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00:00Did that affect your plans for the night that Owen went?
00:04Are you going out?
00:05Are you staying in?
00:06No, we had planned to stay in.
00:08We had discussed it last night, and we were going to stay in
00:12and thought maybe if they win, we'll go out and celebrate on Hurdle.
00:18Just with the timing of our show, I love going out
00:22and have done it a few times, not yet for the playoffs,
00:25but I'd be so late getting there that I just thought I'd be elbowing my way in
00:31and I'm not going to bring my wife and stand in a corner for four hours.
00:35So it just didn't think logistically.
00:37So I was going to go home.
00:38I still am, and John Gale's going to take Owen's spot basically on the couch.
00:43Not that he wouldn't have come down anyway.
00:44So, you know, low key.
00:47John Gale was in the living room Sunday, so, you know, good karma.
00:50Let's hope.
00:52I'm not going out.
00:53I would if I could pick my crowd.
00:58I'm not risking going out to some place and having to hear guys over my shoulder
01:02all night talk about how Owen Power doesn't hit people.
01:04I'm just not taking that chance.
01:06I would just lose my mind having to listen to that again.
01:09My place is pretty reliable in that a lot of my friends already will, I think,
01:15probably be there.
01:16Like when I've gone to watch games at Moor Room, like 10 of my friends are there.
01:20So, like, I'm surrounded by people that I love anyway, which is great.
01:24And I bet that would be the case tonight, but I just don't, whatever.
01:27I'm also a little, I don't know.
01:30I want to be in a safe space, I guess.
01:34Not so much for what you're saying, like I said.
01:36I think I could trust who I'd be with.
01:40But, I don't know.
01:41I just, I want to watch in the living room.
01:43I could see myself going out Sunday.
01:46Me too.
01:48Me too.
01:48Because I don't think, if you get to game seven, I just, I think I'd be just pacing
01:56my house like a caged animal.
01:59I think I almost will need to go out for my mental health on Sunday if it gets to a
02:03game
02:03seven.
02:04Interesting how we look at this different than that.
02:06Yeah.
02:07I mean, you mentioned sort of a time pressure that we'll have tonight where you might not
02:12get into a good setup.
02:13Yeah.
02:13And Sunday you can work around that or even somehow go to the game or go to the canal side
02:19scene or something like that.
02:20Right, right, right.
02:21Time to, you know, prepare for that.
02:26I mean, we all might have our pet peeves, what we hear from other fans.
02:30Doesn't mean we're right or wrong, but just like, I mean, I try.
02:37I'm not saying I'm always right.
02:38I'm far from it.
02:39But you try to kind of explain whatever it is that you think people might miss about
02:45a certain player or something like that.
02:49But this morning, this always comes up.
02:52This is on the family feud.
02:54This is on the board every time, no matter who the Sabres are, what the scene is.
02:59Somebody is there to tell you that they try to be too pretty.
03:04Actually, this is funny for me because the Bills are often missed too over the years, like
03:08their entire history.
03:08The best Bills and Sabres teams have been great.
03:12How?
03:15Skill.
03:15Skill and talent.
03:16Yeah.
03:17Like the best Bills teams, the best Sabres teams have, I mean, well, we had Hasek.
03:21I don't consider that those great Sabres teams.
03:24That was the best goalie who ever played.
03:25But, you know, mid-70s through the early 80s, and of course, 06 and 07, just speed and talent.
03:34Yet there can be, at the first sign of trouble, there can be a, guys just shoot the puck.
03:42And this morning I heard that again, and I've got to tell you, as somebody, admittedly,
03:47as somebody that is usually here to defend passes, and I do that because I feel like
03:54I'm a little bit of a lone wolf in this way, where just like every broadcaster is telling
03:58you, in so many words, that passing is bad.
04:02Just shoot.
04:03Just keep shooting.
04:04Well, it's always bad when it doesn't work, but the times it works, it's then you just
04:07think about what a wonderful play it was.
04:08Or it's just ignored.
