Robviously

Tank's over. Better hope Grigorenko and Armia become stars.

LOL. Something something Corsi.

1. Link? I'd love to check this out. 2. Lawson Crouse must be doing something really intriguing when you actually see him play because you wouldn't even think he's a first-rounder when you look at his numbers. He's in the top-10 of every mock I've seen though.

No doubt. The worst thing about Episode 1 is that it is completely unnecessary. Literally nothing happens in that movie that we need to know about for the remaining movies. It's like Lucas decided he needed to spend an entire movie setting up that Darth Vader was a kid once and that he was traumatized and that's why he eventually turned. There are two problems with this: 1. It's not worth spending an entire movie on. 2. It actually makes his story LESS compelling. If Anakin Skywalker was a fairly regular Jedi who eventually succumbed to greed or his own moral failings, that's a lot more interesting to watch than a traumatized kid having issues later. Of course, the execution was also terrible. There's no reason the Jedi or Queen Amidala wouldn't immediately fly back to Tatooine as soon as the credits roll in TPM and buy the kid's mom back. Kinda the least they could do after he saved the whole planet.

It can be done but it's very difficult and rare. Godfather, Part II definitely worked with the Vito Corleone scenes, but it wasn't a straight prequel (it was half and half). Paranormal Activity 2 took place before the first one and was a great addition to the story (but you specified "making a character more interesting"). And this is a stretch but I'd say the flashbacks in LOST were really effective as well. I do think there was potential for a good story in there somewhere. In the originals you hear Obi-Wan say "I thought I could instruct him as well as Yoda. I was wrong." You get the sense that Obi-Wan's hubris played a role in this happening. And they could have done a character study in watching a good guy turn evil (similar to what we're seeing with Rick in Walking Dead) but instead they made Anakin an obvious nut job from the start. There could have been a love triangle too but instead they forgot to give Luke/Leia's mother any personality at all. And, of course, they could have introduced a ton of completely new characters and made us interested in those but I guess Lucas didn't realize that was an option.

I missed all the excitement. Sad to see nothing ended up happening. :(

I think they were just giddy about having a scene where Maggie sees her sister's body (after she finally remembered that she has a sister). Plus Abraham is a badass and this show tends to give badasses magical powers. One thing I really liked about last night is that it was a tragedy that could have been avoided if any one of several people had made a better decision earlier in the episode. If the trade really was 3 for 2, I doubt Dawn decides to demand Noah back and everyone walks away. So if Officer Dawson decides not to attempt an escape *or* if Rick decides to find a better way to bring him back in (besides unnecessarily hitting him with a car and then executing him), there's a better outcome. If Dawn decides not to demand Noah back, better outcome. If Beth decides not to try to kill Dawn, better outcome again. They could have avoided disaster if just one of these things went right. I also thought they did a good job creating a backstory where it was believable for Dawn to suddenly decide they had to get Noah. It was stupid and I think she knew she was playing with fire, but it was at least understandable that she thought she needed to try that to hold onto power (especially when her fellow officers are basically trying to kill her after it looks like she's losing control of the situation). All that said, still fairly annoying to kill off an interesting character with so much dead weight still hanging around on the show. But Beth doesn't have a cool weapon or look cool marching around with a rifle and Robert Kirkman is basically 13 years old, so it was clear she had to die to make the show more hardcore or whatever.

Hate Carcillo, but McNabb has been going out of his way to deliver head shots lately and definitely has it coming to him. (Ironic considering a concussion derailed his debut season in Buffalo.) Unrelated story --- Ryan Miller stopped Drew Miller on a breakaway attempt, and their mom had an awesome reaction: http://www.sbnation....ler-drew-miller

Both Enroth and Neuvirth played really well last season after the Miller trade finally went down. It's not shocking that they're still playing well this year. They both have really high Save % but that doesn't nearly tell the story as they've been completely under siege in many games. I can't imagine they'd trade both of them and if they were doing that as part of the tank, they'd have to do it sooner rather than later. And how would they sell that to the fans? This is actually the type of move the Oilers should be thinking about. They need to make a huge move at some point to wake everyone up over there.

Ehhhh. They really telegraphed it by having Maggie *really* happy to hear that her sister was alive (and basically acknowledge that she has a sister for the first time in the show) early in the episode. They also gave Beth those huge stitches on her face and I figured they wouldn't want to give her big make-up scars for several more years. It sucks that they went through all the trouble of making Beth interesting just to kill her off. Now we're stuck with Maggie (along with her awful acting and fake accent), boring Glen, Abraham+Rosita+Eugene (ugh), Tara (who cares?), Sasha+Tyreese (get ready for more confusing dialogue about "letting go" or something). And the wimpy priest guy. I never even worry about Daryl, Rick, or Michonne anymore because Robert Kirkman is a comic book nerd and could never part with characters who have cool weapons or whatever. At least we still have Carol.

This is more a commentary on modern journalism than "hardcore Star Wars fans." A handful of internet comments are racist so those are the ones they're going to focus on in order to make that a story. Good grief.

