Fans already getting restless as the Buffalo Sabres can’t score again against the Avalanche

Fans already getting restless as the Buffalo Sabres can’t score again against the Avalanche

0 and3 to start the regular season. What went wrong against Colorado and a couple of interesting updates heading into the Ottawa game coming up here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. 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 and welcome in to this Tuesday edition of the Locked On Sabers podcast. Thanks for making us your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you listen to your podcast. You can watch the show on YouTube. Be sure to check us out there and you can become a part of our Locked Oners text club and that’s always going to be over on the website to sign up at least joins subtext.com/lockdowns. From there, you’re good to text, ask a question, updates. If that’s what you’re in there for, uh, be sure to hit us up. Sneaky Joe Bassi here. Today’s episode is presented by FanDuel Sportsbook. Download the FanDuel app right now. Visit fanuel.com. Win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins a 3 to1 defeat at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche. We’ll go through what happened in the game. Another game where the Sabres showed an inability to score goals. Uh hopefully like me, you were on the under in this game. It’s my sneaky bet of the day going into yesterday’s matchup. 20 and one by the way on the season. Just took the unders a couple of times and maybe we’ll continue riding that train because Sabres not scoring two or three goals in a game. You’re going to hit the under almost every single time. So, a lot to get to on this Colorado matchup. Stay tuned. Yuri Koulik might not play tomorrow against Ottawa. Very interesting little scenario that’s ongoing between Lindy Ruff and one of his top centers and how the lineup is shifting around, guys that are coming back. I think things are really on the fly here for the Sabres as they’re trying to find their first win of the regular season. So, lot to get to on today’s show. Um, afternoon game on a Monday. You know, you didn’t have a full capacity crowd, but they did pretty well. It was announced 16,462. The game was uh not really all that energetic. Didn’t see a lot of atmosphere in that game. I was not in the arena for this game. Um really when I saw this game, I was wondering like, all right, what might really get this crowd energized? Big hits. Will we see a fight tonight? Cuz the offense isn’t isn’t doing it. And will there be anything else? And there really wasn’t much. The thing that maybe you saw come out of the crowd more than anything were the fire Kevin Adams chance. Uh which should we be surprised? It only took three games to get into fire Adams chance in the crowd. Um they were not the loudest chance. I think it was more like not the whole building, not even a whole section. Maybe it was like half a section of people were chanting to fire Adams. That’s only going to grow though. That is only going to continue. Although maybe there is a conversation to be had this week when we have um a show between uh with an off day here between games to talk about what the timeline is like here for Adams for even Lindy this season because I don’t think if they just are horrible to start the season here and they go like 1 and 8 1 and nine 1 and 10 2 and 10 whatever I I don’t think everybody survives that. I think changes are made if it is that bad. And hey, we’re like a third of the way there or maybe we’re halfway there. I don’t really know what that timeline is, but I’ll get into that a little bit later in the week on what we might be looking at here. Or maybe they’ll lose 10 to nothing tomorrow and that’ll kind of accelerate the process here. Um, so Freriedman was talking about that this week as well about, you know, what the timeline could be and he mentioned Yarmoka Linen and then they got into Rasmus Dalene and Tae Thompson a little bit. So, the the big picture is really kind of on trial here. Um, for the Buffalo Sabres, Freriedman called it, let me just put it this way because I I want to talk this more in detail in another show, but the thing to keep an eye on or an ear out for is that Freriedman on 32 thoughts, he’s never going to give you everything he knows. In fact, last year he knew about the Dalene meeting with Kevin Adams at the deadline and he told Paul Beset and Bassinette got let that get out there and even Freriedman was like, “Yeah, I really wish that didn’t get out there.” And I that was that was on me. What that is to say though is Freriedman knew of a meeting between Dalene and whatever. He’s an insider. He knows things in the league and he’s not going to say every single thing he knows out in the public. Um so sometimes you got to kind of read between the lines. On his podcast 32 Thoughts, Elliot Freriedman said that this is a big week for the Buffalo Sabres. Maybe that’s a little bit of an indicator of what we’re looking at here. that if the Sabres were to drop a couple of games in a row here, start 0 and5. Um, and maybe one of the losses is like really embarrassing. They play Ottawa tomorrow and then Florida on Saturday and then Montreal next Monday. Three games in the next six days. Big week. How big? Maybe firing big is a possibility. Uh, we shall see. More on that uh coming a little bit later on in the week. Let’s