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00:00Marty Baran, are we pulling you away from the Canadian soccer game?
00:03I'd hate to be doing that.
00:05No, you're not.
00:06I actually was driving around.
00:09I had to go get some posts because I'm extending my chicken coop run into the wooded area,
00:17so I needed to get some posts so I could put the chicken wire and the netting and all of
00:22that.
00:22So that's what I was running around this afternoon to do.
00:25But I was listening to you guys.
00:28And tequila is the shot that I think I have had the most.
00:34So, yes, then I was like, oh, like, Jameson I like, but I don't know that I would say let's
00:39do a shot of Jameson.
00:41Crown, yes, but probably tequila if you ask me.
00:44Good choice.
00:45Mrs. Parker loves tequila, and it just never works for me.
00:50Good choice.
00:51I'll turn it down and have something else.
00:53If, like, you know, you're at the bar and there's half a dozen people, like, the bartender comes over, like,
00:58they're having a shot.
00:58You want to have one?
00:59Yeah, oh, sure.
01:00What's everybody having?
01:00Tequila.
01:01Okay, I'll have something else, please.
01:03Oh, no, no.
01:04Yeah, I can't do it.
01:05There is a better chance of my wife drinking.
01:08No, there is a better chance of my wife eating a ribeye than drinking tequila, and she's a vegetarian.
01:13Oh.
01:14So we have this.
01:15That's all good.
01:16Well, Marty, this image of you tending to chickens is something I need, like, that's a YouTube channel I would
01:22watch.
01:23How many chickens?
01:23Marty Baran tending to chickens is just awesome to me.
01:26I have six chickens, five hands, and one rooster, and the rooster is beautiful, but he's mean and nasty, although
01:33I think I've figured it out.
01:34The last couple of weeks, I think we've come to an understanding.
01:38When I go in the coop, it's to feed them, to give them water, to clean the coop, or to
01:43pick up the eggs.
01:44I'm not there to attack the hens.
01:46I'm not there to cause chaos.
01:48And I think we looked at each other straight in the face, and we're on the good path right now.
01:56You've reached a settlement with the aggressive rooster.
01:59I'm interested, too.
02:00This is something that you feel like you might have to teach hens and chickens and roosters, that, like, you're
02:06there in peace.
02:07I'm here to help you.
02:08Yeah.
02:09Yeah, I'm here to help them.
02:11And listen, it's – I used to have issues with raccoons and fox and hawks and whatnot when we had,
02:20like, chickens but no rooster.
02:22And about maybe – like, we're going back two or three years ago on Father's Day, the kids came home
02:28with a little box.
02:29You know, they went to tractor supply, and they were like, hey, we got you some chicks, but we don't
02:34know if any of them are going to be rooster.
02:36And one of them was.
02:37And it's the best thing because I don't have any raccoons or fox or any critters around the coop or
02:44anything because I think he would take on a bear if a bear came around.
02:49So this is advice, as it happens, for people listening, that you want to have one rooster, at least.
02:55Interesting.
02:56You do.
02:57And for some that want to maybe say, hey, let's have chicks, then you can have that whole circle of
03:03life with your kids.
03:04And you get the incubator, and you get the eggs, and you see which ones are, you know, are going
03:11to be future chicks.
03:12So you can do all of that.
03:13Yeah, it's National Geographic here in the summer.
03:16Love it.
03:17I love it.
03:18Good deal.
03:19So, Marty, I've been thinking about this one question I want to ask you, but I'm not sure if it's
03:24not terrible.
03:26So it's been, what, a month since the Sabres lost about?
03:30And it's the kind of loss that fans like us will never forget, maybe, just like the other ones from
03:37the past, these heartbreaking losses.
03:41How do the players do it?
03:42Do the players sit around on a day like this, and, you know, maybe they think of it, but are
03:50you wired in such a way where you know, like, you can't dwell on the past or just what?
03:56I wonder what the damage, if you will, is, like, emotionally, whatever, to the players.
04:01I mean, most players are on teams that do lose.
04:03Only one team ends up winning, so everybody else but the winner is going to have this kind of feeling.
04:08How do the player – how are maybe the – how is maybe the average Sabres player feeling today about
04:13how it ended?
04:14If that's not the wrong way.
04:16Well, I would say that the Sabres now, because they're so young, and they're still a young team, you move
04:21on a lot quicker when you're young.
04:23I think that maybe a Jason Zucker, you know, an older player, or Ryan McLeod, who's still not old, but,
04:31you know, Alex Sutter, to a certain extent,
04:33probably thinking, like, ah, man, that was such a great opportunity.
