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00:00Well, that's it. I'm just crushed. I'm curious how it felt in the building.
00:13Devastating? Maybe. Works? Yeah, no. Terrible. I stayed. I wanted to see everything, you know.
00:27Um, and a part of that was just not wanting to rush out of there. You know, you want to,
00:33you know, let stuff last as long as it's going to last, even if it's not the outcome you wanted.
00:39But, you know, I wanted to see the handshakes and all the, see what kind of reaction. There was a
00:44Let's Go Buffalo chant that broke out, I think, during or after the handshakes, which, you know, wasn't thank you,
00:50Sabres, but still felt like something.
00:53Um, but then the Olay chant started, and I was like, eh, I gotta go. That was it. I gotta
01:01get out of here.
01:02And I, you know, look, you can choose, while these games are going on, like, I know we often talk,
01:08I often talk, like, I'm a slave to whatever emotion lands on me.
01:14Like, I want it to be authentic. I don't like to plan, like, you know, I want to know how
01:19I'm going to feel when I'm there and in the moment.
01:21And I was mostly anti-social and terrified for the first two periods of that game.
01:29And then the second intermission came, and I thought that, you know, they'd gotten the goal to make it 2
01:33-1, and I just thought they looked like the better team.
01:37They did.
01:38And I, I were. I sat there through that intermission, and the third period started, and I mostly was just
01:44sitting there smiling, like, they're going to do this.
01:46Darlene gets the early goal, and the third, like, it's, it's your night. We're all here. You know, they're, they're
01:52going to bring us the thing.
01:53You know, it's not a championship, but it is, you know, they only have one of these in their history.
01:59A game seven win, now we're to overtime. They're going to do it. They're getting all these looks.
02:05And so it was, I wasn't even really, I was mad at Darlene and Thompson on the play that led
02:13to the rush, right?
02:15Like, that happened. I was like, oh, come on.
02:17The goal.
02:17Yeah, the goal. The winning goal.
02:20But I wasn't that, the rush looked like it was, you know, meek. It was contained. There's not, you know,
02:26it was a three on two, but they had help coming, and it didn't look like they were in trouble.
02:30You have three on two, and then you have, in addition, you have Norris and Thompson slightly behind on the
02:38blue line.
02:39Thompson does this weird thing where he sort of waves his stick in the air to try to block the
02:44pass to Newhook. I don't know.
02:46So, I mean, I wouldn't say, I'm just going a long ways to say, I wasn't sitting there just smiling
02:52the entire time.
02:53Like, that play happened, and I thought, oh, come on, be better than that.
02:57But that wasn't followed by panic, because it didn't look like a play that I had to be that worried
03:02about, and I don't know, I don't know how many more times I need to watch it.
03:06Like, I mean, it's a knuckle puck. That's why you might have thought initially it was deflected, but it wasn't.
03:12And Lucanen just, like a catcher trying to catch Tim Wakefield, just missed it.
03:18And it's in the net, and it's all over, and it's just, wow.
03:22You know, I really thought they were going to do it.
03:27Well, you certainly could have.
03:28It was a battle for a lot of us, even for you, I think.
03:32Like, the back and forth, the whole series, last three games, the whole playoffs, I don't know, the whole season,
03:39where you're sort of fighting off, trying to fend off the past.
03:44You know, I had a tough time with that on Saturday.
03:47I'm just like, come on, do the Buffalo Sabres ever win this game?
03:51Does a Buffalo team ever win this game?
03:52And they won 8-3.
03:54Right.
03:55And they could have won big last night, but just like, oh, these guys.
04:00Yesterday, at one point, I asked you, who do you want it for?
04:04I don't feel like there's that much risk today of people, like, sort of walking in here and talking to
04:08us while we're talking to each other with headphones on.
04:10I think we'll be pretty safe from that.
04:11As if they just don't know what this is.
04:14Hopefully.
04:16At one point, I asked you yesterday, who do you want this for?
04:20And I went to bed last night just feeling terrible for the players.
04:25I thought they really deserved it.
04:27They had such a great season and were such a good team.
04:31And here it is.
04:33And they're kind of rolling.
04:35But they don't get the, they get behind, you know, you know all this.
04:39They get behind, then they get even.
04:41They don't get the call there.
04:42Thank God we have another Brandon Cooks moment to talk about with another Buffalo sports heartbreak.
04:47And then it's over.
04:51And I just, like, you and I have had these conversations many times with the Sabres and the Bills.
