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Two words: military school.

Final score was 6-4 Bulldogs. Anybody know scorers? The AHL website hasn't listed any and I'm 100% sure I'll forget to look in the morning.

Lol, we don't have a school up here. There is a pseudo-college here, but the closest real college is in Grande Prairie and the closest university is in Edmonton. I'm still a student of De Montfort University in Leicester, England... all I have left is to finish my thesis, and my profs don't really care where I do that as long as it's on their desk by December 22. And since it's bloody expensive to live in England, I came back here to live for free with my parents while I finished up.

I am personally a full-time student, completing my MA (I am here right now because I ran out of money and couldn't afford to live in England anymore!). I'm going to Central America from January to March '07, and then I'll stick around for one last summer, but I'm gone permanently in September 2007. My parents are relocating that same year, so I likely won't be back here for a good number of years, if ever again. We don't leave our cars running all night... but we do have to plug them in overnight to keep the engine semi-warm. But you're right, people up here are easily the worst air polluters per capita in Canada, because of how cold it is. People going grocery shopping will leave their cars running (you can't plug your car in at the supermarket)... or people running errands will do the same. And it doesn't help that people up here favour gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks. I know that a lot of roads up here necessitate 4WD, and that lots of people are outdoorsy and need a big vehicle to stack their kayaks/mountain bikes/whatever, but I also know a lot of single 20-something pure urban dwellers who tool around town in a Ford F350. It makes no sense in my opinion.

I'm a big fan of Southern Slav women... I have never seen a better looking female population than in Sarajevo. It was absolutely unreal how attractive the locals were.

A lot of people swear by it, but it's not for me. I can safely say that I'm a city person - I like urban life, and there's not much of that up here. If you're looking for good nightlife, a variety of restaurants, a diverse arts & music scene, then this is certainly not the place to move. It's also not for people who dislike feeling isolated. The nearest major city is Edmonton, about 1600 km (1000 miles) away. Lots of people drive it, but it's a pain in the ass. Flying there costs $700-$800 on average return, unless a better deal be found. My favourite thing about living in Montreal and England was that I could wake up Friday morning, decide I was going somewhere for the weekend, and then go that afternoon. You can't do that here: you're pretty much stuck here unless you make concrete plans (and shell out lots of $) to go elsewhere. Oh, and it's cold in the winter. I've seen -40, -50, -60.... it's not pleasant. And it gets dark; in late December/early January, we only get maybe 5 or 6 hours of daylight per day. Yellowknife is best during the summer with a good group of friends (which I do have). It's awesome if you're an outdoorsy type. There are literally hundreds of good camping spots within an hour drive or two from the city, and if you're prepared to drive a bit longer (3-7 hours), the rest of the NWT is absolutely spectacular. It's fantastic for fishing, too. And if you don't mind being a bit cold in the winter, there are lots of places to ice fish, snowmobile, snowshoe and cross-country ski. The best time to be up here is around the summer solstice, when it's pretty much 24 hour daylight. As for the people... it's a mixed bag, like always. When I was born here, Yellowknife was very much still a frontier town, full of roughneck miner types... you can imagine the attitude many of them had. Things have changed a lot, it's more a government/bureaucratic city than a mining city (though lots of people still work in the diamond mines north of here), and the populace is easily more sophisticated now than they were 10 years ago. A lot of people up here pride themselves on how friendly Yellowknife is... personally I've never seen it that way, but it must be stressed that I'm in the minority when it comes to that. One thing about Yellowknife is that it's a surprisingly diverse place; caucasians are the majority (which is rare for the NWT), but there are big populations of Aborignals and Filippinos (surprise!) and increasing numbers of African and Latin American immigants too. There's also a pretty vibrant francophone community (they pretty much form the core of our puny arts scene). It's by no means a homogenous place. *Shrug* It's a difficult place to describe unless you've been up here. It's exactly like every smallish town in Canada, but at the same time it's not even remotely close to other smallish towns in Canada. I was born and raised here and I'm very proud of that... but I'd never even dream of living here permamently.

My sister lives around 25th and Macleod, like 2 minutes from the Elbow, and her boyfriend lives right off 17th. That's where I've spent most of my time. I've hung out in Kensington and Inglewood too, and some 'hoods up near U of C (that's in the NW, right?)... though I don't remember the actually name of the neighbourhoods. I like all those areas. I haven't spent too much time in areas far from either my sister's or her boyfriend's, because of a lack of a car and poor public transport.

I personally enjoy like Calgary better than Edmonton. Much, much more actually. My sister lives in Calgary, I'm a semi-frequent visitor now. Couldn't be happier about that. But considering the gigantic sums of money being pumped into U of A by both the Government of Alberta and by private donors, it seems more likely that U of A is ready to achieve international renown and is far from being in decline. I mean... U of A is just throwing money around like it's nothing (they offered to give me full scholarships for both my BA and MA, and I know many more people with similar stories) and are attracting tons of top flight academics and researchers. I'm not saying that U of C isn't a good school, because it is, and I'm not saying that U of C isn't superior to U of A for certain programs, but I'd wait a while before putting U of C and U of A on the same level.

