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00:00I was at the game, which is different than watching it, because you don't really have somebody telling you what
00:06maybe you missed.
00:09The tying goal, the winning goal. Talk to me.
00:15I think there's definitely room to criticize the goalie on the winning goal.
00:21Went right through him? Yeah. From the circle?
00:24Yeah, I mean the guy was in all alone. That's what I thought.
00:27He was in all alone, but it went, he was, well he wasn't, you know, it wasn't a breakaway.
00:34No, well, right, but he was, I mean he was, no one was going to check him.
00:39The guy could have, I mean, could have come right to the net.
00:41Kind of like, who had this chance, Sabre had a chance to walk right in and he tried to pass.
00:48And Paul, Osland, I think, maybe, could have walked, anyway.
00:52Last night?
00:52No, no, in a game, it's the same kind of thing where, it's not a breakaway, but there's nobody,
00:57you could just go.
00:59Anyway, but he shoots it, probably because he sees how, Lukanen's coming over.
01:03I think he's late coming over.
01:05It's Pasternak, which you've got to respect.
01:07On the other side.
01:08On the other side.
01:09Pasternak's got the puck.
01:10So, Lukanen cannot cheat, right?
01:13But everybody is, you know, he's got two guys, Tuck is cheating, leaves Zaka wide open.
01:19But his legs are, he's just, he just, the five hole is wide open on the play.
01:25And I can't speak to directly how much it is to ask the goalie to move over that quickly
01:33and be sealed up there.
01:35But I feel like you see guys do it.
01:37He just, he just left the guy too much, too much to, it wasn't like he just squeaked through.
01:43Like, there was a huge hole there, the way he came over.
01:46He was not fundamentally sound coming over, I would say.
01:49I just want to ask this about three-on-three.
01:53Possession being everything in three-on-three, is Lukanen maybe thinking about what to do with
01:59the puck after the shot.
02:01I mean, he's a pretty good example for this, to my eyes, just during the course of regular play.
02:07And maybe this is all goalies now.
02:08He's putting the puck where he wants to put it, if he can, on a rebound, you know, on a
02:13save.
02:14Often he'll put the puck in the corner.
02:16I thought last night, a few times, he was really good at how to play the puck.
02:22A puck came in to the left of the net, and instead of just sort of, like, leaving it or
02:28bumping it
02:28to the corner, he made the decision to come out of his crease and play it and clear it.
02:33And that looked like the right decision.
02:35He was successful in that.
02:37There were a few of those in this game.
02:38I think it's maybe a strong area for him.
02:40I didn't check the box score, but didn't, if he didn't get an assist, I'm not sure why.
02:45Maybe because a Boston player ended up with the puck.
02:48But the Benson goal is him.
02:50He throws that puck right up the wall.
02:53I don't think it touches another saber, but again, maybe a Bruin defender gets it and then
02:57Benson strips him and whatever.
02:58Anyway, he made the play to break Benson.
03:00Fine.
03:00Yeah, I thought he had a, he's impressive in that area.
03:04When it's three on three, and it's not a super high danger shot, you know?
03:10Like, okay, well, he's late if he's late, five hole, then okay.
03:14What does he want to do with the puck on that?
03:17He's assuming he's going to be able to stop it from there.
03:20I mean, that's, because he doesn't want to freeze it, right?
03:24I think probably not, because you would have a chance to swing back the other way pretty
03:31quickly, maybe with a two-on-one or even a three-on-one.
03:33That's what I'm saying.
03:34It's already, I think, this is my position here, that he's somebody, he's confident in
03:40himself in this area.
03:41So you're thinking maybe he's not concentrating enough on making the save because he's thinking
03:44about, it's like running before he caught the ball kind of thing a little bit, maybe.
03:48He's thinking he's going to make the save because it's going to be a bad goal from there.
03:53Am I overstating that?
03:54I think a little.
03:55I mean, it's, you know, midpoint of a face-off circle, open look with a lot of time.
04:02Like, there's nobody checking the guy, so he has time to sort of, you know, I mean, in
04:07hockey terms, I mean, he didn't take all day, but he's got time to choose where to go.
04:11But I think he chooses to go five-hole because he could see Lukonen was not, he was all kind
04:15of broken in pieces coming across.
04:17I'm, so I'm in 118, pretty low, last night.
04:21I'm as far, almost as far away.
04:23Yeah.
04:23I had a terrible view of it.
04:25You hear the puck go in, I can't wait to tell you about the guy I was sitting next to.
