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00:00This will have to do. Josh is next. Hello.
00:03Hey, how are y'all guys doing today?
00:05Good, man. Thanks.
00:07Hey, just want to hear y'all's take on this.
00:09You know, Thompson, he was kind of quiet in the first series, you know, scored those goals in the first
00:14game.
00:15But do you think the teams, like Canadians, are just focused on him and just like the Bruins,
00:23they're really just focused on him, that they're taking him kind of out of the games and more focusing.
00:28It's allowing the other players to, like, have better opportunities like Benson and Byram and stuff.
00:33Just want to get y'all's take on that.
00:35Or I'm just hoping for a Tate Thompson hat trick tonight or something like that.
00:38But I just want to get y'all's take on that.
00:40Yeah. I'd love one goal.
00:42It would stand to reason that you would focus on the most dangerous players on the other team.
00:47Like, we expect the Sabres to be doing that to their opponents.
00:51You know, I think they did that and to a pretty good extent.
00:54I mean, Pasternak got free for a couple of open looks.
00:58One of them, unfortunately, was an overtime of Game 5.
01:01But 5-on-5, they did a job on him.
01:05I think Montreal's top line is way more challenging.
01:08But you should handle your defensive – like, your defensive game plan should be built around
01:14who do I want out against those guys.
01:17And if Montreal's not doing the same thing with a back-to-back 40-goal score, they'd be crazy.
01:23So they're – absolutely.
01:24Like, who's their best defenseman?
01:28Okay, do we want him out there for that?
01:31Like, that's Lane Hudson.
01:32Or do we want someone maybe a little bigger?
01:36You know, just – you want to try to figure out what's going to match up best.
01:40So they'd be focused on it.
01:42I don't know that that's why you're not seeing goals.
01:45I mean, Tej – I didn't like his game much at all on – what night was it?
01:51Wednesday night, myself.
01:54But that could be because they were, like, focused on stopping him and muddying him up.
01:59So we'll see.
02:01But it would be nice to see him score.
02:03It's been six games.
02:05Yeah, he – and maybe even Tuck, when I watch them, they're both – they both make me wonder
02:10if they're hurt.
02:11And they both had – there were suspicions about each of them down the stretch of the season.
02:16Tuck missed a practice, Thompson missed a practice, like a morning skate.
02:19Yeah.
02:20And it's not the kind of thing anybody talks about, but I don't know.
02:25So it's kind of – it's inherently making excuses for them.
02:28But, you know, Tuck's had a couple of misses where I'm like, oh, geez, buddy.
02:32Yeah.
02:32And Thompson – like, the Doc goal – my house got excited for the play that Doc made.
02:40And TNT – somebody called it the goal of the playoffs.
02:43Yeah, I heard that, too.
02:44And, like, I couldn't warm up to it because, like, Thompson – I always tell my daughter,
02:49play the score.
02:50It's 4-1.
02:51Right.
02:52And why are we dangling through the neutral zone here?
02:54You don't need to do it.
02:54Late in the second period, right.
02:55He loses control, and then he's sort of kicking at it, fumbles at it, and it's over.
02:58Yeah.
02:59And, like, just – I couldn't appreciate the Doc goal.
03:03Yeah, at some point you've got to, like, pull the chute on what you had in mind there
03:07and, yeah, recognize it's 4-1 and, like, just get control and chuck it off the wall.
03:11Okay?
03:12It's 4-1.
03:12It's late in the second period.
03:13I don't need to – you know, sure, I'd like the glory of making a great play here, but,
03:18yeah.
03:19And, you know, what happens?
03:20It's happened other times this year, maybe even with this specific player.
03:24Like, I don't know if people were hard on Owen Power for blowing the zone on that play,
03:28but that's how they play it.
03:29That's what they do.
03:30Here comes Thompson.
03:31He's got control.
03:33I'm going.
03:34This is green light time, and that compounds the mistake.
03:38It's not only – like, if he turns that over, but the Sabres are – and maybe there's
03:43room to criticize Power for being so aggressive up 4-1.
03:46You know, like, okay, no need to blast off.
03:49Just stay home in case, right?
03:52But, anyway –
03:52Yeah, that's interesting.
03:53They don't.
03:54He goes, and now you're cooked.
03:58And so, yeah, that was a very tough play for Thompson there.
04:02And I don't know that – I don't want to make the whole game about that one play,
04:06but it was a glaring error from a veteran player who you just have to get – you can't
04:14give the puck away there.
04:16You just have to secure it.
04:18Well, we know who he is.
04:20Because he's not a Selkie finalist, you know?
04:24He's not that.
04:25He's not that player.
04:26But his value is obvious for what he does well.
04:30He can beat goalies.
04:33Like, that's what you get from Thompson.
04:35I thought in the Boston series there were a few plays he made where he really skated.
04:41Like, he knows he's not whoever you want here for – like, the – Suzuki is probably
04:47going to win the Selkie, right?
04:48Like, he's not somebody like that.
04:51But I thought the effort was there against Boston.
04:54At times you really saw him work.
04:57Mm-hmm.
04:58And I'm glad for that.
05:00I mean, that's a good sign when it's from –
05:03Especially defensively.
05:04That's what I mean.
05:05Yeah, yeah.
05:05Like, in the zone.
05:06Like, he was back and on – he was on top of that part of the game.
05:09I need him to beat the goalie.
05:11Right.
05:12If he does, we're good.
05:14If he doesn't, we're going to talk about what he doesn't do well.
05:17Right.
