Robviously

Atrocious. Given how awful all the rumors are, I'm getting to the point where I'd be thrilled if we made zero trades today.

Nope. Really hoping this is all just bluster to throw people off from our real plans.

Pretty confident we're going to overpay for this guy, and it's going to suck.

THIS. Last night's episode revealed just how utterly pointless the whole "Stannis burned his own daughter" thing was. They completely dismantled Stannis as a character. He's the "finest military commander in the realm" (according to Littlefinger) but he didn't think his men might lose faith in him if they watch him burn his daughter alive? Great. And he's completely devoted to his daughter (against all odds....since she was a baby....) right up until the first sign of trouble with his march on Winterfell. Then she has to die in the worst way possible. And apparently his devotion to religion can go from middling to maniacal at a moment's notice as well. But did it at least help the story? Not really. It just led to a very abrupt, underwhelming ending to a supposedly major plot line. Oh well. What was the takeaway even supposed to be from that? Don't try to save the realm? DO try to save the realm but without making sacrifices? Protect your daughter or else you'll make inexplicable military decisions? That Stannis is just an idiot? Who knows? (It can't be "Don't do awful things or you'll receive swift justice" because that's not this show.) Seriously, how much more complicated is this story if he sacrifices his daughter by burning her at the stake and then gets *rewarded* for it? The Stannis thing also snapped into focus (again) how ridiculous Littlefinger dropping Sansa off to the Boltons was. "I'm going to leave you with the guys who skin people and who murdered your brother and mother, but don't worry because Stannis." And as silly as that was, the explanation is that it'd let the writers develop Sansa more. Except she only developed from girl who gets beaten, to girl who gets raped, to girl who doesn't care if she lives. Good storytelling doesn't mean having characters make terrible decisions just because you need them to to keep the story moving. As for the Sand Snakes, they finally killed Myrcella.....on a boat.....about 300 yards from the dock at Dorne. And they used the same poison they already used on Jamie Lannister's bodyguard, which he'd probably recognize. So I'm guessing Season 6 starts off with Jamie Lannister turning the boat around and going right back to Dorne since it's pretty obvious what just happened. Why not just stab her on the dock if it's going to be that obvious? George R. R. Martin has people hooked. The TV show writers are just doing a clumsy job adapting great source material.

Smehlik - Drew Stafford. Yes, it's still Stafford. I wish we could trade him away every day. Stupid prick. Snuggerud - Three-way tie between Deslauriers, Foligno, and Larsson. Hope all these guys are part of it when we win the Cup.

Last week was the best episode they ever did. This week has me back to wondering if the show runners understand why the books are good. Note to GOT writers: Good storytelling requires realistic actions and motivations by your characters; it doesn't mean find any means possible to make something horrific happen.

This. If we're trading #21 or #31 it should be for someone who will be here and still in his prime in 3 years when we're a contender. Anyone on the wrong side of 30 is probably a bad idea.

:wallbash:

I think the Sansa outrage from two weeks ago is because they've gone to the well a few too many times now with rape as a plot device. The writers sometimes revel in making the show "misery porn" and at some point it's offensive how these guys basically default to "rape mode" every time they're out of ideas for how to up the stakes in the show. Plus to even get to that scene, they had to make Littlefinger do something completely inexplicable in just dropping Sansa off to the Boltons and then dashing off. So it took some pretty bad writing just to get to the point where they could use rape as a storytelling crutch for the millionth time. Anyways, the last two weeks before last night were pretty lousy and had me worried that the show was losing it in the post Storm of Swords era. Then last night was probably one of the best episodes they've ever done. Every scene in the first half was concise and great (even the Arya scenes) and the whole second half in Hardhome was terrific -- possibly the best battle scene they've done.

Stamkos versus Kane and Toews in the Finals. Mike Harrington hardest hit.

I expect watching the Sabres will be fun again.

Went back and edited out just about everything. It was insanely vague to begin with.

I was always wondering how the show would be able to handle the (very) tricky narrative once they got to Books 4 and 5 and so far the answer is: Not well. The Dorne scenes have just been really bad. The intro in the season premiere was over the top soap opera acting and they really botched the intro of the Sand Snakes. In the books, they were beautiful, grown women (the ones we meet anyway, they mention younger ones) but the three TV show ones all looked like diminutive little kids. They didn't come off especially smart or ferocious. In the books, the Dorne stuff takes a while but eventually starts paying off once you realize [spoiler redaction]. They could have spent some time on that instead of "Jamie and Bronn kill 4 random dudes." The Mereen stuff was only OK in Book 5, but they stripped away a ton of what made it interesting ([spoiler redaction]). All we're left with is the Sons of the Harpy. Littlefinger dropping Sansa off to the Boltons and then leaving is going to be tough to pull off too.

Digging deep with our movie references.

I started watching in the first period and wasn't even sure if he was playing after a few minutes. By the 2nd period he was all over the ice and by the third period he was probably the best player out there. Really impressive game.

Who Else Do Something Darcy We Want Ray

Pee Wee teams only copy NHL teams with the ugliest uniforms, after all....

At this point it's better to think of the show as an alternate dimension version of the books. They already changed Varys quite a bit by deleting his master plan that was revealed in the epilogue to A Dance With Dragons. The TV version of Varys apparently just put all his chips on a teenage girl at the other side of the world and has been hoping she'll cross the sea to take over. I'm not sure what to make of that. I did also enjoy the Roose Bolton and Littlefinger scene -- a complete departure from the books. It'll be interesting to see if they can come up with a satisfying conclusion to this storyline. Bolton and Littlefinger are kept completely apart in the books and each has their own plan for solidifying power in the north. Hopefully the show runners can mesh everything together for TV and have it make sense.

I don't think it's busy at all. What we have now is actually a lot busier -- with the random armpit blobs and the weird vertical piping. Compared to most of the post-Reebok Edge uniforms, this is pretty tame.

The goat head uniforms are gorgeous. Had the Sabres been an expansion team in 1996, they would have been an instant classic. All the heart burn comes from the fact that they have literally nothing in common with what the team wore from 1970 to 1996. If the Montreal Canadiens completely changed their look, fans would be outraged at whatever they came up with -- even if it was objectively a great design -- because we already know what the Canadiens are supposed to look like. The same way we did with the Sabres. (Of course, had we won in 2006, maybe the Goathead becomes permanent...) The white 1970 jersey is still the best. The logo is perfect without all the random silver outlines and royal blue and bright yellow are the best color combo. I'm looking forward to the Sabres going back to their original color scheme and unveiling a non-horrible gold alternate in time for their golden anniversary in a few years. Then I hope they keep that set together for about 25 years.

The Stars media team/Jumbotron stuff is consistently hilarious. They often will plant a fake fan for the other team in the crowd and then subject them to some sort of hell ("Seat Downgrade" to the parking lot, for example). Best part of their Fan Appreciation Night was that they read an angry letter from a Blackhawks fan who thought it was all real.

Perfectly said.

Even suggesting this makes me sick to my stomach.

Agree.

I would've liked to see Nashville make a run, just to help hockey in a new market that has shown some promise. On the other hand, to hell with Paul Gaustad. I'm thinking Chicago is who I'm pulling for the rest of the way now. Calgary just put away the Canucks, not a surprise.