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Welcome to a later edition of Expected Buffalo Post Game
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Show brought to you by Richmond Vona Personal Injury Attorneys.
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A little bit of time to settle with it. These
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afternoon games on a Sunday are tough when you're trying
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to spend time with your family and your wife's making
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you decorate the Christmas tree because it's early November and
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you've lost that battle when, you know, I used to
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be a very, very stingy, no Christmas tree until at
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least a week of Thanksgiving. Well, you know, happy wife,
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happy life, they say, right? So I'm going to take
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a little bit. I want to look at some things,
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confirm some things that I saw. And so that's why
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we're a couple hours here after the game ended, having
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a post game show conversation about tonight, today's whatever. 4-1
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loss by the Buffalo Sabres at the hand of the
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Vegas Golden Knights. So we'll go through some of the
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game notes like I usually do that I wrote down.
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Some observations. We'll talk about Wednesday, the upcoming road trip,
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and kind of just where we sit here through 17.
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By the end of next week, we'll be through the
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quarter mark of the season. That's your all-hands-on-deck, really start
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to take who you are point I know 84 games,
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but still that's 21 games is your exact quarter mark.
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So let's start with the game notes. Look, they started excellent.
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First period was great. Good forward check pressure early. Good
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penalty kill late in the period twice. Thought that was
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really important. Speed was an issue for Vegas' defense early.
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They were in on their vortex. Like I said, they
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were on the rush. They were creating opportunities. They just
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weren't getting there. Adon, I wrote down, I thought was
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skating better. I think they continued for the most part
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of that game. But he's looking better. Really, it's... You know...
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It's hard to come on and do this and think
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about it. Because most of these nights I come away
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in these losses thinking it wasn't terrible. They weren't really bad.
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It seems like it's kind of a rollover effect of
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what happens too often so far this season through 17 games.
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You have good stretches. but you don't capitalize and then
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you make mistakes and they end up in your net,
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whether it's goaltending, whether it's defensive turnovers, whether it's missing
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an opportunity, it's giving up a short, short handed breakaway.
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Like it's always something that gets you, man. Um, And
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I don't know, this team this year so far can't
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escape it. And we're going to get into some of
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the shooting, some of the scoring thing here in a
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little bit. But I think that's the frustrating part for
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me is I walk away from a lot of these
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games where it's just like, I don't think they play
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that bad. It's just, it's the little things. And the
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little things keep getting you. And the reason the little
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things keep getting you Is because you have nights. Like tonight. Where.
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I'm going to read from my game notes here. Ready.
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Make hill. Make saves. Still not making hill. Make saves.
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Missing the net. Miss the net. A lot of blocks.
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Miss the net. Just. Continuous. Throughout this entire game. It's
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things like that. That's how you get to the. Inconsistency
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of scoring. That's how you go from five. To one.
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To four. To four. To three. To one. Zero. Two. Three. Like.
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It's because you're not getting enough important players, first of all,
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and that's something I think we need to discuss too.
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But it's the inconsistency of the shooting, I think, of
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the finishing, because they're generating chances. It's like we can
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sit here and walk away from this and say, well,
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they didn't generate any offense. They generated a ton of
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offense in this game. A ton of offense. Just they're
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not finishing. They're not executing the missing nets. They're wide.
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or make a fan, and when they do get one through,
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Load full transcript
the goaltender makes a save on you. I mean, I
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went and looked. Like I said, I wrote down at
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least five or six times in my notes here about
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now making Hill make saves, and you let him settle
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into the game, and he did end up making some
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saves for Vegas. But I went and looked in today's game.
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37% of their shots in all situations in this game
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hit the net. 37% of their shots. 49% is the
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league average. That's not terrible. I'm sorry, 49% is their
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season average. The league average is right around there too,
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so it's not terrible by any means. But tonight, 37%
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got through. 58% of their unblocked shot attempts hit the net.
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That's the second lowest of any game this season. 67%
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is their season average. Oh, and by the way, if
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you didn't know, 37.18% of all shots not making, so
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that is their lowest of the season. It was opportunity
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after opportunity after opportunity in that first period, especially when
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you're out shooting them 29 to 8 on shot attempts.
