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00:00The Sabres are on to round two. How about it?
00:03Mike Schoep and the Bulldog here, Paul Hamilton on the West Her Hotline.
00:07Paul, while we were just thinking about this,
00:09the Canadians' choice to stay in Tampa and then travel here,
00:17or even had it been just to come here without going home,
00:21you have experience in this.
00:22How much extra time, legwork is it, if they were to have gone home
00:27and whatever that means in terms of flights and customs,
00:31would that have been a part of the thinking?
00:35Yeah, it might be, and you've got them on the road.
00:38What's the point in just going home to do what, basically?
00:42Say hello and leave, basically what it amounts to.
00:45So a lot of teams will do that in the playoffs.
00:48They'll stay and then practice and then leave.
00:51You know, it's a kind of common procedure in the playoffs,
00:55depending on what time the game ends.
00:57You know, in some cases.
01:00Like if they have a couple of overtimes,
01:03they would rather the players not have to travel through the night,
01:06just let them go to bed, you know, type of a situation.
01:10So this really isn't all that uncommon in the playoffs.
01:14Pack for Buffalo, perhaps, too, after they'd lost game six on Friday night.
01:19Just, you know, be prepared.
01:21They might have even known they weren't going to be back home for a week.
01:24Yeah, I doubt they just sprung that on the team.
01:26Yeah, they definitely want your families to know, too.
01:28Like we're not coming home Sunday night or Monday morning.
01:31Yeah.
01:32Everybody bring your lucky underwear because we're going right to the second round
01:35after we win in Tampa.
01:37Well, I don't want to start on that game.
01:39So let's get back to the Sabres here and your perspective on Friday night.
01:43I mean, Paul, pretty clinical performance to go in there and clinch that way.
01:49Well, we knew that they basically just had to go in there and use their speed.
01:54So Boston can't hold them up and allow their defense to make plays.
01:59And that's exactly what they did.
02:01And the tuck goal is a perfect example.
02:03You had the whole Sabre team coming through the neutral zone at full tilt.
02:07And tuck has the puck.
02:09Well, the Bruin defense, the Bruin defense, like, uh-oh, and back off they did.
02:14And that backed them right off.
02:16So it allowed tuck to easily get the zone.
02:19Now the Sabres are coming in layers because here comes Darlene behind tuck.
02:24And he's coming full speed.
02:25So now tuck, you know, gets in the puck and he heads to the front of the net.
02:30Now you've got the situation of the rotation.
02:34Sabres are really the only team in the NHL that does this.
02:36And now tuck gets lost.
02:38So nobody grabs him because you've got guys going every which way.
02:43The Sabres know what they're doing, but the opposition doesn't really.
02:47And Darlene makes a great pass and tuck gets a fairly easy goal out of it.
02:52Such a good pass.
02:54Such good instincts.
02:55I thought Darlene in the first period Friday night was just at his absolute best.
02:59And that play to walk down, how he opens up his legs to give himself, like,
03:04sort of the leverage he needs to make that pass, to tuck.
03:07Like, he's eyeing it the whole time.
03:09And it's just like the perfect threading of the needle.
03:12As easy as the goal is for tuck to score and as maybe bad as the coverage was.
03:16But you still need an elite play from Darlene there.
03:19Bravo.
03:21Absolutely.
03:21No, and he almost fell, too, and he kept his balance, which wasn't easy either.
03:25You know, a lot of guys would have gone down.
03:28But he kept his balance and stayed up to be able to make that pass.
03:32I like that we had, and, you know, I'm sort of in the mood now, like, to sort of talk
03:37about
03:37how different all three goals were.
03:39Because here you've got the D involved, and it's a little bit of the high cycle, like you're
03:44saying, right?
03:44Thompson hands off to Darlene.
03:46He comes down, hits tuck in front.
03:48The second goal is just traffic.
03:50I mean, it's the high cycle again, but tuck and Thompson both.
03:54And that means a couple of defenders are there, too.
03:57I mean, there's just a schmozzle of people there.
03:58And good job by Samuelson to just not worry about, you know, obviously he wants to hit
04:04a spot.
04:04He's shooting to score there, hoping the goalie can't see it, and he's right.
04:08But it's not like it's not the hardest shot he's ever fired.
04:12It was pretty much just going to get it there, and it just goes in untouched.
04:17Yeah, and you brought up Thompson, and I thought, really, from start to finish, he was probably
04:23the saver's best player, I thought.
04:25He was all over the ice.
