The Buffalo Sabres shut down Connor McDavid and the Oilers in four-goal win

The Buffalo Sabres shut down Connor McDavid and the Oilers in four-goal win

Sabres played their best game of the year against Edmonton of all teams. We’ll talk about the win coming up here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. [Music] You’re Locked On Sabres, your daily podcast on the Buffalo Sabres, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What is up everybody? Welcome in to this Wednesday edition, Tuesday edition, excuse me, of the Locked On Sabers podcast. Thanks for making us your first listen every day. We are the number one sports podcast network here on the Locked On Network. You can watch the Locked On Sabers podcast wherever you listen to your podcast. You can watch the show on YouTube, like and subscribe if you are watching along. And if you want to become a part of our Lockdowns text club, you can do that as well. Join sububtex.com/lockdownsabers if you want updates throughout the game, updates from practice, and also your comments and questions as well. You can sign up for it there. Sneaky Jobsi on today’s show, which is presented by FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app right now by visiting FanDuel.com. Win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. 5 to1 Sabres win over the Edmonton Oilers. They improve to 78 and4 on the season. Their home record continues to look better and better. 63 and2 on the year now at Key Bank Center. We will go through what happened in the game, some of the numbers from it, some of the most impressive parts of it. And I think Noah Oseland and Isach Rosanna are really going to be pushing Lindy Ruff to make a tough decision in the coming weeks as the team is starting to get a little bit healthier. Also, Colton Ellis, we’ll talk about his game. He had another solid performance. That’s all coming up on today’s show as we uh look back on Edmonton before we get to Calgary, which is what the Sabres have next. That will be tomorrow night, Wednesday night at Keybank Center once again. But this game, what a job by the Sabres. Lindy called it. He their most complete game of the season. And I have to agree, especially given the caliber of opponent. Edmonton has not been winning a ton this year. They were not in a playoff spot going into the night, but you know what kind of capabilities they have as a hockey team. And in this one, they did not look like the better team really throughout any part of it for me. The Sabres looked fast. They looked hungry. They were getting chances. I thought all four lines performed well defensively. Thought they were really rock solid. I thought Colton Ellis, while he did play well, was not tested a lot. And that’s a credit to the Sabres and the effort that they gave against a loaded team that includes Conor McDavid and Leon Dry Iidle. We’ll go through some of the goals and some of the numbers, but really I just want to start by just giving applause for what the Buffalo Sabres did to Conor McDavid in this game and more specifically the McDavid line. in this game. We talked a lot about Matt Seavoy coming into the night and how he’s not really done all that much while playing even with McDavid so far this season and he got the nod in this game. He was playing on the top line with McDavid and Zack Heyman, as good of a pair of teammates as you can find in the NHL. And in this game, you often saw Lindy Ruff match up against the McDavid line. Tyson Kak, Jordan Greenway, and Payton Krebs. A a somewhat uh you know, a checking line, if you will, a defensive line. And that line smothered the McDavid line. They did not let McDavid get ahead of steam in this game, coming through into the neutral zone with as much speed as anybody in the league has. They did not let him get to the front of the net. They did not let him create much. They didn’t let him have the puck very often. And I cannot remember a team doing that to McDavid that well other than sometimes in moments in some of these recent playoff runs where you see Florida with Barkoff really shutting down McDavid. It does not happen very often at all that you see a game like that. the McDavid Seavoi Heyman line when they were on the ice last night against the Buffalo Sabres. They only had three shot attempts to the Sabres 11 11 to3 in favor of Buffalo when the McDavid line was out there. Shots on goal. Sabres outshot Edmonton 5-2 when McDavid was on the ice at five on five. They got one goal. The McDavid line got zero while they were out there on the ice. The scoring chances, this was the craziest number. I thought when McDavid, Seavoi, and Heyman were out there last night, scoring chances were 10 to2 in favor of Buffalo. And you shouldn’t be surprised that all of that equates to expected goals at the end of the day um to be 29% for the McDavid line and 71% for Buffalo. I mean, that is unheard of. It’s unheard of to see McDavid play that poorly in a game. And it’s a lot, I think, to do with the Sabres and the job that they did. And I’m not going to lie, we talked about how the Seavoy for Mloud trade looks like a win going into this second year here. And Seavoy’s not done much and Mloud’s already been everything the Sabres would want. Seavoy played a full game with Conor McDavid and I want to say I didn’t notice him one