Loading...
Loading...

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
What if comparing car insurance rates was as easy as putting on your favorite podcast?
With Progressive, it is.
Just visit the Progressive website to quote with all the coverages you want.
You'll see Progressive's direct rate, then their tool will provide options from other companies
so you can compare. All you need to do is choose the rate and coverage you like.
Quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates.
Comparison rates not available in all states or situations.
Price is very based on how you buy.
Get more out of every mile when you share the ride to work.
With car pulling, you'll have time to relax, save money, and pick up new friends.
Commuter connections can help you find carpool partners who live and work near you.
Even if you're commuting just a few days a week, it's a free service.
Carpooling. Every dollar saved. Every friend made.
Register for free carpool partner ride matching at commuterconnections.org
or call 800-745-RIDE.
That's commuterconnections.org.
It's Charles Barkley here with WayFair.
Let me tell you, game day is serious business at my house.
If I'm grilling, chilling, and watching hoops, my outdoor setup
better be ready to play.
That's where WayFair wins.
From patio seating and umbrellas to grills and grill accessories,
WayFair's got it all and it shows up fast.
I'm talking fast and easy delivery.
So level up your grill game and your outdoor chill game,
and head to WayFair.com to get your outdoor space ready for the season.
WayFair every style, every home.
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,
IXL delivers personalized interactive practice
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
when they sign up today at IXLLearning.com slash audio.
Visit IXLLearning.com slash audio
to get the most effective learning program out there
at the best price.
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.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news,
you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue.
And guess what?
Now you can call them on your auto insurance too,
with the name your price tool from Progressive.
It works just the way it sounds.
You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance.
And they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget.
Get your quote today at Progressive.com to join the
over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates.
Price and coverage match limited by state law.
Get more out of every mile when you share the ride to work.
With carpooling, you'll have time to relax, save money and pick up new friends.
Commuter connections can help you find carpool partners who live and work near you.
Even if you're commuting just a few days a week,
it's a free service.
Carpooling.
Every dollar saved.
Every friend made.
Register for free carpool partner ride matching at commuterconnections.org
or call 800-745-RIDE.
That's commuterconnections.org.
Hey y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair.
Ever order furniture online and wonder what if?
Like, what if it is a bit?
Uh, little to the left.
The width!
Yep, should have gone with Wayfair.
Or what if it doesn't hold up?
That's so far was 40s old.
Should have ordered from Wayfair.
Or what if it's that material that makes that noise?
It was a sofa, I swear.
With Wayfair, there's no what it.
Just style you love, quality you can trust,
and furniture that actually fits your life.
Visit Wayfair.com or download the Wayfair app.
Wayfair every style, every home.
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,
IXL delivers personalized interactive practice
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
when they sign up today at IXLLearning.com slash audio.
Visit IXLLearning.com slash audio
to get the most effective learning program out there
at the best price.
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.
Most of you aren't just listening right now.
You're driving, cleaning and even exercising.
But what if you could be saving money by switching to Progressive?
Drivers who saved by switching saved nearly $750 on average
and auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts.
Multitask right now.
Quote today at progressive.com.
Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates,
national average 12 month savings of $744 by new customers surveyed
who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023.
Potential savings will vary.
Discounts not available in all states and situations.
Get more out of every mile when you share the ride to work.
With carpooling, you'll have time to relax,
save money and pick up new friends.
Commuter connections can help you find carpool partners
who live and work near you.
Even if you're commuting just a few days a week,
it's a free service.
Carpooling.
Every dollar saved.
Every friend made.
Register for free carpool partner ride matching at commuterconnections.org
or call 800 745 ride.
That's commuterconnections.org.
It's Charles Barkley here with Wayfair.
Let me tell you, game day is serious business at my house.
If I'm grilling, chilling and watching hoops,
my outdoor setup, that'll be ready to play.
That's where Wayfair wins.
From patio seating and umbrellas to grills and grill accessories,
Wayfair's got it all and it shows up fast.
I'm talking fast and easy delivery.
So level up your grill game and your outdoor chill game.
And head to Wayfair.com to get your outdoor space ready for the season.
Wayfair every style, every home.
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,
IXL delivers personalized interactive practice
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
when they sign up today at IXLLearning.com slash audio.
Visit IXLLearning.com slash audio
to get the most effective learning program out there
at the best price.
Did you know that you can buy your car
completely online on auto trader?
Really?
Just visit autotrader.com, filter and search
through dealer listings for the car you want,
make, model, color, and all the features that matter to you.
Go ahead, get picky.
Whether you're into subcompacts with heated cup holders,
crossovers with all-wheel drive,
pickups with kicking sound systems,
or SUVs that can survive whatever chaos your kids unleash.
Just drop in your info and you'll only see cars in your budget.
Really?
Once you find your one and only,
you can do the whole deal online
and have the car delivered to your driveway.
Or you can pick it up at the dealership
and drive your new ride right off the lot.
Really?
Autotrader makes it easy to buy your car online
because the whole process is designed around your wants
and must-haves.
Autotrader, buy your car online.
Really.
It's salcapaccio.
I'm at the special cappaggio for you, right?
Oh, now that sounds really good.
Oh, you like?
Hey, get away, get away from my wife with that.
What's the matter, cappaggio nugget?
What, what do you do now?
You don't like a cappaggio?
Like a cappaggio?
No, WGR.
I make a cappaggio for you.
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.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive.
Most of you aren't just listening right now.
You're driving, cleaning and even exercising.
But what if you could be saving money
by switching to Progressive?
Drivers who save by switching
save nearly $750 on average
and auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts.
Multitask right now.
Quote today at Progressive.com.
Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates
national average 12 month savings of $744
by new customers surveyed
who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023.
Potential savings will vary.
Discounts not available in all states and situations.
Get more out of every mile
when you share the ride to work.
With carpooling, you'll have time to relax,
save money and pick up new friends.
Commuter connections can help you find carpool partners
who live and work near you.
Even if you're commuting just a few days a week,
it's a free service.
Carpooling, every dollar saved, every friend made.
