LTS

I get the charging call, but this is a game of hockey and circumstances should be taken into account on why a player is coming in with top speed. Watching the video here is what I see: At the :56 mark there is a replay showing the view blue line in.. There are 5 Flyers in the frame, 1 Capital on the boards and Wilson entering the zone. You would imagine that this means the Caps just had a line change. So, Wilson SHOULD be skating as hard as he can to get into the corner to provide support. When he enters the zone the Capitals have possession of the puck. Wilson takes 2 strides after entering the zone before Schenn picks up the puck. Wilson changes course at the face off dot to intercept Schenn who appears to be heading behind the net. At that point in time :57 in the video, Wilson takes a stride to maneuver around Simmonds. He takes one more stride to accelerate from a direction change. At this point :58 he is at the bottom of the face off circle and Schenn is a step below the icing line. Wilson begins gliding at that point, lines his shoulder up for a perfect check and Schenn begins to turn. Even if Schenn did not see Wilson you can hear his teammates yelling "Watch Out". So right when that was said, he turned slightly. As in the picture above you can see that Wilson makes contact with Schenn' shoulder. Of course he hits the boards because he turned to put himself in a bad position to absorb a hit. He gets himself clobbered. It's bound to get called but a player needs to get into the zone at top speed to get into the play. Is he supposed to stop or not hit a player (especially when it's not from behind) just because he happened to be coming into the play fast. This is far different than a player who clearly targets a player from a distance and plows him. Wilson was originally aimed for the play along the boards and changes with the change in puck possession. If Schenn is against the boards he probably shrugs this off and keeps playing. Oh well.. he'll be suspended I am certain but from what I see he made a hockey play. His speed was up but the alternative was to STOP and let Schenn go. If he does that then he's sitting on the bench.

He was vicious in that fight. His constant left jabs and then uncorking a few rights. It was pretty cool. Overall there was some seriously bad officiating. The game was entertaining to watch and thanks to dressing properly I wasn't even the slightest bit cold. I never sat down (the benefits of being in the last row). I was warmer standing as it didn't tighten up the clothing. I'm glad I was there.. it ended properly and at the time I was certain they did not score in time to tie the game.

I think I am in 203 or 204. Forget now. I'm sure it will be tough. I'll make it through. I still kick myself for not going to the Winter Classic in Buffalo. this is how I live with that decision.

I'll be there! Can't wait to freeze my arse off.

Exactly. Crystal malt... ugh. It has its place... but when used heavily the flavor reminds me of Tootsie Rolls.

Americans are naturally bitter people, so they like hoppy beers. They also like bigger and bigger, more and more, so they want hoppier beers. :) C'est la vie. I can't win them all. I'd much prefer to gravitate away from IPAs for other reasons. There are a lot of truly fantastic IPAs. They can be used to really show off the capabilities and profiles of a hop. They can also be thrown in with reckless abandon. Brewing a balanced, functional IPA is far from what most breweries turn out. That does ruin it. I'm all over the place. The only style of beer I don't particularly like (besides the American Adjunct Lager) is the California Common Ale (aka Steam beer). Just don't particularly like the styles.

Let me know when it's out. I'm betting it won't suck. On another note.. I had Founder's Sweet Repute this past Friday. It's a Wheat Wine aged in some maple bourbon barrels. It was absolutely incredible. If you've had a wheat wine before this is worth every penny. $18 for a 750ml. At 12% we're talking typical wine prices and you can and SHOULD drink it like a wine. Terrapin makes Gamma Ray, another great wheat wine.

Feel free to ship me a case :) Holy crap.

Moo Hoo is good stuff. Also a big fan of WnB Stout, formerly Wake n Bake Stout. The Gamma Ray is also amazing. Big fan of Terrapin.

They are unlikely to get a lottery pick for Vanek. Unless some bottom level team believes they will sign Vanek in the off-season they are not about to trade for him as a rental. The only takers are playoff teams and thus out of the lottery.

Bah.. so the Sabres are bad. They have an excuse. The Leafs are still awesome at collapsing. They have no excuse. And bite me if I am supposed to be miserable because the Sabres are bad.. that's THEIR problem. I only have to choose to watch the game or not.

