Buffalo Sabres point streak has them in the thick of things in the Eastern Conference

Buffalo Sabres point streak has them in the thick of things in the Eastern Conference

Sabres finally get the win after heading to overtime against the Washington Capitals. But the standings still not looking great. But we’ll tell you why coming up here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. [Music] Your Locked On Sabers, your daily podcast on the Buffalo Sabres, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. What is up everybody and welcome in to this Monday edition of the Locked on Sabers podcast. Thanks for making us your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcast. Thanks to you everydayers for coming back. You can watch us on YouTube. Be sure to watch the show there. Hit the like and subscribe button. And of course, if you want to be in our Locked OnSabers text club and you’re not already, you can sign up for that by heading over to joinsubtex.com/lockedsabers. Today’s episode is presented by Game Time. Download the Game Time app today. Create an account. Use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Sneaky Jody Biosi here on a Monday following a Sabres win over the weekend against the Washington Capitals in a shootout. It did take a shootout. Bo Byum gets the winner. A defenseman scoring the winner for the Sabres because some of their best players offensively are defenseman. But sometimes that can be a good thing. And in this moment, it did get them the win. We’ll talk about what happened in that game. We’ll take a look at the standings as Sabres have points in eight of their last nine, but they haven’t really gained ground, but that’s because it’s a very, very interesting, weird thing that’s going on in the NHL standings that I think is more of a the NHL point system is totally broken. Uh, got that coming up for you in a little bit as well. And we’ll look ahead to the week coming up as well as uh JJ Purka is back in town this week. Sabres hosting the Mammoth tomorrow night. Before we get into all of that though, I want to alert you that tomorrow morning on Jeremy and Joe on WGR. Uh me and Jeremy will have Rasmus Dalene on 8 a.m. So tune in for that if you are uh looking for some hockey talk. We’ll have Dene on tomorrow for I don’t think we’ve had him on our show. We’ve had Lindy on obviously every week for a long time. Uh but tomorrow we got Dalene. So tune in for that tomorrow. Let’s get to the Sabres win over Washington and start really right from the beginning. It was a game that I thought, uhoh, this is one of those that they haven’t really had a ton of this year other than the first couple of games, which was one of those games where it just looks like it’s going to get ugly real quick and it’s going to be one of those games at home on a Saturday where fans are disappointed, angry, they leave the arena with tons of time remaining and uh you’re left with a a night out looking for something else to do. That’s how the game began. Two goals in the first two minutes in and 15 seconds. Both goals easily preventable. The first of which Dylan Stro scoring on a rebound. Ryan Leonard takes a soft wrist shot from the point and Ukapukin shoots the puck out off his pads right into the slot exactly where Stro is waiting to bang home the rebound. That is a goal that to me is squarely on the goalender because that is a soft wrist and you got to have a softer rebound there. Somehow someway that can’t shoot right out to that guy like that. Um the second goal, not Lukan’s fault at all. Um Alli Protos gets a back andforth goal with Conor Mcichael on a basically a twoon because the Sabres had fumbled the puck around in the offensive zone and goes back the other way for what looked like a breakaway, but then again it was a give and go back and forth. There’s nothing Lucin could do on that one. Um again he’s like sprawling with the pad. He’s trying but obviously all Pros there has got to do is lift the puck over UPL’s pad and he’s got it. So, two minutes 15 seconds in, I’m like, here we go. And even though the second goal wasn’t Lucin’s fault, I’m thinking, this is why you don’t start UPPL. He’s just he’s not up for this right now. It hasn’t been a good start to the year and he had a bad year last year and you’re putting him in the rotation over Colton Ellis and here you this is what you get for it. And that turned around immediately. Not just Lucin. looking to play better uh the rest of that period and really the rest of the game um only allowing one other goal, but the Sabres turned it around as quickly as possible. Like if anybody was thinking, hey, maybe this is one of those games we’re going to have to leave early. A bang before the sentence would have been completed. Tage Thompson with his fifth goal of the year on a nice play. He’s out there on a line with Jason Zucker and Jordan Greenway. And the Sabres actually lose the draw. Taage loses it clean, but the puck retrieval by the St that Sabers line. Greenway taking the man into the corner and doing it hard. Zucker coming in to gather the loose puck and Dage being able to loop around in front of the net for a one-time opportunity. Zucker finds him for an excellent pass. And that goal is a working goal. That’s a skilled goal. like all of the above. Um to get that goal in 15 seconds after the two to nothing um score by Washington was big. I think even just for fans to feel invested and feel like this isn’t going to this isn’t a game that’s going to get away from them for the Sabres players to think that as well. I think that was a pretty monstrous goal in the game and it helped lead to the