- 8 hours ago
Jeremy White and Joe DiBiase get things started on Thursday morning by discussing the Sabres brutal 2-1 loss to the Senators. They start by praising the impressive performance from Colten Ellis that was wasted by the Sabres inability to finish chances. They analyze the really poor effort in the 3rd period that saw them blow their one-goal lead and bleed two points in a TIGHT division race.
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00:00and they're calling him Colton chaos. He's a psycho. He lost and that's unfortunate because
00:08that would have been a fun game for the Sabres to win. He, uh, I don't think he deserved the
00:12loss. No, I don't think so either. I thought Colton chaos was, uh, fun. Yeah. Right. I mean,
00:19geez. Fun. He, uh, he just, there will be a minute every game. It's a, there are a couple
00:25rules with the, the Sabres team, whatever line Benson's on scores. Yep. That's one
00:30rule. And another rule is there will be at least one minute where in a Colton chaos
00:37game, you are gonna have a, uh, really anxious moment where he's missing some
00:44piece of equipment and, uh, there's a lot of pressure around him. Maybe there's
00:49bodies in the net, but yesterday it was, he didn't have a stick again. Yep.
00:55Just so he was diving around on the ground. The puck hits his stick. His stick
00:59somehow ends up in the corner. And now we got to go a minute without him having
01:03a stick. That's the minute I go for. It's like, it's like going to a haunted
01:07house and Halloween. You're, you want the thrill. I go to six. I'm there to see
01:12Colton chaos to see that minute. Oh, here it is. He lost his stick. Yeah. Ottawa was
01:18just, it was amazing. And they were on the power play at the same time too, which
01:22made it even worse, but right. Money puck put chaos at a 1.14 goals saved above
01:28expected. Yeah. How many games the Sabres have had like that lately? It's been a
01:32while, right? Not many games this year have gone that way. And this time it's,
01:37you know, the forwards that let you down. It's the, it's, I thought that Sabres
01:42looked like they ran out of gas because in the first two periods they were, I
01:46thought they were working pretty hard and I thought they looked all right, but just
01:49ran out of gas by the end of it. Ottawa was maybe the better team throughout the
01:52night, but I didn't think the Sabres were, you know, there for lack of trying, maybe
01:55not the sharpest they've been, which that could happen when your first game back
01:58from Western West, West coast trip, he tried to say, but Ottawa was coming back
02:03from the West as well. So I don't know what the excuse was, but a tough loss, you
02:07know, any loss like that where it's in division and you had it, you had the lead or
02:13tied at the end of regulation or close to the end of regulation, you give up a goal
02:16that late. That's tough. This was the rare game. I don't often do this, but this
02:22was the rare game where I was noticing how frequently the fourth line was on the
02:26ice. You and I were at the game together. Yeah. The fourth line even earned an
02:30icing and Lindy kept them out there. Yeah. Like the big Ottawa iced it. Yeah. So
02:36offensive zone start ozone star. They were tied with less than 10 minutes to go. And
02:41what it's, it's just, it's the fourth line's going to start down there again. Okay. That
02:47seems strange to me. So I think what happened and this is a larger point of
02:55concern is you're playing Ottawa team in your division that lost their best player
03:01over the summer. And you're tied with them in the final 10 minutes of the game. And you
03:07have a line that's got a lot of money tied up in it in Josh Norris, Ryan McLeod
03:12and Jason Zucker that they could not trust to put on the ice. Yeah. So if you wanted
03:16to roll three lines, what's your third line? They decided, Lindy decided, uh, Carrick,
03:21Malenstein, Kozak. And I'm not honestly not loving that they stayed out there for the
03:27ozone start. You know, once they're out there and they're out there for 30 seconds
03:31and okay, you got them to ice it. Let's put the fresher line out there. You know, maybe you
03:36can hem them in their own end and you have a bit of a, of an energy advantage
03:40there, but honestly, Norris McLeod are a disaster this season. I don't blame
03:48anybody. I don't blame Lindy for putting Malenstein out there over them because
03:52there's McLeod on the game tying goal. He just, just totally forgets to cover his
03:57guy. He is supposed to be a defensive center and that stuff's been happening
04:02with him since the end of last season. And he looks totally lost
04:06offensively. Norris doesn't do almost anything. You know what's sad about the
04:11state of where we're at with Norris? You said near the end of the first period
04:14yesterday, well, maybe that's the second time I've noticed Norris. Maybe it's
04:19because he's playing Ottawa. The standard is I've noticed him twice in a period.