I like the blue Thrashers unis, too.

If we're talking about gov't assistance and people find that attractive, then I heartily recommend moving to the Northwest Territories. We have easily the best Student Financial Assistance program in Canada (it is separate from Canada Student Loans); once you've become a Canadian citizen/landed immigrant and have lived in the NWT for a year, you are guaranteed a $47,000 lifetime loan limit, maximum $1,100 per month. And those figures are likely to go up rather than down. Alberta in general is humming. There are a bunch of schools in Calgary too (Mount Royal, SAIT, U of Calgary), and employment is just as easy to find there as it is in Edmonton (there are "help wanted" signs everywhere). Even Fort McMurray... I mean, it's kind of a shithole, but they are in desperate need of people for jobs (the city is growing at an absolutely ridiculous pace), and it is home to Keyano College. Ah, the anti-Edmonton propaganda....you wouldn't be from Calgary, would you?

[quote name='Colin' date='Oct 25 2006, 07:16 PM' post='144606' Ah, Juha Lind and Johan Witehall. Where are you now? Craig Darby... Christian Laflamme... Miroslav Guren... Jim Campbell...

That's not good. Having disgruntled players is never a good thing.

Je crois que beaucoup d'entre nous attendent que Kovalev reproduit sa forme de 2000 ou 2001... mais il n'est plus le même joueur. Il a maintenant 33 ans et a joué pour 13 ou 14 saisons. On veut qu'il soit un vrai franc-tireur, mais il n'a pas marqué 40 buts depuis 2000-01 quand il jouait avec Mario et Jagr à Pittsburgh. Il a joué assez bien l'année passée mais il a marqué seulement 23 buts, contre 42 passes. Il n'est plus capable de marquer 40 buts à mon avis, il est plutôt un "playmaker" (mes excuses, je ne connais pas le mot français) maintenant. Kovalev est encore un joueur important et utile, et doit absolument mieux jouer... mais il ne produira pas de miracles.

I've wanted to see Latendresse on the PP from the beginning of the year, for the simple reason that it would be quality ice time with skill guys without having to deal with any defensive duties (which, I think we all agree, is his biggest flaw right now). I'd like to see him get that chance now.

Can't wait to see Price at the World Juniors. Maxwell too, for that matter (he now seems like a shoo-in to make the team, does he not?).

J'ai voulu voir Latendresse jouer à l'avantage numérique dès le debut de la saison. Il aurait maintenant sa chance.

It'll be Garth Murray, and when Downey gets healthy he'll be in the mix too. I'm actually kind of worried about Samsonov on the 4th line, I'm not sure how comfortable he'll be. He's been playing with skill guys ever since he broke into the NHL, not sure how he'll adjust playing with toilers like Begin and Murray.

I agree, don't break up the first line. Under no circumstances should a line that is playing so well be tampered with. I'm still pissed that Julien broke up the Kovalev-Koivu-Perezhogin line that was flying at the beginning of last year.

I too really liked the black Hartford jersey. The green one was OK too.

Well said. Plekanec could be a premier third line centre, but I fear he's a little bit out of his depth on the 2nd line. Latendresse will do well on the second line. One of the reasons Samsonov-Plek-Kovalev was so ineffective was because nobody on that line went to the net consistently... most of the offense they generated was peripheral. Latendresse will do fine if he drives to the net and creates room for Plek and especially Kovalev to work. YES YES YES! I completely agree. Begin-Kostitsyn-Samsonov could do some damage. Or even if they get Bonk to centre that line and put Begin up the third line, but it's probably ill-advised to break up Bonk-Johnson-Perezhogin.

J'aime comment Latendresse joue depuis deux ou trois matchs. Samsonov ne fait pas présentement la tâche au sein du 2e, peut être Gui le ferait. Le 2e a besoin d'un gars qui va au filet.

I've always liked the old Vancouver Canucks "hockey stick" shirt. Loved the colour scheme, and what can be more representative of hockey than a stick?

I honestly that when it's said and done, Malkin will end up having as good if not a better career than Crosby and/or Ovechkin. I got to see him play live at the Olympics against Sweden and he was easily the best player on the ice. He was playing with two Russian leaguers, Maxim Shushinky and another guy who I've forgotten; Malkin made them look like the Guy Lafleur and Steve Shutt. He was dominant in every facet of the game, I couldn't believe how much better he was than I thought he'd be. (Though I did pick Gilbert Brule to win the Calder... but only because I thought Malkin would be out for three months or so... Over 70 GP, Malkin wins in a walk).

I don't think Koivu would be considered unless either a) Montreal wins the division/hits 100 points, or B) he points up a monster amount of points. MVP voters are usually attracted to gaudy numbers or team success. That being said, I don't think there's any doubt that he's among the most valuable players in the league, considering all he does for us.

In my hockey days, I was a Patrick Traverse type - I was slow, bad with the puck, unreliable defensively and was often jeered from the stands.