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00:00We danced with the Mike Vrabel thing in a little bit, Deion Dawkins.
00:04Game night.
00:06What's your latest on who you want?
00:08Right now, the Sabres are technically behind Tampa Bay.
00:12Tied in points, not worth parsing.
00:15Tampa has Montreal tonight, which is third.
00:18Four points behind the Sabres only with the game in hand.
00:22That's good.
00:23The Sabres are a bigger betting favorite in their game than the Lightning are in theirs,
00:28which I suppose makes sense.
00:30Montreal is on a roll.
00:33Islanders, though, losers last night, but in a playoff spot.
00:37They're down to seven games left, and I'm sure are feeling the pressure.
00:43Yeah.
00:48I think the Islanders might just be because they're the team right in front of me tonight.
00:54I don't know.
00:55I watched them last night, and they got clobbered last night.
00:58Um, the goalie is scary to me.
01:05Sorokin is just, he's had a terrible outing, and I think he got pulled two or three starts
01:11before the one last night with a rocky outing.
01:17I just feel like of the potential goaltender, and I know you're not just going to play goalies
01:21here.
01:21You're going to play these whole hockey teams, but of the teams that you could potentially
01:26face, I mean, I should include Tampa.
01:28You could still play Tampa.
01:30Um, and that's Vasilevsky, and that's Tampa.
01:34Tampa is like, I'm not even really thinking about them for this because it's, to me, not
01:39as likely as it is it's almost anyone else because one of the two is probably going to
01:44win the division, and therefore you're not playing them until the second round should
01:47you both get there.
01:48So, of the candidates, I feel like, and it's maybe not even that close, Sorokin is the
01:54scariest goalie I think you could play.
01:57Swayman might be next.
02:00Um, and then maybe the guy the Sabres saw Friday night in Gibson would be, you know, just
02:05he's capable of doing that.
02:06I think he did a great job Friday night.
02:07They're, they're in a tough spot right now, both they and Ottawa.
02:10We'll see if Sorokin plays tonight, by the way, right?
02:13We don't, I don't know yet.
02:14He played 47 minutes last night, got pulled and Rittich went in and you know, the, it's
02:21always tough.
02:22Like I saw different, you know, reporters that are covering the game or covering the
02:25Islanders.
02:26And one of them said, like, well, we'll see if this means, you know, the, the plan was
02:31Rittich to play tomorrow in Buffalo, which might just be an assumption on a reporter's
02:35part, because it's what always happens.
02:37Um, or it might be that they knew maybe the, the, you know, Petroquois,
02:40I told him like, we're going to, you know, each guy's going to play one of these
02:43games.
02:44Um, but him getting pulled when he did.
02:47Yeah.
02:47If he, especially if he'd been pulled before the third, I feel more likely he went
02:53through an intermission, went out there to start the third and then seven minutes
02:57in got pulled.
02:58I, I still might expect the backup if that was the plan, but I don't know.
03:03We'll have to wait.
03:04I watched the third period of that game.
03:07It was three, one Islanders, then five, three Pittsburgh after two.
03:11And I think you're thinking about that game still at that point.
03:15Like, let's come back.
03:17Six, three was pretty early and you still might be thinking that way.
03:23Let's, we're still playing to win here.
03:25Seven, three check, please.
03:27And that's what he took Petroquois.
03:29That's when he took out.
03:31Sorokin was seven, three was still a lot of time left.
03:33Right.
03:3413 minutes.
03:35The idea of the comeback.
03:36I think that was it.
03:37Yeah.
03:37So I think they were playing to win until the moment at which he was removed and
03:43then could have gone either way.
03:45I know Joe tweeted last night, this probably means Riddick.
03:49And I thought the opposite for this game with the Sabres, but daily face-off doesn't
03:54have it yet.
03:55It says Riddick unconfirmed, which could either be that they're, they sort of sense
03:59it or that it's just default.
04:02Right.
04:03It's just the assumption that they would, they would not play the guy in back-to-back.
04:07But again, yeah, a playoff race and losing the game last night could change that.
04:12They, you know, they, they could get together after the game.
04:14Somebody go talk to Sorokin, see how he's feeling, right.
04:17Or maybe even wait till the morning.
04:19Like, Hey, how you feeling?
04:20You want to go tonight?
04:21Yeah, sure.
04:22And that might be it.
04:23I don't know.
04:24You can have, you know, philosophy be damned.
04:26If the guy feels, if your number one comes to you even and says, Hey, I'm good tonight.
04:30If you want me, then you might defer to that.
04:32By the way, the Islanders who are of course in the conversation for these possible first
04:38round opponents for the Sabres, they have, including last night and tonight, they have
04:42three back-to-backs left.
04:44One next week, Philadelphia, then at Carolina.
04:48Then they host Ottawa and Montreal back-to-back the final weekend before playing Carolina again.
04:53They have a tough.
04:54That's tough.
04:55That is tough.
