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00:06This is not to say how sage we are, but just maybe how old we are, uh, you know, making
00:16sure you out there were prepared as best possible for the emotional swings of the playoffs Sunday
00:26night, greatest night of our lives. Uh, Monday afternoon. Wasn't that the greatest night
00:32of our lives yesterday, 80, 20 wasn't Sunday. The greatest night of our lives, 80, 20. Okay.
00:40Well, what has to be different or better tonight today? I, who remembers Sunday? Where were
00:53you in 2026 for game one? Montana. You were in Montana. That really doesn't really help
01:01the conversation much at all. Uh, yeah. What is the conversation? The conversation is that
01:06like, I think you should know it is, this is how it is. Boston as desirable as an opponent
01:16as I felt they were. And I, I still, I still do. I've seen two games. Um, and I, and
01:21I
01:21still think that the Sabres should be the better team. They certainly were for most of the game
01:27on Sunday than just for only traveling on the scoreboard. I think what's happening now that
01:32I'm getting the sense from just, you know, dipping in and out today and, and monitoring,
01:38uh, my social channels. Oh, I hate that. Yeah. Sorry. Don't ever say that. I was, I was saying
01:44it to be annoying. Um, what is the thing that I say that you hate? Uh, Oh, talking ball. Yeah.
01:50One time I said, we're going to talk ball and you were like, Oh my God, please never say
01:54that again. Right. And I didn't, I haven't. Yeah. Right. Um, where the hell was I? Oh,
02:00that it's going to be hard. Like these teams are not, you know, as, as favorable as I thought
02:06Boston was. It's not like it was there. We're going to skate circles around them as opposed
02:11to say Ottawa or, you know, anyone else in the pool. So it was going to, it's going to be
02:15hard and, but what I'm sensing today, dipping in and out again, I got sidetracked here, but
02:21I'm back to the thing about the socials, um, is that, Oh, well, they've really only had
02:28a good five minutes Sunday night and the Bruins are killing them in this series or something,
02:33which I don't think is reality at all. They were ahead. They've been ahead for most of
02:38the games, most of the series so far, all three, all but that tail end of game one, but
02:44the scoreboard didn't tell the story of game one accurately. I think the Sabres were the
02:49better team and the more dangerous team. Most of the night they just were losing and they
02:54rectified that and earned a win. I thought last night, Boston mostly controlled the game.
03:00I think the Sabres to me looked like they were ready to go home after that first power play
03:05they had. I just did not, it didn't generate anything. And from there, I felt like Boston
03:10just kind of took the game over. Thompson had a look. Remember this? Yeah. Like 12 seconds,
03:1613 seconds in or 13. Oh, how dare you? I'm guessing too soon. Let's say 12. Okay. 12.
03:22You're right. 14. You're right. Uh, but come on, like sit down, watch the game, pour a beer.
03:29Here we go. And like, he is in alone from the circle. I'm a right of the goalie right
03:36away. Uh, not that he had to score there, but like, wow. I mean, I wasn't worried after
03:41that. No, me either. But I eventually, I eventually got worried. I just thought we, you know, there's,
03:48you know, there's a lot of old hockey isms. Um, but I, I felt like last night, one that I
03:54would
03:55pay some respect is that your, your power play actually sucked the life out of the game
03:59for you. This, I thought Sabres were buzzing to start the game. And then that power play
04:03just was such a thud minute and a half. Yeah. And there, and there's like a, did they give
04:09up a shorthanded breakaway during it? I don't even like, right. That happens often enough
04:13that I can't be sure that it definitely happened in that circumstance. But anyway, I just thought
04:18it, it sort of just, Oh, and that, you know, like Boston started killing them, but I just
04:23thought it was Boston's game. I wasn't there until the first goal. I hated the first goal.
