Best of the Sabres on WGR: Was sending down Zach Metsa the right move?

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You know, watching this game,

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

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

I think sometimes it's the same for play 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 haven't talked about it,

we have discussions on our group

and can we change a piece with all the demand we have.

But some of his stats are just incredible.

Wouldn't he 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 going to be even a little bit of time,

a week, maybe they want to make room for somebody,

greenway, seems like he might be ready to go.

So they might have needed a roster spot

and Mezza is 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 got to see what Timins gives us.

Everything we talked about yesterday,

like they've got, I think Mezza is in the lineup

for game one of the playoffs myself.

Still?

This sort of gets in the way of that.

I want to say I hope so,

that this is just for the time being

because they needed a spot.

I want to say that.

But I don't know.

The everything we talked about yesterday was just,

they're going to try Timins.

I think they know what they have in Mezza.

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 Osland 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 it might have lost a tooth.

I don't know, but 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 would have missed it.

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.

Yeah.

You kind of need to see somebody needs to show you.

Yeah.

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.

Yeah, I would if I were you.

Yeah.

I wouldn't beat myself up over it.

Yeah.

I'm here.

Oh, good.

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're 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, right?

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 can use a fan.

I find with people being boisterous, right.

I'm very rarely going to be that person.

But yeah, you want, 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.

They are really followed.

Especially when like a kid is sitting right in front of you

or next to you.

Yeah.

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 had, he had enough that by the end of the night,

he was rolling.

Yeah.

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 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 because 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.

I think it was the same as the score.

Yeah, I was gonna say that was the bad side.

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 were talking in the car about just like,

this is new to you guys.

And dad is getting up and whooping after goals.

All right, you don't know this dad.

Right, there's juice here that you just have not squeezed ever.

Like it's like, it's not in their lifetimes.

Right, right, so that's awesome.

I didn't notice that you could tell

there were some Bruins fans in the building on TV.

Yep, I would say.

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

here in 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, to me, 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 were faced

with the same sort of decision.

Maybe now you hold on to 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

that you expect a big.

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, 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 on Saturday, right?

530.

530 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 Timons

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 gonna 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.

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and this is when confidence really matters.

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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.

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Got it.

I'm the show, or I don't know,

the more costume, point show high, salcapatio.

When I'm on here on Fridays during football season and

you play that song, you're like here we go baby,

it's the weekend, we're getting ready,

in your way and it just kind of feels good.

We started that a couple of years ago.

I just, that song just kind of gets me going a little bit,

right? I don't know why.

Just kind of played it one day.

I'm like, yeah, let's play that every Friday.

Just to get us going on a Friday to know that,

you know, we got the vibes working.

So we started doing that.

And Fridays, football season came around.

We're like, here we go.

Football seat, football weekend, Friday,

bills, Sean McDermott would be on every Friday.

Talk about the injury report.

Kind of get you ready for the season.

All that, the week, excuse me, the game,

all that kind of stuff, right?

And then, you know, football season would end.

Like, okay, we're going to play it on a Friday,

but, you know, it's a, it's a Friday

and it's not great weather out and we're middle winter.

Sabers, you're going to play after out.

Yay, okay, might be a game this weekend.

Yeah, things have changed.

Things have changed.

I don't want to talk about how things have changed today,

with you.

I think the expectations have changed.

You know, I'm sitting here going,

you know what I'm starting to think about?

And this happens a lot.

This actually started happening a few years ago

and the bills started getting good, like, 21, 22.

We would talk amongst ourselves, like,

on the radio broadcast.

Like, how does the season end?

Like, you know, and, you know,

Shope and Bulldog would have this conversation too,

like, even publicly and we'd kind of go through it.

You don't want to speak anything bad into existence, right?

Like, oh, what about if they get to the

divisional round and lose or

conference championship?

You know, go to the Super Bowl and win.

It's great.

But what about the Sabers now?

That's what I've been thinking about lately.

I've kind of been, you know, thinking about

how this season ends now.

And I forgive me because I mean,

honestly, like, I probably shouldn't put my space there

and myself there because I mean,

I'm the guy that last week said,

I think it's totally fair now to say,

when is the, when is the draw going to break?

What's the date?

I tweeted last week.

I put a tweet out when I said,

hey, and I wrote, like, give me, like,

it's the baby due date.

Like, when's the baby due?

Here we have a baby due contest.

But in this case, it's the playoff due contest.

When is the draw break?

And I got a lot of great responses.

And you know, a couple hundred at least.

And people are like, oh, March 31st, April 2nd,

April 6th, April 14th, whatever it is.

And we'll see.

And I was even afraid to do it then.

But you have to at some point, they're going to make it.

And now I'm looking at the standings.

I'm watching last night.

I mean, I watched the end of games last night.

Again, I watched the Pittsburgh Ottawa overtime,

which by the way, amazing goal tending in that game.

And then as soon as that was over,

they go to the shootout.

I'm flipping over to the Kraken and Lightning.

And I actually flipped just after the Kraken

had scored an overtime.

So like, that's like my consumption of the NHL

and the Sabers right now, the biggest change for me

is how much I'm watching other teams

and other games around the league.

And I've always watched hockey.

I've always loved hockey, right?

But you know, for me, I was like, oh, yeah,

I'm like, David's on tonight.

I'll watch him because it didn't matter to the Sabers.

And because I kind of hate watch the Eastern Conference

to be honest with you.

I'm watching Crosby and Olvetskin, Rangers.

They get good for a little while and ruins, of course, right?

Come on, what's breaking records a few years ago?

Like, I'm hate watching the East

because I'm like, Sabers, this sucks.

Like, why don't we ever going to be in this mix?

But I'd watch, you know, especially the Oilers of the Nights,

a lot of the Western Conference teams that are fast

and high flying, it was pretty cool.

Now it's like, no, no, no, no, no,

get me to that Ottawa game.

Like last night, I'm doing this.

I'm on the ESPN app switching.

I couldn't find, I couldn't find the one

like where you had multiple games on the screen last night.

So I'm switching back and forth.

I got Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Ottawa on.

I got Seattle Tampa on.

I'm checking in on the Islanders.

They win two to one.

And that's my consumption.

And what it got me to, okay, like, the reason why,

why are we doing that?

We're all doing this in some capacity now,

thinking about who are the Sabers going to play?

Who are they going to play in the first round?

The team they're playing tonight might be that team.

