Would I dare say thumbs down to Sidney Crosby? No, not when there always seems to be a way to say thumbs up, and that can be done following his dandy pass to Christian Ehrhoff for Saturdays game winning goal against Ottawa. Ehrhoff had time to thank Crosby with a short speech before he rifled a shot past Craig Anderson. But heres the thing: Crosby is without a goal of his own in his last six games and he has scored only twice in the past 18 games. Were hearing some of the same whispers that accompanied his performance in last seasons playoffs, when he scored just once in 13 games. They dont say somethings wrong as much as they wonder whats not right, because its not right for Crosby to be in a scoring slump. For now, well chalk it up to his missing linemates: Chris Kunitz and pick one of Patric Hornqvist or Pascal Dupuis. But eventually, no matter who lines up with him, Crosby will have to start scoring goals or the whispers will get louder. Thumbs down to my inability to understand why a team that can score power play goals at home has such difficulty doing so on the road. Even more puzzling is when the opposite is true, so lets start there. The Nashville Predators took a league-worst home-ice power play percentage of 2.3 into last nights game against Chicago. That number was based on one power play goal in 43 opportunities. Against the Hawks, the Preds had one chance, didn’t score and the home-ice power play number didn’t change. On the road, Nashville has a pretty good power play: 8 for 34 or 23.5 per cent. More understandable, I guess, is the team that scores with a man advantage at home, but not away from home. I give you the Minnesota Wild ... 20 per cent at home, 2.4 per cent on the road. Like Nashville at home, the Wild has one lonely power play goal in an enemy rink. Naturally, this made me wonder what happens when they play each other. Sadly, that hasnt happened yet this season. The first meeting is Saturday, Dec. 20 at Minnesota. Strength vs. strength, if you will. Oh, but one more thing: Minnesota is the NHLs best penalty-killing team….at home. Jose Bautista Jersey . Trailing 2-1 from the first leg, Fiorentina levelled on aggregate in the 14th minute when Joaquin Sanchez Rodriguez headed back a long ball from David Pizarro and Pasqual smashed home an angled volley. New York Mets Shirts . The Irish golfer, whose father Patrick died from cancer, says he underwent surgery for sun spots. The 42-year-old Harrington told Irish radio station Today FM: "Ive had a number of skin cancers removed off my face. https://www.cheapmetsjerseys.us/1680l-david-wright-jersey-mets.html . Arsenal had already scored its goals in the third round fixture when the fierce rivalry turned ugly in the final ten minutes as Walcott was being carried off on a stretcher. Gary Gentry Jersey . The CFL club is making the move after holding its camp and regular-season practices at the University of Toronto campus in Mississauga, Ont. Cheap Mets Jerseys . Thornton emerged as one of the leagues best defensive ends against the run in 2013. The former undrafted free agent from Division II Southern Arkansas led Philadelphias linemen with 78 tackles and had one sack. Every 30 seconds when a hurricane threatens, a U.S. Air Force Hurricane Hunter sends a burst of data to computers tracking the storm.
An Air Force C-130 was the first to signal that Hurricane Charley had become a category 4 powerhouse on Friday. The planes make multiple passes through the storms eye, dropping probes into the air to measure wind speed, barometric pressure, and the temperature of the air and the water below it.
But despite the technology available today, Charley proved how difficult the art of forecasting can be.
With hurricanes, each one has its own personality, said Lt. Col. Ron Marx, pilot of a hurricane hunter flight out of Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi. Even if we fly in the same one multiple times, every time we go its different.
Hurricane Charley was a stern reminder of that. As late as Friday morning, some forecasts said there was a good chance the storm would hit Tampa, Fla., directly. But at the last moment, it made a slight turn to the right.
The storms path only shifted about 50 miles, but to people in that path, those 50 miles were crucial.
I never thought it was going to come right straight across and hit us like this, said one storm victim.
‘Well Never Have a Perfect Forecast’
Forecasters themselves know better than to be surprised by the last-minute surprises every storm offers. They issued hurricane warnings for the entire west coast of Florida thee day before landfall.dddddddddddd
Hurricanes make these kinds of wobbles all the time, said Ed Rappaport, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Its another reason why the warning area is larger than the storm itself.
The hurricane hunters send data from the storms center, while satellites provide views from above. The information is analyzed by more than half a dozen different computer models.
In Charleys case, probes from the C-130s reported that the waters of the Gulf of Mexico were in the high 80s — unusually warm, even for August. That probably boosted the storms strength.
But a hurricane is infinitely complex. If it changes course or intensity, meteorologists with todays technology may never know why.
After 18 years of flying through hurricanes, your respect for these things continues to grow, said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Valerie Hendry, a hurricane hunter weather officer.
The National Hurricane Center said its predictions improve by a few percent every year. Still, the best computer models tend to miss by 40 or 50 miles — 40 or 50 crucial miles.
Thats certainly our goal, to have a track forecast without error, said Scott Kiser, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Of course, given the wills and wiles of mother nature, well probably never have a perfect forecast.
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