#and worse of all is the new lineup is every DAY from 12-5 is ONE show. but murder she wrote is on daily for 3 straight hours? 8 on whatever

[bunnyb34r]

I wish my brain could be fucking normal for once :/

[s4rainbows]

Back at it again with this whole challenge stuff.

This Challenge is half “Survive this”, half Legacy, and based around the various stages the main group in the TV Show “The Walking Dead” went through. You don’t need to have watched it to play this challenge, but many requirements will feel arbitrary if you haven’t. Since these aren’t really, uh, generations, I will refer to the individual parts of this challenge as “Stages” Packs required: Outdoor Retreat, Seasons, Eco Lifestyle, Get Together, City Living, Discover University, Get to Work

The Setup:

- You will need either Triplis’ “Kids Quit School” mod ot MCCC to make quitting school possible. - Create your founder and any number of other survivors in CAS, Two of these additional survivors need to be children. - Use your own physical dice or find an online dice roller, you will need that!

General Rules:

- It’s the Apocalypse, so buy mode is heavily restricted. You can’t just go to Ikea and buy  new couch! You will need to use the fabrication and handiness skills to make furniture! Some Random Events and generational rules may allow you to get stuff otherwise

- You may only cook with ingredients you have! If you play this after the release of Cottage Living, use the Lot Challenge!

- You will always play off the grid!

- The monetary cost of crafting is considered “materials”. You can "barter” for materials by using the selling table from City Living, or sell furniture and stuff you scavenged, thus “dismantling” it and salvaging it.

- Any children you have aside from the two you create in CAS automatically suffer a -2 penalty to all rolls they perform, on account of being children. 

- Randomized townies you encounter are generally considered zombies. (or WaLkErS of you don’t wanna use the evil Z word). If they engage you in conversation, consider it an attack and roll a d20, adding 1 for every two levels of fitness the Sim in question has. Below a 15, they get injured in the scuffle and are out of comission for the rest of the day. Below a 10, they get infected and die

- Pregnant and elderly Sims cannot perform any chores or other survival tasks and suffer the same -2 penalty as children!

- Every ingame week, roll on the random events table!

- Play with normal lifespan!

Stage 1: The Atlanta Survivors Camp You just survived the Apocalypse’s initial outbreak and you are settling with a small group outside a large city. However, calamity soon threatens your little sanctuary.

- Move your household anywhere with freerealestate, then take a vacation on the campground lot in Granite Falls.  - Set your money to 5k and start your grind. When you can no longer extend your vacation, your camp gets overrun and you are forced to flee. Roll Fitness checks for each member of your group and disable/kill accordingly. - If your founder dies in this, appoint a new one from the surviving sims

Stage 2: Hershel’s Farm After getting out of the overrun camp and having a little happening at the CDC, you are back on the road and lose one of your two kids in a run-in with a horde. Worse, even, your other kid gets shot and is badly injured! Thankfully, you are offered help by a small family on a nearby farm.

- Kill of one of your two CAS-created kids. Sorry, Sophia! - The other CAS-created kid is now injured for the rest of thi stage and can’t help you out or build skills. - Move your sims to one of the lots south of the Chalet in Windernburg (Or Henford on Bagley if Cottage Living is out!)  and build a little farmhouse big enough to accommodate four sims, with a small vegetable garden and 2 power generating and 3 water generating items. -Create four Sims that “own” the farm and help you out. One of them has to be an elder! - Two weeks into this stage, the farm will, unfortunately, get overrun and also set on fire. Do your fitness rolls for everyone and run for your life.

Stage 3: The Prison Again, you are on the run, but there’s a little shimmer of light at the end of the tunnel - an abandoned prison! Now, you just need to like... reclaim it.

- Build a Prison, or download one from the gallery! - Cheat one of your sim pregnant, if you don’t have a pregnancy yet. - Reclaim the prison! Make Fitness rolls for each level + the outside. - After your pregnant Sim gives birth, kill her. Sorry, Lori! - Create a rival 8-sim household and put your sims in a club, and their rivals in one too. Have  “fight (other club)” as one of the activities, then have them visit you and... start... a gathering... ;)

Stage 4 The Prison 2, Electric Boogaloo You defeated Woodbury! ... or did you? Well, you don’t really have time to deal with it right now, because there is a deadly strain of influenza wrecking your community. 

- Start placing ads for roommates. Those are the former Woodbury people you took in! - Every Time someone gets one of the GTW illnesses, roll your d20. Below a 10, they die to the sickness. Kill them, and roll fitness for one of your household sims, since the dead turn into walkers! - Three weeks into this stage, your friend, the Governor of Woodbury, comes back with a fresh new group he roped into his nonsense. Roll Fitness checks and book it. (also kill the Governor. RIP in pieces)

Stage 5: Terminus From bad to worse, you’re on the run again, and split up this time. Divided we fall, huh? Good thing there’s this totally not ominous set of markers leading you to a place called Terminus. I’m sure nothing bad will happen there.

- Split your Household and surviving roommates and pop them all into different empty lots. Play a week with each of them (aging off here, this is meant to happen simultaneously!) and roll on the random events table until you have eight sims left in total. Hope you weren’t attached to any of them. - Put them back into the same household again, and create yet another rival club to beat up. That rival club is Terminus. Surprise, the group with the name meaning “Death” was bad! - Switch to your Terminus household and “invite” your sims over, then lock them in the basement, true sims style. Go downstairs and start a club gathering. Keep an eye on them, every time someone loses a fight, kill them. Do this until you have either 5 good guys left or all of Terminus is dead.

Stage 6: Alexandria and The other blokes You got away from the humanitarians and were invited into the community of Alexandria. Thing are finally looking up again!

- Move to a 50x50 lot and build a little “village” with gardens, energy production and everything you might need. - Create two more 8-sim-households on similar situations and create clubs for them, with the activity to be friendly with yours! These two households will be Hilltop and The Kingdom. - Make one of the Evergreen Harbor Community Spaces a marketplace and frequent it! - Stay in this stage for four weeks!

Stage 7: The Saviour War Things just couldn’t stay okay, could they? You ticked off a horrible cult-of-personality-type organization called the Saviours, who now start their reign of terror against you.

- Create another household and club meant to be mean to you, Hilltop and the kingdom. Make their Leader a magnificent bastard and give that one plot armor. Narrative Immunity! - Host a little multi-club gathering and roll a d8 twice. Look at your own household portrait lineup and kill two of your sims whose portrait position corresponds to your rolls. - Take your strongest fighter, aka the highst fitness stat, aka Daryl Dixon and put them into their own household, to take them out of the equation for a while. They’re the Saviours’ prisoner now! - Congrats, you have been promoted to vassal state. The Saviours demand five of every crop you produce. Don’t hav enough to feed your people? Sucks to be you! - Stay in this stage for 4 weeks, then bring back your poor fighter, and kill off half of the Saviours, add the rest to your household and Kingdom & Hilltop. Their Leader must survive! Keep them in your basement from now on and visit them regularly to gloat.

Stage 8: The Whisperer War Finally, some stability. Oh, whats that? New enemy faction, and this one of even worse? Fantastic.

- Cease communication and trade with Hilltop & Kingdom for two weeks, Then hold a big party! - ...during said party,  kill 12 total sims from each faction. - Create a new rival faction called the Whisperers. Make their two leaders, Alpha & Beta, level 10 in fitness. - Hold weekly brawls with the whisperers. Kill every fight loser, but replenish the Whisperers losses. There’s no end to their forces! - Give Alpha a daughter and take her in after your first clash with them. - When you resume trade, roll a D20 every time you travel away from your lot. Below a 10, your travel party gets attacked by the Whisperers! Roll Fitness checks for every Siim traveling. - Remember the Saviour leader? Yeah, they’re doing better. Have them befried one of your household’s children, and gradually integrate them into your community. - After an additional 4 weeks of this, send your redeemed Saviour leader over to the Whisperers and befriend them. They’re a spy now! - Survive another week, then ply s the Whisperers and attack Hilltop! Move the survivors into your main household. - After this attack, your spy strikes and kills Alpha. Put them back into your household, then gear up for a big fight! - Cheat “Roughhousing ecouraged” in your NAPs, then gather all surviving characters along with the Whisperers and fight!

Did you survive this? Well, until season 11 comes out, that’s as far as we go. You can continue playing with the Random Events and general ruleset!

RANDOM EVENTS:

D20: 1.  There’s a drought. Sell all your stored water and reset your money back down 2. Zombie Attack! Roll Fitness and kill accoridngly! 3. Electric whoopsie-doopsie. Sell your stored electricty and set your money bck down 4. Roving bandits! The next time travel, all your traveling sims lose their inventory contents! If they had none, kill one of them! 5. Baby Boom! Get one fo your Sims pregnant 6. Other Survivors! Roll a d4 and add the resulting nuber of sims to your household! 7. Tragic accident! Kill a random sim 8. Extra Ammo! Every Sim gets a +1 to their next fitness roll! 9. Thunderstorm! Your Sims may not leave their lot for this week! 10: Supply thief! select a random sim and hoard food for this week. At the end of the week they get found out nd either killed or exiled! 11. Breach! Your wall has a breach! Reduce your funds by 150 to fix it. If you don’t have that much, kill a random sim in the resulting zombie incusrsion! 12. Illness! There’s a flareup of the deadly flu from the prison! Play with this Stage’s rules (regarding the illness) for this week! 13: Re-roll! 14. Sabotage! Your fabricator and woodworking table cannot be used this week! 15. Zombie Attack! Roll Fitness and kill accordingly! 16. Lost Child! You find a random child, adopt one! (cheat the money for the adoption) 17: Feast! Your Sims make the poorly informed decision to par-tay! Delete all the stored crops you have. 18. Horde! It’s too dangerous to leave the fortifications right now! Suspend all travel this week. 19. Foraging! Cheat yourself enough money and buy a seasonal seed packet that corresponds to this season! 20. Re-Roll!

[howaminotinthestrokesyet]

Road Dogs: Metallica on Tour

Metallica‘s first ever gig took place at Radio City in Anaheim, California in March 1982. Their set list included primarily covers with only two original songs, “Hit the Lights” and “Fight Fire with Fire.” They did Savage’s ‘Let It Loose,’ Blitzkrieg’s ‘Blitzkrieg,’ Sweet Savage’s ‘Killing Time’ and four Diamond Head tracks. For diehard fans, this original lineup did not include Cliff Burton as of yet, but instead Ron McGovney. They eventually asked him to leave the group because the guitarist did not contribute anything of value. Another good reason came in the fact that Dave Mustaine fought with him repeatedly. James Hetfield would later say this about that show. “There were a lot of people there, maybe 200, because we had all my school friends and all Lars’ and Ron’s and Dave’s buddies. I was really nervous and a little uncomfortable without a guitar, and then during the first song Dave broke a string. It seemed to take him an eternity to change it and I was standing there really embarrassed. We were really disappointed afterwards. But there were never as many people at the following shows as there were at that first one.”

Metallica’s second and third show took place at the Whiskey a Gogo in Los Angeles. This venue would be where Hetfield and Lars Ulrich first heard future bassist Cliff Burton and his band Trauma. More recently, Ulrich revealed diary entries related to Metallica’s appearances there. "No sound check. Sound was awful. Played great myself, but the band as a whole sucked. Went down OK." The group opened for Saxon, who the drummer had met six months prior after sneaking backstage during one of their shows. After the concert, the monitor engineer asked Ulrich if he had ever heard of Diamondhead. “Of course, we have, we just played a bunch of their songs!" As it turned out, the crew member was only joking about Diamond Head. He would later go on to work for Metallica in the same position for 22 years.

On April 16, 1983 Metallica played its first show with new guitarist Kirk Hammett at the Showplace in Dover, New Jersey. They had begun recording their debut album Kill ‘Em All in Rochester, New York at that time. The set list included all original material that would land on that first album making up nine songs. Hammett had replaced Dave Mustaine, who held quite a bit of ill will towards him for years claiming in 1985 that Kirk ripped off all his guitar riffs, which got him noticed in the metal community. In defense of Hammett, he was simply trying not to make waves in his new group as Ulrich and Hetfield had definitely decided not to cut any contributions from Mustaine.

On March 5, 1983 Metallica played its first show with Cliff Burton at The Stone in San Francisco, who had replaced Ron McGovney. In 2018, a recording of the show came to light online, which you can listen to on YouTube. The lineup still included Dave Mustain as well taking place a month before the other band members would fire him. They performed 12 songs that night essentially previewing everything to be included on their debut album. At that time, James Hetfield was still struggling over whether he should sing lead. On the recording, you can tell why this became the case as his voice sounds incredibly scratchy with absolutely no technique whatsoever. The show also became memorable as a Cliff Burton debuted the future track, “Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth).”

Cliff Burton played his last show was Metallica in Stockholm, Sweden in September 1986 before his tragic passing. A few years ago, Metallica released a boxed set of rarities for their album, Master of Puppets, which included a recording of that final show. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett talked about their memories of that last concert with Cliff. Ulrich noted, “We played the show in Stockholm, and it went incredibly well. I think it may have been a rare case where we actually played an additional song that wasn’t on the set list, because the show was so good. That’s not something we did a lot then or now. So there was a good vibe.” Hammett would say this in the same interview, “It was significant because it was the first show where James played guitar again (Wrist Injury). He strapped on a guitar and was able to play the encore; I think it was “Blitzkrieg” or something. But I remember the five of us, including John Marshall, being really stoked James was back and playing and looking like was gonna make a pretty healthy recovery. I distinctly remember that show being good, and the feeling when we got offstage was really great and positive and forward-looking. Like, “Great, James is back in and it won’t be long ’til we’re back to our old selves again.”

In November 1986, Jason Newsted would play his first show with Metallica at the Country Club in Reseda, California. He did so in front of a sparse crowd because it had been a secret show for the group Metal Church. Newsted had played with the band for only a short time during rehearsals for the next album. James Hetfield introduced Newsted for the very first time in this way. “Welcome to the very, very secret Metallica gig that every fucker knows about! Here’s the new fucker right over here man, this is the guy… Jason Newsted, we fucking love him, man, so make him feel at home, alright? I want to have some fun tonight.” Their set list would consist of 14 songs from their first three album releases.

In the summer of 1992, Metallica decided to perform a few dates with Guns ‘N Roses. The hype for these shows represented the tour of the year, but the show in Montreal turned into a tragic affair. A pyrotechnic accident occurred as they performed “Fade To Black” causing second and third degree burns on half of singer James Hetfield's body. He recalled the incident, “I'm burnt – all my arm, my hand completely, down to the bone. The side of my face, hair's gone. Part of my back. ... I watched the skin just rising, things going wrong." Jason Newsted would remember that Hetfield looked like the Toxic Avenger from his vantage point. The group immediately cut the show short, so the singer could receive medical attention. He would later say that during the trip to the hospital a road crew member bumped his burnt hand leading him to punch the guy in his “nuts.” For fans still at the show, things only got worse as Guns ‘N Roses delayed getting on stage for two hours. Axl Rose probably only sang for 20 minutes before cutting his night short. GNR Had known what had happened to Hetfield, but they still phoned it in anyway. After that, 2000 people rioted in protest followed by several arrests. This night would lead to great animosity between the two groups for years continuing to this day, but it should be noted that Metallica acted professionally completing the tour with an injured Hetfield. Slash of Guns N’ Roses would later talk about the tour being a financial disaster for them. “Metallica was earning the exact same paycheck as we were every night but while they pocketed the whole thing, we were blowing 80 percent both on union dues for all of the overtime we cost ourselves going on late and on these stupid theme parties. It was just bad." Axl had spent extravagantly on backstage parties in an effort to impress members of Metallica.

In April 1999, Metallica recorded two performances on successive nights with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra led by Michael Kamen. The idea for such a concert had first come up when they worked with the composer on the Black Album song, “Nothing Else Matters.” He had approached them about such a collaboration, but never heard anything until years later receiving a phone call from Lars Ulrich. They filmed the live show at Berkeley Community Theater in San Francisco as Kamen had written additional material to supplement Metallica’s arrangements. The band also released two new songs specifically for the show, “No Leaf Clover” and “Human.” According to James Hetfield, This idea of combining heavy metal and classical music was originally an idea brought up by Cliff Burton, who had a strong background in both. One can see this throughout Metallica’s songwriting in their early years as the bassist relied on melody and instrumental qualities found in classical compositions like his favorite one, Johan Sebastian Bach. S&M would be released as a concert film and an album, with the latter reaching number one on the Billboard 200 chart.

In 1991, Metallica would play a concert in Russia that has become the stuff of legends because 1.6 million people watched it in person. The highlight of the show came when they played “Enter Sandman” as one could see Russian military personnel rocking out just as hard as anybody else. One must note that they were not the only band there that day as other artists included the Black Crowes, Queensryche, Motley Crue, and AC/DC. The Monsters of Rock Festival would only occur this one year in what would become the former Soviet Union. Motley Crue had played one of the early versions of the festival in 1984, but ironically Metallica had surpassed them as a more popular headliner by this time.

In August 2020, Metallica became the first rock act to perform a pre-recorded concert for Encore Live’s drive-in series. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, live concerts were canceled all over the world, so artists like Blake Shelton and Garth Brooks participated in this drive-in movie concert experience. Tickets to view this at your local drive-in cost $115 for up to six people per car. The show took place at an undisclosed location near their home in San Rafael, California.

[kaiba-fangirl]

Fill in the questions/statement as if you are being interviewed for an article and you were your muse

Tag 10 people to do this meme, (repost, don’t reblog)

TAGGED BY: not @rogueprinceconsort =P & I know I’m not a RP blog, but I am a fanfic author so I still do the same kind of stuff, just everyone at once with chapters, so I’m sure ya won’t mind... idk itching to write Seto but his mind is all over the place in Ch7 of And You? (AO3/FFN), & I know I’ve missed a bunch of personal tags in the past, so, well, I’m here now. TAGGING: anyone 1. WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

“Seto Kaiba.”  (海馬 瀬人 Kaiba, Seto)

2. WHAT IS YOUR REAL NAME?

He narrows his eyes, already suspicious. “Legally, that IS my real name.”

3. DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU WERE CALLED THAT?

“I was born Seto,” he answers flatly, then smirks. “The Kaiba family name I earned for myself and my little brother at the age of 10, when Gozaburo agreed to adopt us thanks to my, superior negotiating skills.” [Seto after Egyptian Pharaoh Seth. Kaiba for, apparently, hippocampus/seahorse.]

4. ARE YOU SINGLE OR TAKEN? “Taken. Happily married to the number 1 female duelist, Mai Valentine. She’s now heading the new Fashion Tech and Merchandise Department at Kaiba Corp.” [but he’s also still looking >.>]

5. HAVE ANY ABILITIES OR POWERS? “Just bleeding edge technology development and superior dueling skills,” he shrugs smugly. [and hacking.] [You also accidentally activate latent magical powers every so often, dumbass. Sure he’s a genius. A genius that weaves techno-sorcery into everything & commands gods without even knowing it.] “Anything else you may have heard about magic or spirits or real monsters, is all just nonsense hocus pocus. It’s sensationalists trying to make our amazingly life-like holographic projections seem dangerous.”

