The Unknown Poster

Well, I guess I was wrong. The consensus seems to be that Trouba moves to LHD and Chiarot to RHD. Enstrom - Myers Trouba - Buff Stu - Chiarot Thats a pretty strong D corp. And I expect any time Postma gets in he will be on his A+ game.

Whats the realistic expectation for McDavid. Benn won the scoring race with only 87 points last season and I see predictions for McDavid of at least 70 points. As a rookie? Really? He's going to be in the top 5 or 10 in scoring? Is that realistic?

Toronto Star Jian Ghomeshi pleaded not guilty Thursday at his pretrial hearing on sexual assault and choking charges. The 48-year-old disgraced former CBC radio host has elected to be tried by judge alone at a trial that is to start in February. Ghomeshi was accompanied by his lawyer and police as he walked up the steps to court at Old City Hall around 9:15 a.m. and he did not speak to the media. When the hearing began, Ghomeshi stood and formally pleaded not guilty to four charges of sexual assault and one charge of choking to overcome resistance. His plea, which he had to repeat for the benefit of the court reporter, marked the he has spoken in court so far. Ghomeshi appeared in a dark suit, sitting beside his lawyers Marie Henein and Danielle Robitaille. His face remained impassive as the details of the charges were read to the court. t was nearly one year ago, on Oct. 26, 2014, that the CBC announced it had fired the high-profile radio host. At that time, Ghomeshi published a long Facebook defence of himself that described his interest in “a variety of activities in the bedroom ... “that are mutually agreed upon, consensual and exciting for both partners. CBC subsequently said Ghomeshi was fired after executives saw what they described as graphic evidence that he had physically injured a woman. On Nov. 26, Toronto police charged him with four counts of sexual assault and one count of overcoming resistance by choking. Three more sexual assault charges were added in January.

We were discussing Eric Bischoff recently. Wrestling Observer (the best wrestling news/analysis outlet there is) just posted there most recent newsletter. Because of the Eric interview on WWE Network, they discuss Eric. Here's the opening: With the exception of Vince McMahon, and perhaps Hulk Hogan, there is nobody whose role in pro wrestling is more pivotal to what the business is today than Eric Bischoff. Even though he last ran WCW in 1999, and left the promotion a second time in 2000 after being brought back, his influence is felt and quite frankly, may be felt forever. It's a paid newsletter so I wont post much more but I highly reccomend it for wrestling (and MMA) fans.

Yes, that is quite a bit.

**** Walker. He didn't get anywhere attacking me. I can handle myself. It was just funny.

I like how the anti harper crowd pretends the wheat board deal was against the wishes of farmers when many agreed with it. Sort of par for the course, that way of thinking.

The way I understood it Raffl can leave for a pro deal in the NHL Lawless didn't say it with certainty. He said he didn't think he'd be released to play in the AHL but then went on to say if the jets told Raffl he's play in the A for a month and get called up he's probably do it. So who knows. Lawless did say he spoke to the agent. I'd assume the European club will release him for an NHL deal but a two way, they'd have to be consulted. I like him. Would be good if we can keep him.

Lawless just said Raffl didn't understand when he said he'd sign a two way deal and his European club will not let him out of his contract to play in the AHL. And i assume the jets won't send him to the moose on a one way deal So that probably eliminates Raffl. He probably would have made the team last year. But Petan and Lipon give the team more flexibility. I'm now converted. Petan will make the team. My concern was it would stint his development to play 7 minutes on the 4th line. But I think Maurice will use on the PP and those times when he line juggles. He will find Petan more minutes.

When Scheif missed the net in OT I was thinking of some witty remark I could post here about him. Then he comes back 2 on 1 with Ehlers and Im thinking "he will pass and Ehlers will score". Then he shot and scored. So on one hand, Ehlers looked more open but on the other at least missing the net 80% of the time hasnt hurt his confidence. lol Presumably one of our goalies will get hurt this year. That's Helle's chance to really impress. Otherwise, if Hutch is poor, I could see Helle coming up and Hutch being scratched. If everything goes as planned, Hutch ends up unsigned next summer (maybe a deadline deal to a team looking for a back-up but doubtful) and Helle becomes the heir apparent to Pavs next season.

