2015 AFL Pick 'Em: Round 1

Tonight begins the 2015 AFL season, and we will be making our predictions for each week accordingly. This pick 'em will be different than most. Not only are we going to predict a winner, we are going to guess which uniform the team will wear (there will only be periodic updates for that). Home teams are always listed first and are generally the easier of the two to guess. DISCLAIMER: This is not a drill.

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-Ricky

2015 NLL Power Rankings: Week 13

1. (1) Toronto – Calgary always shows up against the Rock.
2. (3) Edmonton – On pace to not finish far off from last year's record.
3. (4) Colorado – Can't catch a break from the Rush.
4. (2) Buffalo – Week off isn't harmful, but the Rush and Mammoth are most in form at the moment.
5. (5) Rochester – Did anyone see this rout coming? Well, no - but I did pick Edmonton.
6. (7) Calgary – See what rivalries can do?
7. (6) New England – Three more games still against inconsistent Bandits.
8. (9) Minnesota – Making a push for the crossover.
9. (8) Vancouver – This team is quite paradoxical.


See Brian Shanahan's picks here.


-Ricky

"Top Shelf Where Mamma Hides the Cookies!"

As you may or may not be aware, 716 Food and Sport has been open for half a year now. I was at the grand opening and I glanced over every bit of the menu and store items. One thing caught my attention on the dessert menu, but I was already full from my meal. I had returned several times since that October afternoon, but this was the first time I was ready to take it on after a meal.

The Top Shelf Sundae is a signature dessert at 716. Local creamery Perry's has been a longstanding ice cream manufacturer in Western New York. They have special ice cream for the Bills and the Sabres. The Sabres one is called Top Shelf Sundae, which includes chopped peanuts, chocolate-covered ice cream cone pieces and bits of chocolate fudge inside a vanilla ice cream base. The term top shelf comes from the title of today's post, a popular goal call made locally famous by Sabres 40+ year play-by-play voice Rick Jeanneret.

Going onto the actual dessert, it is plated at $7.99 (USD). You get four scoops of the ice cream, which gets placed atop of four chocolate chip cookies and the gets a criss-crossing caramel and hot fudge drizzle pattern with a hybrid waffle-sugar cone to top it all off. It was well worth my wait. Maybe we should start doing team-themed desserts and then show photos of those ideas and consider them as concepts.

If you have a sweet tooth, this is for you! If you like lots of things in your ice cream, this is for you. If you design concepts out-of-the-box like me, this dessert is for you. And so on, and so forth. Buffalo is in fact revitalized and 716 has helped in that process along with the rest of the HarborCenter complex. Tim Horton's next door is another good sweet tooth spot for before or after 716. Come visit the new sports center of Buffalo!

-Ricky

2015 NLL Pick 'Em: Week 13

Week 12 Results:
Pick (Winner)
New England (Calgary)
Edmonton (Edmonton)
Buffalo (Buffalo)
Colorado (Colorado)

Record to date: 22-27 (.449)

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*Home team second.

-Ricky

2015 AFL Pre-Season Power Rankings

While the NAB Cup has had several format changes and several rules that make it quite different from normal, footy, it will not be heavily taken into account.

1.   Sydney - You'd think another preliminary final is minimum for the Swans, but Hawthorn will have something to say about that.
2.   Hawthorn - Even though they're back-to-back defenders, Clarkson may be under fire if they done have a significant finals run.
3.   North Melbourne - Inconsistency will again be the question, but will at least get to play finals footy in September.
4.   Port Adelaide - May struggle to make it to finals. Had good push in them but not leading up to them.
5.   Richmond - Good fortune despite finals loss seems highly likely, similar to North Melbourne in terms of resilience in improvement.
6.   Geelong - Chris Scott has had trouble beating his brother's North Melbourne side lately. They go at it twice and will impact placement.
7.   Fremantle - Not the surprise side of two years ago, but still holding their own.
8.   Essendon - Hird, Dons appear ready to put ASADA behind them - inside the eight could happen again.
9.   West Coast -Not flying high enough to get into the finals.
10. Collingwood - Buckley needs to perform or he'll be out of the coach's box.
11. Adelaide - Another year outside the eight or at least behind Port.
12. Greater Western Sydney - Showed improvement as well as Gold Coast did, but they will start pulling away from the suns in that department.
13. Brisbane -  You fell like they are improving, but are pulling an NHL's Edmonton Oilers perpetual downward spiral.
14. Western Bulldogs - They're really no better but are starting to make their way back up the ladder.
15. Carlton - I kind of feel bad for mick Malthouse, he can't do anything to help his team and unfortunately that will foreshadow his sack-able departure.
16. Melbourne - I really would like to see them do well, I think they can crack the middle third.
17. Gold Coast - Malceski is a good signing, but will it be enough? For now, no.
18. St. Kilda - Another year of picking them to get the wooden spoon is tough after losing the Grand Final replay in 2010.

