caucasianheat

I don't think he's necessarily a bad GM either and his Toronto stint has lights both high and low. The easy excuse is that he inherited a mess, cleared the decks (this is partly Fletcher too), and started nearly from scratch. The Leafs have some really good secondary pieces but they're missing too many key components without a clear way to get them immediately - no trade pieces to leverage a deal, unwilling to pay top dollar for top free agents on weird principle. Burke's bombast and the intensity of Toronto as a hockey city really only make it that much worse. The beat on Toskala when he came was that he was someone totally ready to step into a starter position and honestly, I watched those games and there were nights where he was very good - I believe he was even a goalie of the month. I'd rather have Lars Eller now, of course, but what can you do.

If there aren't several goaltending coaches pushing very different philosophies to a very confused staff of goaltenders, I wouldn't be surprised. It's interesting to watch as the scapegoats begin to disappear. Burke's number is almost certainly up as the new and only enemy of the public if there's a season this year. There's been a lot of fan derision about him already but I think it'll be closer to unanimous if Toronto isn't markedly better without having made any real improvements.

Absolutely this. The Pacquiao fight, in retrospect, feels like a case of Hatton cashing in his chips against the other bigtime PPV draw. It seemed like Ricky's whole camp knew when that fight was over that he was finished. He simply wasn't at the level to compete with the world class P4P guys in his weight range and I doubt the years in between have made him better. I think he could still have competitive fights, but he's probably best served in his home market where the domestic scene is stronger pretty much than any non-Latin American country. Missing Chavez Jr./Martinez tomorrow night for a concert, anyone here keeping an eye on it? I'm very excited to catch the replay, I think it's got the makings of a highly athletic skill matchup.

It was a joke because I know he has more than a few fans here. If I were legitimately mad about who receives NHL Awards, I'd be a real lost cause. My real gripe is with how voting is done at the end of the regular season with the scores sitting in an envelope until the awards. Based on that selection process, Landeskog is the best (it's not nearly as decisive as you're making it out to be), but I'd advocate for a system where a player who is already on the ballot and has a superb postseason deserves special consideration. It was sad that Henrique was basically a throwaway third nomination who nobody took seriously when it counted because he went to deep water where the games actually matter and was getting the work done in the SCF. Couturier and Schenn played their best hockey after April too, but performance in the games that are much more crucial than whatever's happening mid-November don't get any evaluation. I think that's stupid even if it is in the name of fairness.

I would have guessed Stastny first as a replacement for Hejduk, too. You'd almost think he was going to be moved except that they need his contract to even get to the floor. I'll never let go of my anger over him winning the Calder, but Landeskog is really obviously a special impact player. I'd say he brings a combination of tools that neither Stastny nor Duchene can, seniority be damned.

Crosby and Lecavalier were both 19 as well. Toews was 20. I'd say Landeskog fits that bill of a high drafted guy who they obviously plan to make the centrepiece for several years going forward.

Just download the data and change the stat yourself like a sane person.

Donnell Rawlings (Ashy Larry, more famously) showing up as Day Day in a few episodes is a great unexpected guest spot. But yeah, Steve Earle's recurring role is one of the best in any show period.

The list of NHLers I have more respect for than Doan is quite short. I think he still has things to offer and he deserves to go out making good money on his last contract. A deal that makes him better paid than guys like Spezza, Getzlaf, Datsyuk, Toews, and every single player on the Stanley Cup Champions is a bit ridiculous for a 35+ contract. Journalists are now calling bullshit on the "waiting for Phoenix ownership" story because it seems more like Doan and his agent (who mostly reps baseball players) are just driving up the price as much as possible before he finally signs with the 'Yotes, which it's always mentioned is where he really wants to be. Fair play to them, but teams will back out of negotiating once they see the writing on the wall.

No telling how they'll work the lines, but I think both Staals are natural centers. Eric as 1 and Jordan as 2 with Skinner and Semin flanking either gives Carolina the pieces for two pretty damaging lines if Semin decides to, like, try and stuff.