04:56They are a team that I, I said this last night watching them while they, you know, they were
05:00up 3-1.
05:01It was going pretty well.
05:01And then it just, the roof fell in on them.
05:04They just feel to me like a team that could be sneakily more dangerous than you think.
05:12The goalie's a big part of it.
05:14I tend to think of the Islanders the way the Islanders have been for maybe the back half
05:20of the drought, the Sabres playoff drought.
05:23And some of these years, the Islanders were good enough to be playoff teams.
05:27Other years, they weren't much better than the Sabres, I think.
05:30But they were always just sort of low event, shot blocking, just bleh.
05:38Here come Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin and Casey Sezekis.
05:42And like, oh my God, still with these guys?
05:45Like, did they play with Mike Bossy?
05:47What am I doing here?
05:49Sezekis is still there.
05:50The other two are gone.
05:50I think Martin retired.
05:52Nelson is gone.
05:54He was there.
05:54Nelson was there.
05:55He is in Colorado now.
05:56But I just sort of have this, like, eh, the Islanders.
06:00Yuck.
06:01Boring.
06:01Yeah.
06:02And I don't know that that really should be, I don't know how correct that is.
06:06Because Schaefer is such an electric player.
06:10The rookie defenseman, he's already got over 20 goals.
06:14I mean, he's going to win the Calder in a waltz.
06:16And there's other good rookies, but he's just been so good that it's over.
06:21It was like halfway through the season.
06:22Like, that's it as a rookie of the year.
06:24And he's still 18, right?
06:25Right.
06:26So, like, that should give you pause on thinking they're the same old Islanders.
06:30But even saying that, the same old Islanders would concern me.
06:36If you're going to find a way, they might be a team that I perceive as being capable of.
06:45If the Sabres are living on river hockey, I don't exactly think they are.
06:50Can some teams slow them down?
06:52I feel like the New York Islanders are that team.
06:55Historically.
06:56Again, not so much this year.
06:57So, that's in my head.
06:58The goalie's really good.
07:00Think about how that's relevant to the Boston conversation.
07:04Because your Boston position was, I don't know if they still are the, quote, Boston Bruins,
07:10but I kind of feel like they might be.
07:12Yeah.
07:12Because of the history.
07:13And the Islanders definitely have that history.
07:15Going back forever.
07:16Yeah.
07:17Kind of just tough to beat.
07:19Yeah.
07:19Or terrible.
07:20Yeah.
07:21They're either sort of tough to beat or they're bad.
07:23Yeah.
07:25So, for that reason, I'm not eager to see them.
07:29The Islanders.
07:30I just, I don't feel great about this game tonight.
07:33I'm really glad the Sabres found a way to get Saturday night.
07:36Just because the Islanders, there's, and for me, a lot of this, too, is baggage.
07:42It's not just the shot blocking and all the stuff.
07:45It's, you know, I'm a teenager and, like, some of the most exciting Sabres teams we ever saw
07:53could not get past the Islanders.
07:55Now, it was an Islanders team that won four cups in a row.
08:00So, I mean, again, it's a whole different era and that should not matter.
08:04Were they great, though?
08:04But, for me, they, there's scar tissue there with the Islanders.
08:10Whereas, like, Philly, who I also, you know, in that era, you know, I lost to them in the
08:15cup final.
08:16I couldn't beat them in Philadelphia.
08:18I've taken care of that.
08:19Like, the Sabres have banged them like a drum in the playoffs.
08:23You know, I know they lost the last series they played.
08:25But, like, overall, I've exercised the demons of the past with the Flyers.
08:30The Islanders, I've, the series in 07 didn't really do it for me.
08:33That even felt like it was close to being what I'm describing.
08:38Yeah, it was.
08:38We had a Sabres team that was a wagon and you had Miro, you know, barely getting stopped
08:44by Ryan Miller to preserve the, you know, series-clinching win there.
08:48It was, it was tight.
08:49So, you're trying to decide between whether you want the Sabres to face the 90s Bruins
08:53or the 80s Islanders in the first round or the 70s Flyers.
08:57Yeah, real, real helpful, Bulldog.
08:59Thanks.
08:59Thanks for coming.
09:00And Ottawa would be something like this, too, right?
09:03I guess.
09:0306, 07?
09:04I guess.
09:05I guess.
09:06But, like...
09:06I mean, it's completely normal.
09:09I think Montreal, I mean, the standings tell you this, watching them play.
09:14Montreal scares me less.
09:17Even though their high end, offensively, is maybe as good as anybody in the league.
09:24Like, they have, they have, like, somebody, you referenced it yesterday, you know, somebody
09:30on our show late last week said that their first line might be the best first line in
09:34hockey, right?
09:35Suzuki, Caulfield, and Slavkowski.
09:38They really have a lot going, but I feel like all buttoned up, defensively, goaltending, like,
09:45I think I can get them.
09:46You know what's actually...
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