Spectacular. Spot on with Lucas' need to jam as much extra crap into every shot as he possibly could starting in 1997. This also cracked me up on Twitter:

The Sabres finish 22nd in the NHL but convert their 2.7% chance at a lottery win into Connor McDavid. Within 90 minutes, an asteroid collides with the earth and wipes out all life. So everyone is dead and we never even got a chance to use our other draft picks. :(

I don't really want to pick apart your picking apart, but.... Both Pysyk and McCabe were better with the Sabres last year than Meszaros and Benoit have been this year. Each has struggled to start this year but I have a hard time believing they would be worse than our two worst players this year. Armia and Grigorenko both upped their games this year and each easily has a higher ceiling than anything we're going to ever get from Kaleta and Mitchell. Is it really that hard to imagine these guys could make us better or, at least, the same if any of Meszaros, Benoit, Kaleta, or Mitchell is moved? What Edmonton, Columbus, and Philly have this year, and what the Sabres had last year, is dysfunction. For all the Sabres problems, they aren't a dysfunctional team this year. Last year all the veterans were waiting to be traded and all the young players were just along for the ride (after being rushed to the NHL). This year most of the good veterans (Moulson, Gorges, Gionta, Ennis, Myers) are here for the long haul and the young players (Girgensons, Risto, Zadorov) are leading us to wins. We're agreed on this point. This is actually part of *my* point. Last year we had key guys to unload via firesale -- and they were just waiting for that firesale to happen. This year we don't have nearly the caliber of players to move. This is the only part of your response that pisses me off because I don't guarantee Edmonton's improvement *or* declare their total demise at any point above. I actually don't think I've ever "guaranteed" anything on this board. As for Edmonton's total demise, they're in free fall and it's likely to end how it usually does, but they could still salvage this season with some significant moves. I doubt they'll make big trades and get a fresh start, but it's still possible. I do think Edmonton's goaltending is atrocious this year from the few games I've seen. Let's hope.

That's not going to work. Trading Mitchell, Kaleta, Meszaros, and Benoit might actually *improve* the team by clearing room for Armia, Grigorenko, Pysyk, and McCabe (or Ruhwedel). And those 4 players definitely aren't why we're doing well right now (actually the opposite in the case of Meszaros and Benoit). Trading Stewart and Stafford for future assets would make us worse right now (and will probably happen) but is that enough to make us the worst team in the league when you have Columbus, Edmonton, and Philly all in free fall? I doubt it. And there's no way we're trading both Enroth and Neuvirth (which, if we did it right now, probably would assure us of a 30th place finish). We should trade one of them and sign the other to an extension (probably Neuvirth) and I actually think the return would be decent. So unfortunately I don't think the Sabres can realistically make trades to keep us in the bottom three (and probably not the bottom 5). Related: If you're the GM of the Oilers and you're trying to keep your job, how are you not on the phone with Buffalo every day until you have Enroth or Neuvirth?

Which is?

Gosh, surprised at the outcome given all of Donte Whitner's big talk. -No one

If they trade him, it'd better be for someone good. He's our only chance to have a regular player from our 2010 draft class. On top of that, 2011 all comes down to Armia and the only guy left from 2009 is Foligno. Brutal drafting.

Could a contending team have Ennis-Girgensons-Moulson as their 2nd line? I'd say yes. What about a future first line? You can pencil in Reinhart and hope he hits his potential. Grigorenko and Armia are doing well in the AHL this year but they don't look like future NHL superstars. Bailey, Baptiste, Fasching, and Compher are project as good 2nd-3rd line players if they hit their potential. Sabres have 5 picks in the first two rounds in 2015. They still need to find some elite scoring. It's probably also time to find another good defenseman because Pysyk and McCabe have been muddling their way through the AHL this year.

Latvian Power.

Yes. I'm thrilled at the notion of not having mixed feelings when watching a Sabres game anymore. And if the Sabres can stay red hot into December, maybe they preemptively end that. I think the more likely scenario is that we stay good enough to exit the bottom 5 and then plant ourselves in the 21st to 25th range in the standings, right in the no man's land of the NHL draft. Oh well. It's all on Murray now. He un-tanked us with Moulson, Gorges, and Gionta; now let's see if he can actually make us good.

He probably never wrote that original beyond an outline. I think WotW was originally published as a serial and the editor asked him what the ending was going to be before agreeing to move forward because the book was so violent and disturbing when written.

He's going to have to act like he didn't want to tank whether that was the original intent or not. He brought in Gionta, Moulson, and Gorges. Now we're good enough to be outplayed consistently but still come away with points. In other words, we aren't a good team but we aren't in a position to draft anyone elite. Congrats on the improvement, Tim, but now you have to find another way to get some elite talent on this team. I hope for all our sakes that you know how to do that or else we're right back to where we were about 4 years ago.

What was the original ending H.G. Wells had in mind? (I can take a guess given his views on Darwinism, but I couldn't find an answer on Google.)

Mike Harrington ‏@BNHarrington 8m8 minutes ago Nolan has kept pushing this team, found top 2 lines, got the right top 4 on D. Getting results: 7-7-2 after the 1-7 start. #Sabres 7-7-2 in their last 16 games after a 1-7 start (a start that didn't include Zadorov, BTW). The 2014-2015 Sabres are roughly a .500 team. This is what we'll see the rest of the way. Are we going to play our way out of those guys as well? At some point I'll be praying we can just draft high enough to get Korostelev.