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Laurin, Dachis – A Stimulus Plan to Restart the Job Market
From: Alexandre Laurin and Benjamin Dachis
To: Finance Minister Bill Morneau
Re: A stimulus plan to restart the job market
As governments partially lift their restrictions and economic activity resumes, many more employees will soon be asked to return to work, and new work opportunities will arise for the unemployed.
Many people may hesitate to return to or to accept work. Health-related concerns are top of the list, of course. But in other cases, employers are learning that some may prefer receiving the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) to working. As governments look to economic stimulus for the recovery while also creating fairer supports across the labour force, they should look to the Canada Workers Benefit (CWB) as the main tool.
One way to encourage unemployed workers to return to a job before their four-month CERB ends, is to let them keep a declining amount of the CERB up to a maximum earnings threshold. That, along with reducing the CERB amount (for example, to about $1,000 a month), should also be a feature if the government extends CERB eligibility to cover those who do not qualify for Employment Insurance (EI) and have not returned to work when the 16-week eligibility period ends. That is early July for many.
One major problem with an income-tested CERB is the unfairness it creates between those who ceased to work and those who kept working during the crisis while not collecting the CERB (earning more than $1,000 per month). Those returning to work would have their income supplemented by a reduced CERB, while those earning the same income who kept working would not. This would violate the fiscal policy principle that individuals with similar income and characteristics should be treated the same by the tax and transfer system.
An announcement on May 7 that the federal government will co-fund provincial essential worker bonuses is a potential start to a fairness solution. But a better design is needed for the economic restart.
The CWB already performs the function of supplementing the income of low-wage individuals and families. The CWB, an "earned-income" refundable tax credit, provides a financial incentive for unemployed low-income individuals to enter and remain in the workforce. The value of the benefit increases with income, up to a maximum. Most single individuals can receive up to $1,355 ($2,335 for families) which is gradually reduced when net income exceeds $12,820 ($17,025). Provinces have the ability to modify the parameters of the CWB for their residents.
A temporary "Working Bonus" for low-wage workers could cover, say, the months of June, July, and August. It could pay, say, a maximum of $500 per month per worker. The design would be inspired by earned-income credits like the CWB, but the Working Bonus would be administered separately. To be eligible, workers would need to earn from employment or self-employment at least $1,000 per month. It could be phased in at a rate of 50 cents per dollars of earnings, such that the maximum monthly benefit amount would be reached at monthly earnings of $2,000. The monthly supplement could then be clawed back at a rate of 25 cents per dollar of earnings past the $2,500 monthly earnings mark.
*Note: Revised CERB assumes a $1,000 monthly amount and a $1:$1 clawback on the benefit amount with work earnings.
Because the amount of the bonus increases with earnings at the lower end of the income spectrum, it would encourage them to work more, supporting the economic re-opening. The national cost for this support program would be in the ballpark of $3 billion. A more generous program would provide stronger work incentives, but would add to the fiscal cost.
Normally, a person or family's CWB benefit is based on the previous year's net income. Our proposal is to base the working bonus on expected monthly earnings (same basis as the CERB) this summer starting early July. The new Working Bonus would use the trust but verify approach of CERB, which is already income tested on a monthly basis.
This Working Bonus, because it can be targeted to non-CERB recipients, would complement the CERB. If Ottawa expands the CERB to allow recipients to earn more than $1,000 per month and keep an income-tested reduced amount, as suggested in the chart above, the CWB would preserve work incentives while allowing for the CERB to wind down.
Another option to focus on fairness within a company would be for Ottawa, subject to addressing technical hurdles, to target the Working Bonus to those not able to return to a previous job at the same hours and pay and letting them continue claiming an income-tested CERB. This would provide a top-up to workers in sectors that have no path to re-opening to seek work in other – lower-paid – areas with job openings. Ottawa would need to create supporting documentation and administration and handle similar implementation hurdles around those with multiple jobs.
Our proposal would encourage people to work more or take on a new job when restrictions are lifted and is targeted to the lowest-income workers hurt most in this recession. It should be the centrepiece of a plan to restart the job market.
Alexandre Laurin is Director of Research at the C.D. Howe Institute and Benjamin Dachis is its Director of Public Affairs.
The views expressed here are those of the authors. The C.D. Howe Institute does not take corporate positions on policy matters.

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Freestanding Pizza Hut retail space adjacent to the business district of Farmington Hills. The site has excellent visibility from (and access to) both 10 Mile Rd and Grand River Ave. The site is located in a strong daytime area and also has easy access to the M-5/Grand River freeway interchange. Great site for restaurant, retail or office use.


Any one knows how to watch DVD or any Video music in my CX5 2017?
A/V input anyone knows how to add ?
Turn off messages without turning off phone calls?
Is there a trick so my phone gps will still work when set to bluetooth in car?
Any one knows how to watch DVD or any Video music in my CX5 2016?
Using with new Samsung Note 8 & it works great!
2016 CX-5 Bose Amplifier Replacement help?


