Sabres Edge: The Buffalo Sabres have a successful trip to the west coast

Sabres Edge: The Buffalo Sabres have a successful trip to the west coast

Sabers on their West Western trip and Allstar break is on our way we’ll talk about more after this short Video he what’s up and welcome to Sab Edge podcast presented by Nickel City mafia uh please be sure to like subscribe and comment to the show uh my name is topshelf Timmy Corks And my co-host is Sammy Saucy Miss Sammy how’s your past week been it’s been hectic to be honest

With you uh UB classes started up on Wednesday of last week so I’ve been uh back at it for almost exactly a week now it’s kind of weird that I started in the middle of the week but it was nice you know I didn’t have anything to do la or

Before last week’s video but uh I got here I I was literally just watching a lecture video maybe like three minutes ago or like five minutes ago so like yeah that’s uh it’s become more hectic nice are you still like those giant lecture halls with like 300 500 people

With those classes still or are you in the smaller classes uh a lot of my classes are online right now actually so oh really yeah yeah but when I when I am in uh when I am on campus it’s a lot of uh smaller classes but they’re like

Sections of bigger online classes so okay nice I mean it’s it’s weird because I remember when I was going uh well at least when I was in college that we started up like the day went after uh Martin Luther King’s day it’s interesting that they’re starting up a

Little bit later nowadays so yeah that’s pretty cool um so yeah I guess we got some Sabers hockey to talk about um you know the Sabres came back from the Wester trip um just to do a little quick quick little recap um the lost to the Ducks which is very surprising four to

Two um yeah team came out looking out flat um in that game we had Greenway getting a goal o poo getting a goal UPL saved 32 of 35 shots and had actually a 914 save percentage which really isn’t that too bad that’s all we’re asking for

Out of them no um following up with that uh we had a win against the Kings five to3 now um if you T of that game uh when it was down two nothing in the first period I don’t blame you uh but they did come back and win and the kids line had

A very good game uh Quinn had a goal two assists cousins had a goal two assists and PKA had two goals and one assist um in that game Levi had a 31 out of 30 or saved 31 out of 33 shots at a 925 save percentage um and then just to wrap up

The road trip right before All-Star break uh the Sabres won against the Sharks 5-2 now once again with the Sabers like this whole entire season went down 20 early in the game um managed to come back once again kind of thanks to uh the kids line the game with

Petka getting uh two goals cousins getting one goal uh Quinn actually getting an assist um I actually didn’t look down to see what youl sa percentage was in that game I think this the only one I do the stats for he was a 920 save percentage 920 save percent percentage

Uh but there is one takea away from that game we’ll talk about that um is that we can’t have nice nice things this year uh with coin getting injured uh so Sammy take it away what are your thoughts from that West Western road trip so overall

The Western Road Trip pretty good we see the emergence of the kids line once again and obviously we’ll talk about that um they really started clicking and it looked great their their line was really carrying us along and that’s a help helpful thing because we really haven’t been getting that much offense we

Obviously like started a lot of the game slow we went down first in every single one of them sometimes we were down by like three it’s like in the Kings game we ended up coming back in the Sharks game we were down by two I made a

Comment about that in the in the Nickel City mafia Discord I was just like man I cannot believe we’re down two nothing to the sharks like it hurts my soul watching this yeah we come out with two of the three wins and when I ended off last week with was

I just want to see us continue to win more than we lose and you you look at the schedule ahead of us and you’re like okay so that’s the Ducks and the Sharks we lose against the Ducks I was like well this is not going great we still

Ended up with the with the four of the six points that that I was asking for so I guess I don’t really have much room to complain there one thing that I would like to also apologize for last week is that I said that we had a game today and

That we’d be casting through a game I looked on the schedule said there was a game Tuesday obviously was a little frazzled and I did not check what the actual date was but that is next week Tuesday because this week is the allstar break yeah I mean I think I kind of

Jumped on that early I think we were looking at both at this calendar and the calendar just showed a Tuesday we like oh yeah we yeah it’s it’s Tuesday but yeah jumping the gun a little bit we do have the allstar break yeah it’s definitely kind of nice to have a little

Bit of a break right now um just to get away from the Sabers a little bit and then you know some things are going on um but overall I mean yeah it was a good West Western um trip I mean do you feel like the games were

Like convincing Winnie like did you feel like the energy from the team at all or do you feel like they kind of slog through all three of those games so the anahe game which was after uh our show last week was kind of brutal I watched

That one I’m like we we came out sloppy and we ended sloppy it was just we we had little bit of jump towards the end I believe it was but it was like far too little far too late um yeah so we got two goals in that

Last period so we brought it to three to two actually the the game against the Kings we did it again we came out way too slow we clearly were not um we clearly were not playing at the level that we know that we can play and I don’t know if it

Was just you know it’s been a long Coast trip it happens you get fatigued towards the end but we stepped onto that ice in Los Angeles and we looked like we could have been the worst team in the league we turn it around we end up winning

Devon Levi shuts the door after the first period which was very helpful because it like after the third goal in the first period I was like I don’t know do you pull the guy like he’s it’s not all his fault but you you hope he has at

Least like one of those yeah but he he shorted it up he closed the gates after that ended up with like a good save percentage too and then again in San Jose how do you go down to nothing against the sharks so it’s just this like we’re having issues with

Um we just keep running into issues with slow starts and I I don’t know how you solve that problem and I hope that it maybe maybe a good mental reset after an All-Star break helps with that but you can’t drop two goals to teams first and then expect to win

Two-thirds of your games that’s like you know kind of Lucky so I don’t know I’m not fully convinced by these points that that that you’re win that we’re winning two-thirds of the games but we’ll take him at this point yeah I mean I don’t even know what

