#trade deadline 2021

[matthewliberatore]

me trying to convince myself that the cardinals are actually going to have a comeback and actually get at least 2nd in the divison and that we're going to get an ace and tha

[39oa]

PLS as a new stars enjoyer i really wanna know whos who in this 🥹🥹 i kill for family dynamics 🤲🤲

https://www.tumblr.com/39oa/744137614807924736/the-stars-are-like-this-is-39-yo-joe-pavelski

hi anon!!! of course i would be MORE than happy to explain and in fact am about to egregiously overexplain so apologies in advance for that >__< welcome 2 starsblr pls enjoy your stay!!! 💚💚💚

"pavs and sons" → this is our top line that consists of jason robertson (21 / "robo"), roope hintz (24 / some call him "roop", his finnish nickname is "hine"), and joe pavelski (16 / "pavs"). pavs spent over a decade in san jose and was the sharks' captain during essentially their twilight years, and he came to dallas intending to retire (which is likely to happen at the end of this year tbh) but instead revitalized a distinct second phase of his career after being placed on a line with 2124 in 2020-21, unexpectedly becoming stalwart producers for a struggling dallas stars offense (2 words: rick bowness) — robo was only in his first year with the stars and roope's career was not that much older, hence the nickname pavs and sons; although pavs is only an alternate captain because the stars already have a very established, homegrown captain, he is basically treated as our second captain thanks to his age and the vast influence he has over both our young players & the locker room as a whole :') one of his nicknames is also captain america from representing team usa on the intl stage LOL.

rest below the cut:

raising johnny -> our team's ACTUAL baby is 2003-born wyatt johnston (53 / "johnny" but sometimes we use "wyjo" lol), who was in the ohl before the 2022-23 season but managed to impress during training camp and basically forced his way onto the roster (without getting too much into it, 18-19 y/o rookies can play 9 games with the big club before burning a year off their elc, so being from the ohl at his age his only options were basically Be In The NHL Permanently or go back to ontario.) because "HE (WAS) ONLY 19!!!" and there was some uncertainty about whether he'd stay up, pavelski invited him to live at his place with his wife and teenaged-son, and now a second year into his career wyatt is STILL with them because he loves it there so much lol. the stars frequently joke about pavs being his dad/landlord, and we've gotten a ton of fun content like these quest for the stanley cup clips and other interview moments like this, this, and this.

fostering stank(s) -> logan stankoven (11 / "stank" though you will also see "stanks") is our other baby and a very recent addition to our nhl roster; he's from the same draft class as johnny, but spent last season in the whl and therefore was eligible to go to the ahl this year, where he's been cooking up a storm for half the szn. it was pretty inevitable that he'd come up at SOME point, but the perfect opportunity arrived after one of our forwards got injured and he was slotted in on short notice. like johnny, he has basically forced his way onto the team permanently by immediately performing to (and well-beyond) standard :') the fun part is that he stayed with johnny at pavs's house when he first came to dallas, though he's since moved out and found his own place... nevertheless, this was still very sweet because logan & wyatt have GENUINE history from knowing each other half their lives & winning gold for u18 team canada in 2021, and have since picked their immediate chemistry right back up on the stars's 3rd line together. (more on this later!!!)

resident glueguy tydel + otter's son -> u know how every team needs its emotional support 4th liner who is at constant threat of being dumped at trade deadline? ty dellandrea (10 / "delly" but we like "tydel" as well) is our 13oa pick who never really panned out as expected, but he's still crucial to the overall health of the locker room and beloved by many. as a small piece of the Cycle Of Mentorship that the stars subscribe to, pavs is known for basically being a deflection master and a menace in front of the net and has passed on this propensity to a lot of younger stars by doing targeted practice sessions with them, including tydel. anyway delly's lore in general is just INSANEEE because he's at the center of the stars' social fabric in a lot of ways. happily third-wheels along with the wags, gets along with the 279195 canadian slagline who mostly exist outside of any family narratives, is Publicly Liked By Roope which is kind of weird because outside of cellys roop practices jane austen levels of finnish repression, imprinted on johnny hard last year (JOINED HIM ON PAVELSKI FAMILY NIGHTS) (from this devastating webweave), has SOOO much ahl history with otter to the point that otter's baby brother sees ty as part of the family — this is also where otter saying that he and his girlfriend saw ty as their son when he stayed at their apartment during training camp comes from. which is genuinely like Absurd Things to say because jake oettinger (29 / "otter") (as a completely random aside, please look at this gifset of harls wearing otter's shirt) is ONLY 2 YEARS OLDER THAN DELLY. LIKE THE FUCK D'YOU MEAN YOUR SON???

i'm normal. okay

jbenn / "daddy" line dads -> so the stars' real captain is jamie benn (14 / multiple nicknames but "chubbs" is a signature), whoooo is a quite the contentious figure amongst stars fans but as a 2007 draftee is very much a homegrown player and still quite important to the organization. i'm ngl, stars rpf is a VERY small space nowadays in hockey fandom, but ~back in the day~ he and tyler seguin were one of The Big Ships before slowly fading as both fandom figures & stars of the team thanks to age and injury and [waves hand vaguely]. anyway while the top line on the stars has remained *mostly* set since robo was called up, the 2nd & 3rd lines still experience a decent amount of reshuffling, so wyatt is kind of jamie's fixed line son atp but they also played with tydel before we 1:1 swapped some russians and evgenii dadonov (63 / the "DADDY" in question) came in and replaced delly. so now we've had multiple "benn and sons" lines (jamie + wyatt/delly, now jamie + wyatt/logan ❗️), plus essentially a "wyatt and dads" line (wyatt + jamie/daddy) lmfao.

wedge raising harls -> robo's emotional support backup goalie is scott wedgewood (41 / "wedge" or "wedgie"), who as far as backup goalies go is like shockingly well-integrated into the stars' locker room. the piece of lore that inspired this WHOLE post is that taylor dropped an article on how wedge claimed to basically be RAISING HARLS WITH HIS (recently-married!) WIFE...??? which is just. thomas harley (55 / "harls") is one of our resident baby d-men and was in and out of the ahl for a while but has been Officially with the stars since last years' playoffs... he's a very like, self-assured but kind of introverted, Beyond-His-Years type who literally has the voice of a 50 y/o, so it's both DEVASTATING and hilarious 2 me that wedge is like "oh, this 22 y/o kid likes to show up to my house every day and me and my wife are teaching him how to cook and he keeps facetiming me to ask random questions about his bills." LIKE OH... OKAY THEN ;___;

& last but not least: the ultimate Mini Family on this team that i didn't mention in my orig post is actually the finnish mafia — see robo constantly joking about them being brothers and loving each other lol. finnmaf currently includes four players (roope, miro, esa, jani... rip kivo 😔), and they kind of help split the stars' locker room into several groups including the finns, the ontario guys, robo's goaliefucker / Nerd_Collector ensemble, and... well honestly the cliques overlap a lot (which is why our locker room is so healthy!!!) but you get the idea.

there is soooo much other lore i could get into that isn't really related to dad/son/brother narratives but i feel like this is enough of an infodump so i'll stop here for now. in general the way the stars are constructed makes it really clear why they all see one another as family and why there is such a strong & positive & sustainable sense of personal leadership that permeates the locker room... benn handles Official captain duties while pavs uses his experience not to usurp him but simply to further support him in understated areas of mentorship/leadership, and our top line consists of 3 Very unassuming & responsible player archetypes which crucially trickles down to all the other lines. so while many teams have their Old Guys (who are often on a noticeable decline) and Kid Lines, the stars are cool because we've been successful at integrating young players with very established veterans and having them feed off of each other without sacrificing their development or "anchoring" any young talent unnecessarily; benn is really not the player he used to be but he's still been great with wyatt over the past 2 years. and pavs IS a total anomaly, so it's kind of insane & surreal that a guy in his late 30s can perform at such a high level while also taking it upon himself to prepare so many of our young guys to be the present & future of our team *__*

tl;dr: also i just remembered that the amazing @starscelly has a preexisting primer from last year so feel free to check that out too :') (the primary differences are basically that we replaced domi for duchene and recently picked up chris tanev haha)

[sgiandubh]

Imma need an in-depth breakdown of Puff please! And I’m not being sarcastic either. Puff pre-dates my time in the outlander fandom.

