- 1 week ago
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Happy Friday.
00:01With us now, this is cool.
00:04It's been a cool week.
00:05It's been a good week with these.
00:06I agree.
00:07With us now on the Western Hotline is Gord Stelick.
00:10You can hear Gord on SiriusXM NHL Network radios,
00:14The Morning Skate, 7 a.m. Eastern, weekday mornings, channel 91.
00:18And, by the way, you can hear us on the SiriusXM app
00:21or on channel 175 if your car works really well.
00:25Check out SiriusXM.com slash Sports Pass for more details
00:29how to subscribe to SiriusXM's all-new sports plan.
00:33I want to talk about curling, but that seems like that would be really selfish
00:35because I met Gord at a curling event in Niagara Falls a few years ago.
00:40Leading with that.
00:41Gord, do you remember this interaction?
00:42We were talking about it yesterday,
00:44and we didn't wager on whether you'd remember meeting him at a curling event.
00:47I would never be so bold.
00:49The world awaits your answer, Gord.
00:52I absolutely do.
00:54There's all kinds of great people, aren't there, at curling events.
00:56I know it's the same in a lot of places, but I 100% remember it very, very well.
01:02And, you know, the other part, it's great that we have a partnership now on Sirius.
01:07I'll tell you, I've listened to GR for decades.
01:09Like, I am a Toronto guy, but Buffalo was my wheelhouse.
01:13So, great being on board.
01:15And then great hearing NFL football starting,
01:17because that means NBA and NHL.
01:19And curling will all get into it as well.
01:21That's it. It's all happening.
01:23Curly has all this new stuff, it seems, like the slam events and the Rock League
01:28and everything like that, but we can put that aside.
01:32From your perspective, Gord, as, you know, we all in Buffalo just were kind of blown away
01:37by what happened with the Sabres last year,
01:39one question I've wanted to ask all our hockey analysts is just, like,
01:43to what extent you might have seen it coming?
01:45I mean, we've waited so long for just an appearance in the playoffs with the Sabres,
01:48and then you get that, first place, and game seven in the second round.
01:52Did you have any sense that that was on the horizon for them?
01:57I would say almost zero.
01:59That kind of turnaround, like, when you're working with a team,
02:01that's what you hope for, right?
02:03As a matter of fact, like, all summer you sit there
02:05and you just think about the best-case scenario,
02:07if everything can go right.
02:09And that had not happened in Buffalo for a long period of time.
02:13And, you know, guys, that's why you play the games, right?
02:15Because things that happen that just don't make sense.
02:18And when I say that, I say that with respect
02:19because I liked how they were putting things together.
02:22But to have another season that's going down the tubes
02:25and then a light switch goes and it does a complete 180 like it did,
02:30it's so unusual.
02:31I was, hey, very happy for the fans, long-suffering fans.
02:34I don't like to see, you know, organizations with a history like Buffalo
02:38or any of them.
02:39You know, Toronto was it for a while, Detroit now.
02:42I mean, have that many years that you're out of the playoffs.
02:44So I always felt, you know, they kept retooling, retooling again.
02:49I liked what I saw coming together.
02:51But, boy, I was stunned how it just seemed to do a 180 in the middle of the season.
02:56It's hard not to be stunned, Gord, when the season begins.
02:58I mean, there was plenty of – oh, plenty.
03:00There was some analysis before the season that, like, okay, you know,
03:05the decor, the goaltending will stabilize.
03:08They could be a wild-card contender.
03:11But then the season begins, and they're in last place, and you're just like,
03:15okay, here we go again.
03:16And then the switch just flips.
03:18I mean, I think it's very hard not to be stunned.
03:21However into it you are and however deep you go on your analysis of the additions
03:26and subtractions in an offseason, once it began and they looked like the same
03:30old, same old junk, it's very hard to expect it to turn around.
03:34In fact, it took the 10-game winning streak and then some.
03:38I think we were asking each other in the March, like, are they good?
03:42Are they really good?
