How to improve the trade deadline

This right here is exactly what the facepalm emoji was made for: It’s looking ever more likely that Republicans and Democrats are headed for a September showdown over raising the debt ceiling. A two-year suspension of the borrowing limit expired at the end of July and the Treasury Department has started employing “extraordinary measures” to enable the government to keep paying its bills and avoid breaching the ceiling. Those extraordinary measures may be exhausted shortly after Congress returns

The St. Louis Blues paid a big price to obtain Ryan O’Reilly and it’s already looking like a bargain. O’Reilly, Ivan Barbashev and Zach Sanford scored to help the Blues beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-1 on Monday night. St. Louis acquired O’Reilly from the Buffalo Sabres last offseason

There are several reasons a general manager fires an assistant coach the way Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman whacked Mike Kitchen this week, and almost none of the fallout is good. One reason is to threaten the head coach with his job if a particular assistant isn’t canned after a bad event, such as a top seed getting swept by the last team in the playoffs, even if that head coach is a three-time Stanley Cup-winner and sure-fire Hall-of-Famer. Another reason is to prompt the head coach to resign after his usual control of assistant coaches is usurped. Another is that it was a necessary move that the head coach was too close to properly evaluate. Yet another reason is for the GM to cover his backside