Latest / The Armchair GM's Sports Network / A Spooky October at times for the Sabres: How do they improve? Monthly Roundtable - Sabres Semantics

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A Spooky October at times for the Sabres: How do they improve? Monthly Roundtable - Sabres Semantics · The Armchair GM's Sports Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You're listening to the Armchair GM Sports Network.
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  Speaker 2: This is Saber Semantics, covering all things Buffalo Sabers, exclusively
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  Speaker 2: on the Armchair GM Sports Network.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Saber Semantics and our
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: monthly wrap up round table right here on the Armchair
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  Speaker 1: the show. So stay tuned for that if you want
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  Speaker 1: to get in on the gift card giveaway. Brandon Caputo,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Zach Berta, and Jonathan Howe are here with you, all
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: the contributors here, to discuss and debate some hot topics
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: for the Sabres for the month of October that, again,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: has some spookiness to it, trick-or-treat, I guess we can say,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: some games more than others for the Sabres and then
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: mixed results here so far through the first month of
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: the 2026-27 season. As always, make sure to hit like,
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  Speaker 1: GM Sports Network merch store. The QR code is up there.
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  Speaker 1: Saber Semantics merch there. So with that said, gentlemen, this
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: is our first one. I'm excited to do this. Obviously,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Austin couldn't join us tonight, but we'd like to have
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: all four of our co-hosts on. A little bit different
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: of a format, a little bit more laid back. of
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: an episode here for the monthly recap, uh, that we
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: would do for our post game shows or our regular, uh,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: weekly shows. So, uh, excited to do this every single
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: month with you guys. First off, Jonathan, uh, one, I guess,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: you know, what have you thought of the saber season
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: so far? And two, what is your favorite part of Halloween?
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Ooh.
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  Speaker 4: Um, okay. For so far for the saber season, It's
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: kind of what I expected, honestly. I don't really think
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: that I was expecting them to come out like gangbusters
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  Speaker 4: and blow the doors off. I did not expect a
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: 10-0 start to the season by any stretch of the imagination.
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: But I've seen some positives and I've seen some negatives. Ultimately,
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: I think it helps have recency bias after last night's
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: late-night game against San Jose. I'm feeling pretty good ultimately
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: about where this team potentially can get to. But as
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: far as favorite part of Halloween, I guess the candy,
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: but even that I'm not like the biggest, I'm not
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: a big Halloween guy. I will say I actually just
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: carved a Buffalo Sabres goat head pumpkin.
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  Speaker 5: Nice.
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  Speaker 4: So I would go and bring that into frame, but
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: it's in the kitchen and I don't need to be
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: dropping it and racking it before my big pumpkin carving
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: contest with the radio station.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Maybe you can post it on the Saber Semantics Twitter page.
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: I will post that up for folks to see and
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  Speaker 4: they can give a little review of my artistic capabilities
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  Speaker 4: when it comes to the goat head.
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  Speaker 1: Zach, same question for you.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, in regards to the Sabres season, it's been a
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: roller coaster. Like Jonathan brought up, there's some positives that
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: you can take away from the first 12, 13 games.
• 4:18
  Speaker 6: There's other kind of like negatives.
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  Speaker 5: It was great to see Cole and Ellis get a
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: shutout last night, and the Sabres pretty much dominate. Like
• 4:26
  Speaker 5: they pretty much always do five on five, so I'm
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: expecting the team to ramp up. It's like, again, Jonathan
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: brought up, I didn't expect the team to be– have
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  Speaker 5: like 20 points by now but i expected them to
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  Speaker 5: be competitive and they have right now as for halloween
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: honestly i'm not a big halloween guy but you know
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  Speaker 5: uh seeing the different costumes i think is pretty dope
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  Speaker 5: again not a big candy guy so i don't really
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  Speaker 5: have anything on that and i haven't done anything with
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  Speaker 5: pumpkins just yet.
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  Speaker 1: I guess this is not the halloween crew to uh
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  Speaker 1: to reminisce about i guess.
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  Speaker 4: No we're not big spooky season people over here obviously
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  Speaker 4: all right The frights are on the ice enough for
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  Speaker 4: us sometimes. But the Goat Head jersey kind of reminds
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  Speaker 4: me of Halloween a little bit. So we do like those. Yes,
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  Speaker 4: feels a little evil.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Before we get going, Jonathan, you posted in our team
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: chat the leaked or rumored Remix jerseys. What did you
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: think of those?
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  Speaker 4: I thought they were sick. I mean, I've got the
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: white one that they did for Reverse Retro a couple
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: years ago, the white Goat Head with the blue and
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: gold accents. I, uh, when they brought back the goat
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  Speaker 4: head logo or, uh, you know, like emblem and those jerseys,
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  Speaker 4: the black and reds as the alternate, I kind of
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: was like, let's go crazy and just go blue and gold,
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: like traditional colors on that logo on that iconic goat
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  Speaker 4: head era Jersey. And, you know, they've done that, I
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: guess for the reverse retro. Now it looks like for
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: the hometown remix, you're kind of getting the dark version
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: of that. At least that's, what's rumored to be reported anyways. Um,
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  Speaker 4: I still like the other, I think in the rumored
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  Speaker 4: picture though, they don't have the horns on the sides
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  Speaker 4: of the jersey. It's just the stripes, like the traditional
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: crest jerseys, if I'm mistaken. And that's the only part
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: I'd be critical about. I think like it would have
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: been nice to have those horns and make it be
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: the exact same, just like, you know, color swapped. But
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  Speaker 4: I guess that wasn't the point of the jersey. It
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: was handled together. That was the whole point of it.
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: So I like it. I will probably buy one, you know,
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: I'm a sucker for any of the.
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  Speaker 7: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, John, Zach, I know some of the traditional
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Sabres fans, like maybe ones like my, my father's generation, they,
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  Speaker 1: they are very much against the goat head logo. They
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: love the blue and gold with the, the, you know,
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  Speaker 1: old school emblem and then mixing the two together is
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  Speaker 1: almost like sacrilegious to them. So what do you think
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  Speaker 1: about it?
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  Speaker 6: I love them. They're definitely a top five Jersey.
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: If again, it looks exactly like that from the 20
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  Speaker 5: that were released. I, I didn't mind the reverse retro
• 6:57
  Speaker 5: when they came out with those in 2021. I thought
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: maybe the white didn't really go with the go-ahead. That
• 7:02
  Speaker 5: was a year or two before they actually came out
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  Speaker 5: with the reverse retro with the, I guess, throwback alternates.
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  Speaker 5: I love this. I think that, okay, I'm not for
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  Speaker 5: keep making it as a main jersey of their home
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: jersey or whatever that may be, but I don't know.
• 7:20
  Speaker 6: I think there's probably.
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: you'd put them three, four, I actually did a tier
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  Speaker 5: list with it earlier this morning as well.
• 7:25
  Speaker 6: And there's probably top five, top three for sure.
• 7:28
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I think you were talking about the butter knives, one
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: that come out that came out a couple of years
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  Speaker 1: before that with the, which used to be the shoulder
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  Speaker 1: patch on the goat head logos. But yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: I like those ones in the traditional red, like, and again, I, I,
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  Speaker 4: I bought in when they did those in white, they
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  Speaker 4: probably would have looked better in the blue personally, but
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: I love that butter knife logo, as they call it.
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: And it's the one jersey that I wish I could
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  Speaker 4: track down an original. I am determined to find an
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: Andrew Peters one of that. That is the goal list.
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: If anybody saw or read my piece on thrifting finds
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: for jerseys. And I'm interested. I have to check out
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: that tier list as well, Zach, because I'm working on
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: my own top five all-time ones. And there's one that
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: I think everyone sleeps on. There's one iconic Sabres jersey.
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  Speaker 4: that was used as an alternate and it gets slept
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  Speaker 4: on so hard. I don't know if you guys can
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  Speaker 4: guess which one.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Don't tell me it was that awful double yellow Jersey.
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: God. No, no.
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  Speaker 6: Is it, is it, is it the Royal blue one
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  Speaker 6: that said Buffalo? Yes.
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: That Jersey is so nice and so clean. It was,
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: it just looks like a classic hockey sweater. And I just,
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  Speaker 4: I wish that one lasted a little bit longer, at
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: least had some better vibes around it.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Cause that was the 40th anniversary, right?
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: Yes, exactly.
• 8:45
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: I've got one of those. Anybody want to guess what
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: name I have on the back?
• 8:50
  Speaker 6: Was Vili Laino on the team?
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: I would never have gotten a Vili Laino jersey after
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: what he did. After what he did as a Philadelphia
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Flyer the year prior.
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: I'm guessing you have something that's out there. Do you
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: have a Tyler Myers? Was Myers there.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: For the 40th? I did have a Tyler Myers jersey,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: but I sold it. It was a Christian Airhoff jersey.
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: Oh, see, wrong free agent. You went with the wrong
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: free agent, Zach.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: He signed for 10 years. I thought we'd be good
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: for a jersey for 10 years. And what did he
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: make it, three? Yeah, and then the compensatory, or whatever
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: they call the compliance buyout after the lockout ended.
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: Can we do a quick sidebar? Worst contract and buyout situation,
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: Jeff Skinner or Christian Airhoff?
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: I don't know, because I like Airhoff. I don't want
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: to say he's the worst of anything. So I just
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: think he came in a bad era. He was very
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: good for Vancouver, the power play guy, and he came
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: on a Sabres team that just was not ready to compete, obviously.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: But I think we need to do a throwback episode
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: two and a jersey episode at this point. But Jonathan
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: does his Friday five every week as well. when he
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: goes through five things Sabres-related. He's got the jersey one
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: up on our website, armchairgmsports.com. You can check out that
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: full piece there. And Zach also does our weekly... recap
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: as well in video. So make sure you give us
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: a follow on social media for all the stuff that
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: we're doing with the content team this season. So boys,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: let's get forward with the meat and potatoes of this show.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: We're just going to pose a question because Austin's not here.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: I'm going to insert myself into the conversation. I was
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: more so going to be the Tony Rinaldi of the,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: of the, of the episode on around the horn where
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: I was just going to pose questions to you guys.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: But unfortunately I have to be part of the debate tonight.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: So with that said, Uh, we're just going to answer
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: six questions. We'll see how far this goes and, uh,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: and we'll go from there. So, and again, I'm going
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: to input the trivia question for you guys later, if
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: you want to win that global pet foods, Niagara gift card.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: So make sure you listen to the entire episode. You're
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: going to miss out on that. So with that said, gentlemen,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: the first question of the Sabres monthly wrap up round
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: table is, This one comes from Zach. If the Sabres
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: get average goaltending, will they finish top three in the
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Atlantic division? Zach, since this was your question, I'll let
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: you start it off.
