The only reason they made Paul and Jess not work out was because they hate me

Somebody To You: 25

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CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

There was no use in dwelling over Harry right now. It seemed silly to even want to cry, considering Paul, who was seated across from her, was literally fighting for his life. Who was she to cry over a boy that had no interest in dating her? Her problems seemed minuscule to the real tragedies happening all around her. The four of them finished up dinner and when they had finished, Carol whisked their dishes away to wash.

“I should get Zoey over to her mom’s to change now so I can get to the bar in time,” Michael called, standing up, “We’ll meet you there later?”

“Yeah, go on. We’ll see you there,” Paul nodded from his seat at the table.

Being alone with Michael wasn’t as awkward as she thought it’d be. His old, beat-up red car, which usually reeked of stale cigarettes, now only had a lingering scent that was hidden behind the sweet smell of moonlight breeze Gain car fresheners. He explained to her how he’d quit smoking a month ago and it was going well. The twenty-minute conversation to her parents’ house didn’t seem forced like she expected it to be. And he hadn’t once made a pass at her. Maybe he finally moved on.

When she led him into the landing of her parents’ house, her mom’s voice rang out, “Zoey? Is that you?”

“Yeah, I’ve got Mikey with me!” she called back, urging him on.

She could hear her mom’s voice sing his name from the other room and they both shared a look, knowing that Michael was about to be trapped in the endless tirades of Mary. Zoey giggled watching him drag his feet in the directions of the living room, leaving her to go change.

“Hurry,” he quietly urged before he rounded the corner.

She had managed to take up her luggage that morning, so she made her way towards the bedroom, noticing Katie’s bed neatly made and the lights still off. Her car was in the driveway when they arrived, so she must be in the living room with her mom. 

Rummaging through her suitcase, Zoey grew more frustrated, feeling silly. All of her clothes were new and were geared more towards her life in LA. Her wardrobe had changed along with her personality and she felt like if she walked downstairs wearing any of these clothes Michael would see right through her and think that she was an imposter.

She had no choice. She didn’t fit into Katie’s clothes and there was no time to go shopping. With a sigh, she slipped into a straight, spaghetti-strapped, white dress and paired it with white sneakers and a jean jacket to make it look more casual. She ran her fingers through her dirty blonde hair, looking at herself in the reflection of Katie’s mirror, finally embracing her new look. This was her. It took years to feel comfortable in her own skin and she wasn’t going to let her insecurities ruin that.

Zoey bounced down the stairs and towards the living room where, sure enough, Katie sat beside Michael, both listening to Mary blabber on about how sorry she was to hear the news of Michael’s dad and the trauma he and Zoey have experienced already. Zoey would have felt embarrassed for her mother’s constant and unwanted reminders, but Michael was used to it having had Mary in his life for five years now. He knew she meant no harm from it and had grown enough thick skin by this point to not pay it any mind.

“I’m ready,” Zoey announced, walking into the room.

“Where are you going?” Katie asked curiously.

Michael stood up, “I have a show tonight at Slyfox. You can join us if you want.”

Before Katie could respond, Mary interrupted, chuckling slightly, “No, Katie’s too young to go.”

“But I’m eighteen! And Zoey will be there!” Katie countered, eyes pleading, but to no avail. Her mom wouldn’t budge.

“Sorry, kiddo,” Michael roughed up Katie’s hair, “maybe next time.”

Zoey always appreciated how Michael treated her younger sister and tried to include her in things, even though it usually got shot down by her parents. Zoey had tried talking to her mom about loosening the reins on Katie a little bit, but the conversation clearly hadn’t done much. At least she started college soon. Her freedom was only weeks away.

“You nervous to see your old coworkers?” Michael asked as they loaded back into the car.

Zoey, shrugged, “A little. But I miss them.”

“Well, the guys are excited to see you,” he said, mentioning his bandmates, “I think Dan is bringing Becky, so you’ll get to see her, too.”

Zoey smiled. Becky was Dan’s girlfriend. The two of them have been dating since right around the time she and Michael first got together. Becky was a sweet girl, but shy like her sister. The two of them had gotten along really well, hanging out during their band rehearsals and attending their little shows together. Zoey liked to think that she had helped Becky come out of her shell in the beginning. 

“Listen,” Michael started, his tone a little hesitant as he scratched the back of his head, “I think I should warn you, in case you hear it from any of the guys, but, uh...I’m kinda seeing someone.”

“Oh?”

She had been anticipating this conversation. She knew the day would come where Michael would have moved on and started dating again, but honestly, it threw her off guard. She was happy for him, don’t get her wrong, but there would always be a part of her that still loved Michael. They had been through a lot together for nearly five years and she was so close to his family. There were so many plans and expectations within their relationship that they never got to carry out. They had talked about kids and marriage and buying a house together, and it ended before either of them could accomplish any of it. She wasn’t hurt. She’s the one that ended things, after all. And she didn’t regret that decision, either. But it still left her a little sad. It was the ending of an era.

Michael rushed to explain himself, his tone still the same. She could tell he was trying to ease into it, afraid of hurting her feelings, “It’s nothing serious, yet. But, yeah, I just thought you should know.”

Zoey turned to look at him, grinning understandingly, “I’m happy for you. You deserve it.”

Michael smiled back, nodding. She could see the relief wash over him as his shoulders relaxed. It’s weird - being back in this car with him. There were so many memories involving this car. A stain on the upholstery of her seat from when she accidentally spilled hot chocolate after a spontaneous midnight Wawa run. Warn out stereo buttons from the endless song skipping they did on their long road trips to the Poconos. A dent in the dash from when she had kicked it a little too hard in an attempt to get to the back seat. The number of times they had car sex in the back was, admittedly, a bit ridiculous. 

It started pretty early on at the beginning of their relationship. They met at the Slyfox. His band was playing a gig while she bartended. His friends dared him to ask her for her phone number, typical young kid shit. Then it turned into them sneaking away during break to have sex in his car. She’d always come back in, hair disheveled, trying her best to act nonchalant. She had an inkling everyone knew what she was doing, but no one said anything. Not like Andy would. Andy had no problem calling her out.

They had their fair share of fun during their relationship, that’s for sure. And Jess liked him, which only furthered her appeal for him. Jess, as kind and personable as she was, was very protective over Zoey and the men she dated. Having fun was one thing, but if you were going to make it official, it better be a good guy. It wasn’t often that Jess approved of the guys she dated. It could have been why Zoey held onto her relationship for so long. She always had a feeling that she was destined for something, or someone, else. But Jess liked her and Zoey loved his family, so why bother ruining that on a nagging hunch? 

She knew now that she was right. They were destined for something else. It was proof enough that she needed to listen to her instincts more. Which is why she tried so hard to listen to her instincts when trying to cut things off with Harry. Ever heard of the saying ‘If you care about something, let it go. If it returns, it was meant to be?’ It wasn’t a test for Harry. He didn’t get brownie points if he shot her a random text saying ‘Sorry. Let’s date.’ But, to her, there was some sort of truth in the statement. She knew how much she cared about Harry, romantically, and platonically. Harry was, in every literal sense of the word, her soulmate. She knew it to be true very early on in their relationship. 

Zoey honestly believed that this hiccup that was happening between them wouldn’t last forever. Things may not end up the way she wanted; she might not ever get the chance to be with him on an intimate level again. And she was okay with that if it meant just having him in his life. But he needed to be ready. Emotionally, he still didn’t know who he was or what he wanted to become. He needed to figure that out himself. She had no doubt in her mind that he would return to her one day. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not a year from now. Maybe not even ten years from now. But one day, he’d be back. She had to believe that. She needed to believe that. Otherwise, she just made the biggest mistake of her life.

Pulling up to the bar filled her with the biggest sense of nostalgia. When they walked through the door and the aroma of liquor and greasy food hit her, a smile instantly formed on her face. Everything still looked the same as it did the day she left. Lighting so dim that it took a minute to adjust, old tables and chairs scattered throughout the building, a poorly wiped down bartop with early 2000’s hits playing loudly over the speaker, patrons scattered around loudly yapping at each other. She saw the wall of framed pictures with workers and various ‘famous’ people, who weren’t all that famous to begin with, but noticeable enough. She noticed one framed picture that stood out from the rest. It wasn’t quite in the center, but close to it. A framed picture of Jess smiling and holding up a bottle of beer with light-up necklaces and gaudy party hats amongst the rest of their coworkers, Zoey standing right beside her, with an edited banner at the bottom that read ‘Jessica Lewis. Rest In Peace.’. 

Zoey remembered the day that picture was taken. It was New Years a few months before Jess died. Their boss had gathered everyone together to take a picture for their Facebook page to advertise discounted drinks. Jess was in the center because of course she was. Everyone loved him. 

“Zoey?” she heard the familiar booming voice of Dan, Michael’s friend, and the singer of their band. She turned and smiled seeing him and the rest of the guys in the band walking towards her. “Holy shit, I almost didn’t recognize you with your hair down. How have you been? You look hot!” 

Zoey laughed, giving him and the rest of the boys hugs. Dan was always very blunt, as were the rest of the guys. Before she could respond, Zach, the drummer, joked, “Not here to waste your time on this loser again, are you?” he backhanded Michael on the chest with a smirk.

“Absolutely not,” she laughed, bantering, “I live in LA now. I’ve got a city full of D-list celebrities at my disposal.”

Suddenly, she heard a screeching echo from behind the bar and turned to see her old coworker, Riley, jumping over, “Shut the fuck up! Zoey? What the hell are you doing back here?” She ran, practically tackling Zoey into the wall with such force that a framed fire exit picture came crashing to the ground. Riley paid it no mind, however, as she was too busy admiring Zoey’s hair and outfit. “Fuck! What’s in the LA water? You look so good!”

After seeing the commotion that Riley caused, more of her old coworkers had realized who had come in and they all started running over to greet her, welcoming her back with warm hugs and compliments. Michael and the guys had excused themselves to finish setting up while Zoey made her way over to the bar so that she could continue talking to her friends while they worked, laughing, and exchanging old stories while they caught her up on what’s been going on at the bar.

She felt a presence standing behind her and she turned to see Becky, a nervous grin on her face. Zoey’s eyes lit up and she stood to pull her into a hug, “Becky, I missed you!” 

“I missed you, too,” she muttered, smiling wider. “I was wondering when you’d come back to visit. Wish it was on better terms, though. I’m sure Paul was happy to see you.”

Zoey nodded solemnly, “It’s hard to believe it’s real, you know?”

“I know, he’s a good man.”

It didn’t take long for the boys to finish up their tuning before they were finally introduced and began playing. Monday nights were always live-music nights at Slyfox in an attempt to draw in more business. And it worked pretty well. The first half of the night was always slower, but the crowds usually started pouring in around 9 PM and you could always be sure to see the same groups of people coming in. 

Eventually, Michael’s parents had gotten there. They always did their best to attend any performance of their son’s, always having been supportive of his hobby of music. They knew all of the songs, singing and dancing along. Zoey always admired their parenting and knew that if she were ever given the chance to be a mother, she would want to be just like them. 

Listening to the band play brought Zoey back even more. She felt like she was reliving her memories at this point. The only reason she wasn’t entirely warped into this false sense of reality was because Jess wasn’t there. It just didn’t feel right being here without her. The familiar chords of a slower song began playing. It was a song that Michael had written about Zoey in their first year of dating, and to this day was still one of the favorites amongst the crowd. It wasn’t cheesy or too romantic; just about seeing a pretty girl from across the bar. But it was a tradition for Paul to dance with Zoey to this song.

Instinctively, the two turned to look at each other and Carol smiled, knowingly, as Paul struggled for a split second to stand up, “I’ve got to dance with my girl,” he grinned, holding a hand out for her.

Zoey grinned, taking his hand as he led her a few feet away at the edge of the crowd of people before she turned and put a hand gently on her waist while the other continued to hold onto her hand. Paul was a tall man, towering over her a good eight inches. She rested her head on his chest, bonier than she remembered it being. But it eased her tension to hear his heart beating strongly in his chest. She thought, for a moment, maybe it wasn’t true. Maybe he wasn’t dying. A man this good and this kind couldn’t be taken from them. But she felt his weight beginning to bear down on her, becoming too tired to stand for much longer. She felt angry and upset. Why was this happening? It wasn’t fair. 

“You alright?” she whispered, trying not to sound too concerned.

His voice replied, more strained, but confident, “Yeah, I’ve got a strong dance partner.”

The song ended and Zoey led him back towards his wife who urged him to sit down while Zoey shared a quick look with Michael. He nodded, seeing the worry in her eyes, and she knew that he felt it, too. 

Harry hardly got any sleep that night, and by the next morning, he had practically downed a quart of coffee at his mother’s house for breakfast with her and Gemma, the words from the fight of last night repeating in his head. He analyzed every tone in each word he spoke, infuriating himself. He was better than that. He knew he was. For years he has been handling tough, hard-hitting questions with grace and ease. Why was it that he struggled when it came to his own intimate relationships he got flustered and spoke out of his ass? Almost every single thing he said he didn’t mean. Why was it so hard for him?

Zoey was right. She had never been anything but open and honest with him. There was no reason for him to feel like he couldn’t tell her any of what he was feeling. He didn’t need to worry about hurting her feelings because she was the most understandable person he knew. He was so caught up in being afraid that he was going to lose her, that he pushed her away. What kind of idiot did that make him?

He wanted to call her back or text her, but he didn’t know what to say. An apology seemed pitiful. He couldn’t seem to find the right words to express just how regretful he was. And he still couldn’t figure out everything he was feeling enough to give her an answer to her question. He cared for her so deeply that hearing the silence on the other end of the line just about shattered his heart. And waking up this morning to texts from everyone but her only made it worse. 

