#draft from early october that is relevant today and always | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

armeniaitn · 5 years ago

Text

Armenia 3rd President Sargsyan: Did we win or lose in April 2016 war?

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/politics/armenia-3rd-president-sargsyan-did-we-win-or-lose-in-april-2016-war-52790-19-08-2020/

Armenia 3rd President Sargsyan: Did we win or lose in April 2016 war?

YEREVAN. – At the beginning of his press conference Wednesday, Armenia’s third President Serzh Sargsyan read his introductory remarks that were made at his meeting with the National Assembly inquiry committee which investigates the circumstances of the hostilities in April 2016. These remarks are as follows:

Before answering the questions of interest to you, I would like to address the panel with a brief introductory speech. Also, I suggest attaching it to today’s meeting’s minutes.

First of all, I will explain why I decided to accept your invitation, come and answer any question that might be asked in here, although many of my supporters, members of the political team urged me to avail myself of my right to reject the invitation on the grounds that the Commission seemed to have been set up for political considerations, and its members had repeatedly expressed biased and incorrect opinions about the April events.

But I decided to come over, even if their concerns were relevant, since I wanted to look straight in your eyes trying to understand whether there is anyone to question the victory of the Armenian side in the Four-Day April War. Is there anyone who can professionally substantiate that Azerbaijan is on the winning side while it has lost most of its elite units? Can anyone tell me that the Armenian side which stopped a large-scale offensive with numerous examples of unspeakable courage suffered a defeat? Can anyone provide evidence of a war ever waged in the history of mankind where only soldiers fought and won without commanders?

The question may arise as to why I have so far failed to speak out about the April War and downplay the speculations on this topic. To be honest, at first there was no need for it, and then there was no expediency. That is why I proposed to hold a commission hearing with my participation at the end of the state of emergency, so that after the hearings I could have the opportunity to address the issue in the presence of media outlets and disclose all relevant information.

Let me now address some issues that have unfortunately become the subject of speculation.

Before arguing about whether we won or lost by repelling the April aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan, one ought to have a clear idea of what victory is, and what defeat is in a war.

It is obvious that wars are not an end in themselves, they always pursue political goals. War is the “continuation of politics” in other ways. It is a victory for the defending side when it succeeds in aborting the aggressor’s plans with minimal losses. No warfare can be deemed successful for the attacking side if it does not achieve at least part of its political goals.

Before answering the question of whether we won or lost the April War, let me briefly touch on whether we could prevent or avoid the war. Now I can confidently state that it was impossible.

Why? Because Azerbaijan was not ready to accept any compromise acceptable to us: I am convinced that they are not prepared to acknowledge the right of the citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh to determine the status of their country by free will. Thus, there was only one way to avoid war: unilateral concessions, which, of course, was not even discussed as it was unacceptable for us.

As I said, victory comes when one’s political goals are materialized through war. What political goals were pursued by Azerbaijan? Those goals have been formulated in the findings of both domestic and foreign expert studies, in the comprehensive analyses carried out by competent authorities, as well as in the decisions and statements made by the leaders of foreign states, including the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

They pursued an ultimate goal of achieving a U-turn in the negotiations. They wanted to prove that the conflict might have a military solution as the negotiations were not in their favor. [Azerbaijan President] Ilham Aliyev demonstrated it best in 2016 during the October, 2007 cabinet meeting of the Government of Azerbaijan, when he acknowledged that behind closed doors the international community had been urging him to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence.

Second, Azerbaijan was striving to give to oblivion the fact that Artsakh was a party to the conflict as vividly evidenced by the tripartite ceasefire arrangement signed as early as in 1994.

Third, it was extremely important for Azerbaijan to root out the loser’s complex in the minds of its own people and in the army by representing themselves as winners. Instead, they were trying to get the winner’s psychology of our troops changed into the psychology of a loser. I can cite other goals as well, but let us stop on what was said.

Now let us see whether they achieved their goals or not?

First, the failures on the battlefield did not allow Azerbaijan to confront the Armenian side and the international community with “fait accompli” and force us to negotiate their own agenda. In the meantime, there was a breakthrough in the negotiations concerning the agenda that we had been insisting on ever since 2013 with a view to setting up an international mechanism for investigating ceasefire violations.

After the April War, Aliyev had to agree with this reality in Vienna and then in St. Petersburg. By the way, this was a key component in the legacy left by the former Armenian authorities. I will explain it in more detail, if necessary.

Thus, as a result of the April aggression, Azerbaijan suffered huge losses not only in military terms, but also in the diplomatic arena. It came to prove that Azerbaijan was unable to solve the problem through the use of force.

Second, having failed on the battlefield, Azerbaijan was forced to be back to the table of negotiations together with Russia. We were expected to agree to Azerbaijan’s proposal for signing a new ceasefire agreement. But we refused, insisting that the 1994 agreement was still standing as it was signed for an indefinite term. That is, we refused to sign a new ceasefire document, which in fact would push Artsakh out of the peace process as an equal party to the conflict. Later on, we received a clear-cut position on the part of the Co-Chairs, with the official statement spread in the OSCE, which reaffirmed the deadline-free nature of the tripartite ceasefire agreement of 1994.

Third, as I said, Aliyev wanted to raise the fighting spirit of his own people and army through war in order to create some myth of “victory.” They had even mobilized special groups to quickly publicize the expected success. But it did not work out thanks to our soldiers’ bravery.

Going a little further, I should say that I deeply regret to see that some forces have been serving this very goal inside our country over the past few years.

For four years now, myths and absolute lies have been fomented about our soldiers’ being left without food and fighting with shovels. To make things worse, some used to claim that our armored vehicles were filled with water instead of diesel fuel. This is just a shame, even from the point of view of achieving political goals.

After all, was the April War a victory or a defeat for the Armenian side? I have never questioned it, since I am convinced that this is our victory, the victory of all of us.

Did our military-political leadership work effectively? Despite some minor shortcomings, almost all military, political, state and civilian parties did their best during the hostilities. As for the shortfalls and lessons, there is the Top Secret Report drafted by the Armenian Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Armed Forces that I suppose is available for commission members’ reference.

Was it possible to reject the armistice and try to restore our initial positions? I think so. But it was very likely that we would have dozens of new victims, new mourning parents, new orphans, and new widows.

Could we reject the ceasefire in order to punish Azerbaijan by expanding the security zone with new territories? Without ruling out the possibility of success, I would say that it would be an adventure fraught with unpredictable consequences, up to the outbreak of a full-scale war, as a consequence of thousands, maybe tens of thousands of victims, destroyed towns and villages.

In view of the above and taking note of the opinions of the Minister of Defense, the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces, the President of Artsakh and the Commanders of the Defense Army, and in my capacity of Commander-in-Chief, I decided to accept the proposal of ceasefire.

This perhaps a little long introductory speech was meant to foster a substantive discussion of issues arising from the Commission’s goals and mandate. I am prepared to answer your questions for the good of our state and people.

You yourself understand that the Four-Day War is a small part of the millennial history of the Armenian people who are fighting for their dignity, freedom and survival. Please remember that regretfully the war is not yet over.

Read original article here.

#Armenia #Artsakh #Karabakh #Yerevan #Politics

0 notes

thechasefiles · 6 years ago

Text

The Chase Files Daily Newscap 6/5/2019

Good MORNING #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Wednesday 5th June 2019. Remember you can read full articles for FREE via Barbados Today (BT), Barbados Government Information Services (BGIS) or by purchasing a Midweek Nation Newspaper (MWN).

BARBADOS SCALING DOWN ON LIAT – Barbados is reducing its financial involvement in LIAT. Government will be giving up some of the major shareholding it has held since the regional airline’s inception 45 years ago, Prime Minister Mia Mottley revealed in a Ministerial Statement last night. She told the House of Assembly Barbados remained committed to the cash-strapped airline, but would be scaling back from its current share value of 49.4 per cent. A negotiating team will decide the eventual amount of shares to be offered to the government of Antigua and Barbuda, where LIAT is headquartered. Mottley said the time had come for Barbados to “take a step back” from its current part-ownership due to LIAT’s flawed business model. (MWN)

‘FOR SALE’ – Barbados is to give up its majority ownership of regional airline LIAT handing it back to Antigua and Barbuda, Prime Minister Mottley announced in Parliament tonight, ending weeks of speculation triggered by St John’s revelations of Bridgetown’s plans. But the announcement puts the Mottley administration’s for regional aviation into sharp focus, amid speculation it may back the startup of a rival carrier involving Barbadian investors and a multilateral lender, Barbados TODAY has learned. Mottley confirmed to the House that Barbados has accepted an offer from Prime Minister Gaston Browne to take up most of its 49.4 per cent stake in LIAT. But she did not specify what percentage of shares is to be sold to Antigua and Barbuda which currently holds 34 per cent ownership, followed by St Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica to make up 94.7 per cent of the total. Private shareholders and staff own the remaining 5.3 per cent. The Prime Minister disclosed that Attorney General Dale Marshall is to head the negotiating team to settle terms with St John’s. She told lawmakers: “We have accepted an offer from a sister Caribbean state, Antigua and Barbuda, to re-enter into negotiations with them to see whether a deal could be concluded with respect to Antigua and Barbuda taking up our shares in exchange for them taking up our responsibilities as a shareholder within the context of LIAT. “This would require negotiations on the part of both countries and therefore we will be writing Prime Minister Browne to indicate that just as he has established a negotiating team, the Government of Barbados will establish a negotiating team that will meet with his negotiating team to settle the terms if we can, with respect to the conclusion of the transfer of the shareholding.” Mottley’s comments have come several weeks after Browne publicly announced that Barbados had agreed to sell all but ten per cent of its stake in LIAT. Browne said then: “An offer was made for Antigua and Barbuda to acquire the LIAT shares owned by Barbados, through a take-over of the liability of Barbados to the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).” Confirmation of the sale decision comes after months of wrangling with Eastern Caribbean governments over their failure to take up an offer to pump money into the cash-strapped carrier that remains a vital link in inter-regional travel, trade and tourism. Leeward Islands Air Transport, created by Kittitian Sir Frank Delisle, began life in 1956 with a single plane ferrying passengers between Antigua and Montserrat. A newly organised LIAT 1974 Limited saw ownership pass to Eastern Caribbean governments. Mottley maintained that due to the country’s current economic position, it was simply not in a financial position to support LIAT. She said Government had made a decision to “take a step back”. Mottley told Parliament: “There is only so much that Barbados can responsibly do at this time given our current circumstances. “Therefore notwithstanding our absolute commitment to regional air travel given the fact that studies have recommended a different model of restructuring for LIAT and given the inability of the Government of Barbados to do for LIAT in the next five to ten years what we have done for LIAT in the last five to ten years when we moved significantly to assume major shareholder responsibilities, we have taken the determination and decision as a Cabinet that it is time for us to step back while at the same time allowing other governments to continue with their proposals to restructure LIAT in the way which they have determined.” While not revealing the full details of the transaction, Mottley made it clear that Barbados would still serve as a minority shareholder and would provide a revenue guarantee on particular routes. The Prime Minister said that the regional carrier, which serves 15 Caribbean destinations with close to 500 flights, was in urgent need of an overhaul. She said: “The current model which LIAT has within the 1974 limited is not an attractive model and what is needed is significant restructuring. Indeed a new model of governance, a new financial model and a new operational model in order for it to be able to extract greater benefits and provide the services which it does.” The Prime Minister wished the Antiguan government well in its attempts to restructure the regional airline and said Barbados would still play a vital role as a minority shareholder, and ensure that routes provided are commercially viable so that it does not place pressure or burden on the overall finances of the airline. But the decision to sell is also said to have been sparked by largely Antigua’s resistance to Bridgetown’s suggestions for a leaner and more efficient airline, which currently has some 660 workers at its Antigua headquarters, sources close to the plans have told Barbados TODAY. Aviation experts said the ratio of workers per aircraft for LIAT’s fleet of French-Italian-made ATR turboprop planes is between two and three times what is required for a profitable airline. The 48-seat ATR 42 plane ought to have 25 workers per plane and the 68-seat ATR 72 should carry a ratio of 35 workers per plane, the sources said. But with 660-odd workers at its flight operations, engineering, call centre and customer relations departments in Antigua, its commercial office in Barbados and stations on its 15-destination network, the airline’s ten aircraft shoulder an ratio of 66 workers per plane. Experts suggested to Barbados TODAY this ratio is unsustainable. Mottley gave an assurance that once the discussions were completed Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda, the Government will report to the Barbadian people. But in speaking at the annual luncheon of the Barbados Employers’ Confederation (BEC) in early May, Prime Minister Mottley said she was primarily focused on ensuring reliable and affordable regional transport, as she confirmed receiving Antigua and Barbuda’s expression of interest in purchasing her country’s shares in LIAT. In comments that raised questions of Barbados’ possible shift towards its own carrier, she said then: “Let’s just say we agree on the mission, and the mission is that there must always be reliable affordable access for travel in the region as there must be nationally. And I can assure you and the country that we are working on this every day. “But you also have to take the reality of an existence as you find it and then determine whether the modality that you have is the best mechanism by which to deliver on that objective.” Barbados TODAY has learned that much of the work towards a national flag carrier hinges on attaining category one status with the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). A requirement for reaching this status, which would allow Barbados to operate routes into the United States mainland and its Caribbean territory, Puerto Rico, is the establishment of a civil aviation authority which Government is working towards creating. Mottley told journalists last month that a bill to establish the regulator is now being drafted and is expected to be taken to Parliament for approval by September or October. She declared that the issue of the absence of a Civil Aviation Authority had been outstanding for too long given its importance. (BT)

TAXES LOOPHOLE – Some members of the private sector have been removing goods from warehouses without paying the relevant duties and taxes to the Customs and Excise Department, according to the latest Auditor General’s Report. The 2018 report, which was presented to Parliament at the end of last month, examined the financial year April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018. It pointed out that during the review period more than $300,000 in duties and taxes due to breaches of agreements was still outstanding. Highlighting issues specific to ministries and departments, the auditor general’s office said in relation to the Customs Department there were several warehouses kept by members of the private sector. “These warehouses store goods on which the relevant duties and taxes have not yet been paid. The duties and taxes are due forthwith on any goods removed from these warehouses,” Auditor General Leigh Trotman said in the report. “However, in one instance, a firm removed goods with duties payable of $9,741,044 without informing the Customs Department. This matter was subsequently observed by the Financial Controller. It is therefore important to monitor these warehouses to ensure that the relevant payments for goods removed have been made to the Customs Department,” he said. This monitoring, he said, is usually done through field audits, but no evidence was provided to indicate that field audits were carried out on these warehouses during the year. In its response, the Customs and Excise Department said it was “severely short-staffed” and therefore does not have enough officers assigned to the field audit unit to conduct audits. “It is however, erroneous to state that the warehouses were not being monitored for non-payment of duties. The office of the Financial Controller run reports via the ASYCUDA++ System and takes necessary action to recover the outstanding duties and taxes if goods are removed from said warehouses without payment,” the department added. However, Trotman pointed out that no bonds were presented for audit inspection for 26 private warehouses and 26 in-bond warehouses. Quoting section 143 of the Customs Act, CAP 66, the auditor general said “No building or place may be used as a private warehouse . . . until a bond in such sum as may be required is provided to the Comptroller.” “Therefore, the Audit Office was unable to verify whether the operation of these warehouses was in conformity with the Act,” he said. In relation to the recovery of duties, Trotman pointed out that there were breaches of agreements under the Act in relation to the importation of vehicles free of duties. The law allows for individuals to be granted permission to import vehicles free of duties, but they must retain ownership of those vehicles for a period of five years, otherwise the duties pertaining to the unexpired portion of years become payable. “During the year under review, the Ministry of Finance reported duties totalling $476,651.44 which became payable due to breaches of agreements. Audit efforts to verify whether these unexpired duties were collected were unsuccessful due to a lack of cooperation from the Refunds Manifest and Control Board Unit,” said Trotman. “It should also be noted that outstanding amounts for the above duties and taxes payable were not reported in the Statement of Arrears of the Department,” he added. However, the Customs department reported that a search of the ASYCUDA++ records revealed that $174,810.98 has been collected so far, leaving an outstanding balance of $301,840.46. (BT)