03:44It's just, you know, the scar tissue is deep.
03:47Yeah, well, you know, the one constant in any sport is if you get your confidence
03:54and all of a sudden, like, you know, you believe you can do it and that.
03:58And, you know, teams will quite often say that, but they don't really mean it.
04:02And then to, you know, experience winning, get addicted to winning.
04:05And there was that one game when I remember there were a few fights and you could see
04:10them in the penalty box, yeah, yeah, you know what, we're kicking ass now.
04:13You know, we won tonight and we're kicking their ass physically.
04:15And, wow, we can win all kinds of different ways.
04:18And it was kind of, you know, great to see them kind of grow, learn to win,
04:23embrace winning, and decide that they can do it.
04:26All that said, what do you think of their offseason?
04:28Because there were two, I don't know, Kingpin is strong, but, like, talk really mattered for them.
04:35Byron was a part of that top four on their decor that really ran the whole thing for Lindy Ruff.
04:40And they're both gone, and there is not a beard-growing, you know, 30-year-old in anybody's place.
04:48It's all kids.
04:50And so, I don't know, what did you think of their offseason?
04:54Well, you know, in Toronto, last year showed, when you lose a Mitch Marner,
04:58what it did for Vegas and what it did in the opposite way for Toronto.
05:03No, not single-handedly, but, you know, your elite players are huge in making that
05:08really important margin of difference.
05:10And I wouldn't compare them to Marner, those losses in Buffalo.
05:15They certainly, you know, they got, Byron, they had to look at it in a kind of a business-y
05:20situation.
05:20They got futures back, and they looked a year ahead as far as it may be being a UFA
05:25or a contract they weren't going to sign.
05:27Tuck was a strange one.
05:29I just kind of, you know, I just kind of thought it would come together,
05:33but they got something for them.
05:34So, yeah, those are significant losses.
05:37But the biggest thing, you know, Mike and Bulldog, is, like, this division.
05:42Like, you know, you may have made any team a couple strides last year,
05:46but everyone, the Atlantic Division, if you don't make the playoffs,
05:50you're going to be pissed off.
05:51Like, I mean, they're just just everybody coming full force.
05:54So that's going to be the toughest thing that, you know, you have that great year in Buffalo,
05:59and, you know, you get back in the deep end of the pool in the playoffs.
06:02You do it at a time when the division as a whole has never been stronger.
06:06Yeah, it might have been the best division ever that they won last year.
06:10And, you know, that's Toronto taking a step back.
06:12But, I mean, you had, what, five 100-point teams or 99-point teams?
06:15We have been trying, Gord.
06:17We don't have that much power, which is evidenced by the fact that we've not been able
06:20to convince anyone to move the Sabres or even the Bills to, like,
06:23the southern divisions of sports.
06:26That seems like a much more comfier existence.
06:30It's just never gone over, never gotten off the ground, really, that idea.
06:34Connor Hellebuck, we've been spending more time this summer with the Sabres
06:38talking about a player who isn't on the Sabres maybe than anyone else.
06:41But this continuing speculation about Hellebuck fueled by insiders continuing
06:47to mostly at least report that they think he still will be traded.
06:51And he's made that statement affirming that he wants to be.
06:55So if you were the Sabres, how hard would you want to go at him?
07:00Well, I strongly, strongly, I don't know if that's the right word.
07:04If I look at Buffalo and you see the example of, you know,
07:07Dominic Hasik and Ryan Miller and what that means, okay?
07:10So, among many things last year, the goaltending was certainly up to snuff.
07:16But to have a guy, then there's very few of those guys anymore.
07:19They're just, you know, because a whack of them retired the one Chris of the world
07:22and that, I mean, you just don't have a number of goaltenders that you put
07:26and say, okay, that is the number one.
07:28I mean, there's a lot more partnerships now and tandems than that.
07:32So I would think, and, you know, I don't know if leverage is going to come into play
07:37and the Sabres are in other teams' favor in getting him.
