Is John Tortorella a good idea for the Buffalo Sabres?

Is John Tortorella a good idea for the Buffalo Sabres?

Some more changes in the Sabres organization and could we see a John Tortoella size change? That coming up on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. >> Your Locked [music] On Sabres, 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 Saturday 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. You can watch our show on YouTube. Be sure to like and subscribe if you are looking to watch along and you can also become a part of our Locked on Sabers Everydayers Club which is a lot of fun in our Discord. You also can get adfree versions of this show. You want to sign up for that, head over to lockdownsabers.supcast.com to sign up. Today’s episode is presented by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Sneaky Jod Biosi here on a game day. We got a game to talk about, a win over the Philadelphia Flyers. We’ve got a move in the front office to talk about. We’ve got a coaching thing that I want to get into. As if you watched on the broadcast, John Tordella had his chance to share a lot of his opinions about the Buffalo Sabres. And we have a move in the front office here on a game day as Sabres will be hosting the New York Islanders. We’ll get into that a little bit as well. Try to keep our uh bet of the night rolling a little bit. We did get there with our Sabres minus one and a half goals against the Flyers. It took every second of the game right down to Ryan Mloud in the final two seconds to get the empty neter and uh get that little cover. But um a game that I want to talk about because I did not think it was going to go as well as it ended up going after watching the first period, but man, they were good in the third. So all that coming up on today’s episode of the podcast, but let’s start with the breaking news in the front office. Yarmmo Keolin making his first significant change as general manager of the Buffalo Sabres and it is within that front office he is relieving Jason Carmanos of his duties. Jason Carmanos longtime associate general manager of the Buffalo Sabres. Really the entirety of Kevin Adams’s tenure in Buffalo. Carmanos has been here also the general manager of the Rochester Americans was part of his duties as well. And listen, like I get it because this is probably not a person that Kekalinan has really worked that much with. So thinking that Yarmmo would just go with all the same people that were around him, both the coaching and the front office, um, was probably not going to happen. He’s going to want his own guys, people that he’s comfortable with, people that he has worked with before. I have never really been someone that has looked down upon Carmanos. I always thought he was more qualified to be the general manager than Kevin Adams was. And honestly, the Ammers had pretty good results throughout the entirety of the time that he was there. So, I wouldn’t want to blame him for that. Um, but certainly the impact of him coming in being data driven, he built that department in Pittsburgh and having that translate to more success in Buffalo. I mean, that never really happened. So, I’m not going to shed a tear for Carmonos leaving the building. Um, I was expecting that you probably would see them move on from him. that if he had stayed, I might have thought that that’s a bad sign because, oh, there’s Terry Pagula making Kolinan keep all the same people that were employed because he doesn’t want to pay people to not work for him. So, I guess it’s a little sign that yes, he has autonomy in the front office and hopefully that will continue. The thing though that I really want to get into today about shakeups and what we could see coming forward is whether or not John Tordella is a serious idea for the Buffalo Sabres and whether or not that is going to happen. Um, it was funny that if I was at the game, but I saw a lot of reaction on the broadcast and I went back and watched a lot of it. Emily Kaplan kind of maybe half-kittingly before the game pressing tors on, have you heard from the Sabres? They call you. you’ve worked with Yarmmo before and Tordella did not want to get into it like don’t even start, don’t want to go there. And then he kind of got asked again after the game and he had the same reaction like I don’t go there. Don’t ask me. Um and that is obvious even if he was called he’s not going to tell you and it’s possible he hasn’t been called by Yarmmo Kalinan because it’s possible that Lindy Ruff is just going to continue throughout the entirety of the season. Although I still would want to bet against right now that Lindy finishes the year and that he would get kicked upstairs in some other role. Associate general manager is now available. I don’t think Lindy would want to be doing Ammer’s GM work and building the AHL team. I don’t think that’s the grind maybe he’s looking for. Um but there is an opening in the uh in the front office. Maybe Eric Stall’s