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00:00Paul is, can we ask, on his way home?
00:03Paul is in transit, I believe, is Paul.
00:05What are the scenes?
00:06Paul's planes, trains, and automobiles minus the planes, I think, today.
00:10Well, I spent my few minutes in Toronto, and now I made it to Burlington.
00:15And when we're done, it's start the motor and get to the Peace Bridge.
00:19Are you taking that train, the GO train?
00:22I already took it, yeah.
00:23I'm in Burlington, so I've done the trains.
00:27Now I'm in my car talking to you from the parking lot.
00:29And then when we're done, off we go.
00:31I love the GO train.
00:32I'm a big fan of the GO train.
00:33Three times, maybe.
00:34And when I'm not driving, when I'm not on the GO train, I'm driving up there.
00:38I'm sort of jealous of the people on the GO train.
00:40Me too, because every time I go with my wife up there, if we're staying in a hotel,
00:47we pay to park the truck.
00:49We never use the vehicle the whole time we're there.
00:53So that's why we started taking the train.
00:55Because all we're doing is paying to park the truck here so we can drive from Toronto
00:58instead of Burlington.
00:59Like, this is dumb.
01:00And then I didn't realize.
01:02I thought after a Leaf game, well, I'll miss the last train or whatever,
01:05so I can't do that.
01:06And then Pat Malacaro told me the last train's 1245 in the morning.
01:10Yeah.
01:10Oh, yeah, okay.
01:12Even if it goes to overtime, I can do that.
01:14Right, right.
01:15We took the subway after Game 2 of the World Series, where you've just got maybe literally
01:21thousands of people trying to get on trains to get out.
01:25And it was super late, but it still happened.
01:27It still worked.
01:28So, very good.
01:28So, anyway, you're making your way back.
01:30Paul, how improbable a win was that, considering how...
01:37I thought they were coming undone in the first two periods with all the penalties,
01:41and it was the Kingpin guys taking the penalties.
01:44I was starting to really get worried about them for the first time since, like, I don't
01:48know, the new year.
01:50And they played a great third period.
01:53I would agree with you for the first period.
01:55The second, I thought they were okay.
01:57I thought they were starting to get out of it a little bit.
02:00Lucanen looked really good.
02:02Lucanen said he was really feeling it by the second period.
02:05You know, because Toronto...
02:08Or Toronto.
02:10Montreal scored that power play goal right at the end of the first.
02:14And now the fans are buzzing.
02:15But in retrospect, looking back, it was probably the best time for the Sabres to give that up
02:20because it shut the crowd up because intermission game.
02:23Instead of the crowd just going for, like, ever and ever and ever.
02:27This is the old...
02:28You don't want to give up that last-minute goal, but you're saying maybe in this case
02:32it was beneficial.
02:33If you're going to give one up, give it up then.
02:35Yeah, if you're going to give up the power play goal, do it then.
02:38And then let's get everybody calmed down again.
02:40And, you know, they were fine.
02:43And they got a break.
02:44I mean, they're on their own power play.
02:46And Thompson rips the puck in off the stanchion.
02:49And, you know, I'm sure Dobish thought he was going to rim it around the boards.
02:53And he's not really looking.
02:55And the puck comes right at him off the stanchion, like, right on the goal line from the boards
03:01all the way in.
03:01And it hits him either in the skate or the pad and goes in.
03:04So you get a break there.
03:05And, you know, it's nice to get a break.
03:08Just like Boston got a break on the geeky goal from center ice.
03:12So you get a break there.
03:13It's also a power play goal for you.
03:16It gets you going.
03:17Now you're no longer behind anymore.
03:19And now, all right, let's rev it up and let's get rolling.
03:21But, honestly, guys, I think the biggest part of that game, the changing part of that game,
03:28they had to kill a penalty for 2 minutes and 31 seconds to start.
03:34If Montreal scores there, I think it's going to be a really hard sell.
03:41Because that place, they would have blown the roof off it.
03:45And they probably never would have stopped.
03:48But Buffalo killing it killed the crowd.
03:50It was the first time I could hear myself think in that building in two games.
03:54They did it pretty neatly.
03:56They did it pretty neatly.
03:57Yes, they did.
03:58I mean, Loken had to make some saves.
