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00:00Playing at Canal Side that night, like the night of July, like I remember going down
00:04there, just smiling.
00:06I'm so happy.
00:07This is awesome.
00:09Matt, can we just so for a second, what, what a bullet dodged on the Brad Richards thing.
00:16Sure.
00:16He played, let's see, one, two, three, four, five seasons after that contract and scored
00:2525 goals that next season and then 11 the next year.
00:29I mean, he just, he fell off a cliff, yeah.
00:31Fell off of a cliff.
00:32That is, though, a lot more than Billy Lano ever did, I think, probably.
00:38So, Billy Lano's always going to have that clothing brand.
00:40And it was, you know, obviously it was a cheaper.
00:42Talked about literally, he's like, I was really thinking about the end while I was in Buffalo.
00:48These dark times for him and everyone else.
00:50Yeah.
00:51All right.
00:51Just a quick aside, 803-0550, let's fire up the phones here.
00:56Frank is first up this segment.
00:57Hi, Frank.
00:57Thank you for calling.
00:58You're on the air here on WGR.
01:01Hey, guys.
01:01Thanks for taking my call.
01:03Sure.
01:03I'm actually on my way to the game and I kind of wanted your guys' advice, too.
01:07You're on your way to the game.
01:08Like, are you, you're driving to Ottawa.
01:11Yeah.
01:11Well, I'm in the passenger side, but yes, I'm on my way to Ottawa.
01:14We're in the highway.
01:15I got two jerseys by my side and I wanted you guys to choose for me.
01:19Okay.
01:19I have a Dillon Cousins Heritage Classic or a black and white Miro Chetan.
01:28I think you got to easily go with Chetan because Cousins plays now for the team they're playing tonight.
01:33I don't think you want to rock that.
01:35But yeah, I just like...
01:37It's a sweet sweater, though.
01:38That heritage sweater, that's from the game in Hamilton.
01:40That's a very sweet sweater.
01:42Yeah, I'll tell you just a quick story and I'll let you guys go.
01:45So, last time I was there at the Sabres game, I walked up and Spartacat saw me.
01:50I was wearing my Eichel 15 and then he comes over and he goes to shake my hand and I
01:55reach
01:55down to shake his hand and he knocks my hat off and he pretends to eat me.
01:59I was all on the scoreboard and everything and that was awesome, but I figured if he at
02:04least saw Cousins on the back, he'd cut me some slack.
02:06All right.
02:07Have a great day, guys.
02:08All right.
02:09Very good.
02:09Oh, I see.
02:10Spartacat.
02:11Yes.
02:11I'm thinking, doesn't he mean Sabretooth?
02:13No.
02:14No, he means their...
02:15Yes.
02:15So, Spartacat is the Ottawa mascot?
02:17I guess so.
02:18We both looked at each other like, did he mean Sabretooth?
02:21Yeah, that's right.
02:22All right.
02:22No, I got it.
02:23All right.
02:23So, my last self-purchased Sabres jersey.
02:30Actually, it might have been my dad that bought this, so hopefully he's not listening
02:32to this.
02:34White Tyler Myers jersey, slug.
02:38One of the worst jerseys to have ever owned in adulthood during the drought.
02:44We were in...
02:46I went to Toronto to go see a game.
02:47This was the week, if you remember this story, about the hot dog cart outside of the arena
02:57and how...
02:58Gosh, why can't I remember his name?
03:00He would go out to the hot dog cart every day before games and get a hot dog.
03:06Do you know what I'm talking about?
03:07Played Team USA.
03:08Come on, help me out.
03:09I can't remember.
03:10Played for Toronto.
03:11Phil Kessel?
03:12Phil Kessel.
03:12Oh, okay.
03:13Yeah.
03:13You remember the Phil Kessel hot dog shirt?
03:14Yes.
03:15I'm thinking of the Sabre.
03:16You mentioned hot dogs and hockey player.
03:18Phil Kessel absolutely is the first name that comes to mind, but I didn't want to guess
03:22Phil Kessel because I was thinking this guy played for the Sabres.
03:25It's that night I were at the game and the Sabres, I mean, they got smoked in Toronto.
03:32Oh, seven...
03:32Yeah.
03:33No, wrong year.
03:34Wrong year, yes.
03:35Go ahead.
03:35So I'm there and we're leaving the game.
03:38It's like the end of the second period.
03:39It was like, we're leaving.
03:41Let's go to dinner.
03:41Let's go get drinks.
03:43I might have been like 19 and I'm like, we're in Canada.
03:46Let's go drink legally.
