Latest / The Armchair GM's Sports Network / Buffalo Sabres Postgame Show: Game 3 of 84 vs Minnesota: 3-2 OT Win - Sabres Semantics
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: You're listening to the Armchair GM Sports Network.
- 0:14Speaker 2: This is Saber Semantics, covering all things Buffalo Sabers, exclusively
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- 1:50Speaker 2: This is Saber Semantics. Covering all things Buffalo Sabers. Exclusively
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- 2:45Speaker 1: And welcome into another Saber Semantics live postgame show right
- 2:48Speaker 1: here on the Armchair GM Sports Network. As always, proudly
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- 3:01Speaker 1: Replace your online order today at GlobalPetFoods.com. Brandon Caputo and
- 3:05Speaker 1: Jonathan Howe of 97.7 Hits FM. here with you to
- 3:08Speaker 1: break down the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 victory on home ice,
- 3:11Speaker 1: a comeback victory in overtime against the Minnesota Wild. Thank
- 3:15Speaker 1: you to everybody tuned in live here on the video
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- 3:43Speaker 1: fan polls that we'll get to as well on today's show.
- 3:46Speaker 1: And as well on Facebook, Instagram, and Tik TOK by
- 3:49Speaker 1: searching the armchair GM sports network or saber semantics, Jonathan,
- 3:52Speaker 1: we're going to hear from a head coach, Lindy rough
- 3:55Speaker 1: here in a little bit, whenever he goes live with
- 3:56Speaker 1: his post game comments, game stats, scoring summary. But, uh,
- 4:00Speaker 1: you know, it was an interesting game because, uh, The
- 4:02Speaker 1: wild went up to nothing. The Sabres end up battling back,
- 4:05Speaker 1: getting that game a point at least. And then an
- 4:07Speaker 1: exciting three on three overtime and Owen power turns off
- 4:10Speaker 1: the lights to be able to get the Sabres that
- 4:12Speaker 1: extra point tonight.
- 4:13Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 4:13Speaker 4: You know what?
- 4:14Speaker 5: I feel like we were texting a little bit about
- 4:16Speaker 5: the game earlier today. And I told you, I was nervous.
- 4:18Speaker 5: I mean, Minnesota, that team just feels like they are
- 4:22Speaker 5: one of those teams that could make a run, right?
- 4:25Speaker 5: They out of the West, they're just in that murderer's
- 4:28Speaker 5: row of group of teams in the central that I just,
- 4:32Speaker 5: I don't want to play. I don't want to play
- 4:33Speaker 5: the Colorados of the world. I don't want to play the,
- 4:36Speaker 5: you know, the Dallas is the Minnesota is right there
- 4:39Speaker 5: in that conversation or like working towards being that conversation.
- 4:43Speaker 5: In some ways, I think they're kind of a similar
- 4:45Speaker 5: team to Buffalo when you line up some of the
- 4:47Speaker 5: way that they've got veterans sprinkled throughout. I would say
- 4:50Speaker 5: they're a little bit tougher, a little bit bigger in
- 4:51Speaker 5: some areas, but that young talent, some of the stars
- 4:55Speaker 5: and scores, especially like having a Hughes versus Darlene type
- 4:58Speaker 5: matchup on the back end. But in the end, it
- 5:00Speaker 5: was actually Owen Power, a different defenseman, who was the
- 5:03Speaker 5: star of the show in a lot of ways.
- 5:05Speaker 3: He sure was.
- 5:06Speaker 1: And we'll break that all down for you in the
- 5:07Speaker 1: scoring summary and everything like that. We'll get our stick
- 5:10Speaker 1: tap of the game, Jonathan's player of the game, and
- 5:12Speaker 1: all that fun stuff for you guys. We're still waiting
- 5:15Speaker 1: on the winner to send us a DM for the
- 5:18Speaker 1: Global Pet Foods gift certificate. So, again, if you're here
- 5:21Speaker 1: on the Canadian side of things, the Americans, unfortunately, you're
- 5:24Speaker 1: ineligible for this monthly giveaway through Global Pet Foods. But
- 5:28Speaker 1: we're still looking for the answer. So the trivia question is,
- 5:31Speaker 1: who scored the Sabres' opening goal from last season, the
- 5:35Speaker 1: 2025-26 season? And again, it was in their second game.
- 5:37Speaker 1: They got shut out in their first game. So again,
- 5:39Speaker 1: send us a DM on social media or here on YouTube.
- 5:42Speaker 1: And you have to be here on the Niagara Region
- 5:45Speaker 1: Canadian side to be eligible for that if you want
- 5:48Speaker 1: to win a $ 25 gift card for Global Pet Foods Niagara.
- 5:50Speaker 1: So with that, Jonathan, let's move forward here, starting with
- 5:54Speaker 1: the game stats tonight. As always, those are brought to
- 5:56Speaker 1: you by Carmine's Pizzeria Italiano.
- 5:57Speaker 3: Check them out.
- 5:58Speaker 1: Award-winning menu today at Carmine'sPizzeria.ca. You've tried the rest. Now,
- 6:01Speaker 1: why not try the best? Carmine's Pizzeria Italiano. Proudly serving
- 6:04Speaker 1: the Niagara.
- 6:04Speaker 3: Community since 2013. Jonathan, we had a pie last weekend.
- 6:06Speaker 3: It was very good.
- 6:07Speaker 1: And they're a great sponsor of our game stats. So
- 6:12Speaker 1: we'll throw those up here for everybody watching here. And again,
- 6:16Speaker 1: the low shot total. I mean, from what we saw
- 6:19Speaker 1: later in the game, it sort of got a little bit...
- 6:22Speaker 1: a little bit better in that way. But as far
- 6:24Speaker 1: as what we saw through the first two periods, I mean,
- 6:27Speaker 1: you can see it up on the screen there. The
- 6:29Speaker 1: final total ends up being 28-20 in favor of Buffalo.
- 6:32Speaker 1: But after two periods, it was 12-12. So obviously with
- 6:38Speaker 1: overtime in the third period there, it opened up a
- 6:41Speaker 1: little bit. Hits 26-12 in favor of Minnesota. Faceoff wins
- 6:45Speaker 1: 28-26 in favor of Buffalo. That was always good there.
- 6:48Speaker 1: Block shots. Buffalo had some massive blocks in this game,
- 6:50Speaker 1: especially in the first period. They had 16 blocks total
- 6:54Speaker 1: along with Minnesota, but Buffalo had some big ones there
- 6:57Speaker 1: in that opening period.
- 6:58Speaker 3: What stuck out to you from the game stats tonight?
- 7:01Speaker 5: Honestly, I thought we were going to be coming on
- 7:02Speaker 5: to do kind of a boring show through the first
- 7:06Speaker 5: two periods. I was like, there's not much going on here.
- 7:09Speaker 5: I don't really know what we're going to be talking about.
- 7:11Speaker 4: Are we going to.
- 7:11Speaker 5: Spend 15 minutes criticizing the referees and what is and
- 7:16Speaker 5: what isn't interference?
- 7:18Speaker 4: I didn't know what we were going to get into.
- 7:19Speaker 4: And then obviously.
- 7:21Speaker 5: I think in the closing moments of the game with
- 7:23Speaker 5: Buffalo down, with them needing to get back into it,
- 7:26Speaker 5: you saw this team come alive. You saw the offensive
- 7:29Speaker 5: spark that we've come to know and love and be
- 7:32Speaker 5: excited by. I think once again, led by that second
- 7:36Speaker 5: line for Buffalo, I guess we'll call it maybe even
- 7:39Speaker 5: a third line. I'm not sure where you would slot Oslin, Quinn,
- 7:43Speaker 5: and Benson, but I really thought that that was one
- 7:47Speaker 5: heck of a effort in the third period to really
- 7:50Speaker 5: break it open.
- 7:51Speaker 4: And I think they were rewarded.
- 7:53Speaker 5: And I'd be curious to see, that's the one thing
- 7:55Speaker 5: I'm trying to find on the individual stat sheet is
- 7:58Speaker 5: how many of those shots for Buffalo came in the
- 8:00Speaker 5: third versus overtime. Got it in front of me now, actually.
- 8:03Speaker 5: And it was only five shots that Buffalo had in
- 8:05Speaker 5: the overtime period. It felt like more, it felt like
- 8:08Speaker 5: a really dangerous period, but 11 shots for Buffalo in
- 8:11Speaker 5: the third period, which when they're trailing, when they're pressing,
- 8:15Speaker 5: it is pretty hard to stop that train coming down
- 8:18Speaker 5: the hill.
- 8:19Speaker 1: And Buffalo just played a really good defensive game. I
- 8:22Speaker 1: wrote down at one point, Dan Dunleavy, voice of the Sabres,
- 8:25Speaker 1: friend of the show, said that it felt like they
- 8:27Speaker 1: were playing a road game at home because it was
- 8:29Speaker 1: just such low volume. They were playing, they were blocking
- 8:32Speaker 1: a lot of shots, collapsing, weren't really giving Minnesota a lot.
- 8:35Speaker 1: And that's what you have to do against a team
- 8:36Speaker 1: like Minnesota that has some dynamic players, Quinn Hughes, Kaprizov,
- 8:40Speaker 1: Matt Boldy, Like they're just such a fast paced tempo team.
- 8:44Speaker 1: And the Sabres did such a good job in that
- 8:45Speaker 1: first period of just not giving them a whole lot,
- 8:48Speaker 1: clogging the middle of the ice, getting into shooting lanes
- 8:50Speaker 1: with the sticks. You know, Quinn Hughes, he's a hard
- 8:53Speaker 1: player to pursue, but the Sabres are doing a pretty
- 8:55Speaker 1: good job of that and kind of containing him because
- 8:58Speaker 1: when he starts skating around and creating, that's when they
- 9:01Speaker 1: get very dangerous. So I thought the Sabres did a
- 9:03Speaker 1: really good job in that first period, Jonathan, of just
- 9:05Speaker 1: kind of, you know, relaxing and not, you know, letting Minnesota,
- 9:08Speaker 1: you know, really get into the dangerous scoring areas.
- 9:11Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think that was really important too for
- 9:13Speaker 5: having a guy like Colton Ellis in the net as well, right?
- 9:16Speaker 5: When obviously Colton didn't see a lot, if not, I'm
- 9:20Speaker 5: pretty sure I recall, I don't think he touched the
- 9:22Speaker 5: ice at all in the playoff run, right? So, you know,
- 9:24Speaker 5: this is a guy who has not played since early
- 9:26Speaker 5: April of earlier this year in terms of a competitive game.
- 9:30Speaker 5: I know there's preseason, but that's obviously a very different
- 9:33Speaker 5: animal than when you're up to speed in that regular
- 9:36Speaker 5: season style and playing a team like Minnesota who has
- 9:39Speaker 5: so many dangerous weapons. You know, I think obviously you
- 9:42Speaker 5: want to let your goalie get a couple of touches
- 9:43Speaker 5: and get warmed up, get to it. But I think
- 9:46Speaker 5: the way that the Sabres defense decided to step up
- 9:49Speaker 5: and organize and back their goaltender in this particular instance,
- 9:53Speaker 5: I think made a huge difference in both the performance
- 9:57Speaker 5: we got from Colton Ellis and I believe also the
- 10:00Speaker 5: ability of the Sabres to keep the big stars for
- 10:03Speaker 5: the wild off the board throughout the game.
- 10:07Speaker 3: Didn't touch on the lineup. Probably should do that.
- 10:08Speaker 1: Since you mentioned Colton Ellis got to start tonight over
- 10:11Speaker 1: Luke and in, we're still waiting on a few players
- 10:13Speaker 1: back out. Alex Lyon, still not able to go Jason
- 10:16Speaker 1: Zucker and Connor Tim and still a little, they might
- 10:20Speaker 1: also take morning skate tomorrow, but they, they're going to
- 10:23Speaker 1: try to kind of ease them back in to use
- 10:26Speaker 1: Lindy's words there.
- 10:27Speaker 3: As far as the lineup goes.
- 10:28Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 10:29Speaker 1: I mean, Norris on the wing that kind of, it
- 10:30Speaker 1: was surprising to both of us there with Donan Thompson
- 10:33Speaker 1: on the top line. I think he got switched up
- 10:34Speaker 1: later on. Benson, Oslin, and Quinn on the second line. Krebs, Kulik,
- 10:39Speaker 1: and Helenus on the third. Malenstein, McLeod, and Justin Danforth
- 10:42Speaker 1: gets the call up. Well, I mean, he just gets
- 10:45Speaker 1: into the lineup. Nice to see him get some opportunity there.
