Jeff Skinner gets going in Montreal, but his line still can’t

Jeff Skinner gets going in Montreal, but his line still can’t

Sabers back in the wind column thanks to Jeff Skinner the Habs killer coming up here in the lock on Sabers podcast we’ll talk about the game and a very interesting anniversary uh coming up here on the lockdown Savers Podcast your 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 lock on Sabers your first listen every day we’re free and available wherever you get your podcast including our YouTube channel be sure to check us out there part of the lockon podcast Network your team every day and today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more

Right now new customers get $150 in bonus Bets with any $5 bet that’s 150 bucks if your bet wins visit fanduel.com lockon to get started 3 to2 sabes over the Canadians they get a win on the road they are six- one now on the road in the calendar year of 2024 they’re four-

Seven at home so we’re right back to where we were last season where the Savers can play really well on the road and they can’t really play all that well at home don’t know what that is there are you know theories you can have about it we’ve got an interesting anniversary

Of course and we also have a fun anniversary two really three big hockey anniversaries uh today including the Miracle on Ice the brawl game and Pula buying the Buffalo Sabers all February 22nd so I got a little bit to say on all those and especially the brawl because

It almost made me sad thinking about the brawl this morning playing the Highlight back hearing the crowd but anyways we’ll get to that a little a little bit later on in today’s show plus stay tuned in the second segment because I’ve got some alarming stats of the day for you on the

Tage Thompson Jeff Skinner and Alex tuck line and how many goals they scored as a line last year versus how many goals they’ve scored as a line this year if you’re a part of our lockdown Sabers text line you already know that stat because I saw it and I jumped right in

And I threw it right in there for you so if you want to be first to stuff like that updates on the team and especially commentary during the game with me your stuff I want to hear it go to join sub.com lockon saers where you can sign

Up today before Friday’s game against uh Columbus so sabes beat the Canadians Montreal fans were actually I saw a little bit happy they are all in for mlin celebrini as the first overall pick and I don’t think I’m there for the Sabers I’m not I think they’re beyond

That they should be beyond that I don’t need to see them lose games to have an extra two and a half% chance at getting the number one overall pick um last night though the reason Montreal fans were a little bit happy is Montreal went below the Sabers in the standings so as

It stands today Montreal has the seventh best odds the Sabres have the eighth best odds that’s a difference of 0. five% and neither one of these teams are going to get any higher than the fifth best odds and in the sabers case they’re probably not going to get even into the

Top six so you’re not looking at a good chance or much room to fall anyway the only reason actually that it’s now the top five maybe for the Sabers and the Canadians and before was more the six Arizona’s lost 11 games in a row and they have thrust themselves back into

The into the tank picture but Savers are still in the middle there so they’re not really in it uh the game itself so no surprise how did I miss it on our parlay that you would have only heard about our text line that was priority for them um

I had Dylan cousins as the anytime goal guy I hit Sabers money line I hit under six and a half cousins had two shots at an empty net and chose not to shoot it he did draw a penalty on one of them so he still got uh to a benefit for the

Sabes but didn’t cash on that how did I miss on Jeff Skinner Jeff Skinner now here’s some stats for you on Skinner who scored a goal in this game it was the game tying goal to make it um two to2 uh when he did in the middle of the second

Period Skinner who got caught as a defenseman he was back skating and that’s not a of all the players on the team that you might think is least able to make a play in that spot it’s a three on two Montreal’s coming down and Skinner is

One of the defensemen and he’s the side that the Puck’s on so Joel Aria former saber Prospect what he tries to do is tow drag Skinner and Skinner makes a great defensive play one of the best defensive plays I’ve ever seen him make he follows armia to the middle he

Doesn’t he makes the perfect play stick out he gets it off of armia stick and it’s back the other way for a three on two with Thompson cousins and Skinner cousins gets the puck on the right wall he rips a shot the rebound comes out in front right where Skinner’s ready to

