Peyton Krebs not taking full advantage of opportunity

Peyton Krebs not taking full advantage of opportunity

Sabers win to wrap up their West Coast road trip but the road trip’s still a failure we’ll talk about it I’ve got some thoughts on Payton Krebs and a good question from our listeners that I want to get you coming up here on the lock on Sabers 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 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 sneaky Joe dbsi here on a show today that is presented by Game Time download the game

Time app create an account use the code locked on so you can get your $20 off your first purchase download game time today the Sabers win in out west in the big Pringle in Calgary Sabres beat the Flames 4 to one we’ll talk a little bit

About the game and more so the road trip in general from Detroit out west that ended in Calgary not a great trip and the Savers are pretty much dead when it comes to this playoffs playoff race as they return home I’ve got some thoughts on pton Krebs that was a pton Krebs

Stand at one point I’ve really wanted to see this guy get an opportunity and I am first in line to raise my hand and say I am utterly disappointed in what we’ve seen from Krebs since the Casey middlest stat trade some numbers we’ll look at that coming up in the

Second segment of today’s show and then an interesting question that we’ve been tossing around in our lockon saers text line which by the way if you are not a member of you can sign up go to join sub text.com lockon saers you hit the button there text back and forth with us where

Today you could have been interacting on a question of who if you could choose one player would you like to take a giant leap next season Zack Benson or Owen power lot of good answers on that a good debate that we’ve been having raging in the chat

That I want to read some answers of uh coming up on today’s show as well if you want to follow me on Twitter at sney Joe Sports the podcast account is locked ons saers be sure to check us out on our YouTube channel as well if you’re

Someone that likes to listen to the show and you want to watch it once in a while YouTube Type in locked on Sabers you’ll find us right there we’ll start with last night’s game four to one Sabres over the flames and they played fine they played pretty good the Flames were

Coming off a back to back they were in Vancouver the night before so it was a game where I thought they should have been the better team but okay you did what you should uh no criticism from me on that front obviously the Sabers actually faced a really strong gending

Effort in this game and still found a way to win Dustin wolf who going into the year has been kind of co- mentioned with uh Devin Levi as the best goalie Prospect in the world or at least one of the best goalie prospects in the world

Was in net wolf a little bigger than Levi but also one of these smaller goenda bles between Dustin wolf and Levi and he’s finally getting a little bit of a crack here in the NHL uh he’s now played nine starts uh 900 sa percentage so decent numbers and he thought I

Thought he was really good I thought he bailed the Flames out a bunch of times in that game against the Sabers um the Sabres had 22 uh scoring chances on the Night 10 high danger chances which was better than the Flames um expected goals four was 52% for the Sabers so again

Slightly the better team wolf was very strong in net Lucan in matched him though Lucan in I mean at one point a big Breakaway save a couple of other odd man rushes that he turned away so overall thought it was a strong effort from the Sabers nothing crazy nothing

All that bad uh the Payton or the Tage Thompson Alex tuck JJ PKA line strikes again that line has been so good since they’ve been put together I love how the speed of petka and Tuck open things up for Tage Thompson this was another game where I saw that happening Tage ends up

With a goal and an assist the goal was on an empty Netter he made a nice turnover at Center Ice to put it in the pka play is Thompson and Tuck I mean tuck is in on the four check he’s such a good four Checker turns it over it goes

To Thompson behind the net and he’s able to find petka out at Center and the one thing we know about petka is he is a good finisher and that’s why he’s got four goals so he’s been on that line he’s got two line mates that are getting

Him s a bunch of chances now on a night toight basis um three goals excuse me on that line but he is finding a way to score and I would keep that line together basically through the end of the season it actually made me wonder if

PKA and Tage is a combination that they should stick with for a while here I like the speed Dynamic of PKA with him and Tuck has that too but I also next year am not going to want to see them split up petka and Jack

Quinn so you know I i’ hesitate to say they shouldn’t do cousins Quinn and petka when everybody’s back healthy eventually but I wonder about Tage with petka and Quinn as a line combination in the future especially when every single time they have put Alex tuck and Dylan cousins together that combination has