04:29Oh my God, this guy was such a beauty.
04:31I just have, just like a little bit of a, you know, footnote.
04:35You listen to an audio book and they just sort of stop the story, like footnote.
04:39I'm going to revisit this.
04:39This guy was, like picture Matt Foley from SNL, but a Sabres fan and hammered.
04:47Oh boy.
04:48Like that, that's who I was sitting next to for this game.
04:50And he was so far gone that when Boston scored, he got up and screamed.
04:54Sabres fan.
04:56He just didn't know which team he was rooting for at that moment, I guess.
04:59He didn't know who'd scored the goal.
05:00Tough one.
05:01Anyway, that's not the point.
05:02I just didn't really see, when I realized that this was a goal, my thought is, well,
05:09he must have sniped it.
05:10I mean, the goalie has to know that that's always possible.
05:13Like, he could just pick the corner and you're beat.
05:16But he's, Lukan is not expecting to get beat the way he got beat.
05:19I just wonder what, like I've already said, what does he want to do with the puck after
05:25he makes the save he probably is assuming he's going to make?
05:27Yeah, I did not hear if he talked and if he was asked about it.
05:32So I don't know if he offered any explanation on the play.
05:36It's possible he was so maybe, because of Pasternak being the guy with the puck, he waited.
05:47So he's late.
05:48And maybe all he tried to do was make himself as big as he could.
05:51Because he didn't look, he didn't move the way goalies move on the play.
05:56Like, his legs are apart and he's sort of like up in his stance.
06:01He might have just tried to gobble up space because he knew he wasn't going to be in good
06:05position.
06:05I don't know.
06:06Well, that's the other part of it is what he knows about his situation as the shot is
06:13being taken.
06:13Like, maybe he knows he's in trouble.
06:15It definitely was a play I think you'd like a save on.
06:18You know, it's an open, clean look in three-on-three, but it is not, he just was not sound
06:26coming
06:26across.
06:27So I didn't like that.
06:29The play off the boards, I don't know, I also didn't like it mostly because I think, I heard
06:37Owen talking about this this morning.
06:38Wait, this is 3-3?
06:39This is 3-3.
06:40Okay, good.
06:40This is the Middlestat goal.
06:41Yes, I'm asking.
06:42Maybe the big play on that goal is Middlestat winning a battle with Josh Doan below the
06:46goal line, which is what started the whole thing to begin with.
06:50That's just not something, you tell me Josh Doan and Casey Middlestat are going into a
06:54corner to battle for a puck and I'm going to expect Josh Doan to win that battle.
06:57In the Boston end?
06:59No, behind the Sabre net.
07:01Middlestat takes the puck off of Doan or wins a battle for a loose puck and gets it out
07:06to the point and then the shot comes in and Middlestat from there has gone to the front
07:10of the net, smartly.
07:12But it looked like Lukinen, he didn't know, I think he didn't know, neither he nor Darlene
07:19knew where the puck was exactly.
07:21It did take a weird bounce.
07:23It deflected, it was screened and I think he got his blocker on it, but didn't, thinking
07:29about what you want to do with it, on that play what he probably, if he sees it cleanly,
07:34what you'd want to do with it is blocker it into the netting or off the glass.
07:38Like just, poof, it's out of here.
07:40But he only got a piece of it and then it bounced weirdly and they didn't know where
07:44it was.
07:45But even with that said, it just felt like Lukinen did not do a good job of protecting
07:51his net there.
07:52Like he just, he got all turned around.
07:55That happens.
07:55And it was just messy.
07:56Um, so he just wasn't prepared for that at all.
07:58But it, you do, I think I have room for like some forgiveness on, cause it's just a weird
08:04bounce.
08:05You know, the, the shot off his blockers, a weird bounce off the walls, a knuckle ball
08:10coming back.
08:10And it's just strange.
08:11And so, but he didn't do a great job there either, but the winning goal I thought was
08:17pretty bad, uh, overall on his night.
08:21Um, I guess that's where I was then already like just watching it live from basically ice
08:28level was, well, that was strange, but did they just get a bad bounce there?
08:34And then yikes, you know, but I still like to know what he wants to do with the save in
08:41the overtime.
08:41And it would vary.
08:43I mean, the same shot would, it would be different answers for different situations.
08:47It was 40 seconds or so into overtime.
08:49The Sabres never touched the puck or had possession in overtime, which I was super bummed about whether
08:54they win or lose.
08:55I'm down there.
08:56Like I'm getting a three on three.
