Anomalously

I'll have to check out St. Arnold. I've had Real Ale once or twice, I've had a couple from Independence (here in Austin), too. They were ok, from what I remember, but I wasn't CRAZY about them. I wish Texas was a better state for brews.

Maybe I missed it, but what are your favorite local (statewide distribution) beers? I've tried a couple since I've moved to Austin (~6 months ago) but haven't found much that has definitively stuck.

From the board rules: Whether you want to roll your eyes or not, the rules apply to everyone. Consider BlakChamber's warning #1a and mine #1b. Take it to PM.

Stone in general is an amazing brewery. I love everything I've tried from them.

Um, no, you're mistaken.

I think the hope might be that revenues increase, the cap increases. At a 3.3% increase per year for 10 years, as is the industry standard, the NHL's revenues are $3.35 billion in 2019. Players get 57% when league revenues are more than $2.7 billion. The cap could realistically be in the ballpark of $65,000,000 per team. Henrik and Marian would be (at $6m per) ~18%. Right now, Datsyuk and Zetterberg (new contract) combine for ~23%. If they're anything like Sundin, Sakic, etc., it could end up being a very good situation. On the other hand, and I want to stress this, I know these are all hypotheticals, and the economy sucks, and there's no way league revenues will increase 3.3% in 2009/10 over 2008/09. I know that there's a chance they would age gracefully like Sundin or Sakic. I'm just looking at reasons why this could be attractive.

Would have been faster, but I had to wait until the period ended.

Ericsson just came back from injury. Why would we want him rehabbing his injury while trying to adjust to the NHL pace? He might not even be 100%.

VILLE LEINO:

Wait, you're blaming Bettman for a story on Yahoo!?

Not that he's a star by any stretch, but Hudler would have rocked in the ASG. (And he does have more points than All-Star starter Jonathan Toews, plus Eric Staal, Dustin Brown, and maybe more.)

It's a playoffs tradition. It loses its aura if it's thrown in the middle of the regular season. I say you buy yourself some tickets to the first round.

Babcock's reaction:

For the record, Hank was asked about the goal and, without prompting, he mentioned the gust of wind. Is Z against Datsyuk, too? (Yes, I know Pierre went on about it, but he gets too excited about everything; it's nothing about Datsyuk.) I saw the segment the original poster is talking about (it's on TSN.ca). He looked pretty irritated about Lidstrom's dedication to the league and status as a champion not being one of the criteria for giving him a pass. He kept interrupting Dreger, who had a somewhat moderated position of seeing why the league did it, but being disappointed about it. This didn't look like drawing straws.

Game 6 -- 2008 Western Conference Finals. Draper scored a goal with his teeth (and then GW Bush commenting on his nice teeth at the WH)

My point was being a top goaltender in one league doesn't guarantee success in another, regardless of the parity between the leagues.

Stefan Liv was a pretty good SEL goaltender. How was he in the AHL?

You mean the one he took because his defensive partner missed the assignment and so Cheli had to skate east-west and then keep up with the guy? He's not Lidstrom, he's not going to be able to cover the entire ice. That wasn't his fault.

DAVE STRADER is calling the game instead. Couldn't have picked a better guy.

Well, he broke Wayne Gretzky's record for most goals in a season as a 16-year-old. And he was drafted into the OHL as a 14-year-old (youngest player to be drafted, only Bobby Orr was younger to play, as he was signed rather than drafted). His hype kind of fizzled out a bit because of a disappointing season last season (40 goals after his 70+ the year before). With 25 goals in 31 games this year, though, the hype is back -- and apparently he's been working on other aspects of his game -- defensive play, skating, etc. to be a more all-around player. Projected 1st or 2nd pick in this year's draft.

Purely based on matchup. Look at the other recent matchups -- a few Canadian teams (Ottawa, Edmonton) and a couple of small markets or non-traditional markets (Tampa, Carolina). The casual American fan isn't dying to turn on that game. It has nothing to do with Bettman -- besides the fact that he and Colin Campbell finally got around to fixing the matches through poor officiating so that they'd have a more marketable result.

56 to 44 now...

How'd Talbot just sign one with the Penguins, then? Isn't that rule only for one-year contracts, like Hossa?

Bettman's naive for thinking that his 12-year-old daughter doesn't know what a sloppy second is. Seriously.

THIS LINE.