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00:01this is a little standoff here because normally when you pop in here it's your job to talk first
00:07that's right but that's at noon but tim's not here today so owen parker is with me all day it's
00:12mid days with brad tim and owen since tim again uh today again i mean whatever he was out of
00:19town
00:19stuff but it's we're back we've done this before very recently because tim was out of town for a
00:25long time so no tim no problem it's like when uh what are you pointing at you pointing at something
00:29no i'm trying to show me something i was cracking my oh i thought you were like brad look over
00:32there
00:32there's something very important happening in the corner of the room oh no it's fine i misinterpreted
00:36i thought we had like this non-verbal we're getting pretty good at the non-verbal communication we're
00:41getting there on that i just you know i thought you aren't expecting for there to be a water bottle
00:45you can't see no that's all right just it seemed like a gesture like right now if i'm doing this
00:48you're going to be looking at the wall pointing at the point of calls right yeah whatever um but
00:54we're fine is the point paul hamilton's going to join us at some point and i'm glad because there was
00:59a hockey game last night and it was a late night hockey game i will confess 10 15 i'm getting
01:04ready
01:05to go for my 30 to 45 minute walk at night and as i'm walking out the door i go
01:11wait a minute
01:13sabers game 10 30 like it i forgot i was watching baseball i'm like it's tight i can go right
01:18now
01:18i'll get back forgot so it was not a 30 to 45 minute walk it was about an 18 minute
01:25walk to get back
01:26to sit down in time for face off in look you're the hockey guy i'm just some dude who watches
01:31it on
01:32television that was definitely the best game i've seen them play this year by like a lot yet also
01:37raises issues because if you get that many shots and that many opportunities and you're not finishing
01:42them and you still have to rely on your goaltender to come up huge which he did um and you
01:47come out
01:47with a two nothing victory i i think because of the the wins and the losses and even the overtime
01:52loser point games that we've been seeing man are we going to be happy with everything from last
01:59night but they still only scored once without that empty net yes uh benson finally scores to get the
02:06empty net to preserve or to seal a two nothing win but i could not have been happier about that
02:12game
02:13and i sat there we'll get to it because i want you to have a turn to talk before i
02:17go into my whole
02:18thing about colton ellis but about halfway through that game there was a one of several just flurries
02:24in front of the net where they're just oh look at this guy ellis he's a he's a tough one
02:28to beat
02:29tonight all that stuff and i just i found myself just smiling and i realized i was smiling because
02:35there's this 26 year old guy who has i'm not saying he listens to wgr all the time but he
02:39knows the
02:39scuttlebutt around the team has been they need to get better at goaltender and they've got to get
02:45hella buck and when is alex lion going to get back so they can get into a rotation it's the
02:50same guy
02:51that the third game of the season paul hamilton came on the air and said look this is an opportunity
02:56for colton ellis to go and grab the starting goaltender position nothing is solidified it was
03:01a rotation last year of three guys only two of them are here right now and the first one hasn't
03:06been stupendous in the first couple of games so go grab it and he was good enough that he started
03:10the fourth game as well but a couple goals went in against him lindy ruff went with his old playoff
03:16mode the most recent time all right we'll just switch him up and hasn't gone back to him since
03:21until yesterday when he goes in and the dude was ready to play and locked in and it makes me
03:27think
03:27he's been sitting there the whole time going i hear you i hear you talking about needing a goaltender i
03:33don't know if you've noticed i've got pads and i've got the big stick and i've got a how i've
03:38got a
03:38mask i'm wearing a cup today i am ready to play if you guys need me and they're like no
03:43it's cool
03:44we need better goaltending we just keep playing upl we need better goaltending we keep trying to
03:48trade for hellebuck and we need better goaltending and we're mad at yarmo for not bringing in
03:52hellebuck and meanwhile this dude is just sitting there going hey me can i can i try it he's not
03:59necessary i don't know that i'm gonna steal it from him but i assure you i played the position
04:03before you let me do it last year can i do it this year and then he does it and
04:08he was
04:08excellent and it doesn't mean it's sustainably great it just means you had another option
04:14sitting there this whole time and you're banging your head against the wall and you know i get it
04:19i believe in lindy ruff and his understanding of the mentality of his players and all that stuff
04:24but jesus man he's been sitting there the whole time and he put it all together and maybe it maybe