Kick After the Siren: If this were how I put my predictions, then we have the below:
1. Geelong
4. Hawthorn      Geelong        Hawthorn
5. Richmond      Richmond       North Melb.
8. Essendon                                     Hawthorn
6. North Melb.                                  Sydney
7. Port Adel.    North Melb.     Sydney
2. Sydney        Fremantle       Richmond
3. Fremantle

Another season of footy is upon us, so lets see how this one unfolds.

-Ricky

2015 NLL Power Rankings: Week 12

1. (1) Toronto – Would win rematch if this was the championship series.

2. (2) Buffalo – History repeated itself, Bandits beat Swarm around St. Patty's Day.
3. (4) Edmonton – Can't shake off Colorado monkey from behind.
4. (5) Colorado – Just will not go away as far as Rush are concerned.
5. (3) Rochester – Plenty of chances to leapfrog Rock.
6. (6) New England – If this were early in the year, they win.
7. (8) Calgary – Slowly but surely getting back to form.
8. (7) Vancouver – Offense still solid but defense still lackluster.
9. (9) Minnesota – Now joint league worst record.


See Brian Shanahan's picks here.


-Ricky

2015 NLL Pick 'Em: Week 12

Week 11 Results:
Pick (Winner)
Buffalo (Buffalo)
Toronto (Toronto)
New England (New England)
Edmonton (Edmonton)
Rochester (Rochester)
Colorado (Colorado)

Record to date: 19-26 (.422)

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*Home team second.

-Ricky

2015 NLL Power Rankings: Week 11

1. (1) Toronto – This is starting to get dull, loss on Friday brings the back to Earth a might.

2. (2) Buffalo – Despite good record up the 401, can't get the weekend sweep.
3. (3) Rochester – Made sure Calgary didn't send game to OT again.
4. (4) Edmonton – Can't shake off Colorado monkey from behind.
5. (6) Colorado – Continues to breath down Edmonton's neck.
6. (7) New England – Two weeks off good in short term, the game that solidified perfect pick 'em.
7. (5) Vancouver – Not convincing that this is a playoff team.
8. (8) Calgary – Could still make a playoff run if Stealth don't take advantage.
9. (9) Minnesota – Struggling to see light at end of tunnel to end five game win drought.




See Brian Shanahan's picks here.


-Ricky

2015 NLL Pick 'Em: Week 11

Week 10 Results:

Pick (Winner)

Colorado (Toronto)

Calgary (Calgary)

Season to date: 13-26 (.333)

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*Home team second.

-Ricky

2015 NLL Power Rankings: Week 10

1. (1) Toronto – Was there really any doubt?
2. (3) Buffalo – Week off will do well with expected physical bout with QEW foe.
3. (4) Rochester – Tied with Minnesota for distant third from TO if all three Buffalo games were losses.
4. (2) Edmonton – Neck and neck for first series bye in playoffs.
5. (5) Vancouver – Good offense but bad defense will be focal points.
6. (6) Colorado – Lucky for them, no lost ground in race for first round bye.
7. (7) New England – St. Paul first stop for making playoff push.
8. (9) Calgary – Finally out of the cellar still lots of work to do in West.
9. (8) Minnesota – 3 game skid was not impacted by week off.

See Brian Shanahan's picks here.

-Ricky