Gabriel

The Flames are set to announce Craig Conroy as the next GM of the team tomorrow. It seemed to be pretty standard across the board, among a lot of experts and the more coherent fan communities. Seeing people reacting to that elsewhere really reminded me how lucky we are to have EWB. I can't imagine trying to find a new community to talk about my core interests at this point. Everywhere else makes it feel like EWB is full of scholars and experts, instead of just fans. People are ripping the news apart, pointing out that he's been there for awhile already and the team hasn't done anything... (he's been in advisory roles, and this will be his chance to run the ship. Plus, that means he's familiar with the organization and what needs it has, and the personalities of the players and staff.) I'm seeing so many comments about how the team must be trying to tank if they're hiring a GM with no experience. (How do you get experience if no one hires you?) Beyond that, the clear issue driving the insanity that was the 2022-23 season for Calgary was Darryl Sutter being at odds with the new leadership group on the team. When you need to replace a leader in any job, and your team underneath them is mostly set in stone, then you need to find a leader FOR that group of people. Conroy is most definitely that man for the GM job. When it comes to the head coaching gig, it's gotta be Mitch Love or Andrew Brunette. Love has shown that he can get the most out of the new generation of players. Brunette employed a style that will work for the build of the roster and got the absolute best out of Huberdeau, who suffered under Sutter. The new generation of players don't react the same way to the hard-nosed coaching style anymore. They want to be creative, have fun and win. That doesn't mean that hard work is out the window, it just means you've gotta have a voice on the bench who can drive those players to be better, while giving them the environment and freedom to play their game.

They better start doing a roster and features reveal like THQ used to do for the WWE games. The IGN Countdown was something I would check every day for updates on those classic games before they released. I imagine they've got something up their sleeve for that type of a thing, but as of right now, I'm basically their target audience and I'm going to buy it for sure, but if I am the target audience, I know it's more of a niche thing and they're going to need to draw in people from outside that bubble to help drive sales. Though, if it is, as rumored, a one and done game with consistent content updates, I don't think that there will be any need for panic if it doesn't immediately become a top seller. If those rumors are true, then I imagine that they're playing a longer game and relying more on reviews and word of mouth to bring new people to the game, which in turn could put new eyes on the television product.

Here I am, digging up an old topic. NHL 23 is on sale on the PS Store for a decent price. I haven't played in a couple years. It's sitting at $24 right now. How is the GM mode? Also, I haven't heard too much about the custom GM modes, but I was very intrigued. Can you actually set up a league with between 4 and 60 teams or whatever it was and play a proper franchise?

The Coyotes have got to move out of Arizona. Bettman's vanity project has been failing for quite some time, but with the public vote going against the new building and teams operating under a salary cap that is crunching more teams than ever due to lost revenue because of the pandemic... it's really hard to justify holding onto a team that doesn't contribute to that revenue pie. Especially when they're aiming to play in a non-standard hockey rink for the foreseeable future. I don't care where they get sent. Just put them somewhere that can hold over 10,000 fans per game and it's an automatic improvement. I just can't imagine it's easy for Bettman or the NHL to sit across from other team owners and tell them that the salary cap won't be rising much because of revenue-related reasons, when there's a team there that's quite literally a financial sinkhole. If they keep the Coyotes in Arizona, the NHL better make good with the rest of the league by raising the salary cap further than anticipated.

Renfield was an absolute delight. Nicholas Hoult brings some Warm Bodies type charm to the character, and Nic Cage as Dracula was amazing. It isn't anything game changing, by any means, but it was an incredibly fun and light movie filled with all kinds of cool gore. Unrelated, my partner and I are re-watching The Haunting of Hill House for the first time since it came out. We are three episodes in, and I've damn near felt like crying during all of them. It's hitting me really hard, personally, being about loss, grief and skewing the lines between mental health and the supernatural. Also, Carla Gugino is ❤️

