00:00Here's Chris with us. Hello, Chris.
00:03Hey, guys. How's it going?
00:04Good, man. Thanks for calling.
00:07Hey, thank you.
00:08So, I love the Sabres.
00:10I don't know if you guys already talked about this,
00:11but I'm a little nervous about them for the playoffs as far as nastiness.
00:15I don't know what the stats are as far as teams that have a little rat in them
00:20or a little filthy, how much better they do.
00:23But I'm willing to bet it's probably pretty good.
00:25I want to see them have more edge.
00:27Which, I know they're 25th in hits given and they're 3rd in hits taken.
00:33And I just wonder what you guys think about that translating into the playoffs.
00:37And that's going to be a big problem.
00:38They just need more grit.
00:40I know they – I saw the Tampa game.
00:42I was actually there.
00:42What a crazy game.
00:44And I know they answered the bell then.
00:46But can they do that for four rounds of a Stanley Cup playoff is what I'm wondering.
00:50Yeah, I don't know.
00:52It remains to be seen.
00:53I don't know where you find rat stats.
00:57So, I mean, you're not – hits are one measure.
01:03But, you know, I think a very entry-level reaction to their hit stats might be,
01:09well, they're not chasing the play that often and their opponent is.
01:14And therefore, they're getting hit more because when you don't have the puck, you hit.
01:18But that's just, you know, that's old and maybe not even exactly accurate anymore to explain the disparity in hitting
01:26they have.
01:27I don't think we're going to know until we're going to – I think we'll decide once we watch it.
01:33But I don't think they're – I thought I think maybe five years ago, ten years ago that we were
01:45getting to a place where playoff hockey would not be as hard, as physical as it had been.
01:57And that swung back the other way.
01:59Like, maybe when the blues won is when, like, the light went back on for me.
02:05Like, wow, these guys are all big and they are just pounding people.
02:10Certainly Florida.
02:11And Florida was absolutely built in that mold.
02:13Tampa was also very big and very physical, and they still are.
02:20You know, you tend to think about Kucherov and, in previous years, Stamkos and, you know, all the skill they've
02:26got.
02:27But there's a lot of size and there's a lot of nasty there.
02:30And so – and Florida is absolutely a great – like, they have just worn teams down in the playoffs.
02:39I don't know that the Sabres – I think they tried to address it in the ways that they did
02:44at the deadline by adding Stanley.
02:46They are a big team, especially on the blue line.
02:49I mean, they've got a lot of size there, but it's not mean size.
02:54It's not physical size.
02:55It's not make-you-pay-a-price size.
02:57It's, you know, more like just sort of wall you off and kill the play, which can be effective.
03:02But they get into a series where it's just everybody is finishing every check.
03:09I have no idea how they're going to respond to that.
03:12And whether or not they are even really prepared to do that themselves if they need to.
03:20You know, is every guy, every forward on that team going to be pounding people through the back walls?
03:25Probably not.
03:26That's not been who they are.
03:29So I don't think we know.
03:31I think it's a totally legitimate concern.
03:34I think the Sabres, again, their behavior at the deadline tells you, to some extent, they were concerned about it
03:41and tried to address it.
03:44And whether they did enough, really, that ultimately comes down to Stanley and Carrick, I guess, who unfortunately got pretty
03:51badly hurt yesterday.
03:52I've not heard an update on what that is, but that looked all day to me like a dislocated elbow
03:58or something.
03:59I did slow-mo through the fight.
04:02When they were showing on the post-game show the belt being awarded to the player of the game, whoever
04:09it was, maybe Krebs that passed it, mentioned Carrick, but he said he's not here.
04:14Yeah.
04:15He wasn't in the room.
04:16Yeah.
04:16I mean, Lindy said a few things after the game.
04:19I hate to lose him, he said, complimenting, oh, he's doing such a good job for us on draws.
04:26He scored some big goals already.
04:28Five goals.
04:28The fighting.
04:30He just sort of fit right in.
04:32I hate to lose him, he said.
04:33Now, I don't know.
04:34That could have just been a short-term thing, but it might have been him saying he expects it to
04:39be bad.
04:39I don't know.
04:40Left arm injury, we'll see.