NATIONAL TRUST WELCOMES INVESTMENT PLAN – Government’s plan for hotel development along the urban seafront won’t meet any opposition from the Barbados National Trust – unless it jeopardises Bridgetown and its Garrison’s UNESCO World Heritage designation. After scoring a victory in seeing a controversial hotel project scaled down, the Trust is now banking on the hotel projects reviving the long-dead part of Bridgetown’s history. This follows Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s teasing a raft of coastal hotel developments from Savannah Hotel in Hastings, Christ Church north to Black Rock, St Michael. “We are not of the view that hotel development along the coast is a bad thing; it is just a question about each specific development that occurs,” Trust president Peter Stevens has told Barbados TODAY. “It makes no sense to oppose developments along the coast for opposing sake but it comes down to how each development impacts the heritage area,” he said. Touting the possibility of hotels returning to The City, Stevens said: “Bridgetown historically used to have many hotels and it has virtually none now. So, we don’t have a problem with them coming back and writing new phases of history. “Even with a World Heritage designation, we are allowed to progress, and it just so happens that Bridgetown used to have hotels before. We just can’t have hotels that are disproportionate to the general dimensions of The City.” The National Trust, which was strongly against the initial plans for a 15-storey Hyatt Hotel at Bay Street, had welcomed the announcement that the hotel’s height is to be trimmed, following an Environment Impact Assessment whic had been completed for the project. Stevens said: “I am happy that the Government has agreed that the height of the project needs to come down from 15 storeys. “So, before we had a 190-foot building going up, but now that has been brought down considerably in height and that is more in line with what we were asking for.” In March 2017, lawyer David Comissiong, now Ambassador to CARICOM, asked the High Court to review permissions granted by Prime Minister Freundel Stuart to developer Mark Maloney to build the 15-storey Hyatt. Comissiong argued that Maloney did not carry out an EIA. He also raised concerns that the project could jeopardise Bridgetown’s heritage designation. In delivering her Cabinet’s report card for its first year in office, Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced plans to pump billions of dollars in the development of the coastline during the next seven years. She hinted at the possibility of a ten to 12-storey Hilton Garden Inn at the Carlisle Car Park among other projects in a modernised Bridgetown. She also suggested that the plans for the major revitalisation of The City are to be rolled out in unison with its World Heritage designation. “This is what a city with a World Heritage designation ought to do,” Mottley declared. But the National Trust president said his organisation expected that individual project managers would consult with the Trust before submitting their final plans to the Town and Country Development Planning Office. Stevens said: “The National Trust is normally asked for an opinion an advice in respect to any of these developments within these historic districts. “So, we are regularly asked by Town and Country Planning for an opinion on these projects. “However, we have always advised people that it is better to come to us first so that we can advise them of any dead-end streets that they may be going down, so that they don’t waste any money. (BT)

WEIR’S ‘RESCUE PLAN’ FOR FARMERS – Farmers at the Government’s land lease projects in the island’s northern and southern extremes are being told they should have no fear of being evicted from their farm plots even as their income dries up in the ongoing drought, Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir has told Barbados TODAY. He has ordered the Barbados Agricultural Development & Marketing Corporation (BADMC) to extend payment options to farmers in arrears, he said. Farmers at both the Spring Hall and River Plantation – in the nation’s driest regions of St Lucy and St Philip – complained of being threatened with eviction by the BADMC. Several of them said they were unable to pay their bills, particularly for water use, owing to low crop production caused by the drought’s long-term water shortages. He said: “There is an arrangement that the farmers can use at the BADMC where they can pay down on whatever arrears that they have. Let me state for the record that Government is not here to put people out of business because as we have already said, we are going the route of empowerment and enfranchisement. “So, any farmer that feels threatened can come to us and let us have a conversation so that we can rectify any challenges.” The eviction threat was described as “unconscionable” by Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society James Paul. Paul said then: “I believe that we need to sit down with people and discuss the issues as to why a bill goes up. I am sure that if the farmers have the money to pay the bills, they would pay them.” But Weir stressed in his interview with Barbados TODAY that it was not enough for farmers to merely say that they are unable to pay, but instead they should have brought in their financial documents to make their case to the BADMC. Referring to his experience as an entrepreneur, Weir said: “I don’t know about not having the capacity to pay because nobody has presented me with any financials. “My experience has always been, especially given my experience in business, a person is only informed when they have the true financials of the actual situation. Anything other than that is simply too generic.” Weir touted the farm ministry’s push towards his plans for more technologically advanced agriculture but suggested traditional farms are still a priority. He said: “One of the accusations that was made is that the new farming programme that I created and conceptualized, is being put above them. “That is not the case at all and I want the public to know that the new arrangement that we have in farming, regarding the use of technology that is less water-intensive, is not going to push out anyone.” But the Minister declared that while Government is willing to work with the farmers in bringing down their debt to the BADMC, it is important that they make efforts to pay what they owe towards the project’s continuity. He said: “I want to tell the farmers that there is no reason to feel threatened but at the same time they have to pay for the water. “We are not going to mince our words where that is concerned because if they don’t pay for the water supply, then the BADMC can’t supply it.” Regarding the current drought conditions, which has severely impacted water supplies to farms, Weir explained that Government wants to introduce several short-term plans, such as trapping more runoff water. “We would look at damming so that we could look at more water harvesting because there is a lot of water that passes through our gullies that is not being captured, which could go towards farming. The long-term plan is to work with the Barbados Water Authority so that when we set up a [tertiary]sewage treatment plant on the south coast, millions of gallons of water will be available for farming,” he said. Farmers at the St Lucy project as well as farmers at the River Plantation Land Lease Project in St Philip, expressed fear that low water levels that feed the irrigation systems, are threatening their yield and would inevitably result in the scarcity of certain crops on the market. Farmers at Spring Hall told Barbados TODAY that they were being rationed three hours of water per day and last week the water was shut off for four days. Meanwhile, farmers in St Philip charged that the BADMC pump has not operated in weeks due to the extremely low water levels at the catchment. As a result, many were incurring exorbitant daily cost to bring water to their fields. (BT)

MINIMUM WAGE ‘HIKE’ COMING – Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations Colin Jordan announced today that Government intends to keep a campaign promise to raise the minimum wage. The MP for St Peter said Government has informed the Social Partnership, the tripartite grouping of Business, Labour and Government. He gave no timeline as to when the hike would be introduced. “Government has certain expectations from business owners. We expect that as we are fair and reasonable to them we expect businesses to be fair and reasonable to the country. “I should alert the honourable chamber that we have met with the Minimum Wages Board – a tripartite construct that is tasked with advising the Minister responsible for labour with recommendations on the level of minimum wage and how or if it should be adjusted. “We have met the Minimum Wage Board including independent representatives, representatives from the business community – employers and representatives from workers’ organisations. We have indicated to them that Government is moving forward with the process of revising upward the minimum wage for workers in Barbados; that is a commitment we made to the people of this country; it is a commitment we intend to keep,” Jordan told the House of Assembly. The Minister said that in the same vein that Government was passing laws in order to ease businesses by writing off taxes and waving penalties that he is hopeful that businesses will extend such “fairness” to employees. “I raise it now… as we speak about fairness. As we as a Government demonstrates that fairness by writing off certain debts and waving interests and penalties on others we are saying to businesses and employers in Barbados we are prepared to lead by example and we will set the tone for fairness and responsibility for those with whom we engage our social partners. But we also have to be fair to our people.” Addressing the business community, Jordan said: “Our 2018 manifesto is the people’s manifesto and in that manifesto, we spoke to the matter of minimum wage. Since we came into office we have reduced corporation tax significantly from 25 per cent down — the maximum of five per cent. There are some businesses who will pay three per cent in corporation tax. “We are saying to businesses in Barbados today that we expect them to come to the table and there is at present a conversation as it relates to increasing that minimum wage for Barbadian workers and we expect that we will get progress in that over the coming months. Businesses have to be fair to workers. This Barbados Labour Party Government was built out of the struggle of workers in this country.” (BT)

VAT ACT CHANGES ‘TO PAY REFUNDS’ – Government moved today to get its house in order so it can meet its financial obligations to citizens and companies by amending the Value Added Tax Act, Minister of Finance Ryan Straughn told the House of Assembly today. Straughn led debate on the amendments which he said were intended to deal with “millions of dollars” in refunds the Government owes to Barbadians and companies. He told lawmakers: “Upon coming to office we recognised that Barbadians as well as Barbadian companies across this country were owed millions of dollars in refunds from the Government of Barbados. We felt then and we still feel now that the Government has a responsibility Sir not to put in peril the finances of companies, the finances of individuals. “We seek to rebalance the administration of the public finance that we put this country on a trajectory where persons can on one hand comply with their tax obligations, but on the other hand Sir that we so manage our public finances that refunds are actually repaid in a timely manner so that households businesses and individuals would be able to plan out their operations and plan out their affairs.” The Christ East Central MP said that in paying those owed, Government was also seeking to “regain the trust” of taxpayers. Straughn said: “The Barbados Labour Party has taken the position that as we bring back some order to the system and in a real sense regain the trust of the taxpayers because we do not want people to be whispering among one another about who got paid and who didn’t get pay. “If you ply the Government with any good or service or if the Government owes you a refund it should be certain. Therefore we have a plan for resolving not only the tax refunds but also the payment for goods and services.” Straughn said he was optimistic that once all the measures were put in place and people were paid what they are owed their level of “anxiety” would be a thing of the past. “We are trying to rebuild the trust in the system because the Government through its various agencies they are the ones who interface with the public. “I know there has been a lot of anxiety as it relates to taxes once the public is seeing a level of public good and public service that is being offered that is commensurate in terms of what they are seeing in the taxing the conversation shifts away from whether you are paying too much to what it is you are getting for the taxes you are paying,” The Finance Minister said. (BT)

PROTESTER JOYFUL, THANKFUL AFTER PENSION CUT REVERSAL – Janice Harris was all smiles today, full of praise to God and thanks to Government for reversing a massive cut of her public service pension. Harris, 55, protested in front of the Houses of Parliament last week about her Government pension which was cut from $628 to $47.51 in April, prompting a meeting with Minister of Blue Economy Kirk Humphrey. The former maid who was retired medically unfit from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital said that before last month she was receiving $608 from the Treasury as a part of her Government pension, later increased to $628, plus an invalidity benefit of over $800, she said. She used this money to pay her utilities and buy food for her household but protested being virtually empty-handed without warning. After meeting Humphrey, Harris called on Prime Minister Mottley to make an immediate intervention so the lives of medically unfit people could be improved. She said: “I am going to be real with you; Mia has to touch this. However, it turns out, Mia Mottley has to address it and deal with it. This is month end; all the treasury is telling us that the National Insurance Scheme cannot change the rule. “The only body that could change it in this country for all the people that are in this position is Prime Minister Mia Mottley. The Prime Minister needs to take it back to Parliament. “What the Prime Minister needs to do is to address the issue and come and speak to the people of Barbados who are medically unfit, cannot get their bills paid and cannot get food to eat because this is a crisis in Barbados.” Speaking to Barbados TODAY at her Chelston Lane, St Michael home, Harris, an ordained evangelist invoked the Almighty frequently, saying she could not receive the “victory” of having the pensions revoked since it was God who told her to go to Parliament and protest. “I did not win the victory by myself. Let me explain. As a prophetess of God, the burden of Barbados, the situation of Barbados under the leading of the Holy Ghost and the inspiration of God I was selected to go to Broad Street and speak to a nation and Government that God would not allow the poor to suffer in this country.” Harris said she was overwhelmed by the response to her story I Protest! in Barbados TODAY. She said: “It is overwhelming, it is touching, it is joy, it is unspeakable, it is full of glory to see how the hearts of Barbadians who would have suffered in this position. It truly broke my heart this morning.” On Friday, in an apparent reference to Harris’s complaint, Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations Colin Jordan Friday said on Voice of Barbados radio the pension adjustment went against the current social security regulations and Government’s overall philosophy. Jordan said: “We as a Government have to do what is necessary to protect people because to move a person from in some cases, $1,100 down to $600 a month is not tenable for us. “As a party in office expected by the people of the country to look out for them that is something that you cannot just force on people so we decided to reverse it. I am saying in a few days because I am not entirely versed on all the processes that need to go into making a reality.” Harris said she is happy that pensioners will be getting back the money they worked earnestly for in the public service. She said: “I am feeling good because God is good. To God be the glory great things he hath done. My soul is truly blessed because many who were in the same position as me are smiling today. “I give thanks to all of those that support me in prayers. I give thanks unto God, I knew he would never fail us, and I am thankful to God for touching the hearts of the Prime Minister to put back our pensions, so we can buy food and pay our bills and live a normal life.” The single mother of an 18-year-old son who told Barbados TODAY she became an ordained evangelist in 1984, said her act will show Barbadians that God is still in charge of Barbados. “Barbadians must remember where they came from. Barbadians must remember that the mercies of God endureth forever. “As a prophetess of God he was showing me the condition of this nation and he inspired me through the Holy Ghost to go to Broad Street and speak out for the people that are medically unfit and I just want to give God thanks, I want to give God praises and honour because when I look back I see it was all about God.” Harris offer this prayer for Barbados and its leader: “I pray that you will take control over our political system. I pray for the Prime Minister of Barbados that she would surrender her life to Jesus Christ. I pray this morning that she would get on her knees and say she surrenders all. It is only through the grace of Jesus Christ the Prime Minister of Barbados can make this country a better Barbados.” (BT)

GRAZETTES RESIDENT APPEALS FOR HELP – A Grazettes Main Road, St Michael family is appealing to authorities to give them some relief from an alleged psychiatric patient who is creating an environmental nightmare in their community. A visibly upset Joan Weekes told Barbados TODAY that for the past two years, the man has been taking discarded items from a nearby quarry and placing them in front of her house, creating obstacles and an eye sore. Weekes said highlighting the situation in the media was a last resort since months of appealing to relevant authorities, including environmental health officers, police and the Psychiatric Hospital have proved futile. She lamented that she could no longer handle the situation, which she said was not only an ugly sight, but has led to rodents invading her house, and the alleged psychiatric patient threatening to harm members of her family. “I tired and fed up with this. Look at in front of my house. Not because my house old in front here should look so. Bare rats bout here. Everyday I have to be buying rat poison, because when I go down Black Rock they don’t have none. “At nights, the rats running all bout here. So what can I do? I don’t know what to do. I call police, I call the health inspectors, I even put it on Facebook to see if the health inspectors will come. This has been going on too long. It ain’t like nobody ain’t know. I call everybody,” she said. Weekes showed Barbados TODAY an entire living room suite, about five extra sofas, used pots and pans, mattress, galvanise sheets, and even food, all scattered in different areas in front of her house. She complained that pieces of bottles broken by the same person resulted in her daughter having to replace at least two burst tyres. “I called the policeman a morning he was breaking up bottles out here and the policeman asked me where I live and I told him where I live and he say ‘oh that mad boy again’. So them just thinking that he mad. He threatened my daughter and because of that my grandson don’t live here because he is scared of him. He tell me already that he gine kill me, he tell everybody bout here that he will kill them,” Weekes said. The resident indicated that the environmental health officer attached to the area has visited and listened to her concerns about the garbage piled up in front of her home, and even took pictures on one occasion. Barbados TODAY contacted the Environmental Health Department at the Branford Taitt Polyclinic, Black Rock, St Michael, where a senior health officer confirmed that the Department was aware of the environmental issues at Grazettes. (BT)

