- 22 hours ago
Mike Schopp and the Bulldog React To the Sabres' wild 8-7 win over the visiting Lightning on Sunday at KeyBank Center.
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00:00was legal, but apparently it's going to stand, Bulldog, this game.
00:06I heard they were reviewing it, the whole game, to see if it needed to be replayed.
00:11But no. A jolt of excitement went through my family last night
00:17when we realized we have tickets to the other Tampa game.
00:20Oh, wow. Yeah, that's a win.
00:22Well, that would possibly not be a letdown.
00:24That is a big... It almost has to be.
00:28You've got to chase that 38 around. Is that what's going to have to happen?
00:30If you're really... I mean, I don't know.
00:37It could be dangerous to overstate how great last night was.
00:42There's no way the next game can live up to it, but that doesn't mean it won't be great.
00:46But last night was just off the charts.
00:49I mean, I really... I don't think... Maybe the brawl game with Ottawa in 07.
00:56That's the comp.
00:57Right? That maybe is the... It's the same kind of game.
01:00It's the same two... I mean, they weren't new as rivals
01:04because they'd already had the 06 series that the Sabres won.
01:08But there was animosity there.
01:10One team was used to being on top.
01:13The other one was coming, and that was Buffalo, and that was their year.
01:16They won, like, wire to wire, the President's Trophy, basically, in 07.
01:21So, it's not a... You know, the roles are a little different, but same sort of scenario.
01:26I think the roles are... I mean, it's definitely the comp, but significant enough to talk about.
01:32Like, whether the Lightning, who I was not prepared to have be as goony as they were,
01:40respect the Sabres.
01:42You know? Like, didn't it kind of look... Who's in goal?
01:45They used Vasilevsky in Toronto.
01:47They used Vasilevsky the night before. Yeah.
01:49And, like, I don't know, maybe there's an arrogance with them
01:52that they just are going to come in, and you can't tell them how it works.
01:56I fully expected them to play that way.
02:00This is where watching a game every night has its benefit.
02:03They and Florida have had many games like this recently.
02:07As Florida sort of came up from the rear and passed Tampa,
02:11they've been doing the same sort of thing.
02:13So, I really felt like Tampa would lean into that.
02:16But, you know, let's take you out for a spin, Buffalo.
02:21Like, how ready to play in a game where your temper is roiling
02:25and your emotions are running away from you?
02:28You know, can you still play?
02:30And, you know, it's 6-4 and 7-5, sitting there watching the third period.
02:34I'm thinking, like, this is a good learning experience, right?
02:37Because you had to deal with all that, and then, you know,
02:40if you're not used to that adrenaline, when it leaves
02:43and you've got to start playing again, that's a different...
02:46That's just a different experience for a lot of guys in that room
02:50that, at this level, have not had that sort of challenge.
02:54And so, maybe it got away from them for a little while,
02:56and Tampa sort of settled in, but Buffalo came roaring back,
02:59and just a fantastic display.
03:03All around.
03:04The fans, Dan on the call.
03:07Like, just all of it was just a 10 to me.
03:10I just loved the experience of watching that game.
03:14I wished I'd felt well enough to get down to the arena for it.
03:17It was refreshing to watch a Sabres game and be mad, but not at the Sabres.
03:25You know, so many of these games for a decade have been just, like, so unimportant.
03:30And, I don't know, when somebody bullies them, if I'm watching it at all,
03:35with any level of interest, if somebody bullies them, I'm usually mad at them
03:39for not having the kind of team that can respond to it or whatever.
03:43Like, it's sort of like, yep, Brad Marchand has you in the palm of his hand.
03:48And that's not true anymore.
03:49I think that might be the greatest takeaway from last night.
03:52Like, any team can brawl, right?
03:54If that's what you're about, you can do that.
03:57But that's not really what the Sabres are about.
03:59They just stood up to it.
04:00Right.
04:01And so, man, Tampa's it now then, right?
04:04Like, that's the team.
04:05That's the rival.
04:07Yeah, they have decided.
04:08That's it.
04:09They decided that for us.
04:10Yes.
04:11I think.
04:12You know, and the way the Sabres responded also.
04:15And, you know, the stake being the division, obviously.
04:17Like, they're, you know, still two games in hand for Tampa,
04:20but Buffalo is ahead of them now.