04:26I mean, I just constantly saw him, whether it was in front of the net, whether it was
04:32behind the net in winning battles on the four check, whether it was getting back to make
04:38sure he's in on a back check.
04:41Just, he was all over the place, and he did get two assists.
04:45And by the end of the six-game series, he's tied for the scoring lead with seven points.
04:50He and Tuck have seven points.
04:52He hasn't scored since the first game, but he is getting points, and I thought, well,
04:56here it is again.
04:57I mean, he scores the golden goal in the World's, in the Olympics, two big goals, and has a great
05:03game in the gold medal game.
05:05And here in game six, in their most important game of the playoffs, I thought he was their
05:09best player.
05:09And I thought he really showed up.
05:11Yeah, and that kind of thing, like when you start a game and everyone sees that you're
05:17best guys here, I mean, who are the names that we're mentioning here?
05:20It's Darlene, the captain, Thompson, Tuck, Samuelson, like top pair.
05:26All the important guys were there at the start.
05:30And maybe, like the overall, for me, Paul, that I'm most impressed with is just how up
05:36to it they seemed.
05:38You know, like it was just, did Mike already use the word professional?
05:43It was just like a, it was surgical to me.
05:45They just went in and just took them out.
05:47At what point does it cease to be at all surprising, though?
05:49Right.
05:50Oh, I'm not surprised.
05:51I mean, I think I got to that point, maybe three quarters through the season says, well,
05:56you better get used to this because it doesn't seem like, because, you know, what's like when
06:00you haven't been in the playoffs 14 years, fans are like, all right, when does the bottom
06:03fall out?
06:04Well, it hasn't fallen out yet.
06:06This is kind of longer than normal, but when does the bottom fall out?
06:09Right.
06:09Well, I think once we got into maybe three quarters of the way through or halfway through
06:14the season, it was rather obvious the bottom wasn't going to fall out and that the Sabres
06:19have something here.
06:20How about the Benson goal and Doan on that play, Paul?
06:24Fans are going to not soon forget Doan.
06:26I think it's the signature, maybe the signature moment of the series or single play of the
06:31series, arguably, even though it's not his goal.
06:34But what he does to break up the play, it's eight seconds, maybe nine, from the face-off
06:39in their own end to the red light.
06:42And Doan in that sprint, taking that hit, all of it.
06:45I mean, Bulldog has mentioned what Doan said about the play, how he...
06:50He recognized that McAvoy and Pasternak, nobody was playing the puck.
06:53His instincts were, they're just going to try to hit me, so I got a chance to make a
06:57play here through their feet because their sticks aren't on the ice.
07:00They're not trying to play the puck.
07:01They're ready to hit me.
07:02They're in a hitting posture, which is a hell of a thing.
07:05I talk about the goalie supercomputer all the time because, you know, I'm biased, Paul.
07:10But to be skating full out, competing to beat those two guys into the Boston zone and win
07:17the race, but to also recognize what sort of posture they're both in is just super heady.
07:25Absolutely is.
07:26And when the race started, he was in third place.
07:30Yep.
07:31And when the race ended, he was the winner because, and I, I would not be shocked if
07:38they came out and said that was the fastest he had ever skated.
07:43It wouldn't shock me in the least that all of a sudden he somewhere found a little bit
07:48extra juice in those legs to get himself to be the winner of that race.
07:54And that's the way he plays.
07:56I mean, those are the one percenters that Lindy Ruff talks about all the time.
08:01You know, that, you know, just, just do a one percenter and then do another one.
08:05And they all add up at the end.
08:06Well, that might've been a one percenter there where he just got those legs moving faster
08:11and he had never gotten to move moving before.
08:14And there was enough to win a race.
08:16Benson gave him a yell and even took, took the time.
08:20I didn't realize until I saw the replay, he actually did peek over his shoulder once
08:24he heard Benson because he wanted to put the puck where he could get it.
08:29So he even was able to not only out battle two guys, but take a glance over there to see
08:34where he was and where he needed to put the puck.
08:36If I'm not overdoing it here, it's something I so love about this Sabres team is that Benson
08:42and Norris do go with them.
08:44Like it's, it's two, one in the third, you could play it a little safer, but they're,
08:50they're both like they could smell it.
08:53If, if he gets there, you get a bounce here and either one of them could have been a beneficiary.
08:58Where are the rest of the Bruin players?
09:00Like how hanging out in the center ice, like there's nothing going on.
09:03It's incredible.
09:04I'm watching him go.
09:06Did you maybe want to see if you could get back and catch Benson?
09:10Any thought, any thought at all that you might wanted to do that?
