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00:00What it is a thought provoker, would you take the Bills' last five years for the Sabres' next five years?
00:11I just want to say, in defense of the idea, it will be a lot of fun.
00:19Right. It'd be this over and over again.
00:24Are we capping out? Am I getting to the conference final a couple of times?
00:29Within that, right? That's the structure, but never getting all the way to the final.
00:33That's the idea here.
00:35You can make it as specific as you want.
00:37I can't say I would take it. I can.
00:41But I would want to stick up for it as an idea, at least, because it would be a blast.
00:48The ride is the thing. The days in between the games.
00:52We've been saying it for years. We found out again this year.
00:56You were first to it even before the regular season ended.
00:58I just want this part to keep going, right?
01:00The anticipation of getting there and what could happen.
01:04I'm not even willing to let go of it yet.
01:05How wide open could this whole thing split for them?
01:09What's possible?
01:10And that was great.
01:12Last Friday was somewhat torturous in here, and then Saturday was great, and then Sunday was great.
01:21Those days piled on top of one another for five years' worth of springs, it's compelling.
01:32But I could not say, yes, let me sign for that, knowing my ceiling is I'm never going to even
01:39get to the final.
01:40The Bills have never lost the first round in any of these years.
01:44Well, since 20.
01:46I mean, they've won at least one game every year in the playoffs.
01:49Right.
01:50Since 20.
01:51Yeah, 19.
01:52Yeah, that first.
01:52So that would mean the Sabres win a round every year for the next five years, at least.
01:57Yeah.
01:57Sometimes two, but never three.
01:59Yeah.
02:00I can't.
02:01The thing about another, I'm not going to try to convince you, I know how it sounds.
02:07I know what I'm saying.
02:08I'm guaranteeing no cop.
02:09There is appeal in there, but it's not enough.
02:13Yeah.
02:14You know, I've got to take my chances that I might miss, or I might lose to Boston in the
02:18first round, or, you know, whatever.
02:19You know what?
02:19Any of those years, giving myself at least a chance to, like, go bigger, you know?
02:24I don't think you're going, maybe others are, if they're thinking about it, that hard at this, to say this,
02:31but it might hinge on what you think of what they have and how sustainable it is.
02:39Because if you had, like, Boston's team or Philadelphia's team, and I offered you five years of at least one
02:48playoff series winning book, sure.
02:50I might sign for that, because I think both of those teams could be one and done this year.
02:53Right.
02:54But if you like the Sabres more than that, they're pretty young.
02:57They're almost all under contract.
03:00So you could see it running back next year, if not beyond that.
03:05I don't trust them as an organization, like I would many other franchises, to think that they're just going to
03:12be able to make it work.
03:14How much longer does Lindy have?
03:17Not that I think you have to have Lindy Ruff to have success, but, you know, that aspect of it.
03:22Are they going to lose key people to bigger and better, as has happened throughout Sabres' history?
03:27I mean, they're not – I mean, the Bills, though, they weren't that either.
03:33I mean, they were the same as – the Bills are a small market and got to a point where
03:39they became a destination.
03:41That changed, yeah.
03:41They signed stars.
03:43Yeah, it might be a lot to ask for that to really take hold in one season.
03:50Like, you know, in other words, if you were, you know, like a lot of players probably are, if they've
03:55got a 10-team list or a 20-team list or even maybe a 5-team list, maybe the Sabres
04:00are on it.
04:02No trade.
04:02And does – you're right.
04:03That's what I mean.
04:04Does that change with one good year?
04:06You know, that would vary, but I would think a lot of eyes got opened to what the organization is
04:14capable of and what it can be like to play here, you know, when it's – you know, when it's
04:19positive, when it's going well.
04:23And – but, you know, do your questions about the organization – like, maybe Tuck is a little bit of
04:29a referendum on that.
04:31Because what do players, you know, want to see?
04:35Like, well, you're going to move heaven and earth to keep a good team together or a great team together.
04:39And if the Sabres, without having won anything yet and having been back on the National Hockey League landscape in
04:46a notable way for five months now, just say, eh, we're not going to pay Alex Tuck.
04:54That could ding their reputation with the same players who have thought of them as a small-time organization.
