shrader

There's only one piece that is going to get that return and it's Ristolainen. Even then, I'm not so sure you get it with a one-for-one deal anyway. So I don't think the possibility of additional pieces in any deal was ever out of the picture.

It has to be Scandella. McCabe will have move value, but having just given him the A, you'd think he's a guy they want to keep around. He's also getting top pair minutes right now. It doesn't seem like they want Dahlin to fill that role just yet, so I don't think you really have a good option to fill those minutes.

I wonder how much the early start on monday might help with that. There's at least a little extra time between the games. But then again, there's added travel time here. It's an odd set of circumstances that has to mess with their internal clocks.

I see "PEBE" each time I look.

And just look at the kind of deal Hall will wind up getting. I can't picture any team spending $18+ million on two wings. Marner/Nylander is the only one I can think of, and that will be a very interesting one to watch since their entire blueline other than Rielly hit UFA after the season. I'm still under the impression that they'd take back that Nylander deal if they could.

So you're saying Puppetland isn't real?

It's a shame Chiarelli isn't there. We could offer him Larsson and hope he gets confused.

The next one needs to be an accurate re-creation of Pee-wee's Playhouse. Please spare us from the obvious jokes about the little theater area where he shows the cartoons.

That's exactly why I think there will be a bit of an explosion once either he or Vesey scores. I feel like I've seen this scenario play out 100 times before.

I love Carol, but there's no chance in hell I'm leaving my kids under her protection.

If they can ever get Mittelstadt's line going, look out. It will come eventually. One thing I find interesting about that group is that people were whining after the trade about Vesey being a defensive liability. But look who is out there on the 2nd PK unit with Sobotka.

I was calling the one of the scariest movies I've seen right after I left the theater because it felt so real. Everything right down to any of the violent moments, there's no special effects, no massive explosions... each of those moments was so real. I'll spoiler tag the next part because it's as spoilery as possible: They worked in one really cool homage to Ledger's Joker later in the film. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. It's quick, but I saw it as a nice tribute. edit: And speaking of great Joker performances, we now have 3. It's a shame that Leto trainwreck actually made it to theaters.

Dan Aykroyd will show up in this one instead. I can't name a single sequel that failed after replacing Murray with Aykroyd. And Joker was great. They need to hand all the awards to Phoenix right now because he was amazing. It's chilling how real that movie felt.

I worry a bit that this is all a bunch of fools gold right now. It's been 3 consecutive OT games now and that's pretty much exactly what was happening in the streak last year. I could really use a definitive victory today (god I hate these early starts). They're playing a different game than last year, but I worry that it's still the same brains playing that different game. Until I see that more resilient group that doesn't buckle under the pressure and quit, that possibility is going to remain in my mind. And John, they can't buy out Sobotka at this point. So unless they were to convince someone to take on part of his contract, he's here he the rest of the way. I can't imagine there's much to be saved money-wise by the Arizonas of the world to make that deal since he's in the last year of a contract. At least he actually plays though and doesn't wind up as the complete cap albatross that Bogosian is. That's the contract this is going to limit them a bit if they want to make some deadline deals. He's going to find a way to get healthy for about 3 weeks, blocking the chance of LTIRing him at some point.

I wish we could get a sense for how many of them there really are. Any shots so far have made it look like a small group. So even with the herd, I wonder how they can take on 3 communities at once. Then again, it looks like Beta might as well be a one man army.