00:00Sabres get two from Olin Zellweger in their last game.
00:03A overtime loss to the shootout loss, rather, to Montreal.
00:07Continue their road trip tonight.
00:08They'll be in Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs' first matchup of the year,
00:12and both sitting in the standings in about the same spot.
00:15Joining us on the Western Hotline is David Alter of the Hockey News
00:18to talk a little Leafs with us.
00:19David, good morning.
00:20Jeremy and Joe.
00:20Joe's not here, so just me and Owen Parker, Joe Kelly as well.
00:24Good morning.
00:25Thanks for taking some time.
00:26Yeah, of course, Jeremy.
00:27Thanks for having me on.
00:28We've had Sabres and Leafs over the years, some pretty good moments and rivalries.
00:33I don't know that the last time that both of them were good at the same time.
00:36It's been a while.
00:37Maybe this is a year for that because Sabres fans have expectations.
00:41How about the Leafs and the start they're on
00:43and the expectations they have for the year in turning it around?
00:47Yeah, I mean, they pick up three out of six on the road
00:51against a couple of tough opponents,
00:53and the one where they don't get any points is probably the one where they
00:57they always have the offensive talent.
01:00And then, you know, if they luck out the first time they're not in the playoffs,
01:03they get the number one overall pick in the draft,
01:05and they're able to select Gavin McKenna.
01:07And then immediately the expectations are kind of raised again for the short
01:11and midterm future of the club.
01:15So they're high.
01:16There's still a lot of questions.
01:18And through seven games, there's some issues defensively.
01:22But at the same time in the Atlantic Division, you know,
01:25they have the same record as the Sabres,
01:27and no one's really running away with it either.
01:29So through the seven games here,
01:31it still looks like it can kind of go anywhere this season with the Maple Leafs.
01:36How has it been for McKenna in his rookie season?
01:39You know, I think you get the regular rookie hiccups.
01:42Like the expectations in Toronto are high.
01:45He's shown the offensive ability.
01:47They've kind of shielded him, putting him on the third line, second power play unit.
01:52But in the last couple games, he really seems to kind of pick up the NHL speed of things
01:57in terms of what he's got to do defensively, and that he's looked pretty good.
02:03He's got a couple of goals.
02:05And there is an improvement game to game, which I think everyone really wanted to see there
02:11because I think, you know, the first three games in this market when he didn't get a goal,
02:16that obviously became a question, so people were asking about it.
02:20But he's looked pretty good, but he's also been shielded by the fact that Austin Matthews
02:27looks like the Matthews of old.
02:28William Nylander's leading the way in points.
02:31One of the other prospects that they've got,
02:33Eason Cowan has gone above expectations as well,
02:36that it's kind of shifted some of the talking points offensively of expectations and whatnot,
02:43that it's allowed for McKenna to kind of grow naturally and not necessarily get affected
02:49by the spotlight that is Toronto.
02:50David Alter joining us for the Hockey News.
02:52David, you mentioned the Matthews of old.
02:54What was missing?
02:56Oh, health, I would say, would be number one.
02:59He always kind of looked like he was dealing with something,
03:01so the shot wasn't quite there.
03:05Also, the speed wasn't there.
03:07Like, you know, NHL has these advanced metrics for speed called NHL Edge.
03:12And, you know, from a shot speed, from a skating speed,
03:16he's already had speed burst far beyond what he's had in the last couple of years.
03:21So I think that's the biggest thing.
03:23He looks healthy.
03:24He's got more weapons now.
03:27You know, the Leafs make that big trade where they traded Matthew Knize away
03:31and got Kirill Marchenko.
03:33So he's got a play driver on that line now,
03:35which maybe he didn't have when they lost Mitch Marner the previous year.
03:39So all those things combined, I think, is the biggest difference
03:42why you're seeing Austin Matthews lead the way in terms of play drive, ability,
03:48speed, shot, those kind of things.
03:51On the Leafs, David Alter of the Hockey News joining us
03:53in the Worcester Hotline, Sabres and Leafs tonight.
03:55The Leafs, you can tell me if I'm wrong here,
03:58they've often been accused of maybe being top-heavy from a roster standpoint,
04:01like these top-lines Matthews, Nylander.
