Drunkard

Up to 85 now with a heat index of 96. I think I might take my next smoke break in my car with the AC blasting instead of on the gazebo behind the building. It's not even summer and I'm ready for fall to hurry up and get here.

82 with a heat index of 89 currently in Jacksonville, NC. Already feels way too hot for my tastes, especially since it's supposed to technically still be spring. Highs in the high 70's and low 80's all week with plenty of rain. Hopefully the heat index doesn't make it feel much hotter.

I think this nails it. If they want to keep the program from going insolvent they need to remove the cap on wage and tax the income that currently avoids SS taxes along with possibly instituting a means test for drawing payment for anyone with a net worth of over a certain amount adjusted for inflation. That could go a long way towards fixing the program or at least kicking the can down the road another 50 years or so and giving those hardworking problem solvers in Congress (rimshot) more time to come up with other solutions.

Hossa carries little risk for any team that wants to trade for him because Chicago would be the one on the hook for his cap evasion penalty since they were the ones to sign him to his current contract and they reaped the benefits of his cap hit being lower than his actual salary. If we traded for him now and he retired in say 2 or 3 years it wouldn't really hurt us at all and it would cripple them which is why they can't trade him and why we couldn't trade Ehrhoff.

Chicago can't risk getting rid of Hossa for the same reason we couldn't trade away Ehrhoff. If he retires after getting traded his cap hit would be way worse than if he retired as a member of the Blackhawks. Chicago has too many good players they have to pay to be able to waste cap space like that so I don't think there's any chance they risk something like that.

I'd have zero interest in that deal personally. For one, I don't know much about Rychel but I don't see the need for another LW or where we'd put him other than maybe Rochester. Two, whoever we took at #8 likely wouldn't be ready to play in Buffalo for several years and three I wouldn't want to see Psysk or Foligno shipped out because Psysk shoud be ready for a spot in our top 6 this year and I'm interested to see how Foligno will look with more talent on his line. That proposed deal just seems to delay our rebuild even further by shipping out 2 expected roster players for a possible one and getting rid of our best defensive prospect if you consider Ristolainen and Zadorov to have graduated from prospect status.

You should lay off the ticket ripper. He has edge and compete and brings his lunch pail into work with him day in and day out.

Give that man a fistful of silver dollars. Ever since I read an article where Nolan said the Latvian players were calling him Teds Nolans I always get a chuckle out of typing that way instead of the actual way. I usually only do it during joke type posts though.

Compete crumbs ... I like it. That should be the name of a cereal or something like that. It could be like a Buffalo version of the Wheaties box and put only the champions of less talented hard workers on them like Chris Kelsay, Teds Nolans, and Matt Ellis.

I've got a ton of good and decent war movies in my collection to choose from: Full Metal Jacket Apocalypse Now Platoon Black Hawk Down Glory Wind Talkers Braveheart Saving Private Ryan We Were Soldiers The Patriot Inglorious Bastards I know I have others too but that's what I can think of off the top of my head.

Before this horse is ready to head off to the glue factory we should beat it one more time. So you're willing to trade Zadorov, Grigorenko, and the 21st overall pick for the privilege of putting Ryan O'Reilly out of position at RW for possibly just one year because he can't even begin negotiating his upcoming overpaid new contract with him until well after the draft. If you wait until he can be signed to an extension you can't offer the 21st pick because the draft will be over by then.

He must be thinking about putting Hodgson back on the 4th line.

I'm waiting for them to announce Battista as the new head coach.

I said it earlier in this thread. This would be like if you or I managed to rob a bank with no gun (either through wire fraud or hacking or something) and were able to steal $60 million and then manage to avoid arrest and work a deal out with the DA to pay a fine of $500,000 with no jail time. At least in this instance they had to admit some sort of wrong doing and a handful of people got fired, although I imagine they were just sacrificial lambs and not the actual pricks who orchestrated it.

Ryan O'Reilly has all the greatest qualities of Teddy Bruschi, Chuck Norris, and Jesus. I wish he was my Dad. The man simply oozes compete and a blue collar work ethic with his defensive responsibility. Pegula should meddle and ensure we get him at any cost, even if we have to give the team to him upon his retirement from the game.