6. STOP BEING A MARY SUE/GARY STU. “Heh, doesn’t that just mean born talented? You should be so lucky.”

7. WHAT’S YOUR EYE COLOR? “Blue,” he chuckles childishly. “It was probably what first drew me to, you know, Blue-Eyes, when I was young.” [It’s not. The Blue-Eyes White Dragon was his magical monster of light ‘girlfriend’ in Ancient Egypt in a past life of his 3000 years ago.]

8. HOW ABOUT YOUR HAIR COLOR? “Chestnut.”

9. HAVE YOU ANY FAMILY MEMBERS? “Living, my little brother, Mokuba, and now my lovely wife.”

10. OH? WHAT ABOUT PETS? “No pets. I barely have time for having two people in my life now it seems, and that’s even with Mokuba off travelling.” [any pet energy is expended on more Blue-Eyes White Dragon themed everything]

11. THAT’S COOL I GUESS, NOW TELL ME ABOUT SOMETHING YOU DON’T LIKE. “You wanna see a REAL Gary Stu?! As in, there is no reason he should have made it this far?! Joey fuckin Wheeler. This loser stole his way into my tournament, then has the nerve to even challenge me for 3rd place as if that meant anything, and he still ends up 4th even?! How! He operates on pure luck, and leeching off his ‘friends!’ His deck is a mess, I mean have you even seen his lineup?!?!” [Well that would all be redacted. Now, since this is for an interviewer for a published article...] He calmly and thoughtfully looks off at a spot on the far wall behind the interviewer. He purses his lips and furrows his brow, genuinely distraught, drawing from a direct encounter. “I’m actually more concerned than ever about the state of refugees- whether they have that official label or not. Around the world. Especially the children. These children don’t know what’s going on, and people say they care about children, but they really don’t. They’re not thinking of those kids- of refugee kids. Of poor kids. Of orphans or abused kids. And the way these refugees are being treated, those kids are getting hit with all those things at once. Ya know, I- I was fortunate enough to have that opportunity to be adopted, in a strong first-world nation, but I know what it’s like, to know that the grown ups are just using you, not listening to you. You’re nothing to them; maybe pawns. Now, I’m doing all I can, as president of Kaiba Corp, but there is still only so much we can do. We’re not making tanks or any weapons at all anymore-” He chokes at the thought of a tank staring him down specifically, compared to the latest news. He clears his throat to manage. “Not since the day I took over. We may not be contributing to that military industrial complex anymore, but the state of refugees today is still just as bad if not worse. Now they’re using weapons outlawed by the Geneva Conventions, and in countries that pride themselves on freedom and opportunity. Pteh. It’s madness. It’s evil.” [...aaand that just became the cover story] [We’ll be back after after a short break.]

12. DO YOU HAVE ANY HOBBIES/ACTIVITIES YOU LIKE DOING? “Besides dueling, uh, tinkering. Reading. Hacking into random databases I shouldn’t be in.”

13. EVER HURT ANYONE BEFORE? “Next question. Don’t even print that, or you’ll be hearing from my lawyers. And they don’t play so nice.” [By ‘lawyers’ I’m pretty sure he just means goons.]

14. EVER… KILLED ANYONE BEFORE? "No.” [Gozaburo.]

15. WHAT KIND OF ANIMAL ARE YOU? "Dragon.”

16. NAME YOUR WORST HABITS. "Tch, I wouldn’t have gotten to be president of a multi-billion-dollar corporation if I had bad habits.”  [That is literally his worst habit. Also how he got there is because of all his bad habits.] He chuckles at what he’s about to make fun of. “Then again, some people think that working too much is a bad habit.”

17. DO YOU LOOK UP TO ANYONE AT ALL? "How could I when I’m already on top?”

18. GAY, STRAIGHT, OR BISEXUAL? "Irrelevant.” He smiles menacingly. “Card games are more important anyway.” [Bi and trying to figure out how to tell his wife. Then again once he does that, the press will be easy. Possibly also grey ace or demi, since he does enjoy the physical aspects of being married & his crush.]

19. DO YOU GO TO SCHOOL? “Graduated high school early and then went right back to work as CEO, at the time. I don’t have time to waste getting a piece of paper to validate my knowledge that I’m already putting to use at Kaiba Corp everyday. --but I certainly support everyone staying in school as long as they can. Kaiba Corp offers a free college tuition program for any employee, paid ahead of time, and schedules can be worked around class and homework time as needed.”

20. DO YOU EVER WANT TO MARRY AND HAVE KIDS ONE DAY? “I never thought I would want to marry, but I have always assumed I would want to adopt. Now I am married, and we both want to adopt. Someday. It needs to be when I can have time for them...” [and he’s wondering why you are supposed to only marry one person...]

21. DO YOU HAVE ANY FANBOYS/FANGIRLS? “Yeah,” he laughs, genuinely embarrassed at this level of pure idolization, “I find it endearing to see people dress up as Yugi and I at events.”

22. WHAT ARE YOU MOST AFRAID OF? “Losing my little brother.”

23. WHAT DO YOU USUALLY WEAR? “Full-length pants, tight fitting turtlenecks, boots, and a trenchcoat. More leather and straps and buckles, the better.”

24. DO YOU LOVE SOMEONE? “Of course. My little brother and my wife.” [and Joey]

25. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WET YOURSELF? [he just makes this face:]

[but possibly the last time he did hard drugs]

26. WHAT CLASS ARE YOU? (HIGH CLASS, MIDDLE CLASS, LOW CLASS) “Highest class.” He winks, for the spotlight.

27. HOW MANY FRIENDS DO YOU HAVE? “I don’t need ‘friends’ outside of my family.”

28. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON PIE? “Finally, an intelligent question!” he laughs rudely. “My thoughts are that we should change the standard approximation for π to something closer to 3.16. That’s what I use in my calculations, and I find things just seem to work out better for me because of it.”

29. FAVORITE DRINK? “I’ve started drinking a lot more water, and I think that’s pretty much all I drink lately.”

30. WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE PLACE? “It’s comforting being in my office, knowing where I belong, knowing that with me there, everyone I love is safe, knowing how I got there, and being proud of all I’ve accomplished, but...” [sometimes anxiety about it being Gozaburo’s old office creeps into his mind like an evil spirit or ghost...] “But more than that, I enjoy the wild freedom of just taking my Blue-Eyes jet out with some good music playing.” [oh my various gods he will always be an emo teen at heart <3]

31. ARE YOU INTERESTED IN SOMEONE? He scoffs. “Yes, I am genuinely interested in my wife. Mai is an amazing person. And- Ah, and, um, next question?” [and Joey!]

32. WHAT’S YOUR BRA CUP SIZE AND/OR HOW BIG IS YOUR WILLY? “What kind of magazine is this for, anyway?” he asks as an aside, then thinks up a ridiculous enough response. “Ever hear of Zorc? I’d say that’s roughly one-third the size of mine.” Under his breath, he scoffs in disgust. “Imbeciles.”

33. WOULD YOU RATHER SWIM IN THE LAKE OR THE OCEAN? “Er, a private pool, thanks. Too many paparazzi anyplace else, and I wouldn’t want to close off anything from the public.” [I hear there’s a river in Egypt he lives in though]

34. WHAT’S YOUR TYPE? “Independent. Strong. Great duelist. Someone who knows what it’s like at rock bottom, but still managed to claw their way to the top...” [he spaces out off to the side]

35. ANY FETISHES? *zoom out to room full of Blue-Eyes White Dragon themed EVERYTHING* “Nah.” [*insert Will Smith presenting his AO3 tags]

36. SEME OR UKE? TOP OR BOTTOM? DOMINANT OR SUBMISSIVE?

[Switch! But “And You?” is stuck at a T rating, sooo...]

37. CAMPING OR INDOORS? "The fuck- you’re giving me whiplash with these questions,” he mutters. “Camping sounds nice. Real camping. Mokuba and I used to build forts and play outside a lot. I should ask him if he wants to go on a camping trip when he gets back. I doubt- well, no, I think Mai would like that, too.” [And Joey can cook them “candy bars!”]

38. ARE YOU WANTING THE QUIZ TO END?

[kevintheblogger]

Ryder Cup Preview

After a long hiatus, I decided to return with my thoughts on one of my favorite sporting events; The Ryder Cup (photo). I wasn’t exactly sure how to approach one of professional golf’s only team event so I figured I would start with a little history. The Ryder Cup is played between the USA and the continent of Europe, but that wasn’t always the case. From the first match in 1927 until 1979, the USA only had to face Great Britain and Ireland. 

The Americans completely dominated the matches, winning all but two of the biennial contests. The event alternates between courses in the United States and Europe every two years and there is no money prize for the winning team. In 1979, the rest of Europe joined the contest and it became much more competitive. In fact since that year, Europe has more victories (11-8) in the event and since 1993, the USA hasn’t won on European soil. 

That is where this year’s contest will be held. Le Golf National just outside of Paris will host the 2018 Ryder Cup with the USA coming in as defending champions for the first time since 2008. What’s even worse is that the USA has only won two events since the famous 1999 comeback at The Country Club in Brookline.

The event features twelve players on each team with captains and vice captains deciding on who will be playing in each of the specific matches. The teams are selected by a combination of points systems and captain’s picks. Eight players on each side automatically qualify on points and the remaining four are chosen by each team’s captain. 

It is a short, but action packed three days with four team (2v2) matches in both the morning and afternoon of Friday and Saturday and then twelve singles (1v1) matches on Sunday. Friday and Saturday consist of daily foursome (alternate shot) and fourball (best ball) matches. Each match is worth one point, with a tie giving each team a half-point. Okay, enough with the boring stuff. Let’s get into this year’s teams, analysis, and prediction.

Team USA                                                                                      

Captain: Jim Furyk  

Players:

Bryson Dechambeau                                                                                         

Tony Finau                                                                                                            

Rickie Fowler                                                                                                       

Dustin Johnson                                                                                                    

Brooks Koepka                                                                                                     

Phil Mickelson                                                                                                     

Patrick Reed                                                                                                         

Webb Simpson                                                                                                   

Jordan Spieth                                                                                                       

Justin Thomas                                                                                                     

Bubba Watson                                                                                                     

Tiger Woods               

                                                                                           Team Europe

Captain: Thomas Bjorn (DEN)

Players:  

Paul Casey (ENG)

Tommy Fleetwood (ENG)

Sergio Garcia (ESP)

Tyrell Hatton (ENG)

Rory McIlroy (NIR)

Francesco Molinari (ITA)

Alex Noren (SWE)

Thorbjorn Olesen (DEN)

Ian Poulter (ENG)

Jon Rahm (ESP)

Justin Rose (ENG)

Henrik Stenson (SWE)

Both teams have a good mix of veterans and rookies with Europe having five rookies and the USA having three. Phil Mickelson will play in his record 12th Ryder Cup with an overall record of 18-20-7 (W-L-T). Mickelson has been in the forefront of the changing philosophy for Team USA and has his fair share of controversy over the years in some of the decisions made by former captains. Some even questioned Mickelson’s selection this year as a captain’s pick by Jim Furyk. But Phil’s record in the last three events is 7-3-1 and he’s clearly heavily invested in the success of his country’s team. Consider Phil a playing vice captain for this year’s event. 

(The addition of Tiger Woods will make the 2018 Ryder Cup even more epic)

The same could be said for Tiger Woods (photo) who will return to the Ryder Cup as a player for the first time since 2012. He was a vice captain at the last event in 2016 and seems to have finally embraced the team aspect of the event. This can only bode well for the USA especially with him playing so well this season after his many back injuries over the last few years. Tiger’s 13-17-3 record is mostly due to his losing record (9-16-1) in team matches. It will be interesting to see who Tiger is paired with in the team matches this year. He’s been criticized in the past for being not invested in the event and a tough person to play 2v2 matches with. Captain Furyk knows Tiger very well so I’m sure they will be on the same page of who to pair him with once the matches start. 

(Patrick Reed thrives in the Ryder Cup)

Patrick Reed (photo) has become USA’s most successful player at recent Ryder Cups with an overall 6-1-2 record. Reed is not the most popular player in the eyes of many players and fans, but once he puts on the Red, White and Blue, that seems to change drastically (unless you’re European of course). The Master’s champion should continue to be a nightmare for Team Europe this year and look for him to play as many matches as he can handle. He will most likely be paired with Jordan Spieth as the pairing has done extremely well in past events. 

However, Spieth’s 0-2-0 record in singles matches needs to improve and his year has been the worst of his PGA career. There is some concern coming into Paris for Spieth, but he seems to rise to the occasion at big events. Spieth may also be paired with good friend and rookie Justin Thomas perhaps looking to get out from under the shadow of Reed. The three have been discussed as being in the same “pod” or smaller grouping, which is an idea that gave the USA success in 2008 and 2016. Thomas is a very strong addition to an already potent USA lineup.

Player of the Year leader Brooks Koepka has also not won over many golfers, fans, and media members, but he went 3-1-0 in his only other Ryder Cup appearance in 2016 and should also be a force at this year’s event after winning the US Open and PGA Championship this year. Don’t expect him to be paired with buddy Dustin Johnson who has three events under his belt and a decent record of 6-5-0. D.J. has never lost a singles match in the Ryder Cup, which could prove to be very important come Sunday. 

Rounding out the veterans on Team USA are Bubba Watson, Webb Simpson, and Rickie Fowler. None have overall winning records at the event so look for captain Furyk to choose their partners carefully. Bubba has especially struggled on foreign soil with a 1-6-0 record. Watson was a late vice-captain selection in 2016 after he was not selected for the final captain’s pick. He seemed to change his attitude during the event and shed tears after the USA won back the coveted trophy even though he didn’t compete in the event.

(Tony Finau could be a dark horse for Team USA at the 2018 Ryder Cup)

Along with Justin Thomas, Tony Finau (photo) and Bryson Dechambeau are the rookies for the USA. Both players are having career seasons and earned their spots on the team because of it. Dechambeau is a proven match player after winning the US Amateur and NCAA Division 1 events in 2015. He is also coming into the event on tremendous form winning two of this season’s playoff events.

Finau is also no stranger to high pressure events finishing in the top 10 of the first three majors this season and growing up playing high stakes matches with local golf hustlers in his home state of Utah. I expect both players to be very tough competitors and potential headaches for Team Europe if they are on form.

Team Europe comes into the 2018 Ryder Cup with less a less experienced roster and some controversial captain’s picks. Captain Thomas Bjorn aired on the side of experience when he made his selections two weeks ago and received some criticism because of it. 

(Sergio Garcia’s Ryder Cup record speaks for itself)

The most controversial pick was Sergio Garcia (photo) who didn’t even qualify for the PGA tour playoffs and hasn’t been playing well at all this season. The selection by Bjorn seems to be based more on Garcia’s stellar 19-11-7 record in eight appearances. Garcia will also most likely be a mentor to fellow countryman and rookie Jon Rahm who has all the talent to be a top golfer but can let his temper get in the way on the course. This kind of veteran-rookie system has worked very well for Europe in the past and Garcia becomes a completely different golfer in the Ryder Cup.

Another somewhat controversial pick was Henrik Stenson of Sweden. This will be Stenson’s 5th Ryder Cup with an overall 7-7-2 record in the previous four. Stenson has paired well with new world number one Justin Rose, but could also team up with fellow countryman and rookie Alex Noren. Justin Rose will come into the event in great form and will look to improve on his 11-6-2 record. Are you noticing a pattern yet? If not, the final two captain’s picks should hammer home what I’m trying to get at.

(Ian Poulter was the catalyst for the Europeans “Miracle at Medinah” in 2012)

Ian Poulter (photo) is the consummate Ryder Cup player. With a 12-4-2 record in five events, Poults has been a major thorn in the side of the Americans. It was Poulter’s five-straight birdies on the back nine of Saturday’s match that led to Europe’s miracle comeback at Medinah in 2012. Like Garcia, Poulter seems to raise his game to another level in the Ryder Cup. I would expect him to pair with rookies and fellow countrymen Tommy Fleetwood and/or Tyrell Hatton. 

Fleetwood should be a somewhat familiar name to American fans as he has found himself on top of major leader boards frequently in his early career. Hatton is the more unknown quantity, but he has top 10 finishes in both the US Open and PGA Champ as well as two victories late in 2017. Don’t sleep on either of these Brits, especially Fleetwood. 

The more interesting veteran left is Paul Casey who will be playing in his first Ryder Cup since 2008. Casey’s consistent play could prove valuable on Le Golf National, but the Europeans will ride the hot hand(s) and continue to put players out there who are getting points for the team. 

(Rory McIlroy should be a huge factor again at this year’s Ryder Cup)

Rounding out the veterans are team leader Rory McIlroy (photo) and Champion golfer of the year Francesco Molinari. After dismissing the event as not important before his debut appearance in 2010, McIlroy has become a stalwart for Team Europe. His singles match in 2016 against Patrick Reed was one of the greatest matches we’ve seen and McIlroy no doubt remembers the constant harassment he received from the American fans in that same event. His form isn’t the best, but there is strong reason to believe he will play as many matches as he can in Paris.  

Molinari comes into this event as the defending British Open champion and is playing some of the best golf of his career. His record however is the worst on the team as he is the only veteran without a win in his previous two appearances. Rounding out the team is rookie Thorbjorn Olesen who earned the final spot via points. Olesen earned his spot with high finishes leading up to the close of points accumulation and captain Bjorn is surely happy to have a fellow Dane on the team.

Analysis

As mentioned before, the Europeans have owned this event since the turn of the century and have never lost as hosts. Even though there were some players in better form, Bjorn made his captain’s picks based on the system the Europeans adopted decades ago. This system is based on successful veterans paired with talented rookies. It will be interesting to see how the pairings shake out this time around.

Based on world rankings and golf week’s Sagarin rankings the Americans have the more talented and stronger roster. But that hasn’t phased the Europeans as the USA is almost always favored and the Europeans almost always defy those odds. The Americans have fared better in fourball (best ball) and singles matches as they generally have a deeper roster and the format usually requires lower scoring. 

This year is no exception. In fact, this could be one of the best rosters the USA has ever had based on a myriad of statistics and player resumes. But again, the Ryder Cup is a different kind of event than these guys usually play and the Europeans seem to be more comfortable in this team competition lately. In John Feinstein’s book “The First Major”, Feinstein says that even if players on the European rosters don’t always like each other, they put their differences aside during the Ryder Cup and that has manifested in more success than the Americans. 

The Europeans’ bread and butter event is the foursomes or alternate shot match format. In looking at each of the team’s players it is clear the Europeans have thrived in the fourball matches, while the Americans have struggled. Part of the reason for this is foursomes requires consistency, accuracy, and teammates who are on the same page with each other. If the Europeans continue their success in foursomes, they may have too large a lead going into Sunday’s singles with the home crowd on their side. However, if the foursomes go the way of the Americans, it could be very difficult for the Europeans to keep pace. 

