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Ep. 12 - Jake in a Fire Wagon
72 Plays2 years ago
Welcome to episode 12! Jake and Tom are joined with guest Dana for a great conversation about the first three games of the Sabres season and a in depth look into the Bills as they enter Week 7. Give us a like!
3 buds. 2 teams. 1 city - The "Let's Go Buffalo" Podcast. Your new favorite podcast for all things Sabres and Bills. Our mission is to be your guide through the ups and the downs of being a Buffalo Sports fan. We are not members of the media nor are we experts - we’re just 3 friends who love our hometown teams and want to bring you along for the ride. This podcast will be for both veteran and newly ordained fans. We’ll have in depth conversation and debate with a few “newbie” questions sprinkled in to keep everyone afloat. Thanks for being here!
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:10
Speaker
You're listening to the Let's Go Buffalo Podcast, your new favorite podcast for everything, bills and sabers.
00:00:23
Speaker
What's going on, everybody? You're listening to the Let's Go Buffalo podcast, your new favorite podcast for all things Bills and Sabres. Now you're going to notice something different about our intro here. I'm not Nigel, but today we're joined by a very special guest, our friend Dana. Dana Billings, welcome.
00:00:42
Speaker
So much guys, and as you will hear, I'm also not Nigel, but thanks so much for having me on. It's true. We're all going to do our best though. And out there over there is Tom. Tom, how are you doing today, pal? I'm good, boys. It's been a week. It's been some travel for a lot of us, for Dana and I. And yeah, just a lot of things going on, but I'm excited. It's going to be a good hang. This was a busy day at school for me, but I was looking forward to sitting down and chilling and hanging out. So I'm excited.
00:01:08
Speaker
Yeah, this is the best way to
Social Media Reminders
00:01:10
Speaker
end my work day. I'll say that. Right. Well, hey, before we get into it, quick reminder to follow our social media accounts. It's at Let's Go Buff Pod with two Fs on Instagram and X. And yeah, let's get into it here, boys. Are you ready to crack a beer? Let's do it. All right. Ready? I'm going to count down in three, two, one.
00:01:35
Speaker
And Dana as our guest. Whoa. Jinx. Tom Jinx, yeah. You want me to speak? Is that what you're saying? About this beer
Beer Talk
00:01:46
Speaker
here? I do. Yeah. Tell us about it. What are you drinking? What do you like about it?
00:01:51
Speaker
Yeah, so this is the IPA from Cigar City Brewing. It's called Hialye. It's from Tampa, Florida. I had it a couple of years back and enjoyed it. And it's pretty clean, not super hazy, easy drinking, but still has a bunch of flavor. Yeah, that's about it. Excellent. Yeah, I like that brewery a lot. They're good.
00:02:15
Speaker
Tom, how about you? What's up? I I have from notch brewing left of the dial IPA. It's another Vermont beer, if anybody's surprised. So it's not something new. I haven't had it yet. So I'm very excited. I like it. I like it. The notch is like a hiking area. And yes, mug there is not is a big touristy section of Vermont out in the western side of the state. But but yeah, if anybody is a skier, they will recognize smugglers notch.
00:02:44
Speaker
Nice. Nice. I was a snowboarder back in the day, but I haven't done it in years. Good stuff. Good stuff. I have enough to start relearning. You know, I grew up skiing and my brothers and I were taught by my parents and that was what it was. And I was like, man, I have fun when I go, but I don't want to be a beginner anymore because it's too expensive. I want to have fun and I don't feel like getting beat up, but it's always been intriguing.
00:03:13
Speaker
It's fun, it's a fun sport.
00:03:15
Speaker
What do you drink, buddy? All right, boys. I got 10 days of perfect tunes from a local brewery in my town. It's called Union Street Brewing. Tom, you've been there multiple times. I wanted to shout them out. They brew really good beer. They just opened over the summer. I'm a big fan. Shout out to them. It's a German-style Pilsner. Been real into the German-style beers as the weather turns crisp. That's what I've been
00:03:45
Speaker
Hey, shout out Union Street Brewing. We would love to do a live podcast from your brewery, so. Absolutely. You can pay us in like one pint. We'll even pay for it. Just let us sit there and bask in it. So what are we talking about today, Jake? What's on the docket for us?
Buffalo Sabres Recent Games Recap
00:04:06
Speaker
Well, I wanted to throw it back to Dana's beer there being from Tampa and saying a giant suck it to everyone in the Tampa community after the savers beat the lightning last night. Let's go. So yeah, so we're going to open up with a little talk on the savers here, do a little recap of the first couple of games, talk about some trends. I heard there's rumor that there might be a couple of newbie cues coming my way. So I'll try to tackle those without Nigel.
00:04:32
Speaker
And yeah, we'll get into the schedule, road ahead type thing. Yeah, that sounds good. Off the rip. So the Sabres have played three games. They played last Thursday, lost to the Rangers, 5-1. They played Saturday, lost to the Islanders, 3-2. And then just last night, so Tuesday night.
00:04:51
Speaker
They won against the Lightning 3-2 in overtime. Fun fact, it was the first overtime win of the season for the NHL in general. So that's kind of crazy. Season's been going on for a week. Yeah. You'd expect at least a couple more to go to OT. So question about that game, was it a true overtime win or did it get to shootout?
00:05:13
Speaker
It was true over time win. I don't think Tampa touched the puck once during overtime. I think Savers just controlled it for two and a half minutes and eventually put it to bed. It was troubling that the game went to overtime. Tampa tied it up with
00:05:29
Speaker
six seconds left or something like that. Oh, no, no, no. And before that, I really did think the Sabres were playing pretty well defensively to to limit opportunities that Tampa was throwing on them in the third period to try to tie the game up. And that's something I was going to bring up during trends. This is a good time to do it. That's something they need to do this season is close out close games when they're up by a goal up by two goals. There was
00:05:59
Speaker
way too many times last year, way too many times that they just couldn't hang on to a lead during the last minute of the play. Play to the whistle, have that killer mindset and shut down a team like that and eliminate them from getting a freebie point off of you at home, a team that you're going to be battling for in a playoff race.