Regards,

Your curious anon.

Dear Puffy Curious Anon,

If my cantankerous boss would have summoned me at 03:03 pm EEST (when your request landed in my inbox), just to tell me "Imma need an in-depth breakdown of the Greek trade unions' position on the current critical understaffing of the HoReCa sector", I would have politely answered "yes, ma'am, when is the deadline". I would have then turned on my heels, rolled my eyes, sworn like a drunk sailor under my breath (fuck my life comes to mind, pardon my French) and quickly be done with it.

You, bless your Anon heart, wrote: "Imma need an in-depth breakdown of Puff, please". Wee difference, Curious Anon: you are not my cantankerous boss. That being said, since the question has been asked by several people in the comment threads of the day's posts, I am gonna give you my two cents on Queen Pufflander, even if you've been around before I even knew this weird place existed. And hopefully put to rest this nonsense forever (wishful thinking, doubt it will happen).

Once upon a time, when S&C's bantering was the plat du jour on Twitter and this fandom a considerably less toxic place, Puff the Magic Dragon of the US East Coast was one of the Queen Bees of Shipperville. Her blog was witty and no-nonsense (if a tad verbose) and, as *urv, she quickly earned her fair share of side performers: Stella and Deep Throat (SOURCES) or the tarot reader(s) immediately come to mind. People loved Puff and that is only fair, to be honest: I bet the farm she was great fun. Little by little, information traded in DMs started to pile up in her famed Vault, from which she was generously sharing, from time to time, sibylline rants ("maybe they did or maybe they didn't, but don't worry, something happened and all shall soon be revealed"). I can critique that forever and a day and tell you that all this sent people's expectations up the roof and beyond, of course. But, again: I was not here. It is unfairly easy to judge all these things with a historian's eye, and people who lived to tell the tale are far more entitled than me to comment their fandom experience, circa 2015.

When the whole Shatner/Watchtower baliverne started (early 2016, if memory serves) things ugly escalated and rather quickly so. People started jumping ship. With McSideburns already in the house (EIFF comes to mind and a certain poignant S&C penguin picture, too), enter Flukenzie Floozy. Thus, after IFH, Puffy decided to pack her crystal ball & tent and move to greener pastures on Wordpress. There, she held court with a keen eye for the Byzantine politicking of this fandom, not unlike what Perfidious Albion did with regard to the Thirteen Rebelling Colonies, after that Boston Tea Party. Her main moments of intersection with the rest of the shipper community are Covfefe Pics (of course) and Remarkable Week-end (of course). With regard to Covfefe, she quickly cried wolf, but by the time Remarkable Week-end happened, she pulled off a mighty witty breakdown of The Nuptial Charade of the Century. Blaze of glory was Quarantein Ha-wa-wee (of course), when she blamed S for all the world's evils and then some more. After that, she concentrated on her Neverending Feud with *urv (a Private Investigator was, at some point, hired and paid for via crowdfunding), which somehow managed to end (nevertheless) with a Report she might or might not have sent to S, "for further consideration".

As all good prophets, Puffy finally went into Occultation circa 2021, not without warning us that she was torn between Gay Sam & SamCait intellectual traditions, with a wee penchant for the first (reason why I completely ditched her peddling, because IYKYK).

I can understand why people might think I could be Puffy. I am, however, very sure about my own identity, whereabouts and creed: to state the opposite would really, really be mental. I fully assumed my responsibility and went ahead to actually prove you, this morning, I wasn't. Reading her rants was useful, but also taxing. I doubt Stella and Deep Throat were anything else but narrative helpers in a sophisticated Greimas actantial model. Something I would never do, for example: I am confident enough not to need any crutches. And I am very, very sorry for this word vomit: it should come, perhaps, as solace its length could never compete with Puff's storytelling marathons.

To wash my sins (not really: because I really love that picture), here's S,C, a penguin and a cakebox (?), at EIFF 2015. This is, you can be certain, the purest thing on this page, Anon:

[franthonyofficial]

"Boom. Done. blossomed out of my desire to start a band with Keith Goodwin and Tim Arnold after the disbanding of Good Old War. We started trading ideas back-and-forth and writing some songs together. I didn't want to make another record that felt lonely and sad - I wanted my friends with me along the way. Bringing in Keith and Tim during the early stages of songwriting elevated these ideas and gave them dimensions that were missing in the music I had been making by myself.

The name Boom. Done. came out of a conversation I had with Keith about the kid's album, Let's Start a Band, we worked on together. We'd be discussing deadlines, and I'd be on the phone trying to figure out how to manage time between projects. I thought about a weird thing I was saying all the time, "Boom. Done." Saying the phrase would somehow affect whether the idea or concept would actually develop and come to fruition. It was almost a function of my attention-deficit and bipolar mixed together.

For me, one of the biggest challenges was deciding if I should include my name on this album. I felt that doing so might hurt the project and pigeonhole me. I had to kill off that name so I could start over and make music that wouldn't be burdened with the baggage of drug addiction, mental illness, and all the lying and deceit that came with it. After a call with Keith and someone from an artist management/record company explaining my rationale, we agreed removing. my name gave me a better chance at starting over with something fresh. These conversations were difficult, and brought on feelings of despair, self-loathing, and a sense of failure.

For a very long time I used unnatural and synthetic drugs to try and heal something in me that could have been healed through connection, humility, and service. I started looking at what I was doing as a service to others, as something that could hold a greater purpose. This took the pressure off me, and I started to remember the kid who would've been happy selling a single cassette tape at a local show - the kid who died of excitement when they got an email from someone saying they liked the music. The process of building and creating music has always been like a drug for me.

It took time and work, but I realized that if I wanted to feel joy, I had to focus on bringing joy to others. This shift in perspective altered the trajectory of the project and my life path. It was then that I started asking myself what the hell I was doing and why this meant so much to me. These songs? This album? I came face-to-face with who I really was and the things about myself I needed to nurture and let go of. I slowly started to learn meditation and how it can nurture the creative process. Being vulnerable and open with people, as well as being of service to others, was the key to healing a great deal of my turmoil. We decided to say, "Fuck it. We are going to make an Anthony Green record." Except this record would be different and we would approach it by working together to make one collective piece of art.