A golf event cannot be analyzed without talking about the course it will be contested on. Le Golf National has hosted events on the European tour for a while now and based on interviews with players and course professionals it will require precision and consistency. Another interesting aspect of the Ryder Cup is that the team captains have a say in how the course is set up. The length of the rough, the speed of the greens, the location of the holes, and anything else that can be controlled will be. This will favor the Europeans especially since the American roster is full of bombers that sometimes struggle with accuracy. If I’m Thomas Bjorn, I’m making the rough penal, the greens slow, and the pins tight all weekend.  

On paper, the Americans are the better team. That is also reflected in the odds and player rankings. But once that first ball is in the air on Friday morning, rankings and betting odds won’t matter. The Europeans will have the crowd and course on their side and extra motivation after they were verbally abused by fans in 2016 at Hazeltine in Minnesota.  The Ryder Cup also brings out the best in some of their players even when they seem to be struggling with their game. 

The Americans no doubt want to finally get rid of their winless streak in Europe and bring the cup back across the Atlantic for the first time in nearly 30 years. I think this will be an all-time classic Ryder Cup with both sides giving everything they have. If I were betting this event, I would wager on Team Europe as their odds are too low (+140) for such a close contest on their home turf. If this event were on U.S. soil, I wouldn’t hesitate on picking the Americans to win as they have the best team perhaps in US History. However, not a single person on the American team has won a Ryder Cup in Europe so the Europeans have a mental edge in that regard. In the end, I think the Americans will be too much for Team Europe and Team USA wins 15-13. 

[your-dietician]

What will ESPN’s coverage of the NHL look like next season?

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What will ESPN’s coverage of the NHL look like next season?

The network’s coverage starts with the July 21 Seattle expansion draft, hosted by Chris Fowler on ESPN2. John Buccigross will host the NHL Draft two days later. Those shows will be produced by NHL Network.

When Gross spoke over the phone this past week, ESPN (which reportedly paid $410 million a year for seven years of NHL rights) and Turner ($225 million a year over the same period) still hadn’t divvied the games. The NHL had yet to release its 2021-22 schedule. Its puck- and player-tracking data has not seen the light of day.

“One thing we’re trying to get our arms around is what analytics teams and coaches use to showcase in our game coverage, our studio coverage,” Gross said. “Camera positions is another thing we’re looking at, talking to the league to see how we can showcase and document the games.”

Strategy and speed are the buzzwords Gross hears in his daily conversations with NHL people. Capturing both, while serving hard-core fans, hooking viewers from the massive pool of casual sports viewers who don’t give hockey much thought, attracting diverse genders and backgrounds . . . all are among Gross’s concerns.

“There has to be a level of entertainment without it being forced,” he said. “There’s really nothing worse on TV than forced fun. We have to find our spots, when we get [Chris] Chelios and [Mark] Messier together, who have a relationship. We’ll mix and match with other folks.”

Chelios and Messier, along with Steve Levy, will likely work the major events. “We know how that works,” Gross said. Hearing the two Hall of Famers, owners of some sharp elbows, chime in on player safety decisions should be interesting.

While he may not be hockey’s answer to Charles Barkley, Chelios does seem like a straight shooter. In a phone call, he acknowledged he wasn’t looking for a gig when he reached out to ESPN after the announcement. He was calling as a dad, hoping that his daughter, Lightning TV reporter Caley Chelios, was on the network’s radar.

“I like to think I’ll call it like it is,” said Chelios, 59, “Even though it’s a little different than when I played, hockey’s hockey.”

Messier, Chelios, Hilary Knight, Ray Ferraro, Brian Boucher, and Cassie Campbell-Pascall were among the first names Gross mentioned when speaking about his roster, but a lineup has yet to be solidified. He noted that women will be featured prominently in on-air roles.

The list of local connections is long, from Boucher (Woonsocket, R.I.), A.J. Mleczko (Nantucket/Harvard), former Red Sox play-by-play man Sean McDonough (Boston), Buccigross (who has Boston roots), Rick DiPietro (Winthrop/Boston University), ex-Boston College Eagles Blake Bolden and Bob Wischusen, and Emily Kaplan, a former Globie.

Gross said another fan favorite from the past, play-by-play announcer Gary Thorne, remains an option. He spoke with the agent for Thorne, 73, this past week.

“We’re not done yet,” Gross said. “We want to see what the schedule looks like, and what other decisions we have to make. We still have time.”

What’s the game-changing idea that will separate ESPN? It won’t be glow pucks and robots (fun as they were for younger fans in the ’90s). What’s hockey’s version of the K-Zone?

“Some people thought the first-and-10 line would be too intrusive,” Gross mused. “Now you can’t really watch a game without it.”

AWARD SEASON

One voter’s ballot in depth

Connor McDavid became the first unanimous MVP since Wayne Gretzky in 1982, collecting all 100 first-place votes for the Hart Memorial Trophy.DARRYL DYCK/Associated Press

I consider it a privilege to vote on year-end NHL awards as part of my duties with the Professional Hockey Writers Association. I’m not alone. My peers and I want to get it right.

When it came to this season’s MVP, I believe we did.

Connor McDavid earned all 100 first-place votes for the Hart Trophy, becoming the second unanimous MVP ever (Wayne Gretzky, 1982). McDavid’s 105 points in 56 games goes down as one of the most dominant seasons in league history. He was playing at a different speed than everyone else.

In the voting bloc — trimmed from about 175 to 100 members, and dispersed regionally to address imbalances created by the divisional-only schedule — we saw some refreshingly progressive thinking, and as always, some strange calls. One Edmonton writer voted McDavid’s teammate, Leon Draisaitl, second for the Selke. Draisaitl made strides this season, but it would be generous to call him an above-average defensive forward, much less elite.

In this space last year, I delved into my methodology, which blends in-person viewings, video study, and number-crunching. Obviously this season, I relied more on the latter two. I was among the few beat writers who traveled all season, but I only watched the East Division up close.

My ballot, and some quick takes:

Hart Trophy — 1. McDavid; 2. Auston Matthews; 3. Nathan MacKinnon; 4. Aleksander Barkov; 5. Brad Marchand.

Relatively easy calls. McDavid was incredible, and the other four were the driving forces on good teams. Marchand was ranked as high as No. 2 on six ballots.

Norris Trophy — 1. Adam Fox; 2. Cale Makar; 3. Charlie McAvoy; 4. Dougie Hamilton; 5. MacKenzie Weegar.

A youth movement, and an ECAC/Hockey East top three. Makar (UMass) missed 12 games, or 21 percent of the season, leaving the door open for Fox (Harvard), who was the Rangers’ MVP in his second season. McAvoy (BU) might be the best five-on-five defender in the game. Weegar opened eyes after Aaron Ekblad’s injury. Eleven blue liners earned top-three votes. Victor Hedman was down-ballot for me, after an injury-plagued regular season. Don’t ask me why someone gave Kris Letang a first-place vote. Fun fact: Fox is the first player of Jewish descent to win a major NHL award.

Calder Trophy — 1. Kirill Kaprizov; 2. Jason Robertson; 3. Alex Nedeljkovic; 4. Josh Norris; 5. Igor Shesterkin.

Kaprizov (27 goals and 51 points in 55 games) was a slam dunk, though Robertson had a brief midseason run that made it interesting.

Lady Byng Trophy — 1. Jaccob Slavin; 2. Jared Spurgeon; 3. Barkov; 4. Roope Hintz; 5. Johnny Gaudreau.

I’ve said before that writers should not vote for this. Referees should. Slavin, an elite defender playing heavy minutes, committed one penalty all season (for shooting the puck over the glass). Good enough for me.

Selke Trophy — 1. Barkov; 2. Patrice Bergeron; 3. Joel Eriksson Ek; 4. Phillip Danault; 5. Joe Pavelski.

Barkov had a strong MVP case, but his 200-foot excellence was properly recognized here. Bergeron is still Bergeron. Could see Danault, after his lockdown playoffs, be front of mind for a lot of voters next season.

The PWHA does not vote on the Vezina Trophy (the general managers selected Marc-Andre Fleury), but we do pick the year-end All-Star teams. My goalies, in order, were Andrei Vasilevskiy, Fleury, and Juuse Saros. We also pick All-Rookie teams. I had Kaprizov, Robertson, and Norris as my forwards, Ty Smith and K’Andre Miller as my defensemen, and Nedeljkovic in goal.

ETC.

League will not rush to judgment

Commissioner Gary Bettman said the league is waiting for an independent review of the Blackhawks alleged cover-up of sexual abuse before proceeding.Karl B DeBlaker/Associated Press

The alleged cover-up of sexual assault by the Blackhawks was the leading topic in Gary Bettman’s annual pre-Stanley Cup Final news conference this past week. Rightfully so.

Bettman said the league learned of the allegations “relatively recently” and will wait for an independent review.

According to a lawsuit filed in May, a former Blackhawks player alleges he and another player were assaulted by then-video coach Brad Aldrich during the team’s 2010 championship run. The team’s leadership, which included current GM Stan Bowman, were allegedly informed of the incident by then-skills coach Paul Vincent, whom the players had told.

Aldrich later worked at a high school in Michigan, where he was convicted of sexual assault involving a student. He is now on Michigan’s sex offender registry.

Multiple ex-Blackhawks, including Nick Boynton, Daniel Carcillo (then with the Flyers), and Brent Sopel, spoke out this past week. One unnamed player told The Athletic that “every guy on the team knew.” Captain Jonathan Toews took issue with that, telling that outlet he didn’t hear about the allegations until the end of that summer. He said he couldn’t say for sure if the team “mishandled” the situation.

Bettman, a former lawyer, pumped the brakes. “Let us see what the investigation reveals, and then we can figure out what comes next,” he said. “I think everyone is jumping too far, too fast. This is going to be handled appropriately and professionally, and done right.”

Let’s hope so.

Beijing Olympics not a given

Commissioner Gary Bettman said the NHL has concerns over the feasibility of sending players to the Olympics next winter.Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press

Later in his Q&A, Bettman shared the league’s “real concerns” over whether it was “sensible” to have a two-week shutdown for the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Wait, what?

After sitting out 2018 — and watching interest in Olympic hockey wane — the NHL and NHLPA last summer collectively bargained to participate in the 2022 and 2026 Winter Olympics, pending further agreement with both parties, the IIHF, and IOC. But there is no plan yet.

COVID-19 variants remain a worry, and NBC isn’t likely to lobby on the NHL’s inclusion following the expiration of the TV deal. The NHL hopes to release its 2021-22 schedule shortly after the Cup Final.

“Time is running very short,” Bettman said, which came as disappointing news to Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman.

“The Olympics is one of the biggest dreams of mine and I haven’t been able to participate in one. This might be the last chance I get. That sucks to hear,” said Hedman, who was left off Team Sweden in 2014. “When you get an opportunity to represent your country on the biggest stage, it’s one of those things that you’ll probably never forget. For me, it’s obviously something I’ve been dreaming about my whole life and something I want to do before I hang up my skates.”

Pride working on title defense

The Boston Pride, two-time Isobel Cup winners, are preparing a title defense for 2021-22.Mary Schwalm/Associated Press

The NWHL’s Boston Pride are deep into an Isobel Cup summer, hauling the trophy from New England lake houses to the Grand Canyon.

As he preps for a title defense, coach Paul Mara is playing his cards close. After a few defections, he’s using his newfound salary-cap space — the league doubled the ceiling to $300,000 — to bring in some outside help.

“Working on a few things,” he said.

The NWHL is feeling momentum entering its seventh season. An influx of sponsorship dollars, visibility from its Isobel Cup playoffs broadcast on NBCSN, and a lot of player raises have elevated the mood.

Since last month, the four franchises under league control — the Buffalo Beauts, Connecticut Whale, Metropolitan Riveters, and Minnesota Whitecaps — were sold to private owners, making it a league of six independent clubs. Expansion is on the horizon, with Montreal a primary target.

Also notable: This past week’s draft, which was streamed on Twitch, included appearances from a range of pro sports personalities, including NHL league and team executives, and USA Hockey reps. The NWHL hasn’t always had such vocal support.

For all the growth, players aren’t yet earning a living wage. Contracts are yearly. Outside opportunities create a talent drain.

The Pride lost president Hayley Moore to the AHL (vice president of hockey operations), replacing her with 1998 US Olympian Colleen Coyne. They are searching for a GM, after Karilyn Pilch this past week signed on with the Chicago Blackhawks’ scouting and player development department.

They also need a few good forwards. Mary Parker, Carlee Turner, and Lexie Laing departed for job and school reasons. Czech standout Tereza Vanisova signed with Leksands IF in Sweden, which will better help her participate in a demanding Olympic training schedule.

League MVP Jillian Dempsey, recovered from shoulder surgery, returns with All-Star linemates McKenna Brand and Christina Putigna, the No. 1 defense pair of Kaleigh Fratkin (two-time NWHL Defender of the Year) and Mallory Souliotis, and netminders Lovisa Selander and Victoria Hanson. That crew, plus whomever Mara can lure to town, should keep the Pride near the top of the standings.

Unlike last season, when the Pride got a boost from No. 1 overall pick Sammy Davis (BU) and six drafted rookies, the draft won’t have a major impact. Because they lost their 2021 first- and second-round picks when they traded up to select Davis, and dealt their third-rounder to Buffalo for future considerations, the Pride picked in the fourth and fifth rounds (Weston’s Finley Frechette and Beverly’s Abby Nearis, both forwards).

The NWHL’s player pool was thinned after the NCAA granted players an extra year of eligibility, leading many of the top draft-eligible players to return to school. Because of that, Boston isn’t the only team that believes next year’s draft will be loaded.

Loose pucks

Bruce Cassidy (left) has been promoting from within, with assistant coach Jay Pandolfo (center) leaving for Boston University.Winslow Townson/Associated Press

The Bruins have promoted from within of late, calling up coaches from Providence and the player development ranks. It makes sense that fourth-year P-Bruins coach Jay Leach would replace Jay Pandolfo on Bruce Cassidy’s staff, but player development staffers Chris Kelly and Jamie Langenbrunner will also get a look. Like Pandolfo, they were two-way forwards with long NHL résumés . . . As for Pandolfo, the move to BU gives him a shorter path to a head coaching gig. Albie O’Connell, who is entering the final year of his deal, has had a spotty run . . . Bruins strength and conditioning assistant Kenny Whittier also made the move to BU . . . A few first-timers joined NHL benches this past week, including two ex-players, Alex Tanguay (Detroit assistant) and Tuomo Ruutu (Florida assistant), and André Tourigny (Arizona coach). The latter move was particularly interesting, for a league that often recycles head coaches . . . Toews, after a year out of the spotlight with a mysterious illness, is back on the ice. He posted a video message to fans after a practice, saying doctors told him he has ��chronic immune response syndrome,” a catch-all term for constant, debilitating stress reactions. Still dealing with a few symptoms, the Blackhawks’ captain believes the condition was brought on by a nasty bout with COVID-19 in February 2020, before the pandemic hit in full; the toll of 13 NHL seasons; and the year-round hockey training schedule he’s followed since he was a young teenager. “I think there’s a lot of things that just piled up,” he said, “where my body just fell apart.” He hopes to return in October . . . Edmonton trimmed Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’s $6 million cap hit, but took a beating on term, when it locked up the No. 2 center to an eight-year, $41 million deal with a full no-move clause. He will be 36 when it expires. “No contract is perfect,” GM Ken Holland acknowledged . . . Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon’s take on game jersey ads, which are coming to the NHL sooner rather than later: “If we look like Formula One or NASCAR, that’d be fine with me.” . . . Glad to see college athletes everywhere get a chance to make some cash off their name and image, following the Supreme Court’s hammering of the paternalistic NCAA. A small step, long overdue.

Matt Porter can be reached at matthew.porter@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter: @mattyports.

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[fossadeileonixv]

Sick and Theo-red.....

Does that work? A play on words of sick and tired? Maybe? Maybe not? Oh well....

Forget ratings for yesterdays match. It blew and we got lucky. Actually hold on.

Donna 8, Theo 1, Hauge 7, everyone else 5.5.

Moving on.... let’s talk about some things that we know are problems that aren’t changing. After that some new things we learned yesterday.

KNOWN PROBLEMS

Theo has reverted both offensively and defensively. His offensive ‘style’ has turned into that of the fastest 12 year old on the field that dribbles a hundred miles an hour into turnovers without ever looking around. He can’t find a teammate. He’s not creating anything. Even worse opponents have learned that if you just steer him to the outside he will eventually give you the ball back. Candreva ate his lunch yesterday. Defensively.... he just can’t be bothered. The guy that became a defensive stalwart last summer is long gone. His last good game was against Lazio before the holidays and he’s getting worse by the week. 

Theo Part 2 He is even worse after he has time off. The last 4 times now he’s missed a game due to suspension, injury or international break he has had 4 clunkers. If not for Hauge our record in those games would be a perfect 4 for 4 in losses. Is there any explanation for this? Anyone? Bizarre, right?

Bennacer has not been the same since he came back after the first of the year. He may not be the same til next year. It’s hard to say whether the problem is physical or mental (bit of both?) but he is currently a shadow of his former self. This season has become a lost year for him. 

Pioli is better off without options. Give him 12 fit players and a bunch of primavera guys in the stands and it’s a win every time. Give him a full or near full group at his disposal and he gets way too creative with his lineup and subs. 

Calhanoglu is a mess. I don’t care what he did for Turkey. I think it’s high time for him and Ibra to take another long ride along the coast together. 

Samu and Saele are what they are. If you’re expecting something else from them then I have some Enron stock to sell you. 

THINGS WE LEARNED

Calabria being out may be a bigger issue than we first realized. Dalot is NOT the answer. Kalulu needs some seasoning but makes the most sense. I thought Saelemaekers was a nice idea by Pioli yesterday. Not terrible. Stay tuned on this one. With only 9 games left this could get messy. 

Last summer you could argue, quite successfully I might add, that no one made better use of his subs than Pioli. He always seemed to pull the right string at the right moment. It was uncanny. Now? Now I see a disturbing similarity between his rotations and what Pirlo has been doing wrong all year at Juve. What’s that you ask? All year long Pirlo has tried to resist what works for Juve. Time and again he starts one lineup but uses his 5 subs to eventually put his best XI on the field. It was fine for a while as Juve would often sputter for 60 minutes but then salvage the game late. Now it works less and less as I think his players have realized that he just doesn’t know what he’s doing. No confidence in the coach makes for bad mojo. 

Yesterday was a perfect example of this for Pioli. He started Krunic, Saelemaekers, Bennacer and Castillejo all in positions where I believe he had better options. By the end of the game he had brought on Kalulu, Tonali, Rebic and Hauge. 

Does Kalulu make more sense at RB? Yes.

Does Tonali make more sense in the MF over a struggling Bennacer? Yes.

Is Rebic a better player than Castillejo? Hell yeah.

Is Hauge better than Krunic? That’s probably a wash. 