Sabres lead. They left the first period in the lead. How often does that happen where you give up not the first goal, the first two goals in the first period and you leave with the lead? Very, very rare. Um, another goal by Alex Tuck. He leads the Buffalo Sabres in points, 12 points in 12 games. Nice wrist shot goal and a fine from Josh Don on a twoon-one. And then Isak Roseanne gets his first goal in the National Hockey League. I was being a little snarky with that goal in the text club and on social media, but sue me. Uh it was four years and three months after the Sabres traded Rasmus version for the pick that became Isac Rosanne that they got a goal from him. They did get a goal from Robert Hag out of that trade. Uh if we’re being technical and that was years ago they got one exactly one goal from him. Um good for Roseanne. I mean I hope he could build that into more. He’s probably going to be asked to play more and more. And listen, the one thing that has not translated to the NHL level for him in, you know, sparing action through three seasons here, uh, is the the offense. There hasn’t been points. There hasn’t been goals. There haven’t been shots. There haven’t been scoring chances, like just really not much at all. This was a nice game for him. He had some opportunities. It’s a nice goal. Nice find by Jack Quinn, by the way. Quinn, who I think is playing awesome so far this year, which him and Samuelson, I don’t know who’s more stunning. Uh, we should put a poll up. Who’s more stunning with their play this year, Jack Quinn or Zatia Samson? Quinn uses his speed to go to the middle of the ice, open up space for Roseanne, who comes in from the right and has a wide open wrist shot, and he beats Charlie Lingren on the wrist shot. So, Quinn really makes that goal. But a good finish by Roseanne and I think again he’s probably going to stick here for uh for a little while longer. Sabres don’t score again after that until you get to the shootout. But I thought they played okay. I didn’t think they got smoked. I mean some of the second period numbers don’t really look that great. Um in the second and into the third. I mean the second mostly third everything was pretty even. Um second period shot attempts for Washington were 21 to13. Shots were 12 to five. This is all even strength. Scoring chances 9 to4. They scored the only goal of the period. Uh second period belonged to Washington. Third period was very back and forth. Sabres did a good job getting that game to overtime. And then in overtime they really had to go into survival mode. Didn’t we all think they were about to do it again for the By the way, it would have been the same score. They had lost three games in a row four to three in overtime. Well, here we go. Three to three into overtime. And you’re thinking, I mean, this would just be ridiculous, right? the same score in the same result four games in a row and then Dene and Taage get stuck out there on the ice in overtime and they can’t get out. The bench is on the far end. So, a change is very difficult and Washington’s buzzing around, buzzing around. They’re getting their chances. That is where UPPL made his money in this game. First period, not great. He really, I think, was at fault on that first goal. rest of the game played okay. Third, the the overtime was UPPL saving the day. Big chances by Washington. Um and UPPL turned them away at every turn. He didn’t really make the Sabres scramble in front of the net a lot. Also, he was making saves clean. Some of them he was pushing the rebound off into the corner. Um which was I think helpful when those guys are gassed like that. And he got through just enough time. He he bailed them out just enough times to give them an opportunity to get off the ice eventually and then they were able to close out overtime and go to the shootout where again UPPL awesome like he ended up being the game’s number one star and I don’t want to go overboard you know like I like to use goals saved above expected to evaluate goalenders and in this game he allowed three goals saved the expected goals in this game were 2.9 for Washington so he basically allowed what was expected in this game which is fine. not great, not terrible. Um, but he made the saves at the most critical spots of this game in overtime and then stopping all of the shootout attempts was also key and he gave enough opportunities. I mean, no Sabers scored until the fifth round when they got to Bo Byum eventually. Um, I was wondering if Power was going to go next. Dina just gone then Byum. Like, were they going to go defenseman, defenseman, defenseman in the shootout? I don’t actually know where they were going to get there, but Byum ends it and then uh the Caps don’t even really get a shot attempt off on that final shootout attempt. So, Sabres get the win and you gave Washington a point, but whatever. You got a win and after seeing three overtime losses, I think we just needed to see them get two points on the board. Now, kind of big they got two points because the conference is all in the same spot. Uh, I’ll I’ll explain and we’ll go through it a little bit when we come back here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. 