z3r0s

Next week is also in advance of his court hearing which I thought was the 23rd

'tis better to have played and lost, then to have never left the first round at all poetry.

and he pretty much HAS to use his player option at this point. Unless they can void the contract somehow

Believable and 'I legitimately think' are different things. If you are looking for my personal opinion (which won't be based on much, I wasn't tracking it at the time) A month+ doesn't seem reasonable to me, but I wouldn't be shocked if it somehow came out that he was well ready 2 weeks before the end of the season. The team said we could activate you now, but we're going to lose player X, Y, and Z for the playoffs. They had the playoffs locked up at that point, so he agreed he would 'continue to build up'. I think that scenario is pretty much just as believable as him actually being ready exactly for day 1 of the playoffs. But once again, the 'LTIR conspiracy' isn't even the crux of the argument. The 'spirit of the cap' part really seems to be the root of it.

This is totally believable, but I think its just as believable that they kept him on the shelf for a while so they didn't have to deal with the cap repercussions. If this had happened in the middle of the year, they would have had to.

Didn't they have basically the same debate over Patrick Kane a few years ago? I thought I heard something about the Leafs a year or two ago, but nobody cared b/c they had their typical exit. An issue is always going to be louder when in potentially 'matters'. I don't want any cap, but if you are playing under one, why is it different in the playoffs? Its rewarding teams for having fortuitous luck with LTIR timing and setting up a situation where people may abuse it by keeping a dude on the shelf for an extra few weeks near the end of a season.

There is pretty much a zero percent chance his career is over. Unless he like... went to jail for 10 years or something

It actually boggles my mind that anyone could say that this is clearly untrue. It could be true or false, but its certainly not out of the realm. Guy was legit hurt, nobody reasonable disputes this Guy had been skating in practice for a long time (like months?) Lightning basically had a playoff spot wrapped up at this point, no rush to get him back Brought back pretty much immediately after Stamkos could be put on LTIR for roughly the same cap hit I'm not saying its true or untrue, but its certainly a believable thing that could have happened to circumvent the cap. If it WAS true, it would be 'cheating', but that kind of cheating where you can't prove it at all, so it doesn't really matter. None of the above says anything relevant about the contention that the cap should apply in the playoffs as it does in the regular season. I don't really have a dog in this fight. I'm not mad about it, I don't like the cap to start with, I don't even really care about hockey anymore. But I do find it odd how many people are so willing to hand wave this away as just a conspiracy, even when that doesn't really address the core of the argument on the other side.

People (not me, I'll save my argument for no cap) are arguing that this status quo is not in the spirit of the cap. I don't see (but honestly don't really look) people saying they are procedurally cheating. I have seen people say they are 'cheating' by keeping players on LTIR beyond when they are actually injured. This isn't the same thing as saying they faked the injury from the get-go to game the cap system, just extended it at the end when the playoffs were assured anyway. This is theoretically cheating, as you are suppose to active guys from LTIR as soon as they are able to play, but pretty much impossible to prove anyway. I would imagine the vast majority of people in that second camp are really saying the spirit of the cap is not being served by the current structure. I don't get the conspiracy angel other than that it is being driven by fans/players of the losers. Just because it might be driven by bitter losers, doesn't mean it doesn't have merit. Bitter losers can have legit points.

This is just an argument that cap's shouldn't exist (which I agree with). But if the idea is that teams should have equal dollars of talent on the ice to keep things balanced, it makes no sense to me that this would be thrown out in the playoffs. fwiw the idea equal dollars = equal talent is laughable for a ton of reasons, but that seems to be the idea behind the cap.

I think hockey has been considerably worse since they introduced a cap. But if you are going to have a cap, why would you not have it apply to the playoffs? Call it crafty, call it lucky, call it circumventing, call it cheating, call it whatever you want. It's odd to me that a team can have 2 additional highly paid players where other teams don't have the option. It seems an easy loophole to fix, so why not just do it? Full disclosure, I'm a Habs fan, but I don't really give a s*** about hockey these days so maybe that cancels out some of my bias.

my gawd that graph is awesome

You're right, he basically useless. Send him my way for a few thirds. It's an easy win for you.

wut

yeah boi, go Hab's go!

4 walks yesterday! They're scared of him

"Seems like a good trade piece with how far down the depth chart he is" - Most of us, me included. Good thing we didn't

ah, tanks!

SWR only IP tonight, any deets?

I've got France kicking around on my bench.

well sheeet, I've only been watching since MVP Baseball 2005

I wouldn't say Kikuchi has been terrible.

did that imply we're rebuilding?

Malta says hello!!! j/k Claim didn't make sense to me on first blush, but I guess if you are talking about 1st doses only sure. Not that I think it necessarily a bad strategy in a case of limited supply, but we aren't doing so hot in terms of both dose rate.

yeah I picked the Rays at #1, but honestly, I figure that's a one sided rivalry. Choose BAL next b/c f*** those guys, then split the rest between the Yanks and Sox. Also considered TEX, but I think that's done No clear rivals for us honestly.