zurch1818

Time for a NHL thread bump. Anyone see this goal scored by Bobby Ryan? It's at the 18 second mark in this video. To fully appreciate it, watch it because it looks much more awesome than what it sounds like. link

I believe they fixed the fighting in NHL 10 (and carried over into 11). Dodging is done with the left stick, blocking/grabbing the jersey with the triggers and punching with right stick. If you want to do a full wind-up punch you go back and forth with the right stick. You can uppercut too by grabbing onto the jersey first and then going back and forth. Each hit drains a health meter and after the fight each line gains stamina. Outside of actually throwing punches, I'm not sure how much more realistic you would want it to be. Once again EA did an amazing job with it. Another thing that they put into NHL 11 is the ability to break sticks. Once it is broken, you can play without a stick and pass by kicking or go to the bench and get a new stick. They put a new physics engine in for '11 too. Each hit is different and looks very realistic. It does not even look animated anymore. They have this "wow" factor (or at least that is what EA said). Also with this new physics engine, if a stick breaks, it is left on the ice and the puck can actually bounce off it. I'm not sure if you can trip over them (I usually skate around broken sticks). Shots from the point can get deflected in by a guy in the slot too. Unless I am really terrible at the game (which I don't think I am anyways), I struggle to score more than 3 goals a game. Computers have enough AI to figure out your offense and defend it. It makes it much more difficult to score. I usually only play online and each game is different. It is quite hard to score. I average just under 2 goals a game online and a little over 2 in my season. What was the last hockey game you played?

Glad I could help out Rydogg. I'll guarantee that you made the right choice and you won't be disappointed with my current favorite game. Because nothing is going on tonight and I want to kill some time, I'm actually on my way downstairs to play this game online.

I really only play three games on my xbox....NHL is one of them. NHL 11 is definitely where it is at. The graphics are unbelievable - it is amazing how life-like it is. Strategy is also very realistic. A few years ago (maybe 07ish), I demoed the EA version of NHL and the 2K version of NHL. The EA version was 10 fold better. Before playing this game, I really didn't care for hockey. I didn't understand the rules nor the strategy. Now after playing this game for a couple years, I learned the actual rules and real strategy of the game of hockey. I became a huge fan of the NHL. Watching hockey is now my second favorite thing to watch on TV (with the Brewers being number 1). I'm even in a fantasy hockey league this year. I'm not trying to put this game on a pedestal, but if it wasn't for the EA version of the game, I probably wouldn't follow hockey today. It does take some time getting used to the controls, skating is done with the left joystick and all the deking/shooting (on offense) and hitting (on defense) is controlled with the right joystick. Once these controls get engraved in your head, the game becomes much easier. If this bothers you, you can always put on classic '94 controls where passing is a button press and shooting is a button press. I've never done this before though.

For plasmas, I would highly recommend getting a Panasonic. According to the December 2010 issue of Consumer Reports, Panasonic is the most reliable plasma. I'm not sure how legal it is to post the actual charts, so I'm not going to do it. I will tell you some of the info though. Only 3 percent of them were either repaired or reported to have a serious problem after three years of use. Samsung was next at 5 percent and LG was next at 6 percent. They don't even list Zenith's history. CR also says that no plasma brand really stood out as less reliable than the others, but they recommend getting one of the three brands listed above. Of the 8 plasma models that they rate in the 42" range, the top 4 are all Panasonics. Number 5 is an LG, 6 Samsung, 7 Sanyo, and 8 Insignia. If you have any questions about this, let me know.

Queen's "Flash" Flash a-ah Savior of the Universe Flash a-ah He'll save every one of us Flash a-ah He's a miracle Flash a-ah King of the impossible

That sounds eerily similar to what killed my old Windows XP computer. My problem was not a virus though; instead, the motherboard went bad. The dead motherboard also took down my main hard drive and my internal backup. So I did lose everything. Are you sure it is a virus? I would definitely try to put your hard drive in another computer or trying out one of those things DKM4Boston mentioned. They are a truly amazing invention. I'm not sure about the itunes (and I have no intentions on finding out...I'm a PC). For me, I was happy that the Zune software allowed me to transfer my library over to my new computer.

I won a dinner for two and some homemade barbecue sauce from some restaurant in Lake Geneva for having the longest and straightest golf drive. I was yards only a couple yards away from winning both long drive holes and doubling the amazing prize package. I never actually cashed in on the dinner but the barbecue sauce was fantastic.

Crosby, Staal, Datsyuk, O. Jokinen, and Ryan are definite studs. Pavelski, Streit (too bad he's hurt), Gonchar (old but still is solid on the PP), Rafalski are also solid picks. I'm not really familiar with Voracek, Karlsson, or Filato. I've heard of Bourque but I am unaware of how good he is. Regarding goalies, Vokoun has always been awesome in the save department but probably won't win much because he plays for the Panthers. Hiller is solid. Steve Mason has potential to be a great goalie too. He was great two years ago in his rookie campaign. He kind of had a rough sophomore year. I look for him to have a better year (he is my third goalie too). Mason is the only player on your team that is also on my team. Overall, you should do pretty good. Besides Streit, I really don't see any terrible picks. Either drop him or put him on the IR if you have one. I'll be happy to tell you who I would pick up if you give me some potential names.

