Sabel79

The San Jose whites are really, really nice.

I've long wondered if she's not doing some sort of long game Andy Kauffman thing. I worry that she is not. She's quite good at getting the lowest common denominator to pay attention to her. On either side. Best avoided.

I'd go so far as to say that we would not under any circumstances have won independence without France. It was France's navy that kept the British presence here small, French military expertise and indeed "boots on the ground" that turned the war in our favor. Rochambeaux took more troops to the field at Yorktown than Washington did, and of course there was Lafayette. Why the narrative has changed so much over the years I can only surmise, but there should be no doubt that there is no other nation so closely aligned with us, and yes it's cut both ways.

Related note: I hate Jack Edwards so so so so so so so much.

Which is exactly how I was thinking about it.

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, another goal off Eichel's stick! And I'm just going to back out slowly now...

In the first instance, "simulation," which is the FIFA rule book name for diving, is a cautionable (yellow card) offense. The problem is that refereeing, even at the highest level, is almost uniformly awful, and very few have the stones to cal, it. At best you get a dismissive "get up" motion and it goes on from there. In the instances where they do pull up the play and show the card, everyone goes bananas and it's dissected ad naseum by the press. Reinforcing that it's just not worth a ref's time to do anything about it. There are also retrospective punishments for diving possible, but it depends on the referee's report. It the ref says he saw an incident and believes he handled it appropriately, then it's over. He has to say that upon watching it again he'd have handled it differently for there to be action after the fact. Not a perfect system by a long shot. No equivalent to the shanaban, unfortunately...

Ah, the Nintendo Cereal System. Fighting back the tears as the 80's nostalgia washes over me. What in the world were my parents thinking? That stuff was straight sawdust rolled in sugar. Colored red. Like most breakfast cereal, I suppose...

Depends, is there a "Gong Show" reboot in the works?

He really scared me with that late in the game. He came a long way out to challenge and the Isles forward dumped the puck to the far wall. Took him ages to get over, had there been someone there to collect it there was an open goal for what seemed like forever.

I'd be surprised if someone (rhyming with "Marvey") isn't moved here shortly. Going forward with the other four, barring any further injuries and the return that the high priest of Qulacomm could bring if handled correctly, added to the money that isn't paid to Murphy and perhaps Cespedes there's room to bring in a bat or two. Let Conforto stay in left, squeeze another year out of Granderson, Lagares in center. Infield: Duda, Insert 2nd Baseman Here, Flores and Wright. D'Arnaud behind the plate. Still not too shabby. There's still room and money for incoming improvement. So I suppose we shall see.

If you had told me in July that the Mets were going to the playoffs, never mind the World Series, I'd have laughed until I cried. And then I'd have cried for quite some time after that because the Mets. Amazing season, fine margins dictated who won the series. I'm optimistic as to next year. The rotation should be killer, a dump truck full of money will hopefully be driven to Cespedes' house to convince him to stay, Murphy will be playing absolutely anywhere else. Should be fun to see what happens. Oh, crap. I'm optimistic about the Mets. Having horrific flashbacks to 1992 which was the last time that happened...

For those that were there, Is the Barclay's Center the mausoleum it seemed to be on TV? Just curious. Might have been the less than firewagon nature of the game being played and the conflict with the Mets last night as well. First Isles game I've watched this year, and after reading about all the complaints about the building (obstructed seats for the most part) from fans, and staring at the stupid car in the corner, it seems a less than ideal setting for a game.

It depends upon what you mean by "this." What is it you're looking to prosecute for? Filing a false police report? The claims were taken seriously enough to be investigated, and the decision not to go forward was (I'm assuming from what I've read and the scant facts contIned therein) one of prosecutorial discretion. There's a lot of gray area between "I can't prove this beyond a reasonable doubt" and "outright lie." Everyone would do well to remember this. That, and the aforementioned scant nature of any available facts. I guess if the accuser came forward and confessed to making it all up you'd have that much, maybe obstruction of justice or the NY equivalent, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Perjury? Has the accuser made any statement under oath? Is anything the accuser said under oath demonstrably and beyond a shadow of a doubt untrue? Again, not being sure how exactly the process works in NY; I can only extrapolate from my state and surmise that no sworn statements or testimony were given prior to any formal proceeding in a felony case, so another non-starter. Could Kane sue civilly? This is America and anyone can sue anyone else for any reason. I'd be willing to bet his attorneys advise him against it if he's thinking about it.

