#fun fact i was deciding whether to draw a classic new year's dinner or whether to draw them with new year's desserts lol

[mintjeru]

happy lunar new year!! may you stay happy and healthy this year 🐰

open for better quality | no reposts

[livingcorner]

30 Ways to Upcycle Old Tires in your Garden. Useful + Decorative Ideas

They say that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

If you’ve recently changed the tires on your car, you may be wondering what to do with the leftovers. Sure, you could bring them to the landfill – but that’s such a waste. Plus, there are some types of tires (like those from large tractors or other kinds of heavy machinery) that many landfills will not accept.

You're reading: 30 Ways to Upcycle Old Tires in your Garden. Useful + Decorative Ideas

So what are you to do?

Easy.

There are plenty of ways you can use old tires in the garden – here are some of the most creative and innovative ways to do so.

30 Ways You Can Use Old Tires in the Garden

1. Make a Raised Bed

If you like growing vegetables, flowers, and fruits in raised beds, consider using old tires on your next project.

There are several benefits to using tires in this way. Not only do they require less water, but the black rubber, if left unpainted, will absorb heat from the ground.

Even if you do decide to paint the containers, the soil will warm up more quickly when it is above the ground, so you can not only plant sooner, but your plants will grow faster, too.

You’ll be the first one in town to have fresh potatoes for dinner!

2. Use Tires as Hanging Containers

Instead of paying a ton of money to buy hanging baskets of flowers, you may want to consider using old tires instead. They not only look fantastic, but they can be customized to meet any design scheme, too.

3. Tire Chairs

Take a load off – and consider making these tire chairs. They’re comfortable, beautiful – and functional, too!

4. Make a Stacked Tire Planter

There are so many options for versatility with this idea! You can stack any number of tires (choose from three to thirteen!) to make a planter wall that will enable you to showcase various plants. You can make it as colorful as you want by choosing paint and flowering plants that pop.

5. Create a Terrace Garden

You don’t have to have a two-acre garden in order to use tires, either. In fact, you can even make the most of tires in a container garden. Simply place a previously potted plant inside an old tire (ideally, one that’s painted). This will not only add a touch of elegance to your patio, but it will also deter a variety of garden pests, like rabbits and certain insects.

Read more: Why You Need to Start Vertical Gardening Now

6. Scalloped Tire Container

If you want to take your tire planter ideas up a notch, consider cutting the top of the tire. This will create a gorgeous edge that looks scalloped and chic, helping you draw attention to your new decor.

7. Wagon Wheel Planters

Inspire a western feel with this gorgeous recycled tire display.

8. Make Garden Art

There’s so much to be said about artwork in the garden. It helps liven things up even before your plants have started to bloom.

One easy way to brighten up your garden is to incorporate outdoor art with old tires. You can use paint and some creative stacking to create a favorite cartoon or character.

9. Tire Wishing Well

You could even stack your tires to make a tire wishing well! You can make these as functional (or as artistic) as you’d like.

10. Create a Stylish Edge

This tire fence won’t do much to keep out garden pests and invaders, but it sure does look beautiful!

11. Painted Tire Planter

Add a touch of elegance to your garden by painting old tires to look like polka dots, bricks, or anything else that strikes your fancy!

12. Grow a Tire Garden on the Wall

Don’t have a lot of ground space? You can always make a vertical wall garden with your old tires!

13. Create a Succulent Garden

Succulents grow well in tires, especially in dry areas. Since tires heat up quickly, you won’t have any problem keeping these heat-lovers warm.

14. Sushi Roll Tire Garden

This might not be the most functional tire display – but isn’t it creative?

15. Make a Tire Fun House

This idea is a bit more challenging, but if you’re trying to keep your kids entertained while you work in your garden, it’s worth the extra effort. You can easily make a fun house (and make one that doubles as a planter, too!) that will give your kids space to play.

16. Make a Tire Garden Retaining Wall

Stack multiple customized tire planters to create your own retaining wall. It’s not only gorgeous to look at, but it’s easy to maintain. All you have to do is water the top planter and the water will seep down to the rest of the plants.

17. Grow Your Own Fruit

You don’t have to limit yourself to vegetables and lowers in your tire garden. Why not grow some edible fruits?

18. DIY Tire Stools

Whether you want to use these tires as chairs or tables, it’s up to you – but one thing is for sure. You’re going to love how these tires look and how functional they are, too.

19. Save Money on Planting Trees

When you’re planting a small tree, it can get expensive in a hurry. If you just throw the tree directly in the soil, you’re going to have some issues with erosion and nutrient loss.

However, plant your small sapling in a tire, and it will protect the tree’s fragile roots while it is getting established. You can stack a couple of tires to create a deeper pot, and if you want to get rid of the tires after the tree has grown, all you have to do is cut it off from around the trunk.

20. Create a Tire Fence

This forged fence uses tires as flower planters. It’s creative and functional – plus, you can paint your tires whatever color you’d like!

21. Build a Tire Playground

Want to get some exercise while working in your garden? Build this fun exercise playground!

22. Make a Tire Compost Bin

You can even use tires to make a compost bin! Just cut the side walls out of your tires and, as you fill the first tire hoop with your compost ingredients, you can simply place another on top until you have it stacked five or six tires high.

23. Build Garden Stairs

Use tires to build a simple stairway up a hill.  Just dig out a place for each tire, then fill with soil and grass to create a natural looking stairway that has more stability. This is a great use for tires that may have been too flat to air back up or even ones torn apart.  You don’t need the entire tire to create the stairway.

Read more: Garden Line

24. Build Decorative Planters

If you have more creative skills and gardening skills, you can cut tires apart to shape into unique planters.  This is a perfect use for tires that may have bigger holes in them and can be cut apart to create “arms” to twist together and shape into a feature planter for your garden or lawn.

25. Create a Kitchen Garden

Why spend a ton of money on fancy containers for your garden or flowers?  Use old tires you have filled with soil to line up a garden in rows without digging into the ground.  You can easily line the tire bottoms with a trash bag or plastic liner that has had holes punctured through it.  Then pour your soil in and plant seeds or seedlings.  At the end of the season, you can move these out of the way and store for next year.

26. Build a Flowerbed Sculpture

Turn old tires into a fun new critter sculpture for your yard!  I’ve bought large sculptures and garden gnomes, but why not upcycle tires instead?  This is a great little caterpillar or could be called a snake depending upon what you prefer.  Add old soda bottles as accents for ears or eyes and paint whatever color suits you.

27. Create a Cute Teacup Planter

This teacup planter is so unique!  All you need is two tires or rims, some extra rubber from a tire, and a round flat surface like a piece of plywood.  Stack the tires on top of each other with the smaller one on the bottom and then attach the extra rubber in a curve on one side.  Paint whatever color you wish and add accents like circles, butterflies, birds, or dragonflies along the outside.

28. Build a Backyard Swing

There is nothing more classic than an upcycled tire turned into a backyard swing.  This is not only functional but beautiful!  Cut holes in it and tie a heavy duty rope through the holes creating a seat that can be hung from any tree or stand you’ve built in your yard.

29. Build a Frog Planter

Frogs are one of my favorite creatures and you can add them to your garden not as real life animals but as adorable decorations! You just need to stack your old tires so two are on the bottom for the base and one is on top and centered like a pyramid.  Then paint your tires as desired and add some floppy feet and eyes upcycled from another tire or some leftover plastic from detergent bottles or similar.

