3/26/26 Full Show

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It's Mike Shope and the Bulldog.

The camp of A-rays.

They're defunct.

Hey, they don't exist anymore.

They don't exist anymore.

I just decided today.

We should make a call, let them know,

but I just decided there.

I would rather watch the, like,

the guy, the painting guy.

Who's the painting guy?

Bob Ross.

I'd rather watch Bob Ross

than watch my favorite baseball team play in Tampa.

It's Mike Shope and the Bulldog.

What a matchup.

It is bracket season.

What a matchup.

Your favorite team playing a game in Tampa

or Bob Ross painting a lake at a mountain.

Give me the lake all day long.

Not WGR sports radio 550.

Give me the lake.

What if it's opening day?

Give me the lake.

You still want the lake on opening day?

I think opening day,

I might make an exception.

If my, yeah, the Red Sox were in Tampa

and, you know, I could find my way to the game somehow.

Like, you know, it's on a channel that I'm aware of and have

and don't have to, you know,

get a code sent to my phone.

Then it's a big F.

Right, I know.

Then I, yeah, I think I would make an exception

for opening the first game of the year.

Sure.

I'll hang out and watch your game

and your crappy, lousy, don't ballpark with the walkways.

I'm driving home from the Sabers game

and turn on Yankees Giants on MLB radio,

because I'm that cool.

It's John Miller, which was great.

Yeah, I haven't heard him in a long time.

I didn't know that I'd ever hear John Miller again.

I wasn't sure if he was still working

and two, two different guys, at least two different times,

very carefully to pimp tickets for their next game.

I think they're reading from the same scripts, right?

I mean, these are team employees.

As much as I like John Miller, he's a team employee.

It's opening day tomorrow.

This was not opening.

The seven-nothing loss we all just endured

for the clients was not opening day.

Friday, they don't play today.

Friday is opening day, because that was opening night.

And I don't think you can get away with that.

Oh, good.

They did that thing where they played a game

and then you're all excited for the season to begin

and there's 162 games

that they take the next day off.

Yes, the eighties and giants are not playing today,

but they insistently called tomorrow's game numerous times opening day.

And I don't think you can do that.

I think there's one opening day.

And if it's at night, it's at night.

That's opening day.

Yes.

I mean, they tried opening week, right?

The NFL did that.

Kick off week or kick off weekend.

Maybe they still do that.

I don't know.

I don't think, I don't think that's, that's good enough.

No, it's not opening day.

I think you can say to this

is lame for opening day.

There should be more than one game on opening day.

Opening day should still be in Cincinnati at 1 p.m.

or whatever, whatever old guy yells at cloud thing

you want to attach to this.

He keep going if you want.

But I don't think you can say this is an opening day.

It's the first game of the season.

Even if it's being played when it's dark out,

it's opening day.

It's the first game of the year.

I myself only consider it opening day.

If John Kibbler is the home played empire,

otherwise, it's not, it's not enough.

Not, not good enough.

It's not legitimate enough.

Bob Ross died 31 years ago.

You know, it's funny.

That's an old clip, but it's not that old.

No, it's not.

He was long dead before we met.

Sure, Ross.

So the painting guy was in the ground

at the time of that little conversation.

I didn't, you know, I didn't,

1995.

I really didn't know.

Yeah, but he has transcended.

Sure, everybody knows who you are.

Well, he's alive.

Even kids know who you mean.

He's alive in my heart.

I'm saying, yeah, Bob Ross.

Well, let's talk about with baseball starting and everything else.

Can we do the Sabers game up top here, though?

I was at the game, which is different than watching it,

because you don't really have somebody telling you what maybe you missed.

The time goal, the winning goal.

Talk to me.

I think there's definitely room to criticize the goalie on the winning goal.

One right through him.

Yeah.

From the circle.

Yeah, I mean, the guy was in his way.

Yeah, I was in all alone.

That's what I thought.

It was in all alone, but it went.

He was, well, he wasn't, you know, it wasn't a breakaway.

No, that's well, right, but he was, I mean, he was, no one was going to check him.

The guy could have, I mean,

could have come right to the net.

The kind of like who had this chance, a Saber had a chance to walk right in

and he tried to pass and Paul cut off one.

I think maybe could have walked.

Anyway, doesn't last night.

No, no, in a game.

It's the same kind of thing where it's not a breakaway,

but there's nobody.

You could just go.

Anyway, but he shoots it probably because he sees how Lucas is coming over.

I think he's late coming over.

It's Posternak, which you've got to respect.

On the other side.

On the other side, Posternak's got the puck.

So Luke and he cannot cheat, right?

But everybody is convert, you know, he's got to talk his cheating leaves Zaka wide open.

But his legs are, he's just, he just, the five hole is wide open on the play.

And I can't speak to directly how much it is to ask the goalie to move over that quickly

and be sealed up there.

But I feel like you see guys do it.

He just, he just left the guy too much, too much to,

it wasn't like you just squeak through.

Like there was a huge hole there.

The way he came over is, it was not fundamentally sound coming over, I would say.

I just wanted to ask this about three on three.

Possession being everything in three on three.

Is Luke and in maybe thinking about what to do with the puck after the shot?

I mean, he's, he's a pretty good example for this to my eyes.

Just during the course of regular play and maybe this is all goalies now.

He's putting the puck where he wants to put it.

If he can on a rebound, you know, on a safe.

He often, he'll put the puck in the corner.

I thought last night a few times, he was really good at how to play the puck.

A, a puck came in to the left of the net.

And instead of just sort of like leaving it or bumping it to the corner,

he made the decision to come out of his crease and play it and clear it.

And that looked like the right decision.

He, he was successful in that.

There were a few of those in the game.

I think it's a, maybe a strong area for him.

I didn't check the box score, but didn't, if he didn't get an assist,

I'm not sure why, maybe because the, a, a Boston player ended up with the puck.

But he, he, the Benson goal is him.

Okay.

He throws that puck right up the wall.

I don't think it touches another saber.

But again, maybe a boo and defender gets it and then Benson struts him and whatever.

Anyway, he made up, he made the play to break Benson.

Fine. Yeah, I thought he had a, yeah.

He was, he's impressive in that area when it's three on three.

And it's not a super high danger shot.

You know, like, okay, well, he's late.

If he's late, five hole, then okay.

What does he want to do with the puck on that?

If assume, he's assuming he's going to be able to stop it from there.

I mean, that's, I don't know.

Does he want to, he doesn't want to freeze it, right?

I think probably not because you would have a chance to swing back the other way,

pretty quickly, maybe with a two on one or even a three on one.

That's, that's what I'm saying.

It's already, I think, this is my, my position here that he's somebody,

he's confident in himself.

Do you think he made this area concentrating enough on making the save?

Because he's thinking about, it's like running before he caught the ball kind of thing.

Okay.

But maybe he's, he's thinking he's going to make the save.

Right.

It's going to be a bad goal from there.

Like, am I overstating that?

I think a little.

I mean, it's, it's, you know, midpoint of the face off circle.

Open look with a lot of time.

Like, there's nobody checking the guy.

So he has time to sort of, you know, I mean, in hockey terms.

I mean, he didn't take all day, but he's got time to choose where to go.

But I think he chooses to go five all because he could see Luke and

in was not, he was all kind of broken in pieces coming across.

I'm, so I'm in one 18, pretty low last night.

I'm as far, almost as far away.

Yeah.

I had a terrible view of it.

You hear the puck go in.

I can't wait to tell you about the guy who's sitting next to.