He wondered how her night was with Michael. She said that she had no intention of getting back with him, but he still found himself wondering if he had pushed her back into the arms of her ex. He knew how strong of a relationship she had with his family, it was certainly possible. He needed to stop thinking this way. He needed to stop assuming.

“Now, I know you don’t have jetlag,” Harry’s mom, Anne, spoke after placing her cup on the table, noticing Harry’s exhaustion, “Rome is only an hour difference. What’s the matter, darling?”

“You look like you got dumped,” Gemma teased, unknowingly.

The look on Harry’s face must have hit both women at the same time because their eyes widened in realization and they shared a glance before Anne spoke again, more softly, “Is it that Zoey girl?”

“Mom,” Harry warned.

“I didn’t know you two were dating,” Gemma spoke.

“We weren’t.”

“Well did something happen in Italy, then?” his sister pressed. When Harry didn’t answer, her eyebrows raised and a smirk began to form, “It did, didn’t it? I knew you liked her!”

“Yeah, well, I’m pretty sure she hates me now.”

“What happened, dear?” his mom asked, placing a hand on top of his.

Harry sighed, slouching more in his chair, “Do we have to talk about this?”

“Well, maybe we can be of some help,” his mom offered.

Harry hesitated, taking a moment to decide before taking a breath. Why not? “It’s my fault, really. Things happened in Italy and they were great. But then she asked where our relationship was going and I panicked and said I didn’t know and accused her of still wanting to be with her ex-boyfriend because she flew home to visit him.”

“Why is she visiting her ex-boyfriend?” Gemma asked, her face screwed up in judgment.

Harry winced, covering his face with his hands, embarrassed as he explained, “Because she found out his dad is dying of cancer and has three months to live. And she’s extremely close to him.”

The girls gasped. He didn’t need to look up at their faces. He knew that the judgment they had for Zoey a second ago would be shifted onto him. And his intuition was correct as he heard his mom breathe his name in disappointment, “Oh, Harry.” He looked up to see her eyes filled with sadness, almost pleading, “You didn’t.”

He groaned, throwing his head back, “I know. I don’t know why I said it. She’s the one that broke up with him in the first place. I just panicked!”

“Well, why did you panic, you idiot? You obviously like her!” Gemma urged, as though it was the most obvious thing on the planet.

“You know how hard dating is for me!” Harry defended himself, “It’s a lot more complicated than just liking each other.”

“Darling,” Anne spoke so evenly that she made everything sound so simple and plain, “It’s okay to be worried. We know your life isn’t as black and white as most people, and that’s okay. But you remember how it feels to lose a loved one from cancer. Remember Robin and Johannah? Remember how hard that was for you? All she needs is someone who understands and someone who can be there for her. Not the added pressure that you put on her.”

“I know. I messed up,” Harry groaned into his palms, “I don’t know what to do. I really don’t want to lose her. I’m just…I don’t know. My life isn’t easy to keep up with.”

“Do you care about her?” Anne asked.

“Yes.”

“Then don’t you think she can decide if she can keep up with you or not?”

“....yes.”

“Then tell her, you idiot!” Gemma smacked him.

“What if she’s still pissed off at me? What if she doesn’t want anything to do with me?” he stressed.

Anne shot her daughter a look of warning before calmly explaining, “Darling, you both clearly care about each other. She might still be upset, but I doubt she’d be unwilling to talk to you. You don’t have to jump into a relationship if you don’t want to. But you should be honest with yourself and her and have a conversation about what you really want out of it. If you just want her in your life as a friend, then tell her. But if seeing her with someone else is upsetting you that much, then maybe you should give it a try. All I will say on the matter is that you seemed genuinely happy when she was in your life. Just be honest with her. Lay all of your feelings out on the table and go from there.”

Harry took a breath, letting the words his mother said to sink in. He needed time to gather his thoughts. He needed to figure out everything he felt. He looked at his phone to see the time. It was 9 AM in London.

“It’s too early to call her right now,” he said, “It’s only 3 AM.”

“Don’t call her! Go to her!” Gemma threw her hands up.

“Honey, he just flew back home. He can just Facetime her or something.”

“Mom, it’ll be more romantic if he flies to her!” she shot back, turning to Harry, “Just go to her. You said you visited her family before. Do you remember where they lived?”

Harry sat up, intrigued by what his sister was saying, “Y-yeah, I think so. I have her family’s phone number, though. I could always get it.”

“Then go!”

Harry nodded, flustered trying to get up from his seat.

“Not this second, Harry,” Anne reached up to his arm with a laugh, “You can carry out your Romantic Comedy fantasy after breakfast.”

Harry laughed, nervously as the two of the girls he loved most in his life chuckled at him and took a swig of their coffees, nerves rushing through his veins. How could he eat now? He was too anxious.

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What-If Verne Gagne Made Hulk Hogan Champion?

The Era of The Territories died before I was born. There’s pros and cons to their execution. Up until Vince McMahon gobbled up the industry like Pac-Man devouring dots there were multiple regional territories with their own established stars. The Carolinas has Ric Flair. Tennessee has Jerry “The King” Lawler. Texas featured the Von Erichs. They would run their respective territories, sometimes wander beyond and do inter-promotional programs typically ending in disqualifications to save face. Back in those days, before television really changed the landscape, promoters could getaway with jerking around their fans with constant indecisive finishes. Chances are the people who paid the ticket price to see the action were the only ones who are ever going to see it.

Ever heard of “The Dusty Finish,” well get a load of what Verne Gagne of the American Wrestling Association put his customers through in the early eighties. Gift wrapped Hulk Hogan after Vince Sr canned the star for appearing in the film “Rocky III” Verne took the young Hogan under his wing teaching him almost all of what would make him the monolith he’d become. Gagne told Hogan to not drop down after one drop kick. Telling him it should take three or more to take him off his legs. Gagne molded Hogan into a monster in the ring. Initially, Hulk was supposed to be a featured heel like during his days in the WWF. But his charisma compounded by his cameo in “Rocky III” endeared him to fans of the Minneapolis based wrestling promotion. And in a few short months Hogan found himself in the title picture feuding with the long toothed, well read heel Nick Bockwinkel.

Bockwinkel had entered his fifties earlier in the 1980s, but you couldn’t have guessed his age if you only watched him in the ring. He always kept himself in tip-top shape, didn’t party all night like Ric Flair. He was a clean cut, midwestern man who Verne still entrusted to safeguard his companies most prized possession even late into his career. Bockwinkel before Hogan and after had great matches I highly recommend you check out. Preferably his one-hour marathon against a young, babyface, Curt Hennig. Yeah. Mr. Perfect was once in the AWA. So was “Mean Gene” Okerlund. Bobby “The Brain” Heenan. Scott Hall. Wendi Richter. Jesse Venture. All would become heavily featured players in the WWF/WCW when NWA fizzled.

Though Hogan was the star, and his current champ Bockwinkel was nearing fifty, Verne was hesitant - and later would outright say he didn’t see the 29-year-old as championship material or a prop he didn’t even need. Either Verne is lying or he poorly read the changing wrestling with the invention of television. The era of the babyface chasing the dastardly heel forever and ever was over. Promoters needed to shift towards more decisive finishes and book accordingly or face the same consequences Verne swallowed which squashed his once flourishing company. It’s quite the tragedy too. Verne knew his wrestling and could spot talent. Same could be said about Dusty Rhodes. At the end of the day what carries you over in a wrestling war isn’t talent, but business-savvy.

In his better days, McMahon knew sometimes it was better to go with what the fans wanted rather than persist with what he thought was right. He pulled the shoot on The Ultimate Warrior, ultimately giving way to the rise of Bret Hart, and Shawn Michaels. He later would do the same in the late-90s with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Neither were Vince’s cup of tea in what he perceived as championship material, but what mattered to him most was the all mighty dollar. But old Verne wasn’t as flexible and never really was. Come April 1983 he knew the long-standing Hogan/Bockwinkel had run its course and it was time to bestow the honor of champion to the younger star. Problem was, Verne couldn’t see beyond Hulk was a power wrestler, not too big on finesse and mat-style which was the makeup of the AWA. There’s also elements in this story that make Verne come off as a shitty, grubby businessman, and a downright creep. First, he demanded the bulk of Hogan’s merchandising sales (Hogan was printing his “Hulkamania” shirts and selling them outside of a trunk during House Shows) and his money he made wrestling for Japan; even though Verne had nothing to do with that promotion.

Actually, there might be some logic in Verne wanting a substantial cut in the money Hogan made overseas. See, he wrestled for a promotion called New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Verne had a partnership with a man named Shohei Baba — he would wrestle under the synonym “Giant Baba.” Baba worked as a promoter of All Japan Pro-Wrestling. The chief competitor of NJPW. Verne probably figured if he could squeeze Hogan for his NJPW paycheck he’d kick it to Giant Baba and subsequently AJPW and undercut the other promotion in the process.

The logic in Verne wanting the money though is nonexistent. Like McMahon when The Rock left the WWF to takeover Hollywood, he saw it fit to demand a chunk of his talent’s paycheck. Why? Because Vince McMahon made The Rock. Everyone knows that! Except he didn’t. The Rock made The Rock. In the wrestling world it doesn’t matter whether the boss acknowledged your existence before you made it big. All that mattered was he signed you to your deal and deserves the credit for those long hours you put in to climbing the ladder. Forget the fact that if it were up to Vince The Rock would have never turned heel, join The Nation of Domination and save his fledgling career.

I guess Verne can feel a little more secure in his belief he made Hogan into what he became. After all, he did instill the in-ring tactics that would carry him to superstardom. Regardless, the money Hogan made working NJPW was his, and it wasn’t like the AWA wasn’t doing gangbusters at House Shows and well in the black thanks to him.

The creepy aspect of this story was Verne was trying to set Hogan up with his daughter. Why? Well, he viewed the AWA as a family business and for whatever reason he didn’t trust his son, Greg, to succeed him so to keep the promotion in the family he wanted his champion to marry into it. You don’t believe me? In 1988 Larry Zbyszko marries Verne’s daughter. In February of ‘89 he wins the vacant AWA title in a Battle Royal.

It’s dysfunction like this is how you get an atmosphere like the one in the St. Paul Civic Center, the crowd absolutely becomes unglued as “Eye of the Tiger” roars through the speakers as the beach blonde haired heroine marches down the isle filled with purpose. He wears a black shirt that says “We Want The Belt” and on the back “Now Or Never.” You don’t get more prophetic than that last statement. Now or Never, Verne, and he chose Never. Hogan didn’t win the strap that night in St. Paul, and would soon leave the AWA. While the promotion enjoyed a few successful years before going defunct in 1991, you can trace their fall to “Super Clash” nine-years before.

So what-if Verne wasn’t a character out of a Leon Trotsky Socialist manifesto novel? What-if he just let Hogan keep his money and gave him the belt? Would the AWA still be around today? Hard to say, but I’m going to veer on the side of no. Hogan parading around with the AWA strap isn’t going to deter Vince from courting Hogan. We’re talking about the man who tried to convince Harley Race to no-show Starrcade ‘83 and take the NWA belt to his promotion.

One of the few ways Verne and the territories could have kept the bad wolf of New York from their doors was if they handed together to take him on. But nobody took the threat seriously until it was too late to sufficiently combat it. Another scenario is Ted Turner up and buys AWA with the NWA to form WCW. Having Turner on the wrestling scene against Vince was like Godzilla vs Mothra. WCW only started turning rotten when the Time Warner/AOL merger pushed Turner out of an influential role with the company. A more feasible scenario is Verne and Greg simply accept Vince’s offer he made at the St. Paul airport before turning around and exclaiming “I don’t negotiate”. But, if they did merge with the WWF the fate of the AWA is probably similar to Stu Hart and his Stampede Wrestling promotion. Their talent pool would be severely depleted and the promotion transforming from something that is on par — if not superior to the WWF to nothing more than a minor league farm system for New York to routinely pluck talent from.

If Hulk Hogan of all people suddenly become the most loyal person in the business and remained a stalwart of the AWA he arguably has a greater cast of heels to run through than he did in his first run as champion in the WWF. Stan Hansen, Leon White (A.K.A Vader), Larry Zbyszko, Curt Hennig, Jerry Lawler. While it’s highly questionable whether Hansen and Lawler would be willing to job to Hogan because of their value to other promotions, their feuds still print money at the gates and perhaps fans are just so happy to see Hogan as champion they don’t mind the constant string of D.Q finishes.

What does McMahon do? Rumor was his second choice was Paul Orndorff. A very good, if not great heel wrestler that is commonly forgotten due to the fact he jobbed to Hogan throughout the eighties. But Vince is more creative than that. He had to have an ace up his sleeve of Hogan alluded his grasps. Ric Flair? The Von Erichs? Maybe he pulls the trigger and makes Roddy Piper or Ricky Steamboat champion? Steamboat was only 31 by the time Iron Sheik beat Bob Backlund for the belt to set the table for Hogan. But Vince didn’t like skinny, short guys as his main champion. It’s why you see wrestlers like Daniel Bryan constantly marginalized despite showing time after time he can main event.

The AWA gave the wrestling world countless stars that would make this article too long if I were to list them all. But, like most promoters in the territory era, Verne had a limited grasp on how to maximize his profits and couldn’t see behind his own biases and greed.

Also can we talk about rory cheating on her boyfriend with Logan. In the OS she threw a fit when Logan slept around while they were on a not clearly defined break... Rory would have never been so forgetful about a boyfriend and would have never cheated.