Worked so maybe there’s a future that as Tage filling that cousins spot between uh between petka and Quinn and then you let cousins and Tuck cook on a on a amazing two-way line if cousins can keep growing in that area maybe a pair Benson with him in the future find someone else

Um it just in combinations that I was thinking about last night during this game um Sabres did not give up a goal five on five thought defensively they were pretty strong on the night ukap peka Lucan made one of the nicer passes assist you will see from a

Goenda blocker save and then a teammate picked it up and shot it down into the empty net this was Lucan in almost faking out the Flames I think making them think and making me think he was going to shoot the puck down into the empty net and instead goes behind the

Back behind his own net to Conor Clifton and Clifton uh fires it from his own end all the way down into the empty n so Lucan gets his first assists of the season um going all the way back to the beginning Payton Krebs opened the scoring for the

Sabes I want to talk about Krebs when we come back I he scored last night but there’s not been much of that for him we’ll talk about Krebs and his role post middle stat trade when we come back here on the lock on Sabers podcast we are

Presented by the game time app we’ve got a home stand coming up a lot of opportunities to go down to the arena and listen tickets aren’t that expensive when the team isn’t this good so you got a pretty you know reasonable opportunity I think to go check out some hockey at

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The locked on Sabers podcast you’re watching Fox Sports or uh ESPN on your TV all day got to turn down the volume with all that shouting make the switch to locked on sports today a free 24/7 Sports streaming channel for you every day bringing the biggest stories without

All that screaming locked on sports today can’t miss analysis opinions news streaming 247 on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV channels app part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day Sabers win 4 to one over the Calgary Flames Payton Krebs opened the

Scoring going back home I think he I thought I saw on the broadcast that he had some family in town for that Western Hockey guy born in Calgary uh played not too far away from there with the coy ice funny thing by the way I did see this on

Twitter that uh the sports n broadcast um Sports not should be making mistakes like this you’re from Canada you should know this someone said and they were maybe joking so I shouldn’t criticize him too much that well this is about as close as it gets for a Dylan cousins

Home game uh Calgary to White Horse Yukon is a 23-hour Drive I mean white horse is like the Moon it is so far away from everything so Dylan cousins doesn’t really have home games this was a home game for Payton Krebs uh with going back home and he open the scoring nice

Decisive shot low glove in a way beats Dustin wolf he was coming in with speed the type of goal that I’d love to look watch all the time uh from Payton Krebs but he really last night was standing and even last night like there wasn’t

Much after that goal that he scored so I know I picked a weird day to kind of you know take a shot at him here but I have not been impressed I really have not been impressed by pton krebs’s game since the Sabres traded Casey midad I

Mean I said it all year long others have said it too that it’s hard to judge pton Krebs and whether or not he has the chops to be an offensive playmaker in the NHL when he never gets to play with good offensive Talent always playing with Kyle poso and zus Genson well okay

Kid here’s your shot middle stat out the door he’s gone to Colorado and he’s been playing with before the last two games he was getting minutes with JJ petka he got his minutes with Zack Benson he’s played pretty primarily I think since that Nashville game uh earlier in the

Month he’s been playing with Jeff Skinner a lot and Skinner can finish and what has it resulted in one goal and two assists in nine games that’s not good enough that’s not that’s not replacing what Casey midat was doing in that role and I was hopeful that there that was in there

That this player stylistically resembles middle stat he is a pass first mentality great playmaker good vision and I do think Krebs has good Vision but something’s not clicking I don’t know if the game is too quick for him um I don’t know if he is lacking so much far behind

Middle stat as a scorer that Defenders just give him zero respect when it comes to the shot middle stat defend Defenders had to start respecting him a little bit more over the years because he was a decent finisher uh maybe Krabs is just a a zero on that front or maybe a one

Because he did score last night so I don’t really know what it is but I’m not noticing him I’m not and I’m looking for him I’m not noticing these uh Stellar offensive plays that you would have thought were in there for Vegas’s number one prospect that was a mid first round

Pick and if you go all the way back to krebs’s draft year Talent wasn’t even what knocked him down to the middle of that first round in 2019 where he went 17th overall and Achilles injury is why he not got knocked down if he didn’t have an Achilles injury I mean if I’m