Oh my God.

This guy was such a beauty.

I just have just like a little bit of a, you know, footnote.

Listen to an audio book and he just sort of stopped the story like footnote.

I'm going to revisit this guy was at like picture,

Matt Foley from SNL, but a Sabers fan and hammered.

Like that, that's who I was sitting next to for this game.

And he was so far gone that when Boston scored, he got up and screened Sabers fan.

He just didn't know which team he was rooting for at that moment, I guess.

He didn't know it would score the goal.

Tough one.

Anyway, that's not the point.

I just didn't really see when I realized that there, this was a goal.

My thought is, well, he must have sniped it.

I mean, the goal he has to know that that's always possible.

He could just pick the corner and your beat.

But he's, Luke and is not expecting to get beat the way he got beat.

I just wonder what, like I've already said, what does he want to do

with the puck after he makes the save?

He probably is assuming he's going to make it.

I did not hear if he talked and if he was asked about it.

So I don't know if he offered any explanation on the play.

It's possible he was so maybe because the posture not being the guy with the puck,

he waited, so he's late.

And maybe all he tried to do was make himself as big as he could.

Because he didn't move the way goal he's moved on the play.

Like his legs are a part and he's sort of like up in his stance.

He might have just tried to gobble up space because he knew he wasn't going to be

in good position.

I don't know.

Well, that's the other part of it is what he knows about his situation

as the shot is being taken.

Maybe he knows he's in trouble.

It definitely was a play I think you'd like a save on.

It's an open, clean look in three on three, but he just was not sound coming across.

So I didn't like that.

The play off the boards, I also didn't like it.

Mostly because I heard Owen talking about this.

Wait, this is 3-3.

This is 3-3.

Okay, good.

The middle set goal.

I'm asking.

Maybe the big play on that goal is middle set winning a battle with Josh Dohn below the goal line,

which is what started the whole thing to begin with.

That's just not something.

You tell me Josh Dohn and Casey Middlesett are going into a corner to battle for a puck,

and I'm going to expect Josh Dohn to win that battle.

In the Boston end.

No, in the safe behind the Sabernet.

Middlesett takes the puck off of Dohn, or wins a battle for a loose puck and gets it out

to the point and then the shot comes in and Middlesett from there has gone to the front of the net,

smartly.

But it looked like Luke and then he didn't know.

I think he didn't know.

I don't think neither.

He nor Dalin knew where the puck was exactly.

It did take a weird bounce.

It deflected, it was screened, and I think he got his blocker on it,

but didn't think about what you want to do with it.

On that play, what he probably, if he sees it cleanly,

what you'd want to do with it is blocker it into the netting or off the glass.

Like just, boof, out of here.

But he only got a piece of it and then it bounced weirdly and they didn't know where it was.

But even with that said, it just felt like Luke and then did not do a good job of

protecting his net there.

Like he just, he got all turned around and it was just messy.

So he just wasn't prepared for that at all.

But you do, I think I have room for like some forgiveness on because it's just a weird bounce.

You know that the shot off his blockers, a weird bounce off the walls, a knuckle ball coming

back and it's a strange and so, but he didn't do a great job there either.

But the winning goal I thought was pretty bad overall on his night.

I guess that's where I was then already.

Like just watching it live from basically ice level was, well that was strange,

but did they just get a bad bounce there and then yikes, you know, but yeah,

I still like to know what he wants to do with the save in the overtime.

And it would vary on the same shot.

Would it would be different answers for different situations.

It was 40 seconds or so into overtime.

The Sabers never touched the puck or had had possession in overtime,

which I was super bummed about whether they win or lose.

I'm down there like I'm getting a three on three.

Give me like one chance, right at least or a shootout even.

No, they never did anything.

I don't know, I'm not sure what their numbers are three on three,

but I'm kind of glad that the playoffs don't have it.

Oh, they're bad because they might be three and eight.

There have been Thompson disaster moments and I don't know.

I'm kind of thinking it's good that they don't play three on three.

I think three and eight, they got eight overtime losses,

40 regulation or overtime wins and they've got 44.

So they're four and eight, I guess, an overtime.

So not great.

It's two in a row that they had the puck on Sunday in Anaheim,

but lost it pretty quickly.

That was a pretty quick goal, too, on it.

So yeah, not great.

The whole night was just Boston's game.

Yeah, they were, except for when they took the lead.

Yeah, did Lindy say after the first 40 minutes for the worst two periods,

we played in three months or something, which, you know,

that might be an exaggeration, but it was, it was not good.

It might not be.

I know that, like watching the game, I was, you know,

I was texting friends and Owen was in the press box.

I'm like, they don't have it tonight.

This is not something I, but yeah, then they managed to, you know,

Benson makes a great individual play.

They get the other power play goal and okay, we got the lead again.

And then you get that bad, you know, that bad bounce.

I already have been saying I can't get enough of Benson and just blast.

Yeah, right.

Even adding to that.

I was thinking of you when he made that, made that play.

And absolutely just wrecked into the net.

Yeah.

And the penalty is called, which kind of shocked me.

Yeah, me too.

I thought they would just let that go.

It's, you know, it's on your score on it.

And it's almost April.

Right.

Right.

So good.

Yeah.

I was feeling 20 years ago in those moments.

I mean, I was jumping up and just super fired up for those two goals.

It never felt like they're game, but you never know.

Right.

And they got, they got burned.

They still got a point.

And Tampa has a chance to get within one tonight.

I mean, we both kind of said yesterday and maybe throughout.

Tampa is probably the better team.

So it isn't, well, the end of the world, if they can't hold Tampa off,

it doesn't taint the amazing.

Right.

I don't think anything crumbles here.

But, um, you know, they've lost two in a row now, neither in regulation.

So they still got that going for them.

But two in a row and regulate are in overtime.

So, um, you know, Friday.

Friday probably is going to get a lot of people are going to pour a lot into Friday.

Like, well, okay, let's end this now.

All right.

Like it's another team in the race.

Can we just look good tonight?

Please, like, this looks look good because it's not that many games ago.

I mean, the LA game, right, was they were, they were the better team.

Clearly, the game before that was San Jose.

And that was a game that was maybe not as bad as last night.

But I know watching it was sort of like, oh, they don't have it.

And then it was three nothing.

Right.

And then, and then they just, they just coasted home, basically.

The game in San Jose last Thursday.

So it's, you know, it's a, it's three out of four here

that they maybe haven't been in great form.

I would say if you, if you accept that San Jose was, you know,

they, they weren't real good in the game, but they still won.

So let's, uh, you know, get it back on track.

Even Los Angeles, I'm happy if you are as well to offer any sort of therapy.

We do not want to be losing our minds with 10 games left.

So before the first playoff season in 15 years, okay, right?

Everybody, do we, do we know that?

We know that, right?

I mean, the fun is getting into the, the roller coaster and riding the ride.

But yeah, I don't want to, like last night, okay.

I mean, even LA, all these games, your, your expectation should be.

All right, this probably will be close.

Right. It's a hockey game, right?

I thought about betting the Bruins last night, just objectively,

because Buffalo was minus 210 or something.

Like really, they're that much better than Boston.

If we're sitting down for these games, thinking like the Sabers are just

better than Boston, be careful.

That's how much better.

A little bit.

Maybe Boston played the night before.

Okay.

That doesn't have to, like, it's just, the margins are very, very thin.

Yeah, that's right.

That's right.

And to me, they still are.

I still, they still are.

Like, I don't come out of last night, like, oh, I don't want any part of them.