Now, it's not looking as good anymore

for the Detroit Red Wings tonight,

down at the arena, big, big game.

7 PM, we're going to hear it right here on WGR pre game at six.

The Red Wings come to town tonight, Detroit.

They have to win.

Like they have 11 games left.

They do have a game in hand on the teams ahead of them,

but they're three points out of a playoff spot.

Now, two games in hand to that spot,

but Ottawa's also ahead of them by two points.

They have a game in hand on them.

If you look at where the Eastern Conference Wildcard is,

Detroit's kind of fallen off here.

In their last 10, they're three, five, and two.

And the teams around them keep winning.

Ottawa, seven, two, and one.

Islander, six, and four.

Bruins, five, two, and three, right?

I mean, even look at Pittsburgh and Columbus,

they keep winning.

They're over 500.

Their last five, six wins.

Their last 10 games, multiple points on top of that

with overtime losses.

So I'm thinking about the first round,

but really what I got to, thinking about this,

I find myself creeping more towards,

how does the season end?

Like, what is acceptable?

I think the expectations have changed.

I do.

And I just tweeted out a little while ago

at Cell Sports on X, if you want to check that out.

And I'm interested in your thoughts.

You can hit me up there,

and we'll get connected to our fans,

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The,

the expectations have changed is what I wrote.

Or have they?

What's now an acceptable outcome

or end of the Sabre season for you?

You may be thinking out there, like,

are you kidding me, Cell?

They're going to break the drought.

I am fine.

They can get swept.

It's okay.

Really, I don't know if that's the case anymore.

I could tell you, like,

you think about where they are, isn't it?

If they get the number two seat in the Eastern Conference,

number two, they can still get number one.

Very much so.

If they get the number two seat, they win the division.

Home ice, I guess a wildcard team.

And they go out in five or six games in the first round.

Are you really feeling like that was an acceptable outcome

after the season?

Maybe you'd still feel good about the future.

They broke the drought.

There's no doubt.

But this is not a team backdoring its way into the playoffs.

This is not the bills in 17.

Oh my God,

Andy Dalton, Tyler Boyd,

we're going to Jacksonville.

Tyra Taylor can't complete a pass down the field,

but we still lost the Jacksonville

and it was a good season.

Like, no, that's not the,

that's not the deal here.

This is like, they're good.

And with being good comes higher expectations

for the future and for now.

So I tweeted this out a little while ago.

I want to give you my first few responses, okay?

I mean, this is amazing to me.

Mark says, win one round at least.

Totally get it, right?

But Rob and Tampa, Rob, holy colla,

your expectations are through the roof.

Rob says, at least to the conference championship.

Is that where we are right now?

Is that where we are right now?

At least to the conference championship.

803-050 is the telephone number to call

to chime in on this.

What are your expectations now?

Like, where, what do they have to do?

Scott says, and I like this one,

winning around and taking Tampa if we play them

and following around to seven games would be awesome.

Yeah, I mean, I get it.

Like you, you,

if you could take Tampa the distance and lose,

I don't think that's like a blemish.

It would suck.

Yeah, I know, everybody wants a cup.

We want the cup.

Everybody wants the cup.

That's not the question what you want.

What's an acceptable outcome for you at this point?

803-050 is the number to call if you want to jump on board.

So we're going to get with Paul Hamilton here

in just a moment.

Paul is going to be covering practice today.

And then the Sabers are going to be on the ice

against the Detroit Red Wings tonight at 7 p.m.

Again, a team Detroit that has the second longest

playoff drought in the NHL behind only the Buffalo Sabers.

Once the Sabers complete this clinching of a playoff spot

and breaking the drought, which is going to happen,

the Red Wings will be the next team up

if they do not clinch at some point, which they still can.

If the Sabers make it and the Red Wings don't,

the Red Wings will have the Detroit hockey town,

Detroit Red Wings.

I mean, right?

Two of the, I still, I know it doesn't feel like that sometimes,

but we all know, right?

Two of the better hockey cities in America, Buffalo and Detroit,

have been two of the worst hockey franchises in America

and in the NHL over the last decade plus.

For Detroit, it's been nine years, almost 10.

For the Sabers, it's been 14 and hopefully it's ending now,

which is interesting.

All right, we got Paul Hamilton and then we're going to get

with Jeff Rieger from 971, the ticket in Detroit,

our Odyssey sister station on the back end of the show at 1130,

get things from the Detroit perspective.

Where are they right now?

I mean, I feel great that we can actually talk

to other teams media before games,

because that means it's a big game.

Like when you, when the bills are playing,

it's like we always try to get somebody on from the Jats

or Patriots or Dolphins or Bears or Lions or Chiefs or whatever.

They're playing.

We don't do that a lot here on the extra point show prior

to a Sabers game.

The fact that it's happening means like it's a big game

and we want to learn more about who the Sabers are playing

because they're in a position where they need to keep winning.

They need to win bounce back from their game the other night,

sandwiched in between all of that.

My guy Thad Brown out in Rochester, WROC TV, Thad is in Rochester.

He was at the Bill's new stadium tour.

I was there.

We'll get his thoughts on that.

The Bill's off season and little check in on the Amherst

and we'll start right there with our Paul Hamilton

who joins us on the West Hurr hotline.

Paul, over last, yesterday, we get the alert

that Zach Mezza was sent from Buffalo to Rochester.

He's been sent down.

And obviously that's causing a lot of people

to wonder what the heck is going on.

Maybe you can answer what the heck is going on.

Why has Zach Mezza been sent down to Rochester?

Well, Connor Timmins was a defenseman

that Lindy Ruff desperately wanted.

With that number six guy, it was a lot of turnovers

with Clifton and it just didn't go the way

that they had hoped it did when he came to Buffalo

and he hoped it did.

He has said that himself since he's left.

So Timmins was a guy that Lindy Ruff really wanted

to try to improve the defense

and then of course he got injured for 38 games.

I think it's a question of that

and number two, penalty killing for whatever reason.

Lindy Ruff never gave Mezza a chance to kill penalties.

I think he could do it just fine.

I don't think there would have been a problem whatsoever

with him killing penalties.

He's a defensive type of defenseman,

but he just never got the opportunity.

Timmins is a very, very good penalty killer.

The Sabers penalty kill was not as good once he got injured.

They were number one or two in the league

while he was playing.

He's a shop blocking machine.

So that might have had something to do with it too

with the penalty killing.