- 10:48Speaker 1: And then on defensive side, Darlene Samuelson, Zellweger, Power, Metza,
- 10:52Speaker 1: and Crevier with the scratches being Carrick and Kozak.
- 10:58Speaker 3: So what were your thoughts there?
- 11:00Speaker 4: I didn't expect the Danforth pull.
- 11:03Speaker 5: I actually thought that Sam Carrick would be another one
- 11:06Speaker 5: in there, especially if McLeod was struggling in the faceoff dot,
- 11:09Speaker 5: having a guy like Carrick alongside that you can kind
- 11:11Speaker 5: of interchange between in the center position and taking the draws.
- 11:16Speaker 4: I thought that might have made sense.
- 11:17Speaker 5: I thought that might have been the play for Lindy,
- 11:20Speaker 5: what he was thinking, especially moving McLeod down.
- 11:22Speaker 4: But I thought it was fine on the forward side
- 11:25Speaker 4: of things.
- 11:26Speaker 5: The only thing I think we all love, Zach Metsa,
- 11:30Speaker 5: and this is not a knock against him. But I
- 11:33Speaker 5: think another thing that we saw tonight, and it's kind
- 11:35Speaker 5: of been like a story hanging in the weeds to
- 11:38Speaker 5: start the year, is that he is just not a
- 11:40Speaker 5: penalty kill guy. He just doesn't have the size, doesn't
- 11:43Speaker 5: have the reach, doesn't have the length to be a
- 11:45Speaker 5: penalty kill guy. And I stand to be proven wrong
- 11:49Speaker 5: at some point, but I just wonder how much more
- 11:55Speaker 5: we can get out of that penalty kill and how much...
- 11:58Speaker 5: more reliable it is when we get a Timmons back
- 12:02Speaker 5: in the lineup versus a Metza. I think a Timmons-Crevier
- 12:06Speaker 5: 5-6 pair, it's a pretty stellar 5-6 pair that I
- 12:10Speaker 5: would put up against most NHL teams, 5-6 for maybe
- 12:14Speaker 5: best in the league or at least the top 5-5-6
- 12:17Speaker 5: pair in the league. So that's the only thing that
- 12:19Speaker 5: I'm circling on is I'm just waiting to see what
- 12:21Speaker 5: Timmons has when he gets back in the lineup. I
- 12:23Speaker 5: love Zach Metza. He's just out of position on that
- 12:26Speaker 5: penalty kill. I think there was a lot of times
- 12:28Speaker 5: last year when we were all falling in love with
- 12:31Speaker 5: Zach Metz as a player where they sheltered him away
- 12:34Speaker 5: from having to kill penalties. I just think that right
- 12:37Speaker 5: now having a little bit more length, a little bit
- 12:39Speaker 5: more size on the back end, especially on the penalty
- 12:42Speaker 5: kill would be super beneficial to this lineup. But beyond that,
- 12:46Speaker 5: I mean, Justin Danforth, I didn't really notice him one
- 12:50Speaker 5: way or the other. I didn't feel like I was
- 12:52Speaker 5: looking for him to make mistakes and, you know, I
- 12:55Speaker 5: think he just did his job on that fourth line.
- 12:57Speaker 5: So I don't really have anything to comment on that,
- 13:01Speaker 5: that line. I guess my question for you, Brandon, is
- 13:03Speaker 5: what did you think with Kulik having that full game
- 13:07Speaker 5: on that third line center spot?
- 13:09Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 13:10Speaker 1: I mean, I thought that he's still getting back up
- 13:12Speaker 1: to game shape, right? Like he had a few opportunities tonight.
- 13:15Speaker 1: I know he had the good defensive play on Quinn
- 13:17Speaker 1: Hughes at the line. I think that was in the
- 13:18Speaker 1: third period kind of being able to pursue him down,
- 13:21Speaker 1: but Um, again, like I thought Kulik was, was okay.
- 13:24Speaker 3: One assist plus two.
- 13:25Speaker 1: Um, and again, in the third line center role, that's
- 13:28Speaker 1: not an easy position to be in, right? Like you're,
- 13:31Speaker 1: you're more so in a defensive role in more times
- 13:33Speaker 1: than not, but for, for Kulik, I think he's continuing
- 13:36Speaker 1: to work his way back.
- 13:37Speaker 3: And I thought he looked, uh, I thought he looked
- 13:38Speaker 3: pretty good. I don't know. What, what did you think
- 13:40Speaker 3: of him?
- 13:41Speaker 5: I thought, uh, you know, a part of me really
- 13:44Speaker 5: wants to rush and get ahead of myself and just like,
- 13:47Speaker 5: Get him up there with Thompson. Get him up there
- 13:49Speaker 5: and center that top line. Let's see what happens. Let's
- 13:51Speaker 5: see what magic we can make. Jumpstart things. Put Doan
- 13:55Speaker 5: in an area where he can really work with somebody else.
- 13:59Speaker 5: Do some work down low. I just think that I'm
- 14:04Speaker 5: probably getting ahead of myself, but it feels like Cooley
- 14:06Speaker 5: could really pop playing on a top line and playing
- 14:09Speaker 5: in that center role. I think he's one of our
- 14:11Speaker 5: better centermen. I haven't seen, I'll have to double check
- 14:14Speaker 5: the stats, but I thought he was good again in
- 14:17Speaker 5: the draw tonight in that side of things. The one
- 14:20Speaker 5: thing I will say is that if Kulik isn't ready yet,
- 14:24Speaker 5: then yeah, obviously don't rush him, don't burn him in
- 14:27Speaker 5: there because you're just going to put him in the
- 14:28Speaker 5: doghouse at.
- 14:29Speaker 4: The end of the day anyways.
- 14:30Speaker 5: But I don't know what else, what more you would
- 14:34Speaker 5: want to see from this guy that makes you say, okay, now,
- 14:37Speaker 5: now he's ready. Now is the time. Now is where
- 14:40Speaker 5: I feel like this guy can center a top line
- 14:43Speaker 5: and play alongside a guy like Tate Thompson, who we
- 14:45Speaker 5: have seen in the past. He was 40% in the
- 14:49Speaker 5: face-off dot tonight, so not the best night for him
- 14:52Speaker 5: in the face-off dot, but still serviceable compared to what
- 14:55Speaker 5: some of the other Sabres had to offer.
- 14:58Speaker 1: Let's get to Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff on the
- 15:01Speaker 1: Wild Bills Auto Repair postgame, helping customers stay safe and
- 15:03Speaker 1: confident on the road in Niagara since 2012 in honor
- 15:06Speaker 1: of the late William Robert Hunter Booker repair today at
- 15:08Speaker 1: 905-358-7868 or wildbillsauto.com. Here's Lindy Ruff's postgame following the 3-2
- 15:14Speaker 1: victory over the Minnesota Wild.
- 15:16Speaker 7: What allowed you to come back from two goals down?
- 15:20Speaker 7: I just thought we'd continue to play a real good game.
- 15:24Speaker 7: Played well defensively, generated a lot of opportunities. We missed
- 15:28Speaker 7: too many opportunities early, but we talked about just sticking
- 15:31Speaker 7: with it, getting one in the first ten minutes, and
- 15:33Speaker 7: we could get back in the hockey game. I'm sure
- 15:35Speaker 7: you didn't have to get overwhelmed by the question about
- 15:38Speaker 7: Paul building the center.
- 15:41Speaker 2: Kind of upset.
- 15:45Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, I disagree with a couple individuals too
- 15:52Speaker 7: out there. But you have to battle through that. Some
- 15:55Speaker 7: nights you don't get them. We didn't get them, and
- 15:57Speaker 7: it cost us a goal. But I thought our guys
- 16:02Speaker 7: showed a lot of maturity. Just keep playing the game
- 16:05Speaker 7: the right way.
- 16:07Speaker 3: How much is the power to continue?
- 16:16Speaker 7: Yeah, he's really got himself off to a good start.
- 16:19Speaker 7: Really skating well. Moving the puck well. He's finding people.
- 16:24Speaker 7: I mean, he found Clowder there in the third period.
- 16:28Speaker 7: That could have turned into something. Breaking the puck out
- 16:32Speaker 7: really well. I really like where he's got his game.
- 16:36Speaker 7: He's stronger. He's faster. He's really moving out there.
- 16:41Speaker 8: Yeah, well, I mean, it was a night where, you know,
- 16:50Speaker 8: it was kind of four lines for a while, and
- 16:52Speaker 8: then when we got down by a couple, you know,
- 16:54Speaker 8: you've got to shorten it up and, you know, try
- 16:58Speaker 8: to just pick the guys you think are going the best,
- 17:00Speaker 8: and we know there's that combination, and so we stuck,
- 17:04Speaker 8: you know, I thought Uri's been skating really well.
- 17:07Speaker 7: Put him out there with him, and They connected, but
- 17:10Speaker 7: it was a great effort by Krebs to out-battle Quinn, Hughes,
- 17:15Speaker 7: and get that to Tomer.
- 17:17Speaker 1: Why was the defensive play tonight so much better?
- 17:20Speaker 3: At the first period, you only blocked four shots, and
- 17:22Speaker 3: they had two power.
- 17:24Speaker 7: Plays. Well, I mean, yesterday we spent the whole day
- 17:27Speaker 7: working on defense. Our video was defense. A couple of
- 17:32Speaker 7: our practice drills were defending and arrivals. That was like
- 17:38Speaker 7: a playoff game out there. I thought our details were good,
- 17:40Speaker 7: our puck play. I mean, if you want to look
- 17:44Speaker 7: at the odd-numbered situations that we missed versus what we
- 17:46Speaker 7: gave up, I thought our guys did a great job
- 17:50Speaker 7: from the previous game to this game. Yeah, you know,
- 17:57Speaker 7: he's just struggling right now. He had a little bit
- 18:02Speaker 7: of a lower body issue last game. I think it's
- 18:04Speaker 7: affecting his play, although if you asked him, he'd say no. But,
- 18:09Speaker 7: you know, he'll find his game. I've got all the
- 18:12Speaker 7: faith in the world that he'll get to his game.
- 18:14Speaker 7: It's the path that a young guy takes sometimes. It's
- 18:18Speaker 7: not a straight line. I mean, if you want to
- 18:20Speaker 7: compare some of the other younger players, you're going to
- 18:23Speaker 7: have to battle through some tougher times. And he's a
- 18:27Speaker 7: kid that's up for any battle.
- 18:30Speaker 8: You know, Oslin goes off his leg and the goal.
- 18:34Speaker 9: The second line as well, just a line of Oslin–
- 18:37Speaker 9: Quinn and Benson, really generate a lot of chances and
- 18:40Speaker 9: were productive. What makes those three so productive, not just
- 18:43Speaker 9: when it comes to scoring goals, but to producing opportunities?
- 18:47Speaker 7: I mean, they're around the puck. They're really connected as
- 18:50Speaker 7: a three-man unit. If you look at the number of
- 18:54Speaker 7: chances that line has generated in the first three games,
- 18:58Speaker 7: the goal total should be a lot higher. Quinn alone,
- 19:02Speaker 7: I think, probably could have five or six, but you know,
- 19:05Speaker 7: I think some of the goals you're going to have
- 19:06Speaker 7: to score, we're going to have to score our pucks that,
- 19:10Speaker 7: you know, you kind of build a wall in the
- 19:11Speaker 7: back post or you get off the back post because,
- 19:14Speaker 7: you know, the size of the goaltender, you're not going
- 19:17Speaker 7: to beat them with that first shot. So if you
- 19:19Speaker 7: get off that backside, almost like the Benson power play chance,
- 19:22Speaker 7: you know, you get down on one knee, you got
- 19:23Speaker 7: off the backside. Uh, those are the type of goals
- 19:26Speaker 7: that get you back into the hockey game. Sometimes, you know,
- 19:29Speaker 7: we missed on too many pretty ones. Um, But you
- 19:33Speaker 7: get inside and, you know, we call those dirty goals.