05:01Which goes back decades.
05:04Right.
05:05So, you know, my eyes and ears are absolutely open on the Tuck situation.
05:11I don't think they should, like, overextend themselves and cost themselves, I don't know, some young player because they want
05:20to hang on to Alex Tuck into his mid-30s.
05:24But there is a reason to show that you are capable of holding it together in a way that, you
05:34know, will – again, they haven't won anything.
05:38Neither did the 06 team.
05:41But eventually, the organization in 07 let Drury and Breer walk.
05:46And that maybe started the long slide, even though they had 10 and 11.
05:51That's where, like, the slide to irrelevance begins.
05:55And I think Tuck, symbolically, could represent the same thing to players in the league.
05:59Like, look, they can't – look, they're doing it again.
06:02Assistant captain, 60 points, plays all situations.
06:05You don't want to pay.
06:09That could be tough for them.
06:12I don't know if that's a reason to do it.
06:14But it's – you know, put it on the pile.
06:17No, it's a really – it probably is a really interesting consideration in that equation is, like, whether or not
06:25appearances –
06:27Right.
06:28Because they – and do the Sabres – does Jarmo even know this?
06:31Like, do the Sabres – are they aware – Terry Pagula, Jarmo Kekalainen, Lindy Ruff, he's been here for so
06:37much of all this, he would have lived it.
06:39He lived Drury and Breer walking out.
06:43Do they think they have that particular, I don't know, black mark anymore?
06:50It's just occurring to me that – is it maybe correct that they have just now finally escaped from Drury
07:03and Breer leaving?
07:04Or does that hinge on Tuck?
07:06Like, I don't think it was a fluke team.
07:09But it's still only one season.
07:12And the would-you-take idea really establishes, even though they would lose in the playoffs necessarily by this question,
07:20that they are a top team in the league for years, you know, running through a few seasons.
07:27That would be a big difference for them.
07:30They've almost – I mean, really, 06 and 07 were such a short period of time, and the Hasek years
07:36were really about him.
07:38So you have to go back to the 70s almost to find, like, the Sabres as a consistently top team,
07:44and that's just too long ago to mean anything.
07:47So, yeah, I think maybe they have finally escaped from – they've pushed the rock off their back, just been
07:56weighed down by that development and how the team just had never won a playoff series again until this year.
08:03I want to say that that's true, but I also wonder if it has to be longer than just one
08:08season to be able to do that.
08:10I mean, that was always – that was never cut and dried, like what it was to say, that they're
08:15still living in the aftermath of those developments.
08:21I mean, you have guys on this team that were barely born yet when that happened.
08:25Benson would have been, like, one year old or something when those guys left.
08:29Yes, it's almost 20 years ago, and he just turned 21.
08:32So, yeah, I mean, it's – yeah, we're talking about infants.
08:35It's another one where they would know about some of that or all of it, but not necessarily care because
08:40the team – it's so long since it happened.
08:42And you probably would want to, I think, organizationally talk yourself out of weighing that perception too heavily in the
08:52equation, right?
08:54Like, Yarmulkeke line has got to do what he believes is best, and if that includes getting dinged for this,
09:02you know,
09:02the proof will be in what he puts on the ice and what moves he makes to replace Tuck if
09:08indeed Tuck does end up, you know, walking out the door.
09:11Or I've only just today, just now sitting here talking with you, thought of this – the perception point when
09:16you bring up, you know,
09:18players and no trade moves and, you know, how to improve the roster that maybe everyone's sort of watching to
09:25see how they handle Tuck.
09:28And let's not say, like, everyone would agree and just, like, nod along, like, okay, they're too cheap to do
09:33it.
09:34There's a case to make signing this player for that money at his age that it's not smart considering what
09:41else you've got coming
09:42and what else maybe you are capable of doing to, again, improve the team overall.
09:47But, I don't know, in a vacuum, it feels like already a bit of a test for them.
09:53Like, are you – do you – are you capable of continuing to wear the big boy pants?
09:59On the question again of, like, would you take the last five Bills years for the next five Sabres years,
10:05maybe this is just being, you know, me rationalizing it or something.
