The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Swords Out ft. Lance Lysowski

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

Jeff Marek is joined by Lance Lysowski of the Buffalo News. Breaking down the moves that Kevyn Adams made at the deadline, the unrest of the fan base, Paul Bissonnette's comments regarding Rasmus Dahlin and his response, and much more...Shout out to our sponsors!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Tim Hortons: https://www.timhortons.ca/rollupReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Okay, welcome back to the program here for this Wednesday, March the 12th, Merrick and Zach Phillips, along with you once again. We finished up the show yesterday by sort of apologizing for going Broadway on you yesterday. I know it was a longer show than you're probably used to. Somewhere around 90 minutes. We like to keep it tight and bright around 60. So maybe we'll do a, Philly, maybe we'll do a little bit less today. Maybe we'll, uh, maybe we'll be like you at the gym.

Here's how I imagine you at the gym being like, it's kind of like this. Come in, crack your knuckles, have a drink of water. Philly, what are you doing today? Buys, tries, five on the bike. I'm out. Is that what it's gonna be like today? Buys, tries, five on the bike and I'm gone. Is that you at the gym? That is not what I'm like at the gym. I don't want that narrative out there. Let's put an end to that one right away. Come on. I think I just may say, buys, tries, five on the bike, I'm out.

Zach Phillips. No, I put in some work in the gym. That's every morning, morning cup of hockey, I'm in there watching it, I'm on the bike. I'm in for like 35, 40 on the bike and then do about 40, 45 and weights move around there. Good boy. Good boy. Um, one thing I want to clean up off the top of the show here today Not that we're somehow like the show of record. Okay, like I'm not positioning ourselves like the New York Times Something in this just in from the ombudsman

And just because I'm I like to be Pacific about these things as we say in the Atlantic the I gave it a Winston Churchill he shake your head all you want get you so man like I don't know how long you're gonna want to stick around I work from but you're gonna hear some bad lines along the way it's terrible just start giving out random punch lines right I kill it on the show no you shower and I'll show her. Huh, what? Oh, welcome back.

I gave out a quote yesterday from Winston Churchill, which I had a little bit wrong. The actual quote is, and I really love this one, because yesterday we talked a lot about lies. In wartime, Winston Churchill, in wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies. One of the great questions, by the way,

to ask managers is always, would you lie for your team? I remember I asked Berkey that once and he said, duh. What do you think? Of course. Okay, so we got that one out there. A couple of things from yesterday too. And by the way, we're going to talk a lot about the swords today, so Buffalo Sabres conversation and we will talk about Rasmus Dallin.

We did talk to Paul Bissonnette on the show yesterday about that situation. Paul passing along what he had heard about a meeting between Kevin Adams and Rasmus Dallin in which Dallin essentially said like make this happen or I'm out of here. The only thing that I've been able to discover is that there was a meeting. I don't know who called the meeting, I don't know what was said at the meeting, but I do know that there was a meeting between the two. That's what my information has led me to here today, Zach Phillips. But again, I don't know what was said at the meeting. We will talk to Lance Lesowski about this and other Buffalo Sabres issues.

And by the way, man, like you look at that game against the Edmonton Wilders the other night, like Conor McDavid's in town and still it's costume party and everyone's dressed up as empty seats. It's bad there. So Lancelot Souski's coming up on the program. In the meantime, cleaned up the one comment there by Winston Churchill. I did want to add one more thing from our conversation with Eric Tulski,

GM of the Carolina Hurricanes, from yesterday. Thought about this a little bit yesterday. There's sort of, one of the reasons why I like Tulski is there's an undercurrent of simplicity in everything that he says and does. First of all, he's, as I've made the point before, when you look at his resume, if you look at what he's qualified to do

and the number of patents that he holds, when you look at what he's qualified to do and the number of patents that he holds, when you look at all the possible jobs Eric Tulski could do, this is the one that probably pays the least, but might be the most fun. And that's what he chooses to do. But again, like the great line from Slapshot, look at Ned, he doesn't need hockey. Eric Tulski doesn't need hockey. And I think that's what

makes him an intriguing manager here. Like he could walk away tomorrow and just do something completely different and earn himself an international reputation doing it. But he chooses to be involved here. And I think you have a certain amount of power when you don't need to have the job that you have. Like, there's no desperation because if things don't work out, okay, I'll move on and I'll do something else. Or in this case, with the Mikhail Rantanen situation, did you not get the sense, like I went back and watched it yesterday again, because I think we're all trying to figure

out like who this guy is, what he's all about, how he feels and how he thinks. When you listen to Tulski talk, do you not get a sort of vibe of, I'm gonna try a bunch of things, I'm gonna be bold, I'm not gonna be reckless, I'm not gonna be sloppy or stupid about it, but I'm gonna try a lot of different things here

and I'm gonna hope, because we're dealing with human beings in sports here, that most of them work. And if they do, we'll come out on the right side. Like there's kind of an element of Tulski that kind of goes like this. If we win games, people will love us. If we lose games, people will love us. If we lose games, people will hate us. Everything in between is noise. Everything in between is noise. That is the vibe very much that I get from Eric Tulski. I don't know what you took away from it yesterday, but that was my big sort of vibe takeaway from Tulski. Yeah, one of the things I thought was interesting, I came from like a background of working for

people who are professional betters. And it's like, that's, that's what they do. That's how they make their living. And a lot of them kind of approach things from an analytical, analytical standpoint. And it's, I didn't realize it until after, but it's kind of similar to what Tulski was talking about where, you know, you get people who build models and project teams out, but it's kind of similar to what Tulski was talking about where, you know, you get people who build models and project teams out, but it's like, okay, put this player here, this should work because these guys are worth this much to a team and score this

many goals or prevent whatever. There's also the element of how many times something needs to work versus first something to fail for you to be successful in the long run. And that was kind of the takeaway I had from Tulski where he was approaching it from, yeah, we're going to bring in Miko Ranzenen, which sure, let's go look at what your does to your model and how you're going to be successful from that. But what's the other side of this? What's the backend? What's the failure situation?

How often does that failure situation come about? If it does, how detrimental is it? It kind of seems like there was always those plans and thoughts in mind about how many times is this going to have to happen for us to be successful? Are we willing to take that risk? And I just get the vibe and the opinion like I heard Colby I think he said on morning cup hockey I'll paraphrase I don't want to like put it in words in his mouth but like would they be gun shy was kind of what they alluded to I highly doubt Eric Tulsi will be gun shy about any situation like fire keep firing I can't see this being something that he goes no not gonna do

it and if you're a GM or owner president and you're in there in Carolina and you watch that he recovered. Like, sure. It's not as good of a team as it was with Miko Rantin. And if Miko Rantin was playing at his best, mind you, cause he wasn't there in Carolina, that's another thing to point out. But he got back on his feet. Like he figured this thing out.

They're not a train wreck now going, where the hell are we gonna go? What do we do with this team? We have a massive hole. Like I thought this was a pretty good job by Tulski, but it was like contingency plans and preparing for failure if that came up. Fascinating guy.

And I think we're all trying to get a sort of handle on how this guy's gonna operate. And that was a big piece of that puzzle. All right. Coming up on today's program, Daily Outlines, presented by our friends and partners at FanDuel, North America's number one sportsbook app provider. And coming up on the show today, listen, we know things aren't great in Buffalo, but it's always, as we like to say, even low hanging fruit is nutritious.

Lots of talk about the Buffalo Sabres, not just the players, but the fan base as well. The future of the manager, the future of the coach, et cetera, et cetera, and all the way down the situation with Rasmus Dallin. Lance Lesowski from the Buffalo News will stop by. Huge game tonight. Vancouver and Calgary, tough one last night for Vancouver.