04:57We both know that it's not necessarily the case that you have to put your two or three years of
05:06being close in before you win.
05:09You can just win.
05:12And Tampa going out, Florida falling off the cliff, Toronto, Boston.
05:17Like, you had an equal here in this round, and one of you is going to the semifinals.
05:22And it was just, like, right there.
05:24And it was just crushing.
05:26I just felt so bad for the guys, even though I don't know any of them.
05:29I just, I didn't need it for me or anybody, you know, around me.
05:36I just wanted it for the players who, really, how do you live with that result last night with how
05:43good they were?
05:44I mean, how do you live with it?
05:45What do you look at?
05:46You just, you could blame goalies.
05:48You could look at game two or something and double back and be like, oh, well, I wish we were
05:53better two weeks ago.
05:55I mean, they had home ice.
05:57They were just, weren't the shot attempts at one point like 76 to 30?
06:01I don't know.
06:01They ended up like 91 to 40, something, I think.
06:04So, yeah, I mean, it was, yeah, it was very reminiscent.
06:08I mean, it wasn't as paltry in offensive output by Montreal as in their previous game seven from this spring
06:14against Tampa in the first round.
06:16But it was close.
06:18It was the final 40 minutes of the game pretty much looked like just a matter of time, which in
06:25the, like, objectively, I would tell you, the only thing that gets in the way of that mindset is the
06:30past.
06:31Because you're looking at, you know, a game and it's obvious who, which team is, has the more opportunity to,
06:41to, you know, get a goal or actually go win the game.
06:45And you, you, you're just fighting off ghosts at that point.
06:48But you also know how tenuous that is.
06:51Right.
06:51Of course.
06:52Without the ghosts.
06:52Of course.
06:54Um, so it was just a very bitter, I, I, it's like, I, I know yesterday I want, I wanted,
07:01I wanted to, I did, we did.
07:03I talked about gratitude, like this whole, whole thing.
07:05And, and that, that doesn't really go away.
07:09What, what'll be different now is we'll, I think, be paying way more attention to what they're going to do
07:17as the draft approaches and free agency.
07:19Like the, the build of the roster and the decision to make about talk and what do they want to
07:23do with anything about goaltending.
07:25They're going to have some stuff to do.
07:26And all of it matters now on a level that it simply has not for 15 years, mention 10, 10,
07:34because at the beginning of it, you hadn't really lost hope yet.
07:37But there's a point where you just sort of go, I don't know, the wheels keep spinning around and nothing
07:42changes.
07:42So I don't really care what they do this off season.
07:45That's the opposite is going to happen now, which is cool.
07:47It's not games, but it is still them being back as something that captured, recaptured the imagination of Buffalo sports
07:56fans brings all of that back to us in a way that it simply hasn't been available in many, many,
08:03many years.
08:03So like, that's still nice, but that's not making me feel much better right now.
08:07No, I'll get there.
08:08Yeah.
08:08Right.
08:09Right.
08:10Yeah.
08:10That's like, that's on the horizon for right now.
08:12That's why I started to say gratitude.
08:14Yes.
08:15And I'm still extremely grateful for everything, everything just partially for what I just said, but man, it's really hard
08:23not to be just really demoralized to walking out of there, knowing they were that close, you know, they would've
08:32got steamrolled.
08:33I don't know.
08:34Let's go watch.
08:36Let's see what Montreal has for Carolina.
08:37Who knows?
08:38You never know.
08:39And so you're walking out of the arena and it's just, it just sort of hit me.
08:44I'm like, I'm 60.
08:49Well, do you want my beer saber?
08:51Like I just, I'm such a dope walking around.
08:55Like, all right.
08:56I know.
08:56I found some friends.
08:58I gave mine away before the game started.
08:59I ran into Ryan Gates and Brian Mazurowski and they were with a gentleman who I didn't know who I
09:03met.
09:04And I asked Ryan right away, uh, do you want this?
09:08He's like, no, I have one already, but this guy might.
09:11And the guy didn't know.
09:12Like here, just, you have it.
09:14I just, I feel like the saddest person in the world walking through the alumni plaza while Canadians fans are
09:21hanging on the French connection statue at 60 years of age with a backpack and this beer saber.
09:27The guy's just not, you know, listen, I'm not, you and you, if I were 20 or 30 or maybe
09:32even 40, all about the beer saber.
09:34But I was walking out of there having lost.
09:37I'm like, I don't really need a, I have a, I have a foam sword from a Sabres Canadians playoff
09:44game in 1993 that I saved for a long time as a souvenir.