PSVS BACK ON ROUTE – Public Service Vehicle (PSV) OWNERS got the courts to bring a screeching halt – for the time being – to the Transport Authority’s controversial revoking of permits and route reassignments. Yesterday, the High Court granted an injunction against the Government agency, which in effect permits the operators to return to plying the Silver Sands, Christ Church route. The matter is to be heard again on September 19. The court also ordered that the Authority be restrained from revoking any other permissions or permits that had been granted to the claimants until the final determination of the case, or until a further order of the court. (MWN)

MAN SHOT IN FOUL BAY –There has been another shooting in St Philip. Reports reaching Nation Online say a man was shot in Foul Bay tonight. His status is unknown. Police are en route to the scene. Last Friday, 24-year-old Ashantio Blackman of Belair was shot and killed. More details as they come. (MWN)

OFFICER SET TO APPEAL DISMISSAL – Lieutenant David Harewood was ordered dismissed from the Barbados Defence Force (BDF), punishment for unbecoming behaviour that could have brought the military into disrepute. But the legal team for the commanding officer, who had a previously unblemished record and award for an act of gallantry, said it was appealing yesterday’s court martial decision in the High Court. In his gleaming whites, the 43-year-old Harewood stood before the CARICOM panel to hear president of the court, Lieutenant Colonel Rohan Johnson, deliver his fate with the words: “The court sentences the accused to dismissal from the Barbados Defence Force.” It brought to an end seven days of the court martial of the 18-year veteran with the BDF, on attachment to the Barbados Coast Guard. (MWN)

PILE GUILTY ON ONE COUNT, REMANDED TO DODDS – Attorney Vonda Pile has been found guilty of theft but not guilty of money laundering. Despite a moving submission for bail by Queen's Counsel Michael Lashley who came to her defence, she was remanded to HMP Dodds pending sentencing on July 16. Pile, of Deacons Farm, St Michael, had been accused of stealing US$96 008 belonging to Anstey King between April 27, 2009 and October 26, 2010. She was also accused of engaging in money laundering in that she disposed of US $96 008, being the proceeds of crime. Several attorneys gathered in the No. 5 Supreme Court to hear the summation in the matter. (MWN)

CONVICTED – Her Majesty’s Prison Dodds will be home for an unemployed man for the next nine months. The sentence was imposed earlier today when Peter Anthony Barnes, of Reed Street, St Michael appeared before the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court where he pleaded guilty to four of five offences. The 35-year-old admitted that he stole a pair of Prada glasses worth $1,776, the property of Duty Free Caribbean on December 8, 2018. He also took responsibility for unlawfully assaulting Crystal Sobers on February 8 and agreed that he was about to commit burglary between May 7 and 8 when he loitered at Zandra’s Hot Food Stall located at Fairchild Street, The City. Barnes also pleaded guilty to stealing four bottles of capsules worth $104.50 belonging to Strathclyde Pharmacy and Health Shop on May 7. Magistrate Douglas Frederick slapped him with a nine-month, three-month, one–month and three-month sentences respectively on the charges, which will all run concurrently. Barnes however has to appear in the District ‘B’ Magistrates’ Court on June 6 on the charge that he stole a $180.99 watch belonging to Duty Free Caribbean on May 15. (BT)

FRAUDSTER GETS NINE MONTHS – A 42-year-old man who admitted to two fraud charges will spend the next nine months at Dodds. Marston Owen Mascoll, of Nelson Street, St Michael was sentenced today when he appeared before Magistrate Douglas Frederick in the No. 1 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court. He pleaded guilty to uttering a forged CIBC FirstCAribbean International Bank (Barbados) Limited cheque to Savings Plus Supermarket payable to O’Brian Fred Pollard and drawn from the account of the National Insurance Scheme for $975.66. He also admitted trying to obtain from the same supermarket groceries and money via the same forged cheque on May 31 . Mascoll was sentenced to nine months on each offence, which will run concurrently. (BT)

GOOD FOOTBALL RULE CHANGES – The rules of football have been changed from the start of this month. And two top Barbadian officials have given the modifications their support. FIFA and the International Football Association Board (IFAB) have instituted some amendments to the laws of the game, and they came into effect June 1. Following the 133rd annual general meeting of the IFAB in Aberdeen, Scotland, an 11-page document was issued in March reflecting the necessary changes. After two years of worldwide experiments, a yellow and red card for misconduct by team officials was introduced, along with rules for a player being substituted leaving the field at the nearest point on the boundary line and play being considered resumed before leaving the penalty area. (MWN)

WHARTON OUTSHINES STARS – Barbados goal shooter Shonica Wharton scored an impressive 47 goals from 50 attempts against Newbury Stars on Monday night at the Netball Stadium to carry former queens Signia Globe UWI Blackbirds into tonight’s semi-finals of the Barbados Netball Association’s senior knockout. There was little doubt that UWI would have rolled over the former Division 1 team as the Blackbirds seemed on a mission to recover one of the crowns which they last won in 2017. They have yet to lose a title in battle as they did not take part in the 2018 season to defend either the league or knockout crown. Except for a brief period in the first quarter where Newbury got within one goal (9-10) or in the third quarter where generous substitutions by UWI allowed the Stars to outscore them 14-11, Newbury never looked capable of blocking the flight of the Blackbirds. (MWN)

WOMEN WELCOMED – The path is now clear for women to rise to the leadership of the Anglican Church across the Caribbean. Anglican Bishop Michael Maxwell, told members of the media during a press conference at the Cathedral of St Michael and All Angels, that during the recent Provincial Synod in Trinidad and Tobago there was approved amendments to the Constitution on Canons of the Province, opening up the opportunity for women to be nominated and appointed as Bishops. “So dioceses are now free to actually be able to elect a female Bishop. If that person is elected they have the free will to go ahead and have a female Bishop within their dioceses. And so that has been one of the resolutions coming out of the House of Bishops. “It is basically stating that when there is the next time for the election of a new Bishop, that indeed a female priest can offer herself for that position. And then again it would be up to the body of Synod, whether or not they get the two-thirds majority both lay persons and clergy in support of that individual before that is possible,” the Bishop further explained. During the Provincial Synod, which started on May 26 and lasted for five days, Diocesan Bishop from Jamaica, Howard Gregory, was elected as the 13th Archbishop of the Province to replace former Archbishop John Holder, who retired from active service in February 2018. The Bishop also announced that the dioceses would make an urgent financial contribution within the next two months to the financial stability of Codrington College. He said the St John-based theological college was under severe financial pressure due to the current economic climate. “Because of the economic climate and so forth, it has been resolved at the Provincial Synod, that all the dioceses within the next two months, will offer some substantial financial support to prop up and to assist the college at this point in time,” the Bishop said. Bishop Maxwell also indicated that with the crisis in Venezuela impacting on some of the dioceses, particularly Trinidad and Guyana, the Provincial Synod supported the decision taken by CARICOM for a peaceful solution to the crisis without external interference in the matters of the South American nation. “And for neighbouring dioceses as well to offer as much positive Christian support to the human need of any Venezuelan migrant that may come within the dioceses,” he said. (BT)

For daily or breaking news reports follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter & Facebook. That’s all for today folks. There are 210 days left in the year. Shalom! #thechasefilesdailynewscap #thechasefiles# dailynewscapsbythechasefiles

0 notes

thecollegefootballguy · 8 years ago

Text

Top 14 Big Ten Games in 2017

The 2017 season is coming up so it’s time to look at the biggest games that will be approaching. Today, I’ll be counting down the biggest games in the Big Ten schedule. I’ll be including both conference and non-conference matchups, but only those in the regular season. No point in labeling the Big Ten Championship Game. We know that the winner will likely make the College Football Playoff, even though Penn State was the first winner in the Playoff era not to make the Playoff last year. But we don’t know the participants of the title game, so there’s not much point in guessing the stakes.

14. Iowa at Nebraska Friday, November 24

Wisconsin is the expected favorite to win the Big Ten West, but if the Badgers run into trouble Iowa or Nebraska will almost certainly swoop in to steal the title. These two adversaries meet in Lincoln in the final game of the season with a potential division title up for grabs. Last year the Hawkeyes pummeled the Cornhuskers 40-10. They’ve won three of the last four.

13. Iowa at Wisconsin Saturday, November 11

Of course, if Iowa wants to be in the conversation they should do a good job in their meeting with the Badgers in early November. The game becomes even more of a challenge when you consider that it takes place just a week after Ohio State visits Iowa City.

12. Pittsburgh at Penn State Saturday, September 9

Pittsburgh’s win over Penn State last year turned out to be the deciding factor in the Nittany Lions getting shut out of the Playoff despite winning the Big Ten Championship Game. Some payback is in order. The Panthers will remain a tough out, and undoubtedly want to remind their alleged rivals just how relevant they are. It’ll be a good early season affair and tell us just how serious PSU is about repeating as conference champions.

11. Penn State at Iowa Saturday, September 23

Penn State’s first conference game is a road date at Kinnick Stadium. I’m sure we all remember what happened the last time Iowa welcomed an opponent from the East Division to their home turf. Last year, the Nittany Lions destroyed the Hawkeyes, but that was in the friendly confines of Happy Valley. Iowa City is a tough place to win. Iowa has only lost two conference games at home in the last two seasons.

10. Ohio State at Iowa Saturday, November 4

A lot of Iowa in this list so far, but they have some good matchups so what can I say? Ohio State faces the same perilous trip to Kinnick Stadium as Penn State but later in the year. By then we will know just how seriously the Buckeyes will be Playoff contenders. They will likely be in the same position that Michigan found themselves in last year when they traveled to Iowa City. They’ll try to avoid the same fate.

9. Nebraska at Penn State Saturday, November 18

Nebraska travels East to face their toughest road test of the season. Both teams will very likely be in their division races and a loss this late in the season will probably tank their title hopes.

8. Ohio State at Nebraska Saturday, October 14

You know, sometimes I think I’m overrating teams by putting them on these lists more than a few times. Last year, when #9 Nebraska met #6 Ohio State, we assumed we were in for a game with some real relevance. Instead, we witnessed a 62-3 beatdown of colossal proportions. It’s tough to say just how complete that the Buckeyes ruined the Cornhuskers. Is there anything to say about this game that won’t be colored by last year’s performance? Probably not. Still, with OSU the likely Big Ten East favorite, and NU a contender in the West, this game must be mentioned. At least this time it’ll be in Lincoln.

7. Michigan at Wisconsin Saturday, November 18

A big test for both teams right before the end of the year. Michigan might be the best team that Wisconsin faces in the regular season. In 2016, the Badgers’ rough cross-division schedule nearly kept them out of the Big Ten Championship Game. This year, the only team that’ll pose a serious threat will be the Wolverines. For UM, who lost a lot of talent to the draft, a one-two punch of Wisconsin/Ohio State will certainly define their season if the Florida and Penn State games have not by then.

6. Florida vs Michigan (Arlington, TX) Saturday, September 2

This will be one of the marquee Big Ten non-conference games. Florida has been a steady winner since Jim McElwain took over in 2015. The Gators will provide a challenge to the draft-depleted Michigan squad. We’ll find out very early if the Wolverines are a good team or a great one.

5. Wisconsin at Nebraska Saturday, October 7

The most likely candidate for the game that will decide the Big Ten West. The Badgers get Iowa at home, and their dominance over Minnesota shouldn’t change in P.J. Fleck’s first season. But this road date with Nebraska a week after the annual meeting with Northwestern has will show us the general course of the West division for 2017. If Wisconsin wins, there’s a good chance that they will whether the rest of the schedule with probably one mulligan. If the Huskers win, they still have a tough cross-division schedule that will make the race for the division very interesting.

4. Michigan at Penn State Saturday, October 21

Sometimes the timing of a game is everything. Last year, Michigan played Penn State when the Wolverines were acting like the best team in the country and the Nittany Lions had yet to find their offensive identity. UM won 49-10 in embarrassing fashion. Nobody thinks that game would have gone the same if it were played on October 24th or November 24th instead of in September. In 2017, the game will be played in the middle of the season. Michigan’s young guys will have some time to gel and Penn State gets a nice bye week following some tune up games. If Ohio State somehow plays a smaller part than expected in the Big Ten East race, this game will decide the division.

3. Oklahoma at Ohio State Saturday, September 9

Easily the best non-conference game involving a Big Ten team. Oklahoma has been a top 5 program for the past two seasons and will be projected high once again. They’re definitely the best team in the Big 12 as far as anybody else is concerned. The Big Ten has a lot riding on this game and everybody in the conference will be better off if the Buckeyes take care of business like they did in Norman last season.

2. Penn State at Ohio State Saturday, October 28

This could easily be the #1 game, it definitely turned out to be a deciding factor last year. With Michigan assumed to be taking a step back, these two are expected to be the best two teams in the Big Ten in 2017.

1. Michigan at Ohio State Saturday, November 25

There’s just no substitute. With Ohio State and Michigan playing as well as they have in the past couple of years, this will always be the #1 game in the B1G. There are very few scenarios in which this game doesn’t decide the East Division and likely the Big Ten itself (along with the very likely Playoff berth that comes with it). Penn State would have to go 9-0 in league play for this game to have no relevance, and I don’t see that happening. The buck stops here.

If there are any games you think I failed to mention that should be on here, drop me a line. Thanks for reading!

#college football #Iowa Hawkeyes #Nebraska Cornhuskers #Wisconsin Badgers #Pittsburgh Panthers #Penn State Nittany Lions #Ohio State Buckeyes #Michigan Wolverines #Florida Gators #Oklahoma Sooners

11 notes · View notes

tristanvswriting-blog · 5 years ago

Text

Research essay Draft #2

Shoes, essentially everyone has and for the most part people where them every day. For some they are just the thing you put on before you walk out of the door, for others its everything. Sneaker Culture is something that has fascinated me for a long time, I am a self-proclaimed sneakerhead and likely will be until the day I die. That all said I wanted to get down to the brass tacks of, what is sneaker culture? Well the term sneaker dates back to the early 1900s, sneakers where first introduced by yard workers who need a durable shoe with more comfort, traction, and durability than the typical leather shoe of the time. Design was primitive to say the least, worker would just dip the soles of their leather shoes into melted rubber. Thus, the birth of the sneaker (Duc Nhat Huy 6 and Chrisman-Campbell). This quietly caught fire and began sprawling into all facets of life. This first took traction in the tennis industry, but quickly broke out afterpeopl began to realize how versatile that sneakers are. Things really began to heat up with the birth of the Convers All-Star, coming out in 1917 the Chuck Taylor was the first signature sneaker. Breaking ground for athletes for the legendary shoe namesakes we know to today: Jordan, Kobe, etc.. Soon to follow came the break of musicians in the shoe industry. Some staple names to that break through would be RUN DCM, Kanye, and Drake. Today there is a sneaker for almost anything or anyone you can think of. Some might say you haven’t made it big until you have a shoe deal these days, no matter your industry. Others use the shoes made famous by other to immolate their identities to those around them.

