- 14 minutes ago
Jeremy White and Joe DiBiase are joined by Buffalo Sabres forward Peyton Krebs in place of Head Coach Lindy Ruff’s weekly appearance. The guys start by looking back on the incredible regular season game last year, and how this game might be more charged because of it. Then the guys discuss how things have gone this season, and Krebs explains why he thinks the team's best hockey is still in front of them.
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00:00Peyton Krebs joining us on the Western Hotline.
00:02It's game day for the Sabres.
00:03Peyton, good morning.
00:04It's Jeremy and Joe.
00:05Thanks for taking some time today.
00:08Yeah, no problem.
00:09How are you guys doing?
00:10We're good.
00:10We were just remembering the Tampa games last year.
00:13You guys have Tampa tonight, and those got spicy last year.
00:17A lot of fun matchups between the two, including that iconic –
00:19The one especially.
00:21The one especially, the 8-7 game from last year,
00:23which had to be one of the best regular season games many people had ever seen.
00:29Yeah, no, we've had some good matchups, but that was definitely –
00:33well, probably the best, like you guys said, the best regular season game
00:37I've been in my NHL career.
00:38So that's as close as you get to maybe like a playoff game slash –
00:44I don't even know what that scoring was slash a lot of other stuff.
00:48So, no, it was a fun game, and looking forward to tonight.
00:52Do you anticipate they play a certain style when you guys go
00:56into a game, whether it's a meeting, game day, or day before?
01:00Like, be ready for this kind of stuff when this team comes in?
01:06Yeah, no, I think every game has kind of their own identity.
01:10So you try to pick up little things.
01:13But at the end of the day, if you're playing your best as a team,
01:17you know, you usually can stop that pretty easily.
01:21So I just try to focus on what we need to do and then, you know,
01:25pick up on little things that might help us and get a few more goals
01:29or some more plays.
01:31Is there – not that there would be any thought about like retribution
01:34to Brandon Hagel.
01:36He did not play, though, against you guys in the rematch last year
01:39after he went after Dahlien.
01:40But are there types of – are there players you feel like you guys know
01:44who they are like on the other team?
01:45Like, these are the specific guys where you could just expect stuff.
01:51Yeah, I think – I've played Hagel my whole career, you know,
01:57into junior too.
02:00He's just a player that, you know, he works his brains on and, you know,
02:04likes to get a little gritty out there.
02:06So you're just going to, you know, make sure when you're out against him
02:09and you finish your checks and, you know, you're going to be in it for a battle.
02:15So you don't want to lose any battles and just give it.
02:19Peyton, you've been here in Buffalo since 2021.
02:22You come in the 2021-22 season and, you know,
02:25you would have been a part of this team missing the playoffs a bunch of years.
02:28Then last year, of course, the division title going deep into the playoffs.
02:32Has that changed the way that this time of year feels at all
02:37when it comes to, you know, wanting to get back there
02:40as opposed to wanting to break through?
02:45Yeah, I think, you know, you play in the playoffs
02:50the first time you realize how, you know, fun those hockey games are.
02:56Each and every game means so much more, not that the regular season doesn't.
03:00But, you know, it's just such fun hockey.
03:05And, you know, at the end of the last year,
03:08I thought I was going to play regular season games after doing that.
03:11But, you know, I think coming into this year, you know,
03:16we have a lot to prove as a team and getting back there, obviously.
03:19And, you know, just each and every game,
03:25you just kind of you got to realize what that feeling felt like
03:28and what those games are like.
03:30And that's kind of the motivation to each and every day
03:32to win more hockey games to get back there.
03:34So, you know, we're in a good spot here.
03:38I think, you know, we're going to string together a lot more wins
03:42and get us back in the right spot.
03:44Yeah, how do you feel about what the season has been so far?
03:48Like, you guys are in the mix.
03:50It could definitely be worse.
03:51I mean, their teams are on the league on long losing streaks.
03:53But, I don't know, like last year you guys proved maybe that in the mix
03:57could be below your standard.
03:59I don't know.
