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Ep. 38 - Sabres Season Autopsy
38 Plays1 year ago
Are you ready to dissect every facet of the Buffalo Sabres' 2023-2024 season? Episode 38 is out now and serves as your front-row seat to a deep dive of post-season analysis. Join us as we delve deep into the highs and (mostly) lows that defined the journey of our favorite hockey team. Starting off the episode, we discuss the coach firing news and ponder potential replacements. From there, we dive into an in-depth look at the heart and soul of Sabres hockey from 2023-2024.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:10
Speaker
You're listening to the Let's Go Buffalo Podcast, your new favorite podcast for everything bills and savings.
00:00:22
Speaker
What is going on, everybody? You are listening to the Let's Go Buffalo podcast, your favorite podcast for all things, bills and sabers with the pals, Nigel, Tom and Jake.
00:00:38
Speaker
We got episode 38 coming at you. Don't forget to go and follow us on the social medias. You know all of them. You know what they are and all those things. You can find us at the handle. Let's go buff pod. That's buff with those Fs.
Casual Banter and Drink Choices
00:00:54
Speaker
Let's say hello. You know what, Jake? I'm going to start with you today. Jake, how you doing, buddy? I'm good, man. Oh, I get to go first. This is an honor.
00:01:02
Speaker
But yeah, I'm good, man. Weather's nice. I'm just gonna be happy with me. Excuse me. Tom, I don't want to leave you hanging for too long. I'm good, man. We have a totem pole for a reason. There's an order. There's a way that we do things, you guys. My bad, my bad. Tom, how are you, buddy?
00:01:22
Speaker
ruffled. That's how I am. Did you say ruffled or ruffled? Yeah, no, my feathers have been ruffled. My feathers are ruffled. Oh, buddy, I'm sorry to ruffle your feathers. They look all very nice. Your feathers look like they're pretty decent orders. We can do that. Should we get right into the beverages, boys? Oh, yeah. We're going to need them today. Yes, we are. Tom, what is that? A flipping four loco in a bottle there?
00:01:57
Speaker
We have rules for a reason, Nigel. We have rules for a reason. Alright, I'm going to actually, Tom, what do you got going on there first with the bottle?
Coach Don Granado's Firing Reaction
00:02:05
Speaker
Hey, happy summer, boys. Corona light, baby. Nice. Nice. It had that feel today, dude. It was hot here. I know. I just, I don't want to work and I want to hang out outside and that's all I want to do.
00:02:18
Speaker
Definitely wasn't hot here today, but the sun has not gone away all day. It's been pretty nice. Torpedo, what are you drinking, bro? I am drinking from keg and lantern brewing a green eyes IPA. So nice green eyes, green eyes. Am I drinking one of you? I have I have like a hazel green eye situation.
00:02:40
Speaker
Yeah, West Coast IPA. Yeah. Nice, brother. And then in spirit of killing the saber seas, and I also have a glass of whiskey. We're getting into it today. Yup. Well, in the spirit of getting into it.
00:02:57
Speaker
I am drinking an IPA from two roads. It is called rocket to ruin. And I think it's called that because this is a nine and a half percent ABV. So I think you very quickly become ruined when you're drinking these. I'll be honest, I don't drink a ton anymore, at least not by myself. I'm a social drinker. I'm a little nervous as to what this is going to do to me. So we'll see what happens here. See you in an hour, boys. Cheers.
00:03:27
Speaker
Hey, hey, hey. Cheers, boys. Cheers, boys. Cheers. This is a big day. This is a big day. Why don't you kick us off? Why is it a big day? Why am I in such a great goddamn mood? Because your favorite Sabres coach ever, Mr. Don Granado has hit the streets. He's hit the road. He got the boot and I hope the door hit him on the way out. Yes, sir. Tom, you're fired up about him.
Sabres' Coaching Direction and Kevin Adams' Press Conference
00:03:52
Speaker
It got announced way early today. Let's see. I got to work right around 8.40. I was late. I must have got the notification on Twitter right around 9 a.m. It was on my phone. I just got a notification. I wasn't looking at anything deliberately.
00:04:16
Speaker
But there are a couple sabers beat writers that I have a notification for when they tweet And yeah, I saw it around 9 a.m. Today that the sabers are officially have released Don Granado of his head coaching duties along with a couple other folks There wasn't one of the assistant coaches not Matt Ellis or Marty Wilford Jake. Do you remember the name?
00:04:38
Speaker
Yeah. Jason Christie. And then also the video coordinator and his name was Matt Smith got let go with Don. So dude, first of all, being Matt Smith today, waking up and like seeing that graphic, the following had been removed, head coach, assistant coach, and then the videographer or whatever, dude.
00:05:08
Speaker
As if anybody knows who the videographer is dude I feel bad for that guy
00:05:14
Speaker
If I asked you who the videographer you'd probably be like, I don't know some random dude named Matt Smith. Like pick two names. That's the second guess. So yeah, dude, Jake, what are your just initial, because I checked with you, what were your initial reactions when you first signed up today?
00:05:38
Speaker
I think not as strong as Tom said it up to be. I really did like him as a coach and a person. He didn't rub me the wrong way personally, like some of the other coaches that we've gone through in this drought era, which for the record has been eight. Don Granado was the eighth coach since the last time Buffalo made the playoffs.
00:05:58
Speaker
But yeah, I wish the results were different because I did like him as a coach. I think he had a lot of positives. There are a number of players that are better players today than they were before they started playing for Granado. And so I think his impact on the team will continue to be felt in future seasons when hopefully results are a bit different for the team as a whole.
00:06:26
Speaker
So yeah, you know, a bit melancholy for me. I'm really happy that we didn't run back the same coaching staff next year. It was clear that a different voice for the team was needed. Coaching changes happen in the NHL often because they work. Teams respond differently to different voices, and it was time for a new voice in the Sabres room.
Assistant Coaches' Future with the Sabres
00:06:52
Speaker
Yeah, dude, for sure. Um, I know for me, it was just, it was honestly relief. Like I did. And I'm glad that they like, I'm glad they're not wasting any time because obviously I'm relieved because I just don't have any amount of confidence that this is a guy that can get the job done.
00:07:08
Speaker
Um, and I, I want to echo your sentiments because obviously I went in on him hard last episode. Um, but he is a great dude. He's done a lot for the sport. Like the Granado family is a hockey family. Dude, Kenny Granado is an absolute.
00:07:25
Speaker
Pivotal figure in women's hockey dude like the sport owes me not owes but the sport respects the Granado family and and the guy is is I mean we had several players last year have career years under him, I think there is something to be said.
00:07:41
Speaker
about his ability to develop players. I just think he's not a head coach kind of guy. Yeah. So I admittedly feel a ton of relief for a bunch of reasons. One, I'm not going to spend all offseason wondering if we're going to waste another season with this guy. We're going to have our pick of the litter with coaches, right? Because it will get into Kevin and his presser today, but it sounds like the coaching search has gotten started as soon as today.
00:08:09
Speaker
Um, which, which feels pretty, pretty significant to me. Um, so yeah, dude, I think relief is the big thing that I'm feeling. Um, Tom, did you have something you wanted to add? I saw you sit back up or are you good? No, I just think it's, I think, I think it speaks dividends that they made the move right away.
00:08:29
Speaker
right? That they weren't going to just, you know, kind of dilly-daddle and not make a decision. Like, okay, rip the band-aid off, get the, let's turn the page. And I think that's important.