job is open. I would hope that that’s the case. But anyways, Tordella, I saw a lot of reaction to the clip that went, you know, viral by Saber Twitter standards of Tordella kind of blasting or however you want to put it, criticizing a play that Ta Thompson made on one of the first Philadelphia Flyer goals um early in that game. I believe actually it was the Flyers first goal. I think it was the Noah Kates goal that Bobby Brink had set him up on because Brink was the one that had got behind Tage. They were kind of engaged in a 50/50 battle along the boards or Brink kind of had the puck, but Taage had really good positioning and he lost that positioning to a guy that is a foot shorter than him. And Tordella on the intermission report was like, you can’t have that happen. your best player in his own zone who is also your biggest player cannot get worked in a battle like that to Bobby Brink. And I think a lot of people saw that and went, “Oh, there’s Tors. He he he would bench Tage in that situation.” And maybe he would. Maybe he would bench tage in that situation. And I would tell you that if that would be what that would lead to, I would not like that. I would not love that. And that is part of the risk of bringing in a John Tordella is I don’t want you benching Tage Thompson for a play in his defensive zone like that, even if it did result in a goal against you. Because guess what? If you had benched him, maybe he’s not there to score the goal to tie it up later in the second period. So, don’t love the benching idea. But if that’s just simply, hey, this is what Tordella would be like as a coach where he’ll point that out in a video session or in the locker room during an intermission or in a post game and like what what do you really want? Do you want your coach to hold guys accountable? I don’t need that to be benching. But to me, what that certainly would be need to be is pointing out when a mistake like that is made and not being afraid to point it out regardless of who made the mistake, no matter how good the player is. Again, I don’t want you to bench him, but certainly it’s worthwhile to point out to Tage Thompson, you cannot get beat on the wall like that by a player that is that small, much smaller than you when you’re giving him that avenue to kind of cut to the middle of the ice and find a teammate for a quality scoring chance. There was no reason that that scoring chance ever need to happen in the first place. Um, so if that’s how Tordella is as a coach, then I’m good with that. just don’t let it lead to benching Ta Thompson in the middle of games when you need him to score goals. So, you know, we could look at Tortoella as an idea and I think it is worthwhile having a serious conversation about it because he does not he’s not said he’s retired that I have seen. He has this work history with Kalin and they were together from 2015 to 2021. So, a long time in Columbus and listen they made the playoffs four years in a row. They won one playoff series. They kind of won another one. They beat Toronto in that qualifying round um which was like kind of the first round in the COVID year, but they had made the playoffs together four years in a row. They had 108 point season. They had a 97 point season. They had a 98 point season. And then the co one was 81 points in 70 games. So they were on track to probably finish in the 90s again. So four consecutive years that we’re likely going to finish somewhere in the 90s and maybe even into the mid high 90s. um they have a good history together. So, it’s worthwhile talking about him. It is also worth bringing up Philadelphia cuz that is the most recent work history you have from Torrs. He was in Philly for three years and never made the playoffs. His highest point total was 87 points which he had in the 23 24 season. He had 75 points in year 1 and he was at 65 points in 73 games. Probably going to be his worst record as Flyers head coach. Honestly, it was it was kind of pushing being his worst record ever as a head coach. Um he only needed a couple more wins to beat what he did in his early early days in Tampa Bay, but it certainly was not going well for Tordella in Philadelphia. Now, do I want to think he’s toast? He’s gone as an idea because it didn’t work in Philly. You heard me the other day mention that I don’t really think Philly has a very good roster. It’s one of the few teams in the league that I see as having lower level talent than the Buffalo Sabres even do. They do not have high-end elite level talented players at the top of their lineup. They have guys that are pretty good like Travis Kknney and Trevor Ziggress, but they don’t have those elite guys at the top. and they don’t even have a franchise goalie. So with that, I think it would be hard for anybody, including John Tordella, to go in and get results in Philadelphia. But it is worth looking at that tenure and saying he probably doesn’t have the same level of energy that he had when he was in, of