Sens are coming home with a split and win both games at home. I reserve the right to amend this prediction if Zub misses time.

By the same token, you don’t often get two puck-over-the-glass powerplays in one game. That’s house money, you gotta cash in.

I don’t think the Canes are winning the Cup with a powerplay that can’t score on multiple 5-on-3 chances.

Sens look really good. Playing playoff hockey, keeping it about as close as possible after losing a top 4 D. I like our chances in a seven game series.

Thank god the CBA prohibits Carolina from practicing the power-play

It’s times like this, when your team takes two almost completely bullshit penalties in a row in the playoffs, that you question the integrity of the game. Powerplays in hockey can be like they randomly release a jaguar onto the ice just for fun.

Every game in this series is going to triple overtime

ESPN doesn’t have a shot count on their score clock but DOES have a picture of the Stanley Cup there permanently in case you forget what it looks like or what the playoffs are about.

I guess fighting three seconds in is cool? Anyway, just before that we won the face off…

My personal bracket:

OTT 7 PIT 5 BUF 6 T.B 5
DAL 7 COL 4 UTA 6 EDM 4
OTT 6 BUF 7 DAL 7 UTA 6
OTT 6 DAL 4
OTT 7

No models were harmed in the making of this bracket.

LET’S FUCKING GO SENS

I would like to be in buried in the packaged snacks aisle.

I can’t describe the degree to which my quality of life has improved ever since a very large Japanese grocery store opened within walking distance. Every day it’s a new delight. What are we having for lunch? How about some Zelda-themed barley tea, whipped cream sandwiches, and fried chicken?

The pricing takes into account that you have to use vacation time to go pick it up

I guess you'd just call selling your labor at market rates "capitalism." Maybe "original recipe capitalism."

(I was being sarcastic, pointing out how the graph is dumb)

It's definitely *weird* if you've never experienced it before. But kind of amazing for someone to see you doing good work and say "hey, come do that for us, I'll pay you more." I think that's...maybe the way it's supposed to work??

Me too, buddies. Me too.

Lol, it is impossible to be ignorant and pessimistic. If you are pessimistic it means you know something that ignorant people don't. There are only dumb optimists.

I mean, job stability is good, but from what I understand it's pretty rare to leave a job because someone offered you something better, and I think being from Ottawa I underestimated how frequently that happens in more dynamic labor markets.

The labor market here is very competitive, which is to say that everyone is constantly competing with one another for talent and it’s possible to change jobs frequently. Compare that to growing up in Ottawa, where everyone I went to high school with has had the same job for 20 years.

One fascinating dynamic is that employers in Canada will routinely assert that my 10 years of work in the United States, which I think has been far more dynamic than my career in Canada, provides absolutely no value in a Canadian context. It’s more insular than I remember.

For what it’s worth, I know many many Americans who talk about moving to Canada. But when they talk about moving to Canada, they are talking exclusively about moving to Vancouver.

The sluggishness of the Canadian labor market and gradual decline of the healthcare system or major concerns. But the distinct lack of roaming paramilitary forces is a real plus!

The macro of America remains scarier and shittier than the micro, which is to say living in a major American city in California remains excellent - great job opportunities, incredible food and weather, excellent health care if you’re employed. But I miss Canada.

I moved to America from Canada 10 years ago, married an American, we had a daughter, and this week my daughter got her Canadian citizenship. 🇨🇦

This exchange has illustrated the challenges of manufacturing a rivalry. It’s entirely too civil.

Me, with an irrational attachment to Ottawa’s shawarma scene: “The Carolinas are weird about bbq.”

I just imagine every barbecue place in the Carolinas is called “the best Texas barbecue and all the Carolinas”