Ehhh, I don’t know. The OS established that Rory is pretty prone tocheating, or at the very least, toeing the grey line. Do you remember thathorrible advice that Lorelai gave Rory after Rory kissed Tristan like a dayafter she and Dean broke up and she was feeling guilty about it and wanted tocome clean to Dean? Lorelai told her that telling Dean would only hurt him. AndRory took that advice straight to heart, because from that moment forward sheeither cheated on, cheated with, or came close to cheating on every guy she waswith. Rory emotionally cheated on Dean with Jess. She also kissed Jess whileshe was with Dean. She didn’t cheat on Jess, but she was definitely showingsome questionable behaviour with Dean when she was dating Jess. Obviously, sheand Dean slept together while he was married. She not only kissed Jess whilewith Logan, but she also started seeing Jess “as a friend” while she was withLogan, behind Logan’s back. So the precedent for her to cheat on her partnerswas there…

The thing that gets me though is that Rory essentially became the worstpossible version of herself in AYITL. As she grew into an adult, it’s as if instead of learning from her mistakes and stop making them, she decided to double downon them. To me it seems that ASP eliminated all of Rory’s good traits and leftonly the bad… For any Community fans out there, I interpret Rory’s AYITL storyas the Darkest Timeline.

In the OS, Rory does cheat—or comes close to it, but we can see whyshe does it and how it can be justified. With Dean, she didn’t really have agood reason to break up with him (especially with Lorelai constantly tellingher how perfect Dean is) and didn’t want to hurt his feelings as she began tocrush on Jess. With Jess, once they were together, she realized that he treatedher far more poorly than Dean did, and she immediately began to pull back toDean. With Dean 2.0, Dean sorta duped her into cheating.

The Logan/Jess issue is interesting to me, because had Logan not comeand interrupted Jess and Rory’s dinner, I wonder how far Rory would have takenher “friendship” with Jess. Because in not telling her boyfriend that she wasseeing her ex while Logan was out of town, Rory had established Jess as her “secret”friend, and seemingly began to repeat her Dean 1.0/Jess emotional cheatingpattern. Her stopping the kiss with Jess and saying that she “can’t even cheat”on Logan like “he did” on her suggests that 1) she only considers sex ascheating 2) she still for some reason believed that Logan had cheated on herand 3) will only refrain from cheating if she’s in love.

We should also remember that Rory never breaks up with the guys she’sdating. Dean always broke up with her. Jess disappeared on her. She and Loganwent on a two month long “break,” during which they broke up through Logan’ssister…. Rory never actually ends relationships. Even in AYITL, it takes two-threeyears, but it’s Paul who breaks up with Rory. The closest Rory ever gets tobreaking up with a guy is when Rory and Logan end their non-relationship, whichthey sorta mutually decide to do.

With that in mind, I’m not surprised that she ended up cheating on Paul.She was not in love with him. I don’t think she even liked him. Why she evenbegan dating him baffles me because in the OS it was clear after she broke upwith Dean to be with Jess, got bored of Dean 2.0, and turned down Marty, thatRory is not interested in “nice guys.” But even if we accept that for somereason she started dating Paul, without a doubt by the time that we see her inAYITL, she cares for him so little that she can’t even remember him. Like withevery other guy, she had no guts or time or who the hell knows what to break upwith him. The ground was therefore fertile for her to cheat.

Why she didn’t feel bad about it though and kept on doing it (WITHLOGAN, WHOM SHE DEFINITELY LOVES) makes zero. fucking. sense. In the OS, Rory’scheating was unintentional and involved a ton of guilt. In AYITL, she’s justdoing it without a second thought. It’s as if between the OS and AYITL, Rory stoppedfeeling guilt? Did she become so self centered that she can no longersympathize or empathize with others? Is she a narcissist who’s totally unawareshe’s hurting others?

The only theory that I have for Rory’s AYITL behaviour is that ASP’s intendedgoal for Rory had always been that Rory was a “good girl,” who learned all thewrong life lessons from the people and environment that raised her. AYITL’sRory only makes any modicum of sense to me, if I look at Gilmore Girls as thestory of Perfect Rory’s Fall from Grace. That is, GG begins with Rory almost asan angelic child, whose character—with time and the environment she’s in—iscorrupted.

As I mentioned before, Lorelai always gave Rory awful advice, and Rorytook it to heart. Lorelai taught Rory at 16 that it’s okay to lie to yourboyfriend so it doesn’t hurt their feelings, so Rory learned to keep info fromthe guys she was dating and never break up with them and conceal her feelings(for other boys). Lorelai kept encouraging Rory’s relationship with Dean (evenwhen Rory was already crushing on Jess), and Rory learned to string men alongwhen she’s no longer interested in them. In being with Chris while he was withSherry, Lorelai set Rory an example that cheating is kinda okay if you want theguy badly enough and don’t like the woman he’s with. Even though Lorelaidressed Rory down for sleeping with Dean when he was married, Lorelai’s fear offracturing her relationship with Rory over it made sure that she never said anegative word to Rory regarding her relationships again. Lorelai also defendedRory to Lindsay’s mother and then supported Rory’s relationship with Dean 2.0,eliminating all of Rory’s guilt over the affair, so Rory learned that cheatingdoesn’t really have consequences for her. Beyond Lorelai, Rory’s grandparentsand all of SH, treated Rory like an angel. In fact, Rory’s is likened to anangel by GG characters throughout the OS. Every character on GG goes out oftheir way to assume the best in Rory, never punish her for her mistakes, andalways believe that whatever Rory did must have been someone else’s fault (fansdo this too, btw). Whenever Rory ends a relationship with a guy or gets intoany trouble, remember that it’s the guy who’s evil in the eyes of SH residents,Lorelai, and the Gilmores. Not Rory.

As a result, Rory became this person who doesn’t realize that she can dowrong. Because everyone in her life will always excuse it. Hell, even in AYITL,Rory comes clean to Lorelai that she’d been cheating on Paul with Logan and theWookie, and Lorelai doesn’t react. Paul breaks up with her and Rory says toLorelai “I can’t believe how I treated him,” and Lorelai just smiles and says like,“that’s okay, he’ll find someone else and you’ll find someone else.” Literallyup until the last four words, Rory never faces the consequences of her bad actions.No one ever confronts her, no one ever calls her out, everyone assumes whatRory’s done isn’t a big deal or is someone else’s fault. Perfect Rory Gilmorecannot be anything other than perfect. Maybe this was fully intentional on ASP’spart?

Rory getting pregnant with Logan’s kid, which would have happened whilehe was (publicly!!!) engaged to Odette and Rory was in a relationship with Paul,I think, maybe is meant to be Rory’s fall from grace. In the same way thatLorelai got pregnant at 16 and became a source of shame and embarrassment toher family and society, the circumstances under which Rory got pregnant are alsomeant to break that pedestal on which everyone had always held Rory. Maybe that’swhat ASP means by the full circle bullshit? In having this kid, maybe Rory—likeLorelai—will always have definitive proof of her mistake, badness, whatever else,which will permanently shift how people view Rory?

I don’t want to delve into the stupidity of the idea of pregnancy andchildren as punishment for women’s wrongs. Nor do I find the idea that onlythrough this “punishment” of having a child does a woman learn to become agood, responsible person. But that’s how I read what ASP was doing, and this ismy current theory for what ASP was intending to do with Rory and the fullcircle mess.

None of it is good. I think it’s really fucking stupid. I don’t agreewith what ASP did to Rory. I don’t think it makes for a compelling story,either. If my theory is correct and this really was what ASP intended, then Idon’t think she did it particularly well, either. On top of it, it’s bleak andcynical and far darker than the tone of GG as a whole, so beyond a bad story,ASP seems to have misread the tone of her own damn show. I repeat: it’s allreally fucking stupid.

The cast of Friends is known not only for its central group of six whose hilarious, heartfelt performances have brought fans joy for decades now, but also its enormous cast of guest stars and supporting performers who brought the extended cast to life. With so much of the show focused on the main group's love lives, many of the most memorable of these performances were love interests.

RELATED: Friends: 10 Funniest Dances By The Main Characters, Ranked

Monica Geller's exes made up some of the most interesting supporting cast in the series, with both relatively unknown performers and iconic A-listers making up her litany of lovers over the show's ten-season run. However, the actors who played these exes have moved beyond these roles in the years since, carving out a number of unique careers for themselves.

10 John Allen Nelson (Paul The Wine Guy)

Monica's earliest ex on the show was the fairly sleazy Paul the Wine Guy, who set the series standard for the many bad dates that Monica and the rest of the gang would go on. John Allen Nelson brought the womanizer to life on the small screen.

Since his appearance on the Friends pilot, Nelson has appeared primarily in television roles, although he was in several movies, including 2010's The Town. He is probably most notable now for his roles on 24 and Vanished in the 2000s, as well as more recent recurring roles on Crisis and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

9 Geoffrey Lower (Alan)

An early Monica boyfriend and ex-boyfriend, Alan was the one whom the rest of the gang was incredibly delighted by and more invested in than Monica herself. Alan was portrayed by Geoffrey Lower.

Lower is most prolific as a stage actor, although he has been in several films and television series since his Friends appearance. He is most notable for his role as Reverend Timothy Johnson on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, which he played from 1993 (pre-Friends) through 1998. He most recently appeared in the 2020 film Disrupted.

8 Vincent Ventresca (Fun Bobby)

An on-and-off relationship of Monica's, Fun Bobby is perhaps most known by fans for his story arc involving alcohol, in which Monica helps him quit drinking. This somewhat tragic character was played by Vincent Ventresca in his two appearances.

Shortly after his second appearance on Friends, Ventresca played a supporting role alongside Friends co-star Lisa Kudrow in Romy And Michele's High School Reunion. Since then, though, his most prominent work has been on television, appearing on shows like Boston Common and The Invisible Man. His most recent role was on a 2020 episode of Criminal Minds.

7 Stan Kirsch (Young Ethan)

Young Ethan is a controversial character among the Friends fandom, known for being the center of "The One With The Ick Factor," in which he dates Monica before revealing he's a minor and a senior in high school. Stan Kirsch portrayed the character for his single appearance.

RELATED: Friends: 5 Things Season 1 Monica Would Hate About Finale Monica (& 5 Things She Would Be Proud Of)

Kirsch was probably most known for his role as Richie Ryan on Highlander from 1992-1998, during which he made his Friends appearance. He was also on two episodes of JAG and starred in Straight Eye: The Movie in 2004. Sadly, he passed away in January 2020, 11 years after his final screen appearance in the short film Matumbo Goldberg.

6 Michael Ray Bower (Roy Gublik)

As revealed in "The One With The Prom Video," Roy Gublik was Monica's date to prom, and therefore only appears in VHS footage within the show, unlike her other exes. Roy was portrayed by Michael Ray Bower.

Before Friends, Bower was known for his appearances on Nickelodeon shows, such as Salute Your Shorts (for which he won a Young Artist Award). Since his turn as Roy, though, Bower made appearances on shows like CSI, The X-Files, and Raising Hope. Fans may also recognize him from his roles in Dude, Where's My Car? and Evolution, or a number of voices in games like Bully and Grand Theft Auto IV.

5 Tom Selleck (Richard Burke)

Monica's relationship with her parents' optometrist friend Dr. Richard Burke has been the subject of much discussion by Friends fans who are unsure what to make of the couple's age gap, although he is well-loved by fans and Monica alike until the couple broke it off over disagreements about having children. Famed actor Tom Selleck brought the character to life.

Although Selleck's best-known work came before his first Friends appearance, his career has thrived since then, as well. He stars as Jesse Stone in the Jesse Stone series of TV movies, while also maintaining a starring role on the police drama Blue Bloods. His film appearances have been less frequent, although he did star in In & Out, Meet The Robinsons, and, most recently, Killers.

4 Carlos Gómez (Julio)

Monica had a brief affair with her coworker at the diner, Julio, who is also an amateur poet known by Friends fans for his condescending, sexist poem "The Empty Vase," which causes Monica to tell him off. Carlos Gómez played this suave, snooty wordsmith.

RELATED: Friends: The 10 Worst Attempts At Flirting By The Female Characters, Ranked

Since playing Julio, Gómez has gone on to make a number of TV appearances in shows like Shark, The Glades, and Law & Order True Crime, as well as several one-episode roles. He also has roles in sequels like Dolphin Tale 2 and Ride Along 2, although his most notable recent work is as a main role on canceled 2020 sitcom The Baker And The Beauty.

3 Jon Favreau (Pete Becker)

Rich tech mogul Pete Becker was one of Monica's long-term relationships on the show, and although it ended poorly with his dream to become the Ultimate Fighting Champion getting in the way of their relationship, Pete is remembered well by fans. He was portrayed by acclaimed actor-writer-director Jon Favreau.

Since Friends, Favreau has seen massive success, most notably having directed modern hits like Elf, Iron Man, and Iron Man 2. He also created and wrote several episodes of The Mandalorian, directed the live-action The Jungle Book and The Lion King remakes, and has appeared in both Star Wars and Marvel properties (starring as Harold "Happy" Hogan in the latter).

2 Dan Gauthier (Chip Matthews)

In "The One With The Prom Video," Chip Matthews was revealed to be Rachel's date to the prom, but Monica, against Rachel's wishes, dates him as an adult briefly before realizing that he is immature and still acts as he did in high school. Dan Gauthier played the perpetually immature Chip.

