Domination: (TSN)
Disclaimer Passes..Talks to continue:(Sportsnet)
This could be cool, but I doubt it will happen:(Puck Daddy)
Its hard enough: (Sportsnet)
A slice of Hockey Heaven: (CBC)
Team Canada members embrace new roles:(Toronto Sun)
All roads lead through Saint Louis:(Blackhawks)
We’re gonna take the holiday off too, so let’s discuss all the things you can watch during that stretch and then I’ll leave you to discuss whatever you want. Someone should include a live play-by-play of their uncle passing out amongst the cats or something.
Friday
Bulls v. Knicks – Basketball in the Garden is pretty cool, I enjoyed the one time I went. At least in the old Garden. I don’t know what it’s like with the remodeled one. I’m told the Knicks are good this year, even though I feel like Jason Kidd is halfway to the state of choosing poorly which chalice Jesus drank from. You can’t ride the Raymond Felton train forever. Unless he’s playing against Dee Brown. Am I right Illini fans?! UP TOP!
Don’t have much today, so I’ll try and quickly sum up whatever went on today with the CBA and then get on to opening a thread for you guys.
I don’t think it’s all that odd that the players and owners didn’t do any face-time today. This isn’t two sided on opposite sides of the table and the mediator sitting at the head. They go back and forth between rooms. The fact that it sounds so bleak definitely drops your heart, but this process hasn’t played out really. The mediators will either wave the white flag or come up with some ideas for both sides, and we’ll just have to see where that goes.
It feels like the owners are going to try and run out the clock (which only has a couple weeks left) with this offer and push the players to the wall. Hopefully some moderate voices on either side gets heard, because at this point I don’t know what either side thinks they’re going to “win” now. Contract length would seem to be a non-issue if the variance in salary is controlled. I think it’s just a false term, really.
Anyway, on to more fun stuff to discuss. This week I’ve been pumping Wild Flag’s self-titled debut. If you don’t know, Wild Flag is essentially the remains of Sleater Kinney without Corin Tucker. Which is good, because every time I see Carrie Brownstein on Portlandia or as a guest star on the Simpsons last week, I think it’s funny but I’d rather just be listening to Sleater Kinney or Wild Flag anyway.
But to the point, the Wild Flag album is the balls. The last two tracks, Racehorse and Black Tiles, actually have some pretty intense instrumental interludes, which you wouldn’t see coming out of this punky background.
What are you spinning this week?
And yes, it contains perhaps the dumbest page 8 we’ve ever done. We’ve dropped the price of lockout filler issues to just $5. So get yours by hitting that button on the top right of the page!
Now that we’re in what should have been opening week, we can’t try and find other things to fill what we crave. We have to face up to the fact that only hockey will do, and we can’t force-feed ourselves something as a substitute. Maybe some of you will only accept NHL-level. That’s understandable. I’m pretty much in that camp too. But some of you need live hockey. And luckily, in Chicago you’re relatively close (debatable) to the next best thing next to the NHL, the AHL. Today, we’ll look at the closer of the two options. The Chicago Wolves, aka mini-Canucks.