Register for free carpool partner ride matching
at commuterconnections.org or call 800-745-RIDE.
That's commuterconnections.org.
Hey y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair.
Ever order furniture online and wonder, what if?
Like, what if it doesn't fit?
Uh, little to the left, the width.
Yep, should've gone with Wayfair.
Or what if it doesn't hold up?
That sofa was four days old.
Should've ordered from Wayfair.
Or what if it's that material that makes that noise?
It was a sofa, I swear.
With Wayfair, there's no what if.
Just style you love, quality you can trust,
and furniture that actually fits your life.
Visit wayfair.com or download the Wayfair app.
Wayfair every style, every home.
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,
IXL delivers personalized interactive practice
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
when they sign up today at IXLlearning.com slash audio.
Visit IXLlearning.com slash audio
to get the most effective learning program out there
at the best price.
Did you know that you can buy your car completely online
on auto trader?
Really?
Just visit autotrader.com, filter and search
through dealer listings for the car you want,
make, model, color, and all the features that matter to you.
Go ahead, get picky.
Whether you're into sub-compacts with heated cup holders,
crossovers with all-wheel drive, pickups
with kicking sound systems, or SUVs that can survive
whatever chaos your kids unleash.
Just drop in your info and you'll only see cars
in your budget.
Really?
Once you find your one and only,
you can do the whole deal online
and have the car delivered to your driveway.
Or you can pick it up at the dealership
and drive your new ride right off the lot.
Really?
Auto trader makes it easy to buy your car online
because the whole process is designed around your wants
and must-haves.
Auto trader.
Buy your car online.
Really?
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?
Unbelievable character.
There's no, I don't want to sound like a snob here
because I feel like if you are at a game
and you are super into it,
there are boundaries, but that's fine.
Like hockey sports needs fans like that.
And so bring the energy.
Bring all of it.
Bring your voice, you know?
Like I know that's not me.
When Benson scored, it was me.
When Zucker made it three, too, it was me.
You heard me then.
But really most of the time it's sort of just watching it.
And I'm not telling anybody that that's how it has to be.
Like you would be you as a fan.
I find with people being boisterous.
Right, I'm very rarely going to be that person,
but yeah, you want not, yeah, I want that.
I want the same.
I endorse everything you just said.
Yes, I do think maybe this is just getting older.
There should be language, common sense, language limits
that are really followed, especially when like
a kid is sitting right in front of you or next to you.
Yeah.
But anyway, I mean, I'm not the cops.
But this guy I drew last night next to me was unbelievable.
I mean, he did get there with the language.
He got, he had, he had enough that by the end of the night,
he was rolling.
He's also one of these guys.
He was a big guy.
I never saw the arm rest on my left the whole night.
Like I'm very careful about my space.
I want to make sure like I'm in my space.
This guy was not into that at all.
He was into my space, too.
I didn't take it as a compliment.
And just, I mean, he was, I tried to describe it to my wife.
He was awesome, aggressive, super high energy,
loud, unmissable.
And okay, I mean, you don't, you get who you get?
Yep, I mean, it's just fine.
Cause I, good, that's not me.
So okay, but there were definitely times.
I thought maybe he was pretty far gone
when the Bruins scored an overtime.
He got up and screamed thinking it was the Sabers and was scored.
Yeah, I was gonna say that was a bad side, right?
You mentioned this earlier that the gentleman near you
did not know that the Sabers had just lost the game.
For a split second, I thought maybe I was mistaken
that there was a save.
Why are the Bruins pouring out out of the ice
if that happened?
I was confused for like a half second.
So anyway, fun night.
It's great in there now.
It is great in there now.
You all know it if you're going at all
or just watching, even you can tell.
It is like, my son sat on the other side of the building
we're talking in the car about just like,
this is new to you guys.
And dad is getting up and whooping after goals, right?
You don't know this dad.
Right, there's, there's juice here
that you just have not squeezed ever.
Like it's not in their lifetimes.
Right, right.
Well, so that's awesome.
I, I didn't notice that you could tell
there were some Bruins fans in the building on TV.
Yep, I would say.
But not, right, but not over, not annoyingly so, right?
But I did notice a, you know, I guess I would say
more than I guess I was expecting.
At least maybe they were just in the right spots
for the TV cameras.
I don't know, but I noticed them a couple of times
during the game.
Again, that's one where in our defense,
we're selling those tickets a long time ago, maybe.
Yeah, just to save ourselves
because for so many years in a row,
the end of the season is like negative EV.
It's not even that the games don't matter.
It's just that the feeling of misery compounds that.
And it's just like, I don't even want to go.
And you can't sell tickets those years
for the end of the season, right?
So I think when it's Boston or Montreal,
and that's kind of it, well, Detroit could be
this a little bit tomorrow too.
But these are games when I had tickets
that I could have sold in November.
And this year would have still been,
yeah, it would have felt like another one of those years.
It did, didn't it?
Yeah, yeah.
Let me just try to salvage this.
And if people want to plan out for months ahead
and buy tickets, then okay, I'm fine with that.
So I think maybe it would be different
if two months went by and then you had,
you were faced with the same sort of decision.
Maybe now you hold onto them.
Detroit tomorrow, and then, I don't know,
we talked about it, we ran it down yesterday.
No one else on the home schedule is like a rival team
with that expect a thing.
I understand you're not traveling.
Islanders, Columbus.
That's something you would really be thinking about.
Dallas is the last game, right?
Couple others in there.
Who else is it?
Do you know?
I don't have it down there.
Well, that Tampa game, obviously, of course.
That's right.
But the rest, I'm not positive.
There's one more that we didn't mention
and that is Seattle.
Okay.
On Saturday.
Right, five, 30.
I think right.
30 on Saturday, different time.
Yep, yep.
Paul will join us at five.
What does the Metsa move mean?
Heading to Rochester, interesting.
Sabers have all this depth on the blue line
and they're looks like trying to figure out
the optimal set of combinations last night with Timmins
and maybe your theory holds water,
adding a spot for greenway, maybe needing a forward.
Because there are three defensemen.
Is there already an update?
Well, my theory takes a hit Chad.