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I take a look at the Sabres and I'm like, okay, well,
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: five on five, they've been great.
• 11:19
  Speaker 6: Special teams hasn't been great. But when I take a
• 11:22
  Speaker 6: look at what Colton Ellis did last night where.
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: He didn't have to do too much, he made some
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: big enough saves. But when you take a look at
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: the league as a whole, where league save percentages across
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: the league is what eight 92, the lowest has been
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: in decades. And I I'm pretty sure all time, if
• 11:39
  Speaker 5: the Sabres just get like 900 save percentage, even like
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: eight 95 save percentage, I think there are guys that
• 11:45
  Speaker 5: haven't gotten going yet that will get going that can
• 11:48
  Speaker 5: help to propel over the top.
• 11:50
  Speaker 6: Now, of course you have, you know.
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: Other teams in the blood bath of the Atlantic division
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: of like, um, Toronto I'll even throw in their Florida
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: Boston is off to a great start Ottawa Montreal but
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: if they can just get like average just three goals
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: against per game I think they I have trust in
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: their goal scoring that they'll get back to where they
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: were last season and yeah I really believe that they
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: can be a top three three team in the Atlanta
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: division if they go out and get the uh just
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: average league goaltending.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah Jonathan uh when you look at it you know
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: they're Their goals against is 24th in the league, 3.33 against.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: So again, this was sort of a question that, you know,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: we've been discussing as well. And it might actually tie
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: into one of your questions as well, Jonathan, about the
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Colton Ellis, Devin Levi, you know, debate there, which again,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: recency bias helps with the shutout last night. And he
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: looked great. But what are your thoughts on this question?
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: I mean, when I look at, I'm not even going
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: to look at percentages. I'm just going to look straight
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: up at in our division in the, the goals against category, right?
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: Buffalo's not actually the worst team in goals against. That's
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: actually Toronto. Not to pick on the Leafs, but they've
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: given up 46. But the biggest thing is the Leafs
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: have scored 52. The Leafs are scoring goals. That's something
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: we're not doing. The Sabres were known for this high-flying offense.
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: And even when they weren't very good in the last
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: couple of years, it was still, oh, they're playing river hockey, right?
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: And there was all this kind of fun momentum around
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: scoring goals and being an exciting team. You're not seeing
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: that so far this year. And I'm not thinking that
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: they can't get to that. We saw Zach Benson get
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: off the schneid a little bit last night. He got
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: that empty net goal, put that light of fire in him.
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: He's a guy that I picked to score 20 this year.
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: I mean, the crazy thing about Benson is I heard
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: a stat where going into last night's game, the way
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: it was working out, he was still on pace for
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: 55 points just with no goals.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: So.
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: It's not like he's not contributing, but a guy like that,
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: you need to finish. You need Oslin to find the
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: net a little bit more than he has. Jack Quinn's
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: doing a great job. Tage Thompson, even though I haven't
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: loved his game, is scoring goals. I'm not necessarily all
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: that worried about the goaltending because they need to score
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: some goals, and that's really the priority to me. Even
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: when you look at the other teams in the division,
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: they only have been scored on four more times than Detroit,
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: which Detroit's last, so that sucks, but The Panthers have
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: given up 37 this year. The Sens have given up 38.
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: So to me, as much as I would love to
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: say that the goaltending is the issue and the thing
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: to focus on, I don't even know if they need
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: average goaltending unless they can start scoring goals. Because I
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: think you need above and beyond goaltending if you're only
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: going to score two a game. So that's the only
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: reason I would say that maybe... beyond average goaltending is
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: what you're going to need to be top three in
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: the division as it stands right now.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: And it's funny because I'm looking at it right now.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: They're 24th and goals for, and 24th and goals again.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: So again, both are issues right now. They're only scoring 2.75
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: goals for per game. You can see it up on
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: the screen. If you're watching on video for use listening
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: and audio, the Sabres right now have the 29th ranked
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: say percentage in the NHL at 0.876. So again, that's
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: not great. I'm sure, I'm sure it went up after
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Ellis' shutout last night, but I think that's what they
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: were talking about on the ESPN broadcast as well, just
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: how putrid the Sabres' save percentage has been as a team.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: And obviously we haven't seen Alex Lyon get into any
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: action in the regular season since he went out in
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: the preseason. So it's been Lukonen and Ellis, and that
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: just amplifies with the Connor Hellebuck situation that obviously got
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: resolved earlier this week with him going to new jersey
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: zach so i guess like what what are your thoughts
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: on just where it is right now and are you
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: more with jonathan that the yeah they got to keep
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: the puck out of the net but they also have
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: to put the puck in the opposing team's.
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: Net i completely agree i think it's a combination of
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: both uh the power play is of course putrid they
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: they have to be able to i'm not saying they
• 16:06
  Speaker 5: have to convert at the 30 rate and be a
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: top of the league but it has to be better
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: than 10% or it probably fell below 10% after they
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: went scoreless. Once again, on the power play against nine
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: point eight, exactly. 9.8% where scoring.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 16:20
  Speaker 5: Like you had, like this team has so much talent
• 16:22
  Speaker 5: where they should have to be able to score and
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: get over that three goals for per game plateau. Tage Thompson,
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: of course he can score in Jack Quinn, but those
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: can't be your only two guys that provide a bulk
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: of the goal scoring.
• 16:34
  Speaker 6: Jason Zucker. Again, I know he's coming off that sports
• 16:37
  Speaker 6: hernia injury, but outside of his first game, He hasn't
• 16:41
  Speaker 6: been able to produce.
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: Josh Norris has been invisible. Like, he's not scoring, and
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: he's not really creating chances either. And the blue line
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: has been scoring. They're one of the highest teams in
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: the league in terms of total points by defense blue line.
• 16:55
  Speaker 6: But I just think it's goal scoring. It's goal attending.
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: I think it's some of the team defensive play, but
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: it will look better against San Jose.
• 17:02
  Speaker 6: So goal attending is one of them. Goal scoring is another.
• 17:06
  Speaker 6: It's a combination of, like, everything right now.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean, again, like Lukanen is the guy
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: that obviously gets the attention right now. I know Ellis
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: has been hit or miss as well, but obviously with
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: the shutout last night, he kind of put those critics
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: to bed. But with Lukanen, over the whole Hellebuck situation
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: where his no trade clause kicked in and he wasn't
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: able to get moved to Winnipeg, so it would have
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: had to have been a three-team deal. We heard potentially
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: the Rangers looking at a guy like Lukanen. Would there
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: be a three-way type of deal or a reactionary trade?
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: if the Sabres would have got a Connor Hellebuck. So
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: I guess like Jonathan, like if they're going to ride with,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: if I mean, Yarmose obviously clearly said that he's going
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: to be riding with, with Lucan and Ellis. And when
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: lion comes back him as well, he's really, you know,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: hitching his wagon here. As you can see on the quote,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: we believe in our goaltending. Lucan is a really good goaltender.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: We have a lot. We feel who has a lot
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: to give the Sabres and will be a big part
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: of our future. So, and even at a conversation with
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: him earlier in the week before that Hellebuck trade went
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: down that he wasn't going anywhere.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: I mean, look at the goaltending from last year, January
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: 1st on. The goaltenders haven't changed. It was Lukanen, it
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: was Line. Now, we haven't seen Line. He's been injured.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: We get it.
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: Ellis was doing that backup thing where whoever didn't get
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: the start was going to be in the press box
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: and Ellis was going to be the guy on the bench.
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: We haven't seen that three-goalie rotation, that system that they
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: developed and felt seemingly mastered from about January on, late
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: December on last year. We haven't seen that work out yet.
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: So to me, again, I'm not willing to hit the
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: panic button and be like, oh, we got to do this.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: We got to fix this. We got to do like.
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: I've said this before, and I don't know, we might
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: get into this a bit more later on in the episode,
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: but to me, like Connor Hellebook is the equivalent of
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: the Ryan Miller that was traded from Buffalo to St.
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: Louis back in the day. Like I'm not sitting here
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: saying that New Jersey can't win a cup with with Hellebuck.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: That's not what I'm saying.
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: I mean, he had a pretty impressive debut. I get
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: all that, but you know, how many Veznas are ahead
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: of Connor Hellebuck? How many heart trophies are ahead of
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: Connor Hellebuck? Even look at the way Miller's like playoff
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: career went very similar to how Connor Hellebuck has gone.
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: I would say if anything, Hellebuck has more knocks against
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: him in the playoffs. I never really felt like Ryan
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: Miller let down the Sabres in the playoffs. They just would,
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: have offensive dry up and they'd lose a game 2-1
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: or it'd be like a tough OT thing. Even, you know,
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: we're talking like Connor Halibut's this great American hero. Well,
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: Ryan Miller almost beat Canada back in 2010, right? So,
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: to me, I think... those are two very interesting comparables.
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: And for Sabres fans out there, when you like start
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: freaking out that we didn't get this Hellebuck deal done,
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: that's what I would remind people. What did Ryan Miller
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: accomplish in Anaheim or in Vancouver or in St.
• 20:04
  Speaker 7: Louis?
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: Not a whole lot because he was on the backside
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: of his career. And Connor Hellebuck was... He's still a
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: number one goalie. I get it. He's still probably one
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: of the top five, top three goalies in the league,
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: but he's on the backside of a career. And do
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: you want to give up Jack Quinn for that? Consta Hellenus,
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: a Mirka, a first rounder, maybe more, maybe less, maybe McLeod.
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: Who's going to kill penalties. Who's going to score goals.
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: Cause you start taking away some of the names who
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: are equivalents or what Winnipeg would have wanted. I just
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: don't see how that deal was overly beneficial for, At
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: this particular point, had it got done at the draft
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: and Yarmul had time to maybe figure out a way
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: to keep tuck or do something else. Maybe that makes sense.
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: But for me, I don't think panicking about goaltending is
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: the problem right now. I'm more concerned about putting the
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: puck in the net. And I mean, honestly, I would
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: give a little bit of a longer leash and a
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: couple more starts to Ellis the way he's been playing.
