On this episode of the Moran-Alytics Podcast, today marks the official start to hockey season as the Buffalo Sabres take the ice for training camp.  To celebrate a new season, Patrick Moran interviews Sabres beat writer Joe Yerdon of The Athletic (Buffalo) on a variety of topics in a wide-ranging discussion.

They discuss everything from Yerdon growing up near Albany through his youth and college days before deep diving into his career and everything that led to him joining The Athletic this summer.

Of course, they spend considerable time talking about the Sabres, and Moran asks Yerdon about Rasmus Asplund, Alex Nylander, his thoughts on an improving bottom half of the Sabres roster, the effect that the arrival of Rasmus Dahlin has had on the culture and vibe of the organization and Joe is asked to give a prediction on how the team will fare in 2018-19.

It seems no Moran interview is complete without chicken wing talk these days, and Yerdon has an entertaining story about his experience at Bar Bill with hot wings before they wrap with the mini-lightning round and Yerdon explaining the origins of his “noted jerk” moniker.

You can follow Joe Yerdon on Twitter at @JoeYerdon and  you can subscribe to The Athletic by going to https://theathletic.com/

After that, Moran is joined by Joe from BuffaloWins (@buffalowins) for his recurring “The Run-In With Joe” segment.  Today they’re reacting to Buffalo Bills rookie Josh Allen being named the starting quarterback after just one game, examine if Nate Peterman’s Bills career may already soon be coming to an end, discuss if Stephen A. Smith was exaggerating when he tweeted that the Bills may be the worst team of this decade and veer off for some WWE talk as they run down the Hell in the Cell pay-per-view this coming Sunday and offer predictions.

Finally, Joe uses his “finisher” to blast the Buffalo News sports department for doing a poor job using Twitter.

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

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