Rich

Man does Saskatchewan's OLine get away with a tonne of holding.

Don't usually pay attention to advertising, been conditioned to just tune out. Don't remember ever hearing it on TV or radio.

Why sigh? If people don't know, they don't know. I had no idea what it meant either.

Any idea what his current contract term is? I know he was signed to a contract last off season when we traded for him, but no idea what the term was. I assume it was at least 2 years and that he is under contract for next year.

I'm not even sure I can make the GC at this moment in time even if the Bombers are in it. But I do know that I can easily sell them for face value if I cant make it so I'm not to worried about it. I'm sure you will have no problem selling them, not sure it will be at face value unless Winnipeg or Saskatchewan is in the Grey Cup.

Playoffs are here. 5 games left to reach your Pick 'Em destiny. BC @ Montreal and SK @ Edm So far, the picks favor Montreal (barely) and Edmonton (78% at the time of this message, even with Reilly out). saskbluefan has pulled ahead with a 2 pick lead over kelownabomberfan who is 1 pick ahead of Jesse W. James. Be sure to get your picks in here before game time on Sunday: http://morningbigblue.com/community/index.php?app=pickems&do=games&pid=5&wid=68

On the fence for the Grey Cup. The 3 year commitment is no big deal, would be renewing my seats regardless. If there is a chance that the Bombers are in the Grey Cup next year (and yes there is a chance), I'd be mighty upset if we didn't buy our seats. Tickets will be at a premium if the impossible happens. On the other hand, with how cold it has been the last couple of days, do I want to watch a Grey Cup in this weather if the Bombers aren't in it? Did that in 2006, it isn't all that fun when you don't have a stake in the game. Highlight of that game was watching BC break the cup.... We will probably end up buying the GC tickets.

You missed the part where I said with enthusiasm. There's showing up to do your job and then there's showing up to do your job with enthusiasm. The difference is fairly obvious when it comes to Kane. Every player has options. In this day and age, you can force a trade quite easily. It may not happen quickly but players control the ability to basically dictate their future however they choose. Kane dictated his by signing a long term deal here. They have a ton to do with playing in Winnipeg. Especially when a player like Kane goes out of his way to make them. To me the reason Kane's attitude has changed has a lot more to do with the vibe inside the locker room than anything else. A coaching change can solve a lot of problems. Come on Mike. Ill repeat myself mostly but here goes: Kane played with "enthusiasm" last year too. And the year before. You stated you believed there was a time when he wanted out, so when was this time that he was playing poorly on purpose? In my job and probably yours, if you perform poorly long enough you get shown the door. Doesnt always work that way in hockey. Also, to imply that a guy busting his ass means he wants to play for Winnipeg also means a player not busting his ass wants out. So Buff wants out? Because he busts his ass about 60% of the time. Or does he only want out on Tuesdays and Thursdays but wants to play for Winnipeg on Mondays and Fridays? A kid who grew up on hockey and gets it will always play hard. Kane is very, very competitive. No one is doubting that. His playing hard has zero to do with his desire for Winnipeg. The only way his on-ice play could possibly be impacted by his desire to play here would be is there was literally a miserable, nasty, stressful, toxic environment here for him. I've never said that. I said he'd prefer to play somewhere else, not that he hates being here. Show me when a hockey player has ever been asked "How do you like your linemates" and he answered negatively. Kane's unique position does not make it easy for him to force a trade "quite easily". He didnt sign a long term contract because his dream is to play in Winnipeg. He signed a long term contract because he had very limited options. He was an RFA who waited until the last possible moment to sign. He received no offer sheets. What was he going to do? Keep in mind, he signed on the eve of a lockout where the players had no idea what the economic landscape would look like in the future. He made the only business decision he could...and he still waited until the last minute. I agree that Maurice has a better relationship with Kane than Noel and the coaching change likely makes playing here a more enjoyable experience for him as opposed to last season when he was openly disrespectful to his coach. But think about this: if Kane was a free agent tomorrow and every team made the exact same contract offer, would he sign with Winnipeg? Would he even consider it? Lets be honest here, if you asked all of the players on the Jets, there would probably be more that would sign elsewhere then in Winnipeg. There are really two deciding factors on where a player signs. Location (and different players look for different things based on their personal life, wife, kids, etc) and a contending team. For the most part, Winnipeg really has neither going for it. I think Maurice has these guys believing in something right now, and for the first time for the people in this organization, I think they see winning as a real possibility. I certainly don't know if Kane wants to stay or go. You can try to read his comments to the media any way you want, but there is no doubt he likes to have fun with the media, and a lot of what he does and says is either on purpose or because he just doesn't care what the media think. Turn this team into a winning environment and I think he wants to stay. Keep it mired in mediocrity like it has been since Atlanta, and where is the carrot to make him stay? If you can combine that with Kane getting older and maturing, I don't think it is automatic that he wants out.

