That Aud Smell

I watched most of the game last night. Turned it off and presumed that the score would hold and Las Vegas would be up 3-0. I'm glad that Florida scratched that one out. I'll add my voice to those who are saying it: Eichel is a funking 2-way monster. A beast. Regularly doing things that are noticeable and positive for his side. Good on him.

God bless and Godspeed. He was a kindly presence, lo those many years.

mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be running backs. let 'em be middle relievers and such.

On the subject of the NFL cap not being real: TIL (more) about “void years.” Per a report: Leonard Floyd’s 1-year deal has a base salary of $1.165M, guaranteed. And he’s owed a signing bonus of $5.835M. Beane added three void years after Year 1. As a result, Floyd’s cap hit this year is $2.624M. Now, the Bills will of course carry some (but not a ton of) Floyd dead money for those three void years. But they also have cap space for this season.

Interesting take. All indications are that Miller will be a PUP type scenario - returning week 6 (?).

Damar’s return to play means it’s only a matter of time before I’m cursing his inability to take a good angle on a runner in the open field. (I’m going to hell, obviously.) They're both still cost-controlled, though. Also, there’s no way those guys fetch a 4th rounder. A 6th?

This is not totally true. But it is more true than it is false, that's for sure.

Welcome (back)! But listen, you can’t say your general hockey knowledge is weak and then ask questions about specific forecheck strategies and distinctions between positioning styles near the goal. *My* hockey acumen *is* weak. I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Just saw that! Was coming back to give you some major stick taps.

I like the take on how it’d be better to throw money at an older edge rusher. I was unaware of attitude issues in Arizona. The Bills desperately need another wideout to complement Diggs. If Hopkins still had some juice, it’d be a fit. That said, it sounds like he wants a lot of guaranteed money *and* significant term. I’d probably let another team sign him, if that’s what the market bears. (That said: The market’s been soft so far.)

Anyone care to explain the Ed Oliver extension?

Thing the first: You misstate what I’d posited. I didn’t say “unfair advantage.” I didn’t say “guaranteed success.” As for the balance, there’s no doubt that the Sabres bungled a lot for a decade or so. That said, fixing a going concern is fundamentally different than starting from scratch.

Not sure whom you mean to encompass by "[m]ost of the NHL," but be assured that this is precisely the deal the owners intended to make: Get a significant premium on franchise expansion fees in exchange for the expansion teams' having a good chance of immediately being competitive. The successes of Seattle and Las Vegas have been by design.

Holy spit - the Sabres have McDavid?!

Thanks for digging into it. My sense is that, in recent times, the start date for the NBA finals is set once the playoffs start. Shoot - it might be set once the regular season schedule is released. Same goes for the NHL.

Ain’t no “if” about it. Now that I honed in on better search terms — Denver Lakers sweep “June 1” — I find dozens of news stories published late on May 22 or early on May 23 that all say that the NBA Finals would begin on June 1st.

That may have been true in the past (no idea), but it is not true this year. Ten days ago or so, I recall hearing some sports talkers discussing the possibility of a lengthy layoff after Denver swept LA and Miami had a chance to do likewise with Boston. I limited a Google to a period of time when the conference finals were still ongoing and/or when Denver was on the verge of its sweep (May15-May 22), and these were the top results: Simpler. Here's the contemporaneous USA Today report on the Denver sweep. Story says that, as of 5/23, the finals will begin on June 1st. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2023/05/22/lakers-nuggets-game-4-western-conference-finals/70245975007/

Before the Heat slipped up, the NBA was staring down a ~10-day hiatus between the end of its conference finals and the start of its championship series. The start dates for these things get scheduled way out - in both leagues, I believe. My guess is that there are all kinds of "synergistic" moving parts ("partners" who set aside the dates so that they can participate - show up and shmooze) that are locked into place based on dates certain.

This is at the heart of the matter. The MLS would overtake the NHL as North America's #4 professional sports league if its overall revenues were greater than the NHL's. I can't readily get a handle on what those figures are, but I think that the poster above has a sense of them. As someone else noted upthread: This "story" from Axios comes off as transparent PR shilling, given the substantial gap between the two leagues' current revenues/overall worth.

I would buy a bathroom reader compilation of classic @inkman posts. A wee volume. Marketed as an impulse buy near the registers at Barnes and Noble.

Ah. I see. Well then.

Like SCOTUS Justice Potter once observed on a different subject: "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of sports markets that I understand to be embraced in this category ... but I know it when I see it." South Florida in general is a bad sports town. The Heat and The U probably get the most dedicated support.

Did the guy who traded for Tkachuk win GM of the year yet? Poor Calgary. We can talk about the ROR and Eichel trades, but the Tkachuk trade has gotta really sting.

Absolutely worth its own thread. I'll say: This is a little surprising. The social media post says the Captain is back. Maybe that means something. Maybe it doesn't. I'm in favour of KO having a 4th line role and continuing to mentor the young guys. And I also think it might be better if he passed that letter on. But who the hell knows. Maybe every player in that locker room is 100% good with him continuing to wear the C. Yet again on the other hand, even if the players are all okay with it, that doesn't mean it should be what the team does.

Imagine your team gets to the conference finals, and then the captain does something as awful and stupid as what Benn did last night, and THEN, on top of that, imagine him refusing to speak to the media in the post game and then further refusing to own what he did the next day?