10:09But I've said before about the Bills and Sabres, with as championship-focused or sort of, like,
10:18how we dream about it as we are, whenever either team gets close, like, is this finally the year where
10:26they can win the first
10:27where a lot of these other teams, the Avs don't have that.
10:31Carolina doesn't even barely have that, a little bit.
10:34But just sort of like, yeah, we don't have that burden where the Chiefs, you know,
10:39we don't have the burden of never having won before.
10:42And I would say, just to finish the thought, that if I need – this is, again, how does this
10:48sound?
10:49If I needed titles to enjoy this, I wouldn't be here anymore because there haven't been any.
10:58And it's still a thrill, you know.
11:00It's a thrill when they get close.
11:01So, yeah, you know what?
11:03Give me the last five Bills seasons for the Sabres because I don't need a cup.
11:06I never had one anyway.
11:08I like it.
11:09I had a great time this year.
11:10They're just really good.
11:11Yeah, that's all I want.
11:12I want it to be relevant.
11:13I'd like a month after the regular season to kick back and talk about playoff games and go to them.
11:19Yeah.
11:19Whether you've won anything – you mentioned the Chiefs and that trips a wire for me
11:23because I've referenced a few times in thinking and talking about Tuck here in this space
11:29that, you know, like Tampa was cold and hard about Stamkos eventually.
11:36They decided, you know, all right, we're done with this.
11:39You're a free agent again and we're going to go in a different direction.
11:42And they let their captain and icon of the franchise, two cups, walk and traded or signed Jake Gensel and
11:50just sort of kept going.
11:51And they're still, you know, mostly the same level of contender.
11:55But they had the success.
11:58Like, you have that to stand on when you ostensibly turn your back on a franchise icon.
12:04Now, Tuck has never been their captain, nor is he Stephen Stamkos, but it does matter.
12:11Like, his standing on the team is similar.
12:13Like, he's one of the faces of the team.
12:18And they have not, if they'd won something, you know, it would be a lot easier to make the cold,
12:25hard business decision.
12:27But they haven't.
12:28And so now I'm supposed to trust you that you're going to take this very important piece out.
12:36And you will capably replace him.
12:39When, just a little more than a year ago, we were talking about palm trees and taxes.
12:44Like, are we sure you are going to be able to do that successfully?
12:48Because that's a lot of trust for me to extend to you, considering what your backstory is.
12:55So, it pinches them in ways that, again, they maybe should ignore, but it's hard to, I think.
13:03The optics have to matter somewhat.
13:06It's a public, you know, it's a public interest.
13:08It's a business.
13:09Yeah, simply, it's a way, whether it breaks a tie or something, whatever the, all the factors are that go
13:17into the decision on Tuck,
13:19is it something where they feel like they need to show the rest of the league that times are finally
13:24different here?
13:25And if that means an overpay, we're up for it.
13:28Okay.
13:29We all know it is.
13:30We all know it would be.
13:32Teams do it all the time, though.
13:34Right.
13:34You have a good team.
13:35You want to win.
13:36You want as much of it back as you think, as you can pull off.
13:40So, yeah, I haven't thought about it really from that standpoint either.
13:43But it might be important to think about that.
13:47But Sam Paniatovich is back today.
13:49We gave him last Friday off.
13:50Pizza content?
13:51Why is he tweeting about pizza?
13:55He's like, Bulldog responded.
13:57Yeah, well, that's it.
13:58I said, I didn't know about this.
13:59He was going in to do something on the radio and said there might be pizza,
14:04and that followed up last night with some pictures of what looked to me,
14:09I guess we're going to have to hash this out,
14:10looked like Detroit-style pizza, and it looked fantastic.
14:14And so I just commented, like, this goes hard or something stupid like that.
14:19That was the extent of it.
14:20I mean, I didn't go, it wasn't a long exchange, but it caught my eye.
14:24The three pizzas he showed pictures of all looked like I would eat the
14:27you-know-what out of them.
14:29They looked great.
14:30You know what I'm going to say.
14:32It's just pizza?
14:33It's pizza.
14:33It should look good.
14:35It should look good, right?
14:36Shouldn't it look good?
14:37Pizza?
14:38Doesn't it usually look good?
14:38Get off the island.
14:44Literally and figuratively.
14:46Sammy P, chicken.
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