Daniel Janser

I bet he has 27 dresses

don't come easy to me... thanks for having that song now rent free in my head. Also this article reminds me somehow of @jRuutu essay about art some time ago...

@Ahma

Did I read 'FA'?

Anyone else hearing The Animals in their heads?

you certainly are not...

Well I guess my build grade gets docked because I decided to go pass-first, stay-at-home with CGY. At least I know I am not leaving too many TPE on the table with my build.

Who you gonna call?

It was a late saturday morning in December when Eilidh, Callum's raven-haired cousin would ask the latter to take her to the Central Park to teach her skating. The Swiss giant replied: 'Yeah, we can do that.' So they took the B-line of the New York subway from Grand Street to 7th Avenue and walked the rest. The Americans' Captain took his own skates and lent the pale-blue eyed Scot a pair of his old ones who fit her. During the ride Callum had to give the odd autograph and take as many selfies with die-hard New York fans. Luckily, the ride only took ten minutes and people wished him luck for the rest of the season. When they arrived at the open-air rink at Central Park and got ready to skate, Janser said to his roomie: 'You know, that reminds me of my childhood years in Calgary, when Dad and I went for a spin. There were outdoor rinks literally everywhere. He could not go anywhere, without being dragged into a conversation about the Wranglers. Especially after the legendary cup run prior to my birth. You ready?'. 'Ready as I'd ever be.' Callum remembered the lessons he got from his dad and his uncle back when he was a boy. He tried to emulate same, as both his mentors were very patient and always told him after a fall: 'Why do we fall, Cal?' to which his reply was always: 'So we can learn to pick ourselves up.' Eilidh fell a few dozen times, put the hulking defender gently helped her up again and she learned to skate pretty quickly. After a tiring session on rink, they went to CGY's favourite Italian to regain strength.

The Emperor protects

As a former VHLM GM's in the 80s, I get your valid complaint. Pitching to waivers was at the time really a grind, as you wanted to be the first one to pitch, for reasons already mentioned by others. I would like to add a little twist to it as well. If not the first pitch was taken, a good graphic often helped. Luckily, back then, @Ricer13 was so kind to make one for my waiver pitches, and I am sure it got me the odd player I would not have gotten otherwise. Now it is more of a level playing field and GM's cannot exaggerate the roster situation to newcomers as much as back then (and I do not mean that it was done maliciously, some teams had no picks and almost no players in the roster, they had to sugarcoat their situation without outright lying in order to attract players). Also now you are given a 'pitch' for all the teams in the league and can make a decently informed decision what team you want to join. Back then maybe five teams were pitching, because competing teams with a roster of recreates would not like to 'water down' the TPE average by signing a first gen who would 'steal' time from the maxed players. If I remember correctly, a rule was then implemented/in place that all teams had to pitch if they did not have a 'full roster' (I believe it was two lines and a netminder, but do not quote me on that). As you can imagine, such a rule is a b**ch to enforce and put unnecessary strain on GM's and Commishes alike (I for example come from the Central European time zone and it was not always possible to be on top of all the NA new-arrivals). So, yeah I feel the nostalgia and do not disagree with you. I still think the current solution is more balanced and sustainable than what we had before.

Obviously a matter close to your heart

Is this an intervention?

As the saying goes: 'Close only counts in Horseshoes and Handgrenades'