32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Coffee, Grunge & Playoff Hockey

Episode Date: April 7, 2023

The Seattle Kraken are going to the Stanley Cup Playoffs! Jeff and Elliotte chat about the remarkable sophomore season from the Kraken (1:30) and some of their key players. They then get into the Eastern Conference playoff race by discussing Bolts-Islanders (11:00), Panthers continue to play tough (17:00), Ottawa officially eliminated from playoff contention (19:00), Pittsburgh holds their ground (24:30), Buffalo continues to chase (28:10), Toronto plays a fun one against the Bruins (30:00), Predators hanging on by a thread (33:40), Flames & Jets continue to battle it out (38:00) and Vegas has their 1-2 punch in net going into the playoffs (45:00).They also talk about the Frozen Four (48:00), Kitchener Rangers sweep Shane Wright’s Windsor Spitfires (53:30), the Regina St. Pats are in tough against the Saskatoon Blades (54:10) and the Chicago Wolves go independent (56:30).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call The Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailOutro Music: Meltt - Within You, Within MeListen to the full track hereThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: Bally Sports, KKGK, KJR FM, KSMO, Sportsnet, Sportsnet 960, WBZ-FM, WFLA, WRFX and WXDX-FM.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.

shoegaze psychedelic approach okay all right is it like when i think shoegaze i think of like those british bands that like stared at their feet when they play what a wild thursday night that was a fridge welcome to 32 entertainment thoughts the podcast presented by gmc and the Sierra AT4X, your forward unit of Friedman, Merrick, and Delich along with you once again. Number one, Merrick is the biggest floater on this line.

No, no, no, no, no. Does not back check. What I'm trying to do is separate the D and peel them off the offensive blue line. See, Elliot, it's like this. Talent sees a target no one else can hit, but genius hits a target that no one else can see. That was Arthur Schopenhauer, noted philosopher,

but I'll use it in a hockey context. Alma, where does Schopenhauer rank on your list of favorite philosophers? I just wanted to get some Schopenhauer to kick off the podcast here today. Raise the intellectual level of the podcast because that's what I'm doing. You may call it floating, but to the other people, seize that as a genius move.

Schopenhauer is not a real name. I refuse to believe that's a real person. What you're supposed to say is, Schopenhauer, never heard of him. Is he a left shot or a right shot? No, that's too barbaric. Okay. I have to say, Jeff, by the way, I don't know if I would rank it number one, but on the short

list of most entertaining nights of the hockey season, this is right up there. And you know what? Let's start with a great story. And that's the Seattle Kraken. Yeah. They beat the Arizona Coyotes. They make it into the post season, season two

for the Kraken. Things didn't work out the way that they had hoped. Now, mind you, the Vegas Golden Knights did set a very high bar for expansion teams. A little bit unrealistic for Seattle to try to approach that. But last year didn't go the way that they wanted. This year it clearly has. From the depths of the standings in year one to the base of that playoff mountain in year two, the Seattle Kraken have pledged their very first spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

4-2 here at home over Arizona. Your history-making Seattle Kraken with the NHL's largest point increase from season one to season two have just won their most important game to date. And the payoff is the playoffs. You know, front and center on Thursday for the Seattle Kraken, a couple of players that have really, how do we say, what did Bricky always say, popped? Yep. Two players that have really popped this year, Jared McCann front and center, and Vince Dunn, who I don't think is like, he's not going to win the Norris trophy.

He's probably not even going to come second or third, but I would expect that his name will at least be on some ballots somewhere. Anyhow, congratulations, Seattle Kraken, for qualifying for the postseason. You know, I have to say just quickly on the Norris, it's wide open. Carlson gets to 100 points. I just don't see how he's going to lose itris, it's wide open. Carlson gets to 100 points.

I just don't see how he's going to lose it. But it's wide open for a lot of names. I think two players who I think names haven't been mentioned enough are Dougie Hamilton and Miro Haskinen. But I do want to get back to what you're talking about there. Number one, I give a lot of credit to some people who said to me at the beginning of the year, like, we don't get a chance to see a lot of exhibition games, or at least enough of them, really.

