00:00Let's get to some more of the fans here, 803-0550, pregame at 6 o'clock.
00:06Let's go to Eric next. Hi, Eric.
00:08Hey, how you doing?
00:09Good, man. Thank you for calling.
00:10Thank you for accepting my call.
00:12First of all, I'm going to start off with, let's go Sabres.
00:16I was a little nervous, but the closer I get, the more confident I build.
00:20I sit here watching the game from yesterday, and I know we've been giving Benson a lot of love.
00:26He's been playing tremendous.
00:27But the way Josh Doan has been doing, the couple goals that he had, even in the Boston Series,
00:34when he fought with players to stay on the stick and maintain control of the puck, is tremendous.
00:41So I just wanted to give a shout-out to Josh Doan, that whole line.
00:44Let's go Sabres. Let's go.
00:46Thanks, Eric.
00:47Yeah, I love it.
00:48I think Doan, my son and I were watching Game 4 together,
00:52and his observation on Doan was it feels like whenever there –
00:59like he moves around the ice well.
01:02Like he's a good skater.
01:04I don't want to say he's a great skater.
01:06But when there's a loose puck, it feels like he's got a turbo button.
01:11Like he just is able to find whether he takes the best angle or whether it's probably some combination of
01:17all the –
01:17but he just seems to just get – there's another level when there's an opportunity for a loose puck.
01:25And you just love to see it.
01:27He's made up a ton of plays this year, and like the caller said, even in these playoffs,
01:31where he just – he really outwills you.
01:35He just – he's beating you because he just – he wants to get there, which is fantastic.
01:42He wants it more?
01:43I think he wants it more.
01:45He might.
01:46That goal that Benson scored Game 6 in Boston from Doan is maybe the Sabres' play of the playoffs.
01:53Joe is next.
01:55Hi, Joe.
01:57Hey.
01:58Hey.
01:59Go Sabres.
02:00Yeah.
02:00Go Sabres.
02:01Right.
02:02Yeah.
02:03I just wanted to call in.
02:04I wanted to talk about UPL for a second.
02:07I was just thinking back how when he first joined the team and had his debut,
02:12the only current rostered Sabres that were on that team were Thompson, Darlene, and Samuelson.
02:20So, I just really wanted to express some faith in, you know, the guy we've had for five years
02:25and who's clearly been our goaltender.
02:30And I really just wanted to express that, you know, we should trust him to do two games in a
02:36row.
02:36You know, he did it in March.
02:38I think it was the 21st and 23rd, and he did it in April.
02:41I want to say the 6th and the 8th.
02:43So, I just think, you know, we have a great team, and we've got to just have faith.
02:49Thanks, Joe.
02:50So, 2021, 2020, 2021, is when Lukanen debuts in a game against Boston that the Sabres won, 6-4,
03:06and the losing goalie was Yaroslav Halak.
03:11There's a name.
03:12One-time Sabre.
03:14Sort of one-time Sabre, right?
03:16Right.
03:17Was he on the bench for a game, but he didn't play?
03:20I'm not even sure if he got that far.
03:22I don't know either.
03:23I just can't remember.
03:24He was a part of the Ryan Miller trade that came around the deadline in, I think that was the
03:3113, 13, 14, 12, 13, whatever.
03:34Whenever Miller got traded.
03:35I can't remember the exact year.
03:36Well, you would enjoy looking up the Sabre lineup the night of Lukanen's first game.
03:42Oh, boy.
03:43Anders Bjork.
03:44Yeah.
03:45Wow.
03:47Drake Kujula.
03:50Tobias Reeder.
03:53R2 Ruatzelainen.
03:55Oh, of course.
03:56Yes, R2-D2.
03:58Riley Sheehan.
04:00Riley Sheehan.
04:02And Taylor Hall scored for Boston in this game.
04:09April 23rd, 2021.
04:10I think that that's his debut.
04:12Sound right?
04:14Okay.
04:15So Taylor Hall had been traded to Boston by the Sabres already?
04:19I guess.
04:20And you, didn't you, didn't you win a, did you win a bet on that goal or something?
04:24Like you had a bet with Paul about Taylor Hall scoring.
04:27What was it?
04:29I had a bet.
04:30I believe it was this.
04:32Maybe it's like a deadline move.
04:34I'm not sure if the schedule is like right yet because of COVID and everything.
04:37Right.
04:38But he would score more goals against the Sabres.
04:40Than he scored for them.
04:41For Boston.
04:42Than he scored for them.
04:44And I want to say I lost the bet 3-2.
04:47Okay.
04:48Did he score three goals?
04:49He scored two goals for the Sabres.
04:51So it might have been 2-2.
04:53I don't know.
04:54So I'm not even sure that I lost.
04:55That was the bet though.
04:57That rings a bell.
04:58That rings a bell.
04:59Taylor Hall scored two goals for the Sabres in 37 games.
05:03He has 12 points in this playoff in eight games for Carolina.
05:09Wyshynski was good on them.
05:11Yes.
