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LTS

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Posts posted by LTS

  1. Thats a good point. Never thought of it that way but I think even if you are bounced in the first round its benefit to the young guys that have never tasted it is huge. Possibly make them hungrier moving forward ?

     

    Sure, I think you can say they'd be hungrier going forward, but even just missing should keep them hungry and by just missing they do have a shot at the top 3 in the draft.  

     

    TM prolly gives them half the season to show something... Then he'll decide which way it goes from there, e.g. being buyers or sellers at the deadline.

     

    The thing is tho, there's not much left to sell. Maybe Gorges if he continues to struggle, or somebody like Weber or Foligno could be on the outs.

     

    That said I'd be shocked if this team us contending for a playoff spot at the mid way point.

     

    Unless this team somehow is near the top of the league near the trade deadline there's little chance Murray is buying.  This entire season is tweak mode.

  2. OK.  I suppose you're right, based on your assumptions, but I think your assumptions aren't realistic.

     

    In other words:  IF he thought he was going to be bought out anyway, then yes, it's possible that he could've dialed back on his effort and tried to avoid injury.

     

    However, I don't think professional athletes are wired to think that way -- at least not going into a season.  While the thought of getting dumped or bought out certainly could've occurred to him, I think it is much more likely that he would've thought "F him if he thinks that.  I'll show him -- and I'm not giving up on $13MM, either." 

     

    Remember that the $13MM was there all along as an incentive -- because if he had played reasonably well, another team would've picked him up via waivers before the buyout -- which would've preserved the $16MM.

     

    But picked up on waivers removes all control he has over where he ends up.  He's still constrained to go to whatever team that wanted him.  For what it's worth we've seen NFL and NBA players talk about not playing hard at times.  We've seen players pull themselves from a game when "injured", we've seen teammates question each other when they don't return from injury. We've seen athletes straight up talk about how they are preserving themselves from getting injured because they have a future to think about.  I think the mentality that professional athletes can never look out for themselves over the team is incorrect.

     

    Had he performed reasonably well, he either would have been in the mix for RW on line 1 or 2 or would have been part of a package for something TM did want. No way he'd've been waived.

     

    And traded removes his control as well.

     

    I'm just saying, there were times last year when we wondered how Hodgson could be so bad.  We had seen him play the season before and he was much better. So, I'll be curious how he does this season. He's not the talent he had been projected to be but I don't believe he is as bad as he was last year either.

  3. Shannon's statement is about as dumb as they come.  This team needs to start developing a winning culture ASAP, and the sooner it starts the better.

     

    So.. they could improve 40 points and still not be in the playoffs.  They'd be winning more, in the game more, but still not be in the playoffs.  Remember, they were so bad that a winning culture could still be developed without making the playoffs.

     

    94 points last year puts them in 10th just behind Boston.  That's 20 more wins in the season.

  4. Interesting factoid: It's now equipment manager Dave Williams who issues the numbers.

     

    You want me to email him?  I coached his son a few years ago. :)

     

    I'm not going to though. No need.

     

    It'll be whatever number he wants it to be and if it's above 30, 49, 55, 65, 82.. so be it... I think the only number that would be out of bounds should be 69.

     

    Hell.. I don't even care if he wears 99.  Everyone wears 9 and 4 and there were some damn good players in hockey history who wore those. :)

  5. Sorry, but this is nuts.  There is NFW he would've intentionally thrown away as much $$ as he lost via the buyout on the hope that he'd get a one-year deal somewhere and then a fat contract after that.

     

    Umm.. you are missing what I am saying.

     

    Assumption: Hodgson doesn't want to stay in Buffalo. He doesn't like what his role will be.

    Assumption: He believes there is a 95% chance he'll be bought out anyway. (Murray didn't give him that horrible contract).

     

    Since the team was already going to suck. He's simply not going to try very hard. Why not do the little bit extra it might take to make the buyout 100%?

     

    Why?

     

    1. He doesn't want to be in Buffalo.

    2. He was going to get bought out anyway.

    3. If he's bought out, he's not going to get any kind of good contract offer.  He's on his third team in a short time frame.

     

    I'm not saying he was out there shooting the puck into his own net.  I am saying that he gave up on the season and didn't even bother trying. He pushed the right buttons with Nolan to get himself reduced playing time. Reduced chance of injury, get through the season, get bought out, move on.  All he did was assure it.

     

    Because what's the alternative?  He plays well enough that Buffalo keeps him?  Think about it.  If he performed well enough for some other team to sign him to a contract worth even half of what he was getting from the Sabres do you really think the Sabres would have bought him out?