And some of the people I know were based out west, they told me early in the year that after watching Seattle in the exhibition game, they thought that team was going to be a lot better. And they think that the organization did a lot to address some of their biggest deficiencies, which was speed and scoring ability and you know as you mentioned duns had a huge year mccann's had a huge year but a couple of under the radar moves i think really helped them and oh daniel sprung you want to talk about him now well yeah i'll give him to you i can't believe somebody even asked him about

your love for him i feel bad for the reporter who had to do that but you know daniel sprung and you know we've mentioned this it's about roles yep the fact that he scores 20 goals while playing what 13 14 minutes a night 11 15 is what is what he averages, not that I pay attention to his ice time. 11 minutes, yes. I think so much of life is about roles. Find the right role for people. And they found a great role for Sprong, and they've benefited.

Tolvan and Arfwevers is a guy who's really worked out there. And the other one is Bjorkstrand. And Columbus goes out, and they get Goodrow and Goodbranson, and they have to make a move for cap, and Seattle took advantage. And I've told you this before. I believe there was another deal that the Blue Jackets thought they had, but they got frustrated with the other team, and he ends up in Seattle.

And those are the kinds of moves this year. They're not the front-line guys, but one of the reasons McCann and Dunn and the offense gets better is because, overall, the Kraken are a deeper and better team. They deserve a lot of credit for finding those kinds of diamonds in the rough moves or those kinds of not as heralded moves that really change the complexion of their hockey team. I'll throw another name at you.

A healthy Brandon Tanev. Yes. I think has helped this team a ton. It really has. And if you look at the, I mean, just look at the forward group. There's no one who's over a point a game. No. A ton. It really has. And if you look at the, I mean, just look at the forward group. There's no one who's over a point a game. No.

But every unit produces. Yep. That's it. There's no, you know, there's no three-man unit that you look at and you go, oof, guys, get on the score sheet here. This is embarrassing. Everybody produces. They're not, you know, no one's got 85, 90 points. No, they don't even have a point a game. But every single unit produces.

That's really impressive. And the one thing we should note about Dave Haxtell, and I want to talk about him for a second here, is he manages that bench really well with minutes. None of the forward unit, we talked about this with Dallas not too long ago and the Boston Bruins. No one's getting into the 20s here on the forward group. The most is around 18 and a half minutes per game. But, you know, most are around

the 16 minute mark, a couple in the 17s, but everyone's double digits, but no one's getting into the 20s. That's a really well managed bench right there, Elliot. They have a plan and they stick to their plan. You know, they'll likely get the Central Division winner in the first round, which I think will be a big challenge for them. I really think in the playoffs you need both elite scoring and depth, elite talent and depth. And I think they have the depth. Do they have the elite scoring to win it?

I'm not sure. But you know what the exciting thing is? They get the opportunity to show that they do jeff not only the balance up and down the roster but also i believe they are the only team in the nhl that does not have a player making at least six million dollars The highest paid AAV on the team is Philip Grubauer at $5.9 million. They have Burakovsky at $5.5 million. They have Eberle and Schwartz at $5.5 million. Bjorkstrand at $5.4 million.

And the amazing thing about that is Eberle was signed by the Islanders. Bjorkstrand was signed by the Blue Jackets. Yanni Gord at $5.2 million was signed by the Islanders. Bjorkstrand was signed by the Blue Jackets. Yanni Gord at 5.2 was signed by the Lightning. Jared McCann, they did. He's a $5 million player. And Grubauer was a free agent. And Schwartz was, he was signed. And because of the expansion rules at the time, he was technically their pick from St. Louis.

Because they signed him. So while they went out and got some $5 million players, they only signed, I think, three of them. So they're the only team in the NHL that has a $6 million player. Let's play this game then. Okay. Will Matty Beneers be the first $6 million player? Well, you know what?

It's a great question. If he has another year next year like he is this year he probably would because i say when you have young cornerstone players sign them as long as you can for what you can because the price never goes down i think the other thing is and and this is not an insignificant thing jeff if you want the cap to go up a little bit, having Seattle in the playoffs is not a bad thing. This is a team... They're a cash box, man. They are a cash box.

Coachella Valley is... Cash box. A cash box in the AHL. It's like Vegas. Vegas is Henderson and Vegas. Seattle is now Coachella Valley and the Kraken. And this is a team that having them in the playoffs

is not a bad thing at all for the revenues of the National Hockey League. Do you have a thought on Dave Haxtall and the Jack Adams? I know sometimes it's the easy way out just to look at, okay, which team took an underachieving squad and brought them to respectability. I get that. Sometimes you look at, okay, which team went on a PDO bender and the coach ends up with the Jack Adams.

