Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ep. 8 - Go Sabre!
71 Plays2 years ago
The boys recap the whooping of the Commanders last week and then look forward to the blood bath with the Dolphins this weekend. They also brought out the microscopes and concocted a Sabres 23 man roster projection. Give it a listen!
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!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Social Media
00:00:09
Speaker
You're listening to the Let's Go Buffalo Podcast, your new favorite podcast for everything, bills and savers.
00:00:23
Speaker
What's going on, everybody? You're listening to the Let's Go Buffalo podcast, your favorite podcast for all things Bills and Sabers with the Pals. Nigel, Tom and Jake, Episode 8 coming at you.
00:00:42
Speaker
Quick reminder friends to go and check out our social medias.
Personal Updates: Illness and Birthday
00:00:45
Speaker
You can find us on X as well as Instagram at let's go buff pod. That's buff with two F's. Let's get around the horn here and say hello to the fellows. Tom, how are we doing? Pals, I'm here. I, uh, I'm running on low. That's been a fighting off an illness this week. I'm a sponsored by day quill today, but I am very happy to be here and round out our week with, uh, together.
00:01:09
Speaker
Nice, dude. Torpedo, what's shaking, homie? I'm chilling. I was off work today. Tomorrow's my birthday. I got good things cooking.
00:01:16
Speaker
Oh, shit, dude, are you what are you? What are you 30 38 tomorrow? Yeah, that was last decade. No, I might look it, but this Buffalo sports fan age is like 52. So we're all right on the cusp of being in our graves if we're using that as a measuring stick. Jake, that's like your 30th. Are you 31? Oh, 30. Yeah, man. Happy birthday, buddy. 30 on the 30th. Happy, happy birthday. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
Remembering Birthdays
00:01:45
Speaker
that's awesome now the running joke every year is that i always jake and i've been best friends since we were 10 or 11 and i have for whatever reason always think that his birthday is on the day before his birthday and i'm very glad that i uh did not you know call anybody today i didn't call
00:02:02
Speaker
Today is the 29th, tomorrow is his birthday, and I will be calling then. That's one thing that I like. I consider myself to be a pretty good friend, but dude, birthdays, I don't know when anyone's are. It feels terrible because I love my friends more than anything on the entire planet, dude.
00:02:25
Speaker
It's all every year, dude. It's at least two three times. I'm like, I can't believe Johnny on the spot with that. Happy birthday. So good. Yeah. I guess. Well, hey, Jake. Happy birthday. Yeah. Happy early, buddy. That's awesome.
Beverages and New Studio
00:02:39
Speaker
I appreciate it. Make it to 30.
00:02:42
Speaker
They're still 24 hours. That's true. Yeah. All right, boys. Well, folks, beer quarter is going to look a little bit funny today. I think Jake is actually the only one with a with a real beverage. Full disclosure, I moved into a new space to do my podcasting.
00:03:00
Speaker
and there's no fridge and that's the one fallback so far with being in my studio. I'm a musician and I have my studio downtown. I don't have a fridge and I forgot to bring my beers over and my car is in an awesome shape right now so I didn't want to drive back and
00:03:15
Speaker
So I got my water bottle. Tom's on the men being a little under the weather. So he has a full cup of day quill right there in his coffee mug. It's definitely cider. Just for my mom who's listening, I'm not taking cold mugs worth of day quill. It is absolutely apple warm apple cider. Sorry, Lisa.
00:03:36
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. He drinks those before we record. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Not on air. I have integrity. Thank you. So Jake is Drake. Jake is going to drink at least at least three beers, especially now that we know it's his birthday. So Jake, go ahead.
Bills vs. Commanders: Game Highlights
00:03:52
Speaker
What are you drinking, bud?
00:03:53
Speaker
Absolutely. Well, I got a trial by wombat from Thin Man Brewing Brewery. Got a nice, nice picture of a wombat on there for a little nightmare fuel. Pretty creepy. It's an IPA. It's got galaxy hops. It's tasty. So I do like galaxy hops. They had a bunch of beers at IBC when I worked there back in the day. Shout out to the beer company where they used a lot of galaxy hops.
00:04:16
Speaker
Mosaicops are my other favorite for beers, I found out. So to go with the theme trial by wombat, would you rather fight 100 wombat sized Jake's or one Jake sized wombat? Oh.
00:04:35
Speaker
I don't know how big a wombat is if I'm going with the little guys. Give me a hundred little guys. I'm not a little guys I'm going numbers. I'm going the other one and wombats are not small dude. You get a hundred of those shits You're you're in some trouble, bro. And it's shaped like me Jake's. Yeah, there's aches a hundred wombat size Jake's I'm gonna mess you up Tom. Yeah He's harmless
00:04:59
Speaker
I don't like that. Well, folks, you have one. You have one beer to check out to join us on the on the beer corner this week. We're sorry about that. We're going to we'll figure it out. I will figure it out. We'll catch you up next week. Yes. We'll drink. We'll all drink to next week. All right, boys. I think it's probably time we finally. Sorry, we're so late this week, folks. Get around to talking about this commander's game. So, Jake, let's start with you this week. I think two weeks ago was Tom last week. It was me.
00:05:29
Speaker
Jake, can you kick us off with, uh, what was, what was something you liked from that commander's game? I'll say off the rip, uh, Terrell Bernard is looking like the real deal. He stood out to me, had a fumble recovery. I heard this week that he, uh, so Tremaine Edmonds, great player, not trying to disparage him at all, but during his entire bill's tenure, never recovered a fumble. And here we are with Bernard having one and just looking the part, like he was defensive player of the week. So that's mine. Just big props to him for, for
00:05:57
Speaker
fitting into a role where we needed, and looking like he can do it well. Yeah, absolutely. Shout out TB.
Bills' Defense and Salary Discussion
00:06:04
Speaker
He is playing like he's got his head on fire right now. Yeah, he looks awesome, man. Tom, you want to hit us again, buddy? Hit us with yours? So I was just, I mean, shout out TB, but shout out this whole defense. Man, did they come to just steal Sam Howell's soul? Just that poor guy, he could not, like he couldn't walk out of his own house without being assaulted by the Bill's defense.
00:06:27
Speaker
These guys were here to play and it was so cool to see that scheme that Sean McDermott had them in obviously worked. They were prepared for whatever Sam Howell was. They were expecting Sam Howell to do and they they've showed out right sacks everywhere more sacks than we've seen in forever and nine. I think I believe it was nine. Yeah, like right. Yeah, if we get nine in a three game three game span, I'm happy. Yeah, Ditto.
00:06:54
Speaker
you know, so, so cool to see them show up and show out and like, okay, not only do we have Josh Allen and electric offense, like our defense is here to play to like, it was great to see.
00:07:05
Speaker
It is. Yeah, man. You guys both make such huge points there because I mean, what was the big knock in general about Tremaine Edmonds? You know, his whole tenure or one of the big knocks. I mean, Bill's mafia is so so savage with that guy, undeservedly, I feel. But he was constantly consistently
Offensive Line Praise
00:07:22
Speaker
lacking the splash plays. And TV has like, what, four and three games, something like this place. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And picks and bumble recoveries. And yeah.