04:29this was right maybe this is lindy's plan to motivate him to make sure if i give him weeks
04:35off at a time he's going to come out raring to go and now we're going to flip it and
04:38he's going to be
04:38the number i don't know i just know that i felt really good for a guy who has to have
04:43been very
04:44frustrated while keeping his nose down and working to get the opportunity and go out there and give
04:49the sabers their best goaltending performance of the season in their best game of the season and we
04:56can talk about whether it starts at the back and works forward which i think it does i think it
05:00became pretty obvious pretty early on that this guy was hot at least for the night and i think it
05:05allowed them to play freer and it allowed them to create a ton of chances and they still didn't
05:09convert many of them and that's a problem but all in all that felt like a i don't know if
05:15turning
05:15point is is the right word but it certainly felt like a different flavor of sabers hockey than we had
05:21seen through the first 11 games it was definitely a moment it was definitely a return to form to
05:27the kind of hockey that we saw them play regularly starting in december last season they look like
05:33themselves again and they said that on the broadcast like i don't know eight million times and i agree with
05:40it it's the right it's the right point because they looked back and ellis like i'll just i'll start
05:45there just because i think he deserves a lot of credit to your point he he has had a weird
05:51start
05:52like he gets that first game he plays in minnesota and he's great and or not in minnesota against
05:58minnesota here in buffalo he plays great the team plays up to that point easily their best game and he
06:06gets a good result and it's like you said there was that sort of feeling like man he could kind
06:12of
06:12take this thing right now because this hasn't been great from from upl and you know what what what is
06:18he really gonna how far can the kid take this thing and then he plays you know the florida game
06:24is tough
06:25you know he gets yanked out of there early it's two goals it's a fast pull but it's it's worthy
06:31it's it's
06:31two really bad goals it was it was deserved and that can be really hard and then the gm comes
06:40on to the
06:41radio station and talks about you know upl is a big part of the future and you know ellis yeah
06:47he's
06:48not been as good as we we really kind of wanted him to be he was the better last year
06:52and and i don't
06:53know and he doesn't get to play for a while and i i think that last night him him showing
06:59up and
06:59playing that way is a testament to his his toughness mentally and that that deserves some serious praise
07:06because that's a spot that it would be very easy to just listen these guys don't even believe in me
07:12they want this other guy to be the guy i got yanked so fast last time i'm on such a
07:18short leash
07:18what am i what am i doing i was a waiver claim here these guys didn't even draft me i'm
07:23a lottery ticket
07:24for them why am i gonna i whatever this isn't a good situation sure but scratch it right and then
07:30but right he he says all right whatever i'm gonna go out there and do my thing and it was
07:36really
07:37impressive he was not the cleanest last night it was not technically perfect i was scrambly but it
07:43was this is that colton chaos thing we're talking about that's exactly right it was colton chaos to
07:48a t he was really impressive he made a lot a lot of really difficult saves and i i said
07:56this this
07:56morning he how many of those saves that he makes yesterday do we come in here if they go in
08:01and go
08:02like what do you want him to do six how many times have we done that with lucan in this
08:06year
08:08constant and how big a difference is that for the team huge that's the difference that's why
08:15i'm in here talking about they need better goaltending and how big a problem it is that game last night
08:21is
08:22it that is a team buffalo last night they did not play great in their own end all night long
08:29they
08:29gave stuff up and they gave the puck away and gave san jose some premier opportunities that are big big
08:37chances and ellis stepped right up to the plate and said no i'm gonna i'm gonna bail my team out
08:44because in general in the overall they're playing great and all they need of me right now is for me
08:50to
08:50make one huge save and then maybe in six minutes they'll need one more but i know they're in that
08:57in between they're gonna run this team over and that's exactly what they did and that's exactly what
09:02he did and they won what do you know it that last night to me is such a good example
09:08of why goaltending
09:09can change how games go well because you can play a great offensive game like they did but also be
09:16snake bit and also run into a really strong goaltending performance at the other end you
09:21can have all those things happen and then if you don't get what you need at the back end of
09:26it
09:26that's over time and then you lose or it's you lose 2-1 but you outshot them by 12 and
09:33it's just
