On this day in (hockey) history…

Two years ago, Somara and I drove up to Dallas to see the Flyers play. It was a pretty enjoyable game. The Flyers got off to a strong start of 2-0 thanks to two goals from Mike Comrie (now playing for the Coyotes). Then the Stars managed to tie it up, forced the game into OT and split the two points. But that was the Old NHL.

The better highlight was waiting at the service entrance to meet JR himself! He autographed my 97 Philly jersey too. The only downside is that he didn’t score any goals until he was in St. Louis two days later which then tied him with Pat LaFontaine.

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Rescue, Reference & Reminiscing

Hellspike Prison Spell Compendium Dragon Conversion Vol.1

Well, I dragged my butt too long and now I’m backlogged with three (relatively) new books for D&D from WoTC and Paizo. Where are the others? Good question. It appears that the other publishers have really petered out lately. I can’t really think of anything I really wanted from anyone other than the Game Mechanics (the best publishers for d20 Modern materials) or the long overdue 2320 AD.

I’ll start with Hellspike Prison, the second in WoTC’s Fantastic Locations series of adventures (heavy on the color maps and plastic minis with a plot thinner than Dungeon Siege). This one is supposed to be a challenge for a quartet of 9th-level characters but I still feel that six is more appropriate (three warriors, one wizard, one priest and one expert or some cross-classing to get the right combination). The module emphasizes battle scenarios for the miniatures line so a party with only one warrior in it will be slaughtered quickly in my experience. The premise (or lack of) to this adventure is more of a drawn-out encounter or sidequest the DM can spring on the players: the population of an entire village has disappeared or slaughtered. All the clues point toward the missing being sent to a nearby haunted castle which is oddly surrounded with lava in an area lacking volcanoes. HP contains all the essentials to set up the fights and locations of the various castle denizens. The DM needs to provide the deeper plot elements outside any basic motivations of the main NPCs; he has to do all the work, defeating the purpose of buying a pre-made adventure. And once again, Wizards lists minis from discontinued sets and a couple from one not even shipping yet to flesh out the battles.

Spell Compendium is a more promising sourcebook that’s really a revision and consolidation from previous sources. Personally, I would’ve preferred the spells being printed on 3 x 5 cards as they did in Second Edition and another publisher did with Third. The cards are easier to handle (the casters just have the cards with their character sheets), they cut down on having to thumb through the PHB in the middle of a fight and it prevents the bored player from researching instead of not paying attention (I have a house rule saying all books are closed until needed). Despite what the book is not, Compendium is a welcome title putting the spells from the Complete series into one volume plus those from numerous other supplements, freebies from wizards.com and Dragon articles. About 20% of the material originated from Third Edition books like Savage Species, Magic of Faerun and Manual of the Planes. Page 285 of the book gives the complete list of sources but it doesn’t mean every spell from them is included (I haven’t had the time to comb over it for such a level of detail).

Dragon Compendium: Volume I is Paizo’s first entry of supplemental D&D material outside of the magazines they took over from Wizards. Paizo is hoping this is successful enough to do at least several more which may focus on certain topics instead of the potpourri this one is. Dragon has been around for 30 years so there was a vault of material the publishers could choose from and update to the 3.5 rules. Sadly it’s rather hit or miss for my tastes. The book is broken into chapters covering Races, Classes, Prestige Classes, Feats, Magic Items, Monsters, Appendices and an interesting section called Classics. The latter needs a bit more explanation. Classics is an updated section covering old favorites on tesseracts (Baba Yaga’s hut is a painful reminder) and early Forgotten Realms. The Appendices contain an updated version of the critical damage tables and a pronunciation guide for all the confusing monster names from the core rule books. Those definitely sold me on the book even though the other chapters were terribly extraneous. For example, what good is the Deathmaster class when the Necromancer from Libris Mortis is a more effective foe?

