32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Another 3rd Period Comeback

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Justin Cuthbert, Kyle Bukauskas, and Elliotte Friedman continue their tour of all the 1st round Stanley Cup Playoff series: Kings-Oilers (1:00)Canadiens-Capitals (12:00)Jets-Blues (24:30)Canes-Devils (36:00)Panthers-Lightning (42:38)Sens-Leafs (49:50)Avalanche-Stars (58:30)Wild-Golden Knights (1:04:10)Justin, Kyle, and Elliotte answer your emails and voicemails in the Thought Line (1:10:02). In the final segment Justin and Elliotte check-in on the Anaheim Ducks coaching search (1:22:30). They talk about David Carle taking his name out of the running for the Blackhawks coaching job (1:24:48). Elliotte mentions where things stand with Rick Tocchet (1:29:07). Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Elliotte Friedman & Kyle Bukauskas.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates

Leon, down 3-1, always believing in yourself and this team. What did you think of how this team came back to at least push it to overtime? Yeah, that's our identity. That's what we do. We never quit. We've established that years ago and yeah, we look to do that every night. Obviously, we'd like to play with the lead a little bit more and get that trending in the right direction, but obviously shows a lot of character.

Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the GMC Sierra AT4X, Kyle Bacauskas, Elliot Freeman, Dom Strabati, Justin Cuthbert with you as we begin another week within the sweet spot in the sports calendar. In this Daily Cup Playoffs we have a mix of series seemingly in their infancy and a collection of teams Already on the break Elliott will have news on three coaching situations with non-playoff teams later in the show and we'll hit the thought line But let's begin another tour through our eight first round series and guys. I think we have to start in Edmonton The Kings have been completely outclassing the Oilers in the neutral game states. First 20 minutes, first 40 minutes, maybe even a little beyond that.

No competition has lopsided the series as we've seen so far for my money, but Edmonton in this permanent state of chase, they are unbelievably dangerous. And I think they got a mini miracle for the third time this series, and it might be possible that they broke LA. It was downhill in overtime against the Kings, a neutral game state, eventually capped by a Leon Dreisaitl winner and the Oilers somehow salvage a split through four games and incredible close guys to the weekend. I don't know even what to tell you. I mean, Justin, I think you hit on one of the key things there shots in the first two periods of these four games

LA is plus 18 8668 shots from the third period on Edmonton is plus 25 6944 which includes 34 to 13 in Third period and overtime of game four which just finished as we're doing this pod you know the thing about LA is we've talked about how much better they are offensively and they are in the three previous series against Edmonton the most they scored in any one of those series was 20 goals and that was the

seven gamer they're at 19 in four games of this series They are a better scoring team and that's why to me it's kind of inexplicable that in the third period of Game three in Edmonton and game four in Edmonton games They were winning games that they were in control of as you said they allowed Edmonton to dictate the pace the tempo and control of the game some of that of course is because Edmonton is two of the greatest players in the world but they just change the way they play they go into a shell and the other thing that

really hurt them tonight and it was the other thing that really hurt them tonight and it was the same thing that hurt Minnesota and we'll talk about that in their game is they wore out their D. Gavrikov played 31 minutes, that's the second most he's ever played, not including that big long overtime game between Columbus and Tampa Bay in the bubble. Edmondson played a career high 36 minutes. Doughty played 33. Anderson played 34. Brandt-Clark got some shifts in overtime but only played 12 minutes. They didn't play Mulvary in the overtime. He ended up at 226 and they dumped down a forward line. They basically didn't play Lewis, Malot and Alenius.

So they were short-handed going against a stampeding Edmonton team and you know I think some people have looked at it and said if the Kings lose this series they're going to regret the challenge in game number three. It's move now. They could have still won this one. They're going to regret the way things handled in the third period if they lose this series. I still think they're capable of winning it. I'm with you. They have outplayed Edmonton for more of the series but Consistently as it gets later Edmonton just takes over these games and they deserve the penalty in overtime They were all over them

And if it was I saw some Kings fans like that wasn't a penalty if you want to argue that argue it fine But the bottom line is Edmonton deserved the opportunity. It got an overtime because they were dominating. They smelled blood. You could see the Oilers hay an overtime Elliot and the thing was as you say as the Kings started to shorten their bench like Nick Saban in Alabama he had a rule like your offensive line your defensive line between plays you weren't allowed to have your hand on your hips, to have your hands on your knees, no sign showing the players on the other side of the line of scrimmage that you were tiring at all. But the Kings, they just ran out of gas,

and you could tell the Oilers were all over it the way they dictated the pace there. And over time, you knew at some point Gavrkova was a two and a half minute shift before he takes the penalty on McDavid at some point the dam was going to break and going back to your earlier point on You know could this be the series that shifts the tide over the challenge gone wrong in game number three I wondered if that was part of the reason why they did not challenge the Fogel goal on Sunday night. Just not knowing, okay, if that doesn't go our way, does it completely unravel for Edmonton from that part on? Because Calvin Pickard was doing the full-on JS Chaguer in the 2003 playoff against Detroit. No goal, no goal. But they end up, and I remember the flashback that you showed to

the Michkov goal in the regular season, I remember we talked about it on the pod extensively that night and some comparables to it there. I understand why they left it off and eventually gave way for their top dogs to take over here too. And we should also point out Evan Bouchard, happy for that guy. That highlight was everywhere online, the 3-1 goal for LA and for him to have another multi-goal game and the goals per game for career among defensemen in NHL history. Number two on that list is Evan Bouchard right now. Not a perfect defenseman but when your objective is to outscore the opposition, he again was a huge part of

why Edmonton was able to even the series here on Sunday. You know what Evan Bouchard is? He is an elite roller coaster at Cedar Rapids. That's what he is. He is, you know, he's up, he's down. You know that 3-1 goal, the one where McDavid was rolling his eyes and mad, like Kevin couldn't believe watching that in real time none of those guys could Connor McDavid wins a face-off clean in the offensive zone and 10 seconds later it's in your net that is not supposed to happen and like not only Kevin but Luke and Derek Lalone watching it too they were the same way

They couldn't believe it, you know the thing I'll say about that non challenge a couple of things Number one Noah Siegel who does the challenges for the Oilers. He's really on top of his game. He's very very good at it I know he's one of those guys who's gone into the video room before Spent the night there the situation room with Edmonton's been in town and the opportunity presents itself. He's one of a number of video coaches who will make sure they follow up with rulings they see in other games or challenges they don't take. I have no doubt on the off day Monday for the orders he's gonna reach out to them and say hey if I

had challenged this what would the result have been now as I said on the air my initial belief was to challenge it I I also as pointed out because Siegel didn't it really did give me pause but the reason I felt they should challenge it was because of the stab motion by Fogel and Mischov scored his first NHL goal for Philadelphia in Edmonton and it wasn't exactly the same play but it was similar and you know they when I checked at the time why did count? I was told because he was making more of a sweeping shooting motion than a stab motion with his stick and they said they allowed it to count because he didn't stab the Edmonton goaltender into the

net. Now Fogel is trying to play the puck and he's trying to score but he does stab at the puck and that's why I would have challenged if I was in that position. But, again, I think Siegel's very competent, so it gives me pause. And Derek Lalone said he wouldn't have challenged either. The other thing, guys, is I think teams are 0 for 3 in challenges so far. Um, but two of them them the LA challenge in game three I thought was a bad challenge the Tampa Bay Lightning challenge in their earlier in their series I thought was a bad challenge

The other one was knob lock the puck over glass one to me that one could have gone either way It was very very hard to tell so I didn't have a problem with that challenge But it also made me wonder if the way this is going so far, some of these video coaches are going to be a little bit more shy. Last thing for me on this game, guys, I can't help but marvel at Corey Perry. He's great. I know he's playing with maybe the two best players in the world, but he's on the ice

for everything good that happens for the Oilers in this game. I think people were writing him off five, six years ago. What does he have left? A diminishing asset and I know that he's been forced to change his game but the Oilers don't until overtime didn't have too many guys who were pulling on the rope as much as they needed but Corey Perry's been that one constant even more constant perhaps than McDavid and Dry Cytle in this series like he's been so good for them so consistent every shift it seems like he's doing something positive for the Oilers. I completely agree he loves hockey there was a time there in that game Justin that it was McDavid, Dreisaitl, and Perry were like the only forwards above water.