While making Boom. Done. there was a point where I relapsed. I thought about the irony that this could be my last record and that it would be titled Boom. Done. Maybe it was some kind of subconscious cry for help. During the winter of 2021, Keith and I flew to Palm Springs, California and rented a house in the desert to record the vocals. We escaped the East Coast winter and changed the scenery to stir up some new inspiration. During the final days of tracking I received a phone call from home that a family member passed away from a drug overdose. I did not handle this news properly, and I quickly relapsed myself. My relationship with this person had been very difficult. The process of grieving my loss along with everyone else was so painful and confusing. I still feel the spirit of this person in my life, and I feel that they have intervened in ways that have helped me immensely along my own journey.

It's possible I'll say this with every album I ever make, but this album truly changed my life and my mindset. It was a rebirth for me. A rediscovery of a part of my imagination I had tucked away out of fear and insecurity. I felt a reignited sense of wonder that can only happen when you nurture your inner child and give yourself space to accept and embrace all that you are in both shadow and light. In a lot of ways, I see this as my first solo album and everything leading up to as an experiment. When I was making this record, I wanted to create the feeling I get listening to Van Morrison or big band music, or even reggae and dub. The goal was to create the feeling of a party where you wouldn't be lonely.

I want to thank Thomas Kelly, along with all my family and friends, who helped me and stuck by me through my toughest times. I can never thank you all enough for your love, compassion, and understanding. I will spend the rest of my life trying to give back what was so freely and lovingly given to me. I know I was sent here to sing and make music, and to also be a father, a friend, and a partner. I'm lucky to have the people in my life that always make me want to be better, those who challenge me to love stronger. I hope everybody reading this can experience what it's like to do the thing you're meant to do on this earth with a heart filled with love and kindness, because there's no greater feeling.

If you're struggling with depression or anxiety, find ways of expressing yourself creatively - sing, dance, write poetry or stories, paint, sculpt - the list is endless. Creation devours your pain and suffering and gives it meaning. It shines and sharpens it into a weapon of mass creation. Through music, we are given the opportunity for immeasurable connection with others. Thank you for taking the time to make this music part of your life. Love and kindness to you all. Don't forget your magic.

Warmest regards,

Anthony Green "

[yettofindaname]

Playing Prince of Persia 2008

So last week i got COVID, and was out of work for a few days. I use a dual-booted computer with windows/linux at home - with linux as my main but Windows to use a few windows exclusive programs and to play games on steam. With a lot of time on my hands, but little willpower to do anything challenging, i booted the old copy of PoP 2008 on the steam library, created a new game and got into the hidden valley with the worst walking infrastructure the gaming world has to offer.

A bridge salesman would really clean up in this place. -The prince

Now everyone who played this game already talked gameplay: How the moving-around-part is cool and the single combat with combos is meh. So let's say something else.

In a review from 2021, the reviewer talks about how the game's stylized graphics keep it timeless, and there is a care on the design of every level such that it feels like looking at a painting someone carefully crafted. This is a hard agree. The stylized looks+ the no death mechanic feel very modern, in a way. In the 2008 market, there was this flow towards more realistic games, and also a expectation that Prince of Persia was meant to be challenging, and this game subverted both. In this aspect, the game would be more successful if it was released today than in it's original climate.

Nolan North is here as the Prince. This game came the year after Uncharted 1 came out and was a huge success, and Nolan is here to bring that sweet uncharted rizz to the game. And bring it he does! Does it fit well with the game? Well, I liked it - but it's more of Nolan redoing a wisecracking adventurer in a magic antiquity setting. This is maybe not just ubisoft copying naughty dog's homework, but a trend of the 2000s to have these very, well, very 2000s people around having adventures in other epochs. Reminds me of this post about how everyone in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is a 2000s hero except James Norrington (who suffers dearly for it), so while the game style and gameplay were ahead of it's time, this part really feels right were it belongs.

Elika - chosen one of the god Ormazd and last of the Ahura people, tasked to the keeping of the evil god Ahriman in his tree prision - plays more of an straight man role to the prince's joking and lamp-shading shenanigans. Her design is a very 2000's design: Where most video games hot girls are more about boobs-and-ass design-wise, she is all about that impossibly thin waist line. Overall a great character, and the banter with the prince is funny and fresh, she makes for a great part of the fun in the game.

Every creative endeavor is, for the lack of a better word, an aborted process. Animators would polish their animations forever if not for the cruel team leads to rip the file from their hands to give to the next guy on the pipeline. Planned features get scraped as the deadlines tighten, and so turns the world. PoP 2008 is no different.

- A central gameplay feature is the power plates: When the prince and Elika jump on them, the game's movement mechanics change, and a kind of minigame starts, based on the magic of the plates: The Green plates give the Breath of Ormazd, where the prince can run up, down and around walls like they are the floor, while avoiding bumps and obstacles on them. The Yellow plates give Elika a long term flight ability (Wings of Ormazd), the prince rides on her back and you use the arrow keys to avoid obstacles mid-air. The Red plates catapult you both to a next destination, and the true obstacles are the chain of conventional moves between the red plates. Aaaand the blue plates are the same as the red plates, but blue. We can see that the inspiration died after the red plates, if not with them. Every level has 45 light seeds (game 'currency', to trade for more plates), where 40 are accessible by normal routes, and 5 are accessible using a set of plates of a specific color hidden on the level. Many of these hidden plates are red (easy to place after the level was done) but almost none are blue, the most uninspired plate.

- The game has 4 main areas split into 4 sub-areas, each main area assigned to a boss. Each main area needs two power plates to complete - The Citadel, for example, needs the red and yellow plates. We can imagine there was space (there are literally unused closed gates in the corner of the areas) for 4 more areas, each for the unused combination of 2 of the plates, with 4 more associated bosses, that were removed from the scope pretty early in the project.

Speaking of bosses, the five bosses of the game incidentally make for a near perfect dark version of the heroic Five Man band. Its kind of sad they never interact or even acknowledge each other, but it's one of the limitations of the game onset from it's original design.

- The Mourning King is the Hero, a noble ruler who sold his soul for the somewhat noble - if selfish - motive of resurrecting his daughter.

- As his foil and Lancer, both in combat style and motivations, we have the Hunter, also a noble ruler who sold his soul for the cruel prize of hunting men .

- The Alchemist -> Brains, all mad scientist like.

- The Warrior -> Brawn, he literally cannot be damaged in combat.

- The Concubine -> The Chick, the Only Other Girl in the story. Does illusion magic stuff.

In the finale, Elika sacrifices herself to seal Ahriman back to the tree - and the ending is centered around you - the prince - redoing a bargain her father previously made and breaking the seals in exchange for Elika's life - undoing all your progress in the process. This is weird to me: While we see a growing relationship between Elika and the Prince - Story-wise they know each other for like, 8 hours tops. And there are few lines of dialogue that feel like a true romantic relationship developing. And it's also disrespectful of Elika's final wishes. But everyone bashes this ending, so I will do a first in gaming history: I will defend the ending of Prince of Persia 2008.

