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00:00Welcome our friend Paul Hamilton to the show. Paul joins us on the West Her Hotline. We are watching
00:07Carolina Cup champs take the ice with that weird logo, black uniform thing with the flag and the
00:15stick and I don't know. But here we go, Florida and Carolina. I hope Eric Stahl is there to turn
00:20that crank, that crank that siren and then come join the Sabres in Columbus to help coach their
00:26power play. That'd be great. What exactly does Eric Stahl do here? I don't think Eric Stahl's
00:32traveling. He's just going to hang out in Buffalo sometimes, like part of the month, but he's not
00:37going to be out at all. I don't mean to be, you know what, you know what that was? That
00:41was,
00:41that was leftover sour pre-playoff drought being broken sour is what that was. I still don't like
00:51that Eric Stahl, but like I'm, I sound like the Sabres are still terrible bringing that up. Like
00:56that's, I mean, we're talking to Paul, the initial season is starting and I got to mention Eric Stahl.
01:00It'd be, but it's Carolina, like he's Carolina and that's still, I guess that's still, but what does
01:05he do? He was on the ice working with their power play earlier in camp and centers with face-offs
01:11and
01:11that type of thing. He's an assistant to the general manager is his real, real job and still is. And
01:17that
01:17he was not in a, on ice roll prior to this, I don't think. Right. No, he was not. That's
01:22new. Yeah. Yeah. They asked him to do that to kind of give his knowledge for the power play and
01:28that
01:28kind of stuff. Well, it's not like he shouldn't be qualified. Right. He definitely is. Right. Yeah,
01:33definitely is. He just played for the wrong team. Lindy Ruff said the same thing. He goes, yeah,
01:36he's pretty qualified to, you know, we of course are going to tap into his knowledge. All right, Paul,
01:42here we go. I mean, Panthers at hurricanes, if the Sabres put down close to the same kind of season
01:50that they just had, but not quite as good, they're going to be in a battle. I mean, it really
01:55took
01:55everything last year and after a slow start, obviously, but it, it really took everything
02:01for them to get to the place they got. And with, you know, here are two teams opening the season
02:06that
02:06you'd expect to be right up there too. Yeah. And honestly, they could, as far as just making the
02:15playoffs, they actually could probably be 12 points less and still make the playoffs. 97 normally will
02:21get you in only one time that I remember a hundred didn't get you in, which would be, which would
02:27be
02:27nine fewer points. So, um, yeah, they, they could be actually quite a bit worse and still be okay.
02:33Two more, two more games, two more games though. Yeah. We were talking about this.
02:37Last year, maybe Ottawa was 99 and they were, I don't know what number they were in the season.
02:43They were the eight. I mean, they were, yeah, they were maybe a couple of points ahead of the Metro
02:48teams. Fact factor before, before you make that point on all of our shows, Paul, because I know
02:52you make the right, like consider the two extra games too, to add into point totals, uh, before,
02:58you know, but the point is still the same, let's say are eight points. Yeah. Yeah. It could be eight
03:02points and still make the play out. They could be quite a few,
03:06points. Eight points is quite a few fewer and still make the playoffs. I don't disagree with
03:11that. Um, and a hundred should be good. The new, right. The, the news was seemingly encouraging
03:18today. Injury wise after, I mean, I, you know, you're watching, I'm watching this, uh, you know,
03:23listening to largely this preseason game on Saturday and now Lukanen is leaving and like,
03:28oh my God, what is happening. And then they're gone until today. Right. Um, back on the ice today.
03:35And I'll just let you just take it from here. Like injury wise, it seemed very encouraging this
03:40morning. Yeah. Samuelson, especially, uh, as Lindy said, he has a decision to make on him.
03:45He expects him at practice tomorrow. He skated before the Sabres today and rough said it went,
03:50went pretty good. He said he had a pretty good day. So the plan is for him to practice with
03:55the team
03:55tomorrow. So he's not ruling him out for Thursday. Uh, if he's getting on the ice for that,
04:02Lukanen said, he didn't really necessarily have to leave that game. He just said he felt something
04:07and he didn't want to risk. He didn't know what it was and he didn't want to risk anything as
04:12far as
04:13missing the first game. So he left. Yeah. But he said he didn't have to, and he was fine in
04:19practice
04:20today. So I mean, there were no problems in practice today at all. Um, so, uh, he, he seems fine
04:26with
04:26that. Um, with Zellweger, he, I don't know, he seemed, and I'm just going by his, his voice inflection,
04:36his body. It didn't seem like he was as good with Zellweger as he had been. Lindy we're talking
04:42about. Yeah. Yeah. He said he's still good, uh, but, uh, he's still day to day today would be seven
04:49days. Now is seven days after practice is over, you know, so you could put him in practice tomorrow
04:57or could he have participated in practice with seven days today? Um, you know, I don't know exactly
05:03how that rolls or, or did, or did he experience maybe something of a setback or symptoms after
05:10working out and try like, cause that's a, that could be a part of the process. Sure. Right.