But eventually some of them caught up with them. Like Hyman made an incredible forecheck on the game-time goal. He was getting to that puck and clobbering the first king who got to the puck no matter what he felt he had to do. But I'm with you. I thought Perry was was a real difference maker in this game and they're gonna need more. Like I just at some point in time the Kings are gonna start to say you know what we're gonna

play the third period like we play the first and second and Edmonton's gonna need more help for those guys when that happens. Just one thing on Perry, you mentioned Justin, how he's had to evolve his game as he's gotten older. He's also, over the course of this season, been in the gym more than he typically would any other year, on the off days and such, and the downtime between games, because he knows, as he's felt and the body's changed and his role has changed within a team, wants to have the strength and the stamina for this time of year and try to maintain that because he's not logging the same minutes night after night on the ice.

He's getting his work in there. So that's been one adjustment he's made this season and so far he's looked pretty darn good in the playoffs. You could follow that advice too Kyle. You're starting to look a little bit flabby. Let's move on to the series I Don't Think We Knew We Needed, and that's Montreal and Washington.

It was incredible drama in two games in Montreal over the weekend, game three, game of the year candidate. It included two net miners exiting with injury, a Tom Wilson, Josh Anderson brawl on the capitals bench between periods. You then had Wilson pantomiming tears, stirring up drama with who we believe is your ice, Slavkowski. Yeah, it was Slavkowski. It was Slavkowski. And Montreal scores six times and introduces themselves, at least I thought, as a real threat in the series series but then Washington does bounce back in game four in part due to a massive hit in open ice from Tom Wilson and now they're up 3-1 heading home after a 5-2 victory Sunday night lots to unpack in this series and what we saw over the weekend spectacular

through four games Ellie we'll start with you. Where do you want to begin? When it comes to Anderson and Wilson, I don't know if you guys heard Luke Gazzick in the pregame talk about how he knows both those guys and they'll run into each other in Toronto in the off season and he says they're both great guys and he thinks they would get along real well. And then we showed the pack of everything that's happened between them. They fought twice in the Ontario Hockey League. Wilson injured Anderson with a big hit in the game once in the NHL, a hit that Anderson says was legal.

They've had a couple of fights. Last year on Halloween, he fought Wilson after Wilson hit Gouli. You saw what happened in the game the other night. And Anderson has said before, I've been compared to that guy for years and I don't like it. I think what we have to do is get both of those guys to admit the truth. And the truth is, Dom, as Kramer once said on Seinfeld. What's the matter with you? Now don't you two see that you're in love with each other?

I mean why can't you face that already? I think that's quite obvious here. Gazdik has to bring them together and create the true bro friendship. I'll say this. One of the things I really believe, and I'm with you Justin, I think game three was the best game I saw all year this year. One of the things that happened game three is when Montreal dressed Jacki, they had Anderson and Jacki out there and everybody on that team got 6 inches taller

and 20 pounds heavier. Demidov was slew-footing Wilson, Matheson and Dvorak both sandwiched them and knocked them down. As BX has said, they were doing things to Wilson they would never do if A. It wasn't a playoff game and B. both Anderson and Jacqui weren't out there. And you know Wilson was the target and he was taking the abuse from all the fans and he made the biggest play of the series so far. And that was a clean hit on Carrier. It was vicious. he made the biggest play of the series so far and

That was a clean hit on Carrier. It was vicious. It was nasty, but it was not a penalty and you know Carrier just you know, that's one of those things that 20 years ago or 30 years ago. There were five Tom Wilsons on every team. Now there's not even five Tom Wilsons in the league. And people just are not used to anymore guys coming at them like that. The playoffs are meaner, they're rougher, they're nastier, but still I don't think people expect that, especially not late in a tie

game but you know I give Wilson credit for two games in Montreal they were all over him the fans the Canadians they were taunting them they were going hard at him and that's what the playoffs are all about and in the biggest moment he made the biggest play the biggest play and I'm sorry it was not deserving of a penalty and he won it won them the game. And you knew he was gonna push back at some point as much as the Canadians felt a little bigger with Jack I inserted in the lineup Josh Anderson doing his thing he was gonna punch back and he did with his body and then with the stick to ice things with the empty debtor and even like did you see Dobish's quote after the game going why I thought they would

have blown it down because it was such a big hit like he was even like I've never seen anything like that before he was blown away at just the the severe violence of the collision of it but I mean thankfully Carrey was able to get up and at least get himself over to the bench also thought on the Washington side of things I mean couldn't help but feel a bit better for Brandon Duhaime he had a rough yes three and then he gets a couple of important goals for Washington. He's got to stop eating paper. Well I thought he was going to be, he would gobble up the game sheet afterwards out of

sheer joy seeing his two goals next to his name in the aftermath. And I will say for Montreal, as dejecting of a result that was as that night came to a close. Watching that power play you guys, especially with Demidov now there, Caulfield on the other side, I don't know about you, I was kind of getting shades of like peak Tampa Bay power play like with Stamcoast when he was still there. Like Caulfield's in the Stamcoast role, you've got the unpredictable playmaker of Demodob, it's got a little bit of Kutrav in him on the other flank, and then you've got the brilliant mind in the bumper position of Nick Suzuki, and that of course is Braden Point in Tampa. We know how lethal the

lightning power play has been for a long time now. Watching them move that puck around there in game number four was kind of making me think of that a little bit and that's just, I mean, in theory the beginning of that group for many years to come there. So we'll see if whether it's the power play or whatever else can rescue them here in game five but it was a pretty damn good dose of reality for Montreal of playing with the lead and also what can happen and how quickly a night can change when it feels like everything was going your way to that point. I thought Montreal was gonna steal that one I really did. Dobrish gave them a really good performance I

thought the group as a whole gave a really good performance. That power play, like if you're the, in particular the Atlantic division, you're looking at that and saying we're going to have to deal with that for the next 10 to 15 years. That's not exactly going to be a barrel of laughs. The Carrier thing is a big deal. He got hurt twice in that game. Got hit by Ovechkin oncekin once went to the room then took that big hit from Wilson How is his health gonna be? He's a critically important quiet player for them No, I I thought Montreal was really good and I thought they were gonna win that game a couple of other things Marten Sanlouis Spoke postgame about diving. I think diving is a scourge on the playoffs and it's not

just Washington. I see way too many people doing it, way too many teams, way too many series, and I think referees should be tougher on it. And I know some of them get nervous calling it in the moment because you don't want to be wrong, but you know I really do think in some of these situations I don't even think you should call like someone for a trip or a hold and a dive I think you're just gonna have to call the embellishment it's it's terrible how much diving is going on out there in all the series it's it's it's one of the only things I hate about the playoffs because at the

beginning of each each year in the postseason, it always seems to get worse than it is in the regular season, and I hate it everywhere. I also wanted to thank you, Kyle. I made a note about, would Logan Thompson wear the throat protection? Oh yeah.

And I forgot to check, and he was, and you sent me it during the game and I wasn't sure he hadn't worn it this year Kevin Woodley who was the goalie guru said that he wore it last year before Thanksgiving and took it off because he wasn't playing well. So this is the first time he's put it on Since then, you know, I was not surprised Montembo didn't play I think Dobusch knew the night before that he was gonna play. Thompson, you know somebody I know

who knows Thompson really well as a podcast listener, he said to me, I will bet you $11 billion that Thompson will play. He sent me that note after Thompson left the game, game three. He kind of just laughed and he said, I know Thompson, he was rattled, he was caught, like he got hit pretty hard by Strom. It was legit. But once the adrenaline wears off and he starts to recover a bit, he will do everything he can. He said he is motivated to prove that he can win this series and be the guy that Washington has signed and he will not want to give up the net. So he turned out to be right about that. Great

series and even though it's 3-1 I would not be surprised if Montreal brought this back. I thought they were minutes away from stealing that game. I really did. We need at least one more game in that building. Please. Yes. I thought the net pull was a little aggressive too, but who am I to argue with Martin Saint-Louis? Elliott, you mentioned a scourge earlier.

