Welcome to an expected Buffalo postgame show, brought to you by One Pizza One Pizza dot com in hillar in Comonford Hillarcomaford dot com for your local personal and injury disability.

Oh to another victory postgame show.

Those are always fun.

I think a lot to dig into for tonight, which is different from a game that seemed uh.

I don't want to say we're boring, but it was times kind of just nothing really was going on.

But I had a lot of weird notes weirdly to go through.

Uh.

In this one, we'll see how quickly we can get through it here again, I want to spend a ton of the night going through it, and goes super long here, but we'll dive our way through and where we'll of course start things is our overhead view of how tonight went, and then we'll work our way down to the more micro stuff of the game.

So a couple takeaways for me is, yeah, was it their best game?

No?

Probably not.

There are some stretches where I think they struggled with exits again and particularly early in the game, early in the third period too.

The second period.

I was mostly fine with the back half of the first period.

I was definitely fine with the second half of the third period.

Two.

I think they calmed down for giving up that goal.

But I mean that's a mark of a good team, right, It's you don't have your best game, but you're good enough, you convert enough of your chances, you do what you have to do to win, and you get your two points and you keep moving along to the next one.

So full marks to them there on that one.

And I think the other big takeaway for me, especially early in the game the first half of the game, it was pretty evident the fore checking, the fur checking, in the speed at which they attacked the Flyers, and they had some trouble I guess ad in the beginning the first you know, eight to ten minutes of that game, that had a hard time going.

But once they did, I mean they were just through the second period really just all over the Flyers.

Didn't give them a lot of room, pressured them, turned pucks over, got unpucked first one puck battles.

Really for a game where they had I think ended up being eight or nine five on five shots on goal, I felt like this is the night they could have had six, and you know they end with five when you had the empty net in.

But it definitely they could have had more.

Philadelphia was giving him the opportunities.

And you know there's a couple that hold the side of the net, a couple of posts, a couple that couldn't crow out other gates.

We're looking at open nets.

You know, they look dangerous when they were going and they look like a We keep saying this and maybe just it's confirmation to ourselves from watching this team for the last fourteen years.

Its signs in, you know, a real hockey team.

Play, pushing pace, playing that four checking game around the net, backchecking, solid defensive play for the most part, all good and impressive signs.

You know, when you when you step away from this game, you probably don't think that they're gonna come out ahead and shots here, but they did in almost every pole.

Look at natural stature head a little bit closer, I think at a one point sixty five to a one point sixty six in the Sabers favor, evolving hockey head at a one point seven to seven to a one point six y nine and the Sabers advantage though, you know, I mean, they didn't give up a lot and if you think kind of throughout that game, there wasn't a ton that the Flyers really felt threatening.

When they did get their chances, it feels like they they blew them up on their own, whether they were overpassing or they were throwing puck to other skates or just missing players or overthinking it.

Now, that might have benefited to the Sabers, you know, way there to get their feet moving into the game.

But uh yeah, you know, I think relatively low event and five on five.

You know a lot of penalties so on both sides, so that probably impacts your five on five numbers and kind of made it difficult for both teams to really get into a flow at five on five with the penalties we saw, and really to the second and into the third period.

So yeah, overall, like I said, not their best night, but I don't think it was They're worse by any means, or I don't think it was a game where we walk away from it say they didn't deserve to win.

I think they outplayed the Flyers most of that period at five on fibri it mattered.

I thought their penalty kill was fine.

You walk away with two power play goals, So yeah, in the stat sheet and the numbers, it doesn't look pretty.

And you know, I'm sure the points in that game, a lot of people walked away saying, you know, this isn't great, but you got your two points against an Eastern Conference opponent that is in the mix with you.

You got yourself back into the first wild card playoff spot, which we'll talk about the standings when we wrap here and the significance of tomorrow's game with the Montreal Canadians.

But yeah, so moving through now getting down to a little bit deeper level, a few things that I wrote down that it took away from this game.

We'll start looking in.

I guess, you know, at home, he's just rolling on home ice.

