sabills

If you're not going to retire it, which you shouldn't, why not give it out? Does everyone to wear a number have to be better than the guy who wore it before? I don't think Mario Williams was as good as Phil Hansen, should he have not been allowed to wear #90? What about Chris Kelsey? Can Casey Nelson not wear Jim Lorentz's #8? Or you just use it and eventually people stop associating it with him because he hasn't played for the Bills in 40 years.

I understand your point, honestly. I never really know what to do in these situations. Can you separate the man from the football player? Can I still watch The Usual Suspects knowing about Kevin Spacey now? Or how about ANY Harvey Weinstein film? Its a personal choice you have to make about how you handle that. I'm not saying burn your OJ gear and forget all the good stuff, but I do think its a bad look for the team to continue supporting him considering his later stuff.

Then he killed two people.

I think Kelso has been pretty good, but Eric Wood was the only interview I ever made time to listen to on WGR except GMTM. Insightful and smart, definitely a player perspective but has a lot more to say. Solid hire.

This one is also great lol

Jerry Hughes re-signed for ~11.5 per year for 2 years. What a highway robbery that trade was.

Here's what I would have done this season if I was writing it. Not sure its considerably better, but I think it sets some stuff up stronger while keeping to GRRM's ending. So here’s what I think the main bullet points they would have gotten from GRRM that I need to hit: · Dany burns KL · Arya kills the NK · Jon kills Dany · Bran becomes king To pull off what I have here a couple things from the previous season have to change as well. First, Dany and Jon need to already be in love by the end of the second to last episode of season 7. Then, the last episode of that season ends without Tyrion managing to "convince" Cersei to come north. She tells them exactly what she'll do; stay there and wait them out. This creates a real conflict between Jon and Dany, because now Dany argues that they need to take care of Cersei first at all costs since she’ll just stab them in the back as soon as they leave. Plus, the Night’s King’s armies are still beyond the wall; they can take care of Cersei quick enough and still get up there and save most people, while still preserving the kingdom. Meanwhile Jon wants them to go north and finish off the Night’s King to, you know, save the people. This can be presented in a way where we can see both sides. So now the two are at a breaking point, and the only thing keeping them together is their love. Jon is considering leaving but won’t because of his love of Dany. But then, Bran and Sam show up to tell Jon that he’s a Targ. Now he feels weird about loving Dany, AND he needs to go north. The season ends with Jon telling Dany who he is, taking the Stark armies north to fight the WWs, and Dany watching him leave, but clearly feeling betrayed and pissed. Jaime leaves Cersei in the same way. Bran actually STAYS with Dany/Tyrion, and does his creepy stuff down south instead of up north. He has some sort of vaguely BS reasoning for this. (I’ll be in the way, my knowledge is needed here, etc) Next season starts not long after. Jon shows up in Winterfell, we get a bunch of the reunions we did in that first episode anyways. The Stark kids (minus Bran). Brienne and Jaime (we can get the knighting scene later in the episode). Theon and Sansa. Etc. The north, the Riverlands, the Vale are all prepping to fight the WWs. The wildlings are supposed to be coming in soon. Jon tells the Stark girls who he is. Some Sansa/Jon conflict. Down south Dany is preparing to invade. She still needs to get up to Jon to help them (even though she's pissed at him, she still wants to save everyone) and doesn’t want to wait. Tyrion tries to convince her not to burn the city. We get the Rhaegal