? The Norskfolkemuseum is constructing a ginger bread stave church! They brought in an architect!