The Unknown Poster

I used to work for Canad Inns and wasnt a big fan of certain things. I find this very interesting and not at all surprising. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/crocus-asks-court-to-sell-off-canad-inns-assets-1.2849321 The receiver for the failed Crocus Fund is asking a court to dissolve and liquidate the parent company of Canad Inns so it can recover a 15-year-old investment. It is also accusing company president Leo Ledohowski of not acting honestly and in good faith and alleges that Canad Corporation assets are wrongfully being diverted for Ledohowski’s benefit. “Leo has exercised unfettered, autocratic control over the business and affairs of Canad without regard to the Applicant’s interests as a shareholder of Canad,” Crocus says. In an application filed in June, Crocus says it is is seeking to recover the “fair value” of its 16 per cent stake in Canad Corporation Ltd. so that it can reimburse 34,000 Crocus Fund investors. The fund was forced into receivership a decade ago, and its receiver has been trying to recover funds ever since. Crocus Fund paid $5 million for the stake 1999. Canad Inns has grown significantly since that initial investment. Province's largest food, beverage operatorCanad Inns owns about a dozen hotel complexes in Manitoba and North Dakota, as well as Tavern United, Garbonzo’s Pizza Pub and the Metropolitan Entertainment Centre. It is the province's largest food and beverage operator, with more than 37,000 seats in its restaurants and clubs. Canad Corporation’s income before shareholder management fees and amortization went from $3.8 million in 2000 to $6.5 million in 2013, according to court filings. According to court documents filed by the receiver, Canad Corporation Ltd.has not paid Crocus anything since 2003. On top of the liquidation order, Crocus seeks detailed financial information from Canad and Ledohowski, including audited financial statements, monthly reports and a breakdown of Ledohowski’s expenses. This information has never been revealed publicly, since Canad is a privately held company. Steven Peleck, senior vice-president of Deloitte Restructuring, stated in an affidavit that Canad has “systematically refused” to pay out bonus, dividends and other payments since 2003. He added that the profitability of the company was similar and in excess to the years when Crocus received dividends and bonuses. “Canad has elected to wrongfully divert funds to the direct or indirect benefit of Leo [Ledohowski],” Peleck stated in his affidavit. Peleck also pointed to multiple loans between Canad and Ledohowski’s holding company as being outside “normal commercial terms” for arm’s-length parties. $6.3M loaned to companyCanad loaned $6.3 million interest-free to Ledohowski’s holding company while Canad owed that same holding company $800,000 bearing interest at eight per cent, according to the affidavit. The interest on the loan was waived or deferred over the years. Crocus also argued that Ledohowski is not entitled to more than half a million dollars in fees he was paid in 2012 and 2013. Crocus also requested that Canad stop making any further payments to Ledohowski “in excess of the amounts to which Leo [Ledohowski] was and is properly entitled” based on the shareholder agreement signed between Crocus and Canad in 1999. Ledohowski’s lawyer, Beth Eva, declined an interview because this matter is before the court. She said the application by Crocus will be defended. His lawyers asked for large portions of the Peleck affidavit to be expunged because they contain “argument, legal interpretations and conclusions” which are based on “hearsay, double hearsay and speculation.” Canad Corporation is the last investment the Crocus Fund hopes to recover on behalf of shareholders. Crocus recently completed its third interim payment to shareholders. The fund says it does not know when or if any more money will be provided to shareholders.

I don't view it from that angle but I would agree that the Jets are just as hard-pressed to make the playoffs this year as last, mostly because I don't think they will win 50% of the games against elite teams. Pissing away chances for 2 points against the weakerthans of the league looks to be a thing of the past, but the balance of power is so concentrated in the West this year I have trouble imagining they can make up enough points to get in. But the game-in game-out effort put forward on the ice, that I think will be consistently better this year than any year previous. My guess is they finish 9th, 2 points out of a playoff spot. That will be frustrating, but what they do on the ice this season won't be nearly as frustrating. I am glad to see they have mostly overcome their seeming pyschological issues insofar that they dont seem to fold like cheap tents. I do think there are still some effort issues on a nightly basis (ie. not everyone gives it a solid effort every night). I think not playing the 4th line is going to catch up to them at some point. Read that Maurice basically excused the Detroit collapse saying the team was tired from a tough schedule. If thats true, then why are we a three line team? To me thats an issue between Coach and GM. Coach benched 4th line, over works other 3 and then claims they were too tired. GM doesnt improve the 4th line. I dont want to make it sound easy but where's the comptition. Is Cormier not better than Thorburn/Halischuck/Slater? Is Klingberg?

Toby out. Clitty in. Hutch starts. New PP formation.

Well certainly the level of understanding of many people involved can be questioned. Sharpton is actually being critical of the violent protestors but I dont trust him at all. He criticised the DA for mentioning Brown's crimes. Thats what started this whole thing. Like we are to believe this cop who never used his weapon previously is a racist who was eager to kill a young black man and drove around for six years just waiting for his chance?

