Skipper

What in the absolute hell was that. Mavs did not show up remotely ready for playoff basketball. Embarrassing.

Yeah, I don't think you can take much away from the early games. Have not played in '24 and really different teams. I was at the game they smoked us. It was just one of those games. Saturday afternoon game where our entire team looked hungover and Otter had a god awful first period. It was just one of those games every team has similar to the March NJ debacle. They are a solid team, and yes, they will get Stone back which helps, but we are a better team. If Otter plays well we should win the series. Even with the crazy run we've had we haven't had too many games where top 3 lines have all had solid nights. More than anything that speaks to the depth as 3rd line has been our best line the last month and the 4th line has played great. If we can get Robo/Roope/Pavelski + Duchene/Seguin back on top of their game we'll smoke them.

I'll be there. Pretty livid we couldn't even get a Sunday game. This is now, at a minimum, 12 straight home playoff games played on weeknights. Then they give us the shit start times again at that. Such a great reward for the 1 seed. NHL just doesn't give a fuck about anyone outside of the east coast or original 6.

Game 1 is Sunday (time TBD)

In other news, Stone is back practicing for the Astros of the NHL no doubt magically ready to play right at puck drop of game 1 and not a minute before.

Low energy in the building last night which somewhat translated to the ice last night. Those guys play great defense. I felt like if we could have got one of those to go in the 2nd when we had several chances (including off the iron I thought was in and bounced out from my angle but clearly didn't) it might have opened things up a bit, but that's hockey. Tough to beat any team 4X in a row much less a team that solid. Let's just win Saturday.

Definitely were outplayed at the start which is to be expected coming off such a Big W against a team fighting to stave off formal elimination. Thought we played a pretty solid 2nd and 3rd period overall but some sloppy D at times. Otter played well after giving up that incredibly soft goal. Let's win Thurs then manage minutes and let the chips fall.

Yep. With the way the West is this year, home ice for game 7 is really all that matters to tilt the odds slightly in your favor knowing you are going to have a hell of a path regardless. I mean from an odds standpoint, I'm not sure there would be much difference between Jets/Preds/Kings/Knights in round 1. Getting the Knights in a potential 1/8 game might be the worst odds considering their pedigree and fact that they will likely be magically healthy 12 days from now. It will be a tough series regardless but I think I still have a slight lean towards playing the Kings/Preds/Jets/Knights in that order.

If you listen to Duchene interviews on the Ticket, he's stated multiple times their goals are #1 the division and #2 the West and not really focused on the President's cup. I like the philosophy that you want to have the opportunity to play a game 7 to get to the finals at home, then if you actually make it, decent chance you still have home ice if you end up with a top 2 or 3 record. Ideally you don't finish behind all of NY, Boston and Carolina, but I think in a perfect world, we have clinched the west before the game Saturday and then manage/rest as needed to get ready for the playoffs. More important to start the playoffs relatively rested and healthy than pushing for the top 1 or 2 record.

Like others said, that beat expectations. Had a cloud pop in front just before totality started but then broke away about 30 seconds into it so got the rest. Truly badass.

I thought about going to the game yesterday. Went from being very happy with that decision for 99% of the game to regretting it. Crazy finish. Hopefully can lock in that top 6 spot quickly and get Luka and others some rest.

Got it. So they would have us in RW then. Looks like 4 it is.

Never change Helobious. Hell - even the partial eclipse last year was pretty damn cool.

I assumed it was head to head and know that the Avs have us there.

Magic number to clinch the division is 4 points.

Last 7-8 mins of the 2nd period was great stuff last night. The AAC had something pretty damn close to a playoff atmosphere for a late start weeknight game. Still a lot of work to do but last night got me fired up about the playoffs (and good reminder of why we bought season tix despite losing our ass on resales for most regular season weeknight games we didn't attend). Otter looked great and if he can give us games like last night I like our chances against anyone. He had some good luck with a few shots that struck iron but that's a damn good team. Obviously a huge game coming up Sunday but can't slip Saturday leading into that. Colorado has their hands full heading into that game with a back-to-back starting tonight against Minn then Edmonton. Would be great if they drop one. Fun time of year.

A post from 10/28? Really? Wasn't that around the time of start of the Israeli invasion? At some point Israel crossed a line but it certainly wasn't in October by my view. But we're venturing out of current news territory bringing up old posts so I'll leave it at that.