The Bottom Line:

  • Hellspike Prison is only worth buying if you’re a huge fan of colorful maps or you need the scenario for the minis game. Otherwise, this is too pricey for $15. There was a more interesting and better written adventure with a similar premise in Dungeon several years ago.
  • Spell Compendium is also a tad steep at $40, especially if you own the hardback sourcebooks the originals came from yet its convenience factor soothes the pain for my copy being defective (it’s in the process of being exchanged with Wizards’ customer service). It would’ve been perfect if it incorporated the spells from PHB, had them in order by level instead of alphabetical and included 3.5 versions of spells from The Book of Vile Darkness. In lieu the book’s shortcomings, it’s still worth purchasing.
  • Dragon Compendium: Volume I is a great trip down memory lane for me and some other gamers. Its $40 price might have many skip that journey instead. I would agree with most because this is packed with what D&D doesn’t currently need; more of that so called crunch nonsense I read on enworld.org. My campaign is awash in too many optional prestige classes we’ll never use, monsters that will never be encountered and races too boring to bother with. This year I plan on culling my collection of books in order to try to focus on the essentials. The publishers have no such luxury, making more supplemental material is how they stay in business even if D&D is drowning in too many options as the two rulebooks demonstrate.
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Christmas 2005 Rocked

Christmas 2005 was a mild little affair at Chez Maggi this year. After being put on medical leave for two weeks due to throat issues on 2004, everything was looking up. However, this year hit past the mark to exceed last year.

The biggest gift came from Apple on my review. I received a very good rating from my current (and relatively new) boss Juan. So I earned a raise that should at least keep me on pace with inflation, or by its formal name, natural gas prices.

Christmas Day was a more laid-back celebration with the afternoon spent at the in-laws house for dinner and gift opening. Seems families love to drag the process out to the point of wearing out my patience. The two kids present (Hunter and Wyatt) were able to contain themselves since this was gift-opening celebration number two that day. Heck, Wyatt had to be awakened from his nap for this, but it didn’t stop him from dumping a load in his drawers, twice. Phew! Aaron and Anje have nostrils made of steel.

I made out pretty well. Video games (Sly Cooper 2 & 3!), a videogame chair (the cats have take it over when I’m not looking), gift cards and a new treadmill. How I miss the old treadmill I put about 500 miles on before the belt gave out.

However, I’m more thrilled over the giving this year. Toys for the kids. The Calvin & Hobbes special books that ran $150 (got ’em at Costco for much less) for my wife and pairs of jeans she likes from Lane Bryant. The iPod Mini appears to be working out for my friend Christina and her daughter Kyra. There are still packages to get out the door due to illness and budget considerations, but more of it has been hung up on the two of us trying to shake this annoying cold.

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Week 12 of NHL 2005-6

The Flyers continue to move forward through the injuries! We’re also in first place in the Atlantic Division! Last night, the shootout victory over the Florida Panthers was tense. Firstly, the Panthers aren’t going anywhere this season, the Southleast will be represented by Carolina and/or Tampa so all the remaining teams can do is spoil it for the contenders.

The Flyers were behind the bulk of the game but kept coming from behind. When they couldn’t cinch it in the five minutes of 4-on-4 play, I was ready to throw in the towel because 1-on-1 isn’t Nittymaki’s forte (that’s right, I stand behind Esche remaining the starter despite his stats, he doesn’t choke on soft goals). Thankfully Michal Handzus, a terribly underrated player in my opinion, scored as the fourth shooter and the Panthers’ last chance fumbled the puck while Nittymaki left the goal wide open as he overcommitted to the wrong side.

Two games down, four points gained. Nine games remain on this road trip which will be the longest in Flyers and NHL history (depending upon who you listen to). They will only encounter the NY Rangers once to assert that they are #1 over the one-line wonders. It will also conclude in Detroit, ouch. The Detroit Red Wings are still the smart money for the Western Conference since the Pacific is mediocre and the Northwestern Division will have the usual Vancouver Canucks but no Colorado Avalanche to sweat. A Stanely Cup rematch with them would be awesome since they were the favored teams in Vegas. But if it turns into another 4-0 sweep like 1997, I’ll cry. It also means my annual wager of a six-pack of beer with my friend, co-worker and Red Wings fanatic, Brian D at Apple.