This is kind of to me.

What makes it weird with going with l Us against the Panthers because now you're forced into a situation possibly where you have to go Ellis, Lucan and Ellis because of the back to back against the manchall Canadians tomorrow.

Now Luke can only faced what I think twenty two shots.

I don't think he was, you know, pushed to a significant level.

Is there a scenario where you could go back to back, especially being on home ice without travel possible.

I think they'll probably go back to Ellis, but we'll see.

You know, I wouldn't rule it out by any means going back to look at it and putting him back in tomorrow again, because he's been great on home ice, and I think he ended tonight in national Statric's numbers one goal save above expected, So that's pretty good.

In full credit to him.

You know, that first goal against I know, you know, I probably like it save there.

Sometimes you have to credit the shooter.

They're paid two.

They're really good to screen.

Maybe a little bit of a deflection, a laser low glove side.

I mean just sometimes players get a nice shot off and you just you take it and you kind of move along and go on the next one.

But what I was saying is bullmarks to him for that save early in the game when they didn't have their feet going.

Flyers were pushing to a degree.

I don't think anything crazy, but he makes that great post to post save, keeps it zero zero and then you know they're on the board.

Don't think too long after that.

So it's it's a lot of what we've talked about when we're going to all these goaltenders and when they are playing well.

It's those timely saves.

And timely save doesn't mean in the third period when you're up a goal.

I mean, it actually doesn't mean just that he that's of course important and you want those saves too, but times saves can be at any point of the game.

It could be in the beginning of the game when you are is that trying to get your feet going and your team's not in it, but you make that big saves to keep him in it.

That's happened a few times, I feel like, early in games, and it's just Luking.

It's it's all three goaltenders at points made some good saves, kept their team in it, allowed them to get going, and then once they got going, they started to put the puck in the net and pull away from teams a little bit.

So full marks to him for keeping his team in early, allowing them to get going, and then just kind of holding the fort when he was called upon.

So another good game from Luken in on home ice.

So you know, chalk that up in the in the good category and hopefully that keeps rolling the right direction.

We're him.

Let's go to the forward lines next.

So we had some changes particularly well.

I guess you could say all four lines went through changes was in the middle six.

But the middle six is really what I wanted to focus on.

And by that middlesex I mean your Don Norris Oscelin line and then you're Quinn, Zucker McLeod line, and both of them worked tonight.

Uh you look at the numbers at the end of the game.

I'm trying to quickly pull it up here, and I think both lines were over a six in shot quality and shot share.

Well not that hig, I guess got ahead of myself.

So Zucker McCloud, Quinn natural statuck where fifty seven percent shot share, sixty five percent expected goal share, Austlin Norris doone seventy four percent inspected goal share and a forty two percent shot share.

That gives you an example of get some nice quality chances.

How that can change things for you.

But yeah, I think that's what you wanted to see.

You know, I talked about when Zucker came back, how the McCloud Zucker Quinn line worked.

I thought that's where he would go right back to.

Took a little bit to get there.

Now he's back there, and that worked it right back picked up or the left off Austin and Norris.

You know that was great, Josh, don't.

I mean, he was fantastic throughout the entire night, making defensive zone plays, making offensive zone plays, plays in the neutral zone with skill getting entering the zone, playing with its out of confidence.

You know that that second goal the pickpocket again, which is what he's becoming known for, pickpocket in the neutral zone.

And then Austlin wins a puck battle on the wall gets it to you know, Samuelson and Samuelson, the way he's rolling right now just berries.

That gets you up too.

So that was good to see that line working.

Now.

The bad news of tonight, which I guess we'll go to now, is the Norris injury.

So he took a cross check to the ribs after the don Lean second power play goal, didn't play another shift after that.

Ruff said after the game, if you didn't see it, that you know he was cross checking the ribs.

And then he'll be evaluated tomorrow morning.

The good news, I guess, and maybe I'm grasping, is it seems like we'll see how he is tomorrow kind of thing, and that to me is probably indication that he meant he didn't suffer you know, broken rib or anything like that.

