0:12

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects.

0:14

I am Sean McEnew from The

0:17

Athletic. And we're getting down to

0:19

the real nitty gritty here folks.

0:21

There's three days left of regular

0:24

season games. Most teams are at

0:26

like 80, 81, something like that.

0:28

And it's getting interesting out there.

0:30

Let's say that. Do we want

0:33

to start Sean with the teams

0:35

that are kind of getting eliminated

0:37

in the last little while here

0:39

are the teams that still in

0:42

it? Up to you. Let's do

0:44

the teams being eliminated.

0:47

Sounds good. And then if

0:49

you don't hear your team,

0:51

that's good. Close one. All

0:54

right, then I gotta

0:56

start with the funniest

0:59

possible team. The New

1:01

York Rangers. Whoops. Whoops.

1:04

So look, it hasn't been

1:06

going great for a

1:08

minute over there, you know.

1:10

And. Boy, was it, was it

1:12

Molly Walker on Sunday? Was like,

1:15

hey, so Calvin Hahn just

1:17

walked by all the reporters

1:19

and was basically like, yeah.

1:21

Hey, how they're using me

1:24

since they traded for me at

1:26

the deadline is fucked. Quote,

1:28

it's fucked. It's fucked. And

1:30

then he comes off the ice

1:33

and the, and oh, and he

1:35

said, like, I'll be very transparent

1:37

about how I feel blah, blah,

1:39

blah, blah. And then he

1:42

talks to the Rangers PR after

1:44

he comes off the ice from

1:46

practice and he's like I actually

1:48

I think he held it by

1:50

them and yeah, but uh Yeah, he then

1:52

he's like I actually love the

1:55

New York Rangers. They're a perfect

1:57

team who's never done any thing

1:59

wrong. And then he posted on

2:01

Twitter about like basically what you

2:04

could have surmised. This is a

2:06

guy who when they when they

2:08

traded for him they put him

2:10

into the lineup. The Rangers went

2:13

two-oh-and-one and he was like oh

2:15

it's going pretty good. They'll keep

2:17

playing me. wrong. He hasn't played

2:19

since like March 15th or something

2:22

like that. It's been quite a

2:24

while, hasn't gotten into the lineup.

2:26

And he, you know, he's like,

2:28

look, was I the reason that

2:31

we went to one one? I,

2:33

you know, I'm man enough to

2:35

say probably not, you know, I

2:37

could have been part of it,

2:40

but I wasn't the guy or

2:42

anything. And then he's like, and

2:44

I don't want to be playing

2:46

like 20 minutes a night, but

2:49

like, you know like we're doing

2:51

good. Yeah. So let's fucking mix

2:53

it up. But... I'm not trying

2:55

to be... This is the quote

2:58

that I thought was funny at

3:00

the end here. I'm not trying

3:02

to be the villain or gain

3:04

attention or throw shade on the

3:06

organization. Well, I would have referred

3:09

a scrum setting to chat about

3:11

my time... how my time with

3:13

the Rangers has gone. As a

3:15

player you have to respect the

3:18

line of decisions whether you like

3:20

them or not. It's just been

3:22

frustrating not being able to compete

3:24

and do what I love. I

3:27

hope everyone understands. I think we

3:29

all do understand, including Peter LaVielette,

3:31

who's like, if I thought he

3:33

was happy being scratched this often,

3:36

I would think that sucked. You

3:38

know, I want him to want

3:40

to be in the lineup. I

3:42

just don't want him in the

3:45

lineup. It's kind of what he

3:47

said. So, uh, you have any

3:49

thoughts on that? Yeah, my first

3:51

thought was, oh, cool, Calvin de

3:54

Hahn is. On the Rangers, apparently.

3:56

Yeah, he was he was the

3:58

cap dump in the What's his

4:00

name trade to Colorado. Yeah lingered.

4:03

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, Ryan lingered

4:05

so I wanted to say Braden

4:07

Shiner and I'm like, I know

4:09

that guy's still other rangers, so

4:12

I don't know who I'm thinking

4:14

of. But yeah, beyond that, I

4:16

don't think that like seventh defensemen

4:18

on teams missing the playoffs who

4:20

were cap throw-ins are really the

4:23

guys that your PR team wants

4:25

dropping F-boms in their sound bites,

4:27

but... I get what's he make?

4:29

I get what's he make against

4:32

the cap? I don't know probably

4:34

too much Oh, it's definitely too

4:36

much. Is it four four and

4:38

a half something like that? Let's

4:41

look this up But yeah, I

4:43

mean look This is one of

4:45

the classic things so rangers I

4:47

think are gonna be the fourth

4:50

team to win the presence trophy

4:52

one year and then miss the

4:54

playoffs the next? Something like that

4:56

I believe that, by the way,

4:59

Calvin Doha makes 800 grand. So

5:01

he doesn't make 4 million at

5:03

all. So the fourth or fifth

5:05

team, you know, low number of

5:08

teams to win the presence trophy,

5:10

then miss the playoffs. And I've

5:12

said it all year. I've said

5:14

it going back to last year.

5:17

This is a team of the

5:19

power play and a goalie. When

5:21

you don't have the power play,

5:23

you don't have the goalie. Suddenly

5:25

a lot of the flaws are

5:28

pretty obvious to everyone to everyone.

5:30

You know, they're gonna finish above

5:32

500 NHL 500. So it's not

5:34

like it's a total disaster like

5:37

they're not You know like the

5:39

Bruins for example a team that

5:41

everybody including me thought was going

5:43

to be good and they're the

5:46

worst team in the conference You

5:48

know, but again relative to expectations.

5:50

This is about as bad as

5:52

it could go for the Rangers

5:55

And so the question is, Sean,

5:57

how do you fix the Rangers?

5:59

Well... Two

6:01

things. First of all, if you're

6:04

looking for a little dose of

6:06

optimism, one of those teams to

6:08

win the president's trophy and then

6:11

miss the playoffs the next year

6:13

was the 1992 Rangers. They won

6:15

the president's trophy in 92, 92,

6:17

92. I don't remember if anything

6:20

interesting happened to the New York

6:22

Rangers in 1994. But I think

6:24

they I think they improved so

6:27

that's right there's your optimism the

6:29

other piece of optimism the even

6:31

better news is is I don't

6:34

have to fix the rangers because

6:36

my understanding is Mark Messier already

6:38

has Well I think he's proposed

6:41

some let's say very intriguing ideas.

6:43

Yeah, I mean I hadn't seen

6:45

this until you sent it to

6:47

me, but Yeah, they're they're fixed

6:50

Well, okay. Five easy steps and

6:52

you'll never guess what theme most

6:54

of them have to do with.

6:57

Number one, identify captain slash leader.

6:59

Now personally I would have done

7:01

this before. I would have had

7:04

an idea of like who the

7:06

leader was before, especially since they

7:08

traded the captain already, you know?

7:11

But do they have an identity?

7:13

Well, you got to create an

7:15

identity. Ah. Step two. That's step

7:17

two according to Mark Messier. I

7:20

wonder what their identity will be.

7:22

What will this amateur team's identity

7:24

be? Will it be a hardworking

7:27

team that's tough to play against?

7:29

Well look, I gotta tell you

7:31

Sean, that's not really what the

7:34

Ranger's identity was when they were

7:36

having success. Again, they were a

7:38

power play and a goalie. This

7:41

is one of those situations where

7:43

like a team is like, we

7:45

need an identity and it's like,

7:47

no, you have one. You might

7:50

need a new one, but. You

7:52

definitely have an identity. Well again,

7:54

like the thing about... is, you

7:57

know, you build a team around

7:59

what the identity is, or you

8:01

let the identity come to you

8:04

through the team you build, right?

8:06

And I think it's fair to

8:08

say that if you're, that there's

8:11

a certain amount of square peg

8:13

and round hole in the way

8:15

a lot of this works, right,

8:17

where I circle back to this

8:20

all the time. When Milan Luci

8:22

each destroyed the Buffalo Sabres franchise

8:24

forever, by running over Ryan Miller

8:27

and they were like, we're gonna

8:29

go out, we're gonna be hard

8:31

to play against, we're gonna get

8:34

a bunch of tough guys who

8:36

suck. And it's like, weren't you

8:38

guys like one of the best

8:41

teams in the Eastern Conference for

8:43

years? Right? And they were like,

8:45

our identity is the problem here

8:47

because no one tried to murder

8:50

Milan Luci because he was bigger

8:52

than all of them. You know,

8:54

and they were like, we have

8:57

to go build a new identity,

8:59

and the new identity was bad.

9:01

The previous identity was good because

9:04

they had, well, A, built it

9:06

over years, but B, built it

9:08

to like, we have a bunch

9:11

of players who are good, you

9:13

know. And people say like, oh,

9:15

you know, the Tampa thing, if

9:17

like you, if you bump Andre

9:20

Vasilevski. there's 40 guys jumping on

9:22

you or whatever and it's like

9:24

yeah that's true but also it's

9:27

like you know you had Stephen

9:29

Sancoast and Braden point in the

9:31

key to Kuchar. Like you know

9:34

their their identity was that they

9:36

were a really good hockey team

9:38

who it just happened to be

9:41

they were all like nasty guys

9:43

you know on the ice. But

9:45

when teams talk about creating an

9:47

identity it's always the same one.

9:50

Yeah of course. Win two to

9:52

one. grind it out, pucks in

9:54

deep. Now I mean I could

9:57

get philosophical and ask if all

9:59

32 teams have the same identity.

10:01

Does anyone actually have an identity?

10:04

Right. All right, so we've got

10:06

leadership and an identity. Yeah. Well,

10:08

what different way to say leadership

10:11

has he got next? Well, you

10:13

define a nucleus to drive the

10:15

culture. Culture, yes. To me, it's

10:17

all about defining the nucleus. So

10:20

identity comes first and then culture?

10:22

It's interesting. Yeah. I would have

10:24

thought culture would be first in

10:27

that identity, but this is why

10:29

I'm not Mark Mis you. Well,

10:31

so, okay. Define a nucleus. This

10:34

is just a good idea, right?

10:36

Like, this is, again, what I'm

10:38

talking about of, like, okay, who

10:41

are the key players for the

10:43

next five or six years on

10:45

this team? And we know what

10:48

some of them are, or who

10:50

some of them are, I should

10:52

say, because a bunch of these

10:54

guys are signed long term. Right?

10:57

And that, look, the Rangers proved

10:59

this year, you know, that doesn't

11:01

necessarily mean anything, but it gives

11:04

you the framework of what that

11:06

is. So, who do you think?

11:08

You think it's probably, uh, LaFranier?

11:11

You think it's probably, I would

11:13

guess, you probably have to say

11:15

it's J.T. Miller? Um, Adam Fox.

11:18

I don't know. This is one

11:20

of these things. Does the goalie

11:22

count for culture or core or

11:24

identity? I think he counts as

11:27

part of your nucleus. Okay. Goles

11:29

cannot be part of identity or

11:31

culture because they're all weird cycle

11:34

paths that should not be allowed

11:36

to speak. But no, piggy gets

11:38

to be part of the nucleus.

11:41

So that's if you want do

11:43

you do you have anybody else

11:45

you would add to that like

11:48

I guess you'd take game parole

11:50

Because he you know he's a

11:52

first round pick and he's gonna

11:54

be yeah, no you got to

11:57

earn your spot on the on

11:59

the nucleus there buddy. Yeah, okay

12:01

I think that's fair. You're not

12:04

getting it handed to you. I

12:06

think that's totally fair. And I'm

12:08

not, like, I'm not even doing

12:11

a joke here. I think it's

12:13

totally fair to be like, yeah,

12:15

this 19-year-old who's played two NHL

12:18

games or whatever is not part

12:20

of our nucleus at this point.

12:22

I think you've got the key

12:24

guys. I'm sure there's one or

12:27

two other guys that... Will coolly,

12:29

there, we did it. You know.

12:31

Okay. Okay. I'm being really serious

12:34

here. What youth? Is that not

12:36

like a legitimate? And I mean,

12:38

I guess the, maybe the implication

12:41

is the youth that you acquire

12:43

by moving out anyone who wasn't

12:45

identified in steps one through three.