04:22And just the fashion in which they needed to do it.
04:26Again, like, showing up, handling, you know, it proves, I think,
04:31hopefully once and for all, that we don't even really care how you do in the fights.
04:36Just show up.
04:38Just be the competitor that we want you to be when you see your guy get taken advantage of
04:45or whatever.
04:46Just be there.
04:47This is Auslan a couple of weeks ago or last week, whatever day it was,
04:50when he jumped in after Darlene got into it, that was in Tampa.
04:55That was the game on Saturday, last Saturday in Tampa.
04:57I think record is Braden Point was who I think Auslan ended up mixed up with in that.
05:02Anyway, just show up.
05:04And, you know, if you can knock Corey Perry in that smug look off his face once in a while,
05:09knock him down, good.
05:10But really all we need for you to do is just be game for it.
05:15And the team rallies around that sort of emotion and that bonding.
05:21And again, it doesn't matter if, you know, the fight card says 4-1 for Tampa in the five fights.
05:27Who cares?
05:28You showed up and you handled it and you won the game and you're in first place.
05:34You could not deny the expressions on the Sabres players' faces throughout all that, right?
05:41I mean, the early fights did not go their way, but they were all smiling.
05:45Even the guys who were in the fight, like they're in the penalty box kind of enjoying it.
05:49And I mean, I get that.
05:51The way the building must have felt.
05:53Yeah.
05:53And like, all right, this is going to be cool.
05:55It turns out to maybe have been the game of their lives.
05:58How many games have they ever played?
05:59I mean, for all the hockey these guys have all played, how many 8-7 fight fests have
06:04they ever been in?
06:06It's the last game like it in the NHL in terms of number of goals and penalty minutes was
06:12literally in the 80s.
06:14And if it's just penalties alone, it's 1994.
06:17Like, 8-7.
06:19I mean, I grew up like you did, occasionally going to games that could get stupid on the
06:24scoreboard, if not also in the fights.
06:26Rarely both.
06:27I can't believe I watched an 8-7 game where neither goalie was pulled.
06:31You know, no empty net goals, no goalies taken out.
06:34Like, just was start to finish, close and competitive.
06:37And I'm thinking like, okay, well, I know I went to a game that was 11-2 in the 80s
06:42for
06:42my birthday.
06:43I know I went to the 14-4 game.
06:45You know, this was seven goals in the second period, seven more in the third.
06:50One nothing after one last night.
06:53Like, oh, I was at a game where the Sabres scored nine goals themselves in the second.
06:56But I'm just like trying to keep up.
06:58And who cares?
06:59You know, my family didn't care about my history.
07:02And they shouldn't.
07:03Right.
07:03But just trying to keep up with it in a game, like, you just do not get it.
07:07So, I don't know if words can even really do it justice for not only what it was, but what
07:15it meant.
07:16Because this is not just like a random Columbus game in a bad year.
07:19Where, oh, that would have been fun to talk about.
07:21No.
07:21But probably still starting with the Bills.
07:24This is, I don't want to say the rarity, because sporting events often do rise to the
07:28level of anticipation and expectation.
07:32But this game was anticipated for sure.
07:35I mean, especially after the Sabres won there last Saturday.
07:39And the gap was what it was in the division.
07:41They go into play yesterday tied atop the division.
07:45So, the stake is obvious.
07:47The Sabres players, you know, we didn't talk a ton about it because it was such a busy week.
07:52I missed the back end of it, but the trade deadline and the Colton Pareko stuff and the
07:56Robert Thomas and D.J. Moore eventually.
07:59Now we've got more with the NFL free agency negotiating window and everything.
08:02There's a lot going on.
08:03But the Sabres, to a man, it sounded like expected Tampa to try them last night.
08:10They know how that team works.
08:12They've seen their games with Florida, like I referenced.
08:14So, they were ready for it.
08:17And that maybe came in handy.
08:19They weren't caught by surprise suddenly being in this sort of back alley brawl type of scenario.
08:26I just know for hopefully the last time in our careers together that we have a definitive answer on whether
08:36or not the fans will ever be back.
08:38Because we've been through this twice now since we've been together, once very early on.
08:43I mean, there was a season that was lost and the Sabres were bankrupt.
08:47The league was running them for a time before that lockout.
08:51And we'd sit in here and like, you know, before that lockout happened, 8,000 people on a Thursday night
08:57to see Philadelphia.