course, Tampa, when he was in New York, when he was in his early days in Columbus. I could go to YouTube right now and look up John Tordella angry moments and see all the passions either locker room uh you know blasting guys in New York or when he’s getting into it with Larry Brooks in the media the late Larry Brooks when he’s yelling at guys in Tampa Bay um Vancouver he tried to break into the Calgary locker room after they had had a brawl in the first period like that guy has mellowed a little and that’s natural he is 67 years old and it mellowed a little bit in Philly. The only thing I ever saw in Philly that represented this guy’s still a crazy person was when he got ejected from a game. I think this was last year by referee West McCaulay and Tortoella refused to leave the bench. He stood there on the bench for several minutes. He ended up getting suspended because of that. Um but he refused to leave. Other than that, the only thing I really found about his time in Philly that represented Yeah, this dude is a This is torch. he’s a maniac was he really got into it with Cam York and that was towards the end of his Philadelphia tenure. Cam York, a former first round pick of the Flyers, young player. Um he’s a defenseman who has not really ever broken through in the NHL. Never had a great season. Um but was a 20 minute a night guy, 20 plus minute a night guy playing in the top four. And he got benched and there was something that happened behind the scenes between him and Tordella. And again, you could kind of go to every team and probably find at least one example of that with him. And there was one of those in Philly. So, however much he might have mellowed, it didn’t happen fully. And there still is a tors in there because he refused to leave the bench during an ejection and he did get into it with one of their talented players in the lineup. So, that comes with risk. You’re going to get probably an outcome at some point where Yeah. Tage is pissed and him and Tordella are at odds. Or maybe it’s not Tage, maybe it’s Alex Tuck, maybe it is Dene, maybe it is uh Owen Power. I think a lot of Saber fans could probably envision something like that where Power one of your more talented guys and a good player, but he definitely is lacking that fight, that internal fire. Uh that drives Tortoella nuts as it does a lot of fans and something happens off of that. Whether it’s Tortoella benching him or screaming at him and not him not taking it well, like you might not always get the outcome you want when a guy is like that. Sometimes guys don’t react well to that type of pu to that type of pushing and that type of coaching. Um, but it does come with its merit. And I’m at a point now just to kind of summarize where I’m at. I’ve hated the Tordella idea for a decade and it always comes up once in a while when he was available before Columbus, when he was available after Columbus. Like every once in a while the Tordella idea comes up and I’m always like, “No, no, no, no. It’s a bad idea. It’s a bad idea. I’m more open to it right now than I ever have been. It’s not my favorite idea. I’d like the Pete Dbor idea better. Um I almost kind of like the idea of Mike Leone better as the Amir’s head coach getting an ascension to NHL head coach for Buffalo. It’s not my favorite idea either because I would like to see them do something that rates. But I’m more open to the Tortoella idea than I ever have been. And part of it is do think he’s mellowed a little bit. I don’t think he’s the nutcase that he once was. I do think he’s probably a good coach overall. And the worst part about Tors from his results as a head coach is eventually the message gets stale. players get sick of him and it ends poorly. Eventually that happens. But the one thing you can’t really argue with is everywhere he goes, most places he goes, you’re going to get results right away. You’re going to get those ear that early bump from Tordella coming in. That is something that happened in Columbus. Um I guess the one place it really didn’t happen was Philadelphia. It happened in New York. There are a lot of circumstances over the years where he comes in, you get some good results in the first two years and then maybe year three even you go pretty well. By the time you get to the fourth or fifth year, it’s like this is not going well. That the players are done with it. It it will exhaust itself. But for this team, he’s 67. He’s not going to be hanging around for six, seven years anyway. If you’re looking for short-term, get me in the playoffs, get this team on the right track, get these guys on the right track in terms of competing on a night-to-ight basis, a one or twoyear Tortoella experiment to me is not the worst idea. And it has very often come off to me as the worst idea. But I think where this team is right now, where they are in their development, a lot of their most important players have been around for years and years now, that this would be the right circumstance