Taking me for an example, I wear basketball shoes 85% of the time, but if you saw my jump shot, you’d likely wonder if I’ve ever even heard of the game. I am not alone, I’ve found that the culture has very strong roots in identity. While, yes, some basketball players will identify themselves by wearing Jordan brand, artist similarly will can identify with a Jordan shoe purely based on design. Rob Dyrdek, professional skate boarder and CO-Owner of DC Shoes was quoted in the documentary Sneakerheadz saying, “There are a handful of things that can define who you are without saying a word; shoes, are one of those things (Friendly and Partridge)”. People cling to shoes for certain things, sometime unbeknownst to them. Like how someone can be drawn to a painting not really understand why, shoes can speak to people. Those who are a part of the culture will fall in love with the design, the back story, the person, the era; and shoes become a direct connection to who they feel they are. Beyond that its and industry that is growing exponentially, as more people get involved it draws the attention of people who normally might not be exposed to sneaker culture. A great example of this is the collab’. A collab is when two companies work together to create a joint product, any time you see a brand that is mark BrandA x BrandB that is a collab. Collaborations do exactly what I noted above, bring people who might not be exposed to sneaker culture in by expanding sneaker cultures reach. When artists, musicians, fashion groups, companies, and other brands come together it opens the eye of the consumer (Friendly and Partridge). Another interesting thing about collabs, and most sought-after sneakers in general, is the idea of exclusivity. More often than not people in the sneaker industry want what others can’t have (Friendly and Partridge). Meaning if you can be one of a few thousand people in the world with a specific shoe, you are then above those who can’t have that shoe. This also lend to one of the most detrimental things sneaker culture faces today: violence. More often than not, shoes bring people together, but there has been multiple instances where people die over shoes. “The thirst for inherent exclusivity creates an innately competitive culture where the goal is naturally adversarial: if your friend has a dope exclusive shoe, then your search for a more exclusive (and therefore more desirable) shoe is an ongoing challenge” (Rakeshaw). Sadly, it’s the riots; murders; and theft that make it into the mass media, not the stories of growth and strengthening communities. This leaves people with a sour taste in their mouth because people question why we spend so much on shoes or why anyone would care so much as to harm someone over a pair of sneakers. Fortunately, things aren’t all bad. Shoes are becoming a universal language breaking barriers of race, gender, and ideology. Someday maybe sneakers will bring us piece.

Prior to continuing I’d like to elaborate on the means and location of which I acquired the information which this essay is comprised of. There is a mix of information both peer-reviewed and pop-culture reference which was acquired from a number of sources. Beginning with the Peer- reviewed information I tried my best to find sources that would contribute to the idea of sneaker culture, but because its both a abstract and non-academic subject this did prove to be difficult. This lent to out of the box thinking in order to find information that would directly correlate to my topic. My information came from many different places, from business thesis to art reviews. From medical journals to quasi-biographies. It became a matter of finding ways on which sneaker culture connected to the academic world as opposed to trying to find the academic world speaking on sneaker culture.

Then came my pop-culture refences, this was difficult too, but for a very different reason. I find myself so immersed daily in sneaker culture that I felt there might have even been too many source from which I could draw. Another problem with the sources I use everyday is they can be partial toward sneaker enthusiast. So, in order to find relevant and usable modern information, I tried to sample from a bread of sources. Some known for being very tight knit to the culture of shoes and fashion others being known simply for their literature. I found that there was a lot to be said about the industry outside of what I already knew. It was also intrigued to see all the different areas of research and life that sneakers manage to sneak their way into. Both types of sources brought together, I was able to find some strong corollaries that united all of the sources. These themes being Identity, Influence, and Value.

Identity, as I touched on before, is how people use shoes to tell a story of who they are. There is also some strong associations between certain types of shoes and certain types of people. Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell explains in her Atlantic article, “Sneakers Have Always Been Political Shoes”, as verity grew shoes took on different meaning, for example Vans and other canvas shoes became the staple shoes of youth rebellion (Chrisman-Campbell). There is also strong associations between race and gender identity within the shoe culture. Nike known for their many campaign that promote identity (equality line, pride line, Día de Los Muertos line), they are also on the forefront of introduction of women into the sneaker industry. With the sneaker industry being known as a boy’s club for such a long time, this is huge. Next comes Influence.

Influence is arguably the basis of sneaker culture as we know it today. Many of the shoes we as consumer like are because of who we see where them. Whether it be celebrities, aspirational groups, or identity groups we wear the shoes that will bring us closer to them. According to a thesis written by Rodney M. Miller, we can attribute the growth of the industry to three key components: physical activity, professional sport, and hip hop culture (Miller VII). From this we find the fame of Lebron shoes, the shell toe adidas in relation to RUN DMC, and the popularity of Nike Air max shoes for everyday use. How we view these influencers can also relate to how we value shoes.

Value of shoes is actually an interesting topic. With cites like StockX that value shoes as stocks where you can view market trends and fluctuation of individual shoes and the entire universe that is the resale market we have been able to see insane value coming out of the shoe industry. The high end sneaker market runs on an ideology contrary to that of typical business. Where a normal business you try and make supply meet demand, in the shoe industry the limit supply. Since there is no drop in demand this leads to astronomical resale prices. The other thing is that we value shoes beyond a monetary value, because of the two other things I discussed shoes mean more than money to us. Where some one might see something you step on, a sneakerhead sees a piece of art you can put on your feet. This about concludes the secondary research, to come is the primary portion of my research.

As far as primary research goes, mine was three-fold. Comprised of an Online survey, Video Interview, and a in person observation. The online survey was held through Google forms, comprised of twelve question and distributed by link to my respondents. All responses were acquired online and done so anonymously. The one hundred respondents ages varied, done so because sneaker culture is not limited to a single demographic, and I was curious to see how response varied across demographics like region, race, and age. The interview is to be held was held Via Skype with a close friend and fellow sneakerhead, the interview is comprised of 6 questions and further discussion. Lastly, the in-person observation was held inside of the Anderson Academic commons on the University of Denver’s campus on the afternoon of October 24th, 2019. Shoes worn by people entering the library was documented on a purely observational basis, there was no interaction with the population. Data was then combed in search of trends, such as opinions of sneaker culture, and attempt to define sneaker culture, and anything lending to the themes provided by the secondary research.

Beginning with my observation, I sat across from the entrance to the Anderson Academic Commons on the University of Denver’s campus with a piece of paper marking the shoes of everyone who entered in a twenty-minute period in one of two categories. One category was the brands Nike, Adidas, and Vans; the other simply was other. Its important to know that I also put well know companies that fall under the Nike and Adidas (Jordan, Converse, Yeezy, and Pharrell) in the Nike, Adidas, and Vans category. Over the course of the twenty minutes I observed one-hundred twelve people entering or exiting the library. Of those 68% of those observed fell under the Nike, Adidas, and Vans category. I found this surprising, the number seemed low to me. One thing that needs severe consideration is the fact that the city of Denver did receive snowfall that day. This may lend those viewed to wear shoes with either better traction or those that people would have less worry of damaging. That said I still think nearly 70% is a significant number to observe wearing those brands I associate with sneakers. Another thing to note is there other brands that can and would be consider sneakers that I did not place under the category. For example, Puma and New Balance are notorious for being sneaker companies but would not fall under the category Nike, Adidas, and Vans. In conclusion id derive from my observation that a majority of people entering the library wear sneakers, and in turn have some semblance of a affiliation to sneaker culture. What I would not do is use this observation to draw any hard statistic to the size of sneaker culture of what brands are to be considered sneakers.

Next we’ll discussed what I observed from surveying. The survey began with demographic question Age, Race, Gender, and location of origin. This information only helped me with identifying who I sampled, unfortunately the results aren’t put into a format that didn’t lends its self to identify specific trends based on certain demographic variables. This would have been more fruitful in terms of seeing trends in identity and how background affects opinion, but what can be said is the sample was was predominantly between the ages of 18 and 25. The sample was slightly more Male than Female, the majority of those identifing as White or Caucasian. Then lastly majority of our sample claimed to be from the western United States, this is likely due to the fat that the majority of respondents were located in Colorado. As stated one can understand our sample as a whole, just not specific correlations based on demographic response.

The questions that followed demographic, these could still almost be considered demographic question, but demographic question specific to shoes. From this I was found that my sample strongly favored Nike over any other brand of shoe.

The second question was pertaining to how many shoes they personally own, but the responses were about evenly distributed, 38.7%said they owned between 5 and 10 pair.

The next group of questions were seeking information about Identity. Both were free response questions, but majority of people said roughly, Sneaker Culture is a collection of people with a shared interest in shoes, and that a persons shoes tell mostly what their style is and what their personality is like.

I concluded by asking questions regarding value. There was an interesting change between what people have spent and what they would be willing to spend on shoes.

While the majority of people have spent between $100 and $200 on shoes, a lot more would rather pay less as well as some would be willing to spend more. It would be interesting to know what outside factors contributed to the change in between question, perhaps outside influence such as an outside party purchasing the shoes is responsible for the change.

Interview

The interview process was conduct with Michael Sullivan. Michael is an Omaha, Nebraska native who found their passion for shoes during high school. He has not only an extensive collection, but a valuable one. He went on to say, “I begged my dad for my first pair of Jordan’s when I got to high school and saw the praise that other people got for having them… it seemed like people wearing [nice shoes] weren’t even walking on the same ground as us”. Now a days Michaels passion is less about clout and more about how the shoes make him feel. While when his passion started, he favored brands like Nike and Jordan, today Michael wears exclusively Adidas. Michael can identify with creators/designer/influencer Kanye and Pharrell, because “They seem to have shoes with purpose.” He went on to talk about what goes into deciding the shoes he buys and further on how he feels about sneaker culture. In this continued conversation he brought up two points absent from the rest of the body of research. Those being the industry of counterfeit shoes and shoes across cultures. Beginning with the counterfeits Michael talked about how anyone can get them, and sometime people get them when they think they are buying authentic. For this reason, Michael buys his shoes exclusively through sites which have a shoe verification process (i.e. StockX and GOAT). He said having authentic shoes are so important to him because he, “buys [his] shoes for [him]self”, then going on to elaborate that people who buy fakes do so because they want others to see that they have a particular shoe. Then moving on the culture, this came up when Michael was asked what is one of your best memories related to shoes. Michael tells an anecdote about a time when he was working as a roofing consultant. In this firm many of the workers were immigrants (mostly Latino and Sudanese) who couldn’t speak very much English, but when ever he wore nice shoes to work, they would notice and make it a point to compliment them and try their best to hold conversation. Michael said, “It was crazy to see interested they were, most days the wouldn’t make any effort to talk to me, nor I to them, but for whatever reason shoe bridged that gap.”

The shoe industry is one rife with history and cult followings, that biggest and most diverse of those following probably being that which has been being defined: Sneaker Culture. The special thing I’ve noticed is that in this community anyone can be a player. Whether you have 3 pairs or 3000, been collecting a life time or a week, and whether you buy Jordan or Adidas; the community will welcome you with open arms. One could venture to say it’s because sneakerheads comprehend that it’s the uniqueness of their beliefs that make not only them unique, but their style. Throughout the both the body of research and secondary research, a very common them has been what your shoes say about you, how shoes reflect your identity.

Shoes are designed with a story or purpose in mind, those who are passionate about them with infer those stories or sometimes identify things that never crossed the designers mind. Those who really care can see themselves in the design of a shoe. Whether it be the passion the feel towards the beliefs of a brand, the back story of the designer, or someone that they’ve seen wearing the shoe, these all contribute to the story behind why people buy sneakers. For some they want to be seen as stylish or wealthy, others fascinate over the design elements. The important thing to take away though is that no matter what they see they identify in the shoe, it resonates in how they identify themselves, thus giving sneakers a deeper meaning than just what you wear to walk outside. That deeper meaning is also part of the reason people value their shoes.

As previously noted value can come from a number of places, but one of the most common ways its facilitated is by limiting quantity. Previously noted is an article the referenced that this competitiveness to have a shoe only few can get makes consumers resort back to a primal state, but what hasn’t been discussed is how this contributes to diversity of collection. Because not everyone can get every sneaker that releases, people obviously ended up not having the same shoes. This opens doors for people to not only appreciate other people’s collections, but why they ended up with the shoes that they did buy. This opportunity for conversation is one of the things that makes the sneaker community so tight knit, there is an opportunity for dialogue and variable opinion. Thus, facilitating a community rife with diversity. Another thing not limited on its diversity are those who influence the sneaker community.

Previously noted are those who contribute to creating influence for particular shoes like athletes, Celebrities, etc.; but the thing that has become apparent through out the body of research is that influence is not bound by status. Anyone can influence any one for any number of reasons. Some people just hold higher importance in some people’s eyes. Whether that be family members, friends, or in fact the person whose name is on the box.

0 notes

coolmohnishahluwalia · 5 years ago

Text

Fitting Gandhi in new Indian ethos (GANDHI 150 YEARS: GENESIS)

The Mahatma believed economic equality to be the basis of Swadeshi socialism. He rejected the western idea of socialism for its violent class war, materialism, lack of individual freedom, selfishness and mechanical concept of classless society

There is a long list of world leaders who admired Mahatma Gandhi. George Bernard Shaw compared him with the Himalayas; Einstein called him the most enlightened of all politicians; Martin Luther King Jr compared him with Christ; and Barack Obama called him his real hero

During the 1970s, at a seminar organised by Kerala University, veteran CPM leader EMS Namboodiripad was asked to explain why the communist party could not lay its roots in India in spite of its early inception. One major reason, he explained, was that the communists could not realise the role of Mahatma Gandhi in the Indian political context. Gandhi’s politics was closely footed in India’s ethos and village life and that is why he succeeded. On the other hand, the communists did not develop an Indian communist movement just as Lenin did in Russia, Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam or Mao in China. In this lies a lesson for all the popular movements in India even today. Probably Narendra Modi is the only leader closely following such a pattern in politics.

Gandhi’s advice at the time of Independence “to disband the existing Congress organisation” as it had “outlived its use” is well known. But not many know that he had also opposed the formation of AITUC by the Indian National Congress. However, the Congress leaders went ahead and this year marks the centenary of India’s central trade union movement, which had begun with the AITUC in 1919.

Gandhi’s uncompromised stand on the Chauri Chaura incident showed direction to those spearheading various movements. When the non-cooperation movement turned violent, killing about 23 policemen, in 1922, Gandhi immediately halted the agitation at the national-level, sending out a strong message that he will not tolerate any violence. His model of non-violent movement fascinated so many world leaders.

On February 14, 1916, Gandhi was invited to a missionary conference in Madras. During his talk, he explained to his audience the concept of Swadeshi and outlined three of its core facets — Swadeshi economics, Swadeshi politics and Swadeshi religion. He had no hesitation in telling the missionaries to adopt a religion rooted in the Indian ethos and to “restrict to one’s own ancestral religion”.

Gandhi wrote in Harijan on June 1, 1947 that the basis of Swadeshi socialism is economic equality, which is essential for Ram Rajya. He took inspiration from the first verse of Ishopanishad. He believed all wealth belongs to God and rejected the concept of private property. At the same time, he opposed the western idea of socialism on five counts — violent class war, materialism, lack of individual freedom, selfishness and mechanic concept of classless society. Antyodaya and Gandhi’s Sarvodaya are targeted towards the development of the last person in the society.

In his speech at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, on October 20, 1931, Gandhi remarked that the Indian education prevalent before the advent of British was a beautiful tree, rooted out by the British for their ulterior interests. He said:“Today India is more illiterate than it was fifty or a hundred years ago, and so is Burma because the British administrators, when they came to India, instead of taking hold of things as they were, began to root them out.… and the beautiful tree perished.” This statement became the premise of Dr Dharampal’s famous book, The Beautiful Tree, on the Indian education that prevailed before the advent of the British.

