Taro T

Oh, it definitely looks now like the Democrats will shed a lot of seats in '10. And I would be surprised if Obama's "change" is going over well in '12. And I would definitely like to see a fiscal conservative in the WH. I'm not convinced that the GOP won't have the game rigged to the point that the "next guy in line" won't nearly automatically win the primary and because he's next in line he'll be another Bob Dole. I also don't see the next credible 3rd Party candidate (although it's awfully early in the game for 1 to have come to the forefront). I definitely see scenarios where our Socialist in Chief is challenged by weak enough or splintered enough opposition to squeak out a win. (Especially if he has the voting machines in his pocket. Diebold! Oh, wait, it's the Republicans that could never lose another election because they control the voting machines. Oooops. Nevermind. /-sarcasm)

Until the Republicans or a 3rd Party show they will actually have a legitimate candidate ready in '12, I don't think I'd be lining up to take Kelly's bet. Remember, the Democrats figured out a way to lose in '04 to a guy that wasn't terribly popular and wasn't a particularily good campaigner. While I expect Obama to be unpopular in '12, I have to give him credit for being a great campaigner and he'll have the advantage of holding the bully pulpit. If he's wildly unpopular by then, maybe the challengers will find a way not to miss the softball lobbed at them. In the last 40 years only 2 elected incumbants managed to not get reelected; I'm not in any rush to get to '12 at present based on those odds.

In '08-'09 playing with the EXACT SAME DEFENSE in front of them, Scott had a 2.39 with a 0.917 and Marty had a 2.41 with a 0.916. Whether the defense was crud or cream in '07 or 3 seasons ago doesn't make a hill of difference. Marty is the product of the Devils system, sorry to burst your bubble. I would expect the greatest player the world has ever seen should be able to outplay a career AHLer even when coming off an arm injury. Maybe not. As you suggest, we will have to agree to disagree. I can't believe this thread has been on the main board this long anyhow.

And at age 42, Dom pulled a 2.09. Of course, he's never had to come back from an injury. And St. Marty's losing steam is how he got a shutout in the 3rd last game of the regular season, right? As for "salvaging bad nights." 1st off, the Sabres have won games when Dom had an "off-night" but they were pretty rare; it was far more common for Dom to win a game that the Sabres played poorly in. Please give some examples of games where your beloved Devils won after Marty gave up 4 in the 1st 2; I kind of doubt that they have a 0.500 or better record in those games, though you claim otherwise. Some examples would help to clear that up. And, just so we are clear, if the Devils could win without Marty playing well on a regular basis, you are not helping your case in your claim that he's the bestest goalie ever. So you may not want to dig too hard to find those games that they won after he gave up 4 through 40. You have to be joking about Brodeur being able to keep a team in the game on a bad night better than Hasek could. The Sabres play during most of Dom's tenure were by definition "bad nights." Dom not only kept them in those SEASONS, he had good runs in the playoffs with those teams. The only times the Devils didn't / weren't able to play a defensive first/at all costs game Marty's numbers were VERY ordinary. I am still awaiting your explanation of how the journeyman Clemmensen could have better numbers than Marty did. Or are you stating that coming back from an injury (in which he had TWO shutouts in his 1st 3 games back from and another at the end of the year) are how a journeyman who this year has a GAA WELL above 4.0 could have had a better GAA AND S% playing in front of the exact same players? That Devil defensive style clearly has nothing to do with the team not giving up a lot of goals. Hasek could steal more games, but Brodeur was better. I agree with the 1st part, but don't see how that supports your 2nd contention. And did you really state that you build titles off guys that give up 4 goals in the 1st 2 but don't get scored on after that? How exactly does that work? Would you like to restate that one? I did not say that Marty coasted on the Devils, but they and their style have CLEARLY effected his results. There is no way he comes close to the stats he has if he doesn't play on a team that significantly limits scoring chances. The proof of that is, in the rare seasons that the Devils weren't defensively focused Marty's stats ballooned. And in the rare seasons where another goalie got a chance to get into a rhythm, his stats were comparable to Marty's. As to Marty playing great late in games, you didn't happen to catch any of the Carolina series last year by any chance? Hasek might be the 2nd best ever. From what I hear, Sawchuk was pretty incredible. But Dom was definitely better than Brodeur.

