Paul Hamilton on Struggles for Owen Power + UPL | The Jeremy and Joe Show

Paul Hamilton on Struggles for Owen Power + UPL | The Jeremy and Joe Show

It’s a football Friday here on WGR brought to you by Celeno Law, Car Crash, Call Seleno, Call the Eights, and by Crosby’s Pizza and Subs. Crosby’s hometown fuel game day ready since 1922. We will though mix in some hockey here as the Sabres are playing today 4:00 right here on WGR. No showing the Bulldog today because we will have Sabres hockey against New Jersey at Key Bank Center and they are fresh off a loss in Pittsburgh. So Paul Hamilton joining the show now. Good morning Paul. We had a happy Thanksgiving. Yes. How about you? Not not bad. The Chiefs losing helps, but I’m still full from yesterday. A lot of food. Well, it’s one of those deals, too. Not in our league, but another one. You know, I had Mahomes, so I got 37 points out of Mahomes and then he lost. Perfect. You know how much better could it be? That could right. Yeah. The best touchdown maybe your favorite touchdown he’s ever scored down 10 at the end of a game because they’re still probably going to lose and you get the points. Yeah. Yeah. So, that worked out well. That’s solid. So, Paul, going back to Wednesday night before we get to today, the Sabres are back in last in the East 910 and four. Um the spe the game the specifics of the game I want to get to with you, but more than that, they are just incapable of winning on the road this year. Paul won six and two. And I wonder if you see something that just looks different on the road. like what what is the explanation for their being really good at home this year and they just cannot figure it away from Keybank Center? Yeah, that’s a that’s a game that you got to come home with points. It’s as simple as that. I mean, they at at worst were even in that game. And once they got going, they they were the better team. You know, at first Pittsburgh was the better team. Ukopekal Lucan had to hold him in and did and then all of a sudden uh probably about I don’t know 10 minutes into the second period maybe about a little bit more than that all of a sudden they they took over and simply got goalied again. I mean Jarry who hadn’t played in seven games because he was injured was fantastic. He you know talk about a goalie holding his team in. That’s exactly what he did because the Sabres written grade a chances. It wasn’t uh you know cheap cheap shots or anything like that. They were right on the doorstep and just couldn’t get anything by him. And uh you know it was still one- nothing at the end of two periods. But then you tie it up in the third period. So here you are again at that point of the game playing well. You’ve tied the game in the third period. You’re playing a team you’re chasing and you walk away and give them two points and you don’t have any. And one of the things that uh really stuck with me, Lindy Ruffick, as soon as he got here for this second term of being the head coach, talked about 1enters and he said that’s the one thing that they’re going to concentrate on is those little details that are 1enters. and he goes, “If you get better at enough of those 1enters, you’re going to be a really good hockey team.” And that’s where they lost that game is those little details, those one percenters that went by the wayside and at the end of the day it killed them. And you know that but you know here you are you’ve taken eight out of 10 points going into the game and you’ve you’ve dug yourself such a hole unfortunately for the team it had gotten them one point or one they had passed one team and tied another. That’s all that did for you taking eight out of 10 points which is good. played played some decent hockey there along in that streak. Got their only road victory of the season and had to come back from three goals down to do it. But they did accomplish that. But they only they only passed one team and they only lost one game. So now they’ve won four out of six games instead of four out of five and they’re right back in the cellar again. You know, you that’s that’s how bad the hole they’ve dug themselves is is and is because they played that kind of hockey, won four out of five games, which is eight out of 10 points. Now you’ve taken eight out of 12 points. That’s still very good. And you now you haven’t passed anybody. I mean, that’s that’s the thing. and and it’s it’s just, you know, again, it’s not how many points they’re behind, it’s how many teams they have to leaprog. If they’re in ninth place, and in this situation, we’re not even having the conversation. We’re not even talking about it. They could be six, seven points down if they were in ninth place. And I beat they’re fine. You can make that up in a