#to keith then saying “just the young sebastian i wanted to see” after keith and angela switched forcing her to answer the question | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

berjhawn · 7 years

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Sebastian Stan X Reader - You Only Love Me For My Dog

This is a one shot that came to be because my room-mate and i believe this lovely human being deserves a dog of his own. I hope you enjoy this as much as i did writing it.

Warnings: Stress, Dogs, Etc

Pairing: Sebastian Stan X Reader

Words: 2249

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I let out a heavy sigh as I grab the last half eaten plate of food off the table and set it in the tub. Today had been a horrible day. The girl that was supposed to work today decided not to show up so I had to work my shift plus hers and it seemed like every customer was out for blood. Like, I understand they were probably fighting their own battles but did they really need to take it out on me? Thankfully, it was time to go home. I lift the tub and quickly carry it back to the kitchen and set it on the counter next to the sink.

“Thanks (Name),” I hear my manager Keith, say and I turn to see him walking out of the office towards me. “Mandy called and said she’ll take your shift tomorrow, so enjoy your three-day weekend.”

“She didn’t have to do that, but tell her I said thank you.” I say as I walk back toward the lockers. Reaching my locker, I place my head on the outside and let out a heavy sigh. I was extremely tired. Taking a deep breath, I open my locker and reach for my normal clothes and my cell phone. Closing the locker, I quickly change out of my restaurant uniform and hang it up in my locker before sliding my jeans and t-shirt on. Grabbing my cell phone, I open it to see that I had a missed call and I sigh.

I slide it in my back pocket as I grab my purse and coat. Sliding my arms through the arms of my coat I clock out and head out the door before anyone can keep me from leaving. Looking around I spot a taxi and decide to splurge on the ride home. Looking both ways I make sure no other cars are coming before I let out a loud whistle causing him to pause giving me enough time to climb inside. I quickly tell him my address and lean back in the seat letting out a sigh of relief. It was over. The day could only get better. Couldn’t it?

I feel my cell phone vibrate and I groan as I pull it out to see my boyfriend’s name pop up and I take a deep breath as I try to calm my nerves and put on a fake smile. “Hey handsome, sorry I didn’t answer earlier. I had to work a double.”

“Don’t worry about it babe, I was just calling to say I love you, and ask you how your day was.” Sebastian says and I try not to cry.

“It was fine, I’m just happy to be going home.” I reply trying to hold my emotions back.

“You don’t sound fine. You want me to come home?” He replies worry filling his voice.

“I can’t ask you to do that, you’ve got a busy schedule with your movies and all that; I’ll be fine once I get home and cuddle Frank.”

“You’re making me jealous of my own dog here babe.” He says a chuckle escaping his lips.

“I can’t help it he’s cuter, fluffier, and cuddlier than you.” I joke making him chuckle.

“Lucky ass dog.” Sebastian replies with a gruff causing a smile to fill my lips.

“I swear, one day I may run away with him.”

“You’d miss me, and that’s my dog babe, you won’t get far.”

“He loves me more.”

“I have no doubt about that.” Sebastian replies a chuckle filling his voice. Oh god I really loved this man. “Well as much as I don’t want to go, I have to get back to work.”

“I understand,” I reply the happy moments from just now disappearing completely. “Be careful, I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Ok, love you babe; give Frank hugs for me.”

“I will, Goodnight.”

“Sweet dreams beautiful.” As he hangs up I feel tears slowly fall form my eyes and I quickly try to wipe them away. I wasn’t one for showing my emotions or letting anyone know how I really felt; not gonna lie it had been a problem in my past relationships but with Sebastian it was different. Not gonna lie I wish he could be here with me now. It’d be nice to cuddle up with him, but I knew what I was getting into when I started dating him.

“We’re here.” The cabby calls out bringing me from my thoughts and I look around to notice the familiar surroundings and handing him some money say, “Thank you. Have a good night.”

“You too miss.” He replies as I climb out of the cab and onto the sidewalk. I reach into my purse and pulling out my keys head for the front door and unlocking it step into the foyer. I step inside to see a pair of men’s shoes and cock an eyebrow. Sebastian’s lab Frank runs up to me and I reach out to pet him calling out, “Hello?”

“Oh, you’re home.” Sebastian says coming around the corner causing me to stare at him in confusion.

“Wha-”

“Before you say anything, put your stuff down and come with me upstairs.”

“Sebastian, I’m-”

“Ah, ah, ah; just come on.” He says holding his hand out to me. Letting out a heavy sigh I set my things down in the walkway and follow him upstairs where I suddenly smell something citrusy. Cocking an eyebrow in confusion until he leads me to the bathroom where I look around to see tons of candles covering the room. The bath was full of hot water and I could tell he had tossed my favorite bath bomb into the water. Tears threaten to pour as I turn to him about to say something when he says, “You get naked, hop in the bath and enjoy yourself. I’ve already cleaned the house and took Frank out for the night. All I want from you is to relax.”

“Babe,”

“I know I’m amazing. Go on, I’ll have dinner ready when you’re finished.” He says kissing me gently on the cheek.

