Randall Flagg

I don't see it this way at all. I'm not saying that doesn't happen in America, or even that it doesn't happen often, but it does not have to logically follow whatsoever. Of course, that can be turned around and be the equivalent to saying "Anti-western Lysenkoist farming tactics and the state sucking at resource management are not an explicit part of communist ideology just because it happened under a "communist regime" and starved dozens of millions of people." But I reject the notion that capitalist economics is inherently zero-sum. The degree which separates the poorest of the poor from the richest of the rich decreased after capitalism relative to before capitalism (and really, the poorest of the poor was literally everyone that wasn't related to the monarch or what have you), and that isn't coincidental to the fact that an extraordinary net amount of wealth of all people has exponentially increased as well, with the help of the manufactured middle class. Taking a step back, it's utterly ludicrous that on balance, the average poor person in a free market society lives in a wood or brick building with separate rooms, a fridge, and a few other things, at least compared to the human condition before 200 years ago. Because the economic model the U.S. and other western nations was built on emphasized voluntary association, mutual agreement, and the inherent right to do so. I understand I'm arguing from an ideological base, an idealism, and you're probably talking about application. I don't have the chops to go at an argument of why homeless people exist in the U.S., why people do get taken advantage of, and so on, but I'm confident we'd find points of disagreement ? I guess to me "far" is attached to the word "leftist." I've been thoroughly lectured by the group of acquaintances who are proud Marxists, or antifa members, or anarcho-communists, and the like. They distinguish leftists from the liberals like you and I who they view with the same disdain they view anyone right of center. I find dictionary entries and historical context goes along with their definition really well. Leftists shut down conservative speeches on college campuses. Liberals sit and debate them. And so on

If McCabe becomes McAvoy it looks pretty good, otherwise it still looks below average

That's definitely a defining characteristic of a leftist, one that they proudly boast. The key is that 98% of American liberals aren't leftists.

ROR's underlying stats suggest that his ES scoring should have been the same or better than his previous Sabres years and will bounce back. (He had the best possession and expected goals, on ice high danger chance%(meaning the most scoring chances basically), and worst on-ice shooting percentage for of his Sabre career.) Part of the issue was that a couple hundred of his minutes ended up being no-offensive-upside minutes where he took d-zone draws with different and worse linemates than usual, which had the effect of wearing him down while guaranteeing no chance of scoring those shifts. He took more of those shifts than any non-fourth-line-defensive-specialist ever, since people started counting zone starts. That he already scored 61 points anyway suggests that, had he gotten his previous year's baseline usage, he could have come close to his career high in points. His ES PDO will likely not ever be 96% again, unless he plays for the Islanders and Lehner at some point.

Our franchise is pretty stupid Any fan with some time can sit down with the tape, the stats, and nail down exactly what is wrong with our team, and could have done so many times in the last decade better than the team itself did. Instead we've decided to let the add-by-subtract lottery wheel fall on... O'Reilly?.... and are charging forward with the same actual hockey related problems we've had since tanking. Risto will have his 60 point pace through thanksgiving fall to the low-mid 40s, will average 26 a night, there will be three dumb fan-least-favorite defensemen in every single lineup this season, kids and depth will struggle to score, maybe not as much, but we're down to 2-maybe-3 top six players because that's how we decided to fix it slightly

Plucking a single counting stat to compare Bogosian to a premiere defensive defenseman, and then another injury-plagued defenseman who is better than Bogosian, is pretty weird. You've been doing some pretty weird player comparisons lately. Bogosian is pretty bad at hockey whether he can get to 20 points and 60 games or not.

I think it's more from a lens of "I was a rock solid player who is currently losing a handle on things and am unsure of myself for the first time in my career," from the little I've seen, whereas Beaulieu is just "I'm bad because I can't process at this speed"

Yeah, he spent most of last season in the AHL and then had 5 G, 4A in 14 games by McDavid. We'll see if it sticks. They kept Lucic there for like half a season despite him scoring like 2 goals in that time

Edit: I don't think this is quite right. This will be casey's 19-20 year old season, whereas Boeser this past year was 20-21.

I remember them furious at the suggestion that we could get Rattie back in the Miller trade

I'm willing to wait for the end of camp to see if Pilut is good and makes the team, but if he doesn't, I'm absolutely going to throw a temper tantrum about how the only defensive move we made was to draft Dahlin. Separate from even considering what our forward group looks like versus what it could.

On the contrary, I'm evaluating Botterill starting last spring, as he likely has control of seasons 3-7 of Jack's career, which needs to be taken advantage of as fully as possible.

Gorges did shut down McDavid that game. The following game against us, however, McD had 3 points. I was at that one and I'm almost positive Josh was again deployed for most of McDavid's shifts.

At some point I'd love to be looking to add players I like and not player after player of complete garbage

It would be wild to be blasted into space when I die. Or morbid. I can't tell which. A vacuum-sealed, preserved corpse drifting aimlessly through space for the rest of the universe's existence. Could you imagine another civilization coming across it? Or the fright I'd put into Musk's Mars astronauts as I smash into their front viewing window on the way?

?

I actually have numbers that show this isn't true. ?

All I said was that I thought Jack Hughes, who followed Eichel and Matthews' footsteps in the US development program, outproduced them both at the same point in their development. It turns out this was true of Jack, but not of Matthews. McDavid played in the CHL which does not have any sort of one-to-one simple comparison development-wise. But McDavid was a better prospect than all of them. I cannot say with authority where Hughes lies other than he's worse than McDavid was. He's probably at or just below Eichel and Matthews' tier, as Eichel's was established in his draft season, that's where he exploded, unlike Matthews who blew up the year before then. So we'll see what Hughes looks like this season. If Hughes had the frame of Jack or Auston he'd be more hyped but he looks like a guy who could end up playing wing at this point, and his style reminds me of Patrick Kane.

Edit: I don't know exactly how the program works,, but he appears to have better stats than Jack did at that time, but Matthews blew the two of them out of the water in their D-1 season.

No, McDavid wasn't in the US development program

Hughes makes me think of Kane. His numbers at this point though blow Jack and Auston's out of the water though in the same place, don't they?

"lots of people out there" hahahahaha He's definitely a moron.

Psh, barely. I think I'll stick with Jason.

Jay Botts. So gross. I don't know how anyone can enjoy saying that.

The way Trump phrased it even suggests that it FINALLY clicked that Russian collusion evidence doesn't mean that he would have lost otherwise. The man is something else.