So why start what looks like a rotational XI rather than your first XI? It’s the first game after the break. A win right off the bat would be huge. The next game is in 7 days. You got 9 games left in 50 days. Just play your best guys already. Start the best XI and sub as needed. If at all. It feels like he’s trying to prove something when all he needs to prove is that this team can finish top 4. That’s all we want coach. 

Keep up this nonsense of trotting out new lineups to start every game and you will lose these guys quick. That will lead to a mess.

GOOD THINGS

Donna is a beast. Kjaer and Tomori are a delight. That’s all folks.

LAST THING

Going into the final 10 games 20 points looked like it would be enough to keep us top 4. Five draws against the top half teams (5 points) and 5 wins against the bad teams (15 points) would do it (20 points!). So far so good.

Cheers

Lisi

PS: Donna still isn’t going anywhere.

[aion-rsa]

Xbox Live Price Increase Is a Big Win For PlayStation

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Microsoft recently announced that they are increasing the price of Xbox Live Gold. While this change will not affect existing customers or those who renew their membership in the near future, the price of an Xbox Live Gold membership will be adjusted 45 days after customers receive an email notification that the price of the service in their region is being changed. At that time, the new price of Xbox Live Gold will be as follows:

1 Month – $10.99

3 Months – $29.99

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

6 Months – $59.99

While Microsoft says “the price of a 1-month Gold membership is increasing $1 USD and that “the price of a 3-month membership is increasing $5 USD,” the price change is actually a little worse than that. After all, it wasn’t long ago that you could buy a yearlong Xbox Live Gold membership for $60. Soon, the cheapest available price for a year of Xbox Live Gold will be about $120. Needless to say, fans are not happy about the price hike.

Every few months, Xbox needs to do something to remind people it's not actually that in touch with gamers or reality. $120 for a year of Xbox Live Gold (to bully people onto Game Pass) is the latest example.

— Jeff Grubb (@JeffGrubb) January 22, 2021

So much for Xbox Live Gold becoming free pic.twitter.com/CwjYkZ950j

— TheNCSmaster (@TheNCSmaster) January 22, 2021

12 months of Xbox Live Gold: $120 12 months of PlayStation Plus: $60 Not sure what Xbox Live Gold does so much better than PlayStation Network to justify that price gap.

— Jez (@JezCorden) January 22, 2021

That last comment is an interesting one that goes well beyond the borders of console wars and fanboyism. This price hike isn’t just a loss for Microsoft from a PR standpoint; it’s a big win for Sony that they scored without really needing to do anything.

After all, Xbox Live Gold is Microsoft’s equivalent of PlayStation Plus. Both allow you to access online multiplayer for games, both allow you to download free games every month, and both allow you to access an array of deals. While there are minor differences between the two services, the biggest difference is about the be the fact that Xbox Live Gold costs twice as much as PlayStation Plus.

As some have pointed out, this move is most likely part of Microsoft’s bigger ambition to encourage users to subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate which offers access to Game Pass for PC and console as well as an Xbox Live Gold membership for $15 a month. Actually, if you were to say that the price of Xbox Live Gold went up five dollars a month but it comes with complete access to Game Pass, then you might be able to spin this decision a little better.

That’s not what we’re talking about, though. We’re talking about a service that many of us begrudgingly agreed to pay for years ago when Microsoft and Sony decided that console gamers needed to pay a monthly fee to play online multiplayer games. They eventually threw in some free games every month to soothe the sting a bit, but in the minds of many gamers, we never got a great answer to the question “Why should console gamers have to pay for an essential service that is free on PC?”

Now, Microsoft is having to answer those questions all over again. It’s an especially bad look for a company that has been trying to make a name for itself as a consumer-friendly alternative to PlayStation. In fact, we previously praised the Xbox One for the ways that it essentially forced Sony to embrace concepts such as crossplay, backward compatibility, and a more generous monthly subscription service.

At a time when free-to-play online multiplayer games are more popular than ever (there’s a reason Sony and Microsoft were quick to assure people that Fortnite will be available right away for next-gen consoles), Microsoft’s decision to make access to the games that are (in many cases) the only games that many people play regularly has just made it that much harder to recommend people go out of their way to buy an Xbox Series X/S despite the benefits of Game Pass and the things that console does so well.

That’s why this is a win for Sony. We knew the PS5 was going to be appealing by virtue of its exclusives alone, but Xbox Series X/S backward compatibility abilities, peripheral support, and Game Pass integration made it an appealing option for many of those who could honestly say that they tend to mostly play third-party games (especially free-to-play ones). Now, it’s a little harder to tell Apex Legends, Fortnite, Warzone, and Madden players that the PS5 isn’t the more appealing console at the moment for the simple fact that players will currently save the cost of a full game a year by choosing to play those titles online on a PS5. Those who demand relatively less are suddenly required to pay more.

We’ll see where this all goes. Maybe Microsoft will change their mind, maybe Sony will raise the price of PlayStation Plus, or maybe Microsoft will unveil new Xbox Live Gold features that more than justify this price hike. Such as it is, though, Microsoft is raising the price of what should be an essential console service at a time when the console’s exclusives lineup would tend to suggest that they’re more reliant on the game’s that rely on that service than they seemingly seem to think they are.

The post Xbox Live Price Increase Is a Big Win For PlayStation appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3obrlya

[officialotakudome]

New Post has been published on Otaku Dome | The Latest News In Anime, Manga, Gaming, And More

New Post has been published on https://otakudome.com/hbo-max-january-2021-slate/

HBO Max January 2021 Slate

HBO Max has announced it’s January 2021 slate:

Spread the word, Upper Eastsiders — all six seasons of “Gossip Girl” are coming to HBO Max on January 1st. The month also brings the film premiere of Locked Down starring Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor, the second special episode of the Emmy®-winning drama “Euphoria,” the season four return of the beloved “Search Party,” and the two-part documentary “Tiger,” which illuminates the rise, fall and epic comeback of global golf icon Tiger Woods. Selena Gomez is back for seconds with a new season of “Selena + Chef,” and HBO Max is also serving up new episodes of “Looney Tunes Cartoons,” “Batman Beyond” and “Batman the Animated Series.”

On January 29, John Lee Hancock’s suspenseful psychological thriller “The Little Things” starring Academy Award winners Denzel Washington, Rami Malek and Jared Leto, premieres in theaters around the country and on HBO Max the same day. “The Little Things” will be available on HBO Max for 31 days from its theatrical release in the U.S. included at no additional cost to subscribers.

The third season of Italian crime drama “Gomorrah“ also joins the platform alongside both seasons of “Warrior” from Cinemax.

Catch up on the first season of the post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller “Snowpiercer” when it arrives on HBO Max this month ahead of its Season 2 premiere on TNT. Or queue up a lineup of A-List movies including “The King of Staten Island,” the “Ocean’s” trilogy and “Ocean’s 8,” “The Notebook,” and Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill: Vol 1″ & 2, “Pulp Fiction” and ���Reservoir Dogs.“

And just a reminder as we get ready to ring in the new year: New and returning subscribers can sign up for a pre-paid offer and get 6 months of HBO Max at a discounted rate of $69.99 plus applicable taxes. Find out more at HBOMax.com.

TITLES COMING TO HBO MAX IN JANUARY

Exact Dates to be Announced:

Arthur’s Law, Max Original Series Premiere

The unemployed Arthur Ahnepol (Jan Josef Liefers) ekes out a bleak existence. Drawn from the strains of his unhappy marriage and bored to death, he makes a morbid plan: he wants his obnoxious wife to die. With the money from the life insurance there’s no obstacle for a restart with his beloved mistress. But an unwritten law dominates the life of the unlucky fellow: every problem solved by Arthur has a far worse effect. And so, he sets off an avalanche of disastrous events.

The Event, Max Original Series Premiere

An unprecedented look behind the scenes of the extraordinary events created by Wolfgang Puck Catering and legendary restaurateur Wolfgang Puck. From Renegade 83, each one-hour episode will follow various members of Puck’s team as they strive to amaze clients and surpass even the highest expectations.

Locked Down, Max Original Film Premiere

Just as they decide to separate, Linda (Anne Hathaway) and Paxton (Chiwetel Ejiofor) find life has other plans when they are stuck at home in a mandatory lockdown. Co-habitation is proving to be a challenge, but fueled by poetry and copious amounts of wine, it will bring them closer together in the most surprising way.

Perfect Life (fka Vida Perfecta), Max Original Season 1 Premiere

Maria, Esther and Cristina are three women in the middle of a life crisis. They have realized that the plans they had made for themselves haven’t really gotten them the long-promised happiness they yearned for. Together, they will find alternatives and make decisions that will lead them away from what society expects from them. They will soon realize that life doesn’t necessarily have to be what they always imagined.

Possessions, HBO Max Season 1 Premiere

The series tells the story of Natalie, a young French expatriate in Israel, who is charged with the murder of her husband on their wedding night. Karim, a French diplomat in charge of helping French citizens who have to deal with the Israeli authorities, slowly falls for Natalie. He cannot figure out whether the young lady is deeply lost and vulnerable, or dangerously manipulative. Obsessed with this case, Karim dives into Natalie and her family’s mysterious past.

Selena + Chef, Max Original Season 2 Premiere

The unscripted cooking series features the multi-platinum selling recording artist, actress, producer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist as she navigates unfamiliar territory: making delicious meals while stuck at home in quarantine.

January 1: 12 oz. Mouse, Seasons 1 & 2 42nd Street, 1933 All the President’s Men, 1976 Apple & Onion, Season 1B The Autobiography Of Miss Jane Pittman, 1974 (HBO) Batman Begins, 2005 Batman Beyond Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker, 2000 Batman: Bad Blood, 2016 Batman: Death in the Family, 2020 Batman: Hush, 2019 Batman: The Animated Series Blade, 1998 A Better Life, 2011 (HBO) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 2005 Dog Day Afternoon, 1975 Check It Out! with Steve Brule Chinatown, 1974 Codename: Kids Next Door The Color Purple, 1985 The Conjuring, 2013 Courage the Cowardly Dog Craig of the Creek, Season 2 The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, 2002 (HBO) The Dark Knight, 2008 The Dark Knight Rises, 2012 Dim Sum Funeral, 2009 (HBO) Ed, Edd n Eddy El Amor No Puede Esperar (Aka Love Can’t Wait), 2021 (HBO) Happy Feet, 2006 The Electric Horseman, 1979 (HBO) Escape from New York, 1981 The Exorcist, 1973 Flashpoint, 1984 (HBO) The General’s Daughter, 1999 (HBO) Gossip Girl Green Lantern, 2011 Green Lantern: The Animated Series Gremlins , 1984 Gremlins 2: The New Batch, 1990 The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy Happily N’Ever After, 2007 (HBO) Happily N’Ever After 2: Snow White, 2009 (HBO) Happy-Go-Lucky, 2008 (HBO) He Said She Said, 1991 (HBO) Heaven Help Us, 1985 (HBO) The Infamous Future, 2018 Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back, 2001 (HBO) The Jellies Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, 2020 Kong: Skull Island, 2017 Little Con Lili, 2021 (HBO) Loiter Squad Ma, 2019 (HBO) Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, 1983 Mad Max: Fury Road, 2015 Magic Mike, 2012 Mao Mao, Heroes of Pure Heart March of the Penguins, 2005 Margaret, 2011 (Extended Version) (HBO) Miracle On 34th Street, 1994 (HBO) Miss Firecracker, 1989 (HBO) Mulholland Dr., 2001 Mystic River, 2003 Nitro Circus: The Movie 3D, 2012 (HBO) No Country for Old Men, 2007 The Notebook, 2004 Ocean’s 8, 2018 Ocean’s Eleven , 2001 Ocean’s Thirteen, 2007 Ocean’s Twelve, 2004 Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, 1985 Piter, 2021 (HBO) The Producers, 1968 Pulp Fiction, 1994 Purple Rain, 1984 Ready Player One, 2018 Revenge Of The Nerds, 1984 (HBO) Revenge Of The Nerds II: Nerds In Paradise, 1987 (HBO) Revenge Of The Nerds IV: Nerds In Love, 2005 (HBO) Rollerball, 2002 (HBO) Se7en, 1995 Shallow Hal, 2001 (HBO) Snowpiercer, Season 1 A Star is Born , 2018 Superman: Doomsday, 2007 Superman: Man of Tomorrow, 2020 Superman Returns, 2006 Swimfan, 2002 (HBO) This Is Spinal Tap, 1984 The Three Stooges, 2012 (HBO) TMNT, 2007 Tom Goes to the Mayor The Trouble With Spies, 1987 (HBO) Underclassman, 2005 (HBO) V for Vendetta, 2005 Van Wilder: Freshman Year (Extended Version), 2009 (HBO) Walk Of Shame, 2014 (HBO) Warrior, Seasons 1 & 2 (HBO) Willard, 1971 (HBO) Worth Winning, 1989 (HBO) You Can Count On Me, 2000 (HBO)

January 2: The High Note, 2020 (HBO)

January 4: 30 Coins, Series Premiere (HBO)

January 8: Patriot’s Day, 2016 Scream, 1996 Squish, Season 1

January 9: The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, Season 2 Ben 10, Season 4A The King Of Staten Island, 2020 (HBO)

January 10: Miracle Workers, Season 2 Tiger, Two-Part Documentary Premiere (HBO)

January 12: Against The Wild, 2014 Against the Wild 2: Survive the Serengeti, 2016 Alpha and  Omega 5: Family Vacation, 2015 Alpha and Omega 6: Dino Digs, 2016 Batkid Begins: The Wish Heard Around the World, 2015 Blue Valentine, 2010 Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, 2000 Earth Girls Are Easy, 1989 An Elephant’s Journey , 2018 The Escape Artist, 1982 Get Carter, 1971 Hecho En Mexico, 2012 Hellboy: Blood and Iron, 2007 Hellboy: Sword of Storms , 2006 Hellboy: The Dark Below, 2010 Jennifer Lopez: Dance Again, 2016 The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, 1976 The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, 2013 La Mujer de Mi Hermano , 2005 Leapfrog Letter Factory Adventures: Amazing Word Explorers , 2015 Leapfrog Letter Factory Adventures: Counting on Lemonade , 2014 Leapfrog Letter Factory Adventures: The Letter Machine Rescue Team , 2014 Leapfrog: Numberland, 2012 Lost and Delirious, 2001 Love and Sex, 2000 Lovely & Amazing , 2002 The Man Who Would Be King, 1975 Meatballs, 1979 The Men Who Stare at Goats, 2009 A Mermaid’s Tale, 2017 Mistress, 1992 Mother’s Day, 2012 Mud, 2013 Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki, 2016 Night is Short, Walk on Girl, 2017 No Eres Tu Soy Yo, 2011 Norm of the North: King Sized Adventure, 2019 Ollie & Moon, Seasons 1 & 2 Other Parents, Seasons 1 & 2 Pinocchio, 2012 Promare, 2019 Reservoir Dogs, 1992 Ride Your Wave, 2019 Righteous Kill, 2008 Sprung, 1997 The Spy Next Door, 2010 Tender Mercies, 1983 Thanks for Sharing, 2013 Turtle Tale, 2018 The Visitor, 2008 Vixen, 2015

January 14: Search Party, Max Original Season 4 Premiere

In the new season, “Dory” (Alia Shawkat) is held prisoner by her psychotic stalker “Chip” (Cole Escola), who is determined to make Dory believe that they are best friends. Meanwhile, “Portia” (Meredith Hagner) is starring in a film about the trial, although not as herself; “Elliott” (John Early) has switched party lines to become a far-right conservative talk show host; and “Drew” (John Reynolds) is trying to escape his dark past by working as a costumed cast member in a theme park.

January 15: Stephen King’s It, 1990 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1975 Poltergeist, 1982 Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Director’s Cut, Season 1 dubbed (Crunchyroll Collection) Real Time With Bill Maher, Season 19 Premiere (HBO) Roots (Mini Series), 1977 Si Yo Fuera Rico (Aka If I Were Rich), 2021 (HBO) The Wayans Bros

January 16: Eve Kill Bill: Vol. 1, 2003 (HBO) Kill Bill: Vol. 2, 2004 (HBO)

January 19: Everwood

January 20: At Home with Amy Sedaris, Season 3 C.B. Strike, Season 1 (HBO) C.B. Strike: Lethal White, Limited Series Premiere (HBO)

January 21: Gomorrah, Max Original Season 3 Premiere

The iconic Italian crime series Gomorrah is based on Roberto Saviano’s bestselling book that examines the account of the decline of Naples under the rule of the Camorra.

 Looney Tunes Cartoons, Season 1C

In this latest batch, Taz stars in his first full-length Looney Tunes Cartoons short when he takes on Bugs Bunny in a Roman coliseum. If Bugs makes it out of the arena, there will be plenty of foes waiting to match wits with him including Elmer Fudd, a leprechaun and Cecil Turtle. Daffy and Porky continue their misadventures from skydiving to solving the mystery of Porky’s missing pants! Fan-favorites Sylvester and Tweety along with Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner also come along for the ride in these ten all-new animated episodes. It’s an all-new year with all-new Looney!

January 22: The New Adventures of Old Christine Painting With John, Series Premiere (HBO)

January 23: Don’t Let Go, 2019 (HBO) Person of Interest

January 24: Euphoria Special Episode Part 2: F*ck Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob, Special Episode Premiere (HBO)

January 26: Babylon 5 Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel (HBO)

January 29: ¡Animo Juventud! (Aka Go Youth!), 2021 (HBO) The Little Things

Academy Award winners Denzel Washington, Rami Malek and Jared Leto star in John Lee Hancock’s suspenseful psychological thriller “The Little Things” about two California sheriffs and their growing obsession with a suspect while embroiled in the search for a killer targeting women.