But do you have a thought on Dave Haxel? I just mentioned, you know, the bench and the minutes and how even the scoring is distributed, et cetera. But, I mean, I don't know that he ends up winning this thing. I know Jim Montgomery is probably the clubhouse leader, but Dave Haxtell should get some consideration here. I don't have a vote in that one.

So it's difficult for me to tell where that's leaning and I have no problem with anyone voting for Haxtell. Obviously, I just think it's really tough this year for Montgomery not to win it. You know, Boston's going to set some records this year, it looks like. I don't think it's fair at all or reasonable at all to compare them to the 1977 Canadians. There were no ties and that was an 80-game season.

But I think those kinds of comparisons are ludicrous, but that doesn't take away on any level from what the Bruins have done this year. And, you know, to me, it's just, it's really hard to vote against Montgomery for coach of the year. Like one of the things that was pretty obvious was the Cassidy Bruins relationship with the players had run its course. And I think you have to vote for Montgomery. I just don't see how anybody else can win coach of the year. Although it usually does go to the guy who does the most with the most unexpected. Thursday was a wild night around the NHL. And I guess in a lot of ways, Elliot, the theme specifically in the Eastern Conference for the wildcard races was teams holding serve. Really, the Islanders, the Panthers, the Buffalo Sabres, and the Pittsburgh Penguins, all they did was knock one game off as things get a little bit tighter in that race.

Well, it wasn't only that, Jeff, and I think that's the key overarching story, but also just the fact that the games were really intense and nasty. nasty like the ottawa florida game that second period took about six days to play and the one concerning thing is the amount of injuries although it does appear that some of the news coming out of it is not so bad for example jim montgomery saying that charlie mcavoy was purely precautionary john cooper saying that pat maroon is okay but uh for For sure, for sure, Geno. So that's a little worrisome, yeah. A little more concerned about Tanner Geno, and that one looked bad. That's one of those, to me...

The right leg, Elliot, his right leg, ugh. Like, I don't think Scott Mayfield made a dirty play there at all. That's just bad luck. That's total bad luck. But that, to me me is one of those things where a team gets a preliminary answer and they're like let's wait until we get home and our doctors and medical facilities can look at it before we say anything yeah and that's the thing that

terrifies you at this point of the year like toronto plays a really good game against boston that was a really entertaining game to watch and if you're toronto you're looking at what's going on around you and you're saying let's get home thank god nobody's hurt because that's the thing that scares you right now yes um let's begin with that tampa bay lightning game so the new york shouldn't say tampa bay lightning we should call it the tampa bay new york islanders game the islanders victoria six to one is the final score and i know we've looked at the Islanders Elliott and we've looked at their schedule and said, okay, Tampa is going to be the tough one. Then it eases up a little bit, the Flyers, the Capitals, and they finish off

against the Montreal Canadians, but they kind of had their way with Tampa. Now Tampa was, you know, wounded going into this one. No Anthony Sore Now, Tampa was wounded going into this one. No Anthony Cirelli, no Brandon Hagel in this one. You mentioned the injuries, Pat Maroon, Tanner Jeannot as well. How did you look at this game? Tampa and the New York Islanders, what a performance. What a performance by the Islanders. Well, it was a huge performance at an absolutely important time for New York.

The amazing thing about these playoffs this year, Jeff, is just the roller coaster nature of some of these teams. We've talked about it with Winnipeg, how Winnipeg looks like they put everybody away and they're clear and they let everybody back in. I think there was a time that the Islanders looked like they were putting the Eastern Conference wild card to contenders in their rearview mirror and they let everybody back in and they win this one big they look good doing so to me the islanders i think are going to get in because i think they have the best goaltending but they've made it way too interesting i'm worried about tampa and their injuries now like i look at them right now and i don't know if there's a team injury-wise I'm more concerned about with going into the playoffs as we record this on Thursday night than I am Tampa. I never pick against them.

Never, ever, ever. But I'm looking at this roster and I'm saying game one in 10 days who's showing up and at a time of the year where nobody's 100 healthy who's even in the 80s or 90s there yeah i i know i'm with you i've always said it's the fool that bets against the tampa bay lightning but like attrition is a thing and eventually it catches up to you. We're waiting for it for Tampa. Are we there yet? I don't know.

