conundrumed

At the new Little Caesar's Arena in Detroit, the ground concourse is massive with a wide open area up front of restaurants, pubs. Not 1. Several. And then of course pizza.lol No reason why all of that space can't become a restaurant hub. Has to be more than just an event centre. That area needs that. There's presently the casino and arena restaurant. That HAS to change. So in design, keep the ground level really accessible for patios etc. Make it a food hub. Restaurateurs would cover their year in Stampede alone. Edmonton's isn't bad, but the ground level, that's an arena, not a hub for anything in the nice weather. That's my take. We aren't allowed to tailgate, like everywhere else in the free world is allowed to, so open it all right up with all day restaurants. Show up at 3 for a 7pm start, no big. It can't be just an arena. Especially in that area that desperately still looks like 1972.

It is fun to watch the losses pile up and Holland's deer-in-the-headlights look. He's going to do something stupid. Detroit says hi, and good luck Edmonton.

Yup. When your struggling, when is it ever a good idea to direct all of the pressure and negativity on your goalie?

Pornhub might be awkward.lol

The knock on Vasilevsky in his draft yr was: He's Russian". He was spectacular in his draft year. But he was Russian. Imagine if he was taken top 5, the uproar from the "experts". At the end of the day, nobody cares where you were drafted when you've made it.

I loved that too. Hockey's supposed to be fun. It's such a better environment having fun and not 10,000 hockey experts pretending to diagnose everything. In Detroit, there's a guy that comes in his zebra stripes, complete with helmet. It's hilarious. Everyone loves it. Compare that to my little town of Sarnia. I took 6 peewee jr Sting players to a Legionnaires (0ne below OHL, jr b) game 2 yrs ago. I had them, then gave them space in the 2nd period and stood at the railing above to make sure the little Satoshi Nakamotos weren't out of line. They weren't, they were cheering hard and laughing their butts off. The 2 older dudes a couple rows down started trying to parent them. I let it go until the 2 older dudes got stupid. I came down and said, "wtf is the problem"? At least 6 adults sitting above the boys I was watching said, "Them. Are the kids with you? They're hilarious". While pointing at the older 2 dudes. While the 2 were telling me to move them. Not a chance. It's supposed to be fun. It's your night out. Being overly-critical is a giant drag. Having said that, how much to just decorate the visitors dressing room in 3D plumes of smoke from a tire fire?

I remember that. It WAS you.lol One thing to always remember about the Flyers. When they trade a goalie, he'll win a Vezina. Bobrovsky won a Vezina with a pretty avg Columbus team. Next thing to remember is if a goalie wins a Vezina, he can ALWAYS go Vezina on you. Just because he's been off of Vezina-level for 1-2 yrs doesn't mean he can't be Vezina on a per game basis. The difference between Bobo and Vasilevsky is only that you have to constantly challenge Bobo, classic Russian goalie. Whereas Vasilevsky just hates everyone regardless.lol Vas just came out of Covid protocols a few days back. He was asked, "Did you spend lockdown watching hockey"? "No. I don't have that ESPN subscription thing you need". I love that guy....but we apparently needed Jankowski. Huge miss, in hindsight, but I was totally cool at the time to take Vas at 14, although his rank was 24ish. At that time we were losing Kipper. We traded down and took a 5 yr project C and a zero of a dman with the newly acquired 2nd. Sins of our fathers.lol

Agreed. For the record, I wouldn't fire him. This was exactly us last year, and the year before, and the year before... I liked all of our adds because I'm a big believer in you're only as good as your bottom 6 lets you be. They have 2 of the world's best players, but they can't give them any rest. Another point of evidence is Gaudreau. 25 mins/gm is too much. He's been amazing at 18-20. McDavid and Draisaitl are pulling over 30. It really negates their effectiveness. And your bottom 6 is always cold on the bench. It really makes no sense. They don't even try to fix it, which is the saddest part. Zero patience.

I have a bit of different setup. I have an old desktop Dell driver completely free of any security features, just pop-up blockers. I never get ads on any stream, just open it and I'm there. It's the only thing that I use that driver for, nothing on it. It's isolated from my main internet service for $40/mth, which is fine because, as you know, I can watch anything without figuring out the ad tricks. Streaming's a breeze. I compared it to streaming from my main, it's always 60-90 seconds ahead. Maybe 5 seconds behind live on TV. Only issue was no HDMI, separate A/V jacks, but nothing speakers didn't make even better.

