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You are far too kind Lobo.

Ovechkin........

Didn't Jericho say he has never won a game six? Fitting end to the curse or Kyle luck ruins us again?

Thinking more on this I've started considering that a big issue here is this phantom rule set which governs violence in the NHL. It feels...childish almost. Like the players are a group of children under supervision of their parents (refs and player safety) and those only intervene in extreme situations when this "code" is deemed broken. This code that players often reference is made up of phantom morals that are supposedly shared between players. Although not every player. It's stupid, it's childish, it's unprofessional. All of it. Fighting should be in the game but the league needs to stop pretending it doesn't exist. There is nothing in the rule book that says fighting is allowed, penalties are dolled out for it but the league rarely suspends people for fighting. It doesn't even really acknowledge it, save for the refs. As a collective the league has this neutral stance on it's violence as if it can't choose a side one way or the other. It isn't about picking a side anymore. You can remain down the middle and allow fighting in the game but clearly defining the rules and circumstances around the violence will put the league in a better situation in regards to punishing players who cross a line. Mostly because that line can actually get defined for fans and players alike. I feel like the league doesn't want to do any of this because then they'd have to acknowledge that fighting is "allowed" in the NHL in a way. I mean the NHL is far more childish about how it operates with violence than pretty much any other big sport. NFL, NBA, MLB, even Soccer don't have the level of scrums, fist fights, insults, bickering, and this phantom code. You can see it on the HBO series a few seasons ago when they aired. Things like the refs not having issues when a player punches someone in the face if the player sticks the goalie first. But none of this stuff is written down or available. Far too much in this league is left to the discretion of the players/refs and it ends up coming up quite unprofessional and childish.

If we manage to get Kyle and Kyle a Cup this season then I completely agree with this statement. Sometimes it's tough to do Green on your first player. Hell look at both Kyles. Dowd hasn't won a Cup and he has ahd like 3 players. Jericho's first player was a HoF player who made the finals an ungodly amount of times with zero results. I even with my first player made it to the finals on a couple of occasions. Sim luck, it's a bitch. Also as a side note, good read. Free agents flock to Toronto? It goes further than free agents though. With the last guard of the old pre S30 stars leaving the league and with slowly but surely the Legions core of forwards gaining more TPE you already have some underrated star power on the team.

Don't worry Kesler, we give him shit every time he picks you....it just means we give Jericho shit every single time. It isn't even to defend you either, because your an illiterate child who has self confidence issues. It's more because Jericho is barely above your level at times and he's like 8 years your senior. But what you can do? I've asked myself this about Jericho several times...can't live with him can't live without him. In one instance he shows flashes of a mature competent adult and in others he goes Tom Petty all over a young boy. But if you look at the picture Boom posted, how can you not love that face?

Tough to argue with this. Why do you think I went out and got some of the most well respected members after you drafted Boom? Green and Boom on one team may be too much member karma for any other team to handle....

I don't know if I feel good or bad about this. 3-1 Series leads always go to game seven, now maybe we win in six...or maybe Helsinki does..... DAMN YOU KYLE CURSE! Tukio even played like ass and I couldn't pull this one out. The end is near?

Not to mention Neals happened during the actual play. While I still feel like he was intending to hit Marchand, Neal could of made that knee a lot worse. He was sending a message more than he was trying to injure. Thorntons was after the whistle, he came all the from down the ice when one thing in his mind. To me they are completely different cases, both are awful but Thorntons if far worse. Neals is a player trying to get away with a cheap shot during the game. Thornton pretty much borderlines on assault tbh.

I mean Thornton will get a long one...but watch the Neal knee. It was intentional. He had tons of time to react and looks down at Marchand before making contact. He didn't thrash his knee into him with all his might...but he knew exactly what he was doing. Even if it was just a light knee to the head on a player he disliked, that is still an intentional cheap shot in a very dangerous position.

Thought about that but don't like it. Because it doesn't take into account draft lottery and value of a player. In this draft if the choice was between forfeiting first overall for Rift or taking STZ, I'd take STZ. Rift isn't worth first overall.....

That simply doesn't work. GM's have to have their own players. Let's say a GM selects me and I'm another GM for their team. I instantly need to draw a line in the sand between whether I want my team to be good or the team I was drafted to be good. It creates an immediate conflict of interest in regards to wanting to build a successful team. Now in my case I'd still draft a solid team since that is the spirit of competition. But it would be really easy not to, and then the parity is ruined. While certain teams were at a disadvantage this time around and I do think we need could look into solutions for next time, they hardly are at severe disadvantages. Looking at every roster right now there are some good teams and some solid teams but I don't see an awful team. Every team will have strengths and weaknesses and thus far does. But brainstorming for a solution for next time is certainly in order. Limiting GM selection to only players roughly around the same TPE could be possible but then your relying on luck of the draw in regards to applicants. To kind of expand on Mikes idea, you could give GM's with their own player under a certain TPE amount an extra pick in the first round? So an example would be, in the current format both Sball and +Minus were the only GM's with any real disadvantage. While things like drafting a goalie plagued the Squinty/Edgar they still both have high TPE D men, some of the best in the league currently. So in this instance both Sball and +Minus would of been given an extra first round pick at the end of the first round. Can randomize it to determine who picks where but then they both get the option to add a little more star power to their team. But it sitll keeps the integrity of the lottery and the suspense of who goes first overall in tact without GM players actually needing to be drafted, which I think is silly.

It makes sense though to have GM's get their players. It's why we do the same in the VHL and with the World Cup. But a solution in the future could be to change the percentage of the lottery based on what GM's have lower/higher TPE for their players. So the players with the biggest disadvantage in terms of TPE would get an increased opportunity to win the lottery, ergo getting earlier star power players to make up for it.

