Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 2 days ago
WGR Sabres beat reporter Paul Hamilton joined "Schopp and the Bulldog" with the latest on the team ahead of Tuesday night's matchup with the Golden Knights in Vegas.
Transcript
00:00thing has been over for quite some time now because the um god almighty why can't i get just
00:06the games well while you're looking sorry see if paul knows anything more about whether tyson
00:11tyson kozak will even play in this game in for alex tuck paul what does it sound like
00:17yeah it's just basically they didn't want tuck at the morning skate because he was ill so i think it
00:22definitely is a game time decision you know how does he feel you know can he get to the rink
00:27how
00:27bad does he feel like about now or within the next hour or so and then uh you know if
00:34he gets
00:34there then how does he feel when he takes warm-ups so i think it's going to be up to
00:38it's not his
00:39injury that they had uh two games ago it's it's definitely an illness what changes to the lines
00:46if he misses oh i would think uh krebs probably goes back up there and kozak would take the center
00:55the uh malenstein and or kirk would center malenstein and kozak okay so i think krebs would
01:03probably go up you made it paul let's talk about that for a minute yeah yeah everything go flawlessly
01:08this morning today today went well as a matter of fact i had i was i was in luck um
01:15i got off the
01:16airplane and lindy was just getting the team on the ice for a full morning skate if it wasn't a
01:21full
01:21i might have missed him uh but it was a full morning skate so i was able to grab a
01:26cab and
01:26get over there before the morning skate was over all right bulldog kozak is not listed as an
01:31opportunity to score an anytime goal although um matthias samuelson is plus 7 000 it's been a while
01:38and he's had a weird he's had a he's had a year you know i guess score maybe hop on
01:43that tonight
01:44another incredible way illustration of what this season has been that we're considering him to be in a
01:50drought right that's exactly what i'm saying yeah but he hasn't had a lot of great opportunities
01:55recently either well maybe tonight's the night for that we saw this match up not too long ago paul
02:01what do you think of the two teams together well it's different because stone will be playing and he
02:06didn't play in the first game uh so i think that that makes all the difference in the world because
02:11now he's out there with eichel and uh so i think that does make a big difference but you know
02:17the
02:17sabers have just been so good on the road uh recently too uh what two losses in their last
02:2320 i believe uh two regulation losses and well um it's just uh you know and and the the recipe
02:30for
02:31success has been scoring the first goal getting ahead so you're not chasing the game part of the
02:36problem with this group of guys for the last two three years it seemed like they're always chasing the
02:42game sometimes they could get back into it but a lot of times they couldn't you know they might get
02:48down three or four nothing and then get back to four three you know but not be able to get
02:52all the way
02:53back now you know over 30 games this year they've scored the first goal and now they make the other
03:00team chase them and it's a whole different ball game you're right about the road record their last
03:05regulation road loss was the game in carolina on martin luther king day two to one and they were
03:12good in that game but didn't win they have a overtime loss in tampa not that long ago everything
03:18else is a win going back to like almost new year's day almost december the game in columbus would be
03:25the other one i'm going by memory which you know is extremely dangerous i think maybe december either
03:30ninth or 21st i think you can go back to one or the other yeah i mean three okay this
03:37is really
03:37good i believe three regulation road losses ago is calgary yeah december 8th there you go yeah
03:47before i'm sorry that's patently absurd before kevin adams was released it is three regulation road
03:54losses ago the others are that columbus game afternoon games we got to stop with the afternoon
04:00games columbus and carolina are the uh only two that is incredible for once i actually remembered
04:07what i wrote nailed because that's two regulation losses from the next day on which is what i wrote
04:12i didn't count the calgary once since it was a loss it is so wild to look at their season
04:18like
04:19espn.com like the the schedule and just see like the lack of you know elves like you know on
04:29top of
04:29one another right i mean they put this team opened with three straight losses they had another three
04:35game losing streak soon after that then won a game and lost five in a row and then after that
04:43it's like
04:43just few and far between they just don't they just do not stack else that that by the way bulldog
04:49that last losing streak that's dalene leaving the sabers to go to to sweden right and then he comes
04:57back in detroit yeah they win that game that's right i mean there are five and 12 going and then
05:03they lost the first three games of that well yeah they lost first first three games of the trip that
05:07they turned it around on they lost in philly winnipeg calgary and then after that it's just like
05:13yeah it's just very few and far between and we've talked about this it's been a while but when it
05:18happened and and i know they lost the three but they basically got winning and i pointed back to
05:23that detroit game just the the person that came back he was all smiles it was like the weight of
05:30the
05:30world had been lifted off his shoulders his teammates were really happy for him and you could
05:34see it was contagious to his teammates don't forget they got behind 4-1 i believe to detroit and they
05:41won
05:41the game um so you know it was one of those it was just they were there to win that
05:47game
05:47and they did and that is a game i think i would point to if when this season is over
05:55is really the
05:56start of changing this season around because don't forget they were in last place in the eastern
06:01conference in november i remember being on twitter that night that red wings game and they were losing
06:06decisively and they were down 4-1 as you said paul that that night mid-second and just like
06:12everybody knew that they were going to lose another one and just like this is the end of the world
06:16kind of thing and they just have been almost hard to believe since so you could almost see it i
06:22mean
06:22because don't made it 4-2 before the second period ended and then the third period they just totally took
06:28the game over and it was one of those you just had the feeling it's like they're not going to
06:33lose this
06:34game i mean just the way they're playing right now and the opportunities they're getting and
06:38they didn't but i think it was key that don't did make it 4-2 before intermission paul did the
06:44morning skate offer any indication of what's going to happen with this decor tonight looks like looks
06:50like metza might play with stanley okay so good for him yeah let's give that let's give that a spin
06:57yeah and i asked lindy ruff because i've had i've had fans you guys might even mentioned it um you
07:04know that metza hasn't killed any penalties i mean you've got your four guys and they basically kill
07:10all the penalties and i asked him today look at him i said i know you're you're you have four
07:16guys
07:17that have been very successful at it you don't want to go away from it but if you have to
07:21would you put
07:21metza to kill penalties he goes oh i absolutely would he goes he he's very good he'd be very good
07:27at killing penalties and he goes uh you know they like the four that do it but he said he
07:31would not
07:32be afraid whatsoever to put him on the penalty kill well i hope that works i mean there's there's like
07:37there's a couple things going on here we've talked already a lot about stanley and shen i guess but
07:42like to me shen is over there for the playoffs and stanley i think was acquired to play
07:47size physicality so let's get him up to speed and yeah let's see if he and metza can like get
07:54some
07:54chemistry and maybe that can become a pair because like we talked yesterday paul i definitely think
08:01metza belongs in their top six but you got to have a pairing that works there right and eventually
08:07they'll get more of a log jam here if timmons progresses talking about penalty killing paul i mean
08:13he was a big part of that and a big shot blocker like you've mentioned numerous times so they'll
08:18have even more decisions to make but if metza and stanley can stabilize their third pair man that would
08:24be fantastic and i think they can because you know stanley does have a tendency to turn the puck over
08:30at
08:31times and metza i think can help him you know that you are your partner's there he'll bail you
08:37if you do get carried away and turn it over so i think it i think it's a very good
08:42idea because i
08:42think one can help the other
Comments

Recommended