Neo

This is very nice and it makes me feel warm. Writing for me is sweat and craft, not magic and talent. When I write, I work. PS .. I know some philosophers and writers who are rolling over in their graves after your post!

Great question .... Change has been here my entire life. New threats and opportunities present themselves regularly, one by one. I’ve felt 1 & 2, below, for some time. They put 3 into context. 1). Acceleration: Change is constant, but its accelerated pace for the past fifteen or so years takes my breath away. Kitty Hawk to the moon landing took 63 years, or barely a heartbeat in human history. Now, things change even more rapidly. We find and lose whole industries, not just companies, in a matter of years. Think Blockbuster. I started feeling this, articulating this, perhaps fifteen years ago. I don’t know how anyone plans for retirement, anymore. What will it look like? I hire and mentor young people. Well, I did until we stopped hiring them, but that’s another story. I used to tell them what I considered to be valuable advice. “Learn accounting. Regardless of where your career goes, it will always be valuable. It’s the language of business.”. Now, I tell them “Don’t become wed to today. Today will be yesterday very soon, and no one cares about how we did things yesterday.” This is unnerving. 2). Disconnect: Short version. We are orders of magnitude less connected today then we were when I was a boy, all the technological and generational “connectedness” talk notwithstanding. Have dinner with two people who learned “stuff” when they were kids. Then, have dinner with two people who learned where to “find stuff” when they were kids. I don’t know who’s better prepared. I know we’re differently prepared. This disconnect, this loss of common denominators, is unrecognized by victims. I believe it to be insidious; time will tell. I could go on and on, here. Tidbit ... my frequent visits here are a symptom, not a contradiction. Second tidbit ... this isn’t a generational dig, either. My kids are millennials. This is a truism that doesn’t praise, criticize, uplift, offend, accuse or absolve. This is alienating. 3). Events: In the context of 1 & 2, we experience events differently. The new and unforeseen arrives more often in a less connected world. Life can be overwhelming. I’m as skeptical of “progress” as I am of “complacency”. There’s “new” and there’s “better”. Sometimes they’re the same, sometime’s they’re not. There, all that said, I’ll answer your question. You used words like crazy and wild. In answer to your question, it’s “this”. Seven billion people affected the same way, regardless of status or locale, at the exact same time, by a mystery threat. Insulated, safe, comfortable lives suspended. Financial atomic bombs. Guesses as to how and when it ends. I’ve not lived through anything like this. Mother nature reminds us all the time that we are fragile and vulnerable. She sends hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes. God gives us faulty hearts, tired kidneys, over-burdened or weak arteries. Regularly, the two send us messages, one on one or in small groups. Occasionally, She and He get together and call us together to a grand assembly. Still, my confidence is unshaken. We will tell our kids about it .... well, I’ll tell my GREAT grandkids, God willing. My kids and grandkids already know. I am 58.

“Sometimes there is so much beauty in the world .. I feel like I can’t take it ... and my heart is just .. going to cave in.” Ricky Fitts. Mrs. Neo is a public school Kindergarten teacher. We have thirty years of memories of the goofy goober pants five year old she spends her day with. Oh, man, what a life. What changes over thirty years! Last week, her school district trained teachers to begin online lessons for stay at home students. The teachers have IBM Think Pads, but almost none are remote presentation proficient. For a week, she’s been learning how to source material, upload it, stage it, adjust screen shares, audio and video. She’s a boomer who uses our Mac for email, FaceBook and FaceTime. In short, she’s a turn key end user, and not a tech savvy content provider. COVID19 is here and the world is different, now. Now! Imagine the trepidation she felt going live, today. No rehearsal, no practice. Just her, a bunch of five year olds, and their helicopter parents. Getting and keeping the attention of five year olds, in a goal oriented environment, is tough stuff even when the kids are in a familiar environment and you have the advantage of adult presence and room charisma. Today was the web and she was a neophyte host. One by one, little smiling faces popped up on her screen. Wide excited eyes, giggles, dogs, brothers and sisters, and parents all appeared. “Hi, Zack, Sarah. Hello, Keri .. I love your bows!”. “Hi Mrs. Neo ... my cat got loose, I just had cereal, is this homeschooling, when are we coming back, is that your KITCHEN?” Eighteen of twenty five students arrived. It was time to start. She said, “Okayyyyy ... let’s start our day, just like we always do.” My wife picked up one of those $1.29 American Flags you buy at Walmart to take to the cemetery and stick in the ground on Memorial Day, Veterans Day, or the Fourth of July. Holding it in her left hand, she placed her right hand over her heart. ”I pledge allegiance”, she said, alone. “To the flag”, she continued, accompanied by five or six voices. “Of the United States of America,” the choir growing. ”AND TO THE REPUBLIC ...” She stopped. She had to. Her lips quivered as she tried a few words until tears rolled down her cheeks. Tears rolled down mine, too. I took a deep breath. The children went on, alone, and loud, “WITH LIBERTY, AND JUSTICE, FOR ALLLLLLLLL!” She did it. She grabbed them at the ten second mark. I fear no virus. Five year olds reminded me of family, community, country and God. I can’t remember being prouder of her.