Gandhi developed a Swadeshi economic policy for India. Rightly declared by him then, India lives in its villages even today. However, history has not been able to answer why he proposed as the first Prime Minister of Independent India Jawaharlal Nehru, who was diametrically opposite to his views on Swadeshi and village economy. Today, with globalisation and western capitalist model followed by the successive governments contributing to the slowdown of the economy as well as the manufacturing sector, we need to present Gandhian ideas that will suit the modern times. We need to reshape Gandhian ideals towards India-centric solutions to save the nation.

Gandhi’s differences with Dr Ambedkar are well known. Nehru too disliked Dr Ambedkar. However, when the question of constituting a drafting committee for Independent India’s Constitution came up, Gandhi recommended Dr Ambedkar to head it. In 1946, the Congress had defeated his entry into the Constituent Assembly. When the discussions on convening a Constituent Assembly for drafting a Constitution started, Gandhi called Vallabhbhai Patel and Nehru and asked whom were they going to entrust the task of drafting India’s Constitution. Nehru said he was considering someone like Sir Ivor Jennings, an internationally known constitutional expert from England. Gandhi advised them to not look for a foreigner when they had within India an outstanding legal and constitutional expert like Dr Ambedkar. That was how Ambedkar became the architect of the Constitution of India.

There is a long list of world leaders who were admirers of Mahatma Gandhi. George Bernard Shaw compared him with the Himalayas; Einstein called him the most enlightened of all politicians; Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was called Frontier Gandhi; Ho Chi Minh said he was a revolutionary disciple of Gandhi; historian Will Durant called him the most revered after Buddha; Martin Luther King Jr compared him with Christ; Nelson Mandela said it was through Gandhi’s teachings that apartheid was removed; and Barack Obama called him his real hero. Still, it is a mystery that the greatest messiah of peace in the 20th century was not given the Nobel Peace Prize even though many inspired by him were.

Gandhi’s assassination has always been a bone of contention in Indian politics. Nehru did not appeal against the acquittal of Savarkar, who was an accused in Gandhi murder case, and his daughter Indira Gandhi released a commemorative stamp in his name in 1970. The question remains why Nirmal Chatterjee, president of Hindu Mahasabha at the time of Gandhi’s murder, was, within one year, made a high court judge at the recommendation of the Nehru government. Chatterjee was also the legal adviser of Communist Party of India when it was banned. How did he subsequently become a Member of Parliament representing the CPI? His son, Somnath Chatterjee, later became a CPI leader. These are some of the questions which the course of history may have to answer to the future generation before any campaign is started against the RSS as Gandhi assassins.

Gandhi’s Ram Rajya and the RSS’ Hindu Rashtra are rooted in similar Indian ethos. Gandhi had visited the RSS shakhas on two occasions and delivered speeches — one at Wardha near Nagpur on December 25, 1934, and the other at Bhangi Colony in Delhi on September 16, 1947 as authenticated in the 96th volume of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. It is a fact that Mahatma Gandhi is losing relevance in the hands of his so-called followers. But one organisation, the RSS, with lakhs of its followers, remembers him every day during its morning prayer called Ekatmata Stotra. All other “Gandhian politicians” get a chance to remember Gandhi just once a year and that is on October 2. #MohnishRANotes

from Blogger https://ift.tt/2o4SmtL via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes

thrashermaxey · 6 years ago

Text

Ramblings: Deadline notes, Currie analysis, Trade Speculation, Zuccarello fallout and so much more (Feb 25)

***

With regards to today’s NHL Trade Deadline coverage, this will be the 14th year I am covering it on this site. Please check in throughout the day to see my breakdown of each NHL trade. When things get too nuts, Cliffy and Ian will be around to do a few as well. We’re fast, and we’re thorough. You’ve seen it year after year – and if you haven’t, then you’ll be impressed. We have the full list of trades, player links, and forum links related to that trade, in our Trade Deadline Tracker.

When I saw Josh Currie scored his first goal and Allan Walsh, whom I’m assuming is his agent, tweeted that he had three consecutive 20-goal AHL seasons after working his way up from the ECHL, I wanted to look into him. Much like I’m always looking for the next possible Martin St. Louis – a smaller underrated player who becomes a superstar (so far I’ve dug up Cam Atkinson and Vinnie Hinostroza – obviously still waiting for the next steps if they ever come, but it’s as close as we’ve gotten so far), I’m also always on the lookout for the next possible David Desharnais. And as much as you probably have distaste for Desharnais due to his more recent years, he really was a fantasy boon early on. He was a prolific scorer in junior, was plunked into the ECHL without being drafted or having an NHL contract and worked his way up to the NHL. In his first couple of seasons he was not only very fantasy relevant, but it was also great because you were able to scoop him out from under the noses of your supposedly savvy fellow GMs and he helped you very quickly. The fun part, of course, is the ‘under the nose of your fellow GM’ part.

So what do we have in Currie? Well, he did get 104 points in his final year of the QMJHL…but he was 20 years old when he did that and tons of players have done that over the years. It’s almost expected of you at 20 years old to top 100 points in the Q. The year prior, he did get 30 goals but only managed 46 points. The rest of his PEI team wasn’t loaded with goal scorers, so maybe he could have had more assists with better star power around him, but he’s still a sniper. He’s a late October birth so he actually began those two years at 18 and 19. He went directly to the ECHL when he turned pro and steadily improved his numbers – from 41 points in 70 games to 49 points to a 65 pace. He made the jump to the AHL two months into the latter year, and had season-over-season points-per-game averages of 0.45, 0.54, 0.68 and 0.76 before getting the call to the big show last week at the age of 26. However, what’s interesting is the latter number includes 24 goals (though only 13 assists) in just 49 games. Very different from Desharnais in the following ways:

1. Currie is a sniper

2. Currie’s production is less than Desharnais’ at every level

3. Currie is a winger

On the surface, it appears that his upside is lower than Desharnais was. Clearly Currie is a passenger, whereas Desharnais was more of a driver albeit a low-level one. Put Currie with Kyle Brodziak, he gets 12 goals and 20 points. Put Currie with Connor McDavid? Because Desharnais never had a McDavid-type in winger-form to play with, he couldn’t possibly match Currie’s upside. So can Currie succeed where Ty Rattie, another solid AHL sniper, failed? Will he even get a chance to try? That’s the question. I’ll be watching as – for now – he’s just another one of a hundred players with a 1% chance of truly thriving with a lucky break. But as Jim Carrey once noted:

{youtube}zMRrNY0pxfM{/youtube}

Trade Speculation

If Tampa Bay does any trade other than a backup fourth liner or a No. 7 or 8 defenseman, then they are overthinking things. The roster as is should win the Stanley Cup, all that’s left now is pro roster injury protection.

It’s not just the big-name players you should be watching for today. Sure, that’s going to be much more exciting. But these are great players – they’re doing well now, they’ll do well no matter where they go. As far as fantasy is concerned, it’s not even going to move the needle. What we should be looking for, as fantasy owners, are the underused and underrated players who could stumble into a great opportunity. Yes, the odds will be slim in the way that Ty Rattie (or the aforementioned Currie) could get a chance and thrive. And between slim odds of getting decent ice time, and risk of injury (that to me derailed Rattie twice this year), you probably won’t see anything special. But the exciting thing is that you could. Chris Kunitz was once claimed off waivers. Patrick Sharp was traded to Chicago and considered a third-liner. Lots of examples out there. I wonder if Austin Czarnik goes anywhere. Or Nic Petan. Players not only on the cusp, but possibly getting their last shot. Keep in mind that whatever team they go to it will be a team with a shortage of forwards so they’ll get their chance.

Another name to watch for is Daniel Carr, who is embarrassing the AHL right now with 66 points in 47 games which is by far the league lead. Or whoever the Blues trade today. Could Robby Fabbri or Sammy Blais go? Any takers for Jordan Schmaltz as a throw-in?

At midnight, Sunday/Monday, Bob McKenzie reported that Gustav Nyquist was about to be traded to San Jose. I think we can assume that will happen. UPDATE: Deal done, for a 2nd and a conditional 3rd that can become a second if the Sharks re-sign him or make it to the Final. Trade breakdown on this will come in the morning (or is already up if you’re reading this later).

Lots of minor moves as teams gear up for life beyond the deadline. The Islanders have signed Dennis Seidenberg, who had loyally remained with the team without a contract all this time. Depth option at less than half the cap hit. The Bruins have signed winger Lee Stempniak, also for depth. Both players need to get through waivers in order to join the team. The Sabres signed a depth goalie in Adam Wilcox, the Islanders have signed depth goalie Jeremy Smith, and the Panthers have signed depth goalie Chris Driedger. Teams are making sure that they have all the bases covered.

Anaheim Ducks traded Brian Gibbons to Ottawa for Patrick Sieloff. I’m not sure about that one, other than Ottawa maybe looking for an NHL body for their lineup to give the kids more AHL time…

Goalie A vs. Goalie B

If you could take Goalie A, who has a strong likelihood of getting you 40 wins for the foreseeable future, is in his prime on a great team…or Goalie B, who also has a strong likelihood of getting you 40 wins, is probably a little more talented, has a slight chance of getting you 49 wins, but carries say a 10% chance of missing half the season with an injury. Which one do you choose? The answer is, both goalies are great, I’d be fine with either. And they easily top the rest of the field.

I’ve been taking heat on Twitter and FB over having Frederik Andersen at the top of my goalie list over Andrei Vasilevskiy. It’s the usual problem for writers when people don’t read the full article (or in this case, the intro). Andersen is not over Vas. He is in fact equal. They are in the same Tier and deservedly so. If you can’t see the reasoning I outlined above, you have a right to that opinion. If you want to see mine, I proudly present it every month. But do me the favor of reading the intro too, and know exactly what it is you are criticizing.

This is unbelievable and I feel horrible for Dallas and their fans. But they lost Mats Zuccarello for four to six weeks after suffering a (apparent – at least as I write this) broken arm in the third period Sunday. He took a Connor Murphy shot off the arm. This is after Zuccarello slid seamlessly into the lineup and picked up a goal and an assist.

King Henrik breaks down, discussing Zuccarello:

{youtube}3IWMBJI_Q3I{/youtube}

Jamie Benn also left game, but he left early and is day to day. Dallas, as I noted in the trade breakdown, was a three-forward team when it came to offense and it makes a huge difference when they added a fourth. It changes everything. So many more options now up front at even strength and on the power play. But now, instead of having four stud forwards they are down to two? Brutal!

In the game against Chicago, Patrick Kane had his 20-game point streak snapped. But Erik Gustafsson surges on with his seventh point in three games and 33 in his last 31. He also has 38 in 39.

Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin each left Saturday’s game. The latter has a concussion, the former has an upper-body injury.

Rangers’ line combination with Zuccarello gone:

26.4%

KREIDER,CHRIS – VESEY,JIMMY – ZIBANEJAD,MIKA

19.1%

FAST,JESPER – NAMESTNIKOV,VLADISLAV – STROME,RYAN

10%

ANDERSSON,LIAS – BUCHNEVICH,PAVEL – CHYTIL,FILIP

7.7%

BRICKLEY,CONNOR – NIEVES,BOO

So Vesey has slid into Zuke’s spot and Lias Andersson takes Vesey’s spot. Advantage: Vesey, who picked up two points in the game.

Brett Connolly has seven points in his last nine games, but is still only getting 11 minutes of ice time. He’s already at a career high of 33 points and has tied his high of 15 goals. I’d like to see him get another chance – he got all his chances too early in his career. But now is the time he’s ready. As a big 6-3 player he needed more time than the average player. (And yes, Striker, that fits in with your model! Love that model)

Another hat trick for Joe Pavelski gives him 18 points in his last 13 games, with nine of them goals. Kevin Labanc has 15 points in his last 15 games.

After three games with the Minnesota Wild, Ryan Donato has four points. Now, before you start building that Donato shrine it’s important to note a couple of things. First, he made a similar splash at the end of last season when he arrived in Boston. Second, of his three assists all three of them were secondary assists. Great player, good upside, but before declaring that he has arrived I am preaching caution.

Jake Allen has faced 111 shots over the last three starts and he has stopped 105 of them. Perhaps the fear of losing his job is belatedly starting to kick in. But what he needs is to go three consecutive games without allowing four goals. The last time he did that was early December.

Speaking of Austin Czarnik, who I made note of in the trade speculation above, I was wondering why after he scored in three consecutive games did he only get 10 minutes of ice time on Saturday? It just makes a Dobber Darling become even more of one when the coach holds him back. On Sunday he scored again, and it was the game winner. His ice time was 12:15.

Sunday also marked the first ever NHL game between Matthew Tkachuk versus Brady Tkachuk. Matthew won the game but Brady was the only Tkachuk to put a point on the board.

The Senators scratched Mark Stone, Mikkel Boedker and Cody Ceci, each of whom could be dealt before the deadline. With Stone out of the lineup, the top scoring forward on the Sens was Chris Tierney. And yet he still wasn’t on the first PP unit. That trio was Tkachuk, Bobby Ryan and Anthony Duclair. Frankly I prefer the second unit that had Tierney, Logan Brown and Drake Batherson.

Interesting note from the NHL about Saturday’s outdoor game – 13 of the league’s 27 outdoor games have resulted in come-from-behind victories. That’s a shade under half. No lead is safe when the game is outside.

The Coyotes retired Shane Doan’s number on Sunday, as they should. The guy played his entire career with the franchise and finished with 402 goals and 972 points in 1540 games. So close to 1000 points, I can see why he flirted with the idea of playing for another season had there been any takers. Doan’s best fantasy season was 2007-08 when he had 78 points in 80 games, though in 2005-06 he had 30 goals, 66 points and 123 PIM.

Patrik Laine has three goals in his last two games and is now on the top line with Blake Wheeler and Kyle Connor. It gives Laine 28 goals on the season. Last year after 62 games he had 31 goals, so is his season really so bad? Assuming you’re not in a caveman league that still counts plus/minus, that is (ha ha). He could be right back to his usual self in two more good games, that’s all it takes.

Josh Morrissey was injured in the third period. He left the game and did not return.

When Clayton Keller scored Sunday it was his first point in seven games and his first goal since January 20.

Personal Note

Friday marks 18 months since my stem cell transplant. Most of you already know this, but in May of 2017 I was diagnosed with Myelodysplasia and by July it had expedited to Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). Thankfully a world donor was a 100% match and after a summer in-hospital receiving chemo and radiation, I received the transplant. Today I am happy to report that I feel normal, and I am in disbelief that this can be the case. And of course, grateful. What 18 months means is that I am (or will be on Friday) officially halfway to being deemed cured of cancer. Needless to say, the more difficult half is behind me. At this point, the only thing different in my life versus before is the fact that I need to check into the hospital every few weeks for tests, and I need to gradually re-do all my vaccinations. In fact, things are even better because with the new blood I have more energy, and when I exercise it actually makes a difference – the body processes energy and calories better, to say nothing of an improved immunity. (You can read my initial statement here, my update here – and you can register to donate your stem cells here for Canada and here for the USA. As you can see this does save lives.)

Anyway, this is an enjoyable day for hockey fans and I just thought I would add my good news to that.

See you…all day long as I pound out the trade analysis…

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-deadline-notes-currie-analysis-trade-speculation-zuccarello-fallout-and-so-much-more-feb-25/

0 notes

jessicakehoe · 6 years ago

Text

From the FASHION Archives: The Uncanny Prescience of Yves Saint Laurent From the Winter 1982 Issue

Since its launch in 1977, FASHION magazine has been giving Canadian readers in-depth reports on the industry’s most influential figures and expert takes on the worlds of fashion, beauty and style. In this series, we explore the depths of our archive to bring you some of the best fashion features we’ve ever published. This story, originally titled “The World of YSL” by David Livingstone, was originally published in FASHION’s Winter 1982 issue.

