Latest / The Armchair GM's Sports Network / Buffalo Sabres 2026-27 Postgame: Game 2 of 84 vs Chicago 4-3 WIN - Sabres Semantics

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Buffalo Sabres 2026-27 Postgame: Game 2 of 84 vs Chicago 4-3 WIN - Sabres Semantics · The Armchair GM's Sports Network

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to the Armchair GM Sports Network.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: This is Saber Semantics, covering all things Buffalo Sabers, exclusively
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: on the Armchair GM Sports Network.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: And welcome into a Saber Semantics postgame show of the
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  Speaker 1: 2026-27 season right here live on the Armchair GM Sports
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  Speaker 1: Network YouTube channel. And thank you to those listening the
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  Speaker 1: next day in your favorite on-demand audio podcast platform. As always,
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  Speaker 1: and Zach Berta, contributing writer for the Hockey Writers. are
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  Speaker 1: with you to break down the Sabres 4-3 victory on
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: their home opener here against the Chicago Blackhawks to open
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  Speaker 1: to get their first win of the season in their
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  Speaker 1: second game following the Columbus the other night on the road. Again,
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  Speaker 1: shows here on the network as well. That will be
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  Speaker 1: on the screen for you guys. Uh, the super chats
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  Speaker 1: are live for you guys here with the monetized YouTube version. So, uh,
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  Speaker 1: we want your thoughts on what you thought of the
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: game as well. So with that said, Zach, I appreciate
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  Speaker 1: you coming on tonight. It's your first appearance on the,
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  Speaker 1: on the saber semantics post game show. And it's the
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  Speaker 1: first one of the year. So, No pressure there, but
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  Speaker 1: you're going to be on the rotation with Jonathan and
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  Speaker 1: Austin with us this season. But yeah, I mean, it
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  Speaker 1: didn't start off so hot, but the Sabres got the
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  Speaker 1: win on the home opener, which they've struggled in. I
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  Speaker 1: believe they were 3-10 in their past 13 home openers
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  Speaker 1: coming in.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, like you mentioned, they got off to a
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  Speaker 4: 2-0 deficit like 11 and a half minutes into the game.
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  Speaker 4: And at that point, I was almost thinking of like
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: the Sabres did it again.
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  Speaker 5: You know, again, it's very early on in the season,
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  Speaker 5: but I was looking at it.
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  Speaker 4: I was like three goals on, what was it, like
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  Speaker 4: five shots, two goals on what, like five shots at
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  Speaker 4: that point. And both goals were just defensive breakdowns and
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  Speaker 4: missed assignments and they weren't helping UPL. And thankfully they
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: were able to come out with that W, but it
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: got a little bit of, I got nervous there, especially
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  Speaker 4: when the Blackhawks went up 3-2.
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  Speaker 5: I was like, this is going to.
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  Speaker 4: Be one of those games where the Sabres are clearly
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  Speaker 4: the better team, but they just weren't able to get
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  Speaker 4: that one extra save or, you know, get that one
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  Speaker 4: extra goal. And thankfully, um, Rasmus Salin, like he seems
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: like he always has, especially over the last couple of years,
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  Speaker 4: he's come up big with clutch goals and he tied
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  Speaker 4: the game up. Then Yuri Kulik, um, who, by the way,
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  Speaker 4: I feel so happy for him after missing most of
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  Speaker 4: last season due to a blood clot with his NHL
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  Speaker 4: career being up in the air. He comes in and, uh,
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  Speaker 4: barriers from the game winning goals so uh yeah glad
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  Speaker 4: to come out with a w here.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah obviously one of the storylines we're looking forward to
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  Speaker 1: coming in was the return of bone byram unfortunately um
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  Speaker 1: he had a personal situation come up and just unfortunate
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  Speaker 1: timing you would love to see you know him return
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  Speaker 1: in his first game to buffalo i'm sure he would
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  Speaker 1: have got a nice ovation for his return graphic just
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  Speaker 1: based off of being part of the team that broke
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  Speaker 1: the drought but uh probably after that i don't know
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  Speaker 1: if it would have been as bad as the patrick
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  Speaker 1: kane booze but Again, I'm not even really that big
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  Speaker 1: of a Bowen Byram hater. It wasn't like he left
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  Speaker 1: Buffalo because he couldn't stand the city. He wanted an opportunity.
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  Speaker 1: He knows there's a generational defenseman in front of him
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  Speaker 1: in Rasmus Dahlin, and he was never really going to
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  Speaker 1: get that opportunity, nor was he ever going to get.
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  Speaker 3: A $ 13.
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  Speaker 1: Million contract with Buffalo with the amount of money they
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  Speaker 1: have tied up into their decor. So I'm not going
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  Speaker 1: to sit here and be a Bowen Byram hater. I
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  Speaker 1: appreciate what he was able to do last year for
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  Speaker 1: the team, but the fans in the building, they have
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  Speaker 1: their opinions, and obviously what they gave Patrick Kane tonight
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  Speaker 1: was well worth it.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I like I'm going to sit here on the
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  Speaker 4: same thing. I was very excited to watch Bowen Byram.
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  Speaker 4: I thought that when he stepped on the ice, whether
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: it was the pregame skate or, you know, obviously standing
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  Speaker 4: ovation when the actual game started. I was very excited
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  Speaker 4: to see what he looked like in the Hawks uniform. Obviously,
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  Speaker 4: his first two games weren't that great. but of course,
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  Speaker 4: like you mentioned, out of a personal matter. Again, I
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  Speaker 4: appreciate for what he did. He was a very good
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  Speaker 4: defenseman on this team over the last two and a half,
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  Speaker 4: three seasons, and he was probably our best player, one of,
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  Speaker 4: in the Boston Bruins series and helped the Sabres get
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  Speaker 4: their first playoff.
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  Speaker 5: Series win in 20 seasons.
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  Speaker 4: Again, like you said, it wasn't a thing of like, oh,
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  Speaker 4: he just didn't like the city or he didn't like
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  Speaker 4: the team or organization at he just played and he
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  Speaker 4: wanted to get his bag and he wanted a bigger opportunity.
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  Speaker 4: And again, he had two potentially even three defensemen in
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  Speaker 4: front of him. I really don't blame the guy for
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  Speaker 4: wanting to really, you know, go out and prove that
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  Speaker 4: he's the number one defenseman.
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  Speaker 5: So.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm kind of in agreeance with that.
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  Speaker 1: So let's, uh, let's take a quick look at the
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  Speaker 1: lineup here, Zach, because, uh, that was something we were
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  Speaker 1: wondering coming in with all the injuries that happened in
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  Speaker 1: the preseason. And obviously Zellweger getting back into the lineup was,
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  Speaker 1: was pretty massive as well.
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  Speaker 3: Um, Oh, there you are. All right. As we're live,
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  Speaker 3: some things happen sometimes.
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  Speaker 1: But there we go. There's the game night lineup. Josh
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  Speaker 1: Norris on the wing with Thompson and Doan up front.
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  Speaker 1: Zach Benson, Noah Ostlund, and Jack Quinn on the second line. Krebs, McLeod,
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  Speaker 1: Hellenus on the third. Malenstein, Kulik, and Carrick as the
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  Speaker 1: fourth line. And then the defense pairs were Darlene Samuelson.