05:14Sure. Sure. But, uh, he, he, he said he's still doing good, but he just sounded a little
05:19down or about it, or I don't know, maybe I'm looking more into it than it was there. I don't
05:24know. Yeah. But the looking in, in Samuelson are the leads for sure. I mean, I hope Zellweger
05:28is back too. Um, but even the door being open at all for Samuelson to perhaps even be
05:35in the opener. And certainly if he's going to skate with the team on Wednesday and the
05:39skate went well today before practice, you'd think Saturday has got to be in the window
05:44for him, even if he misses the opener. Yeah. And really if Zellweger and Samuelson aren't
05:49ready, you're missing half of your defensive core for the opening game. You're missing three
05:53or six. So right. Cause Timmons that's new Timmons. Like what, what, what happened
05:58there? It was right at the end of the game. Ruff said, and, uh, they, they, he, uh, I
06:04didn't sound like he was on the trip with them. He was in Buffalo and they got word
06:09it's a lower body injury. They had, he had tests done in the morning and that's when
06:13they found out he wasn't putting any timetable or anything like that on it. So he
06:19didn't say day to day, week to week, there's a possibility or anything like that. So
06:24it doesn't sound like at least for Thursday, we're going to see him. Yeah. And as I said,
06:28if Samuelson's not quite ready and Zellweger's not quite ready, you're going
06:32with, uh, uh, uh, Grilzik and, uh, Metza and yeah. Yeah. And then you would have to call
06:40probably Gilbert up to be number seven to sit there and watch. So, uh, or would he have
06:46to be in? Yeah. Yeah. He'd have to be in if you're down three. Yeah. He'd have to be
06:51in and then he would have to call somebody else because Lenny Ruff said they will be
06:54in Columbus with seven defensemen. So then they would have to call up to. Yep. And
06:59that's just how last season started for Timmons, right? Wasn't he hurt at the
07:02beginning of the year last year too? Sure was. Yeah. So it's, uh, you know, we'll just
07:08see how it goes and how many guys from Rochester might wind up on this trip. Johnson, I
07:13suppose to be the next guy up if they had to bring another one up. I know he's not the
07:17most important guy or anything. Um, you know, Samuelson and even Zellweger, I think to an
07:22extent outrank him. Um, but I, he was important. He shot blocking, penalty killing. I know Lindy
07:29loves him because of that. And I was sort of looking forward to seeing him, you know, a
07:35whole, a whole season of him. Like can that settle in and hopefully this doesn't last too
07:40long, whatever this situation is that he's dealing with right now. Yeah. And he
07:44wanted a better number six defenseman and he wanted this guy. So, uh, Adams went out
07:49and got him. Uh, so he's five on five. Yeah. I'm not right. Yeah. He's not, yeah. He's
07:57not fleet of foot. He's not the best puck mover, but I think he plays an important role
08:01on that penalty. He absolutely does five on five. It just seems like it doesn't go his
08:05way at all. But, uh, on the penalty kill, it absolutely goes his way. Uh, he's, uh,
08:11really, uh, uh, a big part of their penalty kill. Uh, it's just, he's a shot
08:16blocking machine. Yeah. I mean, it's just shot after shot after shot that he's
08:21blocking. It might be one of the reasons why, you know, he, he, he's been got, he
08:25gets hurt because he's fearless. I mean, he'll be diving in front of bucks no matter
08:29what. Lindy rough is coming up on 2000 games coach. He'll get there this year. If he makes
08:35it to late February, which there's no reason not to expect him to do. How, you know, do
08:40you feel about rough at this stage? I mean, they had a great season. So there's really
08:44no specific point in my asking. I mean, I'm not thinking that there's some difference
08:50in how he's operating or just how he's feeling or anything like that. But I mean, 2000 games,
08:55I think it's two guys. I think it's Scotty and it's Paul Maurice maybe like he's, he's
09:01getting close to all time leadership in big categories. Yeah. And is it fair to
09:07compare to the, what he did with the New Jersey devils, which was make the playoffs
09:12do well, went around and then it all fell apart. Yeah. You know, after that, I don't
09:18know that's going to happen here. Um, but that's what happened there with a good
09:22young team that, uh, you know, came out of nowhere. Uh, that's exactly what this
09:29team did. That doesn't necessarily mean that has to happen with this team, but I
09:32just know what happened with that one. And I know in my estimation, this team is
09:36not as good as the team that finished up against the Montreal Canadians in game
09:40seven. Um, but it doesn't, as we mentioned earlier, it doesn't have to be, you know,
09:44it can be seven, eight points less and still be okay and make the playoffs.