to try it out if you ever were going to. So, I didn’t think the Tage clip was, “Oh, I can’t hire that guy. Look how much he’s going after Taage Thompson.” I think that’s probably how he’s going to coach Tage Thompson. And as long as that doesn’t come with a benching, I am uh I’m open to this as an idea. I want to get to a couple other things from the Philly game and then we’ll look ahead to the Islander game that’s coming up here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. Today’s episode of the Lockdown Sabres podcast is presented by Game Time. I mean, nice little early afternoon or or early evening game tonight. You want to go check it out, see maybe another win, head over to the game time app. And it’s not just hockey or football. How about the World Cup? World Cup is coming back to North America. First time in 30 plus years. And with 48 teams for the first time ever, it’s going to be massive. But let’s be honest, getting tickets is usually the hard part. I’ve been looking to get tickets this tournament. It’s hard. That’s why the Game Time app is clutch. Finally giving fans a real advantage when it comes to snagging seats. With Game Time, you can track price drops in real time, get alerts when great seats open, buy tickets the moment they hit the app, you get alerts for that. It puts the power back in your hands and makes going to the World Cup realistic instead of what it can seem seem like, which is definitely impossible. 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The Sabres beat the Philadelphia Flyers to extend their win streak to four. Might not feel like a four-game win streak, but uh they are on a four-ame win streak. And I have to say as somebody that bet as our bet of the night minus a goal and a half against the Philadelphia Flyers, I watched that first period and into the early second period, first half of the second period, first really 20 30 minutes of the game and I did not like what I was seeing. I they were they were tied at the end of the first and they never got down more than one goal, but I thought the Flyers looked like the better team, significantly the better team for the first half of that hockey game. They controlled a lot of the pace. They controlled a lot of the possession. They had a majority of the chances. I mean, the Sabres had like three shots on goal, four shots on goal at the end of the first period. They were not really getting many chances, many shots near the net at all. They weren’t really testing Sam Ersen, who was a bad goalender. And I thought Philly looked like the better team. They looked like the more energized team, which was definitely frustrating to see at the start because we knew the Sabres had one, you would hope a Yarmmo bump and two, uh, not having played since the weekend, they had multiple days of rest. You were at home. There was no reason to start slow like that. But they hung around. They hung around. They get that goal by Jack Quinn in the first period to take the lead and they kind of backed off from there. Um the Thompson goal was a nice play. They had gotten down two to one at that point. The Cam York who we previously mentioned, the guy who got into it with Torella last year, he scored to make it two to one. And then Thompson, who I did not think had a good game up until that point. I thought he was pretty rough. Good little play. Dene cutting to the middle, that drop pass between the legs while taking the defender with him to open it up for Tage Thompson and kind of get that defenseman on a spin cycle. And Tage makes a nice move there instead of just ripping it right away when Arison would have been in position. That little push the puck out to the center and kind of get the goalie moving a little bit is what opens up that side of the net where he ends up scoring on it. So, a nice goal by Taage and a great play overall from Darene to him. The Noah Oscelin goal. He’s not been getting a lot of shots through. He’s only got 23 shots on goal in 22 games, but I like his shot. I think he’s got a nice release. Now, this is one where you needed some help. There was traffic in front and you got a bad goalie there that you probably wanted a save from if you’re Philly, but nice little play by Oscelin. I’ve liked that line a lot. um him skating around with Alex Tuck and Josh Norris, playing in the top six, playing more so on the wing than he had been uh at the beginning of the year because of course when Norris was hurt, he had to play center. Taage was playing on the wing, he had to play center. This is now him playing on the wing, but he should be staying in the lineup. And to get that goal in the final minute to take the lead going into the third period, that seemed to energize them. And when a young guy like that scores, when he’s playing in a big role, he’s back on the team, you know, everyone likes to see that. And from that point on, I thought the Sabres were the better team. They they looked completely different from the first 30 