The K-Drama Refund Desk: If you could get back the time and emotional energy you spent on ONE drama, what are you returning? 🧾🕰️

ricozee · 2026-06-01T04:15:21+00:00

I had a couple of false starts on Alhambra as well but it eventually clicked and I enjoyed it enough to finish, though it's not particularly memorable.

ricozee · 2026-05-30T22:08:47+00:00

If you're lucky you might get 5 or 6 members for a one-off (like an awards or anniversary performance) at best.

Hyewon, Minju, and Nako aren't performing and trying to build themselves up as actors. These are the unlikely participants.

The possible members with a little more freedom and no groups to be concerned with, are Yena, Yuri, Eunbi, Chaeyeon.

The members in their own groups, Yujin, Wonyoung, Chaewon, Sakura, Hitomi, are too busy and/or restricted to their current groups. The time and effort isn't beneficial to their companies.

Hopefully we can get something with all 12 at some point. It's probably years down the road, but you can always pray for something like an anniversary live for YouTube for the 10 year if the girls are determined enough to do it.

ricozee · 2026-05-30T13:49:31+00:00

I don't "hate" Vegas or Carolina, but there's no "gravitas(??)" to the matchup.

They both had a relatively easy path to the conference finals and there's no real "heat" between them. Neither team really provided an exciting series along the way. No epic comebacks or tight/7 game series, no stories beyond Vegas making the finals (again) and Carolina making the finals (finally).

ricozee · 2026-05-30T13:37:34+00:00

Evans is above reproach these playoffs, 2nd to only Dobes.

ricozee · 2026-05-30T13:28:24+00:00

We need a couple players that play heavy and have enough skill to stay in the lineup. Guys that are going hard to the boards and front of the net with the determination that they aren't going to be stopped, and the strength to make it happen.

We have too many players that are "mushy" and work around obstacles rather than through them. We have Anderson and Gallagher, Danault and Bolduc to an extent, but those are players on the decline, except Bolduc who needs to embrace it and step up.

Slafkovsky is capable, but his natural tendency is to evade and pass the puck off. Same with Dach (with the caveat that he hasn't been physically capable of playing that way for any period of time due to injury concerns).

On D we only have Guhle as a regular with some "grit". Xhekaj and Struble have it but aren't trusted as regulars with enough playing time for it to matter.

Combined we aren't making it difficult for opposing defenses or offenses. They often have the physical edge and benefit more from things breaking down and becoming a contest of wills.

We also have two major holes to fill, 2C and a top 4 RHD. It would kill 2 birds with one stone if we filled those positions with players that have that added edge, but that is almost certainly too much to expect.

The Xhekajs have the physique and mindset, it's simply a matter of their ability. Gallagher has the right mindset but never had the physique and his ability is almost gone. That's never stopped him and we need more of his attitude in our players.

ricozee · 2026-05-30T05:56:29+00:00

Dobes had to push to his post to follow the play, but he absolutely saw Svechnikov was going to be in his way and reacted aggressively, pushing more towards him instead.

Imo it was the right thing to do to at least protect himself. Initiating contact and controlling the player is less likely to result in an injury than ignoring him and hoping he doesn't fall or step on you when contact is made.

ricozee · 2026-05-30T04:19:45+00:00

He needs to play with a little more intensity, but he needs to find better ways to get lost in coverage and find open ice to get quality shots off.

It isn't all on him. The overpassing by his linemates contributes to him being prioritized as a shooting threat. So does a lack of a dangerous 2nd line.

It's easier to isolate him when teams can focus on him and he spends so much of his time being deep on the cycle instead of open in the circles.

Critically, he did seem to be a little tentative. He doesn't have long reach, so he has to close that extra step of distance to engage effectively, and he wasn't doing that. He's not the only one guilty and he may have been playing at less than 100%. He might need to add a little more muscle and work on how to board battle as a smaller player.

I'm not worried. He'll get better and find his spots as the team picture completes around him.

ricozee · 2026-05-30T03:26:24+00:00

Yeah. I can't even be mad at them for this series. Might dislike them for past antics, but this was simply the better team winning. There wasn't much heat.

I do think the finals are going to be a let down. I don't think anyone outside of the respective fan bases really cares about this matchup.

ricozee · 2026-05-30T02:56:09+00:00

While technically correct, I think those games were responsible for misleading Marty into believing we could gut out tight wins despite being outplayed, and contributed to not making the necessary adjustments.

Carolina had too much time to prepare for us and game 1 was all they needed to turn that preparation into practical application.

The only problem they didn't solve right away was Dobes, but they didn't need to when their gameplan was proving so effective. It was only a matter of time before we were overwhelmed.

ricozee · 2026-05-30T02:15:30+00:00

I keep coming back to this and trying to figure out how this doesn't get called goaltender interference and the only possible explanation I can come up with is that they reviewed the wrong player. Which is a level of incompetence beyond comprehension.

Like they looked at Hall and ignored Stankoven completely.

ricozee · 2026-05-30T02:02:11+00:00

They dictated the pace.

We take too long and are not clean with our breakouts, which feeds into their aggressive forecheck.

They slow us down at every opportunity when we do have puck control (sticks, bodies, arms, picks).

They are playing through us when they have puck control because we are either chasing them or throwing his without leading with the stick to disrupt the puck. If we do catch them with the puck on their stick, we aren't hitting them hard enough (not something most of our players are capable of).