- 19:35Speaker 7: You get a dirty goal, you get rewarded for going,
- 19:39Speaker 7: you know, Oste undercut his guy. You know, the easy
- 19:42Speaker 7: route is go above, he undercut him got underneath him
- 19:45Speaker 7: now he's got position um was it a lucky goal
- 19:49Speaker 7: yeah i'm sure it was lucky goal but if you're
- 19:51Speaker 7: in the right place you'll get you'll get a few
- 19:52Speaker 7: of those.
- 19:53Speaker 1: Post game audio is courtesy of msg and the national
- 19:56Speaker 1: hockey league as well as buffalo sabers.com and x.com slash
- 20:00Speaker 1: buffalo sabers all audio rights courtesy of the buffalo sabers
- 20:03Speaker 1: there was lindy ruff on the wild bills auto repair
- 20:06Speaker 1: post game Jonathan, you know, he basically said it was
- 20:10Speaker 1: like a playoff game out there tonight. And he talked
- 20:12Speaker 1: about the goal that Oslin got. Yeah, it was lucky,
- 20:16Speaker 1: but you put yourself in those opportunities. So for him
- 20:19Speaker 1: to be able to see that, you know, I was encouraging.
- 20:22Speaker 1: What did you take away from what Lindy said tonight?
- 20:25Speaker 4: I kind of agree with that playoff atmosphere comment.
- 20:28Speaker 5: I think, you know, if you think back to game
- 20:31Speaker 5: one against Boston last year, kind of feels like a
- 20:34Speaker 5: very similar sort of game in some ways. obviously very
- 20:38Speaker 5: similar score minus the overtime sort of angle to it.
- 20:42Speaker 4: But it was a game that the Sabres had to fight, right?
- 20:44Speaker 5: They had to figure out the way to find something
- 20:48Speaker 5: different to get going, right? I felt as though it really,
- 20:53Speaker 5: for me, came down to the fact that they just
- 20:57Speaker 5: didn't let the game get away from them. I thought
- 21:00Speaker 5: it was going to be so easy for them to just.
- 21:05Speaker 4: Go away from the.
- 21:06Speaker 5: Whole maneuver, the whole game plan, start scrambling. As soon
- 21:10Speaker 5: as they went down to nothing and the building is booing,
- 21:13Speaker 5: the refs, the interference calls, like Lindy said, you're not
- 21:17Speaker 5: happy with some of the individuals out there, but you
- 21:19Speaker 5: have to keep playing the game.
- 21:20Speaker 4: You have to stick to your game plan.
- 21:22Speaker 5: And that was a real sign of maturity from a
- 21:24Speaker 5: young team that they were able to stay on the rails,
- 21:27Speaker 5: keep composure, and if anything, simplify their game as opposed to,
- 21:31Speaker 5: I think we saw them try to it's a comment
- 21:35Speaker 5: that's come up a couple of different times from a
- 21:37Speaker 5: couple of different people over the last few years is
- 21:40Speaker 5: pass the puck into the net, right? In that first period, especially,
- 21:45Speaker 5: it felt like they were constantly looking for that perfect
- 21:48Speaker 5: play that's going to get the puck in the net.
- 21:51Speaker 5: It's not going to be there some nights, most nights.
- 21:53Speaker 5: So to just get to the net, get positioning and
- 21:56Speaker 5: see what happens, that is going to be I hope
- 21:59Speaker 5: something that especially a guy like Oslin can hang his
- 22:02Speaker 5: hat on it and keep in the back pocket in
- 22:04Speaker 5: terms of generating offenses. Sometimes those dirty areas, you just
- 22:08Speaker 5: got to get to them when nothing else is working.
- 22:11Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 22:11Speaker 1: And I mean, I'm actually shocked that they didn't review
- 22:13Speaker 1: this for a kick, but I don't think he did,
- 22:15Speaker 1: but usually when it does go off a leg, they,
- 22:17Speaker 1: they pretty, they're pretty consistent on reviewing it, but yeah,
- 22:20Speaker 1: I mean, they were, the fans were screaming at power
- 22:22Speaker 1: to shoot that puck and he just waited, waited, waited,
- 22:25Speaker 1: and then found Oslin, you know, at a, the right
- 22:28Speaker 1: place at the right time with his leg there to
- 22:30Speaker 1: be able to redirect it past wall stat who you
- 22:32Speaker 1: know had been good he wasn't tested a lot but
- 22:34Speaker 1: he obviously was pitching a shutout up until that point
- 22:36Speaker 1: and you just need to get one of those those
- 22:39Speaker 1: greasy ones to go in and then obviously the floodgates
- 22:42Speaker 1: sort of opened there and the sabers were able to
- 22:44Speaker 1: kind of crack through but they just needed that first
- 22:45Speaker 1: one to get to to kind of get past wall
- 22:48Speaker 1: stat because he was pretty locked in you know considering
- 22:51Speaker 1: the shots were so low.
- 22:52Speaker 5: Yeah i thought for me wall stat is one of
- 22:55Speaker 5: those guys that in the summertime was talked about as
- 22:59Speaker 5: a potential Sabres, you know, goaltending piece, trade piece to circle.
- 23:04Speaker 5: If you couldn't get Connor Hellebuyck, could you go get
- 23:06Speaker 5: a Wallstead? Because it seemed like Minnesota has already made
- 23:09Speaker 5: up their mind that they're committing to their other goaltending.
- 23:12Speaker 5: You know, once everybody's healthy, that Wallstead might be the
- 23:15Speaker 5: odd man out kind of thing. You can't afford both
- 23:18Speaker 5: of them. What can they do as much as, you know,
- 23:23Speaker 5: Wallstead is a great goalie as much as like, you'd
- 23:26Speaker 5: love to see him in a Sabres uniform. I think
- 23:28Speaker 5: on the other side of things, like Colton Ellis did
- 23:30Speaker 5: nothing tonight that made me think that he's not a
- 23:33Speaker 5: guy who can be counted on to be a part
- 23:36Speaker 5: of the future of this, of this franchise. I really
- 23:39Speaker 5: loved his game. I loved how steady it was. I
- 23:41Speaker 5: was critical of him last year, a lot about rebound
- 23:43Speaker 5: control and I, and how scrambled he was in the net.
- 23:47Speaker 5: It sounds like that's something he really focused on, on,
- 23:49Speaker 5: on his side of get the game. So to me, Yeah,
- 23:53Speaker 5: a guy like Wallstead, he is going to be a
- 23:55Speaker 5: goalie who can steal a game and in a low
- 23:59Speaker 5: shot game, in a low chance game, in a game
- 24:02Speaker 5: where everything is getting blocked, it's hard to get things
- 24:05Speaker 5: through and it's going that way both ends of the ice.
- 24:09Speaker 5: I thought Colton Ellis did a great job of staying
- 24:11Speaker 5: in lockstep with a guy like Jesper Wallstead and keeping
- 24:13Speaker 5: the Sabres in the game and ultimately allowing the Sabres
- 24:18Speaker 5: to eventually break the wall that Wallstead had up for
- 24:22Speaker 5: most of the game. with some ugly ones. And then
- 24:24Speaker 5: obviously I think I thought the old power goal was pretty,
- 24:27Speaker 5: pretty sweet.
- 24:27Speaker 3: In the overtime.
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- 28:35Speaker 7: Hi, this is Dan Dunleavy, play-by-play voice of the Buffalo Sabres,
- 28:38Speaker 7: and you are watching and listening to Sabres Semantics.
- 28:47Speaker 3: Hey, hey, here we go, it's hockey night in Buffalo. Hey, hey,
- 28:52Speaker 3: here we go, the boys in blue, white, and gold.
- 28:55Speaker 7: Hey, hey, here we go, make some noise, get in
- 28:58Speaker 7: the zone.
- 28:59Speaker 3: All for one and one for all, let's hear you
- 29:01Speaker 3: from your heart and soul.
- 29:02Speaker 2: Ah!
- 29:04Speaker 1: Let's get to our fan polls tonight, and those will
- 29:06Speaker 1: be brought to you by the Niagara Denture Clinic, creating
- 29:09Speaker 1: natural smiles in the Niagara region for over 25 years
- 29:11Speaker 1: at 5501 Drummond Road in Niagara Falls. Give their friendly
- 29:14Speaker 1: reception a call at 905-353-1552 to get started. Today, Jonathan,
- 29:19Speaker 1: I'm going to have you take the lead on this one.
- 29:21Speaker 1: I'm going to pull it up from these were the
- 29:23Speaker 1: results as of four minutes ago. So if they are changing,
- 29:27Speaker 1: then bear with us. But what did you put up
- 29:30Speaker 1: for the fan polls tonight, and what is it looking like?
- 29:32Speaker 5: We'll start with the first one that you see there
- 29:34Speaker 5: on the screen, which was, what did you make of
- 29:36Speaker 5: Colton Ellis in his first game of the season?
- 29:38Speaker 4: I gave him three. options there.
- 29:40Speaker 5: Give him the number one job. Solid need to see more.
- 29:43Speaker 5: Still don't trust him. As of just a couple of
- 29:47Speaker 5: seconds ago, solid need to see more has crept just
- 29:51Speaker 5: slightly ahead of give him the number one job. But
- 29:54Speaker 5: I think it's pretty clear after what he was able
- 29:56Speaker 5: to offer us tonight that This is a guy who
- 29:59Speaker 5: deserves more looks, and I don't think the Sabres need
- 30:03Speaker 5: to worry about Alex Lyon rushing back from injury to
- 30:06Speaker 5: get into the rotation goaltending-wise because I think you can
- 30:10Speaker 5: rotate between UPL and Colton Ellis, and I think we'll
- 30:13Speaker 5: probably end up seeing a lot of promising and good
- 30:17Speaker 5: stuff from Ellis going forward based on everything Matthew Fairburn
- 30:21Speaker 5: of The Athletic put out a great piece on Colton
- 30:23Speaker 5: Ellis and his off-season training out in Nova Scotia. training
- 30:27Speaker 5: with guys like Nathan McKinnon and Sidney Crosby, that's just
- 30:30Speaker 5: naturally going to elevate your game. No matter what position
- 30:32Speaker 5: you play, you surround yourself with top talent like that.
- 30:35Speaker 5: You're going to have, you're going to bring that back
- 30:37Speaker 5: to your club team in a big way. And I
- 30:39Speaker 5: think tonight was the first, maybe first time that we
- 30:42Speaker 5: saw Ellis really put a stake in the ground that
- 30:45Speaker 5: he is somebody that the Sabres need to count on
- 30:48Speaker 5: as a, as a future part of the franchise. And
- 30:51Speaker 5: the second poll here through three games, who has been
- 30:54Speaker 5: the Sabres best player?
- 30:56Speaker 4: This one I actually kind of struggled.
- 30:57Speaker 5: With for who to throw as an option because I
- 31:00Speaker 5: felt like there was probably a couple of other guys
- 31:02Speaker 5: I could.
- 31:02Speaker 4: Have thrown in there. Like maybe a Yuri Kulik could
- 31:05Speaker 4: have got some love.
- 31:06Speaker 5: You know, there's been some sneaky good performances, but I
- 31:10Speaker 5: think through three games, these are the four guys that
- 31:14Speaker 5: at the end of the day, I'm still talking about
- 31:15Speaker 5: because it's Owen Power.
- 31:17Speaker 4: It's Jack Quinn. It's Tate Thompson. It's Noah Austin.
- 31:19Speaker 5: I feel like they've got the most points. They've got
- 31:21Speaker 5: the most impact on games. And at times too, I
- 31:24Speaker 5: would say that Owen Power and Tage Thompson have been
- 31:27Speaker 5: guys who actually have cost them at times in moments, right?
- 31:31Speaker 4: The first game.
- 31:34Speaker 5: Even tonight, there's one aspect of Tage's game on that.
- 31:38Speaker 5: I believe it was the second goal. We'll break it
- 31:39Speaker 5: down in a little bit where I was kind of like,
- 31:42Speaker 5: kind of would have loved to see a little bit
- 31:43Speaker 5: more Charlie Hustle out of Tage there, but he has
- 31:46Speaker 5: been good. He has been showing up. He has been
- 31:48Speaker 5: on the score or score sheet, but not to the
- 31:51Speaker 5: same impact as, that a guy like Jack Quinn, Owen Power,
- 31:54Speaker 5: and Owen Oslin has had.