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Disney's biennial fan extravaganza, D23, was held over the weekend in Anaheim, California. Die-hard Disney buffs were treated to major news about the company's upcoming projects, including forthcoming products, apps, rides and attractions, and, of course, a slew of new movies and TV shows. While it's safe to say we're excited about all of it, one upcoming animated movie has really piqued our interest.
On Saturday, August 24th, Walt Disney Animation Studios announced Raya and the Last Dragon will be its next slated animated movie.
Raya and the Last Dragon is a new, original story that follows Raya, a "lone warrior" from a fantasy kingdom named Kumandra, who bands together with a "team of misfits" to find the Last Dragon and bring "light and unity" back to Kumandra.
Per Deadline, the production team was inspired by the cultures of Southeast Asia, though Kumandra is an imaginary land. And we have reason to believe the animation is going to be jaw-dropping, lush, and beautiful. Hello, just peek at the concept art:
Just Announced: Disney's Raya and the Last Dragon, starring @cassandrasteele (Raya) and @Awkwafina (Sisu, the Last Dragon). Check out all-new concept art, and see the film in theaters November 2020. #D23Expo pic.twitter.com/QX8BRZkmG8
— Disney Animation (@DisneyAnimation) August 24, 2019
At the D23 presentation announcing the film, audiences were given a little taste of what to expect.
In a voiceover, the clip read, "Our world was created by dragons. Before they left they hid a gift for the people. A powerful but dangerous gift. One that could save an entire kingdom or bring it to an end. The question is what will we find? Hope or destruction?"
So far, the line-up on this looks incredible. Crazy Rich Asians screenwriter Adele Lim penned the script, teaming back up with Awkwafina, who will play Sisu, the titular last dragon. Degrassi: The Next Generation star Cassie Steele will play Raya, described as "a five-star bad-ass" who can apparently sling a sword like no other, according to Deadline.
Of her character meeting Awkwafina's, Steele told the audience, "Raya is ready to meet a magical water being who breathes fog through her nose, flies by riding the raindrops, and has a gem that channels this amazing huge power." But "when Raya first meets [her], she's in human form and needs Raya's help to reclaim her power to become her true dragon self," according to Entertainment Weekly.
There are a few other Disney favorites at the helm of Raya and the Last Dragon: Paul Briggs and Dean Wellins from Big Hero 6 and Frozen are directing, and Moana's Osnat Shurer is producing.
Of course, Awkwafina has a trifecta of Disney delights up her sleeve in the next couple of years. She'll join the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, slated for release in 2021, and she's rumored to be voicing Scuttle in the upcoming live-action reboot of The Little Mermaid.
In an Instagram post after the event, Awkwafina wrote that attending D23 was the "time of [her] life," and that she was "so excited to finally announce" Raya. She further complimented the production team and gushed about the opportunity to work with Steele.
Raya and the Last Dragon marks the next announced Disney animated film, after Frozen 2 (November 22nd), and Pixar releases Onward (March 2020) and Soul (June 2020). Sadly, that means we'll have to wait until November 25th, 2020, when the movie hits theaters, to meet Sisu and Raya. But we can't wait to see this one and meet our new Disney dream team. It sounds like it's going to be truly epic.
By Arielle Tschinkel
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U.S. Drought Monitor Update for December 14, 2021
Courtesy of Pixabay
According to the December 14, 2021, U.S. Drought Monitor, moderate to exceptional drought covers 46.2% of the United States including Puerto Rico, a decrease from last week's 46.5%. The worst drought categories (extreme to exceptional drought) decreased slightly from 14.9% last week to 14.8%.
Several Pacific weather systems moved through the jet stream flow across the contiguous United States this past week. The circulation was generally zonal westerly, which helped move the systems fairly rapidly, but with slight troughing along the West Coast and ridging evident over the central contiguous United States This pattern contributed to a warmer-than-normal week across the northern Rockies to Mid-Mississippi and Ohio Valleys, Northeast, and southern Plains to Florida, with cooler-than-normal temperatures dominating in the western Great Lakes and along the California coast.
Fronts and surface low pressure systems brought above-normal precipitation to several areas, including: the Lower Mississippi Valley to coastal Carolinas, central Rockies to Great Lakes, parts of the Pacific Northwest, and much of the Southwest from California to the Four Corners states. The weather systems provided a much-needed boost to snowpack in the high elevations of the Far West, but they also triggered a deadly severe weather outbreak across parts of the Mid-Mississippi to Ohio Valleys. Parts of the Northwest, most of the Plains, the southern Appalachians to southern New England, and most of Florida were drier than normal for the week.
Drought or abnormal dryness contracted in parts of the Northwest to northern Plains, and Alabama to coastal Carolinas, where above-normal precipitation fell, but expanded or intensified over parts of the southern to central Plains, Lower Mississippi Valley, and Appalachians. Heavy rains from last week's Kona Low over Hawaii led to a contraction of drought and abnormal dryness across the state this week. Overall, contraction exceeded expansion, with the nationwide moderate to exceptional drought area decreasing this week
Abnormal dryness and drought are currently affecting over 158 million people across the United States including Puerto Rico—about 50.8% of the population.
The full U.S. Drought Monitor weekly update is available from Drought.gov.
In addition to Drought.gov, you can find further information on the current drought as well as on this week's Drought Monitor update at the National Drought Mitigation Center.
The most recent U.S. Drought Outlook is available from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center and the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides information about the drought's influence on crops and livestock.
For additional drought information, follow #DroughtMonitor on Facebook and Twitter.
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According to the March 6, 2018, U.S. Drought Monitor, moderate to exceptional drought covers 30.6% of the contiguous United
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Hijab Cool.
Michael Lumish 27/03/2017	2 Comments 1,675 Views
When I was growing up in the outskirts of New York City in the 1970s there was hardly a hijab to be found.
Of course, when I was growing up in the outskirts of New York City in the 1970s there was hardly a Muslim to be found, either.
There were only a few more Muslims in Kingston, N.Y. or Trumbull, Connecticut than there were Jews living in Mayberry, North Carolina, ten years earlier, with that nice Sheriff Andy Taylor and his cute little boy, Opie Cunningham.
It was only long after 9/11 – as political Islam stridently re-asserted its presence on the international stage – that I focused on political Islam and its relentless hostility toward Gay people, women, and dhimmis throughout the Middle East. Christians in that part of the world have it the worst, as Raymond Ibrahim will be more than unhappy to inform you. Although neither Europe, nor the Vatican, seems to much care, there is a Christian genocide happening right at this very moment throughout much of what was the Byzantine Empire.
To the extent, however, that as a kid I even thought about Muslims I figured that they were pretty much like everybody else. I grew up somewhere in the middle of the middle class, during the early years of the Age of Sesame Street, and my friends were from all across the ethnic kick-ball court.
Irish kids. Black kids. Italian kids. Asian kids. Catholics. Protestants. Jews. It was all just part of the mix and virtually none of us gave a damn one way or the other.
Although I did not realize it at the time, I grew up during a period when the United States, in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement, was well into the process of moving beyond racial animosities. I came across the occasional antisemitic slur, because it's not as if all of my neighbors were head-over-heels in love with either Jewish people or Gay people or Black people to begin with.
Yet us kids played baseball together and went fishing together and hung out after school. Most of our parents were not particularly bigoted, and considerably less so than were their parents, and we were less so, still. The United States was shedding its prejudicial past as minority groups moved into the professional class, as women gained social and economic equality, and as Gay people, through the efforts of people like Harvey Milk in San Francisco, gained acceptance in the general culture toward the end of the twentieth-century.
Sadly, however, the ideal of ethnic and gendered diversity has been replaced on the illiberal progressive-left by multicultural fragmentation and identity politics as represented by the hijab… all of which moves in a direction entirely counter to Martin Luther King, Jr.s liberal dream of equality.
The hijab is a symbol of Muslim supremacism, not liberal diversity.
It could recently have become a symbol of liberal diversity in the United States if people like faux-feminist icon, Linda Sarsour, had made it so, but they did not. There is nothing essentially anti-feminist about any style of headscarf, so long as it is worn voluntarily, but unfortunately that is not the case for hundreds of millions of women throughout the Muslim world.
If Sarsour, and those westerners unironically adopting an Islamic patriarchal style of women's apparel in the name of feminism, had made it clear that they oppose the rise of political Islam, things might be different. If they had stood up for the 1,200 women victimized by the mass rapes in Cologne on New Years Eve, 2016, things might be different.
But they did not.
On the contrary, contemporary feminism betrayed its essential values precisely because it failed to speak up for the rights of women, Gay people, or dhimmis in either Asia or Europe. Thus it becomes difficult to see how contemporary feminism can possibly be said to stand for universal human rights.
By embracing the hijab western feminism drains itself of ideological content. It stands for everything and nothing, which is precisely why the recent Women's Marches held aloft no specific demands even as they reduced women to their sexual organs and wore pink "pussy hats." Thus, whatever anyone might say about Sarsour, she is not liberal and neither is contemporary feminism.
For most of us from the various abused ethnic minorities who lived for thirteen centuries under the boot of Arab-Muslim imperial rule, the hijab is not a cool western fashionable accessory representative of "hip" culture.
On the contrary.
For Jewish people – and other dhimmis familiar with their own history – the hijab is, along with the keffiyeh, a symbol of ethnic oppression. The keffiyeh is to many Jews what the Klansmen's hood is to most African-Americans. It represents the intention of violence towards one's own people in order to ensure racist political objectives, by any means necessary.
And the keffiyeh, needless to say, is born of the hijab.
Understand, however, that if the Muslim world had given up on its imperialist tendency to oppress all non-Muslims then I would not care about the hijab. I am no more offended, for example, at the Christian cross, or a nun's habit, then I am at the Flying Spaghetti Monster, because none of those things represent hostility toward Jews. Christianity traversed the European Enlightenment of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and came out the better for it because it heightened the value of self-criticism within Christian culture resulting in a humanistic sensibility.
Whereas Catholicism formally renounced its doctrinaire Jew-hatred in Vatican Council II, Islam has never done any such thing and God knows that they need to.
The cultures under Islam, including most of those in the West, have simply not gone through a similar liberal reformation and couldn't give a fig about western-left liberal notions concerning the freedom of the individual. From the seventh-century until the present, most of the Muslim world treats women like chattel, murders Gay people outright, and seeks the elimination of Jewish self-determination and self-defense on the very land of Jewish ancestry.
Whatever else the hijab represents it has absolutely nothing to do with western liberalism, feminism, or universal human rights.
The corporate embrace of the hijab, much like the now-and-again corporate embrace of hip socialist iconography, is a way of co-opting cool for the purpose of making a buck.
In The Conquest of Cool, historian and The Baffler publisher, Thomas Frank, argues that the New York advertising agencies were key in creating the 1960s counterculture and I feel reasonably certain that Mad Men's fictional Don Draper – who at the end of the series we are led to believe created the famous 1971 "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" Coke ad – would have agreed.
In the meantime, while Madison Avenue seeks to make a few bills marketing the hijab, the western-left is shedding itself of liberalism.
The primary question facing contemporary western feminism, therefore, if they wish to maintain anything resembling ideological credibility, is just how they square one of the world's foremost symbols of patriarchy, the hijab, with their alleged devotion to women's equality?
First published at Israel Thrives
Tags headscarf hijab Political Islam
Previous BSA rules Gaza blockade cannot be reported as "illegal".
Next Oz Torah: Ask the Rabbi – Were we really slaves in Egypt?
An act of repentance and reconciliation – our trip to Ukraine 2019.
From the 22nd to the 29th of June 2019, a group of five Austrians, three …
Pam Hopf
Excellent article Michael. It's paradoxical how today's 'feminists' appropriate a symbol of gender oppression while proclaiming their support for women's rights. It's all part of the PC culture which has crept upon Western civilisation, that mandates that one must not criticise other cultures, however abhorrent their practices. Thus fgm, child marriage and scriptural endorsement of beating women are off limits for discussion, while we feel obligated to excoriate our own culture, pointing out that women haven't yet crashed through some glass ceiling and do more of their share of household chores.
Michael Lumish
Hi Pam, the Left is shedding Enlightenment liberalism in favor of multiculturalism and political correctness and they don't even know it.
International Law Expert: Israel Is Not an "Occupier"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZetBctjYSw
The Palestinian Wall of Lies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByMufgpcdnI
John McDonagh on Jesus, Palestinian?
Tomer Ilan on ECAJ complaint to ABC: Radio National interview of Orly Noy and Sara Saleh.
Shirlee Finn on Jesus, Palestinian?
Otto Waldmann on Jesus, Palestinian?
David Schulberg on ECAJ complaint to ABC: Radio National interview of Orly Noy and Sara Saleh.
Graham Coffey on No worries in Israel – Opinion piece June '19.
Graham Coffey on Jesus, Palestinian?
Anne's Opinions – Israel News.
Australia/Israel History
FLAME. Facts & Logic about the ME.
Israel Thrives
Justice for Jews from Arab Countries.
Legal Grounds.
NGO Monitor.
Anzac Memorial at Be'ersheva
Australia/Israel Pictorial History.
Please click image for PDF.
"There was nothing called a Palestinian people" in 1917, says Palestinian historian.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=ASddXApGKek
The Israeli Palestinian Conflict: Myths and Facts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XILOXhQLiKw
"Son of Hamas" @ AIPAC PC 2015
The road to Jenin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knYH5oiy3C0
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Q: How to Disable Wp rocket Caching Permanently for all pages Currently, I'm using Nginx FASTCGI and Redis cache to Improve my server side caching. I'm also using Wp rocket to optimize website performance. When I clear Wp rocket cache with Wp rocket clear cache option, my website get break. For fixing this issue, I have to delete cache folder. I used wp rocket disable cache plugin, but that doesn't works perfectly. Is there any solution for either remove wp rocket cache clearing system or, Prevent wp rocket from adding wp-cache true line in the wp-config file, or remove clear cache option permanently from WordPress.