09:49Right. And who knows, you know, their plan maybe would be that they're going to
09:53somehow improve. Um, good luck improving on 109 points, but you know, the, the
09:58unknowns are what they're, they're young guys. Um, you know, we've got this
10:02injuries to start here that we already talked about, but it's, you know, how the
10:06news it's like, I feel like Auslan Paul in part, like, I don't know how
10:11seriously to take what they're, they did with the lines today. Maybe you can tell
10:14us, but really in a blender at practice today. And that's not even considering
10:19that they had Kozak playing defense because they were down guys. They had
10:23three guys playing defense. Sherry, Sherry and, uh, oh, okay. They're playing
10:28defense together. But we had, we had, they only flipped two guys. They only flipped
10:32Doan and Krebs. Okay. Or I'm sorry. No, Norris. Norris. Yeah. That's it. I meant
10:37Norris. I'm sorry. Right. Um, Josh, you know, so, uh, Norris with Thompson and
10:43Doan and, uh, Krebs with McLeod and Helenuse, put McLeod back in the
10:47middle, Thompson back on the wing. Although Lindy Ruff said that could just
10:51be interchangeable. You know, he goes, and he goes, the reason being, he
10:55goes, look, we only have four preseason games. There are things I
10:57wanted to see. Yeah. He goes, I got to see him in practice. He said, this is
11:01one of the things I wanted to see. So I did it in practice. And, uh, um, he
11:07goes, maybe we'll start this way, the way it is now. And, you know, and I
11:12mentioned to you guys last week, you know, Norris came here for a
11:16reason and it wasn't to be on the second power play. And, uh, you
11:20know, he, he, you know, he makes a lot of money. He's an offensive
11:24type player. He's got a, uh, a bazooka for a shot. Um, he should
11:29be able to win draws, which he couldn't last year, which kind of
11:32tells me that maybe he was more hurt than we thought. Um, because he
11:36is normally a good draw man and he wasn't any better than the rest of
11:39him last year. Uh, but, uh, you know, I was more on the, he, you can't
11:45have Norris on the number two power play. You just can't. And he
11:48still is, but they moved him to with, uh, up there with Thompson, which I
11:52don't, I don't disagree with. Kulik is still playing with Carrick and
11:56Malstein. And I will still say if that's the way it is Thursday, he
12:01should be in Rochester until you can put him in the top nine. Right. And if
12:05you can't put him in the top nine, then put him in Rochester until you
12:08can. He doesn't go, have to go on waivers. That would be my, my
12:11thought on that. Right. And you don't want Norris on the number
12:14two power play unless the number one unit is clicking. Then you
12:18can do anything you want. Absolutely. Absolutely. And their research, and
12:23they did a heck of a lot of it, tells them they need players like
12:27Benson and Dona on their power play to play down low. Right. Um, so maybe
12:31it will work very well and that's the way they're going to start. You
12:34can always switch it, but I'm just like, okay, then put Norris in
12:38there for Quinn. Um, but I, I just, you, you didn't trade for him to
12:43be on your number two power play. He's got to be a big part of
12:46your team. I am, you know, it strikes. I'm glad you just
12:49mentioned Jack Quinn's name, Paul, because, um, you know, he's
12:53been around a little more, obviously he's more experienced
12:57than the, the new young guys, but it's not that long ago that
13:00Quinn was that guy. And I felt like, and I don't know, we, I'm
13:05sure we talked about this in the spring when the playoffs were
13:08going on. I saw a whole nother layer. I thought of Quinn in the
13:13playoffs, like his battle on the, he just was endlessly endlessly.