Oh, one bright spot that I want to mention for Tampa on Thursday night, it's a losing cause. So there's no reason for smiles. If you're Stephen Stamkos, but 1000 games for the, for Stephen Stamkos. We've,

we've talked a lot about Stamkos on this podcast since it first started. And that's just another accolade. Put it on the Stamkos pile over there in the corner, Elliot. It's certainly amazing to see what 15 years, it's a long time, but again, just proud to have worn the same jersey for the entirety of that and to just be part of something. When a team selects you with the first overall pick, there's certainly a lot of pressure and expectation that comes with that,

and you just, you know, you want to live up to that. And hopefully, you know, when it's all said and done, that you can look yourself in the mirror and say that you gave everything you had. And, you know, up until this point, I can say I have. And like I said, been through some really tough times and I fought back and worked extremely hard to to continue and it's been a heck of a ride I think the thing with Stamkos is and we have talked about him at length this year because he's he's hit 500 goals he's hit a thousand points and now he's hit a thousand games I think it is an incredible amount of credit to Stephen Stamkos that considering what was going on in his career, that people were going to talk about him as, you know, what could have been.

He's going to go to the Hall of Fame. Yep. You know, we taped something with Luke Shen that's going to air around the playoffs. And in it, he talked about Stamkos and he said how Stamkos runs that Tampa room as a kind of benevolent dictator. You know, he's the captain, he's the boss. Well, Cooper is technically the boss, but among the players, Stamkos is the captain and he's the boss, but he runs it in a very positive way.

What he says goes, and he's respected. I don't think he's going to be too happy because it came in an L as you said, but I think it's great credit to him that we're not talking about him anymore as what could have been. We're talking about what he's done. You know what we're talking about? We're talking about Alex Lyon. Yeah.

I want to get on the Florida Panthers page here. Shots on goal 58 to 30, yeah i want to get on the florida panthers page here shots on goal 58 to 30 but the team that had the 58 didn't come close to winning seven to two the alex lion show again and you mentioned this one had the old school nastiness with fights and misconducts and dj smith getting chucked out of the game and yeah i thought so i thought we came out with it. I thought in the second period, too. I just think, you know, on Chuck's hit on the rink out there, I think it's a penalty. And then we end up four on four.

And then obviously, you know, guys, the tempers took over, you know, from there after, you there after that hit. And then they scored some power play goals. Wow, this is ripped out of the pages of a different era. 7-2 is the final score. The Florida Panthers hold serve. When we were going to talk about this game, if you would have said that the first thing you were going to mention

was Alex Lyon, I wouldn't have believed you. Not that he doesn't deserve it, because he may have saved the panther season totally you know of all the guys on that roster if you would have picked anyone to save the season i mean how many guys would you have picked before you you got the lion and all the credit in the world to him but tonight i'm working toronto boston so that's the game i'm keeping an eye on and every time i looked at monitor, we have the seven screens in front of us. It was a yard sale in that game. Like someone was in the net, five guys were fighting. There's 20 people in the penalty box. There's only three guys on

the benches. You know, the Kachuk brothers at one point, they're standing at center ice, kind of holding gloves over their mouths because they're laughing about the calls. They don't want to see anyone, what they're saying. And then they're having fights at the same time in different spots. I mean, it was an insane game. That's a really tough one for Ottawa. I think a couple weeks ago, they really thought they were going to take a run at this. Like I have to tell you, one thing that really didn't get a lot of attention

in that that I think is a really big story is in a game they absolutely have to have, Cam Talbot didn't dress. No, it was, it was, uh, uh, Marilainen and Sogard. Yeah. And Sogard had to come in cause Marilainen, who's still a kid, struggled and got knocked out of the game early. That, to me, of all the things that happened in that game, I know it gets lost in all the other stuff that occurred.

The fact that Talbot wasn't even dressed for the game, I mean, that's a big story. That's a really, really big story. They had huge hope for Talbot. He had huge hope there. Like you look at him the last 12 months, he's upset about what happens in the playoffs in Minnesota. Bill Guerin says,

you know, I want to keep you. He resigns flurry. Talbot says, this isn't going to work for me. His agent, George Bezos does what the agent is supposed to do. He's very vocal about it at the draft.

He says, nope. He goes out publicly and he takes the heat for his client. He took the hit. Yeah. He says, my client isn't going to have to talk. I'm going to talk. He gets traded to Ottawa. The Ottawa Sanders and their fans are excited to have him.

