00:00Hamilton, we got a quick 10 minutes with Paul just about his appearance brought to you by
00:03Raylax Honda. Raylax, we got this. And the Sabres are off for Chicago. Hey, Paul, good morning.
00:10Good morning, guys. How are you?
00:11Paul, the question I want to ask about last night's game, you know, we could get into the
00:14particulars, but it was a really bad performance at home again. And I guess I want to ask,
00:20this is almost a trick question sometimes with the Sabres. What will have to happen for them to
00:25swing into action? And what ideas could they, what levers could they pull? Like what,
00:29what could they do to turn this thing around outside of Rasmus Dahlin last year, deciding
00:35they should go out for some beers? Like what, what can they do at this point? It looks like they're
00:41consistently inconsistent, bad, stuck, no identity. I mean, take it where you want it.
00:46Yeah. I mean, you, you just brought up a name right there, Rasmus Dahlin. You can count on one
00:51hand and I don't think you'll get to five, how many games he's played like a Norris trophy
00:55finalist. I remember one in San Jose and he and Samuelson were excellent in that game
01:01in every way. And it looked like, okay, that's, that's what we saw last year. I'm almost night
01:07in, night out. And he, he just is stuck in some sort of rut and he is not even close
01:14to
01:14being a Norris trophy defenseman. I mean, he's been okay at times. I mean, it's not like he's
01:21the worst guy on the team. There've been a few nights. He like the last game, not this
01:27one, but the game before where he was pretty bad. But you know, and he's, he's their leader.
01:34He's who they built around and he's got to show up night in, night out. I mean, he's got
01:41to be there. Superstars are guys who are there. I mean, they will have an occasional bad game,
01:46but guys that are there for you night in and night out. And that's not happening at all
01:52with him. He just seems lost right now. And, and it doesn't seem beginning any better.
01:58And they've got two guys that can put the puck in the net on a consistent basis. And that Thompson
02:03and Quinn and nobody else, pretty much everybody else is slumping. I mean, he had done Norris
02:10did get a couple of goals a couple of games ago, but it was two goals in one game. And
02:14that's
02:15that. Now Josh Doan. Now he's had a couple of goals recently, and he talked about yesterday,
02:21how he needs to get at the net and stay there. Well, that's why he scored his goal because he's
02:25standing in the crease and McLeod gets in the puck and he steers it into the net. That's where
02:31he's got to be. If he's going to break out of his slump, Zach Benson's doing a lot of good
02:36things
02:36out there. I mean, you can't say he's slumping with the overall way he's playing, but we saw some
02:43important goals and some nice goals at the end of last year and into the playoffs. So it looked
02:48like, okay, it seems like, you know, you, maybe you can get 15, 20 goals out of Zach Benson in
02:54addition
02:55to some of the other things. He's got two. I mean, it's just, you know, the defense has dried up
03:01as
03:01far as scoring goals. So they got a lot of goals out of their defense last year. And of course,
03:08power play. I mean, the power play, Lindy Ruff is just being as stubborn as stubborn can be.
03:14I mean, he has that first unit. He's been told by the analytics department that the best power
03:19plays are the power plays that stay together and have been together for a long time. And he's bound
03:24and determined no matter how bad they are to leave that first unit together. The second unit scored the
03:29power play goal. To me, they've been more dangerous than the first unit has, but they don't get on the
03:35ice
03:35all that often because the first unit usually stays out there for a minute and a half, minute 40.
03:40So they rarely get out there. So, but it's just, you've got pretty much the worst power play in
03:46the NHL. You got a power play that took you out of a game against Vegas, which you were, you
03:52were
03:52scoring, but at least you were better than Vegas was to start with. And he just, he's not a power
03:59play
03:59coach, never has been. He's proved it in Dallas. He's proven it in Jersey. He's proven it here.
04:04And, um, he just is insisting that that's what he's going to do. And it just, all they're doing
04:09is spinning their wheels. Paul, last night, what was the, what was the biggest problem? I mean,
04:16there were a lot of them, but one of their worst, if not their worst game defensively, right?
