Nasty Nate

They survived. So will we. In the short term Selinger will just fund the patch job. In the long-term, when Selinger is dead someone else will have to be tapped. Just breaking is news Lyle Bauer has taken over the Manitoba PC Party. They are expected to kill off NDP Selinger next election in 23 months. Miller will have a new friend at the controls of manitoba politics.

Hired as chief executive officer of Manitoba PCs. Lyle can smell blood in the water just about as well as anyone. Greg Selinger and the Manitoba NDP are as good as dead in 24 months (next election) and Lyle wants to ride with a winner. Also, a pretty great salary and expense account. Move has been in the works for weeks (if not months) but just announced today. http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/Manitoba-tories-254646671.html

Did the Saddledome allow reporters and photos when hit by flash flooding earlier this year, Al?

When the flash flood drowned the great hockey rink in Calgary last year the administrators immediately allowed camera and reporter access. Drainage, write-offs and repairs were enacted in short order and the rink was ready just weeks later for events. Nobody blamed the Flames, their executive group or the team GM for a rather violent act of nature. Miller had nothing to do with the idiotic chain of events which led to the various maladies at IGF. However, upon further review Miller's covert refusal to allow media access to the damaged portion of the building does nothing to build confidence in his new regime. He gets an automatic F in public relations and looks like a coverup artist more than CEO. Eventually, Miller will be replaced as lead man on the repair project cuz thats not his domain. The provincial govt. is a lay-down on this one. Their sport minister, a feeble mind named Ronald Lemieux has already said if more money was required it would be provided. Thats almost chilling as they haven't got a report on the damages. Or maybe they do! Either way its no skin off the football fan's hands. The public purse will pay for whatever debacles befall this white elephant stadium. (Somebody on the Riders Forum called it Dollarama Field). Greg Selinger is in real deep on this baby, believe me. Its gonna cost him his neck (or more likely he'll be resigning in the next 10 months) or his party's neck in the next election. My own prediction, based on history is that the Bombers will repay little or anything of the so-called "mortage" on the facility. Instead the next series of governments who take over from the dead and inept NDP will institute a tiny seat tax and possibly a facilities/concessions tax in addition to their current 8% rake via the PST. The 250 or 300 million the project eventually expands to when all is said and totalled (hopefully it won't expand to over 300 million) will be fuelled by various aspects of the public purse. Asper and Wan have the proverbial gun into Selinger's bulbous body. Nobody has to worry about where the money is coming from. For it is us!

He looked like he could barely function on Monday night. His hands were shaking & he looked confused at times. Just to go into Warrior mode for the crowd seemed to take all the energy out of him. Pretty much what iso said. Doing some old warrior stuff may have contributed to his demise. He was sweating like a pig, wore that ugly warrior parka and looked like he was trying to cover a severe limp when he came out from the curtain to cut his allotted promo on Monday nite.

Problem with buying out Pavelec is you are admitting you goofed something fierce by signing him in the first place. Problem with keeping him is you have to play him at least 60 games and the problem is there for everyone to see almost everytime he tends net.

There's more teams than BC lurking in the bushes for the day Glenn is released outright. Us, Horsefaces, maybe even Montreal.

I'm fairly confident if Kane drizzles out another feeble season his apologists will simply state again: ...."he's just 23, only been in league for 6 years, needs better players around him, lets give him another year!" Nonsense. At some point you just have to cut bait. However, probably the worst guys for cutting bait in the NHL are Chipman and Chevldayoff. Smart money would be on Kane being in Winnipeg next season and pulling down similar numbers. I have nothing personally against Evander. Seems like a fairly nice kid. But having a six million dollar man on your roster has to be a drag. Especially on the fanbase. But surely on the team. I hate that CHipman and Chevy are both Status Quo men!!!

Holy mistaken identity Batman, I meant Sorrentos. It took me 3 weeks to realize this. You had the famous Sorrentos salad and you thought it was Gondola. Sorrento pizza is in the Top 5 or 6 in Wpg. Salads are top drawer unless they get in rusty lettuce. Then its kinda pukey!

