Anybodyhome

Not happy at all with the new seat selection process. Logged on at my assigned time via a link provided by the Canes Ticketmaster partner. The seat choices were slim and sparse and, given we already paid the seat fees a few months back, we're obligated to pick seats. Granted, the idea we can now select seats that remain consistent for each game is great. But the fact is we've already paid a few thousand dollars only to find seats we don't really like, but with little else to choose from. We'll get thru the season and enjoy each game we have tickets for and maybe go back to just buying tickets on the open market for the games we want to attend. We'll see.

And most all chain restaurants are franchise operations. The corporate entity behind the franchises dictate the food suppliers, so that part of the equation is a constant. So, if you have 2 franchises across town from each other getting their food supplies from US Foods, SYSCO or whomever, and their served product quality is vastly different, it's the people running and managing the operation who are the difference.

Doesn't anybody have jobs these days? Or are people actually taking vacations to go to training camp?

Until Svech comes back, I could see Noesen moving into his spot and Lemieux alongside Drury and Jarvis. Slavin - Burns Orlov - ? Skjei - Chatfield Pesce, DeAngelo, Coghlan are all RDs, so..... If Pesce gets moved, I could see Chatty moving to the second pair with Orlov, and TDA getting paired with Skjei. Regardless, I think the guy who gets screwed in the end is Brady Skjei. He either drops to the 3rd pair and/or he gets paired with TDA and has to pick up the slack. And he's in a contract year. I watched the playoffs again the other day when the NHL Network showed the 90 minute versions of the NY Islanders series, and Brady Skjei had a very good post season. He didn't make many mistakes and you never saw him get caught out of position. He's a solid second pair d-man and I think the Canes need to lock him up for another 3-4 years. He's got a NTC in his contract as well.

Yeah, this is a nightmare unless Waddell has something up his sleeve.

What's up on the Pesce front? Looks to me like he's playing out his contract and will likely walk as a FA. Canes hoping the cap gets a boost next year so they can extend a couple contracts and again go hunting for a scoring forward. Not to mention filling the blue line holes left by Pesce, Burns, TDA and isn't Skjei's contract up soon, too?

Trading Pesce is for the purpose of bringing on a winger since it appears an extension is not in the cards and he's a UFA after the season.. Orlov is on the roster. TDA is not Pesce's replacement.

Beginning to sound like the Timo Meier thing from last season.....

All of this is well and good, but I'd rather Karlsson sign with Pittsburgh. The Pens are getting older by the minute, are cap-strapped and on the downward side of their peak. Pittsburgh signing EK would allow the Canes to do what they haven't done while all this plays out- sign TDA, trade Pesce, sign a winger and get the Aho extension (and maybe another player like Chatty, Skjei or Necas) done.

They are franchises. That should tell you everything. The quality of food is directly related to the quality of the employee, which is directly related to their pay and how they are treated by management.

On a good night, maybe. Slavin and Burns are so good together and you know what kind of minutes those 2 put up, I'd be surprised if the defensive liability of Karlsson allows him to play more than 16 a game. And then, how do you justify that AAV for less than 20 minutes per game? Simple answer: you don't and can't.

"Garbage teams trade for Haula, and they go to the playoffs." Or, good teams trade for Haula and they end up out of the playoffs early.

Kempe I named back toward the end of June as a possible fit. As well as Troy Terry and Tomas Tatar.

The leafs added Tyler Bertuzzi, Ryan Reaves and Max Domi so far this off season. This adds a physical dimension to a team that was similar to Carolina in that there wasn't the gritty guy to protect Aho. The Leafs had no one to get nasty while protecting Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. Granted, the Leafs are now in salary cap hell and need to dump $8M (LTIRs not included; $3.2M with LTIR). Is Nylander (as yet unsigned for the 2024-2025 season and carrying a $7M cap hit) available? He might be.

He officially cleared waivers yesterday afternoon and the Philadelphia buyout was completed, making him a UFA. Philly went to social media and took their parting shots. Was kind of petty with Philly- almost sounded like someone gave Torts the pen to write the team's social media post.

I've long been off the EK deal. I don't think it's necessary, I don't think it improves the team from either a salary cap position or a playoff hockey contender position.

Does nobody remember Oscar Madison and Felix Unger from The Odd Couple?

TDA officially cleared waivers and is now a free agent. Now we find out if the Canes were just playing chicken or.. My thoughts (again): go ahead and sign him on the cheap, find a forward and use some of the remaining cap to extend Aho and ?

Any dosing recommendations based on weight? I'd prefer a more organic or holistic approach and I may give this a try.

Lots of thunder starting very early this morning, around 3 or so. Not much sleep and Master of Disaster went nuts, barking and crying. Wife actually got up and sat with him and held him for a while. Seems like he's getting more reactive the older he gets...

Absolutely. With one over-worked skimmer, it's allowing dirty water in the pool longer, which just exponentially exacerbates the issue, which is why you're having to stay on top of it. Adding a second skimmer will get the crap out quicker, allowing it less time to make things worse. I might also recommend one of the cordless vacuums that cruises the pool, too.

Except that Drury has already asked to be traded. Unless RBA and Waddell have had a sit-down with him and brought him around, he's not playing to his max effort if he doesn't want to be here.

Better yet, trade Pesce and Drury for the best wing you can find and get a couple extensions done to relieve the pressure on next year's cap.

I'm not sure about that one. I haven't done the math, but I don't thing the cap space isn't there, even with 35% being retained. A Pesce trade would have to get done or be involved as part of a 3-team deal. The Canes only have $2.5M to spend without a Pesce trade. And, I'll admit, I'm still believing a winger is the better move here, not another right-handed defenseman.