12:48

Maybe. But also again, like, okay,

12:50

Will Cooley, like, are we saying

12:52

Matt Rumpy here? Like, is that,

12:54

is that what we're really getting

12:57

down to? I cannot believe I

12:59

forgot Matt Rumpy as part of

13:01

the nucleus. Well, again, like, he

13:04

shouldn't be part of the nucleus.

13:06

He's bad. That's one of the

13:08

key things about the Matt Rumpy

13:11

experience, is that he's not very

13:13

good. Well, right, yeah, of course.

13:15

But, I don't know, like, like,

13:19

Again, are we saying like Brennan

13:22

Othman needs to be in a

13:24

bigger, you know, when the time

13:26

to move the youth into bigger

13:28

roles was, it was like two

13:30

years ago. I mean, yeah, but

13:32

they won the president's trophy. Right,

13:34

it was working. It was working.

13:36

Like it's... And again, like this

13:38

is something we've, I hate to

13:40

keep saying again, but this is

13:42

just something we talked about on

13:45

the show every time we talked

13:47

about the Rangers. It's like... Part

13:50

of the problem for their their

13:52

you know youth movement or whatever

13:54

where they had all these relatively

13:56

high first-round picks Was that they

13:59

weren't putting those guys on the

14:01

power play, right? Like they were

14:03

just like, no, no, the power

14:05

play is for all the old

14:08

guys. And it made sense because

14:10

the power play was working. But

14:12

this year when the power play

14:15

stopped working, they weren't like, you

14:17

know, who needs more power play

14:19

time is literally any of those

14:21

guys necessarily. And I don't know,

14:24

it's tough because it's like, well,

14:26

you know, in theory, you would

14:28

stick with what worked and the

14:30

percentages would even themselves out over

14:33

time, maybe. The larger point is

14:35

that like they had the youth

14:37

and now they've traded all those

14:39

young guys away Coupeau-cocco's not on

14:42

the team anymore, you know, Philipital's

14:44

not on the team anymore. Those

14:46

were that was the kid line

14:48

remember the kid line? I do.

14:51

Yeah, one good shift every four

14:53

playoff games and that was The

14:55

future but they just never put

14:57

those guys in a position to

15:00

succeed they never until And so

15:02

now they're getting around to it,

15:04

I guess. Okay, so we've got,

15:06

we have done four of the

15:09

five steps in the Mark Messier

15:11

plan. The first three were all

15:13

kind of wishy-washy leadership things. And

15:15

then the fourth one was an

15:18

actual piece of roster building. Take

15:20

us home with the last one.

15:22

What are we got? Body language.

15:24

It's just body language. Body language.

15:27

One of the most important things.

15:29

Body language. Yeah. He didn't say

15:31

whether it should be good or

15:34

bad. I'm assuming he went on

15:36

to explain that it should absolutely

15:38

suck. It's like I want to

15:40

see people slumped over. I want

15:43

to see heads hanging. Yeah, I

15:45

did not watch this segment live.

15:47

I just saw the image that

15:49

everyone was making fun of. And

15:52

rightfully so. So

15:54

yeah to me, I'm just you

15:57

know The

16:00

classic I hate to say

16:03

I told you so but

16:05

I did try to tell

16:07

you did you know and

16:10

if you're if you're the

16:12

rangers I think you're you're

16:14

preparing to fire the coach

16:17

I think you're preparing to

16:19

probably fire the GM yeah

16:21

what what percentage would you

16:24

put on both of those

16:26

like to happen yeah like

16:28

95 on the coach and

16:31

70 on the GM. Okay.

16:33

Does that sound right? It

16:35

sounds within the range of

16:38

right? I think, yeah, the

16:40

coach feels like a sure

16:42

thing. GM, I don't know,

16:45

and I suppose it is

16:47

possible that if they bring

16:49

back Kristuri, he could say,

16:52

no, you know, Lavela's my

16:54

guy. And

16:56

or Laval, that's my shield

16:58

that I want to go

17:00

into next season with. Still

17:02

have that card to play,

17:04

but I think, yeah, that's,

17:07

I think you probably have

17:09

it about right. So he

17:11

got hired in May 2021,

17:13

so I'm just trying to

17:15

figure out what his first

17:17

team looked like, like what,

17:19

who was on the first

17:21

team, Chris Trueree brought to

17:23

the table here. Just sortin'

17:25

by points, Panarin, Zabana-Jad, Crider,

17:27

Fox, Strome, Truba, Goodrow, Lefrennier,

17:29

Heatle, Kiandre Miller, Cop, Cop

17:32

must have been a guy

17:34

they traded for, Kako, Dryden

17:36

Hunt, Frank Votrano was on

17:38

that team, Ryan Lindgren, you

17:40

go down the list. A

17:42

lot of those guys are

17:44

still on this team. You

17:46

know? And isn't that interesting?

17:48

Cops not, obviously, again, I

17:50

think that was just, they

17:52

traded for him at the

17:55

deadline and he actually had

17:57

a pretty good... A little

17:59

run at the end of

18:01

the season there. Heatle gone,

18:03

Goodrow gone, obviously, Truba gone.

18:05

I don't know. I guess

18:07

the thing is, the vibes

18:09

here are insanely bad. It

18:11

seems like everyone's angry, it

18:13

seems like nobody feels like

18:15

they are guaranteed anything. You

18:17

know, the Goodrow and Truba

18:20

trades are just kind of

18:22

like, didn't we sign big

18:24

contracts that gave us protection

18:26

and you just were kind

18:28

of like, oh fuck yourselves.

18:30

And that's fascinating to me

18:32

because there's a lot of

18:34

situations we've seen in the

18:36

past around the league where

18:38

you go, man, the players

18:40

are running the show here.

18:42

The inmates are running the

18:45

asylum. You got to, you

18:47

know, the team needs to

18:49

send a message that we

18:51

are here to, like the

18:53

Goodrow stuff was like. They

18:55

won the president's trophy, went out in,

18:58

what was it, the second or third

19:00

round? Did they make the conference final

19:02

last year? I think they made the

19:05

conference final. And then they said, that's

19:07

not good enough. We are pushing even

19:09

further and, you know, yeah, we're gonna,

19:11

if we gotta break a few eggs,

19:14

we'll do it. And we've seen that

19:16

in Tampa, we've seen it in Vegas,

19:18

and yet in New York, it's like...

19:21

You know, you look at teams like

19:23

Vegas and you go, why doesn't everyone

19:25

do this? And then you look at

19:27

the Rangers and you're like, oh, right,

19:30

because it is a little bit of

19:32

a narrow path to walk to get

19:34

it right. Or maybe there is no

19:37

getting it right and we're just filling

19:39

in right or wrong after we see

19:41

the results. Nobody would be mad about

19:43

Vegas if they didn't keep winning after

19:46

doing all this. You know what I

19:48

mean? Same thing with Tampa. Yeah. Like

19:50

people aren't mad because they keep winning.

19:52

Winning fixes a lot of the problems.

19:55

Oh, I'm mad that they traded the

19:57

captain of the team. Well, what if...

19:59

What if I told you we're going

20:02

to play at a 115 point pace?

20:04

Nobody's like, I still miss Jacob Truba

20:06

though. Fup Jacob Truba is what they're

20:08

all saying at that point. But because

20:11

I don't know what the pace is

20:13

since they traded Jacob Truba, but it's

20:15

not like good. No. I mean, it's

20:18

awful, but it wasn't. Well, I mean,

20:20

the thing is, they started the season.

20:23

Pretty well. They did weren't they like

20:25

nine and four at one point? Yeah,

20:28

something like that. Yeah, but even then

20:30

they were making these changes and it

20:32

was sort of like at the time

20:34

you could have if you squinted you

20:37

could say this is Chris Drury saying

20:39

that you know what the record is

20:41

good, but I don't like what I'm

20:44

seeing and we're making the big changes

20:46

and we're you know doing all of

20:48

this, but it really does seem to

20:50

have Had an impact on I mean

20:53

we saw the stories in the middle

20:55

of the season, right? That like, no,

20:57

this isn't a team that hates their

21:00

coach. This is a team that hates

21:02

their GM, which is something that you

21:04

almost never, never see. What an interesting

21:07

team. I did not see this, like

21:09

the Boston thing you could have maybe

21:11

seen coming? I don't think so. Again,

21:13

like the Boston was, they were like

21:16

a good five on five team last

21:18

year or whatever, you know, maybe not

21:20

great, but Boston. I mean, not only,

21:23

you know, we talked about the Rangers

21:25

winning the President's trophy last year, not

21:27

only did Boston win it the year

21:30

before, they had the best regular season

21:32

record-wise ever in the history of the

21:34

league. And two years later, they're a

21:36

complete mess. Can I give you a

21:39

pretty interesting stat on this that I

21:41

just pulled up? The Rangers have the

21:43

fourth worst power play shooting percentage in

21:46

the league this year. Which

21:48

you wouldn't expect given the talent

21:51

that they have on that roster

21:53

in recent results. No The Bruins

21:55

have the third worst and on

21:58

the island and the ducks have

22:00

the two have the two worse

22:02

than they're basically the same. 8.6

22:05

and 8.3. Like I figured out

22:07

what the problem here is, you

22:09

know, if the Rangers are shooting

22:12

at a bet, you know, they

22:14

were 10th in the league last

22:16

year, they shot 15.2% and this

22:19

year it's it's way worse than

22:21

that, you know. So that's not

22:23

their only problem, but it's a

22:26

big part of it. And... If

22:28

your team is like, well, you

22:30

know, if we shave four points

22:33

off our power play shooting percentage

22:35

and we go in the toilet,

22:37

that's probably just not a well-built

22:40

team at the end of the

22:42

day. So, I don't know, I

22:44

guess that's my big take on

22:47

the Rangers is like, some of

22:49

this is like, I don't know

22:51

how repeatable it is that the

22:54

Rangers will be this bad again

22:56

next year, no matter what changes

22:58

they make, because they just do

23:01

have talent at the top of

23:03

that lineup at the top of

23:05

that lineup. Some coach to come

23:08

in at the very least. I

23:10

mean tough market James Dole and

23:12

all that stuff, but just purely

23:15

in terms of teams that should

23:17

be able to rebound Yeah, and

23:19

I again Here here's what I

23:22

would say and then we'll move

23:24

on from the Rangers. I don't

23:26

think they were presidents should have

23:29

won the president's trophy last year

23:31

good last season, and I don't

23:33

think they're gonna finish with like

23:36

83 to 85 points this year

23:38

bad I think they're like a

23:40

98 point team on paper Okay.

23:43

You know? And I don't think,

23:45

I don't know, I don't think

23:47

that's like, would that be disappointing

23:50

to people? This year it would

23:52

have been. Next year I think

23:54

people will be like, you know

23:57

what, I'll take 98, 100 points,

23:59

no problem for me. Yep. So.

24:01

Let's just shoot over just a

24:04

little bit away from Madison Square

24:06

Garden out to UBS, MSG to

24:08

UBS, I guess. We're the New

24:11

York Islanders. There is some question

24:13

whether Lou Lamerillo and Patrick Waugh

24:15

are both out when the season

24:18

is over. That would be, I

24:20

think it would be good news,

24:22

but let's see. And is it,

24:25

so is Lou out and what

24:27

would that look like? Like is

24:29

it an actual firing or is

24:32

it? You know he moves upstairs

24:34

or he does just I don't

24:36

think you can let him yeah,

24:39

I don't think you can let

24:41

him touch Hockey ops hockey decisions

24:43

anymore, you know, it's We've seen

24:46

how it's gone and his bright

24:48

ideas like let's put Matt Martin

24:50

out there, you know, you assume

24:53

when a GM goes that the

24:55

coach probably goes or Do

24:59

you think Patrick Waugh was working

25:01

the behind-the-scenes saying like put me

25:03

in charge of the team? Yeah,

25:05

sure. I've seen this once before,

25:07

right? Like, this is how it

25:10

went down in Colorado. Patrick Waugh

25:12

does not seem to view himself

25:14

as purely a coach or at

25:16

least he didn't back then. Right.

