MattPie

Hedy Aquaman Pie. I like it.

It's been awhile, but I thought the expansion draft was drafting from other teams non-protected players. So yeah, you might get some gems from there but they were already NHL players to begin with. Now those teams need to pull players in from the AHL to fill their spots. I do see your point, I just find it unlikely that the few guys that excel in their new roles are going to offset the remainder of the 46 that end up being less-talented versions of the guys they replace on the existing teams. It doesn't, but it might depend on how the expansion draft works. I only vaguely remember the last one, where you could protect X players on your roster and the expansion teams pick from the rest. Assuming you can't protect all but one or two of your players, I wonder if there were/will be rules on how many players a single team can lose. It'd suck be a team full of young talent and lose 3-4 players to the expansion draft.

My complaint: GoDD can be a good poster but he can't stop himself from libelling people on this forum.

Come on, man, you're just being obtuse now. If you add two teams to the NHL, there are now 46 guys that weren't good enough to play in the league before that now are. I'm on the fence about how much disruption that would cause, but it certainly isn't going to bring the level of play up.

2 of 3 working out is still (I believe) above the averages based on their draft position. I'd bet on 1 of 3, but I won't go as far as picking which. Fitting them in? Just assume only 1/3 or 1/2 become real players, and that should make it easier. :)

Agreed. And that's household income, two people making $25k combined is probably poverty line. If if they're full-time (fat chance), that's $6.25/hr.

I would say yes, but that's more about the nature of the two games. There's probably 20-25 "positions" in the NFL (maybe more when you start talking 3-4 OLB vs 4-3 OLB, etc.) and 32 teams. Even into to the 3-4th round you still might be getting the 2nd or 3rd best player coming out of college at a position. In hockey, you have 6 positions (at most), so by the start of the second round you're talking about the 6th best player at that position that year. Sure, there will be surprises (especially in the NHL when you're picking 18 year olds), but realistically a 4th round center is probably the 30th center picked that year. It's unlikely he'll amount to anything. It's be interesting to see if in the last 20 years how many top centers came from anywhere after the 2nd round. (Some may accuse me of cherry picking that number to exclude the Datysuk and Zetterberg, but I wanted to exclude the years where the disruption of suddenly having all these Soviet Bloc players in the draft with questionable scouting was in maximum effect; I'd figure by 1995 NHL teams would have their scouting in Eastern Europe sorted out) Goalie seems to be one difference there, they seem to be pretty variable and good ones from all over the draft.

It should be noted when talking about these top-5 picks and talent surrounding them that those players went to a team that the previous year one of the worst in the league. Now, that could be an outlier situation (like when Carolina lost Ward a few years back (I think) and were terrible despite having an OK team otherwise), but for the most part these top-5 players are not coming into Detroit (of old) or Pittsburgh (of the last few years). That shows a lot. It should also be noted that the Sabres, for all the bitching around here, are having a not-much-below average last-place season in terms of points. They're on pace for 54 points as it stands, which is only a few points behind the average last place finish since Lockout 1. Last place since season 2005-2006: 57, 56, 71, 61, 62, 62, 65, 61.5*, 52, average 61.

I feel guilty I clicked on the link. I feel less guilty that I didn't bother to finish the article. All I'll say in rebuttal is, if winning the Stanley Cup didn't sufficiently build the game in Raleigh, nothing will.

It could just be that Team USA didn't have a better center, while Team Canada did (negating things like chemistry with other players and matchups). It doesn't surprise me too much that Reinhart would be better at this stage since he's a year older and has gotten a taste of the NHL, which would only go to show him how much better he needs to be.

We thought about Eileen, but one of my legs is and inch longer than the other so we didn't want to tempt fate.

Amateur commercial, it didn't even have the web site listed.

That's the part that gets me and it's rarely mentioned, he's on his side and wings a pretty damn good pass to May. And May deked Borque out of his skates and made the goalie look silly. Amazing.

Having gone through the fiery ritual of having to name a baby recently, it's surprisingly difficult. You're tagging a person with something they'll have for their entire life. We waited right up to the end before officially putting a name down ("you really need to fill out the paperwork before we can discharge you"). You want it to be unique but not crazy (we told people we were going to name her "Starshine Bottlerocket" to get them off our case ("Torque Ripcord" was the boy option)). In our case, the kid's going to be spelling her last name to everyone unless she changes it so first names that require spelling were out. My wife doesn't like names that end in "e" sounds because they sound cutsie. And finally, my last name ends with 'a' so names that ended in 'a' were out (we didn't want to rhyme). That's a lot of restrictions. (We also joked about "Ruella Barbara Pie", so her short name would be Ru Barb Pie.)

I love that Eye-gor shows up in that image search...

The the way it's supposed to work, but I have little faith that it will. In my slanted view the Republicans have shown no interest in anything other than their way or the highway. While I generally agree, I'm not sure this is the time to make that point. At the moment, "them" would seem to include our old friend Russia which certainly can be affected by defence spending.

You forgot Brodie.

Being a year older makes a lot of difference when you're talking 17/18 years old, but that is encouraging.

Fixed that for you.

I think you mean Iechle. :)

I wonder if they'd ban people for throwing Leafs hats on the ice for other teams' hat tricks. :)

Thank you. Yeah, he was so stressed out and hated being a head coach he interviewed for a few more HC jobs immediately.

Realistically, it's a good idea. Adding another top-2 pack to the Eulers probably won't change things with that team, they've been doing it for 5 years and it hasn't gotten them anywhere. They're rapidly getting to the point where picking high in this draft may not ensure that they won't lose Hall to FA (picked 2010) before this new player is fully up to speed. The haul they'd bring in for a top-3 pick in terms of NHL players might be exactly what they need. I'd be a bold move though. I'd think you'd be talking about giving up your first rounder (let's not assume it's not #2 like the Sabres will be, but something like #10), 1st line wing, 1st pair D, another good, young D, 2016 1st(?) and maybe a G if there's a good one. That gets the Eulers what they need, and you better hope that #1-2 pick is everything you hope.

Yeah, too much. I made the mistake of reading the last two GDTs before watching the games; they weren't on GameCenter as they were on local TV (Philly and NBCSN). It's going to be tough to push through these two.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3JetOoEngs, jump to 9:06. I'm sure there are other ways too. My local Wegmans has tempeh bacon in the hippie section; if you try it on it's own merit it's not bad. It doesn't stand up well with real bacon though. I'm interested in this smoked paprika and mushroom idea now though. I have some good paprika in the spice drawer (both dolce and picante!) from making paella and Patatas Revolconas (Spainsih mashed potatoes with garlic and paprika). I could see that working well for mushrooms (or maybe Brussels sprouts).