Appearing in both television and film before and after his Friends role, Gauthier is probably most known post-Chip for his roles on soap operas Melrose Place and One Life To Live, on which he played regular character Kevin Buchanan and won both a Daytime Emmy and Soap Opera Digest Award for. Most recently, he starred in The Marcus Garvey Story in 2019.

1 Michael Vartan (Timothy Burke)

The son of Richard Burke, Timothy Burke was also an eye doctor who became involved in a brief fling with Monica when she invited him to Thanksgiving, although he reminded her too much of his father for the relationship to continue. Timothy was portrayed by Michael Vartan.

Vartan's regular role as Michael Vaughn on Alias from 2001-2006 is probably his most well-known appearance on TV or film, but he also made prominent appearances in films like Never Been Kissed, One Hour Photo, and Colombiana. Further, Vartan had regular roles on a number of TV shows in the years since Friends, including Big Shots, Hawthorne, and The Arrangement. His most recent role was on a 2018 episode of God Friended Me.

NEXT: Are The Friends Cast Really Friends? Monica And Rachel's Real-Life Relationship, In Pictures

Every One Of Monica's Exes On Friends: Where Are They Now? from https://ift.tt/3fQjJAM

10 Facts You Didn't Know About Malcolm In The Middle | ScreenRant

If you didn't watch Malcolm in the Middle back in the early 2000s, we're sad to say you really missed out. This sitcom about a rowdy and somewhat dysfunctional family of lovable weirdos was a highlight of primetime television from 2000 to 2006. It starred Malcolm, played by Frankie Muniz, a middle child with an extremely high IQ who narrated the show. Malcolm's dad, Hal (Bryan Cranston) was a goofball, his mother Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) was a control freak who seemed to always be yelling about something, and his brothers were.... well, typical brothers.

RELATED: 10 Episodes Of Malcolm In The Middle That Aged Poorly

Malcolm in the Middle still holds up today. However, you'll have to turn to Hulu to binge it in the United States. The show was so successful, Muniz was actually able to retire before the age of 20, with millions of dollars in the bank. With so much success, there are bound to be plenty of secrets mainstream audiences never realized. Here are some juicy ones.

10 THEIR LAST NAME WAS NEVER ACKNOWLEDGED

The producers purposely never revealed the family's last name. It became a running joke for them throughout the series. Later on, Francis has an employee card that says "Nolastname," and during Malcolm's graduation speech in the finale a loud noise from the microphone covers up his last name.

However, if you paid close attention during the pilot episode, you would have seen the only hint to the family's last name. It was on Francis' name tag, which read "Wilkerson."

9 THE COSTUME DESIGNER'S 11-YEAR-OLD NEICE CAME UP WITH THE STORY FOR AN EPISODE

In season four, episode 10, "If Boys Were Girls," Lois is sick of the unruly boys and imagines life if all her kids were girls instead. The idea for this episode was actually created by 11-year-old Alexandra Kaczenski, who was the costume designer's niece.

RELATED: Where Are They Now? The Cast Of Malcolm In The Middle

She gave a full two-page story outline to Linwood Boomer, one of the show's creators, and he loved it. Kaczenski actually got a "story by" credit for the episode.

8 CRANSTON DID ALMOST ALL OF HIS OWN STUNTS, INCLUDING THE BEE SUIT

Cranston did the majority of his character's own stunts. There were only two that he didn't do, a cartwheel and a handstand. He learned how to roller skate and basically did everything else himself. In season one, episode 14, "The Bots and the Bees," he ends up wearing a bee suit that had thousands of live bees in it.

This happened after the producers asked him if he'd be willing to wear a bee suit, to which he agreed. Later, he admitted he only got stung once, in a very private area.

7 THE SHOW WAS BASED ON BOOMER'S LIFE

Boomer, who had starred on Little House on the Prairie before creating Malcolm in the Middle, was inspired by his own life. Growing up, he was a middle child in a family of all boys, and he also had a really high IQ.

RELATED: The Simpsons: 10 Storylines That Were Ahead Of Their Time

The scene with Lois shaving Hal's hair at the breakfast table was inspired by his own parents doing just that. Like Malcolm, Boomer was also sent to a gifted program against his own wishes. You could basically say the show is a "loose biography."

6 MALCOLM WAS ORIGINALLY SUPPOSED TO BE NINE YEARS OLD

According to a book about Frankie Muniz, the producers loved him so much that they changed the age of the character. When Muniz auditioned for the role of Malcolm, he didn't think he would get the part because he was 12 at the time, and Malcolm was supposed to be nine.

He actually thought he blew the whole audition for this reason. At first, after making this decision, the producers didn't even want to give Malcolm a specific age anymore. So they just didn't mention it on the show.

5 KACZMAREK BECAME A PRO AT FAKE BIRTHS BY WATCHING OTHER TV SHOWS

On the show, Lois is a mother of five. Each birth has been shown on the show at some point, which is a lot of birth acting. Kaczmarek has three children in real life, so you'd assume she'd know what it's like.

RELATED: 5 Ways Friends Has Aged Poorly (& 5 Ways It's Timeless)

However, each of her real-life children was born through C-section, so Kaczmarek actually didn't have any natural birth experience. Instead, she watched a ton of scenes in movies and TV shows where women were giving birth and did her best to impersonate them. She definitely had us fooled.

4 FRANCIS WAS THE ONLY BROTHER WHO WASN'T GOOD AT SOMETHING

While Malcolm was the genius of the family, with an IQ of 165 and a photographic memory, the producers made sure each brother had his own special gift or talent. Except for Francis. Reese is stupid and rather mean, but he has some cooking and baking talents.

Dewey is actually pretty smart and has musical abilities his brothers don't have. Jamie was too young to really develop a distinct talent. However, Francis, the oldest, didn't have any real talents. Instead, he just went from job to job and distanced himself from the family, not really maturing that much in the process.

3 AARON PAUL REALLY WANTED TO BE FRANCIS

Aaron Paul, who is arguably best known for co-starring with Cranston on Breaking Bad, desperately wanted to audition for the role of Francis. In a Reddit AMA session a few years back, Paul admitted that he was sent a copy of the script.

RELATED: Pixar: The 10 Best Movie Songs, Ranked

He desperately wanted to audition, but the producers wouldn't let him. They went with Christopher Masterson instead. In the same AMA session, he added that he probably wouldn't have been cast on Breaking Bad if he did end up being Francis, so we can be happy about that.

2 BREAKING BAD FILMED A MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE CROSSOVER ALTERNATIVE ENDING

A DVD extra for the Breaking Bad series, which starred Cranston, showed an alternate ending to the massive hit series that crossed over to Malcolm in the Middle. In the clip, Hal and Lois are sleeping.

Hal wakes up terrified, and it's revealed that the entire story of Breaking Bad was a dream he was having. He describes the dream to Lois, telling her about being a meth dealer working with a "man child" (referring to Jesse). In true Lois style, she just brushes the whole thing off and goes back to sleep.

1 MUNIZ WAS OLDER THAN REESE IN REAL LIFE

Malcolm is younger than Reese on the show by at least a few years. However, in real life, Muniz is older than Justin Berfield, who plays Reese.

Muniz' birthday is December 5, 1985. Berfield's birthday is February 26, 1986. That makes Muniz just a few months older than him.

NEXT: 10 Quotes From Full House That Are Still Hilarious Today

source https://screenrant.com/facts-didnt-know-malcolm-middle/

8 through 31 December 2019

The week of 8 December was one for Christmas parties: Monday for volunteers at the garden, Tuesday was book club’s and Wednesday was the horticulture team’s secret Santa and dinner.

Our team likes to treat our volunteers to a week of baked goods before Christmas and this is what we baked...

Allison: lemon polenta cake

Louisa: carrot cake

Jess: rocky road squares

I baked Ottolenghi’s apple cake with maple frosting

Nell: millionaire’s shortbread

Rob: boiled orange cake

The next book for book club is Cloud Garden by Paul Winder and Tom Hart Dyke. I read it over the last weekend in December. I didn’t recognise the title; however, when I started reading it, I remembered it. Evidently I read it just two years ago, according to my account on Goodreads!

There was much raking and I did a lot of pruning in the tropical corridor before I headed to Lyon then Germany and France for most of the end of December.

I went to chez Stéphane et Bruno for the weekend of 13-16 December. Their annual friends’ fancy dress Christmas party was a lot of fun. This year’s them was ‘l’union de la haute cour et la basse cour’ leaving lots of room for interpretation - one of the many reasons the party is so much fun. It was all the more exciting this year when they announced their engagement. The wedding will be at next year’s Christmas party, 12 December. I am very excited for both of them. What will the theme be?

Brunch Sunday is always a big affair too...

Then two days in the garden before I headed to Germany. I took the train via Brussels to Köln, where Stephan met me and drove me to Wuppertal where he lives and grew up. We enjoyed visiting Christmas markets in Wuppertal, Essen and Köln. We also took lots of walks with his dog Lady. Wuppertal is famous for its Wuppertaler Schwebebahn; the oldest electric elevated railway with hanging cars in the world and is a unique system.

I was affected by the French train strikes, and has to sit on hold for ninety minutes of irritating muzak. Finally, someone answered and I had a replacement ticket in under two minutes. My nice first class seat on a midday train was now a 6am train and not in first class.

The trip to Paris was pleasant. I arrived at chez Lucien et Fabrice welcomed by Raymond le chat and a beautiful Christmas tree. Lucien and I made the rounds in Paris on his tandem to collect all the food for Christmas eve dinner. There were eight of us and this was the menu:

Aperitif - Foie gras et champagne

Entrée - Plateau de fruits de mer rouge, bulots et crevettes

Plat - Volaille farcie accompagnée de champignons, haricots verts et des marrons

Fromage - Plateau de deux fromages avec salade

Dessert - Bûches de Nöel au chocolat et citron vert de Maison Mulot

I returned to London on Boxing Day. The following day I managed to see a doctor to have some tests done for some stomach issues I’ve had most of the month.

I enjoyed a very nice evening with a delicious meal and good company at Maarten, Mark and Mike’s place in Kingston. We rang in the New Year with a toast.

Tuesday, New Year’s Eve, I had the results, I have a bacteria in my gut. I tried to collect antibiotics as soon as I found out; I didn’t realise they closed at midday. I would have to wait until after the New Year to start my antibiotics...

Plant of the week 13 December

Rubiaceae Coprosma robusta Raoul

common name(s) - karamu synonym(s) - Coprosma coffaeoides Colenso conservation rating - none native to - New Zealand location - world medicine Oceana, accession 2014-0400 leaves - branches are stout with no hair; domatia (small holes on the back of the leaf at the intersection of veins) and stipules are significant characteristic features of Coprosma; stipules are black, hairless and obtuse with slightly serrated margin that are united at the base; glossy leaves to 120mm long, elliptic-oblong shape and acute or obtuse leaf apex and with obvious veins; dark green on the blade and light green on the back, thick, and the midrib is not raised on the upper surface flowers - small and white, axillary, dense, have four lobes and have a different appearance in male and females; male flowers are dense, glomerules with a campanulate shaped corolla and have four stamens; female flowers are compound with a tubular shaped corolla; stigmas are obvious; often dark orange-red to red, oblong to narrow ovate drups habit - large bushy shrub to 6m tall habitat - most commonly found in coastal areas, lowland forests, or shrublands to 1,200m altitude pests - none found disease - none found hardiness - to -5ºC (H3) soil - can adapt to infertile soils, poorly drained and exposed lands sun - full sun to part shade propagation - seed when ripe; semi-ripe cuttings pruning - damaged, dead, diseased nomenclature - Rubiaceae - rubia - red, ruber (the name in Pliny for madder); Coprosma - dung-smelling, the odour of the bruised leaves; robusta - of oak, robur, strong-growing, robust, robustus NB - juvenile shoots can be applied to release inflammation or bladder problems if boiled and then the liquid drunk; leaves are believed by Maori to have the ability to deal with kidney troubles and bark can be and used to treat stomach ache and vomiting; mature berries of karamu can be eaten as food, and its leaves used to make a tea drink; this is one of the first seven Coprosma species collected by Joseph Banks with Cook's voyage to New Zealand. At that time, Coprosma robusta was called Pelaphia lata.

References, bibliography:

Gledhill, David, (2008) “The Names of Plants”, fourth edition; Cambridge University Press; ISBN: 978-0-52168-553-5

IUCN [online] http://www.iucnredlist.org/search [4 Jan 20]

Plant List, The [online] http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-46935 [4 Jan 20]

Wikipedia [online] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprosma_robusta [4 Jan 20]

Plant of the week 20 December

Santalaceae Viscum album L.

common name(s) - European mistletoe, common mistletoe, mistletoe; French: gui; Spanish: muerdago; Italian: vischio, visco synonym(s) - Stelin album Bubani; Viscum album var. album conservation rating - Least Concern native to - SW Asia to Europe location - William Curtis bed, accession 2006-0029 leaves - evergreen flowers - dioecious; small, easily overlooked flowers are produced in a short inflorescence of three to five flowers in the forks of the branches; sweetly scented, produce nectar; waxy white berries in autumn habit - small woody shrub, frequently globular in shape and can reach over 1m in diameter habitat - grows on the branches of other trees, to which it is attached by a swelling called a haustorium pests - none found disease - none found hardiness - to -15ºC (H5) soil - n/a sun - part sun propagation - smearing the seed onto host branches pruning - none nomenclature - Santalaceae - santalum - from the Persian, چوب صندل shandul, for the sandal-wood tree; Viscum - the ancient Latin name for mistletoe or the birdlime from its berries (Aristotle knew that the mistle thrush, Turdus visivorus, excreted seeds onto apple trees, hence mistle twigs or mistletoe); album - bright, dead-white NB - it is hemiparasitic which means that although it depends on its host for water and mineral nutrients, it is able to photosynthesise; potentially fatal, in a concentrated form, and people can become seriously ill from eating the berries; an ingredient of pomace brandy based liquor biska made in Istra, Croatia.

