BananaMash

That's probably because he's not Calder eligible anymore. He's played more than 25 games in a single season, therefor he is no longer classed as a first year player. Edit: Someone else beat me to it, I'm sorry lmao.

It's a shame really, but dudes head just seems to not be where it needs to be to be an NHL player. He still looked slow and out of shape at camp even after the team had brought up that he needed to improve in those areas multiple times. What a lazy little bugger. It's disappointing too, what a waste of a wrist-shot.

Man, I love L'Orange's production. His relatively recent album with Mr. Lif was absolutely fantastic - nostalgic for me too, because I love seeing the old Definitive Jux artists doing things still. Super excited for the new L'Orange album that's coming out on Mello Music Group too. The features look excellent.

Juolevi will be fine. He's looked a little slow with the added weight, but there are still bits of his game shining through at times. I would have been very shocked if he was NHL ready this season regardless. I imagine another year in junior (or a year in Finland) and then a year in the AHL will probably be what he needs before cracking the Canucks. Not a big deal, most defensemen take a bit longer to develop. There's a ton of skill there, patience will be needed though. Luckily we won't be hurting without him for a few years anyway.

We are. Thanks for the discussion. Have a good one

1) I'll agree with you that 15lbs over the span of a few months is a lot, but both of us know it's safe to assume that's not 15lbs of pure muscle. Most of the professional hockey players who bulk up huge over a summer add a hell of a lot of body fat too. I also agree with you, it should be a slower process. For some reason though, teams don't allow that sort of time. 2) This is true to an extent. You see rapid gain in intramuscular coordination in people new to fitness. After that, it levels out and becomes more of a long-term process. Which is why that sort of "strength gap" exists between people of similar muscle mass but different ages. 3) This is absolutely true, but I'm talking about immediate issues like tendon failure during the season. You'll get absolutely no argument from me in regard to potential long term negative health effects from regular PED use. 4) Unrelated, but I really wish we were watching Petterson in this Vegas game.

Think of it kind of like a hierarchy of development. Assuming someone isn't suffering from an active illness or severely malnourished, it'll look something like this in terms of development speed: Muscle Tendon Ligament Bone The gap between muscle and tendon development isn't that wide. Likewise, the gap between ligament and bone development isn't that wide. For someone putting on 15lbs over muscle over the time-frame of multiple months, the difference in "gain" between muscle and tendon isn't going to be very wide. In addition to that, unless he has an underlying issue like osteoporosis (or ignored mobility work completely), bone and ligament issues are very unlikely. And when it comes to actual strength, neural-muscular connections are more important. That's what comes with age. And no, I'm not saying that professional athletes aren't on PEDs. I'd never believe that in a million years. You just don't see issues as much unless they're putting on absurd amounts of muscle, recklessly. Think someone like Jim Wendler, who in his prime in the powerlifting circuit was carrying far more muscle than his body was equipped to really handle.

It has a lot less to do with tendon and bone strength and more to do with neural connections. As you get older your neuromuscular connections get more efficient, and your body can recruit more muscle fibers in a movement. This is what you're seeing when talking about "man strength". Tendons and ligaments develop at a fairly similar pace to muscle. He wont be as strong as someone his size with 5 years on him, but I wouldn't be worried about any sort of injuries stemming from bodily development. That only tends to be a real issue with people heavily on steroids, where muscular development is sped up far beyond the amount of load being put on the tendons.

I think sometimes people forget that not every defenseman needs to be an offensive force. I really liked Gudbranson's game tonight for the most part. He deaded the play pretty heavily. I imagine it'll get better as he gets more of the rust off.

I know that it might not mean a whole lot coming from someone on the internet, but I would just like so say a few things. I've been in a very similar place for a very long time until recently, and I know how you feel. Between the cycle of wanting to improve and then hating yourself too much to even bother, I know it all feels suffocating most of the time. There's no reason for you to feel shame for these things, not even the suicidal thoughts. I hope you know that. The things you are dealing with are already rough, don't make them harder by blaming yourself for things out of your control. You might not feel like you accomplish a whole lot, but you still trying your best to keep going forward while dealing with the demons you're dealing with is an accomplishment. You might not be the ideal version of yourself right now, and might be experiencing very heavily suicidal thoughts, but you're still here. That's an accomplishment, man. I'd argue that's the biggest accomplishment someone dealing with this sort of thing can have. And right now, you're accomplishing that at a minimum every single day. Be proud of this. Because it sure as hell isn't easy. Baby steps can make a world of difference. A year ago I had a set date in my head to kill myself, and today I can happily say those feelings are gone. I was in that mindset for 8 years too. If you ever need to talk, you can always PM me. Hell, I'd give you my phone number to talk if you needed to. Just remember, this fight doesn't have to be just you vs. the world. Many people would have your back, mental illness isn't a joke.

That's why I'm looking forward to leaving here again. Living somewhere with no real personal history always feels refreshing to me.

At the larger scale not yet, really. But I'm working toward it. I do take satisfaction in the fact that I'm not complacent and genuinely building toward my life goals. At the present I'm not particularly happy with my life but I know it's temporary. On a smaller level, definitely. I do all the things I like, and I put all my effort into them. I think I just struggle with letting myself connect with people, even friends and family. I have valid reasons for this, but it's something I'm working on too. It's a mindset that makes you feel isolated.

I'd recomend any of Cities Aviv's projects if you wanted some real nice chill-out music. Black Pleasure and Your Discretion is Trust are my favorite of his works. The latter of which is a little more abstract.

Thanks man. I actually do love myself and my friends dearly. They're amazing people. It's just a feeling I can't ever seem to shake, but I wouldn't trade the people I keep around for anything.

Some more out there stuff because why not:

My confession is that even though I have a strong group of very loyal friends, I feel lonely all the time and it bothers me. I'm not really sure why either.

I would agree. There were plays where he was totally into it and chasing people down and looked great, then plays where he was sort of lost in floater land. Definitely seemed to be a confidence in his own abilities thing.

You can tell there's still some refining needed but he's tenacious in puck pursuit when he doesn't have it.

Danny Sabourin used to when he was on the Canucks. It was never openly announced that it was him, but he'd post about when Sabourin would be starting games and stuff so it was pretty obvious. I think his username was Sabou35 or something similar.

I would put my money on the championship team from the KHL or SEL most of the time, but wouldn't be surprised to see a stacked AHL championship team take it now and then; however, I don't think the AHL would win that cup more than 2 times in 10 years.