On the surface, Brian Gale is the type of person that you assume has a pretty good handle on things.  He’s an MBA and a CEO, pretty big letters in both cases, but that’s just the present tense.  At St. Ignatius, Coach Chuck Kyle demanded a lot out of his defensive end.  The high standard is all about the school, that some of us know mostly as a football factory, but the standards exist in the classroom and all other walks of life.  After learning football and life from “Chico” Kyle, new challenges awaited Mr. Gale in the Ivy League classroom and on the field for the Harvard Crimson.

With all of that education, including a Masters’ program at the University of Chicago, he reminds the world that some of life’s lessons come from the most unlikely of places.  In Brian’s case, it comes from his children.  From the heart-warming story of everything that he’s learned from 6 year-old son Logan to the difficult tale of living life without their daughter, Peyton Kimberly Gale, Brian shares his experiences in Good Job, Airplane!, an autobiography of sorts that he wrote with Erik Cassano of this very site.

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It’s great to have hockey back and the Columbus Blue Jackets didn’t disappoint with their performance in the first two games. They entered their game against Nashville with a 5-29-1 record at Nashville in franchise history. On the shoulders of Sergei Bobrovsky, they picked up their first win of the 2013 season with a 3-2 shootout victory. Two nights later, in their home opener, the Jackets and Bobrovsky managed a point for a shootout loss in a 4-3 defeat. All in all, it was an impressive display for a team who has a lot of new faces and had negative reports coming out of training camp.

The difference between players who played during the lockout and players who didn’t is staggering. The ones who played, like Cam Atkinson and Matt Calvert, had a lot of jump and energy, while the ones who didn’t, like RJ Umberger and James Wisniewski, fought the puck and seemed to be moving in slow motion. The Blue Jackets aren’t the only team dealing with that, as most of the teams around the league appear to be having the same contrast. A lot of the games around the league have been sloppy, with a lot of missed passes and a good amount of icing calls. Growing pains are evident in the early season for all 30 teams.

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have spent this week trying to cram three weeks worth of practice into one week, without their former star player Rick Nash, and with a head coach who was only behind the bench for half of the 2011-12 season. The other 29 teams in the National Hockey League are facing the same time crunch, but with fewer hardships, and with a lot more of a roster to work with.

It appears to be an uphill climb for the Jackets entering the 48-game 2013 season, which will begin on Saturday night in Nashville. Prior to the lockout, Rick Nash was traded to the New York Rangers in exchange for Artem Anisimov, Brandon Dubinsky, Tim Erixon, and a first-round pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. Without Nash’s commanding presence, the Jackets are without their captain and most gifted offensive player, entering a shortened season where every win and every point is critical. All of that while hoping Steve Mason has a bounceback season or Sergei Bobrovsky can provide some help in net.

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With just three football games left this betting season, it’s time to be looking at alternative sports to bet. The return of the NHL could be a big moneymaker for bettors this season, with a condensed schedule featuring a lot of back-to-back games and games with teams that are extremely familiar with each other. Basketball is a very up and down game full of bad beats and a lot of tight numbers. In hockey, moneyline parlays and total bets are the ways most bettors approach the sport, but I have an alternative for you to look into.

But, first, let’s start with the conference championship games. The NFC Championship Game features a team that blew a 27-7 lead at home in the fourth quarter to a team having to travel back to the east coast for the second straight week against a team who start-to-finish looked like the better team in their home win. The Atlanta Falcons were helped by Pete Carroll’s timeout to “freeze” Matt Bryant in escaping with a 30-28 victory. The San Francisco 49ers had their way with the Green Bay Packers and Colin Kaepernick shined in his first NFL playoff start.

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