Some soreness, you know, you don't really know, maybe a cartilage thing.

I don't know.

I thoo's can be painful and difficult to play with.

So maybe you're hoping that's not what it is.

But I guess I'm trying to pull a positive out of there.

Is it's not.

You know, he had X rays.

He's gonna miss some time.

We'll see it was a you know, we'll evaluate him in the morning and see how he is.

Realistically, do I anticipate he plays tomorrow?

Probably not.

You know, you probably have to have Austlin step into that role as a second line center.

Maybe you can get Issac Roseane up here for a game, put him into your lineup.

You're probably gonna swap green Way and Kozak to get some fresh legs in there.

So yeah, I think for a couple of games you can get by it.

If it's not significant or long term, you know that that's that's what you hope for there, and you know, you deal these little things here and there throughout the season, so you know, if it's a couple of games, fine, try to will your way through it get him back here and then you know, we can hopefully keep rolling in the right direction.

The good news is, though, out of that talking with injuries, is it seems like a high probability that Michael Kesseling is going to get back into the lineup tomorrow.

So kessel Ring has missed I don't know, a couple of weeks now, maybe one or two weeks.

Logically it made sense to not put him in a back to back.

So getting him in tomorrow again, you're gonna get more fresh legs in your lineup.

So that's good.

You're gonna have fresh legs of Greenway, fresh legs of kessel Ring.

You know, Rosine played tonight if he's called up, So I don't think that's gonna be you know, that kind of fresh legs per se.

But you can have that jolt of you know, being called up, and that'll help for a team you're playing that you know is rested quote unquote.

So yeah, I think it'll be good to get kessel Ring back in.

It'll be interesting to see who comes out.

I'm looking at the numbers now and I caught my attention earlier and then I relooking up at my screen.

Here caught my attention again.

So Zach Metsa tonight four point two to three expected goal share, nineteen or twenty percent shot share.

I think he played a shift if at all, maybe no shifts in the third period.

I have to look, but it looks like he no, yeah, so pulled in zero.

So he didn't play shifts in the third period.

That probably is a good indication that he would be the one that comes out righty for Alridy.

Now with Metsa and kessel Rings switching, you know, he was in the lineup before kessel Ring went out and placed a Bryson.

I mean, I'm not going to tell you Bryson played a lot more.

He played, you know, only a minute uh in the third period.

So neither guy played a ton but you know, usually tom on Ice is a good indicator, and he did not play very much that play at all obviously in that third period.

Uh So he might be the one that rotates out.

But we will see for sure tomorrow.

So speaking tomorrow, we'll kind of get to our rap here Montreal Canadians in town tomorrow.

Uh oh five oh six reunion night, So that'll be fun.

The building should be buzzing, you know, the crowd should be into it.

Like I said, the players should be into it.

Uh.

So you hope, you know, at a back to back that you know, put some juice into the team, uh, and you know, get them up.

But I mean, I'll to really need that.

You know, you're playing a division opponent, a team you're chasing that you can you can get pretty close to and the points and the standings if you win game in regulation.

So I don't know how much of a motivator they'll need, But it seems like this team, even when they are bad on nights like this, they always rose to the challenge and they played up to it and put together a good performance on the ice.

So you know, hopefully we'll get that again.

And a back to back, taking four points out of this against Philadelphia and Montreal before you wrap up your home stand against Minnesota on Saturday would be pretty big.

So I think it'll be fun.

I think it'll be a close game.

Montreal can skate, they're fast, they don't ever seem to really go away in a game, so you gotta be up for it.

It's gonna be a big challenge.

You're on home ice.

Should be a fun night, so you know, hopefully we can see them put a good performance and you know, if they pick up two points.

Right now in the standings, they fifty four points and forty five games, they're back in the number one wild card spot by points with fifty four.

If you look at it, you know, the six hundred points percentage is it looks like you're well ahead.

No, honestly well ahead, but you have games in hand on Toronto.

So Toronto's fifty three points in forty six games, so they have a five seven six points percentage of savers.

