00:00Chad DiDomenis is joining us of Expected Buffalo. Chad on the Western Hotline. Chad, good morning.
00:04Finally, our long national nightmare is over. Zach Metza has returned.
00:08And, you know, we can all lay our swords down. How are you, Chad? Good morning.
00:14Good morning, guys. How are you?
00:15So, how did the Zach Metza news hit you initially? The conversation about it? The fact that he's back?
00:22You know, what do the Sabres really have in this player who has had miraculous results on the ice?
00:28And there are things to like that, you know, maybe don't match the miraculous results.
00:32But where do you kind of come through all of it?
00:37Yeah, I mean, the first thing that has to be acknowledged, you know, I think a lot of people talk
00:40about it,
00:40is the PDO bender he's on, right?
00:42So, I think he hasn't allowed a five-on-five goal since October or something like that,
00:46or been on the ice for one, which is pretty crazy.
00:50So, I think immediately you get caught up in that.
00:54And you have to acknowledge it as a numbers person.
00:56Like, eventually that's going to end.
00:59But I guess you want to try to ride that out as long as you can.
01:02So, there's that part of it.
01:03You know, I think he's a fine stick seventh defenseman.
01:09Probably a seven in a good, you know, scenario, a good situation.
01:13He doesn't do anything crazy.
01:15He's calm within his game.
01:17You don't notice him much, which is what you want if you want a seventh defenseman.
01:21Makes those plays.
01:22Can move the puck well.
01:23He's smart enough in the offensive zone to play within the system.
01:27Really not going to catch in any bad scenarios.
01:31Where it really becomes questionable is the minutes.
01:37Now, it's interesting.
01:38Before he was signed down, he was actually getting some of the most minutes he's played in a game.
01:42And then he was signed down.
01:43So, that was a little bit weird and odd.
01:46But the other thing, too, is the special teams.
01:48He doesn't play power play.
01:49He doesn't kill penalties.
01:50And I think when you're thinking about building a playoff team and a playoff roster moving forward, that certainly is
01:57a part of the conversation.
01:59I think the way this roster is currently constructed, that he's probably your sixth or seventh best defenseman and he
02:06should be here.
02:08How much he's going to play, I guess we'll find out with this rotation.
02:12I definitely don't anticipate he's going to play today with the three and three he just played in Rochester over
02:16the weekend.
02:17But maybe later in the week he gets back in.
02:20It seems like they're rotating, trying to find their best pair, which is a good idea as you go down
02:24the stretch.
02:24But, yeah, I think it's good.
02:26They came through on their word that it was just a sundown to get some timing because he wasn't going
02:31to play over the weekend.
02:31Now he's back.
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