They drop one to the Montreal. Canadians get doubled up in the process and don't look now, but the Habs are only two points out of a playoff spot. They'll face off against Seattle tonight So we look forward to those two games and we'll talk plenty about Vancouver and Calgary Here's a question we ask on the sheet today tongue-in-cheek Because we're gonna present some video to you have a little talk about it Did the Maple Leafs just pick up a new enforcer at Deadline? have a little talk about it. Did the Maple Leafs just pick up a new enforcer at Deadline? We'll explain coming up shortly here on the sheet. I think you'll like this one. And the Triangle is something that we've talked about for a while here on the program. I do enjoy it

when people now start to send me, and I'm not sure if you get some of the videos as well on TwitterX, on social media, about people sending you pictures, sending you videos of players shooting at the triangle and scoring. Well, Matt Ciccarello did it again yesterday. We're gonna talk more about the triangle. And hey, all you left-hand shots, firing the triangle and finding the back of the net, Matt Ciccarello has been doing it for a long time.

We will talk plenty about the triangle today and draw your attention to it because it's one of those things hey Zach where the minute you see it once you won't stop seeing it every single time it happens and then you can play hipster with all your buddies when you say oh he went five-hole and you can say well actually he's shooting at the triangle yeah be that guy amongst your friends. Five hole. That's so five minutes ago, the five hole.

It's the video we have today too is a perfect just depiction of the triangle and not five hole as well. Because there's somewhere it comes in and different angles where you can't really tell but you're kind of like, ah, you went for the triangle. The video we have today, I'm excited to show people because it is very much attached to the triangle yes very much and Koawdee in the chat says the triangle is an underrated instrument yes it is much like the

xylophone I was like the xylophone I was that that was a really cool accompanying instrument and even solo. Pretty sure that's my play in elementary school. Yeah, you played xylophone. See, I played percussion. So I got to do like timpani, cool. So like timpani and xylophone too. And I did get to play triangle. Okay. And xylophone, that was mine. Yep. All good. Before we get Lance on, do you want to do this Leaves Enforcer thing? Cause we can pick it up after Lance, but I just want to make sure that we get this video out here. You want to do it? You have it queued up?

Okay, so, this I say completely tongue-in-cheek. And we're going to go back to 2010 for this. Hold on, let me set this one up. 2010, minor hockey, GTHL. Stateside, youth hockey. So, the top team in the loop in the GTHL that year was a team called the Nats. But the biggest rivalry was the Marlboros versus JRC, the junior Canadians, not unlike the Maple Leafs and the Habs.

Wear the same jerseys essentially, same colors, how about that? And at the first ever GTHL prospects game at the old North York Arena, which is called the Herb Carnegie Arena in Honor of the first black hockey player who should have been in the NHL Herb Carnegie The first GTHL prospects game was played Scott Lawton Played on the Toronto Marlboro's, you know, Scott Lawton now is former Philadelphia flattered. Now Toronto Maple Leaf playing on GRC was the high scoring Tom Wilson.

And in the third period of the very first GTHL top prospects game, those two decided to throw down. But you've seen it before when this bucket's on and everyone leaves the mitts on. Not in this one. Scott Lawton, Tom Wilson, GTHL top prospects game. From Herb Carnegie Arena. This is the fight. I have a story for you afterwards.

Hit it Philly. prospects game from Herb Carnegie Arena. This is the fight. I have a story for you afterwards. Hit it Philly. Puck is in the corner. There we go. Wilson and Lawton. Buckets are coming off. Wilson and Red. Lawton and White. Lawton gets free, lands a couple shots. Pretty good win there from Scott Lawton. Pretty good tilt. Pretty good tilt for 15 year olds. And there's Wendell Clark, if you're watching.

Would have been coaching the Nats at that point, by the way, was a celebrity coach on that one. I think he was coaching the Nats at that point by the way, was a celebrity coach on that one. I think he was coaching the Nats at that point, celebrity coach on that one. So the story that I was always told was that, and I don't know how long this happened, but for a while Tom Wilson always wanted to go again to try to get his win back because Scott Lawton was 1-0 over Tom Wilson in their fight in the GTHL, the inaugural GTHL top prospects game. Sneaky tough guy, Scott Lawton, or did he peak when he was 15? Philly Europe Maple Leafs fan, what do you say?

Scott Lawton with a victory over Tom Wilson. Should he just retire undefeated? Our guy holds the belt. That's all we need. Shut it down. Tougher than Tom Wilson. That's the addition that we made as the Trump Police at the deadline. Clearly how you guys are going to deal with the Washington Capitals. Correct. Clearly. Wilson's on the ice, Lotton, he's yours. He may want to fight back. He may want that one again. Anyway, all tongue in cheek, but we're actually gonna show that one

after the trade was made, but we're off on Monday, and yesterday was kind of a big, huge show. So we didn't get around to that one. Oh, other thing we should mention too, Jonathan Quick by the way signed the one-year contract extension with the New York Rangers 1.55 million dollars is the AAV on that one. Okay we have Lance Lesowski standing by so we're gonna turn our attention to the Buffalo Sabres. We're gonna talk more about things like the triangle coming up later on on the show and we do have some of

your emails but joining me now from the Buffalo News on everything Buffalo is a great Lance Lasowski who joins me now Lance how are you today thanks so much for for coming on and putting up with this nonsense that's gonna follow short showing old like 15 year olds fighting in prospects games welcome to my career always a pleasure Jeff everything's going great in Detroit ready for Sabres versus Red Wings tonight yeah big one for versus Red Wings tonight. Yes. Big one for the Red Wings, not so much for the Sabres. So yeah, the Red Wings six the wrong way here, pretty quiet team around deadline, whereas

there was a lot of activity around them, including the Buffalo Sabres themselves, who shipped off Dylan Cousins to the Ottawa Senators, who scored again yesterday. There is a history, as we all know, we don't have to go through all the players, of guys leaving Buffalo and then finding new fortunes and rejuvenating their careers. The most recent, of course, I would imagine would be Sam Reinhardt, and that one still stings for Sabres fans. Let me start there then. The only way I know how to frame this one, Lance, is like this.

Was that trade necessary? Did they have to do that? No, it was an act of desperation to try to change the dynamic around the team. And Dylan Cousins had a lot of value. He's not a Kevin Adams draft pick. That's a very important layer to this. Look at how many of Jason Botero's draft picks have been traded over the years. Five years left on his deal. And Dylan Cousins, he wanted to stay in Buffalo. Five years left on his deal. He was just carrying

around so much pressure over these last 16 or so months to where he just wanted to be the solution every night. And they thought that he wasn't going to figure it out here. You know, to his fault, you know, he was putting the work in, but the offense wasn't coming. He had the interest and, you know, you just look at the trade that they made. Jeff, they threw they had to throw in a second round pick in 2026. And we've been hearing about that draft class for a few years now, how strong it is. Oh, and if you're going to go ahead and deal a player like that, we kept hearing about hockey trades, want to get a veteran here, but they brought in somebody in Josh Norris who, yeah,

a lot of skill, he can score, but this team can score. We know that. That's not one of its weaknesses. One of its weaknesses, or many of its weaknesses, we can list a few of them here, leadership and not enough veterans in the room. And you're not really checking out of their box with bringing in Josh Norris. It just seemed like one of those moves that you could have waited until the summer, especially you say to your last place, a lot of the players in that rumor run, they're questioning the direction of the team. Where are you taking this? How are you going to fix this? Kevin Adams. And is he going to be around this summer to even make any of these moves?

