- 2 days ago
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Now we have the present, the Sabres and the Canadians.
00:04Our friend Travis Yost has written about the matchup from more of a Montreal perspective,
00:08looking at what they might need to do differently in the second round from the first.
00:13It's a great win over the Lightning at that in seven games.
00:17And I texted Travis, I'm like, man, I don't want to overdo it with you,
00:20but you did just write about this series and we're over the moon in Buffalo.
00:24So how about it? He said, yes, here we are with Travis Yost of TSN.
00:28Again, step back. How about all this, Travis?
00:31I mean, it's a great series win for the Sabres.
00:34Here come the Canadians in the second round. Couldn't ask for more.
00:39Yeah, I could ask for more. I was loving the 1983 series breakdown.
00:43I was negative seven when that was played.
00:45So if you want to keep going in depth there, it was all news to me.
00:49It was great. But no, very, very exciting second round matchup for the Sabres here.
00:54And I think, you know, one thing I would say kind of off the rip, you know,
01:00I think Tampa Bay was a little bit better than Montreal.
01:02So at least like in terms of like, did Buffalo get a favorable draw between the two?
01:07Maybe. But I would,
01:09I would be reticent to put too much into what I think a lot of Sabres fans
01:14concluded likely from game seven, which was a very weird,
01:18very one-sided territory league game with that, you know,
01:22Tampa Bay owned the puck. Montreal, it was like comical.
01:26I think they had four shots through the first two periods.
01:27It was pathetic to be honest, but Montreal didn't really play that way.
01:31The first six games, it was a very even series.
01:33And the Canadians are certainly a very live opponent for the Sabres in round two.
01:37Yeah, I would not at all.
01:39I, I, I preferred Tampa Travis as an opponent,
01:42just considering their age that I thought,
01:45and I also thought they might think that they would need to establish some sort
01:49of intimidation, push you around nonsense.
01:51Like we saw in the eight, seven game and that that could all work for me,
01:55but it was always very razor thin.
01:57And I certainly do not look at Montreal as like easier because they only had
02:02nine shots as it turned out in a, in a series clinching win on the road.
02:07I think these are the two maybe most interesting,
02:12exciting young teams in, in the league right now.
02:16And there are certainly two of them.
02:17And I think the speed should be off the charts in this series.
02:22Yeah, no doubt.
02:23And by the way, I mean, I, I think I completely agree.
02:25I mean, the margins are razor thin.
02:27I bet if you pulled a hundred Sabres fans, it'd probably be, I don't know,
02:3052, 48, one way or the other between the Canadians and Tampa Bay.
02:33I think the reason, I think my counterpoint to what you said,
02:38I think Tampa Bay would try, would have tried to muck it up.
02:41And I, I think we saw in the regular season, not very successful against Buffalo.
02:45But two things there.
02:47Number one, you know,
02:48Tampa playing that physical brand of hockey in the regular season to not much
02:51success against Buffalo.
02:53That can be re-informing about how they may, may have,
02:56may have approached the second round series.
02:58But I think more to the point, you know, when you have as deep of a team as the
03:04Sabres have, right?
03:05Not, you know, the Sabres aren't coming with the best line in hockey, you know,
03:09quote unquote, you can find that around a few different teams around the league.
03:12What the Sabre, and we have been banging this drum.
03:15And I think accurately, all three of us, they are a very deep team.
03:19What they may give up in a little bit of like the true top end superstar cut that
03:23some other teams have, they make up for, and then some with depth.
03:26And when you look at Montreal, an incredible, an incredibly dynamic top line,
03:32but not nearly as deep as Tampa Bay.
03:35And I, I think that's an opportunity for the Sabres here in this series where,
03:40you know, the, the, you know, the, the classic, you know, hockey idiom of,
03:43you know, we want to roll four lines and three pairs, blah, blah, blah.
03:46Wait, not every series is very forgiving.
03:48It allows you to do that.
03:49I think they're going to be able to do it against Montreal with success.
03:53They're going to have to deal with Montreal's top line,
03:55but I think if nothing else,
03:57Tampa Bay put a lot on tape for the Sabres to chew on over the next 24 hours or so,
04:03because first time in a long time,
04:05that trio of Caulfield, Slavkovsky, and Suzuki were,
04:10I don't even want to say slowed down.
04:12I would say shut down by Tampa Bay.
04:13They got broken up.
04:14Although Montreal still advanced.
04:15Yeah, they did.