09:14I mean, Benson takes off, but nobody else does.
09:16It's like, okay.
09:18I, and that's where I think the Bruins failed in, in some of these games in game four.
09:23They absolutely gave up game four.
09:25They, they quit.
09:26There's no question.
09:28Um, and I, I saw a little too much of that, but I don't think Pastor Dak finished that play
09:33either.
09:33I thought he quit on the play.
09:35Um, so that, that's something that Sturm's going to have to coach out of that team.
09:41Back to the Sabres side of that.
09:43There was one of the games, earlier games in Boston, three or four, maybe it was game
09:47four.
09:48Cause they're up early where Lindy is interviewed by the TNT reporter at the bench.
09:54And like, what do you want to see here?
09:55And he's like, keep the pedal down.
09:58Um, and that's, you know, also reminiscent of the 06 and 07 teams that tried to always
10:04just kind of outscore you and outrace you.
10:06And I just love that the mentality evidently on that goal was, we're not trying to protect
10:13anything.
10:14Like we're going to play, we're going to put it away here and just keep going.
10:17At least try.
10:18And that goal almost ends it.
10:19I mean, you, there's always this mentality in hockey just to sort of make sure you don't
10:24make a mistake, but you really, it's plus EV if you will, to keep, to, to go forward.
10:30And those guys all sensed that at the same time and cashed it in.
10:34And you brought up Norris too.
10:35And I thought that was his best game.
10:37Um, and look at the empty net goal.
10:39It wasn't a typical empty net goal.
10:41There was a battle on the wall.
10:42I believe it was he and Doan, if I'm not mistaken.
10:46And I think they, I think whoever was in the battle dome might've got knocked down.
10:50And then it looked like Norris was going to get knocked down, but they both are like
10:55rabid dogs going after a puck and they, they just wouldn't give up.
10:58And next thing you know, Norris flips a puck by one of the Bruins and he's, and there
11:03he goes.
11:03And now he gets an empty net goal, but it all came from that battle.
11:07Yeah.
11:07They had to win that battle to score the empty net goal.
11:11And Norris was right in the middle of that.
11:12Right.
11:13He's fighting there and the puck bounces toward the Sabres blue line and Norris loops around
11:18to defend.
11:20And then it bounces the other way and he's first to it.
11:23Yep.
11:23So yeah, all kinds of good.
11:25How about Benson, Paul?
11:26I mean, the, the, the moment at the end, like I, I, I, I just going to tell you, I
11:31loved
11:32what he did to McAvoy.
11:33It was filthy.
11:34Um, and he deserved to get chopped for it.
11:37I'm glad he's not hurt, but what a, just what a beauty.
11:42I'm just going to go with that.
11:43What a beauty.
11:44Him and his denim vest and his dirt bike.
11:47I, Zach Benson is a folk hero.
11:50I asked Lindy yesterday, I said, do you still, he's 20 years old, going to be 21 next month
11:55or this month, actually.
11:56Right.
11:57Um, I said, do you counsel him at all at, for a better term, being a rat?
12:02I mean, do you, do you like sit him down and say, okay.
12:05And he goes, actually, I don't have to.
12:07He said, he goes, the only thing that I had to say to him, he goes, it was last year.
12:13And when I don't remember, we talked about this.
12:15He would take penalties while doing it.
12:16He would cross the line and he would put the team shorthanded and then they get scored
12:20on and it would hurt the team.
12:22And he sat him down and just said, look, you've got to draw a line at some point where you're
12:26not taking penalties and putting a shorthanded.
12:29And Benson has done it perfectly.
12:31It's rare that he puts them shorthanded in one of these, one of these scuffles, scrums,
12:37whatever you want to call them.
12:38Rare.
12:39He almost always takes somebody with them or gets a power play for the Sabres.
12:44And he goes, he goes, other than that, he knows what he's doing.
12:48He goes, he goes, look at, he's the first one to the net.
12:52He goes, that's annoying.
12:54He goes, he's the first one to the battle.
12:57He goes, that's irritating.
12:59He goes, everything he does is irritating to the opponent because he's the first one
13:04there.
13:04He goes, he's probably the best guy in the puck that we've got along with Doan.
13:09And he goes, that's, that's annoying.
13:12So he goes, that's how he gets, gets the other team starting to get mad at him because
13:16he's always there.
13:17He's always on him.
13:19He used the analogy of like a bug that never goes away.
13:22You know, you're swatting at it and it won't go away type of thing.
13:25And he goes, he knows how to do it.
13:27He goes, he doesn't really need a counsel or anything because he knows what he's doing.