A: You can use this helper plugin to completely turn off the WP Rocket caching while keeping its other optimization functions.
I had the same issue and that's what WP Rocket support sent me.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10MQ5yB5tkzUjDJJt9j8TG_1rTrEQAlKl/view

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Sens Preview: Colin White Jersey Card
(team and product links go to sponsored Amazon products, player links go to related pages on my blog, news links go to source pages)
This will likely be the preface to all of this year's Season Preview posts: I liked doing last year's format, so I'll be doing it the same way this season as well, partly because of that but also because as a father of a toddler and a baby, I just do not have enough time to write two separate posts per day on each blog. I'll copy these on each one instead. Like last year, the entire scope of the analysis will take place here and the player will have some sort of direct connection to what's written.
Caveats: At this point, despite training camp being set to start, several players haven't found a team yet, many RFAs haven't signed with their respective teams, and a few clubs are currently above the salary cap, which means there is much maneuvering left to do.
Key exits: Evgenii Dadonov (RW), Ryan Dzingel (F), Artem Anisimov (C), Derek Stepan (C), Marcus Hogberg (G), Joey Daccord (G), Matthew Peca (F)
Key Arrivals: Michael Del Zotto (D), Nick Holden (D), Kole Sherwood (RW)
Top prospects: Shane Pinto (C), Filip Gustavsson (G), Jake Sanderson (D), Jacob Bernard-Docker (D), Tyler Boucher (W), Roby Jarventie (LW), Lassi Thomson (D), Ridley Greig (LW), Tyler Kleven (D), Zack Ostapchuk (LW), Egor Sokolov (RW), Mark Kastelic (C), Maxence Guenette (D)
It would take a lot of things to go right with the development of the Ottawa Senators' young stars for the team to be able to contend for a playoff spot until the end of March... but chances are a lot of them will. Most of the forwards will take a step forward (although Tim Stützle may go through a sophomore slump, particularly if asked to fill the #2 centre role instead of remaining on the wing), and the defense showed during the final month of the 2020-21 season that they were ready for more responsibilities. As a matter of fact, had the Sens received just league average goaltending from Matt Murray in any of his first 10 games, they team would have been a lock for the playoffs, seeing as they fell a single point behind the Montréal Canadiens who were in a tailspin at the end of the season, because of a compressed schedule due to a Covid outbreak.
What makes their odds look good:
Finishing the season with a 10-4 record was impressive, but it may be a mirage, due to teams resting players or being unprepared to face them because they were at the bottom of the standings. Illusion or not, these young players learned to win and can now bank that experience for future use.
Question marks: Can sophomore Josh Norris continue progressing to keep a stranglehold on the #1 centre role? Will Murray bounce back, or has he simply lost his way? How many games will Brady Tkachuk miss as a contract holdout, and will it cost him the captaincy (I, for one, would give it to Thomas Chabot at this point, who has bought into what the team is looking to build by signing the eight-year deal that GM Pierre Dorion hopes to build other contracts around)?
Outlook:
This team will be a powerhouse three years from now, it's just a matter of gaining more experience, some of the current contenders taking a step back, and Tkachuk deciding if he wants in or if he'll conspire with brother Matthew to eventually land with the St. Louis Blues together.
Tied for 4th in the Atlantic Division, with the Boston Bruins and Habs.
One key player in the Sens' rebuild had been Colin White, a 2015 first-round pick (21st overall) who plays well in all three zones, once thought to be the team's next first-line pivot (which is why he was given a six-year deal averaging $4.75M after a strong rookie season in 2019) but who can go up and down the lineup without hurting the team while amassing anywhere between 25 and 45 points, perhaps with a peak of 60.
Unfortunately, he will miss the entire 2021-22 season after falling awkwardly and dislocating his right shoulder in a pre-season game.
The good news for the Sens is the Canadiens and Bruins also have plenty of injury troubles to start the season, as do the Pittsburgh Penguins who will be competing for the same Wild Card playoff spot - and Ottawa has the most depth and best prospects of the lot.
Here is White, wearing the Senators' white (away) uniform from a few years ago, on card #DD-CW from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Black Diamond collection and Diamond Debut Relics sub-set:
It features a matching white swatch from a photo shoot.
Labels: 2017-18, Black Diamond, Card, Colin White, Diamond Debut, Hockey, Insert, NHL, Ottawa Senators, Relics, Upper Deck
Habs Preview: Christian Dvorak: Two Autographed Cards
Key exits: Jesperi Kotkaniemi (C), Phillip Danault (C), Corey Perry (RW), Jordan Weal (C), Cale Fleury (D), Jon Merrill (D), Tomas Tatar (LW), Eric Staal (C), Erik Gustafsson (D)
Key Arrivals: David Savard (D), Cédric Paquette (LW), Mathieu Perreault (C/LW), Jean-Sébastien Dea (C), Mike Hoffman (LW), Chris Wideman (D), Sami Niku (D), Samuel Montembeault (G)
Top prospects: Cole Caufield (RW), Cayden Primeau (G), Kaiden Guhle (D), Mattias Norlinder (D), Jordan Harris (D), Jan Mysak (LW), Ryan Poehling (C), Oliver Kapanen (C), Luke Tuch (LW), Logan Mailloux (D), Gianni Fairbrother (D), Rafaël Harvey-Pinard (LW), Joël Teasdale (LW)
I don't buy that the Montréal Canadiens played in the weakest division last year, because they didn't: the West had the three California teams, which were essentially 30 free wins for the Vegas Golden Knights, while the Habs had to contend with Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Leon Draisaitl, Jacob Markstrom, Thatcher Demko and Connor Hellebuyck in any given game while the rest of the league faced much easier matchups down the middle and in net.
The team gained a lot of experience during last season's playoff run to the Stanley Cup Final, and many of the returning faces up front (Nick Suzuki, Tyler Toffoli, Caufield, Josh Anderson, Joel Armia) have room to grow their game, the leadership rock remains stable with Brendan Gallagher despite Shea Weber's probable absence, and the defense is a brick wall only the Tampa Bay Lightning can pierce... year after year.
Question marks: Will Weber's health force him to retire? Which is the real Carey Price: the regular-season bottom-dweller of the past four seasons, or the quality playoff starter from last year's run? Will the team actually keep Jonathan Drouin, or is he off to clear his mind with former teammates in Colorado, or adding to a top-six in Edmonton?
The Atlantic is stacked. The Bolts remain the gold standard, the Florida Panthers finally delivered on par with their talent, the Toronto Maple Leafs can outscore their uncertainty between the pipes, the Ottawa Senators are on the rise, and the Boston Bruins, although older and stating to see core pieces retire, can still hold their own; the Detroit Red Wings and Buffalo Sabres don't matter in the playoff conversation, but finishing ahead of the fifth-place team in the Metropolitan does, as the team with the most points in slots 7 and 8 in the Conference make it to the dance, so the Bs, Sens and Habs may cancel each other out in the end.
Tied for 4th in the Atlantic Division, outside the playoff picture.
Going by comments on social media, Montréal fans do not seem to have a fucking clue how important Danault was to this team. His line with Tatar and Gallagher was the most potent for goals and shot differentials at five-on-five for the past three years combined, and in any given year also held their ground and were top-three, matching favourably with the likes of McDavid/Draisaitl/whoever, Brad Marchand/Patrice Bergeron/David Pastrnak and Gabriel Landeskog/Nathan MacKinnon/Mikko Rantanen. Even when they didn't score, their 60-point pace mixed with defensive acumen made them a better a more effective unit than any other unit in the league, including those with multiple 100-point players. In last year's playoffs, Danault even took most draws when his line wasn't on the ice.
Acquired in a trade with the Arizona Coyotes, Christian Dvorak is a 25-year-old centre who wins faceoffs, scores 15-20 goals a year and collects some 45-60 points (pro-rated) at $4.45M per, for four more seasons. He covers 80% of what Danault brought, with added net-front presence in the offensive zone and is the epitome of "cost certainty", which is nice to have under a salary cap. He cost more (a first-rounder and a second-rounder) than the Habs received for Kotkaniemi (a first and a third), who could hit the 50-point mark this season and be a very good player five years from now - although that is no certainty, especially to those who saw him fall to the ice five times per game for the past three years. Like Price and Alex Galchenyuk before him, "KK" was rushed to the Big Show way too soon for his own good.
The Canadiens' centre depth took a big hit this summer, and I'm afraid Dvorak has big shoes to fill, although casual fans might not realize just how clownesque they really are - it's a good thing McDavid and Draisaitl are in the Pacific Division this year. Dvorak has evolved nicely from the 2016 World Juniors' bronze-winning Team USA squad as a much more complete 200-foot player, but he is not the player who accumulated five more points than Mitch Marner (121 to 116) when both were teammates in their final year of Juniors playing for the OHL's London Knights.
This is what he looked like in recent years, wearing the Coyotes' purple and black (home) uniform on card #156 from Upper Deck's 2019-20 Series 1 set:
And here he is wearing their correspondig white (away) uniform, on card #144 from the 2018-19 O-Pee-Chee collection by UD:
He signed them in (fading) black sharpie before Covid-19 hit.
Labels: 2018-19, 2019-20, Arizona Coyotes, Autograph, Card, Christian Dvorak, Hockey, In Person, NHL, O-Pee-Chee, Upper Deck
Lightning Preview: Andrei Vasilevskiy Jersey Card
Caveats: at this point, despite training camp being set to start in less than two weeks, several players haven't found a team yet, many RFAs haven't signed with their respective teams, and a few clubs are currently above the salary cap, which means there is much maneuvering left to do.
Key exits: Yanni Gourde (C), Blake Coleman (LW), Barclay Goodrow (RW), Tyler Johnson (C), David Savard (D), Luke Schenn (D), Curtis McElhinney (G)
Key Arrivals: Brian Elliott (G), Corey Perry (RW), Zach Bogosian (D), Pierre-Édouard Bellemare (C), Charles Hudon (C)
