Paul Hamilton SOUNDS OFF on Sabres “I’d Have a New GM” | The Jeremy and Joe Show

Paul Hamilton SOUNDS OFF on Sabres “I’d Have a New GM” | The Jeremy and Joe Show

Paul Hamilton here as it’s a Sabres game day. 12:30 Sabres at home at Key Bank Center against the Colorado Avalanche and Paul jumps in. Paul’s appearance brought to you by Ray Laxand. Railax, we got this. Hey Paul, good morning. Good morning guys. How are you? Good. We got a game day, a Bills and uh Sabres each playing kind of game day. A double header. They’re granted pushed apart by a bunch. 12:30 Sabres Avalanche and then 7:15 Bills and Falcons. So that’s exciting. Paul with the Sabres. All right, Paul, it’s two games in and uh the question unfortunately I have to ask is how bad is it? To me, it’s almost shocking. I mean, you spend the whole off season and during training camp telling us how, you know, things are going to be different and how much you’re going to improve as a team. And I mean, you’re last in the league in goal differential after two games in minus six. You did okay in your home opener as far as defensively. You didn’t give up a whole lot. It’s basically a one to nothing game throughout. Uh but you really didn’t you got 37 shots on Chis Durkin, but there weren’t too many. Maybe four, five, possibly six really good scoring chances. I mean, it’s not like he had to stand on his head or anything like that to get that shut out. And then you show up in Boston for the first period, your fourth period of the season, and you don’t compete at all. Your head coach is absolutely livid with what he saw from that team. Uh you get outshot 17-2. You spent the whole period in your own end. You you if if they won a battle, I don’t remember it at all. And it’s it’s like what what are you guys doing? This is your fourth period of the season. You really haven’t played a great period yet. And that’s the effort that you give when you’re supposed to be better. I mean, you’ve heard me say this many times. Your best players have have to be your best players. Where are they? Nothing. Absolutely nothing out of their best players. And you know, Lindy Ruff just said, uh, you are On any team, your best players have to be your best players. And this was not a good night for them, as he said after Saturday’s game. Except maybe for Zooker, who did score the goal? He’s the only one in the team I’ve seen around the net in two games. And why did they score their first goal, only goal of the season, 109 minutes into the season, is because they had players and pucks going to the net. Now, when you have a player going to the net, you’re going to bring an opponent with you. And the puck went in off the opponent and and into the net. Zooker took the shot. Well, why was there anybody around the net really in the last two games? I mean, they’re not around the net. They’re not bothering the goalender. They’re playing on the perimeter. And I’m I I I have no explanation. I I I got to tell you, I’m nothing really surprises me all that much in sports. I am shocked by what I’m seeing. And this I understand they have injuries, but to compete, you can still compete. Even though Josh Norris and uh Kessle Ring and Lucinin and Benson and and Greenway are not in your lineup, you can still compete. And I I I I don’t know what to tell you because to to me and I don’t understand how the owner sat there and watched that and did nothing. I after after the owner’s been told the whole off season since April how things are going to be different from management, coaches, and players. And I don’t know how he could sit through that and do nothing. What would you do, Paul? Uh, I’d have a new JM first of all. Yeah, right off the I would have had one anyway, but if for some reason you’re going you’re going to give him another chance with six with with uh you for a six season and that’s what I look at at the second game of the year where I have a team that doesn’t compete. That’s that’s what you brought to the table for this team. No, Paul Hamilton. I I I I I could not I I could not sit there and watch this for another minute. What will they do? What can they do without Josh Norris for months? I mean, what how deep does this go? They wanted him to play all situations. He’s a very important beast and they cleared him, of course. And if the injury is unrelated, it’s unrelated, but it’s a guy that gets hurt all the time and he’s hurt after a game. Yeah. And you know, now Yuri Koulik is going to have to step into that role. And he’s a young player. He did okay with Thompson and Benson last year. Um I thought he improved greatly there. And they won some hockey games with him there. But they also won some hockey games down the stretch when there really wasn’t much pressure on them, you know, and and uh you know, so they were able to win with that as you know, as you know, but each center now is going to have to move up. I mean, if you’re looking at your center depth chart, instead of uh, you know, Norris leading the way, it’s now Koulik, Mloud, Krebs, and uh, Kak, you know, and that’s, you know, what the depth chart is. But, you know, you, you know, Kik I think can still improve from what we saw last year, and we I think we saw good improvement from him last year. He’s not Norris by any stretch of the imagination, but if you’re ever going to overcome the loss of Josh Norris, you at least got to show up on the ice. You can’t play like you did against the Boston Bruins. Paul, do you think goal scoring is going to be a problem with Norris out? I mean, the already he was the answer, right? Like a lot when they were asked like, “Hey, where you going to replace the Purka goals?” And he might be the first name that would get mentioned. And in through two games, I mean, the only goal that’s gone in was off a stick. And I it’s not like they’re getting a lot of chances