- 22 hours ago
Jeremy White and Joe DiBiase are joined by NFL Insider and creator of Pro Football Talk Mike Florio for his weekly segment to break down the week that was in the NFL. The guys start off by discussing the disappointing loss the Bills suffered at the hands of the New England Patriots in week 4. Florio explains why it’s such an impactful loss, and how the team can bounce back. The guys then move on to discuss the rest of the league and some of the biggest stories around.
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00:00Paul Hamilton's appearance brought to you by Ralex Honda. Ralex, we got this. Sabres win some great Tuesday night sports.
00:08They beat Minnesota in overtime, down 2-0, rallying to win 3-2, and we're here with Paul Hamilton, who's
00:15going to recap it with us.
00:16Paul, good morning. Morning, how are you?
00:18Paul's great to have a full house and a great outcome on a Tuesday night and home game number two
00:24of the season.
00:24The season is off and running on a good foot.
00:27Yeah, I'll tell you what, getting down to that team and that goaltender, 2-0, and to be able to
00:34come back and win that game in that situation, full marks to the Buffalo Sabres for that.
00:44From start to finish defensively, they were very, very good.
00:48They had to improve their defensive play. They knew it.
00:51And the first period, they gave up two power plays and gave up four shots the whole period.
01:00I mean, and Minnesota had two power plays.
01:03And at the end of two periods, they'd given up 12 shots total.
01:09You know, more than halfway through the game, they'd only given up seven.
01:15So, they really, you know, concentrated on that.
01:19They weren't giving the puck away.
01:22They were just, you know, very, very good defensively.
01:25And when they needed Colts and Ellis to make a big save, he did.
01:30He stopped Boldy twice in overtime.
01:33You know, and to me, his biggest save was one that you might not even have paid too much attention
01:39to.
01:40It was after the Ostland goal, and Kaprizov comes down in the left circle and just lets it go.
01:49I mean, he's pretty much by himself coming through that left circle.
01:55And Ellis came out, made a great save on that play.
01:58And if Minnesota scores that, I don't think we're having a conversation about a Buffalo win.
02:05I remember watching that play, Paul, thinking, oh, here comes the one-timer.
02:09And on TV, it looked like maybe there was room short side, which is where he shot it.
02:15But Ellis, like, lifted the arm up just in time.
02:17Yeah.
02:18I mean, it was just – and if somebody else was there, we might not even be talking about it.
02:25It's the player giving that opportunity.
02:30And another thing is he got shut out against the Sabres.
02:33I mean, he had seven goals and seven assists for 14 points in nine games against Buffalo.
02:39I mean, you talk about a Sabre killer.
02:43And it just seemed like when I was looking up that stat, it was like it seemed to me like
02:48he always scored against Buffalo.
02:49And then I looked it up and go, yep, he does.
02:53But they kept him quiet.
02:56Well, how impressive was it then to also not get frustrated, lost after the second Minnesota goal?
03:04Rob mentioned on the broadcast that the bench was so hot about the no-call interference.
03:09There were two of them right before the goal that, like, the ref warned them, like, enough for I'm calling
03:15a bench minor.
03:16So, they maybe got close to taking a penalty there, but their play never looked like they were, you know,
03:23upset after that.
03:25Like, they pretty much dominated from the game on.
03:27The building was upset.
03:28The building was upset.
03:28There was reason to be upset.
03:30I mean, it was a bad call enough, and then the goal comes 10 seconds later.
03:33Right.
03:34It was tough.
03:34I don't understand how you miss that.
03:36Yeah.
03:36I really don't.
03:37I mean, it wasn't like he just brushed them and maybe, all right, maybe he didn't see that or whatever.
03:45I mean, he clocked them.
03:47He hit them pretty good and just totally picked them on a pick play, and they wind up coming down
03:54and scoring a goal on it.
03:56And, you know, Tate Thompson mentioned in the postgame show that they're much better at that.
04:02Remember how that used to linger with them?
04:05It would kind of ruin their night, and they would have problems putting it away.
04:13And, you know, once the referee warned them, they put it away.
04:17They had to.
04:18They still had, you know, they had work to do.
04:22They were down two goals.
