IKnowPhysics

Photograph that's inspiring the sculpture:

Not sure if troll. In any case, some things are better than winning. Like cupholders on pissers.

Love at first sight?

Statues of image 1 on pedastals of image 2.

Gragnani signs a two-way with Carolina, $800k/$105k. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=400374

Decent interview by Schopp; asked about as direct questions as you can, politely, and received about as direct answers as you can, reasonably. Sounds like Cody Hodgson's playing well. Sounds like FA's mostly a dry hole, save some depth signings. Sounds like they're working hard to construct a big move, but nothing materializing yet. Sounds like they're satisfied with Lindy, and players voicing opposition were whining. Sounds like absolutely no on Semin, and some attempt for Doan. -- TSN says Nash list down to Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and San Jose Sharks. Any reality about cap space and gutting their team in return aside, please not the ###### Bruins. No Nash in the North East. -- Neil resigns in Ottawa for a few years. I think the Northeast is just going total UFC for the next half-decade. The only team in the NE not saltier than the balls of a fat man at a pretzel eating contest in Miami is the Leafs. Perhaps they could un-buyout Darcy Tucker, who's still on the payroll this year (and next, lol).

Ok then. I'm fine with that. Let's move on.

Article effectively illustrates a few points why if Semin came to Buffalo, it could be disasterous. 1) Author illustrates Semin's production decline as Washington shifts from an offense first team into a two-way team. Buffalo, under Lindy Ruff, is a team that expcts all players to play two way- this isn't Semin's game, and his production could suffer. 2) Author illustrates how his high level of skill and low production could lead to the perception of him being lazy, which would infuriate many Buffalo fans. See: Tim Connolly, Taylor Pyatt, Miroslav Satan (later on). 3) Author illustrates how his production inconsistencies would lead to the perception of him being streaky. See: Drew Stafford, Maxim Afinogenov. Looking at the player usage charts, I'd say that Tampa Bay would be a good fit. He'd add depth there. They've got role players playing their tough minutes, giving more offensive freedom to their top players (only a few teams do this, Captials included). If only they could afford him and the goaltending they need.

Oh ######, I think Drunkard's saying Chz has a bad case of "the angles." Let's get it on!

Maybe he got him in NHL '12. I like Oreo for Grig's (yuck) nickname. It's original, not too many syllables, and little kids can pronounce it. Grigorenko. Orenko. Oreo.

Bonus example: Doan's agent says Doan's finally ready to think about offers. He's been waiting for some civic politics in Phoenix to play out that might have influenced the future of the Coyotes. Ugh. That's like saying I'm not going run out of the collapsing cave I'm standing in because I'm wondering if that stalagmite on the floor over there is going to grow large enough to stop the roof from caving in on me. Except the problem is that without any market pressure, the cave's made of styrofoam, so I don't have to give a ###### anyway.

Troof.

I think it's just the few number of higher quality players available (as a result of GMs locking up players for longer terms) has lead to those players realizing that teams won't quickly turn away from them to sign alternatives because those alternatives don't exist. IE, teams can't turn away from Mike Richards at 5pm July 1 to sign Ville Leino because Leino doesn't exist in this UFA period. So the UFAs have been taking their sweet ###### time, resulting in anything of note anywhere happening about once every two days or so. YAWN. I'm fine with the moves that have been made, but I guess I expected a smaller UFA pool to be more fiercely fought over and signed quicker. Instead, the scarcity of talent has made UFA a seller's market on the seller's schedule.

Also, one week later, I'm calling it. Most boring UFA period ever.

Yes, let's not approach 23-47-8-4 before we fix this.

Blogger leads off by citing his own uncited article "Sabres bow out of Bobby Ryan Sweeps." http://www.queencitysports.net/2012/07/06/sources-sabres-bow-out-of-bobby-ryan-sweeps/ He proceeds to say that we're no longer interested in Ryan, but if he's still a Duck in 2-3 weeks, we could be interested again. What the ###### is that? It smells like a home-grown version of Hockey Buzz speculative ######.

No way, man! Tavares is eating up top line minutes like a champ, ever since Roy had to have elbow surgery for nine weeks after I played him immediately after he was back from a broken elbow. Besides, my blind-ass scouts would've told me to take Gladiius Dickfore or some other 67-overall schmo with C potential. What the hell else do we have to talk about? Oh yeah, Flyers sign Fedotenko and Gervias. YAWN. Although, Fedotenko's bio pic on TSN is pretty funny: It looks like he was taking a ###### and saw an ugly woman.

Eh, ohyeah!

I pried Jarome Iginla out of Calgary for Ville Leino and 1st, then traded Iginla and another 1st for Tavares. I figured it was well worth it, as my scouts are useless.

Agreed with all of this.

Normally I'm quick to dismiss the lunacy/idiocy over at hockeybuzz. Just to show you how much contempt I have for their operation, I'm not even going to link to it. /hater Anyways, a Sabres-faithful proposes that, based on the arguably ridiculous contracts to Suter and Carle, the market has been set to make one of our biggest trade assets... Vanek Ennis '88Ruff Andrej Sekera. So I double checked his work, and I agree. The player usage charts show big improvement for Sekera this past year into Carle-like territory, and while the history of offensive statistics aren't there, scouts likely see that both the potential and the capability is (read: he's cheaper). My conclusion: I think he'd make a good piece of a package to convince some other team to do something stupid. He has legitimate trade value. That's all I got. I'm not even going speculate on the destinations or return. And it's not even news, since most have already somehow thrown him into packages just for funsies.

According to the player usage charts, Kevin Porter played really sheltered minutes and still struggled in the possession game. This is not something you want to see on your pro roster. But he does have great college stats and the HB, maybe he's a career AHLer. Maybe the scouts see something.

Now I don't believe a word of that rumor, but how are we supposed enforce that claim? ###### could mean mashed potatoes. Autocensor should be the new whipping boy.

Next up: trade bids on Rick Nash. CBJ's on deck.

I'm going to go ahead and wish him happy NHL retirement. I hope he gets some time in with Mannheim and a shot at Team Germany in 2014. He was never short on work ethic, and if you told me he'd play nine seasons for the Sabres and often put up 50 points, I'd trade two 2nds for him again.