30. Flower Garden Art

Sunflowers are my favorite flower so of course I want to add them to my garden in all ways possible.  You can easily cut and paint an old tire to form into a beautiful sunflower to “plant” in your garden or lawn!

What to Keep in Mind When Using Old Tires in the Garden

Thinking about using old tires in the garden? You’ll want to make sure you use good potting soil if you intend to plant – and be careful about sharp spots on the tires that can cut your hands. Wear a pair of protective gloves while you work.

Otherwise, these tire garden ideas are sure to inspire the envy of your neighbors! Consider giving one of them (or several of them!) a go today.

Source: https://livingcorner.com.au Category: Garden

source https://livingcorner.com.au/30-ways-to-upcycle-old-tires-in-your-garden-useful-decorative-ideas/

[galacticlee]

The Entertainment Conflicts

 These prompts made me cry they're amazing holy quiznack

For some reason, Tumblr decided to delete this ask, but here are your shidge ficlets, @rebelgirlmatrix1213

1)Soft!Shidge + music = my heart attack waiting to happen

And for 2) I got into Stranger Things only a few weeks ago, and I know for a fact they would love it. Besides, couples fighting over TV shows is the best, so why not.

Prompt from this post (x)

1)

It was all started when Pidge snooped through his playlist one night before dinner.

Music was a welcomed privilege to have, and the Paladins hadn't realized the quietness of the void of space until it had departed them. Thus, once the five returned to their home planet, melodies were blasted through out their cars, homes, and whatever hang-outs they attended, the unmistakable urge to jump up and wildly dance as if no one was watching stronger than ever. Each earthling had their genre of tunes that they preferred; Keith loved old rock music, Hunk a fan of classical, and etcetera. The tunes that would exhale from the local stations were a blend of 'southern' and whatever their parents would listen to, the satellite edition blasting heavy-beated pop that would threaten to break a car's speakers or Broadway show tunes that no one in the universe could ever get quite right. It took him a while, but the Black Paladin finally found his comfort songs.

Shiro rocked out to whatever his tiny girlfriend would, thus the songs that would echo throughout the walls of their home vastly consisted of indie rock and whatever slow, electronic beats she felt fit the pair's collective emotion. The genre grew on him, creating a soft spot in his mind for anything that reminded him of Pidge. His now vast collection of memories with her included the pair with ear buds stretched between them, whether it be in bed, walking across busy city sidewalks, or huddled together on a crowded tram. Dancing together in their kitchen, or bedroom, or shower was a common event, socks or bare feet sliding and squirming across the tile or wood floor with ladles or hairbrushes or hands used as would-be microphones. Music was the warmth of her figure next to him in the early gold morning, the cooling touch of her fingers trailing across the back of his neck amidst steaming water, and the soft melody of her voice dancing from her lab as she worked on some intergalactic project. Anything that reminded him of her, especially a band or artist, helped his day go by.

Thus, as he explored her playlist, he began to grow a love for Lindsey Stirling.

He expected to be made fun of, as was the norm when either of the couple found a new, freaking-out-about thing to get behind. The teasing was always loose, always comfortable, but he couldn't quite put his metallic finger on why he kept the artist tucked in his pocket. Yet, he did, humming the tunes of the songs he could remember and sneaking his favorites into her phone.

But he could never hide anything from the intelligent Holt.

"Soooooo," She started, leaning over the kitchen counter with her feet kicking in the air, thumbs pressing against his phone's screen. Her smile was audible through her words, though he couldn't decipher if it was coy, sympathetic, or incredulous. "I see you have a favorite electric violinist."

He near dropped the spatula he was holding, mouth drawing together into a thin line and hand around a saucepan tightening whilst his face began to sting. Shiro stirred its contents faster, a tad bit nervously. "Hmm, what about it?"

He braced himself for the incoming roll of the honey-shaded eyes, or the awful violin impression, but they never seemed to arrive. Shiro glanced up from the pan, throwing his eyes over his shoulder and toward her. She wiggled in place, smile wide as she swung her legs back and forth against the cabinet and phone pressed in her lap. She fiddled with the sink's taps, choosing her next words with a pursed lip.

"Master of Tides or Crystalize?"

"What?"

"Master of Tides, then."

 He narrowed his eyes, blinking as he ceased the stirring and reprocessed the statement. Pidge's freckled features were glowing, intelligent grin shining at her partner as she squirmed off the marble slab and neared him. Fingers pressed against the screen of his phone, her steps became bouncy, shoulders moving back and forth as a rhythm began to exit its speakers. He instantly recognized the noise, the thump of a beat fading out of the device and into his ears.

"No teasing?" He questioned, dropping the hand from the dish as she snatched onto it and twirled it around her.

Pidge shrugged, stuffing the phone in her pocket after transferring it to the speakers hidden around the home. "I may or may not have an obsession with her as well," She admitted, caramel freckles flushed as Katie unrolled his arm. "And I might know most of them by heart."

"Might?" The food was now forgotten, utensil set on an unoccupied burner as she grabbed his other hand, the melody that bled through the hidden speakers she installed for God knows why picking up its pace. The tune was familiar to him and appeared to be with her as they slinked across the kitchen floor, feet turning and hands clenched around each other's. She rose on her tip-toes, moving an arm to position on his broad shoulders.

"Oh, so we're really dancing now?"

"You call this dancing?"

He grinned as they moved, raising his metallic limb as she twirled underneath it, giving a snort and a roll of her energetic eyes in response. The song was faster, livelier as the pair's pace increased, knee and ankle-high socks sliding across frigid tile and arms dropped when dancing became more of a flail-your-arms-to-the-tune-and-feel-good sort of feat. They spun and waved and tossed and turned, grins breaking into uncontrollable laughter as the pace of the song hurried and slowed, on and on again. By the end of the song, both were wheezing from chuckling, Pidge's hands pressed to Shiro's cheeks and his upon her wrists as the electric instruments washed away, leaving an out-of-breath couple and a steady beat that was soon to past.

He was glad she snooped through his phone.

2)

"Jancy will never top Mileven, Shiro, how dare you!" She shouted, pointing a finger toward him as she stretched away from him, digging her feet into the sofa's cushion. Shiro's face furrowed back at her as he leaned over, near spilling the contents of the bowl that lay in his lap.

"Jonathon and Nancy will always be the best paring in the show, Pidge." Shiro's voice was firm, and his steel grey eyes burned in the back of her head, but she stuck to her argument as she climbed back and thrust her fist into the sweetened kettle corn, stuffing her face full of it and resting her feet on his arm while awaiting him to continue. "Even the insane conspiracy theorist said that they belong together, and even Steve and the jocks though they were dating in Season One. So the Jancy plot is stronger than the Mileven."

She waited until he made a move for the corn to retaliate with her . "Sure, but think about it. Eleven and Mike are part of the main five or six that are the core of the series. Name a more iconic duo than them."