No, it's fine.

I didn't have their best goalie in.

And I thought Corpus Sallow had a pretty lucky night.

There were a lot of saves.

You might have noticed watching in person on TV.

There were, there were saves where he's looking the wrong way after the puck hits him.

Thompson from the ice slot.

Like, he's has no idea where that puck is.

Dalline hits him in kind of the same spot on a play where he come in,

came in from the blue line off the right side and got a nice shot off.

And it just, but Corpus, it hit Corpus Sallow, like, just in between the arm,

like, in the arm shoulder, like, below the shoulder area.

But he looked around after that shot.

Like, all right, I think he got away with one, maybe.

But they have a better, well, way better goalie, I think, in swimming.

So they didn't have him, but that team doesn't, you know, it's funny to me.

I was, I think I said something about Casey Middlestaff the other day.

Like, I'm not losing.

Not losing.

Yes.

And, you know, it was nice for him to get that goal.

Just make me feel like a jerk for saying that about him.

But I think I still believe that.

I'm not, I'm not losing, come on.

I'm not losing to you.

That game doesn't change.

No, I don't think so, sure.

No, okay.

We would say that, right?

We lost.

We would say that.

Let's go to Jeremy here.

Hi.

How are you guys doing?

Good, thank you.

Just a couple of points or questions, Mike.

I know you said you were at the game.

What was your, were you behind with the nets?

No.

No, because I was wondering what the heck the defense was doing.

I don't know, three or four times.

When Patrick Neck was getting behind them for breakaways, after breakaways,

I'm just wondering what the defense was or were they sleeping?

Because he had like three or four breakaways almost.

And then, okay.

Okay, go ahead, go ahead.

I was going to say on that, like on the goal.

He didn't score on a breakaway on the goal, but he's in a loan on a play where Tuck

does not get the puck out of the zone, even though he's like a foot from the blue line with it.

And I sure think I was going to fell on one, right?

I'm that, right?

Yeah, that's right.

You tripped over the blue line.

I'm that play, power is, you know, this is, this is their thing.

Power is ready to go up the ice with Tuck.

Tuck's about to get the puck out of the zone and power is blowing the zone.

He doesn't leave the zone, but he's got, he's headed up.

And the play suddenly turns around on a dime.

Now, that doesn't excuse him and McLeod and another forward, I think,

for coasting back on that play, which they all did and allowed for.

I think it was Arvetson to get that rebound.

After Luke and then made the nice pokecheck on Posternock.

But that play, the reason Posternock is all alone is because Tuck doesn't get the puck out.

You can say be more careful, but their whole thing with the D is like getting in the play.

And so they're ready to go and they got burned.

Yeah, and what was your guys' opinion on the tying goal from Middlestead?

Was, I mean, I came in late to the conversation, but it seemed like UPL was sideways.

Yeah, yeah, we did, we did just talk about it.

He, um, he got lost there.

I mean, he didn't know where the puck was, which is a problem.

But he didn't do a very good job of protecting his net.

He just sort of got all spun around and off balance.

And it was a, it was a tough play for him.

Dan is next.

Hi, Dan.

Hey, thanks for taking my call.

So the reason I think they brought in Logan Stanley was to kind of ramp up the physicality.

But I haven't really noticed, I haven't noticed like a physical presence.

Very much up to this point, I feel like we may have

better defense than him, just exclusively as defense men.

But I was just curious to see what you thought about his kind of physical play after this point.

I realized why they would use him in a playoff situation.

But right now, are they trying to just get him acclimated the system?

Right.

Because that's just kind of my thought.

Yeah, I agree.

He did, he fought in the San Jose home game.

But it was one of those stills like a guy he's got a history with.

And it was not like a defend the team kind of thing.

It was just like the puck dropped and like, okay, these guys have fought before.

They're going to fight the game that defines the season or the Sabers season is the Tampa game.

And he's not on the ice in the press box doing interviews like he's not with them yet.

I don't know.

I think toughness is one thing.

To me, this Sabers team does not appear to be lacking.

They're big enough and they're scrappy.

I don't think I have a problem.

I don't mind this for depth and not against.

I wasn't against what they did.

You want to push an ad when you're trying to win.

But I'm not sure he's one of their six best guys.

Like I feel like the rest of his game is not it.

So if I have a team, this will be an interesting decision.

If I have a team where I think I need somebody that big to save me,

then okay, I don't think they do.

I think they're sort of showing that they can hold up.

And we've still got 10 games.

There probably will be injuries.

You know, that's why you'd make that's one reason why you make that trade.

But I don't feel like I'm getting what I was told to expect from Stanley,

which is like, well, he's big if that's what you want.

Yeah.

But the rest of it.

Last night could have been a spot.

Zadorov got after a couple guys, like a couple of hard hits.

McLeod and I think Tuck.

And you could have like sent Stanley out there to challenge him and

think about that is I'm not sure.

I don't want Zadorov run around trying to injure people.

I also kind of want him on the ice if I'm playing them.

He's not that good.

He's big and he moves and he's mean.

But there was a shift in the second.

No, the first period of this game.

One of the best shifts the Sabers had.

He gave the puck away like two or three times in the span of a minute and a half.

They couldn't get out of their end.

So I don't know.

I don't want to excuse it.

If you have that guy in the lineup Stanley,

he could have challenged Zadorov last night.

There was cause to I think nothing that he did was cheap.

He didn't get penalized for any of it.

I don't think.

But you still could have gone and tried to like the idea is deter him from doing that.

Which I don't really believe in.

Like I think if the key to Zadorov wants to run you, he's going to run you.

And then if the organ Stanley wants to fight him for it, he'll fight him and then he'll run some more guys.

I don't want the Sabers tilting like that.

I mean, that's just been no part of their story.

And I know how the playoffs can be described as different.

I think I want Stanley to protect my net.

And okay.

But I'm doing fine with a guy who's like 5-8.

I took him out.

So I don't know.

I wonder if this is kind of an audition.

Like we've been talking that the Sabers have that luxury.

If you, you know, are on board with that sort of thinking.

I mean, they're also trying to win their division and conference.

He is the only guy they really have.

Samuelson throws the body, but he's not, you know, he's not intimidating.

He's not a fighter.

Stanley is.

So I think, you know, they got him for that.

I would anticipate him being in the lineup for the playoffs.

But Timon's playing pretty well last night might be a wrinkle.

He had a good night.

Not surprising to me.

I think, you know, he had two penalty kills,

but you know, he played it on the penalty kill and they killed both of the penalty.

I think they're going to want that.

And he moved the puck effectively.

You know, he was with Stanley.

Like I didn't have a problem with Stanley last night either, really.

So I don't know what they're going to end up doing there.

And there's Kessel Ring.

Right.

All right.

Here we go.

10 games left.

Sal Capaccio will join us at four Mike show up in the bulldog here.

This is WGR.

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Puck decisions weren't very good.

You're playing a team that's battling as hard as a kid

to stay in a playoff pitcher.

They won more battles.

I don't think that has anything to do with being sluggish.

That has a lot to do with willpower.

To get over the puck and make sure you win your battle.

And we didn't win enough of them.

It started the game and then you watched some of our puck play

in the second period that we just gave them opportunities.

But third period we got back to playing our game.

Lindy Ruff the Sabers lose in overtime to Boston.

Next up Detroit here tomorrow night at a much more

a much more well-appreciated start time of seven.

Thank you for seven.

TNT has to be like all sort of the bully.

Like oh, so we're going to seven thirty.

