Liam McHugh On Working For TNT And His Opinion On NHL Scoring Leaders | Buffalo Sabres

Liam McHugh On Working For TNT And His Opinion On NHL Scoring Leaders | Buffalo Sabres

Liam, it is great to have you with us on Sabres Live today as we look forward to this matchup tonight. How you doing? And are you feeling any Buffalo nostalgia right now? A little bit. Uh down in down in Georgia, we’re uh we’re not getting Buffaloike weather yet. Uh but it but it’s it’s pretty funny like it it dips below 50 and people here dress like it’s 30 below. They panic. So, a little Buffalo nostalgia. Uh but I’m excited for tonight’s matchup. I absolutely am and I I I heard what you were talking about and anytime I feel like anytime you involve the Philadelphia Flyers, the word hatred has to be thrown into the equation some way. There’s plenty of it to go around. Now, let me ask you this because you have a connection to Buffalo and not a lot of people would know that. So, uh you attended UB for uh was it your postgrad? Is that is that when you came over? I I actually So, I went there undergrad. Uh underrad there. Yeah. And uh I I grew up in New York and I played soccer for a couple years really poorly at Buffalo. Uh they uh they tricked me. I went to on a recruiting trip in like early March and it was 65° and all the guys I was with all the players like it’s like this every weekend. Like don’t worry about it. Like you got to sign here. Come here. This will be awesome. We didn’t have a single weekend in March that was anything resembling that weekend for the next four years of my life. I I was buried in snow and wind, but uh man, I I I love my town, Buffalo. I I really do. I I I have such a a warm spot for it, and I love the people there. And man, that is like easily, and I’ve lived all over the country, easily one of the greatest sports towns in America. Do you remember some of the bars maybe you guys uh attended as college students? Uh I was so I was UB and first couple years we live on campus. second uh the you know junior and senior you live off campus and that’s like main street downtown uh and uh the steer was one of those yeah that was definitely there uh there was oh god there was a place Broadway Joe’s okay and Broadway Joe’s was a live music venue it was just basically like a bar a floor and like one foot of stage there that was like no frrills whatsoever but it was like a tremendous tremendous place to go see live music. And then I think just like any college kid, it’s like, “Hey, where can I get in?” That place. Okay, good. Then I’ll go to that place. That place sounds good. Yeah. You know somebody at the door? Great. Cuz I went to college. When I enrolled, I was 17. So I I had a long wait if I was going to legally enter any of those places. What’s your go-to place now where you’re uh residing? Uh I’m boring. I’m My go-to place is uh you know, attempting to get eight hours of sleep. I have three kids and uh you know I’m coming home at 2 in the morning tonight and you know it’s uh and I love it but uh they don’t really react well to my timeline. My kids are like there’s no sympathy whatsoever that like I’m home at 2:00 in the morning. They’re up at 6:30 and they’re waking me up and like, “Hey, let’s go. Let’s start the day.” Like what’s the matter a little tired? Uh so no no no go-to spots for me. Uh, I I live vicariously through uh Paul Bizanet and Henrik Lungquist. Uh, because Biz is doing crazy stuff and Henrik’s doing all the glamorous stuff that all of us wish we could do. Yeah. What I was going to ask you a little uh maybe pulling the curtain back from what you guys have done in studio now with TNT. It’s a great studio show. It’s fun. But uh you do have um different personality and I I’ll start with well maybe I’ll start with Henrik Lungquist because I got to play with Hank for over three years in New York. I know him really well. Um and does he still show up like fully dressed? Like he never wears like sweatpants or anything. So So what we see on camera is this what he shows up with even like a few hours before pug drop? 100%. shows up looking like a million dollars every single time. Every hair is in place. Uh it looks like the suit has been almost like painted on and stitched to his body. It’s it everything fits so perfectly. Uh and it’s funny because if we have to pre-tape something, we have to do something a little bit early. The last person that we’re worried about is Lquist cuz he shows up ready to go. Uh he, you know, he makeup’s only going to make it worse. Like you’re not going to make him look any better than he looks right now. Uh, he showed up one time for one thing that we shot in like jeans, a t-shirt, and