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00:00Paul, did you know in London there's an ABBA arena?
00:04I did not know that. I've been right over there.
00:06It was in a crossword puzzle this week.
00:08I'm like, is there really an ABBA arena?
00:11But there is, and I'm sure there's a great story.
00:13But it's like actually ABBA, ABBA arena.
00:15It's not just random coincidence or anything.
00:17It's actually named for them.
00:19So have you been to London?
00:22Very quickly, just to get a cruise, which wasn't right there.
00:27And very quickly, when we got back and then on the plane and back home.
00:33Did you go to Europe for any of the Sabre games there?
00:37I went to Finland and Germany.
00:39Okay. Which was better?
00:43They both had their moments.
00:46I would have liked to have been in Berlin longer because that was the second.
00:51We had back-to-back games.
00:52One was in Finland and one was in Germany.
00:54And it was back-to-back, which I thought was a little bit silly.
00:58So I basically, since Lindy Ruff didn't have a morning skate,
01:01I walked around Berlin for an hour or two, and that's all I had time for.
01:05And it was the game and to the plane and home we came.
01:09That's too bad.
01:09Is that the more recent trip to Europe or the earlier one?
01:12It was the earlier one.
01:13Lano.
01:15Luke Adam was in that one, as a matter of fact.
01:17I don't know why I recall him, but I do.
01:20I think Lano scoring in one of those games.
01:23Yeah, they won both games against the Kings and the Ducks to start the season 2-0
01:28and, of course, didn't make the playoffs.
01:31So this year's 26-27 schedule is out.
01:35You wrote on it.
01:36What are a couple of the more interesting facets to it for you?
01:41Well, Alex Tuck isn't here until March 18th, so that was the one thing.
01:47I don't know if I've ever seen a goofy spot in the schedule like they have early.
01:54On October 13th, they're in Montreal.
01:57On October 15th, they're in Toronto.
02:00And on October 17th, they're back in Montreal.
02:03That is weird.
02:04And that's the only two times they play in Montreal.
02:06They'll be done in Montreal on October 17th.
02:10And we'll have played them on the 13th and the 17th and never came home in between.
02:14They just went to Toronto.
02:16I mean, if you're going to do it, just stay in Montreal and play back-to-back.
02:19Why leave?
02:21You know?
02:22Play them on the 13th and the 15th and then go to Toronto on the 17th or whatever.
02:25Probably, you know, the arenas weren't open or whatever.
02:28But I remember them doing that in Toronto once because Lindy Ruff was so mad at the Saturday game in
02:34Toronto that he buried them in practice on Sunday.
02:39And they had absolutely nothing left on Monday to play in Toronto.
02:44And he even said after practice on Sunday, he goes, I probably – he goes, they won't be able to
02:49play tomorrow probably, but I don't care.
02:51He goes, they needed this.
02:54And he was right, I guess.
02:58Okay, so, yeah, that is strange.
02:59To be done with the Canadians on the road so early as that as well.
03:04The two added games, does it really seem to show itself in any sort of way?
03:09I mean, there are 84 instead of 82.
03:11I'm not sure they would.
03:11Last year we had that Olympic break, and my first takeaway on the schedule was look how busy it is
03:17where they have to cram all those games into spots because they can't use that two and a half weeks
03:22for the Olympics.
03:23You don't have that this time.
03:25Yeah, where it shows up is to start the year.
03:27They usually don't start on October 1st.
03:30And the league starts earlier than that.
03:31They don't play the first night.
03:32Right, so that's where it shows up, you know, is they're starting earlier.
03:36There's only four preseason games, so you don't have to wait to watch a team of Rochester Americans play two
03:42preseason games because that's what it amounts to because it's like, well, we don't want to get our guys hurt,
03:48so let's start playing minor league guys or guys we're sending back to junior.
03:53So, yeah, that's where it shows right there is how early they're starting the season.
03:59A lot of the Western trips they take always seem to come at the same time.
04:04End of October, Western Canada, early December, February off in a month.
04:08There's the All-Star break in February where it's like pretty late or January you might have more road games.
04:13Maybe it's a little different.
04:14One thing I noticed, too, from late February through March, they play on Sundays on the road five weeks in
04:21a row.
04:21So, there usually have not been that many Sunday games or Sunday road games, but we'll get in the habit
04:27of that February into April.
04:29They used to, like way back when.
04:31Oh, yeah.
04:32Sunday was their day.
04:34At home.
04:34They would play the Sunday games.
04:36That was one of their days way back when.
04:38I don't even know what years we'd be talking about, but it was a while ago.
04:42The 80s.
04:42Yeah, definitely.
04:44It's interesting.
04:45You know, you talked about the California trip at the end of October.
04:48Washington's on there, too, but it's on the 24th on Saturday.
04:52They don't play in San Jose until Tuesday.
04:55So, I'm thinking, do they come home after Washington and then leave for San Jose on Monday, or do they
05:01just go to San Jose from Washington?
05:03Or do they spend a day in Washington and practice on Sunday and then roll home after that?
05:10So, it'll be, you know, interesting to see how they handle that one.
05:14Even the Montreal-Toronto thing, you know, how are they going to handle that?
05:18Are they going to stay in one town one day later?
05:21You know, so that one will be interesting, too.
05:23But there are a couple of those, as I look through, where there's a longer trip, but how are they
05:32going to handle the length of the trip as far as, well, there's an East Coast game first, and then
05:38you go to the Midwest, or you do, I'm trying to look here.
05:43Yeah, they're in Winnipeg on the 24th of January, and they don't play Utah until the 27th.
