Brush with Greatness

Well, let's see how this discussion goes. Anyways, I'm a diehard WJC, having missed very few Canada games since getting hooked courtesy of John Slaney's goal at the 91 WJC when I was only 9. Anyways, what are everyone's thoughts on the team? And keep in mind my opinions will be favour the western players just because I've had more exposure to them. Goalies Well, Marc Andre Fleury is a lock here. The backup position will be a hell of a battle between Jeff Deslauries, Maxime Daigneault, Cam Ward and Josh Harding. In a bit of a surpise no 85 born goalies are even at camp (to groom a starter for next year). So with all 4 backups 84's it's anyone's shot. Deslauriers should have made the team last year. I'd consider him the favourite to backup Fleury this year. Daigneault's a good goalie but had a very shitty World Under 18 performance representing Canada a few years back which should work against him. Harding and Ward are fairly even, although I believe if Harding had Ward's team in front of him he would be much better. So I think Fleury will start with Deslauriers being the frontrunner for the backup spot at camp with Harding being the one really pushing him for that spot. Defence After catching the WHL AllStars take on the Russian Selects recently I'm convinced that there are at least 6 WHL defence that will make up Team Canada's D. Braydon Coburn, Dion Phaneuf and Brent Seabrook should all make the team regardless of the fact that they are all 85's. Hopefully Ian White is healthy and he should have a spot as well. Shawn Belle (who is really impressive) may be the most raw skilled defenceman at camp and his strong skating should warrant a spot on the team, even though he is another 85. The other seven guys in camp are all 84's. It's pretty much a crapshoot between them, but considering the offensive talent those first five bring I would figure that they take two defensive d-men for the 6th and 7th spots. Kevin Klein should have one of those spots for sure. The other spot goes to maybe Josh Gorges or Mike Egener. This leaves Derek Meech, Andre Benoit, Jeremy Swanson, and Bruno Gervais out. Forwards Sidney Crosby, Brent Burns, Jeff Carter, Eric Fehr, Anthony Stewart, Adam Henrich, Jeff Tambellini, Stephen Dixon, Ryan Getzlaf, Daniel Paille, Mike Richards, Corey Perry, and Nigel Dawes. This leaves Adam Courchaine, Marc-Andre Bernier, Tim Brent, Kyle Brodziak, Jeremy Colliton, and Maxime Talbot in the cold. I think Courchaine and Bernier could sneak on because they both can put the puck in the net maybe dropping Dixon, Dawes or Perry off. Other than that, that list of 13 forwards is fucking impressive. Little bit of everything. Then again, this whole camp is usually a crapshoot and some borderline players step up their game and make the team. And like last year, where we were without Jay Bouwmeester, Jason Spezza, Rick Nash and Stephen Weiss, this year we are short Nash, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Eric Staal, Nathan Horton and Patrice Bergeron. What are everyone else's thoughts?

But they will be playing on the larger international ice surface too. That fact really hurt Spezza as a 16 year old because of his weak skating but favoured the swift Bouwmeester. With all of Crosby's talents it should also favour him. And yes, the Q is a softer league but on the same token Crosby is going up against the best defensman pairing/defensive forwards night in night out. Despite the league being softer, the top checkers in the league are still strong checkers. Since his strong start the kid has gotten a lot of special attention from opposing teams and it hasn't affected his game at all.

I think Crosby will definetly hold his own. My prediction is that he will be held back to start but eventually get his chance and prove that he can hold his own. Both Bouwmeester and especially Spezza, saw limited time as 16 years olds. Of course, I don't think Spezza had the talent Crosby has. Some people are saying that he should stand out comparing Alex Ovechkin's (who was playing a year before his draft eligible year) 6 goals in 6 games performance last year and saying that because Crosby is more skilled he should fare just as well or better. The thing to remember is that Ovechkin is an 85 (who if he had been born about 3 days earlier would have qualified for this past years NHL draft), playing mostly against 84's and 83's last year. Crosby will be an 87 playing against mostly 85's and 84's.