To say anymore does the team just need to get like a punch in the face to get going in the game what’s going on here I mean they come out slow in every one of those games and then finally they come back towards the end like I don’t know

Do they feel like they just need that that nervous anxiety to you know kind of get the team going and you know kind of get some goals on the net but don’t you want to start off fast and start you know start the pace of play right at the

Beginning of the game it just doesn’t make any sense with this team and it’s just a theme that’s been going on through the whole entire season and I why is this a thing I don’t think anyone can answer that it’s just the mentality at this team at this point

They like I don’t know if they like playing from behind but that’s what they prefer to do um so yeah it’s kind of just been a weird uh too season and I mean it’s good to see you know the goalies performing you know they’re still playing up to like a you know over

Above 900 save percentage and um just to see the team to come back too you know it’s good that they’re able to battle back from adversity but I’d like them for them to start putting other teams at adversity and just getting goals early and kind of set the pace of play so it’s

Kind of been a weird um a weird season overall um just going to go to the chat real quick um Tom it’s been a while thanks for hopping on um it’s nice seeing you got anything to contribute to the show let us know uh Mike uh yeah

Nice to see 20 out3 on the west coast trip it’s good to see you too and then yes Mike I’m on a different setup right now so I was having computer issue so right now I am working through my airpods and my iPad so so no regular mic

That I used to have so if I sound a little different um sorry about that and uh sorry you got like the 4K HD of this beautiful mug right here I don’t know what you’re talking about it is lovely you look great today h so yeah thanks for joining the

Show guys and then uh next week or next week I’ll be better I’m starting off slow like the Sabers today um or at least my computer is um so yeah um I guess like the biggest news that came out road trip is the jack qun injury so

I think we kind of talked it about a last week um just with like what’s going on with the Sabers and them deciding to do like these spin moves by the boards and as they’re turning their back other players are just checking them from behind and you know getting away with

These kind of I wouldn’t say they’re dirty hits but they’re kind of like almost on teetering on the line right there um type of hits and now we kind of lose our best player right now and Jack Quinn um Sam what are you thinking uh what did you think of the hit

Overall the the hit wasn’t that bad to be honest you watched the hit again it’s not that bad it’s not really that dirty he kind of just shoves Jack a little bit Jack loses his balance he falls and it’s the awkward fall that that really does

It he gets his leg caught between the boards yeah I don’t think that the hit was that bad I don’t think that it really would require any disciplinary action you could maybe argue it was a cross-checking penalty but like two minutes at most you’re really not

Looking at anything that bad it was not a dirty or malicious hit so it was just kind of a freak fall and you see it you see the moment that it torqus and you’re like oh his leg got caught and that was bad and you see him on the ground like

The way that he’s acting like he knows it’s bad it it’s just an unfortunate situation yeah it really is and I mean it’s kind of funny because we kind of been seeing like these type of hits that have been going on where um you know the

Sabers players backs to or to the other team they’re getting hit from behind and it a lot of them is due to the players doing it to themselves where like they’re setting them up themselves up to get hit like that um which is unfortunate and it’s something that I

Guess you I mean I learned it early in hockey is just don’t have your back to the guy when you’re up against the boards right um so you know it’s very frustrating especially to because once Quinn joined the lineup uh the Sabres were 97 to one record-wise um so they

Actually had a winning record with Quinn in the lineup and I’m pretty sure he was almost at a point per game Pace since he joined the Sabers too um and like the third fa is the kids line started heating up on the on this West Coast

Road trip I mean in that second game against the Kings you know Quinn had three points cousin had three points um petka had three points and then you go into the second game and cousins scores again and gets two assists and petura gets two goals and you know this was a

Line that was kind of in malays and didn’t have like a home for before Quinn joined them and once Quinn joined the lineup you know you can kind of see what he brings to not only that line but just the lineup in general and just to lose

To him again is just devastating because this is like something that we’re looking forward into this lineup um so yeah um right now I know the news says he’s going to be out for about eight weeks he just had surgery the other day y they haven’t said what type of injury

But a lot um it’s not going to be you didn’t break his ankle I know that and he didn’t um break do anything with his knee I’m just thinking it was either a high anchor spring or if anything it was a fracture of the fibula which is

Usually um one of those that heals a little bit faster so um I guess you know Sam do you have any more thoughts on the jack Quinn and his impact on the team and what are we going to do going forward I gu you have any answers to

That so what do you do going forward is the that is the great question right you lose Jack Quinn for eight game or eight weeks one of the weeks is going to be the allstar break so like that’s something um you don’t really I’m not sure you know whether or

Not you want to replace him at this point because are you then looking towards being like if you’re if you’re saying we’re going to go out and buy someone now to replace Jack Quinn you’re announcing before and before you’re even at a positive record that you’re a buyer for

This season if yeah if anything like I don’t know I don’t want to say sack the season right I don’t want to be like all right just like bring up like Yuri Kulik and give him NHL time just for the sake of it if he’s not if he’s

Not there if you guys don’t feel like he’s comfortable or like ready for an NHL level I wouldn’t force that right now so I don’t know I don’t know it’s such a complicated question it has many implications do you just pick up another stop Gap guy because if you do that I

Mean like we have that in the HL right now we have Tyson yoast you know you have you have some guys on the bench like you got Victor Olson who’s not playing every game maybe he just fills in the lineup and you just call it a day

But I it depends on what your intentions are if you think that you genuinely have a chance to make the playoffs which you’re not technically out right now like there is still a chance if you think that you have a good chance at making the playoffs or or if you want to