25:19

I mean, we know he's got

25:21

the, you know, his hands-on experience

25:23

in junior. So I don't know.

25:25

I mean, I think... I've

25:28

got all the respect in the

25:30

world for the nearly 40 years

25:33

of success Lou Lamorellos had in

25:35

the NHL, but I think it

25:37

would be good news for the

25:40

islanders to have a fresh set

25:42

of eyes. It gets away from

25:44

you. That's fine. You know? It

25:47

have... I'm legitimately asking how old

25:49

is Lou Lamorello. Is he 80?

25:51

He's... He's at his 80s. He's

25:53

82, and he'll be 83 in

25:56

October. I think

25:58

that's fine. I think we can

26:00

say... you know what thank you

26:02

for your service Lou I don't

26:04

want you know this is this

26:06

is the thing like you don't

26:08

want to be like I don't

26:10

think you can do it what

26:13

was it like that we should

26:15

have the 50 over 50 list

26:17

remember that that take we have

26:19

the 30 under 30 what about

26:21

the 60 over 60 yeah what

26:23

about it Lou Lamerillo is on

26:25

the 80 over 80 list there's

26:27

no two ways about it but

26:29

we don't need to do all

26:31

that anymore There's I think there

26:33

are people who have more let's

26:36

say modern takes on the game

26:38

than what if we go up

26:40

because this is the thing What

26:42

I'm gonna I'm gonna read you

26:44

the numbers on? This is just

26:46

a series of numbers and I

26:48

want you to tell me what

26:50

this series is 29 34 33

26:52

23 to 25 26 30 30

26:54

30. Well I heard a 33

26:56

in there so I'm it's not

26:59

rankings rankings what it felt like,

27:01

what is it? That is the

27:03

age of the islanders top 10

27:05

scorers from 1 to 10. Oh

27:07

no. Yeah, okay. 123 year old,

27:09

a 25 year old, and a

27:11

26 year old. And look, I'm

27:13

just, I think that I think

27:15

that you can make the argument

27:17

that lose like 35 years old.

27:19

He said the prime of his

27:22

life. You know, like that's the

27:24

prime of his life. You know,

27:26

like that's like that's like, like,

27:28

That like it just it's it's

27:30

a pattern that's gone on a

27:32

little too long for you to

27:34

say that's not just like Lou

27:36

Lamerillo doesn't think agent curves matter.

27:38

Yeah. And so there needs to

27:40

be someone to come in here

27:42

and be like maybe we don't

27:45

extend every 33 year old on

27:47

the roster. But

27:51

there was an article in the New York

27:53

Post today and it was behind a

27:55

paywall and I'm not going to pay for

27:57

the New York Post Paywall, but it was

27:59

like how the islanders went from Cup Contender

28:02

to this, and it's like Cup

28:04

Contender. Yeah, I saw a few people

28:06

kind of question that. They

28:09

were in the conference final back

28:11

to back years. Yeah, Sean, remind

28:13

me scale of 1 to 10.

28:15

How fake were those two playoffs?

28:17

You know what? I don't have

28:19

a spreadsheet in front. I have

28:21

a spreadsheet. Do you want me

28:24

to pull the... No, I'll pull

28:26

the numbers. I'm not afraid. Yeah.

28:28

But yeah, it's like they did

28:30

it in a 60s something game

28:32

season where, you know, they stopped

28:34

the season for three months

28:36

and then got everybody together

28:38

and there were 42 teams

28:40

in the playoffs and some

28:42

of the rounds were best

28:44

out of 6 and some

28:46

of the rounds were best

28:48

out of 12 or something

28:50

like that. And so the

28:52

the cup fakeness in 20

28:54

and 21. 4.4 5 and

28:56

0. These are

28:59

very fake cups folks.

29:01

It's extremely cup. It's

29:04

extremely fake. Although that

29:06

does add up to one

29:08

season as a contender.

29:10

Mm-hmm. Yeah, a little over.

29:12

But yeah, to me, it's just

29:15

like, yep, you had two

29:17

good playoffs, one of

29:19

which was like about as

29:21

fake as I can imagine

29:23

a season being. The

29:25

first COVID season. So,

29:27

and again, part of the

29:30

part of that too was, much

29:32

like the Rangers, they just

29:34

had the goalie. Remember

29:37

that? Remember how good

29:39

that guy was? What happened?

29:41

They brought in Superstar

29:44

goalie as the coach and

29:46

he decided to let the

29:48

other guy be the starter

29:51

for half a season. That's

29:53

interesting. But

29:56

yeah, so like I don't know I this is

29:58

this is one where I I don't know

30:00

what the fix is here because

30:02

this is the other thing. One,

30:04

two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,

30:07

nine, ten, eleven guys on the

30:09

island, 12 guys on the islanders have

30:11

some form of movement protection. And

30:13

most of them are full no

30:15

trade clauses. Maybe not most. Half of

30:17

them are full no trade clauses,

30:19

it looks like. I

30:27

don't know what the fix

30:29

is. Yeah, this I think

30:31

is a much tougher fix

30:33

than the Rangers, let's just

30:35

say. Totally. But I'm sure

30:38

they'll figure something out, no

30:40

problem, you know. What if

30:42

they just put Lamerillo's kid

30:44

in charge? What a track

30:46

record. I mean, he was

30:49

running, he was running the

30:51

AHL team this year, look

30:53

up how they did. Oh,

30:55

nobody's ever lost more home

30:57

games than the AHL ever?

31:00

Oh, okay. I believe that,

31:02

I believe that's the record.

31:04

Home record. Let's, I'm pretty

31:06

sure this is what it

31:08

is. Yeah, they went four,

31:11

twenty-eight, one, and three at

31:13

home this year. Fewest win,

31:15

fewest home wins in AHL

31:17

history in a season. Yep.

31:19

Four. minus

31:23

70 gold difference at

31:25

home it looks like.

31:27

Can that be right?

31:30

Seems bad. Or is

31:32

that a minus 70

31:34

in all situation, you

31:36

know, home and away,

31:38

whatever? Yeah, that's unbelievable.

31:40

They were last in

31:43

the AHL last season

31:45

as well. So I

31:47

wouldn't personally put the

31:49

kid in charge. But

31:53

you know, hey, also the

31:55

kid. He's probably 65 years

31:57

old, you know Yeah,

32:00

you know what he probably

32:02

is. Let's look up how

32:05

old Chris Lamorello is. All

32:07

right. Is there a great-grant

32:09

kid available? He's 53. Okay.

32:12

He was born in 1972.

32:14

He was born in the

32:16

same year as they released

32:18

The Godfather. So, you know,

32:21

not exactly, not exactly an

32:23

Al Pacino's kid. So, you

32:25

know, Al Pacino has like

32:28

a newborn child. Relatively Al

32:30

Pacino Al Pacino like the

32:32

the actor yeah 97 year

32:35

old act the guy who

32:37

was in the godfather yeah

32:39

He is it looks it

32:42

looks like he is two

32:44

years older than then Lou

32:46

Lamerillo Al Pacino Yeah So

32:49

yeah, again, like I don't

32:51

I don't think it hurts

32:53

you to fire Lou I

32:55

don't think or you know

32:58

ask him not to come

33:00

back or however you want

33:02

to phrase it and I

33:05

don't know that it hurts

33:07

you to do the same

33:09

with Patrick law But I

33:12

don't know who's I don't

33:14

know who's fixing this problem

33:16

anytime soon. Yeah, it's tough.

33:19

I said with the Rangers

33:21

it would be a good

33:23

job. of opportunities.

33:25

I don't mind the goalies. I

33:28

don't mind the goal tanning situation,

33:30

but other than that, this one's

33:32

gonna be tough. You know, I

33:34

have here written down Detroit. I'm

33:37

interested to see what happens there,

33:39

but I don't really have a

33:41

take on it other than, again,

33:43

if you didn't see this one

33:46

coming, I don't know what to

33:48

tell you. You know? It's disappointing,

33:50

though. It's gotta be. So like

33:52

I yeah, we're on year 14

33:55

of the Izer plan, you know

33:57

in the fact that Montreal And

34:00

Ottawa, past you. Ottawa, blowing

34:02

past you, hurts, but Ottawa

34:04

was at least in the

34:06

same, viewed as being in

34:08

like the same tier as

34:10

you. Sure. Montreal was supposed

34:12

to be two years behind.

34:14

And they just, you know,

34:16

beep, move over please. We're

34:18

just gonna zip right ahead

34:20

of you. I don't know,

34:22

man. Like they got the

34:25

bounce mid season from the

34:27

coaching change and then it

34:29

didn't stick. If you need

34:31

that bounce to even get

34:33

to where they are now,

34:35

that seems like a huge

34:37

problem to me. You know?

34:39

McClellan is going to end

34:41

up a few games above

34:43

regular 500 it looks like.

34:45

It looks like under him

34:47

they are 24 and 21

34:49

if you lump regulation and

34:51

overtime slash shootout losses together.

34:54

But you know I was reading

34:56

an article about it the other

34:58

day, and it's like yeah They

35:01

just didn't get as much Goal

35:03

scoring from the veterans as they

35:05

kind of thought they would or

35:07

whatever and it's like yeah, man

35:10

if you were if you're if

35:12

your big plan was like we

35:14

need Tarasanco cop and JT comfort

35:16

all score like 20 goals a

35:18

piece that just wasn't gonna happen

35:21

You know, and that's even leaving

35:23

aside the whole goal tending situation

35:25

We have 14 guys who might

35:27

be an NHL goalies this year

35:30

I Don't know how it worked

35:32

out Talbot Talbot is probably the

35:34

only one you would say was

35:36

like right around the league average

35:38

and Everybody else was just a

35:41

little below it or worse I'll

35:43

tell you what the plan is.

35:45

Let's go to the Messier plan.

35:47

Put the youth in the positions

35:50

to get on the power play

35:52

and stuff like that. There's a

35:54

lot of, well, I mean, goes

35:56

without saying, but there's a lot

35:58

of reason to believe that a

36:01

guy like Lucas Raymond or Jona

36:03

Tanbergren, these guys can kind of

36:05

do it for you if you

36:07

play them, whatever, like 20 minutes

36:10

a night. Maybe. It's certainly better,

36:12

I'll put it this way. It's

36:14

better than playing. 36 year old

36:16

Patrick, like I saw a quote

36:18

the other day Patrick, oh, it's

36:21

really disappointed to be missing the

36:23

playoffs. It's like, you joined the

36:25

Red Wings. You can't be disappointed

36:27

by this. This is what was

36:30

going to happen. If you're a

36:32

36 year old away from from

36:34

making the playoffs, like I don't

36:36

know who thinks that. The thing

36:38

with the wings is they're the

36:41

first team that we've hit where

36:43

it's like they're not going to

36:45

fire the GM. Nope. They've already

36:47

done the coaching change. So that

36:50

part is out. I know we

36:52

kind of touched on them briefly,

36:54

but I want to go back

36:56

to the Bruins, because did you

36:58

see there was a report that

37:01

the Bruins, they're keeping the front

37:03

office? Yeah. So Sweeney and Neely

37:05

are staying, according to reports. They're

37:07

getting the higher the new coaching,

37:10

we'll see what happens thing, and

37:12

then when that maybe doesn't work

37:14

out. And again, I think the

37:16

Bruins. can reasonably expect a bounce

37:18

back season from from swamin and

37:21

that solves a lot of their

37:23

problems i don't know that it's

37:25

i i i i i i

37:27

i i tell you i don't

37:30

think it solves most of their

37:32

problems but it's how it solves

37:34

a good percentage yeah and i

37:36

saw it in the globe just

37:38

the other day shon why didn't

37:41

they think this they should get

37:43

an elite center oh really okay

37:45

there's probably a lot of those

37:47

in free agency No,

37:49

I think the article did say

37:52

like they should trade for one

37:54

trade what well, okay, you know

37:56

The less said the better I

37:58

saw but you know do you

38:01

do you want the ruins trading

38:03

a first-round pick for for an

38:05

elite center because that first-round pick

38:07

next year could be pretty high

38:10

could be pretty fucking high now

38:12

that I guess they do have

38:14

two of them but would you

38:16

have brought back Sweeney no probably

38:19

not I would have I honestly

38:21

think he's done a good job.

