Brush with Greatness

Okay, hold on a second here. I skipped a few pages. What the fuck happened to Jakob's nose? I am assuming you broke it, or it had something to do with you or Natalie. Now, you say you fear Jakob's father finding out. Did Jakob's father not ask any questions after the broken nose or what? You really need to have one of those previously on recaps at the start of your threads for all your "From Russia with Love" posts. Just out of curiousity, when you write this, who do you cast in your head as Natalie? Also, you really need to start having Jakob play the suicide card if you haven't already, that's always in those types of shows. But eventually you and Jakob have to develop some sort of mutual respect for each other. Maybe he hooks up with Yelena or something.

Giving up Williams for Markov. Could this be because they no longer have a blue chip prospect in the minors to call up? And can anyone find me a pick of Lindy pummeling Thornton. I have a buddy who is a die hard Bruin fan (and especially Thornton although to his credit he stuck by Joe even in his rookie season) and would love to have the pic to constantly rub in his face.

Perhaps he meant exactly 145 hours. (seeing as it is now well past 145 minutes) So we only have about 124 hours to go. *waits in anticipation*

I said Bentley just because Ashton has a very Wes Bentlley look going for him in the previews. And yes, there is potential for him to pour in a great performance. And indeed, Marlon Wayans pulled that great Requiem performance out of his ass. Hopefully he can do the same in the Ladykillers.

Have Kevin Smith movies ever actually made any money (which I'm assuming is your definition of successful in this instance)? And on a side note in regards to the Butterfly Effect: They probably could have just as easily cast Wes Bentley in Asthon Kutchers role and produced a hell of a lot better movie for a hell of a lot better money. That's just my presumtion anyways, haven't seen it obviously.

Or he could be totally motivated and not let anything stop him. Whose to say how it will affect him? It could be similar to Jens Pulver and Dusty in his fight against Uno. I know that the situation is a lot different but in a sense it is similar.

Anyone else remember the Mr. T cereal? I recall it vaguely, and if memory serves, I think it was just a rip off of Cap'n Crunch. Still, it was uber cool due to T's presence.

I loved the A-Team but I don't think the show has stood the test of time as well as some others. However, the intro still kicks all kinds of ass. And on the action figure note, I indeed had all the action figures (the smaller GI Joe type ones) and the fucking van. And anyone else remember Mr. T's other show, T n' T?

Yes, we are all aware of the first few games where he played good. That doesn't take away from his 2 points in 6 games since. Winning that Florida game singlehandedly? Well, if you throw out Hackett stopping 29 of 30 shots, then you could say that. But considering how the goals were scored, that would be like saying Pat O'Sullivan singlehandedly won the U.S. the world juniors. That's not mentioning the incredible game he had against the Oilers. You would figure he would have wanted to step his game up and prove something.

Funny, thats what I thought the motivation for drafting Jeff Carter and Mike Richards was. Too bad Weinrich, Desjardins, Therien and Ragnarsson have all seen better days. In a few years those guys won't have much left in the tank. Sure, they have Johnsson and Pitkanen and Vandemeer will make a decent #5 d-man but beyond that they are lacking. (Seidenberg started strong last year but since then his play has constantly curtailed) And considering, on average, it takes defenceman longer to come into their own it would be nice if they had a good d prospect (or in Woywitka's case, great). And I can't believe anyone has sympathy for Mike Comrie regarding the whole Edmonton trade ordeal. This was a player who held Edmonton for ransom when signing his initial contract, which ended up including a big fat signing bonus, due to his impending UFA status. Status he gained through a loophole which the only purpose was to fuck the Oilers over.

If by decent you mean one goal and one assist in Philly's last six games, then yeah, he's been fanfuckintastic.

Too bad Philly doesn't have a blue chip defenceman prospect and a couple of high draft picks that they can ship off for a goalie.

Wow Philadelphia has really got hot after that brilliant Mike Comrie trade. 2-4-2-2 with Comrie in the lineup (as opposed to 18-6-8-3 without). Those 4 losses: 6-1 against T-Bay 3-0 against the Oil 2-1 against the Pitiful Pens 6-2 against the Sabres Nice work. (and no one better spout back with the no Primeau defence. If Comrie is as good as everyone claims his presence should more than make up for the lack of Primeau) As for the Calder trophy Ryder is probably the front runner right now because it is a writers award and not a GM's one. Trent Hunter of the Isles has been superior to Ryder in almost every way (include being 4th in the league in even strength goals and 2nd in GW's) and would likely win if the GM's voted. If Hunter played in a better market his name would be getting thrown around up there more. The final candidate is probably Pitkanen whose been a rock, although his play has declined recently as Philly has struggled. Nik Zherdev would probably be the dark horse but could jump into the race if he gets hot. Raycroft's numbers will continue to decline as Boston tails off like the do at the end of every season.

Should be good with those top three fights have great potential. Hopefully this isn't one of those cases where the end product doesn't live up to the hype. BTW, why the hell is this on a Saturday?