“Thank you,” I reply as he starts to walk out of the bathroom causing him to turn around and smile brightly at me before he heads back downstairs, Frank following closely behind him. Shaking my head, i slip out of my clothes and smile as I slowly descend into the nice hot water. Letting out a sigh of contentment I lean my head back against the back of the tub and let all the worries from earlier drift away.

~~~~~~

I didn’t know exactly how long I had been in the tub; but from the look of my now wrinkly fingertips it had been a while. Taking a deep breath, I stand up and reaching for the towel pull it to wrap around my body. Since I had a slight fear of my house one day burning down, I walked around to all the candles and blew them out one by one. After I was sure they were all out, I walk into our bedroom and reaching into the dresser grab some clean underwear and then smile. I cock an eyebrow playfully as I walk over to the closet and walking in search for my favorite button up shirt of his.

When I find the one I want I pull it off the hanger and slip it over my shoulders. I button some of the buttons before I pull the ponytail out of my hair sighing as it falls comfortably down my shoulders. As if he sensed I had gotten out of the bath, Frank, runs into the room his tail wagging happily behind him. I lean down and smile softly as I reach up to pet his ears. “Hey Frank, how’s momma’s boy?” As if to answer me, he licks my face excitedly. “Love you too buddy.”

Scratching his head one more time, I stand up and he follows me as I walk back downstairs to see Sebastian in the kitchen carrying take out containers to the kitchen table where he had made it look like a romantic scene. I smile softly as I watch him light the candle in the middle and then do a double take to make sure he had gotten everything before he finally notices me and Frank in the doorway. “Hey babe,” He says his eyes looking me up and down as a hunger fills them.

“What’s all this?” I ask as I near him.

“Ahem, this is a romantic dinner for two.” He says clearing his throat and putting on a playful smile.

“Not three?” I ask as I slowly look down to Frank who was now sitting next to my feet a sad look on his face as he met eyes with Sebastian.

“Un uh, young man, I already fed you.” Sebastian says getting on to him. He then turns to look up at me with sad eyes and I turn back to Sebastian.

“He’s calling you a liar babe.” I joke as I walk over to the cabinet to grab some dog treats causing Frank to wag his tail uncontrollably.

“You know babe, sometimes I think you only love me for my dog.” Sebastian says and I pause for a moment and pretend he caught me and he chuckles.

“I can’t help it,” I retort as I turn back to Frank and say, “Sit.” Frank sits and stares at the treat as if it’s the last meal he will ever have and I smirk. I toss the treat to him and he gulps it down in one bite. “I can’t say no to that face.”

“But you can say no to mine?”

“Nope,” I add quickly closing he distance between us to gently kiss his lips. “I could never tell either of you no.” He smiles as he leans back in and kisses my lips tenderly.

“Are you hungry?” He asks into my lips and I nod.

“How could I not be after you did all this, babe,” I look from the table to him and smile brightly. “I love you.”

“Love you too, now let’s eat.” He says pulling my chair out for me to sit in.

“Did you get the Kung Pao?” I ask and he chuckles.

“I’d be a pretty shitty boyfriend if I didn’t.” He answers pointing to one of the containers as he moves to sit next to me.

“And the Sweet Fire Chicken?”

“Here.”

“You know me so well.” I reply my throat suddenly becoming tight the emotions I had pushed away earlier resurfacing. “Thank you so much for this,” I say my voice cracking causing him to look over at me with knowing eyes. “You didn’t have to rush home, draw me a bath, get take-out, and take care of Frank.”

“I also cleaned the house, but keep going.” He adds a loving smile filling his face making the tears cascade down my cheeks.

“See,” I look away from him as I lean back in my chair and start to wipe the tears away. “What did I do to deserve you?” He leans over and wrapping an arm around my shoulders pulls me into a hug and gently kisses my forehead.

“Hun, I love you. If you have a bad day at work, I wanna be here to help you out. Just like you do for me.”

“But you’re busy with work, I don’t want to become a burden.” I say making him pull away slightly and look me straight in the eyes with a serious expression.

“(Name), you could never be a burden to me. I love you,” He says his hand moving down to gently rubs circles on my back. “Do I hate how you like to keep everything bottled deep down until you break, yes I do; but that’s not gonna change how much I love you. I want to take care of you. That’s one of the reasons we moved into this house together.” He says reaching up with his free hand to wipe the tears off my cheeks. “That and you only love me for my dog.” He adds making me laugh causing a smile to fill his lips as Frank barks in agreement and lays his head in my lap.

“That’s not fair,” I say looking down at Frank. I reach down gently scratching his head before pulling my hand back and turning back to Sebastian reach up to cup his cheek. “Making me laugh is cheating.”

“No, it’s not.” He replies his smile growing. “I’ll make you laugh as many times as it takes to brighten your day; because I love you.”

“I love you so much it hurts. You can never leave now, I hope you know that.”

“I don’t plan on it.” He says pulling my hand from his face to place a kiss on my palm. “Now let’s eat, because there’s an 80’s movie marathon tonight with our names on it.”

“I take it, it’s a sleep over on the couch kind of night?” I ask reaching out to grab my chopsticks.

“Damn straight.” He says pulling from me to slide the Sweet Fire Chicken my way.

“Good thing I have a three-day weekend.” I add and he smiles seductively his eyes looking back to me.

“Then it’s a good thing I do too.” He adds before grabbing the container full of eggrolls. “Now let’s eat.”

#Berjhawn #sebastian stan fanfiction #Sebastian Stan #sebstan #sebastian stan x you #sebastian stan x reader #fanfiction #xreader #dogs #YOLMFMD

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kimamanitranslatesnovels · 7 years

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Destruction Flag Otome v4c1pt2

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Volume 4, Chapter 1: The Incident Occurred Suddenly

Part 2: Pages 35 - 55

Jared’s romantic overtures, unrelenting since his confession after the kidnapping incident, don’t abate today. He elegantly draws in near with his oh-so-beautiful face and whispers of his love, then begins to touch me.

My friends always back me up when I go pale or flush red in my inner turmoil… but at this rate, my heart won’t hold up, given that I have zero tolerance to romance.

In this short time since his confession, my heart has been beating so fast that I worry that my heart may use up the limited number of heartbeats allocated for my life.

To be honest, it’s really tough for me to deal with a handsome prince’s romantic overtures when he throws himself on top of me. Seriously, it’s enough to make me want him to begin with writing in an exchange diary with me or something. I’m a complete novice at romance, after all.

And so, I’m complaining to my stepbrother Keith in his room today again, exhausted from dealing with Jared’s romantic overtures.

“… I’m – I’m so tired.”

I flop onto his room’s sofa.

“Looks like you’ve given up,” says Keith, even as he smiles wryly at his sister’s whining.

He brings out my favourite sweets and pours me my favourite tea.

“Mmank phu,” I thank him, already stuffing my mouth with the sweets.

Normally, Keith would get angry at me for my terrible manners. But today, seeing how exhausted I am, he lets it go with just another wry smile.

But really, Keith hasn’t made one complaint despite his stepsister coming into his room every day, exhausted, to do nothing but grouch. He not only listens to my complaints but even emphasizes with my pain.

I really have a splendid stepbrother.

Though Keith has always helped me out like this in the first place, ever since we were little.

Whether it was after I was lectured by Mother or after I made a mistake during a tea party, he always listened to what I had to say until I returned to normal.

My older brothers from my previous life were rather different. When they saw their younger sister depressed, the only idea they would have would be to start wrestling with her until she felt better.

I didn’t hate my older brothers, but I did think, too many times to count, “Try even a little to understand a sensitive girl’s feelings! You morons!”

In contrast, Keith is considerate, understanding perfectly how a maiden’s feelings work. He would never start wrestling with his sister when she’s feeling down. Instead, he would silently bring out her favourite sweets and tea.

Considerate, kind, and faultless – I really have a splendid stepbrother.

The way he is, he wouldn’t bring shame to the family no matter whose wife he become – oh, though he would become a husband, to be accurate. He’s probably beating off the women with a stick.

But as his stepsister, I want him to find a good wife if possible. It would inconvenience me if she were the same type of person as Mother. My ideal would be a good and kind girl like Maria.

As I go and muse about my stepbrother’s wife, Keith speaks up.

“Hey, do you really not intend to marry Jared-sama?” asks Keith, looking somewhat serious.

“Obviously! If I married Jared-sama, I would become royalty! Royalty – they stand at the top of this country! Do you think I could fit in a role like that?” I deny firmly.

Even my friend Mary, known as a picture-perfect noble’s daughter, says that it might be tough on her. It’s completely impossible for a useless, hopeless girl like me.

“Heh heh, that’s true. Being royalty would probably be tough on you, sis,” says Keith, laughing cheerfully. But immediately after, his serious expression returns, “But… but, despite that, if you still… about Jared…”

“Hm?”

“Never mind, it’s nothing,” says Keith, stopping himself from saying more.

He looked somehow pained… my heart twinged at the expression. It reminded me of how he looked when he had come to our house for the first time.

But his expression returned to normal almost immediately and he encouraged me to continue talking.

I forgot completely about my heart twinging after I started complaining again at Keith’s encouragements.

And so, feeling completely refreshed, I returned to my room. As the academy is closed for a break for a short while starting from tomorrow, we’ll be returning to the Claes mansion.

I’ll be able to escape from Jared’s passionate romantic overtures for a short while. I was feeling a little relieved.

************

The next day, Keith and I returned to the Claes mansion as planned. I immediately changed into my work clothes and headed out to my field at home for the first time in a while.

In the past, my mother would disapprove. But now, she’s started to just say with a tired expression that she doesn’t care so long as I don’t make strange shouts.

I tell her cheerfully that I understand, even though I don’t understand the most important thing - what she means by strange shouts.

Could I be yelling out weird things like “Ah-h-hh!” or “Ra-a-ah!” without realizing it? I need to be careful.

I take my plow in my hand.

“Heigh-hoh, heave-ho,” I shout, beginning my farmwork.

Perhaps because it was a break, but even Jared didn’t visit my home today. Keith had left soon after we got home, saying that he had something he needed to do. So I worked hard on my field with old man Tom and Anne.

In the past, Anne would look stiff and say that she couldn’t believe that a good noble daughter would work on a field, but perhaps because she accompanied me every day as I worked on my field even at school. But before I knew it, Anne had become even better than me at farmwork.

Now, she’s become so good that she can even give me precise instructions. “Oh, young mistress, you shouldn’t harvest that plant just yet. I believe that the one next to it is readier for harvest,” for example.

She’s become incredibly good at planting seeds and seedlings, and nowadays, she’s even become knowledgeable about what kinds of fertilizer are best and which tools would make work go more smoothly.

And so, I worked hard on my field – so hard that I lost track of time. Before I knew it, the sun was setting.

My efforts were not for vain. My field has become a lot tidier than before and I was able to harvest many vegetables.

Wanting Keith to see my hard work, I head to his room without changing out of my work clothes.

“Hey, Keith. My field has gotten even more splendid than before – come see...” I say.

I knock on the door before opening the door and entering. But…

“Huh? He’s still not back?”

There was no one there.

I thought that he would be back already since he left pretty early, but perhaps he was somewhere else? So I ask the Claes family butler Sebastian (a nickname I went and gave him on my own), but he says that Keith had still not returned.

Was the thing he had to do something that takes a lot of time?

I’m disappointed, but it can’t be helped. I give up and make to return to my field, but I happen to run into Mother as she leaves the tearoom.

As soon as she catches sight of me, Mother, who had been cheerfully chatting with a maid, immediately darkens. She stands up tall. I can see her anger very clearly in her eyes.