I’m really reaching back to remember this it’s been five years but feel like I remembering him being talked about as a top 10 pick the talent was always there it’s just not realizing itself though even now when he’s getting some better line mates one thing I will say

In cbs’ defense and it’s a small thing and it’s not to me powerful enough to outweigh my disappointment he’s not playing a lot of minutes so he is getting better teammates more offensive teammates he’s not playing a lot of minutes I mean it was 11 minutes and 30

Seconds last night he is not played 16 minutes of ice time since the middle stat trade in fact while I’m looking at his game log he’s only played 16 minutes of ice time well I guess earlier in the year he was doing it a little bit more

But it’s been a while he hasn’t done it since December TW uh 16th uh that he’s played and I picked a weird Benchmark there um he’s just not playing a lot he doesn’t get power play minutes a lot um so you know I don’t know that he’s

Really earned it I just wanted to see him get a shot but okay here’s his shot part of my theory on Krebs was you can’t know that you can’t know that he’s not a good offensive player because you haven’t seen him with good linemates well now you could say it more and more

Every game that passes it’s only nine games so so far so you know you’re going to want a bigger sample size than that and I thought Paul Hamilton made a good point at wgr on Monday morning when I asked him about this which was listen as disappointing as he’s been it’s hard to

Write off a 23-year-old center that is a skilled player and was a high draft pick when we have seen Casey midd get Ren off at 23 years old and he turned into a pretty solid player I mean I don’t think Thompson’s as good a comparison as

Middle stat is but same thing with him you wrote him off at 23 I did and he turned into a great player it’s more middle stat though if you gave middle stat if we all watched middle stat go from underdeveloped immature bodied off the puck fanned on it all the time young

Player in the NHL taxi Squad right middle stat was on Ralph Krueger’s taxi Squad he wasn’t even on the regular lineup during the covid season he went from that to a player that was good enough to get them Bo Byam in a trade and by the way is now about a point per

Game player in Colorado so he matured maybe Krebs can do the same thing that that’s the best I can do though now because I can’t sit here anymore and tell you well you can’t tell me he’s not a good offensive player I mean he’s out there with Jeff Skinner

You got somebody you got a guy that even as a in a down year Jeff Skinner is still right up there at the top of the team and goals for 24 like you’ve got a guy that could put the puck in the back of the net and it’s still not happening

For you so that makes me wonder about the off season a lot and we’ll talk about this more once the season is over but Krebs has got 10 games here this is an audition for him show the team show the organization that you can be the

Third line Center you could be the next man up behind cousins and Tage because if the next 10 games look like the last nine games then I got news for you we’re going to be talking a lot about third line Center this summer and I’m going to

Be predicting that the sabes will do something about it not just that it’s a good idea but I would bet the Sabers will do something Krabs maybe has a chance here to stop that but he’s got to he’s got to start putting up some production he’s got to start either

Putting the puck in the back of the net and being a more of a shot first guy or he’s got to be the player that everyone thought he could be when he was drafted which is that stud level playmaker something’s got to give in the final 10

Games for pton Krebs when we come back little bit more about next year question that we were asking in our group chat earlier uh for our subtext Benson or power if you could pick one to have a massive breakout next season who would you pick that’s coming up here on the

Locked on Sabers podcast we are presented by sleeper it is nearing the end of the season standing don’t look good it’s a 2.5% chance for Buffalo to make the playoffs but I want to remind you that you can win big by playing daily fantasy hockey on sleeper the official daily

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Locked on NHL you’ll get up to a $100 match on your first deposit terms of conditions apply it’s code lock on NHL see sleepers terms of used for details and locational availability final segment here in the lock on Sabers podcast the Sabers sit six points out of a playoff spot

Washington and Detroit on Tuesday night so they very easily could be eight points out they do have two games left against the capitals so in that way I guess you might be rooting for Washington to get a point uh or to get two points against Detroit because the

Neers make up their own ground but I’m just I’m not spending time thinking about the playoffs anymore they had their chance I got hyped for their couple of head-to-heads against the Islanders and the Red Wings and then they were live going into the West Coast road trip but it’s dead 2.5% when your

