Grab Bag- ICYMI: Vol 3! A New College Football Champion is crowned, Niners playoff run hits a wall, and Hockey(rare goalie fight!)?? Plus the big hitters I'm reviewing in Movies and TV!

Those who know me, are NOT surprised at all at the banner I chose! I've seen the series (six episodes) SEVEN times already. This screenshot saves me some time in the review section (gee, I wonder if I will RECOMMEND?) in that it features two of its main stars, Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams, along with the book cover and the author's name, Rachel Reid, who has written six more books in this MM hockey romance series! UPDATE: Rachel just announced a new book, titled "Unrivaled", debuting in Sept! But first, we have some real life sportsball stuff to attend to!

Sportsball: The San Francisco 49ers flew to Seattle to play the Seahawks for the right to play in the NFC Championship, and got thumped by the Seahawks, losing 41-6. The Seahawks were simply the better team in all three aspects of the game: Offense, defense, and special teams. The Seattle defense is for real, y'all! Good news I can report is that Tackle Trent Williams and Fullback Kyle Juiceack (thats not how you spell his name, I just don't have time to look it up!) will return to the team next season.

In the other Divisional games, Denver beat Buffalo, but lost their starting QB, Bo Nix, for the rest of the playoff run! Also, Longtime Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott was fired after that loss, so another head coach vacancy for Defensive Coordinator Robert Saleh to consider (49er fans KNOW why I buried that news here! Update: Saleh is now the new Tennessee Titan's head coach! ). New England defeated Houston, and in an exciting OT game, the Los Angles Rams beat the Chicago Bears (the only home team to lose this weekend), which means for the NFC Championship, it's a West Coast affair, as the Rams travel to Seattle to face off against the Seahawks, while the New England Patriots visit Denver to play the Broncos, playing without their star QB!! My prediction? Its the Seahawks and Patriots in the 60th Super Bowl at Santa Clara!

College Football Championship: Undefeated Indiana Hoosiers and the upset kings the Miami Hurricanes in Miami to decide the best of the best! The Hoosiers led 10-0 at halftime, but the Canes sorted things out and got the score close, but then Heisman winner and future LA Raiders quarterback made the play of the game, scoring on an eight yard quarterback sneak, and going airborne to get into the end zone to keep the Hoosiers ahead, and eventually Indiana won the game, 27-21, winning their first ever Championship, and the first team ever to do it with a perfect undefeated record! Congrats Hoosier Nation!

The Golden State Warriors as of late, especially on this eight game home stand, are leaving midfield mediocrity behind and playing some of their best ball, so OF COURSE Jimmy Butler, Robin to Steph Curry's Batman, gets injured, and is out for the season with a torn ACL in his left knee; a HUGE loss for this team, ( 49ers; CMC and Juice were in attendance, thinking to themselves, "we sadly know this feeling!"), and will make things interesting for General Manager Mike Dunleavy leading up to the February 5th trade deadline. Will Jonathan Kuminga actually play for the Dubs again (He been riding the bench in street clothes for weeks now- does practice with the team, but as I wrote in my last post, he wants OUT of Golden State!).

Tennis! The 2026 season starts off with the AO- Australian Open! No major upsets up to the point of this posting, but I can report that Coco Graff is a HUGE fan of Heated Rivalry, is recruiting her fellow tennis stars to watch it, and has personally invited both lead actors, Hudson and Connor, to one of her matches!

Formula One: We in the offseason, but there is still some news to report to the Zoomies!

Ferrari's Sir Lewis Hamilton, after a horrible debut with the team in 2025, is getting a new radio engineer- I highly agree with this move!

I Sadly do not have a pic, but William's Racings Alex Albon decided it was time to put a ring on it with his long time girlfriend, professional LPGA golfer Lily Singh! We now have 2 drivers set to walk the aisle (with no DRS zones!) this year, the other being Charles LeClerc. Finally, Zoomies know how ANNOYED I was that Lando did not receive his 2025 Driver's Championship trophy at the final race at Abu Dhabi. He had to wait for an F1 awards ceremony a couple of weeks later. So NOW, I can show you the moppet and him holding the well deserved trophy!

Lando beaming with joy and looking dashing at the same time!