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Mission Hill

Last week, season seven of The Simpsons appeared on DVD. Besides it being the season which started with the conclusion of who shot Mr. Burns, it is also the season Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein took over David Mirkin’s position as the Show Runners; probably a fancier name for head writers but there are probably some legal definitions involved too. After their tenure on The Simpsons, Bill and Josh moved on to develop Mission Hill for the young WB network.

Sadly, the show only had a few episodes air before it was cancelled much like every other program on a struggling network no one is watching. Thanks to Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network, this show received another opportunity to broadcast all 13 of the produced episodes and gain the audience that it was truly made for. Now all 13 are available in this two-disc DVD set for $30 and it includes commentary on four shows along with a quick history of its evolution during the two years of development.

I’m not really impressed with commentaries on most movies or shows, unless it’s The Simpsons or Futurama because Groening and his staff actually have jokes, stories and explanations worth listening to. Mission Hill is a welcome addition to that pair even if there isn’t commentary on all 13. Oakley & Weinstein at least chose the shows they felt were critical to the program’s story arc and like Crusade (the sequel to Babylon 5) they reveal what they were planning if MH survived for several seasons. Too bad the suits at WB weren’t people of patience and vision.

What’s Mission Hill about? It’s the adventures slacker Andy (Wally Langham) living in the hip Mission Hill neighborhood of Cosmopolis with his roommates Jim (Brian Posehn) and Posey (Vicki Lewis). Andy aspires to be a cartoonist but for now he’s content getting by with his gig at the waterbed store. This perfect world is disrupted by his parents foisting his ultra-nerd, teenage brother Kevin (Scott Menville) on him because they’re moving to Wyoming and Kevin wanted to finish senior year close to home. It wasn’t always about the fraternal friction though. There was an episode mocking MTV’s annoying The Real World invading their neighborhood, a couple involving Andy’s employer “Ron” (an immigrant from an undetermined Eastern European nation) and another explaining the relationship between the elderly gay couple in Andy’s building. It works really well as a cartoon for the same reasons why The Simpsons does:

  1. The show can have a larger cast through animation and voice actors while a traditional sitcom would be too expensive.
  2. Humorous physical violence is impossible “live” yet effective in animation.
  3. Mission Hill used similar techniques from comic strips to illustrate a character’s mood. My personal favorite was the daggers shooting from Andy’s eyes at Kevin when he was ticked off.

After watching this on Adult Swim a couple of times, I used to wish that the Cartoon Network would revive it and bankroll at least another season as they did with Home Movies. Then I listened to Oakley & Weinstein’s commentaries explaining the MH‘s mindset. I feel the show’s moment passed shortly after it was cancelled. Too many years have gone by for them to pick up where they left off, especially with the majority of Generation X being in its late 20s to early 30s (their words, not mine). MH wasn’t meant to be a show with its characters frozen in time while the world advances like The Simpsons or Family Guy. It’s better to appreciate what Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein did accomplish and not ponder the possibilities of what might have been. I highly recommend this show since it also promoted how well animation can entertain at an adult level in the tradition of King of the Hill and Futurama.

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Week 11 of NHL 2005-6

This week Team USA was announced. I’m excited about all the different players going to represent the US in Italy next year yet I can’t hide my disappoinment over Jeremy Roenick being left out. Not as in snubbed, just not picked. I would be the first to admit he is not having a good season with the LA Kings but he is our version of Mario Lemieux. Sure JR doesn’t have SuperMario’s numbers yet he is the highest-scoring US-born player still playing in the NHL (in goals he is number two, can’t remember on points). It’s the Olympics so you’re going to send a couple “token” players because they’re celebrities. JR wasn’t as gracious as me in the media. Then again, he wouldn’t be Jeremy Roenick if he didn’t shoot off his mouth. Won’t matter, Team Canada looks to be a cinch again and the USA will need to worry more about manageable foes for the Silver or Bronze medal; Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic.

