Daily Archives: May 21, 2022

13 years ago today, Evgeni Malkin put on a show that is still remembered by Penguins fans everywhere.

The second game of the Eastern Conference Final featured 11 goals, with the Pens winning 7-4.

Evgeni Malkin scored a hat-trick, with the third being one of the most special of his career.

Oh my word! Evgeni Malkin....spectacular!

The goal speaks for itself.

Winning the faceoff, taking control of the puck, working his way around the net, going to the backhand, everyone thinking Theres no way hes going to shoot, and then just making it look easy and fooling Cam Ward.

It was a series where Malkin was unstoppable, scoring six goals in 4 games and helping lead the Penguins to the Cup Final with a sweep over the Hurricanes.

What a special place the Mellon Arena was, and videos like these show that without question.

This has to be one of Malkins best goals, right?

See original here:

On this date in Penguins history: Malkins magnificent hat-trick - PensBurgh

The Great Salt Lake, already vulnerable to climate fluctuations over the ages, has been set up to fail by human impacts, but some of those who are making such assessments nevertheless see hopeful signs in the states new enthusiasm to save the vital inland sea.

The lake is known as a terminal lake, meaning it has no outlet and therefore is exposed to major climate-driven changes. In the 1980s, the lake rose 4 meters, causing flooding and even prodding the state to build giant pumps to send the extra water into Utahs west desert. But now, amid a Western megadrought, the lake is dipping to historic lows, made more significant by upstream diversions and consumption.

It is normal for a terminal lake to fluctuate, but that makes it easy to excuse what is happening, said Bonnie Baxter, a Westminster College biology professor who has studied the lakes biological characteristics and the growing populations impacts. Now there really are stark differences and indicators that humans are having an impact on what would be a normal fluctuation.

However, the deepening lake emergency moved the Utah Legislature this year to create a $40 million program to look at ways to preserve and restore the lake. Baxter, who heads Westminsters Great Salt Lake Institute, said she sees signs of a groundswell of support for saving the lake.

I think people are waking up to the fact that it might go away, Baxter said. One indicator is that more people are realizing the lake has individual importance the scenery, depicted by amateur artists who now wistfully remember closer shores; hunters prowling the lakes fringes for generations; workers who see their livelihoods potentially evaporating; sailboat owners whose craft sit idle, unable to launch because theres not enough water; and so on.

Im not a person that is prone to drama; I am motivated by the straightforward science, Baxter said. But I am seeing people moved by fear for the lake along the Wasatch Front. I am motivated by that.

The lake, the eighth largest saline lake in the world, has an estimated $1.5 billion economic value and supports about 10 million waterbirds, of about 250 species.

A 2017 Utah State University study estimated than Utahns every year divert 3.3 trillion liters of water from the rivers and streams that feed the lake.

Baxter and others in academia have traced the Great Salt Lakes natural and human history, hoping that their work will help to inform the ongoing conversation about the lakes fate.

Weve done this experiment before, Baxter said, referring to other terminal lakes, like the Aral Sea, that have shrunk by catastrophic degrees. It starts with water diversions to feed people, to house people, and then you have a time of drought and the lakes are no longer able to bounce back.

The Great Salt Lakes geologic history shows a much larger view than the disappearance of the freshwater Lake Bonneville, which lost enormous volume about 15,000 years ago, its remnant being the current stressed saltwater lake. Baxter said that was only the most recent stupendous transformation over the last 800,000 years, large lake episodes have been the norm. Water in the Bonneville basin over geologic time has risen and fallen repeatedly.

In her 2018 study Great Salt Lake microbiology: a historical perspective, Baxter describes humans impacts on the lake and how the body of waters nature has been altered by upstream consumption, diversions such as Farmington Bay and Willard Bay, and industry.

Humans likely have been in Utah since the Pleistocene epoch, between 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, the high point of Lake Bonneville, according to Baxters manuscript, which in part draws upon the work of numerous scientists and historians.

Lake Bonneville would have given the regions inhabitants an abundant source of freshwater fish. As the lake changed over time, humans would have moved in tune with the changing shorelines, hunting, fishing and foraging.