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  Speaker 1: Zell Wigger, as I mentioned, was able to play. Missed
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  Speaker 1: the opener. Power on the second pair. And then Metza
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  Speaker 1: and Crevier with Lukanen as the starter line. what were
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  Speaker 1: your thoughts on how Lindy lineup tonight? I know it
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  Speaker 1: got a little bit jumbled up in that third period
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  Speaker 1: and she ended up taking that shift with Thompson, which
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  Speaker 1: was the game winning goal. But what were your thoughts
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  Speaker 1: on the lineup tonight?
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  Speaker 5: I thought that the lines coming in were fine.
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  Speaker 4: I really, really, really liked that Benson Austin Quinn line.
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  Speaker 4: I've heard nothing but great things about that line all camp.
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  Speaker 4: And obviously they were our best sign against the blue jackets.
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  Speaker 4: And they're probably our best line again in this game.
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  Speaker 4: That line looked great. You know what's something I really
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  Speaker 4: think he might have found something with Krabs, McLeod, and
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  Speaker 4: Helenus in it where Helenus had a couple of really
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  Speaker 4: good opportunities. I think he had three almost like point-blank
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  Speaker 4: opportunities within the first half of the game. Obviously, he
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  Speaker 4: was unable to bury them, but he's going to end
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  Speaker 4: up finding the back of the net. Krabs had one
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  Speaker 4: where he ended up finding Helenus pretty much like in
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  Speaker 4: the middle of the ice when he carried it in
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  Speaker 4: on the left wing and didn't find the back of
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  Speaker 4: the net. But again, those are plays where it's very encouraging.
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  Speaker 4: Like you brought up there, the game winning goal that
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  Speaker 4: Kulik had, I like the fact that Kulik was able
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  Speaker 4: to step up playing with Tejan and Doan up there
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  Speaker 4: on the first side and was able to bury the
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  Speaker 4: goal because he's obviously better than a fourth line player.
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  Speaker 4: But I also get the notion of, listen, there's a
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  Speaker 4: ton of skilled guys in this lineup. And I really
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: think that with Cooley coming back from the blood clock,
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  Speaker 4: he's not going to, you know, be the player that
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  Speaker 4: he was beforehand right off.
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  Speaker 5: You know, give him some time. I think they've given
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  Speaker 5: him plenty of time.
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  Speaker 4: And he showed that he still can put the puck
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  Speaker 4: in the back. And then that you go over to
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  Speaker 4: the blue line. Of course, you know, you have your
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  Speaker 4: bread and butter, Samuelson and Darlene.
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  Speaker 5: Love that.
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  Speaker 4: Zellweger and Power, I thought, had a little bit of,
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  Speaker 4: you know, shakiness and everything like that.
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  Speaker 5: But it almost felt like as the game went on,
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  Speaker 5: they got a little bit better together. I noticed that
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  Speaker 5: Wigger is a very offensive defenseman loves to get up
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  Speaker 5: in the play.
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  Speaker 4: And when Mets and crevy were on the ice, I
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  Speaker 4: didn't think they were too bad, but I think as
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: the season goes along, I think defensively wise, which has
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: been my biggest gripe over the last couple of games,
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: they're going to find their groove and I think there'll
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: be great.
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Zach's got some good articles up armchair, GM sports.com for
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: you guys that like that enjoy the, the written content.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: We're going to be doing a lot of that as well.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: And Zach's a, a big part of that here for
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: our Sabres semantics team this season.
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: Zach, is there anything you want to mention about the pregame?
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  Speaker 1: And I know the, the Atlantic division championship banner was
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: up pregame and, you know, it was a, it was
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  Speaker 1: pretty much a sold out crowd tonight and everything that
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: led to this first season breaking the drought and, and
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: being the first, you know, season of optimism coming off
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: of a playoffs for the first time in 14 seasons. Like,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: what did you think of the atmosphere in the building tonight?
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: Oh, it was great.
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: You know, you, you come off a season that they
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: had last season where 50 wins for the third time
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: in franchise history and winning the division. And now you
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: get to see that division championship banner up in the rafters.
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: And it's a nice stepping stone and it's nice confidence.
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: This isn't like a team that Barry scraped into the
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: playoffs last season that is looking to take another step
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  Speaker 4: this season to potentially get in.
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  Speaker 5: A top three spot.
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  Speaker 4: This is a team that was the second best team
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  Speaker 4: in the Eastern conference that won their division by more
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  Speaker 4: than one game by three points specifically and And now
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  Speaker 4: they come into the season and I overall felt like
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  Speaker 4: the fans, you can feel the excitement in the building.
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: You can feel the.
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  Speaker 4: Anticipation you can feel like the just let's let's get
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: the puck going right because especially early in the season
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: i almost felt like that from the players as well
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: to start the game it almost felt like they were
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: too antsy not that they were trying to be too
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: cute but they wanted to put on a good show
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: for the fans to finally feel excitement for the team
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  Speaker 4: And that almost felt like a bad thing for the team.
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  Speaker 5: And then they settled in. And, you know, the rest
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  Speaker 5: is history.
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  Speaker 4: But listen, if this team keeps winning, if they keep
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: putting on games like this, the atmosphere for all 40, well,
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: not 42 home games a season is going to be
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: sold out every single game. And, you know, the atmosphere
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: is honestly probably the best it's been in years.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: So we'll move forward here. Quickly going over our game
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: stats tonight, brought to you by the Niagara Denture Clinic,
• 10:46
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• 10:48
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• 10:56
  Speaker 3: Zach, you can see it on the screen there. Shots
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: 2815 for Buffalo.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: After the first, it was 13 five and Chicago had
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: the lead there.
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  Speaker 3: So that wasn't ideal.
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  Speaker 1: Face-offs tonight, 52.5% for Buffalo, 47.5 for Chicago, uh, Chicago
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  Speaker 1: took three minor penalties. Buffalo two hits 29, 18 in
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: favor of Buffalo block shots, 11, eight Chicago giveaways was
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: 23 to 15 on the lesser or not, not in
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: the good category for Buffalo to lead. And then four
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: takeaways to three in favor of Chicago. Did anything stand
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: out to you? I know the shots on goal were
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: pretty lopsided tonight, but anything else you want to mention
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: from just the general game step?
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think power play is a, is obviously a
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: sore thumb for me to still, Nazar had a great
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: chance on a penalty kill and obviously on the opposing
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: side did not really like that at all.
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: Obviously it happens from time to time, you know.
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: But you go 0 for 5 against Columbus and 0
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: for 3 against Chicago and Chicago honestly does not have
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: a great penalty kill. Like obviously they look like they
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: did a really good job, but it even felt like
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: still the entries were not clean and when they had
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: the offensive zone, when they had the offensive zone time
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: inside on the power play, it almost felt like they
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: weren't really doing anything. They were kind of standing still
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: and the Sabres all off season, all camp been talking about, well,
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: we have, you know, 50 or 60 pages from our
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: analytics team on how a power play is run.
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: Like now again, it's very early, but I thought that
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: was a very struggle in this game.
