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csykora · 4 years ago

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Sergei, 1958

“When he was in a bad mood, he would lock himself in a shell. He had his own understanding of life and of hockey, which he held to firmly, and revealed rarely….”

[Sergei Makarov in his Red Army sweater, coming over the boards for a shift with a determined expression.]

Sergei Makarov was born in Chelyabinsk, Russia’s Detroit. His parents didn’t bother to send him to daycare, because they always knew where he would be, toddling around the apartment block, pushing a puck.

His favorite game was playing the “Makarov Championship” with his older brothers. Kneeling on the floor of their apartment to bat a puck around, they each pretended to be one of the three famous teams in Moscow. Nikolai, already a teenager, picked Dynamo, Yuri would be Spartak, and baby Sergei imagined himself as CSKA.

Outside the Makarov home, those teams had secret identities of their own. CSKA was naturally favored by the military brass. Dynamo’s biggest fans were intelligence officers—the KGB. (I don’t know if anyone liked Spartak.)

Nikolai would soon be chosen by CSKA’s farm team. Tween Sergei visited whenever he could—not so much to see his brother, but his brother’s new teammate, a winger like Sergei wanted to be, named Valeri Kharlamov.

When Nikolai could come home, Sergei would beg him to teach him all of Kharlamov’s new moves. When he couldn’t copy them all to Sergei’s satisfaction, Nikolai pled ‘being a defenseman’, and invited Kharlamov home for dinner to meet his biggest fan. Nikolai was traded back to Chelyabinsk’s senior team, where he would have his own successful career, but the impression Kharlamov left on Sergei lingered.

[Two black and white pictures of Sergei and Nikolai Makarov on the ice. In the first, it’s extremely hard to tell which one is ten years older than the other. In the second, Nikolai is hanging off his brother while Sergei looks amused.]

With movie-star cool looks, he grew up confident and fiercely independent. By the time he was 17, Sergei’s two passions were ‘Kharlamov’ and ‘quitting hockey.’ When the team scraped together a win, Sergei was most of the reason. So when the team lost, his coaches would point to him for failing. Sergei would snap back about why they even needed him if he sucked so much, and so on.

It was only when it got up to the head coach of the senior team, who called him up to stop him walking, that Chelyabinsk started winning. When he made the junior national team, they won gold.

Coach Tikhonov invited him to practice with the big boys. Then he added the rookie to the men’s national team roster for the ’78 Worlds. Then they won gold. It was the start of a long, strange pattern: for every major international tournament, Coach Tikhonov liked to bring a new rookie.

CSKA decided they were interested in another Makarov brother after all. Sergei and another prospect from the junior national team, a left winger named Vladimir Krutov, joined a roster already stacked with famous players like Boris Mikhailov, young star Slava Fetisov, and, of course, Kharlamov.

Vova, 1960

[A headshot of Vladimir Krutov in the famous green sweater that the National team's top line wore in practice. He has a round face, very blue round eyes, and a gentle expression.]

“Volodya was such a dependable and steadfast man that I would have gone anywhere with him — to war, to espionage, into peril.”

Playing in Moscow’s backstreets, the boys had a nickname for Vladimir Krutov—Пупсик (“Pupsik”) means “sweetie” or “babydoll”. As a young man he picked up another name that doesn’t need translation: “Tank.”

With a cherubic, pink-cheeked face and easy smile, he inspired affection in very nearly everyone who met him, and kept it with a death-defying loyalty. He couldn’t stand, or understand, unfairness: if someone went after his friends, on or off the ice, he’d dive in to sort it out.

But when authority figures treated him badly, his fairness and faithfulness butted heads. His best friend described a moment when, as a teenager, he took a puck to the face and fell down, then skated unsteadily to the team doctor. The coach screamed at him for coming off before a change. “Vladimir was crushed. Never before—or since—had anyone questioned his guts.” But he simply stood there and took it without talking back, as if he couldn’t imagine a coach could do wrong.

He wasn’t the enforcer you’d expect, though. In three World Juniors he always came out the top scorer, his speed and strength catching the attention of Canadian juniors who’d one day be his teammates.

In ’79 Vova was called up from CSKA’s junior team to join the men for a few games, and scored 4 goals in a game against arch-nemesis Dynamo. The next year Vova and Sergei both scrambled into the CSKA lineup full-time, and Coach Tikhonov decided Vova would be his rookie of the year. He was headed to the 1980 Olympics, without having even played a World Championship at the men’s level.

“For American people, selective memory, it’s a national thing,” Slava says about 1980. “I admit, I own one of the most famous silver medals in sports history. Correct? Done?”

[An action shot of Vova sprawled in the crease beside the American goaltender]

The Miracle on Ice story looks up at the Soviet team from under the chin. But Kharlamov and goaltender Vladislav Tretiak were Coach Tarasov’s giants, not Coach Tikhonov’s. Slava and Sergei were only 21 years old. Lyosha, 20. Vova was 19. The player who would make him and Sergei world-famous was another teenager, not even on the team. I’m not saying the US’s win wasn’t wonderful, but it wasn’t a simple or satisfying end—just the beginning of an unraveling.

[Vova throwing his arms in the air as the American goaltender turns to see the puck bouncing out of the net behind him]

[Sergei carrying the puck through open ice. His stick is tangled with two American defenders’, but he’s still got the puck between his feet]

Vova scored the first goal in the game, and Sergei tied it back up before the end of the first. (In an underdog story, what does it say when we don’t name the 19 year old who’d never been here before, and stood up to the pressure at only 5 foot 9? Some college boys played a game against another boy called Baby. Any way we spin that is a choice.)

But Tretiak had let in two as well, so Tikhonov pulled the best goalie in the world after twenty minutes. He put in Vladimir Myshkin, who will be remembered to history as “Not Tretiak” (or just as Tretiak: many people think Tretiak played the Miracle game). He seemed to lean on other defensemen than Slava and Lyosha, despite how they’d helped set up those goals: the other d-men were older, and they were from the contingent of the national team that didn’t play for CSKA most of the year, but for Dynamo.

Remember, the KGB’s favorites. And Tikhonov had been trained there, years before. Maybe Tikhonov wanted to please somebody, wanted a different position, coaching Dynamo during the season instead of CSKA, which was still packed with players who Tarasov, not Tikhonov, had chosen. If he had played Tretiak and Tretiak won, in their hearts people would still have given the win to Tarasov, not Tikhonov. That was only rumor, but hey, that’s Russia. What mattered was respect.

“Tikhonov was quiet like a fucking rabbit after this game,” Slava says. “But he had no choice but to stick with us, and we took over the world, just like that.”

Tikhonov’s loss in February 1980 was followed by another he might eventually have regretted more.

Vova had scored as many goals as Boris Mikhailov, a legend on the team. Sergei, just behind him, tied for points and squeaked passed Kharlamov in goals. But all the pieces around the two young stars had been Coach Tarasov’s—30, 32, 32, 35. Old, old, old. Coach Tikhonov scrambled the plans, put the rookies together, and went hunting for a center for them.

Igor, 1960

[A candid headshot of Igor Larionov in practice. He has blue eyes and an expression I can either describe as ‘wistful’ or ‘pouty.’]

If you like horror movies, spoiler: Igor Larionov will be Coach Tikhonov’s ‘final girl’.

Just down the river from Moscow, Igor was born in Voskresensk, a one-stoplight town that eventually grew to two. Voskresensk’s team, Khimik, is a bit of a spoiler too: they might not be very good, but they’re good at kicking the shit out of Moscow.

His grandfather had been kicked out of Moscow for mocking the regime. His parents had been raised as laborers, who moved from peasant farming to the town as factories grew. Igor loved his parents and his hometown, but already from a little distance. Unlike the Makarovs, he never felt quite the same as his brother, who played hockey too but who Igor thought wasted every opportunity with some knucklehead move. No one else ever seemed to see the opportunities Igor did, waiting spaces for a perfect plan to slither through. He was always small, and he had a lot of thoughts about everything, and even more feelings. Most of those feelings ended with “f— you.” He liked people a lot, but he would never feel sure enough if they liked him.

Apparently he loved ‘80s glam rock music.

No one noticed when he started to play for Khimik. His second season, he put up 45 points in 43 games, and that was enough to draw attention. In the fall of 1980 CSKA played Khimik, and before the game Coach Tikhonov sent a note inviting the 19 year-old to meet outside the rink. He made him the usual offer: sign with CSKA instead, and maybe you’ll make the national team.

Igor said something like, “Uh, I have a game to play? (F— you),” and picked up five more points against CSKA that night.

Igor knew signing with Coach Tikhonov’s CSKA was bad news. He knew other players from Voskresensk who had passed through CSKA’s grinding system, and who intimated that the coaching was nothing like Khimik’s. He knew that once you travelled to Moscow’s training facility, there wouldn’t be any going home on weekends. Worst, once you signed as an officer of the Army, he knew that breaking those contracts counted as treason. He was the teenage geek being invited to a party in the woods by the lake where teenagers always get murdered by the lake monster.

But he was also a teenage geek getting invited to a party.

He had gotten to go to World Juniors U-20 twice, both times with Vova. Like most people, Igor liked Vova rather helplessly, and he had loved traveling. He was proud of his English, proud of his reading and writing, and proud of his ability to understand people. Hotels full of visiting teams had been like feasts: he loved meeting other players and snatched up every opportunity to talk with them. He liked to sit in the stands to watch every game he didn’t have to play in, and cheered for his opponents. He refused to call them ‘rivals’, or 'enemies.' He thought that was how you talked about soldiers and war, not players of a game.

That year in U-20 Vova had been the top junior scorer as usual, but Igor had been voted the MVP. He’d been sure it meant something, that the two of them would be going places, together. Then almost as soon as they’d returned from World Juniors, Tikhonov had appeared in a whirlwind and whisked Vova away on an American adventure, off to the Olympics--alone. Igor watched the Miracle game on TV with his Khimik teammates, and realized he was running out of time.

With 20 looming, the only way he’d ever travel again would be if he could make the men’s national team too. Igor was proud of his play, and he knew that he was good enough to make the national team while playing on any team he wanted—as long as it was Moscow’s. No one who cared would keep watching Khimik.

And at 20, like everyone else in Russia, he was already in debt—those two years of mandatory military service. Spartak was courting him that year too: their coach acted friendly, and bought Igor food, and offered to help his family. But Igor knew Spartak’s coach was out of favor with the Army officials, and Tikhonov was in. So even if he signed with Spartak and tried to fulfill his service through work assignments and trainings on their side of Moscow, he could be mysteriously called up to “active duty” on CSKA’s side at any moment.

At least, he thought, Tikhonov was honest. He knew something was wrong, or he maybe he just thinks he should have, looking back. But he was lonely.

While Igor was overthinking everything, Coach Tikhonov played Sergei and Vova with a center named Viktor Zhluktov for the rest of the ’80-81 season. Viktor Zhluktov probably has a rich interior life like anyone else: for our purposes he is a transparent cut-out with “Mean Girl” stamped on his forehead. He even has an evil mustache.

[An old Soviet graphic with a headshot of Viktor Zhluktov. He has a really bad mustache.]

Vova probably thought he was nice.

Igor, who was still with Khimik and totally didn’t care, thought Viktor “did not shine as a player, but thanks to his faultless obedience to Tikhonov, he got onto the national team with no problem.”

By August 1981, Coach Tikhonov was ready to make the team a little more obediently his. He told Kharlamov not to bother joining the national team for that fall’s Canada Cup: he was getting too old.

Kharlamov had been privately planning to retire before the winter, but he’d wanted to travel with the team and play one last time, a goodbye tour. While driving back to Moscow with his wife Irina, he was killed in a car crash on August 27.

Overnight, it was official: Vova became the best left winger outside the NHL by default. He inherited CSKA’s top line spot, the top line on the national team too. Sergei, who had just lost his childhood friend, rose silently on the right.

That summer Igor signed as a private in the Army. He was not going to be a good soldier, and he knew it. But he reported to Moscow’s training camp.

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#green unit #long post #sergei makarov #igor larionov #vladimir krutov #slava fetisov #alexei kasatanov

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wrestlingisfake · 4 years ago

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Wrestle Kingdom 15 day 2 preview

TBD vs. Jay White - White is challenging for the IWGP heavyweight title and IWGP intercontinental title, against the winner of Tetsuya Naito vs. Kota Ibushi from last night. In fact several of the matches on this card are major spoilers for yesterday’s show, so I guess the whole thing needs to go under the cut.

Kota Ibushi vs. Jay White - Ibushi defeated Tetsuya Naito last night to become the 73rd IWGP heavyweight champion and the 27th IWGP intercontinental champion. White is using his “IWGP double championship right to challenge” contract to receive this title shot. If White wins, Ibushi’s 24 hours as double champion would be the shortest reign in the history of either championship.

Ibushi was devastated when he was knocked out of the Double Gold Dash last year, and moreso when he lost to White in the consolation match. Ibushi and White met again during the G1 Climax, where Jay beat him again. Ibushi nevertheless won the G1 Climax to earn the “right to challenge” contract. However, the contract is defended like a championship, and Ibushi put it on the line against White...who beat him again. White then elected to take January 4 off and schedule his title match with Naito for January 5. However, Naito decided to spend the 4th defending the title against Ibushi. The upshot is that Ibushi has finally achieved his dream, but he must immediately put it all on the line against his nemesis, who isn’t exhausted from working last night.

Frankly, I’m not sure why they set this up where the 1/4 main event sets up who gets to wrestle White, like he’s the biggest star in this thing. I suppose maybe the idea is that he’s unavoidable so that you’ll worry until the very end that he could ruin everything. Maybe that psychology connects with the Japanese audience. It doesn’t with me. I’d rather just see the best and/or biggest match close the second show, and White vs. Ibushi isn’t it. Their match at Wrestle Kingdom 14 last year was so dull that I lost interest for about 20 minutes. Jay will go for the same cheap heat spots he always goes for, and Ibushi will randomly no-sell or oversell each of them, depending on whether he wants to be Ultra Instinct Shaggy or Ricky Morton at any given moment.

I suppose White-Ibushi matches have been fun, sometimes. I really liked the G1 Climax 2019 final. But personally I was over this feud months ago. I really hope they’ve come up with some new material, or this is going to be a long slog for me. I’m picking Ibushi to win, because I really don’t think they’ll book White to win just to troll the Tokyo Dome. But the bigger problem is, I wouldn’t care if they did.

Taiji Ishimori vs. Hiromu Takahashi - Ishimori is defending the IWGP junior heavyweight championship. Hiromu defeated El Phantasmo last night to earn this title shot. Ishimori won the title from Takahashi on August 29, although they met again in the Best of the Super Jr. tournament on November 15, where Hiromu won. So this is the rubber match.

This match should be good to great, but it feels inevitable that Takahashi will regain the title. That’s not all bad, since he’s a big star and I’m a fan, but the match would mean more if Ishimori had been built up bigger. I suppose the pandemic made that difficult, since there were enough shows (or junior heavyweights) for Taiji to really burn through other top contenders.

I guess I’ll just try to get in the mindset of enjoying Hiromu’s coronation, instead of hoping for a match that could go either way. Then, on the off chance Ishimori actually wins, I’ll be properly shocked. But I’m not betting on that happening.

EVIL vs. SANADA - Welp, it had to happen--after Evil turned on Los Ingobernables de Japon and joined Bullet Club, it was only a matter of time before his tag team partner Sanada finally got a hold of him and...wait. I’m looking at my notes for the Evil-Sanada match from October 17. I’m frankly not sure why Sanada suddenly got mad at Evil two months after winning that match. I’m pretty sure they just ran out of ideas for each guy. Well, the October bout wasn’t as emotionally charged as I wanted anyway, so I’ll take a delayed grudge match if I can get it.

I believe Kevin Kelly commented recently that a win for Sanada here moves him closer to the main event title picture, but a loss sends him tumbling back down. I’d agree with that assessment. Along the same lines, a win for Evil suggests a renewed push for him, whereas a loss would signal that they’re putting him on the back burner for a while. I don’t expect either guy to headline the really big shows, but even on the lesser shows, only the winner of this match makes sense chasing the heavyweight and intercontinental titles.

I’d be in favor of these two brawling all around the ringside area (as much as safety procedures allow) and getting it out of their system. Blow this feud off quickly, so we can get on with new business--Sanada working his way up the ladder, and Evil plotting against his rivals within Bullet Club. I’m picking Sanada to win.

Shingo Takagi vs. Jeff Cobb - Takagi is defending the NEVER title. Cobb beat Shingo in their last singles encounter in September, but Takagi wasn’t champion yet. So Cobb had to beat him again in a tag match in December to set up this match. Of course, in the meantime, Cobb turned heel by joining Will Ospreay’s new stable, the Empire.

You could always count on either of these guys to have a great clubberin’ battle, but Cobb’s heel turn should add a vicious new edge to this matchup. We should get a strong showcase of what to expect from Evil Jeff Cobb, above and beyond what he demonstrated in World Tag League. Accordingly, I think he basically has to win the title. There just isn’t anything so important that it’s worth keeping the belt on Takagi; the most interesting thing he could do right now is chase Cobb. So this is another “feels like a foregone conclusion” match on a card full of them. At least this one should be fairly different from the others.

El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi - Despy and Kanemaru are defending the IWGP junior heavyweight tag team titles. Wato and Taguchi each managed to beat Despy in one-on-one matches during Best of the Super Jr., so I guess they figured they’d make a go of it as a team.

If you’d told me a year ago that a Young Lion would come back from excursion with a bunch of fancy vignettes, and it was all to build to this match, past-me would never have dreamed that the new guy would be the dimmest star of this group. But as it happens, Desperado had an epic star-making performance in BOSJ, Taguchi is a comedy institution in the promotion, and Kanemaru is at least a champion. Wato just hasn’t been booked like a hot new star, and the whole idea of having guys like Taguchi and Hiroyoshi Tenzan coach him just makes him look weaker. You get the feeling this match is designed to help him recover from all that, except that I have no confidence he’ll actually win the big one in the Tokyo Dome. If he loses here, he’s basically Captain New Japan Mark II.

What’s worse for Wato is that I’m not even sure it’s a good idea for him to finally win the big one, not at Desperado’s expense. The drama of the BOSJ final took me from “Oh, that one guy who looks like Skeletor cosplaying El Kabong” to “holy shit El Desperado isn’t fucking around.” They need to run with that, and maybe dropping the tag title is step one. But dropping it to Master Wato? I guess Wato could pin Kanemaru, but still.

To me the best finish for everyone involved is if the champs retain and Wato flips out and turns on Taguchi. But that sort of thing is awfully swerve-y for New Japan, and it’s smarter not to assume it’ll happen every time it’d be a little convenient. So I guess we’ll see what they’ve got. But I feel safe predicting the champs retain and Wato doesn’t get over as a babyface.

Toru Yano vs. Bad Luck Fale vs. Chase Owens vs. BUSHI - This is a four-way match to decide who gets first possession of the provisional KOPW 2021 trophy. Whoever holds the trophy at the end of the year will be the official King of Pro Wrestling in 2021, or something. Yano won the title for 2020, but it’s a new year so we have a new title. The participants here were the final four of last night’s New Japan Ranbo gauntlet match. I gather that the first man to score a fall over any other opponent wins.

This is a pretty oddball lineup so I would imagine this match will just be a lot of shenanigans. All four guys will cheat to win, but Owens and Fale will work together to double-team cheat, so they can be bigger heels than the other two.