To me, Powell seems like he would have been a much better president than Bush. I also think that he probably would have got a lot more voting support than Bush. But the question I have is: Would the southern states that vote Republic vote for Powell, or would they not vote/vote Democrat/vote Reform because they do not like the idea of a black president?

Yeah, Locke was a surpisable omission. I didn't see either of the OHL-Russian Selects games. Did Locke tank in those or what?

And this is barely newsworthy with all the Inoki-Pride shit going on right now, but Carlos Newton is officially making his return to the UFC. Da Meltz:

Courtesy Da Meltz: And courtesy of Puroresopower.com (and someone else here would know more about their credibility: Interesting to say the least.

We had two parties in the same sense that America has only two parties Liberal = Democrats PC = Republic but also the extremists Reform/Alliance = Reform NDP = Green (minus the strong leadership of Ralph Nader) What happened though, like someone mentioned, is that the extremist right rose up to a level no one thought it would. Thus eventually forcing the merge.

Actually, as most people know Spoiler (Highlight to Read): Slater dies in Tarantino's original script. Tony Scott changed it. However, Tarantino actually approves of the current ending because of how Scott interpreted the script (as a fucked up love story) and how the movie actually plays out. A question though. In both my VHS version and DVD version it is labeled the "Unrated Directors Cut". Can anyone tell me the difference between the theatrical version and the directors cut? I'm guessing the Gandolfini-Arquette seen is more lethal in the directors cut but I'm not sure? And who would've guessed, a solid acting performance from an Arquette. But yeah, love the movie, LOVE the DVD. The isolated commentaries are awesome.

Okay, so say that a demo or trial version has expired. When you try to reinstall it, no luck, as the program still knows that the trial period has expired. Is there any way around this? Possibly with the registry editor?

I don't know how that will work. I mean, with only two Academy Awards achievable for acting (Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor), I'm not sure these three talents could co-exist. And besides, it wouldn't be fair to the Academy to be forced to recognize only two of these guys with awards when your faced with having to pick from the three most talented actors in the industry.

New Kids on the Block also had the "Fab Five" moniker at one time.

Never actually beat Punchout. Never actually owned it, but was able to walk through it until Mike Tyson or his successor Mr. Dream a few times but failed against them. If any one ever gives me trouble besides those two it's Mr. Sandman. Super Macho Man is a cakewalk but I fucking hate Sandman.

There was actually a two disc special edition of Orgazmo in the works and all put together with documentaries and shit that sounded really funny and it was pulled last minute by the production company. Unless of course you were being sarastic with your comment. Then, I can only assume that you like Depeche Mode and thus are a queer. (not that there's anything wrong with that)

Wrestling with Shadows Hoop Dreams Orgazmo TV Shows: Seinfeld Degrassi (Jr and Sr High) Wonder Years As for re-releases... Goodfellas Office Space American History X Just to name a few.

For me there was only really one offensive line in there and it was painfully offensive. Not that there is anything wrong with them... but there is something wrong with that comparison.

Actually, EW 9000 had similar features along these lines, just scaled down.

Anyways, I've managed to avoid the spoilers for Pride:Final Conflict, apart from the Cro Cop-Nog fight but I still haven't managed to see the show. My buddy that gets the show wasn't around for the original showing and hasn't seen the show come up on his dish at all. Just wondering if anybody had taped the show? If so, could someone dub me a tape, or even lend me theres and I'll send it back. Let me know, thanks.

Cool thanks.

Yeah, I know Lawler and Hughes are both with Militich. Would love to see them go though anyways. Does your perfect predictions include the dark matches?

Winnipegish. So no, no where near Toronto. You could mail the tape c.o.d. and then I could mail the tape back to you.