05:13The thing the caller points out about Lukanen cuts both ways though.
05:18Like, yes, he's been here a long time.
05:21But he, aside from, well, they tried to, they tried him as their one going into the playoffs this year.
05:29And down the stretch, right?
05:31He played a few games in a row.
05:32The caller's referencing games in a row that he played in the regular season.
05:36And that was leading into the playoffs.
05:38And that lasted until, you know, the second period of game two.
05:42And then that changed.
05:43There's a half a year, two years before this where he's excellent from like January to the finish.
05:51They don't make it, but he's good.
05:54It looks like, okay, he's establishing himself.
05:58But it still didn't take hold from there.
06:01So what you've got is, yes, he's been here long enough that you can choose to think he's not that
06:10good
06:10because he's not established himself as a number one goalie in the NHL yet.
06:14So he's kind of just a guy, I think, maybe to a lot of fans still.
06:18Which is fine.
06:19I mean, he has, you can't deny it.
06:22He's never established himself as a go-to number one goalie.
06:26And even this year where he shared, it was a time share.
06:30He played excellent, but he was not like, he's not at that level.
06:35So anytime you're there, you can feel a little bit like, oh, I still don't really have a guy.
06:41And I think that is hanging over Lukanen.
06:43It's, you know, you can have faith in him that he's been through it and is experienced.
06:51But I think the other side of that coin is he's never come through enough to be a guy that
06:59you really feel like,
07:00oh, I got it.
07:01I got this goalie.
07:02He's got it locked down.
07:03Well, what an opportunity he has right now.
07:05Tremendous.
07:05Yes.
07:06He got the redemption game in game four.
07:08He was very good.
07:09And may he keep it rolling.
07:12Jim is next.
07:13Hi, Jim.
07:14Hey, guys.
07:15How are we tonight?
07:16Fantastic.
07:17Super excited about, I'm super excited about tonight.
07:21But I'll tell you what I don't want to have happen.
07:23And it's the first time I think it's ever happened to me when I'm watching hockey is the dumb penalties
07:30that our stars were taking made me so angry about them.
07:37Then I was against Montreal.
07:41It was a horrible feeling because I didn't want to be that negative guy on my own team.
07:47And was I the only one that was getting infuriated?
07:51No, Jim.
07:51I said to Greg Wyshynski, and we just played a clip of him sort of refuting what I said,
07:56saying he felt really the opposite.
07:59Because I told him, and I said this on our show yesterday, after the second period of game four,
08:05that was the most I've questioned whether this was all about to end.
08:10Because I thought the penalties were a sign of them cracking.
08:14It was Thompson, it was Darlene twice, it was Byram, it was Zucker.
08:18Like, it was all the leader-type guys on your team were taking these penalties that,
08:24sure, you can argue this is a dive and that's a dive and they missed this cross, whatever.
08:29But those penalties weren't far-fetched to me.
08:34I think Montreal embellished a couple of them, but the Sabres put themselves in a position to be called,
08:40and they were, and I thought they were kind of coming undone.
08:44So I was really worried.
08:46I mean, I wasn't rooting against them, but I felt, I was shook.
08:53That's why I said it was kind of incredible to me that they ended up winning the game
08:56and played such a great third period, because I was afraid it was getting away from them.
09:01And I do have one more quick question.
09:04And it's, I hope this isn't stupid, but when they're in the face-offs and the guy gets bounced out
09:11and somebody else has to come in, do they do that on, like when we're on the road?
09:17Do we, do our guys do something so that they have a, if they know they don't have a good
09:22matchup
09:23against the face-off guy they're facing and the other guy who's on the outside might have it?
09:30Am I kind of?
09:31I bet it happens.
09:33Yeah, I think there is some, there's some tactic to maybe, more so than trying to get yourself tossed
09:39so you get the other guy in there, because you would just put the other guy in there
09:42if you like that matchup better.
09:43But you might try to get, to do something that causes the other guy to get tossed.
09:50Like that kind of gamesmanship, I'm sure happens with draws.
09:53You got a guy that's having a night where he's 10 out of 14 in the circles, the middle of
09:58the second period,
09:59and you got a defensive zone draw and you want to win it, keep them from getting a chance
10:04near the end of the period or something.
10:06You might try to get him tossed by moving or suckering him into moving.
10:12I think that's tactical stuff that would make sense to me that would happen.
10:16Or you could just end up cheating a little bit and winning the draw.
10:19Right.
10:20You know?
10:22Yeah, am I right?
10:23Does it seem like we're at a record time here?
10:26What a time to be alive of players getting thrown out of face-off circles.
10:29I feel like the face-offs have become more and more tedious.
10:33I don't think it's just that we're ratcheted up because of, you know, the playoffs and the anxiety.
10:39I feel like there's a lot more – it's been going on all season.
10:43There's a lot of standing there.
10:46And, you know, I don't know.
10:48They're trying to do a fair job, but it just seems like it's taking longer than ever this year.
10:53Yeah.
10:54Not just you.
10:55So –