At some point this year, the talks go sideways. From what I heard, they were never close. Like it never looked like there was going to be an extension between Talbot and the Senators. The two sides were just not on the same page. And this is the way it ends. And it's a really tough ending for a really hopeful situation between player and team.

And look, I know everybody there is just, it sucks. I think the Senators have announced to the rest of the league that they are back. They weren't ready yet. They ran out of room. Their roster got decimated. At the end of the day day it wasn't good enough but they're coming like you asked a question on your radio show today who's a team that didn't make the playoffs this year that's going to make the playoffs next year yeah i took ottawa because

i thought buffalo was too easy i think ottawa was going to be there next year but tonight this is a painful run they simply ran out of bodies and runway they did and we should have mentioned this off the top with that loss um as we've been alluding to the ottawa senators are now officially eliminated from playoff contention so man didn't it seem like a quick five minutes ago that we were on our way to ottawa flying to the nation's capital to interview everyone who the ottawa senators would put in front of us because it was supposed to be, this was going to be the year where the glory came back with the Ottawa Senators. As you mentioned, it didn't work out that way, but I think that-

It was too much to expect too quick. It probably was. Yes, it was. But listen- Not probably, it was. We talked about all the work that Pierre Dorian did in the off season and all the new faces and faces like we talked about how what Tim Stutzla was poised to do and he did like this was the season that Tim Stutzla really arrived and said like hey everybody pay attention I'm uh I'm I'm one of the best players on this team and

maybe as far as skill goes just pure skill the best player on this team so I don't know I still look at a lot of positives coming out of the Ottawa senators this season, more so than the negatives, because again, like I know we all got caught up in it at the beginning of the season, but sports is like life. It's all about managing expectations.

My expectation was probably too high for the Ottawa senators. When I take a sober second, look, I say, you know what? That was a really good season. There was a lot of adversity, a lot of challenges, but this is a team that you look at and I say, you know what? That was a really good season. There was a lot of adversity, a lot of challenges,

but this is a team that you look at and you say, look out, this team is going to be there sooner than later. I think there's a lot of positives for the Sens. The biggest question I have just tonight, and I know there's a lot of time to go over this, is are they going Sogard, Forsberg, and Goal next year? It kind of feels that way, doesn't it? Because Sogard, you know, he's ready to play in the NHL full time.

Forsberg is signed. Are they comfortable going into next year with that? And Ottawa has a lot of other questions, including ownership and what that all is going to mean. Yeah. But to me, that's the first one. Is that their goaltending duo next year? By the way, how keith kachuk motivational speaker of the year i knew you were gonna get to that what was what was the exact line

they were they were too soft it's the worst thing you can say to a hockey player isn't it calling them soft oh and it's keith kachuk too like one of the guys who played like the hardest style of hockey that we saw in his generation when that comes from keith kachuk oh you pay attention and you pay attention fast and the florida panthers have and they're playing a tough brand of hockey and you saw you know giovanni smith and mark haslick at the end in the spin cycle. Yes. The Florida Panthers, man. It's a fun ride right now. You know what about that game too, Jeff? Those were real fights.

Oh, no, no. Those were not pillow fights. There was no seat belting. There was no just hug and tug. These were like grab on, throw your hand down to the cellar and punch. Everything was with bad intentions. Yeah. That turned out to be a nasty nasty game a nasty nasty game to one of the other teams in contention here the pittsburgh

penguins man jason zucker scores again yep it's raquel over the line of balkan left wing back for scores! Jason Zucker blows it past Fleury, and the Penguins with a huge one leave the third, go up 3-6. Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Minnesota Wild 4-1. Good news on the horizon. Sounds like Kirill Kaprizov is going to be back next week playing games. We'll see what happens there.

Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Penguins do what they have to do. The Tang, Raquel, Zucker, Carter, they all find the back of the net. And maybe, again, because that's where the question marks exist, Elliot, Tristan Jari with a 27 save performance in the win. Well, Jeff, this is the one. You look at their schedule now. Their last three games are Detroit, Chicago, Columbus. Okay?

And this was the hard one one and the thing that you were worried about if you were the penguins was if you lose this one do you get too far behind those other teams like by the time their game starts tonight because they're in the central time zone they know the islanders are out in front and they know what florida's kind of doing right so you're starting a bit later and you know if you don't keep pace even though your schedule has three non-playoff teams in it two of them who are at the bottom of the standings you have no margin for error and they pulled this one out I've had some people asking me about this whole thing with JT Miller now I have to tell you there's a lot of

different versions of what happened with Pittsburgh and Vancouver at the deadline and like I reported at the time and and I stick to this, it was an extremely complicated deal, and I don't think it ever got close because there was too much going on. But the one thing I do think that is accurate is I think Pittsburgh knew if they got Miller, Zucker might have to go in the deal. And I'm not convinced that he would have stayed in Vancouver.

