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00:00Do care about, and I think a couple of parts of this are interesting to me,
00:06is it's still so fresh.
00:09We just had press conferences yesterday and the day before.
00:13Broad thoughts on what they should be doing this summer,
00:19what they should be going for, players, positions, concepts.
00:25If you're in, are they having these meetings today?
00:30Does it take the weekend first, holiday weekend?
00:32Do you come back next week?
00:34I mean, the draft is a month from tomorrow, I believe.
00:37It's not like there's a whole big break right here for organizations.
00:42I think that's interesting.
00:43And then after that, I was thinking about how much longer will we really have the Sabres
00:52to talk about in the sense that we want to talk about them,
00:56that off-season moves are going to be afoot, and the draft, again,
01:02the draft is in Buffalo for what it's worth.
01:04But we always, even when they were good, it's so long ago,
01:08but even then you get to the point in the summer where everybody does go on vacation
01:13and hockey kind of stops.
01:15I don't think it's stopped right now.
01:18I think, again, you had the coach and GM yesterday talking about their thoughts,
01:24their reflections, their vision.
01:26And you had Kekalainen said a few pretty straightforward things about how he looks at
01:33Byram, Benson, Tuck.
01:36You know, you got takes from him.
01:39So it's still, to me, time, it's still the right time to bounce ideas around like we were in that
01:48room.
01:48You know, what would we do with Alex Tuck?
01:50What would we do with these possible contract extensions?
01:54Do we want to go get a goalie?
01:55Do we want to trade a good defenseman for a good forward?
01:58You know, like these kinds of ideas.
02:00But they will, at some point, maybe by next week even, will kind of have moved on,
02:08even though a lot of that stuff that could happen.
02:12There'll be like a pause in it, really, because it's not going to be,
02:15while these games are going on, whether you're watching or not,
02:19like there's games still.
02:20There's still two more rounds of the playoffs.
02:22We're only halfway through.
02:23And so movement, you know, there may be reports about the Sabres are this close to this or that
02:31with Benson or Byram or Tuck, even.
02:35Well, there may not be.
02:37There's usually not a lot of news.
02:38I feel like the news breakers sort of cooperate with the league
02:43and don't break a lot of news during the, especially once the final starts.
02:49So it'll be quiet for a little while, I think.
02:52That won't stop us from having the conversation you're suggesting will be had.
02:58But as far as, like, nuggets and stuff go, I don't know that there'll be a lot of that
03:02until we get clear of the games, and then it will be fast.
03:07Then the draft will be here, and then, you know, bam, bam, there's free agency.
03:11And then by mid-July, okay, you know, anything else?
03:17Are we all done here?
03:18My team on the floor, kind of?
03:20I felt like there were enough juicy bits between, like, clues.
03:28Not things that have to be, you know, irrefutably going to happen the way that it sounded yesterday.
03:37But, like, for one thing, I thought both Kekalainen and Ruff sounded sort of eager to run the goaltending back
03:45from last year.
03:46All three guys are under contract.
03:48Lindy talked about how it worked and brought up this new rule that's coming in with about an emergency backup
03:53that every team's going to have to have and whatever.
03:56And I'm still not anywhere.
03:58I did, and I tried to get some clarity on, like, how that works if you've got three guys like
04:04the Sabres did almost all year versus a team that only has two.
04:07Like, do I have to use an e-bug if I get to a third guy, whereas this year they
04:13were getting dressed and ready to go in if needed?
04:16I don't know.
04:16So, but that can wait.
04:19Like, the mechanics of how that's going to work doesn't really matter right now.
04:23The point is, Ruff sounded like, I got my three goalies to me yesterday.
04:29And I think Kekalainen, to an extent, sounded that way, too.
04:31That doesn't mean somebody can't come in with a, hey, you know, do you want to give up this, this,
04:36and this for that guy?
04:38Trade and, like, that just blows that out of the water.
04:41But right now I bet that they run back the same three goalies last year.
04:44I am eager to hear more about the rules on this because I hadn't heard about it anywhere else until
04:52yesterday that, what, the league is going to mandate that teams have a third goalie who is on the roster
05:00but can't be somebody that's played?
05:04What did we learn yesterday?
05:06There were some sort of terms to this.
05:08I don't think it's on the roster, but he's someone that you're going to be employing.
05:13I don't even know what the point is.
05:15Did the league have a problem?
05:18Were there all these games where you could, you were talking yesterday, like, you could think of two games where
05:24a team lost both goalies to injury.
05:27Like, what is even the impetus for this?
05:30I don't know that yesterday that was ever clarified.
05:33I guess it wasn't the point of the press conferences.
05:35Right.
05:35But Ruff brought it up.
05:37I don't know if you know.
05:38I thought, like, the way he sounded, like, here comes a joke.
05:41Right.
05:41But it's not a joke.
05:42Like, well, I don't know if you know this, but the league is going to make us have an emergency
05:46backup goalie next year.
05:47So, I mean, that might be fortuitous to the Sabres because they have.
05:51I mean, they might have, we thought, early in the season they probably should have given up on the third
05:58goalie and just, come on, let's be real.
06:00Let's be a real team.
06:01What team has three goalies?
06:03And now maybe they're going to get away with it and actually be ahead of the curve?
06:07Maybe a little bit of a trendsetter.
06:08Yeah.
06:08The question, the biggest question I have about how it's going to exactly work and what the rules are is,
06:14do I, if I choose to carry three because I like my guys and I want to have this other
06:21guy and I want to lose him, I want to develop him, and I want to have him available if
06:25one of the other guys can't play or whatever.