My guess was that Shamrock was hoping that Ortiz would crawl up (as he would have to in attempting a choke) his back more and expose his leg at which point Shamrock would go for a kneebar. Or possibly a heel hook, something along those lines. EDIT: WildPegasus - If you watched the Shamrock highlight vid before the fight it would have been similar to how he submitted Jeremy Horn.

Meh, had Belfour played the Leafs would have likely won 1-0. Possibly tied 1-1. Kidd is shit.

Wow, what an ugly goal to lose on. Anyways, that was fucking brutal. Canada was in total control of that game. They really should have buried their chances in the 2nd and early third. And then they get caught sending three guys hard when they are up 2 goals in the third. WTF was that? USA was dead before they got that second goal and gave them the life they needed. Canada pretty much beat themselves this year as no team was really capable of playing with them. Hopefully those thirteen guys will be back next year and will have something to prove. Fuck.

Just fucking sell it to Melnyk already.

Who's played both, which is better, and why?

So what do you do with Roman when he gets back? It looks like the Sharks gave up on Kiprusoff a bit early (which is weird considering the high praise he was receiving early in his career). Not like Vesa Toskala is hurting them or anything though. Boy is there a plethora of goalies out there that no one wants. And that's because each team has a guy just as good. There is only one goalie (maybe two if you count Luongo but that's iffy) who standouts above the rest and about 25 other starters who are all even. There are probably about 10-15 backups who are as good as or better than those 25 starters. Hell, I think even Ray Emery, Ryan Miller, and Kari Lehtonen (all playing in the A) could start and be just as good as almost anyone in the league. The market for goalies seriously crashed big time.

Hell, I didn't realize that the Oilers were an Andy McDonald away from winning the Stanley Cup. Anyone who thinks the Oilers lost this trade is a fool (probably one of the many fools who were calling Lowe an idiot for the Carter-Dvorak-Cross deal). As it is, the Oilers aren't going to win the cup this year. Not with Mike Comrie, not even with Andy f'n McDonald! Kevin Lowe has made it clear with his dealings the past few seasons that he is going to play it safe, load up on younger players and prospects and wait and see how the chips fall in September 2004 and beyond (which isn't a bad idea at all because they were never going to win any cups in the meantime and why go broke trying). Woiwytka and a 1st rounder help add to this young group which even includes Raffi Torres (OMG-What a bad trade that was too). Two first round picks and Andy McDonald was a pipe dream some reporter in Edmonton who overvalues Comrie dreamed up and Murray would have been stupid to pull the trigger on that deal. And on top of this, where the fuck is Mike Comrie going to fit in on the Flyers. Let's take a look. Primeau, Handzus, Kapanen, Rechhi, Leclair, Gagne, Williams, Roenick, Amonte. All of those guys get at least 15 minutes of ice time a game including powerplay time (except Primeau while Williams/Kapanen split time and Recchi plays the point). So which one gets scaled back? Or is Comrie going to take over Claude Lapointe's spot while he's in rehab and play 10 min's game with no ice time on the PP. Comrie's production in Edmonton was based around the opportunity to play 18 minutes a game (only one Flyer forward plays 18 minutes a game) including over 4 minutes a game on the powerplay (where he registers a third of his points). In comparison no Flyer forward has over 3 minutes/game on the powerplay. And is Hitch really going to like the way Comrie plays. Comrie was a -18 in Edmonton last year (no other forward was worse than a -8). Guys like Smyth, Marchant, Horcoff, Hemsky and Reasoner were all +'s. Not to mention Comrie's effectiveness will be scaled back because of his lack of size in the East. Even if the Oilers were to get the ANDY MCDONALD~! deal, it is minimally better than what they got. Woiwytka > 1st round pick because Woiwytka is more of a sure thing on top of being more talented than most late first round picks. The other 1st round picks cancel out (although the Ducks pick should actually be slightly better depending on how the standings play out). Andy McDonald is better than the 3rd round pick. So, the rumoured yet never offered Duck deal is minimally better than what the Oil got. So the Oilers should take it? Trade the player to the team he wants and set a precedent for letting the players run the team? Not to mention trading that guy to a rival team in your conference, a team which the player will undoubtly help, and the potential for the player to come back and bit you in the ass. Yeah, good fucking move. There is a lot more to a trade than simply the players invovled. Yes, right now Mike Comrie is a better player than Jeff Woiwytka. However, the intangibles weigh out in the Oilers favour. Hope you learned something today.

Who cares? It's no Degrassi

So I'm assuming it can't be any worse than Two Towers. And what was wrong with the Two Towers? -Everyone had a big fucking long speech about saving the world. It was boring and repetive and I don't give a shit if that's how it was in the book or not. -The movie made my ass sore. It was one of those movies that I kept asking the person beside my what time it was and then it was like "we've only been here two hours. Fuck, this feels like a long time." Two Towers should have had an intermission. Not because it was three and a half hours but because it dragged so fucking much. -The explosions (primarily blowing up that damn or whatever). How the fuck do you have explosives without gun powder? So if you have gunpowder than you likely have guns (or are very close to having guns). So why the fuck are all these guys running around with swords when people could be shooting each other? So what I'm asking is does RoTK eliminate the long boring speeches, ass soreness, and stupid times where they make it nearly impossible to suspend disbelief?

