starvenger

Different format for the wild cards this year. They're eliminating 4 right off, before they even get to perform. So far, Bouncy and Ol' George have made it, Big Lisa and Marque have been kicked out... (edit) and Pen guy is in as well...

Don't forget that Bertuzzi grabbed Moore's sweater to ensure a solid punch as well.

Hey, there's a Tampa trade on the board. Stan Neckar from Nashville for a 6th...

You know it. Never a good thing when your goalie is out for a bit with a wonky back...

Luke Richardson, not Robataille.

You know, William Hung seems like a genuinely nice guy and it's great that he's gotten his 15 minutes, but the fact still remains that he can't sing. I hope for his sake that he's got an amazing producer to make this album bearable...

From waymore(Toronto-centric)sports.com: I guess Bertuzzi will be enjoying the playoffs from the comfort of his own home...

Looks like we have a 3-way trade. Buffalo gets Jeff Jillson from Boston Boston gets Brad Boyes from San Jose San Jose gets Curtis Brown from Buffalo

Would Nick Cage be in it also? Probably not. There's too many comic book movies in development for him to campaign for to be in a movie where you live your life a quarter mile at a time...

...and (officially) there it is. Francis for a 4th in 2005...

Wasn't that his floating suite?

Beat me to it. I used to make fun of the Wings for being old, but now, I have to poke fun at my own team for being able to collect an NHL salary and their CPP at the same time...

Off TSN's trade wire, Ottawa gets Greg DeVries, Rangers get Karel Rachunek and Alexandre Giroux...

Can I call someone on this board who openly enjoys pop music (and occasionally has ass shots of Kylie in his sig) narrow minded? Nope, can't do it. My main issues with Shadows is that the Dash Rendar character is basically a Han Solo clone, and that other parts of the "event" aside from the novel simply weren't that good. I agree with your point about resurrected emperors being a bad thing. And that's not even getting into the "dark/fallen/evil Force user" plots. Del Rey (so far) hasn't fallen into the trap that Bantam did though, and is putting out some pretty good books. Tattoine Ghost is actually a very good novel that serves as a "bridge" of sorts between the new Trilogy, OT and post-OT EU. Give it a shot.

Looks like the Leafs just picked up Chad Kilger off of waivers, and they signed Calle Johansson as well. I think by signing Johnasson the Leaf's average age is about 64 now. Gordie Howe is apparently sitting by the phone waiting for a call...

With Stackpole's stuff there was a reluctance to kill off established characters because they might be used in a later novel. Allston was less hampered as he was using only Wedge and Janson. But all in all, I wouldn't mind seeing either version of X-Wing made into a TV series. Given the relative ages of all the actors it would make sense to make movies in the NJO era, but I think that Lucas will leave that alone. I actually liked the Vong, because they made the Jedi look falliable. Wonder what it would have been like had they went with the original plan (kill LUKE, not Chewie)...

The EU is basically anything that doesn't happen in the movies but is considered "official" Star Wars canon (unless Lucas decides on something else). So that includes the Marvel/Dark Horse comics, videogames, novels, RPGs etc. but not fanfilms/fanfic like "Troops". There are exceptions, of course. Dark Horse has a series called "Infinities" which is their version of What If/Elseworlds, and I don't think the (rather bad) game "Knights of Tera Kersi" is official either. For quite a few of the novels that's true - K.W. Jeter's "Bounty Hunter Wars" trilogy is a real cure for insomnia - but the X-Wing series is pretty cool (and check out the thread here for more about that) and Timothy Zahn's 5 novels kick all sorts of ass - it's more or less the standard that the other books are held up against. And actually some of the PRE-Endor EU stuff is crap. Shadows of the Empire was probably one of the bigger offenders, as it was a huge multimedia event that, in my mind, didn't pay off. Splinter of the Mind's Eye actually isn't bad, but because it was made before ESB there's a lot of contradictions. And, of course, there's the Star Wars Holiday Special. 'Nuff said there.

To be honest, most of these changes sound okay. But to me the most significant thing is the return of "Greedo shoots first" since this can be taken to mean that Lucas in fact DOES listen to public opinion every once in a while. I also like that he's trying to tie the trilogies together a bit more, but it'd be nice to see him go that extra mile and throw in some EU stuff as well. Why not throw in some shots of Shannon McRandle as Mara Jade (as Jabba dancer Arica) in ROTJ, or maybe a quick shot of Thrawn? He's altering the trilogies anyways, so why not?

He was also one of the "hunters" in the hella-bad Manhunt reality show. I think that this was during his UPW stint...

Man, all this because of a breast with a big metal pastie. Are radio and television in that much denial that f-bombs and nudity don't exist?

I'll have to wait for highlights. Ah, old time hockey.

It's gonna be a serious dogfight to come out on top in the East. Right now the only good spot to be in seems to be first in the conference.

I hope you were talking about the trilogy and not the vibrator...

And Cooper's an underrated character actor. He woulda made a great Gordon. Still, I can't complain too much about having Oldman in the film, can I?

And more importantly, most people won't know who the hell he is, although apparently you and I do...