shrader

So I’m not the only one who was thinking it. Good to know.

Whether or not the team makes the playoffs and whether or not the team thinks they can make the playoffs... those are two very different things

I'm on board for pretty much all of this, except I'm not moving Beaulieu. We all still have nightmares of a lack of D depth during the playoffs. The only way they get to the point of moving someone like him is if they're writing off the season. But it really doesn't matter though as I don't believe for a second they'll do any of this. Wilson probably is the one wild card for replacing Elie though. But then again, he's already cleared waivers, so there's no rush there. If I'm moving Elie, I'd rather use that to give a kid or two a shot, but again, I just don't believe it will happen.

At least next month is short. So I had a really weird encounter yesterday at the gym. This guy was walking around the locker room wearing a jacket and no pants, talking to himself. He just kept wondering around the whole room, basically walking laps. He then walked out of the room... still not wearing pants. I have no idea where it went from there.

I don't want to live in a world where that reference is obscure. I think you're wrong on that one.

The don't have the roster flexibility right now to call anyone up. As long as the want to keep a stiff like Hunwick around to avoid losing a draft pick, they'll never have the open roster slot. In order to make that space, they have two options: 1. Waive someone. 2. Send down one of the non-waiver eligible guys They have no shown any signs of being the least bit interested in either of these options. As long as they insist on carrying 8 defenseman thanks to Hunkwick, you can forget about one of those forwards getting their shot. They're not going to waive Elie no matter how rarely they use him and they're not going to send down either Thompson or Mittelstadt. The most likely move, one that people around here would hate would be to send Pilut back down. So that leaves the Amerks with one avenue for a recall... injuries.

Well you made a long journey from Milan to Minsk, Rickard Rakell

Due to my refusal to visit twitter, I'm just going to go ahead and assume you don't want to offend our militant vegan. I'm not naming names, but let's just call him/her "inkman".

One certain person? Do we have a militant vegan on the board?

But again, I'm not really sure how this is "around the NHL".

I'm not sure how you're reading it that way. It was a jab at all religion in general, not just one.

So I take it that nothing is actually happening around the NHL

Top in rank maybe, but he was never the important one. Go back to the original movies. The emperor is always the top bad guy, but Vader was the one everyone cared about. Hell, technically Star Wars did exactly what you're saying. The emperor wasn't really a part of that one (was he even mentioned? I forget). Fran Moff Tarkinton was in charge in that one and he dies with the Death Star.

That and Syracuse isn't paying me any money.

"proud parent of gatorrific". Read it fast. I'm guessing Florida never tried to combine gator and terrific when describing their football team.

An entire movie that consisted of a super slow space race... except for a pointless side plot at a space casino.

And who doesn't love Dolph Lundgren?

I saw a bumper sticker in the parking garage this morning that said "proud parent of <insert school name here> gatorrific". I'm not quite sure the school fully thought out that slogan (not that there's anything wrong with that).

And no one can hold that pick against them. Blame their player development, fine, but Yakopov was the consensus number one. Every single other team would have taken him there. Lookin back at that draft, it’s just crappy in general. Who is the best there, Forsberg at 11? Just a bad draft in general.

You say that now, but just wait until you’re mid-drink and you read a Trade proposal from the Wookiee or that new guy.

Send them Skinner <ducks for cover>

Nope, there aren't any jokes to be had in this one. Not a single one. But anyway, we had a screen porch installed last spring and I'm not finding out that there are a ton of seams that need to be caulked. The guy who installed it said I only needed to get a few spots, but now after a bit of settling, I can see that I need to do a lot more. I've done about a quarter of it so far. It's not tough, just a bit of a tedious procedure. Hopefully we'll have a warm weekend or two in the next few weeks and I can finish it.

Might want to spin this one off somewhere else before it goes off the rails (if it hasn't already) and gets ugly.

It's not completely unheard of though. Sometimes players just aren't a fit with their college team, leave, then go on to better things. The ones who pull it off tend to head to major junior instead, at least the ones who I am thinking of off the top of my head. If the kid is by some chance a late bloomer, the team at least has the luxury to sit back and let it play out, not being the least bit rushed. So say he does sign on with a new school and thrives there, that puts him at 22 if/when he graduates. CJ Smith was 22 when we signed him and people seem to think he's got a shot. I don't mean to compare the two players at all here. Smith is just the first example that comes to mind of a guy coming along at an older age. Murray was 19 when his time at Penn State came to and end. I don't think he's got much of a shot, but I wouldn't rule it out completely. We were all ready to write off another guy from that draft when he was 19 too.

They're very different up there. They know who their locals are and they very loyal, especially when it comes to guys with ties with their junior teams.