00:07:31
Speaker
Um, I'm going to kind of, would you like to know the, the set? Sorry, before we go on to yours, not just real quick. What is your guess on the salary difference between term aid, Edmunds 18 million in Chicago and what Terrell Bernard is getting paid here in Buffalo. What is he's 18 in Chicago, 18 million AAV in Chicago. The difference has to be around 14 million.
00:07:57
Speaker
$17 million and $100,000, $17.100 difference. So what is TB making? He's still on his rookie deal, right? So he's in his second year, third year, one of the two. Second. And he's getting paid $900,000. Yeah. That is absolutely awesome, dude.
00:08:17
Speaker
Yeah, let's go Brandon Bean. Yeah, that's great. I was just people who were kind of wondering if Brandon Bean had a lot more whips on these draft classes, but the more we play like it's clearly there. Bro, I am. I am absolutely the king of the Brandon Bean apology form crew right now because
00:08:35
Speaker
I was slamming him all offseason about the linebacker situation. It was one of the pods. I actually went off on it and right. Shove it right up my hoop, Brendan Bean, because TB looks so far, at least like the real deal, man. And it's lots of football to play. But yeah, there is. Yeah, I agree. But I'm sleeping well for a change, which is nice.
Offensive Challenges on First Downs
00:08:56
Speaker
What did you like about the game?
00:08:57
Speaker
Yeah, dude, my big thing kind of opposite side from you guys, man, I the protection scheme for Josh was. Yeah, I mean that for him to not get sacked at all against a defensive line that has four first round picks, including Chase Young. Pain there is is is legit like John Allen. That is a that's a sick defensive line, dude. And coming into that game, I think I think they had 10 sacks coming into week three. Yeah. And so for.
00:09:26
Speaker
for Aaron Cromer and Ken Dorsey to be to have a plan that that allows no sacks on Josh Allen against that defensive line. I really feel like that deserves some flowers. And real quick, if I can sneak in a bonus sticking with Josh down a little bit, the boy is getting down on the ground, dude, not taking those hits. And I love it. Yeah, for it, dude.
00:09:51
Speaker
even when he wasn't running, the line did a good job of keeping pressure off him. So I think he should be, he should feel great after the game, right? Like not a lot of bumps and bruises there. There were, there were some plays, man. He had, it had to be right around five seconds to throw the ball.
00:10:08
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, he was swimming in time. He said he had a campfire going. He was coming back. It was awesome, dude. It was it was just nice. It was nice to see because I felt like, you know, especially week one and the Jets are also a sick defensive line. And maybe they just needed a couple of weeks to work shit out. I don't know.
00:10:24
Speaker
but they didn't look like that against the Jets. I would love to, I wish there was a way for me to take what they did against the commanders and copy and paste it into what they did against the Jets and see what it looks like against the Jets. I think that would be incredibly interesting.
00:10:43
Speaker
Right. Sure. They learned a lot of lessons from that Jets game, and it's good to see. Hopefully, you know, learn from it and applied it. You'd like to hope so. Right. A weekly shout out to Joe Marino on Lockdown Bills. He kept coming back to timing, right?
00:10:57
Speaker
Timing and playing with your offensive lineman teammates and getting that down was a big deal. And he was concerned about timing and things not quite lining up in week one against the Jets. And he's come back and talked quite a bit about how things have looked a lot better against the Raiders and commanders because of timing.
00:11:13
Speaker
Yes. Yup. Yeah, dude. I don't know. It's, we got a doozy of an opponent coming up here, but I mean, that commander's team was, was two and O coming into that game. And Sam Hall had looked really quite good for the, for the most part. I know in the game, the week prior, he was a little spotty in the first half and then really was hot in the second half. And at no point was he able to get it going against this defense. So.
00:11:38
Speaker
I think there's something to be said there. I'm not going to, you know, start the Super Bowl parade after we crush the commanders. But it's it's worth. There's something there's some positives to take away there for sure.
Preview: Bills vs. Dolphins
00:11:49
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And you've got to look like that against a team like that. Right. Exactly. That's right. Tom, I'm so glad you said that because, yeah, that's like that's the way the bills were supposed to look against the commanders. Correct. Yeah. If it played a tight game like that would have been a concern. You know, for sure. Last shout out has to go to T bass.
00:12:07
Speaker
Tyler Bass so far this year has just looked electric. He hasn't missed anything. He hasn't missed an extra point. He hasn't missed a field goal. Like shout out that special teams trio of Reed Ferguson, Sam Martin and Tyler Bass. They have looked great and I'm here for it. And I love seeing him succeed and feel successful and be confident. Like he has some swaggering. His big thing is confidence. So love seeing them build that confidence and let's keep that rolling Tyler. Nice work bud.
00:12:34
Speaker
I love swaggy kickers, dude. I think it's the coolest thing. But just to piggyback off that, he was the AFC Special Teams player of the month. So that's real nice. Any other flowers you wanted to toss out there to the boys?
00:12:53
Speaker
I don't think so. No, it was a great game. I mean, I didn't think the offense looked phenomenal. It's tough to say that when they put up, what, 37 points, but I thought there was some some miscues and meat on the bone. If you absolutely were, dude, I mean, it doesn't it doesn't feel great to, you know, like have that game start out the way that it did. Like it took I mean, it was OK, but it took a little bit, right?
00:13:17
Speaker
I did so score game until 10 minutes left I think that's the big one yeah and there were like there were exactly like you just said Jake there were some drives where like. Like penalties penalties are the big
Injuries and Defensive Strategies
00:13:29
Speaker
one I'm finding right now that is killing us early on like when we get those those early holding penalties we don't seem to have a way.
00:13:36
Speaker
To come back from that so it's like with this team right now It feels like if you if you set yourself behind the chains like on first or second down I don't love this team's ability right now to come back from that Playing into that too. I'd like to see more on first downs more production there It seems like the that's been struggling where they don't set themselves up for success on second and third down. Yes Not you not making it easy. Yeah, exactly. I don't know what you do to correct that but sorry go ahead. I
00:14:03
Speaker
You know, you're fine. You beat me to the segue there because that's where I was going to go next with it. The first and second down production has been just not good. And then, you know, third and long all the time, it's just not a way to win football games. So there's there's some stuff that has to be done there. I for the love of God, dude, I can't see I can't watch another second and long draw play up the middle.
00:14:25
Speaker
I'm going to explode. And there's so much that I think it really does so well. But second and long, it's like it's like someone is someone up there has a gun to his head and it's like second and long. And you know what you have to do or else. And they better watch out because he's got a crazy up there. So I don't know if he's a person, you know, a gun on. But hey, you know, it's probably working, I guess. I was throwing shit up there and stuff.
00:14:51
Speaker
It's just him talking to himself. He's like, you're going to run a jet sweep, aren't you, you motherfucker? He's got the gun up to his own head. Yeah, that's what it is. Draw play, Ken. Draw play. Oh my god.
00:15:07
Speaker
Boy, should we move on to the scary? Yeah. Yeah, we can roll it. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm going to go slightly out of our planning out of the order for our planning doc here, boys. And I want to jump to some storylines real quick. And I think, unfortunately, we have to talk about some injuries, both positive and negative. But Tom, Bill's injuries. What do you know? Honestly,
00:15:30
Speaker
We're quite clean based on where we are in the season, right? Going into week four, we only have one player who's slated is out. Jordan Poyer is out for a right knee injury. He suffered in the commander's game, has not really practiced this week. So it was something I kind of saw coming. I was not surprised when that announcement from Sean McDermott came today.