13:18That's exaggerating pretty grievously. Um, he impressed me a
13:22lot with how much he dug in and was winning battles and hanging
13:27onto the puck in the offensive zone. Like there was, there was signs of
13:31real progress there. Not that he had a terrible year, but I
13:35thought like, wow, there's more this, this, this could be really
13:38good next year. And I'm sort of intrigued to see what he's
13:41capable of. And I liked what I saw in the year. He scored 20
13:44goals. You finally got them up to 20 goals, which doesn't need
13:48to be the seal. There could be more, you know, uh, he could
13:51maybe I, I, when, when I first saw him and the shot he had the
13:55way he's playing at Rochester, I thought this guy, this guy
13:58could be a 30 goal score for years to come in this league. And
14:01now that doesn't appear to be like something that he is
14:04capable of, but he finally hit 20. And that's what I talked
14:07about. Well, he was going to be part of the Hellebuck
14:09trade. It's like, you finally got him to 20 and you're going
14:11to get rid of him. I mean, you, you do all this to get him
14:14there all these years and suffer through everything you've
14:17had to suffer through with him. And then you get him there
14:19and he's playing better. And then he has a good playoff and
14:22then you're going to get rid of him for a guy that
14:23you're not sure is going to help you or not. Um, you
14:27know, I wasn't real keen on that one either. And just
14:30because I want to put Norris in his spot in the power
14:32play doesn't mean I'm down on him. It's me. Nor it means
14:35to me, Norris belongs in the power play. Yeah. And that's
14:38all it means. Uh, I actually thought Quinn improved quite
14:41a bit last year and put a lot into his game and was a
14:45lot hard, as you mentioned, a lot harder to play against
14:47he was a better, better battler, uh, than he had been
14:50in the past. How, how badly. And I know the injuries have
14:55to be a part of the present when it comes to this, to this
14:57question, but how badly are the Sabres in your
14:58opinion, Paul going to miss Byram? I think a lot. I
15:02mean, it's hard to keep four defensemen that good and
15:06your team though. I mean, I, I agree with Yarmulkekeke
15:09line is assessment that they probably one to four had
15:12the best defense in the league from one to four. And
15:16that's going to be difficult to be able to pay all
15:18them and, and have that good of a top four. Uh, so, and, and
15:24he knew that and you know, he, he, he of course wanted
15:28his money. Uh, I don't know if the Sabres would have gone
15:31that far as the Blackhawks did. And he wants to be a
15:35number one defenseman. Now he mentioned winning, which
15:37obviously wasn't the case because he went to the
15:39Blackhawks. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but if he was
15:42that concerned about winning, the Blackhawks would not
15:44have been one of his teams he would have gone to and
15:45signed with. So obviously money, uh, was the most
15:49important thing. And, you know, being a number one
15:51defenseman to get that money would, would be the second
15:54most important thing. So, uh, that's, that, that's
15:57hard to be able to keep. I think they, they did a pretty
16:00good job with Zellweger and Crevier and, uh, Grislik
16:03to kind of fill in, fill in the gaps until maybe he's one
16:07of your three stud defensemen is ready to play in the
16:09National Hockey League. Um, so, but you know, as you
16:14know, the offensively, I just don't think they replaced,
16:17uh, the tuck piece. Maybe don't can do that if he, you
16:22know, improves on his 25 goals, which I think he can. Uh,
16:25but they did not try him on the penalty kill like
16:27Lindy rough, right. You know, the end of the last season
16:29kind of indicated they would Norris got a lot of time on
16:33the penalty kill. Um, so that doesn't mean they can't
16:37try him there, but it doesn't look like he's going to
16:39start the season on the penalty kill. And if you're
16:41going to take over and do the things that, that, uh,
16:45tucked in and I think leadership wise, he has a young
16:47player, especially with his dad, Shane Doan, who was a, he
16:52was a huge leader in the National Hockey League. I
16:54think he might be ready to take on that responsibility. If
16:57Lindy rough wanted to give out a third day, which he does
17:00not seem to want to do. He's just going to stick with the
17:02two, like it's the normal way to go. Um, so, uh, you
17:07know, the, he could fill in that way. Uh, but if he, whoever
17:12is going to take over in tux position, it's going to have
17:14to be penalty kill power place, be able to be in the 30
17:18goal territory, uh, be, be a good two way player, you
