LTS

Too many chihuahuas in this thread.

I think it was game three where he took a shot to the hand and left the ice for the remainder of the first period. It never ceases to amaze me how teams stick to injured athletes. You can't tell me that Chara with a broken hand is better than your next D. I get what Chara is, but your hands are pretty critical. Who was it a few years ago who played with a broken hand on D? He couldn't shoot.. everyone knew it so no one defended him. It was almost pointless to put him out there. I remember the puck would go back to him on the point.. he'd fake a shot and no one would even move and then he would pass the puck.

Did the NHL suspend him? Did the NHL suspend him?

Nah. I don't think there is anything that Bylsma would give that wouldn't be publicly known. There is no way, if knows something personally about Crosby, he would share it. Furthermore, Crosby has been ineffective in the playoffs and against more than just the Rangers series.

There are a few players I am there on. I said it about Mike Richards and people said I would change my mind. No way I would want any of those putzes on the Sabres. Beautiful. What a slime. That should be suspendable. In fact, they should do it just so he has prior history for the next time. No way. Lucic clearly made a fool of himself in the line and the media brought it up. Done. Asked what was said, they said the type of thing but not what was said. If Lucic acts with class none of this happens. It's squarely on Lucic. If Lucic was a Sabre and did something like that I would take up funding for a billboard to ask the Sabres to buy him out.

Toews and Kane > Malkin and Crosby Toews and Kane > Getzlaf and Perry It's that simple. You can't help but be amazed by what those two do. Toews from a pure put the team on my back and do whatever it takes to win, leadership, position. Kane from a pure, watch me now because we need something to happen, reason. Neither of them seem to be nullified for long.

Star players take a beating all the time. Players like Toews find a away around it. Malkin was far more productive for the Pens. Crosby withered away. Did they say he has 1 goal in this last 17 playoff games? Even then, it's their shaky goal-tending that hurt them. And I have to think that missing Orpik didn't help. Still.. Rangers played a solid game. Pens are gone. I think I'd be looking to offload Neal either through CBO or a trade. He only seems to hurt the Pens with his dumb penalties.

I thought I asked a question too.. but hey. I'll take it.

Saturday night we were with a group and watching the end of the Habs-Bruins game. I watched so many uncalled penalties it was disgusting (no news I know). Then the Ducks/Kings came on and immediately I saw the same actions but this time with penalties. Then, last night, I watched more garbage occur in the Rags/Pens game. The NHL does itself a major disservice by allowing some of the crap they do. Perhaps they think they are doing okay if the fans get ticked off as they'll show more passion. At some point, fans just give up, especially if your team gets screwed by a non-call, etc. Just call the flippin' game and move on. Right before 2004 I was getting to the point where I was going to stop watching the NHL because of all the garbage going on in the playoffs. The strike came and I decided I would watch some more because things changed. It's getting back to that point again for me.

That's an interesting point. Because I can't use season tickets, don't want season tickets, etc. I don't pay attention to how it works. I understood the concept that basically they raised prices 4% then offered a 4% back in monetary spending at the rink as a way to wash out the increase. But, if only the season ticket holder can benefit from this then the practice of selling to opposing fans might be shunted (or require a higher payment) so the season ticket holder still obtains benefit. Imagine a system where the season ticket holder qualifies for actual money back (as opposed to "store credit") just by showing up at the same. So raise the prices even higher and then give them money back for each game they show up to attend. Hmmmm....

Got me. Was it in the original vacation movie? I know Rusty said it to Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation just before he takes the chainsaw to the tree to replace the one that was burned down.

I have a lot of beers that I think are geared towards summer drinking, but if you are referring to "summer" beers as in beers that routinely are light in color and have some kind of lemon accents.. not really.