03:59How do you feel about kind of how it's gone so far?
04:03Yeah, I agree.
04:04I think, you know, we want to be at the top of the standings, no doubt.
04:10That is our standard and that's where we want to be.
04:14I think we have yet to play our best hockey, and that's exciting.
04:21You know, when we get to our stride, which we've got to get to it right away here,
04:27that's going to be exciting.
04:28And we're going to put together a lot of wins.
04:31So, no, I'm not going to say I'm happy where we're at,
04:37but I think we're in a good spot to, you know, push forward here
04:41and string together a lot of wins and put ourselves in a good spot.
04:44Jeremy mentioned how many years you've been here now.
04:47And, you know, you're a skilled player.
04:49You're a high draft pick, obviously, so a lot of point production in juniors.
04:53You were in an energy role here for a long time, Peyton.
04:57Like in the last year, a lot of minutes with Thompson, top of the lineup.
05:01Did it take any time adjusting from the type of line you had been playing on
05:06to back to, all right, I'm on a line now that's trusted to go out there
05:09and score goals?
05:13Yeah, I think, you know, I always say this.
05:16I try to play the same way wherever I'm at.
05:17You know, I want to, you know, you might not be getting as much minutes,
05:22you know, in different situations.
05:24But you want to score every shift and you want to contribute.
05:29You know, playing on different lines,
05:33you're definitely used to more create energy for other lines
05:37and create momentum to maybe score that goal.
05:41So, you know, it's definitely an adjustment, but I think as I've got more comfortable,
05:46you know, I'm not even with my, you know, I've always thought I'm a great hockey player,
05:53just being more confident in doing those skills and executing it.
05:56Because when you get up with those guys like that, you want to, you know,
06:00when there's a pass being made to Tom or you want to make it.
06:02And just being confident in doing that.
06:05And then, you know, sometimes you've got to rip it too.
06:08So, just being confident in yourself to do that.
06:11And that's just over time, you know, like you said, I've been here a few years now.
06:16You're just confident with the guys around you and, you know, confident in your play.
06:20Oh, that's a big thing.
06:22Right.
06:23That's what, I guess you kind of alluded to there.
06:25Like, I would wonder, like, when you're on a line, you know,
06:28you used to put a lot with Gergensons in a post.
06:30Like, maybe there'd be plays where, you know, years ago I'd just throw it down the wall
06:34and now it's Thompson or it's somebody else.
06:37Like, now maybe there's more opportunity to, like, take a risk with a pass?
06:43Yeah, yes, no, I think, you know, you've got to stick to your identity of, you know,
06:52being that guy that, you know, hounds pucks and keeps it simple for your line.
06:58But at the same time, like you said, when there is a play to be made,
07:03maybe in the prior pass you maybe just shot it.
07:07But this time you're sliding over or you're – if he's screened for it,
07:11you're finding a way to get it to him.
07:13So just trying to be, you know, that energy bug that can, you know,
07:19whoever I'm playing with make them better
07:21and allow them to play the best hockey game.
07:24So get the puck on their sticks and make them feel confident in their game.
07:28And that's what I try to be every night.
07:31Peyton Krebs joining us on the Western Hotline.
07:33Sabres and Lightning tonight from Key Bank Center.
07:35Peyton, thanks for taking a little bit of time and best of luck tonight.
07:40Yeah, thanks, fellas. Appreciate it.
07:42Peyton Krebs, you know, you mentioned he's been in the energy role
07:46and back with Thompson last year 10 goals, last year 12.
07:50Next time we talk to Lindy, I feel like we're going to talk about secondary scoring
07:55or even more primary scoring.
07:57It feels like that's what gets the Sabres back to their game
08:01is as simple as, you know, puck in the net.
08:05Yeah, pretty much.
08:06Like pucks in the net.
08:07They're on pace to score 47 fewer than they did last year.
08:12Right.
08:13Which is a significant drop off.
08:15And you could say, well, the power play is a mess.
08:17Yeah, it was last year too.
08:18So it's not like you might need the power play to get good,
08:23to get back to where you were last year scoring.