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: And other than that, like I thought the Sabres are
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: pretty physical and they're obviously the better team.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: So yeah, the power play obviously is something that everybody
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: wants to harp on. And I know people want to
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: harp on Seth Appert, but he's running Lindy Ruff's power play.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: This is the power play that Lindy Ruff has asked
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Seth Appert to facilitate and sort of implement, right? Like
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: I get like the people that want to, that will
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: always just want to rip on Seth Appert, but it's like,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: this is Lindy Ruff that is, is putting this together.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: So again, as you mentioned, the 60 page, you know,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: essay about potentially how to, how to make the power
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  Speaker 1: play better tonight.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: Didn't look great.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Like you mentioned over three and they gave up some
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: pretty good shorthanded opportunities too, which I didn't like as well, but. Yeah,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, the power play obviously needs to be better.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: I would love to see it at around the 25% range.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm asking for too much there,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: given what it's been the last few seasons. But yeah,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: I think that was pretty much the glaring need there
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: with the game stats.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: Let's move.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: I'm still we're still going to wait for as well.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Lindy Ruff, his postgame, as well as the thoughts from
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: the room as they come in here. So bear with
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: us as we're sort of waiting on that from the room.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: As we say that Lindy Ruff is at the podium.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: So we're going to go to that first sack and
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: then we'll kind of get into the scoring summary and
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: everything like that.
• 13:46
  Speaker 6: So.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Let me just quickly get Lindy's post game going here.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: And that'll be tonight brought to you by Wild Bills
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• 14:03
  Speaker 6: What's your takeaway about some of those defensive issues? Through
• 14:08
  Speaker 6: all the adversity in that game, you found a way. Yeah. Well,
• 14:11
  Speaker 6: you know, like we said, you know, we had all
• 14:13
  Speaker 6: kinds of chances. that we had missed on and we
• 14:16
  Speaker 6: got a great opportunity. So we really felt we were
• 14:19
  Speaker 6: going to get the chances to get back in the game.
• 14:21
  Speaker 6: But we knew that after the first period we talked about,
• 14:24
  Speaker 6: we got to get better defensively. Got to eliminate some
• 14:26
  Speaker 6: of those. I mean, a little bit of a tough break.
• 14:29
  Speaker 6: The one puck went off to the linesman's skate, ends
• 14:31
  Speaker 6: up being a breakaway. But the ones where we're coming
• 14:34
  Speaker 6: back into our own zone, those are ones that, you know,
• 14:39
  Speaker 6: those are players that have been here that know we
• 14:41
  Speaker 6: need to stop in the middle of the ice. And
• 14:44
  Speaker 6: we didn't. We let them get inside. There's not a
• 14:47
  Speaker 6: lot our goaltender could do about those.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: You had told us there were going to be opportunities
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: for Kool-Aid to jump in the top nine at times.
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: McLeod gets hurt. He gets his chance.
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: He's on the ice for Darlene's goal.
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: And he scores that big goal.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: You could tell he was just waiting for that opportunity.
• 15:00
  Speaker 6: I don't think McLeod got hurt. Kool-Aid just went up,
• 15:02
  Speaker 6: and he went down.
• 15:04
  Speaker 7: Lindy, as a coach, and knowing what Yuri has gone
• 15:06
  Speaker 7: through over the last year with the blood clots and
• 15:09
  Speaker 7: health issues, what does it mean to see him back
• 15:11
  Speaker 7: on the ice and score that goal that.
• 15:13
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm so happy for him. I mean, uh, he
• 15:15
  Speaker 6: was so frustrated late last year and watching us in
• 15:18
  Speaker 6: the playoffs and not being able to be part of it.
• 15:20
  Speaker 6: And he was, he was getting his career underway that
• 15:23
  Speaker 6: lasts like 20 games the year before. I mean, huge setback. Uh,
• 15:29
  Speaker 6: he spent a lot of time this summer trying to
• 15:31
  Speaker 6: get his body and just his hockey back in the
• 15:35
  Speaker 6: right place. And, um, I mean, he could have won
• 15:38
  Speaker 6: it just before that, walked in alone and missed that opportunity,
• 15:41
  Speaker 6: but got a second opportunity and put in the back
• 15:43
  Speaker 6: of the net. Then he went out late and won
• 15:45
  Speaker 6: a big faceoff for us. So, you know, I think
• 15:51
  Speaker 6: he embraces the fact that he's playing right now, that
• 15:56
  Speaker 6: that could have gone any direction.
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: Well, I think we may have changed it if we
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: did a nice spot, but.
• 16:07
  Speaker 6: We practice that. I think you know that. We practice
• 16:09
  Speaker 6: that every day. So you can't control whether a line's
• 16:12
  Speaker 6: going to get caught out there or not caught out there,
• 16:13
  Speaker 6: so everybody has to know what to do. And I
• 16:15
  Speaker 6: think that they executed that well. I mean, we've got
• 16:18
  Speaker 6: Helly out there in his first year, and Cooley is
• 16:20
  Speaker 6: really just getting his career underway. But they did a
• 16:23
  Speaker 6: great job with it.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: You mentioned Consta on the ice at the end.
• 16:25
  Speaker 7: He was on the ice for some of the goals tonight.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: But why did you show the.
• 16:30
  Speaker 6: Trust in him? I really thought he was skating well.
• 16:32
  Speaker 6: I thought he skated well. I thought he competed hard
• 16:34
  Speaker 6: on pucks. He was on some goals against, but not
• 16:37
  Speaker 6: necessarily had anything to do with himself.
• 16:39
  Speaker 7: You've seen the first couple games from Jack when he's got.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: A couple goals.
• 16:45
  Speaker 6: Yeah, he could have had, yeah, I think he could
• 16:47
  Speaker 6: have had three tonight easily. He could have had the
• 16:50
  Speaker 6: game-tying goal in Columbus where either he hangs on and
• 16:52
  Speaker 6: puts in the empty net, but he put it underneath
• 16:54
  Speaker 6: the goal, he went off the post. He's really skating well.
• 16:57
  Speaker 6: You know, we talked a lot about last year. You know,
• 16:58
  Speaker 6: he hit that segment where he really was snakebit, just
• 17:00
  Speaker 6: couldn't buy one. But for him to have him start
• 17:04
  Speaker 6: going in right now, I think it's a great sign
• 17:07
  Speaker 6: for us.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Post game audio is courtesy of MSG and the National
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Hockey League, as well as buffalosabres.com and x.com slash buffalosabres.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: All audio rights courtesy of the Buffalo Sabres.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: There was.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff on the Wild Bills auto
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: repair postgame. Something Lindy did bring up was that McLeod
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: didn't get hurt. He made that line switch there. So
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: that was obviously something to monitor there. Jack Quinn, he said,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: could have easily had three goals tonight. Really liked his play.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Didn't really think that they were crisp in that first period,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: but they got better as it went along. So obviously,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: you know, if you're Lindy, you looked at that first
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: game that they played in Columbus and there was a
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: lot to clean up there. And even in the first
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: period tonight, like there was, it obviously didn't go great.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: What are your thoughts about the McLeod situation? Because he
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: was asked if McLeod was an injury and he said, no,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: McLeod didn't get hurt.
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: It was just, he moved him around.
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think that's fine. I honestly think that's fine.
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: First off, I am very glad that he's not hurt
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: because he's probably, he's one of our more important utility guys, right?
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: On face-offs, he can play, obviously on a penalty kill,
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: he can play some second power play minutes, right? And
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: I think it was smart, too, and it worked out.