The Flyers finally are out of the cellar on their PK, they’re now #28 as of today with their victory over the Senators (probably the future champ of the Eastern Conference if the playoffs were held now). I wasn’t thrilled over the SO loss to Buffalo but I’ll take the point. Otherwise, the Flyers are cruising along at a decent pace, keeping the Rangers close as they try to take the Atlantic Division. The other great bit of news was the return of Simon Gagne and Mike Richards because they were sorely missed on offense and penalty killing.

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One Hundredth Posting

Sorry about the delays in any further news on my site. I was hesitating on what I wanted to post for my 100th entry but then Somara contracting the flu and passing it on to me took care of that. Then comes the slow climb out of the hole catching up on everything you missed or ignored while shaking off the Ny-Quil-induced nightmares. Which meant I didn’t get to post yesterday which would’ve been awesome since that was the Winter Solstice.

Never mind that though. The good news is that we’re both pretty much recovered (or at least in the 90% functional category) and Somara received a call back from the downtown Hilton. This would be a better gig than HEB in more ways than I could count, actually, I know little about baking but more about money. She has to schedule in when she can go by for an actual interview or the second round, you need to ask her what the Hilton said exactly.

As for me? I’m alive. I’m still working. Therefore, I’m still bringing in the revenue to keep the house and all our dependencies going. Most of our cards have been sent but some of you will be receiving things a tad late. Fortunately, the new schedules for my job have been posted and I will be retaining my Tuesday thru Saturday routine.

On to the next milestone, entry number 250.

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Afternoon with Santa

Attention to all my friends with small children! I went by Santa’s post-Christmas Winter Home in Austin since I’m his primary housesitter and cat care taker (yes, he has more than reindeer).

Here’s my photographic proof to give the kids if they require it. Yes, that fat guy to the left is me, Uncle Maggi, not the 70-pound lighter version of director Peter Jackson.

He has also given me permission to gather up your children’s naughty or nice progress reports before he heads out in 12 days. He had to leave for the North Pole last night to finish up the final preparations so he had no problem delegating that duty to me instead of an elf. Meanwhile, I assisted Mrs. Claus (really Dr. Claus) put up other decorations around their Winter home.

So unless I hear otherwise, I plan on putting in the good word for Nicholas, Landon, Anna, Madison, Hunter, Wyatt, Nicolas, Arianna, TJ, Jack, Katy, Travis, David, Erin and Lucas. George, Evan, Cirri, Owen, Romi, Tahva and Cannon are off the hook because they’re under two.

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War of the Worlds (2005)

I had a more in-depth review of this rental, but thanks to GoLive taking a dump during the spell checking before I could save this, I have to go with a more succinct posting (that might be for the better since brevity is always appreciated).

Spielberg and Cruise take HG Wells’ best story and make their adaptation a disaster-type movie instead of an action, adventure or science-fiction film. It only makes sense, the Martians were invincible so they were really exteriminating humanity like humans exterminate insects. The story’s protagonist, the narrator, is left intact through Cruise but he’s a blue-collar divorced guy with two kids instead of a reporter. It’s also a movie so the audience follows along with Cruise trying to stay alive and protect his children instead of him giving the play-by-play as the novel (and awesome 1978 Jeff Wayne album) did. Spielberg and the two writers also keep the bulk of the novel’s story path (for lack of a better word) intact from Cruise witnessing the invaders’ arrival, the invaders’ demonstration of their superior weapons, so on until their inevitable defeat by microbes (everyone knows the ending to this story so I didn’t give anything away). Tim Robbins does an effective job as the creepy former paramedic with delusions of beating the invaders at their game (originally a soldier in the novel). Dakota Fanning is either a great young actress or a midget because she was perfect as the daughter Cruise is trying protect at all costs. She was neither precocious nor smarter than the adults which is a common annoyance in most films and TV. On the other hand, she wasn’t a constant problem for Cruise to rescue or move the plot along. The teenage son played by Justin Chatwin had the disaffected grunting role down but I couldn’t buy into his sudden patriotism once the soldiers appeared.

This take of War of the Worlds is definitely worth renting if you’re in the mood for a good natural disaster movie since Hollywood really hasn’t produced anything truly interesting nor credible in several decades.