03:48So I take the jersey off and I'm like, what am I going to do with this?
03:53And there was a garbage right in front of the arena.
03:56I had spilled something on it too.
03:58And as you know, that white jersey, once you, it's over for the jersey.
04:03So I threw it out in front of the Toronto arena.
04:08And I might've, I might've ever been to some cheers from some Toronto.
04:12Yeah.
04:13Throw them out.
04:14Yeah.
04:14You know, they suck.
04:16Bold.
04:17Yeah.
04:17And that was the last jersey I've had, although.
04:20But you bought it.
04:21It was not a gift.
04:22You bought it.
04:22My dad might've bought that.
04:24He knows you threw it out though.
04:26He never saw it again.
04:28He never saw it again.
04:29Yeah.
04:30I don't know that I ever told him that I threw it out, but.
04:33That, that, that jersey design was just very, very tough.
04:39Brian is next up.
04:40Hi, Brian.
04:41Thank you for calling.
04:41You are on the air here on WGR.
04:44Hey, Chris.
04:45How are you today?
04:46I'm good.
04:48Yeah.
04:48So a little apology to you.
04:50When I dropped my two oldest or excuse me, youngest off at St. Mark's, I let my teenage
04:56daughter and get behind the wheel.
04:58She's got her permit.
04:58And I've taught her a while how to do the let's go Buffalo beat by your house every morning.
05:03So sorry about that.
05:04No apology necessary.
05:05No apology necessary.
05:06It's nice to know that I'm assuming you're harmless, that you know where I live.
05:10So that's good.
05:14No, I, we, yeah, we, we, we, yeah, I've noticed it.
05:18It's, I take it as a compliment.
05:19Yeah.
05:20Yeah.
05:21I'm 47.
05:21I'm completely harmless.
05:23I have three daughters.
05:23So yeah, completely harmless.
05:25I'm also one of my kids.
05:27Anyways, roll the clock back to Oh four.
05:29I just got out of grad school, moved back to Buffalo.
05:31The stupid lockout happened.
05:33Oh five happened.
05:34I fell in the season tickets.
05:36Fast forward to Eichel's rookie year.
05:38I can tell you the exact moment when I canceled my tickets, the Minnesota game in Buffalo.
05:43Evander King gets two handed cross check with five minutes to go in the third period in front of the
05:48ref.
05:48No period.
05:48I'm like, that's it.
05:49I'm done.
05:50This league's garbage.
05:51It's trash.
05:52They don't enforce the penalties.
05:53This team's paying to lose.
05:55And as I said, yesterday, I went into hibernation.
05:58I'm back, baby.
05:59I bought my tickets today.
06:00I feel like Randy Quaid in Independence Day.
06:03Remember me?
06:04I'm back.
06:07So 319, we're just a little over the red line, right underneath the press box.
06:13So I'll have to watch my mouth so my friends from work and the court system don't hear me swearing.
06:20So that's pretty cool.
06:22And then I actually called you guys yesterday about being down in that Jersey game while we were visiting the
06:27city.
06:27And my daughter's like, you know, what is it like with playoff hockey and all these banners in here?
06:34I'm like, yeah, you know, there's nothing better.
06:38You get home from school or from practice.
06:40It's still warm out.
06:41It's light outside.
06:43It's kind of light outside when the games end.
06:46And just imagine a Bills game, but for a playoff series.
06:50And she was a year and a half old for games the last time they made it.
06:56So she's got no memory.
06:58And by the way, you guys are wrong on that game six.
07:00The Sabres were winning with about eight minutes to go.
07:03And then Tim Connolly got cheap shot and broke his breastbone there.
07:08I can't think of the damn sternum.
07:10Sternum.
07:10And, yeah, it was ridiculous.
07:13And watching Billy Lano score on Easter Sunday right in front of me in 313,
07:17I just wanted to pick up every jelly bean I eat.
07:19That scumbag.
07:21All right, I'll hang up.
07:22All right, Brian, thanks.
07:23I don't know exactly what we got wrong there.
07:25I mean, all I said was that they lost on an overtime goal by Billy Lano,
07:29which factually happened.
07:30We didn't talk about how the game went.
07:32But, yeah, I do remember Connolly getting hurt.
07:35That was a big part of it.
07:39But, yeah, all right.
07:42The horn honking is something I've never really had to talk about on the air.
07:48Now it had been brought to you.
07:49It has been brought to me.
07:52Mike is next up.
07:53Hi, Mike.
07:54Thanks for calling.
07:54You're on WGR.
