IKnowPhysics

I'm not going to defend him, but his bio is here: http://sabres.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=94184 Of note to me: He was a longtime coach for college-aged players and that may have given him an ability to scout and evaluate talent. Lots of scouts have worse resumes. He also founded the ACHA, which is no small feat.

I have a small itch to elaborate on this. Will I scratch it?

On of my chemistry professors at UB said he had a full ride to Stanford to play football. He recruited, signed, enrolled, went to camp, and was John Elway's roommate for a while. When he tried to take chemistry classes because he wanted to major in that, the athletic department was all like, "you can't take chemistry because football won't give you enough time to be in the lab classes." He immediately transferred to a private liberal arts college. He either played DIII ball or quit playing, don't remember and can't find an old roster. He graduated, got his PhD, and is now a well-respected, well-published, award-winning chemist and patent holder. And a pretty good teacher. And a funny guy.

VICTORY!

VICTORY! (Apologies for the delay. Minor plumbing issues prevented me from making time for the DVR.)

That sequence was Joe Battista (reading the scouting report), Dave Torrie (I think), and Craig Patrick.

That's not how I heard it, but I had to listen to it a few times. I think Devine's speaking of Halak, who, of course was the UFA and didn't get moved to Minnesota (or anywhere else?). If true, this is what I was thinking about the trade: Halak wasn't worth a ###### after Edmonton made goalie moves and ended up as a throw-in price-dropper. Historically, young goalies gather a 2nd round pick (examples: Biron and Noronen), so figure that's what the Capitals ask for Neuvirth. We get the price dropped from a 2nd to a 3rd because we give the Capitals a backup goalie back in Halak. In order for that to work cap-wise for the Capitals, we eat Klesla's contract (no big deal). That's a square deal to me, and we get a young goalie with some up side under contract and keep our precious 2nd rounders.

Yeah, that's pretty damn good episode. That's the honey pot of behind-the-scenes hockey videos, I think: how trades ideas develop and how the negotiating works. Exciting stuff. Not overly revealing about how the negotiations went, but a good look at how decisive and frosty you have to stay as a GM and how important leadership is on a busy trade deadline day

Let's wait to debate this, but even if they came here: no no no no no no no.

FTFY FTFY

Inevitable yet sad. The events about to unfold will now help carve his legacy into stone or begin to dismantle it piece by piece. He will undoubtedly be remembered in sports lore as a influential and generous man who had either wisely secured his place as a hero of Buffalo or let his empire burn as he watched from the clouds. We'll spend years talking about the greatness or folly of his posthumous wishes, but for now May he finally rest.

We should blow our mojo all over this draft. And then blow it all over the next one too. We've earned it. We've earned it hard. Supplemental conspiracy: we sent PLF to infiltrate the league and fix the draft in our favor. Hardest tank imaginable.

FTFY. All Boston players are like this. It's the patriot attitude. They're going to do what they think they can get away with to get ahead, and not even the rules are going to stop them. And if you dare to fight back, then they'll just go over the top, often in some dirty or illegal way to demonstrate that they make the law on the ice, regardless of league rules. And if the league were to actually punish that behavior in a meaningful way, the pissing and moaning from the fans, media, and players would endless on two fronts: 1) that's not old-school hockey/the league is a bunch of pussies 2) that's not fair/Boston gets screwed too much. This is why John Scott exists*. He was brought in to show Bruins players that no matter what they think about rules or supplemental discipline, they might forget how to eat soup at age 45 because they thought they were above league rule and had to have their septum caved in by an ice skating Goliath. * He's a nice guy, an educated guy, and funny. I hope he develops into a worthwhile player, but I don't have really any expectations for him on-ice.