Like I said, said at six hundred, Boston has fifty four points in forty seven games, so they have a five to seven to four.

So technically, if you're going by points percentage, it would either be Pittsburgh or Philadelphia.

That's the wildcard two team right now.

But I mean they're in a good spot.

Got to keep winning your games.

I was looking to it work super early on this, but if you want to't really look, I was looking regulation wins.

They have nineteen, which in the playoff race, the wild card race, is more than anybody besides Florida, who has twenty one.

So that's your first tiebreaker.

So that's a good spot to be in, and if they win in regulation tomorrow, they would be three points back of the Canadians.

With two games in hands, they would have fifty six Montreal's fifty nine.

They'd be pretty close on points.

Percent of deceivers that think could be a six of eight Montreal would be a six to eleven or around there.

So you can start to nip at the heels of the teams in the top three with Montreal and Detroit if you could, you know, put another win on the board and keep this train moving.

Checking my notes, I think I got everything I wanted to touch on.

Oh you know what, I wanted to go back to one thing that I missed in the beginning of it, and that's the third periods.

Let me circle back to that a little bit because I it's one of the main topics I wanted to get to, and of course I ever got it.

But that's why you're write down notes pro tip third period.

Yeah, so, obviously the last few games haven't been great.

You're giving up multiple goals late in games and Latin teams back in it when you're up by two or three.

You know, you don't want that sloppy and messy at times.

That's not great, And it's interesting because it's different than what we saw in the ten game winning streak, when I thought that for the most part, almost entirely, they had leads in most of those game one goal leads in the third period and they pretty much locked it down.

I never talked I talked about it the podcast.

I never felt concerned for a lot of those games that they were gonna come back, team was gonna come back, or had glorious chances, or I never felt really threatened.

And tonight, while I think the frustrating thing is they still do it constantly, is not understanding when you're up two goals, you're up three goals, you just need to exit the zone.

It doesn't got to be pretty high off the glass, flick it out into the neutral zone.

Reset.

There's still too many of those force plays trying to be too fancy, just throwing pucks.

So I think they got to clean that up still on their exits to prevent turnovers and you know opportun I mean team were right back at you when you maybe had a long shift or whatever.

You know, you want to try to clean that part of their game out came up.

But for the most part, I felt like at five on five again, I never really felt threatened, and then numbers backed that up.

So in evolving hockey.

In the third period, at five on five, the Flyers had a zero point thirty seven expected goal share, and at five on five they only had two shots too, two shot attempts the entire period that were below the hashmarks.

So you know, if you look at it that way, I think you're happy with that, and it's it's a stepping stone improvement while understanding there's still some things within there they need to work on, and this is a team that's still what they say, learning how to win, uh, and they're doing a good job with it, and then they're you know, getting these over the finish line sometimes not pretty, but I think today was a was a good step back in the right direction of playing a thinger thirty period.

It's not the prettiest thing, and I understand, you know, you're sitting there and you're like, just come on, you're pressed, go play your game.

But now when you're up two to three goals, it doesn't need to be prayed in the third period.

You just need to work those last twenty minutes out and get your two points without giving up a lot and letting a team back into a game, and you know, I don't want to say coast, but kind of just work your way out and into the next one.

So I wanted to give them a little bit of credit tonight for I think playing a cleaner third period.

Like I said, not great, but cleaner, better step in the right direction when they're holding a lead.

So hopefully that gets back to where it was a couple of weeks ago when I thought they were playing really well late in the period.

All right, So that is it.

I think fun night ahead tomorrow.

I hope everybody's up for it.

If you're in Buffalo.

It's like we're going to get some snow here in Western New York, so drive safe if you're going to the game, and even out the day.

It seems like we're gonna get a little bit of the white stuff here and it all melted.

We're gonna get some more snow on the ground.

So yeah, thanks for listening, and we will probably probably talk again tomorrow after the game against the Canadians and then head into our weekend to wrap up this homestand with a game against the Minnesota Wild All right Thanks for listening, see it,