What? What? Why? We only just saw each other. Mother’s sharp gaze pierces me as I panic in confusion. She then checks something behind me. Her gaze sharpens even further.

Wait, what? I look behind me to see a trail of dirt on my path. To make things worse, I can see it trailing off rather neatly all the way to the hallway behind me.

Then I look down at myself. I’m wearing my work clothes, still caked in dirt from my farmwork.

This is bad… Sensing danger, I tried to quietly escape, but my opponent moved faster. Before I could escape, Mother grabs me by the scruff.

“Katarina, come to my room for a bit,” growls Mother in a low, dangerous voice. She sounds like a gatekeeper to hell.

And so after she brushed off the dirt caked on my clothes, Mother dragged me to her room like a prisoner. I received an hours-long lecture.

And so, after being finally released from her lecture, I headed to Keith’s room again to complain about how Mother got angry at me and to talk about my harvest.

I had thought that he would be back, since the sun had already set, but…

“… Keith?”

The room was just as quiet as it had been the last time I visited. There was no answer to my call.

In the end, Keith did not return to the Claes mansion that day.

************

Keith had never not come back home without saying something first.

Thus, when Keith didn’t come back, everyone in the mansion was taken off guard. A single letter was delivered to the Claes mansion when we were discussing filing a missing person’s report. In the letter the following was written in what was unmistakably Keith’s writing.

I am leaving as I can no longer bear the responsibility of being the heir to a Duke’s house. Please do not look for me.

- Keith

After receiving the letter, the chaos at the mansion worsened. Everyone who served the House of Claes said things like “I cannot believe that someone as talented and perfect as Keith-sama wouldn’t be able to bear the responsibilities of being heir,” and “But he’s intelligent and recently, he was accompanying Master to his work. He was furthering his studies,” and “He did not seem in the slightest like he couldn’t bear his responsibilities.”

I did agree with what everyone said.

It’s been almost a decade since Keith was taken into the family, but Keith has always been talented and quick to learn. He easily blended with noble circles and he’s better than me at conducting himself in high society.

By now, he was recognized as the House of Claes’ perfect heir. Would Keith think that being a Duke’s heir was just too tough at this point?

As I mused in confusion, I was called over by Mother to her room for some reason.

What was the matter? Did she perhaps learn something about Keith?

“Katarina, about Keith…” says Mother with a serious look when I enter her room.

Did she learn something about Keith after all? Adopting a similarly serious expression, I wait for Mother’s next words.

“About Keith’s letter – I really can’t believe that the responsibilities of a Duke’s house were such a burden on him.”

“… That’s true.”

As I thought, Mother was thinking the same thing as me. I give her a big nod of agreement.

“So I asked the servants about a lot of different things… then they said…”

“Then they said?”

Mother’s gaze sharpens. I automatically straighten up in response.

“Keith apparently had been spotted a number of times looking depressed lately, his expression dark.”

“Keith looking depressed?”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen him look depressed, but perhaps I just didn’t notice?

“That’s right. And everyone says that he almost always only looked depressed after he saw a certain someone.”

“What!? A certain someone!?”

Who could it be? Could that person have something to do with Keith’s worries? Then if we ask that person, we might learn something about his worries.

“Mother, just who is this person?”

“… It is…” Mother begins, pausing for a moment to stare at me before continuing, “… You, Katarina!”

She said the second statement firmly, as if she were a detective from a TV show that had found the culprit.

“… Wh – what!? Me!?”

My mouth drops open in my shock.

“That’s right, you, Katarina. According to the servants’ testimonies, lately Keith has apparently looked particularly depressed after speaking with you,” Mother says as if she were cornering in on the culprit of a crime.

“After speaking with me…”

He had listened to my grouching a lot lately… but had he seemed depressed? I think back… now that she mentions it, I do recall that he had seemed somehow pained the day before we came home.

“Oh, now that you mention it…”

“As I thought, you know what it may be,” says Mother at my comment, sighing deeply as if she were a policewoman that had wrangled out a confession from a criminal. Continuing, she declares loudly, “Keith did not run away from home because he could not bear the burden of his responsibilities as the heir to a Duke’s house. Keith ran away because babysitting you, Katarina, was too much for him to bear!”

“What, babysitting?”

Well, it’s true that he did always back me up and help me out in a lot of different ways… but babysitting?

“Keith became tired of having to take care of his useless stepsister for all these years. But since he’s a kind child, he couldn’t say straight-out that he hated his stepsister, so he wrote a letter like that...” says Mother, looking away with a pained expression.

“…”

Putting aside the babysitting and so on, it’s true that I’ve barged into his room and made him listen to my grouching a lot lately. Being told that he got tired because of that is making me think that may be so.

“… What should we do…?”

If Keith never came back, having drained all of his goodwill towards me…

At my downhearted state, Mother looks at me grimly and tightly grips my hands.

“There’s nothing we can do about what’s already happened. For now, apologize for everything you’ve done up until now. And tell him that you’ll do your best to avoid causing him trouble in the future. If he recognizes your genuine intentions, I’m sure he’ll forgive you – he’s a kind child.”

“… Mo – mother.”

To think that Mother would say something like that to me. I’m touched – my eyes get wet. I grip my mother’s hands right back.

“Mother, I will properly apologize to Keith! And I’ll go and tell him that I will do my best to avoid causing him trouble!” I say.

“Yes, do your best, Katarina!”

In this way, in one room in the Claes mansion, a mother-daughter pair, both a little off their heads, grip each other’s hands and cry out to each other.

************

Right then, let’s conduct a strategy meeting for bringing Keith back!

President: Katarina Claes, Vice-President: Katarina Claes, Secretary: Katarina Claes.

Very well then. Today, I would like to discuss strategies to have Keith return back home after he ran away. Everyone, please voice your opinions.

I would not call this my opinion exactly, but would it not be a good idea to apologize and promise to not cause him any trouble anymore like Mother suggested earlier?

Well, that is the basic idea, but I believe that it would be better to show our good faith in some way.

Good faith?

For example, doing something for him to make up for all the trouble we’ve caused him up until now?

Ooh, that is a very good idea. So then what would we do for him?

I have not thought about that yet!

… You shouldn’t say that so haughtily.

What if we gave him a present? Like sweets?

That sounds good, but would Keith be happy getting sweets?

Then perhaps new seedlings or fertilizer?

That’s just what Katarina wants, isn’t it.

Then perhaps tickets for shoulder massages or washing his back in the bath?

Father would probably be overjoyed, but would Keith? But it might be nice to demonstrate our gratitude for what he does for us every day by serving him well like that.

Well then, it’s decided! We’ll apologize to Keith to get him to come home, then serve him well with all our gratitude!

And we need to promise to not cause him trouble anymore.

That’s right. Let’s vow to no longer eat too much and get sick. Let’s also vow to be careful not to play inside after getting carried away, thus breaking things.

Alright, it’s perfect. Well then, all we need to do now is go to Keith.

That’s right!

… So, where is Keith?

!!!

We need to begin by searching for Keith, do we not?

Y – you’re very smart, Katarina Claes. It’s just as you say.

That’s true, let’s start by searching for Keith. Since he ran away from home, he’s probably not nearby… so we’ll need to set out on a journey in search of Keith.

A journey in search of Keith! Like in that anime 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother, right!?

That’s right, but in search of our stepbrother rather than our mother.

… Well, to begin with then are we alright with deciding to set out on a journey in search of Keith?

Yes.

And so, I resolved to set out on a journey to search for Keith.

************

The fact that I had decided to set out on a journey had leaked from somewhere… and for some reason, people showed up saying that they wanted to come along with me.

One was my fiancé Jared Stuart, who said that he would come along because he was worried about me. He wouldn’t listen to my objections and I couldn’t send him away.

Another was Lahna from the Ministry of Magic for some reason, who said “This is convenient – I can treat it as the training trip for new Ministry employees. Let me come along.”

I was surprised to hear there was a trip like that, but since things would probably go smoothly with a Ministry higher-up like Lahna coming along, I decided to ask her to come along.

So the new employees that Lahna was going to train, Maria and Sora, ended up coming along as well.

On a side note, the young man named Sora is the same person as Rufus, one of the culprits behind my kidnapping a little while back.

He helped out greatly with the kidnapping with his dark magic, but after bursting into tears and claiming that his master had threatened him, he was absolved of all charges. He, who had lived through such an unlucky childhood, was under custody by the Ministry of Magic.

Though well, when I actually interacted with him during the kidnapping incident he really didn’t seem like the type to burst into tears and claim that he was threatened…

Well anyways, through this and that, it was decided that a somewhat strange group consisting of me, Jared, Lahna, Maria, and Sora (Rufus) would set out on a journey in search of Keith.

T/N:

An exchange diary is a diary used to exchange thoughts, shared between friends.

3000 Leagues in Search of Mother is a classic anime about an Italian boy who sets off on a journey in search of his mother.

I admit that I totally thought the guy in the opening of the chapter was Rufus Sora, but it’s looking like it was Keith now.

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#light novel #destruction flag otome #I Reincarnated Into an Otome Game as a Villainess with Only Destruction Flags...

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auskultu · 7 years

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Donovan: All Is Friendly

Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 9 March 1967

WHENEVER returning from interviewing Donovan these days I feel that I've been the subject of a Sunday School treat. He surrounds himself with such nice friendly people down in Gipsy Dave's Wimbledon house it is impossible not to be enveloped by the warm friendly atmosphere.

Mostly they are young people with long hair who work for Don, like Nick, the chauffeur, who drives the Daimler, or Dave, the neighbour, who just dropped in through the window! There is Yvonne, a pretty blonde Swedish girl, who makes incredible prawn open sandwiches, and Susan, an American girl making a film with Don.

And, of course, the mustachioed, warm-hearted Gipsy Dave, who punctuates his every word with 'man' and 'cat,' which mean either! Last, but by no means least, there is Magnus, who is brown and black, and dribbles when you eat an apple in front of him. He's a mongrel, but does not mind!

There is a stranger from the BBC in the room, but he is as welcome as anyone. Cups of tea and food are pressed upon him until he, too, is "mellow-yellow" and "quite right" in the big lounge where we sit.

There are new and beautiful coloured pictures of enchanted forests on the wall, drawn by Gip with coloured Biros ("one mistake, man, and you have to start again") and proudly dominating the far end of the room is the snooker table which Don bought Gip as a Christmas present.

"Some men delivered it on Christmas Eve and they sent me to bed early so I wouldn't see it till next morning," said Gip, smiling.

Donovan sat on a sofa with the guitar by his side which is now almost an extension of his arm, and talked of 'Jennifer Juniper', his new hit song.

"The words 'Jennifer Juniper' just struck me as a beautiful combination," he said. "Rather like 'Sunshine Superman'. They seem to combine to sound right. I sang the last verse in French because we know that there are a lot of people in Paris who buy my discs and we thought it would be a sort of 'thank you' to them in their own language. Somehow the words sound as if they should be in French." He demonstrated by picking up his guitar and rolling a few r's around. Don's new directions in music can be clearly heard on his new album Gift To A Flower From A Garden. The key is simplicity and a natural selection of words used in every-day conversation.

"I really don't want any part of the stoned poetry – 'sparkling in her diamond-flecked psychedelic eye' – and I do want everyone to understand me. Of course, there is philosophy between the lines of my poetry if you want to look for it.

