Paul Hamilton and the Sabres sending Metsa to Rochester

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I'm Brian, I work at UnitedHealthcare.

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 UnitedHealthcare.

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's life family.

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

It's Paul Hamilton.

That's what they called me a college,

it's the most.

He has the facts to back up his opinions.

People ask me, well, how are the sabers going?

Are they 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.

Even just lay it in there.

You 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 pitcher this season?

Mostly.

I think, mostly, yes.

So we're on our feet.

We're ready for a moment.

Let's, you know, deliver.

That's it.

Yeah, I don't need a, you know,

I don't need an 80-foot curveball.

Don't get cute.

It's not, besides, it's not where you want to be.

I don't need an effus pitch on the first pitch of this season.

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?

We're talking about, 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.

Oh, I loved your card of the day.

You did?

Oh.

Opening day.

I favored it.

Thank you.

Harded.

Harded it.

Lafitte.

Liked.

Liked, okay.

It's because it's a heart.

But it's not like that's love.

Anyway, now I feel uncomfortable.

That's a touchy subject.

Anyway, yeah, no, I, but I, yeah, man.

Hey, Karen.

One of my, 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.

So 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.

So I wanted to pick a card of the day for the opener.

And you can pick almost anybody, right?

Some, 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 Glevin.

Okay.

Who turns 60.

Then I thought maybe I have a hockey card of his.

Maybe he had a hockey card.

He 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 happened.

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 jump out of my chest.

Not anybody's fault.

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 apologize.

I'm a little shook.

Paul Hamilton on the West Hur 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're all bossing you around.

Yes.

Today, we have the news that the Sabers

are loaning Zach Metza to Rochester.

Maybe you could even sort of detail

what the the words mean here.

Like loan is, but that means something other

than whatever the normal is.

That's an anonymous would sent down now.

And it's just a gentler way to put it.

Yeah, they always say loan.

Yeah, okay.

Always loan.

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

as best game as a Saber coming back

after 38 games.

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I'm Spencer and I work at United

Healthcare.

Suspenser, why do you care?

I care because my daughter,

Adeline, has special needs.

I am motivated by Adeline who inspires me every day.

I am driven to help families like mine navigate

the healthcare system.

I'm so blessed to lead an amazing team

at United Healthcare focusing on the member experience

and making that better.

I'm Spencer and I'm committed to care.

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 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.

It might even be next year or whatever,

but once he plays as a healthy defenseman,

I think he'll be fine.

So, 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?

Should anyone in this decore get hurt?

So, 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 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 realize 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 Tim and's went down, and they haven't been god awful

at 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

unless 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's.

As Tim and's 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,

isn't it 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,

Ocelain's hurt, maybe Greenway gets activated, or someone else, or whatever,

and they need a spot, but you know, our friend Chad Dean of Minnesens corrected me right away.

Like, that's not the case anymore.

And a few other people on Twitter have too. Thank you, all of you.

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 him,

they, you know, he's fine. They can bring him back.

Right. I mean, if they want to go with Tim and's,

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.

I mean, Shen and 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's because of the penalty killing.

And if somebody gets hurt, they can bring him back.

And just to be clear, I'm correct about the whole point.

Isn't it? The, your point is the whole point, right?

Isn't it that he's the one who can go down with, you know, 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.

I thought when he's playing too, you know, right, of course he's down there.

Yeah, yeah.

I thought listening to Ruff 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 awakened 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 in 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 lineup.

Right.

I still want to say he'll be in the lineup in game one with how he told me,

but I don't know.

And I'm a little shook by this, this, I mean,

they're 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 it's choice.

So maybe he's not sold.

I don't know.

All right, fair enough.

Kick a line and it's not spoken about it.

Yeah.

Yeah, I want to, I want to like, not be,

you know, freaking out about Zagmatsu being 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.

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'd be stunned if something changed to the point

where he's not a part of Lindy Ruff's decor, you know,

because Lindy does have lineup, right?

I mean, by taking that 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, or if Timins, like Timins was not a downgrade yesterday,

but that was one game, you know,

he played very, very well, but that was one game.

And you have, you have a very good penalty killer.

Will that continue?

I have no idea.

But they made a decision on one game.

