Eduardo Encina on the Tampa Bay Matchup

0:00Oh, it's not over yet. Sorry, boys. They are thumping here. Malin's night in Perry. Malin's night. Body shots up over top. Swinging. Perry's the dog in the fight in Malin's night and trying to tame him here. They are girls through the ice. Malin's night in. Drops Perry and goes to the bench with Sabers fans on their feet again. Well, that was the last time these two teams played. And as you could tell, people were into it. It was a as energized a building as I can remember being in in a long time. As the Sabers playoff drought comes to an end over the weekend and now a big matchup with the lightning two point difference in the standings for the top of the Atlantic division, which is roughly kind of where we were a couple of weeks ago. It was top spot in the Atlantic is on the line. And if the Sabers won tonight in regulation,

1:02Tampa would still be up on games played point percentage, but they would come into a tie on points. It's Jeremy and Joe. Jeremy's off this week going to the Western hotline now joined by Eduardo and Cena from the Tampa Bay Times, who's here in Buffalo. And I think it's probably a little colder than Eduardo than you had in Tampa. You just missed, we have 75 here a couple days ago. So yeah, I was just told up by my Uber driver on the way in. But you know what, I'll take this considering some of the other trips that I've had the Buffalo in the winter time. You have to dust up the jacket a little bit, but totally fine with me. Yeah, thank you for being on. So for for tonight's game, a lot to get to want to get some of the injury status stuff of the lightning in as well. But how do you look back on that game and kind of the weeks that have followed the Sabers in light? I mean, everyone was calling it the game of the year at that point, even nationally. I don't know that that game. Still do you look back and think that it could happen again? Or would you expect something a little

2:03tamer tonight? Yeah, I think, you know, be interesting. I think I would expect something a little bit tamer. Obviously, you know, both of these teams have clinch playoff spots now, right? And there's always kind of message sending, especially now, since you really don't know who you're going to face. You know, both for both of these teams, you know, they could face any of, you know, 3, 4 teams right now at this point, maybe 5, 6 even, you know, without tightly the playoff races and how many teams are still kind of in the mix for those last couple of wild card spots. So, you know, there's a little, I think there'll be a little bit of that still. But yeah, I mean, going back to that game, I've covered a lot of games in Buffalo and, you know, I actually, I really like coming here because I do know it's a talent that really loves the touchy team. I've also covered a lot of games with a lot of, you know, half-empty crowds at Keybank, but that crowd was a playoff level crowd. You know, it was not just full, but it was loud. It was reactive to everything

3:08that was going on on the ice, whether it was a Miss Whistle or, you know, guys dropping gloves. And it was cool, really cool to see because I know that this market is weighted for this for a really long time. And to see that in, you know, in March, when you're still probably, you know, when it would be 6 weeks away from actually the playoffs, kind of with that field, that maybe these teams could, you know, meet again with a lot more on the line. You don't necessarily see that too much in game, you know, it would be 50, 55 of the season, you know. So that was really cool to see. And, you know, again, like these two teams, I think, you know, for all the content and purposes, there's probably going to have to go through each other at some point, whether it's the first round or the second round. So yeah, it's a, that was, that was, I do think that that was one of the most memorable games I've covered this year. And it's definitely a highlight of the season for, you know, for the, for the light, even though they lost that game, you know, one

4:09of those games that they came back, you know, it's definitely because you want to, you want to get yourself in that kind of, you're brave of mind that these are playoff games and these games really, really matter. Right. Eduardo and Sino with us on the Western Hotline. The other thing from that game, I wanted to ask you about, is there any residual you think, or like, honestly, I think it's a little answer to the question, if it's not even on your mind, there's been a little bit around here of will Brandon Hagel have to answer if he even plays, and that's the other thing I want to get to with you for going after Rasmus Dallin in the last meeting, did not get ejected from that game. A lot of Sabre fans wanted him thrown out. And I don't know, like, do you feel like there would be any residual and also is he even going to play tonight? Because I think the answer is obviously, no, if he's not expected to. Yeah, I think that's going to be a tough call. We'll find out more and more escape this this morning later on. But I mean, Hagel hasn't played in the past two games. They've won those two games without him. He's obviously a big part of that team and everything they do, because you know, he plays everywhere. He plays, obviously, five on five, power play,

5:14one of the best players in the league. And in a lot of ways, he is that kind of, he's kind of the emotional leader of the team. So you want him on the ice. Like I said, I don't know at this point whether he's going to be on the ice. I didn't see him on the ice since he, uh, they haven't really practiced that much. And, uh, you know, there's a lot of been over a lot of optional skates. But, um, yeah, I haven't seen it. I would think he doesn't play tonight to be honest with you. Um, just an educated guess on my part. But, um, but yeah, I think I would expect the Sabre to go after Brandon Hagel. Um, and again, like, Rathlete Lene from the lightning perspective wasn't necessarily an innocent bystander, um, by any means. I know that, you know, when Hagel pulling him away from the play and everything like that, I know, you know, that, that, that in itself was a play that I think made, made a lot of Sabre's fans angry. Um, and the pummeling, I guess, of them, like, you're not going away. Um, but, but I think the lightning saw a few, um, you know, cross checks

