If soccer is in the mix, then you do have to consider the demands of a Champions League contender In Europe and elsewhere the club system plays from a base of one game per week for about 9 months (34-38) Then you add in the local Cup competitions, which usually involve midweek knockout games sometimes involving OT’s and/or replays Overlay additional Champions League group qualifiers, feeding into yet more knockout rounds after And for the elite players you finally sprinkle in World Cup or Euro qualifiers, and some of these guys are playing up to 80 games over 10 months putting in 6-9 competitive miles per match Soccer guys die on the pitch every so often FWIW way more than in NA team sports

Lacrosse tops the list for me, and it’s not been for lack of trying to like it … plus I have friends who have played at NCAA level … and it goes double for the women’s version, which to me removes the best feature of the game, physicality Field hockey may be worse, again I’ve tried, have friends who played/officiated and my kids have FH pals I’ll stop there before doing any more damage lol 😂

(1) Bob Gibson (2) Randy Johnson (3) Don Drysdale (4) Sal “The Barber” Maglie (5) Nolan Ryan Both Johnson and Ryan had early career issues with their control, so as those issues faded, so did a little bit of their intimidation Gibson, Drysdale and Maglie were virtual sociopaths with a baseball guarding the inside half of the plate That Koufax isn’t on this list and was a distant second on his own staff tells you all you need to know about DD

Arnold Palmer impacted the game of golf like no other Right time right place, took golf from the country clubs and gave it to the masses Others may have been (slightly) better but no one was bigger … he made more in endorsements after his retirement than any athlete in any sport, until MJ & Tiger two generations post prime

VINCE LOMBARDI - GOAT, the standard of excellence youtu.be/FJE4-zX5WqU?si=iHrO… via @YouTube

Great points here too … let’s not forget a young Yzerman saw his first two serious playoff runs falter vs Edmonton in the Cup semis, the last one lowlighted by the quite infamous Goose Loonies incident in Edmonton That incident blew out the Wings until the guys from Russia and Sweden started to filter through in the early ’90’s Hard for old Yzerman to forget about any of that

So I agree with pretty much everything Nick has posted I will also say that I make far less of the apparent lack of communication directly between Larkin and Steve If Larkin has a direct line to the GM’s office, then where does that leave Todd as HC? That’s not how things work with letting your HC run the team on a day-to-day basis and not undercutting him Larkin’s job is to play and win games, and as a C while the highest paid guy in the room, to also provide leadership Todd’s job is to coach winning hockey and provide feedback to his boss - Yzerman - on how to improve the team If Larkin has something to say, he should say it to Todd and let Todd do his job with Yzerman Larkin has too often made it clear when he disagreed with Steve … tears for Bert, whining publicly about lack of 2025 deadline activity and silence this year after the Faulk deal, until the “trade me” demand When your purportedly best player thinks he’s smarter than the GM & HC you got a problem Nothing wrong if Steve approaches him once in awhile to chat, but the idea they should be on speed dial for regular chats is naive and undercuts your HC No one can tell me that Guerin hasn’t tampered with Larkin, and seeing MIN as one of Larkin’s preferred teams gives that game away IMO

Now that Minnesota has been confirmed here as a party of interest, is there any doubt Guerin tampered with another team’s player while they were working together on the US Olympic team?? Yzerman should wait to see what offers are made, but he has leverage over the Wild if that’s where Larkin wants to go … Parise & Suter redux but at least they were UFA’s I hate the Wild, but maybe this can be a springboard to better things & better times

Love Canal and the Slow Death of Niagara Falls NY USA youtu.be/4HhkpvCP-Ao?si=JFSZ… via @YouTube

Best scenario for DRW is to see Minnesota on Larkin’s list, engage Guerin in talks and if the offer isn’t good enough, raise tampering charges against Guerin for planting the seeds for this demand while he was GM for the US Olympics team Guerin then is forced to up the ante to make the charges disappear Then cinch the deal with max assets coming back, Guerin is already in “all in” mode and if he were then to walk away from Larkin, that will hurt his reputation with players and agents alike and possibly even alienate Quinn Hughes (Larkin’s pal) on the possibility of extending Max leverage vs Guerin will hold the key to max return And deservedly so actually, tampering was highly likely

Lazy contrarian take Beatles caused the explosion of pop rock, Elvis was fading away Buddy was dead and Berry and LR were fringe artists who never really broke big, sad but true Let me compare this to golf ⛳️ bear with me There were lots of great golfers who set the path for the PGA, many years But a few years before the Beatles at the dawn of the TV era, a guy by the name of Arnold Palmer set the golf world on fire with combination of talent and charisma Took the sport out of the country clubs and out to the rest of the world The Beatles were kind of the same for pop rock Talented, charming and right place right time I’m not a Beatles bobo just calling it like I see it

Bono (U2) Jagger (Stones) Springsteen Ozzy Osbourne … and no, I love Sabbath and their musicians, Ronnie Dio exposed how mediocre Ozzy was, and Ozzy hated him for it for years … truth hits hard

This is hilarious kudos! 😂 MR President I respectfully disagree with your opinion but we both want to Make the Red Wings Great Again! #MtRWGA #LGRW #Potus47 #YzermanBobo #boohoolarks71

Big Ohtani fan, but Babe was an elite pitcher who was a key to multiple WS wins in BOS before he moved to NY I believe he was doing both his last two years in Boston Yankees wanted him to concentrate on being an everyday player, and MLB didn’t have the DH sub rules that Ohtani benefits from for Babe Rotations then were four not five or more too But Ohtani is special & on my Rushmore soon

Not even close … Ruth yes, Mays maybe, Aaron likely no, Jackie not as a player I’m an old school guy, but it’s increasingly obvious Ohtani is the second coming of the Babe, almost exactly a full century apart Robinson and Curt Flood should have their separate mountain for their impact on the game beyond stats etc.

Anyone asking if Guerin was tampering with Larkin while he was the GM of the US Olympic team? If 71 does ask to go to Minnesota, I know I’d be asking questions about that … I do recall Larkin talking excitedly about getting the call for this year’s team, who knows what else those two may have discussed Would love to learn the source of this rare leak out of Detroit … first instinct is that it’s the player’s camp but just maybe Yzerman’s team wanted it to get out to (1) churn up attention from multiple bidders during the offseason and/or (2) protect the organization from fan backlash after a trade knowing 71 asked for it?? An already pivotal offseason just got way more interesting … 😎

Amazing how quickly the greatest pure shooter of all has vanished into the ether Pistol Pete Maravich

He has revealed himself to be the Kevin Durant of the NHL … can’t do it with his own team, despite contract and given the C leadership Cried 3 years ago when his bestie got traded, B!tched out the GM last year for not doing more … Yzerman gave it back to him, but this year he did spunk a first to bolster at the deadline No matter what it’s never been good enough for 71 Off to Vancouver with JTC for Petterson and ‘26 first Do it Stevie … do it now …

Dodgers have eclipsed the Yankees and Cowboys by out-Yankeeing the Yankees Cowboys haven’t been nearly good enough to get their old rivals’ attention in a suitably negative way Patriots hate seems also to have settled down with the departure of BB the cheater

Koufax Gibson Seaver Ryan Four man rotation just like the rotation size all of them started with - Seaver was most effective for most of his career in a 4, while Ryan spent most but not all of his career in a 5 man rotation If Warren Spahn was an option here I’d take him over Ryan, for being lefty and for his off speed stuff to give my rotation more balance Plus “Spahn & Sain and pray for rain” he fits the workload demands for my group