TrueBlue4ever

Yes, the generation that invented the Tide Pod challenge has always been known for its discerning taste.

The more I watched how Canucks’ management dealt with the whole Boudreau situation and how much it affected him, the more I admire the way Maurice took control of his own exit.

I would honestly make that trade. Matthews is a top 3 player in the NHL. Marner is a potential 100 point player and can match Connor points output. Nylander, as maligned as he is for the odd lazy game, can put up points to rival Scheifele if healthy or at least Ehlers, as can Tavares. Dubois doesn’t want to play here I suspect, Ehlers is always a health risk, and the trade value of Tavares back to T.O. or Nylander is higher than what the Jets could get for their players. Cap hit clearly favours Winnipeg, but for one more year only though.

I always remember Jon Stewart’s final Daily Show and his closing monologue about the prevalence of bull **** in the world and how to recognize it. A not-very-veiled attack on modern media and politics. If you can read it in Stewart’s voice and cadence it works better: ”Bullshit is everywhere. There is very little that you will encounter in life that has not been, in some way, infused with bullshit; not all of it bad. The general day-to-day organic free-range bullshit is often necessary, or, at the very least, innocuous: "Oh, what a beautiful baby! I'm sure it'll grow into that head!" That kind of bullshit, in many ways, provides important social contract fertilizer, which keeps people from making each other cry all day. But then, there's the more pernicious bullshit; the premediated, institutional bullshit designed to obscure and distract. Designed by whom? The bullshit-ocracy. It comes in three basic flavours: 1. Making bad things sound like good things. "Organic, all-natural cupcakes", because "Factory-made sugar oatmeal balls" doesn't sell. "Patriot Act", because "Are-you-scared-enough-to-let-me-look-at-all-your-phone-records? Act" doesn't sell. So, whenever something's been titled "Freedom, Family, Fairness and Health America", take a good, long sniff. Chances are it's been manufactured in a facility that may contain traces of bullshit. 2. Hiding the bad things under mountains of bullshit. Complexity. "You know, I would love to download Drizzy's latest Meek Mill diss, but I'm not really interested right now in reading Tolstoy's iTunes agreement. So, I'll just click "Agree", even if it grants Apple prima nocta with my spouse!" Here's another one: simply put, "Banks shouldn't be able to bet your pension money on red" Bullshitly put it's, "Hey, a handful of billionaires can't buy our elections, right? Of course not. They can only pour unlimited, anonymous cash into a 501(c)4 if 50% is devoted to Issue Education, otherwise they'd have to 501(c)6 it, or funnel it openly through a non-campaign coordinating Super PAC, with a quarter- I think they're asleep now, we can sneak out!" And finally, the bullshit of infinite possibility. These bullshitters cover their unwillingness to act under the guise of unending inquiry. "We can't do anything, because we don't yet know everything." "We cannot take action on climate change until everyone in the world agrees gay marriage vaccines won't cause our children to marry goats who are gonna come for our guns" But the good news is this: bullshitters have gotten pretty lazy, and their work is easily detected, and looking for it is kind of a pleasant way to pass the time, like an “I spy” of bullshit. So I say to you tonight, friends, the best defence against bullshit is vigilance. So, if you smell something, say something.”

Funny thing is before the game on the radio, Christian Aumell I believe posited the question to the panel “if you could trade the Jets top 4 of Scheifele, Connor, DuBois, and Ehlers for the Leads top 4 of Matthews, Marner, Tavares, and Nylander, would you?” Every single panelist said no, and not just because of salary cap issues. Wonder if anyone would change their mind after the game?

I’d say it’s totally the coach, and it isn’t. Maurice did not forget how to coach after 2018, any more than Babcock did when he went to Toronto, or Bednar did this year with the Avs. But the players tuned him out, and you can’t fire the players, so fire the coach (or coach quits when he sees that they don’t care to listen anymore). It’s obvious the attitude change is bigger than any radical change in systems (maybe aside from a systems change in aggressive penalty killing). But Bowness has them buying in on back-checking so he can activate the defence more. Same system Maurice had in 2018 when the forwards knew they had to cover for Byfuglien and Trouba and Myers. But then the Scheifele’s and Connor’s and Laine’s couldn’t be bothered to play a 200 foot game and would rather pad their stats. And players only choose to buy in for so long with every coach they have. So the reality is that the players don’t have another coach firing to provide them insulation anymore. If Scheifele drags his ass back to his zone this year, can’t blame the coach anymore because he’s gone. As you can see, I am loathe to blame coaching in many areas. If a coach is truly useless, they will be run out of a league quickly enough and not re-surface (Darryl Rogers for you old time Bomber fans, or Mike Kelly for the younger generation are good examples). But a coach’s shelf life is really based on how much his players want to play hard, and for how long, rather than a lack of ability to coach X’s and O’s. Bowness is the right coach for right now, but maybe the team is doing better because the “give a ****” meter is higher since the players don’t have a scapegoat anymore and know the blame for bad play will now fall squarely on them.

https://www.nhl.com/video/c-14755776

Whew!

FIFY.

Vikes continue their trend of being the most disappointing playoff team in NFL history. Well we may now get Niners-Cowboys next week.

Yotes playing their 28th road game this year. Have only played 15 at home.

Yup.

Also posted in the RIP thread.

A Jets win and they lead the conference. No time to sleepwalk through one tonight.

McIntyre and Wiebe both have Hellebuyck listed as the starter BTW. We shall see.

Given the desert heat and lack of people around at their games I could understand the “Castaway” inference.

Islanders?

As a Niner fan we are obliged to hate each other, but at least we can agree that the Packers suck.

A gift for you.

Under “bets nobody would have taken at the start of the season”, the Seattle Kraken are percentage-wise the best team in the Western Conference this morning, more than halfway through the season. And if you bet the parlay that Winnipeg would be the second-best West team while Colorado and Florida were outside the playoff line, you’d be a very rich person.

Always the contrarian.

Scheif with his 3rd (OK, 2nd that counts). Perfetti looking like he’s over his flu bug tonight. I know Pittsburgh is not the same team that won back to back Cups, but have the Jets played a better game than this all year (maybe other than the Colorado 5-0 win)?

Should just be honest and up front and title this thread “sitting around drinking”.

To put this into context, Sirius is 8.611 light years from Earth (just over 50 trillion miles away). At 9 miles per second, it will take 5.8 trillion years for that star to reach Earth. Since the Sun will consume Earth in 7.5 billion years, I’d say we have more pressing concerns. But to add more context to 8.6 lights years and distance, the Moon is 239,000 miles from Earth, which equates to 1.3 light seconds.