00:00Mike Shope here, Bulldog is off today.
00:02Sal Capaccio, Matt Waldman ahead.
00:05Before the Jack Adams news, I was expecting, I was planning on talking about John Tortorella
00:15and the ruthlessness of that move by Vegas that, you know, what are you going to say?
00:22Like it's not working?
00:23We don't know if Bruce Cassidy would have led Vegas to this point,
00:28but we will never know that.
00:31And when you fire a coach of a team with a middling record with eight games left in the season,
00:37they win seven of those eight games and then pretty much prance to the finals
00:43and take the lead against a team that isn't losing to anybody.
00:46Well, but it's kind of, it's an interesting one because I just don't think I could ever have done it
00:53or supported it.
00:55Imagine if Lindy Ruff had been fired with eight games left.
00:59I mean, the presumptive Jack Adams winner, just like that wasn't even on the table.
01:08Maybe it's different because they've won a lot and that's a different, I think,
01:13kind of organization in a certain way.
01:15Not in a good way, but they win.
01:17Who am I to talk?
01:18But we're not talking about that, at least yet.
01:23803-0550 for your calls.
01:26CJ is next.
01:27Hi, CJ.
01:28Hey, Mike.
01:28Good afternoon.
01:29I'm glad you're fired up about this just like all Sabres fans are because, you know,
01:34just to make a quick parallel, you know, Darlene was top three in the voting for Norris, right?
01:39And then you have a guy like John Butchergross who's in the media.
01:42Yeah, he's not even in his top five.
01:43And that's only one person, but there's no planet in the solar system where Darlene was
01:48not a top three defenseman this year.
01:50And then you have Lindy where he loses to Jack Adams.
01:53You know, unfortunately, I think he was a product of being punished for being the coach
01:58of the team that was irrelevant for the last 14 years, and he has nothing to do with that.
02:02But, you know, it's a popularity clown show, and there's no reason why Lindy shouldn't have
02:07won to Jack Adams with what he did with this team, you know, with, you know, having the
02:11lack of star power with basically just Darlene and Taige, and that's pretty much it.
02:16But it's, you know, this is another, you know, thing we can throw on the burn pile that we
02:21hate about the NHL because it's a popularity clown show that they didn't want to have Lindy
02:25win it this year, unfortunately.
02:27So.
02:28I don't know if I would say all that.
02:30I think there are definitely reasonable, I don't know, I don't listen to John Butchergross,
02:35but I think there are reasonable arguments that Darlene was not top three.
02:39I don't think he was ever likely to win.
02:42Quinn Hughes did not make the finals of that award, so I wouldn't hold that against anybody
02:47as like, well, they're obviously biased.
02:51I just, the point you made about what worked against Ruff was the Sabres not being good for
02:58so long, is exactly how people win this award in sports.
03:04The Sabres were not an expansion team.
03:07It was not a secret that they were going to play 82 NHL games this year.
03:12This is exactly how it happens.
03:14He is top five all time in wins.
03:17There's no explanation I can understand.
03:23Keep trying.
03:24I appreciate the effort.
03:25The Sabres being bad before is not how he didn't win.
03:31It's how you would win if the Sabres had finished third in the Atlantic Division.
03:40106 points.
03:42Tampa Bay, 109 points.
03:45Flip it.
03:46Montreal, the same, 106 points.
03:49Ah, well, Lindy Ruff.
03:51Let's think about this.
03:52It's a 14-year playoff drought.
03:55Hmm, maybe something, because do they have first-team all-stars?
04:00No.
04:00Do they have a 930 save percentage goalie?
04:03No.
04:04In fact, this guy had to rotate goalies all year, which the easy button coaches never have
04:11to do.
04:12John Cooper in his career has never had to think about who his goalie was going to be
04:16in any important game.
04:17This team rotates between, I mean, ESPN can't say it, Lukanen, and then, quote, Alex Lyon.
04:27What is coaching in hockey?
04:30What is it?