What I Like About You

January 30: The Mummy, 1999 (HBO) The Mummy Returns, 2001 (HBO) Pushing Daisies The Scorpion King, 2002 (HBO)

January 31: Axios, Season 4 Premiere (HBO)

LAST CHANCE TO CATCH: SELECT TITLES LEAVING HBO MAX IN JANUARY

January 7: War Dogs, 2016 (HBO)

January 24: Wonder Woman 1984, 2020

January 31: Ad Astra, 2019 After Hours, 1985 (HBO) Akeelah And The Bee, 2006 (HBO) All Is Bright, 2013 America, America, 1964 Anchors Aweigh, 1945 The Arrangement, 1969 Bee Season, 2005 (HBO) Before Sunrise, 1995 (HBO) Before Sunset, 2004 (HBO) Best Laid Plans, 1999 (HBO) Bigger Than The Sky, 2005 (HBO) Blade II, 2002 Blade, 1998 Blood Simple, 1984 (HBO) Bridge To Terabithia, 2007 (HBO) Bright Lights, Big City, 1988 (HBO) The Change-Up, 2011 (HBO) The Children, 2009 A Christmas Carol, 1938 Crash, 2005 (Director’s Cut) (HBO) David Copperfield, 1935 Days After Your Departure, 2019 (HBO) Enemy Of The State, 1998 (HBO) Everybody’s All-American, 1988 (HBO) Father’s Day, 1997 (HBO) Friday Night Lights, 2004 (HBO) Get On Up, 2014 (HBO) Guys And Dolls, 1955 High Society, 1956 Jeepers Creepers 2, 2003 (HBO) Jeepers Creepers, 2001 (HBO) Leprechaun 2, 1994 (HBO) Leprechaun, 1993 (HBO) Magnolia, 1999 (HBO) The Man With The Golden Arm, 1955 Mars Attacks!, 1996 Martha Marcy May Marlene, 2011 (HBO) Martin Lawrence You So Crazy, 1994 (HBO) New Year’s Eve, 2011 (HBO) Ocean’s Eleven, 2001 Ocean’s Thirteen, 2007 Ocean’s Twelve, 2004 On The Town, 1949 The Pelican Brief, 1993 Planet Of The Apes, 2001 (HBO) Risky Business, 1983 Semi-Pro, 2008 Some Came Running, 1958 Something Borrowed, 2011 (HBO) Splendor In The Grass, 1961 Walk The Line, 2005 (Extended Version) (HBO) When Harry Met Sally, 1989

[townienews]

The Townie Crier - Tuesday May 1, 2018

**notice no "It's Gonna Be May" cutesy Timberlake meme here** (mostly because It's Already May! And that meme doesn't exist)

pic.twitter.com/8FPEJMTqmf

— Boston Bobby (@TheBostonBobby) May 1, 2018

Welcome to The Crier for May 1, 2018. Yeah, we settled on a name for this daily ding dong post. @daelderstatesmn suggested that title and gets himself a shirt, and you get this highly digestable dose of daily Boston sports goodness. Links, tweets and videos aplenty. So let's briefly remember a Monday night that exhausted our thumbs and eyes equally...for more better than more worse. Or however that goes.

Let’s goooooooo

A post shared by Celtics GreenRunsDeep (@greenrunsdeep) on Apr 28, 2018 at 7:38pm PDT

And buoyed by that vintage double troll job playoff shirt that all in attendanc eat The Gahden 2.0 received, the hot shooting Celtics dispatched the Sixers (on a 20-1 streak rolling into Monday) in Game 1 of the ECSF, 117-101. Well, the shirt helped. So did great shooting from 3, team heart and hustle (the signature of this undermanned but never to be underestimated Celtics team), and some kickass individual efforts. Like The Buffet (my new name for Horford). Fahk that Average Al or Ordinary Al nonsense. That's old fake news, which is the worst kind. Al's getting it doen all over, from every inch of the court. He's The Buffet because he provides everything you need, and when you need it you can always go back for more. He's one of many making Ainge look like a friggin genius of late. And he'll tell you what you can do with your "Al is average and I can't draft" takes...

Danny Ainge status: still a competitor. pic.twitter.com/TcOWQL0OqQ

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) May 1, 2018

No, but seriously, Horford has been great. It's like one of those high school rom-coms where there's no attraction until the kids get in detention of are stranded in some absurd situation together, and then suddenly love blooms. COnvenient how that works.

Al Horford has been a monster in these playoffs. An absolute force on both ends. Hopefully we've heard the last of the "overpaid Al" stuff. #Celtics

— Evan Lazar (@ezlazar) May 1, 2018

Oh...and if you're feeling THE BUFFET as much as we are, might I suggest a new Horford jersey or such? (**shameless merch plug**)

Umm...back to Ainge being a boss at his job? I think again, if not especially with Fultz on display miserably in the Garden, he came out smelling like fresh beer and roses when Tatum went off. Again. This kid's all-around everything is absurd. AND HE CAN'T LEGALLY DRINK.

"He's a rookie!" #CUsRise 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/t8bwFeHQMn

— '03 Kliff Kingsbury (@fearthe_beard11) May 1, 2018

Granted, the likes of Tatum and Horford were enabled offensively by Philadelphia's famous "Phantom Zone" defense.

Nice defense pic.twitter.com/rhxmDFMVpc

— John Karalis 🇬🇷 (@RedsArmy_John) May 1, 2018

But nothing - not fatigue, Philly's hot streak, an invisible defense - nothing was holding Terry Rozier back. This friggin guy...

The Boston sports fan heart is pretty full these days. But Terry Rozier is fighting hard to find himself a place in there.

— Fitzy (@FitzyGFY) May 1, 2018

Calling him SAVAGE for his pregame and in-game antics would be correct, but also an understatement. He's a savage, alright. And a beast. And the easiest guy to like and rally around. A savage rally beast. Filling in for Kyrie and dropping 29 in Game One against the Sixers? Draining threes left and right. And setting the emotional tone for the team and the night upon arrival...

Drew Bledsoe knows who Terry Rozier is! (Via @espn) pic.twitter.com/NoNI2pT76b

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) May 1, 2018

And now we've got this unexpected random magical bromance between Rozier and Drew Bledsoe? Couldn't ever have seen that coming, but that's the magic of playoffs in Boston. Can never be enough love for Drew by me. That he's become the symbol or icon, rally monkey of the Celtics playoff run thanks to an accidental troll job? (Guinness vice) BRILLIANT! Everyone needs to wear their Bledsoe jersey to work this week. So they can reach their peak Rozier level. Game 2 Thursday night, already can't friggin wait! And that genius Brad Stevens has deployed a stellar lineup to counter what should be quite acharge from the Sixers...

The Celtics have announced their Game 2 lineup: -PG: T. Rozier -SG: T. Rozier -SF: T. Rozier -PF: J. Tatum -C: A. Horford Bench -Terry Rozier -T. Rozier -Rozier -PG #12 -The guy in the Drew Bledsoe jersey -The guy Ainge wouldn’t trade for 100 first round picks

— NOTSportsCenter (@NOTSportsCenter) May 1, 2018

Oh - and Sports Radio and Hot Take Nation who will give the Celtics no credit and say that Philly played no D ("Philly used the New England D plan from SB 52" - you'll hear that shit)...you guys can tuck it and suck it!

via GIPHY

Meanwhile, in other Boston professional sports persons team playoff action...the Bruins lost to the Lightning 4-2. Gonna be honest (Monday was National Honesty Day)...I didn't really watch much. Beex were up 1-0. Woprst case (which played out) they go home split. So nice work, head help high, fellas. I thought the C's need my attention Monday (I don't parent mutliple children well). I read something about a bad call, Marchand getting hosed, Cassidy, who's a feisty sonofabitch in a Men's Wearhouse suit, wasn't happy. Good! A happy hockey cocach is an ineffective one (or so I heard...or not...I don't know hockey). They'll come back, chip on shoulder, tied in best of 5 with home ice in their pocket. Wednesday night, maybe the Bruins should all come to work wearing Drew Bledsoe jerseys??? Because this QB rally showing for a different hockey team didn't make me feel any better...

I really didn’t need to follow a Bruins loss by immediately seeing Jimmy G pump up the Sharks. God damn, plunge the dagger

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) May 1, 2018

And on the same night he was named to the NFL Network Top 100!

He has yet to lose a game as a starter 👀@49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo (@JimmyG_10) is #90 on the countdown!#NFLTop100 pic.twitter.com/SPwl3KIbtL

— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) May 1, 2018

When Tom Brady did an appearance with Jim Gray and said he didn't feel apreciated by the Pats (**cough** Belichick)

Tom Brady was asked today at the Milken Institute Global Conference if he feels appreciated by the Patriots. His response: "I plead the 5th..." pic.twitter.com/8Tl6k5emj9

— Tom E. Curran (@tomecurran) May 1, 2018

Come on, Sports! Can't I just enjoy this Celtics win and the Pats draft, and the night, and maybe a whole week without any Pats related off-field disharmony or disturbance or disfunction or other dis- words? Not now...nope. Not. I can't...spent too much time wondering WTF with TFB and the NEP this offseason after the February 4th flying nutpunch. All set, check please! I'll pass. Too busy feeling good about what's coming this week, this fall...we'll just leave at it Tom being a sass, keeping the Pats atop page views for a while, taking attention away from the other teams who don't need the scrutiny? AWW MAN! Tom, you magnanimous SOB! Or maybe it was to get you in the news to elevate Best Buddies ride awareness? No press is bad press, right? Just ask Michelle Wolf! **NEXT MORNING UPDATE-AGE** There are plenty of sound bites of Brady paying due respect to Belichick and saying he knows BB is best for him, tough to play for, and that they make each other their best. Which is what we've all always known. Again, they don't need to quilt together or share recipes or watch "This Is Us"., Just win football! Enough Fake Foxboro News! Alright, enough of that for now. We'll let it slide until someone tells me I should give aflying summer sausage. OH...and the Sox won, beat the bumbling Royals, 10-6. E-Rod sucked himself off early, but fear not - healty Xandah to the rescue.

Heads up we got a piss missile on the Pike expect delays seek alternate route pic.twitter.com/HoKIUe6hOs

— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) May 1, 2018

2 wins in a row? HOT STREAK AHOY! use caution when handling these Sawx! KC coming to town might be the perfect remedy to flush last week away like a carton of old chineser food you know will smell the garbage barrle up too much. Alright, so there we go - C'ss and Sawx win! Bruins lose! Brady wants the love. Now let's all carry on and booze. Hapy Tueday, ya humps. More soon - make sure you catch the Draft webcast, and all-new slew of NFL FAN THERAPY coming all week long. GFY!

[daveandtrev]

The 2020 Andre Johnson Sweepstakes League write-up

Friends of the Andre Johnson Sweepstakes League, welcome. I am pleased (no really, I am excited) to bring you a breakdown of the AJSL as it blessed our lives in the one-of-a-kind year of 2020. Below you will find a mix of analysis and lighthearted fun aimed at taking a first pass at what the heckfire happened this year from start to finish. We’ve got analysis on the draft, injuries and schedule plus some fun awards to give out. I won’t buffalo you any longer, lets get to it.

Draft Day Analysis

Draft day analysis interpretation: I tried to objectively pick the best teams based on my personal draft rankings (subjective draft rankings, objective draft analysis…sort of follows?). Here’s the methodology: I assigned a value to every player for above average play (in 0.25 increments). It’s essentially five tiers (+0.0 = starter, but could be replaced; +0.25 = contributing starter; +0.5 = solid starter; +0.75 = strong starter that will create a positional advantage; +1.0 = elite starter providing a distinct positional advantage). This all makes sense in my head, and it should make more sense when you look at the table. I then added up points for each team’s best possible starting lineup according to my points system and voila; Dave Stark’s handicapping of the AJSL.

A couple of notes:

·       Players are listed in the positions as there were drafted, with highest spend creating the starting lineup. For my points system, I subbed in bench players if they had a higher value than the starter.

·       I cheated on Christian McCaffrey’s value: he was a +1.25 in my book. Clearly the best player in the game with even higher upside than the traditional studs.

A few things that turned out like I thought

·       The running QBs outside of Lamar (Dak, Kyler, Russ, and DeShaun all avg 22.0+ fantasy pts/gm and sit top 7 at QB)

·       The QBs at +0.0 (Baker, Carr, Danny Dimes, Kirk Cousins, and Jimmy G basically ride the merry-go-round from one bye week fill-in to the next. Tannehill and Cousins maybe qualify as +0.25 players now, but neither averages over 20+ pts/gm)

·       Jonathan Taylor +0.0 (His value has been everywhere this year. Marlon Mack was the only reason I had him ranked this low. When Mack went down I pegged him for +0.75 with the possibility to go +1.0…and then nothing materialized until late into the year)

·       Devin Singletary +0.0 (Started hearing whispers of Zack Moss splitting carries + Josh Allen hogs goal line rushes)

A few places where I was dead wrong

·       Stefon Diggs +0.0 (Turns out, Josh Allen actually got better - +10% Completion % in 2020)

·       Josh Allen +0.5 (Averaging 24.7 pts/gm which would have been the QB2 overall last year by almost 3 pts/gm. Currently QB4)

·       Kyler Murray +0.75 (Not nearly high enough on him. Averaging 26.5 pts/gm as the QB1 overall. Playing at a +1.0 level)

·       DK Metcalf +0.25 (Seattle hired their lead chef to work full time)

·       Lamar Jackson +1.0, Mark Andrews +0.75 (Uhhh, why is this team broken?)

·       Kenyan Drake +0.75 (Beware the extravagant 8 game sample size that says someone is a world-beater)

·       Zach Ertz +0.75 (Is this the cliff year at 30 years old? How did Tony G catch 83 balls at age 37?)

·       Aaron Rod Gers +0.25 (Yeah he’s a +0.75 guy now…should have known that drafting the backup QB would light a fire under Aaron: we’ve only seen this from Alex Smith and Joe Flacco in 2 of the last 3 years…Wait, why hasn’t this applied to Wentz yet?)

·       Davante Adams +0.75 (Good golly, A-Aron’s resurgence means Davante is almost on +1.25 level when he is healthy)

·       Keenan Allen +0.25 (This was all about Tyrod…then we found out that Justin Herbert was interning specifically for Keenan Allen and the Chargers med staff decided to euthanize Tyrod)

·       TJ Hockenson +0.0 (2nd year leap puts him at TE3 overall. $20 player next year?)

·       Chris Herndon +0.0 (When you read too many draft articles, you begin to believe that an Adam Gase coached player might actually become an average contributor at his position…ha!)

Injury-ruined seasons

·       Saquon, Michael Thomas +1 (Biggest team-killers to date by far)

·       CMC at +1.25 (Still overall #1 when he plays)

·       Dak at +0.75 (Was playing like a true +1 on par with Mahomes before going down)

·       Zeke at +1 (Dak died and then Dallas decided to start “Gucci DiNucci”…yeah that didn’t go well)

·       OBJ +0.5 (Traded to Cristian’s team where he put up a combined 3.5 fantasy pts in 2 games started)

·       Courtland Sutton +0.25 (After space-cadeting Sutton’s auction bid, we got our “Ball don’t lie” moment a few weeks later. Trevor is shrugging as he reads this.)

 Great, let’s move on. Luck, imagined as either dice rolls or Luck Dragons depending on who you talk to, plays a pretty big part in fantasy success every year. Too many injuries? See you next year. Tough schedule? Hope for a good tiebreaker and maybe you can sneak into the playoffs with the #4 spot. These are probably the most talked about facets of the game since they are beyond our control and create the classic “if only I didn’t have that injury back in high school, i’d have crushed you guys” cop-out that we’ve all heard for years. Let’s see who really has a case to be upset, shall we?

Let’s start with one of my favorites – every team’s record if we played in a league where the top 6 scores secured a win each week (in lieu of head to head matchups). This is a much more “fair” look at how your team performed on a weekly basis when you throw out the schedule which is always a subject of scrutiny, consternation, and conspiracy theories each season.

There you have it. Good news is, the top 5 in our league standings would be the exact same top 5 if we played the other way. The schedule hasn’t defrauded anyone of a 2020 playoff spot. Bad news is, the bottom of this list is mildly shocking. Cristian has struggled all year for wins and this shows that his team hasn’t been half bad – but he has essentially lost out on 4 wins due to schedule. Yikes. Phil on the other hand was in playoff contention up until week 12, whereas his team has the fewest expected wins in the league….Of course for those with conspiratorial thoughts, you’ll notice the Stark brothers combine for +7 “lucky” wins due to schedule. Of course the Stark wife had to bite the bullet to make it look fair (-2 “lucky” wins). I’ll let everyone digest that and make their own judgments. (Where is that clause in the constitution involving starting a new league without the commish? This is evidence!)

The next “luck metric” that dominates our chat conversation and generally elicits “I got screwed, feel bad for me” self-pity arguments would be games lost to injury. Everyone knows it sucks and everyone experiences it to some degree every year. And if you play long enough, you will get hit by the double ACL tear/broken collarbone/never-healing ankle injury to all of your star players and be left at a severe disadvantage. It’s gonna be okay Sport, put on a brave face and hit the waiver wire. Come back next year and clap secretly at 3pm on Monday when Schefty tweets the next guy’s RB1 season-ender. (After the large exhale that it didn’t happen to your RB1 of course.) Ending rant, just know that if you experienced the injury season from hell, the rest of the league knows that it’s part of the fantasy business and are very relieved that it didn’t happen to them. Empathy runs high, sympathy runs low. (And I just removed my ability to ever complain publicly about my team’s injuries by writing this now.)

After all the talk has subsided, let’s check facts. First table: mid-game injuries. These are games where players play a much reduced role and typically produce dreadful fantasy finishes. There’s a bit of subjectivity here (if a player plays 3 quarters and gets hurt, I don’t count that as a mid game injury. But if he plays ½ or less of his normal playing time, it would count.) I also add mid-game benching to QBs because they fit the description as fantasy wreckers due to an unforeseen cutback in playing time. Here is the Commissioner’s official list:

Congrats on that title Jason, I know you were hoping for it. Just know, you weren’t THAT far ahead of the rest of us. Mon and Trevor on the other hand can only blame poor performance on their season’s disappointments (or better yet, the schedule!)

So I buried the lead a bit on Mr. Montgomery here, because the next table should give him his share of justice on 2020 injuries.

So the above list is missed games + mid-game injuries for drafted starters and traded players updated through week 13 (except for those with season long injuries – I went ahead and added week 14 there). Jason, there’s your proof. Nobody deserves to bellyache more than you, friend. 19 of those games were from QBs (Dak/Jimmy G) which added to a smattering of missed games from the rest of the roster (Godwin 4, Ridley 3, Aaron Jones 2). I haven’t tracked this before, but I imagine that this year was significantly worse than others (more soft tissue injuries and COVID positives were the biggest culprits.) The hope is that 2021 gives us a bit of a reprieve here.

Before we conclude, I recognize that there is a portion of the audience who prefers the entertainment value of this yearly endeavor, so I’m going to do my best to hand out a few fun awards. Without further ado, the 2020 AJSL Dundees (this award style hasn’t possibly been overdone, right?)

Dundee to The Scorned Lover: Mr. Jordan Swavely on behalf of Henry Ruggs.

While I wrote this tribute in his farewell on the group chat, it bears repeating: 7 pts or less scored by Ruggs in 6 straight games, starts him again for a 7th week and only a 50 yard bomb on the last play of the game saves Ruggs from another 3 point performance. Totaling the points for those 7 starts, Ruggs scored 36 points for a 5.1 average. Ruggs averaged 3.4 targets/gm in these contests. You do you, Swave. Go and get your man.

Dundee for the Best Team Name: Mr. Greg Poelman, ShlongBarry Sanders

Any reference including a dong and our beloved college town is going to score high on both the Dude and Nostalgia scales. Plus a Barry Sanders nod, we like that.

Dundee for the Best Team Picture: Mrs. Monica Stark on behalf of Presidential Security

Any time you can get combine Greg Poelman and The Donald in Photoshop and it doesn’t even look that fake, you have my attention and affection. And now you have a Dundee to go along with it. Well done.