time last night. Never noticed him. was I I kind of said that, didn’t I? Like when you do watch him, he can get lost within the play. He doesn’t really impose his will physically because of his size. He’s not he’s not all over the puck and, you know, he’s not ever going to be the primary puck carrier on a line that contains Conor McDavid, but he just wasn’t around the play much at all. He totally disappeared. And when you’re playing with that guy, that’s that’s hard to do. So, you know, don’t want to put all the blame on him, but man, if I were an Edmonton fan watching these games and I watched last night, I’d be thinking, “All right, this experiment should be over. I don’t need to see Seavoy continuing to play with McDavid game after game after game to try to get it to work.” Um, you should be putting your best player with his best linemates. Um, and part of that I think played into it. I think the Kak line was legitimately great, though. I mean, even in the offensive zone, the one goal that they scored was the goal where Kak whips a puck on net, gets his own rebound, and has the the wherewithal to know that Bo Byum is off to the right side wide open. And if he slides that pass over to Byum that Steuart Skinner is going to be so out of position to make a save, and that’s exactly what happened. Byum, he had to get the puck off quick, but he had a lot of net to shoot at. He did. He scored the goal and at that time that was a that was a big goal. It was two to one midway through the second period which the game was very much in you know in play at that point still. So Kak line all the flowers in the world how you outplay a McDavid line like that Kak line outperforming McDavid line. It just every time I say it it doesn’t feel like that it should be possible. But they were great. Krabs, by the way, in this game, knocked down McDavid from behind and he was a little he was kind of that awkward distance from the boards. And of course, Pod Coulson’s got to fight Crabs at the end of the period, which is such an eye roll to me, but I get it, right? You’re defending your your best player on your team, but very entertaining hockey game. Um, the other goals on the night, we’ll talk more about Noah Oselin, but he gets two on the night. very slick power play goal to take it down on the goal line and then whip out in front very quickly because you know the defenseman’s going to be coming in a hurry and Osen’s able to get it past Skinner for that one. Um the Malenstein goal to get a second goal, a third goal I should say a minute after Bum scores, those are killers for the opposing team. the momentum killer, the the uh deflation of two in one minute, that can really hurt an opposing team. And I think the Sabres looked like they drained all the life out of Edmonton after Malenstein tipped that Dene shot in. And then Oscelin with the nail in the coffin in the third period. Nice whip around. Malenstein is cover is uh screening in front and that Oelen Josh Dunn Malenstein line. It didn’t really I think I said this didn’t make a lot of sense for me on paper, but I thought it was possible it could go well because all three of them I’ve liked their games as of late and that’s kind of what happened. Like doesn’t really it’s not a natural fit. Oseland a skilled young player that doesn’t have much size and physicality with two grinding big guys that play in the corners and work the boards. Um but it worked. They all played pretty well. Osel and they look they scored three goals as a line. Uh Oseland uh scored one on the power play. Um but between the three of them they had three goals last night which is pretty great. So that’s what you were looking at from last night’s game. Some of the numbers from last night in totality some of the five on five numbers. Um the Sabres in terms of scoring or shot attempts 59 to 57. Um they outshot or they got outshot 27 to 24 but Edmonton kind of you know pulled within that number and went ahead late in the game because the Sabres were up. Scoring chances in this game were the big one. Scoring chances for Buffalo 37 to Edmonton 17. High danger chances 16 for Buffalo, six for the Edmonton Oilers. Um, and at the end of the day, the expected goals on the night, um, if I can get my thing to work here, were 3.0 for Buffalo, 1.7 for the Oilers at five on five, 3.8 2.4 if you include all the power play stuff. So, we’ll get to some of those numbers on Colton Ellis and Noah Oselin. Um, in terms of power play, by the way, like that was a decent night from Buffalo. They only had the two opportunities. Austin scored that one goal. One for two. They had their chances on the second one. And staying out of the box. Big big key. I know the Sabres have the best penalty kill in the NHL, but Edmonton has got a lethal power play. Third in the NHL so far this year in percentage. And they have been top five almost every year recently. And to only take one penalty on the night and only give them one power play, that was also really key. Never letting them get rolling. never letting that spark come with a with a dangerous power play um was huge by the Buffalo Sabres in this one. So when we come back, one of the heroes of the game, Noah Oseland, two goals for him. Lump him in with Isac Rosanne who had an assist on that power play goal. These two are making a case to