Bmwolf21

Ummm....what?!? While I agree that Lynch has gotten away from his bread and butter - hitting the hole hard and running guys over - McGahee was the biggest behind the line outside of Barry Sanders. His last 16-20 games in Buffalo - excluding the games against the Jets - were spent hesitating, shuffling, and trying to pick his spots. The only time I remember McGahee regularly hitting the hole hard and running downhill was when he was trying to claim the no.1 RB spot and push Henry to the bench. After that he hung up the stiff arm and started avoiding contact and looking to bounce it outside as much as possible.

Really? An NFL QB would put up an ohfer? Realistic, right.

That's a recurring theme in recent weeks...guys who get hit and sacked a lot are surprisingly (or not) untouched by the Bills' defense.

Another Lee Evans sighting....

If we're going down the Food Network road, then I have to add Giada...

Can we do something different this time on offense? Maybe a screen, draw, or maybe something to stretch the defense?

Always a good sign when your no.1 receiver gets his first catch in the 3rd quarter...

He had a good game last week, so we naturally limit his use and limit his touches this week. That's Jauron Ball®.

THANK YOU.

I agree with Steely that the statue is a bit much. But let's not use that as cause to denigrate all his accomplishments or one of college football's defining plays. And for the record, I couldn't stand Flutie when he was here. When it became apparent what a douche he was I wanted him gone.

I really hope Penn State's choke job doesn't open the door to let Florida squeak their way into the BCS championship game...

So a 5'8"-ish QB throwing the ball ~65 yards in the air is not as good as the WR who simply runs down the field and catches the ball? Flutie sure as hell wasn't your average strong-armed QB - it probably took every fiber of his being to make that throw, especially after throwing 45 passes earlier in that game. Any player who could catch a ball could have caught that pass. That WR didn't do anything special on that play -- he was behind the Miami DB's and waited for the ball to drop into his arms. He didn't jockey for position, didn't out-leap anyone, didn't catch it off a deflection -- all he did was catch the ball.

Same here. The 'Boys needed someone to replace Pacman, err Adam, err, Jackass Jones and to fill the "headaches and problems" void Jones' suspension created.

I haven't found anything that explains it, but in your scenario I don't see any reason why they wouldn't give it to the guy who scores the first goal, which is the actual game-deciding goal. I think that best squares up with the scoring system -- after all, no matter how many goals are scored in the SO, the winning team gets one goal added to their total, which is the difference in the game. EDIT: I looked at Buffalo's 2-1 SO win over MTL (last game listed on the second link) and that exact scenario happened. Kotalik and Stafford both scored in the SO, Miller stopped both Montreal shooters and Kotalik - who scored the first goal - was awarded the GDG. Here's the Yahoo box score that shows the SO progression from that game (weird that Yahoo has that in their box score but NHL.com doesn't. Looks like the NHL.com box score does have the shootout, but when you're on the stats page, looking at the SO results, clicking on the link takes you to the NHL.com Game Summary and not the box score, and the Game Summary doesn't even acknowledge that there was a SO. A little inconsistent in that click-thru.)

Forgot about that whole "missed an entire year after being another NFL dumbass to get hurt riding a motorcycle" thing, huh?

Don't discount Urban's knack for campaigning his way into the title game.

So he has bias sometimes and sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes when it's an NHL game and sometims when it's a college game. Except when he doesn't. Got it. Again, haven't seen his NESN college games (and based on his Bruins work, have no desire to see any) but I stand by my earlier comment. Calling Bruins games on NESN = Brickley acts like a spoiled, whiny douche who thinks every time a Bruin is touched it should be a penalty, and is generally a chore to listen to, regardless of who his PbP guy is. Brickley on Vs. = more tolerable and objective, also independent of who his PbP guy is.

I thought they did get a GWG for the shootout goal that ends the game, but I'll have to research that more later. But they absolutely do track Game Deciding Goals in the shootout stats. LINK Right now the Rangers' Fredrik Sjostrom leads the league with two SO GDG. Last year is was Phil Kessel who led the league with 5, follwed by Hemsky, Shanahan and Sam Gagner, who had four apiece. LINK 2 Listing of who was credited with the GDG in each SO.

Yep. That sportsjournalists.com forum has started posting a ton of stuff on career changes and wewereprint.com is doing a good job at the thankless task of updating and tracking the newspaper industry cuts. I can tell you that as a freelancer I've seen a decline in the actual physical size of the papers, which means less coverage and more freelancers duking it out for fewer assignments.

The "New NHL" is dead. The swing to the no-touch defense, while it benefited the Sabres' group of smaller finesse players more than anyone, was a joke. There is a line between cutting down on obstruction and making the league into a no-touch pond hockey joke. This swing back to the "old NHL" should be nothing more than the correction of that overreaction, although it would not surprise me to see the NHL go all the way back to the clutch-and-grab defense. The Ducks, OTOH, were not as big a benficiary of the New NHL as the Sabres were. Anaheim actually had players who could grind it out, play nasty and physical, and actually played defense, not pond hockey.

It wouldn't be the NHL if it wasn't screwy and convoluted.

I don't think there is a separate GAA for shootouts, since GAA is measured by minutes played. They do keep shots faced and goals against, so you can calculate success rates and save percentages. Shooters' goals do not count toward their regular goals-scored totals. I think the shooter who scores the GWG gets one GWG added to that total for his stats, but does not get one for his goals scored number.

Isn't that exactly what I said? He's a jackass when he covers his hometown team - letting his homerism and bias show - and not when he's on Versus. I can't comment on his college analysis, because I don't see any of those games. But I find it tough to draw a parallel between college games and games involving the team he grew up watching and played for in the NHL. Either way, thanks to the wonders of Center Ice I've seen plenty of Brickley-called NHL games on NESN. I've never had one nice thing to say about him after a NESN game. I particularly remember Brickley constantly whining about the Sabres and Briere in particular with regards to the "new NHL" and his "diving" - and this went on for the better part of two seasons. I'm sure working with a jackass like Edwards might influence him, but I think Brickley is a jackass at heart, and on NESN he gets to let his true bias and douchbaggery shine through.

No, that's not what I said. Maybe you missed this part: there's no way you can convince me that his crying and whining on NESN is simply the result of working with Edwards. To reiterate - he's solid on VS and crap on NESN. You're incorrectly assuming that I think he's only a jackass when he's paired with Edwards. While he is with Edwards most of the time, I have seen rare games he's called with another NESN PbP guy, and he acted like a jackass there.