MattPie

The only caveat there is if Edmonton wants Ekblad and he's still there at #2. You still get the same center you wanted plus something else. Doesn't matter what. I'm not sure if you go past #3 unless you have two guys very closely rated.

My expense reporting system asks if you think you'll be working in that state for 30 days or more this year on a single project. I'm not sure why but I suspect that it's related to state taxable income. I've never worked enough in one state to worry about it.

Game over indeed. :)

Spanish Chorizo has a similar set of flavors to paprika and garlic that I normally use. My old GF made paella a few times in an enameled cast iron dutch oven and that recipe used Spanish chorizo (the stuff that's similar to pepperoni). Essentially, do everything the same as above, but put it in the oven at 350 for awhile at the end if I remember right. It turned out pretty good, the only difference is you don't get the nice crusty rice on the bottom. This one sounds pretty similar: http://www.food.com/recipe/dutch-oven-paella-306445

It's not him, it's us.

That might as well get added to the bottom of every post this season. Mods, get on that.

I think it's either people that have been watching for a long time and remember having multiple 30, 40, and a 50 goal scorer on one team. Now teams are lucky to have a handful over 30. The other side of it is you hear about the good teams more in the news and their top guys are usually going to have a fair number of points. I get tricked into thinking every team is going to have guys with those numbers, but in reality those are the outliers.

There was moving up day at my high school in the early 90s. Complete with people having to get up and switch which set of bleachers in the gym to sit in.

Fair enough, my bad I wasn't reading closely. But even 55 pts. is #27, between Nugent-Hopkins and Couture. I think 40-45 points is more reasonable on the top end (names like Mike Richards, Schenn, Kessler, Hodgson (!)). I hope you're right, though.

Wow, no pressure. 65 points puts him at #15 in the league for all centers, behind Spezza, Tavares, and Toews and ahead of O'Reilly. This from a guy who screams 3rd, maybe 2nd line center.

Looking at the Charts from last year (and I'm just eyeballing), there's essentially three phases of the season: The Rolston Nose-dive, the Nolan Excitement, and the Post-Trade Free Fall. The Nolan Excitement period wasn't that bad, we're not talking about playoffs, but we're not talking about last place either. Just using a ruler, we'd have finished somewhere just below NYI for the season. The question is with the new players we'll have, is that modest pace going to be the norm. And after the trade deadline will it be a free fall again?

5 & 10 cent http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stT-RUWnQh4 (the shot glasses kill me)

This is my go-to recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/paella-recipe.html I've done it as-written a couple times, other than using a 14-oz-ish can of diced tomatoes instead of the grating thing. Some day I'll do it right to see if there's a difference. The chicken is good, but doesn't pick up much of the spice so it can be a little plain. Since then, I've tried a few variations, but the long and the short of it is: if you have a long-cooking protein (beef, chicken, etc.), start with that. If you're not using something as greasy as chicken, add a bunch more olive oil to the pan. The last one I started with seitan, fried it until crispy, and then proceeded as directed with the veg, tomatoes, and rice. I normally use vegetable stock instead of chicken since my wife is fairly vegetarian. If you're doing seafood like shrimp or scallops, I stick those in after adding the first dose of additional broth (after the first 4 cups or so are soaked up). They'll cook fine on top, but you should either turn them over or push them down into the rice to make sure they cook through. This last time I went a little heavy on the paprika, make 1.5 tsp instead of 1. 2-3 lbs of protein for the 15" pan I have seems to be about right. As for the rum, we did a small shot of it to start just to see what it tasted like. It wasn't bad, but the sugar and lime is a lot better.

Tell that to the Blues, Miller certainly seemed to throw them off (by no fault of anyone other than the management).

It's what, 10% over during the summer? I'd guess it's before opening night, otherwise you wouldn't be able to make last-minute roster changes based on those last few practices. I know I said it early on, but I won't claim it was my idea. I do wonder if the league has sent a message to the Sabres (and maybe other teams) that throwing disproportionate money at scrubs for a year or two will be noticed.

We're going to play 40 games by the end of September?!?

Made paella on the grill Saturday. I love making that dish, it takes awhile put you're outside with a drink and (hopefully) friends. My buddy brought over stuff to make Caipirinhas, which is national drink of Brazil (apparently). Brazilian rum is kinda like Tequila, so the end up being margarita-like. Really good Saturday.

Yep. Can you trade an injured player? If so, I suppose Buffalo could trade for an injured Ehrhoff to then use the Pronger plan on him. It would depend on if the other team would benefit more from whatever Buffalo gives (mid draft pick?) or by hosing Buffalo's cap.

(As I understand it) That would be true *if* we wasn't already making the same as his cap hit ($4M) now. If the Sabres trade him and he retires before the contract is up, the Sabres take all of the recapture penalty and the other team none. The other team isn't getting any cap benefit (paying more than the cap hit) so they get no penalty. Essentially, if Ehrhoff retires before the end of the contract, the Sabres take a hit no matter what. He's been paid $10M more than his cap hit, and until 2017 he's not making less than his cap hit. If the Sabres trade him before 2017 and he retires, the Sabres penalty will be that $10M divided by how many years are left on the contract. If he retires 2 years before the contract is up, it's a penalty of $5M/yr for 2 years. If it's the last year, the penalty is $10M for that one year.

I'd like to thank Univision for putting games on regular broadcast TV. Now if they only had an English language feed on the SAP. :)

What about an AHL-quality team playing in the NHL?

Why do you think the Pot should be be one of the very few goods that should be tax-free?

If Frank Lloyd Wright was still alive, I'd totally have him design "Frackingwaters" for my family to live in. :)

And that's my point, where is the PR, the article, the tweet making it official? I won't believe it until I see it. I have this horrible feeling.