00:00It's all a minute, but count it.
00:04Thompson, a goal and assist last night in the Sabres.
00:07Super important game four win in Montreal.
00:11Game five tomorrow.
00:12I love that we just spent, like, I don't know, seven or eight minutes of our lives,
00:17like, breaking down his game.
00:18What's wrong with him?
00:19Is he playing up to snuff?
00:21What's missing?
00:22Was it a goal and assist in a playoff game?
00:24That's it.
00:25On the road.
00:25No big deal.
00:26Must win.
00:26Almost.
00:27Fine.
00:28Fine.
00:30I'll take it tomorrow.
00:31I'll take one and one tomorrow.
00:32Doesn't invalidate anything that I feel I said last segment, but it's still, it's a goal
00:37and assist.
00:38It's funny, though.
00:38I don't want to cut into Brian's time, because it's going to be short, but remember when Dave
00:42Anderchuk was a Sabre?
00:44These were the conversations.
00:45Like, well, geez, what, doesn't do this, doesn't do A, B, and C. Everybody scores 40 goals a
00:50year.
00:50Yeah.
00:51Is that worth anything?
00:52I'll tell you, I don't want to speak completely out of school, but I don't think Anderchuk ever
00:58had no 11 points in 10 playoff games, because the book on him was that that disappeared
01:02when the playoffs got here.
01:04And I say he didn't produce, but he did not produce at no point a game clip in the playoffs.
01:07I'm almost sure of that.
01:09Maybe it's a little better than you think.
01:10Yeah.
01:11I hope so.
01:11We'll find out.
01:12Brian Kozio with us now, pre- and post-game host, Game 5 tomorrow night.
01:17I don't know.
01:17Do you want to start on Thompson?
01:18Brian, do you have a quick take?
01:19We don't need to.
01:20He wasn't the story of the game or anything.
01:22Who was?
01:23Maybe Lukanen probably deserves, or Benson.
01:28Well, I'm guessing you probably talked about them a lot today, so I'll throw Samuelson in.
01:32I was really, really impressed with his game last night.
01:35Six hits, six block shots.
01:38The block shots last night, unless they changed the stats overnight, it was 27-6 in favor of
01:44Buffalo.
01:44Now, Montreal had quite a huge margin in shot attempts, so that obviously maybe shows Montreal
01:50had some sort of control of the play, but in the fact that Buffalo was able to defend
01:55so well, I think that's something that's worth noting, and it wasn't just Samuelson,
01:59too.
01:59Darlene had four, I believe.
02:01Timmons had five.
02:02I mean, these guys are laying it on the line there in the third period, but I just thought,
02:06I mean, if you look at Samuelson, he has the goal.
02:08I mean, it feels like there's some of these elements of Samuelson now that are just so well-rounded
02:13that we have just never gotten previous years.
02:16I mean, on a night where he, you know, what, he'd score once a year, twice a year, or we'd
02:20get him on a night where he'd block last night, yeah, he leads the team in block shots, he
02:23leads the team in hits, oh yeah, and he tips in with the opening goal of the game, like
02:26it's just kind of almost ho-hum now for him.
02:29It's super impressive how his bar has been raised from previous years.
02:33And that's not even just some floater from the point that bounces in off a couple of
02:37defender shin pads or anything.
02:38I mean, he's joining that rush.
02:41He's up there in position.
02:42I don't know if he was banging his stick or yelling for the puck, but he was open, presented
02:46himself as a great option for Norris.
02:48Norris puts it right where it needs to be.
02:51And Samuelson, like, this is funny, the year he's had, right?
02:56If he makes that play a year ago, I'm going, well, he just shoveled it at the net and it
03:01beat the goalie.
03:02He was fortunate to beat the goalie.
03:05He's had the year he's had and he scored the goals he scored.
03:08I'm like, he knew what he was doing.
03:10He didn't just shovel it.
03:12He knew he could beat him to the post.
03:13And so he beat him to the post.
03:15Right.
03:15Uh, like that, that, that there was more to it than just like, you know, close your
03:19eyes and hope kind of thing.
03:20Uh, a year ago, I would have, I would have said that about him now.
03:24I'm thinking he's more savvy.
03:26Yeah.
03:26Every time I've heard him after our post game shows and Paul talking to him, usually, obviously
03:31I may be on a night where he does score his goal breakdown.
03:35Stop sound like a guy that is looking to score.
03:38Like it doesn't sound like a guy that used to score two goals a year.
03:41I think he's talking about, you know, coming down and looking and I saw the upper corner,
03:45like that's where I was going.
03:46Or I, Hey, I saw Lane and I jumped in even just the fact that he just jumps in it's
03:50routine.
03:51Just like we're seeing the, you know, the other three top D they just jump in all the
03:55time.
03:55Like we think that's just part of their game with Byram and Darlene doing it and power
03:59doing it.
03:59But the fact that now Samuelson does it too.
04:01I just, I just think that is what makes Buffalo's top four so special now that they're almost
04:07all complete packages.