- 31:55Speaker 4: I think I voted Jack Quinn, personally.
- 31:57Speaker 5: I think just because Owen Power's had a couple of
- 32:01Speaker 5: those defensive blips, I didn't want to fully give it
- 32:04Speaker 5: to him, but man, Power has been really impressive to
- 32:07Speaker 5: start the year. So I'm very interested to see how
- 32:09Speaker 5: that one turns out as the poll goes on, because
- 32:12Speaker 5: the votes have pretty much stayed stagnant with where you
- 32:15Speaker 5: had them from four minutes or so ago.
- 32:18Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's recency bias, too, with Power getting
- 32:20Speaker 3: the overtime winner.
- 32:21Speaker 1: I think, obviously, if you would have had this poll
- 32:23Speaker 1: after the first game with Power kind of struggling a
- 32:26Speaker 1: little bit in Columbus, maybe he wouldn't have even been
- 32:28Speaker 1: on this poll. But, yeah, I mean, I think Noah Oslin,
- 32:31Speaker 1: the fact that he's on this poll is incredible to
- 32:33Speaker 1: me with the way that he's been able to play.
- 32:36Speaker 1: He got elevated to the top power play unit tonight,
- 32:38Speaker 1: had a couple of good looks. And then, as you mentioned,
- 32:41Speaker 1: getting that greasy goal, going to the dirty area in
- 32:43Speaker 1: the blue paint there and redirecting that power pass.
- 32:46Speaker 3: Into the net.
- 32:46Speaker 1: But I mean, he was getting some good looks all
- 32:49Speaker 1: night long in this game against Minnesota. He ends up with,
- 32:53Speaker 1: I'm going to pull it up. He, he ends up
- 32:55Speaker 1: with two shots on that tonight.
- 32:56Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 32:57Speaker 1: Two shots on that. Plus one, he had over 20
- 32:59Speaker 1: minutes of ice time too. So that's big to see
- 33:02Speaker 1: for a guy that outside of the Buffalo market, after
- 33:05Speaker 1: he signed that extension, a lot of the NHL was like,
- 33:08Speaker 1: what is Buffalo doing with this extension?
- 33:10Speaker 3: Giving no Oslin an eight year contract.
- 33:12Speaker 1: But again, that was more so for, what they believe
- 33:15Speaker 1: he's going to grow into. And through the first three games,
- 33:18Speaker 1: it looks like it's going to be a contract that
- 33:19Speaker 1: Buffalo is going to be happy with.
- 33:21Speaker 4: Definitely.
- 33:22Speaker 5: And I mean, the other thing too, to factor in Oslin, uh, 20, um,
- 33:24Speaker 5: obviously this is a little bit boosted, a little inflated
- 33:26Speaker 5: because of overtime, but 2039 of ice time tonight, like
- 33:30Speaker 5: he's a guy who on the forward group is as
- 33:33Speaker 5: trusted as anybody else, right? Uh, the only players looks
- 33:36Speaker 5: like that had more time on the ice through the game,
- 33:40Speaker 5: the 60 plus minutes of this game. You're looking at
- 33:44Speaker 5: Jack Quinn and Zach Benson were the only two, and
- 33:47Speaker 5: those are his line mates, right? So this guy, obviously
- 33:52Speaker 5: that whole line has earned Lindy's trust. He's obviously very
- 33:55Speaker 5: impressed with what he's seen from that young group. They
- 33:57Speaker 5: have very much established themselves as the Sabres' best forward
- 34:00Speaker 5: line and forward group, I would say, through the first
- 34:02Speaker 5: three games. And it shows that Noah Usland is going
- 34:07Speaker 5: to be one of those guys that– Well, we see
- 34:10Speaker 5: why Jarmo was unwilling to put a guy like him
- 34:12Speaker 5: in a trade package for Connor Hellebuck.
- 34:15Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm looking at the ice times here, and obviously
- 34:19Speaker 1: I'm looking at the forwards, but on the defensive side,
- 34:20Speaker 1: Owen Power played 29-04 tonight. He was just behind Darlene
- 34:25Speaker 1: at 29-15. So usually Darlene's leading that by a wide margin,
- 34:29Speaker 1: but Power was only nine seconds behind him, and he
- 34:31Speaker 1: actually had two more shifts than Darlene had. He was
- 34:34Speaker 1: a plus three on the night. You know, it was
- 34:37Speaker 1: just a really good performance for Owen Power. It almost
- 34:39Speaker 1: logged in 30 minutes tonight against this Minnesota team. That's
- 34:42Speaker 1: if he can continue to play at that high level,
- 34:45Speaker 1: that's going to be big for Buffalo here.
- 34:47Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 34:47Speaker 7: And you know what?
- 34:47Speaker 5: Power and Darlene actually got paired up at a couple
- 34:50Speaker 5: of points later in that game, too. I noticed that
- 34:52Speaker 5: they were both out on the ice when the Sabres
- 34:54Speaker 5: were pressing. So I like that they have that opportunity
- 34:57Speaker 5: to go there. Obviously, you know, the shackles must have
- 35:03Speaker 5: been on power last year. with Bowen Byram as a,
- 35:06Speaker 5: as a line mate, because both of them can't be
- 35:08Speaker 5: high flying guys who are skating up the ice and
- 35:12Speaker 5: being so aggressive offensively, but power, I thought really was
- 35:17Speaker 5: stretching those legs out for some really impressive performances.
- 35:21Speaker 4: And I kind of feel as though.
- 35:23Speaker 5: Like it's starting. I, this is probably way too early
- 35:28Speaker 5: to say, but it's starting to feel like the Sabres
- 35:32Speaker 5: might actually have two number one defenseman. You know, you obviously,
- 35:36Speaker 5: when you end up with two first overall picks that
- 35:39Speaker 5: are both defensemen, you want both of them to become
- 35:42Speaker 5: stud number ones. This is maybe the first stretch where
- 35:47Speaker 5: I've ever truly felt like if Darlene went down and
- 35:50Speaker 5: Owen Power had to be the guy, we'd be okay.
- 35:54Speaker 4: I think we'd be able to manage.
- 35:56Speaker 3: And look at Owen power on the hockey stat card tonight.
- 35:59Speaker 1: Uh, like look at how, how positive he was compared
- 36:02Speaker 1: to everybody else. Like he was by far the Sabres
- 36:04Speaker 1: best player and all the, the analytics that hockey stat
- 36:07Speaker 1: cards uses within their algorithm to come up with these numbers.
- 36:10Speaker 1: The better you are to the right is the better
- 36:12Speaker 1: of the game that you had. And I mean, look
- 36:13Speaker 1: at that. I mean, that trajectory just shows that he
- 36:16Speaker 1: was double the best Sabres player in this game tonight.
- 36:20Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 36:21Speaker 5: I mean, and it was so obvious he was so dangerous,
- 36:24Speaker 5: you know, uh, Jack, Quinn, I would still say is
- 36:27Speaker 5: probably the most dangerous of the forward group. Every time
- 36:30Speaker 5: he seems to get the puck, it's going towards the net.
- 36:33Speaker 5: He's going towards the net. There was one actual moment
- 36:36Speaker 5: I should have wrote down what exact play it was
- 36:39Speaker 5: where I saw Jack Quinn basically crash the net with
- 36:42Speaker 5: the puck as opposed to loading up and shooting it.
- 36:44Speaker 5: And I was like, if that guy's going to go
- 36:46Speaker 5: and do that this season and not just wait for
- 36:50Speaker 5: his opportunities to snipe, to snap a shot on net
- 36:53Speaker 5: to maybe get a one-timer. If he's feeling himself that
- 36:55Speaker 5: much that he will take the puck to the net,
- 36:57Speaker 5: Jack Quinn's going to find those 30 goals that we're
- 36:59Speaker 5: all hoping for him, no problem. And if Owen Power
- 37:03Speaker 5: is going to skate down the ice with his head up,
- 37:06Speaker 5: looking for plays, patient, and somehow still keeping that puck
- 37:10Speaker 5: like it's on a string on a stick, he's going
- 37:13Speaker 5: to be dangerous and he's probably going to hit 50
- 37:15Speaker 5: or even you know, what was the take there was
- 37:19Speaker 5: 60 points was the outrageous pick from the season preview show, right? So,
- 37:23Speaker 5: I mean, it feels crazy to say it, but the
- 37:27Speaker 5: belief in the power is there.
- 37:30Speaker 1: Yeah, I know Austin is going to be happy about
- 37:33Speaker 1: the way Owen Power played tonight because he's been, you know,
- 37:36Speaker 1: pretty adamant that he's going to reach that 60 point
- 37:39Speaker 1: total this season. So, actually, he was the one that
- 37:41Speaker 1: retweeted that hockey card stat that I saw. So, He's
- 37:45Speaker 1: going to be loving that one whenever he does come
- 37:47Speaker 1: back on to the next show here. But let's move
- 37:49Speaker 1: forward with the scoring summary tonight brought to you by
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- 37:54Speaker 1: the Niagara region since 1983. Check out the job board
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- 38:01Speaker 1: opportunity today. As we mentioned there, Jonathan, off the top,
- 38:06Speaker 1: the wild no scoring in the first period for either team.
- 38:09Speaker 1: The shots were only 4-4 after the first. It felt like, wow,
- 38:12Speaker 1: what are we watching? Is this like New Jersey Devils
- 38:15Speaker 1: trap of the early 2000s that we were watching tonight?
- 38:18Speaker 1: But the shots were 4-4, no scoring, but there were
- 38:22Speaker 1: a couple things that I wrote down from the first.
- 38:24Speaker 1: I don't know if you have anything there.
- 38:26Speaker 5: I just thought I was really impressed with the Sabres'
- 38:30Speaker 5: ability to elevate their defensive game. That was one of
- 38:33Speaker 5: the things that Lindy talked about in that press conference
- 38:35Speaker 5: that we just played 10 or so minutes ago on
- 38:37Speaker 5: the show, and they obviously went to work on it
- 38:41Speaker 5: and it obviously delivered in a big way today that
- 38:43Speaker 5: we did not see those very obvious moments of somebody
- 38:46Speaker 5: getting to the neck and getting to the slot in
- 38:49Speaker 5: open ice. There was no room for Minnesota to create,
- 38:52Speaker 5: obviously no room for Buffalo to create either. They kind
- 38:54Speaker 5: of were held to the perimeter, but Minnesota doing a
- 38:57Speaker 5: lot of blocking. The Sabres players doing a lot of blocking,
- 39:00Speaker 5: but that's, you know, when you're getting a team like Minnesota,
- 39:03Speaker 5: those juggernaut central teams are, If you can elevate and
- 39:08Speaker 5: play a game like that, that's the kind of game where,
- 39:11Speaker 5: you know, the coaching staff can be like, see.
- 39:13Speaker 4: Guys, you play like that. We're going to win 60 games.
- 39:16Speaker 3: No problem.
- 39:17Speaker 4: No problem. Just do that every time. Which, you know,
- 39:20Speaker 4: easier said than done, of course.
- 39:21Speaker 5: But I think that period is going to be one
- 39:23Speaker 5: that the video guys are going to be saving for
- 39:26Speaker 5: Lindy for the Hall of Fame of defensive performances for
- 39:29Speaker 5: this team.
- 39:30Speaker 3: Yeah, that was a master class.
- 39:32Speaker 1: I'm sure Jacques Lemaire would be proud of that performance
- 39:35Speaker 1: from Lindy Ruff tonight. But I mean, it's weird because
- 39:38Speaker 1: the Sabres are playing four straight Western Conference opponents. They
- 39:41Speaker 1: started with Chicago after the Columbus game, and then they've
- 39:43Speaker 1: got Minnesota tonight.
- 39:45Speaker 3: They played Dallas on Thursday and Utah on Saturday. So
- 39:48Speaker 3: a weird.
- 39:49Speaker 1: schedule of those teams coming in for their only time
- 39:52Speaker 1: of the season. So for the Sabres, they probably don't
- 39:54Speaker 1: do as much scouting report on the Western teams as
- 39:57Speaker 1: they obviously do the teams within the division or the conference.
- 39:59Speaker 1: So it's a weird, weird dynamic early in the season
- 40:03Speaker 1: for Buffalo. And then after this stretch, they've got a
- 40:05Speaker 1: ton of Atlantic division games. So just a weird layout
- 40:08Speaker 1: of the schedule, but I'll save that for another day.