04:17Yeah.
04:17Anderson was on that top line last night, I think all night.
04:21And Slavkovsky was on a, I forget who he was, ended up paired up with, but yeah, they changed it.
04:25I, I, I kept thinking, am I in the middle of a line change?
04:28Like why is Slavkovsky out here with different guys?
04:31But it was, that was the plan.
04:33They played, I mean, two of the three of the guys, they had split,
04:36they split up a little bit because I think Slavkovsky got hurt game two or game three a little bit.
04:40So he missed time.
04:40But that line, they played together for like 60 even strength minutes,
04:44didn't score a single goal as a group, as a threesome.
04:47And by the way, we're talking about one of,
04:50if you had a Mount Rushmore of best lines in hockey this year,
04:53Caulfield, Suzuki, and Slavkovsky are on it unquestionably.
04:56And the fact that it's the first time that I went,
04:59I was going back through about two or three years of data.
05:02It's the first time I've seen a team really, really slow that group down.
05:05And just to be blunt, like I don't know that Montreal can make a run
05:10without that line flat out dominating.
05:12And by the way, I think that's on the board.
05:14Like that line is terrifying.
05:15But, you know, if they run it back and, you know,
05:19they're leaning on their middle six to drive those goal differentials
05:22like they did against Tampa Bay,
05:23I think they are in for a world of trouble against Buffalo.
05:28Just to move on from the lightning,
05:30I think one of the first things I would have thought of,
05:33had they been the Sabres' opponent, Travis,
05:34is, well, they have the best player in Kucherov.
05:37I did not realize until a few days ago,
05:40one goal in his last, what, 19 playoff games?
05:44He scored in game two of the Canadian series.
05:46That might have been on a power play.
05:47Still counts.
05:48Before that, it's game one of the first round three years ago.
05:51I didn't realize that he was, like, so cold.
05:53How big of a story is or was that?
05:56I think it's an underrated one.
05:58And by the way, a corollary or at least tangential to that,
06:01how about Tampa Bay now?
06:02John Cooper, by the way, for that matter.
06:04A lot of, for a franchise with one, tremendous,
06:09tremendous and sustained success here.
06:12They have been bounced from the, is that three or four years in a row?
06:16I think it's four years in a row.
06:17Yeah.
06:18Yeah, four years in a row, bounced out of the first round.
06:20Cooper's team, obviously, let's do some audio fist bumps here.
06:26Very famous silver medalist to the Team Canada.
06:28That's what John Cooper delivered to our friends north of the border.
06:32They've had a bit of a rough go of it.
06:34And by the way, like, you know, you make the point about Kucherov.
06:38You know, it's hard to paint these guys in a bad light because they've been so dominant for so long.
06:43But wasn't exactly Vasilevsky's best series either.
06:47And that's been a recurring pattern.
06:48Frankly, he was outplayed by Montreal's goaltending.
06:52So, this is typically, though, the signs that you see.
06:57And I will give credit to Tampa on this.
06:59We have talked, I mean, how many times have we brought this up,
07:01where we knew the old guard, the Boston, the Torontos, the Floridas, the Tampa Bays,
07:05would have invariably take steps back over time.
07:08And that would be the opportunity for a Montreal and a Buffalo and an Ottawa.
07:11And that's basically proven out, with one exception, which is Tampa Bay's really held on in a good way.
07:16But, boy, that franchise is showing some cracks here.
07:19And, quite frankly, Buffalo and Montreal have taken the most of the opportunity.
07:24Travis Yost with us.
07:26So, what's your – I don't like this word, but I just thought of it too late –
07:29summation of the Sabres' six-game win over Boston, Travis?
07:33How – a couple of strengths that came to the surface that you would say is mostly how they were
07:38able to do it.
07:41Yeah.
07:41So, I – you know, I wasn't a loud believer in Boston.
07:47I mean, this is a team that you typically want in a first-round matchup.
07:51I'm not trying to diminish Boston here, but Buffalo was clearly the better team.
07:54I think they showed it.
07:55I think it even strength over the six-game series.
07:58And I know there was a blowout in there.
07:59But, over six games, I think Buffalo outscored Boston 19-9, right?
08:04And you could say, oh, it was a competitive six-game series.
08:07And was it really?
08:09Not really, right?
08:10Buffalo's power play was utterly rancid and probably the only reason that series went six games.
08:16I thought Lyon was very solid in net.
