That Aud Smell

Jumping into a finance bro scam? Yuck. Allen's still the man. But nobody's perfect.

For my part, from a comfortable distance, I quite enjoy the intensity that the old wars bring to the international soccer rivalries. England -v- Germany always seems to mean so much more than a mere sporting competition.

YMMV, apparently. The English fans' singing of "10 German Bombers" has apparently become a source of intense conflict.

that was funny sh1t. (also, i thought maybe he licked his visor?) i would take marchand on my favourite team every day of the week, and twice on sunday for a 7:00 pm start after a 1:00 pm bills game. shoot - i'd be delighted if the sabres had a player who could be accurately described as "a poor man's marchand."

An all-time favourite Sabre for me. It's nice that he made the trip back for the event. He could have taken the view that he didn't feel the need to be there, etc. But he showed up.

Nope.

Harnarayan Singh - who’s Indian, yes, but also of the Sikh faith (hence the beard and wrapped headwear) - calls a really clean, compelling game. He’s got a great voice. That was my first time hearing him tonight.

Worst horn operator ever.

Holy spit did Bogosian make the play of his career (most likely). That pregame bump paying dividends.

I just can’t.

It was the era of the Merseyside Beat!!

very true. pele' became the best in the world after training with a wrapped ball of rags in the slums of brazil. this is why basketball, at times, seems destined to become the planet's sport. very accessible. and is it true that "hockey" (aka field hockey) has more fans and participants than ice hockey? i could look it up, i suppose.

Ha. No worries. YNWA is, hands down, full stop, the greatest song associated with a pro sports team. Nothing touches it. To me, there's something moving and significant about the fact that the song isn't from the band that Liverpool is most famous for exporting -- rather, it's from a band (Gerry & The Pacemakers) that was in the same scene as The Beatles but did not ascend to international superstardom like The Beatles did. But for those who are from, or of, Liverpool, it's Gerry's anthem of love and solidarity that is the song to sing.

Sometimes I’m tempted to say, in response to people saying the sport is boring, that “4 billion people can’t be wrong.” But then I realize that the second most popular sport globally is cricket. And that sport funking blows. So, whatever. To each their own.

To each their own. It’s the greatest sport in the world, IMO. One thing I love so dearly about it is how people of all shapes and sizes can be excellent at it. Oh, and up the fuc*king Reds. #YNWA

Pilut may have made Risto look better, but Risto was an absolute anchor on Pilut's 5v5 shot rate metrics.

Probably right. But maybe ...? We'll see what happens in the finals -- good test case.

in the most literal sense, those 2 teams last night were playing a style of playoff hockey, since they were playing the first game of their conference finals. perhaps more seriously: query whether there's a change a(dam)foot(e) with regard to what qualifies as "actual playoff-style hockey."

Looking forward to these games.

That MacKinnon goal was phenomenal. What a combination of skill, grace, and power.

The AR15s used in the two recent mass shootings were legally purchased. Setting aside whether it's good or even practicable policy to have more "good guys with guns" in the schools, the fact is that, in Ulvada, the cops were there when the gunman emerged from a disabled vehicle in order to access the school. The cops did not stop him, could not stop him. The cops. In the case of Buffalo, we had a retired cop on the scene. A good guy with a gun. He could not stop the bad guy. And as I think @Weave noted: These bad actors are now customarily clad in body armor. Setting aside the question of policy: Good guys with guns are not part of the solution. That's been borne out by the facts. This remains fair and accurate. An awful and ugly truth.

Crudely speaking: This is the difference between a feature and a bug.

A college buddy of mine is an egghead sociologist. After Buffalo but before Uvalde, we were texting and he explained, in some detail, that the United States is the only country that exhibits a statistical propensity for mass shootings to occur. I'll caution anyone who goes looking: There are, of course, ways to skew statistics to support another position. The outlier events in places like New Zealand can make that country seem more prone to mass shootings than the United States. But it just isn't true. The recent role of the AR15 can't be over-stated. I'm sure those are valid concerns, to varying degrees. But, honestly, let's just start by limiting access to assault rifles. Shotguns? Rifles? Handguns? Keep 'em. You can have 'em. Guns that are militarily designed to obliterate and destroy? Not so much, please.

my general feeling is that, for the most part, people are people. the sorts of people who may, will, can commit these sorts of atrocities are distributed fairly evenly throughout the whole of earth's human population. then it becomes a matter of whether and to what extent they will have the means to carry out those acts, and perhaps, to a lesser extent, whether and to what extent the culture in which they live will exacerbate whatever sociopathic tendencies they have.