Potential Head Coach Candidates
00:08:39
Speaker
I agree. I think the decision wasn't made today or yesterday. I think, to me, I think the decision was probably made around the Detroit game a few Saturdays ago where they
00:08:49
Speaker
the we, I think we all remember it, they were down 3-0 in the first 10 minutes. Part of Kevin Adams' press conference today was talking about how he wanted to give this group of players with this coaching staff a chance to battle back into the playoff race. And so I think he has been thinking about this this season, but really kind of came to a head when they couldn't get up for
00:09:13
Speaker
those games where they couldn't win the next game. They couldn't battle their way back into a contention spot. There were always a game behind. So I think that probably was the nail in the coffin for the playoff hopes and probably the nail in the coffin for Don Granado. Yeah, a couple of Don Granado stats here. In four seasons, his record was 122, 125, and 27. So
00:09:36
Speaker
almost perfectly 500, which is just mediocre in the NHL. 500 isn't going to get you anything. This is a huge bullet point here. And shout out Jake. Jake was the one that did all this research in our planning document here and got all of our stats lined up. Don Granado, seventh most games coached without a playoff appearance in
Timeline for Hiring a New Coach
00:10:01
Speaker
league history. Dude, that feels like a crazy one.
00:10:06
Speaker
Like that's, that's bonkers. Yeah. I mean, you don't, you're not usually the coach of a team for four seasons in a row. If you don't make the playoffs in those four years. So yeah, it's telling, but, uh, we're moving, we're moving past it. I don't know about you, but I really liked some of the quotes that Kevin Adams said in his presser, uh, the, the early on in the press conference, he just owned up and said, look, it starts with me. I need to be better. It's on me. I'm the leader and I will be better.
00:10:36
Speaker
And I think you could blow that off as just kind of a nothing quote, but I think it's telling. It speaks to the culture that he's trying to instill and the leadership qualities that he has. And for a long time, I did not feel that there was any of that in the organization for, I mean, close to a decade, probably.
00:10:57
Speaker
tone at the top is important and he clearly, I think through his actions and his words embodies those things. So I was happy to hear that one.
00:11:08
Speaker
Yeah, I think for me as a fan, I want to see ownership of the failures being taken. I don't want to see finger pointing. And he's right, dude. I certainly think of all the things that were wrong this season.
00:11:29
Speaker
It's a lot more on Granado than it is on Kevin Adams. We all know I have some gripes with the team that he put together, but to be my own devil's advocate, he ran back the same team that was one point out of a playoff spot last season.
00:11:44
Speaker
You know, it's not like anything crazy. I will be very interested to see what his moves look like this offseason because I do not think you can run it back again and only change the coach. I think there does need to be some different things roster wise.
00:12:03
Speaker
Um, whether that's like type of player stylistically or, you know, something else. But I think this, this is an off season where you're going to see him be a little bit more active, almost out of necessity.
Kevin Adams' Leadership and Future Coaching Approach
00:12:16
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Um, one thing that I'm really, really, really, that I really loved with what I saw or heard from his presser today, he is, he is being deliberate in saying that we have to be done.
00:12:29
Speaker
Blaming the youth on on whatever this team shortcomings might be which I was so grateful to hear do because like Okay. Yes, these guys aren't old Right, but Darlene has been in the sea or been in the NHL since he was 18 and he's now 23 24 years old somewhere in there So like he's a he's a veteran like yeah He's 23 years old and at 23 I was doing disgusting gross things and not a professional athlete but like, you know
00:12:59
Speaker
That we have to tear that band-aid off to you think we can't we cannot continue to keep relying on that So I was really thankful to hear him bring that up in his presser today That was another one for me that was I was really grateful to hear Yeah
Season Performance and Improvement Areas
00:13:14
Speaker
agreed. I mean look at Zach Benson. He stepped in as an 18 year old you youth doesn't mean poor play and
00:13:23
Speaker
Age being an older team doesn't necessarily mean that you're gonna play well It's it's not really about the age of the team to me and it sounds like to Kevin Adams do and yeah Yeah, that's encouraging for sure. He said it. It's it's go time. It's His quote was it's time to perform on individual and team level Yeah times now. Yep. Time is now very much. Um, so along so
00:13:47
Speaker
Excuse me, let me backtrack here, we might some people might have noticed or might not have that there were some assistant coaches that were retained. And this one is a bit of a head scratcher to me but the coaches that were retained are Matt Ellis, Maddie Wilford, who are both assistant coaches so Matt Ellis runs the power play.
00:14:05
Speaker
Marty Wilford runs the PK and coaches the defense and then goalie coach Mike Bales. All three of those guys were retained. Kevin Eddings did indicate that there's a chance they could be in different roles. I guess if you wanted
00:14:21
Speaker
to use the word strength for this football team or football team, this hockey team, you could make the argument, I guess, that the PK was the strength. So today, and maybe I'm becoming famous, dude, Lance Lysowski, quote, tweeted me on X, Jake.
00:14:38
Speaker
from the let's walk out. Nice. It wasn't he crucified me because I I responded to him and was like because he tweeted about the the dog Renato news and I was like what's up with Wilford and and Ellis not being fired and I'll read you exactly what he said because I please do I got super stoked I was like oh shit dude Lance quote tweeted me like this is gonna be great
00:15:03
Speaker
for the pot yada yada yada now he basically called me an idiot i'm scrolling through x right now to try okay so i said lance what's the story with ellis and wilford not being fired as well they're just as guilty in my opinion are there contracts up this year and they didn't need to fire them
00:15:21
Speaker
He quote tweeted me with, why would the Sabres fire Wilford? PK and defensive forms were absolutely strengths this season. Don't be surprised if the next coach retains Wilford. Same with goalie coach Mike Bales. Also, Ellis may shift into an eye in the sky or development role.
00:15:38
Speaker
So I have an issue with him saying that they were quote, absolutely strengths this season. I think they were better than the offense, which is a bar that's like six inches off the ground to clear. So like, I certainly wouldn't call them strengths. If there's a member of the coaching staff you want to keep. Okay. I'll, I'll,
00:16:01
Speaker
I'll admit that of all of them, I would keep Wilford. But I certainly wouldn't point to the PK maybe. PK was pretty solid this year. I wouldn't point to our defense and be like, yeah, that was a really significant strength this year. Do you have thoughts on that at all, Jake?
00:16:17
Speaker
Yeah, no. Well, first of all, when you said he crucified you, I thought it was going to be a hell of a lot worse than that. Oh, no. That's crucifying for Lance. He's incredibly mild mannered on social media as a pundit probably should be just for their own sake. But yeah, he I don't know. Anytime any time a guy like that calls you out, it's like, oh, shit, dude.
00:16:39
Speaker
fair enough. Fair enough. No, I mean, I agree with him. I think I do disagree with you. I think penalty kill and defensive play were strengths of the team. I mean, you can you can say that as a relative sense compared to how the offense and power play looked for sure. But I don't think it's an
00:16:57
Speaker
I don't think it's an accident and I don't think it's only because of an increase in play quality for UPL and why he had such a good season. Part of the reason he had such a good season is team defense from the team. I think he stepped up in a lot of ways too, but a big part of it is the structure that they played with and
00:17:17
Speaker
keeping shots manageable for him. So yeah, to me, it makes sense that that is a strength of the team. I definitely think that he should stay. And it makes sense to me why all three were retained, particularly Mike Bales. I think he's done a fantastic job over the past five, six seasons that he's been in Buffalo.