38:23

I can see it either way.

38:25

I can see it either way.

38:27

I think he's done a good

38:30

job and it's like a mess

38:32

of a season like this. Nobody

38:34

comes out looking good, but I

38:36

wouldn't. And I know that there's

38:39

definitely some Bruins fans who have

38:41

sort of worn out on this

38:43

guy, but I totally get. I

38:45

don't I don't mind the plan

38:48

of letting him and nearly have

38:50

have another coach. No, it definitely

38:52

makes sense like why you would

38:54

do it. Like, because they can

38:56

say, look, we didn't have our

38:59

top two defensemen, both of whom

39:01

we think are all-star caliber defensemen,

39:03

for most of the season. You

39:05

know, or, you know, a pretty

39:08

good percentage of it. The Jeremy

39:10

Swaman thing, that explains itself. Did

39:12

they kind of beef it with

39:14

the, with the, uh, the Linhomenz

39:17

Adoroff contracts? Sure they did. You

39:19

know big time Linholm especially looks.

39:21

Oh yeah and again like you

39:23

can go back day off I

39:26

was like I don't know about

39:28

this you know it doesn't take

39:30

hindsight I guess is what I'm

39:32

saying to say like they shouldn't

39:34

maybe not have given those guys

39:37

like 13 million dollars. Mm-hmm. But

39:39

again it all circles back to

39:41

what has been the Bruins problem

39:43

since before Petri's version on retired.

39:46

They didn't have two NHL,

39:49

like, top six centers. Now

39:51

they have zero, I might

39:54

argue, you know. But, you

39:56

know, hey, case. middle stat.

39:59

We're feeling great about it.

40:01

Sure we are. What about

40:04

Vancouver? And then we'll stop

40:06

talking about these teams. Most

40:09

confusing team in the league

40:11

for me all year long.

40:14

Right up until the final

40:16

weeks. I guess the two

40:19

big things. One, you've got

40:21

to figure out talk it.

40:24

Sure. Is he coming back?

40:26

Do you want him back?

40:28

Do you want him locked

40:31

in? And then the other

40:33

thing is Elias Peterson. You

40:36

have until July 1 to

40:38

move him. I'm not even

40:41

sure that you could at

40:43

this point. I feel like

40:46

that window may have closed,

40:48

but maybe not. Got to

40:51

figure it out. You can't

40:53

have an 11 million dollar.

40:56

55 point center for the

40:58

next seven years. So you

41:01

gotta figure out what he

41:03

is. And if you think

41:06

he's an 80, 90 underpoint

41:08

center who just everything fell

41:11

apart this year, great, figure

41:13

out how to fix him.

41:15

And you've got a real

41:18

important piece to build around.

41:20

But if not, there's no

41:23

more kicking the can down

41:25

the road. Yeah,

41:29

so I wrote about this over

41:31

the weekend, but like I've seen

41:33

people go it's it's really too

41:35

bad Brock Besser is gonna be

41:37

allowed to walk and it's like

41:40

is it? Brock Bess like you

41:42

want to be the team that

41:44

gives that guy 60 million dollars

41:46

or whatever it is? I think

41:48

you want to be the team

41:50

that traded that guy at the

41:53

deadline. Bingo, that's exactly right. Like

41:55

this feels like it's the end

41:57

of an era for... for Vancouver

41:59

in a lot of ways? Like,

42:01

I don't know how many more

42:04

games Thatcher Demko has in a

42:06

Canucks uniform. I think Professor's probably

42:08

gone. I think Rick Talk, it's

42:10

probably gone. And my take is,

42:12

I don't think you need to

42:15

be romantic about these guys. They're

42:17

not that good. They're just not

42:19

a good team. They're not well

42:21

built. All the guys that you're

42:23

like, that's, Quinn Hughes is the

42:26

only guy that has ever lived

42:28

up to the hype. You know

42:30

and I'm as guilty as anyone

42:32

on the Patterson thing. I thought

42:34

this guy was a superstar. I

42:36

really did Doesn't seem like he

42:39

has the The the goods doesn't

42:41

have the juice to be what

42:43

we all thought he could be

42:45

It is such a bizarre situation

42:47

with him Yeah, there is there

42:50

is not a lot of precedence

42:52

for guys being as good as

42:54

he was early then

42:57

turning into, for the long term,

42:59

what he was this year. And

43:01

again, we don't know that this

43:03

year was the long term. Maybe

43:05

the J.T. Miller stuff was weighing

43:07

things down even more than we

43:09

thought, and it wasn't an immediate

43:11

fix as soon as he was

43:13

gone. I don't know. But they

43:16

got to know. They've got to

43:18

figure this out. They should have

43:20

figured it out during the season,

43:22

but... They either couldn't

43:24

or didn't or maybe did and

43:26

the answer is we're keeping them

43:29

and that's You know we're we're

43:31

we're trying to figure out the

43:33

answer a question that's already been

43:36

answered. Yeah I mean the thing

43:38

is they're another team that got

43:40

tricked by percentages They shot what

43:43

they legitimately shot like 13% for

43:45

a good chunk of last season

43:47

and they what I what did

43:50

they get to like a hundred

43:52

and eight hundred and ten point

43:54

something like that and they were

43:57

like All our problems are solved

43:59

here. Whatever problems we... Same thing.

44:01

Winning fixes everything. Our two best

44:04

forwards hate each other? Who gives

44:06

a shit? We're 110 point team.

44:08

One of the best teams in

44:11

the Western Conference. And like they

44:13

bought it. You know what I

44:15

mean? Like they believed that was

44:18

the case. And you know, it

44:20

turns out one of those guys

44:22

hated the other so much that

44:25

like it seems to still be

44:27

negatively affecting him even after that

44:29

guy got traded. The goalie they

44:32

thought was the franchise goalie couldn't

44:34

stay healthy and You know a

44:36

couple of the bets they made

44:39

in the off-season didn't really work

44:41

out Jake Debrusque, etc But they're

44:43

their their answer to last year

44:46

was let's just like keep adding

44:48

Middle six guys on slightly better

44:50

than Middle six contracts And let's

44:53

see where it gets us, you

44:55

know, Patterson, right? Like you can

44:57

go down the list, like guys,

45:00

they were like, I think this

45:02

guy's a huge difference maker for

45:04

us potentially. Marcus Patterson, yeah, yeah,

45:07

yeah, right, sorry. It only knows

45:09

down like half the roster. It

45:11

really does, yeah. The Dakota Joshua

45:14

thing is really anybody's fault, but

45:16

like they committed. To

45:18

him and he couldn't really

45:20

stay in the lineup for

45:23

a decent chunk of the

45:25

season I This is another

45:27

one where it's like okay

45:29

coaches out Let's say the

45:32

GM is out. I don't

45:34

think that's gonna happen, but

45:36

let's say it does Who

45:38

comes in and fixes this?

45:41

Because the problem's the owner

45:43

and everybody knows it Yep,

45:49

it's I don't know. I don't

45:51

know what they do with talking

45:53

that that to me is and

45:55

What they would have to do

45:58

is extend him. Can't coach your

46:00

team with one year. That's exactly

46:02

right. Can't be a lame duck

46:04

coach. But I mean I guess

46:07

part of that is is also

46:09

one way or another. You gotta

46:11

find out what he actually wants.

46:13

Like dude if you've got one

46:15

eye on Philly. Go. Have fun

46:18

out there. I'd be if I'm

46:20

the Canucks I'm certainly not sad

46:22

to see him go if that's

46:24

the case. Hmm. I

46:26

don't think that guy's a

46:28

huge difference maker behind the

46:30

bench. Yeah, I mean, Jack

46:33

Adams last year, and you're

46:35

right, a lot of that

46:37

was getting tricked by percentages,

46:39

but... I mean, that's what

46:41

the Jack Adams is, that's

46:43

what the award is for.

46:45

It kind of is, you're

46:47

right. But no, I

46:49

just think like if you take it

46:51

as a whole I did the math

46:53

over the weekend, and I can't remember

46:55

now But like if you take it

46:58

as a whole his per 82 since

47:00

like their per 82 games since he

47:02

took over Was something like they're like

47:04

a 93 point team or whatever and

47:06

it's and you look at the roster

47:08

and you're like yeah, that's this looks

47:11

like it should be like a 93

47:13

point team Or again, whatever it was

47:15

if it was 95 you're like okay.

47:17

That seems right given they had Patterson

47:19

and Miller and Demko and Hughes and

47:21

all this and again How much of

47:23

their problem how many of their problems

47:26

are masked by well when we have

47:28

Quinn Hughes out there? We look like

47:30

the fucking Harlem Globe Trotters Good news

47:32

is you do still have Quinn Hughes

47:34

You got him he's locked in years.

47:36

Yeah couple years two years after this

47:39

one So he needs the extension next

47:41

summer That yeah, that's what that's how

47:43

that would work good times Yeah, and

47:45

then he's over there like He's got

47:47

a pen pen and paper in front

47:49

of him on the team jet and

47:52

you're like hey, that looks an awful

47:54

lot like the state of New Jersey's

47:56

like I don't worry about it You

47:58

know I

48:02

don't know, again, I'm just kind of

48:04

like, almost everybody who makes any kind

48:06

of money on this team is locked

48:08

in besides Besser. And now they're like,

48:11

well, you gotta give Pew Souter like

48:13

a big extension. He's been, he's been

48:15

great this year. And it's like, if

48:17

you feel like you gotta keep Pew

48:20

Souter, I don't know what to say

48:22

to you. Yeah, I know he scored

48:24

20 something goals this year, 24 it

48:26

says here. But. What

48:32

were your thoughts of the Dallas

48:34

game? Were you watching that at

48:37

the time, the comeback game? I

48:39

was not, no. I wasn't either,

48:41

I didn't. What was that? Was

48:44

that like, I feel like I

48:46

had a good reason to not

48:48

be watching that game. Was it

48:50

over the weekend? Was that Friday?

48:53

You may have been doing... That's

48:55

what I'm thinking, yeah. Well, don't

48:57

call it that, but yes. I

48:59

think that is what happened, what

49:02

happened there. I'm taking us off

49:04

the path here, but did that

49:06

break Dallas? Are we worried about...

49:09

Let's get into the playoff teams.

49:11

Let me hit you with this.

49:13

I hope so. That would be

49:15

like one of those cool things,

49:18

where it's like... I like this

49:20

Dallas team and all that, but

49:22

to me, there's nothing better than

49:24

when a team gets its brainbroken.

49:27

You know what I'm saying? Okay.

49:29

That's what it's all about to

49:31

me. But yeah, okay, yeah, let's

49:34

let's get into the the playoff

49:36

races that are still going on

49:38

there's two of them really if

49:40

we're being if we're being serious

49:43

and honest here I'm Sure everyone

49:45

was watching last night the Montreal

49:47

game That rock that game was

49:50

sick. Everyone up here who can

49:52

figure out how to work Amazon.

49:54

That's right Right. By the way,

49:56

we- Sorry, and also everyone but

49:59

the replay room, but we'll get

50:01

to that. We will. By the

50:03

way, the new rule on the

50:05

Pucksoup family of podcasts is that

50:08

when you open a beverage on

50:10

the show, you have to say

50:12

what it is. This is a

50:15

spin drift, blood orange tangerine. Nice.

50:17

Someone was like, you guys are

50:19

always opening beverages on there. You

50:21

got to explain what it is.

