One of the most popular Facebook apps and best money making for certain is the Zynga poker app. It's free poker, or at least kinda free. You can buy fake chips and some have suggested that Zynga is making nearly $50M selling these fake chips. Why are people buying? To impress strangers with large chip stacks?

Worse, I played a few hands and I hit quads, sets, straights, full houses, flushes, pocket rockets every second hand. They were clearly distributing the cards to give me amazing cards and get me excited about the game. The cards were unbelievable. I don't know their algorithm, but many poker websites give newbies great cards in order to encourage them to return. I personally can't stand it when I try a poker website and get pocket rockets left and right. It's fake. It's not real poker. I hate it!

Here's my 1st round predictions for the 2009 NHL Playoffs.

• Canadians over Bruins - I like the makeup of the Bruins team, except for one factor; Zdeno Chara. Zdeno has never shown up in the playoffs and only has 4 playoff goals. His problem is simply, in the regular season, players do not check him and he's allowed to walk out of his zone and make that first pass. In the playoffs, courage takes over, forecheckers jump on him quickly and Zdeno does not have the skill to get the puck out of his own zone. Remember his days in Ottawa.
  The Habs have to forecheck hard and get a lot of offensive zone turnovers. If they don't forecheck, then they are making a big mistake and likely can't compete with the Bruins. If the Bruins are to win, then they will need Tim Thomas to stone the Habs when Zdeno coughs it up.
• Caps over Rangers - The Rangers scored more goals than the Islanders and nobody else in the East (hint: they can't score). I doubt they can score enough to keep up with the Ovechkin's gang. 
  For the Rangers to complete, players like Chris Drury are gonna have to play a lot better than they have of late. The difference maker could be Sean Avery. If he can get the Caps off their game, the Ranger might have a chance.
• Devils over Canes - Canes are hot and this team has twice in the last decade got hot in the playoffs and made it to the finals. Not this time. They are playing Brodeur, one of the best playoff goalies ever.
  The last two times the Canes made the playoffs, they went to the finals. And the first of those two were with their current coach, Paul Maurice, behind the bench. Brent Sutter's job is likely on the line. Even with two great regular seasons, Lou Lamoriello is quickest General Manager to pull the plug on his coaches.
• Pens over Flyers - The Pens went to the finals last year and are now one more year seasoned.
  Although they lost Hossa, they gained a lot of playoff seasoned big hitters, most noteably Chris Kunitz and Ruslan Fedotenko. The Flyers are use to playoff dissappointments and I don't see why that'll change this year.
• Ducks over Sharks - The Ducks are playoff performers and the Sharks are playoff boobs.
  This series is gonna come down to Joe Thornton. Joe has never scored more than 3 goals in any playoff season. If he hangs around the sideboards, then the Sharks are done again. The Ducks are loaded with playoff performers; Chris Pronger, Scott Niedermayer and J.S. Giguere.
• Wings over Jackets - No brainer. The Wings, Cup champs who added Marian Hossa, are simply too powerful for the Jackets.
  If the Jackets are to compete, then it'll have to be between the pipes. Expect every game to be a shooting galery and the target is Steve Mason. Will Chris Osgood or Ty Conklin be able to make the saves when they are bored?
• Canucks over Blues - The playoffs is all about goaltending and Luongo is one of the best.
  Last year, the Canucks could not score for Luongo, who played like a god. Add Pavol Demitra and Matts Sundin. Scoring should be less of a problem. I don't know how the Blues can win.
• Flames over Hawks - This is the toughest call. The Hawks are turning into the best team in the West. It might be one season too early.
  Miikka Kiprusoff has been awesome in the playoffs, but the Flames couldn't score for him. Add Cammalleri, Jokinen and Bertuzzi. Next to the Pens, the Hawks have the best young talent in the NHL; Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. 

The lineup to get into the Battalion v St Mikes game last night went from the arena, to the sidewalk, down the street a block and around the corner. Oddly, there was only 3,800 at the game. Which is a lot of Mississauga, but obviously more than they are prepared to handle. We arrived about 40 minutes early, which is usually very early for an OHL game, but had to lineup around the corner.

It was a great game with Brampton winning 3-2 and taking the series in 6 games. The video is of the 3 stars (volume is noisy).

G has agreed to be our first Blog Deputy. She'll be taking care of three player blogs; Darren Sharper, Tony Richardson, Flozell Adams, Chris Paul and James Farrior. Welcome aboard!

Steph has agreed to be our first Blog Deputy. She'll be taking care of three player blogs; Carl Edwards, Dale Jr, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch. Welcome aboard!

MzBGSharper has agreed to be our first Blog Deputy. She'll be taking care of three player blogs; Darren Sharper, Reggie Bush and Shannon Brown. Welcome aboard!

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NHL.com is the worst website of all the major sports. Beyond the facts that it's extremely slow, has tons of dead and unmaintained pages, the minor stats are not updated, it doesn't work on mobile device, etc. Now, the embedded videos have stopped working yet again.

http://www.nhl.com/

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If you were Brian Burke, then what would you do in the off-season? Here's my take.

Buyouts?

I'd be tempted to buy-out Blake and Finger, but I wouldn't. The Leafs aren't going to win the Stanley Cup next year and every year we keep either player removes two years from their salary impacting the Leafs cap. Tucker's salary cap hit for buying him out last year was $1M this year and will be $1M for the next 5 years. I don't want that mistake repeated. I wouldn't buy anybody out. It's a short-term fix and we need long-term solutions.

Goaltending

The biggest problem is in goal. Toskala has one year left on his contract and I think he's worth the $4M. Let's keep him as our backup or part of a 1-2 tandem and maybe we can trade him at the deadline.