     

    I don't.

     

    Everyone is hung up on he's throwing away this money.  If I was him, I would have assumed it was already gone.

  6. But didn't he lose 2/3 of his contract amount?

     

    He did.  But he did sign another one.

     

    Makes for a nice conspiracy theory, but I can't see ANY pro athlete tanking intentionally unless he's fixing games for a mobster. How much money does he NOT get now under his next contract because teams are leery of what they're getting - they definitely don't want to drop real coin on 6 or so goals / yr.

     

      

    Yep. Anyone think he gets $3.2MM/yr on the next contract? If not, he lost on the deal.

     

    As I worked through all of this more...

     

    The initial thought is.. he wants out of Buffalo.  There's already a solid chance he is going to get bought out. His contract is a dog and the end of the this league year presents the best chance of this happening. He knows this, everyone knows this.

     

    The other thing he knows is that if he's bought out he's likely to NOT receive a long term contract from anyone else nor will it be much money... at first. 

     

    So, you try a little less harder than you can because.. you want to assure the buyout gets done.

     

    Then you hit the UFA market, you don't have to worry about signing a 1.5m year deal because you are still getting paid by the Sabres.

     

    Perhaps you have multiple offers, perhaps you don't. But you sign that 1 year deal like he did on Nashville.  Let's say that he really has potential and can shine in Nashville.  Next year he'll be on the market again and likely able to choose a location that he wants at a decent dollar amount and he'll still be getting paid by the Sabres.

     

    So, for 1 year of trying a little less harder, on a team that was already not trying hard. He assured himself of the opportunity to perhaps earn a solid contract after this upcoming season.

     

    And hey.. why try hard anyway on a team when you are pretty certain you aren't going to be around anyway.

     

    Always fun to think about.. the solid news is... he's gone.  He's following the Derek Roy tour.. although Hodgson started his tour in Vancouver.

  7. So.. quick primer.

     

    Uncompressed HD video is 18Mbps.  Everyone uses compression, so you'll do just fine with 15M.

     

    The gaming thing is a different story.  it depends on the games.  The biggest impact to your gaming experience will be latency and packet loss.  The second biggest will be any limitations or contention for bandwidth on your upstream as it is usually lower than your downstream and your system will likely send a lot of data to the gaming server.

     

    Latency - how long it takes the information to arrive and packet loss (how many packets have to be resent or might be lost for good) will impact the efficiency of your network connection.  This is why some network connection types are absolutely horrible for gaming, no matter what you do.

     

    Still.. when it's all said and done.. 24/3 should be fine for you as long as you don't have a ton of connected devices using a lot of bandwidth.

  8. So there is a significant difference in hops grown in any batch of soil.  Think of it like grapes and wine.

     

    The local hops aren't a problem when you want to brew one off batches.  It's when you want the consistency of a year round label that it becomes more of a problem.  Although if you are using those hops in a year round and keep using them then you should be okay.

  9. Interesting.. I've found that most of their one-off special series were superior to their mass produced counterparts.

     

    I'm not saying I loved them.. but things like

     

    Merry Maker Gingerbread Stout

    Fat Jack Pumpkin (we did a blind tasting with people who work in the beer industry (ie. brewers, brewery reps) and it won.

    Third Voyage Double IPA

    Dark Depths Porter

    Verloren Gose

    Thirteenth Hour

    Tetravis

     

    I liked those.. the others I thought were decent enough.  

  10. I think Hodgson will have a great season.... in the Swiss league.   ;)

     

    Leino needs a center.

     

    So, on Hodgson.  If you think about it... he may very well have orchestrated this for his own benefit. He knows that July 1, 2015 brings an important financial date into focus for Buffalo.  So, he tanks a little bit harder than everyone else last season and does just enough to get Buffalo to buy him out.

     

    BAM... he's paid.  

     

    It almost makes too much sense.

  11. Yes but this is the first breastrant to open there Hooters lasted a decade or so a half mile down Jefferson. 

     

     

    Not true. Cheerleaders USA was there for a short time.

     

    And then some pseudo-Japanese place, then a korean place.. or was it the other way around.. now it's a pawn shop.. that at least should do well in henrietta.

  12. Hamilton on GR last night: Among other things, Hodgson wasn't coachable. He had a way he thought the game should be played, and he didn't, wouldn't consistently adopt what the coaches were requiring.

     

    Such behaviour would be consistent with having a meddlesome Dad who knows better than your coach, GM.

     

    Cool... what team does his Dad coach now?  He should be a star there!

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