"For example, in 'First There Is A Mountain' I was just pointing out the universal law of things returning to themselves. First there is trouble, then there is no trouble, then there is!

"There is a very good book by an Arab called Kahlil Gibran, who writes things in parables, much the same way as Christ spoke in the Bible, called The Science Of Being. He thinks that a child's mind should be allowed to develop free as the wind. I feel very much the same about such things."

Tea appeared in cups which had no handles, but then they were not supposed to have – very clever these Swedish people! Donovan provided a brief musical interlude by singing a part of a song called 'Boredom', which the very much underrated John Sebastian, of the Lovin' Spoonful, had written.

"It could be even bigger than 'Daydream' was for them," said Don. "Sebastian must emerge as a huge talent one day."

Some two years ago Don told me that he would give up the pop business after a few years and just write about his travels. What has happened, of course, is that his experiences as a traveller have become a part of his music. "I have to travel to meet new people and see new things for my songs," said Don. "The song on the flipside of 'First There Is A Mountain' was called 'Sand And Foam', and that concerned some real experiences in Mexico.

"The reason for my recent trip to Greece was to look for new things. We stayed at a mountain lodge and sat around singing songs over an open fire. Then we went down to Athens and on to the harbour, where we drank wine with some people and met reporters."

The man from the BBC had to leave and Don asked him where he was from. Scene And Heard, said the man. Don gave him a copy of his new album, autographed to "Paul Williams of Scene And Heard, from Donovan 'the talk and walk'."

"I'm going to India to see the Maharishi but I'm not doing transcendental meditation," Don told me. "I take has advice over some things and I think he is a fine man, but there is time for meditation later."

Donovan's plans for the future include another concert at the Royal Albert Hall, in which he hopes to secure the services of a real Arab band.

"There are some skilful Arab musicians who play at a London restaurant called the House of Baghdad," said Don. "I may ask some of them to accompany me in addition to the orchestra.

"I'd also like to have the Incredible String Band on the concert. They are writing and singing numbers like 'Painting Box' and 'The Hedgehog Song' which I love – perhaps you would say 'Hello' through the article for me.

"They are a part of the travelling scene; travelling people who were previously beatniks, but not as the word has now become known. The String Band are rich in their Celtic folk lore and music."

We then had another musical interlude while Don played and sang 'My Painting Box' and 'The Hedgehog Song', with Gip and I joining in the chorus – all very Saturday-morning at the pictures!

Don believes that Dylan may have been influenced by his admiration for Aretha Franklin's style when he wrote 'Mighty Quinn'. He demonstrated on the guitar. We talked of more material things.

"Money is just a promise on a piece of paper to me," said Don. "A few weeks ago I was playing for fun in a Cornwall club for a beer. Shortly before that I was earning $25,000 for a concert in LA. To me £50 is still a lot of money.

"It's nice to have it to do things that I want – like travelling. It's nice to have my little 16th century cottage in the country. But when you earn thousands of pounds and get taxed at 19s. 6d in the pound, money means so much less. I have a bank account, but no idea what's in it."

I mentioned that I was surprised to see him do a song and dance routine on Cilla Black's TV show; it did not seem in keeping with his image.

"I saw Ringo do his song with Cilla and I just couldn't resist having a go myself. Tell everyone that I'm breaking into cabaret, like Frankie Vaughan, now!" The wandering minstrel smiled and filled the room full of teeth and happiness!

#donovan #nme #incredible string band #bob dylan #aretha franklin #john sebastian #lovin spoonful #folk #interview #1967 #sixties #60s #summer of love #hippies #counterculture #maharishi #india #1960s

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reneeacaseyfl · 5 years

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How Charlotte Became the South’s Startup Capital

When BB&T and SunTrust announced earlier this year that they would join forces in the biggest banking merger since the global financial crisis—rebranding themselves as the curiously named Truist—there was really only one logical choice for the combined financial services giant’s new headquarters.

It wasn’t just that Charlotte, N.C., found itself conveniently located between BB&T’s Winston-Salem headquarters to the north and SunTrust’s Atlanta stronghold to the south. Nor was it entirely about Charlotte’s status as the nation’s #2 banking center, one that’s already home to Bank of America’s global headquarters and Wells Fargo’s largest East Coast outpost (a legacy of Wells’ 2008 acquisition of Wachovia, in the midst of the crisis).

If you ask those who live, work, and start businesses in Charlotte, what drew Truist to the fifth-fastest growing city in the U.S. last year, according to the Census Bureau, are the same factors that led Honeywell to relocate its own headquarters there last year and Lowe’s (which is based in nearby Mooresville) to select it last month as the site of a new “global technology center” employing 2,000 tech professionals.

For all the discourse about how the nation’s wealth is concentrated in our great coastal metropolises, the Queen City is in the midst of an economic renaissance that’s both attracting major corporations and sprouting dozens of new startups across a variety of industries.

At a time when millennial professionals from New York to San Francisco find their lives characterized by climbing rents, $9 beers, and toiling public transit systems, Charlotte is luring people from across the country with the promise of a better quality of life and a lower cost of living—satirical Onion headlines be damned.

“A lot of millennials are looking for quality of life: ‘Where do I want to live?’,” says Tariq Bokhari, a former Wells Fargo executive and entrepreneur who now serves as a Charlotte city councilman. Bokhari is also executive director of the Carolina Fintech Hub, which promotes new fintech startups in the Charlotte region.

“You look at Charlotte and you see the [warm] seasons and the affordability of the areas,” he notes. “It’s a three-hour drive to the beach and three hours to the mountains. There are 27 different breweries and a burning-hot job market… [Millennials] absolutely want to be here.”

This dynamic has benefitted companies both large and small, and has helped startups that have emerged from the city’s entrepreneurial community grow into major, $1 billion businesses. Charlotte now has no fewer than three “unicorns” valued at that magic number, with analytics software firm Tresata joining the ranks of digital marketing firm Red Ventures and payment software company AvidXchange last year.

“When you’re dealing with zero-unemployment, especially in computer engineering and software development, it is a national recruiting game,” says AvidXchange co-founder and CEO Michael Praeger, who started the company in Charlotte in 2000, only a few years after moving to North Carolina from Boston.

When AvidXchange is looking to lure tech workers from places like Silicon Valley or Boston, Praeger adds, “The majority of the time they’ve never actually been to Charlotte and don’t know what to expect. And when we bring them here—wow. Certainly the cost of living and the year-round weather is a big draw.”

Start me up

The Bank of America Corporate Center, which houses the financial institution’s global headquarters, in Charlotte, N.C. Photo: Chris Keane—Bloomberg via Getty Images

Charlotte, once considered a dyed-in-the-wool banking town, has given birth to an exploding startup scene in recent years—led by a fintech sector that has thrived on the support of local financial services heavyweights and accelerator programs, and extending to young, duly hyped software firms like Passport, Stratifyd, and MapAnything (which was acquired by Salesforce in April).

Organizations like the Carolina Fintech Hub and Queen City Fintech, both of which have backing from the likes of Bank of America and Wells Fargo, have helped develop the city’s entrepreneurial community. Queen City Fintech founder Dan Roselli, a former Bank of America executive and Red Ventures founding partner, runs the accelerator out of Packard Place, a coworking space where it incubates startups not only from Charlotte but from around the world—providing them with a mentorship network of 300 established entrepreneurs and access to fintech events and conferences where they can present to, and connect with, venture investors.

Roselli started the organization in the midst of the Great Recession in 2011, when the city was undergoing “an identity crisis” following Wachovia’s downfall and the near-collapse of the financial system. Since then, Queen City Fintech has helped its alumni raise nearly $2 billion from 45 different venture capital firms.

“One of the things Charlotte realized at the time was that entrepreneurship is a good thing to embrace,” he says. “When Wachovia went under, it was an ‘Oh no’ moment. We realized we needed to pivot toward fintech and innovation.”

Packard Place’s first tenant was a fintech startup called DealCloud, which develops deal management software for investment banking and private equity firms. Some seven years later, in August 2018, DealCloud was acquired by business software provider Intapp for an undisclosed price.

“I think what happened is that during the downturn a lot of people lost their jobs—but all of a sudden, you had a lot of smart people from financial services backgrounds who were able to go out and start businesses, either in financial services or as providers to financial services companies,” according to DealCloud co-founder Rob Cummings, who is now part of Queen City Fintech’s mentor network.

Roselli described fintech as “the tip of the spear that [Charlotte] used to build our entrepreneurial ecosystem,” which makes sense given that the region employs 82,000 finance and insurance professionals. Like Roselli, many of those professionals have gone on to pursue their own ventures—a critical component driving the city’s startup environment.

“I joke that there are more ex-Bank of America and ex-Wachovia people in Charlotte than there are current Bank of America and Wells Fargo people,” he notes. “That’s a good thing.”

The big banks have also come around to entrepreneurial-driven innovation as something to welcome, rather than be wary of as a potentially disruptive force. “They realized that disruption is going to happen, and keeping it close to you is a big advantage,” Roselli says, citing Bank of America and Wells Fargo among Queen City Fintech’s major sponsors.

In fact, many within the Charlotte startup scene consider this embrace of fintech as imperative to the city’s economic future, given how an impending wave of automation—widely seen as the future of the banking sector—could put thousands of financial services professionals out of work in years to come.

“One of the reasons I’ve been doing this is because for many years now, folks have predicted that within the next decade or so, one-third of all traditional banking jobs are going to be disrupted by fintech,” Bokhari notes. “For a city like Charlotte, that’s Detroit-level ramifications for us. We have a chance ahead of time to create what becomes the alternative for those jobs, like branch workers and call center workers, that are going to be gone.”

Boomtown

Wells Fargo’s trading floor in the Duke Energy Center in Charlotte, N.C. Photo: Davis Turner—Bloomberg via Getty Images

The fintech sector is not alone in driving Charlotte’s startup boom. Ask people active in the city’s entrepreneurial scene, and most will tell you that the majority of the new companies emerging from the local economy aren’t even financial services-oriented.

There’s an energy startup sector that’s growing via support from the likes of Charlotte-based Fortune 500 company Duke Energy, a major backer of the energy-focused Joules Accelerator program. IBM, meanwhile, is looking to boost the city’s healthcare industry, having recently teamed up with Queen City Fintech to launch a new accelerator targeting early-stage healthtech (as well as fintech) companies.

“Fintech is what we’re known for—it was our easiest entry point—but over half of the startups I deal with are not related to fintech at all,” according to Innovate Charlotte executive director Keith Luedeman, whose nonprofit promotes and supports entrepreneurs in the region.

Luedeman is another former entrepreneur-turned-advocate for the city’s startup scene, having pivoted after selling his own fintech startup, GoodMortgage.com, to the PIMCO-owned First Guaranty Mortgage in 2016. He, too, is part of Queen City Fintech’s mentor network; in turn, both Dan Roselli and the Carolina Fintech Hub’s Tariq Bokhari sit on Innovate Charlotte’s board.

The sum effect of all of this collaboration and advocacy has been an environment that—contrary to the cutthroat, dog-eat-dog world of entrepreneurship in other, larger markets—sees business leaders in Charlotte working together, to an almost unusual extent, toward a shared goal of success.

