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This is very serious sh!t right here. https://www.si.com/hockey/news/evander-kane-accused-of-gambling-on-his-own-games?fbclid=IwAR3RzOOzWw-g8B_R2dsYRFIb2cZ5c1LniRMPFACDSuia3Vn3DAPhAurdxms

It definitely wasn’t real until that point. I wrote the builder a $30,000 deposit check, and that wasn’t real enough. Seeing the house destroyed was like, “OK, we’re really doing this”.. another interesting fact, we had a roof leak that we simply could not locate, and the whole roof needed to be replaced. We had put it off multiple times, trying to patch things, because we knew we wanted to do a roof raise anyway. The night before we moved out, there was a huge thunderstorm end it leaked so bad that the wood floor upstairs just outside of our bedroom, where there was no air-conditioning because we had window units, actually got warped from the water and the heat. That would have been horrific and costly, but instead we just walked out the door and said fvck it, we don’t need that floor anymore anyway. I will post another fun picture. We were at the house the night before renovations were about to start, taking down fixtures, and doing some last minute stuff. We didn’t really know what to do with my daughter at that time, because there was no TV, and all her stuff had been moved out. So we gave her a box of crayons that my wife used to carry in her bag and brought her to her bedroom. We gave her the biggest blank wall there was and told her that one time, and one time only she can absolutely go fvcking nuts on the wall. All these years later, she still talks about how fun that was.

Pulling for you brother, hoping things change for the better soon!

That sounds like a career-ending kind of mistake, if proven to have happened. Goddamn…

It’s more of a 1A-1B situation, than a 1-2. Wedge is the insurance policy (and is being paid like one). Mac obviously has the inside track on getting more starts, but if he falters/slumps/gets hurt, Bernier is plenty capable of picking up the slack…as Crawford was supposed to have been, before calling it quits. Barring injuries, I can see them finishing within 10 starts of each other very easily.

Holy sh!t GREAT eye. That was early to mid October and you are fvcking right, that is a Devils jersey!!

I think Jack's concern about his health trumps the Sabres. He will be the one who has to live his life with his spine and neck issues.

Ha, remember the days when Tim Murray was getting credit for doing such a good job tearing the Sabres down, collecting assets and tanking for McDavid/Eichel? That sh!t is the easy part. What an absolute sh!t show in Buffalo.

That’s a great story. Glad you stuck with it! I started out in pre-med. But, had just met a girl (who would become my wife) and was playing in a band, and I really didn’t focus enough on my studies. I was moments away from making a huge mistake and taking time off from college to pursue music. The band had other ideas, and kicked me to the curb not for my musical ability, but because I didn’t hang out with them enough anymore. I was the only one in college at the time, though they were a pretty smart group. Three of us wound up attorney, doctor, architect, one wound up a very successful club/restaurant owner, and the drummer, well, he stayed artsy (graphic artsy). After that I focused on school and soon realized I didn’t want to be a doctor whatsoever. So law school became my fallback and I switched majors to Sociology/Criminal Justice. That wound up being some of the easiest sh!t ever for me, I graduated with honors and won the award for the highest GPA in the Sociology/Anthropology department. Went to law school, and my grades were fairly middling. Took the bar exam, and absolutely killed it. They didn’t tell you your grades on the essays (you could request them if you failed), but I got 184 out of 200 right on the multiple choice. National average was somewhere in the 130’s. I’ve yet to meet anyone who outscored me. But, my class rank being middle of the road, I didn’t get a ton of job offers. It came down to the Brooklyn DA’s office or a small personal injury firm on Staten Island. The DA job was one week 9-5, one week 12am-7am, which I really had no interest in doing. I had just gotten married (10 days after my bar exam) and it just wasn’t what I had planned. So I took the small PI job. I still have that job, it’ll be 20 years in January which is completely unheard of. Got to work on a lot of interesting cases, and along with my boss (now deceased, his daughter owns the firm alone now) got the largest verdict in the history of Staten Island, excess of $109 million. Never had the financial ability to make the jump out on my own, but they have treated me right over the years and I don’t foresee leaving any time soon. Interesting fact, my college, the pickup point for my law school carpool, and my office are all in the same neighborhood, a minute apart. As such, I have had the same exact commute, at least in part, since 1994.

