#this is very much not a final draft! it's like. 1.5. maybe second draft

[safyresky]

Warm Milk

(remember this poll? I sure did! This is the original shit I was talking about! Takes place a couple of hundreds of years after the events of Crystal Springs, Into the Shadows, etc. Some context: The dimensions between planes are thinning. Rosehaven is seeping into the living world, magibeans long dead returning to the world of the living—but for what purpose? Not even they know...)

(enjoy!)

___

Bianca padded down the stairs quietly. Eyes attuned to the dark, she trailed her fingers along the side table in the hall, gazing at the photos dotted about. Even in the lowlight, she could see how happy her daughter was in the photos she was in (laughing with Blaise, a little Jacqueline grinning in the bottom right, pointing; face pressed against those of the twins, the three of them grinning). And the ones she wasn't in (one of the twins stacked on one another, running down a beach; a candid shot of father and son caught up in a moment of laughter), Bianca could feel the love radiating from the photos.

She smiled to herself, continuing quietly down the hall. Every single bone and muscle creaked as she walked.

Bianca sighed, rubbing her lower back. I never thought I'd say this, but I do miss being dead, she thought to herself.

In Rosehaven, you didn't feel all the creaks of your bones and muscle pains and such. You felt fine. Safe. Okay. As young as you ever felt. As spry as Winter (senior) had been, despite looking as old as Bianca felt. Your body is there with you but it doesn’t age or degrade. You’re right as a flurry.

But back on this plane of existence…you felt it all and then some.

She sighed, turning into the kitchen. A light glowed above the sink. The dishes sat drying in the rack. A window was open, the sound of the wind rushing through the evergreen boroughs comforting. It was no mountain, but it was lovely regardless. It would do.

Quietly, she slid across the kitchen, pouring a glass of milk and staring at the contraption that supposedly warmed things with the click of a button. She squinted at it, rubbing her chin.

Perhaps she should wake her son-in-law? Or the grandkids? That is, the fiery ones, of course. It would be far easier for her to have them hold it for a moment rather than make the ruckus the. Contraption. Was sure to make.

She found the button to open the door. It went in with a deep crunch, the door swinging open with a loud bang that reverberated through the thing.

"Oh dear."

Straining her ears, she listened closely, hoping she hadn’t woken anyone.

Snores from upstairs. The wind. A soft voice? Murmuring?

Her ear twitched. She turned slightly, towards the right.

Her eyes readjusted. The table was empty; backyard door locked. The screen door, that is. The heavy door had been pulled all the way back, letting in the cold winter air. It smelt like the mountains.

Bianca made her way over, relishing in the breeze for a moment.

The voice was clearer now. She peeked outside; nothing and no one. Eyes travelling across the table, she peered into the cozy den.

A light was on.

Her ear twitched.

"AND he let me use his HAMMER MOMMA! The HAMMER!" said a delightful voice. Just hearing it made Bianca feel such joy. She crept closer to the den, head tilted towards the sounds.

"The HAMMER?!"

It was Jacqueline who was speaking now. Excited with a hint of panic. A tone Bianca found herself recognizing easily enough.

"YEAH! Hephaestus says I'm gonna make my own bow in NO TIME!"

"That's wonderful, sweetie!" Jacqueline replied, the smile in her voice loud.

"She's been taking to the change very well," a third voice said. Smooth and chipper, a hint of tired—but not quite. Hearing this voice made Bianca think of her Winter, wherever he may be.

Her heart panged.

"That's good! I'm glad," Jacqueline sounded relieved. "I'm really sorry about all this, love."

"It's okay! I'm just glad you're safe! We understand, don’t we, Joy?"

"Yeah! Safety is important! I learnt that today too," the child’s voice grew quiet, sounding proper chided.

"Did you now?"

"…yeah. I accidentally hit Hermes with a few arrows. He was a real good sport about it but I felt very bad and then Mater gave me the safety talk."

"We really should have done it sooner," the third voice spoke again.

Mater. Bianca ran the word through her mind. Greek, if she wasn't mistaken. For mother.

"But! Better now than later, after she finds the lightning bolts! She was giving them the eyes earlier today."

Jacqueline threw a hand up to her mouth, trying to mask her laughter. “Oh dear.”

This is wrong, Bianca, she thought to herself. Stepping back (having made her way to the arched entrance, lurking in the shadows), she walked towards the kitchen entrance, clearing her throat before reaching the den entrance again and knocking on the sideboard.

"Jacqueline?" she asked, peeking into the room.

He granddaughter shot up, pillows flying. "Oh! Hi Bianca. Everything okay?"

"I fear I've run into a problem. The contraption that heats things up? The little one."

"The microwave?"

She nodded. "How do you use it?"

"I'll be right with you. Just give me one sec!"

"Certainly. I'll wait in the kitchen." Bowing her head, Bianca backed up, keeping to the shadows between the two entrances.

The sprite curled back up, bringing the phone right up to her nose. The little display glowed, casting a dim light onto her face. The snow was gone from her hair, Bianca noted.

"Is that her?"

"Yeah. Technology problem."

There was a delightful giggle. "Off you go to save the day! My hero. I miss you.”

"We both do, Momma!”

Jacqueline smiled. “Awh. I miss you guys too.”

“I knew it!”

The loving voice laughed. “Alrighty, Joy. Say bye to Momma. She’s got a something cold to save.”

Jacqueline laughed. “It looked like it was a glass of milk.”

“She’s got a glass of cold milk to save!”

"Okay! I love you Momma!" the child's voice was filled with so much joy, Bianca could not keep back the smile that had snuck onto her face. It was hurting her cheeks. "I miss you! I hope I get to see you soon. I got a sword lesson and I wanna make one with you."

"Awwh, Joy! That's so sweet! I'll brush up on the blacksmithing just for you, okay?"

"Okay! I love you! KISSES! MWAH!"

"KISSES! MWAH! I'll see you soon, okay?"

"Okay! Bye Momma."

“Right, off you go! Go bug your grandad for a bit.”

“O-kay! Wee!”

Jacqueline laughed, watching the child run off, Bianca presumed. She pushed her hair off her brow, snuggling into the couch cushion. "She's doing okay?"

"She’s thriving! And wreaking so much havoc. That’s why we’re on Olympus now. Jupiter had enough so we’re hanging out with my mater’s side. Oh, Jacqueline, you’d be so proud! I know I am. She’s a hit over here!”

“Good! Good. I’m...glad.” Jacqueline’s smile dropped. She sighed, mussing her hair once more. “I’m so sorry about all this, Donnie.”

"Awh, babe, it's okay! You’re trying to keep us safe. We understand."

"I'll try to swing by tomorrow? If that's okay."

"Uh, duh! You're my WIFE! Why wouldn’t that be okay? I love you. I always want to see you.”

"And I you," Jacqueline smiled. "I'll see you soon, brown eyes."

"Not if I see you first, blue eyes."

Bianca tuned out, giving them space. Moments later, the blankets rustled.

"I know you’re still there, Bianca.”

Bianca felt the heat rise in her cheeks. She turned the corner sheepishly. “Sorry dear.”

Jacqueline smiled, leaning her head on the couch. "S’okay.” She pat the spot beside her with a slippered foot. “Come sit!"

Bianca obliged, sinking onto the couch. Her muscles thanked her. She sighed, falling back into the cushions.

"I miss being dead.”

"You WHAT?"

"Oh, sorry, Jacqueline. Sit back! I don’t mean it in a way that's concerning. I just…forgot how old and stiff my body was. I miss not feeling every single muscle every time I move."

"And warm milk helps with that?"

"Hmm? Oh!" she looked down at her glass of not warm milk. "Yes and no. It doesn't help my muscles. It helps my heart, though. Your grandfather said it was the cure for any ailment," she smiled fondly. "Lately I've been finding comfort in a warm glass of milk. It makes me think of him. But alas, your father went to bed before I could catch him and Lady only knows what would happen were I to wake your siblings."

"When they were younger, disasters! But now that they're older, they sleep like logs, for the most part. Just waking them up would be an impressive feat on its own!”

Bianca chuckled.

"You miss him, huh?"

"I do. And I worry for him," she admitted, bringing a fist up to her heart. "I don’t know where he is, or what he's doing. I know he's on this plane. But I can't…find him. And it hurts. Everything hurts. He'd love to see this. Knowing that your mother made a lovely life for herself? He'd be delighted! She found a love as true as ours," Bianca smiled down at her hands. "That's all we ever wanted for her. And I was so terrible! Afflicting you with the shard and sending you halfway across the world. Stealing her away from her family to try and bring back mine…and even after everything, you've all welcomed me here."

"Bianca. I gotta be real with you. In terms of blood relatives coming back from the far past? You're not the craziest we've seen."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Uncle Pyros is like, fifty shades of messed up. That guy is WHACK. But don’t tell dad I said that."

"Your secret is safe with me." Bianca sighed. "Those poor boys. I always hated being called to court. They never looked happy. Serafina was so strict; and Canicus was just as bad in other ways. I kept telling your grandfather, I said, you know, Winter, we could just snatch them up and take them home! And he'd say, he'd say, Bianca, we have our hands full with one, don't you think? Best not bring back old habits." she laughed. "We didn't, really. Your mother was a very calm child. Well. She was a child when we left; I've no idea how she was in later years, or for the rest of childhood."

Looking off into the distance, Bianca sighed.

"Well…from what I've heard, she's where we get most of our unhinged ideas from. The most chaotic of all the seasons as a kid. Still is to this day, if you ask my aunts."

"Oh, how delightful!" Bianca leaned back into the cushions, a soft smile on her face. "It's nice to see them both happy together. Your parents, that is."

"Makes you miss your hubby, huh?"

"We never did tie the knot, but yes! It does. Deeply. Achingly so, even.”

"I get it," Jacqueline wiggled against the couch, getting cozier. "I miss my wife."

That fond, loving smile was back on her face; so small and yet, filled with so much emotion.

"We did actually tie the knot. I mean, we were already referring to one another like that so we went, you know what? Frost it! May as well make it official! And then we did!" She shrugged. "The proposal went a little awry, but the wedding was nice! Especially since we found out we had a KID beforehand! Can you believe that? A whole entire KID. She was totally unplanned and I love her so much.”

“Oh, and I took you away from them, didn't I?"

Jacqueline nodded. "And I couldn't even remember them, because, you know, your mirror does that fun thing where it only makes you think of bad and sad thoughts? They were so fuzzy.”

"I'm so sorry, Jacqueline. Really. I would never want to take anyone away from their families. That was a pain I'll never forget. Pain enough that it drove me to do that to you and your mother when I was shard-ed, just to try and restore my own."

Jacqueline smiled. "Magical objects just bring out the worst in people."

"Indeed."

"Why do you even HAVE that mirror?"

"Cursed artifact that came into my possession when I was young. It splinters often, and the splinters get caught up all over the place, making people see only terrible, awful things. I used it in my younger years to do some truly bad things. Much younger, of course; I haven't been that bad since meeting your grandfather. I was glad it had come with me to Rosehaven. It wouldn't cause trouble ever again, I thought.” She chuckled coldly. “I thought wrong. Seems that was the worst place for it."

She opened her hands. The mirror appeared in them, empty but for two shards.

She sighed.

A warm hand landed on her knee. Bianca looked up.

Jacqueline was smiling at her, softly. Reassuringly. "We'll find him, and we'll find the shards.” She gave her knee a little squeeze. “I know you miss him. I miss my partner in crime, too! And I know you missed mom.”

"I'm glad to get to know her again. Odd to say but. Well."

"I kinda get it." Jacqueline pulled herself up a smidgen, phone clutched close to her chest. "Donnie and I had no idea Joy existed for about three years. She was born from the joy we both felt being reunited again after the proposal. I missed her baby years! Had no idea what she was like until recently."

"Hmm. I feel we have a lot more in common than just looks," Bianca mused.

"Indeed," Jacqueline replied, in an almost dead-on impersonation of Bianca's own accent.

She laughed. "I'm sorry I took you away from your wife and child. And still am, evidently."

Jacqueline shrugged. "This whole Rosehaven thing is weird. Scary, too. And after everything that happened to me? I don’t want to risk Joy. Or Donnie. She can handle herself of course, but I love her! I don’t want to see her get hurt. That's why I didn't mention them. I wasn't sure if you were…"

"Safe."

"Yeah.

"Wise. My reputation is. Quite terrible, really. Especially with children."

"Yeah, maybe gramps was onto something when he said not to bring back old habits."

Bianca laughed, looking at her granddaughter with a fond smile. "I'm glad you've found love, too."

Jacqueline scooched over the pillows, leaning up against Bianca. She put her phone in front of them, the screen blinking to life to reveal a photo.

There was a very tall, very strong woman. She was blonde, her hair tied up, laurels wrapped in the strands. She was beautiful. Jacqueline stood beside her. And between them, a small child, a tad darker than Jacqueline and a tad lighter than the woman. She grinned, a tooth missing, her strawberry blonde (emphasis on the strawberry) hair pulled up as well, falling right out of the scrunchie. Behind them was a big, feathery wing; and behind the girl was a smaller set of wings, looking more like butterflies than birds.

"That's the love of my life, Donnie. It’s short for Hedone."

"Hedone. That’s the Greek Pantheon…Goddess of…pleasure?"

Jacqueline flushed, nodding.

Bianca smiled. "And that's your little girl?"

"Joy. Embodiment of Joy. She's everything to me, goddess of the springs. The moment I met her, I was like, damn. I'd do ANYTHING for this kid. ANYTHING."

"I felt the same when your mother was born."

"Was she like, sick, or something?"

"Sick?"

"It's just," Jacqueline shifted, facing her grandmother with a look of placid curiosity. "I've heard that when she was born, there was something wrong? Or off, or something. I’ve only heard it offhand oh, once or twice. Nobody's ever explained it to me, and Mom doesn't even remember. So. I figured, you know, who better to ask than the person who birthed her, right?"

"Ah. Well, she wasn't sick. She was a miracle baby, though. See, I'd always wanted kids of my own. But I'd never managed to settle down with someone and have them."

"So you stole them instead?"

"Yes. And I used the mirror to do so. It's an ugly thing; it fell into my possession when I was quite young. It takes the beauty and love out of everything and makes you see only the bad. As you are, regrettably, well aware."

"You as well."

Bianca hummed. "When I finally did succeed, and the little boy's little friend came and found him, and saved him, I managed to cry the shard out of my eyes. And that's how Queen Frost found me. A pathetic, weeping mess in the highest reaches of the Nordic countries. She told me that I would find what I needed here in Crystal Springs; that it would heal the hurt. That I'd be safe. And…I was. But the hurt never left. See, the shard in my heart stayed put. And whenever a child would come near my domain, I'd keep them as long as I could, just to try and thaw my icy little heart."

"Oh. That's…how am I both heartbroken and appalled?"

"I am a woman of many talents, it would seem.” Bianca laughed, the laughter trailing off with a small exhale. “It's messy, I know. And it got messier still. Nothing worked. I was devastated; stayed up in the mountains with my storms and my lands and all that nonsense. I was there for eons…until your Grandfather entered my life."

Jacqueline watched as Bianca softened, her face lighting up. The mirror seemed to shudder; it did not like where her memories were going. It disappeared as she looked away, awash in them.

"Was it love at first sight?"

"Ha! No. I thought him annoying and irritating and all but blew him right off my mountain. But he was like one of your brother's stray animals. He just kept coming right back! One day, I found myself not blowing him off the mountain. And then I looked forward to his visits. And then I told him about the mirror and everything and he helped me gather the pieces and seal it away. And we fell in love, and one thing led to another and we found ourselves expecting. In the traditional way. By ordibeing standards, of course."

"Oh! So Mom was the first sprite to be born instead of made?"

"Yes, and no. It was the first any pair of sprites had managed to conceive a child on purpose. Emphasis on the on purpose. The only example they had to go off of was Fate-touched, so they had no idea how reliable that experience would be compared to this one.”

“That experience being?”

“The Twin Princes.”

“Oh! I didn’t know that! I just assumed they were made the way all sprites used to be made, you know?”

“The King and Queen tried, of course. Fate prevented it from happening like that. But it worked the other way.” Bianca shrugged. “Serafina was a rather clever warlock. She knew exactly what needed doing for a safe delivery and all, and got it done well before they were born. But your grandfather and I...”

“Would’ve had no idea, since it’s not like the monarchy shared these sorts of things. And given how sprites were made, it was probably to them like, one and done kinda deal, I’d bet. They assumed it would never happen like that again.”

“Ha! And your grandfather and I went and proved them wrong. They’d have hated that! They probably did.” She grinned. “At any rate, given the circumstances, healers monitored us closely; we didn't know what to expect. A sprite had never been formed like that naturally, you know. Lady only knew what would happen. But I tried very hard not to think about that. I focused on when I could feel her move about, and making a nursery, you know. All those things you do when you're expecting."

"I don’t know if I'd know that! We uh. We were NOT expecting at ALL when Joy showed up, dragging Jack Frostbitten Frost himself and Venus, goddess of frostbitten love, behind her, the three of them being pursued by the personifications of Despair and Sadness."

"Oh my."

"I know! I'd have loved to paint a nursery or have that whole build up to her arrival, but it was very sudden and violent.” She looked sheepish for a moment, running her hand through her hair and looking away. “I was very violent."