minutes of the game. They were awesome in the third period. They were buzzing. They had a lot of control of the puck. Like the first three minutes of the third period. They had a ton. They had as many shots in that f like three, four minutes as they had had in the entire first period. More than that, I think they were buzzing around the Philadelphia net. Flyers have seen out of gas by the time we got to the third period. So, the Sabres had survived that onslaught in the first two periods and then really took control in the third. And the Norris play on the power play. What what a goal by Norris. Great pass by Zack Benson who comes away with two assists on the night. Nice saucer pass all the way across to get it to Norris who’s all alone with Harrison. And that is a skilled goal. It it kind of is almost a version of what Tae did earlier where you push the puck out of your stance a little bit to get the goalie moving the way you want. Tage had done that to open up the side of the net. Norris had done this to open up the five hole. Norris with that little he does it kind of a little smoother than Tage had. this one motion, push it out and kind of wrap your stick to slide it through the five hole which you had opened up by kind of making that motion in the first place. That was a clean play by Josh Norris on the power play. His third of the year, God Benson his second assist and that puts you up two goals with 10 minutes to go. I felt right then and there the way they had played in the first 10 minutes that it was going to be over from that point. The tough thing is though, the Sabres got trapped in their own end for it was like three minutes in the middle of that third period where Power is stuck on the ice and Tuck was stuck on the ice and they couldn’t get out out of their zone. They could not they also were trying not to take a penalty. So, it didn’t feel like they were really pushing Philadelphia all that much. And eventually they they roll around in your zone like that long enough, they’re gonna find one. So, I felt like Philly, it kind of was a one shift period for them. It was a long shift. It’s like three minutes of control, but that was the only point in the entire third period where I felt like they were all they were really all that threatening. But still, you’re only up one then at that point and you get the empty net with like 8 seconds to go by Ryan Mloud. So, all in all, I look back on that game and I see a game where all right, like it looks pretty even on the scoreboard, a lot of it, the shots on goal, um, a lot of the possession numbers, the shooting attempts. It was a very much though a tale of two halves. I think the Flyers were the better team in the first first half of the game. Sabres were the better team in the second half of the game. There wasn’t a lot of back and forth. It was Flyers dominated, then the Sabres dominated, but Sabres got the better of the looks and they also got the better goalending night. Um, I don’t think Lion was amazing. He allowed three goals on 27 shots. You know, some of those goals I would say were like maybe one or two of them were not his fault, but I wouldn’t say he was fantastic. Eri, though, is a bad goalie. He’s a bad goalie and the Sabres definitely got the better of him on the night. So, good win over Philadelphia. And that’s a team that you’re chasing, right? Like they’re in they’re in the final wild card spot right now. The Sabres are six points down from Philadelphia. Uh I think the Atlantic is still the better place to look because you’re six points back of second and third and seven points back of first with two games in hand. Um but Philly is one of the teams that you would like to not allow to get any points uh while you’re going through this streak either. So, 34 points in 33 games after the win against the Flyers. They’ve not really made up a lot of ground with this four-game win streak. Um, and part of that is the Panthers are on a four-game win streak of their own. And, uh, who else? Detroit’s been a lot better in the last couple of weeks. Now, they’re at the top. Boston continues to kind of play just above 500 hockey. So, you don’t really have anyone collapsing right now. But, um, I guess what the good news is is you’re you’re hanging around. You’re just hanging around. And that four-game win streak has allowed them to kind of hang around here. When we come back, another team they’re chasing that’s in a playoff spot. Tonight’s opponent, the New York Islanders. What I see in the Islanders, my bet of the night, all ahead coming up here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. Today’s episode of Lockdown Sabers presented by FanDuel. When I get to my bet of the night, that’ll be courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook, at least the odds of it. So, hockey is rolling right now. Live betting with the NHL is a lot of fun. Football, of course, as well. You got football Saturday and Sundays. Big plays, everything feeling