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: And again, I'm not going to sit here and say
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: McLeod is a bad player by any means. I mean,
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: he only averaged 12 minutes time on ice, 12.02 to
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: be exact, which is third lowest amongst all four. He
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: was there only in front of Mellenstein and Carrick, who
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: both played eight and a half.
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: But you know what?
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: Sometimes you just have to play guys with a hot hand. And,
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: you know, Yuri Kulik had a very good game. Helenus
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: Krebs all had a good game. Of course, you mentioned Quinn,
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: where he easily could have had three goals.
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: I mean, he could have.
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: He should have had at least two goals. He had
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: a nice tap-in, and it just went barely wide, right? So, like,
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: he– I think, you know, glad McCloud's not hurt or
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: anything like that. So, I just– that's all I took
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: away from it.
• 18:56
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  Speaker 6: Hi, this is Dan Dunleavy, play-by-play voice of the Buffalo Sabres,
• 22:32
  Speaker 6: and you are watching and listening to Sabres Semantics.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: We'll move forward here with the scoring summary tonight brought
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: to you by the Niagara Employment Help Center, helping people
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: find work in Niagara since 1983. Check out the job
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  Speaker 1: board at ehc.on.ca or call 905-358-0021 to find your next
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: work opportunity today. as I'm going to pull up the
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: scoring summary here and we can get that to start
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: talking about that a little bit. Cause obviously there's a
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: lot to go over tonight in that, that department. So again, four,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: three for Buffalo, as far as Chicago, they got off
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: to the two, nothing lead there. I found it funny
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: that Razor's keys to the game coming in were better
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: puck battles, keep it simple, and special teams. And two
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: of those three I thought were pretty poor tonight, at
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: least at the start of the game. But, I mean,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: special teams in general wasn't good. I know the penalty
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: kill came up decent, but the power play obviously still
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: something that needs to be corrected there.
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: And they did not win a lot of puck battles
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: in that first period.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: They were leaving Chicago wide open on certain plays that
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: led it to fewer of their first goals, frankly. I mean,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: the Frondell– backdoor play to Bertuzzi is wide open. Like
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: it just, I mean, we'll start off with, with the
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Donato goal. Like, what did you see on that, that
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: opening goal? It happened like immediately the first, the early
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: first shift for Helen Lucy had a really good chance early.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: I think you mentioned that earlier. Uh, Lukanen came up
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: with like a four on two save and at power
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: sort of missed an assignment on, but then Donato, you know,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: found space, uh, as the, as the trailer with four
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: guys that for whatever reason, uh, weren't watching him cut
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: down from the slot and he just buried it for
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: their opening goal.
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: Ron, like that Ryan Donato goal, it just like, I
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: don't want to say it made me mad, but I'm like,
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: there's like three guys at the goal line.
• 24:33
  Speaker 5: And then of course I missed assignment with Ryan Donato.
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: And then when that happened, I'm like, this is the
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: same stuff that losses the Columbus game.
• 24:40
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: Um, so I, I got not happy with that, but again,
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: that first period was very sloppy, really thought they turned
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: it around.
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: Um, just, Oh, I don't know. Just overall, like, you know,
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: somebody has to cover him.
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: Like, I understand there were guys like covering the back
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: door and everything, but then, ryan donato like you said
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: comes in from pretty much like the point he cuts
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: to the middle gets fallen from a pass and it's
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: like an easy tap in there um and then that
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: second goal there as well when they went up to
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: nothing uh just a very you know poor play there
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: just overall defensive by everybody not just the defenseman it
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: wasn't because constant helen who's here on the second goal
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: uh he was the closest guy that was his guy
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: that he just missed um so but overall like the
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: team defense in the first period, I'll just be honest,
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: was bad.
• 25:24
  Speaker 5: It was bad. They tightened up. So, but yeah, the
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: first period, man, defense was not their strength.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: And then Bertuzzi, as I mentioned, sort of the gift
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: backdoor power in Zellweger was the pair that was out
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: there kind of watching as Frondell. And again, he's going
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: to be a really nice young player. Obviously he's a,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: what is he? Second overall pick third overall pick by
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Chicago a few years ago. Like they're obviously very high
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: on this young man, but, He's still in his first
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: full season. Like he didn't even play a full season
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: last year. And for Bertuzzi to be that wide open backdoor,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: like I know that there's a lot of UPL, you know,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: and again, I can definitely be a critic of UPL
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: when it's deserved. And I thought there were some goals
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: in that Columbus game that he definitely should.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: Have had back.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: But when you've got a wide open guy backdoor like
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: that with two defensemen watching Frondell make that move to Bertuzzi,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: like I don't care.
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: If you have Patrick Wad, Dominic Hasek in that, nobody's
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: stopping that.
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: No, I agree.
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: Like I'm looking at the edge visualizer right now, just
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: to get more of a visualization on it. And you
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: can see like there there's three guys chasing, chasing.
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: One guy like in the right wing.
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: And then you have obviously front dog gets a puck
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: from the corner and there's Tyler Bertucci, literally wide open
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: back door.
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: Like you cannot be any more wide open like that.
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: And, that is one of the goals, like as a goaltender,
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: you're trusting your guys to make that player time up
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: or something or be there. And instead there's just no
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: man's land there. You could potentially say that was like
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: a mini two on O. So that, that play, man,
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: when that happened, I'm like, I'm just hanging my head
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: at that point. I'm like you, like I felt bad
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: for you PL at that point. Cause every time I
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: go on Twitter, this dude allows the goal. It's like
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: the world is on fire. Like it's, you know, so I,
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: I don't know. You, you need something. You need at
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: least one guy back door there and nobody was there.
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: So.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Right. And I'm looking at it now and I forgot
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: to hit a share with system audio. So that was
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: why you couldn't hear Lindy on that last one. So
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: I don't know why that button was turned off, but
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: here we are. So if you guys want to listen
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: to Lindy, we'll have to go back and I'll have
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: to edit that for the audio listeners. Cause I don't
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: want people listening in audio and just have it be
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: nothing for about five minutes. So we'll do some, some
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: post edit with that. But, Regardless, getting back to the
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: scoring summary, yeah, 2-0 Chicago. And you could tell the
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: fans were getting antsy there. It just wasn't what you
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: expect out of a home opener, that's for sure, against
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: a Chicago team that we didn't even mention. No Byram,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: no Conor Bedard right now either. So Chicago's going through
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: it right now with the guys out of the lineup.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: And you just expected Buffalo to just be a better
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: team in general than Chicago was on this night. But
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: they finally get something before the end of the period there.
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: Jack Quinn.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: he steps into the middle and fires it from the,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: on the high blocker with traffic to get the Sabres
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: on the board there.
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: And they desperately needed that before the end of the period.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: But Jack Quinn, a lot of people on our network
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: and you know, Dan Dunleavy has said it as well.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: He really thinks Jack Quinn could be a 30 goal
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: scorer for the Sabres this year and should quite frankly,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: should be stepping into a 30 goal scorer with the
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: guy like Alex talk that obviously is not here anymore.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: So for, Jack Quinn to get a goal like that,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: I think was big for his confidence. And if he
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: can stay healthy, that's also been the thing with Quinn
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: over the last few years before last season was him
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: being able to stay on the ice.
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: That's a very encouraging start for him.
• 28:47
  Speaker 5: It's a great start.
