Nasty Nate

They'll keep it on the hush until they have to make their final roster decisions. Most of the media will try to utilize the power of observation to see if there's any swelling on Willy's hand. Don't think the Bombers can win in Montreal with Marve and Brohm behind center - even if T. Smith isn't much of a QB for Als.

If Morrisey makes the team I can see him playing 40 to 50 games, occasionally being a healthy scratch where there's expected heavy slogging. If Petan can't crack the lineup I'd like to see him traded to Brandon so he can be an hour away and Jets can monitor his progress from closer proximity.

You can call him 6'0" and 180 by loading him up with a bunch of rolled loonies but the fact remains he'll be competing against checkers and d-men who average 6'1" to 6'3" and 195 to 230..... an 18 yr old kid doesn't have the inherent metabolism to put on a ton of weight in just one off-season. I think Schiefele is going to be at least as heavy as Jonathan Toews, Trouba is already near his goal weight - just needs a bit more strength and some added finesse.

Harveys has been open at Portage/Langside for quite some time. Really good and quality management - say hello to Prince if you go. Harveys also opening at old Chicken Delight location on Corydon/Stafford with a hybrid Harveys/Swiss Chalet duet. Construction seems to proceeding well - I suspect it will open no later than September 1st, perhaps a bit earlier.

TSN/Suitor always sticks to his game notes!

My hope is Petan is ready to compete in 2015-16. For Ehlers 2016-17. Morrisey is the wild card - I hope he can draw into the lineup as a rotational #3 guy this year but don't know if he's gonna be able to handle rugged going. Might have to rotate him with someone like Pardy and move another guy up to 3.

Well, I don't think that's the players fault. It's Cheveldayoff for signing an older player. I think the guy really gave it his best, especially last season. We gave away a second round pick in the Setoguchi trade, that's on Kevin as well. Yet, he won't get involved in going after key free agents preaching patience & fiscal restraint. Poor advice to the fans after those 2 moves & the payouts on contracts like that. At least Olli justified his salary last season but Setoguchi is a wash out. You don't think he tries on high profile free agents? Rumour is we offered more then what Statsny signed for. The Jets are a small market and a perennial non playoff team. Tough sell to bring the high profile free agents in. It is a two way dialog. Just because we want them doesn't mean they will come here. I remember a time when Winnipeg was a destination. Players wanted to come here. ^You talking about 1954 again, Al?" As recently as when Selanne & Tkachuk played here in the 90's with Jets 1.0. But primarily the 70's & 80's. Different world, Nate. Remember when NHL all star defenseman Thommie Bergman, Randy Carlyle & Serge Savard were happy to play here? Selanne and Tkachuk were draft picks weren't they Al? Selanne stayed in Finland an extra year - even some peggers thought he wasn't gonna come. As it stood he was only here 3 great years. Tkachuk here longer but wasn't quite mature enough to be a true leader - still had great natural talent and instincts. Bergman gave us some great service for a few years, Kitty was no longer a primo defenseman when he arrived - in fact he was one of the softest d-guys I've ever seen, sorta like Tobias Enstrom today. Serge was a big name signing but he didn't have the juice he had as a Hall of Famer with the Habs. Still, he was fun to watch. Jokinen may as well been Jesse James - he was heisting nearly 5 mill. from the Jets coffers. 2.5 million may be 'right' but for his career stats he's now officially an NHL rounder. Iginla is 2-3 years older but still commands 5 million a year.

Well, I don't think that's the players fault. It's Cheveldayoff for signing an older player. I think the guy really gave it his best, especially last season. We gave away a second round pick in the Setoguchi trade, that's on Kevin as well. Yet, he won't get involved in going after key free agents preaching patience & fiscal restraint. Poor advice to the fans after those 2 moves & the payouts on contracts like that. At least Olli justified his salary last season but Setoguchi is a wash out. You don't think he tries on high profile free agents? Rumour is we offered more then what Statsny signed for. The Jets are a small market and a perennial non playoff team. Tough sell to bring the high profile free agents in. It is a two way dialog. Just because we want them doesn't mean they will come here. I remember a time when Winnipeg was a destination. Players wanted to come here. ^You talking about 1954 again, Al?"