"Momma bear energy, yes?"

"Oh, big time. The moment Jack told me who she was and it all clicked and that connection was there, I just. I lost it. She's the personification of Joy, Bianca. Despair and Sadness wanted to consume her essence in the hopes that they'd feel something other than what they are."

"Oh. So you had a breakdown."

"Huge. I went feral. And in the end, as seems to be the case with this family, it was a hug that did it; Joy defeated Sadness and Despair with a hug."

"What an impressive child."

"She's so impressive. And she did that as a three-year-old. Which is HELLA impressive by sprite standards. Though she didn't quite age like a sprite? She is now, but she was aging like a human almost until she hit six. Regular six. Not six hundred."

"How old is she now?"

"Almost one hundred! I'm kinda relieved she seems to be taking after the celestial side more than the sprite side. I'm not sure I'm prepared for a century of trying to help her keep shape, followed IMMEDIATELY by a century of her keeping shape AND being a terror about it."

Bianca laughed. "The terrible two-hundreds."

"Mm. Mom and Dad say all four of us were pretty brutal, so I'm sure my kids will be no different. Sorry, I got so off topic. We were talking about Mom!"

"And then went into moms territory. Not off topic at all, sweetheart."

"But I wanna hear the rest of the story!"

Bianca laughed. "All right, all right. You don’t need to lose shape about it."

Jacqueline pulled a face. She lifted a hand, the entire thing AND her arm suddenly turning into snow as she tilted her head, crossed her eyes and went "BLARGH!"

Bianca wheezed. "Okay! I'm going! Pull yourself together, young lady!"

Cackling, Jacqueline's arm solidified. She curled up, snuggling back into the couch. "Okay. I'm behaving."

"You know, I don’t think you ever have."

"That's because you've been talking to Jack too much. He likes to play it up like I was the most troublesome thing around, but he definitely made it ten times worse."

"Now that I believe."

She giggled, her small smile reminding Bianca very much of a time when Winter was a child. A time well before The Call, before the repeat of her past mistakes, and before she was cast from Rosehaven for Lady knows WHAT reason.

"Bianca? You okay?"

She cleared her throat. Swallowed the emotion. Nodded. "As fine as can be, all things considered."

"We can stop if it's too much. I didn't mean to press."

"Oh! No. It's quite all right. Big feelings are big feelings. It's best we experience them. Least we steal children about it."

Jacqueline giggled.

"Where did I leave off?"

"Nursery. Prep work. That sorta thing."

"Right. Well…the time came, eventually. She was ready to arrive. And arrive she did. As a pile of snow and ice. Baby shaped, but lifeless. I…I sobbed. I sobbed, and sobbed, Jacqueline. I was beside myself. I refused to let her go, and your grandfather, bless his soul, stood by my side the entire time, and did not try to take her away from me. He did his own research; called Mother Gaia and her daughter, Tara. They came by and brought with them a life light. The thing you are given as a freshly made sprite to give yourself a form. They gave it to us, and it turned white as snow, and your grandfather and I placed it within Winter and she came to life, with the loudest cries. Oh, I was so, so relieved."

"She was brought to life. That was the miracle."

Bianca nodded. "And she was full of life. Very silly, a little goofball just like her father. And devastatingly savage when needed, just like her mother. She was smart and keen and we loved her to bits! It broke my heart, what we did. To think, fighting to keep our home safe for our daughter ended up with us losing her. And now I have that chance again, to know her, to love her…but it's been thousands of years. Thousands. Tara is far more her mother than I ever was. And my darling Winter Warlock isn't here to see any of it." Eyes downcast, Bianca looked at the cold glass of milk in her hands and sighed.

"Oh, here! Let me get that for you."

"No need, Jacqueline dear. I've got it."

Both winter sprites jumped a bit as Winter herself stepped through the archway, cloak draped over her arms. She placed it gently on the egg chair by the entrance, wiping something off of her cheek and cleared her throat. "Here. I can take it. I'll show you how the microwave works."

"Oh, it's quite all right, dear. I'm not even sure I really want it anymore—"

"Yes you do," both women said, in unison, in the same tone of voice. They looked at one another, giggling a little bit.

"You miss your boo thang, Bianca! Of course you'd want to indulge in something that makes you think of him!"

"I wouldn't argue with her," Winter agreed, gently taking the glass of milk out of Bianca's hands. "She's married to Cupid's successor. And has been having many sweets for the exact same reason you find yourself craving a warm glass of milk."

"Ah. I'm out numbered, it appears."

"And outwitted! Come on, up you go. Here." Winter offered her an arm. Bianca took it with a grateful look, gently prying herself out of the cushions. "Let's get those limbs of yours all warmed up."

___

Bianca let her daughter lead her into the kitchen. She tried not to lean on her too terribly much, but the support was…nice. They made their way to the microwave, stopping in front of it.

"The big button here opens it." Winter clicked it; there was a crunch and a low thrum and the door popped open again, the little light flickering on. "Just place the glass inside and click start a handful of times."

"A handful?"

"The number keys are preset. The one warms it for one minute, the two for two, and so on and so forth. The start button does thirty seconds which is usually all I need. Though I will admit, I don’t often use this thing. Usually I bring it to Blaise."

Bianca smiled. "I'd do the same, were I you. I briefly thought about it, actually, but didn’t want to wake him. He seems so stressed about this all…and the younger two? Goddess above. I daresay whatever would happen after waking them would be enough to send us all back to Rosehaven."

Winter laughed. "Fino and Fiera certainly are characters. They were worse in their younger years. I'm inclined to say they've mellowed out at sixteen hundred, but I'm not entirely sure I believe that. I don't think any of the four of them are capable of mellowing out, if I'm being honest."

Bianca chuckled quietly, gently closing the microwave door shut and tapping the start button three times. The noise it made nearly shook her bones; her jaw was most certainly knocking about.

"Dear me."

"Yes, it's a little loud. And a little too fancy for my tastes. But Jack was very excited about it, as was Blaise. I figured I may as well let them have their fun."

Bianca smiled.

Winter smiled back.

The microwave hummed behind them as the silence pressed on. Comfortable, but with something unspoken lingering between them as the microwave continued to tick down the seconds.

"How long were you—"

Bianca did not get to finish her sentence. The words were cut very suddenly as Winter wrapped her arms around her torso and pulled her in, squishing her very, very tightly.

"Long enough," she said, muffled against Bianca's chest. "I'm sorry."

"No." Bianca wrapped her arms around her daughter, cupping the back of her head and tilting it towards her, kissing the very top of it. "I am."

"Goddess above, that sounded so awful, I—" Winter lifted her head, looking up at her mother. "I couldn't even imagine any of that happening to me and my kids. I'd be beside myself."

"I was. And still am. And even though this situation is so messed up…perhaps it’s selfish of me, but I'm glad. I'm glad to see you living, thriving—" she smiled, wiping the tears off of Winter's face with both her thumbs. "It's all we ever wanted for you."

"I'd be devastated if it were me, and Blaise wasn't by my side to see everything the kids have done."

Bianca's grip tightened. She laughed. "It hurts, yes. Oh, I love him so much. He was my everything. Is my everything. I—"

"WAIT, HOLD ON. GRANNY BEE."

Her breath hitched as Jacqueline came sliding out the den, phone in her hand, looking frantic in an excited way. She'd called Bianca Granny!

"Jacqueline, careful!" Winter let go of her mother and reached out, grabbing Jacqueline before she could fall forward. "You know the kitchen is slippery in those socks of yours."

"I know, I know! But I just! Granny Bee." She caught her breath. "Hey. Hi. Woah. You okay?"

She sniffled, wiping away tears. "YES. GRANNY BEE IS JUST FINE."

Winter and Jacqueline shared a look. "O-kay…listen. I got an idea. I just need to ask you a few questions."

"Sure. Sure. Certainly." Another sniffle. The microwave beeped. "How can I help?"

Winter opened the microwave, passing Bianca the warmed milk. She nodded her thanks, taking a sip as Jacqueline started explaining.

"My wife. She's Cupid. Well, next in line to be Cupid. Right. Anyway, uh, because of that, she's really good at love stuff??? So HERE'S the THING. Would you say that the Winter Warlock is the—"

"Love of my life? My soulmate in all senses of the word? Partner in crime? My person?"

Jacqueline blinked. "Yes."

"Yes. Oh, absolutely, yes. That man. He's. I just—" her fingers tightened on her glass as she tried and failed to find the words to describe their love.

But for Jacqueline, apparently, that was enough.

She grinned, feral, whipping up her phone. "I knew it. Okay, so, I have this crazy idea. I think I know how to find him."

"What?"

"You do?"

"Yeah!" She put the phone up to her ear. "If you're okay with it, Mom. I know things have been kinda tough? I don't want to throw the other parent at you when you and Granny B are still working sleet out."

"Oh! Yes! Of course! If you're comfortable with it, Winter dear."

Winter's brow furrowed as she thought about it for a moment. "Well. I think before I know how I feel about that, we'd have to see if we even can find him first. And then, given the state you were in, Bianca…what state he's in."

"And if he has a shard in his eye, or worse, his heart…I shudder to think what part he'd be playing in this mess."

"Oh?"

Bianca nodded. "He was a brilliant warlock! Is a brilliant warlock. His mind…I believe Fiera would call him a giant nerd. Given that, and how he was like back before he met me, before he met Kris, even…I both hope and fear that he knows more about what is going on than all of us."

"Then we better go frostbitten find him, eh? How do we feel about a ladies trip to Mount Olympus…"

[hinacu-arts]

I dont think ive ever mentioned this before but i always thought of my next gen au as a full saga. Like 15-20 works in the ao3 series tag not listed chronologically in any way at all outside of date posted. Like the first fic would be like a 20-60k multichapter fic based soley on the fact 2-4 of the kids time traveled back in time to before Arthur was king and magic was allowed. Then that would be followed up by a few oneshots varying from 1-6k set immediately after the kids return to the future or set within a year before the time travel. Then i would finally get around to writing Galahad's backstory which could be like 8-15k. And id prob be writing Merlin's early fatherhood years around the same time due to the original draft of this au where Merlin and Lancelot became dads around the same time. That would prob cover time faster but still be like 11k because it includes all 3 girls and maybe the aftermath of Lancelot's second death. Then id be flipping between a chapter fic set post-time travel where Galahad and Agressa go on a version of the famous Grail Quest and a chapter fic/long oneshot set within the first 2 years of Galahad becoming Merlin's ward and possibly Clarissant's increased presence/Gwaine's marriage issues which would have a much sadder vibe then the exciting adventure quest. And then after that what id do is less clear but id like to write a short sequel following the original fic but from back in past!Arthur and Merlin's world and maybe Clairibel's wedding/time in Ealdor assuming i didnt cover it in another fic

EDIT: forgot to mention the Arthur x Gwen x Lancelot love triangle angst that covers 1.5-2 years well before any of the kids come into the picture. So that could vary in word size because its a lot of angst from all 3 sides (and Merlin because he has three front row seats to all this) but its also very repetitive until Galahad and Tom II are born. I also have Morgana's "deafeat" vaguely planned out so that probably wouldnt have its own fic but it would still be a good 1-2k section in another fic

[racingtoaredlight]

RTARL’s 2020 NFL Season Week 7 Extravapalooza

With the way the COVID-19 situation in America (and lots of other places around the world) is rapidly heading in the wrong direction, I’m beginning to genuinely wonder if the NFL is going to have to pause the season for a few weeks as some states potentially decide that the gatherings that come with staging a football game are less than necessary. 

Once the league decided to start the season as scheduled, I figured there was no way they’d stop the train once it began lurching forward, even if some unlucky teams were forced to start someone like Brian Hoyer at QB instead of their normal guy. Ahem. But, I also didn’t think things would deteriorate virus-spread wise quite to this degree. I was really giving us as a society way too much credit, it would appear. Given the resistance to the first round of shutdown measures, I think there’s a real possibility that shit could hit the fan in a way few of us have seen before if another batch were implemented, but it seems like the only option going forward for some places if they don’t get their shit together. Our choices in the very near future appear to be: court massive civil unrest spurred on by the very worst among us, or do nothing and let many of those same people carry disease to every corner of the country as hospitals become overwhelmed and people die alone and miserable. Hooray for letting the dumbest assholes dictate the courses of everyone else’s lives. 

Now for some football picks!!!

My picks are in BOLD, and the lines come to us courtesy of our friends at Vegas Insider. I use the “VI Consensus” line, which is the line that occurs most frequently across Vegas Insider’s list of sportsbooks. Your sportsbook of choice may offer a different number, and if you’d like my opinion on said number A) you are insane, and B) leave a comment below and I’ll try to answer at some point before things kickoff today.

EARLY GAMES

Detroit Lions at Atlanta Falcons (-2)

Ah, a team who recently fired their terrible head coach against a team who desperately needs to. I’m glad it finally appears to be dawning on Detroit’s offensive braintrust that D’Andre Swift is the best RB on the team and thus should get the bulk of the touches. You could even say he deserves the LION’S SHARE. Sorry. 

I was ready to declare Matt Ryan officially washed heading into last week’s games, but then he went out and threw for 371 and 4 TDs against the (admittedly trash-ass) Vikings defense, and now I just don’t know. Does having Julio Jones in the lineup really make that much of a difference for him? Maybe! This game should be enjoyable slop and I don’t have any strong leanings one way or another. I’ll pick the Falcons just because a Lions loss gets them one step closer to freedom from their dipshit Goomba-from-Mario-Bros-lookin’ motherfucker of a head coach.

Cleveland Browns (-3.5) at Cincinnati Bengals

I like to make fun of the Browns just like everyone else, but I’d prefer to see less digital ink spilled on QB Baker Mayfield’s crappy play and more celebration of DE Myles Garrett instead. Garrett is AWESOME. Through 6 games he has 7 sacks (2nd in the NFL) and 3 forced fumbles (also 2nd in the league), and those numbers don’t fully capture how disruptive and nightmarish he is for opposing offenses most weeks. Sure, he maybe tried to kill a guy with his helmet last year, but c’mon. That was just a harmless little goof. No reason to hold it against him, in my opinion. Like, have you seen what Mason Rudolph looks like? He had it coming.

I feel bad every time I pick against Joe Burrow because I want he and I to be friends, but *points to previous paragraph about how Myles Garrett swallows planets whole*.

Pittsburgh Steelers at Tennessee Titans (-1.5)

Last week I wrote a whole big thing (with stats to back it up!) in the Titans blurb about how Derrick Henry wasn’t playing well and was potentially wearing down, and then he proceeded to rush for over 200 yards and 2 TDs, including an unreal 94-yarder. I concede that I may have been misguided, and that attempting to use research is for lameass nerds. That said, I HIGHLY doubt he’ll have a huge day against the Steelers defense, but the combo of Henry and the Ryan Tannehill-led passing game should be able to put up enough points to win. 

These teams are both very good and very evenly matched, but I don’t want to pick Pittsburgh because I actively dislike them. You won’t find that kind of analysis on Football Outsiders, friends.

Carolina Panthers at New Orleans Saints (-7)

New Orleans will be without WRs Michael Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders for this one, and I think QB Drew Brees is too far over-the-hill to make chicken salad out of the chicken shit that remains in their group of pass catchers. RB Alvin Kamara is great, but he can’t do it by himself. Oh, and speaking of Michael Thomas, a report came out yesterday that the Saints are open to dealing him. This report came from Mike Florio, so grain of salt and all, but it did lead to me reading a rumor that Thomas’ teammates hate him and secretly call him “Can’t Stand Mike,” a play on his “Can’t Guard Mike” Twitter handle. I found this hilarious and very much want it to be true.

Let’s raise a glass to Panthers backup RB and fantasy football savior Mike Davis, as his gravy train likely comes to a halt after today with the impending return of Christian McCaffery. The New Orleans rush defense is very good, so I don’t see him going out in a blaze of glory, but his out-of-nowhere statistical bonanza deserves to be celebrated.

Buffalo Bills (-10) at New York Jets

LOL Jets Head Coach Adam Gase still hasn’t been fired despite losing 24-0 to Miami last week. What’s it gonna take, I wonder? A second consecutive shutout may do it, but the Bills defense has been terrible, so it’ll take a real commitment to ineptitude for the Jets to put up their second squadoosh in a row. NY QB Sam Darnold is returning to the lineup, but he’s going to be without his best weapon, WR Jamison Crowder. I honestly feel terrible for poor Sam, as he was drafted into the worst situation I can remember. At least David Carr was hit enough that he likely doesn’t remember ALL of the bad stuff. 

Nearly all of the Bills’ TEs are in the COVID-19 protocol, so I’m not sure how they’re gonna address that. BRING BACK JAY RIEMERSMA!

Dallas Cowboys at Washington Football Team (-1)

The Cowboys being underdogs against Washington is hilarious, even more so because it’s justified. I thought QB Andy Dalton would do a decent job leading the Cowboys offense last week against Arizona, and I was very, very wrong. I still think he can get his shit together somewhat, but the ceiling for this team has been lowered to “Darren Sproles might have to duck a bit” height. I can only condone watching this game for schadenfreude purposes, but even that’s stretching it. Any more than a quarter is just straight-up masochism.