50:24

Happy to do it. Happy to

50:26

do it. Blood Orange

50:28

Tandry and Spindrift really good. But

50:31

anyway, the Montreal Canadians, I

50:33

gotta tell you, I'm not rooting

50:35

against the Canadians to make the

50:37

playoffs. I think that'll be

50:39

a great story. There's a lot

50:42

of really fun players that I've

50:44

liked for a long time on

50:47

that team. But if you're

50:49

not rooting for Columbus, you're a

50:51

Montreal fan. And that's your only

50:53

excuse. Really kind of pissed

50:55

when Slafkovsky scored that the game-tying

50:58

goal late last night. I was

51:00

mad at him so did to

51:03

to catch people up Columbus

51:05

is four points back Columbus has

51:07

two games to play and they

51:10

would have been three if

51:12

Montreal hadn't lost in the shootout

51:14

last night. So the magic number

51:16

is one basically Montreal, had they

51:19

won in overtime or the

51:21

shootout, would have clinched. Would have

51:23

won. If Montreal gets one more

51:26

point or Columbus, leaves one

51:28

more point on the table, including,

51:30

basically, Columbus needs two regulation wins,

51:32

which does put us in that

51:35

fun, kind of, pulled a

51:37

goalie with a score tied sort

51:39

of situation. That's right. Winning in

51:42

overtime for Columbus is not

51:44

enough. They need to go to

51:46

an oh. Regulation wins,

51:48

Montreal would need to lose

51:50

and I think Montreal has

51:52

Carolina. Carolina is their last

51:55

remaining game. I need the

51:57

hurricanes to step up big

51:59

time. Well, I mean if

52:01

If you had to, like,

52:03

if you had to, every

52:05

game, if you're the only

52:07

team left fighting for a

52:09

playoff spot, every game you

52:12

play is gonna be meeting

52:14

list to the other team,

52:16

but there is some, still

52:18

some bad blood with Carolina.

52:20

So that would be a

52:22

fun one. To knock them

52:24

out. So I think Columbus

52:27

plays tonight and Thursday, Montreal

52:29

plays Wednesday. So nice. You

52:31

spaced out. The blue jackets.

52:33

Yes, the blue jackets play

52:35

the Flyers tonight. Very winnable.

52:37

You know, and then on

52:39

Thursday, they play the Islanders.

52:41

So it's very winnable. Like

52:44

the schedule is lining up

52:46

such that it's really, I

52:48

would say not, not probable,

52:50

but it's very possible that

52:52

that Columbus gets this done.

52:56

But yeah, that's that being said

52:59

Dom still has Montreal 97% Blue

53:01

Jackets 3% so And I believe

53:03

that yeah, that is updated as

53:05

of this morning. So it's it's

53:07

tough Again, if they didn't get

53:09

that point last night, I would

53:11

feel so much better about this.

53:13

Yep. But they did they did

53:16

they did not get two points.

53:18

So we got to talk about

53:20

what happened in the shootout Which

53:22

I did not watch because people

53:24

know I turned games off when

53:26

the shootout is on and this

53:28

may be the first time in

53:31

like six years of doing that

53:33

that it Yeah, it bid me

53:35

a little bit. Yeah, I also

53:37

tend to have that That attitude

53:39

toward the shootout. I don't need

53:41

to watch this who gives a

53:43

shit But because I was very

53:45

invested in in the outcome because

53:48

if they got the two points,

53:50

that's it. I was like I'll

53:52

stick around for this one. I'll

53:54

cut it out and so They

53:56

score? Chicago scores in the shootout,

53:58

but no one notices it. Yeah.

54:00

And when we say they score

54:03

in the shootout, we don't mean

54:05

like, oh, the puck was in

54:07

the goalie's glove and it crossed

54:09

the line or it was, you

54:11

know, like, Guy goes in Frank,

54:13

it was Frank Nazar, right? It

54:15

was, it was Nazar. He goes

54:17

in, deeks the goalie out, puts

54:20

it right in the back of

54:22

the net, even puts his hands

54:24

up, like, yeah, I just scored.

54:26

He had a quote that was

54:28

really funny that was like I

54:30

was going through the I was

54:32

going through the line and like

54:35

high-fiving guys and they were all

54:37

like what are you doing? So

54:39

two referees sitting right there including

54:41

one who is like staring on

54:43

the gold do not signal gold

54:45

the puck gets stuck in the

54:47

back of the net so it

54:49

doesn't bounce out that's a problem

54:52

and just I mean I would

54:54

love to know if the goalie

54:56

knows it. Because again, goalies are

54:58

big liars and like I'm amazed

55:00

that there isn't a clip of

55:02

that goalie like trying to sneak

55:04

the puck out while nobody was

55:07

looking or something like that because.

55:09

But yeah, so that happens. So

55:11

no goal is signaled. But because

55:13

it's not like in the game,

55:15

because it's the shootout. It's not

55:17

like they have to line up

55:19

for a face-off and do all

55:21

this other stuff. So it's just

55:24

kind of like some people are

55:26

like wait, was that a goal?

55:28

Was it not a goal? As

55:30

this is happening, Patrick Linie takes

55:32

the puck for his attempt, does

55:34

not score. Right. And then, oops,

55:36

we're doing a replay review of

55:39

the Chicago attempt, which, I mean,

55:41

you have to look at it

55:43

exactly once to be like, yeah,

55:45

that definitely went in. Yeah. They

55:47

showed the goal line replay and

55:49

it's like that's the most in

55:51

goal I've ever seen, you know?

55:53

But Montreal fans are... not... incorrectly

55:56

pointing out that like hey I

55:58

thought once the next play had

56:00

started you can't go back and

56:02

do replay. But apparently the explanation

56:04

was that Lina just went? The

56:06

explanation was that Elliot Friedman interestingly

56:08

enough happened to be in the

56:11

war room that night I guess

56:13

they were doing they they do

56:15

this sometimes they invite media to

56:17

come and see the process and

56:19

he was I guess working on

56:21

something. and he says they definitely

56:23

saw the goal they did they

56:25

they buzz down beforehand now whether

56:28

lining went on his own which

56:30

i mean you can't do you

56:32

have to wait for you're supposed

56:34

to wait for a whistle so

56:36

or or it just got missed

56:38

or whatever it is i don't

56:40

know it was a bit of

56:43

a mess like something got screwed

56:45

up somewhere as starting with the

56:47

refs not noticing an obvious goal

56:49

and continuing to However, it is

56:51

that the next play got started.

56:53

And then from there, ultimately, I

56:55

still think it's the right decision

56:57

to say, look, this guy scored,

57:00

this guy, but this is part

57:02

of the problem with replay review,

57:04

right? You get everyone so in

57:06

love with nitpicky little technicalities that

57:08

Montreal fans are not wrong to

57:10

be like, wait a second, even

57:12

though. We absolutely did get scored

57:15

on and our guy absolutely didn't

57:17

score and we absolutely should have

57:19

lost We shouldn't have lost because

57:21

nitpicky technicality I Guess I mean,

57:23

I don't know. It's kind of

57:25

a mess. I have not heard

57:27

Like an uproar coming from Montreal

57:29

on this. I don't know if

57:32

maybe I just follow the right

57:34

Montreal fans or whatever like I've

57:36

seen some people question it and

57:38

be annoyed but I it this

57:40

doesn't feel like it's blowing up

57:42

as as big as it maybe

57:44

could have yeah I is a

57:47

playoff spot off for grabs. I

57:49

think it's because line A didn't

57:51

score. If line A had scored

57:53

and then they were like, whoa,

57:55

whoa, whoa, you know what I

57:57

mean? But they counted his attempt,

57:59

right? Because they didn't come back

58:01

and let him have another one.

58:04

They didn't say like, no, no,

58:06

you went early, that didn't count.

58:08

But I think if he had,

58:10

like, can you imagine if they

58:12

had gone the other way, if

58:14

they had said like, like, like,

58:16

no, no, sorry, sorry, it was

58:19

too late, it was too late,

58:21

it was too late, it was

58:23

too late, and Montreal, and Montreal

58:25

makes the playoffs. Montreal makes the

58:27

playoffs. All Market Columbus by one

58:29

point. I mean people would be

58:31

absolutely flipping tables. Yeah, and they'd

58:33

be right to do it. But

58:36

yeah, I can't, again, I think

58:38

it's, I think it's, I think

58:40

it's just because if Lion A

58:42

had, if Lion A had scored

58:44

and then they were like, actually,

58:46

we gotta have you redo that

58:48

one, you know? Or it, you

58:51

know, it just extends the shootout

58:53

or whatever it is. From like

58:55

a common sense standpoint, I think

58:57

they got a right. Yeah, I

58:59

don't know that there's any good

59:01

fix is kind of also my

59:03

thing. I'll tell you what the

59:05

fix. I've said this for years.

59:08

I don't, I think we should

59:10

be able to review anything at

59:12

any time because we just have

59:14

to get it right. Yeah, you're

59:16

a big get it right. We

59:18

made a mistake in the first

59:20

period and it's the third period.

59:23

20-minute hockey game because something happened

59:25

on the opening face-off, and we

59:27

only realized it at the end

59:29

of regulation. We found out that

59:31

on the opening face-off, a guy's

59:33

skate was over the line. It

59:35

was a face-off violation. And we

59:37

have to get a right... It's

59:40

not about entertainment value or being

59:42

fun or anything like that. It's

59:44

about slavish devotion to the rulebook

59:46

at all times. That's right. Okay.

59:48

The other thing we got to

59:50

talk about with Montreal. Demidov. Yeah,

59:53

I checked this morning the the

59:55

word demigod is trending in Canada

59:57

how that went? You know, look,

1:00:00

it's one of those things where

1:00:02

any time a guy's coming over

1:00:04

from the KHL I kind of

1:00:06

take a wait and see attitude,

1:00:08

you know, I don't watch a

1:00:10

lot of KHL hockey, but there

1:00:12

have been enough guys who have

1:00:15

been, this guy is the highest

1:00:17

scoring under 21 year old, born

1:00:19

on a Thursday, you know, like

1:00:21

they really slice it thin and

1:00:23

then they're like, oh, this, oh,

1:00:25

what, God, Vital Kraft saw, remember

1:00:27

him? And I think that's right.

1:00:30

I just remember this because I

1:00:32

wrote a thing saying, you know,

1:00:34

let's give it a minute before

1:00:36

we decide this guy's the future

1:00:38

of the Rangers, and all these

1:00:40

Rangers fans got insanely mad at

1:00:42

me, and you know, they tried

1:00:45

it, it didn't work in New

1:00:47

York or Vancouver, never heard from

1:00:49

again, right? And so... Anytime it's

1:00:51

a young youngish KHL guy where

1:00:53

it's like you wouldn't believe the

1:00:55

scoring records He was breaking over

1:00:57

there. I'm just like let's wait

1:01:00

and see one game and I'm

1:01:02

like, okay, this is one of

1:01:04

the best players in the league.

1:01:06

Holy fuck. I've a debit off

1:01:08

this kid looked insanely sick I've

1:01:10

seen a bunch of Montreal fans

1:01:12

ticked off that he didn't get

1:01:15

to shoot in the shoot-up that

1:01:17

straight up dereliction of duty for

1:01:19

Martin San Luis. There you go.

1:01:21

Yeah. He was on he was

1:01:23

on the number one power playing

1:01:25

in the second half of the

1:01:28

game. San Luis was like, look,

1:01:30

what am I going to do?

1:01:32

Not let him out there? He

1:01:34

might have been like the fourth

1:01:36

guy to shoot for Montreal or

1:01:38

something like that maybe, but didn't

1:01:40

get that far. Holy Fock man,

1:01:43

this kid looks incredible. Him and

1:01:45

Cole Caulfield together? Oh, I can't

1:01:47

wait. Oh, this is what it's

1:01:49

going to be all about for

1:01:51

me, you know? And... Don't you

1:01:53

dare disrespect, number one Senator Nick

1:01:55

Suzuki, but... That's going to be

1:01:58

an unstoppable line. And Slavkovsky? And

1:02:00

look, now... Now we're talking about

1:02:02

a four-person line, but that's a

1:02:04

really good four-person line. If they

1:02:06

only had an insanely good young

1:02:08

defenseman that they could throw in

1:02:10

the mix there. Uh-oh. And what

1:02:13

about a goal? Oh no, now

1:02:15

we've all decided yack-obish is the

1:02:17

next Ken Dryden or whatever. Okay.

1:02:19

Yeah. I mean, look, he's been

1:02:21

good since you got to the

1:02:23

NHL. I'm not shitting on him,

1:02:25

you know. But, yeah, man. What

1:02:28

a fun team team. It

1:02:31

is it is consequently too bad.

1:02:33

They will be a very fun

1:02:35

consolation prize to Columbus in the

1:02:38

yeah Unfortunately, it just it just

1:02:40

works out that I don't want

1:02:42

them to make the playoffs Mm-hmm.