Dean of Ministers sent me a DM
and I appreciate this from Chad.
There's no roster limits anymore
so they don't need to open up roster spots.
So I don't know.
Maybe that's just we want you to keep playing
and we're going to try these other guys out
for the time being.
Yep.
And boy, I hope they sent him down there with.
Don't worry, you'll be back because he should be in the lineup.
Paul's analysis coming up at five lines open at 803-0550
Mike's open the bulldog WGR.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive.
Most of you aren't just listening right now.
You're driving, cleaning, and even exercising.
But what if you could be saving money
by switching to Progressive?
Drivers who save by switching
saved nearly $750 on average
and auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts.
Multitask right now.
Quote today at Progressive.com.
Progressive casualty insurance company
and affiliates national average 12-month savings
of $744 by new customer surveyed
who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023.
Potential savings will vary.
Discounts not available in all states and situations.
Get more out of every mile when you share the ride to work.
With carpooling, you'll have time to relax, save money,
and pick up new friends.
Commuter connections can help you find carpool partners
who live and work near you.
Even if you're commuting just a few days a week,
it's a free service.
Carpooling, every dollar saved, every friend made.
Register for free carpool partner ride matching
at commuterconnections.org or call 800-745-RIDE.
That's commuterconnections.org.
It's Charles Barkley here with Wayfair.
Let me tell you, game day serious business at my house.
If I'm grilling, chilling, and watching hoops,
my outdoor setup, that'll be ready to play.
That's where Wayfair wins.
From patio seating and umbrellas to grills
and grill accessories, Wayfair's got it all.
And it shows up fast.
I'm talking fast and easy delivery.
So level up your grill game and your outdoor chill game.
And head to Wayfair.com to get your outdoor space
ready for the season.
Wayfair every style, every home.
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,
IXL delivers personalized interactive practice
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
when they sign up today at IXLlearning.com slash audio.
Visit IXLlearning.com slash audio
to get the most effective learning program out there
at the best price.
Did you know that you can buy your car completely online
on auto trader?
Really?
Just visit autotrader.com, filter and search
through dealer listings for the car you want,
make, model, color, and all the features that matter to you.
Go ahead, get picky.
Whether you're into sub-compacts with heated cup holders,
crossovers with all-wheel drive, pickups
with kicking sound systems, or SUVs that can survive
whatever chaos your kids unleash.
Just drop in your info and you'll only see cars in your budget.
Really?
Once you find your one and only,
you can do the whole deal online
and have the car delivered to your driveway.
Or you can pick it up at the dealership
and drive your new ride right off the lot.
Really?
Autotrader makes it easy to buy your car online
because the whole process is designed around your wants
and must-haves.
Autotrader, buy your car online.
Really?
It's Paul Hamilton.
That's what they call me a college, is the boat.
He has the facts to back up his opinions.
People ask me, well, how are the sabers going to win tonight?
Oh, cool.
Now WGR sports radio 550.
You know, I got to say it.
It's opening day.
You're the starting pitcher at home.
Top of the first, you got to throw strike one.
You even just lay it in there.
Lay it in there.
You got to throw strike one.
The Metz pitcher did not do that today.
And how'd that work out?
It not great.
I mean, they scored a bunch of runs for him.
But he lost crews, the lead off hit her on a single
and then the next guy, Homerd.
So two nothing, Pittsburgh right away.
And then the Metz got five back in the bottom of the first.
So he was fine.
But throw that strike one, man.
Just, we're all here to partake, enjoy opening day.
He's not going to swing.
Right Paul, do we have Paul?
No, not yet.
Are we all standing for like the first pitch of the season?
Mostly, I think, I think, mostly, yeah.
So we're on our feet.
We're ready for a moment with let's, you know, deliver.
That's it.
Yeah, I don't need a, you know, I don't need an 80 foot curve ball.
Don't get cute.
It's not, it's not where you want to be.
I don't need an effus pitch on the first pitch of the season.
It's just groove one in there, buddy.
Anybody throwing that anymore?
Have you seen an effus today?
I have not.
I love the effus pitch.
I want to see it come back.
Let's see it make it come back this year.
What does the data say?
What do the analytics people say about the effus?
Is that sort of the dodo bird of pitches now?
Are you talking about that?
I don't know.
It's just not worth it.
Big, lobby pitch, just like a softball pitch, the effus.
Only, I looked this up for some reason.
I don't even know why.
One, I don't, I know why.
I was thinking, card of the day, maybe,
I loved your card of the day.
You did?
I liked that.
I favored it.
I partied my hearted, hearted,
loved it, liked, liked, okay.
It's because it's a heart.
It's not like that's love anyway.
Now I feel uncomfortable.
That's a touchy stuff.
Anyway, yeah, no, but I, I, yeah, man.
Hey, Karen, this is my all time,
one of my all time favorites.
1974 card number one, tops after he had broken
the home run record.
It's interesting because that happened in 74.
And that's the 74 set.
There's probably some story about that they sort of added the card late, did something
because usually everything would be about the previous year.
Right.
That was April of 74.
Yes.
Right.
So I wanted to pick a card of the day for the opener and you can pick almost anybody,
right?
So any baseball player.
So I went looking, who's birthday is today?
And one Hall of Famer was born on this date, March 26th, Tom Glavin, who turns 60.
Then I thought, maybe I have a hockey card of his.
Maybe he had a hockey card, he was drafted in the late rounds of the hockey draft.
But he's too recent of a player for me to have like interesting cards of.
So I just went with Hank Aaron and you liked it.
I'm glad to hear that.
I really did.
Yes.
That is interesting about it being the 74 card set and that having kept, I wonder how they
pulled that off.
Just a late change or something to honor him.
Card number one, we're waiting on Paul.
I think two playoff, it sounded like there are two playoff matches, matchups, sorry, within
the Eastern Conference tonight.
Montreal Columbus.
Okay.
Is what?
What?
You okay with it?
When he talks, it's so loud.
I just joked about a match.
It's not anybody's fault.
It's just.
That's crazy.
I didn't hear him.
That's what happens when it's, yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Gotcha.