I'm a Caps fan so I hardly mean to leave out what Neal did. He is just as fault for an intentional knee to the head and I completely agree that it is being given less attention than the Thornton incident. The big issue I have with the Neal knee and there have been several other situations like this when Steckel collided with Crosby at the Winter Classic years ago...players being able to throw in this dirty plays but doing so under the convenience of the situation to help plead their innocence. Neal didn't just forget to move his knee out of the way, he had tons of time...he targeted the head. At the end of the day concussions and violence just continue to raise to an all time high right now in the league. We had an injury on a clean hit although arguably interference and likely two suspensions from one game. Then last night Phanuef boards Dougie Hamilton and could get suspended. Couldn't even go a whole day without more incidents tbh. I just think the league needs to take a much better stance on some of this stuff. I don't even mean just suspensions and more fierce. Clarity needs to be drawn on when and how fighting is accepted in the game, and what type of fighting, such as sticking up for your teammates and where that line is. Punishment should be more severe in terms of suspensions not just because someone is a repeat offender but due to the danger of the situation. If someone delivers a late interference hit when the other player had his head down the danger, while still apparent is much less than something like what Neal did. Repeat offender or not Neal should get 10+ games for what he did. That situation if repeated could result in severe injury a good 60-75 percent of the time. Needs to be treated as unacceptable. Coaches should be grilling and getting mad at their players for this kind of stuff to. Fines on teams regarding cap space and what they are allowed to do should be put in place if stuff like this happens on repeated teams. Let the punishment go across the board so teams grill their players about this stuff.

Yeah when I was doing research later as I was drafting more I found you were active. But the gauge for that on a first glance basis is who you see posting around the boards and the last time for me personally that I checked over player TPE's on each team to get a gauge for how the teams are progressing. Which while I do that probably more often than some, it isn't isn't a weekly thing.

Again though, that doesn't mean Orpik ever HAS to fight. I'm fine with them delivering clean hard hits on him, and egging him on to fight in scrums. Even if he doesn't fight that is them at least manning up. It is when you cross the line like Thornton that safety actually comes into play. Again, not that hard for someone to get knocked out and then crack their head open on the ice. You've seen it tons of times too, where teams that regardless of hits on their star players play roles that agitate teams to get them off their game. The Bruins are a classic case of this. They did that to the Canucks during the playoffs and hell they even got away with a lot in terms of penalties. That combined with the play of Thomas won them a Cup. Yet if you refuse to engage like Orpik does for an entire team, you then in term frustrate them. Then they can't goon to get your players off the ice and they have to out work and out play you in the game. Fighting in that sense is fine. It's a cat and mouse game of mixing and combined strategies as well as emotions. But regardless of it all, it has to be about the spirit of the game. Not about "sending" a message that leaves players in the hospital or worse. Because at the end of the night, when the whistle blows the game ends and these men are human beings most of them with wives and children to go home to. Full contact sport with intensity and injures due to that intensity is fine. But that line needs to be drawn and not just by some phantom "code" that isn't on paper. The league needs to draw it. If it were up to me...if I ran the NHL, I'd take it out of my own hands. You cross the line like Thornton did? Fine, deal with the police. You attempted to get a player in the context of a hockey game to fight you and he refused. Happens at a bar all the time, dudes get in each others faces and if one backs down...he backs down. But if you sucker punch him after he backs down and attack him? That is assault. So if I was the NHL in any more cases like this I"d let it be criminal charges. Suspend them until they are done dealing with the legal problems, so not only do they lose pay but they will also end up paying for it and damaging their real world reputation. Will make every single player think twice about attacking other players, which is exactly what Thornton did.

Or like even Don Cherry who is a huge proponent on fighting in the league stated, you wait and dish it back out on the scoreboard and on the hits sheet. If an opposing team injures one of your players and they refuse to fight, you are not supposed to take matters into your own hand and send them to the hospital or worse. People don't realize this but someones life could be at risk when you do that. You know how easy it would be for someone to turn around and sucker punch a player and that player fall on the ice and crack their head open on the ice? Safety is paramount in that regard. At the end of the day Thornton should of started delivering big clean physical checks on the Pens stars...hell have your whole team start targeting Orpik with clean hits. At a certain point Orpik will get frustrated and throw the gloves...then you get your fight...

Jakobe Hunter too actually, although he also doesn't play on any lines. #BlameJardy Not my job to set who is on what roster. I set the lines accordingly to who is supposed to be on our team. Be kind of hilarious if we were to win then get disqualified though...just because of Kyle curse and everything.

He's a CPU that Jardy left on our roster. Check out our lines...he plays on none of them. So no worries from us. Not my fault Tukio can't stop a CPU!

Tough one to lose, one goal game we could of had.

#Hardballers4life

Like a boss. We may have lost but the message was sent...intimidated them for the Game 7 win!

I have faith that you will still win a Cup, whether it is with Toronto or not. I still always say during my Pajodcasts that while Rift, Tukio, Remy are the top three goalies that I think you are the best goalie. You constantly lead the league in goalie stats at more points during the seasons and should of won MVP last year had you guys made the playoffs. I didn't steal top stats for goalie away from you this year, the sim did. Nothing more than that imo. While I may win a Shaw for it, you are easily far more consistent overall than Tukio and I. The way I have seen it thus far, Rift is usually average in the regular season and has periods of playing good and bad. Tukio is generally excellent during the regular season. Tukio struggles more in the playoffs than Rift does, as Rift usually can bring up his play in the post season. You generally play far more consistent all the time than either of us. I mean with goalies...sadly, it all comes down to sim luck. Once you reach over a certain TPE...it's really all up to the sim. I mean Rift had more defensive support last season on Quebec in the playoffs but couldn't make the finals. Yet he has less this season and now look? Team around you is great, but...really all up to the sim.