Harbingers

After seeing their season-long, eight-game winning streak snapped in Detroit, the Carolina Hurricanes return home to begin a new winning streak and open a four-game series against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Match-Up Columbus Blue Jackets (11-12-7, 29 points) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (20-7-1, 41 points) Thursday, March 18, 7 p.m. Watch: FOX Sports Carolinas, FOX Sports GO Listen: 99.9 FM The Fan, Hurricanes.com/Listen, Hurricanes app The Opposition Last five games: 1-2-2, 4 points On the road: 4-7-2, 10 points CAR vs. CBJ: 2-1-0 Leading scorer: Oliver Bjorkstrand, 23 points (10g, 13a) in 30 games After securing four of a possible eight points (1-1-2) in a four-game homestand, the Blue Jackets enjoyed a three-day gap in between Sunday's finale and Thursday's game in Raleigh. John Tortorella's team is a middling 11-12-7 on the season and 3-5-2 in the last 10 games. Patrik Laine has recorded seven goals and 12 points in 20 games since being acquired by Columbus earlier in the season. https://www.nhl.com/hurricanes/news/projected-lineup-columbus-blue-jackets-carolina-hurricanes/c-322642816 Forwards Niederreiter-Aho-Necas Svechnikov-Staal-Fast McGinn-Martinook-Foegele Paquette-Geekie-Lorentz Defensemen Slavin-Hamilton Skjei-Pesce Fleury-Bean Goalies Nedeljkovic Reimer Injuries: Mrazek (right thumb), Teravainen (concussion symptoms; injured reserve), Trocheck (upper body) Taxi squad: Gardiner, Keane, McCormick, Warm Ned gets the start, no Tro though. Only update i've seen on our injured crew.

Oh boy.

Makes no sense unless he doesn’t think the NFL will commissioners list him. Which is a really bad look for them no matter the reality of the accusations.

It does beg the question why now? Why not wait until post trade when you already got the assets if you wanted to drag Watson through the mud.

Because the conduct from that situation doesn’t rise to criminal levels. That said the attorney isn’t the one to bring criminal charges that would be the DA and the story breaking publicly could potential be the first the DA heard of it.

If the one does actually have legit Non-fabricated text(the court can verify them as legit pretty easily) they claim she does its way passed a her word vs. his.

He’s not going to be off the exempt list by opening week without proof McNair was behind this and even then the NFL is going to be in a even worse poo. This is going to take time in courts unless it’s thrown out on standing. The NFL won’t make a move until the courts resolve it.

We know the NFLs track record on using the exempt list. It’s not hard to figure out he’s still going to be on that list come draft day.

The NFL is not going to move that quickly especially against one of their owners.

It doesn’t matter if Watson is innocent or guilty though dude. The process is started and will not be resolved pre-draft or likely this season at all. Personally I think this does scream hit job by a fake ass lawyer and the Texans owner from what we know now. The forced BJ is not a good look though if they can prove Watson was in contact with these women. But that doesn’t matter. He’s going on the list no matter the actual situation. Thus he’s simply not going to be in play. The only way he could conceivably play this season is if his legal team can show irrefutable proof McNair is behind this and that sure as hell won’t be vetted and resolved before the draft. Thats just the simple fact of the matter. It’s time to start looking elsewhere for this year.

He’s going to end up on the commissioners list. End of story. Nobody is going to touch him after that until he is either proved innocent or guilty. It is mind boggling that anyone could entertain the thought of a team trading for him and him playing this year even if someone did.

It’s better for Houston to sit back and let the NFL exempt him and the then cut him. That way they are off the hook for the cap and dead money. So that’s the first thing that’s going to happen.

Do you honestly think anyone would trade for him now though?

Hate to say it but what trade? There is enough in the new allegations to land him on the commissioners list. Nobody’s going to go after him now even if they wanted to.

He doesn’t decide to bring criminal charges though, the authorities and accusers do.

Whats his value now with allegations and possible exempt list & suspension?

You forget this is the nfl.

The fact the lawyer claimed it wasn't about money and made it about himself instead of the accuser are huge red flags already. What else would the accuser want if they were taking it to civil court if not for $$$? To make Watson look like a perv?

He's already headed for the exempt list, you can be sure of that.

Public opinion > inside connection opinions.

To be fair so were the Patriots but we haven't discussed that around here much have we.

It makes no sense why they would smear the QB they are trying to keep around, unless they are trying to get him on the exempt list for cap space and as a "Punishment". But I don't see much merit in this claim so far. Especially since it apparently is not docketed in court.

I assume it's already been answered but who the fug is Tony Buzzbee?

In case your starter decides to hold out during the season.

Yep. Only Aho really skated the “60 minutes” out there I feel like. We were getting shot hungry and over played it a bit too, letting Detroit get behind us way too much. I mean at one point Jake Bean was 1v4(or 5 don’t remember exactly) we are damn lucky that didn’t turn into a goal for them. I do feel like Rod should have played Ned there but he does what he does with the goalies and that's just something we have to live with, maybe he'll go back to the hot hand goalie. Reimer was not dialed in last night. Svech is starting to worry me a bit, more so for his sanity. He's getting shut down from his side and picked on by the refs a lot. He needs a confidence boost game soon. I kinda think we should put him up with Aho for a bit once Tro is back. I don't think it would hurt any of our other lines in reality since they all are pretty damn good and McGinn would do fine with Staal. Also Staal was slow as fug out there last night, don't know if he's feeling a residual injury affect or what but he looked like a tank out there compared to most of the skaters. In the end they came out ready. We weren't even close.