6:16that that Lene had in that game and even going back to the other game. I think the lightning saw there's a play. I think the previous game that injured a gauge can solve this. Um, obviously, there was a, uh, uh, you know, a couple cross checks on, on great, great point, I think, um, I don't know if it was that game of the game before. But, um, you know, so I think, you know, these things kind of all even up, but yeah, I mean, sometimes you do, a team does still believe going into a game a month later that you still kind of have to answer the bell. And, and I know that from the Buffalo fans, and in my mentions, bad night, is it, you're have some, some of those Logan families and guys like that, maybe in the lineup tonight, the weren't in the lineup that night. And, uh, you know, those are going to be the guys that are kind of, yeah, try to get a plan, hey, go to kind of, you know, yeah, pay the pay the price, yeah, I guess, uh, against bigger guys. Yeah, Stanley had said to that he had circled this game on the calendar. I think that fired it up a little fan. The flames a little bit as well. So we'll see. He will play tonight Stanley. Well,

7:16how big a game do you see this is for the standings? There's winning the division. And the way Montreal has looked as of late, do you feel like there is now an added incentive, which is not just winning the division, but avoiding the Canadian's in the first round? Yeah, they're, they're, they're a wagon right now, aren't they? They're, uh, they're obviously, I think they're probably the hottest team in hockey right now. And, you know, you, you, you, you look at a couple of ways. One is, can that sustain itself, right? I mean, obviously, you know, they played well all year, but they're playing on a different level right now. Um, but yeah, I mean, typically the lighting aren't a team that really, once they, they clinched their playoff spot, they're, they're more interested in their own game and kind of honing that for the playoffs, no matter who they play. But they are a team that, you know, they struggle a little bit with the Canadian. So I do think, right now they want to get that, that top seed. So, maybe the match is a little bit better, but, you know, at this point, you know, the way the East is this year, it's, it's really been a crazy year in terms of, I'm not sure you think there's a bunch of teams out there that you're looking at,

8:18out of whether that, you know, wild card one, wild card two, all those teams that are in that change where you look at them and you're like, okay, we've, I really like that matchup, or I really like, you know, a seven game series against that team. It's just so deep. The Atlantic is so deep, you know, whether it's, you know, Montreal, Boston, even Ottawa, you know, Detroit's probably the one team that stands out to me as a division that seems really not kind of struggling its way, you know, in, but outside of that, you know, you can look at these, you know, four or five teams and there's really not, not an easy matchup for anyone. So, but yeah, I think you maybe go into the playoffs and we're a little bit more standing a little bit taller if you're the number one, but for the same, I mean, same point, the lightning has done that before and, and failed at it. Now, it's really kind of the building block and the real luck in that they learned when they were on the president's trophy and in, in 2019, got the Columbus Village jackets in the first round and just totally just, you know, gave it away, you know, so they, they know it from both sides about the

9:20value of that number one seed or that, you know, that winning the division, I guess. But yeah, I mean, I think you want to avoid the Canadians right now the way they're playing, but at the same time, there's really no, there's no easy, easy matchup in this first round with all these teams of coming to win it. By the way, they play back-to-back days here, right? So, would there be some chance it wouldn't be Vassalowski? Or would you think because Vassalowski didn't go last time? Would you guess that it is him tonight? Yeah, they've seen a lot of your hands that have a day. I would think you get Vassalowski out there tonight and then, you know, Ottawa, you go if you'll Hansen. Just because the way the kind of the date and the days off, stuff like that, they've been really kind of trying to optimize the day off days and practice days and stuff like that to give Vassal rest, to optimize his rest kind of, especially down the stretch. So, I would, I would have gotten if they expect Vassalowski and Net tonight and then, you know, Hansen and Net tomorrow and Ottawa. Obviously, this is a huge road trip for them, not just the back-to-back against, you know,

10:24two teams, you know, in that mix that we talked about, but also, you know, Montreal, they got Montreal on Thursday and Boston on Saturday. So, this is kind of a gauntlet and kind of a preview for them of, you know, the teams that they faced all year, but also the teams that they might end up facing, you know, in the first round. Last thing for you, Eduardo, and then we'll let you go. Darren Raddish this year, like, not really a household name, I don't feel like for most hockey fans yet, because this is kind of the first year, right, of this level of play, setting franchise records. How out of left field is the season radish is having? And with headman out, I would imagine that's been critical for them. Yes, been used for them, and they've had a lot of injuries across the board on the blue line. Not just headman, Ryan McDonough, miss about 30 games, in the Lilleburg, miss about 22. So, yeah, Darren Raddish, I didn't say, I didn't want it on my bingo card for sure, the Darren Raddish would have 21 goals this year, and, you know, lead the league, and in power play goals by Desensmen. So, he has, see the opportunity, you know, he's a great

11:28back story, you know, just a guy who, you know, wasn't drafted in juniors played, you know, five years of juniors, four years in the HL before Lightning really gave him his real first chance in the NHL, and they kind of three years in now, he's just kind of, you know, he's taking his game to another level, and it comes at a time for him that's incredible, because he's going to be a underserved free agent in this summer, and the Lightning have to make a real, real tough decision on how they try to keep him, because he's going to make, he's going to go for making, I think, $895,000 to a lot more than that, you know, the multi-year deal with the year he's having. He definitely kind of came out of nowhere. He's a hard worker though. One of those guys, I feel like it's at a great story because, you know, he kind of has that in him, but, you know, he really sees the opportunity of all the injuries, and like you said, again, it is a, it has been a big, big boost for them, especially with all the injuries that they had, had been McDonough, all these guys who kind of, you know, kind of held the blue line together for them over all these years. Eduardo and Cena Tampa Bay Times at Eddie in the yard on Twitter.

12:32Thanks again, Eduardo, and enjoy the game tonight. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. When we come back in Extendo Sports, we have some peeps to try, and they're a flavor that I wasn't that excited about when I saw it, but we're going to, we're going to give it a shot next.