bucbrett

After seven years of hearing from my Yankees and Phillies friends about how he was going to leave, combined with sports media's unrelenting desire for him to go east, this feels awesome.

Listening to the new Millencolin album.

Lindor is an absolute must-keep. Harper has the highest slugging pct. in the history of Citizens Bank Park. It's a park in which he should be able to improve statistically. Plus, that lineup is pretty stacked. Bauer would be the other keeper, in my opinion.

Let he who is without anal poppers, lube, syringes of GBH and Gatorade cast the first meth rock.

Boy, don't I look stupid for my optimism.

A very brief review of what happened in 2016-17: -THE EDMONTON OILERS MADE THE PLAYOFFS. It happened. I saw it with my own eyes. Not only that, but they won a playoff series vs. San Jose before bowing out in seven games against Anaheim in the second round. -Connor McDavid won the Hart Memorial Trophy, the Art Ross Trophy with a 100 point regular season, and the Ted Lindsay Award for being awesome. At least I'd like to think that's why he was awarded the Ted Lindsay Award. -Cam Talbot played 178 games. I believe that's accurate. I guess when the alternative is Jonas Gustavsson playing goaltender like Roberto Aguayo kicks, there really isn't another option. Oh, wait... there IS another option: send Gustavsson packing and bring Laurent Brossoit up from Bakersfield. Brossoit was solid in eight games played, posting a 1.99 GAA and .928 SV%. -For the first time since 2006, I did not attempt to bludgeon myself unconscious with my remote control at any point during the season. This offseason: -Jordan Eberle is traded to the NY Islanders for Ryan Strome in a trade clearly made to make some financial room. -Connor McDavid signs an 8 year, 100 million dollar contract. -Leon Draisaitl signs an 8 year, 68 million dollar contract. -FANTASTIC. Peter Chiarelli needed to get these done, and while it came at the cost of trading Eberle when his value was lowest, locking 97 and 29 up long term was priority no. 1 this offseason. Random Thoughts: -Defensemen Oscar Klefbom and Darnell Nurse need to keep progressing. Klefbom in particular showed he's a legit top-pairing guy, although being paired with Adam Larsson certainly doesn't hurt. Hopefully Nurse stays healthy all season and is a solid second pairing guy with some of that grit we hockey fans love so much. -Eric Gryba needs to suck as little as possible until Andrej Sekera returns from his torn ACL around Christmas. "I can't wait until Sekera comes back" are words I never thought I'd type, but then I remembered Eric Gryba would get regular playing time until Sekera is back. -Cam Talbot cannot start 73 games again this season. That's absolute lunacy. Chiarelli must feel Brossoit is a capable backup and although I'm just some dude who likes watching hockey and doesn't know much, I'd agree. Brossoit played well enough in his appearances last season that I believe he has earned the backup role with the big club. Now get him some time and give Cam a reasonable amount of rest. -If Kailer Yamamoto doesn't make the final cut, he most certainly will be up at some point this season. Hopefully he can put a bit more muscle on, as he's all of 5'8" and 155 -Patrick Maroon will continue to thrive on McDavid's line. I love Big Rig and hope he's the next to sign an extension. -Oscar Klefbom... still dreamy. Expectations: I'm trying really hard to keep expectations in check. Really hard. The previous ten seasons have me struggling to accept seeing success. I expect Kevin Lowe to appear at any time on my tv, flip me the double birds and scream "IT'S ALL A DREAM, BITCHES!" Then I wake up and see Connor in a Coyotes jersey and poor Hall, Yakupov, Eberle and Nugent-Hopkins looking like zombies on yet another death march to April. But let's assume that this is in fact not a dream. Conference Final is the expectation this season. I cringed a little bit while typing that because it seems so strange to have these expectations and have them be legitimate. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was on these boards claiming that the Oilers had "lowered property values in Detroit simply by playing there." Ah, memories. It's good to have hockey back. Here's to a fun season.

Amazing series. Congratulations everyone! Good luck against Nashville.