Shiro raised an eyebrow. "Alright. Batman and Robin. Spiderman and Deadpool. Coran and his moustache is also-"

She pursed her lips. "Coran is not an acceptable answer-"

"Should we even get on the Jopper subje-"

The two were interrupted by the screen in front of them thundering aggressively, the pair's heads swiveling to catch a glimpse of their collctive favorite show, Stranger Things. Pidge had come across the hit series while preparing to dive into the depths of Netflix one day, watched the first season, and promptly demanded her partner watch it alongside her. It was an instant hint, and both absorbed the irony of the government-hiding-secrets trope that they knew all too well about. And, as was the trouble of being a fan (or in this case, stan) and having your significant other be the same, it offered either pure happiness when you completely agree, or heated arguments in any other alternative.

For these two, it was indefinitely the latter.

Pidge squirmed closer to Shiro, tucking into his side as his arm fell instinctively over her shoulder. They sat in a few minuets of silence, watching as a group of kids biked down a road, only then speaking after the credits rolled and the 'Play next episode' button appeared. She turned her head to the side, strands of hair that fell out of her incredibly messy bun tickling the back of her neck as she spoke her following words with childish determination.

"We need to give Keith the Steve Harrington hair-cut."

Shiro exhaled a breathy laugh, shaking his head. "Do you think he would really allow us to style his hair, much less give him a style from the 80's?"

The brunette rolled her eyes as she reached for the kettle corn, nudging the collar of her (Shiro's. It was Shiro's, but it as hers) shirt back over her bare, pale shoulder. "He's had a mullet for, like, seven years at least, and a mullet is one of the things that defined the eighties! We might as well have the damn thing piled taller than his Lion," Pidge reasoned, throwing a hand out to emphasize her statement as the other reached for the snack-bowl. Her only response was another shake of the head and a gesture to play the next episode in addition to Shiro's head slowly dipping to the side and resting on her covered shoulder. The opening minuets finished, theme starting up with it's scarlet-outlined letters floating across the screen when Pidge grabbed his flesh hand, turning her head to whisper in his ear.

"Hey, Shiro."

"Hmm?"

"Do you think I could make us have Eleven's powers?" Her golden eyes glittered, mouth forming into a curious smirk as she watched all of the ideas of consequence fire off in Shiro's synapses. The bowl of kettle corn was trashed as both moved quickly, Pidge aiming to leap away but was pinned down to the sofa by her much bigger, much stronger boyfriend. She gave a slight pout, forcing herself to restrain her laughter in her throat. His eyes were narrowed, the white patch of hair falling in between their eyes as he shook his head.

"Bad Idea. Bad, bad idea." He answered, tapping his fingers against her wrists which he held to the sofa's arm rest. Her response was an exaggerated sigh and a roll of her eyes, though her grin broke though her poorly cobbled-together pout while her freckled cheeks folded up.

"We just watched an eleven year-old girl flip a van, though," She reasoned, wrapping her legs around his torso as she flung a hand out to the screen, lips pressed together as she attempted to illustrate the failing point. The episode they had watched seemingly hundreds of times was becoming white noise, conversation no longer about Pidge running off to her lab but about keeping each other's focus. As Shiro listened on, he realized what he would say in the next few seconds could very well get him kissed, or get him killed. "That could help us defend the universe!"

"Only the kind of person who puts Mileven at top priority would say that."

"Don't you start-"

[vivianrhopper85]

Condo Kitchen Trends for 2018 and Beyond

Once upon a time condos were known for their uniform layouts and standard issue kitchens and bathrooms. Today people are demanding more of their condo kitchens, particularly since they have become the entertaining hub in many people’s homes. Kitchens are where we gather, whether it’s to create meals to nourish us, or where we celebrate and make memories.

Celebrated actor Geoffrey Rush once said, "I always had a fantasy of being a chef, because I like kitchen life." Since we spend so much of our time in our kitchens, it’s no wonder we want it to become a focal point of our home, in both function and style.

Kitchen at 468 Wellington Street West

Renovations and changes to your kitchen can range from costly and lengthy endeavors to small tweaks to add some warmth to the space. Before you begin any project connect with your condo board to make sure that your changes comply with their regulations. It may also serve as an opportunity to speak with other people in your building to find some inspiration on how to transform your space, and get recommendations on specific contractors who are familiar with your condominium. Here’s a look at what’s trending in condo kitchen design in 2018 to help get you away from the Pinterest Board planning stage towards enjoying your brand new and improved kitchen.

The Kitchen Isn’t an Island, or is it?

Kitchen islands in a condo make sense in the way that they can provide seating space for those who’d rather use their dining room for something else, or the way that they can allow a host to chat with their guests while they prepare food and drink. Because of this, show-stopping, multipurpose kitchen islands have become a key part of almost any condo kitchen renovation.

One of the best things about modern kitchen islands is the way designers have been able to play with shapes to create the perfect fit for a space – meaning it doesn’t have to be a traditional galley kitchen island unless you want one. An L-shaped island is a perfect measure to provide more storage and prep space for an avid cook, whereas those who live to cook may want to consider a U-shaped island. While most condos don’t have the space to spare for a circular island, someone in a large loft space can create an intriguing visual aspect with a lot of room for cooking.

Depending on space and how you like to entertain, high bar stools (with or without backs) can be a great way to entertain your guests while you cook, or eat at the breakfast bar on a day to day basis.

Quartz is trending as a coveted choice for countertops because as a material it is long lasting, is anti-microbial (an agent that kills micro-organisms/ prevents their growth), and is very simple to maintain. Technology has allowed for a wide range of colours in quartz so people can choose from a palate that matches their taste and home. Those who think granite, which is still popular, may want to reconsider, as it will require more maintenance that quartz.

Storage space is key to maintaining a neat and functional kitchen. Utilizing your island for hidden space for the less tidy chefs was once the best use of this space in kitchens. Today we’re seeing people utilizing more and more open shelves with their islands, or on their walls, to display some of their most commonly used or stylistically pleasing appliances and dishware. While this is a great trend for a tidy person, it might not always work for people who need a lot of storage. This is why many are opting for a mixture of open and ‘closed’ storage, using display shelves on walls or on open shelving in their islands in functional yet neat ways, with cabinet corners used to displaying decorative items like wine bottles, recipe books, or funky coffee mugs.

Make Your Kitchen Smarter

Technology integrated ‘smart kitchens’ are popular because they’re convenient and allow you to add some wow-factor on small to big budgets. Not only do smart kitchens include motion sensed faucets to add to the convenience of cooking, they also add value to your home. Programmable coffee makers will allow you to wake up to freshly brewed coffee, or sit back and relax with guests after dinner while your kitchen makes coffee for you. Those who want to spend more and invest in a smart fridge can purchase ones that will let you know when specific grocery items are running low, so you can plan your shopping, as well as gadgets that will notify you when your eggs are beginning to turn. Smart lighting options will allow you to turn on your lights from your phone, even when you aren’t home.

[This post contains video, click to play]

Trending Kitchen Colours

White remains a popular choice for kitchen cabinets because of its classically clean look. People are increasingly looking for different textures and colours to break up an all-white look, whereas those who want a bolder kitchen can add in pops of bright colour to really make their space shine with their own personality. Second choices for cabinets are trending towards grey as a neutral choice that will pair well with almost any décor. Blogger and TV host Emily Henderson says:

We highlighted this same trend in bathrooms (design) and the trend also works for the kitchen. As we mentioned before, black is classic in the fact that it will always work with just about every style and color palette that you have going on.

