overthere

McJesus comes to Edmonton..... I don't know if the Nicholson appointment will have any big or quick impact on the Old Boys. His main job is going to be getting major revenue happening for the new arena. The Oilers make money, but the new buidling (open for fall 2016) has some work ahead to steal all the existing and future business from Rexall Place. Rexall is a really busy concert facility, "second busiest arena in Canada, fifth busiest in North America, and 23rd busiest arena in the world" Nicholson will be tasked with making Rexall have a market share of zero, and getting all the other aspects of the new Edmonton arena making money. I hope that MacTavish has the wit and spine to get the best coach for the Oilers. Nelson is OK and nice man, but is he the best coach available? Nobody here has any faith that MacT will do it. mainly because the OBC does not want any dissenting voices or strong personalities competing with theirs. What he needs to do is get a goalie, a real goalie, and about five NHL caliber defence.

Or the debt, isn't it around $300 billion now? That is an awesome and startling number. How can the province begin to hope to pay that down, like ever?

You have to be lucky to win 4 best out of seven game series. It's completely random after all.

The luckiest team always wins. I learned that here.

I've been driving Hondas for a while, and my skills and array of tools are both getting rusty. I recognize that VWs are fun to drive, but for my wallet and my experience they are far too expensive to buy and constantly fix. Never again. I would not even bother checking them for the next purchase.

Perhaps we wouldn't have such a high rate of divorce if we got Jesus and hormones and gender and love and the business aspects of what we now call marriage in their proper perspectives.

There would not be teams in Edmonton, Wiinipeg, Calgary or Ottawa without the cap and perhaps 7 or 8 in the US gone too. Bullshit. Without cost control introduced by the cap, they'd be as dead as that lump between your ears No, you don't get to shift the goalposts by starting to yap about stadiums now. Of course arenas are built for tenants like pro hockey and basketball teams, who take up a nice chunk of the available nights on a regular basis . But they fill their pockets the majority of the time via concerts, religious events. sales events, MMA fights, rodeos, and whatever their community pays for. I know you're angry about being wrong about who pays for the Vegas arena, but you'll get over it. Now you're just being childish. Stop pouting and pretending hockey is not on the Las Vegas NHL agenda....Here is just one of many links talking about it....http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/nhl-to-las-vegas-looking-more-like-a-done-deal/article23471555/ I know how reluctant you are to be right, so I'll quote the relevant bit for you:

selling more beer?

I've given up on them entirely. I used to enjoy owning and driving VW until they got so massively overpriced, unreliable and horribly expensive to fix the frequent repairs. In North America, I think they are a company that has really lost track of their market.

I enjoyed Ron Wilsons frankness about the Leafs a few weeks ago. He was ranting about how much he liked every loss. Not often do you get that kind of honesty from a former coach, and aren't the Leafs still paying both him and Carlyle?

How does Ontario sell 60% and keep majority ownership? Are 12 packs considered dangerous, or need some kind of special handling in ON?

We would be better served if marriage was a purely religious ceremony and completely optional, reserved solely for those who follow a faith. Everybody that makes a formalized partnership of one of more partners of any combo of genders should be obliged to register a contract of union in a public civil ceremony, a binding domestic arrangement. It would have sections about shared finances, excluded finances, provision for maintenance of children, and satisfy the tax man as to the specific intentions of the parties. If you wish to also have some kind of church thing, have at it after the civil union is ratified. The state should stay out of the optional religious ceremony.

Just what the media are reporting...... Do you think they are part of the vast conspiracy involving the RCMP, Crown prosecutors, Harper and all the media to invent the Senate spending guidelines so as to get Duffy off? Actually PEI has been guaranteed four Senators since 1864. Harper engineered that too. You must have a pretty wild imagination to think that Harper approves anybodys expense claims.

It's their choice, there are minimum and maximum salary ranges, which has transformed the game, forced parity, enabled many more teams to survive- especially small market teams including most of the Canadian teams. They'd all be gone without the cap. In the past, big market teams simply bought the best free agents. Have you forgotten the lessons of the recent past, or just being obtuse again? Did you happen to notice the dogfights and incredibly tight groupings of the 3rd through 10th place teams in both conferences this year?. Salary cap...... The existence of teams in Edmonton , Calgary, Ottawa and Winnipeg is the direct result of the new financial certainty engineered by Bettman with the support of the owners. I noticed you've shut your piehole that every US arena is publicly funded. Every arena is built for concerts, since NHL teams have only about 45 dates per year excluding playoffs, that leaves 300+ nights to be filled with other revenue producing events. It is no different than every arena in North America. Try again, but harder this time. Yeah, those US billionaires behind the arena and team are so anxious to get a few crumbs from Sportsnet, they've based their whole business plan on it. Best of all, they get paid in valuable and collectible Canadian dollars! Their season ticket drive only got halfway to their goal in the first 48 hours....... New Brunswick would do better than that if only they could get over the trauma of having four(4) AHL franchises flop.