San Jose Sharks: Our Bay Area NHL hockey team! I used to follow them hard during the Marleau and Thornton years, and then the team kinda tanked for a few years. Well this season, the Sharks have actually fielded an exciting team that actually has a good shot of making the playoffs! A big part of that is rookie phenom Macklin Celebrini, who is in the top five of most of the scoring/assists categories, and was recently selected to be part of Team Canada's Olympic team! Knowledge wise, this IS one of my weakest sports, but I'm a fast learner, and a certain show has definitely helped with that (actually the podcasts talking about a certain show has helped!). Here's your first look at one of the biggest future stars in the NHL:

Macklin is only 19 years old and is already considered one of the best player in the NHL!

As referenced in the banner title, a very rare thing happened Monday night, a GOALIE FIGHT broke out between the Sharks goalie and the Florida Panthers goalie, with the Panthers goalie speed-skating the 200 feeet length of the ice to group gloves and take on our Sharks goalie, who was part of a scrum behind the Sharks net. This story took over my social media feeds on Monday night and Tuesday, as using the new HR lingo, "two crabs (goalies) had a fight in the boy aquarium!". You can see the winner of that face-off here.

Entertainment: TV Shows

Heated Rivalry on HBO. The show that hit pop culture like a meteorite! The plot- the two top rookies in the MLH hockey draft are picked 1-2 by Boston and Montreal, and are instant rivals in the eyes of the fans and media. Illya, who is from Russia, is the arrogant, cocky one, and 2nd pick Shane, who is French-Canadien-Asian (hence Canasian!) is the quiet, practical, introvert, who is also on the neurodivergent scale.

Okay, thats the sports element, except that they are hot for each other, and this show does not shy away from the steamy sex scenes ( Illya/Connor does have a "Hockey butt"!). Fans like me tell folks who haven't seen the show yet (there are very few of you!) like to say: "Come for the smut and time jumps, stay for the angsty, yearning romance!". Episode 3 is its own meet cute romance/break our hearts standalone (mostly- I have to be careful here!) episode.Ep 4 is the famous tuna melt episode, where as Episode 5 is so brilliant, there are at least four scenes that are mind-blowing for the acting and writing, and the ending - give them all the awards for this episode! Ep 6 the season finale, titled The Cottage, is beautifully done, with a curveball thrown in the last 15 minutes that makes the episode even better. Yes , a gay hockey romance has swept the world (the UK, which just got it, is going nuts now!).

And instead of fishing out another gay by asking, "Are you a friend of Dorothy?", the new line now is: "Have you been to the cottage?".

Screenwriter and director Jacob Tierney has created something special here that the world is happily consuming, considering that this was a Canadien production (Crave), 37 days to shoot, 50$ budget (does not look like it), and Connor had to learn to speak Russian in 3 weeks, while both he and Hudson had to learn to play hockey in two weeks! The people at HBO who made the decision to pick this up (they have already greenlit a 2nd season!), should get raises and a promotion, cuz they saw something magical! One final note, besides the hot bodies (and talents- the face-acting is an emotions master class), the women in this series are absolutely wonderful as well. Svetlana, whose dialogue is all in Russian, has one of the best lines in Episode 5 ( a pronoun switch), and Rose with Shane at the beginning of Ep5 (square pegs- round holes! lol!), and Shane's Momager Yuna in Ep 6 all shine!

I could write SO much more, but I'll close by saying, treat yourself to this wonderful, sexy, romantic show!

Stranger Things- Netflix. Their final eight episodes of the series, and it gets steamrolled by hot sexy closeted hockey players! Out side of that, the show delivered, with a lot more info on what the Upside Down is, Vecna's big evil plan, and Eleven and the gang banding together to stop Vecna and also the secret military unit led by new cast member Linda Hamilton, doing her best evil Terminator impression! Acting by the entire cast is great, including new addition Holly, this young lady quickly became a fan favorite, and the sets and battle scenes, ESPECIALLY at the end of Episode 4 (Fans let out a huge Hell Ya for that shock of a reveal!), were giving fans what they wanted. We get a very emotional scene with one of our characters revealing his big secret (IYKYK), leading up to the big 2 hour finale that was thrilling, exciting, scary, and a bit melancholy, as we do lose some of our cast in the final big battles. Overall, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND to those Stranger Things fans and also to encourage new fans to start from season one- one of the better sci-fi/fantasy shows that has come out in a long time.