04:23Yeah, that's right. Like they're nowhere with two centers that make a total of over
04:28$12 million per year. And they are Norris seems untradeable at this point. Maybe
04:34McLeod's arriving at the same place. Just they're doing nothing for them.
04:39Yeah. I think if there's one forward where not only is it not going well, but
04:45you're not, I don't know if I ever see it coming out. Like Norris and McLeod are
04:49a little different. Like you kind of laid it out there. Norris, I almost never expect
04:53it. And when it happens, it's a surprise last year. McLeod was to me almost a
04:57revelation. Like this guy's great. Look at this guy. Perfect third line center on
05:02the penalty kill, shorthanded stuff like the speed he brought. Yeah. And
05:07end of last regular season, like the last 15 games and then into the playoffs, it
05:12all started turning. It's the kind of thing where if it was only 15 games, we
05:15would say, is he hurt? But now we've got 15 games, a playoffs and an off season
05:19and another 15 games. Right. That it's just not happening. It's just gone. It's not
05:24happening. No, it's not. It's not. And he, he's playing wing. So like, I can still
05:29wonder like, well, maybe that's, that's what's happening there. Like he's not
05:33comfortable playing wing. Although on the game tying goal, he's not playing wing. He
05:36takes the face off. You got center responsibilities and you just let your guy go to the front
05:40of the net uncontested. But in large part, he's playing wing. Norris isn't playing
05:44wing. He was for a few games at the start of the year. Like he's just healthy and
05:48playing center and not really doing much. So I don't, I don't even want to try to
05:53pick like which of the two is more Norris is probably of the two. It's more
05:56concerning because Norris has more trade protection and more money tied up in him
06:00and a longer term of contract. And you paid more to get him right. Like all due
06:05respect to Matt Savoy. I know he was a top 10 pick, but the guy on Ottawa side put
06:09up 60 points last year and Norris was supposed to be better than him if he was
06:13healthy and that's not happening. So you, you really kind of need one of the
06:18two. I think I can, they go all year long with both of those two veteran
06:22forwards that are paid to contribute for this team doing absolutely nothing.
06:28No, especially not if I've got nothing from Helen. Yes. Who's hurt. And
06:33Yuri Cooley continues to, well, I mean, he's been hurt too, right? Right. And the
06:38kids are supposed to come along. Ostland is definitely working. The rest of it
06:41is just kind of not right. We say this after they'd won three straight games out
06:45on the West coast. So yeah, they had a three game win streak.