00:15:51
Speaker
Yeah, having Poirot is not going to be great. And that backline, those back seven is, they're studs and they work well together. So it's going to be a big deal that we have Taylor Rapp on the roster. And this might be the DeMar Hamlin game. We might see DeMar hit the active roster this week. I feel very confident that that will happen. We talked about it for a hot second today, just in the group text.
00:16:14
Speaker
I if there's one player that I feel like I'm and now let me preface this by saying the biggest loss with JP not being in for me is you lose the continuity with communication and just you know having so many of those secondary guys be together since like 2018 so that matters especially against this Dolphins team but
00:16:33
Speaker
Poe has not been the, the strong safety that he's been in the last couple of years, particularly with his run fills. So I feel okay saying that if there's one guy, like if I have to pick a player to be injured, I'm probably going to pick Jordan Poyer only because of what we know we have behind him in both tomorrow, Hamlin and Taylor rep. Now, Tom, do you think it's a lock that it's Taylor rep? You don't think there's a chance that it could be Hamlin? Um, to start. Yeah.
00:17:02
Speaker
I guess I'm not sure. The only reason I would say is that that would be Taylor Rapp is because he's been the one who has been active. However, maybe they want to keep Taylor Rapp. Now I'm just thinking about this now. They want to keep Taylor Rapp in his role that he's been playing and filled DeMar Hamlin in. So that way Taylor is still doing he's not changing his role to go and go be a backup strong safety. He's
00:17:27
Speaker
still playing the same role he has been and DeMar fills in. So I think now that's the way I lean, but I'm not sure. And to be honest, I'm okay with us having some of these younger, more athletic players on the field, especially against the speedy dolphins offense because they have speedy receivers. They have speedy backs. They probably have speedy lineman like at this rate, you know, like, like it's insane how much juice they got back there in there on that dolphins team. Jake, anything you want to, you want to add to that at all?
00:17:53
Speaker
Uh, just, yeah, I'm excited to see how they fare against such a high octane offense. Um, I mean, they haven't really played one yet and Miami, we'll see how they do against the bills. D I don't think they've played any opponent that has as good of a defense as the bills. So I think this is the game of the year. I mean, it's going to be a test for both sides. This is going to be a litmus test for both sides. Majorly. I think, I think the biggest thing for me, if we, if we just, you know, talk about the matchup for a second here,
00:18:24
Speaker
it's it's gonna be it's gonna be a test in resiliency for me is particularly with the bills defense because you can't stop the Miami offense you just can't particularly the bills can't because we don't have a single guy on the team that can even remotely keep up with Tyreek Hill and Jill and model
00:18:44
Speaker
So it's all good record. No one does, but no one does. Yeah, you're right. But there's going to be a lot of situations where like the communication has to be off the charts where that's where we lose Poe. You have to make sure you're holding your leverage and all that stuff against the routes. It's I'm nervous, but I am excited, dude. I think
Bills vs. Dolphins Predictions
00:19:03
Speaker
it's going to be a game that, yeah, we just have to make sure that that defense you're going to have to keep getting back up after getting punched in the mouth.
00:19:09
Speaker
Yeah, they're gonna make big plays. They're gonna make you look silly. It's short memory. How do you, how do you, all right, they're not doing that to me again. Let's get back on the horse here. Exactly. Yeah. Right. So I think it really, I mean, we all, everyone's seeing what the dolphins, the offense is doing. I'm not sure it's something we need to really talk about a ton. We're going to see what Sean McDermott has for something like this because we know the bills don't have the speed. So it's going to have to be scheme.
00:19:32
Speaker
You know, you're probably not going to get to to it because he gets the ball out in under two and a half seconds, like 65% of the time, which is a nightmare in and of itself. So I think, you know, the key is taking away that first read and hopefully getting him to hold on the ball a little bit longer. I don't know, man. It's there's so much, but it's going to be a doozy. Undoubtedly. I'm, I'm nervous. I'll say that, but I'm excited too. It should be exciting as hell.
00:19:58
Speaker
These are two well crafted rosters and two well coached teams. So both teams are coming in looking quite good. And it's going to be a battle. Absolutely. I think like you said, we got to get two office first read. That's going to be some rotating coverages. So meaning for those maybe newer listeners that the art Bill's defense is going to show one thing before the snap. So what two is able to kind of read and get some pre-information on.
00:20:24
Speaker
And then he's going to rotate that he's going to have them rotate to something different. So what, what, what is actually happening after the snap and the ball is into his hands. Hopefully he's looking different than what is looking like, what he's looking at before. So he make him think, make him get off this first read, meaning his first player that he's trying to get the ball to that there's play as schemes to get the ball to and make him have to then go down the line. Because at that point he starts, his efficiency goes down and it makes him think that half second longer.
00:20:53
Speaker
that hopefully our D-line can get there and make some, make a difference in this team, in this game, excuse me. Yep. A hundred percent. Well said. Well said. Yeah. Thank you for, uh, defining some of my terms that I just use, assuming everybody knows what I'm talking about. We are supposed to teach us a little bit. So yeah, you're good, man. Um, score predictions in real quick boys or anybody else want to say anything?
00:21:13
Speaker
No, no, I got one thing I'm going to tag in with my score prediction. So all right. I'll go first this time. Yeah. So real quick, I'm going to give myself some flowers because when we predicted the commanders, I was one touchdown off, but I did predict us kicking the absolute shit out of them. I did. Yeah. 45. You did. They scored 37. So we were close. I was close. I'm going to shout myself out on that one.
00:21:37
Speaker
45 37, I think is my guess for this game. I don't think you're going to see the dolphins hang up 70 against the bills, but I'm this is going to be another game where I'm going to pick. I'm going to pick the bills to lose. There's something that's just not sitting well with me about it. I just I don't know. But the last time I predicted us to lose, we absolutely beat the shit out of someone. So hopefully that happens again.
Transition to Sabers Discussion
00:22:01
Speaker
I'm going to say 45, 37 dolphins.
00:22:03
Speaker
Let's go with that juju. I like it. I am going to shout out Bill's Mafia because right now Tyree Kale is on record this week saying that playing in Buffalo, playing in OP, playing in Otrich Park is no different than any other game. He's calling you guys out. He's calling us out saying that we cannot be part of the game. And oh my God, is he wrong? I don't know if he remembers us just bamboozling Skyler Thompson in that playoff game. But I was in that stadium standing next to Nigel and I feel like I actively
00:22:33
Speaker
just completely just knocks Skyler Thompson off his feet. So Bill's Matthew, go get him. I'm going to say Bill's win 31, 27. Wow. That just feels low. Anybody know, anybody see what the over under is for points on this game? 54. Holy shit. 54. Wait. So which is, which, so I'm over and I also think it's going to be low because it's, it's a divisional game. These divisional games tend to be lower scoring than we think. That's a good point, dude. So that's why I'm going lower. All right. Still high, but lower. Yeah.
00:23:03
Speaker
Jake? I'm going to go 42 to 38. I'll go with the belt. Feeling good. Feeling good about it. God, I'm such a negative piece of shit, dude. I don't know how I, I don't know how I came to be like this. No, it's good. No, it's good. You're helping us not become just a complete homeware podcast. Yeah. We need to have some kind of, so it's good. You have a role to play, bud. You're doing this. This feels like.