05:48Now, I don't know if they're going to come home from Winnipeg, or I don't know where they're going to
05:53hang out, if they just go to Salt Lake City and hang out there, or, because then they've got three
05:58games and four.
05:59It's Utah on Wednesday, Vegas on Thursday, and Colorado on Saturday.
06:05You've got Boston on a Tuesday and Columbus on a Friday.
06:08Do you stay, or do you come home?
06:10You know, there's more, it seems like there's more of those this year than I've noticed in the past.
06:14One reason why I say how there seem to be similarities based on, like, sort of the road trip chunks
06:21year to year is there's Western Canada, and that's almost identical to last year where the turnaround started.
06:27That was, what, we said December 9th is when they won in Edmonton.
06:31This is December 1st in Edmonton.
06:32Like, they have that week very close to where they had it last year.
06:35This is the first time in three years they haven't, between Christmas and New Year's, gone to Dallas and St.
06:41Louis.
06:41Yes.
06:42They've always done that.
06:45Now they have a home game against Detroit, and then they're going to Florida on the 30th.
06:50They'll spend New Year's either in Fort Lauderdale or Tampa, because then they have Tampa on Saturday, and the Bills
06:57actually have a game in Miami on Sunday.
06:59Yes, that's right.
07:01I actually gave that some thought until I saw the Sabres are home against Winnipeg on Monday.
07:05I go, no, I've got to get home.
07:06Oh, well.
07:07Yeah.
07:08Thanks.
07:08I stopped thinking about that fairly quickly.
07:10Thanksgiving is back.
07:12When I was younger and had season tickets, I would love the Wednesday, Friday, Thanksgiving tandem at home, and that
07:21hasn't always been there, but it's back this year.
07:23Rangers and Penguins.
07:25And speaking of the Bills, the Bills game with Kansas City right in between, so that's some weekend.
07:30Yeah, that is.
07:31That's three in a row.
07:32I mean, people that come from out of town, you know, are huge sports fans.
07:37They have three games they can go to if they want to, or maybe they weren't planning on coming to
07:41town, and they just, you know what?
07:44Let's go do this.
07:45We can go to two hockey games.
07:47We can go see the Penguins and Cindy Crosby.
07:49The Rangers are always a draw.
07:50And then go see Bill's Chiefs, you know.
07:54Sure.
07:54You know, rock on.
07:55So, you know, I think, you know, that, I think there's some fans who probably, wouldn't surprise me if all
08:01of a sudden,
08:02AAA or somebody has some trips to Buffalo and three games are involved if you go on the trips or
08:08things like that.
08:09So, we'll see how that one goes down.
08:12Talking about the two games in Montreal on the schedule, both being on the same week and the third full
08:19week of the season,
08:20similar is that the two Boston home games are both in April.
08:26And remember last October, both games in Boston were in October.
08:30Oh, yeah?
08:30I went to Boston on Saturday, like the first Saturday of October, and I was back in Boston at the
08:36end of October.
08:37And that's it.
08:38You play the Bruins twice, and that was the end of the Bruins until the playoffs.
08:43And I hadn't even been there since the end of October.
08:45So, yeah, that was, but this one's goofier only because you're going to Montreal to Toronto, back to Montreal.
08:52Yeah.
08:53Now I'm deciding, as you know, I like to take the train, which I can still do.
08:58But do I do that, or because it's practice and all that, do I get a round-trip ticket to
09:05Montreal,
09:06go to Toronto, fly to Montreal, fly back to Toronto, fly to Montreal, and fly back to Toronto?
09:13Sounds nuts, the way you describe it.
09:16You should fly Air Bazaar like Stephen Wright.
09:18Two weeks in England, one night in Connecticut, two weeks in England.
09:21And the problem with the first game in Montreal on Tuesday is there's a home game in Buffalo on Monday,
09:28but it's a 1 o'clock game.
09:31Martin Luther King Day.
09:32So I could still, if I'm doing the train thing, I could still get to Toronto to get the train
09:38to Montreal for that Tuesday game.
09:40What is that heretofore known as Columbus Day, that October Monday holiday?
09:46And the Bills play at the Rams at 8-15 on that.
09:48Oh, they do.
09:49That's the Monday night of the Ram game.
09:51Interesting.
09:52All right.
09:53Well, Paul, thanks for making some more time for me.
09:56No problem, any time.
09:58Paul's article is up at WGR550.com.
10:00Thanks again.
10:01No problem.
10:02Paul Hamilton's appearance is brought to you by Raylax Honda.
10:05Raylax, we got this.
10:06Stephen Wright jokes, has the, quote jokes,
10:09has the show ever sounded older than Stephen Wright references?
10:12Maybe Stephen Wright still resonates.
10:13It's, I'm flying Air Bazaar, two weeks in England, one night in Connecticut, two weeks in England.
10:20That's not even really that funny, right?
10:22I do like the line after that where he says,
10:26you leave any Monday, they bring you back the previous Friday.
10:32That way you still have the weekend.
10:35I'm not trying to, here, I sound like I'm trying to do Stephen Wright.
10:38Well, I guess I am.
10:39I'm, like, quoting him.
10:41Close enough.
10:43Paul has the piece up at the website, as I mentioned, on the upcoming schedule.
10:48803-0550 for your call.
10:50It's been in a lot of places this week.
10:52England, Connecticut.
10:53Been, you know, into a lot of Bill's projection stuff.
10:56Rich Rebar today.
10:57Ryan Paganetti yesterday talking about the quarterback sneaks.
11:00DJ Moore, how high are you?
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