I can't imagine the NHL doesn't think that a mini brawl on the bench is a scourge earlier. I can't imagine the NHL doesn't think that a mini brawl on the bench is a scourge. What was the NHL saying? What were people talking about after that little melee ended up on the bench? Was there bolstered up security? What was sort of the talking point after that played out in game three? Well, I think they were warned not to do that again, right? You know, it's a bit of a different situation in Montreal because for anyone who's never been there and you should go before you can't anymore, you should go see the NHL game in Montreal, particularly when the Canadians are good.

Montreal is one of those buildings where to get to your dressing room, you have to skate across the ice and It's also you know the Canadians are since it's the long change for Montreal the in the second period they If they're in their own zone even especially the goalie they have to come by those guys, right? So it can lead to, if the temperatures are hot, it's easier for everybody to get all tangled in there, which is what happened. There was a good highlight from game four of Jacki trying to get to the Montreal dressing room and a linesman

stopping him before that flow of players from Washington and making him wait or go around a certain direction. So that they were obviously policing it more. They warned the teams about it. None of that stuff. And the other thing too is Justin the the referees did a favor to Wilson and Anderson in Game 3. They gave them 2 in 10. If you get a five minute major for fighting and you're outside the playing surface, it's a game misconduct and potentially supplemental discipline. So that's one thing that the referees did them a favor and they probably said to them next time you won't be that lucky. Okay guys, it's taken a turn between the Winnipeg Jets and St. Louis Blues as you mentioned but in two games at Enterprise Center the Blues managed

to chase Connor Hellebuck twice they scored 12 times they beat Hellebuck on three straight shots at one point in game four and the soon-to-be Vezna trophy winner and possible MVP of the league has now turned in three disappointing starts in four games here for the Wittapak Jets save percentage down to eight seventeen. Hellebuck's performance in these playoff guys not doing anything to dispel the notion that his powers do diminish in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Kyle, how much heat is on him in game five? So we're going to get to Toronto, Ottawa, the Battle of Ontario a little bit later and

already you could hear from some corners after the way game four ended there about, oh you know should Toronto be nervous? Is another collapse coming ahead? I mean I think we're still way too early to have any conversation about that with them. Not the case for Winnipeg. Like it's feeling tight here now that they've let this series, not only that they've allowed St. Louis back into the series, that's one thing, but as you say the way that it has happened for Conor Hellebuyck, if you're not getting pulled at all throughout the regular season, now getting the hook in back-to-back games. That's been the

concern here as it goes forward. And the bizarre thing is is that we've talked is they've gone down over the course of this year and became a President's Trophy winning team. Anytime there was a big game, a big moment to kind of let's see where this team is at, they seemed to handle it all really well. And Hellebuck, of course, was a big factor in a lot of those nights. And now it's reared its ugly head again in the playoffs.

And some of them that you're watching, I mean, there's screens like St. Louis clearly is doing a great thing in making life difficult for him to not be able to see it. Thought like last year against Colorado, they had found a formula of like, everything was like up and over the shoulder. It was up, up, up.

And this year there's traffic, there's deflection, like neighbors, what a play there on the first goal late in the first period. But Scott Arneal, I mean, he highlighted like coverage being an issue on a lot of the goals against here in game number four and Just some things that they hadn't been really struggling with all year that would kind of been Muscle memory for a lot of how they played as now coming again. So

Yeah, there's there's legitimate concern here. I think you know going back to to Winnipeg for game five It's been a weird flow in terms of the amount of off days in between games in this series compared to the other ones like a lot of back-to-back days off and they'll have another two before game five on on Wednesday so a little more time to think about again how Hellebuck how the Jets have found themselves in this situation where your MVP, the Vezna trophy winner, your best player is once again in a situation that's made everybody not only within the organization I'm sure but the fan base nervous heading back home for five, Elliot. So I got to tell you this, yes I've seen all the stats, I understand that some of these goals were deflected in or screened.

Like the first one, Winnipeg's dominating them all, period, and St. Louis gets a tying goal in the last minute on the tip-in by neighbors, or deflection by neighbors. And that sucks. I get that. You know, it's too bad because you've been dominating all the way. I Would say this If I was in Connor Hellebuck shoes I would not allow all

This talk about screens and traffic, you know That's the playoffs if you saw all the all the blues quotes post game, Braden Shenn talked about it, Justin Falk talked about it. What did Falk say? It's not a secret. It's everybody's same strategy. And that's all true. And you're going to get beat by screens and you're going to get beat by deflections.

And I don't think anybody's going to complain about that. If I was in Hello Box shoes, I would not be allowing any excuses and like if we have a bad podcast which has never happened I will blame myself for the podcast more than I will blame anybody else. If I have a bad broadcast which also has never happened I will blame myself for the broadcast before I blame anybody else. And you know, I look at what concerns me for Hellebuck is the third goal, the Shen goal and the fifth goal, the Thomas goal. And like I said, you are going to understand if a guy is going to get beaten by traffic and screens, the best goalies in the world are going to get

beaten by traffic and screens. I looked at those goals on Sunday and they really concerned me. They really did. Like that third one, like how often did Hellebuck look like that all year? And that fifth one, how often did Hellebuck look like that all year? Hellebuck all season was not a mere mortal. And changes in the playoffs, everybody plays harder, that's number one. Everybody plays dirtier, that's number two. And everybody game plans for whoever they're going to see, especially the best players, that's number three.

But the one thing I find about Hellebock is he's a battler. And those were weird goals that he didn't battle like I expect to see Hellebock battle. Now, I don't, I refuse to panic. I think series, I don't panic for anyone. I think series go up and down. There's good moments, there's bad moments and it's 2-2. You can always recover. But if I was in Hello Box shoes, I would not be allowing any talk about screens or traffic or anything like that. I'd be looking at those goals and saying, I'm going to fix that. I'm going to deal with that. By the time we play again, that one, those two are going to be solved and we'll worry about the rest then.

And that's the way I feel about it. You have to be able to control the stuff you can control. And do they have to do a better job in front of them? Absolutely. But I look at those two goals and say, that's what he really has to fix because he got overpowered or beaten in ways I don't think I saw him get beaten all year. Take control what you can control,

worry about what you can handle, and the rest takes care of itself. I really do believe that and I think he's the kind of person that will react that way. This is going to be a test for him. He knows what's being said about him. He knows what's being said around him. he knows what's being said around him, you can always rewrite your narrative, you can always rewrite what people think about

you. It's still a 2-2 series, this doesn't have to end in disaster for the Winnipeg Jets, but you know he's got to get back up to that level. There's something about Bennington and Halobok 2 guys, like there's something about Bennington, he thinks he's always going to win this matchup, and you can tell the Blues think that Bennington can win this matchup. It's up to Hellebuck to change that narrative, and I still believe he is more than capable of doing it. Yeah, the Bennington-Hellibuch dynamic is fascinating. Bennington allowing three goals on 50 shots

in the two games. In St. Louis, clearly outplaying Conor Hellibuch in those two games. You mentioned handling what you can control or controlling what you can control for Hellibuch. Scott Arneal doing his best to try to allow him to do that. He called in the post game, some of those goals allowed. Those are coverage goals.

Yeah. At least trying to give him that opportunity to be like, OK, reset and do what you need to do. But on the fan pregame, Ailish and I had an interesting conversation with Arshon Reynolds, who said that all year long, Winnipeg has put Connor Hellebuck in the position to be great. They make it easy on him to be great.

We were having a conversation about the Heart Trophy at the time, and I don't want to completely absolve the Jets. They've played really well at points in this series as well, and I think you do go to Cotter Hellebuck first. But if deflections and tips and screens are getting it done, that is partly on the jet skaters. Yeah, again, Justin, I refer to the beginning of the conversation. Like, I would never, you know, Arneal's right.

And part of it, I think, too, is they're trying to help Hellebuck's own psyche, right? Right. They're protecting it. I think there too, is they're trying to help Hello Buck's own psyche, right? Right. They're protecting him a bit. I think there is some protection of him here, but if I was Hello Buck's shoes, and I was as counted on for my team as Hello Buck is for his, I wouldn't allow myself to think like that. I just wouldn't. And everybody's different. I get that. I would

simply say look like I gotta fix this. I gotta fix this and I'm going to fix this and that's how I would look at it. I've told this story before I just remember Boston Chicago 2013 Stanley Cup Final. Corey Crawford had that awful game where he couldn't catch, right? And the Bruins just lit him up on his glove side. The next morning, he was on ice, first thing in the morning in Chicago, like just doing his moves. Before anyone came to shoot him, he was on the ice, I think.