Rebekah Zaveloff from KitchenLab Design says:

Black and navy have become the new ‘white kitchen’ for us, which is very refreshing. That said, we still do lots of white kitchens, but people are more interested in mixing materials and going for luxe finishes to distinguish themselves from their neighbors.

Fans of the hit 1990’s sitcom Friends may want to make their kitchen space a little brighter, as the Pantone colour of the year is Ultra Violet, a bold choice that may seem familiar to anyone who has spent time watching Rachel and Monica’s apartment.

Functional Storage to Meet Your Sense of Style

Stella Salvador, Interior Design Manager at Tridel  says:

Kitchens today are looking less kitchen-like yet are more personal-functional. Your design can set the tone of your space. You decide whether you require the storage provided by cabinetry or trendy open shelving to showcase your things. As condo square footage decreases, so proportionately may the kitchen space. In keeping the primary function of the cooking space in mind, designers may fully integrate European-sized appliances so that the cabinet completely conceals their existence, or they are panelled to continue the cabinetry elevation uninterrupted. Even hardware is either designed out or can be kept to a minimum.

Since so many people are opting for open space living arrangements, it’s important for the kitchen to work with the flow of the living room and other adjoining spaces. Many designers suggest planning out your space in groupings by function (i.e. dining area, living room, and kitchen prep) and creating coordinating focal points in each area to help tie the space together (think fantastic matching lighting, or throw rugs) that will help meld the space together as one. Keeping a consistent colour scheme or accessory throughout the space, such as chair fabrics and throw cushions, along with brightly coloured appliances, can be used to tie the room together nicely.

Designers are always playing with fun and unique ways to store kitchen necessities. Check your shops for innovative storage solutions that will help clear more counter space for both preparatory work and entertaining. There are constant changes to drawer dividers, pull-outs and caddies to organize your spices, pots and pans, or pantry items. Not only will these help with storage, they will make it easier to find what you’re looking for when you’re hard at work on a new recipe or coordinating a grocery list.

Statement Appliances and Rugs

What you select as the central design feature of your kitchen is up to you. There’s an increased trend in purchasing a statement appliance (usually a stove) in funky colours to draw the eye to what’s cooking in your space. Popular splurge worthy brands include Aga and Lacanche.

For those who want to warm up their kitchen consider adding a rug in a colour of your choosing to help soften the texture of an industrial looking kitchen space. The pattern and colour, as in any change you make to your condo, is up to you and your vision. 

SM00KV

from News And Tip About Real Estate https://jamiesarner.com/toronto-life/2018/05/condo-kitchen-trends-2018/

[flauntpage]

DGB Grab Bag: A Marleau Family Christmas, Top Captains List, and the Belmont Islanders

Three Stars of Comedy

The third star: The Marleau family– Ever since Patrick Marleau arrived in Toronto, we've seen references to the veteran "adopting" Leafs youngsters Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. It's turned into a running joke on Christina Marleau's social media, and this week we got the inevitable (and adorable) family Christmas portrait.

The second star: Erik Karlsson gets weird – Don't make fun of him, it was -30 Kelvin out there and his brain had frozen two periods ago.

I can't decide if this makes it better or worse. (Better.)

The first star: The San Jose Sharks annual Christmas video – It never disappoints.

I hope the Sharks keep randomly inserting shirtless Joe Thornton into everything they do.

Outrage of the Week

The issue: The Islanders announced a new arena deal this week, ending years of speculation over the team's eventual home. But the agreement would call for the entire project to be funded privately by the team and its partners, which is impossible, so now they have to move to Houston. The outrage: We're going to miss them now that they're leaving. Is it justified: Absolutely. The Islanders have been part of the New York sports scene for four decades now. They produced one of the sport's greatest dynasties, with four straight Stanley Cups. Even though the franchise has fallen on hard times over recent years, it just won't be the same without them.

Then there's the John Tavares factor; we don't know if he's going to want to follow the team to Houston or whether he'll hit free agency instead. And of course, all those diehard Islanders fans who've supported the team over the years will now have to watch form afar, or find a new team.

It's such a tragedy. If only they'd been able to convince the city to cough up hundreds of millions of dollars to subsidize the new arena, we could have avoided…

Wait, I'm being handed an update.

[squints at piece of paper]

It says here that the Islanders are in fact not moving to Houston. Apparently they're fine with funding the arena project on their own. And despite the lack of local funds (at least directly), the deal is being called "a massive, massive victory" for the team.

Huh.

Well, readers, this is all very confusing. Like you, I'd recently been under the impression that teams that don't get a handout have to move. The NHL has implied as much, and they wouldn't lie to us about something like this. Surely, the Islanders will be the only team to have to pay their own way. No? Not even close? Weird.

The only conclusion I can draw is that this week's reports were incorrect, and that the Islanders are indeed moving to Houston, or maybe Quebec or Seattle or Calgary (in a few months once the market becomes available). My condolences, Islanders fans. But you knew this was coming. No private arena funds, no team. We can't say the league didn't warn us all in advance.

Obscure Former Player of the Week

It was the NHL's 100th anniversary on Tuesday, which led me to wonder: Who's the best player to share a birthday with the league?

That turns out to be an easy one: legendary defenseman Doug Harvey was born on December 19, 1924. And you could built a pretty decent team around him using modern-day December 19 birthdays, including a goalie (Carter Hutton), a decent forward line (Robert Lang, Matt Stajan and Scott Pearson), a stay-at-home blue-liner (Eric Weinrich) and a tough guy (Behn Wilson).

But none of those guys are all that obscure, so let's dig a little deeper for this week's player: journeyman forward Ron Schock.

Schock was a center who debuted with the Bruins during the 1963-64 season, playing parts of four seasons in Boston before expansion came calling in 1967. He was picked by the Blues, where he spent two seasons and scored a double-overtime breakaway goal against the North Stars in Game 7 in the West Division series to send the team to the 1968 Stanley Cup Final.

He was dealt to the Penguins in 1969, allegedly two days after telling a minor hockey dinner it was one of the last places he'd ever want to be traded. He spent eight seasons in Pittsburgh, and had a career high 23 goals and 86 points in 1974-75. He was traded to the Sabres in 1977 in a straight up deal for future tragic story Brian "Spinner" Spencer. Schock played one season in Buffalo, and that was it for his NHL career. All told he played 909 games, recording 166 goals and 517 points. Happy belated birthday, Ron. Your card from the NHL probably arrived on the wrong day.

The NHL (Network) Actually Got Something Right

The NHL Network released another one of its ranked lists on Monday, and I'm not exaggerating when I say it was the highlight of my entire week.

We've covered the network lists before, and the way they always inspire outrage for not being quite right. That's always the way these things go—I've been known to dabble in the occasional ranked list from time to time, so I'm speaking from experience—and there are really only two ways you can handle the criticism. The first is to just shrug, accept it, and keep doing your best work.

This week, the NHL Network chose the second option: Intentionally create a list designed for no other purpose than to piss off as many people as you can.

I give you the rankings of best captain in NHL history:

Oh man, where to begin.

Well, let's start at the top, where Mark Messier takes the one spot. That's no surprise, since we all apparently agreed that Messier was the greatest leader in history even though he walked out to force a trade from the Oilers and bolted the Rangers as a free agent. But the highlight here is the list just outright pretending that he was never the captain in Vancouver. Apparently this list was written by a Canucks fan.