09:34all of it it came together perfectly last night and i love that it happened on the start of the
09:40west
09:40coast swing too um it would be insane to think that ellis doesn't get the next start
09:46i that would be insane i think so but i wouldn't be stunned i would be stunned i think that
09:52this is
09:53this happened last year lion had a shutout and they went right back to lucanin yeah and then it was
09:57lucanin lion lucanin lion lucanin lion but they were in a groove with lucanin they have not found a
10:03goaltending groove yet that's right to the point where all we've been talking about is hellebuck and then
10:08as soon as that ended it's like all right where is alex why next why have we been ignoring colton
10:13ellis this whole time i just assume it's justified and again this is not why didn't this happen
10:20sooner this is like maybe this is when it needed to happen maybe this is how much leash lindy ruff
10:24decided to give upl let him fight through because really if it's known that you're trying to trade
10:29for hellebuck and then you don't get hellebuck and everybody's mad that there's no hellebuck and then
10:33you sit upl immediately like all right well i guess we'll try this other thing i could see that being
10:38a little bit jarring for everybody so every time that you're playing ellis you have to think about
10:43what that means to upl and every time you're playing upl you have to think about what it means
10:47to ellis all while waiting for lion all while talking about hellebuck so all of it to me it just
10:51it feels like maybe there's some clarification maybe upl is much better cj spiller keeps coming
10:59to mind cj spiller would carry the ball 11 times he'd average eight yards a carry and people would be
11:04like why doesn't he carry the ball 25 times like because then he'll average four yards a carry this
11:09is what he's capable of doing is it possible that upl is a perfectly fine goaltender when he plays
11:15every other night or he plays two out of three games or three out of four games instead of nine
11:21out of ten games or whatever the number ended up yeah is that entirely possible that this is not the
11:25solution colton ellis is not the answer he didn't become number one but you can use him to lighten the
11:33burden on the guy that you have determined is your one ahead of your one a or however it ends
11:39up working out we're sliding back into last year's pattern without alex lion being there and if
11:44accidentally fumbling into it is the way that they're going to get better goaltending then i
11:48accept it completely and if it took this many games to get there this is the part where i go
11:52hey
11:52you're four four and three it's not terrible you can be better get some goaltending get two points
11:57instead of one don't lose in overtime stop adding to that third column all of it happened yesterday it
12:02was beautiful it was a beautiful thing especially for a game but i almost forgot to watch 12 hours
12:06ago right now i was about to go for a walk and then i went oh no sabers and i'm
12:11so glad i locked in
12:12and watched the world series on my phone instead of on the television because that was also awesome
12:16yeah it was great it was a it was a a really refreshing performance for me a sort of okay
12:23there it is like
12:25they are capable of playing that way and that that makes you feel good and you said in there
12:30like if they accidentally stumble into good goaltending i'll take that that's how most
12:34teams get good goaltending ever most of the good goalies are fifth six eighth tenth round picks that
12:41nobody ever thought anything of half of them are undrafted guys that's the position you stumble
12:47into what works and if ellis is going to work then you should give him some run i i like
12:54i said i would
12:54go back to him tomorrow in anaheim but it wouldn't stun me if what he did last night is not
13:00earn the
13:01net back back to back but earn the right to become the the second guy and to become a 50
13:0950 split to be
13:10treated how alex lyon will be treated when he returns has he earned that over you know maybe it's a
13:17little early to say like oh we're gonna give him a run and he's gonna be the starter now he's
13:211a he's
13:21he's the guy but i i would give it i would give him a chance well if his start against
13:26minnesota
13:26earned him the next start and then giving up two goals in the next start earned him a spot on
13:31the
13:31bench for three weeks um i think this should at least reset that and make that go away i think
13:38it's
13:39nuts that because i understood when he got pulled like okay tonight's not your night it's really what
13:45lindy fell into in the playoffs yeah and he's like all right we're not doing the rotation anymore but
13:48we're willing to jump in on any given night and uh save somebody who's just not have doesn't have
13:56it going that day and i think i like that mentality i think that's cool and i didn't have a
14:00problem
14:01with him getting pulled but it wasn't two goals that preclude you from playing the next 10 games it
14:06was two goals that means we're going to try the other guy tonight and not getting back to that is
14:10kind of weird and i wonder what led to it and how we were there unless it was just keep