04:10So, I mean, I like to fight that fight, but I honestly can't tell you that I see this team
04:17as a team that is guilty of not shooting enough.
04:20Are you telling me, somebody called this morning and made this case, and I wanted to be on the
04:24air.
04:25Are you telling me that that game five, where they scored one goal in what, 70 plus minutes,
04:33was because they didn't shoot more?
04:37All I've got in my mind's eye from that game is everybody shooting from everywhere, and
04:42then you want dirty goals.
04:43How many scrums were there where they were denied?
04:4610?
04:4720?
04:47Zucker was like a fullback on a few plays.
04:50He just went to the net, just like, I'm just going in!
04:53I just feel like there are certain comments that people just walk around with, and they'll
04:59use them any time they get a chance to say anything.
05:02I just, am I wrong here?
05:04I don't see this team as guilty of that.
05:06And that's acknowledging, and anybody should, the number of goals this year, they've had a
05:12prolific goal-scoring season, and a lot of these goals have been highlight reel goals.
05:17How does the game on Sunday in Boston start, Thompson, after a turnover, to Tuck, who's
05:23in the slot with space, what does he do?
05:25Head fake and passes it to Krebs.
05:27Dumps it to Krebs for a, you know, he just buries one.
05:30Goal.
05:30Like, I don't think this team has this affliction.
05:33I think they're good enough where there have been, and should be, it shouldn't be discouraged.
05:38These beautiful passing plays, if somebody's open, then you can do that.
05:43I don't think they're guilty of overdoing that.
05:46I'm glad you brought this up, because it went largely unnoticed, and, well, in part, you
05:51know, I and we bear some responsibility for that, because I didn't bring it up yesterday.
05:57But after the game on, either after the game on Tuesday or when Lindy did media on Wednesdays,
06:03I think the team didn't do anything Wednesday, but he still spoke, Lindy.
06:07And I think it was Wednesday where he said, because you weren't in here, and I just, I never
06:12got to it, but I read, and I think I even heard the clip, he said, you know, he thought,
06:18his
06:19observation was that he thought his team was maybe feeling the pressure of eliminating
06:24Boston on home ice, and were a little tight to such an extent that there were plays they
06:31could have made that they didn't.
06:32Which is like the opposite of the point that you would hear someone complaining about, right?
06:37Like, Lindy, to me, to my ears, sounded like his team looked off because they didn't try
06:44to make an extra pass when there was plainly an opportunity, from his view, watching on
06:49the bench or watching videotape back to do so.
06:52And I was really encouraged to hear that, because often as the playoffs go on, and let's hope
06:57we get to this point, you'll hear coaches simply resort to, we just got to get it to
07:03the, we got to pucks to the paint, you know, get it in deep, chip and chase, and like all
07:08this sort of stuff.
07:09Like, remember, even in the 07 playoffs, by the time that was ending, like, Lindy was very
07:17much, we can't score like we've been scoring, we need to do it this way.
07:21Uh, and you know, when it was all done, he said, you know, we couldn't score our way
07:25out of trouble anymore.
07:26I remember that phrasing being used.
07:28And to me, after game five, I would assume that what he's telling the media would be
07:34something that would line up with his team.
07:36I feel like he might be telling them, relax and make your plays.
07:39You're good, you know, and you maybe rushed it a little bit on, on Tuesday night, which I
07:46liked hearing from the coach of the team.
07:48And because like I say, like normally all you get from coaches at this time of the
07:51year is ugly goals.
07:52I would think too, I would say too, that if they're fortunate enough to survive the Bruins
07:58in round two, this is still going to be the same point for me.
08:02We've seen those matchups many times, Montreal and Tampa Bay.
08:06And those are, and those teams are good at the same thing, but you don't have to beat them
08:10in the trenches.
08:12You can make plays against the Lightning and the Canadians.
08:16They both give up chances and goals.
08:17I think Carolina might be different.
08:20Maybe that's a team where I don't want to assume necessarily like, like in 07, you hit
08:26a wall in this way.
08:28But I think maybe a lot of hockey culture would tell you that, that eventually you're going
08:32to have to be able to just sort of muscle your way to offense.