References, bibliography:

Gledhill, David, (2008) “The Names of Plants”, fourth edition; Cambridge University Press; ISBN: 978-0-52168-553-5

IUCN [online] https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/203473/2766017 [4 Jan 20]

Plant List, The [online] http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2461327 [4 Jan 20]

Plants of the World [online] http://plantsoftheworldonline.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:300881-2 [4 Jan 20]

Wikipedia [online] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viscum_album [4 Jan 20]

Plant of the week 27 December

Campanulaceae Canarina canariensis (L.) Vatke

common name(s) - Canary Island bellflower synonym(s) - Campanula canariensis L.; Campanula hastifolia Salisb.; Canarina campanula L.; Canarina canariensis var. angustifolia G.Kunkel; Canarina laevigata G.Don; Mindium canariense (L.) Raf. conservation rating - none native to - Canary Islands location - glasshouse two, accession 1982-0198 leaves - a tuberous deciduous perennial with hollow, scrambling stems, bearing lance-shaped leaves flowers - pendent bell-shaped, attractively veined deep orange-red flowers; fruit is a large ovate, fleshy berry, orange when ripe, and edible habit - scrambling habitat - frequent in laurel forests and forest margins 300m to 1,000m pests - glasshouse whitefly, glasshouse red spider mite disease - generally disease-free hardiness - to 1ºC (H2) soil - well-drained loam or sand; under glass, grow in loam-based potting compost in bright filtered light with good ventilation sun - part shade, sheltered propagation - seed at 15°C to 18°C in spring pruning - none nomenclature - Campanulaceae - campanula - bell-like, diminutive of campana; Canarina - from the Canary Islands, Canaria insula, (dog island, one of the Insulae fortunatae); canariensis - of bird food, from the Canary Isles NB - water freely when in growth and keep completely dry when foliage yellows in late spring.

References, bibliography:

Gledhill, David, (2008) “The Names of Plants”, fourth edition; Cambridge University Press; ISBN: 978-0-52168-553-5

IUCN [online] http://www.iucnredlist.org/search [4 Jan 20]

Plant List, The [online] http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-366766 [4 Jan 20]

Royal Horticultural Society [online] https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/2996/Canarina-canariensis/Details [4 Jan 20]

Wikipedia [online] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canarina_canariensis [4 Jan 20]

Tournament: Players Who Would Thrive With Improved Deployment

                                                                          Charlie McAvoy

  It’s once again everyone’s favorite time of the month – the Roos Lets Loose tournament/poll, where your votes get to give fantasy guidance to your fellow DobberHockey readers. After two polls that looked ahead, this time we’re focusing on the here and now, and players who are being the most poorly utilized by their teams.

  What qualifies as being poorly utilized? Things like getting stuck in the bottom six notwithstanding being cut from a scoring cloth, or lack of man-advantage time despite the apparent talent to be able to excel on the PP. Basically, it boils down to not getting enough playing time or having the playing time you get not be in keeping with the skill you seemingly have. In a nutshell, these are players we believe are realistically capable of doing more for their teams and your fantasy squads, if only they had a better opportunity to do so.

  Note that I excluded any teenage players or those who’ve played fewer than 100 NHL games, since there you can somewhat “forgive” a team for bringing them along more slowly. Also, I’ve stuck to skaters only so as to make it easier to choose among the players. With that out of the way, here’s the list of skaters (in alphabetical order) for you to vote on.

  Josh Anderson – Although Anderson took the ice for 17:01 per game, he barely sniffed any PP Time, with what little he received being on the second unit. Nevertheless scored a goal per every three games and his second-half numbers project to a full season scoring rate of 56 points. If he was put into a better spot, who knows what his ceiling might be.

  Oliver Bjorkstrand – Everyone who scored more goals than Bjorkstand’s 23 averaged at least 14 minutes per game, while Bjorkstrand averaged a mere 12:20 per contest and was stuck on what was effectively the Blue Jackets’ third line. As if that wasn’t frustrating enough, his PP Time somehow dropped by 30 seconds per game from last season. What’s he need to do to catch a break?

  Pavel Buchnevich – Despite sometimes being a healthy scratch this season and seeing his ice time vary significantly when he did play, Buchnevich still managed to post 21 goals in 64 games and concluded the season with 20 points in his last 26 contests. For now, we can only imagine what he might be capable of if given a chance to truly show off his talent night in, night out.

  Paul Byron – What did two consecutive 20+ goal seasons get Byron? Only 14:34 per game and barely a minute of man-advantage time. Yes, he did miss nearly a third of the season; however, when he did play he was effective, scoring at a career-high pace. Just think what he could do if he saw more playing time and with better linemates….

  Brett Connolly – Even though he was stuck playing predominantly with the likes of Lars Eller, Andre Burakovsky and Carl Hagelin, Connolly’s points per 60 minutes for 2018-19 put him ahead of, among others, Filip Forsberg, Mathew Barzal, Brock Boeser, Jeff Skinner, not to mention teammate T.J. Oshie. If that’s not enough to give him a shot on a scoring line next season, then I don’t know what is.

  Phillip Danault – In what might’ve been the quietest 50+ point output of 2018-19, Danault had ten or more points in each quarter of the season as his season-long per game ice time average rose by roughly a minute for the second campaign in a row. What didn’t rise? His PP time, which was cut in half from 1:01 per game to a mere 0:29 per contest, with every NHL forward who outpointed him getting at least twice as much man advantage time per game. Pretty head-scratching……

  Vince Dunn – Who was the second leading defenseman scorer for St Louis? Don’t say Colton Parayko, as although Parayko averaged more than five minutes more TOI per game than Dunn, it was the 22-year-old former 56th overall pick who outpointed Parayko by 25%. Yet despite this, and steady production, Dunn somehow saw his PP time drop from 3:00 in the first quarter of the season to 1:19 in the fourth.

  Alex Galchenyuk – Sure, Galchenyuk missed time at the beginning of the season due to injury; but the idea behind trading Max Domi for him was to give Galchenyuk what he hadn’t received in Montreal – a true chance to show his talent. Yet somehow Gally averaged fewer minutes per game in Arizona than he did while languishing in Montreal last season, with his ice time dropping each quarter.

  Dougie Hamilton – Similar to Galchenyuk, it was expected that Hamilton’s trade to Carolina would allow him to finally get star treatment in terms of ice time and deployment. Yet despite a career high in goals Hamilton somehow averaged fewer minutes per game this season – overall and on the PP – than he did in any of his campaigns with Calgary. Perplexing to say the least.

  Travis Konecny – After 32 points in his final 40 games of 2017-18, most thought Konecny would factor prominently in Philly’s 2018-19 plans. Yet here we are a season later and his ice time numbers are almost identical, and that’s despite James van Riemsdyk missing extended time and Wayne Simmonds being traded at the deadline. While Konecny is still only 22, one has to wonder if he’ll get a chance to show his true talent any time soon.

  Mike Matheson – Here it’s not a case of too few minutes, as Matheson averaged 22+ per game. Instead, it’s his lack of PP time despite talent to do well with the man advantage, as shown by him ranking only 91st among d-men in PP time but 64th in PPTs.

  Charlie McAvoy – What happens when you’re on a team with among the most one-dimensional d-men in the NHL in Torey Krug? In the case of McAvoy, you somehow see your overall ice time stay the same but your PPTOI per game drop from your rookie campaign.

  J.T. Miller – After Miller had just under a point per game production upon joining the Lightning and then they signed him to a big deal in the offseason, poolies figured he was set to become a bigtime scorer. Fast forward to now, and Miller ended up not even seeing 15 minutes of TOI per game, often mired on the fourth line. The silver lining was he did see regular PP time and did well with the man advantage. The question is when, if ever, Miller will be able to emerge from whatever doghouse he’s in and get consistent top-six time yet again.

  William Nylander – Understandably Nylander was brought along slowly after missing nearly half the season holding out. Yet once he returned it was to 1:10 less ice time per game than last season. There is some possible reason for encouragement though, in that Nylander was back with Auston Matthews by the fourth quarter and saw his best production of the season, which bodes well for him being able to go back to the type of deployment that saw him post over 60 points at age 21 in 2017-18.

  Brandon Pirri – When Pirri is hot, he can a top producer, as shown by his point per game stretch this season, him being just outside the NHL’s top ten in goals per 60 minutes, and him scoring at a nearly 40 goal full season pace in 2014-15. The issue is he’s not established enough to have a long leash; so when he inevitably cools, he finds himself scratched or jettisoned back to the AHL. One has to wonder how Pirri would fare if just given a whole season’s worth of games to show what he’s truly made of.

  Jesse Puljujarvi – Another season came and went without JP finding a foothold on a regular line, let alone in the top six. And he had double hip surgery this offseason to boot. Edmonton having a new GM and JP being an RFA might just result in JP being dealt and perhaps getting the true chance to shine that he’s yet to receive in Edmonton. Or it could be another season of more of the same in Edmonton.

  Ryan Pulock – Last season Pulock posted nearly point per every other game numbers despite seeing less than 2:00 on the PP and 18:23 per game. His reward? Four more minutes of TOI per game but 12 seconds more of PP Time, with Nick Leddy still averaging a full minute more on the man advantage per game despite barely producing double digits in PPPts. Could Pulock be Matt Dumba 2.0, where he’s forced to bide his time for several seasons before finally getting a chance to step up and strut his stuff?

  Jakob Silfverberg – Although Silfverberg finally cracked the 2:00 of PP Time per game mark, his overall ice time dropped despite the injury and scoring struggles of the Ducks. There may be hope, however, in that after signing his five-year contract extension Silfverberg posted nearly point per game numbers in the last quarter of the season and was at 18:07 per game. Maybe – just maybe – he’s arrived.

  Frank Vatrano – After Vatrano played his way into the top six, and, following a near point per game third quarter, signed a three-year extension, most thought he’d receive bumps in his ice time. Yet that was not to be, and he’s produced his worst numbers in the fourth quarter. Paid enough to guarantee he’ll play every game but not necessarily guaranteeing him a spot in the top six, Vatrano might have to prove himself all over again next season.

  Pavel Zacha – Don’t look now, but Zacha quietly posted eight points in eight fourth-quarter games while receiving 18:03 per contest (up nearly three minutes from the first quarter) and 2:05 on the PP (up from a mere eight seconds per game in Q1). The question is, was this a function of the Devils being out of the playoff hunt and having a shortage of healthy forwards, leaving Zacha once again stuck with his usual subpar deployment once next season rolls around?

  ********

There you have it – 20 voting choices. I probably could’ve included at least a handful of others (Jakub Vrana, Samuel Girard, and Nick Bjugstad come to mind, although I’m sure there are others), but in the end, I settled on these 20.

  You can cast your votes by clicking here. Since this is a poll to determine the most poorly utilized skater, I’m only going to allow you to vote for one player, as opposed to multiple players like in recent polls, so be sure to think about this carefully and cast your vote for the player who’s most truly deserving.

  I’ll be back with another poll in a month, but next week is another mailbag. I’m already set for questions this month, but you can always send me additional mailbag questions either by private messaging them to me (rizzeedizzee) via the DobberHockey Forums or by sending an email to [email protected] with “Roos Mailbag” as the subject line.

    from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/fantasy-hockey-rick-roos/tournament-players-who-would-thrive-with-improved-deployment/

Obama urges people to vote Democratic in ‘pivotal’ midterm election

https://uniteddemocrats.net/?p=9638

Obama urges people to vote Democratic in ‘pivotal’ midterm election

OBAMA DIVES IN — Former President Barack Obama took a big public step back into electoral politics on Friday, saying in a speech in Illinois that the midterms will be “one of those pivotal moments when every one of us as citizens of the United States need to determine just who we are, what it is that we stand.” He also publicly critiqued President Donald Trump by name for the first time since leaving office, calling him a “symptom, not the cause” of the ugliness of American politics. Obama reserved his sharpest criticisms for the Republican party at large. My colleague Edward-Isaac Dovere: “It’s about Republicans ‘who know better in Congress … bending over backwards to shield’ Trump. They’re hypocrites, he said, and they’re just as dangerous to America. At times mocking them and at times laying into them, Obama said they’ve abandoned all that they’re supposed to stand for as Republicans, and as citizens of this country.”

He then headed west to California, hosting a rally Saturday for seven Democrats seeking to win seats currently held by the GOP. “I gave a long speech yesterday,” Obama said Saturday. “Today is a different role. Today, really what I want to do is highlight the extraordinary collection of candidates who have decided to step up.” But as POLITICO’s David Siders noted, Republicans saw some upsides in 44’s Golden State swing: “Although Hillary Clinton carried the districts of all seven candidates featured at the rally during her 2016 presidential bid, Obama lost five of them in 2012, carrying only the two competitive districts in California’s Central Valley. Obama lost California’s Orange County twice. Of his return appearance, said Rob Pyers of the California Target Book, which handicaps races in California, ‘I’m not sure it’s helpful.’ ‘It seems like a gift’ to the National Republican Congressional Committee, he said.”