Coming off an injury is why Marty didn't play well last year? Really? You do realize that he pitched shutouts in 2 of his 1st 3 games back from that injury that he was figuring out how to deal with, right? Want to try another retort as to why Clemmensen had better numbers than St. Marty? You claim Clemmensen couldn't have won with the team the 2 years prior to Marty's injury, but we don't really know that do we? What we do know is that in periods where the Devils can't/don't play a very tight defensive scheme Marty's numbers aren't stellar. We also know that in the only extended period he wasn't the Devils' primary goalie that the (generally considered inadequate) backup performed as well as better than Marty. There is no point in even continuing this conversation if you don't acknowledge that the Devils (or Minnesota) play the most defensive oriented game in the league post-lockout. As to WHY they do that, you would have to ask new HoFer Mr. Lamoriello; I have my theories, but he'd be able to give you the real scoop. OK, Andy Green was an undrafted free agent. You were aware than Brian Rafalski also was an undrafted free agent, right? And his departure was one of the ones you were using as an excuse earlier in this thread.

Unfortunately, as long as Richie Kotite is available and the Bills appear to be heading towards eating 2 years of DJ's salary, Herm wouldn't be a bad choice. I would still like to see the Titans fire Fisher and have the Bills land him. (Didn't say I expected it to happen, just said it's my preference.) If not Fisher, bring in Schottenheimer to get the team to the playoffs and once they are there, can his butt and bring in someone who can win in the playoffs. Jauron knows how to get a bad team to play respectable but has no idea how to get a team beyond that. His 3 year deal should have been set in stone the day it was originally signed that it would not be renewed.

Damn, this day started out so well. Then my Sabres go into the crapper, and if the House has it's way, so did my country.

Annnnnnnd, when he did finally come over, his unorthodox style scared the crap out of his coaches/management. People love to give Muckler props for being the genius that brought Dom to Buffalo for a song (essentially Ruutu and the draft pick that turned into Eric Daze). Some genius, he traded away Puppa, Andreyslug, and the pick that turned into Kenny Jonnson to get Fuhr after he already had Hasek on the squad. Had Fuhr not been injured in early '93-'94, Dom would never have gotten a chance to be Dom. Had he been playing in the I at an earlier age and the Hawks had the opportunity to realize that what appeared to be luck the 1st 100 times he made a particular save actually not been luck, his stats would have been absolutely off the chart. (As if they weren't anyhow.)

Actually you missed a few of his awards: Czech Goalie of the Year: 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990; Czech Player of the Year: 1987, 1989, 1990; Czech 1st Team All Star: 1988, 1989, 1990. Can't say for certain though that the teams were weaker than Brodeur's. Don't have a lot of info on Czech teams prior to Iron Curtain falling. Just know they were typically just a smidge weaker than the Soviets. Imagine how much better his career NHL stats would have been had the IC fallen a few years earlier.

Where did I say "clutch and grab"? I said "obstruction". As in players getting in the way of others (you know, obstructing their progress). At the beginning of '05 there was darn near zero tolerance for anything slowing the game down (which was of itself silly), toward the 2nd half of the season enforcement was culled back slightly and the game is FAR tighter today than it was in '05. And your Devils have been at the forefront of that. You have not explained how Clemmensen could have better numbers than Marty had in a manner that is consistant with Marty being the best there is. If Marty is truly the greatest thing since sliced bread, and not a product of the Devils' system; shouldn't he have BETTER stats than the journeyman? With his D having a coming out party, shouldn't Marty have had a sub-2.0, or at minimum a sub- 2.39? Marty is a very good goalie, no doubt about that, but he is very much a product of the system played by Lamoriello's teams. The same Lou Lamoriello who is probably one of the 5 most powerful men in all of hockey.

Fine, Marty is your favorite player of all-time. That's cool, but that does not make him the best goalie of his era, much less the best of all time. I notice you don't include '05-'06 in your stats, the one year the Devils didn't figure out how to slow people down on their way into and through their zone (at least through the 1st 1/2 of the season) and the year that Marty's GAA shot up by over 1/2 goal per game? Dom's was still below 2.1. By '06-'07, the Devils had already begun restoring obstruction to the game. It's not terribly surprising that Brodeur's numbers started coming back down that season. While Dom is a flake of the highest measure, he also was the best goalie of his era and arguably of all time. Hasek was the top goalie in Czechoslovakia for the 5 years prior to having an opportunity to come west. Had Muckler not insisted on playing an injured Fuhr instead of a healthy Hasek, the Sabres might have been champs in '93. Hasek led the league in save percentage for ~7 consecutive years. He also had a sub 2.0 GAA in '94 (the 1st in 20 years) prior to the Devils making the trap ubiquitous. As for playing with lousy D in front of him, does the fact that Zhitnik Smehlik was the best pair he had in front of him in Buffalo carry any weight? (McKee and Warrener were getting 20 mins/game, Zhitnik and Smehlik more like 25 minutes per.) There were MANY years in Brodeur's career that Zhitnik would have been no better than #4, and Smehlik would have had a tough time breaking into the top 6. And to complain about having Oduya in the lineup while neglecting the Sabres giving guys like Mike Wilson a LOT of ice time doesn't garner as much sympathy as you apparently expected. Hasek had so little in front of him in those years, he won the Hart and Lester B. trophies twice. You haven't addressed the fact that playing with the exact same team in front of him that the world beater known as Scott Clemmenson had better stats than Marty. Hasek left and the Sabres went from making it to the 3rd round of the playoffs fairly consistently to missing the playoffs the next 3 seasons. Brodeur missed 1/2 a year and the team didn't miss a beat. I'm not going to turn this into a Roy v Brodeur, but you need to remember that in the pre-trap days, Brodeur's #'s were up in the 2.3's and 2.4's as well and that Roy led the league in GAA twice in that era. Also, when Team Canada came calling, they ran with St. Patrick rather than Brodeur.