And I thought Timmins is the first game back.

Now it was only one game,

but I thought that was the best game I saw him as a Saber.

I thought he was excellent in that game.

It wasn't turning the puck over.

Five on five played well,

settled down the penalty kill,

which before that and the two games before that

had given up three goals on seven opportunities.

So I think maybe a combination of all those things.

Now, my guess is it would be,

if you have an injury,

Metsa would be back.

That's only a guess on my part.

And you got to remember too,

this is a little different now.

We're a Lindy Ruff this last year

has had more of a say,

a lot of say in the roster

and who's playing and who's coming up

and that type of thing.

That was under Kevin Adams.

Well, Kekelein is here now

and that's they talk all the time.

He's in the coach's office all the time.

So they talk all the time.

So I'm not saying Lindy Ruff doesn't have any input anymore,

but what I'm saying is the final decision

goes to Yarmul Kekelein and he talked about getting bigger.

He likes big defensemen.

He did that at the trade deadline.

He thought the team would get pushed around

and things like that.

So the ultimate final decision lies

with the general manager and Kekelein in.

Paul, could it also have anything to do with Noah Oslin

and the way what I mean is,

if he is to miss time and they need greenway,

but you gotta make some room on the roster,

roster gymnastics, if you're the only guy

that can go down still that has that ability

without going through waivers,

I would think is Metsa looking at the roster

really that mood makes sense.

I don't know, am I making sense saying that?

Could that be possible?

Before the trade deadline,

after the trade deadline,

you can have 60 players as long as you're into the cap.

It doesn't matter.

You're not at 23 anymore.

You can have as many as you want.

And I'm not sure greenway would be quite ready yet,

talking to him a couple of days ago.

I mean, he's a static with the way this rehab has gone

and the new rehab he did and he said he felt better

than he's felt and he didn't know how long.

He felt feels great and he was very, very upbeat,

but I did ask him.

I said, you know, I know you're in shape, you're an athlete,

but we always talk about game shape.

How long is that going to take?

And he just kind of laughed because, yeah,

that's a very good question.

I don't know.

Um, you know, so he, cause some of the time

he wasn't even on the ice, you know?

So I'm not sure he's, I don't know for a fact,

but I'm not sure he's quite ready

to be back in the lineup yet.

Paul Hamilton, Sabers, Redwings tonight,

7 p.m. big game.

Of course, right here on WGR

and on the pregame show, it's 6 p.m. here on WGR.

All right, let's talk about injuries.

Let's get to Austin, anything that we know about Austin

or we're going to have to wait on that.

He missed practice yesterday.

Yeah, he was being examined yesterday

when Lindy Ruff sent word that's an upper body injury

and he's still being examined.

So Lindy Ruff didn't know really anything more than that

because he wasn't finished with the doctors.

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Do we know what happened to him, Paul?

I don't recall anything happening to him

in the game against the Bruins.

His shoulder got crunched into the wall at some point.

We were going back.

There was actually a picture of it

that we were looking at after we had found out

about the injury.

He went in a little bit weird, but he finished the game.

So that's a good sign, but sometimes you never know

with that, but that's the only thing we can really figure out.

Of course, we didn't get a chance to talk to him

because he didn't practice.

And Lindy Ruff had some commitment.

So we found out the injury report

through the Public Relations Department.

So we'll get more of a live Lindy update, probably.

I'm guessing today will be a practice optional,

so probably around 10.45-ish.

And of course, we're expecting Alex Lyon

to be back in goal tonight after UPL the night, right?

Yep, he had his own net yesterday.

So that means he's in net.

And we just keep going the way it's been going.

So we talked a little bit about the Red Wings yesterday.

I just want to expand on them.

You take a look at their team.

They do have the second longest playoff

throughout next to the Sabers.

Some nice players on their team, but hasn't really gone their way.

They're a little bit top-heavy to bring it.

Obviously Lucas Raymond's a really nice player, Dylan Larkin.

I mean, Patrick Kane, 42 points on the year,

and we know he's a little bit older,

and who he is, he's a Hall of Famer coming up.

But doesn't feel like this team has kind of met

the expectations of what they've expected in Detroit this year.

Yeah, and I haven't heard Pat Kane say anything about anything.

This is just me wondering, just like we wondered with Ovechkin.

Is this the last time Pat Kane is in Buffalo?

And that obviously matters more for him

because he's from here as we know, but you're right.

Yeah, I haven't heard anything either about that.

I mean, he's not producing anywhere

near the way he used to.

He's had to fight through a lot of injuries and things like that.

So, you know, he's up there in age.

So it's just something I've thought about that maybe who knows?

This might be it for him, you know, he possibly.

I mean, the end's coming soon for as far as his career.

We don't know if it's this year, next year, the year after,

how many more years he has left in him.

But as I said, his production is way down also

from what it used to be when he was in his heyday.

Yeah, it's a really interesting Eastern Conference,

and right now they're on the outside looking in.

This is gotta be it's gonna be a spirited Red Wing's team tonight,

just like it was for the Boston Bruins.

And for me tonight, Paul, like I'll be there.

I want to see the sabers match that, right?

Like they weren't able to against the Bruins.

And we talk about coming back from West Coast trip and all that.

Well, that's all done now.

You got the Red Wing's in here.

A wounded Red Wing's team, basically.

What I mean by that is not playing their best hockey.

They're on the outside looking in.

You're the better club.

The sabers have to match that tonight.

It's the front end of a back to back.

And they need to do that tonight.

Yeah, and this hockey team is set of standard,

which they've been meeting a lot this year,

but they haven't, you know, especially in that Bruin game.

And they know it.

And Yarmul Kekalainen has a standard here.

Lindy Ruff has a standard here that they expect to be met.

So it's, I, they won't use the excuse,

nor should they.

I will, you know, with the West Coast thing.

It's just a thing and it always has been.

I can't explain it.

But it's happened and it's over, as you mentioned.

And they're past that now.

And now it's got, you got to get back to hockey.

And still, you've gotten points in 14 out of 15 games.

So of course, we're not in the middle of a disaster here

or anything like that.

But and don't forget in the loss,

they got scored on with 133 left in the third period

and lost that game.

They were within 133 of being 15 straight games

of getting points.

So, you know, they got to get back to some of that.

And I think that one thing you can take out,

if you're looking for positives,

they didn't play their best game at all against the Bruises.