I think it was Stefan Waid who was still the goalie coach at that time. And Stefan and him, they just went through his moves. He was on the ice first thing doing his drills and Crawford recovered and was a major reason the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup that year. That's what you have to do. You have to go back to your basics. You have to do the work. Like I said, I think Arneal is doing the right what a coach should do.

He's trying to alleviate the pressure on his star player, his best player, a player they need. But if I was in that shoes, I would say, you know what? This is on me, not the coverage, and I'm going to fix it. Do not get to the level of Connor Hellebuck's stature in his profession by constantly wondering why is it everybody else's fault but mine? 100%. And I'll say this too, all the pressure shifts to the Jets.

It's gonna be a nervous building in there. It'll be a loud building for game five, it always is, but it's gonna be a nervous building. The Jets fans they will be nervous for this one. Like I said though you can always rewrite the narrative you always have a chance to write a new chapter. The latest biggest start in Connor Ellibook's career game five versus the St. Louis Blues. Okay let's go to Carolina and New Jersey. Carolina does deliver something of a dagger before heading back to Raleigh.

They go up 3-1 in their series with the Devils after falling in game three. The win though may have come at somewhat of a cost. Frederick Anderson exited the game, collision with Timo Meyer in the crease. Hurricanes not happy with it and how could they be? I mean, Anderson has been given them goal-tending and generally does, but it's kind of the same old story. When available, Anderson can do the job.

It's just, is he available? Peter Kachetkov was thrust into action, but the main story in this series now is the health of Freddie Anderson. Elliot, have you heard anything on his status? No, Justin. Like Rod Brynjomor said post-game, they'll know more on Monday when they get back home. That's kind of always the case, you know more the next day. So we'll see what happens then. You know, New Jersey rallied a little bit there. They were down 3-0. They got within 3-2, but Carolina righted the ship. New Jersey is putting up a heck of a fight. They're down 3D and they're not getting anything from their power play.

They're not getting anything from the bottom six of their forward lines and they're fighting as much as they possibly can. It's like the Untouchables. Why did you bring a knife to a gunfight? And they have a problem. They just they don't have enough. Like the Hurricanes are one of the league's deepest teams. Bryndamore plays a lot of those depth players. He really trusts them and that's the difference. They're just getting more from more in their roster than New Jersey is and that's the biggest reason they're up three to 1. Like I said, no power play, no scoring depth, injuries up and down, and Carolina is taking

advantage. At the playoffs are not the time to feel sorry for your opponent. You crush the opposition as fast as you can and Carolina's given itself the best opportunity to potentially do this and you know I'll say this I thought at best it was it was a minor to Meyer at best. I'm with you I'm with you because of the way Svetlana Kov got in there yes and changed like and Justin as you know I mean you don't have to play an elite level of hockey to know like if you're committed to stopping a certain way and you've got

your weight shifted to kind of prepare for that now Meyer did go to the net hard there's no question about that but when you're prepared to stop a certain way and whether it's someone's arm or their stick gets in and throw you off balance like all bets are off at that point to try to recollect yourself you need way more runway at that point and so of course you can see why Bryndenmoor is upset because his number one goalie just left the game but nothing more than a minor is what I saw in that play if they were to call something to Elliot I'm with you on that. So the Devils had the third best power play in the regular season,

second best penalty kill. If you told Sheldon Keefe that it'd be split at five on fives, you'd think he'd be winning the series. He'd think the Devils were going to win the series. I couldn't believe when I saw that it's six, six, goals for and against, five on five scoring, every other condition in the series, fellas. Eight goals for the Carolina Hurricanes, one for the Devils. Special teams as you mentioned, letting them down. Yeah. Yeah and that goes to what I really believe is that sometimes in the regular season you let down your guard depending on the schedule or how tired your team is or for a lot of

different reasons. In the playoffs, everybody knows what their opponent's keys to attacking are or keys to winning are, and you make a priority list. You always try to take away the number one thing. You hope to take away the number two thing. But you always know what all of those things are, and you're much more detail-oriented in stopping it. And the Devils just

don't have enough firepower right now. Yeah and the other thing too I mean even like Jacob Markstrom's numbers I wouldn't say are poor through four games here gents but Sheldon Keefe even highlighted postgame I mean two of the four games here they've given up up a goal on the first shot. It's not always how many goals you give up, but when you give them up. And so I mean that's been for a team that's already shorthanded going in and bang half your guys haven't even got their first shift into the game and you're already chasing by one. It just hasn't helped matters for a Devils team that needs a whole lot of

things to go their way against Carolina in this series and not much has to this point. By the way, before we wrap this one up, there was a bit of a stir on the weekend involving Alexander Nikishin, the talented young Russian defenseman who has now joined Carolina. I do not believe this is going to be an issue. I think it flared up because I believe the Hurricanes were hoping that maybe Nikitian would play a game for AHL Chicago before he played an NHL game and Chicago's season ended before that could occur but I do not believe there's an issue here. I do not believe this is going to be a problem.

I would think that the only thing holding Nikitian playing an NHL game now if it doesn't happen is, you know, that's a tough one to ask a coach you know as talented as he is it's a tough ask for Bryndamore to put him into a game sight unseen you know it may happen who knows who knows what the future will where the future will take us but if if if Rod Bryndamore was to say he wasn't sure that or wasn't necessarily 100% comfortable with this, I think anybody would understand. It's disappointing. It couldn't work out earlier where he could have gotten his visa and played or worked out a situation where he could have played. But I do not believe there's any long-term problem between the Keishen and the Hurricanes.

Okay, let's continue with Saturday's slate and let's start with Florida-Tampa, Elliott, because that is getting real good. The Tampa Bay Lightning avoided an 0-3 hole rather convincingly versus the defending champion Florida Panthers, winning 5-1 on Saturday afternoon. They did it without Brennan Hagel. One game suspension for that brutal hit on Sasha Barkov who did play in the game is availability not announced until the Hagel ruling. Then we have Matthew Kachuk who received a five minute major late in the game for a hit on an unsuspecting Jake Gensel. It's forced us to consider something new.

The nuance of predatory interference. I suppose Chuck does avoid supplemental discipline after Hagel does not Elliott to the NHL have this right? I Don't like the late I'll tell you that Justin the thing that bothered me the most about Kachak's hit was it was late I don't like late You know Hagels was worse. I definitely believe that. The biggest difference to me between what Hagel did and what Kachak did was the lack of puck play. Gensel at least was

playing the puck, although it was late. Barkov never did. So to me, one was worse than the other. So I guess if you're going to say that Hagels is worse than Kachak's, which I agree with, and Hagel got one, you can make an argument that that's fair, that that's reasonable. I just hated the lateness of the Kachak. The other thing here is, is if you kind of have been taking a look at what Colin Campbell's been doing in these playoffs with things like warmups and again, they warned Montreal before their game on Sunday about a lot of the stuff that happened with Wilson and Anderson, like no, nothing on the bench, nothing at the end of the period. And Montreal's got a bit of a unique setup there because the visiting

team in this case the Capitals has to go all the way across the ice to get to their dressing room which is part of the reason that this occurred. Campbell has been very, like I thought the Cousins thing with Stoller's was pretty harmless but he sets out right from the start of the playoffs. They have a zoom meeting with the teams and he says, look, I'm gonna come down hard on this pregame stuff because I don't want Slapshot because it always escalates is what he says. So he's on top of it. In this particular case, I think you always worry that, okay, we had had Hegel now we have Kachak

Is it gonna escalate again, but George Perrot's preference is not to think like that George Perrot's things like okay. This is what I think of this particular incident This is how I see it and I'm gonna rule on everyone individually like at times I've made comments about how I think he sees things and he has told me that's not the way I see things. So I look at it in this place he's like, no, Hegel is Hegel, Kachak is Kachak, I see it this way, I see it that way, but overall I don't think I'm surprised overall. I'm not surprised Justin because He sees the hagel as worse than the Kachak and it's it since hagel is one

I'm not shocked to chuck at zero, but I I don't like the lateness of it like I Don't like the lateness of it. That was the thing that really bothered me about the Kachak hit. Yeah, I'm with you I mean I saw it and immediately I just thought that that's Matthew Kachuk, Matthew Kachuking at an extremely high level because he does the exact same thing, but it's under the Hegel threshold. Like it is so clear that he is doing something in response, at least to me, but he's doing it at that slightly lesser degree of violence and therefore he gets to play in game four. But it's not just that from him.