What happened on TNT about coach of the year?

By the way, did I get from here?

I'm only going on secondhand information.

I saw some of their studio stuff, but not a lot and not this specific conversation.

I heard Jeremy and Joe on our morning show here on WGR today say that at some point,

whether it was, I don't know, it could have been pre-intermitt,

whatever, everyone knows when they're there.

I'm before and during and then after the game.

There was a discussion about coach of the year.

And there was Darren Payne and Anson Carter and

Bisonette and Liam McHugh.

Bisonette, thank you.

And everyone said, or at least the former players all talked about John Cooper.

And their analysis was basically, I can't believe there's never won it.

Can you believe it?

It said, how in the world does he never won it?

And they all said that they would vote for him.

Which, and I think broadcasters are voting for that award.

I don't know.

They're broadcasters.

They are broadcasters.

I don't know.

They are broadcasters who are voting for the award,

but it would make sense if they are.

Unless it's maybe the broadcast teams from all 30, I don't know who it is.

It'd be a mix, probably.

Anyway, so I didn't see or hear it.

But, uh, Jeremy Joe said that, you know, they just sort of like matter

exactly said, it's going to be John Cooper, which, you know, I didn't like hearing.

I'll say three things.

One, you and I have a bet on Lindy.

So, full disclosure, inherent bias, I don't need Lindy rough to win.

I'd like to win $350.

Sure.

So, that has, that's, that's out there.

That's one.

Two, I think, I mean, Tampa is probably the better team

and could still very well beat out the Sabers for first place.

In which case, you know, voting Lindy is tougher,

but of course, as we all know, the Sabers are coming from a darker place.

So, you could still consider the better coaching job.

Three is really, for me, I have to admit, number one,

if instead of Lindy Roth, we're talking about the coach of the ducks or somebody,

which is, I have made fun of this award for at least 15 years,

for it always, almost always going to the King of PDO.

Which is the King of your team had the best shooting percentage

and save percentage in the league, which is hardly at all about coaching.

It's mostly about luck.

You could have the very best players and the very best goalie

and lord over those stats and they're like, okay,

but often it goes to teams that, that's inherent in the consideration for this award.

It's like, wow, I didn't expect that.

And a lot of people in hockey don't even, are sort of blind to.

Well, what you think you don't need to care about is luck,

because you're supposed to be better than that.

You think you're better than that.

You think you know the game so well that there probably isn't any luck in it for you.

And so, that can't be anything.

So, all right, well, this team was supposed to have 75 points,

and it has 90, there's your coach of the year.

And then they're fired in two years,

because they actually weren't that good in the first place.

It's always so far I can go with this Lindy Roth case,

because the Sabers are a little bit that team.

They're good, but they're not like the kind of team where you can't deny anything about them.

They're winning like crazy.

A lot of these games are on the edge.

Sometimes, like the last couple, they lose those games.

We might not like hearing it all, you know,

when Greg Waschinski references the shooting percentage and the save percentage,

which is what PDO is, but it's true.

Like they are, the goal saved above expected,

Lion is among the league leaders, and that's not something you would have seen coming.

So, it's kind of like a bolt of lightning, sorry,

into your team, you know, for a season.

And Luke and in has, you know, had a couple of games here

that have hurt those numbers, but he's been in the top 10 in that metric all year too,

along with Lion.

So, their tandem has been excellent at saving more goals than they should.

That's what that is.

So, tell me how that has anything to do with coaching.

Right.

Maybe a little.

They're shooting percentage to me.

Like they're not a team that just shoots pucks to them.

They're not a pucks to the net team.

So, they're selective, and they do have a good shooting percentage,

but they're also selective.

And I think that that might mitigate that being fluky.

We'll see, I guess, maybe the playoffs will tell us whether or not, you know.

Last night, you know, I heard Paul this morning say,

you know, I had a couple of posts.

Well, yeah, I mean, teams hit posts, you know,

that's that is puck luck to an extent, right?

I mean, half an inch or whatever, the other way,

and you've got to bar down and in on tux short-handed try early in the game,

same for Krebs.

But, you know, I can't, you can't, to me, go there.

Like if you're going to accept that there is some luck involved,

like that's just, that's going to happen to you.

So, the thing about the Cooper thing mostly to me is,

I think when you don't have, there's not someone else presenting themselves,

as like one of the stories of the year in the league,

which I think is what the Sabers have been here easily.

Right? If that isn't happening.

And so, you're like, well, could I give it to the team that has the best record?

Colorado? Or, hey, look around to find a guy that's doing a good job,

a division leading type team, which, you know, Tampa is close enough for this.

They still could win the division.

They still have two games in hand and are only three points back now.

Then I think you can get to like, yeah, you know,

we should appreciate John Cooper and the job he's done all these years,

because we don't have a better idea.

To me, Lindy is clearly, whether it's a flawed process or not,

because it does always go the way you're describing.

But that doesn't mean it shouldn't this year, right?

Just because John Cooper, like someone decided before the Sabers got out,

that maybe it's time for John Cooper to win the Jack Adams.

That's not a good process either.

So, um, well, he might be, this is what I sort of get mad at.

And I don't even know if I'm, if I'm right here, if this is fair.

But he's been around for so long.

That's the point.

Canadian Olympic team, you know, maybe he's everybody's friend in the media.

You know, and I don't know if Lindy isn't.

Yeah, but Cooper might have this sort of personality

that he might have a machine working for,

that gets the, why do we keep hearing this point?

It works on me.

I like him.

I've liked him for years.

It's, you know, news conferences,

the, even during in-game interviews, like I feel like he's,

he's as personable as I had coach in any sport really can be.

Good face, good name.

I think that helps.

Sure.

Good face, good name.

Good team, good team, but good face, good name.

And by the way, the team that leads the NHL this year in PDO is Tampa Bay.

Their tops in shooting percentage and close enough in safe percentage.

Very close to the Sabers.

Sabers are fifth.

All right, but that's not fluky because they have Vasylesky.

Well, right.

And, and a great, you know, a bunch of players.

Right.

At least more well-known players.

They really, it's Kudroff largely.

I don't know who should win, really.

I mean, roughs of fine choice.

Maybe Cooper is okay.

I don't know.

Is there a team?

There's not a team so down.

I mean, some of the teams in the Pacific Division are so low on this list,

but even though they're in playoff positions, they don't have the points.

They're just sort of right in playoff spots.

So I wouldn't want to do that.

We, I mean, I'm not sure if Sam Penny out of it,

which is necessarily the authority on who wins the Jack Adams,

but he did say a couple of weeks ago it's one of the other, Ruffer Cooper.

Yeah, I think I'd probably agree with that.

Tampa home to Seattle tonight.

Probably a pretty good favorite.

I would expect.

I've not looked yet, but yeah, they probably really healthy.

Yeah.

Red Sox Red's coming up.

You got to be pumped.

Oh, yeah.

Half an hour.

Yeah, you asked me who's starting the opener,

and I didn't even know.

That's how dialed in I am.

You would have gotten there.

Oh, Shay's your number one.

He's your opening day.

Easily opening day guy.

Watching the meds today on what is this?

Peacock.

It's on NBC.

The met pirate baseball opener is on NBC right now.

I miss that news.

Me too, NBC getting back in the baseball places.

I'm here for it.

I'm sure even though Fubo doesn't have NBC,

why do I have Fubo just for the sabers?

For the sabers.

How did I get trapped into that?

I don't know.

I can't watch the food network,

and I can't watch NBC programming.

