Built Ford Tough

Don't tell me you are going to blame the loss on the no call like 30 seconds before the Kulemin goal. Yeah, the puck hit the netting but its not like that directly led to the goal. Montreal cleared the zone and got the puck in the attacking zone after the puck hit the netting and before Toronto scored. I could understand if the Leafs scored right after that play, but blaming that missed call on the goal after the Habs cleared the zone and had possession in the offensive end of the ice is just looking for an excuse if you ask me.

Hopefully Reimer is alright and they took him out as a percaution. He looked shaken up after Gionta hit him so I can't say that I am surprised to see Gustavsson on the ice to start the 2nd. Kessel also sniped his 8th goal of the season and Phaneuf just unleashed his 2nd rocket on Price this season. Both of his goals have been absolute bombs that Price has had no chance of stopping.

Canucks made a pretty big move today acquiring David Booth, Steven Reinprecht and a 3rd round pick from the Florida Panthers for Mikael Samuelsson and Marco Sturm. If Booth is able to stay healthy and shake off past injury problems, this is a pretty solid move for the Canucks. Booth has had a 60 point season and a couple of 40 point seasons in his career so far. He is probably one of the more talented players that will have played on Kesler's wing. Samuelsson has done nothing for Vancouver for a while now and Sturm was a terrible signing from the get go, and was brutal for the 'Nucks.

I expected a loss last night, but I didn't think they would get completely dominated like that. The worst thing about last night is that Gustavsson is probably going to get a bunch of criticism for allowing 6 goals, but to be perfectly honest, he was the only reason why the Bruins didn't score double digits last night. Sure he let in a weak goal or two (the first goal comes to mind), but he also held the Leafs in the game and allowed them to potentially get back into the game in the 2nd, assuming they buried their chances (Grabo breakaway, Frattin hitting the post and Kadri hitting the post). He really didn't play all that poorly last night. He just got absolutely no help from the rest of the team. Wilson really needs to stop with all of the Steckel love, though. I get that he has been great for the Leafs, but the guy is a faceoff specialist and a 3rd or 4th liner. There is no reason for him to be getting a regular shift on the Kessel line and there sure as hell is no reason for him to be one of the Leafs forward leaders in ice time. He had his worst game as a Leaf by far last night, and I don't think it is a coincidence that it came when Wilson played him way out of his element.

http://www.nbadraft.net//draft-preview-top-power-forwards Rest of the top 10 is: 4. Perry Jones 5. Mitch McGary 6. Trevor Mbakwe 7. John Henson 8. Patric Young 9. Thomas Robinson 10. Patric Young I know nbadraft.net isn't exactly the crown jewel of draft sites, but I figured I'd post anyways. Thoughts on their list of the best power forwards? Obviously things are going to change during the course of the season.

The only interest I have in this series is praying that La Russa doesn't win a world series. Other than that, I couldn't care less.

What do you guys think Johnson can become for the Raptors? I know he is technically entering his 3rd season in the NBA, whenever the NBA picks up play, but you can argue that he is less experienced than many players coming off of their rookie seasons as he never really had a consistent role with a team until he joined the Raptors. With the Raptors last year he averaged 9 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 1 block a game on 46% shooting and he is still only 23 years old. What do you think he can become for the Raptors? Is he a piece worth keeping and adding to the developing core of DeRozan, Davis and Valanciunas? Or is he dstined to become another failed reclamation project of Bryan Colangelo's, following in the footsteps of Marco Belinelli, Marcus Banks, Antonie Wright and Will Solomon? Perhaps he fails in the middle and develops a niche as an energy guy off of the bench?

I think some of the blame should be on Martin. He simply can't make in game adjustments and no matter what happens during the game, he always has his teams play the same way. Obviously not all of the blame should be put on him since they are injured, they aren't the most talented team around and Price hasn't played all that well, but he definitely deservses a fair amount of blame. I also agree with you about losing Boucher and Muller. Boucher is already a superior coach than Martin (in my mind, at least) and I think Muller could definitely become a great coach as well. Martin isn't bad, but I've never thought of him as more than average.

One last thing before I call it a night. My username and member title are completely stupid now.

That isn't his fault, though. The problem should lie with the people who supposedly put him on ignore, only to read and respond to every one of his posts. If they truly wanted to ignore him, they wouldn't respond. It really is as simple as that. I had Poe on my ignore list for a good 3 months and there wasn't a single post of his I responded to during that time. It really isn't that difficult to ignore somebody, if you really wanted to. I also don't recall him ever saying that he was putting guys like Universe, illwill, iBoldin, etc... on his ignore list, but I don't know for sure if he did. I'm not trying to change your mind or anything. There is a reason you are an admin here and clearly you know what you are doing as one, just like Brandon knows what he is doing as an owner and guys like Smitty and ABL know what they are doing as moderators. I'm just putting my input out there as I don't feel like it was really justifiable for him to be banned and not guys who do basically the exact same things that he did. It really doesn't bother me because when I wake up tomorrow I will likely log onto OTR just like I do most days. Him not being here will not change my view of the forum. I just don't feel that he really warranted a ban based on his actions, especially when you consider that there are other posters who act the same way as he does quite often.