And it's just, it's a head scratcher. It really is. I think Josh Norris is a good player, but there's the health questions. And I'm not surprised at all to see Dylan Cousins looks, he looks like he has the weight of the world off his shoulders. Now he looks like he's playing free and he's having fun again. You haven't seen that version of him in almost two years. You know that, that you, you touch on something there that I think a lot of us wondered about going into trade deadline. Was Kevin Adams going to be able to, you know, bluntly be able to have the, have the reins, Was Kevin Adams gonna be able to, bluntly, be able to have the Reigns taken off of him

if they were ever on, but not be sort of neutered, I suppose, as a general manager. Was he gonna be given the ability to make moves and profound ones, like sending a player like Dylan Cousins to the Ottawa Senators? Like, listen, like you, I heard the same things at the beginning of the year. If there's no playoffs this year for the Buffalo Sabres,

it's going to be ugly, right? And I don't like to be frivolous about people's jobs. I take no delight in this. Just, this was the vibe around the team. Here we are, March 12th. We all know there's not gonna be any playoffs for the Buffalo Sabres. How do you see the team now?

Is it still, you know, when this when this season is over, it's going to be a whole lot of the boss would like to see you in his office, please. It's a good question. I think one one aspect of this, I wouldn't discount, is season ticket renewals. If a lot of their season ticket base doesn't come back and it looks like they're going to lose a ton of money next year and Terry Bagula feels the pressure that he has to do something to not only win over people outside his building and convince the fan base that he wants, that he's trying to fix this, you also have to consider the players in the dressing room. Look at all the RFAs. JJ Paterka's not happy. Alex Tuck is gonna be eligible to sign extension July 1.

What if he tells you he doesn't wanna stay because nothing's going to change. You're just gonna run it back with the same general manager and coach. They have to show everybody involved that this is unacceptable. And to allow the same general manager, it's been almost five years, Jeff.

It's been almost five years of Kevin Adams. And this team has only regressed the past two years. We have not seen any improvement. They've gotten worse defensively under Lindy Ruff. Lukopekka Lukinen has gotten worse this season with the way this team is defending. This team, it's been heading in the wrong direction the last few months.

This is why Rasmus Dalin went and wanted to hear from the general manager, what is playing. You know, that was, I had Paul Bissonnette on yesterday and he sort of talked about, you know, and he said the same thing on Chicklets. Listen, if things don't change here, let's look for a new area code. How did you, we know that there was a meeting between the two, I still don't know what happened at that meeting or what was said between the two, but how did you greet that bit of news yesterday?

Well, based on my conversations with people who have knowledge of the situation, Dahlien did not verbalize that he's going to won out if nothing improves. Of course he's frustrated. This is a guy who wants, he badly wants to win and he wants to win in Buffalo and all the guys in that room, like I just mentioned, they're frustrated. They don't see, they don't know what the plan is here. What's the plan to fix this?

Lindy Ruff was brought in and so much of what Lindy Ruff has done, his work counter to all of the decisions that were made while Don Granado was coach. They brought up Zach Benson. Now he's stuck on the fourth line and he's not really getting... His development has basically stalled. Jack Quinn's development has stalled. Their defense core, it's like a Frankenstein. You've got all these left-handed shots, these skill sets that are kind of redundant. Matias Amuelsson's regressed under Lindy Ruff. They're going to have money to spend, but you've got all these guys who are just irritated, they're surly and they wanted to know what are you going to do to improve the team. Jeff, I mean you look at the 13-game winless streak, the only thing Kevin Adams really

did was hold a press conference in which he made comments that upset the players. That whole business about making excuses about no trade clauses, that irritated the players. They did not want to hear that. For you to frame Buffalo as a place guys don't want to play at, it is a reality. Everybody knows around the league, Buffalo's on no trade list. The general manager did not have to put that out there six games into a skid. And the lack of leadership at the top of the organization has just permeated into that room. They already needed more adults in that room, right? Like Alex Tuck, Jason Zucker, Jordan Greenway, those guys are doing their best to lead. But when you have a lot of

guys who are just young and they've done nothing but lose, it creates sort of a negative environment. And that's what the Dylan Cousins trade was really done to address is to try to bring in, to just change the dynamic, bring in a different personality. We've seen Josh Norris, he is a good personality. He is a guy who brings a lot of energy. They think that he can really help them on special teams. That has been such a weakness for this group. They can score on five on five. They just, they fail in so many other areas of the game. And yeah, whether it's ownership is going to have to step up and do something to show these guys that, that this is not going to be the same thing next season. The one thing that I keep coming back to here, you're right there. So you can, you can, you

can call this one in for me. I look at management and I see what feels like Kevin Adams on an island. This is Kevin making decisions period. I don't see, I know that Jason Kermanos is part of the management group here, but I don't see senior advisors. I don't see people, you know, that that Kevin can have conversations with. I don't see anyone who's had hands on the wheel before assisting a general manager through an incredibly delicate process here of trying to turn an entire hockey team around. I just kind of see, this is Kevin Adams

waking up, hockey team around. I just kind of see this is Kevin Adams, waking up, looking at his phone and saying, okay, phone, it's you and me. Let's fix this. You know what I mean? Lack of lack of experience around Kevin Adams. And it's partially it's partly his fault. Jeff, he didn't want it. There were people there were experienced managers who were working for successful teams right now who were interested in working with Adams and Buffalo, and he resisted that management structure. He wanted to be in charge, and he hired a lot of inexperienced pro scouts.

He hired inexperienced amateur scouts. He hired inexperienced people in the analytics department. In San Ventura, he built out the analytics department, highly respected, I get it. But so far, the players they brought in,, highly respected, I get it, but so far, the players they brought in, because of analytics, it just hasn't worked out. Jason Kamanos, yeah, you mentioned him, he's experienced, but he's rarely in Rochester.

He is based in Pittsburgh, he's not even based in Buffalo. So your most experienced manager is not even there in the day-to-day to really work with Kevin Adams. So he's working in a silo in many ways. And yes, Leni Ruff is starting to have influence on roster decisions. I think that he did have influence on the decision to trade Dylan Cousins. So you have Terry Pugula, who wants to be heard, wants to be listened to, who wants to have a say in how things are going and some of the decisions are made.

He wants his opinion to be weighed in on. But yes, I think that is one of the biggest missteps in the Kevin Adams regime was his resistance to bring in experienced people. And you look at their amateur side, they've had some really smart drafting because they've got their most experienced people, Jeff, who are in amateur scouting. And it really does show with some of the players that they've picked, their ability to find some mid-round players who have ended up being really impact people down in Rochester. It is really remarkable what they've built with the Americks when you consider that management's not there every day.

It's just they've built and Seth Apert and now Mike Leone and his coaches, they deserve a lot of credit, Nathan Page and Vinnie Prossble for maintaining that culture because they've just found a way to isolate it from everything that's gone on in Buffalo and all the sort of the dysfunction and some of the, you know, it's the head scratching development decisions that we've talked about so many times over the last couple of years, Jeff, that have just continued to bite this team. Listen, you know better than I do. Rochester Americans might win the Calder Cup this year. They might, with David Levi playing the way that he is, their defense.

They're really good. Noah Ostlund is a player that people are gonna start to hear about a lot more. He is super talented. Yeah. That is a kid that I would be holding on to. But here's the thing about Rochester to me, and this is like a storied franchise.

We'll talk about like, oh, the Hershey Bears, the Heritage team. Rochester Americans, like a Heritage American Hockey League team. I look at the Buffalo Sabres lineup and I like up and down and even like Dylan Cousins was one of them. Needed more time in the American League or needed some time for some of these guys in the American Hockey League. Like I've always again like I'm just theorizing this.

My, okay, I get these wacky theories about things, you know me Lance. So my thought is that Kevin Adams when he was in Chicago saw Jonathan Taves and Patrick Kane go right into the lineup and have an impact. And I do wonder if that sort of spoiled the belief of how much you need the American Hockey League team. Because you just watch two Hall of Famers step into the lineup. It's not the same as like, we can do the same thing here with the Rochester Americans. And you know, just sort of maybe wave at them, wave at that, you know, that float on the parade, but really they're going right into the key bank to play here.