07:40It seems like Kevin Sheveldayoff has determined that, you know,
07:43he's got a certain price he wants to get in Winnipeg.
07:46But I just think that, you know, you've got to go after this guy for the Buffalo Sabres.
07:50Is anybody talking about him not showing up for training camp or is it a little too early?
07:54Like, if nothing changes?
07:58So he's going to go on vacation with Dylan Larkin, is that it?
08:01They'll be in some island?
08:03I guess it is the Wild West out there with the types of contracts that have been given out,
08:10the types of players that, like, you know, whether you look at Brady Kachuk in Ottawa
08:15to Florida that have been able to demand and get a trade return left on their contracts
08:20and teams kind of realize, you know what, it's better that we acquiesce that way
08:24than trying to be the hard asses.
08:26So those are going to be interesting questions about, you know,
08:28whether it's Larkin in Detroit or Hellebuck in Winnipeg,
08:31what is the tactic once training camp starts?
08:35So I'm going to wait and see what gives,
08:38but I think there would be a decent chance that they're not going to go to training camp.
08:43Then do the Red Wings and the Jets play hard asses and say,
08:48well, you know what, we're not going to trade you until you're in camp.
08:51So there's just a lot of stuff going on that's not usual in the offseason.
08:55Gord, how much, if at all, do you think it matters to the Sabres to get a big move into
09:02the boat?
09:03We already talked about Tuck and Byram leaving.
09:06I like the Zellweger bet to replace some of what Byram did for them style-wise.
09:12I think it might be a good fit there.
09:14It's a bet I would make anyway.
09:16But I already talked about how they didn't really do anything substantive to replace those guys.
09:21They're hoping for the kids to backfill.
09:24I wonder if a team that had 109 points and won the division to break a 15-season playoff drought
09:32should symbolically look like a team that's like,
09:35okay, look, we're doing this now because we're here.
09:39And you made a good point, too, as well.
09:41So they didn't backfill substantively, but they did, in Zellweger and that, get some quality.
09:47But no, no.
09:49The fans all like it.
09:50It's sexy, right?
09:51The big, big, big, bold move.
09:54Love it.
09:54Talk about it.
09:55We love action.
09:56It shouldn't mean points.
09:57It shouldn't mean a Stanley Cup.
09:58No.
09:59Exactly the opposite.
10:01Stay the course about whatever move.
10:02The great teams are the ones that, okay, every move you make, if it makes you incrementally better
10:10and you make more moves that make you more incrementally better than a step back, that's how you get there.
10:16I mean, you look at the bricks that the Florida Panthers put together with all the different acquisitions
10:20and how it all came about.
10:21You know, while Barkoff languished as a top young player for years out of the playoffs.
10:26So, no, I think Yarmulkekelein is just the great right guy, kind of guy to be GM of the Buffalo
10:31Sabres.
10:32You do not – I mean, the one is the little one, like, say, the rare unrestricted free agent like
10:38Mitch Marner was for Vegas.
10:39Like, you can't go wrong with that because you're giving up nothing.
10:42But in other instances, no, you've got to surround yourself with quality hockey people
10:46and make the best hockey moves based on that.
10:50Gord, before you go, just a thought on the Leafs here.
10:52I think it's interesting, just, you know, in a vacuum, a team that was at where they appeared to be
10:59at
10:59would go and make the Bobrovsky signing, Darren Radish even.
11:04Like, they've acted, in my opinion, more like a team that was right on the cusp of the playoffs
11:09or even in the playoffs.
11:11But maybe that's the market a little bit where I don't know how much patience anybody has there
11:16for, like, what would look more obviously like a rebuild.
11:19So, what do you think of the Leafs at this point?
11:22Yeah, well, you know, when you were talking about, we were talking about the Atlantic Division earlier.
11:26So, you have a previous year's team that won the Stanley Cup Florida
11:29and the previous year's team that came first, Toronto, not getting in the playoffs last year.
11:35So, about the bounce back on both sides.