00:17:34
Speaker
Yeah, I'm in on Mike Bell's stand. I'm good with that. Sorry, Jay, did you have more to say? I don't want to interrupt you. No, you're good. All I was going to say is it makes sense to me why they didn't get fired. I think you let the head coach come in. For all we know, they hire a head coach in May and all three of those guys are out the door on, you know, May 2nd after they hire somebody May 1st. We don't know, but they're retained right now. So if the new coaching staff wants to include those guys, great. If not, see ya.
00:18:02
Speaker
Sorry, I'm on a roll. One last thing too. I think the systems that they deployed with the significant exception of the power play weren't necessarily my biggest issue with the coaching staff. For me, the biggest gripe that I had was not being ready to play games, knowing that the first goal against was going to be against Buffalo and then not being able to
00:18:30
Speaker
pull your shit up and battle back. Yeah. Those are the big ones for me. And that's that's on the head coach. That's the head coach's job. Yeah. I am the only one I like you could you could make a case for me for Wilford Bales. I'm in on.
00:18:46
Speaker
Matt Ellis's power play was an absolute goddamn debacle, dude. And as soon as teams started cheating to that wing that Tage Thompson was on and limited that shot, we seem to have absolutely no answer. And with the talent on this roster, that to me is 80,000 different kinds of unacceptable. Matt Ellis, for me, is in the same bucket as Don Granato. Player development.
00:19:08
Speaker
player development, and that should be, that should just be where it starts and ends. So I don't know, man, I, Ellis for me is he needs to be an eye on the sky player development guy. And it sounds like Kevin Adams hinted at that in his presser today.
00:19:27
Speaker
Ryan here, one of my good buddies, Ryan. Ryan, thanks so much for hanging out with us, dude. Sees a point for the PK having a solid year with so many defensive laps. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of what I said, right? PK was insanely improved, but just, yeah, still a lot of defensive lapses that just felt like were big head scratchers for me. So we don't need to spend too much more time on this. Unless there's anything else you wanted to add, Jake or Tom?
00:19:53
Speaker
No, no, we can, we can move past. Cool. Um, he, he did have a couple of things. There were some questions asked about, um, what he's looking for in his next coach. And I think the thing that you and I are stoked on Jake is the fact that it sounds like let's see if his words go into action with the hiring. He is dead set on making sure that we have some legitimate NHL coaching experience in this, in this next hire.
00:20:18
Speaker
So that, right off the bat, eliminates a case for a guy like Seth Apert. Rickard Gromberg has been a guy that's been linked to the next head coaching job in NHL for a couple years. Mike Pekka, I saw a little bit. And then I saw, I'm going to blank on his name, but he deserves to have his name set because what he's doing with that program is insane. But the head coach over at Denver,
00:20:41
Speaker
Um, Denver, that guy is, is on a rocket to the NHL in terms of coaching. But, um, if, if Kevin Adam sticks to what he said, it won't be any of these guys that get hired. Um, what are your thoughts on some of the things that he mentioned for the next head coach, Jake? Uh, I, I was a little worried that they would hire Seth Appert as the coach too. Uh, it was thrown around. I don't know how much it was reported or more just commented on by Jeff Merrick. Um,
00:21:09
Speaker
But yeah, I'm happy that he won't be the coach. I don't think this team needs a young, inexperienced coach. They need somebody that can harness the talent that they have and get them ready to play every night and build their confidence as a group. And yeah, I think that's really important. It seemed like he had some front runners. Kevin Adams did.
00:21:35
Speaker
clear that he had a distinct direction in his mind where he wanted to go. And he specifically said that NHL head coaching pedigree is important to him. So I think that's good. And there's certainly a lot of names out there that could be good fits.
00:21:49
Speaker
Yeah, totally, dude. And I imagine you and I will get into this in an episode now that we know that this is going to be something that's going to happen this offseason. We're going to hire a new coach.
Impact of Player Injuries on Season
00:22:02
Speaker
Do we want to dive in with a name or two right now, Jake? Or do we save it? Maybe we touch on who's out there and just get the juices flowing with people. And we can dive into them more further, depending on how long the search takes. You put the list together, bro. Let it rip.
00:22:18
Speaker
All right, in no particular order, coaches out there that could be a good fit. Craig Berube, let go by St. Louis this year. I'll run through them quick. Lindy Ruff, let go by New Jersey this year. Old friend, Lindy. Not sure about that one, but he's on the list. He's got to be. Gerard Galant is high on this list. He last coached last season in New York and has had an excellent resume wherever he's gone.
00:22:48
Speaker
Bruce Boudreaux is another one that I threw out here. I think he might be a sneaky good fit. I'm not going to lie to you. Jay Woodcroft, another name out there, fired by Edmonton this past year. I don't think Edmonton's failures were necessarily his fault early in the season. Young coach, but still has experience. And then finally, on the list that we'll mention for today is Todd McClellan, let go by the Kings this season.
00:23:14
Speaker
Any names jump out to you in their notch real quick before we move past? I got two. And it's, it's Perubae and it's Galant.
00:23:22
Speaker
Those are the two right now that like, if, if we could put pen to paper on one of those guys immediately, uh, you take your pick. I think, I think they're pretty similar coaches. I think Galant based on every what I know is a little bit more of a player's coach, um, than, than Barube is. I think Barube is pretty no nonsense. Um, but I, I think that that is exactly what this team needs right now. And so for me, Barube and Galant are.
00:23:51
Speaker
are at the top of my list. What about you? Yeah, I agree. I think both those guys, I agree with you. Galant is more of a players coach and I think he relies a little bit more on some strong leadership in the room necessarily.
00:24:06
Speaker
I feel good about either of those guys. The other one I want to throw in there is Boost Boudreau. He's a very experienced coach. He's had success in places. And the biggest thing for me is players love him. And they love him because he is really good at building up confidence in his players and helping them gel together as a team and as individuals, I think, to get to where they need to go.
00:24:33
Speaker
I wouldn't be mad about him. I'm not saying he's the best option. I'm not saying I want him necessarily, but I think he is a very valid entry to the list. Yeah, for sure. I wouldn't be mad about that one.
00:24:46
Speaker
If you're listening, who do you want to be? Coach, let us know.
Optimism for Future Performance
00:24:50
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. What do you guys think the timeline is of a head coach high? Do we have to wait until the playoffs to be over or can that happen the next few weeks here? It kind of depends on who we're interviewing, right? If we're interviewing one of these guys that are just chilling on their couch watching the playoffs, then it's a different story. I believe, Jake, correct me if I'm wrong, some of those guys,
00:25:11
Speaker
specifically the guys at the bottom. Aren't they assistants in some places right now? There's a couple of assistants out there that are creeping their heads up as pretty legitimate head coaching candidates. So to answer your question, Tom, I think it's dependent on who we're interviewing. Can you interview coaches that are on playoff teams? You can. OK.
00:25:38
Speaker
you'd need permission and they'd have to agree to it but i'm correct it's what it's like the nfl all right it's unlikely though it's yeah it's it that happens way more in the nfl than it does in the nhl it's still allowed but for some reason the nhl most of that shit doesn't take place until the end of the season
00:25:54
Speaker
It blows my mind that NFL coaches during a playoff run will go. I know. I hate that, dude. I absolutely hate that. It's not going to happen. Yeah, it's no that's really I there may even be rules that they're not allowed to. But it's actually I think I just pulled that out of my ass trying to sound confident. I might be wrong. That checks out. But you guys both bought it. Jake, look for a second. But he was like he was so confident. He might be right.