08:37I don't think this team is sort of needs to be there yet.
08:41I don't think they really mostly anyway, play like they are, but you know, like you
08:46just said, and maybe Lindy said game five could have been seen as an example where they did
08:52that.
08:52And you still hear criticism about how the Sabres try to make the, you know, it's the
08:57one extra pass or the one more pass when it, when it doesn't work.
09:01And then it's just a pass when it works, you know, it's too cute if it doesn't work or
09:06that it's great if it does.
09:08And there's just sort of this negatively biased conversation or terminology when it
09:16comes to this.
09:16I'm here to fight against it.
09:18Right.
09:18It, you know, it ignores something that your team is excellent at and gets turned into a
09:27negative because for a game or two or, you know, a few, it doesn't, it doesn't work.
09:33You're just, you're not getting goals.
09:35You know, you're still maybe making some of those plays with the goal he's making the
09:39save because he's really, whatever it is.
09:42Yeah.
09:43I felt like Lindy's message was, we're going to still try to be who we are, which is what
09:48you should do.
09:49Like they, they, they should not, I mean, tactically, if you need to change how you establish possession
09:56in their zone, right.
09:57I.e.
09:58You can't carry it through the neutral zone cause they're, they're clutching and grabbing
10:02and they're muddying it up.
10:03And so you can't go come through with speed where they had a lot of success in game four,
10:08the best game of the series, chipping it to good, smart, smart chipping, like not just
10:14throwing it in, but throwing it in where the goalie can play it, playing in with it.
10:17You've got an advantage to chase it down, right?
10:20Cause a dump in that's easily retrieved and exited is useless, but a smart targeted dump
10:27in, which I think is what they were doing on Sunday is tactically super smart.
10:31And so there's a certain amount of, all right, let's put the work boots on because we're
10:36not just going to carry the puck in controlled zone entry.
10:39But once you're in there, pass your nuts off.
10:43Like you're going to make, you're going to make your plays, you know?
10:46I felt like that was what Lindy was getting at in that, with that, with that comment.
10:50And I'm totally here for it.
10:52I don't think the time to abandon what you're doing again, you want to change, not carrying
10:58it versus chipping it in.
11:00That makes sense.
11:00Again, it already worked early in the series.
11:02Do more of that.
11:04But as far as like not trying to make plays or being too cute, man, I don't want to hear
11:09it with this team right now.
11:11I just, I just don't think that it, it really holds water at all.
11:15What off a Tuesday, an overtime loss.
11:19I mean, they had what, I'm not sure of the number.
11:21What might it have been 76 shot attempts in that game?
11:25Really?
11:25Like they, they didn't score.
11:27What was their goal?
11:30Darlene on a great cross ice, was it Thompson?
11:33Well, Thompson to Zucker to Darlene.
11:35Yeah.
11:35I mean, that's a great passing play.
11:37Yeah.
11:37And you could, I mean, I'm sure a lot of people would have loved it.
11:40They just, you know, pounded the goal crease on that play.
11:43Or Zucker just shot it.
11:44Yeah.
11:45Right.
11:45Playing for a rebound or something.
11:46Yeah.
11:46Instead, you get a one-timer from Darlene and you get what turns out to be your only goal
11:51of the night.
11:52In an open net.
11:53Yeah.
11:53Right.
11:54You don't have to worry about beating the goalie there.
11:56Like he's, he's, he's cooked.
11:58You've got half the net to shoot at as long as you don't blow it.
12:00It's just different things.
12:01It's, do they do too much of the thing they're criticized for?
12:05Or I say, no, I think, you know, Tuesday's game is an example of how far off that criticism
12:11might be good that the coach sounds to you like he's kind of on that same page.
12:17And I mean, it's different things, but they're all kind of the same thing.
12:20I have to admit there's enough of that to the net, just drive the puck to the net, a bunch
12:28of guys in there fighting for a bounce or, you know, something that I think suffices.
12:34I think Tuesday's game, you know, there was tons of that.