Montreal Columbus and I haven't, I haven't looked at the schedule.
I apologize.
I'm a little shook.
Paul Hamilton on the Westher hotline, Washington baseball the day, Paul, or last night,
you were busy last night.
I'm guessing.
Yeah.
I was busy last night.
I would have liked to watch the Yankee game, but it was over by the time I got home.
So unfortunately, and they don't play tonight and the Sabers play again tomorrow.
So I won't see them.
Or a little tomorrow.
I think it was earlier.
Yeah.
Tomorrow is the afternoon.
So you could catch it.
Maybe catch the end when you get down to the arena and get settled for your pre-game duties.
Yeah.
Possibly.
Today we.
I'm bossing you around.
Yes.
Today, we have the news that the Sabers are loaning Zach Mezza to Rochester.
Maybe you could even sort of detail what the words mean here, like loan is, if that means
something other than whatever the normal is.
Yeah.
That's an anonymous which is sent down now.
And it's just a gentler way to play.
Yeah.
They always say loan.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They always say that.
What do you think they're up to?
Simply, they have too many D.
I mean, they got enough.
Now, they wanted to see how Timins played.
Timins, in my mind, played probably his best game as a Saber coming back after 38 games.
I mean, he was a good penalty killer and they needed the penalty kill to settle down,
which he did.
But I wasn't especially enthralled with his five on five play before he got injured.
But I thought he was excellent last night.
I thought he played really well.
Now, it's only a one game type of a scenario.
But they have two other right shooting defensemen who are sitting.
Neither one have been all that impressive in Michael Kesselring or Shen.
Kesselring, of course, is playing with an injury, probably pretty much for the rest
of the year.
So again, I'm not down on him at all.
I think he'll be fine once he's a healthy hockey player.
I think he's a very good defenseman.
And I think fans will like him.
He might even be next year or whatever.
But once he plays as a healthy defenseman, I think he'll be fine.
But so Metza being the odd man out, like we've gone Paul in the span of about, I don't
know, 48 hours or maybe a little more than that from like he deserves to be in the lineup.
He's their fifth defenseman to he's the guy going to Rochester.
I'm hoping that they sent him down there with a just go play 25 minutes and play the
power play and help them out because he was the captain down there, right?
So go like stabilize, help them push for the playoffs.
And like you'll be back here, I don't know what the kind of time frame is because we were
talking this through yesterday, only you and I had time to get into it on pregame.
But it makes sense to me, I feel like to put Tim and Zinn and Paul Metza out last night,
you want to get Tim in some playing time.
You want to see what you have in these guys should you need them?
Would anyone in this decore get hurt?
So let's let's see who works well with whom and all that kind of stuff.
And I would expect maybe you even try the same thing with with Kessling again before
you close the book on him entirely, maybe, but to have Metza go down is just kind of stark
to me.
I mean, I realized they have too many guys, but I think maybe do we all share this opinion?
They sent the best one of the bunch down to Rochester.
Yeah, but I think the penalty killing is where the penalty killing has not been as good
since Tim and's went down.
I mean, Tim and they were number one and two in the league and then Tim and's went down
and they haven't been god awful times they have been, but it hasn't been the same.
And for whatever reason, and Lindy Ruff really hasn't said a lot about it, they didn't
want to try Metza and penalty kill.
I think you'd be just fine.
I don't think well, I don't see any problem in him killing penalties and what they don't
think he can block shots or I don't know exactly what the thinking is there.
That really is the difference between him and Tim and Tim and Tim is a very, very good
penalty killer and their penalty kill was excellent while he was on it.
And Metza never got the chance, right?
So that's that would be where I where I'm just kind of shaking my head, but it's still
a defenseman who's plus 20 and has not been on the ice for a goal against since October
and has only been on the ice for two goals against in his NHL career, which is 38 games.
So the results and the numbers speak for themselves.
They activated Tim and's yesterday and they're not over the cap or anything like that
and that like Metza's breaking them anyway.
Right.
I mean, they can have as many players as they want.
Right.
I realize, yeah, I made a mistake when this first broke while we were in the middle of
a segment and I made a mention of like, well, Osslyn's hurt, maybe Greenway gets activated
or someone else or whatever and they need a spot.
But you know, our friend Chad Dean of minutes has corrected me right away like that's not
the case anymore.
And a few other people on Twitter have to thank you, all of you.
Um, yeah, it's weird, Metza though is the only one of those guys, the like extra
D, if you will, that can go up and down without waivers, right?
Yeah.
And the thing is too, if they need them, they, you know, they he's fine, they can bring
them back.
Right.
I mean, if they want to go with Tim and and they just would rather he be down there playing.
And if somebody in the top six gets hurt, I mean, it would only make sense that he's
the guy to come back.
Right.
I mean, Shannon Kesselring just haven't worked out.
So um, it just, uh, so they, you could be looking at it that way too is they've decided
to go with Tim and it's because of the penalty killing and if somebody gets hurt, they can
bring them back.
And just to be clear, I'm correct about the whole point, isn't it?
The, the, your point is the whole point, right?
Isn't it?
That he, he's the one who can go down with, you know, you don't lose him.
I just want to make sure that that's right.
Like the other guys would have to clear waivers obviously, so you're not going to do
that with any of those guys.
So he'd, he's not in danger of being claimed or anything.
So I thought Paul makes sense and when he's playing too, you know, right, of course he's
down there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I thought listening to rough talk about Metsa earlier this week, he sounded like he had
been converted and you've been around for all of that and you've talked us through
it.
How Lindy has sort of, I don't know if this is not it, but a weekend to the reality that
this guy is, he's not getting us beat.
So eventually you got to, you know, give into that and he sounded like he had been, you
know, like a full convert into Metsa, not that he had to be down on him prior, just like
how he was talking.
I got to think unless there's some, some glaring mistake here that he's back whether there's
an injury or not, eventually that they would, you know, have him up here and him a line
up.
Right.
I still want to say he'll be in the lineup in game one with how he told, but I don't
know and I'm a little shook by this, this, this, I mean, their penalty killing is still
fifth for the season.
So I don't know how badly they need an upgrade.