stay in the lineup, but it’s going to be tough. We’ll get to that and what some of our texters had to say about it when we come back here on the Locked On Sabres podcast. Today’s episode of the Locked on Sabres podcast is presented by FanDuel Sportsbook. It’s all back right now. The NHL, the NBA, football, college football. There’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. So, even if you miss the start of a game or you want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel is live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game more exciting, especially when your team is making a late push. Right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. Again, new customers $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. Head to fanduel.com, sign up, play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Sneaky Jody Bassi back here on the Locked On Sabres podcast. So last night, Matt Seavoy plays for Edmonton. Doesn’t do much. His line gets dominated even though he played with Conor McDavid. Reminder that Seavoi was the first of three first round picks by the Buffalo Sabres um in the 2022 NHL draft. Seavoy went ninth, Osland went 16th, Yuri Koulik went 28th. And there was some debate back a couple years ago about, hey, if you’re going to make a trade for a established veteran player, which of the three do you want to move, would be the smartest to move? And Koulique really hit his stride right away as a prospect and kind of ascended beyond that 28th overall pick. And I remember talking with different prospect guys about how Osceland might become the Sabres, might be the best of the three, but it was just going to be a a slow burn because he was going to be playing in Europe and not getting a lot of minutes and he’s so thin that get adjusting to North American hockey could take some time and Seavoy was the guy that was the top 10 pick. So, at the end of the day, Sabres trade one of those three for Ryan Mloud. And at the moment, it appears they chose right because we know the player Koulique is capable of, and he had a decent rookie year. And last night, I mean, it’s so clear one was better than the other. Oscelin was a better player than Seavoy last night, and he consistently has been all season long. So, they might have chose right. Two goals and both really nice skilled goals. When the more you watch Oscelin, I mean, on both goals that he had, sure, his finishing ability is on display, whether it’s the the quick lifted wrist shot in the one motion on the power play to get it over Skinner’s pad, or if it’s the whipound wrist shot with a screen in front to beat Skinner underneath his arm. Like, two nice shots. But what stands out to me from Osland is he’s such a good skater. He’s so smooth. He’s so strong on his edges. He’s so quick, straight ahead speed. Like he’s a guy that I think will always have a role in the NHL because he’s just such a good skater. Like sometimes Mloud is maybe one of these guys. Mloud I don’t think has fully realized like he is not the best shooter, the best stick handler. He’s not physical at all. What makes Ryan Mloud an impact NHL player? It’s his skating. He’s one of the fastest skaters in the NHL. He’s very tough to keep up with. He moves very well side to side. And Oscelin reminds me of Mloud as a skater a lot. So I think that’s very exciting. But with him, you might have more offensively. And to get his second and third goals of the season, playing on the number one power play unit, that’s a lot of trust from Lindy Ruff. And even though he was bumped down to the fourth line center role after playing, you know, a week or two on the second line center spot. Um, it’s it’s a really it’s it’s a guy when you’re at that age and you go down to a fourth line with two, you know, different type of players like a Malenstein and a Dunn, a a young player could very easily just not show up for that game or really get lost in it and not feel like, you know, feel or even just be down on like the downgrade. Oseland looked so energized last night and was all over. It’s like he he was playing with a fire of you’re not keeping me on the fourth line. Go ahead. You put me on the fourth line for this game, I am going to fight my way right back up there. That’s how he played to me. And what he said in postgame was that basically his job right now is he wants to make it as tough as possible on Lindy Ruff and Kevin Adams to send him back down. Now, they might do that. He is still pretty undersized, I think, for his age in the NHL, but he’s playing like a guy that it’s going to be tough to send him back. Isac Roseanne kind of the same thing in in ways. He’s got six points in eight games and he gets it that nice assist last night on the Ocelin goal. He is a guy that has more experience professional hockey wise. He’s played four years of professional hockey. So him getting a longer look in Buffalo feels a little bit more likely to me because for him it’s time to go. Like you’re either an NHL player or you’re not at this age. Whereas Osland again the long slower burn the European route that he took. Um, I think it’s more acceptable to say, “Yeah, he needs a little bit more cooking down in Rochester being their best player before you really throw him to the Wolves on a night-to-ight basis in the NHL.” So, very curious