Samson's Flow

Yeah just a little bit of foreshadowing and jumping around isn't terrible. Helps to improve the cinematic quality of a show rather than the literary buildup of the books. Although is it me or are they zooming through events much quicker than the previous seasons? IIRC they are almost through book 3 with some of the events in the show, especially Dany/Mereen.

ummm.... 54? I don't get it. :unsure:

Less unneccesary creepy rape/######. FWIW it was totally mutual in the book, just was worried about getting caught/being in the sept. My favorite scenes this season have definitely been the bad-ass tandem of Arya/Hound. That's how to survive in war torn Westeros. Edit: "in cest" is a filter word? and rape isn't? I just don't get it sometimes.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/schedulebymonth.htm I would try CNBC for the Blues/Hawks game. The other two are on NHL Network and NBC Sports locally. Anaheim late game is also on NBC Sports.

Glad to hear that the Amerks were able to make the playoffs despite the Buffalo team raiding all of their goaltending and defense over the last few weeks of meaningless NHL hockey due to the injuries. It would have been extremely detrimental to our young prospects to miss the AHL playoff experience over losing players to the NHL during the playoff push.

Cause the Sabres always had such a bad Corsi rating every game?:devil:

-With the #2 pick, the Sabres pick Reinhart -Islanders keep 2014 pick, giving the Sabres the 2015 1st. -Blues pick does not end up being a 2014 #1 (Lose in 1st round, Do not re-sign Miller prior to draft) -Entire asst coaching staff replaced. Arthurs Irbe is new goalie coach. -Ott is re-signed in the offseason -No big name FA is brought in (i.e. no Callahan) -Leino is bought out -Sabres do not use 2nd CBO -The bottom 6 has at least 5 new players to begin the 2014 season -Only Risto and McCabe of the young defenseman play the majority of time on NHL roster. (Pysyk in AHL, Zadorov gets another tryout but does not play in NHL all season) -Grigo does not start season in NHL next year -Hodgson plays primarily wing next year -Stewart is not traded at the deadline -Stafford plays well in contract year (~40pts at deadline) and is traded for a #1 -Neuvirth is the #1a goalie and gets ~60% of the starts (Enroth is other #1b) -Sabres finish 29th overall next year.

And so it begins. Wonder what the 'reassignment' roles would be. Looks like the Irbe rumors as new goalie coach may have some life to them.

True. I'd estimate that given only the top 5 teams could lotto themselves into the #1 slot previously, the odds of the top team maintaining the #1 pick would be much closer to the 30-40% range over the 10 year period from 2004-2014.

Then again the whole point of having the worst teams getting the top pick is to promote league parity. Theoretically, the worst teams have the least amount of talent and therefore need the top prospects. The league can't be too tank averse without creating dynasties where the best teams get better and the worst teams are stuck in perpetual suckitude.

I knew exactly what I meant. It was a joke to pile on to the "woe is me" Buffalo sports fan mantra. Note that I never said that the probability is any different than 25%, since it is fixed based on independent events. (Okay so it's actually slightly more than 25% given NJ's re-pick status) What Carp said... :worthy:

That's statistically bad news for our #1 pick hopes. Theoretically there is a regression to the stated odds of 25% coming :bag:

that's pretty ballin' :flirt: ... as long as he doesn't bust...

I don't think I will be watching tonight (only because a half hour show to determine one pick change seems rather monotonous), but I hope to all the hockey gods that we are rewarded with the #1 pick after this season of suckitude. If only so that GMTM can pick whomever he damn well pleases and we can move on to whether NYI will give us the #5 or not.

Well to be fair, with the amount of storylines that GRR Martin got to in the third/fourth books, he had to kill off a bunch of them just sp it wasn't impossible to follow. Especially since they are all in the middle of multiple warring regions. It would be a little unrealistic if everyone managed to avoid perilous death. P.S. to all those who want to read the books, while they were awesome, my experience watching the shows is slightly lessened now that I know what happens. Even though I hate Joffrey. :devil:

That sounds like the most plausible scenario given GMTM's willingness to keep the kids in the AHL to develop until they are ready. Zadorov is the only full time NHL'er since he doesn't have much more development to do in Juniors and NHL is the only option. That way in 2015, they can have Pysyk and Risto ready as a plug and play 2nd pairing with a full year of experience together. And hopefully Zadorov/Myers/Ehrhoff has developed a pairing between them. Then there's only one spare d spot to fill with the remaining NHL guy.

So now with some reinforcements back in Rochester they should be able to maintain this late season push to the playoffs and make some noise. Bringing back top pairing d-men in Pysyk and Risto (eventually) will help a ton.

This is why I had zero concerns about the potential changes to the draft lottery. When things like this go down it significantly effects the strategy for all non-playoff teams. Real leagues don't drastically alter the competitive landscape without some time for adjustments. See the USGA ban of anchored putters. They have given the players multiple seasons and a multiple stage phase-out before the hard ban.

That's soooo much better :bag: The Leino lottery keeps getting closer and closer to payout...

I agree basically with your listing of the bottom 6/7 teams next year. IMO based on the draft classes, the #8 pick next year is probably worth the #4/5 pick this year in terms of expected talent received. That being said, there is something to be noted about getting your prospect sooner rather than later, so you have an extra year of development and said prospect is one year closer to playing in the NHL. There is a reason the NFL values next year's first rounder roughly equivalent to this years second. Get two of the top 5 players in this years draft and your turnaround timeline is potentially much shorter. Waiting for two 1st rounders next year pushes our playoff contention window a year further back.

Exactly! I thought new Daario was just some random soldier in Dani's army who was getting mouthy. I guess the GoT producers can't imagine a fine lady like Daenerys falling for the guy described in the book. Blue hair, funky beard, missing teeth? Not for that fine piece... The east should look way more exotic in the episodes than it does. My only minor complaint in an awesome series.

I know, until they referred to him as Daario, I was like "who the f*** is this guy?". And I know the story. Can't imagine being someone who has trouble following GRR Martin's 15 storylines. Here's my other character issue. Jaime Lannister looks like a totally different person. Season 3 Jaime Lannister: Season 4 Jaime Lannister: Edit: Looks like both seasons are the same guy. IMDB credits the character to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. Nevermind...

As someone who watched seasons 1-3 prior to reading the books, and now has read them all, I'm not sure how I will be feeling watching the episodes now that I know what happens. Just a personal thing, but the excitement of watching the next Sunday to find out what happens I a little lost now :( Also, I had to go back and check to see if they re-cast Jaime Lannister, he looks nothing like he used to. FFS he's not even blonde. Also, Oberyn Martell is a total bad ass and will be my favorite character to watch in this season I think. Him and Tyrion and an awesome scene/dialogue together. Liger you have clearly read the books. I have a hard time not ruining everything for all my friends by foreshadowing like two books ahead. Yeah new Daario =/= my expectations of the character, but I expect we will get used to it pretty soon. May have been recast due to his potential for future nude scenes that the old character backed out of. That or just getting a better (?) actor for a bigger role in season 4.

Thanks a lot guys and gals. I just *wasted* a whole hour of my workday playing their entire youtube channel on in the background. We'll just say my productivity was... minimal. :thumbsup:

On the off chance that Leino actually doesn't score (even though he is getting scoring line minutes lately), i'll be glad I entered the LeinoLotto...