The Fremont native peoples buried their dead during their time around the Great Salt Lakes wetlands and along the Bear River in the period of 400 to 1000 AD, as shown by anthropology and archeology studies. The Shoshone and Utes lived on the lakes north side and the Goshutes roamed along the lakes southern reaches.

In 1824, explorer Jim Bridger floated down the Bear River and into the Great Salt Lake, claiming its modern discovery. But historians have reported that French-Canadian trapper Etienne Provost beat Bridger to the Great Salt Lake by a few months.

The John C. Fremont expedition in 1843 mapped and described the regions topography, including the lakes islands one of which bears his name and reported on its mineral and biological content. In 1849, civil engineer Howard Stansburys team conducted a wider study of the lakes geography, natural history, minerals and water chemistry. Stansbury also is immortalized by an island named after him.

The 1847 arrival of the pioneers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints heralded what would become todays significant population growth and associated human impacts on the lake.

The pioneers noted that the Salt Lake Valleys geography paralleled the Holy Lands in the Middle East. According to the church in a 1997 citation, the similarity generated a sense that Salt Lake was a land for a chosen people, just as the Holy Land was seen as the promised land in biblical times.

Mineral extraction, agriculture diversions and shortcuts for the railroad eventually would affect the previously pristine lake as the settlement grew. Minerals obtained today are used for road and softener salt, magnesium chloride for steel production, and potassium sulfate for fertilizer.

Those industries diverted and dammed and created evaporation ponds. Other damming projects created vital bird habitats, but they too diverted water that before would have reached the lake.

The brine shrimp industry began booming in the 1970s, but increasing salinity in the shrinking lake threatens the enterprise. However, Baxter pointed to cooperation between the industry and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources to ensure the lake is not overharvested.

With the combination of climate change and assorted human impacts, Now weve got this lake set up to fail, Baxter said. But Im really buoyed by what happened in the Legislature. It was unanimous, bipartisan. There was a lot of lake love going on. It was beautiful.

She urged people to look at the array of reasons they should care about the lake. If you dont care about the migratory birds, you might care about what the dust will do to air quality. We all need to be doing not one thing, but everything we can do to value water getting into this lake.

This article is published through the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative that partners news, education and media organizations to help inform people about the plight of the Great Salt Lakeand what can be done to make a difference before it is too late. Read all of our stories at greatsaltlakenews.org

Continued here:

History lessons: Are Utahns 'waking up' to the Great Salt Lake's peril? - Salt Lake Tribune

CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) When thunderstorms become severe they are capable of producing tornadoes. On average 4 to 5 tornadoes touch down in Massachusetts each year.

In the summer of 2020, a weak tornado touched down in Sandisfield and moved through Tolland and Blandford. It knocked down numerous trees in the area of Belden Road in Tolland and caused minor damage to some homes. While most of the tornadoes we get tend to be on the weak side, there have been a number of very destructive and even deadly tornadoes that have affected us here in western Massachusetts.

The biggest in recent memory of course being the June 1st tornado which touched down in 2011. That tornado was an EF-3 with winds estimated at 160 mph. It left a path of destruction 38 miles long from Westfield to Charlton. Three people died as a direct result of the tornado and 200 people were injured.

Back in 1995 on May 29th, Memorial Day, another deadly tornado touched down in the Berkshires. The Great Barrington tornado was an F-4 with winds estimated at 260 mph. It leveled the Great Barrington Fairgrounds and killed 3 people, two students and a faculty member from the Eagleton School.

While its more common for severe weather and tornadoes to occur during the spring and summer months, some powerful tornadoes have also occurred in the fall and fairly recently, even in winter. On October 3, 1979, of one of the most memorable tornadoes touched down in northern Connecticut and western Massachusetts.

The enormous task of cleaning up after a killer tornado is facing thousands of people in the Windsor Locks, Connecticut area, said 22News Anchor Norm Peters during a 1979 newscast.

The Windsor Locks tornado was also an F-4 with winds in excess of 200 mph. It touched down in the town of Windsor, Connecticut and moved up along Route 75 into Feeding Hills. The tornado all but wiped out the Bradley Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. Twenty-five planes were destroyed and the roof was ripped off a hangar. Sixty-five homes were destroyed in the tornados 11 mile path of destruction.