Yano originally won the KOPW 2020 trophy in a four-way like this one, by stealing a pin over Kazuchika Okada of all people. So I would think that makes him a heavy favorite to win here. The only question is if the bookers think it’d be funnier for his tricks to backfire when dealing with the massive, extremely irritated Fale. I think I’d rather see Fale defending the trophy for six months, to be honest, but my gut says Yano will win again.

AZM & Saya Kamitani & Utami Hayashishita vs. Natsupo & Himeka & Maika - This is one of two women’s matches to provide exposure to STARDOM, the women’s promotion owned by New Japan’s parent company. In Japan it’s seems to be considered normal for promotions to be all-male or all-female, and for fans to only want to see one or the other on a given event. So I get the impression some New Japan fans have a problem with running Stardom matches on a NJPW show, although I certainly don’t see why. In any case, TV and streaming rights mean that Western fans probably won’t actually see this match; I’m not even sure it will be televised. And I unfortunately know nothing baout Stardom, so it’s kind of pointless for me to comment on performers I’ve never heard of in a match I’ll probably never get to see.

Tam Nakano & Mayu Iwatani vs. Syuri & Giulia - Another women’s match to showcase Stardom. In this case I at least recognize Iwatani’s name from some ROH shows a couple of years ago, but that’s about it. I’m all for getting women’s wrestling some more exposure anywhere you can do it, but unfortunately these matches are aimed at the live audience in the Tokyo Dome, and won’t do much good raising my awareness.

#njpw #wrestle kingdom 15 #jay white #taiji ishimori #other guys but they're spoilers

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dccomicsnews · 5 years ago

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Review: THE FLASH #750

[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writers: Joshua Williamson, Geoff Johns, Francis Manapul, Brian Buccellato, Marv Wolfman, Scott Lobdell

Artists: Rafa Sandoval, Stephen Segovia, Scott Kolins, Francis Manapul, Riley Rossmo, David Marquez, Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund

Colours: Arif Prianto, Michael Atiyeh, Ivan Plascencia, Alejandro Sanchez, Luis Guerrero

Letters: Steve Wands, Rob Leigh, Joshua Reed, Deron Bennett, ALW’s Troy Peteri

Reviewed By: Derek McNeil

Summary

The Flash #750: Beginning: “The Flash Age”! The story we’ve been building toward since issue #50 comes to a head! While a supercharged Speed Force wreaks havoc on Barry Allen’s life, a new threat appears on the horizon in the form of the deadly Paradox. Destined to destroy the Flash’s legacy, Paradox sends his herald, Godspeed, to trap the Flash family! Plus, in this special anniversary issue: tales from across the generations of super-speedsters by an all-star lineup of writers and artists!

Positives

In honour of the 80th Anniversary of the title, DC has reverted back to legacy numbering. Thus, The Flash #750 hits the stands this week instead of the expected 89th issue of the series. “Legacy numbering” means that if the title kept the same incremental numbering through every relaunch of the title, then the number would have naturally progressed to issue #750 with this very issue.

This covers the tenures of DC’s primary three Flashes, Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, and Wally West, and appropriately, all three are well represented in the six stories included. As the current star of the title, Barry merits three stories, while Jay and Wally each get a single, yet important story each.

This first, and main, story is the first chapter of regular series writer Josh Williamson’s “The Flash Age”. I really liked this story, as it mostly gives a break and allows us to catch up with the current status of Barry’s world and the people in it, before pushing into the next big conflict. This makes the story a nice jumping-on point for new readers as well as providing a neat wrap up of the previous story arc.

Most importantly, it shows that Barry and Iris are back together and that their relationship is as strong as ever. In fact, things seemed to be going so well, that when Iris said, “I have something to talk to you about. A surprise”, I was expecting that she might propose to Barry.

Positives Cont.

Unfortunately, this is where the impending conflict cut into the story. Godspeed interrupts this moment, taking Barry to face Paradox. Paradox then gives Barry a choice between giving up being the Flash or fighting for his life against Godspeed. This is where the story leaves off, giving us a rather effective cliffhanger to bring readers back for the rest of “The Flash Age”.

I also love that this story includes several instances of Central City’s citizens showing their gratitude to the Flash for saving their lives or helping them in other ways. It’s a nice touch for an anniversary story. Plus, it provides a nice counterpoint to Paradox’s claims that Barry has been endangering everybody by the effect his powers have had on reality itself. Hopefully, this will help Barry realize that the good he has done outweighs any damage he has caused.

In the second story, Geoff Johns bring us an interesting little tale featuring Captain Cold, set during Wally’s tenure as the DCU’s primary Flash. In this story, we see that what Wally assumes that Cold goes on a rampage for the sole purpose of infuriating Wally.

However, the story shows us that the “rampage” came about unintentionally. Cold merely stumbled into the midst of an armed robbery when shopping at his local corner store. Through a series of misunderstandings, he finds himself in the middle of a confrontation with the Keystone City Police. While this doesn’t excuse Cold for his crimes, this does show how easy it is for events to quickly get out of control for a villain in the DCU.

Positives Cont.

The next story, by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato features Barry examining the question of whether the Flash has to be Barry Allen. He does this by using a previously unseen power to send his consciousness through other timelines where somebody else became the Flash instead of him. In each timeline, he finds that someone admirably fills the role of the Flash. He arrives at the moral of the “Even if it doesn’t have to be me… I”m glad that it is”

However, I have to wonder why the examples of Wally and Jay aren’t enough evidence that that someone else could serve as the Flash other than Barry. I would have thought either would be proof enough to settle the question.

Marv Wolfman, the man wrote the story of Barry’s death in Crisis On Infinite Earths, returns to the character to tell of an interesting encounter between Barry and the Mirror Master. The interesting conceit of this story is that the Mirror Master’s mirrors in the story enact various transformations upon the Flash’s body. These transformations allow artist Riley Rossmo to revisit some of the bizarre transformations over the years, such as the time Abra-Kadabra turned Barry into a walking wooden puppet.

Next, regular writer Joshua Williamson gives us a story of Jay Garrick, set in the title’s inaugural year, 1940. The story centres around an encounter between Jay and the Thinker. However, the most intriguing bit of the story is when a mysterious figure, presumably the Reverse Flash, whispers in Jay’s ear, “They’ll forget you Jay Garrick. I’ve seen your future…”.

Positives Cont.

This seems to be setting up a future storyline involving Jay and the Reverse Flash, which is further borne out by the blurb at the story’s end. This blurb promises, “To be continued in The Flash in 2020″. Unfortunately, this seems to imply that we won’t see the followup immediately, but it is coming relatively shortly.

Also, I noticed that the image on that page also shows Wally and Bart. I hope this means that we will be seeing a full reunion of the Flash Family when this story continues.

Finally, the entire creative team for the Flash Forward miniseries returns to provide an epilogue to that miniseries. Writer Scott Lobdell continues where that story left off, creating a bridge between it and the upcoming Generation Zero: Gods Among Us and subsequent Generation One to Five specials.

While little is known about this upcoming event, it has been speculated that it will involve a major shift in DCU continuity. That speculation seems to be borne out in this story, where Wally, now wielding the power and knowledge of the Mobius Chair, exams the current state of the DC Universe’s continuity.

It has been my theory for a while now that the time itself is unravelling in the DC Universe, and this story confirms that. Wally looks through his own personal timeline and sees that multiple contradictory events seem to concurrently exist in the current continuity. The original Silver Age origin of the Teen Titans happened as Wally remembers it, but the New 52 Teen Titans also exist as the first group to call themselves by that name.

#gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

The Flash #750 1940s Cover

The Flash #750 1950s Cover

The Flash #750 1960s Cover

The Flash #750 1970s Cover

The Flash #750 1980s Cover

The Flash #750 1990s Cover

The Flash #750 2000s Cover

The Flash #750 2010s Cover

Positives Cont.

I must also interject that it’s great to see that Wally remembers the original Teen Titans costumes, and not the New 52/Rebirth re-imagined versions of the original outfit – even down to Robin’s short pants.

Wally confronts Tempus Fuginaut about the state of the DCU, stating, “Everything. Time. Space. Reality. It’s all broken. It all risks collapse”. And if there is any doubt about the severity of the situation in the reader’s mind, the story itself drop many significant keywords that indicate big reality-changing events in DC history: “Crisis”, “Flashpoint”, “Doomsday”, “Rebirth”, and others.

Truly, the DCU is reaching an important turning point. But there we are given ample reason not to dread this. When Fuginaut asks if Wally is up to the task of repairing this damage, Wally West, the DCU’s symbol of hope and rebirth replies, “My name is Wally West. I’m the Fastest Man Alive. I sit on the Mobius Chair. The power of a God races through me. So yeah. I got this”.

This speech gave me chills and reassures me that whatever the Generation special lead to, it bodes well for the future of the DCU.

Besides the amazing lineup of artists in each of the stories, there are also fine selection of pinups, as well as the multitude of gorgeous variant covers. I love the look of the decade covers. Especially, with the care taken to match the title logo and DC symbol for each time period. DC does pull out the stops to make sure these anniversary events look truly amazing.

Negatives

However, there is a nasty side to all these variant covers. This is a book with a $7.99 cover price. But with ten different covers (including the blank cover), that’s almost 80 bucks. Now I didn’t mind this when Action Comics and Detective Comics reached issue #1000. That’s a once in a lifetime milestone. Now DC is doing the same for Wonder Woman and The Flash reaching #750, which is a bit much, but okay. But DC has announced similar 80th Anniversary events for Robin, Catwoman, The Joker, and Green Lantern. That’s one or two of these expensive specials a month. Such a cash grab is excusable when it is once in a blue moon, but DC is venturing into the realm of highway robbery. Please, DC! Have mercy on my bank account!

Verdict

Review: The Flash #750 Review: THE FLASH #750 Writers: Joshua Williamson, Geoff Johns, Francis Manapul, Brian Buccellato…

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thesportssoundoff · 5 years ago

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Sometimes Good Enough Just Ain’t Good Enough: 10 Challenges For The Yankees Going Forward

Joey

October 21st

At the end of the year, 29 teams will head into the latter stages of the Fall simply saying they weren't good enough. On Saturday night, it was the Yankees turn to stand up, look in the mirror and say "Not good enough" as they bowed out of the ALCS in the deciding sixth game of the series. When you win 100 games, survive countless injuries, win with a sweep in the ALDS and lose on a walk off in game 6 of the ALCS it's normally a successful season but this is New York where expectations aren't the same as Milwaukee, Oakland, St. Louis or any of the teams who played into October before finally saying "Not good enough!" as they hung up their hats. The Yankees expect championships and it's sometimes mutant fanbase (of which I am firmly a member of) are now going on 10 years of no ticker tape parades. Still let's not lose ourselves to delirium and point out that this is a damn good team with a deep core and plenty of organizational depth to take the next step. The Yankees aren't falling off or in a rebuild; they have a team that guarantees every October, they'll be talking about the chase for 28 in earnest. With the season in the rear view mirror, let's chit chat about ten things the Yankees have to do or figure out as they continue that chase for 28.

1. Fire the training staff

Easy enough! Injuries can sometimes be fluky but good lord, the Yankees were besieged with them. All three starting outfielders (Judge, Stanton, Hicks) saw IL time, their back up OFs saw IL time, their starting catcher saw IL time, starting 1B saw IL time, pitchers both high on the totem pole and in the jabroni ranks went on the IL. Clean house!

2. The same ol' same ol' scramble for a lead starter

Since the end of 2016 when the rebuild was officially over, this team has been chasing the #1 starter you normally need in the post season. At the end of the day, it's just easier to win in the playoffs when you have a game 1 starter you have endless confidence in. While Boston got away with it in 2018, they also had Chris Sale who maybe didn't pitch like an ace but was clearly one of the top 5 starters in the AL that year. The big myth is that the Yankees don't have good starting pitching and that is for the most part a lie. The Yankees pitching after the All Star break was pretty solid and in the playoffs they got quality enough from guys like Severino, Paxton and Tanaka on an inconsistent basis. The Yankees pitching rotation is NOT awful and plenty of teams would kill for a 1-2-3 of a healthy Louis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka in big games and James Paxton after the All Star Break where he went 10-3 with a 3.59 ERA and an 11 K/9. In the playoffs, Paxton was more good than bad and Tanaka shoved in two of the three games he pitched in. That said those three have all battled injuries (Paxton admittedly pitched with a knee he never quite felt great about) and all three of them weren't good enough in the playoffs. Maybe that changes with Severino healthy, Paxton more comfortable and Tanaka staying his usual course but it would be difficult to return with the same rotation in tact and say you feel confident about your chances against the Astros. This has been a chase that has spanned three years now as the Yankees tried with James Paxton, Sonny Gray and J.A Happ, were outbit on the likes of Carlos Quintana, Yu Darvish and Gerritt Cole and allegedly never tried for the likes of Marcus Stroman, Patrick Corbin, Justin Verlander and countless others. 2019 will be yet another year where they'll enter Christmas hoping to have a starter locked up.

The two obvious names will play next week when Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg take the bump for Houston and Washington respectively. In the Yankees of old, George Steinbrenner would hand Brian Cashman a blank check and tell him to pay for one IF not both. Time's have changed for better and/or worse with the Yankees. Brian Cashman is a man of due diligence and a man with the longest leash in sports. The Yankees didn't spend on Corbin, didn't try on Harper and made a modicum of effort for Manny Machado last year. In the free agent market, they're likely to not play heavily unless Hal Steinbrenner pretty much demands it. Paying for Cole and Strasburg is the easier fix but it's an avenue they've shied away from recently plus there are teams who "need" those guys more. The Yankees probably aren't as desperate as, say, the Angels are to win in the Mike Trout era and they've got money to play with so why not? The solution may be the trade market where the Yankees can make some hay in their search for a #1. Brian Cashman has parlayed his farm system (which is still plenty deep) into the opportunity to trade for arms in the past which figures to once again be the case. Conversely in the trade market, the farm is thinner than it's been in recent years AND Cashman prides himself on not losing trades. Also there's not much TO trade out there. Obviously it's his job as a GM to go out and find a potential solution that maybe the public hasn't heard is available but right now who is the best starter knowing that the Mets and the Yankees won't trade? It's not a robust market.

So your solutions are to pull a rabbit out of your hat or pay or hope Severino becomes an ace again after an injury plagued season. I suppose the only potential opt out route would be to sign a Hyun Jin-Ryu or a Jake Odorizzi and hope you can just build a deep rotation of names and faces that will give you quantity (while not high end quality) at the end of it.

3. Figure out Luke Voit

Let's play a game.

Player A- .333/.405/.689 195 wRC+ 14 HR 26.4% K rate Player B- .280/.393/.509 140 wRC+ 19 HR 25.8% K rate Player C- .238/.348/.368 95 wRC+ 4 HR 32.3% K rate

Player A is Luke Voit during his 2018 run with the Yankees Player B is Luke Voit up until he got hurt in the London Series Player C is Luke Voit from July 12th to the end of the year

Voit will never be the guy who took over the MLB in 2018. The sample size was bound to even itself out over time and Voit was bound to cool off when pitchers got to know him better. Player B though is a borderline All Star level first basemen. A power hitter who could hit for average, got on base at a solid clip and play a somewhat manageable first base is an asset for any team but especially a Yankees squad that has been hungry for competent first base play since injuries robbed Mark Texeira of his ability. Then? Voit got hurt. Back issues limited down the stretch and as you can tell by the numbers, Player C was awful. He just looked timid and afraid like he had been sapped of his confidence entirely. Luke Voit got left off the ALCS roster and had to watch as the offense struggled without him. Imagine a confident and healthy Luke Voit at the DH spot instead of Edwin Encarnacion when he went ice cold in the ALCS and maybe the series is a bit different. The Yankees are saddled with determining which half of the Luke Voit story is the real one. The Yankees are a better team when DJ LeMahieu is freed up to play 2B where he's an insanely elite defender and Luke Voit could help in that regard. At the same time? The Yankees have been burnt in the past by gambling at 1B (like when they kept thinking Greg Bird would finally put it together) and options would help. Even if he ran out of gas, Edwin Encarnacion did some good work when he was healthy and few dudes hit dingers the way he does when he's locked in. There's also Greg Bird I guess? Which reminds me....

4. MAYBE chase better balance

I don't believe a team gets better by marrying itself to letters next to names ie: we have to have x amount of leties in our pen. I do think that the Yankees righty heavy lineup could use some better balance. The team was batting Gardner 3rd in the playoffs despite his inability to do much of anything for stretches because they felt like they needed someone to break up the righties at the top of the bill. With two lefties about to hit free agency, maybe the Yankees need to flirt a bit with shaking things up in their lineup. Getting back a healthy Hicks would help of course but in general, this team could benefit from having maybe one more competent lefty bat especially if Did is out of here. It's not the sexiest name alive but given Voit's struggles down the stretch and the fact that they could probably use a more competent 1B defensively, maybe Mitch Moreland (former Red Sox 1B) as a back up/defensive replacement could make sense. Coming off an injury plagued season where he was still pretty damn productive vs righties. Maybe this is even where Mike Ford (who caught on late) fits as a future part of the team.

5. Figure out your free agents

Dellin Betances- There's some serious rebound value in bringing Betances back at fair market value. The Yankees just never had a replacement for what Betances could do as a pseudo fireman; a guy with low contact rates who can K a side and come in the middle of an inning to calm things down. Betances at a multi year deal would be a fair and modest investment.

Brett Gardner- There's a group of mutant Yankee fans who hate Brett Gardner and I feel like people forget Gardner was supposed to be at the very most a part time 4th OF. Injuries forced Gardner to continually play and he answered the bell quite well every time. He'll likely take a step back next year BUT he'll also be asked to play less.

Edwin Encarnacion- Was absolutely brutal in the ALCS but hits for power and usually has composed at bats. Was always a hired gun who the Yankees were probably gonna buy out when the time was right.

Didi Gregorios- Ugh. Didi went from being one of Brian Cashman's biggest steals and a potential cornerstone to a guy who will probably be allowed to test the open market. Didi's strengths are his defense, his clubhouse presence and his better than advertised bat but the Yankees have been waiting on him to take a firm step into top 10 SS for about two years now and it's not coming. He deserves a lot of credit for battling back from injury but he was brutal outside of games vs the Twins. I also sort of feel like his approach is all wrong for the Yankees as its constructed. For a team that preaches patience at the place and commanding the strike zone, Didi's approach often gets worse the more pitches he takes so he often swings at the first pitch and often does so when it's the wrong time. Defensively it looked like he took a step back as well although that may have been due to injury. The Yankees are better with DJ at 2nd and Gleyber at short and a competent 1B manning that spot but they love Didi so much (and he's so valuable when he's right) that they kept forcing him into the spot.

Austin Romine- Catching across the league is bad and Romine, noodle arm aside, is a solid back up catcher. Those tend to get signed for decent coin and normally for multi year deals. As such the Yankees need to maybe consider their options at the BUC spot because they won't have Romine.

Cameron Maybin- I'm not entirely sure Maybin's got a real fit here now. If Stanton, Judge and Hicks are healthy then it's probably him vs Gardner because Mike Tauchman has a long term future here. I wish Cameron Maybin well, he was a breath of fresh of air in the locker room and he deserves to have a good spot on a team somewhere.