Yeah, because Clemmonsen didn't have better numbers than Brodeur did last year. Clearly, it was Marty's play that pulled the Devils through, and not the other way around. And Clemmonsen is having a heck of a year for the Cats this year (not). Again, it is clearly Brodeur that pulled the Devs along, and there has been no reciprocation due to playing the most boring game in the NHL (apologies to Lemaire's Wild (hmm, where else might Lemaire have coached?)). Heck, Yann Danis technically has better numbers than Brodeur does this year. Brodeur is a very good goalie, but you'd have a FAR superior argument if you were trying (incorrectly) to claim that Roy was a better goalie than Hasek.

Conner wrong? Shoot, that almost never happens around here. WTF does anybody even bother replying to his posts?

Good. Maybe Bud will fire him so we COULD sign him (hey, I can dream, can't I?) or better yet trade him for Jauron straight up. (Again, hey, I can dream, can't I?)

You won't come up w/ a law that covers ALL situations. That is why a death penalty law should be written extremely narrowly. Yes, some that "deserve to die" will end up (hopefully) w/ true life imprisonment, but there are crimes that do warrant the "ultimate" punishment.

Why would the percentages all be the same? If that were the case, the employees, such as yourself, who take the "Cadillac" plans would be costing significantly more than employees at the same grade who take a "bare bones" plan.

Didn't Moulds retire?

'76 (or was it '77?) revisited. "Best" pass defense in the league because they had the worst run defense in the league and worst overall defense in the league. When you give up 200+ yards on the ground every game, only a moron would call enough passes to let you get 5 picks (6 counting the botched field goal attempt) in a game.

People in Houston know how to tailgate? You do know that up here it doesn't mean going bumper to bumper when 59 (Southwestern Freeway) curves to the left just past I-610, right? Too bad you're only in Buff-lo for 1 day. Lots of good bars and lots of good junk food (Duffs, the Bar-Bill, Teds, Mighty, etc, etc, etc). And the bars stay open 'til 4AM. We can't compete w/ the Pappas restaurants nor the Chinese restaurants you'll find in Sharpstown; but for what we do well (wings, pizza, Polish cuisine, Italian, dogs), Houston can't come close.

My 1st question to you on this is where do you fit in people that were covered w/ health insurance but lost their jobs; do you propose a COBRA system, a government subsidy for a COBRA system, or something else? My 2nd question to you is what would you have covered by this government-run system? Is it catastrophic care, wellness visit care, a combination, or something else? My 3rd Q is, how do you enter people into the system that when healthy shun/bypass buying health insurance but then become sick and suddenly feel the need to enter the system? Do you take all comers, regardless of the "preexisting conditions", do you require all to have insurance (even though some may be priced out), or do you propose something else? When you and your fiance tie the knot, won't she be eligible to be covered under your plan?

Shoot, I thought we were moving to TO. Now we're moving to Rio?

Awww but that was in Indianapolis, and thanks to the liberal recipricity laws Steely Dan can be with you here or anytime to accidentally choke women and whine about how that harmless little misunderstanding cost him his health insurance. Because Steely Dan really loves you little girls and women, really really.

Sorry to pick out a minor point in your rant, but provided you aren't talking blanket "death penalty good", as there are very few situations where it is; I don't see how it is necessarily hypocritical to be opposed to the taking of innocent lives and in favor of allowing some true scum to meet their maker sooner than they would have otherwise. Or to cut Dellapelle some slack, to allow some true scum to become worm food.

Not sure why you'd look in a mirror and automatically assume anyone else follows your progression of logic, but having read JA's posts for a long time, I truly doubt you have that one pegged correctly. Steely Dan. Like an oxymoron, just without the oxy.

Actually, if you're up by at least a field goal, it can make sense to give the other team a safety if you run out the clock. There's also a very few situations where it makes sense to take the safety and then punt from your own 20 rather than trying to punt the ball from your endzone.