Story Continued Below

The reaction from Trumpworld has been muted, at least by the standards of this White House. Vice President Mike Pence pooh-poohed Obama’s appearances: “It was very disappointing to see President Obama break with the tradition of former presidents and become so political and roll out the same tired arguments that he and liberals have made over the last eight years,” he said on “Fox News Sunday,” despite working in an administration that sometimes revels in breaking tradition. Trump himself has largely held his fire. During a campaign stop in North Dakota on Friday, the president said that he “fell asleep” during his predecessor’s speech. Trump himself best summed up what Republicans are feeling about Obama’s return to the national stage: “If that doesn’t get you out to vote for the midterms, nothing will.”

Good Monday morning. A big congrats to everyone’s favorite Senate reporter James Arkin, who got married over this weekend. In lieu of wedding gifts, send him your best scoops once he returns later this week. As always email me at [email protected] or DM me at @ZachMontellaro.

Email the great Campaign Pro team at [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] and [email protected]. Follow them on Twitter: @PoliticoScott, @ec_schneider, @DanielStrauss4, @JamesArkin and @MaggieSeverns.

Join POLITICO for a special Playbook Elections event in Ohio on 9/20 to discuss how the 2018 midterm elections are shaping up. RSVP here.

Days until the 2018 election: 57.

Upcoming election dates — Sept. 11: New Hampshire primaries. — Sept. 12: Rhode Island primaries. — Sept. 13: New York (state-level) primaries.

BIG MONEY — The Koch network is adding another arm to its constellation of conservative groups. Campaign Pro’s Maggie Severns: “The new super PAC, AFP Action, will give the Koch network’s largest arm — Americans for Prosperity — significantly more leeway to push lawmakers directly on political issues, adding another tool to AFP’s arsenal at a moment when the Koch network is trying to assert its power in Washington. … The new super PAC has been under discussion for some time and does not affect the Koch network’s already-set plans to spend $400 million on politics and policy this election cycle, spokesman Bill Riggs said.”

NO DETENTE — The DCCC has pledged to not used hacked materials in campaigning. But the NRCC? Not so much. The Atlantic’s Natasha Bertrand: “Their Republican counterparts declined to match that commitment, pulling out of the pledge negotiations just days before the oath was finalized and shifting the blame to the Democrats—and to the press. ‘I will say we were close’ to reaching an agreement, said a [NRCC] official familiar with the talks, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters about internal discussions. But ‘one of the major sticking points’ was how to address the press coverage of hacked materials, the official added.”

PRIMARY PREVIEW — With just a couple of primary days left, New Hampshire’s 1st District remains one of the last undecided battleground districts. Campaign Pro’s Elena Schneider previews Tuesday’s Democratic primary: “Democrat Maura Sullivan entered the race for New Hampshire’s battleground House seat as the archetypal candidate of 2018 — but with one nagging problem: She moved to the district in June 2017. … [Democrat Chris] Pappas is, unsurprisingly, emphasizing his local roots and endorsements, including Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan and former Gov. John Lynch. In June, Pappas pledged to raise the majority of his money from inside the state, a move contrasting with Sullivan’s mostly non-New Hampshire fundraising.”

TRUMP ON THE TRAIL — Trump is heading to Mississippi for a rally promoting GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith on Friday, the Mississippi Clarion Ledger’s Geoff Pender reported. Hyde-Smith is facing former Democratic Rep. Mike Espy and Republican Chris McDaniel in the November special election.

PANIC BUTTON — Republicans are issuing an all-hands-on-deck call in a bid to shore up Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) reelection fight against Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke. POLITICO’s Alex Isenstadt: “With a string of polls showing GOP Sen. Ted Cruz’s lead slipping, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick showed up in Washington on July 25 to deliver an urgent plea to White House officials: Send President Donald Trump. … The lieutenant governor soon got his wish: Trump announced on Twitter late last month that he was planning a blowout October rally for Cruz, his former GOP rival. …

“Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who’s planning an October fundraiser for Cruz at Washington’s Capital Grille restaurant, said he had a simple directive to GOP givers. … The anti-tax Club for Growth, which spent millions on Cruz during his 2012 Senate bid, has started a seven-figure advertising blitz aimed at tearing down the Democratic congressman. … A handful of other well-funded groups are considering joining the effort, including the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, the Mitch McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund, the newly formed Senate Reform Fund, and Ending Spending, which in the past has been bankrolled by major GOP financiers including New York City investor Paul Singer.”

THE RARE RED PICKUP? — Republicans are turning to Minnesota for the rare opportunity to play offense in the battle for the House. USA Today’s Nora Hertel and Eliza Collins: “Republicans are working hard to grab Minnesota’s Congressional Districts 1 and 8. President Donald Trump captured both of the mostly white, rural districts in 2016 – District 1 by 15 percentage points and District 8 by 16. Then Republicans got lucky when both Democratic incumbents decided not to run. … National Republicans have deployed their best surrogate – the president – to fire up the base in District 8, while outside groups are pouring money into the state.”

LOOKS FAMILIAR — In a Congressional Leadership Fund ad in Kansas’ 3rd District, a mother said she is fearful of policies promoted by Democrat Sharice Davids. But left out of the ad is the fact that she is a state GOP official. McClatchy’s Bryan Lowry: “What [Alana] Roethle does not say in the ad is that she is secretary of the Kansas Republican Party and a member of the Kansas Lottery Commission, who was appointed to her seat by then-Gov. Sam Brownback in 2015.”

ANTI-VAX GONE MAINSTREAM — Kevin Stitt, the Republican gubernatorial nominee in Oklahoma, expressed skepticism of vaccines. The Daily Beast’s Sam Stein: “Stitt said he personally did not vaccinate some his own kids and opposed legislation that would require vaccinations for children if they wanted to attend public schools. ‘I believe in choice,’ Stitt said … [A spokeswoman] said that Stitt did not believe that vaccinations cause harmful medical side effects — an oft-argued and scientifically baseless claim from vaccine skeptics. The ‘root of his decision,’ she said was the desire for parental choice.”

** Presented by AARP: There’s only one true deciding factor in this year’s elections: 50-plus voters. They won’t be ignored and their votes are up for grabs. Medicare, Social Security, support for family caregivers, and prescription drug costs are all on the line—so you can be sure they’ll be voting in record numbers. aarp.org/vote **

POORLY TIMED PROBLEMS — Ahead of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s contested Democratic primary against Cynthia Nixon, he’s dealing with two problems that his opponents say are emblematic of his tenure. The New York Times’ Jesse McKinley, Shane Goldmacher and Tyler Pager: “[A span of a new bridge] never opened as planned on Saturday as engineers invoked a ‘potentially dangerous situation’. … What had seemed a perfectly orchestrated ribbon-cutting, just days before Thursday’s primary, quickly morphed into a cudgel for the governor’s opponents, who accused him of putting politics above public safety and called for a federal investigation. Then, a second problem erupted for Mr. Cuomo on Saturday, when a flier landed in mailboxes of Jewish New Yorkers: a political mailer, paid for by the State Democratic Party that Mr. Cuomo funds, tying together a photograph of his opponent, Cynthia Nixon, and the loaded words ‘anti-Semitism.’ The flier drew swift rebukes from fellow Democrats as Mr. Cuomo distanced himself from its content.”

UNDER WRAPS — The RNC asked a judge to keep a plan for a potential 2020 recount secret. POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein: “The document was turned over to the Democratic National Committee as part of long-running litigation over the GOP’s alleged use of so-called “ballot security” measures to discourage minority voting. A transcript of a phone conference held in the case last year indicates the memo involves designation of particular counties as ‘high risk’ or ‘medium risk’ during a potential recount. Democratic Party lawyers said the selection of those counties raised the specter of the race-focused efforts the RNC agreed to abandon more than three decades ago.”

WALKER ON THE ROPES? — After several attempts, Democrats are convinced that this is the year they finally knock off GOP Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin. POLITICO’s Natasha Korecki: “The signs that Walker is ripe to be taken down are everywhere. His opponent, Schools Superintendent Tony Evers, has a slight lead in recent polls and there’s evidence that critical suburban voters are shifting leftward. … Just as important, Democrats are running a populist candidate they believe is made for the moment — Evers, who built momentum from decisively winning a crowded primary and went on to raise $1 million in his first week as the nominee. … The governor’s real soft spot in his bid for a third term, however, might be his 2016 run for president. …

“Walker’s durability and resilience — he’s been running and winning tough elections since his early 20s — inspires confidence among Republicans. He’s the last man standing among a Wisconsin GOP triumvirate who ascended to national prominence in the Obama era only to see their fortunes sputter during the Trump presidency.”

2020 WATCH — Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has taken two moves that signal he’s eying a presidential bid: He’ll headline the Iowa state party’s fall gala and has dispatched staffers to help Democratic candidates in the state, via The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs.

CODA — FACT OF THE DAY: 100 women could be elected to the House for the first time ever this cycle, with projected GOP losses being more than offset by projected Democratic gains, via Dave Wasserman.

** Presented by AARP: Americans 50 and over are the nation’s most powerful voting bloc. In fact, more than 60 million of them voted in 2016—and this year, they’re more motivated than ever to making sure that their voices are heard in Washington. They’re frustrated with broken government. And they’re fed up with politicians who’d rather get into fights than get results. The issues they care about most including Medicare, Social Security, support for family caregivers and prescription drug costs, are all on the line. America’s 50-plus voters have put the candidates on notice. Anyone who ignores them will feel it on Election Day. aarp.org/vote **