Top prospects: Alex Barré-Boulet (C), Roman Schmidt (D), Boris Katchouk (LW), Taylor Raddysh (RW), Simon Ryfors (C), Odeen Tutfo (C), Cal Foote (D), Hugo Alnefelt (G), Jack Finley (C), Nick Perbix (D), Dylan Duke (C), Cole Koepke (LW), Gage Goncalves (C)
I have called the Tampa Bay Lightning the "best-assembled team in the cap era", but "best team" would be just as fitting. Even past Rocket Richard Trophy winner and captain Steven Stamkos, Hart and Art Ross winner Nikita Kucherov, Vezina and Conn Smythe winner Andrei Vasilevskiy and Norris and Conn Smythe winner Victor Hedman, there is still the ever-clutch antics of point-per-game player Brayden Point, two-way star Anthony Cirelli, playoff hero Alex Killorn, consistent beast Ondrej Palat, heart-and-soul grinder Pat Maroon, future Norris winner Mikhail Sergachev, All-Star Ryan McDonagh, sophomore Foote... they're like the Canadian Olympic team, they could ice two teams and still be serious contenders.
They are the back-to-back champions and replaced every departed player with their equivalent (at least on paper).
Question marks: They lost their entire third line (Gourde, Coleman and Goodrow), which had been essential for them last postseason - while Coleman and Goodrow also led the team with over 100 hits apiece in the regular season, followed by Schenn, with 99, who also left. But they have players lined up to replace them, both old (Perry, the returning Bogosian) and young (Barré-Boulet) and in-between (Bellemare and Hudon).
This team can withstand missing an entire season of Stamkos and win the Cup. This team can withstand missing an entire season of Kucherov and win the Cup. This team can withstand a sub-par postseason by Hedman and win the Cup. They could possibly only get challenged by losing two MVP-level players, as losing "just" one clearly still had them on top of the rest of the league. We have three more years of them being heavy contenders for the title - or until they get bored and tired of winning.
1st in the Atlantic Division.
Of course, Vasilevskiy will have a great say on whether the Bolts finish first, second (if he misses time to injury), third (if for some reason he falters and completely loses his way) or fourth (if he misses nearly the entire season due to unforeseen cicumstances), but unless the team's plane crashes altogether, Tampa will make the playoffs and be a threat to win it all again this year. The only thing standing between Tampa Bay and a third consecutive Stanley Cup is fatigue - not just accrued from the last two championship runs, but also because a lot of their best players (Vasilevskiy, Hedman, Kucherov, Palat, Point, McDonagh, possibly Stamkos) will be representing their countries in the Olympics mid-season.
You may recall my attempts at ranking Vasi with the best of the best last season, admitting he was currently the best in the world at covering the bottom-third of the net, but that he had flaws up high; in terms of "which goalie would be best playing behind the same team as his counterparts", I would likely have him second behind the Winnipeg Jets' Connor Hellebuyck with an asterix for John Gibson in that he would be capable to elevate his game to #2. Rounding out my top-five for the upcoming season are Marc-André Fleury and Jacob Markstrom, with Robin Lehner right outside. Thatcher Demko is making a strong case for consideration as well. In terms of a farther future, say five years down the line, Spencer Knight, Cayden Primeau and Devon Levi are probably the bigger names coming, ahead of Carter Hart, who I do not necessarily view as a future perennial Vezina candidate the way many pundits do.
Here is #88 sporting the Bolts' blue (home) uniform on card #GJ-AV from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Series 1 set and UD Game Jersey sub-set:
It features a matching game-worn jersey swatch.
Labels: 2017-18, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Card, Game Jersey, Hockey, Insert, Jersey Card, NHL, Series 1, Swatch Card, Tampa Bay Lightning, Upper Deck
Ducks Preview: Isac Lundestrom Autograph Card
Caveats: At this point, despite training camp being set to start soon, several players haven't found a team yet, many RFAs haven't signed with their respective teams, and a few clubs are currently above the salary cap, which means there is much maneuvering left to do.
Key exits: Haydn Fleury (D), Danton Heinen (LW), Ryan Miller (G), David Backes (F), Carter Rowney (C/RW)
Key Arrivals: Greg Pateryn (D), Buddy Robinson (RW)
Top prospects: Trevor Zegras (C), Lukas Dostal (G), Jamie Drysdale (D), Mason McTavish (C), Jacob Perreault (RW), Olen Zellweger (D), Brayden Tracey (LW), Jackson LaCombe (D), Sam Colangelo (RW), Sasha Pastujov (LW)
The Anaheim Ducks have been rebuilding for a few years at this point, and young guns and prospcts like Isac Lundestrom, Zegras, Max Comtois, Drysdale, Dostal, Perreault and McTavish will be able to grow together and have eahc other's backs while they take steps to grow as a unit - but I do believe success will only come after head coach Dallas Eakins makes way for someone else... possibly new AHL bench boss Joël Bouchard.
Zegras begins the season as one of two heavy favourites for the Calde Trophy (with the Montréal Canadiens' Cole Caufield), and the Ducks also have one of two front-runners to start games for Team USA at the Olympics in John Gibson, which means they're also set at the most important position. You can also check "leadership" and "Stanley Cup champion" with captain Ryan Getzlaf returning to the team despite being a free agent in the off-season.
Question marks: Depth and ice time will be an issue this year, with the likes of Kevin Shattenkirk, Hampus Lindholm and Jakob Silfverberg earning top dollar but delivering very little in return for the past few seasons.
The rebuild is not over yet and the current coach doesn't seem to have the magic touch that will accelerate all the youngsters' developments at the same time. Expect another year or two before playoff contention, but a lot of these kids have the right stuff. A good first step in the right direction would be to finish ahead of the San Jose Sharks this season.
8th in the Pacific Division.
Lundeström was a first-round pick (23rd overall) in 2018, and his draft class is starting to establish itself in the NHL, like Andrei Svechnikov (2nd), Brady Tkachuk (4th), Quinn Hughes (7th), Adam Boqvist (8th), Evan Bouchard (10th), Oliver Wahlstrom (11th), Noah Dobson (12th), Joel Farabee (14th), K'Andre Miller (22nd), Philipp Kurachev (120th), and Yegor Sharangovich (141st). Others started strongly but have since taken a step back, like Rasmus Dahlin (1st) and Jesperi Kotkaniemi (3rd), while others are still adjusting to their environment, such as Filip Zadina (6th), Liam Foudy (18th), and Rasmus Sandin (29th), but players like Joe Veleno (30th) and Jacob Bernard-Docker (26th) might start showing that patience is indeed its own reward.
Lundeström is NHL-ready, having posted a point-per-game average in Sweden's second division last season (caliber below the AHL and KHL, on par with or a little above that of the Swiss League). He had posted 21 points (6 goals, 15 assists) in 43 games with the AHL's San Diego Gulls as a 19-year-old in 2019-20.
He is quick, and despite only being 6' tall and 185 pounds, he is pretty good at protecting the puck; he projects as a 50-60-point player who can handle second-line duties or make players on the third line produce like second-liners.
Internationally, he won silver medals at the 2016 U-18s and 2018 World Juniors, as well as bronze with Team Sweden at the 2015 U-17s. Here he is wearing the Ducks' white (away) uniform, on the signed version of card #R-IL from Upper Deck's 2018-19 O-Pee-Chee Platinum set and Rookie Auto sub-set:
It's signed on-card in blue sharpie.
Labels: 2018-19, Anaheim Ducks, Autograph, Card, Hockey, Insert, Isac Lundestrom, NHL, O-Pee-Chee, Platinum, Rookie Auto, Rookie Card, Upper Deck
Oilers Preview: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Jersey Card
Key exits: Adam Larsson (D), James Neal (LW), Alex Chiasson (W), Ethan Bear (D), Caleb Jones (D), Dominik Kahun (LW), Tyler Ennis (LW), Jujhar Khaira (C), Dmitry Kulikov (D), Joakim Nygard (LW)
Key Arrivals: Duncan Keith (D), Zach Hyman (LW), Cody Ceci (D), Warren Foegele (LW), Derek Ryan (RW)
Top prospects: Evan Bouchard (D), Dylan Holloway (C), Raphaël Lavoie (RW), Xavier Bourgault (C), Philip Broberg (D), Carter Savoie (LW), Ryan McLeod (C), Tyler Benson (LW), Ilya Konovalov (G), Olivier Rodrigue (G), Stuart Skinner (G), Tyler Tullio (C), Dmitri Samorukov (D)
As a lifelong Edmonton Oilers fan, I must admit the departures of Bear and Jones were baffling, particularly with the team unable to keep Larsson in the mix, who would have been the ideal partner for Keith on a second pairing.
They have the best player on the planet (Connor McDavid) and the third- or fourth-best centre on earth (Leon Draisaitl), who are finally complemented by a decent surrounding cast at nearly every position...
Question marks: Will the goaltending duo of 41-year-old Mike Smith and the untradeable Mikko Koskinen (he of the 3.17 goals-against average and .899 save percetage last season) hold up or anchor the team?
The Vegas Golden Knights are the cream of the Pacific Division, so much so that they can withstand injuries to an entire line from their top-six and an elite defenseman without worrying aout losing home-ice advantage in the first two rounds, but the Oilers are definitely the best of what's left, if only because of their firepower up front. Their defense is also no longer an issue, with Darnell Nurse reaching elite status himself and Bouchard making for a nice wildcard to have, in addition to such steady defensive defensemen as Kris Russell and (believe it or not) Ceci, while a guy like Tyson Barrie can produce upwards of 50 points from the blue line.
Second in the Pacific Division.
For the past three years, most of the focus in Edmonton has been centered around McDavid and Draisaitl, with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins figuring as an afterthought at best and perhaps a serious question mark regarding his production versus his salary and re-signing value, a situation GM Ken Holland dealt with well last summer by signing him to a long extention that diminished his cap hit by a little bit, saving the team nearly a million per season. I believe last year's points totals (13 goals, 19 assists and 35 points in 52 games, for a points-per-game average of 0.67 as a 27-year-old) to be an outlier in terms of his prime (0.77 PPG at 24, 0.84 at 25, 0.94 at 26), and that hovering between the third line when playing on the road and manning the second unit with Hyman and Kailer Yamamoto at home will enable him to return to at least 0.75 points per game, possibly 0.8 if he gets a few looks with either of the two superstars here and there.
