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00:00But last night's a great night.
00:03Great goal.
00:05Talk to Krebs.
00:06Power at the beginning of that.
00:08Power has the puck go in off his skate.
00:10But some redemption there.
00:11They get the goal.
00:12They win the game.
00:14Norris is interesting from this game.
00:16I wanted to zoom out here.
00:18And anybody who wants to jump into this conversation is welcome to.
00:23I want some perspective on how unlikely all of this is.
00:30I mean, we've compared this season to 2006 many times.
00:34Is it more unlikely than 2006?
00:37When it was ramping up, you often would ask the right question to a lot of guests,
00:44like the national guests.
00:45Did you see it coming?
00:47Does it make sense?
00:49How have they put now a 100-point team, a 100-point season together?
00:56Where did this come from?
00:58How did it happen?
00:58Jordan Greenway, after the game last night, is with Rob Ray.
01:03And Rob asks him some version of this question.
01:06How did you do it?
01:08And Greenway can't answer the question.
01:10He literally can't answer the question.
01:12He sort of says a couple different ways.
01:15Man, that's a tough one.
01:18I'd be here a long time.
01:21I don't know.
01:23There's a lot I could say about this.
01:24I'm not quoting.
01:25But I think Greenway would need to sit down in the room and stretch out and give you his
01:32version of what are the players, when they talk about it with each other, assuming they
01:37do, what are they saying to each other?
01:40What is the players' version of events?
01:42Now I'm just sort of rambling.
01:43I feel like Greenway is a tough guy to ask, because he hasn't really been around the team
01:47while it's been getting good.
01:50He was here before that, so I mean, he knows, whatever.
01:54He's an interesting person to ask that question to, because the blast-off of this team this
02:00year occurred almost entirely with him not playing at all.
02:03No, you're right.
02:04He hasn't been in the wars, if you will, but he's been in the group.
02:09That's right.
02:10That's right.
02:10So they would all be like, or not all, it would be a very interesting range of players
02:18who might think on one end, this is unbelievable.
02:21I didn't know this was going to be possible.
02:24I'm not even sure how it happened either.
02:27Two, at another end, maybe somebody that is more a different type is like, oh, no, well,
02:33we expect to win every game, and this is not surprising at all.
02:36I don't know.
02:37I just, it's 100 points.
02:39Yeah, it's 100 points, right.
02:42My first reaction, inclination, when thinking about how unlikely this season is versus, say,
02:5205-06, like you referenced, is to say that while Drury and Breer had already gotten here
03:02before the lockout and played, right, I mean, Breer played a little bit of the season before
03:08the season before the lockout, didn't he?
03:10Like, he was acquired, and then the summertime came, and they got Drury, and then they played
03:14the 0-3-0-4 season and had them here.
03:17I remember them trading for Mike Greer maybe at that deadline going into the lockout.
03:22They didn't have a ton of time with him, but, like, the idea was we're putting a team
03:27of winners together here, and I kind of bought that.
03:31It was, you know, it was a long time to go.
03:34It was a whole season with no games, and I don't remember when they started.
03:43I know they didn't get off to a great start in that 05-06 season, so I don't want to
03:49rewrite
03:49history and say I knew they were going to be good, but I knew I really liked the Breer
03:54and Drury, and Drury showing up and saying, go get Mike Greer, he'll help me run the room.
04:00Like, I was buying what they were building.
04:03Two other things to that, if I may just jump in.
04:06One is, the thing that I remember the most about that transition was everybody decided
04:11they had to get rid of Miro, and I don't know how true that was or why that was so
04:20important.
04:20No, he needed to be exiled.
04:22They had to get rid of Miro, who then would play in playoff series against them for the
04:25Islanders and the Bruins, but they had to get rid of Miro, like, sort of reorder things,
04:31and they had all this influx of young talent from the minors.
04:35Right, so the thing that's markedly different there is that it was, again, I made the frame
04:42of reference, like, Drury and Breer were here before the lost season, but it still was a
04:47pretty new team, right?