Lindy Ruff said it was probably the worst two periods

he'd seen them play in like three months.

But yeah, they were right there.

It was one, one, two, one.

And then they took a lead in the third period.

So in past years, if they played their worst game

in three months, they'd be, they'd be behind six to two.

I mean, not right on the doorstep

of maybe winning the hockey game

and actually taking the lead on a comeback

in the third period and having an opportunity

to win the hockey game.

So I think that shows right there

the difference in what this team is.

Paul, yesterday I asked you about NHL,

or NBA, tanking and all that.

Another one for you, playoff format.

It gets a lot of buzz and now,

you know, we've talked about it.

And obviously the Sabers, hopefully, you know,

they're gonna win a division at very least.

They'll be home for round one.

But Gary Betman was challenged on this

and he said, I love our playoff format.

We get the best first round series of any league.

Well, that might be fine,

but that's not the way it should be to me.

Like the best first round series just means

that you're matching two teams that earned

maybe playing other teams,

but they have to go against better teams.

I don't like it. What about you?

No, I don't either.

And that just, you know, what he's trying to,

he's looking at money and that type of thing.

And well, look at, look at,

we'll get more eyes on our first round

because we have like the Maple Leafs.

They were always playing the Bruins

or, you know, they were playing a team

that they shouldn't have been playing.

It's like, you're playing the four

and five teams in the conference or,

let's say the two and the four teams in the conference

are playing each other in the first round,

which just isn't right.

I mean, it's just then,

but then on the other side of that coin, Gary Betman,

then you lose.

Let's say you've got the second ranked team

in the conference playing the fourth ranked team.

Well, now you lose that team for the rest of the playoffs,

which also would generate revenue

in eyes on your game and those types of things.

So, yeah, I hate it.

I just, but, you know, he's dug in.

I don't know if the owners wanted.

I mean, Gary Betman works for the owners, not the players.

And maybe that's something the owners want.

I don't know, but he just seems really dug in on that

and I would not expect any changes.

No, me neither.

I mean, you look at the central division.

All three teams have better records and more points

by quite a bit, by the way, than the Pacific division, right?

Like you have the Pacific division

and the oilers at 81 points will host as of right now,

would host the first round,

whereas the wild at 90, 13 points more

would have to go on the road.

Yeah, and play a better team.

Yeah, play a better team.

That's right, at Dallas.

You know, no, it's ridiculous.

Way back when when we were kids,

they used to just flip the NHL.

So that like the Sabers might wind up

in a first round series because the Vancouver Conucks.

I went over this yesterday.

It's so funny.

You say that.

I did this yesterday because as you and I would remember that,

a lot of people in our audience,

probably don't know that or wouldn't remember that.

The Sabers in one playoff year

played both the Vancouver Conucks

and the Chicago Black Hawks.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, if you were number two and they were number 15,

when they flip the stand,

combine the standings, that was the playoff series.

That's right.

We're actually taking the whole NHL

and making it, you know, you're getting an advantage

if you're one of the better teams

and the Boston Bruins aren't stuck playing the Toronto Maple

Leafs when you're both very good teams

in the first round of the playoffs.

Yeah, for sure.

I don't like it at all.

I mean, I understand like for travel purposes,

I think the, I think the Islanders played the Kings

and like a best of three.

And I'm like, okay, that doesn't make sense.

When they went to Eastern Western and they,

you know, which was Campbell and Wales, we know that.

But when they went to Eastern Western,

they just divided up.

That made more sense.

One through eight.

Did you like, by the way, Paul,

did you like the old Adams Division format

where you only played your division teams?

One through four, one played four, two played three?

I mean, every year growing up, it was Sabers Bruins

or Sabers Nordique or Sabers Canadians.

Yeah, it wasn't it weird too,

they never played the Whalers.

It was.

You're right.

They never played the Whalers.

They never once played the Whalers.

That's right.

And the Whalers, it wasn't like they never made it

because there were Whalers series against the Bruins

and Whalers series against the Canadians, I remember.

Yeah, but it's got so tired of seeing the Nordique

and the Canadians and the Bruins.

But that was, I asked Lindy Ruff about this.

That was a time when, you know, there were fights

and they would, I mean, Quebec and,

and who was it?

Montreal, Boston had a fight where people were getting hurt.

It was crazy.

Oh, yeah.

And I remember.

And you played each other eight times,

by the way, before you played in this playoff series.

Yeah, and I remember Lindy Ruff

centering a line of Larry Playfair and Val James.

And it was like, they would just fight one after the other,

all right?

First of all, Playfair would fight somebody

and then it was against the Bruins.

And then that fight ended and then they'd go for the face off.

Then Lindy Ruff would fight somebody.

And then that next face off,

Val James would fight somebody.

And I mean, that's kind of the way things rolled back then.

Yeah, well, all right.

So set up today for us.

You think optional skate.

And then obviously tonight against the Red Wings.

And I would think, Paul, because we've talked about this,

Lindy is very in tune with the strength of conditioning staff,

his sports science staff.

Not only do you have back-to-back games coming up,

but tomorrow is an earlier game, right?

So you're going to finish tonight's game.

They play at 7 p.m. tonight.

And then you play tomorrow at 5.30 p.m.

So there's a quick turnaround tomorrow.

And Seattle is here because they were in Tampa last yesterday.

There you go, yeah.

The last night.

So Seattle is here.

So they'll get one day of rest

and their coaches will be at the game tonight scouting

and that type of thing.

And then, you know, so that for the game tomorrow,

we're for Buffalo, it's back-to-back.

But back-to-back has never bothered the Sabers this year,

as there's 7, 1, and 3 in back-to-back situations this year

playing very well.

And the second game of the back-to-back.

Right, tonight's the first game.

Sabers, Red Wings tonight at 7, pre-game at 6,

joined Paul on the coverage with Brian Cosio,

Pat Malacaro at p.m. 1717, WGR550.com.

Thanks a lot, buddy.

Right, take care.

All right, Paul Hamilton.

His coverage on WGR has brought you

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And by Ray Lax Honda, Ray Lax, we got this.

I got it.

I got last night.

I won.

I'm a live-in survivor, Dan.

I'm a live-in survivor.

I took Arizona.

How many people say I'm up against it, though,

over the next couple days.

I have, we're gonna work through this.

You gotta help me out.

I think I know who I'm gonna take tonight, okay?

But the problem isn't tonight.

The problem is tomorrow.

And I'll explain, all right?