04:32Is somebody going to tell us that the Lightning played a trap system that was actually, they
04:37didn't even win it.
04:41I defy anybody.
04:43Maybe you can do it.
04:44I'm not saying it's not possible.
04:46I defy anybody to make an intelligent argument that isn't just that, well, he had never won
04:54it before and his team's been good a long time, which is the lamest, that's just not
04:59how it's supposed to work.
05:01Give him a ring or something.
05:04Give him money.
05:06You do not, that's not how sports works.
05:09It's not how it's supposed to work.
05:12If the Sabres had been a wildcard team and the Lightning had won the division, there's
05:18an argument for Ruff.
05:20If there's an argument for Cooper, I don't think what happened allows for an argument
05:26for Cooper, yet he won, and it's not just because one person decides, it's a whole team
05:32of people that supposedly cover the league.
05:36What does it take?
05:40Wow.
05:41Jay is next.
05:42Hi, Jay.
05:44Hey, thanks for taking my call.
05:46Yep.
05:46Just, you know, being from the other side of the border here, I got to be honest with
05:51you, like, the whole lead up to the Olympics just sealed it for Cooper.
05:58Like, Team Canada this year was about Cooper, and they started hot, and the narrative came
06:04out that he's never won it, and I think you just couldn't fight it.
06:08Didn't matter what Lindy's did.
06:09I think Lindy definitely deserved it.
06:11But if you watched, you know, sports and STSN leading up to the Olympics, and then once
06:16you got to the Olympics, it was all about Cooper.
06:19And I think that whole thing about never winning it, it didn't matter what anybody else did.
06:26They had just decided at that point, it was over.
06:30It was Cooper's.
06:31Didn't matter what Lindy did.
06:32I love the Lindy odds, and I was thinking about, I should do this too.
06:36And then I thought, there's no way.
06:38Like, it's a waste, even though it should make sense.
06:42Just don't bet it, because they're just going to give it to him.
06:45And even, like, during the Olympics, it was all about Cooper.
06:48And I got to be honest with you, we sucked at the Olympics.
06:52McDavid never got going.
06:54McKinnon never got going.
06:55If it wasn't for Celebrini, it would have been worse.
06:59So I really think the whole narrative from this side of the border up into the Olympics,
07:05it was over then, in my opinion.
07:07Well, you might be right.
07:09Of course, none of that is defensible.
07:13If anybody, if I had a vote, I don't have a vote.
07:16I used to have a vote for the Heisman Trophy.
07:19They took it away.
07:20And I asked them what happened.
07:21I didn't get my ballot.
07:22And they said, well, we figured out that you don't cover college football.
07:25That's fair.
07:26Like, if I had a vote for Jack Adams, and I decided in January that I was all set,
07:35I don't need to follow the rest of the NHL season,
07:38I should not only get my vote taken away, I should get my job taken away.
07:42How does that make any sense?
07:44Again, maybe Jay is right.
07:46I think some of his instincts are, you know, good here.
07:49But none of that is any defense for anybody who voted.
07:52I'm still waiting for anybody on Twitter, on the phone, anywhere, to make the case.
07:59Okay, well, this is maybe what happened.
08:01That sucks.
08:02What actually is the case for the guy whose team was the much bigger favorite
08:09and finished second to this one winning?
08:15In the beginning, what is that argument?
08:18Never has to think about who his goalie is, ever.
08:22Got the Hart Trophy finalist up top.
08:27What Norris Trophy winner, Hedman?
08:29I don't know if that's right, but he's obviously been elite.
08:31What is it?
08:33What is the actual argument for this vote?
08:40Anybody?
08:45Randy's next.
08:46Hi, Randy.
08:47Hey, Mike.
08:48This might be slightly controversial, and I can't believe I'm saying it myself,
08:51but when I saw Cooper win the award, I mean,
08:54it couldn't help but remind me of Allen winning MVP a couple years ago.
08:57It's like a lot of people argue that Lamar Jackson clearly outperformed Allen
09:02that season statistically.