Yeah.
And the thing is, don't forget to Lindy Ruff has input.
I think Lindy Ruff had a lot of input when Kevin Adams was here.
I think that's changed.
Lindy Ruff didn't send him down.
Yeah, I'm going to kick a line and did.
So whether they agree, I don't know, I have no idea, but it's not Lindy's choice.
I mean, he can be, he can give his opinion only once, but it's here I'm going to kick
a line and his choice.
So maybe he's not sold.
I don't know.
All right.
Fair enough.
Kick a line and there's not spoken about it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I want to, I want to like not be, you know, freaking out about Zach must have been sent down
because, you know, we'll see what the, what the big, you know, we don't know all the, all
the machinations and all the pieces on the board and all of it, what their motivations are.
So I don't want to make too much out of it, which is why I'm trying to find like a solution
that makes sense to me for him to just go play there.
We're going to see what these other guys can do and there's no use you sitting here while
we're doing that.
Like I said earlier when it happened, I just hope he was sent down with a, we'll see you
back in a few days, a few weeks, whatever it is because I, I, I'd be stunned if something
changed to the point where he's not a part of Lindy Ruff's decore, you know, because
Lindy does have lineup, right?
I mean, by taking that's out, you know, that makes him maybe vulnerable to being sent down
because they want him to play, I just hope it's temporary is all I, I'm saying, I'm
saying a lot of words.
I just hope this is a temporary solution.
I doubt it.
I think it's a, if there's an injury, you'll see him back.
If not, he won't.
Wow.
There's no sense him sitting here.
I mean, and, and, or if Timins, like Timins was not a downgrade yesterday, but that was
one game.
You know, he, he played very, very well, but that was one game and you have, you have
a, a very good penalty killer.
Will that continue?
I have no idea.
But they made a decision on one game that Tim is going to be fine.
He played really well.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
We're good.
You know, if there's an injury, we can, we can bring him back.
Yeah.
I'm not thinking, Paul, about, I feel like I'm, I'm, I'm just like really belaboring
this, but like, I'm not saying bring him back to sit here.
I'm saying he comes back for the playoffs to play because he's one of the six best guys.
That's what I hope happens here.
And if it doesn't, then I'm, you know, then Timins better really blow our socks off blocking
shots and killing penalties.
Absolutely.
No, I mean, he's got, Timins has to play like he did last night.
Yeah.
If he doesn't, if he plays more like he did before, he got injured.
Now, in my mind, we've got a problem.
Yeah.
But if he plays like he did last night, they're fine.
I mean, he, as it was six and one have a dozen of another and Stanley was all right
with him last night.
Right?
Yeah.
Most Stanley was good with.
That's up for five games, too.
Right.
Right.
You know, I've been on the Western hotline with us here on WGR.
What did you think overall, Paul?
Cause it was Lindy called the first 40 minutes their worst game or worse 40 minutes in three
months.
I think after the game, like overall, and then maybe we'll get into some particulars.
Cause Mike and I got pretty deep very early in our show today, talking about the, the
last two goals Boston scored and just what Luke and in could have or should have done
and how much blame, et cetera, but how about the overall last night?
Yeah.
And it's unexplainable.
I've been saying it for years that first game back from a West Coast very often, not
every time, but very often is just not a good.
And I don't necessarily disagree with Lindy Ruff.
The first two periods were horrendous, but they're a good enough team now that they're
in the game.
Yeah.
I mean, San Jose, they were playing poorly and next thing, you know, three goals are
in the net.
You're up three nothing.
Right.
I mean, it was like, that's not the way they used to do it.
They'd play poorly and be down six nothing, not up three nothing, you know, and, and so
they do it differently now.
They projected a one goal lead in Vegas again for 40 minutes.
Luke and in to make some very good saves along the way.
It wasn't their best game, but they defended the lead and for 40 minutes for one nothing
and one they came to nothing on an empty netter.
So that's the difference that even when they don't have their game, they can find ways
to win sometimes, find ways to get points when you're down four to two or when you're down
two to one and come out in the third period.
And while you take the lead and you have been for the most part good at protecting one
goal leads, but not in the last two games.
But at the end of the day, to me, it's nothing to freak out over.
And I'm not saying you are.
I'm just saying anybody that is because you've gotten points at 14 to your last 15 games
and your 12 one and two.
And the one game you lost, you lost with a minute 33 left and a two and one one game.
And you were a minute 33 from getting a point net game too.
So, you know, I'm not overly concerned by it.
Yeah, they have lost two in a row if you look at it that way, that is true.
But they're still ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning points percentage.
They're right on the tail of the Carolina Hurricanes in point percentage.
They're tied in points, but the Hurricanes do have that one game in hand.
So they're still right there and, you know, they haven't really done any damage to themselves.
I don't think other than now Tampa Bay does have their own destiny because they win
their two games in hand they're ahead by a point, but they got to win those games.
I mean, there's no guarantee they're going to win those two games in hand.
And you still get to play them again.
Sure, if you fall behind on Dingo stay on Dingo stay.
That's right.
Even right.
The three three goal call middle stat.
What did you see?
Yeah, it's you could tell right away.
And you could tell by his reaction when the pocket with the wall.
I knew right away he didn't know where it was because all of a sudden his head turned
to his left over his left shoulder when the pocket the wall.
And he's looking for it.
He had no idea where it went.
And so he hears that and he looks to see if the puck was over on the wall and it's dribbling
through.
Well, Dahlene doesn't have middle stat tied up, middle stat standing in the crease.
Luke and it has not located the puck.
He doesn't know where it is and it's an easy to happen for middle stat.
Yeah, could Dahlene have been maybe just I don't know where the puck is, get the man
type of thing there.
Yeah, that's what I would have done.
That's what I and I'm going to go way back here.
Remember in the playoffs against Pittsburgh when the pucks up in the air and Warner and
Jettaker stand in there.
It's in neither one new where the puck was.
It's like tackle them.
Right.
Cross check.
Do not let him stand there.
What you want to do is hit that man.
Yeah, just whatever you got to do.
If you can't find the puck, do not let him stand there.