04:30Like the, I mean, the second goal made you perhaps just sort of forget about the first
04:34goal, but like the first goal was, Oh no, now I'm in trouble. Now I'm again, now I'm back
04:40to Sunday where I'm halfway through the game and losing and need to pull it out. And then
04:46I started to think if it's not, I mean, this funny, the 82 games, right. And 60 of them
04:51were amazing. By the start of the third period, I went, if it's not going to be Thompson, who's
04:57it going to be? Cause Thompson almost by himself pulled them out of Sunday's hole. And all right,
05:07well, who, who's a, who's going to do that for me here? Like where, where is anybody coming
05:11close? Kind of. So, and I don't have the benefit of waiting, waiting, right. Getting the power
05:19play that you're not, you're as a fan, you're not hoping, well, you know, if I just get a
05:23power play goal here, you know, I'm going to get a chance. I'm down as it turns out going
05:28into the third period, they were, well, four nothing, 14 seconds into the period. So you
05:32were really in it. Um, but even at one, nothing to two, nothing, you know, before the end of the
05:37second period, uh, and then eventually three, it's like, I don't have that to stand on.
05:44And so where am I going to get my offense? Plus Boston gets a power play goal. That looked
05:48really easy. Yeah. And they just did not, they just didn't generate a lot of dangerous
05:53outside of the first eight minutes. I thought the first, the first bit of the game, they looked
05:57great. And then I just thought it was Boston's night. So, um, you know, it's a lot, it's a lot
06:03of words to just say it's hard. It's going to be hard. So now they got to, they're going
06:06to go, they're going to go win a game in Boston, which shouldn't be impossible. It's
06:10going to be hard is not a story. It's going to be fine was, you know, more of a story.
06:17And that's not a given that they're going to be all right. If they don't get the power
06:23play, right, it'll be really tough. Cause that's what the playoffs are so much about.
06:29And I'm not optimistic really for that. I thought they could beat this team because
06:36I mean, even going back to last year, five on five, the Sabres have been so good and
06:42I wasn't worried about inexperience and I still am not. I don't think that's going to be the
06:46thing. I don't think it was the thing last night coming off Sunday. Why would you worry
06:50about that at all? Like last night, but I guess this is new adversity. It's a loss. Um,
06:57but I'm not expecting necessarily the power play to get good. Cause really most of the year
07:04was annoying. It was, it ranged from annoying to bad. We talked, we talked once the Sabres
07:09got pretty in the middle of the season, like, okay, let's, let's really look at this. And
07:14in the beginning months of that, the story, I think for me listening to it about the power
07:21play was, I mean, like Paul, what's wrong with the power play? And he would say, well,
07:26they do score pretty much every game. Yeah. They, yeah. They're there. What, what, what,
07:30what I feel like we spent a lot of time on was what's wrong with the power play. They've
07:37scored in six straight games. And I'm like, okay, well, I guess you win, but it wasn't
07:42like it ever really looked great. Right. And then it became by the end of the season. And
07:46now of course it became, well, it's really not good at all. I mean, not scoring every
07:51game, not scoring at all. Well, it's very hard for me to imagine. I think them winning this
07:58series without, without getting a, especially in these games in Boston, they're not going
08:03to have, you know, for whatever it's worth, maybe it'll turn into a nothing burger. I
08:07don't know, but Boston has the choice of the matchups now. Um, and I, I can't really tell
08:13yet what, like who prefers to be with whom and then, you know, what, you know, what Lindy
08:18was trying to do at home here and what stir may try to do, uh, when he gets the last
08:23change,
08:24but that that's another little piece you're losing now in these two games. And I just think
08:28it's going to be hard to win a road game in the playoffs without the power, especially
08:33considering how stifled they look at five on five largely. Well, you need, you, you could
08:38get saves and do it. That's right. And speaking of saves, I mean, I, I, I am generally, you
08:46know, this is a, it's a hard habit to break sort of being a goalie apologist when, when your
08:52kid is a goalie, you, you, you know, and he's, he's climbing the ranks and playing at
08:56a pretty high level. You end up sort of understanding the goals a little bit more, I guess, right?
