- 12 hours ago
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:02Do we need 10 words again?
00:04Do we need 10 new words?
00:05I'm not prepared with 10 words.
00:07I'm not either.
00:08I don't know if you did that work again.
00:09I don't even know 10 more words than yesterday's 10 words.
00:13Yeah, no, that might be right.
00:15I might have trouble.
00:15I mean, we could just make more up like thwelp, I guess.
00:20Not that I get credit for making that up, but you did.
00:24So anyway, we could collectively make up more words.
00:27There's one quote word that applies right now.
00:34We're not at yikes right now.
00:38No.
00:39We're not at gulp.
00:40No, I don't feel any of that.
00:42We're not at Jesus.
00:44We're definitely not at Jesus.
00:45No, no.
00:46But I think we are at hmm.
00:50Yeah.
00:50That made the list.
00:51I think you put it fifth in the end.
00:55We're definitely, I mean, easily we're at hmm.
00:58Yeah, there's some very, very, sure, very interesting developments, I think.
01:04I did not.
01:07It was always going to be possible that he could go to Helenus.
01:11I didn't predict he would, but he is.
01:15And that, I think, is I'm choosing to just go with that's really exciting.
01:18Because, what, if he's not up to it, then anyone who was maybe being conservative about it, including me, gets
01:25to go like, well, too bad that didn't work.
01:27I don't think there's any victory lap involved.
01:29But, I mean, who knows?
01:31Maybe the kid does provide a spark.
01:34That line has been really weird this playoffs.
01:37They had a great game one in this series with McLeod between Zucker and Quinn, right?
01:44After game one, we were talking about how Quinn should have had, like, four goals, I think, in game one.
01:48Well, he had none.
01:49But he had none.
01:50And the line has none.
01:52And something had to happen.
01:55So, I'm excited by Helenus, even though I was reluctant to get on board.
01:59It's exciting to me.
02:02Lukonen, I don't really have, I don't want to say I'm excited about it.
02:05But I thought it was, it sounds really cheesy to say obvious, but it was the easiest, the move I
02:14could see most easily happening.
02:16You nailed that.
02:17Off of the two games that Lyon had had.
02:19There's nine goals that go in on him, 11 overall.
02:22And he's played a bunch of games in a row.
02:24And so, if you're ever going to get back to proving that you want to live by we've got two
02:29guys we believe in,
02:30today was the day.
02:32Just like it was the day back after game two of the first series to put Lyon in,
02:37I think it was time to put Lukonen back in.
02:39I know there's a lot of pressure here.
02:42You know, you don't want to fall down 3-1 in this series.
02:44But I appreciate the trust.
02:47Lukonen to me, I don't know if people are just nervous or edgy or what,
02:53but there's a lot of sort of mischaracterizing his season, I think, that he's had.
03:01Maybe based on the red line goal, I don't know.
03:03But I love that he's putting him in.
03:05I'm a goalie.
03:06I'm a, well, a reformed goalie dad, I guess.
03:10I'm a sucker for the goalie redemption story.
03:13I love that Lukonen, this is the biggest spot he's ever been in in his career, professionally.
03:19He won a gold medal game in the World Juniors with Finland back in 2019, if you want that.
03:24That probably is the other biggest game he's ever been in.
03:28Although I guess maybe he could tell you if there's, like, I don't know, OHL playoff games or something.
03:33I just love him getting tapped for this.
03:36I don't know if he's going to crack.
03:39I have no idea.
03:40None of us do.
03:40But I love a guy getting this spot to sort of say, yeah, you're not taking me out again.
03:48And I don't know.
03:49Again, he could fall flat and it could cost him.
03:52He could play great and they could lose 2-1.
03:53I don't know.
03:55But I'm into that story hard.
03:59I'm just, I'm a sucker for it.
04:00So, I'm excited to see what Lukonen has to offer tonight in the spot of his life, is what it
04:09feels like.
04:09Well, isn't it another opportunity, at least, to talk about what pressure means and is?
04:16You know?
04:17Yeah.
04:18I love that point.
04:21Here's a guy, this is his life.
04:25And he got set back by Boston two weeks ago tonight, by the way.