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Some years they actually are weirdly better on the road. We’ve seen that. Um this year the very early indications are they’re better at home. 52-1 at home, 02-2. They have not won yet on the road through uh 12 total games at the moment. This is where the standings are very strange. This is where I will tell you I think the NHL point system is completely and utterly broken. As you look at the standings today, the Buffalo Sabres are one point out of third place in the Atlantic Division, while they are also tied for last place. Every here here’s the the kicker. every team in the Eastern Conference that is 16 teams are above 500 shouldn’t be should not be possible that every team in a conference is above 500 and that is currently where we stand now some of that is these East teams have been beating teams in the west but you’re also getting a lot of overtime games a ton of overtime games and that’s how this is happening it’s way too weighted for overtime losses um now listen like the Sabres are getting the benefit of that. They have the most overtime losses in the Eastern Conference at the moment. So, whatever. I can complain to him blue in the face about how dumb the point system is. It is completely artificial. It’s completely manufactured. But whatever the Saber and also like I also don’t want to say, hey, the Sabres are a bad team because they’re not winning these games in regulation and they’re losing in overtime. Overtime is not true NHL hockey. It is, but it’s not five on five. It’s such a different type of sport. It’s so much more man-on-man. It’s so much more speed and skill. And when you’ve built your team to be a little bit more tougher, a little bit more physical, a more defensively sound team, then one consequence is when you play three on three, which is not f five on five. It’s just going to look different. Um, so I hate it. I hate I hate the point system and I hate um more and more how overtime currently looks. 13 points. How are supposed to feel about this? Um, not I really don’t want to feel like I want to overreact one way or the other. Again, by tomorrow night, they could be in third place in the Atlantic Division, or they could be in last by themselves. They could be in last. Uh, some of these teams might play each other, actually. But listen, what they’re doing at the least is they’re hanging around. They’re hanging around. They are they’re not falling behind. There have been years where everybody is kind of packed together in the East, but there’s Buffalo down at the very bottom away from everybody else. They’re at the very least not doing that. And their record could be better than it is. They could have got those games home against uh against Toronto um and they were not able to do so. They could have got that game home against the Columbus Blue Jackets and they were not able to do so. They could have got a game home against they could have come back against Boston if they had scored a couple of goals earlier in the game at a game they dominated. They could very well be better in the standings. And that’s why I’m willing to give them some credit for hanging around is I feel like they could have more than 13 points. And there are other years where I felt like, wow, they’d have 13 points and they could have seven. I don’t feel like this team could have seven. I don’t think they could have eight, nine points right now. It’s hard. You’d have to really work to find fewer points for them this year. Like they’re not really getting lucky in any of these games. You could probably say they got a point against Columbus when again like you got to you got to pick which way you want to approach it. They had a lead in the third period. So you could say they should have got the win, but also they kind of got dominated in that game. So you could also say they shouldn’t have got a point at all. Um but that’s one. What other game would you look at? Ottawa, they smoked them. Florida, they were great early on. Detroit, Toronto, they were the better team. Like, you can’t really go backwards. You could go forwards and say they should have more, but not not I don’t think you can really say less. So, one other part of this, they’ve got to win the four-point games eventually. They got to win the four-point games. If everything’s going to be this packed together, then the head-to-head meetings are going to be critical. Not allowing Toronto to get a point against you when they really shouldn’t have. Toronto should be in last. Toronto. The only reason the Saber the Maple Leafs are not in last place by themselves in the Eastern Conference right now is the Sabres let them off the hook. They got two points in that game. They should have had zero. They should be sitting with 11 and everybody else 13 or more. Eventually, I think it’s going to be critical the Sabres win all of these head-to-head Eastern Conference games. Um, so at the moment, 13 points in 12 games. That’s fine, not a problem. But um they’re gonna have to pick up the pace because listen, there are one, two, three, four, five, six teams at 13 points. One, two, three, four, five, six teams at 14 points. Six at 13, six at 14. 12 between 13 and 14 points. There are going to be four or five of those teams that are going to go on runs and they’re going to start to separate from the pack. And that’s going to happen soon. And the Sabres going to need to string some wins together if they want to be one of them. and they need to do it now as they get ready for a four-ame road trip. By the way, that starts on Saturday. We’ll look at what’s coming up this week. Couple more home games and then again, they got some road games all ahead. That’s coming up here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. Today’s episode presented by Game Time. I’ve been staring at the Game Time app the last couple of days because I am going to Miami to go to the football game um in Miami coming up. A lot of Buffalo fans are going to be there and I don’t have tickets yet, but I’m not really stressed about it because I know game time. I could buy tickets right up to the start of the event, sometimes even a couple of minutes after the event. And you got so many different options for deals. It’s not just football. Hockey season, nothing beats being in the arena, those opening games. 