09:48I don't need another, I don't need another, I lost a playoff game slash series memento to put in my
09:53attic.
09:54Who doesn't love a foam sword by the way?
09:56So I just, I divested myself of my beer saber.
09:59Um, it just was giving me all the wrong things.
10:02You can, not to be, to attempt to be profound here, you can divest yourself of all the beer sabres
10:07and foam swords you want.
10:08You can't divest yourself of the history of the Sabres.
10:13And I can't pretend that all of that wasn't racing through my head, you know, pretty much all night, but
10:22certainly at the end of the game, at the end of the game, watching the winning goal felt like I
10:27was 30 years younger because that's just how we were raised.
10:31Like they're going to lose to Montreal or Boston necessarily because that's how it works.
10:37And there's enough similarities, I mean, whether you're in the building or just watching on TV and you're old enough
10:45to go back far enough, you can go to 2007, Alfredson, you go to 2001, Casper Ritus.
10:55There's even a Peter Bondra goal from 98 in the semis.
11:01That's an overtime winner.
11:02It doesn't win a series.
11:04It does.
11:06And I think it's not game seven.
11:07No, it's, I think it's game three, the Washington, the Bondra goal I'm thinking of is a game three.
11:12Oh, did they win?
11:13Was it Juno?
11:14Yeah, Juno.
11:14Did they win the series?
11:15Yes, Juno did.
11:16Yes.
11:16Sorry.
11:17But they're all from that same, they're like, they're not the scariest looking, Bondra's a slap shot, but it's the
11:23same spot.
11:25These are all the same region of the ice.
11:27Okay.
11:28And I see.
11:29The ones on Hasek, the two that are on Hasek, go 1-07, are very, they're just like, I can't
11:36believe he didn't have that.
11:37How come he doesn't have that?
11:38He should have had that.
11:39And that's what this one last night is.
11:42Again, it's just not that scary and it's in the net and your season's over and what?
11:48Oh, I thought we looked good.
11:51So the history is sort of crashing down on me in that way, thinking about all those goals.
11:56I suppose that's a perfectly reasonable reaction to this.
12:03I think, you know, it's also reasonable to, by, at some point here, maybe not necessarily this afternoon, but just
12:15like, all right, so what do they do?
12:16What do they do differently?
12:17What do they fix, you know, quote fix about their team?
12:21And you already said it.
12:23I think there are two big topics that, when we talk Sabres here in the next few months, will be
12:29the big two topics.
12:30Will be goaltending and, I suppose, tuck.
12:34Tuck won't take all summer.
12:36That'll be over in six weeks.
12:38Yeah, that'll be settled pretty quick.
12:41I mean, the goalie thing could, too, as well, if, you know, or it's the kind of thing that could,
12:47you know, just go for a while and then, you know, we'll think, oh, nothing's going to happen.
12:51And then they do something, like, at a period in the summer where traditionally moves aren't made.
12:56I don't know.
12:56We'll see.
12:56But, yeah, those are, you know, they've got to extend Benson.
13:00He's an RFA.
13:01They have stuff.
13:03Fine.
13:03But, yeah, the team is largely intact, you know, should be intact outside of tucking the goalie.
13:09I've had absolutely no stress for several years.
13:14I don't know how many.
13:15Maybe ten.
13:17Talking about the Sabres in net as if, like, just don't overthink it.
13:21Like, don't overdo it.
13:22Don't overspend.
13:24You just don't know what you're getting in goal.
13:27And I think that's mostly still true.
13:29There always have been a couple of exceptions.
13:32And I think there still are.
13:36But I still want to guard against, just as we start the offseason, an idea toward, well, just go buy
13:45the best goalie you can find.
13:48Because look how you lost.
13:49I mean, in the end, both guys let him down.
13:52Right?
13:53Yeah.
13:53I could never blame Lindy Ruff for the decisions he made in net.
13:58Even last night.
13:59I felt like he was kind of stuck.
14:02And it would have been a little bit nuts to come off the goalie that won you the last game.
14:07Could have done it.
14:09Who was the better guy?
14:10You know, we could have that conversation.
14:12Some fans, I'm sure, are.
14:14But for a long time, it's been pretty easy for me to say.
14:18Like, I just don't want to have too much of my cap and too much of my focus here invested
14:23in net.
14:24But, well, it's different now with a good team.
14:28Like, they have a bona fide good team now.
14:31And it's a little bit harder to just sort of settle for that, I think.
14:35In my mind, it is.
14:36Well, just do whatever you want.