- 40:11Speaker 1: The things I took away from that period were the
- 40:13Speaker 1: Sabres had a two-on-one shorthanded from McLeod and Norris. Um,
- 40:18Speaker 1: but Erickson Eck, one of the better defensive centers in
- 40:20Speaker 1: the game was able to get back and kind of, uh,
- 40:22Speaker 1: break that up. But then the Sabres also had another
- 40:25Speaker 1: shorthanded opportunity in that same power play for Minnesota. It
- 40:28Speaker 1: was a three on two and crevier just shot it
- 40:30Speaker 1: over the net. He was wide open in the slot,
- 40:32Speaker 1: tried to wrist it, uh, over top of wall stat
- 40:34Speaker 1: and missed the net, but for the Sabres to get
- 40:36Speaker 1: two shorthanded opportunities on the same penalty kill, I think
- 40:39Speaker 1: that shows that how dangerous this team can be even
- 40:41Speaker 1: when they're down a man.
- 40:42Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 40:43Speaker 5: And, you know, I was dogging on the penalty kill
- 40:44Speaker 5: earlier and how, uh, you know, I, I questioned whether
- 40:46Speaker 5: it Zach Metz is a fit on it. Obviously what
- 40:49Speaker 5: you saw though, is why Lindy has been so defensive
- 40:54Speaker 5: of a guy like McLeod.
- 40:56Speaker 4: You know, I think the media.
- 40:58Speaker 5: And maybe some of the Twitter stuff that's going around, it's, it's, oh,
- 41:02Speaker 5: Ryan McLeod's in the doghouse. Ryan McLeod's going down the
- 41:05Speaker 5: lineup because he's in the doghouse or whatever.
- 41:08Speaker 4: I don't think that's the case.
- 41:10Speaker 5: I think when it comes to five on five play
- 41:12Speaker 5: Ryan McLeod, I think the way that things are pairing up,
- 41:15Speaker 5: there's just not as much of a space for him
- 41:17Speaker 5: other than that fourth line center spot. I think he
- 41:20Speaker 5: is most effective in the middle of the ice, but
- 41:22Speaker 5: he's just so good on that pen on that penalty
- 41:25Speaker 5: kill and having a speed, having the ability to get
- 41:28Speaker 5: up the ice in transition, either on his own. We
- 41:31Speaker 5: saw him get some shorthanded goals last year. I'm not,
- 41:34Speaker 5: I would not be surprised if he's going to be
- 41:36Speaker 5: the lead, the team leader in shorthanded goals again this year. I,
- 41:41Speaker 5: I think really what we're seeing is guys start to
- 41:44Speaker 5: fall into roles on this team, role-playing players throughout the team.
- 41:49Speaker 5: I still think there's some chemistry that can be built
- 41:52Speaker 5: or maybe a couple of things that could be thrown
- 41:54Speaker 5: in the blender going forward to maximize the spread of
- 41:58Speaker 5: offensive abilities five on five. But there's a lot to
- 42:01Speaker 5: like from the penalty kill, and it's very obvious that
- 42:04Speaker 5: the work that they've put in defensively is also bleeding
- 42:07Speaker 5: into the penalty kill, at least amongst the forwards that
- 42:09Speaker 5: are going on the penalty kill.
- 42:12Speaker 3: There were three or four tonight.
- 42:13Speaker 1: So, I mean, against a team like Minnesota that has
- 42:15Speaker 1: all those weapons, I think, you know, I would take
- 42:17Speaker 1: that considering that the wild had a lot of opportunities
- 42:21Speaker 1: early on in this game. Ellis had a couple of
- 42:23Speaker 1: big saves, the one on Kaprizov, and then he had
- 42:26Speaker 1: a nice save on Quinn Hughes as well later in
- 42:30Speaker 1: the period. And then the Sabres had seven blocks in
- 42:33Speaker 1: the first period, which I think was massive. And then Previer,
- 42:35Speaker 1: the play by Previer just made me laugh in the
- 42:37Speaker 1: corner at the end of the period. He was just
- 42:39Speaker 1: He killed like the last 25 seconds of the clock,
- 42:41Speaker 1: just holding that puck in the corner.
- 42:43Speaker 3: Just such a big guy.
- 42:44Speaker 1: Like who's going to be able to move him as
- 42:46Speaker 1: he's just trying to, you know, just to build a
- 42:48Speaker 1: campfire around that puck, try to eat out the rest
- 42:50Speaker 1: of the 25 seconds remaining.
- 42:52Speaker 5: When they say, when everybody's just yelling at you from
- 42:54Speaker 5: the bench to just fall on it, that's what they mean.
- 42:57Speaker 4: Like just, just fall on it and eat it. But
- 43:00Speaker 4: that's what we want to see.
- 43:01Speaker 5: Like, again, not everybody can be the flashy defenseman. You know, we,
- 43:05Speaker 5: there was a lot of, I think, hope that maybe
- 43:07Speaker 5: when Crevier came over that he was going to be
- 43:09Speaker 5: able to bring some offense.
- 43:10Speaker 4: Obviously he's close.
- 43:12Speaker 5: You know, I think there was that tip goal by
- 43:15Speaker 5: Thompson that was set up by his wrister towards the
- 43:17Speaker 5: net in the last game. Or I think it was, yeah,
- 43:20Speaker 5: last game. I believe that game, that shot was, that
- 43:22Speaker 5: goal was. So Crevier's touch offensively will come there, but
- 43:27Speaker 5: a guy who has that size and has maybe just
- 43:29Speaker 5: a little bit more bite than some of the other
- 43:31Speaker 5: big guys that have come through the Sabres lineup or
- 43:33Speaker 5: on the Sabres lineup right now, That's what I want
- 43:36Speaker 5: to see. I want to see a guy who can
- 43:37Speaker 5: just kill a play on the boards, use his size,
- 43:40Speaker 5: use his frame like that. I'm getting happier with Cravier's
- 43:44Speaker 5: play the more he plays, and I feel like maybe
- 43:47Speaker 5: some of the early season woes from him are not
- 43:49Speaker 5: necessarily in the rear view, but it's clear that he's
- 43:53Speaker 5: starting to get the play and fitting in a little
- 43:55Speaker 5: bit even more on that team and in that locker room.
- 43:59Speaker 5: So first period, nothing really going on. The second period, though,
- 44:04Speaker 5: I don't know about you, Brandon. I was getting ready
- 44:05Speaker 5: to snap. I was hot when Uroff ends up with
- 44:12Speaker 5: a power play goal on what was some very questionable calls.
- 44:17Speaker 5: I can live with the interference call against Krebs, which
- 44:21Speaker 5: obviously leads to the power play. It's what came afterwards
- 44:24Speaker 5: that I think really made us hot.
- 44:26Speaker 4: So I don't know. Take us through the second period
- 44:28Speaker 4: here and what Minnesota got up to.
- 44:30Speaker 1: Yeah, I think if this game would have been 2-0 Minnesota,
- 44:32Speaker 1: we probably would have just circled this part of the show,
- 44:34Speaker 1: and this would have been all we'd be talking about
- 44:36Speaker 1: was the sequence of penalties. But the only other thing
- 44:40Speaker 1: that I wanted to mention from the early in the
- 44:41Speaker 1: second was Mallenstein keeping on the 3-on-1 and hitting the
- 44:45Speaker 1: far post. That was a really good opportunity for Buffalo.
- 44:48Speaker 1: He fired it off the far post. You could tell
- 44:50Speaker 1: how mad Mallengoat was after that one. But yeah, the
- 44:53Speaker 1: Sabres had another odd man rush there. I mean, 3-on-1
- 44:56Speaker 1: to get that. And then the Sabres ended up getting
- 44:58Speaker 1: another penalty. with McLeod slashing Coleman's stick in half and
- 45:02Speaker 1: the Sabres were able to kill that one off. But,
- 45:05Speaker 1: and it actually had another shorthanded opportunity. Norris and Benson
- 45:09Speaker 1: had that one where Norris picked up the puck on
- 45:11Speaker 1: the half wall and got it up to Benson and
- 45:13Speaker 1: they had a nice opportunity there, but Benson got stopped
- 45:17Speaker 1: and then Bobby Brink hit the crossbar on the power play.
- 45:20Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, we might as well just kind
- 45:22Speaker 1: of skip ahead to the year off goal because Krebs
- 45:25Speaker 1: got called for interference in the neutral zone or coming
- 45:27Speaker 1: back into the defensive zone. near the line on Eric's neck.
- 45:30Speaker 1: And by the rules, it is an interference penalty. Like
- 45:33Speaker 1: as much as, as the Sabres fans were mad about it.
- 45:36Speaker 1: And I think even Lindy was a little bit like,
- 45:37Speaker 1: come on, what was that? But it was a little
- 45:39Speaker 1: bit of incidental contact, but as a defender, you know,
- 45:43Speaker 1: it is a penalty. And then it leads to the
- 45:46Speaker 1: year off goal near circle, just one timer short side on,
- 45:49Speaker 1: on Colton Ellis.
- 45:50Speaker 3: Really nice shot by, by year off, by the way.
- 45:52Speaker 1: But regardless of that, like obviously the Sabres fans were
- 45:54Speaker 1: upset about that and the goal to go to put
- 45:57Speaker 1: Minnesota up one, nothing and, But if it didn't get
- 45:59Speaker 1: any worse, Chibanov interferes with Doan in the defensive zone.
- 46:05Speaker 1: There was also another interference penalty as the play was
- 46:08Speaker 1: progressing up the ice for Minnesota. And he ends up
- 46:12Speaker 1: getting the goal here and to make it 2-0. So
- 46:15Speaker 1: the Sabres, one, take an interference penalty on the goal
- 46:18Speaker 1: that opened it up for Minnesota. And then they don't
- 46:20Speaker 1: get two interference calls on the same shift that lead
- 46:23Speaker 1: to Minnesota's second goal. And this is where obviously, you know,
- 46:27Speaker 1: if things would have been different in this game, that's
- 46:29Speaker 1: where we would have been talking about tonight of exactly
- 46:31Speaker 1: what was going on. The bench, Lindy was going nuts.
- 46:34Speaker 1: The players were going nuts. They almost got called for
- 46:36Speaker 1: an unsportsmanlike penalty. But I know you've got a lot
- 46:39Speaker 1: of thoughts on just that whole sequence.
- 46:41Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 46:42Speaker 3: So a couple of things.
- 46:43Speaker 5: If you're listening to this on audio after the fact,
- 46:47Speaker 5: go to the NHL.com game center and go to the
- 46:50Speaker 5: edge goal visualizer. You can literally see both teams. Interferences
- 46:55Speaker 5: happen on the goal here. You can see the number
- 46:59Speaker 5: 46 from Minnesota interfere with the 91 of Doan down low.
- 47:03Speaker 5: You can see the other one up against the boards
- 47:06Speaker 5: taking Crevier out of the play. Those are pretty gross
- 47:10Speaker 5: calls to miss or to not make after what you
- 47:14Speaker 5: just gave to Krebs. I can live with the Krebs
- 47:18Speaker 5: one if you call at least one of those. But
- 47:24Speaker 5: the fact you don't call either of them after, again,
- 47:29Speaker 5: by this letter of the law, by the rules.
- 47:31Speaker 4: I guess the one on Krebs is interference.
- 47:34Speaker 3: Fine.
- 47:35Speaker 4: I can live with that.
- 47:37Speaker 5: But how does not one of them end up as
- 47:41Speaker 5: even a makeup call of like, okay, like you can't
- 47:45Speaker 5: like pick your poison too. One of them's happening 200
- 47:48Speaker 5: feet from the Minnesota net. The other one's happening 200
- 47:51Speaker 5: feet from the Buffalo net. Like, it doesn't make sense
- 47:54Speaker 5: to me why not one of those was picked up.
- 47:57Speaker 4: As a interference.
- 48:01Speaker 5: Regardless though, I still think that Buffalo could have got
- 48:05Speaker 5: away with that play. If there was a bit of
- 48:08Speaker 5: a better back check from Tage Thompson, like when Q
- 48:12Speaker 5: starts bringing that puck up the ice and he's kind
- 48:15Speaker 5: of at like the Buffalo center dot kind of thing.