04:01But they weren't the bell ringers that he made on Caulfield earlier in the game
04:04when he came flying across on the power play twice on one-timers
04:08and stopped a 51-goal score.
04:11And I think that's what took it out of the crowd.
04:13It wasn't like, oh, we're close.
04:15No, we really aren't on this.
04:16Buffalo did a good job there.
04:18And that's when, all right, you got the crowd out of it finally.
04:22And I don't think the crowd was intimidating them as much as they did in the first game there.
04:26But still, you don't want them buzzing the way they go.
04:30So they get going and they get going.
04:33And by that time, I was thinking, this is the Sabre team I'm used to seeing.
04:38They feel fine right now.
04:40They got energized off that penalty kill.
04:42They're thinking they're going to score and win this game.
04:45And that's exactly what happened.
04:46Then they got another power play on a double minor.
04:49And it was just fun to watch Benson.
04:53He's in front of the net.
04:54Just a push, which was enough to put the defenseman off balance,
05:01which gave him a chance to back off that defenseman,
05:04immediately opening the passing lane for Doan.
05:07Doan gets it there.
05:08And what a gorgeous move.
05:10I mean, just a skill move there to put it on the backhand and under the crossbar
05:14to be able to get that goal.
05:16And here we are again talking about Benson and Newhook,
05:21the guys that are the guys maybe you weren't expecting to be running up the
05:26points in the playoffs, but they're both prominent in this game.
05:30And now you've got what turns out to be your game-winning goal on his 21st
05:35birthday.
05:36And they shut it down like they have so many times before.
05:40There were shots, but they were from the outside.
05:44I don't think Lucan had to make a great save for the rest of the period.
05:48He was making pedestrian saves from the outside.
05:51It's like, you want to shoot from up there?
05:52Go.
05:53And the shots were 12-5, but I don't think anything.
05:55I think there was one really good scoring chance in there, and that was it.
06:00They did what the Buffalo Sabres do with a one-goal lead.
06:04And even Lindy Ruff said he recognized his team again.
06:08You know, and so it was, you know, a really good road win for them.
06:14And like we talked about yesterday, I think it was the most important game of the season.
06:18I think they had to win that game, and they did.
06:21You know, at the risk of asking a bad question or one that's just been answered,
06:26was there anything intentional about the Thompson goal from what he did there?
06:30I don't think so.
06:31No.
06:31No?
06:32I said to him, I go, have you ever scored a goal like that?
06:34Good that you asked.
06:35No, remember the one he scored, what was it, the broken stick or what?
06:39I'm trying to think of it.
06:40He scored a goofy, I can't think of what happened.
06:44He's not trying to hit a target there.
06:46Yeah, it was in Chicago.
06:48And it somehow hit the backboard.
06:52I don't even remember how it all happened.
06:53Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:53Okay.
06:54But it was similar to that, but it wasn't exactly like that.
06:57I'm going to be honest with you.
06:59I've never seen a puck do that.
07:00Hit the corner.
07:01Yeah.
07:02I wasn't sure if it was the boards or the stanchion, but it was the stanchion,
07:05and come right across the goal line from the corner all the way to the net.
07:10And Dobish wasn't expecting that.
07:12He probably never seen that either.
07:13I guess I thought there was some reason.
07:15It might have been right to ask.
07:16There might have been some reason why he was trying to hit a certain spot.
07:19Well, that corner, they talked about it on the telecast that, you know,
07:22it's the Zamboni doors.
07:24The stanchions are thicker there.
07:26They broke this down, I saw, on Sportsnet, too.
07:28So, I think it's a good question to ask him if they, you know,
07:33on shoot-ins said, like, target those doors or that, you know, that, you know.
07:37But if he says, no, I was just throwing it in and he got lucky, then so be it.
07:41He was, I think, trying to rim it around.
07:42Yeah, right.
07:43Exactly.
07:44Because he threw it in hard.
07:45He was trying to rim it around.
07:47If that was a specific play that they saw,
07:51he obviously even wouldn't have been doing it to score.
07:53He would have been doing it to carry him the puck out of the slot.
07:56Right, right.
07:57I mean, you think about Dobish on the play.
08:01And this is another part of, again, they were talking on ESPN about this.