6. Figure your outfield situation out

We know Judge, Stanton and Hicks are going to be here. Mike Tauchman was a star and a half for a month and change before injuries finally sapped him of his super powers. Gardner is a free agent but I'm betting the Yankees will bring him back comfortably so. Beyond them you have Estevan Florial (a former Yankees top prospect on a slide), Clint Frazier (a borderline toxic fit for the Yankees) as well as pseudo OFs Tyler Wade and Thairo Estrada. The Yankees OF depth tends to get tested throughout the year but is Clint Frazier better suited to be a trade piece for some team in desperate need of an outfielder?

7. Settle the 'pen out a bit.

Yankees have four tremendous bullpen arms tied up with Britton, Ottavino, Green and Kahnle comfortably under wraps. Aroldis Chapman will probably opt out in a so-so closer's market and the Yankees will probably re-sign him (they took the PR smear after trading for him and then brought him back so clearly they value him). If not? Britton was an ace closer but in general the bullpen needs more arms. Remember the CLOSEST they got for a trade in July was for Bluejays closer Ken Giles so I'd imagine they'll poke around there too. If you can't find a starter of high quality and won't trade for one then you need one more big arm in the pen. It'd be pretty cool to both a) get a stud reliever and b) hurt your primary rivalries by signing either Joe Smith or Will Harris from under Houston.

8. Find a role for whatever J.A. Happ is.

The Yankees got ace level production of J.A. Happ when they had him in 2018 and even including his playoff bust vs Boston, bringing him back in some form or fashion seemed like a can't miss concept. Well it done missed. Pick whatever metric you want and Happ was genuinely bad for a Yankees team that desperately needed him to ONLY be a competent arm. He did improve as the season went along (imagine how awful he had to be that his last five starts with a 2.33 ERA that it managed to ONLY finish at a sub 5 ERA) and a lot of his game felt like it was just blitzed by the juiced ball and a lack of adapting to that. Happ is still under contract for 2020 and it's going to be hard to shake his deal so you're stuck with him. Figure out I guess if he's a long man, a 5th starter or a really overly expensive LOOGY type.

9. Battle royal the 5th spot

Keeping with that, the Yankees were roasted for their lack of SP depth and it showed up big last year. The fact that this team turned to an opener and wound up riding the likes of Chance Adams and Nestor Cortes as long men suggests they got got by the lack of options in the rotation. Turn the 5th spot into a battle royal position. Jordan Montgomery, J.A. Happ, Johnny Lasagna, a few retreads on other teams who are a tinkered arm angle away from being a competent 5th starter etc etc etc. Don't go into the year just figuring your minor league depth options are going to be enough because it probably won't be.

Unless you want to sign Zack Wheeler or Jake Odorizzi and be done with it.

10. Accept Gary Sanchez

I guess this is more for Yankees fans than anybody else. Gary Sanchez is a good catcher. Offensively when he's healthy, he's among the game's best and defensively? He's actually improving really well to be one of the better catches in the AL. He has a crazy throwing arm and while stolen bases are becoming less frequent, he's still got the ability to further mitigate that. Sanchez is a good player who plays the most physically demanding position in baseball and does a good job at it. His playoff numbers were abysmal this year but I still have faith.

#MLB #Yankees #playoffs #2019 #aaron judge #tanaka #severino #chapman #baseball #sports #hicks #stanton #sanchez

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league-of-light · 6 years ago

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Week 4 Pick’em

Look, I know I’m late on the picks this week. I wanted to get them in yesterday, but other things came up and I didn’t get to it. I’m sorry, ok? To make up for it, I have written quite the long pick’em for this week. I’m not entirely sure if I will be able to make them this long every week, but I think I should be able to.

Why would I spend all this time writing the pick’em? Great question. Isn’t there a more productive use of your time? Probably. Will, you’re moving next week, shouldn’t you be packing or something? Are you just spending way more time writing picks as a means to delay the inevitable anxiety you’re going to feel about starting a new job and moving? Do you think this is the healthiest way to deal with that? Psh, you’re not my therapist.

Anyway, here goes

Yerboi vs Brenner? I hardly know’er

This Will vs. Brenner bout, should be promotionally billed as “Chronically Injured and Underperforming” vs “Complete Lineup Ineptitude”. Both teams come into Week 3 at a resounding 0-2, and are looking to get their season on track after some of high profile trades in the first couple weeks of the season.

There are always big expectations when you make a trade in Fantasy Football. Typically speaking, you hope and expect that the players you got are going to outperform whomever you traded away (or at the very least perform somewhat similarly). Unfortunately, that won’t always be the case. Sometimes there are weeks like last week, where JuJu outscored T.Y. Hilton and I am forced to sit there and reflect on how I would have won if I just kept JuJu. Other times, there are weeks like this week, where Brenner ensures he doesn’t have to deal with the emotional trauma of a trade gone awry because he benches the players he traded for. (No there aren’t, this literally never happens)

I pick myself, simply because I don’t think I’ve actually ever seen a team projected to score as few points as Brenner.

Story To Watch: How quickly it will take Drew Brees to score more than the 3 points Brenner got from Tyrod Taylor. My guess is 4 plays.

Tangiphil vs Hewie and the Hashslingers

After a fairly explosive first week of the season, we can all finally exhale — Phil’s team is bad again. Shockingly, his 3-headed Running Back Monster is down a head. Unlike the legend of the Hydra, instead of another head growing in it’s place, Phil decided to chase last week’s bench points and play Nelson Agholor. If you check his bench this week you may notice Joe Mixon outside of the IR slot, Isaiah Crowell’s wasted 18 point TNF total, and another Jets receiver. That’s right folks, it’s week 3 and Phil is already in midseason form.

But enough about Phil. Steve is 2-0 and I expect his win streak to continue this week. In my humble opinion, his team is underprojected with only 98 points, as Big Ben, Melvin Gordon, and Marvin Jones all look poised to be playing catchup in potentially high scoring games. Look for Steve to hopefully rise in the power rankings after squashing Phil.

Story To Watch: He may be the second head of a three two-headed running back monstrosity, but Adrian Peterson is going to look more like Mike Wazowski than James P. Sullivan this week. The Packers offense comes to FedEx Field with an offense that looks like two-day expedited shipping, while the Redskins offense has been looking like the Pony Express. Game script gets away from the ‘Skins and they abandon the run.

Kyle vs Sean

Close to half of this league isn’t from Rockland, so I’m going to use this opportunity to tell a story. To the hometown heroes - some of the overarching details may be incorrect, but I don’t care I have the talking stick. If you want accuracy you can write the damn blog post next week. Anyway, in sixth grade every middle school student has to take World History. The curriculum is geared towards ancient civilizations, and a decent chunk of time is spent on Egypt. As such, every year there was (is?, not sure if they still do it) a grade-wide Egypt project where students had to use their knowledge of Egypt, make something, and showcase it to the class. Think of it like a science fair, but with crappy Egyptian dioramas instead of baking soda volcanoes. Since I was a bright eyed ambitious young man who loved art and mythology, I knew I would do great on this project. I chose the ambitious task of making a sculpture of Horus, the Falcon-headed man prince of the Egyptian pantheon. It wasn’t long before I realized my doodling skills didn’t translate well into making 3D models, but I was in far too deep. I molded the clay as best I could, and then “accidentally” left it in the oven too long so it burned to a crisp and was nearly unidentifiable. Needless to say, I didn’t do very well on that project.

Why am I telling you this? Because look at Sean’s team. Does it look real good on paper? Sure. Does that mean he is likely going to win this week? Probably. But has his overconfidence blinded him into creating a team made of glass with absolutely no depth in a 16-team league? 67%, yes. (Because that is the grade I got on the project.)

Story to Watch: Alex Collins has become the running back equivalent of Hillary Swank. Hot or not? Stay tuned this week and find out…

You Guys Again vs. Johnson Ertz

The moment you’ve all been waiting for is here folks. I…..I can’t believe it’s finally happening. After almost two full years, the day has finally come. Dylan Feldman vs. Dylan Costa are facing off in a fantasy football matchup which I am officially dubbing “The Battle for the Right to be Called Dylan in the Fantasy Football League Group Chat” (and since we love our acronyms here, aka TB4TR2BCDITFFLGC). Two Dylans enter, only one Dylan leaves. This matchup is arguably one of the most important matchups we have ever seen in this league, and has a chance to change the history books forever.

Unfortunately for Dylan Costa, his squad isn’t exactly striking fear into anyone these days. I’ll have to go with Dylan Feldman, but his lineup has more red letters than Hester Prynne after an all weekend slumber party at Arthur Dimmesdale’s Dimmesdale Dimmahome.

Story to Watch: With the return of Aaron “I smoke Marijuana so Bowers thinks I’m a bad person” Jones coming back to Green Bay, Jamaal Williams’ usage should be monitored. As the kids say, he hasn’t been very good over the past two weeks, and Aaron Jones is ready to come in blazing *~!420!~*

Bearkley vs. Watch Me

Imagine my shock when I saw I won the bidding war for Ryan Fitzpatrick. I immediately rushed to find the owners of the Tampa Bay WRs so I could celebrate our good fortune as Fitzmagic showers us all with fantasy points. Now imagine my shock when I saw Samantha has benched Chris Godwin, not only a rookie (we all know my irrational hype with rookies), but a rookie whose name is lit a combination of God and Win. I don’t know about you, but doesn’t it feel like Samantha has renounced God and doesn’t want to win this week’s matchup?

On the flipside, Nico runs our Dungeons and Dragons group, and if the 80s taught me anything it’s don’t feed weird aliens after midnight, and that D&D is for devil worshipping heathens. With any hope of good Christian fun squandered for this matchup, it really is anybody’s game. I want to believe in the underdog, but more favorable matchups lead me to believe that Nico will pull out the W.

Story to Watch: Saquon Barkley caught 2 of 6 targets week 1 against the Jags. That number increased to 14 of 16 targets last week as Eli Manning completely lost interest in holding on to the football for more than 1 second. Is it possible that Saquon receives 28 targets this game as Eli Manning has to look JJ Watt and Jadaveon Clowney in the eyes?

Washington vs. Walshington

I want to take a second here and pour one out for Walsh, who didn’t answer my trade offer or my text message regarding Dalvin Cook and Allen Robinson. Walsh, you took an injury bullet for me and I will forever be grateful. It’s appropriate that I mention taking a bullet, because rumors have it Frank Gore was actually there when the first metal bullet was shot in 1425. Between Gore and Kerryon Johnson, Walsh will be lucky if he gets 14.25 points from his running backs this week.

Andy surprisingly continues to ride or die with Andrew Luck, despite Luck being unable to throw the football more than 15 yards. At this point I assume he is just taunting Arielle with Bortles on his bench, and we have to assume that if Bortles continues putting up 30 point games, eventually Andy might start him. The biggest story on this squad is how Andy managed to get two of the best big play boom or bust WRs with John Brown and Will Fuller, while also having Amari Cooper and Mike Evans. That’s a solid receiving core you got there pal, and I just want you to know I see it and appreciate it.

Story To Watch: C’mon, it’s Philip Lindsay. Every week it’s Philip Lindsay. Everyone loves a hometown hero and I have greatly enjoyed watching this kid ball out.

Bowers v Arielle

I’m high on Dylan Leone Arielle’s team this year. How could you not be? It was drafted by a man who has $45,000 in fantasy football great young woman who has shown her commitment to the league. For whatever reason, ESPN’s site stopped working just as I was going to look at this matchup, so unfortunately I am going to have to give an abridged write up of my pick. I have played these teams back to back so you would assume I know who is on their rosters, but I can’t remember anything other than Russell Wilson and James Conner on Arielle’s team, and Golden Tate and Kirk Cousins on Bowers’.

Based on this limited memory alone, I suppose I am going to pick Bowers in what will likely be another close matchup for the Reikland Reavers

Story to Watch: The story of life as I take this momentary absence from ESPN’s Fantasy Football to reflect on the finer things in the world. Like Yahoo Fantasy Football.

Jason v Harnsowl

ESPN is still not working for me, neither on my phone nor my computer, so I can’t really give much analysis here. However, not much analysis is needed. Unlike his godless sister, Jason is a man of faith. And if George Michaels taught us anything, it’s that you gotta have faith. You gotta have faith, faith, faith. Carson Wentz returns this week and I don’t care whoever Harnsowl is playing, it doesn’t really matter. I mean, as far as the matchup is concerned it might matter, but emotionally speaking, Jason has already won this week.

I can’t be expected to pick a winner in a matchup that already has a winner, so instead I’ll take this time to remind you to spay or neuter your pets. Bob Barker used to do a fantastic job of reminding the American people to do so, and if I am being completely honest I just don’t think Drew Carey delivers the message with the same panache. Like sure, I know Drew still says it at the end of the show, but does he really even believe it? Only Drew can really answer that question, but if I had to guess I would bet $100 $101 Drew. While we’re on the topic, if any of you ever manage to go on Price is Right and you do that thing where you bid one dollar higher than someone else did, you can consider our friendship over. Not only is it the worst strategy ever, it’s also rude as hell to the other contestant. In some cases I’m sure the people legitimately don’t know what to bet after someone else bet around the same thing they did, but for the love of God at least bet like $10 higher so there is some tension in the room.

But yeah, back to football, I pick Jason

Story to Watch: The next episode of Price is Right, Monday September 24th

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dynamitekrp · 4 years ago

Photo

SEARCHING FOR HYUN . . .

PUBLIC PROFILE

birthday: september 22, 1993 years trained: 4 position: main rap

CAREER

2015, produced butterfly for icarus 2017, produced wine for a solo artist 2019, produced we don’t talk together for a solo artist 2020, produced black swan for icarus

IMAGE

hyun is icarus’s rock.

he is: rough around the edges.

they tell him not to lose his daegu accent, not entirely. to let it slip on purpose more often than not. to not let people forget that he's just a country boy at heart who had a dream, a passion for music and risked it all by coming to seoul to pursue it. they say not to censor himself too much, either, let a cuss word or two slip every now and then, let his face betray all his emotions sometimes, even negative ones when he's annoyed or angry or confused or sad. if you're feeling down, post some thoughts on the fan café, maybe go live. obviously, they say not to do it too much or at the wrong time, but just enough to give off the feeling that he's genuine, unpolished, not some cookie cutter idol. he won't be relatable by any means, but real. believably flawed like anyone else. just a daegu boy who happens to rap because he wants to.

he is: stubborn. or, in nicer terms, strong-willed. immovable.

of course, icarus as a whole stands for hard work making the dream work, but hyun’s inherent stubbornness is played up just that much more. like when they tell him to talk about how long he takes to produce tracks sometimes because he won't let it go until it's exactly how he imagined it. or to talk about how he couldn't dance worth a damn and almost got kicked out of the tentative lineup, but, well, look at him now. he still can't quite dance anywhere near as well as the rest of the group, but that's fine, they say. that's all part of it too, because now his ability to follow choreography as well as he can is the product of pure hard work with no natural talent to back it up.

he is: foundation.

when it comes to icarus's music (post 2015), hyun is a large part of the foundation it lies upon. he's not the only one, of course, but he is often the one they turn to when questions about their music come up. about the concept. about the lyrics. about the meaning behind it all and the process with which they came up with it. they tell him to go all out, go ahead and answer with technical terms to show he has a deep understanding. show the people that he knows what he's talking about, what he’s doing. that icarus's music is good because "of course, the members helped write the lyrics" or "of course, the members helped produce it" or "as expected of self-producing icarus~"

he is: well grounded.

with hyun, what you see is what you get. he is confident sometimes veering on cocky, he is decisive often veering stubborn. he is real, genuine, flawed, human, just with a particularly strong passion for music. at least, that's the vibe they want him to give off. a real, serious musician.

it's a precarious image, to say the least, still manufactured in its supposed genuineness. an image he has trouble balancing because sometimes he's not quite sure anymore where icarus hyun ends and moon hyun begins

if he begins anywhere at all anymore.

BACKGROUND

when hyun was born, it was the day the samsung lions advance to the playoffs. his father was no where to be found in the hospital room, instead sitting in the arena of the game.

it’s perhaps unsurprising, then, that his life had been decided for him the moment his parents found out he was a boy. his father, a failed baseball player that never could hit a ball as much as he could talk it, pushed his dreams onto hyun the second he walked into the hospital room hours after his birth. he arrived with a signed baseball in hand, calling it a lucky charm.

one year later during his doljabi, hyun grabbed that same ball without hesitation.

the smile on his father’s face that day was the widest it’s ever been, even maybe to this day.

from that point forward, he was determined. every story he told him at night to get hyun to sleep was a baseball one, every toy he got him was either a ball or a toy bat or mitt, every present a samsung lion piece of merch. the moment hyun was able to run consistently, he put a bat in his hands and taught him how to swing it. when hyun was able to think a little more, he taught him how to throw a ball and they’d play catch in the park until his mom had to come drag them home. when he was old enough, he had him join a local tee ball team and baseball became all he knew.

hyun loved it.

on his own accord, he played it endlessly, trained as much as he could, threw pitches at a tattered target pad hooked onto a chain linked fence well into the evening until he was dragged to bed kicking and screaming. he progressed steadily as a promising pitcher, from tee ball to school teams to local daegu youth teams. the coaches would say his future looked bright if he kept at it, and so he did. he kept it up. he pitched and pitched until there was an ache in his shoulder. then he continued pitching through it with gritted teeth and zipped lips when the coaches would ask him if he was alright when his basic fastballs started veering off line.

he kept pitching, stubborn as ever, until physically he could not anymore.

hyun didn’t know he had a labrum or what it was, much less that he could tear it when the doctor told him what was causing the pain. all he heard was that he should take a break from baseball for a few months. a few months too long, if you asked him. but even now hyun’s not sure what was worse: the shattering of his dreams or the look of disappointment on his father’s face.

at thirteen years old, as he was going through many other changes at the same time, all of it was just a little too much. maybe, hyun sometimes thinks, if his father didn’t look so disappointed that day and didn’t speak to him substantially during his rest, maybe he would’ve picked a ball up again after those few months were up and he was cleared. maybe.

but instead, he found music and picked up a mic instead.

he found rap in particular. because the anger in some of it matched his mood, the fire in the verses burned as hot as his head. rap music became his solace, his comfort, his replacement for throwing frustrations out in a fastball clanging against the fence.

as years went by, it became less and less of a replacement and more of a true passion, much to his father’s dismay. they’d gone from attending baseball games together to arguing at the drop of a hat over even the smallest things. he channeled all that anger and frustration of a young teen into beats he mixed on whatever free programs and equipment he could get his hands on. just as he pitched and pitched and pitched, he produced and produced and produced. one mp3 file after the other, all rough beats saved across multiple folders on his computer.

and it was with one of those beats and a scribbled down verse that he auditioned for view.

he had been 15 going on 16 at the time, not expecting much. after the tear, he gave up on dreaming. on looking forward to anything. it had been a friend that told him about the audition and teased him into going just for shits and giggles, and really he did not expect the call. he missed it, even, listening to the voicemail they left a whole day later with a blank expression on his face.

his dad had a similar one when he told his parents about it, but instead of holding a hidden sparkle of hope, it held the same disappointment from that day at the doctor’s. it took a week before he signed it, and within a few days time after, he was out of his little corner in daegu and right in the heart of seoul.

it was jarring, to say the least. to go from a little city in the outskirts of daegu, to a bustling one in the capital. and to go from producing and rapping daily as a fun hobby, to training daily in other fields he had no experience in. dancing was particularly hard for him, a phantom ache in his shoulder imagined by his brain always present. but he chugged along, because maybe he had found a dream again. maybe it was okay to hope.

he continued to hope as the years went on and he made it onto the tentative lineup, staying steady with only one brief slip up when he injured the same shoulder. it had been even more painful this second time, despite the injury itself being much smaller, because it felt like his new dream being crushed by his old one. like salt poured into the reopened wound. he almost quit, again, until he was snapped back into it from another member, something his father never did.

it was with that in mind that he pushed on. and on, and on. until icarus debuted and he was at the forefront.

that meant nothing in the beginning, of course, considering how lackluster their entrance into the scene was. if anything, it made him feel more burdened. his phantom aches came back and insomnia swept him into a vicious cycle of exhaustion and doubt and the slow fade of hope more painful than the first.

before their comeback in 2015, he’d reached his lowest point. wondering if he’d made the right choice, or if he’d wasted his youth away for an unsure thing. after all, everyone knows only a small percent of idol groups break through it all. but, maybe on pure survival mode alone, he pushed through once more. he rapped about being destroyed, and needing someone, and the sun shined on icarus. it enticed him, them, to fly closer and closer.

and so they did. to heights he never would have imagined possible. to heights that made it scary to look down. to heights that felt more burdensome with every new year and every new pair of eyes watching, waiting, expecting. now, he is exhausted. to say the least. he’s been running on two hours of sleep since the moment he signed his life to view.

he is exhausted, but he is prideful, too.

it’s a difficult thing to balance. the pressure and the pride. they both nibble at his brain, infusing him with worries that maybe, it was better to be at the bottom. because at least from there, the only way to go was up. but also at the top, his name is being recognized. produced by hyun. featuring hyun. and isn’t that all he ever wanted? whether on the back of jerseys or in small print in the credits of albums, his name immortalized across the country?

sometimes, he doesn’t know anymore what it is he wants. all he knows is underneath all the pride he wears on his sleeve, there are worries deep rooted that he’ll never live up to expectations.