So NCAA survivor, Joastroski, 2500 people under,

we're down to less than 600.

I mean, over 500, still a lot,

but it's a quarter of the people left.

That's it.

And I'm still in it.

I have a bunch of teams available tonight.

Work through that.

But the problem is tomorrow.

And I'll explain, when we come back

on the North Town Automotive Extra Point show,

your phone calls, by the way,

803-0550, my question to you today.

What's an acceptable ending to the Saber season for you,

given where they are,

and the expectations now that you may have,

which obviously would have changed

as the season has progressed.

We'll take a time out.

We'll come back here.

Thad Brown joins me from Rochester at 11.

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I'm Brian, I work at UDOT Healthcare.

So Brian, why do you care?

I care because I don't want to leave anybody behinds.

I oversee one of the biggest resource center

in UDOT Healthcare.

I see people walked in in my office every day,

just like my parents.

They have no idea about the healthcare.

I feel like they're my uncles, aunties.

I treat it as people of my family.

I'm Brian, and I'm committed to care.

It's Paul Hamilton, guys, how are you?

He keeps the people coming back for more.

My Uber dropped me at the wrong terminal,

so I had to wait for a boss, not WGR.

Mr. Paul Hamilton, our Saber's Beat reporter,

his appearance brought you by RayLac.

Signed to RayLac, we got this Jeremy Joe

on a Tuesday morning following a Saber's overtime loss

to the Boston Bruins.

Good morning, everyone out there.

Thanks for joining us.

Paul, good morning.

How are you?

We're all right.

We licked our wounds in the opening hour.

Just Saber's lost the game at home.

It's fine, what happens?

They got a point.

Their point streak continues.

A losing streak, Paul.

A losing streak.

A point streak and a losing streak.

There's plenty to get to, Paul.

There's the big picture, small picture, what happened?

There's the, I feel like I heard your voice

and I got to do it every time.

When you come back from a Western conference road trip,

you're going to be bad.

That's how it always happens.

And every time I talk myself into,

maybe not this time.

And sure enough, it doesn't have to be the reason, Paul.

But it happened again, right?

The 40 minutes of just bluff.

I can't explain it.

It just, and it happened to Tampa too.

You know, but Tampa, they snapped out of it

after two periods and Lindy Ruff

liked their third period better than I did.

I mean, the Sabers did have that little stretch

where they came back.

I mean, the fans went nuts.

I mean, when the Sabers took the lead,

they got the two goals back-to-back very quickly

in 33 seconds.

I mean, by the second goal, they're blowing the lid off.

The place, it was loud in there.

And, but I didn't think they were all that good after that.

I mean, they kind of went back to the way

they were earlier in the game.

They just, they were just kind of blah.

You know, it just, there wasn't,

you know, they were losing battles.

They were getting to battles late.

They just didn't have a lot of spunk.

They didn't have a lot of energy.

It was just, you know, I just can't explain it.

How that happens coming back from the West Coast trip,

but it very often does,

I can't say it happens every single time.

But it happens more times than it doesn't.

And, and for, but they still got a point out of it, you know?

I go back to these last two games,

and we would have watched those two games last year

or the year before or whatever.

Those would have been losses.

They wouldn't have gotten points out of those games.

They wouldn't have come back from four to down

in the third period in, in Anaheim

and taken the lead and gotten a point out of the game.

They wouldn't have come back last night

and gotten a point out of the game.

So they are a different team definitely.

I mean, they can play bad and still get points out of games

and they're not gonna be great in 82 games.

And, you know, as we were just talking,

or I was, we were getting ready to come on here.

I was just looking at the standings

and like they have, you know, the last 10 games

in the Eastern Conference.

Look at the teams that are doing well in the last 10.

I mean, the Sabers are seven, one and two.

The Senators are eight and two.

The Blue Jackets are six, one and three.

The Lightning are six, three and one.

The Canadians are six, three and one.

I mean, so many teams in the Eastern Conference,

Philadelphia is six, three and one.

And the last 10 games are playing so well.

And, you know, it's the end of the year

and, you know, people are fighting for points.

All right, just chance all eight teams

in the East making the playoffs could have 100 points.

I think 99 is the, is the cutoff right now,

at least the pace of the cutoff.

I just remember it once, you know,

I remember the Washington Capitals

around COVID times somewhere in there,

were eighth place with 100 points.

Right, right, it usually is in the loan.

Like last year was 91, I think.

And this year it's gonna be up around 100.

Lindi said it was, he think maybe, maybe their poorest

play in three months.

So was it, was it that bad for you ball?

It was.

I, I, I, I, I, I, Alex talked just didn't, didn't have it.

You know, we're, we're sitting there talking about Alex

talking and Josh don't losing battles along the wall.

That we're not talking about that ever.

But we, we are from last night.

They, I mean, McLeod had his worst game as a saber right far.

I mean, he was on the ice for three goals against

and responsible for two of them that over time goal.

He just waved his stick and passed your neck on the way by

and turned away from him.

It's like, that's what I used to watch JJ Peturka do.

Not Ryan McLeod, who was a very, very good two-way center.

It just, it wasn't his night.

I mean, I, I don't think I've, since Ryan McLeod was traded here,

I don't think I've set there and said,

well boy, he really played poorly last night.

It just, he didn't have it.

It just wasn't, you know, Alex Tuck along the wall.

They both on the, on the Arvetson goal.

I mean, Alex Tuck didn't, I mean, just, it was late to the battle.

Didn't win the battle, couldn't get the puck out.

And then Ryan McLeod's gliding back on Arvetson

was what a great play by Luke and in on the poke check

on Pastor Naku, wasn't expecting that at all.

And he poke checks the puck away from him.

And if McLeod's moving his feet, not gliding,

he's got Arvetson.

And Arvetson doesn't get the puck on the rebound to put it in.

You know, it just, things like we never see.

And we saw it.

And again, guys aren't perfect.

I'm not getting on Ryan McLeod or Alex Tuck

because nine times out of 10, they have good games.

But it just, it wasn't their night

and they weren't the only ones.

Paul Hamilton joining us on last night's Sabers game.

You can give a ring if you want 803-0-550 and 180-855-52550.

You know, Paul, you said like it wasn't,

there were a lot of players who it wasn't their night.

I thought about Luke and then we started talking about him

opening up as well.

Just like one thing that stands out about these last two games

is that their goalies have been excellent

and bailed them out a lot of times

and saves above expected all that.