00:06:21
Speaker
Little disappointing on that, but again, a lot happier after Dylan Cousins sank the overtime winner. Coming out with a win is a better way to end that game than the opposite. 100%. Yeah.
00:06:36
Speaker
You're here for those hard-hitting journalism of you better win. It's better to win than better to lose, huh? That's pretty good. You make a great point. You make a great point. Oh, man. You keep going before I get off rail here. Keep going. Sophisticated or not, you're making good points. No, so I just wanted to talk about some of the things that I saw in the first couple of games for the season.
Sabres' Challenges and Performances
00:06:59
Speaker
Look, they're one and two. It's not necessarily the start that I think a lot of Sabres fans wanted to see. I think they wanted to see him come out swinging. And that just didn't happen. They came out against a really deep and good Rangers team and fell a little flat. It was their home opener, Buffalo. And I think the pressure that they were putting on themselves was just sky high. And we talked about with the Bills before, what was that saying?
00:07:28
Speaker
Expect minus expectation equals reality. Expectations minus reality equals disappointment.
00:07:36
Speaker
Well, there was a lot. Yeah, thank you, Bruce. There was a lot of disappointment after the first game. And I think expectations were just really high from the fans and from the team themselves. So they looked a little flat. They didn't look comfortable. They didn't look like the team that played all last year. And it was evident. They didn't play well. They deserved to lose. The Rangers are a fast and exciting and lethal team. And they proved it.
00:08:06
Speaker
And then a tough opponent in New York Islanders, the following game. And again, they looked a little bit more comfortable. Things started to come together a little bit more. But that team just stifles opportunities and has an excellent goaltender to bail them out.
00:08:25
Speaker
just didn't come up. Losing two games in a row in the NHL is not great, but it's not the end of the world. Where you start to show concern is when you start losing three in a row and repeating that throughout the year. And look, Buffalo Bounce back. They had a great game last night against Tampa, I thought.
00:08:44
Speaker
had a lot more opportunities, took advantage of a team without their starting netminder, and got two points
Team Dynamics Discussion
00:08:50
Speaker
in the standings. And that's really what matters at this point. Now it's about stringing a couple games together like that, where you can look back and feel good about it despite the 0 and 2 start.
00:09:02
Speaker
So not exactly like 3-0, but it's trending in the right direction. I wanted to ask you about those three opponents that they first started with, though, because I am a hockey noob. Those three teams, where are they in terms of skill level?
00:09:22
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Well, I'll go one by one. Rangers are a deep, skilled, talented team with an excellent goalie and excellent defense. So they are a clear playoff team in my eyes. They will make the playoffs without much trouble and will look to make some noise in the playoffs. The Islanders, I think, could be a bubble team depending on how their stars play and how much their goaltending bails them out. And then the Lightning obviously have been
00:09:52
Speaker
you know, the class of the NHL for the last many years. They are without their starting net minder, who is his name is Andre Vasilevsky. And he's he's the best goal in the NHL for my money. So they're without him to start the year. However, they still have Hall of Fame killer talent and are a team that that don't bet against the lightning is the motto I go with all the time.
00:10:20
Speaker
And so yeah, they're, they're tricky. They're tricky team. One more time. Did you say net minder? Net mind. Yeah. Goal lead net minder, goaltender, uh, the pillow boy. I don't know. There's a lot of, a lot of funny phrases we can throw around there. So yeah, I mean, a tough, a tough stretch to start the season for sure. Um,
00:10:45
Speaker
But I think there's some good things to take away from that. So I want to talk about a couple of trends that I saw.
Power Play Struggles
00:10:50
Speaker
I think people that are saying, why aren't they scoring like they did last year? Come on, put the puck in. The goals will come. I would preach patience.
00:11:00
Speaker
Currently, through three games, the team is shooting at a 7% clip. So of the shots that are shots on goal, 7% of them have been goals. The team last year was shooting at about an 11% clip, and the NHL average year to year is usually somewhere between 9%, 10%, 10.5%, something like that.
00:11:23
Speaker
Pro progression to the mean is almost inevitable and especially when you have your biggest goal scoring threat is Tage Thompson. He's got 12 shots on that and zero goals. That's not going to continue. He's going to hit the net. He's going to hone in and start potting goals.
00:11:42
Speaker
Remain, remain- Potting the netminder? He's gonna pot the netminder. Now we're just making up phrases. And I think you are. Well, yes, that's true. I do that all the time. I just pass it off like other people are. I'm sorry. The other things I wanted to touch on. It's troubling, but I'm not panicked about it yet, is the power play. They've had 10 chances to score on a power play. Dana or Tom, any guesses on how many power play goals they've scored?
00:12:12
Speaker
uh 10 chances 10 chances well that means the other team's down a player right so correct i'd say you'd want at least half of them let's say five
00:12:28
Speaker
All right, Tom, your guess. I'm going to go with your level of disappointment. I'm going to go with one. OK, OK, great. Well, I've I've I am the savers have surpassed all expectations and have zero power play goals so far. OK, now also going to progress to the mean. Exactly. What's the normal percentage of, you know, an acceptable goal on power play? Tip a good a good power play, I would put
00:12:57
Speaker
They score 75 to 80% on the time. Okay. Wow. Last year, Edmonton's power play was historic, how good it was, and I believe they were around 88%, which is just insane. A good team is going to score at an 80%, 75% clip, something like that. Okay. So you'd say zero is kind of bad.