I can't watch the Premier League.

There are like six things I like to watch.

Yeah, and they have half of them at least.

I agree.

And I'm dead on all of it.

That's never changing.

And the

SNY I wanted.

That's not there.

The video, it's terrible.

The picture, I have it only for the sabers games, right?

That aren't on TNT.

Do you know which picture looks the worst?

Like if I'm watching,

if I got hockey on three different things, right?

TNT, ESPN plus and Fubo,

guess where the worst picture is going to be?

Fubo.

A hundred times out of a hundred.

It's not even close.

I get an Amazon Prime feed on ESPN plus,

like a Monday night Canadian special.

And it looks like, I mean, it looks like it's fake.

It's so bright.

I can't even believe it.

And I'm watching this game on a service that I hate.

The picture's terrible.

And the only reason I have the service is for that picture.

It's so worst.

Well, peacock is pretty.

Yes, the video is fantastic.

Games been something.

Paul Schienz didn't get out of the first inning.

Carson Bench was on our show.

Well, not really.

He was mentioned on our show earlier this week.

Has just homeried in his major league debut.

So it's Mets over the pirates 10 to 5 in the sixth.

This is not going to set the land speed record for a baseball game,

but that's okay.

Lots has happened in this game.

10 to 5 Mets in the sixth.

I don't think we'll need the bottom of the ninth.

So that'll truncate the game a little bit.

It's trending that way.

Yeah.

Looks like a nice, really nice day and a healthy crowd at Cityfield.

Oh my gosh.

It looks packed.

Where would you rather be than there right now?

I don't know.

It's beautiful.

I was jealous watching this game.

The set up, the lineups, introductions and everything.

I was, I made a note of it to mention.

I have never been to an opener, a major league opener.

And I kind of wish I had had done that.

And I think the Mets are as good a choice as anybody.

They kill it on opening day.

They have easily the best record in baseball in openers.

And when I was a Mets fan,

I was always a thing that I walked around knowing.

The Mets never lose the opener.

And so far, that looks like that's going to happen today too.

Big lead on the pirates.

And it does look like it's a great day there.

Yeah.

Sonny.

Sal Capaccio coming up at four.

Mike Schopen, the Bulldog here.

This is WGR.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive.

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Testing season is right around the corner.

And this is when confidence really matters.

When kids take time to review key concepts and strengthen their skills

before assessments, it can make all the difference.

IXL helps reinforce what they're learning right now.

So they walk into every test feeling prepared,

capable and confident.

IXL is an award-winning online learning platform

that helps kids truly understand what they're learning,

whether they're building math confidence,

strengthening reading and writing skills,

or reviewing science concepts.

Designed for students from pre-K through 12th grade,

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that adapts to your child's level and pace.

It's an easy, effective way to support learning

as the school year heads into its final stretch.

Studies show kids who use IXL score higher on tests,

proven in all 50 states.

IXL is used in 96 of the top 100 school districts in the US.

Make an impact on your child's learning.

Get IXL now.

And listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership

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It's salcapaccio.

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Sports Radio 550.

Just scrolling through sales Twitter,

which I'll sometimes do,

and if I'm worried about,

like, is there something obvious that I'm,

that I've missed?

Some big story.

I don't want to go like 20 minutes with sale

and not bring up something huge, right?

That I didn't hear about.

And he has a tweet from yesterday

about how the Seahawks are offering fans

seasoned ticket holders who went to their games

as opposed to selling tickets.

More often than not, I guess.

They're offering not just seasoned ticket holders at all,

but seasoned ticket holders who went to games,

a chance to move to better seats.

Something.

All right, we're giving you this

because you actually showed up.

I don't know what I think about that.

I guess I like it,

but what part of the pact is that you have to go to the game

if I'm invested.

I see why the Seahawks want, you know,

their fans, like there's a better chance,

not necessarily, but because that's become a thing there,

like that stadium has become less and less intimidating

over the years.

More visiting fans.

Sal is with us.

You shared this story yesterday.

Sal, what do you think about this?

So at first blush, I thought this is a pretty cool concept

because I'm thinking about the Sabers here

and how other fans come in and Sabers

fans sell their tickets.

And we have this debate all the time

and they're probably going to geofence the ticketing

and some capacity for the playoffs and whatever.

So I ran across this and the person who put it out

is actually, does a really good job.

He's actually one of these independent type of,

he created his own content creator, right?

For the Saddle Seahawks and I met him out at the,

at the, the, the combine when I was out there.

And he writes that he shares the email basically.

This is Brian Nemhouser, his name, I'm sorry,

Brian Nemhouser.

And it says, thanks for your attendance,

thanks for your high attendance during the 25 season.

We're excited to offer you a special

2026 seat relocation opportunity with early access.

And the concept is because you didn't sell your tickets

a lot or at all, you get this.

The issue is, how do they know?

So like, what if I transfer my ticket?

I know that they can track, they can track tickets,

like the Sabers, the Bill, the Seahawks, whatever,

can track tickets online, who's selling, who is transferring.

What if I just transfer my ticket to my wife?

Like, we're, we're season ticket holders, right?

Like, I don't know, like that,

I just think it brings in a whole set of,

how is this happening?

If you look at the replies to his tweet,

there are people going, dude, I went to every game,

and I didn't get this email.

So I don't know what's, what, what happens here?

I want to know upfront, like if,

if there's a standard where I have to go to six games

or something myself with my name on it,

then okay, tell me, there's that aspect of it.

I don't know, who's to say that,

people who own season tickets, you don't really own them anymore.

They never call you a season ticket holder,

they always call you a season ticket member now.

It's their stuff.

They want you, they don't want you to notice,

but the, the, the, the verbiage has changed.

But say a broker by season owns or has season tickets

to the sea hawks or the bills,

and they never go to games

because their businesses reselling them.

That, I mean, that,

doesn't mean that they're a fan in the first place

or not one or anything like that.

I mean, I was a Sabre season ticket holder

for almost 20 years, and I sold seats.

I don't know, just tell me upfront.

I guess that's all, that's all I really want to,

I don't want to complain about this too much.

It just feels a little bit not transparent enough.

Part, part of the, the responsibility

of having season tickets is that you actually have to go

in this modern world.

I don't know, I, I don't like how it tastes this one,

but interesting to, to find out about it.

Yeah, me too.

You've got some, is it news?

Do you want to call it news?

Like sort of a, a new detail on what might be a topic next week?

Yeah, I mean, I, there's just all these little things

that are happening with the NFL owners' meanings

as, as of every year, and what happened was the NFL,

a few things happened over the last few days

that will be discussed and expanded upon next week,

obviously, out in Phoenix.

And what happened is, was there was a video conference

and I was actually, was during extra point show,

so I can join, so I went back and rewatched it.

Excuse me, and I learned through the, the, the NFL

and the people talking, Rich McKay and competition committee,

a couple of little things, like, so they are,

they really, really, really track my new details,

like scoring per game, like scoring per game points

per game this year, if I remember the numbers,

up like a half a point than normal,

and they're good with that.

Like yep, 46 points a game maybe,

it was normally 45 or 45 and a half, like totally good.

There was, there's questions about the kickoff returns

and that's still obviously an evolving play

and the number of yards.

What's interesting, it was only like one kick return

for a touchdown last year or maybe a couple,

very few, but a lot more punt returns

for touchdowns last year.

And there's questions about, okay, like,

what do we like, what do we not like?

And they like the big plays and things like that.

