IKnowPhysics

So... Eichel crashes into ROR's house next? Naw... probably an O'Reillys Auto Parts.

Maybe if they had his presser on time, he'd be in Buffalo, and not playing chicken with a Cafe and Bake Shop while hopped up on Molson Ice. ...where he could smash a Theodore's while pounding Blue instead.

Tweet Joe Sakic and ask him if he's still covered by the warranty.

Actually, posting that makes me think it'd be nice to have a running Sabres/Amerks/HarborCenter jobs post in the Q&A forum.

I mean, he already has an agent that will: 1) Get him paid with little chance of buyout. 2) Be smart enough to shut off his twitter before the news breaks. Ryan O'Reilly will be fine.

Keep calm, the Tim Hortons was in Canada.

The sign said Drive Thru.

Overdosing on Crown and Timbits.

It's like a $1000CA and you have to say sooory.

It's got momentum on r/hockey, and has now spread to hfboards.

Shut off his twitter account.

#Sabres #BlackHawksCapHell #FuelTheJet

Sunday Ticket's a great example of how this can get out of control quickly with no competition and no regulation. For DirecTV, it's $252 (ugh!) for Sunday Ticket, which is $18 per game if you're only watching the 14 regular season Bills games that aren't on ESPN or NFL Network. If you watch every single game league wide (averaging 14 games per team not nationally broadcast), that's $1.12 a game, which means that a single-team viewing option, it could be argued, should cost as little as about $16 per season. I'd probably pay four to six times that amount to guarantee that I see hot, sticky Bills action all season long, evening knowing that some games on CBS and Fox (in addition to ESPN and NFLN) will make it to my market without Sunday Ticket. Wishfully thinking, if the NFL, which doesn't pay taxes, weren't operating like a monopoly, we could order team coverage a la carte, and see some significant savings. And always keep in mind that we're paying for television coverage of a sport that features 11 minutes of game action and 63 minutes of paid commercials per game. Again, only watching the 14 Bills games, that's $1.63 per minute of game action, which is more than most phone sex lines.

One my favorite episodes. "I thought this was 'Murica. Huh? Isn't this 'Murica? I'm sorry, I thought this was 'Murica."

And yep, here it is. DirecTV (the NFL and all 32 teams are also named) is being sued in a class action lawsuit about NFL Sunday Ticket bundling. Once the NHL suit was settled, the NBA quickly made single team options available.

And captain.

And that's the viewpoint major league sportsball lawyers would fight until their dying breath to uphold in court. None of them are monopolies if the monopolies are all technically in competition with each other. But this makes the subjective assumption that the product I'm buying from the NHL I could instead buy from the NBA.

At the heart of these issues lies the question of whether major professional sports leagues are breaking monopoly laws. The Economist, back in 1998, examines this question. Pro leagues argue they compete against other forms of entertainment, but this is debatable based on very subjective terms- are other forms of entertainment entertaining to a hockey fan? But whether or not that's true, you can't easily create legitimate competition for the NHL in the form of an alternative professional hockey league. And this monopoly for a major professional sport league is reinforced not only by government subsidies (for arenas, tax breaks, and other infrastructure), it's reinforced by media and distribution exclusivity deals, which account for an enormous amount of revenue and the players' collective bargaining agreements, which limit players' ability to play in other leagues. So to keep a reign on the monopolies of the pro sports industry, government regulations are imposed. This lawsuit is the result of those regulations, aimed at preventing the violation of commerce and consumer protection laws. You're both thinking practically, which is good. But theoretically, if the laws aren't upheld or if the leagues' behavior goes unchallenged in the court of law, the leagues could really start screwing fans and governments alike in frighteningly creative ways. And the costs can be real: the NHL squeezing out an extra $50 per subscriber adds up fassst. The NHL is able to maximize profits because little to no competition for pro hockey exists. The Skittles argument is cute, but the Skittles monopoly is protected by their patents and intellectual property- no one else can make Skittles, at least until the patent expires, and then generic Skittles may start appearing and competing in the marketplace. Intellectual property laws don't really protect the NHL from competition in a meaningful way (they really only protect the NHL brands and logos, etc). The challenges faced by a would-be NHL competitor league is almost purely due to the lack of existing competition. The NHL has a monopolized its way to a stranglehold on pro hockey, often times codified in contracts or agreements with other entities. In other words, the NHL is the only league because the NHL has made itself the only league. And because of this monopoly, the NHL may try to wield power which breaks other consumer laws (like bundling as a result of its exclusive broadcast rights agreements). You'd better believe that this lawsuit was being watched very closely by the other major leagues.

The lawsuit argued that the league and broadcasters were bundling. As a GameCenter or Center Ice customer, you couldn't pay to watch only one team, you were forced to pay to receive the whole league at a higher rate. It also argued that the NHL and broadcasters purposefully blacked out games out-of-market (for instance, you can get the MSG channel lots of places, like California, but it won't show you the Sabres/Rangers/Islanders/Devils games there without GameCenter or Center Ice). This was to force the purchase of GameCenter or Center Ice. The NHL and broadcasters settled out of court. This writeup sumarizes. In reality, as this opinion states, the plaintiffs didn't ask for very much in the settlement, and it was an easy decision for the NHL settle. The NHL must offer a single team version of GameCenter for at least 20% cheaper than full CenterIce. They will also offer all packages discounted about 17% for 2015-16 only. The league will make a single team version of Center Ice available, but won't mandate that the providers carry it. Important: local blackouts will still apply (ie, you can't watch Sabres games in the Sabres market on GameCenter or Center Ice). So it doesn't make sense to purchase a single-team option if you live in-market, only really for out-of-market viewers. If you enjoy reading law documents, the settlement is here.

It always seems like there should be a ton of parking there, but there never is.

"We're going to build a bully and see if you want to play against us for 60 minutes."

Might be waiting until TM is satisified with the UFA signings to bring them all in for a press conference. Still waiting for Oduya, et al.

No jazzercisebot is going to steal my jerb. Smash all the compu

Enigmatic.

I would speculate that the coach's practice is to learn team tactics and systems (forechecking and defensive zone play, for example), the skills practice is to enhance individual skills (advanced power skating and shooting/passing/puck handling, for example), and on ice testing is probably a combination of performance benchmarking (measuring where their individual skills are at) and conditioning testing (heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring during intensive drills, etc).