Gather it up and he rips it past Samuel monmo who was very strong on the night but not on this play Skinner puts it past him his 18th of the season and 16 goals in 17 games Skinner against Montreal as a member of the Buffalo Sabers that is pretty incredible and

It’s historically good against this specific opponent in fact Skinner in fact he was already this before the uh before the game he’s the all-time leader for the Buffalo Sabers in points per game against Montreal 1.76 this is a minimum of five games played by the way Skinner first off all

Time the most productive saber ever against Montreal per game Pat LaFontaine is second alltime goals for the Sabres against Montreal Skinner now is in a tie for fifth place with 16 goals but listen to how many fewer games he’s played than the guys above him Skinner 16 goals in

17 games Rick marttin above him at 21 goals in 39 games Mike Felino 22 goals in 71 games games Joe perau 23 goals and 83 games Andrew Chuck 39 goals and 79 games played Skinner on Pace if he were to play that many games up against Montreal uh different formatting

Different scheduling so I don’t really think he’ll have the chance to play that many um but he would obliterate all of those if he had more games against Montreal and maybe he still will so a really strong game from him uh did he get a star of the night Jeff Skinner did

Not uh the Montreal medium they went with two Canadians I guess that’s not that unfair because when you look at the game overall Sabers didn’t play that great kind of interesting right they’ve lost some games lately in particular you had the game against Anaheim on Monday where

You piled up shots you piled up chances breakaways odman rushes and you lost the hockey game you found a way to lose that game here’s one where Sabres did not play their best shot attempts in this game were 56 for Montreal at five on five 35 for Buffalo scoring chances were

Actually pretty even 17 for Buffalo 16 for Montreal um but on the overall this game was handled by the Canadians they had the puck for a lot of the night now it was an opposite type of game for the Sabers where they didn’t generate a lot

Of chances but when they did it was around the net they had a couple of breakaways they of course scored on the one with Alex tuck butka got stopped on another and actually got back checked on another um but tuck scored his short-handed so they had quality chances

In this one that ended up matching Montreal but I don’t have a too big a problem I guess with Montreal having two of the three stars because I did think they were the better team on the night but the benefit of having solid goal tending this year for the Sabres is you

Win games like that ukap peka Lucin awesome he was very strong 29 saves on 31 shots a couple of different quality scoring chances Montreal had even down the stretch Jake Evans had won in the third period where I thought for sure it was either going to find its way to the

Back of the net or it was going to be a juicy rebound out in front but uh Lucan in shot out on top of his crease made the save did not allow a rebound there was another one in the third period shot from the point by Montreal it’s

Deflected right in front the puck bounces and lukanin who was sliding to his right reaches back across with and flashes the glove no rebound there either lukanin was really good in this game bounced back immediately after his worst game of the season against Anaheim on Monday it’s fair to say right 15

Shots a goal out 11 four uh this was a really good bounceback for Lucan to to keep hold of the net going forward uh other things that we saw in this game Kell kle played over Ryan Johnson he only played 11 minutes I didn’t see anything impressive in fact the first

Montreal goal of the game by Arbor sheev always mispronounce that WiFi guy WiFi uh who was running around by the way giant hits on everybody the Sabers responded fine I think they didn’t go after him but when Michael mat hits Zack Benson from behind you got the retaliation by Jordan Greenway good on

Him you got a defend the 18-year-old there uh but anyways back to the first goal by sheev of Montreal that is a that is a play where CLE is allowing the puck to get by him because he’s only got one hand on the stick he’s not focused that’s just a

Focus play if he’s got two hands and his hard on his stick then that scoring chance never occurs and matell never takes a one- nothing lead it would have been out of the zone so one bad moment by Cay I didn’t really notice him otherwise I would get Ryan Johnson right

Back in there uh in the lineup on Friday against Columbus Dalene is getting played a ton because they don’t have a lot of guys to rely upon behind him the blue line is in pretty tough It’s kind of incredible that they’ve actually played as well as they have defensively