One of them is, Rich McKay said,

and I know it sounds super like my newt,

but he said plays were down like three or four plays

a game or something like that, like the numbers,

total overall offensive plays.

And one of the ways they want to get the number back,

just those few plays, is when a guy goes out of bounds,

they're going to make sure like in a normal situation,

the clock restarts, right,

unless you're under four minutes and that's the,

you know, of the game or two minutes of the first half.

Guy goes out of bounds.

The play clock starts immediately.

The game clock doesn't start immediately.

They're supposed to wait seven seconds.

And apparently that hasn't been happening.

So they want to make sure kind of enforce

and be more diligent about, hey, guy goes out of bounds,

the play clock starts at 45 or 40,

excuse me, do not start the game clock

until there's 33 seconds left on that.

So I guess I need a third lock.

Right, right.

So they, exactly.

So they think that they will get like,

I'm not kidding you guys.

And he said like two or three more plays in a game.

And like that could matter.

I need a third clock for the seven seconds.

Yes.

At least at the clock operator.

And of course, there would never in an NFL game be,

you didn't start, you didn't wait seven seconds.

There would never be that, right?

That some team employees managing that.

I can get SkyRef to rule on that.

That would be pretty ideal.

I'm just drowning over here.

You know, my first thought sale,

I didn't know this little nuance like you're saying

about the, you know, waiting until the clock,

you know, restarts, the game clock restarts.

My first thought was, is that because there's teams

are running more?

Yeah, because running does, you know,

that slows the game down.

There's just, it, you know, runs clock more.

And I wonder if there's been any study on that.

Like, and I'm not even sure, you know,

we live here in a place where the bills have run

the ball more the last few years.

And I believe that that's a league wide trend.

But I don't, I haven't seen numbers, you know,

that it's right.

But, you know, that could be a way that you lose some plays

is if teams are running it more.

It's all, it's also kickoffs, I think.

Because you're starting from farther up the field

most of the time, you know, on average.

So, and you know, you have kickers who can hit from 60.

So, you don't have to.

And, and it's also, it's also the number kickoffs

might because it takes longer for a kick return now.

Right, you're getting the ball.

You're getting more kick returns.

The clock starts when the guy gets the ball.

So, therefore, there's more time running off the clock

when there's actually kick returns as opposed to touchbacks

where there isn't as much time running off the clock.

So, that's part of it as well.

Yeah, in fact, he'd also said there were 73 games last year

that were decided by three or fewer points,

which the league loves because they said that's high to record.

Now, there was an acknowledgement

that there's an extra game now compared to years past, right?

We've been playing the 17th game for, you know, five years or so,

I think, but 73 games decided by three points or less.

And the league is loving that, right?

That's, that's the ultimate parody of what they're looking for.

Mm-hmm.

So, there's this.

We have a couple of also less exciting, much less exciting rules

stuff to figure out next week.

How far in advance you can trade your draft picks.

How many phone calls you're allowed to make to UFA's?

I mean, what is these are the headliners, right?

We've done enough sale, you think?

I mean, do you think this is the case and do you agree?

Like, that we've done enough with the kickoff changes

that we're kind of gonna, we're gonna stand back

for a little bit for now.

Well, there was, there was something that was gonna be

tweaked in that, right?

Yeah, the set-up zone.

Oh, I forgot.

Remember, I read that tweet from Shepter

and they were like, I didn't know what any of it really meant,

but I read it.

Oh, my gosh.

I mean, yeah, the set-up zone is a big deal

because it's basically, you guys see sometimes

there's a flag and they go illegal formation

on the kickoff team, right?

Something like that, the kick return team.

Like, there are only certain number of players

that can be in certain spots on the kickoff

and they're gonna kind of massage that a little bit

for, you know, I guess both for safety

and how many players are on one side of the hash

versus the other, things like that.

So yes, they are going to go through that.

I suspect over the next several years,

we're gonna get a lot of this stuff

with the special teams because everything's evolving.

The other one is, remember guys,

teams took advantage of that loophole last year

of, oh, if I just kick it out of bounds,

it's not a big deal, right?

Like, I don't, I can just kick the ball out of bounds now.

And the other team starts, you can't do that now.

So now, I think eliminate the incentive

to intentionally kick the ball out of bounds

when kicking off from the 50 yard line

because if you have a penalty that puts the ball

at the 50 yard line, I think,

I have to read through this now

where the other team starts it.

Thank you.

Yes, 25 yards.

The bills did it in a game.

I don't remember which game,

but it happened in a bills game this year.

That's right.

So they're gonna try and kind of take care of that

a little bit.

Touches the ground.

It says the dead ball spot is the 35 yard line

if without first touching the landing zone to kick off.

So 35 yard line, it looks like

where they would start off in that situation.

So that's another thing.

Yeah, so the, the, the draft pick stuff is interesting

because who proposed it, Cleveland, right?

And you guys saw what happened today with Cleveland, right?

The report that they, they adjusted miles

to Garrett's contract a little bit.

Yeah.

And this was some sort of a deal where

this is not like a typical restructure

that teams always do just to kind of, you know,

help out the cap.

This was more of a,

hey, let's just kind of push a little money

later in the year to make it more manageable to trade him.

And now there's a lot of scum about today that, like,

oh, and Adam Shafter said, I've talked,

they're not trading him, but it's certainly

is interesting to me, the team that proposed this rule

to trade draft picks five years in the future,

the best player in the league that plays, you know,

a defensive end, they suddenly made it

more palatable to trade him.

Yeah, the way I read that story is,

Garrett doesn't get any more money, any sooner.

And the team doesn't benefit at all.

Salary cap wise, which leaves you at, well, then why do it?

Like, what's the, what's the point?

The player had to be agreeable to it,

but he doesn't gain anything from it,

nor does the team, other than this caveat,

they're like, well, we're gonna load him now

and this really buffers the dead money.

Yeah, that's right.

So I wonder what there is,

and what's interesting to me about this proposal is,

I like, I like look at it from, you know,

the league, what they think,

and Rich McKay was specifically asked on this conference call.

Like, what is the competition committee's stance?

And he is always, I don't give the stance of the committee.

The committee has a stance, we don't give it,

but you'll kind of find out next week what our stance is.

And they said they looked at other leagues,

and he said, well, you know, we'll go through it

and you'll know like where we stand.

And I kind of get that feeling, they don't like it.

Like, just kind of the way he was talking,

that the competition committee doesn't like this,

particular stance, or rules for both of them.

Those were five years of draft picks.

That's five years, yeah, but it's not up to them.

Every year, when I go to the owner's meetings,

we hear from Rich McKay and the competition committee,

we hear from Roger Gidell.

And I try to think of something like,

what's something that, okay, this is my one chance, right?

To ask something that I'm thinking about a couple years ago,

I asked Roger Gidell at the owner's meetings,

like, have you, there's some rumors

that you could move championship games to neutral sites.

Remember that whole thing with the bills and the bangles

and that one year and everything was going on?

And there was a, well, maybe they could move it

into a neutral site this year and somebody said,

well, I think they could actually do that in the future.

So I asked Roger Gidell that question.

I'm like, hey, like, what is this something you would consider?

And he's like, that's not something we've ever really talked

about, to be honest with you.

We don't want neutral site championship games.

The one for me for this year,

as I listen to Rich McKay talk about this,

I'm reading this story about Adam Silver

and the NBA in tanking.

I want to ask them what they think about it.

Like, is this a problem in the NFL?

Do you think you need to go to a draft lottery?

It's not as pervasive, it's not as easy.