death. We watch her get closer and closer to the breaking point. Tyrion gets a letter from Sansa about Jon’s parentage. He tells Varys. Next we watch a lot of the wildlings get slaughtered by the WWs. Separately we watch Last Hearth and a few other places get overrun. This enemy is terrifying and unstoppable. We really get to FEEL the power of this army. Winterfell digs in to fight, but knows its probably hopeless. We’re led to feel like maybe Dany is coming to save them in the last minute, but the army is moving very quickly. Scouts reveal that the split armies are converging on Winterfell. They’re just outside. The NK overlooks winterfell on the back of his dragon and with his armies behind him. Then we get a shot of Bran with his eyes rolled back down south. He smirks a little. The NK looks a little miffed. Then takes off in his dragon and his armies turn south. They walk right passed Winterfell as the soldiers watch. Jon’s face goes from grim determination to terror. Jaime sees this, grabs a horse and takes off south as fast as possible. We see Clegane heading the same way. Next down south Dany hears about the WWs. Now she’s really pressed for time and she’s down two dragons. She hears about Varys’s treason and kills him. Missande is captured, we get the last pleading with Cersei, and Missande’s death. Dany is now desperate and pissed off. She orders the invasion for the next morning. The next episode is mostly the same as the invasion of Kings Landing this season. Tyrion begs Dany to spare the people if the bells ring. Clegane bowl, all that. Except Jaime gets to Cersei while she’s still in power. He sees the battle is lost, begs her to surrender. She doesn’t. He kills her, tells the guards to ring the bells. They do. Dany, distraught, afraid, betrayed, and maybe mad, burns the city anyways. Next we watch a montage of the WWs moving south through the continent, destroying anything in their path, but not stopping to conquer. Down through the north, the neck, the riverlands. They pass Moat Calain and Harrenhal. Nice little montage of places we recognize with mounds of snow and dead people. Cute. They arrive at night with the city still on fire. Now we get essentially the battle of Winterfell, but a little different. Dragon battle between Dany and the NK, in which she kills Viseryon but not the NK. All seems lost, then the North armies appear, and the battle is a LITTLE more even, but still not close. Mellisandre does some cool *****. Arya does some cool *****. Theon dies heroically. Jorah dies saving Dany. Jaime dies after some back to back fighting with Brienne, dying in her arms. Bran gets face to face with the NK, and then Arya kills him. Battle end wrap up. Second to last episode. Barely see Dany this episode, but you feel her everywhere. Everyone learns what she did. There are a bunch of discussions about what to do about her. A little time to mourn for those lost. Bran tells them what he did, why the NK came after him, why he stayed there: so he could draw the NK south and combine the armies to stop him, one way or the other, and to get Arya there to kill him. We see a lot of what we saw at the beginning of the actual last episode in this one, with Unsullied killing Lannisters, maybe some other atrocities. We get the Tyrion/Jon talk. Final episode is similar to the one we got. Dany talks crazy about freeing the world. Jon kills Dany. Bran gets the throne. Major plot points achieved. Jon goes north. Maybe we get some better info about what the Nights Watch will be now that the threats are both gone (wildings/WWs). Sort of a National Guard sort of thing maybe. The North STAYS part of the 7 Kingdoms, as Tyrion convinces Sansa that its essential, else the rest will split off not long after(if you think Dorne is waiting a year before leaving when the North is already gone, you're nuts). Arya gets some better story ending then whatever the hell that was. The end.