Why the Ending of PoP 2008 is Okay, actually:

First, the romance thing - two things come to mind: First - though there is little romance dialogue, there is much romance touching and physicality. Elika and the Prince are maybe one of video games more intimate couple in terms of physical interaction in gameplay. They move together, depend on one another. When they climb vines, Elika grabs herself onto the Prince's back, when they drop of a ledge onto the floor, the prince catches Elika and places her on the ground. They do a cute little spin together when changing places atop a wooden beam. This relationship is not mainly on the story, but is a core feature of the play of the game itself. Second: This is an 1001 nights themed story, where this kind of spontaneous, love at first-sight thing is a theme - this is echoed in the finale, where if you got every light seed in the map, the final seed that resurrects Elika is the 1001st light seed.

But outside of the romance, there are reasons grounded in friendship, and those hit harder for me: The Prince is a well traveled guy, and many of the dialogue lines with Elika revolve around this growing notion that Elika has spent her whole life trapped in this dwindling secret valley, desiring the amazing things of the outside world, but bound by her sense of duty even when all the other members of the kingdom shirked this duty and went away to the outside world. That the reward for her selflessness, her hard and unwavering faith in the god of light - that left her fighting for all of creation alone - was death. That would piss off our guy, damn - it pisses ME off. Elika fucking deserved to see the world, to enjoy herself! Damn this absent god that let her fight for the right to kill herself. I would want my friend to be free, and also we have the final point...

Ahriman's current prison (at the end of the game) is absolute dogshit - held together by strings, sticks, spit and a prayer. And the last magical maintenance staff is dead in your arms. Minutes later Ahriman is already fucking with your mind, and while you could get out and move on, the next wanderer to fall in the valley can be persuaded to cut the five flimsy-ass trees for as little as a bag of free candy. While a more cowardly person would want to get the fuck out and never come back you on the other hand want to see a chance of this business having a clear end to it. So you go back, get the magic power from the tree and resurrect the last of the Ahura, hoping to get her stronger, or to get a lead to finding more of the Ahura who went away, or even Ormazd himself.

The game would have everything lined up for a sequel along these lines (and it kinda has, in the DS spin-off game) but the whole franchise was cancelled and left for dead. It's so delusional to hope for a sequel even Nolan North himself said to a fan to go write some fanfic to scratch that itch.

And that's it for Prince of Persia 2008 for me. One thing that made me happy was that when I had just finished the game, and had the PoP 2008 content itch, i found the page @fuckyeahpop2008, that let me see some cool memes and content fans made of the game. The last big burst of activity in the page was 2014, so I'm indulging in the vintages, the 10 year old PoP memes. Thank you @fuckyeahpop2008 - your page, and your love for the game means a lot for me - and is really nice to indulge is this love, kept fresh in tumblrs servers for 10 years. Cheers for anyone playing the game, now or in the future.

[rouzys]

THE UNOFFICIAL ST. LOUIS BLUES PRIMER PART 1 : FORWARDS

JORDAN KYROU (Rouzy)

Info: #25, RW, STL 35th in 2016 (listed as a center ? does not play center)

Last season: 37 goals + 73 pts (career high goals!)

History: played a handful of games in the 18-19 season, but his real rookie season was in 19-20 and was cut short due to covid. Broke out for real in the 20-21 season and in the 2022 offseason signed an 8 year contract extension !! Won the fastest skater competition at the 2021 all star game!

Profile: great goal scorer at his best, often passes for the "perfect play" instead of shooting. Not super physical

Other: besties with Robert Thomas, they even signed matching contracts <3

ROBERT THOMAS (A) (Thommer) (Tommer?)

Info: #18, C, STL 20th in 2017

Last season: 18 goals + 65 pts (team lead in assists !)

History: played most of the 18-19 season and won the cup as a rookie! Had a good season considering he was on a team of more dominant veterans, very notably received That One Hit from Krug in the SCF

Profile: Not a massive goal scorer but definitely can score, more of a playmaker. Struggles with overpassing for the perfect play. Resident faceoff man post-ROR trade.

Other: besties with Kyrou :)

PAVEL BUCHNEVICH (Buch)

Info: #89, LW, NYR 75th in 2013

Last season: 26 goals + 67 pts

History: traded to Blues in 2021 and immediately had a career season. Was good on the Rangers, is even better on the Blues.

Profile: Great goal scorer! Very good shorthanded this season, already has 2 SHG! Hasn't been his best year overall but would be surprised if he didn't get at least 20 goals

Other: has never played a full 82 game season

BRANDON SAAD (Saader)

Info: #20, LW, CHI 43rd in 2011

Last season: 19 goals + 27 pts

History: won 2 cups with the Blackhawks in 2013 and 2015. Signed with the Blues in 2021 as a free agent

Profile: very consistent 20-ish goal scorer! Has been moved around the lineup quite a bit this season but is usually on the second or third line, great depth goal scorer

Other: not super relevant but inch resting to me, he was traded from Chicago to Columbus in the infamous Artemi Panarin trade

BRAYDEN SCHENN (C) (Schenner)

Info: #10, C, LAK 5th in 2009

Last season: 21 goals + 65 pts

History: important piece in the 18-19 cup season, scored a goal in game 7 of the SCF! Was an alternate captain for 3 seasons under ROR, currently his first season as captain :)

Profile: Usually a 20-ish goal scorer, production has suffered this year from being moved around the second and third lines

Other: I'm still jumpscared by him being in 2013-era Flyers fics to this day. He played on the Flyers with his brother Luke for several (4?) seasons !!

JAKE NEIGHBOURS (Jakey) (?)

Info: #63, LW, STL 26th in 2020

History: Technically in his sophomore season, was unexpectedly called up for 43 games last season + made the roster full time this year out of camp. Worked his way up from the fourth line to the first line before settling down to the second line after the coaching change. He's having whatever the opposite of a sophomore slump is! It's definitely been a breakout season for him so far

Profile: Good goal scorer, was briefly leading the team in goals. Very physical guy, doesn't take many penalties considering he's not afraid to throw himself around

Other: Roommates with rookie goalie Hofer, and they both spent the Christmas holidays with the Schenn family! They do a very cute little thing during the goalie headbutt line :)

SAMMY BLAIS

Info: #79, LW, STL 176th in 2014

Last season: 9 goals + 20 pts in 31 games post-trade deadline

History: Played on the 18-19 cup-winning team (was #9), traded to NYR (for Buchnevich) in 2021, scored NO GOALS in 2 seasons there, traded back in 2023 and scored career high 9 goals post trade deadline.

Profile: Usually a physical player, worked well on the relentless 2019 team. Struggling to find his place on the current team, sometimes a healthy scratch

KEVIN HAYES (Hayesy)

Info: #12, C, CHI 24th in 2010 (listed as LW ? but has been playing center)

Last season: 18 goals + 54 pts (PHI)

History: Drafted by Chicago but played for Boston College (apparently had an injury where he almost lost his leg????). Played several years on the Rangers, about ten minutes in Winnipeg, played several years in Philadelphia, and got traded to the Blues in the 2023 offseason for a couple of rocks (a 6th round pick). Part of the controversial trade that made Krug invoke his no-trade clause.

Profile: Good depth scoring and fantastic faceoff man. Decently physical player and he battles well enough that he's already got 10 goals to show for it.

Other: cousin of Keith Tkachuk! His brother (former player, retired in 2019) unfortunately passed away in 2021 and every time he scores, he points to the sky for him :,)

KASPERI KAPANEN (Kappy)

Info: #42, RW, PIT 22nd in 2014

Last season: 15 goals + 34 pts (PIT + STL)

History: Drafted by the Penguins but was traded to the Leafs where he played 5 seasons, then traded BACK to the Penguins where he played 2 1/2 seasons, then put on waivers. The Blues picked him up in 2023 and he put up a solid 14 pts in 23 games. He fought his way up from the minors and has played exclusively in the NHL since the 18-19 season.