“I find the entrepreneurial community here extremely collaborative; I feel like we’re all in this together,” says Meggie Williams, the founder and CEO of dog-walking startup Skipper—a somewhat unique example of a consumer-facing enterprise that has made waves in the city’s startup scene. “There are advantages to being in a city with fewer degrees of separation between the people who are starting out and the people who already made it.”

Williams moved to Charlotte from New York City in 2014. Having left her job at IBM’s New York office in search of a more fulfilling lifestyle, the University of North Carolina graduate and her husband, Sebastian, found it two-and-a-half hours from where she went to college.

The couple founded Skipper in 2016, and so far have been able to find the funding they need to grow their business; the company raised $900,000 in a seed round last year, and is on the verge of closing a new $2.5 million funding round this summer, according to Williams. It’s also benefited from the city’s collaborative business ecosystem, counting the likes of DealCloud’s Cummings among its board members.

That’s not to say things are perfect for Charlotte entrepreneurs in search of capital. While expressing her belief that “there’s a ton of capital and opportunity” for startups in the city, Williams notes that “a lot of the funding here is risk-averse” compared to other markets—a sentiment that some attribute to the more cautious, banking-related capital that constitutes much of the city’s wealth.

In turn, most Charlotte startups have had to look to investors from outside the city for the money they need to expand their operations. Queen City Fintech’s Roselli, who also runs early-stage venture capital firm Carolinas Fintech Ventures, notes a gap in venture funding based in Charlotte—pointing to how few of the 45 venture firms that have invested in Queen City Fintech’s accelerator startups are actually located in the city. “There is no general venture fund in Charlotte; we have angel funds and growth funds, but we’re still missing that venture-tier in between,” Roselli says.

Still, he described Charlotte’s funding environment as being on “a journey, and we’re certainly on the right path.”

“Ten years ago, venture firms were investing only in New York and San Francisco, and they wanted you to move [your company] to New York and San Francisco,” Roselli adds. “That’s no longer true; they’re recognizing that there are great companies and entrepreneurs [elsewhere], and there’s value to be had.”

It’s a trend that’s undoubtedly caught on within the world of venture capital and private equity at large. As Mithril Capital’s Ajay Royan told Fortune earlier this year, “You can’t do a garage startup in Silicon Valley, because the garage is [worth] $4 million”—a factor that led Royan to move his venture capital firm’s offices from San Francisco to Austin, Tex., last year.

“More than three-quarters of our TMT [technology, media, and telecommunications] investments sit outside of the Bay Area,” according to Warburg Pincus managing director Mark Colodny, who runs the private equity giant’s TMT business.

Colodny notes that North Carolina has long been a point of interest for the Warburg Pincus, which has previously invested in Cary, N.C.-based software companies MercuryGate International and Dude Solutions (both of which are located in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area known as the Research Triangle). Having exited those investments, the private equity firm still is “actively looking at Charlotte and Raleigh-based companies now.”

“The state for a long time has been moving jobs away from traditional industries, like agriculture and textiles, into tech—which, coupled with a strong university system, has created a very interesting community of talented software and fintech entrepreneurs,” Colodny says.

Tar Heel troubles

Rendering of the Camp North End office and retail redevelopment in Charlotte, N.C. Photo: Camp North End

For all that Charlotte has going for it, it wasn’t enough to draw Amazon, which didn’t even include the city in its final 20 markets under consideration for its hotly-debated “HQ2” sweepstakes. Bokhari was among the city stakeholders “leading the charge” to draw Amazon, and recalls building a consortium of business leaders for a pitch centered more around private-sector collaboration than public-sector incentives.

“I went around and said, ‘Hey, let’s get involved in this and send a message that all the banks are willing to open our doors and partner [with Amazon],” according to Bokhari. “It’s not about the government incentive package; here’s what the private sector will do for you.”

But it wasn’t to be, and Bokhari says he was “absolutely flabbergasted” when Charlotte didn’t make the shortlist. “The tiny blurb of feedback we got was, ‘Well, you guys don’t have the existing number of tech jobs that we’re looking for.’ What I pushed back with—and nobody [at Amazon] answered me—was, ‘What’s your strategy? You’re going to go in and poach people from other companies?’” In the end, Bokhari says he “lost faith that the [HQ2] process was even real.”

Meanwhile, the city’s business community continues to deal with the fallout from the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act—the 2016 state law known as HB2, which sparked a national outcry for forcing transgender people to use the gendered public restrooms that correspond with their sex at birth. The measure drew myriad boycotts; PayPal abandoned a planned expansion in Charlotte, and the NBA relocated its 2017 All-Star Game from the city, to name only two.

Despite a subsequent partial repeal that removed the bill’s provisions around bathroom use, the law lingers as a reminder of the socio-political schism between North Carolina’s booming urban centers and more conservative rural areas, which in many cases have not felt the benefits of the state’s millennial-driven economic and cultural trends.

“People say that North Carolina is a purple state, and that’s not accurate; it’s bright blue cities surrounded by bright red rural areas,” says Roselli, who describes himself as “very progressive” in his social views. “HB2 was one of the greatest disasters in the last 50 years of North Carolina’s political history. There’s no question that it was a devastatingly bad bill.”

Roselli adds that as a result of the legislation, GV—Google’s venture capital investment arm—“wouldn’t come to [Queen City Fintech’s] Fintech Generations conference” in Charlotte, with the tech behemoth continuing to limit its dealings in North Carolina. While a GV spokesperson declined to comment for this story, Google also bypassed the state earlier this year for its planned $13 billion expansion of data centers and offices in 14 states (including neighboring South Carolina) across the U.S.

Yet that doesn’t change the fact that investors from around the country are considering Charlotte to an unprecedented extent. Few businesspeople need to be as attuned to the socio-economic dynamics of a given place as real estate developers, and those who build the spaces where people live and work are increasingly viewing the Queen City as an opportunity.

“We saw a city with a low cost of living, a very high quality of life, a progressive attitude toward urban infrastructure and planning, and a place where young people are moving for jobs,” says Damon Hemmerdinger, co-president of ATCO Properties & Management. “We saw trends in the economy, and the chance to create a product that we think is meeting a need.”

Though the Manhattan-based real estate firm has traditionally been focused on the New York City office market, ATCO saw Charlotte as primed for the sort of trendy, creative office space that startups have flocked to in markets like Brooklyn and Atlanta. That motivated it to acquire a 76-acre industrial site, located only a mile from Charlotte’s central business district, where Ford Motor Company once built Model T cars and the U.S. Army later built missiles.

Today, ATCO and partner Shorenstein Properties are at work redeveloping the sprawling property into a mixed-use, office and retail campus known as Camp North End. The site will eventually house roughly than 1.5 million square feet of commercial space, and could eventually include up to 1,500 apartments and a hotel.

Hemmerdinger describes the project as a “large-scale, adaptive reuse project that, in other places, is where companies from the tech and fintech world want to put their offices in.” Thus far, that appears to ring true; in addition to coworking spaces, design firms and galleries, Camp North End already counts among its tenants TM Studio, Ally Financial’s “innovation studio” where product engineers and developers design and prototype “new consumer banking concepts,” according to Ally.

Projects like Camp North End are necessary if the Charlotte’s infrastructure is going to keep up with prolific rate of growth it’s now witnessing. But it’s definitely growing—a city fueled by a perfect storm of economic and generational tailwinds that are now bearing fruit.

“Charlotte is, to me, an adolescent city,” as Innovate Charlotte’s Keith Luedeman put it. “Some days we’re very proud and boisterous, and some days we’re insecure and we don’t think we’re deserving of any of the recognition we get. We’ve got to show that this is a great place to found and grow your business.”

More must-read stories from Fortune:

—Fortune’s 2019 40 Under 40

—How automation is cutting into workers’ share of economic output

—How the maker of the world’s bestselling drug keeps prices sky-high

—Want to buy a Spanish village? This real estate agent has 400 to sell

—One of Warren Buffet’s favorite metrics is flashing red. Corporate profits are due for a hit

Subscribe to Fortune’s CEO Daily newsletter for the latest business news and analysis.

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The post How Charlotte Became the South’s Startup Capital appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/how-charlotte-became-the-souths-startup-capital/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-charlotte-became-the-souths-startup-capital

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thrashermaxey · 5 years

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Ramblings: Injury Updates; Larkin; Doughty; Aho; Ekblad – April 19

As when all teams get eliminated from playoffs, we find out about all the injuries players were going through. Pittsburgh’s locker clean out brought us that as Jared McCann told us he was playing through a separated shoulder. Also, Brian Dumoulin was playing through a torn posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) in his knee.

When we have more information on the injuries, it will be passed along.

We also got more rumours that Evgeni Malkin will be traded, which seems to be almost a rite of passage whenever the Penguins don’t win the Cup. That always overlooks the fact that even if the Penguins wanted to trade Malkin, he has a no-move clause. Honestly, these types of rumours exhaust me because there is never is a kernel of truth and people are just looking for clicks. I guess that’s just the online world we live in now.

Tampa Bay also told us that Victor Hedman was not medically cleared for Games 3 and 4 after being cleared earlier in the series. It’s pretty obvious Hedman was nowhere near himself for the playoff series. GM Julien Brisebois also said there will be changes, but as I stated in my Ramblings yesterday, it’s just a reality of their cap situation rather than blowing up the roster.

Again, this roster is loaded top to bottom. It seems Brisebois understands that making significant changes would not be in the team’s best interest. It’s nice to see him take a measured approach.

Alex Killorn had a slight tear in his left knee’s MCL but will not require surgery.

Andrei Svechnikov went through a one-hour skate on his own on Thursday, wearing a full cage while doing so. I always worry about players returning so quickly after an injury such as his but it still warms the heart to see him on the ice. He did not suit up for Thursday night’s game, obviously, but it doesn’t seem as if returning before the end of the series is completely out of the question.

Boston’s bottom-6 has been getting throttled most of their series against Toronto but there may be reinforcements coming as Sean Kuraly is a game-time decision for Game 5. He’s been out with a broken hand for nearly a month now but he probably can’t do much worse than most of Boston’s bottom two lines have performed thus far these playoffs.

Here are your 2019 Lady Byng finalists:

Your 2019 Byng Finalists: Barkov (FLA), Monahan (CAL) & O’Reilly (STL)

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) April 18, 2019

I have no particular feelings about this award in any sense.

Carolina tied their series with Washington 2-2 thanks to a 2-1 win on Thursday night. Warren Foegele scored his third goal in two games just seconds into the game, with Teuvo Teravainen and Alex Ovechkin trading goals in the second period.

Petr Mrazek saved 30 of 31 shots in an excellent effort in net.

The story coming out of the contest was a hit by Foegele on TJ Oshie late in the third period that resulted in an injury to Oshie and penalty to Foegele. This was the play:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="nl" dir="ltr">TJ Oshie is hurt <a href="https://t.co/YIK2JjeICQ">pic.twitter.com/YIK2JjeICQ</a></p>— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeteBlackburn/status/1119048747403685888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 19, 2019</a></blockquote>

