smokinandjokin

All year long- NO EXCUSES. Lindy will keep this train rolling. Notice he ran Jillson out there on defense during a crucial 3rd period penalty-kill...Trial-by-fire yes, but also a nod to the way the kid played. I think Ruff had an inkling it would not be the last time Jillson dresses for a game in these playoffs, so he might as well put him in the lion's den. In reality, Carolina couldn't get much going. Obviously that final 3 minutes were nerve-racking, but I thought the D was solid. It's not like Miller was forced to stand on his head.

It's very, very hard to criticize Darcy. The defensmen that were available at the trade deadline were not the answer. AD mentioned Spacek, and I think Luc Richardson's name was thrown around. I'd rather see Jillson and Janik in there than trading away for some stiff. You can second-guess and crititcize all you want, but you can't blame Darcy for your #1, 2, and 3 defensemen all going down with injury. If securing the D means you should have nine or ten NHL-caliber defensemen at your disposal, then every GM in the league should be criticized. Everyone knows that injuries happen in the NHL, especially in the playoffs, but there's no team in the league that has the depth to compensate for three at one position.

Can you imagine being on the team that finally loses? My high school was a real swimming powerhouse. (I didn't swim, I played hoops. Powerhouse was not the word for our hoops squad.) By my senior year, the boys swim team had won 26 division championships in a row, and the girls team had won something like 21 in a row. The boys team has continued winning and is now up to 35 in a row. However, the girls team finished second in the division my senior year. They were devastated. This past New Years, I was at a party and saw two of the girls who I graduated with, and they were both swimmers. I (jokingly) asked them how it felt to be seniors on the team that broke the streak. It still haunts them. To make it worse, I think the girls team picked up and started winning again, so there is a banner in the pool with division titles, and every year from the mid-70's up to 2005 is included, except 1996. Sucks to be them!

Pop the hood! If I was 13, I'd take a bj. Hopefully afterwards she'd take me to the store and buy me beer.

That is correct CTM. A wise man once said, cars are not the place for talking on the cell phone, reading the paper, checking out yourself in the mirror, sending an email, and eating breakfast. Cars are for getting to where you need to go, and for getting blown.

A married man has been having an affair with his secretary at work for several months. One day at the office, the passion overcomes them, so they leave and get a motel room. They proceed to have incredible sex all afternoon, eventually tiring out and falling asleep in each other's arms. Later, the man wakes up and shoots out of bed. He grabs his watch and sees that it's 9:30pm. Quickly, he starts rummaging around the room, gathering up his articles of clothing. His secretary gets out of bed and starts flirting with him again. "Not now," he says. "It's late, my wife is going to kill me. I've got to get out of here." His mistress starts trying to help him button his shirt, but he slaps her hand away. "Here," he says as he hands her his shoes. "Take these outside and rub them in the dirt. Get them grass stained and muddy." "But why would I..." she asks. "Please, just do it," the man replies. She does as he asks, and he continues to get dressed. She comes back in with the dirty shoes, and the man puts them on, gives her a kiss goodnight (and probably a smack on the ass) and heads for home. Sure enough, when he gets home, his wife sees his car pull in and is waiting for him at the door. She is pissed! "What the hell is this?" she scolds. "10PM? No phone call? I had dinner ready four hours ago!!! Where the hell have you been?" "Honey," the man says. "I cannot lie to you. I have been having an affair with my secretary for several months now. We went to a motel today and made love all afternoon, and then we fell asleep. I came home as soon as I woke up." His shocked wife stares at him, and then looks down and sees his dirty shoes. She looks up again, even more pissed than before. "Bullschit you lying bastard! You were playing golf!"

How much you wanna make a bet I can throw a football over them mountains?... Yeah... Coach woulda put me in fourth quarter, we would've been state champions. No doubt. No doubt in my mind.

Horrible coach. In 2000-01, Thomas led the Pacers (fresh off a 56-26 record and an appearance in the NBA Finals under Larry Bird) to a 41-41 record. He followed that up with a 42-40 record in 2001-02, and 48-34 in 2002-03. His replacement, Rick Carlisle, led the team to a 61-21 record the very next season. That's a 15-game swing when he arrived and a 13-game swing when he left. Don't forget, he ran the CBA into the ground. The league went bankrupt and folded under his watch. Couple all of that with the horrendous decisions he's made as Knicks GM, plus one sexual harassment claim from a former Knicks staffer, and it's amazing they pay this guy. The funniest part is, he continues to make trades that are worse than the one before. It's become comical.

That trade was hilarious. The Bulls get rid of an unhappy and unproductive Eddy Curry, still make the playoffs, and get the Knicks' #2 overall pick. Isaiah Thomas is one of the worst executives in all of sports or business. How he still has a job is beyond me. He hasn't done anything right in about seven years. Drafting Carter and McGrady when he was Toronto's GM were probably his last good decisions.