07:58Hey, how's it going?
07:59Thanks for taking the call.
08:00Sure.
08:01I just called to say last time they were in the playoffs,
08:04I was a senior in high school.
08:05I feel like I've lived four different lives since then.
08:08I have a four-year-old daughter.
08:10And sharing this with my family has been amazing.
08:13I remember driving down.
08:15I don't remember what game it was,
08:16but when the Robert Thomas news broke that day,
08:19that's the day I felt like it was official, like it's real.
08:23Like we're here.
08:24This is done being fake and hoping.
08:28It was just a great day.
08:30And ever since then it's just been, it's like cloud nine going to these games.
08:36That's awesome, Mike.
08:37I appreciate that.
08:38Yeah.
08:39That will in, you know, and I don't take any of this all that seriously.
08:44I mean, I try to do a good job.
08:47I will always have a Robert, it was a Robert Thomas day.
08:51Mike was off and there was this rumor about Robert Thomas.
08:54And I actually, I think, did the four-hour show almost entirely about Robert Thomas.
09:00A player who probably before I started talking about him at 3.02 that day,
09:05a lot of Sabres fans had no idea.
09:07Did he play for the Blues?
09:08Is he good?
09:09How come we didn't trade for him when we traded O'Reilly?
09:11We maybe kind of wanted to, but we couldn't.
09:14They wouldn't trade him.
09:17We'll always have that Robert Thomas day.
09:19Truly.
09:19Maybe we'll have a Robert Thomas day in the summer.
09:22Maybe.
09:22I mean, it could happen.
09:23It probably should.
09:25I think it will.
09:26It might.
09:27Let's speak it into existence.
09:28All right.
09:29Which is what I was trying to do on Robert Thomas day originally, as a matter of fact.
09:33Josh is next up here on WGR.
09:35Hi, Josh.
09:35Thanks for calling.
09:36You're on the air.
09:38Hey, what's going on?
09:39So, I have a drought moment that I guarantee not many people remember.
09:44But I remember it because I'm still floored by it 10 years later.
09:48Okay.
09:48So, it's 2016.
09:49You know, we're pretty deep into the drought by then.
09:53You know, Eichel's on the team.
09:54And the Sabres are playing in Calgary in October of 2016.
10:00The Flames score a goal on Robin Lehner that was immediately waved off because the ref blew the whistle.
10:11The whistle blew clear as day.
10:12And the puck goes into the net like two seconds later.
10:15The refs huddled up.
10:17And then they overturned the goal into a good goal because the ref didn't mean to blow the whistle.
10:24Which is against the rules.
10:27That's never happened.
10:27But if the whistle blows, the play is dead and they awarded the goal to Calgary.
10:32You're right.
10:33I don't remember this.
10:34Accidental whistle.
10:34I don't want to speak for everyone to say, like, no one else remembers this.
10:38But I don't remember this.
10:40And I probably was watching because I was...
10:432016.
10:43Yeah.
10:44All right.
10:44Yeah, 2016.
10:45I remember.
10:46I was going to say, we weren't hurt enough at that point for long enough to not care about that.
10:51Still, it was early in the Eichel.
10:53We had...
10:54The thing is, though, we had optimism.
10:56And it was very early in the season.
10:59Sure.
10:59Especially with Eichel and Reinhardt.
11:01And then that happened.
11:02It's like, what has that ever happened before?
11:05If the whistle blows and the puck goes into the net, it doesn't matter.
11:07The whistle blew.
11:09And then they overturned the goal.
11:11That's the NHL.
11:12I mean, anything can happen.
11:13And it probably will.
11:14That's kind of how it goes.
11:16I thought Tuesday night was setting up for, like, Wednesday to be ref day.
11:23Because the hit from behind on Norris, the other hit on Norris that he got four minutes,
11:30and the other guy got only two.
11:31And I felt like there...
11:33And then somebody late, while the Sabres were protecting their one-goal lead,
11:37got tripped in the offensive zone.
11:39No call.
11:40I'm like, oh, this is...
11:42It's going to...
11:42Boy, talk about a throwback.
11:44It's going to be complain about the ref's day.
11:46Sure.
11:47I hope we don't end up there, but chances are we will.
11:52We're going to the playoffs.
11:55Calls will be made.
11:56Yeah.
11:56They will be bad.
11:58Yeah.
11:59How it goes.
12:00Almost a...
12:01Yeah, it is a guarantee.
12:03I am batting, like, below 200 this year on goal interference.
12:10In all games.
12:11Not just Sabres games.