14:38Who knows?
14:39Maybe Carter Hutton will be good.
14:40Maybe Eric Comrie will be good.
14:43Right?
14:43That's his name?
14:44Like, just, I mean, Alex Lyon.
14:47Maybe this is Devin Levi's year or something.
14:49I don't know if you even remember him.
14:52But he's still there.
14:53So, I don't know what they're going to do.
14:55Just like, you know, these kind of crapshoot options.
15:00And even Lukaden has largely been that.
15:04I mean, he's had a couple of stretches.
15:05And then this year went very well.
15:07But it did not end well.
15:08So, what do you do?
15:10I mean, sports teams do things when they lose.
15:13They try to fix what was wrong with them.
15:16And I want to think the Sabres will be, you know, not necessarily aggressive, but forward-thinking in not just
15:24sitting back on their laurels with, like, all the good young talent they have.
15:28I mean, you just don't want to do that.
15:30You've got to do something.
15:32So, I think goaltending will be interesting.
15:35I don't know.
15:36Do you want to run it back with those two guys?
15:39It just ended so poorly.
15:42And also, Tuck, or even Thompson.
15:45I mean, at the end of it, I'll be honest, as that game was getting late last night and into
15:51overtime, I was terrified when he was on the ice.
15:55Thompson?
15:56Thompson.
15:57Every shift he got late in the game terrified me.
16:01And then, what happened?
16:02You know, in the end, I mean, there were almost two plays there.
16:05But he's just sort of spinning around backwards, trying to block the puck out of the air.
16:10I mean, he's doing nothing.
16:12He's accomplishing nothing on that play.
16:14And there were so many shifts like that where I'm just getting nothing out of him.
16:18And I'm terrified of getting beat.
16:21I'm not sure if it's exactly – I don't know if it's exactly ironic.
16:24It's definitely not hilarious.
16:26But it's notable to me that for all the trouble we saw this team endure winning face-offs, that the
16:33play that leads to the winning goal comes off a pretty clean draw win back to Darlene.
16:39To me, Darlene on that play is the one that I – not that – does not refute the point
16:44you're making about Thompson terrifying you.
16:48But Darlene just sort of – I don't know if he doesn't expect the guy coming out to him to
16:52be as aggressive.
16:54But he acts like he's got more time than he's got.
16:56And suddenly, he's in trouble.
16:58And Thompson is available, but barely.
17:02Like, he leaves Thompson to be in a pretty bad spot.
17:05And I think Thompson eventually does try to do the thing that you would have wanted someone to do there,
17:10which is at least just throw it in the corner.
17:12Just get it out of danger.
17:15And I think a defender gets his stick on it.
17:17Because it looks to me like he is not – initially, he's trying to stick-handle his way out of
17:22there.
17:22And then I think very quickly gives up.
17:25But when he goes to try to shovel it, I think a defender gets his stick on it, and it's
17:29altered, and they're gone on a three-on-two.
17:32And I'm like, you want to draw.
17:34Like, the whole overtime, when he's out there, I'm like, how incredible would it be for them to win a
17:41draw
17:42and tee him up for, like, a rocket into the top corner after all of this?
17:47After him?
17:47After the face-off thing?
17:49Just all the – that'd be a great way for this game and this series to end.
17:53And they got the draw.
17:54It wasn't right to Thompson.
17:56And it turned into a mess.
17:59You'd have been better off if it went into the Montreal corner.
18:01And you just fell back and played, you know, neutral zone.
18:05So that was a bad way to have that winning play.
18:09Well, it's so tough.
18:10I mean, I can't even really know.
18:12But just how fast everything is moving.
18:15And, you know, I have no problem with Darlene.
18:18I couldn't – I mean, Darlene was amazing.
18:21And maybe that wasn't his finest moment, but just – he was so good.
18:27And he was so important.
18:28He was everything you want, unless you want to pick at that with that last play.
18:33I mean, he was just everything you want.
18:36I'm not here to pick at him.
18:37I just want to point out that I think he made the bigger error on the play.
18:40Okay, that's fair.
18:41I mean –
18:41But, yeah, no, I mean, without him – I mean, yeah.
18:43I don't leave this playoff being like, oh, Darlene.
18:46No, I definitely –
18:46I mean, he was tremendous.
18:49Yeah, no.
18:49And Thompson was bad.
18:52And his – maybe he's hurt.
18:54We did that dance.
18:55You know, he got his points, too.
18:57But I don't know.
18:58I mean, just tell me how I felt.