08:04And, again, I saw some coverage of it on Sportsnet, too,
08:08where, like, he doesn't come out to try to, a lot of times a goal,
08:13if he's trying, if he's guessing, he's rimming this around.
08:17I think what I heard on Sportsnet was Montreal goalies know about the doors
08:22and they won't go try to stop that behind the net because they're worried
08:25about it taking a funny bounce there.
08:28So they're supposed to stay in the net.
08:30And as it turns out, on this play, if he's out behind the net,
08:34that puck sails right through the crease.
08:36Because it wasn't going to go right in the net.
08:38But if he's not there to bounce off of him, he would have been in the clear.
08:42But he stays in the net because of those doors, I think, is what I heard.
08:46And I'm going to say this in question form to see what you guys think.
08:50With as hard as Thompson put it in, would the goalie even come out to stop it,
08:55knowing that it's going to come around fast if it does come around?
08:57Sometimes they will just punt on that.
09:00And it's possible he was going to anyways.
09:02But what I'm saying is even shoot-ins from the red line where you've got the time
09:06to go out, the goalie will often stay in the net if you hit that corner.
09:11You know, it's the second period, so it's only one period each game
09:15that they've got to worry about it for themselves.
09:18But that the goalie knows to stay in.
09:20And now so do our guys if they didn't.
09:22Right.
09:23They get back there.
09:24I can tell you this, and I've learned this in that building.
09:27The Montreal Canadiens do have plays off the back wall with the defensemen
09:31intentionally because those are probably the bounciest boards I've seen in the
09:34league, and they know it, of course.
09:36It's their home rink.
09:37So they actually practice it, like ripping it off the back wall,
09:41knowing maybe the angle the puck might come out at,
09:44and then actually do plays that way.
09:47This is the Thompson goal in game one,
09:48although we don't know if Darlene did that on purpose, but they got that bounce.
09:52It went to the right of the net off the wall behind,
09:55kind of in the middle, and bounced right out to Thompson with a tap-in.
09:59Yeah, similar.
09:59Yeah, exactly.
10:00That's a great example.
10:01Those are plays that Montreal scores on from time to time because they run plays
10:05like that.
10:06Well, Paul, overall, Lukinen, I mean, you already referenced the saves in the
10:10second period on the one-timers by Caulfield.
10:14That is the high-end, that's the steal-you-a-game type athleticism that you can get
10:20with a goalie that has the skill set and the size that Lukinen has.
10:25The second goal, the Caulfield power play goal right at the end of the first period
10:29is the downside, where he's just sort of, he's not all buttoned up there.
10:33He's too hard going into the post, and he's off balance, and his leg lifts up,
10:38and the puck goes in the net, so that's...
10:41I misunderstood your tweet, and I was going to ask you because I didn't understand
10:45what you meant.
10:46I was thinking that's probably a bad goal to give up, that he'd want that back,
10:50but then I read your tweet, and I thought, well, maybe it's not a bad goal.
10:54You explain maybe why the pad came up?
10:56Well, no, I think it's a bad goal.
10:58He's out of control.
11:00He has to slide so hard to get there that he hits the post.
11:05If you watch it again, his upper body is like, almost knocks the...
11:10I'm exaggerating now, but he slides too hard, and his body hits the post,
11:16and the momentum of that is what caused his left leg to lift up.
11:19I understand.
11:20So technically, he was just off his platform, and there's like three movements
11:26preceding that.
11:27Each one was a little late.
11:29So he's just...
11:29It's a criticism I've levied against him, really.
11:33I mean, you have to be elite to always be under control, but there was a situation
11:37where it got away from him pretty quickly, and it cost him.
11:41Also, Timmons is tied up with somebody in front of the net there.
11:45ESPN sort of circled him on the intermission replay of that goal.
11:49Maybe the Sabres should have wanted him to slide.
11:52Yeah, I don't know.
11:53But then somebody's opening the slot.
11:55Yeah.
11:56So I don't know about that.
11:57So anyway, I thought we got the best and the bad, the good and the bad with Lucanen,
12:02and the good outweighed the bad because those two saves in the second were fantastic saves.
12:08Yeah, I think that play we just talked about might have been the only one I would complain about.
