BagBoy

North Carolina resident since 1973 here. Fun thread! I went to Game 2 of the Hurricanes/Sabres series in 2006, and I swear it was like a modern day Twilight Zone episode. I have never seen a more intense example of collective insanity before or since. As Claude Verret mentioned earlier, there were pot shots on the scoreboard at Buffalo in literally every message that was displayed between whistles. Virtually every vendor had similar signs, and all the signs brought in by the fans were the same way. It was a North Korea-esque example of “drinking the koolaid”, a completely detached brainwashed alternate reality. I’m thankful I did not wear Sabres stuff. I have literally never been back and never will. If there was ever a less deserving Stanley Cup Champ than the 2006 Canes, it was way before my time. First of all they got a 3 seed just because they were a division winner in a totally ***** division, but they weren’t anything near the #3 team in the conference. Round 1 they went down 2 games to the Habs and then virtually gouged out the eye of the captain and heartbeat of Montreal, Saku Koivu, and knocked him out of the series. I remember there was no suspension. I seem to remember there wasn’t even a penalty (needs to be fact-checked). They beat the Devils next round largely because the Devils swept their first round and had something like 11 days off. We know what happened in round 3. In the finals, they needed all 7 games to beat the 8 seed in Edmonton who was playing their 3rd string goalie. This is not the definition of a champion, far from it. I’m with #freejame. The Canes have been incredibly influential in growing hockey in NC. I’m with Claude Verret and SwampD. This is sports. It’s tribal. We can hate whoever we want, as much as we want, even for irrational reasons, providing it doesn’t manifest its way into antisocial behavior. I’m with NS. The Flyers are my absolute most hated team in the NHL (since before 1975) and that will always be the case. For you Twin Peaks fans out there, the city of Philadelphia is the real “Black Lodge”. The fact that that city is named “the City of Brotherly Love” is the most ironic use of the English language imaginable. In 1985 the mayor and the Police Department decided it would be a good idea to firebomb a neighborhood with incendiary bombs dropped from Police helicopters due to unrest. Google “1985 MOVE bombing” for details. Then google Frank Rizzo while you’re at it. He was a brutal mayor and Police Chief back in the 60’s and 70’s, and a truly violent fascist by any definition of the word. I understand the Boston hatred 110%. I do. I even enjoy it myself (how about those Celtics!). But I’m not rooting for the Canes. I was glad the Bruins beat the Leafs, and I will be content, for lack of a better word, if they beat the Canes.

Today would have been the 100th birthday of Jackie Robinson. He was a damn fine baseball player, but I imagine very few people would say he was the best athlete ever. But when you consider how his career advanced race relations, yeah, count me in for most important athlete ever.

Great googly moogly, that kid is fantastic!

Do the math. UNC wins almost exactly 50% of the time. It's a perfect rivalry.

I'm a UNC alum living in NC, so I respectfully beg to differ. It's pronounced dook by the way. Your average dook fan here is like the worst Patriots fan cranked up on meth. I couldn't possibly hate any team more than dook, personally (Leafs, Bruins, Flyers, Alabama, Patriots, Yankees, etc.), but I'd like to think I'm somewhat objective about it. Jay Bilas is the most insightful and entertaining NCAA BB analyst out there and has been for a long time. Grant Hill is the classiest basketball player/person ever. I won't bore you with the dook players I can't stand, but the real reason for my hatred is Coach K. Biggest ***** on the planet. He makes Dick Cheney look like a good candidate for sainthood.

This is an abomination because of all the gray and white crap and the blue shoulders, and different shades of yellow. I'm probably in the minority here, but a yellow jersey is exactly what I'd like to see for the 3rd jersey. Pretty much just like the scheme that Nashville uses. Nothing crazy. I'd also like to just replace the navy blues with the royals.

I'm convinced they dug up a bunch of Native American burial grounds to build Philly. Lot a bad mojo there.

I love Santa Claus Conquers the Martians!

