Buffalo Sabres Injury Updates w/ Paul Hamilton | The Extra Point Show

Buffalo Sabres Injury Updates w/ Paul Hamilton | The Extra Point Show

Sabres taking on the Montreal Canadians tonight. Chance to get back to level, back to 500. 7:30 p.m. is the puck drop, which means 6:30 p.m. pregame here on WGR Sports Radio 550. Going to get with Paul Hamilton in a minute. Let me reset the show for you here today. S Kapachi with you. And a Buffalo football Monday with a little bit of hockey detour because we have no Bills game from yesterday to talk about, but a Sabres game tonight in Montreal. And of course, our Buffalo Football Monday is presented by Catholic Health, the right way to care, and brought to you by Northwest Bank for what’s next. Get started at northwest.com and by Northtown Hyundai, Western New York’s premier Hyundai dealership. Shop online at northtownhy.com. So, we got a lot to get to, including our injury report, our extra point from the sidelines. My sidelines a little different for you this week. Got a something to share for you there. It wasn’t a Bills game, obviously. And then of course a little bit about more of a jump around the leagues sit um sit up stand down and hey buddy all coming your way in a little while. Paul Hamilton joining me now on the west her hotline of course Paul’s appearance brought to you by Equitable Advisors planning for your future about more than just money. Let Equitable be your guide and by Rayax Honda. Rayax we got this. Well, Paul, I’m going to uh relax because I um I survived again in your loser pool. I mean, you know, we’re just chugging along here. Although, I will say picking the Raiders was kind of a win-win, right? Because if the Raiders had beaten the Chiefs, I would not be unhappy. Even though I’d be out of your your loser pool. Most folks actually did take Las Vegas that are left. I had three entries and I was stupid enough to take the same team to lose in two of the three entries which was New England against the Bills. I knocked out two then. Then the next week I’m not I would make this pick again. I took the Giants to lose on Thursday Night Football and they won and against the Eagles and I would make that pick again. I wasn’t sorry. So that that eliminated me. I’m totally out. How about the Giants yesterday blowing that lead? They were up three scores in the fourth quarter. Uh 33 points in the fourth quarter by the Denver Broncos. Pretty crazy right there. Uh for them to come back. I’ve never seen I’ve never seen a quarterback like Nicks. I mean, and it it I see it more because I’ve had him on my fantasy team for two years. In the first half, he looks like he couldn’t start for a college team. He is awful. Almost weekly. You’re sitting there at halftime going, “Oh, good. I have two points from Knicks.” And then the next thing you know, he gets 35 points in the second half. He he for whatever reason it takes him a half to warm up almost on a weekly basis and certainly that happened against the Giants yesterday. Sabres Canadians tonight. What’s happening behind you Paul? Are the Sabres skating? It’s just the end of the Montreal Canadians morning skate. The Sabres will be on the ice in about a little bit over 20 minutes. And I’m I think I don’t think it’ll be an optional as most have been this year because they did not practice yesterday. So, I think we’ll probably see a full skate from the Sabres at 11:30. By the way, I don’t know why I assumed that you wouldn’t be watching the skate. I said behind you, but it’s probably in front of you. You’re watching it while you’re talking to me. Uh, all right. So, that being said, all right, let’s um let’s let’s start with that. Who do we expect on the ice for the skate? Let’s uh do a little injury update here because the Sabres need to start getting healthy. They have started to see some guys return a little bit, but still some other guys are a little ways away. What do we know about some of the injured players? Who’s in, who’s out right now? Yeah, you mentioned an injury report, so we won’t just do an a Bills injury report. We’ll do a Sabres one, too. Love it. And it was getting better. You know, they, you know, they were able to get a, you know, a Samuelson back and get some guys back. Greenway is right around the corner. Kessler Ring is back on the ice. Lucinin is practicing and probably he’ll wind up in Rochester on a rehab. So, everything looked like it was going in the right direction. Well, then Danforth is now out for over a month. Norris, of course, is out for over a a couple of months. Uh Bryson is in concussion protocol. So, Noah Osland, the former number one pick, is up and will probably be in the lineup uh uh to take Danforth’s