12:37The Thompson one late, the Kozak one late, Zucker a couple of different times than in
12:41overtime.
12:42I mean, there's all, all around it.
12:45They're not just all looking for the perfect one timer.
12:48Yeah.
12:48Zucker, if at least two times, if not three times came from the goal line and just
12:54went right, just went right to the paint with the puck.
12:56From my vantage point, I never really saw what he did with the puck, but it looked like a
13:01fullback dive on a third and one, uh, type mentality.
13:05Like I'm just smashing in here and hopefully the chaos I create, uh, will, you know, the
13:10puck will bounce the right way and somebody will shovel it into the net.
13:13Maybe it'll be me.
13:14Maybe it'll be a teammate, whatever.
13:15I'm just wreaking havoc.
13:16So they did do some of that, uh, on Tuesday.
13:20Um, so, you know, it takes, it takes everything, but definitely the time to abandon playmaking is
13:28not now, right?
13:29That's the point.
13:308 0 3 0 5 50.
13:33You're, it's so interesting to me that you're in on Norris here when we, uh, filled out our
13:40rosters for the pool that I run, I wasn't sure, you know, you just kind of, you want
13:45to reverse engineer it, figure out what teams you want.
13:48I'm, I'm dead.
13:48Cause I've already lost three teams.
13:50Edmonton.
13:51Um, you, well, Utah is not out yet.
13:55Who else lost last night, Dallas, and maybe it'll be Utah, Ottawa, a couple of guys on
14:01Ottawa too.
14:02So I'm, I'm almost definitely dead.
14:04But when I had, I left the Sabres out because I thought, you know, everybody else wouldn't
14:09when I wanted, when I was thinking about the Sabres for this pool, they were a little bit
14:14tricky.
14:15I thought you can pick up to it's 18 players on your roster and you can pick up to six
14:21per
14:21team.
14:22And I thought the Sabres were pretty tricky beyond Thompson or talk, maybe like who would
14:27be the guys.
14:29And Norris was the guy I chose to be maybe a little bit sneaky.
14:34Like he, he didn't score as much during the season.
14:36Didn't play a lot.
14:37So he's down on the list of guys on the, on the app.
14:41Right.
14:41Um, but points per game were okay.
14:44I thought, you know, he might be the one I ended up avoiding fading the Sabres, but not
14:49for any reason other than like just game theory stuff.
14:52I wanted Montreal and Philadelphia and Ottawa, but they're out.
14:56Anyway, I was ready to get with Norris and then the series starts and I, we had, he had
15:03an injury, maybe very early in the series, but the series started, then game two happened.
15:09I'm just thinking like, well, I'm glad I didn't do that.
15:11Yeah.
15:11No, because he might even come out and he does.
15:14Well, I guess we didn't think he was coming out until there was news of an injury.
15:18Right.
15:19But then there was, and he missed three games.
15:22There goes back in the night, but you're, you're bullish.
15:24I am.
15:24I, I, I, I think, um, look, I don't know any of this, but the way everything went for
15:32him, the, it is four minutes left in the first period.
15:37He hit his head, awkward fall behind the boards.
15:41And if you watch the, I tweeted the clip yesterday, you know, look, do I need to get the big
15:47speech
15:47about like, they don't tell you.
15:49So I'm guessing whatever I'm just guessing.
15:51Um, but I, I had someone who was a friend who was sitting behind that net.
15:56So like you could hear his head hit the boards on that.
16:00You can't pick it up on the TV, but sitting there live, I heard his head hit the boards
16:04and he did get up kind of gingerly.
16:06Now this, this person told me he skated to the wrong face-off doc for a face-off after
16:12that.
16:12And I didn't see that.
16:13And I haven't heard anybody else say that, but this guy told me that he saw that happen.
16:17Um, so I think he did get, he, he, you know, I think he hit his head and tried to
16:24play through
16:24it.
16:25This is a guy again, that has a, one of the worst reputations in the league for durability.
16:31So it would totally track to me that this would be a guy who, if they don't tap him
16:36on the shoulder and say, you got to go to the room, he's going to try to keep going.