We don't, we don't need them in Rochester. And I just, I know it's a theory, but I see it playing out all the time. Now they're doing more, but leaving guys down there. No, Auslan is someone you mentioned. They're finally doing the right thing with Devin Levi. I think this is the right place for him. Although when they first got him from college, I mean, if you look at the Buffalo Sabres social media, you thought you were, this is the second coming of Dominik Hasek with the, with the Buffalo Sabres. Like nevermind earned, earned not given this was like right this way we're gonna clear paths for you and

Oka Pekka Luka and is gonna have to wait a dozen games before he gets a start because it's gonna be you know, Conrad this at so many at so many different stages along the way. I just saw the Buffalo Sabres completely ignoring the Development piece in all of it in Rochester, which, as you know, is so crucial if your names are not Patrick Kane and Jonathan Taves. Agree, disagree. I completely agree. Plus, you think about J.J. Praterka and Jack Quinn were brought up sooner than they probably would have in another organization and they showed flashes that rookie season and they they were showing signs of development and Kevin Adams said hey

I have Don Granado. I've got a coach that I trust to develop these players. We've got opportunity to give them let's cut them grow and They took for granted how much time they actually had they were not even thinking That the runway and the patience of the fan base was going to exist for a lot longer. Well, sorry That's not the way it works. And then 22, 23, they go on that run late, they finished with 91 points and it created expectations where, well, now you got to win. Well, Jack Quinn got hurt, they rushed Zach Benson and it just, the cycle repeated and they've missed on free agents. They missed on Ilya Lubushkin, Connor Clifton, Eric

Johnson. And when you're a team, it's really having trouble attracting free agents. And, you know, you've got to be a little bit more creative on who you're requiring to round out the margins of your roster. Your margin for error is a lot more thin when you're missing on players like that. It really hurts. And Ryan Johnson is another player, Jeff. They rushed him to the league last year because Eric Johnson wasn't playing well. And Ryan Johnson was completely lost in his defensive zone.

And then you've got a locker room for a pool of players who were expected to win last season wondering why the heck did you rush this rookie into the league in a season when you told us we were going to be competing for a playoff spot. So they did nothing to replace Quinn. And it's just, so there is, I think there is a distrust now between the players and management in terms of they don't agree with the direction of this franchise and the decisions that have been made. I think that there was some goodwill built last summer by bringing in Jason Zucker by acquiring Ryan McLeod. Those were some good moves, but as soon as the season start and Rocky times really began

with that winless streak, Kevin Adams didn't do anything. He didn't do anything during the winless streak except give a bad press conference. That was, when we look back on the entire season, that press conference is going to stick out, as you all know, for all the wrong reasons. I do want to ask you about Terry Pagula through all of this. Has the success of the Buffalo Bills? I don't want to say that he's an absentee landlord with the Buffalo Sabres because I don't think that's fair. But has the Buffalo, the success of the Buffalo Bills come at the expense of the Buffalo Sabres? Do you think that's definitely, I think, I think it's fair to say he's, when you own an NFL team that and you're building a new stadium and all the responsibilities to come with that

Yeah, you're not gonna be able to be as in tune or are on the ground day to day like some owners are And to be honest with you I think that the success of the bills has also sort of leaned into some of the struggles with the Sabres because you You think back to he hired Sean McDermott and Brandon Bean, neither of whom had experience on their particular jobs. McDermott, first time head coach, Bean, first time general manager. The sports are different though. Okay. And you have to hire experienced people in hockey, especially where your team is at. And I think the problem with Terry has just been a complete inability of diagnosing the problems with the hockey team. You know firing people too soon. Pulling the you know just very

reactionary decisions and now it's I think over time and how quickly he's been to fire people it's it's gone the complete opposite where now he's exercising too much much patience and some of it you know based on conversations I've had is he trusts Kevin Adams. He doesn't want to go out and hire somebody from the outside somebody somebody who's experienced, who's worked for other teams, because Terry wants somebody he can trust. And he feels like. Can we pause on that for one second? Because what I what I what I do wonder about Lance is considering all the things that are happening in Terry Pagula's life. And we'll focus on the the the bills specifically but there

are other things around the Pagula family certainly. Do you think part of do you think part of Terry Pagula here is saying you know what I have a lot going on right now I don't know that I have the time or the energy to pay attention to the Buffalo Sabres as much as they need right now. And there's no one in there acting sort of under Terry who can who can take that position. Do you think that's fair? I think I think he has enough time and energy to pay attention. I don't think he has enough time and energy to go find a new general manager that he trusts and somebody he could build a relationship with.

He's known Kevin Adams for over a decade. I think it's been about, 13 years at this point? And to really start over, and you heard all the complaints he had about Jason Barrow when he fired him back in 2020. We weren't being listened to. We wanna do it a certain way. This hockey operations department

leaning into analytics and video, that's Pagula's vision. He stated that in June 2020 when he fired everybody. So as much as this is Kevin Adams, you know, behind, behind the steering wheel, he is following the plan and the edict that Pugula laid out almost five years ago. So he would want to bring somebody in to follow that exact vision and think about all the general managers, you know, around the league, Jeff, who would want to run the team the way that Terry Pugula necessarily wants to? Going cheap in certain ways, leaning into too much video and analytics,

know that, you know, there's, there's obviously an in-between there. So I think that now with where they're at the struggles and Terry Pugula trying to diagnose what's going on, he's leaning on Lindy Ruff. Lindy Ruff was handpicked by Terry Pagula to be the coach. It's not that Kevin Adams didn't want Lindy Ruff, but Kevin Adams' preference if they were going to fire Don Granato was to put Seth Apert behind the Sabres' bench. And Terry stepped in and said, no, I want somebody experienced and I want Lindy Ruff. He's available. This is the guy that I want. And when you brought in Lindy Ruff, yes, the structure and accountability was the focus, but it also

neglected all of the impacts it was going to have on the roster that you built for another coach and another style of play. And that has really led to some of the struggles in terms of how they're playing, the steps, some of the regression we've seen from young Fords and the frustration we know exists in that dressing room right now and sort of a disconnect on how they feel they should be playing and what Liddy Rupp is asking them to do, particularly in the defensive zone. Let me ask you about something that I should have asked earlier, because it's one of, if maybe not the most important question,

that's the fans, the people that have the nerve to buy tickets. I've always maintained that you're not in trouble when fans stop buying tickets. You're in trouble when fans buy tickets but choose not to go. That's real trouble. Are we there yet? I look at some of the crowds, the costume parties, I'm dressed as an empty seat. We've all seen them. Like I was still, I was shocked. I know it's been a throwaway season,

but like Conor McDavid's in the building and still nothing is, are we at the point where, yeah, I have a Sabres ticket, but nah. Cause that to me is all, that to me, not, that to me is the signal of we're in real trouble here. Not refusing to buy a ticket because you can get people back. But once you've bought that ticket and you choose not to go, that to me is the real sign of trouble.

Are we there yet in Buffalo? We're there yet at this point of the season. It's been interesting because at the start of the year, there was a lot of excitement with Lindy's return. Some of the moves they made in the summer, but then and they started they started poorly the window streak happened Some interest really increased once the bill season ended they had some good attendance numbers But we're I mean with the way they're playing right now fans are they're tired of it. It's You look at that game. They played in Florida last Saturday. It was ugly, really

good game to their credit on Monday against the Oilers, but the inconsistency just drives fans crazy. There's only a couple of players on this team that are having good seasons right now. You could probably point to four or five. The rest of it's just guys are underperforming and a lot of it is just it's the lack of change. It's nothing happening during the winless streak. Nothing was done at the trade. Yes, you traded Dylan Cousins for Josh Norris to change the dynamic of the team, but you didn't improve the team.