14:16playing upl
14:16because we're trying to showcase him because we're trying to trade him that might have been a part
14:19of it too i don't know what the mentality is but he certainly wasn't bad enough in that game to
14:24get
14:24pulled for a month he was bad enough to get pulled from that game and then a day or two
14:29later i would
14:30reassess and say is it time for him to play again so um i i hope this resets the the
14:35counter there
14:36just the mentality of lindy ruff as he approaches the the upcoming schedule i would think that it would
14:43because it it it was an impress it was a really impressive performance he was great he he made
14:49every stop you wanted him to and then five or six that you didn't and that's you get that you're
14:55winning a lot of hockey games so that that was really encouraging i was encouraged by the way they
15:01played in the offensive zone too like they were really impressive i felt like josh norris heard you
15:07talking about him i thought that was for sure his best game by far by a lot like a difference
15:12maker
15:13uh consistently even i mean obviously they only scored one goal before the um before the empty
15:19nighter by benson but very often on these chances even if it's not him he was a part of it
15:25he was
15:26set up he was crashing the net he's the one that's getting a glove in his face because he's being
15:30annoying he's blocking shots right he's blocking shots too so um i i thought yes i i like i loved
15:39what
15:39they did offensively and you know me and my boy very happy zell wigger the zell wigger performance
15:45yeah he was he was all over they couldn't stop talking about him on the broadcast johnson saying
15:50he's the best player on the ice he was he was really fun that's a player that like man you
15:56they
15:57had a lot in byram last season and and i really liked what byram brought this is a guy that
16:03can do all
16:03of that i think right now i like him better now than byram ever yeah and he's a fraction of
16:09the
16:09cost and his age is better yeah i think that's early it's early to be there but i i get
16:13it it's
16:14it's exciting it's very fun and he's got he's got some juice and that's going to be a fun guy
16:20to watch
16:21as he i i can only see him getting better and better because he's going to get more and more
16:25comfortable in this system that allows guys i mean there was a play last night where it's
16:29darlin and samuelson on a two-on-one with forwards behind him and it's just like what what is the
16:35your hockey brain can't quite make sense of it it doesn't even compute and i think that he will
16:42see that and continue to get more and more comfortable with that and he might become a real
16:46real nasty piece for them there were moments during last night's game where eight and nine look very
16:51similar and i would see what i thought was norris in a spot where i would expect to see norris
16:56and then it was zell wigger and then there's another one where i thought it was zell wigger
16:59and literally his the way his jersey was tucked norris's jersey was kind of tucked so you could
17:05see the top part but you couldn't see the bottom part and he popped up and i was like oh
17:08that is
17:09eight or that is nine not eight but whatever it was the fact that they were interchangeable last
17:15night in moments at least in my brain my feeble hockey watching brain uh you know late night too
17:20um but that i thought was awesome those were two of the standout player obviously um ellis first but
17:27the the other two standouts to me zell wigger and and norris coming to life in the way that
17:31you discussed yesterday which i thought was awesome um 803 0550 is the number if you'd like
17:36to reach out and be a part of the show we like to connect with the fans courtesy of norhtown
17:40kia
17:40western new york's number one kia dealer shop online at norhtown kia.com we'll take your calls
17:46and uh we've got a couple guests booked uh we'll get we got a bunch of plans a lot of
17:49plans uh brad tim and
17:51owen but it's owen no tim it's fine all that's fine jay you're on wgr what's up hey guys real
17:58quick
17:59i i firmly believe that they've been hiding ellis you don't pick a goalie up off the waivers and
18:04protect them the way they do because they know that he's probably with play going to be past upl
18:10and then they're going to have a goalie a four million dollar goalie that's really not worth
18:14four million dollars it'll be harder to move them obviously they know they have a goalie problem
18:20they've tried to address it how many times they can't they haven't that being said you're probably
18:26you you've got to go with ellis and lions when lions comes back and i don't know what you do
18:32at
18:33upl because he had his chance like you guys were just saying nine ten games and just real quick i'll
18:39hit on another player i firmly believe norris is in a slump because he knows his he's involved in a
18:45lot of these trade discussions because those guys agents are plugged in they have players on the other
18:49teams and those agents talk to the different gms and stuff and i think that norris is just going
