JoeSchmoe

I'm even less elite, but depending on the game, I'd join too. I have a personal boycott on the team where I won't buy tickets until they're in a playoff position, but if I pay up prior to the season starting, they're technically neither in or out.

My wife and I had a great day. We started in East Aurora and checked out the old 5 and 10. East Aurora is a nice town and we'll be back again soon. Then we took the scenic drive on Rt 20A and eventually down the 390 towards Naples. Grimes Glen was even better than expected. Though my wife thought I looked like a goof with my water boots (I have them for cold weather canoe camping), I was able to wade in and steady her across the tricky areas which saved her from getting multiple soakers. Inspire Moore was very good. It felt much informal compared to the wineries from our area. I tried some wine varieties we don't grow in the Niagara area... I think they were Austrian in origin. We got to chat with one of the owners which was fun. Unfortunately it was a bit chilly for sitting outside because the view was awesome. If I'm being honest, I've generally preferred Niagara wine to Finger Lakes wine (from my limited experience), but Inspire Moore was as good as anything I've had back home. We grabbed an appetizer at the BBQ and Pizza place in town. I wouldn't recommend it. Later we grabbed crepes on the main drag in Canandaigua, and I'd recommend that.

Grimes Glen was also on my to do list. Should we bring water shoes? I didn't see any hotels in Canandaigua for under $400CAD. Otherwise I probably would have stayed there. In any case my wife likes US suburbs for the shopping, cafes, etc. You guys probably take it for granted, but for us it's all kind of unique compared to Canada.

This sounds awesome... I'm going to make a point to stop here. We live close to a lot of wineries and like going as a quick impromptu date (one is walking distance). We don't drink a lot of wine and don't have refined palettes so we mainly just go for the ambience. Friendly, relaxed, and great views are right up our alley. We may duck into the cafe as well if we haven't eaten yet. There's a BBQ place in Naples that caught my eye.

This is exactly it. At my peak when the exchange was good, I was crossing the border at least once a week... usually more. I still go across once a month or so. The ratio of jerk border guards to nice border guards pretty much matches the a-hole to non-a-hole ratio you see in the general public. Some are extremely nice. Some take their bad days out on you. Most are indifferent. The Canadian border guards are no different... But if I had to pick I'd say US are friendlier, probably because they're not worried about me smuggling booze or smokes. I've heard so many "non-crossers" talk about how bad the US border guards are. These people might cross once every 5 years and have the fear of God anytime they do so. They dutifully soak up all the horror stories they hear on the CBC and social media though and somehow believe they're entering the Wild West on the other side of the river. As a die-hard "Niagaran", I feel much more at home in the Buffalo area than I do in the GTA. People are friendlier, traffic is sane, and of course I like the hockey team better!

Plan is a take it slow day. Going to take Rt 20A until the 390, then veer south to Dansville. From there we'll head to Naples and putter around there for a bit. Then drive through the Bristol hills along Rt 21 into Canandaigua. I love the views along there. We'll stop at any of the farms, wineries, breweries, and antique shops that capture our interest along the way. I booked a hotel in the Pittsford area and we may hang out in that area Saturday.

Canadian here. I know a LOT of Canadians who aren't crossing over and say they won't until Trump is out... even if the trade situation improves. Rightly or wrongly, the media here is very anti-Trump and they've done their best to paint the worst picture possible. I'm not a black or white person, and I still actively cross... though bad exchange and US inflation has reduced the frequency (I'm going to the Finger Lakes on Friday). I suspect part of the 37% are people like me. I think the border has actually gotten friendlier since the tension started. The US border guards are better than the Canadian ones! Maybe they had customer service lessons with all the poor media attention.

Barring a miracle in net, this team isn't good enough to make the playoffs. That said, last year was the low of lows. Our offense sucked two years ago, and by losing Skinner and Mittelstadt, we made it worse. Everything was bad and there was nothing to hope for. Last year our offense was okay. Losing JJP hurts, but there's reason to believe we could make that up with some growth from the kids. Moreover, we added some good expected goal % players while getting rid of some really, really bad ones (Clifton, Cozens, and Lafferty). Our defense is a lot better and it will be nice to see Mule in a highly reduced role. With surprise goaltending and growth from Benson and Peterka (and a full season from Norris, Dahlin, and Thompson), there's a way into the playoffs this year. At the beginning of last season, there was no possible path no matter how you sliced it.

My theory is balanced lines don't work. When you take really good players and put them together, they'll score more in total than if you separate them and put them with JAGs. The reason is you usually need to string together multiple good plays to score. If you have just one guy making great plays, they'll usually die on a JAGs stick before they get in the net. My daughter's hockey team last year was a great proof of this concept (yes, obviously not the NHL 😀). They had 3 good forwards that could see the ice and make good plays and 6 that were defensively responsible, but didn't have any offensive instincts (3 lines total). The coach initially ran 3 balanced lines but the team couldn't barely score on any of the lines because the 3 girls with offensive skills weren't getting the puck or had no one in the right spots to pass to. Eventually the coach put the 3 offense minded girls together and they started scoring a LOT and became a pretty good team. Again, it's not the NHL, but it proves the concept that multiple good plays are usually needed to score goals.

I agree, but I'm just hoping one of them will be far above a PPG and showing themselves better off in the NHL. Unlikely I know, but this is hope season!

Kulich Thompson Tuch Benson Norris Quinn Zucker McLeod Doan Greenway Krebs Malenstyn By the end of the season, I'm hoping Östlund or Helenius can step into a 2nd or 3rd line role and demote the vets down. Not likely to happen though.

The pizza thread was my favourite. Still another month+ until we have something meaningful to talk about. 😔 It'd be nice to get another fun topic to discuss.

He was the first sports talk-radio host I would listen to on WGR. I didn't listen often, and I'm not sure if he only said this once or twice, but I still hear him in my head saying "Ottawa-Ottawa-Ottawa-Ottawa" when someone brings up the Senators.

We need some good OT threads to get us through the next month.

I think you're right PA. These really are the dog days of hockey.