Which is exactly my point, as Comrie is a front line center, and they got nothing of the same in return for him...of which the Flyers have in Simon Gagne, Justin Williams, etc. Edmonton was so desparate to get rid of Comrie, and Lowe was so blind to make himself out to be the good guy in the whole thing that he unloaded an extremely talented player for practically nothing. Considering what Clarke said about Comrie in November I don't figure there is any way that he would part with Gagne or Williams for Comrie, especially because the Flyers don't at all need Comrie. Trading away a Gagne or Williams for Comrie isn't going to make the Flyers better it's just going to make the same team with a different player. And with their depth down the middle why trade a winger for a centre? So essentially there was no way Lowe was going to land Gagne or Williams. Comrie was a big fish in a small pond and by the sounds of it there were no teams willing to part with name guys to get Comrie. Like the Corey Perry deal was so much better? Perry can't skate and Woiwytka will be a better NHLer and will be ready sooner. The one thing Lowe should have done was to push for either Jeff Carter or Mike Richards as opposed to a 1st round pick. Or with the current deal, gotten a 2nd round pick in 2005 instead of the 3rd rounder. Woiwytka is a stud on D and almost made the Flyers last year as a 19 year old. Woiwytka straight up for Comrie wouldn't have been a terrible deal (although in that case the Oilers would have lost the trade) but throw in the draft picks, the trade is even and the Oilers maybe even win it if they can draft good. Face it, Lowe was in a situation where he was unable to get anyone that could help the Oilers right away so he did his best and got what he could.

Well, the Nats made their final cuts today. The makeup of the team looks like this: GOALTENDERS: Marc-Andre Fleury, Sorel PQ (Pittsburgh NHL) Josh Harding, Regina SK (Regina WHL) Good for Harding, he was probably the most talented goalie in camp other than Fleury but still had to work to beat out Deslauriers for the backup spot. Sort of sucks for Deslauriers. Too years in a row that he is the odd man out in net. DEFENSEMAN: Shawn Belle, Edmonton AB (Tri-Cities WHL) Braydon Coburn, Shaunavon SK (Portland WHL) Josh Gorges, Kelowna BC (Kelowna WHL) Derek Meech, Winnipeg MB (Red Deer WHL) Dion Phaneuf, Edmonton AB (Red Deer WHL) Brent Seabrook, Tswwassen BC (Lethbridge WHL) Kevin Klein, Kitchenen ON (Guelph OHL) The big four 85's are there (Belle, Coburn, Phaneuf and Seabrook) as expected, along with Klein and Gorges. Only surprise was the omission of Ian White, who I guess they weren't sure would be ready (he is just recovering from a broken ankle). That opened up one more spot and they took the other little d-man in camp besides White, Derek Meech. FORWARDS: Brent Burns, Ajax ON (Minnesota NHL) Jeremy Colliton, Blackie AB (Prince Albert WHL) Nigel Dawes, Winnipeg MB (Kootenay WHL) Ryan Getzlaf, Regina SK (Calgary WHL) Sidney Crosby, Cole Harbour NS (Rimouski QMJHL) Stephen Dixon, Halifax NS (Cape Breton QMJHL) Maxim Talbot, St-Bruno PQ (Gatineau QMJHL) Jeff Carter, London ON (Sault Ste. Marie OHL) Daniel Paille, Welland ON (Guelph OHL) Tim Brent, Cambridge ON (Toronto OHL) Michael Richards, Kenora ON (Kitchener OHL) Anthony Stewart, Toronto ON (Kingston OHL) Jeff Tambellini, Port Moody BC (Michigan CCHA NCAA) From my original predictions Eric Fehr, Adam Henrich, and Corey Perry are out and in there places are Jeremy Colliton, Maxime Talbot, and Tim Brent. It's obvious Canada feels they have enough offence as Colliton, Talbot and Brent don't have the offensive upside of Fehr, Henrich and Perry but bring more to the table defensively. Watching the games against the OUA the commentators highlighted the leadership that Talbot and Brent bring which also probably played a part in them being named to the team. That Richards-Stewart-Dawes line looks pretty awesome if they keep it together. One of the most exciting part about this team is that 13, count them, fucking 13 guys (in italics) are eligible to return next year. The 85's on this years team are also not just bit players but should have large roles. In comparison, last year they only had four guys eligible to come back (Fleury, Paille, White and Pierre-Marc Bouchard). This also means they have a young team but experience shouldn't be a problem because most of them have played in Under-18's and what not. If this squad captures the championship this year I see definite potential for them to defend it next year. Add to that, a NHL lockout would mean that Nathan Horton and Patrice Bergeron would both be back as well.