06:48They returned home. And again, I don't think it was a dud of an effort, but it's
06:51definitely a dud of a result. And that's unfortunate. Lindy called it a dud of an
06:56effort. Really? Lindy was very hot about it. Lindy. I'll get the exact quote. I
07:01thought the third was that. Did you think that in the first and the second? I
07:04didn't. I thought the first and second were pretty even. Yeah. I thought it was
07:06fine. I would have called it their best game. DJ and Virginia in the chats
07:10asking about like what happened to don't be in a dog. There's another one where you
07:14when I was sitting at the game and there's a shift or two. Oh, there's Josh
07:17stone. There he is on the back check. And I was instantly my life flashed before my
07:22eyes were all last year. He was hounding dudes on the four check and the vintage or
07:29whatever the typical Josh Doan goal or creation was stealing a puck on the four
07:33check in the offensive zone and making something happen. And I don't see that this
07:37year, but last night there were multiple shifts where I thought he kicked it up into an
07:41extra gear. Almost like he got, you know, read a riot act by somebody because he's
07:44been struggling this year. And then on one of those shifts, he got plastered into the
07:48boards and on a boarding call. But I thought, whatever, I just, I feel like there
07:54are a couple of players that you're, you're looking at it and saying, maybe it's
07:58playoff intensity that I remember playoff intensity. I'm waiting to see that. And I
08:02don't get that from everybody. I certainly get that from Benson. Do you get it from
08:06Benson? Benson continues to give you stuff nearly every night, if not every night,
08:10every shift, every shift. There are, there are shifts where the goal, they end up
08:14scoring. He has enough of a shift long enough, good of it, good enough of a shift
08:18that I say out loud, this is going to be a generational shift if they score. And
08:22they did, maybe it was a little bit lucky, but like, whatever. He just, he's, he's the
08:26guy that stirs the drink and they need two more guys that play like he plays with
08:31different body types, maybe. But, but again, we thought we had one. We thought, we
08:35thought Doan was, we thought, right. And that still hopefully comes back because
08:40yeah, you know, they bet on him to be that for seven years. They did. Yeah.
08:45Lindy said last night, we got out skated. We got outworked. Some of our puck play
08:48wasn't good. Not going to sit here and make excuses. We weren't good enough.
08:52Got outworked. He talked about how the senators had seven odd man rushes. We're
08:56not sure we, if we had one in this game, um, that might be true. I think that is
09:01definitely true. I don't remember the Sabres ever having a two on one. No, no. Every time
09:05they carried across the blue line, I mean, the number of times I thought it was, here
09:07comes Benson carrying it in and there's really nobody with him other than
09:11Tage. And in terms of puck management, there were a couple of times, right, where
09:14a puck is turned over on an exit or flipped out. And a couple of times, what
09:18Tage had a puck go right to him and just miss it. You know, there, there,
09:22whatever. There was some sloppiness. The puck, there was the one shift where you
09:25and I were sitting, they missed the puck four times trying to pass it. That was
09:29their power play. Okay. Their power play. The puck kept moving from the spot they
09:33thought it was. And then they kept fanning on it. I think they fanned on it as a
09:36team five times on one power play. They never really lost it though. Like they
09:40somehow kept getting it back. Just messed up the timing. They really came close to
09:44scoring on that power play, which man, that would have put them up two to
09:48nothing. Cause that's in the third. I don't think Ottawa had tied it yet. Like
09:51it would have felt like games out of reach at that point. Yeah. Like I, I know
09:55Lindy, Lindy was kind of after it about them being outworked. I did not feel that
10:00way in the first two periods. The third period though. Yeah. Like I think it
10:04happened. I think Ottawa looked way better. And also like, I know Norris and
10:10McLeod are like two guys that I'm thinking about a lot this morning, but
10:14Darlene was brutal last night, right? Like maybe the whole game, but certainly
10:19third period stepping up on that play when it's probably, it's about a 50, 50
10:26puck. Like it's a bouncing puck, but you're in a spot where if that bounces over
10:31your stick, you know, it's a bad situation going back the other way. And
10:36that's what happened. Like you just can't, you can't make that play. And
10:40really, I don't know how, I know there's been some complaints about him. The
10:43numbers still look great. Like when he's out there, you're still far and away
10:46the better team, but there's been complaints about him not doing a lot
10:51this season. How many special plays has you really seen from Darlene so far
10:56this season? I think he's been solid, but you know, maybe there's a point
10:59there about he's a little off his game in the first month. 803 05 50. If you'd
11:05like to join us was, was last night, not the poster child poster game for your
11:12goalie is in the process of stealing it for you. Even though we just laid out
11:16that I didn't think they were terrible, but Ellis made big saves early. He, he
11:22did the job in the first and the second, and he didn't have a bad goal. I didn't
11:27think we'll talk. Oh, and if you want to talk about it in the third, he didn't
11:29have a bad goal against, but that was exactly what it looks like when your
11:34goalie does, does the job for 40 and you got to win the third period to make
11:38sure that you finished the job for him. That's exactly right. That he did
11:42everything you could ask a guy to do for them last night, give them plenty of
11:46opportunity to find their game, get it done. And like those first two saves,
11:51Lindy talked about it in the post game when he was so hot, like they gave up a
11:55grade a plus plus chance in nine seconds and then followed it up with an
12:00even better backdoor chance. And he stopped both of them. And like that right
12:05there is like, okay, everybody should come alive. Wake up. And they didn't, they
12:09weren't bad for, for two periods, but they were bad in the third and they just
12:13didn't, they did not reward him for what was, I thought a stellar performance.