I’m wondering if Foegele doesn’t hear from the Department of Player Safety on that one. It’s a pretty dangerous hit. Todd Reirden doesn't think Oshie will be back anytime soon.

Jordan Staal’s line did a pretty good job at limiting Ovechkin at five-on-five, holding the winger to one shot. Ovechkin’s goal was a power play tally from his usual spot.

Update on the late games in the morning.

Those who read my Ramblings know I focus as much of my work producing evidence-based analysis as I possibly can. That evidence informs my opinions, and like everyone, these opinions can often be wrong. Such is the nature of predicting the future.

But with better tools, we can hopefully make better decisions and more informed opinions.

There was a website re-launched recently called Puck IQ and without diving into everything the site offers – just go visit and fidget around, it’s the best way to learn – one interesting aspect is that it has the ability to break down ice time by quality of competition (you can read the methodology for breaking down competition here). Now, I firmly believe that a player’s line mates are more important than who a player faces, but it’s also interesting to see which players are most often tasked with the best of the opposition.

One name that stood out: Dylan Larkin. Among all forwards in the NHL, he faced the opponent’s top competition more often than all but four forwards: Aleksander Barkov, John Tavares, Mitch Marner, and Sean Couturier. As a percentage of ice time, he was just outside the top-10. Larkin faced elite competition in over 575 minutes of his even strength ice time while no other Detroit forward cracked 440 minutes. Larkin, as many would have assumed, was quite often tasked with shutting down the top competition from their opponent.

The importance of this isn’t that Larkin faced elite competition so often; we kind of figured that. It’s that he absolutely crushed that role: by general shot share, Larkin’s percentage was situated between Brad Marchand and Sean Couturier. By shot share relative to his teammates when they faced elite competition, Larkin was second in the league behind only Ryan Johansen. That may speak more to the quality (or lack thereof) of Detroit’s depth, but the fact that his raw shot share was still close to someone like Marchand, who plays for a team that doesn’t have the same lack of depth, speaks to just how good of a season Larkin had.

With Detroit’s rebuild starting to come into focus, the team is starting to build itself up around Larkin. In the fantasy game, Larkin’s across-the-board production is proving very valuable and that should only improve as the team keeps improving. All the same, Larkin had a spectacular year and defensive improvements were a big part. That aspect of his game will only get better, and we are watching a player develop into a superstar in real time. It’s fun to watch.

Just as a small side: Sebastian Aho absolutely crushed his minutes against elite competition in 2018-19. My assumption before the season was that Jordan Staal would take all those minutes but because of significant time missed due to injury, that often fell on Aho’s shoulders and he was fantastic. That should allay any concerns the coaching staff or fans had about Aho and how he’d fare in a role where he was counted on to be The Guy. He’s another superstar in the making.

When looking at the defencemen on Puck IQ sorted by top competition, I couldn’t help but see that it was Aaron Ekblad’s name at the top of the list for most ice time vs. elite opposition. Not only was it the most ice time overall, it was the highest share of ice time as well, just ahead of Zdeno Chara and Nate Schmidt. And not only was he most often used against the best the opponent had to offer, he crushed the role, as his shot share relative to his teammates was +3.7 percent. For a frame of reference, Hampus Lindholm, widely considered one of the best and most underappreciated defensive defencemen for years, was at +4 percent, while Kris Letang was a +3 percent. Now, Ekblad’s offensive generation suffered in this role but he was excellent defensively.

It makes me wonder about Ekblad’s future as a fantasy asset. He is undoubtedly going to be used in this role moving forward and at the least, that should lead to a lot of ice time. He reminds me of a young Drew Doughty in that sense (not their actual skill, just their age and role). But unlike Doughty, with Keith Yandle signed for four more years, does Ekblad ever take over the top power-play role? He’s averaged fewer than 10 PPPs over the last four seasons because of how much Yandle has cut into that production time. It’s very possible we see Ekblad put up very good multi-cat numbers because of his role and ice time, but he never puts up great point totals because of that same role.

At this point, Ekblad is established as a ~10-goal, ~40-point defenceman with solid peripherals. Maybe that’s the most we can expect from him for the next few years. That’s just fine, by the way, we just need to be honest about expectations.

Speaking of Doughty, the metrics from Puck IQ don’t paint a very flattering picture of his 2018-19 season, and that’s just when compared to his teammates when they were put in similar roles. Was it his defence partner? That’s very possible, considering how much better Doughty has fared over the last two years when not playing with Derek Forbort. Was it the coaching staff and their systems? It may be, and we’ll have a better idea of this now that Todd McLellan is behind the bench. Was it just an off year? I don’t want to dismiss that, either.

I’m pretty comfortable saying that Doughty going from playing with Jake Muzzin to playing with Forbort had a massive impact on his performance. But does he have a better partner next year? We’ll see.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-injury-updates-larkin-doughty-aho-ekblad-april-19/

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scmniums-blog · 5 years

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TOP WCS

- open to all genders unless noted

ANDREW PORTER, ( harry styles. 25. he/him. cis male. )

his high school sweetheart who broke his heart is still wandering around kola. after doting over them in high school, andy moved away to college at the request of his parents. after coming back to surprise them he caught them cheating. they’ve been broken up for 3 years and never gotten closure since andy avoids them like a plague. he’s done a pretty good job of it too, but now that he’s been with a jazz trio in kola for sometime, it’s getting harder to ignore them. ( would be female )

AUGUST KEEN, ( cindy kimberly. 22. she/her. cisfemale. )

her two roommates she’s been with for the last 11 months. they’ve gotten closer over time and with all the time they spend together, it’s hard to believe that they hardly knew each other last year. they just renewed their lease for next year.

BEAU FORD, ( dylan o'brien. 24. he/him. cismale. )

his best friend from new york that came with him to kola despite their hesitance. they’ve known him since they went to private school together

BELLAMY YOUNG, ( keith powers. 26. he/him. cismale. )

his cousin who lived right next door to him in brooklyn while he was growing up. they also make an appearance in a lot of his jokes which, he says, is the reason that he brought them to kola with him. not that he was nervous to move across the country or anything.

CELESTE WOOD, ( zoe saldana. 38. she/her. cisfemale. )

celeste’s personal assistant she hired to keep track of her appointments, meetings and anything else. pays very well, only celeste can be unknowingly demanding and, at times, weird.

DELANEY INNOCENTI, (ludovica martino. 20. she/her. cisfemale.) TAKEN BY IDRIS.

her coffeeshop crush comes in when she’s working in the morning. she always makes sure to show them the latte art she puts on their cup and tried her best not to be too excitable around them.

FLEUR AMORSANO, ( jennie kim. 23. she/her. cisfemale. )

another spoiled brat from a rich family. their parents in likelihood would know each other/be the reason that they’ve met. they’re the closest thing to a best friend fluer’s got.

HARRISON BINX, ( dane dehann. 26. he/him. cismale. )

the unrequited crush that has him making more of a fool of himself than he usually is. ( would be female )

HYDE LARSON, (jake gyllenhaal. 36. he/him. cismale.)

other fbi agents!

JASON MOORE, ( nick jonas. 26. he/him. cismale. )

after last summer when his fiance broke off their engagement, his publicist suggested a fake relationship for good pr and after 3 months and his short not getting as much feedback as he expected, he agreed. ( would be female )

JUN JIN KIM, ( nam joo hyuk. 25. he/him. cismale. )

his coworker at the newspaper who is always intrigued to hear about what investigative report he’s doing next. they’ve even done a stake out or two together.

MAI NGUYEN, (hillary trinh. 20. she/her. cisfemale.)

the person she’d been dating for the last two months. they met on tinder and after they hooked up on the first date, they’ve been together since. except, mai’s schedule is super tight and although they’ve been going out for two months, they hardly get to see each other.

MAJA BAMBI KOVACS, (barbara palvin. 22. she/her. cisfemale.)

bambi’s childhood and current best friend. this is the person that knows her the most and has stuck with her, despite her being a little crazy and a little loud. maja also may have has a crush on them for a couple years i n high school before realizing it just wasn’t going to happen, but they don’t need to know that.

MCKENNA STONE, ( hailey baldwin. 22. she/her. cisfemale. ) TAKEN BY FREDDY.

mckenna goes on early morning jogs and late night runs, so this is someone who uses the same route as her and has become something like her jogging buddy over the past three months she’s been in kola.

PENELOPE WINTER, ( imogen poots. 25. she/her. cisfemale. ) TAKEN COLTON.

this is someone she’s in basically a hateship with. they met at one of kola’s bars and off the bat didn’t like. at the time, she could’ve sworn that she was going to leave kola the next week and decided to take them home anyway. except now that she’s staying in kola for a few more months, they still have to see each other. and if it wasn’t for how attractive they were, she wouldn’t be hooking up with them again. and again.

PHOEBE VARGA, ( lily collins. 25. she/her. cisfemale. )

other fellow youtubers. maybe someone that the viewers think would be cute for phoebe to date ( especially since they don’t know that she’s dating seven ) or someone that she’d friendly with on camera and can’t stand in real life.

RHIANNON STONEBROOK, ( jessica alba. 37. she/her. cisfemale. ) TAKEN

with rhiannon and her terrible relationship skills, her friends have all tried to set her up before. except, her blind date ended up being the same person. three times. although she hadn’t been swept off her feet the first time, now she’s starting to think that they’re must’ve been a reason they were put together by their friends this many times.

ROWAN GILMORE, ( caitlin stasey. 27. she/her. cisfemale. ) STILL OPEN/TAKEN LIONEL.

other elementary school teachers she knows. whether they have a rivalry, always get stuck together on play ground duty or sneak away during recess to get real food can be discussed

SEBASTIAN O'CONNOR, ( jensen ackles. 39. he/him. cismale. )

the angel on his shoulder he can’t seem to flick off. seb is a nice guy, so when he saw that this person has been working long nights and looking more and more tired each day, he gave them a couple months of free rent. he could swing it, and it wasn’t like he hadn’t done a it for 5b last year when they got some surgery done. except this person became determined to help him too, constantly bringing him leftovers in place of the leftover take out he’d been eating. although he always says that they shouldn’t do it, he still appreciates it.

THOMAS CADWELL, ( matthew daddario. 30. he/him. cis male. )

when tom moved to kola from nyc after his sisters disappearance, he wasn’t ready for that sort of lifestyle. he was used to going across the street and choosing from three deli’s in the morning. his neighbor probably smells burnt food every so often and has definitely gotten tom’s take out delivered to them by mistake.

WESLEY HILL, (micheal b jordan. 29. he/him. cismale.)

his coworkers at the hospital spend a lot of time with wesley at the hospital. as an admitted workaholic, wesley ends up running himself thin from long nights.

XANDER PHILLIPS, ( jeremey irvine. 27. he/him. cismale. )

his roommate is most likely also an actor. xander almost always has weekend dinner parties, whether it’s with actors or people from the industry he’s trying to impress. to them, he doesn’t want to admit that he rents out one of the spare rooms, so in exchange for a low rent, he lies and says that they’re his cousin.

#wcs

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kimamanitranslatesnovels · 7 years

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Destruction Flag Otome v3c3pt1

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Volume 3, Chapter 3: Captive

Part 1: Pages 186 - 198

I open my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.

I jerk upwards and look around. The room is about the same size as a dorm room and the furniture seems fairly expensive. Uh, where was this again?

If I remember correctly, I magnificently played the villainess in the play and was praised for it. I then got carried away by the praise and starting posing in front of the mirror… that was when someone suggested that I should go to the ballroom since it would be starting soon… huh? What did I do after that?

