UMFan83

BTW, seems like Bolland is dealing with some injury issues as well. He didn't skate on Thursday or before the game and didn't play the 3rd. He only played 9 minutes overall tonight.

Not sure how that guy got the contract that he did. He's a bum. Joe D is a nice guy. It was funny to see how quickly he want from the most brilliant GM in the game that could never do wrong, to the bum who ruined the Pistons. The Gordon/Charlie V. signings set the team back 3-4 years. I know it was a situation of use cap space or lose it but man there were surely better fas out there that summer.

Drink? It's been really disappointing seeing Bolland, Kane, Toews and Keith among others to come out so sluggish this season. I don't know if it's a slow start or a weakened team due to trades and injuries or if its what I feared going into this year, which is a Cup hangover. We're talking about the core of the team almost exclusively in their mid to late 20's, they've already accomplished the best year they could possibly have (many winning gold or silver in the olympics and also being a key contributor on a Cup team), and Kane, Toews, Hossa and Keith are all locked up long term. Also, you watched half your team disappear so you know that even if you put in the same level of work as last year, you are probably gonna fall short of the Cup. So you've achieved your team goal, you have security, what else is there? It's difficult unless you are mentally really tough to achieve the same level of desire and passion for winning when the hunger isn't there. Even if their mentality is in the right place, they might not have that extra gear. Anyways, I'm not saying this is happening, but I'm introducing the idea and seeing what people think.

Mark Messier scores a goal.

Turco was yanked in favor of Crawford to start the 2nd.

The funny thing about this post was it originally said "2 goals given up to the [expletive] oilers in the first period" and before I could post it, a 3rd goal was scored, so I edited it, and before posting the 4th goal was scored. Blah

Kane and Toews both scored in the period, but point taken.

I was about to get into my "Gretzky/Messier/Kurri scores a goal" mode for a minute

4 goals given up to the [expletive] oilers in the first period. 3 in the last 2 minutes. Unacceptable.

Was anyone else reminded of another goal on Toews 1st period goal?

I want a sandwhich

Not that we would have offered them arby, but I hope Dewitt and those 3 pitching prospects are worth more than 2 first round picks.

I feel bad for whoever is born on November 15th. That date has the lowest WAR of any day.

What is January 31st? (Ryan was my boyhood hero so of course I knew things like that, and Banks is...Banks)

We didn't sign LeBron James and Chris Bosh this offseason. The Bulls actually supposedly sold several hundred season tickets in June based on the speculation of the Bulls signing LeBron, including a guy I work with, so I have no doubt we'd be beyond sold out for the home debut of these guys, whether it was on Saturday night or Tuesday morning.

This dude at ESPN looks at the supposed "uncanny" comparison between the careers of Jay Cutler and Jeff George... http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=fleming/101028&sportCat=nfl

Stonewall Jackson? At least he's a HOFer

lol I'm listening to the Rangers postgame radio show, and it's hilarious the host can't get a single Ranger fan to call into the show to talk about the game. One guy finally called and when he picked up excitedly, the caller hung up. I cant wait for someone to call and start talking about the Cowboys.

If someone told me in 2004 that 3 of the 5 longest championship droughts would have ended in the next 7 seasons, I would have been really excited at the Cubs prospects of a title.

I don't know, but what I do know is that the Bulls won't be able to outbid Atlanta as well as each of the other teams that I'm sure would love to sign Horford. Maybe if the Hawks were willing to take players like Watson or Korver in a sign and trade, but there's no guarantee. There's no doubt that Melo is a great player and a great scorer. The Bulls would immediately have a solution to many of their offensive issues if we got Melo. But Melo isn't on that LeBron/Kobe/Howard tier that some people seem to think he's on. Actually, he's not even really as close as many people assume he is. An all star, yes. I don't think Noah is a better player than Anthony. I don't think the Bulls as constructed can sniff the championship, even if the Miami Heat randomly disappeared tonight. And while I had some objections to some of the stuff you said earlier, I do not necessarily think there is a clear right or wrong answer on the issue. My opinion is that while Melo would help the Bulls immensely, I don't necessarily think that the Bulls need someone the caliber of Melo to get in that contender discussion. I think if you can find someone 80% of Melo's caliber they can still get into that championship discussion. Is that extra 20% worth giving up someone like Noah? In my opinion no because I highly value what Noah brings to this team, and like I said above I think if you could acquire someone like lets say Jason Richardson, we'd still be in the title hunt. Melo without Noah? Not so much.

I'm not sure where to find WARP stats for NBA players, but other metrics like win shares and PER are not heavily in favor of Anthony. I think you are really undervaluing Noah in this argument. There is not a player like Noah with all his intangibles on every team. If there was, Denver would have no desire to demand Noah in a trade for Anthony. Anthony PER 09-10: 22.2 PER 08-09: 19.0 Win shares 09-10: 7.9 (5.6 offensive, 2.4 defensive) Win shares 08-09: 5.0 (2.4 offensive, 2.6 defensive) Win shares per 48 mins 09-10: .145 Win shares per 48 mins 08-09: .105 Noah PER 09-10: 17.9 PER 08-09: 16.5 Win shares 09-10: 6.2 (2.7 offensive, 3.5 defensive) Win shares 08-09: 6.4 (3.8 offensive, 2.7 defensive) Win shares per 48 mins 09-10: .159 Win shares per 48 mins 08-09: .154 And obvious in 08-09: Noah was playing 24 mins a night, and in 09-10 Noah played several very ineffecitve games while struggling with his foot injury. Heck include Deng in the mix because that's who Melo would be replacing right? Deng had a 16.1 PER last year and 5.9 win shares (.106 per 48). Is the difference between Deng and Anthony worth taking an 18 PER center like Noah off the team? BTW there were only 6 other centers in the league that played at least 60 games and had a PER more than Noah's 17.9. Dwight Howard, Andrew Bogut, Andrew Bynum, Brook Lopez, Al Horford, and Marc Gasol. Tell me which of those guys we'll be able to acquire to fill the hole Noah leaves. If you can accept a slight down grade, there are 9 players besides Noah with a PER higher than 16.5, the 6 mentioned above, as well as JaVale McGee, Samuel Dalembert, and Chris Kaman. So yeah maybe you can get one of those guys, but its not like these teams are giving up players like that for nothing. After presumably trading Noah, Deng, and a 1st for Anthony, how much trade fodder do you have left?

Apparently the Heat still have several hundred tickets available for their home opener against the Magic. They are $177 tickets but still.

I bet if he hit 2 HRs and made no major fielding issues he'd be in there tonight

John Tait was still decent before he retired 2 years ago. Lets call him up and beg him to play for us....$10 mil for the rest fo the year. He doesn't even have to be in shape to be better than most of them.

I quickly glanced at the updated stats on football outsider. Bears were 24th overall, 30th on offense, 5th on defense, 2nd on special teams, 24th OLine against the run and remain dead last with the 32nd OLine against the past. They are still in the "top 5 in the last 15 years" category for that.