I think the Jets will have a couple teams interested in Kane at the deadline. However, the form chart on Chevyldayoff is he doesn't trade players unless he's clearly winning the deal. If thats the case there's no one in the NHL who'll give Chevy that kind of deal. Sadly, Chevy will get nervous in the service and refrain from trading Evander. He'll play another year at 6 million - 15 to 20 goals, crappy penalties, limited toolkit, chirpin', 12 to 20 games missed! I've decided buying Kane out doesn't really do much for the Jets cap space cuz they won't go near the cap ceiling anyways. The big negative is having Schiefele play with a guy like that. Injustice to Mark Schiefele, a true pro.

I think even the goofs who run the isles would laugh at that one. Kane's stock has plummeted but I guess its worth a try. At this point I'd rather Chevy exercise their buyout on Kane vs. Pavelec if both of them are deemed untradeable. Kane is just bad news. Took 3 years for Chipman, Chevy, etc. to figure it out!

Buff has actually shown me 10 times more than E. Kane since shifting to forward. Still has a massive weakness in that he's not really a 200 foot player (ever watched him backcheck after creating a scoring threat?) and that can lead to other teams having more 3 or 4 on 2s than they deserve! btw - Andrew Ladd is probably the worst at 'washing off' his backcheck too early. Kane is actually better than either Ladd or Buff at back-checking and Kane is a mediocre back-checker - only good cuz he can use his incredible speed during the first portion of an actual back-check before he 'washes off' like Buff and Ladd.

Kane is now officially a pure knife 'n forker. He shows up for all the team meetings, puts out 90% in practice and goes thru all the motions in games - even feigning intensity with anger mostly directed at referees. At this point, given his regression he's not even a reliable 2nd or 3rd liner and you can't use him on the 4th line cuz he's not a checking machine. Frankly, I think his only salvation is being turned into a rat = where the team can take advantage of his speed and less on his booming but mostly errant shots that inevitably lead to quick puck possession by Jet opponents. Even if he became a solid 'Rat' that doesn't warrant 6 mill. a year. I think thats why Maurice 'benched' him last nite vs. Toronto in a meaningless game. The team looked much better and tighter without Evander. There might still be 3 or 4 NHL teams that think Kane salvageable. If we stick with him for another year thats a real spit in the face to massively loyal Jets fans who deserve better. Jets aren't ready for a playoff run regardless. May as well keep rebuilding with quality juniors like Shief, Trouba, Lowery, Redmond, etc. Regardless of Kane's natural talents I truly believe the Jets can't rebuild him after all these years of building up bad on-ice habits and a weak tool-kit that only includes power-skating and the big board-ringin' slappers.

I sold a nice Rezillos record at the Rockin Rick record show last weekend so I've got a bit extra to try Obby's Juice bar. Suspect price of a decent juice will be around $8 to $10 cuz its a. labour intensive, b. the landlords in the village are mercilless, c. min. wage nearing $11/hr. and d. cost of produce increased over last 6 months. Wish he had a $4 or $5 drink on the menu cuz spending $10 a day amounts to nearly $300 a month. Schwarama Khan got some great reviews when it first opened but I notice more and more negative reviews coming in on urbanspoon about weak service, limpy produce and long waits.

And the less you post the more I'll know!!!

Actually Joey Elliott is The Miz

Good idea but I think Toronto's scouting staff may have actually seen Pavs in action. They already traded Tuuka Rask for Andrew Raycroft so I guess anything is possible. Both Reimer and Pavelec can stop a ton of tough shots and then let in marshmallows. The route to go is for Chipman/Chevy to buy out Pavelec and be done with him. Reimer would be a good #1 option in a shared starts scenario. Might also consider bringing in Brodeur for cheap (he's 42 but wants to keep playing) but if Brodeur continues on its likely in Toronto. Reimer - Montoya would be only a slight improvement over Pavelec. Jets have had some real bad experiences in their nets even going back to the days of Pockey and the Bandit, Bob Essensa, Marc Behrend, etc. That russian kid (who's now 40 or 41, Khabibulin seemed the best of very bad lots over the years. Other than the Bhulin Wall the best goaler to ever grace a jet uni was probably Joe Daley who back-stopped the WHA championship Jets.