For missing they’re missing 50 minutes of ice time a night with Owen power out batia samelson out power at least is back skating hopefully he’s back by next week Dalene played 29 minutes in this game Yoki Haru was second with 2247 and nobody else played more than 18

Jacob Bryson Jacob Bryson was third on the depth chart in ice time how about that by the way the Sabers went out they paid Conor Clifton they paid Eric Johnson to maybe even play Above Yoki Haru in the lineup and especially Jacob Bryson and here’s a game in Montreal

It’s a tough one it’s a low-scoring game and who’s playing the most minutes the end of the night Yoki har you and Bryson more than Eric Johnson and Conor Clifton time out here when we come back it was a good night by the Tage Thompson line I’ve got some incredible numbers

Comparing last year to this year for the Tage line we’ll talk some about the brawl and maybe the miracle and Ice as well coming back here on the locked on Sabers podcast we are presented here on the show by indeed we’re driven by the search for

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Free Fire TV channels app the Sabers win 3 to2 over the Montreal Canadians you had two goals by members of the Tage Skinner and Tuck line now neither of them were at five on five so it kind of doesn’t count because when we talk line combinations we’re not

Talking about special teams Jeff Skinner scored his goal on the power play Alex tuck scored his goal short-handed so we were talking about those guys on the morning show in wgr me and Jeremy white on Thursday morning and he asked like how many how many fewer minutes have

They played together this year versus last year because all three have dealt with injuries Thompson missed time tuck missed a little bit of time Skinner missed a couple of games they’ve all missed time they’re been there’s been more jug juggling of the lines this year in general because the line hasn’t

Played as good hasn’t been scoring as much so all right I’m like let me look how many minutes did they play together last year how many minutes have they played together this year last year they were the line that played together the most and by a healthy margin that line Thompson tuck Skinner

At Five On Five played 579 minutes together last year 5 79 minutes of total ice time was spent with those three all on the ice at the same time this year that number is down to 176 minutes it there are 20 whatever games left that number will grow and

Might even get to like 300 minutes together but it’s going to be about half of what it was last year about half the minutes spent together last year versus this year again bunch of reasons more juggling of the lines injuries to all three of them but what has most what is most alarming

Is not just that they’re playing less together it’s how much less they’re scoring together last year those three together as a line when they were on the ice the Sabers scored 42 goals at five on five 42 goals this season when those three are on the ice together the sabes have scored seven

Goals 7 versus 42 last year maybe that number gets to 10 11 12 it’s going to be about a fourth of what it was last season and you could pile up the reasons you could pile up the ways to frame the disappointment that this season has been

One thing you could say is if I took a a time machine went back into no to August and did this show and told you hey this season when that Line’s on the ice they’re going to score seven goals this year nobody would have believed they would have made the playoffs I’m not

Saying it’s the sole reason it’s a big reason though that those three have regressed not just individually but as a line Don Granado talked about it last week that those three are still trying to find their chemistry right now I hope so because they’ve played

Together a lot and I don’t know how much more time you need to figure out chemistry than three guys that have the type of experience playing together that those three have it’s got to be better it’s got to be better in fact one of the most incredible things about this saber

Season last year by far that Tage Skinner Thompson line scored the most goals for the Sabers at five on five that line had more than anybody else this season the line that has scored the most goals with the Sabers the line that’s been out there for the most goals

Is Dylan cousins JJ petka and Jack Quinn a line the number one line on the saber season in terms of the volume of goals not even just per 60 Minutes not per game nothing total it’s a line that has Jack Quinn on it it’s only 10 that’s pretty embarrassing that shouldn’t

Happen now they’ve played together a a good amount I mean 113 minutes which is it’s not that far behind some of the other lines that have had all season to play together but it’s just kind of incredible to look at that a jack Quinn line is number one on the team this year

And the guy barely played but him cousins and pka of course were really strong together now one thing I should say in defense of Skinner and T talken Thompson is while the goals are not going in some of the advanced numbers show that it’s actually not that bad in