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GOOOOOOD AFTERNOON PATRIOTS!Happy Saturday! This is u/IvaginaryFriend back at it again with your weekly dank af Presidential Recap! Since I'm a little late I'll skip the talk and go straight to the dankness ;) BUT FIRST! Be sure to check here if you've missed any past recaps!LETS GET TO IT!Sunday, April 8th:🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:“The FBI closed the case on Hillary, which was a rigged investigation. They exonerated her even before they ever interviewed her, they never even put her under oath.....” and much more. So true Jesse! @WattersWorldThe Washington Post is far more fiction than fact. Story after story is made up garbage - more like a poorly written novel than good reporting. Always quoting sources (not names), many of which don’t exist. Story on John Kelly isn’t true, just another hit job!President Xi and I will always be friends, no matter what happens with our dispute on trade. China will take down its Trade Barriers because it is the right thing to do. Taxes will become Reciprocal & a deal will be made on Intellectual Property. Great future for both countries!Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price ... to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!Congratulations to Patrick Reed on his great and courageous MASTERS win! When Patrick had his amazing win at Doral 5 years ago, people saw his great talent, and a bright future ahead. Now he is the Masters Champion!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Jimmy Kimmel, Pre-Castration.Spread this so the world sees what an asshat the London mayor is. Quite possibly the stupidest tweet ever, even for huge city.Facebook Gave Money To 85% Of House Committee "Questioning" Zuckerberg Next Week🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Even Winnie the Pooh expressed his 2A rights...This is... I just... I uh...White patriarchy silencing women of color! #diamondandsilkMonday, April 9th:TODAY'S ACTION:President Trump Hosts a Cabinet MeetingPresident Trump Receives a Briefing from Senior Military LeadershipWhat You Need To Know About President Donald J. Trump’s Efforts To End Catch And ReleaseFive Nominations Sent to the Senate TodayPresident Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Appoint Personnel to Key Administration Posts🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:When a car is sent to the United States from China, there is a Tariff to be paid of 2 1/2%. When a car is sent to China from the United States, there is a Tariff to be paid of 25%. Does that sound like free or fair trade. No, it sounds like STUPID TRADE - going on for years!(Retweeting the Department of State) .@POTUS Trump condemns the heinous attack on innocent Syrians with banned chemical weapons. #SyriaThe Democrats are not doing what’s right for our country. I will not rest until we have secured our borders and restored the rule of law!Great @Cabinet meeting at the @WhiteHouse this morning! http://bit.ly/2vktWzE TWEETS AND NEWS:President Xi says China to significantly lower auto tariffs, expand importsDISGRACE! President Trump on Firing Mueller after FBI Raids His Lawyer Michael CohenIf you don't rob people you won't be shot.After winning election with a super majority, Hungary's governing Fidesz party says it could push through the "Stop Soros" laws targeting civic groups and people aiding migrants already in MayPRESS BRIEFINGS, INTERVIEWS, RALLIES:Press Beating🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:How "Woke" Feminist See The WorldI decided to decorate my clear backpackObama Legacy ... KEKNo man, no woman, no commie can stump him!Tuesday, April 10th:TODAY'S ACTION:President Trump Meets with the Emir of the State of QatarPresident Trump Hosts the 2017 NCAA Football National Champions the Alabama Crimson TidePresident Trump Welcomes the Amir of the State of QatarPresident Donald J. Trump Announces Twelfth Wave of Judicial Nominees, Twelfth Wave of United States Attorneys, and Sixth Wave of United States MarshalsPresidential Proclamation Maintaining Enhanced Vetting Capabilities and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry into the United States by Terrorists or Other Public-Safety ThreatsExecutive Order Reducing Poverty in America by Promoting Opportunity and Economic MobilityTen Nominations Sent to the Senate Today🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Attorney–client privilege is dead!A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!Last night, it was my great honor to host America’s senior defense and military leaders for dinner at the White House. America’s military is the GREATEST fighting force in the history of the world. They all have my pledge of unwavering commitment to our men and women in uniform!Very thankful for President Xi of China’s kind words on tariffs and automobile barriers...also, his enlightenment on intellectual property and technology transfers. We will make great progress together!Today, it was my great honor to welcome the 2017 NCAA Football National Champion, Alabama Crimson Tide - to the White House. Congratulations! #RollTideSIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Mueller Investigating Trump Over $150K Donation From Ukrainian Who Gave Clintons $13 MillionTed Cruz Grills Mark ZuckerbergToday POTUS signed an Executive Order to reform welfare agencies and to make sure that illegal aliens don't collect benefits.Trump Hater T.J. Miller Arrested for Allegedly Calling in a Fake Bomb ThreatTexas to send up to 1,400 troops to protect U.S.-Mexico border!PRESS BRIEFINGS, INTERVIEWS, RALLIES:Press Beating🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:🚨WE GOT THE GREATEST COMMANDER IN CHIEF DONT WE FOLKS!?🚨My wife is in L.A. This week. I told her she had to get her picture next to 45’s star! She just sent me this!I stand with The President. Do you?Reddit releases their own findings on "muh Russia." Spoiler: it involved The_Donald about as much as it did Trump. Also some fairly pro-1a sentiment from HuffmanWednesday, April 11th:TODAY'S ACTION:President Trump Hosts 2017 NCAA Football National Champions the Alabama Crimson TideFirst Lady Melania Trump Hosts a Listening Session with StudentsPresident Trump Gives Remarks on Tax Cuts for American WorkersPresident Trump Meets with Governors and Members of CongressBy Signing The Allow States And Victims To Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, President Donald J. Trump Provides Invaluable Tools Needed To Fight The Scourge Of Sex TraffickingPresident Donald J. Trump Signs H.R. 1865 into LawPresident Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate and Appoint Personnel to Key Administration PostsPresident Donald J. Trump Proclaims April 12 through April 19, 2018, as the Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:The Failing New York Times wrote another phony story. It was political pundit Doug Schoen, not a Ukrainian businessman, who asked me to do a short speech by phone (Skype), hosted by Doug, in Ukraine. I was very positive about Ukraine-another negative to the Fake Russia C story!So much Fake News about what is going on in the White House. Very calm and calculated with a big focus on open and fair trade with China, the coming North Korea meeting and, of course, the vicious gas attack in Syria. Feels great to have Bolton & Larry K on board. I (we) are ... doing things that nobody thought possible, despite the never ending and corrupt Russia Investigation, which takes tremendous time and focus. No Collusion or Obstruction (other than I fight back), so now they do the Unthinkable, and RAID a lawyers office for information! BAD!Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and “smart!” You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!Our relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War. There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do, and we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race?Much of the bad blood with Russia is caused by the Fake & Corrupt Russia Investigation, headed up by the all Democrat loyalists, or people that worked for Obama. Mueller is most conflicted of all (except Rosenstein who signed FISA & Comey letter). No Collusion, so they go crazy!Speaker Paul Ryan is a truly good man, and while he will not be seeking re-election, he will leave a legacy of achievement that nobody can question. We are with you Paul!The @WhiteHouse is partnering with @Interior and @NatlParkService to bring the @NSCsafety's “Prescribed to Death” Opioid Memorial to the Ellipse - beginning tomorrow, April 12th to April 18th. More information: http://bit.ly/2HqDAWr …(Retweeting the Department of State) .@POTUS Trump at Signing of #FOSTA #SESTA bill: We are going to do everything in our power to make sure traffickers are brought to a swift and firm justice…When we work together, we can bring safety and hope to every community across the country. #EndTrafficking“Trump just took a giant step towards actual welfare reform”Honored to have Republican Congressional Leadership join me at the @WhiteHouse this evening. Lots to discuss as we continue MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!Big show tonight on @seanhannity! 9:00 P.M. on @FoxNewsSIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Breaking news on Fox Business: Speaker Ryan WILL NOT run for reelection. Self deporting from the swamp. Adios!Ho Lee F%%% GEOTUS just signed a Presidential order requiring able-bodied adults on food stamps to work, train or volunteer for at least 20 hours per week. (result = will be 75% drop in food stampers that have been milking the system since Obummers welfare waivers)This is the cycle of fake news. Does CNN even wonder why nobody pays any attention to them anymore?I had a discussion with a meme yesterdayRand Paul: FBI's Strzok, Page still have security clearanceOUT! OUT! OUT!PRESS BRIEFINGS, INTERVIEWS, RALLIES:Press Beating🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Disturbingly good memeHEY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: This number 1 post on Reddit today proves you are FULL OF SHITLiberals are losing their minds over a picture of a fit, young and beautiful Trump supporter exercising her second amendment rights. Post this pic as much as possible to trigger them!the left vs the rightNothing is guaranteed to trigger like the truth #LiberalPrivilegeThursday, April 12th:TODAY'S ACTION:President Trump Meets with Governors and Members of CongressPresident Trump Gives Remarks on Tax Cuts for American WorkersPresident Donald J. Trump Proclaims April 14, 2018, as Pan American Day and April 8 through April 14, 2018, as Pan American WeekJust Steps from the White House, a Memorial to Victims of America’s Drug CrisisPresident Donald J. Trump Approves Kentucky Disaster DeclarationPresidential Memorandum for the Administrator of the Environmental Protection AgencyTwenty-Nine Nominations Sent to the Senate TodayPresident Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate and Designate Personnel to Key Administration PostsExecutive Order on the Task Force on the United States Postal SystemPresident Donald J. Trump Signs H.R. 4547 and S. 772 into LawPhotos of the WeekText of a Letter from the President to the Speaker of the House of Representatives🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:If I wanted to fire Robert Mueller in December, as reported by the Failing New York Times, I would have fired him. Just more Fake News from a biased newspaper!California Governor Jerry Brown is doing the right thing and sending the National Guard to the Border. Thank you Jerry, good move for the safety of our Country!Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all! In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our “Thank you America?”Good luck to Mike Pompeo during his Confirmation Hearing today. He will be a great Secretary of State!On Yom HaShoah we remember the six million Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust. With each passing year, our duty to remember this atrocity increases as we pledge #NeverAgain. #HolocaustRemembranceDayI have agreed with the historically cooperative, disciplined approach that we have engaged in with Robert Mueller (Unlike the Clintons!). I have full confidence in Ty Cobb, my Special Counsel, and have been fully advised throughout each phase of this process.Just had an Agricultural Roundtable with memembers of Congress and Governors. I will be making remarks on the large scale TAX CUTS given to American families and workers at 1:45 P.M. from the Rose Garden. Join me live: http://bit.ly/2vbRFlS you to all of the American workers who travelled here today! This event is dedicated to YOU: the hardworking Americans who make this nation run. You love your country, you provide for your family, you have PRIDE in your work and you cherish our GREAT AMERICAN FLAG! #TaxCutsAmerica’s greatest treasure is our people – and my Administration HEARS YOUR VOICE and HAS YOUR BACK. We are fighting to give every American a future of dignity, purpose and pride. AMERICAN SPIRIT is back! #TaxCutsWould only join TPP if the deal were substantially better than the deal offered to Pres. Obama. We already have BILATERAL deals with six of the eleven nations in TPP, and are working to make a deal with the biggest of those nations, Japan, who has hit us hard on trade for years!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Backpage.com pleads guilty to human trafficking in TexasTexas Army National Guardsmen Protecting Our Border!3 More California Cities Vote to Opt Out of State's Sanctuary LawI'm probably going to hell for this but the unborn children of America will vouch for me.🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:For those who didn't see it, Reddit's T_D user sandbag broke yesterday, and for a brief time there were 125-135k active users yesterday. I made this gif for Sp3zWhen I get frustrated at the Deep State, I think about the slings and arrows that President Trump is taking. Several times I have sent him e-mails of support, thanking him for his service and encouraging him to keep on fighting. Last night I got a response!Just Muslim ThingsGot me laughing this morning when I went on YouTubeFriday, April 13th:TODAY'S ACTION:Weekly AddressPresident Trump Delivers an Address to the Nation🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Tremendous pressure is building, like never before, for the Border Wall and an end to crime cradling Sanctuary Cities. Started the Wall in San Diego, where the people were pushing really hard to get it. They will soon be protected!James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR. Virtually everyone in Washington thought he should be fired for the terrible job he did-until he was, in fact, fired. He leaked CLASSIFIED information, for which he should be prosecuted. He lied to Congress under OATH. He is a weak and ... ....untruthful slime ball who was, as time has proven, a terrible Director of the FBI. His handling of the Crooked Hillary Clinton case, and the events surrounding it, will go down as one of the worst “botch jobs” of history. It was my great honor to fire James Comey!We are bringing back our factories, we are bringing back our jobs, and we are bringing back those four beautiful words: MADE IN THE USA!DOJ just issued the McCabe report - which is a total disaster. He LIED! LIED! LIED! McCabe was totally controlled by Comey - McCabe is Comey!! No collusion, all made up by this den of thieves and lowlifes![President Trump Addresses The Nation]SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:BREAKING: OIG's report on McCabe released to Congress - READ IT"I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all."This tweet from VP Pence cut straight into my heart. Miss you dad😔I live in America!!!PRESS BRIEFINGS, INTERVIEWS, RALLIES:Press Beating🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Hillary giving birth to James Comey.OMG REDPILL INCOMING!!! THEY’VE TURNED ON COMEY!When you wake up at the ass crack of dawn and see Trump is already calling Comey an untruthful slime ballBecause he was not supposed to winCashed out at $600M to a life of luxury. He won the Social Media war in the end.Saturday, April 14th:🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:A perfectly executed strike last night. Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military. Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!So proud of our great Military which will soon be, after the spending of billions of fully approved dollars, the finest that our Country has ever had. There won’t be anything, or anyone, even close!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Pentagon BriefingReminder: two complete archives of Hillary’s emails were never given to the FBI because they were “lost on the mail.” Sure.Dersh on Comey's Book: "Gossipy, revenge-motivated, make-money, get-even, hurt-your-political-opponent... Worst possible book, at the worst possible time, for the worst possible reasons... Scandalous and shameful. I am so disappointed in him..."HAIL TO THE CHIEF! ~ NO CIVILIAN FATALITIES, ONLY 3 HURT, TARGETED CHEMICAL RESEARCH FACILITIES TOTALLY DESTROYED ~ MAGA🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Weapons arsenal discovered in UK homeLondonistan 2018Why Facebook isn't seeing growth in some Arabic countries...MRW I woke up this morning to see Marijuana reform, rosenstein peach mints, and Lord Mattis delivering god’s hammer. HEY CUCKS:WEEEEEEEW LAD!Without further ado, some tunes to get you jamming through all this WINNING!EverydayMake Her SayRoyaltyErase MePlanezJust What I AmMAGA ON PATRIOTS! #robgray

Capped: Cap Situations for all 31 NHL Teams

  Hopefully everyone had a fun Halloween. It was a little disappointing only having one NHL game on the slate though, so let’s make up for it with a record long Capped article. Over 3500 words coming right at you! 

  A month into the season, we have enough of a sample size to start drawing conclusions about what kind of scenarios may play out this season. The cap makes things tougher on teams, but it also lends itself to a lot of patterns and predictability if you’re looking in the right places. Here’s a starting point for each NHL team.

  Anaheim Ducks

The biggest storyline in the cap world of the Anaheim Ducks is how they build/rebuild around John Gibson. Gibson is the early Vezina leader, but the rest of the team has struggled to produce much at all. With youngsters Troy Terry, Sam Steel and Maxime Comtois stepping up, the window is anything but shut, however, there are a few bigger contracts to be sorted out. One of Ryan Kesler or Corey Perry will have to be moved out if the younger players are to grow. With Carlyle and some older contracts around, the growth will continue to be stifled.

  Next year’s roster has a Cap hit of $75 million, with only 15 player contracts accounted for. Something’s going to give, and a change of scenery may help Perry.

  Arizona Coyotes

Arizona has managed their cap fairly well, but be ready for another sell off come trade deadline time. Richard Panik and Jordan Oesterle could be useful depth pieces for contenders, but a trade would likely mean pushing them even farther down the lineup (bad for their fantasy value).

  The Coyotes are also at the max 50 contracts on the books, so a couple minor league trades may occur before that point to give them a little more flexibility come deadline day.

  Boston Bruins

Off the top of your head, who is the Bruins’ highest-paid forward? It’s not Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand or David Pastrnak; David Krejci holds the honour, and is signed for another three seasons. The Bruins need that depth scoring to pick up, otherwise they aren’t going to keep up in a surprisingly upstart Atlantic division. Your best fantasy bets are Jake DeBrusk and Ryan Donato, both on very friendly contracts, and good positive regression candidates.

  Buffalo Sabres

With approximately $10 million coming off the books between Matt Moulson and Jason Pominville this offseason, Buffalo could take a run at one of the 2019 free-agent defencemen. As we know, that worked so well for them last time, using an amnesty buyout on Christian Erhoff.

  Whatever the direction may be, they are also going to have to keep in mind that they want to show Jeff Skinner why he should be sticking around. Otherwise he may turn into one of the biggest prizes of the 2019 UFA class. He will continue to be given the best linemates.

  Calgary Flames

Matthew Tkachuk is an RFA, and he is going to take a decent payday to get re-signed, but it will get done.

  The big storyline for the rest of the year is what happens in net moving forward. Mike Smith has the contract, but is playing poorly. David Rittich is the backup for now, but is playing better than Smith. Jon Gillies is the goalie of the future, and has a one-way contract starting next season making him the odds on favourite to be the starter at that point. Smith likely gets let go at the end of the year, and if he is going to be gone anyways, we could see the starts favour Rittich after the All-Star break.

  Carolina Hurricanes

Carolina has the lowest cap hit in the league this season, and may actually be a buyer at the trade deadline for the first time in a while. They have the space to make a push for a Mark Stone or an Artemi Panarin, so keep an eye on those forward line combos, as things may shake up as the season moves on. This means we may see some of their rookies get pushed down the lineup.