00:23:28
Speaker
podcast. Um, no, dude, I just, I don't know, man, that this feels like one of those games where it's going to come down to the end and we're, we're just going to, it feels, I'm not going to say it out loud. The universe listens. I'm just going to leave it at my prediction. Hey, when we were doing record predictions, we called for us to split games with the dolphins. So I'm still, and I, and I agree with that. I just, for right now, my confidence is high and I'm feeling good and I want to ride with the, with the wind.
00:23:52
Speaker
But I could absolutely see this as being a close game that we lose. And that does not mean the season is over. It does not mean that the Dolphins win the Super Bowl. It's week four. There are 17 games to play. So I'm okay with either way. I would love for us to go out and put on a show and show that we can go toe-to-toe with a crazy offense like this. Yeah. Absolutely. All right, fellas. Should we transition?
00:24:14
Speaker
Let's do it. Let's get to the ice a little bit.
Devin Levi's Preseason Performance
00:24:17
Speaker
Transitioning. There you go. There's that new sound effect we got going. Yeah. All right. So quick discussion of the Savers preseason thus far. Jake, do you have a couple of takeaways from what you've seen?
00:24:30
Speaker
I do. Yeah, I thought Devin Levi looked phenomenal in the two periods that he played. Yeah, we certainly will. I mean, I thought he there was some rebounds he gave up but he recovered. He was he was stopping everything that came his way and just he looked calm doing it. And I
00:24:48
Speaker
Uh, you know, he's, he's young, he's not used to the NHL schedule. So I just hope he has a good season, but encouraging end of last year and preseason game this year. We got done. So why we're talking about Devin Levi, um, first question, I have one, and then I would like us to answer Sir Joe Marino's question and we're going to shout out Joe and he should come listen to our pot.
NHL Goalie Game Frequency
00:25:10
Speaker
First off, my question, what about him about Devin Levi looked really good? Was he playing against starters or is this like he looked good against some depth players on other teams? Like what about him makes you feel good about it? So for me, dude, I there's there's a there's a there's a trend in the NHL right now where teams typically like big goalies, right? Like six, four, six, five, six, six. I think Vasilevsky Jake is like six, seven. The guy's the mountain.
00:25:40
Speaker
Devin Levi is 5-10, I think. So in terms of the landscape of the league right now, he's a smaller goalie. In terms of smaller goalies, Tom, there's a name that you need to know, and that is the name Jonathan Quick. Jonathan Quick was the starting goaltender when the Los Angeles Kings were on their cup runs. What did they win in how many years, Jake? Do you know?
00:26:02
Speaker
two and three years i think there were three years which is something like that is is pretty unheard of and jonathan quick the big thing with him was he was very unorthodox in the way that he played the game the um the like he would when he was out like looking to looking to stop the puck when it was at the point meaning at the blue line controlled by defenseman
00:26:24
Speaker
He would be like looking underneath guys legs and stuff like that Which was like just super unorthodox a guy that has insane lateral movements that side-to-side crease movement And his ability to track pox through traffic was also in these are the things that I see In Devon leave Jake mentioned another name here. That's really important. You see sorrows the Predators goaltender is another really accomplished small goaltender in the league, but
00:26:53
Speaker
The things that I see from Devon leave are the things that I thought were so sick from Jonathan quick the kid he gets side to side from post to post in the blink of an eye dude his athleticism is off the charts and the kids his angles are seem to always be in the right spot and His his tracking of the puck dude the kid always seems to find the puck It's just and you don't normally see things like that from such a young goalie. So He's just
00:27:23
Speaker
He's just got all the pieces that you want to see a young goaltender have that makes you think he's going to be sick, dude. I mean, he looked unreal in that preseason game. I was I was blown away. So I know you're going with I know you're going with your next question. Go ahead and ask it. And Jake, we'll have you take this one.
00:27:40
Speaker
So I would like to read, um, our beloved Joe Marino, shout out Joe at the Joe Marino, uh, uh, host of locked on bills that we, uh, all of us subscribe to, um, had a question for us and I thought it'd be fun for us to answer it on the pod. Joe asked, why don't goalies play every game or close to every game? It seems like they, the most they play is around 60 of the 82 games.
00:28:03
Speaker
Drake? Yep. So I'll walk back in time a little bit. In the 90s or so, the name Martin Burdur, he's one of the best boys to ever play. He did play nearly every game in the regular season and the playoffs, and he was incredible at doing that.
00:28:19
Speaker
Since then, it's tailed off a bit. You're never going to see a goalie playing more than 70 games in the season ever. Just sport science and looking at how goalies recover from playing is huge that goes into that. It's not so much
00:28:36
Speaker
how they play in the first game that they play and then the second game that they play. It's how they recover after that. It's the third game that they play where things start to go downhill that's caused the shift. With the way the NHL schedule is built, there's a lot of back-to-back games on one night and then the other. And that is just a lot of wear and tear on a goalie's body.
00:29:00
Speaker
Obviously, every player is getting beat up during the game. But goalies are up and down a lot more. It's tough on the knees, the hips. Yes, that's the big one. The focus, too. I mean, they're out there 60 minutes and just as concentrated as possible for that time. So looking at a microcosm of the season game to game, you want to leave them enough ability to recover between games and have a reliable backup that can be fresh and give your team a chance to win.
00:29:30
Speaker
Yeah, that makes sense. Looking at the season, I listen to a podcast called The PDOcast with Dmitry Filippovich. It's excellent. He dives into numbers a lot. And the numbers show that goalies that play more than 60, 65 games in a season, including the playoffs,
00:29:49
Speaker
their numbers dip after that. And so if you're a team with cup aspirations, you're looking to play 20 to 24 games in April and May to win the cup. So if your goalie starting 60 games during the year, and then you ask him to start every other night for two months, he's gonna he's gonna get
00:30:08
Speaker
bombarded and worn down by the end of that. So if you have somebody that can spell him during the season to give him, instead of him playing two games back to back on back to back nights, give him four or five days to recover in between games. He's going to be that much better during the games that he's playing. So you have a better chance at winning those games. You have a better chance of your team making the playoffs. And so it's just you have a backup goalie. It's not a wasted roster spot. You need two goalies that can play well in your season.
00:30:37
Speaker
Cool. So would you want to see Devin Levi playing about 35 to 40 games getting close to the end of the season? I think a 50-50 split is where I would love to see for him this year. The Levi question is a bit of a tough one this year because this is going to be his first full professional season. So the amount of games that he's going to be playing this year, or at least a part of, maybe not necessarily on the ice, but the amount of teams his team will play is like over double what he's used to.
Zach Benson's Preseason Performance
00:31:06
Speaker
So there's an element there. I think for me, his rookie year. OK, so there's a there's a predictive part of this and there's a what I would like to see happen. I would like to see Levi around 40 games personally, just because it's his first year, 40 games would put him a little bit more than what he's done in college and all that stuff. I think that would be a good.