Make a push if you want to tell the team like hey I know this just happened but we are still competitive and we can still make a push you should go out and get someone I’m not sure how high end you want to go with who you go out and get

But that’s something to consider I guess for the team I don’t what what would you do in this situation honestly my mind was kind of of trying to build up the value of Olson heading into the trade deadline just because right now he might not have

Much trade value and maybe if we get him in that line and he gets some points and he starts scoring um maybe we can get something out of him that was just my only thought for him because I do not want to see Tyson Yos back up in this lineup I’m sorry man

You’re very below average NHL player I mean you’re a fourth liner at best so I just don’t want you playing that line I mean I guess you could bring Zack Benson in up into the second line and see what he can do there but I mean he hasn’t

Been putting up many points for the P I don’t think he put a point up for the past 12 games I think the season is catching up to him um I think he’s kind of you know getting that he might be getting a little tired I don’t know

What’s going on um and I don’t want to put much put many more minutes onto him either it’s his rookie year and I mean just have him play on that third line with I think Greenway and middle stat at this point and just see where that goes

Um that’s been a good line for us too yeah exactly so let him grow there you don’t want him getting second line minutes and then you know once you get to the trade line and if you’re trade deadline you’re able to trade wolson that’s when you can kind of consider

Bringing up somebody for the Stop Gap until um Quinn is back so I I just kind of go over the prospects right now I was kind of looking at the ammer I mean you have isack Rosen he’s at 26 points he’s leading uh the amirs with rusek he has 10 goals 16 assists

And 34 games then you have Yuri kulick 24 points 16 goals eight assists and 30 games so maybe give one of those two guys another shot up here obviously you know you don’t want to give him second line minutes but maybe like rotating him in with somebody else at that point

Point until Quin comes back but no I I I honestly I don’t want the Sabers to be a buyer for the short term if they’re going to be a buyer and we’re going to talk about this a little bit I want them going after a guy that they’re

Um that they’re going to have for a little bit they’re going to have them under contract term so um yeah um that’s kind of my mindset let’s just put Olson in there get his value up all right Mike Mike believes that maybe we should get someone and make the playoffs

Never give up a season I for the most part I would like to believe that that should be the case but I think there’s too many variables and we’re down too far right now that I just don’t I don’t know may I like there might be value in like

Getting Olson’s value up or getting some of the AHL guys some NHL experience at this point in the season but yeah even if they make the playoffs let’s just say let’s just say they happen to make the playoffs how long are they really going to last in the playoffs and what are

They giving up to get a guy to play at that point because you’re gonna if you’re gonna try to replace someone with Quinn’s um you know production you’re going to be giving up a little bit more and there’s not going to be a lot of teams

That are going to want to give up prospects that are at that kind of offensive level so I mean I think you can probably on an individual level I think like Quinn’s production can be replaced and replicated I don’t know what about Jack Quinn does it but he

Just makes that those other two players click for the majority of the season when cousins and PKA have been together it just feels like they’re just flailing out there and they haven’t like yeah any idea how to play the game of hockey as as a team sport but all of a sudden you

Insert Jack Quinn in there and it’s like you know he’s he wasn’t even a point a game he was way below he had 12 points in 17 games but but he activates those other two guys like I don’t know again I don’t know what it is but he’s got

Something magic in the way he plays where people he tends to just get the best out of the people around him and that that is what’s gonna be missed not his individual production I think at least yeah exactly I mean him and PKA have been together for almost four years

At this point plane in the same on the same line so there’s something going on there and you know I think it brings a lot to that cousins started picking up in the past couple of games I’m sure he’s building up confidence at this point and and to lose Quinn you know

That’s not going to be helpful um there’s some people saying that Quinn might just be a guy that gets constantly injured I kind of want to squash that right now you know he’s had two freak injuries he had the Achilles tear which happened during training on the off

Season and then he just happens St to get this injury um it was just a freak play I mean there’s nothing you can do about it’s not like he’s getting concussions or he’s having muscle sorness or anything that it’s just two freak accidents I don’t think he has an injury bug so yeah

I just want to squash this right now to that I would say watch the video on where he got injured any human being would have torn or broken something in that position that it’s not it was it was happen stance it’s not like oh yeah something about like with Samuelson

Where it’s like the most innocuous things seem to break him with Jack Quinn you watch that video again you watch that play that wasn’t that wasn’t some like oh I don’t even know how you would get hurt there no you you can very clearly see what would have broken or

Damaged a body part in that clip yeah so I just want to put that the rest I mean don’t start saying that about Jack Quinn I mean he’s gonna be a future star on this team so everyone just chill out um so kind of just wrap up the road trip I

Kind of want to get get um on with our three stars early in this show okay um so who do you have as your three stars for this road trip um I’m just gonna give it to the whole Jack Quinn line yeah you got Dylan cousins JJ petka Jack Quinn all putting

Up great performance in the past three games maybe not the Anaheim game but that I think we can all agree we would rather forget and even during that game you know Dylan cousins did have an assist so yeah I I’m just gonna go ahead and join

You on that because that’s what I was gonna say you know special props to UPL Levi having a good road trip as well but you know the kids line all three of those guys deserve a star so I’m gonna hand that off to them um so yeah we’ll

Kind of wrap up the road trip with that and then kind of go back to the trade deadline and um we’ll talk about there’s some uh news coming out of Columbus about uh David Urich um so David Urich he’s a 2002 six round draft pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets he’s a

Right-handed shot D so very rare to find in the NHL right now it’s like finding a leprechaun or a pot of gold or a rainbow double or double rainbow sorry um so he’s actually he’s had he’s he played his first um Pro season in the AHL in