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: Cause last I checked, I know it's a shutout that
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: boosts that, but his, his goals against is still in
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: it under three. So, I'd give him a little more
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: love and a little bit more of a look until
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: you get Lyon back.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: I know it was an amplified week because Alex Tuck
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: had the big game against Buffalo, obviously with the two goals,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: including the game winning goal in overtime. So I understand that, like, again,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: if you if you make that trade for Hellebuck and
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: you take even more offense away from the team, you know,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Yarmou doesn't have. the time as you mentioned in the
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: offseason to go and maybe sign a couple more offensive
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: players getting zucker back will obviously pay dividends going forward
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: but he's still working his way back in the lineup
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: as zach said he had the power play goal in
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: the opening game but last two i know he had
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: six shots i believe last night against uh against san
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: jose but again he's still a guy that's going to
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: take some time to get back up to speed here
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: so that's obviously you know the question number one here
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: is yes, the goaltending can be better. We're not sitting
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: here saying that it can't be. And yes, there's been
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: some deflating goals that Lukanen's let in, but again, let's
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: not sit here and just, you know, completely say that
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Connor Hellebuck would have the Sabres top of the Atlantic
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: division right now, because I think, as we mentioned, net
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: front coverage in the defensive zone, penalty killing, power play,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: scoring goals. Those are all big issues for the Sabres
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: right now. So that we'll, we'll move on to the
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: next question here on, on the docket here. What, player
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: on the sabers would you like to see more from
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: zach we'll start with.
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: You yeah i think that's pretty obvious josh norris uh
• 22:29
  Speaker 5: he has three points in 12 games i mean you're
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: paying him seven million dollars seven plus million dollars to
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: uh be a goal scorer and i understand okay if
• 22:39
  Speaker 5: you're not contributing on the stat sheet with points goals assists.
• 22:43
  Speaker 6: Whatever it is contribute in a different area, right?
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: Maybe be a little bit more defensively responsible or at
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: least try to create chances or go out and win
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: the puck battles.
• 22:51
  Speaker 6: But I love Josh Norris. He's not doing anything right now.
• 22:55
  Speaker 6: I just want to see a little bit more from him,
• 22:57
  Speaker 6: whether it is defensively, whether it is offensively. And I
• 22:59
  Speaker 6: get it, okay?
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: He's never been this guy in his career that has
• 23:02
  Speaker 5: been some selkie candidate defensive forward, right? But the Sabres
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: are paying him to be able to produce and he
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: just hasn't been able to do that. And he has
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: to get, I guess, going in some way, whether that's
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: an empty net goal, whether that's a power play goal.
• 23:22
  Speaker 6: He had a couple of good looks against San Jose
• 23:24
  Speaker 6: last night, but that's really about it. His expected goals
• 23:27
  Speaker 6: for percentage really is down in the 40s.
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: I just want to see a little bit more from him.
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: And if the Sabres can at least get, I don't know,
• 23:37
  Speaker 5: a half a point per game pace at this point,
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: which would be a lot to ask for, it feels like.
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: I think they'd be in a better spot. So I
• 23:44
  Speaker 5: want to see a lot more from Josh Norris here
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: moving forward.
• 23:47
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: For you guys watching on video, that is the expected
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: goals for, for Sabres forwards, Jonathan, same question. Who do
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: you want to see more from?
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: I mean, I kind of bounce back and forth. I
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: agree with Zach that, that Norris is on my list.
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: Now I have never been a Josh Norris fan. I
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: did not like that trade for cousins. Um, I think
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: we'd all probably be down to have cousins back over
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: Norris right now. Um, Norris was brought in to be.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: You forgot about Jacob Bernard Docker.
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: That was a great throw in that really, uh, I
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: really sweetened the pot. Uh, but you know, like we
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: brought in Josh Norris to be a number one center
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: and that's not worked out in the slightest. And for
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: all the reasons that Zach has pointed out already, I don't,
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: I don't think I need to like highlight them more.
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: So I'm going to focus on the big boys and
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: it might be aggressive to say, but Tate Thompson and
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: Rasmus Darlene, I just don't think they've been the leaders
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: on the ice that, I would like them to be necessarily.
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: And again, when you look at the stats, right, you're
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: looking at Tage, he's got 10 points. He's got five goals.
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: He's going to get his 40 goals as Bucci Gras
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: said last night on the broadcast. As long as he
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: stays healthy, he's doing what Tage does. But I also
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: feel like there's been a lot of times where I
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: have noticed him lose a puck battle, miss a defensive assignment.
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: And I'm hard on that. I get it. But I
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: also can at least defend the guy and say that
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: when he is, kind of waking up on game day
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: every single day, not knowing who he's playing with. I
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: can understand how he's getting a little bit discombobulated in
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: his own zone, maybe losing some battles, not getting the
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: support he needs to be the best defensive forward or,
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: you know, raise the bar to be the forward that
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: we need him to be defensively. And Rasmus, I get,
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: he's also had a back injury and he's had nagging
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: back problems in the past too. So, you know, I
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: have to be careful to be overly critical of Rasmus. Again, he's,
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: Darlene's got five points. He's got two goals. He's had
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: a pretty good little start to the season. But for
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: the guy who finished third in Norris voting last year
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: to be getting outperformed in that category as league best
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: defenseman by Owen Power, I would just want to see
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: a little bit more. I would want to see Darlene's
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: game a little bit closer to where Power is. And again,
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: I probably have to give him the asterisk of he's
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: probably playing through something. He's probably not quite 100%. but
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: I just feel like Darlene and Thompson both have game
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: breaking abilities. And I don't feel like they have broken
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: any games open. And I don't believe that they have
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: been their very best defensively either. So those are the
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: two guys that I just want to see more because
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: they've also set this bar so high, right? So you
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: can't live up to that every year. I get it
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: as things happen, but you just want to see your
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: best players be your best players. And I think the
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: two best Sabres players have not been the best players
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: for this team so far through 12 games.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: 10 points in 12 games is not world beating for
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Tage Thompson's, I guess, expectations. And we saw those first
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: couple of games, how many chances he had before he
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: finally put one in on, on a rush coming down
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: the right wing on a power play on one of
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: the weakest schools you'll see for the Sabres score. Their
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: first power play goal this season was pretty poetic in
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: a way that they didn't even, it wasn't even like
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: they set it up nicely on a power play. It
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: was just like, it just came down from the side and,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: on the rush and put it in. And when you
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: look at his expected goals for like, when you look
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: at that, Zach, like look at, look at page right
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: at the top of that, right? Like he should have
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: more goals than he does right now. And as, as
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Jonathan mentioned, just, you know, hasn't been able to put
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: the puck in with as much consistently as we'd expect
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: from a TNT number 72.
• 27:20
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I definitely agree. And it almost feels like he
• 27:23
  Speaker 6: is getting the chances.
• 27:24
  Speaker 5: I'm not, you know, I, Definitely agree with you, Jonathan,
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: where I think you want to see more production because
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: at the end of the day, analytics are just analytics, right?
• 27:32
  Speaker 5: It's about what can you do in producing and helping win, right?
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: I just almost feel like everything is just going to like, oh,
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: what is that? Or where if I forgot the saying, whatever,
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: but when Tej gets one He's going to get a
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: plethora of goals.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Except floodgates.
• 27:49
  Speaker 6: Yeah, there you go. Thank you. The floodgates are going
• 27:52
  Speaker 6: to open for him.
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: If he can just find the back of the net once,
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: I think you can see a game where he gets
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: two goals, even a three goals. Maybe we'll get the
• 27:59
  Speaker 5: yearly Tate Thompson four goal, you know, sooner rather than later.
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: But he's getting the chances. His expected goals percentage is
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: right around 60 or so. So it's not like he's
• 28:10
  Speaker 5: not creating the chances. Now, granted, I want to see
• 28:12
  Speaker 5: more defensively. I want to see him win the puck
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: battles more like you brought up, Jonathan, where it almost
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: feels like he's kind of lackluster in that category. And
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: Lindy Ruff really preaches where, again, you know, it's Tate Thompson,
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: so you're not going to put him in the press box.
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: But he really preaches that, listen, if you go into
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: the puck battles and whether you win them or not,
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: you go in there hard 110 percent, he's going to
• 28:35
  Speaker 5: give you more ice, Simon. You know, you can't like
• 28:38
  Speaker 5: I said, you can't just bench a guy like Tate
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: Thompson because he's a superstar player. He's one of the
• 28:42
  Speaker 5: best goal scorers in the league. but you want to
• 28:45
  Speaker 5: see a little bit more. If you're not producing offensively
• 28:47
  Speaker 5: produced somewhere else. And I think that's all Lindy rough
• 28:49
  Speaker 5: is going to ask. So he's still going to get
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: 40 goals. Like you guys brought up. I think he's
• 28:53
  Speaker 5: still going to be around that 80 to 83 point
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: mark by year's end.
• 28:56
  Speaker 6: You just want to see a little bit more from him,
• 28:58
  Speaker 6: but I don't think he's been horrendous.
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: And I, I, I'm not even mad about what I've
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: seen offensively. Like I, I will say that, like, you know,
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: I almost feel like his offensive numbers have to have
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: an asterisk. Cause it's like, Oh, I banked a puck
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: off of Noah Oslin on the power player. Uh, you know,
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: or a puck hit my ass as I was going
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: in from like crevier from the blue line, right? Like
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: all these random things that Tejas got, it's not traditional
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: Tejas Thompson goals. But again, I'm looking at goals scored
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: against when he is on the ice and he's just,
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: he's losing battles and that's okay to an extent if
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: you've got guys who are going to back you up.
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: But I feel like with Tej's line mates, he hasn't
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: quite had anybody who can hold down the defensive side
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: of the game, especially in the absence of Alex Tuck,
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: which is another thing we don't really talk about. You
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: take Tuck away from Thompson. He doesn't have that defensive stalwart,
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: that great stick, you know, flanking him. So if we're
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: going to make Thompson a center and he's not defensively responsible,
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: that's already like a strike against him as a center.
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: But you try to put him on the wing and
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: it's like he can never seem to build any chemistry.
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: And then there's all this confusion about who's playing what, where, when.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: The lines get put in a blend.
• 30:06
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: And I think last night was the first kind of night,
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: especially through the first two periods, I thought, where it
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: actually looked like I think Helanious was centering that line
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: more often than not. I think Tage took more draws
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: or at least took all the draws on his strong side.
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: But Helanious was, I think, playing the true blue center role.
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: And with Benson there as well, driving play, it kind
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: of felt like that actually started to click and work.