Green Bay Packers (-3.5) at Houston Texans

I’m simultaneously excited to watch this game and struggling to come up with anything novel to say about it. I’m interested to see how Green Bay deploys their awesome CB Jaire Alexander, as whichever Texans WR avoids him is likely to be peppered with targets. Shoutout to Will Fuller’s hamstrings for holding up so far and allowing him to kick ass. 

As of right now it looks like Green Bay will be without studly RB Aaron Jones and sexy touchdown beast TE Robert Tonyan, which isn’t great. But, if there’s one opponent where you should still be ok using a backup RB, it’s the Houston Texans and their atrocious rush defense. Wait, why am I picking Houston? Whatever, fuck it, the heart wants what the heart wants.

LATE GAMES

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-5) at Las Vegas Raiders

A couple of days ago, it looked like the entire Las Vegas offensive line might miss this game due to being placed on the COVID-19/Reserve list. As of this writing, all those beefy boys are cleared to play, which is good news since they’re going against Tampa Bay’s top-shelf defense (ranked #1 in defensive DVOA). Even with their full compliment of offensive personnel, I still predict many hilarious angry and frustrated faces from Jon Gruden.

Tampa Bay has decided to sign WR Antonio Brown, despite already having two Pro Bowl-caliber receivers in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. It’s pretty clear this signing was done entirely because QB Tom Brady wanted it, as Brady has been pushing for his team to sign Brown going back to last year in New England. It’s so weird, Tom Brady doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would advocate for an emotionally unstable and supremely narcissistic accused rapist who’s left multiple organizations in disarray upon his unceremonious departure.  

Kansas City Chiefs (-7.5) at Denver Broncos

Fuck yeah, our first potential snow game of the year! The gametime forecast as of right now calls for 5-degree windchill temps with a 35-40 percent chance of flakes throughout. That sounds horrible to play in, but glorious to watch. If we don’t get at least one shot of steam rising off of an offensive lineman’s head I’m gonna be pissed. I’m curious to see what Kansas City does with newly acquired RB Le’Veon Bell in this game. He’s definitely played in more winter-weather games than my boy Clyde Edwards-Helaire, so do they give him more carries this week than they would normally? I hope not, but I can definitely see the argument for it.

San Francisco 49ers at New England Patriots (-3)

I’m a little shaken (relatively, I’m not a complete lunatic) by how shitty New England, and Cam Newton in particular, looked against Denver last week. The lack of practice time due to multiple COVID-related outbreaks is a valid reason for it, but still. I think the Niners are the much better team when healthy, but they’re gonna be missing their best RB Raheem Mostert for this game (and the next few), which does impede their power-run game somewhat. Backup Jerick McKinnon is still very good, he just has a different, less-demoralizing style. Handsome Jimmy will have to make some plays, and I think he can do just enough. The overall talent gap will be too much for NE to overcome, I fear.

Jacksonville Jaguars at Los Angeles Chargers (-7.5)

The Jags have lost five straight games coming into this one, while the Chargers have dropped four in a row. Something’s gotta give! I will say that the Jacksonville losses seem more depressing (3 of them were by double-digits), while even though L.A. is losing, they at least feel exciting. A shiny rookie QB who looks decent will do that, I guess. Still, I’m riding with my man Minshew to cover one last time here. If he fails, well, I think it’ll be time for us to go our separate ways. “Separate Ways” by Journey is also what plays in Gardiner Minshew’s helmet speaker instead of play calls, coincidentally. 

SNF: Seattle Seahawks (-3.5) at Arizona Cardinals

Seattle’s already abysmal secondary is going to be down Pro Bowl safety Jamal Adams for this one, so Cards QB Kyler Murray should be able to sling it around with relative ease. His best weapon, WR Deandre Hopkins is Questionable with a lingering ankle injury, but he’s been playing through it so far and it hasn’t seemed to slow him much. I think this is the week the magic runs out for the Seahawks, and they take their first L of the season. Russell Wilson can’t bail them out EVERY time. Probably. This game is likely to be the stylistic opposite of the Monday nighter, because...

MNF: Chicago Bears at Los Angeles Rams (-6)

...all signs point to this being a butt-ugly game. I like good defense, don’t get me wrong, but nobody should purposely watch Nick Foles and Jared Goff play QB against competent defenses. I suppose I can see some entertainment value in getting to see both Aaron Donald and Khalil Mack torment quarterbacks in the same game, but I think I’m gonna pass for the same reason that I don’t really like to watch animals get eaten in nature shows. I get that it’s the way things are meant to happen, but damn. I’m a real wimp, by the way.

Last Week’s Record: 7-7

Season Record: 44-38-4

[housebeleren]

Theros Beyond Death Limited: Power Commons

Welp, it’s that time. A new set is upon us, and so it’s time to evaluate it for Limited. This post will go over the best Commons in Theros Beyond Death, that will make up the bulk of Draft & Sealed play. Let’s jump right in

White

I bring this card up for two reasons. For one, I do think there are enough Enchantments in this set (and enough with Flash) for this to do real work. It gives all Enchantment Creatures an ETB tap, which is pretty potent, and exactly what White needs to push through damage in the midgame. But the second reason I bring this up is that it is a Common White creature with more than 3 power! There have only been THREE cards in Magic’s ENTIRE HISTORY that had more than 3 power at Common, as printed without mechanics or counters. And the last such creature was printed in Scars of Mirrodin. This fact alone makes the unicorn a standout card, but it also means that Magic R&D may actually be taking the issue of White’s power level seriously, not just for Constructed formats, but also for Limited. I’m a fan, and I think it’s legitimately a decent card. 3.0/5

Luminous Bonds is always good, and this one comes with additional utility to deal with creatures that still have problematic abilities down the line. Also, some color combinations can sacrifice for value, so this potentially helps get around that. Being an Enchantment is also extra useful in this format, and as an Aura, it can be found with Heliod’s Pilgrim and can be returned with cards like Archon of Falling Stars. I’ll start high on this. 3.0/5

I love that this is at Common, after Rally for the Throne was stuck at Uncommon in ELD. Enchantments with Flash are great, and will help you trigger Constellation with ease, and the added utility in the late game makes this a strong card for most White decks. 2.5/5

I couldn’t not mention this card. It’s definitely maindeckable, but there will be situations where it isn’t serving you, so don’t hesitate to board this out, but I’d basically always start with one. I’ll reevaluate after playing the format a bit. 2.5/5

It’s a bit costly, but Instant and the little lifegain boost seem fair. There are a lot of big beasties running around in this set, especially given that Ferocious is a theme on some cards (R/G in particular). I’d pretty much always start with one, and consider boarding extras in if I see lots of targets. 2.5/5

White seems to have done really well, with a lot of removal at Common. Even though some of it is situational, it gives the color a lot of room to board and flex as needed. There are some decent Common fliers as well, so I think White is shaping up pretty well, compared to some previous sets.

Blue

I always like these effects. Again, being an Enchantment gives it extra utility in this format, so I’d pick this more highly than in other recent sets. It even deals with Gods, once they turn on, which is important (if we learned anything from War of the Spark). Plus the name and art are A+. 3.0/5

I normally don’t rush to these cantrip/filter style cards in Limited, but I think this one is super good. First, casting spells on your opponent’s turn is a theme for Blue in this set (especially paired with Red), and this is cheap enough to be able to do something on your own turn, and hold this up for that purpose. Second, it’s another Enchantment, which in this set can be a combat trick with the right triggers. Third, it has the potential to dig you really deep into your deck, and that early game/late game utility is super useful. I’ll always start one of these. 2.5/5

I love this little guy. Wind Drake is a little anemic these days, but adding Flash goes a long way to making this exciting again, as a surprise blocker or even just a way to trigger your “opponent’s turn” triggers. Seems solid. 3.0/5

Honestly, I’m a little worried about Blue. Very few of the Commons seem really strong on their own, and so many of them being context-dependent is a little concerning. We’ll see if the synergies are tight enough to make up for the lack of raw power this time around. There are some other decent fliers at Common, so worst case it has those.

Black

It’s expensive, but unless this format ends up way faster than I anticipate, this is going to be the spell you most want to have against a bomb. For Sealed, I’d give this a 3.5 or maybe even a 4.0, because you are almost guaranteed to run against a God or some giant Rare creature with Escape. In Draft, it goes down somewhat, so I’ll split the difference and give it a 3.0/5

Depending on how fast the format ends up, it’s possible that Mire’s Grasp ends up better than Final Death. In B/W or B/G, I might actually pick this over the plain kill spell, since those colors have options to search for & recur Enchantments, potentially allowing for some pretty gross value. I’m starting pretty high on this. I’d still usually take the first copy of Final Death first, but I could absolutely see this being the better choice once the format shakes out. 3.0/5

Raise Dead is never super exciting, but Raise Dead with Flash that also triggers a major set mechanic is a lot more appealing. That, plus the mana flood protection makes this pretty solid. I’ll always start one. 3.0/5

I put these two together because they serve a similar purpose. In the B/R deck in particular, these will be solid outlets to feed sacrifice fodder to and get some value. I can imagine the Lampad being better in Draft, while Spark Reaper, I mean Soulreaper is going to be great in Sealed. Either way, I think they’ll both be playable. 2.5/5

Black has some great removal, and seems like it’s got some pretty solid value at Common. I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up a pretty strong color.

Red

Hero of the Games seems like Red’s strongest Common creature to me. There are enough pump spells & Aura’s in the set that it shouldn’t be hard to get some triggers out of this, and the fear of that can make combat very tricky for your opponent. It could end up worse than I expect, but I’m going to start with the assumption that it’s solid. 2.5/5

I think people may underestimate this at first, just because it’s an Aura and the +1/+1 is minimal. But really, it’s Sorcery removal, and that’s something I’ll basically always play. 3.0/5

This being an Enchantment makes it worth being a 2 mana Shock, and again, the extra late-game utility is real. Always run this. 3.0/5

Red also makes me a bit nervous. It has some decent burn, but very few of the creatures strike me as particularly strong right off the bat. I’ll give it a try, but it feels similar to Blue in that respect.

Green

One mana Deathtouchers are always solid, and I’d always run this. It holds off attacks on the ground surprisingly well, and for surprisingly long. Just don’t grab tons of these, as there is no Rabid Bite in this set. 2.5/5

Like Revoke Existence, I think maindecking one of these is completely reasonable, especially in sealed. It also has the added utility of shutting down Escape creatures, so my hunch is most games will have multiple targets for this. Side it out if you need. 2.5/5

I love this for removal for Green. It helps make sure your creature survives its fight, while leaving it with a little bonus for later, and triggering Constellation. Seems strong and most decks will want one or two of these. 2.5/5

We’ve come a long way from “Bear with Set’s Mechanic”. While we still get those too, I’ve really been liking this trend for green getting. Now we have “Boar with Set’s Mechanic”, and I’m kinda all here for that. (See Fierce Witchstalker, Bloom Hulk, etc). (And yes, I know the Boars were 5 drops, but it works better than “Elephant with Set’s Mechanic.) This will be great, and is definitely Green’s best Common. 3.0/5

Green seems... middling, at first glance. It has some decent removal and a few solid creatures at Common, but nothing that screams ridiculous to me, which is a good thing. My guess is Green will be good, as usual, but not feel busted. Hopefully.

The Rest of the Commons

The remaining cards are the ones that didn’t make my top picks per color. Rated out of 5.

Daybreak Chimera - If you can get this down for 4 mana, it’s great. I’ll start pretty high assuming you can do that. 2.5

Flicker of Fate - Cute protection against removal, and since it can hit creatures you don’t control, can also work as Aura removal. That said, I’m expecting this to be more of a sideboard card, since ETB effects, while they exist, are not a major theme of the set. 2.0

Glory Bearers - I could see this going higher or lower, but for now, I’m treating it as average filler with the small bonus of triggering constellation. 2.5

Heliod’s Pilgrim - This new art is FIRE. So here’s the thing, this fetches Dreadful Apathy, which is pretty sweet, but that’s really the only White Aura at Common worth it. There are two at Uncommon. With a couple of removal Auras in your deck, this goes up to a 3.0. With one or zero targets, I’d move this down to a 2.0. So... 2.5

Hero of the Pride - In the dedicated Heroic deck, this goes up in value. But in most decks, it’s pretty mediocre filler. 1.5

Indomitable Will - Flash makes this decent as a combat trick that sticks around. Best in R/W heroic, but playable in any deck with Enchantment payoffs. 2.0

Karametra’s Blessing - I like this a lot, and am glad to see that White is getting this effect, since Green has been taking it a lot in recent years (and doesn’t need it). Most of the time it’s a solid trick, sometimes it’s a full counter. I’d try running one, but don’t go nuts. 2.0

Leonin of the Lost Pride - Will usually trade, and occasionally take out a pending Escape card with it. Solid filler. 2.0

Nyxborn Courser - Each color gets one of these, and they’re all about the same level of playable. This helps with Devotion in dedicated White decks, and is an Enchantment when that counts. S’aright. 2.0

Pious Wayfarer - You have to be really deep on Enchantments for this to work. I’d mostly pass it. 1.5

Rumbling Sentry - This would be way better as a 4/5. But, at 3/6, not much is getting through the Scry is a reasonable bonus. I feel like White would have had to pay 6 for this a year ago, so progress is progress I suppose. 2.0

Sentinel’s Eyes - Creepy demon eyes aside, this is... vaguely playable. Escape takes it from complete garbage to actually passable, and also is a way to enable repeat Constellation triggers after trading it. Worth a try in heavy Constellation decks, but I’d be wary otherwise. 1.5

Sunmane Pegasus - A bit smaller than I would like, but evasion seems rarer in this set than normal, so it’s probably decent. 2.0

Transcendent Envoy - Auras tend to be cheap anyway, so the ability doesn’t do a lot. I’d run this more as a Constellation piece if I was short on filler. 1.5

Brine Giant - It shouldn’t be too hard to get this to 5 mana, at which point it’s a solid deal. If the format ends up really fast, this will go down. 2.5

Chain to Memory - I really wish this were a cantrip. As is, I’d only run it in the R/U deck, where Instants are more valuable. 1.5

Deny the Divine - Good against bombs, good against Escape, good against Gods, makes this better than an average Counter. I’d consider one mainboard, especially in Sealed. 2.0

Eidolon of Philosophy - If the format ends up very slow, this could go way up. As-is, it’s mediocre Constellation filler. 1.5

Elite Instructor - Completely reasonable way to help smooth your draws and set up escape, if unexciting. 2.0

Memory Drain - I’m ready for Dissolve at Common, if they’re really trying to push power level at lower rarity. At 4 mana, this doesn’t quite make it for me. 1.5

Naiad of Hidden Coves - A 2/3 for 3 is weak, but passable, and as an Enchantment, this will be relevant filler in some decks. 2.0

Nyxborn Seaguard - A whole mana for one extra point of toughness over the White one is rough. I’d only run this in very dedicated Constellation builds. And maybe not even then. 1.5

Riptide Turtle - I mean, it’s better than Wall of Mist? 1.5

Sleep of the Dead - I get it, this is a “payoff” for the self-mill decks, by being able to tap stuff down over and over. It’s passable for tempo-based Blue decks, and can help push through an end game. 2.0

Starlit Mantle - If you have a bomb worth saving from removal, this could do work, but I’d rather have another generic creature if not. 1.5

Stern Dismissal - Unsummon is basically always playable, and this is better. I wouldn’t take it too highly. It’s more for tempo than control. 2.0

Thirst for Meaning - Draw three is big game, and I think running these will generally be correct for most Blue decks. You’ll typically have an Enchantment to pitch. 2.5

Towering-Wave Mystic - Not good enough as a milling build-around on its own, most of the time you’ll target yourself if you’re in the archetype. Outside of U/B or if you somehow draft the mill deck, I’d pass. 1.5

Triton Waverider - You want lots of Enchantments to run this, but its worst case as a Hill Giant isn’t ... super embarrassing, I guess. 2.0

Witness of Tomorrows - I liked Cloudreader Sphinx more, but this provides some late game utility and is an Enchantment. Most Blue decks will run it. 2.5

Aspect of Lamprey - This is the set’s Mind Rot, and I think it’s worse here than usual. Escape makes this a potential liability, and Lifegain isn’t really a theme, so I would generally only side it in against decks that can’t somehow get advantage out of it. Which is good, because I don’t want to look at it any longer than I have to. 1.5

Blight-Breath Catoblepas - I look forward to hearing people try to say this card so much. It’s not going to be too hard for this to be a 2-for-1, but you’ll need to be heavy black for it to be reliable. 2.5

Discordant Piper - Mostly a significant downgrade from Doomed Dissenter. But if you need sac fodder, you’ll take this and not complain. 2.0

Fruit of Tizerus - Magnificent pecs aside, I doubt this will work out very often. It’s possible the heavy control U/B deck will materialize with this as a real win con, but unless it does, this just isn’t great. 1.0

Funeral Rites - I like Read the Bones better, but this is decent, and fuels escape, so could be worse. 2.0

Grim Physician - Can take out a bear in combat or be sacrificed for value & take out an X/1. Probably only playable in R/B, and goes up in that deck. 1.5

Mogis’s Favor - I do like that you can use this to pick off X/1s, and the Escape cost is minimal. Probably not worth it in general. 1.5

Nyxborn Marauder - At least this one threatens real damage and can trade well. 2.0