Cleveland and he came up for about four NHL games um this is going to be his second year and in his second year playing of Columbus he’s had about 35 games and he got sent down recently and he’s not too happy what’s going on he thinks he doesn’t deserve to be in the

AHL he should be NHL player and his stats in the in the AHL kind of prove that he’s been an Allstar um so in the AHL he’s had seven goals 40 assists in 59 games um which overall you know that’s pretty well for a defenseman that’s pretty good yeah and

They hearing and listening to podas talking about him he has an offensive prowess but he is a 63 200 pound defenseman who has solidified his game in the defense of his own and has a little bit of physicality with him um and just to go real quick in the 40 games that he’s

Played in the in the NHL he’s had had um he’s had oh shoot uh 40 goals played he’s had one goal and eight assists so nine points overall which you know to play on the Columbus Blue Jackets and have any sort of Point production as defenseman I mean that’s pretty good

Overall so I’m not going to harp on his stats too much um so yeah essentially he’s not too happy with Columbus and he hasn’t outright said he want to be traded but he’s at the point where it’s like I want to play in the NHL if I’m not going to

Be playing in NHL I want to go somewhere else and a lot of people Chad g d dominicus has brought up this would be a pro this almost be a perfect situation for the Sabers do you have any thoughts on this trade at all yeah so um I don’t think I’ve ever

Had heard Chad’s name pronounced but I don’t know that it’s that I always thought it was Den nominees but I could be very wrong I either way to the actual trade idea I think I think it’s a good idea I I’m of the opinion that you can’t really

Go wrong with that he’s a 20-year-old he’s a right shot defenseman I don’t know where you would put him in our current lineup but I’m not sure that you want someone like uh like I you’re probably getting rid of Eric Johnson at the trade deadline so where would that leave us we

Would have Samuelson Dalene as just like a number one we’ll say you’re Che and power as your number two and then you have uh Henry uiharu Conor Clifton and Ryan Johnson as your five six7 obviously he was sent down for a reason he is maybe borderline AHL NHL

Right now and he won’t be for his whole career he’s a 20-year-old we have to remember defensemen they can take a second Owen power he’s 21 like just have to give it some time we’re still we’re like even though Owen power won’t be sent down this year and he has way more

Point production than Euro during this year it’s still a little bit of a we have to wait for him to mature and if you add another young defenseman to that already young defense Corp that includes Ryan John in Owen power and then theoretically you’re a che there’s going

To be a bunch of growing pains that fans are not going to like but in the long run if you can get David Urich for cheap I think that that would be a great move and obviously we’re assuming that the price tag would have gone down because

Of the discontent that he might be experiencing with Columbus and with that organization if they’re trying to just quickly move him because he doesn’t want to play for them but and also you have to manage the fact that once he comes here he’s still maybe a tweener at the

Moment and you might have to deal with the fact that you might want to send him down but if you make that trade you’re not allowed to that’s kind of the rules with this like if you make that trade you’re telling him that you are going to

Play in the NHL from now until the end of time and if you’re trying to win right now that might not be the best option so in the long run I do think that David Urich is a good option I think that he would grow in in a great

Fashion along with some of the other young uh defensemen that we have for this team again I don’t know what they’re going to want for him and what like the discounted price would look like the like sticker price is probably very expensive that is a highly touted uh

Defenseman and as you said the the right shot defenseman they don’t they’re not exactly a diamond dozen so again I think it all just depends on what are they asking for and doesn’t make sense for our timeline if trying to win right now he’s not a guy

That you want if you think that he helps you grow into the future then absolutely that’s a guy that that you want but yeah it’s almost like you’re G have to have a handshake agreement with him that hey if you’re gonna get traded here or I mean I guess he doesn’t have to

Accept the trade but still if he’s G to come over here it’s hey we’re g to have you play out the rest of the year in the amirs and we’re going to bring you up next year um just because like you mentioned there’s so many guys right now

Like if you get rid of um Eric Johnson you still already have a lot of defens still up in Buffalo where I mean Bryson was just on the west coast trip and he was getting starting minutes we do have some injuries so there is that yeah uh

But yeah I mean you have you know I guess you you have to kind of even try to figure out how much of a future Yoki Haru has on this team as well I mean it’s nothing against Yoki Haru it’s just the way that he’s played right now and

It doesn’t seem like Granado or the organization is like a big fan of him whereas he’s had a pretty solid season um I can almost see Yoki Haru getting traded away at the deadline as well which I don’t really want to see but I mean I’m GNA keep that in the front of

My mind just because the way that that is usage right now but I mean overall um what I was reading um this chory uh Story by Chad whatever his last name is um um he’s kind of correct that the Sabres don’t really have much when it comes to um defensive prospects I mean

You have Maxim strobic who’s playing in is he at Michigan State right now I believe um he did have a pretty good World Juniors though he did um and then besides that the only really guy that you have down in the hammer is Nikita novakov which he is like your

Traditional like stay-at-home defenseman um he’s actually having a pretty good season right now with the am to too because he has one goal 12 assists um and I know plus minus isn’t really indictive or anything but he is a plus a plus 11 in 32 games so and this is his

Rookie yeah it’s his rookie year in the AHL too he’s also like 19 yeah that is a young defenseman so that’s really those are out of like all their I mean I’m sure there’s other defensive prospects besides but out of all of them those are really the two to look forward to who

May have an a chance of playing NHL the rest there really isn’t much the covers kind of bored uh or empty um especially with Ryan Johnson in the NHL now so I mean if you have to give up one of our offensive prospects I know people are talking about um giving up seavoy