Yves Saint Laurent hates fashion and loves Proust. He has said so more than once and is in this way special and fresh. He is also serious, awfully so. He dresses bodies, but what he counts as important is the mind, and he himself has one that is delicate, a blessing and a bother. He is strong too, however, or else would not be so successful. His annual income is estimated to be in the neighbourhood of $4 million. He does not, he says, work to make money. Many others are depending on him. He’s got an apartment in Paris, another in New York, a castle in Normandy and a villa in Marrakesh. He can afford expensive habits – his furniture, they say, could go into a museum – but he struggles for more profound satisfaction and quiet. He only wants to make good clothes and endures celebrity as if he were sentenced to it. But like a sentence from his adored Proust, his career goes on and on.

All the records agree that his beginning was one for the books. Christian Dior died in October 1957. In November, Yves Saint Laurent, an assistant designer, was named the chief. On Thursday. January 30, 1958, he presented his first collection. The main silhouette was flared from narrow shoulders to a wide hem and was called the Trapeze. The press and buyers, types that are distinguished by hard eyes and mouths and that don’t go for the display of unrehearsed emotion, could not contain themselves. They cheered. They shed tears! On Friday, you could read all about it in The New York Times. The front page.

Just 21 years old, Saint Laurent fell into fame everlasting. Fuss still attends his every move. In Paris last January he revived shantung. Fabric salesmen in Toronto started pushing shantung. A bellwether for the fashion industry. Saint Laurent is also a subject of general interest. He throws a party and it’s news. Last January, he celebrated the twentieth anniversary of his own couture house with a do at the Lido. The lavish affair, featuring trained animal acts, Paloma Picasso, Ukrainian dancers and Diana Vreeland became a “people” item in Newsweek. In April, his fall collection of ready-to-wear was hailed by Women’s Wear Daily as “Timeless and masterful.” Earlier this year, Joan Rivers joked to a Tonight Show audience, “If Yves Saint Laurent says it’s boobs in the back, it’s boobs in the back.” And what she said was funny because it was coarse, but not because it was entirely inconceivable.

Recurrently one of the primary influences on what earthlings will be wearing next season, Saint Laurent has been responsible for so many trends that Women’s Wear once dubbed him “Monsieur First.” He has popularized pea jackets, safari jackets, smoking jackets, blazers, pant suits, boots and see-through blouses. He didn’t necessarily invent these things – Vogue in 1943 tried to talk its readers into pea jackets and André Courrèges is credited with the first pant suit – but in fashion, to quote from popular song, “It ain’t what you do, it’s the time you do it,” and Saint Laurent always seemed to know when. If he is not with the times, he is ahead of the times, and the times catch up. In the late ‘60s, he persisted with pants to the point where restaurants had to let them in. In 1971, he based a collection on the ‘40s. A few years later the word all over Paris was “retro.”

More recently, Saint Laurent has come to stand for the two operative principles of current high fashion: good sense by day and wonderland by night. In 1974, he told 7, “What will be more and more important is to be able to create, through a style, clothing that won’t go out of style…” thus articulating a concept generally known as investment dressing and expressed to perfection in his classically tailored glen plaid suit that costs a strictly contemporary $1,300. In 1976, triggering an outbreak of after-dark fantaisie, he presented a fall couture collection that was unabashedly unrealistic, a money-to-burn extravaganza of voluminous brocade blouses and taffeta skirts described by a sociologist in New York magazine as “an advertisement that you don’t have to get in a taxi or on the subway.”

In fact, the street has played an important part in shaping Saint Laurent’s approach to fashion. While these “rich peasant” costumes may have seemed to uphold the aristocratic authority of couture, they were called by some, “rich hippie,” and were regarded to be but a borrowing from the layered ethnic look favored by the spaced-out young women that one used to see selling candles on the boulevard. From the days of Rose Bertin, “minister of fashion” to Marie Antoinette, the function of couture had been to provide affluent and mature women of the world with the pleasure of painstakingly crafted luxury to be worn as a sign, not of being with-it, but above it. But in the ‘60s, fashion went all democratic. Youth and the street became important, and Saint Laurent championed ready-to-wear as more relevant than snootily out-of-it haute couture. Having established himself as a couturier judged to be one of the greats, right up there with Balenciaga and Chanel, he opened a ready-to-wear outlet in 1966, the first Rive Gauche boutique of which there are now more than 120 dotting the globe. He did not do the first ready-to-wear collection (Pierre Cardin did that in 1959) but he altered the course of fashion history by making ready-to-wear the main depository of his creative ideas. He broke with the tradition of using couture collections as a laboratory for experiment and introduced his innovations in his off-the-rack lines. In 1971, he told WWD: “I prefer my look to be in my Rive Gauche collections rather than in the couture four months later….La mode … [is] what you see in the street, what women buy and wear, what is copied. It’s ready-to-wear.”

It’s ironic that contact with the outside world should have figured so prominently in the imagination of one whose growing up was marked by isolation. Yves Saint Laurent was born on August 1, 1936, in Algeria, into a French civilization. His mother, a snappy dresser, actively inspired his early interest in clothes. His father, an insurance agent, passively did not discourage it. He had two sisters whom he would amuse by making costumes for their dolls and staging theatrical entertainments complete with a stage, props and sets that he designed himself. As a teenager, seeking advice from Michel de Brunhoff, director of French Vogue, Saint Laurent still considered a career in theatre as a distinct possibility. De Brunhoff encouraged him to attend fashion school in Paris. He also passed some of Saint Laurent’s sketches on to Christian Dior. In 1953, Dior hired Saint Laurent as an assistant.

Yves Saint Laurent was a bony, bespectacled bundle of nerves who left the impression that he never laughed. However, Dior, struck by the young man’s talent more than his timidity, saw in him a natural successor and once confided to his right-hand person, “…[W]hatever happens to me I want Yves to take over.” At the time of Dior’s death in 1957, the House of Dior was the largest dressmaking operation in Paris and his heir was naturally bound to win a lot of attention. Beyond that, Saint Laurent’s first collection was a sensation. One of the Trapeze dresses was sold a record-breaking 147 times. Ingenuously full like a little girl’s smock, the Trapeze signalled the arrival of youth. In 1960, in his fourth collection for the dead giant’s establishment, Saint Laurent shortened skirts to the knee and introduced “beat” themes such as turtlenecks and motorcycle jackets. But for the sedate clientele, this was altogether too freaky. The collection bombed. Suddenly, Saint Laurent, who up until then had been kept from obligatory military service thanks to his powerful employers’ interventions with the French government, was drafted.

September 14, 1960: “St. Laurent of Dior is in the Army Now.” September 19: “Saint-Laurent in Hospital.” November 11: “Dior Designer Out of Army.” The headlines in The New York Times unfolded with a speed that would have been comical had they not represented a sorry episode about which Saint Laurent was still having nightmares more than 15 years later. While his military career was brief, there had been sufficient time for Marc Bohan to have been named chief designer at the House of Dior. Having recuperated from his nervous breakdown, Saint Laurent returned to Paris in 1961 and sued Dior for $120,000. He eventually settled for less, and in the meantime announced the opening of his own couture house. Supported by a business partner, Pierre Bergé, and backed by an American investor, he showed the first collection in January 1962, and there have been bravos ever since.

Today Yves Saint Laurent is a complicated empire. In addition to the couture and ready-to-wear divisions, there are more than 200 licensing arrangements by which his name is attached to a variety of merchandise including jeans, children’s wear, swimwear and so on. It’s a multi-tentacled business, a reminder that if the French make beautiful clothes, they also make beautiful office supplies and have a talent for refined bureaucracy. In North America, a key figure in the Yves Saint Laurent empire is Didier Grumbach, who occupies the position of president of Saint Laurent Rive Gauche-U.S. Related to the Mendès family, famous French manufacturers, who have made Saint Laurent’s ready-to-wear since its inception, he is also president of Paris Collections, the marketing and distribution arm of Rive Gauche. Seated in his New York office, decorated to the nines by the celebrated Andrée Putman, he displays the single-mindedness of an organization man. His sense of pertinent is well-defined, logical and precise. His conversation is full of “That’s another story,” “That’s an old story,” and “I don’t think that is important to your story.” He boasts effusively that Saint Laurent Rive Gauche is “an international confederation of retailers” and speaks of the importance of exclusivity and prestige. “In most of the cases when a name is strongly licensed, the desire of the woman to wear the clothes fades. You don’t hear of any woman dressed by Pierre Cardin.” A close-mouthed guardian of the Yves Saint Laurent legend, he seems determined not to be revealing. He has practically no dealings with Saint Laurent himself, about whom his remarks are confined to little more than “Any creative person is inquiet.” As for Bergé, with whom he works closely and who is often in New York, he says, “Well, Pierre Bergé is a Scorpio.”

Following this arcane clue, I ask someone who knows about such things to describe a Scorpio. The immediate response is “Powerful. They go after what they want.” The description seems a perfect match for Bergé, president of Yves Saint Laurent, and as People magazine put it, Saint Laurent’s “main man.” While Saint Laurent has a reputation for being shy and withdrawn, Bergé has a reputation for being mouthy and fierce. A staunch defender of the designer’s genius, he once told WWD, “What I do is sell enthusiasm, about something I believe in and admire.”

Saint Laurent has a knack for inspiring loyalty. “I devote my life and body to Yves Saint Laurent,” says Krystyne Griffin, president of retail at Hazelton Lanes and president of Saint Laurent Rive Gauche Canada. Tall and formidable, she is a multilinguist who gives instructions to her secretary in French and is apt to make the press feel they are working for her. She is leggy and quick on her feet. In 1980, she hopped on a plane to Paris when she heard that Creeds would no longer be carrying Saint Laurent and came back with the Canadian franchise. Although she oversees operation of the Rive Gauche boutique at the Lanes and another in Montréal, her most public incarnation is as a publicist. When it comes to promotion, she has a touch that is more like a talent. If an invitation arrives bearing lovely calligraphy, chances are that Griffin has been at work organizing an event such as the launch of Kouros, Yves Saint Laurent’s fragrance for men, or the introduction of his cosmetic line, which is available in North America only at Little Lanes or Hazelton Lanes.

Although he posed naked as a jaybird for advertisements of his first men’s fragrance, Saint Laurent himself has increasingly refrained from personally promoting. And more generally his photographs show him to be one of serious mien. Most that have been published would go nicely on a dust jacket. So far he has turned to literature once. In 1967, La Vilaine Lulu was published. A storybook that also included his drawings, it described the adventures of a pyromaniacal, sadistic little girl. At the launch party, held at New Jimmy’s, a hot Paris nightclub of the day, Saint Laurent warned that Lulu should not be analyzed for psychological meaning, although it seems safe to take her as a sign of what he considers droll. He does however have plans to publish a book that is autobiographical. In 1973, in Interview, he told Bianca Jagger, “I would very much like to write a book…. A very, very beautiful book that would be a summation of everything I love… . “And in 1977 when novelist Anthony Burgess profiled him for The New York Times Magazine he reported having stolen a glance at Saint Laurent’s manuscript. Said Burgess: “I was pleased with the intricacy of sentence construction, the love of rare words, the hints of a mental complexity not usually associated with the dress designer.”

Unlike Charles Frederick Worth, father of haute couture, who affected a velvet beret and the floppy neck scarf that were the sartorial trappings of late nineteenth-century artists, Saint Laurent has not made a habit of playing the artiste manqué. Rather, in 1970 when Helen Lawrenson interviewed him for Esquire, he told her: “I detest courtiers who confuse their work with art. Courtier, haute couture, mode – all these terms are passé. La mode est démodée.”

Such outspokenness seemed to brand Saint Laurent as a ‘60s radical. And, again in 1970, he told WWD: “Hippie is more than a way of dressing, it’s a spirit which fills young people. I don’t know any young people who are not hippies in their spirit. This is what it is all about. When the revolution comes, it will come from the young people.” Throughout the ‘70s, by contrast, Saint Laurent came more and more to stand for the established order. Although The New York Times proclaimed his 1976 collection as “revolutionary” (on the front page, even), The National Village Voice’s headline was less than enthusiastic: “The Yves St. Laurent Bombshell is a Dud.” Following the $250,000 New York party to launch Opium, Saint Laurent’s most recent scent for women, New Times, another countercultural journal, ran a story that mocked the extravagance as decadent.

Over the years, Saint Laurent has dissociated himself from the present and more and more has sought his inspiration from days gone by. In 1974, he told WWD, “I’d rather look to the beauty of the past than the uncertainty of the future.” As designers such as Issey Miyake, Gianfranco Ferre and Ronaldus Shamask have been exploring progressive architectural forms, Saint Laurent has done hommages to Picasso, Proust, the Ballet Russe, Charles Stuart and Shakespeare. For his more practical day wear, he has adapted looks from his own past. The long lean collarless tunics he did for last spring, for example, were an update of the rajah line he showed in 1962.

Most designers, of course, do not last long enough to make this kind of self-reference possible. And while bombs and cancers every day make it more difficult and less desirable to contemplate tomorrow, how lucky is Saint Laurent to have memories rich enough to be nourishing, strong enough to suffice.

The post From the <em>FASHION</em> Archives: The Uncanny Prescience of Yves Saint Laurent From the Winter 1982 Issue appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

From the FASHION Archives: The Uncanny Prescience of Yves Saint Laurent From the Winter 1982 Issue published first on https://borboletabags.tumblr.com/

0 notes

armeniaitn · 5 years ago

Text

Armenia 3rd President Sargsyan: Did we win or lose in April 2016 war?

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/politics/armenia-3rd-president-sargsyan-did-we-win-or-lose-in-april-2016-war-51461-19-08-2020/

Armenia 3rd President Sargsyan: Did we win or lose in April 2016 war?

Before answering the questions of interest to you, I would like to address the panel with a brief introductory speech. Also, I suggest attaching it to today’s meeting’s minutes.

Let me now address some issues that have unfortunately become the subject of speculation.

Before arguing about whether we won or lost by repelling the April aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan, one ought to have a clear idea of what victory is, and what defeat is in a war.

Before answering the question of whether we won or lost the April War, let me briefly touch on whether we could prevent or avoid the war. Now I can confidently state that it was impossible.

Second, Azerbaijan was striving to give to oblivion the fact that Artsakh was a party to the conflict as vividly evidenced by the tripartite ceasefire arrangement signed as early as in 1994.

Now let us see whether they achieved their goals or not?

Going a little further, I should say that I deeply regret to see that some forces have been serving this very goal inside our country over the past few years.

After all, was the April War a victory or a defeat for the Armenian side? I have never questioned it, since I am convinced that this is our victory, the victory of all of us.

Read original article here.

#Armenia #Artsakh #Karabakh #Yerevan #Politics

0 notes

jessicakehoe · 6 years ago

Text

From the FASHION Archives: The Uncanny Prescience of Yves Saint Laurent From the Winter 1982 Issue

The post From the <em>FASHION</em> Archives: The Uncanny Prescience of Yves Saint Laurent From the Winter 1982 Issue appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

From the FASHION Archives: The Uncanny Prescience of Yves Saint Laurent From the Winter 1982 Issue published first on https://borboletabags.tumblr.com/

0 notes

jessicakehoe · 6 years ago

Text

From the FASHION Archives: The Uncanny Prescience of Yves Saint Laurent From the Winter 1982 Issue

The post From the <em>FASHION</em> Archives: The Uncanny Prescience of Yves Saint Laurent From the Winter 1982 Issue appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

From the FASHION Archives: The Uncanny Prescience of Yves Saint Laurent From the Winter 1982 Issue published first on https://borboletabags.tumblr.com/

0 notes

thrashermaxey · 6 years ago

Text

Ramblings: Line Combinations and Third Wheels – September 18

We are just two weeks away from the start of the regular season which means if you aren’t brushing up on fantasy hockey right now, you’re falling behind your league mates. Get caught up with everything you need to know in the 2018-19 Dobber Hockey fantasy guide! Just head to the Dobber Shop to purchase yours right now.