04:22Especially like, man, Lindy seemed hot about the one mistake on the Kucherov goal because they,
04:28all five players were below the face-off circle and they had gotten it to within one. Like I think
04:34maybe what he was saying there is you got it down to one, there's 18 minutes left. You don't need
04:39to
04:40be that desperate in that moment. Yeah. You, you should see my notes. I'm writing in capital letters
04:44after that play. It's like five guys don't need to be inside the dots. I mean, and, and, and they
04:51were pressing. They were, they had like maybe two or three really good scoring chances in that
04:56flurry to tie the game. They were pressing, but still, even when you're pressing, you can't have
05:02five guys inside the dots unless you know, you're going to score. You're going to get a chance. You're
05:07going to score and you'd better score because if you don't, you saw what happens. And especially
05:13with that guy on the ice, you can't get below him like that and then let him go. And that
05:18was the
05:18weird thing about the game. Tampa Bay had four goals at that point. He had no points wound up with
05:23three goals and an assist because he was in on the next four goals, but you just handed
05:29him a goal and I could use a big save there. It's not an easy save. He's one of the
05:35better
05:35goal scorers in this league. And it's not easy, but you got Zellweger on his back who actually
05:41had hustled back and used his speed to at least get back and commit a penalty on him. But you
05:47know, you got to build your team out there. I mean, your team was pressing and they're trying
05:51to get back in the game and you need a big save there. I mean, some of the other
05:55goals, you know, I'm not going to really jump on him for, but I'll use his, what he'd
06:01said to us. You got a bottom line at some point and you can't be, you can't have nine
06:07saves on 14 shots. You just can't. It doesn't matter if all, all five goals were
06:12breakaways. I mean, at the end of the day, you can't have nine saves on 14 shots. And
06:18then Ellis came in and was worse. I mean, he, he wasn't very often. He'll come in
06:22in those spots and be really good, but he, he was not on his game at all. He had
06:28somewhere around eight or nine shots and let three goals in. So, you know, you got
06:33nothing out of him after that, but that was the big save you're looking for right
06:37there is when Kucherov comes in there, you're pressing, you had just gotten
06:41yourself back into the game. It's four to three. You almost scored the fourth goal
06:45there. Um, it's a breakaway. It's Kucherov, but I still think it's fair to
06:51say you need to save there. Paul Hamilton, Paul, we just got a minute left
06:54here. Uh, challenge here, the blue collar workwear, hardworking player of the
06:58game. Good luck. Let's look, let's look. I'll give, I'll give it to Doan
07:03because Doan said in the pregame to me before that he has got to be on that
07:07crease and in the crease. And it doesn't matter if he scores or not. If he's
07:11there, he's going to start getting goals and he worked to get in the crease.
07:15He worked to get himself free and, uh, was basically in the crease with, uh,
07:21Vasilevsky when he gets, got the puck from McLeod and got it in. So, uh, I
07:26thought, you know, that's, he did exactly what he said he was going to do. He's
07:30gotten a couple of goals recently. So in the mess that we saw last night, I
07:34think I would pick that one out. All right. Blue collar workwear, where you get
07:37ready for work. And finally, Paul, are we expecting to see, uh, Alex Lyon on the
07:41trip? Yeah, he, he definitely is going to be on the trip. I thought you were
07:44going to say, are we expecting to see him tonight? Yeah. Maybe. I think so. I mean,
07:49yeah, maybe if he's ready, if he's ready, maybe, maybe you send Kalik to
07:54Rochester. There's no point in putting Kalik in the press box. I'm sorry. I know
07:58Lindy Ruff gave a pretty good explanation on whether you sent him down or not. I
08:03just think you send him down for a couple of weeks, just tell him you're
08:07going, you're an NHL player. You got to go down, find your game. You'll be
08:10back. Don't worry about it. Just go play. And that opens up a roster spot
08:15for Lyon if he's ready. So, uh, to me, it's a, it's an easy move. Uh, if, if you
08:20want to play him tonight, it's not, well, what are we going to do with the
08:23roster? To me, it's an easy move. Yeah. Thanks Paul. No problem guys. Paul
08:28Hamilton, his appearance brought to you by Raylax on the Raylax. We got this.