#dyn.min yoongi #dyn.icarus #dyn.app

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pomnavi · 4 years ago

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YowaPeda Vol 50 Ch. 429

Support the series by purchasing it when it’s available in your area!

YowaPeda Volume 50 Chapter 429: The Pack's Leader

Page 1 Bu 1: Let's go! Bu 2: Surpassing all these obstacles Bu 3: Pursuing what's at the end of this path Bu 4: The goal!!

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Page 3 (no text)

Page 4 Bu 1: Just wait for us! Onoda-san, Imaizumi-san!! Bu 2: Our collaboration, the super limited express Kaburagi train

Page 5 (double page) Bu 1: Will catch up in no time!! Bu 2: You stupid orange bastard! What "Kaburagi express train", you don't get to choose the name!! Bu 3: Haha don't sweat the details, Doubashi-kun Bu 4: Use "-san"! Bu 5: So fast!! Bu 6: Look at that drafting! Bu 7: Oh my god they're cooperating!! Bu 8: WOAH Bu 9: Last year's champions, Sohoku, and the reigning champions, Hakone, are cooperating!! Bu 10: We just saw something amazing Bu 11: How exciting Bu 12: If they have the same goal, competing teams can pool their resources and work together! Bu 13: Once they reach their goal, they'll be enemies again! Bu 14: Road races are so interesting! Bu 15: I got a good picture! I'll send it to you Bu 16: Yuki, what do you think of the guys moving behind us? Bu 17: There are several small groups and then the largest pack at the back Bu 18: On the last day of inter-high, it's easy to form a cohesive group Bu 19: What if Bu 20: they manage to unite and pursue us?

Page 6 Bu 1: ..... Bu 2: All the guys behind cooperating? Bu 3: You sure do worry a lot Bu 4: Feeling anxious about that, Touichirou? Bu 5: There was a lot of chaos about it last year. Bu 6: I want to prepare for every possibility Bu 7: My prediction is that it won't happen this year Bu 8: You need a leader that everyone recognizes is strong Bu 9: Just looking at the lineup, there isn't anyone who can do that. Bu 10: Also, since Hiroshima struggled last year, everyone is wary of them. Bu 11: They can't have just anyone as a leader, if they're too nice it's over. Bu 12: If they're too ruthless, it's still no good Bu 13: Don't worry Bu 14: Even if they manage to unite, Bu 15: That barely held together group Bu 16: Won't even last 30 minutes.

Page 7 Bu 1: They'll just fall apart Bu 2: Higo mokkosu!!** **T/n: "Higo mokkosu" is a phrase specific to the Kumamoto area. Higo is the name of an old province in Kumamoto Prefecture. "mokkosu" is a Kumamoto phrase meaning "unmoveable", "stubborn", etc. Bu 3: Oh it's the main pack! Bu 4: Mokkosu!! Bu 5: The last group made a proper peloton! Bu 6: I'm this here pack's leader, Kumadai 3rd year "Demon sergeant", Ise Shinya!! Bu 7: We'll join t'gether and show the boys up front what we're made of!! Bu 8: It's already the last day!! Bu 9: We got nothin' to lose!! Bu 10: Let's give it our all!!

Page 8 Bu 1: Yeah!! Bu 2: Up till the front...!! Bu 3: Let's do our best!! Bu 4: Y..yeah Bu 5: Since it's the last day, do as much as you can! Bu 6: We'll catch up to the front!! Bu 7: Actually... Bu 8: How far are we from the front? Bu 9: I-idiot! Don't think about that for now Bu 10: Just focus on what's in front of you Bu 11: ...Ok Bu 12: HIGOO.... Bu 13: MOKKOSU!!

Page 9 Bu 1: We need to increase our speed!! Bu 2: Even more!! Bu 3: Ise!! Bu 4: ! Bu 5: Fukuoka Jousei's Oohori!! Bu 6: Hey nobodies Bu 7: Let's switch! You'd be a lifesaver. Help raise the speed!! Bu 8: Especially since you're one of the First Result candidates.... Bu 9: Sorry, I strained myself too much on the 1st and 2nd days Bu 10: Since the morning my legs... they haven't been performing!! Bu 11: I'm feverish too...Even though we're both from Kyuushuu and I want to assist...sorry. Bu 12: I can't!! Bu 13: ..... Bu 14: C- Bu 15: Can't be helped! Too many people have gotten injured on the 3rd day of Inter-high...!! Bu 16: Ok, just stick to the inside of the pack Oohori!! Bu 17: There's no air resistance on the inside Bu 18: You can stay there until you recover!!

Page 10 Bu 1: Don't worry, we'll manage somehow!! Bu 2: Since I'm the leader, we ain't leavin anyone behind!! Bu 3: Listen up everyone! Anyone who's injured or not feeling well Bu 4: Gather at the center to rest!! Bu 5: The guys who are injured... Bu 6: Ise-san!! Bu 7: What is it Fujiwara Bu 8: Um... Bu 9: The guys inside the pack are complaining!! Bu 10: ! Bu 11: If we go at this pace Bu 12: They're wondering if we'll even catch up to the front Bu 13: going at this slow pace Bu 14: Iwasaki is dealing with those guys right now Bu 15: Let's raise the pace even more!! Bu 16: Uh, from now we'lll Bu 17: Will we even catch up at this rate, Kumadai!! Bu 18: Uh...

Page 11 Bu 1: What the heck is the leader doin'!! Bu 2: The famous Hakogaku is at the front!! Sohoku is there too Bu 3: They're super fast!! Bu 4: We definitely won't catch up at this rate Bu 5: Should some of us just push ahead? Bu 6: That'd be too hard Bu 7: ..........It's time Bu 8: Anyways, what the hell does "Higo Mokkosu" mean Bu 9: It's from Higo, I think it means stubborn. Bu 10: Why have we been yelling that! Bu 11: He's not in control at all! Bu 12: Get it together, Kumadai! Bu 13: We've been pulling the whole time! Bu 14: Their discontent...we can't unite... Bu 15: If we keep going like this... Bu 16: This pack is gonna...

Page 12 Bu 1: What's wrong, Kumadai? Bu 2: Ah Bu 3: You alright? Bu 4: Hiroshima!! Bu 5: What, did you overexert yourself Bu 6: Kumadai? Bu 7: Did you just stagger a lil'? That's dangerous Bu 8: If I don't support you now Bu 9: You could fall and get hurt!! Bu 10: naha!!* (T/n: This is his weird laugh)

Page 13 Bu 1: Even though you finally gathered the group and started chasing the front Bu 2: Hiroshima!! Bu 3: Ise-san Bu 4: I'm staggering...? I see, thanks for the help. Bu 5: But..Hiroshima, you guys betrayed us last year. Bu 6: Oh, no need to thank me, naha!! Bu 7: However, it's true that Ise-kun has become a great leader. Bu 8: You're even looking after the others Bu 9: !? Bu 10: Yesterday, you even pursued the front and delivered actual results Bu 11: Everyone recognizes your abilities Bu 12: I asked for your cooperation yesterday Bu 13: But you guys turned us down Bu 14: Kumadai started kickin! Bu 15: The whole team! Bu 16: They intend to catch up to Hakogaku!! Bu 17: Will you work with us, Kumadai!! Bu 18: We can help pull, let's reach the front together!! Bu 19: No way!! Especially not you guys!! Bu 20: We'll catch up by ourselves!!

Page 14 Bu 1: That sure made me sad Bu 2: If we had worked together back then, maybe the results would have been different. Bu 3: !! Bu 4: After that... you challenged Kyofushi in the mountains and raised your pace Bu 5: But your team dwindled Bu 6: .... Bu 7: !! Bu 8: I'm sure it was hard Bu 9: We sure regretted it Bu 10: !? Bu 11: Why was it back then.... Bu 12: That I was being so pushy about coordinating with you guys

Page 15 Bu 1: We were full of regret.... Bu 2: Kyofushi, Hakogaku, Sohoku...and Kumadai's "4 Strongest", we wanted to win against all of you. Bu 3: That's what Machimiya-paisen wanted at least... Bu 4: Well... Bu 5: Let us make amends? Bu 6: For our sins? Bu 7: Could you please believe us? This year, we're a cozy Bu 8: and friendly team. Bu 9: Are these guys actually friendly this year...!!! Bu 10: "Making amends"....!! Bu 11: We'll help out a little Bu 12: With the pack Bu 13: It's fine if Ise-kun is the leader Bu 14: I'm sure it's fine to let us support you Bu 15: Instead of simply coordinating, we'll cooperate and lend our full strength. Bu 16: ......

Page 16 Bu 1: Of course!! Bu 2: Our leader Ise-kun just gave his permission!! Bu 3: Huh? Bu 4: Uh Bu 5: Hiroshima? Bu 6: Shiono!! Satozaki!! Bu 7: Yeah! Bu 8: Yup!! Bu 9: Go up front and pull Bu 10: We'll help too!! Bu 11: yeah Bu 12: We need to catch up to the front Bu 13: Pull at full speed!! Bu 14: Okay!!

Page 17 Bu 1: Okay! Also, the injured guys Bu 2: And the guys not feeling well should stay back!! Bu 3: Even the ones who only feel a little off Bu 4: Eh Bu 5: Ah... Bu 6: Huh? Bu 7: Gather up at the back Bu 8: We're going to start speeding up Bu 9: Eh? Bu 10: At the back? Bu 11: Why? Bu 12: !? Bu 13: The back? Bu 14: There were guys who complained we were going too slow Bu 15: Everyone, let's work together Bu 16: K? Bu 17: Will you cooperate?

Page 18 (double page) Bu 1: They broke away!! Bu 2: Huh? Bu 3: EH Bu 4: Hiroshima pushed forward... Bu 5: Damn Bu 6: They suddenly increased their pace!

Page 19 Bu 1: Hiroshima... They just strangely Bu 2: Pulled forward so efficiently!! Bu 3: Ah! Bu 4: What.. What's going to happen with us... Bu 5: Huh!? Bu 6: Were we left behind!? Bu 7: We were left behind!! Bu 8: Fukuoka Jousei's Oohori!! Bu 9: What!? Bu 10: They broke away!! Bu 11: If you increase the people in the pack, you can increase the speed overall Bu 12: But if you have weaklings, you can't achieve max speed Bu 13: You really intend to cull the herd, Hiroshima Urakubo! Bu 14: I won't let you!! Bu 15: I'm the limitless sprinter,

Page 20 Bu 1: Fukuoka Jousei's Oohori Jouji!! Oohori sfx: *pant* Bu 2: Ura- Bu 3: -kubo... Bu 4: You're lookin' pale Bu 5: Ugh.. Bu 6: Ooooo Bu 7: Don't overdo it

Page 21 Bu 1: The guys who were all in bad shape or injured.... Bu 2: Wha- Bu 3: Oohori! Bu 4: What are you doing, raising the pace all of the sudden!! Bu 5: What the hell are you plannin' Urakubo!! Bu 6: Did you want to increase our speed? Catch up to the front? Bu 7: This is how I'm helping. Bu 8: I got rid of the useless ones. Bu 9: We'll speed up this way Bu 10: W- Bu 11: I made sure to warn them? Bu 12: That we'd be accelerating

Page 22 Bu 1: It's no good to just speed up without telling anybody Bu 2: But I made sure to tell them "We're speeding up so get behind us" Bu 3: They didn't think what'll happen when they start heading back while we push forward Bu 4: The ones who complied lack imagination Bu 5: You...You... Bu 6: I wanted...to properly take everyone..that was the purpose of this pack... Bu 7: Calm down "Mr. Leader" Bu 8: There's no way we could have taken everyone to the front. Bu 9: This guy...! Bu 10: Shiono, Satozaki!! Speed up even more! Bu 11: Are you taking over this peloton!!

Page 23 Bu 1: Let's get along, Leader~ Bu 2: .... Bu 3: You're counting on me, arent you? Leader? Bu 4: Oh yeah, I forgot to introduce myself Bu 5: I'm Bu 6: the man who sinks his teeth into his prey and never lets go Bu 7: Also known as Bu 8: The Land Shark of Kure

#YowaPeda #my translations

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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Lionel Messi’s 73-goal season was an individual triumph, and a disaster for Barcelona

Remembering the greatest soccer player on Earth’s wildest season ever.

Anyone who has followed Lionel Messi’s career can, if they really think about it, pinpoint the moment when they realized he is better than any footballer they’ve ever seen. For me, that moment was his five-goal performance against Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Champions League.

These poor souls are not bad players.

Every member of this Leverkusen lineup had a solid pedigree. They started for their respective national teams, or had at least one season when they were considered one of the Bundesliga’s top players, or were eventually sold to a richer club for a lot of money. The midfielders were defensive-minded and the forwards were hard-working. Even if they did not have anywhere near the talent of Barcelona, they should have been very difficult to play against. This is a lineup that should have been, if nothing else, frustrating.

But they didn’t slow down Messi for a second. He sped right through them, as if the game was being played on a sheet of ice and Messi had skates while Leverkusen defenders wore sneakers. It isn’t hard to imagine Messi scoring five goals against a quality opponent, but it’s unbelievable how easy he made it look. This was when I realized there is no one like Messi.

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These were goals 44-48 in Messi’s record-breaking 73-goal season, an accomplishment that has never been matched in high level soccer before or after that 2011-12 season. If European club competitions retain their current formats, no one may ever beat it.

But though it facilitated the greatest individual season of all time, Barcelona also found out that winning titles isn’t as simple as giving Messi as many goal-scoring chances as possible. Messi’s most eye-popping season wound up a colossal failure from a team perspective, and Barcelona has learned since that one superstar — even if he’s the best player the sport has ever seen — cannot carry a team by himself.

The how and why

Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have posted 50-plus goal seasons so many times now that fans have taken the accomplishment for granted. But when both scored 53 goals during the 2010-11 season, conventional wisdom said that was as high as anyone could go. Diego Forlan, a World Cup golden ball and two-time European golden shoe winner, topped out at 35 goals in a year. Thierry Henry got to 39. Brazilian legend Ronaldo once had a 47-goal season, and never got close to that mark again.

While we assumed we had seen the pinnacle, then-Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola spent the 2011 preseason devising a new system that would prioritize, above all else, feeding Messi as many goal-scoring chances as possible. Messi’s previous season — his first as Barca’s starting center forward — went spectacularly well, but Guardiola believed he could get even more out of his superstar. Guardiola also sensed his 4-3-3 system was beginning to get found out, and he wanted to incorporate new signing Cesc Fabregas into the team.

Guaridola’s solution was to rotate his old setup with a 3-4-3 system that had a diamond midfield and no traditional wingbacks. The team’s shape and the quality of players in the center of midfield meant Barcelona could overwhelm opponents in the center of the pitch. The system was also unorthodox; Barcelona’s opponents had never seen anything like it.

Perhaps we should have known what was coming from Messi based on his performance in the Supercopa de España. He absolutely ragdolled Pepe — a large, tough defender who could knock out most people with one punch — for his first goal of the season.

Messi’s two goals in the first leg, a 2-2 draw away from home, gave Barcelona a great chance to win the trophy. His team struggled to contain Real Madrid’s attack in the return fixture, but Messi delivered two more goals, including an 88th-minute winner.

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Messi would keep up this blistering goal-scoring pace for 10 months, almost uninterrupted.

The best of the 73

While the five-goal destruction of Leverkusen is the most famous Messi performance from his record campaign, my favorite is his utter destruction of Atlético Madrid. He got a hat trick — goals 10-12 for the season, all before the end of September — and it felt like he could have scored more. He forced an own goal, and was fouled several times at the end of slalom runs through multiple defenders that felt like they were going to end with shots on goal.

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Messi scored his 15th of the season a couple of weeks later against Racing Santander, and showed off everything that makes him so special in front of the goal. He fully embarrassed two defenders and the goalkeeper in three touches. Before they realized what had happened, the ball was in the back of the net.

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Goals 34-36 against Malaga were some of his finest work. The first, a header, was out of character for the miniature magician. But the next two were the kind that only Messi scores. On the second, he was surrounded by five defenders, and yet it felt like none of them could get close to him. He might as well have been playing in open space. On the third, he stepped past a hard challenge from his international teammate Martin Demichelis, then turned on the jets and burned the rest of the defense.

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In the middle of the season, Messi hit an impossible-looking free kick to score No. 43 and terrorize Atlético Madrid a second time. Atléti complained that Messi shot before they knew play was live, but a perfectly positioned wall and goalkeeper couldn’t have done anything. To this day, it is arguably Messi’s most impressive free-kick goal.

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Goal No. 61 might have been the most aesthetically pleasing of the bunch. It was vintage Barca, with Messi and Iniesta playing a perfect one-two combination, and Iniesta providing a backheel assist.

Throughout that season, it felt like Messi produced at this level every week. Unfortunately for Barcelona, Messi’s teammates weren’t nearly up to his caliber.

Messi can’t do everything

No matter the formation, Barca was set up to feed Messi shooting opportunities. Guardiola rotated playmakers Fabregas, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta and Thiago Alcantara, and on rare occasions put all four on the field at the same time. For opponents, focusing on slowing down Messi was nearly impossible, because so many different players could hit him with creative passes from any angle.

But there was a problem.

I believe that Messi’s 2011-12 is the greatest individual season anyone has ever had in professional team sports, but one person can only take a team so far in soccer. An expertly constructed team with no stars can stifle a team with the greatest player on Earth and a bunch of mismatched parts.

By the time El Clásico rolled around in December, Barca lagged well behind Real Madrid, despite Messi’s heroics. Pep’s 3-4-3 lacked defensive solidity, and Barca didn’t have another ruthless finisher to take pressure off its superstar. The Blaugrana’s highest highs were much higher than Real Madrid’s, but Ronaldo’s and manager Jose Mourinho’s team was much more consistent.