08:58Give me like one chance at least, or a shootout even like, they never did anything.
09:03I don't know.
09:04I'm not sure what their numbers are three on three, but I'm kind of glad that the playoffs
09:08don't have it.
09:09Oh, they're bad.
09:09They might be three and eight.
09:11There've been Thompson disaster moments and I don't know.
09:15I'm kind of thinking it's good that they don't play three on three.
09:18Yeah.
09:19They are.
09:21I think three and eight, they got eight overtime losses, 40 regulation or overtime wins and
09:28they've got 44.
09:29So they're four and eight, I guess in overtime.
09:31So not great.
09:34No.
09:34And you know, it's two ones, two in a row that, you know, I mean, they, they had the puck
09:39on, uh, on Sunday in Anaheim, but lost it pretty quickly.
09:43That was a pretty quick goal too, wasn't it?
09:44Minute, minute 10.
09:45Um, so yeah, not, not, not great.
09:48The whole, the whole night was just, it was Boston's game.
09:52Yeah.
09:52Yeah.
09:53They were, except, except for when they took the lead.
09:56Yeah.
09:56Did Lindy say after like the first 40 minutes were the worst two periods we played in three
09:59months or something, which, you know, that might be an exaggeration, but it was, it was
10:03not good.
10:03It might not be.
10:04Um, I know that like watching the game, I, I was, you know, I was texting friends and
10:09Owen was in the press box.
10:10I'm like, they, they, they don't have it tonight.
10:12This is not, it's not their night, but yeah, then they managed to, you know, Benson makes
10:18a great individual play.
10:19They get the other power play goal and okay, we got the lead again.
10:23And then you get that, that bad, you know, that bad bounce.
10:27I already have been saying I can't get enough of Benson and just last night was even adding
10:31to that.
10:31I was thinking of you when he made that, made that play.
10:34Um, and absolutely just wrecked into the net and the penalty is called, which kind of shocked
10:40me.
10:40Yeah, me too.
10:41I thought they would just let that go.
10:43Cause it's, you know, it's hockey.
10:45And then to score on it.
10:46And it's almost April.
10:47Right.
10:47Right.
10:48So good.
10:49Yep.
10:49I was feeling 20 years ago in those moments.
10:52I mean, I was jumping up and just super fired up for those two goals.
10:58It never felt like their game, but you never know.
11:01Right.
11:01And they got, they got burned.
11:04They just, they still got a point and Tampa has a chance to get within one tonight.
11:09I mean, we both kind of said yesterday and maybe throughout Tampa is probably the better
11:14team.
11:16So it isn't the end of the world if they can't hold Tampa off.
11:21It doesn't taint the amazing.
11:23Amazing.
11:23Right.
11:24I'm not, I don't think anything crumbles here, but, um, you know, they've lost two in a row
11:30now, neither in regulation.
11:31So they've still got that going for them.
11:33Uh, but two in a row and regulate are in overtime.
11:37So, um, you know, Friday, Friday probably is going to, a lot of people are going to pour
11:44a lot into Friday.
11:44Like, okay, let's end this now.
11:47All right.
11:47Like it's another team in the race.
11:49Can we just look good tonight, please?
11:51Like, just let us look good because it's not that many games ago.
11:55I mean, the LA game, right.
11:57Was they were, they were the better team.
11:59Clearly the game before that was San Jose.
12:02And that was a game that was maybe not as bad as last night, but I know watching it
12:08was sort of like, Oh, they don't have it.
12:10And then it was three, nothing.
12:12But then, and then, and then they just, they just coasted home basically the game in San
12:16Jose last Thursday.
12:18So it's, you know, it's a, it's three out of four here that they maybe haven't been in
12:23great form.
12:24Uh, I would say if you, if you accept that San Jose was, you know, they, they weren't real
12:30good in the game, but they still won.
12:32Um, so let's, uh, you know, get back on track.
12:37Even Los Angeles.
12:40I'm happy if, if you are as well to offer any sort of therapy, we do not want to be
12:46losing our minds with 10 games left before the first playoff season in 15 years.
12:52Okay.
12:53Right.
12:53Everybody.
12:53Do we, do we know that we know that, right?
12:56I mean, the fun is getting into the, the roller coaster and riding the ride, but
13:02yeah, I don't want to, I like last night.
13:05Okay.
13:06I mean, even LA, all these games, your, your expectation should be, all right, this probably
13:12will be close.
13:13Right.
13:14It's a, it's a hockey game.