00:13:21
Speaker
It's approaching bad levels, so I would say, yeah. To make matters worse, they've given up a goal against while on the power play. I was about to say, yeah, so negative one is... Negative one, yeah, exactly, exactly. Their opponent's penalty kill is outscoring their power play.
00:13:41
Speaker
So question based around that is that just execution is that scheme while we're on a power play like what needs to change how has that been so unsuccessful or what is your thoughts on that rather. Well I think part of it. It's a loaded question and I think I need to see more from them to really.
00:14:04
Speaker
hone in on it. I think one factor there is that the Rangers are a great penalty killing team. They were blocking shots like crazy in that game against them on a couple of power play opportunities.
00:14:17
Speaker
That's not an excuse. You need to be able to get the puck past blocking defenders. I think their scheme in general is okay. I don't think it's the personnel. I think they do have very talented offensive players. I'd love to see Tage Thompson hit the net when he's taking 100 mile an hour slap shots, but I understand they're tough to control.
00:14:40
Speaker
Yeah, I think just kind of, I'm not ready to write off the power play. I think they need to stay the course and the goals will come, again, similar to the offense in general, 5 on 5. Goals will come in the power play, but it is notable that they're 0 for 10 on the power play and probably a significant reason why they're 1 and 2.
00:15:01
Speaker
It's still a pretty small sample size though. After three games, everything we're talking about is way too small of a sample size to make any informed opinions on. It's like football for the whole year. Exactly, yeah.
00:15:17
Speaker
If you made an overarching statement on Buffalo season right now, it would be like saying the Bills aren't making the playoffs. Josh Allen sucks after the first quarter of the first game in the NFL season. Which is what we did. It's early. We did say that. Back at that Bill's Jets game, yeah. We were very concerned. That says more about those. I thought that was to remain private, Tom.
00:15:43
Speaker
No, but anyways, and so moving
Defense and New Signings
00:15:45
Speaker
past it, the other side of the puck, short-handed when the Sabres have been down, I thought they've looked okay. Keep in mind, this is an area that the team has struggled massively for the past few years. And so I think they've looked okay. The PK is 12 for 13 so far, so they've allowed one short-handed goal.
00:16:06
Speaker
They've allowed one power play goal. I think Eric Johnson, I've called him out a couple of times for his penalty killing prowess. I really think he looks good. He's looked okay in general to me. He's not the quickest guy. He's not the most responsible with the puck guy. I'm not going to claim that he is, but he's physical. He's big. He's a veteran. He's a leader, and I'm happy that he's on the team.
00:16:30
Speaker
Was he a free agent signing or has he been on the team for a few years? No, he was a free agent signing this past summer. He came over from Colorado who was just a buzzsaw of a team and he's been a big reason why. Okay, I thought he was free agent because I don't recognize the name. All right, as much at least.
00:16:49
Speaker
free agent. Yeah. And then just a couple of players that I wanted to shout out to that, that I think have looked good to start the year. Um, cause I want to focus on positives cause again, it's, it's, it's too early to call out a player for not playing well. Um, but to call out the positives, like I said, Devin Levi, the goalie, the Jedi Tom, um,
00:17:08
Speaker
Has looked really good. I thought I don't think the first two losses were his fault necessarily. I think he looks calm in the net One thing that he does really really well is not allow a lot of second opportunities after a shot there's not a lot of rebounds that he gives up and when he does he's he's able to direct them into an area that are low danger or that he has a better chance to Make a secondary save on
00:17:37
Speaker
And so yeah, just shout out to that kid. I think he's been really good so far and I'm excited to see him progress through the year. Is he a rookie? He's technically a rookie. Yeah, he did play a couple of games for Buffalo last year towards the end of the year, but he came out of college after their season ended in the prior season. And so this is his first full year in Buffalo. Yeah. Nice.
00:18:02
Speaker
My understanding of how players work their way up to the Sabres, Dana, is definitely forming. But it's very convoluted. It is not a cut and paste. This is how it goes. So that's a good question. Yeah, I agree.
00:18:19
Speaker
having the Rangers score five goals and then the Islanders score three on on the Sabres that to me says says goaltending is that something you're concerned about because you don't seem concerned or is it again hey this is too small but sample size it's gonna come we're gonna settle it's gonna be okay yeah I don't I don't blame goaltending for that
00:18:43
Speaker
Five goals against isn't phenomenal in the NHL, but three goals against is not uncommon at all. Yeah, that's what seemed more normal to me. I agree with that. I think Levi has a 893 save percentage at the moment. It's not great. You want that to come up. But again, I don't think that's a goaltending issue necessarily. What I think could be an issue
00:19:08
Speaker
But again, small sample size is the defensive play of Buffalo as a team. I don't care what goal you have back there. If you're giving up a lot of odd man rushes and high danger chances to the New York Rangers, you're getting scored on. You could have the best goal in the world back there. It's going in the net. And so the defensive play of the team is more suspect about those goal totals than the goal tender themselves. OK, cool.
00:19:39
Speaker
So yeah, the only other player I wanted to call out, three players. The Benson Greenway middle stat line, I think has been the best line that Buffalo has at the moment. I wouldn't say that's the best thing in the world. You want your other star players to play to the level that they can and should. But that line has been excellent, especially Zach Benson, the rookie, and Jordan Greenway.
00:20:03
Speaker
his first full year on the team and healthy. He's looked great. And yeah, I think Zach Benson just looks like he belongs in the league. He's picked up two assists so far and is tenacious on the forecheck. He just looks the part of an NHL player. And it's just shocking given that he's 18 years old for the entire season.