Profile: Good depth player. Very fast but doesn't shoot very much. Currently on the fourth line, usually higher but was moved down as other players (notable Neighbours) moved up the lineup.

NATHAN WALKER (Walks)

Info: #26, LW, WSH 89 in 2014 (currently playing center, my sources are conflicting but he's currently playing center so. he might be a center)

Last season: 2 goals + 10 pts

History: He's Australian! He was born in Wales! He holds basically all of the Australian records since he's one of like 4 Aussie players ever. He played his first NHL games in the 2018 playoffs and won the cup the with Capitals! Unfortunately did not play enough games for his name to be on the cup. He's technically only played a handful of games this year and started with the AHL team but he's been on the team for a few years now and he just signed a 2-year one-way extention, so you'll probably be seeing more of him :)

Profile: Physical player despite being undersized (5'9). Not a big scorer but provides a major physical presence on a not very physical team.

Other: look at his instagram right now his kids are so goddamn adorable

ALEXEY TOROPCHENO (Torpo)

Info: #13, RW, STL 113th in 2017

Last season: 10 goals + 19 pts

History: Played in the KHL in 20-21 due to issues with the Blues AHL affiliate (goodbye San Antonio Rampage, fuck VGK). Made his Blues debut when a covid outbreak on the team forced them to call up a number of players.

Profile: Physical player! Kinda massive (6'6) so he can and WILL run guys over. Fast and relentless player who doesn't give up the puck easily. Mostly a 4th line grinder but he WORKS on that 4th line. Great penalty killer, already has 2 shorthanded goals on the season

Other: this has less of an impact now because it's just him and buch, but back when there were numerous russian players i always called him my favorite russian. this still stands <3

OSKAR SUNDQVIST (Sunny)

Info: #70, C, PIT 81st in 2012

Last season: 10 goals + 28 pts (DET + MIN)

History: The Blues offseason signing of the century. Played a handful of games with the Penguins in the 16-17 season when they won the cup, but didn't play enough games for his name to be on it. Signed to the Blues 18-19 team on a one-year deal and had his best season to date, won the cup for real this time to boot. Traded to the Red Wings in 2022, then traded to the Wild at the 2023 deadline.

Profile: As a center, he's a solid faceoff man, a solid physical presence, and I think he really exudes everything that worked about the 2019 team. Good defensive forward on the fourth line.

Other: A huge fan of the STL MLS team! Went to games even before he had officially signed here. I think the entire city of STL likes this guy he seems cool. Also the Sundqvist + Walman for Leddy + Witkowski trade is known for being absolutely awful. jake walman if ur reading this pls come back

And that's all for the forwards! This is what the roster currently looks like (1/14/24) and other players who are called up/down frequently will be in a separate section

[justinspoliticalcorner]

S.V. Dáte at HuffPost:

WASHINGTON ― Donald Trump left the White House with violent crime spiking, thousands of Americans dying each day from a disease he claimed was no worse than the common cold and having attempted a coup to remain in office despite having lost reelection. The former and would-be future president and the Republican National Committee on Monday released a schedule of convention themes that counts on Americans forgetting all that and instead waxing nostalgic for his years in office. “President Trump will Make America Great Once Again!” the RNC’s synopsis of the convention theme proclaims. Each of the first three nights, though, promises a return to a Trump presidential past that did not really happen in the described way. Monday, July 15, called “Make America Wealthy Once Again,” will focus on the economy under Trump, which it falsely claims was the best ever, thanks in part to “re-worked trade deals” he managed. In fact, the economy during Trump’s first three years ― before the COVID pandemic struck ― was similar to but slightly worse than during the final three years of his predecessor, Barack Obama. And Trump did not “rework” the North American Free Trade Agreement so much as simply rename it the United States, Mexico, Canada Agreement. The few changes it did contain were mostly lifted from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Obama had negotiated but Trump then abandoned. The theme for July 16, “Make America Safe Once Again,” suggests that crime has been rampant under President Joe Biden. In reality, crime rates spiked to their highest levels in years under Trump in 2020 and have been decreasing each of the three years since Biden took office. And the final night before Trump is to be officially nominated ― labeled “Make America Strong Once Again” ― features Biden’s chaotic August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan but fails to point out that it was Trump, not Biden, who cut a deal directly with the Taliban that excluded the Afghan government, even setting a deadline for the withdrawal. Trump’s administration then did no planning for the pullout, leaving the new Biden administration just months to unwind two decades of military presence in that country.

The RNC convention next week will serve up lies and baloney, hoping to get enough Americans to ignore the disaster that the Trump Administration was in order to push the fanciful reality-free narrative that everything was better under Donald Trump.

[an-ivy-covered-summer]

helppppp, i hadn’t listened to happier by olivia rodrigo in a while and now i’ve just been transported to the aftermath of the 2021 trade deadline 😭😭😭

[oliveroctavius]

"the loss of the long form serialized storytelling in comics in favor of writing for the trade has done so much damage to character relationships"

Yeah, but also:

Almost all Marvel/DC writers are still paid by output on a project by project basis. At ~$100 a page, that's $25,200 a year for a 21 page monthly book, no benefits, very rarely royalties for book sales. The incentive is to work on multiple titles as fast as possible. Any back research for character detail is a labor of fan love: that's unpaid work, and dealing with maybe 2-3x as many back issues as a writer in the 80s would have.

The (few) salaried writers are "exclusive": they can only write for that publisher's books. If their bright idea doesn't fit into an existing character's arc, they can either pretend it does, or pitch it as something new which (if accepted) will be company owned intellectual property. The "best" industry jobs are the ones with the least creative control. Forgive me if I don't believe the best creative minds end up there.

For the last couple of decades, there’s been a particular model to sustainable careers in comic book writing. First you do work at some of the smaller independent publishers to get the attention of the Big Two (DC and Marvel), then you transition into writing for the Big Two and work your way up the ladder to the highest profile book you can muster, and then you use your larger platform from your superhero work to draw folks back in to your independent work, often using the money from those big superhero books to subsidize your own books before they turn a profit. (James Tynion IV on Substack in 2021)

Miniseries/TPBs have serious upsides to those who can't afford to be continuity geeks. It's a graphic-novel sized contract guaranteed to get your name in front of a lot of eyes. It's a low risk gig that can still offer a rare level of arbitrary creative control.

"the main universe is meant to be a collaborative front"

Well...

The first and foremost thing the Marvel or DC universe is "meant" to be is a marketing tool. Creators who care have done beautiful and interesting things with the concept, but the fundamental unit of story in the MarvelDC model is the (copyrighted) character.

It's really the IP that sells. I'm the ultimate example. I came to Marvel with little experience as a writer in the early '70s and replaced Stan Lee on Spider-Man. It didn't hurt the sales. (Gerry Conway to Business Insider in 2021)

Henry Ford couldn't be happier: creative workers swapped out like cogs without disturbing the story-producing machine. A comic is more like a novel than a movie or TV show: a creator can do it solo, if given the space and time. The unique and fun "collaborative" element of superhero comics are a well-executed coping mechanism for decades of exploitative labor practices.

