I definitely waffle on the topic.
Defining what is a game of skill vs an athletic competition is difficult
- nails

Don't waffle, be definitive and then argue it for all you're worth!

Yeah, our parents didn't really care. My mom was bummed that the pastor didn't get all dressed up in his wizard robes or whatever it is they wear, but we asked him not to, and didn't know she cared.
- jmatchett383

My whole thing was, I was Ok with whatever my wife wanted. My requirements were beer & some kind of beef on the menu. If she wanted me to wear a clown outfit, great, I'll do it

Don't forget sporting events.
- jmatchett383

Yep.

Zero is Zero. You couldn't do any of the above short of divine intervention.
- wolfhounds

Maybe I am Ryan lochte?

I definitely waffle on the topic.
Defining what is a game of skill vs an athletic competition is difficult
- nails

Stop with being open minded on the internet.

GO FIND THAT VIRTUAL HILL TO DIE ON ASAP!

I definitely waffle on the topic.
Defining what is a game of skill vs an athletic competition is difficult
- nails

I like waffles.

Maybe I am Ryan lochte?
- nails

Now I just feel tricked, a little betrayed, and slightly hurt.

Don't waffle, be definitive and then argue it for all your worth!
- wolfhounds

I only all out argue when I don't know any of the facts.
then I state my position with confidence and loudly so no one knows how little I know.
It works way too often sadly.

Yeah, don't want to damn him for having to toil under Burke and Nonis, but at the same time, we already have way more ex-Flyers/ex-players in management than we need already... they desperately need somebody who is capable of crossing the T's, dotting the I's, and being a strong advocate for steady as she goes... Rubber Stamp Hanrahan hasn't really provided any of that.
- Tomahawk

Not sure any of us have the information available to state what exactly Hanrahan has provided.

I definitely waffle on the topic.
Defining what is a game of skill vs an athletic competition is difficult
- nails

(yuppie parenting vs parenting, lol)

I only all out argue when I don't know any of the facts.
then I state my position with confidence and loudly so no one knows how little I know.
It works way too often sadly.
- nails

You, my friend, are an internet Jedi.

(yuppie parenting vs parenting, lol)
- Tomahawk

Making Venn Diagrams.

I'll never be an athlete.

Yeah, cause that's all baseball players do, just like the vast majority of hockey players skate around without the puck for less than 1/3 of total game time therefore they spend most of the time on the bench or gliding around, so it's not a sport.
- wolfhounds

Yep, exactly. You got me. Because skating does not require physical exertion whatsoever.

You, my friend, are an internet Jedi.
- wolfhounds

Interweb one with am I

Interweb one with am I
- nails

Question for the Star Ward fanboys:

Why does Yoda only sometimes speak backwards?

Question for the Star Ward fanboys:

Why does Yoda only sometimes speak backwards?
- jmatchett383

Massive Stroke, had he...only sometimes affect him, it does.

A bride expecting a groom to be heavily involved in the planning of the wedding is asking for disappointment and fighting.
- Jsaquella

HAHAHA, I don't expect him to plan it but I don't want to either! Problem is we found a planner we like and she's major money so I'm mulling that over right now... How much is my time worth?

Question for the Star Ward fanboys:

Why does Yoda only sometimes speak backwards?
- jmatchett383

Poor bowel movements?

I feel your pain. When's the day?
- BulliesPhan87

Before I die...
And there's the rub.

Question for the Star Ward fanboys:

Why does Yoda only sometimes speak backwards?
- jmatchett383

Makes the ladies on his home planet think he's mysterious and dangerous.

/probably not official SW canon

HAHAHA, I don't expect him to plan it but I don't want to either! Problem is we found a planner we like and she's major money so I'm mulling that over right now... How much is my time worth?
- FlyersGrace

I keep trying to convince people they need to learn to assign a dollar value to their free time and happiness.
I have to think a wedding planner might be worth half a years wages just in life happiness alone

HAHAHA, I don't expect him to plan it but I don't want to either! Problem is we found a planner we like and she's major money so I'm mulling that over right now... How much is my time worth?
- FlyersGrace

Your time is worth 6 units.

Massive Stroke, had he...only sometimes affect him, it does.
- Jsaquella

Makes the most sense.

HAHAHA, I don't expect him to plan it but I don't want to either! Problem is we found a planner we like and she's major money so I'm mulling that over right now... How much is my time worth?
- FlyersGrace

Depends, are you planning the wedding to make you happy or to make others happy?

Back in 2007, before he got back into the NHL fulll-time and was doing some bird-dog pro scouting, I had the opportunity to sit next to Dave Poulin in the pressbox at a Flyers game.

I asked him if he minded if I picked his brain periodically during the game and he said sure.

Far and away, Poulin's level of hockey intellect -- and the way he articulated it -- blew away anything else I had ever experienced before. He hadn't even seen much of the Flyers that season and pretty well struck at the heart of what the team and its players did and didn't do well. Specifically, some of it had to do with the way the team was trying to exiting the defensive zone and get the puck into the offensive zone.

That has always stuck with me, and it was years before the whole "advanced stats" stuff took off yet it was based off a similar principle that there a cumulative effect to subpar puck management. He didn't tie it to shots or scoring chances, specifically, but it was all about constructing a series of productive shifts to achieve a bigger result.

It amuses me that people who have never sat down and talked hockey with Poulin are painting him as some dinosaur in the way he thinks the game. They take a certain soundbite or quote and try to it a broader conclusion. Poulin actually has a very analytical mind -- if you even spend 30 minutes talking hockey with him, it becomes very clear that he thinks in bigger-picture terms.

I can almost guarantee you that he is not "anti-analytics" so much as that he doesn't believe in using them the way that fans/bloggers do. Actually, I suspect his view has evolved pretty much right in line with how Ron Hextall says he sees it.

Lastly, I will say that for a dinosaur, he did pretty well as the Marlies' GM.