Of course, the problem with this is not the rule, nor the call. It was—as always--the replay. Replay makes everything worse. Period. It turns a game into a legal battle. So now, the NHL has to pull an NFL and try to write some sort of strangely worded fix for the offsides rule or allow these types of things to stand.…

Ummm.... Alaska? Norway and Denmark (via Greenland) also have massive territorial claims in the Arctic. Denmark actually claims the most although it’s pretty close to Russia’s claim. Both outpace Canada and the US. Norway has mostly stayed out of it with just a tiny sliver of claim near Svalbard.

They’re dragging because they want to actually get it in time for it to be in play for 2020. They’re hoping that there will be a public outcry that will force the Administration’s hand (although that doesn’t look to be forthcoming.) Barrying that, they only have two ‘hammers.’ Lawsuit or impeachment of Barr.…

Blue Jackets didn’t have trouble finding it. Boston had three players that wanted to get in a scrum and didn’t wait for the whistle to do it. Their fault. Replay sucks.

Minimum wage: 7.25 an hour or 1250 dollars a month at 40 hours a week. Average new car cost: 35,000. So for American citizens, we’re at 28 months. Not quite 43, but awful close.

‘Green’ methane almost certainly refers to ‘Green gas’ or ‘biomethane.’ It is a product which certainly does exist, although whether you think it holds potential to deal with carbon emissions might be a matter of debate. Its largest obstacle to adoption is that it can’t compete cost-wise with cheap natural gas. You…

Mayor Pete is a threat because he’s the only one that actively threatens Trump’s base. There has been a very long-term plan from the right to turn religious voters to the right. We kind of forget that it wasn’t that long ago that religious voters were equally left and right. Groups like the Institute on Religion and…

OOORRRR... they could just say, “Sometimes bad stuff happens to good people.” Rather than pull an NFL and let one controversial play screw up the entire system for all time. It was a controversial play, it sucked. How many controversial calls though are there in a season? Do we really want to go down the rules lawyer…

I have been trying to determine if this is the greatest playoffs of all time, or the worst. I think I’m leaning toward the best first round, followed by the worst of everything else. If you’re the kind of person who likes your hockey to end in April, then this is the year for you because really... what’s worth…

Mrazek’s own teammate is allowed to make contact. You can frame by frame it. The puck is under Mrazek, Ovechkin hits Mrazek, the puck squirts out. It’s possible that Ovi’s stick hit it first and caused it to squirt out, but there’s obviously contact in the blue and the puck is under Mrazek until after contact is made.…

The worry is that an impeachment will increase Republican turnout and push moderates to vote for them. The last impeachment was against Bill Clinton and it backfired spectacularly. We know that Trump is a master of the narrative. There is a very real chance that he would use the narrative of ‘Mueller exonerated me and…

Nope, I stand with Deadspin. Video review is a menace for exactly the reasons stated. If I wanted to watch a court show, I’d turn on Law and Order. American football is practically ruined because of it with a rule book that requires a constitutional scholar to get through. Now, the pernicious effects of technology…

I think the only argument that needs to be made is that he’ll be 79 if he takes office in 2021. 79. That means 83 if he leaves after four years and 87 after 8.  I’m not sure that I trust any 87 year olds to drive to the farmer’s market, let alone lead a country. Joe Biden is in the same pickle. Elizabeth Warren is…

Look up the Institute on Religion and Democracy sometime. They are a right-wing political organization that has dedicated themselves to destroying the Christian left and Democrats have been content to let it happen. The Christian left used to be vibrant and mainline Christianity dominated the religious discourse. The…

I think that Pelosi understands the game better than we give her credit for. The United States has traditionally been a center-right nation. Now maybe that’s changing, but maybe it’s not. The one thing that we do know is that the media on the right is more than happy to give AOC and the New Left(or whatever you want…

Democrats in West Virginia aren’t Democrats in the country. They are Democrats from 40 years ago. Pro-labor and wealth redistributionists. There’s really no party that encapsulates West Virginia Democrats anymore. It’s more the party of Kennedy than the party of 2019. It’s one of their big complaints, the national…

He’s a moderate in a world that hates moderation. West Virginia largely doesn’t care though because they hate politicians of every stripe and think that Democrats and Republicans both don’t give a rip about them. Joe is socially conservative and fiscally liberal. He’s a Democrat from 20 years ago who hasn’t felt a…

That was a weird looking play, but it wasn’t a bad play. He was tossing it left-handed to avoid the sack, so he saved four or five yards. If the ref had jumped to the side instead of backwards, there was a realistic chance it could have been caught for a five yard gain. There was no defender around to intercept and it…

As traditional religion is fading, politics has largely taken its place as secular religion. As such, it is a cultural signifier as well as objective truth. The clash among the newest generation takes on the old good vs. evil battles that used to be waged by religious belief. Humans have an inherent need to both group…

Hockey is the only sport in which replay is vaguely done correctly and even then it sometimes feels like a slog. Of course, the ‘get it right’ crew are clamoring for review of minor penalties and all sorts of other crap. I personally say get rid of the off-sides review and just make it a goal line review, but…