EP 94: John Vogl (The Athletic) Returns

On this episode of the future award winning Moran-Alytics Podcast, Patrick Moran is joined for a second time by John Vogl, Buffalo Sabres writer for The Athletic.

When John was first on the podcast back in early July of last year, he had literally just started at The Athletic after leaving The Buffalo News following 16 years on their staff. Vogl reviews how the transition has been over the past nine months and highlights differences he’s found in his work flow as a result of the change.

From there they dive into the Sabres and John’s pleased at how much more fun it’s been to cover the team this year with them in a thick of a playoff race through the middle of February, a far cry from most seasons over the past decade where it’s deadline trade sellers and draft lottery positioning dominating Buffalo headlines. Vogl also feels the Sabres 10-game winning streak early in the season was in some ways a curse because of the lofty expectations it created and also provides insight into two prospects the Sabres could potentially move before the NHL trade daedline while being candid about Phil Housley’s future with the team if they falter down the stretch.

Both being wrestling marks, Moran and Vogl wrap up with a little WWE talk, hitting on Charlotte Flair being brought into the main event at Wrestlemania, Dean Ambrose’s imminent departure from WWE potentially being a work, and a possible Mania’ opponent for Daniel Bryan.

You can follow John Vogl on Twitter at @BuffaloVogl and be sure to get an online subscription to The Athletic, where Buffalo fans not only get tons of Bills and Sabres coverage but also access to all acclaimed national writers on The Athletic staff.

Following that, Joe’s (@BuffaloWins) back for another installment of “The Run-In With Joe” and it’s a lively one. They begin by highlighting this as the perfect time to begin your Game of Thrones viewing binge with the final season now just 58 days away. That seems to be the extent of things they agree on, because they spend the next several minutes bantering and arguing about how the Buffalo Bills should approach the offseason in regards to how they should spend their money and resources. Moran thinks Buffalo should invest very heavily on the offensive line via free agency and the draft while Joe prefers more skill position players and predicts the Bills will invests heavily on defense. Joe is also married to the ideal that the Bills are being modeled after Carolina but Moran’s not ready to agree.

They also go through the Moran-Alytics Podcast Interest Meter, where Moran runs off several sports and pop culture topics while Joe scores his interest level on a scale of 1-10 and has a take for each. Among the topics covered are Joe Flacco, James Harden, The Los Angeles Lakers, pitchers and catchers, Frozen 2 (yes!) and Journey.

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Follow Patrick Moran on Twitter @patmorantweets and “like” the Moran-Alytics Facebook page.

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