Um you know blue Jacks don’t want seavoy might be have to be giving up Gary kulick or Isaac Rosen or osen I mean at this point the Sabers are so full with offensive Talent if it only takes one of those guys to get a defensive prospect who you know he seems pretty promising

Right now performing the AHL I think it’s overall worth it just to have a system at this point again I think that uh his disc content comes with him being in the AHL like you said you said you’d have to have the handshake agreement that he’d

Be okay playing in the AHL that’s yeah I don’t think that’s where he is but we do have the injuries right now so you know with Bryson in the NHL currently maybe you could push push him back to the a uh and while we’re talking about it I just like to point out

Bryson’s stats for the year which are great so he’s played five games this year he has zero goals and zero assists for zero points total he’s a minus four and he has been in five games in which we win so the Savers have currently won every single game that Jacob Bryson has

Played in despite him having negative impacts on the ice I mean that’s totally Bryson that is a Bryson right there again we were talking I don’t know response to that is they were we were talking about it when he got sent down earlier in the year that the maybe the

Reason he was has kept round is because he’s just such a good team guy you know but he has to be on the ice for them to win right he can’t be a locker room guy he has to be on the ice too he’s gota be sitting on the bench

Yeah and we do win when he’s there I mean that’s kind of a pickle that we’re in right now yeah we’re five and0 with Jacob Bryson he might be the best defender in the NHL even the min that’s the fun thing about stats if you cherry pick them just right you can you

Can make the greatest narratives really you really can I mean Bryson looks I mean he’s earning his1 million dollar contract right now I guess right because he has we have five with five wins with him in the lineup so I mean that’s really only the really the only other

News that are going on before the allstar break that I’ve seen have you seen anything at all um when it comes to the Sabers uh I mean there’s like kind of big news around the league it doesn’t really pertain to the Sabers and that’s the uh World Junior Team from like six

Years ago now they’re finally like calling to charge uh some individuals in London I think Dylan dub is one of them Carter Hart’s probably the most notable there were two from uh um kellot and um miles wood from New Jersey yeah and so that’s going on I really kind of

Don’t want to talk about that if you’ve read the story already you know it’s kind of gross kind of uncomfortable and it happened six years ago now I’m glad that they’re finally getting around to like getting those charges pressed but it’s disgusting they’re those are five horrible people and honestly it

Sounds like there were more people on that team that did partake and or not partook but like we there and didn’t really say anything or do anything so I don’t know it’s kind of just upsetting it’s London Ontario not London Ontario yes okay yeah not a I I feel like not

Not to make light of the situation but I feel like you have to indicate London Ontario and not just because everything’s so London I’m like right did they play the world juniors in London at all like I know because the UK has a hockey team now and they’re

Competing in the are I think in the IHF but they’re not competing in the Olympics yet maybe the Olympics soon but right I mean they’re getting into hockey so that’s the only reason why have to bring up from that story so yeah um I it’s kind of it’s kind of it’s kind of

Quiet leading into the allstar Break um I mean I think I talked to you about in our chat like talking about like awards for the Sabers and after I sent that and I didn’t send it in the chat I was like I is there anyone worthy of an award on

This team right now is Bryson the MVP of this the Sabers right now does he get the hard trophy I mean there’s certainly conversations we had and like just kind of the basic superlatives like you could go over like who do you think has been the best offensive player for us this

Year who do I think yeah overall has to be Casey mid middle he’s just having a solid um overall season in terms of points production and I mean he’s I would say he’s almost the mo even though he he started off towards the end of the

Season he has to be one of the most improved Sabers on the team as well just because he’s just I mean he’s doing everything he’s hard to knock off the puck he’s helping out his other teammates and you mentioned it uh a couple weeks ago he when we were talking

About is he on this team at the tra trade deadline uh coming up I mean you he’s just a plug in plug andplay player he could play on any of the top three lines and make those three lines better so so that probably has to be my best

The best player offensively for this team I’m going to have to agree with you there I mean Casey midad has just been an absolute monster for us at 5v5 this year and he’s really what’s because we’ve actually been a pretty good 5v5 team we’ve had some questionable special

Teams yeah actually our uh penalty kill has been pretty good but we’ve had questionable power play and as far as production goes he has been at the top of our roster out there just creating points not only that but like some of our other point Getters like Jeff

Skinner you can’t trust him in your own Zone Casey midd stat he can do it he can defend he can win board battles he really does it all Jack of all trades and he’s by far in my opinion our best uh offens men to this point this

Year yeah for sure um I guess you know going back to the conversation we had a couple weeks ago I really don’t see them I actually don’t see the Sabers trading him at all at the trade deadline I think they’re going to let this run into the

Off seon with his RFA contract to kind of see what type of deal they’ll get him in the next couple of years I mean I don’t want to see the guy leave he plays pretty well um I’d kind of like to see them see if they can somehow fin angle a

Deal to get Jeff Skinner off the team and that’s just for financial purposes yeah yeah I’d be okay with that I I would love to see him continue on next year but I again I don’t know what they’re doing with the cap or how they’re going to make it work but I

Would love it if Casey is a part of the plan going forward yeah um do you have a player that you would say is the best defensively on this team is that is it that obvious uh so like yeah there’s there’s we have kind of one stud

Defenseman and a bunch of ones that are still trying to figure it out right now so the obvious answer for best defenseman at least in my opinion Ras doen I was maybe about to just say Johnson maybe Conor Clifton yeah there’s honestly Conor Clifton figuring it out Eric Johnson has

A steady presence Ryan Johnson like seems like he’s got a good future ahead of him uh so there are some good things good things going on with the defense but it hasn’t all been good that’s that’s for sure um yeah but Ras M stene obviously he can do it all kind of like