Like the team is not better right now. It's very difficult to sit here and say that. It's only a couple of games, we'll see, but it's not like the Sabres went out and swung a big deal to make the team better. I mean Owen Power still needs a D partner. You still got a lot of guys who are going into the summer without contracts. And there's a lot of uncertainty around this organization right now. And they haven't done anything to address the concerns of the fan base. And it's going to be very interesting to see season ticket renewals and what fan unrest is

going to look like the last month of the season if this team struggles. Um, you mentioned JJ Pichurka a couple of moments ago. I want to end on this because I know you're busy. It's, it's game day swords facing off against red wings tonight. Um, we know that owners have their favorite players. Used to be Zemgas, Gurgensons for the Buffalo Sabres. That was a big, you know, yet I, that was a, he was a big fan of of Gurgensens. And now for whatever reason, and I believe part of it, I think Terry Pagula was very important along with I think his daughter, one of his daughters

who was living in Germany at the time, like it was it was sort of like it had something to do with the Sabres taking JJ Paturka. It was almost like a family thing, I think. Like it was like that's a real source of pride for the Paturka family that they have JJ Paturka with the Buffalo Sabres. Is it accurate to say like not that things are players are always, you know, hands off, hands off. He's the the owners guy but is that is is JJ Paterka the new favorite of Terry Pagula as I've been told I've heard that as well and I don't see a scenario like I know offer sheets are a possibility here

this summer the Sabres would match I think any offer sheet when it comes in to JJ Paterka and remember he is the one success story the major success story of Kevin Adams drafting so far. You know, like Jack Quinn, we'll see Matt Savoy was traded. Owen Power hasn't looked like the best player in the 21 class. So really JJ Praterka trading up and getting him back in 2020 has been a massive success. He has continued to improve. Of course, he's got some deficiencies in the D zone and he's got to really work on that

area of his game. But yeah, this is a player that everybody in the organization wants to badly keep. So no matter who's making the decisions at the end of the season, whether it's Kevin Adams or somebody else, the one of the primary goals or the maybe the primary primary objectives is to convince JJ Peturka to stay and to sign long term because, yeah, they've they very much like the player. And and I mean I don't blame it he has been very good this season started a little slow but he has been their best yet one of their best forwards somebody

that you can certainly build around and the chemistry that he has with Tage Thompson shouldn't be overlooked either they are very good together okay Sabres fans so cheer up every day the sun comes up. Lance, you're the best on the beat. Thanks as always for stopping by. Much appreciated. Enjoy the game tonight. Always a pleasure, Jeff. Thanks for having me. Talk soon. There he is, the great Lance Lesowski from the Buffalo News covering the Buffalo Sabres. Look, I told you I wasn't going to... Maybe I didn't mention.

I probably should have mentioned at the top of the show. It's not necessarily going to be the happiest of programs today when you start talking about the Buffalo Sabres, but that's kind of where the swords are at. And I've said before on the program, it looks like a lot of the players here and the chat, by the way, is saying like, yeah, spitting fire, spitting truth bombs, all of it from Lance Losowski, you can't shine this apple.

Like, I'm sorry, like, the Sabres are who they are, and we can all sort of point to what the problems are. And I think like a lot of things, you go all the way right up to the top here. And as we chatted about, you know, the relationship between Terry Pagula and Kevin Adams, I mean, that is a friendship and a relationship that goes back a number of years.

That is who Terry Pagula very much wanted to run his organization and Kevin Adams is there. And I think the jury is still very much out on how we're gonna value and measure this trade. Dylan Cousins and Josh Norris and that second round pick, Zach, that you and I talked about when it came down and we said, where did the second round pick come from? But anyway, I wanna turn our attention

in a couple of seconds here and maybe sort of send people off on a positive note or at least have a giggle or something. After that one, I want to turn our attention in a couple of seconds here and maybe sort of send people off on a positive Note or to me at least have a giggle or something After that one I was fit and I was like, oh man, we got to put some black drapes around the place We had a funeral here like what's going she get like some purple cadaver gloves on or something. I don't know Zach, but it's uh I know I felt so bad like we had Lance on he was so good and then it was like partway through him like This is kind of depressing like oh, dude, it's great coverage, but this is just just what you think. Just what do you think we're wrapping up? It's like, no, man, we're

just adding up and it's still going. It's still going. It's still going. You say to yourself, like, how is this? How is this going to turn around? Honestly, like, and listen, I know that the way that Kevin Adams said it, it's probably not the best way to do it, but he's not wrong. Like, it is going to, you're not going to go out there and just like, pocketbook this team and change this team with a couple of Terry Pagula checks. Like, a lot of the damage, again, like the damage shows up when you don't develop your players. It shows up and it shows up for a long long time. I Don't know how this thing is gonna turn around. I don't think anybody knows how this is gonna turn around try living it

I listen Puggle and by the way great avatar there. I get it I feel you like again like I've said on this program a number of different times I don't cheer for teams that cheer for players But if you said pick one team that you want to cheer for, Merrick So a team that's like been close to your heart since you were a little kid and you grew up watching them and have always Had a little place in your hockey heart It's the Buffalo Sabres for me and the voice of Ted Darling. I'm going to the crematorium one day thinking about the Buffalo Sabres And I'm hearing Ted Darling, like I'm going to the crematorium one day thinking about the Buffalo Sabres and I'm hearing Ted Darling's voice.

It was like one of the first hockey voices that resonated with me ever was Ted Darling's voice. And I grew up on like the French connection era and then Danny Gare and like tough players too like King Kong Korab and Playfair. And then there's the Hashek era and like, holy smokes, man. and Playfair and then there's the Hachick era and like holy smokes man. Again, if there's one team that I really want to see do well and turn it around for that incredible fan base of you know not just not just people in and around Buffalo but also the Golden Horseshoe like St. Catharines, Hamilton like fans at Goal that are watching. Christ I want to see so many games there. When I was a kid when I was at university at Guelph.

We would load up on the weekends and drive down to the odd and go see Buffalo Sabres games. Like I was at the playoff game where Alex McGillinley broke his leg against Montreal. Like I have so many great memories of seeing Sabres games. Just want to have it back. Just want Buffalo to be a good team again. Like none of this like, oh you have it in for the Buffalo Sabres. You just kind of, you know, art and science does the same thing. Describes what's there. Right? Just uses different vocabulary. All we're doing is just describing what's there.

And I don't know how much, I don't know how you can put a positive spin on this thing at all. Maybe get lucky in the draft. A couple guys I don't know man but like is that like that's not a that's not a plan you know what I mean like no we just heard Lance outline what's going on like I like you know what you know how we're gonna turn this thing around well we'll find someone in the draft. Okay. How? Huh? Bring your horseshoes, boys!

Yeah, hope is not planned. Okay, what do you think? Hang on a second here. Okay, off the stage. Do we have anything more on the Buffalo Series? I want to address something here. Do we have anything more on the swords? No, I said my piece I think over the last like week or so and Lance kind of just Put the exclamation point on it So everyone's gonna get offer sheeted and it's just gonna be more of a disaster and players gonna get stolen But here we got some more picks

Yeah, we're looking at this. Okay. All right We good we good on the swords pot of gold. Yeah, okay, okay What are you doing? What are you doing? Are you talking about the poll in the chat? Yeah, it's awesome. What are you doing? Okay. Uh, that was Jrock asked for that poll. Oh, the Jrock. Okay. All right. Yeah. You get a, you get a pass on that. I just put it up for him. Yeah, look at this I get like a marine Midland reference in the chat like John are right on What is worse Red Wings playoff hopes? Johnny Lazarus's photo shoot or Zach's hair

Hmm The trights not looking so good Your feathers actually aren't that bad. You kind of cleaned it up a little bit. Yeah. Okay, yeah, very good. Not jealous at all. Okay, nice, yes.

