Tech Time: Shnarped Hockey

I might be one of the few remaining souls on the planet that has not converted to the iPhone. I still use my Blackberry for my daily texting, emailing, and phone calling, and it has served me well in the three-or-so years I've been using it. However, the number of iPhone apps that serve the hockey community seem to be growing, and I received a great email from someone who is inside the industry about a new app available through the iTunes store. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the above icon for the Shnarped Hockey app.

Here's the email I received, and I thought this was one of the coolest emails I've ever received since an actual professional hockey player reached out to HBIC! Kyle Hagel, currently a winger for the AHL's Hamilton Bulldogs, wrote,

"I'm a hockey player with the Hamilton Bulldogs in the AHL. I know that you're busy blogging about the lockout and all that right now but I'm writing to ask if you've heard of the iphone app Shnarped Hockey. Myself and a former teammate of mine Dustin Sproat have been working on it for several months and we finally have it in the App store. An updated version actually just went in there tonight.

"You can easily track all active pro players in North America. It combines current and career stats with the guy's salary information, bio and his Twitter feed if it's available. You can also send the guy a 'pound' (like a fist bump or virtual tap on the shinpads), and post a message on his wall. We provide a platform for player and fan interaction so that fans can get a personal look at the players, and the players can look good to their fans.

"We have about 100 pros verified on the site but we're looking to push it to fans. Is there any way you'd be interested in throwing a blog up about our product?"

I have to admit that I was quite intrigued by this offer, so I did what any respectable human being would do - I downloaded it onto my better half's iPhone! From there, I performed a rigorous schedule of testing to try and find some bugs, quirks, or code that didn't work so well. Instead, I found a pretty slick app!

I can honestly say that the price of FREE is an excellent starting point with this app. It certainly won't blow your socks off in terms of what it does, but it's a very useful app in terms of following your favorite players in North America and it will not break the bank if you have no iTunes credits. Consider that a major plus because I hate paying for software!

Shnarped Hockey automatically inserts the ten most-followed players into the app for you, but you can literally search for any player signed in North American professional hockey to track. As seen in this photo, Eric Condra, Mike Moore, and Kyle Hagel (of all people) are being tracked despite them not being signed as a full-time NHL player. As I said, any player in North America can be tracked so you can follow any and all of your favorite players regardless of where he is playing as long as he is signed to a professional North American hockey team.

I tried searching a few players not in the NHL or AHL, and I got results. For example, I searched for Jarrett Konkle, a player who suited up for the Fresno Falcons for a couple of seasons, and it returned his info from the CHL's Rapid City Rush! I was able to check boxscores for Konkle, see his picture, and get his vital stats such as birthdate, height, and weight.

Konkle's profile, though, had a few issues. Unlike Eric Condra, Konkle's career stats were blank despite his continued play for various minor pro teams. His height was listed as 5'12" which would more accurately be written as 6'0". These errors, however, are aesthetic, and can certainly be fixed very quickly with some tweaking of the code.

As far as I can tell, players from the NHL, AHL, ECHL, and CHL are included. A search for Pensacola Ice Flyers' goaltender Steve Christie returned no results, so leagues below the CHL aren't quite "professional" enough for the app. But if that's a drawback, that's also a minor quibble.

Perhaps the greatest feature that Shnarped Hockey brings to fans is the Twitter feed for each and every player featured in the app who has a Twitter account. No longer do you have to search and figure out which Twitter feed is the verified player on Twitter. Instead, Shnarped Hockey does the work for you, and you get instant access to the players' feeds you want to read. Honestly, Paul Bissonnette is anticipating you following him now. All kidding aside, this is an excellent way to keep up with your favorite players in real-time as they tweet out new thoughts throughout the day!

The "Stall" portion on the Shnarped Hockey app is probably going to be the most under-utilized portion of the app for a while, but it holds what seems like great potential. The "Stall" allows the player you're tracking to display his favorites in a number of categories - books, movies, and charities to name but a few. It could be a great place of discovery if players fill out their info!

The "Wall" tab on Shnarped Hockey is exactly like Facebook where you can post a message to the player you're tracking. I found this section under-utilized at this point as well, but the fact that you can fist-bump a player via this app is worth the under-utilized "Wall" feature.

Overall, I have to admit that I found myself drawn to searching out players and seeing what they were up to in terms of their careers and Twitter feeds. I spent a good hour on tracking players and getting caught up on their whereabouts and information, and I can see this app becoming very useful in keeping tabs on the players one wants to follow.