- 48:18Speaker 5: Tage is the third man back supporting Dolly and crevier.
- 48:22Speaker 4: In that spot.
- 48:24Speaker 5: And he's picked up the 17, number 17 on the
- 48:26Speaker 5: wild and your goal score, the 49 of Shabanov is
- 48:31Speaker 5: going to come in, throw up the wing and, you know,
- 48:34Speaker 5: take out Krebier in the play later on. But to me,
- 48:38Speaker 5: it's like Thompson stops up at the top of the
- 48:41Speaker 5: circle and allows Shabanov to come up behind him. And
- 48:46Speaker 5: I just think with a guy, the size of Tage,
- 48:50Speaker 5: with the reach that he has, If you want to
- 48:53Speaker 5: be the center of your line and you want to
- 48:55Speaker 5: be that third man back, you want to be that
- 48:58Speaker 5: first forward back, you've got to have just a touch
- 49:02Speaker 5: more Charlie hustle to your game that you are not
- 49:05Speaker 5: getting beat by that guy, especially when you already had
- 49:08Speaker 5: position on him coming back. And I'm not dogging on Tate.
- 49:12Speaker 5: It's not like this is a regular thing in his
- 49:15Speaker 5: game or anything like that.
- 49:17Speaker 4: But to me, it's just those are the kind of little.
- 49:20Speaker 5: plays that when we talk about whether Tate should be
- 49:22Speaker 5: on the wing or be a centerman it's stuff like
- 49:27Speaker 5: that that just kind of is like how can how
- 49:30Speaker 5: can we keep going down this path of him being
- 49:32Speaker 5: a centerman if he just can't make the like you
- 49:36Speaker 5: just can't make that play you just can't make that
- 49:38Speaker 5: play so that That's all I want to see. And again, obviously,
- 49:41Speaker 5: the Sabres get back into it. It's another big moment, too,
- 49:44Speaker 5: where they could have stopped the bleeding if Tage steps
- 49:45Speaker 5: up with that, right? Instead, now you're 2-0. You're going downhill.
- 49:52Speaker 5: Credit to the team. Credit to the bench. Credit to
- 49:54Speaker 5: the coaching staff. How many other teams in the last
- 49:58Speaker 5: seven years would we have seen completely fall apart? And
- 50:02Speaker 5: it'd be 3-0 or 4-0 or 5-0 by the end
- 50:05Speaker 5: of that period alone because those two goals went in.
- 50:09Speaker 1: And under the circumstances that they did. I think it's
- 50:12Speaker 1: warranted too, because Shabanov didn't, it was like a loose puck.
- 50:15Speaker 1: Like he picked it up off of somebody. And I mean,
- 50:18Speaker 1: the Sabres in the coverage, like if they would have
- 50:20Speaker 1: been in the right position, they would have been able
- 50:22Speaker 1: to just pick up that loose puck.
- 50:23Speaker 3: No problem.
- 50:23Speaker 1: And he is able to pick that up and then
- 50:25Speaker 1: shovel it in. I mean, I can't even blame really
- 50:27Speaker 1: Colton Ellis on this goal either.
- 50:29Speaker 7: No.
- 50:29Speaker 1: So it's, you know, for Minnesota, it's, I just think
- 50:32Speaker 1: the whole sequence, right? Like the, the, the non penalties
- 50:35Speaker 1: that just made it worse. And as Lindy said, like
- 50:37Speaker 1: you're mad at people at that moment, but you can't
- 50:39Speaker 1: let it affect you. And like you said, how many
- 50:41Speaker 1: times in the 14 year drought with that team just
- 50:43Speaker 1: have collapsed and crumbled.
- 50:45Speaker 3: And that ends up being a five, nothing loss. Right.
- 50:47Speaker 1: So the shots were 12, 12 after the second. So
- 50:50Speaker 1: real high shot total in the, in that game through
- 50:53Speaker 1: 40 minutes. And I'm being sarcastic, obviously, but early in
- 50:56Speaker 1: the third, as you mentioned, for the Sabres to be
- 51:00Speaker 1: able to get that goal at the 3.55 mark of
- 51:02Speaker 1: the third period. Owen Power, as I mentioned earlier, with
- 51:05Speaker 1: the crowd screaming at him to shoot the puck after
- 51:07Speaker 1: he had just missed a one-timer in the slot right
- 51:11Speaker 1: before that play. He got the puck back, the Sabres
- 51:14Speaker 1: circled it around, and then Power is able to find,
- 51:18Speaker 1: or I don't know if he was going for Ausland
- 51:20Speaker 1: or what was the play there, but he ends up
- 51:22Speaker 1: banking it off Noah Ausland's right leg and it redirects
- 51:25Speaker 1: past Wahlstadt for the Sabres to finally get on the
- 51:28Speaker 1: board here. And obviously that was the one that for
- 51:31Speaker 1: the Sabres, they really needed to just get one past
- 51:33Speaker 1: the Minnesota goaltender. And it took them, you know, three
- 51:36Speaker 1: minutes into the final period to do it, but obviously
- 51:39Speaker 1: it was what they needed.
- 51:41Speaker 4: And there you go, right?
- 51:41Speaker 5: That you look at the assists on that one power
- 51:43Speaker 5: and Darlene on the ice as a pairing together in
- 51:47Speaker 5: that moment with Osling good going to the net. It
- 51:49Speaker 5: does actually kind of felt like I felt like anyways,
- 51:52Speaker 5: that power actually tried to go for the bank shot there.
- 51:54Speaker 5: And again, everybody yelling at him to shoot. This is,
- 51:58Speaker 5: I think, the early things that we are seeing from
- 52:01Speaker 5: Owen Power that I think has all of us as
- 52:03Speaker 5: a fan base really excited. It feels like these plays
- 52:08Speaker 5: existed in Power's brain, but not maybe in his skill set.
- 52:13Speaker 5: Maybe he hadn't figured out the kind of skating that
- 52:15Speaker 5: he needed to do, the kind of heads up, the
- 52:18Speaker 5: vision that he needed to have. He's tried things like this,
- 52:22Speaker 5: I would say, from the time he broke into the NHL,
- 52:25Speaker 5: whether they have worked or not. chances are they have
- 52:28Speaker 5: not worked. And we're all kind of like, what are
- 52:30Speaker 5: you doing? You're just lumbering through the offensive zone with
- 52:33Speaker 5: no kind of aimlessly. Now it's like every single time
- 52:38Speaker 5: he stops up, every decision, everything you see him do
- 52:42Speaker 5: feels like it is purposeful. It feels like he has
- 52:46Speaker 5: good vision for where he is trying to go. It
- 52:49Speaker 5: looks like if he's not able to find the passing
- 52:52Speaker 5: lane or the shooting lane he wants, he knows where
- 52:54Speaker 5: the open ice that he wants to.
- 52:55Speaker 4: Take the puck to is.
- 52:57Speaker 5: I am just really, really impressed with the offensive game
- 53:01Speaker 5: that we are seeing out of Owen Power. Obviously, defensive
- 53:04Speaker 5: warts will happen still. But tonight, I thought he was
- 53:08Speaker 5: really solid on the back end as well. And again,
- 53:10Speaker 5: if the puck is always on your stick, you don't
- 53:12Speaker 5: really have to worry about playing defense. And tonight, it
- 53:15Speaker 5: just really was on a string for a guy like
- 53:17Speaker 5: Owen Power and really drove home some of the offense
- 53:21Speaker 5: and some of the opportunities that the Sabres were able
- 53:24Speaker 5: to capitalize on.
- 53:25Speaker 1: And kind of like we saw in the Chicago game,
- 53:27Speaker 1: the game tying goal for the Sabres comes out of
- 53:29Speaker 1: nowhere off of a Peyton Krebs getting the puck in
- 53:31Speaker 1: the neutral zone. He gained the zone, made a nice
- 53:34Speaker 1: touch pass with, I believe that was, was that Darlene?
- 53:39Speaker 3: Yeah, it was Darlene because then it ends up being
- 53:43Speaker 3: Owen Power. Sorry, it was Power. No, no, it was Thompson,
- 53:47Speaker 3: wasn't it? I think it was Thompson.
- 53:49Speaker 5: Thompson got the goal, but there was actually a give
- 53:50Speaker 5: and go between Krebs and Power. in the neutral zone
- 53:54Speaker 5: that moved that puck across the line after Darlene had
- 53:57Speaker 5: actually turned, like taken possession of the puck. And, and, um,
- 54:01Speaker 5: really actually it's kind of, uh, yeah, it's actually just,
- 54:04Speaker 5: it's Krebs going and getting that loose puck and then
- 54:06Speaker 5: feeding its power back and forth. And then, yeah, Tage
- 54:09Speaker 5: just doing what Tage does. And when you give him space,
- 54:12Speaker 5: he's going to be dangerous. And, uh, you know, I,
- 54:14Speaker 5: I completely redeemed himself in my eyes. Again, I was
- 54:18Speaker 5: really critical of him on that second goal and how
- 54:20Speaker 5: he could have been the stopping force, but, goes and
- 54:23Speaker 5: scores the tying goal you know it's not it's not
- 54:28Speaker 5: what am i going to say about it but that's
- 54:30Speaker 5: that's what you want a guy like tage to do
- 54:33Speaker 5: who is a leader on your team who has the
- 54:35Speaker 5: offensive capabilities he does with the game on a stick
- 54:38Speaker 5: with a shot in open air open ice like that
- 54:42Speaker 5: take that shot and bury it and.
- 54:43Speaker 3: Make them pay in the slot he just you know,
- 54:46Speaker 3: just a great shot.
- 54:47Speaker 1: And again, I think they took the secondary assist away
- 54:49Speaker 1: because Krebs, I think dumped the puck in and then
- 54:51Speaker 1: picked it up on the half wall and then made
- 54:53Speaker 1: the beautiful play to, I don't know how Tate Thompson's
- 54:55Speaker 1: wide open there. We're not the Minnesota wild podcast, but
- 54:58Speaker 1: for them to leave Tate Thompson wide open in the
- 55:00Speaker 1: slot like that, that's definitely not a recipe for success
- 55:03Speaker 1: for Minnesota.
- 55:05Speaker 3: And he gets the game tied, you know, in one,
- 55:07Speaker 3: one snap of a finger, right?
- 55:08Speaker 1: Even if it wasn't Tate's best game, he comes up
- 55:11Speaker 1: with a big performance there, gets the game tied. And
- 55:13Speaker 1: even later in, in like the, near the end of regulation,
- 55:16Speaker 1: Walstat comes up with that massive glove save on page,
- 55:20Speaker 1: almost from the same spot on the glove. Like Walstat
- 55:24Speaker 1: earned them a point tonight after they were up to nothing,
- 55:26Speaker 1: because that should have been a goal 99 out of
- 55:29Speaker 1: a hundred times, but he made, you know, just an
- 55:31Speaker 1: incredible glove save late to, to get that thing to overtime.
- 55:35Speaker 4: Fool me once shame on you.
- 55:36Speaker 5: Right. And, uh, uh, Walstat adjusted his game to, uh,
- 55:40Speaker 5: what the Sabres were throwing at him in that third period,
- 55:42Speaker 5: that barrage of shots where all of a sudden everything
- 55:45Speaker 5: like the Sabres were able to, to get on net
- 55:49Speaker 5: seem to be dangerous, seem to potentially have the chance
- 55:52Speaker 5: to end this game early.
- 55:54Speaker 7: Right.
- 55:54Speaker 5: You know, kind of like Kool-Aid's goal against Chicago, where
- 55:57Speaker 5: that game seemed like it was probably going to get
- 56:00Speaker 5: to the extra frame and then we'll see what happens.
- 56:02Speaker 5: And then all of a sudden Kool-Aid ends, not ends it,
- 56:04Speaker 5: but puts the Sabres in that position. kind of felt
- 56:07Speaker 5: like tage or somebody was going to do the exact
- 56:09Speaker 5: same thing in this third period. Obviously that didn't happen,
- 56:13Speaker 5: but still to be able to fight back score, score
- 56:16Speaker 5: two goals in the third, when you need a most,
- 56:19Speaker 5: that's a good thing about this team. They've already proven
- 56:22Speaker 5: they're never out of it. I mean, even against Columbus,
- 56:25Speaker 5: it's not like, I think there was probably a couple
- 56:27Speaker 5: of times on the couch. We turned to each other
- 56:29Speaker 5: and said, ah, it's over, but it's still kind of
- 56:32Speaker 5: felt like if they just got one back, let's see
- 56:35Speaker 5: what could happen kind of thing. And, And definitely in
- 56:38Speaker 5: these two games at home, you cannot count the Sabres
- 56:41Speaker 5: team out until the buzzer ends.