  Bold move: The Hurricanes have the capital and the cap space to acquire both Sergei Bobrovsky and Panarin, and they swing for the fences trying to bring the Stanley Cup to Carolina for the first time since 2006.

  Chicago Blackhawks

Predictably with Chicago, the narrative covers the core five. They have rebounded nicely with a winning record thus far. However, Chicago has not been able to keep higher salaried players around because of these contracts before. This year will be no different, especially with Brandon Saad’s contract looking immoveable too. Look for a new wave of rookies to come up next year, and maybe see if you can get in ahead, before guys like Victor Ejdsell, Dylan Sikura, and Matthew Highmore are on the common sleepers lists next summer.

  Colorado Avalanche

Does it matter what is happening with the salary cap when the top line trio is as hot as they are? Well, yes it does, especially since Mikko Rantanen needs a new contract. My contract model has him right now with an eight digit AAV, which goes to show how great he has been playing. That being said, he won’t get that much. There’s no benefit from a bridge deal either, so something similar to what David Pastrnak got from Boston may be a good comparison (adjusted for inflation of course). Nathan MacKinnon took a little less money, and Colorado isn’t going to let Rantanen greatly usurp his contract number.

  Columbus Blue Jackets

As covered a little in the Carolina section, Columbus is either going to have to seriously contend this year, or take a hard look in the mirror and move out Panarin and Bobrovsky. They need to learn from the Islanders. My bet is that at least Panarin gets moved, which is unfortunate for his linemates, but will also open up a hole for Boone Jenner to step up to the top line.

  Dallas Stars

With Jason Spezza and Mark Methot coming off the books, and no large extensions upcoming (Tyler Seguin already re-signed), this team may be able to build up their forward depth, and contend a little more seriously next season. Bishop would be a good goalie target for those looking ahead and not wanting to pay for a top of the line starter.

  Detroit Red Wings

The team with the highest cap hit is also sitting at the bottom of the standings. Dylan Larkin and all of their impressive rookie defencemen will still not be enough to save them. Gustav Nyqvist, Jimmy Howard, and Niklas Kronwall should all be gone by next summer, and that will kick start the rebuild. In the meantime, just stay away from anyone not named Larkin or Dennis Cholowski (dude is a stud).

  Edmonton Oilers

Edmonton is going to turn themselves into the 2015 Chicago Blackhawks before they even have a chance to win a cup, let alone the three the Blackhawks had by that point in the cap era. What did we learn from Chicago? Well that Alex DeBrincat is the most valuable piece coming through among a sea of overpaid players. What does that mean for Edmonton? Well it means that one of Jesse Puljujarvi or Kailer Yamamoto should get the opportunity to turn into a big scorer. Now is the buy low moment for Yamamoto.

  Florida Panthers

An older tweet from James Mirtle shows a relevant topic four years later. The 39-year-old Roberto Luongo has four years left on his contract, and when he retires has a large impact on both the Florida Panthers and the Vancouver Canucks. Both teams will have to make sure they have the cap space to manage the possible penalties. The Panthers have done a good job of managing their cap situation, and with no one of importance up for free-agency, it looks to be status quo with them.

    That is until management has had enough of losing, and decides to really shake things up with a blockbuster trade.

  Los Angeles Kings

This team needs a rebuild (that was evident even before news broke that Jonathan Quick would be out for 3-6 weeks). That’s an unfortunate thing to need with $138 million due to Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty over a combined 13 years, starting next year. I’m not sure who is in worse shape, LA or Anaheim. The Kings have 18 players signed for next season, and are already at $77.5 million. Tanner Pearson may become the casualty to a lucky team that puts him in a position to succeed.

  Minnesota Wild

Think Minnesota wants a do-over on the Zach Parise/Ryan Suter contracts? I sure would. After this season, there is still six years and over $45 million left on both contracts. Plus, Minnesota has their best cap bargain (Eric Staal at $3.5 million) expiring as a UFA. Let’s hope new GM Paul Fenton can make some maneuvers out from under the collapsing situation Chuck Fletcher left him. Otherwise the Wild will see themselves quickly surpassed in the Central division.

  Montreal Canadiens

Carey Price’s new $10.5 million AAV contract has kicked in, and it doesn’t look like a disaster. If Shea Weber can come back healthy for the second half, this may actually be a bubble playoff team. Artturi Lehkonen will need a new contract (likely a bridge signing), and the Karl Alzner deal needs to disappear, but there are some solid fantasy contracts to be found here. Especially one of my personal favourites, Brendan Gallagher.

  Nashville Predators

Still the model of contract gold, there is a new set of key RFAs looking for a fresh contract this summer. Colton Sissons and Ryan Hartman have arbitration rights, while Kevin Fiala doesn’t. Don’t expect either of Hartman or Sissons to actually hit arbitration. David Poile will get them locked up like he did with Calle Jarnkrok, Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson. Meanwhile Kevin Fiala will get a one or two-year bridge deal to bring him to arbitration. This will be less than most people are expecting him to receive, before he breaks out and gets paid on his future deal.

  New Jersey Devils

Keith Kinkaid can be a starter in this league, and will likely move on in search of a starting job elsewhere. The native of Long Island may look to the Islanders first, but between Robin Lehner playing well, and Tomas Greiss succeeding on top of having one more year on his contract, the timing may not be right. Instead, Kinkaid may look a touch West of his current home, filling a spot we will discuss a little later.

  Back to the Devils, the other big name due an extension is Will Butcher. He may not get quite the same amount of coin, but he reminds me a little of Tyson Barrie with the Avalanche, who got a bigger contract than expected despite being mainly an offensive catalyst. Don’t be caught unaware expecting a bridge deal.

  New York Islanders

After losing John Tavares, Lou Lamoriello tried to replace quality with quantity. Unsurprisingly it’s not having quite the desired effect. The Isles’ brass will have to work hard to make sure it doesn’t repeat mistakes of last year, this time with Anders Lee. Currently on a bargain contract, the team captain Lee deserves a big raise, and is going to get it. The Isles are primed to overpay Lee just to get him to stay, and they have the cap space to do it too. Winger Jordan Eberle may be allowed to walk, as he is probably going to be looking to win something other than the 2009 World Juniors (that is never going to get old).

  New York Rangers

The Rangers are “rebuilding” in their own special way, but that doesn’t mask the fact that Mika Zibanejad is one of the best cap bargains that no one talks about. Already at nine points through 11 games, Zibs could keep up a 70-point pace through the season with the top minutes he’s getting for the Rangers. What they decide to with him and his contract though is another story. If the Rangers truly want to bottom out, they would have plenty of suitors lining up hefty packages in return for the 25-year-old. In the meantime, names such as Kevin Hayes, Ryan Spooner, and Mats Zuccarello will remain on the trade block. All three could benefit from a change in scenery.

  Ottawa Senators

With two key free-agents this summer, things could (and will) look a lot different in Ottawa next year. However, until ownership changes, they will be bogged down by the same problems, and things won’t really change. Maybe they can exceed Eugene Melnyk’s expectations next year and ice a full 23-man roster of rookies, minus Craig Anderson. Lots of good opportunities to get in here with some cheap ELC production.

  Philadelphia Flyers

With both goalies having contracts that expire in July, plus the brass wanting to bring along Carter Hart extra slowly, the door opens for Keith Kinkaid. Between him and Hart, the goalie carousel may finally be coming to an end in the short term. Expect Wayne Simmonds to walk straight into free-agency with Brian Elliott and Michael Neuvirth.

  On top of that, Ivan Provorov needs a new contract, and he may top what Matt Dumba got from Minnesota. Aaron Ekblad’s $7.5 million AAV could be closer to what he’s asking for right away. He deserves it too.

  Pittsburgh Penguins

Someday Daniel Sprong will arrive. In the meantime, Sidney Crosby will continue to buoy players like Brian Rust into earning their livelihood on one contract. As another option, with Derrick Brassard, Carl Hagelin, and other contracts coming off the books, the Penguins could dip into a winger-rich free agent pool next summer, coming out with a player such as Stone, Panarin, or Skinner. The goalies and defence are pretty much set, so why not beef up the forward group even further.

  San Jose Sharks

With only 10 skaters signed past this year, and many needing raises (including Erik Karlsson and Joe Pavelski), this team is going to look very different next season. As a result, their window is as open right now as it is likely to be in the next number of years, but they are also right up against the salary cap. They may make a few smaller moves for this year, but the real fun will start once they are eliminated from the playoffs (or win it all). Joe Thornton can’t keep coming back forever, can he?

  Seattle

Didn’t see this one coming did you? Well Seattle remains on track to join the league for the start of the 2020-2021 season, and if we’re looking ahead, you can’t discount the impact another expansion franchise will have. The team will bring more skaters, more points, more revenue, more games, and more decisions for general managers. With having had Vegas join the league back in 2017, we can be better prepared this time around. In the cap era, a team can do a lot of damage if they bring together solid parts without being weighed down by anchor contracts. If Seattle is to succeed, that will be the key. Don’t expect them to make the finals in their first year, but there will be some fantasy gems to be mined.

  St. Louis Blues

Jake Allen has gone from what was supposed to be one of the best goalie contracts in the league, to one of the poorest performers this season. The Blues have the depth at forward and on defence to be real contenders, but if their goalie keeps letting them down, they are in danger of narrowly missing the playoffs again this year. Unfortunately for them, they don’t have the cap space to bring in someone to help. Either their AHL starter Ville Husso is going to grab the reigns and channel his inner Matt Murray to a deep playoff run, or we are going to see the tailspin continue until Mike Yeo is let go. A coaching change is probably the only thing that saves Allen’s value at this point.

  Tampa Bay Lightning

The Lightning only have three defensemen signed past this season, but good thing for them it’s their top three. What this means is that we could see a prospect or two jump to the third pairing next season. Former first rounder Cal Foote has a good chance, as do Erik Cernak and Dominik Masin. These prospects, have an even better shot if the Tampa brass can’t get rid of Ryan Callahan, and still wants to re-sign recent breakout forwards Yanni Gourde and Brayden Point. Gourde has been one of the best fantasy bargains not on an entry level deal, while Point has been producing well before most expected him to. Both will be due a significant raise similar to Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson re-upping in 2017. With cap inflation, expect the two new deals to be closer to $6 million than $5 million.

  Toronto Maple Leafs

William Nylander still needs a contract, plus Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner will need new deals soon too. This will possibly define Kyle Dubas’ career.

  My thoughts on Nylander are here, and you can find my thoughts on Matthews and Marner here. All points regarding those three still stand.

  Vancouver Canucks

See the Florida Pathers write up, plus they signed a bunch of bad free-agent contracts, and are even farther away from the playoffs.

  If they can us their abundant cap space to get Brock Boeser signed long term, then between the trio of Boeser, Bo Horvat and Elias Pettersson, there is a core to build around. A few years avoiding free-agent frenzy, and not having $25 million on the IR will go a long way to moving the Canucks slowly up the standings. In the meantime, there won’t be much fantasy growth outside of the aforementioned top trio.

  Vegas Golden Knights

After showing the hockey world how great you can be without an anchor contract or two, Vegas is slowly joining the pack. The seven-year, $4.75 million AAV contract to Alex Tuch could very well turn out to be a good one, but the six-year, $5.95 million AAV deal to Nate Schmidt is very much above market value, and doesn’t leave as much room to either re-sign Pacioretty or look for some other depth scoring. Vegas has $72.2 million locked up in 14 players going into next season, so they may not be able to bring in another piece to bump them back into that top tier in the Western conference.

  Washington Capitals

Contracts due to RFAs Andre Burakovsky, Chandler Stephenson, Jakub Vrana, and others, will be very telling towards who has a shot at taking the top line gig during Tom Wilson’s next suspension of a full season. All of the core players are signed for at least another year, and most for longer. This team is going to consistently be a fantasy haven, where you get what you pay for, plus a high powerplay point bonus.

  Winnipeg Jets

Last but not least, there are a couple Jets that need gassing up before taking off next season. Patrick Laine and Kyle Connor are going to get similar money to that discussed for Matthews and Marner (the Jets’ duo is also featured in the same article as the Leafs’ pair – again, linked here).

  The real fun storyline in the middle of nowhere, will be between the Jets and Jacob Trouba. Trouba is going to take a look at the recent contracts to Matt Dumba, Ryan Ellis, and Cam Fowler, saying he deserves at least that. He may have a point, but that doesn’t mean Winnipeg can oblige. The Jets have a whole set of other key players on larger contracts, and plenty of young defensive talent in the pipeline. A trade would make the most sense, likely for a similar skater who will take on a smaller cap hit to play with a contending team in Winnipeg. As a top pairing defenceman elsewhere, Trouba’s value would take a big jump – not up to the top tier, but possibly inside the top 10-15.

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If you read the whole article, cheers! If you just skimmed some and skipped to your favourite team, that’s fine too. Let me know in the comments if you agree with what was said about them, or if you think there was something missed.

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  Previous Capped articles:

Early Point-Per-Dollar Disappointments

Early Point-Per-Dollar Leaders

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Last plug in the articles, get the enormous fantasy resource that is the DobberHockey 2018-2019 Fantasy guide. Keep your eyes open for the mid-season guide too. We won’t let you miss it.

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All cap related info is courtesy of Capfriendly. All player data was pulled from FrozenTools.

  That caps off this week’s record article, thanks for reading. As always, you can find me on twitter @alexdmaclean.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/capped/capped-cap-situations-for-all-31-nhl-teams/