Casey midat he’s a more commanding presence than Casey is like he’s willing to really throw big hits he does like crazier moves as well like when he is feeling it when he’s feeling his game like it is a different level than what you get when Casey middlestead is

Feeling his game which is more of a attention to detail kind of thing Casey midd or Rond stallan can really change the tide of games and it’s really entertaining when he chooses to do so but even when he’s not doing so his just like average level of play is in my

Opinion still better than what we get night in night out from most of the defenseman on the team so for me it’s got to be Rasmus dalane yeah I don’t think I have anything more to add to that I mean you have a young defensive core overall um

And you have some promising players like you mentioned you know Ryan Johnson’s promising um you still have Owen power as a first overall pick he’s still got to grow you know and who knows Yi Haru still on this team too you know he’s been he’s been trending upwards and then

Clifton um I mean not the most you know satisfying season that you’ve had um but like you said he’s still trying to find his way into this system and I think we’ve kind of figured out um he’s going to be your third pair defenseman um so

Just kind of finding a partner with that and Eric Johnson you know like you mentioned staying in the ship but I see him being on this team past the trade deadline um so yeah I mean where the other any other Awards to give away to this team at all you I mean obviously

When we start started the season there was going to be a jostling for like starting goal tender as we had three goalies on the roster that’s kind of been sorted out so I I I would like to give an honorable mention to ukap Lucan you’re a number one goalie now

Congratulations that was not obviously going to be the case when we started the year so that’s a kind of nice Revelation to have come across and I think that he definitely deserves some sort of mid-season Accolade for that you’re a number one goalie congratulations ukap peka Lucan yeah congrats I mean he surprised

All of us I was trying to trade him away at the beginning of the preseason so he showed me up so good on him and you know keep on rolling man we’ll take this into next year with hopefully two good goenda been I mean overall I mean I was

Hoping this would be more of an exciting saber season we have a lot more to talk about um but who knows I mean next you know second and the half year they can turn it all on and you know who knows uh we could maybe be talking playoffs but

You know all it takes is a 16 gamei uh win streak and then you’re right back in it right Edmonton I was want to say what is Emon on right now I think it’s 16 right now and the record is 17 right the record is 17 yeah I think that they have

Try to carry this over from the all right speaking of carrying things over from the All-Star break we currently have two wins if we win again we got our first uh three-game win streak and I think that the All-Star game is helpful for us because it helps

Us reset it’s not like we just won a game which we like to lose immediately after so maybe we can get our first three- game win streak of the year with the help of an all with a conveniently placed All-Star break yeah I mean do we catch one on the Dell

Stars that’s my that’s my only question there I think so I think we got it yeah it is a home game okay um well I don’t think that matters yeah almost identical oh uh by the way I do have another uh possible midseason award who

Do you think was the best pickup for the Sabers this year we had uh the two defenseman Clifton and Johnson and we also got Eric Robinson I believe that’s the only three we had oh I mean Eric Robinson had those two good games and kiding

Um I gotta say I’m like gonna go I’m gonna go with Eric Johnson um not because he was he’s not flashy he hasn’t really done anything but more of like the studying presence and kind of like bringing that little bit more of a veteran leadership to the team that

Maybe onos wasn’t bringing so um how much of a difference has he made to this team I don’t know uh but I don’t think he has very tough competition between the other two I don’t know I mean for the first time I’m gonna pick someone other than you I

Finally get the um Conor Clifton pickup okay so the first 20 games of his season were bad they we not good if you look at historical data for um players getting picked up by new teams and acclimating the new systems it can take like roughly 20ish games for them to really fit into

Their system since then like in the past like 28 games so like in equal sample size he’s been good not like no asterisk he’s just been good he actually I believe has figured it out in a way way where he can be productive on on our roster and I don’t

Like watch him every night and I’m like he’s killing us out here he has like he messes up occasionally and he still does that thing where he’ll find himself out of position to make a big hit that probably wasn’t necessary but by and large he’s pretty effective at creating Rush opportunities

For the team he’s actually okay at like shutting down rush opportunities against he’s pretty good on the penalty kill he’s not Elite but he does the job well our penalty kill hasn’t been the problem this year and he’s part of that yeah I actually in the last like 28 30 Games

I’ve been happy with his performance yeah I mean it’s kind of like the greenway situation where you know towards the end of last year we’re kind of figur out what is greenway’s place on this team so I think like you mentioned it takes a little bit of time

To for a player to grow into a new system and he’s finally catching on and I think the Sabres kind of figured out where he was too just because I think their expectation was him to play as a second pair of defenseman at the beginning of the season and they came to

Find out maybe this guy’s a third pair defenseman who can who can maybe play second pair every once in a while um so yeah I mean I really haven’t been hunkering down on him in terms of like bad reasons like I don’t think I’ve complained about him since November

Maybe so yeah I mean mean almost like it’s like a cornerback in football if you’re not noticed then you’re pretty much having a good game if you’re playing defense you’re not noticed for bad things you’re probably playing pretty good and that’s all I’m GNA say I

Mean was a contract situation with him a little bit like unsatis it’s not satisfying I mean people can complain about that I would say so like I wouldn’t you know fight when someone saying you know it was a good contract or bad contract I mean but sometimes you

Got to take shots and who knows I mean maybe he gets better next year he’s still a young guy figure out this system and this is his first time I mean this is his first time playing consistently as the pair defenseman right because he was a seventh defenseman in Boston uh no

Last year he was not a seventh defenseman in Boston Boston he was consistently in the lineup I thought he was seventh he was only in because of the injuries on defense no he was in and he was doing um he played 78 games last year really and 60 the year before that