Man, I love the Replacements (Alex Chilton video 2 replies above). They were some serious drinkers. Frontman Paul Westerberg would usually slur when introducing the band at the beginning of a show and it sounded like, "Hi, we're the Placemats." So they were nicknamed the Mats for short ever since. They showed up wasted for an SNL appearance and were never invited back. They actually released an album of live covers they "performed" while *****-faced. Most of them were incomplete, and they didn't know all the lyrics. Songs like Iron Man and Saturday Night Special. God awful torturous racket if you're not a fan, but utterly hilarious if you are. They called it "The ***** Hits the Fans". In spite of their issues, they did not lack for a sense of humor. At one point they were driving to a gig and one of the guys' nephew had just committed suicide, so he decided to drive alone behind the other guys, who were drinking heavily all the way. When they all arrived, the sober one recounted that the three guys drinking literally fell out of the car laughing so hysterically that it took them like 5 minutes to finally be able to explain why they were laughing so hard. They had decided what to name their soon to be released album. They decided on "Let It Be"! This was only 14 years after the Beatles released their "Let It Be", so they knew this would be considered blasphemous by many. One time in a recording studio they managed to get vomit on the 12-foot ceiling of one of the rooms. The owner of the studio couldn't figure out how they managed to do that and actually lost sleep over it. He finally concluded that one (or more) of them had barfed in his cupped hands and flung it up on the ceiling. Regardless of all this debauchery, the Replacements were an amazing band, a true force in the 80's who influenced many future bands. Paul Westerberg is a tremendous songwriter. Check them out!

There is already a movie called Dick. And it is about...you guessed it! Richard Nixon!

Let's finish it in regulation!

Rielly may be their most important player.

^ It's called Vice. edit: lol

There is a movie about Dick Cheney coming out on Christmas. Here is the actor playing him. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6266538/mediaviewer/rm2787015680 I thought it was 71-year old Richard Dreyfuss, certainly not 44-year old Christian Bale. Here's another beauty of the lengths he's willing to go to capture a character (Cheney again). https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6266538/mediaviewer/rm1327397888 Here is what he did to himself in 2004 for The Machinist. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361862/mediaviewer/rm1747859712 Say what you will about him, he has been fantastic in some fantastic movies: The Machinist, Empire of the Sun (as a 13-year old), American Psycho, his Batman movies, The Big Short, etc.

If they're talking about the one on the right, yuck! They're gonna be the equivalent of the Penn State jerseys of the NHL, only worse.

Colt McCoy is out for the season for the Redskins. Mark Sanchez is the only healthy Washington QB. They just claimed Reuben Foster, knowing full well there would be criticism. If they're willing to do that, and under their current QB circumstances, doesn't it seem like taking a chance on Colin Kaepernick would be the obvious thing to do?

Getting back to the Leafs (as distasteful as that is) isn't Rielly already signed through 2022? That's what NHL Numbers says. NHL Numbers also says that Kapanen's contract is due after this season, so it's not just Marner and Matthews going to the bank.

Things are wonderful right now, and I like it as much as the next Sabres fan. Maybe it's just the old man in me, but we should keep the big picture in mind here. The only thing the Sabres have accomplished at this point is to put themselves in an excellent position going forward. No team ever qualified for the playoffs in November. As we all know, the way you automatically qualify for the playoffs is to finish in the top 3 of your division. That means that Buffalo, after 82 games, has to finish better than either TB, TOR or BOS (or otherwise as a wild card). This will not be easy. From both a fan and player/team perspective, the focus needs to be on future games, not the recent ones.

I'm with you Rick (and GA and Randall). Strictly defensively speaking, our defense does not feel miles ahead of last year's defense to me, but it definitely seems a bit better. We now have Dahlin, and we have been healthy so far this year (knock on wood), so those have been big advantages. Obviously this year's goaltending has cured a lot of last year's defensive warts. Phil getting everyone to buy in on letting the defensemen crash the net when appropriate has also been a big plus.