13:15I looked at, I thought about betting the Bruins last night, just objectively because Buffalo
13:20was minus two 10 or something like really, they're that much better than Boston.
13:24If we're sitting down for these games, thinking like the Sabres are just better than Boston,
13:30be careful.
13:31That's how much better a little bit.
13:34Maybe Boston played the night before.
13:37Okay.
13:38That doesn't have to, like, it's just, the margins are very, very thin.
13:42Yeah, that's right.
13:43That's right.
13:43And they, and to me, they still are.
13:45I still think, like, I don't come out of last night, like, Oh, I don't want any part of
13:48them.
13:49No, it's fine.
13:50They didn't have their best goalie in.
13:51And I thought corporate Salo had a pretty lucky night.
13:54There were a lot of saves.
13:55You might've noticed watching in person on TV.
13:58There were, there were saves where he's looking the wrong way after the puck hits a Thompson
14:03from the high slot.
14:04He just has no idea where that puck is.
14:07Darlene hits him in kind of the same spot on a play where he come in, came in from the
14:12blue line off the right side and got a nice shot off.
14:15And it just, but corporate, it hit corporate Salo, like just in between the arm, like in
14:20the arm shoulder below the shoulder area.
14:24But he looked around after that shot, like, I think he, he, he got away with one maybe,
14:31but they have a better goal, a way better goalie.
14:33I think in Swayman.
14:35So they didn't have him, but that team doesn't, you know, it's funny to me.
14:39I, I was, I think I said something about Casey Middlestad the other day.
14:43Like I'm not losing, I'm not losing.
14:44Yes.
14:45And you know, it was nice for him to get that goal.
14:47Uh, this doesn't make me feel like a jerk for saying that about him, but I think I still
14:52believe that I'm not, I'm not losing.
14:54Come on.
14:54I'm not losing to you.
14:55That game doesn't change.
14:56No, I don't think so.
14:57No.
14:58Okay.
14:59We would say that, right?
15:00We lost.
15:00We would say that.
15:02Let's go to Jeremy here.
15:03Hi.
15:05How are you guys doing?
15:06Good.
15:08Just a couple of points, um, or questions.
15:10Mike, I know you said you were at the game.
15:12What was your, were you behind with the nets?
15:15No, no.
15:17Cause I was wondering what the heck the defense was doing.
15:20I don't know.
15:20Three or four times when Pasternak was getting behind them for breakaways after breakaways.
15:26I'm just wondering what the defense was or were they sleeping?
15:30Because he had like three or four breakaways almost.
15:34And then.
15:35Okay.
15:36Yeah, go ahead.
15:36Go ahead.
15:37I was going to say on that, like on the goal, he didn't score on a breakaway on the goal,
15:41but he's in a loan on a play where Tuck does not get the puck out of the zone, even
15:46though
15:46he's like a foot from the blue line with it.
15:49And on that play.
15:50Pasternak also fell on one.
15:51Right.
15:52On that.
15:52Yeah, right.
15:53He tripped over the blue line.
15:54Yeah.
15:54On that play, Power is, you know, this is, this is their thing.
15:59Power's ready to go up the ice with Tuck.
16:01Tuck's about to get the puck out of the zone and Power is blowing the zone.
16:05He doesn't leave the zone, but he's going, he's headed up.
16:08And the play suddenly turns around on a dime.
16:10Now that doesn't excuse him and McLeod and another forward, I think, for coasting back
16:17on that play, which they all did and allowed for, I think it was Arvidsson to get that rebound
16:21after Lukan had made the nice poke check on Pasternak.
16:24But that play, the reason Pasternak is all alone is because Tuck doesn't get the puck
16:28out.
16:29You can say, be more careful, but their whole thing with that D is like getting in the play.
16:35And so they're ready to go and they got burned.
16:38Yeah.
16:39And what was your guys' opinion on the tying goal from Middlestad was, I mean, I came in
16:46late to the conversation, but it seemed like UPL was sideways.
16:50Yeah.
16:51Yeah.
16:51We did, we did just talk about it.
16:53He, um, he, he, he got lost there.
16:56I mean, he didn't know where the puck was, which is a problem, but he didn't do a very
17:01good job of protecting his net.
17:02He just sort of got all spun around and off balance and it was a, it was a, it was
17:06a tough
17:06play for him.
17:07Dan is next.
17:08Hi, Dan.
17:09Hey, thanks for taking my call.
17:11Sure.
