jan michael vincent

Stars' Jokinen More Than One-Dimensional
By The Associated Press � 2 days ago

Jussi Jokinen's scoring prowess now extends to the rest of the game, too. Once known as a shootout specialist, Jokinen scored four goals, including a second-period hat trick in about 7 minutes, and helped the Dallas Stars end a four-game losing streak with a 6-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Friday night.

"It's a big relief. It's been a frustrating month for me and the whole team," said Jokinen, who had only three goals his first 17 games. "We need some points to get rolling. It was a lot of fun."

The last four-goal game by a Stars player was in March 2000 by Brett Hull, who this week became an interim co-general manager for the struggling team after GM Doug Armstrong was fired.

That was about the same time Jokinen said he last scored four goals in a game, while playing amateur hockey back home in Finland.

"Getting that first goal gave me a lot of confidence," Jokinen said. "Things just got going."

In other NHL games, it was: Atlanta 3, Carolina 0; New York Islanders 1, New Jersey 0; Buffalo 4, Montreal 1; Tampa Bay 5, Washington 2; St. Louis 3, Columbus 2 and Vancouver 6, Minnesota 2.

Before, Jokinen was known primarily for success in shootouts.

As a rookie two seasons ago, Jokinen scored in each of the Stars' first nine shootouts ― and led the league in the then-new format by scoring 10 times in the extra session. He is 16-for-27 in his career.

"I'm upset I didn't have him on the ice more," Stars coach Dave Tippett said

After scoring on Dallas' first shot of the game, Jokinen had three of the Stars' four goals in a span of 7:05 of the second period to make it 5-0.

Colorado hadn't played since Sunday and looked nothing like the team that had a 7-1-1 stretch before that.

"We were brutal in all aspects of the game," coach Joel Quenneville said. "We had no spark, no emotion."

Dallas hadn't won at home since a 3-1 victory over Anaheim on Oct. 20. The Stars were coming off a shootout loss against San Jose on Wednesday night, the day they reassigned their team president and a day after Armstrong was fired.

Sergei Zubov assisted on all four of Jokinen's goals for his first four-assist game since 1997. The defenseman has 12 assists the past eight games.

Islanders 1, Devils 0

In Newark, N.J., Josef Vasicek's short-handed goal in the second period prevented Devils goalie Martin Brodeur from reaching 500 wins.

Brodeur failed in his third try to become the second goaltender in NHL history to record 500 wins, behind Patrick Roy's 551.

Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro got his second shutout of the season and beat New Jersey for the third time. DiPietro stopped 26 shots, while Brodeur stopped 25. New York snapped a two-game losing streak and has won five of its past seven games.

New Jersey has dropped five of its past seven and has scored 11 goals in that span.

Sabres 4, Canadiens 1

In Buffalo, N.Y., Clarke MacArthur scored twice and Ryan Miller made 36 saves.

Daniel Paille and Drew Stafford also scored for the Sabres, who snapped a season-long tying three-game losing streak.

Michael Ryder scored for Montreal, which lost for the second time in three games.

Thrashers 3, Hurricanes 0

In Raleigh, N.C., Marian Hossa had two goals and an assist.

Johan Hedberg made 31 saves for his 11th career shutout, Todd White had two assists, and Ilya Kovalchuk added an empty-net goal in the final minute. Hossa had his second multi-goal game of the season, both against the Hurricanes.

Cam Ward stopped 22 shots for Carolina, which entered with a league-leading 69 goals but couldn't generate many quality scoring chances against Hedberg and the Thrashers, 9-4 since GM Don Waddell replaced Bob Hartley as coach on Oct. 18.

Canucks 6, Wild 2

Six different players scored for Vancouver, which finally broke out at home.

Averaging a league-low 1.67 goals a game on home ice and coming off a 1-0 shootout loss to Edmonton on Wednesday, the Canucks jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first 16:32, matching their goal total from the previous four home games combined.

Taylor Pyatt and Mattias Ohlund scored at even strength, and Markus Naslund and Daniel Sedin added power-play goals in the first period. Trevor Linden and Luc Bourdon also scored and Roberto Luongo made 20 saves for Vancouver.

Aaron Voros and Brent Burns scored for Minnesota.

