IPv6Freely

I was reading an article about the idea of additional teams in some sort of play-in so they can jump straight to playoffs when the season resumes. https://www.tsn.ca/mapping-out-a-potential-24-team-nhl-postseason-1.1457692 I have a different idea that would be super easy to implement that would actually be even shorter. A 70 game regular season. Hear me out. Changing to a 70 game regular season would eliminate all but the bubble teams. Start with the easier East. If you make it a 70 game season, you have these for standings: All of the Atlantic bubble teams are out, so you have three teams for two spots since the divisions are already decided. You just have Carolina and NYI play twice (home and home?). And you have Washington play Philly for the division (PIT cant catch them so no reason for them to play 70). Done. Easy peasy. Now let's look at the more complicated West: Some teams have played 71 games. So, for the purpose of STANDINGS ONLY, eliminate the last result from those teams. StL, Vegas, Winnipeg were wins so subtract 2 points. Edmonton was a loss, so they stay the same. So you end up with: From there, you can just have the four remaining teams with 69 GP play their closest geographical team (NSH @ DAL, MIN @ VAN - home team based on 69 GP standings). So that means you could easily wrap up a play-in in two days if all these games happen the same night (and the second CAR/NYI game happens the next night). And you're not doing any weird 24-team playoff crap. I think the only ones who would really complain about it would be those teams who were automatically eliminated immediately, but its not like they didn't have the same opportunity as everyone else. Thoughts?

My former team is forfeiting tonight’s game and not showing up.

Ours is still open. We just got an email that the rooms will be sanitized between games and to keep gloves on in the handshake lines. Yet our softball leagues, a sport which requires just about zero physical contact with other people, have been canceled. It honestly makes little sense for them to continue.

To be fair, it’s not doing anything that the rest of the economy isn’t also doing.

I have trouble with my skates after pants too. Some rinks worse than others (a lower bench in the dressing room makes it way easier). I was definitely doing the two bottle thing for quite a while. Like you said, one water (more ends up on me than in me), gatorade (that I actually drink), and yeah definitely something for on the way home.

I don't think I'd use intermediate gear (unless you need size 32 leg pads) though my glove was made with intermediate internals because I have small hands. They recommended I not use intermediate internals in my blocker though after using it for a couple years I think I wish I had done so.

Nice! Have fun. And don't try to kill yourself out there. The first pickup I ever played in the guy who runs it said to not even go down very much. Just get used to the skates, the shuffle, the angles, and having people firing pucks at you. I might even ask them if they could try to take shots from a distance and not try to deke you out of your jock for your first go. But whatever you feel comfortable with. Consider bringing a second water bottle - you may need it! Have fun 😄

My wife has Fibromyalgia.

Gorgeous.

Batting last in the order and sitting every inning when our team is fielding is totally my idea of a fun beer league softball game. Glad I drove the hour+ in rush hour traffic to get there!

To clarify, yes there is an event hotel with a special rate. While it’s not strictly REQUIRED to stay there, you can potentially really jam up JR if you don’t.

Wow, really? And it was actually made oversized for goalie steel 😆

What about the MSH pouch?

If its a place you haven't been to I would suggesting coming in on Wednesday so you can do the tourist thing and explore. There's usually at least a couple other MSH'ers around. In Pittsburgh we went to a Pirates game and the Warhol museum, for example.

So this is True's non-custom retail model? I wonder how well they fit. I'd likely be happy with non-custom on something with the mold-ability of the Mako.

I'm out this year unfortunately 😞

Well, the season finished yesterday. I haven't played in that league since September I think. I've played in maybe 3-4 pickup games since then, as well as Winterfest. I also subbed for a league game at the other (20 minutes closer) rink. I definitely miss playing. I've been tracking my old league. The top three scorers all had more than double the goals of the person in 4th place. I get beer league stats don't matter but when it's THAT glaring... yikes. I had an email exchange with the league director as I was trying to figure out what to do: Me: Him: Me: Him: Okay, so theoretically that should make the decision easy. I asked the director (who I have a good relationship with) to try to find me a team for their next season, but he wasn't able to before this one finished so I had to make a decision. I had played in the Anaheim Ducks Throwback Classic tournament (that we won our division) and that was great, and had a bunch of guys from my old team. They all said the same thing - that the league was broken, that the director doesn't care and won't fix it, and that they are considering switching to the other rink full-time. They said it could all be fixed if the director ever actually watched one of the games (and saw how ridiculous it is to have a guy skate around dangling everyone, going right to the net, and then deciding to NOT shoot because he knows it would go in and wants to pass it off to one of the other guys to score instead - as if that makes the eventual goal less irritating). But they got rid of the D4 division there so either these guys play in our division or he loses their money which obviously he's not gonna do. So anyway, today I got a text from the captain. He said they all talked after the season ended last night and decided that everyone is going to be in for one more season to see if things get better since apparently they're just going to give us a couple D4-level guys so we can be competitive. I don't think THAT'S the solution but at least it makes it more eve, I guess. I asked him if the guys I played in the tournament were going to play this season too because they were considering leaving, and he said he was considering leaving too, but they all decided to give it one more shot. So from the sounds of it, if things go to shit again, he's planning on moving the entire team to the other rink (again, 20 minutes closer to me), so that's actually kind of the best case scenario for me. So... I agreed to join them. Because if it sucks again then I get to stay with them when they move. If it doesn't suck, then it doesn't suck. I think just about the only major downside is I've taken up softball and now play that Sunday mornings. So my Sundays are basically 100% shot now. But... I have an MRI next monday for a suspected labrum tear in my throwing shoulder so my short lived adult softball career may be over pretty quickly. So then it won't matter anyway. As for other life stuff... my job just gets worse by the day, and I can't relocate to take another job so I'm stuck. I think that's the most frustrating part. It also always blows my mind how many people are able to just up and relocate when they have a spouse. How? Do they not work too? I've also gained a shit ton of my weight back, 50lbs of the 70 I lost initially. And eating like crap. And haven't been doing much hiking. And my wife's health isn't great either so it's really difficult for me to find the energy to do anything. I kind of want to buy some new pads or skates or something. That might boost the excitement to play a bit. We'll see how it goes.

I think I’m going to go get scanned for new goalie skates. Does anyone have experience at either Pure Hockey in Anaheim or Hockey Monkey in Irvine? It’s about an hour away either way. I just want to make sure the fitters are competent and they use the correct techniques when baking.

Can you PM me pictures of the RBZ shoulders? Both in general and of any wear spots, if any. Thank you!

Not quite, it was actually a 3-way deal. But that’s beside the point of your post. He pretty much immediately posted his pad mockup, maybe an hour after? It was pretty damn quick either way. They look pretty awesome. Lehner always has great looking pads.

Yes, Frontier sucks.

Okay guys leave the VT stuff in that thread. We don’t need to rehash why it’s meaningless every time it gets brought up

I assume you have permission from Bauer to be posting that here?

I’ve had mine for almost 5 years and have had no issues. Just some normal wear.

That's also one of their biggest problems, from a retail perspective.