shoobiedoobin

I agree with whoever said Star Wars wasn't about budgets, it was about creating a large living breathing story universe. At first I thought someone like Duncan Jones or Neil Blompkamp would've done a good job and I still think they're more talented than JJ Abrams, but then it occured to me-Peter Jackson does a pretty good job at adapting the universe of someone else. It's when he strays away that he becomes a little mediocre but he picked up LotR and ran with it. He seems to be able to give off that feel that the character and story is part of a world bigger than what you're seeing. That'd be perfect for Star Wars. I think the problem also is partly us. We'll forever want that fun child-like feeling we got when we first saw Ep 4. It won't happen. I think the best we can do is not give it so much Hollywood sheen and keep it simple. Peter Jackson I think would've done the world some good but then again, maybe his name would've been too big, almost in the way that some actors are bigger than the movie they're making and it takes important focus away from the film itself.

What's funny is out of the 99% of pro athletes who opine post-retirement, we take all of them seriously and anyone who questions them is a fool for questioning an ex-pro player. You just can't. They, y'know, played the game! It just sounds crazy to us for them to not know. But the one time I see a guy questioned is here, and he's one of the few guys I'd listen to. His mind for the game is what carried him mostly. He flunked in Phoenix but that doesn't take away from that.

That's kind of a push/pull logic scenario.

It's not the numbers that concern me when I compare the offensive upside. I get the safe estimate is O'Reilly will score more but it's just my inner scout talking when I guess Nyquist has the higher offensive upside. I just think when he settles in at the NHL level he'll score more. It won't be by a ton but I think O'Reilly's scoring will top out around 70-80 points with great D whereas Nyquist could be a, 80-85 point guy with good D. I think O'Reilly's defense more than makes up. And I know it's custom to act like the other team will be as in the know as us about every single player and prospect but they don't label every prospect garbage compared to theirs like we do. They can't demand Flip or Helm, they're both proven commodities with good deals, whereas their player is good but far from proven yet and doesn't have a contract. They can't be picky.

He can score well but that's not the draw here. Anyone talented enough who works hard enough will score with the team we have. It's his defensive game that I'd be interested in. From what I've seen and from everything Avs fans have said, he's a Selke caliber player. The games I've seen him play, more than just a few, indicate to me he's a hard worker and is competitive as hell. He blocks shots, is a great PKer and can steal pucks fairly well. My only concern would be can he play wing? We have plenty of centers unless Hank moves to wing, and we know he can. I would give them Nyquist, even though I think Nyquist has a higher offensive upside. O'Reilly completely skipped the AHL and didn't look out of place, we know what we'd be getting and he's basically a slight variation of Flip from what I've seen and heard. Just a little faster but with less defensive prowess. I don't want to give up Nyquist but I dunno what else they'd want. If we could give them Sheahan and a second I'd be pretty pleased.

He heard a Stevie Wonder song come on and just had to get down

JJ Abrams perfectly sums up exactly what I think about this young generation of creators, be it movies or music or whatever. They loved quality stuff growing up, but didn't know exactly why it was quality stuff (we kinda don't discuss the merits of things, we just praise it and like to sorta figure it out on our own). So when these kids grow up they try to emulate what they saw and can replicate the easy stuff like visuals, but not the truly difficult stuff (quality content). Hence why we get JJ Abrams trying to be Lil' Spielberg cramming his movies full of the lens flare that's pervaded his memory since childhood, but not much of the quality Spielberg had underneath the surface. Or we have Zack Snyder directing garbage films when he's basically a glorified visual designer who makes 20 minute music videos stretched out over 90 minutes. Or Joss Whedon who seems to have everyone fooled by producing novelties and guilty pleasures and parading them as decent movies/tv shows. His writing and stories plain suck and I can't even be nice about it. Even Del Toro is a little overrated. He's got fun and imaginative landscapes and creatures but his stories and pacing bore me to death. All flash, hardly any substance. Makes me appreciate guys like Fincher and the Nolan brothers that much more.

Gay fish alert

You couldn't see the league prolonging expansion year by year for a few short years until they can get a couple of teams shoehorned into an already too large league? I don't agree but it's the type of thing I could see the NHL trying. Myself I think we could stand to lose two teams rather than gaining two more.

Expanding yields nice fat fees and a load of cash. And 32 teams is easier to divide by if and likely when they decide to completely shake up the conferences. Remember when a lot of ideas were floated around that ended up with 8 teams in one division and 7 in another?

I'm nice, and this doesn't keep me up at night. You like them, that's cool.

