Nasty Nate

Other than Dapper Danny Bylesma getting axed in a few days how do you blow up Sid & Malkin? It was kinda creepy watching Sid play last nite - looked like a small Andrew Ladd - a plodder at best!

Was Chardonay-Bartab drafted?

Not a bad job by Kyle. At least he wasn't drafting blind like Drowsy Joe. . . . who basically was looking at a guy's size and drafting that way.

Enstrom + Bogo = Flirting with Danger..... Kane still a wildcard and his default position is dud. Little is not a first-line NHL centre - at least not on a playoff team!

According to reports the Bombers have officially finished paying Paul Lapolice out. Thus, he's operating on his TSN coach's corner gig and doing some speeches around southern manitoba. Will that be enough? Does Plop have the urge to return to the sidelines after the last sour taste he had in Winnipeg? Would any CFL team take a chance on him? Personally, I think he'd be a great CIS head coach. Might still be a decent OC, too. Head coach, not so sure! But all I know is Plop is a better OC than at least 2 or 3 guys currently working in the CFL.

Your Edmonton scenario makes a ton of sense. Edmonton has a ton of high flyers to utilize in trade scenarios - the russian prolly being the one they most want to discard/trade. Winnipeg is the team most likely to stand pat as local fans have come to "enjoy". When you see the level of play and ferocity of most Stanley Cup games you realize how far away the Jets really are!

Both Toronto and Winnipeg prolly stay (stuck) with their duds (Kadri & Phaneuf in TO, Kane & Bogo in Wpg). Our duds have more time to morph into players as Kane/Bogo both under 23 - Dion is nearly 30. Prolly 80% chance Spezza is gone though. Dion P. is probably 50/50 Kane around 20% Bogo around 10% A Bogo/Kane package prolly around 33% (Boston could actually use Kane's speed if he was going to a top-tier squad, Bogo could be decent in Beantown, too - he'd have to clean up those persistent mistakes that plagued him - Kane might need 30 or 40 games to get his awful habits repaired if thats even possible. All I know is they won't be able to repair the guy in Winnipeg - Boston would be a good experiment, especially playing on a top tier team with A+ goal-tending and a super system.

Gonna have to put a Kiss-Kam on field as well as in the stands!

That's because it IS giving up too much on Torontos part. Toronto would probably like to get a replacement D in return for Phaneuf so you're probably looking at Phaneuf for Bogosian + (yes Phaneuf is a better player than Bogosian right now) But Bogosian has that exciting Jets element called "potential". I'd go Bogo for DIon straight up so long as Toronto either buys him out of his current 7 mill. salary or eats at least 2.5 mill. a year. I'd also give the Leafs Redmond or a 4th or 5th round draft pick if Chevy could pull it off.

Maybe $3.75 to 4..... Princess Di isn't a bad hire for around 3 mill., and yeah he'd be on the 2nd pairing. Not a huge difference-maker but certainly solid experience and grit would be added. What would we have to give TO - neg rights to Kylie Wellwood?

Another attempt to re-write history. Kelly wasn't arrested until after the press conference where Bauer announced he had resigned. http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Bomber-coach-Kelly-charged-with-assault-79557357.html And there had been rumours for weeks that Bauer was going to resign and go to Calgary: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/bombers-president-bauer-resigns-1.823329 By that time everyone had been given a heads up.

According to several sources Bauer had a pre-existing offer from Ted Hellard in Calgary. When Mike Kelly appeared on a police blotter in pennsylvania the board had an emergency meeting which resulted in Kelly being fired (or relieved of duties as they say). Reports say Bauer refused to fire his buddy Kelly himself. Knowing that this was an act of defiance against the board Bauer triggered the offer from Calgary and ran out of the bomber offices like a scalded dog. If Bauer didn't have that offer I suspect his actions might have been different. He would have faced pure unemployment so he might have abided by the board's decision to fire Kelly. To me, the simple fact he brought Kelly back into the program was a firing offense.

For the most part I agree. The Bombers are only one team in the CFL. Big profits but big paybacks (liabilities) too. Plus Toronto & Hamilton are pretty marginal operations right now. Ottawa remains to be seen after their year 1 honeymoon. I suspect there will be more rights for CFL players, especially 3+ year veterans, a higher salary cap - perhaps $250k to $350k more, perhaps one extra canadian, one extra import per team. Other thing the league minimum salary might increase by $5 to $6.5k.