00:26:24
Speaker
Yeah, I honestly am pretty sure that it's allowed but it isn't common. No. And significantly less so than the NFL, that's for sure. So in theory, we're getting a decision the next few weeks here. You would be surprised if it was further than that? It can take some time.
00:26:43
Speaker
That's it depends on the, on the team, like some teams fire a coach and hire somebody else a few days later. Others can take months with it. Um, I just given how Kevin Adams presented it, it seems like he has some candidates on a short list. I think it'll probably be a few weeks, not a few months, but.
00:27:01
Speaker
The the way that Kevin Adams spoke in that in that presser today, it sounded like he was starting interviews like today, like he was finishing up that presser and then heading to an interview. Well, guys, I got my call. So, yeah, those were the vibes that he was giving off. He's like, no, it's starting today. And I was just like, damn, OK, like, hey, you know, good.
00:27:25
Speaker
Man, good. I feel similarly, Tom. I think it is good. Don't sit on your freaking hands, figure it out. And that tells me two things. He's not interested in somebody that's currently coaching, that sometimes teams could wait around to see who gets let go after a bad playoff stumble or something like that. And secondly, and more importantly, I think Kevin Adams wants a coach in place before the draft at the end of June.
00:27:48
Speaker
So yeah, that's a big one. Um, here's the only thing I would say with waiting for coaches, Jake and, and this guy, I would pick above anybody else on the planet right now, but Rob, Brenda Morris contract is up. And then in this season, I would back up the pranks truck for, for Rob, the Bob dude. I think, I think, I think he is just a monster. I mean, a monster player, his whole career.
00:28:14
Speaker
right, but then like, I don't know, dude, I'd be so thrilled if Rod Bryndamore was the coach of this team. I don't know why on God's green earth, he would leave Carolina right now when they're like, they're right there, dude. Like they're, it's going to take one thing going their way for them to be extended cup winners, but
00:28:31
Speaker
They're, I agree. They're right there. They have a lot of pressure on them this year. They, they booked the trends that they usually do of not picking up rental players with grabbing Jake Gensil. Um, and they've, they've not really made a convincing deep run yet with the score. I think pressure is on to them. So, which if the pressure's on and they stumble again, I wonder if they're like, listen, Brenda, we're not going to re-up you.
00:28:58
Speaker
could be. I mean, he's he's been there a long time. Yeah, that's a that's a that's a hypothetical, but I'm here for it. Yeah. All right. So we're going to get more into this coaching stuff. Jake and I probably while Tom's on maternity leave, well, we will probably get a coaching episode in here and dig into some more with some of these candidates that we would like to see.
00:29:21
Speaker
But with that being said, we will now officially get into our full saber season autopsy, which was the original plan for today. But with the Don Granado firing, we knew we had we just felt like we had to start with that. It's connected. It's connected. Yeah, for sure. Jake, you like I said, do this planning doc is gorgeous. Do you want to do you want to take us through what you've got here? Do you want me to do it?
00:29:44
Speaker
Sure, I can. Yeah, I think to keep us moving because we got a lot to cover here. We do. So what I did was I looked at the season record and broke it down into 10 game chunks. So first time games all the way through. The last chunk obviously is 12 to get to the full 82 game mark. I'm not going to read through every chunk of games in their record or anything like that.
00:30:03
Speaker
But overall, the Sabres finish the season 39, 37 and 6 with a total of 84 points and that equates to a 0.51% points percentage. You mentioned it earlier when we were talking about Granada's record. You're not going anywhere with a 0.5% point percentage in the NHL.
00:30:24
Speaker
And here they are. They missed the playoffs. They significantly underperformed. They finished with seven less points in the current season than they did the previous. Unacceptable for a team that just rolled it back pretty much the same roster, same coach. With that said, some of the overarching trends from this 10 game chunk little analysis that I did
00:30:46
Speaker
is there's more consistency than I think there was in the previous season. The previous season they had a significant dip in the fall and then climbed back and overperformed in the spring. This year, 2023, 2024, there was more consistency where in 10 game stretches they were winning four or five or six games. No more, no less. And
00:31:12
Speaker
Yeah, it's just not a consistency is good, but you need to be a little bit better with your consistency. It took them until chunk six, one, two, three, four, five, yeah, chunk six to win six games. So that's games 51 to 60 of the season. And we talked about this before too. I think their first three game winning streak came sometime in February. You're not going to the playoffs if you're losing every other game. And that's pretty much what they did
00:31:43
Speaker
We'll get to some reasons why in a moment or two here, but any other thoughts you had on looking at that? Did anything surprise you or jump out to you that you didn't expect?
00:31:53
Speaker
I truly do. The consistency is remarkable. Point percentages in each of these chunks.
Coaching Responsibilities and Player Readiness
00:32:00
Speaker
I'm going to read these. So this is the percentage of points that we got out of what we could have got, right? Out of the amount of points we could have gotten in these 10 game stretches with that last one being the 12. So 50%, 50%, 35%, 55%, 50%, 60%, 55%, 54%.
00:32:23
Speaker
That is absolutely crazy, dude. You're so consistently mediocre that it's almost, it flirts with being impressive. How are you that mediocre for that long? Yeah. 82 games of mediocrity. Absolutely incredible, dude. It is, yeah. But here we are.
00:32:44
Speaker
And so based on what you put here, Jake, that stretch from November 25th to December 13th, that seems like that was something that kind of killed us in a way. But that was such a terrible stretch of getting points. This is a great visual, dude.
00:32:59
Speaker
Yeah, I'm good. Continue. Yeah, I think it's important. And so with that consistency, consistently average throughout the season, but they started off kind of not on the right foot for the season. They drew a tough matchup for game one. They had the present trophy winning Rangers, but then they fumbled the bag against the Islanders the next two nights later. And that theme just kind of continued where they dug themselves a hole.
00:33:28
Speaker
By October 26, so two weeks into the season, they were four points out of a playoff spot at that point, they never were able to recover, they, they, I think at one point climbed to within three points of a playoff spot, but
00:33:44
Speaker
they were consistently behind the eight ball for the entire season. And there are teams that can overcome that and battle back from that, but it's hard. It's not easy. There's a reason that teams that are in a playoff spot on November 1st and American Thanksgiving as some milestones, those teams typically go on to make the postseason.
00:34:07
Speaker
So just for reference, this year in the Western Conference, six out of the eight teams that qualified for the playoffs were in a playoff spot on Thanksgiving. In the East, at least six of eight teams that were in a playoff spot at American Thanksgiving are now in the playoffs.
00:34:22
Speaker
Uh, the, the, there's some big match ups tonight to decide that last spot, but Washington, Detroit, Philadelphia, they're all still double teams. So point being, most teams that make the play, that make the playoffs are performing well consistently throughout the season, but in a slightly better clip than Buffalo was consistent this year. Yeah. Um, so more points out feels so close. It's two games. It's two wins, right? That feels like nothing. And it was from October.
00:34:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. This is one of the issues that you get, not issues, but like crazy things with, with, with sports that have such crazy long seasons like this. Yeah.