Also, it was nighttime when I left, but right now, bright sunlight is coming in through the window.

As I was wondering what was going on, a woman appeared after softly knocking on the door. She was a plain girl with brown hair and blue eyes.

“Ah, you’ve awakened,” she says on seeing that I’m awake, looking relieved.

“Um, yes…” I respond without thinking, even while wondering who this person was. She’s a woman I don’t recognize (though since it’s me we’re talking about, it’s possible that I just forgot her after meeting her once or twice).

Jared and Keith usually help me out in situations like this, but it seems they aren’t here. For now, I’ll just have to ask her straight-out.

“… Um, and you are?”

“My sincere apologies for the belated introduction. My name is Lana.”

“Lana-san?”

Hmm, from her reaction it seems we haven’t met before. Thank goodness I hadn’t forgotten her.

“Please, call me Lana. I will be serving you from today on.”

Ah, is Lana-san a maid? Now that she mentions it, she is wearing a maid outfit… but…

“Um, but I have a maid that’s served me since I was young…” I say. Wait, where is Anne?

Normally, she would swiftly slip over like a shinobi as soon as I woke up and brush my tangled hair and stuff.

“My apologies. As that maid is not here I will be taking care of any of your needs in her stead.”

“… I see.”

I see, so Anne isn’t here. That’s discouraging.

… Wait, speaking of which –

“Um, where is ‘here’?”

It’s a bit of a late reaction, but I have no idea where I am. I don’t even know when I came here.

“My apologies. I am not permitted to answer that question,” Lana says, looking troubled.

“What? You’re not permitted? What does that even…”

Lana continues looking troubled after I raise my voice at the unexpected answer.

“I believe you will understand in a moment or two,” she says. That instant, the door was knocked again and new people appeared.

One is a fairly handsome glasses-wearing young man with blue-tinged hair and eyes. Rather than being conventionally handsome like Jared, he’s more of a lady-killer overflowing with sex appeal.

This lady-killer is wearing something that only fairly old grandpas would wear in the Claes household – butler’s clothing.

Admittedly though, the old grandpa butler of the Claes household actually pulled the look off pretty well and I even secretly praised him by calling him ‘Sebastian’ in my heart… but he doesn’t hold a flame to this glasses-wearing young man.

Someone small stands behind the young man put Sebastian to shame.

She was in the young man’s shadow when they entered and completely melted into the background thanks to the flashy young man’s aura… but looking at her again, I can see her brown hair and eyes, short height and large eyes – she’s a girl like a cute animal that makes you want to protect her despite yourself.

While I am forgetful and terrible at remembering names and faces, even I remembered her. After all, according to my mental timeline, we just met… Prince Ian’s fiancée, Selena Burke – we greeted each other at the school festival, in the area where the academy was showcasing its talent.

Why is she here? And seriously, where am I?

“What a relief. You’ve safely awakened.”

Even as I grow even more confused due to Selena’s arrival, she looks at my face and makes the same relieved face Lana had.

“Katarina-sama, I sincerely apologize for our violent conduct towards you. However, I pledge to safely bring you home once everything is over, so please live here until then,” she says, bowing deeply.

Huh? What does she mean by ‘violent conduct’? Why am I in this unfamiliar place?

Once I desperately trace back my memories… I recall that after following the person who had been leading me to the ballroom, I had been taken to some other place instead. Then someone had suddenly grabbed my arm and shoved cloth or something to my face... that’s when my consciousness faded… huh? This feels like the kind of scenario I’ve read in a manga before. And whenever something like this happened in a manga, it was always a…

“… Kidnapping…”

On hearing the words that slipped from my mouth, Selena looked like a deer in headlights. She then bowed deeply again, looking terribly apologetic.

“I am truly sorry. However, I pledge to not harm you.”

For real?! To think I was seriously kidnapped!

I had thought that kidnapping was something that only happened in my previous life’s manga… this is totally unexpected.

However, although I was an average salaryman’s daughter in my previous life, I’m now (technically) a Duke’s daughter. There should’ve always been a fair risk that I be kidnapped. But up until now I had been desperate in destroying the otome game destruction flags and hadn’t even thought about stuff like that. To make things worse, I had let my guard down in my happiness after finally dealing with all those destruction flags.

Argh, if I should’ve paid more attention to Keith’s warning if things were going to turn out like this.

I wonder how much ransom money they’ve demanded for my return. I am (technically) a Duke’s daughter, so it’s probably a pretty high sum.

My father is crazy for his daughter so he’ll probably immediately pay any ransom… but I wonder how much my mother would pay?

If it’s just too high… she seems the type to say “It can’t be helped. We have Keith, so we might as well give up on our idiot daughter.” I’m surprised at just how realistically I can imagine her saying that! No… mother, don’t abandon me! I won’t break your precious flower vases and plates while playing catch indoors anymore! I’m begging you!

I desperately plead with my mental version of my mother.

“… Um, so about how much will my ransom be?”

Please be a sum that my mother would agree to pay!

However, Selena just looks confused at my question.

“… Ran – som?”

“Yes. Ransom money for my kidnapping. About how much has it been set to?”

“… Ah, no. We do not plan to ask for that kind of money,” Selena responds hurriedly.

“Uh… you don’t want money? Then why did you kidnap me?”

They don’t want money? Then why?

I’m not really proud of this, but it’s not like I’m a beauty like Maria and the others (what with my villainous face), nor am I talented in magic, nor am I particularly intelligent. I think the only use you could get from me is my family’s money…

Well, I’ve got the basics of agriculture down pat so I’d probably be able to be a farmhand for a farmer’s household, but I can’t imagine that I was kidnapped for something like that.

“… That is…”

She struggles with my question. Just when she opens her mouth…

“Selena-sama, we’ve confirmed Katarina-sama is safe, so let us return your room.”

The lady-killer butler who had been completely silent up until then speaks as if he’s cutting off Selena’s words. He puts a hand on her shoulder.

“Rufus… you’re right. Well then, I will be returning to my room.”

Apparently the lady-killer butler is called Rufus. The way he’s escorting Selena is erotic.

Wait, I still have a lot of things I want to ask! It doesn’t feel too good being left in the dark like this.

“Um, wait a second…”

I call out to her, but Selena just looks troubled again and says:

“I’m sorry. Lana, I’m leaving Katarina-sama to you. Katarina-sama, if you need anything, just ask Lana. She’ll do whatever she can.”

Selena leaves the room, led by Rufus. I look towards Lana, who was left in the room, but she quietly shakes her head.

In this way, still completely in the dark about everything, I ended up having to live in this room in who-knows-where.

T/N:

This next chapter will be divided into three. Sadly divvying up the scenes didn’t work out perfectly.

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#destruction flag otome #I Reincarnated Into an Otome Game as a Villainess with Only Destruction Flags...#light novel

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thrashermaxey · 5 years

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Ramblings: Draft Lottery; Lineup News; Looking Ahead – April 10

It was quite the eventful draft lottery as Colorado did not end up with the first overall pick, sliding to fourth. The Rangers, Devils, and Blackhawks all jumped into the top-3. New Jersey ended up grabbing the top pick with New York ending up in the second slot.

Should everything go to plan, the Devils will be adding an elite talent immediately to the lineup. This team desperately needed another elite talent up front and they got it. The Rangers get a great prospect in their own right. Not a bad night for those franchises, and sincerest sympathies to Avalanche fans.

Just want to say that I really hope Jake Bean can get into some postseason games for the Hurricanes. He had a marvelous AHL season and is a guy I’ve been waiting to see in the NHL for a couple years now. I assume there would have to be at least one more injury for him to get a spot in the lineup, but all the same, I have high hopes for the kid.

Slava Voynov has been suspended by the NHL for next season plus the 2020 playoffs for his domestic abuse plea deal. There had been murmurs that teams were interested in signing him, and this suspension will likely dissuade these suitors (not that they shouldn’t have been dissuaded before the suspension).

Minnesota general manager Paul Fenton expects both Mikko Koivu and Matt Dumba to be ready for the start of training camp in September. That’s great news for Wild fans and fantasy hockey enthusiasts.

Yesterday I was editing an article for Cameron Metz and in one paragraph he proclaimed that it marked the one-year anniversary for him at Dobber Hockey (congrats, Cam!). That got me thinking: this time of year would mark my own anniversary here at Dobber Hockey. Four years, to be exact. Next Tuesday will mark four years I’ve been with Dobber Hockey (man, time flies).

This link brings you to the first Ramblings I ever posted. Included are such topics as:

Peter Chiarelli being fired by the Bruins

Craig Berube’s future being up in the air with the Flyers

Boston’s cap crunch due to players like Carl Soderberg and Dougie Hamilton needing new contracts

The difference between Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek playing with Brayden Schenn and playing with Michael Raffl

Ryan Strome’s excellent 50-point season with the Islanders

Looking back at what’s happened since that Ramblings post nearly four years ago is kind of hilarious. Chiarelli has since been hired and fired by the Oilers, Berube is a coach of the year candidate in St. Louis, neither Soderberg nor Hamilton are still in Boston, Schenn is thriving in St. Louis, and Strome never recaptured that level of success. Time not only flies, but it makes fools of us all.

Seeing as this is the last day before playoffs start, it might be the last chance to do something like this, so I wanted to take a stab at what the NHL might look like in four years. Ready to be made a fool of again? I am.

Unbelievable Free Agent Class

A lot of stars have signed huge contracts in recent seasons with lengths of anywhere from six to eight years. A lot of those contracts will be running out in the same three-year span, and that will lead to a lot of talent in unrestricted free agency, even if they’re older. Per Cap Friendly, here are some of the names that could theoretically be available after the 2022-23 season: Patrick Kane, Vladimir Tarasenko, Jonathan Toews, David Pastrnak, Sean Monahan, Nathan MacKinnon, Dylan Larkin, Ryan O’Reilly, Max Pacioretty, James van Riemsdyk, Jonathan Huberdeau, Shayne Gostisbehere, and Bo Horvat. That kind of talent in a single free agent class is almost surreal.

Of course, as alluded to, a lot of players will be in their 30s by that point. There are a handful of guys who will be in their mid-to-late 20s like MacKinnon, Pastrnak, Monahan, and Larkin. With the likelihood of a lockout looming, will some of the older players not named who will also be UFA like Milan Lucic, Kyle Okposo, and Duncan Keith be bought out?

The younger guys, I’m sure, will be extended by their current teams. What about everyone else? Wouldn’t it be cool for Toews and Kane to do what Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne did and take cheap contracts to sign somewhere together? Regardless, in a few years’ time, there will be a lot of high-profile free agents that will start hitting the market.

Colorado Powerhouse

It seems pretty likely that Colorado is one of the top teams in the league in four years, isn’t it? They’ll have MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen on the roster, Samuel Girard will be a top-tier puck-mover, Cale Makar has the look of a future Norris Trophy contender, and then there’s Ottawa’s top pick from this year. There will be a great core to build around and if management can manage to not pull an Edmonton or Buffalo, it will hopefully be a championship core.

Of course, there is a lot else the team will have to deal with. Their captain, Gabriel Landeskog, is a free agent after the 2020-21 season. Will he still be around? Will Tyson Barrie? Will any of the young guys currently on the roster like J.T. Compher, Alex Kerfoot, and Tyson Jost be making an impact on the 2022-23 roster? This is certainly a team on the rise, but the toughest leap to make is from a good team to a championship-calibre team. Can the Avs be that team?

I say yes. There were some early bumps in the road but the Avalanche management group has made solid deals over the last year or so. As long as they can keep making positive deals for the franchise, there’s no reason to believe they’ll flounder. I believe in April 2023, we’ll be talking about the Avalanche as one of the top franchises in the league, returning to the glory they enjoyed early in the franchise’s existence.