It's coming down eventually.
So yeah, I kind of required that kind of the same way.
And so how hard would you be on Luke and in for that?
Like a bad bounce.
Like it went off his blocker, I think, too, right?
But not that he just like deflected, which is why it maybe he didn't know where it was.
Well, he had guys around him, too.
It was a small a little bit.
So he had guys around him.
So he wasn't free to really look around too much and then he lost it and he didn't
know where it was.
Now, the overtime goals are totally different story, but this one, I didn't blame him.
Give them some benefit of the doubt there.
Yeah, absolutely.
The OT one, Paul, what, what is that?
Like I thought also like it's a guy in clean look and all that.
But he was just there was so much room between his legs.
He just was not, I guess I would say like as a former goalie dad, technically sound coming
across.
Like he was all arms and legs all over the place kind of.
And I don't know, I guess earlier, maybe he knew he was late because it was pasta knock
with the puck and he didn't want to cheat.
And so he knew he was going to be unsound and just tried to take up as much space as he
could.
Or did he want to stay there thinking the Zaka might go back to pastor, pastor, I don't
know.
I mean, because yeah, he was in a very awkward spot and it was a very easy goal.
Now I have huge problems with people the way they played that goal, that have nothing
to do with him.
To me, the puck, the puck and the player never should have been anywhere near Luke in
it.
I mean, it's like, come on, boys.
I mean, Ryan McLeod is an excellent hockey player.
He really struggled yesterday.
I mean, on the second goal, he's quit skating.
And I mean, he could have picked up Arvetson and it was a great poachek by Luke and I
loved the play because pastor and I was not expecting that.
Poachek's the puck off him and McLeod gave up on Arvetson.
What do you know why?
And before that, and Lindy Ruff was pretty mad about it.
He talked about it after the game.
He wasn't happy with talk, not getting the puck out, not hard enough on the battle, not
hard enough on the wall.
And then he went after Don on the middle stack goal.
Same thing.
You know, you're not hard enough on the wall.
And then those are two players.
We're not normally talking about like this, three players.
McLeod's a very good defensive player.
I mean, and he just waved at Pastor Nak and turned away from him.
And I'm scratching my head, go, what, what are you doing?
What, he just waved at him and turned away.
And over time.
And continue on the rush.
Yeah.
And then that means there, but talk cheats and that's fine.
And they both are.
They're both there.
They're both looking at Pastor Nak.
So you've got all three sabers concerned with Pastor Nak.
And now I understand he's a superstar.
I get it.
But all three of them didn't need to be concerned with him.
And talk just let Zaka go right by him because he's the right defenseman.
He's looking at Pastor Nak.
Dalline has him covered.
Dalline's doing his job.
He has him covered.
And Zaka has a free lane to the net.
Yeah.
On one positive note, or you have something else on this?
I was going to say the play on Tuck, the second goal positive.
Jumped around there a couple of times talking about a couple of different plays.
But Tuck, yeah, like a really bad job by him so close to the line, power gets way up
in the zone.
And you know, what's there?
What do I say?
They're superpowers.
These D and how they join the rush and are so much a part of the offense.
Power is going up the ice like he thinks Tuck is coming out of the zone because normally
Tuck.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Maybe not good idea because it wanted to burning him.
Yeah.
But he anticipates.
All right.
Here we go.
Because Lindy Ruff is pushing them to get up the ice.
Right.
Sometimes it won't work.
So tough play.
They got burned there.
They're super power burned them there.
I think.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That probably happens in the comics sometimes.
Sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Huberist kicks in.
Yeah.
And the villain turns the superhero's power on himself.
Something like that.
Wow.
With a mirror.
What?
One positive thought I had, you know, being there last night.
The Zooker vibes are tremendous.
Like the two goals that he's, they're in the same spot, right?
He ends up in the corner glass, arms out, the big smile, the crowd is eating that up.
Yeah.
And they decided they needed to tweak a few things and they put Quinn on there.
But what I liked is they basically used Thompson as a rover.
Yeah.
I mean, just go all over the zone.
I mean, he's the guy on the top high slot.
He was roaming all over the place and made two incredible plays to Zooker for goals.
And of course, you know, Zooker knows where to be on the power.
Right.
And that's right on the crease and really two nice plays by Thompson to set him up for
goals.
Yeah.
So it worked.
I mean, that is the positive is both special teams.
I mean, the penalty kill and two games had given up three goals on seven power plays.
The penalty kill was right on and the power play was right on, you know, where they
the last game against Anaheim, both really they got hurt by special teams and the reason
they'd lost the hockey game.
Yeah.
Zooker with the quick hands on the three, two goal, two like that bounces off a skate and
he's still able to bury that.
Well, I was so glad to see that the way they, you described it perfectly there, Paul,
as a rover because what it would say in here for a couple of weeks, their power play being
as sort of stagnant as it often is, doesn't make sense when you look at their five on
five play and how active they are in the offensive zone with the cycle out high, with the
defense been involved and that the power play seems just sort of very static a lot of the
time.
So I was glad to see that, you know, get freshened up.
I did not know and I learned this from TNT that Zucker has a thing with George, but George
bad question getting a lot of a lot of attention lately, 25, 2500 games on the bench as a equipment
manager or assistant equipment manager.
Anyway, there's, they showed footage of a pregame thing and I guess they do something different
all the time, but what they showed last night from warmups was like Zucker grabbing bat,
like they were going to fight like bad, bad cock is like shoving at Zucker and Zucker's
grabbing him with his gloved hand and pulling him in like he's going to slug him and they're
just, it's just guys being dudes, I guess, but I'd never seen that before and Zucker's
been here.
It's the second full season, but the Sabers I've never seen him, you know, highlighted
in that way with that.
But I loved it.
It was presented on TNT as like, look at this group of people, look at the chemistry,
even the assistant equipment manager is part of a like site job here, which was pretty
cool to see.
Kind of funny, believe it or not, George, and I have been doing that for 20 years.
We really have.
Of course you have.
There was one time I grabbed George and I didn't, he didn't tell me.