00:31:27
Speaker
first season acclimation to the league for him, especially because he looks good. Predictably, I think he's going to be around 60-65 because the backup goalies that the Sabres have are just, if the preseason in history is any indication,
00:31:43
Speaker
They're not good. They're mediocre at best. So, you know, if Devin plays 60 to 65 and you can steal, you know, in the other 20 games, another 10 wins between with the backup, whoever that ends up being. And we'll talk about that because we're going to do a roster projection. I think that's where it's going to be. I think it's going to be Levi's 60, 65 and the backup will take the rest. But that is not what I would like to see, truthfully.
00:32:11
Speaker
It's evolving too. A lot of teams need more than two goalies to have a successful year too. Look at Vegas last year. The goalie that won them the cup was their third string goalie at the beginning of the year. Guys get injured. The goaltending is such a voodoo question mark. Who the hell knows what happens position?
00:32:33
Speaker
guys get hot for seemingly no reason. Sometimes, you know, it's just, you ride the hot hand and you don't know who that's going to be when the air starts all the time. Unless you have a guy like sorrows, Vasilevsky, hella bucks, something like that at the helm. Good questions though, Tom. We'll have to make sure we, uh, we, we tag Mr. Mr. Marino in this one. Yeah, absolutely.
00:32:54
Speaker
All righty. So I we had one kind of takeaway from the proof of the Sabres preseason there. I'll give us I'll give us one more. Zach Benson, dude, my God, the kid is making a case to make the team. It is intriguing to say the least, particularly because any game that he's played where he's also the Tage Thompson has also played. They've got him on the top line with Tage Thompson, which
00:33:22
Speaker
has me a little bit foaming at the mouth. I mean, Benny looks he looks good, dude. I think the thing that's ultimately going to keep him from making the team is that right now he's like 165 pounds soaking wet. But dude, his play is going to translate so well to the NHL. If it's not this year, it's going to be next year for Benny.
00:33:46
Speaker
He's a great puck distributor. I can get the puck to other players that maybe have a bit more of a trigger and can name me someone with a better snapshot and slap shot on the team than Tage Thompson. Yeah. That physically excites me. Yup. Yup. That makes me feel things in places for sure.
Sabers' Roster Predictions: Forwards
00:34:04
Speaker
If he doesn't make the starting roster at the beginning of the year, could he be somebody who's called up partway through the year if there's an injury?
00:34:10
Speaker
No, only because he's going to, he's going to, if he doesn't make the sabers, he's going back to juniors. You have to call up from your farm team, which is Rochester. Okay. Yep. So technical. All right. All right. So should we dive into this, uh, this roster projection a little bit fellas? Yeah, let's do it. You are facilitator today.
00:34:29
Speaker
Yeah, you're a wayward facilitator over here who's going to just kind of slop his way through. But you guys are going to correct me and keep me on course. And yeah, so we're going to do a roster projection for the Savers this year, just like we did the Bills last time. And we did pretty good with the Bills one. So I'm pretty hopeful with my boys here that we could do pretty well here with the Savers.
00:34:53
Speaker
So Jake gave me some notes here. The maximum roster size for the Sabres and the active regular season is 23, not including injured players. They dress a max of 20 each night, 18 skaters and two goalies. And then we have some players in the IR.
00:35:09
Speaker
So we're going to organize ourselves in a couple different ways. We're going to just go through and pick through the whole list of players that are in the training camp and narrow it down to forwards, defenseman, and goaltenders. And then our two lovely sabers aficionados over here are going to try and organize them a little bit into some lines as well.
00:35:30
Speaker
So, let's start with some forwards. And can I cherry pick a little bit? Yeah, absolutely, dude. Yeah, give us, Tom, give us everybody that you think you know that is going to make the team, and we'll go from there. Here we go. All right, ready? I'm going to go bottom up. We're going to start. Alex Tuck is absolutely making this team. Alex Tuck is making this team for sure. Number 77, J. Dave Beturka will absolutely make this team. Yes, he will.
00:35:56
Speaker
Oh, and this one's kind of a, you know, he's a little, I'm not sure. Number 72 will absolutely make this team. Tage Thompson. Yes, he will, Tom. You're freaking killing it. I know. Thank you. Thank you. Let me keep going. Number 53, Jeff Skinner will absolutely make this team. Yes, he will. You're crushing it. Number 37, Casey Middlestat will absolutely make this team. My boy, the Polish rapper, number 28, Zemgis Gergensen will absolutely make it.
00:36:27
Speaker
Don't ask me to make trivia questions about Zengus Gergesons. It won't go well. Number 24, Dylan Cousins will absolutely make this team. Hell yeah, he will. Number 19, Peyton Krebs will absolutely make this team. Time to fire. Time to fire. I'm going to add one more, because I think I'm a believer. I'm a hopeful soul. I think number nine, the rookie, Zach Benson, is going to make the team. And I'm going to let you guys argue about it.
00:36:55
Speaker
All right. So, Jake, before we argue, because I love arguing with you, should we maybe pick the rest of the guys that we think are more of a lock than Benny and then go from there?
00:37:09
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's a good idea. You want to go one for one, you pick the first, I'll go next. Yeah, sure. What are we at eight right now for forwards? Yes, sir. What do we need to get to? Let's pick 12 for now and we can come back to, you know, the 13 forward kind of thing. Yeah. Cool. All right. So Tom stopped at Peyton Krebs. I'm looking for the next one that I'm going to see here, Jack. Well, not to start the year, right? Yeah, exactly. All right. So we'll put Jack Quinn on IR for right now.
00:37:33
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's a safe, safe move over there. So the next one then for me, Kyle, we'll make the same. Yes, sir. He will. Uh, for me next, I'm going to go Jordan Greenway. Um, a lot of question marks around him, but I think there's no way he is left off the roster. Correct. Um, Jordan Greenway. Yes. Uh, let's see here. One more obvious one to me. I'm not sure how many more beyond that.
00:38:02
Speaker
Oh, uh, Victor Olufsen. Yep. I didn't see, I was looking for him. I didn't see him. Yeah. Vic will make the team assuming he's not traded, but there's, I haven't heard any, um, I haven't really heard any traction on that recently. So I'm leaning towards it's probably going to be a no.
00:38:21
Speaker
Agreed. Not since early in his off-season. That at this point, Jake, puts us at 11 with the 12th that would have been, um, Quinter, but we have to find that 12th forward, bud. So we do. Let's tell you what, I'll, I'll give you the couple of names that I think could contend for that spot. And then we'll talk about it. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds good. So in that list, I would put Matt Savoy. Yep. I would put Itzhak Rosem.
00:38:49
Speaker
And I would put Zach Benson. Oh, and I'd put Yuri Kulik, honestly. So four guys there. Shit. Is it five with Lucas Rusik? Oh, my God. If you didn't say his name, I was going to bring him up. Yeah, I think all of those guys could make cases. OK, so you got we just lifted us listed off five guys there. They're going to be gunning for for one spot. Give me. OK, so let's do this. Give me your top two from that list of five that you think are is is are the front runners to get that tall spot?
00:39:20
Speaker
I think the conversation starts and maybe stops with Matt Savoy. I think he looked dominant in that prospect tourney. I would love to see him in a preseason game or two. Taking the injury out of it, I would have said he was
00:39:40
Speaker
not a lock, but as close to a lock as you get for a prospect to make the team. I'm still high on him. I think he, of that list of five players that we said, I think he's the most ready. So yeah, I would go with him. Who else jumps out to you? What do you think?