Real Madrid had lost one game and drawn one up to that point, while Barca had lost one and drawn four. But Barcelona cut their rival’s La Liga lead to three points thanks to a Messi masterclass away at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.

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Messi didn’t score — in fact, he rarely even got into the penalty area. But he was universally acclaimed as the best player on the pitch. He turned playmaker for his teammates, setting up Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez to finish off his moves. The match showed how Messi is arguably at his best: sitting in a deeper position, picking passes for runners in front of him, and arriving late in the penalty area to clean up the garbage after an initial save or block. But that strategy can only only work if the players in front of him step up.

Fabregas and Sanchez delivered on that day at the Bernabeu, but they never had the lethal finishing touch of Messi’s previous teammates, Samuel Eto’o and Thierry Henry, or his future teammates, Luis Suarez and Neymar.

One match later, Barca threw away the points gained in El Clásico. Fabregas scored in the first half against local rivals Espanyol, but didn’t attempt a shot in the second half of what ended as a 1-1 draw. Sanchez looked like he couldn’t finish his dinner, and was hauled off. Another draw against Valencia and a loss to Osasuna followed, effectively ending the La Liga title race by February.

But at least Barcelona still had a Champions League to play for ... ah, dammit.

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The legacy of the best season ever played

Barcelona won Copa del Rey at the end of the 2011-12 season, but Barca supporters don’t exactly look back on this season fondly. Instead, it is remembered as the season when Chelsea dumped Barca out of the Champions League and Real Madrid posted a record 100 points.

The season fell apart for Barca one week in April when Mourinho and Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo came to the same conclusion: they had to shut down Messi at all costs, even if it meant leaving other talented players wide open.

And so, in both Champions League games against Chelsea and in El Clásico, Messi did not score. He played well in all three games, regularly finding open teammates for shots, but they couldn’t score, either. Fabregas, Sanchez and Pedro choked.

Guardiola’s idea to start the season made sense: if Messi is the best goal-scorer in the world, let’s surround him with good, unselfish supporting players who can give him as many shots as possible. But without a secondary finisher, teams could get away with swarming Messi and ignoring his partners. Barcelona had no plan B.

The failures of 2011-12 Barcelona, and the subsequent successes of Messi teams in which he plays a deeper role while others act as goal-poachers, suggests that we may never see anything like his 73-goal season again. Even if another Messi-level player emerges, they likely won’t be used in the same way he was. The lesson of that season is that it’s easy to gameplan against a team with just one focal point, even if that player is the best the sport has ever seen.

That’s why Barcelona would eventually buy Neymar, even though he was unproven in Europe, and the deal to sign him would put them in legal trouble. And it’s why they had to sign Luis Suarez in the immediate aftermath of him biting an opponent for a third time. With those two playing alongside Messi, Barcelona won a treble in 2014-15, capturing the Champions League, La Liga and Copa del Rey in the same season.

Messi can carry average players to title contention, but he is at his best when the opponent also has to respect his teammates’ goal-scoring. He’s too good in a deeper, playmaking role to be a goal-poacher.

Which is saying something, given that when he was asked to play as the primary striker, he scored 73 times. Messi couldn’t help Barcelona overcome its structural deficiencies, but he still performed the job he was given to near perfection. He was in the wrong role, with the wrong players around him, but the 2011-12 season was Messi at his absolute best.

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buttdawg · 5 years ago

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New Beginning in Nashville: A Buttdawg Special Report

NJPW is in the middle of a U.S. tour, and it turned out that they were doing a show pretty close to where I live, right when I had scheduled some time off, so I figured “what the hell?” and bought a ticket. Then I finally saw the lineup for the show and I was like “ehhhhh...” But then it turned out to be really great!

I guess two things got me on board with this show. First, Wrestle Kingdom 14 hype was in full swing when I bought the ticket, so I wanted More of That. Second, I watched a bunch of matches from the World Tag League a few months ago, and a big chunk of those shows were set in smaller, cozier venues with no English commentary. Some of them didn’t even have Japanese commentary, and I’m pretty sure those were the ones where I could see basketball backboards in the background. One was in Osaka-jo Hall, and I thought that was a big arena, but it turned out the show was in the “sub arena”, which sounds awesome. So I imagined what it might be like to go to a show like that, and then I realized they’re doing them in America this month.

This was in the War Memorial Auditorium, which I think holds like 2,000 people. Low four digits, definitely. Pretty sure the WWF used to run house shows here, because every time I think the words “War Memorial Auditorium” I hear it in Howard Finkel’s voice. On the way down, I listened to this piece by Jim Valley about how the WWE is no longer turning a profit on their live events, for the first time ever. He blames guys like Seth Rollins who complain about their fans instead of enticing them to buy tickets. Would toay’s WWE even run a house show in a venue this small? All I know is the WMA had 560 in attendance, and everyone seemed pretty happy to be there. There’s a market for wrestling tickets. New Japan didn’t fly all these guys out to Tennessee to break even.

Anyway, I wasn’t too jazzed about the card, and for most of January I was starting to wonder if I’d let my enthusiasm get the better of me. but once I found the place and got my bearings, I was very pleased. The WMA looks even smaller in person than it does on the website. Imagine a high school gym with a stage and a balcony. You walk into the theater and the ring is right in front of you. The merch stand is to your right. I don’t think there’s a bad seat in the house, unless you’re sitting behind a really tall guy or something.

As for the card, the audience made it feel special. They had this big monitor on the stage, and they opened with a video package about the tour, and everyone popped when they heard the announcer, even though he’s speaking Japanese. He’s the guy you hear at the start of every show thought, so hearing his voice just makes the whole thing feel important.

I wasn’t really prepared for that, I guess. There were a lot of kids there, and I guess I was surprised that so many people from so many demographics would be this familiar with the product. I’ve only been watching New Japan for about seven months, so the filthiest casual was probably me.

Match 1: Alex Zayne & Misterioso d. Alex Coughlin & Ren Narita (9:46)

I have no idea who most of these guys are. I’ve probably seen Coughlin before, but I spent the whole match thinking he was Karl Fredericks. The crowd recognized Zayne and Misterioso, though, because they were behind those guys the whole match. I started to think Zayne had family in the crowd, and he’s from Lexington, Kentucky, so it’s not impossible.

Match 2: YOSHI-HASHI d. Karl Fredericks (8:48)

This was when the real Karl Fredericks came out. The monitor on the stage displays the names of the participants throughout the match, but I couldn’t see it very well because of the glare from the lighting. Crowd was behind Karl all the way, I guess because he’s been a Young Lion long enough that he’s due to start winning matches one of these days, but not tonight. I mean, Yoshi’s in CHAOS, so he ought to be a face, right?

Match 3: Colt Cabana & Toru Yano d. Clark Conners & TJP (13:22)

I’m not a huge fan of Colt and Yano, but they were the first guys I’d consider ““real”““ stars to come out. TJP won the Cruiserweight Classic in WWE, but I had to keep reminding myself of that while the match went on.

The comedy wrestling works a lot better live. My favorite bit was when Colt brazenly stuck his hands in the air and challenged Conners to a test of strength spot. “TEST OF STRENGTH” he said loud enough for everyone to hear him. Then as soon as they got locked up Colt looked over his shoulder and said “Oh my God, he’s really strong!”

This was the only match I tried to take pictures for, because I wanted to capture Yano untying the turnbuckle pad. I also managed to get this pic, of Young Lions putting it back together after the match was over.

Seriously, it takes like two guys to fix those things. Yano’s a real jerk.

Anyway, during this match, there was a kid further back in the balcony who was really rooting for TJP and Conners. As the show continued, it became clear that this kid was in the tank for all the heels. It took me a while to catch on to this, because sometimes I can’t tell if Yano’s a face or a hell. But no, this kid was rooting for all the heels. Not like in a smarky “the faces are jerks!” kind of way, either. It’s like this kid just watched enough matches to objectively decide that guys like Lance Archer rules and Colt Cabana’s kind of a dick. Same, kid. Same.

So during the match Yano and Colt are making Conners look like a real geek, to the point where it’s practically a face-in-peril situation (again, are we sure Yano and Colt aren’t evil?). So this kid’s begging Conners to make the hot tag to TJP. Then the other team makes a tag, and the kid goes “Not you!” Priceless.

Match 4: Jeff Cobb d. Satoshi Kojima (10:02)

This match kind of represents my flip-flopping towards the card. They’re doing a tournament in the U.S., and they bring the worst two guys in CHAOS, nobody from LIJ, the only champions they booked were the shithole tag champions and they’re not even defending the belts... but they got Jeff Cobb, by gum. It just felt very underwhelming, but once he came out, and I’m sitting there like fifty feet away from him, I’m like “Yeah, Jeff Cobb’s a cool guy. This is great.” Watching wrestling on TV has a way of raising your expectations to unrealistic levels, I guess. Once you’re sitting there watching these guys in person, the equation changes.

I wasn’t super-thrilled to see Cobb facing Kojima, since they had no issue, and Kojima jobbed all the way through the World Tag League, but by this point in the show I was just pleased to get to see Jeff Cobb strut his stuff. This was how American wrestling used to work in the 80′s and 90′s, and it still does, I just had to get re-accustomed to it. Everyone was hot for Kojima, either because he’s a legend or because he was wearing hot-orange ring gear to pander to the UT fans in the audience. Well I went to UK so fuck you, Kojima, you deserved to lose to Cobb.

And the match was very competitive, to the point where Cobb was all exhausted at the end, and Kojima went over to shake his hand after it was over, so a feel-good moment for the audience. Nice.

Match 5: Lance Archer d. Yuji Nagata (11:16)

Never mind that shit, everybody dies! Lance comes out and he was basically my favorite guy on this card. Crowd was pretty into Lance too, so he takes the mic and says “Nashville, Tennessee! Who wants a T-shirt!?” crowd gets all excited, and then he just throws it.... onto the mat, and he goes “Nope!” and everyone is pissed! Except me, Lance Archer fucking rules. Also, Roots-for-Heels Kid probably didn’t mind, but we didn’t hear from that kid until the middle of the match, when Lance was basically mugging Blue Justice. I salute Yuji Nagata for wearing Wildcat blue in a sea of orange bullshit, but as they say, everybody dies.

The crowd haaaates Lance, and he just milks it for all it’s worth. The fans can’t help Yuji--his fate is sealed--so they make fun of Lance’s fashion sense. They mock the red braid at the end of his mohawk, they make fun of his back tattoo, calling it a “tramp stamp”, and so on. Lance just yells back at them. “Shut up!” “Booooooooooo.” Lance is the fucking man. Even the ref was afraid of him, which makes Nagata look like a million bucks for even putting up a fight. I wanted more Suzuki-gun guys at this show, but honestly, one was plenty. Lance wins with the EBD claw, and that’s it.

Match 6: Hiroshi Tanahashi d. Yujiro Takahashi (10:38)

Yujiro doesn’t have Pieter with him, although no one seems concerned by this. From what I can tell, they only bring out Pieter when Yujiro is booked for bigger venues. That’s probably got more to do with Pieter’s contract than anything else, but I like to think all these smaller towns in Japan take one look at Bullet Club and go “Look, you’re not doing that stripper crap in our building.”

Big response for Tanahashi. They did the hockey chant for him and everything “Ta-na-ha-shi (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)”. Nothing particularly notable about the match, but Hiroshi went around ringside hugging and taking photos with fans at ringside. He’s a real class act.

Match 7: Rocky Romero, David Finlay, & Juice Robinson d. Bullet Club (Chase Owens, Tanga Loa & Tama Tonga) (13:52)

This was originally supposed to be an eight-man tag with Kota Ibushi on the face team and Jado on the Bullet Club side. Turns out Kota came down with the flu, so they just scaled it back to a six-man. I also read that Karl Fredericks got injured, so he’s off the tour too. I guess that happened on this show, because he seemed fine Sunday night, and the announcement came out before the show on the 27th started.

Anyway, now I see the value in New Japan’s strategy of using multi-man tag matches for tours like these. If someone has to pull out, they just shuffle around partners or scale back eight-mans to six-mans, and so on. I guess if things really got bad, they could just do seven singles matches, so as long as they have fourteen healthy performers, they can manage.

Roots-for-Heels Kid was in full-effect here. Again, not really sure if the kid’s Bullet Club 4-life, or just hates Juice Robinson as much as I do, or maybe the kid takes pity on Chase Owens. But that kid really wanted Bullet Club to win. Too bad it wasn’t in the cards.

One moment that stuck out to me was when the faces were doing pretty well, and enough stuff was going on that I didn’t notice Jado whacking someone with the kendo stick until it had already happened. They do that bit in every G.O.D. match. Face is doing okay, he runs the ropes, and then whack, Jado hits him right as he bounces off the ropes near the G.O.D. corner. I’ve watched enough Guerrilas of Destiny matches by now that it’s become predictable, even formulaic, but this time, I never saw it coming. I think that’s because on video, they’ve got the camera man anticipating that spot. The camera angles of the guy running the ropes practically warns you what’s about to happen. When you see it live, you have to be your own cameraman, and figure out which parts of the ring to watch. I was in the second row of the balcony, with a great view of the ring, but not of Jado. I could see him, but not his lower body, to give you an idea. By contrast, there were fans on the floor who were directly behind him the whole match, so they could see every move he made. So it’s a completely different experience depending on where your seat is. And that’s why they do the kendo stick spot in every match.

Anyway, big chunks of the match were brawls, and eventually FinnJuice and G.O.D. fought their way out of the theater, so it came down to Rocky and Chase wrapping up the match by themselves. I wasn’t sure what to make of Rocky Romero wrestling, since I’ve only ever seen him doing commentary, or managing Roppongi 3K. But it turns out he’s really good, so now I don’t understand why they keep him stuck behind a desk all the time. Maybe he’s semi-retired or something?

After the match, Rocky cuts the end-of-show promo, and explains that Kota couldn’t be here, so now it’s going to be Chase Owens vs. Rocky Romero in the Atlanta show. Chase takes the mic and says “Maybe I don’t want to wait until Atlanta? Who wants to see me and Rocky go here, tonight!” The crowd is up for it, and then he shouts “Then buy another ticket!” and leaves in a huff. Classic, total classic. Rocky thanks everyone for supporting NJPW, the best wrestling in the world, and the crowd goes home happy.

So yeah, good show all around, and they even had the whole thing done in two hours. I had no idea what to expect, but if I’d known they would be finished by 7pm I might have just driven home that night instead of getting a hotel. Well, I’ll keep that in mind for next year.

#njpw #new japan pro wrestling #new beginning usa #fuck you juice #worst tag champions ever

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fmlfpl · 5 years ago

Photo

Lineup Lamentations - GW4 - Walsh Wildcard Edition

Our Transfers, Captains, and Starting 11s for the week!

*AND* New starting this week we’re gonna do a Slacker of the Week Lambs, someone randomly selected from our Patreon Slack channel each week, and this week it’s Rai from Slack great lad and on wildcard too with Walsh...

This week it was not random I have to admit but every week for the rest of the season it’ll be random. Get in.

—

WALSH - On Wildcard

TRANSFERS:

Wildcard

GK:

Pope (LIV)

Pope retains his spot and seems like a great long term hold. BAPs for every clean is great and he's great. Burnley look back to basics and have had great underlying defensive stats.

DEF:

Alexander-Arnold & Robertson (bur)

Trent and Robbo also retain their spots from the old guard team.

I debated over whether to go with d33n instead of r0bbo but in the end I just trust Livp a lot more than I trust Everton and I just want to keep Robbo.

The literal worst thing I did last season was remove Robbo from my GW1 team after the first handful of games and so I'm trying to learn from past mistakes for some reason. His stats look great and he has looked great so I am sticking with him. Obv Adrian is a bit of a nutter and a lot worse than Alisson but these two fullbacks are still the creative cogs for Livp and still seem like great picks.

Laporte (BHA)

Slotting in alongside is Laporte.

I really want to have a share of the City defense and now that my break glass is gone I don't want to fuck around with Zinc or some other cuck. Laporte is as safe as safe comes and seems like a guy I could just not look at or worry about for months. See a pattern here?

MID:

Salah (bur)

Mo sticks obv. Nothing to say about that.

Sterling & De Bruyne (BHA)

Raz and Kevin are in alongside and also picks that don't really need much explanation.

Alon did float an interesting idea to go Kun over Kevin for the next couple little miniwindow of good fixtures but in the end I just didn't want to take on that risk when I view Kevin as just a guy I could hold for months.

Now that my triple City and triple Pool are out there in the open, it's time to get into the dross.

Cantwell (whu)

Cantwell is in... and although his underlying stats are questionable at best given his high points total so far... he still seems like a no brainer option right now. I have no clue how long he'll keep it up, but at his price I'll find out.

McGinn (cry)

Finally, I'm going with McGinn to round out the midfield.

I don't feel greattttt about him, but they've got pretty good fixtures in the near term and he seems to be in and around a lot of what they do so far. Villa look like they are somewhat reasonable going forward and after a nice performance against Everton maybe they will be able to score some goals in this good run.

Certainly not a long term pick here, but he'll do for now.

FWD:

Pukki (whu)

Pukki is still in... nothing to see here.

Haller (NOR)

Next to him is Haller.

He looks good and looks to be justifying the preseason hype. Realistically I was looking at him or Mount as my last call to make. I'm not sure I'm going the right direction with Haller and McGinn but it seems like an okay gamble to go for the upside play with West Ham up against NOR, avl in the next two.

Mount seems like a better long term pick, but with a tricky next few I'll go without for a little and then reassess. Haller might also just be the truth. Pod partner loved the fuck out of him preseason, so that's a good sign. He might just be great and wetspam, as we know, are not built to defend.

BENCH:

Lundstram (che)

Rico (lei)

Nketiah (TOT)

Avert your eyes. I'm on Lundy, Rico, and Necktie.

Oh yeah and Woodman the legend.

I know the likes of Button may be in better standing with the price changes but I will not be bullied into getting rid of my Championship players. I will not stand for that. Anyway, this bench is fucking bad, but I think I'll be able to get away with it for a little bit. Lund will rotate a bit with Cantwell. Seems fine. Rico...I have no fucking idea what Edward is doing but it seems like Rico has a better chance than Kelly to have a job for more than another couple of games. Or he won't play another minute this season - who is to say.

I have no delusions about this, I will need to do something about this nightmare group at some point, but that point is not now. The biggest risk of my team is probably how absurdly bad the bench is so we'll see if that comes back to fuck me over or not.

CAP:

Sterling (BHA)

I'll be on Raz. Pretty straightforward and not going to overthink it. Should batter Brighton - hopefully he'll be in with a return or two.

—

ALON

TRANSFERS:

OUT: Pérez, Richarlison, Gomez

IN (for -4 points hit): Mount, De Bruyne, Emerson

Clearly if your name ends in a zed then you’re straight out my fucking team.

But in actuality these moves kinda wrote themselves... I had exactly four bad picks in my side after last GW and I’m off to a solid start. Three of them are now dealt with via guys that I like short term and long term and my last bad guy, Gerry D, has a fabulous fixture so just praying on that one.

First hit of the season I have to say does not feel as thrilling as I thought it might. It kinda feels like the beginning of the end??? But I’m trying to not be dramatic about it.

GK:

Ederson (BHA)

Potter is a clever lad and gave City a scare in the cup last season but as long as Pep takes his head out of his ass and starts ‘Dinho or Rodrigo then this should be a straightforward clean.