04:36If we had gone through Montreal, we had to play Carolina, maybe we beat Carolina, and then we end up
04:41against Vegas.
04:41Like, as you get older, you think about it a little bit more, because now, for most of those Sabres
04:48guys, it's like, man, move on to next year.
04:50I'm working out.
04:51I'm doing my things.
04:52I've taken a couple of weeks off.
04:54Like, I used to say, call me in August.
04:57You want me to skate?
04:58You know, call me in August.
05:00I would take a longer time in the summer to just disconnect from hockey and then get back into the
05:07gym, maybe middle of June, early July.
05:11But now they take two weeks, and they get right back at it.
05:14But as you're older, maybe you think a little bit more about that was a missed opportunity.
05:20And I look at Montreal.
05:21Montreal lost in five games to Carolina.
05:24After they lost, even that night, they lose game five.
05:28They're talking to Suzuki, to Caulfield, to Hudson, and they almost have a smile on their face, saying, like, hey,
05:35that was great.
05:36We lost in conference final.
05:37Well, you know, we're going to get right back at it.
05:40I don't think you dwell on it when you're younger because you think you're going to get 15 more chances.
05:46When you get older, you start to maybe sit around with your friends and a couple beers in the summer
05:52and go back like, man, that two-on-one, Thompson, Benson, right?
05:56That would have been our.
05:57That chance in the third, Malenstein, like, he had the goal, but it got way enough.
06:02Maybe you think about it a little bit more as you get older.
06:05Also, when you lose in five, maybe you can just sort of take a drink and, like, oh, well.
06:10But you lose in overtime of game seven.
06:12Yeah, losing in five is not exactly heartbreaking, I don't think.
06:16It's disappointing for sure.
06:17We still think about Carolina in 2006, right, and the way that happened.
06:20We had the 20-year reunion, and we're still sitting around and thinking, like, man, we thought we had that.
06:26And I go back to even Pittsburgh in 0-1, game seven, casparitis.
06:31If I'm sitting with Curtis Brown or, you know, with other guys from that era, and we're like, man, that
06:38Mario Lemieux goal in game six that went off of Brownie's foot up in the air and then Stracka in
06:43overtime.
06:44I think you're right.
06:45Like, how did it happen maybe last a little bit longer into the summertime?
06:51And I still remember talking all the time about 25 years later how the Sabres swept New Jersey that year
06:57in the regular season.
06:59That's who they would have drawn in the conference finals.
07:01Yeah, and New Jersey just destroyed Pittsburgh in that round.
07:04Yeah.
07:04Well, Marty, you mentioned Tuck, and, you know, at his age maybe, you know, he's right in between feeling like,
07:10you know, this was one of my last best shots.
07:13He's certainly not one of the younger guys.
07:15Because the wind seems to be blown almost exclusively in one direction on predicting what's going to happen there.
07:22You want to take your kick at it?
07:24Like, what do you think ends up happening with Alex Tuck here?
07:28I think we had Dave Pignoda on Sabres Live a couple days ago.
07:33And he said, look, he goes, they're far apart.
07:36And if they were closer, probably it would have been done by now.
07:40And I go off my own experience.
07:43Like, after my two years in Philadelphia, and I'm sure Alex Tuck is feeling the same way.
07:48He's probably calling his agent every day, every other day.
07:50Hey, I have you guys talk.
07:52What's going on?
07:53And I felt like all the way until July 1 that there was a chance that maybe I was going
07:59to resign in Philadelphia.
08:02Now, looking back, I'm like, there was no chance.
08:05Like, by June the 10th, I should have known it was not going to happen.
08:11Like, we were not close.
08:13And I don't even know if the Flyers really gave me, like, really solid numbers to say we're going to
08:20have that.
08:20It was kind of like up in the air.
08:22Well, maybe we could do this.
08:24And I feel like that's probably where this is going.
08:27I'm sure the Sabres are keeping line of communication.
08:31Tuck is probably wanting to know, hey, are they coming up to where we are?
08:36But if it was close, we would have known by now.
08:39And probably that contract would have been signed by now.
08:41Because now the Sabres have to think, okay, well, Zach Benson.
08:46Okay, are we talking Byram?
08:47Are we resigning Malenstein?
08:49What about Peyton Krebs?
08:50Do we have to trade Greenway or McLeod to make room for all of that?
08:54Like, there's a lot more than just Tuck.
08:56Right.
08:57And you've got to give yourself some time to do all the other business.
09:00How important, if you're right, and Tuck does end up leaving, how important is it, do you think, for Jarmo
09:10Kekalainen?
09:11I'm thinking of the players and, like, their morale here.