09:04And, you know, obviously the Sabres outperformed Tampa Bay this year,
09:07but you have two guys that have been in the conversation for the both
09:11separate awards for a long time.
09:13And, you know, I don't want to say sympathy,
09:15but it's like this is their best chance to get in.
09:17This is each league's best chance to give them the award.
09:21So I kind of think it falls in the same category as Allen winning it.
09:25So unfortunate, but it is what it is.
09:27Yeah, you know, that is an interesting comparison.
09:31What we had with Josh Allen was the year before, so this is what, 23 and 24, right?
09:38Stafford won in 25.
09:412023, the Ravens go whatever, one seed, 14, 15 wins, whatever it was,
09:48and they beat the Bills in the course of it, if it matters.
09:52And Lamar Jackson runs away with the MVP award, and smart people,
09:56starting with Aaron Schatz, who was the one person to vote for Allen that year,
10:00one person did so, and said, well, this doesn't really hold water that well.
10:05Okay, well, that's fair.
10:07I mean, that's a very thoughtful, intelligent guy who cares a lot about the meaning of his vote.
10:14Then 24 happens, and Jackson had his best season ever, and Allen didn't have his best season ever,
10:22and Allen won, and there was a little bit of that in the air, was there not?
10:25Like, just sort of, well, you know, he was kind of due.
10:29So be it.
10:30It doesn't mean it doesn't suck, right?
10:32I mean, I know that that's a real thing.
10:34It doesn't mean that it doesn't suck.
10:36It should never be how anybody votes for anything.
10:40Am I being too pie-in-the-sky, altruistic?
10:45I like this about myself, and most people in my world don't get it.
10:51Every once in a while, somebody sends you, you know, a ballot,
10:59an election for some person of the year, video of the year, cupcake of the year.
11:05Oh, you need to vote for this person.
11:09Why?
11:09Because they're in Buffalo.
11:11Like, well, I think that sucks, because I've never eaten any of the other cupcakes,
11:16and even if they're in El Paso, I don't know that it's not better.
11:20I can't vote for that.
11:21We're doing okay.
11:22We don't need this award as a community, do we?
11:25We just don't need that.
11:26We're just going to...
11:30I want to vote for you if you deserve it.
11:33And where you're born, I don't care.
11:35I want to vote for you if you deserve it.
11:37That's my ethos when it comes to voting on things.
11:40So now we're that much closer, you and me.
11:44What is the argument for John Cooper?
11:48What is the argument?
11:52Team Canada?
11:54Team Canada blew it.
11:56Like, it's not even...
11:56What if you had decided, like, the second caller ago?
12:01I thought he was, you know, making good points.
12:04What if you had decided, going into the Olympics, that John Cooper should win the Jack Adams?
12:10Did you watch the Olympics?
12:12Did you then watch another NHL game for two months?
12:15What did you just...
12:16Was it all just signed, sealed, delivered?
12:19I can't...
12:19I don't have the bandwidth anymore to think about this.
12:22I don't pay attention to the standings.
12:24I don't really care about my job.
12:26I'm just done.
12:27I'm too busy.
12:28I've got kids.
12:29I've got a mortgage.
12:30I can't devote five more seconds to this.
12:34So I'm not going to watch two and a half months more of professional hockey.
12:38I just can't do it.
12:40You're gone.
12:42Like, if you actually make that vote
12:47and pretend to have cared about the last ten weeks of hockey,
12:54you're gone.
12:55I just don't see how you should get to keep your vote.
12:57What is the argument?
12:59Win the division.
13:01Okay.
13:01Didn't.
13:04Beat the Sabres head-to-head.
13:06Well, didn't.
13:08Have the lesser team.
13:14Didn't.
13:17Anything.
13:23What else is there to say?
13:25Sal Capaccio coming up at four.
13:27Thanks for your calls.
13:28More coming up.
13:29Mike Schoep here.
13:30Bulldog is off today.
13:30Stay back.
13:31Stay back.
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