00:40:00
Speaker
It's Rusek for me, only because he was the one that got called up last year. So it seems to me this team likes him. Now the question is, is Rusek because Quinner's a top six player?
00:40:16
Speaker
is rusek a top six player in the nhl i don't think so i think he's going to be a great bottom six player so just to explain that a little bit top six top six players hockey teams have run four lines so forwards the top six meaning the top two lines are normally more skilled guys and then your bottom six your third and fourth line are typically your guys that are a little more gritty a little more physical a little bit more punishing
00:40:39
Speaker
But in today's NHL, they still have to be able to play. So don't don't just go around thinking they're not skilled because they are just maybe not as much as the top as the guys in the top six. So having said that.
00:40:50
Speaker
If you're going to say, if you're going to say Savoy, dude, I got to go Benny, because I don't think Roseanne and Rusik are top six players in the NHL. I think they're bottom six. And the only other one there that I that you could convince me on is Cooley that could take that spot. But Cooley is a bigger body. He's not going to play the same type of role that a Victor Olafson is, which is maybe what they want. Maybe they don't want that. But if you're looking to get the two closest guys that will replace or excuse me, replace Jack Quinn, not Victor Olafson. Sorry.
00:41:18
Speaker
If you're looking for the guys that are going to replace Jack Quinn, your two best bets really are probably Matt Savoy and Zach Benson.
Young Prospects Readiness Debate
00:41:26
Speaker
Yeah. I don't make your prediction. I'm sorry. Go ahead. What are you gonna say, buddy? No, I don't, I don't disagree with you at all. I think, I think Cooley, I want to talk about Cooley for a second. He has an incredible release and incredible shot. Like I think you mentioned Victor Olufsen. I think he could be a worthy plot in for him. I'm not saying this year, but I, what I would love to see from him is to go back to the AHL and
00:41:54
Speaker
continue refining his game so that he's not another Victor Olafson. I want him to have that top six upside where he can use his release, but round out his game a little bit more because he proved he can score last year. He put up a number of goals in the AHL. Do that again.
00:42:11
Speaker
but complete your game around it. That's what I want to see from him. So I, I hope he does not make the roster and that's nothing against him. I think he's an incredible player and we'll make the team, but I'd like it to be next year. Yeah. Yeah. I'll tell you what, dude, Victor, Victor Olson gets traded. That's I'm going to be in on the Yuri cool.
00:42:30
Speaker
for that replacement. So I agree. I think before before we move on, I think there's a name that we forgot to that will almost assuredly be on the team, whether he's on a line or we slot him into healthy scratch. But that's Tyson Jost.
00:42:43
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, you're right. I to me he's he's the extra forward But you're right. He will make the team on paper. Absolutely. Yeah, good point torpedo Well, we have to get let's let's get one of those younger guys on there then because we're gonna need 13 forwards anyway So you want to go first with your with your prediction of those young guys that make the squad? Or do you want me to do it first? I want you to do it. I want you to give it to me. Give it to me. Who do you got? Based on what I have seen dude. I
00:43:11
Speaker
I am gonna go Zach Benson. Oh, that's not where I would have gone, but I'm okay with it. Yeah, I just, I mean, look what they're doing with him right now that he's playing with the top guys and he's playing well with the top guys when they also play in these preseason games. I think maybe he could push mostly because he's just a little more tenacious than Savoy. So I would go, my prediction would be Benson.
00:43:33
Speaker
Can I ask you a hypothetical question then? What does that say to Matt Savoy, teammates in juniors? He's a year older. He's been through camp already. What does it say? Hey, Matt, we're going to send you back to junior. But your buddy, who's a year younger, is sticking around. You like to hope that as a professional athlete, he's going to take it and use it as fire. These guys are hockey players. We know there are divas in the NHL. A lot of them can be like the wide receivers of the NFL. There's absolutely a world we could live in where he's really pissy about it.
00:44:04
Speaker
They're different types of they're different style players, man. Like it's not that one is insanely better. It's just, you know, Benson offers things in the corners in the in the for checking game that I don't see Matt Savoy offering. And that's that to me is the makeup. I mean, that's your playoff style hockey player. Those guys that are tenacious, well, gritty in the corners, you know, throwing the body around. I don't see that being Matt Savoy as much.
Predicting Forward Lines
00:44:29
Speaker
At least I see it being Zach Benson a lot more.
00:44:32
Speaker
Fair enough, fair enough. So for right now, we'll have him penciled in. Do we leave him off? We have 12 forwards in our selected slot right now. Do you want to come back to forwards in a minute? Yeah, we can come back to it. Jake, do you want to slot these forwards in lines now, or do you want to just get the defensemen that we think are going to make the team and then slot them in lines later? Let's slot them in lines now and then move on to defense. So who do you got for number one center? Tom, who do you got for number one center?
00:44:59
Speaker
I have Mr. Where is he? Where is he? Rasmus Daliin. Almost. Wrong position. A center for OK. All right. All right. Cool. I thought we're going to the OK. We're doing lines now. Yes, we're doing. So with the four that we just selected, we're going to slot them into where we think they're going to be in their lines.
00:45:21
Speaker
Well, I have one more try and his name is Tage. I'm not going to talk anymore. I think you guys have to keep going. This is how we learn Tom. So yes, Tage Thompson will more than likely be the top center for this team. Let's do this. Let's go down the spine. Let's do all the centers. Cool. So too, cozy. Yep. Um, do you want to, do you want to give us the third? Do you want me to keep going?
00:45:45
Speaker
Now I'll slot in and say Casey middle stat. Granado's been on record saying he wants him to stay at center. I don't think he's, I mean, I think he's an excellent third line center in the NHL right now. Um, so I'd love to slot him there. And then the fourth line is a tricky one, dude. Uh, that fourth, that fourth line is, is tough.
00:46:06
Speaker
We can come back to the fourth line. No, that's okay. I can, I can confidently say Zemgus Gergensons is who I would like to see there. So I'll say Zemgus Gergensons. He's been playing the wing a lot more recently. He has. It was, it was Krebsy that was centering that line last year, right? It was. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I just don't like Krebsy down on the fourth line. I think he's too good. So, but, but you're right. He did do it last year just for continuity's sake. We'll stick him back there again. So Peyton Krebs, the fourth line center for right now, but I want to go on record saying I don't love it.
00:46:36
Speaker
So I'll let you pick where we go next. You want to build out the fourth line with Krebs, because I think we know who's flanking them. Yeah, let's do that. So one of the wings will be, go ahead, Jake, give us one. Zemgizkergensen's, like we just said, I think he plays left wing, typically. Yep. And the other one will be Mr. Kyle Agposo, El Capitan of the team.
00:46:56
Speaker
Yes, sir. All right, let's move up somewhere. Who do you want to see flanking Tage Thompson on the top line? Okay, so I think this is going to change a little bit this year, dude. I think you're going to see Jeff Skinner stay with Tage Thompson. I agree. Yeah, I think that's a good combo. Man, this is hard, dude.
00:47:19
Speaker
That's where Benson sat in preseason. Yes. I almost want to say, Jake, that if we have one of these young guys make the team, that's where they're going to go. But I don't I won't jump to that gun just yet. I would agree. Yeah. My all this to say, I don't think Alex Tuck is going to be the starting right wing this year, or at least top line. I think they're going to move him down and play him with cousins, not a punishment or anything. I just think I just think that's where where they're feeling or maybe even the third line with Casey Middlestadt.
