Levi and Skinner dominate for Sabres in Montreal

Levi and Skinner dominate for Sabres in Montreal

Big Win Sabers over the Habs are first off fin off in a couple of years that’s a very simple explanation to get to when we come back Lots coming up here in the locked on Sabers Podcast you’re locked on Sabers your daily podcast on the Buffalo Sabers part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Day and thanks for making locked on Sabers your first listen every day we are free and available wherever you get your podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day today’s episode is brought to you by sleeper download the sleeper app use the promo

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Lockon saers and there is one comment from last night’s win over Montreal six to one that I want to get to uh on that in fact a point to be made from the game uh on Tage Thompson that I had not thought of but I think it’s a really

Good thought from one listener so stay tuned for that but a big win six to one big even in terms of the score if you don’t think for the standings it’s our first ainan off since March 31st of 2021 I’m gonna start calling six to1 games of

Fenan offs number 61 six to1 14 in saber history so I’m not going to be doing that that often but you got to love it when they win like that and it was a game where it didn’t seem to me like it was going to get out of hand the way

That it did now couple of late goals kind of contributed to that including an empty Netter when the sabes were up three with about five minutes to play so there were a lot that contributed to the Sabers pulling away at the end but a four goal third period and a very solid

Overall effort other than like a six to seven minute stretch the Sabers were the better hockey team against Montreal I have my sneaky Stars by the way coming up as well but the stats of this game show how good the Sabers played against the Montreal Canadians in front of

21,000 people at Bell Center the Sabers in this game outshot Montreal 38- 33 shot attempts at five on five 58 for Buffalo 49 for Montreal scoring chances at five on five 28 for the Sabers 19 for the Habs the expected goals four in this game 4.0 for Buffalo 3.6 for Montreal and the

One of the big stories of this game the Sabers power play showed up holy cow we haven’t seen that game like that from the power play where you get multiple goals in a long time and they look dangerous even at other times when they weren’t scoring the Sabers go two for

Four on the power play while Montreal reside it resided at 0 for three so special teams a very big difference and if you watched the power play closely in this game the sabes went for a different area of attack they’re still not moving around the way I would like but rather than

Continue to try to force the puck to the faceoff Circle for one-timers that is always the sab’s main objective on the power play is to get Tage Thompson a one-time to get a r shot from the right circle from maybe a Dylan cousins or a Casey

Bidad but in this game the plan of attack was let’s get the puck down low we’ll cause Havoc there on a mini two-on-one because Montreal is only dropping one defender back and that’s exactly how they scored the first of the two Power Play Goals with Jeff Skinner dropping down great patience slides the

Puck over to Casey midd stat who one times it uh past Jake Allen for the goal so it was a a strong power play I will say take it with a little bit of a grain of salt because while the Sabers have been the 29th ranked power play this

Season uh Montreal is the 30th ranked penalty kill so it it took playing a really bad PK to get a couple of goals in the power play but hopefully they can carry that momentum into some further contests I I just thought up and down the ice the Sabers had a lot more speed

In this game the only period I would say the only time where they really looked like they might be in trouble right after Rasmus Dalene turns the puck over in a horrible fashion you’re on the power play dalen way too casual with the puck turns it over and then in turn

After turning it over he stands in the middle and of the ice in front of Joel armia and screens Devon Levi and armia rips it over Levi shoulder Levi doesn’t see it until after it’s passed alen doesn’t get an angle on the shot and it goes past his GL

So a bad play by Dalene horrible play by Dalene and after that goal it really woke up Montreal the Sabres were up two nothing armia scored to make it two to one and then for the next five minutes here come here comes Montreal they were just buzzing in the sabers end shift

After shift after shift they did with stand it and in large part thanks to Devon Levi who we’ll talk about more so in a minute but Levi really carried them through that stretch they got to the third period up 2 to one that was huge that was adversity you had your best