12:12Yeah, same here.
12:12He was kicking rebounds into the corner.
12:15I mean, he was directing his rebounds where he wanted them to go,
12:19so there weren't too many that were popping in front of him that he had to worry about.
12:23There were a lot of things to like in the game about him.
12:25Would you expect him to play tomorrow?
12:30I was expecting when they went to Levi because LaRuff talked about it a couple times,
12:35how much he liked the alternating goalies.
12:38Lyon, yeah.
12:38I said, I'm sorry.
12:40It's okay.
12:40I don't mean to do that.
12:42Four letters, L.
12:44Yeah, Lyon.
12:46But Lyon played so well that he kind of, I think, felt he had to go with it.
12:52But I was, I remember I was talking about it.
12:54I was thinking maybe he was going to go back to the alternating once he replaced Lukan in.
13:00But, you know, I think he just felt, hey, you know, well, let's keep going with it.
13:05But he loves the alternating goaltenders.
13:08So he might, and he said he did not blame any of this on Lyon.
13:12But the fact remains, the team gave up nine goals with a goalie in and two more with the goalie
13:17out.
13:18And it just wasn't working.
13:20So why not try something different?
13:21Maybe a shock value for the team.
13:24He had told Lukan in that he was going to get another opportunity.
13:27He didn't know when.
13:28And it turned out to be this game.
13:31So he may go to that alternating and put Lyon in for the next one.
13:35Just because he likes it so much.
13:38And so it'll be interesting to see.
13:40Yeah, I normally off of a performance like we saw last night from a goaltender would say, of course, he's
13:45going to stay in.
13:47But I wonder if this is now a chance to really, like for real, like could he actually, that's it.
13:53We decided we're going to alternate from here on out.
13:56I don't care.
13:56Lyon gets a shutout in game five.
13:57I'm going to Lukan in in game six.
14:00It would take a lot for a guy to do that.
14:02But I want to leave the door open because I just feel like it's possible.
14:05Yeah, and he never deviated in the regular season.
14:07Remember, Lyon had the shutout in San Jose, but Lukan in took his turn the next game.
14:11Yeah, you know, so it didn't matter which goaltender did what he was going to stay with the alternate until
14:17Lyon had three starts, which weren't good.
14:19And then he went to Lukan in.
14:21It's so interesting.
14:23Either way, like if you're you, you can win.
14:26I don't want to say you can't win, but if it if whoever you go with falters, then it's such
14:32an you're such an easy mark.
14:33Right.
14:34I mean, you might just want to go Rochambeau at this point and leave it to chance.
14:39But Ruff has been doing great.
14:40He's been doing great with what he does.
14:42I mean, I was dead wrong about Helen Ouse.
14:46I mean, I was worried about a 20-year-old kid going into that arena.
14:50He handled it beautifully.
14:52What a night he had.
14:52Paul, Lindy's got him out there in the final couple of minutes.
14:55Yeah.
14:57And deservingly so.
14:58It wasn't like he was doing him a favor or anything.
15:01Right.
15:01I mean, it was deservingly so.
15:03And I asked Helen Ouse about, you know, when he left Buffalo, went back to Rochester.
15:08Could he feel right away that from that experience, he was a better player?
15:12And he said, absolutely.
15:13So that kind of helped him even spring him in better at the American Hockey League level and to come
15:19in.
15:19So I was dead wrong about all that.
15:22I mean, Lindy Ruff knew what he was doing there.
15:26I really thought about the Shen thing.
15:28And it turned out to be what I was thinking, that, lookit, he brings a lot of experience to the
15:36lineup.
15:36And he can kill penalties for you.
15:38I don't think he was planning on playing them all that much.
15:41Most, or at least half of his time on the ice was killing penalties.
15:45But he can calm you down.
15:46You know, hey, guys, relax.
15:50Calm down.
15:50I think that's what he was looking for there.
15:53And there wasn't, you know what, I didn't say to myself, boy, he looked bad there.
15:58You know, with the little bit he played, I didn't have any problem with him.
16:01I had one of those.
16:03And I was not calmed down by his press.
16:06Like, who's five?
16:07Who's five?
16:08Who invited five?
16:10So, again, I will give Lindy Ruff credit for that one.