He had grew, grew up his shoulder, he had a dislocated shoulder, had no idea, I had thrown
him up against the pole, I did, he just squealed, I go, you've got, you know how we operate
here, you've got to let me know if you've got something like that.
Make a, make a t-shirt that says it, don't touch me, not today, Paul.
I have one of those.
But George is so much fun, I mean, over the years I've had so much fun with him and, you
know, he's a little bit crazy and I'm not saying anything out of turn here.
He knows I would say that and he'd be totally fine with it.
Well, the thing that I'm saying was highlighted on TNT last night definitely endorses that.
Or good vibes.
But you know what, I didn't score two goals afterwards.
Well, maybe tomorrow.
Maybe tomorrow.
Try harder Paul.
Try harder Paul.
Thanks Paul, we'll talk tomorrow night.
Yes.
Paul Hamilton on the Western Hotline, his appearances here on WGR brought to you by Ray
Lacks Honda.
Ray Lacks, we got this back after sports, Mike Schopen, the Bulldog WGR.
Well, I got a partial answer to that.
He's never had a five brand inning and didn't have one last year and that's going to be
it.
Wow.
Don Kelly has seen enough and all schemes will be done after 37 pitches and two thirds
of an inning.
I don't think that.
Wow.
NBC with the Metz Pirates opener.
I don't know.
I watched every pitch.
Seen enough.
I don't think schemes was bad.
The Robert, I'm going to go baseball guy for like 30 seconds.
The Robert at bat was beautiful Luis Robert Jr. for the Matt center field.
And he battled 10-11 pitches and worked a walk.
The previous hitter also got schemes.
One of those first few hitters, maybe Beshat, I'm not sure.
He went fastball, curveball, change up, sweeper slider, you four different pitches to
start it at bat.
And he just wasn't missing bats, which you know, the standard is pretty high.
He wasn't missing bats.
He has a chance for a reasonable inning and the Pirates do go on to score seven runs
in this game.
But his center fielder lost the ball in the sun maybe twice.
The first one maybe was the wind and then the second one was the sun.
And that was four runs right there on Neil Cruz.
And they were talking about how he doesn't or wasn't wearing sunglasses, which maybe
that was a mistake.
So schemes easily could have gotten out of the first without too much damage.
Nobody took him deep or anything.
And then, you know, great pitcher sometimes I mentioned Tom Gleven earlier.
They always said this about Tom Gleven.
Once he gets out of the first inning, look out.
But sometimes he would struggle early and they say that about all the great pitchers,
don't they?
I mean, he was close.
They were in no mood to suffer through it though with him opening day, you know, go take
a shower.
We'll be fine.
Are you, but now you're not a Mets fan anymore like a big fan.
So if you're a big Mets fan and you're at opening day and of course, you know, you want
your team to win.
Yay.
You know, I love the Mets goal.
Let's go Mets.
But you also know you've got a ticket to see the best pitcher in baseball.
Is there room for you to be disappointed that he got knocked out so early?
I think there is a little bit.
I think I think I meant when I was younger, probably not.
But if I'm going, I'm going to Pittsburgh in August, two games, a Saturday evening
and a Sunday afternoon.
And if I'm lucky enough that schemes is pitching one of those games, I am not a big enough
Red Sox fan that I would not want to see schemes work for like I'd want Boston to win,
but I'm going to want to see him throw seven innings.
Like I want to watch, I want to watch the guy.
I got a chance to see this guy in person.
And my rooting interest, one of 162 is going to kind of take a back seat to that, I think.
Yeah, I want to see this guy.
If he gets knocked out, like, oh, great, yay.
Well, if you go to all the games, you've seen him and you'll see him again, right?
And opening day, you know, you're just feeling it.
I don't think you'd have to be disappointed at all, but I certainly get that.
You know, it's also a great moment if you're a fan of the home team at a game where you
do take the pitch.
You do get the knock.
That's a great moment, you know, whether it's the first inning or ever.
I'm thinking also of game two of the World Series that I went to with Yamamoto.
And I mean, he was, he was ruining life.
Like I was there to see the Blue Jays race.
Oh, right.
They killed him in game one.
Two hits or something.
They couldn't, they couldn't touch him.
But it got into the late innings.
And I kind of thought, let me see if the let him finish it.
And they did.
And he went nine.
And that's what, that's the lead of that game is.
Yep.
And then he comes in in game seven and is the MVP.
He's pitching the night, by the way.
And so, you know, I didn't know my team lost, but that was cool.
I think it was a World Series game would mitigate that from a fan stamp.
Oh, yeah.
I'm not saying that Boston and Pittsburgh are playing in game five of the World Series
that I want to see schemes work as magic.
I'm going to want to see his, yeah, I want body parts stapled to the green monster if
it's the World Series.
You know, mid August, yeah, right.
Do your stuff.
It's a great thing, a great pitching performance to be at.
It's a great thing.
How soon do I start looking at the pitching rotation?
Not yet.
August, mid August, yeah.
I wouldn't say, yeah, maybe he moved up a date after today.
Maybe after the All-Star break and I started looking at it.
37 pitches.
Yeah, I think, I think then that would be the time to start.
Not before.
Right.
Okay.
They're going to have the All-Star break.
They're not going to pitch in the All-Star game he could.
Either way, well, if especially he doesn't, he'll pitch the first game after the break.
Start there.
You can do that right now.
There you go.
Whatever the first game is after the break is probably schemes and then, you know, count
them out.
All right.
In fact, if I want to go to a game and see him, that's how I would do it.
If that was priority one, put him in for the first game after the break in like mid
July and then every fifth day.
Right.
Yep.
Well, I didn't think to do that nor really logistically could I.
I Boston's only in town for that series.
I didn't want to take Friday off.
So we're traveling, you know, we'll drive down Saturday morning and go to a couple games.
And so I just hope it lands right because, you know, that's the only three days there
in Pittsburgh, Boston.
Mm-hmm.
And they won't be there next year then unless they change the format every other year.
Right.
That's how that works.
Right.
I was in my, sadly, I was in my car and not in front of the TV for the first challenge
of the day.
Mm-hmm.
You really missed out.