different. That’s what makes live betting with FanDuel so exciting. You’re not just watching the game, you are reacting to it in real time. With FanDuel, you could place bets as the action is unfolding. Every drive, every momentum swing, every highlight moment. Live betting is the best when you get a game that’s starting to shift again like this hockey game the other day between Buffalo and Philadelphia where you could kind of tell when the the tide started to turn in the other direction. Um and then maybe right then and there you would have been pretty confident. Okay, here comes Buffalo. Let me throw a bet on them and you would have been right. Live spreads, money lines adjusting instantly, player props updating as guys are heating up, all available at FanDuel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fan.com. Place your live NFL bets all season long. FanDuel, the game moves fast and so can you. Wrapping things up here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast with a quick preview of Sabres and Islanders. The New York Islanders who are sitting in a playoff spot 1913 and three in 35 games played. That’s two more games played than the Buffalo Sabres. They are seven points ahead of Buffalo and they are in one of those wild card positions. So if you were to beat them in regulation, you would be five points back with two games in hand. All right, the Islanders are similar to me in the Philadelphia Flyers where those are the two teams at the moment that I would most expect to drop out of playoff positions. the Flyer, the Islanders. The one thing I will say that is a little different about them this year, but I wouldn’t say it’s it’s not a wholesale change. Like in essence, the Islanders I think are still pretty much what they’ve been for years, which is a nose to the grindstone, outwork you type of team that is not really loaded with elite level talent, punching above their weight, kind of like Philadelphia I mentioned the other day. The one thing that has changed a bit on that is that they definitely have one more elite level player today than they had last season and the year before that and the year before that and the year before that. Matthew Schaefer is great. The number one overall pick of the 2025 NHL draft on the blue line. He is a good good player and he’s going to be I think a Norris level defenseman at the top of the sport for a long time and maybe in that tier with Kale Mar, Rasmus Alene and Quinn Hughes. I think Schaefer is that good. So far this year he’s playing all the big minutes. I mean some of his most recent games played 26 minutes against Detroit, 2616 against the Lightning, 2519 against Anaheim, 2814 against the Vegas Golden Knights. playing monster minutes. He is currently third on the team in points, 23 points in 35 games. He has nine goals on the season. He’s their number one defenseman and he’s a fun player. He is a good skater. He has got good puck skills. This will be number 48. This will be your first chance to see him if you have not yet or really watched a lot of the Islanders. He’s an impressive player and I think he’ll jump off the page to you immediately. Like you’ll see like, oh, who’s that defenseman that the Islanders got? because they have not been a team with guys like that. Like it’s been I think that Bo or Matthew Barzelle has kind of been on an island for a lot of years here as like that’s the one dude that’s that terrifies me offensively. Like Bo Harvett’s a good player and he’s having an insane season. He’s got 19 goals already this year. One of the leaders in the NHL. He’s been a good good offensive player for a long time. But Barzel has been the only one that has ever been to me like this dude. This dude, this dude’s got star level talent. And I’ve always thought that if he was on another team that opened things up a little bit more, that instead of 85 points being his careerh high, he would have a 100 point season somewhere in there on a team that kind of allowed him to play a little bit more freely. And maybe they’re starting to do that now, but certainly all those Lou Learella years, the style that they used to play um didn’t always invite the biggest offensive numbers and that sort of style. Barcel’s great. Schaefer adding to him and with Horvat having the year he has. Like they’ve got three dudes at the top of the lineup that are really contributing offensively in ways that they haven’t always had. Um although Barzel has been there a long time at this point. He’s always been there. So that’s the Islanders right now. Still though, I look at the totality of their lineup and I see a team that is still lacking that high high-end firepower. they a a depth of it I should say because I do like their top three guys but still rolling around there with Anders Lee and Gabriel Pio playing big roles and Jonathan Duins playing in their top six um Anthony Duclair like some of these like guys that are like eh so so throughout their careers um when it comes to