The Leafs should focus on signing the best free-agent goalie they can. Tim Thomas? Khabibulin? Craig Anderson? Martin Biron? That's a pretty good list. I wouldn't trade for a starting goalie unless it was a steal. Why trade what you can sign for free? Martin Gerber is another free-agent option, but I'd give him 1 year max. I wouldn't give anybody a no-trade clause.

I wouldn't put much stock in Justin Pogge anymore. Let's leave him with the Marlies for now and test him again in 2010, unless he pulls off a miracle in the AHL playoffs. That would change everything.

Defense

Set ($19M). Kubina, Kaberle, White, Finger, Schenn, Van Ryn are the starting six. Frogen is the 7th. Stralman could fill-in for injuries and I might even give him a shot at making the club.

BTW, if we give $6M to a 2nd goaltender, then we are already at $29M and $29M for an NHL defense is rather high, especially for one that isn't all that good.

Forwards

Returning fowards ($16M); Blake, Hagman, Ponikarovsky, Stempniak, Stajan and Kulemin. We'll have to resign Grabovski for about $1.5M. I would keep Jamal Mayers and John Mitchell as fourth liners and 13th forwards with the club or with the Marlies. I wouldn't be afraid to lose either on waivers either. I'd also give Jeremy Williams and Jiri Tlusty shots at making the big club next season.

This leaves us 4 forward positions to fill. One of these will be filled by our first round draft pick. The Leafs should get a high pick and most of the talent is at center. I would do everything to move up in this draft, as the talent is thick. Tavares, Hedman and Duchesne are the prizes. It might be difficult to trade up and get Tavares. Both Hedman and Duchesne might be available for a reasonable price. 

Now we have 3 forward positions left to fill. I really like Andre Deveaux and we can have him for minimum. The Leafs need a right-handed centerman that can win faceoffs (Dominik Moore $1.5M?). This leaves us a little bit of room to pick up a free-agent forward to fill out the lineup with a tough guy that can play.

Bonus

Sign Ponikarovsky to an 2-yr extension at $3-3.5M. Sign Stajan to a 1-yr extension at $2M.  They are unrestricted at the end of 2009-10.

Result

Still not a great team. If we re-signed Gerber to a $1.5M deal instead of going for a #1 goalie, then we'd have salary room to go after a premier forward, but I think you build from the net out.

Here's my final grades on your 2008-09 Toronto Maple Leafs.

1. A+ Alexei Ponikarovsky - 23 goals on less than 16 minutes per game and best of all he was +8 on a mostly minus team.
2. A Luke Schenn - In limited ice-time, he finished 18th in hits thrown.
3. A Mikhail Grabovski - The rookie tallied more points than Stamkos.
4. A Niklas Hagman - Good two-way players and we have him locked up for 3 more years.
5. A Nik Antropov - Career high goals and good trade bait.
6. A Andre Deveaux - He played 21 games on the big club. Who'd a guessed that last September.
7. A Dominic Moore - Claimed him off waivers and traded him for a 2nd round pick in just over a year. Not bad.
8. A Jeremy Williams - According to Ron Wilson, he doesn't play well defensively from the press box. WTF!?
9. A Carlo Calaiacovo - Finally turned into the NHL player we new he would be. Unfortunately, we traded him first.
10. B+ Ian White - The + is for effort.
11. B Tomas Kaberle - He didn't step up and become a leader.
12. B Matt Stajan - He's not a #1 center, but was forced to fill-in as one.
13. B Pavel Kubina - Solid d-man
14. B Nikolai Kulemin - 10th in rookie goals.
15. B Jonas Frogen - Good start.
16. B Phil Oreskovic - WOW! He played 10 games in the NHL.
17. B Anton Stralman - Improving.
18. B Brian Burke - Interesting moves.
19. C Jason Blake - Better, but still not earning anywhere near his salary.
20. C Jeff Finger - Didn't earn his salary, but not entirely his fault.
21. C Mike Van Ryn - Looked good on the ice, not so much in the medical room.
22. C Vesa Toskala - Leafs won't get better unless the goaltending gets better.
23. C Brad May - Great team man, but he's a candidate for retirement.
24. C John Mitchell - Has the talent to play in the NHL, but doesn't show it during the games.
25. C Tim Stapleton - First NHL goal and great AHL rookie season.
26. C Jeffrey Hamilton - Good depth player.
27. C Martin Gerber - I think we got brownie points for taking his salary.
28. C Curtis Joseph - Stunk before Christmas, but played better since. Retire already!
29. C Ron Wilson - Didn't have much to work with.
30. D Lee Stempniak - Do we really have to pay this guy $3.5 million next year?
31. D Jamal Mayers - Kulemin threw more hits.
32. D Jiri Tlusty - Finally clicked in the AHL. He might get another chance next year.
33. D Kris Newbury - Injured!
34. D Alex Steen - Lost patience with him and got traded.
35. D Jay Harrison - Leaving for Europe was a bad career move.
36. D Staffan Kronwall - Lost him on waivers. Not a biggy.
37. D Jamie Sifers - Didn't progress.
38. D Boyd Devereaux - He stunk with the Marlies.
39. D Ben Ondrus - HuH? They didn't have anything better when they played him in 11 games?
40. D Ryan Hollweg - We actually traded a 5th rounder for him.
41. D Mark Bell - Contract is over. Bye!
42. D Justin Pogge - Horrible.
43. D Cliff Fletcher - Stunk.

This looks awesome. Finally a NASCAR game for the Wii system.  Unfortunate that it's only Kart and not real NASCAR cars.

http://www.hellosanta.org/find.aspx?q=B001LX4BMS