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: And the biggest thing is that I think the combination
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: of lines that you've got up on the screen here, Brandon,
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: like that actually felt like four lines that could roll
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: and actually like continuously drive play. It didn't matter who
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: came over the board. Like the Malinstein Krebs Kozak line
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: was fantastic last night. Every single time it felt like
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: they were rushing up the ice with something and crashing
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: the net, getting in there. Zucker Norris McLeod, I know
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: they didn't really have the most offensively productive night, but they, again,
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: were playing down around the net, playing that kind of
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: crash the crease game that Lindy wants to see. And
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: if you're not scoring the pretty goals, you've got to
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: get the ugly ones. And they definitely had the opportunity
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: to get some ugly ones last night. And at least
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: I hope that we see this combination finish the road
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: trip as it stands right now.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, we have to wait and see on
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Yuri Kulik as well, right? Because he's sort of still
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: in this conversation and Sam Carrick when he does come
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: back from injury. So we do have a question on that,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: which we'll get to shortly. But it just feels like
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: Auslan's really penciled in as that second line center right now.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: So either Norris or McLeod, who are both natural centers,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: have been playing on the wing. We saw Norris go
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: up to the left wing on either the second or
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: the first line at times. And yeah, this was the
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: first time we saw Helenus get elevated to that top
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: line role, whether he's flipping back between Tej on the
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: center wing. So again, it does he have a spot
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: on this team when carrot comes back or Cooley comes back,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: you know, to somebody get moved down. But it was
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: interesting to see the line combinations actually work last night
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: because that's another thing that I'll give page a little
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: bit of grace on is that I feel like every
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: game he's had somebody different on his line as they've
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: still tried to figure out who is going to be
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: the center and who's going to be the wingers to
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: go along with 72 and great point Jonathan about Alex
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: talk like he was that stalwart right beside you know,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Alec Thompson for all those years, right? And you just
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: sort of expected him to help out defensively. It's obviously
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: a good point to bring up there.
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  Speaker 12: Hi, this is Dan Dunleavy, play-by-play voice of the Buffalo Sabres,
• 36:31
  Speaker 12: and you are watching and listening to Sabres Semantics.
• 36:41
  Speaker 9: Hey, hey, here we go, it's hockey night in Buffalo. Hey, hey,
• 36:45
  Speaker 9: here we go, the.
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  Speaker 2: Boys in blue, white, and gold.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, hey, here we go, make some noise, get in
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• 36:52
  Speaker 9: All for one and one for all, let's hear you
• 36:54
  Speaker 9: from your heart and soul.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Let's move forward to our next one here. Should Yuri
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: Kulik have started the season in Rochester? Obviously he's injured
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: right now, but again, a guy that coming off the
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: blood clot, we didn't really know how he would react
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: and how he would get up the game speed. Jonathan,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: we'll start with you on this one. I, I.
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: Go back and forth on this, right? Like I don't
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: necessarily believe that Kulik needed to be in the minors
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: is based on, especially on what I saw in preseason.
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: I thought he had his legs moving. I thought he
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: was rolling pretty good. Um, The only thing that I
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: would say is that I think he didn't really get
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: a chance to settle into a line, especially in preseason,
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: because there was just not a lot of games for
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: veterans to play. So, you know, and you weren't going to,
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: he was not ready to go jump right up to
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: the top line. But again, I don't, I don't know
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: if he starts in Rochester, if he immediately jumps up
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: to that top line spot anyways, where ideally I think
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: I want to see him. Cause I think we have
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: enough of a really short, but I still think it's
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: enough data to suggest that Kulik pairing with with Thompson
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: and probably with Benson as a center. I think he
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: could center a top line. I really do believe in Kulik.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: And if Thompson's going to continuously, he's not jumping off
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: the page, but he is improving in the faceoff dot.
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: So you've got Kulik to lean on Thompson for draws
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: if that's not working out. I like the idea of
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: Kulik on the top line. And I don't think that Rochester,
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: anytime in Rochester, would have got him any closer to
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: being up there.
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: And I mean, he was that top line center before
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: he went out last season with that blood clot early
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: in the season, right? He was sort of that guy
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: that had been that top line center filling in alongside
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Thompson and talk. Zach, we'll go to you three points
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: in eight games. He was averaging just over 13 minutes
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: time on ice per game. What are your thoughts on it?
• 38:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I was the same way. I, you always go
• 38:49
  Speaker 5: back and forth about it because you go pretty much
• 38:51
  Speaker 5: 11 months without pure game action. And before the season,
• 38:56
  Speaker 5: before training camp, I was like, why don't you start
• 38:57
  Speaker 5: them off for like the first two weeks, at least
• 39:00
  Speaker 5: get four or five games under his belt of professional
• 39:02
  Speaker 5: hockey and call him back up kind of like a
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: conditional stint. Right. And then the preseason happened and he
• 39:08
  Speaker 5: was one of the best players in the preseason and
• 39:10
  Speaker 5: training camp. And I was like, you know what, just, just,
• 39:12
  Speaker 5: he's an NHL player.
• 39:14
  Speaker 6: He deserves to be on the roster. And he got
• 39:15
  Speaker 6: off to the hot start.
• 39:17
  Speaker 5: Had the game-winning goals in overtime, and he was making plays.
• 39:20
  Speaker 5: And it's not like he hasn't been good either, right?
• 39:22
  Speaker 5: I mean, he's seventh on a team right now, and
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: Ana is close percentage at 57.1% right up there with
• 39:26
  Speaker 5: a guy like Zalweg.
• 39:30
  Speaker 7: There.
• 39:31
  Speaker 5: But I just feel like he's been productive enough where
• 39:35
  Speaker 5: he hasn't been a liability.
• 39:37
  Speaker 6: I mean, he hasn't, of course, jumped off the page.
• 39:39
  Speaker 5: I mean, he has a great shot, but he's never
• 39:40
  Speaker 5: been a guy in Buffalo to really jump off the
• 39:42
  Speaker 5: page and give you like that superstar production, like maybe
• 39:46
  Speaker 5: a T.J. Thompson or Rasmus Salin. And before he ends
• 39:49
  Speaker 5: up taking the puck, unfortunate circumstances of taking the puck
• 39:52
  Speaker 5: off the face in practice last Friday, he looked good
• 39:55
  Speaker 5: next to Tage Thompson, Zach Benson. I know he even
• 39:58
  Speaker 5: got a little.
• 39:59
  Speaker 6: Bit of time. They're not a ton of time, though,
• 40:01
  Speaker 6: with a guy like Jack Quinn. And he looked good.
• 40:04
  Speaker 5: I really think that having him in Rochester wouldn't do
• 40:07
  Speaker 5: anything but just kind of, he'd just be there dominating,
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: and he would be better than everybody else. So I
• 40:13
  Speaker 5: don't really think it would be a good choice to
• 40:17
  Speaker 5: honestly have him at Rochester at this point.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: Jonathan, you have anything to add to that?
• 40:22
  Speaker 4: I mean, I just, the only thing you could say
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: is that if they were truly fully healthy at the
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: start of the year, then maybe you can justify it
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: because you've got the depth pushing them out. But I mean,
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: how quickly did Carrick go down, right? We didn't really
• 40:34
  Speaker 4: know what we were going to get from Danforth when
• 40:36
  Speaker 4: he was ready. You had Consta there. You didn't know
• 40:40
  Speaker 4: what he was going to do. I mean, he looked
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: great in the playoffs and you know, that could be,
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: you know, something that we also, we get into here,
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: but I, I just think there was too many question
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: marks about the roster overall to truly commit to him
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: doing a 10 game stint and in Rochester to get
• 40:55
  Speaker 4: his confidence up and get his speed up. You know,
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: I think they needed him. I think they really wanted
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: him to be a center that was going to seize
• 41:03
  Speaker 4: the reins and go. And it kind of looks like
• 41:05
  Speaker 4: for a second he might there, and then it looked
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: like he got banged up in one game. And that
• 41:09
  Speaker 4: was the game that him and, Uh, Helenius got sat
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: up on the box and I, I think Kulik's was
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: more injury related than maybe a rough let on. I
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: don't think it was necessarily any kind of disciplinary or
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: any kind of like shock to the system for him.
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: And then, you know, he gets this concussion from getting
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: hit with the puck. I mean, you guys just had
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: terrible luck health wise, and he's just not had any
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: ability to get any kind of consistency with anybody. So,
• 41:34
  Speaker 4: you know, at this point, if you throw him in
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: Rochester and he dominates the you'd bring him back up.
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: He's still going to be looking for a spot in
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: this lineup and a pair with somebody. So you may
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: as well try and make him find that pairing first
• 41:46
  Speaker 4: and see if the game speed follows.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: 18 shot attempts in the eight games that he's played.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: And you look at Thompson there, just look at this,
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: the shot attempts. He's like, he should have 15 goals
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: by now. If he would be able to connect on
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: some of those, it's a, it's crazy to look at.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: And it just lets you know that like, if he
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: starts connecting, 72 is going to really carry this team
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: into the places they want to go. But going to
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: another young player, you mentioned him there when Lindy Rush sat,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: both Helenus and Kulik. Are you opposed to seeing Costa
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: Helenus go back down to Rochester once Sam Carrick is
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: ready to go? Zach, we'll start with you on this one.
• 42:23
  Speaker 5: How much I want to say no, I am opposed
• 42:26
  Speaker 5: because I picked Helen Houston.
• 42:27
  Speaker 6: Unfortunately, when they call their trophy and there's a bunch.
• 42:30
  Speaker 5: Of other guys that are playing better, I don't think
• 42:32
  Speaker 5: it will be bad for him to be down in Rochester.
• 42:35
  Speaker 6: Now, he's had a couple of really good games, right?
• 42:38
  Speaker 5: I mean, I'm not sitting here saying that he's been
• 42:40
  Speaker 5: the worst player on the ice, but also there are
• 42:43
  Speaker 5: times where it almost feels like he hasn't been necessarily ready.
• 42:47
  Speaker 5: It almost looks like it's a little bit too fast
• 42:49
  Speaker 5: at times with the puck. He's had a couple of
• 42:52
  Speaker 5: brutal turnovers and defensively. I mean, Lindy Ruff even called
• 42:55
  Speaker 5: him out about it as well, where no, he mentioned
• 42:58
  Speaker 5: that he just wants to see a little bit more
• 42:59
  Speaker 5: effort defensively and working a little.
• 43:02
  Speaker 6: Bit hard and rough off.
• 43:03
  Speaker 5: So the preface that it's not just him that it's,
• 43:05
  Speaker 5: you know, a bunch of other guys as well. But
• 43:08
  Speaker 5: the point still stands where even if he's just in Rochester,
• 43:11
  Speaker 5: when everybody gets healthy for a month, just let him
• 43:13
  Speaker 5: get his confidence a little bit back up.
• 43:15
  Speaker 6: He'll be right back up. If there's an injury, right?
• 43:17
  Speaker 5: Like, it's not a bad thing to let a guy
• 43:20
  Speaker 5: go up and down between the AHL and his first season.
• 43:23
  Speaker 6: Now, of course you want consistency. Absolutely.
• 43:26
  Speaker 5: But if a guy's struggling, like what is it going
• 43:28
  Speaker 5: to do when Sam Carrick and these guys get healthy?
• 43:31
  Speaker 5: If he's just sitting up in the press box three
• 43:33
  Speaker 5: out of every four games, because he's not performing right.