In the above case, Gerry Conway had a single decade to catch up on and was coached by the previous writer(s) directly. The weight of publishing history on individual writers is always growing heavier, TPBs or no.

If TPBs really are are giving creatives the control to screw over the IP for their own short term interests... that's sad from a fannish perspective but from an industry perspective, uh, yeah, screw 'em. If "playing super nice with continuity" was meant to be standard, then deadlines and compensation should represent the work that goes into that.

[jose-berojos]

What the Fuck Are They Doing With Alcalá? A Comprehensive Overview

Jorge Alcala is one of my niche-favorite Twins players, thanks to a specific game in 2020 where he pitched two scoreless innings in extras to salvage the game that started out as Maeda's 8-inning no-hit bid. He was Duran before Duran: a flamethrowing Dominican righty who the Twins picked up as a 2018 trade deadline lottery ticket and converted to a major-league caliber reliever.

It's not been a smooth road: like many high-velocity pitchers, he struggles with command, and also has historic issues facing lefties. But in late 2021, it looked like he'd figured it out, giving up just 1 earned run across his last 14 appearances of the season with stellar peripherals and picking up his first career save. Heading into 2022, he seemed poised to work into a setup role, but he got hurt after two appearances and, like many others that season, had complications during the rehab process and never returned.

2023, then, was set to be Alcala's year, as one of many high-ceiling but limited track record relievers fighting for a leverage role to improve a bullpen that had been the 2022 team's weakness. And this is where it gets weird.

As a hard-throwing reliever with high-leverage potential, a history of arm issues, and coming off a season almost totally lost to arm injury, Alcala's third appearance of the season was in... a 3-run deficit (the first prolonged multi-run deficit the Twins had faced all season), where he threw 45 pitches over 1.2 innings. Having not thrown 30+ pitches in an outing since 9/15/20, his third appearance back from injury he was asked to throw 45. Six days later he threw 44 in 2 innings and gave up 2 runs. Another five days later he threw 41 in 2.1 and gave up 3 runs, and was promptly sent down.

His fourth appearance in triple-A, he threw 42 pitches in 1.2 innings. He was then called back up and made three appearances, all 20+ pitch count, all giving up runs, in progressively lower leverage before being relegated to mop-up duty in a 16-3 game and going on the injured list two days later.

Unsurprisingly, the injury was right arm-related; more surprisingly, sometime later it was upgraded to a stress fracture, which shut him down for three months. After a few rehab assignments, he came back for the last game of the season, where he gave up the game-tying run and threw 39 pitches in 2 innings.

So far in 2024, Alcala looks better than ever, but it hasn't earned him any more favorable usage. Like last year, about half his appearances have been for multiple innings, mainly in low leverage, with one 40-pitch outing. There was also the weird incident on 4/6 where they planned to have him throw a third inning before he complained of arm soreness. With his injury history, this sounded alarming, but he got two days rest and then threw back-to-back for the first time since 2021.

Though he's maintained an ERA of 0 so far, with 9 strikeouts to 3 hits and 3 walks, he was the first reliever sent down (over less experienced pitchers, or pitchers with worse performance but no minor league options) when Thielbar returned. Given his performance, heavy usage, and the arm soreness incident, this made sense as load management, but in his first triple-A appearance, he threw... 2 innings, 34 pitches.

I don't get it. From the outside, this looks like a shockingly uncharacteristic and localized case of mismanagement and wasted opportunities by the Twins. Alcala was an heir-apparent setup man just two years ago, and he's shown time and again he can still be that if given health and opportunity. Instead he's treated like a rubber-armed fringe long reliever.

Since I wrote the bulk of this post, Alcala made two more triple-A appearances, both single-inning and 20 or fewer pitches, and he sat for nine days between outings. His fastball velocity in these outings has rebounded to a more characteristic 99 mph max, 97 mph average, which is encouraging to see after his velocity frequently dropped during those longer MLB outings.

With talks of sending Sands down to triple-A to stretch out as a starter, it's likely Alcala will soon be called back up to fill that middle relief/spot-setup role. I hope this most recent triple-A usage is indicative of how they plan to use him at the major league level going forward. He deserves a chance to stick as a setup man, and the multi-inning, 30+ pitch usage he's been stuck in for the past year plus seems tailor-made to get him hurt again.

[thornescratch]

Apparently Why The Capitals Currently Sit Where They Do:

FELLOW COUNTRYMEN

As it has in the past, geography still plays a role. On the left wall, Backstrom and Hagelin, fellow Swedes and longtime friends, remain neighbors.

On the right side, the team’s most prominent Russians — Alex Ovechkin and Kuznetsov — are now seated next to each other. This summer, a stall opened up and Kuznetsov requested to move over a spot.

“Now,” Kuznetsov said, “I can chat with the big man.”

CONVENIENCE AND/OR  CLEANLINESS

Sometimes, locker assignments are about little more than convenience.

For example, when Mantha was acquired at the 2021 trade deadline for Jakub Vrana, he simply took Vrana’s vacated stall. The Caps were in the midst of a playoff push and no one was interested in rearranging things.

“I guess there was a spot open, right?” he said, smiling. “So they just put me there.”

A year and a half later, Mantha is in the same locker.

“I like it,” said Mantha, who is situated between Martin Fehervary and Garnet Hathaway. “They are respectful. They don’t have water bottles and tape all over their stalls.”

FAMILIARITY AND/OR BOSSINESS

Familiarity can play a role, too.

When Marcus Johansson was acquired from Seattle at last year’s deadline, he was seated to the left of Conor Sheary. Even though it’s Johansson’s second tour in D.C., Sheary and Johansson played together on the Sabres in 2019-20.

“He’s always talking about his skates and his sticks,” Sheary said of Johansson. “He’s always informing on what I should be doing or shouldn’t be doing.”

SCHEDULING PLAY DATE POTENTIAL

To Sheary’s right sits Dylan Strome, another newcomer. Like Gustafsson and Carlson, Sheary and Strome have similar situations at home.

“We’ve got kids that are a similar age, so we’ve bonded over that, right to start,” Sheary said of Strome. “Mine is 19 months and his is 18 months — both girls. There’s a lot of baby boys on the team, so it’s nice my daughter got a little friend.”

HORNINESS

However it all shakes out at that end of the room, Oshie said he can’t wait until his friends on the left wall get healthy.

“As much as you like a big locker room,” he said, “you need your buddies right next to you.”

[sorrellegiance]

favorite book you read in the last year? 2. favorite dish from your family's culture? 3. favorite babygirl of the mlb?

(1) oh no. i just went into my reading spreadsheet and sorted by rating and there are TWENTY-EIGHT books that have a 5 (on a scale of 1-5). but you have asked and i must answer, so. this book blew me away by how much it said about human connection in so few words and by how startlingly funny it was and by how absolutely fucking gorgeous the illustrations are; this book is in by will mcphail!

(2) mmm i love a very simple steamed fish the way my mom does it: soy sauce, sliced ginger, handful of scallions, sometimes 榨菜 (pickled veggie stem). get a white-fleshed fish, like a bass, as fresh as possible for MAXIMUM TENDERNESS and there is no bit more tender than the cheeks, which you must always put into the bowl of the one you love.