place. And then Mets was already here. So, it’d be between Zack Jones, who they signed from the New York Rangers and did pretty well in its four games in Rochester, had four assists, or Zack Mets, one of the two of them, will wind up in the lineup for Bryson. So, injuries were getting better, but now they’re starting to acquire more injuries and having to bring up more guys from Rochester. UPL and Jordan Greenway and Michael Kessle Ring. What about those three specifically? What are we looking at? Well, Castle Ring got on the ice Friday for the first time by himself, you know, in a rehab skate. So, and that’s when Lindy Ruff had anticipated he would be on. Uh, so he hasn’t joined the club yet. Uh, Greenway has been practicing with the team. You got to remember Greenway hasn’t played since March and has two had two surgeries. Um, so this is kind of like his training camp. So, yeah, he’s feels better and doesn’t have pain, but you they can’t just throw him in because they they got to get him some practice time. So that’s really what they’re doing right now. Wouldn’t shock me if maybe you see Greenway by the weekend. Uh if everything goes well and there are no relapses or whatever. As far as Lucin goes, he’s fine. He, you know, he says he he doesn’t feel the pain is going well. But again, he has had one period of play since last April and hardly had a training camp. So, and Lindy Ruff did not say this wouldn’t happen. Uh it would probably be a good idea to get him down to Rochester on a rehab assignment and get him a couple of starts uh before you uh activate him into the NHL. Paul Hamilton on the West Her hotline coming at you today. I am he’s in Montreal. Sabres are tonight 7:30 p.m. is where the puck drops. He’s in Montreal. I’m down in St. Bon Adventure University today. Paul WSBU the radio studios here. Nice uh nice campus. Obviously I’m talking to some students today. How you ever been down here this way to go to a game or visit the campus? Yeah, I was down there um uh for a game. I was down there when they had that scandal and they had some press conferences. Um so yeah, I have been down there not much but a little bit. Uh I just was thinking back when you said the college station, my old college station back uh in Ames, Iowa, which since I was there for a bit of a fifth year, I spent a lot of time there uh once uh I wasn’t couldn’t play hockey anymore. there and the AM station in Ames, Iowa. Just uh give a little shout out to the sports management uh program in the school of business and students from sports media. I’ll be hooking up and talking with them a little bit later. In the meantime, talking with Paul Hamilton here ahead of Sabres Canadians tonight. All right. They lose three, they win two. Is there a big picture what’s been different that we can talk about here? Or is it just the little things that go your way sometimes that don’t go your way other times? Well, what’s been different is Zack Benson and Josh Don. I mean, though that’s what they were missing, especially what Zack Benson brings to the table. It’s not an accident. They both have five points in their last two games. Uh, with the way they play, they’re tied for the team lead in scoring, and Benson’s only played two games. Uh, but it’s contagious. When you see Zack Benson doing it, you say to yourself, maybe I should be doing that, too. And then you see the Koulik uh Thompson uh and Benson line all at the net and you see everybody at the net. Florida is one of the most physical teams you are going to play whether they’re injured or not. You are in for a battle. I think the Sabres out physical them in that game. I have never seen Matias Samuelson play that physical in a game as he did in that game against Florida. He was knocking people down on the penalty kill. uh that he was one of his best games I have seen him play, but there was physicality to his game and that’s what Lindy Ruff has been on him about uh since he’s become the coach is use your size to your advantage. We’re not talking about fighting or anything like that, but use your size to your advantage to lean on people to take them out of the play uh to to make open ice hits and that type of thing. And I I thought Samson did a good job. Um when Dene viciously cross-checked Marian, but in the back, Marian lost his mind and jumped him and the whole Saber team was there. Thompson immediately got there and they were all there for their captain. Uh which we couldn’t have said last year before the incident where Thompson got hurt. Um, so you know, you you I really think the Sabres were the more physical team and initiated more physicality in that game and you saw them around the net, you saw them winning battles, you saw them using their speed to get to the battles. Uh, just the the things that were missing in the first three games. The other thing that uh is different, Paul, special teams. Holy cow. I mean, we were talking about the Sabres, you know, 0 for their first 11 to start the season. I’m looking now, they’re five of 18 and they’re like literally near the top of the league suddenly in power play percentage. In fact, let me give you the number. There’s number six overall, 27.78. They’re five for 18. That means for five of their last seven actually, but it hasn’t ebbed with the penalty kill. They’re number one in the NHL killing off penalties. 