One of a kind

Last friday 2011-05-13 Finland's Mikael Granlund scored a nifty goal against Team Russia at the Ice Hockey World Championship:



The goal has caught the attention of hockey fans around the world. TSN, Canada's sports leader, has an article on the goal.

TSN: FINLAND'S GRANLUND SCORES POSSIBLE GOAL OF THE YEAR

Early in the second period of Finland's semifinal win against Russia, Granland gathered the puck deep along the end boards in the Russian zone, stick-handled past a defender and behind the net, flipped the puck onto the blade of his stick, and flung it into the Russian's net, lacrosse style, to give the Fins a 1-0 lead.

TSN then goes on to make a strange claim:

Twice before has a goal like Granlund's been scored. In 1996, the University of Michigan's Mike Legg defeated the University of Minnesota in the NCAA Tournament with a similar goal, and in 2006 Sidney Crosby scored one just like it while with the Rimouski Oceanic in the QMJHL.

Twice before? That stretches credibility, as this move is quite popular in junior leagues around the world. And indeed, a quick look on the Web yielded several more instances.

Bill Armstrong has apparently scored a goal like that several times (two examples at 1:28), and claims to have pioneered the move.



As you may have gathered, those two goals came in the same week, so for him it wasn't a one time novelty move.

Mikael Granlund himself has scored a similar goal before in Finland's junior league.



And in 2008 U18 contest, though for a reason unclear to me that one was disallowed.



His brother Markus also scored a "lacrosse-style" goal in Finnish junior league.



And it's not just junior league stuff; "Zorro" goals have been seen in professional leagues as well. Here's Jani Lajunen, also a member of 2011 Team Finland, deciding an SM-liiga game on OT.



That was in 2010. If Granlund's goal is the goal of the year in 2011, that just means 2011 was slow. There was another high-profile lacrosse goal in 2010, in the playoff finals of Swiss league by Thomas Déruns.



So, yeah, twice before. TSN didn't even qualify that number in any way. I'm afraid the claim doesn't reflect well on TSN's hockey knowledge, or counting skills.

They do give Granlund's goal one distinction over Crosby's and Legg's.

But what made Granlund's goal extra special was that while both Legg and Crosby scored their goals standing still behind the net, Granlund pulled it off at full speed.

Much like Rob Hisey in SM-liiga. That's the reason Finnish play-by-play for Lajunen's goal called it a "Rob Hisey".



It's very unfortunate that Canada's series don't boast soft hands like that. Oh, Rob Hisey did it in another professional league as well, this time in Austria.



Of course, cool lacrosse goals seem to be his thing.



You'll note the clip is from TSN, so they can't really claim to be unaware of the guy.

Frankly, I expected better from TSN. The Finnish media is, predictably, going banana over Granlund's goal, which seems a little unwarranted as it's not all that unique, but I would have thought Canada's sports leader would have a little better sense of hockey history.

Deeper underground

I am doing just that. First of all, though, my underground garden is coming along nicely:

And I saw a wolf! Haven't seen those before; they showed up a couple of versions ago.

Remember that rockface from my previous post? Here it is:

That is the great underground hall leading all the way to Twin Tower. Or would be, if not for one little thing:

Yeah. The ocean.

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Next on this music-themed Minecraft update: Creedence Clearwater Revival.

I have!

Weather was just one of many things Notch introduced in version 1.5 (which he stole from Goblin Camp). It looks and sounds great, but at the moment the rain rather abruptly stops at the edge of a biome:

Nonetheless, it's a great addition I've been looking forward to for a long time. The sound of the wind and rain, especially when you're inside, is incredibly atmospheric. Way to go guys!

**

To get my tunnel further along toward Epic Island, I have to move deeper. Firstly, this involves deepening the chasm, which I'm working on with the aid of a chicken:

Not that it actually helps me. Because there's some lit grass at the top level (more on that later), peaceful animals spawn up there. Chickens make it down just fine by flapping their wings; the other animals occasionally take a downward trip as well. They make it, just not quite how they left:

Along the way down, I've found gold:

And had a Shelob moment:

The whole process of continuing my great underground passage requires moving down one level. So, here's the corridor through my underground base:

Through the door on the left are the stairs up to my base:

It's still unfinished, but through the next door:

Stairs to the next level!

That's something for later, though; for now, I've spent long enough underground. It's time to get back onto the surface and get started on another project...

Dead economists

Here's a couple of educational videos from Econstories introducing the principles of Keynesian economics and Austrian School, and their takes on economic cycles. Enjoy.