Tkachuk Brothers

In the fantasy game, guys I have a soft spot for are the across-the-board performers. They’re guys who may not excel in any individual category, but the sum of their parts makes for a great fantasy campaign. In years gone by, this included names like David Backes, Wayne Simmonds, and Andrew Ladd. When looking around the league currently, names like Kyle Palmieri, Gabriel Landeskog, and Brendan Gallagher fit this bill. We’re always looking to the future, and it appears the future in this category belongs to the Brothers Tkachuk.

In many ways, they’ve already sort of arrived in this position. The elder Tkachuk, Matthew, was a top-30 fantasy player in standard Yahoo! leagues this year, one year after being a top-130 player. He’s a young star on the rise and he’s proved himself as such.

Brady Tkachuk has also arrived but not to the same degree just yet. He had a marvelous rookie season, becoming sixth 19-year old rookie since the 2012 lockout to post a season with at least 20 goals, 20 assists, and 200 shots, joining Dylan Larkin, Jack Eichel, Sebastian Aho, Auston Matthews, and Clayton Keller. To put the cherry on top in multi-category leagues, Tkachuk had 75 penalty minutes and 174 hits. That is just outstanding.

It very much appears that Matthew and Brady will follow in the footsteps of past multi-cat stars like Backes and Simmonds, and current multi-cat stars like Gallagher and Landeskog. In four years, it’s very likely that both of those players are easily top-50 picks in roto leagues, if not higher.

Alex Ovechkin

It’s hard to imagine, but in four years, Ovechkin could be with a different franchise (he’s UFA after the 2020-21 season). I don’t actually think he’ll finish his career anywhere else but Washington, I’m just saying it’s possible. Regardless, if Ovechkin can average 40 goals a year for the next four years, he’ll have passed Gordie Howe on the all-time goal scoring list and will be about 80 goals behind Wayne Gretzky for the all-time record.

Of course, the major wrench that could be thrown in all this is the potential of a lockout after the 2019-20 season. Ovechkin already lost a season and a half to lockouts, which have cost him, what, about 60 goals by now? If we lose another season, that’ll make Ovechkin’s task even more difficult.

It could be very likely that in four years, we’re lamenting what could have been with Alex Ovechkin. His pursuit of Gretzky’s record could be one of the great record chases of this generation. Will Ovechkin have maintained his elite goal scoring prowess while not losing a season to the lockout? I’m hopeful, but the NHL’s history with labour negotiations is cause for concern.

Seattle

With Seattle getting an NHL franchise, the league will be at 32 teams. This new franchise is going to have the same rebuild rules as Vegas, so will the enjoy the same early success as Vegas?

I think to expect any expansion franchise to replicate the accomplishments of the Golden Knights through their first two seasons is expecting far too much. I think teams will have learned from this mistake. You won’t have teams ship out 30-goal scorers on bargain contracts (Florida), letting go of multiple young prospects to save one player (Minnesota), or over-paying to get rid of a bad contract (Columbus). Well, you probably won’t… shouldn’t? Regardless, I do think teams will learn from their mistakes and Seattle will be in for a rough early couple seasons.

This isn’t to say there won’t be hope. The end of the 2022-23 season will bring Seattle to the end of their second season. It’ll will probably be another year of missing playoffs, but they’ll have an absolutely loaded cupboard of prospects. There will be a lot of promise for the years that follow.

Seattle’s new franchise is going to go through growing pains that Vegas did not have to endure due unimaginably bad decisions across the league. But in four years, there will be promise of much better days ahead.

Those are a few things I’ll be looking for in four years. How about you? What stands out as something we accept now that’ll change in four years? What will be the same? Hit up the comments.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-draft-lottery-lineup-news-looking-ahead-april-10/

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thrashermaxey · 6 years

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Finding (and fixing) every team’s most painful draft regrets

If you’ve been on Twitter for a decade or so like I have, you’ve seen roughly five or maybe even six good tweets. The all-time best hockey tweet, we can all agree, is this one. But not far behind is this beauty from the 2015 entry draft, which still resurfaces from time to time:

Oh shit, Boston could get Barzal, Connor, and Kylington here

— Rhys Jessop (@Thats_Offside) June 27, 2015

The Bruins held three straight picks in the first round that year, and they could indeed have used those picks to nab Mathew Barzal and Kyle Connor. (And, uh, Oliver Kylington, but let’s skip that part.) Instead, they picked Jakub Zboril, Jake Debrusk and Zachary Senyshyn. Let’s be charitable and say they went 1-for-3.

If you’re a Boston fan, you may be haunted by visions of Barzal and Connor slotted into today’s Bruins lineup, and thoughts of what might have been. But that’s hardly unusual. In fact, every team has had a draft like the 2015 Bruins, where you wish you could go back and will your team to make different picks.

So today, let’s do that. We’re all scouting geniuses with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, so let’s pretend we’re time traveling hockey fans from the year 2018 who can go back and visit the draft table of each NHL team for one year and convince the GM to change three picks. Which year would you go back to for your favorite team? Or put differently, how painful was your team’s worst missed opportunity?

Two important ground rules here, and I’m even going to break out the bolded text to make sure everyone sees them before they go yell at me in the comments. (They will not.)

– We can only convince teams to take guys who are going to be chosen relatively close to that team’s actual pick. Otherwise, there’s not much fun here – every team wishes they’d taken Dominik Hasek in 1983 or Pavel Datsyuk in 1998, but reading that 30 times wouldn’t be all that interesting. So let’s pretend that no GM is going to listen to a time traveler telling him to reach too far, which we’ll define as more than five picks in the top 10, or more than 10 picks anywhere else.

– In a further attempt to avoid going overboard on the Datsyuk-type picks, only one team can change their pick to any given player. In other worse, no player can be redrafted more than once. And to ratchet up the pain, we’ll give first dibs to whichever team was closest to where that guy was ultimately picked.

With those caveats in mind, let’s find the most painful draft possible for all 30 teams that have been around long enough to know they screwed up. (Sorry, Vegas, you’ll have to sit this one out. Check back in a few years.) For teams that have relocated, we’ll count the previous version too, since some of those players would have made the move to the new market.

This is going to get long, so we recommend CTRL+F’ing your favorite team, crying for a little bit, and then circling back to point and laugh at everyone else. Let’s do this.

Anaheim Ducks: 2007

They could have had: #22 Max Pacioretty, #43 P.K. Subban and #129 Jamie Benn

Instead they picked: #19 Logan MacMillan, #42 Eric Tangradi and #121 Mattias Modig

The Ducks are a nice place to start – thank you, alphabetical order! – because they do a good job of demonstrating the concept we’re going for here. Three all-stars, including an Art Ross and a Norris winner, there for the taking. Instead, the Ducks grabbed two forwards who combined for a total of five NHL goals and a goaltender who never made the NHL. Was the entire Ducks’ front office drunk in 2007? [Remembers how that year’s playoffs went.] Yeah, they were probably drunk.

Arizona Coyotes: 2015

They could have had: #4 Mitch Marner, #35 Sebastian Aho and #37 Brandon Carlo

Instead they picked: #3 Dylan Strome, #30 Nick Merkley and #32 Christian Fischer

It’s a little ironic that it only takes us two teams to get to the 2015 draft that inspired this post. And for extra fun, we’re even stealing one of Boston’s picks in the process.

It’s admittedly a little risky to go back just three years, since 2015 is recent enough that we can’t say for sure how the draft will turn out. Maybe Strome reaches his potential in Chicago, Merkley still makes it and Fischer goes from solid young depth to difference maker. But for right now, the Coyotes with Aho, Carlo and Marner – or Ivan Provorov or Zach Werenski for that matter – would look pretty scary.

Boston Bruins: 1981

They could have had: #15 Al MacInnis, #40 Chris Chelios and #107 Gerard Gallant

Instead they picked: #14 Normand Leveille, #35 Luc Dufour and #98 Joe Mantione

It’s tempting to stay true to the source material and just go with 2015 for the Bruins, maybe swapping in somebody like Thomas Chabot or Brock Boeser for Kylington. But while Barzal and friends are very good young players, they’ve got a long way to go to be first-ballot Hall of Famers like Chelios and MacInnis.

Gallant is the third wheel here, and you could go with somebody like Tom Kurvers or Greg Stefan instead if you wanted, but the key point is that the Bruins could have built their 1980s blueline around Chelios, MacInnis and Ray Bourque. (And if you want to argue that already having Bourque means they wouldn’t have bothered drafting defensemen, remember that they spent the first overall pick in 1982 on Gord Kluzak.)

Buffalo Sabres: 1977

They could have had: #15 Mike Bossy, #33 John Tonelli and #73 Jim Korn

Instead they picked: #14 Ric Seiling, #32 Ron Areshenkoff and #68 Bill Stewart

It’s the context that makes this one sting. Back in 1977, the Sabres and Islanders were both recent expansion teams that had already built contenders. The Sabres had put up three straight 100-point seasons, while the Islanders had just had their second. Both teams felt like they were on the verge of a breakthrough, as if they were just a player or two away from something special. Then the Sabres let Bossy and Tonelli slip through their fingers in favor of two guys who played the same positions, and the final pieces of an eventual Islanders dynasty fell into place.

Korn’s basically an afterthought here; the real question is whether flipping these picks means the Sabres and Islanders flip 1980s destinies too.

Calgary Flames: 1990

They could have had: #19 Keith Tkachuk, #34 Doug Weight and #85 Sergei Zubov

Instead they picked: #11 Trevor Kidd, #32 Vesa Viitakoski and #83 Paul Kruse

For reasons I can’t quite figure out, the Flames are one of the hardest team to find a really regrettable draft for. It’s not that they don’t make bad picks – everyone does – but they seem to spread them out, or at least let a team or two get in between them and their worst misses.

So we’ll cheat just a little by going with 1990 here. The three players they miss are all top-tier stars, and despite having a dozen picks the only real NHLers they found were Kruse and Kidd. But as Flames fans know, this draft lives in infamy because the Flames traded up with New Jersey from #20 to #11 to get Kidd, only to see the Devils use that #20 pick on the draft’s second highest-rated goaltender … Martin Brodeur. Whoops. Even on the draft floor, sometimes the best moves are the ones you don’t make.

Carolina Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers: 1989

They could have had: #53 Nicklas Lidstrom, #74 Sergei Fedorov and #221 Vladimir Konstantinov

Instead they picked: #52 Blair Atcheynum, #73 Jim McKenzie and #220 John Battice

This one almost feels unfair, as the Red Wings have quite possibly the greatest draft in the history of the NHL with the Whalers picking right in front of them the whole way along. Hartford even misses out on a 1,000-game man in #116 Dallas Drake in favor of #115 Jerome Bechard. But at least #136 Scott Daniels ended up being a marginally better pick than #137 Scott Zygulski. Eat that, Detroit!

Chicago Blackhawks: 2004

They could have had: #5 Blake Wheeler, #63 David Krejci and #258 Pekka Rinne

Instead they picked: #3 Cam Barker, #54 Jakub Sindel and #256 Matthew Ford

Chicago fans probably aren’t surprised to see the Cam Barker pick show up here in some form. Missing on Krejci and Rinne hurts too, as does passing up guys like Ryan Callahan and Andrej Sekera. The good news is that the Hawks did find some important depth pieces for their future dynasty in Dave Bolland and Bryan Bickell. But as for the franchise-defining draft finds, those would have to wait a couple of years.

Colorado Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques: 1988

They could have had: #8 Jeremy Roenick, #10 Teemu Selanne and either #67 Mark Recchi or #70 Rob Blake

Instead they picked: #3 Curtis Leschyshyn, #5 Daniel Dore and #66 Darren Kimble

The Nordiques whiffed so badly that I have to put Alexander Mogilny in the honorable mentions. He went with the 89th pick, two spots after the Nordiques took Stephane Venne.

The league felt so sorry for Quebec after this draft that they let them have the first overall pick in each of the next three years.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

from All About Sports http://www.downgoesbrown.com/2018/11/finding-and-fixing-every-teams-most.html

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