17:22know, the whole, the whole nine yards. Paul, when we ran
17:25through all the injuries, I neglected to bring up Alex
17:27Lyon to you. Um, cause he was another piece of that hurt
17:31his shoulder in the game in Detroit last week. Um, and I,
17:35there was an update on that, but I'm not sure I know
17:37it. So I'd like you to fill us in. Yeah. Still day to
17:40day. You know, uh, it does again, he doesn't sound like
17:43somebody that's going to be, uh, ready for Thursday, but
17:47he's not on injured reserve. Right. So, uh, it just, I
17:51didn't get the impression that he's going to be in, in
17:53practice tomorrow. Um, but, uh, you know, his status I
17:57think is still up in the air and I, I, I don't think it's
18:00immediate that he's going to be back out there. Um, but, uh, you
18:05know, he's not, he didn't practice and he's still on a
18:07day to day situation. Paul, I'm already missing you on
18:11our pregame shows cause we're not going to be doing
18:13them very often. The music behind you and just noise and
18:18all the inside of course games and the music wasn't
18:20blasting, but I'm sure it's going to be soon. But, uh,
18:23yeah, I miss you guys in the, uh, preseason, uh, pregame
18:28show. Almost like our conversation with you on the
18:31official network pregame show does not take precedence
18:33over the fact that we got to get, we got to start
18:36jamming, man. We get, it's an hour away from face
18:38off. We got to get it going. Hey, before we part ways
18:41here, Paul, what, what did you think of what Toronto did
18:43yesterday?
18:46Yeah, I, I don't know if I'm going to pay that guy 12 and
18:52a half million dollars. I suppose that's what the going
18:55rate is. Yep. I'm just not sure I'm going to pay him
18:58that, you know, I, I think sometimes he needs a kick in
19:01the butt, uh, to, to get going. He's a big man who can
19:05score goals, which people might say, well, you can maybe
19:09do that and fill in for Alex Tuck, but you would have had
19:13to clear room by next year to put him in, to put him in
19:17that spot, not this year, but by next year to put him in
19:19that spot and the cap is going up. So you probably could have
19:22figured that out by next year. I wonder, I wonder what, what
19:27this backstory on nice is because the previous regime
19:32there had him in rumors. There was a pretty credible
19:35story that he maybe almost went to much in division to
19:39Montreal last year at one point. And, you know, I was
19:42hot and heavy for him as an idea to replace Tuck. Um, but
19:46you've got the back to back, you know, management teams in
19:49Toronto. There's like seemingly can't wait to get Matthew
19:52nice off their team. Who's 23 and big and scores. He's not
19:57Marchenko. Marchenko is a more polished finisher, impactful
20:01player, but nice assigned for like seven and a half for
20:04like four more years, five more years. That's the kind of
20:08player again, with the size he has that you'd want to hang
20:12on to for dear life. So I wonder maybe it's just Marchenko's
20:16that much better and that makes him expendable. But I think
20:19it's notable that two GMs in a row seemed, you know, willing
20:23to get rid of Matthew nice. Yeah. And I don't know how much
20:26better he really is. I mean, nice will be 24 in October. So
20:31when he was 22, he scored 29 goals and 58 points. When he
20:36was 23, he scored 23 goals and 66 points. Um, I, I'm thinking
20:43I might want him more than that more because I don't think
20:46this kid from anything I've seen and I see more of them, uh,
20:50needs a kick in the butt to get going. I'm not sure he's, I
20:53think he's better. I'm not sure he's $5 million better and
20:57two years older. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I, I like it. I
21:01don't know if he's hugely better just because of that. The
21:04fact I brought up, but you're getting a guy who almost scored
21:08130 goals, uh, at, at age 22 and, uh, you know, then put up
21:1466 points, had more assists, went from 29 assists to 43 assists
21:18in the next year. Um, I, I honestly, and the year of the
21:23playoffs with the Leafs, he had 13 playoff games and had seven
21:27points and five goals. I think I'd rather go along with that.
21:31Paul, before you go, just one quick one from me, Florida,
21:34Carolina playing right now. I wonder, I wonder who you think
21:37will win this game. A team that has won the Stanley cup
21:43within the last couple of years. Okay. Well, there's a
21:46doubt. How's that? Way to punt Paul. Very good. That's all
21:50on me. I knew what I was getting into. Thank you, Paul.
21:53Traveling tomorrow? Well, go to practice first and then hop in
21:57the car and off we go. All right. Hope to be able to catch up
22:00then.
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