I mean, he's involved in a scrum every single play, it seems like, all the talk. And he also leads the team with three goals and four points. So any worry about whether he was gonna bring, any worry rather about what he was gonna bring to the table, I guess that could be a laid because he has been peak Matthew Kachuk for me. These two hits, Elliot, have brought some quality coaching banter to the floor after

Kachuk's hit in major John Cooper echoing the quote from Paul Maurice after game two, quote, the only players we hit are the ones with pucks. This feels a little less adversarial to me and more game respecting game. Two head coaches respecting each other because it's two coaches respecting each other because it hasn't necessarily spilled out into the ugly nature and I think we got a bit of a hat tip from Maurice to Cooper on Sunday. Yes that's true Maurice did say basically good one I found out about that last night and he tipped his cap at Cooper. It just shows you.

I mean, those two teams, I've said this many times and I'll say this again, Justin, the reason why the Florida Panthers have become as good as they are is the Tampa Bay Lightning. For a long time, Florida was kind of the sleeping giant of the NHL and then they They got their they got sand kicked in their faces so many times by the lightning whether it was head-to-head in a playoff series or because the lightning now have won three Stanley Cups before they won one and Finally Florida just said if they're like this. Why aren't we like this? And finally, Florida just said, if they're like this, why aren't we like this? So the Florida Panthers are the Frankenstein monster created by the Tampa Bay lightning doctors, I guess. They're the Dr. Frankensteins of the Panthers. But this rivalry is phenomenal.

One of the things about Toronto, Ottawa is that everything we do on the air, the Ottawa fans think we're biased for Toronto and the Toronto fans think we're biased for Ottawa. It's awesome. I love every second of it. And everything you tweet on this series, the hate between the Panthers fans and the Lightning fans, it's very, very real. Like the moment, the moment that I posted the video of the Kachak hit on Gensel, I had Lightning fans saying to me, well now you're going to advocate for a Kachak suspension just like you advocated

for Hagels, right? Like we're not, it's, like we're not down there. We live in our Ontario corridor, Justin. But if you think the hardcore Panthers and Lightning's fans aren't wired the same way as the hardcore Leaves and Senators fans, you're wrong. They see the bias against them in every way the Canadian fans do. It's fantastic. It is great, great for hockey. I'm not surprised the Lightning punched back. This was not going to be a sweep and there is still a long, long way to go in this particular

series. A long way to go. I think you're right about that. Let's wade back into those dangerous Battle of Ontario waters. No sweep for the Maple Leafs. Jake Sanderson thwarts the Maple Leafs bid for a third straight overtime winner prolonging the series, a seeing eye shot from the point. Now one loss should not phase any team that manages to build a three-nothing series lead, but Elliott the Leafs aren't any team now one and eleven in this era with a chance to close out a series. I'm not saying Elliot, I'm just saying. I think this team is different. I saw that quoted a lot. So I went to my gym, the Jewish Community

Centre here in Toronto on Sunday morning and I couldn't believe how many people were like, do you think the Leafs are going to panic and collapse? Like they're doomed. And I was like, what have you guys been watching the last four games? This series reminds me of Justin. Do you remember when Marner, Matthews and Nylander played their first playoff series before Tavares got there in 2017 was against Washington? And that was a series they lost in six games and five of those games went to overtime and the Capitals won three of them. Like they gave Washington everything they

could handle, but Washington was more experienced and a little bit better. And that reminds me of this series right now. We've had now three games in overtime of the four. Toronto's won two, Ottawa's won one. Like the Senators don't deserve to get swept. I don't know if you ever saw the movie Unforgiven, Academy Award winner of the 1990s. There's a line there that says deserves got nothing to do with it. That's true. But the Senators did not deserve to get swept in this series. They've been closer. And I just don't see this Toronto team panicking. I think there's too much experience. I think the coach is too calm. We'll see what happens on Tuesday

night in game five. But I cannot see a team that's played as well as it has being up three games to one Suddenly panicking and falling apart because they lost game four in Ottawa you yeah, I mean I think Ottawa I don't I do think this team it is different And I think the old team could rear its ugly head if it starts to slip away But we'll get to that if we have to get to that with Ottawa Probably one more victory to say have the same feel-good nature that Toronto had at the end of that series with Washington I mean that was one of the highlights Honestly of this playoff era for the Maple Leafs ahead of this which just is you know a

Series defeat against a really good team in the Washington Capitals, but if it is five games for Ottawa I'm not sure they'll be taking the same solace. So we'll see if they can make things interesting. And I don't think the promise will be there that you'll have eight more years of heartbreak if you're the senators. I think maybe the parallels will end there. And Justin, Elliott mentioned just a different feel about this Toronto team because of the fact that Craig Borube is in charge now as head coach. And on that note, I mean, you think about this year, guys, how much times in a market where you always hear about the noise and you got to be careful because things get blown out of proportion, out of nowhere, something you don't think is a big deal can become a big deal in the market of Toronto.

How many noisy moments really has there been this season with Borubi at the helm? Of course, there was the trade deadline and the report of Toronto going to Mitch Marner and asking about waiving the no trade as they were looking at a deal with Carolina. That was one thing certainly, but the head coach had nothing to do with that. But even think back to training camp, the changing of the captaincy, Tavares of course handled that beautifully in his own right. But even through the preseason and early on in the year when Nylander talked about liking to have more ice time, that was never an issue.

He handled that beautifully. He's done a masterful job. If you go through his media availabilities on an off day, morning skate, post game from September on through till now, it's basically been the exact same tone, same type of delivery the whole way through. And he's injected some personality in here and there too. Like we expect him and have been accustomed

to seeing as this you know very gruff individual, certainly at times in St. Louis. But there's some humor and humility there to him as well. As you know there is behind closed doors and he's been showing it a little bit more outwardly as this year has gone on when he speaks to the media and in turn the Toronto fan base there and I think that's gone a long way towards you know setting the right tone for this group over the course of this entire season. The one thing I'd say about Ottawa to Elliott is that you know one of the players said to me after game one he's like that first me after game one, he's like that first

10 minutes, game one in Toronto was like an out of body experience, right? We all knew going in, this was a brand new set of circumstances for the majority of players on that roster. And Craig Simpson talks about it every year. It's like playoff games are like dog years. Like you play your first playoff game, and then you play your second. Suddenly, you've got twice the amount of experience you did beforehand going in. And you just watch the way they've handled a lot of things

as the series is wore on. It wasn't perfect in game four, not at all. Much made of only four shots on goal over the second and third periods combined. But the way Toronto is defended here over this series had a lot to do with it too. But they've handled a lot of big moments though they haven't been on the right side of all of them particularly well and they just seem like a growing confident group and now going back into Toronto for

a fifth game with their season on the line again. Nerves of course are going to be a part of it. But Elliot, you got to think that this is a team that is growing right before our eyes and learning to handle these big moments. Well, it's good point and the Ottawa fans hope you're right. I'll tell you that much. I thought what was big in that game was the obviously the penalty kill and overtime the double minor to Batherson. Look that was a missed call on Zoop like I don't think that's a suspension or anything like that but they missed the call and because of that but they got Batherson and they got it

right it was four and even though Tavares wasn't there and it changed that power play a bit, like that power play had been destroying Ottawa. They couldn't handle it. And not having Tavares for four minutes to play the bumper position, it changed things. It hurt it. But with all the other talent that you've got on the ice out there, you still have plenty of reason to expect that they can score.