08:19And, most importantly, Buffalo got their big guys going.
08:22I thought Tuck and Thompson were fantastic in the first round, as good as it gets.
08:28And then, how about the top four?
08:30I mean, the one thing, even if you were bearish on the Sabres heading into this season,
08:34you had to have been confident, at least, that the blue line was really solidifying themselves.
08:39And this is before we knew that Samuelson would develop into, hey, this guy could play the top four.
08:44No problem.
08:44You know, a 180 that we've talked about.
08:46But I thought Bowen Byram and Rassus Dahlin were fantastic in this series.
08:50I think goals were 10-4 with Byram on the ice.
08:53They're just a flat-out better team, deeper across the board and more talented than Boston.
09:00And then the last note there, the Pasternak line was break-even at five-on-five.
09:04If you're playing the Bruins and Pasternak's not driving positive goal differentials for the Bruins,
09:09Boston's not winning a game or a series, for that matter.
09:12And so, Buffalo did a good job containing that.
09:14But if you said, hey, look, give me the glass half-empty, you don't want to overreact to six games.
09:19It is what it is.
09:20And, honestly, this was more thematic with a lot more teams outside of Buffalo than I think Sabres fans might
09:25realize.
09:26The power play was so awful.
09:28You just cannot expect to win many series in the modern era of hockey when your power play is giving
09:35you maybe one goal in a six-game series.
09:37I mean, that is against a lesser opponent, you might skate by on that.
09:41But against an opponent like Montreal, the caliber of Montreal, I think the Sabres need a little bit more there.
09:47But that would be the one, I think, item of concern going into this.
09:51You mentioned how the Sabres did a good job on the Pasternak line.
09:55Does it give you – it's a different opponent, different skill sets.
09:59We already talked about that top line from Montreal.
10:01Does their success holding Pasternak and his linemates down give you some optimism that they –
10:07the Sabres will be able to do some of that against that Suzuki Caulfield
10:12and assuming it will be Slavkowski to start the series anyways on line one?
10:17So this is one area.
10:18I think Buffalo is the better team.
10:20I'm taking Buffalo in the series.
10:22But I don't think the lines are equivalent.
10:24And the reason why is this is an area where I think like hockey analytics,
10:29like for the things that, you know, the area has gotten right, the area has gotten wrong.
10:32One thing that I really love that's become part of like hockey discussion is let's move not entirely away
10:41from like individual player contributions in production, but like how the groups function as an aggregate,
10:46whether it's two forwards together, a five-man unit together.
10:49You know, we've always looked at defensive pairings and lines.
10:52But basically the chemistry or the, you know, the net effect of one player has on another
10:56because anyone who's played sports knows in many cases the sum of the parts can be less than the whole
11:01or greater than the whole.
11:02And a lot of that we always qualitatively call chemistry or any other thing that you want to describe it
11:07as.
11:07Because the reason why I bring that up is Pasternak, he is the classic rising tide lifts all boats.
11:13You put me and you on his line.
11:17We're probably going to score five or six goals in an NHL season.
11:20And I can barely skate backwards.
11:21That's how good Pasternak is.
11:23Whereas in the Montreal world, right, like you have three very, very dynamic players who also, by the way,
11:31have complementary skill sets.
11:33And that is what has always, to me, when a great line becomes terrifying is when you can see the
11:39pockets
11:39of complementary skill sets.
11:41You know, Caulfield does not score, you know, he scored 50 goals this year.
11:45He doesn't clear that threshold without a playmaker like Suzuki or a bigger body like Slavkovsky
11:50who can just kind of move in and around the offensive zone free will, right?
11:55But they all benefit and play off of one another.
11:57I think this is a very different animal.
11:59And although I definitely think the Sabres are going to be able to take the pace of this game
12:04in their favor and really take it to Montreal's middle six, I think this is a classic series
12:10where if you're a Sabres fan going in, you say, look, if we can just break even in those minutes
12:14against Montreal's top line, assuming they're back, which I'm very strongly believing is going to be the case,
12:20if we can just break even head-to-head against them, we don't have some sort of goaltending nightmare wipeout,
12:25we're going to win this series in six or seven games.
12:27I think that's really the playbook here, but I think it would be unfair to that Canadian's top line
12:33to even, I think it's almost apples and oranges comparing it to Pasternak.
12:37And that's saying something because Pasternak is that dynamic of a player, but this is a different animal.
