gehringer_2

I was hoping against hope that Larkin would pass on the Olympics. I knew there was no way he would but I was hoping anyway. I guess from his standpoint a gold medal will be a fonder memory than washing out in the 1st or 2nd round of a cup series someone else is going to win, so I can't blame him. Just because .I. don't care about the Olympics.........😉

All front office decision issues. I think the most likely outcome is that if Larkin and Raymond are confirmed to have playing less than 100% at the end, Ilitch is going to give Yzerman another year at least. Just my guess about how it will go......

Worst signing EVER.

I wanted to let Kane go at the end of last season as I doubted he was going to do much this season and thought there were better places to use the $$ - I know they didn't want o give up what he still brought to the PP, but at his point in his career he wasn't what they needed to improve their 5 of 5 game.

He plays Sieder a lot, but not really more than other #1 Dmen. But just my observation is that when Seider's ice time starts climbing, he does change his game to conserve energy to compensate (which is why I don't like ever seeing them do it). With Larkin and Raymond, I don't think the team overdrives them. Their ice time does not look out of proportion for a #1 line. Certainly nothing like Brian Murray used to do overplaying his best players. But as players you have to be aware of when you are overdriving yourself when you are on the ice. A guy like Larkin has to understand that he has to walk a line between how much time he can stay at max+ effort and still keep himself available. I do wonder if Larkin is a little too emotional (trying too hard) a player for his own good.

and/or driving themselves too hard because there is no other help? Hockey is a game that can be played at an unsustainable level but only for so long. That true of both teams and individuals.

Size is important, in Dmen who have to physically clear the crease and control the corners, but size is only important in a forward if the player knows how to use it to take and protect possession. To a large extent speed, especially quickness, and good stick can get you there too, which is why DeBrincat is a way more useful player than Rasmussen even at the aspects you'd expect size to help with.

Tobias is in my 2nd row.

True. While he's young and fast he can live with a somewhat higher GB rate - but as hard as he hits the ball, there will be a lot of benefit from getting the ball into the air more because at the EV's he gets, HR's will follow.

Brooks with a relatively long open pocket glove, Aurelio with a shorter solid pocket.

I had some folks I followed, but it seemed like the episodes where I would have to take the time to block a hundred trash feeds that got dumped on me got to where the site was a waste of time. The only thing I ever do on it now is read a link from here.

I liked Inge - the team moved him around a lot and he sucked it up and did his best. He was a dumb hitter though. Not that's it's easy, but he was just a continual sucker for breaking balls out of the zone at 0-1. If someone had just nailed his bat to his shoulder on every 0-1 he'd have been a better hitter.

I guess the very fact that Ras is still on the team is a reason I despair about their concept of what a team should look like. And I don't even care that much about 'finishing checks'. The game is almost too fast to spend too much effort on that. There's a place for it but too much time spent trying to line guys up for the big finish can just get you left behind trying to make a big hit when the play has already crossed the line away from you. What I do want to see is way more aggression pursuing the puck. Just to go back to Rasmussen and Solderblom - guys skate past Ras unaccosted up the side boards constantly, it's like he's not even there when a guy rushes past him. Soderblom was miles better at least at that skill, guys could seldom just blow by him. So when I say there are skillsets they just don't seem to look for (care about?), it's that kind of thing.

I noticed the other day that Bobby tends to spend a fair amount of time echoing Dan a lot. Don't need that. If you have something to add, add it, otherwise calm and quiet is OK during a baseball radio cast.

I think it would have to be related to the strength of cues that differentiate one situation from another. Take IF and OF. All the visual and spatial cues are different and the gloves are a lot different, so it's easy to keep two memory maps isolated. The nearer the conditions converge, the easier it will be for the brain to lose discrimination. So if I were going to follow my own theory, I'd want my 3b glove to feel a lot different than my SS glove even if the physical difference was modest just so my brain never lost the context. And like anything else, the ability of different individuals to keep subtle context has to vary, which may be part of the reason (far beyond just gloves) why some guys can move around position to position with so much less difficulty than others.

I will predict that the day after the season sends the story will come out about a sports hernia suffered at the olympics.....

I can see that having been the case if Yzerman pushed that view with inexperienced head coaches like Blashill and LaLonde but I have a hard time believing a coach with McLellan's experience is taking his coaching cues from a GM whose never coached, or that Yzerman would even be dumb enough try and tell McLellan how to coach. But something sure is wrong, I come back the idea that it's just the way the FO has been constructing the team. We've said it before but there is too much preference for a type of forward who needs support from bigger stronger guys to flourish, or at least guys who are better at forechecking and chasing down pucks (like Glendenning, Bertuzzi - OK I'll forgive moving Bertuzzi, he was a head case, but they didn't replace what he was providing), but they never get those guys, or have let them go, or don't like them when they do get them (Soderblom?). It's seem impossible to be true but I have to question whether SY actually has a concept of how to put different kinds of players together to get synergy or if he's just too stuck on chasing best available talent even when it results in a team that has glaring imbalance.

curious day. Since Iran started, S&P and oil have been pretty locked on inverse moves, but not today, S&P Is up but oil is also up. Not sure what that means investors are thinking.

Fanduel will be officially dead as soon as this basketball and hockey season conclude, so you'll have a clean slate finding where they will be next season.

would have been nice to have Keith taking that AB.

He just can't have a foot down in the stands before the catch - correct?

This is becoming all too obvious isn't it? Is Ilitch paying attention?

Don't forget the converse. The broadcast with Shep was getting so bad you were going to lose fans even if the team was winning.

FanDuel appears to be officially dead https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/48388773/nba-nhl-teams-told-main-street-sports-network-end-operations

IDK, I always thought he at least made the other team aware he was on the ice, which is more than most RW forwards achieve. I would have liked to have seen them given him more run.