KoreanHockeyFan

Wtf Gaudette was going to be our future 3rd/2nd line centre.

So true. This is why I won't be pleased if Benning signs any more $3 million forecheckers. The buck stops at Pearson.

If Benning's plan is to re-sign Pearson and let go of Roussel, Sutter, Beagle, I think I'm on board. If he re-signs any one of the remaining three I'm not going to be happy. We really don't need anymore middle-6 forwards. Please put in some bargain bin 4th liners or prospects.

I've been trying to get my tax refunds to $0. Just found out about the T1213 form to proactively reduce my tax deductions.

Any opinions on how long to amortize your mortgage for? I've been constantly debating between a shorter amortization period to be debt free quicker, or amortize the loan for 25 years and be disciplined enough to take the additional monthly cash flow and invest in assets that would have a higher return than the 2-3% mortgage rate I'd realistically be getting in today's market. I've been learning towards 25 years since I could also choose to make lump sum payments during the term of my mortgage to pay down the principal faster whenever I feel like I want to. I know everyone's circumstances are different, but in my case, I'm in a younger age group so I was thinking my longer time horizon gives me more time to build wealth via investing the additional cash flow.

I wonder what Mark Donnelly's thinking.

I hope this is a huge signal for everyone to take this virus seriously. No more excuses, no more conspiracy theories.

I wonder if all those people who went to Whistler think it was still worth it.

Anyone have an idea of how much commission real estate agents around Greater Vancouver make these days?

If you truly believed Demko would have been fine to take the reigns with a bargain bin back up, then full props to your astute foresight. Even though I thought letting Markstrom go was the right move, I was constantly mindful of the fact that Demko could trip up in his first full year of being a 1B/2A goalie, which is why I was glad that Benning signed Holtby so that Demko's confidence wouldn't completely shatter if he ended up having a more tough year - luckily he hasn't, but I'm not going to pretend like I knew he'd be this ready this quickly. Agree. I was just using EDM and TO as comparators for how the Canucks would be able to compete with them, not in terms of team makeup. I agree with you, the Canucks are trending towards a more balanced lineup like St. Louis...the dream would be Tampa Bay. Regardless, I think that model is much more sustainable compared to Edmonton or Toronto's. Yep, I just think we'll be in even better shape once Eriksson, Roussel, Beagle, Holtby and Luongo's recapture penalty all finish up by the end of 2021-22. That's why I think we still have some suffering to go through, but it should get really interesting at the end of next season. By then, hopefully Demko solidifies the number 1 position even more to the point where he can tandem with a cheap back up (DiPietro?) and Benning can fill in the bottom six with prospects like Lockwood and Lind and cheap free agent signings. Even Podkolzin could become a skilled 3rd line forward by then - not just your typical 3rd line gritty forechecker. And yes, those previous "bad" signing were made at a different time under different circumstances. But I still think Benning could have planned it a little better (e.g. a Vesey type of signing at that price would have been great 2-4 seasons ago), or perhaps that's when ownership was interfering too much and wanted the rebuild to finish faster?

Assuming Benning has learned his lesson from some of his bad signings, I think the Canucks are in pretty good shape in a few years once contracts like Roussel, Sutter, etc are off the books. I honestly believe we'll be in the same realm of the Leafs and the OIlers in the near future - just need some defencemen like Juolevi and/or Rathbone to pan out. That being said, I'm still expecting another couple of years of 1 step forward, 2 steps back - not out of the woods yet.

Not sure why you're looking at the Holtby signing as expensive insurance/reactionary to losing Markstrom? I thought it was clear that he was being signed to meet the minimum exposure requirements for the upcoming expansion draft (i.e. every team must expose 1 goalie at minimum).

And the UK has been going down or flat. 46% of population have gotten at least 1 dose in the UK, while compared to 29% in the US. This is an interesting topic: Might be worth it for medical authorities to look deeper into the risks behind hypo-immune responses for people with COVID antibodies also getting a COVID vaccine.

Meh...I wouldn't get that pessimistic just yet. The UK and the US let their outbreaks get out of control and their case counts have been plummeting because of mass vaccination. Part of the reason why we're getting this surge in cases is because Canada is lagging a few months behind on vaccines.

wHy DiD wE l3t g0 oF mArKsTr0M!!!111

"Other than drafting" You make it sound like drafting is an insignificant contributor to how the team has turned out so far.

Lol why are people complaining. Did you people really expect this rebuild to go up in a straight, upward trajectory? You're going to have bad seasons here and there on the way up. Colorado just went through that exact same process not too long ago. The losses of Markstrom, Toffoli, Stecher, etc were all obviously done to prep cap space for Petey, Hughes and Demko - not sure why this is so hard for people to understand. Benning has already admitted his Eriksson contract didn't turn out well and probably plans to ride out some of the other crappy bottom 6 contracts he's signed. Once those all expire, hopefully he'll have learned his lesson and will fill that cap space with more cheaper deals. Relax.

Oooo this is a good one:

BTC/CAD broke down its trend line earlier today. I'd tread carefully in the short-term for Bitcoin.

Finally. Can't believe it's taken this long for the country to officially recognize that you need to cost negative externalities. Hope these big "C" conservative buffoons get a grasp of this basic economic principle.

General indices were sideways for the most part...until the afternoon when it dropped... ...and gave me some gains on my shorts

Good point. Well at least the NHL isn't as corrupt as FIFA...? Consolation prize

Well this kind of leads to a classic "did the chicken or the egg come first" argument. You could argue that no game management would've conditioned players to be careful at all times to not get penalized and be aware of the rules at all times - like I'm sure the players know game management exists and have trained themselves on how to play accordingly. Game management has probably incentivized players to play a certain way depending on who's "turn" it is to get a penalty. As for this issue in general, it looks like Tim Peel is just going to be the scapegoat for this entire thing. Unless the owners and/or players make a concerted effort to use this as an opportunity to point this out as a major problem, nothing is going to be done. At the very least, I hope journalists like Friedman and LeBrun ask the league some hard questions around this.

Unrealistic ask, but the media needs to do a better job of reporting these trial results and what efficacy really means. But since this probably won't happen, dust off that old statistics textbook and refresh your memories on how randomized controlled trials work, people! One major factor for the discrepancy in efficacy rates is the fact that vaccine trials happened at different times, which means your trial samples are going to be different. Moderna and Pfizer are comparable because they conducted their trials roughly at the same time (i.e. before the major second wave of COVID). AZ and Johnson&Johnson trials took place around the time the second wave was hitting the world. At the end of the day, I would temper expectations on these vaccines outright preventing us from getting infected. The ultimate goal is to prevent people from going to the hospital and controlling this virus. Fauci was recently talking about how eradicating COVID-19 isn't realistic; in fact, the only widespread disease we've been able to officially eradicate from the world in recent history is smallpox.