18:56through this because he knows his time is numbered here i just hang up and listen all right well it's
19:00the wrong day to make that point i would say on norris any day before today i think that point
19:05would
19:05be um more respected than it is right now yeah you're just are you responding to our conversation
19:12about how great the guy played the day after owen was like they really need norris to become a force
19:17at forward and he was last night i i think he was he was good he didn't do any like
19:21there wasn't that
19:22much flash but it was easily the most consistent and noticeable he was well he looked like the
19:28highest paid most respected veteran forward all that stuff that you're looking for when you're
19:32giving him the kind of money that you're giving him and very often he's forgettable uh even if he's
19:38not killing you which he you know i don't typically see that like oh they lost this game because i
19:44just
19:45need something and i saw it for 60 minutes last night right so that was uh that was pretty great
19:51um also and i'm curious with you because you're here for the morning show how do people navigate
19:59west coast hockey when they have to like do a morning show let's say at 6 a.m or something
20:05like
20:05that and and you're here like for example today you'll be here until two o'clock if the sabers were
20:11to play tonight you would be locked in watching them tonight at 10 30 again and then you'd be here
20:19at
20:19whatever five i don't know what time you get here five and then stay till how do you do that
20:23because i
20:23personally if they weren't killing it yesterday i would have been down after after 40 but the fact that
20:31they were up and i was feeling they were playing great and i was feeling i was like there is
20:36no way
20:37i'm going to sleep before this game ends um so you know i'm it was because baseball was over at
20:41that
20:41point baseball game ended right around the same time the second period ended uh and then it was just
20:46like okay i'm down to one thing i'm watching it's a sabers with a one goal lead i am i'm
20:51tired but i am
20:52sticking with this thing and it it paid off but how do you do it i go i sleep in
20:58shifts is what i do
20:59i go home i'll do the same thing today because i just want to keep on the schedule but i
21:05this was
21:06a topic on the morning show too but i i get home uh from doing this show so 2 30
21:12i sort of putz around
21:13the house for an hour eat something go to sleep from 4 till 8 39 okay get up then watch
21:22the game go
21:22back to bed for a few hours all right so you just take your sleep divided into right that works
21:28so this
21:29was the topic this morning only because of you or because of everybody else too because you're the
21:33one that's dealing with it the most yeah no i i was it brought i came up yesterday that i
21:38was gonna
21:38do this and then we did a recap today okay and you're happy with it so far yeah i'm doing
21:43great
21:43would a doctor approve probably not but a doctor approve of most of the things we do yeah right
21:49probably no no all right valid point we'll take a time out but phone calls are welcome the bills are
21:54back in action joe brady will be on the show today not with us specifically but he will address the
22:00media live at about 140 so that will be a part of the show we will navigate around that to
22:06try to get
22:06you as much of joe brady as possible as we're getting set for bills ravens as they're getting
22:11back in action uh following the bye sitting at five and one going up against a ravens team that may
22:16or may not have lamar jackson so that's all sitting there uh but the sabers went out and played
22:21i mean i declared it the best game i've seen them play this year um certainly the best game they
22:25played since minnesota right florida was good they played good against florida was good minnesota was
22:32good chicago game early was good um but it's it's certainly among the best of the first 12 games that
22:38they've played and i would say well it's first shutout so that uh defensively we'll call that
22:43at least goaltending wise we'll call that the best um and i i thought offensively despite the fact
22:48that it was just one goal before the empty netter i thought they had so many chances and were dominant
22:53i mean they outchance them for sure and high danger all those things i don't have them in front of
22:59me
22:59i'll tell you right now you watch that game which team is better and it was the buffalo sabers from
23:04start to finish which was awesome to see especially considering they still got a couple more on this road
23:10trip out west at anaheim at la both of those games coming up this weekend tomorrow and then saturday
23:16night quick time out we'll be right back it's middays with brad tim and owen brought to you
23:19by tim hortons it's the official coffee of the morning show and the official coffee of wgr tailgates
23:25which resumed this week because the bills are home against the ravens man there's a lot to do
23:29here in buffalo new york on october 28th a lot to discuss and we'll continue in just a moment
23:35middays with brad tim and owen on wgr
23:37you
23:37you
23:37you
23:38you
23:38you
23:38you