Individual Player Performance Analysis
00:34:59
Speaker
Whoa. Excuse me. I burped. Um, there's that nine and a half rockets of ruin coming up. Um, so yeah, like, like baseball, dude, like baseball, they play what? Like, I don't know, just under 200 games in a season. Like it's this,
00:35:18
Speaker
Oh my god, baseball's so stupid. Clearly not a baseball podcast. I don't know why I'm even bringing up baseball on this. Continue Jake. I don't know. What an idiot dude.
00:35:30
Speaker
You're right. You're right. No, like a statistical number of like statistical averages that can happen here. It's like it's just wild that you can't get yourself out. Right. All right. Whereas football, like two weeks can change the entire course of the whole, whole new life. Yeah. All right. Continue. You're doing great. Thank you. No, I mean, it just goes to show you can't make the playoffs in October, but you can put yourself out of them in October for sure.
00:35:59
Speaker
Yeah, we beat that dead horse with the Granado conversation. But the team needs to come out ready to play both in the season and in individual games. So moving past that, that's kind of how they missed the playoffs in their mediocrity. So now I wanted to talk just a little bit about why they were so mediocre, why some of the trends throughout the season stat-wise of how they performed.
00:36:27
Speaker
Not a lot to do with eye test or anything like that, but more stat-wise. I'll start here with five-on-five play. I'll say this about five-on-five play. The biggest correlator to success in the NHL is how you perform at even strength against your opponent.
00:36:48
Speaker
And frankly, the season for the Sabres, it was it was underwhelming. They were 24th in the NHL for expected goals at five on five play. And so basically what that means is that that's that is from money puck. They track the total number of shots and how many are expected to go into the net.
00:37:07
Speaker
Uh, and then compare that and break that down by team. And so the Sabres were 24th in the NHL hovering right above teams like Chicago, San Jose, uh, you know, Columbus teams that were at the basement. Um, now juxtapose that against the total number of five and five goals that they scored. They were 10th in the league.
00:37:28
Speaker
So they overperformed their five-on-five expected amount of goals that they should have scored. And so those two things combined, flat out, they just need to be better at five-on-five. How you get there, that's for the coaching staff. That's not for me, but that's just, I'll beat that road all day long. That has to be better. You will not win in the NHL if you can't compete five-on-five. Anything you want to say on that before I move down to some special theme stuff?
00:37:57
Speaker
No, man, I think it's obviously that stat makes sense, right? 90% of the game is five on five play. Power plays are only two minutes, and it's a 20 minute period, 60 minutes in the game. So that makes perfect sense that that stat is that correlative to success. And yeah, I'm not going to pretend and be able to explain the x's and o's of what
00:38:25
Speaker
a good hockey team, but if we do go back to I test things, man, it's as I said this before on the pod, the Sabres are bar none at their best when they are playing with that same, the aggressive four check and taking away that time and space. And I think once you get a coach in there that, you know, embodies that whole thing full time, you're going to see a different kind of Sabres team, but maybe I'm completely wrong. No, I agree with you. And that's it's a few bullets down, but this is a good time to talk about it. It's just the offense in general.
00:38:55
Speaker
I agree with you, when they're aggressively forechecking, that's when they're at their best. But some teams go in with a bruiser forechecking mentality, where they're using their body to force space. The savers are really at their best when they're using their speed, not their size or aggressiveness, to create disruption and pressure the puck. But we didn't see it in every game.
00:39:21
Speaker
Conversely, if they're playing a team that does pressure them more with the body and is more physical, that's where they really seem to get shut down and unable to rise above that.
00:39:35
Speaker
So it's a more consistent approach with their forechecking. And also, it's adaptability too. When a team comes in to your building or wherever you're playing and tries to dominate you physically, you need to have an answer for that. And it doesn't have to be matching the physicality.
00:39:55
Speaker
But it's got to be something. It seemed like often the Sabres would just get kind of, they would get hit and they would just crumple. There wasn't a, there wasn't a pushback, even if it, and again, I don't want to, like, it doesn't have to be a physical pushback.
00:40:08
Speaker
directly back. It doesn't have to be an equal and opposite force, but there needs to be at some change to the play style, to the system, to whatever it is where you are able to adapt and overcome and play against different styles of teams. You're not a good team if you can only win one way, and it seemed like that's kind of what they were doing this year.
00:40:27
Speaker
Jake, I'm going to throw your name in the coaching hat for the Savers. I will decline because I want to see my team win. He's going to be like, hey, Kevin, you know, I got this buddy, Jake.
00:40:43
Speaker
I'll send you a clip or two, OK? Pretty smart. What this guy has to say. He's you know, he won't win too many games, but he's really tall, really handsome. He might bullshit his way into some good sounding answers here and there, but that's right. That's right. But.
00:41:00
Speaker
You are right. You hit the nail on the head. 5 on 5 play is the majority of the game. Special teams are impactful, but not necessarily the biggest correlator to success. With that said, the power play fucking sucked this year. Correct. They were 28th in the NHL with a 16.6% success rate on the power play. That is just flat out not good enough.
00:41:29
Speaker
Because there is a lot of offensive firepower and talent on the team. And it's clear that something needs to give. It improved kind of towards the end of the season a little bit, but it was grim.
00:41:44
Speaker
during the beginning and middle of the season. And look, we're not talking about moving mountains. You don't need to have a 30% power play to succeed. If you bump that up to 20% and you pot maybe, I don't know what that correlates to, like five, six more goals, that can be a difference maker in three, four games. And then all of a sudden you're right there in the race again. So it is important. And
00:42:12
Speaker
It's so crazy to me. So Buddy Ryan, who had some comments here on the live stream, we were talking today. Has Matt Ellis once
Goaltender Performance Focus
00:42:24
Speaker
in his career as a player, was he ever once on the power play?
00:42:28
Speaker
Like, why is he running this, dude? Matt Ellis was a career bottom six grinder, dude. And that's not to say, it's not automatic, that good players equate good coaches, or that bad players equate to bad coaches. However, I do take a little, I do the confused Golden Retriever thing, right? Sideways head. When I see, OK, when I think about Matt Ellis as a player,
00:42:58
Speaker
And then I think about him running a power play. I'm very confused at that, but I digress. I agree. I have no idea if he was actually, I'm sure he wasn't like juniors or something like that, but so was every player in the NHL. They all were on their power play one in juniors. For sure. I don't know. Yeah. Something's got to give there. For sure. Anyways, I mean, so that we alluded to the penalty kill being better and it was, um,
00:43:28
Speaker
I don't want to harp on that. I don't think that was a reason that they performed where they were. I think that was a bit of a buoy kind of keeping them in where they were. But I do want to talk about something that could be used as an excuse. I'm not trying to say that it's an excuse, but I think we need to acknowledge what it was. There were a few significant injuries that I think hampered the team.
00:43:54
Speaker
Not Quinn Hughes. Quinn Hughes plays for Vancouver. God, I wish. I wish. No, Jack Quinn. He went down last offseason with a freak Achilles training injury. And he got injured. I forgot what the injury was, but midseason after he came back, he went down again. Something with his knee. Something with his knee. So he's proving to be a bit injury prone.
00:44:17
Speaker
which is a little concerning. We'll see how that progresses. But when he played, he was fantastic. A significant improvement from his play the prior year when he played more games, but with less of an impact. So if he can have a good off season and come in healthy and ready to play and play for, I'll say 60 plus games would be ideal.