The next few aren't especially controversial, assuming we can ignore that #5 pick Ray Bourque bailed on the Bruins to chase his Cup somewhere else. But then we inevitably get to the "way too high Blackhawk" ranking, as Jonathan Toews is apparently already a better captain than Wayne Gretzky or Sidney Crosby. He's also better than Mario Lemieux, who only came back from cancer and later bought his team to keep it from moving.

Other top 25 picks include Joe Sakic (who once signed an offer sheet with the Rangers), Ron Francis (who was once stripped of the captaincy in Hartford), and Daniel Alfredsson (whose tenure ended with him admitting his team couldn't win a playoff series that was still happening and then bolting in free agency).

Be sure to stick around into the 20s, so you can get to them including Pierre Pilote as an obvious makeup call for inexcusably leaving him off their Top 100 list and then enjoy the moment where they clearly went "Oh crap, we don't have any Americans" and then had to squeeze in Derian Hatcher, presumably after being shocked to find out the Stars' Cup-winning captain wasn't Mike Modano.

Do all of these guys belong on a list of the 25 best captains ever? Sure. Maybe? I have no idea, and neither do you. That's the beauty of choosing captains as a topic. It's something that every fan a.) feels strongly about and b.) has no objective way to measure. So you're basically guaranteed to make everyone really mad. It's genius.

I hope the NHL Network keeps it up, and continues to steer into the ranking-based outrage skid. Do "most handsome players" and leave Henrik Lundqvist off the list. Maybe "history's toughest fighters" and put Bob Probert one spot behind Claude Lemieux. Do "the 25 best theme songs" and then list Brass Bonanza in 23 of the spots instead of all 25.

Keep it up for a few years, then release a list of your 25 best lists and watch the world burn. I'm here for you, NHL Network. Let's make this happen.

Classic YouTube Clip Breakdown

It's been a rough few weeks for the Senators. They lost a bunch of games, falling out of the playoff hunt. Then when they snapped that streak and were all set to bask in the glory of hosting the franchise's first ever outdoor game, their owner decided it would be a good time to rant about moving the team. That was, let's just say, not ideal.

But look on the bright side, Ottawa. As bad as things get, at least you don't have to worry about legendary sportswriter Earl McRae going on television and absolutely ethering you in front of a national audience.

So we're midway through 1993-94, the second season for the reborn Senators. Their debut was a disaster, and this year isn't going much better. Now seems like a good time to deliver a few solid kicks to the ribs, no?

Our host is Dave Hodge, one of the great Canadian broadcasters ever, not to mention a guy who once got himself fired from Hockey Night in Canada by flipping a pen. Today he welcomes Ottawa Sun columnist Earl McRae, who spent his career trying to get fired by flipping off pretty much everyone.

McRae was the sort of guy who could be an acquired taste, so let's be clear: He was awesome and if you didn't like him then there was something wrong with you. He's basically Dick Beddoes with more edge, slightly updated material, and a smaller wardrobe budget. I enjoyed him thoroughly.

Also, I want McRae's condescending laugh as my ringtone.

It takes McRae roughly four seconds to get to his first Elvis reference, which is slow by his standards. Elvis was kind of a thing with Earl, who was a founding member of the Elvis Sighting Society and once went on the Jerry Springer Show to talk about having met The King in Tweed, Ontario. I swear to you I did not make any of that up.

If there was any thought of McRae going easy on the second-year Sens, he puts that to rest by calling them "the worst team in creation" before ripping them for trading leading scorer Bob Kudelski to Florida. That was a weird deal, since the Panthers were even newer than the Senators and shouldn't have been giving up future assets for a scorer. Luckily, the assets the Senators got back didn't turn out to have much of a future at all, so I guess it all worked out.

Random fun fact: The midseason trade came when the Panthers had several games in hand over Ottawa, which allowed Kudelski to end up playing in a never-to-be-broken NHL record 86 games in a single season.

The two rookies McRae mentions are Alexei Yashin and Alexandre Daigle, who will both go on to leave Ottawa with an angry mob chasing them. It's basically our trademark finishing move up here.

Hodge agrees the trade is an odd one, but offers up a half-hearted defense to give McRae an opening to ease up on his criticism. Let's see if he takes it.

"This is a bad trade by a rookie GM who's blown it here." I'm going to mark that down as a "no."

The rookie GM is Randy Sexton, by the way. He really was a rookie—not only was this his first NHL season as a GM, but he'd been a real estate executive just a few years earlier. He went on to a long career in various NHL roles, though, including a stint as the Panthers GM in 2009. He's currently the GM of the Sabres' AHL team.

"Sexton says, well he's big, he's physical. Who cares, if he can't put the puck in the net?" Earl McRae was leading the charge on analytics before analytics was a thing.

They move on to Senators coach Rick Bowness, rumored to be on the hot seat. McRae likes him but doesn't have much confidence in the front office keeping him around because only John Ferguson "knows a hockey puck from a coconut." I'm assuming it goes without saying that he's referring to John Ferguson Sr.

McRae calls Sexton "constipated," works in a dig at Mike Milbury, and calls the Senators "a bunch of clowns." This is the positive section of the video.

He then throws Daigle under the bus by breaking the news that his father is telling people that he's upset over the lack of talent surrounding him. He then thoroughly psychoanalyzes Daigle, which almost never works out well for sportswriters except he basically ends up being 100 percent right about how his career played out.

Hodge works in a joke about the way Daigle dresses, which is a reference to the infamous nurse outfit ad. Note to future NHL prospects: You don't have to say yes to every endorsement idea.

Hodge tries to close, but McRae interrupts to make one last point. He takes a moment to apologize if he's coming across as too critical, acknowledges that the Senators are still an expansion team, and thanks everyone in the organization for doing their best.

No, of course he doesn't. What he actually does is point out that the Senators are closer to the defunct Montreal Maroons than to first place in their division. We then cut away before McRae can spray paint his initials on the unconscious Senators organization's back. Seriously, he was the absolute best. I miss him so much.

McRae left us several years ago, after suffering a heart attack in the newsroom. He will no doubt have a great time swapping hockey stories with Elvis in the afterlife, in the event that Elvis eventually dies.

Have a question, suggestion, old YouTube clip, or anything else you'd like to see included in this column? Email Sean at nhlgrabbag@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @DownGoesBrown.

DGB Grab Bag: A Marleau Family Christmas, Top Captains List, and the Belmont Islanders published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[amtushinfosolutionspage]

DGB Grab Bag: A Marleau Family Christmas, Top Captains List, and the Belmont Islanders

Three Stars of Comedy

The third star: The Marleau family– Ever since Patrick Marleau arrived in Toronto, we’ve seen references to the veteran “adopting” Leafs youngsters Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. It’s turned into a running joke on Christina Marleau’s social media, and this week we got the inevitable (and adorable) family Christmas portrait.

The second star: Erik Karlsson gets weird – Don’t make fun of him, it was -30 Kelvin out there and his brain had frozen two periods ago.

I can’t decide if this makes it better or worse. (Better.)

The first star: The San Jose Sharks annual Christmas video – It never disappoints.

I hope the Sharks keep randomly inserting shirtless Joe Thornton into everything they do.