If neither start then I’m genuinely scared and might start thinking about moving away from City defense.

DEF:

van Dijk (bur)

Liverpool haven’t cleaned home or away vs. Burnley in a long ass time and it’s understandable why. They’re tough, they’re annoying, they throw bodies around, Barnes and Wood are good, McNeil is good, Gudmundsson is pretty good, etc etc... But still, this should be a clean, and Matip’s aerial prowess will be very useful... I wonder if this is the game Gomez starts over Trent at RB for another big boy to win headers and shit? TBD.

Digne (WOL)

Should be an easy clean here. Wolves have been the worst attack in the division thus far and I see no reason for that to really turn around.

Wolves will park and barely attack and as long as Everton don’t get caught with their pants at their ankles on a Jota/Jim counter then it should be a clean. And maybe Digne will dazzle us with another worldy FK like he hit in the cup.

Nightmare for all of our eyes that this match is one of the two featured matches on Sunday. It will be a disgusting viewing experience.

Söyüncü (BOU)

Leicester have been very tight to start the season and getting Ndidi back fit is gigantic for their cleansheet prospects. I like Leicester to control this game and allow Bournemouth very little... Söy is the fucking man I love him.

Emerson (SHU)

Last but not least is the first new boy into my team, Emerson gets SHU at home.

it should be a relatively straight forward clean but I say that and they’re still without Kante and Rudiger so ugh who the fuck knows... They did a great job shutting down Norwich for the final ~60 minutes of that match and I’m hoping they continue with that form.

Emerson also has been on the ball constantly for Chelsea and creating and shooting and everything good so here here to an attacking return.

MID:

Salah (bur)

It’s sorta weird how some people are still slagging off Mo and avoiding him on wildcard and he’s not been talked about for captaincy at all. I don’t get it but whatever. He’s simply the best attacker in the league and best fantasy player in the game for the third year running. /shrug.

Sterling & De Bruyne (BHA)

Welcome to the team Kevin!! Been talking about him a lot on basically every pod this season so far so it’s nice to finally have the boy in my team.

City attack are best in the world and I feel like Sterling is the biggest piece of it you can get in one player and conversely for 9.5 the value of Kevin is just incredible. 200 points coming as usual for Kev barring injury: book it.

Mount (SHU)

Mount, another new boy and another pod darling, coming straight the fuck in...

The fixtures following Sheff U. are brutal but he’s just been so fucking good. Eye test and stats and everything about him make him very easy to love from the FPL perspective. Shooting a ton and it’s not hard to imagine another goal on the break vs. Sheff U.

FWD:

Pukki (whu)

Duh Pukki easy. Dynamite fixture should be a wide open crazy game. Can’t wait.

Deulofeu (new)

The aforementioned last shitty guy in my team is this guy.

Gerry has looked pretty good in last couple and had very nice stats vs. West Ham last week.

With Deeney out hurt you’d imagine Gerry goes back up top and hopefully Sarr comes in for Hughes and maybe Watford get going this week... They really have not been as bad as their points column shows so far. Bounce back for me lad.

BENCH:

Greenwood (sou)

Hayden (WAT)

Maitland-Niles (TOT)

CAP:

Pukki (whu)

I really foresee this being an absolute barnburner no defense yolo high-scoring face-fuck of a match and Pukki is the absolute center of everything that Norwich do scoring wise - assisting goals and scoring goals. I’m expecting a double return with an upside of more...

It’s risky and punty seeing how Sterling and other City players will makeup the huuuuuuuge percentage of caps this week but the one thing, maybe only thing?, about Sterling or Kun or Kevin vs. Pukki is that City can score 5 and one of those guys can blank... We’ve seen it happen before... I don’t really see a world where Norwich score 2+ and Pukki isn’t heavily involved....... I’m riding the hottest player in the league against a bottom 3-5 defense in the league. It’s not that crazy... right?!?!?

Hold me.

—

RANDOM SLACKER OF THE WEEK: RAI - On Wildcard

The words of Random Slacker are not officially endorsed by this website nor any employees of FML FPL LLC.

TRANSFERS:

Wildcard

GK:

Pope (LIV)

An easy pick despite a less than ideal first fixture. Turf Moor is back to being a FOOKIN' FORTRESS and BUR keepers are always golden for FPL.

RIP Leno my sweet prince.

DEF:

Alexander-Arnold & Robertson (bur)

Most managers started with at least 2 pool defenders and how we react to their lack of cleans defines what kind of manager you are.

I've personally gone for the 9000 IQ move of buying Robbo back for 0.1 cheaper and I look forward to their inevitable attacking returns (and hopefully some cleans too).

Digne (WOL)

Every time I watch Everton play they look unfathomably awful but Digne keeps punishing me with an endless stream of cleans, dongs, and assists.

I had him in my draft before the absurd Carabao free kick and that cemented his place for me. Just like the Pool boys Digne is a friend with benefits: a defender, offering multiple ways to slap your anus beyond cleans.

MID:

Sterling & De Bruyne (BHA)

I'm all in on City this wildcard, their mini-run of BHA nor WAT is arguably their tastiest run of the season and if there's any time to triple on City attack it feels like now.

Not much to say about these two that you don't know already but I fully expect Kevin to break his duck and score his first dong this season at home to Brighton.

Mount (SHU)

Mount is looking like the cheap value mid on a top team that we all wanted Perez to be. He is showing a Lampard-esque knack of knowing when to make late runs to pick up goals. His price point and Chelsea's medium term fixtures make him a no brainer.

Cantwell (whu)

Interlinks with Pukki well. A pure value pick with a nice attacking fixture this week.

FWD:

Agüero (BHA)

Jesus is out for at least this fixture which hopefully means a 90 minute fuck fest for Kun. I'm hoping Pep utilizes Jesus mainly for their predictably easy UCL group. Funding Kun has meant sacrificing a Pool mid which is obviously a huge risk but ultimately I'm having fun and Kun is fun.

Haller (NOR)

A definite bandwagon pick this week but the Frenchman is proving hard to ignore particularly for all of us on wildcard.

He has a nice couple of fixtures and there are plenty of strikers priced just below him to move to if it doesn't work out.

Pukki (whu)

I delayed slightly in signing Pukki and my rank plummeted faster than a piss towel so I won't be doubting the master plan again.

He's looking like the Jimi of this season.

BENCH:

Lundstram (che)

OOP cheap lad, nothing more to say here.

Söyüncü (BOU)

Considered Kelly in this spot but Söy is much more nailed and a cheap way into a solid team.

Elneny (TOT)

Non-playing 3rd bench at 4.4 mil, if I had the extra 0.1 then this would be Dendoncker.

CAP:

Agüero (BHA)

One downside of triple City attack is having no idea who to cap.

A chance of 90 minutes of Kun is hard to ignore and I’m going with the big balls play here.

#lineup lamentations

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gardenpeony71-blog · 5 years ago

Text

Ask Sam Mailbag: 01.18.19

After watching the Lakers game and reviewing box score from the loss to the Nuggets I see a team with no go-to guy and no special playmaker who can score and get others shots and make them better, no defense, no shooting. Where do we go from here with this team?

Craig Chandler

Sam: Hey, what about how difficult it is to do one of these Ask Sam columns on a nine-game losing streak? Anyone thinking about me! So, how about looking at it this way: There's no great way to consider what's been going on with the Bulls lately other than to reassure you that,

The sun'll come out Tomorrow Bet your bottom dollar That tomorrow There'll be sun Just thinkin' about Tomorrow Clears away the cobwebs And the sorrow 'Til there's none When I'm stuck a with day That's gray, And lonely Carrying a nine-game losing streak and feeling eek! I just stick out my chin And Grin, And Say, Oh My The sun'll come out Tomorrow So ya gotta hang on 'Til tomorrow Come what may Tomorrow, tomorrow maybe they'll win tomorrow You're always A day Away

Quvenzhané Wallis with an assist from Sam Smith

I do not profess to be a NBA coach evaluator but it seems to me this team is not playing up to its potential. There certainly appears to be enough talent on this team to accidently win a game once in a while. The players seem upset about this especially after the Denver loss. I think it is not too early to judge Coach Boylen. From afar it seems this team is not responding to his coaching. My question is while I am a full fan of Paxson, I wonder why not name Boylen interim as most teams do instead of giving him a two year contract?

Dwayne Corry

Sam: I need to straighten at least that out. Jim Boylen did not get an extension. He was on an assistant coaching contract through the 2019-20 season matched with Fred Hoiberg, which is standard. When an assistant is promoted to head coach whether called interim or not it is routine for the assistant to be given a slight bump in salary—same as Larry Drew in Cleveland—for the additional duties and responsibilities. Boylen got that as soon as he acceded to the job as does every coach in that situation. He was already under contract through the end of next season and still is with the appropriate addition for being asked to do more as would be with any of us in most any job. I don't disagree with the absence of an interim title because your statement to the players should be we are serious and this isn't a substitute teacher, so put away your spit balls and whoopee cushions (what? they don't do that anymore?).

OK, it doesn't look like it sometimes, but a Western Conference trip in the midst of trades, injuries and reworking a playing system in the middle of the season isn't exactly a stable time. The Bulls say after every season everyone is evaluated and I assume that will be the situation again. But Boylen also has not had a training camp or a chance to hire his own staff or much consultation about personnel. Tough to judge.

I know you don't pay too much attention to college hoops, what are your thoughts about Zion? I know a guy who knows a guy that says he may not be worth a long term investment due to his style of play and weight... his knees may not hold up. I personally think he may be a tweener... he may be too short for a power forward and he may be slow/ heavy for small forward. Great athlete and great college player, but I don't see him being close to a superstar in the NBA. if we end up with him, where does he play? Can he play small forward? We already have 2 guys at power forward in Markannen and Carter.

Joe Dobrzynski

Sam: If he's as good as many suggest, then he plays wherever he wants. True, I don't watch much college ball—lately the NBA ball I have been watching has been bad enough—but I have ventured to a Duke game on occasion and see some flaws, like shooting, though I have yet to give him a physical. A lot of top picks don't work out. It happens. No matter what the NBA GMs say now, everyone wanted Greg Oden and not Kevin Durant. The kid looks like he could be a star, and, especially for the Bulls that's what they lack. I like Markkanen and LaVine a lot, and believe if you get them a star to attract some attention instead of all of it going to them they will be much better. Maybe the Duke kid does fade out. Who knows. Remember Brandon Roy who went from Rookie of the Year surprise to high school coach? But the draft is about taking a chance on a star. There are no guarantees. He looks to be the biggest star in this draft. I'd have no hesitation. And imagine if I were actually watching.

Can your remember NBA players from former generations who seemed way too athletic and powerful for their body to handle the rigorous of the league longterm? D-Rose comes to mind, Zion scares me, Larry Johnson? Jordan and Lebron do not really qualify to me, they are exceptional athletes as well, but their bodies did not seem as freakish as Zion's and Rose's jump, stop and acceleration ability was off the charts.

Sven Ruppert

Sam: Injuries are bad luck; Zion would be good luck.

Pundits everywhere, including those attached to the Bulls, are all salivating over Zion Williamson - and the Bulls are fast amassing a record that could make ZW a possibility in the next draft. My question is - in terms of fitting in with the Bulls - is Zion more of a short 4 on a team that seems all "4ed-up", or more of an oversized 3 who will have trouble guarding smaller, quicker players at that position? (a Jabari Parker with less range?). I know he's a talent, but who sits when he takes the floor and is he a Boylen-kind-of-guy?

Dennis Novak

Sam: I can see where the fan interest is going. As I suggested, I'm fairly confident he's Boylen's type of guy. It's not that difficult to fall in love with someone special.

What a great job the Nets have done so far this year. After arguably the worst NBA trade ever in 2014 it appeared the Nets would take a decade to recover. They traded away their draft picks for 2014, 2016 and 2018. In addition Boston got to swap picks with them in 2017. Success didn't seem possible until they could finally get their draft picks from 2019 going forward. The playoffs, maybe in 2024. Halfway through the season and they are 23-23 after winning an amazing game against the Rockets. The GM, coach and team are to be congratulated. The are an incredibly resilient bunch of unrecognizable and discarded players. Treveon Graham, Joe Harris, Rodeons Kurucs, Jarret Allen and D'Angelo Russell were their starting lineup against the Rockets. Against the Rockets they were down by 14 with a few minutes to go in regulation and tied it. In overtime, they were down by 6 with about a minute to go and won it. They help define resilience. This team finally has their own 1st round pick this year and chose winning to tanking. They have skipped the tank to build a winning culture. Kudos to a really great team. Can you make your magic now happen for the Bulls?

Bruce Roberts

Sam: Well, it has been my philosophy in avoiding the indignity and fraud of losing on purpose because losing makes you a loser. I fear it is occurring with the Bulls to some extent, though I am facing some ambivalence considering the two months lost to injuries and the coaching change and the hole so deep that perhaps it might be best for the rest of this season to not try so hard. Though I wince when I even think about it. The losing model guarantees you nothing, and I agree, good for the Nets for putting a very nice team together. But their problem with some good trades—and I still count the Jimmy Butler one good for the Bulls—is that they have yet to have that transcendent star and are last in the league in attendance. Maybe in free agency this summer? Winning is a curious thing. It only seems understandable when you examine the successful teams. But that is the best team I've enjoyed from Brooklyn since the '56 Dodgers.

After reading your take on Jabari Parker being back in the rotation after their loss to the Lakers, it made me think back to when you've said you're not a fan of his demeanor towards the media. Too terse, always on the defensive, etc with Zach Lavine being basically the polar opposite. That said, It made me wonder who have been some of your favorite players to speak to over the years?

Nicholas Hill

Sam: First regarding Jabari; his attitude and demeanor were awful when he came to the Bulls. Why, I never could figure. All everyone said was he was different, but not evil. Actually, since the benching, which wasn't a great idea, and in the return he's been much better. The point wasn't so much he wasn't cooperative. There were plenty of guys to talk to who are terrific people; but it was the way he was answering simple questions with defiant, one word answers. It's mire an insult to people at their jobs, failing to give respect to someone's job. Jabari never once was asked back then an unfair or even probing question. Anyway, he's been fine lately, if not detailed. All just about everyone in media really asks for is simple decency.

The truth is there are so, so many really good people in the NBA, kids who came from difficult backgrounds who are grateful for the opportunity, friendly, savvy and eager to help. Some of my favorites over the years for being open, outgoing, helpful and friendly were Elton Brand, Larry Bird, Steve Kerr, Magic Johnson, Phil Jackson, Joe Dumars, Kyle Korver, Jerry West, Jordan (pre-championships), Isiah Thomas, Johnny Kerr, Joe Caldwell, Chet Walker, Horace Grant, Charles Barkley, Mack Calvin, Wayne Embry, Brent Barry, Grant Hill, Bill Cartwright, Pau Gasol, Derrick Rose and too many more I'll regret leaving out.

I really don't have an opinion on Boylan yet as a coach, but I have read "experts" opinions on the internet which feel the Bulls young talent is not developing since he took over (They were all hurt under Hoiberg so nothing to really compare). Do you feel there is acceptable growth in the Bulls players as individuals and as a group under the watch?

Jason Doll

Sam: I know from being a parent we shouldn't monitor growth by the week or month. I know it's different in sports, and there have been some setbacks the last month or so. But let's be real, as it were. It's a month with a new coach, players off injuries having lost their preseason and yadda, yadda. I know no one likes hearing it and a losing streak headed to the bottom of the league and a succession of blowout losses is depressing. We saw plenty of good things from LaVine pretty much until the coaching change and plenty from Markkanen, who came back strong against the Nuggets. The glimpse showed you he has a lot of stuff. Carter is that tough guy the Bulls always talk about. The Bulls talk about growth, too, but I assume they mean over a season and not a losing streak. We should know a lot more by summer when the Bulls make Williamson player/coach/primary stockholder and the new team logo.

The Wolves (while not amazing) have twice as many wins as the Bulls while playing in the Western conference. Meanwhile, the Bulls are actually worse this year. If the future success of the Bulls (drafting Zion) has nothing to do with the assets/players acquired in the Butler trade doesn't that mean GarPax lost that transaction?

Matthew Ruth

Sam: Curious way of looking at that. Though I am going to Williamson's Hall of Fame enshrinement in September. I think the Bulls would make that deal again, and I'm fairly sure the Timberwolves would not, and certainly not Thibodeau, which probably would mean he still was working there. I'm still on board for LaVine, Markkanen and Dunn for Covington and Saric.

I'm interested to see what happens the rest of this season. Apparently, Boylen will be gradually introducing more pace. Let's see how Dunn plays as that happens.I think he's a very solid player and that he can play faster than we've seen. But can he see the court well & drop dimes on the run? Can he take more 3's and still make a good % of them? It's hard to assess his fit into an offense they aren't really running yet. Hopefully, we'll know enough after 39 more games to make a sound decision. For that matter, if we draft a point guard it can still be a competition for the starting job. Dunn would be an awfully strong player to have coming off the bench. The great teams have player like that – who might start elsewhere – on their benches. Why not us? But from the Nuggets game there's no doubt in my mind now that the tank is on. Boylen's comments are a dead give-away. Yes, it's "a season of discovery"… yet another one. Anyway, I'm giving the game ball to RoLo – 17 & 6 in 19 min. on 8-10 shooting plus some nice intangibles. Everybody else mostly stunk.

Art Alenik

Sam: When the season started the No. 1 question on most lists was Kris Dunn, and I think it still is. The Denver game was disappointing—yes, in many respects—the way Dunn made a point after the Lakers game of apologizing, which I didn't think was necessary as bad games happen, but then didn't do much again. End of bad trip, altitude, a team making 20 threes. It may have looked worse than it was. Dunn has had some very effective games, and his numbers are respectable at 12.5 and 6.5 coming off missing two months. But I'm still having difficulty figuring out what he exactly is in this era of high scoring, hot shooting point guards.

I don't think sixth man is a horrible thing, though many NBA players, like Parker, have disagreed. It seems like a nice way to make a living. Having a guy like Dunn coming in as a combo guard may be the stuff of an excellent team. I don't think the Bulls have fully made up their minds on Dunn and it's hard to get a read from Dunn about how he'd deal with such a competition and situation because he is so guarded. Hey, he's a guard in case you missed that one. I get it. He's only played a bit more than a month, so it's not so much the tank as many of the the questions don't have answer yet.

Who is Zach Lavine as a ball player or are you still waiting to see? He is having a good statistical year and the team is not winning. I see a talented offensive player with an innate ability to score and on the defensive end someone who will not be a difference maker. Will he be more than a great scorer? Is it fair to start the Jamal Crawford comparisons and if that's the career he has, is it good enough for the Bulls to continue to keep him on their rebuilding roster? If he continues to put up just under 24, 4, and 4, will there be serious suitors on the trade market? Is he the person the Bulls should be building a team around or will his need to have the ball on the offensive end, hinder the progression of young players?

Tim Koncel

Sam: I don't think it's either you're Michael Jordan or James Harden or you're Shaun Livingston. I like Zach as a player a lot. Many don't like him as much as I do. I don't worry about the defensive component as much since James Harden seems to have done OK without it. Yes, Harden is a build around, and maybe Zach isn't quite that player, but he makes tough shots, takes tough shots, can get to the basket and is a good shooter and great athlete. Who are the Bulls to say that's not good enough for them? Enough with these Shaquille Harrisons and David Nwabas who compete like crazy. That's not the NBA. Maybe it's the NBA bench, but they're in every draft. In the second round. Zach has a chance to be a star, and those are the players the Bulls need to be accumulating. Zach has flaws, but this is his first full season back after his ACL and has never started more than 47 games in an NBA season at 23 years old. I think the Bulls these days are pushing him toward too much two-point play, and he's a willing player trying to do what is asked. My guess is he's not so sure it's what's best. But he's trying to be a good teammate and professional. The Bulls could do a lot worse. And have. More often than not, someone else's spouse or date isn't exactly who they seem from your vantage.