Nothing exciting, it’s interior painting we had done, the main color is like a taupe/gray. Full on gray is very popular now, but we have cream colored cabinets that go better with the color we chose. Then we did the back wall as an accent wall a couple shades darker. The little nook in the back where the desk is, we are going to have a custom built in floor to ceiling bookcase/desk put in.

The thing I expect Hamilton to help with the most is sustained pressure into the offensive zone after guys like Jack or Bratt carry the puck in. WAY too often last year one of those two would make a clean entry only to have no support trailing. This was often when Jack would just try the miracle passes that seldom found another Devil. Now we’re going to have one of the best in the league back there.

Hope you’re doing ok.

Hope all is well man.

Too many brewskies?

True or not, his wife sold him out HARD.

Oh agree. That’s more what I meant.

That’s ‘banned from the sport for life’ sh!t. Just ask Pete Rose.

Yeah now imagine listening to the Roy Dotrice audiobooks like I do at the office. 90 year old man describing Samwell's "fat pink mast" lmaooo

I haven't been able to put down ASOIF in at least 3 years. I just keep re-reading in hopes that GRRM will actually finish the final 2. Not holding my breath. It's so funny reading those books, 90% of it is insanely well-written, descriptive, illustrative, gripping storytelling, and that last 10% is written like dimestore erotica lol

I m getting a lot of enjoyment out of the quest, more than I expected actually. I’m not aware of anyone else doing exactly this. But I did run into (online) a guy looking to collect an autograph of every NHL player in history. And his collection is way closer to complete than you may think. http://hockeyinkinthemail.blogspot.com/?m=1

I mostly only read comics/graphic novels, but along with the A Song of Ice and Fire books one series I’m really into is Joe Abercrombie’s First Law. It’s actually where I took my username from. Good old Nicomo Cosca lol. There’s a new book coming out this September. My #1 of all time is probably Cormack McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. I like the Dune books, too. Especially the first couple. I’m super hyped for the movie. Denis Villeneuve is one of my current favorite working directors.

I just read the first 5 issues again, I read these originally back in 2010 so I'm cutting myself some slack here with my memory, I generally don't read anything twice but it's definitely very different from the show lol I do enjoy both but in terms of story and plot the comic moves along way faster than the show does amongst other changes. TV show is definitely toned down too.

I just read this on twitter "I trust that Lou Lamoriello will do his due diligence in evaluating Tarasenko’s health. " lolol Buddy is obviously not aware that Lou handed Ryan Clowe a 5 years contract 4.8aav eventhough all signs were pointing that he was almost done and sure enough he spent more than half that contrat on LTIR.

Actually definitely DO NOT watch it until you’ve finished season 3. Major spoilers. I’m watching it now and it’s not actually a prequel, it’s a spin-off that picks up right after the S3 finale.

On the career/job thing, I’m a licensed health insurance agent; essentially, my job is to speak to mostly seniors and lower income folks over the phone and help them find out what Medicare Advantage health plan they may qualify for, and help them decide if it’s a good fit for their health situation. It’s simultaneously the most rewarding and aggravating job I’ve ever had; rewarding because I’m legit helping people who need it. Aggravating because of how uneducated and rude people can be. That wears you down when you’re making over 100 phone calls a day, five days a week lol.

Probably worse.

I don’t believe I understand your brand of humor.

It was on sale, next to the carpet. Not sure but I do like having the Stanley Cup better.

At that point I was just happy to be done and I just moved on. It’s coming up on 8 years since we did the work (hence, it was time to repaint). Best thing the builder did was 1) convince us to remove the wall between the kitchen and living room, which allowed us to put additional cabinetry and get the open feel we have, and 2) convincing us, after making that decision, to fully re-do the kitchen. Our true purpose was to do a roof raise, not necessarily to gut the entire first floor as well, but that’s what we did. The builder really wanted us to. He lowered the price to add the kitchen twice, and the third time said it was basically at cost and he really didn’t want to go forward without doing it. Only had about half the cash for the added work and had to borrow the extra cash from my parents (they got paid back within 8 months, longer than I wanted to take but they didn’t care; it was better than when they “loan” my sister money and it just gets added to the tally. Both of the above were 100% the right call and I can’t imagine that we almost (insert Zacha here) didn’t do it. I thought you were wearing that fish as a boot.