13:32Paul Hamilton on the Western hotline.
13:35While we're sort of soaking in the Sabres first round series win before we get to Montreal,
13:41we'll have plenty of time for that.
13:42If not today, then, you know, the next couple of days, Alex Lyon, Paul, I saw Alex Tuck after
13:49the game asked about him five goals in four games.
13:52And Tuck basically said, what, how much better can you do than that?
13:56And so Lyon held up.
13:58He got all the games after game two and never flinched.
14:02Yeah.
14:02And, you know, earlier today I was talking on air and Dobish, of course, was the topic.
14:09Probably well should be.
14:10I understand that.
14:11And finally, I just said, you know, what about Lyon?
14:14We're all we're doing is focusing on the Montreal goaltender.
14:17Lyon, by the way, has much better numbers.
14:19Lyon's numbers at both goals against and in save percentage are number two behind Freddie
14:24Anderson of Carolina.
14:26And good for Freddie Anderson.
14:28He's never really excelled in the playoffs before, but he sure is so far in these.
14:33And Lyon has just been great.
14:35I mean, Lindy thought his team was a little bit nervous in the third period to start the
14:40third period in game six.
14:43And it's the second time he noted nerves in the series.
14:48And he said they just started to play out of it a little bit.
14:51He goes, then we scored.
14:52He goes, that was it.
14:53That's all they needed.
14:54They were fine.
14:55Yeah.
14:55But now when they show a little bit nerve like that, they got goaltending.
15:00They're fine.
15:01The other team's not scoring on them.
15:03Before, a year and a half ago or a year ago, they would have shown nerves like that.
15:09Three goals would have wound up in the net.
15:10But now they can at least hold the opponent off while they find their footing to get going
15:16again.
15:19And they did, obviously, in the third period.
15:22And it was because of Lyon making some really good saves.
15:24Well, Paul, your instincts, I think, ahead of this game on Friday night were right about
15:29how they might use Timmons and Kesselring, right?
15:33Did they even see a shift together?
15:35I did not believe they did.
15:36It was always.
15:37And Kesselring, what did he play?
15:39Three minutes?
15:40Four minutes?
15:40Great call.
15:41Yeah.
15:41It was very heady by you to recognize that they wouldn't do that.
15:45For all the, you know, Lindy always says the right things about Kesselring, but it's pretty
15:49clear they're not ready to trust him.
15:51So, Stanley's better, and I would assume he goes right back in.
15:55How about this news about Carrick, Paul?
15:58I mean, even after yesterday, I'd heard before the playoffs started, that third round for
16:03him was what the hope was.
16:05You know, win a couple rounds and hopefully you get him back.
16:07And then Lindy seemed to sort of even, well, he certainly didn't say he'd be back for round
16:12three, but ruled him basically out.
16:14He and Auslin yesterday out for this second round series.
16:17And now today, it's okay.
16:20Carrick may practice tomorrow.
16:21And I don't know what kind of timeline that means he's on to come back, but it's way
16:24sooner than the third round.
16:26And I think that's why Lindy Ruff brought it up today.
16:29Nobody asked because we didn't need to.
16:30We asked yesterday.
16:32And he said, look it, he goes, Auslin's the same.
16:35He goes, but as far as Carrick goes, he goes, he's seen the doctor.
16:38He goes, he is ahead of schedule right now.
16:42And he said, there's good chance that he will be at practice tomorrow.
16:45So, at least, you know, he came out and said, now he didn't say when he's going to play.
16:50But, uh, once players get back in practice, it usually, uh, you know, they're pretty close
16:55to returning.
16:56So, I'd say there is a good chance that we might see him in this Montreal series.
17:01And what is the value of that?
17:03I mean, does he, he goes right in.
17:05I mean, how big a deal is this?
17:07Absolutely face-offs.
17:07I mean, it's just, in games that they didn't do well in Boston, a lot of it was they never
17:13had possession because they were chasing.
17:15You lose the face-off and you're chasing.
17:17You're on the power play.
17:18You use the face-off, you're going down in your end and you're going to waste 20 to 30
17:22seconds if you get in.
17:25And with the Sabres, sometimes that's an if.
17:27Um, so it's just so important at different times to get possession.
17:32Carrick, I remember that game against, right in the beginning when he came to Buffalo against
17:37Nashville and O'Reilly, who's one of the best there is.
17:40And there were two face-offs within the last 10 seconds of the game and he won them both
17:45from O'Reilly.
17:46I mean, so it was like it paid dividends immediately and he only had four goals in 60 games with
17:52the Rangers.