12:12They're like, oh, well, he's...
12:14His foot's in the crease.
12:15He made contact with a goalie.
12:17That has to be goalie interference.
12:20Nope.
12:21Like, okay, I thought I...
12:23No?
12:24Turns out you...
12:25Unidentifiable.
12:26No one knows the word.
12:26No one knows.
12:27No one knows.
12:27It's like a catch.
12:28What's a catch?
12:28It's exactly like that.
12:31Chris is next up.
12:32Hi, Chris.
12:32Thanks for calling.
12:33You're on the air here on WGR.
12:35Thanks for taking my call, guys.
12:38So, I live in St. Catharines now, but I didn't grow up in St. Catharines.
12:42I grew up about an hour west of St. Catharines, near Ontario.
12:46So, I grew up in a Leafs household.
12:48So, being a Sabres fan in the 90s was...
12:51It was easy because we were so good then.
12:53But being in a Leafs household, it was tough.
12:56But, you know, it's been 14 years.
12:59And I think back to, you know, those 05, 06, 06, 07 teams when, you know, I thought they
13:06were going to win the cup.
13:07And watching some videos today from a couple of those games when, you know, jury tied it
13:12with seven seconds left.
13:13It's been, again, scores in overtime.
13:15You know, despite all the craziness that has happened over those 14 years, whether it
13:20was alumni jersey names being spelled wrong or the Eichel debacle.
13:25And it just kind of maybe seems all worth it tonight if they win.
13:29And I know they're going to make the playoffs, but if they can do it tonight, it just seems
13:31kind of worth it all.
13:32You know, I think they can make a deep run.
13:35And I'm just excited.
13:37You know, I'm going to be there tonight.
13:38I'm going to drive over the border and be at Southern Tier to watch the game.
13:41Just excited to go.
13:42Awesome.
13:42All right, Chris.
13:43Appreciate the call very much.
13:44Yeah, you know what?
13:46They do have, I opened today, like there's not...
13:49Tonight's a perfect night to go out to watch the game because whatever disappointment
13:53you'll feel, and there will be some, if they don't clinch a playoff spot tonight, they've
13:57got plenty of runway here.
13:59Like they're going to...
14:01The drought's ending, right?
14:02It's just a question of whether it actually ends tonight.
14:05There is the matter of the standings to care about if you care about where you end up for
14:11the playoffs.
14:12And they are still in first place, protecting a two-point lead.
14:16Tampa still has a game in hand.
14:18And Montreal, if you care, is on a heater again.
14:21They've won six in a row, and they're only four points back.
14:24Would rather them play Tampa.
14:26Yeah.
14:27I don't want to play Montreal in the first round.
14:29Sure.
14:29So if you care about first place, you know, then every game still matters, even after
14:34they clinch.
14:35You're tied with Carolina right now.
14:37Same deal.
14:38They have one fewer game played than you do, so they have a game in hand on you.
14:42But winning the Eastern Conference this year would be...
14:46Incredibly badass.
14:48Totally.
14:48I mean, it's as good as the Eastern Conference has ever been.
14:52Right.
14:53That's right.
14:54Just as deep and as strong.
14:57And, like, you're looking at the West, and you're like, everyone is still kind of in
15:01it.
15:02Yeah.
15:02Like, they're talking about Winnipeg.
15:05They're like two points out of a wild card spot of the West.
15:08It's like, yeah, the Eastern Conference this year, for them to have won it, when I think
15:14the last couple of years, part of the, I don't know, dismay, or part of the feeling so like
15:22they are so far away, wasn't always about how bad they've been, but how good the conference
15:28and specifically the division have been, where you hear, you know, Toronto this week talking
15:35about, well, we didn't really see the Canadians and the Sabres coming, they're freight trains,
15:41whatever he said, right?
15:42It's like, that was part of, I think, every year going in, like.
15:47Right.
15:48Who are you displacing?
15:49Right.
15:49Right.
15:49No one.
15:50Right.
15:51No one.
15:52And this year, it just happens, Florida finally ran out of gas, and Toronto's imported.
15:57Toronto's done, yeah.
15:57And you're, but it's not like that's the only reason you're there.
16:01I mean, you've run away, I mean, 100 points is, yeah, to be first in the conference, did
16:07we, we talked about it yesterday, Zach, do you remember Mike said, I think if the league went
16:12one through 16 this year, there would only be four Western Conference teams in?
16:16That's remarkable.
16:18That's how bad, and it's largely the Pacific.
16:19The Pacific is just a sinkhole.
16:21It's a disaster.