00:44:44
Speaker
I think you're adding a true second line winger to your roster that you really didn't have for a lot of the year. Yeah. I agree 110% there. I'm going to get into him more a little bit later.
00:44:57
Speaker
Heck yeah, I'm in. I know we're thinking of the same player. Who's the other one that was injured but played more games? Yeah, so Tage Thompson. Tage Thompson broke his hand earlier in the season. And the speed at which he came back, obviously, this is not as significant of an injury. So it's not as big of a deal. But the thing that comes to mind is how quickly Adrian Peterson came back from the ACL injury. But he was insane and Tage Thompson was not.
00:45:25
Speaker
Taze Thompson just came back way way way way too early because I think he felt like he needed to and he was he was physically able to was he full health no and I think you can see that from the way as the season went on his numbers improved right like
00:45:42
Speaker
I don't know, dude, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that playing hockey with a broken hand or a freshly keeled broken hand sounds easy to do in any capacity. So I'm willing to give Tate Thompson a little bit of a break there, but I do think that his play was significantly hampered through from when he came back to the injury until about a month and a half ago.
00:46:08
Speaker
Yeah, maybe right around there too. I would maybe you could make a case for two months ago. That's a huge chunk of the season. Sorry, I interrupted you. Yeah. That's when he started looking better. I think who knows when he actually felt better with his hand, but right, right. So yeah, that's when you're leading leading goal scorer and your most lethal offensive weapon breaks their hand. It comes back to you soon. I mean, yeah, that's, that's a problem for your offense. No doubt.
00:46:33
Speaker
agreed. Yeah, and he like in the he's had about the last two seasons before this one were kind of his his breakout year his okay, he might be a superstar year and then this year where he kind of underperformed in those two seasons prior, he was a 15 to 16% shooter. And that dip to 11.8 this year. So sub 12. If he comes back with a healthy hand and can stay healthy next year, and that number rises to doesn't have to get up that high. But like,
00:47:02
Speaker
13, 14%. I mean, he was a 29 goal scorer, almost 30 goal scorer this year. I mean, he could be right back up there 35, 38 goal scorer again. Hell yeah. You know, the other player, I think Alex Tuck started the year pretty slow. And I think there was some rumor of him having kind of a nagging injury as well. But he had a down year as well. The other player I wanted to mention just
00:47:25
Speaker
not because he was injured, I think he was fairly healthy, but Jeff Skinner is notorious for having a torching season where he is going off and then having a down year. Well, this was the down year, so I'm expecting him to bounce back next year and put up 30 goals, 40 assists, something like that.
00:47:47
Speaker
We'll see. We'll see. The other side, the other big injury, who's again, another player proving to be injury prone, Mattias Samuelson, dude. He missed half the season. I have no, no confidence that he won't miss half a next season too. Oh God. Don't say that, dude. I, cause I feel like this team needs him.
00:48:10
Speaker
I'm willing to give him one more season man, but if it's if it's anything like the injuries have been the last two seasons I'm gonna be Bang in the bang in the table to trade him or get rid of him somehow We'll see I'm not I'm not that far along I'm not that far along I hear Lance typing right now
00:48:32
Speaker
He's one of our 13 viewers right now. He's like this. No. All right. We'll move on to one last position before we wrap things up a little bit. Uh, goaltending man. UPL. How good was he in the second half of the year? He was what we would call goddamn awesome in the business. Phenomenal. Phenomenal. Scientific term. Yeah, exactly.
00:48:54
Speaker
I think Devin Levi coming
Preseason Predictions Review
00:48:56
Speaker
in was the biggest, uh, push for that guy that it could have been. Hell yeah, bro. Him. So, so that plus, like I mentioned it before, team defense improving. I think those two things made him soar. Like he, he started a, okay. Uh,
00:49:13
Speaker
But he really took off in 2024, after January 1. I want to read you some stats on UPL after January 1. He had 20 wins in 2024, which was fourth in the NHL. He had a 9-19 save percentage, third in the NHL. And he was tied for first in the NHL with, he definitely had more than one shutout since January 1. I wrote that down wrong.
00:49:42
Speaker
I'm looking at it with you and I'm like... I was like, wait, that's not right, yeah. Let me see if I can find it. I'll produce a little bit, Jake. I got it too. But point being, he had five shutouts over the course of the season and had zero last year. He just had a meteoric rise. He had four shutouts, four shutouts in 2024. There we go.
00:50:06
Speaker
Yeah, so just he deserves some flowers. He had a great season. Absolutely. He kept them in as much in the race as they were, which was not really anything that anyone should have taken seriously. But I know some people did. All right. Yes or no question. Does he can continue that momentum into next season? Yes or no. Don't give me a dialogue. I want yes or no. I want some bold takes here. Yes. I'm also going to say yes. OK.
00:50:38
Speaker
Well, speaking of bold takes, I think we should circle back to our bold, baseless, and I think bodacious. Bodacious is my first part. Yeah. Back in October. Tom, do you want to take us through these? I would love to. I would love to. So Nigel, in his infinite wisdom, he
00:51:06
Speaker
He predicted that the Sabres would finish as a top three team in the Atlantic. Nope. Not even close. He also predicted that Rasmus D'Alene would win the Norse. It hasn't been voted on, but yeah, then no, there's no shot. No, he didn't. And then Jake predicted
00:51:34
Speaker
that the Sabres would finish with a better PK in the top half of the league. Last year, they were 28th. And this year they were what, Jake? 13th. Hey, that's better. That's better. Hey, that's top half, right? Like that's that feels like that's where you want it to be. Yeah. Right. Top 10, top five would be amazing, but top half is where you want to be. But you don't need it to be. You just need it to be. You need it to be sufficient. Yeah. 13th is perfectly fine.
00:52:02
Speaker
Okay, cool. He also predicted that JJ Paterka would score 20 plus goals and have 60 plus points. He ended the year with 28 goals, so correct, and 22 assists which equated to 50 points. So close, but not quite.
00:52:19
Speaker
Close. It was there. It was there. Yeah. Goals are sexier than assists. So he had
Season Superlatives and Standout Players
00:52:25
Speaker
a great season, man. 28 goals for a second year player is fantastic. So I was really bullish on him after the World Championships last spring, which for those that don't know, the NHL playoffs go on after the NHL season. But there's an international tournament that happens typically in Europe.
00:52:47
Speaker
country by country. And so a lot of players that are eliminated from the playoffs go off and play for their home country in that tournament. But he had a phenomenal tournament. And you typically see players that are young that are ready to break out do well in that tournament come back the following season, hungry and ready to go. And that's exactly what he did. That's why I predicted that. Love that. Love that.
00:53:08
Speaker
And then my, my dart throws here, uh, were that, uh, I predicted the incorrect goalie, uh, that Devin Levi would finish the season within the top 10 in the league, um, and say percentage. Um, and he, he did not because he spent all a lot of time in Rochester. Well, he did Tom. He wasn't up then goalie just in the role league. Yeah, I did not. You're right. Yeah. You know, the,
00:53:32
Speaker
These numbers for Levi in the AHL this season are okay. This is going to be, I didn't even think about this until I'm looking at this right now, a perfect encapsulation as to why you don't look at goals against average, but you look at save percentage.
00:53:50
Speaker
Okay, so Levi's numbers in the AHL finished with a 14, six and three record, a 0.925 save percentage, which look at me in my eyes, YouTube and Twitter. That's effing sick. Okay, 0.925 save percentage is crazy. Okay. Yeah.
