biittner77

I'm surprised you say that. He has done some dumb stuff and could be seen as more of a goon/nuisance than a hockey player at times, but he's also contributed some memorable hockey moments as well. Two off the top of my head were scoring 2 goals in game 6 against the Ducks while the Hawks were facing elimination, and the GWG (aka "I love shin pads") in Game 1 against Boston. I meant the very last thing he does before leaving town when they trade him this off season. Getting to play another game will likely erase any long term memory of why he got suspended.

I think we've seen the last of Rundblad. It will be interesting to see which NHL team thinks that they will be able to make something out of him. I'm taking Edmonton in that pool. Shaw has a chance to redeem himself. As his Hawks career draws to a close, it's nice for him to leave a hockey related legacy. Hopefully his winds up differently than Campoli or Leddy. Is Fleischman dead? If not, how is Manshitter a better option? If you're looking for a guy with size that won't ever use it and just chases around not really sure what to do they could have just recalled Bickell.

Gustafson has a higher ceiling. He can be a puck mover and at times has been effective. He's a little bit like Leddy in the sense that he gets out battled on the boards and makes some poor decisions. It takes time for a guy like him to develop. I think he'll only get better. TVR I supposed to be smart and poised. His problem is that he needs to be paired with someone that can allow him to get caught up the ice without it resulting in a prime scoring chance going in the opposite direction. He's been much better when paired with Hammer. He just never seems to have gelled with Seabrook. TVR can become a better positional defender but it seems unlikely that he'll ever be anything more than a 5th defenseman/ 3rd pairing guy. The silver lining in all of this is that these guys have had to play. Next year we likely will see Pokka get a shot provided he doesn't get traded as a piece added to get rid of someone else's salary.

Now that he's started to hit, how long before Happ gets promoted? Does he stay in Low A until Young is ready for his next step or is there maybe some alternate plan?

There are 4 game left for each team: Leicester have Swansea, Man U (a), Everton and Chelsea (a). Their max points is 85. Spurs have West Brom, Chelsea (a), Southampton and Newcastle (a). Their max points is 80. Spurs have the easier run in, assuming Newcastle are relegated before that final game. Only Southampton have anything to play for, and then only barely. West Brom suck and Chelsea quit playing back in September. LCFC get a crap Swansea, a Man U that even though they're bad, win games they have no business winning, a generally garbage Everton that will either be on the beach or getting ready for the FA Cup final, and the aforementioned Chelsea. LCFC need 8 points from their last 4 games assuming Spurs win out. I can't really see Spurs losing to any of those teams in their current form. Maybe they drop points at Chelsea but I doubt it. I can see LCFC struggling at United, especially without Vardy. If Spurs do lose any of those games, LCFC probably win. I see LCFC getting 6 points from their 12. Yeah, I think if Spurs win all 4 games, they'll win the title (Leicester would have to win 3 games or get 2 wins and 2 draws). Leicester getting 6 or 7 points in the last 4 games sounds about right. The order they play these games matters. The chance that Chelsea shows up against Spurs is higher than the chance that they show up the last game against LCFC. By then, they might only need 1 point from that game, assuming they beat Swansea and Everton and they can get 1 point out of Man U. Is it definite that Vardy will miss Man U? Under the circumstances, maybe they show some mercy since the red card was kind of sketchy. Admittedly, I have no idea how these things work.

Does Lackey have dentures? There's something about his teeth that seems weird.

I was shopping for a friend's baby shower and foxes are apparently the new thing in baby wear. Perhaps that's an omen for Leicester. What happens if the season ends with Spurs and the Foxes tied in points?

I can't even imagine how bad Ehrhoff would be at this point. The guy looked like a junior player at times in the regular season. I'd almost rather see Rund DM Swede aka Rundblad than Swedberg. Is Gustafson hurt?

I wasn't even 2 yet when that series went down, so I have no genuine feelings about that series. That hat rules. That's like wearing a commemorative 2003 hat with Marlins colors.

Yeah well he led the league in save % this year and was pretty damn good last night. The Hawks have solved extremely difficult goalies before though. I was referring to the playoffs.

You're being kind.