09:03Like the mistakes that a goalie makes. I got to put Lion in tomorrow. Do you? I think
09:08I do. Yes. I just don't, I pushed back on you when you said Lukanen was jittery in game
09:15one and mentioned the breakaway saves. And you have that again last night. I mean, he made
09:19big saves before he got scored on, but those two goals were, were almost, nothing can be
09:26as bad as a hundred footer. Try odious. Okay. Try a new word. I mean, that, that is a, it
09:31was a stanky thing to have happen, but it's really just a, a lucky bounce for them and a
09:36bad break for you. It's not to me, it's not indicative of like, you're my problem. The
09:43first goal is worse than that. I think, I mean, we spent day, a couple of days talking
09:50about Jeremy Swayman's left pad on Thompson's second. And I mean, you watch the slow-mo on
09:58the first goal last night. Like, why is he coming up? It was all, it wasn't the same
10:02conversation, but it was almost like, all right, well on Sunday, I'm really baffled by
10:07why is he coming up last night? I guess I am too, but it's just, that was a technical.
10:11Yeah. Yeah. And when we talked about this yesterday, after I missed Monday,
10:16like the, the supercomputer, that is the goalie brain, right? It's like the
10:19Terminator, like the data is just coming. It's like threat level, whatever. Right.
10:24That's, that's the job. You're not just watching the puck and trying to stop the
10:27puck. You're analyzing the entire situation. So, right. This guy's coming in on
10:31him. Samuelson's on his back. He doesn't exactly have going across the crease
10:37sealed off Samuelson, but I, I, I feel like he might, he might, he might, he
10:41didn't take it a penalty. If Arvidsson had tried to go across Lukanen, he's got
10:46one hand on his stick on the backhand and the puck is on edge. So I, on one
10:55hand, I think, well, Lukanen probably isn't expecting shot here because one
11:01hands on the stick and to Arvidsson's credit, I think smartly what he does is
11:07simultaneously, or at least almost simultaneously, I did watch this frame
11:11by frame. As he puts the, the other hand on the stick, he just, he just
11:15shoots, he shoots it right away. It's like one motion. There's no attempt to, and
11:20I just think the shot probably surprised him, Lukanen, because the puck is on
11:24edge. He's not going to just whack it at the net here. And so he wasn't ready to
11:30go down and take away the five hole. He got caught in between. Once he realized the
11:33shot was coming, he went down and it got underneath him. And that's how that
11:36happens. I just think he, he just kind of blew it. Um, because the guy was not
11:43going to be able to do much with the puck. The fact that it's on edge cuts both
11:46ways, how willing to stick handle and try to make a move across the crease is the
11:51guy. If the puck's on edge, maybe you should have just been playing for like,
11:55take this away. This is all he's got. And he didn't. And I think that that was as
11:59big a mistake as missing the pop fly from center ice. And I just think the
12:06fact that he went back out there to start the third and got scored on right
12:09away. And then Lyon was not scored on as much role. And he didn't have to do a
12:15lot, but still, but there isn't a, um, a goal to talk about. No, I, I, I, my gut
12:20tells me he'll make the switch and I want to say, I support it. I would give
12:26Lukan in the hook here and it doesn't have to be permanent, but I just think
12:32the team could be pretty shook up about both of those goals. And that's tough.