really putting the puck in the back of the net but team defense team defense overall and kind of the overall style that they’ve and for a long time. There are still a lot of those um shades of that in their lineup uh throughout this this entire season. So, I think though when you look at the Islanders, they are definitely getable in the way that Philadelphia was the other night. I think it’s it’s a there’s a reason the Sabres are favored by as much as they are in this game. Minus 184. Bigger favorite than they were against Philadelphia. It’s a big big favorite. minus minus 184 against the New York Islanders. I meant to look at this before I got rolling here. I want to check though is part of that reason did they play last night and they did. So that would be another reason why obviously then the Sabres be favored by as much as they were. They played yesterday in Vancouver and they have a 5:00 game today. So that probably makes up the difference between the minus one, you know, minus 140 the Sabres were against Philadelphia and the minus 180 they were against the Islanders. I think if they had not played last night, they probably would look around like minus 140, the same favorite they were against the Philadelphia Flyers. Some of their numbers on the season, the Islanders in Corsy4 percentage, what percentage of the shot attempts do they have in a game relative to their opponent? They rank 22nd in the National Hockey League this year. Uh what percentage of the shots do they have on the year? They rank 20th um expected goals, four percentage on the season. They are 27th, which is even a lot lower than Philadelphia was. Um so this is a team I think the Sabres are better than. They don’t have the better results this season, but another game that I would expect that you got to win this one. You’re at home. They played last night. They’re not as good as their record. Um so that’s what I’m looking at for tonight’s game against the New York Islanders. I like the Sabres to win this hockey game and um I think I’d be disappointed if they did not. And one last quick check real quick. David David Riddic is also going to be between the pipes. Another factor as to why the Islanders uh are such big underdogs in this game. Um I Sroken clearly runaway number one goalie for them. He’s been great for years. Riddic has been fine this year. He started 11 games, got a 905 save percentage. So, you are getting a backup goalie, but maybe not one of the worst backup goalies in the NHL. My bet of the night before we wrap things up here, bet of the night, I’m gonna go with the under. Under six and a half goals. I know you’re getting rich tonight and the Sabres goalie can be kind of up and down so far this year, but you give me under six and a half goals in a game involving the New York Islanders at minus 124, I’m going to take that almost every day of the week, even if they have a backup goalie in there. And it at its core, it’s kind of how both teams want to play, right? The Sabres, they just scored five the other night, right? Like, and they can score, but they’re trying to be a team that has played like the Islanders have played. So, I got one team that’s trying to play a game like that. I have another team that has a lot of experience playing a game like that. And when your overunder is at six and a half, I’m going to take the under. All right, that’s going to do it for us today here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. We’ll see. Maybe next time we’re talking to you, it’s in the middle of a fivegame winning streak. One can hope. You want to be a part of our Lockun sabers everyday darers club. You can have fun with the game on our live Discord as well. Uh head over to lockdowns.supcast.com. You get ad free versions of the show as well. Maybe it’s a nice little stocking stuffer holiday present for uh someone that you like know that loves the sabers. So check it out. Head over there, sign up and uh jump into our Discord and have some fun with it. We’ll talk to you on Monday, ideally after another win here on the Lockdown Savers podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Now the number one sports podcast network.

Everyone is wondering if John Tortorella is the next man to stand behind the Buffalo Sabres bench, should the team move on from Lindy Ruff as head coach. Does it make sense for the Sabres to hire an old school type of coach like Tortorella at this age? Sneaky Joe looks back on Torts’ time both with Jarmo Kekalainen in Columbus, but also his most recent stop in Philadelphia. What went wrong for Torts with the Flyers includes a message getting stale and a run in with a talented player.

Plus, what went right in the Sabres win over the Flyers, which was the team’s fourth win in a row. A game where Tage Thompson had some bad moments early, but scored an important goal, and Josh Norris had a slick game winning goal. Also, a preview of Sabres-Islanders.

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