The concern is that if the Blues get excellent goaltending they can win the series. They've never got that out of Elliot or Jay Gallon before so it remains to be seen if they can actually do it now.

I'd accept any result without complaint as long as the Hawks eliminate the Blues.

My one game was Arrieta beating the Giants.

I've heard they have a really good program where you can adopt retired marbles after their racing careers are over.

What is he thinking? perhaps that was part of the plea agreement I would think it would be the other way around.

It's already relevant. It's a throwback.

What is he thinking? He can actually kinda, sorta grow a beard now. Playoff beards lose a lot of their mystique since a lot more players have beards all the time.

Breast cancer has about as good of a survival rate as you could reasonably hope for. Having a positive attitude is an important part of any battle with cancer. So the level of douche baggery on his part depends on how his wife felt about the divorce. If this was going to devastate her then yes, it makes him an awful human being. Maybe she is glad to get rid of him. I'm not sure what good he is to her in her fight against cancer if he's there because he feels he has to be.

Is he Willie McGee ugly? He's the gold standard of ugly baseball players. Willie McGee could hit though.

The Devils also had cheerleaders, but they are fairly pointless and no longer exist. Not sure why they should have flown out the parents, it's not like it was some huge achievement. According to the Caps, 1,000 NHL games is a big deal. As for the cheerleaders, they were doing their thing but it was hard to pick them out of the crowd since them were wearing red and so was almost everyone there. I wanted to get a custom jersey with a 0 for the numbers and "Cups" on the name plate but that was too much to spend on a joke that might have gotten my ass kicked.

Went to see the Caps- Ducks game last night. This was the game that got postponed by the blizzard. Literally could not give these tickets away let alone sell them. We went and had fun. Some notes: Game was delayed by celebrating Justin Williams' 1,000th game. The team chipped in and gave him a golf vacation for 2 in Scotland. No word on whether he has to pay to bring his 2 kids or whether the players are going to babysit. Seems kind of strange to give someone a golf vacation right before the playoffs start. His parents taped a message for the video board. The team should have flown them out, there were plenty of empty seats. Ovie taped a message also even though he was there in a suit. My Wife" Who is Love Chicken?" Me: "What?" My Wife "I keep seeing people with Love Chicken on the back of their jerseys" Me: "That's Ovechkin, he's their best player" The Caps have cheerleaders for some reason.

Sure there is parity in the NFL. Is that due to the cap or due to other factors like injuries? The draft definitely makes a bigger immediate impact on the NFL from other capped leagues. I think those 2 factors account for a lot more of the parity than having a cap. NFL teams go from bad to good because of a successful draft much more so than through free agency. In theory, the purpose of the cap is so that teams can't stockpile good players based on their ability to pay those good players. I'd argue that teams are mostly able to keep the players they want. The cap is just an excuse for the owners to be able to not pay guys that they feel they can replace at a lesser cost.

I bet you could accurately predict 6 of the 8 division winners today. I would also bet that if you made a list of 6 teams that could win the super bowl the winner would be on your list. I suggest this is true of most capped leagues. Which illustrates the point that the cap isn't leveling the playing field very much. The NFL is different since teams can get immediate help from the draft. So there's more hope for a team like Miami to make the playoffs but they're still unlikely to win the super bowl.

Even with the bonus, Panarin is a bargain. Looking at all of the capped leagues leaves me to wonder how much they really help in terms of leveling the playing field. Sure the Hawks would have been really good if they could have kept all the players they had to trade for cap relief. So would a lot of other teams that have had to trade players because they are tight against the cap. Or couldn't get the players they needed to compete. I'm sure people will read this and think thatif there was no cap, the Hawks would still have Saad, could have kept Ladd, Sharp, Leddy and Oduya. That's true. However, if they had those guys, they would not have Anisimov or Panarin. They also might have kept Niemi longer than they should have. The good teams find ways around the cap. The bad teams either use it as an excuse to fail or they spend as little as possible. The same 5-6 teams are in the hunt for the championship every year with perhaps 1 or 2 out of nowhere teams that make for a good story but fade pretty quickly. That's certainly the case in the NFL. Are there ever more than 4 teams that could conceivably win the NBA championship?