Honorable mention: Monica’s Team, Bring Out Your Dead

Golden Tickets to the Winning Waiver Warriors: Mr. Scooter Nelson, James Robinson; Mr. Blake Grundy, Justin Herbert; Mr. Jack Holmer, Justin Jefferson

Since everyone is bidding for the “winning lottery tickets” of the waiver pool, we’re going to give out Golden Tickets to those that struck waiver wire gold this season. Scooter milked 11 starts out of Robinson who averaged 17.6 pts/gm during that span. Robinson has been the RB4 overall since the week 2 pickup. Grundy picked up Herbert for week 3 and never looked back, banking 10 starts at 22.5 pts/gm (He’s the QB7 in that time frame). Holmer nabbed Jefferson before Week 4 and was rewarded with the WR4 from that point on. Impressively he only benched him once, refusing to play him against his beloved Bears. This is the dream of every late Tuesday night and you guys reaped the spoils. Well done, gents.

Dundee to the Wounded Wavier Warriors: Mr. Phil Stark, Devonta Freeman; Mr. Jack Holmer, Darrell Henderson; Mr. Trevor Allison, Nyheim Hines

Big money, No whammy. That’s the goal. Of course more times than not, the reality is…more like this. Phil emptied out the pocketbook early on in the season after the Saquon injury to grab his replacement with a winning bid of $78 on Devonta (next highest bid: $15). Devonta responded with five games played, two of which resulted in 1 point showings. Then he followed Saquon to IR and Soape picked up the true workhorse of the Giants backfield in Wayne Gallman, who hasn’t pickup up less than 10 points in six straight games. Ouch. It took $54 to secure the rights to Darrell Henderson after week 2, seemingly the new Rams lead RB. Unfortunately Jack’s faith manifested at the wrong times: 5 starts of Henderson yielded 6.3 pts/gm, while Henderson’s two strong games (18.5 and 20.3 pts) were enjoyed on Holmer’s bench. Not fun. $46 was the bid that beat out 7 other bidders after week 1 for Nyheim Hines’s services, after which Trevor was rewarded with 5 straight games of 8 points or less. After cutting him loose over the bye week, Hines busted out for four double digit games in six tries, music no doubt to Trevor’s ears. A Dundee for your troubles, boys.

The “Fantasy Football Was A Lot More Fun Last Year” Dundee: Mr. Cristian Driver

For every obvious reason. Where did that championship belt get to?

Dundee for a Fun and Easy Season: Mr. David Stark

Injuries, COVID surprises, bad schedules, underperformance? Didn’t seem that big of a deal to me.

Dundee for Most Attempts to Defeat a Hornet’s Nest: Mr. Jason Montgomery

Similar to our favorite Office handyman Nate, Jason was tasked with eliminating the danger of his crumbling fantasy season created by the aforementioned injury bug. Both hailing from the historically-rich metropolis of “La Philadelphia”, what ensued after Jason’s 4-0 start pairs Nate and Jason together even further. Jason utilized a league-high 20 unique waiver pickups that entered the starting lineup this season. Results were bleak; the fast start was followed by a 2-7 record that signaled victory to the opposition. Maybe try the bow and arrow next time?

Receiver Corps Dundee of Excellence: Mr. Joel Soape

It only took 3 name changes to figure out which WR was needed (Red Solo Kupp -> Mike’d Up -> The Adams Bomb) , but Soape finally landed on the right guy for the job by calling on Davante Adams and his 22.1 pts/gm this year (easily the WR1 in this metric). Somehow Corey Davis (left for dead after last year) has had a career resuscitation on this team as well, dropping a 30 burger in week 12. The Receiver Corps salutes your dedication to their fraternity, Mr. Soape.

That’s all for now guys. Full disclosure, I have another 1k-2k words written that takes a deep dive into each of our performances at 1) waiver pickups, 2) positional scoring, and 3) sit/start decisions. Maybe this would be most helpful for a post-season article as it encompasses your overall strategy and ability to aid your team’s output. Look for that at some point in the future. For now, I hope you enjoyed this meaty entrée. Thanks for another great season and allowing me to bring you another fun recap, everyone!

[diaspora9ja]

‘It’s like somebody just turned off the switch’: Airport businesses in survival mode during Pandemic

This time final yr, the telephones on the Airport Taxi Service dispatch have been ringing off the hook. 

Enterprise journey, snowbirds heading south and household journeys all meant extra rides to and from the airport. However that is not the case this yr, and it hasn’t been that manner for round eight months now.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left the as soon as thriving cab firm struggling, together with different companies in and across the Edmonton Worldwide Airport. Some have closed their doorways, whereas others let workers go.

The Airport Taxi Service which was established in 2006, had 150 licensed drivers at its top. This yr, that quantity dropped as little as 4. 

“It is like anyone simply turned off the swap,” stated Rob Sterr, Airport Taxi Companies basic supervisor. “Drivers have been simply strolling in and handing of their plates and taking break day work instantly.” 

‘It is like a catastrophe’

Sterr says a few of these drivers have began trickling again, however many are working supply jobs or driving vehicles for firms like Amazon to assist pay the payments. 

Nadeem Bhatti is a type of drivers who left and has since returned. Bhatti, a father of 5, got here again originally of June and works 12 hours a day.

Airport Taxi Service driver Nadeem Bhatti waits for a buyer on the empty arrivals space on the Edmonton Worldwide Airport. (Min Dhariwal/CBC)

  “It is like a catastrophe. Folks aren’t travelling,” stated Bhatti, who has been driving for Airport Taxi since 2015. Drivers now typically have to attend 4 or 5 hours for every journey from the airport, Bhatti added.

It is even worse inside. Lineups for safety are non-existent, and plenty of shops have decreased hours or are closed altogether.

“Site visitors again in March mainly went from over eight million passengers a yr to nearly nearly nothing in a single day,” stated Steve Maybee, vice-president of operations and infrastructure for the Edmonton Worldwide Airport. 

“Initially, it was a 96 per cent drop in passengers.”

Maybee says the airport has labored with companies to assist them get by way of this gradual time, however some have simply determined to shut up. 

‘There is not any playbook for this’

Even the airport has closed off elements of the constructing to economize on operations. 

Employees have been let go, and the airport’s precedence is now making the constructing secure and safe for the remaining workers and the restricted passengers who’re flying out and in.

“We have needed to make numerous real-time changes, and there is no playbook for this. We have by no means been by way of something like this earlier than.” Maybee stated.

This presents a scary new actuality for the enterprise homeowners who’ve stayed open too. The Belgian Beer Cafe is one among a handful of eating places nonetheless open for airport workers and the trickle of passengers. 

Earlier than the pandemic, the bar operated with 40 full-time workers. At its low level this yr, that quantity was pared right down to only one.

Cale Inglis, the bar’s proprietor, stated he sat at a desk on the entrance of the restaurant to take orders and would then cook dinner the meals himself when all they have been allowed to supply was takeaway. 

Cale Inglis, proprietor of the Belgian Beer Cafe, stands in entrance of his pub within the departures part of the Edmonton Worldwide Airport. (Min Dhariwal/CBC )

  Staffing has returned to round 30 workers now, however quantity continues to be a lot decrease than earlier than. 

“We’re fortunate we’re able the place we are able to kind of tread water for a bit of bit, not lengthy in any respect and once more we’re blissful to have the ability to have some individuals again working,” he stated.

Inglis says the corporate has leaned closely on federal authorities subsidies to assist maintain them afloat, in addition to flexibility from banks and collectors. However he is aware of that will not final. 

On high of that, his firm invested in a Canadian Brewhouse location close to the safety check-in that was presupposed to open final July. Its new goal is 2021.

‘Tiny bits of fine information’ 

The various motels in and across the airport have seen large income decreases from low passenger quantity. And the Renaissance Edmonton Airport Lodge, the one lodge related to the airport, is in survival mode.

“It was actually unhealthy originally, no person teaches you what to do in a single day when your corporation disappears,’ stated David Keam, basic supervisor of the lodge. 

Enterprise on the Renaissance has picked up recently, however solely barely. Snowbirds flying south for the winter often keep an evening within the lodge earlier than departing, and an area mining firm has booked a flooring of rooms each second week. However the lodge has in any other case been utilizing lower than half of its greater than 300-room capability. 

Renaissance Edmonton Airport Lodge basic supervisor David Keam says the lodge has misplaced 80 per cent of its income because the COVID-19 pandemic began final spring. (Min Dhariwal/CBC )

They’ve had enormous layoffs and an 80 per cent lower in revenues, this yr. The lodge’s banquet and occasions enterprise has additionally all however dried up. 

However current information about COVID-19 vaccines has offered a glimmer of hope. 

“Something that may present any sort of optimism, we see it,” stated Keam.

“It is all these little tiny bits of fine information which are finally going so as to add up and get us out of this.”  

That is the hope, however most companies tied to the airport agree getting again to regular, or any vital restoration, may take years.

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[junker-town]

NBA mock draft 2020: Our writers make picks for their favorite teams

Our latest mock draft is from those who know each team best.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are finally on the clock. After a nearly five-month delay because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 NBA Draft is set to be held on Wednesday, Nov. 18. While this isn’t considered the strongest draft class in recent memory, it is still full of young and exciting players who will one day help shape the future of the league.

As the draft approaches, the SB Nation NBA community sites have held a mock draft. One representative from every community made the pick for their team. No trades were allowed this year because of the league’s delayed salary cap announcement.

Click the related link to each SB Nation NBA community for further analysis of the selection, and join the discussion in the comments. In a draft with little consensus at the top, there’s certainly going to be plenty to debate. We begin the draft with Canis Hoopus selecting for the Wolves.

1. Minnesota Timberwolves - Anthony Edwards, G, Georgia

Sans the ability to trade picks in this Blogger Mock Draft, this becomes the most logical move for Gersson Rosas at the top. The Wolves currently have their cornerstone PG/C duo (for better or worse), so selecting either James Wiseman or LaMelo Ball doesn’t appear to make much sense for Minnesota. While Edwards does carry the slight risk of becoming Andrew Wiggins 2.0 in the land of 10,000 lakes, his overall athleticism and offensive potential are too good to pass up for a team desperately in need of talent on the wing.

- Kyle Theige, Canis Hoopus

2. Golden State Warriors - James Wiseman, C, Memphis

Because we can’t trade the pick, I went with the player who is the best available and fills a big need for the Warriors. Wiseman has all of the tools to be a very good center in the league. He is one of the best athletes available and will develop into a solid rim-protector. Although his college sample size is small, Wiseman has apparently been killing it during workouts. General manager Bob Myers can focus on adding a wing via free agency and take a flier on a cheap PF/C to fill out the roster.

- Jas Kang, Golden State of Mind

3. Charlotte Hornets - LaMelo Ball, PG, Illawara Hawks

The Hornets are in talent acquisition mode, and LaMelo Ball might be the most talented prospect in this draft. Ball is positionally redundant with the Hornets’ current two best players, but his size allows him to share the floor with either Terry Rozier or Devonte’ Graham, and even both for stretches. His ability to create looks for others will open up scoring opportunities for both of the other Hornets guards, who were often overburdened on the offensive end last season. He would also bring a superstar presence to a franchise that’s always struggling to attain media relevance.

- Jonathan DeLong, At the Hive

4. Chicago Bulls - Killian Hayes, G, Ulm

Like Charlotte, Chicago is also in talent acquisition mode and should be aiming to take the best player on the board. That player is Killian Hayes. He also fits Chicago’s need for a lead guard who can get everyone into the right spots on offense along with creating some scoring of his own, especially with his shooting off the dribble. Hayes has already shown he can play over in Europe and has the tools to be a good player in the NBA. With Coby White viewed more as a two guard, Hayes will easily slot in as Chicago’s point guard of the future. There is a lot of upside with this pick.

- Vijay Vemu, Blog-a-Bull

5. Cleveland Cavaliers - Onyeka Okongwu, C, USC

For the record, Deni Avdija and Isaac Okoro were the other options strongly considered here. But the Cavs desperately need a defensive presence for now and the long-term. Andre Drummond just isn’t that. Okongwu’s ability to cover ground, rotate correctly and play smart defense is needed for a franchise that has been historically bad on defense for the past two seasons. What his offensive game looks like is a mystery and it’s hard to pass up two wings - another position of need. But Okongwu’s upside and ability to fill a need is just too good to pass up.

- Chris Manning, Fear the Sword

6. Atlanta Hawks - Isaac Okoro, F, Auburn

This is a draft class in which many of the prospects are bunched tightly together, meaning that a lot of the picks in this range come down to personal preference. The Hawks would’ve considered Killian Hayes as an upside swing if he fell to No. 6, but with him off the board, the decision came down to Okoro and Devin Vassell. There isn’t a massive gap between those two players in a vacuum, but Okoro brings an intriguing skill set, with athleticism, strength and defensive upside. Offensively, he can attack close-outs, finish at the rim, make plays as a passer and serve as a secondary creator. His jump shot is a work in progress but, if he can become a league-average perimeter shooter, the sky is the limit. Even if he can’t, his other skills, headlined by his defense, will carry the day.

- Brad Rowland, Peachtree Hoops

7. Detroit Pistons - R.J. Hampton, G, New Zealand Breakers

This was an incredibly tough decision based on how important it is for a franchise desperately in need of top-end playmaking and talent to reach in the draft for a player with the potential to fill that goal. Do you take a player with all-around skills you are confident in or do you evaluate who might have that small chance of being a No. 1 option? That was the great Patrick Williams vs. RJ Hampton debate in the Pistons war room. In the end, we decided first-year GM Troy Weaver should swing for the fences on guard R.J. Hampton who has athleticism and playmaking skills to lead the Pistons offense at the one or the two, whichever he naturally fits best. Williams, meanwhile, would be a great complementary piece, but Detroit really needs that piece he’d be complementing. Other factors in Hampton’s favor are a) his youth, b) that Hampton has been working to remake and transform his shot into something that would work at the next level. If he can become a potent perimeter shooter, he could be an incredibly successful offensive player in the NBA and while he has a lot to work on from a defensive perspective, he has the athletic tools to be successful with dedicated development time.

- Sean Corp, Detroit Bad Boys

8. New York Knicks - Devin Vassell, G, Florida State

The Knicks need a little bit of everything, but one thing they need most is outside shooting. Devin Vassell shot over 40% in both of his seasons at Florida State, and is a certified genius in team defense. He rose from outside the top 200 in the high school recruiting rankings to a top-10 pick in two years, so we’re betting there is still some upside to be had.

- Joe Flynn, Posting and Toasting

9. Washington Wizards - Tyrese Haliburton, G, Iowa State

The Wizards need defensive help at every position. We were hoping for Okongwu or Okoro to be at No. 9 but both were gone. In addition, Precious Achiuwa was more of a reach with the No. 9 pick and we can’t trade down. While Avdija seemed tantalizing since he fell to No. 9, Washington does need another guard who could play a major role if the team gets into firesale mode in a year. And if the team starts winning many games, he can still be a strong option off the bench. Halliburton is a strong three point shooter and can be a good point guard option for the Wizards in a post Wall/Beal world. But he can also help right away with their playoff hopes which the Wizards want to do in the immediate term.

- Albert Lee, Bullets Forever

10. Phoenix Suns - Kira Lewis Jr., G, Alabama

The Suns really need a point guard of the future to take over for Ricky Rubio in 2021 or 2022, and that PG is Kira Lewis Jr. He and Booker can share the ball handling duties, playing off the ball next to each other as well as leading the second unit when the other is resting. Lewis has a bright future as a combo guard who can even get minutes his rookie season playing off ball next to Rubio in Booker-less lineups. The Suns got a steal here, in my opinion. Lewis could be one of the very best players in this draft.

- Dave King, Bright Side of the Sun

11. San Antonio Spurs - Deni Avdija, F, Maccabi Tel Aviv

Coming into the draft with an appetite for frontcourt talent, the Spurs were surprised to find themselves with a handful of appealing, and contrasting, options at 11. Those included Avdija and Obi Toppin, both guys they expected to be off the board, and the raw Patrick Williams. They went with the Israeli prospect, who exists somewhere in the vast ocean that spans Toppin’s ready-made offensive game and Williams’ two-way potential. Avdija’s playmaking and versatility are welcome complements to a Spurs youth movement that’s heavy on guards and light on shot creation, and his professional experience makes him the rare Spurs rookie that can expect a role early in their career.

- Bruno Passos, Pounding the Rock

12. Sacramento Kings - Patrick Williams, F, Florida State

Williams’ numbers aren’t eye-popping but he provides something the Kings desperately need: toughness. He has plenty of room to develop and with Sacramento still a while away from contending for a playoff spot, the team can be patient with him. The Kings could lose Alex Len and Harry Giles in free agency, so they need to bolster their frontcourt. Williams is a very good team defender who will help strengthen the back line of the team’s defense. He makes up for his lack of athleticism with a high basketball IQ, but he will need to work on his explosiveness in order to have an impact on the offensive end.

- Sabreena Merchant, Sactown Royalty

13. New Orleans Pelicans - Aaron Nesmith, SG, Vanderbilt

With the futures of Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson in mind, the Pelicans would be happy to score a high end role player in a weak draft devoid of booming potential. Aaron Nesmith fits the bill perfectly as his extraordinary shooting skills (52.2 percent from three-point range on 8.2 3PA) will keep driving lanes open for years to come for the two New Orleans cornerstones. Mentoring under JJ Redick could prove invaluable, and between Van Gundy’s teachings and Aaron Nelson’s training staff, a good chance exists for the 6’10 wingspan of Nesmith to reach his ceiling as an above average defender.

- Oleh Kosel, The Bird Writes

14. Boston Celtics - Obi Toppin, F, Dayton

The Celtics have three first-round selections, and must thread the needle between taking best player available and filling the need for immediate impact. An unforeseen slide of Obi Toppin makes him a high-value draft pick, both in trade markets elsewhere and in how he can make an immediate impact in Boston. Toppin is a freak athlete, shot above 39% from 3 and has the inside-outside offensive game needed in a hybrid big man. While there are legitimate defensive concerns, the talent and impact was too much to pass on at 14, and Boston provides him the opportunity to play the 5, likely his best NBA position

- Adam Spinella, Celtics Blog

15. Orlando Magic - Cole Anthony, G, North Carolina

It’s no secret that the point guard position has been a hot topic for the Orlando Magic over the last few years. While Markelle Fultz showed some positive signs last season, the Magic still need some depth at the position, especially with both D.J. Augustin and Michael Carter-Williams hitting the free agent market. Taking Cole Anthony gives the Magic a guard that can create his own shot, and can shoot the ball from beyond the arc some as well. Anthony will give the Magic the needed depth, and the ability to run out some two point guard lineups as well.

- Zach Oliver, Orlando Pinstripe Post

16. Portland Trail Blazers - Saddiq Bey, F, Villanova

The late-lottery, boom-or-bust prospects were off the board when this pick arrived, forcing this selection in the direction of the safe route. In a draft class filled with uncertainty, Saddiq Bey is on a short list of safe bets. Depending on how the offseason rolls out in Portland, it is possible that Bey could push for minutes as a rookie. There is always room for tertiary scoring alongside the Blazers’ star-studded backcourt. Again, this isn’t a flashy pick, but it is one that falls inside Damian Lillard’s prime.