16:22So, yeah, that's where that's at.
16:24All right, good deal.
16:27Ben is up next.
16:28Hi, Ben.
16:29Thank you for calling.
16:30Sorry for the sound effects.
16:31You're on the air here on WGR.
16:34Thanks for taking my call, guys.
16:36Yep.
16:36So, the last Sabres playoff game, I was sitting in a bar in Aruba.
16:42I had shortly prior turned 21, and we were watching the game on a thready feed on a computer
16:53through, let's just say, an internet website where you had to scour the depths of the interwebs
16:59at that point in order to get sports, games, as opposed to everything being at the tips
17:04of your fingers the way they are now.
17:06Now, I don't really remember much after Ville Lano scored that goal in overtime, needless
17:12to say, being in a bar in a foreign country after my 21st birthday, and thinking all the
17:18things that would happen between the time that Lano scored that goal to being on the
17:23cusp of going to the playoffs again, I took my four-year-old daughter to her first Sabres
17:27game on Friday.
17:28Granted, the outcome against the Red Wings was suboptimal, but at that point in time, thinking
17:35the next time I'd be seeing the Sabres on the cusp of making the playoffs, I would have
17:40had two kids finish not only one college degree, but three, and having bought my first house
17:48after what an immature state I was back when Ville Lano scored that goal, it's almost unfathomable
17:56the things that have happened over the last decade and a half since Pagoula said, now that
18:03I have the team, the sole existence for the Sabres from this point forward will be to
18:08win a Stanley Cup.
18:10I've brought that up jokingly to my friends following every Sabres elimination since that
18:16time about what a dead end of this franchise has been despite everybody pouring their heart
18:24and soul into this, and it almost brings me to tears thinking about how much my life has
18:29changed since the last time the Sabres had a playoff game.
18:32I'll hang up now and listen, guys.
18:34Yeah, man.
18:35Definitely.
18:37I feel every word of that, Ben.
18:40I mean, every word of that.
18:42I had occasion, I was asked, I don't want to say too much about why, find some pictures.
18:48You have any Sabres-related pictures through the years?
18:50And so I went through and there's a picture, Mike and I took our sons to a Sabres lightning
18:58game in 2011, their last playoff year, and the picture is Mike's son Julius sitting on
19:06Owen's lap.
19:07They're both, like, Owen's nine and Julius is probably, like, I don't even know, four or
19:11five, whatever.
19:12He's, you know, he's a little kid.
19:13But, um, and I, I was asked, like, eventually, like, what is it, I just sent it to, what does
19:20this picture make you think of?
19:21I'm like, I just, I, I, that little boy has got a mustache and works at the radio station
19:27now.
19:27I mean, I don't even know.
19:29Like, wow.
19:30Like, I just, what does it make you think?
19:32Like, it's been a long time is what it makes me think.
19:3514 years in that perspective is, it's, it's, it, when you say it out loud, it doesn't have
19:43as much meaning as when you think about all of the things that have happened to you in
19:4714 years.
19:48But yeah, again, I think the, the thing that has always sort of gotten me about how just
19:56miserable this is, is seeing them next to the Jets and knowing what we all think about
20:02the New York Jets.
20:02That clown show.
20:03I mean, and that is largely, every graphic, largest, you know, longest playoff drought
20:11in North American sports, and they are right there with the New York Jets is a, has just
20:19been to me the hardest thing to look at because I just know what a punchline for everything
20:27they are.
20:28Not just the NFL, but just in sports.
20:30And, you know, good on you for having Connor Rogers on today.
20:33You know, that was a, that was a nice little, just a back door.
20:36That's our, that's our dude, Zach, man.
20:37That was, you know, he's heady.
20:40He knows what's what.
20:41Truly.
20:42Yeah.
20:42Truly heady.
20:43The jet thing was just a coincidence.
20:44We just like Connor.
20:46It was a huge coincidence.
20:46He answers our calls.
20:48And so, you know, that's just, that's how it goes.
20:50All right.
20:50Uh, eight Oh three Oh five 50 is the number.
20:53You get the vibe, right?
20:54Like this, we're all kind of feeling it here.
20:56Sabres have a chance to end a 14 season playoff drought tonight with a win against the Ottawa
21:02senators.
21:03Pre-game is coming your way in about a half an hour with myself and Paul Hamilton.
21:07Uh, but still a half an hour for your call.
21:10So fire them up.
21:11Eight Oh three Oh five 50 is the number.
21:13Nate Geary is in for Mike.
21:14I am the bulldog and this is WGR.
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