Because of the price of the app, the features, and the urge to track and follow players with relative ease, I have to give Shnarped Hockey two thumbs-up. If you're looking for a great hockey app, this one will rank near the top! Well done, Kyle and Dustin, on producing a quality application for the iPhone! If you want to speak to the creators directly, you can send them a message via their Twitter handle "@shnarped". Get downloading, and enjoy the app!

MO' BRO: The Mo' Bro All-Star squad has seen Mike Gartner, Wendel Clark, Dirk Graham, and Grant Fuhr nominated as four of the best moustachioed men to play in the NHL. Today, we get a man whose moustache defined him as much as his play on the ice did.

Dennis Maruk's incredible Fu Manchu was instantly recognizable when he was on the ice. Maruk started with the California Golden Seals where he scored 30 goals and 68 assists in an otherwise miserable season. From the Seals, Maruk moved with the team to Cleveland to play as a Baron for a couple of seasons where he scored 78 and 71 points, respectively. He spent a mere two games with the North Stars after the Barons merged with the Stars before ending up in Washington where his play matched his incredible facial growth. In 1981-82, Maruk scored 60 goals and 136 points for one of the worst teams in the NHL as he became the first Capital to break the 100-point barrier! And Maruk and his Fu Manchu would return to Minnesota where he finished his NHL career. Overall, Maruk scored 356 goals and 878 points in 888 NHL games - incredible totals for playing on some horrible teams!

Honestly, though, Maruk's moustache is one of the greatest to have appeared in the NHL, and the evolution of it is something quite impressive. While I'm attempting to grow a nasty Fu Manchu much like Maruk's, I doubt it will even be close to the moustache sported by Dennis "Pee Wee" Maruk. If you want to get in on the action, head over to the Movember page and get registered so your 'stache can stand amongst these great 'staches!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Digging Into The Science

If there's one thing that I can appreciate about the Discovery Channel, it's that the network is still somewhat committed to science and discovery. They still have shows on about science, and not every show is some ridiculous reality-based program. The one host that seems to follow the idea of science on the network is Jay Ingram, and he hosted Scoring With Science on Sunday night. I happen to think that the science behind hockey is very under-reported, so I hunkered down in front of the ol' television set to take in Jay's findings.

Before we get to the show itself, I would like to say something about Discovery Channel's promotion of this show. Discovery Channel sent The Hockey Show an electronic press release a couple of weeks ago. I spoke with a gentleman (whose name I won't use here) in a couple of emails back and forth about getting a chance to speak with Mr. Ingram with regards to his findings in the show before the show had aired. What this publicist sent back to me was a little insulting considering they had reached out to us. He wrote,

"Figuring out if I have time for college radio. Thanks for reaching out. I will advise by end of day on status of this junket."

And then he promptly never followed up with me. Well done, publicist. I'll be making sure that any future publicity opportunities you wish to have me speak about are handled with the same professionalism.

I'm not holding this against Mr. Ingram, so I decided to tune in tonight to see the science that Mr. Ingram was investigating. Honestly, he did some pretty good work, and viewers got to see where a lot of the hockey vernacular comes from in terms of sticks, skates, and the science that goes into these.

While waiting for commercials to end, I was searching the Discovery Channel site and they actually had a pile of web extras already up during the airing of the show! There is a drawback, though - there are a load of commercials between each web extra. I can't change that, and I apologize, but it will give you a great idea of exactly what Scoring With Science was about in terms of the program.

There's a segment on real analytics in hockey where they show the Edmonton Oilers asking an analyst a number of questions regarding shootout shooters. This segment was interesting, but the portion about pulling the goaltender was even better! In a study done by David Beaudoin from Laval University and Tim Swartz from Simon Fraser University, they actually nail down the precise time to pull the goalie based on the game situation! The study is very in-depth, and it absolutely deserves to be read by any and all hockey fans!

Scoring With Science also looked at the ice itself in terms of what makes it slippery. This physical look at the surface is pretty neat when you consider that it is not the ice that limits how far a slapshot travels!

There's a segment about Gary Roberts and his intense training ideas that have helped players like Stephen Weiss and Steven Stamkos become better NHL players. Roberts speaks about how "too many beers and chicken wings" nearly ended his NHL career at age 27. Instead, proper training and nutrition allowed him to come back and play until 43. Roberts shows that the players get two weeks off at the end of the season before jumping right back into training for the following season, essentially tuning the body to perform at its highest level at all times. It's an interesting concept, to be sure, and one that seems to be paying dividends for his students.