04:33That was a, I mean, that was embarrassing.
04:37They gave him the net and he surrendered it.
04:43Almost in a way that it had to happen.
04:46Right.
04:46And then the team rolled to victory from there.
04:50And then one game one of this series.
04:53I just wonder, and I'm not doubting this, because this is something an NHL team should always sort of get
05:01right.
05:01You don't know what the player is going to do.
05:03But, like, they needed Lukonen to sort of stay in the moment.
05:09Stay focused like you are going back in.
05:12And that is probably a pretty good challenge over two weeks when you're healthy and you're not playing at all.
05:18You're just in the, you know, in the morning skates or whatever.
05:22Right.
05:22So, we'll maybe find out, or we'll just decide based on how it goes tonight, what that was.
05:30Because I like this idea, too.
05:33Not in the maybe more traditional sense that, well, you have to wake your team up.
05:38I don't know that the Sabres really need to be jostled after game three.
05:44Maybe.
05:44And this is one easy way to do it.
05:47But I just like more, as I've said consistently through the playoffs and through the season, you'd better be prepared.
05:54If you're going to do it this way, which I have no problem with, alternating goalies, you'd better be prepared
05:59to keep going with it.
06:01And it has not been their instinct to do that.
06:05It was going to be Lukonen until he faltered.
06:07Then it was going to be Lyon until, well, if you will, he faltered.
06:10And now we're going back.
06:12They have not alternated.
06:13And it's a little bit of an experiment in the modern day for just like what it is to rotate
06:21goalies.
06:21Because Boston didn't do it.
06:23Montreal's not doing it.
06:24Who's playing that's doing it?
06:25Colorado did it last night.
06:28Colorado did it.
06:29That was interesting because they're up a series and 2-1.
06:34Not 3-0.
06:35Right.
06:35But they lost their first game of the playoffs and switched guys.
06:41Right?
06:41Were they not?
06:42Well, yeah.
06:43They were 6-0.
06:45They lost game 3.
06:46Right.
06:46And they switched.
06:47Right.
06:49And they won a game last night.
06:52Conversely, Minnesota, after game 1, which they lost 9-6, they went to the other guy who had played, I
06:58think, more during the regular season.
07:00I think Walstad is still a young guy, but they chose to make him their guy, 9-6, game 1.
07:05Game 2, they put the stable veteran in, and he gives up a goal on the first shot of the
07:10first period.
07:11And they're losing, going into the second, maybe 2-1.
07:15And he gives up a goal on the first shot of the second period, and they lose the game.
07:19And, like, that's the end of that, and the other guy's back in now.
07:21So you've got two teams that have done it recently here in the playoffs in the same series, and they've
07:28gotten the opposite result.
07:29Well, one, maybe it's fair to say, was more on the defensive when they made the move, and the Sabres
07:37have been on the defensive when they've made these goalie moves.
07:41And the other is so much better as a team than their opponent that I think it's just easier to
07:48do that, and that's why I liked Lucanen going back in against Boston.
07:52But that didn't happen, and the Sabres got through it, and that's great.
07:56Well, I think I know what you're going to want to see tonight, and that's Lucanen not overdoing it, overextending
08:04it.
08:05Right.
08:05That's the bad sign.
08:07That's the tell.
08:08Yeah, I need him not going from one side or the other and oversliding and then having to – you
08:17know, he just needs to be in control.
08:18Really, control is the word until there's no hope of making the play under control, in which case I do
08:27think there is a case to be made that Lucanen is capable of doing more out of structure.
08:34It's never a good sign.
08:35But if you get to a place where that's what's needed, I feel like Lyon needs to be in the
08:42box, like sort of in his – like playing his game.
08:46And if he gets outside of that, I think athletically that can be challenging.
08:52And I'm saying that's what we've seen in these two losses.
08:56Just merely my observation is that Lucanen athletically, if it's completely all hope is lost and it's desperation time, I
09:05feel like Lucanen is more capable of doing something there.
09:07But that's not where you want to end up anyway.
09:08You want to be in control.
09:11And, yes, for him, that will mean just staying square and trusting what he's reading and not over – because
09:20where he gets in trouble, to me, is he's got to go right to left.