In Feeding Hills, the Granger Elementary School was shut down for weeks due to water and structural damage. In all, three people lost their lives and 500 people were injured.

In 2017 we actually had the first ever recorded tornado in the month of February in Massachusetts. The Conway tornado, which first touched down in Goshen, occurred on February 26th. It was an EF-1 tornado with maximum winds of 110 miles per hour. It caused significant damage and even destroyed some homes. The United Congregational Church on Whately Road was damaged so badly it had to be demolished.

When conditions are favorable for tornadoes to form, a Tornado Watch is issued. You should pay close attention to the weather and be prepared to take action. When a tornado is spotted or indicated on radar a Tornado Warning is issued. You should then take immediate action and head to the basement or the lowest floor of your home and away from any windows.

Read the original:

History of tornadoes in New England - WWLP.com

The Buffalo Sabres have enjoyed numerous draft day steals throughout their history. But one name stands out more than the others.

In the second half of the 2021-22 season, Victor Olofsson worked some magic for the Buffalo Sabres. And perhaps no other player enjoyed so much post-All-Star break success. Rasmus Dahlin and Tage Thompson might have given him a run, but Olofsson played like a top player from February 15th to April 29th.

Olofsson, the 181st overall pick of the 2014 NHL Draft, could be considered one of the best steals in team history if he continues his high-octane ways.But when you look back into the Sabres past, one name stands head and shoulders above all when it comes to draft day steals. That player is none other than Ryan Miller, the 138th pick of the 1999 NHL Draft.

Miller, who logged 391 wins during his NHL career, leads all American goaltenders in the category. He also holds the NHL record for the most shootout wins by a goaltender in a single season with ten.

He donned a Sabres uniform during that 2006-07 season, posting a 40-16-6 record with a 0.911 save percentage and a GAA of 2.73. Despite the legendary season, Millers best year with the Sabres did not occur until 2009-10. He received NHL All-Star Team honors that season, and he also took home the Vezina Trophy.

Stats-wise, Miller finished the year 41-18-8, posting an astounding GAA of 2.22. He also logged a career-high save percentage of 0.929.

The Sabres made the playoffs just one more season after his career year. But despite the teams struggles, Miller continued to produce well. Between 2011-12 and his final season in Buffalo, Miller never allowed over 2.72 goals per game and his save percentage never dipped below 0.910.

Ryan Miller may receive some competition in the future from the likes of Olofsson, up-and-comer Lukas Rousek, or even someone that may come completely out of the blue. But for any of the above to surpass him, it would take a borderline Hall of Fame career.

(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)

Read this article:

Buffalo Sabres: Who is the biggest draft day steal in team history? - Sabre Noise

Last summer, Roger Angell greeted me at the door of his Manhattan apartment and asked the question on everyones mind: Hi Lindsey, the legendary writer and editor, who died Friday at the age of 101, said in June 2021. What the hell is going on with the New York Yankees?

It was my first time meeting Angell, my hero and the writer who first opened my eyes to the potential beauty that can be found in baseball writing. I became a baseball writer too late to run into Roger in the press box, as many of my peers had done routinely for years before my arrival, but not too late to spend an afternoon talking about ballplayers and the inconsistent offense of the team I cover.

Angell covered baseball like no one else. He came to it late in life at age 42 and was unconventional in his literary approach to chronicling the game hed loved since he was young. He had luxuries that most writers never get. He wrote for The New Yorker, which gave him space, time, and freedom to explore topics that moved him, rather than being beholden to the day-to-day issues and performances that drove most baseball writing then and now. Angell recognized that his position was cushier than that of a newspaper beat writer, but the reality is that it wasnt the time and expansive word limits that created the conditions for Angell to do unique work. It was his humility, curiosity, and creativity in his perspective of the game and approach to reporting that ultimately set his prose apart.

I went to Angells home last summer hoping to write a profile of the writer whose work had inspired me most as a developing writer, but never found a way to do justice to the experience of hearing his stories and having him ask mine. My idea going into the afternoon was to ask Roger how he would write about Roger at this state of his life; I found quickly that he was much more interested in the way each of us perceived and covered our subjects instead of making him one himself.