One thing that is always worth discussing in fantasy hockey is the concept of third wheels. Those guys who skate with two elite (or near-elite) talents and reap the rewards of doing so. The laundry list of players to take full advantage of this in the last four or five years is lengthy. Just think of skaters like Jiri Hudler, Vladislav Namestnikov, Sven Baertschi, Josh Bailey, Kyle Connor, and so on. All good players in their own right, but their fantasy value went to another level when slotted alongside top talents.

There’s always a risk with drafting these players. If a guy goes from top line/top PP unit to third line/second PP unit, his value goes from high to nil. Sometimes, the supposed third wheels don’t work out; names like Brett Ritchie and Andre Burakovsky come to mind. I haven’t given up on either as far as fantasy value is concerned for the future, they just haven’t worked out as hoped in the past.

All the same, we know what the upside is. We saw a 70-point season from Hudler. We saw Namestnikov tear it up for a few months last year. We saw Kyle Connor guy from the AHL to a 30-goal scorer in one year. If the right guys get the right slotting, even for a few months, their fantasy value is enormous.

I thought it’d be worth discussing some of these third wheels. This will focus mainly on guys I think are undervalued right now and worth the gamble at the draft table. As always, things can change in the preseason and ADPs can get inflated. This is just as of right now.

In case anyone missed it – the game was on in the middle of the night – there wasn’t much to take away from the Calgary-Boston preseason game from China other than this:

#Flames going with these powerplay units in China, both 1-3-1 setups: Lindholm Gaudreau-Monahan-Tkachuk Giordano Neal Backlund-Ryan-Czarnik Brodie

— Pat Steinberg (@Fan960Steinberg) September 15, 2018

As always, things are subject to change, but for now this should settle the debate between James Neal or Elias Lindholm for the top PP unit. Lindholm, as a right-handed shot, always made sense but now we have confirmation.

For now, it appears that Lindholm will be both on the top line with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan as well the top power play unit. I changed his TOI and on-ice goal numbers to reflect this change in my rankings and he came out as the 25th right winger in a standard 12-team Yahoo! league starting three at each forward position. He’s in the same range as guys like Tyler Toffoli and Nino Niederreiter.

Lindholm’s upside is tied to his usage. That can be said for most non-elite players. If Ondrej Kase or Kailer Yamamoto are on their respective teams’ top line, they are instantly fantasy-relevant and must-owns. If they’re on their respective teams’ third lines, not so much. Same here for Lindholm. You won’t have to pay much in drafts to find this out, though. Yahoo! has him ranked well outside their top-200 players and he’s being consistently drafted outside the top-50 right wingers. You can draft him as a bench option and slide him into your starting lineup. Maybe he lasts just two months on the top line. Maybe a month. Regardless, the draft investment is so minimal that even if he’s bumped down the lineup by American Thanksgiving, he can be dropped to the waiver wire and replaced easily. If he stays there most of the season, there is a player with a lot of profit potential to be had.

Remember this about Lindholm: he posted back-to-back seasons with 150+ shots, 95+ hits, and 40+ points all while averaging 10 PPPs a season. He can easily be a 50-point player with some additional PP time on a skilled top unit while providing reasonable shot totals and healthy hit totals. Buy him at his current price and continue buying him even if his price rises a few rounds.

Anyone who has read my Ramblings this summer knows I’m a big fan of Josh Anderson. There’s just one little problem:

Based on today's training camp scrimmages, the Blue Jackets are experimenting with these lines in the early going: Panarin – Dubois – Atkinson Foligno – Wennberg – Bjorkstrand Jenner – Dubinsky – Anderson Duclair – Nash – Milano Thoughts? #CBJ

— 1st Ohio Battery (@1stOhioBattery) September 15, 2018

John Tortorella isn’t likely to keep his lines together for long but it does give insight into where the coach seems Anderson fitting into the hierarchy at the moment. Anderson has the talent to score 30 goals in this league, but if he’s on the third line with Brandon Dubinsky as his centre and not on the top PP unit, he’s probably undraftable outside of deep leagues. He’s a guy to monitor as the season progresses.

The draft position of JT Miller will be fun to follow for the next couple weeks. Among right wingers, I have him literally right next to Elias Lindholm, coming in as my 26th right winger. He’s listed as a left winger on Fantasy Pros so that’s why if you go back to my Friday Ramblings to look for him he won’t be among the right wingers.

Regardless, this is another player being drafted far too low. Just look at what Vladislav Namestnikov did on the top line for the Lightning last year. He had a little over 1380 total minutes at all strengths last year and spent 710 of them (or about 51.3 percent) with Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov. Despite being traded to the Rangers for the final six weeks, and despite only spending roughly half his season’s ice time on that top line, he finished just inside the top-150 players in standard Yahoo! leagues by season’s end (player 146). Miller is being drafted later than that for this season.

I get people are apprehensive about drafting third wheels. As we saw with Namestnikov, once they lose their role, they lose their fantasy value. Here’s what I say to that: so what? Worse-case with Miller is you’ve spent a 13th or 14th-round pick on a guy who is starting the season playing with two of the most dynamic players in the game and playing with them at all scoring strengths. If you’re that worried, look to trade him after a couple months. Even if he flat-out busts in October, all you’ve spent is a mid-round pick.

Miller is a proven 20-goal scorer and has one of the top line mate duos in the league to skate with. Take this gamble once you get past the 12th round.

(Just for clarity: I have him with 17.3 PPPs and 62.9 points this year. If he can reach those marks with triple-digit hit totals, he’ll cruise past his draft-day cost.

Over the last four years, these are Anders Lee’s 82-game paces for standard Yahoo! leagues:

29 goals, 20 assists, 14 PPPs, 200 shots, 156 hits

His current ADP is slightly behind Conor Sheary.

What?

Ok, I get it. The Islanders lost John Tavares. Here’s how Tavares and Mat Barzal compared last year to things like shot assists (passes that lead to shots), zone entries, and zone exits:

Of course, Barzal won’t have Tavares around to eat some of the tougher minutes, but that also means a lot more minutes for Barzal overall. He should be hovering near the 20-minute mark per game this year. If Lee is riding shotgun for those minutes, I don’t care if they have to play against Patrice Bergeron or Jordan Staal once in a while.

Early returns from camp have Anthony Beauvillier on the top line with Barzal. That’s a problem but consider this: Timo Meier finished last year as a top-200 player in standard Yahoo! leagues with 21 goals, 15 assists, 210 shots, and 105 hits. Suppose Lee is stuck on the second line all year, that’s still a reasonable scoring line for him. He provides a lot in peripherals, so even if his goal scoring is cut in half from the 40 goals he tallied in 2017-18, he is still a relevant fantasy option. And Lee should have a lot more than the 4 PPPs Meier put up last year. Lee’s points production could decline by 30 percent and he’s still worth his current ADP.

Maybe Lee is stuck on the second line all year. That means, at worst, he’ll return roughly where he’s being drafted (just inside the top-50 left wingers). Or maybe he’ll move to the top line for half the season and smash his ADP.

I know plus/minus is a concern, but to be honest, it’s less of one if he avoids the heavy minutes he’ll play with Barzal. That’s the trade-off here.

Lee is basically free in 12-team leagues. You may not even have to draft him. You might be able to grab him on the waiver wire. He is a guy, though, who I want as my bench option in 12-team leagues. If he really tanks, you can cut him and the replacement cost is low. Or he won’t tank, and you’ve drafted a guy who will return a massive profit.

There are some interesting line combinations I want to keep an eye on through training camp. This is what’s stuck out to me the last few days.

Arizona had Keller-Stepan-Panik skating together while Alex Galchenyuk was with Perlini and Fischer. My hope had been for Galchenyuk to centre Keller with Stepan on the second line taking more of a shutdown role. This could be a problem for Galchenyuk’s fantasy value should it persist.

Joel Quenneville has Chris Kunitz skating with Jonathan Toews and Alex DeBrincat while Brandon Saad is the winger for Nick Schmaltz and Patrick Kane. Good news for Saad, but bad news for Dylan Sikura. I cannot imagine Kunitz lasts long on that top line but Quenneville loves his vets.

Neither Kailer Yamamoto nor Jesse Puljujarvi are currently in the top-6 for Edmonton. Rather, it’s Ty Rattie alongside Connor McDavid and Tobias Rieder with Leon Draisaitl. I’m at a loss for words.

All data from Corsica, Dobber Frozen Tools, or Natural Stat Trick. Three-zone comp from CJ Turtoro.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-line-combinations-and-third-wheels-september-18/

0 notes

thrashermaxey · 7 years ago

Text

Ramblings: Season-Ending Q+A (Mar 30)

Today’s ramblings will be a blowout Q+A. Enjoy!

{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Will Mat Barzal be a PPG player again next year and/or what is his value if John Tavares leaves New York?</p>— Will Weiler (@wweiler) <a href="https://twitter.com/wweiler/status/978597798177333249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2018</a></blockquote>

I have mild concerns about all the point totals we have seen this season. The early crackdown on obstruction led to penalties getting called at a rate we hadn’t seen in years, and the subsequent bump in power plays shot goal scoring up about an extra goal per game. That lasted for about a month and then things got back to normal.

That October bump is a big reason why of the 39 individual seasons in which a player scored 30+ PPP in a season over the past five years 13 of them (a third) are from this year, and that number is likely to climb with a little over a week remaining and several players knocking on the door.

Power plays are getting more efficient across the board as more teams buy into the four-forward look, but there has been a significant give-back in goal scoring since October. With teams better adapted to how the game is getting called, plus the natural progression away from referees making those calls, I doubt that we see scoring the level we saw it in the first month of the season.

For Barzal, who has 24 PPP, any slippage could see him fall below the point-per-game mark. However, Barzal scored only one of his 24 PPP in October. His season didn’t take off in full until November, when the Islanders finally sorted out which line Jordan Eberle should play on, and also that Barzal should indeed become a primary part of their top power play unit.

Barzal is also a super-duper star, capable of carrying his own line, and potentially his own team. No doubt life would become more difficult losing John Tavares as he’d get more attention from the oppositions best players as well as more focus from coaching staffs trying to shut him down. However, a guy who skates like Barzal is always going to be able to put the opposition into crisis.

My main concern would be if the Islanders make a coaching change and get away from the wide-open play they have had all season. A coach not so content to trade chances could stifle Barzal by really having him focus on becoming a more complete two-way player. I suspect that plan would be accelerated if Tavares leaves.

There are also reasons to be suspect of assist-heavy players. Barzal’s performance is all too similar to Evgeny Kuznetsov’s breakout 2015-16 season. Kuznetsov’s subsequent decline in 2016-17 was a shock to many as it was assumed Kuznetsov had asserted himself as a star. As this season will prove, Kuznetsov is indeed a star. His point-per-game play was not a one-off, however he needs players around him to finish. What happened to Kuznetsov doesn’t guarantee that Barzal will decline next season, but it is an outcome we must consider.

The safe play is to peg Barzal for just under a point-per-game season as a hedge against the “sophomore slump” and that’s with or without Tavares. I suspect that if Tavares leaves there may be an overcorrection against Barzal underrating what he is capable of on his own.

{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Where you taking Dahlin? Mcdavid was ranked #43 in his rookie year, do you take Dahlin before or after 43rd?</p>— Amet Garewal (@dreamzmann) <a href="https://twitter.com/dreamzmann/status/978486276285374468?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2018</a></blockquote>

As I outlined earlier this month, it is staggeringly difficult for defensemen to jump from the draft right into the NHL. Even if Dahlin can break the mould and be a 50-point defenseman out of the gate that still isn’t necessarily worth a top-50 pick in one-year leagues. I’d aim for Dahlin at the very end of drafts if drafting him at all. Perhaps outside the top 200. How about undrafted?

Dahlin can simultaneously be the best defenseman prospect to come along in years, a genuine franchise altering defenseman, and still not have fantasy relevance in his first few years.

{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">12 team H2H keepers league. Which goalie would you draft first next year? Price Andersen Holtby Darling Mrazek Bobrovsky? Thanks</p>— FaNHockey HABS (@patrick_neron) <a href="https://twitter.com/patrick_neron/status/978695671464251398?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2018</a></blockquote>

There’s a fun rollercoaster that seems to happen with the goaltending position, and even in trying to get out in front of it, I’ve still fallen victim to it. This past year, my top tier was:

Carey Price

Cam Talbot

Matt Murray

Frederik Andersen

I was pretty well set that if I was going to have a top tier goalie it was going to be Andersen as he was the only real value proposition available from that tier. In most drafts, you could have gotten Andersen in the sixth or seventh round with a pick somewhere around 70th overall. That would have been one of the better bargains, and if you followed my draft list you surely bagged him.

I didn’t have Holtby in that top tier, despite being the best goalie in fantasy hockey over the previous few seasons. I succeeded in getting out in front of that regression. The rest of my top tier? Not so much.

After a strong season, I suspect Andersen will be overvalued next season, while guys like Holtby, and Talbot will be undervalued. I don’t think Price or Murray will take much of a hit given the high profile of their respective teams.

As for your specific question, I think I’d have to take Sergei Bobrovsky off that list. Will he be my #1 next year? He’ll be close. I’ll have a tough time keeping him out of my top tier again. I am afraid of the goalie rollercoaster, but there is a good argument that Bobrovsky is the best goalie in hockey. Here’s the top five for save percentage over the past five seasons:

Sv%

Philipp Grubauer

0.923

John Gibson

0.923

Carey Price

0.923

Corey Crawford

0.922

Sergei Bobrovsky

0.922

Bobrovsky has consistently been excellent, and he provides the added bonus of annually cranking it up another notch in the month of March during the fantasy playoffs:

Wins

Losses

GAA

Sv%

Shutouts

October

2.71

0.911

November

2.3

0.923

December

2.43

0.922

January

2.61

0.916

February

2.78

0.905

March

2.1

0.932

April

2.39

0.922

He does this every damned year to the point that it’s scary. If you’ve been a Bobrovsky owner these past few years, you have made a killing, especially in H2H leagues.

{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Is Mrazek worth anything more than a bag of pucks after this season?</p>— Benoît Rivard (@ben_haggis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ben_haggis/status/978592125792260096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2018</a></blockquote>

Petr Mrazek hasn’t shown out the way we might have hoped since landing in Philadelphia:

Wins

Losses

GAA

Sv%

Shutouts

Detroit

2.89

0.91

Philadelphia

3.11

0.890

This has probably cost him any shot at a starting gig next season. You also have to think that the Flyers won’t be qualifying him at $4 million this summer so he’ll be a UFA looking for a backup gig. He could save this with a big playoff run, but that is looking exceedingly unlikely. If you’re offering Mrazek around in your league, he won’t be worth much.

How many times have we seen a goalie look lost before landing in the right situation with the right goalie coach, rediscover his confidence and prove himself to be a legitimate starter? Devan Dubnyk lost three seasons in his mid-20’s before rediscovering his game in Arizona. He did enough there to warrant a trade to Minnesota that saved the Wild’s season and Dubnyk’s career. Someone is going to give Mrazek a shot this summer whether it works out or not, there’s a chance he could become relevant again.

{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Which coach gets canned first in the offseason ?</p>— paul canosa (@PaulCanosa) <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulCanosa/status/978612581685317632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2018</a></blockquote>

My money would be on Bill Peters as the only coach on a team without a GM. It doesn’t necessarily sound like the Hurricanes are going to be an organization where the GM gets to “pick his guy” as Tom Dundon seems to want to have more of a direct line to the coach where they’d act a bit more as separate entities, but whoever is making that call, whether the new GM or the owner, neither one hired Peters.

