MattPie

I don't know, Gautama Buddha is in the conversation.

I found in the UK it was mixed, which I found interesting. I expected it to be left just like driving, but at least in London it wasn't a rule, even outside the touristy areas. Related: runners who run on the left side of multi-use trails. I get why you do it on the road with cars, but on a trail we're all going similar speeds. Makes for dangerous interactions if there are walkers on the right edge, a runner on the left edge, and bike traffic coming the other direction or passing. Double-related: groups of walkers on trails walking 2-4 wide and taking up the whole thing while simultaneously being oblivious to people around them.

I wonder if they just pay that out of pocket as an investment to their future. It's possible the school would help them out too. It sounds counter-intuitive, but attracting future-NHL talent is easier if you have future-NHL talent on the team already, and I'd think that a player might avoid a school that makes that harder. Who knows. EDIT: https://www.nhl.com/flyers/news/meltzers-411-about-the-college-kids/c-308262592

How does that work for NCAA players, can the Sabres fly and house them in Buffalo, or would that be receiving money?

Maybe that's a "poor game" compared to trouncing teams in the regular season (and the Pats the week before). People expect to see perfection but that's not going to happen often since the other team had to be pretty good to get that far too.

I took a racquetball to the forehead one day and it apparently looked like I'd been shot with the way I spun around trying to get out the way. I think it's mostly instinct; *****-sapiens who didn't react to getting hit in the face got naturally-deselected.

Otto sighting! That's all well and good, but there *are* other places to play hockey and get paid. I forget who we were talking about, but the average salary for the AHL is a small fraction of the Swiss League. He'd make more if he gets to the NHL, but riding the AHL bus for low pay may not be enough.

Oh, check out your local Buy Nothing group. The creators style it as a movement and it kind of is: people will ask for, give, or loan things out to each other. It's FB based, so there's at least some accountability and the moderators are supposed to make sure it's real people on there. We got and gave stuff all the time in PA, most of the time doing porch pickup and mostly free items. We lived in a townhouse though, so it was less risky than having randos over to your property. You can also do a traditional meet. https://buynothingproject.org/ We don't do it now as there's no group where we live (and we don't want to start one).

I've bought and sold a few things on FB and bought on CL. The advice above is sound, although I've always done portable items like motorcycle gear or bicycles. General portable item tips: For higher value items, what works well are police station parking lots, many have "Online Sale" areas for the purpose. For really high-value items, meet at the buyers bank if possible. That way you can show up with no cash, there's camera security all over the place, and if it's a deal you can go inside and withdraw cash so there's no personal check or other nonsense. The only possible issue there is if someone followed you to your next destination (hopefully your own bank) or something, I guess. A cashier's check may make sense too.

So now that we have the "there's no 100% perfect solution" parade done, let's start talking about ways we can mitigate it. It's not impossible to make it harder for people to acquire guns shoot up kids, it just isn't. The reasonable (IMHO) stuff as already been suggested here and start with that. Then we can start with how people get to that point (hopelessness) and start working on that too. "It can't be perfect so why try" is quitter talk.

Completely agree, they only way those guys shake loose are cap issues which luckily the Sabres don't currently have, and a few teams do.

They don't really, though. They're going to keep targeting the 25% of people that are way off on the right because they know they'll show up at the voting booth.

This is the way I lean too, although if using those lists above, if there's a deal to trade for young a Tuch-type player at the cost of one of the second list players and a pick 28OA or later, I'm at least listening. Only place I see that happening is a player that I team that has a lot of money tied up big contracts already and needs to shed some mid-level salary (someone like Toronto or Vegas).

Wonder if he has a Stars sweater. 😞 He might just get a whole set of 32 at this point to be prepared.

What, return them to the level of funding before the 80s when all that was cut and people were left to fend? Realistically, my pet theory is it is hopelessness. This isn't different than various third world nations where young men (predominantly) are facing 60 years of the grind with little hope for at least a modestly comfortable future. Yes, they can beat the odds, and yes we shouldn't have to, but in a state of hopelessness it's easy to attach to anything that puts the blame on someone else and not yourself. Make it easier to be prosperous, give a person something to lose, and they won't throw it away in a blaze of glory. And if not gun control, gun registration and criminal liability if your gun is used in a crime. It's not a 100% solution but "they'll just get illegal guns" will be a higher hurdle if someone is on the hook for not keeping track of their weapons.

That's the hard-nosed old-time physical hockey, what's the big deal? /s

Do they get out the Jacque-boots and march around?

Not sure, Eichel has never played NHL hockey in May, I believe.

Similar: I was OK, never fast or athletic but could kinda hit. Took a pop fly in the mouth practicing at 7 and knocked out a couple baby teeth. Never could bat again, always pulling away from every pitch because it was going to hit me. Won a couple local league championships at EMW being the token terrible kid on a stacked team. Quit not long after as I wasn't having any fun.

Now that it's done:

While we do a bunch of AirBNB, never really paid attention to the fees. It's interesting to see people getting back to hotels, hopefully that'll burst some of the housing bubble with people/corporations buying up houses to rent out.

I suppose if we weren't hockey fans, we could just call them "Final Game" or "Knockout Game".

I bop, we bop, and they bop.

Was that not the case before? Didn't HR hitters often have rather low hit numbers, vs. players that could hit singles all day? Also, Zzzzzzz has described almost every baseball game I've watched. 🙂

That's a great point. I don't think this analysis takes in the results from the picks, though, right? Just the pick trading. That'd be some interesting analysis to see if trading down from say 2 or 3 to a mid and late 1st (or whatever) has better chances to net a really good player than just picking and putting your money on the guy. Wearing the hindsight-o-matic it's fun to speculate as to what trading our 2015 #2OA pick would have gotten. 😉