CKND just announced Bombers have sold just under 26,000 seats as of 5pm today. With hot weather looming - they should be able to grind out a nice walk up of 1000 to top out at 27,000 Still 6,000+ short of a sell-out but a step in the right direction, especially with a no-name team coming into town (other than 40 yr old Hank Burris)

If we started our youngsters at centre we'd certainly have the lightest and probably weakest (strength-wise) group in NHL history. Schief is 6'2" and listed at 185 Little is 5'11" and lists at 180 Ehlers is 5'11.5" and lists at 162 Even Schief has to get to Jonathan Toews level (200 lbs.) Little wore down badly down the stretch last year according to Kelly Moore at CJOB.

Best news Henry Burris ever heard since the bra sale!

He always appeared a bit lackadaisical. We can't all be like your old hero AL - Eddy Shack..... Clear the track here comes Shack..... Eddy wasn't a great hockey player but his style always brought fans out of their seats!

If Ehlers plays anything more than a handful of exhibition games something is terribly wrong in Jetsville. He's just not big and strong enough to withstand capital punishment in the league. If he shows a bit in the exhibitions they might do the same thing as they did with Schief - give him a handful of real NHL games and then send him back to Halifax.

Olli was a fairly responsible guy but in reality doesn't command nearly 5 mill. annual. As stated by prior posters, he was terrible at face-offs and although nearly 6'3" and 200 he played more like 5'9" and 175..... Took a ton of idiotic penalties to prove he was tough vs. just being a pest or rat without penalties. Decent guy in the community, above average player on the world stage for Finland but overall this is good news for Jets.

niskanen is actually pretty good but not worth what they paid him, that orpik deal made me sick to my stomach. If anyone needs a few examples of why the jets dont get involved much in the frenzy, actually, it's pretty much the same teams every year involved in the frenzy and where do they end up normally? watching the playoffs just like the jets, but niskanens contract, orpiks contract and bollands contract and i'm gonna say jussi jokinens contract (he's not a spring chicken anymore) are prime examples. Last year, the leafs signed clarkson to a what 7 year 35 million deal, where did that get them? below the jets in the standings. These moves sometimes backfire on teams. I'd even go as far as to say that most these "frenzy" day deals don't work out at all in the end. Oh and Ryan Miller, i think it's a good move for the Canucks, i do but... Miller couldn't get the job done with a much better St Louis team, not sure why the Canucks gave him 6 million a year, this isn't 2010 Ryan Miller. The main difference between Winnipeg and all these free spenders is the free spenders are in a furious frenzy to get better while the Jets are willing to stick with their own guys. The result is probably the same. None of them will be serious contenders. But at least the jets save a pizzpot full o money . . . and will sell out each 'n every game plus huge merchandizing sales. The only guy I've seen at money/age that could help Jets a tiny bit was Paul Stasny. I don't think a 37 yr old Iginla could help much. Jorges might have been a good #3 d-man in Wpg but not at the money thrown at him. I'd also take a gander at James 'Smiley' Reimer and let training camp/1st 12 games decide our 1-2 goalie situation with Pavelec, Reimer and the kid from St. Johns. If you could only bank saved cap space - Chevy would be a monster in 2 or 3 years.

Starting 24 isn't that bad - but their back 20 (depth) isn't all that great. Same can be said for Bombers.

I've been chewing far less gum than 15 to 20 years ago. Recently discovered you can't buy gum in stick form - just the little tabs. And I loved the sticks. Darn. My favourite gums 1. Beemans 2. Black Jack 3. Wrigley's Spearmint 4. Wrigley's Yellow Ice 5. Double Bubble (only when its fresh, Dollarama has a 9" roll for $1 but its sometimes dried out as lots of Dollarama product is late dated) Anyone know where you can get Beemans, Black Jack or even Clove Cinammon gum in sticks, anymore?

Thats a lotta coin for burger and fries. Harveys gives you an Angus burger (bigger than 1/4 lb.) plus fries or rings + drink for less than 9 bucks. Smaller burger under 8....

Anyone tried Obby Khan's juice store in Osborne Village? I've been there twice. Once before the flood and once after. Had a smoothie first time - excellent. They use almond milk not commercial processed stuff like Booster J does. Had a Kale and Carrot concoction the 2nd time. Pure cold-pressed juice. A bit pricey but I suspect all juice bars are in the same range - $6 to $9 depending on size. Getting better reviews that Shawarma Khan....