The team is still in Buffalo. If you don't want to like him that's your prerogative but you can't sit there and claim that he has not done anything for the team. It's a complete falsehood. But while their potential to score additional NHL goals remains, your potential goal total will remain 0. :)

I agree that it is dangerous to follow that paradigm. I completely agree with what you are saying. At the same time most of our society works in that realm with everything we do. We love to relate one thing to another. Listen to sports analysis guys, "He's skates like such and such, hits like so and so." We can't help but relate one item to another and then begin projecting those traits onto them. Then we get upset when they aren't the same and we think they are inferior. It's sad really. But humanity doesn't work on individualism. It's all fun and games to say we are all different, each of us is an individual, but by and large it is lip service. We are all different, but those groups of people are the same and we don't like them because they are too sporty, too dorky, too nerdy, too trashy, too beautiful, too fat, too ugly, too ignorant, too whatever. You are free to be who you want, but someone else is going to come along and bully the crap out of you for being non-conformist. You are different, so you must be a threat, right? Total garbage but we can't help ourselves. Most people abhor change and things that are different. It brings uncertainty and they can't have that. I'm not sitting here claiming I'm innocent of it either. I just try to be conscientious of the fact that it happens then attempt to run my thoughts through that filter. And I'm glad I had the opportunity to clarify things without being skewered. For some of the childish threads that exist on this board at times it's good to note that this thread never approached that level.

NICE! That said, I received a delivery of Russian River Damnation over this past weekend. Boy, do I love that beer.

I think people misinterpreted my "serious roots" statement. I did not intend that it was the only place it exists but that it does exist, with strong roots, in gang culture (notice, I said gang, not black gang, latino gang, white gang, etc.) Along those lines, there is real disrespect and perceived, generated disrespect, right? So, can we agree that a dictator committing genocide is a tad more disrespectful than bumping into someone on the street or looking at some guy's girl wrong? Furthermore, helping to define things are the responses to actual disrespect and perceived disrespect. However, responding with murder to either should pretty much be considered out of line. I get that at some points in time there were societal norms that allowed for such things but those same societies also allowed for other things we have long since outlawed. Thus, a bit of a stretch to use Burr-Hamilton as some have. So, what you describe above is an accurate statement. But to counter, I am not likely to perceive Richard Sherman as part of the following gangs: Latin Kings, Triads, Sicilian Mafia, Irish Mob, etc. Why? Because his physical features do not put him in those groups. So, the most likely comparison would be to a gang that matches his physical description. There are certainly common traits among gangs and gangs may well be full of thugs. I can summarize my views on race fairly succinctly. It's a physical trait, nothing more. As a black friend of mine growing up once said, there are (insert any slur you'd like) of every color. The ****** of one color do as much harm to the rest of their race as do the ****** of another color (I inserted the asterisks). He would be insulted when called that, not because of his color, but because of the representation that he was associated with that ***** of his color. I feel sorry for anyone who feels that any physical trait implies that a group sharing that trait is somehow inferior to others. Especially when it is a trait that has no practical meaning. It's like discriminating on hair or eye color. (don't go there).

I had a goalie do it to me once. I warned him if he did it again I would knock him out. So, later in the game he did it again. I immediately swung my stick, baseball like, right across the side of his head and knocked him out cold. It's not something to be proud of, but at 1am in the morning at age 22 I can't be expected to make the right decisions. That said.. I warned him what would happen. There are certain things you just don't do. I'll take a stick to the ankles, the knee, but you go there and you pay the price. It's inexcusable. It's like butt-ending someone to the face.. who was that Penguin who did that one year? Really brilliant dude. Anyway.. it happened.

Ahh yea.. Just like the Black IPA problem. How can it be black and pale? So they invented the Cascadian Dark Ale term too. I'm with you.. brewers have stomped all over the "style" categories these days. It's like trying to classify music.

It's not my bias. I didn't judge him as anything more than an idiot. That said, he did go down the notorious "Don't disrespect me" path. I get sick of hearing that path. And there's little doubt that that particular behavior has serious roots in gang culture. So, to that end, people are going to see it. GoDD - I am not talking about the recording. I am talking about Sterling's housing discrimination lawsuit -> http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2542741 (that also includes reference to his 2003 case as well). As for the rest of your premise, I understand what you are saying. But I am not talking about what-ifs, I am talking about what-ares.