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29 shot attempts in the first period. Let me look
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at it really quick. I need the exact number here
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because it was nuts when I looked at it early
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in the game and I was hoping that it would change.
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29 shot attempts, 12 hit the net. Of those 29
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shot attempts, 21 were unblocked. You're missing the net way
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too much. A 1.4 expected goals for that period, and
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you're okay with nothing. 1.4 is what they would put
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up some nights. That's what some teams put up in
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a night. They put it up in a period. They
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end the night in all situations with 72 shot attempts,
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49 unblocked shot attempts, 29 make it to the net. 3.8
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expected goals for. You get one. And it's not like
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it's just one guy. It's everybody. It's throughout the entire line.
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I don't know if you're squeezing your stick too tight.
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You're trying to be too fine. And I get it.
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The only goal tonight I think was an own goal
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by Stone. I
mean, you're crashing the net and those
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are things you should do in a game like that
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where you got to get pucks to the net and
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all of that. But I don't know. I mean, every
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time I want to go to like This team, maybe
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they're not as good of a finishing team as they've been.
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And maybe that's still the case. Then they put up
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a five or a four spot or a three spot
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or they get on a run like they did out
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west earlier in the season when they were scoring three, four,
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five goals a game and it wasn't enough because they're
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a goaltender. But then we have night tech tonight. Maybe
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they don't finish enough. And maybe that's just the thing.
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Maybe the thing is this season is just going to
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be inconsistent. You don't know what you're going to get.
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You could still be a playoff team with that. you're
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not going to be a hundred and point division winner,
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but you can still be a playoff team. It's weird. And,
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you know, to stay on that note, like to get
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into specific players here, you know, I have guys on
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this team. If you just look at it, like I
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know that Norris scored two goals in the last game. Right.
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And that was big. Don't had a goal against Columbus.
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That was big. You need those guys. Um, To do
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things like that for you. To finally find the groove
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and get going. Norris with that third line. Was back to.
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Back to nothing. That third line didn't give you anything.
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With Kulik. With Norris. With Zucker. We are through 17
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games this season. Josh Norris has. Four goals and five
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points in 17 games. Josh Doan. has three goals and
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four points in 17 games. Keep going down the list here, guys.
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Let's sort by points here so we can really drive
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it home. Yuriko Leak has one goal and three points.
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He's played 10 games, but still one goal and three points. Helenius,
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who's injured, one goal, three points. Ryan McLeod in the
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press box, one goal, three points in 15 games. Jason
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Zucker has played eight games, one goal. One. Too many
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guys on this team. And at the top, you have
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Thompson with 19 points and 17. Quinn with 16 and 17. Benson,
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15 and 17. Power, 14. Samuelson, 10. Oslin, 10. Dahling, 10. Krebs, 9.
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We're going to get to Dahling here in a minute,
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by the way. There's got to be more. And like
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I said, I liked Dylan the last few games. I
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think he's starting to get going. I don't know if
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he's 100% yet. The speed looks like it's coming back.
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and he's starting to move a little bit better. So
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hopefully that's a good sign. I don't know. I think
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I've been saying that for two weeks and it's not
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resulting in production. But I don't know. I mean, how
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much confidence do you have? Maybe Norris does get it going.
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Maybe since I'm in the press box, gets McLeod going
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when he gets back. Kulik, I don't know. Helenius, I
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don't know. Thankfully for Olsen, you're getting those 10 points,
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and he's playing the way he's playing, and that's helping you.
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Of the young guys, at least you're getting that out
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of a centerman, but you're not getting that much place
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anywhere else. So that's, as we approach 2021 games, that's
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an ongoing issue. It's not a slow start anymore, really.
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You start to get into, it gets away from a
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slow start into a slow season. And I just don't
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think they're deep enough from a scoring aspect at this
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point to deal with that. Tage is going to hit
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a slump. He's going to hit a slow streak. It happens.
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He's up and down. What are they going to do?
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They need a Quinn. He can sometimes be a streaky scorer.
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What if he hits a downswing? They got to find it.