though what they’ll do because both players are playing well. And when Jason Zucker comes back, which could be this weekend, when Zack Benson comes back, which could also be this weekend or maybe early next week, when Josh Norris comes back, that could be next week at some point. When all those guys return, what are they going to do? Because even though it’s funny, like we want to make excuses for this team because of the forward group not really being that strong and missing so many players. Who do you not like in the forward group right now? Who would you take out? Because the obvious answers, someone might say Josh Dunn. I’ve liked Josh Dunn. I would not take him out of the lineup. Someone might say Tyson Kak be tough to pull him right now. See the game he just had last night against McDavid. Someone could say the two kids, Noah Oselin, Isac Roseanne. These guys are producing offense. I I don’t know. I definitely wouldn’t want to take them both out. I know that. The guys that I might say that I’d be willing to take out are more established players that I can’t really see them benching. Greenway is one of these guys. Jordan Greenway to me is back. I think last night was one of his better games. I he was one of the third one onethird of the line that shut down McDavid. But he’s just getting beat on plays a lot because of his because of his lack of speed. Um so he’s a frustrating player, but I don’t think they’ll pull him. Krebs could be this guy. Maybe they pull Krebs out of the lineup. I would say Malenstein, but he’s looked good as of late. He scores last night and he’s been with Dunn all over it um on some of these four checks. Jack Quinn, I like Jack Quinn first couple weeks of the season. He was really impressive to me. He is making dumb decisions every night in the last four or five games. So Quinn, but is Quinn coming out for one of the Rochester guys? It’s just I I guess what I’m getting at is I feel bad for him because I feel like they are earning their jobs here, but because of how everybody else is looking in the numbers game of it, I kind of think Roseanne and Oscelin are going to get pulled out of the lineup. That’d be a that’d be a total guess at this point. I hope I’m wrong because I’ve liked them both. Um but once those guys come back, especially the types of players they are, Zucker is a scorer, right? And Benson’s a top six guy now. and so is Norris. You know, these are guys that you’re going to be wanting to throw into the top of your lineup. And that means is Roseanne gonna play third, fourth line? Is Oscelin gonna continue to play fourth line center like he did last night? It went well, but I think Kak is more of a natural fit for that type of role. So is Krebs. So sad to say, but I think um I think Roseanne and Osland are um their days are numbered playing up here in Buffalo until they get more injuries, which could also happen. By the way, when uh by the way, when I did throw that question out, one texter asked me like, “We will come out.” And some of the most popular answers, Krebs and Kak, I saw a lot of um I did see a lot of uh just pull Josh Dunn even though it’s looked good. Pull him out, you get more offense with the other guys. Um, Quinn was a lot a big very popular answer. In fact, I bet you Quinn and Krebs were the most popular answers that I got for it. All right, when we come back, goalie, Colton Ellis, it went well. What are they going to do Wednesday? Get to that when we come back here on the Locked On Sabres podcast. Today’s episode of Locked on Savers presented by Rugette. Making excuses doesn’t solve everything. We’ve all heard them before. It’s just stress. I’m tired or Happens to everybody. Sometimes when it comes to performance, sometimes your body just needs a little extra support. And that’s where Rugiette comes in. Rugiet.com offers fast acting doctor prescribed treatments for ED designed to help you stop making excuses and start making moves. Rugiet gets you started. You just connect with a boardcertified doctor, 100% online, no awkward waiting rooms, no in-person appointments. If prescribed, your treatment ships discreetly straight to your door. The process is fast, simple, and private. And it’s all handled by real doctors. Visit rugat.com ruggie t/locktonl to get 15% off your first order. That’s ruggat.com/lockton NHL. Don’t forget to use the code locked on NHL so they know that we sent you. Rugette. Stop making excuses. Start making moves. All right. All right, sneaky Joe Debiosi back here in the lockdown Sabres podcast. Sabres in flames tomorrow night. And man, very interesting what’s going on with the Buffalo Sabres in goal right now. Colton Ellis, what a game from him last night against the Edmonton Oilers. Now, as I mentioned earlier, really strong effort in front of him. The blue line was great. Dene Power, uh, Samson, another strong effort from him, I thought. I thought Timmons was really good last night. Ellis was not challenged a ton. He did end up making 32 saves of a possible 33. Um, one good way to look at this, what were the expected goals in this game and what did he save? Well, he saved one. He allowed one goal and expected goals for Edmonton were 2.4. So, you’ve seen better games than that. I mean, that’s a good day. That’s a very it’s a good day at the office. It’s not the best day you’ve