Blues 3, Blue Jackets 2

In St. Louis, Paul Kariya scored in the first period and set up Brad Boyes' go-ahead goal with 2:27 to go.

Jamal Mayers added an empty-netter in the final minute as the Blues broke through against Blue Jackets, who shut them out twice earlier in the season. St. Louis has won two straight after losing three in a row.

Curtis Glencross scored his second goal of the season and Rick Nash netted his 13th with 6.3 seconds to go for the Blue Jackets.

Lightning 5, Capitals 2

In Tampa, Fla., Vincent Lecavalier had a goal and two assists to extend his team record for consecutive multipoint games to seven and help Tampa Bay win its fifth straight.

Lecavalier has six goals and 13 assists during the streak.

Jan Hlavac, Brad Richards, Paul Ranger and Martin St. Louis also scored for the Lightning.

Brooks Laich and Alexander Ovechkin scored for Washington. The Capitals are 3-12-1 since starting the season by winning three straight games. The game started on Friday, but it ended two days later in heartbreak for the Sangueneens.

Chicoutimi's game against the Sea Dogs was abandoned Friday after two periods with Saint John leading 4-0 because of a power failure at the Centre Georges-Vezina.

On Sunday, they played the third period in Chicoutimi, and in just over 10 minutes the Sangueneens tied the game before losing 5-4 in the QMJHL.

Jacob Lagace scored the first goal 7:27 in, and a little over two minutes later Francis Pare counted to bring the Sangueneens (12-13-1-0) within two.

It seemed, with time dwindling, that the comeback would fall short, but Joel Champagne scored with 3:02 remaining and nine seconds later Nicolas Deschamps sent the game to overtime.

But with 38 seconds remaining in the extra frame the Sea Dogs rescued the victory with a goal from Christopher DiDomenico.

Elsewhere in the QMJHL, it was: Acadie Bathurst 5 P.E.I. 4; Quebec 6 Cape Breton 0; Victoriaville 4 Gatineau 3 (OT); Lewiston 4 Shawinigan 2; Rouyn-Noranda 6 Val-d'Or 2 and Halifax 5 Drummondville 2.

At Chicoutimi, Que., the Sea Dogs (14-7-1-2) scored their goals on Friday with Christopher DiDomenico, Scott Howes and Alex Grant counting in the first period and with Brett Gallant getting a goal in the second stanza.

Travis Fullerton made 38 saves for the Sea Dogs. Bobby Nadeau started the game, but was pulled after allowing four goals on 10 shots. He was replaced by Francois Levesque who made 12 saves for the Sangueneens.

Acadie Bathurst 5 P.E.I. 4

At Charlottetown, P.E.I., Jordan Clendenning scored a goal and an assist as the Titan (12-8-1-1) edged the Rocket (10-13-1-0).

Tomas Svoboda, Vincent Couture, Eric Faille and Tomy Joly also scored for the Titan.

Pierre-Luc Lessard, Jordon Southorn, Jan Kana and Geoff Walker counted for the Rocket.

Nicolas Champion made 27 saves for the Titan, while Antoine Lafleur allowed three goals on nine shots before being replaced by Marc-Antoine Gelinas who made 14 saves for the Rocket.


Quebec 6 Cape Breton 0

At Quebec, Mikhail Stefanovich scored a pair to lead the Remparts (14-11-0-1) over the Screaming Eagles (17-8-2-2).

Maxime Lacroix, Benjamin Lecomte, Kelsey Tessier and Maxime Sauve also scored for the Remparts.

Kevin Desfosses made 26 saves for the shutout, while Olivier Roy turned away 32 shots for the Screaming Eagles.


Victoriaville 4 Gatineau 3 (OT)

At Victoriaville, Que., Antoine Laperriere scored the overtime winner as the Tigres (14-13-0-0) edged the Olympiques (17-9-2-2).

Toby Lafrance scored a pair and Alexandre Monahan also counted for the Tigres.

Alexandre Touchette, Jean-Philip Chabot and Paul Byron scored for the Olympiques.

Jean-Christophe Blanchard made 34 saves for the Tigres, while Maxime Clermont turned away 28 shots for the Olympiques.