18:59I don't want to hide from it.
19:01I was terrified when he was on the ice.
19:03I'm just like, anybody else, just give me any McLeod line, even Greenway.
19:08Like, just give me any other combination of forwards.
19:11I guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out anything about –
19:13I don't know that everyone has to talk.
19:17But –
19:18He'd better.
19:18Neither Thompson nor Tuck, to my knowledge, unless they have since we've been on, spoke today.
19:25There's been an assortment of guys that have spoken today.
19:27Ruff and Kekalainen are both going to talk tomorrow during our show at about 4.20.
19:33And other guys will be available starting very early in the morning.
19:36So, you know, we'll probably find something out about him, talk anybody else that was, you know, nursing, whatever, because
19:43that's when the laundry list eventually will come.
19:45Well, Tuck might have lost – might have cost himself a lot of money in this round.
19:50I don't know.
19:51But it's not just the Sabres that would apply to it.
19:54It would be the whole NHL.
19:56If he's going to free agency and he comes off this round where – I mean, he was just, like,
20:00so slow-looking and just inept.
20:02But after, I mean, a great season, a great few years, a good first round, and he was completely neutralized
20:10or neutered by the Canadians.
20:12Like, just – it was another guy where you're like, please no.
20:17Yeah, most of the night for me – Thompson might have been scary, at least to you, in overtime or,
20:23like, later in the game.
20:24Tuck the whole night, to me, was just an empty set.
20:27There was just nothing – he had one really good chance, really good chance in front on a rebound.
20:32Shot it right into his glove.
20:33Dobish, you know, at least had the glove where it should have been to make that save.
20:38Because that was during a sequence where I think I had already been texting with Owen.
20:43Like, this guy's dying to get beat, Dobish.
20:46He just looked like he was sort of just off his spots all night.
20:50And that save was when I, like, all right, let me reel that back a little.
20:55Because that was – he was square.
20:56He was in the right position.
20:57If he'd been as erratic as he'd been to that point and for most of the game, that probably finds
21:02a hole.
21:03But that was it from Tuck.
21:05That chance was the only time I thought he was dangerous in any way.
21:10Oh, yeah.
21:11I mean, almost for the whole series.
21:13Well, we'll see what the market – I don't know.
21:14He still is – I mean, if he gets to July 1st, he is, by a mile, the most attractive
21:21guy out there.
21:22Which, to me, means you could have two, three, four more teams that want to dip their toes in.
21:29And, to me, that could mitigate, especially if we find out he's nursing a something, a back or whatever.
21:36Teams, I think, will still fill him – teams will go nuts.
21:40Somebody's coming with five for 50?
21:42Yeah.
21:42Oh, my God, yeah.
21:44Or seven for 80.
21:45I don't think I want to do it.
21:47Yeah.
21:48Would you say that?
21:49I don't think I want to do it.
21:51I don't – it's too – right now, it feels too reactionary to the seven games we just watched.
21:59Okay.
21:59And so I don't want to – I don't want –
22:01But you're right to be on watch about it.
22:04It's far from an easy yes anymore for me.
22:08Can't I – I've got what I've got already, right?
22:11I've got a good, young group.
22:15I'm not shallow.
22:17Can't I find somebody younger that might be as good, that's out there, and spend a little more if I
22:24have –
22:24I mean, you're saying maybe that player isn't there.
22:26I'm not – he's not dead to me, but just what a downturn for both of them at the end
22:32of this.
22:35803-0550.
22:36How do you feel?
22:37I mean, what a ridiculously trite question.
22:39We're here for your calls.
22:40Paul Hamilton, Sal Capaccio, too.
22:42We will dip our toes.
22:44Back into the Bills waters.
22:46Into some Bills topics.
22:48Mike reminded me earlier, we were talking in the 2 o'clock hour, that the NFL schedule actually came out
22:54last week.
22:54Oh.
22:55So that – you know.
22:56It so did.
22:57It's something that we can talk about.
22:58I mean, how much time have you spent?
23:00I guess by saying that, maybe very little with the week four prime time schedule.
23:05The home teams, the Browns, the Panthers, and the Saints.
23:08Somebody is trying to have some fun at our expense.
23:11Those are the three home teams.
23:12Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Carolina, and Atlanta, New Orleans drew the week four.
23:18It's a ways off.
23:18You don't have to worry about it right now.
23:20Prime time games.
23:21Mike Schoep and the Bulldog here at 803-0550.
23:24This is WGR.
23:25This is WGR.
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