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Week Ten of NHL 2005-6

The schizo Flyers continue. They beat the leading team of the Northwest Division, the Calgary Flames (a rather tense 0-0 game decided by a shootout), then lose to the Edmonton Oilers who will need a miracle to make the playoffs this season. They finally put in some intensity on the Minnesota Wild to win with a minute to go.

The Penalty Kill is still dead last while the teams above them in the 26th thru 29th spots shifted around. Despite two victories out of three games, they’re still giving up too much. All of Edmonton’s three goals were on special teams, sadly two were shorties by the same forward. Here I must disagree with Tim of the Philly paper, Nittymaki still isn’t ready to be the starting goalie due to all the easy shots he gives up. The Flyers should stand behind Esche until the end of the season unless he becomes a total disaster as Jeff “I can’t” Hackett did. Clarke and Hitchcock stayed with the psycho Cechmanek for two whole seasons before he demanded a trade. Ever since Ron Hextall, there has been a big question mark in goal and every time they come close to solving it, their next Bernie Parent turns into a chump. Personally, they should’ve stayed with Brian Boucher but no, we had to assure Cechmanek he’d be number one and then he took a number two on the team twice in the playoffs.

Meanwhile, the injuries continue. As soon as Forsberg returns, Gagne is out and he went cold so the 50 in 50 probably won’t happen. But should the Gagne-Forsberg-Knuble line return physically and performance-wise, I think Simon Gagne will have a 50+ goal season and his own Todd MacFarlane action figure!

Only eight days until Team USA for the Olympics in Turin is announced!

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Ice Storm 2005, kind of

It was more like frozen drizzle but it still yields the same result in Central Texas, frozen roads and bridges followed by people wrecking their cars everywhere.

It’s also a chance to rejoice and get the rare Snow Day! No luck today with my employer (Apple). The university closed, Travis County closed, Williamson County closed and so did all the major school discricts in the area. We Apple grunts on the phone received a delayed opening of 10 am despite the dozen or more pile-ups.

Oh well, a shorter work day with full pay is always better than nothing. Sadly, Somara will have no such luck with her gig at HEB. Employees have to show up so people can rush in and start gobbling up toilet paper even though the ice will be gone by tomorrow. I think it’s looking up for the weekend.

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Week Nine of NHL 2005-6

Well, the Boston-San Jose trade invovling Joe Thornton was quite a shocker but in others wasn’t. Both teams are struggling and something had to give, I just didn’t think the Bruins would give up their star player (I’m drawing a blank on anyone famous currently playing there). Then I remind myself that Boston’s owner was one of the eight driving the lockout so he has no problem urinating on the fans.

Some changes finally hit the Flyers too. Patrick Sharp was traded to Chicago because GM Bobby Clarke said they had too many centers. The Flyers received a RW-Forward who seems promising. However, I don’t forwards are the problem, slow defensemen is why they get beat on the breakouts. Penalty Killing is everyone’s fault and that one I have no idea how to remedy.

Leadership was argued on the podcast last week too. I think the three hosts would agree with me though, with Primeau out and Recchi and LeClair gone, there is a leadership gap on the team. I thought about it and I think the nod should go to Eric “Rico” Desjardins until Primeau returns. He was captain after Lindros and he got in the faces of the referees over the no-goal call that the Islanders were demanding for review. Gagne was letting it slide until Desjardins went back to defend his team. I watched the replay too and still can’t tell. The review people in Toronto must have sharp eyes to declare that it was Esche’s stick behind the line, not the puck.

Final distraction over hockey that everyone will find funny. Due to injuries to Primeau, Forsberg and Pitkanen, the Flyers called up a couple players from the Phantoms. Nothing new except for this duo. I think they were brought up only for their names even though they’ve been contributing. Ryan Ready and Ben Eager. No joke, those are their last names.

Oh yeah, overall, two decent wins and a loss in their first shoot out. We at least got a point for it.

Let’s see if Gagne pulls off 50 in 50!

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Collection passes 1900

Recently, my CD collection cracked the 1900 mark.

I know that’s note terribly eventful but in light of how awful last week was (Uncle Chief’s death, work dragged on and was filled with disappointment, so on), this is good news. Remember, the goal of this site is to avoid the doom, gloom and political ranting.