Lewiston 4 Shawinigan 2

At Shawinigan, Que., Marc-Andre Daneau scored a goal and an assist to lead the Maineiacs (16-10-1-0) over the Cataractes (11-12-0-2).

Stefan Chaput, Patrick Cusack and Stefano Giliati also scored for the Maineiacs.

Olivier Donais and Sean Smyth replied for the Cataractes.

Jonathan Bernier made 30 saves for the Maineiacs, while Kevin Maletto turned away 24 shots for the Cataractes.


Rouyn-Noranda 6 Val-d'Or 2

At Rouyn-Noranda, Que., Alex Emondc scored a goal and two assists to lead the Huskies (18-7-2-1) over the Foreurs (12-13-1-2).

Gabriel Levesque, Tyler Hawes, Michael Dubuc and Jeff Desjardins also scored for the Huskies.

Marc-Andre Cote and Brad Marchand replied for the Foreurs.

Jhase Sniderman made 20 saves for the Huskies, while Raffaele D'Orso turned away 30 shots for the Foreurs.


Halifax 5 Drummondville 2

At Drummondville, Que., Jakub Voracek scored a pair to lead the Mooseheads (19-3-0-4) over the Voltigeurs (6-20-1-1).

Andrew Bodnarchuk, Guillaume Monast and Eric Louis-Seize also scored for the Mooseheads.

Etienne Bellavance-Martin and Gabriel Dumont counted for the Voltigeurs.

Pier-Olivier Pelletier made 23 saves for the Mooseheads
BATON ROUGE ― It's official. The University of Michigan has an opening for a football coach, and LSU coach Les Miles' name is everywhere around it.

Michigan coach Lloyd Carr told the Associated Press Sunday that he would be announcing his retirement at a press conference this morning, which is two days after signs asking for Miles to return to Michigan were displayed around Ann Arbor, Mich., as Ohio State and Michigan ended the season.

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ESPN has mentioned several times that Miles, who played at Michigan in the mid-1970s and coached there as an assistant twice, is the top candidate.

Miles' agent George Bass of Dallas, however, told Gannett Louisiana Sunday night that there has been no contact between the two parties.

Bass has been representing Miles since Miles left an assistant coaching job with the Dallas Cowboys after the 2000 season to become Oklahoma State's head coach. Bass negotiated Miles' contract with Oklahoma State and his contract at LSU when Miles became the Tigers' coach after the 2004 season. Bass was part of the negotiations that saw LSU athletic director Skip Bertman place a clause in the contract that states Miles must pay LSU $1.25 million should he accept the head coaching job at Michigan. There is no such buyout if Miles goes to any other school.

Bertman did not return calls to his cellular phone on Sunday night. He said in a previous interview that LSU is a better place to coach football than is Michigan.

"Quite honestly, this is a better school to be the football coach at than most schools in the United States," Bertman said on Sept. 10 after speculation intensified of Carr's impending departure because of season-opening losses to Appalachian State and Oregon. "It's in a great community. And you don't have to worry about an Ohio State here. Of all the schools in the United States, LSU can lock up every kid in (its state)."

Bertman said then he figured Michigan would likely call for Miles.

"They might call," he said at the time. "I don't know. I'll worry about that when the time comes."

Associate athletic director Herb Vincent was contacted Sunday night but referred questions to Bertman.

Miles usually speaks with reporters on Sunday nights in a lounge in the football facility, but he told LSU sports information director Michael Bonnette that he canceled that because of the short week of preparation for the Tigers' next game against Arkansas.

No. 1 LSU (10-1) hosts Arkansas (7-4) on Friday at 1:30 p.m. on CBS. The Tigers remained at No. 1 in all the polls Sunday afternoon, including the Bowl Championship Series rankings that decide the teams that play in the BCS national championship game on Jan. 7 in New Orleans.

Kansas (11-0) moved up to No. 2 in the BCS poll as Oregon and Oklahoma both lost. West Virginia (9-1) is third, followed by No. 4 Missouri (10-1) and No. 5 Ohio State (11-1).

Miles will have his weekly press luncheon at noon today after Carr's press conference. Miles and Carr both worked for the late Michigan coach Bo Schembechler in the 1980s and under Schembechler's replacement, Gary Moeller, from 1990 through 1994. When Carr replaced Moeller, Miles left to become offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State. Miles said in a previous interview that he could have stayed at Michigan under Carr but likely not as offensive coordinator.