Overall, Scoring With Science was a pretty decent program, but I think it needed to be expanded into a multiple-episode series where each of the individual topics of equipment, analytics, and the overall science of the game could be explored. In saying this, though, I thought Mr. Ingram did a great job in exploring some good hockey topics and extracting the science from them.

Count me in as a fan, and I hope that Discovery Channel does more shows like this. Here's hoping they'll have "time for college radio" next time as well.

MO' BRO: We've seen three forwards added to the ranks of the Mo' Bro All-Star team in Mike Gartner, Wendel Clark, and Dirk Graham. If your team is only as good as its goaltenders, we have our first moustachioed goaltender to add to the team.

Grant Fuhr is one of the most decorated goaltenders of all-time in hockey circles. He is a five-time Stanley Cup champion with the Edmonton Oilers, as seen to the left. He was the 1988 Vezina Trophy winner. He and Dominik Hasek shared the 1994 William M. Jennings Trophy. He was named to six NHL All-Star Games. He won two Canada Cups. He holds the NHL record for assists by a goaltender with 14. He set the record for consecutive starts in one season with 76, and played a record 79 games in one season. And as you may have noticed, he had one heck of a moustache.

While Fuhr's moustache has now evolved into a goatee, he sported the upper lip fuzz for his time with the Oilers and beyond. If five Stanley Cups doesn't warrant inclusion on the Mo' Bro All-Star team, what will? If you want to get in on the action, head over to the Movember page and get registered so your 'stache can stand amongst these great 'staches!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Tigers Thrash Badgers

I feel that the lockout is actually making me appreciate other forms of hockey a lot more. For example, I've been watching a lot more NCAA hockey thanks to The Score television network carrying games, and I'm finding myself entertained for the most part. Normally, there isn't a lot of NCAA hockey coverage in Canada, let alone games on TV, so this lockout - as much as I dislike the two sides - is actually making things better. However, Friday and Saturday's games were not as good as the games previously seen.

The Wisconsin Badgers, normally a powerhouse, looked quite horrible against the Colorado College Badgers. There should be some concern for the Badgers now as they have been swept twice in their first six games and sit at 1-4-1. Even worse is how the Tigers have absolutely owned the Badgers with a 16-4-1 vs. UW since the start of the 2006-07 season, including an 8-4-4 mark at the Badger's Kohl Center.

The Friday night setback, a 5-4 loss, saw the Badgers up 2-0 midway through the second period before it appeared that the Badgers were content to just sit back and coast to victory. Two goals within four minutes for the Tigers evened the score, and they erased a 3-2 deficit when the Badgers appeared to take their foot off the gas again. I can't explain why the Badgers appeared to stop skating and pressing the Tigers' defencemen on the forecheck. It just appeared that they were content with doing the bare minimum to win.

To Colorado College's credit, they never said "die", and saw Alexander Krushelnyski pot the overtime winner just 25 seconds into overtime. The Tigers won a lot of battles in the final forty minutes of the game, and just seemed hungrier when it came to loose pucks and winning those battles. As a result of their hard work, they defeated a deeper, stronger opponent by simply out-hustling them. Seems like a pretty simple concept, no?

"Our team believed tonight that this game was coming home with us," Krushelnyski told The Gazette's Neil Reid. "I think it was less frustration and more learning how to battle through adversity. Last week, we had a couple of tough losses, and the consensus among the team this weekend was that it wasn’t going to happen again.

"It was a good team win."

Things only got worse for the Badgers tonight as they dropped a 3-0 decision to the Tigers again. Colorado College was outshot 33-22, but the Tigers were the better team once again. Strangely, the officiating in this game was actually pretty sub-standard as the Badgers had a Matt Paape goal called back that would have made the score 2-1. I'm not sure what reasons the officials had for disallowing what seemed like a good goal, but the score remained 2-0 at that point.

Joe Howe played well in earning the shutout on Saturday, and it has to be said that goaltender Joel Rumpel was certainly the best player on the ice in both games for the Badgers. Had it not been for Rumpel in the Friday night game, the Tigers probably would have wrapped the game up by the middle of the third period with the chances they had.

The Tigers are now 5-3-0 on the season, but, more importantly, are 2-0 in WCHA play after their sweep of the Badgers. Colorado College suffered a pair of defeats against top-ten team Cornell, but used this weekend's games to rally the troops.

Wisconsin's faltering puts them behind the eight-ball at 1-4-1, and 1-2-1 in conference play. The Badgers will have to play better if they want to compete in the WCHA this season as this weekend's set of games doesn't make them look like a favorite for the Frozen Four tournament.