Anyway, most of my friends don’t have collections that large. I believe the only person I have met that definitely has me beat is Mark Millard’s brother. Then again, Mark is such a big fan that I think he also has me beat. I’ll have those facts checked to make sure.

So what was CD number 1900? A new compilation from Bowling for Soup called Bowling for Soup Goes to the Movies. I am glad to see that some artists (predecessors to this would be Lyle Lovett and Dwight Yoakam) are making the effort to bundle up their material used in movies and re-releasing them so no one has to buy the lame soundtracks or hope against hope for a boxed set, not all bands make it to that status.

On another front, I have been using some grep searches courtesy of co-worker and friend Adam to tally up statistics on KMAG. I am currently plodding through what the stream did over 2003 and I hope to have some final results in 4-6 weeks.

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RIP Uncle Chief

I was juggling other entries on top of everything else I was trying to do today and before I go to sleep I wanted to at least end my day with this sad announcement.

Today was my nephew’s birthday so when I called my brother’s house to wish Nick good tidings, Brian told me the bad news right away about Uncle Chief passing over the weekend. I had heard he had been was with stomach cancer recently but never received any details.

Although I only saw him a few times in my life, he was a pretty decent person to me. He was the first Maggi to earn his college degree (my dad is younger which why he “lost” the race). Chief had been an executive with food packaging companies (I think). His time with M&M/Mars was memorable since all kids dig candy. He also managed several of his own businesses which I thought was fitting because he always was a boss-type person. That’s not meant to be a dig, there’s just some people who like to be in charge and they always have a plan.

Sadly, the last time I saw him was the Summer of 1986 before I left for Marquette. Chief and his wife Mary were in the process of moving to Seattle to start a new business or something, it was 19 years ago, I don’t remember the specifics. I only wish I had at least one more interaction with him as an adult since I was still a smart-assed, know-it-all teenager in 1986.

One great thing I will always remember about him was what I learned in 1985. That Summer, Grandma (Maggi) was terminally ill with cancer. Before she died, she left me her vast collection of Sci-Fi paperbacks. I had no idea she liked that stuff but it did explain why I did. However, why didn’t my dad read Sci-Fi? Dad preferred mysteries, especially Agatha Christie. Turned out Chief was a big fan of Tolkien and Herbert so he inherited Grandma’s hardbacks of those novels. At least I wasn’t alone in my family for liking that “nerd shit.”

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Week Eight of NHL 2005-6

With or without Forsberg, I have concluded that my Flyers have a split personality. The big question is, which team shows up at the games now. The Lightning and Islanders beat them because they wanted it more yet I doubt either of them will make it to the playoffs when the season ends. Then they played very well in the last period against the Bruins, especially by having a 100% PK ratiing against the four penalties they had to work through.

When I was in Vegas, the Flyers were favored at every casino to win the Cup. Even over the Red Wings and Senators. After 20-some games, I think it will take a miracle for them get past the first round of the playoffs with their lack of will happening. They need Primeau back or someone really willing to lead and wear the C on his jersey (my vote would be Hatcher since he did it for Dallas and there is clearly a leadership gap). Then finally solidify the two A positions for good on two people I think who can grow into the role; Johnnson and Handzus are my choices.

On the upside, Sami Kapanen is back so we’ve regained some speed on the forwards and Eric Desjardins returned so we have more experience on defense too. Both players are strong penalty killers. The other solace factor is that we have 3 more games to play than the Rangers so we can come closer to winning first in the Atlantic.

We get a rematch with the Islanders tomorrow on their ice. I think the Flyers can beat them because they’re not Cup material this year. Then a gutted Devils team the day after. Finally, the week ends with a streak of opponents from the Western Conference. Personally, none of them are terribly interesting nor do the Flyers have any excuse to lose against the Predators, Flames, Oilers and Wild (in that order). With exception to the Predators, the remaining three are struggling duds from the Northwestern division. They should pick up 6 of 8 points here, but only if the Flyers from the victory over the Senators show up.

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