Rich

The True North involvement is interesting speculation. My initial reaction was ... I'd have no problems if True North was somehow involved in the project if only to mitigate some of the risk to the club, I don't know how much of an initial cash outlay is required to setup a league like this, but if TN were involved as a minority owner to help with that initial buy in cost, it would help mitigate the financial risk to the club. But then I was really thinking about it, other then investment money, what else would True North contribute that the Bombers don't already do? The Bombers already have their own marketing and ticket sales departments. Seems to be more synergies packaging Bomber tickets with Soccer tickets. Like buy season tickets to both and if you buy a parking pass to the Bombers, get your parking pass to soccer free. Bombers already have and own the arrangements with the food vendors.

I don't think it is yet confirmed True North will own it. And if you look at the first post, the story broke by Ed Tait on the Bomber site 2 days ago. So hardly a stretch to go into the Bomber forum.

Had an interesting discussion with a surgeon a few weeks back. Gave some insights on how the Canadian medical system works. His speciality is fixing things like broken bones. The Canadian system is setup vastly different than the American system. Waiting times are purposefully built into the Canadian system. When everything is funded by the tax payer, the goal is to maximise the use of operating rooms and diagnostic equipment. Having down time is in essence a waste of money to have that equipment or room sitting there and waiting to be used. It is setup to always be busy, always being used. The American system is really more "service" based, catering to patients more as customers. They charge much more for what they do, and part of that cost is to have the operating room or equipment have idle time so it is available sooner when they need it. So if you are willing or able to pay for it, you can get serviced much quicker. His pay is also based on the procedure, not time spent doing it. While the nurses and other members of his surgical team are paid hourly. So it is really the surgeons that "crack the whip" to keep things moving along. If a procedure is supposed to take 2 hours, it is in his best interest to make sure as best he can to get it done in 2 hours. Again, his opinion is that this is by design to keep things moving at an accepted pace. When you think about the money we already spend on healthcare, the way the Canadian system is setup, actually made a lot of sense to me. You can probably argue that in some cases, wait time are too long, but you really don't want people and rooms sitting idle waiting to be used.

I've read the book it was based on, so looking forward to finding a way to get my hands on the series.

Want to post in this thread so it doesn't get buried. There is a bug with chat right now where it is causing errors for new member registrations, so I've been disabling the chat when not in use. If you ever want to use the chat or I forget to enable it for an event, a PM is probably the fastest way to get my attention to turn it back on.

Interesting read on Ekakitie from Ed Tait. http://www.bluebombers.com/2017/05/07/faith-ekakitie-honoured-bomber/

Click on Babble in the top menu.

There is a weird bug with chat right now where it is giving errors for people trying to sign up as new Members. Until that gets fixed, I've been disabling it until it needs to be used. So if I ever forget, give me a shout to enable it.

Can't believe Crosby is playing tonight. This one game is not worth the risk.

This was always the range Darling was going to get. Term might be a bit long Similar to what Talbot got in Edmonton. Talbot was similar as an unproven starter who had shown well as a backup with the Rangers prior to signing in Edmonton.

So because Laine looks up to Ovechkin, he is going to be exactly like him? Let him be his own player. Watching what happens to a player that is his idol may make him want to do things a little different.

I'm not trying to justify a 7 year rebuild as I would have liked to see progression faster as well but I'm not even sure how you can compare the situation Vegas is in and what Chevy inherited. Chevy didn't get to pluck players from every team for free. Im really curious to see how competitive Vegas ends up. They get a better expansion draft then previous expansions but also no 1st overall pick. Reasonable to assume they will lack the high end talent, but will have decent players. Will they be just good enough to not be able to be the worst in the league an get to draft the super stars?

Wonder how they've changed the process this year to stop Dunk from tweeting the picks before the broadcast announces them.

Are you sure about this? How do you figure this when he has a NMC?

Fleury has a NMC, one of the following has to happen: He has to agree to waive his NMC to be exposed He gets traded to one of the teams on his submitted list and they protect him Pittsburgh does nothing, is forced to protect Fleury and exposes Murray Click here then click on Pittsburgh: https://www.capfriendly.com/expansion-draft

Matt Murray lost his job because of injury, not play. He got them to the dance, Fleury is just finishing it. Tough business but I think they still go with Murray next year. You can have a 22 year old Murray signed for 3.75M the next 3 years and an RFA after that or a 32 year old Fleury signed for 5.75M the next 2 years. Pens are at the cap, have some interesting contracts coming off the books next year and some RFAs to sign. That 2M in savings could mean a lot to them in adding those complimentary pieces. 49 games, 32 wins, 2.41 .923 38 games, 18 wins, 3.02, .909 Guess which regular season stat line belongs to which player.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl-issues-list-of-expansion-exempt-players-1.741493 NHL released their list of expansion draft exempt players. These players can't be picked by Vegas nor can they be used by teams to expose their minimum requirements. For those hoping ... Myers is not on the list.

I know people always say BPA, but I'd really like to see them get a D-man with the 1st round pick. Wonder if there is a run on them in the 5 - 10 spots if they try to move up like they did for Stanley.