LTS

If the NHL wanted to keep pucks out of the stands they would have put the netting all the way around. A penalty doesn't protect the fans. It's still a penalty if you flip it into the netting area. They don't want players putting the puck over the glass on purpose. Why are we even having this conversation? Because one player tipped a mid-air puck and it went out of play? Guess he should have used his hand. Had he hit someone in the face with his stick it would have been a penalty even if he didn't mean it. Let's see if the Pens have an answer for Brian Boyle.

I predict that by 6/1 everyone will realize just how much Fat Tire sucks as a beer. Kind of like when Shiner Bock arrived. The world was aflutter... and then... "meh". Had Sam Adams Nitro Series White Ale... like a freakin' coriander orange milkshake. HOOOOOLY COW. I want to nitro a witbier soon.

What I've learned after going more than a month with the cabinet empty? The first bottle you get will taste amazing and you'll drink too much of it that night. :) Wife grabbed Knob Creek, 9yr, 100 proof. I felt good.

I'm not going to judge anyone specifically on this topic. I think it's plausible the NHL may have some influence on these decisions. I have some thoughts that might have gone into the decision.. I don't lend them any merit other than brainstorming. Charging keeps the typical "tail-gater fan" out of the draft. This potentially leads to a more controlled crowd on TV which translates into a better image for Buffalo. Charging keeps Toronto fans from taking over the arena. Charging brings even more money in from Toronto fans who were going to show up anyway. I dunno. Personally, I don't like it. Recouping the costs to host it? Then don't host it.

First - thanks for the kind words on the photo. Second - this thread will make the entire off-season tolerable. There is a lot of great stuff in here! Third - I was never too crazy about shooting in RAW if only because of the size of the files. But that lightroom conversion sold me. I might be going that route (and cheap memory cards now). Love this thread. A few more.. these are from some time back...

Okay, let's give it a shot..

This conversation happened similarly when discussing Brad Marchand and similar things were said and I hardly believed they were absurd or intentionally ridiculous. I guess absurd would be hoping for something that does not routinely happen in hockey like knee injuries, etc. I completely understand why people do it... just making a plea to rise above it. I'm not overly concerned if they do it... it's all good.

A nice hobby and a great idea for a thread... most of my stuff is not processed other than some quick light balancing, etc. But why not share. The question is... what site is a good place to load the pictures to make sharing the photo via the link easier? Google Photos appears to not allow it.

I don't like the Bruins, Leafs, Flyers, etc. I don't want them to win. I want them to lose, all the time. That's different than coming onto a forum and posting how much you hope Matthews gets injured just because the team you dislike won the lottery and you're all flavors of upset because two years in a row your team did not. Had the Sabres won the lottery, if you would have said the same thing about Matthews then fine... but I think that's completely suspect. The kid has no control over who ends up winning the lottery. As to your second point, I will counter with. It's Toronto. :)

I just read this thread while eating lunch. Bad move.

Let's put that in the Chopped mystery ingredients and see if it's true.

It's not about caring. It's about choosing to move yourself forward as opposed to hold someone back. Why wish ill against someone else when you could just wish good on those you want to succeed? As long as the Sabres finish ahead of the Leafs each year I am a happy person. So after 50 years they finally got it right? I guess you can go with that. There's a perception they have it right, but the team is far from perfect.

Thanks for calling it out. Even in jest it shouldn't be said. Wishing blood clots to end careers, and breaking ankles, knees, etc. It's absurd. I'm also laughing at all the references to Canadian/Toronto media and their commentary. Who cares what a bunch of tools say? This thread almost went the way I expected.. but I thought it would be better. Oh well. Congratulations to Toronto. They've still sucked far longer than the Sabres. The idea that this one win fixes their problems is intriguing. They'll find a way to screw this up. They've screwed up everything for the past 49 years right? Isn't next year the 50th anniversary of their last Cup appearance?

See.. this is where there is a huge problem. If they had just called it Little Caesars Coliseum it would have been easier to tolerate in my opinion.

You have to admit that seeing the thread title and then choosing to click in here just to post this comment seems like a waste of your time and energy given that you hate these stupid comparisons.

But there's no football in St. Louis anymore so they should be all aboard the NHL train. Also learned in this thread. Napolean was taller than Nathan Gerbe.

Meh. Every great player gets shutdown once in awhile. Teams deploy a new strategy on defending and sometimes it is effective. A few games down and then to figure out a way around it is what talent is all about. Sure, it's nice to not ever be shut down but that rarely happens.

At the moment, playoff hockey is the only hockey we have... so we take what we can get, no??

For what it's worth... I do blind tastings with guys who have been professional brewers for 15+ years and people who have passed Cicerone exams, etc. They are often fooled too. The brain's bias is amazing when it comes to telling you whether or not you like a beer. In our blind tastings only 1 person knows what beer was even brought to the tasting. So, for everyone else it's the entire gamut of the style that could be in the glass.

