TrueBlue4ever

Thanks for that. Sometimes this list of deaths in the RIP thread comes across as just that - a list - and it is easy to overlook that each name carries with it a memory, an impact, an influence to many of us. Always important to remember the person and not just list the name. As for a deeper understanding, this particular analysis of dealing with death and grief has always stuck with me as a pretty accurate take on things: https://www.ofieldfuneralhome.com/grief-from-the-perspective-of-an-old-man

Schultz’s death is gutting news to me. Always liked his approach on the TSN panel, and he was one of the originals who helped create the TSN football brand and build the Friday Night Football panel and phenomenon. Not a stretch to say that the success of that experiment went a long way to establishing the TSN CFL partnership and grew the popularity and exposure of the league in a big way. Was sorry to see him depart the airwaves, and very saddened by this news today.

But if ever the phrase “close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades” was to apply, it would be with these tests.

Ok, first male to stand up and move to the right edge of the frame facing left with the squirting sanitizer at waist level mimicking, well you figure it out, wins my eternal respect, and likely the whole internet too.

I guess some fans will never be satisfied with him and criticize his moves, his lines, which players play and which ones sit. But if he is winning with his strategy, then I don’t understand those fans who gripe about his methods. It’s not like he is “getting away” with something. It’s a results driven business and he is getting results, so I am prepared to defer to his decisions over the arm chair coaches out there. The proof is in the winning percentage.

These two statements seem inconsistent, like you kind of are wishing, hinting at, or intimating (but not overtly advocating to cover yourself) for his removal. If you aren’t advocating for his dismissal, why even pose the initial question in the first place?

I have never seen Schitt’s Creek and I am not a big binge watcher or streamer. The last episodic tv show I invested in on network TV was Big Bang Theory, and online it was Game of Thrones. So it got me wondering, what tv show (either network or online) have you never seen or barely watched that was seemingly very popular or that “everyone else” watched? I never had HBO so many of them I could only see later on Netflix and such and couldn’t be bothered to binge. My short list would include Sopranos (seen snippets but never even a full episode), Breaking Bad (quit after one season on Netflix) and Arrested Development (not even one second of it), to name but 3 of many. So what are others not watching that would surprise the general public?

Got to feel bad for Einerson in that she will have won the Scott twice and yet will again not get to go the World’s, as they have already cancelled this year in Switzerland (the men’s worlds in Canada is still a go though). I would be very happy if Curling Canada compensated her by giving her the Olympic berth now and skipped the trials. Not like she has’t earned it or that she isn’t the best women’s team we could send right now.

Yep, there’s only so many times you can gut the front office and fire the coach before you have to look squarely at the players and conclude that the mix there just is not working, no matter the perceived talent. Or accept that it starts with the ownership not knowing how to build a front office, and then the fans are really screwed - see Senators, Ottawa.

All fair points, but defence is more than just puck movement out of the zone (although I will concede that this has been a glaring issues at points in many games). Need a big body to clear out the net front, scrum in the corners, and be physical to provide the smaller partner time and space to move the puck. Trouba-Morrissey, Byfuglien-Enstrom worked that way with a bigger guy-smaller guy pairing. Our best pair now is Forbert (who is the next biggest guy after Stanley)-Pionk (who is the smallest height-wise and second lightest behind Niku), so not sure Heinola at 5’10” and 178 would be a good match with Morrissey. Our defence needs help overall no doubt, but I don’t see Heinola as the cure-all just quite yet. I prefer to preach team d and get those forwards involved in helping out rather than letting them assume that the back end will handle it all themselves. Some of the best team defence in the past few years happened when our d-corps was ravaged with injury and everyone thought we would collapse. Forced the rest of the team, especially the forwards, to step up and play responsible defence, which frankly is how it should be all the time. But good topic and nice to be able to worry about this problem while we are still winning.

Problem is we need size on the back end, IMO. Heinola does not fill that need. If Poolman and Stanley can get healthy, that could help. As good a puck handler Heinola could be, we don’t need a team full of Toby Enstroms.

Horseman is just bitter because their big expensive signing of saviour and career sub-.500 goalie Jacob Markstrom has turned out exactly how most hockey people not dazzled by one hot 40 game stretch figured it would, and he needs to convince himself that the competition doesn’t have better goaltending.

a) I would bet big money you couldn’t stop that one or pretty much any shot. b) Here’s a look at those disheartened players There is no c) because the rest of that post was nonsense. “Let’s trade the 27 year old Vezina winner”.