And the last two games, I feel like both,

neither gold tender played abysmally,

but you probably had saves that you wanted.

And you know, when the margins are getting thin

in the playoffs, you're gonna need a couple of those saves.

For me, the overtime goal is that goal we're talking about.

Luke and then just, I don't know what happened.

He wasn't at all set for the shot from Zaka.

And again, Tuck was back,

but Tuck was looking at Pastor Nack

after McLeod had waved at him.

And so was Dalline, Dalline had Pastor Nack.

And Tuck was back, he didn't look at Zaka.

So that Zaka has clean chance

and Luke and him wasn't set at all.

I mean, I went through the legs

and you need to save there by far.

The other one, the tying goal,

he didn't know where the puck was.

I mean, the puck came and hit his blocker

and then it goes off the back wall and he's searching.

He could almost see that he heard the puck hit the back wall

and he's like, where is it?

And he's looking, he looked over his left shoulder.

He couldn't find it.

And Casey Middlestadt standing in the crease, he found it.

It came right to him.

And he's able to tap in the empty net.

So I'm not getting on Luke in it for that one.

He's just trying to locate the puck

and didn't know where it was.

As I said, he's going by sound.

And he hears it come off the back wall

and unfortunately for him, it didn't come off where he looked.

And so I'm not getting on in that one

but the overtime goal, yeah, he didn't look set.

He didn't look ready and it went right through his legs.

Paul Hamilton with us on the West her hotline.

How did you think that Timon's looked

and there was really the only change they made to the lineup?

I was wondering how that pairing would look.

It didn't look bad, right?

Yeah, no, let's talk positive.

I think that was the best game I've ever seen.

Timon's play as a sabre.

I thought it was great.

I, you know, penalty kill.

He was solid, rock solid, five on five.

He didn't, he wasn't turning the puck over.

He made good decisions.

I liked his game a lot.

I really thought he played well.

And let's look at the special teams

after the special teams were putured against Anaheim

giving up three power play goals

and the power play was just nowhere.

It was the other way that penalty kill was really good.

And let's talk about something good about talking McLeod.

One of the penalty kills, they got another break.

You know, Tuck won any, hit the post.

And that's the thing they hit two posts.

I mean, Crab's on a two on one, hits its solid.

He beats Corpus Sallow and Tuck beat Corpus Sallow

on coming in on a short-handed and hit the post.

So even through it all, what we're talking about here

of those two posts or goals,

we might be talking about a whole different game here.

But so, but the penalty kill I thought was very good.

And of course, they got the two power play goals.

All they did is tweak a few things.

You know, they tweaked, they put Jack Quinn

on the number one unit for Don.

And it wasn't because they don't like Don.

It's just, let's tweak a few things.

There's not going well.

And they moved Thompson around.

You know, Thompson and Thompson made some

two really good passes to Zucker.

And they got him moving in the zone.

And the Bruins didn't know what they were looking at

because it was totally different.

So the power play came through with two goals.

The penalty kill was stellar.

So that's a positive right there

that they turned the special teams around.

And probably the only reason they got a point

is because their special teams was good.

We're good.

For Timmins to get in, it was, you know,

like make sure he gets a look.

I mean, Paul, you liked how well he played a disease stay in.

What do those sabers do with their depth on the blue line?

They might.

Because Metz is really good too.

They may play them both.

And this was, this is only a guess.

Why Timmins played this game?

And I guess to this, you know, after the morning skate,

a couple of people asked me on Twitter.

And I responded that, well, this is only a guess.

But the penalty kill in the last two games

had only killed four out of seven penalties.

Three power play goals against.

And Timmins is a very, very good penalty killer

before he got injured.

He's a shop blocking machine usually.

So I speculated that maybe Melindi Ruff, you know,

first of all, wanted to get him in the game

and had nothing to do with Metz.

Metz has played very well.

I don't think that was like, oh, Metz,

we got to get him out of it.

No, no, no.

I think he wanted to get Timmins into a game.

And the penalty kill, which Metz wasn't a part of,

you know, he knew he was putting a good penalty killer

into the game when they had struggled

the last two games on the penalty kill.

So I think maybe Melindi Ruff saw a spot to put Timmins in

because he's ready to play.

He's been practicing for a couple of weeks now.

And it's like the penalty kill really

has not been good for two games.

And he's a good penalty killer.

You know what, now's as good a time as any

to put him into a hockey game.

And it's exactly how it works.

So I'm just speculating that, but it did help the penalty kill.

Zach Benson is clearly all the way back

and from some slow play out of the Olympic break.

Remember the first goalie scored in the NHL

that little slick who he made?

Between the legs.

And what a play.

First of all, to come down on an offensive type of defenseman,

not a very good defensive defenseman.

And strip some of the puck, comes in on a breakaway,

and puts just a great move.

What a goal score is move.

I mean, he showed why he scored goals in junior.

You know, a goal scores goal.

And then because everybody hates Benson

and the defenseman was embarrassed,

he cross-checked some afterwards

because everybody wants to cross-check Benson.

And I mentioned to two of them on the post game

he goes, well, I don't like being cross-checked,

but he goes, I'll take that every single time

if they want to do that.

And take a penalty because they made him pay on the penalty.

They had 33 seconds later in the power play.

They scored.

If I'm Boston's coach, that would have been

that guy's last shift.

I mean, that was just stupid what he did.

He just cross-checked Benson into the net after he scores

because he embarrassed him with a great play

to strip on the puck.

And I mean, look, not only do you get stripped of the puck,

then you commit him to take a stupid penalty like that.

And you cost us two goals.

Your night's over.

Just take a seat, my friend,

but they didn't bench him, but I would have.

Benson, by the way, he's putting up these points

playing on the fourth line.

He's not playing 11, 12 minutes a night while doing this.

There's time for this after the year.

But what's his next contract, you think?

He's an RFA at the end of the year.

He's on a 50 plus point pace if he had been healthy all year.

So I don't know, couldn't they do a long-term deal

if they wanted with him or do you think bridge,

even though those aren't that common anymore,

is more likely.

Depends if they sign, talk.

They sign, talk.

They need, there are some guys if they sign, talk.

If I'm Yarmul Kekalainen, my Alan Stein, Benson,

I come to them and I said, look, we have one year

of a bad salary cap here.

Because talk, if they sign him, it's going to be

over 10 million.