Doesn't deserve its own thread yet but I noticed Obby Khan is partnering up with some kid in the Osborne Village and opening a Carrot Juice restaurant/bar in the middle of the Village. Signs are up - I suspect renovations are nearing completion. Won't be cheap cuz juice bars are very labour intensive. Just ask Wade Miller and his booster juice operators - a small juice can run up to $6.50; bigger sizes more! I think the sign for Obby's place said 'The Green Carrot' but I could be wrong!

Kane isn't a race issue. Neither is Buff. The crap I refer to on Kane (that is tolerated in Wpg but wouldn't be in a place like LA) is that he's basically got two skills (hi-powered skating and a big shot) The skating is nice but without other tools like good on-ice vision its pretty much useless - - - Kane might be fast but most NHL calibre d-men have read the book on Evanka and know how to pinch him off to the outside or get their long-stick on his slap-happy pad-thumpers! He also washes off his back-check too quickly (Ladd does this too) and feigns exhaustion, heading to the bench after a short shift. He probably leads the Jets in untimely cheap penalties born of frustration and anger that the skills that once held him in high stead in Juniors are now pretty much useless in the NHL. His off-ice nonsense has diminished considerably since incidents years back - - - he knows he could potentially void his hi-value guaranteed contract so he's pretty much a team guy off the ice. Based on his 16 goals, multiple games missed and poorly timed anger management penalties if you looked at his dance-card and just assigned a contract value to him, you'd probably have him pegged as an average NHL 3rd line winger who doesn't use his speed effectively (I'd love to see the guy turned into a rat, imagine what torment he could inflict if he played a big more like Brad Marchand and a bit less than Boom Boom Geoffrion).??? Based on his current stats - he's probably a 2.25 to 2.75 million dollar player. Don't even get me started on Tiny Toby's 5.75 million contract.

I'm in love with that trade. Kane can showcase his speed-skating and errant shots in front of Popeye Sutter. Wonder how long Kane would go in LA before Sutter has a few words for him. ie. I don't think Kane could get away with some of the same crap in LA that he does in Wpg. Such as? I'll answer your question with another question. Do you think Evander is worth the 6 million he's scheduled to make in 2015? Your answer will explain things!

I've heard mixed reviews of Buchko as a radio time executive. However, one thing is clear. He usually met or exceeded his outfit's sales goals and yeah, he tended to affiliate himself with the highest paying advertisers (like Ginakes). Part of selling radio nowadays revolves around sending favoured or hi-dollar clients on unique travel adventures. If your company is spending $100k to $500k a year you and a friend should be able to count on at least $5000 to $10000 worth of annual trips. Small price to pay to keep a client who might not be getting the results out of his advertising program but likes the attention and ego-stroking a guy like Buchko supplied. Also, Buchko was able to stave off a palace revolt years ago when his primary announcer, Charles Adler was going bonkers and Buchko was able to get him some help. Buchko probably doesn't do that for a receptionist having a breakdown but a money-producing asset, thats a different kettle of fish.

I'm in love with that trade. Kane can showcase his speed-skating and errant shots in front of Popeye Sutter. Wonder how long Kane would go in LA before Sutter has a few words for him. ie. I don't think Kane could get away with some of the same crap in LA that he does in Wpg.

Guess Chevy will just wait another few years for Kane to come into his own. No skin off Chevy's back - team is pretty much sold out and the organization is focussed on other profitable opportunities. Chevy has become the most Status Quo GM in hockey!

Anaheim had little to play for. Looked like Boudreau was holding them back for 2 periods - hoping to turn on the engines in the third and overcome a 2-0 deficit (which is fairly easy against the Jets at the best of times). Didn't expect to be down 4-0 and frankly Jets prolly didn't expect to be up 4-0. Maurice should thank his lucky stars Ducks didn't decide to play hard from the get-go or the outcome could easily have been a slaughter. Jets are a glorified AHL squad. . . . . but at least the AHL guys are tryers!

There are very few explanations about the Jets keeping Pavelec on. Chipman and Thompson must have hard-ons for the guy. Or they're that thrifty they want to get their money's worth out of a bottom-level goaler even if it means NO PLAYOFFS FOR YOU!