00:47:49
Speaker
I like both of those. With the guys we have on there right now, I'm going to put Victor Olson up there. With Tate Thompson and Jeff Skinner. Yep. That's interesting. Interesting.
00:48:03
Speaker
I don't view him as a top line player. I don't, I don't either. But as I'm looking at the rest of the ones that are here, I, cause I think, and I'm going to even change where you just put Alex talk. I think he, I think I'm going to put him down with Casey middle step. I agree with that. Yeah. Um, and as I'm looking, as I'm looking at the other names here, Skinner, no Tuck, no Greenway. I don't think so. Tyson Jost. No. I think Vic is the guy that just makes the most sense while we're waiting for everybody to be healthy.
00:48:32
Speaker
I think, can I slot one in that I'm pretty confident about? Please. I think JJ Paterka sticks on Dylan Cousin's wing. I remain confident in that as well. I personally, I would rather, and this is just my opinion, but I would rather have Victor Olafson on the wing with Casey Middelstadt and Alex Tuck. I think. Then who would you slot in the right wing spot with Dave Thompson and Jeff Skinner?
00:48:54
Speaker
I'm not confident about that one, but I agree with you. If one of these young kids make the team, I'd like to see them in that position. That's where I think that person is going to go, dude. I really mean that. And that line would be garbage defensively. I mean, you have Tate Thompson and Jeff Skinner, neither known for their two-way play and a rookie. If you've got Zach Benson up there, dude, he's just, at least he's got the jam to be that pain in the ass two-way guy.
00:49:21
Speaker
He does. Oh man, this is freaking hard, dude. Okay, let's do this, Jake. Where are you going to put Jordan Greenway? I mean, I think he has more to give than what we saw in Buffalo at the end of last year. I think he had a nagging injury. He was adjusting to a new team. I agree all the way around. I'm more optimistic about him than I was at the end of last season. Did I?
00:49:47
Speaker
But as far as where you slot him, I'm not sure. I mean, he's he's a big guy. He's got a good shot, from what I understand. I wouldn't mind him on the left wing of that Casey Middlestadt Alex Tuck line. They're both great puck distributors, especially Middlestadt. We're different on this one because I want to put him up in the line with Dylan Cousins and J.J. Paterka and just get a little more size there. D.C. is not small.
00:50:09
Speaker
But Tucky's huge. Yeah. And I liked having talk on that line. I, me personally, I'm going green way on that. That's second line right wing. I feel comfortable with that. Yeah. Let's slot him there for right now. And then that would mean Tyson Jost on our list right now would be on that left wing with Casey Middle Staff, which I don't love because I think Tyson Jost will be scratched when one of these young guys makes the team for Jack Quinn.
00:50:39
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. I would feel comfortable slotting Tyson Jost into the the scratches, quote unquote territory. I mean, if all of these guys are going to play, there's going to be injuries, they're going to rotate guys in. But I think he would be the extra forward for night one. OK, so, Jake, then I want to go back, dude, I want to go back and I want us I want us to make a make a pick for one of these young guys that's going to make the team, because once we make that pick, that person goes right where Victor Olufsen is and Vic goes right down to that left wing spot with Casey.
Defense Pairings and Backup Goalie
00:51:06
Speaker
I feel more confident about that. Let's, let's slot Olafson down there and then let's talk about the right wing. So I would have picked Matt Savoy. That would have been my pick for which of the young kids makes the team. I don't think he has much left to prove. I think he could play in the NHL right now.
00:51:27
Speaker
It's tough. It's tough. I mean, which, which, this is a good problem to have, right? I mean, once the last time we had this conversation about young prospects, making the team, we're trying to pick between which ones do. Um, so it's a good problem to have. I still think Savoy fits in better than Benson at the moment. I'm happy to concede that just one of those guys, one of those guys is who I want to see up there as opposed to Victor Olson, because one of them is making the team until Jack Quinn is healthy, which at this point looks like it could be close to the new year. That's a lot of time.
00:51:56
Speaker
Yeah, it could be that the Patrick Kane rumors have not subsided. Let's not cross into territory. We're not in yet, I guess. Exactly. Yeah. Let's put, let's put Maddie Savoy up in that right wing spot with Paige and Jeff. That line is a defensive liability for sure.
00:52:16
Speaker
100% yeah, but I mean I like the look at this I like to look at that I like to look at that the only one I honestly don't love dude I'm I'm so desperate to trade Vic olufsen. I just yeah, I want it
00:52:30
Speaker
It seems like that marriage has kind of come to a head too. And earlier in the off season, he made comments about expecting to be traded, not that he wanted to be necessarily, but kind of writing was on the wall for him. So, you know, I don't know what the conversations like that around are like, but I wouldn't be mad about moving on from him.
00:52:49
Speaker
we have to have a little mini board meeting right off the hop here. We got roughly seven minutes left with what we would normally do. Are we just going to go over today or are we just going to speed through the rest of it? A little bit of both maybe. A little bit of both, a little column A, a little column B. Yeah, so good point. Let's move on to the defense. Tom, what do you got for us?
00:53:12
Speaker
Yeah, you see those business Dali. There it is. Oh, and power. But Tyus Samuelson, Matias Samuelson, Matias Samuelson. And that's all I got. You guys go next. All right, Jake, you want to just go one for one again? Wait, sorry. Matias Samuelson, Owen Power, Rasmus Dali. And did you say everyone else, Tom? Nope. Those are my three. All right. What do you got? You go first.
00:53:38
Speaker
Um, give me two seconds here. Um, I'm trying to get back. Oh, I just clicked the wrong tab. My God. All right. So, um, Eric Johnson will make this team. Yes, he will. Uh, Connor Clifton's my pick. He will make this team. And then let me know if I'm going too fast here. Henry Jokey Harju. That's not, it's Jokey Harju, but he will make the team.
00:54:02
Speaker
I agree. How many is that? One, two, three, four, that's six right there with the extra demand probably being who my guess based on this list would be Jacob Bryson or Riley Stillman.
00:54:17
Speaker
I think this is where we have a conversation. I think both of those guys are candidates. I think Ryan Johnson, he's not somebody that we talked about in the preseason notes, but he's looked excellent. He has looked sick in the preseason, dude. No way. You think he makes it right off the hop? I don't know. I mean, from what I've seen, I wouldn't be surprised. I would be willing to bet my life. They're going to get him a year in Rochester first.
00:54:45
Speaker
Fair enough. You deferred on right wing. I'll defer on that one. Fair enough. So between Riley Stillman and Jacob Bryson, we could carry eight too. We can select both. I don't want to. For me personally, dude, and this is kind of a slap in his face because he's been on the team longer. I like Riley Stillman. I think he offers some jam that you don't get with Bryson. Bryson is quick.
00:55:09
Speaker
Not super skilled, not super big. For me, as far as if I'm picking a defenseman, I go Riley Stillman over Jacob Bryson personally. I like his style of game more. I think it serves the team better.
00:55:22
Speaker
I agree with you. Nothing against Jacob Bryson, but I don't think he should be in the lineup this year if everybody's healthy. Yeah. All right. Well, let's get going with the with slotting those guys into their pairings. Then this could be this could be a little tricky because so far in practices, everything I've seen, we're not seeing Matias Samuelson and Dolly and play together anymore.