12:37You don't want to have that swing thought as a player at all. It's part of the
12:42reason why I think you like to get one guy, one guy's going well, this is our
12:46guy. We're going to ride him. Okay, great. And the guy makes saves and you
12:50trust him and you feel good. And then that happens. And I just think the whole
12:54thing gets, gets pretty shaky. So there are so many ways to look at it. I would
12:59support putting Lyon in, uh, for game three. I am not going to fight you on that. I
13:04don't have a position that's like completely entrenched on this because I think it
13:13starts, you know, like a lot of things, even though our business is talking about
13:16it. And often we're just guessing at some of the internal stuff or almost
13:21always, but it starts with, I think the personalities, it starts with
13:26Lukanen's personality, like how it's happened to him, you know, often, not all
13:31the time, but throughout, throughout his career. I mean, this happens to goalies
13:34and coaches, you know, pull you and you got to figure out what, uh, what to do
13:41from there. But he had become the way it has played out in the last month where
13:47Lyon had a couple of off nights and then eventually an injury. And now Lukanen is
13:53playing them all almost, you know, Ellis here and there too, but really only
13:57because of the schedule. Otherwise Lukanen would have played them all. And, and, and
14:01once they were sewn up too, I mean, like the, once they had, right, that, you
14:05know, right at the end, he doesn't play the right game against Dallas, right. But it
14:10went a hundred percent. Well, I mean, even that Tampa games a while ago now, but the
14:158-7 game is even a win. That's before Lyon falters, if that's the right way to
14:19put it. And then his injury. So Lukanen became a no brainer for the playoffs. Like
14:26there was no conversation about any other option. Lyon being hurt, but still like
14:31Lyon wasn't so clearly above. I mean, he never really was clearly above Lukanen. He
14:36was great. He won all the time, but it was really most at, at, at the most it was
14:40kind of a split. They were both excellent. Lyon was better statistically goals saved
14:44above expected, that kind of thing. But Lukanen was not far behind. Like Lyon
14:49might've been third and Lukanen was seventh or something in the league. Yeah. In
14:53the whole league, most of the year. I don't know what it would have ended up
14:55at, but they were both on the screen. If you saw like a top 10 in, in that sort
15:00of stat, they were both there. So I guess like talking about personalities and
15:05around that, I mean, what did rough think, or what did, what was the
15:10conversation as they got to the playoffs? Like, okay, Lyon isn't even healthy yet.
15:16We need you. Like you did it. You first place. Yeah. And now I'm midway through
15:23game two. I mean, I know it's like, it's short. And am I going to bail on that?
15:29And I don't think I would want to, but it's that line that you remember me telling
15:35you about from Lindy when we were at a bar together a long time ago, like coaches
15:40have to do something to do something. Right. And he might think he has to do
15:45that. So I don't know. I mean, he might think it's the wrong move. I think taking
15:48him out at four, nothing was perfectly normal for hockey, even leaving him in
15:54and then, okay, well for, for nothing. Right. I mean, I've got Thompson and kind
15:58of a brawl. I think maybe if that goal happens, you know, halfway through the
16:02third period, he doesn't get pulled, but it's, it's 16 seconds. He just came
16:06out. You probably thought long and hard about pulling them out as much time as
16:09you could spend thinking about it. Uh, cause you'd want to get Lyon time to get
16:13ready and whatever. But whenever you decide to leave them in, you had already
16:17thought about taking them out surely. And then the period is barely started and
16:21it's another goal. Like, okay, that's it. You're out. Um, that does not have to
16:25mean he's done and I might be overreacting. I don't know, but Lindy last night
16:31certainly, and he, that's Lindy, that's gamesmanship. It's the playoffs. He, he
16:35might think there's the slightest advantage to playing games with Boston
16:40today. Again, he mentioned a couple of times how well the rotation worked all
16:45year and that kind of thing. So he's planting seeds that again, might be
16:51tactical on his part. It doesn't have to mean he's going to make a change. Uh, but
16:55he certainly is not being shy about giving the impression that he's thinking
16:59about it. Yeah. And I, I mean, I, I think, and you're not saying different
17:03just yet. I think the idea that you're sort of in Boston's head by not
17:08announcing is ridiculous. Um, cause I don't think that would mean anything, but
17:13cause you know, the Sabres, as long as it's been, since they've been in the
17:16playoff, when was the last time we had a conversation in Sabres history about
17:21who the goalie would be the eighties? I mean, Hasek had his drama the one year
17:25and it was shields, but otherwise, or even, even the Rolison thing, but just
17:30like it was Ryan Miller. It was Dominic Hasek. It may be the eighties when it
17:34was a more of a time where you went back and forth and it's so long ago, it's
17:37irrelevant. We have not had this. The Sabres have played against teams like
17:42Philadelphia. The last time they were in the playoffs where, you know, you had a
17:45conversation about goaltending. It's really not the, not an important point.
