If Toews were scoreless in this series, no matter what else he was doing, you would be riding his ass with every comment.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

RFDC strong.

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Elections have consequences.

which family?

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Mike you really have to make your family understand that sometimes meeting strangers from an internet message board trumps anything else you may be in town for.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

youse two

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Elections have consequences.

Absofuckinglutly correct.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

I still don't really understand the Hossa contract.

What is it that you don't understand? He had just forgone a huge contract in 2008 to take a one-year trial with the Red Wings, who instead committed to Franzen and Zetterberg. He was going to get a huge contract from someone, presumably following the frontloading pattern that Franzen and Zetterberg themselves had just received. He got it from the Hawks and they won two Cups largely because of him.

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I'm all for it, he's probably my favorite player.

$7.9 million 2009-2016
2016-17 $4 million.
2017-2019 $1 million
and the last 2 years $750,000.

I don't understand the structuring, I guess. It seems like everybody knows he won't play out the last years maybe 4ish of them. Do they have to pay him if he goes on IR?

Where are you seeing $750,000 for the last two years? I saw $1MM for the last four.

The structuring is to lower the cap hit while paying him at/over market value early on.

If he goes on long-term injured reserve with post-concussion syndrome or general soreness or whatever, they'll have to pay him the rest of the money, but the cap hit can be kinda-sorta replaced during the regular season. He''ll count against the cap in the summer, which will complicate signing people a little bit even with the 10% offseason cushion. Still beats dead cap space.

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That's what cap geek has. http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=4300131 I looked at espn. It's really not important. I guess I don't understand why it wasn't 55M til 2017 or something like that. He's still valuable to the team but costs a lot at the same time. Everybody knows and said at the time he wouldn't play out the contract.

55 over 8 would have been a 6.875 cap hit. Nobody thought the NHL was really going to do anything about frontloaded contracts until the Devils reduced the whole concept to absurdity with Ilya Kovalchuk. At the time, the solution to the dummy years was just for him to retire when he got to them. There was no fear of cap recapture because it wasn't invented until 2013.

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We need your shit tight and right for the game tonight.

And for tomorrow nights game too!

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

So it's gonna be Tampa Bay. Is that better than NY for the Hawks? I assume they would have been Vegas favorites against either even though they don't have home ice.

The Rangers would have been a better matchup for the Hawks than the Lightning. The Rangers had a really difficult time scoring at home for whatever reason. I am disapointed that they lost tonight.
Hawks win tomorrow night and beat the Bolts in 6.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

I don't think Tampa will be as hard to beat as Anaheim or Nashville. The Hawks have to break their addiction to soft perimeter shots, though, because Ben Bishop will eat those creampuffs for breakfast.

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You love the Bolts. Didn't you say that they are the best team in the NHL & a bad matchup for the Hawks?

Bishop gave up 5 or more goals in 3 of the 7 games against the Rangers. I like the Hawks chances.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

If I am a Duck fan I am really nervous about Anderson tonight. He has been shaky at best the last 2 games, and he has never been in a game 7 do or die game. Gotta think he is going to be a bundle of nerves today and hopefully that carries over to the game.

I think the Hawks are in a pretty good spot right now. Toews, Kane, Keith, and Crawford have all been playing pretty well. They have way more big game experience, and they do not have a coach who is 1-5 in game 7s.

Hawks have to come out firing on all cylinders tonight and get in Anderson's head.

I am going to say Hawks win 4 to 2.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Didn't he play in game 7 against Los Angeles last year and lose? or was that Jonas Hiller? The Ducks used like six goalies that year, I can't keep them all straight.

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Gibson started and Hiller came in after their horrible start.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Ah yes. Looking over the box scores, they had Hiller, Andersen, and Gibson all play in that series.

So in the Ducks' last Game 7, the Kings got out to a 4-0 lead by the beginning of the second period, ultimately won 6-2. In 2013 against the Red Wings, Detroit was up 3-1 late in the third until a late Beauchemin goal cut the lead with about three minutes to go, wasn't enough, Wings held on. All three of the Hawks' Game 7s have gone to overtime, with that late Toews goal forcing OT against Vancouver in a loss, Hjalmarsson's late goal getting washed out due to fucking bullshit against Detroit, and then last year's game where they kept blowing leads. So that's one win out of five between the two teams. All I know is that I'm going to be really nervous. By rights, the Hawks should have this, but hey, it's hockey.

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I'm so excited and nervous. 5 more hours. I typically love evening games but can't wait for this to start.

The Hawks have game 7 rabbits foot in Richards...

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

5 - 1 Hawks.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

I'm so nervous to the point I feel sick.

Same here. I want to throw up.

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Among the remaining goalies in the Stanley Cup playoffs, Bishop has the best Save % and the best GAA....and he posted two game 7 shutouts---stopping 31/31 vs Detroit in Tampa and 22/22 @ MSG.

No line changes

20-19-88
29-91-81
10-80-86
11-16-65

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Brent Sopel looks like the guy you call the cops on if he's near a school.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014