As a former first-overall pick (2011), he cannot be considered on even footing with McDavid as a generational player, but he can be seen as a success, particularly in light of other recent Oiler first-overall players like Nail Yakupov. In his draft year, he currently ranks sixth in point production behind Nikita Kucherov (58th overall), Gabriel Landeskog (2nd), Mark Scheifele (7th), Jonathan Huberdeau (3rd) and Johnny Gaudreau (104th), and ahead of the likes of Sean Couturier (8th), Mika Zibanejad (6th), Ondrej Palat (208th), J.T. Miller (15th), Dougie Hamilton (9th), and Vincent Trocheck (64th). I believe he will catch up to Gaudreau, but Couturier and Zibanejad will give him a run for his money in terms of who will round out that draft class' top-five when their careers are over.
Here he is wearing Edmonton's orange (home) uniform on card #GJ-RN from Upper Deck's 2020-21 Series 1 collection and UD Game Jersey sub-set:
It features a white swatch that is certified as having been used in an NHL game. I was pretty stoked to land it, as it's my first RNH "hit" ever.
Labels: 2020-21, Card, Edmonton Oilers, Game Jersey, Hockey, Jersey Card, NHL, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Series 1, Swatch Card, Trade, Upper Deck
Sabres Preview: Travis Turnbull Autograph Card
This will likely be the preface to all of this year's Season Preview posts: I liked doing last year's format, so I'll be doing it the same way this seaosn, partly because of that but also because as a father of a toddler and a baby, I just do not have enough time to write two separate posts per day on each blog. I'll copy these on each one instead. Like last year, the entire scope of the analysis will take place here and the player will have some sort of direct connection to what's written.
Caveats: at this point, despite training camp being set to start in less than two weeks, several players haven't found a team yet, most RFAs haven't signed with their respective teams yet, and a few teams are currently above the salary cap, which means there is much maneuvering left to do.
Key exits: Sam Reinhart (C), Linus Ullmark (G), Rasmus Ristolainen (D), Jake McCabe (D), Will Borgen (D), Matt Irwin (D), Tobias Reider (RW), Riley Sheahan (C), Taylor Hall (F, at last year's deadline)
Key Arrivals: Aaron Dell (G), Craig Anderson (G), Devon Levi (G), Robert Hagg (D), Mark Pysyk (D), John Hayden (C), Vinnie Hinostroza (RW), Will Butcher (D)
Top prospects: Owen Power (D), Jack Quinn (RW), Arttu Ruotsalainen (C), John-Jason Peterka (LW), Isak Rosen (F), Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (G)
The Buffalo Sabres are a complete trainwreck, and have been for the better part of the last two decades. They have not made the playoffs since the 2010-11 season and haven't won a round since 2005-06. Even before then, they were acting as if they were in the middle of a pandemic, making drastic cuts to their drafting budget, letting go three-quarters of their staff and having the ones that remain work mostly from video footage instead of actually traveling to see the young players perform live. They failed to extend captain (Daniel Brière) after captain (Chris Drury) after captain (Jason Pominville) after captain (Thomas Vanek), they wasted elite goaltending (Dominik Hasek, Ryan Miller), and even getting rid of a locker room cancer with a habit of drunkenly crashing his cars into coffee shops such as Ryan O'Reilly did nothing for them but allowed ROR to win a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues.
They are on their fourth GM (Kevyn Adams, following in the footsteps of Jason Botterill, Tim Murray and Darcy Regier), who themselves have overseen head coaches Lindy Ruff, Ron Rolston, Ted Nolan, Dan Bylsma, Phil Housley, Ralph Krueger, and now Don Granato; job security or stability do not have a home here.
Only a die-hard fan or gambler in need of a long-shot win would put their money on Buffalo. They'll perhaps be better than last year in team play, but the talent level just isn't there apart from a few pieces - and Granato as a coach is not Barry Trotz, so this isn't the next New York Islanders, either.
Question marks: When does disgruntled captain Jack Eichel get traded, and what will the return be? Is Aaron Dell really going to be their starting goalie, or will Devan Dubnyk agree to sign with the one team left that still has an opening for top spot in net?
There are building blocks here: Casey Mittelstadt is looking like a centre who can play on one of the top two lines, Victor Olofsson can score on the powerplay and would ideally be slotted in the middle-six on a good team but will see top-line ice time here, and Dylan Cozens shows promise up front as well, with Jack Quinn and J.J. Peterka possibly coming in in a few years, but re-signing Jeff Skinner was always going to be dead money, and Anders Bjork, Tage Thompson and Cody Eakin only seem to be placeholders at this point, either to play out their contracts while the team tanks or (particularly in Eakin's case) until a trade deadline deal to a contender makes enough sense. There are more defensive sure bets per capita, with Rasmus Dahlin seeming like he's regained form under Granato, Owen Power graduating from College eventually and Robert Hagg as a rescue project from the Philadelphia Flyers. I can't say I'm as optimistic about former New Jersey Devils prospect Will Butcher, though. But you don't lose your two best centres, you legitimate #1 goalie and your two most consistent defensemen without replacing any of them and purport to leave the bottom of the standings.
8th in the Atlantic Division.
Which brings me to Travis Turnbull, whose father Perry was a useful NHL journeyman who finished his career playing in Italy and Germany. Undrafted, the Sabres signed Travis as a free agent following a four-year career with the Michigan Wolverines in the NCAA; after four seasons in the Sabres' system, consistently improving from one season to the next, he was allowed to suit up in three games with the parent club in 2012-13, scoring a goal. Unfortunately, the 2012-13 lockout happened, and he set his sights for Germany, putting up 46 points and 88 penalty minutes for Düsseldorfer EG, so he may have preferred being a star player overseas than a grinder in North America. His point production regressed starting in 2016-17, but what he brought to the game was still appreciated nonetheless. He was captain of the Schwenninger Wild Wings last season (11 points in 32 games), and I suspect he will be this year as well. This is leadership the Sabres could have brought back at just about any moment in the last decade, but instead chose ROR to lead the room, then handed the reigns to his heir apparent without ever earning it or showing him what he should keep from O'Reilly's teachings and what to throw away. Since Ruff's firing, the Sabres have seemigly always hired the wrong leader at every crucial position, strating with management down to the coaching staff all the way down to the players on the ice. They will need to admit it to their fans before embarking on another rebuilding phase.
Here is Turnbull wearing the team's retro white (away) uniform, on card #SI-TR from Panini's 2013-14 Select collection and Select Signatures sub-set:
It features a blue-sharpied on-sticker autograph.
Labels: 2013-14, Autograph, Buffalo Sabres, Card, Hockey, Insert, NHL, Panini, Select, Select Signatures, Signatures, Travis Turnbull
Caps Preview: Alex Ovechkin Swatch Card
Key exits: Brenden Dillon (D), Craig Anderson (G), Michael Raffl (LW), Zdeno Chara (D)
Key Arrivals: Matt Irwin (D), xxx (LW), xxx (C/LW), xxx (C), xxx (LW), xxx (D), xxx (D), xxx (G)
Top prospects: Connor McMichael (C), Hendrix Lapierre (C), Martin Fehervary (D), Alexander Alexeyev (D), Vincent Iorio (D), Damien Riat (LW), Aliaksei Protas (C), Brent Johnson (D), Brett Leason (RW), Kody Clark (RW), Lucas Johansen (D)
Sure, the Washington Capitals' stars are all in their 30s, they have few top-tier prospects that have Toronto-based pundits salivating and have exited the playoffs early every year since their 2018 Stanley Cup win, but this nucleus remains rock-solid with the likes of Nicklas Backstrom, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Anthony Mantha, Tom Wilson, T.J. Oshie, John Carlson and Dmitry Orlov. The goaltending position is also in good hands with Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek.
They can outscore the opposition like few teams can and have better goaltending than the Toronto Maple Leafs. If someone in the Atlantic can eliminate the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team from the Metropolitan Division could make it to the Cup Final.
Question marks: A lot of their firepower is tied into a handful of players, who account for a lot of the team's cap space. There are depth issues, and any injury troubles would mean a huge drop in the standings for the Caps.
This team hired Peter Laviolette as head coach because it is still hungry for a Cup. Regular-season seeding doesn't have to matter much, the postseason is how this team will be judged, now and forever.
Third in the Metropolitan Division.
Fresh off a five-year deal that will realistically lead him to breaking Wayne Gretzky's career goals record, Ovechkin is a man on (another) mission. And while the chase for Gretzky's goals record is huge in itself, Ovie is also chasing Sidney Crosby's two undeserved Conn Smythes, a gimme from a handful of Toronto-based journalists who didn't want to give Phil Kessel his due. Should Ovechkin get a second one, it might even force the Hall Of Fame to waive its three-year waiting period to get him in.
Here he is wearing the team's dreadful red (home) Reebok Edge uniform from a few years back, on the swatch version of card #73 from Panini's 2010-11 Luxury Suite collection:
It features a white game-worn jersey swatch. I got this one on Ebay for just over five bucks; its usual book value is closer to $40-50.
Labels: 2010-11, Alex Ovechkin, Ebay, Hockey, Jersey Card, Luxury Suite, NHL, Panini, Swatch Card, Washington Capitals
Hurricanes Preview: Rod Brind'Amour Autographed Card
Caveats: At this point, despite training camp being set to start at the end of the month, several players haven't found a team yet, many RFAs haven't signed with their respective teams, and a few clubs are currently above the salary cap, which means there is much maneuvering left to do.
Key exits: Dougie Hamilton (D), Alex Nedeljkovic (G), James Reimer (G), Petr Mrazek (C), Warren Foegele (W), Cédric Paquette (F), Brock McGinn (LW), Morgan Geekie (C), Jake Bean (D), Jani Hakanpaa (D)