So that's a heck of a penalty killed by Ottawa in that situation. A great moment for Jake Sanderson. You know, I have to say this series has been, of all the series we've watched so far, Justin, it's probably the least hateful. And that has surprised me a bit It's not as if I if I was to rank the hate in all these series I would say this one would probably be last and that surprised me a bit Although I do want to thank

the individual who made the sign of Kyle Bacoskas bought me these tickets, the Leaf fan who did that. I would have been disappointed if it didn't occur from at least one person. Yeah, and Elliot, let me just say borderline embarrassing on your part. The amount of times you texted me over the last three, four days while the series had shifted to Ottawa. Any signs? Did you guys see any signs? And we were actually looking for him, but we couldn't see him. And so thanks again, as you say, to Scott Tysik for pointing out the one that was left

behind at the CTC after game four. You saved Elliott's fragile ego. He feels much better about things knowing that at least someone took him up on his wish in this battle of Ontario. And avoiding the sweep, we get at least one more opportunity for fans to shout out Kyle Bacoskas and 32 Thoughts specifically with their signage, Scotiabank Arena, on Tuesday night. Okay, let's switch gears to Colorado and Dallas. Maybe another series that isn't exactly boiling over at least yet, but it is tied at two going back to Dallas.

We had the long awaited return on Thursday and a long awaited goal on Saturday. Gabriel Landiscock treating the crowd with a beautiful goal almost three years after his last, as I mentioned, avalanche evening the series. In a series that I thought was like the ultimate coin flip, but to this point may be favoring the avalanche. The story though is Landis Cog for me.

Yes. You know, any surprise how effective he's been elevated from the third line, elevated from the third line to the second line, now up on the top power play unit. Elliot, it's the same old Gabriel Landis guy. Yeah, it is pleasantly surprising. That's what I would say, pleasantly surprising. Because I think that everybody knew he was always going to try, but I don't think anyone really knew how it was going to go. When he came back and played, you know, before they committed to game two and he played back to back on that weekend, before they committed to game

two, Justin, they wanted to make sure he was going to be okay after okay enough after game one to play game two. And even after he played two games, I think there were people who were still like, I don't know if he's going to be able to handle what the NHL playoffs are like. And then he came back and he was effective. And as you said, he got moved up and now he scored. Like, so we went for a quick bite after the game. We worked Toronto and Ottawa on Saturday, and then we went for a quick bite and we just went somewhere where we had a TV. We could watch Colorado Dallas and Kevin didn't happen to be looking at the TV when he scored and I said, oh wow, Landiscau just scored.

And Kevin said, what, like a tip from in front of the net? Because that's what you would think, right? And I said, no, he shot off a rush and you know, Brock Nelson with the great play to get it to him And we looked at that goal and we were like wow like I think that I think I would I would bet that if you Pumped true serum into everybody Justin about this they would say they hoped it was gonna be like this But they didn't necessarily believe it was gonna be like this like I think there were some people who were worried He'd take his first hit and he'd be like, oh, that's it. I can't do this anymore. Or he skated the pace of the playoffs for 10, 15 minutes to be like, I'm in agony or I can't keep up. Like it's, it's pretty obvious. I think in your wildest dreams, you hope it would go like this, but I don't know if anyone really expected it to be like this. He's definitely more of a factor, I think, than some people

really believe. But it is the best individual story of the playoffs, no doubt about it. And the other thing that's really awesome is that you can see the love like his teammates have for him, which we all knew because he's the captain, hugely popular, but the celebration on the bench for him. And also too, like the Colorado fans, like there's a love affair between the fan base and the player and you really see it and there was that great shot of the couple making out after he scored. I thought that was awesome. I think the whole thing is such a great story. And, you know, I'll say this, like, I guaranteed you that as Colorado falls behind in that series two to one, do they want to win?

Yeah, absolutely. Look at those guys, like McKinnon, they're all wired to win. But I guaranteed you there's a feeling in there of we are, we do not want to let down Landiscock. Like all this work he did to come back and we're going to go out in the first round, who knows how it'll go. But that's definitely a thought in there. Like a hundred percent that's a thought in there. Yeah, Landiscock definitely exceeding anyone's expectations in terms of impact based on the goal celebration there in the stands at ball arena.

If you're Dallas Elliott, five goals in 12 regulation periods. Still just the 62 seconds playing with the lead. Wyatt Johnston, Miko Rantanen, Matt Duchesne, Mikhail Granlin combining for no goals, four assists. You taking glass half full or glass half empty given that they're 2-2 going home and yet it hasn't looked right? I always try to think glass half full, Justin at this time of year, you know everybody thought this series was going seven games, so it's 2-2, you can still, if you're 2-2 with those stats you're like we don't like this,

but we're, we could be in a lot worse place. Your best players have to be your best players. Those guys have to be better. No question about it. I remember seeing there was a basketball coach by the name of Eddie Sutton. And I remember once watching an interview with him where he talked about as a coach, one of the most important things was who controls the tempo. And this is a tempo series. Game three was a crawl. That was Dallas's tempo and they won the tempo. And this is a tempo series. Game three was a crawl. That was Dallas's

tempo and they won the game. Game four was like the Talladega Speedway. They were the avalanche were going up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down. They controlled the tempo and they won the game. I know there were some people who were surprised that Autinger got pulled. Justin, I totally understood that. He was bombarded. That was simply Peter DeBoer giving him rest. I completely understood the Autinger pull. Worst school differential in the playoffs right now belonging to the Dallas Stars. Okay, let's go to Vegas and Minnesota to close. The final thought is brought to you by GMC. Overtime winner is always very exciting. But I said some emotions after Ivan Barbashev's winner

that maybe went beyond just the normal elation. I thought there was serious bullet dodged energy from Vegas just in their reaction to it. Vegas has not for a moment been able to establish a clear pecking order here despite going in as the number one seed, but they, like Dallas, go home square with home ice advantage and not fighting for their lives like they were on the brink of

doing but still some questions maybe on how attainable 16 wins may be given how much they've had to grind for this series split. This to me is the best series of the first round. Agree or disagree? Yeah, I'm with you. I mean it's gone up again some some really high profile matchups but it is the curveball that Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy have thrown the Vegas Golden Knights has been fascinating. I would have loved to have heard what Bruce Cassidy said to Stone and Eichel between games three and four because he probably just put up the

score sheet or that he printed out like the playoff scoring leaders and and probably wrote like where are you guys on this list and they they got their first points of the series i agree with you i mean vegas took some real big shots from minnesota and they showed their championship pedigree it was a it was It was a great game. Great game. I thought Vegas carried the play for the most part but Minnesota, they fight and they scratch and they claw and they're right there with them. This looks to me like a seven game or two. If you told me that whoever wins game five loses game six and we settle this in game seven. I think we all see that here and we all see that Minnesota is more than capable of winning this series. Like Gustafson, he was really good again. He has established himself. He's out playing

Hill so far in this series and I really think that even though Hill had some big moments in that game, Gustafson is giving them overall a chance. I'll say this too, Thomas Hurdle, if he was eligible for the NFL draft, Justin, he would have been taken ahead of Shadr Sanders or Quinn Uris. I couldn't believe that goal. He tackled Hartman on that goal. That one was kind of unbelievable. A bad break for Minnesota on the game- that goal. That one was kind of unbelievable. A bad break for Minnesota on the game-winning goal. People said it was an intentional offside. If you're still confused about that, it wasn't. It was an offside, but because Middleton made the pass from the defensive zone, that's where the face-off

is. So there was not an official's mistake there. That was the way that rule is going to be called if it's going to be offside. And unfortunately for the Wild, it ended up in their own net. A couple of things here I think for the Wild, they have some lineup decisions to make. Ziv Bouin, he took the penalty and he didn't play in overtime. And you know, if you're not going to play him on the power play in overtime when Eric Zanec draw the penalty, like I think in that particular case, you've got to trust him. Like if he's in your lineup, that's where you've got to play him.

And you know, it was funny, it happened as we were on the air, but someone sent me a note like defending Middleton and just saying that those guys got worn down because Hines was being careful with Bouim. I think in that case, with 20-20, obviously, you've got to use him. It's clear they don't trust Rossi. That's going to be one of the more interesting summer conversations out there. But Rossi didn't play a ton. I'm curious to see with their season on the line, does he get another chance out there?