09:14Because Tuck is such an important piece, and, you know, they've got this far this year, and I'm sure they
09:23want to keep the group together, also understanding it's a business.
09:26How important do you think it is for Kekalainen to do something substantial, like a veteran replacement for Alex Tuck,
09:33instead of just maybe trying to fill in and hoping, like, any one of the kids can accumulate enough points
09:39to replace Tuck?
09:41I don't think it's that important, because the message is, you know what, you bring in Restless Dalian in the
09:48office, or you get him on the phone, and you're like, listen, we wanted to keep Alex, it didn't work
09:54out.
09:54Now we have to focus on what's next, right?
09:57Where do we go?
09:59The players that we have, how do we continue to build?
10:01I think the biggest thing here is maybe you can kick the tires again on Robert Thomas.
10:07Maybe you're calling Detroit, trying to figure out Dylan Larkin or whatnot.
10:11But when you look at the roster, and again, I put my roster together, and I'm like, how do they
10:18fit everybody that they have on their contract right now?
10:21Because I think Kulik, Auslan, and Helenius are three, like, in the top nine, guaranteed for me.
10:30Like, I think Peyton Krabs is probably being bumped out of the top nine.
10:34I think Alex Tuck, well, maybe that's, you know, okay, we got players to fill in there.
10:39I think there's a possibility this team could be even better next year without Alex Tuck and without doing anything,
10:49you know, as the forward group.
10:51I think they're going to try.
10:53I think they're going to look to say, hey, you know what, we don't want to just put it on
10:57the young kids.
10:58But this is also not Breer and Drury leaving.
11:03Alex Tuck is a great leader.
11:05Alex Tuck is a great player.
11:06But losing one is fine.
11:09Losing two like the Sabres did 20 years ago, that was the issue.
11:13I think if Drury or Breer had stayed, it would have been a different story.
11:18With Marty Baran, Mike Shope and the Bulldog on WGR.
11:22Thinking of Tuck, and I'm kind of almost assuming that he's gone at this point, but you never know.
11:28How would you put it, his importance to what happened this year?
11:32I mean, the stats are there, and he's been here a few years.
11:35Would you extend it backwards to how he was as a leader?
11:41Somebody that perhaps when you trade Jack Eichel away has to establish, you know, some sort of standard within a
11:50locker room like that.
11:51How deeply rooted was Tuck's impact here?
11:55Impact.
11:57I remember when he was traded to Buffalo.
11:59He's still wearing a red jersey.
12:01He was not healthy yet to come back.
12:03And the very first practice that he was on the ice, I'm like, oh, like, he's coming from Vegas.
12:09And they practiced at a different pace.
12:11And obviously, this group of Sabres that was there back then hadn't gone through what this group this year went
12:19to is making the playoffs.
12:21And elevated the pace.
12:22And elevated the practice habits.
12:24And the details.
12:25And so, Alex Tuck was a big, big part of the progression that the Sabres took.
12:32Look, I want to say, look, Lindy Ruff came in, and it took him a year to evaluate everything.
12:38Yarmo came in in December of this year.
12:40But we're already seeing the progress in the players coming in and one-on-one battles in practice, the compete
12:48level in practice.
12:49And I think Alex Tuck had a big, big part of the change moving forward.
12:56Did that get the Sabres to be in the playoffs before this year?
12:59Did they need a lot more than Alex Tuck's leadership?
13:04Yes.
13:05They needed a lot of other players' leadership.
13:07But I think he's been fantastic.
13:10And I think the Sabres are going to miss him if he doesn't resign.
13:14That leadership part, the locker room guy, you know, being around the guys on the road, he's a big part
13:22of that.
13:23But that also, you know, there's a business, you mentioned it.
13:26But you've got to weigh in all of that to make the right decision.
13:32I'm looking at your hockey reference page, which I don't know that you would ever do that.
13:36I mean, you'd have to be pretty vain as a player to sort of like have that as a favorite
13:41page or tab or anything.
13:43But we often joke about the nicknames on these sites, like there are just famous players in sports.
13:48Do you know what yours is on here, Marty?
13:52Yeah, because Duffer and I have talked about it.
13:54Because whenever a player, we always go to hockey reference and we try to see for the nickname.
13:58And I think one of them is Baby Dominator.
14:00That's it.
14:01That's your one and only nickname.
14:03Baby Dominator.
14:03Baby Dominator.
14:03No one has actually ever called you that.
14:05Has anyone ever said that to you?
14:07No, never.
14:08And actually, the closest to that that I've ever gotten is Jim Pizzatelli used to be our athletic trainer.
14:15And Pizzo is the one that would give the robes to Rob Ray and Matt Barnaby and Brad May and
14:20those guys like the boxing robes.