a leather jacket. He had to change quickly and the hat on. Now, I would also say that I’ve worn jeans and a leather jacket and t-shirt, and I didn’t look like Henrik Lungquist did. Like, he looked like he made that look like we should all be wearing it on set. He then whipped off the hat, threw some water in his hair, and like 5 seconds later look fantastic again. Uh I I I do uh I love where I work. I love TNT, but there are times I miss the uh NBC days just because I got to stand next to Jonesy and Milbury instead of having to stand next to Lungquist and and it was just a lot easier and by comparison, I was always better looking. It’s true. That’s where I fell in love with your work. So that probably has something to do with it. But so who do you worry about then when they come into the studio? Because it’s obviously not Lungfist. Listen, I I think the funny thing is at this point I don’t worry about anyone. I I worry uh only I mean I I think there are other people that worry about maybe what Biz is going to say. Uh I at this point just love stirring it up and getting them going. And the best part is you barely really have to stir anything up for Bis cuz you can ask a very general generic question uh that you are 100% sure you know what the answer is going to be. You’re just setting someone up like throwing up an alleyoop and they’re going to dunk it. Uh, but Biz goes up, grabs the ball, just comes back down and has totally different plan. He wants to talk about something else. And in a way, I mean, that’s that’s what makes the job fun. It makes it interesting. And he’s still a great hockey mind. He can break down the game, but he’s entertaining and he’s strange and he’s in his own world and he doesn’t take he takes, I think, the job seriously, takes the sport seriously, but he doesn’t take himself seriously. And I I think one of the cool things is is he says things that are a little outlandish, says things that are a bit raw, and people will ask like, “How does he get away with it?” And I think the biggest thing is first off, it’s entertaining. And secondly, it’s never mean-spirited toward anyone else. If anything, it’s self-deprecating. He knows what he was in the NHL. He knows what his role was, and uh, you know, he’s willing to be honest about that. So, I think it’s been cool just the fact that we have a dynamic where, you know, Anson who has been around the league and has been doing his job for a very long time and is really professional and knows everything that’s going on. Uh, can chop it up and go back and forth with Biz and at the same time, we have Hank who’s a Hall of Famer and can explain things. Then you add Wayne Gretzky in and you get a totally different perspective, but you mesh them together. And I don’t think anyone would have thought, you know, more than 5 years ago that if you put all those people in a bowl and mix it up, it would work. But, uh, I think it’s like hockey. It’s like a hockey team. You know, it’s not, these are not fantasy teams. You want a mixture of people, a mixture of personalities, and you hope the blend works, and uh, you know, I’ve been lucky to be a part of it. Well, I love the relationship you guys have struck with a lot of players around the league like Brad Marian and the Kachock and being able to joke before the game, after the game. John Cooper. Oh, by the way, little mini controversy going on like Coupe giving it to Enson Carter about about his nickname. He said, “Was that a selfproclaimed nickname?” When I played world championship with Enson Carter, by the way, he scored that overtime goal against Sweden in 03. I was on that team. Um, we called him AC. It’s very Anen Carter, his initials, AC, and it kind of morphed into Ace. So, what can you tell us about like the the nickname and and and is Anson a little uncomfortable when that is approached? You know, it’s funny. I I don’t think he was so uncomfortable. I think he was just like surprised. We were all surprised that Cook just like flipped the script completely, right? Like he’s he’s thrilling us. He’s asking questions. Uh so I think he was definitely taken aback. But uh no, I mean I think he’s comfortable with it. That was basically his exact explanation, right? That people called me AC and it just sort of drifted into that. But you can see because like I mean if you say it enough times but you don’t know what it is, you just think people are saying ace. But yeah, it’s taken on a life of its stone and uh he got I think at this point when we invite Cooper on as much as we do and he accepts it as much as he does and he comes on and he’s willing to talk for five, six, seven minutes and answers some of our questions that