Pumpkin deserves some credit for posting this thread. I’m enjoying it and in my opinion, it was way overdue.

wow! amazing

Yeah it's hard to really have an opinion when you're not aware of the data. Like if we have some sort of bigger picture like... a) that surgery would take 2 months to recover. But there's only a 70% chance that it fixes the problem long term and if it doesn't work well the problem will surely come back, based on 400 cases. b) the other surgery would take 10 months to heal completely but recovery rates are like 95% based on 7500 cases. Then you can kiiiind of have a more educated opinion about the case. Not that what i think about it is any important though.

I dig the carpet on the ceiling lol. Why are you so obsessed with carpet, and where in my pictures do you see one??

Thanks man. We’re not flashy people, though that accent wall was originally a dark red against a cream color for the rest of the first floor. It looked pretty cool too, but we were ready for a change. The lighter color on the back actually makes the place appear larger too. This is the back wall, taken just after it was painted and before we finished the renovation and moved back in. Which is why there is no furniture but there is a giant whiteboard. If you zoom in, my bathroom sink is in the backyard lol. Not sure why, because we had no intention of re-using it.

oh i am a trimmer btw.

Uhh what? Those are pictures of walls. What the heck are you looking at??

At this point I'm more annoyed they HAVEN'T been able to figure out what the hell is going on, than I am at him actually being on the shelf. It feels like this could have been avoided if they didn't power through some of his earlier injuries, and even now they still don't know what exactly is wrong. It just comes off as same old Mets medical staff nonsense a la Cespedes, Jed Lowrie, Ryan Church, etc.

Reaves is old and slow. He ain't gonna do much.

Good. I like it. No need to rush him. We have pretty great LD depth of more ready young players. Watchin him on WJSS. Cant say I like his defensive game against peers. I cant even name it "defense". 2 years in Michigan will help him to fix it. I hope.

@SterioDesign, I think the previous two years, his defense rating was much higher...I forget where I saw that, but if that's the case, then last season could've been more of an outlier.

There's ALWAYS the chance that these long-term deals can go horribly wrong, but if given to do over again, under all of the same exact circumstances, I sign Hamilton to the same exact deal 10 times out of 10. He's still relatively young (Devils are paying for his Age 28-34 years), and if the Devils get four years of still-in-or-close-to-his-prime Hamilton, followed by two or three decline-but-decent years, I'll consider that a good ROI. The knock I keep hearing (from other teams' fans of course) is "If he's so great, why is he already on his fourth team?" I know the first time, Boston had cap issues and he was a RFA the Bruins couldn't afford to pay, and Boston was able to get some pieces back for him (from Calgary)...a first-rounder and two second rounders (hasn't worked out so well for the Bruins...none of those picks have turned out to be much). As for Calgary, there's this (see below), but I still wouldn't read this and ever think "OMG, the Devils just signed a complete headcase, what are we gonna do?!" If he was such a PITA, Carolina's not willing to go 8 years for him. I still think it's 1000% the right move and I'm glad he's here. Personal issues regarding Dougie Hamilton emerge in wake of huge trade - NHL News - HockeyFeed

I definitely think it’s more the latter. Hell, just the amount of hate I saw online over the Hamilton signing was ridiculous. You listen to half these people Dougie is one of the most overrated players in the league and we’re going to end up regretting the deal two years in. I have a feeling if that exact same contract was given out by a more popular franchise there would be a very different reception. Anyway, fvck em indeed. Let them hate.

The Hamilton deal looks more and more reasonable every day. Fitz did a wonderful job this week.

They are either A: not very bright, or B: they actually know better and just hate the Devils. Either way, as mfitz said, fvck those morons.

I was in the hospital Wednesday and Thursday, so I missed the announcements of the Devils' trades and signings. I am so glad to see that they made moves to improve the rebuild of the goaltending and the defense. Way to go Fitz Let's Go Devils

After my grumpy morning the other day I owe you this one at least

i had to.

Yes and no. There are a bunch of guys who played only a handful of games over the years because Marty was playing them all. Try to find a Rich Shulmistra or Peter Sidorkiewicz or Jeff Reese or JF Damphousse signed Devils puck! I’m not above trying to find these guys on social media and trying to convince them.

Yep, I took a step or two past that point now. To be quite honest, I have my doubts I’ll find any of the ones that are remaining. But what the hell, I’ll have a good time trying.

Weird, so is this guy... And his name is Mfitz too...