(3) thank you for the excuse to talk about joey! sadly there's been a lot less content this year because (1) he escaped the horrors of the new york media market and (2) hanser alberto isn't around to instagram boyfriend him, but i've accepted that the dearth of noise about him is for the better. he's babygirl because he went from being the It Girl of the 2021 trade deadline to pathetic puppydog kicked to the curb by new york to tenderly nursed back to rude health by hanser alberto! most significantly, he is babygirl because he's a catholic school boy who went tits out and proud for dodgers dress-up day '22 :))))))))

now behold. spiritual wellbeing!!

[3416]

Capitals’ Rasmus Sandin reflects on shock of Maple Leafs trade, finding role with new team

By: Joshua Kloke | Mar 21, 2023 | The Athletic

At first, Rasmus Sandin didn’t want to listen to what he was being told.

On the rink at the Kraken Community Iceplex in Seattle on Feb. 28, Sandin was moments away from his rep in a practice drill when he got a tap on the shoulder from Leafs assistant coach Dean Chynoweth. Sandin was wanted by a Leafs media relations member.

Sandin gave Chynoweth a quizzical look and told him he’d get to the request later.

“You’ve got to go now,” Chynoweth told him.

Beside the rink, Sandin was informed he had to see Leafs GM Kyle Dubas immediately.

“That walk felt very long,” Sandin told The Athletic.

Sandin stood stunned as Dubas delivered the news that the first draft pick he had ever made as Maple Leafs GM, and a player once thought of as a centrepiece to the Leafs’ future on defence, was being traded to the Washington Capitals.

“(Dubas) told me it wasn’t really something he wanted to do. But he felt like this was best for the team and also a good situation for me to go to Washington,” Sandin said.

With that, Sandin’s practice, and time as a Maple Leaf, was over. A whirlwind three weeks has followed for Sandin. He has spent the majority of his time as a Capital on the road, and he has logged over 20 minutes per game on the ice, something he last did in December for the Leafs. With that ice time, Sandin has posted an impressive 11 points in eight games with his new team.

The trade and increased playing time has given the 23-year-old a new lease on life, and an opportunity, in his words, “to show Toronto that they did something wrong with trading me.”

Over the course of a wide-ranging 20-minute phone interview, Sandin looked back on his time in Toronto, the trade that surprised him, and his future in Washington.

Rasmus Sandin wants to set the record straight.

“I did not request a trade out of Toronto,” he said. “I had literally no idea I was getting traded.”

Despite rumours to the contrary, likely a by-product of an emerging talent who didn’t get the kind of playing time that talent might dictate in Toronto, Sandin insists he never once thought about requesting a trade either. After he was drafted in the first round in 2018, Sandin moved from the Soo Greyhounds to the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. He had the on-ice smarts, the vision and the puck-moving skills that made him look like a decent grab at No. 29.

And maybe, if his skating and understanding of how to pick his spots defensively came around, he could become a top-four, power-play quarterback down the road too.

There were no serious questions about his development through his first season in the AHL and his second pro season, in which he split time between the Marlies and the Leafs. A foot injury hampered his playing time in 2020-21, though he was part of the Leafs’ playoff lineup for five games against the Montreal Canadiens in 2021. Perhaps the first genuinely concerning questions about whether Sandin could be depended on in important moments were raised during Game 5 of that first-round series, when two of his turnovers led to Canadiens goals in a loss.

In 2021-22, the final of his entry-level deal, Sandin was beset by injuries. He looked like a capable bottom-pairing defenceman, sure, but regular top-four minutes didn’t come.

“In my mind, it was always about battling for a spot,” Sandin said. “They had such a deep defence core, which is a good thing because everyone is battling every single day for a spot in the lineup.”

So coming into this season, it was fair to wonder where Sandin fit with the Leafs long term. He looked on the verge of breaking out, but Dubas had assembled a team capable of competing now. Among Leafs defencemen who were on the team before the trade deadline, Sandin again sat sixth in average time on ice. And though he’d received some more power-play responsibilities, he’d been lapped by his friend and fellow young blueliner Timothy Liljegren in ice time.

Sandin will always be linked to Liljegren in Toronto, fairly or not. Both are Swedish defencemen, first-round picks who rely on their hockey IQ — and were chosen in back-to-back years.

And Dubas was looking for both to sign similar bridge deals this past offseason. Liljegren bit on a two-year, $2.8-million deal in June 2022 as Sandin remained unsigned. Questions about his future in Toronto were amplified.

“What people don’t know is that my mom got sick in the beginning of 2022. She got cancer. She had some serious surgeries. We had a really tough time as a family that summer. That’s a big part of why I stayed at home, so I could spend time with her. People don’t know about that. That’s fine with me because I knew it, and Toronto knew it and they were fine with it,” Sandin said.

So while those questions remained at the start of training camp, Sandin stayed at his home in Sweden, unsigned.

“To be honest, my head wasn’t (in Toronto). For me, family comes first. My head wasn’t in hockey to go back to Toronto to sign a contract (in June),” Sandin said. “It was important to have my mom’s back.”

Sandin’s brother Linus returned to Sweden to play in the SHL after two professional seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers organization, which included his NHL debut in 2021-22.

“Being in Toronto with the market it is, no matter what, everything is going to be a big deal. That was something I wanted to keep to myself and not distract other guys,” Sandin said.

He still isn’t sure how many other teammates knew about his mother’s diagnosis.

As the leaves began to fall on the trees and Sandin said his mother’s health began to improve, she told him it was time to return to Toronto. He signed a deal with the same term and cap hit as Liljegren’s during training camp.

He finished his Toronto career with 48 points in 140 games, averaging 16:40 per game and has few regrets outside of more team postseason success.

“I wish we could’ve gone further in some of the playoffs,” Sandin said. “Otherwise, I don’t think I would have done things much differently.”

And that attitude is part of why Sandin was so taken aback by the trade out of Toronto. He says he believed in his future with the team.

Sandin was surrounded by friends in Toronto, too. Towards the beginning of this season, there were seven Swedes on the Leafs’ roster, the most of any NHL team.

Yet within a matter of minutes, those friendships were put to the test as Sandin was dealt to the Capitals and forward Pierre Engvall was shipped to the New York Islanders. After that Leafs practice in Seattle concluded, Sandin, Engvall, William Nylander and Timothy Liljegren gathered beside the rink for one last chat.

“It was tough holding back tears,” Sandin said. “It’s more than just hockey.”

“It was a nice moment, to have the chance to say goodbye,” Sandin added. “I’m going to have (them) as best friends for the rest of my life.”

Sandin left the rink, and the Leafs organization, walking arm-in-arm with Nylander.

“It’s tough even talking about it. (Nylander) was telling me how much he was going to miss me. We’ve been so close since even before my time in Toronto. He’s one of my best friends, if not my best friend. He wished me the best of luck, and said, ‘Don’t you dare not talk to me after you leave us,’” Sandin said.

It’s a side of the uber-cool and laid-back Nylander the public isn’t often privy to.

“He is the way a lot of people see him with the confidence and all that. But he’s one of the best human beings I’ve ever met. He has a lot of different sides. Sometimes the rest of the guys who don’t know him don’t get to see this side very often. For me, being close to him, I think I’ve seen every single side of him. I wasn’t too surprised about it, but I was obviously very happy that he showed that side as well,” Sandin said.