I don't know, that last photo shoot's pretty special. Do you want to show people? Should we do that? I'm going to do the last photo shoot. Can we do it? Calling an audible here? I'll try to get it quickly here so we can grab it for the show. Oh man, this last photo shoot can we do it calling it I try to get it quickly here so we can grab it for the show 54% red wings playoff hopes number one poor red wings hey Jeff sounds like he's talking to a puppy thanks Spencer what are you doing

look at the mess you made who Who's gonna clean that up? Now I'm talking to you like a parent It's alright, so what's wrong with that? How do you get through a day? Look at this. Look at this mess So what happened we leave you one minute by minute Yeah, pretty much Did you grab it in real time? It's so good. First of all, I love Laz. He has the balls to put this up there about himself.

Oh, I gotta grab you my mullet picture still from university. Yeah, we need that. Me rocking a Demorri light and a big mullet and a Sid and Nancy shirt. Good Lord, chick repellent Merrick. It's the worst. I mean, in fairness, I should have anticipated

that this Laz photo could have been brought up here today, so I should have anticipated that this last photo could have been brought up here today so I should have had that one prepared but there it is. That's the one I just... The old Vetch can smile too. Yep missing teeth. Just go to John, go to Laz's Instagram, not Instagram sorry, Twitter to see the other ones and I'm certain they're gonna talk about it tomorrow But yeah, look at those teeth man He could like eat an apple through a tennis racket Eat an apple through a fence you're kidding your grandma take you to the zoo see the donkeys and give him an apple

That's the donkey. Yeah eating the apple through the fence right there I love them God bless them yeah go to his Twitter account to see the rest of them and they will talk about it on a morning cup of hockey tomorrow but that was good. That was so awesome. That was good. You wanna do the triangle? Sure. Yeah, might as well. It's kind of a goofy Wednesday here. Wrap on the show, chat's been fun, funny comments. I don't know, like I feel like I need something funny.

I think I need something fun, like something entertaining after talking about the Sabres for like, I'm serious. Like, after half an hour talking to the swords like Lance is awesome. Can you imagine being that every day? I always feel I always feel for the beat the beat guys and girls because it's like you gotta live this every single day. I remember when I was working at 640 am 640 and we we had the Maple Leafs right so it was like live and die well you know this live and die had the Maple Leafs right. So it was like live and die. Well, you know this, live and die with the Toronto Maple Leafs. But I do what I don't, because I was a fan of it.

And like, I started my show, I started my show the year they lost to the Habs in the playoffs when they blew the series lead. So I've only known playoffs and like, Matthews and Barner and Nylander. So I had the thought the other day, I was like, wow, like, you know, this is kind of miserable. Like we just losing the first round. I'm like, we could just not make the playoffs. And then I have to cover that. Yeah. Oh, here's one. Hang on. Hang on. We got, we got a couple of interesting ones here. Oh, where did it go? You could cover, oh, the bandits are great from Pablo Barrosa. The bandits are great, Jeff.

Jeff, talk a little NLL. You'd love that. Hey, did you see that La Crosse ref last week? With the greatest call of all time. Did you play it on your show? My partner was correct. No, I didn't. We should have done that. Could we play it? your show? My partner was correct. No, I didn't. We should have done that.

Could we play it? Could we find it and play it? Like I need to laugh. It's the funniest thing I've seen in a while. I'm like, we're totally doing it. Like folks, I don't know if you get the idea yet on this program. We put together like a rough outline

of what we want to do on the show every day. And then I just drive a dump truck through it. And then poor Zach's like Thinking about his life choices of sound like yeah, I'll work with Merrick. Yeah, sure. Yeah. No, it'll be it'll be it'll be fun It'll be like cool and stuff. He must be really easy to work with. Yeah, such a probe in the business since 95 like yeah, he's got to be Such a total thorough professional everything is planned and none of this is just flying by the seat of our pants here. I'm gonna get a real, you know, a lot of experience out of this guy and learn a lot, you know.

Instead, hey, go find the video of the funny lacrosse referee. It is a really good clip. And also also the Buffalo Bandits are awesome. I used to love going to Toronto Rock Games. I loved it, loved it, loved it every time. No, I never, I never, I never played. I mean, I played a little bit as a kid and then back when actually during the lockout of 0405, we used to broadcast Toronto Rock Games on 640. And that was the year they won the championship. They already won it like three years previous too.

And because my partner that I was doing the radio show with, Bill Waters, was one of the owners of the team. And his son was the president. So I got to go to tons of Toronto Rock Games. I still maintain, as far as quality of entertainment, like sports entertainment, quality of sports entertainment per dollar, lacrosse is the best. Lacrosse has every other sport beat. It's really high pace. I played all the way through, right? I played even junior lacrosse

as well there all the way till the end. So's just high-paced there's no breaks in action it's physical it's you know tight quarters it's high scoring it's fun yeah high it's high scoring it's violent high skilled it's like you come out of your seats because like some of these plays are incredible I've always I've always been surprised at how lacrosse hasn't caught on more mainstream specifically in Canada since like it's like our sport and you can wrap it in a flag and pour maple syrup on it and say like go Canada and it's so good and it's so close it's similar to hockey that it's not a tough game to pick up. I've always maintained it's a great it's a great crossover sport

for young hockey players. I know because both my kids, we put them in lacrosse early and to this day, the reason why they skate with their heads up, I think is because they played lacrosse. And so they were used to the object of play being up here and they weren't just like looking at the floor, which is disaster and hockey when hitting starts. You got the clip?

Yeah, yeah, I got it Okay, so this is this is the call of the year in all of sports as far as I'm concerned Imagine an NHL official like West McCauley's got the great calls, but imagine an NHL official Doing this after blowing a call. All right, Philly. Good job. Let's let's watch it After review my partner nailed it and I was wrong. That's a good goal Now I don't like the good goal parable get into that after review my partner nailed it and I was wrong Okay, so I'm pretty sure by the way too here Jeff, this is the same ref. I'll do some back searching on this.

There was a call that happened in 2019, 2018 and the ref goes over to the penalty box. There was like a fight, scrum kind of thing and he says on the mic, it's become pretty clear that these two just can't get along. I think that it's this ref, I'll try to find out for you for sure. Oh, it's so good. Can we do it one more time and then I swear we'll move on. I thought the show was going to be quicker today. Boy, did I blow that one too. Not the case here. I just need to laugh. I just need to laugh today. Sorry.

After review, my partner nailed it and I was wrong. That's a good goal. That's a guy. That's so good. I like that guy. It's so good. Give me that guy. You know what? Let's park that because I want to play that for Berkey. Berkey would love that. Let me see. I'll see if I- I'll hold on to that in here and I'll see if that for Bricky. Bricky would love that. Let me see, I'll see if I,

I'll hold onto that in here and I'll see if I can find out if it's the same ref. Cause I also found the clip of his old one. So his old call, but we'll figure it out. You want to do it? You have it? Or you want to download it and get it in here? Come on, Zach, let's go.

It sounds like an excuse, Zach. I'm going to be like your old coach at YSC. Sounds like an excuse there, Philly. Maybe we'll find someone else to do that, Philly. Hey, Vic, you ever work a split shift? I know you do mornings. Put a couple extra bucks in your jeans. 9 a.m. the 11 a.m.

All right, let's do a couple of things here and then wrap it up, although. Okay. Oh, Jim the Swede, Wes McCauley would be like, my partner's an idiot and I rule, no goal. That would be funny too. My partner's an idiot and I rule, no goal. Okay, I'm feeling better about myself now. Let's see. Come on.