11:38That was real.
11:39Just much as the switch went on in Buffalo, the switch never went on in Toronto last year,
11:44which almost was just as much of a surprise what went.
11:47And I, unfortunately, get the feeling that having made nine consecutive playoffs
11:53the previous nine years, that that is over.
11:56You know, that is over as far as when we're talking Stanley Cup.
11:59And where you want to avoid getting is, I always think you've got to be fish or foul.
12:03You've got to be in the deep end of the pool with a legitimate chance at the Cup,
12:06which they were for a number of years.
12:08Or you've got to be doing the rebuild, which, yeah, you can be a little long in the rebuild
12:13like Buffalo was and Detroit is right now.
12:15But, you know, that's the way you've got to go.
12:16But because they have their next two years' first-round picks are not lottery protected
12:22and have been traded to Boston and Philadelphia, you don't have that alternative.
12:26So, I don't know if they bounce back.
12:27I mean, they should bounce back just based on is Austin Matthews healthy,
12:30is Tano healthy, do they get better goaltending.
12:33But then all of a sudden you get in that one, I think the worst place to be is the
12:36mushy middle.
12:36Then you get in that mushy middle that, okay, maybe you're good enough to make the playoffs
12:40and then you can eliminate in the first round.
12:42And so it goes and so it goes and so it goes.
12:45So, I'm intrigued to see can they do a more significant bounce back or not.
12:50Yeah, I agree completely with that.
12:52I mean, go get it or step back.
12:56And I think fans have more patience and understanding for that than ever before.
13:01Like maybe when you were GM, just going back 20, 30 years ago, I don't know.
13:06Like I don't know if people were really ready to listen to, we're going to rebuild.
13:11But, you know, then at the same time, go ahead.
13:13Yeah, I think owners weren't listening.
13:17Now, if you share, like, you know, fans are not stupid, okay?
13:22Like if you share what you're doing and they can see what you're doing,
13:25then I think that's the way to go and bring them in on it.
13:29Now, again, Buffalo is an example.
13:31It carried on too long.
13:32But still, you know, fans will, you know, like to see.
13:35And if you share that with them, I think you can get that kind of patience.
13:40Like you look at the Montreal Canadiens, you know, for example.
13:43So, anyway, we'll see what gives.
13:45I think the key, though, right?
13:47Curling, hurry hard, right?
13:48Whatever you do, hurry hard is the credo for all 32 NHL teams.
13:52How about that?
13:53Keep sweeping.
13:53It does have to be hard to really back up if you've got Matthews still in his prime
13:58and Nylander still in his prime.
14:01Like, that's tough.
14:02I mean, it's one thing if those guys said, I want out now,
14:06sort of like Larkin and Hellebuck have done, then maybe that's different.
14:09Then you can maybe back the truck all the way up.
14:11I think it's hard to back it all the way up when you've got those dudes in their primes.
14:15Yeah.
14:15Oh, yeah, you've got to keep running at it.
14:17And you've got to say, okay, you've got to hope last year was a blip
14:21and Buffalo fans have to hope last year wasn't a blip for the Buffalo Sabres.
14:25And that's what we'll see.
14:26Like I said, there'll be some great battles.
14:28And back to the good old days when they're both, you know, playoff contenders,
14:34expect to be in the playoffs like the great rivalry really has been
14:39since the Sabres joined the league in 1970.
14:41Right on.
14:42Listen for Gord Stelick on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio,
14:45The Morning Skate, 7 a.m. Eastern weekdays, Channel 91.
14:50Thank you, Gord.
14:50This was really nice.
14:52Well, great.
14:53And good luck to the baseball team, too.
14:55They've been developing real good players for Toronto Blue Jays fans as well.
15:00So always enjoy your show and enjoy the station.
15:02Thanks very much again.
15:03Very kind of you to say that, Gord.
15:04Have a great Labor Day weekend.
15:05See you guys.
15:06All right.
15:06Gord Stelick.
15:07All right.
Comments