17:48I, I think taking him out when he did is completely a reasonable move. Leaving
17:54him in is defensible going into the third at four, nothing. You know, I'm
17:59thinking if I'm the coach of the team, I'm thinking, are people wondering if
18:02I'm here, if I don't make this move, like, am I alive for this? So you do
18:07that. And I would take Lindy's words on this today or last night to be, to
18:13mean like, I don't know yet, you know, and maybe he doesn't, it's okay.
18:17Yeah. I, I, yeah, I'm not telling you, I'm sure he's made a decision, but I'm
18:21sure he's thinking about it. He certainly wants to give everyone the
18:25impression he's thinking about it. I don't think it's valueless. I mean,
18:29are the Bruins going to lose sleep over it? No, but listen, you, you have
18:33meetings with your shooters and your power play guys and everything about
18:37the goalies tendencies and where you want to shoot on a guy. And they came in
18:41prepared to play Lukanen. If you can waste an hour of their lives between now and
18:46seven o'clock tomorrow, go for it because they maybe will, you know,
18:50Lyon's a different goalie. He's got different strengths and weaknesses and,
18:53you know, sure. It's try to get the puck past him in traffic and all the usual
18:57stuff, but in alone on a guy, what, you know, what, what does he give away?
19:01What, where can I exploit him? You know, that, that kind of stuff. You'll, the
19:05Bruins will spend time on that. I think because of this uncertainty. So that, that
19:10doesn't have zero value, but it's, you know, to me, it's worth a coach. If
19:14you think it's embarrassing to do it, so be it. I think it's worth floating it
19:18out there and leaving it uncertain. I would think there'd also be a
19:21psychological benefit to a team when you turned the script around so
19:31dramatically that at one, one game after that incredible comeback and
19:37everything that was said about it on Sunday, you're too, Oh, we've pulled their
19:42goalie now. Yeah. We've made them change. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I think
19:45there's so many different angles to that and whether Pavel Zaka loses an hour of
19:52his life trying to figure this out, I'm going to lose two days of mine because I
19:56don't think there's really a, an easy answer to this. You've got a goalie that
20:00helped you get to the Atlantic division title incredibly. And then he had a couple
20:04of misses and all right, are we done? And I don't, I don't think if I need to say
20:09it, Lyon is fine. Like he's not somebody, it would be different if Ellis, like I'm
20:16not, I'm not putting Ellis in game three. No. In Boston, it's Lukanen or die for
20:21me. Lyon, you know, okay. I'm not against it. Um, but I think you just sort of
20:27choose, not to say you, but I think for myself or anybody else, you sort of choose
20:32like, all right, what, what matters the most to you? And it matters a lot to me
20:37that they got here with Lukanen and they have two days off after tomorrow, but
20:43you know, tomorrow's not quite a must win literally, but it's important as all
20:47these games are, it can't be wrong. What it will do here. Here's one of the
20:52reasons I get, and look, you can, you can twist yourself up in any kind of knot
20:57you want, uh, uh, you know, trying to figure out why to do this, the timing,
21:03this game, that game. I think if you go to Lyon here and you win, then maybe you
21:10keep going with him, but you've got the two days off and you've got the lead back
21:14in the series. If you, if you stay with Lukanen and it goes badly, now you have to
21:23go to Lyon for game four and you're down 2-1 and like now it's, you, you're facing
21:28the specter of coming home down 3-1 and now you've made the goalie switch. I think
21:33at least if you try Lyon tomorrow night and it doesn't go well, I pivot back to
21:39Lukanen for game four. The pressure is still the same, but at least I'm not saving
21:45Lyon until everyone's feeling like, oh God, we're, you can't go down 3-1. We can't go
21:503-1. I just, I think it's a looser re-entry point. Cause to me, I'm not done
21:56with Lukanen. The idea is to stabilize him if he needs it and make sure this
22:03series doesn't get away from me before I do something to affect it. Yet another
22:07angle. 8-0-3-0-5-50 for your calls.
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