*dusts hands*

Very sad, loved syndicated Jeffersons episodes as a suburban white child. Someone pointed out elsewhere that Norman Lear waited two years while Hemsley finished a stint on Broadway because he wanted him so bad as George Jefferson. For good reason, because he made that breakthrough role really come alive.

4 roster players on ELC to Toronto's 1 and still haven't signed Del Zotto, so not that surprising. The one that gets me is St. Louis locking up basically their entire team from last year and still being 500K under the cap floor.

Time will prove everything. Lost in all this: is Chris Pronger officially finished? You'd think they'd have to be putting him on LTIR to make the numbers work and to even be hunting for a Weber at this point suggests the forecast wasn't good for Pronger.

Nashville has seven days to either trade his rights, match, or take the picks. I wonder what they can get together in that time. You would think they'd be wanting a defenseman coming back the other way, but almost all of the Flyers' are locked in with some kind of no trade. The salary load for Weber is utterly ridiculous and probably wouldn't fly after CBA re-negotiating, so obviously Philly wanted to get the contract in now. $14 million per for the first four years, 12 million in years five and six, 6 million for the following four, 3 million in year eleven, and then the obligatory million dollars on the back-end for three years. $68 million in bonuses in the first six.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/graffiti-artist-banned-from-all-olympic-sites-7956926.html http://www.thelondonvandal.com/2012/07/graffiti-raids-across-london-as-police-sanitise-city-ready-for-olympics/ Huge sting on London graffiti artists. People are being hauled in for years-old crimes in the run-up to the Olympics. Bail conditions for all of them are to stay away from any Olympic site for a period of three months.

If they institute maximum term limits, it'll probably be with the caveat that you can stack the salary any way you want to make the cap math work. The players will want it and the owners can't help themselves anyway. Chaining good players to the worst teams for 5 years of ELC seems cruel and unusual, not to mention that it fucks with two prime moneymaking years of a young player's career and they can't supplement it with proposed elimination of the signing bonus.

But boy are those four punch combos pretty Stunning first knockdown, reminded me a bit of Martinez on Paul Williams last year or so. He's got great handspeed but no defense or body movement to protect himself, so Khan is always wide open to get hit. A guy with heavy hands and some smarts can undo him just by counterpunching in the flurries. Garcia figured Amir out in three rounds and was landing the left hook pretty much whenever he wanted to. Mayweather would cut Khan to ribbons.

No. The Wild were 8 wins out of a playoff spot with the league's worst Goals For and one of the worst Goals Against last season. They have a better first line now and one standout defenseman, so they've made improvements but have little depth and littler cap space. The bones of a good competitive team are there for years to come, but I think expectations should be tempered.

The contracts are identical - $98 million over 13 years each, so a hit of just over 7.5 for both of them.

Ewww, it's like a Miami Heat thing. Somebody's getting back-loaded money. Minnesota's forward group is still kind of a mess of acquired parts after the Heatley-Koivu-Parise top 3, but now they at least have a good defenseman.

Suter signs with the Wild.

The Freep this morning was talking about Detroit offering Suter $90 million over 13 years, so the hit would be just about 7 per. I'd imagine Parise is going to command even more than that salary-wise and the Wild only have about 15 million in cap space. My prediction remains that Suter moves but Parise stays put in NJ. Phoenix grabs Steve Sullivan, who I love but won't replace the loss of Whitney and potentially Doan. What a joke that a team can't even re-sign their star players while the league waits around for another slapdash ownership group to hopefully get a deal together. Abandon Glendale already.

I heard the first single from the record a few months ago on Stereogum or something and it was really good, but I snoozed on the release of the album proper. The new Van der Graaf Generator record "ALT" is really good. I'm not a prog guy by nature, but they've incorporated a lot of free and soul jazz elements to produce something that feels really vibrant and special. Well worth going after.

I don't know if one GM can afford to blow the money necessary to get both once the stakes are upped. It might be hype, but apparently lots of teams are throwing out everything in hopes of landing either. I wouldn't expect a deal for either until a few days have passed. McClement is being described as a possible third center and he's best known for killing penalties. So he's David Steckel. Burke is telling TSN that they're not finished with free agency, but the center and goaltending problems aren't going to be solved that way. Expect trades.