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That’s code locked on NHL for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Back here on the Locked On Sabres podcast. What is ahead for the Buffalo Sabres? But before we get to the schedule, let’s take a look at the roster because we had a practice today and there are going to be some questions heading into tomorrow. We’ll of course have more specifics when we preview tomorrow’s matchup against the Utah Mammoth, but no Jason Zucker or Yuri Koulik at practice on Monday. Both players are sick. And when I first read that, I thought, okay, well, they should be good to go, right? But Lindy said they’re doubtful. doubtful for tomorrow. So, that’s going to make things a little interesting because they’re out of forwards right now. Jacob Bryson is practicing on the third line as a winger with Payton Krebs and Isac Roseanne. That means I think somebody is getting a call up from Rochester. Whether that is Noah Osceland, whether that is Constah Helenius, which would be very exciting if he were to get a call up. Um, also Mason Gearson is back practicing on a regular line. I hoped he had played his final game for the Buffalo Sabres, but he might be playing another one because they’ve got two guys out of the lineup. And unless they’re sending him down and calling up like both Oseland and Helenius, which by the way is exactly what I would do, uh, I think Gearson’s probably going to play. So, the lines at practice today, I I guess this is pretty close to what they’re going to be tomorrow. Tage with Greenway and Quinn. Uh Greenway and Tage looked decent together last game. Quinn, I think, has earned this. He’s played well and he’s using his speed. He’s setting guys up. He’s scoring, putting him with Tage on the top line. Tage back at center, by the way. Uh I think Quinn has earned that. That also allows them to not touch the Mloud tuck dome line, which has looked very strong. You bump Quinn up from third to first and you get to keep the second line together. The third line again I think maybe it’s Helenius could be Oscelin but Krebs and Roseanne are gonna stick together and then that fourth line probably remains with uh Josh Dunn, Beck Malenstein and Mason Gearson. I think Malenstein and Dunn probably play less in this game tomorrow because they’re playing with a guy that they’re not going to want to play more than a couple of minutes because you can’t really afford to have him on the ice all that often. Um so that’s where they currently stand at the moment. Um, but we’ll see how that that happens going into tomorrow. So, it’s tomorrow against Utah and then it’s Thursday against St. Louis. So, I mentioned last segment like they got to win their head-to-head games against Eastern Conference teams. Uh, well, four of their next five games are against teams from the West, Utah and St. Louis, and then they do go to Carolina, and then it’s Utah and Colorado on the road. So, they got some there’s some got some Western Conference Western Conference games coming up here. Couple at home, couple on the road. Utah has been a juggernaut. We’ll talk more about them tomorrow, but they are 8-4 on the year. They are near the top of the Central Division, just behind Winnipeg and Colorado. They’ve been winning a lot of games. JJ Purkas look great. Uh, so we’ll talk more about him and them tomorrow. And then you get a game against St. Louis, which looks a little easier because St. Lewis is at the moment tied for dead last in the National Hockey League. So that’s what you got coming up on Tuesday and Thursday, Saturday, Wednesday. After that, goalie is going to be interesting. We’ll talk more about goalie tomorrow. Um at the moment, I think what you probably see is Lucin go again against Utah. He probably played well enough to earn another start and then St. Lewis is the most interesting game because if UPPL plays really well on Tuesday may and it is him on Tuesday, they could go back to him on Thursday. They could go back to Alex Lion or they could say Colton Ellis, here’s your other opportunity to start because this is your former team that never gave you a shot to play in the NHL. Um, Thursday is so tough to predict. Tuesday, I feel pretty comfortable projecting UPL right now, but we’ll see tomorrow. That’s going to do it for us today here in the Locked on Sabres podcast. You want more hockey talk? Be sure to check out Locked on NHL game night. Also locked on fantasy hockey. You get those lineups to set and a lot of stuff going on around the NHL. You can find them on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. We’ll talk to you on a game day tomorrow here on the Locked OnS podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day.

The Buffalo Sabres have a little point streak they’ve put together, following a win over the Washington Capitals in a shootout, which has the Sabres close to the top and the bottom of the Eastern Conference. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen shows up for his best game of the season, carrying the Sabres in both overtime and the shootout of the Washington game, until Bowen Byram finally won it.

The Sabres may have to throw a lineup together when they play Utah, as Jason Zucker and Jiri Kulich’s statuses are in doubt. Who should start in goal tomorrow?

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