the max

+: Moved out. Bought a car for $10. Bonded with the girlfriend's side of the family after getting off to a semi-rocky start. Got a puppy. Lost a lot of weight. -: Things are just kind of...stagnant. This year has absolutely flown by, and even with all of the plusses, I feel like I haven't done a goddamn thing. Every day is falling into the other and my life is a routine. I'm bored, I think. Something needs to happen soon.

Got it for the girlfriend for xmas. It's got some improvements over the cube version (make your own constellation, tons of new items, etc.). I haven't gotten to play yet, but I'll still take the cube version.

Cut payroll, put money in accounting, get attendance up and don't suck. I was always dead last in league financing with the team that I inherited, so I started selling off good, expensive players for young and cheaper players. I cut payroll from 59 million to 33 million in my first season. And since I'm the best team in the NHL right now, my attendance is huge, my revenue is in the 110's and since my accounting is good, I'm making 60-65 million a month.

Pretty much, yeah. It's kind of nice because they'll tell you when someone is playing well and suggest a promotion to the big roster. It's good to use update money on your minor league coaches because young guys will reach their potential sooner.

BaseWars for the NES is fun. And it has robots.

Well, they didn't blow TO's doors off, but an inspired effort by the Bruins tonight gets them a 4-1 win. Toivonen was excellent and I think he's made himself the clear #1 until proven otherwise. Even the defense was good, as TO's only goal was a laser from Czerkawski that Hannu got a piece of. Zhamnov finally broke the ice (no pun intended) and scored his first of the season. Green and Primeau scored, as did Sturm late. All in all, a good game tonight and let's hope to see another one tomorrow night.

Fort Minor. *runs from the masses*

Florida made me an offer I couldn't refuse. When I started playing, I was just messing around with contracts and accidentally managed to sign Andrew Raycroft to a three year extension for about 8.8 million a season. Oops. So, I figured nobody would want him since I offered him around and got no bites. So, I finished up last season and a week into the second year of my dynasty, Florida emails me a trade offer: Andrew Raycroft (8.8 million)and a second round pick for Roberto Luongo (1.3 million). I couldn't make the trade fast enough. I managed to reel off 13 wins in a row.

Dare I say that this home and home with Toronto is for Sully's job. They're 12th in the conference (with Florida) and are only ahead of Pittsburgh and Washington. Yikes. They have to come out and blow TO's doors off, especially tonight at home. If they manage to lose both games, I think Sully's gone before the new year.

Ponson wasn't traded, his contract was voided following his DUI last year. Baltimore rid themselves of him and got nothing but peace of mind in return.

Night is understandable though. I have bad eyes and driving at night isn't a very good thing for me to do, but I have to for work sometimes. 15 below the limit is a bit much, but I go the limit. I don't understand the 'GOTTA GO AS FAST AS POSSIBLE...GOTTA GET THERE...GOTTA GET THERE' but that just may be my attitude towards the traffic in my area. Around here, you're speeding to get into heavier traffic, which doesn't make any sense to me. I can understand getting frustrated at people in front of you, I do that all day with snowbirds going 50 on the freeway in the fast lane, but to follow closely to someone going over the limit in the right lane? That's just stupid and I hope you meet your demise in the messiest way possible.

I hit the brakes relatively hard, depending on how close they are. This usually gets them to back off. When they eventually pass me, I can see them out of the corner of my eye flipping me off or yelling at me, but I don't pay them any attention.

I simmed my way through the rest of the season and a majority of the playoffs. I played the first two rounds (NYR and the Habs, respectively) and swept my way to the conference finals. I simmed the conference finals and beat the Islanders(!) to take on Detroit in the finals. I simmed five games of the series and lost in seven. Meh. I completed my goal, so I don't really care that much. The off-season is pretty fun, actually. Since I had the first four picks in the draft (after unloading Murray to the Hurricanes for their third overall pick and rid myself of his 4.2 million dollar contract) I got the four best skaters in the draft. I traded some of the deadweight guys and remade my lines: Sturm-Bergeron-Mair Reinprecht-Marleau-Afinogenov Cleary-Boyes-Lombardi Erat-Legwand-draft pick(can't remember which one) Bouwmeester-Boynton Hnidy-Delmore Warrener-Daley