that they’re missing on. There have been a couple, right? Like Krebs had one against Boston, but it’s not like they’re consistently around the net coming close. Well, yeah. If they’re going to replace the goals of Purka, they got to get around the net. They can’t play on the perimeter or nobody’s going to score. Um, you know, it’s it’s I mean, they had a couple of chances in Boston to score some goals. They had a couple of outnumbereds uh in the second and third period. Uh Thompson had a chance in the slot early and missed the net. They’re they’re back to that again. And they got to just work they got to just work around the net. I mean, Lindy Ruff was talking again, we’re too much on the fancy side. He’s not wrong. I mean, they’re looking for that cute play uh instead of going to work and getting to the net and and and outworking the other team around the net. That’s what you have to do uh to to do that. And you know, I I you you want to help score some more goals than you did last year. How about the power play? That’s no different than what I saw last year. 0 for eight to start. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you would somehow improve your power play, if if if Lindy Ruff would come up with a power play, it would actually work. Um, you you’re going you are going to improve your because look at last year they were 10th in the league in scoring. As bad as the power play was for three quarters of the year, the last quarter of the year, it was better. It was around 20%. You didn’t you didn’t capitalize on that momentum that you had in the last part of the year on it because as you mentioned, it’s 0 for8. 0 for eight. I saw Paul that they were only credited for one scoring chance in the four power plays they had against Boston. I mean, they’re they seem like they’re having trouble just hanging on to the puck, let alone even getting shots through when they have it or or getting in the zone, right? Like, and that’s kind of what it looked like at the beginning of last year. It’s not just that they’re 0 and8. It’s again like they don’t even look like they’ve got a they’ve got a hope or they’ve got a plan to get into the zone and kind of move the puck around. And you’ve Rasmus Dene is the quarterback. If Rasmus Dene is the quarterback of your power play, I think you should have a good power play. You’ve got a shooter over there in Taage Thompson. Um there there are there are places to play Ryan Mloud. I don’t think on the top power play is one of them. I I don’t know what Lindy Ruff’s doing with that. I’d have Yuri Koulik over there. He wants a left-handed shot. Well, Yuri Koulik’s a left-handed shot who can absolutely fire it and has in the AHL. And um having Ryan Mloud on the number one power play is not working right now. And I I don’t understand why if you want a left-handed shooter over there, why why not why not put Yuri Kik over there? If there’s any good news, Paul, it seemed like that was another really good game from Alex Lion. Alex Lion has been great. Yeah. I mean, if if you want us to talk numbers, I mean, in as poorly as this team’s played, Alex Lion has a 2.55 goals against in a 9/19 save percentage. I mean, so, uh, you know, it’s he he’s been the shining light. He’s the reason why they got away with being outshot 17-2. As as poorly as we’re talking about this Bruin game, the Bruins didn’t put the game away until 3 seconds were left in the game, it was still two to one. I mean, the Sabres, if they would have somehow scored when they pulled their goalender, they would have tied the game and and gotten out of there with points as poorly as they played. And that was because of Alex Lion, I I believe. And uh you know, the empty net scored at with 3 seconds left in the game. So, Alex Lion, I I think has done an excellent job for them. Now, they’re the Colorado’s here. Anybody remember Colorado last year? Not once, but twice. I mean, the first game here in December, Buffalo 1149 into the game. We’re up four to nothing. They lost that game five to four. Mhm. And in Denver, they took a three to nothing lead until the 1458 mark of the second period. And they lost that game in overtime six to five. Mhm. Um and here are here. So here’s Colorado who’s comes in 20 and one. Their goalender actually is better number. Scott Wedgewood who Lindy Ruff would know very well from New Jersey. He’s got a 925 save percentage and 195. I mean, he did give up four against the Dallas Stars in a shoot or five to the Dallas Stars in a shootout, but the other two games against Los Angeles and Utah, he gave up in one goal in each of those games. And they got two guys that have six points in three games, including Nate McKinnon. So, that’s that’s that’s what they’ve got for this afternoon to try to get out of this. Excited to be there, Paul. I’ll be there with you. It is it is 10:30 a.m. local time for the morning skate. We’ll see how they look for morning. Morning skate for the Thanks, Paul. Take care. That’s the eye in the blue and gold. Paul giving us the uh rundown. Eye in the blue and gold brought to you by Great Lakes Building Systems. We keep an eye on your business so you don’t have to. Great Lakes Building Systems. Our business is protecting your business.

Joe DiBiase is joined by Buffalo Sabres beat reporter Paul Hamilton to discuss the Sabres disappointing start to the season. Jeremy starts off by asking Paul just how bad it is, which sends Paul on a brutal dissection of the team and organization. Paul explains how he is dumbfounded by the Sabres lack of compete and effort to start such a crucial season. He highlights the Sabres management as a major issue along with the power play looking anemic. Paul does mention G Alex Lyon as a highlight for the team as the only consistent performer in Blue and Gold.

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