I don't think he's signing for anything less.

I could be wrong.

And then the Skinner money for one year really grows.

And you're in a salary cap problem.

So I would tell those guys, I need you guys

to help me out for one year.

Maybe sign them to a one year deal.

And I will take care of you the next year.

I promise you, I will take care of you the next year.

But I need you to give us a one year deal

at a fairly inexpensive contract.

And I need you to trust me that I will take care

of you the year after.

But we have one year of salary cap jail.

And that's if Tuck signs.

So that's how I would handle those guys.

If Tuck's gone, yeah, I mean, people are talking about

maybe a six million per season type of thing for Benson.

I don't know if that's where he falls or not.

But if Tuck signs, I don't think you can do that

for one year.

I think you could do it the year after.

So that's how I would handle things.

Whether those players would be agreeable to that.

I don't know.

But also, you know, you can, you know,

what are you going to do with Byrim now?

Because I think the only reason Byrim was,

well, he likes Buffalo.

He likes the team.

He likes his teammates.

You could tell that.

And it was like, I think the only hesitation

he had was the losing that he hated the losing

being here in Buffalo.

So and he showed us that he liked the Sabers

because he did a, okay, let's do two years.

And let's give it a try.

Let's see how this is going to go.

So maybe Byrim now is open to doing a long-term contract.

Now that wouldn't go against next year's cap.

It would go the year after.

But, you know, are the Sabers interested in locking him up

to a long-term deal before he becomes an unrestricted free agent?

Paul, quick playoff preview talk.

You know, these, this, the homestand Boston last night.

The islanders coming up.

The Red Wings are the next game.

Potential opponents.

Did you come away thinking anything about what a Buffalo

Boston series might look like?

Or whether it's Zadorov and how he played out there

or how the Sabers might respond or who might want to,

whatever, take the physical edge in a series like that.

Like we know the playoffs do change.

So does last night's game give you any sort of preview?

Understanding that the Sabers did look pretty flat.

Yeah, and it's hard to figure the Boston series

because don't forget the two games in Boston

were both in October.

And then the one home game Buffalo won was in December.

And these two teams are different.

The one thing I like about playing the Bruins

is they will take stupid penalties.

And Zadorov is right on the,

Zadorov is the dumbest player in the NHL.

He's a good defenseman.

He's very, I'm a like him as a defenseman,

but he will take the stupidest penalties.

And he tried to do it last night and they didn't call it.

So that's the one thing I like about playing the Bruins

is they will take stupid penalties for you.

I kind of met with Rasmus Dalline.

I wouldn't mind a Red Wings series.

Rasmus Dalline hates the Red Wings

and he loves beating them and he wants to beat Raymond Badley.

He's kind of already said he would mind Detroit.

I think I would mind seeing a Detroit series either.

They got to win some games though.

They do, they're out right now.

Yeah, I don't know.

Is it three in their last 11?

Three, five and two in their last 10.

Okay, yeah.

And they're minus four goal differential.

You know, and give you an idea.

People say, well, what does that mean?

Well, Tampa's plus 62, Buffalo's plus 43.

Caroline is plus 41.

And the teams around Detroit,

Bada was plus 23 and Boston is plus 16.

Now, the island is only plus three and Detroit are minus four.

And it kind of goes to show you that goal differential

usually does matter because they're the two teams

that are starting to fall out where Columbus is hot.

They're plus 14.

Pittsburgh has been hot.

Not necessarily hot hot lately.

Four, three and three,

but they've been hot for a while at 606.

They're plus 18.

But the two teams that are minus four and plus three

and the Philadelphia Flyers who are minus 10,

they're the three teams that are on the outside

looking in right now.

Paul Hamilton on the west, on the west or hotline.

Thank you, Paul.

We'll talk, you know,

Holmes Dan continues.

So we'll talk tomorrow.

Sounds good.

Take care.

Paul Hamilton.

His appearance brought you by Raylax.

Sounded at Raylax.

We got this.

Sabers in Redwings.

I know the Raymond part of it, right?

For Dalene.

What else is it with the Redwings?

Imagine these two teams have never played in the playoffs

before.

That's what I mean.

Let's take a look at that.

I hate the Redwings.

I mean, they played Vague Hoover in the playoffs twice,

but your mortal enemy is,

I mean, Granted, they were, of course,

in original six and they were a team

that made it all the time.

But in the last 10 years, they've made it.

Who has the energy to hate the Redwings?

It's like hating the Sabers.

They do have hockey towns stamp down

in their center, I still.

And they should lose that.

They should lose that.

Yeah.

Yeah, I agree with that.

You can just put hockey down now.

They did do that a long time ago.

How long has that been down there?

Like the 90s?

Oh, you took that early to that.

Whatever, it's been a long time.

I mean, I could build up some hate for them.

I just have never really had it.

The only teams in the playoffs picture right now

that I would say have ever had like a really negative

feeling about.

Like Tampa just recently.

Ottawa for sure.

Boston for sure.

Carolina for sure.

I have Pittsburgh.

I hate Pittsburgh.

Yeah.

But like Columbus.

Never had a problem.

I guess I've never had a problem with Montreal.

But that's maybe just my age talking.

Like I've never seen the Sabers and Canadians play in a series.

They did a bunch of times in the 70s and 80s.

So it depends.

Like my dad's got it to hate for Montreal that I don't have.

I kind of liked Montreal.

Like during the drought, I've always said like if I had to pick

another team to play.

Like during the drought, I've always said like if I had to pick

another team to like side quest while the Sabers figure it out,

like Montreal, the uniforms, Ben there, love the city.

But I also think they have a couple guys on their roster.

Where if we got a playoff series, I would get to

hating that for sure.

Oh, for sure.

For sure.

They've got some guys.

Slough Kowski.

Think is he could be very hateable.

This is where we should do.

He's one of those really good players that are like,

he'll stick you in the back of the knee.

When the breath isn't looking, hegel is this now too, of course.

Oh, of course, hegel.

Yeah.

We got to do like the pre-playoff smug smile rankings.

Everyone loves remembering the Brian Smolinsky.

The Brian Smolinsky invitational.

Brian Smolinsky out there, out there just walk around his daily life.

And he hears people from Buffalo talking about his face.

Like, what from that game?

Oh, I scored a goal.

I think we had on the afternoon show during COVID.

Punch your face rankings.

Punch your face draft.

Yeah.

I think he went first.

Find that.