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: And I'm so happy for him because he was probably
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: the most obvious breakout player for me with the, like
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: you said, the absence of Alex talk, he was going
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: to be the one guy that's really going to have
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: to take that next step. The team wants to, be
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: competitive again and so far again he has two goals
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: in the first two games uh again he's probably honestly
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: should have six or seven or eight goals at this
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: point like he has gotten so many opportunities and um
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: he just his confidence is at an all-time high right
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: now you can tell when he's part with the puck
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: i remember especially early in his career like instead of
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: shooting the puck because again he has a lethal shot
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: he would just pass it up he would overthink it
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: but i i've I feel like he's starting to realize
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: that when he has a pocket, there's nothing there.
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: With his shots to shoot the pocket.
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: It's going to go in like on a second on
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: his goal today on the first goal for the Sabres, where,
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: like you said, he said he makes a little nifty
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: move like he's going to go cut to the outside
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: and said he cuts back inside and he hesitated for
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: a second. And this is where like he can really
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: take the next step is. He was patient enough to
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: wait for Austin to fully have a screen on Knight.
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: You notice Knight would look to the exact opposite side,
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: and then he took that shot at the exact perfect
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: moment where any goaltender is not going to stop that
• 30:05
  Speaker 4: shot that he ended up having on Spencer Knight. So, again,
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: 30 goals for him I think is very doable this season.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think he's off to a good start with that. And, again,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: they missed a lot of opportunities in Columbus, especially Tage.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: And I wrote down he missed two– glorious chances in
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: the first period i mean that wide open net on
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: the one timer again in his wheelhouse there you know
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: on the on the left flank and then also uh
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: the the second wide open net that he missed the
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: pass he got from zell wigger uh you know he
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: was right in front of the net nobody around him
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: spencer knight sprawling to his left and i don't know
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: if somebody got a piece of it at the very
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: last minute or if he just skied this one over
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: top of the net but that's one you want 72
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: to have back because they outshot chicago 14 5 in
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: the first but they were down to one and I mean,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: if that goal goes in, it's tied before the end
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: of the first period.
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: Like when they ended up going into the second and
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: I almost felt like that goal, that was so huge.
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: And even listen, even if they didn't have it tied
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: up going into the second period, the momentum that they had,
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: like at that point, they.
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: Were all over the Blackhawks.
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: Like after they went down to nothing, Jack Quinn gets
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: that goal about five minutes after The remaining of the
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: second period, literally, I thought they were going to tie
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: it up before the second period. They had glorious chances. Again,
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: Helen News had one of those chances. I know Tate
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: had a couple of chances there in the second.
• 31:27
  Speaker 5: Jack Quinn did. And, you know, like, I don't know.
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: I just really almost it almost felt like this felt
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: like a game at that point of the game where
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: they were going.
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: To win this game and put up like six goals.
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: Obviously, it didn't happen, but it felt like it was
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: going that way, especially going into the second.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: There were a couple of times it felt like pond
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: hockey out there, though. I mean, the team's going back
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: and forth with odd man rushes. Buffalo got really soft
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: in the defensive zone a couple of times on their coverage,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: getting back into the zone like Chicago had a few
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: really good opportunities that like were in tight. Lukanen, I mean, again,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: he he wasn't tested very much, but he did come
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: up with a few nice saves there when Chicago had
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: odd man rushes and Buffalo just kind of got lackadaisical
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: with the D zone coverage coming back into the zone
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: or they had a three on two the other way
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: and it led to an odd man rush the other way.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: There was a lot of that in this game. And again,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: I understand that there's the preseason was shorter than it was.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: The camp was shorter than it's ever been only for
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: preseason games. And it was going to, it's going to
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: be sloppy for the first week or two. I mean,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: hell St. Louis blues shut out the Dallas stars last night.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Are any of us expecting the Dallas stars to be
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: at shut out by the St. Louis blues come December
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: or January?
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: Because I'm not. So it's just, it's early season hockey.
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: It is what it is.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: There's things to, to obviously clean up, but, Playing Columbus
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: and Chicago, you didn't want to come away with no points.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: That's kind of the main takeaway I had from that.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: Going into the second period, though, Zach, we had the
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: face-off win from Tage back to Crevier playing against his
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: old team for the first time.
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: And he takes.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: The shot and Tage with a perfect tip up over
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: top of Spencer Knight. And again, this has been four
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: or five periods coming now for Tage Thompson. He's had
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: so many opportunities, usually his one-timer shots or for him
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: to get a tip in goal from a, from a
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: point shot, you don't really expect that to be his
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: first goal of the season, but obviously that tied it up.
• 33:19
  Speaker 5: Yeah. First off, Tate Thompson, great win.
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: And I want to credit Louis Carvier for this play
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: as well too, because the patience that he had there
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: in the right point, he could have easily just rimmed
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: it around the boards or thrown the puck in deep
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: or just threw it low, hoping that it would find
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: its way in. But he sat there, Tate realized where
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: he needed to be and he got to the front
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: of the net. and the second tage got there crevy
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: just he didn't shoot it hard like he everybody raves
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: about his hard shot he just threw his little snapshot
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: on that tage was able to get a stick on
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: it it was a perfect deflection like you said you
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: would think tage with his iconic one-timer or a ridiculous
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: shot with scores for a score like that but it
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: comes of course off the product of a tip and
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: when this happened i'm like man oh man tage gets
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: on the board like we're so back, baby.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: And you could tell how fired up he was about
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: that one too. He was frustrated in the first period
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: when he missed those two opportunities. And you just know that,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: you know, number 72 has a potential of a 45,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: 50 goal season in them to finally get that first
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: one was, was obviously big first penalty.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: We got in the game.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: Zach wasn't until eight minutes and 21 seconds left in
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: the second period. Don't got called for hooking, which I
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: thought was an interesting call to begin with. But the
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: only thing I took away from that was Malenstein had
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: a really good defensive play. tying up Lardis back door,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: else the right near the end of the power play,
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: Chicago would have went up three, two there. But, um,
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: you know, for, again, there wasn't many penalties at least
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: the first start of this game, but, uh, yeah, that
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: was really the only thing I took away from that. Um,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: and Buffalo got their first power play with three 55
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: left in the second period, Helen news drew the call
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: and obviously they didn't do much on that one.
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: Yeah. The, uh, Again, I don't have much to say
• 35:01
  Speaker 5: on the penalty kick. It was pretty routine. There wasn't
• 35:03
  Speaker 5: anything that crazy, no chances, nothing like that. Almost felt
• 35:07
  Speaker 5: scary as well.
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: That first power play, like, you know, something that I've
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: really liked is Helo News on that first power play.
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: I didn't really expect it coming into camp. I thought
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: he'd be more of a power play two guy. But obviously,
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: Lindy sees the talent. He's gotten chances, obviously. You know,
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: in this game, he had a couple of chances there,
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: of course, went on the power play as well. Overall,
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: I felt like probably their first power play opportunity that
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: we're talking about was probably their best.
• 35:34
  Speaker 5: I felt like they had the most chances. And yeah,
• 35:38
  Speaker 5: that's really all I got on it.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: And then after the Sabres power play expired, just unfortunate.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: They can't get back. They're aghast. Oliver Moore comes out
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: of the box. He's flying out of a cannon. And
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: he takes the pass out of the box. Great play
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: by Frondell again. This was another Really good play by
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: their young centerman there. In the absence of Conor Bedard,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: he really stepped up. And the Sabres, as I mentioned,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: their power play unit was gassed. Power couldn't get back.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: He was at the end of a shift there. It
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: ends up being a three-on-two, and Oliver Moore, like I said,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: takes the pass from Frondell and buries it. So Buffalo,
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: it's not a shorthanded goal, but it's at the end
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: of a power play, and Buffalo's guys are gassed, and
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: Chicago gets the transition there in the neutral zone, and
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: they make it 3-2 before the end of the second.