• 43:36
  Speaker 5: He's not like a 28 or 29 year old vet
• 43:39
  Speaker 5: NHL player who can go in out of the lineup
• 43:41
  Speaker 5: and rotate on the fourth line.
• 43:43
  Speaker 6: He's a guy who.
• 43:43
  Speaker 5: Has extreme talents who, last season in the playoffs, and
• 43:47
  Speaker 5: his nine games in the regular season prior to that
• 43:49
  Speaker 5: where he showed offensive talent, his skill set, he showcased it,
• 43:54
  Speaker 5: and he looked really good defensively as well, and he
• 43:56
  Speaker 5: worked hard. He's just gotten off to a slow start.
• 43:59
  Speaker 5: I wouldn't be opposed if he went down to Rochester,
• 44:02
  Speaker 5: even if it was for just a month.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: Zach, I got to kind of piggyback off you there.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: I'm in the camp that he's a 20-year-old player. He's
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: getting 13 minutes time on ice. If Consta Helenus is
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: playing bottom six, or as you mentioned up in the
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: press box, I'd rather see him top line, top power
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: play in Rochester, gaining some experience, getting that confidence back
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: and almost having him come up again with that swagger.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: Like we saw him come up in the playoffs, like
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: look how much confidence he was playing with and maybe
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: almost not almost a little bit, you know, just ignorant
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: to how difficult of a situation he jumped into and
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: played really well. But that was because, he had such
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: a great season in Rochester that he came up, he
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: was ready to go. The wheels were rolling and he
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: wasn't kind of stuck in the mud. Like you've seen
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: him at times this year, only three points in the
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: 11 games and averaging 13 minutes time on ice. Like
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: I just think that going down to Rochester and it's
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: not a permanent thing by any means, maybe we see
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: him come back in January, February, get him ready to
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: go for those tough games that you're playing meaningful games
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: in March and April to a playoff push. Like I
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: just think right now he needs to go somewhere where
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: he's going to be playing top line minutes, top line
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: power play and get that confidence back.
• 45:05
  Speaker 6: Jonathan.
• 45:07
  Speaker 4: For me, I think there's just no room in the
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: inn for Hellenius. That's the biggest thing that I think
• 45:11
  Speaker 4: about is the fact that, you know, when you look
• 45:14
  Speaker 4: at this Sabres lineup, I think there's too much of
• 45:17
  Speaker 4: the same thing. Skilled centermen who are a little bit
• 45:20
  Speaker 4: undersized and there's nowhere for them to go. Like, okay,
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: Carrick comes back. So you put Carrick on the fourth
• 45:28
  Speaker 4: line and you got Krebs, Carrick, Malenstein. It's a great line.
• 45:31
  Speaker 4: You know, Cooley comes back. Then what do you do
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: with Hellenius, right?
• 45:34
  Speaker 8: Like.
• 45:36
  Speaker 4: I, I, I think at some point you've got to
• 45:39
  Speaker 4: develop these guys as centermen, you know, like I'm looking
• 45:42
  Speaker 4: at their cap situation right now. And man, the more
• 45:45
  Speaker 4: the anchor that Josh Norris is, is insane. Like the
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: guy's making seven, nine, like, you know, the next highest
• 45:52
  Speaker 4: paid for it is his deal just kicked in at
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: Zach Benson is seven, five, right? Tage is still on
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: that crazy 7.1. Josh Jones making six, nine, right? So,
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: you know, when I look at the, the, set the
• 46:07
  Speaker 4: cap situation like who's going to take Norris because that's
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: ideally who you're going to make who you're going to
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: try to get rid of to make room for Hellenius
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: ultimately right best case scenario is you move Norris you
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: give somebody a third or a fourth round pick to
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: take the deal ship him off figure it out after
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: the fact you cannot buy him out you cannot even
• 46:29
  Speaker 4: think about it after the lessons we've learned from Skinner
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: so like until you move Norris or maybe McLeod, although
• 46:38
  Speaker 4: I still think McLeod is a very suitable third line
• 46:40
  Speaker 4: center in this league and brings a lot on the
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: penalty kill side of the game and his speed is great.
• 46:45
  Speaker 4: And that's something to have in the lineup until you
• 46:47
  Speaker 4: decide what you're doing with that. Like, where's Helenius going
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: to play? Maybe you can make the argument that when
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: Zucker is a free agent this summer, you let them walk.
• 46:55
  Speaker 4: And then, you know, that's a guy, that's a spot
• 46:58
  Speaker 4: that Helenius gets to fill, but I just think there's
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: no room at the end. So you, again, I, to
• 47:03
  Speaker 4: build off your guy's point, like, Put him down there
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: in Rochester. Let him dominate the AHL. Crush that league.
• 47:09
  Speaker 4: And then if you need him in the playoffs, you're
• 47:10
  Speaker 4: going to have a player who's coming in hot and
• 47:13
  Speaker 4: hungry and will help you out just like he did
• 47:15
  Speaker 4: in the Montreal series. So I don't think there's anything
• 47:20
  Speaker 4: wrong with sending Consta back. I don't think it's going
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: to hurt from a salary cap and contract thing wise.
• 47:26
  Speaker 4: But even then, okay, how much cap space is the
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: Sabres going to have soon? They're going to be looking
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: at they're going to be staring down the barrel of
• 47:34
  Speaker 4: like 10 to 15 to 20 plus million dollars to spend,
• 47:38
  Speaker 4: give or take. Obviously you want to go big game
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: hunting and you got to get Jack Quinn done. If
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: you're going to try and get him done long-term, that's
• 47:43
  Speaker 4: going to cost you. But I mean, I don't know.
• 47:47
  Speaker 4: I just think if he can't stay on that top line,
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: which again, when you bring Kulik back, I don't know what,
• 47:53
  Speaker 4: how that shakes out. I think you got to get
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: them back down in Rochester and just get them dominating
• 47:57
  Speaker 4: the league again.
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: I would totally agree with that. And again, like I,
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: Because there's no point in having him play fourth line
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: minutes or being up in the press box. Again, Tyson
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: Kozak can be your extra guy that's up in the
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: press box and he can come in and out when
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: you need him. So I just don't think a 20-year-old
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: first-round player that they're so high on would be the
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: right role for him. And while he still has the
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: availability to go up and down through Rochester without waivers,
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: take advantage of it while you can. He can learn
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: some great stuff down there with Mike Leone and the
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: coaching staff down in Rochester.
• 48:30
  Speaker 4: So It didn't kill Austin last year, right? Like Austin
• 48:34
  Speaker 4: kind of went back and forth a couple of times.
• 48:36
  Speaker 4: And that ultimately I think is why he peaked and
• 48:38
  Speaker 4: had the great end of the year that he did
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: again to like, if I think if there was, if
• 48:44
  Speaker 4: that Quinn Austin line wasn't firing the way that they
• 48:48
  Speaker 4: are right now, I'd be like, Oh great. You can
• 48:51
  Speaker 4: have a kid line as your third line, kind of
• 48:53
  Speaker 4: like what they had with the cousins led line a
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: couple of years ago.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 48:56
  Speaker 4: When it was, I think cousins Krebs and somebody else, Paterka.
• 49:00
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 49:00
  Speaker 8: Right.
• 49:01
  Speaker 4: Or it was Quinn, Paterka, and Cousins, right? Or something
• 49:03
  Speaker 4: like that, right?
• 49:04
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 49:04
  Speaker 4: When they had that kid line going, if you could
• 49:06
  Speaker 4: recreate that with Hellenius, Aslan, Quinn, that's great. But that's
• 49:11
  Speaker 4: not the way it's shaking out right now, especially with
• 49:13
  Speaker 4: Austin and Quinn firing the way they are and going
• 49:15
  Speaker 4: their way. They're growing like that's a jump. That's a
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: moving train that Hellenius is just not prepared to jump on.
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: So just get them back down there, get them developing
• 49:23
  Speaker 4: as a centerman, get them working with Eric stall or
• 49:25
  Speaker 4: whoever to really develop those skills. And then you have
• 49:28
  Speaker 4: a true blue second line, third line, or even a
• 49:32
  Speaker 4: skilled third line center that you can bring up next year.
• 49:35
  Speaker 4: Who's ready to really hit the ground running.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: So in honor of Colton Ellis' shutout last night, this
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: is time for our trivia question to win our Global
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: Pet Foods Niagara gift card. Again, make sure to DM
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: us on either Instagram, Facebook, X, whatever, or here on
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: YouTube as well. You can comment and we'll pick the
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: winner there. Again, in honor of Colton Ellis' shutout last night,
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: which Sabres goaltender had a 5-0 shutout on this day
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: on October 28th back in 1990? The opponent was the
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: Hartford Whalers. And they won 5-0. The hint is it
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: was not Dominic Haschuk. So you have to do some
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: digging for this one. And whatever person lets us know
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: the goaltender there, Zach and Jonathan were stumped on this
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: one as well. So it's a tough one. But send
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: us who that is. And you'll be given the Global
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: Pet Foods Niagara gift card that we'll give away every
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: single month on this show. So with that, we'll go
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: to our next question here. And we'll go to the
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: goaltending here for a bit. And with Colton Ellis' shutout
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: last night, it's almost fitting that we're throwing this in here.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: But do you think that Colton Ellis over Devin Levi
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: was the wrong choice? Obviously, with Alex Lyon and Ukopek
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: Lukanen still being there. Devin Levi just recently went on IR,
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: but he's been playing very well with the Edmonton Oilers
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: despite an atrocious opening game. But it looks like he
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: had sort of taken over the number one role there
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: from Tristan Jari and an injured Frederick Anderson. So, Zach,
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: we'll start with you. Are you okay still with the
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: choice of keeping Colton Ellis, who they claimed off of
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: waivers from St. Louis before the season started last year
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: and sort of pushed Devin Levi out and then traded
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: him to Edmonton in the offseason for third-round pick?
• 51:15
  Speaker 6: I'm kind of 50-50 on this.
• 51:17
  Speaker 5: Like, Colton Ellis is a guy where he'll give you
• 51:20
  Speaker 5: a few good games, but also are you going to
• 51:22
  Speaker 5: get the Ellis Island or are you going to get
• 51:23
  Speaker 5: the guy who lets in two goals on nine shots
• 51:25
  Speaker 5: and gets both in the first period, right? Where Devin Levi,
• 51:29
  Speaker 5: I think, he was a guy where he didn't have room.
• 51:33
  Speaker 6: Like, I almost felt like Levi has been better on Edmonton.
• 51:37
  Speaker 5: And I think that's strictly because he's playing every single
• 51:40
  Speaker 5: night where Colton Ellis doesn't have to play every single.
• 51:42
  Speaker 6: Night to, you know, get in a groove.
