Jedi

5 concussion protocols... 4 Griffins call ups... 3 strained groins... 2 fractured ribs... And a herniated disc for Z! Crappiest Christmas song ever...

Ahem. Let us quote the book of "kickazz", chapter 7, post 140... Yes, I can see how one might confuse "hits" with "fights" when you yourself said the lack of an enforcer was to blame for our injuries. But to go back to the stats... Matt Martin (LW, NYI, 6'3" 206lbs) far and away leads the NHL in hits, at 165. Yet the Islanders sit at 86 games lost to injury. If, by your argument, big hitters translate in fewer injuries, why are the Islanders right around the NHL average in games lost? Or Tampa Bay, at 123 games lost, when they have Radko Gudas' 112 hits? Or Toronto, at 97 games lost, when they have Cody Franson's 110 hits? At best, the teams that have some of the league leaders in hits are among the NHL average in games lost. It still appears that the numbers aren't backing you up.

If ONLY we had an enforcer to keep that herniated disc of Z's in line... ...and to make sure that pesky groin of Weiss' would be held accountable... ...or that Howard's knee wouldn't dare tweak itself... For the record. Detroit (as of yesterday) sat at 10th in the league in terms of Man-Games-Lost-To-Injury, at 110. The #8 team, Montreal, is at 122 games lost. Yet, Montreal currently ranks 3rd in fighting majors at 22. Columbus is 5th in games lost to injury, 130, and 7th in fighting majors at 20. Tampa Bay is 7th in games lost at 123, and 13th in the league with 17 fighting majors. Toronto leads the league in fighting majors at 26, yet is only 2 spots back from Detroit with 97 games lost. I just did the math. The average # of games lost to injury by any team this year is a smidge over 93 games (93.066666667, etc). Detroit's at 110, which is above average, but not astonishingly so, especially given that Detroit is tied for dead last in the league at 4 fighting majors. As it stands, the statistics don't necessarily agree that having players who are more willing to "enforce" (a.k.a. willing to drop the gloves) translates into less games lost due to injury...

Let's all remember that Sammy was scratched tonight... ...and Jurco's getting called up... ..which means Sammy is likely still scratched... ...perhaps we're seeing Holland/Babs make a little bit of sense here!

We here at LGW are blessed to have several members with tremendous photoshop ability. In the past, we've relied heavily on Hockeytown0001 to create our GDT's, but recently FlashyG has stepped up to fill in, as well as other members. We're hoping that anyone who has the skills and the desire to create threads will step up and volunteer to do so, because anyone is absolutely welcome. However, to avoid confusion, it might be best to create some kind of schedule or rotation of GDT posting duties. I know that other boards have this kind of rotation, and it might work well for LGW too, if we give it a try. I'll leave it to you guys to discuss what would be best for this. If you guys decide a schedule will work, I can re-make this thread into a GDT Sign-Up.

My job allows us to read at our desks when things get slow, and as such I've been reading the Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) series. The book series (as I'm sure many of you know) is fantastic, and has had me REALLY wanting to play a game that was in the same genre as ASOIAF... So, after being pretty much severely burned out on Skyrim in June, I finally swung back around and pulled it out of the box again. Still had a few things to finish up in Dawnguard, and still have the civil war to finish, and several other miscellaneous quests. Even after all this time, this game is STILL lights-out. The only other game I've ever spent this much time in was Final Fantasy X.

The aforementioned Skyrim thread... http://www.letsgowings.com/forums/topic/70878-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/

Fans have long been clamoring for a remake of VII, but to the best of my knowledge, there are no plans announced for anything. A remake of "X" makes sense because they're only really polishing up the game as it is, without having to do too much in the way of new scenes or gameplay. Some new music, polish up the graphics on the gameplay and the animation cutscenes, and it's done. A VII remake would largely need to be a "from the ground up" new project, since it would need all new dialogue, cutscenes, gameplay, etc, due to the fact that it's a 16 year old game on a LONG outdated platform. While hardcore fans would certainly buy such a game, it's a lengthy (and expensive) project for SquareEnix to embark upon, and it may not attract enough of the newer generation of gamers (who seem to live only for new Call of Duty/Battlefield/GTA games). And considering how BADLY they bumbled FFXIV, a large project such as a VII remake may not be too palatable for SE...

