00:01Tonight for the Sabres, they'll be in Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets, the season opener.
00:05Game one of 84, we're going to talk about it with Aaron Portsline who covers the Blue Jackets for the
00:10Athletic.
00:10He's joining us on the Western Hotline.
00:11Aaron, good morning. Jeremy and Joe, happy hockey season.
00:15Yeah, guys, good morning to you. It's good to get her started, eh?
00:19Yeah, we're excited about it. The Sabres had a great year, so, you know, life around here is a little
00:24bit different, which is nice.
00:27Expectations going into a year, a good competitive team.
00:30I'll be honest, Aaron, a lot of people around here are hoping for a little bit bigger of an offseason,
00:34some kind of signature move.
00:36And, you know, if that was going to be Connor Hellebuck or whatever, it didn't happen.
00:39That didn't happen for anybody with Hellebuck.
00:40So we're excited, but I don't know if you, looking at the Sabres from where you sit, feel like they
00:45should have also done something else.
00:48Yeah, you know, it's easy to say. I mean, they let some pieces go that they felt they needed to.
00:54And, of course, people in Columbus here are familiar with Jarmo Kekalainen.
00:58I mean, the GM there, I still feel like that team right there has an enormous capacity for growth from
01:06within.
01:07Yeah.
01:07Like, really. And I feel like a season like last year was such a tonic for them, such a confidence
01:13builder, that I don't really worry about them.
01:16Like, I think there's a lot of teams in the East that you just have tons of question marks and
01:22curiosities.
01:23I don't worry about the Sabres being a competitive team and a playoff team this year.
01:29I mean, guys, you could have had the summer Columbus had, right, where they made some moves.
01:35But, my God, did they make some headlines that were less than positive for the franchise reputationally anyway.
01:43So, you know, a couple different ways to look at it, maybe.
01:46Yeah, the offseason starts with the Wierenski drama.
01:51I remember thinking, Aaron, like, oh, he's definitely getting traded.
01:54Like, the fact that he's there and there hasn't – there really hasn't been drama in months, I feel like,
01:59with him.
01:59Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like it's a win that just – he's back and going to be on
02:03the ice for them.
02:05Yeah, it feels like it's sort of percolating, but far below the surface.
02:11They have to win, right?
02:13I think it's pretty simple.
02:14If they win, there's a chance they keep them.
02:16If they lose – if they don't win, there's no chance they keep them.
02:20But, listen, he also turned down a trade to the Dallas Stars, right?
02:24That's a heck of a hockey team.
02:26That's a no-tax state.
02:28So, the fact that he turned down that trade should be proof to people that he wants this thing to
02:34work in Columbus.
02:35That would be his argument, certainly.
02:38You know, but the Marchenko dust-up, they fired a broadcaster and a beloved web writer late in the season
02:45when beyond the window for those guys to get hired elsewhere.
02:49I mean, just a lot of stuff that really –
02:52Fantilli didn't get done until well into training camp.
02:55They took their young number one goalie to literally the doors of arbitration before they settled.
03:01Like, just nothing came easy for the Blue Jackets this summer.
03:05And, really, if anybody needs to get back to playing hockey, it might be these guys.
03:09Yeah.
03:09Do you feel like the Wierenski timeline is the whole year,
03:13or do you feel like it's important for them to start strong because if they don't,
03:16then this could come up for him in the middle of the season?
03:20Well, I mean, I think they got seven of their first nine at home, right?
03:25So, there's a real opportunity to get off to a good start, yes.
03:30I think if they get off to a dreadful start and they're not a successful team,
03:34then you're going to hear questions about it for sure.
03:37I think if they're out of it at the trade deadline, 100%, you're going to hear it.
03:42Now, he still has a no-move clause all the way through this year, so it's all up to him.
03:47And I think the one after that, sort of the timeline after that is,
03:51if he doesn't sign an extension on or around next July 1st, well, we've got issues
03:57because it'll be him heading into the last year of his contract.
04:01And you guys know how it is.
04:03You can't let that player – you can't imagine a scenario where you don't have him anymore.
04:08But if he's going to leave, you darn sure can't let him leave without getting compensation for it.
04:15Which is what they did this week, right, with Kirill Marchenko.
04:18How do you feel like it's the big move of the week right before the season started?
04:23He didn't want to be there, right?
04:24Like, for that being the situation, how do you feel like they did getting a player back of Matthew Nise's
04:30caliber?
04:31Well, I think they did really, really well, honestly.
04:33Like, I know that Don Waddell, the GM, has said that he wasn't going to trade Marchenko
04:41simply to the team that gave him what he thought was immediately the best of some bad offers.