Fact some of the advanced numbers are even better this year um I’m not going to be the one to sit here and tell you that that should be taken literally that they’ve been better this year because of course they have not but last year expected goals four percentage for that line was

51.0% and this year that line when they are uh when they’re on the ice together is sitting at 53.9 92% now one thing though that you could look at why that’s happening that line the Thompson Skinner tuck line is doing a better job kind of like the team you might say they’re

Doing a better job of limiting the opponent’s chances but they’re not gaining as many as they did last year in fact last year man they were wild they were one of the wildest lines in hockey for the most chances in the league and also like the most chances given up like

They were a high event line last year they really led the charge on the team with that style of hockey and this year they are uh they’re much more towards the middle I would say of they’re not low event hockey but they’re not high event like they uh like they used to be

So that Line’s got to find figure it out because they need that line to be their they need that line to be their best scoring line let’s say it especially when Jack Quinn’s hurt they need T Thompson and Skinner to be strong for them um while the rest of the young guys

Figure it out that’s the veteran line that Line’s not young that the thing right like cousins gets a little bit of a pass because of how young he is and same with PKA pka’s been good anyway you know nobody needs to give him a pass in

The first place um and Quinn of course has been injured but same thing he’s very young also you know Benson you give a pass to because of the age there’s a lot of guys like that that line doesn’t get a pass what’s the average age of that line Alex tucks 27 Tage Thompson’s

26 and Jeff Skinner is 31 that’s a veteran line that has had the trouble they’ve had this year so they got to figure it out or Don Grado might break it up forever time out here when we come back the anniversary of the brawl game we’ll talk about it next here on the

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On Sabers podcast it is another win for the Savers three to2 and they hope to get another one against a very bad Blue Jackets team on Friday they’ve had a very up and down relationship with though uh this season so what is this anniversary it’s many things it’s the

Miracle on Ice 44th anniversary for that it’s the 17th anniversary of the Sabers Ottawa brawl game and it’s the 13th anniversary of pugula day the first press conference that Terry pugula held as owner of the Buffalo Sabers Miracle on nice I got a quick take on each of

The three start and maybe we’ll do a little bit more on this next time Miracle on Ice maybe my hottest take maybe my hottest take in any sport even maybe more so then I think Nick chub’s the greatest running back of all time that’s a real

One I am on record and I’m not the only one I kind of borrowed this take from Greg wasinski but it was because I agreed with it that the 1980 Miracle on Ice US Olympic team set USA Hockey back decades you know how big of a USA hockey

Fan I am I love international hockey I love American Hockey I love the moment I love the movie movie’s fine you it’s good little cheesy it’s a good movie it’s a great story it’s one of the most in fact I would say it’s the most iconic sport sports moment ever I’m a little

Biased because I’m a hockey fan and an international hockey fan so I would say that it’s the number one sports moment ever but I’m here to tell you there was a consequence of it that there was a deal with the devil that you had to sign the

Deal with the Devil is you get to win that and have an iconic alltime game alltime moment alltime call everything polit geopolitically every about it was unbelievable but the consequence is for the next 30 Years USA Hockey tried to replicate that in the movie now you know

How far should I go with this I don’t know that this line was actually said in real life but the the sentiment was in the movie The Line her Brook says is I’m not looking for the best players I’m looking for the right ones that goes

Against every fiber of my being as for what I believe in sports now I know it’s not everybody but it’s the kind of stuff like that that got USA Hockey to leave home a 40G goal scoring Phil kessle in favor of a fourth line Justin abator or

There were other great players that got uh left home that uh in the one Olympics for Brandon debinski because Brandon dubinsky was tough when he played Sydney Crosby just that sentiment the right players not the best one and I really think they kind of developed their

Hockey players that way for a long time go back and look at the American hockey players of the past they’re all kind of built like that aren’t they the Chelios of the world and the ma and the Keith kach Chucks uh Brad PA even maybe he’s not the perfect example of that but