I think one of the things Vancouver was looking at is if Zucker had to go in the deal, is there somewhere else that he could go? Like, I do think that whole conversation was happening. Did it ever get close? No, I don't think it did. I just think it was too complicated. But I do think it was possible

that if it did happen, Zucker was going to have to go and then go somewhere else. I shudder to think of Pittsburgh in this run without Zucker. When they have needed a big goal, he's almost always around it. And he was around it on Thursday night. The Pittsburgh Penguins still trail the other two by a point, the Islanders and the Florida Panthers, but they don't take the step backwards. Jeff, who do the Islanders have? Philadelphia, Washington, and Montreal.

And so let's do Florida too. Florida's got. Washington, Toronto, and Carolina. Yeah. And Carolina is going to have something to play for. Like a week ago, I said I thought Islanders and Penguins, I still believe in the Islanders the most

because I think they have the best goaltending. You know, Florida's got the bigger challenge. There's no question about that. And Pittsburgh, this was the one they had to steal, and they stole it. They did. And the other team that's over here waving saying, hey, don't forget about us.

And the one thing that we learned on Thursday night is Devin Levi is human. 7-6 shootout win. This was another wild one. Some pressure on the Red Wing captain. He needs to score to keep this thing alive. Here he comes in over the blue line. And Levi makes his way and shoots.

And Levi makes the save. And the Buffalo Sabres win the shootout two to one. When you talk about games that teams need to have, when you look at the Buffalo Sabres schedule, Carolina, the Rangers, the Devils, they finish up with Ottawa on the Columbus Blue Jackets. But you look at Thursday night's game against the Red Wings, and that's a game that you cannot squander. At this time of year, how far back the Buffalo Sabres are, you cannot squander it.

And they almost did. Took a shootout, Buffalo Sabres win 7-6 in another old school scoring affair. That one was really fun to watch, I have to say. Goals for everyone, Elliot. Goals for everybody. You're right. Like Buffalo, the one they lost the other night the one in in florida back they get it across

dalene a drive a save made by lion nine seconds dalene to the line nobody home and thompson back to play at four seconds dalene and he fumbles it away that's's it for this one. The Panthers get the 2-1 win. That's four straight wins for the Panthers as they vault back into a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. A 2-1 Panthers win. I don't want to say it was a backbreaker, but obviously it makes life extremely difficult for them. I just want to see Buffalo extend this as long as they can. Keep it interesting.

The more teams in, the more fun it is. You know, where I'm really concerned for them is that, you know, I know that Jeffrey Merrick extremely challenging Rangers Devils back-to-back next week. It's a tough one. I know you're very concerned about that turnpike drive, that turnpike drive that they have to make. It's a tough one.

You mentioned the Toronto-Boston game that you were working on a hot minute ago there. And you mentioned the Charlie McAvoy situation. Boston goes into this one without David Krejci, without Taylor Hall. They beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime, 2-1. David Pasternak with another goal. Wash, rinse, and repeat. His 57th goal this season is an overtime winner.

The Boston Bruins have now won 61 games. That's one short of a league record. David Pasternak with a blast from the left circle. It finds the inside of the far pole. Anything notable other than that for you in this one? Well, first of all, Ryan O'Reilly was back, and I thought it was really interesting they put him at third-line center. I'm curious to see if that's what's going to happen

or we're going to get more moving around here. I kind of figured when they acquired him that that's where he was going to end up. They put him on their top six in a couple different spots, and then he got hurt. First of all, I thought that was a really good game, really good competitive game, and I would love to see Toronto-Boston in the seven-game series if we get there.

I have to say, Jeff, one of my friends said to me, you had an incredible knack of getting everybody in the world angry at you for your bunting takes this week. I said, oh yeah, why is that? And he goes he goes first of all i had a certain group of people furious at me on sunday night because i said that the leafs had told him to stop talking to the referees because they felt the referees were baiting him and you can imagine who was upset about that. And then during the game on Thursday,

I showed some stuff like Bunting has done a really good job. Like I don't like to proclaim any reputations changed after two games or anything like that, but Columbus tried to bait him a bit, particularly Jenner. And he kept his mouth shut and he played. And there was the one play with Clifton in the first period where the two of them got tangled and went down and bunting just played.