Michael Brown's step father? So sad. frustrating. Ya. right after the verdict ... hes standing on a car telling the protesters to burn this ***** down. I assume he wasnt arrested even though I would be for doing the same thing. All these people breakuing the law because they want justice will surely turn themselves into police, right? The people making accusations of racism are the people who only care about the skin colour of those involved, not the facts of the case. Ofcourse the real answer is, this isnt about Michael Brown. It's about an excuse for lawlessness. No indictment? Riot. Indictment? Riot. Whats really sad is now the family is on CNN with their lawyers and are doing nothing but feeding the fire. They dont seem to be asking for peaceful protests but are more bringing some gas to it. This whole thing has got way out of hand IMO. And this family doesnt seem to be helping anything as sad as it is to say. I wonder how much they are being manipulated by people around them. The Sharpton types. i wonder if they have actually reviewed the evidence themselves. They must realise their son committed a robbery that triggered this entire thing.

Michael Brown's step father? So sad. frustrating. Ya. right after the verdict ... hes standing on a car telling the protesters to burn this ***** down. I assume he wasnt arrested even though I would be for doing the same thing. All these people breakuing the law because they want justice will surely turn themselves into police, right? The people making accusations of racism are the people who only care about the skin colour of those involved, not the facts of the case. Ofcourse the real answer is, this isnt about Michael Brown. It's about an excuse for lawlessness. No indictment? Riot. Indictment? Riot.

And to be fair, as I think about it. If True North ever sold the Jets, no guarantee all of their revenue streams would be sold with it. If they moved cities for example, the concert revenue, government gaming revenue, etc wouldn't move with the Jets. It is an arbitrary assessment. No one really knows the finances other then True North and the NHL (depending on what they need to know for Cap revenues). True and good points. if its based solely on what the team directly generates, then so be it. At that level, $3.3 million is good because it will surely indicate that they make a hell of a lot more profit. I'd assume it doesnt take into account the VLT money either.

Michael Brown's step father? So sad. frustrating.

Too bad. I had hoped he'd work out. But is he really worse than Thorburn? $700,000...meh. Might as well clear it off if he's not going to play. For $200,000 in the AHL he will likely help the Caps.

Yeah interesting numbers. Some people seem to live and die by Forbes, others not. They seem to have a paint by numbers approach that might not work for all teams. Good point about where the revenue comes from. Perhaps they count building generated revenue as not part of the operations of the team. Then consessions etc would not factor into that maybe? Didnt the Jets themselves say they made $15 million last year (or at least I recall reading that locally). Id also be interested to know where the debt comes from. If I recall, the building is paid for. The initial $170 million for the team could account for it. Im curious how the owners handled that. Did Thomson write a $170m cheque (which is how it was often presented) and is he being paid back? Did he loan the company the money? Probably not important, but curious. if the Jets only made $3 million, they lost money because they spent more than that on MTSC improvments, no? So I dont buy those numbers. They must have a narrow definition of operating income which doesnt include all of True North's revenue streams.

Not going to do the whole thing, just a few points of interest: Everyone wanted to say "this is the real Jets" when they were winning. I would not have said that, what I would have said is this is the best version of the Jets we will see this year (give or take a functional power play). Some games they will play their best, some games they will play badly, most games will be somewhere in between. This is true for all teams. No one plays their best 82 times per season, even the elite teams. What I hope for as a fan is that a majority of the games played this year are on the positive half of the spectrum of possible performances. B's or better. So far I consider that the case. I don't consider it realistic for any team to put out A++ performances every night. My point is, losing one or two means nothing but this stretch of losing 4 out of 5 and the way they've done it shows me the team has "regressed" back to where they were. A win is a win and a loss is a loss. That is what the standings are for. Regression and progression are not snapshots in time, they are measures over a period. If you want to limit that period to such a short time, you can. I won't. Here's what I would have expected the 2013 Jets to do over those same 5 games if played last season. They would have been inconsistent in their performances over that stretch, finding a way to beat one of the good teams, lose by 2 or 3 to the other good teams, and stink out the barn against the one team they should have beat because why do something as logical as beat a team you're better than? Instead they played 4 superior teams close and handily beat the inferior team, the score not really reflecting the level of control they had over the opposition. That alone is different than what the Jets have served up for us in the first 3 seasons. If the work ethic is there the results will come. If it is not there the results will not. If they were playing without effort I'd be annoyed with them, but the effort was there in all 4 of those losses. The opposition also gets paid to play. The output is not always an accurate measurement of the input. As a team they need to learn how to close out games like that out, but of those 4 the only one I thought they had a realistic chance of bringing home a W was the Detroit game. You could be right. But I see the Jets consistantly slinking back to their middling level. They sometimes play above it, sometimes below it. But its the constant. Hopefully now that they seem to be changing their PP formation, we can kick that into high gear. They have a road trip that is ripe for the pickings. They've place Galiardi on waivers so there is that. Too bad as I hoped he'd work out and thought he'd be a better skilled player on the 4th line. Is he really worse than Thorburn?