are way off the rails right before a game that’s important. uh he’s entitled to once in a while just turn it around, take some digs. Uh I thought it was interesting that he let everyone know that I never played hockey, even though I’ve been very honest about that, that no one in my family plays hockey, and that because of that, I had no business doing this job. And I I got to be honest, I totally agree with them. I mean, like, I’ve been fooling people for 12, 13 years now, and I I’m just going to continue to fool people. The kids in the NHL are not fooling anyone. They are downright superstars. So I’m curious as to your thought on Celibbrini, Bedard, Carlson to name three as to which one wins the scoring title first. Oh wow. That that’s really interesting. I would say uh if I had to say who’s going to win it first, I would say it’s Carlson just because I think he’s set up teammate wise a little bit better right now to do so. uh you know you know if it comes down to a few points here or there that could get difficult because they are a playoff team and they will be looking at the last few weeks of the season say differently than Bedard and you know in Chicago and celebrates he has around him uh and I do think he’s set up that way. I think the three of them though are in a position right now to have a decade plus of battling it out which is the greatest thing because what you want is the these generations after generations. You know you you got Oie and Sid and Gret there were tons of superstars within that. Then I think in many ways you got McKinnon and McDavid uh and again other superstars there winning awards but those two sort of became the faces of the league. we have a number of young players uh that are going to step in and fill those those roles. I think those three what they’re doing this year. Uh the simple fact that Bedard and Celbrini are putting themselves in the mix and almost hard to refuse at this point to take to the Olympic team uh is such a cool story and I think especially I have to say especially for Bard because we watched him last year and I think there was some worry that this maybe was not going to happen and there was some piling on there and he’s not a big kid and he didn’t look very fast last year. This kid put in some work. So, here’s the other thing. I think if you don’t put Baddard on the that Olympic team, watch out because you motivate a guy who takes things extremely personally just like another Chicago legend once did. And watch out league. He could just go on and tear things up. Yeah, I I agree with you. A shot is amazing. And uh after what a lot of people said it was a down year last year, I just think that you could see the skill level there. Uh tonight the Sabres as you know you know they’re playing Philadelphia and your old buddy Rick Tocket, old panelist Rick Tocket is uh behind the bench in Philly. So how often do you talk to talk uh you know like did you what did you learn from him when he got to spend some time on the set with you guys? I uh I I speak to him every once in a while. We text here and there. I try not to bother him. Uh and it’s funny then like I text him. He’s like you’re not bothering me. Like you get you know like they’re all I mean you’re hockey guys. normal guys. But like I I always feel like ah this this guy’s going to be busy or it’s going to be the wrong time to to hit me to hit him up. Uh because you know once when you’re on TV and you have a job while it’s work like in many ways it feels like it’s fantasy land and you know it feels like other people have real jobs and you shouldn’t bother them. Uh, I learned a lot from Tac and and I would say this. I I I learned that he’s never done getting better at things and he’s never done asking questions and learning how to improve. And we had a, you know, really nice first year at NHL and TNT. And I think we surprised a lot of people. We tried things and we tried to do things differently. And you know, it’s one of those situations where like as an athlete, if things are going well, you can start reading your own press and believing all the hype. And Rick Tocket is not that guy. Two weeks, a month before we came into our second season, he was on the phone with me and his biggest thing was, “How do we get better? How does this get better? Because we can’t just keep doing what we’re doing. Uh, you know, people are going to expect more. I expect more.” And I thought that was so great. you know, he wasn’t trying to change the show. He wanted to carve things out to whittle away the things that that, you know, annoyed us or bothered us or bothered people at home and get the best of the best out of the show. And that to