MacK_Attack

Buyouts can still be made during the first couple weeks of June, but they count against the cap. Two-thirds of the remaining value of the contract paid out over twice the length of what was left on the deal.

Ideally, he'll be heading to a new job soon.

Let the Brian Burke-to-Toronto speculation really heat up...

It takes seven minutes to have the ceremonial first pitch and then sing two anthems.

Jays beat the Tigers today, 5-3, just hours after Frank Thomas was released. Series wraps up tomorrow in Toronto, with an afternoon game at 12:30pm.

I know I'll lose sleep over this.

Ottawa went out with a whimper yet again, scoring five goals in four games to be swept by Pittsburgh. Daniel Alfredsson, Dany Heatley & Jason Spezza combined for two points in the four games. Ottawa will have a new head coach in October, but entirely possible that they will also have a new GM. One of the most rumoured names heading to Ottawa, specifically behind the bench, is Pat Quinn. Either way, heads should roll in Ottawa. That team is in serious need of a culture change.

Yeah, Mark Bell laid him out in the second-to-last game of the regular season.

I think he's burned his bridges in both of those places.

Bob McKenzie reported last night that Aquilini wanted a new GM hired "...in fairly short order." I doubt they'll wait close to two months.

He also wasn't hired by the current owner, so I think basically Aquilini just needed a reason to can him and bring his own guy in.

It's not just about the money. I'm sure there's also a desire to prove to yourself that you can cut it in the NHL as "The Man" running the show. Although Nill won't go to Vancouver because they want to hire a GM pronto and they can't approach Nill until the Wings are done in the playoffs.

http://tsn.ca/blogs/darren_dreger/?id=234166

What the hell is up with the Tigers? Whatever it is, I hope they keep it up for the four-gamer they have with the Jays next weekend B.J. Ryan made his return from Tommy John today and got the save against Texas. Jays bullpen is pretty nasty to face, even without Casey Janssen for the rest of the year. Fortunately for the Tigers, they won't get Doc Halladay as it sits right now, as he's scheduled to go Thursday against Texas. There's talk he might be held off for a day and they'll let somebody from AAA start on Thursday so that Doc goes Friday against the Tigers. We'll see. I can't wait to get Scotty Rolen back from the D.L. in a couple weeks.

It ain't over til it's over. I'm likin' what I see, but half the battle still remains, and those are the hardest ones to win.

Go Stars!

In order to get the rights to The Masters (a contract I believe they landed some years ago, in a time when TSN didn't have playoff hockey), there's a clause they must agree to that states that The Masters, to it's conclusion, takes priority over all other scheduled programming. In TSN's defence, The Masters was scheduled to end before 7pm, but the start was delayed due to fog this morning.

All they'll tell you is that they had no choice. Complain all you want, they can't do anything about it.

TSN is contractually obligated to show The Masters until it goes off the air. Their hands are tied, the decision was never theirs.

Azevedo's an over-ager. He's a free agent once the Kitchener Rangers are done. Teams won't be tripping over themselves to sign him because he didn't put up impressive numbers until his over-age season, which happens quite often in the junior ranks. Tyler Donati was in a similar situation in 2006/07. He'll sign with somebody and probably spend next year split between the ECHL & AHL.

In some respects, the Yankees & Red Sox paying as much as they do to the luxury tax keeps some smaller teams alive. And oh, is Jeffery Loria the grim reaper of baseball or what?

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They just do it to piss you off.

It would be nice consolation to see Ottawa miss the playoffs. Go Bruins.

Go Bruins. Ottawa is usually pretty bad without Alfredsson. They won't have Fisher, either.