Well, purely hypothetical here but I think that the best players brains are very good at predictive analysis. Then, they are also likely good at recognizing spatial relationships. So, they are very good at seeing the relationship of each player on the ice to each other relative to the framework of the ice rink. In addition, they are capable of integrating motion analysis of those players to also see where they are most likely to be over the next second. This is obviously repeated over and over again while playing. I am sure they are also good at reacting to subtle movement changes in a player and have the ability then react in a timely manner to take advantage of it. For example, my 6 year old daughter is almost freaky good at putting these types of puzzles together: She usually completes them in about 15-30 minutes on her first attempt. Without actually looking up anything on the Internet I was amazed at this. The other day I was watching her do a new puzzle and I finally noticed how she was so good at solving the puzzles. So, she noticed little things that others did not and consequently was able to take advantage of that. It's an interesting topic. Of course there is athletic capability built into all of that but we know that the most athletic isn't always the most talented.

I cannot disagree with any of that. But the problem I have is that Sterling has long been proven to be a racist and has lost lawsuits regarding his racist issues. Only NOW does it seem to matter. It's not even the same as the anti-gay movement, etc. Ten years ago you could be anti-gay and many people would be right there with you. Ten years ago, Donald Sterling was paying record fines for discriminatory housing policies. But I do think its interesting to see what happens with the Magic owner. After all the employees of Mozilla got their CEO to step down because of his anti-gay views. It's the right action, far too late. He'll get by... I am sure of that. So, I remember that thread. But there is a distinct difference in being guilty by association and being guilty. Moreover, this is direct, proven guilt. The argument can be made that those against fracking shouldn't be supporting the Sabres. It could be argued that Pegula's influence on the environment from fracking is equally as damning as being involved in the mortgage securities debacle. Not that I want to delve too far into this.. but I am curious. If someone chooses to speak in such a way, dress in such a way, and act in such a way that is incredibly similar to people who are commonly thought of as thugs doesn't it seem inevitable that said person would also be classified as such? If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck kind of thing.

I'm already rooting for a Western Conference team.. any of them in fact. Hated teams? Easy for me. 1. Boston 2. Philly 3. Pittsburgh Hated Fans? Also easy. 1. Boston 2. Toronto 3. Philly I used to not like Toronto as a team but since they are entertaining with their late season collapses I find it hard to be so negative about them. The fans on the other hand... And I'm not a conference lover. I can't root for a team that the Sabres would have had to beat to make it to the Cup. So I root for the Western Conference.

I get excited for beer. It's a craft I can truly relate to. :)

The NBA just ###### themselves big time. They let the racist POS own a franchise for this long and waited far too long to do something about it. The problem now will be this... The owner of the Magic actively campaigns against gay lifestyles. How long before the moral outrage gets too great and he's forced out? The owner of the Cavaliers helped caused the mortgage crisis... a real poster child for integrity. What's next on the thought control police agenda? I can't wait. Don't threaten the all-mighty bottom line. The bottom line is that we, as society, turn to choose a blind eye to most things until the point where it's cool to jump on the bandwagon. I listened to WGR talk about this and they were talking about people still buying tickets to the games and justifying that by saying the fans shouldn't have to suffer because of the owner's views. Well, that might be true, except that in buying a ticket to see his franchise play they are lining his pockets. In my opinion, you give your right to complain even the smallest iota if you are participating in driving revenue for that person. Clearly a person like that does not care enough and that's what big business, etc. count on. People like to complain, right up until their precious "gotta have it" entertainment is taken away and then it's all over. Yes, that's a sweeping generalization but our society has fit the bill nicely. So, you know what? Screw the NBA and the mess they are in. I want this to go further and I want them to suffer immeasurably for being so goddamned greedy for money that they allowed this racist POS to own a franchise for so long and turn a blind eye. And screw the sponsors who jumped on the bandwagon who also knew of this ######'s motivations for just as long. I am sick of corporate manipulation. See also: http://www.espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1802145/banana-eating-social-media-campaign-was-planned?cc=5901 Sure it's the right motivation, but manipulating people usually undermines your efforts once they find out. Yea.. tonight I am on a rampage.

I have had some of their stuff.. trying to remember when and where. Where? :) What Brewery? And you nailed the entire point of low abv beer. :)