Pharika’s Libation - I wish this cost 2 mana, but it’s still passable at 3. Definitely side this out against tokens though. 2.0

Rage-Scarred Berserker - Decently sized threat, and will probably push something through when it comes down. I’d try one in most decks. 2.5

Scavenging Harpy - If you can eat an Escape card with this, you’ve gotten value. Otherwise, it’s okay. 2.0

Temple Thief - I like these conditional evasion creatures Black has been getting. It’s filler, but sometimes it’ll do work. 2.0

Underworld Charger - Probably the best Escape Common in Black. Can’t block is a real concern on cards this size, but will be a good offensive threat. 2.5

Venomous Hierophant - 3/3 is the wrong size for Deathtouch, and the ETB doesn’t add much. 2.0

Arena Trickster - If you’re in the dedicated Flash deck, this goes up. Most of the time, I’d assume you’ll get one counter on this, at which point, it’s a solid playable. 2.5

Aspect of Manticore - One mana over Sure Strike gets you a power buff that sticks around, which is probably still playable. 2.0

Final Flare - If you have tons of sac fodder, this goes up. Otherwise, it’s decent removal. But you really want to eat a token. 2.5

Flummoxed Cyclops - We need the word flummoxed more. This is decent, and is a great on-curve threat that can sometimes hold off one small flier. 2.5

Incendiary Oracle - I like bears, and I like firebreathing bears even more. The exile clause is just some extra goodness on this already solid creature. 2.5

Infuriate - Apparently this is becoming Red’s trick going rate. Sure. 2.0

Irreverent Revelers - Most of the time, I’d skip this. Unless you see a Shadowspear or some really good Artifact target. 1.5

Nyxborn Brute - Shame there’s no Fling in this set. It’s big, but it trades down to almost everything. I’d rather it were a 6/4. 1.5

Oread of Mountain’s Blaze - Fire nymph, huh? I’m sold. This card is an effective early blocker and flood protection later. 2.5

Portent of Betrayal - 4 mana is a lot for this effect, even with Scry added on. And most of the sac outlets aren’t free either. 1.5

Satyr’s Cunning - Not an effect I want to cast once, let alone repeat, for tokens that can’t block. An engine, this is not. 1.0

Skophos Warleader - Decent stats for the size, but the sac payoff isn’t particularly worth it. 2.0

Stampede Rider - I like that this triggers off itself if you have it pumped up. Solid all around. 2.5

Thrill of Possibility - Most Red decks will want one. 2.0

Underworld Rage-Hound - In aggressive Red decks, this could be pretty good. It will trade at least once, sometimes twice. 2.0

Wrap in Flames - A classic at this point. Again, good for aggressive decks, and can help push through some damage. 2.0

Gift of Strength - This will be just as useful as it always is. 2.0

Hyrax Tower Scout - Grants one-time pseudo-Vigilance, and is a well-costed creature on its own. 2.5

Ilysian Caryatid - Mana dorks be mana-dorking. Helps with double & triple mana costs, and useful for ramp builds. 2.0

Inspire Awe - The chance of the board state making this unfavorable for you is real for a card that often isn’t worth it anyway. I generally would avoid this. 1.0

Loathsome Chimera - This will always trade once, sometimes twice, though these super asymmetrical stats really bug me on a Green card. Probably decent, all things told. 2.0

Nexus Warden - Without lifegain synergies, this is just as stall. Good thing this has Reach, so it at least can serve as a blocker against evasion. 2.0

Nylea’s Forerunner - A bit costly at 5 mana, but the trample benefit is decent, and it is an Enchantment. 2.0

Nylea’s Huntmaster - Apparently her Huntmaster doesn’t get to be an Enchantment. The ETB here is okay, but without Trample, is situationally useful. Still, it can threaten a lot of damage and force a trade. 2.0

Nyxborn Colossus - Probably the best of the cycle, this is the largest creature at Common and will pretty much own the board, besides being an Enchantment for decks that care. 2.5

Omen of the Hunt - The least useful of this cycle, unless you’re really in a Ramp deck. Still, ramping is good, and the same stuff applies about it being an Enchantment & having Scry. 2.0

Plummet - So there’s the dragon in this set. Just... dying. That’s coo I guess. Sideboard only, as usual. 1.0

Relentless Pursuit - Three mana is one more than I like paying for this type of effect, and Escape isn’t enough to make the Graveyard part incredibly useful. 1.5

Setessan Skirmisher - Essentially the “Bear with Set’s Mechanic” of this set, this is likely going to be playable most of the time, though it really could have been a 2/2. 2.0

Setessan Training - In a Constellation-heavy deck, this can do work, but I suspect lots of people will take these more highly than they should. 1.5

Skola Grovedancer - Mostly a 2/2 and will occasionally gain you a life or two. The self-mill is a poor way to fuel Escape unless you have something bonkers like one of the Escape mythics. 1.5

Altar of the Pantheon - Most of the time it’s a Manalith, but if you get lucky, it’ll be a Manalith that’s also a Fountain of Renewal. 2.0

Bronze Sword - Generic equipment seems less than great in this set. 1.5

Thaumaturge’s Familiar - The ease of casting this is nice, and the Scry is a good little boost. Not great, but playable. 2.0

Traveler’s Amulet - I like this. It’s a cute way to fix your colors and then fuel Escape, and given the number of double & triple colors in mana costs in this set, I’d usually run one of these. 2.0

Wings of Hubris - I mean, it’s pretty cheap. I think one copy is playable in the right deck. 1.5

Unknown Shores - This will be better here than it was the last couple times we saw it. With so many double and triple mana costs around, it’s useful to have a Land that can either flex you into your second and third colors, or help you double down on your first. I’d run one copy most decks. 2.0

And that’s it. One thing that’s nice to see is the spread between the Commons isn’t huge. i.e. there aren’t tons of awful Commons that nobody wants. At least not from my initial guess. We’ll see how the format shakes out.

[dailynewswebsite]

What's Next for the Clippers?

It was a really quiet Wednesday across the bubble with no video games on the schedule, so we’re going to make use of this chance to do a autopsy on the Clippers season. We’ll then discuss concerning the announcement of the All-NBA groups which snubbed the likes of Bam Adebayo, Khris Middleton and Bradley Beal. 

  What’s subsequent for the Clippers?

  The Clippers have been getting roasted and rightfully so after their implosion vs. the Nuggets, blowing a 3-1 collection lead with one of many worst Recreation 7 performances I’ve ever seen — they have been outscored 50-33 within the second half with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George combining for 5 factors on 2-of-18 taking pictures in that body.

The reasons rained down after, with Doc Rivers citing a scarcity of conditioning as one of many the reason why his workforce collapsed. “I used to be by no means snug. I simply wasn’t,” Rivers mentioned of the 3-1 collection lead. “I simply knew conditioning-wise, like, we had guys that simply could not play minutes, and that is onerous, you recognize. I imply, there have been two or thrice an evening the place we really began getting it going, and a man needed to come out. I imply, it’s what it’s. So no, I used to be by no means snug. I can inform you that up entrance. I instructed our coaches that.”

Rivers made historical past for all of the fallacious causes by changing into the one coach to ever blow three 3-1 leads within the playoffs, however The Athletic reported on Wednesday that his job safety will not be unsure. Rivers did make some obvious errors together with giving Montrezl Harrell an excessive amount of run towards Nikola Jokic early within the collection, however it’s onerous to put an excessive amount of blame on him when his second greatest participant in Paul George turned an web meme. Sure, his nickname is now “Wayoff P” on Twitter as a substitute of “Playoff P.” No thought how that web site is free. Additionally, shout out to Damian Lillard for one of the crucial savage tweets of all time (hyperlink).

Rivers’ quote wasn’t practically as head-turning as George’s although… “It was apparent strain to stay as much as the title expectations,” George mentioned. “However as a participant, I imply, you need that. … It is no cop-out. Truth of the matter is, we did not stay as much as that expectation. However I feel, internally, we have all the time felt this isn’t a championship-or-bust yr for us.” He went on to say that he didn’t assume the Clippers had sufficient time collectively, however it’s nonetheless such a bizarre factor to say when you think about the worth tag the Clippers paid to deliver George to L.A. — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, the Clippers’ first spherical draft picks in 2022, 2024 and 2026, two first-round picks through Miami (2021 and 2023), and OKC has the fitting to swap first-round picks in 2023 and 2025. I’m sorry, however for those who’re paying that a lot of a premium and also you name your self “Playoff P” you higher a minimum of take your workforce to the Finals.

Hindsight is 20-20, however If I’m the Clippers and will return in time I wouldn’t do the deal straight up for SGA, not to mention the seven picks. George merely hasn’t been the identical since present process surgical procedure to each shoulders and it’s not like he hasn’t had time to get well because it’s been practically 1.5 years. And right here’s a daunting factor to contemplate; each George and Kawhi Leonard can choose out of their offers throughout the 2021 offseason. So yeah, the Clippers’ title window may shut immediately with none picks to fall again on. Evidently, this entrance workplace has quite a lot of pondering to do and with their draft choose state of affairs they’re pressured to stay with this core within the hope that they’ll discover the chemistry points which have plagued all of them yr.

Let’s squeeze some fantasy nuggets right here whereas we’re at it, as I feel Leonard and George shall be two of essentially the most polarizing picks in drafts subsequent season. Leonard’s well being has been declining for a couple of years now with that continual quad subject, so the load administration isn’t going away. Relying on the variety of back-to-backs, Leonard begins the brand new season with the expectation of lacking +/- 10 video games from the leap. He regarded like he didn’t have a lot elevate within the Denver collection and he’s one yr shy of 30, so if something I feel the load administration will improve. I nonetheless assume he’ll be a prime 5 per-game worth, but when I’m choosing within the late first spherical I’d a lot moderately have a younger stud like Jayson Tatum. If Kawhi is obtainable round choose 15, then I’ll chew.

Story continues

George presents an fascinating dilemma. On one hand, you may have a participant that’s one season faraway from being the third greatest participant in 9-cat for 2018-19, however on the opposite you may have a participant who shot 39% within the playoffs whereas disappearing when it mattered most. He ought to nonetheless be in his prime at age 30 and also you’d assume on a regular basis off he’s about to have will erase any issues about his shoulder, so although I simply clowned him earlier I’ve a sense that George might be a cut price at his ADP subsequent season. Let’s see the place the market places him after which revisit this one other time.

Lastly, let’s talk about a potential sleeper in Ivica Zubac, a man who was a internet plus in 11 of the 13 playoff video games. Montrezl Harrell is a free agent, however I like Zubac no matter Harrell’s choice. He has grown into a very sound defender and he was their solely prayer vs. Nikola Jokic with Harrell taking part in himself off the ground. He solely averaged 18.Four minutes per sport this season, however I feel that quantity is nearer to 24 subsequent season and that would make him a sneaky late-round choose — he has a per-36 line of 16.2 factors, 14.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.eight blocks, large numbers for a participant heading into his age-23 marketing campaign.

Editor’s Notice: Whether or not you wish to win a 50/50 or take down a GPP, use our DFS Optimizer, customizable projections and extra to create the neatest lineups. Subscribe to all 4 main sports activities for as little as $7.99/month! 

  2019-20 All-NBA Groups Introduced

  First: LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, Anthony Davis, James Harden

  Second: Damian Lillard, Kawhi Leonard, Nikola Jokic, Chris Paul, Pascal Siakam   

  Third: Ben Simmons, Jayson Tatum, Jimmy Butler, Rudy Gobert, Russell Westbrook

  Total the NBA did a fairly good job with a pair notable exceptions. Russell Westbrook making the third workforce over the likes of Khris Middleton and Bradley Beal is fairly egregious, and you might argue that Bam Adebayo deserves a spot on that workforce (maybe over Rudy Gobert).

Khris Middleton really had sufficient complete factors to make the workforce with 81, way more than Westbrook (56) and Ben Simmons (61), however as Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer identified his votes have been break up between G and F. I imply come on NBA, that is changing into a position-less sport and it’s time for the voting to acknowledge that. Middleton is each bit deserving of a spot, virtually becoming a member of the 50/40/90 membership this season with averages of 20.9 factors, 6.2 rebounds, 4.Three assists and a pair of.Four triples. It sounds just like the Bucks shall be reloading with an analogous supporting forged subsequent season exterior of Eric Bledsoe who will doubtless be dumped for a shooter, so I like Middleton’s possibilities of repeating his success.

Beal was the largest snub although. I perceive that workforce success performs a task within the voting, however the dude was carrying a workforce that was giving Ian Mahinmi constant minutes. In Beal’s final 25 video games, he was placing up MVP-like numbers of 34.2 factors, 5.5 dimes, 3.7 rebounds, 1.5 steals and three.6 triples on 48% from the sector. Beal didn’t play contained in the bubble due to a proper rotator cuff harm however surgical procedure is out of the query which suggests he’s locked and loaded as a late first-round choose in my guide for subsequent season.

from Growth News https://growthnews.in/whats-next-for-the-clippers/ via https://growthnews.in

[lovelyfantasticfart]

Montreal Not Feeling Effects Of Foreign Buyers In Actual Estate Market

1 individual found this helpful Do you employ italics for the titles of plays? CMHC discovered 3.Three per cent of condos within the Toronto metropolitan space are owned by folks whose major residence is exterior of Canada, up from 2.Four per cent final year. In line with the report released Wednesday, about one per cent of condominiums within the larger Montreal space were owned by people whose major residence is outside of Canada. LoopNet also attracts a big group of Montreal Canada professionals with more than 7 million members comprised of brokers, company executives, service suppliers, and greater than three million consumers, tenants and other principals all through the U.S. Vast corridors, giant closets, and kitchen cabinets are the stuff you to notice while considering any condo. While the struggle is localized to the Toronto market, TREB represents almost 50,000 brokers, so its affect is substantial. Affordability declined most in Victoria (1.5%), Quebec Metropolis (0.8%), Calgary Montreal (0.4%) and Calgary (0.2%) however improved slightly in Toronto and Winnipeg.

RBC defines affordability because the proportion of pre-tax family income needed to service the prices of owning as specific type of home. Movies on homepage with key service content, a gallery, can showcase your work in much better means. Relying on what type of site or business you operate, movies generally is a excellent means to draw and attain an viewers. Produce dynamic titles to your YouTube or community movies. Share to: How many titles did Kobe win? No. E-book Titles are both underlined or italicized. Share to: Is book a noun? Some of them get resolved rapidly, but some are usually not. Follow your protection. Assured pitching and batting get the entire glory, but at the moment being a wonderful defensive participant is effectively price just as quite a bit to your group. An XML sitemap helps Google bots and search engine crawlers to get the location index and evaluate all the listed net pages.

The downtown and mid-city areas are recording decrease vacancy rates at 5.7 per cent and 4.8 per cent respectively. Learn More: Toronto residence prices are crazy. But on top of that, it bolstered elementary variations between Canada's second tier of real estate markets, and Vancouver and Toronto - foreign buyers simply aren't that into Calgary. In 2016 it launched QuadReal, an actual estate supervisor. Resolve on the fabric of your customized crew socks dependent on the objective for which you might be buying them. Prices in these markets are rising faster than family income, additional straining affordability, famous Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. Increased overseas investment means there may be a lot of curiosity in residential properties so costs will continue to rise. It will save you energy. As a result of they are petrified of deflation and sadly no matter what they do, my forecast of deflation coming to the US will materialize, and this can most definitely carry concerning the worst bear market ever.

Once once more, it is a healthy market - however solely a notch above inflation. I've mentioned this earlier than and I will say it once more, Canadians dwell in Dreamland. The title bar is on the very prime of your display and shows the title of the appliance you might be using and the name of the document that's open. Even if you are marketing and promoting a reply to a difficulty, emphasis on the benefits of your reply comparatively than the soreness or inconvenience of the dilemma. Our support team consists of extremely qualified upkeep and an in-home advertising staff. If the worst had been to happen, bitcoin's billions may disappear in a cloud of smoke, however Canadian houses would retain an extended-time period worth. It's unlucky, but throughout economic downturns people do lose their homes. That was that, I enjoyed our lunch, informed him I'd like to keep in touch and he went off to meet extra essential folks.