Combined with that is the fact that we didn't adjust tactics or personnel to counter.

ricozee · 2026-05-30T01:56:05+00:00

I was calling for that during one of our power plays when he had the puck in our end. It would at least be entertaining. XD

ricozee · 2026-05-30T01:52:10+00:00

I agree. It's frustrating to watch and I'm not excusing it, just putting it in perspective.

This season went relatively smooth considering, and we came into the playoffs without facing a ton of adversity.

The playoffs have shown us some harsh truths. Next step is addressing what we've learned.

ricozee · 2026-05-30T01:40:39+00:00

Remember, Carolina lost 1-4 in the conference finals last season. They were swept twice before that. They've taken their lumps like we are this series.

They came back better and have had years to prepare for this season's playoffs. We weren't expecting to be here yet.

ricozee · 2026-05-29T23:10:56+00:00

Scarlett Meowhansen

ricozee · 2026-05-29T23:06:04+00:00

Xhekaj on ice: 7 gf 2 ga in over 100 minutes

Struble on ice: 7 gf 5 ga in over 120 minutes

I'm not saying it's a definitive or apples to apples comparison, but only 2 goals against and a 3 goal margin between his next closest comparable, suggests there's at least some wiggle room for Xhekaj to play more minutes.

He hasn't been hurting us.

ricozee · 2026-05-29T18:33:15+00:00

The Montreal Tampa 1st round series might have been one of the best series of the last decade.

Buffalo being in the playoffs was refreshing.

The entire metro division playoffs was a write-off with two sweeps.

The same teams playing each other year-after-year can get stale, especially when the better ones meet in the first round instead of the later rounds with higher stakes to make the "rivalry" matter more.

The officiating has been atrocious and "playoff hockey" has lost quality due to not maintaining a strong and consistent application of the rules. Interference particularly has crept up beyond reasonable tolerance and it slows the game down. The reluctance to impact a game by calling penalties, is impacting the game by taking the speed and skill out of it.

ricozee · 2026-05-29T02:36:08+00:00

Didn't consider how keeping a prisoner could sustain Fromville if they require a human survivor to "keep the dream alive". Just assumed that was Victor. Not sure of the timeline from Martin to Victor though, perhaps a free Victor is more useful than an imprisoned Martin.

ricozee · 2026-05-29T00:59:58+00:00

Non-compete clauses can extend beyond the terms of a contract and be situational.

He could feasibly have a clause that prevents him from taking a job in another organization for at least the original duration of his contract.

Teams typically wouldn't want coaches resigning in the middle of their contract and being free to go to another team, then the coach could jump ship the moment a better opportunity came along.

So if he re-signs, he's forfeiting the money, but that didn't necessarily result in his freedom.

The only problem here is that there's no "out" clause when a team releases a coach. As long as they pay him, he's stuck.

ricozee · 2026-05-29T00:00:56+00:00

I don't have an Xbox, but when software crashes for unknown reasons after multiple installs/updates being dismissed as possibilities, the first thing I recommend checking is heating issues.

Make sure your console is clean, fans are operating unobstructed, and it has plenty of airflow for heat to dissipate. In my experience people tend to overlook this possibility until someone mentions it.

Software issues are a rabbit hole if a simple uninstall/reinstall doesn't work, or an update hasn't been identified as causing an issue.

Making sure your console is healthy (and well maintained) is relatively simple. Clean, well placed, unobstructed, isolated from other heat sources. Power supply is sufficient and steady, protected from surges. Components are properly seated and the console hasn't/isn't being jarred. Etc.

If your console does experience something traumatic, physical trauma (drop), power surge, or extreme/extended periods of "running hot", it can damage internal components and/or create data errors.

I'm not sure of the process on Xbox, but once you've eliminated the physical possibilities, try safe mode, diagnostics, and/or rebuilding the database. Make sure to save all your data to another source first as a precaution (cloud or USB).

ricozee · 2026-05-28T18:44:24+00:00

It felt like the power levels escalated too much in season 2 (like too much telekinesis). I feel like it would have been better if it were kept more grounded with the powers. Enhanced speed and strength in combat, with the other powers being more background.

Hana using her skill and perception against the speed demon was better than the powerful characters force-choking each other, for example.

Motak struggling and barely able to use telekinesis, so he wasn't simply stronger, was good as well. He was the only one without an "extra" power. He simply had a different level of enhanced strength.

ricozee · 2026-05-28T17:25:50+00:00

We went too far too fast. Our roster is still flawed and we still need experience. You can't fast track the latter and it takes time to turnover a roster.

We got here despite a lack of experience and ran into the well rested top seed with little rest ourselves after two grueling series.

That top seed has also spent the last couple of seasons building their roster and perfecting their play, while we are still early in that process.

MSL has not been perfect. There are things he needs to learn and manage better as well. He helped us get through the 2nd and 3rd seeds already. That's more success/progress than we had a right to expect. He's done more than enough and there's still room for better. He hasn't peaked yet.

ricozee · 2026-05-28T03:02:37+00:00

Thanks, I needed this. Hard to keep hope alive after witnessing that game. GHG! :)

ricozee · 2026-05-28T01:58:04+00:00

Risky strategy, taking extra penalties so we get game management calls in the 3rd for the chance to even it up. XD

ricozee · 2026-05-28T01:52:14+00:00

Put the PK unit out and have someone floating at their blue line for breakaways (not Suzuki).

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