16:41And I think he did.
16:42And I think he did that in game two.
16:44And he talked to the media after game two, and then suddenly was out of the lineup.
16:49And, and people were at, is he ill?
16:52Like, no, it's an injury.
16:54And that can happen with head injuries.
16:56Like a guy can try to, I remember Adam Mayer playing a few games after having been concussed
17:03and then eventually tell it, he ended up in the hospital because it just all came at once.
17:07He couldn't hold it off anymore.
17:09So I suspect that's my guess.
17:12And if that's right, and he's healthy now and doesn't have like rib problems or shoulder
17:18problems, then I think I've got an excellent hockey player coming back into my lineup healthy
17:24tonight, who I was kind of counting on, geez, before the playoffs got here, before maybe
17:29they even clinched, I did a show one day that you were away for and said like, that's, that
17:36guy might be the whole key to the whole thing.
17:38Like if he can stay healthy and produce, I think they, they've got legs, you know, I
17:43didn't see Oslin coming to the, to the point where he'd be a difference maker.
17:46And, you know, so they, they had a replacement there and if he didn't get hurt, maybe, you
17:50know, full speed ahead.
17:52Um, but still Norris, I think is a very good hockey player and is capable of a big night
18:00in a big spot.
18:01So I'm just, I'm betting on it.
18:03I, I just, I think we've largely sort of become disenchanted over just two games of
18:10the playoffs with him that I think are explained away by an injury.
18:15So if he's healthy, I I'm trusting that he is.
18:19I can't know how he actually feels.
18:21I want to bet on him tonight.
18:23Is that Doan and Benson?
18:25Yeah.
18:25Like, and a part, I think those two guys, sorry, I don't, you probably are ready to
18:29say something.
18:30Just that going into the series.
18:33And I think throughout it, the Sabres really have an edge there.
18:37Yes.
18:38With Oslin.
18:39And you want to think that would continue with Norris.
18:42Like that's part of the reason people thought the Sabres were superior to the Bruins is, well,
18:46they do have Pasternak and they do have a great goalie and a couple of stars, but can
18:50they roll lines with Buffalo?
18:52I, yeah.
18:53That's a big, a big advantage.
18:54Should be a big advantage.
18:55I really think a healthy Norris can keep that line playing the way they were playing
19:02with Oslin.
19:03And so that's the bet.
19:04The bet is Benson and Doan are generating all this stuff with Oslin and Norris was injured
19:11while he was in that spot.
19:13Now he's not.
19:14But I expect Benson and Doan to generate as much opportunity as they were.
19:20And I think Norris is more than up to it.
19:23Again, if he's healthy.
19:24So that's the bet.
19:25The bet is that line is going to have a good night.
19:29And you literally have bet that.
19:31And maybe a little power play too.
19:33You know, whatever.
19:33Norris is back on power play one.
19:36So, you know, that's been a story.
19:38Yes.
19:39Well, I mean, he practiced there yesterday.
19:40Okay.
19:41Um, that's, that's been a story all through the series and in an, in a game where if
19:47you're, you're looking to advance, uh, I mean, a great way to get a leg up is to have something
19:53you haven't really had much of at all in the series.
19:55And that's a power play that's dangerous.
19:57And so, I don't know, you know, maybe that works too.
20:01Um, so yeah, I'm, I'm bullish on Norris tonight.
20:05There's a guy, a central figure in the whole pass shoot debate because he can shoot it.
20:11But as a saber, he's been looking to pass.
20:13I think that's more of what's come out from, uh, from Norris.
20:19Well, we'll see.
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20:53We'll take a break from the Sabres just, you know, for our sanity so we don't lose our minds
20:59stressing out over tonight's sixth game.
21:02Sal Capaccio joins.
21:03He's got another in his series of the bills by position.
21:07As we go through the offseason, talking running backs today, we'll see how Sal sees the bills
21:11at that position.
21:12Like quarterback, which we talked about yesterday with Sal, not one where there's been a lot
21:17of movement at the position, if hardly any.
21:20But, you know.
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