Noeller

I tend to lean toward the "good players don't want to come to Winnipeg" thinking, and Chevy isn't going to deal quality assets for players without term or ones who refuse to sign contract extensions. Also good players won't waive NTCs to come to Winnipeg. As for the comparison to the Bombers, 6 months during Manitoba summer is WAY different than being here for a Manitoba winter. Not comparable. I don't know what more Chevy can do, honestly.... so much of the Jets "middling" is just the result of the market. It's how it's going to be, and then hopefully every decade or so, you get a run like they had in 2018 when they legitimately could have won it all, and just ran into a healthier, red hot VGK.

I would like to retract my statement, your honour....

So is this guy an American Kongbo? Seems like the same build and same versatility...

🥳 🎉

watching that clip, I'm more embarrassed for the RT than I am impressed by the DE. You should never get roller-skated that bad by anyone, let alone someone 100lbs lighter than you...

They re-did this event with Randy Ferbey vs Jennifer Jones sometime around 2007 or so.......?? Jones was the first ladies team to play a men's style of game, fully aggressive and could play all the big weight shots. It was a fun match. My favourite Melechuk story is one I read in a book while I was going to BU (my Can History prof was a curling historian and wrote a book about it)... one of the earliest televised curling matches with microphones on the curlers was at a cash spiel in Thunder Bay in the late 70s or early 80s. The curlers were not used to being mic-ed and often forgot all about it. So at one point, there was an absolute mess in the house and O and Johnny U were in the house trying to figure out a plan, and O just let's it fly: "Well, Johnny....what the f*ck are we gonna do?? What in the F*CK are we gonna do??!!" Amazing. Legend.

Definitely wouldn't be playing 7 Nation Army.....ha ha ha ha. Yes, that Rorketon Summer Spiel was something else. My buddy Kyle Forsyth was dating a girl from that area, so we curled in it...... a mutual friend of ours, Kevin somethingorother..... ( we just called him "Chewy" 'cause he was a very hairy dude) curled with us, I think, and I can't remember who else. It was just absolutely bonkers. 40 above outside and couldn't keep the ice going inside...what a time. That woulda been somewhere around 2003/04, if I remember right...

I did an overnighter in Didsbury (called a "Red Eye Bonspiel") with Dave and a couple other friends about 15 years or so ago.....that was a lot of fun, but very difficult. I don't do well on a lack of sleep. When I was up at Dauphin, a couple places used to do "Summer Bonspiels" at the end of August and it was insane. You could barely keep the ice frozen. It was just puddling everywhere, so you have to whip it as hard as you can just to get it to the other end. And the FOG in the lobby....it's 30 above outside and they're trying to keep it cold on the ice....well Christ. What a mess, and everyone just so drunk....... I think that was Rorketon, MB that we did an August bonspiel. So many good times...

I grew up curling at the Pinawa Curling Club and Seven Sisters Falls CC (when it still existed), and then curled a bit in Brandon at the Wheat City CC inside the Keystone Centre. When I moved up to Dauphin, I worked with another fella who was actually a very competitive junior curler, so we hooked up with some others (and @17to85) and started curling in any/every bonspiel we could find. Great times had at the Dauphin Mens Bonspiel and Farmers/Mixed/Open spiel, Ste Rose Mens and Mixed, Winnipegosis, Ethelbert, Makinak......but undoubtedly, and Dave will testify to this, the most fun any one of us ever had at a bonspiel, is the annual Eddystone Mixed over a weekend around Valentine's Day. Man oh man oh man......the fun (that I can remember anyhow....) we had those weekends for a few years.... Orest and his rink curled out of Lac Du Bonnet, officially, back in those days (his 3rd, Johnny Usakis, lived there and it was technically their "home club") so I kinda grew up idolizing him, because everyone knew about Orest and Johnny around Pinawa/LDB area. I remember him curling in a Zones playdown in the mid 90s that was held in Pinawa that year and couldn't believe this legendary world champion (thank goodness for Bob Labonte!) was there on the same ice I threw juniors on twice a week..... he'll forever be a legend in my eyes.

I have never curled in a Winnipeg rink, and have never played in the MCA bonspiel Things I desperately need to check off my bucket list sooner rather than later....

the best is always that the Valour Road Curling Club is not on Valour Road....ha ha ha. That used to drive people nuts during the MCA Bonspiel, when they'd be trying to rush over there for a game...

legendary rinks....a shame there's not enough interest in the sport to keep them all going and upgrade them. Everyone wants to curl out of the Ft Rouge, because it has the best ice in the city, I'm told....

This is a nearly 100% perfect take. Spot on.

Took a leave... Sabbatical basically. She wrote a really nice "goodbye for now" piece about a month or so ago. Hopefully she'll be back..

It's not quite Chia levels of dumb, but it's a massive overpay...

it's Homer buying all the pumpkin stock and going "I have a feeling they're going to peak right around December...."

for a 1st this year, Tyson Barrie and arguably their best prospect, Reid Schaffer......sigh. Nash throws in a 6th and retains 4% (?????). Ken Holland is dumb...

We have like 2 of them, don't we? The kid we got from Montreal last year for a song was great in the reps he had, and then I thought we had another that we drafted but sent back to college last year and is expected back in camp this year.... NI NT isn't an issue.... *edit* Cole Adamson and Cameron Lawson are very much the heir apparents to Fatboi....

that's an EXTREMELY cynical viewpoint, IMO. I'll admit that I'm biased.... Ed's writing (and he knows this) is a big part of why I got into media. I initially wanted to be a sports writer because of Ed and, to a degree, Gary Lawless. I started as an undergrad at BU with hopes of transferring for post-grad Journalism school at U of R, but ended up into what was then known as "electronic media" at ACC and, along with lots of other stuff, ended up in sports broadcasting rather than sports writing, per se. So I'm definitely a known biased-fan of Ed's work going back 30 years now, but still..... I think calling his BB.com pieces "advertorials" is extremely cynical if not wholly inaccurate.

he is more of a Columnist now than a reporter, for sure, which is the gig, I suppose.... I'm not sure how you can be a reporter, when acting as the team's written-media lead....

that's a fair comment, but I really haven't noticed a LOT of difference. Ed was rarely overly harsh on the team, and I'm sure that's part of the reason they wanted to bring him on board in the first place. I remember listening to Doug Brown's "Handled Internally" episode, and he talked about how the players, during his time, always liked Ed best because he was fair and rarely ever dumped on them unless it was absolutely warranted. I'm not saying Ed is a fanboi, but I think he's opposite of Friesen.... will err on the side of positive rather than negative.

a big one.....

lol....

I think an injured Kyrie Wilson and Brandon Alexander made the D look much worse than it was for a big chunk of the season. If those two play a full season, I think things look much different and all of a sudden everyone's talking about what a bounce back season _______ is having in the secondary/LB corps...... we weren't that bad on D last year...just missing too many key pieces.