• 51:44
  Speaker 5: Now I've said this on my own podcast where I
• 51:47
  Speaker 5: almost felt like the more Levi play like consecutive games,
• 51:51
  Speaker 5: the better he got. Where in Buffalo, he was playing
• 51:54
  Speaker 5: one game. He'd sit for two or three weeks and
• 51:56
  Speaker 5: then he'd play a game and it'd be a stinker.
• 51:58
  Speaker 5: And then he'd be backed on a Rochester because he's,
• 52:00
  Speaker 5: you know, whatever circumstances Levi has the talent. I will
• 52:04
  Speaker 5: not deny that I'm okay with Colton Ellis, but I
• 52:07
  Speaker 5: almost feel like long-term if Devin Levi gets going, then
• 52:12
  Speaker 5: you can be looking at regretting it.
• 52:13
  Speaker 6: I'm more holding on it.
• 52:15
  Speaker 5: I want to see how Levi turns out in Edmonton.
• 52:18
  Speaker 6: If that makes sense.
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: Jonathan, what do you think?
• 52:22
  Speaker 4: I flip flop on this particular topic quite a bit
• 52:26
  Speaker 4: because I was a big Levi guy. I was a
• 52:29
  Speaker 4: big Levi believer. I have been since his world junior days,
• 52:32
  Speaker 4: the world junior performances for team Canada, I thought were
• 52:35
  Speaker 4: really magnificent. And I, it gave me a lot of
• 52:39
  Speaker 4: hope going forward. I love that. He was kind of
• 52:42
  Speaker 4: a bit of a nutcase, a bit of a weirdo.
• 52:44
  Speaker 4: Like I love when a goalie is a little bit
• 52:46
  Speaker 4: out there and definitely by definitely, you know, being a
• 52:48
  Speaker 4: star Wars nerd and having to go tap the glass,
• 52:50
  Speaker 4: but every, you know, TV timeout and all the weird
• 52:53
  Speaker 4: little quirks that he had. Some of the things that
• 52:55
  Speaker 4: I've heard reported about him is that he was a
• 52:57
  Speaker 4: pretty larger than life personality in the room. And I'm
• 53:01
  Speaker 4: not sure that that kind of personality jived ultimately with
• 53:07
  Speaker 4: the rest of the guys when he was there. I
• 53:09
  Speaker 4: also think that the way he was brought in did
• 53:12
  Speaker 4: him absolutely no favors. It also did no favors to
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: UPL at the time, right? Just like really crushed his confidence.
• 53:19
  Speaker 4: And I, I know why it was done. Desperate GM
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: trying to make the most out of a crappy situation
• 53:29
  Speaker 4: where Sam Reinhardt actually wanted to be a Sabre and
• 53:32
  Speaker 4: they felt like they had to move off him and
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: that was a whole thing. So I think I'm okay
• 53:40
  Speaker 4: with it. I think I'm okay with the choice to
• 53:43
  Speaker 4: keep Ellis over Levi. I think that Ellis has the
• 53:46
  Speaker 4: potential to be a starting goalie in this league, or
• 53:50
  Speaker 4: at least a good one B kind of guy, which
• 53:53
  Speaker 4: the way the league is going, there's so few and
• 53:56
  Speaker 4: far between one a guys. And you're not getting a one,
• 54:00
  Speaker 4: a guy till he's 27, 28, 29 anyways.
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: So, and they're not playing 75 games anymore.
• 54:07
  Speaker 4: No, exactly. Right. So all you really want is the
• 54:10
  Speaker 4: guy that you can trust in the playoffs to show
• 54:12
  Speaker 4: up and have a big moment and have a big
• 54:13
  Speaker 4: game and steal you a win. Maybe, here and there
• 54:16
  Speaker 4: in the series, which is what we saw, you know,
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: Dobish do against the Sabres for Montreal at times, right?
• 54:21
  Speaker 4: Where he was the guy who really like kind of
• 54:23
  Speaker 4: took the reins. And I think Ellis has a role
• 54:27
  Speaker 4: on this team going forward, regardless of what happens with Lyon,
• 54:30
  Speaker 4: who's a free agent at the end of.
• 54:31
  Speaker 6: The year, UPL.
• 54:33
  Speaker 4: I can envision Colton Ellis developing, keeping to working on
• 54:37
  Speaker 4: his game, using the athleticism, the crazy style that scares
• 54:42
  Speaker 4: the bejeebus out of me sometimes. but is exciting to watch.
• 54:45
  Speaker 4: And I think ultimately I think he fits in this,
• 54:48
  Speaker 4: in the room pretty well. And I mean, he keeps
• 54:50
  Speaker 4: pretty good company too. I don't know if you guys
• 54:51
  Speaker 4: saw the report about him training in the off season
• 54:53
  Speaker 4: with McKinnon and Crosby out in Nova Scotia. I mean,
• 54:56
  Speaker 4: you're going to spend the summer taking shots and being
• 54:59
  Speaker 4: their goalie. I'm pretty sure you're going to figure out
• 55:01
  Speaker 4: a thing or two about how to stop the puck
• 55:02
  Speaker 4: and stop the best players.
• 55:03
  Speaker 10: In the world.
• 55:05
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: Four games played, two wins, one loss. And he had
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: the shutout, obviously, the other night in San Jose. And again,
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: still two games left in the month of October for
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: Buffalo on this California trip. But again, it started off well.
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: And Ellis was a big part of that. And the
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: team blocked 20 shots last night. So that was obviously big.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: And the team defense, obviously, you know, has been questioned
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: at times. And the penalty kill being 25th in the
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: National Hockey League at 71.4%, which is not good. And
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: the power play being 9.8 obviously is another big emphasis
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: of concern there. We'll move to our fan poll tonight,
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: as always brought to you by the Niagara Employment Help Center,
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: helping people find work in the Niagara region since 1983.
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: Check out their up-to-date job board at ehc.on.ca or call
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: 905-358-0021 to book or to find your next work opportunity today.
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: And the fan poll was a poll that we put
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: up a couple post games ago, Jonathan. And it was,
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: can the Sabres fix their special teams issues without adding
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: a player? Yes or no. Null won this poll at 75%. Zach,
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on it?
• 56:08
  Speaker 6: Oh, I will disagree. I actually voted yes that they
• 56:11
  Speaker 6: can fix it.
• 56:12
  Speaker 5: Listen, when you got the talent like Tate Chomps, Raspi Salin,
• 56:17
  Speaker 5: Josh Stone, Zach Benson, Jason Zucker out in front, even
• 56:20
  Speaker 5: on the second unit, you have guys like Aslan and
• 56:22
  Speaker 5: Owen Power and Zellweger, who's been great his last eight games.
• 56:27
  Speaker 6: I think you can fix it.
• 56:29
  Speaker 5: It's not the matter of, you know, having a guy,
• 56:34
  Speaker 5: a game breaker, who's not on a team, it's just
• 56:36
  Speaker 5: literally a strategic matter of just enter the zone.
• 56:40
  Speaker 6: Please just learn how to answer. That is my biggest
• 56:43
  Speaker 6: pet peeve. We saw last night that when.
• 56:46
  Speaker 5: They were able to get in the zone, they generated
• 56:48
  Speaker 5: some chances, but half the time, again, I'm not going
• 56:52
  Speaker 5: to go on a rant about it because I can
• 56:53
  Speaker 5: go on it for 20 days, but having four guys
• 56:55
  Speaker 5: sit at the blue line with Tate Thompson, trying to
• 56:57
  Speaker 5: dangle through four guys, I'm not a hockey coach by
• 57:01
  Speaker 5: any means, but I don't think you should do that, right?
• 57:03
  Speaker 5: But I think they have the pieces. They have the talent.
• 57:06
  Speaker 5: They've had the chances. I mean, they have a negative
• 57:10
  Speaker 5: expected goals for, like, differential where they're just not been
• 57:14
  Speaker 5: able to finish. And it's not only been like that
• 57:16
  Speaker 5: for the power play, but also even strength.
• 57:18
  Speaker 6: And as for the penalty.
• 57:19
  Speaker 5: Kill, I don't think they need to add– externally, I
• 57:24
  Speaker 5: think they're missing Connor Timmons really, really badly.
• 57:27
  Speaker 6: On the PK.
• 57:28
  Speaker 5: What he does internally, he still doesn't have a timetable.
• 57:33
  Speaker 5: He hasn't been resumed practicing yet. He probably won't be back,
• 57:36
  Speaker 5: I'd say, probably until closer to December, if.
• 57:39
  Speaker 6: I had to guess correctly.
• 57:41
  Speaker 5: Having him back on a PK would be huge, and
• 57:43
  Speaker 5: they're missing him and blocking shots, being defensively responsible, because
• 57:47
  Speaker 5: when you take a look at the PK, they've allowed
• 57:49
  Speaker 5: penalty kill goals in nine of their first 12 games
• 57:53
  Speaker 5: of the season, which is at about an 85% rate. Connor,
• 57:56
  Speaker 5: they're leaving guys out wide open in front of the net.
• 57:59
  Speaker 5: Connor Timmons doesn't do that. He's smart on the PK,
• 58:02
  Speaker 5: and I think you can fix it without adding externally.
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: Jonathan, what do you think?
• 58:09
  Speaker 4: I'm cautiously in the yes category on both accounts. I
• 58:14
  Speaker 4: am also hammering the table that Connor Timmons is the
• 58:18
  Speaker 4: difference maker on the PK that is needed.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: Um, you don't like Zach Metz on there.
• 58:25
  Speaker 4: No, I don't. I mean, I love Zach Metz as
• 58:28
  Speaker 4: like a, as a seven. I think he's a great seven.
• 58:31
  Speaker 4: I think he's a great guy who can slide in
• 58:32
  Speaker 4: there and be a six, but you know why we
• 58:34
  Speaker 4: went out and got Luke Shen and Logan Thompson or, uh,
• 58:39
  Speaker 4: Logan Stanley last year at the deadline. It wasn't because
• 58:43
  Speaker 4: they needed size or tough guys, which they did. And
• 58:47
  Speaker 4: that was, I think a part of a, maybe a
• 58:49
  Speaker 4: little portion of, But I think at the end of
• 58:51
  Speaker 4: the day, they identified last year that Zach Metz is
• 58:55
  Speaker 4: not a penalty kill guy. He's just not. He's too small.
• 58:59
  Speaker 4: He doesn't have the reach. And that's not a knock
• 59:01
  Speaker 4: against him because he's a really good transporter of the puck.
• 59:04
  Speaker 4: He can get the puck out. He can do a
• 59:07
  Speaker 4: lot of great things in his own end that make
• 59:09
  Speaker 4: him a valuable player. defenseman in the bottom end of
• 59:11
  Speaker 4: your defensive lineup. But he is not a penalty kill
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: guy in the slightest. And I just feel as though
• 59:18
  Speaker 4: he's going to have some work to do. I mean,
• 59:21
  Speaker 4: you really would love to see Louis Crevier be the
• 59:24
  Speaker 4: guy that could get out there and kill a penalty.