Odds are lower to make the playoffs than to get the number one overall pick then I’m considering that dead so I don’t think these are going to be interesting home games I’ve got a subject matter I want to talk about on tomorrow show though about about how ugly it might get

In that Arena down the stretch here because there is an aura of this fan player disconnect that has been out there on social media and like Alex tuck talked about it a little bit on 32 thoughts again last week we’ve had other players talk about it we’ll talk about

That in our next show that’s for next show interesting question that we were talking about in our lock on Sabers text line if you are not a uh sorty you can sign up go to uh join sub.com lockon saers we asked next year you can have one player have a major breakout one

Player will have a major breakout of two names who would you pick Owen power or Zack Benson the reason I picked those two they’re different positions and they are the two guys on the team right now that to me have the highest ceilings and have also yet to break out like I wasn’t

Going to pick Tage Thompson or Dylan cousins because well they’ve already broken out I mean they you want them to take a big jump next year but we’ve already seen what the jump looks like so you know petka same thing like we’ve kind of seen the jump he’s already taken

A somewhat jump power there should be a massive leap still to come Benson there should also still be a massive leap still to come so who would you pick couple of good answers that I want to read through uh from our uh Tex line start from one texter I’m going to say

Power but I don’t feel especially confident in that answer the reason I’d say power is I’m hoping and praying cousins Thompsons and friends return to form and then a giant leap from Benson would be half necessary half is necessary if those guys don’t return to form good grief they will need Benson to

Be absolutely legit 60 point Benson season would be profoundly impactful but maybe somehow power takes a giant leap for saber kind and then their top 4D is set for the next 10 years this is good reasoning I like this answer power in my opinion also has a

Higher ceiling for his next step than Benson might Benson I think right there will be some Middle Ground there will be all right this year he was a good two-way player and maybe and he’s going to have about 30 points but maybe there he could double that 60 point season a

Little faster little stronger but Power I mean what’s the leap look like for power the P the power leap might be he’s one of the best young defensemen in hockey and that could happen as soon as next year so that’s to me why this is a good debate and the the one listener

This one listener puts a voice to that uh another answer from this uh if you’re asking who I want to take a step forward it has to be power while I know our year has been plagued by lackluster offense I think you could live with Benson coming

Back and Performing the exact same way as this year keep in mind out of all of our prospects he’s 18 years old you have depth offensively I think power needs to have a huge year an elite top four of Dalene Sammy Bo and power would feed Generations another good answer this is

Another Power answer um I would not the only thing I would pick apart in this answer is I don’t think we would all take Benson being the exact same next year we like what Benson’s doing at 18 but you’re going to want to see us step you’re gonna want to see more offense

Right you’re gonna want to see more offense from Zack Benson uh in year number two even if it’s only like you know 50 points um I think you’re GNA want to see that and then finally uh another answer for power I should find a Benson answer but some of these were

Good reasonings for power NHL defenseman usually take longer to develop he’s taking a step back this year as he’s learned more aspects of the game the NHL level having Dalene as potential captain and bym on the team will give power two great defensemen to watch especially with quick breakouts and going to the

Net I believe Benson’s biggest leap will come in two years when he develops physically as he’s only 18 he’s got the hockey IQ and the playmaking skills but still needs to win pucks or be able to work the boards better and that will come when he’s built bigger and tougher

Uh another good answer uh that said power let me find a Benson answer uh this one’s a little short and sweet but easy Benson if he can keep if he could put on muscle alone that would be the biggest leap to help win battles along the boards by the way that’s it was

Multiple times I heard it talked about Benson and the boards like he does pretty well for his size and I think he wins more board battles than you think I mean if he puts on the muscle like he will I mean he could be a dominant

Player on the walls like that even at his size um so I guess I get it but I I don’t think Benson is bad at that like middle stat when he showed up I just mentioned it we talking about KBS middle stack got bodied off the puck easier

Than any player I’ve ever seen when he first entered the NHL like he couldn’t hang on to it Benson will fight Benson will fight for it he will not give it up so easily even now he’ll be on the ice on one knee and he will still be taking