16:13Because you're not thinking against a speed team to put Shen in.
16:16But Shen can also play the left side.
16:18I don't believe he did, but he can play the left side.
16:20Yeah, I saw him on the right.
16:21Yeah, yeah.
16:22And Timmons wound up playing like 21, 22 minutes.
16:25And Darlene only played like 19.
16:27And you had mentioned about Byram.
16:30And Byram also was not on the penalty kill.
16:33And I think maybe Lindy Ruff is seeing a little bit of what you were seeing and I was seeing
16:37there.
16:38That he might be tiring a little bit.
16:40He only had a couple of seconds on the penalty kill.
16:43But I just have to bring up Samuelson.
16:46I mean, even if he didn't score a goal, I think I might have made him the first star of
16:51the game.
16:52Or Lukanen was first star.
16:53Samuelson was second.
16:54Even without that goal.
16:58He played, I think, the most minutes on the team.
17:02Yes.
17:03He played over seven minutes on the penalty kill.
17:06He had six block shots.
17:08He had six body checks.
17:11He had a goal where it was a great read by him to get himself, you know, to read the
17:16play to get himself open.
17:18I couldn't have been more impressed with Samuelson the way he played.
17:21And they needed him.
17:23When you're going to kill seven penalties, which isn't ideal, you better have somebody ready to go.
17:28Oh, and Timmons, he had more time than Darlene also because he also was over seven minutes on the penalty
17:35kill.
17:35So, I just, I can't say enough about the job I saw Samuelson do in that game.
17:42I thought he was great.
17:43And Darlene was in the box twice, which might have flipped that.
17:46That might have gone against him, too.
17:48Power, too.
17:49I mean, Samuelson played four seconds more than Power, and Power had more shifts.
17:53What a great night for him.
17:55Yes, it was.
17:56No, he was excellent also, and Timmons, even though a lot, you know, he got over 20 minutes,
18:01and I don't think he was overwhelmed by it at all.
18:04I mean, his five-on-five, for the most part, was pretty good.
18:07His penalty killing was stellar.
18:10And, you know, to get that out of Timmons, I think you get a bonus there.
18:14Yeah, and there was a moment in this game where they were, Power and Timmons were on the ice together,
18:21and Power drags the puck way down to the goal mouth and throws it across the crease,
18:27and Timmons is the guy there trying to, like, that's the Sabres.
18:31Even Connor Timmons is at, Eddie Ulchuk would have loved it.
18:35He's at the blue paint trying to get a pass from coming across from his D partner,
18:40which is just, you know, describe the Buffalo Sabres in one 10-second clip.
18:45Like, there it is.
18:46That's them this year.
18:47He every now and then surprises you.
18:49I mean, when Benson scored the goal in game three,
18:52who was the guy that sent the cross-size pass through the crease for the tap-in?
18:55It was Timmons.
18:56Yep.
18:56You know, who actually saw Benson over there and put the puck right on his stick
18:59so where he could tap it in.
19:01So, every now and then, he will surprise you offensively.
19:04And Norris showed up, too.
19:06I want to mention it.
19:07I don't think his name has come up yet.
19:09He played, obviously, a great pass on the Samuelson goal.
19:13And I just thought it was way more noticeable at both ends of the ice last night
19:18than he had been.
19:18I was saying to Joe Yurden as he was coming up the ice on that, I go,
19:21you know, Joe, he is really skating well.
19:23And as I was getting the word tonight out of my mouth, he made the pass,
19:26and he scored.
19:27And Zucker, you know, Helenus with Zucker and Quinn,
19:31I thought Zucker and Quinn both were better, especially Zucker.
19:35I mean, he made some good plays to Helenus for one-timers that, unfortunately,
19:41he couldn't capitalize on.
19:42But it's just another reason why Zucker's on a dry spell because even when he
19:47makes good plays, they don't wind up in the net.
19:50And, you know, he's just kind of snake-bitten right now.
19:52But those were good plays.
19:55Not having the TV, I thought when Montreal was challenging the goal,
20:02they were challenging Quinn because on his backhand, his stick hit the glove.
20:07The glove was not in the net.
20:09His stick put it in the net, which is illegal.
20:11I think had they challenged that, they would have won it either.