It's too bad that his first post-draft season was only 4 games with the Heat as an 18yo, as the OHL had zero games last year. In the few Soo games I've watched this year, he's always noticeable. He plays C, but the right side of the ice is his stronger side imo. He reminds me of Dube at 19. Good skater, good passer, good vision, accurate shot, creative, play driver. He likes playing in the slot in the o-zone You can see by his stat line he's comfortable shooting or dishing at this level. He'll need to add bulk, but he's 5'11-6' which is about the right size for his skill level and quickness. He's potentially a Pelletier replacement for the A next year. Zary needs to establish that he's our top C prospect. Kerins will be hot on his heels as early as next year. And I'd prefer Kerins (so far) to be a LSRW. Rd 6 is for C prospects, he looks like a solid B to me.

Well I screwed that up. Didn't realize OHL stats are live. 29 games 18 goals (t-10th) 33 assists (3rd) 51 points (3rd)

I can't understand why he's calling out Koskinen. Sure he misplayed the first goal, but whose game plan was to play chaos hockey against a young, fast Rangers team? What did you expect? Then his line roll outs seem to be: Line 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, 4. Rinse and repeat. Put Drai with McDavid for the 3rd period. This is every game. That's a plan?

I had the same options, I just prefer FLA. I'm not a big fan of any of the CDN teams analysts. The TBay game I'll do the away team broadcast. TBay's bias is obvious and pathetic. Hopefully we're up 7-1 after the 2nd, then I'll watch TBay's feed for entertainment value.

Huberdeau makes anyone a 2C. Dude is fire, always amped up and huge skills. The RW strength is ridiculous, and none are their stars. Mamim, Reinhart, Duclair, Hornqvist, Tippett. All good players with varied skillsets. Their top 4 D are top 4. Forsling became a revelation last year. 3rd pair of Montour and Carlsson are avg, but it's 3rd pair. I've watched them for a couple of years because Barkov is my fave NHLer. Zito has really managed to put together a great team, and their drafting has been solid. SNET constantly shows TBay, but FLA's a superior team. Swap goalies and FLA tramples TBay every time.

Did you mind-meld with Jeff Chychrun during intermissions to get him to tell his son to inquire about Calgary like I was doing?lol

Tell me you're joking. We didn't lose to FLA, they beat us. We shouldn't feel bad, they throw everyone onto the trash heap. They are clearly a favourite to win the Cup. Peeps has it right, you drift once against the Cats they're in your end. The only person in their way last year was Vasilevsky. They are a full-on assault team, up 4-0 or down 4-0, it doesn't matter, they have speed up and down the roster and they'll get behind you all game long. They are very clearly not the Oilers. I didn't have a good feeling about this one, even without their 2C and 2RW. You should watch them more perhaps. This is every team they play, very hard to move the puck because they squeeze out every lane you try. They never stop pushing the puck north all game, every line. They are a great team to watch, just not against your team.

John Garrett is reason enough.lol I'm spoiled by the Wings Ken Daniels and Mickey Redmond. Class of the league. Never trash anyone, Talk as much about the other team as their own and bring in guests to have fun with. Worst in the league I have to hand to Boston and Tampa Bay. You wouldn't even know there's another team playing, outside of the "lucky" goals scored against them. In a tiebreaker, TBay is absolutely the worst.

That'll do it.

They are very fun to watch. Not so much to play against.

And 30 for. Florida is fast. Every time we try to move the puck anywhere, there's a Cats player there. We were definitely overwhelmed that period.

This is a pretty scary matchup!

I thought of Juuso and Eetu as soon as I hit submit.lol

Edmonton has zero resolve if they can't run and gun. NY's a young fast team that said, "okay". The Oil couldn't play that game. Yet it seemed like they couldn't have a Plan B. Just kept trying to force it. When the bottom 6 made it 2-1, the Rangers could've been up 6-0 for the Grade A chances. Big trouble in Edmonton.

Fun story. Around 2009 I recall a "english isn't my 1st language" poster started a thread. By the time I saw it, as "crash" username I think, it was a page deep of ignorance about the poster being drunk or developmentally delayed. Let's just say, we're not like that anymore. That was pathetic. I'm mad that we never draft Finns. You guys are at the height of hockey. Do you go to games where you are?