So he’s he’s been yeah and he’s 28 so he’s not even that young I mean 28 32 Sam I mean he’s in the prime of his career right yeah you like the contract takes him to like 31 that’s perfectly fine you you’re getting some good years there assuming he stays good [Laughter]

But um all right yeah no I like that pick I mean out of the three pickups I mean I don’t know yeah it is it’s not like we ended up with an absolute Allstar on our hands like it’s yeah it is what the it is what it is it’s seven

Or six defense two six defensemen and the fourth line player so yeah um so yeah I know Samy had something else to me share with the channel tonight so yes I mean this is so it’s you know obviously we have the All-Star break this week so not much

Going on figured it it’ be a good opportunity and while we’re talking about uh defensive systems with Conor Clifton adjusting to this one feel like it’d be a good opportunity to uh break out the chalkboard and talk about something that we’ve kind of alluded to for a while but never really got into

Detail and it’s what is Don Granado’s defensive system and why isn’t it working so this is a specific uh let me just pull up my screen it’s not just a moment sorry so all right can you see the can you see what I’m looking at here yeah it’s a little like ice sheet

Yes this is uh I’m going to go over what we do when we have like a rush chance against specifically in a two two on two situation because this is a very common Rush that you’ll see and you can watch it during the game a lot of the times I

Only ever notice that this is happening because Dalene will make aggressive hand signals to whoever is with him and so it kind of points out that this is happening so basically in a situation where you have uh two forwards bearing down on your defense for a rush chance

So you know F1 F2 going going uh towards your net the way that we play defense is called surfing or the way that we defend rushes is called surfing so what would happen is say F1 has the puck we would have the second defenseman curl around to take the spot where the

First defenseman was and we’d have the first defenseman kind of shift into the area that’s being vacated by the second defenseman what this does is in theory as the forward one moves in with the puck defenseman two can meet him with speed and then obviously defenseman

One’s crossing over to then cut off this pass option that is that is coming into the zone now the issue with that is if we do this every time which we mostly do if you watch our play whenever there’s like a two on two Rush against we are

Often times doing this little crossover here and as I’ve kind of stopped it here with these with well the Crossovers happening you can see that it just kind of creates space where you have either a pass option available to your second forward here like they can they either have the space vacated by

Defenseman to or def or forward one kind of gets a lot of space opened up around if they want to just take it into the Zone they don’t get pushed too aggressively right away like they they have time once this crossover happens where they can analyze the play it just

Gives them a moment to think about what they’re doing I think it’s holy or like mostly unproductive yeah because it gives kind of that Gap where you can say hey I have forward two who’s going to be open for a brief moment of time or I can just take it into the

Corner myself yes this person’s going D defenseman 2 is going to be pressing you faster than defenseman one could because you know you’re crossing over you’re approaching with speed but if you just kind of turn to the outside if you if you take this opportunity and you move

The outside now you can wait for more reinforcements yeah maybe the rush was killed but you just gave up kind of like free unpressured or or like free entry into the zone you you’ve just pushed them to the outside more or if they do manage to if you don’t execute the crossover

Perfectly F2 if they see the Gap they can just Sprint through and now you have a sauce pass through the seam and that happens to us way more often than is probably AC acceptable I just don’t see the value in the system it’s a cool thought it’s a

Unique way to approach it and it’s fun because like we are the only team that does it and I even think it was probably an acceptable uh an acceptable experiment as when we first started doing it I think it caught team teams off guard but now that we do

It every single time now that it’s known now that people have the Playbook you just have to wait for that moment where the crossover is incomplete or if they don’t step at the exact same time you’re giving up gaps and so I think without perfect execution which you know is hard to

Do instead of the theory of getting closer or of pushing them with approaching them with speed when they’re entering the Zone you’re really just creating gaps in your defensive coverage and that’s why I personally am of the belief that you should probably just do what every other team in the

League does and continue pressuring F1 with D1 and F2 with D2 just cover the pass with the one defense or the one defenseman and just kind of keep the other guy at Bay don’t let him get a good shot off and trust that your other defenseman is going to make sure that no

Pass can be completed every other team in the league does it like this I think this would be a good like mixup every once in a while if darene or whoever is on the back end is sitting there and they’re like I don’t think that I

Can like like I don’t think I’ve managed my Gap well and I want the other person to kind of switch with me I think having that in your toolbox is actually helpful making that your primary tool is predictable so that’s like you know in football you can’t just QB sneak every

Time or like flee flicker every time the trick plays don’t work if it’s the only play you use it’s no longer a trick so yeah cooling concept and I see the I see why you would do it but in execution we use it way too frequently and people have the Playbook on

Us and that is a coaching issue yeah no that’s a good pick up there I mean I feel like even that has to be situational too because you can’t do that on every team or even every line on a team because you’re defensive pairing against let’s say you have your third

Defensive defensive pairing against their top line and the top line is I don’t know let’s just say it’s the Avalanche Top Line are you getting away with that type of defense against that line every situation yeah you’re going to get burned by the stars in the league doing that exactly

So I mean that’s cool that you picked up on that like I had i’ I’ve kind of noticed it happening but I didn’t know what the purpose of that was so glad you brought this up one issue is that they also don’t always know when to do it so

There was one time I think we got scored on and it might have been during the anah game that I was watching and I can pull back up my uh my screen to really give a better visual of what happened so we had darene make him D1 right yeah darene

Was like heish and we had a forward with the puck here and a forward there and then it was Dylan cousins who was D2 so this was from a real game this happened I watched it and was incredibly disappointed the forward two well say he has the puck right now and he’s pushing