What worries me about that though is the sometimes disappearance of the guys who *have* been in the playoffs like Ladd and Buff. These guys should be the warriors every night.

http://www.forbes.com/teams/winnipeg-jets/ Jets rank 20th in NHL teams. I know the NHL always craps all over the Forbes report but its very interesting nontheless. A couple of takeaways: - Huge increase in value of the Jets from the purchase price of $170 million. No wonder David Thomson was willing to write a big cheque. - Article lists Jets' operating income at $3.3 million which shows the razor thing margins for the team although it lists the Coyotes with an operating income of only -$4.6 million which isnt close to their losses. Am I just not understanding what operating income is? - Article sort of craps on the venue in the sense it says the team has no concert revenue to speak of whereas MTSC has long been one of the busiest venues in North America.

My fear is the team is just good enough to hang around the 8-10 spot at the deadline and either just misses the playoffs or maybe just makes it and is eliminated. And we continue the cycle without getting much better. Detroit is a great example of a good team that drafted brilliantly but most teams arent that lucky (or good). If the idea is to be patient because the Jets have more good prospects coming up, then why bother keeping our older players? I'd rather trade buff for picks in that scenario although I believe he's the best option to see us get a multi-player return that provides us with the depth we need to compete better.

So if we had the best fourth line in hockey, Maurice would still barely play them?

ive heard the following in regards to why Thorburn was signed: - Buddy with Kane/makes Kane happy/keeps Kane out of trouble - Very close with Chipman/Chipman sees Thorburn as a lifer - Fantastic locker room guy/loss of Thurburn would hurt morale I dont know if I buy any of those. I think management saw him last year, saw him fill in for Kane and not really get exposed (though he didnt really make that line any better nor should he have been expected to) and "rewarded" him. I dont really care about the contract because it's a million bucks, who cares. If he's a saint in the locker room, great, make him a career 12/13 forward who comes into the game every few games when someone gets hurt or we need a shake up. But playing a guy who's playing 3-5 minutes a game? And its not just him. Halischuk (who I like) played 3 minutes last game. Really? We dont have an option the coach trusts more in St Johns? It just makes you wonder. When they win, no one cares. But the questions will come if they dont perform well on this road trip. Because if the coach isnt playing the fourth line, it means we need a better fourth line. if the GM isnt improving those guys, what message is that sending? We were told part of bringing in Maurice last season was to do an in depth analysis of the roster....I guess he liked everyone. They played a clip on TSN1290 this morning where Maurice said not to look at it as he doesn't want to play the 4th line, but look at it like he wants to play the other 3 more. He basically said he doesn't want to take minutes away from the other 3 lines. Which is all fine and good, but then don't use the excuse of your team being too tired as a reason why they lost or played poorly. You can't have it both ways. Yeah I heard that too and it was pretty suspect. Sounds like Maurice protecting the team a bit. If the fourth line is good enough, then they dont have to play the other three lines more. Someone posted stats showing the fourthline zone starts too, showing them being protected. Clearly little trust on the part of the coach. And I agree with what you wrote in your previous post too. if we accept this idea of a "five year plan", we can wait til next season and when the team is still a middling at best team then what? Do we blow it up? The Jets are unique in that they sort of have two "cores". There is the "Atlanta Core" and then the guys they've brought in/drafted. I just dont see the value in keeping a player like Buff on a team that routinely misses the playoffs. The Blues drafted two of their top line players, Tarasenko and Schwartz in the 2010 draft, a year they missed the playoffs. In fact it was the end of a stretch of them only making the playoffs once in six years. Now they are a powerhouse. And those two are big time top line leaders four years after being drafted. But we will continue to be patient while our big draftee from 2011 plays on the third line and is actually getting worse as a player this season.

An ignorant, immature player. Keep him away. Talent or no talent.

ive heard the following in regards to why Thorburn was signed: - Buddy with Kane/makes Kane happy/keeps Kane out of trouble - Very close with Chipman/Chipman sees Thorburn as a lifer - Fantastic locker room guy/loss of Thurburn would hurt morale I dont know if I buy any of those. I think management saw him last year, saw him fill in for Kane and not really get exposed (though he didnt really make that line any better nor should he have been expected to) and "rewarded" him. I dont really care about the contract because it's a million bucks, who cares. If he's a saint in the locker room, great, make him a career 12/13 forward who comes into the game every few games when someone gets hurt or we need a shake up. But playing a guy who's playing 3-5 minutes a game? And its not just him. Halischuk (who I like) played 3 minutes last game. Really? We dont have an option the coach trusts more in St Johns? It just makes you wonder. When they win, no one cares. But the questions will come if they dont perform well on this road trip. Because if the coach isnt playing the fourth line, it means we need a better fourth line. if the GM isnt improving those guys, what message is that sending? We were told part of bringing in Maurice last season was to do an in depth analysis of the roster....I guess he liked everyone.