The Flames have fired Darryl Sutter. Exit interviews from the players and Treliving's leaving seem to have been enough to convince ownership that they needed to move on after a year where they vetoed any coaching change in-season and looked to be running it back with Sutter. Sutter is a great coach. Treliving did an admirable job as GM. On paper, the team is a solid one. Personalities just didn't jive and everything went to shit. Now it's time to bring up Mitch Love to coach at the NHL level and see if we can get better out of the players under a coach who won't hesitate to play the young guys that he developed at the AHL level. Vladar is likely easier to move due to contract stuff (money, term, no-trade's, etc), but I really don't care if it's Vlad or Markstrom who gets moved to make room for the rise of Dustin Wolf. Four straight goalie of the year awards, two of which at the highest level under the NHL. He needs to be playing for the Flames next season. Ideally, for me, Markstrom asks for a change of scenery and we can shore up more cap space by moving him out. I'm comfortable thinking that a Wolf/Vladar tandem absolutely out-performs the Markstrom/Vladar tandem. Marky is a great leader though, so if it's Vladar who goes, it doesn't open as much space, but still gets The Wolfman up where he belongs and immediately upgrades the tandem. I feel like the new coach has to be Mitch Love though. We've got guys on the final year of their deals that Tre wanted to be able to keep long-term, who weren't happy with their situation last year under Sutter and want to see what happens first. Give them a coach that can get the most out of them and create a positive environment and next summer won't be about scrambling to replace core guys again. With the right person behind the bench, I believe strongly in the team that Treliving assembled.

On MLB 22, I managed to win the World Series with the Athletics in 2027. My internal budget would increase or decrease each year based on whether or not my team had a better or worse season than the one before. Once we hit spring training, I reset my budget to 0 for the season and the only way for me to add any dollars was to move dollars out, but I would only add half the value of the money moved to my internal budget for the season. Try to keep things relatively realistic on that front. After winning the World Series, I went ham and decided that the story would be that the ownership group wants to keep winning, so I just re-signed everyone to whatever deals they wanted and my payroll skyrocketed with several arb-eligible players getting bigger money deals off the backs of a World Series season where they made less than a million each. If we win the World Series in 2028, I'm going to do the same thing. The only money I shave off the books will be under-performers being traded out if I need to blow past whatever budget the game gives me to re-sign my winning players. If we don't win the World Series again, which I'm highly expecting, I will be tearing that shit down in typical Oakland fashion.

I won't go so far as to say that Darryl Sutter is entirely to blame for the Flames shit season, but I don't see their group winning under him after the way it went. I do think that his best days as coach are behind him, if only because the players are different now. Beyond that, his need to play veterans over younger guys has historically been an issue with player development, but this season may have actually cost the current roster several points that could have been the difference in getting into the post-season. I believe Brad Treliving did a great job as Flames GM, but when you call up a Pelletier to add some fire to the frontlines and he winds up in the press box in favor of a slower veteran with poor production, it shows a distinct lack of togetherness for the GM and the Coach. It doesn't matter who gets the GM job as long as Darryl is coaching... unless they just double down and don't give him those veteran options with his roster. I'd like to see Craig Conroy take GM, Mitch Love to coach the team and Dustin Wolf getting back-up duties next year. I also want the team to give the young guys some rope and see what they can do. Create a more lively environment that the players want to be in, and I believe that Huberdeau and Kadri will have major improvements to their play.

That's the same issue the Calgary Flames had this year. Young players, ready to step in and take the reigns, get called up and then proceed to watch the game from the press box because the coach would rather play an incredibly limited veteran instead. They gotta fix that, or just like Calgary, they'll be watching the post-season instead of participating.

I've been treating the MCU the same way I treat the comics for the last little while. There are always issues or entire story-arc's that are just treading water or completely naff in the books. As long as they're fun or advance the story or give me a look at something interesting, I see them as worth my time. I do agree though, that the event hype for the MCU is dwindling... but that may just be because we're world building and leading to the big event. I guess, at the beginning, the movies all felt like major wrestling PPVs. Now it's feeling like more and more of them are an episode of Raw or Nitro. That's not a bad thing, necessarily, but if they aren't careful, it could lead to severely diminished returns. I think moving some of the films away from being big event style theatrical releases could help. Like, do a tiered system for releasing... some movies are theatrical only for a few months... some maybe go straight to Disney+ with the option for theatres to show them if they choose... then you've got your Disney+ series'.

We finally made time for The Sandman. I am so happy that we did. There's this beautiful sadness to the character of Dream, and it really just pulled me in. I felt so much throughout the first season, and nobody really told me that it would hit me as hard as it did. I heard a lot about how cool the visuals and the story are, and a lot of co-workers who watched it thought I would like it... but god damn. I don't think I've ever been emotionally accosted like that without prior knowledge that it might happen. I look forward to seeing more of it. I've never read the graphic novels, but I loved every minute of the series.