Its not so much the recent turmoil that has made me anxious about the rebuild it's just that even on a "good" night (not getting blown out at Utah on 2nd if back to back), the way the bulls are losing - take 9 more shots shoot a decent percentage but make 9 fewer 3s - is troubling given both the analytics or really, math (you can score more counting by 3s) and trends in the nba. In other words - isn't the urgent need drafting or signing guys who either can hit the 3 or have potential to be good 3 point shooters. I suppose if valentine can come back he would fit that description.

Guy Danilowitz

Sam: I'm fairly sure that's obvious to them as well. Yes, they could use some Valentine, and Holiday made threes (in streaks). I'd look at it as a larger issue if this were the final version of the team. I've mentioned the need for a wing player who can make plays off the dribble and shoot, a backup big man, preferably a defensive seven footer to tag team with Wendell Carter Jr., perhaps a point guard and, certainly, shooting. I'm not sure how the team sees it, but I can see Carter, Lauri Markkanen and Zach LaVine as core players going forward. There may be others, but they're still on audition regarding play or salary. There's another high draft pick coming and a big money free agent or two this summer. Probably not one of the top two, but I believe a good player and maybe two. I don't see Markkanen or LaVine yet as that No. 1 option to build around, so they have to show as well, and they still are very young. Can you get a No. 1 in the draft? Maybe. If not in free agency, what about an ensemble and a lead like Dirk Nowitzki, who was good enough to be the best player on a title team and several close. Markkanen could be that good. If this were Year 4 I'd be more worried. There are a lot of moves still to make.

The Bulls now reportedly refuse to buy out lopez if he cant be dealt knowing he is going to the Warriors. Will garpax throw away a couple million over this fight and not buy him out since he obviously has zero trade value? Or is he the head of the "leadership council" so someone we need to play out his contract? Maybe we can do lopez a favor a favor, give him his entire salary in a buyout so we can get another extended run of felicio playing 20-30 minutes a night....need to see how his development is coming along again....or just burn that money too with asiks and jabaris and cam paynes and play carter jr 48 minutes a night?

Jake Henry

Sam: OK, you’re frustrated and needed to lash out and vent. I’ll wait a bit. OK, ready? Carter was almost out for six weeks, it seemed the other day, so what was the hurry to offload Lopez? And then he was. The Bulls late Friday said Carter actually could miss two to three months after further reevaluations of his injury by hand specialists when the team returned to Chicago. And so now perhaps surgery. Another bad break in a broken season. But more than that this is a larger issue for the NBA that it won’t face; it’s another rich get richer, and the Bulls aren’t rich now. What some top teams apparently are doing—I can’t say I know for sure the Warriors are among them—is telling agents to get their players released or bought out for a small amount and they’ll bring them in on a minimum to give them some money back and then they can add playoff money and maybe be on a title team and their team gets nothing because these teams won’t trade because they are waiting for the buyouts.

So a team like the Bulls trying to get something for a player like Lopez or Jabari Parker gets shut out and the team like maybe the Warriors or Celtics or Raptors or Rockets gets to pick up a player without giving up anything. The NBA has said it wants to level the playing field for all teams and open up trade opportunities, but this buyout period inhibits trades and discriminates most against losing teams like the Bulls trying to add a player or draft pick. The NBA should eliminate the buyout fraud period because it helps just the few top teams, and the Bulls are right to say they won’t grant a buyout because it is being used against them by the top teams to help hold them down. It baffles me why anyone would be mad at the Bulls other than maybe Lopez’ family. And since when are fans upset because the Bulls won’t be able to make more money? Talk about entering Bizarro world.

With your comments on how sloppy Gobert was and with what should be a realization that, against the better 7 foot centers, Wendell Carter may always be overmatched, I have to respond to a comment you made a couple of weeks ago regarding a player who is truly a top 3 center in the league, Nikola Jokic.

After watching him destroy Portland with a 40/10/8 performance, I think that you need to make an effort to actually watch a few Nuggets games so you can make a more informed assessment. In doing so, he totally outplayed the guy who should be the Bulls starting center, Jusuf Nurkic, who is averaging 15.2/10.2/1.36Blks in just 27 minutes per game. Jokic 19.7/10.2/7.6 with a career .356 3PT% is far more valuable to his team than any other center including Embiid. His 21 career triple doubles in 270 games places him second all time behind Wilt's 78 which, if he stays healthy until he is 30, he will eclipse.

Peggy Flynn

Sam: So why would the Bulls want Nurkic if Markkanen actually played as well as Jokic Thursday? And as one correspondent from above mentioned, it was game ball for Lopez playing against Jokic. Jokic is terrific. Yes, I did see the Nuggets play. And, unfortunately, up close Thursday. They're pretty good; if they think they are contenders, Golden State straightened that out earlier in the week. But they've built a very good team; good for them. Yes, I know, the snarky Nurkic thing is the Bulls deal to move up in the draft to take Doug McDermott. The Nuggets took Nurkic, whom they traded for Plumlee, and Gary Harris. They obviously did better, but it's only fair to judge at the time. And I know not a single Bulls fan ever wrote me asking that the Bulls please draft Nurkic. And moving up in the draft from outside the lottery to inside the lottery is always viewed as a coup and was that night. What's so great about Nos. 16 and 19? Like to have those picks again this season instead of a lottery pick? The Bulls were at least aggressive in search of talent. It didn't work out. It happens in the draft a lot. But it made sense. I still can't figure out why Doug can't make more shots.

Anyway, as for Jokic, he's really good. I agreed that. All I believed, and I still do, is he's not an MVP candidate and maybe a top 20 NBA player. Which is very good. The Bulls would like to have a top 20 player. But he's still not even been in one playoff game in his career and has been playing pro ball five or six years. It takes actually being on the winning team in one playoff game before I make someone a top 10 player and MVP candidate. He's having a terrific season. I'd still like a look at his games this spring. Get back to me then. I can be persuaded.

While I used to enjoy the three-point shot I've come to dislike them over the past five years or so as the league as gone so heavily towards them. I don't so much mind that the big man has been de-emphasized, though I wasn't rooting for that either. The NBA has always been my favorite sport/league to watch as it has the best athletes in the world, and because they're not wearing helmets or padding, you can really see that athleticism displayed every game. All the three-point shooting has reduced the number of times per game that players are attacking the hoop and thus displaying their otherworldly natural talents. Of course they still do so some, but now it seems the top goal is to draw contact and a foul and actually attempting to make the shot is just a bonus. Much like baseball has become too much about home run, strikeout or walk, basketball is too much three point shot or free throws. I may be a bit hyperbolic but the emphasis on efficiency in sports - which I understand makes sense in terms of impacting winning - is making them less aesthetically pleasing and thus less fun to watch.

Steph Curry is great and fun to watch, but in terms of his natural athletic and physical talents, where do you think he'd have stacked up in the NBA of the 80s and 90s?

Cameron Watkins

Sam: I feel like the sergeant driving the car in the MASH movie who was always grumbling, "Damn Army" about the behavior of the crazy doctors. Damn Analytics! Again! But relax, not nearly as bad as baseball. I always say great players would be great in any generation and it goes backward as well. Curry wouldn't have the freedom to roam like he does, and some coach would bench him for shooting way out there. Back then they made you throw it inside or sit down no matter how many you made in practice. But Curry is much more clever with the drive than just his shooting. He would be a player like Cleveland's Mark Price, who was a small man and great shooter and one of the best pick and roll guards I ever saw. At least before Steve Nash. Price was a great shooter and multiple all-NBA player and would have been many more if not for injuries. But playing with a seven footer in an era of great centers, his major responsibility was to make his center look better than him. That would have been the difference for Curry, who would have been an All-Star, and better than his dad, who could shoot about as well, but couldn't dribble.

What is Boylen doing with these rotations? We leaves the starters in deep each game, evidenced by the game against the Nuggets when Lavine, Dunn, and Markkanen were all on the court with 6:30 left in the 4th down 35. Also, in the beginning of the 3rd, (which is when most teams go on their run) Boylen usually keeps the starters in for the first 8 minutes with no subs, allowing the Bulls to get blown out. The lineup of Dunn, Lavine, Hutch, Markkanen, and Carter is -29 in terms of point differential. This is not something that should be happening with the talent. It's time to stop allowing the starters to continue to make mistakes and let the rest of the bench contribute, as they have recently outplayed the opponent's bench

Adam Richard

Sam: Venting, also? I've gotten plenty today. I'm not sure you want to see Selden, Harrison, Felicio and Blakeney against Denver's starters. I'm not getting as much mail asking for them to play more as much as you you may think.

Source: https://www.nba.com/bulls/news/ask-sam-mailbag-011819

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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poetspade45-blog · 5 years ago

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Weekly Rumours – Free Agent Frenzy Edition

I had high hopes for the NHL Draft and I was extremely disappointed. Every year I buy into the hype and hope that we’ll see a flurry of activity and this year was more boring than ever. But, with the salary cap being finalized and lower than expected, we might see some interesting moves once free agency draws closer.

The Oilers are being connected to a few different names and given their cap situation, there is a world of possibilities. Let’s dig into a few rumours.

I’m going to be referencing Elliotte Friedman a lot in this week’s blog since his final “31 Thoughts” dropped yesterday. He mentioned the Oilers in connection to both Petr Mrazek and Mike Smith, which is hardly a surprise.

For me, those two options would reflect just how much the Oilers are willing to spend on a goaltender. If they go with Mrazek, then they’re likely looking at a $3 million cap hit on a deal that spans at least three seasons. If it’s Mike Smith, I think you’re looking more at a one year deal worth about $2 million, which is exactly what Brian Elliott got from the Flyers yesterday.

Friedman also hit us with a bit of a curveball, connecting the Oilers to Semyon Varlamov. He added that Varlamov will be an expensive option, I would imagine that he gets at least $4.5 million, and that likely takes the Oilers out of it unless they find a way to free up money. If they shed Kris Russell without taking back a really bad contract, Varlamov could be in the picture.

Clearing out Russell or maybe even an extra $2 million could lead to Holland having some extra flexibility when it comes to adding a forward as well.

Friedman and Pierre LeBrun have connected the Oilers to a whole flurry of depth wingers.

Obviously, we know that they’re in on Bret Connolly since his agent confirmed to Reid Wilkins that there have been discussions between the two sides.

Agent Gerry Johannson confirms on @OilersNow that pending UFA Brett Connolly has spoken to the #Oilers.

— Reid Wilkins (@ReidWilkins) June 25, 2019

That would make sense. Connolly is coming off of a good season where he spent most of the time playing with Lars Eller. If he was thrown next to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, I think he could continue being a 20-25 goal guy for the next few seasons. For the cost, I don’t think we’ll see it get to $4 million, something around $3.5 over four years seems realistic to me.

LeBrun also said that the Oilers have reached out to Gustav Nyquist’s camp to see if there would be interest. Nyquist is a consistent 20 goal, 40 point player and considering his past with Ken Holland and the Wings, it’s easy to see why this would be a fit. Similar to Semyon Varlamov, I think he might be too expensive. If the Oilers rid themselves of $4 million in cap space, then they may be able to afford a Varlamov/Nyquist combo instead of a Smith/Connolly combo, but it would still be tight.

There’s also the middle tier of options for the Oilers which includes Joonas Donskoi, Brandon Tanev, and Alex Chiasson. All three bring something different to the table but I really like Tanev. He scored 14 goals last season, which 13 of them coming at even strength, and he can play both wings. I can’t imagine he’d cost more than $2 million.

There are also a few lower tier options. Daniel Carr spent this past season with the Chicago Wolves, the Golden Knights AHL affiliate, and racked up 72 points in 51 games. He was also named the AHL’s MVP for the season. He’s a Sherwood Park product, so I would imagine he’d be interested in coming to Edmonton. As for a cost, it won’t be more than $1 million. He would be a good bet.

Brandon Pirri is another former Golden Knight who the Oilers might have an interest in. When he’s in the NHL, he scores goals. In 259 career games, he has 79 goals. That’s an average of 25 goals every 82 games. His skating and consistency are issues and the Oilers need guys who can move and put up goals on a consistent basis. Pirri should be cheap as well, but I think I might prefer Daniel Carr. I would expect the Oilers to make calls to both of these players though.

Friedman also hit us with a bit of a curveball, mentioning the Oilers and Jason Zucker in the same breathe. I love Zucker as a player. He’s a guy who can step into any lineup and score at least 20 goals. He’s got lots of skill, but his $5.5 million cap hit leads me to believe he isn’t a realistic option for the Oilers. The asking price would probably include Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as well, which is not something I’d consider. If a package of futures and a cap dump would interest the Wild, then I’d do it, but I think Paul Fenton wants to get that team into the playoffs next season.

Friedman also added in that the Oilers are still looking to move on from Jesse Puljujarvi and his preference would be to leave Canada. Friedman mentioned the Carolina Hurricanes, Boston Bruins, and Tampa Bay Lightning as possible suitors.

The idea of trading with Tampa entices me. If the Oilers want a third line centre, maybe Cedric Paquette could be had? You’re losing the upside of Puljujarvi, but Paquette is a competent NHLer.

With the Canes, the name Julien Gauthier has been mentioned but I don’t think he’d ever be more than a fourth line winger, if that.

For the Bruins, I was trying to see where they have some depth. At centre, they have Krejci, Bergeron, Coyle, and Kuraly. Would they be tempted to move 24-year-old Karson Kuhlman? For right-shot defensemen, they have Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo, and Kevan Miller. I wonder if the Oilers could pry Connor Clifton out of Boston.

I’m obviously just spitballing here.

I think the return in any Puljujarvi deal is going to be disappointing, but if the Oilers think they can get a young player, with some NHL experience, that they like from another organization who isn’t getting an opportunity, they should jump at it.

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

When – August 29th, 2019 (Thursday)

Where – Cougar Creek Golf Resort

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

Teams – Groups of Four (4)

How – Book your team here

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

Source: https://oilersnation.com/2019/06/27/edmonton-oilers-weekly-rumours-free-agent-frenzy-edition/

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feetglider2-blog · 6 years ago

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Ask Sam Mailbag: 11.09.18

Your Pelicans game report certainly sums up your positive view of Carter. I'm happy to enthusiastically agree. It's still very early but he probably would go several slots higher in a redraft and, as you noted, could even be in the rookie of the year conversation. It will be interesting to see how the bigs play together when Laurie and Bobbie return and how Dunn adjusts and hopefully evolves.

John Petersen

Sam: If it's about rebuilding/retooling/resetting then it's about incremental steps. It's not supposed to take as long as baseball because there basically is no NBA minor leagues for the best players, but it does take awhile because the top draft picks are so young. That's really what's most impressive about Carter, that all those cliches about the game going too fast and the rookie wall and rookie mistakes don't seem to apply. He's probably already the best on the team at playing fundamental position defense. Which also makes my point that with defense it usually is either you are or you aren't. You rarely become that. Though the GM survey named Carter for maybe best in five years, he doesn't have the athletic talent of some of the top players, like DeAndre Ayton, of course. The Al Horford comparison still continues, and Carter could be picked last when they pick the All-Star teams in three years. Which would be good because he'd be an All-Star. The Bulls would be fine with last pick. If the Bulls, indeed, got the next Al Horford it's been a coup.

I was wondering why Robin has been so left out. There is no way anyone has played so strongly that you couldn't give this guy a reason to take a shower. He is good for at least a couple of minutes. Will we continue to play roulette until Dunn gets back. It seems to me that though he has the least "talent/size", Arch is the best point we have to run Fred's system. The worst thing he does is hesitate when he has his shot, don't you think that will come with the more time he gets?

Tom Offa

Sam: I would not be surprised as you saw in the second half of the New Orleans game to see both Lopez and Arcidiacono playing more. Hoiberg has stated it remains about competition, so it wouldn't be surprising or unreasonable. You're upset? Play better. It's a more difficult scenario with Lopez. He's obviously not a part of the future team, and Felicio, like him or not, has two more years after this. So play Lopez to steal a game of two? Or try to force feed Felicio the playing time even if he doesn't produce so perhaps you get something out of him and develop him because he will be here a few more years? The latter from afar makes sense, though I do understand the immediate frustration when Lopez helps you more winning today's game. Tough choice for the coach. Much easier second guess.

Why does Hoiberg keep starting Cameron Payne when we all know if he really isn't a point guard? It's very clear that Ryan Arcidiacono is not only a better at running a team but a natural PG.

Tom Choi

Sam: Part is you have to play someone through their highs and lows and for some sustained period to learn whether they fit and who they are. There's an expiration date on that; we just don't know it. We are starting to see Arcidiacono more, and who would have imagined that a year ago? And clamoring for him. Arcidiacono, though, strikes me as one of those coach favorite types who loves to please, like Doug McDermott. They actually listen to what the coach says and try to do exactly that. Spoiler alert: Very few NBA players are like that. But that's how you generally become an NBA player. With your imagination and lack of fear in trying something different or taking a chance.

Arcidiacono has started to take his shot a bit more. He is a committed defender, a really hard worker without telling you about it—coaches said at Windy City last year he was in the gym day and night every day—and good running a team. Speed limits him, which is why he didn't make the draft cut. But he actually worries about setting up teammates, moving and passing, which is not a general concern with the lineups the Bulls have had to play lately. Sometimes it's OK, like with Blakeney. He's in there to shoot. If he's missing, he comes out. It's OK. Though I do expect to see Shaquille Harrison some as with the additions of Harrison and Tyler Ulis it seems apparent that the backup point guard position remains a chorus line type audition. Lots of high kickers coming through. Just waiting for someone to distinguish himself.

Left from the class of '01:Parker, Pau, Zbo and Tyson. I was never the biggest Chandler fan given I was a kid when he was drafted and I was so excited for him to become the next KG based on all the hype during that draft and offseason. Given his rough go in Chicago due to his young age and the bad roster he carved out one hell of a career. A key factor in an unlikely Championship team in 2011 to a defensive player of the year award. Happy for the guy. But what's going on there? Is LeBron gunning for Luke Walton?

Mike Sutera

Sam: So, Jerry Krause was sort of correct. But patience wears thin, and Krause was on his last chance then after blowing up his Elton Brand draft. Tyson was advertised as the next KG with Eddy Curry the next Shaq, which was good for the justification of trading 20/10 Brand, but not so good for their development. And then Tim Floyd looked at them and said, "I have to win games now to get an extension." And so, boom! Then once Scott Skiles came in with his lack of general patience, which he was hired for, Tyson had no chance. It really wasn't until his sixth year and then playing with a Hall of Fame point guard in Chris Paul that he had a chance to become who he really was. Which wasn't Garnett because he really had little offensive game and was more Cliff Ray or Marvin Webster. Ben Wallace? The Lakers are his seventh different team with a couple of stops in Dallas. He made an Olympic team, he made an All-Star team, he has a championship ring. It's a heck of an NBA career. He also happens to be a terrific person, family and community minded, open and welcoming to fans, media and teammates. And how nice for him to finish his career back home in Los Angeles.