Congratulations to fan4life for winning the fantasy football contest with 1515.58 points and overall ranking of 92. He is the proud recipient of a $50 Bomber Store gift certificate!

Fixed the formatting

If Lulay's not ready to play at full speed & is completely healthy then what's the point? Might as well dress the nobody third stringer. I'd imagine the point is to play games with Montreal. Keep them somewhat guessing on who they have to prepare for.

Curious what your thoughts of what would have been a fair draft?I also have a problem with making an expansion team stronger then the teams they are plucking from. I thought the expansion draft was quite fair. Sure Ottawa sucked this year but they got some good pieces to build with and now get to add with another draft drafting first overall "I also have a problem with making an expansion team stronger then the teams they are plucking from." Why? Why not set up the draft so they have a middle of the pack team and are immediately competitive? Why punish a newbie? Because it punishes a fan base who has supported their team over the long haul. It would be a slap in the face to fans who have invested time and money into their teams only to have it dismantled for the "new" guys. There is usually a honeymoon period with a new expansion team to get over the first few years of losing. And if the fan base can't accept that they don't really deserve to have a new team, because all teams will have to eventually weather those periods. You still didn't answer what you thought would have been a fair draft. "Because it punishes a fan base who has supported their team over the long haul. It would be a slap in the face to fans who have invested time and money into their teams only to have it dismantled for the "new" guys." It punishes no one ... and according to the longsuffering reasoning it asks to subsidize incompetency .... this assumption that you have to "punish" a new team is idiocy and entitlement reasoning No where did I say that a new team should be punished. What I said is that existing teams (and by extension their fan bases who have been supporting them) shouldn't be punished to such a degree, where an expansion team is taking the players that they scouted and invested time and money in developing so that the new team is better then them. You can infer from that that the new team is being punished, but the reasoning behind it is not directly that the new team should be punished. And for the third time, I will ask you again. What would you have considered to be a fair expansion draft. I'd like to know what you thought Ottawa would have deserved to have been gifted to them from every other team in the league. It would have been more fair if held say 2 weeks after free agency ... middle late February It would have been more fair if it was set up to have an average amount of personnel so you are not guaranteed to be last or 2nd last before the season started I might be able to buy your first response. But free agents would have likely just waited 2 weeks to sign. They would have made a deal with the team on a salary and sat on it. A player wants certainty of where they are going to play just as much as a team does. They don't want to be plucked off by an expansion team. So in practice, I don't think that would have mattered much. For your second point, it means nothing to me. It isn't quantitative. It means you want something to happen but you have no idea on what it would have took to make it happen. It also completely disregards other posts in this thread about football being about more then just the individual talents of the players. It is a team game and throwing a bunch of players together who are not familiar with one another with all new schemes is going to take time to gel. So unless you are throwing together a bunch of superstars from every other team, making Ottawa into a powerhouse by removing the best players from every other team, it isn't likely to happen. If the draft looks fair & promising all these under-the-table deals won't happen ... what would that look like? Each team protects 6 Canadians and say 12 imports .... The expansion team picks 2 of each They end up with 16 semi decent import starters and 16 marginal starting Canadians ... it won't be a great team but not awful either ... Canadian depth but no stars to speak of .... with god recruiting they could have a real team in a couple of years Interesting, because here was the rules they were given: 1st Round (Import draft): Teams protect 1 QB and 10 Imports 2nd Round (NI Draft): Teams protect 6 NIs (more if they lost a QB) 3rd Round: Teams protect an additional 6 NIs after they lost an NI in Round 2. So import wise, you actually want to protect more then was done (12 imports vs 11 if you include the QB) And for the NIs, they really weren't that far off, other then getting to protect more NIs after the 2nd round. So is it really the 3rd round that you have an issue with? That they shouldn't have gotten to protect those additional 6? Or is it also the rules about if they lose a QB and / or kicker , they get to protect additional players.

