shrader

Quite honestly, at this point, I think the conversation is mostly about a group of the most paranoid fans in the world who think everyone is out to get them. It's fitting that the X-Files is coming back soon.

Calgary sounded really loud last night too. There's definitely going to be a lot of energy in a few of those arenas.

But that's what plenz is fearing, Boston possibly having a 1% shot at McDavid. I'd come up with some witty comparison, but I can't think of any crazy scenarios that have a 1% chance of happening... maybe death by an inkman calf smothering?

I'm glad LA missed the playoffs. The regular season needs to mean something. You can't just coast your way through it and then turn it on in the playoffs.

Are people over there very surprised by his move? I heard a comment after they were bounced from the tourney that made me fully expect him to leave. He said something to the effect of "they will be back here", meaning back in the tourney again. The choice of words felt very awkward to me, like he went out of his way to say "they" instead of "we".

I don't know if it qualifies as awesome, but we got one hell of a thunderstorm last night. Within a five minute span, I saw at least 3 different ground strikes in the immediate area of our home. They were all off in a different direction, so this thing had us completely surrounded. The windows were shaking with the thunder. My wife wanted to go driving for dinner but I told her there's no way in hell we're running out into the driveway holding umbrellas while we can actually see lightning hitting the ground practically five houses away. Thank god for the downpour that came with it though. There was a disgusting amount of pollen out there and most of it is washed away now. There was so much of it that the flowing water in the street looked like green paint.

1%

I felt like I was watching bizarro hockey last night. North Dakota is almost always a huge team that relies heavily on one smaller skilled guy (Parise). That team was fast as hell. That was always BU's style, at least up until 2008 or so. Oh, and Buccigross should not be allowed to call hockey games. He got really bad towards the end of the game with the constant screaming any time North Dakota crossed the blue line. I'll give him a pass since it is pure emotion (unlike, say, Jack Edwards), but he doesn't have the polish required to do play by play.

For the first time in my life, I have actually witnessed someone arguing with pictures of bunnies. Actually, it reminds me a bit of PPP over at the Bills board.

Just for the record, Matt Lane on BU is a Rochester kid.

So that shot must be what had Greer as a possible first round pick before the season started. Man that 3rd goal was a cannon

Even if you go with an unweighted 50% chance of a win/50% chance of a loss approach*, you're still going to come up with a very miniscule chance of the Islanders missing the playoffs. *I have no idea how you adjust these numbers to factor in the chances of a 3 point game.

For the first time in what, 40 years?

Your first two points can probably be compressed into just one with larger nets. They goalies will argue about safety issues with the pads, so they should just skip right to the bigger nets. It has the same intended purpose, giving the shooter more to shoot at. I've been pushing that idea for a while now. Today's players are snipers, even the weaker ones, give them more to shoot at and they'll hit it. I've also liked your 3rd proposal for a while. THe problem though is that if they can't get the puck out of the zone by icing it, they'll put it into the benches instead. College experimented with it and that's exactly what happened. If you want to account for that issue, I think the league needs to expand the "no line changes on icing" rule. Don't let them change after any unnatural stoppage of play. If you put the puck out of play, if you take a penalty, if you are whistled for offside... you don't get to change. Just imagine the scenario where a defenseman takes a penalty and you are faced with a shorthanded faceoff in your own zone with 3 forwards and one defenseman. Things will get interesting. The last point might make sense in an ideal world, but it can never be implemented. There's too much human error involved in the process.

Are you guys seriously falling for this act?

They're still mastering cave drawings up in Canada.

I was hoping for more, that's all. You post a video, it's open for discussion. Seasons 2 and 3 start kind of slow, but they pick up towards the end. If you do plan on sticking with it, you're probably going to want to start watching the Flash as well. I'll warn you right now, don't do that until you finish the second season of Arrow. Flash (season 1) and Arrow (season 3) run pretty much in parallel. There are occasional crossovers which can be spoilers if you get too far ahead in one show vs. the other. If you do wind up watching both, watch one episode of each at a time. The most recent preview they just put out there for the Flash actually spoils a major plot point in Arrow which hasn't actually aired yet. You probably got out at the right time. For those who can't suspend disbelief, the second and third seasons will push you over the edge.

That was pretty weak. I kept hoping for at least one good one, but it didn't happen.

So a coach who is dead last in the league suing after being fired? I'd love to see the reaction from the judge on that one.

I'll admit it, I had to stop and think who the Pigeons were for a few seconds. I'm not used to seeing them being given a nickname in this thread.

There had been a lot of talk in recent weeks about how their won't be a 100 point scorer in the NHL. I hadn't looked at the scoring leaders in a while, but this morning I noticed that unless a miracle happens, there won't even be a 90 point scorer. That's shockingly low. And Holtby just completed a shutout of the entire season series against Boston last night. I bet I know who they'd love to see in the playoffs.

A few years back, a guy grabbed my shoulder and tackled me while I was about to fly past him for a breakaway. He caught me at an angle and I wound up twisting my knee pretty badly. It wound up as a sprained MCL and a meniscus tear. It was probably very minor. I had the knee scoped and maybe 90 days later I was back on the ice playing. That kind of ruined beer leagues for me, at least out in Boston. Guys took it way too seriously and I really wasn't interested in playing much anymore and risking surgery simply because some 50-something thinks he still has a shot at the NHL.

We are talking about an additional 1% chance in the lottery here. That's not going to put anyone over the top in the sweepstakes.

I don't know if I've ever seen something so beautiful as those 80s in the games played column. It's so close now. We can finally get back to caring about hockey again.

I haven't checked these out in a while. It's amazing to see how the Sabre and Leaf lines have been nearly parallel for quite a while now.