shrader

The crazy cat lady from the Office? That's what you get for messing with Dwight Schrute.

That scrawny freshman year, he was still probably right around the average age of an NCAA player. I'm not so crazy about direct comparisons between that list of players because they're all very different. That's the same reason why I'm not crazy about this conversion factor for point prediction. One single number attached to every single player, it's incredibly crude. Physics is usually the guy who throws them out all the time, right? What exactly is it predicting, point totals from day one or something further down the line in the player's career? I'm not trying to tear apart this signing though, I like when they go this route. These older guys are going to be a bit more developed at day one and can probably perform in a fill in role fairly quickly. They're usually a bit closer to their ceiling already though. It still feels odd to me to call someone who is only 23 old, but that's how things are today when talking about guys starting their first pro season. With these types of players, I'd say that reasonable hopes are for a 3rd-4th line guy. Now if you want to talk reasonable expectations, I'd have to aim lower than that.

"Usually" probably isn't the right choice of words. This is a practice that has existed for all of two years at this point, isn't it? I don't remember ever hearing it in the NHL up until they started drafting the first 3 slots.

I added in an important detail. Everyone of those guys is going to have at least one season that doesn't look like the others. I'm too lazy to look them up, but I know for sure there's one hell of an outlier for Rodrigues.

What good to no-call lists do for out of country auto-dialer numbers? The number I see isn't the real number anyway, so there's nothing to turn in.

If Roddy Piper starts telling me to put on a pair of sunglasses, I'm out of here.

I'm at the point where I don't care anymore who has my phone number. I still have a Buffalo area code but haven't lived there for ages now. Anyone from that area who would call me, I already have their number. The vast majority of spam calls spoof the line to say it is coming from 716. I see that area code pop up from an otherwise unknown number, I know not to answer it. Anything else is usually from an obvious area code that I would never be getting calls from. Now I know this doesn't work so well for people who actually live within their area code, but it's great for me. But yeah, I still don't hand out the number recklessly. But then again, why should I think that Verizon hasn't done so already?

There's apparently some rumblings among the college folks that Wahlstrom will not be going to Harvard. That could take care of that whole thing about there not being too many guys who leave there early.

Would you happen to know if the goal credited to a team that wins in a shootout is included in those goals/game stat? I know at some point the NHL used to include those when they displayed their standings, but I have no idea if they ever changed that.

Oh, I'm sorry, I accidentally left the bobble head under my seat. Now if you don't mind, I'd prefer if you never come anywhere near my desk ever again.

I don't care what he means to the organization, I will never understand sticking with the 40+ year old when you have your heir apparent in place, especially when it goes against every single other move you've ever made. So from that point of view, it really should never have been a "he's going to walk anyway" scenario. But speaking of mediocrity, here's to wishing much worse than that upon New England.

Amen to that. So many people today have no idea how to deal with an opposing point of view and are so quick to respond with hostility. Learning to get past that is key for any community out there. I'm sure I've done the same plenty of times, but I'm trying to listen to people as much as possible in hopes of understanding where they're coming from*. If they truly are on a completely different page than me and it's clear that's not going to change, I'm going to steer clear as much as possible. *Except for NS, that guy's a clown. :P

You can see his skate go back and to the left.

Any update on that forensic analysis of Matt Cooke's actions?

It would be kind of funny to see it happen though. The Patriots had a fully developed backup QB and then they traded him for a 2nd round pick. Then they turn around and trade a boat load of picks and players to get the next guy to develop? It doesn't really seem like a great use of assets to me.

I like to play it a different way: blindly read the post and try to figure out who it is without looking at the username. It used to work well, but right now I don't have any F'n clue who a lot of people are.

I think what you’re describing here is simply a product of numbers. There are so many more people over there so it’s going to be much easier to blend in there. That said, there definitely have been people here who generally have no idea how to communicate with other people. Some are gone, some still remain. With so few people in comparison, those post stick out.

Butting of heads is healthy. If you show me a place where everyone agrees on everything, I’ll show you the most boring place on earth.

It’s pretty much a case of lashing out at the most recent person who makes a comment. As I said earlier, drain poisoned the waters here (in so many ways, but just with JW). It’s natural to second guess a poster’s thoughts thanks to all of that. And beyond here, imagine getting those reactions practically anywhere you go. Again, it’s natural to snap back at that.

Your analogy only works if the friends at the bar are pointing and laughing at the guy constantly.

Donato is the most recent. I'd say it's pretty rare though. The only big case of "leaving early" that I can think of was when Louis Leblanc went 1st overall and then only lasted at Harvard for 1 year before jumping to the Q. That was a case where he didn't seem to fit there all that well.

I think the two of you could sort it out if given the chance. The petty pile on of inside jokes from others runs it completely off the rails. It turns into nothing more than people blindly defending one of their own. There's no way an outsider/casual poster can ever cut through all of that. I'll echo all of this. There's value to be added here if both sides can move past a few things.

What makes you think they don't? I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't any here since it's a relatively small board, but I'll pretty much guarantee that there are some over at TSW. I had a friend in the college hockey media. It was a fun day when I learned the anonymous usernames for a lot of their writers over on another board. I had many interactions with those people over the years and I never even knew it.

As long as they don't force feed it to me, people can like whatever food they damn well please.

It's not so much this thread, you're right. The water was poisoned a long time ago with the posts from drain. I wish people could take a step back and start over, but that ship has sailed. There's been a mass exodus on this board and I can speak first hand when I say that a lot of this kind of stuff is a big reason why. People will blame the crappy hockey, but there's more to it than that.