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They got to find the scoring stroke or it's going
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to be a problem. Because I think defensively there's still
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some problems there too. It's weird from period to period
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to game to game
how this team is. I thought
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they were great defensively in the first period. I thought
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they were great in a few games defensively recently. But
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then there's stretches where, really, again, a lot, it's on
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the forwards. I feel like they're killing me. If you
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look at, not all of the goals tonight, but the
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power play goal. Short-handed goal against the first winning game
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from Marner. It's off the stick of Thompson trying to
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make a play. The forward making a bad play. Go
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back to the last few games, some of the goals
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you've given up. It's your forward assignments. Ryan McLeod not
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following his player to the, his man to the net
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on the go-ahead goal against Ottawa. Kozak letting his guy go,
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knocking the puck out up high, lets his guy go
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to the net, beat him to the net against Columbus.
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I know they won that game 5-1, but still, it's
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a repeating pattern where I think it's your forwards defensively
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who are hurting you more. They're failing to get pucks
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out at times when you're close to the blue line.
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They're turning the puck over. And that's been a consistent
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theme all season. I've hashed on a lot. That's got
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to improve. It is a team defense. It's really got
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to improve there. Darlene. I don't really know what's going
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on there. He is a notorious slow starter. That's just
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how it's been for his entire career. It's got to
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flip here soon. I thought it was happening out West.
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When they were out West, he was playing pretty well.
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He was back to being aggressive. He was attacking the puck.
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He was attacking offensively. Making good plays, making good decisions.
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That has gone away since those games. Maybe it's the
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back injury. He's on 100%. I don't know. It's again
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the go-ahead, the tying goal. Or was it the go-ahead goal?
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I can't remember. Whatever. The one where he pinches against
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Ottawa and that ends up in your net. Today, I
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know Power was the one that was burned on that
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third goal. And don't get me wrong, I'm not... I
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think tonight might have been Owen Power's worst game of
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the season. I thought he was pretty dreadful tonight for
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the most part. But that entire play happens because Darlene
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has the puck and throws it back up the wall.
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back into traffic when there was no pressure on him
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the puck just comes to him it's like he's playing
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tennis and just back up the ball here you go
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it goes to a Vegas player comes back in five
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seconds later it's in your net just things like that
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just he doesn't look comfortable he doesn't look ready to
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attack ready to go not the type of player that
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we are familiar with seeing last season and even throughout
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his career that's just not who he is And this
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team can only go so far. It doesn't matter how
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good Zellweger is playing, how good Powell is playing, how
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good Samuelson is playing. Those three guys, I think, have
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all been better this season than Rasmus Dahlien. And that
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can't be the case that this is going to be
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a playoff team. I'm not saying it needs to be
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Norris Trophy candidate Dahlien who was last season. Well, that
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would be nice. You should expect that. But if your
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other guys are playing that much better, maybe you can
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take a little bit of a step back, but still
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be An elite defenseman. That's what he is. That's what
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he's supposed to be. Your leader. I mean, the guy's
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getting sidestepped late in the game by Victor Olofsson. Just
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feels like it's mentally not there. It's just the mistakes. Again,
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slow starter. Maybe he starts to turn around now. I
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don't know. Maybe the Tampa game gets him wired back in.
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I don't know. We'll see. But... That's a problem. It's
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a problem that's got to get resolved here. And then
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the power play. It's easy to say this team lost
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this game because of the power play. They had three
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chances in the third period. Give up two breakaways, one
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ended up in your net. It's just bad. It's frustrating
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for me because I thought this power play was kind
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of starting to turn a corner. And then tonight comes.
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It's the same things. It's the same three things it
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feels like that catches this team. It's a spin the wheel,
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which one's going to get you. Is it going to
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be your goaltender? Is it going to be your special teams?
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Or is it going to be inconsistent scoring? Because every
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single loss, one or two of those things, they get
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you every time. And today, I will say it was
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the two. It was your inconsistent scoring and it was
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just special teams. The way you dominated that first period
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to come out of it 0-0, I thought at that
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point they were in trouble. I was afraid when Vegas
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got the power play they were going to come out
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of that down a goal. You got one game left
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on this homestand. You've got two of a possible six points.