Player your best player just made the mistake of the game to let them back in it and you went through three four five shifts in a row where you just didn’t have your head screwed on right but you survived and nice to have a goal tender

For once in the last five years that can help carry you through that stretch and they got through that stretch they got to the third period and then they outplayed Montreal from beginning to end it took them a couple of minutes to get the first goal in the third Jack Quinn

At the 645 Mark 645 into the third period with a very skilled goal the the little I love what Quinn does before he shoots when he cuts to the middle he cuts to the middle and he always has that little stick handle back to change

The angle of his shot and not in the way a lot of guys do a lot of guys will tow drag the puck closer to their feet before they release it because that’s going to give them a different angle to score on the goenda side and guys like Austin

Matthews and even Tage Thompson have mastered that over the years Quinn does this a lot where he doesn’t tow drag it to his feet he tow drags it back which I don’t really know if that has as dangerous of an effect but it looks like it works it’s changing the depth of the

Shot I guess a little bit that that’s you know all you’re trying to do is confuse the goal tender as a as a pure goal scorer all you’re trying to do is get a quick you want a quick release a powerful release and you want some some

Confusion uh and what however you shoot it and Quinn does do it a little bit differently on this goal and on others where he moves it back back but it works for him he still gets a ton on it and on this one as accurate as possible left

Post to right post and it was the puck was spinning and it actually goes off the right post and into the net bar to bar and in a a magic Puck by Jack Quinn there he is up to four goals on the season he is the Sabers since he

Returned for taction he is number one on the team in expected goals four this game actually by by the advanced numbers was not one of his stronger games but he still contributed in in at least one moment that big goal in the third to put

Him up 31 that was huge at the time really gave them some cushion and he also added an assist so Quinn now up to four goals and one assist in seven games played he has been awesome and I’m very excited to see what type of numbers he

Could put up the rest of the year Quinn did not make one of my three sneaky stars of the night in part because as I mentioned he did score that goal but there were some tough shifts by that line especially in the second period when they were starting to lose it a

Little bit it was that line that I saw a couple times get trapped in the r end so Quinn didn’t make my top three we’ll get to that when we come back continue on in this game and then we’ll also mention sabes and penguins which is coming your

Way on Saturday so stay tuned for that as I continue to uh as I try to do the show here uh as the United States and Sweden are playing in the World Junior gold medal game uh I’ll try not to react too much uh as it happens or you know

What why not I might do it it’s currently three to one 3 to2 USA going into the third period at time of recording uh real quick World Junior take again we’re going to do this more expansive once we can get hotti Kash on from Lockdown NHL prospects but a quick

Take from me on this gold medal game Noah osland is the best player on the ice either team especially Sweden but between both teams I think Noah osland is the best best player on the ice every play he makes looks like the right play he has got so much confidence he’s

Putting the puck between his legs he is just making defenseman look like idiots out there back and forth between the legs um almost scored a between the legs goal actually on a rebound from behind the net oland’s been unreal he made seven good plays on their power play at

The end of the second period that led to the three to2 goal so been super impressed uh although as a United States hockey fan I’m really hoping that he doesn’t get Sweden uh to tie this game in the third period uh time out here when we come back by three stars from

Sabers and Habs and then we’ll get to Sabers and Penguins coming up here on the locked on Sabers podcast we are presented by sleeper it is almost the halfway point of the saber season and regardless of where they are in the current standings AL that’s starting to

Look a little bit better two wins in the last three I want to remind you that you could win big by playing daily fantasy hockey on sleeper the official daily fantasy app of the locked on NHL Network sleeper is our number one choice for daily fantasy sports especially daily

Fantasy hockey because with sleeper you can win 100 times your cash in Daily fantasy hockey contests you could look at a bunch of different players check out you know the likes of Tage or tuck or Skinner all you got to do is pick whether they’ll record more or less than