00:20:23
Speaker
one of only three players to make their respective team from this most recent draft. And that includes a player like Connor Bedard, who's supposed to be like the next McDavid kind of thing. Like Zach Benson is an excellent player and has looked the part and it's shocking that 12 other teams passed on him in the draft. Is Benson on the second line?
00:20:47
Speaker
Technically, the third line, I would say, but the sabers tend to roll lines pretty well, where the first three lines are fairly
00:20:59
Speaker
you can you can rotate them fluid fluid. Yeah, it's Yeah, the lines in a hockey team are that they have to be labeled 1234. But really, if you're a good team, it doesn't matter what line is out. Each line does different things and has different strengths. And it's more about pairing players with players that accentuate talents that they have with each other rather than Oh, okay, we're gonna take our three best players and put them on the top.
00:21:25
Speaker
You can, and sometimes that's the best outcome, but it doesn't have to be. Facing players out based on their strengths is incredibly important. Gotcha. That's very cool.
00:21:38
Speaker
So what other, before we move on to the bills and talk about that,
Explaining Fire Wagon Hockey
00:21:42
Speaker
any other noob cues that you guys had? Yeah, well, you can sort of hear as I'm interjecting these very simple hockey questions that I know very little. Let me just first talk about my history as a, you know, Sabres fan. As a kid, my uncle took me to see Dominic Ashok in the net.
00:22:04
Speaker
And that team, I think it was in the late 90s, maybe. Yeah. And I sort of fell in love with his style of like, you know, break dancing on the ice. Oh, my God, this is so sick. But since then, to be honest, I haven't stayed up with it. I've been to a handful of games since then. But so these next few questions obviously will inform you of that.
00:22:33
Speaker
I'll call back something that you guys were saying on a previous podcast. What is fire wagon hockey? Fire wagon hockey is a made up term, pretty much, but to describe the way certain teams play. I'm noticing a trend.
00:22:54
Speaker
Well, yeah. They're not official terms. You're not going to find them in the stat books, but I think it is descriptive of the way they play. So if you had on the top of a hill a wagon full of hay and you lit it on fire and kicked it and it rolled down the hill, chaos, right? Complete chaos, but holy shit is it kind of fun to watch it.
00:23:20
Speaker
Sure. That's the savers. Yeah, that's that's how the savers play. And so but so painting that t shirt idea. That's a t shirt idea right there.
00:23:31
Speaker
But painting that picture with Jake on the wagon. I'm on the wagon 100%. So in more technical terms, what the Sabres do and how they play is they push the pace of the game a lot. And that happens in both directions of the ice. They are very quick at pushing the puck into the offensive zone of the other team.
00:23:58
Speaker
like to score off of the rush rather than cycling the puck around within the zone. They're breaking the puck out from their own end into the other end and getting a quick shot and trying to score off of that rush play. It goes back the other way too though. Because they're so aggressive pushing the puck that way, they get caught a lot on odd man rushes, breakaways where other teams then take advantage of
00:24:26
Speaker
countering their aggressive and quick play and going back the other way, which is exactly why I said that the goalies aren't necessarily to blame because they're giving up a lot of opportunities, but they're also getting a lot of opportunities offensively.
00:24:41
Speaker
Yeah. In summary, there are some teams that try to lock it down and limit chances at both ends, but the Sabres turn that on its head and say, you know what? No, we're going to give up some chances, but we're also going to get some chances. Pushing the offensive envelope rather than kind of playing scared in a way. Exactly. Yeah. Pushing the offensive envelope often at the expense of the defensive side of the buck. Got you.
00:25:07
Speaker
cool. Here's one just when you guys were talking about the draft a few pods ago. So in the NFL, you know, there's the draft in around 40 ish rookies by game one will start for their teams. I was just wondering,
00:25:28
Speaker
I guess what's the process
NHL Draft Process
00:25:30
Speaker
with that? Because it sounds like there is a very different process with the hockey draft. And if they even do start for their teams, what percentage of players drafted that year even do start? Yeah, it's much more rare for a player drafted
00:25:49
Speaker
in that draft to play games in the NHL that season. So like I said, this past draft, 2023, only three players from that draft are playing in the league right now.
00:26:04
Speaker
Um, three, you said three, one, two, three, three. Yeah. Okay. It's crazy, right? Out of how many people picked, uh, there's seven rounds and 32 teams. So my math isn't very good despite being an accountant, but that's amazing. Yeah. So what's that? Like 200, 220 or something like that.
00:26:28
Speaker
Sure. Yeah, so a lot of players get returned to their junior hockey teams, to their European teams, to their college teams to continue developing. So it's very rare for a player to come into the NHL as an 18-year-old.
00:26:46
Speaker
It's a men's league. It is by no means a developmental league. When you're good enough to play in the NHL, you can play in the NHL. Until that point, you are going to get exposed, worn down, and dejected out of the league.
00:27:04
Speaker
So, it's a testament to how much skill and tenacity this Zach Benson kid has that he's able to stick with the team. That's awesome. A little follow-up would be, oh, so they're just sort of picking for the rights of this player, right? So, how long do they have them in contract once they pick them?
00:27:28
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. They're hanging on to rights. There's a lot of nuance with that. In general, they have a couple of years to sign them to an entry-level deal. Otherwise, they can re-enter the draft once signed to an entry-level deal. You've been drafted multiple times?
00:27:47
Speaker
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. You can. It's happened. It's happened. Man. Oh my goodness. Okay. Keep going. Keep going. That's the thing because they're so young. Tom, if you're picked at 18 years old and your team strings you along, strings you along until you're 20 and they don't sign you yet, you can re-enter the draft. There's nuance to that. Maybe we bring that up on a future podcast. Sure. Yeah.