Carr is expected to remain at Michigan in an associate athletic director position.

Among the other candidates to replace Carr, according to the Associated Press, are Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Mike Trgovac, who played under Schembechler shortly after Miles and was a graduate assistant at Michigan in 1984, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, whose former president at Iowa is now Michigan's president (Mary Sue Coleman), and NFL coaches Bobby Petrino of Atlanta and Jon Gruden of Tampa Bay.

Petrino was Louisville's coach, and Gruden in the past has expressed interest in college jobs, including at LSU. Another former Michigan player is Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh, who played quarterback for Schembechler. Harbaugh angered some Michigan people recently, however, with comments about questionable entry practices for athletes at Michigan S04E08) Tonight, I felt like I was R. Lee Ermey and The Office was Vincent D'Onofrio and this review was the first half of Full Metal Jacket.

See, I feel like I've been yelling at The Office now for quite a few weeks, trying to get it into marine-ready shape. Like D'Onofrio's hapless character, the show kept disappointing me with Survivorman parodies and surreal kidnappings. Tonight, though, everything snapped into place and, like Private Pyle, the show started acting like a perfect marine.

Tonight's episode was so good, in fact, I'm actually worried that I'm going to walk in on a homicidal Steve Carell screaming at me: "This is my rifle! There are many like it, but this one is mine!!" More strained analogies (and a glowing review) after the jump...
Like last week, tonight's episode had two storylines running concurrently. Unlike last week, both storylines were wonderful.

The "A" story involved Jan's wrongful termination suit against the company. With four million dollars at stake ("a lot of guacamole" in Michael's words), Jan has polished Michael's testimony to a high sheen. Not since Mark McGwire told Congress that he "wasn't there to talk about the past" has a witness been more thoroughly prepared to skirt the truth under oath.

At first, the deposition seems to be going swimmingly, with Michael repeating his rehearsed lines very well. It isn't until the company's lawyer takes out the topless picture of Jan that Michael sent to the entire company last season that things start to fall apart.

I'm not sure if everyone else loves continuity as much as I do, but little things like this -- a minor point from an episode that aired almost a year ago coming back to play a major role in tonight's storyline -- is the kind of thing that gets my geek juices flowing*. As the kind of super-nerd who debates whether Timothy Zahn's references to the Clone Wars can be considered canonical in light of the information presented in Attack of the Clones, I love this kind of stuff. It should also be noted that no, I did not have a date to my senior prom.

Since the picture was taken well before Jan and Michael officially came out as a couple, Jan's claim that everything about their relationship was done by the company playbook begins to get more shaky. The new line of questioning takes Michael off the track that Jan had prepared for him, and Michael has to start improvising, with the expected, hilarious results.

While this is going on, we learn in the "B" story that the warehouse got a new ping-pong table and that Darryl has been routinely walloping Jim at the game. This leads to embarrassment for Pam as every time Darryl defeats Jim, Kelly trash-talks her.

I'm going to say two things about the Kelly and Pam feud. One: This was some of the funniest stuff of the season. Kelly singing Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend made me laugh so hard that I'm pretty sure that the person in the next room over called management. Two: I would have cut off part of my pinky-finger, Ronnie Lott style, if the feud had turned into a top-tearing cat fight. In the hulu of my dreams, that's the way the episode ended.

While Jim practices in an effort to best Darryl, things are not proceeding well for Michael. Jan enters into evidence Michael's diary in a last-ditch attempt to save the lawsuit.

The diary reading was the highlight of an already classic episode. It's funny -- though, I suppose, fitting -- that Michael even has a diary, much less one in which he signs off each entry with "love and kisses." The best part, though, was the revelation that Michael has a mancrush on Ryan that makes Scotty J's crush on Dirk Diggler seem sweet and normal by comparison ("Ryan is just as pretty as Jan, but in a different way").

It was also nice to see Toby get a good laugh at Michael's expense, especially after Michael pushed his tray off the table right in the middle of Toby trying to console him. I know everyone seems to hate Toby -- even Jim! -- but I like him. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time we've ever gotten a chance to see Toby actually laugh. I say: good for Toby!

