#and i'm posting this on a thursday too yahoo

[icarus-mp3]

I'm out of time~

[stereax]

hey!! i kinda wanna get into fantasy hockey but it seems . extremely intimidating ! i was wondering if u know of any primers / yt vids / anything that u found helpful when u were getting into it that might b helpful! :3

Hiya nonnie!

Honestly, to be blunt: it very much, uh, depends how much tolerance for White Cishet Men Who Think They're THE Shit Talking Puck Semi Accurately you have. I'm unfortunately not kidding.

Now, to answer more fully, let's go under the cut!

First off, it's important to keep in mind that everything is, to some extent, random. You can draft Connor McDavo with your first overall pick and he can become Collarbone McBroken for half the season. That's part of the fun, unexpected stuff happening. Fantasy hockey can be intimidating and overwhelming sometimes, but if you ask around, I (and possibly others) am totally willing to listen to your thoughts and help point you on the right track.

Secondly, though, there is a lot you can control. You don't draft Brendan Smith expecting him to put up McDavid-like numbers. That doesn't make sense. If a fourth-liner just scored a hat trick, it doesn't mean he'll do that every game.

Some people say that a good draft is key to winning a fantasy hockey league, or even doing well. This is only partially true. You can win with an autodraft team, but it's much more of an uphill climb.

That's why my first big tip is to try mock drafts. Do several, on Yahoo and ESPN and wherever you want. Learn who's available at generally what rounds. This can help you identify possible steals in the draft. Additionally, be very aware of the rules of your league. Is it points or categories? Are the points "standard" or are some stats more heavily weighed? As an anecdote, one of my leagues has a strange point distribution that gives massive weight to penalty minutes. This lends itself heavily to the playstyles of, for instance, the Tkachuks, Tom Wilson, and Evander Kane.

My second big tip is to watch hockey news. Familiarize yourself with players slated for a breakout year or players that are good at certain stats (Alec Martinez, Blocks Georg, comes to mind here). Especially get cozy with teams you and your group of opponents don't follow much. Another anecdote, my friends are mostly Devils and Pens fans. This allows me to capitalize on (somewhat) under-the-radar players like Sam Reinhart on the Panthers, Drew Doughty on the Kings, and Sean Durzi on the Coyotes.

My third big tip, depending on your league, is learning to stream. Not hockey games, but players. Generally, there are fewer hockey games on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. This means that usually, your lineup will have spots open those days, and will be full Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, with mostly-full Sundays. If you drop and add players strategically, you can get five, six, or even seven "man-games" out of a single slot, increasing the amount of points you can earn. DataDrivenHockey on Instagram runs awesome fantasy help data sheets, along with streaming advice to maximize man-games.

As for resources... Yahoo and ESPN for mock drafts. Do your mock drafts. I cannot underscore how important this is. ESPN publishes good articles as well, about player stocks weekly and more general ones in the preseason. Yahoo seems to too. Here's a good "fantasy hockey 101" article I just pulled up from Yahoo, actually. (Be aware that some of the things it mentions, like separating forwards into C, LW, and RW, as well as salary cap drafts, generally don't exist in ESPN leagues.) DDH, as mentioned, for streaming stuff; posts there go up usually every Friday. There are also sites like DobberHockey and RotoWire that are good for fantasy hockey stuff, but I don't personally use them, so I can't vouch for their effectiveness. Places like the Athletic do draft cheat sheets. Once you get into the season, you're mostly adding and dropping based on average points per game anyway, especially over the last 15 (sometimes 7 or 30) days.

And then, if you're beginning to get hyperfixated, you can start looking for your low-view-count YouTube videos.

But honestly, it's probably better if you just drop a line with a friend to ask at that point. Or me. I'm totally down to talk fantasy hockey and give my tips and advice!!!

[millerflintstone]

(a submission from @wormholeprophet ) FYI it seems like DeSantis didn’t kidnap that kid and the kid talked extensively about shooting up his school and stab people to his peers online? I’ve seen a lot of retractions from people who were reblogging this story recently.

I'm not crazy about the header the OP of that post, @moonfrosttheelf , used. I just reblogged with the most recent tweet from Rebekah Jones at the time. I did not think that reblog of mine would go anywhere since the only posts I share that gain any popularity are those of my cat.

Anyway ...

Her kid was arrested. That is true. If I was the mother of an autistic teen, and this happened to me, would I use the term 'kidnap'? Unsure. I don't have kids on purpose and can't speak to that.

It seems her son is back home with her.

Things do seem fishy with how all this went down.

Here's the link to the Miami Herald article about this situation. What the Yahoo article you submitted to my account, @wormholeprophet , doesn't talk about is what I've bolded below:

The boy was interviewed by sheriff’s deputies on March 23 and shown the memes, which he acknowledged sharing, the report said. The youth is not being named to protect his privacy.

One meme — part of a viral series — pictures a brain with intrusive thoughts about grabbing an officer’s gun, knowing that the result could be fatal. “Every time I see school security,” the boy wrote when he sent the meme, according to the warrant.

Authorities say he also posted another meme described in the warrant as “an individual with a shaved head holding a Hi-C drink. The message on the meme was “I’m feeling so silly I might shoot up a building full of people.”

He told the deputies at the time he had no plans to do anything, they noted in the report. A deputy told his parents it seemed like a “teenager” thing before leaving without making an arrest, a video of the exchange showed. Deputies did not question him about the more disturbing social media posts attributed to him in this week’s arrest report.

It’s unclear whether the deputies were aware of the messages, which were uncovered by a warrant to search his Snapchat account. The messages listed in the warrant involved threats of violence, including attacks on schoolchildren.

Feb. 9: “I want to shoot up the school.”

Feb. 12: “If I get a gun I’m gonna shoot up hnms lol” — an apparent reference to Holley Navarre Middle School, which the youth had previously attended.

Feb. 12: “I always keep a knife on me so maybe I’ll just stab ppl.”

Feb. 12: “…I have no hope in getting better, so why not kill the losers at school.”

An unredacted version of the warrant, obtained by the Herald, shows the threatening messages were sent by a username that was different than the one Jones’ son used to send the memes.

The document does not say how authorities determined both usernames are linked to the same account. The redacted version circulated by authorities does not reveal that there were two different usernames involved.

Jones provided a screenshot of her son’s account, which showed he changed to his current username in January, before the threats were made. She said he has never used the handle associated with the threatening messages.

Is the other username actually her kid or is it a plant? I don't know. Is this kid truly troubled and a danger? I also do not know.

I'd be interested in reading the unredacted warrant myself because the Yahoo article is very loosey-goosey with how they phrase things, specifically this - "The teenager told one of his friends that he planned to shoot up the school the Thursday before Spring Break but there were too many things going on so he postponed it until March 31."

Is there additional proof to back this up? Is the character of this friend on hyper focus like it is for Rebekah Jones? How much of this statement from the "friend" is speculation and how much is verifiable? Is the message from the account Jones is saying is not her kid's account?

I do wonder about the raid that was performed on their house by Florida agents when he was 11. I wonder how that act and having guns possibly pointed at him then at such a young age affected him. It seems he's gone through additional trauma, according to Jones's post on substack [x]

As for the raid, here's a link to what I'm talking about, if you are not aware [x]