Meanwhile the average individual there (as wherever) is fed up with immigration鈥et the politicians and human services folks name anyone who provides their opinion a 鈥渞acist鈥?or 鈥渪enophobe鈥? I started relationship an individual 鈥?let's identify him Tyler 鈥?just a few months ago. Hi Joe - yes, someone else talked about the puppet man, maybe I ought to incorporate him somewhere. Sure, it is true concerning the Castle being built utilizing Caen stone transported from France - I believe this stone was also used for other landmark buildings in Britain. This is not going to merely imply practicing using the group, but by yourself at residence also. It should merely support in clean conversion of visitors into customers. To carry out these video games you will require either a dance flooring area or chairs arrange about in a circle. Or perhaps within the drafting period you may ignore accomplishments that each time offered precisely would vault your cv to the very prime on the person pile.

from Blogger https://ift.tt/2YOhpSk

[topicprinter]

I tend to get obsessive researching this type of thing, so, I thought sharing my tech/service provider list would be helpful to some of you out there. WARNING: this is a very long post.As a new business, a website is a must IMO. I was a marketing major in undergrad, and I learned that website speed is crucial along with remembering the main purpose for your website (capturing leads). For hosting, I use a managed VPS service provider called Cloudways. A VPS server is much more responsive than the traditional shared hosting (think GoDaddy, Bluehost, etc.) because it’s a sectioned off piece of the server that you get 100% of the resources (memory and processor). However, a VPS server is more complicated because you need to keep the hosting software and hardware in harmony and updated. You usually need to know some code commands. HOWEVER, the reason why Cloudways is great is because they manage the VPS server for you. Which means, you really don’t need to know anything about the server. Cloudways is $10 per month and is a steal of a deal. They also provide free SSL certificates which is absolutely required in today’s digital age.Once you’ve got your hosting figured out, you then have your host install Wordpress. Wordpress is the bones to your website, and it is the most popular content management system in the world. It’s free and has a huge community of developers that make wonderful enhancements to Wordpress. In my opinion, Wordpress is the only option (some of the reasons include SEO, speed, flexibility, support community, ease of use, etc.)Now that you’ve got the bones of your website, you need to make it look pretty. Wordpress has many website theme options. Some are free and some cost money. I use a premium theme called Astra. It’s fast, lightweight, SEO friendly, ADA compliant, and it has many pre-built websites that you can use. I’ve used Astra to build my personal injury website, which you can see here. Before I installed tracking code (Facebook, Google, LiveChat, CallRaill, etc.) it was loading at pre-1 second times. It now takes 1.5 seconds to fully load, but, visual things will load quicker than the full 1.5.I also use a page builder add-on for my Wordpress site development. A page builder makes it easier to arrange visual website elements and make changes to your website. It essentially turns it into drag and drop and it cuts out the need for a web developer to edit/tweak your website. I use elementor, which is built to work extremely nicely with the Astra theme.Eventually, every new business can use a nice-looking logo. I researched many logo designers that did great work and at a good price. I tend to like clean, minimalistic logos. I found a Macedonian designer that I liked on Fivver. I paid $267.75 and got two design concepts that were very good. You can view my finalized logo here.I have run Google Ads to landing pages that I created with Elementor on my website. Conversions dramatically improved when I installed live chat on my website. There’s a little pop-up that asks visitors if they were injured in an accident. I researched and used multiple live chat providers, but my favorite is LiveChat. It costs me $45 a month and it just converts so well.In order to get my virtual phone number and my virtual fax number, I went with Twilio. This is a service provider that I’m crazy about. They are a little overwhelming because they provide so many services, but they are worth it. They check all numbers to make sure that they are “clean” (that they haven’t been used for spam) before they sell them to you. I played a little game that they offer, and they gave me $50.00 in credits. In 4.5 months, my $50 still hasn’t run out and I purchased 2 digital lines and I get charged for every text, fax, and every minute on my phone.Once I had a phone line, I knew I needed 24/7 call answering. Boy did I hit a grand slam with my provider. After intense research, I found AnswerFirst. I dare anyone to find a better deal than these guys. I get charged $40 flat fee and then $1.15 per minute. They answer on the first or second ring and follow my script: “Welcome to (Law Firm), are you calling for a free consultation?” If they are, these guys take down their info, text and e-mail it to me, and forward the phone call to my desk phone. They do the same if it’s a lawyer or current client. Anyone else, they take down their info and send it to me, but they don’t transfer the call. I believe the workers are stay-at-home employees out of Florida. If you’re OK with a different voice every time, this company is such a high value add.At a previous job, I learned that texting customers is a huge win. I often get texts instead of e-mails / calls from my clients. Since I didn’t want to hand out my personal cell, I connected Textable with my virtual phone number. Honestly, it was a little bit of a hassle and I’m not crazy about this solution. However, it’s free and it works OK. I probably need to find a better solution here. If you want to go this route, I can help you, but, be prepared with some patience.Since some insurance companies and doctor offices operate in the olden days, so I needed to have reliable fax. I love going with internet-based fax, it is so convenient. I use RedFax and highly recommend them. There is a $4.99 option that gets you 600 pages of faxes per month. I connected my Twilio fax number with this company and it took maybe 4 days. I have never missed a fax, to my knowledge, and it sends everything in PDF form to my e-mail. I just upload PDFs and it faxes them for me. I can fax multiple things at the same time. It’s just beautiful. Also, they have a HIPAA compliant option.Because I am still in lean start-up mode, I use a very low-cost Customer Relation Management (CRM) software. I wanted something that was simple to use, allowed me to enter notes about contacts, track leads in various stages, connect with my calendar and e-mail, was mobile friendly, and had a nice interface. Honestly, I had a hard time finding a CRM that I liked. I tried too so many and wasted a lot of time. In the end, I found LACRM. This one checks all my boxes. It is $10.00 per month and I love it. HOWEVER, this is not a good CRM for people that want to automate tasks / drafting / e-mails / texting. One day I think I will upgrade to an injury specific CRM system that will automate things for me. But for now, this one just works so well for me.My least favorite start-up task was setting up my accounting system. This stage really sucks (especially setting up trust accounting). After poking around at various options, I kept reading that accountants strongly prefer Quickbooks. It is so widely used that I don’t think there is another option IF you plan on having an accountant look over your books. I use Quick Books Online and it costs me about $25 a month. I actually like it now that it’s all setup and configured. But I still can’t wait until I can outsource bookkeeping.As far as setting up e-mail with my domain name, I turned to Office 365. The process took me awhile to figure out, but I ended up succeeding so now I don’t have to use Gmail, AOL, Hotmail, etc. Another big benefit of using Office 365 is that I get Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc. as well as their cloud hosting. I save all my documents / client files to the cloud. My office is basically paperless, which is so convenient. I researched Microsoft’s up-time, security, HIPAA compliance, and back-up procedures. I was very satisfied, and I feel comfortable relying on them. I know some folks use Gmail for this type of thing, but I believe having Word is important. I pay $16.50 a month for all the things they provide me.For my business Internet, I went with Comcast and it was cheaper with a landline. I use that number as my private desk phone number. I wasn’t planning on this, but, I’m glad it worked out this way. This required me to find a desk phone that I liked along with a wireless headset. I wanted one with an answering machine and the ability to conference call. I honestly don’t think there are great options for landlines anymore. It seems like the best phone systems are for VOIP. Anyways, I ended up with this phone and this wireless headset. Both have worked just fine for me and they were cheap.Well, that’s it for now. I hope this was helpful to someone out there. I made a goal to hit 100 positive Google reviews by the end of March for my new law firm, so, shoot me a message if you’d feel comfortable pounding 5 stars. Thanks, and let me know if you have questions about any of this.

[thrashermaxey]

21 Fantasy Hockey Rambles

Every Sunday, we'll share 21 Fantasy Rambles — formerly 20 Fantasy Thoughts — from our writers at DobberHockey. These thoughts are curated from the past week's ‘Daily Ramblings’.

Writers: Michael Clifford, Ian Gooding, Cam Robinson, and Dobber

  1. Blues’ coach Craig Berube has completely turned his team around, and has done so with strong underlying metrics and not smoke and mirrors. Three months ago, there were rumours of trading Brayden Schenn and/or Vladimir Tarasenko by the Trade Deadline. Now, it looks like they’ll be buyers.

This is another team that could use Mark Stone, though I imagine that conversation begins with guys like Robert Thomas, Robby Fabbri, or Jordan Kyrou, and I’m not sure that the Blues would want to part with pieces like that. Maybe they just add some depth pieces, considering how well this team is playing right now. (feb21)

  2. That’s now four wins in a row for Flames’ Mike Smith, who has also started five games in a row.

What could have been a four-start week for David Rittich could end up as a zero-start week for him, as Smith may possibly receive another start on Sunday against Ottawa based on the current trend.

Since Valentine’s Day, Smith is 4-0-1 with a 2.17 GAA and a .924 SV%, which are considerably better numbers than he posted over the first quarter (3.48 GAA, .876 SV%). (feb23)

  3. Before the season, I was adamant that Rasmus Dahlin. would not be worth his ADP in standard Yahoo! leagues (you can read my stuff from the offseason here, here, and here. That’s not all of it, but it’s a start).

He’s already surpassed my projections but whether he lives up to his ADP remains to be seen. All the same, I wanted to say this: his rookie season has been exceptional.

In the history of the NHL, Dahlin is one of three defensemen to average 0.55 points per game in their rookie season, the other two being Bobby Orr and Phil Housley. Not that he’s guaranteed to maintain that mark over the balance of the season, but the fact he’s at that point when we’re a week away from the trade deadline speaks volumes of his talent.

His performance in the defensive zone still needs work but, I mean, come on, the kid is 18. We can cut him a little slack!

All this is to say that Dahlin is performing every bit the future superstar he has been. Though that may not be enough to pay off his preseason ADP, this is about as good as we could possibly hope for. I can’t possibly imagine he can be had for cheap in dynasty/keeper leagues, but I would be checking with the Dahlin owner in your league. If he can be a top-30 fantasy defenseman as an 18-year old and do it without being driven by luck, we’re only a couple years away from a top-5 defenseman. (feb19)

  4. Brendan Gallagher marked his first career hat trick in Montreal’s 5-1 win over Philadelphia on Thursday. That makes 26 goals for him on the season, five away from his career-best 31 last year. He’s such a good across-the-board fantasy contributor, averaging over 1.5 hits/3.5 shots per game with a good plus/minus. (feb22)

  5. With Connor McDavid serving the first game of his two-game suspension on Saturday, there isn’t really much to the Oilers offense beyond Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, which wasn’t the case when the Oilers first drafted McDavid.

Maybe that asset mismanagement will result in them adding one of Jack Hughes or Kaapo Kakko in the draft this summer. I bet social media would explode if the lottery balls bounced that way. (feb24)

  6. Dobber checked in with the Fantasy Take of the Stars acquiring Mats Zuccarello, which includes a comprehensive list of players potentially helped or hurt by the trade. I wrote a few paragraphs about the Ryan Dzingel trade and how the Blue Jackets and Senators are affected. You can check them out here.

Bubble wrapping their assets in the event of a potential trade, the Rangers held out all of Zuccarello, Kevin Hayes, and Adam McQuaid on Saturday. Yet, they still managed to defeat the Devils, who were holding out Marcus Johansson for the same reason.

I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a season where so many teams have decided to scratch players who are on the trade block. If these teams are out of the playoff race, then there’s no incentive for them not to do this. In fact, I’m surprised that teams haven’t done this sooner. The loser of course is the paying fan, who potentially misses a player or two that they were hoping to see. (feb24)

  7. Free agency notwithstanding, the Wild may be a team in transition next season. Changes could result in increased opportunities for Ryan Donato, Jordan Greenway, Luke Kunin, and Joel Eriksson Ek, which will be positive for keeper owners who have been waiting patiently on them. Even with the long-term contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter still in tow, the Wild could go on a bit of a youth movement. (feb23)

  8. The Capitals paid a heavy price to land free agent defenseman Nick Jensen, sending Madison Bowey and a second-round pick in 2020 to Detroit in return (Capitals also receive a fifth-round pick).

Although Jensen is employed in virtually no fantasy leagues, the Red Wings’ fan I spoke with earlier this year thought Jensen was his team’s best defenseman this season.

The Capitals must be hoping that Jensen is this season’s version of Michal Kempny, who looked very impressive in the playoffs last season. The Jensen acquisition could help Braden Holtby’s numbers to some small degree. (feb23)

  9. You have to admire the intestinal fortitude of GM Jarmo Kekalainen, who assuming he does not trade Artemi Panarin, is going all in to win a Stanley Cup.

There is high risk, though, considering that: a) the Jackets are no guarantee to even make the playoffs; and b) Matt Duchene, Panarin, and Sergei Bobrovsky could all leave the Jackets high and dry after the season. But if you have a legit chance to win your keeper league this season, aren’t you employing a similar strategy? Let’s worry about next season next season. (feb23)

  10. Although he was held without a point against the Senators in his Blue Jackets debut on Friday, Matt Duchene was inserted onto the top line alongside Artemi Panarin and Cam Atkinson.

Pierre-Luc Dubois, the regular center for this line, was moved to a line with Oliver Bjorkstrand and Anthony Duclair. Dubois’ value could take a hit over the final quarter of the season if Duchene replaces him full-time on the top line. (feb23)

In his second game on Saturday, again alongside Panarin and Atkinson, Duchene added a goal and an assist in a Jackets’ 4-0 win over the Sharks.

  TRADE DEADLINE:

Just a reminder that we’ll have you completely covered here at Dobber Hockey for everything NHL Trade Deadline, as we’ll be updating constantly with our fantasy takes and our Trade Tracker.

Whenever fantasy owners see a trade go down, they should head on over within the next few hours to get a breakdown of what that means for them and their fantasy leagues. Any trade of significance will be broken down by either Ian Gooding, Michael Clifford, Cam Robinson, or Dobber himself.

  11. I’m still wondering in the back of my mind whether the Flyers will send Carter Hart back to the AHL since Cam Talbot is also now on the roster and hasn’t played yet. But if Hart stays, it makes me wonder why they acquired Talbot in the first place.

Or, maybe Brian Elliott is being given a showcase start for a potential trade. Or, maybe the Flyers are being super cautious in case another goalie is injured. Regardless, I’m confused. Maybe this mess will be untangled soon. (feb23) UPDATE: Hart is expected to miss at least 10 days with a lower-body injury. (feb24)

  12. Jayce Hawryluk was lined up on the second line for Florida on Thursday night with Mike Hoffman moving to the third line. It’s a move we’ve seen a few times this year and with the Panthers believing they’re in the playoff race, this isn’t a matter of simply giving a young guy a bigger role to see what they have, they think he can produce right now. Whether that’s misguided or not, we’ll see. (feb22)

  13. I have never been a fan of Red Wings’ coach Jeff Blashill. His lineup decisions constantly baffle me (the blue line and power play especially), his treatment of talents like Andreas Athanasiou infuriate me, and the way he handles young guys has typically been underwhelming.

However, of late, Jonathan Ericsson has been a healthy scratch and that has led to Filip Hronek getting his way into the lineup. Not only into the lineup, but to the top power play unit, and a top PP unit that actually features their top players (Anthony Mantha, Dylan Larkin, Andreas Athanasiou, Thomas Vanek) rather than the talent being spread across two units. This is wonderful news for Hronek’s fantasy value.

One problem is that even if he maintains PP1 status, he might not crack the 20-minute mark per game with any regularity. That’s fine, though. Guys like him can still have fantasy value (just think of Will Butcher and Mikhail Sergachev from last year), though he’d be more valuable in points-only leagues.

Acquiring Hronek is a big gamble because Blashill’s moods change with the wind and he might be back in the press box a week from now. It’s a gamble worth taking given his current usage, though, in 12-team leagues or larger. (feb22)

  14. Detroit could look quite different next year with Gustav Nyquist likely to be traded, Vanek on a one-year deal, Niklas Kronwall a pending UFA, and Nick Jensen just traded to Washington. That doesn’t include Filip Zadina likely being on the main roster.

Where Athanasiou will fit in is uncertain. It shouldn’t be a concern, though, given Athanasiou has shown he can be plenty productive without top-tier line mates. He just needs more ice time. This guy should be over 18 minutes a game, not playing just 13 seconds more per game at 5v5 than Justin Abdelkader. (feb21)

  15. Jamie Benn scored a pair of goals in Dallas’s 5-2 win over St. Louis on Thursday, the first multi-goal game for him since October 6. He had four such games last year, including two hat tricks, and eight such games in his 41-goal season back in 2015-16.

Benn does enough across the board that he’s still been very good in multi-category leagues but the drop in scoring for a power forward about to turn 30 years old is a bit concerning. (feb22)

  16. Frank Vatrano has signed a three-year extension with the Panthers that will pay him an average of $2.53 million per season. Now that he has received a regular NHL opportunity, Vatrano has scored a career-high 20 goals in just 59 games while seeing ice time with some of the Panthers’ big boys. At age 24, Vatrano has sleeper potential and the new contract should solidify his spot on the Panthers. (feb24)

  17. Go here to read Cam Robinson's take on the Charlie Coyle / Ryan Donato swap.

One thing I'd like to add is that this is a smart gamble from Minnesota. Coyle was probably gone in a year anyway and this year is shot. They're essentially giving up one year of Coyle to find out whether or not Ryan Donato can make good on the potential he's shown in lower leagues.

Remember that Donato was very highly thought of in the fantasy community coming into the year, and also by the Bruins as they had him on the top PP unit way back when. For a team that seemingly wants to re-tool on the fly than full-out rebuild, this is a solid move. (feb21)

  18. The Avs are invested in Philipp Grubauer beyond this season, but I’m wondering if there’s at least an outside chance that they bring Semyon Varlamov back next season. Varlamov has had significant stretches of the kind of numbers that you don’t want near your fantasy hockey team, but he has been playing better lately with four wins over his last five starts and six quality starts over his last seven games. So, the shutout won’t necessarily result in more playing time for Grubauer. (feb24)

  19. Patrick Kane has an incredible 68 points in 39 games stretching back to Nov. 24. He recently surpassed Mike Hoffman’s earlier season point streak of 17 games for the longest run of the season.

Kane has produced 43 points on his current 20 games run. 43.

In the last 10 years, the top streaks are:

– Kane: 26 games in 2015-16 – Sidney Crosby: 25 games in 2010-11 – Taylor Hall: 19 games in 2017-18 – Steven Stamkos: 18 games in 2009-10 – Corey Perry: 19 in 2009-10 – Phil Kessel: 18 in 2008-09   

Don’t take these lengthy point-streaks for granted. They don’t come around too often.