23 power plays against, only one power play goal against. So, that’s obviously been a big difference. Yeah, they went seven for seven in the penalty kill against Florida. Let me tell you something. If they keep taking seven giving the other team seven power plays a game, they’re not going to get away with it. No matter how good their penalty kill is. That was very good. They got away with it. That’s the only thing that I would say they still have to get out of their game is taking the stupid penalties. They take some dumb ones still and they’re still doing it. Benson right at 9 seconds into the game sticks his leg out for a tripping penalty at center ice. No, no, you don’t need to do that. Uh they they killed it and that was fine. Uh but the power play, you’re right, five of their last seven. Interestingly enough, they’ve got those five goals. And if you look at who scored the goals, nobody named Tuck Thompson or Dene scored. It was two by two by Quinn or two by Zooker rather and uh two by Don and one by Quinn. Those are your five power play goals. Now, who who would have guessed that Thompson, Dene, and Tuck wouldn’t be involved? They got some assists, but they didn’t get any goals on those power play goals. Yeah, facing a Montreal team tonight. It’s about middle of the pack and both special teams areas. We’ll see if the the excuse me, the Sabres can continue on in their uh special teams play. Really nice turnaround here. Uh again, you go from 0 for 11 to sixth in the league over a twoame period. It also shows that it has been just a very small sample size. Okay, a small sample size of Josh Don, but man oh man, for all the things that people say about Kevin Adams in the build of this roster, I’ll say if he found this player in that trade for JJ Burka to continue the way he’s playing long-term, short-term, and long-term in Buffalo and the addition of Kessle Ring, who looks like he should be a pretty good defenseman, boy, that could turn out to be a really nice trade. This kid has looked really nice in Buffalo Sabres blue and gold. Well, the trade was off until Don was part of it and Kevin Adams was very clear about that and that was both Kevin Adams told us and the Utah general manager told us that that originally no they weren’t going to make the deal if Don was in it and Adam said then there’s no deal call me if you change your mind and then they decided this is the Utah GM you know he said to himself look at um we got to we we want Turka he’s a really good player we want him we will put Don going into the trade and then the trade was made and when he came I I told you guys he’s going to be in the middle of everything and he certainly has been in the middle of everything and has an upside. Who knows what that upside is and we still don’t. We saw for five games what the upside or two games what the upside is. Uh but we we do know he’s a guy that has you know scored in the American Hockey League almost 30 goals in less than 70 games and uh you know is is is a guy who’s got a great shot and now has five points so far to start off the season with the Buffalo Sabres all in his last two games. So uh he’s a player I think you’re going to see start seeing a lot of number 91 jerseys around the arena before too long. He’s going to be a player that the fans of Buffalo are going to like. Yeah, he’s he’s playing really well so far to start his Sabres career. All right, so they have Montreal tonight, then they’re back home for a couple more. We talked about the front-loaded home schedule to start the year. It’s the Red Wings. It’s the Maple Leafs. These are key Atlantic Division matchups. And then at Toronto, it’s a back-to-back. When do we see Alex Lion not in goal? Is that tonight? Is that later in the week? When does that happen? Lindy Ruff wouldn’t commit to it because I happened to ask him before the Florida game and he says that’s all we’re thinking about now. He didn’t say no. He just said we’ll think about that after the Florida game. This would be the game I would put him in even though Alex Lion is coming