14:22Back in the days was Val James in Rochester and whatnot.
14:26So he wanted to give me a robe.
14:29And he wanted to call me Thermominator because he said I was as thin as a thermometer.
14:34So he's like, I'm going to put Thermominator in the back of the robe.
14:38We never got to it, but that's as close to the baby Dominator that I got.
14:43That's funny.
14:44I mean, what did you play at?
14:45Pizzo was good.
14:46What weight did you play at?
14:50165.
14:50And then by the time I retired, I was like at the most 180.
14:55Like, you know, so.
14:56And you're 6'2".
14:57But I got drafted at 6'2", 142 when I got drafted at 17 years old.
15:02So, yeah, I was as thick as a, you know, an old thermometer.
15:07That's what it was.
15:08I remember introducing my wife to Ryan Miller at a Saber's function.
15:13And he was very friendly and sweet and great.
15:15And we walked away and she had a smile on her face.
15:18And I said, what did you think?
15:19She's like, I can't believe how skinny he is.
15:21And is that like the impression maybe you would have most goalies when you see, I mean, you see them
15:27on the ice and it's all the pads and everything like that.
15:29No goalie ever looks skinny on the ice anymore.
15:32Not anymore, though.
15:34Like, they're much thicker now, I think, but Dominic Aschik was skinny.
15:38Ryan Miller was very skinny.
15:41Patrick Waugh was not a very strong man, but he had kind of skin and bones.
15:48There was a lot of skinny goalies back then.
15:50And I think it's different a lot.
15:53Like, you watch even Alex Lyon, who's not a big, big guy, but he's got that thickness to him.
15:59Lukonen has got some size.
16:01Colton Ellis, like, you don't see 6'2", 170 anymore.
16:06Goalies are usually 185 to, you know, somewhere in the low 200s, 210, depending on how big you are.
16:13But a Vasilevsky's thick, a Jeremy Swamin's thick, a Jake Ottinger's thick, like, they're still different now.
16:20You almost got to be, right, Marty, to play, not that you didn't butterfly, but, like, it's so up and
16:26down, up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down, constantly.
16:29Like, that power pack area, that core, the thighs just get big.
16:35Like, there's weight right there for guys, because just how they're playing.
16:38Well, you've got to, it's like baseball players, right?
16:41They can't find pants.
16:43Like, if you ask Devin Levi, you know, like, somebody measured his waist one year, and I think it was,
16:49like, a 38 or a 39 waist.
16:52I'm like, what?
16:54Like, he's 6'0", maybe, and he's got, like, a 38 waist, 39 waist.
17:00Yeah, that's my waist.
17:01That's incredible, yeah.
17:03Yeah, that's the big waist.
17:04Right.
17:04That's funny.
17:04Marty, speaking of goalies, before we wrap up and run out of time here, like,
17:09I'm inclined to just run it back.
17:11The three guys are under contract.
17:12I think they were a strength of the team during the year, and I don't want to, just because they
17:18had to pull guys in and out during the playoffs a few times, overreact to that.
17:24What do you think about goaltending?
17:26Do you think going fishing for a big guy is called for, or do you want to run back the
17:33three guys that were here last year?
17:35I mean, the situation was pretty good this year.
17:38It worked out.
17:39I think it's hard to have a third bully and just say you're going to play maybe 10, 15 games.
17:45Like, that guy, like, it's good for Colton Ellis last year.
17:48Like, I'm in the NHL.
17:50I'm playing a little bit.
17:51I'm making big money.
17:52Like, that's good.
17:53But do you want to do that again where you're a third goalie and you're backing up most nights and
17:58the other two are going back and forth?
18:00And I think that's going to be complicated, having a third guy.
18:03And there's a lot of organizations that are saying, you know, we'll use three goalies.
18:08Maybe they'll go 45, 25, and 14, right?
18:12That's 84 games.
18:13So you use three goalies.
18:15But even in that 45, 25, 14, you have a number one.
18:20I think that's important.
18:21I want a number one guy that I know this is my number one.
18:25Whatever happens after that, it's fine.
18:28But I don't think the Sabres have that right now.
18:31They don't have their, this is our number one.
18:34You know, Lyon was for a bit.
18:36Lukonen was for a bit.
18:37Like, it just, it's too undecided for my liking.
18:42I know it worked well last year, but did it work well against Montreal going back and forth and back
18:48and forth?
18:48I don't love that.
18:51I'm not surprised, by the way, to see Carolina end up on this kid over Anderson.
18:56Nothing against Anderson.
18:57I don't really care that he's had rocky playoff years in the past.