08:26And, you know, having faith in this power play can be tough at times.
08:29Yeah, last year they were one of the best, were they even the best,
08:33the best five-on-five scoring team in the league.
08:39And they did not score power play goals.
08:42No.
08:43Like they still, they managed.
08:45And that has been the biggest, it's the biggest drop off of the team.
08:49Goal tending's dropped off.
08:50But honestly, I don't even think the goal tending drop off has been as big
08:54as the goal scoring drop off.
08:55I checked the other day they were 16th in five-on-five scoring.
08:58This season?
08:59Yeah.
09:01Yeah, like that's, that's not going to get them to the playoffs.
09:07Because I am, I saw Chad D.
09:09Deminus has put a poll up the other day, like,
09:10do you think the power play is salvageable?
09:13Like, I just couldn't imagine saying yes.
09:15It's been four years.
09:17It's been a long time.
09:18It's been a long time since they've had a good power play.
09:23I can't imagine the power play turning around.
09:25So with that, they have to be a better five-on-five scoring team.
09:30Like, they don't have a choice.
09:32Different lines tonight, right?
09:35Norris is centering Thompson and Krebs tonight, so some adjustments.
09:40But that's where it has to happen.
09:43803-0550.
09:44If you want to call us on the Bills and the Imani Hooker trade
09:47or on the Sabres and Lightning or something in hockey, you can do that.
09:51I've got two things for you here we can kick around.
09:53You guys tell me what you want.
09:54We'll get Sal coming up at 830.
09:56We'll get to Belknap heating hot or cold.
10:00We'll do that at 9.
10:02Two things I can offer you.
10:03One, Hellebuck last night.
10:06Or two, the NFL playoff picture as it looks, and we pick the games.
10:10That's hockey-adjacent right now.
10:12Let's go.
10:12Yeah, Hellebuck.
10:13So, last night in Winnipeg, Connor Hellebuck returns with the Devils.
10:18He does not play.
10:20But he's in net for warm-ups, and it was funny.
10:25The crowd was cheering goals that beat Hellebuck in warm-ups.
10:29Well, so one of the clip I saw, one of the first pucks went in, and it got a big
10:35ovation.
10:36And then, as even a couple reporters pointed out, the Devils maybe realized that.
10:40Yeah.
10:41For sure.
10:42They threw some softies his way after.
10:45They were no longer trying to beat him at all, because they realized what was happening.
10:49Which, you're not even really, I mean, in most warm-ups, how much are you supposed to try versus, you
10:54know, maybe one of each?
10:55Oh, I don't know what the standard is, but it was very clear, right?
10:57Oh, okay, we're going to hit him right in the chest, so there's no more cheers.
11:00Most of the time in warm-ups, the backup goalie is the guy you try to score on.
11:06And so, that was not obviously happening last night.
11:11And for the starter, you're trying to, like, give him shots to the glove.
11:15A lot of the time, you go, he'll tell you where he wants you to shoot.
11:18Dawson Mercer, who was in the Hellebuck trade, he scored last night on Jake Allen.
11:22Mike McIntyre, the Winnipeg Free Press, we had him on several times during this Hellebuck saga.
11:27He tweeted out all of the chants that they had last night.
11:30Yes.
11:31The chants included, signed in pencil.
11:34That's good.
11:35That's the best.
11:36That's really good.
11:36I love it.
11:37We don't miss you.
11:39Okay.
11:39We want Connor.
11:41Where is Connor?
11:42You can't fish here.
11:44Also great.
11:46Bleep you, Helly.
11:47Okay.
11:48Playoff choker.
11:49Playoff pylon.
11:51That's better.
11:51Trump's your daddy.
11:53That's pretty good.
11:54Yeah.
11:54And sung to the tune of Oh My Darling Clementine, You're a Coward Hellebuck.
12:00You're a coward.
12:02You're a coward.
12:03Oh.
12:04I like it.
12:04Hellebuck.
12:05That's very soccer.
12:06The Jets fans had a lot of fun.
12:08There were a lot of signs in there calling him all sorts of names.