04:24So, if they let that bother them for any longer than they did, again, they're not going to be able
04:31to come back and win that hockey game.
04:33So, they do a much better job at that.
04:37That would have really stuck with them, and it would have basically ruined their night back before last December, let's
04:47say.
04:48They seem to grow up a little bit that way.
04:50Paul Hamilton joining us.
04:52Paul Owen, power finishes off the game in a game where I think throughout everyone thought he was great to
04:57begin with, a fitting end to the game.
04:59And, you know, he's a player that we saw a lot from last year, a lot of growth and a
05:04lot of steps forward last year.
05:06And here he is in this game and probably whatever.
05:10I feel like expectations for him have to be through the roof the way he started this season.
05:13Yeah, before overtime, we have to, with about five minutes left, we have to tell PR, you know, who we'd
05:21like to talk to, and he was the guy I put in there.
05:24And quite honestly, I probably would have picked him the first star of the game had he not scored, even
05:31if he had not scored.
05:33That's how well I thought he had played in that game.
05:35And it's just amazing, you know, here he is with a goal and four assists, Buffalo's leading scorer, and he
05:44was their leading scorer in preseason, too.
05:47And it's only two games.
05:49He had four assists in two games.
05:51So he has, what, a goal and eight assists, including the preseason, if you add in the two preseason games?
05:59I mean, that's nine points in, what have we got, five games we're talking about?
06:03So, and I ask him afterwards if he's making a concerted effort, you know, to play more offensively.
06:13And he said, well, I kind of thought my offensive game was fine.
06:18So he claims it's not an emphasis for him to improve his offensive play, but I think he has.
06:29I think it's just his whole game.
06:30And I liked his game last year.
06:32I liked his game in the playoffs.
06:34I thought last year, as the season went on, he improved and he improved and he improved.
06:39And I think he's kept improving.
06:41I think his game is even better this year.
06:44So, you know, and it's typical for many defensemen.
06:49Darlene was the same way.
06:50I mean, it took him four years to become Rasmus Darlene.
06:55And, you know, it took Hedman a long time, three or four years.
07:00Carlson, three or four years.
07:02I mean, not everybody.
07:04I mean, Hughes stepped right in.
07:06McCarr stepped right in.
07:07Schneider last year stepped right in.
07:09But that's the outlier.
07:12I mean, and so, you know, I don't think it's really any shock that it took power a little while
07:18to, you know,
07:20round himself into form, too, as a defenseman in this league.
07:24Yeah.
07:25And all due respect to him, seeing his offensive game was, like, close to the same last year.
07:30He's on pace to – he's on pace right now doing some quick math to beat last year's point total
07:36by November 8th.
07:37Like, he's got over a point a game.
07:40And I always like the Hedman comparison for that, Paul, because he started slow and was picked high,
07:46and the size is similar.
07:48Like, there are a lot of similarities there.
07:50And also what we saw last night that would be very different from last year.
07:55Last year he's, you know, 21, 22 minutes a night.
07:58He's almost at 30.
07:59And a lot of that, Paul, is Darlene and Power together in the third period,
08:04which we saw some of last year, but I wonder if that will be more of a trend this year.
08:10Like, big, important moments, third period, those two are going to kind of get paired together.
08:14Yeah, Mets didn't get a lot of minutes.
08:17I mean, that's what's happening is I would say he probably had no more than seven or eight minutes.
08:25I don't have the stat in front of me, but I don't think he played much more than that.
08:32But, you know, one of the guys, and Lindy really shortened the bench.
08:37I mean, whether it was Mets and not playing as much, once they got into the third period,
08:42Darlene only played three shifts in the third period.
08:46He pretty much went with three lines in 4-D.
08:50Crevier played a little bit in the third period, more than Mets did.
08:57But it's, you know, it was one of those things.
09:01And Lindy Ruff did reveal after the game that Darlene had a slight lower body injury from last game.
09:10And he goes, quite honestly, he goes, he would not admit it.
09:14He goes, I'll tell you that right now.
09:16But he said, it looks like it's affecting him a little bit.
09:18And he said, he's struggling.
09:22But Ruff said, and I don't think it was coach speak.