I think it's pretty safe to assume yearly price increases regardless of how the team performs but at least Pegula is showing they are willing to continue to spend and not just pocket the additional money. Would the ones complaining rather he just pocket it or do you somehow think not offering to back up the Brinks truck to Babcock's front door is somehow going to lead to them stopping the annual price increases?

After thinking about it more they should just eliminate offsides altogether. Who really cares if a player/team wants to cherry pick other than whatever purists who are out there who will likely piss and moan about any changes anyway? Let them go ahead and do it and if their team isn't able to gain possession of the puck it will be like they are playing short handed. It would lead to all sorts of breakaways and scoring changes and a good chunk of the play stoppages would go the way of the dodo. Faster paced game, increased tempo, and way more scoring chances.

I like his compete but I don't know if he's blue collar enough for the blue and gold.

Speaking as one of the people who has no interest in Ryan O'Reilly I can say that I know the guy is good I just don't think he is worth acquiring for the following reasons. First off he's left handed and he plays center or left wing and we are full at those positions. We already have Kane and Moulson who make 5 million or more per year to play left wing in the top 6 and w have Foligno and Desauriers who play left wing on the bottom 6. We also have Ennis playing right wing who is a left handed shot who would probably be better served playing left wing. At Center we have Eichel, Reinhart, Girgensons, Grigorenko, Larsson, and McCormick of which Girgensons, Grigorenko, and Larsson are all left handed shots and can play left wing or center so unless we plan on putting our blue chip center prospects in Eichel and Reinhart at right wing for the long term instead of their natural center positions then I fail to see where O'Reilly fits in. Secondly, he will be too expensive both in assets given up to acquire him and in cap space. His history shows he's looking to get paid and he already makes 6 million so it's safe to assume he'll demand more to be locked up long term. Paying 7 or 8 million per year for a guy we don't seem to have a spot is just a bad idea.

I agree. I think it's a great choice. You should email the recommendation to Ted Black.

People should stop trying to factor in shrinking pads. Leagues are already getting sued left and right by players seeking aid/money for injuries sustained while playing so any attempt to reduce pad sizes or do anything to shrink protective gear would be met with huge resistance from the players associations as well as open the leagues up to even more lawsuits if they somehow managed to sneak it through. The first player to get seriously injured while wearing the newly reduced pads would lead to grandstanding the likes we've never seen so I don't think it's even a possibility.

People keep saying it because the first 2 years after the 04-05 lockout they called more interference penalties and it lead to a more up tempo games and increased overall scoring as shown by the stats in the first post. It still wasn't the Gretzky era flurry of pucks in the net, but games definitely felt more offensively driven. I don't know if getting rid of the trapezoid would aid in scoring at all, I just don't like it in general so if the league is going to make a number of changes I would like that to be part of it. Sure the trapezoid aids forecheckers which could add to turnovers and create offense but goalies who are good at playing the puck can also help to set their team up with scoring chances in transition as well so it's kind of a wash in my eyes with respect to scoring. I just don't care for the trapezoid. I probably should have listed it separately in my post so it didn't get lumped in with the other items that I think would increase scoring.

I think calling more interference penalties and increasing the size of the nets would help. No way they will shrink the pads out of supposed safety issues and you can't limit players based on size. I also like the idea of getting rid of the trapezoid and finding some way to reduce the number of offsides calls by not calling offsides once the team with the puck gets it past the red line.

Exactly. People always make the so and so if worth a 1st argument without actually looking at the compensation chart. I'm sure just about any GM would be willing to give up a 1st round pick for Tarasenko but the Blues would rather keep him at the price that would equal that compensation. The only way to really get a quality RFA that the current GM wouldn't match is to severely overpay and then the compensation is much higher than that.

Moved up into a tie for 5th in the SabreSpace league and I'm up to the 26,000th something place for the NHL tournament. Honestly, I'd rather see the Capitals beat the Rangers because they are more entertaining but I picked the Rangers to win this round and advance to the SCF next round, so I guess we'll see what happens.