Miller outplayed Ward in Game 1, and he kept the Sabres alive in Game 2 with some huge saves on some big-time goalscorers. Ward saved 16 of 19 shots, and really wasn't challenged. Huge skate save on Roy's break-in that prevented it from being 3-2 with about 13 mins left. I think Miller will be an advantage throughout the series, and Ward will be exposed in Buffalo. The only time New Jersey looked like they cared about offense, they lit him up. As for the breakouts, Carolina's pressure did effect Buffalo's first pass. Another effect was the Sabres playing their 7th and 8th defensemen. No excuse, every team has injuries, but whenever Numminen is out of the lineup, his absence is glaring when it comes to passing out of the defensive zone. I know Carolina is missing their main weapon in Cole, so again no excuses...but Connolly is the type of player who can expose the over-agressive penalty killing that the Canes seem intent on playing. The Sabres had trouble getting set up. Connolly has the vision, stick handling, and creativity to back defenders off.

And someone yelled "!@#$" and another group left some empties in the parking lot. Classless.

Feel free to predict your Super Bowl scores as well. Bills 49 Panthers 48 Carolina fans are appalled that Bills fans showed up to "drink early and drink often."

The breathalyzer is a gadget and will never stand up in court! He's innocent!

Good God people, get a grip. It's the playoffs. People are going to drink and be loud, and yes, some people will be obnoxious drunks. I'm sure there were quite a few drunk Carolina fans there as well who contributed to the unrest. Unbelievable. Nobody cares. LV-Bills, apparently our resident Carolina expert from Pennsylvania, has seen only the finest wine-and-cheese fans the Leafs have to offer. Please. Spare us your soapbox. Carolina wins game 1 and there's not a peep spoken about any of this. The Sabres win, and the fans cry that someone said "Schit!" in front of their seven-year old daughter who was peacefully trying to color in her coloring book during the second period. Sabres victory = Many loud Buffalo fans = drunk = wah wah somebody swore at me and left garbage in the parking lot

I love it! At first I thought it was a complement, until I got to the last part. Replace "Shame on you!" with "It was AWESOME!" and you'd have a great post. But in reality, this clown lost all credibility in the first sentence. You know he's full of schit because he said they've had fans from New Jersey come down for games. The Devils play to 60% capacity in their own building!!! I'm suppposed to believe that NJ's 'fans' drove 10 hours to watch their boring-ass team play? Good try bro!

Also known as 48% in Game 1. Only as good as your last game, chump!

This guy can feel free to bash the city of Buffalo. Hey, all those Sabres fans at Game 1 didn't drive down from WNY, many of them live there already. And they all left Buffalo for one reason or another. That's fine. The city has been bashed before, and it will be bashed again. Wide right, snowstorms in June, blah blah blah we can handle it. And he can talk about the 50/50 ratio of Leafs to Sabres fans when the two teams square off in HSBC. There's no denying that. The fact that many of those fans are from Southern Ontario and a hell of a lot closer to Buffalo than Toronto gets left out. The fact that Leafs tickets are much more exclusive and expensive than Sabres tickets gets left out. I have no problem with it. I also have no problem with the Leafs' fans voicing their support in our arena. Buffalo is 14-4-3 against Toronto in HSBC since they moved there in 1996. Bringing up Regis/Adelphia bankruptcy and pinning it on the fans inability to support a team is ignorant. The Hurricanes play in NC State's college basketball gym on the third-best campus in the Research Triangle. Cool.

He may not be the ugliest man in the world, but they can't start the contest without him!

CarolinaHurricanes.com First headline on the Canes website: GREAT SEATS AVAILABLE FOR TONIGHT'S GAME 2 MATCHUP AT THE RBC CENTER Say no more.

Well, Ottawa had some bankruptcy issues themselves.

I'm not clear on that one, but you are right, there are dump-ins that appear to be obvious icing and the linesman waves it off. I don't know if there's any rules/rhyme/reason for it, or if it's just simply the linesman's discretion. There doesn't seem to be much consistency with the way they are calling/not calling it.

Article The guy was actually fairly complementary to the Sabres in the article, but it ends with this blurb: Sell out a playoff game before you start throwing John Rigas/Chapter 11 mud.

Saying the 'new' NHL can be a little misleading, because the rule changes that really opened up the game (penalizing hooking, holding, interference) weren't rule changes at all. They have been on the books forever. Only this year, they're actully enforcing them. Novel concept, right? The four major rule changes, which are all great decisions by the league: 1. Eliminating the 2-line pass rule: Makes it harder for teams to play the suffocating trap. 2. Restricting where goalies can play the puck with their stick: Goalies can only play the puck in front of the endline, or in a small section behind the net, or else it's a 2 minute penalty. Promotes time in the offensive zone. 3. Shooting the puck out of play: A 2:00 penalty if a player (goalie included) shoots the puck directly into the stands with no deflections off the glass or another player, ref, etc. Pressured defensman can't just fire the puck into the crowd. 4. No line change for the team that ices the puck: Logical rule. Those rules have all served their purpose, and been beneficial in creating a more attractive style of play. But the crack down of the hooking, clutching, and holding has really made the difference. Skating is now at a premium. And give the NHL and the refs credit. Every year they said they were going to whistle the obstruction penalties, but they never did. This year they have stuck with it, and they have a better product because of it.

If the series is 3-1 Sabes, you gotta go. Close out their 3rd straight in the other team's house- I bet you'll be able to hear "Let's Go Buffalo" then!!! Sabres in 5!!! The year of the QUIET HANDSHAKE!!!

It does beg the question, would you rather have your rooster pulled off or bitten off? I would say bitten off, because at least for a split second you are getting blown. Hand jobs are the worst.