Curious what your thoughts of what would have been a fair draft?I also have a problem with making an expansion team stronger then the teams they are plucking from. I thought the expansion draft was quite fair. Sure Ottawa sucked this year but they got some good pieces to build with and now get to add with another draft drafting first overall "I also have a problem with making an expansion team stronger then the teams they are plucking from." Why? Why not set up the draft so they have a middle of the pack team and are immediately competitive? Why punish a newbie? Because it punishes a fan base who has supported their team over the long haul. It would be a slap in the face to fans who have invested time and money into their teams only to have it dismantled for the "new" guys. There is usually a honeymoon period with a new expansion team to get over the first few years of losing. And if the fan base can't accept that they don't really deserve to have a new team, because all teams will have to eventually weather those periods. You still didn't answer what you thought would have been a fair draft. "Because it punishes a fan base who has supported their team over the long haul. It would be a slap in the face to fans who have invested time and money into their teams only to have it dismantled for the "new" guys." It punishes no one ... and according to the longsuffering reasoning it asks to subsidize incompetency .... this assumption that you have to "punish" a new team is idiocy and entitlement reasoning No where did I say that a new team should be punished. What I said is that existing teams (and by extension their fan bases who have been supporting them) shouldn't be punished to such a degree, where an expansion team is taking the players that they scouted and invested time and money in developing so that the new team is better then them. You can infer from that that the new team is being punished, but the reasoning behind it is not directly that the new team should be punished. And for the third time, I will ask you again. What would you have considered to be a fair expansion draft. I'd like to know what you thought Ottawa would have deserved to have been gifted to them from every other team in the league. It would have been more fair if held say 2 weeks after free agency ... middle late February It would have been more fair if it was set up to have an average amount of personnel so you are not guaranteed to be last or 2nd last before the season started I might be able to buy your first response. But free agents would have likely just waited 2 weeks to sign. They would have made a deal with the team on a salary and sat on it. A player wants certainty of where they are going to play just as much as a team does. They don't want to be plucked off by an expansion team. So in practice, I don't think that would have mattered much. For your second point, it means nothing to me. It isn't quantitative. It means you want something to happen but you have no idea on what it would have took to make it happen. It also completely disregards other posts in this thread about football being about more then just the individual talents of the players. It is a team game and throwing a bunch of players together who are not familiar with one another with all new schemes is going to take time to gel. So unless you are throwing together a bunch of superstars from every other team, making Ottawa into a powerhouse by removing the best players from every other team, it isn't likely to happen.

Curious what your thoughts of what would have been a fair draft?I also have a problem with making an expansion team stronger then the teams they are plucking from. I thought the expansion draft was quite fair. Sure Ottawa sucked this year but they got some good pieces to build with and now get to add with another draft drafting first overall "I also have a problem with making an expansion team stronger then the teams they are plucking from." Why? Why not set up the draft so they have a middle of the pack team and are immediately competitive? Why punish a newbie? Because it punishes a fan base who has supported their team over the long haul. It would be a slap in the face to fans who have invested time and money into their teams only to have it dismantled for the "new" guys. There is usually a honeymoon period with a new expansion team to get over the first few years of losing. And if the fan base can't accept that they don't really deserve to have a new team, because all teams will have to eventually weather those periods. You still didn't answer what you thought would have been a fair draft. "Because it punishes a fan base who has supported their team over the long haul. It would be a slap in the face to fans who have invested time and money into their teams only to have it dismantled for the "new" guys." It punishes no one ... and according to the longsuffering reasoning it asks to subsidize incompetency .... this assumption that you have to "punish" a new team is idiocy and entitlement reasoning No where did I say that a new team should be punished. What I said is that existing teams (and by extension their fan bases who have been supporting them) shouldn't be punished to such a degree, where an expansion team is taking the players that they scouted and invested time and money in developing so that the new team is better then them. You can infer from that that the new team is being punished, but the reasoning behind it is not directly that the new team should be punished. And for the third time, I will ask you again. What would you have considered to be a fair expansion draft. I'd like to know what you thought Ottawa would have deserved to have been gifted to them from every other team in the league.

Curious what your thoughts of what would have been a fair draft?I also have a problem with making an expansion team stronger then the teams they are plucking from. I thought the expansion draft was quite fair. Sure Ottawa sucked this year but they got some good pieces to build with and now get to add with another draft drafting first overall "I also have a problem with making an expansion team stronger then the teams they are plucking from." Why? Why not set up the draft so they have a middle of the pack team and are immediately competitive? Why punish a newbie? Because it punishes a fan base who has supported their team over the long haul. It would be a slap in the face to fans who have invested time and money into their teams only to have it dismantled for the "new" guys. There is usually a honeymoon period with a new expansion team to get over the first few years of losing. And if the fan base can't accept that they don't really deserve to have a new team, because all teams will have to eventually weather those periods. You still didn't answer what you thought would have been a fair draft.

Beware the Buddhist dictum:" Before you set out to seek revenge, dig two graves." No I like the other.... revenge is a dish best served cold. I don't think that is Buddhist. I do believe that is Klingon.

Curious what your thoughts of what would have been a fair draft? I also have a problem with making an expansion team stronger then the teams they are plucking from. I thought the expansion draft was quite fair. Sure Ottawa sucked this year but they got some good pieces to build with and now get to add with another draft drafting first overall

This is a Bomber message board, and it seems to me most of this thread has been valid discussion and questions from some of the Bombers ticket base. A lot of questions I had were shared by many people here. Seems to me that whining about people whining is a little hypocritical .... pot meet kettle.