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To check it out they’re covering all everything coming up in the this weekend for the National Football League including a lot of uh good stuff on the bills and the Dolphins which is the be biggest game in the NFL this weekend so check out the locked

On the locked on excuse me locked on sports today uh for your 247 the top stories of sports on YouTube subcribe to the first ever National Sports 24/7 streaming Channel okay my three sneaky stars from sabes and Canadians in Montreal you got to start with star number one and that is obviously going

To be the kid that went back home for his homecoming Devin Levi he was unbelievable 32 saves on 33 shots I mentioned in the first segment that he was huge for the Sabers after Dalene turned it over and let the Canadians back in making it 2 to one the rest of

That second period the the remaining six seven minutes Levi was tremendous side to side movement big glove saves it extended into the third period where he flashed the leather and the Sabers were probably going to win the game at that point anyway but came out to challenge

The shooter slavkovsky and he flashed it and that I I’ve had one listener ask me if that’s a weakness of his game on our previous show and the first goal that went in was on his glove side so I went okay this guy might be on to something

But Levi responded he must have heard the criticism of his glove hand because that glove was on fire last night other than the go that was let in uh by the way on Levi the first period actually really his most impressive save was probably the the play that resulted in

Like a scrum after Levi’s got the leg splits across the net and the puck is right on the goal line and he held firm he didn’t slide back somehow I don’t know how he had the lower body strength to not get kicked back into the net especially when Brendan Gallagher comes

Flying in at a million miles an hour trying to whack the puck in good job by the Sabres by the way Clifton cousins especially for uh coming to Levi’s defense there and throwing Montreal out of the crease after Gallagher went way too far uh number two sneaky star of the

Game Jeff Skinner led the way he was actually the game’s number one star as voted on by the media one goal and three assists for Jeff Skinner and he really could have had two goals uh Tage kind of stole one from him um a good finish by

Tage just to make sure it went in but Skinner had made the play to go around Allen patient play and he was going to slide it in um but Skinner was very strong um and if you look at some of his numbers I mean he leads the Sabers in

Goals with 16 uh in 36 games and 15 assists so 31 points in 36 games and it is kind of incredible he’s second in the team of points uh tied with Dalene only behind middle stat Skinner has led the team in goals and has managed to do that

He’s managed to maintain he’s almost at a 40 goal Pace he’s managed to maintain that level of production while his two Lin mates have regressed on the season or been out in Tage and Alex tuck so great job by Skinner in this game and then I’m going you know it’s Sneaky

Stars I got to go a little sneaky on one of them right I’m going Henry Yoki Haru as the third guy that I’m I’m giving a shout out here to he only played 17 minutes and 7 Seconds of ice time but he was their second leading defenseman in terms of five on

Five ice time all of his ice time in this game uh for the most part was uh at five on five he was second on the team on the blue line with a 59.7% expected goals four rate and I just saw a bunch of really good plays by Yoki Haru he was

Playing with Dalene and this night Samuelson played the third pair and dalen there was a mistake Del made in the first period it was about to be a two-on-one going back the other way and Yoki Haru raced over to the other side and broke the play up before it got to

The blue line he had another odd man Rush breakup in the third period he had one Puck where I this was not the Yoki Haru you’re used to the offensive guy but he came into the offensive zone with speed right down the middle and ripped

One off the goal post so he almost had a goal he had another play on the right wall where he he carried it in and he kept the play alive and he just threw it to the net just kind of a simple play but he caused a rebound the way he shot

It and there was there was chaos there and the puck was laying right in the crease had a saber been in the right area had a saber been able to get there before the Canadians realized the puck was sitting there by itself um then Yoki

Hari would have got a lot of credit for that play So I want to make sure that I recognize him at least because I noticed him like four or five times making really nice plays on a pair with Ras with stene so those are my sneaky stars of the game

Uh one comment on the game that I want to get to on Tage Thompson and this comes from our text line if you want to jump in and become a sorty where we’re always reacting during the games and we’re always going back and forth and I