00:28:12
Speaker
You can be drafted more than one time, yeah. I'm not saying it's a good system, but that's the system that we're operating under. Once signed, then your team holds on to your rights as an RFA, very similar to football. Again, more nuanced, but in general till you're around 26, 27, X number of years old or X number of seasons played in the league, and then you become a UFA, an unrestricted free agent. You can sign wherever you want.
00:28:40
Speaker
They hold your rights for a long time. Until you're 27, if you're 18, that's, I mean, I'm not good at math, but that's, you know, a thousand years. It's a long time. Yeah. Yeah. It's a long time. They, they, it's, it benefits the teams greatly. Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's very interesting. I love that.
00:29:03
Speaker
These are these are great questions. Yeah, I have You sort of answered this one already But
Sabres' Fan Reactions and Patience
00:29:11
Speaker
I guess I'll give you an opportunity to speak on it a little more I know there was a ton of optimism and excitement about this Sabres team before these three games I guess I would just ask where our Sabres fans in general at now and Versus where you're at
00:29:34
Speaker
Um, I would hope that many savers fans are also preaching patience, but I've also interacted with many Buffalo sports fans to know that there's probably some, uh, you know, uh, fire, fire the GM, fire the coach. This team sucks. They're not going anywhere. Find somebody to put the puck in the net. Like they're all washed up. Um, but no, I, I, I,
00:29:59
Speaker
I think that's probably where some fans are. Listen, it's not undeserved given how this team has performed over the past 12 years since they've made the playoffs. However, where I'm at, it's three games. It's three games. They're one and two. It's a long season. There's 79 more games to go.
00:30:20
Speaker
It does not matter if you lose a game. It doesn't matter if you lose two games in a row even. It's how you respond. It's what wins can you string together and avoid having
00:30:33
Speaker
multi-game losing streaks. That's what's killed Buffalo in prior years, even last year. Just to give you an example of last year, they had an eight-game losing streak in the fall when Mattias Samuelson and a couple other players went down. Those eight games, they lost the playoffs by one point. If they got to overtime in one of those games, they'd make the playoffs.
00:30:54
Speaker
So it's not about it's not about what games you lose. It's about how you respond to losing. And I think they played really well last night. They wanted the win. They played better than Tampa. Now I'm looking for where they go in the road ahead to continue proving that and stringing some wins together.
Upcoming Sabres Games
00:31:12
Speaker
So that's probably a good segue to just just real quick touch on touch on the road ahead for the for Buffalo. So you'll hear this on
00:31:22
Speaker
Thursday morning, Thursday, October 19th. Sabres play that night in Buffalo against Calgary. They host the Islanders on Saturday. They host Montreal on Monday, and then they're at Ottawa on Tuesday night. So those four games, there's some tough opponents in there. Sorry, Montreal, you're not one of them. So a rematch against the Islanders in there, I think is important. I think they'll bounce back and play well at home. I think they'll want the win in that one.
00:31:51
Speaker
I'd say that's a win. Calgary is a tough team and Ottawa also is a tough team. So there's some good opponents in there. Funny that all the Canadian teams are tough. Well, Montreal is not tough. Montreal has had some rough luck. I think that's an absolute must win game just because of how
00:32:14
Speaker
bad Montreal's roster is at the moment. And it's a division opponent. You got to win that game. And I think Ottawa, another divisional game, is another one that you got to look good and put up a fight. And I'm hoping they can come away with the win on that one. Set that wagon on fire. Yeah, set it on fire and push it down. Yeah. And they're a divisional opponent too, right? The Maple Leafs?
00:32:40
Speaker
Well, Maple Leafs are Toronto. They're not playing them yet. Thank you. OK, I got you. Ottawa. Ottawa is also a divisional opponent. Yeah. And Ottawa, Ottawa, Ottawa Senators is their their name.
00:32:52
Speaker
So yeah, I'm hoping for, at minimum, a 2-1-1 stretch there to end that stretch at 3-3-1. At minimum, I'd love to see 4-0. Who am I kidding? Because after that stretch, they're playing New Jersey and Colorado. So absolutely buckle up for those two teams. They're both
00:33:12
Speaker
I mean, those could be the top teams in each conference this year. I wouldn't be surprised at all by that. And we'll see where they go. But that's the road ahead for the Sabres. Wish them all the best and hope they continue what they started on Tuesday right against the Lightning. And I think we should move on to our football throwing friends. What do you guys think? Yeah. Sounds good. Let's do it.
00:33:35
Speaker
So you two were at the game. Let's walk through it. Talk me through your heart rate during the game.
00:33:44
Speaker
Well, you know, probably not healthy. My doctor probably wouldn't approve.
Bills vs. Giants Recap
00:33:48
Speaker
But the bills survived the New York Giants 14 to 9 on Sunday night, 8 o'clock, 8 15 Sunday night football game. Dana and I were there with along with Nigel. And it was a great day. I'd love to kind of eventually touch on game day and kind of what that was like and how much fun we had.
00:34:07
Speaker
Um, I think, I think the big thing for me walking out of this game, this is that a win is a win and you got to win the ugly ones too. Right? Like, I think this is part of the process. We've seen the chiefs go in and drop games and win ugly games in the same way we there's, I mean, heck this past weekends, right? They played Thursday night against Denver and they won an ugly game against Denver.
00:34:28
Speaker
The right, there's other good teams who dropped, dropped games this weekend. And thankfully the bills dropped a game, but didn't lose it. So I'm, I'm, I think they clearly needed some reset. I think there's some clear things that need to be ironed out, but a wins a win. And we got it. We got it. Like this is we're foreign to going into week seven and I think that's a big deal. So Dana, what were your thoughts? Yeah, well, I just had an amazing experience all the way through.
00:34:56
Speaker
Uh, you know, you invited me to your tailgate. You fed me. Well, you know, we had a couple of drinks, went into the game with some old friends. And, um, it was an insane game from the perspective of whatever can happen in a football game kind of happened. Yeah.