Outrage of the Week

The issue: The Islanders announced a new arena deal this week, ending years of speculation over the team’s eventual home. But the agreement would call for the entire project to be funded privately by the team and its partners, which is impossible, so now they have to move to Houston.

The outrage: We’re going to miss them now that they’re leaving.

Is it justified: Absolutely. The Islanders have been part of the New York sports scene for four decades now. They produced one of the sport’s greatest dynasties, with four straight Stanley Cups. Even though the franchise has fallen on hard times over recent years, it just won’t be the same without them.

Then there’s the John Tavares factor; we don’t know if he’s going to want to follow the team to Houston or whether he’ll hit free agency instead. And of course, all those diehard Islanders fans who’ve supported the team over the years will now have to watch form afar, or find a new team.

It’s such a tragedy. If only they’d been able to convince the city to cough up hundreds of millions of dollars to subsidize the new arena, we could have avoided…

Wait, I’m being handed an update.

[squints at piece of paper]

It says here that the Islanders are in fact not moving to Houston. Apparently they’re fine with funding the arena project on their own. And despite the lack of local funds (at least directly), the deal is being called “a massive, massive victory” for the team.

Huh.

Well, readers, this is all very confusing. Like you, I’d recently been under the impression that teams that don’t get a handout have to move. The NHL has implied as much, and they wouldn’t lie to us about something like this. Surely, the Islanders will be the only team to have to pay their own way. No? Not even close? Weird.

The only conclusion I can draw is that this week’s reports were incorrect, and that the Islanders are indeed moving to Houston, or maybe Quebec or Seattle or Calgary (in a few months once the market becomes available). My condolences, Islanders fans. But you knew this was coming. No private arena funds, no team. We can’t say the league didn’t warn us all in advance.

Obscure Former Player of the Week

It was the NHL’s 100th anniversary on Tuesday, which led me to wonder: Who’s the best player to share a birthday with the league?

That turns out to be an easy one: legendary defenseman Doug Harvey was born on December 19, 1924. And you could built a pretty decent team around him using modern-day December 19 birthdays, including a goalie (Carter Hutton), a decent forward line (Robert Lang, Matt Stajan and Scott Pearson), a stay-at-home blue-liner (Eric Weinrich) and a tough guy (Behn Wilson).

But none of those guys are all that obscure, so let’s dig a little deeper for this week’s player: journeyman forward Ron Schock.

Schock was a center who debuted with the Bruins during the 1963-64 season, playing parts of four seasons in Boston before expansion came calling in 1967. He was picked by the Blues, where he spent two seasons and scored a double-overtime breakaway goal against the North Stars in Game 7 in the West Division series to send the team to the 1968 Stanley Cup Final.

He was dealt to the Penguins in 1969, allegedly two days after telling a minor hockey dinner it was one of the last places he’d ever want to be traded. He spent eight seasons in Pittsburgh, and had a career high 23 goals and 86 points in 1974-75. He was traded to the Sabres in 1977 in a straight up deal for future tragic story Brian “Spinner” Spencer. Schock played one season in Buffalo, and that was it for his NHL career. All told he played 909 games, recording 166 goals and 517 points. Happy belated birthday, Ron. Your card from the NHL probably arrived on the wrong day.

The NHL (Network) Actually Got Something Right

The NHL Network released another one of its ranked lists on Monday, and I’m not exaggerating when I say it was the highlight of my entire week.

We’ve covered the network lists before, and the way they always inspire outrage for not being quite right. That’s always the way these things go—I’ve been known to dabble in the occasional ranked list from time to time, so I’m speaking from experience—and there are really only two ways you can handle the criticism. The first is to just shrug, accept it, and keep doing your best work.

This week, the NHL Network chose the second option: Intentionally create a list designed for no other purpose than to piss off as many people as you can.

I give you the rankings of best captain in NHL history:

Oh man, where to begin.

Well, let’s start at the top, where Mark Messier takes the one spot. That’s no surprise, since we all apparently agreed that Messier was the greatest leader in history even though he walked out to force a trade from the Oilers and bolted the Rangers as a free agent. But the highlight here is the list just outright pretending that he was never the captain in Vancouver. Apparently this list was written by a Canucks fan.

The next few aren’t especially controversial, assuming we can ignore that #5 pick Ray Bourque bailed on the Bruins to chase his Cup somewhere else. But then we inevitably get to the “way too high Blackhawk” ranking, as Jonathan Toews is apparently already a better captain than Wayne Gretzky or Sidney Crosby. He’s also better than Mario Lemieux, who only came back from cancer and later bought his team to keep it from moving.

Other top 25 picks include Joe Sakic (who once signed an offer sheet with the Rangers), Ron Francis (who was once stripped of the captaincy in Hartford), and Daniel Alfredsson (whose tenure ended with him admitting his team couldn’t win a playoff series that was still happening and then bolting in free agency).

Be sure to stick around into the 20s, so you can get to them including Pierre Pilote as an obvious makeup call for inexcusably leaving him off their Top 100 list and then enjoy the moment where they clearly went “Oh crap, we don’t have any Americans” and then had to squeeze in Derian Hatcher, presumably after being shocked to find out the Stars’ Cup-winning captain wasn’t Mike Modano.

Do all of these guys belong on a list of the 25 best captains ever? Sure. Maybe? I have no idea, and neither do you. That’s the beauty of choosing captains as a topic. It’s something that every fan a.) feels strongly about and b.) has no objective way to measure. So you’re basically guaranteed to make everyone really mad. It’s genius.

I hope the NHL Network keeps it up, and continues to steer into the ranking-based outrage skid. Do “most handsome players” and leave Henrik Lundqvist off the list. Maybe “history’s toughest fighters” and put Bob Probert one spot behind Claude Lemieux. Do “the 25 best theme songs” and then list Brass Bonanza in 23 of the spots instead of all 25.

Keep it up for a few years, then release a list of your 25 best lists and watch the world burn. I’m here for you, NHL Network. Let’s make this happen.

Classic YouTube Clip Breakdown

It’s been a rough few weeks for the Senators. They lost a bunch of games, falling out of the playoff hunt. Then when they snapped that streak and were all set to bask in the glory of hosting the franchise’s first ever outdoor game, their owner decided it would be a good time to rant about moving the team. That was, let’s just say, not ideal.

But look on the bright side, Ottawa. As bad as things get, at least you don’t have to worry about legendary sportswriter Earl McRae going on television and absolutely ethering you in front of a national audience.

So we’re midway through 1993-94, the second season for the reborn Senators. Their debut was a disaster, and this year isn’t going much better. Now seems like a good time to deliver a few solid kicks to the ribs, no?

Our host is Dave Hodge, one of the great Canadian broadcasters ever, not to mention a guy who once got himself fired from Hockey Night in Canada by flipping a pen. Today he welcomes Ottawa Sun columnist Earl McRae, who spent his career trying to get fired by flipping off pretty much everyone.

McRae was the sort of guy who could be an acquired taste, so let’s be clear: He was awesome and if you didn’t like him then there was something wrong with you. He’s basically Dick Beddoes with more edge, slightly updated material, and a smaller wardrobe budget. I enjoyed him thoroughly.

Also, I want McRae’s condescending laugh as my ringtone.