get into this Sabres and Avalanche matchup though. That was the same score as the previous the previous game. 3 to1 at the hands of a very very good team. Uh different than Boston. Boston not a very good team in my opinion. Colorado is a juggernaut. Colorado up front in on display. Two of the best players in the world. Nathan McKinnon is just unbelievable. The the deflection behind his own back to turn his hips the way he did. score on a backhand, make Ryan Mloud look like a rookie, and he’s a good veteran defensive center that they were trying to match up with him, and McKinnon just schooled him multiple times throughout the game, and especially on that goal. The Macar goal is more just a giant glaring mistake by Rasmus Dalene. He’s trying to make something happen. He’s trying to get an oddman rush started up the board, so he tries to one time a pass and he turns it over immediately. and then he doesn’t get back to cover Mar. Tough tough look there from Dallene. I thought that’s that’s a that’s a moment that’s gonna be tough for him to top in terms of his worst of the season. Um so that’s not great. And then McKinnon just walks in walks Owen Power and is able to rip one past Alex Lion. You got two special special players for Colorado making big gamechanging plays and the Sabres just don’t have a lot of that. The only again two goals now on the season. One in Boston. Zucker shots deflected by a Bruin here. Taage Thompson gets a goal. That’s good. Love to see Tage on the board and you love to see them score anything, right? But this goal even, I mean, it’s a wrist shot. Tage got a nice wrist shot, but it’s a wrist shot from distance. He’s almost all the way at the blue line and Scott Wedgewood is unable to make the save without really much traffic in front of him. There’s no Saber in front of him. One of his own teammates is kind of blocking him out and I think that’s probably why the goal goes in. Um, but I kind of feel like both Saber goals this year have been a little bit soft. So, I don’t think they’ve proven anything to score goals. And not that anyone that would say, you know, they’ve scored two goals in three games is proof they could score anyway. They’re not going to be able to score a lot this year, I don’t think. And two goals in three games is just just the start of it. So, some of the stats in this game, shots on goal, Colorado does outshoot the Sabres 37 to 29 in this game. Shot attempts actually were in favor of Buffalo, but this is kind of what they’re doing. They’re just firing from bad angles. They’re firing from lowquality scoring opportunities. So, 66 to 63, not really all that impressive. 27 to 27 a little bit more impressive on the scoring chances in this game. Um and even the high danger were 11 to1 11. So better there but expected goals on the night 3.2 for Colorado 2.3 for the Buffalo Sabres. Uh Colorado the better team on this night and they deserve to win the hockey game in my opinion. Alex Lion I thought played fine. Think he’s giving them chances to win. They just have to find opportunities and they have to generate more offensively and maybe help is on the way for that. But it has not been a good start at all for the Sabres on that front. So, still no scoring um this game. That’s a great team. The Sabres as you saw the top line getting a little bit more in terms of chances. I think we saw a nice little experiment here from what Lindy Ruff was playing around with. I did like Josh Don on the top line. I my expectations were not that high for this player offensively, but I liked the mix with him and Ta Thompson and Alex Tuck all on the same line. I was impressed by that. However, it’s probably shortlived because Zack Benson is coming back. So, Don back down to the middle six uh is probably what you’re in line for. Looking at Owen Power in this game, just wanted to point this out about him. Owen Power, um, I thought he had a really nice first period. Sabres, by the way, in general, one thing they improved on was they had a better first period after horrifically bad first periods against both the Rangers and the Bruins. They were better against the Colorado Avalanche. Were they great? No. But they listen, they outshot Colorado in the first in the first period, and I’ll take that every day of the week. Um but and I think a lot of that was power power. You had two different studs running two different pairings that are out there for you know 80% of the time. I thought that was a really really good look at what you know the Sabres are when they could be good if they could ever be good would be those two controlling the ice and they’re almost always out there. Power. Lindy even said this. Power though maybe got a little fatigued late in the second and into the third period because um that goal McKinnon scored right in his face in the third like he maybe ran out of gas but he had been sick. He had been battling injuries. I think Power is kind of fighting it to be out there. Um so hoping he’s healthy because if you can get him that first period version of Power through an entire game, hopefully it’ll look a little bit better for the Buffalo Sabres in general. The one thing other thing I want to point out from this game that again like improvement looked a little bit better but still not scoring the power play. 0 for three on the power play. I like that they put Yuri Koulique out there on the power play. Couple more chances