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: This was a really deflating moment at that point in
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: the game because you're coming off a power play and
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: the guy who literally just took a penalty ends up
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: coming down. Again, it wasn't straight out of the box,
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: but you have pretty much a little bit over a
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: minute left. Then Power had a pretty decent chance. It
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: wasn't anything to rave about, but he comes a little
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: bit lower. Then, of course, like you said, he gets gassed,
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: not able to come back. A great play there by
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: Oliver Moore. He drops it off to Frondell. Then Frondell
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: finds Oliver Moore, who pretty much squeaked in. And now
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: I'm not going to sit here and say that, you know,
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: this is Lukanen's fault because, of course, another two-on-one in
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: the many two-on-ones in the game.
• 37:06
  Speaker 5: But it squeaked through him. It's a save that you
• 37:08
  Speaker 5: want to have if you're Lukanen.
• 37:10
  Speaker 4: I'm not sure really how that's going to count against
• 37:12
  Speaker 4: his goal save above expected. Again, it's one that maybe,
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: you know, if you're looking at it, you're like, damn, like,
• 37:17
  Speaker 4: you know, you could have had it.
• 37:19
  Speaker 5: But also, again, it's a two-on-one. Guys are guys. Like,
• 37:22
  Speaker 5: that's another– miscue on the team defensively.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: In the third, I thought they came up with a
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: really good first shift, Zach. That first shift that Tage's
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: line came up with, they were flying. They had an
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: odd man chance, and Kane took the high-sticking penalty, which
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: to the fans' excitement, I know they did nothing on
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: the power play, but for them to come out down
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: 3-2 at the end of the second with a really
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: good opening shift, I feel like that kind of set
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: the tone. And as you mentioned, just in general, they
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: looked better than the Blackhawks in the second half of
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: this game, even though you know, Chicago had the lead.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, you look at the scoring opportunities and the shots.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: I can't eat like, again, the defense only gave up
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: 14 shots, but again, I feel like five of them
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: were just like a plus chances.
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: Like if you're giving up 30 or 40 shots a
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: game and two of them have a chance of going
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: in like that, that's where the shots on goal for
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: me are sort of inflated or can be deflated. And
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: I can kind of break those down more like You're
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: going to look at the end of this game and
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: see that Chicago didn't have many shots, but they had
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: some really good opportunities that the Sabres just blew some
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: coverages on. But I just kind of went off on
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: a tangent for that because I saw it in the chat.
• 38:35
  Speaker 4: No, like you're totally warranted because, of course, the Sabres
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: had a little ton of chances. But when you look
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: at only 15 shots for the Blackhawks, you're like, oh,
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: like Sabres did pretty good defensively.
• 38:46
  Speaker 5: At points in this game, they really weren't.
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: They had, I would say, from the eye test, again,
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: I don't know the official stat here, but from the
• 38:54
  Speaker 4: eye test, it almost feels like the Blackhawks had an additional, what,
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: five or six scoring chances that were just shots on goal,
• 39:03
  Speaker 4: per se, not missed opportunities or missed net, whatever.
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: It almost felt that way.
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: Every time the Blackhawks got the puck, I was kind
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: of on my toes of like, let's hang still, especially
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: when it was 3-2.
• 39:16
  Speaker 5: I'm like, this is going to go two of three ways.
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: Either there's going to be another scoring chance for the
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: Blackhawks and it's going to go in eventually, or of
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: course I'm going to tie it in that happened with
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: us later on.
• 39:28
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: And again, like just sloppy play in the neutral zone.
• 39:34
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: Like that was also like just something that I, that
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: I watched in the game, like, and the transition for,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: for Krebs on the Sabres game tying goal, like right
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: after that, like the shift before they scored, I was
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: like losing my mind because I, it was just such
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: sloppiness going on in the neutral zone. And I, like,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: I couldn't even, I didn't even see this shift coming
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: because I was so upset beforehand, like going in, I
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: was like, well, it was just such sloppy play for
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: a little bit there. They weren't getting crisp, like zone
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: entries in that third period for whatever reason. And then
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you know, Krebs on a transition,
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: it all started with the Samuelson block, by the way,
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: I should mention that because it was the, the Blackhawks
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: had a really good opportunity. Again, another, odd man rush
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: given up by Buffalo, but Samuelson with a big block.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: And then in transition, Krebs ends up finding Darlene who
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: kind of cut into that center position as you'd heard
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: or didn't hear on Lindy's post game. Somebody asked about
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: that where Darlene essentially became the centerman on that play.
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: And he was just making himself available as a, as.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: An open option and Krebs finds him and he's able
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: to just kind of one touch that. And what a
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: shot over Spencer Knight for a three, three game. And
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: just like that, like by the snap of a finger,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: the Sabres got the game tied.
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that was a play where you needed your top
• 40:49
  Speaker 4: guys to step up, and they did, of course. Like,
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: me talking about Samuelson and Dahlin, where, obviously, as a parent,
• 40:55
  Speaker 4: it was great. Like, that goal, like you mentioned, does
• 40:58
  Speaker 4: not happen without Samuelson going down and blocking that shot.
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: And then, of course, Dahlin, what a release that was, too.
• 41:05
  Speaker 4: Krebs was able to find him in. You know, you
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: usually were used to seeing Don Lien of, you know,
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: when he gets that pass, kind of like dragging it
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: a little bit and then shooting. He just got that
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: and just fired it right away. And he caught Spencer
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: Knight a little bit back towards, you know, in the
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: middle of his crease and back in his net. And
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: he was able to find the corner. And at that point,
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: like that is a play where Don Lien came up clutch.
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: The team needed somebody to step up. And, of course,
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: who else to step up than Rasmus Don Lien to.
• 41:32
  Speaker 5: Tie the game.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was just a perfectly placed shot by him.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: And how about Krebs being able to find it? Because,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: you know, Krebs could have easily taken that shot too.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: But for him to see, you know, Darlene as the
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: trailer there and basically as the forward on the play
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: as well to find him. And what a perfectly placed shot. Like,
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: it's not easy to one touch a puck like that.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: And Darlene just made it look so easy. You know,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: and again, like when you need, as you mentioned, you
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: need your guys to step up, your captain steps up
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: with the game winning goal. It was just a perfect
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: way to end. Not the best home opener. Obviously, there
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: was a lot to correct for Buffalo. But for them
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: to come away with the win and Darlene to be
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: the guy to get the goal and Tage getting a
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: goal as well, they're going to be the catalyst of
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: this team. And they showed why tonight when they needed
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: the most.
• 42:15
  Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely.
• 42:17
  Speaker 4: And I wrote in my last piece for the hockey
• 42:20
  Speaker 4: writers where, you know, one of my three keys was
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: the superstars of this team are going to have to
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: step up.
• 42:26
  Speaker 5: It's great when you.