MO' BRO: Mike Gartner and Wendel Clark have both made the cut in being a Mo' Bro, and we'll add our third member to the Mo' Bro All-Stars tonight with the addition of our third winger in Chicago's Dirk Graham.

Dirk Graham's moustache was a fixture in the Chicago Blackhawks' lineup for eight seasons where it led the charge as captain in the last few years. Graham, however, saw his moustachioed greatness begin in Minnesota under the tutelage of Herb Brooks. A January 4, 1988 trade sent Curt Fraser to the North Stars, and Dirk Graham became a fan favorite with the all-star 'stache in the Windy City. Graham put up 33 goals and 45 assists in his first full season in Chicago, endearing himself to 'Hawks fans with his blue-collar work ethic and scoring ability. Graham's career would span from 1983 to 1995, and he proudly wore his moustache in each of those 12 seasons.

Dirk Graham proudly sported a moustache for his career, and you can proudly sport one for the month of November! If you want to get in on the action, head over to the Movember page and get registered so your 'stache can stand amongst these great 'staches!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Why I Hate Both Sides

Honestly, as a Canadian, the only reason I had to watch TV on New Year's Day was for the Winter Classic. The NHL actually did something that brought a ton of TV viewers to one place to watch their sport. Heck, they may have even pulled some viewers from college football bowl games if a great rivalry was playing on the Winter Classic ice. However, the Winter Classic game was officially cancelled after the NHL and NHLPA failed to meet this week, let alone reaching an agreement. Therefore, it's official, and on behalf of NHL fans everywhere, especially in Michigan and southern Ontario...

THE LOCKOUT IS RUINING NHL HOCKEY!

I now have no reason to get up early on New Year's Day and get some good food prepared for a party. In fact, I'm not even sure I'll get out of bed that day.

Thanks, gentlemen. Your inability to find common ground just killed the one thing that the majority of NHL fans look forward to every single season. Way to go about building a better NHL. Excuse my sarcasm.

MO' BRO: We featured Mike Gartner as the first Mo' Bro All-Star. Here's the second entry into the Mo' Bro Hall-of-Fame.

Wendel Clark has always sported a great 'stache, and he certainly deserves a spot on the Mo' Bro All-Star team. His 'stache has morphed over the ages from just the upper lip to the Fu Manchu to the full goatee, but the heart and soul of Leafs for so many years has always sported some great facial hair.

He wore it with Quebec. He wore it while on Long Island. He even sported a 'stache in Detroit. Because Clark's 'stache has endured several moves amongst teams, it certainly deserves a place amongst hockey's best 'staches. If you want to get in on the action, head over to the Movember page and get registered so your 'stache can stand amongst these great 'staches!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode Eight

The Hockey Show featured another phenomenal guest this week. He's very well-known in a lot of circles due to his passion for athletic aesthetics, his contributions to ESPN.com, and his love of sports. The Hockey Show was proud to welcome Paul Lukas of Uni Watch to the show tonight for a phone-in interview, and Paul's interview was phenomenal!

Paul spoke about how his obsession has grown into a shared obsession with thousands of people, growing up as a Rangers fan, his love of the Montreal Canadiens, the Uni Watch Power Rankings, his cats, and a plethora of other topics. If you're interested, the podcast can be downloaded here.

I want t say "thank you" to Paul for taking the time to talk with Beans and I about his work, and the feedback on Paul's interview thus far has been awesome. Thanks, Paul, and great interview! The next time we meet, the first cold one is on me!

MO' BRO: Because it's November 1 and we're embarking on a month of moustachioed greatness, HBIC is proud to feature an honoured Mo' Bro every day of the month for November. We'll hopefully have some guests on The Hockey Show to talk about Movember, but we'll kick it off today with our first Mo' Bro All-Star, Mike Gartner!

I almost didn't include Mike Gartner due to him removing the moustache for the latter portion of his career, but when you see that glorious moustache from his Washington days that lasted through his Minnesota North Stars days and into his New York Rangers days, we're talking over a decade of moustachioed greatness. He didn't have one when he broke into pro hockey with the WHA's Cincinnati Stingers, but he donned the upper lip fuzz for his entire time in Washington. However, the Hall-of-Famer removed the 'stache midway through his stint with the Rangers, and continues to go bare-faced today. Honestly, that's a shame because he has a great 'stache look.

Congratulations to Mike Gartner, HBIC's first honourary Mo' Bro All-Star! I'll continue to run this feature all month, so tune in each day to check out our newest Mo' Bro added to the team! If you want to get in on the action, head over to the Movember page and get registered so your 'stache can stand amongst these great 'staches!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!