All Her Fault- Peacock. Let me snag the official plot synopsis for this show: When Marissa Irvine goes to pick up her young son Milo from his first playdate with a boy at his new school, the woman who answers the door has never seen or heard of either Marissa or her son -- beginning every parent's worst nightmare. As Marissa and her husband Peter begin a desperate search for their son, their family starts to come apart at the seams. With new friend Jenny Kaminski, the only person that Marissa can count on, the two women form a close and unlikely alliance. Together they hunt for Milo, uncovering deep family secrets that alter the course of both their lives forever. Charged with finding Milo and bringing the kidnappers to justice, Detective Alcaras unravels the complex and frightening web of deception and lies that has ensnared both the Irvine and Kaminski families, but his moral code is stretched to breaking point. Sarah Snook as Marissa is fantastic in this eight episode mystery, and is rightfully so getting a lot of the best Actress nominations. it's a slow burn, as secrets are revealed, and the last two episodes explode with wild twist and turns that leave the audience aghast with shock and surprise. The ending is a nice touch of "resolving a problem". Highly recommended!

Movies!

Wicked:For Good- now available to rent or buy, and I suspect it will end up on Peacock. This is Part 2 from the first Wicked movie. The cast, especially our two leads, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, are amazing as usual , both in acting and singing. Director John Chu once again creates a magical world of Oz, with great sets throughout the film. The songs, including 2 brand new ones, were okay. My two biggest negatives of the film are one being technical; the coloring was "off" especially during the wedding scene, where my eyes were hurting from the "bleeding" of the colors during that set piece. My other issue with the film is that quite simply, it's too long, by about 30 minutes, as what I am hearing from others who felt the same. Overall though, I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND it, if not only for just Cynthia and Ariana's chemistry! The have a fight scene about halfway thru the film that was a highlight for me, as it was very funny! Oh, and Jonathan Bailey once again made the audience swoon in his role as Fiyero!

Weapons on HBO: Synopsis- When all but one child from the same classroom mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance. So a bizarre mystery to be had! For those who have seen the flick, I have to be extra careful here to avoid any tell-tale spoilers! What I can write is that the incident and its aftermath are told from several different character's perspectives, until all the pieces come together in the last perspective, and its a delightful doozy of a surprise. The acting is good, strong writing using this format, and excellent night photography. The almost last scene is one of the most hysterically intense chase scenes I've seen in a while (IYKYK!). Highly, Highly RECOMMEND!

One Battle After Another on HBO: So, this film is getting all the buzz and doing well during awards season...and I am baffled as to WHY??? I did not hate this film, but very much disliked it. Other than a father, played by Leo DiCaprico, trying to find his daughter, who is being sought after by a lunatic military dude (played by Sean Penn), the story made little sense to me- something about a revolution? Any hoo, Penn and the rest of the cast are great, they held my interest, Leo.....not so much...for me, one of the worst roles of his career, the overacting and the bathrobe had me pretty hostile towards his character. I wanted to point out one detail that I loved, and it's near the end of the flick (so I can FF thru the rest of this hot mess!), is a car chase scene in the California (?) desert on this two lane highway where it elevates, then drops, elevates, then drops for several miles. For a film a disliked so much, this piece of cinematography absolutely entranced me with fascination, and what was going to happen once the car the camera is following gets to the top of one elevation, and can see the stretch of highway and who is on it before the next elevation! So, Definitely a Hard Pass- Not Recommended by me for this movie (except for about a 5 minute highway chase!!).

Flight Risk on HBO. Synopsis: A U.S. marshal boards a small plane to transfer a government witness to New York. As they cross the Alaskan wilderness, tensions start to rise as not everyone on the flight is who they appear to be. That summary is accuarate, especially the "small plane" part! This is basically a three character movie, starring Mark Wahlberg, chewing scenery like its a two-dollar steak, Topher Grace, one of his better roles since That 70's Show ended, and Michelle Dockery, dropping her Downton Abbey veneer for some bad-ass action! This thriller basically boils down to, "How are they going to get out of this?". I Recommend this film for a rainy Sunday afternoon, don't think too hard, and just enjoy type of movie!

That's a wrap on the In Case you Missed it edition of the Grab Bag. Coming soon, my favorite movies and TV shows of 2025, more of the Australian Open, and the Winter Olympics! I'm rooting for Team Canada in hockey...I wonder why? <grin> . See you at the Cottage for the Super Bowl! :)