12:42If the three of us were teammates, line mates even, on an NHL team,
12:47then Bulldog's dream can come to fruition of my, in the locker room, quoting Dave, the movie Dave,
12:53to the other players.
12:54You had to be here, Travis.
12:56Because that's what Bulldog needed in his life.
12:59And we could talk about the famous sweep of 83, and you guys can tell me what happened.
13:03That'd be great.
13:041-0, 3-0, 4-2.
13:05There's the whole series breakdown with Travis Yost.
13:08You mentioned the Sabres' power play in harsh terms.
13:11You did write today, in part, about how the Sabres are not exactly on their own,
13:17on an island with a struggling power play in the first round.
13:20The stats, according to your chart, say that power play scoring was the lowest in, what,
13:26almost 20 years or longer?
13:28Yep.
13:29And I think there's a fact, someone asked me a question, and I wanted to respond just yes.
13:33It was like, is it power play weakness or strength of the penalty kills?
13:37And it's like, well, I will answer that after I see the second-round matchups.
13:41Because, by the way, two things are true.
13:44Power plays have become incrementally more meaningful and a meaningful differentiator of regular season
13:50teams that are going to qualify for the playoffs in this heightened scoring environment.
13:54You cannot really survive with a weak power play, even in a regular season, unless you have
13:59massive outperformance elsewhere.
14:01So power plays really have become a core function of team performance.
14:05That's one piece of it.
14:06And it's also true, though, that a lot of the teams that took the life out of a lot
14:10of these power plays around the league in the first round have some of the best penalty
14:14kill units in the league, right?
14:15A great example, like the Ottawa Senators had a pretty strong power play over the course
14:20of the regular season.
14:21They head into the Carolina buzzsaw.
14:23They couldn't even get a shot on net.
14:25And we saw that between, I think there was five or six teams in that group.
14:29And it was a mix of teams with bad power plays in the regular season that had gotten into
14:33the playoffs through other means or teams that had just been completely taken out of it.
14:38So you have the Sabres.
14:39You have Utah, who, by the way, you know, you can make an argument.
14:41Utah lost the series because they didn't have a power play against Vegas.
14:45Ottawa, I think, managed all of I think they were outscored or might have broken even on
14:49the power play over the course of a four game series of Carolina.
14:52Boston did absolutely nothing on the power play in their opportunities against the Sabres.
14:58So, you know, it was like five or six teams, by the way, were averaging three goals or less
15:03per 60 minutes on the power play in the first round.
15:06Just for context, like the league baseline is like almost eight goals per 60 minutes.
15:12So basically nothing was happening in the man advantage.
15:15We're at a two-decade low.
15:16So I do think a fascinating question to unwind or unpack here in the second round is, okay,
15:22now that we've rejiggered the matchups, how do these power plays perform going forward here?
15:27Because I do not believe that, you know, as scoring has improved year over year at five
15:34on five and on the power play, that we just took some massively sudden rapid step backwards.
15:40However, it does beg the question of what are these penalty kills doing on video, structurally
15:45speaking, to kind of take the game out of it?
15:47And I think we saw a lot of that in the Buffalo-Boston series, to be honest.
15:51Travis, how about the rest of it?
15:54Philadelphia, Carolina.
15:55Carolina is rolling.
15:57Out west, you had a 9-6 game last night with the Avs.
16:00Then you have Vegas and Anaheim for whatever that is.
16:02Well, one of them is going to be in the final four, at least.
16:05Listen to me.
16:07All pumped up with the Sabres in the second round for the first time in literally 19 years.
16:11Well, it is ridiculous that a team from that division is going to make the conference final.
16:16Not to tee you up so directly, but yes.
16:19Yes.
16:20Can I sell you guys?
16:21Can I sell you guys on this?
16:22This is where, because I can't disagree with you.
16:25Like, just by the way, like, I can't even give Flyers fans into the organization.
16:31Like, that's an awesome first-round win.
16:33They haven't been there in a while.
16:34They beat Pittsburgh.
16:35Pittsburgh was good this year.
16:36Like, full credit to the Flyers, but, like, going from the Penguins to the Hurricanes,
16:43it's like running a 5K versus a marathon.
16:45These are not – it almost feels like they are two different sports.
16:48And game one, man, I'm telling you, I don't know if you guys caught a lot of the Carolina-Philadelphia
16:54game one.
16:54And the Flyers, every time they touched the puck, which was about three times a period,
16:59I was jumping off my couch because I was so excited that maybe the Flyers would be able to do
17:05something in that shift at that moment in time.