Key Arrivals: Tony DeAngelo (D), Jesperi Kotkaniemi (C), Ian Cole (D), Frederik Andersen (G), Derek Stepan (C), Ethan Bear (D), Antti Raanta (G), Josh Leivo (LW), Brendan Smith (D), Jalen Chatfield (D)
Top prospects: Seth Jarvis (RW), Dominik Bok (W), Ryan Suzuki (C), Anttoni Honka (D), Noel Gunler (RW), Scott Morrow (D), Vasiliy Ponomarev (C), Jack Drury (C), Pyotr Kochetkov (G), Aleksi Heimosalmi (D), Joey Keane (D)
For a team with a low budget that moved on from captain Eric Staal only to hand the title to his little brother Jordan, that couldn't afford to give its best goalie (Nedeljkovic) $3M per season and who let its star defenseman (Hamilton) leave as a free agent to sign to a $9M cap hit with the New Jersey Devils, the Carolina Hurricanes sure turned heads when they gave Kotkaniemi an offer sheet that the Montréal Canadiens were smart not to match, but the 21-year-old forward is a nice project for the coaching staff to develop while the rest of the well-constructed team (a legitimate top line of Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen and Andrei Svechnikov, a second line that can put up points with Vincent Trocheck and Martin Necas, and the aforementioned Staal II manning the third line, with Nino Niederreiter and Jesper Fast able to spend time on one of the top two lines as well, and a defense that still includes Jaccob Slavin, Brady Skjei, Brett Pesce, Jake Gardiner and new acquisitions DeAngelo, Stanley Cup winner Cole and Smith. There is a wealth of talent on that team.
The roster is as stacked as a team not based in Tampa Bay or Vegas can be.
Question marks: If Andersen's an upgrade over Mrazek, can he get back to his 2017 form and adequately replace Nedeljkovic instead? Will DeAngelo become a DeIstraction? Will Kotkaniemi sign a more reasonable extension in January, or has he messed up the Canes' salary structure forever?
This team is built to withstand roster turnovers whenever a player's production has him reach a paygrade deemed too rich for owner Tom Dundon... except for maybe Aho - a 24-year-old centre who can do it all and produce at a point per game pace - and Slavin, who remains the most underrated defenseman in the game. If they had decent goaltending, they would be (and would have been) serious contenders for years.
First in the Metropolitan Division.
Head coach Rod Brind'Amour seems to be the perfect person to lead this troupe and instill team spirit, which is one benefit of having a former captain behind the bench. Not only can he coach this team to success despite never having a true #1 goalie between the pipes, but he's walked the walk as well, waiting until each of his assistants and trainers got extended before signing his own three-year deal. Oh, and he won the Jack Adams Trophy as coach of the year the same day.
Although the award was well-deserved, I think most people know Brind'Amour isn't the best coach in the league, but he's the ideal bench boss for this team, just like he was a great fit as a player, and a perfect member of the Philadelphia Flyers, with whom he played 633 regular-season games and posted 235 goals and 366 assists for 601 points to go with 563 penalty minutes in the heart of the Dead Puck Era, and another 51 points (24 goals and 27 assists) and 31 penalty minutes in 56 post-season games.
On a team where the top line of Eric Lindros, John LeClair and Mikael Renberg was viewed as dominant (and the best line in the NHL), it was Brind'Amour's 13 goals that led the league in the 1997 playoffs, and his two-goal game on March 25th that eliminated the New York Rangers and sent the Flyers to the Cup Final for the first time in a decade. Here he is wearing the team's white (then-home) uniform, on card #121 from Upper Deck's 1997-98 Series 1 collection:
He signed it in black sharpie 10-15 years ago, when he was still playing for the Canes.
Labels: 1997-98, Autograph, Card, Hockey, In Person, NHL, Philadelphia Flyers, Rod Brind'Amour, Series 1, Upper Deck
Blue Jackets Preview: Jakub Voracek Jersey Card
Key exits: Seth Jones (D), Cam Atkinson (RW), Kole Sherwood (RW), Michael Del Zotto (D)
Key Arrivals: Jakub Voracek (RW), Adam Boqvist (D), Jake Bean (D), Sean Kuraly (C), Zac Rinaldo (C)
Top prospects: Kent Johnson (C), Cole Sillinger (C), Corson Ceulemans (D), Kirill Marchenko (RW), Yegor Chinakhov (RW), Andrew Peeke (D), Daniil Tarasov (G), Dmitri Voronkov (LW), Trey Fix-Wolansky (RW), Stanislav Svozil (D), Liam Foudy (C), xxx (LW), xxx (LW)
This is a transition period for the Columbus Blue Jackets, who have only a handful of players left from the failed "all-in" season three years ago. Even head coach John Tortorella left, replaced by assistant Brad Larsen. There will be growing pains while a new system is set up, in the same way an expansion team like the Seattle Kraken might face, except exclusively with home-grown young players and draft picks, not hand-picked from the entire league. The four new players coming in look solid to me (even Rinaldo, who will help instill some team spirit).
The Blue Jackets' top-three on defense consisting of Zach Werenski, Boqvist and Bean will be solid eventually, but the latter two must gain experience first, and it will be trial by fire at least for this season. Goalie Elvis Merzlikins is a very good goalie who may fall into a Vezina Trophy at some point (in the era of Connor Hellebuyck, Jacob Markstrom, Thatcher Demko and Andrei Vasilevskiy, which wil lbe extremely difficult), but he would need his team to make the playoffs for that to happen.
Question marks: Will Patrik Laine regain his offensive touch, or will he bide his time until he can leave himself?
The trade deadline brought in a huge leadership void when captain Nick Foligno and defenseman David Savard were traded for high draft picks, which was compounded by Jones' and Atkinson's summer departures. This will take time to rebuild.
8th in the Metropolitan Division.
I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the one-for-one trade involving Atkinson (headed to the Philadelphia Flyers) and Voracek - on both sides. Atkinson is still a 30-goal man, a feisty little speedster, and Voracek produces at a 0.75-point-per-game clip at this stage in his career - a very good production rate for a 32-year-old player - but he's lost a bit of foot speed and is an assists collector first and foremost, and I fail to see who he will set up unless he is directly tasked with reviving Laine's game.
He knows what to expect in Columbus, however, having already been a part of a rebuild there to start his career off as the team's 7th-overall pick in 2007. This is what he looked like wearing deep blue, as seen on card #GJ-JV from Upper Deck's 2010-11 Series 1 collection and UD Game Jersey sub-set:
It features a white game-worn jersey swatch.
Posted by Sébastian Hell at 10:16 PM 1 comment:
Labels: 2010-11, Card, Columbus Blue Jackets, Game Jersey, Hockey, Insert, Jakub Voracek, Jersey Card, NHL, Series 1, Swatch Card, Upper Deck
Jets Preview: Troy Murray: Two Autographed Cards
Key exits: Mason Appleton (C), Mathieu Perreault (C/LW), Tucker Poolman (D), Laurent Brossoit (G), Derek Forbort (D), Nate Thompson (C), Trevor Lewis (C)
Key Arrivals: Nate Schmidt (D), Brendan Dillon (D), Riley Nash (C)
Top prospects: Cole Perfetti (C), Ville Heinola (D), Dylan Samberg (D), David Gustafsson (C), Kristian Vesalainen (LW), Chaz Lucius (C), Mikhail Bergin (G), Dmitri Kuzmin (D), Simon Lundmark (D)
Now that they've added to their blue line via the low-key Norris-level Schmidt and dependable Dillon, the Winnipeg Jets are once again a force to be reckoned with, with the best goalie in the world in Connor Hellebuyck, tremendous leadership in Blake Wheeler, star power in Mark Scheifele, the NHL's most underrated forward in Kyle Connor, and another potential first-line centre in Pierre-Luc Dubois, who underperformed last season after coming in a couple of weeks late due to Canadian Covid-19 protocols and never really getting enough time to catch up, but who has proven in the past that he can carry the load. And Schmidt's arrival will send Neal Pionk and Josh Morrissey in ideal slots (they were fine operating as the top-two defensemen but will be elite #2s and #3s).
A team with Hellebuyck between the pipes makes the playoffs. A team with him and Schmidt, Pionk and Morrissey might win a round. Add two potent offensive lines and a full cast on D (including Dylan DeMelo) and you may get a Conference Final.
Question marks: Eric Comrie is now in his 8th season trying to make it as the Jets' backup goalie. Will it work this time? He's a bit too good for the AHL and no longer has anything to prove there, he just needs to step up and have a save percentage above .905 to keep his head above water. This team is strong but not especially deep. A couple of key injuries could derail a lot of good things - and one to Hellebuyck would be deadly.
Don't sleep on the Jets. In a relatively weak Central Division where only the Colorado Avalanche are a powerhouse, there is a path to the third round that's wide open, and Winnipeg's talent level ranks on par with that of the St. Louis Blues, and above the Minnesota Wild, Chicago Blackhawks and Dallas Stars.
Second in the Central Division.
Troy Murray was only a member of the Jets for a year and a half before the team - which had acquired him from the Chicago Blackhawks prior to the 1991-92 season - sent him back to the Hawks in February of 1993. The Jets ended up with the rights to Warren Rychel (who never played in Winnipeg) and Steven Bancroft while the Hawks landed Bryan Marchment (one of the meanest and dirtiest players of all time) and Chris Norton. Murray was by far the best player in any transaction, captaining the Jets for the duration of his stay in Canada and winning the Selke trophy in 1985-86 as well as the Stanley Cup in 1996 with the Colorado Avalanche alongside Rychel.
He was also captain of the Team Canada squad that took home the gold medal at the 1982 World Juniors.
After two stints with Chicago spanning 12 seasons and one year playing for the IHL's Chicago Wolves (posting 21 goals, 29 assists and 50 points as well as 63 penalty minutes in 81 games), Murray joined the Hawks' broadcast team upon retiring as a player, and it was announced just last week that he had been diagnosed with cancer. I wish him the best of luck in his fight for his life.
Here he is wearing the Jets' white (then-home) uniform, on card #215 from Pro Set's 1992-93 Series 1 collection:
And here he is in action pivoting in front of New York Islanders goalie (and fellow current broadcaster) Glenn Healy, with Jeff Norton in possession of the puck:
Both were signed in blue sharpie while he was in town with the Hawks, around 2015-2017.
Labels: 1992-93, Autograph, Card, Fleer, Fleer Ultra, Hockey, In Person, NHL, Pro Set, Series 1, Troy Murray, Winnipeg Jets