12:11There was a big sign.
12:13I saw a photo of Hellebuck stretching during warm-ups.
12:16And the big sign against the glass was just in big black ink, .886.
12:21Yep.
12:22Yep.
12:22That's right.
12:23Which is at his playoff save percent.
12:25I don't know what that number was.
12:26Playoff.
12:27Or last year.
12:27Probably last year playoffs.
12:28His playoff save percentage is probably like 900 and 910 even maybe because he was great
12:33for four years to start.
12:34But, you know, whatever.
12:35They don't care about that.
12:37Thoughts?
12:37Thoughts?
12:39Let me give you my unpopular opinion.
12:41Yeah, please.
12:41I want to hear this.
12:42I'm curious if I share it because I think I've got one too.
12:44It's a bad night for Winnipeg.
12:46It's a bad night for Winnipeg.
12:47You do that?
12:50Let me think of the places where that will happen.
12:54What happened in Winnipeg?
12:55Mm-hmm.
12:55Oh, it happened in Ottawa?
12:57Mm-hmm.
12:58We didn't give Eichel that much.
13:00He got booed.
13:00Yes.
13:01But it wasn't that bad.
13:03No.
13:03It wasn't.
13:04There weren't chants.
13:04No.
13:05As it gets uglier and uglier like this in these markets, what it becomes is a competition
13:12among fans about who can be the meanest.
13:15That's right.
13:16But also be allowed in the building and be funny.
13:20It's old guy yelling at clouds here.
13:22It's an extension of social media who did the best job getting at Hellebuck.
13:27Yeah.
13:27Biggest bang.
13:28And Buffalo.
13:29Again, we didn't do it as much for Eichel.
13:31Ottawa, Winnipeg.
13:32The Islanders with Tavares.
13:34They had chants.
13:35Are we the only ones that didn't do chants?
13:36I guess so.
13:37We didn't do chants.
13:37Maybe we're just uncreative.
13:38We'll have to workshop what they could have been.
13:40The Islanders, I'm looking, they did You're a Liar, Barzy's Better.
13:46They had, I mean, these ones weren't great.
13:48I think you know what you're going to say.
13:49A lot of the Eichel stuff happened after the game, right after he made the comments
13:53about it being a Liar.
13:53If that had happened before, maybe there were a chance.
13:56Right.
13:57Something like that.
13:57And I think that the Sabres at that time were so, were we not all done with them?
14:04How many people were in the building?
14:06Maybe.
14:06They were lost.
14:07I don't know.
14:07It wasn't a sellout.
14:08Right.
14:08And so, I don't know how, if that same exact scenario happened this year with a player
14:16of that status, I think guaranteed the next time they come in, people are chanting stuff.
14:21Yeah.
14:21But nobody cared enough about the Sabres to be that mad.
14:24Well, I think it's all a bad night for Winnipeg.
14:26Yeah.
14:27Because, listen, you had fun.
14:29You were great.
14:30You totally yelled and owned your ex.
14:35And what does every player that sees that think, like, if I go there, I could be a
14:39franchise legend, a complete legend, and the moment I'm gone, after a messy breakup, they're
14:46going to talk the most bleep about me possible?
14:49I think it's a bad night.
14:50I think we've got a very tough problem, in the NHL especially.
14:54All the players want to go to markets that won't do that.
14:57And we're all sitting here in the markets that will do that because we care so much,
15:00saying, like, they all just want to go to Tampa.
15:02They all just want to go to Carolina.
15:04You've got to figure it out at some point.
15:06It might not be the perfect idea.
15:07What are we supposed to do?
15:08Not care?
15:09What are we supposed to do?
15:10He wanted out.
15:11Sure, sure.
15:12He wants to break up with you.
15:13And if you don't let him break up with you, Kevin Shovel Dayoff, it will get worse and
15:17worse and worse.
15:18And you will have a short-term victory where you look like you have a victory lap against
15:22this franchise great whose number would have been in the rafters, but now won't.
15:28It still will.
15:29No, it won't.