The Bulls were in too much of a hurry then to wait, and that was understandable with those disastrous post-championship seasons. Tyson was great, but a great role player. When he finally got cast in the correct part, he was able to excel. Often that takes longer than teams would like. Oh, yeah the Lakers. Don't blame LeBron this time. It looks like he picked his final destination and has plenty going and understands his legacy is way beyond the next Finals. This is all Magic, though general managers meet with their coaches a lot. Magic is impatient, as many former players-as-GMs are, and he was as a player. Remember, he asked for a trade in his third season because he didn't like coach Paul Westhead's offense. Westhead, of course, was fired (sadly for the Bulls to become their coach) and broadcaster Pat Riley became the Lakers coach. See Jimmy, it's not new. Magic wasn't too popular for awhile afterward and was well down in the All-Star voting that season even though he was the West's best guard. Magic recovered. Though when he left playing after his HIV diagnosis and returned eventually to coach he gave that up pretty quickly, also. Magic's got a lot going on in his life. Now, Magic's on the hook for the Lakers future. He got LeBron, which was huge, but he messed up by letting Paul George go to Oklahoma City. He could have made the trade with Indiana, but chose to save young players and wait. Oops. Now we'll see if Toronto can persuade Kawhi Leonard as well. So Magic needs to land someone really good to join LeBron. Is Jimmy Butler enough? He may have to be. So Magic likely is a little anxious about presenting a better product for recruitment. Remember, he said if he didn't get it to work quickly he'd leave. Luke's on Magic time now.

I think Hutchison is developing nicely. He really moves well on the dribble, snaking his way to the rim. And he defends. Best snapshot the other night was him ripping a board away from some Knick. He's going to be a good one – maybe our starting SF in a year or two. And I would like every Bulls fan who complained about Zach LaVine's contract to take a look in the mirror. Imagine if the Bulls had agreed and let Zach go to Sacramento? How would you feel reading those box scores? You'd be screaming that the Bulls blew it again and calling for Pax's head. Instead, we have a future All-Star to build around. So before your next rant against the front office, take a step back and realize what a terrible mistake you'd have made given the chance. Zach does have the talent and the attitude to become an All-Star, or even a 'franchise player'. And I love the fact that he always mentions his own mistakes. You can tell he's focused on perfecting his game.

Art Alenik

Sam: Being a fan is a love story. It means never having to say you are sorry for some really bad criticisms. Let's not get too much into I told you so, though. But it was surprising to me how anyone was suggesting not to match. Like what else were you doing with the money? But I also understand being a fan. It's often looking for the next thing, which is why free agency speculation often is more interesting to many than the actual season. And draft speculation gets even more attention. Now I'm getting mail about trading just about everyone to Atlanta, Phoenix and Cleveland for the hope of drafting someone from Duke not named Krzyzewski. Though this season the NBA begins flattening out the odds for the top draft pick with the teams with the three poorest records getting the same No. 1 odds of 14 percent (down from 25) and No. 4 12.5 percent. No. 4 today would be the Bulls with virtually the same odds as the worst three teams. So losing exceptionally isn't going to guarantee say a hill of beans or a hill in Jerusalem. As for Hutchison, I'm still with the it's early group since, well, it is. You can see teams playing way off Hutchison for his hesitancy to shoot. He has those long, graceful strides that are reminiscent of Scottie Pippen in the open court, and in Pippen's rookie year when he was 22 like Hutchison he didn't start a game because he couldn't outplay Brad Sellers and shot 17 percent on threes. What Hutchison really has going for him is an enthusiasm and desire to compete and improve. He seems like he'll be a keeper.

In my opinion, a good coach makes adjustments defensively and offensively within and between games to optimize the team's chance of winning. Players that don't play sufficient defense, turn the ball over repeatedly, and don't hustle or pass the ball deserve to be benched in my opinion while giving others a chance such as Shaquille Harrison. Also who coaches the defense on this team? I am not happy with the defensive coaching since Thibs left (at least he knew how to coach defense even if he was clueless about offense).

Ashok Nagella

Sam: I would like to address the myth that Thibs was really the entire defensive line for the '85 Bears. It's not to denigrate Thibs because I still believe he is a good coach despite the mess he's helped allow to fester in Minnesota, and he was an excellent and ideal coach for the Bulls in 2010. He was the perfect guy dedicated to preparation and discipline for that team. Exactly what they needed. But remember, Thibs' Timberwolves are last in the NBA in defensive efficiency this season and were among the poorest in the league the last two seasons. Three seasons isn't a small sample. It wasn't because Thibs became a bad defensive coach. You can only coach who you have, and Thibs now has a lot of players who are young and who never were taught defensive principles, but he needed them to succeed or felt committed to them. In Chicago, Thibs had a roster filled with defensive guys and Derrick Rose. It was not unlike Larry Brown with Allen Iverson and four guys to rebound and defend, and that got a team with four starters barely ranked in the top 100 players into the Finals.

Thibs had four role type players who became all-NBA defensive players with a Defensive Player of the Year. He had Noah, Deng, Hinrich and Butler. And physical, defensive reserves like Kurt Thomas, Taj Gibson and Ronnie Brewer. Heck, you could have picked two league all-defense teams just from that roster. It's like getting the rock in the shape of The Thinker and being asked to put in the eyes. Johnny Bach was the great defensive assistant for the champion Bulls. When he was head coach of the Golden State Warriors in the 80s, they were one of the league's worst defensive teams. Because his star was Joe Barry Carroll, known as JBC whom many said meant Just Barely Cares. Then it became a small shooting team with gunners like Purvis Short and Sleepy Floyd. It was much easier to have a good defense when he coached Jordan, Pippen, Grant and Bill Cartwright.

I'll take some Jabari hate back: watching him is about as enjoyable as watching Wade in his Bulls year (that means "not enjoyable at all"), but he is giving the team offense and some rebounds when we're missing our top two PF's. He's not the problem. There, I said it. Having said that, I can't imagine Fred wanting to play him when Portis and Markannen return.

Alejandro Yegros

Sam: Ah, the rub. That scenario is setting up as one of those that you don't want to look at but won't be able to turn away from. I understood Hoiberg saying he'd play Parker at small forward because Parker seemed to be one of the team's five most talented players and we all have heard about this "positionless" NBA now where everyone can play anywhere, which isn't exactly true, though it sounds good. So, yes, what happens to that power forward when two power forwards return? I don't believe it's going to be as big an issue as it seems. I think the positionless thing the Bulls are thinking more about is four/five, that Portis more so, but Markkanen also can play some stretch center.

It actually sounds better on paper since while we weren't looking there are some really big and really good centers around, like Embiid, Jokic, Drummond. Heck, even Steven Adams, Whiteside, Kanter. So the Bulls are not going to be able to play smaller/thinner players like Portis and Markkanen at center that much. Perhaps Lopez plays more than we all thought. Maybe they need Felicio more? Though I seem to be contradicting my own argument as I go through this. John Paxson said in a radio interview when the season began that Parker's conditioning needed some conditioning, and Parker now seems to be moving better. He has a nice shooting touch and is pretty good inside, especially with mismatches. He's going to walk into scoring double figures every game. It's not something the Bulls can easily dismiss. I think the Bulls will experiment with some of those smaller lineups trying to get teams to match down to them. It seems to work for the Warriors. Size is not dead in the NBA, but skill remains transcendent. Having too many players who can produce is not one of the Bulls main problems.

Kris Dunn remains a what if. What if the Bulls brought Derrick Rose back next year? All of this is contingent on him continuing his current pace. Why you may ask? Yeah, the backcourt defense would be awful but no one is playing defense in the NBA anyway. He could potentially recruit Kevin Durant. If I remember correctly, they are friends and former summer workout partners. Older DRose probably now realizes the importance of recruiting. Plus no NBA team wins a "ship" without a two five player. It's not like to Bulls are above such a move. They brought back Scottie Pippen after torching management and he's an ambassador now.

Jerrold Washington

Sam: True, we do forget feuds in the NBA. It is a very mature world despite the occasional evidence to the contrary. Of course, the way Derrick is going now they might not have enough money to pay him. Obviously, it's great for Rose and no matter the attitude from some here previously, it's hard to not appreciate Rose's story and comeback. Actually, Derrick was close with Westbrook and he isn't going anywhere, and I believe Durant left Oklahoma City mostly to get away from Westbrook. Plus, I think Derrick always has made it clear he'll play with anyone and it wasn't his job to decide whom. I actually prefer that quaint notion about teamwork. I agree that we don't know yet about Dunn, and hopefully he's not out too long so the Bulls can find out. But no matter what they decide, I'm sure their future at point guard relies on someone much younger than Rose. I also believe there's enough "been there, done that" for Rose regarding Chicago, New York and Cleveland. Probably Utah, also.

Even though the record doesn't show it, I actually believe the Bulls are going to be very good in the future. The thought of having a lineup of Carter Jr., Markennen, Hutchinson, Lavine, Dunn could be very good defensively in spite of Lavine. I actually think the bulls should look to trades to gain more draft assets. Parker could be a valuable piece at the trade deadline to flip for a 1st rounder. Jabari Parker+Justin Holiday to Memphis for Chandler Parsons + unprotected 2019 1st round pick Robin Lopez + Bobby Portis + Cameron Payne to Phoenix Suns for Ryan Anderson + 2019 unprotected 1st round pick.

When was the last time the bulls enticed an A+ free agent to come to Chicago. The reality is they don't, so the bulls should be looking to use their cap space to take on salaries to gain more draft capital in what could be a deep draft. The move also frees up playing time for players that will be apart of the future. I'd like to keep Portis but I'd trade in a heart beat if it meant gaining a potential lottery pick in this year's draft.

Rocky Rosado

Sam: LaVine, Markkanen and Dunn for Duke's starting lineup? Can't we at least get Bobby back before trading him? I get the point about the concern regarding free agents. But there are a lot of big names like Kawhi, Jimmy, Durant, Klay, Cousins, Kyrie, Kemba, and there are only two teams in Los Angeles. I know the Bulls have been disappointed before, but there are possibilities. I understand about taking on the money, but I'd rather take the free agency chance. Those No. 1s in the salary dumps, when teams do that which isn't often, generally are well protected and can extend two and three years away. No one's trading you an unprotected lottery pick next draft no matter how much money you take. Denver did a salary dump last June with a protected pick. You want an unprotected pick? Throw in Carter Jr.

We have reached the blossoming of Chicago basketball. The seeds were planted via the Butler trade. Beautiful plants are growing. Wendell Carter Jr.'s development, unmistakable glimmers of excellence from Chandler Hutchison combine with sparks from Blakeney and Arcidiacono and waiting in the wings are Dunn, Valentine, Portis and Markkannen. Throw in the star power of LaVine and voila, you can envision a future contender. The threats to the garden are real. Injuries, lack of growth, bad trades, bad lack of trades, bad chemistry, etc. But for now, I can envision beauty. The question is how do you keep the garden growing. Too many plants can stunt growth. It is early in the season, and after we get our injured players back should we ask if Jabari Parker needs to be weeded out to allow others to grow? I want to like Parker and want him to succeed. You can see he has talent. So much young talent and what to do?

Bruce Roberts

Sam: There will be growth in the spring, I agree. Growth has its seasons. It's now their fall and winter. Then we get spring and summer. There will be growth as long as the roots are not severed. Then all will be well in the garden. You can watch it on TV. Call it chance.

Source: https://www.nba.com/bulls/news/ask-sam-mailbag-110918

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andrewuttaro · 6 years ago

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New Look Sabres: GM 73 - TOR - The Nylander Bowl

There was a part of this season the Sabres and Leafs were on a collision course. Right after the win streak there was that game that felt like a real rivalry matchup. I suppose I’m a little bias since I experienced it in person, but I think we all felt the same way at the time. The Sabres, slotted right behind Toronto in the standings at that point looked like they were finally in the same league for the first time in a long time. Perhaps they were both in a quite shitty place together at one time but that’s not nearly as fun. That game was so close it damn near went to the shootout. It was not to be and since that matchup Buffalo has tumbled down a hill in a historic way, not only falling out of the playoff picture but losing so much in the back half that there is an outside chance they pick top 5 in the Draft. We can rehash our mournful lack of playoffs or we can look north of the border where getting playoff games hasn’t exactly made our Canadian brethren all that much happier. They have also been rather shit since the New Year, albeit not quite as shitty, and they’re now staring down the barrel of a first-round matchup that runs a high likelihood of knocking them out early. Trust me, I’m near to selling a kidney for a Sabres playoff series at this point but in Toronto they’ve had one going on in April three years in a row now and enter this one prepared to sound a five-alarm fire when their predicted knockout comes. The grass is always greener on the other side and sometimes with the way we talk about the Leafs that other side is the other side of the border as it were. This game was a bit of that. This game last night was hardly fun but when it was it reminded you of what this matchup could be a behemoth of a rivalry waiting to happen. I’ll save the Leafs’ playoff fate for Playoffs according to the Sabres because if you are a Leafs fan reading this… well first off thank you, share this, you Ontario folks love your hockey… you probably aren’t from Toronto. Leafs fans who show up to Sabres games are mostly the St. Catherines/Hamilton bunch who either can’t afford Toronto ticket prices or just don’t want that. All the whining about Sabres fans not showing up for Leafs games is warranted but its more stupid than you think at first glance. Now let’s talk about the game that happened last night.

This game had fewer shots than some Church events I’ve been to, particularly that first period. Carter Hutton was playing the role of Nun evidently and stymied a lot of the Leafs fun. The game was grossly lopsided in favor of the not so lonely visitors from the start. The Sabres only had seven shots the whole period and didn’t break five shots until the final five minutes of the first. The Leafs shot 19 shots in the first. Some weaker opponents don’t put up that much in a game… like uh, the Sabres who only put up 24 shots the whole game! This lopsidedness perhaps colored both fanbases reactions then when the only goal of the period was by Sabre Casey Mittelstadt. Mittelstadt tapped in a Dahlin slapper from the line behind a Garret Sparks who was apparently struggling to locate the puck. Exhaustion may have been an excuse the Leafs could use, this being the back end of a back-to-back but Sparks was fresh as Spring morning so that didn’t extend to him. That said, the Leafs started on time and outplayed the Sabres in every category in the first except powerplay goals. Mind you, the Leafs have been in a bit of a funk lately and the fanbase is beginning to fire up the hot stoves for Mike Babcock’s firing. The funny thing is, they’re complaining about a lot of the stuff Sabres fans complain about Phil Housley about: player deployment, player minutes, roster choices… oh no, this is going to be another summer of courting hall-of-fame coaches isn’t it? HURRY, TO THE PEGULA JET! FIND QUENNVILLE’S HOUSE AND DROP MONEY ON IT! I DON’T WANT ANOTHER DAN BLYSMA, PLEASE! GENEROUS LOCAL PLUTOCRAT, PLEASE! I KNOW YOU CAN GIVE Q JUST AS MUCH MONEY IF NOT MORE THAN THE ENTIRE CANADIAN ECONOMY, DAMMIT!

Nonetheless, the Leafs funk was snapped out of in this game and they proceeded to put up another 19-shot period, this time scoring two goals. While the first period had a smattering of penalties that somehow the Sabres were the team to get something out of, the second period only had one and it was Zemgus Girgensons cross checking Nazem Kadri. I’m a Buffalo Sabres blog so by law I have to state what a little pest Kadri is. There you go. While I’m on it let’s just say if Girgensons scored as much as Kadri does I wouldn’t be thinking about what I can get for him in a summer trade. I’m just saying. That goes for you to, Risto. Poor Brandon Montour, showing off how great a pickup he was for the Sabres these last few games, he gets just bamboozled by Auston Matthews. You could see he didn’t realize it went in off his skate because he looked like a ghost had just given him a weggie. I’m not going to bring anymore light on his plight because once again, he’s been doing great. The feature of the second period I will bring to light is the almost goal William Nylander scored. John Tavares ended up getting credit for the second Leafs goal but for a moment it looked like it could’ve been Willie’s. Hold that image in your head as we fast forward to the third where we find noted brother of William Nylander, Alexander Nylander, getting a puck from VLADIMIR SOBOTKA, and absolutely drilling that one home from between the circles. If this game was going to be the Nylander bowl, which it is on this blog as long as it continues to feel like an unnecessarily lopsided matchup every time we face the Leafs, then fam, we have won. We won the Nylander bowl. Nylander < Nylander, obviously! Having already won the game with that goal, the Sabres pushed hard for the equalizer to perhaps force overtime and get their first back-to-back wins since November. By the time Zach Hyman scored the empty netter I was already popping bottles celebrating Buffalo’s first Nylander Bowl Title! All kidding aside, this game stung something mighty and ended up 4-2 Leafs. I literally cried in the shower.

Don’t worry, I was kidding about the shower. The good news is we have some fun speculation to talk about! I know I bit hard on the Duchene stuff and that didn’t come to pass but give me a break, the Sabres season is still active until I get back from seeing their last game in Detroit next month. Until then, I am going act like the championship can still be won with some key additions! To start out with Dave Poulin and Jeff O’Neill were having a little talk about Joel Quenneville on one of probably eight dozen hockey segments on Toronto radio stations the other day and they think Coach Q’s best option if he wants to return to coaching may just be Buffalo. All the stuff about whether or not Housley will get fired aside, is that something we want? I’ve talked about it hypothetically up until now but would the second winningest coach of all-time coming to Buffalo finally be the coaching solution we’ve been looking for since Lindy Ruff was shown the door back two millennium ago? There is certainly an argument and if it happened I can’t imagine Jason Botterill isn’t crafty enough a guy to A. work with him as now the smaller fish in the pond, and B. provide him with a good enough lineup to replicate some of the success he’s known for. I can imagine about half a dozen other options that don’t seem too bad either and also do something different than just bringing in the big Hall of Fame guy but its fun to speculate. This next rumor is all speculation backed up by zero experts… its actually more of a Play-a-GM kind of thing actually… what is the likelihood of Erik Karlsson? So: disclaimer; he’s not coming here, and that cap hit is probably not so bueno, but let’s imagine this low year he’s having with San Jose causes second thought and Karlsson leaves. He’s said he is proud of Rasmus Dahlin and loves the Swedish phenom, what if he mentored him like Ra’s al Ghul and Batman? Again, just saying. I saw some joking on twitter and it got me going. That’s what we’re here for: stupid fan shit like that.

So anyway: like, comment and share this blog around. I appreciate all you readers so much, whether you’ve been here all year or not. If you haven’t and you think it would be awesome to go back and read the win streak New Look Sabres posts than maybe use that time to share this with a friend instead; I did just that thing the other day and it made me sad. Speaking of things that make me sad: the Sabres have a chance to sweep the season series against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday. Why does that make me sad? Well, we have now lost five straight games to the Leafs and it feels cheap to wipe out Montreal in a season series while not getting the Leafs the same way. It’s like going to the Duty-Free store on the border and getting Aunt Jemimah’s pancake syrup: you got all this Canadian around you and you take the crap! The only thing diminishes a season sweep of the Habs is getting swept on the season by the Leafs. I better end on a more positive note than that… Jeff Skinner hasn’t signed yet… SHIT!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. The Sabres getting a couple games in the “Global Series” in Stockholm, Sweden in November is pretty rad considering how much of this organization is Swedish now. On the other hand, I see all of us complaining about the travel and those games actually counting in the standings. Can we all resolve right now to just enjoy those games?

#buffalo sabres #hockey #blog #NHL

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