• 42:27
  Speaker 4: Have guys like Benson, Doan, Helen, who's like and Quinn
• 42:31
  Speaker 4: and contributing. But when the team needs the most, like
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: they need they need Darlene to step up. They need
• 42:40
  Speaker 4: Tej to step up. They need Samuelson to step up.
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: Like they need those guys to step up. And if
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: this team wants to make a deep playoff run and go,
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: you know, potentially farther than the second round this season.
• 42:50
  Speaker 5: They're going to need those guys to step up.
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: And, you know, we're so far we saw it in
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: game two of 84 this season.
• 42:56
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: And I meant, I said game winning goal. I meant
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: game tying goal. Cause the game winning goal ended up
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: going to Yuri Kulich. And yeah, I mean, like I,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: to be honest, Zach, I was setting up the stream
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: while I was trying to watch the end of the game.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: So the game winning goal, you're going to kind of
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: have to walk me through. Cause I saw power make
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: the really nice pass to Kulich, but I didn't, I
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: didn't see how the play, you know, got down the
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: ice and everything, anything like that, but it was power
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: finding Yuri Kulich, you know, bearing it left net front.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: And obviously, as you mentioned, just to, What a moment
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: for him coming back from the blood clot getting a
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: game-winning goal.
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: But how did this whole play come together?
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so it actually was a great play by Tage.
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: So Tage comes in and he enters on the right wing.
• 43:40
  Speaker 4: And Kulik, by the way, found some great space. And
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: Tage finds, let me rewind, Kulik ends up going past
• 43:47
  Speaker 4: Nazar down the left wing towards backdoor to the right
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: of Spencer Knight, our left. And Tej with the nice
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: little nifty pass in between, you know, Nizar and the
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: other Blackhawks defender. And Kulik had a great, he just
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: pretty much whiffed on the first backdoor shot he had.
• 44:03
  Speaker 4: Then what happened was Kulik ends up going back to, sorry,
• 44:08
  Speaker 4: it was Tej that went back to Owen Power.
• 44:10
  Speaker 5: And Owen Power went all back cross crease.
• 44:13
  Speaker 4: Kulik ends up coming from below the goal line and
• 44:15
  Speaker 4: wraps back around on the left wing and was found
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: wide open and buried. It hit off Spencer Knight's blocker
• 44:21
  Speaker 4: and goes in. What a moment for Kulik. I mean,
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: like you said, fighting back from the blood clot. At
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: one point, the Sabres are scared that his career is
• 44:29
  Speaker 4: going to be potentially over when that blood clot happened
• 44:32
  Speaker 4: about a month later after it was discovered and comes back.
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: He ends up having a really good game. So Lindy's like,
• 44:38
  Speaker 4: you know what? Let me throw him out there with
• 44:39
  Speaker 4: the page. And guess what? It ended up working. The
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: game winning goal happened. And again, first start of the
• 44:46
  Speaker 4: game for a reason.
• 44:46
  Speaker 7: So.
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: What a moment for Yuri Kulich and for the Sabres
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: on not their most crisp night to come away with
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: a victory. That's what good teams do is find a
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: way to win even when you don't play your best game.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: And they were far from that tonight, but to be
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: able to come away with the victory there. Shout out
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: to James Payne 5916 with his $ 5 super chat. Appreciate that, James.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: He says, even if they don't trade for Connor H,
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: they will need, will they trade for any goalie? This
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: isn't going to work with UPL. I think we're going
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: to have to, try to save that for another day.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: I think there's going to be a time and a
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: place for that. And again, appreciate James for that. But
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: I think right now they're happy with what, well, I
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: don't know, happy, but I mean, coming into the season,
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: Kekeleinan said that the, those three goalies played well for them.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: And obviously Lyon has been on the shelf a little bit.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: Ellis was projected to possibly start on opening night. If
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: Lukanen wasn't able to go, there were like three tip
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: goals in that Columbus game. do I want Lukanen to
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: maybe have three of those goals back?
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: But, um, I don't know. I, right now I don't
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: want to say that, that Lukanen has been the reason
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: why they've given up so many goals. Cause as I
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: mentioned tonight, yeah, they only gave up 15 shots, but,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: or 14 shots, excuse me, but like Chicago's first two goals,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: he really had no chance on either of them. So, uh, I,
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: I can be critical of goaltenders as much as the
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: next guy, but from what I've seen from Lukanen so far,
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: I just need to see a little bit more of
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: a sample size for I'm ready to, you know, uh,
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: hang them to the cross. I just, I don't, I'm
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: not in that part of the fan base right now.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: I could get there if it, if it's still a
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: thing in five or 10 games and we're still seeing
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: the same, you.
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: Know, sloppy goals going in.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: And maybe some people have a little bit of PTSD
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: from the way the game seven overtime goal went in
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: against Montreal, but I just want to see a little
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: bit more before I start going that way.
• 46:33
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm the same way.
• 46:33
  Speaker 4: And of course I can go on a tangent for
• 46:35
  Speaker 4: about 30 minutes about this, but to keep it short
• 46:38
  Speaker 4: and sweet, If we start, you know, seeing the weak
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: goals going, then yeah, you.
• 46:43
  Speaker 5: Know, like you can have that conversation.
• 46:45
  Speaker 4: But like, you know, I've preached on Twitter and on
• 46:48
  Speaker 4: my podcast as well and with the hockey writers where,
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: you know, right now the defense isn't doing them any favors, honestly,
• 46:54
  Speaker 4: leaving guys wide open back door in the slot, the
• 46:56
  Speaker 4: flexion goals. Like it's like you said about 25 times,
• 46:59
  Speaker 4: like it's sloppy, you know? So, you know, if this
• 47:02
  Speaker 4: is still continuing in 15 games and the defense is
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: tightened up, have that conversation.
• 47:06
  Speaker 5: Right now, I'm all good for now.
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's kind of how I feel about that too, Zach.
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: So let's kind of get to our stick tap of
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: the game tonight, brought to you by Carmine's Pizzeria Italiano.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: Check out their award-winning menu today at carminespizzeria.ca. You've tried
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: the rest, now why not try the best? Carmine's Pizzeria
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: Italiano proudly serving the Niagara community since 2013. Zach, let's
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: give you an opportunity here. We can see sort of
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: the game stats up on the screen there for you
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: guys watching on YouTube version. Um, if you've got more
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: than one, you can give an honorable mention, but who's
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: your stick tap going to tonight?
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, mine is going to be Jack Quinn. Um, I
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: know it's pretty obvious there. Um, I mean, he, like
• 47:46
  Speaker 4: Lindy said, he should have had three goals. I felt
• 47:48
  Speaker 4: like he was the Sabres best player throughout the game.
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: Most consistent player obviously came up huge with that. It
• 47:54
  Speaker 4: almost felt like the momentum shifted when he scored that
• 47:56
  Speaker 4: first goal. Um, yeah, I, I really, really liked the
• 48:00
  Speaker 4: way that Jack Quinn played.
• 48:01
  Speaker 5: He, he made great passes as well too.
• 48:03
  Speaker 4: It wasn't just like he was finding chances with getting fed.
• 48:07
  Speaker 4: He was feeding guys as well. And his confidence is
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: through the roof. You could really tell in this game.
• 48:11
  Speaker 4: And I think we're going to see a lot of
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: more performances like tonight in the future from him.
• 48:16
  Speaker 5: So I liked him.