- Steve Dewald, Blazer’s Edge

17. Minnesota Timberwolves - Tyrese Maxey, G, Kentucky

One of the core competencies at Canis Hoopus is simple: Pick Kentucky Players (shoutout John Meyer). Maxey’s speed, athleticism, and ability to finish around the rim would instantly be a huge boost to Minnesota’s second unit, and if his stroke from deep can (consistently) develop, he would immediately become the next Wildcat alum to take a sizable leap from college into the pros.

- Kyle Theige, Canis Hoopus

18. Dallas Mavericks - Aleksej Pokuševski, F, Serbia

With the 18th pick the Dallas Mavericks select perhaps the most polarizing player in the 2020 draft. The Mavericks won’t have a pick this high (or a pick, period) for years, so this is their last chance to add raw and young talent to their roster. Does he make sense for the short term? No. But if Poku can add weight and perform against better quality talent, he might just be ready for Dallas right when Luka Dončić’s rookie extension kicks in and it gets more difficult financially to add pieces to the Mavericks. His skill set and size it just too much to ignore at this point in the draft.

- Kirk Henderson, Mavs Moneyball

19. Brooklyn Nets - Precious Achiuwa, F/C, Memphis

This pick is all about size and athleticism. Having a big like Achiuwa who is super athletic, quick, can defend and rebound the basketball slip to No. 19 is a nice get here. For his size, to be able to keep pace with the likes of Durant and Irving, plus being able to provide an extra body on the growing list of athletic fours in the game; you can see where Achiuwa and his 7’2” wingspan can come in and make an impact right away.

- Tom Lorenzo, Nets Daily

20. Miami Heat - Jalen Smith, F, Maryland

At No. 20, the Heat are looking for a contributor to their core. Jalen Smith provides the length, defensive versatility, and shooting they lacked to pair with or behind Bam Adebayo in the playoffs. Smith’s 7’2” wingspan paired with some Culture will make him someone with immediate impact.

- Matt Pineda, Hot Hot Hoops

21. Philadelphia 76ers - Desmond Bane, G, TCU

In their never-ending search for perimeter scoring, the Sixers go with TCU product Desmond Bane. Bane was a four-year player at the NCAA level which may scare some other teams off, but Philly is pretty smitten with how things turned out with Matisse Thybulle (also a four-year player). Bane has the size and athleticism to hold his own defensively, and if his career 43.3 percent mark from three-point range translates to the next level, he’ll contribute out of the gate. Longer term, he could be a perfect complement to Ben Simmons as a secondary ball-handler.

- Kevin Love, Liberty Ballers

22. Denver Nuggets - Tyler Bey, F, Colorado

The Nuggets take the local kid, grabbing a forward who reportedly registered a 43.5” vertical jump in his combine measurements. Bey is an athletic defender whose skills as a rebounder help strengthen one of the Nuggets strengths. He doesn’t have to come in as a shooting threat, and his ability to score around the rim plays well next to Nikola Jokić, Michael Porter Jr., and potentially Jerami Grant. If Grant leaves, Bey can slot in as the forward defender the team needs. He could have a lot of highlight reel plays finishing lobs on a loaded Nuggets team.

- Daniel Lewis, Denver Stiffs

23. Utah Jazz - Josh Green, G, Arizona

After their disappointing finish in the playoffs, Dennis Lindsey said Utah’s goal in the offseason would be to improve their defense while not sacrificing spacing. Josh Green should help with both those things. Green has great size at the wing standing 6’6” with a 6’10” wingspan and uses it well on the defensive end filling lanes and playing good on-ball defense. Green also shot 36 percent from three and has a nice looking shot that should only improve with time.

- James Hansen, SLC Dunk

24. Milwaukee Bucks - Theo Maledon, G, AVSEL

Milwaukee is searching for more dynamism in their backcourt after yet another playoff flameout and Maledon offers the upside and playmaking potential that could fit the bill. While his iffy shooting figures provide some pause, the hope is that Bud’s staff can give him a salvageable deep ball to accompany his nifty passing skills to ease Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton’s playmaking burden. With 6’9” length, if he improves his body he could follow in George Hill’s footsteps as a solid guard capable of scoring capably on several levels offensively.

- Adam Paris, Brew Hoop

25. Oklahoma City Thunder - Leandro Bolmaro, G, Barcelona

He can give the Thunder a point forward off the bench so Dennis Schroder doesn’t have to be fully responsible for creating all the plays for the bench unit. He’s versatile and he’d be a solid addition to the team.

- Sarah Dewberry, Welcome to Loud City

26. Boston Celtics - Tyrell Terry, G, Stanford

Another guy with lottery rumors falling to our pick, Terry has the potential to be the long-term point guard of choice next to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. A sharpshooter with a brilliantly quick release and deep range, Terry would add a Curry-esque dynamic to this offense. While his point guard skills and on-ball defense are in need of seasoning, the Celtics have proven capable of blanketing a smaller point guard in the past. Expect a few minutes off the bench early in his career while he’s groomed to be a floor spacer around Boston’s core in the future.

- Adam Spinella, Celtics Blog

27. New York Knicks - Malachi Flynn, G, San Diego State

The Knicks haven’t had a legitimate point guard since...well, it’s been awhile. Malachi Flynn was one of the best players in college basketball last season, a pick-and-roll maestro who can shoot it from anywhere. He might start for this Knicks team.

- Joe Flynn, Posting and Toasting

28. Los Angeles Lakers - Grant Riller, G, Charleston

Riller is a three-level scorer for a team that could benefit significantly from an on-ball creator, as outside of LeBron James and Anthony Davis to an extent, no other player on the team was a dependable source of perimeter creation in the halfcourt (Playoff Rondo notwithstanding). Riller’s push skills are whether his passing can catch up to his shotmaking, and whether his defense looks better when not asked to take on such a large offensive load — Riller showed flashes of the latter, albeit inconsistently this past season. Would still handicap the pick as likely to be traded on draft night, but Riller would be a solid addition who could likely have a fair shot of contributing in the short term at a spot of need for a defending title team.

- Ben Rosales, Silver Screen and Roll

29. Toronto Raptors - Jaden McDaniels, F, Washington

It’s a bit of a surprise to see McDaniels still on the board, and since the Raptors promised to be aggressive in their mission to add talent to their young core, he’s their guy at no. 29. Listed at 6’10” and 200 lbs, 20-year-old McDaniels has the talent and two-way potential to propel his way into the conversation as one of the better players in this year’s draft class. He also presents the Raptors with another multi-dimensional option on the wing, giving coach Nurse even more lineup flexibility with which to tinker. In all, it’s not hard to bet on Toronto’s ability to develop McDaniels with the right mindset and along the best path to unlock his full potential.

- JD Quirante, Raptors HQ

30. Boston Celtics - Isaiah Joe, G, Arkansas

The Celtics didn’t enter this draft expecting to take three domestic players, but we can finagle things to make room for the right three. If there’s one theme in our picks, it’s that shooting rules the roost. We have a superstar scorer, some great slashers and enough defensive versatility and firepower to remain a threat. Isaiah Joe could easily end up the best shooter in this class, and bringing he and Terry to Boston, as well as a pick & pop threat in Toppin, should open up the floor plenty for Tatum and company.

- Adam Spinella, Celtics Blog

[advicearcher92-blog]

How Will the Oilers Improve: Part One

The Edmonton Oilers finished 15th in the Western Conference and missed the playoffs by eleven points last year. They were 25th overall in league standings. They were 25th in goals against and 20th in goals for. Their powerplay was 9th at 21.2% and their penalty kill was 30th at 74.8%. They were 28th in shots on goal/game with 29.2 and 19th in shots against/game at 31.7.

Outside of the powerplay, those numbers are undesirable.

Oilers GM Ken Holland didn’t make a major splash in free agency, which wasn’t surprising considering he had very little salary cap flexibility, but also because overpaying on July first is rarely the wise move. The reality is more often than not you have to overpay on July first. If a team really likes a player, part of signing him is knowing you will overpay.

The good news is since July 1st free agent signings have been at a standstill and now it becomes more of a buyers market. There are some good players available, and we could see players forced to sign one-year deals for less money than they’d hoped for. Patrick Maroon had to do this last year when he signed for $1.5 million in St.Louis. It was perfect for him because he got to live in the same city as his son and then won the Stanley Cup, but those situations are rare.

Maroon didn’t have a great season stats-wise, producing 10-18-28, and might have to sign another short-term, lower salary contract this summer. He isn’t the only one as other quality UFAs are still without a contract. Maybe Holland signs one in late July or August when players get a bit more antsy. Does Ryan Dzingel on a one-year deal at $2.5 to $3 million make sense? If I’m Dzingel I’d look at Edmonton, because the opportunity to play a top-six role is wide open. Have a great year and he could cash in on a multi-year deal next season.

Even if Holland signs one more UFA, that player won’t suddenly make the Oilers a contender. If this team is going to improve it will come internally. The list of players who had good seasons last year is quite short, so many players have a chance to be better.

For today’s exercise, I’m looking at realistic improvements. So I’m using league average, 16th, as the goal. Of course, you’d like players or units to be higher, but I’m looking at the Oilers just being competitive which would be 16th.

Let’s start in goal.

Mikko Koskinen finished the season with a .906 sv% and a 2.93 GAA. He was 25th in SV% among the top-31 goalies in starts. If we assume he is the starter, then he’ll be in the top-31 in games started this coming season.

Can he make ten more saves this year? If he does then his sv% would be .912 and that would tie have him 16th. Ten more saves in 51 starts? If we assume Dave Tippett’s system will be more goalie-friendly, is it not unrealistic to assume Koskinen can make ten more stops. Then add in he is spending all summer working on his weaknesses. Notably leaning back instead of forward when challenging shooters, thus giving them more room upstairs.

If he makes 15 more stops his sv% would be .915 and that would have had him 11th last season. The gap between below average and above average isn’t that much when you break it down.

I don’t think it is a stretch to believe Koskinen can make 10-15 more timely saves.

The penalty kill must improve, but how? It is on the players to be better. There isn’t some magic PK system that will suddenly alter their success. The PK has been on a downward spiral since December, 2016. In 215 games since the Oilers PK is 31st in the NHL at an ugly 76.2%. They’ve allowed 148 goals on 622 kills. The PK has been on a trending down for 31 months. Last season it was an ugly 74.8% allowing 62 goals.

Two different head coaches and two different defence coaches couldn’t figure it out. This is on the players to be more committed, more in sync, make better reads and make more saves.

In order to be average (16th) they will need to kill off 13 more powerplays. Again, not a ridiculous number, but considering their PK has gotten worse in each of the past three seasons, this might be their biggest challenge. Koskinen has to be better. Their most experienced defenders; Oscar Klefbom , Adam Larsson , Darnell Nurse and Kris Russell have to be smarter, and their forwards need to get the puck out when they have a chance. It would help if they could win a few more faceoffs as well.

Last year the Oilers were -49 on faceoffs on the PK. Only the Islanders (-67), Carolina (-62) and Ottawa (-61) were worse in the dot, while the Rangers were also -49. The Canes PK was still 8th, but Ottawa and both New York teams were all below average on the PK. Losing draws and not getting the pucks out when they had controlled crushed the Oilers.

Here are the numbers for the D-men last year:

Name       TOI       GA       GA/60 Larsson    165        26         9.44 Nurse       158        26         9.87 Russell      140       27         11.53 Klefbom    109       17          9.28 Benning     87         12         8.24

The one positional change I’d make is not asking Russell to play his off-side. Getting pucks out on your backhand isn’t ideal. Move him to the left side and have Benning and Larsson as the two RD on the PK.

Name       TOI       GA       GA/60 RNH         139       22         9.49 Brodziak   116       17         8.66 Kassian      98        13         7.86 Draisaitl     94        14         8.83 Rieder        89        12         8.20 Khaira        69        10         8.67 McDavid    48        10         12.2 Chiasson    44         6         8.03

There will be changes among the forwards on the PK. Tobias Rieder will not return and Kyle Brodziak might not be a regular in the lineup. Markus Granlund should be one of their top PK forwards. He had the 2nd most PK TOI in Vancouver last season and their PK finished 11th. Khaira needs to show Dave Tippett he can be a reliable penalty killer and be used more, possibly on the second unit with Kassian. For all the good things RNH does, his inability to win a faceoff crushes him, especially on the PK, and with the new rule coming in this season where the attacking team gets to pick which side to take the faceoff, he might struggle more if he is on his weak side more often.

Maybe Colby Cave gets a look. He was 11 of 17 PK faceoffs last year. Granted he only played 14 minutes on the PK, but if he is going to be in the lineup, he has to show Tippett he can kill penalties. Gaetan Haas and Joakim Nygard were good penalty killers in Europe, so I’m sure they will get a look in preseason. If they can help the PK, then their stock goes up a lot.

I’d consider using RNH less on the PK and more at 5×5 if one or two of Nygard, Cave and Haas prove they can kill penalties. The past two seasons have been RNH’s worst when it comes to GA/60 on the PK. He was 12.4 in 2018 and 9.49 last year.

And it would help if they cut down their penalties. The Oilers were shorthanded 246 times last season, 10th most in the NHL. Having more offensive zone time, should help in this regard, because they will be attacking more than defending.

Edmonton allowed 271 goals last year, 25th most in the NHL. They have to improve here. If not, they will miss the playoffs for the 13th time in 14 years. They made the playoffs in 2017 despite a sub-par PK over the final 60 games, because their 5×5 defence was very good.

Every group needs to improve from goaltending to defence to the forwards.

Koskinen needs to be better, and so does Mike Smith. Tippett’s style should help, but it won’t guarantee their GAA improves if the players don’t play better. Cutting down on quality chances will help, and Alex Chiasson outlined how the forwards are responsible for too many goals against. New defensive coach Jim Playfair outlined to me his approach to helping the defencemen here.

“At the end of the day we have to defend better,” said Chiasson. “We spend too much time in our own end, and we have to become a team that is harder to play against in the offensive zone. A team that can create second, third and fourth chances and that will limit our time to defend. I didn’t watch a lot of playoff games, but the ones I did watch you see teams break out the puck really clean, there are up in the neutral zone and they play as a system of five. When you do those things you don’t have to defend as much as we did last year.”

So how much better do they have to be to be average?

They have to eliminate 27 goals against. Colorado was 16th in GA with 244. Essentially one fewer goal every three games.

Some of that will come via an improved PK, they hope, while the rest comes mainly at 5×5. Edmonton was 24th in 5×5 goals against with 179, while the Winnipeg Jets were average (16th) allowing 163. So 16 fewer goals at 5×5 for Edmonton to be average. That is one every five games.

Last year we witnessed one of the biggest defensive improvements from one year to the next when the Islanders went from allowing the most goals in the NHL in 2018, 293, to allowing the fewest at 191. It was a stunning turnaround, and they achieved it with essentially the same defensive corps, except @Devan Toews who replaced Calvin De Haan . They brought in new head coach Barry Trotz, who implemented more attention to the defensive end, and Robin Lehner and Thomas Greiss stared 43 and 39 games respectively and posted .930 and .927 SV%. In 2018 Greiss started 25 games and had a .892sv%.

I’m not expecting the Oilers team defence to go from the outhouse to the penthouse in on year, but asking them to be average, which would put them in the race, isn’t unreasonable.

I believe much of their improvement must focus around their team defence and goaltending and come from smarter decisions, better positioning and playing the system properly.

What do you feel would be realistic improvements in these areas?

***Part two of this series will run tomorrow.***

After having such a blast over the past two years, we absolutely knew that we were going to organize another golf tourney for the summer and, after a few months of planning, we’re psyched to finally be able to launch our third annual golf tournament.

When – August 29th, 2019 (Thursday)

Where – Cougar Creek Golf Resort

How much – $1000/team or get in on the $900 Early Bird price until July 10th

Teams – Groups of Four (4)

How – Book your team here

As always, a portion of all proceeds from your ticket purchase will be donated directly to a local charity. This time we’ve partnered up with the Gregor Foundation to make sure that our kids are at their most handsome.

Recently by Jason Gregor:

Source: https://oilersnation.com/2019/07/04/how-will-the-edmonton-oilers-improve-part-one/

[closetofanxiety]

50 wrestling questions

I answer these burning questions here, below the cut:

1. What got you into wrestling?

I don’t really know. I’ve gone through three phases of being a wrestling fan in my life. The earliest was probably just because all the other kids in the neighborhood liked wrestling, and I was a people-pleaser even then, so I wanted to fit in. I remember the older kids like AWA or NWA because they were “real,” while us littl’uns thrilled to the exploits of Hulkster Hogan in the WWF. I like nothing else that I enjoyed as a child, not the movies or the TV shows or the books or whatever, so there was something about wrestling that stuck with me.

2. What is your favorite wrestling promotion?

ECW, if I’m being honest. A lot of that stuff has not held up well, but I got into it at the perfect age, when a lot of my friends were getting into it, and I have very fond memories bound up with ECW. For better and for worse, the most influential American wrestling company of the last 30 years. 

3. Favorite male wrestler of all time?

Gorgeous George, but if we’re talking about people who were alive when I was alive, then Dusty Rhodes. 

4. Favorite female wrestler of all time?

The Fabulous Moo- no. I don’t know. I don’t have the background in Japanese grappling that would allow me to make an informed answer here. Women’s wrestling in the USA was pretty terrible between the mid-1950s and the mid-2000s, and I mostly know American stuff. Let’s say Gail Kim, though.

5. Favorite current male wrestler?

Joey Janela

6. Favorite current female wrestler?

Su Yung, obvs

7. Favorite theme song?

"Psycho Killer,” when that was Ciampa’s theme song. One of my favorite wrestling memories is Americanrana ‘16, when the PA system died and the crowd sang the song a capella for his entrance. If we’re talking songs written specifically as wrestling entrance music, then Steve Austin’s music. With Shawn Michael’s “Sexy Sexy Boy Ooh La La” or whatever it’s called as a close second. That song makes me laugh every time I hear it.

8. Least favorite theme song?

I hated Ballz Mahoney’s ECW theme song, it just encouraged the worst meathead elements of the crowd, and it always heralded a crummy match. For wrestling-specific theme songs, Lana’s, while new, is almost unbelievably shitty. It’s like incidental music from an episode of “Night Court” where they go to a jazz club.

9. Favorite gimmick?

Gorgeous George, which is still being imitated to this day. Again, if we’re talking about people who were alive when I was alive, the Road Warriors. They were almost 100 percent gimmick, and they were massive stars for years. They were the only non-WWF guys us WWF-loving kids would buy action figures for, because their look was so good.

10. Least favorite gimmick?

It’s hard to choose from all the racist and gay-hating gimmicks that have been used over the years. By sullying the image of the immortal Prince Rogers Nelson, fucking Velveteen Dream is making an impressive run for this designation right now.