15:30Time will heal it.
15:31I mean, 20 years down the road, maybe.
15:33But he's begging for that to happen.
15:36He doesn't want this to be how it is.
15:37He's being nice about it.
15:38He's trying to be nice.
15:39He spoke to the media.
15:40He took long questions about the geopolitical stuff.
15:44I'm not telling you he has to be looked at as a good guy.
15:48But now that we have entered the era of everybody competing to talk the most trash, that is, especially
15:56in places where, yes, there's passion, but who was the most recent guy to say he doesn't
16:02want to go to...
16:03He went to a team.
16:04He said, like, now I can go to the supermarket.
16:05Nobody would know who I am.
16:06This happened recently.
16:07Yeah.
16:07In New York, right?
16:09Somebody just got moved.
16:10To New Jersey?
16:11Who was it?
16:12It wasn't Brady Kachuk?
16:13No, no.
16:13It was more recent than that.
16:15It was just a few weeks ago.
16:16I know what you're talking about.
16:17Was it Hellebuck who said something like this?
16:19I don't know.
16:20The idea that you can just be a normal person.
16:22It might not have been a guy that got traded.
16:24It might have been a guy that was visiting.
16:26Oh, you know what?
16:26I'm thinking of Burrow in Paris said this.
16:29Okay.
16:29About going to the supermarket and, like, I can go out and nobody knows who I am and
16:33it's incredible.
16:33Right.
16:33That's who I'm thinking.
16:34So, like, we have this big giant machine.
16:37We're all part of it.
16:38But you end up looking like, oh, don't worry.
16:45We'll love you.
16:46And the moment you leave, we'll let you know that you were never anything to us.
16:51That is tough.
16:52I think in defense of Hellebuck, he...
16:56It's not...
16:58I don't think it's his fault that it's this bad.
17:01It would have been he got booed.
17:03That just happens in markets.
17:05Anywhere.
17:05I mean, he goes to New Jersey.
17:06I'm sure Devils fans would do the same thing if their best player left.
17:09But would it be as vicious?
17:11You know what made it this vicious?
17:14Winnipeg.
17:14Yes.
17:15The Jets, specifically.
17:16Not like Winnipeg, the city, or even the fans.
17:18Although there's the fan thing with, you know, what happened and he won't get into it.
17:22But the Jets organization, if they trade him at the draft and it doesn't drag out for four months...
17:27It's not just regular booing.
17:28It's not his bad.
17:29It's probably regular booing.
17:30Scott Arneal, the head coach of the team, gets up in front of the media the day before and says,
17:34He gave up on us.
17:36I wish he played so we could get this over and done with.
17:39Like, he's even giving...
17:40Like, this guy should be on the ice.
17:42The teammates are like, yeah, I wish he played.
17:45Like, they are kind of...
17:46The Devils maybe are asking for it.
17:48But they were fanning the flames of, yeah, him not playing is a joke and we should all
17:53be mad about it.
17:53That's right.
17:54The thing I think, even more than, to me, Jeremy, your point about the fans and that's
18:00a bad look.
18:01I agree.
18:02But the fans, I think, have that sort of right to do that.
18:06No, but I think I understand that.
18:09But what I think really is the worst thing and that other players will really take note
18:15of is all the reporters and all the media hosts and all everybody that heard him say
18:21there was stuff worse than just online death threats and everybody going like, that's not
18:26true and picking that apart and calling him a liar.
18:30And we've got people calling the police department to find out whether he put in a claim and they're
18:36like, well, we didn't see it.
18:37Like, there's no report.
18:38So he's lying.
18:41That, that is going to keep people out of Winnipeg much more than boos and chants will.
18:46Having professionals who cover the team go at a guy and call him a liar for that kind
18:51of thing is a much, much, much bigger note for players across the league to me than anything
18:59else that happened here.
18:59I, I think that could be right because like, do you see the Frank Cervelli tweet?
19:04Yeah.
19:04Yesterday?
19:05Yes.
19:05It's absurd.
19:06The Jets are softly putting it out there that they think he could be making it up.