04:49The young guys were all new.
04:51Miller's new, Vanek's new, Roy, Pommenville shows up, like, what, October, November?
04:56Like, he wasn't, he didn't make, it wasn't a lot to make the team.
04:59He just showed up and then was in the lineup, and then he, you know, had a Sabres Hall of
05:02Fame
05:03career.
05:05So it was a new group.
05:07This team, as constituted, going into the year, sure, Kesselring showed up, Doan showed
05:14up, they were new guys, but it was not a new team.
05:17Like, the top end of the team was not new.
05:20The defense core, again, save for Kesselring and Timmons, I guess, who largely have been
05:26irrelevant to this whole thing, right?
05:28Zach Metza, maybe, has been more impactful than either Connor Timmons or Michael Kesselring.
05:34No doubt.
05:35And, you know, who was he?
05:36He was, you know, street-free agent playing in Rochester.
05:39Anyway, this group wasn't new.
05:42Tage, Tuck, right?
05:44Krebs, Greenway.
05:45All these guys were here at least a year, if not more than that, and I think that makes
05:51it more surprising that their fortunes, their ability to play in such a way that allowed
05:58them to run, you know, just run roughshod up to the top of the conference at 100 points.
06:05It's harder for me to have seen it coming than, and I'm trying to be honest about it.
06:11Again, I don't think I thought the Sabres were about to be great when 05-06 began, but there
06:18was a lot of new there.
06:19There was a lot to be excited about, and it took a little while for it to take shape.
06:23I think that's less surprising than what happened this year.
06:27This year was the same guys, the same team, and then the switch flipped, and they went insane.
06:35There's also, neither, in this example, this comparison, neither team had a coaching change,
06:42and incredibly, it's the same coach.
06:45It's just Lindy Ruppel types.
06:47Hockey changes coaches every five minutes, and it's the same guy.
06:51Yeah, yeah.
06:52And it's not like he owned the team.
06:53It's not Connie Mack.
06:54It's not like he owned the team and made himself coach for life.
06:58No.
06:59Speaking of Rodgers Hornsby.
07:00Speaking of, right.
07:01Never met Connie Mack, although my ADP-chasing brethren probably think we were friends because
07:07I'm that old, but 8-0-3-0-5-50.
07:11100 points.
07:14It's not off the table.
07:16Like, playoff matchups and lineup stuff, I mean, the Lucanen gambit worked out.
07:21He came through.
07:23Metza came through.
07:25Even killed some penalties, or all penalties.
07:28Whatever.
07:29It's a good win.
07:31I mean, so it's not like we can't talk about the possibilities.
07:34That was a hard thing.
07:35They had to work for that.
07:35That was a hard game.
07:38I think everything we talked about yesterday regarding the Islanders and the challenge they
07:44could present if you run into them in the playoffs, I think you saw last night.
07:49It was not like a free-flowing, wild game.
07:52I mean, the Islanders do a little more of that now that they have Schaefer on their back end,
07:55but it's a hard game, and the goalie is excellent.
08:00So you've got to be pretty buttoned up.
08:02I mean, that's a team to me.
08:03If you're going to win against them, you probably need a power play goal or two, and they got
08:08a couple last night, because the goalie five-on-five is just going to be tough.
08:13Well, how unlikely is it?
08:15Great points.
08:16I mean, the team being largely the same a year after last year's disaster without a coaching
08:21change.
08:22What's the biggest move they made last year to this year?
08:25I mean, Paterka.
08:26Paterka for Kesselring and Doan.
08:28And, you know...
08:29Felt more like a subtraction than an addition.
08:32Yeah, for sure.
08:33And especially, you know, looking at it now, like Kesselring has had zero impact on their
08:39season.
08:40Doan, I think, sort of helped change their whole vibe with how hard he works and just
08:48how tenacious he is.
08:49Like, I think maybe he is someone I would look to, you know, so it's not entirely the same
08:55group.