from him on the right flank but still 0 for three. They had four scoring chances. It’s better than the one they had against Boston but now 0411 to start the regular season. And that is going to have to turn around in part because I don’t see the Sabres five on five scoring really turning around in a big enough way. They’ve got to get hot on the power play. And I think it’s time, it might be time for drastic measure. More and more I’m starting to wonder and question how great are the Sabres top players at the power play specifically. Not every great scorer is great on the power play. I mean a a smaller version of that is JJ Purka last two years especially two years ago as he became a better and better goalcorer most of it was at even strength he never really really was a good power play player and some guys are just like that I don’t think that’s Tage Tage has proven an ability to score power play goals and I think his lack of production production is more about there’s nobody else to worry about on the Sabres unit so everybody just shades all their coverage towards him. Um, he’s a guy that did have, you know, 20 power play goals in a season once. The guy I’m wondering more about is Dene. Is Darene good for the power play? Good on the power play? Because skill setwise, there’s no reason to think he shouldn’t be. He is a dominant, controlling defenseman, great skater, great passer. He’s got a nice shot, but for some reason, it just doesn’t work. What I would try, maybe you don’t want to take him off the power play totally, is let’s remove him from the point. You know, you got an opening there on the right flank with Josh Norris out. Throw Dene over there. He’s a left shot. He’ll be on his one-time. And I don’t think he’s got the best shot in the league, but he’s got a good shot. He’s got a better shot than some of the other guys they’ve been putting in there like Ryan Mloud. Throw on the right flank. Let power distribute at the top of the power play. Not the power too himself hasn’t been amazing on the power play, but let’s let’s go. Let’s start experimenting with some things because just sitting there and making one little change here and one little change there, but in essence, you’re kind of doing the same thing where at the top, Tage at the left, and we’re rotating out a guy that’s not very good on the right. Like enough of that. Throw on the right. Put it out there for a couple of games. If it doesn’t work, then you go back to something else. What’s the difference? You’re 0 for 11 anyway. So, just a small little idea that I would throw out there if I were the Buffalo Sabres. Now, maybe an opportunity to do that is because of Yuri Koulique. Kik might not play against Ottawa and it could be because of Lindy benching him. Get to that when we come back here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. Today’s episode of the Locked Sabres podcast is presented by FanDuel Sportsbook. Keep an eye on that under. I’ll have my sneaky bet of the week or of the day I should say coming a little bit later on on today’s show. And um when you’re looking at this uh Buffalo and Ottawa matchup for tomorrow, the overunder is down to five and a half. Doesn’t mean maybe you shouldn’t take it. Ottawa without one of their top players. The Sabres of course have not been able to score goals this year. So we’ll get to that in a little bit. But you want to check out all the odds, you can do that over at FanDuel. And of course it’s not just hockey. It is college football. It is baseball playoffs. And it is the NFL. FanDuel has an offer that you don’t want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get 300 in bonus bets if you win. So, pick a bet, put down five bucks. If it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use all across the app. So, what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com today to download the FanDuel app and get started. Again, first $5 bet for new customers. If you win it, 300 in bonus bets at fanuel.com and FanDuel Sportsbook. Sneaky Jody Biasi back here on the Locked OnS podcast. Kind of a crazy, you know, crazy for this time of year story that I was not anticipating talking about today, but Lindy Ruff is looking to make some changes. And it’s not the power play change I just threw out there. It’s with the lineup in general and with Josh Norris out for it sounds like if Freeman throughout their eight weeks as a timeline it’s going to be months probably close to the new year I would say at least for Josh Norris with him out inevitably you’re thinking about centers who’s going to step up Koulique Mloud but Kik at the top of the list maybe even playing as the number one center going forward so so far this here. Has Yuri Koulik been good? I I don’t think you could really argue the answer to that question is yes. I mean, you can’t make that argument for most of the Sabres best offensive players, but Koulique would be a part of that. So, Yuri Koulik through three games. The numbers don’t look horrible, but they’re not great. Zero goals for the Sabres when he’s on the ice, two for the opponent. Sabres have been outshot 26 to 21. Shot attempts are 47 to 43 in favor of the opponent. and the expected goals are 1.9 to 1.0 in favor of the opponent when Yuri Koulik is out there on the ice to my eye he’s been a little he’s been kind of invisible. Um and Lindy is noticing him but it’s because of negative reasons pointing