hurry over one team, but having to make it up uh over eight teams, well, that’s that’s a whole different story. Paul Hamilton with us. Paul, in the game, how much of the blame would you put on Lucinan’s shoulders for that game? Or I guess of the three goals that he let in, how much at fault do you think he was on them? I I am don’t well I think Lucinan is a lightning bolt for a lot of people do not like him at all. So they have they have an agenda to start with. He held them into the game to start with for the first half of that game with some great saves. The first goal is deflected and and it moved a lot and I’m reading people saying he should have had that. Well, I guess it’s you have that when when your defenseman deflects that puck and it moves as much as that puck did. The complaint I saw is why he was sliding so far out to the right on a wrist shot was the thing that I had seen, which maybe there’s a defense for, but I mean, he’s there. He’s there ready for it. And if there was the first thing Byum did is he lifted his left leg. If you’re not going to block the shot, get out of the way. I mean, what are you lifting your left leg for? Block the shot and and get out of the way. I mean, but to deflect it and and to to make it go that far, you know, he has no chance on that. The second goal, yes, what happened on the second goal is he tried after he lost the stick, he’s trying to pick it up and didn’t get it. Mhm. So now he’s scrambling in the crease to try to get over. And as he’s doing that, he opens up the five hole. Now, if he has his stick, the five hole is probably going to be covered. Most goalenders will cover the five hole with his stick. So now he’s vulnerable. So once again, Byum goes down to to block the shot and it goes under him. So now you don’t see the puck until it comes out. But still, you’re you’re on your hands and knees and you do have the five hole open. Um, so even though you don’t see the shot to the last second, you’re still not in in great, you know, he squared up, but the five holes wide open because he never was able to pick up his stick and then started scrambling once that happened. So that one, yeah, even though he saw it at the last second, he’s still not in great shape because of not having the stick. And you know, I’ll go along with that one that, you know, if even if without the stick, if you got the pads together, you know, you’re going to be okay. Third one, you have no chance because Owen Power again, and that’s the 1enter I’m talking about, you know, where what are you doing? You’re right there. you’re right there to pick this guy up, but you don’t pick him up. You just let him come right through the slot and score. And he and he does that a lot. There are parts of his game that I think he’s really improved at. But that is the biggest thing that just keeps happening. He’s there, but he he’s not covering the guy. I mean, how many times have you seen him just standing next to the guy, but not tying him up? you know, to to take him out of play and the guy winds up scoring because he didn’t tie up the stick or he didn’t knock him down or or whatever. So, you know, that’s what I’m talking about with the oneenters that, you know, the first goal, you you gota you gotta, you know, Timmons, it’s a very simple and as Lindy Ruff, he just said in frustration, I don’t know what he’s doing there. Yeah. Do you think Lindy is I don’t know like what Lindy’s opinion might be of power at this point? He he has not recorded a point in six games. Paul, I know he’s defensive. He’s not like necessarily that’s not job number one for him, but he is supposed to put up a little bit and to have no points. And more than that, he played almost he played more than 20 minutes almost every game of the year until this six game stretch where he’s played over 20 minutes only once. And that might be the more telling thing is that Lindy’s playing them. You know, it’s not crazy, but it’s like three, four minutes fewer a game in this last couple of weeks. I thought until these last couple of weeks that came along, I thought he was playing better hockey. I thought he was fine and it just seems like, you know, it hasn’t gone as well. And what it was actually a question I asked about Bryson after he scored that sleek goal where he, you know, put a good move on and then Bryson scores again and actually should have as I think gotten the goal and they they got screwed on a replay again. Uh where you know it was I don’t think it was goalender interference. My question was, would you like to see Bryson get into the play a little bit more, you know, and join the rush a little bit more? And he said, I’d like to see all of them. He goes, I he goes, that’s part of our offense is the