04:48And he didn't want prospects and futures.
04:50He wanted today help.
04:52So credit to him for holding out to that.
04:56I did not imagine they could get a player the caliber of Nise.
05:01He sort of furthers their identity as a really, really big team up front now.
05:07And I certainly didn't think they could do that and unload two contracts that they wanted to get rid of,
05:13Elvis Merzlikens and Miles Woods.
05:15So by my measure, that's Don Waddell's best move during his time in Columbus.
05:20And it probably ranks as one of his better moves, you know, in his long and lengthy career.
05:26Having said that, Marchenko's a hell of a player.
05:28He's a heck of a player.
05:30He can score on his own, can score from anywhere.
05:33They're going to miss that.
05:35They're going to have to score in different ways now, and it won't always be easy.
05:39But I think Nise is a heck of a return given their situation.
05:43By the way, thinking about Columbus, all that happened in their offseason,
05:46at the end of last year, the Rick Bonas postgame, you know, going after his team.
05:52Like, is that all good now?
05:55Is there any residual left over from that with what he said at the end of the year?
06:00Well, I think there is just because he wants there to be.
06:03He doesn't want that to be.
06:05He hasn't apologized for that.
06:06He's not going to take his words back for that.
06:08As he said, he maybe came on a little strong.
06:12We've seen people do that in interviews before after tough losses.
06:15But he was literally PO'd at what he saw and how this team just caved down the stretch.
06:21And honestly, he's kept the foot on the pedal during training camp here.
06:26Right first day of training camp, there's two guys, he said, that they weren't in proper shape.
06:33So he's not afraid to call people out.
06:36He wants this thing pushed to the next level.
06:38He has implored the young players here.
06:41Like, it's not just enough to have a good couple of months,
06:44and, oh, geez, they came close again.
06:46Aren't they nice guys?
06:48Like, those days have to be over here in Columbus
06:51where expectations are pushed a little bit higher.
06:54Six playoff berths in 25 years.
06:56I know people in Buffalo are like, tell me about it.
06:59But you've gone through the same thing.
07:01Like, at some point, somebody has to grab it and say, this isn't good enough.
07:05John Tortorella did it years earlier, made the playoffs four years in a row,
07:09had some really good teams in there.
07:11But I think Bonas is taking on that charge now.
07:15So what's the result?
07:16Do you think they – what should the expectations be for them?
07:20Is this going to work, all of it together?
07:21Do they have enough talent to be a playoff team again?
07:25They definitely have enough talent, yes.
07:27I think, for me, if Marchenko were still here,
07:30I would worry about this thing really getting ugly in the room
07:34and where it would go from there.
07:36That's another reason I really like that trade.
07:39I think they're good enough.
07:40I think scoring goals is going to be a challenge for them at times.
07:44But they have a really good goalie in Jack Greaves now,
07:47who's younger and just getting better.
07:49Their blue line is beat up to start the season.
07:53But they've sort of found, when they're healthy,
07:55the fit that works back there with Severson, with Wierenski,
07:59with Provorov and Matejchuk as their top four.
08:02Three of their six are out tonight against Buffalo, probably.
08:07So that's tough.
08:08They've got to get through that hump.
08:09But this is a good team.
08:11And they showed it.
08:13Listen, the Sabres and the Blue Jackets last spring,
08:16from like January and well into March, were the two hottest teams in hockey.
08:21So it is in there.
08:22And it's Rick Bonas' job, and it's, frankly, the players' job,
08:26the veterans and the young guys,
08:28to start delivering a way that that kind of success
08:31and that performance is sustained.
08:33You mentioned quickly in there that three defensemen probably out tonight
08:37for them against the Sabres?
08:39Yeah, Severson definitely out.
08:41That's the top pair guy with Wierenski.
08:43Fabro definitely out.
08:44He's been on the third pair with Goodbranson.
08:47And it looks like Provorov, who literally has never missed a game
08:53in his entire career because of an injury.
08:55He's missed three games in his entire career due to COVID protocols.
09:00He has not practiced the last three days.
09:03And so we'll get word this morning whether he's going to play or not.
09:06It would not be like him to miss a game.
09:09But if he's got a serious injury, well, it won't be up to him.
09:12But there could very well be three, just for sure, two guys out.
09:15So Aaron Portsline on the Blue Jackets,
09:18covers the Blue Jackets with the Athletic.
09:19Aaron, thanks for the time and enjoy the game tonight.
09:22Yeah, of course, guys.
09:23Thanks for having me.
09:24Thanks for the Jackets and Sabres.
09:26You know, as he said, the Jackets' identity is to be big,
09:30and Knies helps that.
09:31The Sabres are not as big.
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