It was also O'Neill Cruz, the pirate, the six foot seven pirate center fielder who had
the nightmarish first inning.
He was up and it was three and two on him.
Might have been five, two mats or five, three, five, two, I think.
And they called ball four, catcher taps his head, review, strike three.
Next guy, Homerd.
Mm-hmm.
So, all right.
Awespecious.
If you're, again, a Metz fan, right?
You get, you catcher thinks Alvarez to challenge the quality wins on it and I guess saves
them a run.
I still hate it.
I'm not going to be a fan of the, I, we don't need 162 games.
You can't, you can't deal with, with the Metz of loss today without that overturned pitch.
I just, I hate it.
I, I wondered this about it.
And this is probably known and maybe it would vary team by team.
So one thing about this system, automatic balls of strikes, ABS is it's fast.
It needed to be fast.
It's not only fast in terms of the turnaround, like tennis, but you have to challenge the
call immediately, two seconds, I think it is.
And the managers can't do it.
Maybe there'll be some gamesmanship there and like if a manager has his elbow on the railing,
that means to, I don't know, but they're not supposed to be able to do it.
It's only pitchers, catchers and batters.
And they all say it's a bad idea for a pitcher to challenge a pitch, because you know, his
body's in motion and he might just sort of feel, I, that should have been, yeah, they
don't want pitchers challenging teams.
Don't want pitchers challenging pitches.
I wonder how much authority, like the batters have, you get to a game unless you're right
then you still get to keep your challenges, but you only get to, I was, we're watching
Detroit San Diego and it's six, it was six, nothing Detroit at the time.
Now it's eight, nothing.
And there was a close pitch that was called a strike that might have been outside.
And I thought, does the batter have like a red light because it's six to nothing?
There could be a chart based on win probability, where batters are informed, like, all right,
we're not challenging this thing.
Whatever happens.
Right.
Right.
Because they're not teams are going to want to save them.
We needed at the end when it really matters, right, if any of it really matters.
So I bet that's known.
I wonder if, like, I could find an article on matter or something.
What, what are batters told not to do?
Because, you know, you're up there and it's going to feel like that was outside, whatever.
You don't want to challenge a bad call and think you're right.
Maybe you were right, but you still wouldn't do it.
Makes sense?
Yes.
Yes.
Here's Dave with us.
Hi, Dave.
Hey, guys, I was listening to you guys earlier, I didn't get a chance to call you guys,
but I thought it was interesting, and I know you guys have a bet going.
I was looking yesterday of the day before the game's leading up to Tampa Bay coming here.
And starting last night with a wild, the lightning has seven home games, which I think is very
advantageous for them.
And this goes towards your bet and what's happening there.
And the Sabers only have five.
And plus Tampa Bay has two games in hand.
So I think it's very advantageous for them, and I just wanted to get your guys take on
that.
I don't care that much about home or away.
The Sabers for one team have been great on the road.
Do they even maybe have a better record on the road, probably close?
We talked about this with the lightning schedule recently, and, you know, yeah.
But they have, as it goes, Ottawa twice, Montreal twice, they'll be tested tonight Seattle.
The bet is that Lindy Ruff win coach of the year, we're not against each other.
We're both on the same side here.
And we did have a conversation about that as well earlier.
There's only so far I want to go to make the argument because the Sabers are a little
bit of a shooting percentage, save percentage, darling this year.
And that's, however, oftentimes how coach of the year gets decided.
People think they're watching a great coaching job.
Maybe they are.
Maybe they're watching a team where there's a lot of luck involved.
I don't think the Sabers are super lucky.
But you know, a little bit, and that's okay.
And Tampa is too.
Tampa is first in that category, PDO, this year, but they have the star players where you'd
sort of be like, oh, yeah.
Maybe that's not luck having Kuturov on your team, and Castle Eski.
So yeah, we'll see what happens.
Thanks Dave, Mike Schopen, the Bulldog WGR.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
What if comparing car insurance rates was as easy as putting on your favorite podcast?
With Progressive, it is.
Just visit the Progressive website to quote with all the coverages you want.
You'll see Progressive's direct rate, then their tool will provide options from other
companies so you can compare.
All you need to do is choose the rate and coverage you like.
Go today at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates, comparison rates not available
in all states or situations, prices vary based on how you buy.
Get more out of every mile when you share the ride to work.
With carpooling, you'll have time to relax, save money, and pick up new friends.
Commuter connections can help you find carpool partners who live and work near you.
Even if you're commuting just a few days a week, it's a free service.
Fulling every dollar saved every friend made register for free carpool partner ride matching
at commuterconnections.org or call 800 745 ride that's commuterconnections.org.
Did you know that you can buy your car completely online on auto trader?
Really?
Just visit autotrader.com, filter and search through dealer listings for the car you want,
make, model, color, and all the features that matter to you.
Go ahead.
Get picky.
Get subcompacts with heated cup holders, crossovers with all-wheel drive, pickups with kicking
sound systems, or SUVs that can survive whatever chaos your kids unleash.
Just drop in your info and you'll only see cars in your budget.
Really?
Once you find your one and only, you can do the whole deal online and have the car delivered
to your driveway.
Or you can pick it up at the dealership and drive your new ride right off the lot.
Really?
Autotrader makes it easy to buy your car online because the whole process is designed
around your wants and must-haves.
Autotrader.
Buy your car online.
Really?
I tick it, Lady Jennifer of Coons.
Well, many thanks, good sir.
Here is my Discover Card.
They accept a discover at Renaissance Fairs?
Yeah, they do here.
Discoverers accepted at the places I love to shop.
Get it with the times.
With the times.
You're playing the loot.
Yeah, and it sounds pretty good, right?
Autotrader is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide.
Based on the February 2025 Nilsen report.
I'm Brian.
I work at Unite Healthcare.
So Brian, why do you care?
I care because I don't want to leave anybody behind.
I oversee one of the biggest resource center in Unite Healthcare.
I see people walk in in my office every day, just like my parents.
They have no idea about the healthcare.
I feel like they are my uncles, aunties.
I treat it as people of my family.
I'm Brian, and I'm committed to care.