Into the Zone Dylan cousins is behind the play but because they’re told that D1 actually picks up the guy on the other side Dalene wanted to pick up this guy and have Dylan cousins pick up this guy now if you can see how like this is laid

Out you can see that the issue with this is Dylan cousins is behind the play Doan’s waving him over dalan is telling him get over to F2 and instead of being able to get to F2 Dylan cousins is get giv up a breakaway because because they’ve been

Told that this is how we’re defending the rush they aren’t always fully grasping the situation in instead just trying to play to the system and the system says doing picks up this F1 who’s coming into the zone so that they can’t make the pass across but in doing so they gave away a

Clear a clear-cut breakaway and we ended up dropping a goal on a breakaway and it’s like there it’s just not not it’s idiotic yeah it’s counterproductive right you don’t the situational awareness of like having a guy behind you it’s he’s not going to be able to get to the to

The forward entering the Zone yeah and it’s against the Instinct of how you play hockey right if you’re in the situation where it’s basically a two-on-one you obviously you’re trying to stop the passer so it’s not even inherently wrong but you more shift to the middle and you

Say at any moment I could approach you and stop your shot even though you know I’m mostly going to cut off an angle to a pass but you you have to play that middle ground you can’t just say here have a free Breakaway like the like they did otherwise

You’re not making the shooter think about what they’re doing like when they have too many options and you have the opportunity to both cut down their angle and cut down the pass yeah then it becomes harder then they take it either to the outside to take a shot which is easier for the

Goenda pass through you which isn’t a like 100% play exactly I mean you just want to take away at least half the net for the goal tender so he can focus on one thing and I mean just to see just you writing out that play right there just shows how like as

Andite it is I mean that makes no sense like and to have Dylan cousins like love I mean love Dylan cousins I don’t know if I want him chasing after a guy that’s gonna be going on a breakaway to be honest with you so um no I mean that’s

Interesting and I wonder why that’s something they haven’t addressed yet just because like you mentioned the way defense has been played in the NHL and how every other team’s been playing defense in the NHL consistently works why are we Reinventing the wheel here overall I mean like you said do it

Every once in a while that’s fine but to do it all the time I mean I don’t know yeah so that’s a good pickup I think to make it the way that you primarily counter the rush is no longer helpful once other teams have your playbook and they

Do so yeah well hopefully that’s something that they’ve work on uh during the star break I don’t think teams are allowed to practice though so I don’t know what the rules are yeah I know a lot of players go on vacation I don’t know I think maybe they get like two

Days before to start practicing right um if I recall um so I don’t know maybe there’s a maybe they can get that change in or they can figure it out maybe you know hopefully uh Donnie meatballs is watching the show right now and uh he’s like oh shoot maybe I’ll bring Sammy

Saucy mits onto the staff and can run our defense right now yeah I don’t think you’d want me running the defense but I wouldn’t say no to the position I mean who would it’s it’s every Fan’s dream to be associated with the performance of their team but that’s

Right until until it turns on you yeah until it’s until people are calling for who’s the defensive coach we need to get rid of that guy and then it’s me and I’m sad about that but you know it’s a kid who hasn’t even grad College he’s running def

Now so yeah appreciate you bringing that on Sam we’ll have to bring that on more to the show every week when you pick on stuff so yeah I appreciate it um so yeah if there was anything else do you have anything else to talk about on the show

At all uh no I mean we we went over the games that were played we went over some rumors around the league we talked about how how our defensive structure or how we how we defend on the rush we don’t have any games upcoming so you

Know I mean there’s going to be one game that’s we’ll be talking about because it will be during our next stream but I don’t think we need to really get into that because we’ll be talking about it live yeah oh you don’t want to talk

About the allar game at all go over the competition and skills I I don’t personally watch the All-Star Game do you no I don’t think I’ve watched the allstar game maybe five plus years maybe like high school I watched it but I haven’t watched it

Since so I’ll pass on that but yeah uh in the chat Mike is all for you being our defensive coach for the Sab so Sam put your application in I’m sure they’re accepting pretty soon so put your name out there and uh we’ll be good to go so

Yeah um next week I don’t know how much we’re going to be uh talking Savers wise we’ll have the game going on but we’re not going to really I doubt we’re going to have any out updates I’d be very surprised um so yeah so uh join us next

Week for maybe what’s going to be a solely Dallas star game where it’s just gonna be reactions to it um but yeah maybe maybe that’s that’s fun and unique it’s not something that we’ve done every week because normally when we have those Tuesday games we have something to talk

About other than the game so yeah I’ll probably just be this is GNA be me dur during next show oh yeah yeah I mean uh he should have played defense there he should have checked that guy not even looking at the camera so you can you can pay more

Attention to how they defend the rush that’ll that’s right that’s gonna be everyone’s homework next week is let’s watch him uh let’s watch the defensive scheme right there you know we’ll give Sam this Kudos so yeah um thank you everybody for joining the show if you

Have any topics that you want us to talk about next week uh leave that in the comments um and I’m sure we’ll one of will be able to hop on and check on um but besides that like I mentioned you know be sure to like And subscribe uh to

The channel Nickel City mafia um even though the bills season is over they’re still talking Bills football over there um I know they have the AFC suit going on too as well while our shows going on so hop on and watch them uh but besides that you know everybody hope you have a

Great week and we’ll see you next week for the Stars game bye

The 2023 / 2024 Buffalo Sabres travel to the west coast and get 2 out of 3 wins. We’ll talk about those 3 games, give you the 3 stars of the week and get into what’s ahead for the Sabres. Join the Sabres Edge for your weekly Sabre Fix.

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