Yet never have so many been so wealthy in our country, lived longer, been in better health, been better educated or had more disposable income than the last couple of generations. Funny that. The government should do something.

If that is true, Bettman will be fired tomorrow since 5 out of 7 Canadian teams made the playoffs.

I would not assume that the court agrees with you interpretation of the documents. I read somewhere that there are at least 12 sets of Senate-issued rules outlining what is permissible

But you will not finds the situation that used to exist, where teams like the Wings and Rangers outbid everybody else. or the good old days when asswipes like Ballard and Wirtz dumped players that cost more than $1.49. Max and min salary caps fixed that, and provided financial certainty that has stabilized and enriched many more owners/teams than pre-Bettman. Oh, and despite the resounding lack of Cups in the last two decades, how many CDN teams are suffering from a lack of attendance in a gate-driven league? The correct answer is 'zero'. Hey let's have a contest. Link us to stories about the arena being built in Moncton, and the backing of fantastically cash rich New Brunswick corporations, and season ticket drives colecting cash. Here, I'll kick it off here is a story about all of that and the privately funded arena going up right now http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/nhl-to-las-vegas-looking-more-like-a-done-deal/article23471555/ Your turn. Take your time. The biggest debate in Las Vegas is whether it will be a relocation, like Winnipeg, or a new franchise with much higher fees. After Vegas, the NHL will break some more Moncton hearts and look hard at Seattle..

I think Duffy will walk on that, and with it a lot of the Crown case is out the window.. Didn't he and Wallin get something in writing from Senate officials suggesting that only ownership of property in your 'home' province was sufficient?

which is not impossible. The oilers have lots of picks this year, including two in the first round. The revenue? It's worked out absolutely fantastic for Canadian teams in the Bettman era. All the teams are surviving, most are thriving financially. That was certainly not the case before him. You're talking like a fan if you think winning the Cup is somehow the only or main measure of success for the league or its teams. For the owners and their employee Bettman the measure is profit. And Bettman has made that happen. On this planet. Please Google 'salary cap NHL' for a simple explanation of why big market teams cannot outspend small market teams for players, which is by far their largest expense item.. Some of the words are more than one syllable. Good luck. The cap has turned the profit equation on its head for many teams, including Canadian teams as already discussed. I guess you missed that too. Yes, Moncton clearly has a population base capable of building a half billion dollar arena and 18,000 people willing and able to spend $4000 to $10000 per year every year for a season ticket. They have supported all those other local pro teams forever, why not NHL?

Yep. The Greens has <4% of the popular vote in 2011, a drop from 2008. They remain the 'fifth party'. They are no different from the two Quebec based parties, except the Greens have less popular vote. None of them have official party status, only the three that have that status should be included in the debates.

Wynne will be calling for penalizing tariffs on the import of Mexican Corollas to Ontario. Just wondering -how is that cap and trade system going to work when you have no industry left in the province to cap or trade?

They can get Roy for cheap and should sign him for a year. He'll take it, his options are limited in the NHL. He got through waivers with the Predators, so nobody wanted him last year. He was swapped for another midget forward Marc Arcobello that nobody wanted either. The reason they should sign Roy is that he is better than anybody other centers in their system, another sad and damning fact about the quality of OIlers management. Dreisatl is their second line center of the future, but he is not ready for prime time yet. This could all change with the draft. If they get McJesus, there is no home for Roy as they'll go with RNH, McDavid, Lander and Gordon up the middle. If the Oilers get Eichel, they'll foolishly move him or Dreisatl into 2nd line centre too early .

Please try and keep up with the adults. The info about his new contract, and need for insurance, trying out for the Russian WC team comes from.... Yakupov himself. etc via Edmonton Journal What else would they say, the truth ? Not likely. The truth is that he is playing far, far worse than expected and is clearly the worst #1 overall pick in a generation. The double bonus of his offensive improvement at the end of the season and a cheap, 2 year deal means that he is at least now trade bait. MacTavish now might even get a second round pick for the Oilers, or a third line mutt. For a #1 overall pick. Yakupov finished the year with a +/- of -35, which placed him at dead last out of all 882 NHL players. He edged out a couple of Leafs- Kessel and Bozak- for that honour. eta: I think that is the second year in a row the defensively clueless Yakupov has won the NHL +/- derby.

The Libertarians already have 60 announced candidates, how many more before they get on the national debate in your opinion?