me, that was just really special. And I uh I love the guy. I I still find it amazing when I look back at old videos of talk uh and that he is the guy just smashing people’s faces with his fist because uh he was tough. Oh my god, was he tough, you know? And it’s it’s still amazing because he’s such like in many ways like a calm uh and that’s what you need, right? You need both ends. You need the edge and the calmness to be the head coach and it makes sense that he’s doing this right now. So, uh I’m happy he’s there in Philly. He feels like such a Philly guy. Uh and I I I I’m excited for what that team’s going to do in the next few years. I have a quick one offer quickly just a little this or that. something that I like to do on the show, but we had Shaq Heyman and Tyson Koshack uh on on the air. So, I want to know which one do you like better? Uh because we obviously like Tyson Koshack better, but uh which one did you think had the better like ring to it? I I I’m sorry. I have to say that I have to go with Shak just because it’s the original. I got to I have to go with the original. And uh we’re so lucky that we get to uh you know work so closely with the guys uh you know who did basketball at TNT for so long and now do at ESPN but they’re still operating from the same studio and Shaq who came on you know a number of times obviously during the show uh you know over the years. I love that first time he had a chance to do it this year even though they’re at ESPN. He just walked right in. Walked right in. No one knew he was coming in. He just decides on his own that he’s going to do this. Uh, those guys are tremendous. And if if I have time real quickly for a Rick Tocket story, there was a time where Shaq was blasting music. Shaq and all the basketball guys, they’re in the makeup room. They’re blasting music. We’re out. We’re watching a game not too far from this. And T looks at me. He doesn’t know who’s in there. He’s like, music? He’s going to turn down that music. He’s getting all upset. He’s like, Liam, go in there and say something. I’m like, I know who’s in there. So, I’m like, yeah, I’m good. I’m like, I can hear I can hear the game. I’m good. And he’s like, what? So, he he’s like, all right, I’ll do it. you know, talk. He gets all big and tough and he walks in there. As he walks, he turns the corner of the room. Shaq’s right there and just dwarfs him and I see him go, “Hey, Shaq, how you doing?” And he just turns right around, sits back down on the couch and looks at me. He’s like, shakes his head. I’m like, “Yeah, yeah, that’s right, buddy. That’s amazing.” So, Sabres Flyers, who makes the playoffs this year? It feels like everyone in the East is, you know, a possibility because everyone in the East is a possibility. Uh, I will say this. I’m I’m I’m a little tired of predicting the Sabers going to make the blast cuz I’ve been doing it for a few years now. Uh, and I really did think it was about two or three years ago they were on the rise. They were scoring a lot of goals. Taage was really coming into his own and and I thought they were going to make the leap. I kind of like where they are right now because it’s a little bit under the radar. Josh Norris has to be healthy. Y has to be. And if he’s healthy, there’s a chance. and maybe you turn the three goalie thing into an advantage where maybe someone needs a goalie desperately and you can add something. I I I think you just want to give yourself a chance. I I think for the Flyers, I mean, obviously no one’s out of it. They could be right there, too. I could also see the Flyers just playing for the future in many ways because I I I don’t I think part of their plan is to get to the playoffs, but then be a contender and it’s not just to make it right now. They they want to build. Both these teams are there. My thing is Florida’s in last place and Florida’s gonna make the playoffs, guys, right? Yeah. You know, so that that, you know, throws a wrench into things and there’s a few teams outside that are probably going to be in. I don’t know, man. They they both feel like bubble teams. I’m going to I I will continue to ride the Sabres and say Josh Norris healthy rest of the year, eight seed Sabres. Liam, thank you so much for this visit today and we’ll obviously be watching tonight. Appreciate you guys. Thanks so much. [Music]

Liam McHugh joined the Buffalo Sabres’ show, Sabres Live, with Brian Duff and Martin Biron on December 3, 2025. He discussed going to the University At Buffalo for undergrad, working for TNT and how Henrik Lundqvist shows up camera ready, and also his opinion on the scoring leaders in the NHL.

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