That moment when eating lunch AND reading Sabrespace has its downside. Wish I was between bites on that... A quote from James Neal's article on The Players' Tribune: http://www.theplayerstribune.com/james-neal-predators-sniper/

In response to the underlined. I would guarantee its happened to you. I mean I know that's rather absolute but I know it's happened to me and I feel like I have a pretty good take on these things. For what it's worth it goes both ways as well. I can tell you a story of two beers in Rochester. One is an IPA and one is a Scotch Ale. The IPA started out strong. It used some "registered" hops and it really gained a following. The same beer today is made with completely different hops and the grain bill has changed. It has happened over the past 7 years and many people I know still don't think anything is different about it. The Scotch Ale is even more intriguing. It started out as one of my favorite beers. Over the past 10-12 years it had generally declined (in my opinion). I stopped drinking it. I found out that the grain bill had changed significantly including the supplier of the malts. People still drinking it, happy as clams. The beer is back now. The grain bill has reverted to close what was the original bill, some process changes occurred, and most importantly they changed suppliers again and the beer is solid. But sadly, there is another beer, a porter, that I was holding onto. I loved the beer until the one day the change was made and I finally walked away from it. I came to find out the recipe had been altered 6 times in the prior 5 years and I was none the wiser until the 6th alteration. Sigh. (I still don't drink that beer).

Honestly... I completely dislike hearing the term craft beer anymore. I hear it all the time on commercials and it drives me up a wall. The lines will be blurred, just like anything else. Is Boston Beer Co. a craft brewer? Well, in order to not undermine their message the Brewer's Associate rewrote the barrel limit to keep Sam Adams in the mix. Why? Because their market growth numbers would have declined significantly losing the 2 million bbls they produced. Look at the supermarket. There are handmade breads and artisan breads and they are all made the same exact way as the regular breads. The terms are meaningless. Lots to talk about here. I want to specifically address "mouth feel". You can offset a thinning of the body in many ways. The assumption here is that a big brewer is going to come in and ruin the beer. They aren't going to just make wholesale changes however. What they will do, assuming the economics of the beer make sense, is to slowly integrate the lesser quality grains so the perception of change is mitigated. After that, it's really a question of whether people like the "revised" recipe or not. If they do then really, what harm was there? People still like it. There are beers I used to like that I won't drink anymore. My tastes have changed. A few years back Simcoe was the hop du jour. The worst part of Simcoe is that its a registered hop and so only comes from one place. Great marketing and the Yakima company that "created" it did very well. The hops were in HUGE demand and people loved it. The problem was no supply so brewer's were locking in long contracts on the hops just to be able to provide that profile. Other brewers who were left out or could not afford the contracted rates had to make immediate changes to their hop profiles. Of course other hop growers were also looking for hop varieties that would mimic Simcoe. Beer recipes changed overnight and in many cases people still didn't know. Year over year every beer is different. It has to be. The chemistry that goes into trying to replicate a recipe perfectly would be so time consuming that it would render a beer too expensive. It might not even be achievable. Just balancing the Alpha Acids in a hop release is hard. There's the betas, the grain bill changes, etc.

The angst over offsides is amusing. Late to the game on it I know. Offsides is a definitive point on the ice so there really isn't a lot of room for debate. The replay sucks but offsides is offsides. There was some banter about icing and the red line being definitive. The generally accepted practice on icing is that the point the puck leaves the stick must be the red line or beyond. So, while a shot/pass can appear to occur behind the red line the follow through assumes the puck is still in contact with the stick (as it rolls down the blade) and so as long as the stick ends up in the air over the red line there is no icing called. The difference between icing and offsides right now? Well, offside requires the skate to be on the ice and therefore it is easy to see where it is in relation to the blue line. Icing allows the puck to be in the air and thus creates a problem of judging location relative to the red line. We never worried about skates on the ice before because the game was never stopped for 5 minutes to review. Could you make icing more accurate? Absolutely. Add a review for that as well. I don't think we'd go for that however. Now.. as for playoff hockey. I'm shocked Nashville is up 2-0. It's about the only series that has me scratching my head. The rest were all conceivable but Florida should be better than this.

I absolutely believe this 100% and you know why? This is a common occurrence among all brewers. The hop varietals and strengths are constantly changing based on contracts, growing seasons, etc. There are beers that were once brewed predominantly with CTZ that now use completely different hops. The grain bills change as well. The end result? Most people never notice. They keep on drinking it. The argument is that the quality will go down hill. My point was there is no proof the quality has gone down hill. Brewing with corn and rice does not equate to a crappy beer. In fact, Budweiser is a quality product it just produces a flavor profile I do not like. However, I have had really great beers that use corn and rice in their grain bills. Especially rice. The "5 point plan" is pure FUD. It's not a new argument and its based on this merger deal. So now SAB Miller ABinbev will be able to crush the craft market? Nothing in that merger does ANYTHING to the craft market that could not have already been done. There are changes in the craft marketplace to help offset the perceived impacts of the macro breweries coming into the market. Some are obvious and others are less so. I saw a reference to Kim Jordan (New Belgium owner) earlier today but I did not pull the article down. The gist was talking of partnerships and regional craft brewers using extra capacity to brew "partner" brands to reduce distribution costs and turn out more volume without building out. In addition, they could co-op into pricing agreements that allow them to compete at the price level, not just the quality level. I should also add that I've never considered Goose Island IPA to be anything spectacular. It probably could use a little lighter body. :)

There is zero evidence to support this statement. It's a tired argument that comes up every time a craft brewer chooses to sell.