Yes. Good signing. 7th or 8th guy who can't compete with top notch speed, skill and grit. He's good vs. low end and mediocre teams 3rd and 4th line units.

The 33,500 capacity at IGF should be perfect for when we play Saskatchewan and home playoff games. Other than those games, I agree 30,000 would have been enough. Too true and you could have installed 4,000 to 6,000 temporary grandstands to accomodate extra rider fans.

You're spot on. However, the tall foreheads who designed and built this thing (Hello, David Asper) thought 33,500 was the absolute minimum so you could install temporary seating for a Grey Cup every 10 years and get it to 43,000 or thereabouts. Don't know if you could get a 40,000+ crowd on a smaller floor-plate but yeah, 29,000 to 30,000 seems like the better idea in retrospect. Lots of folks go by the Jets template - only 15,005 seats that creates a buying frenzy. Limited supply pitted up against huge demand. Means high prices and lay down committments. In Winnipeg, you woulda had to build a 25,000 stadium to create that kind of buying tension. Sadly, poor on and off field performance last few years have set the clock back despite a fresh slate of guys on the stick. Hope they exceed 27,500/28,500 this Thursday for Hank and the Redblacks.... If only 25,000 chances of the team being in position to payback 4 million this year diminish greatly. Frankly, I don't think anyone expects the 4.5 million annual repay realistic. However, I still think the Bombers should have repaid at least $500,000 this year, hopefully 1 million this year. Don't make it $4.5 million or bust. Chip away at it on an ability to pay basis. I think fans would appreciate that vs. the bombers being labelled free-riders!

From the beginning it has always sounded as though MLSE didn't really want the Argos, just use them to get the BMO face-lift (which is now happening without the Argos involved) and eventually bringing the wet/pipe dream of the NFL. Braley has absolutely zero leverage in this, he wants to sell, nobody wants to own. IIRC there was one radio interview that I heard Commissioner Cohon even stating that they were begging/trying to convince MLSE to buy the team. Honestly considering how crappy the potential lease agreement is and knowing how much Rogers loathes the CFL it sucks that MLSE is the only option, because I could see the Argos dying quickly under them, although they're dying as is anyways. Perhaps the key is for TSN to acquiesce and give Rogers the rights to broadcast all Argo games. Wouldn't be that bad a concession, would it? Of course, Rogers would have to pick up the cash difference lost by TSN giving them Argo TV rights.

I think Chevy did a good job standing pat (for the most part) Thats his nature and he's obviously convinced Mark Chipman the Jets aren't really playoff contenders this year. I agree. Jets are one of the few NHL teams devoid of a true superstar. Schief and Trouba are both extremely promising youngstahs. Kane is a promising 23/24 yr old guy who keeps failing to live up to his potential (if its really there) Petan, Morrissey, Lowery are still a season or more away. Morrissey might be carried by the Jets as their 7th or 8th d-man and weaned into limited game action as the season progresses vs. returning him to PA. Klingburg, O'Dell, etc. might be OK as 3rd and 4th liners. Thorburn & Slater are tough grinders who don't score a ton and aren't really shut-down guys either. Slater is a good face-off guy. Wheeler can look like a superstar one game and like Joe Average the next. He's probably our best player 'til Schief fills out. Toby is Toby. Slick-wheeling d-man who can't shut down squat and doesn't score enough to warrant his high salary. Buff is Buff. Far better as a third line forward but remember he's a third line forward. Liability on defense. Not really a great player during last third of his shifts either as he tends to get gassed. Bogo owes this city a lot more in playing time and performance. Those outside Wpg are already labelling him a dud. Those in Wpg. keep hoping for more. Goal-tending with Pavs in net is average at best although the guy makes a ton of beauty saves every year.... Team is still a year away from being a year away. To steal that classic line about the Raptors 1st round draft pick (the 18 yr old Brazilian)

Burris isn't fast anymore but he's got an innate ability to slide off potential tacklers, giving them real poor angles to wrap him up. That trait allows him to get that extra second to find secondary receivers and Hank still has the good arm. Real good arm. After glancing off Hank in the backfield tacklers sometimes get real frustrated - looking for different approach angles and Hank can really ravage them. Ricky Campbell will simply tell Hank to take full advantage of Etcheverry's tendency to be over-aggressive!!!