Drunkard

Milwaukee's Best Ice usually which runs a little over $6.00 a 12 pack so you're looking at 50 cents a beer. In the stadium I usually get double cans of Labatt Blue for either $10 or $12 I can't really remember. I guess that's not a horrible price considering they are 24 ounces but I typically double fist my beers in order to cut down on trips to the line so I'm looking at $20 or $24 each time I get in line plus whatever I'm buying for the woman when she comes along with me.

Sadly I won't be here for this game. Had to go out and celebrate a buddy's birthday recently and spent more money than I should have so I have opted to stay home and watch this ###### show on tv where beers run me about 50 cents each instead of $10.

Good to hear, sir. Personally I like to think of it as rooting for the Islanders to lose rather than rooting for the Canes to win. It may just be semantics but it makes me feel less dirty.

I hope by red you're referring to the alternate jersey during the goathead era and you don't actually own Canes gear. Or perhaps it's just a white t-shirt that's been stained bright red with the blood of past rape and pillaging events?

Moulson for goals and Hodgson for points.

I don't think I was one of them but I'm guessing the sentiment comes from the feeling that there will be more teams in a race to the bottom from anybody who voted that way on purpose. I think GMs whose teams get off to bad starts will embrace tanking earlier this year than in years past in order to boost their lottery chances and avoid getting short changed for their rentals at the deadline. I imagine way more sellers than previous years and less bubble teams willing to put up picks and prospects to try to make a run this season.

Kyle Orton's mustache can beat the Patriots all on its own. Even without the polyester suit he stole from some Dirty Harry extra. I'm not worried.

Exactly. Even tailgating at Sabres games in NC you'll see guys wearing Bills jerseys who are probably still looking for Peca and Hasek on the ice. An out of touch quasi-Sabres fan is still infinitely better than a knowledgeable Canes fan though.

In that case we should find a way to draft McDavid and/or Eichel. I hear those guys are pretty good.

Better to be a hypocrite than to have to stare at that toilet bowl logo even more than you already have to. To each his/her own though I guess.

I was originally gonna go to this game but my buddy who was gonna buy the tickets said it fell through. Apparently he wanted to experience the Chet and Muffy experience in the 200's and he found tickets for like $20 each but the guy contacted him and said it was an error in his price listing. It's probably all for the best though. $10+ beers for a preseason game is a little to rich for my budget these days anyway.

We're in reality. Nobody (or at least most of us) think if we win the division that we're bonified contenders with the Seahawks and Broncos but after 15 or so years without playoffs we'll definitely take it. I'll be happy to see us kick the Patriots* when they are down, because they had no problem doing the same to us for years. I've never had any faith in Manuel but his play was atrocious and it was time for him to take a seat on the bench. Putting Orton in gives us a chance to see if Manuel was holding back the offense or if Hackett needs to be shown the door as well. Personally, I don't care for Hackett's offense at this point but if Orton can make it look fairly competent against the (currently) top rated defense then I'd give him the benefit of the doubt and put more of the blame on Manuel.

I cancelled Center Ice on Friday for the first time since I've had Directv (2006). Part of it was frustration that outside of the year they had their dust up with Versus they never seemed to offer discounts for the package. Plus they didn't broadcast several of their preseason games so far, forcing me to find an illegal stream online. We already have a laptop with a busted screen hooked up to the plasma in the living room so I figured I'd save myself $160 and stream all the games with illegal feed. I still plan on watching every game, although I may miss a couple here and there when more important stuff pops up.

Glad to hear Orton is getting the nod. I agree with the sentiment that the locker room played a part in this. All the beatings our receivers were taking from EJ hanging them out to dry on passes along with the offense sputtering out in general had to take its toll. Time to find out if Manuel was holding the offense back or if Hackett just plain sucks. I have a feeling it's going to look much improved despite facing the top defense on the road next week.

I definitely agree with this. Most mutual funds are unable to outperform their target index and the majority of the remaining ones that do actually don't perform them when you subtract out their fees from your overall return. You're better off over time just buying the market index funds with the dirt cheap management fees.

If we kept either of them I'd choose Stewart over Stafford since he has more edge to his game but in a perfect world we can get a 1st round pick for each of them at the deadline as long as it doesn't become a total buyers market like last year. My fear is that nobody is willing to pony up for rentals because of the strength of this year's draft. I guess we'll see.

That's good of them. I didn't know they did that either. I have USAA for car insurance and home insurance but I don't do any banking with them. I bank with Navy Federal Credit Union and they've increased my credit limits every time I've asked them to but have never done it automatically. I got my first credit card at 18 though and started with a $500 limit.

Having a lot of unused credit actually helps your score as long as you actually use the cards periodically. Ideally you want to keep your utilization percentage under 20% but still active. People running your credit just take a snap shot of how much is currently charged not actual carryover balances. So even if you have the card paid off on the 15th of each month if they run your credit on the 13th and you have $3,000 charged against a $5,000 limit it shows up as a 60% utilization rate (bad) where if they ran it on the 16th you'd have a much lower utilization assuming you paid off your statement charges (amounts they actual start charging you interest on). I have 2 cards and basically charge all of my household bills against them so I applied for higher limits for my cards to ensure I stay below the 20% threshold with my general bills. If I make a large purchase by credit card though my credit score takes a small dip until I pay it off by the next billing cycle.

I'm not interested in handing the Browns a top 5 or top 10 pick. Any way you slice it, the offense looks putrid with Manuel under center. I'm not a fan of Hackett by any stretch but it seems like we should put Orton in to see if the problem lies solely with EJ or if we need to replace Hackett as well. Our defense and special teams is performing good enough for this team to be in the hunt for a wild card late in the season. Manuel was a project QB when he was drafted and it may be best to let him learn on the bench. If Orton plays well we keep him playing and begin the hunt for a new replacement. If he flops or is mediocre we find a new veteran, replace Hackett, and let Manuel compete to start next season.

Ok so say he's willing to take $25 million over 5 years. Do you sign him then? What type of contract would you offer him that you think he'd actually be willing to sign?

He's currently 28 years old and he already makes 4 million a season. He's going to expect a raise if he's having a good season. Free agents always get over paid and given his age this would be his last chance to really cash in. Given his history of performing in contract years I'd sell them off to the highest bidder in a heart beat.

Ok, so let's say Stafford has another good contract season and with a week to go before the deadline he's sitting on something like 26 goals and 20 assists. What type of contract do you offer him and what do you do if he asks for something like 30 million over 5 or 6 years?

We don't. I want all the picks in the first round. With Murray going to the podium as GM the first round of the draft will only take about 6 minutes.

I'm all in on the tank so I'd prefer him and Stafford to play well then get moved for good assets while seeing the Sabres bottom out for one more season. This is supposed to be an amazing draft so I want as many early picks as possible.

Hopefully he keeps it up during the regular season and we can move him for a good prospect or a first round pick from some bubble team that ends up bombing during the final stretch making the pick better than expected.