That afternoon, I sat on Angells couch and petted his dog, Andy, named for Angells stepfather E.B. White, as we exchanged stories about reporting and the quirks of the ballplayers we each had known. At 100 years old, Angells tales had long been codified. As a passionate reader of his work and the interviews hes given over the years, very few of them were new to me.

Angell was the personification of baseball history to me. I was born in 1990; Babe Ruth might as well have been the subject of a parable given the respective eras in which we lived. It was meaningful to me that Angell had seen Ruth play, and had run into him on the street once as a child. There was, as long as Angell was around, someone I knew of to whom Ruth was a very real person and player.

There were only a few things that Angell and I had in common. He was Harvard educated and deeply reverent to his family, especially his mother, Katharine Sergeant Angell White. I have no college education, no important family ties. We were both dog owners, New Yorkers (him of the born-and-raised variety, me of the passionate transplant type), and big fans of Ron Darling as a person as much as a player. He wrote about baseball largely in an era that was long gone before I even gained an appreciation for the sport.

That afternoon last June, I found our biggest commonalities were that we were each baffled wed ever become baseball writers, and that we were endlessly fascinated by the things that make ballplayers tick.

Angell saw the creative brilliance of ballplayers, and gravitated toward the ones who couldnt help but stand out. His eyes lit up as he talked about his time writing about the late Royals pitcher Dan Quisenberry. He won over Bob Gibson, he wrote a whole book about the complicated but endearing David Cone, he took on the mysterious case of Steve Blass and the yips. Toward the end of his life, his eyesight was going, as was his hearing, but he tuned into SNY regularly to hear Keith Hernandez and Gary Cohen exchange quips with Darling.

Proximity to professional baseball and its players can lead to quick disillusionment with what seems like relative magic when observed from the stands. Angell saw players as complicated but fascinating, and it was a relief to both of us to learn that the players he wrote about and the ones I cover now still fundamentally operate in the same way. These are professional athletes, people who are treated by society as near-deities, and whose personalities adapt in kind. But they are also uniquely talented, and contort their emotional impulses and physical attributes to compete at the games highest level, usually chasing the emotional highs and validations of success.

What makes baseball players difficult and frustrating is what makes them compelling. Angell was typically amused by their quirks rather than turned off by them.

Angell never lost a sense of wonder for their talents and the complexities of a game that often looks quite simple, even as the sport itself became unrecognizable to him in recent years. It is incomprehensible to me to think of the game as it evolved throughout the course of Angells lifetime. He was born at the start of the live ball era, he was 26 years old when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, he was alive for all 27 Yankees World Series championships and was old enough to remember 26 of them. He watched Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Roberto Clemente, and told me last year that Jacob deGrom reminded him of Gibson.

He was once described as baseballs poet laureate, but I considered him something else. He was baseballs living history, its institutional memory, and one of its all-time greatest ambassadors for the magic of the game.

What was intended to be an interview for a story turned into two people gossiping about baseball and the process of writing about it, a 100-year-old and a 31-year-old with the same obsession. It was clear to me that Angell did not see himself the way I did: As compelling and talented as the baseball players who had fascinated him for his entire life.

He was the insiders outsider, the man who sat in the press box doodling in his notebook while those around him raced to meet deadlines. He was cognizant of his privilege in upbringing and in his assignments for The New Yorker, but many people have had less success with more opportunities.

I left that day without a story, covered in dog fur and feeling a bit closer to the legacy of the sport that has given me a passion and a career. I took a photo with Angell to send to Ron Darling and David Cone, and then got on the subway to go write about the Yankees drama of the day.

Angell approached his reporting with humility and curiosity. He wanted to understand and in turn, furthered the understanding of his readers. The game of baseball and the industry that covers it have both changed to the point of near-unrecognizability in the nearly 60 years since Angell got his first assignment to write about baseball, but his work and his legacy were never left behind.

Angells work is unreplicable, but his values are not.

(Photo of Angell in 2006: AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

The rest is here:

Roger Angell was the personification of baseball history: Adler - The Athletic