We know that, but it is kind of a bit of a trend here

to start thinking about now.

You know what I mean?

Well, I mean, with these kickoffs too,

like have they ever considered 40 foot bumpers,

like bowling has for the sidelines

and the ball kicked off the bumper

and then you have to return, there's probably not,

but yeah, all right, sorry.

Are you relieved to have the opportunity

to come up for air after arguing with people

for two or three off seasons about the push push?

Oh, yeah, kind of, sort of.

I'm actually really intrigued that there's nothing at all

on the proposals about it this year.

Right, because everything I still am reading,

like it's not on the agenda,

but there are teams that have very strong feelings

about it still, which is just kind of weird to me.

Right, and McKay touched on this on the conference call.

And what he said was he still kind of left it

in the window for the pushing the runner

in the open field and, you know, where that could go

and there are some thoughts about that.

And I feel strongly about that.

Like I just don't think that you should be able

to push runners forward.

I just, I think, you know, when you're out

in the open field of 30 yard line,

I'm basically against the touch push, I am.

Because I just think part of the spirit of football

for me has always been aiding the runner.

That's an aiding the runner penalty.

You shouldn't be able to do it.

Pulling the runner forward is even worse.

And that's kind of been a little bit of dress,

but now it's not anymore.

And I don't know.

So he was asked specifically by Ian Repaport.

Ian Repaport's on this call and he says,

do you think that that's kind of ended to the bait now?

Is this the end of the debate?

There's nothing on the touch push this year.

And McKay's response was, no, I wouldn't say that.

It's just not on.

He goes, but let's remember, it actually never came up

for rule vote last year.

And I'm like, I guess that's right.

Like there was talk about it,

but I don't think they ever voted out of it last year.

It's not on the table this year

because Philadelphia wasn't that good at it.

And they didn't the Super Bowl.

And they didn't beat a Green Bay team in the playoffs

using it to have Green Bay propose it

at the rules meetings, like the Browns and the Trump thing.

So it's got to be a, has to have been a problem for us

for our, you know, to, for us to nominate and propose it.

And maybe the bills aren't all that fired up about anymore

because that was Sean McDermott's thing, maybe, right?

Like he was one of the faces of that debate.

And he's obviously no longer, you know, employed better.

And he had a tough time figuring out how to sell it

because he talked about injuries and then, right?

Nobody sort of noticed there being any injuries

on the plate, right?

All right, real quick.

And the other thing they'll talk about a lot,

I'm sure is just this, you know,

how the little bit of the scheduling stuff

and you guys saw the news, the Melbourne game

will be played at 10, 15 a.m. in Melbourne

on a Friday morning when they play there next year.

On a Friday morning on what, so it should be a Thursday night here.

Yeah, so it'll be Thursday night, our time, 815,

Thursday, 515 in the two teams cities who are playing,

which are LA Rams in San Francisco, 10, 35 a.m.

Or 15, 35, sorry, keep saying that.

10, 35 and 535 and 835, 10, 35 a.m. Friday in Melbourne

is when they're gonna play.

Think first match of the morning,

which here is the night in the Australian Open.

You turn on ESPN for the Australian Open,

like eight, 30 or nine o'clock, they're playing.

Same, same kind of time situation there.

And in the Seahawks will open the season,

the night before that.

Wednesday, right?

And we, well, against, right, who knows?

And I think we've talked about it

just so people understand what's going on.

There was a broadcasting act back in the 1960s

that was enacted by federal law that says

the NFL cannot play on Friday nights

starting the second Friday of September.

Well, this year week one falls on the second week of September.

And the reason the law exists is to give high school football

that night.

So the NFL doesn't overshadow it

and people can go to games and support their local communities.

So the NFL has to adhere to this rule

and say we can't play on Friday night week one

because that's actually the second Friday of September this year.

Who do you want in Seattle since we're here?

That opener, Dallas, Chicago or New England.

I think that's probably it.

I doubted it be Kansas City or the Chargers.

I mean, that's not bad.

Not the giants, not the Cardinals

and the Rams and 49ers are already booked.

I prefer the Chicago Bears out of that list.

I've seen Dallas play like early games, primetime games a lot.

It's just, it's Dallas.

I don't know.

I don't need to see that all the time.

I'm interested in Chicago, the season they had, the bounce back.

And I have no interest at all in seeing a rematch

of the Super Bowl on opening night.

Same, totally.

I don't have a real strong opinion

about what I would rather see,

but I would bet on it being New England.

That's my prediction is that it will be New England.

And I know the Super Bowl was gross,

but I don't know, give them another chance.

It's New England.

Like they've had enough season.

They've got a famous quarterback.

They're expected to be good.

Like I think they meet the criteria

just because they lost the Super Bowl badly.

I don't feel like it eliminates them.

But don't the Bears check as you would put it all the boxes though.

They do.

Big market, fun team, wanna play off game themselves.

There's a lot about them.

For once, the Bears are fine.

Yeah, no, they're fine.

They're fine.

All three of those teams are, you know, Dallas for their reasons.

Chicago certainly meets the criteria.

I just, I don't know, I'm bet, I would bet on New England.

We have news on the bills as I'm talking with you guys.

Okay, no.

The bills have signed three players,

including a wide receiver who had been on the team before.

Trent Sherfield.

So Trent Sherfield has returned to the bills.

Lloyd Kushenberry III, a center, they've signed.

And the interior swing man, Austin Corbett,

who came in for a visit this past week.

They've all signed with the bills.

This is just happening within the past couple of minutes

while I've been on with you guys.

Sherfield is back.

The return.

And one of his young Jeremy's roster of bills that left

and have returned.

I don't know if he gets the points.

I don't know if anyone had him.

Yeah, I know the morning show has this thing.

That's gettable.

Yeah, that was gettable is.

And he was tweeting about that today, I think,

because or somebody was already tweeted at him

because all the defensive guy,

oh, Curtis Samuel too, a bunch of free agents

that have left the bills.

I've not signed it.

Right.

Last week we were talking, maybe Sal was with us.

I think he was.

And we counted like 13 defensive alone.

I think maybe defensive players that were still UFA's

that were on last year's bills.

So Sherfield.

So the two linemen, do you think are just,

what, competition for Alec Anderson,

depth, that kind of thing, just to not just assume

we've got a guy that's been a backup

and a, you know, a bit player is going to win the job.

Let's make sure he has to actually win the job.

Yeah, agreed.

And 100%.

I look at the future of what's happening.

Do they have plans?

Like, if you're going to try to recoup a drap it,

could you do that with Cedric Bane Prang Ranger?

You know, he has two years left at his deal.

There's no path for him to start.

He doesn't play guard.

Right.

So like, what do you do there?

They've offloaded and they've traded linemen before.

These are veteran players who you bring in for competition.

Corbett can play center in guard.

He did both last year in Carolina.

Cushion Berry.

Yeah, veteran center, like, absolutely, I think.

And that's where it gets me to SVPG because now does that mean,

like, what does that mean for him, right?

Look, they're going to have to keep adding bodies.

This time of year, as I always say,

you've got to bring 90 to camp.

You know, currently on their roster,

they only have 10 offensive linemen, I believe it is.

So they're going to keep adding offensive linemen

to the roster.

So a couple more come in now.

This also, in a way, you don't have to force your hand

a little bit in the draft.

Sure, if there's a guy there, you love.

But if you can sign a few free agents before the draft,

you kind of feel a little bit better about your depth

and then you don't feel like you're in a position

where you have to make a move in the draft to get a guy

because you're depleted at that spot.

