Phightins

I like Brian Burke as a person for what he's trying to do in his son's honor, but he is a very overrated GM. He stole Chris Pronger from Edmonton and he drafted the Sedins in Vancouver. Otherwise, he did nothing with the Canucks, inherited an otherwise great team in Anaheim, and has done an abysmal job in Toronto. As for the skills competition tonight, I was entertained. Looked like a great crowd in Raleigh. Awesome to see hockey catching on in a southern market as it has there in the past few years. Also, NHL take note: it is possible to have an entertaining product without your biggest star. With the exception of the horrendous Versus production value, it was solid.

Citi Field will supposedly host the 2013 All Star Game.

The "Red Carpet Show" on NHL Network right now is seriously the most awkward/uncomfortable television I have ever seen.

They aren't playing in the actual game. As far as I know, they are just participating in the skills contest tonight. To be honest, I am not completely sure how this is going to work (the skills contest). I get the feeling that the league is making up rules on the fly. I guess we will find out tonight.

Updated with everything.

And Derek Stepan is on the team Staal rookie team (editing the rookie teams into that post now, BTW).

Updated with captains and alternate captains.

Game is at 4 on Sunday. Rookie skills competition tomorrow night. Rosters drafted tonight: http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g96/philsphan1210/Picture2-10.png The draft was pretty cool, but kind of awkward.

Lol KG is such a dirty POS.

Yeah all 50 of us were pretty pissed. Most of the idiots were more concerned with getting on the Carlton-Cam than the actual game. But yes, lets chalk this up under "are you [expletive]ing kidding me". Right next to both Washington games and the Orlando game last week.

Going tonight woo.

FYI he also lost $80 on this game (which explains that one post).

"Diesel"s Facebook page right now (getting worse by the minute)... http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g96/philsphan1210/Picture1-41.png http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g96/philsphan1210/Picture2-9.png http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g96/philsphan1210/Picture3-2.png

Pretty amazing, eh? For a guy who gets [expletive] on so much by fans and media.

Early thought is that Moustakas, Pineda, Hellickson and Taillon are too low. I do not have Insider so I couldn't see his reasoning, though. Also nice to see 5 Phillies listed, although they are all pretty far off from the Majors (with the exception of Brown obviously). The one thing that I actually take Keith Law's word for every year.

The Sixers bench is good. Really really good.

Anders Lindback also has a ton of potential. Amazing how Nashville is always pumping out these goalies.

Always nice when the opponent has a 10-day contract on the floor in the 4th.

Yeah I bought shoes also. They will pay for themselves in like, 2 weeks.

Plus [expletive]ing 1. Sorry I missed this until now.

I would say Ryan Kesler but he is slowly becoming a "household name" this season. Also, basically everybody on the Dallas Stars roster. Except for Brad Richards maybe, a lot of those guys aren't known by casual fans. And they have a very talented team. Shane Doan has played his entire career in the country's worst hockey market, so the same goes for him. Speaking of Coyotes, Keith Yandle is awesome. It's an interesting question, because there are tons of really good players out there that nobody knows about because of how dead hockey is in some cities.

Kimmo Timonen

Wake me up when this is over.

And now Napoli is on his way to Texas. I am guessing the Angels are not too thrilled with the Blue Jays for trading Napoli right back into the division.

Eh. The "sources" seem to change their mind about this every week, so I will still not believe anything I read until the deadline passes and they are either gone or still here. I don't think Brand was ever a realistic trade candidate, due to his contract/age/injury history. Maybe that changed with the dominant start to the season he's had, maybe it hasn't. But while we are on this topic (prepare for rant)... The biggest problem with the NBA is that it is 100% impossible to get good value for players like this, so in theory, it is probably not worth trading them. Draft picks are pretty useless to the Sixers unless they are guaranteed to be near the top. The teams that would be trading for an Iguodala-type are most likely playoff teams with worthless picks. Cap space is also worthless to a team like the Sixers. In this age, there are almost no superstars, and the few that exist basically get to dictate where they are going to play. No superstars are coming here. So it is a [expletive]ty situation. Keep this core together and be stuck in "neutral" for the foreseeable future, or trade them away without getting nearly enough "value". Tough decisions (although it isn't that tough when you look at it this way). Although, as I have been saying recently, I love the strides this team has made this year. All credit to Doug Collins. But they are still no better than a first round exit. That isn't changing any time soon because of the way the league is structured. Basically the main reason that I have personally had a difficult time getting attached to the NBA, compared to the other leagues. Anywho, /rant. Carry on!