08:58Jeremy Roenick.
08:59Right, right.
09:00Yeah, like what happened to you, Buffalo?
09:02This used to be a thing.
09:04And we used to be a part of that thing for you when he was on the Flyers.
09:07Right, exactly.
09:09And I would say then, like you just need the fuse to get relit.
09:13It'll happen.
09:13And then 05-06 came along and eventually, middle of that year or a little sooner, there it was.
09:19It happened.
09:19It blasted off.
09:21And this has been a longer wait.
09:23There was no bankruptcy, but there was a lot of half-empty buildings or worse.
09:28There was a lot of detachment and just a lot of disassociation with the emotional attachment to the franchise.
09:37And all it takes is them to, like, let a strap fall off their shoulder and bat their eyelashes at
09:43you, and we are right back.
09:45And they've done way more than just that.
09:47That's what I was going to say next.
09:48Yeah, they've done way more than that.
09:50I still think it's still a process to try to accept this, not that we don't want to.
09:57We all want to believe it, but it's still going to be, for some more than others, a process in
10:04doing that.
10:04You know, if you're really being honest with yourself, geez, how did this happen?
10:07These are the same guys that I think a year ago, putting it one way, Samuelson, I mean, just go.
10:17Right.
10:17Zucker, why bother?
10:20Byram, they're trying to trade him.
10:22The numbers are bad.
10:23Like, just, I know I'd be guilty of this.
10:26I don't think, I didn't think I was wrong at the time, but I would say I was so disenfranchised
10:34by the whole decade of futility.
10:37Just like, why do I need any of these guys?
10:40We entertained Darlene trade ideas, like, last offseason or the one before that.
10:44Like, does it get to a point, does he the next cycle, where it's just like, yeah, I'm wasting my
10:49career here.
10:51And there's a lesson.
10:52This doesn't have to work.
10:54There have been other experiences just in Buffalo where they tried to sort of, the mantra being, who wants to
10:59be here?
11:00And, well, you're not very good, though.
11:02So, oh well.
11:04Yeah.
11:04But this has really paid off.
11:07And you cannot, again, deny the comments and their faces through these games.
11:16Like, why wouldn't it be the most fun they've ever had?
11:19And they're saying it is.
11:20And they look like it.
11:22Yeah.
11:22And it's coming out in the effort.
11:25And it was interesting and fun to talk to EJ Raddick on Friday from NHL Network.
11:29I'm sorry you missed it.
11:30Me too.
11:31He had an interesting way of putting this whole shocking assent by the Sabres.
11:40He said for himself, and I didn't know how he felt about this.
11:43It's not Travis or somebody we talk to all the time.
11:46I didn't know his opinion going in.
11:48And he said, for two years, I've always really liked their roster.
11:53But they had to get to a point where they would show up every game like it was opening night.
12:01You're not the Avalanche or the Lightning or a team that's, like, always good.
12:05So you don't have that.
12:06You have to sort of generate that yourself.
12:10This is opening night.
12:11And I wonder what that sounds like to, like, Lindy or somebody if he were to hear it put that
12:15way.
12:15I loved it because, you know, I tend to want to think everybody's giving full effort and they're a professional,
12:23they're playing for their careers, that teams don't just sort of lie flat.
12:28But that can happen.
12:30And I can't think of another conclusion to draw about this other than that's what it was.
12:36And, you know, that's going to be easily an easy example of that, if that's how you feel, is Thompson
12:42laying on the ice last year.
12:45Because a team with this energy, I don't even care if it was a clean hit or I didn't even
12:49need to see it, but I'm in it.
12:50I'm entering the chat on a play like that, and last year's team had no time for it.
12:55And they knew it when it was over.
12:57They knew it was a problem.
12:59Yeah, they were embarrassed, rightly so, but in the moment, they didn't have a response.
13:04They didn't either care enough to respond or know how to respond.
13:10And neither one is going to get you anywhere.
13:13And Lucanen is there last night on the scene.
13:15Lucanen, right.
13:16Lindy was great.
13:16So, Lindy was asked about, maybe by Paul, like, Lucanen was ready to get there.
13:21It's like, he got there, actually.
13:22He really, he was already there.
13:23Yeah, I know, you said earlier, like, 8-7 game with all those penalty minutes, it's, you know, amazing neither
13:28goalie got pulled.
