shrader

I'd gladly have millions of reasons to doubt my decision making for the rest of my life.

I went to the one where we picked Kalinin, which must have been the year Lecavalier went #1. We (my brother and I) didn't even make it until the Sabres pick and instead caught it on the radio on the ride home. The only fun stuff was outside, anything inside the arena was a complete waste of time.

Bring a pillow.

It's a shame that the Isles don't have another 2015 lottery pick to send us for Stewart.

Did anyone at any point, even right when the deal was made, expect him to stick with St. Louis next year? The conference finals were always our only hope of getting that first round pick.

Why is he one of the hot GM prospects anyway? If this team failed under Shero's watch, Botterill couldn't have been doing all that much either. Then again, several teams have passed on him already, so maybe he's not the future GM that some like to make him out as.

I see that Grigorenko turned 20 this past week. I couldn't help but thing that this is the guy so many are ready to write off already, a kid that just turned 20? There's so much time left for this kid to get on the right track. They wasted a couple contract years, but there's plenty left for him. If nothing else, we'll get a much cheaper 2nd contract than if he was just starting at year 1 right now.

And baby eating, everyone enjoys that.

I'm almost willing to give them a pass on 2004 since they pulled the 0-3 comeback against the Yankees, but yes, like CV said, they've broken out that chant at each of the world series parades. It's something that permeates every level of sports here. Go to a BU or BC hockey game while they're playing someone like UNH or Maine and you will see/hear plenty of "Sucks to BU" or "BC sucks". That's another complaint of mine for any of these rivalries (and I'm not limiting this to Boston here). Can we please come up with something more creative than saying that team X or player Y sucks? It's gotten beyond the point of lazy.

I'd much rather see someone indulge in a rivalry a bit while they're wearing a shirt for their own team, not something that bashes the other team. It's definitely more from the bandwagon variety of fans, but you'll see plenty of people who are only there to hate on the other team. They can't name the starting SS but they do know that the Yankees suck. My personal favorite was one Sabres-Bruins game I was at. The entire time this idiot behind me is giving me crap because of my Sabres jersey. At one point in the 2nd period, I hear him ask his buddy "hey, why do they sell foam bear claws here, that doesn't make any sense".

How bad are we really? Can you walk out of a game and find a rack full of shirts that say "Yankees suck... Jeter swallows", "Beat LA", "Payton Manning's gay", "Eli Manning's gay", or something anti-Montreal (I forget what that one says)? Yeah, we truly are a pathetic fanbase.

I initially noticed the headbutt to his face, but the more I see it, that probably just caught visor. So you're probably right on the crosscheck.

I think he sums it up pretty well. The reactions we are seeing are not just about the handshake line but about his career as a whole. He has no respect for anyone out there.

Well Kazakhstan is the greatest country in the world. All other countries are run by little girls.

It's a nice simple way of passing the decision off to someone else. If Bylsma goes on to successfully coach somewhere else after the new GM fires him, the president can claim it wasn't his call.

Funny enough, Lucic was one of very few that Briere didn't say a word to. He was the end of the line though, so I'd imagine Lucic just wanted out at that point and kept some distance from everyone.

Maybe that's why we keep striking all of their training camps.

This was going to be my response when I started reading this discussion. It is very hard to build up some depth when you have two guys who average out to a cap hit over $9 million. And the $7.25 million to Letang tightens the noose a bit more. That's not to say that it can't be done, but the tighter cap space magnifies any other mistake you might make while building that team, like, say, locking up a dud of a goalie for $5 million a year. I heard a comment from a Pittsburgh reported on XM's NHL station the other day stating that not only does Malkin have his no trade clause, but he also has no interest in playing anywhere but Pittsburgh. He'd rather go back to Russia than be moved. Obviously there are limits to a statement like that, but it sure as hell will make any team thing twice before even starting trade negotiations. edit: And as for the comparisons to Chicago that have been thrown out there, we'll see what happens there starting this offseason. Kane and Toews are both due for hefty raises and they'll no doubt be right up there near the Crosby/Malkin money.

The maturity is so glaringly obvious right now. Just look at those interviews. He almost looks psychic with his "we want to win this our way" comments after game 6. Lucic's antics put that one on prime display.

You really have to question keeping him in the lineup. No matter how much of a fight he put up, Coyle couldn't have been much of an asset to his team in that condition. And unrelated to the NHL playoffs, where was all that fire when he was at BU? he was a total bust there. Oh what should have been.

Wow, some people are completely clueless, aren't they. I'm still ridiculously guarded with what I say to my wife. Even something so little as calling it "your moms house" instead of "your parents house" has me worried.

My personal favorite is the contradictory message we are sent almost daily. First it'll be "you really need to save for a house", then the next sentence is "now let's go shopping for some new curtains for your apartment since those old ones aren't the right color".

The point is that he's an idiot. There's no way he would come up with something even the least bit creative. "You suck" is the limit of his imagination.

That 2006-07 season really was a blast. Forget for a second all that talk about how people knew they weren't built for the playoffs. We got to watch 6 months straight of high scoring hockey with plenty of last second heart attack inducing comebacks. I would gladly take another extended period of fun hockey like that at any point.

Yep, everywhere I look now... babies. The wife and I aren't getting that push much right now, but we constantly harassed by her mother about buying a house. Right now she's practically ordering my wife to go look at a house that's not even on the market. What exactly does that accomplish? We'll do a drive by and learn that the house is white. That's a great use of my free time. The market out here is ridiculously overpriced. Anything decent starts at $400k. I'm not going to move on anything until I know the finances are in a very good place. I'm not going to rush into a down payment that completely drains every penny and a monthly mortgage payment that burns up our entire salary. And on that note, a complaint from me. I was looking at house listings randomly this week and I found a newly listed house that just went on the market at a surprisingly low price. Everything looked good on this one, a little on the small side, but recently renovated and had a huge yard. The first open house was scheduled for this upcoming sunday so we were going to go. Today I find out that the house is already gone. Damn people move fast.