4- Cards v. Astros NLCS game 5. Awesome drama, the crowd is fucking rabid, ready for the first world series berth in Houston's history...basehit, walk. Pujols comes up. The crowd is rocking and rolling...BOOM. Pujols hits a homer that lands somewhere in Dallas to give St. Louis the eventual win. Just an unbelievable moment. 3- Habs v. Bruins NHL 2005-06 Opening Night. Yeah, the Bruins lost and the fans made themselves look like complete retards at the end of the game, but just seeing the game back after a year away from it was great. It's a sentimental pick. 2- Astros v. White Sox World Series game 2. This was the game with the Konerko slam and Podsednik of all people hitting a walk-off homer. I liked the entire series, but this game stood out. 1- Braves v. Astros NLDS game 4. The 18 inning game. Surprisingly held the attention of the girlfriend, which is saying something. Great drama with Clemens coming in because there was nobody left and a second year secondbaseman hitting the winning homer to make the place go crazy. A great game. I could only think of four.

Maybe he wrote them all in the old arcade. You know, where he blew every dollar that he ever made? That song got old the second time I heard it, and considering that it was played on 5/10 of my radio presets, I was wishing I could block individual songs after a few times of hearing it.

I haven't even listened to any of the commentaries yet. I'll be getting this though.

I don't think the US team can even medal at Turin. The goaltending has huge question marks about "big game" capability. Rick DiPietro is an obvious choice to the squad; He's young, talented, and will likely be on the team for years to come. Robert Esche is certainly a question mark. Many people have wondered whether Philly can be successful with him in the net. He was also on the disappointing World Cup team. The defense with Old Man Chelios and Derian Hatcher is odd as well. The lack of Brian Leetch on this team is worth wondering, since he's been the anchor of a terrible Bruins defense all season and has looked good since his return from that knee injury. I like the J-M Liles selection and love the Jordan Leopold selection. I'm not really looking forward to watching Tkachuk and Weight on the team either.

She looks like Bobby Eaton with makeup on.

I'd say it's more 2-3-1 off of your list. Brodeur's been allegedly hurt with some kind of leg/knee stuff and he doesn't have two of the best defensemen in the league playing in front of him anymore. They've missed Elias as well, since he's always been a very good goalscorer and will likely be even better now with the new rules. They haven't been affected as much as people might think. They still have talent, it's just a matter of them all playing well together.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=147544&hubname= Interesting development in Jersey as not only does Larry Robinson step down as head coach, but Vlad Malakhov decided to retire thus freeing up 3.6 million on the cap (enough to bring back Patrick Elias). Rumors are flying at other boards that I frequent about whether or not Lou Lamoriello forced Robinson out and because Malakhov is close to Robinson that he decided to retire or what. Either way, Jersey will be coached by Lamoriello until further notice and look to be getting Elias back rather soon.

Updated rosters are OK. I'm not a fan. I kept the ones that came with the game. The AI generates trades on their own which makes things interesting. So far, I've seen Sakic and Hejduk traded to Detroit and Shane Doan traded to Columbus.

Raycroft gave up three goals in about four minutes and the Bruins lost 3-0. Stuart was out with the flu apparently, so the defense definitely missed him.

Anywhere from 30-35 is normal. 40+ means the defense sucks. I typically average 60-70, but I can get 4-5 shots off of rebounds. I don't know how to control the goalie on a penalty shot, since I've only had one and I missed. I would imagine that he'd be automatically controlled though...

The person who suggested that Cardinals/Yanks trade has to be joking. Yankees send Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright, Jorge Posada, third-base prospect Eric Duncan and dollar bills to Cardinals for Chris Carpenter, Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds, Yadier Molina and Jason Isringhausen. Seriously, is there any redeeming value for the Cardinals?

Puck-side attack means that your defenders will try to get in front of the shooter at all times, to block the shot. This is good if you have a speedy defense, since they can quickly get from one shooter to another. Normal is essentially all of the strategies in one. The only other one I can remember is 'High Pressure' which has your defenders constantly attacking shooters. This is a great style when you're down a goal or two late in the game. It's a good way of forcing turnovers. The downside is that it leaves the front of your net open to any rebounds if the shooter gets a shot off that you can't block.