00:35:16
Speaker
You had, you know, and beyond that, you had this defensive struggle, which unlike most NFL fans, I love the defensive game. I love the chess match aspect of it. So you sort of got that from McDermott versus Dable. And then, you know, Dable having the inside scoop on what Josh's easy buttons are and taking those away and sort of seeing how each team sort of reacted.
00:35:47
Speaker
You know, I hated the injuries, but, um, for the most part, I think we got out of there unscathed and, um, you know, super happy for the win. Yeah. Agreed.
00:35:58
Speaker
Yeah, that is big news. Damon Harris, we all saw go down. Us being in the stadium. For those of you who may or may not have gone to a game, they don't always tell us when we're in the stadium. Like, we didn't know. We had other people behind us saying, oh, my girlfriend said that is Damon Harris. They never told us. So thankfully, he did go to the hospital that night. But it was home on Monday with some neck pain and concussion protocol, which is a big deal and not nothing. But at least we avoided anything bigger than that.
00:36:40
Speaker
We're going to step away. We'll be back in a moment like we've we've been there before. So yeah, it's scary and you hate to see it. Right. So yeah, so that is okay. And I saw he's fine. Yeah, so I was trying to kind of think of three. I think we like to kind of categorize it and things we like things we maybe didn't like. I do like the fact that that we
00:36:52
Speaker
that's a big thing
00:37:03
Speaker
that Stefan Diggs came out and was clearly the big offensive drive. He was more than half of the passing yards went to Stefan Diggs. Tons of the targets. I haven't seen the stats. I don't remember that off top of my head. But probably more than half of the targets went to Diggs. So that was a big deal. But I do like that our Deontay Hardy, Quentin Morris, like two maybe auxiliary weapons, they stepped up. And they were answers when we needed them in the red zone.
00:37:30
Speaker
Um, that was cool to see the bills start to lean on them when they did, even though I kind of wish we saw more than just F on digs be featured. Um, I think that would have helped the offense be more productive. But I think to Dana's point a second ago, I think table kind of knew what Josh was looking for and maybe took some of those easy answers away. And then Josh was kind of force feeding the ball to digs just to get something.
00:37:54
Speaker
I was going to ask you guys about that. Dable having probably the best knowledge of Josh Allen from anyone not in the Bill's organization. How much does that play in? Are there things that you saw in the Giants game plan where you're like, oh, that was specifically meant to negate Josh Allen's effectiveness? What are your thoughts on that? How much that plays in?
00:38:17
Speaker
Yeah, for me, um, you know, there was a ton of zone. Um, and to me that, that says that dables not going to get, give Josh easy running lanes. So when everyone's looking, you know, forward at the offensive line, you can sort of see and survey where Josh is at all times. So there isn't an easy lane. Like when you're in man and your back's facing the wide receiver that you're trying to cover. So that was one thing.
00:38:47
Speaker
Um, and then yeah, just, I think it, it mattered. Um, I wouldn't say it was huge, but it wasn't nothing at the same time. Right. They at least knew what he knew. He knew what Josh was looking for. Right. Cause it's honestly this a very similar offense stable left. Ken Dorsey was his, was the quarterbacks coach and moved up to offensive coordinator, but they were within the same system. So when Ken Dorsey took over, it wasn't a complete overhaul.
00:39:14
Speaker
You know, it's OK, we're going to adopt the same system. There was tweaks. There's definitely changes, but it was largely the same system. So honestly, it's largely the same system that the Giants try to run. Right. It's at least that table probably brought over. I would imagine. And it's also Joe Marino talked about today on lockdown bills that it's the same defense that the Giants defense practices against for the last two years, you know, like
00:39:39
Speaker
Right. They were same offense. Excuse me. The same office at the Giants defense, you know, these tables offense. So that's probably played into it. Right. It gave some familiarity, which was which was cool. Some I'll get one more thing to add, if you don't mind. Yeah, please do. I think one other aspect of this that is not being talked about enough is the offense for the bills is supposed to be this big 12 personnel. Right.
00:40:09
Speaker
We didn't have Dalton Kincaid for this game. And when you look at the personnel on the field, we were in 12 personnel for three plays. And, you know, that's not counting Gilliam as a tight end, but maybe it was actually 12 with Gilliam. I'm not sure. But when you see the stats, it's three plays. So we're playing in.
00:40:34
Speaker
you know, heavier actual run sets or going back to 11 personnel, which Dable designed. So there's that aspect too.
00:40:44
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's a really good point. I was going to bring that up coming up here. Kincaid did clear concussion protocol. So that's a big deal. And hopefully we have a back coming up here. And I think that will open some more things up and really
Bills' Offensive Struggles
00:40:57
Speaker
help. But, you know, that's a great point. That's really nice. And I think that will help with the offense finding rhythm because clearly they're in a little bit of a rut, right? Clearly then a little bit of a rut. The last two games have not looked the same that we've seen them play earlier in the season.
00:41:12
Speaker
And I think I'm not terribly worried. I'm not in panic mode yet. But it's something that needs to be ironed out.
00:41:23
Speaker
Yeah. Jake, do you have any thoughts on that? No, I just got to follow up on that and say which offense shows up because we've seen games where we've just beat the wheels off of teams and then games where we've struggled like we did on Sunday night to score any points whatsoever. So which teams come into play on any human Sunday is a huge question mark moving forward. Because I've said it before, both on and off the podcast, if Josh and the team is on their game, I don't think there's a team in the NFL that can beat them.
00:41:52
Speaker
But man, when they're not on their game, it is tough. I came away from that game. I closed my computer after the game on Sunday and just was, I was beat. There wasn't like, yay, we won. I was like, Oh Jesus fucking Christ. Thank God that's over. It was tough to, it was tough to watch. I'm not going to lie.