out today that he hasn’t been good enough quote unquote he needs to be a better player for us. He mentioned he needs to be skating more and that he’s not showing what he did last season. So Lindy, who is, you know, he wants to be the hardnosed coach, he’s benching him, and we’ll see if that means for the game. But for now, Kik is not rotating in as one of the top four centermen at practice today. No, Yuri Koulique. Well, sorry. He was out there, but he was the fifth center behind Taage Thompson, who they moved to the middle because obviously if Norris is out and you’re planning on healthy scratching Koul League, which is is a possibility, then Tage has to play down the middle because otherwise you are nowhere. So, Tage at first line center, Mloud at second line center, Krebs at the three, and then Tyson Kak as the fourth with Koulique as the fifth skating with Mason Gearson enforcer and Jordan Greenway who’s practicing injuries, not ready to return yet. So, that’s a pretty damning statement from the coach about a young player that, hey, he might deserve it. And I’m just hoping Lindy pushes the right buttons with Yuri Koulik. I don’t know how he’ll react to this. Some young players will that’ll light a fire under their butt, right? And I think that’s what Lindy’s going for here. Other young players, I mean, they might not react well to this type of coaching, to this type of consequence. Um, remember like Don Granado was very not like this. It was although Kika might be more about effort and more about skating, but so that might be different, but Granado when guys would make mistakes, it’s like I I’m just going to I’m going to keep embracing you. I’m going to keep holding you up and telling you I believe in you and putting you in positions to get the most out of you so that you can keep playing well for me. And a lot of cases that worked worked with Dene. It worked with others. Um I don’t know what Kik is like. I I hope this lights a fire under his butt though because they desperately need him. They need him in a bad bad way. And maybe that’s too much to ask for a 21-year-old player who had 24 points last season for the Buffalo Sabres to be like, “Yeah, you got to be a 60point top two centerman for me or we’re screwed.” But that’s where we’re at. Whatever the buttons Lenny needs to push, he needs to push the right ones because there’s a lot on this player now that Josh Norris is out. I mean, if is going to play center, that should have feel a little bit more comfortable. Um, but even that like their top six needs Koulique in it and it needs to play well and they need him on the power play. Um, unless this DIN idea I have comes to fruition, if they even try it, which I don’t I don’t think they will, then Kiki’s got to be that right flame power play guy. So, we’ll see if he ends up getting benched. Lindy said he didn’t know yet. He wants to see what this combination looks like in a couple of practices and I’m sure he wants to see how Kik responds to it. I’m going to ask him tomorrow morning on this WGR about this and um what Kik is looking like going into the Ottawa game. Um but keep an eye on it because that’s a story to track. Norris is already out and your second line center who a lot is counting on this year, especially more now with the first line center out uh as a healthy scratch in game number four. Not not a great sign. Not a great sign. When we come back, more on this Ottawa matchup. My bet of the day. Ottawa has a massive injury for this game and we’ll get to that when we return here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. Today’s episode of the Lockdown Sabers podcast presented by Monarch Money. Most people can’t name where all their financial accounts are or even what they’re worth. Whether it’s 401ks, properties, or investments, when you don’t have the full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. That’s why there is Monarch Money. It’s an all-in-one personal finance tool that’ll bring your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or on your phone. Monarch’s built for people with busy lives. If you’ve put off organizing your finances, Monarch is for you. Monarch does the heavy lifting for you. You can link all your accounts in minutes, see clear data visuals, get smart categorization of your spending, and you can finally feel in control of your money without ever touching a spreadsheet. So, don’t let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use code locked on NHL at monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. It’s 50% off your first year. monarchmoney.com with the code locked on NHL. Sabres and Senators coming your way tomorrow night 7:00 at Key Bank Center. The Sabres have a couple of home games in a row. Ottawa, by the way, not off to a great start themselves. More on that in a second. But the Sabres have six division games in a row upcoming. Ottawa and Florida at home, Montreal on the road, back to home to play Detroit in Toronto, and then a home and home, the second of which is in Toronto on Saturday, October 25th. So, next 11 days, six matchups against Atlantic Division opponents. And if the Sabres are going to want to be competitive in that division, they got to win these head-to-head matchups. And that starts with Ottawa. Ottawa, who I have high expectations for. I mean, I picked them to win the division. Um, that has not looked great so far for that pick, which is