- 56:44Speaker 1: And this is what Krebs can do, right? He can
- 56:45Speaker 1: make plays like this. He's a solid utility guy. He
- 56:48Speaker 1: can grind. He can get those pucks. He can skate.
- 56:51Speaker 1: And they like to move him up with Tage on
- 56:53Speaker 1: the top line for some shifts, right? I mean, how
- 56:55Speaker 1: many times have we seen it in the playoffs last
- 56:57Speaker 1: year as well? So that was important there to get
- 56:59Speaker 1: that game tied. Big block on Boldy near the end
- 57:02Speaker 1: of regulation as well by Buffalo. And the shots end
- 57:04Speaker 1: up being 21-18 at the end of the third period.
- 57:07Speaker 1: The Sabres had that late power play when Mata high-sticked McLeod,
- 57:12Speaker 1: I believe, to get that power play opportunity where Tage
- 57:15Speaker 1: was robbed by Wolstad. So it ends up getting to overtime,
- 57:18Speaker 1: which is crazy because the Sabres were down 2-0 in
- 57:21Speaker 1: this game and could have won it in regulation. So
- 57:23Speaker 1: I don't know if there's much you want to mention
- 57:25Speaker 1: about the overtime period. uh, leading up to Owen powers goal,
- 57:28Speaker 1: but it was, it was pretty exciting out there. Two
- 57:30Speaker 1: teams that can fly and skate odd man opportunities back
- 57:33Speaker 1: and forth guys gassed on certain shifts. But, um, if
- 57:36Speaker 1: there's anything you want to mention, then you can take
- 57:38Speaker 1: us to, uh, to the, the game winning goal. I
- 57:40Speaker 1: only wrote down cool each miss, uh, Kulik missing on
- 57:42Speaker 1: the two on one chance early on.
- 57:45Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 57:45Speaker 5: I really thought Kulik was going to be another guy
- 57:47Speaker 5: going back to back for game winners. That I, you know,
- 57:52Speaker 5: looking at the shots, like I was kind of like, oh,
- 57:54Speaker 5: Buffalo only had three that actually got to Walsett in
- 57:57Speaker 5: that overtime. It felt like Buffalo carried the play through
- 58:00Speaker 5: much of the overtime. I thought everybody was very poised,
- 58:03Speaker 5: very patient. There was no forcing of plays through on
- 58:07Speaker 5: the Buffalo side of things in terms of, you know,
- 58:09Speaker 5: I think there's been times where maybe a defenseman makes
- 58:12Speaker 5: a drop pass or maybe throws it to an area
- 58:14Speaker 5: where a guy was or used to be or whatever.
- 58:17Speaker 5: I thought they were just so much more poised with
- 58:19Speaker 5: the puck. And I almost wonder if that defensive work
- 58:23Speaker 5: they did the night before or the day before in practice,
- 58:26Speaker 5: if that had anything to do with their calm and
- 58:28Speaker 5: their poise with the puck in the extra frame with
- 58:31Speaker 5: the three-on-three setup. Obviously, a huge save from Colton Ellis
- 58:35Speaker 5: at one point there in that overtime, too, to kind
- 58:37Speaker 5: of squeeze it on Boldy. Squeeze that, shut down the play,
- 58:41Speaker 5: get a faceoff, and the Sabres were able to escape
- 58:45Speaker 5: that moment. You know, when you needed Ellis tonight, I
- 58:49Speaker 5: thought he was very, very solid. So and that was,
- 58:52Speaker 5: I think, the biggest moment for him to step up
- 58:54Speaker 5: and make a save. And and also, I think 2025,
- 58:57Speaker 5: 26 Ellis drops that puck or blockers it away into
- 59:02Speaker 5: a dangerous area and everybody starts scrambling again. It sounds
- 59:06Speaker 5: like a lot of the work that Ellis put in
- 59:09Speaker 5: over the summer was on. rebound control or at least
- 59:12Speaker 5: controlling the puck with where he's going to position things
- 59:15Speaker 5: and how he can himself stay in position better as
- 59:19Speaker 5: opposed to having to force himself into those diving, sprawling,
- 59:22Speaker 5: erratic saves that I was so critical of last year.
- 59:28Speaker 5: You know, we all love Dominic Hasek as Sabres fans,
- 59:31Speaker 5: but we don't need another Dominic Hasek in today's game
- 59:34Speaker 5: flopping all over the net because that's just not the
- 59:36Speaker 5: way the position's played anymore. It's fun to see, but
- 59:41Speaker 5: I liked the version of Colton Ellis that we got
- 59:43Speaker 5: tonight much more than some of the performances that stick
- 59:46Speaker 5: out in my brain from last season. So that was
- 59:50Speaker 5: the biggest thing I think that led up to that
- 59:52Speaker 5: opportunity for Owen Power to finish this game.
- 59:55Speaker 1: Yeah, Ellis was 18-20 on the night, and yeah, Owen Power,
- 59:58Speaker 1: just what a way to cap that off. Yuri Kulik
- 1:00:02Speaker 1: finds him, and he just buries it for Owen Power,
- 1:00:05Speaker 1: just his first goal of the season, but a lot
- 1:00:07Speaker 1: of Sabres fans are expecting a breakout from him on
- 1:00:09Speaker 1: the offensive side, including you, maybe having to play a
- 1:00:13Speaker 1: little bit less defensively with a guy like Bowen Byram
- 1:00:15Speaker 1: not there anymore, although Zellweger is an offensive defenseman as well,
- 1:00:19Speaker 1: but for him to get that shift in three-on-three overtime,
- 1:00:21Speaker 1: you really saw Owen Power be able to to get that, uh,
- 1:00:24Speaker 1: that opportunity. And he buried it because there were so
- 1:00:26Speaker 1: there were probably five or six chances for both teams
- 1:00:29Speaker 1: in this overtime that could have ended it.
- 1:00:31Speaker 3: And for Owen power, I thought it was going to
- 1:00:32Speaker 3: a shootout to be honest with you, Jonathan.
- 1:00:33Speaker 1: And then that late, late opportunity power just kind of
- 1:00:36Speaker 1: cuts down and buries it.
- 1:00:38Speaker 3: But, um, I don't know if you got any thoughts
- 1:00:40Speaker 3: on that one.
- 1:00:41Speaker 5: Yeah. I, you know, I, I, I was kind of
- 1:00:42Speaker 5: with you on that whole shootout kind of style of
- 1:00:45Speaker 5: the way things were going to go.
- 1:00:46Speaker 4: I mean, it's yes. We're all set.
- 1:00:47Speaker 5: He's one of the best goalies in the league in a,
- 1:00:50Speaker 5: in a shortened, uh, I don't know if he's quite
- 1:00:52Speaker 5: a 60 game guy yet, but he's shown time and
- 1:00:54Speaker 5: time again that he's going to be a wall and
- 1:00:56Speaker 5: step up in big moments. I think that that overtime again,
- 1:01:00Speaker 5: you know, I was hard on Pat on Thompson in
- 1:01:03Speaker 5: that one play. I got to give him his flowers,
- 1:01:05Speaker 5: taking it to the neck, being direct and the way
- 1:01:08Speaker 5: that Yuri Kulik followed up going below the red line
- 1:01:12Speaker 5: that really sucked back the Minnesota players and really allowed
- 1:01:15Speaker 5: for power to come in and have a wide open shot.
- 1:01:19Speaker 5: Kaprizov was just not in a position where he was
- 1:01:21Speaker 5: going to be able to get in front of that
- 1:01:22Speaker 5: puck or to pick up power in any sort of
- 1:01:24Speaker 5: way because they all got sucked back from Thompson and
- 1:01:27Speaker 5: Kulik going back down there low.
- 1:01:29Speaker 4: And again, it just is.
- 1:01:31Speaker 5: More fuel to the fire or more proof for me
- 1:01:34Speaker 5: that Thompson and Kulik, I want to see those two
- 1:01:38Speaker 5: pair up on that top line at some point this season.
- 1:01:42Speaker 4: Maybe we'll get there. Maybe they'll keep it spread out.
- 1:01:44Speaker 5: I don't know, but The more I've seen of Yuri Kulik,
- 1:01:47Speaker 5: the more faith I have that this guy is truly
- 1:01:49Speaker 5: ready to be right up where he left off a
- 1:01:52Speaker 5: couple of seasons ago on the top line playing with Thompson.
- 1:01:56Speaker 4: And I believe it was, was Benson actually. So I I'm, I'm.
- 1:02:00Speaker 5: Very happy for all the players that were on the
- 1:02:03Speaker 5: ice for that overtime goal. Happy for power to get
- 1:02:05Speaker 5: that one kind of feels like it wasn't his first, like,
- 1:02:08Speaker 5: I don't know. It feels like he's been on in
- 1:02:10Speaker 5: on so many goals this year already. I mean, he's
- 1:02:12Speaker 5: got four assists, so it makes sense. So up to
- 1:02:14Speaker 5: five points in three games for Owen Power. If you
- 1:02:17Speaker 5: haven't picked him up in your fantasy hockey leagues yet,
- 1:02:19Speaker 5: definitely should do that. I think I'm going to have
- 1:02:21Speaker 5: some roster moves to make in a couple of leagues
- 1:02:25Speaker 5: once this episode's done.
- 1:02:27Speaker 3: Absolutely.
- 1:02:27Speaker 1: So the Sabres take this one by a 3-2 final,
- 1:02:29Speaker 1: a comeback victory against the Minnesota Wild in overtime. And yeah,
- 1:02:34Speaker 1: an exciting one down there at Key Bank Center, another
- 1:02:36Speaker 1: one on Thursday, and we'll be back here for another
- 1:02:38Speaker 1: postgame on Saturday. Before we get out of here, though,
- 1:02:40Speaker 1: We're going to put Jonathan on the spot with our
- 1:02:42Speaker 1: stick tap of the game brought to you by Culley's
- 1:02:43Speaker 1: original sports bar, the place to spend pre and post
- 1:02:46Speaker 1: game for every Buffalo Sabres game here in the Niagara region,
- 1:02:48Speaker 1: home and away all season in the heart of downtown St.
- 1:02:51Speaker 3: Catherine's on 2020 to 23 St. Paul street.
- 1:02:55Speaker 1: Checked out their hours and menu at Culley's.com Culley's original
- 1:02:57Speaker 1: sports bar.
- 1:02:58Speaker 3: It happens here. Jonathan, who's your player of the game
- 1:03:00Speaker 3: going to tonight for the Sabres?
- 1:03:03Speaker 5: I think it's gotta be my boy on power. Two
- 1:03:05Speaker 5: points on the night driving factor offensively. and a much
- 1:03:09Speaker 5: cleaner defensive game from Owen Power, I thought, as well. Really,
- 1:03:13Speaker 5: I think this is a game that showed off what
- 1:03:15Speaker 5: Owen Power is going to be capable of and why.
- 1:03:20Speaker 4: He is a first overall pick.
- 1:03:21Speaker 5: I think this is the guy who's destined for a
- 1:03:24Speaker 5: breakout on the back end, destined to be in the
- 1:03:26Speaker 5: conversation amongst top 20, maybe top 15.
- 1:03:30Speaker 4: Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Maybe I'm getting crazy.
- 1:03:32Speaker 5: But I think Owen Power is going to be one
- 1:03:34Speaker 5: of those guys that we're going to be talking about
- 1:03:35Speaker 5: as a prime player for years to come on the
- 1:03:39Speaker 5: back end, especially for the Sabres group.