Exactly. Neither of these two are any better than ECN. 90% of the time they don't even discuss anything or contribute to the thread they are posting in. That isn't even a bad thing as they use the forum to relax and have a good time while others use it as a more serious medium for discussing sports. Neither one of these stances are any better than the other and you need a mix of both to have a successful forum. Say what you want about ECN, but when people would actually just talk sports with him and not get caught up in all of the extra bullshit, he was an excellent poster. I've gotten into it with him on more than one occasion, but the only time it ever got off topic was probably during the Stanley Cup Final thread last year, but that didn't stop us from rationally discussing the rest of the series and continue discussing hockey this season without any problems. People just take things too seriously at times and get wrapped up in all of the bullshit, which gets carried over into other threads and continues to snowball to the point where no matter what he says, somebody jumps in to bait him. I'm not claiming he is an angel because he can definitely be an antagonistic prick, but plenty of people are just as guilty of "trolling" him as he is of "trolling" them.

Honestly, I think they still get to the Finals but end up losing to the Heat as LeBron and Wade (and even Bosh) would've gotten too many easy baskets without him providing the help for the perimeter guys or just him not being there to guard Bosh. They definitely still get past Portland and LA (especially LA as they looked completely outmatched in that series) at the very least. Maybe OKC knocks them off, but I still think that the Mavs without Chandler could've taken that series based on the way Dirk played and the fact that the Thunder's inexperience hurt them as much as anything in that series, and taking Chandler away doesn't make their lack of execution down the stretch any better. They don't win the NBA Championship without Chandler, but I think it is very reasonable to think that they still could've made it to the NBA Finals.

I'm not saying that they are terrible and are going to be in the "Fail for Nail" group with Ottawa, who are clearly the worst team in the league and Winnipeg, but they aren't a very good team. I realize they have been hit hard by injuries missing the likes of Cammy and Markov (then again, is anybody surprised?) but they aren't a very talented team. They lack offensive talent, their defense is below average and unless Price starts picking it up and plays like he did last year, they are going to be hard pressed to make the playoffs. Him calling them a terrible team and saying that they are going to end up with Yakupov was stretching it, but this team is a borderline playoff team if Price doesn't play like a top 5 goalie.

I do. In fact, he is (was, I guess) one of my favourite posters to discuss with on here. People just take him way too seriously.

Per Woj: I like this a lt. $5M still enables you to get a decent starter or a nice bench player, but allowing teams to shell out a 5 year contract every 2 years was a bit too much, Reducing it to 3 years while still keeping it at $5M is a very nice compromise if you ask me. Both sides come out of this (assuming it becomes official) very well if you ask me.

I don't think it would be much different. Amare would've played better than the 14.5/8 on sub 40% shooting, obviously, but he still doesn't dominate or anything as Garnett is too good of a defender for that to happen. Maybe he puts up around 20/8 on 45-48% shooting or something instead. It would help, and probably get them a win in the series. A healthy Billups helps as well, but Rondo would tear him apart as he simply isn't fast enough to keep Rondo in front of him. Best case scenario it goes 6 but the realistic one is the Celtics win in 5.

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/10/20/report-details-of-proposed-amnesty-clause-leaked/ I like it, but there absolutely must be a rule where you can't amnesty somebody and then turn around and sign them a month later or something. They shouldn't be able to re-sign any player that they amnesty for something like a full calender year. I'd rather a bit more than 25% of the deal count against the cap as well so that there is a bit more punishment for using the clause on a player, but I can get on board with that with no problems.

I honestly can't get a read on the guy sometimes, which is absurd since he is entering his 6th season. When he is playing for Italy during the summer, he shows plenty of emotion, passion, etc... and even has moments where he dominates not with his perimeter shooting, but by doing damage 10 feet and in. Then he comes to Toronto and has moments where he shows the same type of fire as he does with Italy, but then he has extended stretches of time where he becomes the passive, emotionless robot that most fans know him as. To be perfectly honest, I think he needs a change of scenery. Call me naive, but I still think he can be a pretty good player for a contender, but it is clear that no matter what he does in Toronto, he has lost the support and trust of the fans. Moving him to a team with great veteran presence like the Mavs would do wonders for his game in my opinion. Of course, learning the ropes from Dirk wouldn't hurt either. I'm just hoping that Casey can get through to him and make him more of a complete player like he did with Dirk, but I'm not holding my breath.

Not even close. I don't even know if I would consider him a legitimate 4th option. He is best suited to spot up shooting, finishing on the break and playing defense. When he is forced to create any offense for himself he is as inefficient as they come. If a guy has a TS% of 48.75% over the past two seasons when he was relied upon to be a 3rd option, he clearly isn't fit for that role.

The thing that gets me is supposedly the Cavs weren't interested in Val because of having to wait a year or two for him to come over (originally he was expected to stay in Lithuania for another 2-3 years, but Colangelo got it down to just 1). However, Gilbert is one of the major owners pushing for the lockout and is completely fine with missing the entire season, from what I gather. So if Gilbert is fine with missing the entire season, why were the Cavs supposedly not interested in him because he wouldn't come over right away? It makes absolutely no sense to me, unless they actually thought that Thompson was the better prospect, which I find very hard to believe.

Stop ruining my euphoria with completely rational and justifiable logic! Seriously though, I agree. He always has hot starts but I'm hoping this is different. He just looks like a different player and if you go back to last season, he has been a ppg player for the last 40 or so games.

Am I worthy?

I want to have Kessel's babies. Another 3 point night for him to put him at 12 for the season. Oh yeah, an awesome pass from Phaneuf to set him up there. Two PP goals in about 30 seconds for the Leafs. I did not see that coming at all.

And Kessel and Lupul combine for yet another goal. Seriously, can somebody help these two? Please?

Read more: http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/216100/Progress_Made_On_BRI_Split_Moving_Closer_To_50_50#ixzz1bHVext12 Still doesn't seem like a deal is very close, but any sort of progress could be considered good news based on the past meetings between the two groups. I actually think that there might be a season this year, albeit a 50 game one, but that is still more than I could say a week ago where I was sure no season would happen.