Does he get another bump or a push, even though it's not like players around him Other guys are playing terribly, but it's just interesting to watch what's happening with Rossi one of the thing there There was a pass that was blown dead for offside Brock Faber hit Brazzo on a earlier in the game On a home run pass and Brazzo would have had a breakaway The the Lionsman call these pretty well. I think that's one of the things you realize for how quick and how fast that call is. The Lionsmen are pretty good. They blew that one dead. I really think in the day of video review,

they should err on the side of onside for those plays. Steve Iserwijn actually said this at a GM's meeting, we have review now, we want goals, we want offense. If it's close, maybe don't make the call and then we can see if it was blown, if it was, if it was called badly on review. I, when I see a play like that one, I always think of that. Now I know linesmen are gonna hate that, they're like, nope, we're trained to make a call and we're gonna make the call and I get that you want to be great at your job I just look at plays like that and I think of what eiserman said it just always Everybody can have their own opinion that just jumps back into my head bad position to be in when you have to make that call If if it indeed is wrong, but the worst position for a linesman to be in

How about on the bench between Tom Wilson and Josh Anderson like Kyle Flemington was the other day? I thought Flemington did a great job in a really terrible situation, 100%. That was the final thought brought to you by GMC. All right, let's take a break there. ThoughtLion is next. Welcome back to 32 Thoughts. A few items to get to on the thought line, so let's give it a whirl.

Let's start with Brandon. Hello E-L-L-K-Y-E-D-O-M or Dom and J-S-T. As the playoffs- Elliot, look what you've done. It continues too. Just a teaser for later. As the playoffs ramp up, my sister and I got curious as to how do the players get paid during this time? Surely they make more money than a regular season game, right? Does a player's current contract have anything to do with it? Is it a percentage based on team revenue? Will the top players earn more than guys who only get a few games? Are there bonuses?

Thanks for taking the time and for all the playoff coverage. Love the pod. Go Kings Go. Great question. Sorry about the Kings on Sunday night. No the contracts you're only paid for the regular season. Even though technically the contracts are paid from the NHL season ends on June 30th contracts expired expire June 30th, your pay is based on the amount of days in the regular season. There's not a separate salary for playing in the postseason. Now there are some players who get bonuses for winning the Kahn-Smith trophy, that's correct, but there's not a specific

paycheck for playing in the postseason. However, there is a playoff money pool and you know there's a bonus for winning the President's Trophy, which was done this year by the Winnipeg Jets, and then there's a bonus split amongst the teams of the players for making the playoffs, losing in the second round, losing in the third round, losing in the final, and whoever wins the Stanley Cup. And you, there's there's a split on the teams for that pool of money But that's basically how it works you get a team bonus and the players decide how that is shared Yes, and it's from the league like so all it goes to all 16 teams that are in the playoffs And as you say, it's tiered

by how far you get and as you can imagine, the further you go, the bigger a piece of the pie that you get to split amongst the players. Who gets a full share and then for the aces that come along too, they get a partial share and usually it's on the leadership group on each organization to decide, okay, how does it all get divvied up? Now I it's always a bad idea to guess on this but it's late. So I'm guessing I believe if I believe I was checking my notes I believe last year the overall Bonus pool was just over 20 million dollars and I think the Panthers was just over $20 million and I think the Panthers, the team to divide among the players got $6.5 million for winning the Stanley Cup.

So that gives you an idea of what you're looking at here. So working for free-ish in the playoffs, the biweekly pay starts again I guess in October. Basically yes. Okay, let's go to Devin. Hi Elliot and only Elliot. Just finished watching- Oh, Devin, I'm a big fan. Just finished watching Ass and Oo, aka Dallas and Colorado Game 3. Ass and Oo, that is. Game 3 is the star to take a 2-1 lead despite only leading for 70 seconds this series, which got me thinking. What's

the record for the least time spent in a series leading by a team that won the series? Oh, good question. Surely there hasn't been a team that won four games in overtime and never technically led at any point in the series? PS, please show Luke and Jack Hughes pretty pictures of Vancouver next time you see them. Now that's funny. I have to say that's that's very funny. Did someone look this up? I did, I did, I did. Okay so Devin even though you said hello

only to me I will hand this one off to Kyle. Well first off do we have any guesses gentlemen? Ballpark of the shortest amount of time leading for a team that's won a best of seven series in the history of the Stanley Cup playoffs? My answer is right here. Sure, yeah. We all love prices, right?

And I should say, too, that the answer to this question, not every game was won in overtime. Okay, I was thinking the first thing that came to my head purely as a guess was when Montreal won the Stanley Cup in 93, they won I think like nine or ten overtime games. So that was the first thing that came to my head. It's not that. It's not from that year, not from that team. But you're in the right decade. Anything you want to guess there, Justin? In the right decade. Or even a time.

I'm trying to think of dramatics. No, I'm not even going to hazard a guess. Okay, I'm going even gonna hazard a guess. Okay, I'm gonna guess one more. Are you doing team or time? I'm gonna do Edmonton when Todd Marchand scored. Oh, nice. No. Incorrect, but I love your thinking.

Okay. Because that was, wasn't that also, was that the same, I think that was the same Dallas Edmonton series where they came back from three goals down in like a minute something, Edmonton did. I think it was that year too. So I get more, just adding to your case for a good guess, but it's just not the right one in this case. Okay. Okay.

12 minutes. Not a bad guess. So the lowest total leading for a team winning a series, 16 minutes and 58 seconds. In 1995, the Detroit Red Wings beat Chicago in the Western Conference Final, four games to one. They won game one in overtime, didn't lead then. Game two, they were tied. Chris Draper scored with a minute forty-five left to give them their first lead of the night. Okay, that's a good start. Game three, they win in double overtime. Chicago blew him out in game four, and then one and double overtime in game five to close out the series.

So they just led for a bit in one of those games then? Yes. Mostly. Yeah. In game three, they had the lead for a bit. Chicago came back to force overtime. That was where the bulk of their leading came. But other than that, I think three of the wins,

three of the four was a total of a minute 45 leading. That's great research. I never would have guessed that. I didn't even remember, if you would have asked me to guess who was in the 95 West final against Detroit, I don't know that I would have remembered Chicago. Well, that's the thing. Wasn't that kind of a forgotten playoff? Yeah.

Shorten year. It was a shortened year. Yeah. Lockout. Yeah. So, Star's seriously threatening here to beat that record. Only 70 seconds, or I believe it's 62, so even a little less than Devin outlines. Okay, let's go to Andrew from Maple Ridge, BC. Hi Dom, Justin, Kyle, and even Elliot. After listening to David Amber fight through the giggles coming out of a commercial break,

I got to wondering what moment was the hardest for you to hold back the laughs while on air. Does anything come to mind? For Kyle, are there any interviews you taped ringside that you couldn't air for this reason? Thanks for all quality episodes and the carcass. I don't think I've ever had one Rinkside, especially because they're usually, usually live to tape. So you can kind of, if you need an extra moment, not that there's many cases where you're in a laughing fit

with the, you know, the player or the coach that you're waiting to speak to, but it hasn't happened Rinkside everside ever where you've got to reset yourself because of something humorous, though I wish it would. That would make the job a lot more fun. Not that it's not fun to begin with. Elliot, any good stories from the studio? Yeah, there have been a few. I'm trying to remember some of the ones I can tell. You know, I'll say this.

There was a guy I used to work with, unfortunately don't work with anymore. We used to write certain things on each other's scripts. And the thing about me and anyone who works with me in the studio will know this, I almost never look at the script. I like to be unscripted and I'll make maybe a couple of points but like I would never meet if I didn't have to meet. I don't want to know who's talking before me,

I don't want to know who's talking after me, I don't want to know who's talking after me. I kind of don't even want to know what video's coming up. Now we have to have these meetings. Thanks bud. We have to have these meetings so the producers and Ron and Dave can know about this stuff. But I remember there was one day where I looked down at my script and for the first time in the middle of a show

and he'd drawn something on it and I'm not going to say what it was but I just kind of burst out laughing and I was lucky I didn't have to talk for a little bit because and I wasn't even on camera because I had to kind of hold it in and you could see it on my face. I was trying to cover my eyes. I was going to cover my mouth and it took me a couple of minutes. You're like in a Carol Burnett sketch. Yes. It took me a couple of minutes to kind of get myself under control again.