Get ready to laugh. Yusei's leading the boys to victory today. Prediction: Kikuchi pitches six strong innings, gets at least seven K's and the Jays belt three dingers today. Reality: probably not that.

I suppose they could punish the base runner by not allowing them to step off the bag until contact is made or the ball is out of the pitcher's hand. Take away their lead-off if they're being tardy about getting back to the bag after a foul ball. Doesn't punish the hitter, but it could be the difference between landing at second safely or being out... or being able to make it first to third on an outfield hit.

I see a lot of people worrying about the Jays rotation depth, but if Kikuchi can even perform somewhere in the middle of his last season and spring training results, we're in good shape. There are guys coming back later in the year from injury that can add to that depth or throw long out of the bullpen for us down the stretch, and if there's an injury or two, I'm actually pretty confident in the arms in Buffalo, especially with the knowledge that if a more impactful arm doesn't emerge, there's always Drew Hutchison, who performed admirably last year on a team with significantly weaker defense. He's not going to light anyone on fire, but Hutch knows how to do his job. My bigger area of concern is keeping George Springer healthy. His bat plays almost every time he steps up to the plate. Moving him out of center was a great idea, but I'd like to see him DH more too if there are any signs of wear and tear. Keep that bat in the lineup. Outside of Toronto, the thing I am most interested in this season is Ohtani. If the Angels fall out of it before the deadline, which team goes Phillip J Fry to bring him in for the post-season run?

The more ridiculous trades, especially early on in franchise, tend to be because of unbalanced rosters. If a team has 11 CF's and 2 guys at 3B, they're going to be quicker to dump a CF to acquire more depth for the 3B position, even if it means giving up higher end prospects for career minor leaguers or bench players. I found that the Operation Sports Full Minors rosters fixed that issue for the most part. Much better balanced than the roster out of the box. Something else that helps is if you alter the positions of players on teams that are unbalanced. If you can spread the guys out more through all the positions, the CPU is less likely to deal away prospects because you've gotten rid of the perceived surplus.

Nothing of any importance that I've seen... but they DID add World Baseball Classic jerseys and players to Diamond Dynasty! Seriously, all of the little additions to Franchise each year are definitely things that I appreciate and notice, but they haven't done enough with it in years to get me longing for a day one purchase. I'm more than happy to wait until it's cheaper or free. I get that Diamond Dynasty is where most of the money comes from, but I have zero interest in it and it pains me that this is where video games are. It's not about great content anymore, it's about how much extra they can pull out of the consumers. I do believe with the new Social Media laws in Utah, and the video game related cases that have happened over the past few years, that the bubble will burst eventually and the monetization of games beyond the initial purchase will absolutely need to be toned down. Then... maybe then... they'll start making games again with people like me in mind.

It wasn't everyone's bag, but it really sucks to me that the return of Jamie Lee Curtis to the original Halloween franchise is the first "reboot" technically, with H20. I really wanted to see more about the Cult of Thorn and where that would have gone. I think that 6's biggest issue isn't that it wildly swung for the fences with the cult story and introduction of more supernatural type shenanigans, but that it tried to do it all within the one film and at the expense of too much established lore and expectations. To me, the most interesting direction that a new team could take Michael Myers is to revisit that idea, and I really thought that we were going to get that with the new movies after Halloween Kills, but then Ends was just what it was. Anyways, to the original point, the Jamie Lloyd stuff and the Cult of Thorn are completely disregarded in H20, and it really bums me out because they didn't necessarily need to be... and in the case of Thorn, I believe that it could have made for a more horrifying experience for H20. We are watching through the "Original Timeline" and just have the Busta Rhymes classic Resurrection left to go. I just really felt the need to talk up the sequel that I think could have and should have breathed new life into the franchise... only to have them turn around and just completely omit it at the next possible turn. The Curse of Michael Myers is one of my favorite Halloween films, if only because of the wasted potential. Plus, Paul Rudd plays Paul Rudd, survivor of Myers.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is most definitely recommended. Nic Cage and Pedro Pascal are fantastic together. I can't even explain how much I enjoyed that movie. It's just so perfect and delivers on everything it promises and more. It's on Crave in Canada, which likely means HBO Max in most other parts of the world.