- 1:03:42Speaker 1: Yeah, I think he's going to really shine this season
- 1:03:44Speaker 1: as well. I'm going to give my stick tap to
- 1:03:47Speaker 1: Colton Ellis tonight. I think he, as you mentioned, he
- 1:03:50Speaker 1: sort of proved himself that he can come up with
- 1:03:52Speaker 1: the big saves when he needed to. He had a
- 1:03:53Speaker 1: few big ones on Kaprizov, Boldy, like this Minnesota team
- 1:03:57Speaker 1: is dangerous and they've got some very elite talent on
- 1:04:00Speaker 1: their team. And he came up with some big saves,
- 1:04:02Speaker 1: even when they were down to nothing to keep it
- 1:04:05Speaker 1: a two nothing game, even though the the shot volume
- 1:04:07Speaker 1: wasn't there. I felt like Minnesota had, you know, it's
- 1:04:09Speaker 1: kind of sort of like we, Zach and I talked
- 1:04:11Speaker 1: about last game with Chicago, not having, they only had
- 1:04:14Speaker 1: 15 shots on net, but I think 10 of them
- 1:04:15Speaker 1: were at least grade a scoring chances.
- 1:04:18Speaker 3: So I think he came up with some big saves
- 1:04:19Speaker 3: when he needed to.
- 1:04:21Speaker 1: And for Luke and in to get a night off
- 1:04:22Speaker 1: and know that Colton Ellis can go in there and
- 1:04:24Speaker 1: give them a performance like this against a really good
- 1:04:26Speaker 1: Minnesota team.
- 1:04:27Speaker 3: I got to give my stick tap to Colton Ellis tonight.
- 1:04:29Speaker 1: If I'm not going to go with Owen power, I
- 1:04:31Speaker 1: just don't, we need to pick somebody else because I,
- 1:04:34Speaker 1: I could pick Owen Power as well, but there were
- 1:04:35Speaker 1: multiple players that led to the Sabre success tonight. Owen
- 1:04:38Speaker 1: Power's final scoreline, if you're not watching on the YouTube version,
- 1:04:42Speaker 1: one goal, one assist, plus three, 29-04 of ice time,
- 1:04:46Speaker 1: 33 shifts, two shots. He had two giveaways and one takeaway.
- 1:04:51Speaker 1: So a solid night all around for Owen Power. He
- 1:04:53Speaker 1: was the only Sabre that was plus three on the night.
- 1:04:56Speaker 1: And it was just a really impressive performance. Anybody else
- 1:04:59Speaker 1: other than Ellis or Power that you want to give
- 1:05:01Speaker 1: a shout out to as an honorable mention?
- 1:05:03Speaker 5: Jack Quinn looked dangerous again. Like I mentioned earlier in
- 1:05:05Speaker 5: the show, he's not just taking shots from the perimeter.
- 1:05:08Speaker 5: He's not just doing one timers. It's not just snapshot.
- 1:05:10Speaker 5: He is taking the puck to the net. He is
- 1:05:12Speaker 5: getting to dangerous areas. He's getting low. He's doing some
- 1:05:16Speaker 5: work behind the net. I don't know if you saw that.
- 1:05:18Speaker 5: I can't remember if it was maybe midway through the
- 1:05:20Speaker 5: third when I think they were still down to one,
- 1:05:22Speaker 5: they were doing some work behind the net with Zach Benson, uh,
- 1:05:25Speaker 5: flanking him. And, you know, that kind of actually, I
- 1:05:27Speaker 5: think helped lead to the Oslin chance that, uh, eventually,
- 1:05:31Speaker 5: you know, power was able to bank in there. So
- 1:05:33Speaker 5: to me, I just, I'm very impressed with Jack Quinn. Um,
- 1:05:37Speaker 5: I'm very high on that him. I'm buying a lot
- 1:05:39Speaker 5: of stock with him. I thought Yuri Kulik had a
- 1:05:41Speaker 5: really great game plus two for the Sabres and assist
- 1:05:44Speaker 5: on the board for the 20. Uh, it's, it, I'm
- 1:05:47Speaker 5: happy with what I'm seeing from this team. It's super early, obviously. Uh,
- 1:05:51Speaker 5: but I think what we're starting to see is that
- 1:05:54Speaker 5: this team is clicking back into place and it just
- 1:05:56Speaker 5: took them maybe a couple of games of playing together
- 1:05:59Speaker 5: and maybe the right chemistry star starting to come together
- 1:06:03Speaker 5: and everybody kind of understanding their role and what's expected
- 1:06:05Speaker 5: of them going forward. So six taps to a lot
- 1:06:10Speaker 5: of guys on this team that Ocelin Quinn Benson line
- 1:06:14Speaker 5: is just so, so fun to watch. I'm still waiting
- 1:06:17Speaker 5: to see the top line get going a little bit.
- 1:06:19Speaker 5: I want to see a little bit more consistency out
- 1:06:20Speaker 5: of page. But as I say that, I mean, the
- 1:06:22Speaker 5: guy hit like two or three posts tonight. He got,
- 1:06:25Speaker 5: a goal, a classic page goal. So I just think
- 1:06:29Speaker 5: that as dangerous as Oslin Quinn and Benson are, I
- 1:06:33Speaker 5: feel as though the Thompson line should be just as dangerous.
- 1:06:36Speaker 5: And maybe that's just because Thompson and them are getting
- 1:06:38Speaker 5: the harder matchup on the night. And that's why they
- 1:06:41Speaker 5: haven't been able to shine and have a breakout game where,
- 1:06:43Speaker 5: but I don't know. I I'm so I'm stoked with
- 1:06:46Speaker 5: what we're seeing. I, I get rave about this team.
- 1:06:49Speaker 5: I was so ready. Like, 10, 15 minutes in the
- 1:06:53Speaker 5: third period. I think I even tweeted out that this
- 1:06:54Speaker 5: was going to be a spicy episode. If things stay
- 1:06:58Speaker 5: in the way they were in the third period, the
- 1:06:59Speaker 5: Sabres just came out and completely redeemed themselves. And again,
- 1:07:03Speaker 5: showed that there is reason to believe in Buffalo once.
- 1:07:07Speaker 3: Again, still.
- 1:07:08Speaker 1: And the amount of shorthanded chances to me, like you,
- 1:07:11Speaker 1: how many McLeod Norris Benson, like so many tonight using
- 1:07:15Speaker 1: the speed, they could have scored three shorthanded goals in
- 1:07:18Speaker 1: this game, at least if they would have been able
- 1:07:20Speaker 1: to hit the net. So, And the amount of odd
- 1:07:22Speaker 1: man opportunities they got as well, you know, Minnesota's defense
- 1:07:25Speaker 1: was a little bit exposed there. You know, I just
- 1:07:28Speaker 1: think that the Sabres, even like if they would have
- 1:07:31Speaker 1: lost this game to nothing, you could have looked back
- 1:07:32Speaker 1: on and said, man, there were parts in that game
- 1:07:36Speaker 1: where they could have scored multiple goals, but for them
- 1:07:38Speaker 1: to be able to come away with a come from
- 1:07:40Speaker 1: behind victory, that's a veteran veteran team that they just
- 1:07:42Speaker 1: came back on and be able.
- 1:07:44Speaker 3: And that's what good teams do.
- 1:07:45Speaker 1: Even in the Chicago game where they clearly didn't play
- 1:07:48Speaker 1: their best, they came away with the two points.
- 1:07:50Speaker 3: And after, you know, a sloppy Columbus opener.
- 1:07:53Speaker 1: They really fed off the home crowd the last two nights,
- 1:07:55Speaker 1: which has been incredible by the way, for the crowd
- 1:07:57Speaker 1: to be that good on a Tuesday night. I think
- 1:08:00Speaker 1: it was, it just shows that the Sabres, if they
- 1:08:03Speaker 1: take advantage of this can have very good home ice
- 1:08:05Speaker 1: advantage throughout the season and sort of maybe have the
- 1:08:09Speaker 1: role reversal of playing so bad in that second round
- 1:08:12Speaker 1: series at home against Montreal.
- 1:08:14Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 1:08:14Speaker 4: You know, even, you know, we talk about special teams.
- 1:08:17Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 1:08:17Speaker 5: They were over two on the power play, but even
- 1:08:19Speaker 5: the power play, I thought looked better. Like, Any other
- 1:08:21Speaker 5: goalie in the league, I think they probably collect a
- 1:08:24Speaker 5: power play goal tonight. I think Jesper Wallstad kind of
- 1:08:27Speaker 5: goalied them on their two opportunities that they had.
- 1:08:30Speaker 4: I still think that there was enough dangerous chances.
- 1:08:33Speaker 5: I thought the adjustments they made putting Ocelan on that
- 1:08:36Speaker 5: first unit, I think that still worked very well for them.
- 1:08:40Speaker 5: So to me, every aspect of the game tonight was good.
- 1:08:44Speaker 5: And yes, 0-4 in the power play column is still
- 1:08:48Speaker 5: not great to see. This deep into the season, you
- 1:08:50Speaker 5: want to see maybe at least one for the amount
- 1:08:51Speaker 5: of chances they've had. But it's hard to complain after
- 1:08:55Speaker 5: a game tonight like tonight i i'm really really uh
- 1:08:59Speaker 5: stoked on what we're seeing from this team so far
- 1:09:00Speaker 5: and i i think it's just something that's gonna they're
- 1:09:03Speaker 5: gonna build on and i think the other thing too
- 1:09:06Speaker 5: is that based on the competition that they've got coming
- 1:09:09Speaker 5: through town in the next little while and then the
- 1:09:12Speaker 5: atlantic series like you mentioned coming up you know it
- 1:09:15Speaker 5: was that next week i i kind of feel like
- 1:09:17Speaker 5: we're really going to know what this team is made
- 1:09:20Speaker 5: of and what their men, their metal is going to
- 1:09:21Speaker 5: be like when it comes to 10 to 15 games
- 1:09:24Speaker 5: into the season. I I'm, it's hard to not get
- 1:09:27Speaker 5: to it overzealous, overexcited, but I'm liking the building blocks
- 1:09:33Speaker 5: and the steps that this team continues to show and
- 1:09:37Speaker 5: have shown, especially over the last four to six periods.
- 1:09:41Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 1:09:41Speaker 1: I mean, they've got three more home games, Dallas, Utah,
- 1:09:43Speaker 1: and then Florida on the Canadian Thanksgiving Monday before the, Montreal, Toronto,
- 1:09:48Speaker 1: Montreal again.
- 1:09:49Speaker 3: That's a big weekend within the Atlantic Division.
- 1:09:51Speaker 1: But if you would have told me tonight, Jonathan, in
- 1:09:53Speaker 1: the second period, or even after the first period, the
- 1:09:55Speaker 1: shots being 4-4 and us having an over-hour postgame show,
- 1:09:59Speaker 1: I would have said you were crazy. But the second
- 1:10:01Speaker 1: half of this game was definitely entertaining with it going
- 1:10:03Speaker 1: to overtime and how everything worked out with the Sabres
- 1:10:05Speaker 1: coming from behind.
- 1:10:07Speaker 3: It was just a great night. I think we had
- 1:10:08Speaker 3: to go over a lot of it tonight.
- 1:10:09Speaker 1: And obviously we'll be back here for the Utah Mammoth
- 1:10:12Speaker 1: one on Saturday night.
- 1:10:13Speaker 3: So I look forward to that too.
- 1:10:15Speaker 5: Yeah, looking forward to it. I think it's going to
- 1:10:16Speaker 5: be a great year of Sabres hockey. Looking forward to
- 1:10:19Speaker 5: chatting about it again coming up on Saturday.
- 1:10:23Speaker 3: Absolutely.
- 1:10:23Speaker 1: So that's when our next broadcast will be here live
- 1:10:27Speaker 1: on the Armchair GM Sports Network YouTube channel and here
- 1:10:29Speaker 1: on Sabres Semantics. Again, thank you to everybody tuning in
- 1:10:31Speaker 1: live here tonight for a late postgame on a weekday.
- 1:10:34Speaker 1: So appreciate you guys supporting us there. Make sure to
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- 1:10:39Speaker 1: your comments. on your thoughts on the game tonight as well.
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- 1:11:12Speaker 1: Howe of 97.7 Hits FM, my name is Brandon Caputo.
- 1:11:15Speaker 1: The Sabres win it 3-2 in overtime over the Minnesota Wild,
- 1:11:18Speaker 1: improving to 2-1 on the 2026-27 campaign. We'll talk to
- 1:11:21Speaker 1: you guys again following the game against the Utah Mammoth
- 1:11:24Speaker 1: right here on Sabre Semantics and the Armchair GM Sports Network.
- 1:11:26Speaker 3: Talk to you then. This is the Armchair GM Sports Network.