There’s a lot of guys like that not everybody I know there’s a Brian rafalski you know hanging around there on some of those teams but you know I think that a lot of the the guys like Dean Lombardy is a guy that just oh the worst GM ever there are these guys that

Grew up and they were a kid when that happened and they let that sentiment be ingrained in them it’s how they went about hockey for their entire lives and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that now you’re starting to get people running these organizations and these teams that don’t remember the 1980 team

And oh look at that well USA Hockey the most Talent they’ve ever had they’re F they finally caught Canada in terms of just the talent pool the skill maybe I gone too far with it but I I uh not to tell you I hate the moment I don’t want

To hate on the moment too much it’s also the anniversary of the brawl listening back to the sabers Senator braw it is sad to me and it gets sadder every year where it’s emotional almost where you listen to that call and you listen to the noise in the

Building and it just makes you depressed because we are so far away from that it’s been 17 years since that game it’s one of the greatest nights in that Arena ever it might be the greatest night in that Arena ever it’s unbelievable we talk about it every year for a reason

Because we loved it and part of the reason we well like what do we miss we might miss the fighting like that because that doesn’t exist in today’s game anymore we miss Lindy right trying to climb over the bench to go go after Brian Murray we miss the Rivalry with

Ottawa where you had two teams that could hate each other that much that were so good we missed the talent right of course because the the quality of the product was so good but more than anything what I miss and what I bet most saber fans miss most is

That energy charge that was in that building that night it was nuts absolutely nuts and just to have 20% of that back would be unbelievable but we are so it feels like we are so far away from a crowd like that a game like that

A moment like that it’s it was it was amazing 17 years if you can find the game it’s in full I suggest watching the game in full because the game itself is awesome too the Sabers winning a shootout Drew Stafford had an awesome forehand backhand move and then Ryan

Miller robs Mike fiser with a glove to win it I just spoiled the whole thing it’s okay it happened 17 years ago uh I would def definitely recommend watching it finally it’s the 13th anniversary of Pula buying the team and you know you could you could go a lot of

Different ways here you could the reason for existence to win a Stanley Cup let me just say this before we wrap could you have imagined it going worse I don’t think it’s is it even possible for it to have gone worse I don’t think it is that that Day in 2011

It’s all about Hope and all about you know the big banner that they had at the thr game the next night of uh in Pula We Trust um all of that was about we’ve been hands we’ve been had our hands tied behind our backs because small Market

That’s not allowed to spend to the cap that loses guys like Drury and Brier and you know just isn’t like a big isn’t isn’t a real player in the game and then Terry Pula shows up and it’s okay here we go all the money all the big names

The players we’re going to get the coaches we want everything we want and we’re g to we’re going to win a cup right that’s what it was we’re finally going to win a cup this was the thing we’ve been missing and it really couldn’t have gone worse they haven’t made the

Playoffs in a season where pugula started the yearz owner and ended the year owner that’s it’s not all on him but you know when you’re the owner of the team most of it is so it sucks sucks that we’re uh 17 years removed from an incredible moment like the brawl game

And we’re 13 years into an ownership group that has yet to make the playoffs on their own stinks all right that’s going to do it for us today here on the locked on Sabers podcast and next up is Friday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets we’ll have more on that game for

You coming up on our show thanks everybody for listening to the lockon Savers podcast and they making us your first listen now if you’ve got an inkling for football there’s alsoe stuff there off his season check out the lock on Sports Today podcast the first ever National 247 streaming Channel on YouTube also

Available on Fire TV on the free Fire TV channel app talk to you tomorrow here in the lockdown SA

Noted Habs killer Jeff Skinner got back on the scoreboard Wednesday night, for his 16th goal in 17 games versus Montreal. Despite Skinner finding the back of the net, Sneaky Joe points out that the Skinner-Tage-Tuch line has seen an insane regression together since last season.

Plus, UPL has another strong night, AND it’s the anniversary of the Ottawa Brawl, the Miracle on Ice, and Pegula Day.

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