text:
package bo.user.jdbc;

import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.text.MessageFormat;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;

import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;

import com.github.ddth.commons.utils.DPathUtils;
import com.github.ddth.dao.jdbc.BaseJdbcDao;

import bo.user.IUserDao;
import bo.user.UserBo;

/**
 * Jdbc-implement of {@link IUserDao}.
 *
 * @author Thanh Nguyen <btnguyen2k@gmail.com>
 * @since 0.1.0
 */
public class JdbcUserDao extends BaseJdbcDao implements IUserDao {

    private String tableNameUser = "djs_user";
    private String cacheNameUser = "DJS_USER";

    protected String getTableNameUser() {
        return tableNameUser;
    }

    public JdbcUserDao setTableNameUser(String tableNameUser) {
        this.tableNameUser = tableNameUser;
        return this;
    }

    protected String getCacheNameUser() {
        return cacheNameUser;
    }

    public JdbcUserDao setCacheNameUser(String cacheNameUser) {
        this.cacheNameUser = cacheNameUser;
        return this;
    }

    /*----------------------------------------------------------------------*/
    private static String cacheKeyUserId(String id) {
        return "ID_" + id;
    }

    private static String cacheKeyUserName(String username) {
        return "UN_" + username;
    }

    private static String cacheKey(UserBo user) {
        return cacheKeyUserId(user.getId());
    }

    private void invalidate(UserBo user, boolean update) {
        if (update) {
            putToCache(cacheNameUser, cacheKey(user), user);
        } else {
            removeFromCache(cacheNameUser, cacheKeyUserId(user.getId()));
            removeFromCache(cacheNameUser, cacheKeyUserName(user.getUsername()));
        }
    }
    /*----------------------------------------------------------------------*/

    /**
     * {@inheritDoc}
     */
    @Override
    public JdbcUserDao init() {
        super.init();

        SQL_CREATE_USER = MessageFormat.format(SQL_CREATE_USER, tableNameUser);
        SQL_DELETE_USER = MessageFormat.format(SQL_DELETE_USER, tableNameUser);
        SQL_GET_USER = MessageFormat.format(SQL_GET_USER, tableNameUser);
        SQL_GET_USERID_BY_USERNAME = MessageFormat.format(SQL_GET_USERID_BY_USERNAME,
                tableNameUser);
        SQL_UPDATE_USER = MessageFormat.format(SQL_UPDATE_USER, tableNameUser);

        return this;
    }

    /*----------------------------------------------------------------------*/

    private final static String[] COLS_USER_ALL = { UserBoMapper.COL_ID, UserBoMapper.COL_GROUP_ID,
            UserBoMapper.COL_USERNAME, UserBoMapper.COL_PASSWORD, UserBoMapper.COL_EMAIL };
    private final static String[] COLS_USER_CREATE = COLS_USER_ALL;
    private String SQL_CREATE_USER = "INSERT INTO {0} (" + StringUtils.join(COLS_USER_CREATE, ',')
            + ") VALUES (" + StringUtils.repeat("?", ",", COLS_USER_CREATE.length) + ")";
    private String SQL_DELETE_USER = "DELETE FROM {0} WHERE " + UserBoMapper.COL_ID + "=?";
    private String SQL_GET_USER = "SELECT " + StringUtils.join(COLS_USER_ALL, ',')
            + " FROM {0} WHERE " + UserBoMapper.COL_ID + "=?";
    private String SQL_GET_USERID_BY_USERNAME = "SELECT " + UserBoMapper.COL_ID + " FROM {0} WHERE "
            + UserBoMapper.COL_USERNAME + "=?";
    private String SQL_UPDATE_USER = "UPDATE {0} SET "
            + StringUtils.join(new String[] { UserBoMapper.COL_GROUP_ID + "=?",
                    UserBoMapper.COL_PASSWORD + "=?", UserBoMapper.COL_EMAIL + "=?" }, ',')
            + " WHERE " + UserBoMapper.COL_ID + "=?";

    /**
     * {@inheritDoc}
     */
    @Override
    public boolean create(UserBo user) {
        final Object[] VALUES = new Object[] { user.getId(), user.getGroupId(), user.getUsername(),
                user.getPassword(), user.getEmail() };
        try {
            int numRows = execute(SQL_CREATE_USER, VALUES);
            invalidate(user, true);
            return numRows > 0;
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }
    }

    /**
     * {@inheritDoc}
     */
    @Override
    public boolean delete(UserBo user) {
        final Object[] VALUES = new Object[] { user.getId() };
        try {
            int numRows = execute(SQL_DELETE_USER, VALUES);
            invalidate(user, false);
            return numRows > 0;
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }
    }

    /**
     * {@inheritDoc}
     */
    @Override
    public boolean update(UserBo user) {
        final Object[] PARAM_VALUES = new Object[] { user.getGroupId(), user.getPassword(),
                user.getEmail(), user.getId() };
        try {
            int nunRows = execute(SQL_UPDATE_USER, PARAM_VALUES);
            invalidate(user, true);
            return nunRows > 0;
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }
    }

    /**
     * {@inheritDoc}
     */
    @Override
    public UserBo getUser(String id) {
        if (StringUtils.isBlank(id)) {
            return null;
        }
        final String cacheKey = cacheKeyUserId(id);
        UserBo result = getFromCache(cacheNameUser, cacheKey, UserBo.class);
        if (result == null) {
            final Object[] WHERE_VALUES = new Object[] { id };
            try {
                List<UserBo> dbRows = executeSelect(UserBoMapper.instance, SQL_GET_USER,
                        WHERE_VALUES);
                result = dbRows != null && dbRows.size() > 0 ? dbRows.get(0) : null;
                putToCache(cacheNameUser, cacheKey, result);
            } catch (SQLException e) {
                throw new RuntimeException(e);
            }
        }
        return result;
    }

    /**
     * {@inheritDoc}
     */
    @Override
    public UserBo getUserByUsername(String username) {
        if (StringUtils.isBlank(username)) {
            return null;
        }
        final String cacheKey = cacheKeyUserName(username);
        String id = getFromCache(cacheNameUser, cacheKey, String.class);
        if (id == null) {
            final Object[] WHERE_VALUES = new Object[] { username };
            try {
                List<Map<String, Object>> dbRows = executeSelect(SQL_GET_USERID_BY_USERNAME,
                        WHERE_VALUES);
                Map<String, Object> dbRow = dbRows != null && dbRows.size() > 0 ? dbRows.get(0)
                        : null;
                id = DPathUtils.getValue(dbRow, UserBoMapper.COL_ID, String.class);
                putToCache(cacheNameUser, cacheKey, id);
            } catch (SQLException e) {
                throw new RuntimeException(e);
            }
        }
        return getUser(id);
    }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


*If you are selected we credit the full application fee back to you.
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text:
Caught zoning out in a meeting? Here's how to save face.
Editor's note: This story was updated on October 5, 2017.
It's common to zone out during a conversation or meeting. Writing for The Muse, Kat Boogaard suggests a four-step response plan for that horrifying moment when you're called out for inattention.
1. Resist rambling.
When you're initially called on after letting your mind drift away from the topic at hand, Boogaard says, "your first inclination might be to just start talking in a futile attempt to cover up the fact that your mind was wandering."
Engage your leaders to help them through rough waters
Boogaard advises against this course of action, since "it won't do you any favors."
If it wasn't already clear you were zoning out, Boogaard says your rambling will make it obvious. It will also make it seem as though you don't have any interest in rejoining the conversation. Instead, Boogaard says you must "own your blunder."
2. Apologize.
Once you've taken a breath and resisted the urge to ramble, Boogaard recommends apologizing to your colleagues.
"You need to have some humility and apologize for the fact that you weren't completely focused, rather than trying to sweep your inattention under the rug altogether," she says.
If you want to assure your colleagues that you weren't zoning out the entire meeting, you can mention an earlier part of the discussion you actually did listen to. Boogaard also suggests putting some of the blame on the fact you were "still wrapping [your] head around" a previous topic.
3. Ask for a refresher.
"There's no way around the fact that you're just going to need to flat out ask for a recap of what you missed," says Boogaard.
When requesting a brief summary of what you missed, Boogaard suggests reassuring your colleagues that you're gearing up to add thoughtful insight.
The health benefits of walking meetings
4. Answer meaningfully
The final step to recovering from your blunder is to provide a thoughtful response.
Boogaard suggests listening closely to the recap your colleague provides, and using it to make a meaningful comment or suggestion. If you're at a loss, Boogaard says you can instead ask thoughtful follow-up questions that "keep the wheels turning." If your engagement is helpful enough, your colleagues will move on from your blunder and you will be in the clear, Boogaard says.
That is, until the next time you zone out.
To prevent daydreaming from becoming a habit, Boogaard suggests taking notes during meetings to keep yourself engaged (Boogaard, The Muse/Fast Company, 12/2).
Prevent daydreaming by running better meetings
There are about 11 million formal meetings in the United States every day—and more than half of them may be unproductive. Why? Because many meetings are inefficiently run. They don't set or achieve clear goals. And we hold them out of habit.
It's clear that many meetings are unnecessary. But if you do have to assemble, there are simple solutions to make that meeting a success. Drawing on best practices—as well as lessons from across our own organization—we've created this useful infographic to guide if you really need a meeting (and if so, how to maximize everyone's time).
More from today's Daily Briefing
The alarming stats on violence against nurses
Current ArticleCaught zoning out in a meeting? Here's how to save face.
Back to Daily Briefing
zone-out-in-meetings


text:
Sevensmolen (Kaulille), een ronde stenen molen te Kaulille
Sevensmolen (Overpelt), een standerdmolen te Overpelt