• 59:27
  Speaker 4: He has really had his struggles with adjusting to the
• 59:31
  Speaker 4: Sabres game and the way that they are doing things
• 59:33
  Speaker 4: here versus how it was in Chicago. I guess it
• 59:36
  Speaker 4: didn't really take a lot to be the best defender
• 59:38
  Speaker 4: on Chicago last year, the way things were going, but
• 59:41
  Speaker 4: you know, like they've looked, you know, this is, I'm
• 59:43
  Speaker 4: assuming up to date after last night, I can't, I
• 59:45
  Speaker 4: didn't take my notes last night, but you've got Owens,
• 59:48
  Speaker 4: Owen Zellweger on the penalty kill now alongside Mets on
• 59:52
  Speaker 4: that second unit. Like, I don't really think about Zellweger
• 59:55
  Speaker 4: being a penalty killer either because But at this point,
• 59:59
  Speaker 4: who else are you going to throw out there if
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 4: Samuelson and Power are out there? Obviously, I think the
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 4: other part of this that we're not talking about is
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 4: that Darlene can't be at full health because I can't
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 4: imagine that Lindy Ruff would not put him on the
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 4: penalty kill if the guy could block a shot or
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 4: could block somebody out. I don't think Darlene's got the
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 4: full strength and capability physically. Cause there's no way that
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 4: he would keep going to the well with a guy
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 4: that he's already identified as a guy who's not a
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 4: penalty killer and told his GM as much last year
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 4: that in Zach Metza. So, and again, I guess the
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 4: other thing I guess is too, you don't really want
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 4: Darlene playing 30 minutes a night, which if he's going
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 4: to be on a penalty kill unit, that's probably going
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 4: to be something that happens. But like, I don't know,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 4: you got to do something here. And I, they had
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 4: a better night last year, last night. obviously having Norris
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 4: and Malenstein and Zellweger support Mets seem to, you know,
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 4: make things a little bit easier. They obviously had a
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 4: commitment to blocking shots, which was a huge part of
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 4: the game and why they were successful last night. But
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 4: to me, it's got.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: The breakaway as well. That, yeah, there's power play.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 4: Great point.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 4: So to me, I think cautiously, I can say, I
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 4: will say that they have the ability in the room
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 4: to fix their special teams with the people that they have,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 4: the manpower that they've got. I just think health is
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 4: probably the biggest deciding factor in whether or not they
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 4: can get things going in the right direction.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: With the guy the size of Crevier, you just expect
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: him to be a penalty killer for this team right now.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: And again, like taking over for Metz could possibly be ideal.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: But as you mentioned, Connor Timmons is really the X
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: factor of the penalty kill that hasn't been here right now. Zach,
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you got any final thoughts on
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: the PK version.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I really don't have any thoughts. I mean, I
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 5: kind of Felt like I hit everything. Internally, they can
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 5: fix it. I really don't think they need to go
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 5: out and get externally. Like you brought up, Jonathan, I
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 5: would much rather try a guy like Louis Crevier or
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 5: you'd hope on the PK instead of Zach Metz. But Crevier,
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 5: he's had struggles adjusting. He hasn't been great defensively. Honestly,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 5: he's been pretty poor to say the least. So you're
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 5: kind of running out of options right now and just
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 5: hoping that the PK can just stay right around league
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 5: average at this point until Timmons comes back.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 4: I think all you can really hope for is that
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 4: Crevier morphs into a poor man's Samuelson, right?
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 4: I think, you know, if you look at where Samuelson
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 4: is in his career versus where Crevier is right now,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 4: I don't have the games played and I don't have
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 4: the ages in front of me right now, but I
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 4: bet you if you looked at that and looked at
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 4: where Samuelson is was around the same point as Crevier
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 4: at I bet you their numbers would have been pretty close.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 4: So the ceiling is not necessarily high, but I think
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 4: there is a reason to believe that Louis Crevier's got
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 4: an ability to become that lesser version of Matthias Samuelsson
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 4: on this team, which if that's how it shakes out,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 4: I think the Sabres will be laughing all the way
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 4: to the bank with that $ 4 million deal that they've
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 4: already signed him to.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: Quick thoughts on what you guys have thought of Olin
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: Zellweger so far, Zach, I believe you had kind of
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: brought this up that you wanted to talk about Zellweger
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: a little bit, three goals, two assists in 11 games,
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: but again, averaging just under 20 minutes of ice time.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: He had the game winning goal in San Jose last night,
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: familiar with that building from his time with Anaheim. So,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: you know, that, that he was happy to score that
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: goal there, but it seems like he's been a really
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: nice fit so far for the Sabres. And despite having
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: that concussion that he had at the end of the preseason,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: He's caught up to speed here and has been one
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: of the Sabres' most reliable defensemen.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I thought Zellweger has been a top four defenseman
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 5: for this team. And of course, right after the Byram trade,
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 5: Kekulainen comes on. He's like, okay, well, we can get
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 5: a younger version of Byram on a much, much, much
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 5: cheaper deal. And Zellweger is not disappointed. He had a
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 5: great goal last night. He looked probably the most confident
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 5: and probably his.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 6: Best game that I've seen him play as a Buffalo
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 6: Sabre so far.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 5: And he's not going to be a guy that's going
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 5: to obviously throw it on the body or, you know,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 5: play extremely well defensively.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 6: But he is a Bowen Byram 2.0, I could say.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 5: He can go out and play, give you 20 minutes
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 5: a night, fill in on power play units when needed.
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 5: He can go out and be an amazing puck mover
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 5: and find open guys. And he's an extremely, extremely great skater.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 5: Almost kind of reminds me of a fast, like the
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 5: skating style reminds me of Jeff Skinner, but obviously he's
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 5: much quicker and agile than Jeff Skinner was. that could
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 5: have escaped around his edges there. The older he gets,
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 5: the better he's going to get. And I said this
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 5: at the exact point that we acquired him.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 6: He has a higher offensive ceiling than Bowen Byram. I
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 6: know Bowen Byram last season put up a career-high in
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 6: points with Buffalo in his career.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 5: But I just think Zellweger, at some point, his career-high
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 5: can reach the 60-point range, of course, if he gets
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 5: the opportunity.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 6: But so far, I've been nothing but impressed about Zellweger
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 6: so far.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 4: It just feels like he's the perfect fit for that
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 4: role and to play with power. Obviously, they've got some
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 4: chemistry coming up in the Canadian development program ranks, right?
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 4: And it just feels like my biggest worry was that
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 4: between Zellweger and power that you would not be able to,
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 4: they wouldn't be able to contain a physical team or
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 4: like if they started to get leaned on that they
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 4: would fold. But the biggest thing that I'm noticing is
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 4: a power is actually starting to use his body a
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 4: little bit more. I think not necessarily in a physical way.
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 4: He's not blowing people up. You're never going to see
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 4: a Brian Campbell, RJ, I'm bugger thing out of Owen power.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 4: I don't think, but between the two of them, it
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 4: feels like they have such good legs and such high hockey,
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 4: hockey IQ that when they are in danger, they just
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 4: know how to make that quick play and get out
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 4: of the zone and get to safety.
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 4: They know how to make that safety pass. They know
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 4: how to make that safety route with their skating. Like
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 4: the two of them together are just like play killers
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 4: with their legs and with their hockey IQ. And I
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 4: think that's why they're working as such a great pairing
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 4: right now. And I think that's why Zellweger is really
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 4: starting to come into his own and feel the confidence.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 4: And I, I think the biggest thing that I'm seeing too,
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 4: that is exciting me. And again, I guess this we'll
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 4: see how, I think this will be the thing to
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 4: note about this pairing going forward is that last year
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 4: it felt like when Byron was starting to really stretch
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 4: out as an offensive threat and he was kind of
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 4: carrying things as the offensive guy between the pairing of
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 4: him and Power, Power kind of retreated in and kind
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 4: of was like, okay, well, I guess I got to
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 4: lock it down a little bit more or I can't
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 4: make the rush up the ice the way that I
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 4: can because I know Byron can do it better or
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 4: he's more whatever. So with Powers, especially early season players,
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 4: point totals, his confidence, his goal scoring ability, everything that
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 4: he was doing to jump in the play and be
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 4: an offensive threat. As Zellweger is now gaining confidence and
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 4: he's taking that step forward, will power shrink back to
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 4: where he was maybe last year? Because I think if
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 4: you can keep them both going together as offensive threats
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 4: and play drivers and the other guy can kind of
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 4: back up and they can read the situation and even
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 4: really start to team up and work a line together,
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 4: I'm really optimistic about what that pairing can make for,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 4: especially if Darlene is going to be constantly getting the
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 4: harder matchup and maybe he has to take a step
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 4: back from the offensive nature to his game and be
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 4: more of a shutdown solid game. Play more of the
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 4: Swedish defensive style like we've seen from a guy like
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 4: Nick Lidstrom, for example.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: Olin Zellweger leads the Sabres and expected goals forward now
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: with 1.39 ahead of Darlene right now, Zach.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that just goes to show you how impressive Zellweger
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 5: has been. And now, of course, Salih has missed some
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 5: time there. But he's creating offensive chances. He's creating through
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 5: the neutral zone. Like every time he gets the puck,
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 5: it almost looks like he's a winger at times where
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 5: when him and Power have been together in their 76.2
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 5: minutes of ice time they've had together this season, Power
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 5: has facilitated the puck up the ice so well and
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 5: gets it over to Zellweger who moves through the neutral
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 5: zone immediately. up the ice with speed and he's able
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 5: to create something. He is a, a literally a replication
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 5: of Bowen Byron where he can create any offense. You can,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 5: he's creating offensive chances. He's able to facilitate into.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 6: The offensive zone.
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 5: And those two together, I almost feel like Owen power
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 5: has taken this huge step that he.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 6: Understands his role on the team.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 5: He's not going to dominate offensively like he did at
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 5: Michigan and and college, but he's such a great mover
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 5: of the puck where it almost feels like at this
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 5: point of his career, him and Zellweger are the perfect pair.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 5: If even the going into last season or better yet,
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 5: two years ago, we would have acquired a guy like Zellweger.
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 6: To play with power. I would have been like, are
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 6: you out of your mind?
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 5: Like that line is going to get absolutely caved in.
