55fan

Plan ahead as much as possible. After you've had a big meal for company do you prefer: Help cleaning your kitchen, or doing it all yourself?

I'll go French. Detroit or Pittsburgh? -Where do you want Jagr to end up?

Not yet. The person below me takes a lot of meds.

I'm old because it's the ONLY time I check out a guy any more.

Is that Croatian?

I now have proof that I am getting old. I have noticed that lately every time I find myself looking at a guy's butt I have the same thought in my head: Pull up your pants. You look like a clown.

Hmm... if I need the caffeine, soda. Otherwise, juice. The person below me has fuzzy slippers.

Melted cheese. Glad I got one I know! Those fancy things were starting to worry me. The Galloping Gourmet I am not. Graham Kerr or Alton Brown?

I'll bet you have, my dear. At any rate, I was thinking about this and wondering what the players thought of it. Would they be for letting teams get out of bad contracts by burying them, or would they be against it? I'm talking about the players who aren't getting sent places, of course.

Oh, that photo of Koko and Hossa and the Cup is so cute!!! Maybe this was all Hossa's idea so he wouldn't have to live with the knowledge that Koko has more cups than he has. Seriously, I loved Koko here when he wasn't injured. He got some bad breaks (and tears and pulls and strains) here. I wish him well where ever he ends up.

Imperial. I have a point of reference in my head (and sometimes other body parts) for those measurements. Army or leggy?

More Michelan than Sta-Puft. Dried apricots or dried plums?

I do believe that we've found something that we agree on whole-heartedly. :beerbuddy: Oh, yeah. I think we also agreed that the Throwing of the Octopus should be a playoff-only tradition. But the lunchbox PBJ ruled.

Awwww. Cute! Cute! Cute! (That's one "Cute!" for each of you.) Glad you had fun.

Thanks for the link. Very interesting to see the "teams of interest". I'm on the Jovo-for-cheaper wagon. Wiz would be my first choice, and I really wouldn't argue with Kaberle if he came for a reasonable price. I think he would be ok in the smaller role that he would have with the Wings. July 1 and following will be interesting.

Back to Zetts- thanks for clarifying your opinion and thanks for expanding. It added a lot positively to the discussion on both sides of the issue, and I see what you're saying now. How many kids that were drafted were not interviewed? A lot. I wonder what some of them would have to say. It would be interesting if every kid who was at the draft had interviews. I'm not talking about religion here. I'm just saying, ask the kid "what makes you who you are?" A lot of these kids have trouble expressing themselves in front of the camera at this point in their lives. Regardless, they go through interviews of a less formal nature throughout their playing careers. They will get used to it over time. Some people are better under at verbalizing their thoughts. Some are better speaking privately than publicly. I wonder how much of scouting and drafting goes to the personality of the player rather than just looking at the on-ice abilities. That in itself could be a whole 'nother and interesting thread.

Basement. (You forgot the whole Y2K freakout?) Tile or hardwood?

Triangle sandwiches need the crusts removed to be truly superior.

Disagree on both counts. Those who know Raffy were quite aware. He and other Wings have often spoken of their beliefs (see also Datsyuk and Howard). We may not notice or hear of it, but it comes up in interviews and such. I remember Draper commenting on it once that it made no difference in the locker room what their beliefs were. They all had their own. Rocco is a young underage kid headed to UND (which is why I had kind of been looking at him) and he isn't going to drink or get in trouble in college. Locker room cancer? I doubt it. Not sure how abstaining from alcohol when one is underage makes one judgmental. I'd rather have a kid in my system that I didn't have to worry about doing that sort of things. Too many kids around here have screwed up their sports scholarships over drinking or other illegal activities. So he said it would be wrong for him to drink. Yeah. He's underage. It's illegal. By the time he gets to the NHL, he'll be of age. Then it will be his decision whether or not to drink or anything else. Knowing the ND culture as I do, he will have been exposed to a LOT of drinking. He will either find people with his own likes and dislikes to spend his time with and avoid the parties, or he will become everyone's favourite Designated Driver. I went to college with both types of non-drinkers. Being religious or non-religious doesn't make a person a good or bad player, nor does it make them a good or bad teammate. Once a person is a teammate with someone, they know that person well enough that they know their beliefs. They may not be the same, but they know what they are. And from that point on, it isn't whether a person is religious or not; it's how they coexist with others.

I don't believe they're the same fund. That is what their fines are used for. This is a different one that they have to give to because the players can't get more than a certain amount of the league's income in any given year. I'll see if I can't find something online. I think they called it an escrow account. EDIT to add: I did a search and couldn't find the article I read, but I did find that there is some question about the information I had read. Basically, all players have to put a certain percentage into an escrow account and at the end of the year they get some of it back depending on the exact amount that the league made. The problem with Redden and those kind of cases is that they are not paying in, but are used in some sort of figuring in the return of the money. It is all over my head.

I was reading an article recently about this. I can't recall where it was- online or in print. The gist of it was that the guys who go to the minors end up with more money than if they stayed in the NHL due to the fact that they get to keep it all whereas they have to put a certain amount into some sort of fund if they get the money whilst playing in the NHL. The upshot was that they'd rather be playing in the NHL, but the extra money was a cool silver lining to the cloud.

Depends on what kind of each and what I'm in the mood for. Honey roasted peanuts generally win over all. Bigger hype: 1/31/1999 or 12/12/2012?

I wondered if that was you. SJ getting Burns was good for them. Burns would have been good for us too. It is a question of cost. Who would we have had to give up to get him? Who will we draft today? How will our current prospects pan out? Do we have another "Burns" in the making? What will we do July 1? All of these questions and more will come into play when we look back and wonder about what would/could have happened.

Gates. Buffet makes me hungry. Sugar cookies with sprinkles or frosting?

Not really. The person below me has been on a roller coaster lately.