The drafting of a million forwards at the expense of defense in the days of Tambellini and McTavish was absolutely part of the problem. The blueline was horrific enough to make Devan Dubnyk look like an ECHL level goaltender as the fanbase and media inexplicably blamed him for not stopping the million scoring chances coughed up each game.

The Edmonton Oilers are in the playoffs. I'd type out a long message about how happy I am, but I think I'm just going to read those seven words over and over for a while. The Edmonton Oilers are in the playoffs!!!!!

Haven't been on in a while. I moved to Louisville four months ago. I've watched every game this year though. Amazing. Guys like Caggiula, Big Rig, Letestu contributing every night... this is special and I've said it before, but I'm so grateful to get to watch this team play this well. It seems like just yesterday I was claiming that they "lowered property values in Detroit simply by playing a game there." Here's to a solid second half! Go Oilers!

Trading Hall for Larsson and Yakupov for... nothing seemed insane at the time but thus far it's worked out well for everyone involved. Larsson has been a really nice 1st pairing with Klefbom and Hallsy is tearing it up in NJ. And Yak looks so happy to be playing in St. Louis. Seeing Yak smile is pretty cool in my book. He needed that change in scenery. Kris Russell has been well worth the flier the Oil took on him. Lucic has been worth every penny. There's been a noticeable difference in how much the younger guys get messed with compared to the past, oh, ten years. It helps when your designated tough guy can also play legit top 6 forward hockey. Also, Cam Talbot absolutely owns. This season has been so wonderful and I don't want this to stop. I'm extremely grateful for how it's started.

Hey guys, you know what's pretty neat? Seeing competitive Oilers hockey. And it's a whole week into the season!

Also, they drafted guys like Noel and Embiid that are injured and miss seasons.

This post is a template to describe multiple teams I root for.

The best concert I ever attended was The Mars Volta at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia back in 2005. I thought there was no way they'd be able to re-create the sounds of their albums live but boy, was I wrong. They played pretty much all of Del-oused in the Comatorium and Frances the Mute back-to-back.

The NHL has to want Toronto to win it. I listen to Hockey Central at Noon on Sportsnet every day and it might as well be called Leafs Central at Noon. It would probably be best for the league if that happened, honestly. I felt genuinely bad the last couple times the Oilers won it. Now I'm circling back around to wanting to see the anger and outrage because, hell, I've been miserable the last ten years watching this team. Why not get some sort of enjoyment?

NHL Draft Lottery is tomorrow. Fan rage incoming.

The name of the National Anthem singer in St. Louis is Charles Glenn.

Don't... don't say that.

I am at the tail end of the Oilers and Sixers seasons. I'm already an empty shell of a sports fan. There's no amount of failure this team could potentially achieve that I haven't already seen. I'm just gonna enjoy baseball season as much as I can.

This team sucks. Alright I'll bump this thread next year when this franchise sucks once again. I just watch out of habit at this point. My eyes kinda glaze over by mid-second period. I fell asleep last night after the Sens went up 3-1. That was cool. Also, just to save some time and so I don't have to post it in a few months- sorry guys, I know my team didn't deserve to win the lottery again. Also, I'm sorry, Auston Matthews. Pull a Lindros like Connor should have.

Bucs fired Lovie Smith. I'm sad about it. Lovie is a good man. Three coaches in five years now. I guess my team are the Browns of the NFC. Dirk Koetter better be promoted to Head Coach. If this franchise is going to make Jameis learn a new system every year like they did to Josh Freeman then they're even more stupid than I thought. In sum- those impatient Keebler Elf-looking s.o.b.'s the Glazer brothers better promote Koetter and be done with it. What a clownshow. I wish sports were fun.

Glen Sather will be honored tonight and a banner raised in his honor. Well deserved and it's overdue that the architect of the dynasty gets a banner. Oh, and the Oil is looking for their fifth straight win, all without their second line of Pouliot, McDavid and Yakupov!

The drum corps? I know of their history can't say I've ever seen them in person though.