Paul, the Sabres are coming
off of a three to two shootout
loss in Minnesota last night,
but that wrapped up a 7.4 game
road trip and now they're on
A7 game point streak.
What is going right for
these Sabres right now?
It's amazing that they just
finished up 12 games in 22 days.
With with seven points in eight
games against tough teams,
we're not talking about slacking teams here.
You you went out and beat the number
one and two teams in the Western
Conference in their building and
still almost wound up winning all
four games because they played
well in the game and what was
amazing was they didn't wear down.
I figured by the end of this stretch they
would have worn down and they didn't.
They played really well against Minnesota.
It was an even game back and forth.
They never tired.
And it was a really good game.
And they were all good games.
I thought maybe in Saint Louis
they might be tiring a little bit.
Hmm.
It was really amazing to see what they
were able to accomplish out there.
Twitter was exploding a little
bit over Uka Pekka Luukkonen in
that shootout against the wild.
I mean, what do you say to that?
I mean, it's it's one bad
shootout. Well,
he stopped boldy three times point blank.
You know, in the third period he
made two great saves in overtime.
He makes the big save at the big time.
All right, so we had a bad shootout.
Nobody was madder than he was.
If you watched him walk down the hall
afterwards and he'll practice it.
He's 23 years old, he'll figure it out.
You know, breakaways right now,
for the most part, aren't his thing.
He gave one up to Connor at home,
I remember, where he kind of sprawled
and put himself out of the play.
But overall, I mean,
you can't criticize what this
kid has come in and done,
and they're playing a lot
of games in a lot of days.
Now that's finally easing back before
the All Star. Break right now.
But they they played a lot of hockey
in a very short amount of time.
Who really impressed you over this stretch?
Well, you know,
when Tage Thompson wasn't scoring goals,
he still was getting points.
He still was contributing.
And that's something Don Granado has
really talked to these guys about.
OK, you don't have your the game you want.
How are you going to contribute?
There are other ways you can contribute.
You're tired. OK, how are you going
to figure out how to win this game?
Because we're going to win this game anyway.
So we got to figure it out.
Type of thing, and that's what Thompson did.
The puck wasn't going in and that,
but he was getting assists.
He was finding passing lanes
to set up his line mates.
So he still was contributing a lot.
Now, the puck starting to
go in for him again, right?
She knew it would.
But those are the types of
things that they're looking for
when things aren't going well.
Things aren't going well for Quinn and
peterka at times as far as scoring,
all right? But they're still in the lineup.
They're still playing because
they're finding other ways to
contribute to the team.
Yeah, they're. Finding ways to get it done.
Meanwhile, Tage Thompson is the only
representative for the Sabres as of
now for the All Star game, so that's
a pretty big snub for Rasmus Dalene.
What do you think of that?
And just not having having so few
defensemen in the All Star game in the NHL?
It's just. Bonkers to me,
and they wonder why people
call it a garage lead right?
There are defensemen in
the National Hockey League.
It is a complete embarrassment
that the Atlantic Division team
does not have one defenseman,
and in the division is the guy who many
consider the second best defenseman
in the league right now and he's not
going to play in the All Star game.
I mean, if nothing else,
make a position for defensemen.
I understand when fans vote,
which they voted for two guys,
they're going to vote for forwards.
So then yeah.
And I get that.
But make sure there's a spot on each team.
So there's a defenseman out there.
What if Dalene keeps going the way
he's going or even gets better
and wins the Norris Trophy?
Ohh, Congrats, Congrats NHL.
The Norris Trophy winners
not near All Star game.
It just makes no sense at all.
It's it really doesn't look great.
But he did say, you know, well,
I can at least go somewhere
warm or go on a vacation. On
vacation. And I'm sure it's
probably not to Alaska.
So win, win for Dolly no
matter what with this team.
Moving forward, is there any kind of guy,
you've talked so much before about how
Kevin Adams is only going to trade for a
certain type of player at a certain age?
Timo Meyer, big bodied, it is 26 years old.
Is that something that the Sabres should
be exploring with the San Jose Sharks?
Yeah. And they've
talked. You know, they've they've.
All right. What's it going to cost?
Type of talk, you know?
But that's exactly the type of
guy that he would be looking for.
26 years old, a guy who could score goals.
He scored 35.
Last year 28 can play at both
ends of the ice has size.
That's the type of guy you
give up an asset for.
Not the guy who Skinner's age who maybe
can help you this year make the playoffs.
Maya can help you this year and he can
help you when you're going to be contending
for the Stanley Cup down the road.
He's still going to be around and
still be effective type of guy.
Now yeah it's going to cost you
probably eight $9 million a year.
Somebody asked me if the if
they locker room would be upset
about that not this locker room.
They don't care, they want to.
Different. It's different now.
Yeah.
So if you gotta give up a
guy like Jack Quinn,
and I'm not down on Jack when that's
actually a compliment to him, right,
that a A-Team would be interested in.
So you've got so many prospects right now.
Or if you gotta give up maybe one of
your #1 picks that you picked last year,
who many people think the Sabres
really made out well there.
If he got to give up an asset,
maybe a first or a second round pick,
not both, but one or the other,
that's the that's when you give up the asset,
because you're still, you're pretty sure.
Wind is going to be a good player,
but he's not there yet.
You know what you're getting in Meyer,
right? You know exactly what you're getting.
And meanwhile the Saber is moving
forward again, a lot of games
in a very short amount of time.
Now they only have one more game
ahead of the All Star break.
How is this team going to
manage this change of pace?
I mean, they've hardly been able
to get any practices in or how
are they able to manage that?
Yeah, they're finally going to
practice for two days, play a game,
and then they're going to go away
because they've got the All Star.
Break and then their by week so
that they have don't have another
game till I believe the 11th. Wow.
Yeah so other teams around them are
going to have a chance to maybe catch
up you know so a lot of the progress
you've made you're going to redo
again maybe depending on how they
play and two we know how they play
when they play a lot of games how are
they going to be when they get back
when they've hardly played at all you
know so and and been on vacation and
and that type of thing so that's a
worry too is all right how long will
it take them to get their game back
when they've been gone for so long.
Right. But when you look at the standings,
they are right in the
thick of this playoff hunt.
This is not something that we've
talked about for quite a while
in Buffalo with this hockey team.
And do you think that they really
can go the distance and I mean at
least be playing competitive games in
April and maybe make the postseason?
Well,
they're definitely a good team.
They've shown us that.
There's no question about that.
I was talking about at
the beginning of the year,
them they needed improvement.
They need 90 points or better.
They're on that. Space, yeah,
right now about going over 90 points.
Last year it took 100 points
to get in the playoffs.
They're not on that pace yet,
but that's high.
It usually doesn't take 100 points to get in,
so you can look at it that way too.
The Caps might be a better their
7th place because they're even
with the Penguins and games
and they're done playing them.
But the caps,
they still have games in hand and they
still play the capitals two more times,
so they might be looking more at
the capitals than the Penguins.
Right now
that's definitely a possibility
and it's crazy that you know,
they're over under and points for the
beginning of the season was 78 1/2.
I think they're going to blow by that.
Why didn't you tell me? I would have gone on
that one, alright. Paul Hamilton,
thank you so much. Take care, guys.