As the lawsuit progresses, more embarrassing things come to light about Michael, namely that Jan's assessment of him was that he wasn't a very good boss and that he should be put back in sales where he belongs. While this is painfully obvious to anyone who has, you know, eyes, the fact that Jan would say that after she had started dating Michael hurts him deeply. Further, when he protests that he gave up Jan's job for her, they read testimony from David Wallace that while he thinks Michael is a "nice guy", he was never in the running for the job.

In all, it's a bad day for Michael. The tight focus shot of Michael's eyes at the end of the second act was as heartbreaking as anything we've seen from the character. I know that a lot of you enjoy Michael's crazy antics -- and for as much as I harp on their silliness, I understand their appeal -- but, for me, it's this side of Michael, the desperately needy little boy that wants 100 kids so he'll never have to be alone, that makes the character great. Tonight's episode validated every single big-budget movie role that Steve Carell has ever gotten: the man has an enormous amount of talent when it's not buried under an avalanche of the absurd.

I even bought it when Michael flushed four million dollars down the toilet by refusing to agree that the company has shown a "pattern of disrespect." The episode built to that moment perfectly, and never for a second did I think that Michael would be able to get past what Jan did to him.

Being a reviewer forces me to think about this show a lot more often than I think about less important things like my family or friends. This is both because to do so is necessary to review the show properly and also because I'm confronted regularly with my reader's assessment of my assessment. After my particularly glowing review of the particularly downbeat Money, a lot of you wrote that I enjoy this show more for the drama than the comedy. After tonight's episode it occurred to me that it's not the drama that I enjoy, it's the connection with the characters.

Here's what I mean: The Office is not made up of a collection of stereotypes who spout one-liners and then wait for the studio audience to stop laughing; it's a group of people that are familiar to us in a way that's rare on network television. These are people that we know, both because we tune in each week and because we look around our own lives and are all but electrocuted with the shock of recognition by how it compares with what's on the show.

What I respond to is moments that strengthen my connection with the characters. Sometimes this is done dramatically, like in Money or Casino Night, and sometimes this is done joyously, like at the end of Survivorman, and sometimes this is done hilariously, like tonight.

It was a pleasure to both watch and review this episode, especially since the last few weeks I've had to be hard on the show. And, uh, that's what she said.

Highlights and observations:

-- Dwight as a Forrest Gump level ping-pong prodigy. Best moment: Dwight and Mose playing competitive level ping-pong at the end of the episode. Second best moment: Dwight giving a no-look beat down to Jim's "spin serve."

-- The "that's what she said" segment. It was great to see everyone taking so seriously Michael's dumb recurring catch-phrase. Was I the only one that caught maybe just a hint of recognition in Michael's eyes that perhaps it's time to retire the joke? Maybe I'm reading too much into this...

-- Question: Wouldn't Jan's poor assessment of Michael after they started dating prove that their relationship did not affect their work relationship? It seemed odd for the defense to bring this up. Perhaps one of our readers is an attorney and can maybe enlighten me as to why her negative review of Michael helps the defense's case.

-- "Maybe we should get something cheaper." "Chinese was my cheap suggestion."

-- Pam's fake notes to Michael. The hotdog saying "Hiya Buddy" was my favorite. Again, more proof that if the tapes of The Office are buried in a vault and then dug up by whatever civilization replaces ours, those people will worship Jenna Fischer as a goddess. Perhaps the Goddess of Insane Crushes on Characters Who Do Insanely Cute Things.

-- Any of Kelly's put-downs. Take your pick. They were all hilarious.

All right kids, that's it for this week. Because of the strike, it might be a long time before we see another new episode. This Thanksgiving, eat lots of turkey, but before you fall into tryptophan coma, spend a few minutes hoping that the strike ends with all sides smiling. Maybe if we all hope together, say around 6 PM EST, the universe will listen and we'll have new episodes by Christmas. (If this works, by the way, the next thing we're hoping for is that I get super-powers -- I'm calling it now!)


* "Geek Juices" might be the dirtiest thing I've ever written that was not actually a curse. My apologies to all the people who had to suffer through imagining what, exactly, geek juice might be.