It takes McRae roughly four seconds to get to his first Elvis reference, which is slow by his standards. Elvis was kind of a thing with Earl, who was a founding member of the Elvis Sighting Society and once went on the Jerry Springer Show to talk about having met The King in Tweed, Ontario. I swear to you I did not make any of that up.

If there was any thought of McRae going easy on the second-year Sens, he puts that to rest by calling them “the worst team in creation” before ripping them for trading leading scorer Bob Kudelski to Florida. That was a weird deal, since the Panthers were even newer than the Senators and shouldn’t have been giving up future assets for a scorer. Luckily, the assets the Senators got back didn’t turn out to have much of a future at all, so I guess it all worked out.

Random fun fact: The midseason trade came when the Panthers had several games in hand over Ottawa, which allowed Kudelski to end up playing in a never-to-be-broken NHL record 86 games in a single season.

The two rookies McRae mentions are Alexei Yashin and Alexandre Daigle, who will both go on to leave Ottawa with an angry mob chasing them. It’s basically our trademark finishing move up here.

Hodge agrees the trade is an odd one, but offers up a half-hearted defense to give McRae an opening to ease up on his criticism. Let’s see if he takes it.

“This is a bad trade by a rookie GM who’s blown it here.” I’m going to mark that down as a “no.”

The rookie GM is Randy Sexton, by the way. He really was a rookie—not only was this his first NHL season as a GM, but he’d been a real estate executive just a few years earlier. He went on to a long career in various NHL roles, though, including a stint as the Panthers GM in 2009. He’s currently the GM of the Sabres’ AHL team.

“Sexton says, well he’s big, he’s physical. Who cares, if he can’t put the puck in the net?” Earl McRae was leading the charge on analytics before analytics was a thing.

They move on to Senators coach Rick Bowness, rumored to be on the hot seat. McRae likes him but doesn’t have much confidence in the front office keeping him around because only John Ferguson “knows a hockey puck from a coconut.” I’m assuming it goes without saying that he’s referring to John Ferguson Sr.

McRae calls Sexton “constipated,” works in a dig at Mike Milbury, and calls the Senators “a bunch of clowns.” This is the positive section of the video.

He then throws Daigle under the bus by breaking the news that his father is telling people that he’s upset over the lack of talent surrounding him. He then thoroughly psychoanalyzes Daigle, which almost never works out well for sportswriters except he basically ends up being 100 percent right about how his career played out.

Hodge works in a joke about the way Daigle dresses, which is a reference to the infamous nurse outfit ad. Note to future NHL prospects: You don’t have to say yes to every endorsement idea.

Hodge tries to close, but McRae interrupts to make one last point. He takes a moment to apologize if he’s coming across as too critical, acknowledges that the Senators are still an expansion team, and thanks everyone in the organization for doing their best.

No, of course he doesn’t. What he actually does is point out that the Senators are closer to the defunct Montreal Maroons than to first place in their division. We then cut away before McRae can spray paint his initials on the unconscious Senators organization’s back. Seriously, he was the absolute best. I miss him so much.

McRae left us several years ago, after suffering a heart attack in the newsroom. He will no doubt have a great time swapping hockey stories with Elvis in the afterlife, in the event that Elvis eventually dies.

Have a question, suggestion, old YouTube clip, or anything else you’d like to see included in this column? Email Sean at nhlgrabbag@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @DownGoesBrown.

DGB Grab Bag: A Marleau Family Christmas, Top Captains List, and the Belmont Islanders syndicated from http://ift.tt/2ug2Ns6

[flauntpage]

DGB Grab Bag: A Marleau Family Christmas, Top Captains List, and the Belmont Islanders

Three Stars of Comedy

The third star: The Marleau family– Ever since Patrick Marleau arrived in Toronto, we've seen references to the veteran "adopting" Leafs youngsters Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. It's turned into a running joke on Christina Marleau's social media, and this week we got the inevitable (and adorable) family Christmas portrait.

The second star: Erik Karlsson gets weird – Don't make fun of him, it was -30 Kelvin out there and his brain had frozen two periods ago.

I can't decide if this makes it better or worse. (Better.)

The first star: The San Jose Sharks annual Christmas video – It never disappoints.

I hope the Sharks keep randomly inserting shirtless Joe Thornton into everything they do.

Outrage of the Week

The issue: The Islanders announced a new arena deal this week, ending years of speculation over the team's eventual home. But the agreement would call for the entire project to be funded privately by the team and its partners, which is impossible, so now they have to move to Houston. The outrage: We're going to miss them now that they're leaving. Is it justified: Absolutely. The Islanders have been part of the New York sports scene for four decades now. They produced one of the sport's greatest dynasties, with four straight Stanley Cups. Even though the franchise has fallen on hard times over recent years, it just won't be the same without them.

Then there's the John Tavares factor; we don't know if he's going to want to follow the team to Houston or whether he'll hit free agency instead. And of course, all those diehard Islanders fans who've supported the team over the years will now have to watch form afar, or find a new team.

It's such a tragedy. If only they'd been able to convince the city to cough up hundreds of millions of dollars to subsidize the new arena, we could have avoided…

Wait, I'm being handed an update.

[squints at piece of paper]

It says here that the Islanders are in fact not moving to Houston. Apparently they're fine with funding the arena project on their own. And despite the lack of local funds (at least directly), the deal is being called "a massive, massive victory" for the team.

Huh.

Well, readers, this is all very confusing. Like you, I'd recently been under the impression that teams that don't get a handout have to move. The NHL has implied as much, and they wouldn't lie to us about something like this. Surely, the Islanders will be the only team to have to pay their own way. No? Not even close? Weird.

The only conclusion I can draw is that this week's reports were incorrect, and that the Islanders are indeed moving to Houston, or maybe Quebec or Seattle or Calgary (in a few months once the market becomes available). My condolences, Islanders fans. But you knew this was coming. No private arena funds, no team. We can't say the league didn't warn us all in advance.

Obscure Former Player of the Week

It was the NHL's 100th anniversary on Tuesday, which led me to wonder: Who's the best player to share a birthday with the league?

That turns out to be an easy one: legendary defenseman Doug Harvey was born on December 19, 1924. And you could built a pretty decent team around him using modern-day December 19 birthdays, including a goalie (Carter Hutton), a decent forward line (Robert Lang, Matt Stajan and Scott Pearson), a stay-at-home blue-liner (Eric Weinrich) and a tough guy (Behn Wilson).

But none of those guys are all that obscure, so let's dig a little deeper for this week's player: journeyman forward Ron Schock.

Schock was a center who debuted with the Bruins during the 1963-64 season, playing parts of four seasons in Boston before expansion came calling in 1967. He was picked by the Blues, where he spent two seasons and scored a double-overtime breakaway goal against the North Stars in Game 7 in the West Division series to send the team to the 1968 Stanley Cup Final.

He was dealt to the Penguins in 1969, allegedly two days after telling a minor hockey dinner it was one of the last places he'd ever want to be traded. He spent eight seasons in Pittsburgh, and had a career high 23 goals and 86 points in 1974-75. He was traded to the Sabres in 1977 in a straight up deal for future tragic story Brian "Spinner" Spencer. Schock played one season in Buffalo, and that was it for his NHL career. All told he played 909 games, recording 166 goals and 517 points. Happy belated birthday, Ron. Your card from the NHL probably arrived on the wrong day.