09:26He goes, look, and I'm not worried about it.
09:29He goes, sometimes it's not a straight line up for a young player.
09:34And, you know, he's struggling.
09:36And he goes, but I have no problem with him whatsoever that he'll get his game back very soon.
09:44But he did say with that slight lower body injury that he does think it's affecting his play in this
09:52game.
09:53And especially when it was time to go down to three lines, he sat him down.
09:59And he only played a few more shifts in the third period.
10:02Yeah, Paul, like sometimes we talk about the loss of Alex Tuck and who's going to replace him.
10:06And it's this concept of an idea of who might replace him.
10:10But there's also the idea of, like, who plays next to Tage, right?
10:13Because the two of them were together for quite a bit.
10:16And for Doan to be that guy off the bat and nursing that injury, maybe that's affecting Thompson, who, again,
10:23scored again.
10:23But after two periods, I thought I'd be talking to you this morning about how you feel Tage has been
10:29playing his overall game at this point.
10:31And that might be a bit of a work in progress to find whoever should ride shotgun with him the
10:38most.
10:39Tage Thompson, I thought, had a rough game for a while.
10:43But he did what he does.
10:48Owen and I were talking about it.
10:50And we both agreed that, boy, it just wasn't looking good for him in this game.
10:57And it just wasn't pop.
10:59But he can do that.
11:01He can have a game that didn't look real well.
11:04One of the goals that Minnesota scored, he got caught puck watching.
11:10And he can do that.
11:13All of a sudden, he's not playing well.
11:15And all of a sudden, he gets a one-timer, and it's gone.
11:19And it's in the net.
11:21And you have a tie hockey game.
11:23But it's just, he's, I've seen him do that many times before, where things just weren't going his way until
11:30he were.
11:30You know, and he wound up with a goal and an assist.
11:36A good play in the overtime goal.
11:37You know, up on the wall, on the far side.
11:40And gets it into the corner to Kulik.
11:42Kulik finds power, and they score.
11:45So, you know, he wound up with a very important goal and a very important assist when things really weren't
11:52going his way, I thought, in that game.
11:54Well, to Jeremy's point, like, do we think that it was a coincidence that that happened immediately once Doan stopped
12:00playing with him?
12:02He and Krebs, they have a good chemistry.
12:05You know, they just do.
12:06And I wasn't real enthusiastic about Krebs' game until the two of them got together.
12:13And what does Krebs do?
12:15He makes one of the best defensemen in the National Hockey League turn the puck over.
12:19I mean, he gets in on him quickly.
12:21He turns the puck over.
12:23Tate Thompson finds a crease in front of the net where it gives Krebs a passing lane to get to
12:32him.
12:32And he puts it right in his wheelhouse.
12:34A perfect pass.
12:36You know, and, you know, Thompson let it rip.
12:40And against that goaltender still, I mean, that goaltender, Thompson had the same chance later.
12:46And that was save of the year.
12:48I mean, Thompson let that rip on both occasions.
12:52And he scored on the first one.
12:54So Thompson wins the first battle.
12:56And Wallstead wins the second with a glove save.
12:59That was a phenomenal save that he made on that.
13:04But sometimes you just got to tip your hat to the goaltender and say, nice save.
13:08But so Thompson wins one battle and the goaltender wins the other.
13:12Paul, what do you think of Ellis in this game?
13:14And do you feel like he did enough to earn the net on Thursday?
13:18Yeah, I do.
13:20And that's with the second goal where I thought, meh, probably want to stop that.
13:28But, yeah, it's – he made two really good saves on Boldy in overtime.
13:34I mean, again, it's the player we're talking about that – who had seven shots in the game
13:41and two really good scoring opportunities in overtime.
13:45And Ellis, good save on both of them.
13:48You know, he wasn't called on to make a lot of huge saves.
13:51But he made more than his share of really nice stops in that game.
13:57And – but, you know, it also helped that the Sabres played much, much better defensively.
14:05And, you know, gave him the opportunity to get in net and get – grab the crease
14:10and play really well, I thought.
14:13And the first goal he's not going to get.
14:16I mean, that's a tip that hits Samuelson's stick and it acted like a ramp.