2k22 joined the PS Plus lineup, so I snagged it. Then I played a whole bunch and made a mental list of things that I wanted to see added, and then 2k23 comes out and it seems they've added most of those things. How is Universe now, with the ability to force rivals actions being added in? It's not exactly what I had in mind in regards to controlling our own stories, but it's a hell of a start.

Shinobu's SEX is a Shooting Star Press and the Sex Bomber is a Lariat. For the TARU Driller, I would clone the Deadeye from Hangman Page. T-Crush is a standard Choke Bomb. Miyamoto's Million Dollar Driver is a Cradle Belly to Back Facebuster, which if I recall correctly is similar to a Wheelbarrow Facebuster. It's been years since I've watched a Miyamoto match.

Just some move-set additions from last month's update: -Orca Uto move set: Vertical Drop DDT, Lariat -Kazushi Miyamoto move set: Million Dollar Driver, Folding Powerbomb -TARU move set: TARU Driller, T-Crush -Shinobu move set: SEX, Sex Bomber -Tigers Mask move set: Tigers Suplex, Buzzsaw Kick

Don't get too hyped. End of month release dates are placeholders 99% of the time. We can safely assume that the game is set to be released within a 60 day window on either side of that date, but it's not an official release date, and I've seen placeholder dates like that get delayed by a long time. That said, next month is the first month since the original covid lockdown that I will have extra income, thanks to a promotion at work... so, if it hits next month, I know what I'm buying myself as a congratulatory gift.

The changes to free agency in MLB 22 make for interesting off-seasons. As Oakland, we missed the playoffs in year one, lost the wild card game in year two and then lost the ALDS after winning the AL West in year three. As the team wins more, the budget expands, but it's still Oakland. Off-season after year three, I have Lourdes Gurriel Jr reject his qualifying offer and my internal budget is totally capped out by the offer I make him. He gets a better offer from the Giants, and due to his importance to the team, I choose to trade away Matt Chapman to get some extra money to throw at Lourdes. He signs with San Francisco anyways. So, now I'm down both Chapman AND Gurriel, and I need to figure something out. Let's go look at the free agents left on the market... Juan fucking Soto. After a spending spree by the league, Soto (at a 92 overall) is the top name on the board and fills the vacant outfield position for us. So what's the damage in terms of the offers he's sitting on? Just north of what Chapman was making and actually less than what I had offered Gurriel. For shit's and giggles, I make an offer above and beyond what his top offer was, and it still falls well below what he was likely hoping to get, so I'm fully expecting to be outbid and have to move on... but that's part of my strategy as well, as a small market team, I like to make sure that other teams are blowing their budgets as best as I can. Sim ahead a couple of days and... Juan Soto signs with the Oakland Athletics. So, now my outfield consists of youngster Chase DeLauter, who finished in the top voting for rookie of the year and mashed 13 dingers despite not being a huge power threat... Seth Brown, who regularly mashes and gets playing time at DH, first and the outfield... Cody Bellinger, who I picked up via trade (managed to ship out more dollars than I brought in for that one)... Teoscar Hernandez, who I scored when the Blue Jays offered me a deal for someone, and I countered with a starter, a prospect I couldn't fit on my 40-man and an albatross contract in exchange for Teo alone. So I have four guys now in my outfield with 20+ home run power and a speedy young star in DeLauter. Brown gets the bulk of his time at first base, and Bellinger can spell him off there on occasion. I am having great fun with this game. Developing my prospects has allowed me to fill my MLB roster with a lot of lower priced contracts, which has allowed me to surround those guys with bigger names as our budget increases. When I feel that budget crunch, there's always a younger and/or cheaper guy I can insert into a role which allows me to deal away some heavy dollars.

2k22 DLC is on deep discount through PS Plus this week, for anyone looking to grab that. $12.50 Canadian, so probably $10 for the US.

I'm not a fan of the marathon games either, but I think there has to be a better solution. I hate the three on three overtime in the NHL and the shootout, also. I feel like "extra" time in sports should be done under the same rules as regular time. For baseball, maybe just cap it at an extra three innings. If the score is tied after 12, call it a draw and award each team a half-win. Could create some fun scenarios near the end of the season if two divisional rivals are playing and both of the teams are pushing for the playoffs. Do you, as manager, make the call to go all out and try to win the game or play it safe and risk the other team being able to keep pace with you by ending in a draw?