Let's do triangle. You got triangle? Yeah, you wanna do the triangle? You know the show's still on right now. You know like we're still live. The show's still continuing here, right? I'm trying to get stuff in the background for you. Alright here's the triangle. Okay so let's do triangle one more time. We'll bore people with the triangle one more time. Just that I'm so fascinated by this. So you see that triangle stuck? Can you pause it? Can we do a quick pause right before like right before Zuccarello let's go with a shot.

This is last night's shootout. So Zuccarella comes in, watch, okay, so there is a triangle between the heel of the stick, the right toe, and the top of the blade where it hits the pad. Goalies can't stop that. That is a place where they are exposed. Specifically left-hand shots coming in on a left catch goaltender. That is where guys more so than ever are shooting again and again and again. And you will hear people say, Oh, he scored five hole. It's not a five hole. That's triangle. This is going to be my new good goal. That's not five hole. It's triangle. Come aboard. Be a hockey hipster not five-hole, that's triangle. Come aboard.

Be a hockey hipster, along with your buddies Jeff and Zach. That's actually not five-hole. That's triangle. Say it, say it to yourself. Well, maybe to you that's five-hole. But to me that's triangle. And now that you've seen it, it's all that you'll see every time it goes in. But to me that's triangle. And now that you've seen it, it's all that you'll see every time it goes in. Watch your left hand shots coming in.

Alright, do we have anything else for today? Oh, we have some emails. We have some emails. A couple of emails before we get to the games. We got a couple of good ones too and we have some audio to play for you as well. I thought we were going to get in early today. We may even go longer than yesterday. Blah, blah, blah, Merrick. Oh, shut up, Merrick, stop talking.

Enough, buddy, enough out of you, Merrick, geez. Let Philly speak. All right, so for emails. The email address, by the way, thesheetatthenationnetwork.com. Let's do the one from Christopher Nelson. Can we do this one? Yep. Okay, so this is from Christopher Nelson. Again, the sheet at thenationnetwork.com. A couple of weeks ago you started talking about monotone PA announcers. Yes, I love them.

I love them. For NHL games and your memories of Paul Morris and Maple Leaf Gardens, the late great. As a Blackhawks fan of the same vintage as yourself, this struck a chord, reminding me of the voice of the Chicago Stadium Harvey Wittenberg. Please enjoy this piece. Harvey's name is spelled three different ways in the video. Pat Foley and Dale Tallon suggested he might be drinking on the job after he hilariously stumbles over a goal announcement. His calling Mike Stapleton Pat is still be drinking on the job after he hilariously stumbles over a goal announcement. His calling Mike Stapleton Pat is still the cherry on top. Nonetheless, it gives us an excuse to talk. I have a fascination and love for monotone arena announcers. That's why I love Paul Morris. This audio you're going to hear is beautiful. If you're watching on YouTube, there's video to go with it.

He was the public address announcer at Chicago Stadium from, well, Chicago Blackhawks from 61 to 2002. Nowadays, teams want their public address announcer to be over the top and let's get going and put your hands together and rockin'. No thanks. There is plenty of room for monotone in hockey as my career will prove, but for the purposes of this email,

but for the purposes of this email, let's hear from the great Harvey Wittenberg Chicago ball by Bobby Hall. All business. Uh, E. Attested by Murray Balfour at Red Haze at 8.56. And the 2.8. I don't know what it is about the voice

That's just so blunt and matter of fact and just lets the moment carry itself Like the fans take it like what can I kind of pause on one thing? You know, it's really been lost at hockey games now And I've only noticed this in the last or thought about this the last five years or so, you know, it's gone at hockey games People don't talk to each other People don't talk to each other hockey and because the games either going on or it's just over I'm gonna sound like old guy here old guy alert. I get it But like it's just like it's noise and different sponsorship activations

You don't get a chance to talk to anybody at the game. One spot of time, hockey games wasn't just a sporting event. It's like a meeting place. You went and you met people and you went and talked to them. It doesn't exist anymore because the PA announcer is screaming at you. Man, I do sound old. Screaming at you all game long. Maybe that's why I like the monotone P.A. answers. No, you're right though. Like I think about it often when I go to Blue Jays games,

you know exactly what one. Everybody clap your hands. Stop telling me what to do. I bought a ticket. I want to watch the ball game. Won't have to worry about that this year though. You won't see me on Skydome, not with this management crew and what they're doing to that team. Anyhow.

Boycotting. No thanks, not interested. Do we have time for one more? Yeah, yeah, we do. Which one are we doing here? Let's do the, actually, I forget who this this was they were playing against Buffalo in this one But I thought that this one was a good good clip here from them if you want to do this. Let's do it Buffalo go forward by plant assisted by Audet and May at 2 45 That's a beautiful call

That's it. Give me the monotone guys. Give me the monotone guys all day long. Do we have time for one more email or we got to hustle out of here? Yeah, whatever you want to do. All right. I just want to be respectful of people's time. Okay, let's get in one more email here. And again, the sheet at thenationnetwork.com.

I'm going to try to get more of these in here. Okay. Hey, Jeff, I forget if this was on the program or the prior program, but I'll always remember you rant on it's a good goal versus it's a goal. I know it's so true. In fact, since that rant, I noticed more and more of it's a goal rather than good goal. Curious if you know the reason it's changed or were the cause of this. Separately, when teams challenge a goal and it fails, what is the official

penalty that the team is charged with? As always, thank you for the great content. Debatable. Cole from New Jersey. Alright, thanks Cole. So first of all, the penalty is a minor for delay of game. If you fail a challenge, it is a two-minute minor for delay of game. I don't, you know, I'll tell you, Philly, I don't know if like something has gone out from Stephen Walkham, um, head of the official officials in the NHL, but there are more and more officials who are choosing just to say we have a goal or it's a goal as opposed to good goal, which as you know, always know always has always kind of bugged me but do we have the clip from Monday the Utah game it's almost like it's almost

like the referee wanted to say good goal but didn't want to get roasted by someone so paused and then said goal. Let's fire this one off. Let's fire this one off. After video review is determined that we have a goal. Goal. Not a good goal. A goal. We have a... See, goal. The reason I wonder if something has gone out from the league. I'll make a phone call about this after. The reason I wonder if a phone something has gone out from the league, I'll make a phone call about this after, the reason I wonder if a phone call has gone out from the league is when the league updates, like they'll do, they'll send out

emails on sort of controversial plays and then they'll say like for like goalie interference or offside whatever and they'll say if the verdict is it's a goal, what goes out from the NHL, it's something along the lines of an apperaphrasing, therefore we have a goal, or therefore it is a goal. Like the NHL doesn't use the good goal verbiage itself. I do wonder if the NHL is trying to get the officials to do same. And some guys seem to be having a hard time with it. But I'll tell you Philly, like after, on Monday, after that announcement, my phone kind of went boom.

Like we stopped, we stopped like getting in officials' heads. We stopped talking about this. Just let them make the calls they want to make. What do you got to be a cop on the beat for their vocabulary? Do you not think that there's any credit to you for this? That there's any involvement? I don't know. Because you, we've brought this up so many times.

I've been all over this. I brought it up so many times on the old 32 pod and I brought it up here a number of times to I don't know. My answer is I don't, I don't know. I really don't. I don't know that I've affected the game that much. I'm gonna give you the credit. Oh yeah, thanks.

I'll give you the credit. The chat's saying that you were in his head. He was thinking about you. Tommy T and John, they're saying he's thinking about you as he went to make the call. I don't want, Merrick's gonna roast me if I say good goal. Or a bunch of people are gonna, I do love it, by the way, when people tweet at me

for a good goal and triangle now. I get the triangle, you get the triangle tweets? Uh yeah, I've got them sent to me. I've had people just DM them to me too which is like, did you see this one? Like no, actually I didn't but there you go. We'll just do a daily count of the triangle, we'll just do daily count of the triangle goals here on the show. Look man, we got like our next tent pole is the playoffs. We get time. Yeah, that's true. We used to be playing fast and loose with people's time these days on the program, why not? Here's today's triangle goal for,

fuck again, these guys are the triangle goals. Okay, we get it. Fuck triangle goals. Yeah. Welcome to our lives. They're gonna stop sending them to us. Yeah, just make these guys shut up with the dumb triangle goals.