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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text:
Movie Trailer: Poltergeist (2015)
sasori
As a parent I thought it was common knowledge that at NO times are questionable dolls, figurines, puppets, action figures (or any vessel that loosely represents a body that a malevolent spirit could wish to inhabit) allowed in the house. You shouldn't live in a house built upon a graveyard either. The Bowen family screwed up on both accounts and they pay for it as can be seen in the latest trailer for the remake of Poltergeist. The fresh coat of paint on the story is welcomed (some of the effects in the original haven't aged well), but I'm not convinced it'll make the story any creepier than it was in 1982. Also, Jared Harris replacing Zelda Rubinstein as the medium brought in to cleanse the house is not a win in my book. Check out the creeps for yourself anyway courtesy of 20th Century Fox.
Poltergeist stars Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jared Harris, Saxon Sharbino, Nicholas Braun, Kennedi Clements, Kyle Catlett and Jane Adams.
Official Synopsis:
Legendary filmmaker Sam Raimi ("Spiderman," "Evil Dead", "The Grudge") and director Gil Kenan ("Monster House") contemporise the classic tale about a family whose suburban home is haunted by evil forces. When the terrifying apparitions escalate their attacks and hold the youngest daughter captive, the family must come together to rescue her before she disappears forever.
Poltergeist haunts US and UK theaters on May 22, 2015.
Movie Trailer #2: Ant-Man (2015)
Movie Trailer #2: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Tagged: family, ghost, remake, supernatural
About sasori
When I'm not sleeping, I'm doing something else that closely resembles sleep.
Movie Trailer: Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
Movie Trailer: The Lion King (2019)
Movie Trailer: Joker (2019)
Movie Trailer: Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Movie Trailer: Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Movie Trailer: Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Movie Trailer: Captain Marvel (2019)
'Movie Trailer: Poltergeist (2015)' have 5 comments
April 2, 2015 @ 3:51 pm The Mind
Remake hell. I'm in remake hell.
April 2, 2015 @ 4:10 pm k.g.
Doesn't come close to the original. They should have left it alone.
April 2, 2015 @ 6:36 pm IKNOWALL
WTF – So much untouched in the horror genre and they go back to something they've done before.
April 2, 2015 @ 6:57 pm fudgity
I kinda agree the effects are dated as they are for so many of the classic horror movies. Hopefully they'll give it more than the cheap window dressing treatment they give to everything else to make a quick buck from.
April 2, 2015 @ 11:22 pm tiemma
weak sauce
Poltergeist (2015)
Genre(s): Horror, Thriller
Director(s): Gil Kenan
Actor(s): Jane Adams, Jared Harris, Kennedi Clements, Kyle Catlett, Nicholas Braun, Rosemarie DeWitt, Sam Rockwell, Saxon Sharbino
Writer(s): David Lindsay-Abaire
Producer(s): Nathan Kahane, Robert G. Tapert, Roy Lee, Sam Raimi
Studio(s): 20th Century Fox, Fox 2000 Pictures, Ghost House Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Vertigo Entertainment
Release Date(s): US: May 22, 2015 | UK: May 22, 2015
IMDb Info: Poltergeist
Official Page: Poltergeist
Movie Review: Poltergeist Movie Review
Movie Review: Babylon A.D. (2008)
Movie Review: The Legend of Hercules (2014)


text:
A history of violence [2005]
David Cronenberg's 2005 movie is interesting. It has its strong points, but some weak ones, as well, but overall, it is good film and projects a cool attitude and very strong characters.
It follows the story of Tom Stall, a small town guy who's peaceful life is disrupted by an act of violence he is forced to do, in order to save the people from his diner, when two armed men try to rob it. After this event, he becomes the hero of the town and receives unwanted attention, one that eventually leads Carl Fogarty (Ed Harris) to him, insisting that Joey Cusack, the man Carl thinks he is, comes back with him to Philadelphia.
The beginning was a little weak and, at times, boring, as it took its time to set up the story and the characters, going from scene A to scene B to scene C almost automatically. It also gave it a sense of predictability- I knew something bad will happen to the family or to Tom, and I had a feeling it will go down in the diner. I did like the progress of the story after the act of violence and one of my favorite scenes has to be the shooting in the yard. Viggo Mortensen comes in and out of character, switching from Tom to Joey with such ease and roughness, that I am left shocked and a little bit creeped out by the character and what he is capable of- just the way his expression and his eyes change from second to second, channeling Joey just enough to save himself and the family (the way he looked at Jack, his son, after he shot the man, was so intense and scary).
That being said, one of the best things about "A history of violence" are the characters- these are strong, complex, real, tough individuals that give the story and the situation more substance and a much more accute sense of reality. Viggo Mortensen as Tom/Joey gives one his best performances to date and Maria Bello shines as his innocent wife, who tries to protect her family and her hisband. Ed Harris is appropriate as the mob guy who tries to scare Tom, and William Hurt (Joey Cusack's brother) is just as tough as Harris, but with more background relevance and a scarier attitude; I also thought Ashton Holmes, as the son, was good and I can see potential there.
Coming back to the beginning, my weak points refer to the lack of music and the slow pace of action in some places, although it seemed extremely well-thought and with many layers to the story and the people involved.
Overall, I thought "A history of violence" was a good movie, with chilling performances and good action! I would recommend it! Next in line: Eastern Promises, with the same David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen!
Labels: 2005, A history of violence, action, Ashton Holmes, David Cronenberg, Ed Harris, Maria Bello, performance, pick of the day, poster, script, Viggo Mortensen, William Hurt
Max March 4, 2012 at 5:13 PM
I remember 'History of Violence' more fondly than 'Eastern Promises'. They just irritate him too much and then he shows his true talents.
s. March 4, 2012 at 5:49 PM
Great review! I really loved the movie and it is one of the first movies in new style by Cronenberg - slow, gritty and disturbing minus all the body horror from his earlier works. Mortensen is amazing here, but he was even better in Eastern Promises.
Castor March 4, 2012 at 6:23 PM
I love A History of Violence. Sure it starts slowly but it crescendos into the end both in terms of pace, intensity and violence.
Diana March 4, 2012 at 8:38 PM
@Max: Exactly, I thought A history of violence is better and I love the way he shows his true colours at the end!
@Sati: Thanks, but I think I prefer Viggo Mortensen in this one, although Eastern Promises is very good, as well.
@Castor: It does start slow, but I do love the ending, as you said!
Andy Buckle March 5, 2012 at 5:17 AM
Great, great film. One of my favourites by Cronenberg. I watched Eastern Promises again recently. Viggo deserved his Oscar nom there for that bath scene alone. Incredible. I love the opening sequence in this film. The son's sub-plot with the bully always irked me though.
Scott Lawlor March 5, 2012 at 9:05 AM
If you liked this one, then you will love Eastern Promises!!
Nicely down Diana!
Diana March 5, 2012 at 11:17 AM
@Andy: I liked this one better than Eastern Promises, and Viggo Mortensen is amazing in both movies. As for the son bully story, I think they just wanted to show that he has a tendency of violence, as well, and that, like it or not, he is very much like his father.
@Castor: Thanks Scott! Like I said, this one was better than Eastern Promises, for me, at least!
Dan March 5, 2012 at 5:00 PM
I really like this film. Mortensen's performance is great and it is a very unique way of telling a somewhat familiar story.
Chip Lary March 5, 2012 at 10:26 PM
I also liked Bello's subtle changes as she starts to learn who her husband really is and how that makes her feel, culminating with the scene on the stairs.
Diana March 5, 2012 at 10:31 PM
@Dan: I agree! Although the story was predictable in some points, it was still strong!
@Chip: Oh, that scene on the stairs is fantastic- so rough, yet interestingly sexy! I loved it!
ruth March 6, 2012 at 12:51 AM
I might check this one out as I've heard lots of great things about Viggo's performance. Not sure I can handle 'Eastern Promises' though. Great review Diana!
Diana March 6, 2012 at 8:50 AM
@Ruth: Thanks Ruth, but why can't you handle EP? :)
Alex Withrow March 7, 2012 at 2:17 PM
If you paid me to find a fault in this movie, I couldn't do it. I think its slow-paced first act perfectly tricks you into thinking you're in for something ordinary. Then, much like Drive, it goes off the rails, which I love.
So happy you're doing a Cronenberg marathon!
@Alex: I love the going off the rails part, too, it was brilliant! The stairs scene, the shooting in the yard, the meeting with his brother- very cool!
iluvcinema March 7, 2012 at 9:21 PM
I am doing my posts in reverse!
AHOV is definitely a stronger film than Eastern Promises.
I liked the pacing of this one and like you said Diana - the in and out of the personas of Tom and Joey was pretty remarkable.
@iluvcinema: The pacing was ok for me, too, but like I said, it dragged at the beginning, although I loved it overall; and yes, it is better than EP!
There will be blood [2007]
Hunger Games [2012]
Little Miss Sunshine [2006]
True Grit [2010] and future plans
A Serious Man [2009]
7x7 Link Award
Fargo [1996]
The Big Lebowski [1998]
On The Road- the trailer
A dangerous method [2011]
Eastern Promises [2007]
Control [2007]