I know if I had to carry the whole OLine, my back would hurt.

I think Walters is well aware of this based on his comments on H&L yesterday. He basically said a successful long term strategy is to draft 2 OLineman each draft. One early that can compete with the team this year and one later that can develop and come back the following year. Unfortunately you can't magically fix an O-Line over night.

Bringing back Section S is fine. Making any sort of announcement about juvenile bahaviour changes the story to that specific thing and endorses said behaviour. A wiser course of action would have been to simply say they want Section S to be as fun and engaged as it used to be and will not be looking to enforce rules abour harmless behaviour if its just people having a good time. The problem now is, the "beer snake" is now a "thing" and will dominate a lot of coverage at the beginning of next season. If anyone gets hurt or causes a fight as a result, Wade will have to then rescind the policy change. Its just silly. I find it kind of embarrassing. Oh yeah good idea...announce that they are not going to enforce rules for harmless behaviour...great idea....not Missed the point. The point is that saying something that general leaves people wondering "so what is the harmless behaviour that they are not going to enforce?" Theyd find out pretty quick, no? ok you think so? and that is a good way for them to find out? Here is the press release...The Winnipeg Blue Bombers Football Club is pleased to announce that we will NOT be enforcing rules for harmless behavior....if you want to know what those are....wait and see!. Yes in your mind I guess that is the way for them to find out. Not too hard to see you have never made up any rules and figured out a way to enforce them or not. Use your head, use some common sense, use a little logic and maybe stop smoking whatever it is you're smoking. Obviously I didnt mean they should word it that way. There's a way to say hey we want our fans to have fun at our games and we arent going to be nazi's about it. Quite frankly, I wouldnt say anything. I'd handle it internally and move on. Then when some yahoos start a beer snake, they will notice security doesnt puff out their chests. Seems to me you are the one without logic. You didn't like the way they handled the snake announcement, then you say they should announce that they are not going to enforce rules for harmless behavior, I try to show you that you can't say things that way because it means nothing, then you say you don't get the point, but you don't offer your own version of a proper press release, then you say you wouldn't say anything which totally defeats what they are trying to accomplish with the announcement, and now you get downright nasty. Have a nice day! Someone had the cornflakes pissed in I see. If you cant grasp the point, there is no reason to dumb it down for you. You must have quite the high IQ score because I can't really grasp the point either. You suggested the Bombers make an alternate announcement then the one that they did. But you haven't really said what that announcement should be to illustrate how it would have made more sense and been done in a better way.

Final regular season week of the season. Last chance to accumulate wins in the 4 games this week before the final 5 playoff games. 3 correct picks separate the top 4 contestants, so this one is going to come down to the wire. Calgary and Edmonton have first and second place wrapped up in the East, and they play BC and Saskatchewan respectfully. BC and SK are currently tied in the standings. Do they play to win and get the 3rd place playoff game in the West, or do they play to lose and hope for the crossover to be the 3rd place team in the East? Montreal is the only team in the East to have a playoff spot locked up. The 2nd playoff spot will go to either Toronto or Hamilton. Toronto plays Ottawa and Hamilton plays Montreal. Toronto needs to both win their game against Ottawa and have Montreal beat Hamilton to make it into the playoffs. Looks to be an exciting final week to the 2014 season, even if the Bombers aren’t in it. Lots to think about when you make your picks here: http://morningbigblue.com/community/index.php?app=pickems&do=games&pid=5&wid=67

Does 1290 have an archive? If so where? Should be able to get it here http://www.tsn.ca/radio/winnipeg-1290/walters-bombers-have-to-balance-slow-build-with-winning-now-1.126376

For sure he deserved some of the flak he took in the past, but the team as a whole didn't play well defensively. They take some of the blame as well. Having confidence that your defenders will take away rebounds and be in the right positions is huge for a goalie. Right now, it looks like the whole team has bought in, and it is showing dividends. In his last 5 games, Pavs has a .955 save percentage, 1.15 GAA, and 1 shutout. Certainly those numbers are not sustainable over the long term, and will be a big challenge against Pittsburgh. In only one of those games did he let in more then 1 goal. The team needs to start scoring more goals, so that as Pavelec's numbers come back down to reality, we continue to win games. Hopefully he remains steady back there.

Asking about O'Shea and Goossen seem like pretty reasonable questions to me. Even asking Walters to grade himself. I was curious on his answer for that one. We had a 7 - 11 season and missed the playoffs. I would have been very surprised if O'Shea was fired, but that doesn't make it a dumb question. It just validates the assumption. And why not ask the GM to assess the first first round draft pick he has drafted.