00:00I guess I want to ask, this is almost a trick question sometimes with the Sabres,
00:03what will have to happen for them to swing into action and what ideas could they,
00:08what levers could they pull?
00:09What could they do to turn this thing around outside of Rasmus Dahlin last year
00:15deciding they should go out for some beers?
00:17What can they do at this point?
00:19It looks like they're consistently inconsistent, bad, stuck, no identity.
00:24I mean, take it where you want it.
00:26Yeah, I mean, you just brought up a name right there,
00:29Rasmus Dahlin, you can count on one hand, and I don't think you'll get to five,
00:33how many games he's played like a Norris Trophy finalist.
00:37I remember one in San Jose, and he and Samuelson were excellent in that game in every way.
00:43And it looked like, okay, that's what we saw last year, almost night in, night out.
00:49And he just is stuck in some sort of rut,
00:53and he is not even close to being a Norris Trophy defenseman.
00:58And, I mean, he's been okay at times.
01:00I mean, it's not like he's the worst guy on the team.
01:03There have been a few nights he, like the last game, not this one,
01:07but the game before where he was pretty bad.
01:11But, you know, he's their leader.
01:14He's who they built around.
01:17And he's got to show up night in, night out.
01:20I mean, he's got to be there.
01:22Superstars are guys who are there.
01:24I mean, they will have an occasional bad game,
01:27but guys that are there for you night in and night out,
01:30and that's not happening at all with him.
01:33He just seems lost right now, and it doesn't seem beginning any better.
01:39And they've got two guys that can put the puck in the net on a consistent basis,
01:42and that's Thompson and Quinn.
01:44And nobody else, pretty much everybody else is slumping.
01:49I mean, yeah, Norris did get a couple of goals a couple of games ago,
01:53but it was two goals in one game, and that's that.
01:56Now, Josh Doan, now he's had a couple of goals recently,
01:59and he talked about yesterday how he needs to get at the net and stay there.
02:03Well, that's why he scored his goal, because he's standing in the crease,
02:09and McLeod gets in the puck, and he steers it into the net.
02:11That's where he's got to be if he's going to break out of his slump.
02:15Zach Benson's doing a lot of good things out there.
02:17I mean, you can't say he's slumping with the overall way he's playing,
02:21but we saw some important goals and some nice goals at the end of last year
02:27and into the playoffs.
02:28So it looked like, okay, it seems like maybe you can get 15, 20 goals
02:33out of Zach Benson in addition to some of the other things.
02:37He's got two.
02:38I mean, it's just the defense has dried up as far as scoring goals.
02:43They got a lot of goals out of their defense last year.
02:46And, of course, power play.
02:49I mean, the power play, Lindy Ruff is just being as stubborn as stubborn can be.