The team has regressed from the stretch of games that saw them climb into 3rd place in the Central. Perhaps a better choice of words would be "can we now say this team is the same as it has been for four years". We've changed the players. We've changes the coach. And yet the record is nearly identical. Everyone wanted to say "this is the real Jets" when they were winning. My point is, losing one or two means nothing but this stretch of losing 4 out of 5 and the way they've done it shows me the team has "regressed" back to where they were. One goal games or not..a loss is a loss. if they were losses like the Pens loss, so be it. They arent. Pavs Save Percentage is a wonderful .893 or whatever these past few games and he's looked shaky. Im a Pavs guy...and even Im at the point where Im saying is Pavs the goalie we see 45 games a season that is barely average or the goalie we see 20 games a season that is great? That first season, the Jets' depth was awful and we had fourth line players playing 3rd line. No one is arguing that. But to use Stapleton as an example of improved players is moot. At worst it contributes to my argument that the Jets are a lousy team since they replaced those guys and arent any better. if I was you, I'd use the example of replacing Jokinen with Perrault. Thats a significant upgrade. Looks good. Makes the line better. Makes the team better. helps the puck posession game. And yet the team has no more wins. I want to be wrong. I just dont think I am. And my...not frustration, but agitation is that management doesnt appear to be addressing any key issues. They were pretty friggen lucky Hutch has turned out because they took a chance on a guy with 3 NHL games on his resume as a back up behind a below average starter. The fourth line barely plays and they've done nothing but reward a 4th line guy with a big contract. I dont get that. The Jets are in the position to be able to take better talent from other teams who have better depth but want to shed some salary...why we dont is beyond me.

Im not sure who in this discussion thread put forth this panic response, so Im not sure this post is relevant. In a general sense, I agree with you. I used to post on a Jets forum and it was constant anti-Chevy, lets trade everyone mentality and I always argued against that. There was a twitter thing this summer #WhatDidChevyDo ie. nothing and it was pretty clueless. And while we couldnt panic after the first few games and its still "early", we have 1/4 of the season in the books so its enough games to see a trend. This team is absolutely not good enough.

I agree. I'm sure there are people who are thoughtfully informed and upset. But that sentiment is undermined by the mindless losers who are tearing Ferguson apart. Either way those people were going to do what they are doing. We haven't been privy to what the grand jury was but the evidence we have seen, for me the shooting was justified. It doesn't mean it isn't a terrible senseless tragedy though. The whole thing is sad and ridiculous.

Don't want this guy anywhere near our team.

No indictment. And Ferguson goes nuts. A lot of people making accusations of racism who only care about the skin colour of those involved and not the facts of the case. Angry about injustice? Loot a Toys R Us. Burn some buildings down. Such idiocy.

Lost 4 of 5. Look uninspired at various times. Like anything its context. A good team that gets destroyed once, you can over look it. A team that is seemingly streaky, maybe you take a dep breath and wait for the positive streak. But as good as the Jets have seemed, I believe their record is almost identitical to last season. And thats with improvements to GA and save percentage. I would not say its over the top drama to discuss the team. Like seriously. What do you guys want: "Tough loss for my beloved Jets last night but they are awesome and I love them." I mean really...lol Stapleton was pretty good and probably played for then the 3 minutes Halischuk played against St Louis. Did we need to improve over the fourth line in the first season? You bet. Have we? Not at all. This is a fourth line that the Head Coach barely plays and the GM has made no effort to improve yet. Might he? Sure. But when?

Maybe, maybe not. Regardless, imho, we trade Buff, we 'take from Peter, give to Paul' as the saying goes. Not to mention the fact (which you made somewhat) that most other teams are usually smart and will feel hard pressed to give up anything substantial WE NEED. Being 29/30 in this league is not really the same as it was 10/15 years ago. If he is taking care of himself (which is probably a whole other discussion), another 5-7 years of productivity is not out of the question. I say re-sign, he's too much of a special player not too. I think he likes it here, just a feeling. Doesn't seem to like the limelight all that much which he can usually get here compared to other cities. I have no doubt he liked it here. My two caveats to that when he goes into his contract year would be 1) does he want to play D more than he wants to play F in Winnipeg for the rest of his career? 2) He's very close with Ladd and they will no doubt talk about their future plans...Ladd likes it here too, but liking it here and being close to home is one thing, maximizing the years you have left on a contender is something else. I cant see Buff being an impact player at 37 years old.