Denver @ BC and ND @ Wisconsin are going to be absolutely dynamite games. Denver, after sneaking into the tournament by winning the NCHC Tournament but only posting a 10-11-3 conference record, might get rocked playing BC's high-power offense on almost home ice in Worcester, but Denver's a proud organization with a lot of history and may not fall easily. North Dakota and Wisconsin are old WCHA rivals that haven't seen each other yet this year. Wisconsin, like Minnesota, is rocking the first season of Big Ten Hockey, as North Dakota reigns over the NCHC with St Cloud. I was pondering that myself. A: Maybe quite a bit. High draft picks like him, even as freshmen, can be game-breakers on college ice. Dany Heatley (3rd overall) posted 113 points in 77 games over two seasons for Wisconsin. They went from from 4th in the conference (13-12-3) before he arrived to Conference champions (25-3-0) his freshman year.

The brackets for the NCAA Division I Men's Hockey Championship are set! The final rankings were: The printable bracket is here: http://i.turner.ncaa...men_d1_2013.pdf A loose breakdown is here (w/ vid): http://espn.go.com/c...-college-hockey Lots of great first round matchups and lots of great college hockey on ESPN networks. Minnesota, who is ranked 1 going into the national tournament bracket, lost to Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament, allowing Union to finish #1 in the polls. Also, some all-important women's college hockey news: After going 38-2-1 and winning the last two national titles, the Minnesota women's team was STUNNED in the NCAA Championship FInal by Clarkson: http://www.startribu.../251795151.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YepO9Pq4iNI

The players and fans are trying to sell it. Hard. It looks like a rummage sale out there. For the second time this season, a fan tosses their jersey out on the ice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD1JksflupE Meanwhile, Taylor Hall throws a tantrum, smashing his water bottle down on the bench, which sprays Dallas Eakins with water: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntBqq6fuSac Then TSN just goes ahead and lays it on thick anyways.

Don your Sabres colors or get mowed down like Jonah.

If you think that the support has waned because people bought into the meddling idea, you are way out of touch. This "meddling" bit is so ###### tired, I can't waste my time with it anymore. It's a joke; this whole topic has become an enormously ###### joke because of its relentless stupidity. It's an unfounded, baseless, paranoid delusion that has somehow, through sheer ignorance and unwillingness to listen to reason, willed it's way into perpetuity. And I'm tired of fighting it. I'm tired of typing out requests for evidence and the exercise of reason and rational thought. So if being exhausted by trying to demonstrate how weak these dumb arguments are makes me a "Pegula fanboi in hiding," then ###### so be it. Congratulations. But don't claim righteous victory in the name of what is right. Claim one because you are successfully defending what so many people think is too stupid to contest. I'm not even convinced that this whole concept wasn't designed to troll users that can think straight. This. All of that. And I'm not even mad. I'm really ambivalent, because at the end of the day, none of this ###### matters. Pegula owns the team, He'll operate it in the fashion of his choosing. And whether you agree or disagree with what it is, it is what it is. In my perception, Pegula's doing quite a lot of good inside and outside the Sabres organization, and inside and outside the hockey department of the Sabres organization. I'm fine with all of that, and I've grown weary of defending that position. edit: This thread is it's own perfect example. Back on page three, nine months ago:

Eleven points away from second (last), twelve games to go. Two games in hand over Edmonton, who has decided to lose their last two. There has been secretive research being conducted throughout the war, in preparation for a time that we would need a dominating battle technology against a coastal opponent. Scientists have been working for months to achieve a new level of seaside combat efficiency. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoy4_h7Pb3M How does one tank against the ocean-born killer whale? Experiments with amphibious tanks didn't go as well as expected. Instead, we captured current ocean-going technology and developed it into a new, tank-worthy platform, fit for battle on land and in the fjords of British Columbia. UNLEASH THE MECHA WHALES!! ONWARD!!

THIS ###### RIGHT HERE: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/now-every-school-can-access-fancy-plasma-physics-laboratory-180950234/#cSTEAAkewtkeI8ri.01 One of my friends got this going. Control a real plasma physics experiment via internet connection. Play with pressure, voltage, and magnet current settings, and watch the plasma light up and change shape and color.

Realistic? Probably not, but I think we're in a better position to accomplish that than most teams. With the draft selections and cap space available to us, we can pretty much hand pick our team for at least the next seven years. I think that's why we're reading articles that every GM in the league is jealous of Tim Murray's situation. For as far as we've fallen, we dare not fail to dream big.

I enjoyed this.

Nah.