Hockey has been growing ever since the lockout. I'm glad your starting to get into it. Now Wisconsin somehow needs to get an NHL team (not that there is anything wrong with our Admirals). The Wild just recently put all of their FSN-WI games on their website. It will be nice to tune into them again along with the Versus coverage. In the default settings for the ESPN points league, I kind of like how PIMs are counted as positive points. Maybe next year, if there is enough interest, we should start up a Brewerfan fantasy hockey league. It's always more fun when you know the people in the league.

It's my first time too this year. So far it's been fun even though I am getting destroyed this week by my brother who hates professional hockey. I know everyone on my team and he knows nobody. I know what you mean by a slow start. The Coyotes starting wings (Wolski and Doan), the Kings Simmonds, and the Sabres stud goalie and my first pick Ryan Miller really haven't been very good so far this year. It was nice seeing Jeff Carter have a good game for a change. Yandle hasn't been too bad for me either. I was really happy today talking to my roommate (who is also in the league) about picking up Stepan. He was going to pick him up later tonight. Luckily I snatched him up first.

I actually just picked Stepan up in my fantasy league. Goodbye Andrei Kostitsyn. Does anyone else do fantasy hockey?

It's too bad to hear Tommy John and Strasburg in the same sentence. Add another name to the list of pitchers that have HOF potential that may never pan out. This article applies perfectly to the Strasburg situation. According to this article, all pitching getting hurt is a rule and the norm. The great ones are the ones are an exception to this rule. The article does not mention Sheets, but he does fit right in with this rule. I thought it was a great read.

Elliott Smith - (self titled) Carolina Liar - Coming To Terms Arctic Monkeys - Humbug

I went to Monday's practice round and one of the rounds in '04. Here are a couple suggestions. Wear your golf shoes. It may seem stupid, but in actuality it is quite smart, especially if it rained the day before. Back in '04 my feet got soaked because I was wearing normal tennis shoes. Not only will it keep your socks from getting wet but it will also give you some extra traction when you walk up and down the hills in the tall fescue.Get there as early as possible. This is the best time to scope the course for good hill to sit on. On Monday we got there at 7:15 and were treated with Tiger. Only 15 or so people were following him at the time. You could literally walk right up next to him and get autographs if you wanted. Obviously you won't be able to do this when the holes count, but getting there early has its benefits. We spent a lot of time sitting on the top row of the grand stand on hole 16. From here, you can see the people going for the green in two (it's a par 5) and turn around and see all of hole 17 (a difficult par 3 with water on the left). I've never really found the need to bring a chair to one of these events. Because I like walking around and staying at one spot, they kind of turn more into a hassle than a luxury. A better alternative is to either sit in a chair or find a hill to sit on. There are lots of them around the course. Scope out the ones that you can see multiple shots/holes. If I get around to it (or by popular demand), I will post some pictures that I took on Monday (cameras were allowed for the practice round). Let me know if you have any questions.

Not that this affects your decision at all, but when I was there last summer, it seemed like everyone was playing disc golf. Any open field we found, somebody was playing. I did get the "dirty" feel to the city too. Even though it is as city as Alaska gets, the scenery around the Anchorage is still superior to many mountain sites in the lower 48.

Can't embed this, but this reminds me of this Seinfeld Episode http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyCMWgYxCOg

Thanks twirl. This looks like it is exactly what I am looking for.

I'm really just a fan of the NHL. If a game is on TV, I will watch it. Versus on Monday and Tuesday nights does a great job. If I had to pick a team to follow though, it would probably be the Wild. My old college roommate was from St. Paul, so that kind of rubbed off. Another and better reason is that FSN picked up 20ish games last year. Whenever the Bucks aren't on FSN and the Wild are, FSNwi will pick up the Wild. Hockey is a sport that you have to watch to be entertained. It is nothing like baseball where a radio will suffice. Therefore, choosing the Wild is logical (only because a lot of games are on TV). But if you want to pony up the money for Center Ice, then the possibilities are endless. Madison has been in the Wild Market in the past, so don't be surprised if they get blacked out if you choose to go the Center Ice route. I guess this is a semi off topic question. What sites are you guys using to get NHL trade rumors (ideally something like MLBTR). I found mynhltraderumors.com, but this doesn't update as much as I would like. It is a lot better than nothing though.

Thanks 20fry. This is awesome!

Same here weshelmsfan18 AT yahoo.com

Is it Invincible by OK Go ? It has been a while since I have been to a game, but it is the only song I can think of that has invincible in it.

I'm relatively new to Sabermetrics, but I did just stumble upon this blog which I would like to deem "for dummies." I read it and feel much more confident in the use of SABR.

So the Big 10 has 12 teams in it and the Big 12 has 10 teams in it? Something doesn't seem right.