Blackhawks to match San Jose's offer sheet for D Hjalmarsson
Hockey Betting Lines
07/12/2010 -
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Despite noted salary cap problems, the Chicago Blackhawks announced Monday that the club will match San Jose's offer sheet
for restricted free agent defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson.
The Sharks signed the 23-year-old Swede to a four-year, $14 million offer
sheet on Friday, forcing the Stanley Cup champs to make another tough monetary
decision. If Chicago had decided not to match the offer, the club would have
received draft picks from the Sharks as compensation.
"Niklas was a big part of our success last year and he's a part of our core
that's going to be together for a long time," said Blackhawks general manager
Stan Bowman. "I'm happy for him. He's a quiet leader amongst our defensive
group. I think he gets overshadowed because we've got other superstars there,
but he was really effective for us all year long."
In his first full NHL season, Hjalmarsson totaled two goals and 15 assists in
77 regular-season games. He added a goal and eight points in 22 playoff games,
helping the Blackhawks win the franchise's first Cup since 1961.
Hjalmarsson previously played parts of two seasons with Chicago and has
compiled three goals and 18 helpers over 111 career regular-season games.
The Blackhawks have traded players such as playoff hero Dustin Byfuglien and
Kris Versteeg to get under the salary cap.
<< Montana's Wilson to play after murder acquittal
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Vancouver, BC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Vancouver Canucks on Monday announced the
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Forget the moonball he served up to Ryan
Canada well-represented at 2010 MLB All-Star Game >>
Toronto, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Blue Jays will send three of
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leading 136 home runs in the first half.
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Knicks still have cap space, but future is now >>
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Ducks sign LW Green >>
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Knicks officially sign PG Felton >>
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NFL Football Trash Talk
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject
would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms.
Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends,
their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the
sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies
your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming
the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like
your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in
defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your
hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say,
will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt
focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea
is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to
make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
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