I could definitely buy a rogue military actor or faction doing this intentionally. I don't know if I would say that is more likely than gross negligence but it also would not surprise me if that were determined to be the case. But that isn't what some are arguing that drew my reaction. Brisket stated, declaratively, Israel is "purposefully pursuing a campaign of genocide, and the attack on WCK was knowing and intentional, in furtherance of that goal." I read that as implying proper chain of command.

I'll add this quote from a Senior US counterterrorism official per the WSJ article linked above sums up what I think the most likely explanation is. I.e., Gross Negligence “The team either ignored their own protocols or, over the course of the war, prewar protocols had been dropped nearly entirely,” said the former official, referring to the military’s rules of engagement that define how and when force can be used.

So the position of Brisket, Wildcat and others is that it is more likely than not that someone high up the chain of command, as a military decision/strategy, decided to intentionally pre-clear a path for a Jose Andres aid convoy with the goal of luring them in to then take them out on the basis that it would likely result in a reduction of future aid in furtherance of the goal of complete genocide of the Palestinian people. And that with that any potential backlash from the West was either miscalculated or deemed an acceptable consequence. If that's where you guys are at, we'll just agree to disagree.

That's a stretch. I know you are prone to emotional posting lately, and I expect if from many in this thread that primarily spend their time elsewhere, but the absolute most idiotic thing the IDF could do to accomplish any fucking goal (including genocide if that is your position) is target a fucking Jose Andres caravan. I didn't watch any news last night but it was all over the news this AM as I expected. Biden issued his strongest statement yet. Again, I think it will be a turning point as it relates to mainstream western position on this war including future assistance Israel clearly needs from the West. So given the above, all ramifications clearly foreseeable from anyone involved in military strategy, I won't be convinced this was "ordered" from the highest level of the IDF absent clear evidence. Again, gross negligence, a flawed (perhaps intentionally) combat operations process that shows a blatant disregard for collateral damage, sure. But a definitive statement it was "knowing and intentional attack on the WCK" is a stretch. Maybe for most the line between gross negligence/intentional disregard for civilian casualties vs. intentional attack on WCK doesn't matter but if we're all going to spend time discussing this then I think there is a distinction.

We were a wild card team in 2019. Were definitely the underdog in that Blues series but almost pulled it off. That was a good 2 round run with great games. I was at that 2016 game 7 beatdown. It was my birthday and I drug my wife (who was pregnant with our first). I had a lot more fun pregame than she did. And then nobody had fun once the game started LOL. Should be a good one tonight but HATE the late starts. I guess better get ready for it with playoffs around the corner. Either fortunately or unfortunately I have enough work to do that I'm just staying downtown until gametime.

Agreed. Why I noted I feel like this may be eventually looked at as a turning point a page or 2 back. Back to the strike itself and some of the subsequent posts, I don't think anyone is debating whether the decision to pull the trigger on this convoy was intentional. I thought that was pretty damn clear based on initial reporting. The debate was whether the IDF pulled the trigger with the actual knowledge it was a f'n Jose Andres aid convoy. I still find that highly doubtful. But I also think it's clear this would then fall into the category of gross negligence. Which in and of itself is unacceptable and, to your point, pretty much removes any rational observer from continuing to give Israel the benefit of the doubt with other non-military targets.

If their actual goal is a complete genocide of the inhabitants of the entire region, this would still be an idiotic decision in furtherance of that goal. Because of the barbaric nature of the October attack, Israel and their methods were going to get the benefit of the doubt from a majority of the West. I mean pretty much anyone that was old enough to be emotionally impacted from 9/11 will probably always carry some level of bias when it comes to conflicts with Islamic terrorists. And collateral damage can be explained at some level when you have terrorists hiding among civilians. But the lack of civilian aid was already a growing narrative and now the high profile nature of this attack is going to make a lot of people that might have given the IDF the benefit of the doubt question WTF is going on. The reality is a very small percentage of Americans pay as much attention to this conflict as those that read this thread. But everyone that watches the news tonight will know about and remember this.

Occam's razor says it is unintentional because it would be an absolutely idiotic military strategy otherwise considering the need for western support. The PR hit from this incident will likely be worse than a wayward bomb hitting a school and killing 100 elementary kids. It's going to be a massive news story. Everyone knows Jose Andres. Voters on both sides of the aisle go to his restaurants. There are probably large donors on both sides of the aisle that donate to this specific aid organization. Hell, Andres could probably request and obtain a sit down with Biden this week over this incident if he wants. It's a high profile concrete example of what Israel critics have been saying about the way they are conducting this war that can't be easily explained away. I'm not going to be surprised at all if we look back at this months from now and see this as a turning point in this conflict.