12:19And I've got, I've got people tweeting at me, some people in the bullpen talking
12:22about the first goal, the rebound, like that is a really, really high quality
12:28opportunity that he is making a one timer save on. Oh, you are never thinking
12:32about, is that the one where he's coming across left to right? Yes. And the shot
12:36goes back to his left. Yes. Yeah. I mean, people are asking for that to be
12:40kicked. Where, where do you want him to put that puck? That's not a realistic
12:44thing to ask for. Yeah. I never thought for a second that that was going to be, no,
12:47no. Me neither. And I got people in my day. I tweeted my post game thoughts. Like
12:52he was great. And I've got 20 people like, what about the first goal? The
12:56rebound was terrible. Like guys, I know we're all hypersensitive to that position
13:00right now. He was unbelievable last night in every phase too. Like he, not only did
13:05he stop the puck effectively, he was swallowing up rebounds and controlling the
13:09pace of the game. And he played the puck really well. Like he did everything you
13:13could ask a goalie to do last night. And they just didn't, didn't give him
13:17anything in return. And I, yeah, I thought it was a really good performance
13:21by him. That was really wasted by the team. I did say a lot at one point, like
13:25man, every shot that's going to him. No, nothing. There's no rebounds all game
13:31long. Yeah. I'm rewatching the game tying goal. The shot is from below the
13:34face-off circle. And it's a one timer from a lateral pass that crosses the
13:38Royal road. Right. That goes back across the other way. Yeah. Yeah. It's like it's,
13:42that's an absurd thing to ask for. I'm sorry. I know that, you know, we, I
13:46talk a lot about rebound control and how important it is. And that looks, you
13:50know, if you're not paying attention to the context, like he kicks a rebound
13:53out into the slot. Oh no. Yeah. But that's because he makes a great save in
13:57the first place. Yeah. It's not a realistic thing to be. Well, that play is
14:01not out. That play is straight McLeod. Just you, the guy you took the face
14:06off against, walk to the front of the net. And when the puck came to him, he was
14:10by himself. And he got burned on the, on the second huge save. McLeod is the
14:16guy that overskates the puck in the middle and doesn't get it out of the
14:18zone. He is a nightmare for them right now. It's, it is like, I don't know if
14:24he'd get claimed on waivers. Like if anybody's been watching him play, I don't,
14:29I can't stand watching him anymore. It's getting really absurd. Suddenly all the
14:36guys Adams traded for are not playing well. 803-0550. Norris, McLeod, Doan. There's
14:41also moments where like, and this is him, but like McLeod, there, there was a
14:45moment right in front of me in the corner that's like closest to the press box.
14:49He's forechecking a guy, guy is flat footed facing him. No, no opportunity to
14:54do anything. And McLeod skates straight at him and then peels off. And the guy's
14:59like, Oh, okay. I'll just skate away from you, I guess. And like, I know he doesn't lay
15:04the body, but he, he has to get a piece of somebody at some point. It's, it was
15:09embarrassing that play. And it was a very small thing that you won't notice very
15:14often, but it was just like, what are you, what are you doing right now? You're a
15:18third line. Like you're not Kucherov. You've got to lay a body once in a while.