My list of games that I anticipated were mostly Batman Arkham Origins, and Final Fantasy X HD. Batman got terrible reviews, which is not fair to the game. Most of the poor reviews claimed that the gameplay was too similar to previous games in the series. Yet Call of Duty gets 9s and 10s every time, and it's always the same damn game. Anywho, financial constraints prevented me from getting this one as of yet, though. Final Fantasy X got bumped back to 2014. Long story short, I didn't play even one 2013 game this year...

I'm fairly certain that if someone went back through my posting history, they'd see where I posted that Ericsson's last (current) contract extension was an overpayment. This is one of those times where I'm more than happy to be proven wrong. Very pleased with this signing. After many stumbles along the way, Big E has developed into a very solid and dependable defenseman. $4.25m is actually less than I thought he would sign for, so I don't have much to complain about. I could try to complain about the length of the contract, but since that's one of the things that pushed his AAV down, that complaint wouldn't really have much to stand on. Well done, Kenny!

ABBY!!!! Great odd man rush!!

PP. Franzen for high sticking the Mountain that RidesSkates...

Given how good Boston usually is on the faceoffs, that was a pretty good chance by Sammy... Yes, I just said "good" and "Sammy" in the same sentence...

The more I look at that, the more I believe that jersey is a replica (Reebok Premier), as opposed to the authentic (Reebok Edge). Which is odd, considering the price the seller is asking is more in line with the authentic, instead of the replicas. I have an Authentic '09 WC jersey, picked up in '09 (for A LOT of money), and I spent the past 10 or so minutes studying mine and comparing/contrasting the pictures. A few differences I've seen... 1 - As you mentioned, the replica does not have the NHL shield on the neck, but the authentic does. 2 - The Gothic "D" logo on mine has easy to see stitching all around the outside of the logo, whereas this one either has no stitching at all, or is too fine for the picture to show clearly. 3 - The Reebok patch on the back collar on the replica is placed over the seam where the two shoulder sections meet, whereas mine has an additional insert for the logo (as evidenced in this picture of Chelios from the '09 WC). 4 - The inner collar of my authentic has a black band with the Reebok word-mark logo on it, whereas this one does not. As well, the Reebok clothing tag is different from the authentic and the replica. 5 - Can't tell by the pictures if the linked jersey has a fight strap, mine does. There are a few other minute differences I've seen, but those are the major ones I've seen. All in all, I believe the jersey you have found is a licensed NHL product, but it is only a replica instead of the "real-deal-could-be-worn-on-ice" authentic. For the record, the seller of that auction has pictures of 2 different jerseys. He's selling a Datsyuk jersey, yet the third picture in the listing (the jersey, off to the side) is a Zetterberg jersey, as seen by the letters that are seen from the inside of the jersey. If you're looking at getting an '09 replica WC jersey (still officially licensed), save yourself $95 and get it from SportsK.com. SportsK comes VERY highly recommended by several LGW'ers (myself included), and sell only licensed stuff at much better prices. I've bought no less than 7 jerseys from SportsK, and would (will) gladly do so again. Sadly, I think finding an Authentic '09 WC jersey is going to be very difficult and/or expensive to do. eBay is probably your best bet, though it's still a long-shot. Happy hunting!

Surfing with the Alien - Joe Satriani

If Nyquist plays 2 games with Detroit this year, he loses his waiver exemption status. Which means any call up he gets will be permanent, as there's no way he would clear waivers of sent back down. Goose will be with the Wings. There's just no way it's possible at the moment with the roster/cap crunch we're under.

Who Will Save Your Soul - Jewel

Bit late by now, but it's worth it...

I've long been more excited for the Alumni game(s) than the actual WC itself. This certainly furthers my excitement, for sure.

Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight - Spinal Tap

Sweden just got Nike'd.

Make Up Your Mind - Theory of a Deadman

OH hey, now that we're down by two, they'll give us a PP...

Talk about a collapse...