Still in shock, Sandin headed south to meet the Capitals in California. Having only packed for 10 days primarily through Western Canada in late winter, Sandin immediately found himself in need of a change of attire.

“I ran out of clothes pretty quick,” he said.

Life with the Leafs had been the only life Sandin had known. No more navy blue Adidas sweatsuits to wear to practices and morning skates. No more sneakers to go with suits for games, with ties optional. The Capitals operate a business-casual dress code, which meant one of the first stops Sandin made was to a local mall for dress shoes and a tie.

Once he was outfitted to the Capitals’ standards, he could focus on “showing what type of player I can be, and am.”

“You want to prove (the Capitals) right that they made a good choice in trading for you,” Sandin said. “And you want to prove your old team wrong.”

The Capitals have given him the runway to do just that. He’s averaged a whopping 24:56 time on ice per game, tops among all Capitals position players.

Now, how long Sandin’s production streak lasts remains to be seen. He’s minus-5 as a Capital and his five-on-five expected goals with the team sits at a paltry 41.42 percent. Six of his 11 points have come on the power play. Still, his increased workload is part of the reason Sandin believes he’s producing on the score sheet at an impressive rate. He feels part of the solution for a Capitals team on the outside looking in at the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

“It’s been a lot of fun just to know that your coaches believe in you, and your teammates believe in you,” Sandin said. “That’s a reason why they wanted to pick me up. They see me as a Washington Capital for a long time. That feels good.”

For the young defenceman, the ice time has helped him move on from the difficulty of leaving close friends. He can’t deny that it feels nice to be wanted and to see a way forward into a prominent role on the ice for years to come.

“I hope to stay here for a long time,” Sandin said.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Digital World Acquisition Corp., the blank-check company looking to take Trump Media and Technology Group public, has changed its listed address to a UPS Store in Miami.

The change from a Miami office building to a UPS address came with DWAC's regulatory filing on Friday disclosing that some investors pulled out tens of millions of dollars.

The company said it had lost $138.5 million of the $1 billion in financing from private investors in public equity, also known as PIPE, to fund Trump Media after the merger. The contractual obligation for those investors to contribute to former President Donald Trump's media company after the deal had expired last Tuesday, allowing them to pull their funding.

One of the former private investors told CNBC that it pulled financing from DWAC because of the many legal obstacles facing the company. The investor, who declined to be named due to the sensitive nature of the matter, was also underwhelmed by the popularity of Trump Media's Truth Social app as measured by Donald Trump's follower counts.

Trump had more than 80 million followers on Twitter. On Truth Social, which he founded after he was banned from Twitter following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, he has 4.1 million. The app is also currently barred from the Google Play store.

Representatives from DWAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After DWAC failed to garner enough shareholder support to extend its deal deadline earlier this month, CEO Patrick Orlando contributed $2.8 million from his company Arc Global Investments II to push back the deadline to December.

The merger delay comes as Trump Media and DWAC are the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission probe into whether alleged discussions between the two companies prior to the merger violated securities laws.

Trump himself is also the subject of multiple investigations, including civil allegations of fraud from New York's attorney general, as well as criminal investigations relating to the removal of sensitive documents from the White House, his involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and attempts to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

DWAC's address change was first reported by the Financial Times.

Shares of DWAC were trading around $17 after hours Monday, down significantly from their $97 peak in March of this year.

[readyfreddy]

Just curious… got a few favourite leafs prospects/ones to watch?

I haven't been following leafs prospects as much this year bc of school, but I've always been impressed with the Sarnia Sting's Ty Voit (Leafs 2021, 5th round, 25th, 153 OA). A total steal of a draft pick for the leafs.

From Sarnia I also really like Sasha Pastujov (ANA, 3rd round, 2nd pick, 66th AO), he was originally was drafted by the Guelph Storm, but then got traded to Sarnia this season. He knows that he's good, a little cocky, and his work ethic isn't the greatest, but is doing better with Sarnia from the sounds of it. Fun fact: his parents are circus performers.

From the Kitchener Rangers:

I really like Danny Zhilken (WPG, 3rd round, 12th pick, 77th OA) C. Really good hands, looks like he's having fun while playing, started off with Guelph, then got traded to Kitchener at trade OHL trade deadline.

Undrafted: Ben McFarlane, C. We love a short king. He leaves it all on the ice, and has one of the best work ethics of anyone that I've seen play in juniors. Always seems happy on the ice, and plays 110% in the crucial moments. Somewhat similar to Brad Schlegel, in terms of being a great hockey player, but would more suited to more international hockey than NHL hockey. Would likely do really well in the NCAA system, but cannot due to no longer being considered an amateur.

Guelph Storm:

Michael Buchinger (STL 2022, 3rd round, 23rd pick, 88th OA) defence.

Matt Poitras (BOS 2022, 2nd round, 22nd pick, 54th OA). A really creative playmaker, a steal of a pick for Boston. C

Jake Karabella (WSH 2022, 5th round, 19th pick, 149th OA), just really fun to watch. LW

Henderson Silver Knights (VGK's affiliate): Daniil Chayka (VGK 2021, 2nd round, 6th pick, 38th OA) D. Really tall and needs to bulk up a little bit, uses his size to his advantage. Haven't been following him since Henderson, but he has great hands for a defenseman too.

Undrafted: Ben McFarlane, C. We love a short king. He leaves it all on the ice, and has one of the best work ethics of anyone that I've seen play in juniors. Always seems happy on the ice, and plays 110% in the crucial moments. Somewhat similar to Brad Schlegel, in terms of being a great hockey player, but would more suited to more international hockey than NHL hockey. Would likely do really well in the NCAA system, but cannot due to no longer being considered an amateur. Favourite player on the Guelph Storm, currently in his over-ager year. Wishing him all the best in his career.

Cameron Allen (2023 draft eligible) OHL ROTY, finalist for CHL ROTY. Defense, has a great sense of the ice for being so young, throws his weight around. Not one to mess with, at the start of the season was ranked to go high in the first round, now has dropped to mid-late first or early 2nd. He's dropped due to injuries and Guelph's horrible start to the 2022-2023 season. Played well in the KCHLTP game. Comparable to Drew Doughty who also played for the Guelph Storm.

Henderson Silver Knights (VGK's affiliate): Daniil Chayka (VGK 2021, 2nd round, 6th pick, 38th OA) D. Really tall and needs to bulk up a little bit, uses his size to his advantage. Haven't been following him since Henderson, but he has great hands for a defenseman too.

From the Moose Jaw Warriors:

Jagger Firkus (SEA 2022, 2nd round, 3rd pick, 25th OA). LW. Great player to watch, also has a cool name.

From the Regina Pats:

Connor Bedard (2023 draft eligible). It feels like I don't even need to justify this one. Literally unreal, wicked, unlike any player I've seen live or on TV. Truly a generational player, excited to see how his career plays out.

Stanislav Svozil (CBJ, 3rd round, 5th pick, 69th OA (nice lol)). Another fun player to watch, has great sense of the ice, throws his weight around. Played well at this past world juniors.

Alexander Suzdalev (WSH, 3rd round, 6th pick, 70th OA). Absolute magic playing on the same line as Bedard.

[swiftzeldas]

When Taylor said “this is why they shouldn’t kill off the main guy” she was thinking of the Chicago cubs 2021 trade deadline