15:23Yeah. Well, I mean, I am, I look at their lineup last night too, and I, I still feel
15:28like they are a solid team. Like I think last night it's brutal to give up that
15:33not to get a point when you're playing a divisional opponent, this division's
15:38going to be tight and to be up one, nothing and them to get two and you to get
15:41zero by the end of it for the standings. That's, that's horrible. It's horrible.
15:46You're right. It's colossally bad. That's yeah. But an area I thought could have
15:49been a strength for them coming into the year that I'm getting real worried
15:53about is what are they down the middle? Like I don't think Larkin's coming here.
16:00Nothing really points in that direction that he is going to say yes to them. He of
16:04course would fix a lot of what they need and would always be a better idea than a
16:08hellebuck idea. But the idea was we never thought he would say yes. Right. And that
16:11seems to be the latest report I saw on that was the Sabres offered a very big deal, like
16:17a very big package, but he won't say yes to it. Wouldn't you love to know what that
16:20deal is? And it probably does not include Norris and McLeod. What do you think that
16:25is? That's Helen. Yes. I think that's Consta. That's Consta and Mirka or one of
16:31their draft picks from this year. Not, not Jackson Rudolph. I think it might be
16:34maybe they give Rudolph if they can get Larkin. That's the kind of price you'd have
16:37to pay for Larkin. If you're making a deal of that, that magnitude. And you're
16:41outbidding, you know, at least a few other teams. But, but just quickly, like what he
16:45would solve is they might have nine guys who can play center, but look where
16:50they're at. About a dozen games into the season, just a little bit more than
16:53it. Peyton Krabs is your number one center. And he's actually like, it's not
16:58even the problem, right? Like he's, he's malleable. He goes up and on the lineup
17:01fairly well. Yeah. And he has done well with Thompson before. That's going fine.
17:05But what was the plan supposed to be, especially when these guys got here?
17:08Like when Josh Norris is acquired, what's the plan? First line center. First line
17:12center. Minimum second line center. Like top six center. Cause maybe Tage will play
17:16center or whatever. Like top six center. What's the plan with McLeod?
17:20He's going to be your third line center, right? And at the moment, my top two
17:25centers are Krebs and Osland. And then Norris is my third line center is not doing
17:29anything. He's already a peg below he was supposed to be. And that's not even
17:35working. I've got only one of the kids that's doing it down the middle. And I'm
17:40at a point where like, yeah, Krebs has got to do it. And that's actually going
17:43okay. But why does Krebs have to do it? Because it's not working with Norris. It's not
17:47working with McLeod. It's not working with Helen Hughes. It's not working with
17:49Kulik. That's, I mean, you'd like to get to a place, no offense to Krebs, where
17:54he's not playing as your number one center. Right. I know he scored last
17:58night. So that kind of gets to a question I want to ask. We'll start here.
18:02803-0550. As we talk today, there's some plenty of Bill stuff, of course, today
18:05too. Paul at seven. What drive, what, what right now do you hold on to for like
18:13the hope? What is your, what is your thing? Because I have to say, I am ashamed to admit
18:20that mine is Colton chaos, but really what, what is the thing? Even if it's you're shamefully
18:29doing it or shamelessly doing it, whichever one I need this to happen. Because if this
18:35doesn't happen, I don't know what does coming into the season, that was going to
18:40be Oslin, Helen, yes, and Kulik. Okay. If you want to have that be your thing, that
18:46can still be your thing right now. That's not my thing because Helen isn't here. If
18:51he was here, they might send him down to Rochester anyway, because they have so many
18:54skaters, so many forwards. Kulik. I mean, I'd love to see him play consistently.
18:59Oslin, that works. I'm really like holding on to chaos is maybe they found something.