Yeah WFX had the credit card thing and then a water company. I cant say anything more on that subject Ringmasters was like the bane of my wrestling existence. Their owner (EZ) is a friend now and works our shows but we really didnt see eye to eye back then. They had really nice equipment (ring, belts etc) but generally really bad booking and low end talent (not all, but most). One of their guys actually physically attacked me live on a radio program once which was, in retrospect, hilarious. I actually transcribed the exchanged if anyone wants to read it... I was kind of a **** at the time but generally just because bad wrestling offended me and I tried so hard to get everyone in Winnipeg to work on the same page. But a lot of people prefer to be big fish in smaller ponds rather than smaller fish in bigger, better ponds.

@CJOBSports: #NHLJets reassign G Connor Hellebuyck to #Moose 26 players left. 3 decisions remain to get down to reg season roster of 23 Not a surprise other than he looked like he belonged. He will get his chance. He's going to be our starting goalie sooner or later.

@SlawsonTHW: Edmonton Oilers assign Darnell Nurse to their AHL affiliate, Bakersfield Condors.

That was WFX which was knows as AWE earlier in its incarnation. The creative director of that project was my former partner. I 100% disagreed with their vision of loading shows with a dozen names. Their position was, they were trying to sell TV to syndicators and couldnt have content that was 90% local guys. So even if the names werent overly appealing to a live crowd, it was something they could sell to TV people who didnt know any better. Im not sure if I agree, but that was their justification. I think they ended up with two TV deals. The Fight Network in Canada which for a time was willing to air just about anything if you gave them the content for free and a station in Texas. Their plan was to run shows in the Texas market but I assume the cost was prohibitive. The thing with TV is, unless you're getting a rights fee from a network that makes it worth it, the point of TV is to sell tickets in markets you can run house shows. So really, they were spending tens of thousands of dollars to run TV in a market they were never going to run (and even if they did, would not recoup the investment). So there was no point aside from vanity. The financial backer of the project was also someone that wasnt really interested in having "good" local wrestling shows in Winnipeg. He was a "go big or go home" guy. The creative director and financial backer had a brief falling out. One of my friends knew the backer and asked him if that meant he was done with wrestling and he said no but how can I do this without the creative guy (under the assumption that the creative director was a guru and no one else could do what he did). My friend said, let us (my promotion) pitch you. He agreed but wanted six months of TV outlined in a synopsis. So I write a basic outline for six months worth of TV tapings (I think with the idea of doing one show per month and making 4 weekly episodes from it) and in basic terms used what I had heard was their budget for one show and said I'd do six months for the same budget. And it was really good on paper but it wasnt using Lex Luger or Big Brother guys or Jim Duggan, it was Aj Styles, Samoa Joe, those types and mixed with our guys like Kenny Omega, Mentallo etc. Before we got to pitch it, my friend, who was also friends with the creative director, went to him to make sure he didnt mind us pitching his former investor. Well, he said "no problem" but immediately patched up his differences with the investor. lol That last show you mentioned going to, we had a show the same weekend and drew twice what they did and spent probably 2% of the budget and went home with money in our pockets. They did have a couple of shows that drew around 1000 people. One at the U of M and one I actually helped out on at the Marlborough Hotel with Jerry Lawler (as a surprise if you can believe it) which drew maybe 600 people. The record is still 1750 which we (my promotion when me and that guy were partners) drew at the U of M in March 2002 and 1200 which we drew at SHAW Park in July 2002. I had a few 400+ "sell outs" at the LID Nightclub between 2005-2007 as well (perfect for our market and made us money). The other local promotion that runs Winnipeg now sort of took our business model and decided if it works doing "big shows" every quarter than it must work better to do them every month. I warned him it was foolhardy but I think his intent was to squeeze us out of the market. All it did was make shows with "names" less special and instead of drawing 300+, a show with a name ended up with 120. Now they dont run Winnipeg as much. Go figure.

The Pope actually met with Kim Davies. *face palm* When will this idiot's 15 minutes of shame be over?

Which local shows did you go to? It was very rare for a local show to have a lot of names. One person had a couple of projects that did that and lost a boat load of money. I have an interesting story (or stories) about that. I remember 2001, while my partner and I were first talking about putting something together, the local promotion I watched had brought Jim Neidhart in and the promoter had admitted losing money. Someone asked him on his website about bringing in the Honky Tonk Man and he said no, never, would lose too much money. Joe Aiello and Don Callis brought in a few guys - Shane Douglas, Sabu, cant even remember who else. When we brought in Eddie Guerrero it was ground breaking because no one brought in guys of that calibre.

He looks a lot stronger and steadier on his feet. He is going to score a lot of goals this season. If he can routinely hit the net!