17:11So, uh, the reason I think they brought in Logan, uh, Stanley was to kind of ramp up the
17:19physicality, but I haven't really noticed, I haven't noticed like a physical presence
17:25very much up to this point.
17:27I feel like we may have better defensemen than him just exclusively as defensemen, but
17:34I was just curious to see what you thought about his kind of physical play up to this
17:37point.
17:38I realize why they would use him in a playoff situation, but right now, are they trying to
17:45just get him acclimated to the system or I guess that's just kind of my thought at this
17:50point.
17:50I agree.
17:51He did.
17:52He fought in the San Jose home game, um, but it was one of those, it was like a guy
17:57he's got a history with and it was not like a defend the team kind of thing.
18:01It was just like the puck dropped and like, okay, these guys have fought before they're
18:04going to fight.
18:04The, the game that defines the season or the Sabres season is the Tampa game and he's not
18:12on the ice.
18:12He's in the press box doing interviews.
18:14Like he's not with them yet.
18:16I don't know.
18:17I think toughness is one thing to me.
18:20He, this Sabres team does not appear to be lacking.
18:23They're big enough and they're scrappy.
18:26I don't think I have a problem.
18:27I don't mind this for depth.
18:29I'm not against, I wasn't against what they did.
18:31You want to push an ad when you're trying to win, but I'm not sure he's one of their
18:36six best guys.
18:37Like, I feel like the, the rest of his game is not it.
18:44So if I have a team, this will be an interesting decision.
18:47Like if I have a team where I think I need somebody that big to save me, then okay.
18:53I don't think they do.
18:54I think they're sort of showing that they can hold up and we've still got 10 games and there
19:00probably will be injuries.
19:01You know, that's why you'd make, that's one reason why you make that trade.
19:05But I don't, I feel like I'm getting what I was told to expect from Stanley, which is
19:11like, well, he's big if that's what you want, but the rest of it.
19:16Last night could have been a spot.
19:19Zdorov got after a couple of guys, like a couple of hard hits, McLeod and I think Tuck.
19:25And you could have like sent Stanley out there to challenge him and do, the thing about that
19:32is I'm not sure I, I don't want Zdorov running around trying to injure people.
19:37I also kind of want him on the ice if I'm playing them.
19:40He's not that good.
19:42He's big and he moves and he's mean, but there was a shift in the second, no, the first period
19:48of this game, one of the best shifts the Sabres had, he gave the puck away like two or three
19:52times in the span of a minute and a half.
19:54They couldn't get out of their end.
19:57So I don't know.
19:58I, I don't want to excuse it.
20:00If you have that guy in the lineup, Stanley, he could have challenged Zdorov last night.
20:05There was cause to, I think nothing that he did was cheap.
20:08He didn't get penalized for any of it.
20:10I don't think, but you still could have gone and tried to like, if the idea is deter him
20:17from doing that, which I don't really believe in.
20:19Like I think if Nikita Zdorov wants to run you, he's going to run you.
20:22And then if Logan Stanley wants to fight him for it, he'll fight him and then he'll run
20:26some more guys.
20:26I don't want the Sabres tilting like that.
20:29I mean, that's just been no part of their story.
20:31And I know how the playoffs can be described as different.
20:34I think I want Stanley to protect my net and okay, but I'm doing fine with a guy who's
20:42like five, eight.
20:42Like I just, I took him out.
20:45So I don't know.
20:45I wonder if this is, you know, kind of an audition.
20:49Like we've been talking that the Sabres have that luxury.
20:51If you, you know, are on board with that sort of thinking, I mean, they're also trying to
20:57win their division in conference.
20:58He is the only guy they really have.
21:02Samuelson throws the body, but he's not, you know, he's not intimidating.
21:06He's not a fighter.
21:08Stanley is.
21:10So I think, you know, they got him for that.
21:13I would anticipate him being in the lineup for the playoffs, but Timmons playing pretty
21:19well last night might be a wrinkle.
21:21He had a good night.
21:22Not surprising to me.
21:23I think, you know, the, you know, he had two penalty kills, but you know, he played on
21:27the penalty kill and they killed both of the penalties.
21:29I think they're going to want that.
21:30And he moved, he moved the puck effectively.
21:34Now he was with Stanley.
21:35Like I didn't have a problem with Stanley last night either, really.
21:38So I don't know what they're going to end up doing there.
21:41And there's Kesselring.
21:43Right.
21:44All right.
21:45Here we go.
21:4710 games left.
21:48Sal Capaccio will join us at four.
21:50Mike Schopen, the Bulldog here.
21:51This is WG.
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