1:02:45

Toughbounds for you guys. I don't

1:02:47

know what to say. Well, I'll

1:02:49

put it this way if you

1:02:51

gave me the choice between Columbus

1:02:54

and Montreal and Ottawa and only

1:02:56

two of those can get in

1:02:58

smell you later senators. I'm not

1:03:01

interested Oh, what did you do?

1:03:03

Oh, you just went out and

1:03:05

got one of the best goal

1:03:08

he's in the league? Who gives

1:03:10

a shit? Get lost, you know?

1:03:12

Yep. That's not fun. It's not

1:03:14

fun to just like go sign

1:03:17

a guy and it works. Yeah,

1:03:19

you can't be just like going

1:03:21

and getting good players. Boring. It's

1:03:24

hardly fair. Yeah. But let's move

1:03:26

on then to, uh, to the

1:03:28

west. Hey, only two teams from

1:03:30

this group can make it. You

1:03:33

know what I mean? Minnesota, St.

1:03:35

Louis, Calgary. I'll tell you, there

1:03:37

are two teams in that three

1:03:40

team group that will make the

1:03:42

playoffs, and there are two teams

1:03:44

in that three team group who

1:03:47

look like they want to. Yeah.

1:03:49

The blues in the wild, each

1:03:51

have one game left. Calgary's got

1:03:53

two. That's right. Minnesota is in

1:03:56

95 points. St. Louis 94 Calgrade

1:03:58

92. So. The

1:04:00

Flames don't really, they don't

1:04:03

control their own destiny, but

1:04:05

it's a little less convoluted

1:04:08

than the blue jackets scenarios,

1:04:10

partly because they're chasing two

1:04:13

teams instead of one. Right.

1:04:15

And they only need to

1:04:18

catch one of them, obviously.

1:04:20

Um, Calgary, let's say Calgary

1:04:23

wins twice, then both the

1:04:25

wild and the blues are

1:04:28

winning in. In

1:04:30

their final game correct. I

1:04:33

think that's right. So Minnesota

1:04:35

would be get a point

1:04:37

and be in Minnesota just

1:04:39

needs the one point that's

1:04:41

right in addition because they

1:04:44

have the the regulation win

1:04:46

advantage. Yes So Minnesota plays

1:04:48

Anaheim tonight Calgary hosts Vegas

1:04:50

and I believe the blues

1:04:52

are off tonight So we're

1:04:55

gonna know a lot in

1:04:57

about 12 hours. Yeah. And

1:04:59

the other thing to say

1:05:01

there is Calgary is, if

1:05:04

the Flames win twice to

1:05:06

get to 96 points and

1:05:08

the Blues win to get

1:05:10

to 96 points, then we

1:05:12

get into the regulation wins

1:05:15

and who wins. And Calgary

1:05:17

is one regulation win back

1:05:19

of the Blues right now.

1:05:21

Correct. We're assuming that they

1:05:23

have to get an extra

1:05:26

win to get to... to

1:05:28

catch up to them. So

1:05:30

basically, if the Flames win

1:05:32

twice in regulation, St. Louis

1:05:35

needs their win to be

1:05:37

in regulation. If the Flames

1:05:39

do not win both in

1:05:41

regulation, then St. Louis just

1:05:43

needs any type of win.

1:05:46

And I guess you could

1:05:48

also get into the weird

1:05:50

situation where the Flames could

1:05:52

win or get two single

1:05:55

points. A regulation win. down

1:05:57

the road. It does get

1:05:59

to And then the blues

1:06:01

hold the second tiebreaker. So

1:06:03

if they wind up tight

1:06:06

and regulation wins. Yeah, the

1:06:08

other thing to say though

1:06:10

is the Calgary plays Vegas,

1:06:12

like I said, and then

1:06:14

LA. That's that's their end

1:06:17

of the season. Minnesota, but

1:06:19

good teams with nothing. Nothing

1:06:21

to play for. Minnesota, like

1:06:23

I said, has Anaheim and

1:06:26

St. Louis is playing. Where

1:06:28

is that? Who the

1:06:30

hell is they playing? I

1:06:32

can't find this. Hold on

1:06:34

one second, folks. Here we

1:06:36

go. They're playing Utah. Tonight.

1:06:38

That is tonight. Okay, great.

1:06:40

I glossed over that, I

1:06:42

guess. So we are going

1:06:44

to know pretty much. We'll

1:06:46

know tonight. Yeah. Unless St.

1:06:48

Louis loses to Utah, in

1:06:50

which case we'll know on

1:06:53

Thursday or whatever, when Calvary

1:06:55

plays. the Kings in what

1:06:57

is going to be the

1:06:59

last regular season game of

1:07:01

the of the season because

1:07:03

that is a 930 start

1:07:05

on Thursday the very last

1:07:07

game on the schedule would

1:07:09

be kind of cool man

1:07:11

again you know I don't

1:07:13

really have a preference between

1:07:15

any of these teams I

1:07:17

don't know how good either

1:07:19

St. Louis or Calgary are

1:07:21

and you know Minnesota they

1:07:23

had the injury problems this

1:07:25

year and I feel like

1:07:27

they're safe. What is, do

1:07:29

you know, do you have

1:07:31

it in front of you,

1:07:33

what Dom says their odds

1:07:35

of making it are at

1:07:37

this point? I'd have to

1:07:39

imagine they're really good. Dom

1:07:41

has got it as blues

1:07:44

87% while 98%. That's what

1:07:46

I figured, yeah. I don't

1:07:48

know how good I think

1:07:50

any of these themes are,

1:07:52

but. So I don't, this

1:07:54

isn't, what I'm saying is

1:07:56

I have no preference between

1:07:58

the three of them. Yeah,

1:08:00

I get the other thing

1:08:02

we should say is with the

1:08:04

wild Part of the reason their

1:08:07

total is so high is

1:08:09

even if they lose If the

1:08:11

blues lose Wilder in right?

1:08:13

Yes. That's probably I

1:08:15

guess you so what's

1:08:17

your team chaos that

1:08:20

you're rooting for tonight

1:08:22

would be wild regulation

1:08:24

loss blues get one point

1:08:28

Where do the Blues get two points?

1:08:30

One point. We're going to be in one

1:08:32

of the wild and the Blues are

1:08:34

getting in tonight. Yes. I don't

1:08:36

think there's any scenario where they're

1:08:39

both in play, because they're both

1:08:41

going to be done. So we're going to

1:08:43

know which one of those two teams

1:08:45

finished ahead of the other. Correct. And

1:08:47

then you want the Flames to win

1:08:49

to set up a meaningful Thursday

1:08:51

night game. Yep. Hey,

1:08:54

it's not like the Flames

1:08:56

have any recent history of

1:08:58

playing absolutely meaningless games after

1:09:01

everybody else is done playing. That's

1:09:03

right. Yeah, I forgot about that.

1:09:05

Let's do that again. Still one

1:09:07

of the funniest things in the

1:09:09

history of sports. Damn. That

1:09:11

sucks, man. Okay. We got some

1:09:13

good news from one of the teams

1:09:16

that's been in for quite a while

1:09:18

now. And they're actually, the Colorado

1:09:20

Avalanche are done playing for

1:09:23

the regular season. I don't

1:09:25

know how they got the

1:09:27

weekend, or the week off,

1:09:29

but they did. But they got

1:09:32

some interesting news. In so

1:09:34

far as Gabe Landisog played

1:09:36

two AHL games, had a goal

1:09:38

in an assist. First time in

1:09:40

like three years he had played

1:09:42

a competitive hockey

1:09:44

game, played more than they

1:09:47

expected him to. This

1:09:50

is you know, I don't think I don't

1:09:52

know that I'm counting on him to be

1:09:54

in the lineup at any point in the

1:09:56

playoffs here, but I think we said it

1:09:58

last week certainly a much, much

1:10:00

closer. Yeah. The fact that he

1:10:03

played, the goal and the assist

1:10:05

are nice, but the fact that

1:10:07

he played two games is big.

1:10:09

And back to back. Yeah. He

1:10:12

didn't play one game and then

1:10:14

wake up and be like, oh

1:10:16

my God, I feel miserable. He

1:10:19

probably didn't feel great. But he

1:10:21

didn't, he, he was good to

1:10:23

go in another game. And in,

1:10:25

and in game one, he played

1:10:28

15 minutes and they had. basically

1:10:30

said like minutes restriction 10 and

1:10:32

he was like 15 it is

1:10:34

sounds good. So I I mean

1:10:37

I I it sure sounds like

1:10:39

he's going to play for the

1:10:41

avalanche in the playoffs now he's

1:10:43

not going to be 2019 gay

1:10:46

Blanaskag who comes in and I

1:10:48

mean it was a power forward

1:10:50

and you know that necessarily right

1:10:53

but this is happening just cool

1:10:55

as hell. Yeah,

1:10:58

it rocks. I never thought

1:11:00

I'd see him play pro

1:11:02

hockey again and You know

1:11:05

I didn't watch those games

1:11:07

But that that was wild.

1:11:09

That's that's so cool that

1:11:12

he's that he's back doing

1:11:14

it Mm-hmm ultimate respect. I

1:11:16

don't have a ton of

1:11:18

the reaction when he scored

1:11:21

and like, you know got

1:11:23

to do the bench fly-by

1:11:25

and everything was very cool.

1:11:27

Yep But it's worth seeking

1:11:30

out if you didn't see

1:11:32

it. It was a great

1:11:34

moment. Absolutely. We got the

1:11:36

NHLPA player poll today. And

1:11:39

yeah, it's just as boring

1:11:41

as you would think it

1:11:43

is. But there's a couple

1:11:45

of funny things here. So

1:11:48

it leads off. Who is

1:11:50

the best overall goalie? Sean,

1:11:52

who do you think the

1:11:55

player said is the best

1:11:57

overall goalie? Kerry Price for

1:11:59

the 19th year in a

1:12:01

row. You're not that far

1:12:04

off. Give me give me

1:12:06

a read. I hope they

1:12:08

said Hellabuck. Big car Hellabuck,

1:12:10

the guy who is going

1:12:13

to win two's consecutive besmas,

1:12:15

he came in third. Oh,

1:12:17

that's tough. There are two

1:12:19

bullies in the league. They

1:12:22

are always five years behind.

1:12:24

So is it Vasilevski or

1:12:26

maybe Shisterkin? Those are, that's

1:12:28

one and two in that

1:12:31

order. Yep. Yeah. Rounding out

1:12:33

the list. Sergei Barbarovsky and

1:12:35

Yousisaros. I don't, I feel

1:12:38

like, again, they conducted this

1:12:40

poll in 2023, to your

1:12:42

point. This is, this just

1:12:44

doesn't make sense. You're having

1:12:47

an easy time out there

1:12:49

scoring on Connor Hellabuck? Mm-hmm.

1:12:51

Easier than Igor's to circuit

1:12:53

this year? Okay, you say

1:12:56

so. Best overall forward, who's

1:12:58

your yes? So it's McDavid.

1:13:00

Yep, that's right. Crosby is

1:13:02

fourth. Oh, okay. So McDavid,

1:13:05

McKinnon. Yep, yep. And Drysidal?

1:13:07

Kucharov. Drysidal, not in the

1:13:09

top five. Caprizov was fifth.

1:13:11

Defenseman. Macar. In a runaway,

1:13:14

it's Macar. 72%. And then,

1:13:16

did they have Queen Hughes

1:13:18

second? They do indeed. Okay.

1:13:21

So they're gonna, this is

1:13:23

a, this is a semi

1:13:25

respectable top five to me.

1:13:27

Okay. Um, who else would

1:13:30

they have in there? Uh,

1:13:32

did, is Worensky in there?

1:13:34

Nope, he is not. Yeah,

1:13:36

see, they, okay. That's why

1:13:39

semi respectable. Well, I mean,

1:13:41

it takes more than, more

1:13:43

than a year to, to

1:13:45

kind of earn that from

1:13:48

players. So I guess, do

1:13:50

they still have like a

1:13:52

Roman yossi or a head-in

1:13:55

or somebody like that? Hedman

1:13:57

3rd, Yosey 4th, who's fifth.