00:54:10
Speaker
Okay, now, a 2.48 goals against average. That's not a gorgeous number, dude. What that tells me, it's not a bad number. What that tells me is that Rochester allows a crap ton of shots, dude. This is why save percentage is the king stat for goalies, man. Because if you are playing for the Sabres and getting 45 shots of game cranked on you,
00:54:35
Speaker
versus being the goalie for the Boston Bruins and facing like 23 shots a game, right? Like that step matters, bro. And insanely matters .925 on the Bruins. You're one in the Stanley Cup every time.
00:54:51
Speaker
Like that's, and that's obviously like a stretch. I'm exaggerating, but like on the Bruins, if you're with the amount of shots that they give up because they're so defensively sound, that's a crazy stat. It's even more crazy as a goalie that's facing 40 plus shots a game. And that's where I'll end it. It's almost like working in
Players to Watch Next Season
00:55:12
Speaker
a shooting gallery is a problem, huh? Yeah, a little bit. Oh man.
00:55:18
Speaker
I'm a goalie nerd. I love learning and hearing about goalies. And there's a particular goalie that I follow that I really like named Kevin Weeks.
00:55:31
Speaker
Yeah, we should we don't have time today. We should do a separate goaltending episode. I would be so down, dude. Yes. Because my my heart sank when you said save percentage is the most important goalie staff. I think it is. Book it now, folks. Book it into the channel later. It's we're going to have a goal, the great goalie debate.
00:55:53
Speaker
it was a goal. What are you going to do? Oh my God. I have a correction too. It's not Kevin Weeks. Kevin Weeks is great, but it's Kevin Woodley. Kevin Woodley is the guy that I really enjoy. Okay. All right. Anyways. Yeah. Oh, we'll, we'll have a, we'll have a goaltending of the summer. Tom, take us through the last, uh,
00:56:15
Speaker
prediction here. Yeah. Well, this one was fine. Um, the team was as a whole would have a strong first third of the season waiver in the middle and then put it together for the last third. And Jake, what happened?
00:56:25
Speaker
Well, they didn't do any of those things. They were aggressively and consistently mediocre. Yes, we love it. Now, boys, at the end here, I would love to get some pomp and circumstance playing. I wish I should have had the drop, but I would like some. They go, they go, they go. And we have some superlatives of the 2023,
Closing Thoughts and Social Media Reminder
00:56:48
Speaker
2024 season. And these two fine looking gentlemen will have some nominations to submit.
00:56:55
Speaker
So do you guys want to how do you want what's the we didn't talk about process? Well, maybe you did and I wasn't there. That's exactly what happened. Well, so I call him out and you guys go or how do you want to do this? So Tom will call him up by the way it's going to go. Jake was a little bit better with his prep and he has. So we have five superlatives to give out here. Those superlatives are going to be MVP.
00:57:19
Speaker
Most improved player, most polarizing slash controversial player, most disappointing and most excited for next year. I have one player for each category, and there's a couple of categories where Jake has a few. So I'm going to go first for each category. Tom, you can write them off, but I'll do mine first each time and Jake will follow up. OK, cool.
00:57:42
Speaker
MVP most valuable player for me this is UPL dude I don't think we're even sniffing that playoff conversation even a tiny little baby bit if he's not standing on his head and he obviously makes a case for most improved player too but like Jake said goalie success is also dependent on team defense so that's why I stuck with UPL as the MVP just some quick quick glow up numbers here
00:58:10
Speaker
UPL's safe percentage and goals against average for last season in the NHL. He played about 15 games in the AHL or something around there. I did not include those games with this sample. This is only his NHL games. So, 22-23 season, .892 safe percentage, 3.59 goals against average.
00:58:31
Speaker
This season a point nine one zero save percentage with a three point. Oh Seven goals against average so crazy crazy crazy Improvement to this season and literally the last third was just putting the entire team damn team on his back Jake yeah See this is good. I had him but this is good. I have other names. So I want to talk about Victor Olafson for MVP
00:58:59
Speaker
Oh my God, I'll log off right now. I'm sorry to throw him under the bus. He won't be here next year anyways. But no, the only name I had written down for this was UPL. I didn't feel that anybody really grabbed the reins, offense or defense. There were some players that had some decent seasons, but there wasn't anybody that really stuck out to me as having a bonafide MVP level season.
00:59:26
Speaker
Except UPL, he like you, I'm not going to repeat what you said, but yeah, incredible stretch, uh, from January 1st onward, incredible season. He improved a lot. He was the MVP for me. Yeah, for sure. All right. Category number two, most improved player.
00:59:43
Speaker
Yeah, this one for me, I could have been UPL but JJ Paterka, dude. So last season, 77 games played, 12 goals, 20 assists for 32 points. That's a solid rookie season. This season, 82 games played.
00:59:59
Speaker
that in and of itself right there love a guy who's available and healthy 82 games played 28 goals so more than doubled from his rookie year with 22 assists for 50 points so yeah a major glow up for our boy JJ Paterka from the rookie year to the sophomore season there really was yeah he we mentioned him already with the
01:00:22
Speaker
predictions, uh, incredible, incredible year. He looked more confident passing the eye test, the stat test, like whatever, whatever test you want to put his season through, he passed it for sure. Fantastic. And so I, I, I think, I think we might look back and he might be the best prospect we develop in house looking back on this era. That would be, I would be 0% shocked at the trajectory he's on right now.
01:00:51
Speaker
Yeah. So yeah, he's he's mine too. The other name I wrote down there was UPL. Obviously he had to glow up too for sure. Yeah.
01:01:01
Speaker
This one's fun. Most polarizing slash controversial player. Yeah, I struggled with this one and I ended up landing on Matias Samuelson. I think people like you and I, Jake, I would be in this bucket a little bit. Injury concerns with Matias Samuelson at this point. He's now missed a significant amount of time over the course of two seasons.
01:01:23
Speaker
but that being said, if he can stay healthy, dude, I in particular am very bullish on, on Mattias Samuelson. I think he fits that prototype jam kind of player I'm talking about. Usually when I talk about jam.
01:01:39
Speaker
I'm talking a little bit more about forward since they're the ones for checking and they're the ones down the battles in the offensive zone. But defensively, he's the only guy on the team right now besides Clifton that really packs a punch physically. He's not crazy skilled, but he's a stay at home defenseman. I shouldn't say that because Dolly packs a punch physically too. But Samuelson and he's like our, in my opinion, our best stay at home defenseman, you know,
01:02:06
Speaker
He's going to be where he's supposed to be while guys like Dauleen and Bowen Byram go and do their thing. Some people don't like that defensive pairing. Some people do. I typically do fall in the liking that pairing category, but I see a lot of lack of love for Matias Sanderson from a lot of the fan base. It feels very split. Yeah, I think that's a good one. I only had one name written down, but it genuinely was a different one. So okay.
01:02:33
Speaker
I picked this category for this player and that player is Dylan Cousins. I think to me, as far as the eye test goes, was a player that had stretches of greatness and stretches of just, Dylan, you look lost out there. I thought it was kind of a game by game basis. I thought he often struggled with how he fit into his line and how he fit against the other team.