fine, right? Uh, one and two, won their opener against Tampa, and then they’ve allowed 10 goals in two games against Florida and Nashville to sit at 1-2. And also big big injury news for them and definitely not good for my uh Atlantic Division bet for Ottawa is that Brady Kachchuck is out and is going to miss about four weeks. So big injury. I mean he is one of their best two players. Um and he’s definitely going to miss tomorrow. So that is a a benefit I guess in favor of the Buffalo Sabres. That is uh helpful. You don’t ever wish injury on a guy, but um that is uh I mean they’re guys that are going to move up the lineup for the Ottawa Senators. I think they do have pretty good depth, but they don’t have a guy that’s going to replace a Brady Kachchuck. And they’re not as deep as Florida to replace a guy like when they have to replace Matthew Kachchuck. So, we’ll see how that injury ends up impacting them. Um, but for this game tomorrow, the Sabres, I mentioned how Kik might be out of the lineup. How they’re looking for this game. Benson looks like he’s going to come back. Power is hopefully another, you know, day, two days healthier. No Michael Kessle ring yet, but even just those two, Benson and a healthier power, I think can make a big impact. Benson, he’s got a big bruise where the cut was under his eye. you can see that maybe there was a lot of swelling that was in his eye, which is why he couldn’t play and had to go to the hospital um for a couple of days, but he was on the ice with that ugly ugly eye today. Um so I think he’s probably looking good to play tomorrow. I don’t know if he’ll wear a visor or wear a cage. Um I feel like if I were him, I would wear the cage for how bad that thing looked, but we’ll see. He makes a nice impact, though. I don’t know if he’ll score goals, but the hope would be that he is going to impact the game overall. That Tage and Tuck, who are playing with him on the line today, are going to score more goals because he’s out there. I hope that line stays together. Taage, Tuck, Benson. Um, the Mloud Don Zucker line is a second line though. It’s just not a scoring line. So, all this together, Ottawa without Brady Kachchuck. By the way, I was looking. We don’t have yet who will start in goal tomorrow for the Ottawa Senators. We I think we know Alex Lion is probably going to play tomorrow. Mark has played the first three games. However, they play a backto back and what they’ll do whether they play at they play back at home Thursday against Ottawa in or against Seattle, we’ll see. I think probably plays this game though on the road back in Buffalo. You give the backup a nice soft game against Seattle at home. Um I know everyone out there’s like, “Well, aren’t the Sabres a soft game?” Sure, that’s there’s a chance that it’s the Sabres that the backup plays of course, but I think I would guess right now that it’s Ottawa. So all that together that it’s Mark and all that together, I’m going right back to the under for my sneaky bet of the day. I’m going to the under. Now, so far the under has hit in all three games for the Buffalo Sabres, and I think I just want to keep riding that until it doesn’t work. Um, the number did shift, though, so it’s not as good a bet as it was the other night. Under five and a half goals. I’m still going to take it. However, you are getting plus14 on the under. So, you’re making $11 for every 10. You bet. $1.40 actually for every 10 you bet. So, I like that. If if it was minus money, I probably wouldn’t take it, but it’s in the plus range, so I’m going to go under five and a half goals. Again, it’s a bet on the Sabres not scoring three. They score two. I like my chances of getting the uh getting the under home there. All right. So, I’m I’m 20 and one on my best bet record. I know I’m just taking the under and I passed on the Boston game. Uh but the Sabres are 0 and three. So, so far I’m beating them by a good margin. All right. Looking for the first win tomorrow, 7 o’clock against the Ottawa Senators. That is going to do it for us today here on the Locked On Sabres podcast. As always, thanks for making us your first listen every day. If you are looking for good fantasy hockey talk, be sure to check out Locked on Fantasy Hockey. If you’re looking for just a leaguewide perspective on things that are happening, Alex has 40. He’s got a big game against Tampa and Cooper off tonight. Uh you can check out locked on NHL game night. that is available wherever you listen to the podcast and on YouTube as well. We’ll talk to you after. Sabers and Senators here on the Lockdown Savers podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

The Buffalo Sabres, again, showed an inability to generate offense against the Colorado Avalanche, as they, again, lose by a 3-1 score. Lindy Ruff is looking to make changes to the lineup already, and Jiri Kulich is the man that could be on the outside looking in after a slow start. With Josh Norris out and Jiri Kulich potentially being scratched, who is going to play center? Sneaky Joe looks at the lineup and what went wrong against the Avalanche.

Plus, why the next six games are big for the Sabres, starting with a matchup with the Ottawa Senators, who will be without Brady Tkachuk. If the Sabres don’t turn it around this week, could we be looking at an early season firing to either Kevyn Adams or Lindy Ruff?

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