08:55Like, he, I think, they were malleable enough to have him have an impact on them, like how
09:02he plays, because what they're doing now, defensively, top to bottom in the lineup most
09:08nights, is, to me, a Doan impact.
09:11Because he showed up doing that right away.
09:13And he didn't have a lot of company when the season began.
09:16But eventually, it caught on.
09:18And that, to me, is the single biggest...
09:21It speaks so directly to how important maximum effort is in that sport.
09:27I mean, you gotta have the high-end talent.
09:29You better have a goalie, right?
09:31All the stuff that you probably want to have.
09:35But you can have all of those things.
09:37The Sabres, a lot of these years, have had a healthy portion.
09:43That's what's so crazy about how static most of the roster has been.
09:48Again, I think it just points to directly, we are gonna try extra hard.
09:55That's it.
09:56You know, anybody who's been yelling for them to try harder, I think, should be flying a
10:01flag.
10:01Because defensively, that's all defense is.
10:05I mean, it's, you know, positioning and knowing the system and all this stuff.
10:09But you gotta just want to do it.
10:11You gotta want to do it in a way that won't let your teammates down.
10:16And if that peer pressure exists, then I think you're on the right track.
10:20And I really think Doan helped create that peer pressure, even though he was a new guy.
10:24So, he's important.
10:27And so, I don't want to just gloss over the significant roster changes that were made.
10:33But again, it's not like there was a half a dozen new impactful guys here.
10:37Well, that's all true.
10:40You still have to have the talent.
10:44And defensively, they do.
10:47And top end, they do.
10:50Like, Thompson scoring 40 goals, again, is like, you can't just win with effort alone.
10:57Right.
10:57That's right.
10:57So, there had to be some internal confidence that, like, we can actually do it.
11:02I mean, how they play, the confidence, I think, is a part of this because I think, well, I should
11:12defer to any hockey player on this point.
11:14But what it looks like to me is this team, take the winning goal last night as a great example
11:20of it.
11:21This team is willing to go at any point.
11:25Like, they will fire.
11:280-6 was that, too.
11:30They will just fire from anywhere.
11:33I don't mean shoot.
11:34I don't mean the boring, lazy, oh, just pucks on the net.
11:37I mean, I hate pucks on the net.
11:39I'm hearing that again last night.
11:41How about make a play?
11:42How did they score their goals?
11:44Good thing Tuck didn't just dump a backhand on Sorokin.
11:47I mean, just, no.
11:49That team was better than that, and this team is better than that.
11:52And the full length of the ice attack mode mentality is, I mean, maybe you just can't pull that off
12:02if you don't believe.
12:04Because, again, I want to defer to players that split second of hesitation you might have if you just don't
12:11believe that this is actually how we should do this.
12:14It kills it.
12:16And there are so many moments, highlights from this season that come from that.
12:20Like, go.
12:22And it's so much fun to watch, too.
12:25Well, 100 points.
12:28803, 0550.
12:29How do they do it?
12:31Where does this rank on just, like, Buffalo sports, the unlikely meter?
12:38Is this more, like, shocking than Josh Allen?
12:41Maybe.
12:42Like, Allen is a seventh overall pick.
12:44Like, it was always possible he would be great.
12:47Yeah.
12:47And he is.
12:49Is this really more shocking than that?
12:53I don't know how to answer that, but that's the kind of mood I'm in.
12:56I think I would want to say yes.
13:02But, I mean, whatever.
13:03That's an opinion.
13:04I don't have a real way to measure that.
13:06It's hard one.
13:06But, I think this is the most surprising season in Buffalo sports history.
13:13Okay.
13:14Well, let me sit with that.
13:15I think what has happened here is shocking.
13:18They have points in 39 of their last 46 games.
13:2223 of their last 27.
13:25Lines are open for your calls.
13:26Chris Trapasso on the NFL Draft coming up at 4.
13:29Pretty open today.
13:30Mike Schoep and the Bulldog here.
13:32Thanks for listening.
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