04:04Has there been a concerted effort to, I don't know, balance things out,
04:07to reinvent, remake their bottom six?
04:10And how has that gone so far?
04:12Yeah, the bottom six has definitely drastically changed.
04:16When John Chyka came in as GM, you know,
04:19he signed a whole bunch of these depth guys on the 1st of July
04:24when free agency opened, and I thought to myself,
04:26this is a lot of guys.
04:28Like, there's not a lot of room for internal competition here.
04:31They've had a little bit of that, but they really didn't do much.
04:35So, you know, the bottom six, you know,
04:38they got Teddy Bluger, Duhaime,
04:40like some of these speed, rough guys in the bottom six
04:44that can kind of help with the penalty kill.
04:46The big one also, getting Nick Paul from Tampa in that trade
04:49where they kind of had a surplus in goaltending
04:51and were able to kind of shore that up.
04:54You know, they really did shore that up,
04:56but the defense really didn't change.
05:00Like, they had a lot of guys that were already under contract.
05:03They're kind of in their early to mid-30s,
05:05and I think that's kind of showing right now,
05:08and they have a big injury in Chris Tanev,
05:10and even though all these things look good from an offensive standpoint,
05:15the defensive metrics aren't there, and so that's become a pain point.
05:20But they really did remake a lot of the bottom six,
05:23and, you know, I don't think it was a biggest need for improvement.
05:28The scoring is still coming from the top six,
05:30but defensively not a lot has changed,
05:33and I think that's been their Achilles heel at this point.
05:36David Alter of the Hockey News.
05:38Finally on goal, they bring in Sergei Bobrovsky.
05:41He's played a couple games, four games so far.
05:44Mixed bag to this point?
05:47Yeah, well, yeah, but I think there's been more positive than negative.
05:52Like, the thing in Toronto with the goaltending market
05:54is they just have not had a superstar-caliber goaltender
06:00that was just available to play at least 50 games.
06:05Like, they've just circulated through 1As, 1Bs.
06:08Guys would get hurt, then they'd have to ride the other guy,
06:11then that other guy would get hurt or wouldn't be available.
06:13Then it just rode on the front office, like, to the point where
06:17to the rest of the team it was kind of a mixed bag of
06:20they don't know what they're expecting with their goaltending on a given night.
06:23When Sergei Bobrovsky gets in there, the numbers don't show it,
06:27but in the important moments he's making those saves,
06:29and he's kind of been a quintessential leader on the ice, too.
06:33Like, just talking to a lot of the players,
06:35they just seem to be enamored by this guy's preparation,
06:38his presence, what he's able to do.
06:42In that game against Colorado, you know, he's a big part of that comeback.
06:45The Avalanche are peppering him, and he's just making these saves
06:49that are keeping the team in the game.
06:51So the stats are kind of one of those things where the stats don't show
06:55the actual impact in the situations all the time.
06:58And it's been the biggest net positive, I would say,
07:02of this team's offense, our off-season changes all year long.
07:07You mentioned the front office and Chayka.
07:09What are some of the biggest differences you've noticed
07:11with Chayka at the helm as opposed to those past regimes?
07:15Yeah, it's kind of a new old thing.
07:17So, you know, when they moved on from Kyle Dubas a few years ago,
07:20they kind of went to a little bit more traditional,
07:24getting some more guys that have some toughness, some edge,
07:27some of those things that they felt they were missing
07:29from a playoff perspective.
07:31And then now it's all back to the analytics.
07:34It's all back to shoring up the sports science team
07:37and making sure, you know, guys are set up and prepared.
07:41And, you know, under Jim Hiller here,
07:43it almost looks like the Sheldon Keefe team from a few years ago
07:47where it's a lot of just drive offense,
07:51like allow it to be more free flow, more free form,
07:54and bring some of that stuff back.
07:58So it's kind of a new old.
08:00And to some degree that isn't wrong
08:03because the Leafs used to have one of the best records in the league
08:05just by letting the offense kind of fly.
08:08So they're trying to do that,
08:09but they're adding, you know, a little bit more analytics,
08:12a little bit more defensive stuff,
08:13a little bit more preparational things
08:16that they feel would best set them up for success
08:19over an 84-game season.