13:29It's also amazing they didn't fight, considering Lucanen got, I mean, I don't know where Johansson was.
13:35They never showed him and never was it said what he was doing.
13:39Lindy said, and he stayed in his crease.
13:41He never moved, right.
13:42The other guy stayed in his crease.
13:43Lucanenen was ready to go.
13:45Like, that's usually, you see him out at the, he's at the hash marks or above the circles, wherever that
13:51fracas involving Hagel and Darlene was happening.
13:54I'm just expecting to see the goalie's back coming into the shot.
13:57The other goalie coming, because he's absolutely on call here.
14:01And that never happened.
14:03Yeah, right.
14:04Good thing he didn't, because then it's Vasilevsky, necessarily.
14:07I guess so.
14:08Good thing he didn't.
14:09Yeah.
14:09How do you get away with punching a guy over and over on the ice and getting four minutes?
14:14I don't, I, good question.
14:16I, I.
14:16How is that the most, not the most obvious.
14:18I don't know.
14:19Ejection.
14:20Yeah.
14:20I know.
14:21I think it's more obvious than Malkin.
14:23I agree.
14:23Because Malkin, you might not be sure of what you just saw.
14:26Right.
14:26So out of character, maybe.
14:28And like, but this is just a pummeling on the ice and like, that's it.
14:33Yeah.
14:34Yeah.
14:34That.
14:35And he's not being suspended.
14:36Right.
14:37$5,000 fine.
14:38Um, so something will be done about that.
14:41Yeah.
14:42How eventful it will be, but someone will take a turn on him and he'll answer, he'll, he'll
14:48be there for it.
14:49He's that kind of player.
14:50I mean, he's not like the most aggressive, but he's, you know, four nations, he's opening
14:53face off, fight a Kachuk brother guy, Hagel.
14:57Um, so he'll, he'll, he'll, he'll show up.
15:01Um, but somebody is going to have to, you know, answer that.
15:04And I think Darlene at some point is gonna maybe have to do something that gets him suspended
15:11for a couple of games.
15:12So what?
15:13Like, I mean, honestly, like, I think he needs to create, he's going to need to, he's going
15:16to need to show that he will protect himself.
15:18Cause he is, he's edgy enough.
15:21These guys aren't going after him just because he's the captain and because he's good.
15:24It's interesting.
15:25Like he, he is an antagonizer, you know, again, any defenseman who plays those minutes is going
15:31to be under the skin of the key guys on the other team.
15:34It's a part of the job.
15:35I mean, not every guy who plays that level of, you know, importance on a team has to
15:40play that way.
15:41But Darlene is, you know, he's got his ways of finding the back of the knee or the, you
15:47know, on the laces.
15:48Like he's, you know, he gets his shots in and if they're going to come for him like that,
15:54he's got to do more, I mean, he did end up fighting last night.
15:58He had no choice and that did not go well.
16:00He's got to pick a spot and like do something.
16:03I really think so.
16:04Um, and that might sound absurd and sort of Neanderthal-ish.
16:08I wonder if it's necessary at this point.
16:09That's, I think it is.
16:11I think he needs to get people off of him.
16:15And one way to do that is to, you know, again, I hope, you know, hopefully the games aren't
16:19important, but go, go knock somebody's teeth out.
16:24I mean, just, you know, you'll get sat down, but your rep maybe will grow and guys will
16:30realize maybe I got to like think twice before, you know, before I try to take liberties with
16:36you.
16:36I guess I am guilty of not having a fully formed take on what it is about him that drives
16:44people crazy, apparently.
16:46Like on the Malkin one, he sticks Malkin.
16:49Yep.
16:50Right at the side of the net and Malkin just might have, his instinct might've been like,
16:54you can't do that to me.
16:55I'm Malkin and you're a Sabres guy that I think I've heard of.
16:59So I'm just going to hit you in the head.
17:00But I don't know, like the, the lightning, this is me, there's a, probably a word for
17:05this, like kind of reflecting or something, my own opinions and thoughts into the, the
17:12situation thinking like, well, this, this must be why, why does, why do I think Tampa doesn't
17:18respect them?
17:19Because I might've thought already that they didn't, you know?
17:23And that's the, that's the kind of way you might play in that, in that situation.
17:27Like we're going to show, we're going to teach these guys a lesson.