And don't go handing that Hart trophy to Nikita Kucherov just yet. If Kane can drag the Blackhawks to the postseason – and they're only one point back right now, his massive point totals and lack of surrounding talent will be difficult to argue against. (feb20)

  20. As for Kucherov, last Monday’s five-point performance against Columbus  was the seventh time this season he tallied at least four points in a single game. For reference on how absurd that is, no player in the league had more than three four-point games in 2017-18. He’s well on his way to setting a 20-year single-season high in points. It’s been absolutely remarkable. (feb19)

  21. Jeff Skinner absolutely needs to re-sign with Buffalo. The roster and the coaching style fits him like a glove and he doesn’t want to mess with that.

Sure, he could make an extra $1 million per season somewhere else and perhaps that means an extra $6 million over the length of his contract, but he risks failure, embarrassment and – in an extreme case – perhaps even a buyout five years down the line.

He need look no further than teammate Kyle Okposo when determining how signing with a bad fit can take your status as a star down a few notches. And how does Milan Lucic feel when he walks down the streets of Edmonton?

With the Sabres, Skinner knows he can succeed because he’s thriving right now. Don’t mess with that, his best shot at a long and storied career is right where he is now. (feb18)  

Have a good week, folks!!

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/21-fantasy-hockey-rambles/21-fantasy-hockey-rambles-6/

[fmservers]

Amazon did exactly what it should have with its HQ2 process

I love my colleague Jon Shieber, he’s a great guy. But his arguments against Amazon’s HQ2 process are just wrong, and are part of an increasingly poisonous atmosphere around employment growth and prosperity in America.

Our normally-scheduled analysis of AI and semiconductors will (hopefully) restart tomorrow.

We are experimenting with new content forms at TechCrunch. This is a rough draft of something new – provide your feedback directly to the author at danny@techcrunch.com if you like or hate something here.

A tale of three arguments

Shieber’s pointed argument yesterday falls in line with the wider debate about gentrification and the steep inequality of today’s digital economy. “Amazon played everyone involved in the process: the governments that pandered to it and the media that covered it (including us),” he wrote. “Now it looks like the residents of these communities that will have to live with their new corporate neighbor are going to be left to pay for it.”

Shieber sees essentially three problems with Amazon’s HQ2 process and announcement:

Amazon’s wealth drives its corporate power, which forces governments to do its bidding by applying to its reverse RFP process.

The incentive packages lined up by NYC and Northern Virginia are a form of corporate welfare that would be better used for everyday citizens, plus Amazon would have come anyway.

Amazon is not-transparent about its data or process, even while it collected data from hundreds of city governments.

Let’s take a look at that analysis.

Cities win and lose

In the normal world of economic development, cities post potential projects as Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and then wait for applications to come in, read through them, and select a winner. This is the process that New York City went through recently in selecting a group of firms to operate its new cybersecurity initiative. It’s reasonably transparent, and it is theoretically meritocratic, urban machine politics aside.

Increasingly though, companies have learned that cities will come far and wide to fight for jobs. In fact, rather than bidding for projects and having city governments or their economic development agencies select winners, companies can propose projects, have cities bid, and then the CEO can make the call. I call this a “reverse RFP.”

Almost three decades ago, United ran a reverse RFP process for the creation of a $1 billion maintenance facility which ended up being a fight between Oklahoma City and Indianapolis. As The Oklahoman wrote at the time: “United Airlines on Wednesday chose Indianapolis as the site of its $1 billion aircraft maintenance center, making Oklahoma City a loser in the race for what some termed the biggest industrial development project of the decade.” Sound familiar?

Last year, Foxconn extracted up to $4.8 billion in subsidies from Wisconsin as part of a process to build a new display manufacturing plant. And of course, Amazon ran its very public process over the past months.

Shieber wrote:

That Amazon felt comfortable enough to flip the script and instead have cities bid for the largesse of a corporation was galling enough. The fact that cities across America actually did the company’s bidding was proof of just how feckless, toothless, and seemingly powerless government at every level in this country has become.

Here’s the thing: Amazon is its own entity. It can make decisions for itself, in any way it chooses. Typically, corporate offices expand based on the personal decision of the CEO, maybe with some feedback from the board. When Square launched a customer operations office, it chose St. Louis, where its CEO Jack Dorsey is from. Such decisions get made every day with little input from cities.

Instead, Amazon opened that process up. It allowed cities to apply and provide information on why they might be the best location for its new headquarters. Maybe the company ignored all of the applications. Maybe it only ran the process to collect data. Maybe it just wanted the publicity. Maybe all of the above, and more. Regardless, it allowed input into a decision it has complete and exclusive control over.

Are cities “feckless” for applying? Should cities avoid competing tête-à-tête for jobs? Of course not. Cities compete every single day for individuals to move in, for small businesses to start, for federal tax funding. That competition is fundamentally a force for good, since it disciplines cities to make their residents — and future residents — happy. That’s one reason why Americans approve their local governments at 70%, and Congress remains mired in the single digits.

Amazon’s process hopefully woke up a number of slumbering city governments to the reality that their hometowns are not relatively as attractive as other cities.

Jobs and incentives

Photo: Chris Hepburn/Getty Images

Much of the ire over the Amazon announcement yesterday originated from the company’s combined multi-billion dollar incentive packages that it received from NYC and the DC metro. Amazon is already one of the wealthiest companies in the world, so why then does it need further incentives that divert tax dollars from other worthy causes?

As Shieber wrote:

As housing prices climb in Queens for rentals, cooperatives and condominiums, the neighborhood’s existing residents will likely be unable to afford the higher property prices. They’ll be moved out and essentially Amazon will be paying for infrastructure upgrades likely to be enjoyed solely by the company’s employees — again, at the expense of the broader tax base.

The challenge to that line of reasoning, which was common in many of the arguments against the HQ2 process, is failing to look at economic development holistically as a system. Opponents spend too much time focused on the tax receipts from income from new Amazon employees versus incentives, and not nearly enough time on all the spillover effects that will take place in these two regions.

These spillover effects are at the heart of agglomeration economies. With Amazon’s arrival, more software engineers will locate to NYC. They will start companies, join other tech firms, and expand the vitality of the community. As Edward Glaeser argues convincingly in his book The Triumph of the City, density of talent matters enormously for the success of the city. Amazon thickens the market for tech talent, and that is a huge win for both NYC and DC.

For a concrete example, Cornell Tech officially launched last year on NYC’s Roosevelt Island, which is located one subway stop from the proposed Amazon headquarters. What will the opening up of Amazon mean for the future of that new campus and its graduates? Does Cornell Tech have a better shot now at being a leading university in the computer sciences? Will more talent be drawn to Cornell Tech and ultimately into the NYC economy because of this co-location? It’s really hard to know or quantify, but the answer is almost certainly not zero.

Besides the lack of focus on spillovers, there is also this anti-gentrification line though that always grates on me. If Amazon’s plans are realized, it will deliver thousands of six-figure jobs into the city. As Enrico Moretti notes in his own book The New Geography of Jobs, it is exactly these sorts of jobs with high incomes that drive the economic vitality in cities. Killing the economy may be one way to lower housing prices, but it is a pretty foolish one.

Plus, I think there is a massive scale problem in people’s analysis of the incentives. Amazon’s incentive package for New York comes out to $1.5 billion or so. As a cost comparison, the East Side Access rail project, for instance, costs $3.5 billion a mile. New York’s incentive package is about 2,300 feet of rail, or roughly the distance between 2nd Ave and 6th Ave.

Tech jobs are bringing new wealth to cities, and obviously there are huge challenges with housing prices and affordability. But what a luxurious problem to have.

Transparency

The final point is about transparency and political decision-making. Shieber writes:

The question is less about whether Amazon’s decision to site its satellite offices in certain cities will be a boon to those cities. Instead, it’s whether the residents who already live there should be able to have a say in whether or not Amazon can come in and reshape their cities in radical ways.

But the residents in these cities did have a say — they elected mayors and governors to steer their cities and create widespread wealth. Hundreds of those elected leaders thought it prudent to apply for Amazon’s reverse RFP and sell their cities as great places for jobs.

If voters hate economic development incentives, then they can vote for politicians that will dismantle these programs. But the reality — which should be obvious — is that voters like jobs and income and employment. And they want their cities to compete and win the opportunity to bring large corporate offices to their cities, sometimes at a relatively high cost.

I frankly would love to see a more bottoms-up approach from cities around economic development, but there are frankly limits on how much the government can help small businesses. Plus, the math is often terrible — small businesses may create some local wealth, but they don’t create the kind of high-paying jobs that drive economies.

Ultimately, Amazon’s HQ2 process is a microcosm of larger forces, of technology, inequality, and democracy. The arguments against the reverse RFP are often just arguments for much broader structural change. That’s fine, but ultimately counter-productive from the municipal viewpoint. Cities aren’t going to lead the charge around structural reform — that has to happen at the federal level, and possibly even at a global context to be effective. Just ask Seattle about its city headcount tax and why Amazon might be looking at a second headquarters in the first place.

Via Danny Crichton https://techcrunch.com

[fplfrog]

FPL Strategy - Wildcarding after GW1

The start to the season this year is unlike any other. With the World Cup ending less than a month before the season starts and the transfer deadline the night before the first game week begins, strategy is going to play a key part in the early weeks of FPL. I want to explore a few of the strategies and see what the pros and cons are. I’m not suggesting if I was to execute the strategy I’m going to propose, the piece I write is exactly I’d do it, I just want to provide some food for thought. I think the idea anyone has their final draft, or even something close to it is laughable at this stage. So much will happen in the transfer market and in terms of player availability in the run up to the season kicking on August 10th.

My first thought was what about wildcarding after week one? This is a hallmark of a ‘casual’, but given the various obstacles in our way before the season starts could it actually be a viable option? Generally the core of most successful FPL teams is made up of premium top six players. But we may not know the answers to is Kane fit, is Salah on pens, will Aubameyang be down the middle, is Sarri a good fit for Chelsea and which City attackers will Pep go with given his wealth of options. Whilst these questions may remain unanswered before the first week of the season, some could be answered by game week two.

Last season my highest single game week rank was game week 1. My mistake was to assume that team was great and be reluctant to use an early wildcard. I stuck by the likes of Foster, Hegazi and Alli for too long when actually an early refresh of the team would have worked wonders. I didn’t actually use the first wildcard until the last possible game week, which could be argued to as much of a ‘waste’ as using it after game week 1.

But there is merit to using a wildcard after one week this season. It would effectively be the equivalent of having a second free hit chip. Putting my eggs in a small number of baskets, I fancy that Liverpool, Palace, Wolves, Bournemouth and Southampton could all have a decent opener. I’d also like an attacking player from each of Arsenal and Man City as that has the potential to be an open game. Looking at the early fixtures, I could foresee these two being teams to double or triple up on, but game week one feels too soon to make that move. 

Making a line up like this is viable:

You could then factor in some of the late arriving internationals in game week 2. as they come back into the fold. Maybe finding out Salah is off pens (which could as easily be established in as press conference as on the pitch), Kane scoring an August goal or Arsenal springing a surprise on City could change your thinking. You could then wildcard into this:

The players selected in the second draft are borderline irrelevant. There is no way now I could predict what I want my game week 2 line-up to look like, but thats the very point of this strategy. By going into game week 1 knowing you’re going to wildcard, it takes some of the pressure off. It would of course be a brave move and there are without doubt cons. Although Aubameyang is in both drafts, he could be kicked out if says Lacazette was central or on penalties and bringing him in could free you up £1.5 million elsewhere.

By game week 2, you will have some of the answers but not all of them. For example I think Sarri’s start at Chelsea could be similar to Conte’s in his first season, with questionable results before finding their rhythm, not that I’m suggesting a 13 game winning streak is repeatable. Waiting, even until say game week 4 might be your best move, given many more starting elevens will be established by then as new signings and Premier League managers and players begin to get comfortable with a particular system or style of play.

Another, and perhaps the main reason holding back most from trying this out, is you then lose the option to wildcard again until at least Christmas. The September, October and November international breaks have always been a popular time to wildcard and this season is likely to be different. One of the main reasons for this because players pick up injuries then are away.

There is a fair chance with the introduction of the UEFA Nations League, players with knocks will be less willing to pull out of international squads as games will have a little more meaning than before. Particularly those in the English, French, Spanish and German squads could feel if they skip a meet up with their country, they’re more likely given to pushed out the picture given the vast pool of players those sides have at their disposal. This could mean more injuries are picked up  to key players in international breaks than in previous seasons, so holding onto a wildcard would be more beneficial. 

In conclusion, this strategy is certainly a risk but one that could pay off. Of course there are a lot of reasons not to do it, but I think the circumstances of this season make it much more viable than it would have been in the past. I’m not an ‘expert’ and even if I was I wouldn’t be saying this is a 100% what you should do, but it’s an idea if you want to try something different. At the end of the day, some lose sight of the fact FPL is game to be enjoyed and it wouldn’t be as thrilling if we all did the same thing every week.

[swipestream]

Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four: a Cinema Legend for the Ages!

Here’s the story of a little movie that could, a really-real urban legend made by a legitimate cinematic legend, a movie never released in movie theaters, a movie whose reels were supposedly burned to ash by the Hollywood producer who bought the rights to it, a movie that somehow leaked to the public and (like the Star Wars Holiday Special) found a second life on bootleg DVD’s and lately, on YouTube. This is the story of Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four.

Roger Corman is an insanely prolific (and successful) low budget Hollywood mogul, specializing in horror, SF, and exploitation flicks. He has producer credits on 415 different movies on IMDB, including Death Race 2000, the original Piranha, and Battle Beyond the Stars.

Corman was famed for making ultra-low budget movies at a rapid pace. Corman’s studio wrote fast, filmed fast, edited fast, and released the movies where and as they could. With such low budgets, it didn’t take many cult successes to keep the studio in the black, and Corman made some of the most beloved cult classics ever. People like Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, and James Cameron all came up through Corman’s cinematic boot camp. If you could make it in the break-neck world of Corman productions, you could make it anywhere.

Long about September, 1992, Constantine Films, the then-owners of the rights to Marvel Comics’ Fantastic Four, contacted Corman, offering to co-produce a film. The budget was $1.5 million ($2.7 million today), half of which they would front, half of which Corman would. (This was an unprecedented budget for a Corman flick.) One caveat: they’d have to start filming by the end of the year.

The script went through four drafts, the actors were cast, sets dressed, costumes assembled (largely provided by the actors themselves, as there was essentially no costume budget), and the cameras began rolling, barely in time. True to form, the film stock itself was left-overs: unused ends of film previously shot for other movies. Those costumes not provided by the actors were often left-overs (one security guard wears a Nazi SS uniform, stripped of all insignia, presumably a remnant from a previous Corman flick), and the sets were left over from previous Corman films. (And recycled in the movie itself: flipped around and repainted, and used in a different scene as a different location).

The filming was speedy. There was no table read, no rehearsals, no director’s notes, no time to re-shoot many of the scenes. They had a timetable, and didn’t have the money to vary from it a bit.

The actors, directors, composers, and so forth poured all their heart into the film. Yes, it was a tiny-budget movie, but the key to moving up in Hollywood was to do a tiny-budget film, do it well, and then your next job would be on a bigger film. (See “Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, and James Cameron” for how that works.)

The actors poured their hearts into the roles. Kat Green, the actress playing Ben Grimm’s blind sculptor girlfriend, spent time at a school for the blind and took sculpting lessons to ensure her performance was authentic. The cast hit the scenes, played their roles with sincerity and dedication, and worked hard to make the movie work. As did everyone else involved.

Just as the film was mostly shot, production came to a sudden end. With a couple of key scenes yet to be lensed, the cast and crew found themselves without instructions, and without a budget. Editing quietly continued on the sly—one editor kept the FF reels close, and after finishing edits on one Corman flick, he’d slip the reels on, and piece the movie together. The director snuck around and finally got the last couple of scenes filmed, one of them being illegally shot on Hollywood Boulevard at night, as they couldn’t afford permits to shoot. The composers paid $6000-$8000 of their own money to hire a 48-piece orchestra to play the score and a music studio to record the soundtrack at.

After all that, the film was finally complete. Technically. In truth, it was more like a rough cut. Some of the actor’s dialogue needed to be re-recorded (or “looped”), so you could hear what Doom was saying in every scene, some audio effects were missing, and many special effects needed to be redone (especially those made by the original FX supervisor, who lied his way into his position by claiming he’d done the Independence Day effects, but who couldn’t actually do the job). With a smidge more money, the movie could have been polished and ready for release.

A couple of months passed with no word from anyone about the movie’s status. It was in cinematic limbo. Then word came down: they would release the movie. Corman cut a trailer, and the actors began promoting the movie at comics stores, comic conventions (including Comic-Con), and fan magazines (on their own dime, Ben Grimm’s actor spending $12,000 to fly people around the country to promote it). Fan response was tremendous. A 500-theater release was planned, and the movie was scheduled for its premiere at the Mall of America.

