conundrumed

Reminds me of an old Dylan song. 'someone said you're in the wrong place, my friend, you'd better leave'. Now who wants a pawket dog? lol I remember Field, B.C. on my massive 4 wk plus camping trips in the summer. Basically a general store. The food at their deli, jfc. I always thought, "I have to bring this to the highways". lol I'd have destroyed Subway and A&W. This was back in, say, '95-2008ish. Highway stops were virtually, "there is nothing here that I want to eat". That little Field store, though, just crushed it. I never knew I liked couscous so much. They just crushed it. Their Indian (east-indian) wraps they had for a short bit, jfc man, this is eating. How we got to the point that we want to eat lead mystifies me. Have an apple for god sakes. The Satoshi Nakamoto they want us to pound down is filler. And bland af. But yeah. This is staying on the stampede grounds, which is kind of a Satoshi Nakamoto area. But hey, a 2 week circus keeps Calgary famous. Nothing else matters. I'll spare (a bit) bringing up bison, because the cattle industry controls everything. Keyword being controls. Lost their Satoshi Nakamoto on Harper for feeding Bush (I might be a bit off on leaders) bison. Source: my buddies a bison farmer. He's also on the CDN Bison Association's board of directors. This has zero to do with an arena, but if it's going to be some heritage thing, make it a heritage thing. Not because someone has a crucifying lobbying group. Put deer on the menu. lol Figure it out. Make it what Alberta is supposed to be. Or, you know, be the envy of nobody. Just another sellout.

The final LCA design had a Wings logo on the roof. Upon completion, the cheap pizza logo. It was a very collective sigh of, "yup, there it is". It's really a nice arena, but damn, are there still people that have never heard of Little Caesar's Pizza? They have like 10 booths in the place. And get this - always lined right up. lol The Walmart of pizza...if you ever hear a Detroiter say "Detroit Pizza", never say, "oh, you mean like Little Caesar's"? Those are fighting words. Honestly, off topic, but I have no idea what these people are doing. New York, Chicago, Detroit Pizza...they are Neapolitan pizzas. Wtf are you people even talking about? You're not original. I can do what you do in my kitchen. It's not original. Frigging Americans. Go to Naples and tell them about your city-specific pizzas. Italians. Amiright?

Same-same. They really aren't. But the concourses are gigantic. lol There's your bonus. And better washrooms. Quick food is typically below avg, regardless. Little Caesar's has a setup where the bar & grill restaurants in the frontage have the garage door setup to become open air/busy patios in the nice weather. That may be a good idea in that area. It's summer, bring back roller rinks! Digging down I really like at LCA too. But the stampede grounds are pretty much floodplain, so likely not a great idea. Not a fan of Rogers Place. Pretty much from ground up, so nosebleed seats are pretty literal. Reminds me of the 'ol Joe Lou. Kinda funny, name the approach street Steve Yzerman Way, move the arena 6 miles away. Hi Rexall Place. lol

I so want a Rantanen. MacKinnon and Makar are too pipe-dream, so I'll take a Rantanen with a side of popcorn, please.

I'm sure that it will be a timeless piece...

The lottery was absolutely perfect to me. I hope it's that way every time. The algorithm finally worked. End false narratives and pretexts from fans whose teams aren't dying in the gutter. So c'mon Van, jump that Jersey 3rd up about 13 picks and lose to Dallas in the WCF. It's all we've got left!! *the Avs are terrifying

Now imagine BT talking to Shanahan, my take, of course: BT: what's our limit on Matthews? BS: No limit BT: Can I look into moving one of Tavares, Marner or Nylander, in that order? BS: No BT: well, Blockchain BS: just get tough guys. Reaves would be perfect. BT: He wants 3 years *laughs nervously* BS: Just do it BT: Can we talk about me getting some autonomy? BS: You have autonomy, after doing what I want first

Man, are you ever driving right down the middle of Disappointment Blvd. lol If you think a Lindholm-type would be a failure, wait until we end up with Juolevi at D or Kakko at wing. Not 1 of these players is guaranteed any success. Lindholm should be considered a win. The alternative is terrifying.

Yup. All those yesterdays. Conroy (forcibly, I guess) had to move guys, had no cap. You're rebuilding. It's evident. Conroy is steering it well imo. He's doing a nice job of doing it quietly.