Eh, the card was good. Nothing great though. Lawler v. Lytle Good opening round, good third round. Second round was rather boring. It's like Lawler knew he won the first round, figured he'd rest in the second, and then take the match in the third. other possibility though was that he was still shaken from that heel to the head he took to end round one. This fight was crazy just in the reactions the guys had to each other. Seemed like there was alot of respect between them after the fight which is always good to see. Baroni v. Tanner Damn, did Tanner take a licking and keep on ticking. This was a really enjoyable fight. I thought Baroni got screwed on the finish, but I think even if he would have been able to endure the beating for the rest of the round he would have lost in the second. Baroni fought a bad fight strategically as he appeared to gas out about 3 minutes into the opening round after throwing so many punches to start. Boy, looking at the 2 fighters after the fight Tank v. Cabbage Tank took a beating. He landed maybe one good shot that appeared to affect Cabbage. Cabbage threw a few solid knees. Got cut on Tank. Fuck Joe Rogan for his whole PC stance on the post brawl. Yeah, yeah, they don't knew the bad pub, but that shit also sells tickets and gives the fights a little added aura of intensity. Lindland v. Vitale Most boring fight of the night. Lindland proved the first fight was indeed a fluke. I know Lindland is a world class wrestler but I think Vitale is out of his league in UFC as he showed pretty much nothing here. Hughes v. Trigg Good fight, if not too short. Both guys showed good groundwork at the start of the fight. The standing rear naked choke was just awesome to witness. Looking Ahead Lawler - Well, he could be in line for a welterweight title shot but the likelihood of that happening with Hughes as champ is minimal. Do you keeping building Lawler up at this point by feeding him better opponents, or do you just try to keep him strong until Hughes eventually loses, and then a strong Lawler can avenge his teammates loss. He could try to get revenge on Spratt but a second loss to him would really hurt. I don't think he has the experience to take on Sherk yet though so this doesn't leave Lawler with much Lytle- Don't really care Baroni & Tanner - Definite rematch here. No questions asked Cabbage - Well, he said he wants Kimo. Works for me. As long as Kimo plays ball this time unlike him pulling his submission crap with Tank. Kimo needs to know his role. Any mid level brawler who lacks the skills to ever be a world champ should focus on entertainment as much as winning the fight. After all, thats why Kimo was there. Tank - Time to hang em up. Lindland - Now that he's avenged the Vitale loss, he could go after the only other guy that beat him in Busta. That's assuming Busta comes back to the UFC. Would that match be for the title? The next best possibility would be Phillip Miller. Hell, make that match for the Middleweight title. Vitale - Don't really care Trigg - Trigg has a good look and the potential to be one of the top welter's. Wouldn't mind seeing Trigg v. Sherk. Or just bring back Shonie Carter or Ronin. Hughes - Announcers talked about BJ Penn moving up to challenge. I don't think Penn would have a shot. Hughes is fucking strong against guys his size, he would be able to manhandle Penn. I think Matt Hughes v. Dennis Hallman is a potential matchup. You could play off of Hallman's 2-0 record against Hughes and shit. That match has potential to draw (as much as a welterweight match can draw). Apart from that I don't really see any other options. The battle of team Militich would be great (although Hughes experience would clinch the victory for him) but like I said before I don't think it's gonna happen.

Yet at the same time can't afford Comrie

Black guy with a 40 and an uzi = Bad White Trailer Trash lady with a shitload of kids = okay Mexican with sombrero working in convenience store = okay Chinese girl in Massage parlour giving a BJ = okay Italians depicted as mafioso = okay Irish in green costumes and brawling = okay Oh my god! This game is poking so much fun at black people for the way they are depicted. All these other stereotypes truly exist but everyone knows there are no black people that fit this stereotype. This game is creating racist stereotypes out of thin air. As for the controversy surrounding the game pieces... Pimp Hoe 40 oz Machine Gun Marijuana Leaf Basket Ball Crack Am I to assume that none of these said game pieces are prevelant in the Ghetto? Another question... All the people out there that hate this game because of the stereotypes it depicts, what are your thoughts on Italians portrayed as Mafioso in either TV or movies? Should the Soprano's be shut down because it portrays Italians in a negative light?

Yeah, because they couldn't have actually used that money towards Comrie.