14:20The puck just ramped up and went onto the crossbar.
14:23So he's not going to get the first goal.
14:25But I thought, yeah, he had a very, very nice game and made, you know,
14:30the big saves when his team needed a big save.
14:34And I definitely – even though he wasn't hugely busy –
14:38and by the way, that's his second win in his career against Minnesota.
14:42He went into Minnesota last year, stopped 22 of 24 shots.
14:48Again, they didn't allow a lot of shots to a very good Minnesota team in Minnesota.
14:54And he wins – he won that game in a shootout.
14:58So he likes playing the wild.
15:01Yeah.
15:01Paul, with regard to the goaltending, how do you think Lindy plays it from here?
15:05We kind of asked him yesterday without asking directly is it an open competition
15:10for whichever two want to get it.
15:12But last year when it was the rotating three-headed beast, the third guy never really got in.
15:17And Ellis might have a little bit of a window here.
15:20I don't know if they feel like they can go with three where all three play consistently.
15:25So is this – do you think like a work in progress?
15:28Is this something we'll figure out in the next month or so?
15:30I agree.
15:32I don't think you can go with a three-man rotation.
15:34Well, you could.
15:35But I just don't think it's something that works very well.
15:40You know, Ellis – you know, because Lyon went a long time yesterday on the ice.
15:46He was out there for a while and came in.
15:51We had a chance to chat with him, and he thought it went very, very well.
15:54He said, you know, he said with the protocols that they had for the injury,
16:00the type of shoulder injury that he had, he didn't go into any more detail than that
16:04because, of course, we all knew it was a shoulder injury.
16:07He said, you know, he was ready to go once he was back on the ice with the team.
16:14So what does that mean?
16:16How much longer until he's ready for game action that we don't know?
16:22I don't know what the protocol is for that.
16:26Same thing with Zucker.
16:27He was out there yesterday for the first time.
16:29But how much longer will he need?
16:31And Lindy Ruff did say with both players, they may not practice every day yet.
16:38I think he probably was referring to Zucker more than he was Lyon.
16:42But, you know, we'll just have to wait and see.
16:45But anyway, getting back to what we're talking about,
16:48Ellis had to have a very, very good game, and I think he had that game.
16:54Does he alternate with Lucanen now?
16:56I think he played well enough to earn that right.
17:00Did he earn the right to keep Lyon on the bench until they need him?
17:06Maybe.
17:07I mean, that happens.
17:08I mean, sometimes in hockey, maybe Lyon is going to have to wait his turn.
17:14But Ellis had to come in, and in one game, to me, it's a lot to ask,
17:19but have a really, really good game to make them say,
17:23well, we've got to keep going with him right now.
17:26Look at the preseason he had.
17:28He put up really good numbers in the preseason, but so did Lucanen.
17:32Lucanen put better numbers in the preseason.
17:35But so maybe Lucanen and Ellis get the first opportunity to start alternating,
17:40and maybe you don't have a solid number one.
17:45You're just going to go back and forth like last year.
17:48Well, we'll see.
17:50A couple more home games against Western Conference teams, Dallas, Utah.
17:54And then Joe had a stat, 17 out of 21 on the road coming up soon.
17:59Yeah.
17:59Nuts.
18:00Yeah.
18:00I mean, that's big.
18:02I looked at how long I'm going to be gone on two different trips here in October.
18:09I had just, you know, I'm thinking, I'm not going to put anything out on the lawn for Halloween or
18:14everything.
18:15I'm not going to be here.
18:16I mean, it was because I got the lawn cut yesterday, and I'm thinking, what's the point?
18:21I'm basically going to be here for maybe four more days before Halloween.
18:25There's really no point to putting it out there.
18:28Well, Paul, thanks for the time, and enjoy those trips when they come up.
18:31We'll be talking to you throughout them.
18:33All right.
18:33Sounds good.
18:34Paul Hamilton on the Sabres.
18:37His appearance, again, brought to you by Raylax.
18:38Signed up.
18:38Raylax, we got this.
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18:47They were good on the road last year.
18:49They were good at home last year.
18:50They were good all the time last year, except for, like, the first month of the season.