04:43Like, more tomorrow, and I've not seen any more today to know, but the way he, again, looking at it,
04:50it's hard to tell him it's a big, baggy jersey, but he's got that left arm extended, and he's hanging
04:55on to Lee, and then he twists, and Lee ends up holding on to either his hand or the sleeve
05:04at the end of that, you know, the same, and just he twisted him,
05:09and the arm looked like it bent in a very, the wrong way, as he was being thrown down to
05:17the ice.
05:18Well, look, I might be predictable on this, but I'm going to go the other way.
05:24Not to say that this is the caller's trap.
05:28I think that saber uniform makes you kind of assume that they're lightweights.
05:35Not because of the colors, because of the history.
05:38Because the Sabres have often been out, ratted, jerked, whatever the word is, physicaled.
05:45I hate that word, but you know what I mean.
05:48And so I think we might have a bias.
05:50I feel like they're plenty feisty.
05:53They are big.
05:54And I don't need them.
05:55I lost Carrick trying to avenge a hit.
05:59I just remember Malkin on Darlene.
06:02Nobody had to punch out Malkin.
06:03They got a power play, and they scored, and they won.
06:05Like, that's, to me, that's how I want to do it.
06:08I think they're, what is the phrase always, tough to play against?
06:13I mean, how are the Sabres not tough to play against?
06:15They're very tough to penetrate.
06:18And offensively, they're a problem.
06:20I mean, they're deep.
06:21And how Benson plays, how Malenstein plays, what Tuck can do, all of it.
06:26And last night, they scored on their power play goals and won a one-goal game.
06:30So, I don't know.
06:32I'm not, I haven't warmed to Stanley.
06:34I know what they're trying to do.
06:36It's typical hockey, and we'll see what happens.
06:40But I don't think he's made them better.
06:43I think they're just sort of trying to acclimate him to the playoffs, and I think he's locked in, probably.
06:49And I don't know.
06:50I'm worried about it.
06:51I don't think he's that good.
06:53So, I had a team that couldn't lose, and I put a guy in who wasn't that good, and it
06:58kind of looks like that to me.
06:59But, you know, he's tall, strong.
07:02Yeah, I choose not to worry about it.
07:05And sadly, nowhere near this Mayfield when he hit Norris for a second time last night.
07:09He didn't hit him twice, but the second time Norris got hit up high in the head, and he sort
07:15of flipped out.
07:16And Stanley was going to the bench and was very late to get over there.
07:20Because that is absolutely a guy you have Logan Stanley for.
07:26Like, Mayfield is Logan Stanley on the Islanders.
07:28He's 6'6", and moves like an aircraft carrier.
07:32But he's physical and mean and all that.
07:35And he just got the – I thought for a moment he was actually going to push Mayfield into the
07:40penalty box.
07:41And by the time he got there, the officials had Mayfield sort of corralled and were guiding him to the
07:47box.
07:47And then here comes Stanley sort of in late.
07:50And I thought he was actually going to just shove him right into the box, but he didn't.
07:53He probably would have gotten the penalty.
07:53Is that a penalty?
07:54Probably is.
07:55We already got the worst of that.
07:57Norris got four.
07:58Yeah, they got –
07:58What happened on that?
08:00That's the thing about, you know, nobody needed to do anything to Malkin.
08:04And somehow Anders Lee did not get a penalty for hitting Norris from behind headfirst into the glass.
08:13I mean, it wasn't – he didn't deserve more than a minor penalty for it.
08:17It wasn't, to me, five minutes in a game or anything like that.
08:20But he clearly saw a number on the back of the jersey and just hit him from behind.
08:27I don't know how that – that blew my mind that they reviewed that and ended up at no call.
08:32Well, Norris almost lost it on the second one.
08:35Yeah.
08:36He's bleeding from the mouth.
08:37Yeah.
08:37And he got four to Mayfield's two.
08:40So, I don't know.
08:41Like, I don't want this team to lose – to go off track trying to be something they're not.
08:47I thought we were very close to having – I mean, I don't know what we would have done with
08:53it,
08:53but the fan base would have been enraged about officiating last night.
08:56Had they lost.
08:57Had they lost that game.
08:59Because there was that and there was something out –
09:02like, well, yeah, just those two exchanges alone.
09:04The Sabres get shorthanded on the second one when you're like, really?
09:09And the first one, no call at all.
09:12And Carrick gets hurt trying to answer for it.
09:14It was just like a very sort of, ugh, welcome back to caring about the refs feeling.
09:21And fortunately, they won and we were saved from that.
09:24Great goal to win it.
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