1:13:59

McAvoy. No, think

1:14:01

another team USA guy who

1:14:04

we've decided sucks now. Adam

1:14:06

Fox? That's the one. Really?

1:14:08

Okay, I'm surprised at that.

1:14:10

That's right. Who is the

1:14:12

most complete player? Plays all

1:14:15

200 feet. That could be

1:14:17

Crosby. That is Crosby. Yeah,

1:14:19

okay. Very, very slightly ahead.

1:14:21

of the next closest guy.

1:14:24

Of Barkov. That's correct. Then

1:14:26

you got four more made

1:14:28

the list. Matthews came in

1:14:30

fifth out of six. Okay.

1:14:32

Uh, geez, who else? 200

1:14:35

foot forward. Not Marner. No,

1:14:37

no, no. These are all

1:14:39

centers. Didn't have to laugh

1:14:41

at the guy. I mean,

1:14:44

that was, uh, McKinnon. Correct,

1:14:46

he's third. Did he do

1:14:48

like, okay. Uh, and he

1:14:50

said, uh, so we're not

1:14:52

Kuchrov. Nope. Do they count

1:14:55

dry saddle? They do not.

1:14:57

That's a weird thing, eh?

1:14:59

Like a lot of people

1:15:01

are pushing for him to

1:15:03

get sulky votes. Heart votes,

1:15:06

yep. Heart votes, yep. Heart,

1:15:08

I can see. Not the

1:15:10

most complete player, not the

1:15:12

best overall forward. You know,

1:15:15

it's, it's tough out here

1:15:17

for Oleon. Sure is. Who's

1:15:19

the last guy? McDavid and

1:15:21

Copatar or the other two.

1:15:23

McDavid, fourth and Copatar, sixth.

1:15:26

Sure. But he tied Matthews,

1:15:28

so I guess that's why

1:15:30

they included him. Okay. Who

1:15:32

is the best playmaker? Well,

1:15:35

that's got to be McDavid,

1:15:37

but then Kutra would be

1:15:39

up there too. Kucharov is

1:15:41

actually first. McDavid's second. I'm

1:15:43

surprised at that, but sure.

1:15:46

I mean, that's the right.

1:15:48

top two. I don't agree

1:15:50

on Really? These guys would

1:15:52

know better than me, I

1:15:54

guess. Although, you know, they

1:15:57

said the thing about the

1:15:59

goalies, so who knows. But,

1:16:01

uh, Drysidal is three, Panarin

1:16:03

is four, Crosby is five,

1:16:06

I would have Drysidal ahead

1:16:08

of McDavid. Really? Mm-hmm. Okay.

1:16:10

You see, like, the way

1:16:12

this guy passes the puck,

1:16:14

it's unbelievable. I've seen it,

1:16:17

but I've also seen, like,

1:16:19

like, McDavid came back last

1:16:21

week and played three games

1:16:23

and had nine games and

1:16:25

had nine assists. Well, the

1:16:28

you know, it's the it's

1:16:30

the it's the dry-sidal thing

1:16:32

is like he's shooting as

1:16:34

often as he's passing McDavid

1:16:37

not so much, you know,

1:16:39

Yep. If you need to

1:16:41

win a face-off, who would

1:16:43

you have taken it? Again,

1:16:45

this this feels like there'd

1:16:48

be a lot of overlap

1:16:50

with the two-way player. Is

1:16:52

it Crosby again? Crosby is

1:16:54

number one. There is, the

1:16:57

three other, two other guys

1:16:59

on the list are from

1:17:01

the complete player thing, but

1:17:03

two are not. Barkov. Barkov?

1:17:05

Barkov is fifth, tied for

1:17:08

fifth, interestingly. Or tied for

1:17:10

fourth, I should say. Then

1:17:12

who are the, man, who

1:17:14

are the face-off guys these

1:17:16

days? Yeah, I was gonna

1:17:19

say, I would not get

1:17:21

too wrapped up and who

1:17:23

do I think of as

1:17:25

a face-off guy here. Okay.

1:17:28

Who do I think of

1:17:30

as a good defensive forward

1:17:32

would be the direction I...

1:17:34

So is it... Who also

1:17:36

scores a bunch? I use

1:17:39

Matthews... No. I'll just give

1:17:41

them to you. All right.

1:17:43

It's great. O'Reilly? Copatar? Jordan

1:17:45

Stall. Okay. Sure. Yeah, all

1:17:48

right. Who is the smartest

1:17:50

player overall? This doesn't get

1:17:52

into how they're defining smart.

1:17:54

But it's Crosby, right? Crosby

1:17:56

is number one. And then

1:17:59

three of the other guys

1:18:01

are guys we've met, or

1:18:03

no, you know. We've mentioned

1:18:05

all four of the other

1:18:07

guys here. Yeah, let's say

1:18:10

McKinnon. Nope. Really? Wow. Yeah,

1:18:12

I'm surprised by that as

1:18:14

well. Nathan McKinnon, stupid idiot.

1:18:16

Dumber than dog shit, unfortunately.

1:18:19

Guy doesn't even know what

1:18:21

color past is supposed to

1:18:23

be. Like, tell me. Barkov?

1:18:25

Barkov is fourth. There's a

1:18:27

winger, a center, and a

1:18:30

defenseman left. Oh, okay, so

1:18:32

kucharov. Kucharow is correct. Did

1:18:34

they just go Macar for

1:18:36

the defenseman? Nope. No, okay,

1:18:38

good. Good. Well, I'm saying

1:18:41

good because then otherwise you're

1:18:43

just picking the best players.

1:18:45

Yeah, of course. Like, you

1:18:47

know, um, dry-sidal? Nope. McDavid

1:18:50

is the other center. Okay,

1:18:52

yeah, yeah. And who is

1:18:54

the other defenseman? And the

1:18:56

smart defenseman. And I think

1:18:58

this is a good shout

1:19:01

for for them. Okay. Who

1:19:03

is it? Adam Fox went

1:19:05

to Harvard. He did go

1:19:07

to Harvard. No two ways

1:19:10

about that. Best overall skater.

1:19:12

McDavid. Yep. Yeah. Who else

1:19:14

you got on there? Are

1:19:16

there are we still doing

1:19:18

Dylan Larkin? No we're not.

1:19:21

Right off of that. All

1:19:23

start skills from. We're off.

1:19:25

We're past that. Okay. and

1:19:29

then... Another defenseman? Go ahead.

1:19:31

Another defenseman. Hughes? Yep, that's

1:19:33

right. Is, is, uh, is

1:19:35

Marner on this one? No.

1:19:37

That's the only one I

1:19:39

could see him because he

1:19:41

does... Yeah, he's a good

1:19:43

skater. Uh, Kucharov? Nope. Who

1:19:46

else? McKinnon and... Jasper Brat.

1:19:48

Jasper Brat bringing up the

1:19:50

rear on that one. Fashion

1:19:52

Sensa, who cares, McDavid, or

1:19:54

McDavid, Posternock and Matthews Todd.

1:19:56

then Neelander, Linay, and Hints.

1:19:58

Who would be a good

1:20:00

broadcaster once they retire? First

1:20:02

of all, the guy who's

1:20:04

number one on the list,

1:20:06

under 5% of the vote,

1:20:08

so who cares? But it's

1:20:10

Kevin Hayes, Ryanstrom, Brad Marsh,

1:20:12

and Patrick Maroon, Eric Comri,

1:20:14

Eric Johnson, and Marcus Felino.

1:20:16

Now this is a good

1:20:18

one. Which PWAL rulebook change

1:20:20

would you like to see

1:20:22

in the NHL? What do

1:20:24

you think? I'm going to

1:20:26

say that number one was

1:20:28

probably like none of them

1:20:30

or didn't answer or huh.

1:20:32

That would not, that is

1:20:34

not the case. I'll say

1:20:36

the jailbreak. Jailbreak is number

1:20:38

one at almost 30 percent.

1:20:40

I think that's a good

1:20:42

call by them. And then

1:20:44

what else? They wouldn't have,

1:20:46

did they, did anybody do

1:20:48

the drafter playoff opponent? That

1:20:50

came in third at a

1:20:52

little, at around 17 percent.

1:20:54

Okay, I guess he picks

1:20:57

the playoff opponent. Yeah, the

1:20:59

goal plan I don't think

1:21:01

would have been second, but

1:21:03

did it get anything? Does

1:21:05

not appear as though that's

1:21:07

the case. That's too complicated

1:21:09

for these hockey players, especially

1:21:11

Nathan McKinnon that moron. Dumb,

1:21:13

dumb guy. Um. Geez, I

1:21:15

don't know. What else, what

1:21:17

are the other ones? Second

1:21:19

place, the three two one

1:21:21

point system. Oh, really? Oh,

1:21:23

really? Well, yeah, that's great

1:21:25

call by them. That's great

1:21:27

news that they, uh, okay.

1:21:29

Um, the next one is

1:21:31

the ability in the shootout

1:21:33

to, you can just, like,

1:21:35

run the same person out

1:21:37

there as often and whenever

1:21:39

you want. Okay. And then

1:21:41

finally, fifth place, there's no

1:21:43

trapezoid. Get rid of the

1:21:45

trapezoid. Okay, so there's the

1:21:47

goal is weighing in. That's

1:21:49

right. Which NHL Arena has

1:21:51

the best ice? Who cares?

1:21:53

It's Montreal. Then Edmonton, Winnipeg,

1:21:55

Minnesota, Vegas. And that's the

1:21:57

end of the list. We

1:21:59

did it. So there you

1:22:01

go, they did it. They

1:22:03

could have so much fun

1:22:06

with that. Yep. Most hated

1:22:08

player. I feel like there

1:22:10

was a year. Which who

1:22:12

were they did kind of

1:22:14

ask those fun questions. And

1:22:16

then they were like, did

1:22:18

they do it in the.

1:22:20

The official PA one, because

1:22:22

I know like the athletic

1:22:24

and I think some other

1:22:26

places do player surveys and

1:22:28

they ask questions like that.

1:22:30

Which player would get absolutely

1:22:32

destroyed if their trash talk

1:22:34

was picked up on an

1:22:36

open mic? And what specifically

1:22:38

have they said? Yeah, that

1:22:40

would be fun. It would

1:22:42

be. All right, so we

1:22:44

got we got one surprising

1:22:46

bit of retirement new. Well

1:22:48

semi surprising bit of retirement

1:22:50

news yesterday Logan Katoor will

1:22:52

hold a press conference later

1:22:54

today to announce that he

1:22:56

is retiring Due to all

1:22:58

the injuries and all that

1:23:00

Sucks played this year not

1:23:02

a surprise, but you know

1:23:04

especially with Landis Gog you're

1:23:06

kind of hoping that until

1:23:08

you hear it You never

1:23:10

know, but now we know

1:23:12

Good player. Really good player

1:23:14

for a while there. Good

1:23:17

player for you know for

1:23:19

a while there was was

1:23:21

a really important part of

1:23:23

some very good shirts team.

1:23:25

So. Yep. Yeah. But yeah.

1:23:27

And then I guess last

1:23:29

night was also the last

1:23:31

games for both Patrick Maroon

1:23:33

and Alex Martin, Alex Martinez.

1:23:35

Yeah. Did they even play

1:23:37

last night? I think they

1:23:39

may have even done the

1:23:41

last ones on Saturday. Well,

1:23:43

Maroon played last night. He's

1:23:45

on Chicago. He did. No,

1:23:47

I'm saying did they but

1:23:49

did they play like I

1:23:51

thought I oh, you know

1:23:53

play on Saturday, and that

1:23:55

was going to be their

1:23:57

final game Okay, that makes

1:23:59

sense. I guess I guess

1:24:01

I didn't pay that much

1:24:03

attention to Chicago had another

1:24:05

shootout Saturday and they were

1:24:07

like, they should have put

1:24:09

those guys out for the

1:24:11

shootout. Yep. Let the last

1:24:13

image of Patrick Maroon be

1:24:15

him like humiliating himself. Try

1:24:17

to. I think you're right

1:24:19

about that now that you

1:24:21

mention it. But yeah, again,

1:24:23

two, I mean, geez Martinez.