00:42:10
Speaker
They feeling in the stadium. Yeah, I'll tell you. I was wondering if we could swear on this publication, but I guess that gave me the answer. Yeah, there it is. We try to avoid it, but man, there's something. It's a nice way to punctuate your point, you know? Artistic license. Artistic license. Exactly. I guess one more thing I'll add is
00:42:30
Speaker
you know even when they are on their game in terms of all of the variables that they can control it's just it goes back to execution and you know we've seen the bills early on in games sort of get in a rut like there's a fumble here there's a drop pass there there's a you know skunked run for two yards on second down there
00:42:53
Speaker
And I think going forward something that the bills will need to do is just be more consistent and Also, even if they are getting stumped early on how are they going to adjust? Because I don't know say what you will about Dave Dorsey, excuse me
00:43:13
Speaker
Um, whether he's not calling or calling the right plays at the right times at the end of the day, when you look at the tape for the most part, there are plays to be made. So it's just about when you make those plays and in those high pressure situations. Right. It's either Josh making the right read or the wide receiver running back, making the right call and, and being more consistent with that. I agree with that. And honestly, I think setting themselves up so that they can withstand a bad
00:43:43
Speaker
play and then not be okay now this is gonna be a three and out you know like like make it okay one bad play is fine but let's get back on on this horse and get back in there so um yeah that's gonna be a big deal um kind of looking forward we then
Preview: Bills vs. Patriots
00:43:57
Speaker
have uh uh bills versus patriots this weekend it's first time we're going to uh new england um and uh this is the first time i just saw a stat while i was
00:44:07
Speaker
perusing Twitter before our podcast tonight. This is the largest deficit. Bills are favored by nine away versus the Patriots is the largest at-home deficit that the Patriots have ever had since before Tom Brady. So we've been here before because we were very heavily favored going into this Giants game too. So I don't know if we should put much
00:44:30
Speaker
emphasis on that, but this is a flailing New England Patriots. Dana, question for you. What has to go right for us to feel good going into this game and coming out of it and for the Bills to come away with the win? Yeah, it's a silly answer, but I think it's correct when you're playing a team like this. You got to take care of the ball.
00:44:55
Speaker
Um, if you don't have any, you know, unforced errors and you take care of the ball, I think you come away with this win. It's just, it's that simple for me. No, that's not silly at all. We, when we were talking about hockey, we said more goals is better than less goals. Right. So.
00:45:12
Speaker
We're just very stoic here. We're really drilled down to the very simplistic and simple answers. It's Occam's razor kind of thing, right? I haven't done as much research on the New England Patriots team this year, so maybe you have better insight than that.
00:45:31
Speaker
I don't have a ton other than I just live up in New England and my wife is a New England Patriots fan and my friends are New England Patriots fans so they're they're definitely suffering and it's I just I think karma is a sweet sweet bitch and Tom's friend count just went down
00:45:51
Speaker
I don't care about your marriage you're talking about. That is true. That is true. But if Katie makes it this far, 45 minutes, 46 minutes into the podcast, I'll be impressed. I think that says more about saving my marriage than not.
00:46:05
Speaker
But I think it's just that they don't have answers, right? They don't have the offensive weapons that are helping Mack Jones out. I've talked about this, and I actually was curious. I thought about trying to have one of our New England Patriots friends on before we played them, and they kind of all shied away at this point in the season.
00:46:23
Speaker
I think Mac Jones could have been successful had Bill Belichick set him up with weapons. I don't know who could have been successful in that offense for the last three years. Even if you put Patrick Mahomes there, I don't know if he's successful in that New England system with what Bill Belichick has put around them. So I'm interested to see what happens here. But I think it's just, I think you're right. I think we have to go in, play a clean game, take care of the ball.
00:46:52
Speaker
Um, and really get, get after and affect whoever, whatever cornerback is back there. Cause there's rumors that it's Mac Jones will get pulled pretty easily this year, this week. Um, and go in and just take care of business and have a reset game. Yeah. Get right game. How'd you get kind of a tangent, but how did you guys think the defense looked on Sunday night? Give.
00:47:14
Speaker
given the number of injuries that happened in London, they had a week to reset and kind of game plan around different guys. Did you like what you saw? Did you feel like, oh man, these injuries are hamstringing the defense? Like, I don't know. What'd you think?
00:47:32
Speaker
You go first time if you want. Okay. No, I wasn't terribly concerned. It would have been nice to see that. I mean, it was Tyrod Taylor who is a player that we all know and love and have seen him play very careful.
00:47:45
Speaker
not dangerous football, right? Where he's not reliable, right? Yeah, he's not going to give away the ball, right? And which is what the bills offense, honestly, we've we've done a good job of forcing players to give away the ball, right? Or put the ball in dangerous situations. So but playing against a player who really avoids that was tough.
00:48:05
Speaker
I think it was cool to see Dorian Williams go out and start across from Terrell Bernard. These are two third round linebackers that we've had that we honestly had questions about. Like, wait a second, what is it being thinking? And it was cool to see him play. He clearly is still figuring it out, but man, that guy plays
00:48:22
Speaker
He's electric. He plays with heart. He's out there. He's moving. He's around the ball. I think he will eventually figure it out. I'm not sure if, you know, we'd want in plans to play to Albert de Bernard and Dorian Williams at the same exact time all the time. But it's cool to see. Yeah. What do you think, Dana? Yeah, those young linebackers really caught my eye this game. Maybe it's just the week.