19:13That's what else are you supposed to think when you see a report that like, well, he didn't
19:18notify us and then we asked for evidence and he wouldn't give it to us and the police don't
19:23know anything about it.
19:24Like when that report comes out, where's that coming from?
19:28Right.
19:28That's coming from the team basically saying like, yeah, you should put this out there
19:31to like cast some doubt.
19:32Well, and that to me, calling a guy a liar about that kind of thing, I mean, whether
19:40he's telling the truth or not is almost irrelevant to me.
19:43Well, I mean, the idea is that he wouldn't be telling the truth.
19:45Even if a monster lie.
19:47I'm with Ono.
19:47Even if he is telling a monster lie, he wants to break up.
19:50You got to let him break up with you.
19:51Right.
19:51Period.
19:52And these, these, it's all, it always plays.
19:54Well, he signed a deal.
19:56Doesn't matter.
19:56He wants to break up, man.
19:57You got to go.
19:57You got to go.
19:58You got to, you got to take your medicine.
20:00You got to take your medicine.
20:01He wants to break up.
20:02You got to let him go.
20:03Can't force someone to be there.
20:04Nobody, is, is the cool guy ever the guy that chases his girlfriend into the bar after she
20:09leaves him and follows her around and tries to make sure that he doesn't hook up with another
20:13or that she doesn't hook up with another guy.
20:15That guy's a loser.
20:17And we all make fun of that guy.
20:18That guy sucks.
20:19That guy's a creep.
20:20We all hate that guy.
20:22That's who the Jets are right now.
20:24They're there.
20:24Look at what she did.
20:26She, she, she made this thing up three months ago and now, and now I'm mad at her because
20:32of it and that's why she's wrong and you're not paying attention to the fact that you like
20:37cheated on her.
20:39Yeah.
20:40Every one of these relationships goes south somewhere.
20:42Maybe these Canadian teams have it where they have built in disadvantages, but I just
20:48get to these teams.
20:50If someone's going to break up with you, you got to, you have to let them break up.
20:52You can't make it worse than it is.
20:54And your victory lap.
20:55Congratulations.
20:56Dawson Mercer scored.
20:57There's your Stanley cup.
20:58Right.
20:59Like what now?
21:00Yeah.
21:00You're saying, you're like, well, look,
21:01she's got a new boyfriend.
21:03It's been three months taking a victory lap.
21:05Like that says anything like, Oh, she moved on.
21:08Congratulations.
21:09Now you look like a weirdo.
21:10Cause you can't get over it.
21:12But at the same time, like I do feel like the, let us have a night booing that guy.
21:16That's fine.
21:17There's, there's booing a guy.
21:18But like you said, like that's fine.
21:19It definitely crossed into, it got into this guy's lying about his family being in danger.
21:24Yeah.
21:24That to me is absurd to get to as a media member.
21:29Like if that guy tells me that, I'm sorry.
21:31I'm not.
21:31Okay.
21:32I believe you.
21:33I'm not digging.
21:34I'm not.
21:35And if that makes me a bad journalist or whatever it makes me, I don't really, I'm sorry.
21:39I don't care that much.
21:40I want to not like that.
21:43That is just a step too far to me to question that kind of thing.
21:47803.
21:47Oh, 550.
21:48We've got Sal coming up in a minute.
21:49By the way, the, uh, that Eichel night here, uh, the announced attendance was 12,400.
21:54There you go.
21:55So it was not a full building.
21:57Might've felt like it.
21:58Yeah.
21:58Because it was loud, but there were 7,000 empty seats that night.
22:03803, 0550.
22:03Sal on the other side, we'll talk about the Imani hooker acquisition.
22:07I do want to do that playoff exercise.
22:09Howard doesn't pick the bills anymore.
22:10We'll pick the playoffs.
22:11We've got the playoff picture, what it would look like.
22:14These, uh, first round AFC matchups are juicy.
22:16The bills aren't in one.
22:17They're on the, in the, uh, you know, in the buy, which is nice.
22:21Jeremy and Sean WTR.
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