06:28And because it was notable to me that often, even though Lyon and Lucanen were taking turns, they would get
06:36the entire, they didn't have to dress for the games they weren't playing.
06:39They were in a suit, you know, sort of like a real night off.
06:43And maybe that's a little sneaky good part of this for them, like mentally anyway, and maybe to an extent
06:49physically too.
06:50But if I've got three, do I then have to travel around with a fourth guy who's some former college
06:58guy?
06:59That nobody expected it.
07:00And they did it, not that they were the only reason, but they did it that way to the extent
07:07that when either one of them had an uneven game in the playoffs, nice word, I'm like, well, put the
07:15other one in.
07:16And the Sabres got to a point where they just did that.
07:18Right.
07:18And had the score been different in games 5, 6, and 7, or 5 and 7, maybe they just do
07:23it at different times, I think even 7, one more, 3-0, and he comes out, Lucanen, in game 7.
07:30So they got as far as they got doing it that way, but by the end of the Montreal series,
07:39this is a little bit of a stretch given game 7, because Lucanen had some big moments in that game,
07:45but even the winner is not great.
07:48Did it work?
07:49Were they better off?
07:51Right.
07:51Can you say based on 82 games of the regular season, with good to very good results from both guys,
07:59but a playoff where each guy got pulled more than one time?
08:06Right?
08:07That is what happened, right?
08:09Lucanen got pulled in game 2 of Boston.
08:12Lyon went in, and he got pulled in game, when did he lose his grip on that job?
08:22After games 2 and 3 of the Montreal series.
08:25Lucanen, right, yeah.
08:26I don't remember right now if he got pulled in 3.
08:28I don't think so.
08:30But either way, he got taken, Lyon got taken out, Lucanen went back in, because he won game 4 in
08:35Montreal, and then Lucanen blew up again in game 5.
08:38Lyon went back in, and then Lyon got pulled in game 6.
08:42Does that set of games, a set of circumstances, the goalies being pulled like they were, invalidate them as an
08:54idea to be your tandem next year?
08:56I mean, that's tough to say, I think.
08:59You're talking about 82 games.
09:01I know the playoffs are going to be, we're going to get to a place where that's all that matters,
09:05probably, right?
09:07But I'm not ready to just take for granted that they're going to put the same results on the ice,
09:12regardless of whether they make a change or not.
09:14But I think it's hard to say, did the goaltending let them down in the end?
09:19Yes.
09:21But are you going to make it better?
09:24To me, the only thing you can do is do something outrageously huge.
09:28Because if you're not prepared to do that, and if that's not even available to you, because maybe, like I've
09:35said a few times, Edmonton maybe the last few years has wanted to do something outrageously huge.
09:39And just couldn't get there.
09:41For whatever reason.
09:44Do I need to tinker?
09:46Do I need to replace Lucanen with someone who's basically Lucanen?
09:49Or Lyon?
09:50Like, if I go get Cam Talbot to replace Alex Lyon, what am I accomplishing exactly?
09:55Right.
09:55It's a different guy, but it's probably the same.
09:59So, I think there's merit to, maybe it's still a little too recent, that that puck dipped and fluttered past
10:06Lucanen and they lost in overtime at Game 7.
10:09But, unless you're ready to go trade a bunch of stuff and then pay Igor Shosturkin $11.5 million, I
10:17don't think there's anything to really do in goal.
10:20I think, in the end though, the number one reason why they lost is that they did not get enough
10:28saves.
10:28And that's Game 5 more than it is Game 7.
10:32I mean, Game 5, they had three leads at home, having won Game 4 if you want it, and Lucanen
10:39didn't get the job done.
10:41And so, it's to Lyon, and they get away with his awful start to Game 6.
10:48I mean, what are the playoffs about?
10:51I agree with what you said.
10:52I think, like, I've been consistent about this for 10 years or more.
10:57Like, I just, I think a lot of goalies are the same and you really can't predict it.
11:01And the Sabres finally got a year where their, you know, mostly mid-guys rose up and did what they
11:07did.
11:08But, there's nothing about their team that, for me, was a bigger reason why they didn't win than they just
11:18did not get enough saves.
11:19And that's, even if it's a 3-2 game, I mean, that's the end of the series.
11:24So, harsh, but that's, I think, the best reason I can come up with for it.
11:31Is it an important enough reason?
11:34Is it a real, is it a problem?
11:37Like, is it, what do you do with it?
11:39Is that, that's more important than whether it's, like, how much of a problem, if you want to use that
11:47word, it was in the playoffs.
11:48It's now, on to next year, and sort of, what do you do about it?
11:51How do you improve it?
11:52Can you improve it by making lateral moves?
11:55I mean, you could.
11:57You could just get lucky and, like, you know, a guy has a career year for you.
12:03You know, but you could also get that out of either one of the guys that are any of the
12:07three guys that were here and played this past season.
12:09Just put yourself, give the Sabres the benefit of the doubt that they're in next year's playoffs with the same
12:16goaltenders.
12:17Put yourself there into game one next year.
12:20Like, all right, what are we doing?
12:22Is one guy playing 60 games that makes it a no-brainer that he's playing in the, I don't know.
12:28Probably not.
12:28Why would they plan for that?
12:32803-0550.
12:34Still sitting with it and trying to figure out what the best plans are for the future.
12:40Lines are open for your calls.
12:42Today, Paul Hamilton at 5, EJ Raddick at 6.
12:46We'll do some football with Sal Capaccio before that.
12:49That'll be at 4, talking more about some Bills.
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