20:14The Helenus play, I'm looking at it and going, hmm.
20:17Yeah, that's a coin flip.
20:19I have no idea.
20:20Yeah, I don't think – I looked at it slow motion.
20:22I'm not sure he got pushed in there.
20:25But I don't know if he impeded the goalie either.
20:30It's really – it's whatever you want it to be.
20:32If I were Montreal, I would have challenged Quinn's stick putting the glove in the net.
20:37I think you win that in two seconds.
20:39And, by the way, you guys will love this.
20:41Brian Coziel timed it.
20:43That delay was nine minutes.
20:45I was just about to ask that.
20:46How long was that?
20:47He timed it.
20:48Nine minutes.
20:49Way to suck the life out of a playoff game.
20:50Exactly.
20:51And give Montreal an opportunity to just completely reset.
20:54The Sabres opened the game like nine or ten to one on shots.
20:58Like, they were flying going into that first commercial timeout.
21:02And now we've got to sit for ten minutes?
21:04Like, it was like Montreal got an intermission.
21:07I guess the game got its life back.
21:09And how does the game change if Buffalo, if they don't win that challenge,
21:12it's two-nothing and are going on the power play.
21:15And the crowd is out of it.
21:16But now the challenge going their way brings the crowd back into it.
21:20And, like, here comes Montreal now.
21:21I don't want to, you know, think any of that necessarily as a conspiracy.
21:25I did wonder about that, however, when Lucanen was getting his mask worked on.
21:29Good time for a break.
21:30That did take quite a while.
21:32I wondered how long.
21:33Did you notice there was one of the equipment guys working on the mask.
21:38There's another guy standing.
21:39In the way.
21:40But he's got a second mask.
21:42He does, but he's not showing it off.
21:44He's holding it, like, at his hip.
21:46Kind of like, I don't want the ref to know that we have a backup mask
21:50because we want to take our time fixing this mask.
21:53And we can block the cameras.
21:54Well, the referee was right next to Lucanen.
21:56I was, like, behind the bench.
21:58I could see them trying to fix the mask.
22:02I could see the referee.
22:03I did not see the second mask.
22:05And I was wondering where it was.
22:06Because I'm thinking by now there should be a second match because he got one.
22:10I know he has one.
22:11He definitely was there.
22:12And I think whoever was holding it was trying to keep it out of sight for as long as possible.
22:18Because I thought there might be a moment where the official is just going to say,
22:20get another mask.
22:21This is absurd.
22:22No doubt the Sabres equipment people, who are, I'm sure, highly competent,
22:27were doing their best there.
22:28But it did remind me of me trying to fix anything at home.
22:32Which is, all right, hand that to me.
22:35And then I sort of fiddle with it for, like, five to ten minutes,
22:38and then I give it back.
22:39I don't know.
22:39I think you probably should throw it out.
22:41And Elliot Friedman tweeted today that he thinks diving in this series is going to be addressed.
22:46Well, yeah.
22:48Lindy is setting the table for that.
22:50I've not heard St. Louis on it.
22:52But Lindy, last night and again today, has made the point, like, you know,
22:58they're going to call that stuff.
22:59I tried to tell the team.
23:00But, you know, they're going to go down easy, make it look like the biggest thing in the world or
23:04whatever.
23:05I feel like he's just fishing for one embellishing call.
23:08And he did say today, too, that everybody does it.
23:10Right.
23:11He goes, because at this time of year, they're all trying to get power play.
23:14So, he said, everybody does it, and our guys have to realize it.
23:17Right.
23:18Very good, Paul.
23:19Enjoy the rest of your travels today.
23:22I will.
23:22Time to get the rest of the way home.
23:25Yeah.
23:26All right.
23:27Not, you know, necessarily such an easy section of this drive.
23:30At least we know our equipment works in the parking lot in the middle of Ontario.
23:33That's cool.
23:34You sound great.
23:35We miss the slither.
23:36But, I mean, clear as a bell.
23:38You should stay there to cover the games, Paul.
23:42Here's Paul Hamilton from Burlington in advance of Game 6.
23:44The GO train station.
23:46Thanks, Paul.
23:46Safe travels.
23:47Take care, guys.
23:48There's Paul Hamilton on the West.
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