the fourth guy joining. So he said, I I wouldn’t just pick him. I He goes, I want them all to be in the rush like that. And um so that would include power too that you know he’s just not seeing it enough you know where and power has proven when he does become that fourth man he comes becomes pretty dangerous you know I’ve seen him be able to score and help when he becomes that fourth man and gets up into the rush and he just needs to do it more. Paul, today’s game four o’clock against the Devils. Um, got a guess. I feel like I’m asking you this every time they play, bud. What’s your uh best educated guess on on goalie tonight? Um, Lion, he might stick with Lucin. My best educated guess was I thought Ellis was going to play uh and he and he didn’t. He didn’t even dress and other people thought it was Lion. Not one person thought it was Lucin, right? and and and he wound up in the net. I mean, Lucin’s numbers over five games were excellent. You know, they were really they were like 2.41. He had the same percentage in 911 over his his last five appearances. Um that those didn’t go up because there was an empty net goal, which there always is. So, I mean, that only went up slightly because of the the last game. And if you if you think about it, I mean, Pittsburgh start in the second period, starting in the second period was all over the Sabres and for about 13 minutes, Lucan had made a lot of very good saves to keep them in. That’s that’s another thing, too. You’ve just like you did with McDavid, really. Cydney Crosby and Getty Malcin weren’t a factor against the Sabres. So, if I would have said to you, well, they’re basically going to do to Mc to Crosby and Malcolm what they did to McDavid, you probably would have thought, well, they got a pretty good chance winning a hockey game. They probably should win that hockey game. And so, you hold the, you know, those two guys down and they’re Saber killers when you look at it, when you look at their career numbers against the Sabres and you you held them down and you still aren’t able to win a hockey game. I saw I don’t think they were matched up every time, Paul, but I saw that the Mloud, Zucker, Quinn line maybe got matched up against Crosby a bunch and when that line was on the ice, I’m pulling it up right now because I saw it that they outshot the Penguins uh where is it or shot attempts were 20 to1 when they were out there and they kept playing against the Crosby line and you wouldn’t even have to look at that. I mean, you could have even the eye test will tell you that. And very often, uh, the the eye test will line up with the analytics. Uh, the the Mloud line was all over the Sabres. They before they even scored, they had a bunch of great opportunities. They had two great a chances before the first goal went in, which wound up being Zooker. Uh, it was originally credited to Quinn, but it hit Zooker in front. And, uh, but it was they never gave up. They just kept going even though uh Jarry had made a couple of really good saves right before that. So M the Mloud line was very very good for this hockey team. Very quickly, do we know if is Josh Norris playing today or if not maybe this weekend? Well, all Lendy Ruff would say is he wouldn’t rule it out. We I really thought he was going to play last game until Lendy Ruff said no. It’s because he he was in a line. He was, you know, with a line and he was actually centering a line. Benson and Austin in practice and he was working in on the number one power play with Benson. They were going back and forth. So I really thought but then we asked Lindy Ruff and then we asked Norris first because we go to the players first and he said there’s you know there’s a chance um you know he still he said that’s up of course to the coaching staff and the medical staff. Um but then Lindy Ruff afterwards said no that not this one but haven’t ruled him out for the weekend. So, uh, unless there’s been a setback, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he played in this game. Paul Hamilton, Sabres and Devils tonight at today 4:00. And thanks, Paul. We will, uh, we’ll talk soon. Sounds good. Take care. 3:00 for pregame here on WGR. Can hear more from Paul, Brian Kosial, and Sabres. 4 o’clock.

Joe DiBiase is joined by Buffalo Sabres beat reporter Paul Hamilton to discuss the Sabres following their disappointing loss in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, and ahead of their 4:00pm matchup on Black Friday. The guys start off by discussing the Sabres disappointing loss to the Penguins, and Paul shares his thoughts on the game. The guys also discuss UPL’s play, Owen Power’s struggles, and the upcoming game with the Penguins.

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