The NHL (Network) Actually Got Something Right

The NHL Network released another one of its ranked lists on Monday, and I'm not exaggerating when I say it was the highlight of my entire week.

We've covered the network lists before, and the way they always inspire outrage for not being quite right. That's always the way these things go—I've been known to dabble in the occasional ranked list from time to time, so I'm speaking from experience—and there are really only two ways you can handle the criticism. The first is to just shrug, accept it, and keep doing your best work.

This week, the NHL Network chose the second option: Intentionally create a list designed for no other purpose than to piss off as many people as you can.

I give you the rankings of best captain in NHL history:

Oh man, where to begin.

Well, let's start at the top, where Mark Messier takes the one spot. That's no surprise, since we all apparently agreed that Messier was the greatest leader in history even though he walked out to force a trade from the Oilers and bolted the Rangers as a free agent. But the highlight here is the list just outright pretending that he was never the captain in Vancouver. Apparently this list was written by a Canucks fan.

The next few aren't especially controversial, assuming we can ignore that #5 pick Ray Bourque bailed on the Bruins to chase his Cup somewhere else. But then we inevitably get to the "way too high Blackhawk" ranking, as Jonathan Toews is apparently already a better captain than Wayne Gretzky or Sidney Crosby. He's also better than Mario Lemieux, who only came back from cancer and later bought his team to keep it from moving.

Other top 25 picks include Joe Sakic (who once signed an offer sheet with the Rangers), Ron Francis (who was once stripped of the captaincy in Hartford), and Daniel Alfredsson (whose tenure ended with him admitting his team couldn't win a playoff series that was still happening and then bolting in free agency).

Be sure to stick around into the 20s, so you can get to them including Pierre Pilote as an obvious makeup call for inexcusably leaving him off their Top 100 list and then enjoy the moment where they clearly went "Oh crap, we don't have any Americans" and then had to squeeze in Derian Hatcher, presumably after being shocked to find out the Stars' Cup-winning captain wasn't Mike Modano.

Do all of these guys belong on a list of the 25 best captains ever? Sure. Maybe? I have no idea, and neither do you. That's the beauty of choosing captains as a topic. It's something that every fan a.) feels strongly about and b.) has no objective way to measure. So you're basically guaranteed to make everyone really mad. It's genius.

I hope the NHL Network keeps it up, and continues to steer into the ranking-based outrage skid. Do "most handsome players" and leave Henrik Lundqvist off the list. Maybe "history's toughest fighters" and put Bob Probert one spot behind Claude Lemieux. Do "the 25 best theme songs" and then list Brass Bonanza in 23 of the spots instead of all 25.

Keep it up for a few years, then release a list of your 25 best lists and watch the world burn. I'm here for you, NHL Network. Let's make this happen.

Classic YouTube Clip Breakdown

It's been a rough few weeks for the Senators. They lost a bunch of games, falling out of the playoff hunt. Then when they snapped that streak and were all set to bask in the glory of hosting the franchise's first ever outdoor game, their owner decided it would be a good time to rant about moving the team. That was, let's just say, not ideal.

But look on the bright side, Ottawa. As bad as things get, at least you don't have to worry about legendary sportswriter Earl McRae going on television and absolutely ethering you in front of a national audience.

So we're midway through 1993-94, the second season for the reborn Senators. Their debut was a disaster, and this year isn't going much better. Now seems like a good time to deliver a few solid kicks to the ribs, no?

Our host is Dave Hodge, one of the great Canadian broadcasters ever, not to mention a guy who once got himself fired from Hockey Night in Canada by flipping a pen. Today he welcomes Ottawa Sun columnist Earl McRae, who spent his career trying to get fired by flipping off pretty much everyone.

McRae was the sort of guy who could be an acquired taste, so let's be clear: He was awesome and if you didn't like him then there was something wrong with you. He's basically Dick Beddoes with more edge, slightly updated material, and a smaller wardrobe budget. I enjoyed him thoroughly.

Also, I want McRae's condescending laugh as my ringtone.

It takes McRae roughly four seconds to get to his first Elvis reference, which is slow by his standards. Elvis was kind of a thing with Earl, who was a founding member of the Elvis Sighting Society and once went on the Jerry Springer Show to talk about having met The King in Tweed, Ontario. I swear to you I did not make any of that up.

If there was any thought of McRae going easy on the second-year Sens, he puts that to rest by calling them "the worst team in creation" before ripping them for trading leading scorer Bob Kudelski to Florida. That was a weird deal, since the Panthers were even newer than the Senators and shouldn't have been giving up future assets for a scorer. Luckily, the assets the Senators got back didn't turn out to have much of a future at all, so I guess it all worked out.

Random fun fact: The midseason trade came when the Panthers had several games in hand over Ottawa, which allowed Kudelski to end up playing in a never-to-be-broken NHL record 86 games in a single season.

The two rookies McRae mentions are Alexei Yashin and Alexandre Daigle, who will both go on to leave Ottawa with an angry mob chasing them. It's basically our trademark finishing move up here.

Hodge agrees the trade is an odd one, but offers up a half-hearted defense to give McRae an opening to ease up on his criticism. Let's see if he takes it.

"This is a bad trade by a rookie GM who's blown it here." I'm going to mark that down as a "no."

The rookie GM is Randy Sexton, by the way. He really was a rookie—not only was this his first NHL season as a GM, but he'd been a real estate executive just a few years earlier. He went on to a long career in various NHL roles, though, including a stint as the Panthers GM in 2009. He's currently the GM of the Sabres' AHL team.

"Sexton says, well he's big, he's physical. Who cares, if he can't put the puck in the net?" Earl McRae was leading the charge on analytics before analytics was a thing.

They move on to Senators coach Rick Bowness, rumored to be on the hot seat. McRae likes him but doesn't have much confidence in the front office keeping him around because only John Ferguson "knows a hockey puck from a coconut." I'm assuming it goes without saying that he's referring to John Ferguson Sr.

McRae calls Sexton "constipated," works in a dig at Mike Milbury, and calls the Senators "a bunch of clowns." This is the positive section of the video.

He then throws Daigle under the bus by breaking the news that his father is telling people that he's upset over the lack of talent surrounding him. He then thoroughly psychoanalyzes Daigle, which almost never works out well for sportswriters except he basically ends up being 100 percent right about how his career played out.

Hodge works in a joke about the way Daigle dresses, which is a reference to the infamous nurse outfit ad. Note to future NHL prospects: You don't have to say yes to every endorsement idea.

Hodge tries to close, but McRae interrupts to make one last point. He takes a moment to apologize if he's coming across as too critical, acknowledges that the Senators are still an expansion team, and thanks everyone in the organization for doing their best.

No, of course he doesn't. What he actually does is point out that the Senators are closer to the defunct Montreal Maroons than to first place in their division. We then cut away before McRae can spray paint his initials on the unconscious Senators organization's back. Seriously, he was the absolute best. I miss him so much.

McRae left us several years ago, after suffering a heart attack in the newsroom. He will no doubt have a great time swapping hockey stories with Elvis in the afterlife, in the event that Elvis eventually dies.

Have a question, suggestion, old YouTube clip, or anything else you'd like to see included in this column? Email Sean at nhlgrabbag@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @DownGoesBrown.

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