Then it vanished. The director went to check on the movie, and all the prints were just gone. Turns out, Avi Arad (a Marvel Comics executive) wanted the rights to the Fantastic Four back, and paid Constantine and Corman $1 million each to sell him their movie and the rights. (And, as it later came out, that was Constantine’s only reason for ever making the movie, holding Marvel up for some extra dough, though nobody on the cast and crew knew that at the time.)

And that was it. The movie was never released.

Officially. A copy of the film somehow leaked, and was passed around via the comic convention bootleg circuit. People bought copies for $10-$15 on blue-back DVD’s (no way telling how many), and the cast and crew eventually stumbled upon them—many had never seen the finished movie themselves. And then it hit the Internet.

I watched the movie this week, for the first time ever. (I also watched Doomed!, the fascinating documentary about the flick.) And the movie… doesn’t suck.

Look, let me qualify that. It’s cheaply made, and you can tell. The effects are mostly pretty bad. And it was made in 1994. Compare it to the gloss and finish of Avengers: Infinity War or even The Justice League, and it comes off badly.

But look beyond that.

The movie is absolutely, utterly sincere. The characters have genuine affection for each other, their goals and motivations are genuine and understandable, and each line is delivered with real human emotion. The sincerity makes it affecting despite the flaws.

The people in charge of superhero comics today “don’t human very well”, but the writers of the Fantastic Four did. They knew how to write human characters, instead of robotic ideology-recitation androids, and the actors knew how to deliver those lines like humans would. The plot makes sense (in a comic-book kind of way), Dr. Doom is egotistical and hammy, the guy gets to save his girl, and the very pretty women are even feminine. This movie does many things right, that so much of modern entertainment does wrong.

As Hollywood’s technical prowess (in special effects and other areas) approaches perfection, the special effects themselves are becoming meaningless. Everything is spectacular, the audience is used to it, so you can’t use FX to substitute for a great story anymore. The power of the movie star has faded (they are no longer the audience draws they once were), and as it was in the early days of the cinema, movies now sink or swim on the merits of their story. Hollywood has gotten so good at everything else, it’s ironic that the only thing that matters anymore is the one thing they’ve gotten so bad at: telling a good story.

Well, Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four is actually a good story. For all the movie’s flaws, and in spite of all the obstacles the cast and crew faced, the movie is worth watching. Maybe even more than once.

It’s better than all the other Fantastic Four movies, so what have you got to lose?

– –

Corman’s Fantastic Four is available on YouTube.

Doomed! (also well worth watching) is available on Sundance Channel streaming or on Amazon Prime video.

Jasyn Jones, better known as Daddy Warpig, is a host on the Geek Gab podcast, a regular on the Superversive SF livestreams, and blogs at Daddy Warpig’s House of Geekery. Check him out on Twitter.

Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four: a Cinema Legend for the Ages! published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

[yahoo-puck-daddy-blog]

What We Learned: What's next for the Capitals?

What’s next for the Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals? (Getty)

This might be the first year the dreaded Stanley Cup Hangover is actually a real hangover, but the Caps may soon have bigger problems than future liver disease.

Let’s say the salary cap ceiling for next season does go all the way up to the maxed-out level of $82 million the league is projecting. That gives Washington about $18 million to play with this summer, more or less.

Maybe it feels a bit impertinent to talk about this while the Caps celebrate in fountains and so on, but this is frankly stuff the front office should have been thinking about for the entire playoff run. “How much more does every win, every point for a pending free agent, end up costing us?”

And with 16 players already locked in for next season, having $18 million to play with is really not a bad number. You can afford to spend about $3 million per player, on average.

Most of the team’s pending free agents are either pretty close to replaceable (Jay Beagle, Alex Chiasson, Michal Kempny) or RFAs who are likely to be cheap re-ups (Madison Bowey, Devante Smith-Pelly). They’ll have a hard decision to make on Philipp Grubauer, who by the way is the same age as signed-for-next-season Pheonix Copley, but he shouldn’t be too expensive either if they want to keep him as a backup for some reason.

You can probably get all of these guys or some reasonable replacements for like $1.5 million each, which frees up plenty of money for the more expensive pieces. But Smith-Pelly’s Cup Final might be enough to convince all involved that he’s worth more than he is. That might skew things.

The problem, though, is that they have a few big personnel decisions to make. The biggest is obviously what to do about John Carlson, coming off the best year of his career by far at age 28, and due to be probably the biggest blue-line name on the UFA market.

What do you think he gets? Something in the neighborhood of $8 million until he’s 34 or 35 sounds about right, and with a season like this one you can say he earned that money the right way. But that’s certainly not the kind of money the Caps can reasonably afford to throw around, is it?

It’s more than fair to call me a John Carlson skeptic — it strikes me as hard to not-score 50 points a year behind that first power play unit — but the guy had the right “Poor Man’s PK Subban” season at the right time. The problem for Washington is that if he walks, regardless of whether it make an earnest effort to get him to stay, is that there aren’t likely to be many reasonable replacement options that it could just pull off the UFA market. That is to say, unless they make a run at RFA Jacob Trouba (which they should) if/when Carlson goes elsewhere, they’re probably going to be hitting the trade market in hopes of help, right?

The Caps have a not-great D group beyond Carlson, Matt Niskanen, and Dmitry Orlov. And as much as I like Orlov for what he is (an overpaid but good second-pairing guy) you can’t count on he and Niskanen to make up the absence, so you have to spend money here. MacLellan has plenty of it, but not exactly a lot of worthy candidates on whom to spend it. Beyond Carlson, the UFA D crop is probably headlined by, I don’t know, Toby Enstrom, who’s 33 years old. Would you want to roll the dice on Calvin de Haan or Thomas Hickey? Well, they’re both Islanders, so probably not.

It’s a real rock-and-a-hard-place scenario because there’s not really a good solution here. The Caps would understandably be thrilled to get Carlson back, but at double the salary into his mid-30s, especially as the rest of the core ages? Yeah, I’m not so sure. Maybe you can work something out via trade (and maybe that’s where Grubauer comes in?) but teams aren’t generally willing to give up top-pair defensemen in their 20s for 1b goalies. So I’m not sure where that gets you either.

The other problem for Brian MacLellan is that the team needs to re-sign Tom Wilson. We can debate what kind of value Wilson provides this club until we’ve all passed out, and that’s certainly a thing we’ve all done at points this season. But obviously a team would have to look at his contribution with some amount of skepticism just to keep the price down, right?

Then again, Wilson is one of those guys “everyone wants on their team” and he’s an RFA, so no one’s going to come in and outbid you for his services on an offer sheet. This creates a tough circumstance for the Caps because of how their forwards get paid. Lars Eller just signed a nice little “both sides win” contract for just $3.5 million (starting in 2018-19) and Wilson will certainly be looking for more than that.

TJ Oshie got $5.75 million AAV for seven years, but he was a UFA, and Wilson isn’t, which is going to depress his value. He’s also arbitration-eligible but you have to assume the Caps would be able to talk so much trash about his game and value — given that arbitrators can’t exactly make decisions based on intangibles — that Wilson would be irresponsible to go that route.

Likewise, he would be irresponsible to go short-term because he’s not likely to actually play better than he did in the regular season and playoffs. So does he “settle” for something like $4.5 million AAV for five years or something? That strikes me as an overpay, but obviously I’m a Wilson skeptic as well and it’s very likely that the Caps would feel like they did well at that price point.

Most people can agree that the Caps were approaching a crossroads with their organization anyway. Most of their big difference-makers are 30-plus (Ovechkin, Backstrom, Oshie, Niskanen) and guys like Holtby (29 in September) aren’t far behind. This Cup was a long time coming but this doesn’t seem like a team likely to repeat. Is that, too, something the organization can be realistic about?

Intellectual honesty is the best policy when running a team. While the Caps have money to spend, they might need to divorce themselves from their conceptions of what got them to the top of the league. Barring hometown discounts, it’ll be pretty easy to burn through that cap space, or spend it unwisely in pursuit of quick fixes.

The thing with cap space, though, is that you don’t have to spend it if there’s nothing worth spending it on. That’s something MacLellan would be wise to keep in mind if Carlson hits the open market.

What We Learned

Anaheim Ducks: Was it smart to give away Shea Theodore to get rid of Clayton Stoner? Well, probably not.

Arizona Coyotes: Man, imagine if Oliver Ekman-Larsson refuses to sign with them. That would be very bad, for them. Very good for the player though.

Boston Bruins: The Bruins need help up front, no question, but if they re-sign Rick Nash (ehhhhh, he’s fine as a rental) how much money do we really expect them to be able to spend?

Buffalo Sabres: The idea that they’d trade Ryan O’Reilly? Hoo boy. I truly don’t understand the logic on that one.

Calgary Flames: The Flames have a lot of problems and I’m not sure Brad Treliving can fix them all after his last two coaching hires.

Carolina Hurricanes: Talking about Andrei Svechnikov as bringing “a physical game” seems to be underselling all his other very strong qualities, but hey…

Chicago: Hell yeah, trade for Justin Faulk and Scott Darling! Do it!

Colorado Avalanche: The Avs are apparently likely to target a defender at the draft. That’s interesting.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Oh HELL yeah.

Dallas Stars:The Caps had a bunch of former Hershey Bears on their Cup-winning roster but don’t get your hopes up about that sort of thing.

Detroit Red Wings: I bet this was a great meeting.

Edmonton Oilers: This is a truly amazing take.

Florida Panthers: Poor Bobby Lu. Need guys like him winning Cups!

Los Angeles Kings: Ilya Kovalchuk met with both the Kings and Sharks in recent days and boy I would love Kovalchuk on the Sharks. That would rule.

Minnesota Wild: Say, speaking of coaches and the Wild “cutting ties” how much leash do you think Bruce Boudreau has this season? I’m not optimistic!

Montreal Canadiens: How confident are you that the Habs will screw up the No. 3 pick? Pretty confident? Yeah, me too.

Nashville Predators: Man, I know Vegas odds aren’t based on anything all that hard and fast but the Preds having worse odds to win the Cup than the Golden Knights is beyond parody.

New Jersey Devils: I mean maybe it makes sense for the Devils to trade down but they should have learned pretty quickly what legitimately good teams do to the papier-mache front they put up behind Taylor Hall last season. They’re not close to being truly competitive.

New York Islanders: The Isles might trade for a goalie around the draft. Okay, have fun out there.

New York Rangers: Interesting to me that the Rangers hired David Quinn, whose system relies so much on defenders getting up in the play, because the Rangers…. don’t have a lot of defenders who can do that.

Ottawa Senators: Just trade Karlsson to Vegas already for crying out loud!

Philadelphia Flyers: The Flyers might move on from Wayne Simmonds if he can’t bounce back next season after being hurt so much? Hey, I get it. But also: Huh?

Pittsburgh Penguins: Imagine if this team can add John Tavares this summer? C’mon man!

San Jose Sharks: A Paul Martin buyout on the way? Just goes to show that like 80 percent of all contracts that get bought out fall into the “mistake on Day 1” category. You can’t give 33-year-olds four-year deals and expect them to work out.

St. Louis Blues: Ownership is apparently opening the pursestrings a little bit, but to what end?

Tampa Bay Lightning: The Bolts as favorites to win the Cup next year just makes sense.

Toronto Maple Leafs: What do you mean by “Dubas must make splash” exactly? This is a good team that’s only going to improve through the simple aging process and by jettisoning your Roman Polaks and so on. They can’t afford to add a significant piece without having to sacrifice ELC guys next summer. Use your brain!

Vancouver Canucks: Imagine thinking the defense is the Canucks’ biggest priority this summer? Yikes.

Vegas Golden Knights: Truly can’t wait for Marc-Andre Fleury’s .909 next season.

Washington Capitals: I don’t want to say this is the “definitive” history of how the Caps got from last summer to now — I’m sure there are at least a few books already being worked on — but this is pretty damn good.

Winnipeg Jets: Make True North pay for the whole thing. C’mon.

Play of the Weekend

No more plays until September!!!!!

Gold Star Award

I’m honestly like 10 percent concerned someone from the Caps is gonna drown in a puddle this week.

Minus of the Weekend

A whole offseason to get through? This stinks!

Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Week

User “BigFatCat999” had me at the subject line.

“Nashville: Karlsson

Toronto: Subban

Ottawa: Marner plus other assorted futures“

Signoff

Yes.

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All stats via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)

More Stanley Cup coverage on Yahoo Sports:

[pedalharder]

Steve Bauer Classic O-Cup

Since I had missed the last couple road O-Cup races, I was determined to try to get some upgrade points at the Steve Bauer classic.  I had ridden the course a couple times before and had discussed strategy with a few local Group1 guys. The M2 race would complete six 12.5km laps. Since the race ended with a 2k climb on Effingham Road that maxed out at 20% grade, I felt like my best shot at a good result would be to be off the front of the race for a couple laps before the finish. That would allow me to climb at my own (relatively reasonable, a.k.a. “slow”) pace and build my gap on the flats. I had done a few hard TT efforts during training rides in the past couple weeks, so I was hoping that I could survive off the front of the M2 field for part of the race.

So my plan for the race was to sit in and use as little energy as possible until it was time to get up the road. My goal was to attack the field on the flat section of the course in the crosswind with either 1.5 (18k) or 2.5 (30k) laps left in the race. The race started fine with a nice easy downhill. Midweek had the biggest team in the race, with 4 or 5 racers, and one of their riders (Richard Westwood) rolled off the front after only a couple kms. I remember saying to another racer that anyone that attacks this early won’t make it, but the rest of the Midweek team did a good job shutting down any chases over the next couple kms. The gap ended up stretching out and was likely around 20 or 30 seconds after 4 or 5 km. I wasn’t planning on trying anything this early in the race, but since I didn’t have any teammates in the race, I felt that if I got up the road with the Midweek rider, I would by default gain four Midweek teammates that would help make sure that the break stuck. So approx. 5k into the race, I rolled up near the front in the crosswind and attacked (looking back, it’s funny how I changed my perspective from “the break is doomed” to “I want to be in this break” in only 2 or 3 km of riding). No one from the M2 field made a serious effort to follow me, so I quickly bridged across the gap to the leading rider.  I rolled up next to Richard and asked him how he was feeling – he replied “good”, so I asked him if he was ‘ready for this’ and he replied “yes”. I liked both of those answers. He asked me how I felt and I told him that “I wanted to rip this race apart”. So with 70k left to race, we were off in a two-person break.

We worked well together, taking relatively even pulls. We worked hard for the first couple laps to extend the gap out to about 90 seconds, then settled into our rhythm. I tried to keep our pace in the low 40s on the flats and take it easy up the climb on Effingham (headwind). I knew that past M2 races only averaged around 37 km/h, so we were riding a reasonable pace. My goal was to keep my average power around 300W, since I felt I could hold that for 2 hours. The laps seemed to tick off without much excitement. We were out of sight of the rest of the M2 field, so it felt more like a steady training ride than a race most of the time. I got a few rough time splits from Phil Sheffield and Rob Daniels at the start/finish and we were holding our gap fairly steady between 1:00 and 1:40, although I found it VERY frustrating that over the course of the race we didn’t get any splits from the race officials. As each lap was finished, I felt more and more confident that we would survive.

With one lap remaining, a rider from Tecky Kids (Chris Herten) bridged across to us at the top of the Effingham climb. He definitely looked to have more energy than Richard and I, since we had almost 60k of break riding in our legs at that point, but I felt like the new energy could help us to the finish. I spent less time on the front on the last lap, but I was still trying to hold my pulls between 300 and 320W. I didn’t want us to get caught so close to the finish (this has happened to me several times). Once we swung onto Effingham for the last time, I lead up the first couple rollers, then Chris came through to take over pulling.  This was good for me, since Effingham Road was all headwind leading into the last steep pitch to the finish. With the pack completely out of sight, the podium would be decided among the three of us.

I felt that if I followed wheels up the climb, the best finish I could expect would be 2nd. I seemed stronger up the climbs than Richard (Midweek) while in the break, but with Chris (Tecky Kids) being relatively fresh, it seemed that the win would likely be his unless I changed the dynamics of the finish. It was worth losing 2nd to try to get 1st (what would Igor say if I didn’t try). I knew I couldn’t wait until the steep part of the climb since power-to-weight (never my friend) would be working against any attack I tried. So I attacked as hard as I could (sadly less than 1000W at this point in the race) at the base of the climb before it really ramped up. I had a small gap for maybe 20 seconds until it got really steep, when Chris rode past, with Richard drafting behind. I didn’t have the energy to jump on as they passed, so I checked behind me to confirm the pack was still out of sight, and I was resigned to 3rd.

It was quite the adventure being in a 70k break (in a 74k race), but the race generally worked out as I had planned. I was disappointed to be 3rd after the effort I put into the race, but if someone told me a week ago that I would get 3rd at THIS race, I would have been ecstatic, so I need to keep things in perspective. A podium in a race with this much climbing is (almost) as good as a win for me.

Final stats: avg. power for the 70k break - 302W, weighted average for the entire race 310W.

Trevor

(Photo Credit: Lauren Daniels)

[thrashermaxey]

Ramblings: WASHINGTON DID IT!, Preds Force Game 7, Zucker, Hall, Reilly Smith – May 9

They slayed the beast, exorcised their demons, and eradicated their tormentor. In other words, the Caps beat the Pittsburgh Penguins in a playoff series to move to the Eastern Conference Final.