Naylor said most of the protocol was developed last summer for the proposed bubble in Winnipeg. There is also overlap of people working on the CFL’s return to play protocol that also worked on the NHL’s document, however the CFL has other challenges. “You’re going to have to satisfy the provincial authorities with not the same amount of resources that you’re putting behind it,” Naylor said. Naylor felt the proposal was being offered to provinces by “late this week," but might not be offered to all provinces with CFL teams at the same time. “You give it to one government and they sign off on it then you feel confident you’re going to the next province or if you give it to one provincial government and they say 'hey, we have an issue with this, if you address it by the time you get to the others you’ve already addressed what may be a red flag,'” Naylor said. With case numbers slowly trending downward, the league's return to play plan might appear less dangerous than when the NHL began its season in January. COVID-19 numbers were soaring in Canada and the vaccine rollout had only just begun. The protocol will focus primarily on COVID-19 testing and stopping the spread of the virus. “It’s really just laying out how much testing, when does the testing happen and what’s the protocol for players that test positive," Naylor said. "Also how are players going to interact and train and practice in hopefully a preventative protocol that would avoid any spread of the disease if somebody was carrying it." While government approval is a major part of the return to play process for the league, Naylor said getting fans in the stands also provides another road block. “Before you can even get into a conversation about how many fans you’re going to be able to put into stands, you have to get approval just to be able to play the games and hold team activity,” Naylor said. “I think the fans in the stands issue can be largely dependent on how much virus there is.” Naylor revealed in one Canadian province, a committee was formed to discuss fans in the stands with provincial authorities in 2020. However, discussions quickly came to a halt with the second wave hit. “That was essentially put on hold with the idea being that the conversation would be resumed once it came around to the end of winter, cases came down, vaccine rollout and the governments might be more willing to engage in that topic,” Naylor said. The CFL’s regular season is scheduled to begin Jun. 10, however, there are still restrictions in place that would make it difficult to begin on the anticipated start date. The United States-Canada border is still closed and many CFL teams laid off staff that will need to be re-hired to prepare for the season. “Still got a lot of the population that isn’t going to be vaccinated. Teams are going to need some lead up to this because, as we know, they’ve laid people off,” Naylor said. The league averaged 23,000 fans per game in 2019 and gate revenue is the highest source of revenue for teams. “I don’t think the league wants to begin the season without fans in stands, I think they might be willing to do so if it were only a few weeks,” Naylor said. Based on numbers from the Saskatchewan Roughriders 2020 Annual General Meeting, the team made $17.1 million from gate receipts in 2019-20, which makes up approximately 43 per cent of their revenue. It’s unclear at what the capacity of stadiums will be, but it’s not expected to return to 100 per cent this season. “If you want games without fans in the stands, you’re basically asking owners to throw tons of money away that they’ll never get back,” Naylor said. Looking at the Riders numbers there. 43% from gate receipts, and how much more from game day revenue (beer, food and merchandise sales, and parking revenue among other things)? And I recall the Bomber books saying 32% from ticket sales and another 24% from game day related revenue in 2019. And then there is this. I have to think no fans, no season.

I think of it less as attention he craves and more like the beating he deserves.

So, should the Jets go after Corey Perry early as retribution for the Ehlers fight? Perry was fighting outside his weight class (he has 3 inches and 34 pounds on Ehlers), so should we send another guy out to fight him early like the Canucks did on Sunday sending McEwen to challenge Forbert after the Hollander dust-up the game prior? And if so, whom? Vote Lowry, Forbert, Thompson, other, or don‘t bother.

I thought the first period was OK but too many “cute” passes and the two mistakes they made ended up in the back of their net. First half of the second period was their ugliest stretch, but the talent finally shone through. Hate these repeated 3-1 deficits though. This is not a sustainable strategy. As for Beaulieu, he should be a 3rd pairing defenceman at best, but I am more worried that Morrissey is the real problem. Whether it is trying to live up to the contract, or that not having Trouba at his side has exposed him, but he is looking bad to me. I see the coach trying to find a bigger partner for him to allow him to not be so rushed, so Beaulieu fits the Bill there, but I would prefer to see Forbert, who has been a pleasant surprise and keeps the game simpler, paired up with him. Pionk is playing very well but he and Morrissey would be too small a pairing, and DeMelo will get the inexperienced partner because again he can simplify things. Maybe if Stanley could pair with Pionk then Forbert could join Morrissey, but that is a lot of inexperience on the back end then.

Andrae Thurman 2006 https://www.statscrew.com/football/stats/p-thurmand001

Why would Toronto or any team care? The penalties for violating the salary cap are weak, and the potential profit for a (normal) championship team would more than offset the cost. If the league wants to have a cap with teeth, then basically refuse to allow contracts to be registered once a team exceeds the cap and then the team can’t have the player, simple as that.

Therapist: So any reason why you aren’t sleeping at night? Troubling thoughts, perhaps? Me: Nothing comes to mind.

It was memorable plays by Manitobans, not Moments for the Province. Here is the link: https://www.tsn.ca/video/top-10-plays-by-manitobans~2147026

It would seem from the various sources commenting that the league really sees playing without fans as an absolute last resort. Some talk of a later start in August, and every financial model that we have seen In the CFL past has shown that ticket sales and game day profits generate up to 65% of league revenues. So not surprising that fan attendance is not addressed. The CFL would probably prefer to exhaust all other possibilities (including a later start or a shorter schedule with fans in the stands - which is dependent on what the Provinces will allow and not what the league would prefer), and given the angst (some have said entitlement) of fans on message boards, why put out a plan that may not come to pass? Because you just set yourself up for criticism if the season is delayed and some know-it-all’s then whine about being promised football and why don’t they just go with the no-fans plan, and why are they lying to us again? Again, planning is crucial, plans are useless because plans change. But that’s just my opinion, I don’t have this burning need to hold the league’s feet to the fire and a need to know RIGHT NOW when there are more important life issues during this pandemic.

Wearing his seatbelt. No skid marks, no sign of braking. Hit the centre median first, then crossed into oncoming lanes, hit the curb, then a tree, then several rollovers. Described as a high speed crash. No impairment detected, was conscious on the scene. Odd that there was no sign of corrective driving (braking or skid marks) before the accident. Wonder if we will hear about him nodding off at the wheel or distracted driving?