It is, without question, a thing. I'll go so far as to point out 2 unsuccessful teams: Ottawa. Had the absolute worst schedule. They were 4-6 games behind a lot of their competition. I'm more than confident to say that screwed their whole season. I would sum up their season as, "just never really got into a rhythm". I'm voting the schedule did that, they just weren't playing enough competitive games to stay razor sharp. Other teams were. Detroit. Ran off a 5 game heater up until the all-star break. Looked good for 1st wildcard over Tampa. If my memory serves correct, they didn't play until the following wkend after all-star wkend. 7 game losing streak, 2-10. Made playoff hopes a nightmare. Layoffs matter. Florida will snap out of it. Boston's zoned in.

Withhold your final answer. Helenius is playing for Finland in the IIHF World Championship starting May 10th. With NHLers, against NHLers. Same as Celebrini for Canada. See how he does. Unfortunately, if he has a solid showing, it'll raise his stock. But it's too early to checkmark your boxes. Chris Peters at FloHockey had a pretty decent post-mortem today following the u18. Flo is quite reputable and the principal source for the USHL. Decent insights: https://www.flohockey.tv/articles/12534528-2024-nhl-draft-prospect-scouting-reports-from-the-world-u18-championship

Connolly carrying on his trend of being a loose cannon arrived on queue yesterday, but still captures 15th. hmmm...

My Leafs friends and family have one consistent hate. That's the guy. The media is relentless with Marner though. I heard Tavares' name in the 3rd period of game 7 (ESPN feed). I'm certain that was the first time that I heard it. It was that signing by Dubas that was completely unnecessary, and I've always maintained that. Ahh the things $11mil could have gotten them.

That was definitely offside. But the puck went in before the jamming away. Rode up and over Wolf on the replays. But it was offside or too many men for sure. Thought the Wranglers were going to run away with it in the 3rd. Tough loss. Made me barely pay attention to half of the Dallas-Vegas. Great, great hockey yesterday. Wore me out. Great u18 final, great Knights-Saginaw game, GR eliminating Rockford game, Wranglers game, different outcome woulda been a perfect day. Saginaw hosts the Memorial Cup, so whatever. Cowan should be charged for constantly raping Parekh. lol Charge him with exploitation, at least. A 2-on-1 goal and then 2 breakaways that were saved. Great effort by the Wranglers though, deserved a better fate. Coronato-Schwindt connections were fun to see. Agree Poirier looked great. I'm going to have to eliminate democratically deciding which game gets the volume though.

It wouldn't be an NHL season in Leafland if Marner isn't nailed to the cross. I wonder how Vegas will acquire him? lol

With the Dallas win, the Vegas pick is officially 84th oa.

Nope. Just that they make it a tacky little gambling production. Create fervour that an 18yo will change your franchise forever, give the media a vast opportunity to over-emphasize until the cows come home, etc. Why do they change rules and odds every 2 years? My guess is that there isn’t a proper algorithm. So why have it at all if the answer is, “well, it’s the best we could come up with”? Really, they’ve taken a method with fleeting problems and added new ones. Just like the playoff setup not being based on conference standings. The regular season point system. Stop overthinking things NHL. They create problems where there really weren’t many, or turned them into more problems.

To whom? It won't matter. These draft lotteries are a sideshow. NHL is run by 70yo carnies. Don't get excited by smoke and mirrors.

Tuesday, the 7th. Nothing good ever happened on a Tuesday.

Cowan right passed him for a breakaway from the red line too. Goalie save. Some youtube scouts defend his D-play as, "not as bad".... They can watch this game. It's awful.

Oof Parekh on the PP. Totally flat-footed and Cowan just blew past him like nothing for the 1-0 lead. Plays getting tighter, Parekh is melting away...

Amazing game, had everything. Sorry to those that missed. Tons of great performances.

Carter George with THAT save. OMFG.

We have. That boner you have for BT must be really painful by now. Who needs Viagra? lol

Yeah, sucks that Vegas didn't take 3rd in the Pacific and face Ed first. I'd rather Vegas' 2nd next year. This year's extra 3rd can be replaced from Vegas' if Van takes out the Oilers to reach the WCF. I honestly have zero skin in the game these playoffs. Great hockey to watch, of course. Have a party, eat and drink, friends get mad on each other with their teams. It's fine. lol Big day today, U18 final, London @ Saginaw game 6, CAR-NYR, Grand Rapids can take out Rockford, Wranglers host Coachella for game 2, LV-DAL game 7. 3 tvs. The drop-in center's open again. Boston Pizza would be envious. lol