Defensive scoring is so heavily influenced by the ability of the forwards to be in position to screen, deflect, and bury rebounds. This team is not good at this at the moment. In fact, the forwards get so little respect that teams don't feel the need to collapse their wingers down as far as the Sabres do to help cover the low areas. This leaves less time for the defense to maneuver and make plays at the blueline. That said, Pysyk makes routinely smart plays. He's rarely out of position. He gets his shot through the first pair of legs. He's going to turn out far better than we think at this point I believe.

Yes, there were quite a few people calling for that change. And there were others who were not... the threads from last two years certainly demonstrate the battle of the Storm Cloud and the Kittens. I don't disagree with your commentary on the banners. I think your point actually underscores the entire problem. The team showed success and yet showed failure. So, given that history with that coach it takes a bit of time to recognize that fit hit the shan. They looked at 2006 and said.. why not again? We have the pieces. Look at Pominville now.. thriving away in Minnesota. Perhaps the introduction of Pegula gave the core hope that Regier would be gone but when it didn't happen they decided to stop playing as hard. Ruff lost them.. eventually all the pieces were changed for something new. Good discussion. :)

The right time is always some time. It's easy to say when it is especially when events unfold in a manner that support your theory. However, at the time the decisions are being made there are a multitude of possible endings and it's not so cut and dry. This franchise has been through hell over the past two decades. It suffered the loss of its founding family, it suffered through a scandalous and criminal leadership, it was rescued from bankruptcy by an investor who rebuilt the team to viability but wasn't quite willing to let the contracts commit his money too long term. It was bought buy a long time fan of the team who is known for his dedication to his people. Leadership isn't firing someone every time there is a mistake. Sometimes you see something in someone and you hope they can find it too. So you bring in people to help them and give them guidance. In the end, it's a few too many bad decisions and you end up in this situation. And sometimes it's works out. I think it's insane to think there was no plan. There was plan to win with the core they had. Unfortunately it seems that all 3 components weren't a good fit. So this is the aftermath. All of what has come before is gone and they start again. They do it because that's all they can do. Unless everyone wants to them quit trying.

Regier studied under the most famous of Islander GMs.. I hear he's available in case they need a change.

Wait the Avs didn't respond to their goalie getting steamrolled? Oh.. wait. They wouldn't have.. it was the Wild goalie getting steamrolled. :) Still, the lack of insane response by the Wild can only be attributed to one thing.. Pominville has clearly made the Wild a soft team unable to respond to opponents steamrolling their goaltender. I hope every goalie in the league takes a shot at Kadri for that.

Yea... 16 years ago.. Google did not exist. Netscape Navigator was the browser of choice 56Kbps was the top speed for internet access (on dial-up!) Steve Jobs had just rejoined Apple The NHL website looked like this: http://web.archive.org/web/19970620032311/http://www.nhl.com/ The only sad thing? The new GM will still have to know how to operate a fax machine.

Pegula probably doesn't enjoy firing Regier. He's known as a guy who is loyal to his employees. At the same time, change was needed. I think the hiring of LaFontaine lends itself to two things. First, the Sabres hire a respected person to lead their hockey operations. Second, LaFontaine returning to Buffalo shows other players that he likes Buffalo and that he is comfortable being here. Perhaps that sways a few opinions. Hiring Nolan is interesting. I think his sample size as coach isn't large enough to really know what he'll be. He's dying for ANY shot to coach again in the NHL. If he shows well then it won't matter if the Sabres keep him, he'll get his shot. If he doesn't show well then he knows he's done. At the same time people will be pleased it's him and they know he's a straight shooter. We'll now know what this organization is about. That's all I think we've wanted. it's a new day.. the path forward is unknown. Time to see what happens.

In other news people who eat pickles die 100% of the time. The Sun comes out tomorrow. And Las Vegas says you can bet your bottom dollar.

Bottom line is the Oilers are going to have to dump someone at some point and everyone knows it. They can say they won't, but they will.

It would be a suicide pass if he hits him from the front. He hit him from behind. See Campbell v. Umberger for the textbook definition of a suicide pass.

Clean? That looks like a textbook definition of a blindside hit to me.

Agreed. He's a no quit guy, that's for certain.

Since the Flyers are scoring less than the Sabres right now it might be a case where they still won't get that record. :) It's all in the wording. He said he didn't receive a contract offer. That doesn't mean he wasn't told that they would make him the highest paid player in the NHL.

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/23/sports/nhl-roy-is-charged-with-domestic-violence.html Yea.. apparently late October is the time for goalies to beat their wives. (I actually think there is a statistic out there that shows October as being one of the higher violence months).