09:25And he goes too hard, goes too far, and then he has to come back from his left to his
09:29right.
09:30It's just – you can't recover.
09:32In the split second, you've got to recover.
09:35So control would be, to me, the buzzword for Lucanen.
09:39And if he's in control, I think I'd want to like it.
09:42I'd want to bet on him.
09:44There's a way to do that.
09:45Right, right.
09:46Well, I'm already – right.
09:48I am betting on him.
09:50I found – there wasn't a – there's not a tab there for shutout.
09:56But there is a tab for –
09:58That's bold.
09:59Goals, goals, you know, over-under goals.
10:05And I put a one-and-a-half on for him.
10:09What is that bet?
10:09I'm betting him under – it's like plus 200 or something.
10:12Maybe plus 180.
10:13Holding Montreal to less – to fewer than two goals.
10:16Right, to one goal or less.
10:18I put that in a parlay.
10:21I'm banking on the redemption song here.
10:25You've planted your flag.
10:26Yes, I have.
10:26What do you think of Sabres plus 120 as a price?
10:30Well, I'm going to do that too.
10:33Oh, no.
10:34You know what?
10:34No, I'll go with a minus one-and-a-half even.
10:37I like the extra juice.
10:38Okay, but –
10:39Yeah, yeah.
10:40Irrespective.
10:40What do I think?
10:41Is it a little bit – is it surprising in any way that it's not a different number?
10:46I don't think so.
10:49Well, unless you think it should be higher, because Montreal has dominated them these two
10:55games, I think, mostly.
10:56That would be the only reaction I would have.
11:00But, you know, you said mostly there.
11:04Isn't it important to not leave that word out?
11:08I mean, how one-sided have these games been?
11:12Canadians get leads, like the Sabres in Game 1.
11:15And then a lot of the game after that is defending that lead.
11:20Buffalo, Montreal, Montreal.
11:22I don't know.
11:23I think the extent to which the Sabres have been outplayed in the last two games, especially
11:29Game 3, has been overstated.
11:32I think – I mean, I did some Twitter today, and I had a guy that talked about the Sabres
11:39being non-competitive.
11:40And I just bristle at that.
11:43I'm 4-2 going into the third, and then I'm owning the first eight minutes of the third
11:47period.
11:48I just don't get one.
11:49We have to learn this as hockey fans.
11:51Maybe we're all just too rusty.
11:53You've got to remember how random it is.
11:56And that was not for a lack of trying.
11:58You know, anybody you're mad at was all around the goal crease in those five minutes.
12:04Power plays, all of it.
12:05They just didn't score.
12:07And for me, this is the kind of thing you bet on when that happens.
12:13Because that should change.
12:16Series are very short, and it doesn't have to.
12:19But I don't know.
12:20I did this with my wife on Monday.
12:24Like, man, the Sabres were really like right there to get to 4-3, and then what happens?
12:30And she's like, well, they were also right there to get down 4-0.
12:34Or 4-1, it would have been in game three.
12:36I know.
12:37But I don't think these games are really one-sided.
12:40And I think if you want to use game three, then you need to use game one.
12:45And game one, did you feel like the Sabres just dominated Montreal in that game?
12:49No, it definitely did not.
12:50So, you know, they had the metrics, and they had the scoreboard, but they didn't just dominate the game.
12:57And so, I'm okay, right?
13:00I'm okay with Lukanen.
13:02I'm even okay with Shen.
13:03I've chosen to be okay with Shen.
13:05Like, I know.
13:06In a vacuum, I wouldn't.
13:09But it's more just sort of a team faith point.
13:14And I just think, like I said yesterday to you, the third pair doesn't have to play that much tonight.
13:24This is almost a must-win game.
13:26And I loved in game one how Darlene et al. didn't get overworked.
13:35Like, nobody played 22 minutes in the first game.
13:37Right.
13:37They're all young.
13:39Game two, game three, days off in between.
13:42I think I can bank on that, that these guys have bigger minute games, which would mean I'm not playing
13:51Shen or even Timmons that much.
13:53So, that's kind of my thinking with this.