17:52He had five goals with the Sabres in like 13 games.
17:56And so we, they even got a bonus out of that with the goals.
18:00He was protecting a teammate or standing up for a teammate when he got hurt.
18:04There's just too much.
18:05I think that he brings to the table to say, well, we're on a four game winning streak.
18:10We can't change the lineup.
18:11I think when he's ready, you're changing the lineup.
18:15How do you feel about Montreal versus what would have been Tampa Bay for this second round?
18:20I think Tampa Bay is a better matchup for Buffalo and we saw that in the regular season.
18:25They can't skate with Buffalo and if Buffalo gets goaltending to hold some of those guys
18:29off the board, I think, you know, that that's an easier matchup.
18:33Montreal can skate with Buffalo and it was a problem in some of the four games we saw in
18:37the regular season.
18:41So, you know, that that's the biggest thing is Montreal can skate with them.
18:47But the Sabres still, I think, are a better team by a little.
18:51I think it's it's maybe not as close as I would have said Tampa and Montreal would be.
18:57But I think it's a lot closer than Boston and Buffalo was.
19:02And if Dobish does what he does, I mean, he and Lyon, it might turn into a goaltending
19:07fest.
19:08I mean, last night was ridiculous.
19:09How do you win a hockey game when he outshot twenty nine to nine?
19:14As Cooper said after the game, he goes, look, in this playoff, these playoff runs, there
19:18have been things that have gone our way.
19:20Definitely.
19:21He goes, this one didn't.
19:23He goes, they're all not going to go your way.
19:26Tampa played fine.
19:27They just could not beat a goaltender.
19:28Yeah, I mean, they had the puck almost the whole game.
19:31You don't only give up nine shots if Montreal has the puck.
19:35And what it's really more can you say their scores just couldn't score on Dobish.
19:39Yeah, I wonder, Paul, like how capable either of these teams we've seen the Sabres lock games
19:46down.
19:47Speaking of Tampa, though, the last time Tampa was in here, that third period was a work
19:51of art defensively by the Sabres.
19:54So we know they've got that in them.
19:57Um, this series with Tampa was so low scoring for Montreal, I want to respect their ability
20:03to at least slow teams down, but we'll see whether they can, they can do that to Buffalo
20:07or not.
20:08But I think we do know it's two of the fastest teams in the league.
20:12I think I saw, no, I know I saw a stat.
20:14I'm not sure I have it locked down.
20:16Maybe like advanced stats that measure like speed, how fast teams and players are skating.
20:22The Sabres and Canadians both have the most bursts of speed between like 18 and 21 miles
20:29an hour in the playoffs so far.
20:31They are just two teams that really love to go get it.
20:35Get ready for some river hockey, I guess.
20:36The difference is the Sabres are bigger men up front.
20:40Thompson, Tuck, uh, they're bigger and stronger up front.
20:44I don't mean to imitate, uh, Sturm, but, and, and that could help Montreal with the exception
20:50of Jack.
20:50Jack, I have smaller D and that, that could wear on them.
20:55If Buffalo can get in there on that four check a little bit.
20:59Now they were debating on, uh, the national broadcast yet, you know, well, Jack, I, does
21:04he get back in?
21:04He was a healthy scratch only because of guys like Tuck and Thompson and the size and strength
21:10that Buffalo has and the advantage they have with that.
21:13But, well, you know, he came out of the line because Dobson went in.
21:18Right.
21:18Well, of course, Dobson's going to go in, right, but he is a more offensive type of a
21:22player than defensive type of a player.
21:25So if you're going to put Jack, I in, then you're going to have to take one of the other
21:29guys out to try to match Buffalo in the size that they can come up with up front.
21:35Jack, I is a beautiful X H E K a J, sadly not eligible in Scrabble, but that is a
21:43monster
21:43of a name right there.
21:45Mike, you should have saw my jaw drop when he showed up for the prospects tournament.
21:49Yeah.
21:49I'm like looking at Brian going, how are we saying this now?
21:51There's no way to know.
21:53Right.
21:53Let's, let's head to YouTube right now.
21:56Yeah, sure.
21:57What have I got here?
21:58Wait a minute.
21:59Go slow.
21:59X.
22:00And guess what?
22:02The way it's supposed to be said, I would have had all night, all day, and a week, and
22:06I wouldn't have come up with that.
22:08Well, you, you've done your work.
22:11All right, Paul, here's to round two.
22:12Thanks for your time.
22:13No problem.
22:14There you go.
22:15That's our man, Paul Hamilton on the Western.
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