00:48:46
Speaker
they had to prepare and the opponent. But yeah, Dorian especially was flying around and I didn't know him out of college. So just to see him really make him plays with his ass on fire was really cool. Obviously he had some issues, but that's gonna happen with every young player. You alluded to it earlier, the matchup with Tyrod Taylor being
00:49:13
Speaker
the, you know, take what the defense gives you versus our defense, which was don't allow the big play. Um, it was an interesting dynamic because, you know, they, they drove down the field five or six times, got in the red zone and then did nothing. Yeah. I think they were over five in the red zone. Yes, they were and score a single touchdown. So the bill's defense, you know, did as designed.
00:49:41
Speaker
Um, held up nine points, right? Like you hold a team of nine points. You hope you win. Yeah. Uh, it'll be interesting moving forward, you know, with better opponents that can actually score, um, how that is moving forward. But I think for that opponent with these young players, um, and Kaya Elam, um, I thought he,
00:50:05
Speaker
You know, he looked pretty good, and I'm satisfied with him as the fourth cornerback. But anyway, moving forward, I think it'll be interesting to see how these young players grow. I had a giggle, because being in the stadium, for those of you who have maybe never been in the stadium, I went down into the stadium and used the restroom in the middle of the first quarter. And Kyrie Elam apparently let some kind of play happen. And oh, my god.
00:50:35
Speaker
You were the best of the best. Oh, it was, it was kind of, it was every, everything you could imagine somebody would say nasty about Kyra Elam. It was screams across the, uh, the, the, the peeing truss. So, um, those words we can't say on the podcast. No, those ones we'll keep to ourselves. Um, but it was, it was, yeah, it was like, okay, this is where everybody's at with Kyra Elam. And, um, yeah, I agree. We have to remember he's the fourth option.
00:51:00
Speaker
He is the fourth option. Hopefully he improves and becomes a better fourth or maybe third or second option. But he's the fourth option. And what we have, right, we have we have to Davis White, all, you know, possibly all pro, you know, past all poor quarterback.
00:51:17
Speaker
cornerback, excuse me, um, down, like we're going to, it's going to look different. Fantastic. So before we kind of close out and run things kind of, and, um, put a little bow on this podcast, I kind of wanted to get your opinion, Dana, like what are your overarching thoughts of the season so far? Where are we at? What do you see going forward? This is kind of a good, we're a third of the way through the NFL season, folks. Like this is it, um, it always flies. So what are your thoughts Dana? What are you thinking so far?
00:51:42
Speaker
Yeah, so as a Buffalo Bills fan that I've been for basically my whole life, I love watching the games on Sunday. I think this team is awesome. I look forward to every Sunday when I can watch this team. And yeah, I think for me, it's as we started this podcast with which is it's all about your perspective and
00:52:11
Speaker
your expectations. Different people will have different expectations, but for me, as long as the bills are competitive, I have a good time. One team makes a Super Bowl every year.
00:52:31
Speaker
I guess I would just urge everybody to just enjoy the ride. Football is a game that is highly influenced by variance and chance and luck. Even if you have the best team, you still need everything to go right, to be one out of 32.
00:52:52
Speaker
you know, when they get stopped on second down or, you know, stopped on third down because Gabe Davis gets the ball punched out or whatever the pace may be. Let's just take a breath. There's always another series. I've been waiting my whole life to watch a team like this and a quarterback like this for Buffalo. And I'm just trying to enjoy it. So, yeah.
00:53:20
Speaker
I'm into this team and we'll see what happens. Dude. Yeah. Man, you've nailed it. Like that's it. Well put. You got to soak it in. We got to, yeah. Yeah. We got to enjoy it. So that was very well put. Thank you. So, um, any other final thoughts from either of you guys or should we, uh, land this thing? I think we should predict a score a little bit. Oh, that's right. Predictions. Oh yeah. Predictions. Okay. Um, Jake, do you have a good one or do you need a second for your score Gami calculator?
00:53:49
Speaker
I do want that and I'm sure you know, but no, I'm ready. I think the bills win. I think the pats are flailing and not well positioned at the moment. I'm waffling now. I'm just going to throw the first numbers that come out into my brain. 29 to 16. Okay.
00:54:19
Speaker
Bills. Okay. Good clarification. Um, I'm going to go, I'm going to go and I have a little caveat to mine. I am going to go 27, 14 bills. And I also think we see Dalton Kincaid's first touchdown of his career. His head has been rattled and reput back together. And I think he's ready to come back in and get his first receiving touchdown.
00:54:46
Speaker
Very nice. That's funny, Tom, I was going to say 27 13, which was very similar. Um, I don't think it's going to be the bills just walking all over the defense. Um, it'd be awesome if they did, but, um, you know, they always play us tough. It's a, it's going to be a tough one. So yeah.
00:55:09
Speaker
They always do except for that one time. Except for that one time, which we have to remember, you know, that playoff game. So, all right, boys. Well, here we go. We got our predictions in. We had some lovely conversations around the Buffalo Bills and where we're going. And Jake gave us our news dump on the Sabres. I'm going to try and make sure to watch one or two of these games this week. That's my big goal. And and hopefully,
00:55:34
Speaker
I have my thesaurus and dictionary, Jake Thorpe on the other side, ready to answer things for me. But all right, folks, we appreciate you so much, like always, for spending some time with us and hanging out. Huge thank you and shout out to Dana for coming and joining us. This is always great. Dana's been a good friend for a while in the Bill's Buds chat thread, and I'm happy to have you on, bud. It's been so fun.
00:56:00
Speaker
So thank you all. And it would mean a lot to us if you would please share this episode, give it a like, give us a follow. You can find us on Instagram and X at Let's Go Buffalo Pod. These are my pals, that's Jake, that's Dana. My name is Tom and you're listening to the Let's Go Buffalo podcast. We're sending you love wherever you are. Go Bills, go Sabres, Let's Go Buffalo.