04:08I love what you guys said about power.
04:10I think Mike, maybe you said it toward the beginning of your show today that I don't
04:14think he's getting enough credit.
04:15I think these top four with the minutes that they log, I just think a big reason why if
04:20the Sabres keep going in the playoffs, I think these four guys are going to be a big
04:23reason why.
04:25In short, perhaps on Samuelson, it's a real shot.
04:28Like when he beats Swayman to win game one, he's not just hoping to get the puck through.
04:32He's trying, he's picking the corner.
04:34So yeah, I'd give him credit for that last night on his goal last night.
04:38Yeah.
04:40Lukanen, Brian.
04:41Lukanen.
04:41I mean, it was, I didn't love the second goal.
04:44He was off balance and that caused his leg to lift up and it created the hole there.
04:48But the two saves on Caulfield in the second period on the one-timers were, I mean, world
04:54class.
04:56I agree.
04:56I mean, he played, you're right, other than the one goal that I guess if you want to debate
05:00whether it was one he should have had or not, I heard you earlier talking about how he went
05:04into the postcard.
05:04It was a really, really good game for him, obviously.
05:07You know, I mean, we also maybe have to remember he hadn't played in a game in a while.
05:12So even if in the first, if people thought, well, maybe he looked a little flustered or
05:17a little out of rhythm, I mean, I'd still say, well, he hadn't played in over a week and
05:21you're going into a tough place to play in a pressure spot.
05:23And he's probably thinking, if I don't perform well right away here, like, this could be
05:28it for me in the postseason going the rest of the way.
05:30So the fact that he was able to now get himself in that game and then the second and the
05:35third,
05:35he got better and better as it went on.
05:37Obviously, excellent in the third, stopping some premier goal scorers like Caulfield.
05:41Now Lindy's got two options in net.
05:43And going back to the rotation, I think sounds like a good idea.
05:47But playing Luke in again also sounds like a good idea.
05:50I think Lindy's holding all the cards here.
05:52I think probably whatever he does, I think, you know, maybe tomorrow after the morning
05:56skate, I'll probably be sitting there nodding, saying, yep, Lindy, I shouldn't question your
06:00thought here, process.
06:01This sounds right.
06:02And I think he probably doesn't have a wrong decision, I think, with going with either goalie
06:06tomorrow.
06:08That's an interesting way to put it, because if whoever he goes with falters, there'll
06:14be a lot of, why didn't you do, you know, the other thing.
06:18So it's a luxury, but maybe also a curse, I guess, to have this, you know, one of those,
06:24if you have two starting quarterbacks, you don't have any, because it's kind of on the
06:30coach, whereas with Montreal or Boston, it isn't.
06:32It's not even, it's not going to be Martin St. Louis' fault if Dobish costs him games.
06:38Like, it's just, what else was he going to do?
06:39Right.
06:40So that's just...
06:40But it makes the second guessing probably also easy to argue, too, because they are both
06:44so good.
06:45Like, you could, if he goes with Lyon and he falters, then people, it'll be easy to say
06:49he should have kept with Lukan and kept it going.
06:52If he stays with Lukan and he doesn't go, we could say, well, maybe he should have stuck
06:56to the rotation.
06:56And, you know, I mean, in that sense, I guess I could spin it that no matter what he does,
07:00maybe people might argue that it was the wrong decision.
07:03Well, if they lose, it'll be the wrong decision.
07:04That's all there is to it.
07:07That's up to us to straighten out, okay?
07:10That's where people like us are important.
07:12One last thing on them, because we've got to get to your PGA picks here.
07:17Halinous is the other piece that went in yesterday.
07:19And, Brian, I didn't make a note, maybe you did, of exactly how late in the third period
07:24protecting the one-goal lead he was out there.
07:26But I know it was after that last TV timeout and might have been within the final two minutes,
07:32which really says a lot.
07:34Yeah, that chance that he had that he, I think the second one was the one that grazed the post.
07:39I remember writing it down on my notes.
07:41It was like around 240-something left in the game there.
07:45And then he was still out for a little bit more on that shift.
07:48So, yeah, I mean, it probably got down to close to two minutes before he ended up getting
07:51back to the bench.
07:51So, yeah, I mean, what a move by Lindy.
07:53He's been making a lot of good moves this year.
07:55And, I mean, the time that you put Auslin in, he performs.
07:59The time he puts Halinous in, he performs.
08:01I mean, there's probably a nice discussion to have when the season ends about those two
08:07plus the hopeful return of Kulik.
08:10And then the debate of, hmm, does Alex Puck, like, is that, while there's a lot of symbolism
08:14and why I would want him re-signed, then you say, well, there's one, two, three guys right there
08:19that maybe could all be a part of an argument to maybe, if you don't want to overpay Tuck,
08:24why you could argue against it, even though I feel like symbolically it's really important
08:28to bring Tuck back.
08:29But there's three names right there that maybe none of us started the postseason on their
08:34radar with that you could argue that all of them maybe at some point would be a big part
08:38of next year's team.
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