Grantland was a shining beacon of sports journalism. ESPN is, unfortunately, not in that business. Simmons got axed because he dared question the GIANT conflict of interest between the NFL and ESPN's coverage of it. And dozens of contributors must now pay for it, almost none of whom had anything to do with it. After they decided to pretend hockey no longer existed, there was this one tendril keeping my interest. Now it's dead...

Just finished watching the game on delay. Fantastic win. Forgive me if this has been covered, but 5 and a game for Gorges there at the end? Really? What in the world? Sentence ending with question mark? Tim Peel is worse than (insert disease here). That is all.

Making the net bigger, depending on how you do it, might be a bigger safety concern. The crossbar gets any higher and you'll see a bunch of guys take pucks to the general head and face area on a more and more frequent basis. They'd have to insert a handball-style crease, nobody but the goalie goes in. Making it wider and leaving it at that would, I suppose, cancel that concern out. Not sure it's workable, IMHO.

It did provide us with that priceless moment where we got to watch Ray's face as he covered his mic while Lindy and Bryan Murray loudly traded very rude statements in the aftermath of Neil on Drury... Hard to fathom that was almost nine years ago.

So, Roanoke, VA is getting a hockey team back. Southern Hockey League. This, in and of itself, is awesome, since the only hockey we have to watch live at present is Virginia Tech club hockey. Hockey, is my point. Making it more awesome are the majority owners bringing the franchise in, one Bob McGinn and his three hockey playing sons; Brock, Tye, and yes, indeed the Sabres' own Jamie. Small world and whatnot. http://www.roanoke.com/opinion/editorials/our-view-how-roanoke-got-hockey-back/article_bb4170f3-77ae-5b58-bb83-86320095c7bd.html

At the cost of a second-round pick, no less. What in the world? Maybe his act plays better in Cbus, but I highly doubt it.

That there has been progress is not really up for debate. Yet, I'm still seeing Joe McGrath style "WE'RE LOSING!!!!" freak outs. Not limited to here and not calling anyone out. It's been five games. Game five was tons better than game one. It'll come together.

I've wondered if the merciful end of the tank and the arrival of Eichel, Kane, O'Riley et. al. might just lead to fan meltdown when the team didn't turn into the '87 Oilers immediately. The team is so, so much better than it's been. Baby steps. If we're still looking at 1.8 goals per game come the spring then I think it'll be worth asking some pointed questions. I do not for one second think it'll come to that.

I am deathly afraid, no matter how this season ends, that the Mets (or someone else) are going to pay Daniel Murphy an ungodly amount of money, and he'll go back to being a one-man Keystone Kops routine immediately thereafter. Definitely enjoying his contribution now, though.

Bonus points for Apple TV and connected iOS devices; GCL on the iPad puts the replay up immediately (albeit with commercials, but there's a fast forward button for a reason) so no waiting for the upload of the edited version, same picutre quality. Found out GCL is no longer supported by my Sony Blu-Ray player though. So no games in the bedroom for me. Wait, that's terrible...

I actually had to turn the Edmonton game off upon hearing the Sportsnet crew have to excuse themselves to change their drawers when McDavid appeared to make some effort to get back on defense at one point in the second period. I think the words "there's the greatness of McDavid" were actually uttered. I mean for the love of god or whatever... And don't get me wrong, if anyone had started that crap about Eichel I'd be vomiting in my mouth just as much... (Except for the goal. You know, THAT goal). I haven't heard RJ or anyone else do it though, which is nice...