Sodboy13

Front and goddamned center. I'm just going to assume the team's giving Patrick free reign in South Bend tonight, because, screw it, the tickets are sold already, right? UPDATE: Erie County DA's office going beyond leaking; four sources gushing to The Buffalo News that Kane's DNA was found on the victim and under her fingernails, but not inside her. Call off the grand jury, bring on the lovely parting gifts for our victim, this is never going to trial.

Patrick Kane will be available for the media's hockey-related questions again today. If this is McDonough's idea of putting him in the stocks and punishing him, he obviousky doesn't realize how oblivious he's making the whole organization look in this.

No press conference. Prepared, written statement. At the end of it, "There will be no questions taken on the matter, as we as an organization defer to the ongoing investigation." Done. There's no "good" way to handle this, but Jeezus, Blackhawks, stop going out of your way to actively make yourselves look worse.

Let's all appreciate the questions together, shall we?

Yeah, I've seen a few female Kane defenders, though I try to steer clear of the froth, just because it always ends up being sad/infuriating/garbage. The defense line is always "We don't know all the facts yet!", which is convenient, because unless someone magically had their smartphone recording for several hours straight, yeah, we're never going to have all the facts. Just physical evidence that's very open to interpretation, and the accounts of two people who were under the influence of alcohol, at least one of whom has a vested interest in all the facts not coming out. Thusly, why it's so hard to get a guilty verdict in a rape case. Anyway, sex assault or not, this past month has taught me that Patrick Kane is a drunk hole and the Blackhawks are buffoons if they knew he was still being a drunk hole regularly and offered him a max contract anyway because at least he was keeping it quiet this time around. Sports!

Yeah, the emotionless cost/benefit analysis here apparently says having one of the world's 5 best offensive players active outweighs maybe a couple dozen people returning their tickets (or better yet, reselling them on the official NHL Ticket Exchange) and unloading their jerseys. Ben Roethlisberger didn't even do short-term damage to the Steelers, after all. Plus, there's language in the CBA regarding training camp attendance that can be interpreted as tying the Hawks' hands here. I don't want to cheer for a Blackhawks team with Patrick Kane on it, but I also don't have any money to spend on the Blackhawks, so my feelings on the matter don't mean dogcrap.

Maybe it's that charges haven't been filed yet. I don't know, everything from every angle on this is such a goddamned mess.

Oh hey Patrick Kane's reporting to training camp Friday and is on the roster yeah everything's perfectly fine also we will be taking no questions from the media this season.

I saw zpqw... er, Aaron, post this one on Twitter: Slava Voynov's been training at the Kings' facilitues during his jail term, and the Kings claim it's totally okay because it's a work release program. Send his ass to Russia on a rocket, and strap Dean Lombardi in along for the ride. http://www.latimes.com/sports/kings/la-sp-0904-kings-voynov-20150904-story.html

It's also that the most vocal Coyotes fans have nearly always been out-of-town stereotypical teabaggers who don't want the gubmint overseeing or regulating any facet of their existence, but also demand that said gubmint barf up welfare to keep their hockey team afloat.

Don Waddell is still allowed to be in charge of something hockey-related? Christ, once you're in this league, it really is an endless fall upward.

Only if there's a nebulous, overcapitalized tech company named Snowflake.

I'm perfectly fine with the AHL basically operating as two leagues until the Finals. It's the reality of it operating as three leagues, one of which gets its own set of rules that potentially has an adverse impact on one of the other two leagues, that burns my biscuits.

The Wolves have no interconference games, which, hey, that's perfectly fine! But they also have zero games against the Special Snowflakes, which means they're spending the entire season in a 10-team league.

Thirteen of the San Jose Barracuda's home games will be doubleheaders with the Sharks. Enjoy Broken Ankle Saturday Nights at SAP Center, Sharks fans!

You make excellent points that I hadn't considered regarding the TV money. Given the repeated articles I've read about the looming RSN bubble, it seems like you'd have to have a network ready and in place that you could grab your cash from, pronto. I think Cox has a presence in Vegas, and they run an RSN in New Orleans for the Pelicans, so maybe there could be a similar setup.

I don't think you get how currency conversion works.I do. That was my point. Fork over a billion loonies before the price goes up or your currency goes down, Quebecor. Or, you can try booking 250 nights of your new arena and charging NHL prices for Remparts games.

I just don't think they "deserve" an NHL team like they feel they do. Neither did Winnipeg, and they're still a more feasible outpost than QC in 2015. I'm sure they will do financially fine if awarded, but putting the NHL back in Quebec isn't righting some long-standing hockey injustice. And given how the current state of affairs came about, I'm all for the NHL jacking up the admission fee for them as possible. Oh, you don't think charging US$800M when your dollar is worth only 75¢ is fair when we let Vegas in for only $500M? Well, maybe you shouldn't have chased out the English and built a taxpayer-funded arena on spec. Plus, as much as Winnipeg fans have tried to make Jets 2.0 The Cardinal Way of hockey (minus the banners), I get the impression Nordiques Nation would actually be worse.

Winnipeg was in the Southeast for two seasons. No one's saying Quebec would permanently be in the Ouest. More importantly, no one's saying Quebec is getting a franchise.

In fairness, we had nearly a decade of an NFC West with San Francisco, St. Louis, New Orleans, Atlanta, and Carolina, plus a quarter-century of Cincinnati and Atlanta being NL West teams, despite there being 5 teams west of Cincinnati when this alignment was set.Sports aren't always spot-on with the geography. Also, let's all laugh at the Canadians extolling the virtues of a 32-team NHL completely rejiggered to feature an 8-team Canadian division, because finally, hockey's homeland could have a chance to make the Conference Final on a regular basis.

It's been determined to be a successful business model. Shut down for half a season, or even a full one, the players eventually agree to concessions (pro tip: add in a few demands you never expected to get to gjve the false appearance of compromise), and no matter how wise the fans and press get to your scheme (don't worry, most will still blame the players anyway!), you can expect record attendance and revenue on the other side.

Derek Stepan's new contract pays him $5 million in 2020-21. $3 million of it is structured as a signing bonus, designed as insurance against an expected lockout that season. Five years away, and everyone already knows.

Thankfully, they abandoned their original plan for "Girls Night", with the front of the jersey featuring the scene where Alison Williams receives analingus at the kitchen sink.

Honest-to-God fun fact I learned earlier this week: The current city manager and chief of police in Ferguson, Missouri came there from Glendale. Great to see that place on the right track! Let me stop you right there for a second.

City of Glendale and IceArizona have reached a compromise, and will announce a deal to keep Pointless Coyotes Hockey at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar And Grill And Debt-Saddled Arena for two more dreadful seasons, as we all slog on to the inevitable ends of our respective barely-tolerable existences. EDIT: Get a load of the Henry Clays in Glendale, giving up all arena revenue from Coyotes games *and* handing the team a guaranteed $6.5 million a year. Compromise! http://www.foxsports.com/arizona/story/glendale-to-vote-on-amended-lease-agreement-with-coyotes-072315