ever seen, but it’s a good day. 1.4 goals saved above expected. That’s strong effort from Colton Ellis. So, the fact that he’s been getting the nod three of the last four starts and he’s coming off a performance like that, that’s a very good team. My inclination would be he’s going to play again against Calgary. Paul Hamilton was he was he was out with me and Jeremy at WGR this morning. Said he bet Brian Kosial a steak dinner that Ellis will be the goalie on Wednesday night. So, Paul’s obviously very very confident that it will be Colton Ellis. I would be with him. I think it would be stunning to me if Colton Ellis was not the goalender. I asked Lindy Ruff about him this morning on WGR and sung his praise. Like loves his side to side movement. He’s been very polished, very clean. He gave a couple of rebound opportunities up yesterday against Edmonton that I noticed. But otherwise, that hasn’t been happening a lot. So, they’re putting a level of faith in him. Run with it. Go. Let’s see how far you take us. and Lion’s been a little bit out of the rotation since he struggled the last couple of starts and Lucin has struggled really um every game he’s played almost. So, you got a shot here. You’re a young player with potential. And the one thing we haven’t seen him get at any point during his pro hockey career, which is now years, mostly in the AHL and some in the ECHL, is consistent NHL gameplay. And now we’re seeing it and it’s going fairly well. Fairly okay, fairly well. What do you want to call it? He did allow nine goals in his previous two games, but we had seen some good moments in those games. And then last night, complete effort from beginning to end. The only goal that goes in, the dry zidle drop pass to Jack Rosavic. Not bitter at all, by the way. I’ve been screaming for five years. Saber should sign Rosik to one of these one-year $1 million deals. Fine. We don’t need a guy to score seven goals for nothing. It’s fine. Um, but even that that’s the one goal that goes in on Colton Ellis and that’s a one-time shot from the slot un you’re moving side to side because of where the pass came from. Like that’s not a save that money would expect you to make and everything else he did. Um, the one save he made that went off his helmet and he somehow coraled it with his glove and didn’t allow rebound. So Ellis against Calgary. I I wonder what his potential really is. I’m I’m really curious. Like I was thinking watching the game yesterday, he he made one of the saves. I’m like, could this guy just be their goalie? You know, goalies are weird. They come from everywhere. It’ be nice to just get lucky one of these times from a Buffalo Sabres perspective. Why not this guy? Why not Colton Ellis? He’s drafted high enough. He had good enough success in the Miners. You know, the story makes sense why he didn’t play in St. Louis. They like him. Come on, get lucky one of these times where you just find a goalie out of nowhere and he’s the next story uh in five years where we’re looking back going, man, remember the Blues waved him. Yesterday in the show, we were talking about the Seavoy Briier comparisons that I had at in the draft process years ago. And one thing everyone always remembers about Danny Briier, Jason Palomville is these guys were waved at one point. Come on, here’s another one. in five years. I want to be able to tell everybody or remind everybody, remember they they got him off waiverss, Colton Ellis, and he’s still their starting goalie. Um, I’m very hopeful for him. I think he’s very talented and I’m very optimistic that they might have a guy here. Um, and I hope to continue to see him Wednesday against Calgary. It may be a great matchup. It’s a bad team and um, he gets the off day in between. He’s very well rested from the previous month. Really only played one game, so I’d keep riding him. Next up is the Flames. We’ll talk about that matchup more in detail on our next show. So stay tuned for that. You want more hockey talk, you can check out Locked on NHL game night. That’s available wherever you listen to your podcast. You can also check out Locked on Fantasy Hockey, which a great listen throughout the season as well. We’ll talk to you tomorrow here on the Locked On Savers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day.

In what was probably the most complete effort of the season, the Buffalo Sabres blowout the Edmonton Oilers with a 5-1 win at Key Bank Center, led by a two-goal night from Noah Ostlund. Are Ostlund and Isak Rosen playing well enough to warrant keeping them in the lineup permanently? Lindy Ruff will have tough decisions to make when Jason Zucker, Zach Benson, and Josh Norris return.

Plus, how the Sabres completely shutdown Connor McDavid and the Oilers’ top line, deploying Tyson Kozak, Jordan Greenway, and Peyton Krebs in that matchup. And Colten Ellis gives the Sabres another strong effort. Should they keep riding him as their starting goalie?

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOSabres?sid=YouTube

Locked On NHL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Prospects & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNHL

Follow on Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/SneakyJoeSports
Follow the show on Twitter https://mobile.twitter.com/LockedOnSabres

#NHL #Sabres #BuffaloSabres