There’s also this nugget from Elliotte Friedman’s latest 31 Thoughts:

3. Carolina’s Bill Peters has one year remaining on his contract, but, according to several sources, he has an “out” after this season. He’s obviously not going to talk about it while the Hurricanes are still playing, but my understanding is he has approximately one week after their season ends to activate it. Peters has a $1.6-million salary for 2018-19.

{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Thanks for doing this. H2H multicat (incl.SOG, PPP, FOW, hits…) keeper league- Eichel or MacKinnon?</p>— Tomastop (@TooSlowH) <a href="https://twitter.com/TooSlowH/status/978717275200114691?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2018</a></blockquote>

Nathan MacKinnon has had the breakout season I was projecting Jack Eichel to have. Not that Eichel has been bad, and he certainly has the potential to match MacKinnon on most fronts, but you have to go with MacKinnon.

{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Starting a new 12 keeper league next year. After Mcdavid at #1 who are your 11 best keepers as first round targets.</p>— Joe Bond (@joexbondo) <a href="https://twitter.com/joexbondo/status/978710326995664896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2018</a></blockquote>

Some of this would depend on format, but for pure points the simplest method would be to go with Dobber’s list. That list still leans heavily towards value for this season. Looking at next year and after McDavid you’re going with:

Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon, Johnny Gaudreau, Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Brad Marchand, Erik Karlsson (assuming some distinction between forwards and defensemen), Steven Stamkos and Patrick Kane in some order.

My list leaves out a lot of talent (some of which would rise in different formats) and doesn’t even include goaltending, which would necessitate including at least Andrei Vasilevskiy and John Gibson, and perhaps more depending on format.

{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Top 2 or 3 defensemen you’re targeting next year AFTER Karlsson and Burns</p>— Matt Stallone (@StalloneMatt) <a href="https://twitter.com/StalloneMatt/status/978710932636487680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2018</a></blockquote>

Who I target, and who I rank after those two are two separate ideas because in drafts it’s all about value. This season, I targeted Alex Pietrangelo, John Carlson and Shayne Gostisbehere outside the top-50 players and in some cases, outside the top-100. All three produced 50+ points. You also could have made hay targeting Tyson Barrie and Keith Yandle as undervalued guys headed for bounce-back seasons.

Who to target that will give you value in later rounds allowing you to chase forwards early? Kevin Shattenkirk, Shea Weber, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Kris Letang, Duncan Keith, Rasmus Ristolainen, Sami Vatanen and maybe Zach Werenski. None of those guys would rank directly behind the top two defensemen but have a better shot at being undervalued as a result. We’ll have to see what trends emerge come draft season.

{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">What do you see for Guentzel next year?</p>— Dan Anderson (@BitterDan) <a href="https://twitter.com/BitterDan/status/978741959262179328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2018</a></blockquote>

You’ll find Jake Guentzel on my list of rebound candidates for next season, however getting a 60-point season is probably the max he can offer with Patric Hornqvist due to return. Mid-50’s with strong peripherals is my projection at this stage, which may not be worth reaching for, especially if he has another huge playoff run.

{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Who’s going have a better year next year. Pierce Luc-Dubois or Casey Mittelstadt?</p>— Daniel Duke (@canadianduke) <a href="https://twitter.com/canadianduke/status/978609130314190850?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2018</a></blockquote>

If you’ve followed along all year, you know I am a big fan of the Wood Man. I expect even more from Pierre-Luc Dubois next season. It isn’t certain that Mittelstadt will even be in the NHL next season (though it does seem quite likely).

{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">How you project Dustin Byfuglien next season given his role on a good offensive team.</p>— Nick DeStef (@NickDeStef7) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickDeStef7/status/978591302030798849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2018</a></blockquote>

Dustin Byfuglien just turned 33 and saw himself getting phased out a bit this season from the astronomical loads he was asked to carry in previous seasons. He also went through a horrible shooting drought that he should bounce back from.

Figuring out where Byfuglien stands next season may have to wait until the offseason. The Jets have some big decisions with Jacob Trouba, Josh Morrissey, Connor Hellebuyck, Adam Lowry and others hitting restricted free agency, most of whom with arbitration rights. They have roughly $25 million in cap space to play with, but that will go quick between those four guys, let alone the others and also filling in holes on roster with Paul Stastny and Tobias Enstrom hitting unrestricted free agency. They may also be forced to carry some bonus overages forward to their 2018-19 cap with guys like Patrik Laine, Nikolai Ehlers, and Kyle Connor producing well on their entry-level deals. No one feels sorry for the Jets, this is a good problem to have. How they negotiate this situation will decide how much they have to lean on Byfuglien who is unlikely to be heading anywhere.

The easiest solution would be to move Tyler Myers who is redundant as a big money right-side defenseman on a team with Byfuglien and Trouba. $5.5 million is a lot to pay for a third pairing guy, even one as talented and capable as Myers. His deal expires at the end of next season, so he’d mostly be a rental, but moving him to patch another hole (either a left-side defenseman or a middle-six centerman) could allow for internal growth with Tucker Poolman expected to be ready for regular duty and clear some cap space.

Moving on from Myers (who has eaten into a bit of Byfuglien’s power play time) would mean leaning on Byfuglien and Trouba more heavily. Perhaps leaning on the 33-year-old isn’t ideal as he ages, but they are paying him like he can carry a heavy load.

The difference between Byfuglien playing the 24:26 he has averaged this season and the 27:27 he averaged the year prior adds up though almost exclusively in peripheral categories, especially with SOG. With continued usage at this season’s rate, we’re talking 200 SOG, lowering his goal projection to the 8-13 -range and his standard 35-40 assists. Bump Byfuglien’s usage back up and his goal-scoring potential increases with his shot volume.

It’s worth noting that despite his shooting percentage going in the tank and a decline in usage, Byfuglien’s per-game scoring hasn’t deviated much from the average he has posted the past few seasons:

Points/Game

2014-2015

0.65

2015-2016

0.65

2016-2017

0.65

2017-2018

0.63

That’s likely because most of what Byfuglien has lost in ice time comes from the penalty kill, which aren’t important minutes for scoring. It doesn’t hurt his peripherals though. If you play in a league with blocked shots, the decrease in penalty kill time for Byfuglien has cost him roughly one blocked shot every seven games, which adds up to a dozen over a full season. His hits are down too. Byfuglien’s usage going into decline at a time when his skills might also be fading could have had a deleterious effect on his numbers, but it has also come with the Jets emerging as an elite team, which has helped blunt any aging effects we might otherwise have seen. It has likely been helpful that his PK usage is down.

Byfuglien remains an elite multi-category option and a locked-in top-20 point-scoring defenseman. He doesn’t quite have the same upside as once before. It seems unlikely that he’s ever going to go for 20+ goals and 60+ points (a level he never did hit but always felt like he might). Byfuglien’s floor remains high, which makes him a safe option.

{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Who are your top 5 overrated players heading into next season for fantasy</p>— Nick (@proofreadmeat) <a href="https://twitter.com/proofreadmeat/status/978484450765000704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2018</a></blockquote>

Shameless plug for the DobberHockey Guide. Each summer I put together the top-20 regression candidates for the guide and I assume I will be reprising that piece this summer, so for this one, you’ll have to wait for August.

Thanks for reading! You can follow me on Twitter @SteveLaidlaw.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-season-ending-qa-mar-30/

0 notes

thrashermaxey · 7 years ago

Text

Unwrapping Six Underrated Performers

Happy Holidays to all my North American counterparts! As I prepare to gorge myself on Christmas ham and knock back way too many Molson products let’s look at some fantasy assets that aren’t receiving the love they deserve for their contributions to both their actual real life squads and the fantasy teams where they’re rostered. Some of these names are more familiar and some have just come up on the radar in 2017-18 showing what they may be able to provide you the fantasy manager in years to come. If you have followed these writings throughout time you may know that I make it my job to give love to guys who really need more of it a la James van Riemsdyk.

Yanni Gourde

Honestly, I knew not a thing about Gourde prior to this season but boy do I love an undrafted success story anytime they arise. What is it with high scoring players in the QMJHL sometimes not being taken seriously? Anyone remember the 2006 draft when Bobby Clarke forgot Claude Giroux’s name at the podium? Here’s that for your viewing pleasure…

{youtube}kcmdnFvM4w8{/youtube}

Getting back to Gourde, in his final two seasons with the Victoriaville Tigres he scored 192 points in 136 games played. 124 of those points alone came in 2011-12 in 68 games played! Though his scoring translation took a few seasons after the completion of his junior career, eventually while part of the Tampa Bay Lightning affiliated Syracuse Crunch he turned it on starting in 2014-15. With 149 points in 197 games played from 2014-17 in the AHL, Gourde seemingly had what it takes to be a difference maker in the NHL. Nine points in his first 22 games in the NHL across two seasons suggested his abilities but 2017-18 has been his coming out party with him currently on pace for a 25-goal, 58-point season. With four goals and three assists in his past seven games played Gourde’s scoring capabilities are seemingly once again translating at the highest level.

Now 26 years of age Gourde is well in his prime and can be viewed somewhat differently than your typical newbie to the league because of his age. More physically and mentally developed alongside playing on a stacked Lightning squad, Gourde is starting to look a lot like a Brayden Point story. Not receiving top line minutes nor primary power play time it is easy to forget about Gourde with the arsenal of weapons on this team. Because of said arsenal it is entirely reasonable to expect him to maintain his scoring pace as he will never see top defensive pairs that are matching up with the top two lines every time. Boasting a 0.69 point-per-game pace in the second quarter through 13 games if you’re in need of some forward assistance give this guy a go.

Micheal Ferland

Ferland is going to contend for the hockey “Cy Young” award with a paltry showing in the assist department but he is on pace for 31 goals and is not receiving the exposure he should cast in the shadow of his more pedigree linemates Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau. A relative nobody before the current campaign he is already two goals away from his total 15 scored in 76 games played last season. Outside of goals Ferland also holds value in leagues counting hits with 60 total so far putting him on pace for 143 by season’s end. His five power-play points are all goals, but again if you are in a league that differentiates between power play goals and assists he is on pace for 12.

Ferland has been lined up with Monahan and Gaudreau 90.5% of the time this season by Glen Gulutzan. You really cannot have a more assured deployment in hockey, only Mike Babcock rivals that type of linemate consistency. There is no denying Ferland’s fantasy relevance would cascade off a cliff if removed from the top line but that percentage tells us it’s a rare occurrence. Seeing time on the second power play coupled with his even strength deployment makes Ferland an option that should be taken more seriously.

Mathieu Perreault

Had Perreault never gone down to injury early on in the season the outlook for the Winnipeg Jets might’ve been very different. Kyle Connor’s arrival/emergence directly correlates to Perreault’s injury with him being called up to fill the void. As most of us know Connor seized the opportunity afforded to him with top line and top power play duty. Kudos to him on cementing his place alongside Mark Schiefele and Blake Wheeler at even strength but what’s unfortunate is how everyone has seemingly forgotten about Perreault’s production both before and after his injury.

In 19 games since his return from injury Perreault has racked up eight goals and eight assists. Not once in this stretch has he so much as even sniffed top six deployment. Like many teams, beyond the top two lines there is a significant drop-off in offensive ability when it comes to the bottom six. Perreault is playing with the likes of Matt Hendricks and Joel Armia these days, two players nobody will ever confuse for offensive dynamos. Yet despite this undesirable deployment Perreault is one of the best if not the best pts/60 player in the league (4.0). In a nutshell he is by a landslide the best fourth line player in the game today. For any league where time on ice is not counted he is an absolute must own while he is producing in the manner he is. Even if time on ice has to be accounted for, at this point he is worth the hit in this category as he provides consistent offense and his current pace of 57 points in 69 games played barring injury is nothing to laugh about; that is serious production. Any and all who drafted him kind of sort of despise Kye Connor (yours truly) but at least Perreault is still finding a way to be relevant and then some.

Danton Heinen

Another young player a la Gourde who I did not know much anything about prior to this season, Heinen is giving Bruins fans some serious excitement for the future alongside their other young guns. At the tender age of 22 Heinen has been a jack of all trades for head coach Bruce Cassidy. Regardless of the line he has been rolled out on he has been able to maintain consistent production and currently is on pace for a 22-goal, 61-point campaign. Quite the stat line for someone who quintessentially only finds himself in the NHL currently because of the injury torrent for the Bruins early on. Nonetheless Heinen has made the most of his opportunity since his call up in mid-October and it’s time people start taking more notice.

Though his overall shooting percentage is high at 16%, even with some goal scoring regression he would still be on pace for impressive numbers by season’s end. Boasting an impressive 55.25 CF% Heinen and Co. are really driving play when deployed on the ice. As stated earlier I am no expert on this kid but the numbers do not lie. Top six or bottom six this kid is producing solid offensive numbers so far throughout 28 games played and has every right to be rostered full-time. Once upon a time names like Daniel Paille were the face of the Bruins bottom-six but these days it looks like that is Heinen’s throne now.

Jake Muzzin

I feel everyone forgot about poor Jake Muzzin after a forgettable 2016-17 campaign. Two straight 40-point seasons in 2014-15/2015-16 were completely left in the rearview mirror after last year’s 28-point showing for Muzzin. But the past is the past and Muzzin the multi-cat beast is back in force. After four straight seasons with a PDO below 1000, 2017-18 sees him rocking a robust 1026 currently. Adversely his cf% is the lowest it’s been in several seasons but still remains above 50%. No stopping the production though as he has amassed 20 points in 35 games so far with 88 hits and 74 blocks. Pro-rate this over a full 82-game schedule and Muzzin is on pace for a seven goal, 46-point, 204-hit, 171-block season.

Riding shotgun with Drew Doughty a majority of the time at even strength and always together on the primary power play unit Muzzin is providing incredible value. Not one aspect of his stat line across all categories would negatively impact your squad and the best thing about him is that nobody talks about him. Forever in Doughty’s shadow he will never ever receive the love he should which makes him a desirable draft target year in and year out. Kudos to John Stevens for revitalizing this team’s offense all the while not abandoning their ability to prevent goals. It would certainly seem a regime change has reinvigorated this roster from the top down and Muzzin is prospering immensely.

Colin Miller

The Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers could only dream of the talent afforded to the Las Vegas Golden Knights in their expansion draft. Though nobody in their right mind could’ve ever anticipated the torrid start for them in their inaugural season there’s no doubt the pedigree of talent on this squad is far beyond the likes of expansion teams of the nineties. One of many players contributing to their success is Colin Miller on the back end. Miller possesses a booming slapshot, but his setup skills have been his primary source of points. On pace for a 12-goal, 47-point showing in 2017-18 this guy is providing barn burner value for someone who was not even drafted in a vast majority of 8 to 12-team leagues.

Though he does not receive top pair minutes on the blue line Miller is turning into a multi-cat asset as to go with his impressive points pace he is also on track for 65 PIM, 181 shots, 137 hits and 17 PPP. Miller starts 60% of his shifts in the offensive zone and his overall shooting percentage is of no cause for regression concerns sitting at 6.8% currently. Not to say the Golden Knights are ready to contend for a Stanley Cup but at this point in the season we have to at least somewhat buy into the notion that this team has the ability to give any team a run for its money any given night. With 19 points in 33 games played Miller’s playing his part in the success and should provide a steady source of points barring injury the rest of the way.

from All About Sports http://www.dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/frozen-pool-forensics/unwrapping-six-underrated-performers/

0 notes