Women who throw themselves at a man and change who they are to get their attention sicken me. It's impossible to respect and it not only says something about the woman who is doing it, but it says quite a bit about the man who would accept it. But the society we live in encourages it in a very derpy kinda of beer commercial mentality. From a male's point of view we're told to "tap that bro" or "what are you ***, hit it and quit it!" and from a female's perspective, women are taught to be a man's toy or prize or thing he owns. Toss yourself at him, you're a brainless ditz! I should just stop here...

Bingo. And look at when Helm is in the lineup-we seem to collectively work and skate a bit harder. And when he's actually on the ice, man oh man, the whole game goes into fast forward. He's such a game changer. Eaves was always a hard skater too. Now maybe we've had slow starts but over the course of the season esp after the STL game where we were in preseason mode, we look like a much harder working team than the past two seasons. We've added Tootoo, got Eaves back, Helm's back and Brunner's a hard worker too. It's no coincidence that the whole team is skating harder. Even Franzen, while still prone to standing around watching, is working a tad harder. Sometimes all it takes it an extra couple guys to give the whole team that extra push in the right direction.

Flip, too. Datsyuk is hard to label. He doesn't visually exert himself too much but that's his style, he doesn't have to. He's more methodical and it works. Datsyuk at full speed is more of a once in awhile when it's truly necessary sort of thing. That said he never gives up on a play, or a game and is always trying in his own way to make something happen. He doesn't take games off though. Neither do Hank or Helm or Flip. They're great examples. I hate that Franzen is so lazy but at least he's not a top 3 player on the team. Some teams have top 3 guys, leaders and even captains who refuse to work hard. That's gotta suck.

I've seen that guy a few times, he's an oaf. Then again a lot of people are over there. I lurked but didn't even waste my time registering nevermind replying. If you're new or don't go along with the opinion of the 5 or 6 dumbasses who stick together and have been there forever, you're shunned. It's kinda sad but they have no one to mod their board so it's turned into to garbage.

^To his credit people did question his work ethic. When we're losing we panic and overreact, it's not unrealistic to see some of us do this sort of thing. Another thing I think it might be is in big defensive situations they sometimes are on the ice together. Now if they're on different lines 5 on 5, then there's a good chance one of them had one extra or one less shift than the other to that point. Then you put them together (big PK, empty net on the other side, etc) and that can skew the numbers.

I think one of the biggest factors is linemates. Z while not always, has usually played with more defensively responsible guys. Z gets Flip and Cleary, Pav gets Franzen and Bert, that sorta thing. It's a minute or so per game which is what, a shift, maybe one extra one? It's dumb luck and we just need to realize sometimes chance continues for a little while. Another factor is Z's endurance. For all we know there could be something we're not seeing since no one here coaches this team.

For most people these types of opinions are ones they're too committed to, and they get too proud and stubborn to go back on it. To admit they were wrong is to admit they might not really understand hockey and it's pretty obvious those same types love to play pretend expert. The kicker? They don't really know, and these opinions are formed on a whim. Or by following others who do so, or a mix of both. We do kinda perpetuate our own ridiculous opinions sometimes. We reassure eachother. You scratch my back, right?

E is inept? C'mon that doesn't feel just a little like stubborn old memories refusing to go away? He's been great the last half of last season and he's continued right where he left off this season. His passing is crisp, his play in his own end has been very good. One aspect I can but somehow also can't believe we're overlooking is his ability to get out of the corners quickly, or move pucks behind the net in those areas under pressure. I've seen him just flick pucks to open guys very quickly under a ton of pressure. I haven't seen anyone do that since Nick and Raf, not even Nik. That is a huge aspect of defense, just shrugging off the forecheck like that. He does it so well and it's one of the biggest reasons why we don't notice him in his own end. And that's a good thing. As for Kindl's future, I just don't think he meshes well here. He's average with brief flashes of something more but it's fleeting. Those flashes give his fans something to cling to and I think we've been very patient but I can't foresee him sticking around. I know Huskins isn't the best offensively but he can move the puck adequately enough to replace Kindl I think considering his defensive play more than makes up. I'm not exactly tapping my fingers impatiently waiting for points with bottom 6 defenders, I'd rather they just grind out and shut down opponents and don't make mistakes. Kindl is a decent top 4 defenseman on another team who doesn't fit into the 3rd pairing role here. It's sad but that's the reality of it. I keep getting this gut feeling his mistakes are all mental because he's trying to play into the top 4 and screws up because of it but regardless we can't wait around forever. This team is always more patient than the forums are but I think he'll be gone eventually in some sort of deal.

Fluke by a joke team.

Bingo. What a joke. It is one of the biggest deciding factors in a game. You can't just say play and ignore it. It's as much a factor as poor passing, bad PK, anything.

If you can look me in the face and tell me this league doesn't encourage make-up and even-up calls, you're a talented liar.

How the f*** is that not a penalty?!!?

Phantom call. The NHL will never stop having it's refs try to even their penalty numbers.