But if you see them, send them in and we'll get them on. Yes. All right. A couple of things for tonight. So you got like a couple of really interesting games. I one is spectacular. FanDuel proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them. And as always, roster updates from daily face off fantasy. A great Twitter slash ex-feed. Buffalo Sabres I don't know if you caught Lance Losowski

earlier on in the seance earlier on talking about the Buffalo Sabres again with the the black curtains we should have talked we should have actually talked to Lance in hushed tones like we're at a service or something like that. Did you know the deceased well, Lance? Probably should have said like halfway through. The lighting in his room was like a little dim too as well. Do you know if they're serving lunch after? And it's always the colorful sandwiches triangles triangle again triangles again American Philly with the fucking triangle Buffalo Detroit Little Caesars Arena 730 Eastern I don't know if you know this but the Detroit

Red Rings have lost six in a row Peter Morazzic starts and I love this by the way on our daily faceoff fantasy feed. They let me let me let me find this here. Peter Muraszek starts Brock Sagan puts this up and our daily faceoff fantasy feed amplified it. The last time Peter Muraszek started for the Detroit Red Wings was February 18th, 2018. In the game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. It's a 3-2 win for your Toronto Maple Leafs. I believe Austin Matthews with the game winner. Here was a Detroit lineup as Sagan puts out. Nyquist was Zetterberg and Mantha. Athanasiu with Thatzik and Tatarash probably to the centers first.

Nelson with Helm and Avlocator, Afrogator. Vertuzzi and Glenn Denning, they went with 7D in this one. Erickson and Daley. Erickson the best looking hockey player ever. Like just Greek God. I don't know why I'm blanking, what he looks like right now. Oh, come on man, like everything on him was perfect. I suspect. It's probably the best looking hockey player ever.

Yeah, pretty good looking dude. Right? Good luck. Henrik Lundqvist though. Yeah. I think I still think Henrik Lundqvist takes cake. Yeah. But Swedes, right?

Swedes, again. Yeah, that's us. So yeah, they're okay. Sorry, can't compete. Erickson and Daly, the Kaiser and Schalke. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think Henrik Lundqvist takes cake. But Swedes, right? Swedes, again. Yeah, they're okay. Ericsson and Daley, the Kyser and Jensen, Kronwall, the Nulet and Witkowski. Going 70. And because you're curious, Brock Sagan also puts your Maple Leafs lineup.

Matthews, Hyman and Nylander. Kadri with Marner and Marlowe. Bozak with Brown and JVR. Moore with Komarov and Kapanen. And here's your blue line. Hainsey with Riley. Gardner with Zaitsev. Dermott with Karick. Connor Carrick. There you go. Brock Sagan with the info. Anyway, that's one of four games on the board this evening. Detroit and Buffalo. Calgary and Vancouver. We'll see about Quinn Hughes. He traveled with the Vancouver Canucks. A tough loss last night against the Montreal Canadiens. As we all know, these are two teams competing for a wild card spot on the Western Conference. Vancouver loses, get doubled up by the Habs yesterday.

Scorsia Bank Saddle Dome and... Are we allowed to call them Calder Trophy favorite? Dustin Wolf starts. Did you put him over Hudson? Celebrini? Look what he's done for Calgary! Look what he'sini. Look what he's done for Calgary. Look what he's done. Look what he's done. What's San Jose doing? Now I know it's a more impactful position playing net.

But look what he's done for Calgary. They're in the freaking playoff position. Yeah. Yeah. Look, Dustin Wolf right now is plus 1500 on FanDuel to win the Calder. Is he favorite? Is that favorite? Is that number one? No, minus $210 is Macklin Celebrini. Then in between them is Lane Hudson plus $290, Matt V. Mitchikoff plus $700, Dustin Wolf plus $1,500.

Well, I may be coming back to FanDuel after the show ends. Anaheim and Utah at the Delta Center at 10 o'clock Eastern. Karel Vamalka starts their Montreal-Seattle climate pledge this evening. Montreal two points out of WC2. Is Slavkovsky versus Wright still a thing?

Like is this still like, after a while Taylor versus Tyler just sort of died off from the old 2010 draft. Is Slavkovsky right still a thing? Like once upon a time, this would be a huge game. Oh, Shane right against a team that dissed him, that overlooked him, that you know, it's not really a thing anymore, is it?

No, I don't think so. That's not something I've thought about in a long time is just how that draft played out. I don't know. It doesn't feel like impactful or like a care that much. I mean one of my buddies is a Habs fan was texting me this morning and was like, yeah like Shane Wright's gonna score tonight but outside of that. First of all Kovsky had three points against Vancouver last night. What do you think about that?

He has played a lot better. Patrick Lyon a illness game time decision there. And you know about an hour after we said it's gonna be a quicker show today here. We are our first team that's later No, no discipline No, just yeah, no, no, but we covered everything and more. Did we get everything in? Yep, everything that we had ready to go for today or wanted to do. Ryan H. It's no Sid vs. Ovi. That's right. That's true. This is true. This is true. You know what we don't do either? Which I kind of is, it's not like there is debate and like the more it made me think about it because

the morning cup hockey. You guys talked about McKinnon and McDavid and they played their or showed their point totals over the last two years. Yeah. We don't talk about like Eichel McDavid. And I don't think that there's a like, I don't think that that is a competition. No, but they were the same draft. And like there was a conversation going in, you know? Is it just too far of a gap? Like, do we just not care anymore? Like that's also one that's not really brought up as the same draft. But the thing is, and much like Taylor versus Tyler,

which was really just that thing going in, they both played in different conferences to start. Now they're both in the same conference, but you know, Jack started in Buffalo and Connor started in Edmondon, Sagan started in Boston and Hall started in Edmonton. You want them like right, you want to make in the same, in the same division, it would add up, but like, look, Slavkovsky Montreal and Shane writes out in Seattle.

Like you want the ones that like right beside each other. Yeah. That's the one like Jack Hughes Capo Caco we love to say that That never really got off the ground either did it amazing. Yeah, the video is still amazing of All the Rangers Rangers fans Rangers fans like just going banana sandwich a New Jersey to check you You don't know, you don't know. You don't know.

All right, enough of our act. Thanks for joining us once again. If you listened, if you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, thank you. Watching us live in the chat, just watching us live, watching us in archive, thank you so much. Always much appreciated. Don't forget tomorrow morning, nine o'clock Eastern, Morning Cup of Hockey, Johnny Lazarus,

Colby Cohen, do not miss that show. Today was excellent again. I recommend you go back and check the archives. Shane Pinto stopping by and John Buchagras from ESPN stopping by as well. So we'll see what's aboard tomorrow for the boys. Our act is back tomorrow, 3 o'clock eastern right here on our daily faceoff YouTube channel and your favourite podcast platform, It Is The Sheet. On behalf of Zach Phillips, you can call him Philly, Merrick signing off.

And by the way, there may be something really cool in store for this morning cake in the next little while. Stay by the socials for an announcement. And that, we'll wrap it up. Thanks everybody in the chat. Peace out, back tomorrow. Go Sabres! I can't get out my head, lost all ambitions day to day Guess I can call it a ride I went to the dark man, he tried to give me a little medicine I'm like, nah man, that's fine I'm not against those methods but I knew

It's me and myself and how this gon' be fixing my mind I do wanna break it I turned on the music I do wanna break it I turned on the music It's turned up, down, down But you're sometimes losing Helping on the days that went wrong Mmm, in the dead dark night