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: I like Jacqueline too, obviously getting the first goal. They
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: really needed it.
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: Was there anybody else that you wanted to give an
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: honorable mention to?
• 48:25
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I'll give a couple of guys. So I really,
• 48:31
  Speaker 5: really like Yuri Kulik.
• 48:33
  Speaker 4: I really felt like he stepped up and, of course,
• 48:35
  Speaker 4: started the game on the fourth line with Kerrick and Malenstein,
• 48:37
  Speaker 4: but worked his way up the lineup towards the middle
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: of the third period there, even beginning of the third period,
• 48:42
  Speaker 4: if not mistaken. And then another guy, he didn't get
• 48:46
  Speaker 4: on the score sheet. And, of course, unfortunately, it was
• 48:48
  Speaker 4: a minus two. But I really felt like Helen still
• 48:50
  Speaker 4: had a really strong game. We're going to have growing
• 48:52
  Speaker 4: pains with them defensively. We've seen it in the first
• 48:54
  Speaker 4: two games, you know, even tonight as well. But he's
• 48:57
  Speaker 4: so good at finding his teammates, but also he's really
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: good at finding the open spots on the ice and
• 49:02
  Speaker 4: being available for his team and for open feeds. And
• 49:05
  Speaker 4: he had, especially in the first 20 to 30 minutes
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: of the game, he had about three or four good
• 49:11
  Speaker 4: scoring opportunities.
• 49:12
  Speaker 5: So those two as well, I give my honorable mention to.
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think a guy for me, I want to
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: give a shout out to. on tonight's game was Consta Helenus.
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: I know he's not going to show up on the
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: score sheet and he's going to show up as a
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: minus two, but I thought there were some really good chances.
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: He drew the penalty.
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: He had, again, he scored in that opening game against Columbus.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: I thought he had some really good shifts tonight. Obviously he,
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: was a minus two and out there for, for two
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: goals against, but for him to put up three shots,
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: he had four giveaways. He had a couple of hits
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: as well, played just under 15 minutes on the night.
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to say he was my player of
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: the game, but I did like some of the shifts
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: that he had. He had the first, the first shift
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: right out of the, right out of the gate. Like
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: the Sabres could have scored on their first shift. Helen
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: news was, you could tell he was playing with a
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: lot of confidence tonight and you're going to go through,
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: you know, the highs and lows, the peaks and valleys
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: with the young players confidence throughout a full season for
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: Helen news. But I thought there were spurts of this
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: game where he, showed that he could be a top
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: six player on this team. So I really liked what
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: I saw from him, but my player of the game
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: is going to be Cooley just for kind of everything
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: that we already mentioned with his game winning goal and
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: being able to come back from what he did and
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: getting the opportunity of plus two on the night.
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: Didn't play a whole lot, only 1331.
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: But as you mentioned, you expect him to sort of get,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: you know, eased back into playing in a full time role.
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I'll give a shout out to those two
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: guys as well.
• 50:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I love it.
• 50:33
  Speaker 4: I think overall this team is going to get a
• 50:35
  Speaker 4: lot more cleaner. Obviously, like you brought up, short training camp,
• 50:40
  Speaker 4: short preseason, very sloppier play. This team, once we get
• 50:45
  Speaker 4: into like game 5, game 10, game 15 and so on,
• 50:48
  Speaker 4: once we get underway, this team I believe will get
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: in a groove and I think we'll see the same
• 50:53
  Speaker 4: team that dominated a lot of the league last season
• 50:55
  Speaker 4: at some point this season.
• 50:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: And again, I thought that the pair of Zellweger and
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: Power definitely had their moments tonight where they'd probably want
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: to have some of those goals back for sure. But again,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: I think Samuelson had a couple of big shifts as well.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: Like again, that block, he was the whole reason they
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: ended up scoring that game tying goal.
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: Well, major reason why.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, you could tell he's sort of working his
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: way back in after almost not playing in the opening
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: game in Columbus, right? So Again, this team's got a
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: lot to clean up, Zach, but right now they're they
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: got two points.
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: So that's the most important thing.
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: And they're going to have four more home games coming
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: up here after this one before they go back on
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: the road again.
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: A really odd schedule.
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: We're going to be here with you guys for the
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: Tuesday and next Saturday home games as well. So hopefully
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: you guys can join us for those. Zach's going to
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: be with us for the next postgame on Tuesday. against
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: the Florida Panthers on Canadian Thanksgiving Monday for you. Americans
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: are like, what the heck are you talking about?
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: Our Thanksgiving in Canada is in October and that is
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: the same day, Monday afternoon, the game against Florida. But
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: other than that, Zach, final thoughts on the Sabres four,
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: three home opener victory against Chicago.
• 52:04
  Speaker 5: Final thoughts is that as this game got on, they
• 52:06
  Speaker 5: got stronger.
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: I'm very, even, you know, like you said, this team
• 52:12
  Speaker 4: found a way to win when it almost looked bleak.
• 52:13
  Speaker 4: The times against the team that was missing their best
• 52:15
  Speaker 4: forward and best defenseman. If you guys are looking at
• 52:18
  Speaker 4: this kind of like we barely got back past the Blackhawks,
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: the way the team started, I would be very optimistic
• 52:26
  Speaker 4: about the way the team is going to go moving
• 52:28
  Speaker 4: forward here.
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: Well, Zach, great having you on. Great having you part
• 52:31
  Speaker 3: of the coverage so far.
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: It's going to be a long season, but the content
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: team's been rolling out a lot of good stuff so
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: far and appreciate you being a part of this and
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: being the ultimate utility guy so far.
• 52:41
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 52:41
  Speaker 4: I appreciate you bringing me on. And these post-game shows
• 52:44
  Speaker 4: are very fun watching. It seems fun. And yeah, I'm
• 52:46
  Speaker 4: going to be contributing all season long. I'm excited to
• 52:49
  Speaker 4: work with you guys.
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: And check out Zach's work as well on the written
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: side at the Hockey Writer as well, contributing writer there
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: for their content as well. So that's going to wrap
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: it up for tonight's Saber Semantics post-game show. Appreciate everybody
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: in the live chat getting in on that as well.
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: We appreciate that. And we always love your comments as well.
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: Make sure to give us a follow on X at
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: Saber Semantics. Going to try to do some fan polls
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: as well for the show. So if you want to
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: get in on those, that's where we'll be posting our
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: fan polls for our shows. And you can also give
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: us a follow on X, Instagram and TikTok for all
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: of our short reels and content. Again, appreciate the audio
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: listeners who are going to have the edited version of
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: Lindy Rush post game and not the one that we
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: had to sit through tonight where I forgot to press
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: the mic on. So again, we'll get that figured out
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: for game number two. I'll give myself a penalty for
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: that and we'll get it corrected. So appreciate you guys
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: listening there. Give us a five-star rating or whatever one
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: you chose to listen to us on. So as always,
• 53:39
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• 53:41
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• 53:53
  Speaker 1: my name is Brandon Caputo and that's it for another
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: episode of Saber Semantics right here on the Armchair GM
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: Sports Network. Final scorer, Buffalo Sabres defeat the Chicago Blackhawks
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: 4-3 in their home opener and will play again on
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: Tuesday night. That's when we'll talk to you again following
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: the next Sabre Semantics postgame.
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: Talk to you then. This is the Armchair GM Sports Network.