17:30Right.
17:30Who's boss.
17:31And, you know, they did what they did, but they weren't successful.
17:36You know, like they, they came upon a team that was willing to, you know, go with them.
17:41They picked, they picked a night where the Sabres somehow found their way to four power
17:44play goals to spend a lot of the night in the penalty box.
17:47Yeah.
17:47So, I mean, that's tough, tough timing.
17:51Without scoring in a five on three for two minutes.
17:53Right.
17:54Right.
17:56So, so I, like, I, I just, I think that the, look,
18:00how does Darlene make them so, make guys so mad?
18:04He's good.
18:05He doesn't engage fully in that.
18:07Like he does not, he's not going to tell you he wants to fight.
18:11And so he's, he's sneaky, you know, dirty.
18:16He's, he's appropriately dirty, right?
18:18He does stuff that aggravates and doesn't answer and is excellent.
18:24Yeah.
18:24He doesn't involve in, as he put it, the stupid stuff.
18:26Right.
18:26I'm here to play hockey.
18:27And so that is always going to draw a certain level of, of animosity from the opponent.
18:34He's an important star player.
18:36He is going to chop me behind my knee where there's no padding and try to get away with
18:43not having to do anything about it.
18:45But that's going to make me want to punch him in the face too.
18:48Like I totally get it.
18:49That's why I'm saying, I think at some point him picking a spot to sort of get after somebody
18:54who challenges him that way could be good for him.
18:57Yeah.
18:58As you're describing all that earlier and now I'm thinking of the Bill Russell metaphor,
19:03which I admit I got from the West wing.
19:05So I, I'm assuming it's true.
19:07You borrowed it from West wing.
19:08So like Bill Russell, this physically dominant, imposing center for the Celtics, of course,
19:14for all those years, when he would play like game to game, most games were televised and
19:20he was a little bit, maybe not soft, but he was not somebody who was going to hurt you.
19:26But when the game was on TV, he would throw an elbow.
19:29And then everybody thought like, Oh, this guy don't go through the lane.
19:33Unfortunately for Darlene, all the games are televised.
19:37So if he's going to throw an elbow against Columbus or something, sorry, Columbus, multiple
19:42shots at Columbus here.
19:43Well, we've, we've enjoyed this season.
19:46I have for, uh, observing and sort of realizing different levels of, of interest in this.
19:54And it's near peak.
19:55Now today I, I found myself at this particular level of interest.
20:00I looked up Tampa Bay's schedule for the rest of the season.
20:04Okay.
20:05They have two games left each with Detroit, Montreal, Boston, and Ottawa.
20:11They have 14 games left, right?
20:13Or that's more than that.
20:14It's gotta be more than that.
20:15It's more than the Sabres.
20:15They played, they have 20 games left.
20:1820, we have 18.
20:19Right.
20:1920 games left, two against Detroit, two against Boston, two against Montreal, two against
20:23Ottawa, whatever that means to like rivalry stuff.
20:26I don't know, but it's probably good for the Sabres.
20:29Yep.
20:29Those teams, unless it's three point games, I guess, but somebody's losing all eight of those
20:33games.
20:34Ottawa's still in it.
20:35Yeah, they are.
20:36Yep.
20:37And the Sabres have 18 games left.
20:40Two against the Sharks, who they play tomorrow.
20:43Two against Washington, who they play Thursday.
20:47Everything else is one, one time.
20:49They don't play any other team more than once of the remaining 14 games.
20:53Two Sharks, two Capitals.
20:54Everybody else that they have left is one, including the Lightning, here on April 6th.
21:00Well, there's always, you know, or not always, but often like a thought process here where
21:06like, all right, well, we've got the Sabres and we've got the Bills.
21:08I frankly think starting with anything but the Sabres today would have almost been like
21:13disloyal.
21:14I agree.
21:15I mean, that game was just, if the Bills had signed who, we can't do it.
21:21I don't know.
21:22I'm not sure there's anybody.
21:24We'll get to the Bills.
21:25I mean, there'll be plenty of Bills.
21:26Sure.
21:27And, you know, maybe even next, to kind of take stock of what has happened, or I guess
21:33not happened, as far as they're concerned.
21:35You haven't been here yet since DJ Moore happened late last week.
21:38So, we'll do that, too.
21:40On either.
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