IKnowPhysics

"MAAAAARRRRTTTTTIIIIIIINNNNN MMMUUUULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!" he exclaimed, knowing the mustachioed, openly gay actor from "Roseanne" had finally exacted his revenge.

Because to pick at the top, it usually means you had to do this: All of these recent Cup winners were dogshit for quite a while to gain those picks that they built around. Not every team is willing to do this. So we're at square one. DR chose to be at square one, because sitting idly at square three, unable to advance to square four wasn't cutting it. So we cut bait and gathered picks. And frankly, with the number of first and second round draft picks we've stock piled/already picked, and DR's pretty good draft history, I'm pretty hopeful of where we're headed in the future, despite not being able to draft in the top three... yet. Provide a list of players that were picked later than our picks that "have been wows," performed irrefutabliy better than the players we chose, better suited our organizational needs at the time than the player we chose, and make their GMs stand out as great drafters. And then factor in enormous busts for those GMs. And then factor in all of the other GMs that passed on those players. And then remember that entire list is ###### retarded because hindsight's 20/20 and it's impossible to draft perfectly. While not wasting top picks on busts is staple of good drafting, excellent drafting is defined by consistently getting good value for the pick, while meeting organizational needs. Anecdotally, Miller in the 5th round is an outstanding pick; hindsight says he would've gone in the first two rounds.

Sometimes you eat the bar.

The KHL doesn't seem to have much interest in league parity (certainly not in the way the NHL does; maybe that's a funny role reversal from the capitalist-communist days). That allows KHL teams to operate with out financial restraint and individual player salary limits. Whereas the NHL is interested in keeping the poorer teams afloat and the financial playing field even to raise the league as a whole, it seems like the KHL moneybags are looking to advance the top clubs for now and either dominate the league for a while or perhaps drop/relegate the weaker teams eventually. If the KHL had financial parity, I'm guessing they couldn't offer contracts like that.

If you think great drafting is the only ingredient in the Stanley Cup cake, you'd be a fool. No one thinks that. Others have done that analysis. Darcy's draft picks, with one or two exceptions, have never been that high in the first round. His highest was Vanek at #5, and Vanek is a top player. Some of the value DR brings to the drafting table comes in rounds 2-7, where you mostly find depth players or busts. We've had the fortune of even finding a star or two (Miller). For where we draft, we pick pretty well. Many, many teams are really bad at this.

Kovalchuk signs with SKA for four years. Word on the street is $15M per. $60M for 4 years vs $77M for 12.

We're a good drafting team. No, it's not an exact science. And yes, it's a lot of it's luck. But we're ###### better at it than a lot of teams. There's a lot of rankings out there concerning the best drafting team over a range of years, and they all use different statistical methods. I've never seen us ranked in the bottom half of the league and rarely do I see us outside of the top five. A recent analysis put us at #3 for years 1999-2009. An older ranking for 2001-2007 put us also extremely high, and the best in the league for rounds 2-7 for that time period, while another put us best overall for 2001-2007 at games played per pick. All of those years we couldn't/didn't sign big contracts, or even keep the players we had drafted and developed, we could still ice an at least decent team because we drafted well and had a pretty good development. If we didn't at least have that, we would've been ###### atrocious for a long damn time, like the Florida Panthers-bad or the Columbus Blue Jackets-bad. At the end of the day, I couldn't care where our players are from (although it's nice to see hometown kids turn into Sabre warriors). We've drafted well and when it comes to drafting, I trusted DR and Jim Benning, and now I trust DR and Kevin Devine.

It's official, he's done. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=427780 Sad face. Hopefully he'll find ways to stay involved with the game.

Didn't make the cut for Sanford and Son?

Any chance the Devils were considering buying him out? If so, they just saved a pretty big cap hit for the next 78 years, right?

Hockey cure: ibuprofen, beer. Repeat until painless or not caring.

I like KS, but I like Duffer better. It's both excellent and too bad that Duffer is better than Kevin at everything he does. Not to derail, but Duffer should take over color for Rayzor, but Rayzor should stay between the benches as an analyst and pipe in occasionally with funny ######, including whatever anybody just "seen."

Yes, definitely. Start with HF, then work your way around. Almost better than my favorite internet novela "The Night the Bruins Lost the Cup." Also, I can't stop laughing when I read TSN's headline "JERSEY SHOCKER." The Devils definitely took (at least) one in the stink.

This is hilariously awesome. Devils Nation (county?) is absolutely pissing rage and despair.

Oh man, Devils fans are pissed.

And yet far too many bloggers, "insiders," and journalists skip that step.

List of players filing for aribitration.

Mostly because it's fun. But partly because it's funny to watch them have to shed salary cap.

Not necessarily.

After signing Briere, Canadiens sign Dumont. That's how it's done, amateurs.

Hahaha, stupid. Again, stupid in today's dollars, probably ok in five years when the cap balloons to a quarter million dollars. Edit: Annnd Bruins are over the cap too.

Haaaaa. Kind of funny and probably not a big deal, but better to avoid the worry of other people being sensitive. Thunder and Lightning? Could go more patriotic too. On the interpretation of the colors of the American flag: White ("Purity"), Blue ("Perserverance") The women on the New York state flag. The one on the left, traditionally dressed in Blue, is "Liberty," and the one on the right, traditionally dressed in White or yellow is "Justice."

Dat riff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdHnGyU1yJQ

Everybody give it up for Herb Brooks.

Hingle McCringleberry.