….especially if you’re letting someone else cover the games.


(no matter how hot it gets in that suit, James Dolan is going to make Sandish Ozolinsh earn that paycheck)

Sidearm Delivery is all over the Hartford/Portland best-of-7, a series turned somewhat topsy turvy by the Hartford Civic Center being booked for the circus. Dave’s not too impressed with the Pirates’ digs, either.

Any New Haven hockey fans finding themselves homesick for the architectural disaster that was the old New Haven Coliseum should make a pilgrimage to Portland’s Cumberland County Civic Center. The CCCC is an awkward building about the size and shape of an IHOP, shoehorned into one narrow block on a steep hillside in downtown Portland. Like the New Haven Coliseum, ugly concrete roof supports dominate the view in all four corners of the arena. The seating areas have shallow stairsteps that are tricky to climb even if you haven’t been drinking, and there are slopes and angles in odd places along the concrete floor for no obvious reason other than to fuck you up. The lobby and concourse are both fairly tiny, and there are only two sets of bathrooms inside the arena, creating long lines along with a solid shoulder-to-shoulder mass of humanity during intermissions if there’s a decent-sized crowd.

In all seriousness, compared to the Travis Country Expo Center, it sounds like the Staples Center.

Tonight’s 4-3 OT win over the Avalanche has Anaheim just 60 minutes away the Western Conference finals. Joffrey Lupul (above, center) scored all 4 for the Ducks. Who says Mike Scioscia is doing a bad job?