13:56I wouldn't have done it, but I'm choosing to not let it wreck me.
14:02I appreciate the choice.
14:06I do think it makes sense to play your better guys more.
14:14And having Shen, I guess, clears the way for that.
14:20But I don't – I'm not going to freak out because he probably will play five minutes.
14:27And you better be able to live through – there's a hope you can live through five or six minutes
14:32of him on the ice.
14:35But why – if that's the plan going in, and I don't know that it is, but it probably is.
14:42It's how they treated Kesselring when he had to play earlier in the Boston series.
14:47He barely played.
14:48That's game three in Boston?
14:49So, yeah.
14:50So, why – I don't know.
14:52Why choose to dress a guy that I'm not going to use?
14:54Because, like, what is the – what's the value?
14:57I'm not sure I understand the value of putting Shen in the lineup over Kesselring or even Stanley.
15:04Like, I can appreciate – like, Stanley, it's too fast for him.
15:08Okay, well, hold my beer.
15:09Let me see if I can find a slower guy to replace him with.
15:12Because that's what we're doing.
15:13Well, what's your best guess for the answer?
15:15What's Lindy's answer?
15:17He fought Arbor Jacques once a few years ago.
15:22He's tough.
15:22He'll stand up for teammates.
15:25And he's won the cup twice.
15:27Well, Paul –
15:28Calming veteran guy.
15:30That's what I think.
15:31I think from the bench, they're hoping, and in the locker room with him in a uniform,
15:35that if anybody was intimidated by game three, that they're not because Luke Shen is there.
15:40And that – I feel like I'm about to fall in the water.
15:43I'm walking down the gangplank, and I'm running out of steps.
15:46Because I'm not sure that all makes sense.
15:48Paul made a point yesterday with us.
15:52As somebody that wrote he would have taken Stanley out, one of the things that Paul brought
15:59up was when the game got stupid, Stanley did not get stupid.
16:02Right.
16:03He just wasn't up for it.
16:04And I think that might be Lindy's answer, is that if I have to – I can't lose the series
16:12tonight.
16:13Whenever it happens in the game, if I need mayhem –
16:18That's why I led with he fought Jackye once.
16:20Like, that's – I think that's why he's in the lineup.
16:23That's not Jack Eichel.
16:24That's Jackye.
16:25That's just Jackye.
16:26We stop it at I.
16:27That's right.
16:28Yes.
16:28Okay.
16:30Well, I mean, I can only say that I'm choosing not to hate it.
16:35I can't say that I would have done it, or that I like it even, but I'm choosing not
16:39to hate it.
16:40You know what?
16:41One thing you could have done that was never going to happen is you dress Carrick for Stanley.
16:4912 and 5?
16:5013 and 5.
16:5113 and – whatever that would be, yeah.
16:53Yeah, 13 and 5.
16:55Draws?
16:55Yeah.
16:56I wonder what's up there.
16:57He was 2 and 6 on draws in Game 3.
17:00So that's not a huge sample, but I did wonder – like, I asked Paul, like, did anybody
17:06ask anybody, is he – you know, we think – well, an arm injury?
17:11Or an arm injury of some kind, elbow, whatever, like, is he going to be hindered at all taking
17:15draws?
17:16And I don't know.
17:17Eight draws is not a very big sample, but I wonder if they just looked at it and said,
17:21you know what, the one thing we want him for is the one thing he can't do as well as
17:27he
17:27used to right now.
17:28So what are we doing here?
17:30Plus, you can't get matchups on the road.
17:32Right.
17:33Give him another couple days and then game five.
17:36Yeah.
17:37Yeah, maybe.
17:38I guess depending on how this goes.
17:39But it's funny, like, there's no reason you shouldn't have been able to get to this
17:48arrangement with what it looks like they're going to do, putting Hellenus into McLeod's
17:52spot and moving McLeod down to the fourth line.
17:56Like, looking at the board, I was like, I'm not – I don't know.
18:00I don't know.
18:01I don't think Carrick for Hellenus makes sense.
18:04And then all you do is just, like, move one line, like, oh, okay, yeah, I guess that
18:08makes sense.
