shrader

I'm just waiting for the inevitable complaints about how Shiva somehow knows who is a Savior and who isn't.

The whole kingdom thing should be so cheesey, but it works. The three main players there are such damn good actors, they make it great. For one night anyway, the slow boring season is forgotten. 14 episodes sandwiched between two great ones.

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law let their kids bring every toy imaginable to the dinner table. Inevitable they wind up running around the table and one falls down and hits his face on the floor. They then yell at the kids asking why they fool around so much at the table. Do they really not know the answer to that question?

Strangely enough, that's not something I've ever done. I'm not a coffee guy.

If we're lucky, he turns into another Brian Flynn. No one should be expecting a scoring line boost with this type of signing. These guys are typically pretty close to their ceiling already.

This sounds eerily similar to my experiences, except I'm currently in that first 4-5 years you described. It's nowhere near as harsh as your story, but the similarities are definitely there. One major difference, and something that is the root of a lot of issues here, is that my FIL died less than a year after we got married.

I used to get my skates sharpened religiously at a specific shop in Boston. Every time I was there, typically wearing a Sabres hat, the owner would tell me the same story. It was probably around the same time frame as what you just said. When he was in the Coast Guard, all of the guys would listen to WKBW while they were out in the Atlantic. It was pretty much the best signal they got out there. So he had fond memories of a bunch of their staff during that time.

I really want to see Rick have this interaction with the kingdom: It's all I can think about when I see them lately.

Even if they're spot on, the stereotypes are what kill that show for me. It's stereotype overload.

Stat question: If you are dressed and on the bench but never set foot on the ice, does it count as a game played?

Hopefully he can share a beer at some point with the flag bearing walker.

That'll be Eichel's goal. They start with a zero out there in MA, so he only needs to put up Gretzky-like numbers. Totally realistic.

But he completely ruined the zipcode thing, unless he plans on moving to Michigan.

I wouldn't say it's because he's bad, it's just that he's not a top 3 guy. I'm not going to say he'd make us so much better, but this team could use one or two more 3-6 guys back there.

It's a great approach. I feel like most shows wait until the first new episode has aired before releasing the previous season. I guess that's fine in this DVR age, but they could do better for their ratings. I could really use a binge watching myself. There's so much time between these short seasons, I've pretty much forgotten where they left things off.

That's Union Rd, right? My mom loved that place but I don't think I ever got out of the car while she was there.

Not to mention Saul's lackey squad. Huell never failed to crack me up. I can't wait until he and Bill Burr show up on Better Call Saul.

Eichel: 55 games played; 23-32-55 Matthews: 74 games played; 34-27-61 He's definitely put to rest that popular idea coming out of Canada that Matthews is well ahead of him already. Hell, if he keeps up with his production over the last two games, he could actually pass Matthews in points even with the 21 missed games. That's probably a stretch, but anything is possible with this kid.

I don't think they're going to fight. They're going to talk it over and tell Rick that they're all in.

Both could be the best teams in the world and it would still be too tempting for most to make their money back. It has to be something bigger than even that to stop it and the best I can think of would be both Eichel and Matthews developing into true monsters of the game. It would have to be a Magic vs. Bird type battle of the best to maybe get people to keep their tickets.

I just watched the preview for next week. There were two quick things I noticed that were interesting. There's a shot of Negan outside the gate and Dwight is standing behind him. Another was a shot of a bunch of people up on the wall with guns at Alexandria. Jadis is right next to Rick.

That trailer did absolutely nothing for me. That Justice League lineup is severely lacking. I know they're holding on with anything Superman until probably their last trailer, but he's just about the only one I care about seeing where his story goes. So thanks to that, none of it caught my interest... even though I absolutely love Batman. And Cyborg... that will never be a name that pops into my head when I think about the Justice League. He doesn't fit with what is supposed to be a lineup of iconic comic characters.

Yeah, the traitor angle isn't really that big of a mystery. You guys nailed the only two options. Still, Negan stands to be very surprised. He doesn't know that Dwight left and he doesn't know that Rick has both the Kingdom and the unknown to him Oceanside on his side. It's 50/50 whether or not he knows about the Hilltop. The episodes have been a bit blah, but with this one, it was kind of cool to see how Maggie has slowly taken over as the Hilltop's leader. We've seen her lose so much more than anyone else (obviously others have lost as much, but we never saw it) and she has become a very strong character.

It's interesting to see how thoughts on this evolve over time. I think the whole thing boils down pretty easily. The league has a 4-5 teams at the very top and then a couple of the true bottom feeders. Then there's everyone else. Add a player here or there and you'll get some fluctuations among those middle teams, but like you said, they're not all that far apart. Fortunately though, with the way this game is, someone out of that midsection could wind up winning it all if they catch fire and some things go their way.

I'd imagine that the season finale will mirror the mid-season finale where Spencer and the food pantry lady were killed. Thanks to Sasha, Negan shows up looking to rattle a few cages again, but this time they fight back, probably with some help.