You kind of let the draft come to you

so to speak if you do that.

Cushion Berry started 15 games last year for Tennessee.

Started all 17 games, two years prior at center for Denver.

Corbett, 11 starts last year for Carolina.

And Surefield is 6-1-2-0-6, I see.

Is he, did he play special teams when he was here before?

So I'm wondering if he could be like

Tyrell Shavers and Shrooms.

I'm going to look at that for you right now.

Actually, if I can do that,

I can try and figure that out for you right now

because he, I don't have that.

I don't know.

I don't think he played a ton of special teams.

Let's go, here we go, snap counts.

Let's see.

Yeah, I guess he did.

When he was in Buffalo, 35% special team.

So he did.

He was up there.

35% special teams.

So I think that could be a replacement in that regard, yes.

All right, so I don't have to necessarily ask you

what is next for the bills as I was planning to do

because this is next for the bills, right?

As we speak here, very good.

But something else will now be next.

That's right.

Next will be, yeah.

So next week, if we don't talk tomorrow

if everything happens, then I'll talk with you guys

Monday from Arizona as things get rolling.

They have the, they use it.

I don't know why they changed it up this year.

But this year, the NFC coaches are going first.

We will hear from the NFC coaches, I think, on Monday

and the AFC on Tuesday.

I think I got that right this year.

And the coaches breakfast where there's 16 tables

and you just kind of go to that table

where the little flag is of your coach

and you can sit there and talk

and then you can walk over to another table and talk

and all that, yeah.

What a cool moment for a first time head coach

to be a part of all that and the picture.

Don't miss the picture, Joe.

Oh, yeah, the annual picture

or Mike is going to dissect everything about it.

Which I love, by the way, I'm not making fun.

I love it because like, I listened to you

to learn who wasn't in the picture, basically.

Who wasn't in the picture and why?

Find a fountain and line up and let's do this, everybody.

Let's get everybody this year.

Andy Reed in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt.

All right.

Thank you, Sal.

If we don't talk, I have a great trip out.

All right, guys, you got it.

It's our Sal Capaccio on the West her hotline.

His appearances are brought to you

by New York's only outlet liquor when you need to stock up.

It's the place to buy a case.

What's your outlet?

Dead silence on the bumpers.

Does it have to be 40 feet?

Just like, I'm embarrassed to do

that you're even revisiting it.

After how it went over.

I had to.

I mean, it was too dead.

Certainly, I need to be able to get a noise.

I'm impressed in a certain way that you put it.

When it completely bombs, you gotta go back to it.

Yeah.

Not a noise, almost like maybe I wasn't being heard.

So I had to just, you know,

look how stupid that was.

I'm gonna repeat it.

Bumpers.

Bumpers.

You're a bumpers guy ever?

Your parents are bowlers.

I bet never ever with the bumpers.

No.

You were probably never allowed to have the bumpers.

They, when I'm bold with my parents,

the bumpers weren't invented.

Okay, well, then there was no decision to make.

I don't think.

But, no, they would not have that.

No, no.

No, we will not, I respect that.

Yeah.

I think, now, you know, I don't know.

I got, I have like adult nieces and my kids are adults too.

We've all been bowling with them.

I'm sure I wonder if when my kids were little,

my parents might have let them use the bumpers.

Oh, well, it's possible.

It's possible.

That's grandparents for you.

Yeah, my dad would have hated it.

Whatever you want.

He would have been muttering the whole time

under the bumpers.

You're out there trying to teach what I'm gonna learn.

It's just that I'm gonna learn.

Mom and dad are out there just fighting against you.

You don't even know it.

You're right.

Giving the kids anything they want.

They're in their early nineties

and they will be bowling tomorrow.

The bowl that I love it.

The Sabers are sending Zach Mezza to Rochester.

Loaning is the official word for it.

We'll talk about that.

Paul Hamilton may be able to join us later.

He is in for five.

Yep, that'll be good.

Mike Shope in the Bulldog in 803-0550.

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You know, watching this game,

his breakout plays are right on cue a lot of times.

He understands, you know, where the puck's gotta go.

I think sometimes it's the safer place.

Sometimes it's a real option to get the puck into the middle

and make a nice play up the middle.

But yeah, I'm well aware of all of the stats.

We've coaches, if you didn't talk about it,

we have discussions on our group

and can we change a piece with all the D-man we have.

Oh my God, some of his stats are just incredible.

Let me rough the other day on Zach Mezza.

First prize, a Cadillac, El Dorado.

Second prize, a set of steak knives.

Third prize is, you're going to Rochester.

Sorry, kid.

You have a theory?

I, my guess would be that there's news today

about Osland being injured.

We don't know how seriously,

but he missed practice and was being evaluated

for an upper body injury.

I didn't see, and I haven't seen any footage of where we think

it happened, what it might be,

that kind of thing that often does happen,

but I haven't seen any of that.

So I don't know what we're talking.

I had injury, shoulder, whatever, with Osland.

But if that is gonna be even a little bit of time,

a week, maybe they wanna make room for somebody,

greenway, seems like he might be ready to go.

So they might have needed a roster spot

and that's still someone who can go freely up and down.

So from a convenience standpoint,

but I'm totally cool with like, slow playing him.

We gotta see what Timon's gives us.

Everything we talked about yesterday,

like they've got, I think that's it is in the lineup

for game one of the playoffs, myself.

Still, this sort of gets in the way of that.

I wanna say, I hope so,

that this is just for the time being

because they needed a spot.

I wanna say that, but I don't know.

The everything we talked about yesterday was just,

they're gonna try Timon's.

I think they know what they have in Metsa.

He can play with the big four if they need him.

He can stabilize Stanley and be a good third pair guy,

and I think he's in the lineup when they get to the playoffs.

And now 24 hours later, he's sent down.

I hope it's just, yeah, it's convenient.

You can go up and down freely,

so we're going to use that on you.

I didn't notice an oscillant injury,

but I did, I think I noticed, at least one,

even two Sabers players in the course of last night's game

leave because they were cut on their face.

I don't know exactly what happened to Byram.

There was no penalty on either one.

Byram left the ice, spiked his helmet down,

and went down the tunnel in the first period.

Came back at the end of the first period.

Okay.

You know that one?

I did not.

Okay.

I think they mentioned on the broadcast

that he had left for some time, but was back.

Something went wrong there.

I think maybe he was clipped, but I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know.

And then Carrick got clipped.

Well, I didn't catch that.

Oh, yeah, his mouth was cut.

Like he might have lost a tooth, I don't know.

Oh, geez.

In the second or third that was,

and he would not, he did not go down the tunnel.

He took the backup goalie's seat

and sat sort of like facing the other players

on the bench and they worked on him.

And then he was right back out there.

I thought I watched every second of this game.

I don't know how I vote a miss.

Maybe they didn't mention it.

It's possible that they didn't.

I don't know.

It's hard, it's TNT.

If they don't tell you, it's hard to know

that it happened.

You kind of need to see.

Right.

Somebody needs to show you on things like that.

There's no penalty on either one.

Right.

Yeah, I didn't see anything with Carrick.

And it's possible that I should give myself a pass

because maybe it wasn't shown.

I don't know.

I would if I were you.

I wouldn't beat myself up over it.

I'm here.

I was there.

I saw it.

I tried to be the person in my section

that was paying attention.

That could be a challenge.

That's how I am.

I'd like to be the one to pay attention.

My daughter wasn't really watching too closely

and a lot of noise around me.

So boy, can I bring this up again?