18:09Like, create a nice, you know, an offensive, quote-unquote, spot for Hellenus here, instead
18:15of having him, I think, miscast playing with Greenway and Malenstein.
18:18Like, that would be weird.
18:20I love that he's in.
18:23Talent.
18:23Talent.
18:25That's my, you know, box.
18:29Let's get my best players on the ice.
18:33I mean, if Shen happens to contradict that, then so be it.
18:36Maybe it's a compromise.
18:38If Lindy Ruff isn't making decisions unilaterally about the lineup.
18:42Either way.
18:44Shen had to crawl so Hellenus can fly.
18:46Yes.
18:46Basically, that's what you're telling me.
18:47I don't know.
18:48I did this for you.
18:49Okay, can I have this then?
18:51Right.
18:53I mean, we did say yesterday about him that it's really not a Lindy Ruff kind of move
18:59putting Hellenus in at this point, but I love that it's happening.
19:04And the guy we talked about for having suffered for that, if that were to happen, is Zucker,
19:10and that didn't happen.
19:11Right.
19:11He's staying in.
19:13Right.
19:14But I'm not afraid, and I don't think he's going to be afraid.
19:17I don't think these guys are afraid.
19:18I think this kind of environment is what you live for.
19:23And it's adversity, but okay.
19:25What did you expect?
19:26What do you think the playoffs are about?
19:28Who wins without adversity except Carolina?
19:31I mean, just this is what it is.
19:34So bring it on.
19:36If Montreal is too good, then okay.
19:40But we don't know that yet.
19:43It's still close.
19:45And a win the night, and you're like right where you would want to be.
19:48Would we have taken 2-2?
19:50Maybe not.
19:51But maybe yes, going into the series.
19:54Best of three at home?
19:58I mean, I just, I want to, let's stand by the boys, you know?
20:02I know there are fans, they can't wait to tell you, they can't wait to call us, they
20:06can't wait to tweet it about how, you know, desperately sad and done they are.
20:11Why?
20:11I mean, give it another three days, at least.
20:15What's the harm in that?
20:17How many games do this team need to win?
20:20They won 55 games.
20:23And they were great on the road.
20:25Maybe we can hang in there for another 48 hours?
20:27Can we do that?
20:29I'm up for it.
20:30I'm ready.
20:30I'm prepared to do it.
20:31I'm doing it.
20:32I got nothing else to do.
20:33What else is there?
20:34Give up?
20:35That sucks.
20:37You want to be that guy?
20:38I don't.
20:38It does sort of feel, I think, a little bit like they're already down 3-1.
20:44Is kind of how it sounds to me.
20:45And I know how I'll feel if they do end up falling down 3-1.
20:49I'm going to feel like maybe a lot of you feel already, and I just think you're being preemptive.
20:55Because I agree with everything you just said.
20:59I'm not sure.
21:00I don't want to pick apart how close or not close or dominant or whatever the two losses were.
21:05But the scoreboard was crooked as hell.
21:08And it's kind of weird and kind of blew my mind that they lost so badly on the scoreboard to
21:16this team that I think they are every bit as good as.
21:19If not even better.
21:21But they haven't shown it these last two games.
21:24But they certainly are capable of it.
21:25If for some reason they just can't find their game, I'm going to assume that they ran out of gas.
21:31You don't get to pick and choose when you're empty.
21:34At some point, teams on playoff runs get, well, that's as far as I, that's all I got.
21:40You know, if that's Tuck and Thompson on the third goal on Sunday night, so be it.
21:46You know, good run.
21:47But I don't think the evidence supports that that absolutely has to be the case.
21:52I think another one-sided loss, that's how I will feel, you know, coming back home 3-1.
22:00But we're not there yet.
22:01It's 2-1.
22:03That's it.
22:03I'm not in an angsty, oh-no kind of mood at all.
22:10I'm like, I want the game desperately to get here.
22:14I want to see what's going to happen.
22:16But I'm not all tied up about it at all.
22:19I'm just like, go play.
22:20You're good.
22:21Go play.
22:21Good.
22:228-0-3-0-5-50.
22:23Lines open all day.
Comments