05:17Like, he's got – he's got – for the narrative's sake, he's got to fend off this with goals.
05:25And I don't know.
05:26Like, he gets chances.
05:27It's not like he's not getting chances.
05:29Maybe not so much Wednesday.
05:30Yeah, I didn't – I didn't think there was a lot there for him in his line on Wednesday.
05:35But again, I mean, that was – I mean, you heard – you know, Paul yesterday told us.
05:38And, you know, you can watch the game and discern this yourself.
05:41As that game went on, eventually, they were on – it wasn't all the time, but often enough that it
05:49was noticeable,
05:49they were on against the Suzuki line.
05:52And as Lindy, like, explained himself, we talked with Paul yesterday, and I thought,
05:56I wonder if that's just finding out what that's going to look like.
05:59You know, you might have had your preferred matchup, which I assume is how you started the game,
06:03which was Norris, Doan, and Benson, against their top line.
06:07And that went great.
06:09And then as the game unfolded, I was like, okay, well, we're up.
06:13Let's see what it looks like.
06:14Because we're going to go to Montreal eventually, and we won't have – you know,
06:17you can work to get that matchup, but you've got to work for it.
06:20It's got to fall just right.
06:22Circumstances, win a draw, change the line out, whatever, that kind of thing,
06:26because you don't have last change.
06:27So inevitably, you're going to have other lines on the ice, you know, against their top line.
06:34And so you want to – what does that look like?
06:38How bad – how hard do I have to work to avoid it?
06:41If the answer's not at all, then great.
06:44And I would say Wednesday is some proof that if for some reason Marty San Luis wants his top line
06:52out against Thompson and Tuck and Krebs, that maybe at worst is going to be a wash.
06:58Maybe we'll get ours, they'll get theirs.
07:02But, you know, if he finds his – you know, a matchup somewhere else, which would make sense.
07:08I mean, you definitely want to try that – you know, try every matchup you can
07:11when you've got the home ice.
07:15Suzuki, a finalist for the Selkie, and I think considered the favorite.
07:18The Hart finalists came out today.
07:21McDavid, McKinnon, Kucherov.
07:23Greg Wyshynski, frequent guest of ours, said he thought Celebrini deserved to be a finalist.
07:30And he said he voted for him second on his ballot.
07:33Do you agree?
07:34Would you have picked a different three?
07:38Who am I displacing in this scenario?
07:41I really don't know.
07:43I love Celebrini.
07:46I don't think I can – I don't think I can move one of those three out of there for
07:50him.
07:51Kucherov had a record kind of scoring year.
07:55I mean, that three-month or so stretch when he had – did he have 100 points in 50 games?
08:01He had something insane.
08:03Like, I didn't come in at the memory, but it blew my mind.
08:07Maybe that's why I don't remember it.
08:09It was like, what is he doing?
08:11Yeah, there's a stretch of the season where he was at, like, well over two points a game.
08:16And for a lot of games, like you said, like 50 – it was a lot of games.
08:20I don't know if it got to 100 in 50 games, but it was nuts.
08:24Well, these were one, two, three in points.
08:26Yeah.
08:26McDavid one, Kucherov two, McKinnon three.
08:29Celebrini was four.
08:30Yeah.
08:31In points.
08:33I have a hard time moving any one of those three out of there.
08:35What I like about Greg's point, one of them, was he didn't want to hold it against Celebrini that his
08:41team wasn't better.
08:42They didn't make it.
08:43Right.
08:43Which, you know, good.
08:45I agree with that.
08:47I'm trying to – to a certain extent, I can respect value as it represents your team's performance.
08:57But what we do in sports is when a team isn't good, we blame their best players, not their worst
09:04players, usually.
09:06And that doesn't really seem right, but that's what we do.
09:09If the Sabres lose, it's going to be Thompson.
09:11Like, if he doesn't score, that's where we're going to end up, right?
09:14I mean, that's what kind of – there are already signs of that, and they're not losing.
09:18So, I can respect that to a certain point only.
09:22Otherwise, what am I trying to do?
09:24NFL, NHL.
09:25I'm trying to find the best player.
09:27That's what it is.
09:29And, okay, if Celebrini was top three, even if his team – I know in the Olympics he might have
09:36been the best player on Canada.
09:38He was dynamite.
09:38He was great.
09:39That was really very much, I think, a coming-out party for him because he's out in San Jose, and,
09:44like, if you watch them or see them before the Olympics, you're aware of how good he is, but largely
09:50that his season was just going by.
09:53And people inside hockey were like, oh, wow, this guy is really hitting the beach in a meaningful way already.
09:59But then the Olympics showed up, and he – yeah, I think he was one of the biggest stars to
10:05come out of that.
10:06And very good for him.
10:08I said after the lottery we were talking about San Jose a little, like, he's going to win an MVP.
10:12And if they get a defenseman that is capable of doing – I don't know, what's too much?
10:22Actually, Schaefer had, like, a historic rookie season as a defenseman for the Islanders.
10:27Top pick from last year.
10:28If they can get a guy at two that can give you two-thirds of what Schaefer did for the
10:34Islanders, that's a playoff team next year.
10:36San Jose.
10:37I mean, they only missed play a few points.
10:38Right.
10:39They are just jacked with young guys that are – all already look really good.
10:45And Celebrini, obviously, at the top of that.
10:47But they don't have really – they don't have a defenseman version of that guy yet.
10:53Sam Panijatovic coming up next.
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11:24Sammy P. After Sports.
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