Things looked bleak as we found out during warmup that Nicklas Backstrom would miss the game with a hand injury. Lars Eller moved up to the second line, and with the home matchup, things looked ripe for a Pittsburgh win, forcing a Game 7.

That is not what happened.

A goal early in the second period by Alex Chiasson – assisted by Australian Nathan Walker! – gave the Caps the lead, only to have Kris Letang score about 10 minutes later to tie the game.

Evgeny Kuznetsov sealed the deal with a breakaway goal a little over five minutes into the first overtime.

From just about start to finish, the quality of the game was fairly poor. Maybe that was Washington’s plan, though. Clog the lanes, force turnovers, and limit the high-danger chances. If that was the plan, Pittsburgh fell prey to it because the Penguins had seven shots on goal through the first 30 minutes of the game.

Whatever it was, it worked. And now Alex Ovechkin and (hopefully) Nicklas Backstrom get their chance to advance to a Cup Final. Congrats to the Caps and their fans. This would make for a heck of a story.

*

Thanks to their victory in Winnipeg last night, the Nashville Predators have guaranteed us a Game 7 out of this second round. A crazy redirection from Viktor Arvidsson as he was ducking out of the way of a point shot opened the scoring, Filip Forsberg added another on a semi-breakaway and that was all the team needed on this night.

For good measure, Forsberg added this circus shot in the third period to nail the coffin shut:

COME ON. pic.twitter.com/Gmg92eNSRp

— Goalie Blinnterference (@NHLBlinn) May 8, 2018

Considering the quality of the teams, it’s not surprising this one is going the distance. Buckle up for Thursday night, boys and girls.

*

Just wanted to chime in my two cents on Vegas moving to the West Final.

This is one of the best stories in all of sports. They are an incredibly fun squad to watch and I’m very much looking forward to the matchup with Winnipeg.

One thing that is getting a lot of run that shouldn’t be is the idea that this team is some sort of “misfit” team. Consider:

James Neal has scored 20 goals in each of his NHL seasons. He has one 30-goal season and one 40-goal season. Before getting to Vegas, he was tied for 13th league-wide in goals per game for his career. He’s literally one of the top goal scorers of the last decade.

Jonathan Marchessault was coming off a 30-goal season himself and was long hailed by pockets of the hockey community as a player who just needed a legitimate shot in the NHL.

Reilly Smith had two 50-point seasons in four full NHL campaigns, cracking 20 goals twice.

David Perron had three 20-goal seasons from 2009 through 2014. The two seasons he didn’t manage 20 goals were the lockout season and the year he played just 10 games due to injury.

Colin Miller and Brayden McNabb were both defencemen who, like Marchessault, were often praised by certain corners of the hockey world as guys needing a legitimate opportunity to be consistent contributors.

Shea Theodore was a first-round pick and a guy long coveted by just about any team in the league. Anaheim had to make a hard choice about which d-men to keep. They were going to lose someone good.

Marc-Andre Fleury had one bad year before he was supplanted by Matt Murray. He was a .917 goalie in the six seasons prior to that.

No, there were no legitimate superstars like a Sidney Crosby or a Nikita Kucherov. But there were a lot of both very good NHLers and guys undervalued by the 200 Hockey Men. Of course no one, present company included, expected them to be this good. Calling them misfits is, however, at best, not understanding the quality of the players they actually drafted, or at worst a purposefully misleading description.

*

Part of reviewing any fantasy season is looking at players outperforming their ADPs and why they did so. Not only does it help in identifying seasons that are unsustainable, they also help identify seasons whose circumstances dictate that this might be the start of a new trend rather than a blip in an existing one. It’s also a good exercise to look for players with low ADPs this coming September who fit the profile for a potential breakout.

Here some selected players who greatly exceeded expectations. Some are obvious, some less so. Stats from Corsica Hockey and Natural Stat Trick. I also used standard Yahoo settings, so people who play in leagues with real-time stats: please put down the pitchforks.

  Taylor Hall

It’s easy to forget Hall had a three-year stretch that saw 168 points in 173 games, so being close to a point-per-game wouldn’t be a huge surprise. Coming in at 1.22 points per game – one of five players to manage at least 1.2 points per game this season and one of seven with 75+ games played to do so since the 2013 lockout – is a deviation.

Here’s the thing: nothing was terribly out of line for him at five-on-five. The Devils shot 10.3 percent with him on the ice; he had two seasons in Edmonton where the Oilers shot 10 percent with him on the ice. He scored 1.06 goals at five-on-five, not a career-high. He managed 2.38 points per 60 minutes at five-on-five, just the third-highest mark of his career. His assists per 60 minutes were nowhere near his career bests. Realistically, the five-on-five production wasn’t the reason for his superb output.

The difference was on the power play, where he set a career-high with 37 PPPs, by far a career best (his best prior to this year was 21, way back in 2010-11). He had 33 PPPs in 207 games over the previous three years combined.

This is where it should be noted that the league-wide power-play conversion rate (20.18 percent) was the highest since the 1980s. The Devils shot 19.1 percent with Hall on the ice on the PP, by far a career high for him. Even with the league trending to more efficient PPs, he still led the league among forwards with 200 minutes on the man advantage in this regard. It’ll be very, very difficult (read: unlikely) he repeats 37 power-play points.

Hall can still be a point-per-game player and the progression of Nico Hischier will help keep him an offensive star. Expecting a repeat of this year seems misguided, however.

  Reilly Smith

If there is going to be one bone of contention this entire summer in the fantasy hockey community, it’s going to be what to do with the Vegas top line. I picked out Reilly Smith here but it could easily be applicable to any of he, William Karlsson, or Jonathan Marchessault. The latter a little less so because at least he was drafted inside the top-200 players, which means he was taken in most 10- and 12-team leagues. Karlsson is going to be left to a later date for a much deeper dive.

So here’s the thing. Vegas shot over 11.3 percent with that trio on the ice and the trio played over 690 minutes together. Since the end of the lockout-shortened season, Corsica has 25 line combinations with at least 600 five-on-five minutes together, and 13 of those had an on-ice shooting percentage over 10 percent. Seven of those 13 combinations were this year. This is how each trio fared the following season:

    SH%

Following Year SH%

Change

Marchand-Bergeron-Smith, 2013-14

10.24 %

8.76%

-1.48%

Panarin-Anisimov-Kane, 2016-17

10.71%

—–

N/A

JvR-Bozak-Marner, 2016-17

10.73%

6.77%

-3.96%

Huberdeau-Barkov-Jagr, 2015-16

10.94%

8.24%

-2.70%

JvR-Bozak-Kessel, 2013-14

11.17%

6.31%

-4.87%

Palat-Johnson-Kucherov, 2014-15

11.59%

8.98%

-2.61%

Zucker-Granlund-Koivu, 2016-17

11.9%

7.48%

-4.42%

  Artemi Panarin was traded so obviously we can’t do much there. Every other line saw their shooting percentage decline, some to catastrophic levels. Smith and company were on the ice for 406 shots and 46 goals resulted. If we’re optimistic and say that they drop off only 1.5 percent like he did when skating with Bergeron and Marchand a few years ago, they lose six goals. If that shooting percentage falls off about four percent, which half these lines saw, that means about 16-17 fewer goals. Smith’s 82-game pace this year was 72 points. If that four percent drop comes, assuming he figures in on three-quarters of goals scored at five-on-five when he’s on the ice, he’s knocked down to 60 points without any other mitigating factors coming into play yet, like loss in ice time due to increased depth. Or maybe teams hard-match against them next year and they don’t take the league by surprise in the first half again? Or maybe they just generate fewer shots, which in conjunction with the inevitable percentage crash, leads to a disaster?

We have all summer to argue about this and there’s no chance it’s not one of the oft-discussed narratives of the offseason. Value is going to depend on ADP, of course, but we need to prepare ourselves now for the decline in raw production.

  Jason Zucker

In the table above, Zucker’s name appears as a player whose line’s shooting percentage cratered in 2017-18. Despite this, he set career-highs in both goals (33) and assists (31). Zucker managed 16 power-play points after amassing just six in his entire career to that point. He did spend some time with Eric Staal and Nino Niederreiter and that trio shot nearly 9 percent, so that helped matters.

Anyway, Zucker is an interesting case. Over the last five seasons, there are 178 forwards with at least 4000 minutes of five-on-five time. Out of those 178 forwards, he’s tied for 11th in goals per 60 minutes with Jamie Benn and James Neal. He’s ahead of names like Patrick Kane, Tyler Seguin, John Tavares, and Phil Kessel. Remember, that’s not a small sample. That’s over 4000 minutes spanning five years and Zucker’s not just among the good goal scorers, he’s among the elite. It’s really quite something.

The question becomes, what do we do with this information? A new GM in Minnesota is coming but most of the core is around for at least one more year. Zucker himself is an RFA so maybe they dangle him in a trade to shake things up? Maybe they trade someone else. Maybe nothing changes. I wouldn’t fret too much until both the draft and free agency have come and gone.

Regardless, Zucker seems like one of those guys who will fly under the radar this coming September despite a very good year. It’s doubtful he’s inside the top-100 and after that it’s a matter of where he slots in rankings.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-washington-did-it-preds-force-game-7-zucker-hall-reilly-smith-may-9/

[investmart007]

For Villanova's Bridges, it's more about winning than stats

New Post has been published on https://goo.gl/GfR8ex

For Villanova's Bridges, it's more about winning than stats

SAN ANTONIO/April 1, 2018 (AP)(STL.News)— Mikal Bridges isn’t worried about the numbers of shots he’s getting within Villanova’s highly efficient attack. And he doesn’t always jump out when watching the Wildcats as he glides through that rolling-right-along offense.

That makes him possibly the embodiment of why this Villanova team is preparing to play Michigan for its second national championship in three seasons.

This is the rare NBA prospect who can stand out by blending in, the other half of the Wildcats’ 1-2 punch behind Associated Press national player of the year Jalen Brunson. The 6-foot-7 redshirt junior made a huge leap from a year ago to develop into a top pro prospect, offering game-changing potential for Monday’s final with his two-way defensive ability and 3-point range even if he’s not always putting up huge numbers.

“My main role is to go out there and try to lead this team … and always stay aggressive,” Bridges said Sunday. “I don’t need that many shots because we just play off each other, see how the defense plays us, and we just make plays for each other.

“None of us cares about how many shots we take.”

None of this is to say that Bridges fails to offer productive stats for the Wildcats (35-4). He’s the East Region champion’s No. 2 scorer (17.6 points) and rebounder (5.3) while shooting 51 percent from the floor, nearly 44 percent from behind the arc and about 85 percent from the line.

He’s also the team leader in steals (1.5) and is second in blocks (1.1).

“He’s a complete player,” Michigan coach John Beilein said.

And yet, the guy projected as a possible top-10 NBA pick if he declares for the draft averages 11.9 shot attempts and has reached even 18 shots once all year.

Villanova’s 3-after-3-after-3 win against Kansas in Saturday’s national semifinals offered an example. Bridges finished with 10 points on 4-for-8 shooting with two of the Wildcats’ Final Four-record 18 3-pointers.

Oh yeah, he also had a pair of blocks and steals, too.

“There’s not too many guys like that,” said teammate Phil Booth, one of four Wildcats to get up more shots than Bridges against the Jayhawks. “Last night they focused a lot on him, showed him a lot of double teams and he was just making the right play — passing the ball, wasn’t forcing anything.

“There’s a lot of guys who would try to do too much and maybe try to take over. But he doesn’t do that.

He’ll get shots when they come, but he’s going to play defense, he’s going to rebound, he’s going to block shots.”

Bridges played as a reserve on Villanova’s 2016 national champion, then averaged 9.8 points in his first year as a starter as a sophomore. But after an offseason of work with the opportunity for a leading role, Bridges blossomed with a fast start that included helping the Wildcats win the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas in November.

His mother, Tyneeha Rivers, described Bridges as a long-humble kid driven to do any little thing it takes to win games.

“It’s something he wanted to do, and he’s like, ‘OK, now it’s my turn to step up to the plate and do it,'” she said. “Mikal’s a very competitive person and I think combined with his drive, he really has the strong urge of wanting to be successful and wanting to make a difference to help his team win.

“If you didn’t know about him, you’d be, ‘Oh, he did OK’ (against Kansas), but I think that’s the beauty of Mikal. He’s such a dimensional player. He can be what you need him to be.”

Bridges, for his part, said he gained plenty of confidence through his offseason work and that he could “kind of feel myself getting better every day.” But, he said, even he didn’t expect to have had quite this kind of climb.

He’ll get a final chance this season to add to it in the Alamodome on Monday night.

“Obviously it’s kind of higher than I thought, where I’m at right now,” Bridges said. “But I always thought I was going to get better and better every day. I knew maybe one day I’d get in position to be a top player.”

By AARON BEARD by  Associated Press – published on STL.News by St. Louis Media, LLC (U.S)

[awesome-tooblazestudent-blog]

Managing As well as Soul Fee Instruction.

Runners head down Salisbury Street in Raleigh to begin the Rock-and-roll Endurance and Fifty percent Marathon. There is actually also a handful of dishes, consisting of one for paleo energy clubs (just cut coconut, countered times, sugar-cinnamon as well as maple syrup - incredibly similar, in fact, to these mouth watering power spheres I produced a couple of weeks ago ). I prepared off for pair of lower loopholes, and I simply had not been feeling that. My physical body experienced limited, as well as though my hip as well as leg failed to injured, my belly wasn't rather correct and I merely could not acquire myself to hasten. Exercise, physical body picture, as well as wellness is a widely controversial subject, for women particularly. No-one understands exactly what their body system is going to feel like after 4-6 hours running, specifically as there is no end in sight. Relying on footwear to perform the work that your physical body needs to carry out will certainly certainly not necessarily make you a much better jogger. A bunch of times when you speak to individuals concerning workout shows they will certainly mention points like they'll locate that off power units or even off a number from various other metrics. When you need this, this must give offer you an added energy increase only. Alas, it resides in cups. Maybe I am actually simply lucky that this extent works with me, however I perform believe that a more mild method to taking care of Plantar is actually smart. As soon as ... she was actually charming however that just wasn't an excellent match (and blowing wind up with a DNF at the endurance I was intending for), I worked along with a coach. You find the significant photo however that could believe difficult and creates you mindful and intend to put the brakes on. You might possess trouble dedicating to a strategy and then truly going for it. Create a firm selection, commit to your strategy, and after that carefully, yet regularly stick with it. You should think grounded and also in touch with your physical body and the earth with every measure. www.masquenourrissant.info/ at Brigham Young Educational institution determined the body system arrangement from 330 young women, and after that had them use actigraphs for 7 times to track their activity as well as sleep patterns. The group talked to the men concerning their activity levels at the start from the research study in the very early 1970s, when they were aged FIFTY. Incentive Thought 1: Among the capabilities a hypnotherapist must master reads people's interior ideas accordinged to their body movement. I adore reading through blog writers refer to their psychological battles given that it makes me think that I am actually not the only one in this particular. This at that point is actually odd to me though ever since Alanis Morisette's tune - I'm uncertain if I am using the word correctly that nowadays I can not run my body. In my view the most essential aspects of functionality is actually the capacity to relocate one's body with room. Note: while the textile is actually elastic, the cut is actually trim, so check the match if you are actually barrel-chested. It appears that it's certainly not made for managing or any type of task with movement as the technology which Microsoft used for the Human Resources sensing unit in not capable of going through the draft flow during any sort of motion task. I really did not know which technique was up, but really hoped that my physical body will understand which way to float. She gains everything in her age, from super and also short swift cross-country competitions to winning her age group in a blazing 2:36 at the Los Angeles Marathon final March. I will not get into the science of aerobic conditioning and also the oxidative power unit, but believe me, this's a thing. He stated I was actually in good condition which he could possibly tell that just through looking at me on the bike yet that there was actually area for remodeling. BMI, if you really did not know (which I carried out not) isn't really a direct procedure of physical body excess fat, but that does firmly connect to different metabolic as well as disease risks. Nicholas Gammell: GAIN Exercise had a really data driven and also consumer oriented method off the start. As the USATF 10 Kilometer Championships, Double Cities moving recovered their equalizer incentive, providing the females a 6:18 head start over the guys. I created some significant improvements as well as started to definitely enjoy just what I said yes" to as well as which I hung around staying clear of the energy fools at all prices !!!! Therefore if our experts shed 2 weeks from training due to an unanticipated excursion, our expense is not only those 2 full weeks but those 2 full weeks plus whatever time this will certainly take to create back up the exercise or adaptations our company dropped during the course of those 2 full weeks. I sometimes will certainly manage during the best portion of the day for training objectives as well as since that is when I may match this right into my schedule. The quick is unisex and can be found in four dimensions that you fit your own self in to accordinged to the area from your top as well as lower quads. Altra utilizes their A-Bound EVA, which is actually an environmentally friendly midsole material, and they make use of LOADS of it. I never owned or even attempted on the Lone Height 1.5, however when I dashed in the original Lone Optimal versus the 2.0, the difference was all the time. The individual that believes it's alright to inquire you on a day while you are attempting to go for a swim laps after you have actually produced tiny speak for approximately 0.2 few seconds. Like http://masquenourrissant.info/ mentioned, any sort of strength training excellents as well as absolutely some body system weight exercises will certainly be actually beneficials.