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GoldAppleCorps

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  1. That's the way I understood it, and it makes some sense. ESPN is reporting it wrong, I think: https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/45712041/stars-trade-dumba-penguins-kolyachonok-28-draft-pick Under "Transactions", I think they've got it correct: Acquired D Vladislav Kolyachonok from Pittsburgh Penguins for D Matt Dumba and a 2028 second-round pick.
  2. I know the NHL has a salary floor as well as a cap, which leads to weird trade imbalances when some franchises actually eat salary in order to make the minimum. I mention that because, for the life of me, I can't see how the Pens would ship a perfectly functional player plus a pick to increase their PIMs.
  3. That was absolutely a handled ball in the area that should have been a PK. No excuse for brushing that away. Saying that, Mexico controlled the game. The US back line just gives away possession. Tim Ream was the only decent passer. Everyone else simply had no idea where to go with the ball once they won a defensive battle. Just booting the ball upfield would have been annoying, but less dangerous than simply fumbling it back to Mexico in their attacking 3rd. Several times, I saw clearing passes that were lazily aimed into the middle to no one in particular. Mexico happily collected these and recycled their attack. For the 2nd game in a row, I saw an opponent dribble around 3 stationary defenders - each of whom made no attempt whatsoever to stop the goal. Conversely, the US attack needs to purge themselves of the Berhalter ball safety and stop trying to pass the ball into the net. The other team just isn't going to move out of the way and let them do it. The USA defused their own dangerous chances by quickly cycling the ball back out and retreating into their half to slowly begin to switch fields. Losing possession in a feckless attempt is bad soccer, but never pressing the issue won't lead to goals. The 2-1 result was fair given the totality of play. The USMNT got some options for roster building. Nobody declared themselves as absolutely the starter, but several should be 1a options that, over the course of a tournament, will help manage the workload. A competent manager should be able to mix and match these skill sets, combined with the missing first teamers, to game plan against opponents.
  4. Could Luna's "hamster mode" be the key to unlocking the bunker defense? Much like a hockey power play facing a diamond or a college basketball team playing a 2-3 sagging zone, the temptation is to get stagnant and just pass the ball around the perimeter until someone throws one up out of sheer boredom. You break these defenses with creative movement, winning an individual battle, and capitalizing when the defense reacts in a panic to the havoc. Against Saudi Arabia, the US backs were turning and passing backwards before they even fully collected the entry. It's a "safe" defeat because you retain possession, but you let your less talented opponent conserve energy and dictate pace. Diego Luna seems like he's eager to cause disruption.
  5. I think we might have to consider that whatever attacked the Stars with around 2 weeks to go in the regular season wasn't a fluke. It was what the team had really become. They managed to bow up and gut out two series, but couldn't match the quality of the Oilers. We just never saw thew total team play that we were used to.
  6. So, combining all these thoughts in a hand-waving way: DeBoer had lost a lot of love in the locker room. Dallas is going to need to roll with a lot of their Texas Stars talent. While that should be a deeper than most pool, having a coach familiar with those players (and his assistant) might be the best available scenario. While I believe the Stars have a ton of talent in the club, it should be obvious that the team hopes to build around Rantanan. He's a foundational player, so that's a good thing. I don't know a ton about him personally, but he appeared to react negatively to arriving in Carolina. I'm hoping he wasn't counting on some of the things in Dallas that have changed to stay the same.
  7. Granlund has value, but not the value he was going to ask for. This is likely his last big contract, so he had to maximize it. Even if Dallas had the space, I don't see offering $7mil per year. Faksa at $3mil per year is a good deal. The Stars have a ton of young players who are ready to show their mettle in the NHL. Keeping old guys around clogging up the roster risks becoming the late 80s Dallas Cowboys where greybeards hung around just out of nostalgia.
  8. So we're likely to get another test of the Concacaf kryptonite where the opposition bunkers 10 men behind the ball, fouls you as soon as you cross the halfway, and waits to see if you can bash the ball interior? To be fair, waiting to take advantage of the 3 or 4 times per match when our back line starts scrolling Instagram on their phones and ignoring the ball seems like a valid strategy. Our side knows what's coming. The fact they they have heretofore not shown any tactical inclination to to crack that stagnant defense pisses me off to no end.
  9. I'll just admit that I'm not overly familiar with hockey coaches. I just don't have a list of "up and coming" assistants or anyone that I'm wanting. Any name I recognize is going to be a retread - that is, largely someone else's problem from last year. If Jim thinks Gulutzan is ready, that sounds reasonable to me. When I look at the Stars likely roster, it's hard for me to ask for a better one (I guess that's good, since there's no cap space). I'd like a Pat Maroon type player to move around the opponent's D on power plays, but other than that, there's a ton of exciting pieces. For whatever reason, DeBoer's act obviously wasn't resonating with the group any more.
  10. From what I understand, the Benn contract has a $1mil cap hit for 2025 no matter what. The bonuses, if/when earned, get forwarded to the 2026 cap.
  11. Benn's bonuses are basically earning an extra $500k for every 20 games he manages to stay alive.
  12. As I recall, the Texas defense basically spread out in a long line. They declined to pursue upfield, simply waited at the LOS, and settled for tackling Martinez for no gain. It soon became apparent that he simply didn't have any other dimension to his game.
  13. Sounds like we can expect a deal for Benn shortly. Probably not much more than what he was making, on a shorter term. I'd also be very surprised if Granlund weren't retained. Which starts the tough questions. Did Cody Ceci do enough? He was a necessary addition to the D (as a righty) with Heiskenen out, but what's his upper limit? Does Dallas keep both him and Nils Lundquist? Brendan Smith acquitted himself decently, but what's his market?
  14. To be clear, that's not "Auckland FC". That's "Auckland City FC". Auckland FC is a professional organization that plays in the top tier A-League in Australia (they're based in New Zealand). Auckland City FC is an amateur organization akin to your city league teams (give or take). The ownership of the professional Auckland FC is also the ownership of several other competing clubs. There's a lot of handwaving, but essentially international rules prevent owners of multiple clubs from having those clubs in tournaments. Thus, Auckland City FC ended up playing the Bundesliga champions with predictable results.
  15. Remember Fox Sports Southwest and all those type things when you had cable? They used to show less-than-interesting college games and other stuff? A lot of replays and last week's games. They were the home of the Stars and Rangers (and probably the Mavericks, but I don't care for pro bball). I'll spare you the saga of the monopoly-divesting-I-wanna-buy-ESPN stuff, but those networks got sold to Sinclair Media (political rant not included) who stuck them into Ballys. Ballys was a network that old people got on their cable networks when they couldn't figure out streaming. Since you can't make a profit off Feen-A-Mint commercials any more, that whole thing collapsed largely under the weight of the regional Diamond Media contracts that supported the Rangers and Stars. Once the courts were sufficiently assured that no one was coming to bail out Diamond, the NHL and MLB were glad to get those properties back to the franchises to do as they will. What they did was contract with a stand-alone app called "Victory+". It isn't a channel on your cable box. It's an app. They have native apps (you download and run them directly on your device) for Android, iOS, AppleTV, Roku, Amazon's FireOS (Firesticks and such), Samsung, and LG's WebOS (finally). Last season, the app worked great to stream Dallas Stars hockey, who chose to make it available for free (no guarantee they'll do it again next season, but hey). Obviously there's still advertisement breaks as usual. The Texas Rangers charged $99 for a season's worth. I don't usually watch much MLB, but the son-in-law is a fan, so I'm sure it'll come up. Download the app to your smart TV or device. Registration was painless, and I'm not getting spammed.
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