1:24:26

Guys I had a lot of

1:24:28

success he got his moments yeah,

1:24:31

yeah, you're right now. There was

1:24:33

them played last night Yeah, I

1:24:35

think they they just kind of

1:24:37

a now like get get the

1:24:40

last game at home sort of

1:24:42

deal So yeah, both of them

1:24:44

both of them lots of Lots

1:24:46

of lots of cup wins lots

1:24:48

of big moments and yeah, the

1:24:51

hell martina's Stanley Cup winning overtime

1:24:53

goal. Not a lot of guys

1:24:55

can say that to win the

1:24:57

cup and overtime and then did

1:25:00

not dive through the air like

1:25:02

a big faker. Yeah, that's right.

1:25:04

Kudos. We got some breaking news

1:25:06

here. The way Ruff's, this is

1:25:09

from Chad D. Dominicus covers the

1:25:11

the savers. The way Ruff sounded

1:25:13

this morning about Owen Power confirmed

1:25:15

some things I heard last night

1:25:17

and this morning. I don't share

1:25:20

exact details as a personal philosophy,

1:25:22

but he had an MRI yesterday

1:25:24

as planned and there's concern the

1:25:26

injury could be significant enough to

1:25:29

push it into next season. An

1:25:31

absolutely accursed franchise. Yikes. That's unbelievable.

1:25:33

Um, but yeah. There you go.

1:25:35

Then the only other bit of

1:25:37

news, I guess, is a bunch

1:25:40

of NC double A signs. You

1:25:42

got any questions on anybody? Anybody

1:25:44

of note that you're kind of...

1:25:46

Who should I know? Give me

1:25:49

like the one name where I'm

1:25:51

like... Should you know? That is...

1:25:53

Interesting question. Who should you know?

1:25:55

I get like, obviously he's not

1:25:58

a free agent, but Zebuiam is

1:26:00

a guy that you're gonna probably

1:26:02

see a good amount, assuming Minnesota

1:26:04

makes the playoffs. He's gonna play,

1:26:06

do you think in the, in

1:26:09

the, like, he's gonna play, he's

1:26:11

gonna play tonight for them. He's

1:26:13

gonna play tonight for them. Do

1:26:15

you think they'll, like, I mean,

1:26:18

forwards there, they tend to be

1:26:20

if, but defensemen in the playoffs.

1:26:22

Yeah, he's so good. I would

1:26:24

have, I mentioned last week that

1:26:26

I wrote my Hobie Baker take,

1:26:29

he was one of the finalists,

1:26:31

and I wrote my Hobie Baker

1:26:33

take and I was like, I

1:26:35

changed my mind about who it

1:26:38

should be, the guy who I

1:26:40

thought should be first ended up

1:26:42

being third. The guy who did

1:26:44

it, this is actually, you know

1:26:47

what, I didn't have this on

1:26:49

the outline, but did you see

1:26:51

the Isaac Howard news? I did

1:26:53

not. Okay, Isaac Howard wins the

1:26:55

Hobie Baker, should have won the

1:26:58

Hobie Baker. He was the guy

1:27:00

that I was like, you know

1:27:02

what, he actually deserves it. And

1:27:04

Steve Booey moved up from third

1:27:07

to second on my ballot when

1:27:09

I wrote that article. Not that

1:27:11

I voted, but you know. But

1:27:13

Isaac Howard, he's a Tampa Bay

1:27:16

draft pick, and they could not

1:27:18

come to terms. on a contract

1:27:20

that would bring him into the

1:27:22

league this year, and so he

1:27:24

is returning to Michigan State, one

1:27:27

of the very few Hobie Baker

1:27:29

winners to ever, I'd have to

1:27:31

go back and look, I can't

1:27:33

imagine a Hobie Baker winner in

1:27:36

the last like 20 years has

1:27:38

gone back to college for a

1:27:40

final season. So they can't sign

1:27:42

him for this year, but that

1:27:44

that rules out signing him in

1:27:47

the summer or? He is already

1:27:49

committed to going back to Michigan

1:27:51

State. Okay as has their their

1:27:53

Richter finalist goalie Who I personally

1:27:56

I was a little iffy on

1:27:58

him being a Richter final list

1:28:00

at all, but now I got

1:28:02

to look it up really quickly.

1:28:05

I can't remember who drafted him,

1:28:07

but where is it? Where is

1:28:09

it? Where is it? Scroll, scroll,

1:28:11

scroll. Trey Augustine was drafted by

1:28:13

Detroit and he's going back for

1:28:16

one more year. I just feel

1:28:18

like for him, that was A,

1:28:20

he kind of ended the season

1:28:22

pretty poorly for a guy that

1:28:25

you would think it's an elite

1:28:27

goalie. And B. Detroit

1:28:29

has like 60 goalies under contract.

1:28:31

You know, he wasn't going to

1:28:33

be able to burn a year

1:28:35

because they don't have any space

1:28:37

for him in the organization. And

1:28:39

so, Trey Augustine, like a guy

1:28:41

who was in theory like a

1:28:43

top five, top eight goalie and

1:28:45

the Hobie Baker winner are going

1:28:47

back to Michigan State next year.

1:28:50

I think I'm going to pick

1:28:52

them to be the NCAA champions

1:28:55

in my predictions at the start

1:28:57

of next year, but I guess

1:28:59

we got to see how things

1:29:01

shake out. So anyway, I'm trying

1:29:04

to think, who's a college guy

1:29:06

that you're going to see this

1:29:08

year? And if it's not Zeev

1:29:11

Buiam, I don't know who the

1:29:13

answer is, honestly that guy. And

1:29:15

also I appreciate you teaching me

1:29:17

how to pronounce his name. It's

1:29:20

simply my player. I guess the,

1:29:22

Zeeve Boeyam, yeah. It's fun to

1:29:24

say. I guess the other guy

1:29:26

that you would say is Ryan

1:29:29

Leonard, but you, you know, we're

1:29:31

all sick of that. Yeah, at

1:29:33

this point. I feel like we

1:29:35

get over that one. Yeah, I

1:29:38

mean, geez, the commissioner showed up

1:29:40

to watch his first goal. Like

1:29:42

that's for us. Yeah, the only

1:29:44

other one I think you would,

1:29:47

you would say is like a

1:29:49

notable one. He got into the

1:29:51

game in Edmonton and Edmonton last

1:29:53

night. Lane Hudson's brother. And Cole

1:29:56

Hudson's brother. Cole Hudson. There's a

1:29:58

guy that it looks like he's

1:30:00

going back to be you for

1:30:03

next season. And he was already

1:30:05

the best defenseman in college. talking

1:30:07

this year probably if he wasn't

1:30:09

one he was two and he's

1:30:12

going back but Quinn is is

1:30:14

the you know notable because he's

1:30:16

a UFA who is who left

1:30:18

school a year early and is

1:30:21

already playing in the NHL. Do

1:30:23

I think he's like a you

1:30:25

know a guy who's gonna be

1:30:27

a huge difference maker for them

1:30:30

not really? But like, could he

1:30:32

be an NHL, like a bottom

1:30:34

six NHL player for a while?

1:30:36

Sure, he could. He's pretty, he's

1:30:39

alright, he's pretty good. But, hey,

1:30:41

the way things are going up

1:30:43

in Edmonton, he might be their

1:30:45

number one center at the start

1:30:48

of playoffs. Jesus! Everyone's hurt, everyone's

1:30:50

hurt, everyone's getting sick. I don't

1:30:52

know if you saw while we

1:30:55

were recording, Darnell Nurse is gonna

1:30:57

have a hearing for his cross

1:30:59

check on, uh, quit and buy

1:31:01

field last night. I didn't watch

1:31:04

that game. I was a little

1:31:06

hockey note. It was, it was

1:31:08

not great. Yeah, oh, no, I

1:31:10

saw the replay, I just didn't

1:31:13

watch that. He will definitely get

1:31:15

suspended. The question is, do they

1:31:17

give him, the one game, sounds

1:31:19

important. Or do they go to

1:31:22

get him. The Kings and that

1:31:24

could do we know yet if

1:31:26

Bifield's hurt like he didn't I

1:31:28

did not see that he is

1:31:31

hurt or not hurt one way

1:31:33

or the other let me see

1:31:35

if anybody has updated that while

1:31:37

you do plugs Find me on

1:31:40

the athletic. I've got my I'll

1:31:42

be on with Sean and Frankie

1:31:44

tomorrow. I've got the playoff prediction

1:31:47

contest is returning later this week

1:31:49

as is the bandwagon rankings And

1:31:51

also some fun news. I will

1:31:53

be launching a newsletter at the

1:31:56

athletic with James Myrtle. Me and

1:31:58

Myrtle are gonna tag team on

1:32:00

this thing and it'll, I think,

1:32:02

a couple of times a week.

1:32:05

You'll get fun hockey stuff in

1:32:07

your inbox. So keep an eye

1:32:09

on my social feeds. I will

1:32:11

tweet out the link to subscribe

1:32:14

to that. And please do subscribe

1:32:16

to it because they like it

1:32:18

when the numbers go up. Not

1:32:20

immediately able to update on byfield

1:32:23

according to stuff from overnight. So

1:32:25

that's the latest we have if

1:32:27

by the time it This episode

1:32:29

comes out You know, they're saying

1:32:32

they're saying he's he's a okay

1:32:34

great. If not that's bad. I

1:32:36

don't I you know But hey

1:32:38

so in the seeds for that

1:32:41

first-round matchup aren't we? Mm-hmm So

1:32:43

there you have it and then

1:32:45

for me head over to elite

1:32:48

prospects now's the time to sign

1:32:50

up. We're getting into draft season

1:32:52

I think there's a promo code

1:32:54

going on right now over there.

1:32:57

I don't know what it is

1:32:59

off the top of my head.

1:33:01

Let's see if it's on the

1:33:03

front page. They might not show

1:33:06

it to me since I am

1:33:08

already signed up through work. Yeah,

1:33:10

they're not showing it to me

1:33:12

if it's there. And if it's

1:33:15

not, well, again, now's the time

1:33:17

because the draft guide is coming.

1:33:19

Now that I think about it.

1:33:23

I don't know if they've formally

1:33:25

said, but it's usually a couple

1:33:28

of days into the playoffs. And

1:33:30

I thought it was the Monday.

1:33:32

Is it this coming Monday? May

1:33:35

5th or 6th that says here.

1:33:37

Okay, so that's later. That's a

1:33:40

Chris Johnston report. Yeah, that's that's

1:33:42

into the second round. Yeah. Okay,

1:33:44

interesting. And gee, don't don't the

1:33:47

playoffs start this weekend too. They

1:33:49

do yeah, we don't know the

1:33:51

full schedule yet, but Saturday I

1:33:54

think they start right expected to

1:33:56

see some games Saturday apparently Any

1:33:59

of the teams playing Thursday night

1:34:01

have been told they don't play

1:34:03

Saturday So I think that's fair.

1:34:06

I think that's reasonable beliefs and

1:34:08

senators is at least one matchup

1:34:10

Yeah, how many matchups do we

1:34:13

know? We know basically all of

1:34:15

them at this point. I mean

1:34:18

we pretty other than obviously the

1:34:20

teams that don't Have their spots

1:34:22

completely locked in right? I don't

1:34:25

know if we Do

1:34:27

we know Carolina and New

1:34:29

Jersey's locked in? Yeah, Dallas,

1:34:31

Colorado's locked in Dallas Colorado's

1:34:33

locked is not fully locked

1:34:35

and lightning in Panthers, but

1:34:37

it's it's like it's well

1:34:39

into the 90% Yeah Tampa

1:34:41

would have to win twice

1:34:43

the lease would have to

1:34:45

lose in regulation twice to

1:34:47

change that scenario. I believe

1:34:49

in them though Yeah, you

1:34:51

know and Washington will play

1:34:53

Montreal or Columbus. Right. Winnipeg

1:34:55

has, by the way, have

1:34:57

clinched the President's trophy first.

1:35:00

They have. Yeah. In franchise

1:35:02

history. So good for them.

1:35:04

Go thrashers. Even though we...

1:35:06