01:03:04
Speaker
Um, and look, I mean, he had a, he had a great year last year, so that's, that's something to, to commend him for, but he struggled this year. He, he had about 20 less points. He had significantly less goals. I think he had, um, yeah, he had less than 20 goals this year. Um, I need to see that improve. If he, he signed that big contract, uh, he's, he's the second, the second line center and the first line center, quite frankly, role is up for grabs for the next.
01:03:33
Speaker
four, five, six seasons, whatever he wants it to be really while he's under contract. I need him to go out and take it. Like he has the makings to be a selky candidate year in and year out. He has the makings to be a Anjay Koppatar-esque player. I know that's a lofty ceiling, but I think he has the skill. He has the wherewithal to do that. I need him to go out and prove it year over year over year over year. And he fell short of that this year.
01:04:01
Speaker
That's all I'll say on him. I think, I think he, he has a big opportunity to prove that this year was a fluke. Um, but he needs to do it. Totally agreed. Next category, most disappointing.
01:04:16
Speaker
So, Dylan Cousins. Yeah, that was my guy for this category. And I'm going to lead off with this. I'm very willing to write this off as a fluke for Dylan Cousins. My best guess as to what happened because I thought he looked really good his rookie year. And I thought last year, he obviously had the crazy glow up last year with the crazy numbers, which I'll get to in a second.
01:04:39
Speaker
I'm gonna guess that And I'm gonna use the word immaturity, but he's not immature in the sense that he makes immature decisions He's just young I'm gonna chalk up this season to a choking under the pressure with the massive contract that he signed with the massive numbers that he put up last season I Agree with everything you just said Jake. I think Dylan cousins does have that caliber of ceiling
01:05:06
Speaker
I think with between his physicality and his speed and what he can do with the puck. I think he's a great hockey player. I think this, I think this was a, it's not a sophomore season but I think it was a sophomore slump from last season. And we combine that with choking under the pressure with the big new contract.
01:05:24
Speaker
Numbers between last year and this year last year 81 games played 31 goals 37 assists for 68 points this season 79 games played so still healthy and pretty damn resilient 18 goals 29 assists for 47 points you can't have that from your second-line center like Jake just said and that's all I need to say because Jake just did a great job of breaking down Dylan cousins and
01:05:49
Speaker
Hey, thank you. That's a good one. Yeah, for sure. We had similar, similar sentiment, different categories for me for disappointing. I'm going to give you two names. One of them, it is their fault. One of them, it isn't Jack Quinn, not his fault injuries. You want to see him not be so injury prone in the future. Um, but I was really disappointed that he didn't live up to expectations because of those injuries. So I won't harp on him. The other one that I do want to talk about that was disappointing to me, Peyton Krebs.
01:06:18
Speaker
Hmm. I didn't even think about him and you're probably correct. No, I'm not correct. These are opinion based, but, uh, look, I mean, for a first round draft pick, um, came over in the Eichel trade. He had a, he had a decent year last year, uh, nine goals, 17 assists in 2022, 2023. And I thought had more flashes last year of looking.
01:06:42
Speaker
like a first round pick player than he did this year. I thought he was a bit unnoticeable at times, only scored 17 points in 80 games, four goals, 13 assists. Like that's fine if he's going to be your fourth line center and play a kind of a shutdown role, which to be fair is kind of the position that he's been slotted. But with his draft pedigree and his age and his play style, I had a lot higher expectations for him. And I was very disappointed by the way he played.
01:07:11
Speaker
Hmm. I, for me, Peyton Grossman, I, I still think it's an opportunity thing. I think like you just said, he's been stuck in that fourth line role and I just don't, I don't know, man. Like I feel like I say so many times a season. Wow. Peyton Krebs vision is crazy so much. Yeah. He's got great vision and great hands, but he's, he's not in a position to use them all the time. Yeah. And that's why, that's why for me, like I'm really just hoping that he is going to,
01:07:40
Speaker
be put in a different situation. Yeah. And he sometimes does. He sometimes does get slotted up in the lineup, but I don't feel like he.
01:07:47
Speaker
grabs it and goes for it. Yeah. So that could be more telling to have a broader issue. But yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Yep. Tom, last one, buddy. Final category. Most excited for next year. And that one for me is Jack when did you take his numbers and you extrapolate them over 32 or 32 seasons and also not that many games, 82 games. What the hell, dude? He's sniffing 30 goals. He's right there with that with that.
01:08:17
Speaker
of the
01:08:36
Speaker
Big asterisk there because he's kind of flirting with that Mateus Samuelson path But if he stays healthy over an 82 game season, I think 30 goals is a Borderline lock for him. Yes crazy
01:08:53
Speaker
agreed. He has a great shot. He's got great offensive awareness and I think he's a great, a great passer too. He's, he's a, he's a very, I think well-rounded player, just needs to stay healthy. And if I can tack on, I think he's typically played on a line with JJ Paterka. Think about those two feeding off each other for 82 games and tell me why you're not about to like need to lie down for a minute thinking about that.
01:09:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's what I'm saying, did you put a center that's just that you put it like a like a center that just as a monster playmaker between those two is both of those two are showing that they're goal scorers, dude. I mean, you put a you'll never get a guy like this or I shouldn't say never, but like a Mitch Marner or not Mitch Marner. Oh, I'm having a brain fart. Give me a team. Because it could be it could be so many a really good playmaking center between those guys. And they're going to put up some sick goals.
01:09:48
Speaker
I totally agree, man. Yeah, I think we got robbed a little bit at the beginning of the year, not having the kid line, cousins, Quinn and Pritarka together. So we'll see where they slot in the fall. I'll throw two more. Yeah, it's most excited to see. One, we touched on already. Tage Thompson, healthy. Bring that shooting percentage up. Let him run. I feel like he had a breakout year two years ago. Now this year, teams, one, he was injured. Two, teams caught on to his tricks and how the Sabres were deploying him.
01:10:17
Speaker
Give him a new coach. Give him this mindset of like, OK, teams are aware of me now. Now I need to change what I'm doing to combat that. And I think he pops off again next year. So I'm excited for that. The other one, we haven't talked about Zach Benson hardly at all today, and I wanted to say his name. Yeah.
01:10:34
Speaker
Dude, 18 years old, I don't think he's turned 19 yet, but what an incredible season from that kid. He had 30 points or did he, did he hit 30? I did. Yeah. 11 goals, 19 assists, 30 points in 71 games. Like, so half a point per game as an 18 year old playing against full-ass men.
01:10:53
Speaker
It's a great season. Oh, I'm going to start to drool. Not to mention, like we've talked about it all year, but his forechecking and tenacity and board battles and things like that. He's an excellent young player. I think there he was picked what 13th. I think, uh, I think there's a couple players, a couple players.
01:11:11
Speaker
Yeah, a couple of players. Well, I'll say 11 teams. I think Conor Burdard was the right choice. But I think there's a couple more. But there's at least eight or nine teams that should just be cursing themselves for not picking this kid. Crazy, dude. I wonder if there's a correlation between being tenacious and forechecking aggressively and putting up good offensive numbers. Tom, get us out of here.
01:11:39
Speaker
Folks, if you had fun with us, we would please ask that you please give us a like, a share, a follow, all those good things. It really does help. And it's the best way that you can give us a little hand. Please give us a follow on X, TikTok, YouTube, at Let's Go Buff Pod. Two F's, please. These are my pals. That's Jake. That's Nigel. And my name is Tom. And you're listening to the Let's Go Buffalo podcast. We're sending you love wherever you are. Go Fills. Go Sabres. Let's go. Buffalo.