Ian Wild is easily one of the Top 4 or 5 players on the bomber roster. Great guy, even better player. Yeah, he's a tad small but so was Wayne Harris. We weren't that shut-down last year even with the immortal "Malcolm" (Muamba) in the Middle and the defensive coaching brilliance of Tim Burke.

McRath would have been destined for all-star designation until he would inevitably be carted off in the 2nd or 3rd home game. The Bombers, as is their want would call his injury day-to-day but the guy would be done, period. Best to clean off the lamers before training camp. Good move Blue. Don't know why they sign these types in the first place.

Back in the good ol days (the sixties of course) I remember going to the Alex Turk wrestling shows at the old Winnipeg Auditorium. This is where I first met Bulldog Bob Brown as a foal, getting his sea legs and just observing the matches. I saw all the great ones - Don Leo Jonathan, Killer Kowalski, Vern Gagne, Larry 'The Ax' Henning, Handsome Harley Race, Mad Dog Vachon, Crusher Lisowski, Bruiser Afflis, Wilbur Snyder, Danny Hodge, Crybaby Cannon, Johnny Valentine, Tolos Brothers, Gene Kiniski, The Alaskan Jay York, Reg Park, Little Beaver, many more. The Aud could only hold 1,500 to 1,600 folks. Lots of times the cards, loaded with legends only drew 500 to 700 folks. And the price of a ticket? - anywhere between $4 & $7.. .. I kinda knew it was work even then but must admit Dog Vachon scared the bejeebers out of me after the matches when we waited for the wrestlers to leave the arena! So getting 500 nowadays with only a couple ex-legends on the card. Thats darn good. Biggest problem is ballooning airfares and hotel/meal expenses. You can blow your gate if you have more than a couple "flyers" on your card.

If Steen or Rabb can't go how 'bout Costas Ataliotis? Bolbuck obviously just wants a mope who'll go along with everything. Not someone who'll rock the boat. Got news - Boat needs rockin'

If Minnesota can lock down Toews and Kane and somehow squeeze the first goal tomorrow they should be able to tie the series 2-2. Chicago finally seems to be a bit exhausted and had to take the 3rd period of the 3rd game off - where they gave out and Minny scored 4 goals on Crawford.

Ernie musta been trained by the Transcona Superstar, Walter Shefchyk...... when you talk about a promoter putting himself over on a major talent the first thing that came to my mind was Walter.

Angle would have been great in UFC. Just as good (if not better) a ground wrestler than Lesnar but a lot smarter and he would have learned to avoid and/or deflect strikes - something Lesnar couldn't do. Kurt would probably have countered submissions better but thats just speculation. Daniel Puder would disagree! I'm sure thats one incident Kurt Angle would like to be erased from the memory books!

Is Ryland Wickman still out there? just kidding McRath was a panic signing. Obviously one of the many ex-NFL gypsies who have been heavily injured and looking for a soft place to land and a nice $150,000 salary. Lots of experience, yes but in a broken body!

Angle would have been great in UFC. Just as good (if not better) a ground wrestler than Lesnar but a lot smarter and he would have learned to avoid and/or deflect strikes - something Lesnar couldn't do. Kurt would probably have countered submissions better but thats just speculation.

Chipman and Chevlydayoff have slowed the rot the Atlanta franchise had. They would have gone out of business if the Jets hadn't purchased the franchise!

I agree Jets mgmt. have never stated a specific time-line to get into playoff contention. But they really go on the beg when it comes to preaching patience and "building a team the right way" which is the way current mgmt. wants to build. The only good thing about the Jets is stable ownership and a rabid fan base, fuelled by ticket shortages. The other relatively good thing is most of their roster is 20 to 29 yrs old - one of the youngest teams in the NHL. Give that team a strong 3rd line and above average NHL goal-tending and I think they could go right down to the wire next year for the 8th seed. After that, all bets are off cuz the Jets won't get more than the obligatory two home playoff dates before getting hammered from the playoff hunt.

As your old buddy Baron Von Raschke used to say Al - "You'll accept whatever plan we tell you to accept!" Or was that Siegfried from GET SMART?