shrader

I'm not sure I'll go with a sweep, but yes, the Craps will wind up showing just how different the two divisions in the East are. The one I'm most curious about is Habs-Rags. Points-wise, it's an even matchup, but will we see the Metropolitan division separate itself from the pack in this matchup too?

I don't know why, but the whole Thanksgiving routine of guessing which pies she made always cracked me up.

If they kill Tony, I'll lose my mind.

My college's band played Centerfold regularly throughout the course of every hockey game. That song still puts me in such a happy place each time I hear it.

I haven't paid too close attention, but I believe that Antipin's KHL team is still alive in the playoffs. They can't do anything until their season is over. It would be odd if they didn't sign him given how it was originally reported as a done deal.

The McAvoy thing is a bit curious. BU fans were down on him as a whole this year, as he didn't progress quite like they would have liked. It's a bit of a surprise that a couple of their more advanced prospects didn't get a shot instead. I'm sure he'll be on a short leash though.

Again I have to point out to you who you are having this conversation with. It's really not worth the effort. I have enjoyed much of the interaction in this thread over the course of the season, but a handful of people are doing their best to completely ruin it with their hit and run whining. I'm probably bailing at this point, but hopefully the playoffs drag me back in.

I know I wouldn't either. It has nothing to do with this incident, but I have no desire to fly that airline ever again. I've had issues with them each of the couple times I flew with them. I actually just let some vouchers from them expire in February. Fortunately it was never anything too major, just a consistent series of canceled flights, lost bags, and piss poor service. To me the vouchers had less value than toilet paper.

Except that it is essentially impossible for that to happen. He has to flee to the KHL in order for that to happen. But by all means, continue with the woe is me mentality that has completely overrun everything Buffalo sports fan.

Honestly I don't know why I'm responding to this. Since when does thanking the city and congratulating the team that won the cup equate to giving a speech?

The whole event was drunken lunacy when I used to go. The last time it was in Buffalo, friends of mine actually got to hang out with Dave Chappelle who was in town for a show at the same time.

I always used to joke during the peak of the boy band and MTV era that I'd have a band named Man Band.

I'm with you. His big sin there was taking his eye off the play. He turned his back and played the sound of the puck hitting the wrong stick. This business of suspending players based off of the resulting injury is a majorly flawed approach. Risto's hit is a perfect example. Yes it was interference, but the only intent was to separate the player from the puck. Suspensions should be based more off of sending the message that certain types of play need to be eliminated. I know I've seen a long list of plays that didn't result in injury but were far more egregious, but didn't lead to a suspension since no one was hurt. I wish I could think up some recent examples but I'm coming up blank. Stick swinging incidents, cheap shot punches, most Marchand actions... The recipients wind up being fortunate they're not hurt, thus no suspension is issued and the player gets the message that they can keep on doing what they're doing. I know the league has put a huge focus on targeted head shots and I agree with it. I don't see any justification for calling Risto's a target head shot.

Rodrigues was a solid player, but nothing special at BU until Eichel showed up. I really didn't expect much out of him. It's good to see him being a productive player now even though he's not out there with Eichel. It's really tough to see the development of a guy at the NCAA level when you're switched over onto a line with an all world talent, but kudos to this scouting department for being able to see it. Edit: And I forgot to mention that the explosion in Rodrigues' game once he was paired with Eichel is the exact thing I hope that Jack can also bring to the NHL level. Whether it's Nylander or one of the other young guys, I want Jack to be able to bring out the best in whoever his linemate winds up being.

Does any playoff team wind up with a more favorable path than the Rangers? They're going to face the Habs, who they may very well wind up ahead of in terms of points on the season. They get placed into the fairly weak Atlantic division while the top three teams in the entire NHL point-wise (or 3 of the top 4) have to fight through each other. I'd say Washington gets a little break when they get Ottawa/Boston/Toronto, but they're still the Craps and probably will find a way to screw up. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see the Rags in the Finals simply because they avoided some wear and tear. I'll be curious to see if Columbus might be able to make some waves now that Letang is done. Their first round opponent just got a bit weaker. Are they still throwing stiffs like Ruhwedel back there on a nightly basis?

I just want to know who this person is that DVRs an LPGA tournament and watches it hours later.

I don't see where that helps the team though, at least as of today. Those guys wouldn't be here yet and it still does not address the black hole of depth on the blue line. I don't know if it's Fowler specifically, but if they really had to trade that pick it would have been better to spend in on a defenseman. Hindsight is 20/20, I know.

I'll readily admit my bias here, but I'd be curious about rolling the dice on a guy like Oettinger in the 2nd round. The kid is already a very successful workhorse goalie as a freshman. We haven't had that level of a goalie prospect in the system in ages. And this is completely independent of any other moves in net (signing Cal Peterson). He'll still be a year or two away from leaving BU and you make room for higher tier prospects in net if you have to.

I hate the lazy "what if" game that people always play. That's the exact thing that winds up derailing just about every single conversation. I've got absolutely nothing to say on top of what's already said, so why don't I just create a fake scenario to judge instead so that I can look smart and pretend I'm adding something. Now that I've got that mini-rant out of the way, to me, there's no question that she deserved a penalty. I haven't actually bothered to watch any video of this, but I trust that if they said it, it happened. The part that bothers me is the sort of double jeopardy feel for adding on the score card penalty as well (thank god it wasn't an automatic DQ). She can't possibly sign a correct score card if they assess a penalty one day later. The whole procedure of needing signed cards is so archaic given how much influence TV has.

Jack Bauer was biting out people's throats way before Rick Grimes. Shiva would be incredibly stealthy too, right? I'm not much of a cat guy, but I assume that to be the case.

Kane had a ton of trade value with Winnipeg. He was pretty much the hottest commodity on the trade market at that point. That whole trade still feels like an incomplete to me from the Winnipeg point of view. Stafford was a throw-away and Armia is nothing more than a depth guy. Until we see what Roslovic and Lemieux turn into, there's really nothing to write home about if you're Winnipeg. So as of today, it reduced down to Kane-Bogosian vs. Myers. I'd have to give the edge to Buffalo, but Roslovic looks to be off to a decent start as a pro and could shift the scales.

Typically they'd put together a group of guys a few months in advance and they'd pull from the best available non-NHL options. I'd imagine it was very similar to today's process for picking the world junior rosters, except there's a wider talent pool with the age restriction removed. So that winds up being major junior, NCAA, and any of the guys playing in european leagues. Maybe some of those leagues can be convinced to shut down for a couple weeks during the process, but not the NCAA. If those guys go, they're missing a significant portion of their season. Was his suggestion that this deal would be made in place of the Kulikov one or alongside it?

They didn't execute that scene very well. I had to rewind it a couple times to see that someone actually fell. It came across to me as just a distant scream.

Close. They're automatically given the third best chance of winning lottery. So they can draft anywhere from 1st to 6th, depending on how the lottery plays out. Then they get the 3rd pick in every other round.

He doesn't want to just kill people. He needs these other communities to produce for him. He wants to show the people of Alexandria that both Eugene and Sasha are working with him and they can have that same chance. Get on board and things will get better.