Who went first?

I think he went first.

Sorry for scoring a goal.

Sorry for trying.

Well, it was, it was the smug smirk.

He was happy.

He's more than that.

I'm with you.

Oh, other hockey news.

Don Granado.

Our old buddy Don Granado has been named the head coach of the US men's national team

for the double IHF men's world championship.

Congrats to Don.

It's going to be happening in May in Switzerland.

Okay.

Yeah.

Good for Don.

Uh, uh, Brian Smolinsky did not go first overall in that draft that we did back in

COVID.

Uh, Bulldog took Derek Jeter first overall.

Wow.

Derek Jeter went first overall.

And they're saying the hot take complex is going too hard these days.

Yeah.

You have the full rankings of like the punch.

I have the draft here.

Do you want to know how?

Let's get to the first round.

All right.

All right.

The first round.

Oh, sure.

Yeah.

That sounds like more fun.

I found one.

He went there.

Jeter was too harassing there.

No.

He hates to harass.

That's surprising to me.

He didn't pick many players.

All right.

Then I might not be there's going to be like an urban Meyer or a yeah, there's going to

be a track.

Jack Del Rio or uh, there's a coach on here.

There's going to be, uh, is it Belichack?

No.

It's not Belichack.

He did pick and round four Jimmy Johnson.

Nice.

Former fourth round pick.

Yeah.

He went back to back.

Round and around three into round four Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson.

Nice.

He picked uh, Mike Milbury in the fifth round.

Mm hmm.

He picked Michael Steele.

Michael Bergeron in the sixth.

That's the no, it's an old hockey one, right?

Yeah.

Billy Smith.

Uh, he picked train in round eight.

The band.

Yes.

I don't know how they qualify.

I don't remember that.

Oh, I skipped over round two where he picked Drew Rosenhouse.

Okay.

Which is also a good one.

Yeah.

Mike, am I guys got good taste?

Yeah.

He's been long enough.

We need to run this back in the summer.

Yeah.

At some point.

I'm ready for that.

Yeah.

We're going to have new people from playoffs.

Because that, my list was all guys to Sabers played like in the post season.

Laviolet and uh, Chad LaRose and Smolinsky and Heatley just.

Yeah.

Like the players that I hated growing up were just the guys to Sabers played in the playoffs.

And the second they're back.

Yeah.

They played Boston who was who was on the ice last night.

I don't know if middle stats going to be that.

No.

No.

Listen, if we did this draft again, first off, we don't condone violence as a family show and we're, uh, blah, blah, blah.

Mike.

We also, it wasn't the punch here.

It was I hate your stupid face.

Okay.

Then all of my picks.

You want to see my board.

Number one on my board.

Yeah.

It is.

Come on.

It's easy.

Easy.

Oh.

Oh, jeez.

Terrible.

Teen Steritor.

Number two on my board.

Uh, uh, Mike France.

Oh, Mike.

Mike, Mike Pereira.

It's correct.

Number three.

There's a bit.

There's a tear drop.

Uh, yeah.

Who's the other.

Terry McColley.

Number four.

Terry McColley.

Yeah.

Um, Dean Blending on the five guy Dave Jackson.

All of them.

Oh, no.

It's just a list of just nothing but rules analysts.

What about, um, who's the referee guy that goes on?

Like ESPN after the fact he used to be a ref and he'll like tell you.

He's like rules analyst, but the next day.

I don't know.

Oh, who is that guy?

The don't know.

It's the whole list.

I saw there's a controversy in March madness about did they inflate the ball too much?

That's a thing that also happened in the last like 24 hours.

Yeah.

Like it.

Do we have an inflate gate?

We might.

We have an inflate gate.

Wow.

Yeah.

Sequels are never.

We're never good though.

There's a story about this that.

A conspiracy theory that the balls are over inflated.

Like for the whole tournament.

Yes.

What would that.

Wouldn't that be worse for shooting?

Yes.

For everything.

You got multiple players and Iowa players saying the ball was just a balloon.

It was super aired up.

Yeah.

Of course, we're going to with this need a ball PSI rules analyst.

No, we don't need that.

803 0 550 and 1 888 552 555.

So phone number.

You want to jump in about the sabers?

You can.

I've got a list of names of available free agents.

You will want to hear this list for a quick takeaway about the Buffalo Bills of 2025.

The goal telling is the biggest thing.

That's always going to be a huge thing.

You know, you talk about my business.

Like there's not anything I can really point to and be like, oh, this is now the major, major

factor.

I don't want to say that there's regression coming.

It's been over half a season.

They're a very good team.

I've watched them a bunch.

Like they are really good.

They get contributions up and down the lineup.

Everybody scores.

Everybody plays.

I don't think you can put a value on the fact that there's not guys at the forward group to play 24 minutes

a night.

There's not guys that play five minutes a night.

They all play between 10 and 20.

Everybody's got a role.

Everybody's valued.

Everybody feels that.

And what that does to a player's psyche.

That's how you build a team.

Everybody robs.

Everybody rides.

EJ Ratic and Mike Kelly there discussing the sabers who are back to it tonight.

It's not a black and red game, right?

I'm pretty sure it's not because I would have worn my black and red.

I got that new drink beer.

Sure.

I'm excited to wear.

All right.

Good morning, everybody.

803-050 and 1-888-552-550.

Back to it tonight.

Get a win on the board.

You know, two straight overtime losses.

Get a win on the board.

Try closing it in the division.

The sabers odds to open it home.

Of course, they're very, very good.

And more wins, of course, would kind of close that up at money puck.

Yeah.

If they win tonight at money puck, their division winning odds go to 59.7% with a regulation win.

With a regulation loss, they could go down to 40%.

Yeah.

That's a big swing.

You're going to be in this fight with Tampa for a little bit here.

And we'll see if they can stay on top.

But, you know, the division is one thing.

And of course, that would mean home ice in the second round.

If they get to the second round.

Yeah.

If they finish in the top two, which I'm just, I'm looking for that.

I want game one at home.

Whoever that is, Montreal most likely.

But right now to open at home, they're about 93%.

That's good.

Yeah.

Top two C.

Justin and Pittsburgh, Justin.

Good morning.

Good morning, guys.

How are you doing?

Good.

Good.

It's funny enough.

I actually used to be an intern at the station way back in 2017 when the bills ended.

They're drought.

So, coincidence and calling.

I actually was up in town for a work trip the past couple of months.