off a shutout only because then you could put Lion in on Wednesday. You could put him in on Friday. I don’t really have a problem with letting Ellis play the second game of the backtoback if it’s not his first NHL game. Um, I would rather he play his first NHL game against Montreal, even though it’s in a cathedral here, um, in the Bell Center, but uh, I I would rather it be here and get it out of the way. And it’s about time. I mean, they have to monitor Lion, too. When does fatigue set in? And that’s something, you know, the the goalending coach and the strength and conditioning coach will sit with Lindy Ruff and and they’ll talk to Alex Lion, too. But, you know, Alex Lion’s not going to turn down a start. uh he’s a gamer so it it’s you know it’s going to fatigue eventually. So to me tonight makes sense. I don’t know if it makes sense with the team especially with Lion coming off a shut out. Paul big picture do the Sabres have a goalending controversy if you will when UPL is back? No he’s it’s Lion’s job until until further notice in my mind. It’s Lion’s job. Okay. Well, I mean, it had been UPPL’s job and Alex Lion showed up at the last minute. So, you’re saying it’s Lion’s job. He look at the old saying is you don’t lose your job because of injury, but you’re saying you lose your job. Look at his job at the end of last year when when Lindy Ruff for the last month and a half of the season decided I’m going to do whatever it takes to win hockey games and whoever gives us the best chance to win hockey games. I think Lucan had played two games and it was every night. It was James Rhymer, the number the 37year-old who wasn’t going to be part of the Sabres plans. But when Lindy Ruff decided we need to put guys in who are going to help us win hockey games, it was not Uko Becca Lucanin. So, um I think you’re right. I think going into camp they were they had him penciled in as the starter to see, you know, what happened in the offseason where he made improvements and those types of things. But, um you know, this I always said this is Alex Lion’s opportunity. He’s never had an opportunity like this in the NHL at age 32. So this is his opportunity to make it so that the coaching staff cannot take him out of the net and so far in five games he has done just that. Paul Hamilton on the Wester hotline. Little thought on Montreal here. Paul looks like they’re building it uh and maybe got it to a spot where they feel really good. Uh Cole Cfield had a great overtime goal the other night. I’m sure you saw that. I think it was against Nashville. But uh looks like a team that is is on is on the up and cominging um up and here. Yeah, they’ve played six games and it’s not surprising at all that Cole Caulfield and their captain Nick Suzuki are their leading scorers with eight points. So, you know, that wouldn’t shock anybody. Uh Sam Montembbo, who who really played very well for them last year and one of the reasons they were went up the standings, uh has not had and I don’t think he’s going to play tonight. Uh he’s 2 and2, but his Sabres in only 857 and a 3.26. So, I don’t think the Sabres are going to see him. Look, I believe that was he was out there taking shots late uh when I started with you. So, um he just hasn’t been so far in four games, the goalender. But yeah, the Canadians are 4-2. You know, they they they’ve they’re off to a pretty good start. They lost their first game and uh then uh have gone on a pretty good run since then. So, uh they they went on a four-ame winning streak and and then lost another one. So, it’s it’s a it’s a hockey club that they know how to play. Uh they’re they don’t have a lot of superstars on their team. Line a didn’t play the last game due to injury, but he hasn’t even a goal yet. Five games. Uh you know, he’s hot and cold. Basically a power play specialist, I think, is how you would look at him. And they also got a key injury, too. Ghoulie is not going to play. Ghoulie got hurt and his first game out was the last game. And they’re not going to have him for a while on defense, either. All right, Paul. Well, have a uh have a nice time today in Montreal and covering the game tonight. We’ll be following along at PM1717, of course, wgr550.com. Thanks a lot, brother. Okay, take care.

Sal Capaccio is joined by Sabres beat reporter Paul Hamilton to discuss the Sabres as they play on the road against the Montreal Canadiens on a 2 game win streak. The guys start off by discussing some of the Sabres injuries and Paul shares updates on the timelines for the players working to come back. Paul highlights players like Greenway, Kesselring, and Luukkonen as closing in on returns.

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