19:02I mean, they were winning every night.
19:04But this guy, we saw the Sabres play against him, Bussey, and he kind of stole the game.
19:10And it's funny, which I'm not sure you would say the same here, Marty, but Hurricanes, Canadians, both teams where
19:17at times I might have thought their best guy was on the bench.
19:20And they were riding one goalie, but maybe that wasn't necessarily their best goalie.
19:24And the Sabres went back and forth.
19:26So you never know.
19:27I mean, cup history, the last 20 years, there are all kinds of goalies that maybe fans wouldn't remember who
19:33won it.
19:33Yeah, but at the same time, like Seward Skinner, Calvin Pickard, Aiden Hill, like I can name you so many
19:41goalies that were either in the Stanley Cup final or have won the Stanley Cup final that you wouldn't get
19:47anywhere close now.
19:48You would never say, I need Aiden Hill or I need Seward Skinner.
19:52And, you know, that's really, like, I want a guy, and maybe that's Lucanen, maybe that's Ryan, maybe that's Colton
20:00Ellis, maybe that's Devin Levi, I don't know.
20:02But I want a guy that I'm like, he's mine, and I'm so happy to have him.
20:08And, you know, like right now, Carolina could be looking at Brendan Bussey and saying, you know, we were lucky,
20:14Freddie Anderson went 12-1 in the first three rounds.
20:18But at any moment, if he had lost a game in the first round to Ottawa or in the second
20:22round, you know, to Philadelphia, like, Bussey would have been in there.
20:27It's just, we didn't need him.
20:28But I think they like having Brendan Bussey, and that may be their guy next year.
20:34Maybe it's Kochetkov, you know, but they can say we have our guy.
20:39The Sabres can't say that right now.
20:42We'll talk about that, perhaps, going forward here without you.
20:46Good luck with the chickens.
20:47And, you know, this time of year, we get to Fridays in the summer, and we're often booking fantasy football
20:53guests.
20:54Are you perhaps inclined to become one on a future show to take questions about drafting?
21:00I know you're a player.
21:02I'm a player.
21:04But as we did your fantasy or your best ball draft, I don't think we did so well.
21:11I'm not good.
21:13But I am a player.
21:14And also, I want to give you just a little tidbit.
21:17You talked about the 82-0 game.
21:19Are you doing the one with Dom's model?
21:22Because there's a few games out there, but I think the one that I'm doing has got Dom Latishian's model,
21:29right?
21:29And that's a tough one.
21:31That's a really tough one.
21:32No, I want to know about that.
21:34I don't think that's the one I'm doing.
21:37Okay, good.
21:38I mean, I'll have to...
21:39I want 81-1.
21:4181-1 is the best I've done on that one.
21:43And I actually took a screenshot because usually I'm like 75-5-2 and 74-6-2.
21:51And I'm like, it's hard.
21:52It's a really tough one.
21:54So I'm going to need to know players' possession stats from memory.
21:57Like, I'm going to want to draft Cody Franson on one of these teams probably because he always looked so
22:03slow to everybody.
22:03And the fans were impressed.
22:05But they're better when he's on the ice than when Riss Alignan's on the ice.
22:09Somebody explain that.
22:11And with that game, you can do three modes.
22:14You can try to go 82-0.
22:16You can try to go 41-41.
22:19Or you can try to go 0-82 because they really give you all the options.
22:24They give you, like, the bench warmers options, too.
22:26Not just the good players.
22:28I want that.
22:28I want that.
22:30Bulldog, my team, you're rolling your eyes over there.
22:32My team would be Franson, Nathan Bull, you would be on my team.
22:35It's a beautiful summer day in the year 2026 of our Lord, and we're still waging the Cody Franson rules.
22:41I'm sorry.
22:41I cannot even believe this.
22:42I mean, what a better time to do it.
22:45That's right.
22:46Marty, you're the best.
22:47Thanks for answering the call.
22:50I'm sorry.
22:50Were you still trying to make a point?
22:52I was saying goodbye.
22:53No, no, no.
22:53I'm saying Cody Franson.
22:55It's like L.A. acquiring Cody Cece last summer.
22:58They're like, what are you doing?
23:00But that's what they do.
23:02Sometimes you've got to get a Cody.
23:04All right.
23:05I echo what Bulldog said.
23:07Thanks.
23:07It's always such a pleasure to talk to you.
23:09It's great to talk to you guys.
23:11Enjoy the next couple of games in the NHL.
23:15The draft in Buffalo for agency is going to go quick.
23:19For sure.
23:20Yeah, the draft in two weeks.
23:21Thanks again, Marty.
23:22Marty Baran on the Western.
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