So that would be the closest. Kyle, the day you have a giggle fit with a player pre-game interview, I think that'll be the day. Tough to have a complete hysterical moment with a player as they ready when they show game. Right. And then even thinking every now and then if there's somebody in the crowd that you go to talk to, it's rare that, you know, it's one thing if you're excited, you know, whoever you're speaking to is taking in the atmosphere and caught up in all the hoopla and stuff, but humor is not usually the first emotion. But man, I hope that day does come because I love a good laugh. Maybe one of these Elliot signs will break you up one of these days.

Yeah, well I haven't yet. Tell you that much. All right. That was the thought line. As always, you can reach the show at 1-833-311-3232 or email us at 32thoughts at Sportsnet.ca. We'll be back after the break with a couple of thoughts on some coaching items around the league. ["Spring Day in the Hall of the Mountain King"]

32 Thoughts continues. A little quieter, Elliot, among teams who didn't qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Lockers and the like cleaned out by now. But some news on the Anaheim Ducks who weren't waiting around to conduct their coaching search. No, there were reports this weekend about their interest in Joel Cuenville and there were varying comments about how close this was. I'm not interested in disagreeing or fighting with anyone's information. I think at this time of year there's a lot of stuff that flies around and there's definitely some semantics. But what I, the way I understand it is, Justin, he's definitely a serious candidate there and we'll see if he ends up being the guy, but he is definitely a serious candidate.

I don't think that's the only team that's interested in him. You know, Larry Brooks reported in the New York Post that it won't be the Rangers and I believe that's true But I do think there are some other teams who've looked into him as well I think the Ducks are very serious about it from a hockey perspective. You've heard Pat Verbeek say that they want to make the playoffs next year and That's why I think that he's looking at Quenville and Quenville is a possibility and I do think the two of them met face to face last week.

You know it's obvious that not everybody is going to like it, not everybody is going to be happy with it, including some of your own fan base and I think that's ultimately what any team that is going to consider Quenville is going to have to decide. You know, does that matter? How significant does the disagreement or dislike have to be before it matters? You know, obviously I've seen some fans have made social media posts about how they've sent feedback to the team's website saying they don't like it.

I think only the Ducks or anyone else who considers him can decide how much that matters or how much of it there has to be before it matters. But the bottom line is that the Ducks are considering him and he is a very serious contender for their job. Quenville is not coached since the beginning of the 2021-22 season, resigned in wake of the Chicago Blackhawks sexual abuse case. So if he does get hired it'll be a little less than four years out of the game if Anaheim, out of the game, if Anaheim or another team chooses to hire him. Elsewhere, David Karl continues to be selective.

A right I suppose he's well-earned as he prepares, inevitably, we think, to make the jump to the NHL. Elliott, you reported Saturday that Karl has taken his name out of the running for the Chicago Blackhawks job. Where does this leave David Karl and where does this leave the Blackhawks? He was their number one choice I believe. Without anybody there telling me that, I would say that if you listen to all the noise and you follow enough of it around, he was the number one guy on their roster.

From what I understand, he informed them. I heard it on Saturday morning just before I reported it, but from what I understand it happened on Friday night. It spread like wildfire at the under 18, I actually don't wanna say that. It spread very fast at those who are at the under 18 tournament right now in Frisco, Texas. That was, you know, obviously Carl has a lot of contact

with people who would be at that tournament or playing in that tournament. And it just, it got out really fast. You know, I think I don't know this for sure, but I've been told it's likely he goes back to the University of Denver. That was the best word I heard from people around that likely was the best way to do it. I do think there have been other teams, at one that have contacted him but I'm not sure that he's

going to be going to the NHL right now. Like I said the best the the best phrase I was given was likely going back to Denver but until it's done it's not done. There's definitely interest in him. I would say Justin that there's a couple of things here from what I understand about why he made the decision he made. Number one was you know his family just got bigger they had another child they've got three of them now I don't know that he thought it was the right time and secondly I just think, you know, Chicago, they're really excited about their young players.

They're really excited about how they finished the season. But I think everybody's got a different opinion on still how long it's going to take before that team is a winner. And I just think that that's probably one of the issues there too is simply that You know the the Blackhawks It's very obvious from the way the Blackhawks finished last year that they want to take a step next year I don't know that making the playoffs is is reasonable, but I think they want to at least show a significant level of improvement and

Even though they have some young prospects to be excited about I'm not sure yet that West like we're watching right now these Western Conference playoffs Justin these are brutal hard series like to take a step up in this conference is going to be a really hard thing to do and you know I just wonder if everybody saw the timeline is the same. What does plan B, C, D potentially look like for Chicago? If they can't have option A, where do they go next?

You know, that's a really interesting question, because the short answer, Justin, is I'm not sure. The long answer is that I think there's a bunch of teams that are looking at coaches here who kind of have a short list and a long list. Like one guy told me, there's one guy out there who's looking, there's one coach right now who's not looking for work and he told me

he was poking around, he's got a job in the NHL just to see kind of like for the gossip mill like what's out there and he goes like one team said to him we've got our shortlist and we've got our long list he goes like what's the difference and he goes because you better have both because he you know the team told him that the shortlist has probably got a lot of the same names on it, but the long list got a lot of different names on it and there are probably some people that maybe would be different on some teams as opposed to others or maybe you're willing, you're at a different stage in your existence and you're willing to look

at some names as opposed to others. So I do think there's some teams out there who want to interview different candidates, maybe some experienced candidates and some newer candidates. Um, you know, we mentioned Jay Leach on the last podcast. Todd Nelson was another one I heard. Um, you know, there's some experienced guys that have been head coaches before the Luke Richardson's of the world And then you know obviously there's Cuenville what happens with Rick talk it

You know I think there's there's a lot of there's a lot of names out there And I think the people at the top are kind of similar But once you get past your top list of three or four I think the list really vary and I think there's some teams out there that are gonna really try to do a wide Like a wide wide search, you know one thing I wonder about in Philadelphia's case in particular Justin is in Philly if they don't get talk it and I can say this as of Friday I do not believe talk it had been given permission to talk officially to any other teams. But let's just say that Tauke does not end up in Philly.

I wonder if Brad Shaw just rockets to number one on their list. And that's a situation I don't know that would be the case anywhere else. Is there anything new from the discussions Rick Taukeett is having with the Vancouver Connors? So they met Friday and I was told no final decision as of, you know, we're recording this part of the podcast Sunday afternoon Eastern time. I was told no final decisions yet. I still don't think this is going to be a very long time. I'll tell you something pretty interesting to me for all the conversations about what matters and you know Hughes is one thing and contract is another thing. You

know if you listen to Jim Rutherford's media conference when he spoke with Patrick Alveen a week ago he had some interesting comments about their practice facility. Now the Canucks are the one team that doesn't have one. And I understand that was one of the reasons that talk that, uh, Rutherford talked at length about that is because talker has brought that up as a thing. And I would understand that. Uh, you know, I think if you're the one team that doesn't have one in you and the nights where your main rink is not available and you kind of have to go into

a public rink and it's a little bit different. I could see why that would drive a coach crazy. So I heard those things were not a coincidence that they didn't just come up out of nowhere. That was one thing that Tauke had kind of brought up is that bothered him a bit about the Vancouver situation. So I thought that was pretty interesting. But if you follow real estate, Justin, you know, real estate in Vancouver is not inexpensive. And that is clearly, even though Rutherford had some pretty hilarious comments about what he would do to try to get it done, it's obvious that it's a bit of a thing. Not everybody lives

in the Sramati palatial estate out there. No, no they don't. That's interesting. I mean, if they find common ground, that being Rutherford and Tocket, I mean, Rutherford's got to be telling them, can you make a gigantic stink about this practice thing? Like, let's not let this go. You know what? I kind of got that impression. Like someone said to me that was not a coincidence that that stuff came up, and Rutherford's quotes about it were pretty funny actually. Okay, we'll be tracking Tocket, we'll be tracking Carl

and Joel Quenville. We'll leave it there, Elliot. We'll be back on Wednesday for the next edition of 32 Thoughts the Podcast.