11. Best entrance (either their usual entrance or a special one, like a Wrestlemania entrance)?

Again, Gorgeous George had the best entrance of all time, it was 70 percent of his act and it made him a fortune, and everyone has copied it since. In terms of more recent stuff, I liked the Sandman’s entrance. It was 90 percent of his act. Pretty much everything Sandman did except his entrance was so-so to terrible, if we’re being honest.

12. Best Undertaker Wrestlemania match?

The one where he got his ass beat by the savage god Roman Reigns

13. Most overrated?

The Undertaker. I acknowledge that he made a massive, unthinkable success out of a truly ludicrous, sub-Memphian gimmick, but he was never a real draw, and I was never a big fan of his at any point in his career. Maybe no one in WWE history benefited more from protective booking, where he was always billed as an unstoppable, supernatural monster even when he had a mid-life crisis and decided he wanted to be a motorcycle man instead. 

14. Most underrated?

Pretty much anyone who had their entire careers, or the bulk of their careers, prior to the 1980s and the attendant explosion in wrestling’s popularity. It’s hard to properly rate someone like Nick Bockwinkel, when so much of his best work was done in the 1970s, let alone Gorgeous George or Buddy Rogers. Of guys since then, I’ll say Ted DiBiase, who is fixed in the public mind as the cackling rich guy caricature, but who was a phenomenally talented wrestler who could effortlessly pull off being a charismatic babyface or a cheating, despicable shitheel. Ted’s Mid-South run is amazingly good stuff.

15. Have you ever been to an event? If so, which one?

I have been to many pro wrestling shows. Last year I averaged three per month, which is, I’ll have you know, Too Much Wrestling Shows. My mother took me to my very first one, and since she died when I was five, I must have been very young indeed. I remember almost nothing about it, except that Bob Backlund was there.

Since then, I’ve been to a lot of ECW shows, including the 2000 Living Dangerously PPV with the famously hideous New Jack scaffold bump; many WWE shows, ranging from Raw and Smackdown episodes to house shows to Backlash 2003, where Goldberg met the Rock in the ring FOR THE FIRST TIME ANYWHERE; and lots and lots of indie shows, which are my favorite. I’ve sort of limited my show-going this year to Beyond Wrestling, Blitzkrieg Pro, and Northeast Wrestling, and I don’t go to all of their shows. 

In the late 1990s and early 2000s I used to go to shows with big crews of friends, but these days it’s usually me and one or two other people, or sometimes just me. It turns out most people my age are not down to drive to West Warwick, R.I. to see Zack Sabre Jr vs. JT Dunn! I enjoy it, though, it’s been a nice thing to have in my life at a time when there isn’t much else going on.

16. Who has the best merch?

The Young Bucks have something for every aesthetic.

17. Do you own any merch?

Yeah, I mean, too much. T-shirts, 8 x 10s, DVDS, loads of old wrestling magazines. I have a Young Bucks foam “Too Sweet” hand. I have a little plaster sculpture of AJ Lee where she’s a zombie, because WWE Shop was selling it for five dollars. I’m a disgrace, as a grown adult man.

18. Best nickname?

"The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes.

19. Worst nickname?

I’ve always thought “The Cerebral Assassin” was the dumbest goddamn nickname. Is the assumption here that assassins are typically stupid?

20. Best mic skills?

Bobby Heenan. He could do screaming and angry, he could do calm and menacing, he could do blustering and funny. He had the timing of a professional comedian and the verbal dexterity of the Midwest’s best used car salesman. People hated this man so much that a member of a Chicago crowd shot a pistol at him. 

21. Most annoying?

All-time: The Ultimate Warrior. Currently: Bray Wyatt.

22. Most attractive male?

Roman Reigns. The WWE is leaving money on the table by having him wrestling in a shirt/vest and long pants.

23. Most attractive female?

I really like Hikaru Shida’s complex aesthetic, which combines “hard-hitting Japanese wrestling” with “elaborate theatrical strangeness” and “Hey, check out my ass.” 

24. Favorite faction?

The first two incarnations of the Four Horsemen. If pressed, I prefer the Flair/Arn/Tully/Windham lineup. 

25. Worst faction?

It’s easy to pick one of the five million here-and-gone WWE factions like the Union (ugh) or the Social Outcasts or the League of Nations, but they didn’t really last long enough, or have enough of an impact, to be truly wretched. Same deal with, like, the Aces & Eights: they just stunk up TNA, which was already bad to begin with. The answer is the nWo, from January, 1998 onwards: until that point they had been the most compelling thing about American wrestling, but after that they became a bloated, tedious, airtime-gobbling monstrosity that helped drag WCW down into depths it never recovered from. 

26. Best ring gear?

Su Yung and Penta El Zero Miedo. I like the spooky stuff.

27. Who do you think would be the nicest in real life?

I’ve had very few interactions with wrestlers beyond the standard “Hey, great match, how much is that DVD,” but among those I have had more substantive encounters with, JT Dunn, Swoggle, Gangrel, Su Yung, and Santana Garrett stand out as particularly nice. I’ve also heard people from all walks of life praising Little Guido as the nicest dude around, and universal praise is vanishingly rare in pro wrestling. I like to imagine Kevin Owens is a good egg.

28. Who would be the rudest in real life?

Like anyone else, I’ve Heard Things, but I haven’t had a really bad encounter with a wrestler beyond this one guy who works local indie shows and who is a rude chud in real life. It seems unfathomable to me that Matt Riddle is the kind of person I’d want to share a cab ride to the airport with, but maybe that’s just the strength of his brand working. 

29. Favorite heel?

The Dudley Boys in ECW. I legitimately hated them, and bought tickets in the hopes of seeing them get their asses beaten. 

30. Most hardcore?

I bet the real answer to this is like the answer to the great “Who is the most legit tough guy” question that everyone asks. Like, it’s someone we’d never suspect. It’s not Nick Gage, it’s Eva Marie. That woman has seen some shit that would turn your hair white, I bet. I honestly don’t know the answer to this. Probably a guy in Japan who blew himself up in a volcano. 

31. A wrestler you could beat?

At wrestling? Absolutely none of them. Eva Marie would destroy me, Goldberg style. It’s like sports: the worst fucking guy on the worst fucking NBA team would beat the best pickup player in your town by a hundred points in a one-on-one matchup. Once-a-monthers who have office jobs and still wrestle in singlets and are 30 pounds overweight could put me in a coma without breaking a sweat. But what about ... trivia regarding papal history? Ah, now the worm has turned, Eva Marie! You’re on my turf now.

32. Best story line?

Have to agree with Tape Machines, it’s the Freebirds vs. the Von Erichs 

33. Biggest missed opportunity for a story line?

The WCW Invasion angle didn’t work for a lot of reasons, and some of those reasons were probably beyond WWE’s control, but holy shit did they bungle what could have been a gigantic machine that spit out money. 

34. Worst story line?

I can’t pick just one. The 1990s were an absolute golden era of terrible storylines, from Cactus Jack getting amnesia and thinking he was a sea captain to the terrible saga of Katie Vick. I’ll say the Chuck and Billy storyline, because it somehow managed to be insulting to people who had never heard of wrestling in their lives. 

35. Which wrestler should turn heel?

Matt Riddle. I mean, I guess he is a heel, in the sense that his act today is the exact same as it was when he was breaking into the business in 2015 and was hated by indie audiences. He hasn’t done anything differently, but the smug choads from the Internet Wrestling Community have decided he is their savior because they can chant the syllable “bro” in public. 

36. Which wrestler should turn face?

Kevin Owens. I’d love to see what he could do as a fearless asskicker with witheringly sarcastic putdowns on the microphone. 

37. Who would be the worst to room with?

If you’ve ever had close friends or relatives with drug problems, you know the answer to this is Jake Roberts. On a more lighthearted note, sharing an apartment with the Ultimate Warrior would have been a mindbending ordeal, since he was pretty much like that all the time.

38. Who would be the best to room with?

Candice LeRae is a former professional baker, so as a fat guy, I would be very happy to be the person she tests out new cakes and stuff on. But most contemporary wrestlers are people obsessed with the gym, video games, and meal prep, so calibrate your roommate expectations based on those parameters. 

39. Who would be your best friend if you were a wrestler?

I like to imagine it would be Kevin Owens, and I would constantly joke about him betraying me like he always does with best friends, until finally he’d stop responding to my texts. AND THEN I’D KNOW.

40. What would your job be in a wrestling promotion?

I would be styled as “Engagement Director for New & Emerging Media and Content Outreach,” and my job would be taking tickets at the door, applying wristbands to people old enough to drink, and keeping my fucking mouth shut when the wrestlers were hanging around.

41. Favorite wrestling podcast/Youtube channel?

AIW’s “The Card is Going to Change” is the best wrestling podcast in the world. I recommend it to people who don’t even like wrestling, mostly because it’s three dudes telling picaresque tales about restaurants getting trashed and bizarre exploits in northern Ohio. Their recent episode about being paid to put on a show for a child’s 10th birthday is amazing. My favorite wrestling YouTube channel currently is Rassle Reel, which is constantly uploading obscure shit from the 1970s and 1980s.

42. Favorite finisher?

Mr. Perfect’s Perfectplex, a thing of artistic beauty

43. Least favorite finisher?

The Pedigree

44. Favorite match?

Taz vs Sabu at Barely Legal in 1997

45. Favorite PPV?

I’ll always have a soft spot for the first Survivor Series, which is the first PPV I ever watched (we didn’t order it; the neighbors did, and a bunch of us crowded into their den to watch). I don’t know if the first Starrcade was technically a PPV, but that’s one I can watch over and over.

46. Guilty pleasure wrestler?

I don’t like the concept of guilty pleasures, but if we mean which wrestler do I like that some vague critical consensus insists I should hate, I’ll say Honky Tonk Man. 

47. Favorite submission?

THE KATA HA JIME, otherwise known as the Tazmission. 

48. Most entertaining to watch?

Randy Savage

49. Best spot?

Anyone spitting mist into the unsuspecting eyes of their foes 

50. Who do you most respect?

 I respect you, booker man. 

[adrenalineguide]

SUV Royalty - Is bigger better? Part 1

By Michael Hozjan

Rather than the same old road test, I decided to look at the most popular large suvs on the market today in a work environment, and I wanted to take them off-road. I also didn’t want your typical off-road test on a dirt road out in the country. I do that everyday on the way home with rear wheel drive sports cars so where’s the challenge in that.

January to March is typically tree-culling time. The time farmers head out into their fields with tractors and trailers in tow to cut down firewood. With dozens of trees having succumbed to disease last year and with no tractor in the barn, well you know where I’m headed.

The off-road portion would be conducted on my farm’s fields with anywhere from five to twelve inches of soft and packed snow covering the alfalfa sprouts underneath. Where trailer hitches were provided I’d hook up old faithful and load her up with logs, where they weren’t, the trunk was loaded with various chain saws and other gear.  

Unfortunately Mother Nature had other plans. Weather was all over the ballpark, going from high winds and temps of thirty below which kept everyone in front of fireplaces instead of in the woods to rain soaked days that would have me tearing up the alfalfa.

Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sahara

Regular readers know my opinion on the oldest and certainly the most capable SUV tested here. The Jeep’s comfort level and drive ability has increased with each successive upgrade. Likewise, over the years Jeep has attempted to make the most recognized vehicle in the world more fuel efficient by going so far as raking the windshield back and adding bubbles on the headlights, all without compromising its off-road capabilities.

The Wrangler has one thing going for it that no other vehicle in the world offers – at least not on our shores – and that’s an unlimited choice of configurations. A fourth trim level has been added to the three traditional lines. Resurrecting the old Willys name, the Willys Wheeler is pegged between the entry-level Sport and the Sahara, with the Rubicon still taking top-of-the-line honors. Add the Unlimited iterations to each core models and you have eight trim levels. If that wasn’t enough the base two-door Sport also comes in S configuration with 17” wheels and sat radio.  The number of door is just the beginning, than there are soft or hard top choices, full metal doors or half metal doors, or you can just remove the doors completely. Then there’s your choice of transmission and 4 x 4 system options…well you get the idea. To say there’s a Jeep for every budget and lifestyle is not an exaggeration. You can go climbing mountains in the morning and then wash it and step out to the opera at night and never feel out of place.

For 2017 the iconic warhorse thankfully remains devoid of most electronic gizmos. Leaving the pooh-pooh options to the wanna-bes. Sadly the two door model who’s price starts at just a shade over $28 grand got pulled off before I had a chance to get my hands on it so it came down to old faithful, the four door that I have grown to know and respect. New this year, are optional LED head and fog lights. There’s also a Cold Weather Package that features a remote start, heated seats and all-weather floor mats.

The Sahara starts at…. ahem $40,245.00. Add leather-faced seats with accent stitching ($1375) TPMS and Bluetooth ($525), LED lighting ($495) Tow package with 3.73 gearing –which should improve gas milage over the stock 4:11 unit ($575). Oddly the hardtop liner at $495 is not included when you opt for the hardtop roof at $900.  Other options included supplemental front air bags at $400, the 5-speed automatic with hill descent control ($1495), anti-slip rear diff ($525) The Alpine sound system is $695 while 6.5 inch touch screen, CD, HDD and NAV unit came in at $1225. The remote start unit was $395. All told along with levies, taxes and destination charges it added up to   $52,335.   

Sadly I could not take the most capable off –roader here into the fields. Or rather would not. My week with the Wrangler coincided with the coldest weekend of the year. Yup, binge watching old movies and reruns upon reruns of car shows. Why is it that the more we pay for cable/sat TV, the worse it gets with viewing options limited to the same episodes playing dozens of times a week?

The next gen of Wrangler’s is expected for the 2018 model year which may include the long awaited pickup version and rumor has it that the 3.6L Pentastar V6 will be joined by a turbocharged inline four cylinder.

Grand Cherokee Trailhawk

At the opposite end of the comfort spectrum in Jeep’s lineup is the Grand Cherokee. Who would have thought back in the ’90s when the Grand Cherokee debuted that it would have lasted this long. The Grand Cherokee line now compromises of six models; the Laredo ($42,195), Limited ($50,495), Trailhawk ($55,495), Overland ($59,345), Summit ($64,345) and the outrageous SRT ($70,195). Not only does the Grand Cherokee retain a loyal following, it’s become the benchmark for the upper crust SUV segment with its luxurious accouterments and go anywhere capability.

That go anywhere capability just got a little boost with the Trailhawk model. To begin with, the Trailhawk’s Quadra-Lift air suspension offers improved articulation over the regular Grand Cherokee with the additional (0.4”) ground clearance attributed more to the 18-inch wheels than larger air bags. 

OK the snow covered fields didn’t really test the air suspensions prowess, like crawling around boulders would have, but honestly how many of you are going to take your 50 large SUV rock crawling? The air suspension did however smooth out the ride on my gravel washboard road and hooking up my heavy steel trailer kept the truck level.  The system also lowers the vehicle at highway speeds to reduce drag and gain a tad more in fuel economy.

Powertrain options on the Trailhawk include the 3.6L Pentastar V6 or the 5.7L Hemi V8 linked to a 8-speed TorqueFlite trans and Quadra-Drive II full-time  4x4 system with a two-speed transfer case and electronic rear Limited-Slip differential. The transfer case, fuel tank and front suspension are protected by skid plates. With over a foot of hard and soft packed snow on the field, the grunt of the V8 kept me out of trouble for most of the day and when it came time to get the traction aids out, I was really grateful for the added ponies. Incidentally the V8 did feature Jeep’s fuelsaver multi-displacement system which automatically transforms the 360 horsepower V8 into a fuel miser four-cylinder on the highway. The in-dash fuel monitoring system quickly went from 10.9L/100 km to 19L/100km after my field romp. 

As mentioned earlier the Trailhawk successfully marries off-road capability with luxury. Front bucket seats aren’t only heated they also ventilated and Jeep has even added heating elements to the second row seat. The ‘hawk’s luxury package also includes auto headlight leveling, and bi-xenon HID headlights, but to have a cargo compartment cover listed as a luxury item…come on.

The Trailhawk’s off-road capability certainly lived up to its Jeep ancestry, but unlike the Wrangler, the Grand Cherokee brings civility and comfort not only to the trail but the open road as well.

VW Touareg – is this its swan song

It’s hard to imagine that the Touareg has been with us for 13 years. Sharing the same platform as its pricier cousins the first generation of Porsche’s Cayenne and Audi Q7, and if one looked quickly it could easily be mistaken for the Porsche. Alas, it looks like the someone in Wolfsburg has decided that the two-row Touareg is no longer competitive in the hotly contested SUV market, but rather than go with a refresh of the current model (the last major change was back in 2011), the Touareg is being replaced or should I say squeezed out by the seven passenger, US built, Atlas.  Hopefully I’m wrong and VW will continue with its luxury SUV and Grand Cherokee contender.

From the outset the Touareg has offered comfort and performance unprecedented in the VW line up. Sure it wasn’t as quick as the Cayenne off the line, but than again neither was the price. And having a Touareg in the family I can attest its reliability was superior to the problem plagued Porsche – especially the first generation. Where the VW was always ahead of its competitors was ergonomics and fit and finish, a trait that continues to this day.

Offered in three trim levels starting with the $51,960 Sportline, with and the $65,460 Execline at the other end of the scale. I got behind the wheel of the Wolfsburg Edition which will cost you $60,890. But even the base Touareg is equipped with forward collision warning, blind-spot monitoring (for those who STILL have not adjusted their mirrors properly). The Wolfsburg owner gets pampered with heated steering wheel, heated rear seats, panoramic sunroof and ventilated front seats and a 620-watt digital sound system complete with 12 speakers are among the slew of added options. 

From a mechanical standpoint the Wolfsburg Edition gets 20” wheels over the base 18” units and adaptive cruise control and autonomous emergency braking. VW’s press release also states that the base model comes with automatic post-collision braking system. Is it just me or shouldn’t that be pre-collision? 

If you absolutely need to spend the additional 5 grand the Execline will give you a 360 degree camera, memory function on your steering wheel and engineered ebony wood trim. Oh and manual rear shades.

Only one engine/transmission package is available, a 3.6 L V-6 coupled to an 8-speed automatic with manual-shifting mode capability. 

Having driven the first gen Cayenne off-road on numerous occasions I knew the Touareg’s ability was in par. But those were under dry, summery conditions. Nothing could prepare me for what was to come. With temperatures once again rising I was grateful to see snow once again falling. With just enough coverage to shield the crop from being trampled I ventured out into the fields, trailer in tow. But the weather presented a whole different challenge from the deep …of the grand Cherokee. Wet slushy snow on slippery vegetation. Again with several hundred pounds of trees loaded into the trailer the challenge was to climb the various slopes without getting stuck.

This time I have to admit the hero was uh were the Continental …tires. Yes the 280 horses helped, but without the proper grip, especially in these circumstances, all the ponies in the world wouldn’t have mattered. The VeeDub had on other thing going for it – fuel economy. I averaged an impressive – for the size of the vehicle- 10.5L/100kms. A great way to bid adieu to an old friend.