Love doing that uh always try to get to everybody that’s on there you can join at join sub text.com Lockton saers and this comment on Tage Thompson whenever Tage touches the puck he seems to slow down why 6’6 in a nuke of a shot drive and use your feet and I

Thought that was a really good commentary on Tage because I’ve pointed it out a couple times this year on the show that he’s been good but he’s not playing at the at the MVP heart trophy candidate level that he was at one point last year he’s playing a little bit

Closer I would say to the level he did two years ago when he had 38 goals as opposed to the 50 goal p Pace last year um and I do notice that comment as a big difference he doesn’t carry the puck with speed nearly as often or at least I’m not noticing

Him do it nearly as often and that’s a little bit troubling I would say I don’t think you really necessarily want that with a 6 foot6 guy that I mean we were comparing him last year to Mario Lemieux why not just because he’s big not just because he could shoot it’s

Because he’s skating through the’s like the wind out there like he’s going to coast to coast and that is not happening this year he’s getting the puck caught in his feet a lot his skating looks off entirely to me where his he doesn’t look balanced all the time even the goal that

Middle stat scores on the power play where Skinner gets it down low and feeds it to him watch the play right before Thompson does get it to him in fact it goes off the boards and he goes as like a spin backhand pass to get it down low

But Thomson almost falls down like three times before he manages to get the puck down low and you know often times I feel like that’s going to result in a turnover luckily here it didn’t but his skating has looked off to me a little bit this year um I know he’s been hurt

And that probably has been a big part of it he was wearing a cast until like a couple of games ago on his left wrist so I do want to give him somewhat of a pass because he’s been playing injured and also another two two goals and one

Assists last night which means that Thompson now in his last six games is now up to he’s now up to five goals and four assists five goals and four assists in his last six games that that’s you know we’re getting back to it with the production but we’re still not quite

Seeing the the sports center top 10 plays um the Highlight Reel plays that he is uh that he became accustomed to pulling off last year so just a quick thought on Tage Thompson one more text line while I got it open uh from the game on Thursday night one fan texted in

One listener texted in watched the game on about a 40 minute delay all the notifications coming in while I watched made me nervous the play by Dalena the short-handed goal maybe one of the laziest plays I’ve seen from him they all looked rattled after that good on

Them for settling down good to see Tage coming around and Quinn uh Quinn that guy was apparently the glue definitely added some spark I’m not expecting any momentum to come out of this but a 2-1 start in this n game stretch is nice that’s a good

Thought you can’t man this team all year they’ve had games like that and then the next game is a stinker where they undo all the Goodwill that they built up with fans so are we gonna get that are we gonna get that letdown game coming up against Pittsburgh well let’s talk about

That game coming up next here on the locked on Sabers podcast we are presented by FanDuel Sportsbook it’s not just the hockey season and the NBA season going right now but the NFL season the regular season it’s wrapping up but but there is still time to get in

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League sneaky Joe debiasi back here on the locked on Sabers podcast we’ve got Sabers and Penguins coming your way in Pittsburgh on Saturday night and after that it’ll be a six-game home stretch for the Sabers and you probably didn’t see it if you were watching Sabers and

Canadians but the game of the night in the NHL on Thursday night the Penguins and the Bruins went at it Pittsburgh won that game six to five uh against Boston in Boston so a very entertaining game watch the highlights back after and it was very much back and forth now the

Penguins though in terms of the season if you haven’t been watching the standings because you know what saber fans probably a little depressing to look at the standing so maybe you don’t know Pittsburgh’s been pretty bad this year Pittsburgh is at 42 points that is six better than the Sabres and it is

Only one out of a playoff spot but 19 and 18 19 wins 18 losses they are where they’ve kind of been which is they’re fighting for one of the final playoff spots that’s the new age Pittsburgh Penguins in the late stages of Sydney Crosby’s career of of Genny malin’s