***** call

Oh boy. I wasn't at the first game, but did attend a few games that first year as a 6-year old. My family had 3rd row oranges right on the blue line. Dad also had occasional seats from work in the first row of the blues near center ice. There was an older English couple in the gold seats right in front of those seats who were hilarious. Announcer: "2 minute penalty to Buffalo number two Jim Watson for holding." English woman in front of us: stands up and yells in a cockney accent, "You can 'old me anytime Jimmy, baby!" If there was a game where the Sabres were up comfortably near the end, there was some guy who would wait for a really quiet time and then wail into the most perfect and loud Tarzan yell. It actually got to the point where the crowd would hopefully anticipate it and you could tell people were just piping down intentionally trying to encourage the guy. He got a huge ovation every time he did it and rightly so. You know when the refs hit the ice before any players at the start of each period? In that first season the Sabres had 2 figure skating ladies that would hit the ice with them before the players got out there. The figure skaters wore all silver and had actual sabres (plastic I'm sure). They would hurl their sabres into the nets right after the refs skated by them. I'm sure the refs really looked forward to that! Back then beer cups were made of paper, but they were waxed. If you set the empties upside down and stomped on them it made a wonderful popping sound that I will never forget in those narrow walkways as everyone exited the building. The last game I saw at The Aud was a Boxing Day game where Housley scored both goals in a 2-1 win over Boston. My brother gave me a brick from The Aud after the demolition. It is a prized possession.

To me the tank just seemed like the logical thing to do. There was nothing cynical about it. Things were going downhill and we had players that simply weren't coming back. Better to dump them for assets than to cling to some misguided hope that we would qualify as an 8-seed only to have the season end 4 or 5 games later. Were mistakes made during this process? I think we all know the answer here is yes, but rebuilding for success (sounds much better than "tank", doesn't it?), as painful as it was, was ultimately a positive way to approach things given the circumstances.

Dudacek, thanks for sharing this. This is very good journalism, which is rare these days, and a very compelling story, and I would gladly read other stuff by the author. I almost responded after I initially read it, but thought better of it. But this Pens game is frustrating, and this article aggravates me on a bunch of different levels, so… Yes, things would arguably still be “normal” if the author never wrote this article, but what happened afterwards is not his “fault” in any way, and he cannot claim any “blame” whatsoever. You want blame? Let’s start with the Portland hipsters. Who willingly waits in line for 5 hours for a hamburger? The only time I would ever wait 5 hours in line for food is in a post-apocalyptic zombie-nightmare soup kitchen, and it certainly wouldn’t be for the thrill of instagramming a picture of my meal to all my so-called friends once it finally arrived. Sure, non-locals were contributing to the demand, but come on, we’ve all seen Portlandia. Hipsters think they are all such individuals, but this is just another example of them being the sheep that they are. Like my grandfather said to my 18-year old uncle and his pals at a Christmas party back in the 60’s. “That’s the problem with you non-conformists, you’re all the same!” Maybe it’s just the cynical capitalist in me, but the owner needs to grow a sack. I totally get that the employees are getting stressed and taking it out on the customers, and that the regulars are getting the short end of the stick. It’s just a simple supply and demand equation. Demand is out of control. Double your prices. Heck, triple your prices. Tell the employees in person, in no uncertain terms that they are awesome, and prove that you mean it by doubling or tripling their salaries. All you are asking of them in return is to do their jobs like they did before the article. The regulars are still odd-man out here, but ultimately the goal is to get the demand in control, and then hopefully you can bring them (the regulars) back into the picture. As the article suggested, using this opportunity to expand and/or franchise could also take advantage of the demand. What the #### is closing up for 10 months accomplishing? Not a got-dammed thing!

Grand Theft!

I love John Turturro, but he misspoke on this one. Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito's father is definitely Italian. I remember him (Esposito) mostly from Homicide:Life On The Street. I loved that show.