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Not good enough. You have Tampa Bay in your building
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who's playing some good hockey again. You got to step
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up for that game. And then you go on the
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road for five. That has to, you know, they play
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better on the road. I don't know the reason what
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it is, why they do it, but they do since
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the playoffs last year. And even last season, they've been
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a good road team. When that last game of the
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host homestand and catapult yourself into a good road trip
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to take you into Thanksgiving. Because this division is too...
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Too good. It's too good to have... Losing streaks to
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drop games. You know, I'm not even really so much
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worried about the Metro as part of this wildcard race.
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It's your division. That's what you're competing with. And the
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good news is, by points percentage, you're 1, 2, 3, 4,
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5th in your division still. So... That's, I guess, good.
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My points percentage, I think
they're still out. Yeah, they're
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just behind. No, yeah, they're just behind Florida, chasing Florida
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for the wildcard spots. Technically, my points percentage, the Rangers
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and the Senators will hold that. So you're behind those teams,
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but you're still in it, right? You've won four of
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six still. The wheels aren't falling off by any means.
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I don't think we need to go there or anything crazy.
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But if you just look at some of these teams
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in this division, you'll lose ground quickly. Last 10 games,
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Boston 7-2-1. Montreal 8-0-2. Tampa 7-1-2. Those three teams are
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just pulling away in the top three. Ottawa is 5-4-1.
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Florida is 5-5. Sabres 5-3-2. Ottawa is 5-5. And Detroit
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4-5-1 with losing three in a row. So, find consistency.
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It's really the easiest thing. Just find consistency really in
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all areas. No need for panic yet. I don't think
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this is as bad as it's made out to be sometimes.
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Still in the mix. You're probably not going to win
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the division this year. That's just the way it's going
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to go. It's not the end of the world. You
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get into the playoffs and then you see what happens. So,
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Find your game at some point here. Find consistency, and
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then I think they'll be okay. I think they'll be
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right where I expect them to be in that 3-4
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spot in the division, and then your first or second
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wildcard team, however that plays out. I guess if you're fourth,
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you're probably a wildcard one, the way the Metro's shaping out.
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Although the Rangers and Capitals haven't been playing good hockey,
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so you never know. But either way, I think they can...
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stabilize themselves, play more consistent hockey, this is still a
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playoff team. We'll see. Tampa Bay on Wednesday. Should be fun.
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I'm excited. Looking forward to it. Those games are always good.
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Sabres seem to rise to the challenge there. So we'll
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see there. I don't think there's really anything else I
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wanted to get to. Power play. Missing the net. Stalling. Yeah. So.
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I think that's really it. Um, I appreciate you jumping
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on here a couple hours after the game goes. And, uh, then, um,
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you know, we'll see how the rest of the week goes.
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So there will be no post game show on Wednesday.
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They're actually, if you look at their schedule, the next
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post game show for me, cause in solidarity with the Sabres,
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I will be getting on a flight, um, Thursday morning with,
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I'll be out Wednesday, but I'll be getting on a
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flight Thursday morning to go to somewhere. Nice. A little
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bit warmer than here in Buffalo. Sorry. Um, yeah, the
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next post game show for me will probably be Tuesday
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the 17th because I am back on Sunday, um, against
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the flyers. So next few games, home Tampa Bay at
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Chicago at Dallas at Philadelphia at Washington at Tampa. I'm sorry.
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At Florida, uh, at Tampa Bay to roll up your
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five game homestand or five game road trip there. Holy cow. Uh,
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and then you come back with a, uh, two game
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homestand before you head out to Western Canada to kick
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off December. December will be before you know it. The
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end of this year is coming crazy fast. Uh, all right, well,
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thank you for listening. Uh, check out what will be
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up on the site this week. There are a couple
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of plans. I plan to get up for a head out. Um,
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The goal is to probably get a podcast up on
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Tuesday before I head out as well. We'll give the
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Bills their time tomorrow night on Monday Night Football against
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the Vikings. So I'll be back with a podcast episode
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on Tuesday. All right. Thanks for listening. And we will
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talk then. See ya.