Interesting Azor Ahai theory from /r/asoiaf Jon wanted to save the world from the dead. First, he united mankind against the White Walkers – Wildlings, the North, and Dany’s army. He plunged his army into the white walkers (ice a.k.a. water). But the Long Night was not over. The world was not saved; a great threat still held the world in its clutches. So at the head of his new army, he drove South. The second time he took fifty days and fifty nights to make the sword, even better than the first. To temper it this time, he captured a lion and drove the sword into its heart, but once more the steel shattered. Cersei, the lion. Jon drove the new army he had united straight into the heart of the lion, but the world was not saved, for the peace shattered as Dany prepared to usher in a new age of war and conquest. The Long Night was just beginning. The third time, with a heavy heart, for he knew beforehand what he must do to finish the blade, he worked for a hundred days and nights until it was finished. This time, he called for his wife, Nissa Nissa, and asked her to bare her breast. He drove his sword into her living heart, her soul combining with the steel of the sword, creating Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes. Her blood, soul, strength, and courage went into the steel of the sword, creating Lightbringer. Following this sacrifice, Lightbringer was as warm as Nissa Nissa had been in life. Devastated, Jon knew what he had to do. He drew close his lover and asked her to bear her heart to him, her love. Then in despair, he stabbed his sword into her breast. Dany inspired thousands. Through all the inspiration that her blood, soul, strength and courage had poured into her conquest, her dream to break the wheel, he forged Lightbringer, the New Era of peace in the kingdom, freeing the world from the Long Night of war, death, and destruction. Once Azor Ahai fought a monster. When he thrust his sword through the belly of the beast its blood began to boil. Smoke and steam poured from its mouth, its eyes melted and dribbled down its cheeks and its body burst into flame.” Perhaps the Iron Throne was in fact the monster; it represented the Wheel. The system of rule by right of birth – the Iron Throne. And with Jon’s final thrust, and he caused Drogon to burn the Iron Throne, melting it away, and the old system with it. A new system of the kingdom choosing its ruler began, perhaps a new era of peace and prosperity. Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. His story represents true heroism, total sacrifice for the greater good: giving up his family, his friends, his lovers, his own life, his claim to the throne, and his only reward was exile. Jon was the true Prince, the rightful heir to the throne, but he could not be King. He did, however, unite the world in the war for the dawn, saving mankind from the Long Night of destruction by Ice or by Fire. Jon Snow is Azor Ahai.

I like most of it. But like every other episode this year, it still seemed rushed. If they had made this season 10 episodes that were a normal length like most of the seasons I think they could have done a much better job. Of all the endings, the only one I really have an issue with is Arya. WTH did that come from?

hmm, don't see anything on twitter about it.

John Clayton said yesterday that he wouldn't be surprised if they traded him, which is kinda nuts.

I think J-Bot really expected Berglund to be able to fill that 2C/3C role last year and it just didn't happen. That's a bad look for Botteril, but I see where he was coming from a little. Hopefully he does better this time around.

Chelsea is going to lose Hazard to Madrid, and their top two young mid/forward talents in Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek BOTH just went down with ruptered achilles in the span of a month. As a newly printed Chelsea supporter I hope they come back soon and in full health, but Pulisic is certainly going to get his time in the sun next season. We'll see what he does with it.

haha, it was whatever the standard was. honestly, I just made the quiz and I couldn't get all of them if you gave me 2 years.

https://www.sporcle.com/games/dfdtrumpet/buffalo-sabres-head-coaches-up-to-2019 There ya go, just made it.

I don't think they usually broadcast conference calls. Its usually just a media call in thing.

From what little I know, I don't think there IS an RK type of player. His bag is assessing the players he has and finding a strategy that works with them.

This is a gamble, no doubt. But its a damn interesting one at least.

Correct! He was chairman there. Which is sort of like a President of Hockey Operations or something similar.

never coached soccer has coached hockey

Hard same. The wheel of coaching KILLS me. New Coach --> Has HIS system that's better than everyone elses --> Current players don't fit system --> GM brings in new players to fit system --> Team is bad for 3 years because players are still new --> Coach fired --> New Coach with different system--> Rinse and repeat, and you have the last 20 years of the Bills They also interviewed him last time, I believe in person, so a phone interview or five might have been enough for J-Bot

I'll bet money on the Sabres hiring an analytics guy before the season starts. Its huge in soccer(not to mention economics), and a guy like Kruger shouldn't want to miss a trick.

Of all the stuff about Krueger that's interesting, this quote from Vanek in this Athletic piece has me the most excited: To me, thats a hallmark of what I want out of a headcoach, in almost any sport. Your job, really, is management. You should have an idea of the type of team you want to run, then go out and find experts in running that team and hire them. You have influence and make the final decisions, but you shouldn't be out there calling lines or calling plays. Hire the smartest people, listen to them, and be able to 1)interpret and use the information they give you correctly and 2) communicate efficiently and effectively what you want to the coaches and players.