00:55:46
Speaker
Yeah, I still am going to predict that they will. For me, your top D pair is still dolls in Samuelson. I agree with that. I just I don't know why you try and fix what isn't broken. Those guys were dominant last year. You get this insane mobility with Rasmus Daliin and a wall of a stay at home defenseman in Samuelson. I think they complement each other beautifully. I would like to see that pair stay together.
00:56:15
Speaker
We could also live in a world where it's, you know, Dall's and maybe, maybe it's Clifton? I don't know, man, but I hope it's Samuelson and Dall's. Yeah, I agree. Whoever slots in with Dallene is complimentary, I would say so. Yeah. And okay, Jake, second pairing. This is where it gets really interesting for me.
00:56:39
Speaker
I think Owen powers the lock there. He's going to play a ton of minutes and continue improving. Who slots in with him is the question. Whether we put Clifton there. His most common line mate last year was Yoki Haryu. I don't know if I love that. I'd love to see
00:56:58
Speaker
someone else there, potentially. I would as well. And this is ours, so I guess we'll kind of do a little bit of what we would like to see. That's where I would like to see Clifton. Yeah, me too. I would love to slot him in there. And then, sorry, so bottom pairing.
00:57:19
Speaker
Yeah, I was going to say, I got to think Eric Johnson gets in there. I wouldn't mind him being a guy that rotates in and out to keep him fresh. He's an older player. I think he's great on the penalty kill. But at night one, I think he starts. I agree. And you said Yoki Haryu, yeah? Yes, yup. So that leaves Stillman as the extra, which I'm not mad about. I thought he looked great when he slotted in last year. Yeah, dude, I agree.
00:57:48
Speaker
All right, should we move to the elephant in the room, the the gold tender sized elephant in the room? Yes, we should. All right, so we got one that's a lock, right? Tom, who's the one that's a lock? It's the Jedi, Devin Levi. Yeah, buddy.
00:58:04
Speaker
Devon Levi is going to be a lock to make this team that is a non-negotiable. And I don't know who the hell is going to be his backup because UBL just looked like a steaming pile of dog doodoo in his preseason game. And Eric Comrie made multiple breakaway stops, including one on Sidney Crosby and one on Evgeny Malkin last night. So at this point in time,
00:58:35
Speaker
See, I don't even like saying this, dude, because I truly to my core don't think that Eric Comrie is a good goaltender. You want to pick the upside with UPL, but we haven't seen it consistently enough from either of the guys to feel good. Jake, do you lean more of a way than other because I could be convinced on either of you can get more upside with one guy, but more experience and maybe a little bit more consistency with the other. I don't like either of them.
00:59:04
Speaker
Do you lean more one way than the other on this one? I do. I lean more towards Eric Comrie. I think he's a bit older, so he's 28 right now. So he's not a
00:59:21
Speaker
grizzled veteran by any means, but I think there's still some upside there.
Final Roster Decisions
00:59:27
Speaker
I thought he started the year last year poorly and that led to a lot more of a goalie carousel than anyone wanted. But I think when he came back from injury later in the year, I did think he played relatively well.
00:59:43
Speaker
He played well in Winnipeg before he came over. I think there's more there. If he can stay healthy and consistent, I think there's more to his game than he's shown.
00:59:56
Speaker
By saying that, I hope UPL stays in the system. I hope they can sneak him through waivers and get him to Rochester where he can start, you know, 40, 50 games down there. And if need be, call him up if injury or if Comrie's playing like dog doodoo, like you said. So that's the way I lean. That's why I think there's, I don't think he's shown what he can fully be at the NHL yet.
01:00:19
Speaker
Fair enough. I like I said, dude, I don't love either of them. So I'll concede to whichever way you want to go. I'm OK with going air comedy. If you put a gun to my head right now, that's probably who I would pick just because. UPL dude is man, he's just so up and down, man. He's got games where he's looked really quite good and games like the last preseason game he just played where he just looks awful. No two ways about it, dude.
01:00:44
Speaker
Yes, yeah. It's tough, too. Like, I don't think any of these guys are bad goaltenders. I think the environment that they play in is stacked against goaltenders with the way Buffalo plays. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but you know, you put Vasilevsky back there. He's given up more goals than he does playing in front of Tampa. There's just no way you make a good point this year. We're getting a lot of Linus Omar vibes there, right? Who sucked, quote unquote, in Buffalo and then goes on to just simply win a Vesna trophy. So.
01:01:14
Speaker
You know, it's it's tough to say with that stuff, but Yeah, I don't know man. The backup goalie situation is Concerning to say the least but well, I'm down for comedy. Let's put comedy All right, let's do it So that leaves us with one extra spot that we can fill in either another another forward another defense man All right, I know where I go I Given the team's history I
01:01:44
Speaker
I think they probably carry eight defensemen. Interesting. We went different ways on that one, but that's, God, this is so fun. Sports are so fucking cool. It's fun to throw around. What direction were you in? I went Rusek. Rusek. Yeah, I can see that. What position? He's a forward. Yep. So Rusek is a guy that played really well for Rochester last year. Had a great playoff stint in Rochester and looked solid when the couple of games he played with Buffalo last year.
01:02:14
Speaker
I would concede to you on that one. I agree with you. My only hesitation, and I don't say this to disagree with you, is I feel like they want him to have playing time. And so I don't think he's a popcorn hot dogs in the press box guy. I'd want to see him rotated in. But then who are you sitting? Yeah.
Closing Remarks and Social Media Reminder
01:02:31
Speaker
Where were you going to go, Jake?
01:02:32
Speaker
I would have said Bryson maybe makes the team. Again, I don't love it, but Buffalo typically carries eight defensemen to start the year from the past couple of years. You could pull me either way on that one. Tom, which name do you like more? Do you like Lucas Rusek? Do you think that's a cooler name or do you think Jacob Bryson's a cooler name? Oh, it's definitely got to be Rusek, but that's literally just by how it feels in my eardrums. Book it.
01:03:02
Speaker
All right. Congrats, Lucas Ruzek. You made the team. You're welcome, buddy. Cool name, bro. Way to supply Lucas with a K. This thing will definitely change. So with the Bill's roster projection, the Bills are more established in their team and environment. The Sabres are still trying to get a winning formula down and there's a lot more roster. Being forged as we speak. Correct. Exactly. So this is probably entirely wrong, but we'll see what happens.
01:03:26
Speaker
And so, folks, we said a lot of names and we talked about a lot of lines, but we promise we will post our our lineup projection or roster projections, excuse me, to the social. So we'll get them on Instagram and X. Don't forget to give those a follow at let's go buff pod with two F's. Is that it, boys? Do we do we get on out of here? I think we put a little cap on that. Yeah, that's it. That's a whole lid. Cap us right up, Tom.
01:03:53
Speaker
All right, guys. Well, hey, folks, thank you so much for listening and spending some time with us. We really do appreciate it. We're a bunch of three silly guys who just like to hang out and talk sports, and it's so freaking fun, and we're glad that you're along for the ride. So thank you so much. These are my pals, Jake and Nigel. 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 Sabers. Go Sabers. Let's Go Buffalo.