I told my wife and THREE kids that I’d be late. I didn't realize how late.

I posted this years ago. I shared a luncheon table with Stephane Richer, once. He’ll remember that night and Hasek forever. He’ll also remember “getting Phil Housley traded to Winnipeg.”

Agreed ... two good ones. Tipping the balance ... “iconic”.

Mrs. Neo and I “attended” yesterday on the web. Our church live streamed and I screen mirrored an iPad to our TV. I wore pajamas and drank coffee. The church was empty except for the praise band. Our minister was home with a camera and a slick production team moved seamlessly from him to the band and back. It was odd and familiar at the same time. One lifetime ... the solemnity of Latin Mass to televised rock bands, pajamas and coffee. Like a virus, change is exponential.

I am not the chief executive of anything as large or important as the various executives on today’s world stage. I do have a mini-kingdom. Very mini. Reading Too Big to Fail and The Big Short in 2010 and 2011 was informative. Later on, I saw a lot of things from my sofa that I didn’t see when yelling into a telephone or standing before an assembly years earlier. I’ll draw my conclusions in 2021. No one’s gonna be perfect, of course. Perhaps, no one person is even going to be pretty good. Where does this confidence to assess come from? I ask both sides. You go to war with the army you got. History will dole out medals and reprimands tomorrow.

I dig the Peca support!

As said, O’Reilly, Perreault. I would pick Pomenville over Peca in a photo finish. Poms ... twice the games, twice the points. I know Mike brought something else. The Rs ... ahhhh .... Ramsay, Ramsey. I’ll go Craig. Mike is our best D ever, but that says a lot about our D. Craig gave us something every top contender coveted. He was a durable, second line winger who scored, played defense, shut down stars and killed penalties. He may be one of the league’s best swiss army knives ever. I knew I’d see you here!

I love this post. Mobile quirks and “emoty” employees. “Emoty” is a state of being we try to instill in employees!

TEPPO NUMMINEM! The ageless Finn ... steady, prepared, effective. He started his four year run with Buffalo at age 37. Started! Teppo was +10 in 16 games during the ‘06 playoffs. That team featured Brian Campbell and Nathan Paetsch along with the Euros: Numminem, Kalinin, Sekara, Lydman, Spacek, Sekera, Tallinder.

Yep, Miller after Martin for me.

I know you were kidding. Me, too. I know nothing about guitars!

^on your own there, big fella ...

Staples or Best Buy ... leave now.

Your willingness and ability to put players, eras and careers into context is helpful and just plain fun for the rest of us. I “feel” Martin v Mogilny the same way you are able to articulate it. Martin was often the most dangerous man on the ice for a decade. Martin.

Yes, the worst age ... “old enough to have been there, and too old to have clear memories!”

How did I forget Lorentz!?

Don Luce, that’s all I got and all anyone needs. Nostalgia Fun .... Jean-Guy Legace. Good Player Tip of the Hat ... Toni Lydman Betcha forgot ... Yvon Lambert DUCK ..... Ville Leino!

Korab, Krupp, Kalinin, Kotalik, Khmylev .... we had some nice Ks, too ...

Aleksandr Yakushev agrees. His post game interview: “Korab kharasho (good).”

Inglis, Johansson and Korab for me. I remember the line brawl, Maguire, Probert .... Probert fought Yzerman, too, after running their goalie. I do NOT remember Uwe, that big ol’ slab of German Chocolate Cheesecake, fighting. Uwe Krupp was a very good hockey player. He suffered from Andreychuk syndrome. Fans wanted him to be something he wasn't. Are we on to .... L?

Preach! 1993 .... He carried a team on his back in that most intense sporting event that is NHL playoff hockey. It was smack dab in the middle of the stew known as The Crossroads Arena Project. Dale freakin’ Hawerchuk.

Phil Housley is a Hall of Fame generational player. Hawerchuk after Hasek.