08:20So I think that's the biggest change.
08:23We're still kind of trying to figure it out
08:25because, you know, a lot of the personnel is the same.
08:27It's the front office stuff that's been the biggest change right now.
08:31David Alter of the Hockey News on the Leafs
08:34and tonight's Sabres and Leafs.
08:35David, thanks for the time.
08:36Yeah, you got it.
08:37Thanks so much for having me.
08:387 o'clock face-off this evening from Toronto.
08:45It'd be nice to get the Leafs, I mean, rivalry, back.
08:49It'd be nice to build one.
08:53I'll just go with that.
08:55When's the last time it was a true,
08:57the two teams had it for each other?
09:00Ooh.
09:01I mean, really?
09:02It's a good question.
09:03There was a minute in there in like, I don't know,
09:07I thought it was like 2010, 11,
09:09it felt like the games were juiced.
09:13But it's really not been.
09:15It's been a one-sided thing.
09:16It's a bubble.
09:17Yeah, yeah.
09:17We think about them and they don't think about us at all.
09:20Yeah, exactly.
09:21And when the Sabres were really good 0-5-0-6,
09:23the Leafs were really bad.
09:25And then, of course, the Sabres got really bad
09:27and the Leafs were good for a while.
09:28Right.
09:29And, you know, they had a capped existence as well.
09:31Anyway, quick story out of the NFL.
09:33I found this interesting.
09:34Mike Tirico.
09:35You have this for shots of audio, Joe?
09:37I didn't want to steal it from you.
09:38Mike Tirico.
09:38No.
09:39He's got an idea for NFL scheduling.
09:41Yeah.
09:42He'd like them to change NFL scheduling
09:44and thinks they should go to the Premier League model.
09:48And what that is, is you announce who's playing who in given weeks,
09:54but you don't announce the times until you know how the seasons are going.
10:01You got it?
10:01All right.
10:02Here's Mike Tirico on what he'd like to see from NFL scheduling.
10:06But I would lay it out like the Premier League.
10:08Like, hey, here is match window 14.
10:11And here are the fixtures for that match week.
10:13And six weeks or so out, you start slotting them in.
10:17I think that would help leave good inventory for an early Sunday.
10:21Have your best games late Sunday afternoon and Sunday night.
10:25And there is some flexibility with Monday, right?
10:27You can move somebody a day later on in the season.
10:29And Thursdays are hard because you've got to do that puzzle very intricately.
10:36In fact, if you go to the Premier League's app right now,
10:39go to their, like, December 19th, all the games are the same time.
10:43There is no differentiation.
10:46That might be a specific one.
10:47But later on in the season, you'll see that the times are not exactly locked in.
10:53And, okay, could that work for the NFL?
10:56I saw this clip online and I saw the immediate first response on Twitter.
11:01How often is the first response you see under a comment on Twitter
11:06is the right answer to what the person has just said?
11:08Usually it's some sort of, like, bot thing and trying to sell you something.
11:11It was, that works great in a country where the longest trip is, like, 300 miles.
11:16Yep.
11:16True.
11:17Never mind.
11:17Again, conversation over.
11:20You can't just decide, you know, week seven, we've got Bills Raiders.
11:25Week six, Bills Raiders.
11:26I don't know what day it is, what time it is.
11:28It's just going to be in that week.
11:29Right.
11:30That's a little tough.
11:32And would they do it for television dollars because the television rules all over the fans?
11:37Sure, maybe.
11:37But I thought that was an immediate strong counterpoint.
11:41He says that.
11:41You think, like, okay, I get it.
11:43TV's king.
11:44Small country.
11:45Okay.
11:46They take trains to their games.
11:48Right.
11:48You know, like.
11:49Yeah, those trips aren't, those are not long.
11:51They have four teams in London.
11:53Right.
11:54Like, it's not exactly, what time are we playing?
11:56I don't know.
11:57I'll get there four hours before the game.
11:58You let me know what time the game is.
11:59Is it one?
12:00I'll walk over.
12:00Right, exactly.
12:01So, anyway, 803-0550.
12:04Sal checking in from California coming up at 9 o'clock.
12:07Shots of audio in the 9 o'clock segment as well.
12:09Jeremy and Joe on WGR.