17:07Carolina just completely dominated that game.
17:10I will – I've kind of – this is what I'm marching towards mentally.
17:14If we could get a conference final – and no slight to Montreal because I think Montreal – I think
17:20they showed enough in the regular season
17:22that if they did upset Buffalo, like, that's a good conference finalist team.
17:26But what if you had a final four of Buffalo versus Carolina, which I think you can unequivocally argue would
17:33be one versus two,
17:35Carolina versus Buffalo in the east, two best teams getting out.
17:38Colorado, who's the best team in the NHL out west.
17:41And then I know I'm kind of picking at straws a little bit, but that was a good series win
17:46by Vegas against Utah.
17:47That Utah team is good, and Vegas dispatched them.
17:50I think Vegas is going to take care of Anaheim.
17:52I think that's a bit of a step down from Utah to Anaheim.
17:55And if you can get Buffalo, Carolina, Colorado as three of your final four plus a fourth team that, if
18:02nothing else,
18:03is absolutely teaming with guys who have been there before.
18:07And, by the way, a team that has in the past tortured this same Avalanche lineup in the playoffs,
18:13I think that could be an interesting final four.
18:16But, you know, I think, Shope, I think the way you're talking about it,
18:19it feels like I should prepare for Minnesota, Anaheim, and the west.
18:23No, we'll see.
18:24But also coaches.
18:25I mean, Tortorella now talk about experience.
18:28I mean, they all have coaches who've been to the finals or won.
18:32Yeah.
18:32Ruff versus Brindamore, Bulldog, would be something.
18:35Tasty.
18:36Oh, he's already talking about round three.
18:39What about, yeah, and what about this, too?
18:42What about this wrinkle?
18:43Like, you know, I'm sure you guys, I don't know if you guys spoke about it,
18:45but, you know, Leafs fans just dying through this presser today announcing their new front office.
18:51And the knives are out.
18:52And if anyone hasn't caught the clips of that, I'm telling you, when you're at home tonight,
18:57sprint to the radio and get the clips of that press conference.
18:59It was uncomfortable at best.
19:01What about, also, you get Buffalo, Carolina, Colorado in that final four.
19:07And then, oh, by the way, Mitch Marner's eight away from getting his ring set for it.
19:12Oh, pretty tasty.
19:13I'd root for that.
19:13Yeah.
19:14I'm glad you brought up Toronto, Travis.
19:16I was hoping to squeeze something in just your reaction.
19:19On one hand, I give Simmons a lot of credit, Steve Simmons, for asking the question.
19:26But, man, I don't think, you said uncomfortable.
19:29I don't think I've ever heard a more, I don't know, just gun-in-your-hand question at a sports
19:35news conference
19:36than what that guy pulled off today.
19:39Yeah, and it's fascinating, too, because John Schrecker, like, you know, his, his, it's impossible.
19:46Not as hard.
19:47It's impossible to untangle him from the Coyotes' debacle of the last two decades
19:53and how mismanaged everything was there.
19:55And it's like, for my money, and I know him not well, but I know him.
20:00And, you know, for my money, it's like, this is someone you always give a second chance to, by and
20:05large.
20:06I mean, the Coyotes were a joke, but, but, what is clear to me that amidst all the chaos
20:12in the Coyotes' organization, he made effectively zero friends, both within the organization
20:18and around the league.
20:19And I thought Paul Bissonnette, who, by the way, he's on the TNT broadcast, right?
20:25Like, he came out and basically says, I'm out, you know, on day one of this hiring being announced.
20:31And I didn't think that was interesting at all.
20:33Well, the interesting part was he specifically and explicitly referenced the falling out
20:38between him and Shane Doan and the Coyotes' organization.
20:41And the problem I think John is going to have, if they don't have immediate success, is I
20:46think he hurt a lot of relationships, either intentionally or unintentionally around the
20:51league.
20:51And he's kind of starting off with very weak footing.
20:54And if you have a Toronto team, you know, that's going to have playoff expectations as soon
20:58as next year again, if they get out to a, you know, a 6-15 start, the temperature is going
21:05to be dialed up to a million in Toronto.
21:08Travis, thanks for fitting us in today.
21:10On to round two, we'll be looking forward to reading you and talking again soon.
21:15All right, guys.
21:15Take care.
21:16Good luck.
21:16Good luck.
Comments