The Cross check and fighting off Defenders to try to pin it there and wheel it to somebody else so yeah vson can grow a lot on the wall like that but I don’t think he’s at a bad starting point I think he’s already decent uh at

Some of those battles um see if I find one more Benson answer um let’s see here I guess you know there were a lot of powers I love Benson’s work ethic on the ice if that is also his approach off the ice I’d expect a big jump uh from Benson so this

Is someone saying it thinks it’s Benson more likely my answer I might say Benson honestly so the reason why is some of the points that I’ll steal from some of our listeners I mean one about power and how it could take time for young defensemen to kind of grow into their games

Especially power pow in the NHL and got drafted first overall not because of his blazing speed not because of his Dynamic offensive ability not because of his bone crushing hits remember he was already talked about in Michigan as someone that didn’t do that he got drafted first because of his mental G

Game the control that he can kind of just smother the other team out on the ice you can’t take it from him he’s always going to make the right play that type of mindset that is a more of a mental ability and that is something that might

Take a couple of years for him to develop and I think it has taken him a couple of years to develop so I think power is going to be that type of guy where he won’t be at his best until he’s he’s fully matured and you’re not going

To get a lot of flashes in between because he’s not a very flashy player so because of that I do have confidence power will eventually get there it might just be a little slow Benson on a team that can’t score goals and to me need someone to develop into

Their best offensive player because I now have serious questions that Tage Thompson could be the best offensive player on a legit Stanley Cup Contender I think Benson has the ability to be the saber’s best offensive player like if you told me in five years who would you like to be their best

Offensive player I’d say Benson because I think his ceiling sky the limit like sky the limit 90 to 100 points potentially uh for Benson maybe even higher than that but I don’t know how crazy I really want to get here but the fact that he’s already in the NHL that

Everyone’s gotten ranked as one of the best prospects in the world I think I need to consider that a possibility for him but for him to get to that I’m I’m gonna take a bit of a futuristic approach here for him to get to that 100 Point ceiling if that is in

There if there is a 100 Point ceiling in there for Zack Benson then you’re gonna need to see some signs next year he’s gonna have to take a step and a big step like I am talking double his point total I am talking 60 65 points for Zack

Benson next season Zack Benson I talked about earlier that top six if Skinner is going to into his 30s take on a little bit more of a diminished role more of a secondary score on a on a third scoring line playing more like 15 minutes a night that’s GNA be Jeff

Skinner in his next phase of his career that’s the spot that someone could earn a top six role what I’d like to see next year is Zack Benson to grab hold of a top six role like that and run with it go play with Dylan cousins on a line and

Put up 25 goals and 40 assists that to me is a the type of Step that I want to see from Zack Benson because at 19 years old if he could do that then we are still I think realistically wondering if the 100 Point ceiling is still there if

He gets to 65 60 65 point player as a 19-year-old then I think the possibility even being a 100 Point guy in his future is still very much alive so because of that I think I’d pick benenson I would pick Benson because I think I’ve got the

Be I could have Dalene could can absolutely be the best defenseman on a Stanley Cup Contender I don’t know if I’ve got the answer at forward and I’m really hoping Zack Benson can become that answer good answers on this if you want to tweet me uh you can do that at

Lockdown saers um and I got to pull up that we can uh vote on uh as well if you think it’s an interesting question tomorrow on the show I mentioned I want to talk a little bit about some of the social media dialect that we’ve had on

Monday about the fans and the team and the disconnect there and especially now that we have a home stand coming up where they’re pretty much out of play and maybe it ugly in that building if they don’t next Sabers and Senators on Wednesday is our next game we’ll talk a little bit

More about that tomorrow but I want to talk more about that conversation next time so thanks everybody for listening and we’ll talk to you tomorrow lock Sabers podcast part of lockon podcast Network your team every day

The Sabres got the win in Calgary, and Peyton Krebs found the back of the net in his hometown, but it doesn’t mean Sneaky Joe believes Krebs has been taking advantage of his opportunity post-Mittelstadt.

Plus, who would you rather take a giant step next season? Zach Benson or Owen Power?

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