19:05Last night on the Amazon broadcast, I did not watch this, but I was told they
19:08made a Hasha comparison. And of course that's absurd, but what else have I got
19:15right now? Really? Any idea of a trade, the hell of a thing represented a
19:21potential thing that could go right. And maybe it would have gone wrong, but what I
19:25need, I need something that is going to be like, this is what's going to steady
19:30them, take them to the next level, get them to where they were, get them to the
19:34postseason. Instead of the rotating goalies, they're going to have this one
19:38guy and he's going to be great. I think the one thing you have right now that
19:44I, that I'm clinging to, I'm not sure this is enough. Like, does it have to be
19:48something that I'm getting on top of the thing I can trust? Because the thing that
19:51I feel like I have right now is I've got a line that's going to score every
19:55single night. I've got Thompson is like heated up again. And I think a lot of that
20:01is to do with Benson going up there, but I've got a guy that's going to score
20:0540 goals. Like it's just automatic. He's going to score 40 to 50 goals and
20:11joked about this number maybe two years ago. I don't know how long ago this was,
20:14but Benson is becoming the 70 assist guy. Yes. Like, I don't know if he'll get to
20:2070. He's got a lot. He's got 12 and 15 games. He's pacing towards it. Excuse me.
20:23That's Carney McDavid. Carney McDavid. Like I, I've got, I'm going to make that
20:27happen. I've got Carney McDavid a goal score and a playmaker that I can trust
20:32right now. I think especially when they are together that I'm going to get a
20:37season from them almost no matter what. Yeah. Do I need, I probably need more
20:41than that, but I feel like I've got one line that I can trust to score on pretty
20:45much every single. Okay. But the teams that are good that have one line like
20:48that score a lot more points than the 70 assists, right? Isn't it a lot more than
20:53that? You need, if you have one line that does that, you need that number to be
20:5690. Right. That's right. I think that the thing that I always go back to is
21:02that they, they have an elite decor, no matter what happens up front. I continue to, I think
21:08Zellweger is maybe, maybe he's the other part of this for me. Like, Oh, he's a
21:13legit stud. He is that move. I, it was not a good off season for Yermo, but that
21:19move looks good. I think he looks really good. I think you've got everything you had
21:23in Byram already in that player with, I think a lot of room to grow. I mean, he's
21:27killing penalties last night. Like he's, he is that, that kid can play and you've
21:33got him in with power, Samuelson, Dahlin. And like, that is a premier defensive
21:39core in the league. And if you have a good decor, you have the bones of a good
21:43hockey team. And that, that is there for them. And I don't think they're like, that
21:47is as confident as I could ever be in any unit in anything like ever, like that, that
21:55core is really, really good. And that to me is undeniable and will yield results
22:00eventually. If you get average play up front, which they're not getting 803 05 50
22:06first loss in four games. I can't just win on the East coast. We consider talking
22:10about the wins and then you go lose on the West coast and we'd sleep through
22:13it. Division games. They're going to be important. I know the division is tough.
22:17They're going to account. They're counting for more right now than those West
22:20coast games are counting for coming up on the show today. We'll talk with Paul
22:23at seven o'clock and his thoughts on last night's game. The recap, they'll play
22:26the Sabres will play tomorrow against the Columbus blue jackets. Also on the show
22:31today, we've got Matthew Collar, purpleinsider.com. He covers the Vikings
22:36former morning show producer, uh, WGR alum. So he joins us. I had a
22:41conversation with him yesterday on his show and was kind of really surprised
22:45by some of the things he said about Kevin O'Connell and the Vikings fans and
22:48their investment in him. So that'll be interesting to get to. We'll do that. So
22:51Matthew Collar coming up at, uh, eight 30 this morning. And also who else do we
22:56have here? Uh, shots of audio, all that good stuff. 803 05 50 Paul at seven. Your
23:03thoughts from the Sabres. If you want also the latest on trade rumors, you got
23:06Jacksonville and Baltimore tonight for Thursday night football. It's on WGR.