Career and of Crystal Tang’s career and Eric Carlson now so maybe bad was a little bit strong I don’t think they’ve been that bad the record should be better given the amount of talent that they have that’s really the point and this is a game where you know the Sabers

Going into Pittsburgh they never have success in Pittsburgh but have you know had some strong have some decent performances there uh as of late um if you look at you know a little bit earlier this season was this a home game no sorry I mixed them up uh they were

Home for Pittsburgh when they won a couple of weeks ago uh or in no late November it at Pittsburgh was four to nothing in favor of the Penguins so scratch that they’ve at least beat the Penguins this year but and Pittsburgh yeah definitely not a strong point for

The Buffalo Sabres but this is a game where it’s a team above you in the standings and you got to start knocking off teams above you if you want to get back in this race a win streak is going to be necessary but doing it against teams that you’re in contest with is

Going to be vital as well and Pittsburgh’s one of those teams if the Sabres were to win on Saturday night in Pittsburgh they would close the gap to four points for the Penguins and they could be as close if they get results in other areas they could be within five

Points of a playoff spot uh by Saturday night they need a lot to happen for that to be true but it’s possible so just that doesn’t that kind of show though just one win streak will get them back in this I mean they’s seven points out

Right now with the game Hand by the way in Tampa if they just put even like a four game win streak together then they’re at least back in the race I think um it’s all it takes and they haven’t even had one yet this year um so

That’s what we’re looking at for Sabres and Penguins we don’t have any information on starting goenda today and yesterday they started uh Tristan jari but that they could go anyway any which direction on Saturday night I would expect ukap peka Lucan for the Sabers I think they probably go every other but

Don’t quote me on that I do think there is at least some chance that they go back to Levi because you know hot goenda the way they’re going to operate with these two maybe they go right back to Levi but my if you made me bet I

Would bet that it’s probably going to be UPL in terms of the roster in terms of the uh the lineup I’d imagine that that will probably look about the same you’re not going to see kyoso back this quickly um and Ryan Johnson being a healthy scratch I would likely expect that to be

The case again unfortunately I hope not but again that would be where I would lay my money down the Savers in this game for the odds by the way I missed on our same game parlay I always hit on the I maybe I just need to make it the

Anytime goal of the day because I always hit on the anytime goals Skinner in this game was my pick and he managed to score he is the Montreal killer um in terms of the Sabers odds though against Pittsburgh tomorrow night FanDuel sports book has the Sabers as a plus 136

Underdog not as big of an underdog as you might think they’re not as big of an underdog as they were a favorite in Montreal uh plus one and a half on the puck line minus 170 so uh that’s what you’re looking at for Sabers and pens

For a 7 o’clock puck drop enjoy the game if you’re a Bills fan and you are really getting ready for the weekend for them you’ve got Ravens and Steelers at 4:30 and if Baltimore wins the Sabers or the bills clinch a playoff spot so could be a nice

Little Sports night you watch Pittsburgh and Baltimore at 4:30 that leads you right into Sabers and Penguins so have some buddies over get you ready for uh the Bills game on Sunday with the Sabers and uh some football all right that’s going to do it for us today here on the

Locked on Sabers podcast again check out our text line go to join sub text.com slocked ons saers check us out on YouTube where you can watch the show there and you can also remember watch lockdown sports today the first ever 247 streaming Channel on YouTube for National Sports subscribe to lockdown

Sports today and listen wherever you get your podcast thanks for listening here in the lock on Sabers podcast hopefully talking to you next after a Sabres and Penguins win Sabers over Penguins win here in the lock on Sabers podcast have a good weekend

The Sabres went into Montreal and got two elite performances by their goaltender and best goal scorer in Devon Levi and Jeff Skinner. Sneaky Joe recaps a 6-1 win that hopefully launches a Sabres win streak.

Plus, Henri Jokiharju with a strong performance and Tage Thompson continues to heat up.

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