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 5: And now the maturity of power entering his fifth season
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 5: is having a guy like Zellweger that he can help
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 5: facilitate the puck with, I think is huge. I think
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 5: it's really huge. So I think a lot of Zellweger's
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 5: development is going to hinge on power, but I also
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 5: think those two together, they're the perfect match.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: And I guess as we're kind of wrapping it up here, guys,
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: when we're looking at the conference standings in the East
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: right now, the Sabres right there out of a wildcard
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: spot right now, you know, they obviously went through a
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: tough week, the week prior where they lost to Philadelphia
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: in regulation, which was a big shock. When we did
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: that postgame show, Jonathan, but then got the point against Washington.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: But it was really a sour point because Alex Tuck
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: got the game winner. But starting off the California trip
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: with a two nothing win against a really good young
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: San Jose roster with guys like Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: that can put a lot of goals in the net.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: I think the Sabres defense was tested and they were
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: up to the challenge. As we mentioned, 20 blocks in
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: that game last night and better net front coverage, which
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: has been a massive issue for the Sabres so far
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: this year. But again, the power play needs to obviously
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: be better than 32nd in the league. It's dead last
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: at nine point eight percent. That's not going to get
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: it done. But again, we've been kind of beating a
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: dead horse with that going back to last season as well.
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: But the penalty kill obviously needs to be a bit better. But,
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: you know, Jonathan, like what are your thoughts here as
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: we again, we had with the way that the schedule was,
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: there's still two more games left in October. But this
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: is the October wrap up show. So how have you
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: how would you assess where they are at and what
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: do you want to see going forward in November?
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 4: I think they just laid the blueprint of what they
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 4: need to be come November, you know, and I'm kind
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 4: of glad that they're taking the trip they're on right now.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 4: I'm hoping this is the trip that really galvanizes things.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 4: You hear reports about how Alex Tuck was a big
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 4: organizer of team dinners and get togethers on the road
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 4: and really helping as a leader of that team. Hopefully
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 4: Darlene and Thompson or whoever else on this team is
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 4: kind of stepping into that role. and really galvanizing this
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 4: team to, to be a team that works, uh, works
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 4: out together off the road, uh, or on the road,
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 4: you know, eats a dinner together, does things together as
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 4: a group, as a big group, as a large group,
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 4: as a team and play that should help them all
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 4: play for each other. And I, again, I, I think
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 4: we've all seen enough to believe it's there. You know,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 4: it's just, I think maybe last night was maybe last
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 4: night was probably the first time we've seen it for
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 4: 60 minutes.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 4: And if it took you to game 12 to figure
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 4: out your 60 minute game in a way that sucks,
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 4: but at the same time, what did they wait till
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 4: like game 25, 30 last year to find that 60
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 4: minute game when they went on that win streak and
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 4: really brought themselves back into contention. And then obviously kickstarted
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 4: the end of the year into this, you know, division
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 4: championship run and the playoff run that they had. So
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 4: to me, if they're finding their game at game 12
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 4: and they're utilizing this road trip to really come together
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 4: as a group, which is what I think all of
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 4: us should be hoping for, then I'm optimistic. Again, we believe,
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 4: we've talked about it on this show tonight, we believe
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 4: that the fix is in the room for the power
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 4: play and for the penalty kill. We believe that they
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 4: all have the ability on this roster to find the
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 4: back of the net at the rate that they need
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 4: to to outscore any potential average goaltending that they may
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 4: be getting or not getting and so we'll see how
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 4: it plays out but you gave yourself the blueprint last
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 4: night block shots win battles take advantage of greasy goals
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 4: score when you can and lock it down and i
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 4: think if they continue to do that we'll be.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: Okay Yeah, Zach, I mean, I'll give you final thought here,
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: but like that, that week they had a couple of
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: weeks ago where they had four divisional games and they
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: picked up points in every single one of those games.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: You know, when they played Montreal twice, Toronto and Florida,
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: like that was a big stretch for them. That's a
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: big eight points when you look back on it within
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: the division. So I guess like how what were your
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: assessment of what you saw in October and where you
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: want to see them going forward here in November?
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 5: I really thought they played good stretches of hockey in
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 5: October that I thought some were not so great. Like
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 5: you said, the Atlantic division stretch there over the week
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 5: where they played four games and pretty much six days.
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 5: And they had to come back in the third period
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 5: in each of those games, except the Florida game. And
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 5: I thought they were great. And now, you know, like
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 5: you brought up Jonathan, they haven't played a full 60
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 5: minute game until really.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 6: Last night against San Jose. And they got back to
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 6: what worked from them last season.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 5: Like, They won a lot of games last season when
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 5: they were the best team in the league from December
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 5: 14th onward, where they would get great goaltending from either Lyon, UPL,
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 5: or occasionally Ellis when he was in the lineup and
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 5: they would block shots.
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 6: They would win puck battles. They were great defensively.
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 5: And then they capitalize on their opponent's mistakes when they
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 5: had the puck offensively.
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 6: And we saw that last night. And if it wasn't
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 6: for Askarov playing, you.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 5: Know, a, insane game, pretty much pulling a Dominic Hasek
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 5: on us where he had a goals table above expected
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 5: of three and a half goals. It could have been four, five,
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 5: nothing by night's end if Askarov didn't stand on his head.
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 6: So I really liked what we saw last night.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 5: I want to see a little bit less of October
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 5: hockey where it kind of looks sloppy at times. I
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 5: want to see a lot more of what happened last
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 5: night because if they play like how they did last night,
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 5: We're going to soon start seeing games where the Sabres
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 5: are winning 4-1, 5-1, 5-3, like type of games that
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 5: we saw them win a lot last year where they
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 5: would go into the second period.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 6: It'd be like a 0-0, 1-0 game.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 5: In the blink of an eye, they're up by multiple goals.
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 6: So I want to see a little bit more of
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 6: that going ahead and moving forward in November.
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: I agree.
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 4: I mean, like one more thing that I was going
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 4: to add is just like, look at the schedule this week, right?
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 4: You just got through the hardest team. in theory, right?
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 4: When you look at the standing San Jose is just
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 4: outside of wildcard spot. You know, LA is not off
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 4: to the start that they want to have. Anaheim is
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 4: not a very great team right now. Take advantage of
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 4: the stretch. If they come home with four out of
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 4: six points, that's great. But if you find a way
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 4: to get all six, like you're, you're laughing, you know,
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 4: especially coming off of how the trip started with that
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 4: tough night, the emotional night facing Alex Tuck in Washington
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 4: on the road to kick things off, take advantage of
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 4: this trip. take advantage of lesser competition, build that confidence
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 4: in yourselves and in your group, and then come home
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 4: and have a big, you know, divisional game against an
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 4: Ottawa team that is kind of mirroring you if, you know,
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 4: when it comes to the standings and the way that
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 4: they're playing.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: And I mean, they've only got two divisional games next month,
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: as you mentioned, Ottawa and Tampa Bay, both will be
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: in Buffalo. So they went four straight divisional games and
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: now They're on the California trip. So it's been a
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: weird start of the season with how the schedules kind
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: of went to that point. But three points out of
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: a wild card spot, guys. I mean, November should be interesting.
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: But again, like there's a lot to improve on. And
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: I think that the fact that they're still in the
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: mix right now and they've still been able to kind
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: of tread water, even when Darlene went out, you know,
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: he was missing for three of those games that they
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: played within the Atlantic division and they played pretty well.
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: So as we mentioned on one of our articles in ArmchairGMSports.com,
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: you know, if the Sabres were to miss... Darlene and
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: previous seasons that they would have been in really tough sledding, but, uh,
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: Zellweger and, uh, Owen power have obviously been able to,
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: to pick up the slack there. So guys, I'll give
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: you guys, uh, you know, each final thoughts as we
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: wrap up the first, uh, monthly round table here.
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 4: I mean, for me, it's just the fact that this
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 4: team is, uh, about where I thought they'd be. I
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 4: think they've got some problems that they need to solve,
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 4: but I think the solutions are in the room. I
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 4: don't see any reason to panic. I don't see any
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 4: reason to be less than optimistic about where things are going.
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 4: It's so early, and I think that this trip is
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 4: really going to allow the Sabres to hopefully hit their
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 4: stride and connect a couple of those true blue Sabres
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 4: hockey 60-minute games that Lindy Ruff and the coaching staff
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 4: want to see from this group. And let's see what
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 4: they're like when they come home next week and kick
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 4: off the month of November.
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah, at the end of the day, you've got to
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 5: work for it. You've got to work hard. You've got
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 5: to win the puck battles, the 50-50 ones. You have
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 5: to play great defensively, and the goals will come. Everything
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 5: fixes internally. I know Jarmo would be looking to add,
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 5: but everything's going to happen.
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 6: Tej, Rasmus, Salih, and then the rest.
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 5: Of the guys, those are going to be the two
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 5: leaders that really step up and play. I think coming
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 5: into November, especially if they grab the next two games
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 5: on the road trip, you could be looking at the
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 5: Sabres all of a sudden by the end of November being,
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 5: you know, one of the top teams in the East,
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 5: but again, we'll get there when we get there.
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: Absolutely guys. This is a lot of fun and look
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: forward to doing this going forward. And obviously having you
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: guys on the rotation for the post game shows and
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: everything else we're doing, it's been a lot of fun
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: so far. Um, you know, I, I know the group
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: chat gets, gets a little bit rowdy sometimes in the
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: middle of games, especially when Zach's losing his mind on
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: zone entries and Brianna's losing their mind on, on anything else. Uh,
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: not Logan Stanley related, but it's been a lot of
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: fun so far. So let's, let's keep this rolling.
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: It's been a blast.
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 4: Thanks for, uh, thanks for having us and making this
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 4: a show happen, Brandon.
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 6: Absolutely.
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Appreciate the, uh, the listeners as well. Again, if
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: you're listening on the, uh, on demand audio podcast platform
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: or version, make sure to give us a five-star rating
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: and everyone who chose to listen to us on. Thank
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: you to those that tuned in live tonight on the
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: video version on YouTube, make sure to hit, like, subscribe,
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: smash that bell. So they have all the video coverage
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: here on the network. We appreciate you as always. You
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: can get into the super chats and let us know
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: in the comment section below your thoughts on the episode.
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: Remember to DM us about the trivia question as well.
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: If you want to win the global pet foods, Niagara
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: gift card, as always, this show is proudly brought to
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  Speaker 1: you by global pet foods, Niagara, where pets are unenviably
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: part of the family. Visit them in store today at
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• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: So that's it for our first monthly wrap-up roundtable here
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: on Saber Semantics and the Armchair GM Sports Network. For
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: Jonathan Howe and Zach Berta, my name is Brandon Caputo.
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: Have yourself a great Halloween weekend, and we'll talk to
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: you guys again next week for our Sabers postgame shows.
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: Have a great weekend. You're listening to the Armchair GM
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: Sports Network.