They, Tim is going to be fine.

He played really well.

Okay, we're good, you know, and 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, he, as he 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, so I'm on the Western hotline with us here on WGR.

What did you think overall, Paul?

Because 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,

because 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, 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, when they play poorly, they're in the game.

I mean, San Jose, they are 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, and so they do it

differently now.

Um, they protected a one goal lead in, in Vegas.

Again, for 40 minutes, you're looking in

to make some very good saves along the way.

It wasn't their best game, but they, 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, 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, um, to me, it's nothing to freak out over.

And I'm not saying you are.

I'm just saying anybody that is, um, because you've gotten points at 14

of your last 15 games and you're 12 one and two.

And the one game you lost, you lost in with a minute 33 left in a two

and a one one game.

Uh, and you were a minute 33 from getting a point in that game too.

So, um, you know, I, I, 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 there's still ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning points percentage.

They're right on the tail of the Carolina Hurricanes, uh, in point

percentage, they're tied in points.

Uh, 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 and hand their head by a point.

But, um, 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.

Uh, the three three goal, Paul Middlestat.

What did you see?

Yeah, it's, you, you could tell right away and you could tell by his

reaction when the puck at the, 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 puck at the wall.

And he's looking for it.

He had no idea where it went.

And he, so he hears that.

And he looks to see if the puck goes over on the wall.

And it's dribbling through.

Well, Dahlene doesn't have Middlestat tied up.

Middlestat 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 Middlestat.

Yeah, could, should 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.

Yeah, um, 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 Jettick are standing there.

It's in neither one new where the puck was.

It's like tackle them.

Right.

Cross check.

No idea where he is.

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.

Coming down eventually.

So yeah, I kind of got to wait 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?

Like it, 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 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 him some benefit of the doubt there.

Yeah, absolutely.

The OT one, Paul, what, 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, I guess earlier, maybe he knew he was late

because it was pasta knock with the clock 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.

Right.

He wanted to stay there thinking the Zaka might go back to

Pastor, Pastor, yeah, 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

guilt that have nothing to do with him.

To me, the puck never should, the puck in 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, I'm the second goal.

He's quit skating.

Yep.

And I mean, he could have picked up barvets in and it was a great

poachek by Luke in it.

I love the play because Pastor and I was not expecting that.

Pope checks the puck off him and McLeod gave up on Arvetson.

What do you, 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.

Sure.

You know, not hard enough on the battle.

You know, not hard enough on the wall.

And then he went after Don on the middle stack goal.

Same thing.

Same, right.

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 Nack 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, he wouldn't continue on the rush.

Yeah.

And then that means there, but talk cheats.

And they both are.

They're both there, but they're both looking at Pastor Nack.

So you've got all three sabers concerned with Pastor Nack.

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 Nack.

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 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's going up the ice like he thinks Tuck is coming out of the zone.

Because normally Tuck, I know, of course, times is.

So he anticipates.

Maybe not good idea because it wanted a burning him.

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 him there, I think.

Yeah, yeah.

That probably happens in the comics.

Sometimes.

Sure, yeah, yeah.

Hugh Risk kicks in.

Yeah, the villain turns the superhero's power on himself.

Something like that 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.

He ends up in the corner glass, arms out, the big smile.

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,

but 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 in 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 the last game against Anaheim,

both, it's really, they got hurt by special teams

and the reason they'd lost the hockey game.

I really took it with the quick hands on the three two goal, too.

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,

and 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 a 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 bad,

George bad posture, getting a lot of attention lately.

20, 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 gonna 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 gonna 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'd never seen him, you know,

highlighted in that way with bad cock, 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,

you know, part of the like psyched 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 grouped up his shoulder,

he had a dislocated shoulder, had no idea.

I had thrown him up against the pole,

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 t-shirt that says it, don't touch me.

Not today, Paul.

I have one of those if he needs it.

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, this, 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.

Try harder, try harder, Paul.

Thanks Paul, we'll talk tomorrow night.

Yes.

All right, there's Paul Hamilton on the Western Hotline,

his appearances here on WGR brought to you

by Ray Lax Honda, Ray Lax We Got This.

Back after sports, Mike Schopen, the Bulldog WGR.

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