If WWE dies there will be something else to take its place. Wrestling will always have a niche, but it will never again be as popular in the mainstream as it once was. In some ways its bigger than it ever was. WWE is worth more than ever before (with ups and downs based on share price) and has more revenue streams than ever before. Ratings-wise its still good but they never recovered from dropping virtually every single WCW viewer when the purchase happened. Keeping WCW as a viable entity probably wouldnt have worked anyway, but they really dropped the ball there. The somewhat surprising aspect is that no one has been able to fill the void left by WCW and become a viable #2 promotion in North America. TNA had the best chance with over $30 million being spent (its gotta be upwards of $40 now) to ultimately fail. Dixie is lucky her dad loves her very, very much and was willing to lose that kind of cash on a vanity project for his little girl. Someone starting up today would take so much capital it would be virtually impossible to become a legitimate #2. There were rumors Ted Turner was interested in getting back in the game and also that SPIKE would start their own promotion. It would take something like that plus some luck and very good leadership. But because WWE is so stale, creatively it shouldnt be hard to present a different product (and yet TNA had so much trouble doing just that).

Scheif looks like he could have a break out year.

They might have missed the boat on turning Cena. I'd still do it but they have two issues with that. 1) they feel that the people who boo Cena are basically trolling and if he turned heel they'd cheer him 2) they have created no other top guys and Cena is still their main revenue source and they are scared to death of losing that.

Glad Scheif scored. I was beginning to legitimately wonder if he had vision issues.

Oh you've convinced me. I'm voting NDP.

RAW ratings down again, including fairly significantly in the third hour. I believe this is the lowest non-holiday rating since 1997 which beats the previous record low last week. Not good. If this week's RAW was the result of Vince panicking, then next week will likely see Cena vs Kane vs Show in a 3 hour 3-way.

Peter Tessier Let’s take a look at the lines as we probably know them. 16-18-26 12-55-42(??) 55-17-6 ??-51-22 Who plays on 4th line left wing? Who should play the wings on the 4th line on either side of Andrew Copp? Raffl brings size and some skill but is not the swiftest skater but has not made himself indispensable to the team, yet. Petan brings skill, speed and play-making ability not seen since Tlusty was a Jet for a brief period. Lipon has skill but his real benefit is an agitator, the type of player who gets under the opposition’s skin and the kind the Jets have never really had. Ehlers has shown that he has the skill, the speed and the hockey prowess but does he have enough experience making the jump from the AHL? Then there’s Copp, also making the jump but with hardly any of the expectations or profile of Ehlers. Impressive in the pre-season-he was a steady force who played his role. The Jets can’t keep all five players although that would be a luxury they would love to have. They can however send some down and bring them back as injury allows and for the Jets cap space will not be an issue. But who? The tricky one is Ehlers as he would have to go back to junior, a place he has no business being as he’s ready for the next step but that might be pro hockey and not the NHL yet. There may be a loophole that his agent is exploring but no one seems to really understand how that would work. The key to understanding the future players assignments may lie from a comment Paul Maurice made yesterday. In it he described how he wants to see how the remaining guys fit in with the projected roster and that they may be used based on situation, which would be the opposition in that particular game. If he wants to stir the pot Maurice could dress Lipon. If he expects the opposition to take liberties with his players he may want Peluso or Thorburn in on the other side. If he wants to push his 4th line into the 10 minute mark and take pressure off the top lines putting Petan in would be smart, and if he wants size and skill use Raffl. Those are the options but they cannot be used so efficiently due to roster size limit of 23 players. The safe bet is to assume Ehlers and Copp are locks but what about the other three? Something tells me that the choice may come down to budget and waiver eligibility something JC Lipon is still waiver exempt and should Raffl make the team he would only be exempt until the end of this season. This does not help make the picture any clearer. Also remember that in a 20 man roster on the ice there are three players in the press box. The Jets usually carry 2 defence with them so that leaves one spot for a forward. Now assume that Ehlers and Copp are locks to make the team and that leaves…. Raffl Petan Lipon Peluso Thorburn 4 out of those 5 are not staying and 2 of the 5 have to clear waivers and we still haven’t looked at the defence yet. Enstrom Byfuglien Trouba Myers Stuart Chairot Pardy Postma Harrison There’s cuts coming and they won’t be easy to make. There may also be a calculated risk when they happen but if I were betting I’d say the organization takes the safest route and assumes players will get their chances when injuries happen. If and when that happens the discussion will be about who is the right player to call up, and the resulting handwringing after it happens.

Answer: Salvation. Speaking in concrete terms not wishful thinking.