And I said, that's all you can do. You control what you control. And I said, sometimes, you know, my father used to say to me, life isn't fair. You just got to deal with it and you control what you can control, which is just playing. And then my buddy sent me a screen grab and he said, you're trending. And I go, okay, what did I do this time? I couldn't even think about it. Well, he said, oh, Bunting has to deal with the fact that life isn't fair. So the other half of people that weren't mad at me before, they're now mad at me here. That's awesome. So, and I think Anthony Stewart has it right.

I think that Toronto needs Michael Bunting to be his effective best in the playoffs, particularly against that team. Like, they've clinched the home ice now. They're going to host Tampa. They need Bunting to be Bunting and good against that team. And if you can take, like, a few games beforehand and just bank some positivity points before the playoffs, everybody wins.

But the one thing I did hear was that, you know, Bunting said, I know what i've got to do and i just have to calm it down going to the playoffs and so far he has we'll see where the last few games go but you know that's what he's got to do whistle a whistle that's it and if he does that he's going to be just fine and i'll see'll see what infuriating bunting take I can come up with on Saturday. Have you had the agent, Paul Capizano, calling screaming at you yet? No, no. He's a pretty calm guy.

He does more disgust in his voice than yelling. I like Capi. Yeah, good man. All right. Preds and Hurricanes on Thursday night. 3-0 is the final score. Another great performance by UC Sorrows. And much we talked about, you know,

the Buffalo Sabres reminding people, hey, we're still around this thing here in the West, albeit it's a long shot, but still the Nashville Predators will not go gentle into that good night. They blanked the Hurricanes 3-0. Jankowski, McCarron, good to see him score. And Dante Favreau with the empty netter at the end.

After Freddie Anderson made a beautiful diving save as he was getting lured to the bench for the extra attacker, the shot comes down and he dives at it. That was a really wonderful moment there. But your thoughts on the Preds. They went against the Hurricanes. True or false, Rod Brindamore did not coach his best game because he was sneaking peeks at Quinnipiac in the Frozen Four.

Oh, big win. We're going to get there in a couple of seconds. Huge win there. So that's his son, Skyler, and they'll play for the national championship. Jeff, as you said, we'll talk about that in a few minutes. You know, Nashville, all the credit in the world to those guys because for them to be in it, and now they're going to play Winnipeg on Saturday night.

Like, you know, I'm really excited about hockey night, Saturday night. We've got Montreal, Toronto, and I always loved Montreal, Toronto. But now I'm looking at, you know, the rest of that show. And on Saturday night, we're going to have Winnipeg, Nashville. We're going to have Calgary, Vancouver, and we're also going to have Ottawa, Tampa. And we're all going to be watching Tampa this year to see exactly what they show up with lineup-wise. But those are a couple of really huge games. And the other thing now for Nashville, and I was kind of looking through this, Jeff,

if they want, and we should mention Lankanen, who got a huge win over Vegas the other night. Sure did, yeah. But if National wanted, they could basically play out Soros. So he gets the shutout Thursday against Carolina. He can play Winnipeg on Saturday. He can play Calgary on Monday. And then they go back-to-back Thursday, Friday, Minnesota, Colorado, at home with two days off before.

Now, I assume there's a chance Lankanen gets one of those last two games, but because they go game tonight, day off, Winnipeg, day off, Calgary, two days off, back-to-back, I mean, it's up to you. If you want, you could run out Soros the rest of the season, which gives you your best chance to make the playoffs. So I'm astonished. I mean, I think at the deadline, I think we all thought there, and also too, Yossi's not playing.

Yes. Like he's been hurt. So the other thing too is, I think a lot of us were thinking that John Hines was going to be in trouble. Like, I wonder if this run has raised any question about that. It's pretty easy to get behind the team that, you know, strips it down at trade deadline and puts a for sale sign up and sends guys out the door, you know,

Nita Ryder, you're to Winnipeg, you know, you're off the Tampa Bay and still at the end of all of it, come back and say, yeah, we're not done winning yet. Like it's a pretty easy story to get behind.

And like, look, it's a, it's an organization that battles. I think it's a likable team and i think it's a likable story and i want to see this thing go right down to the end and i'm with you you have all the room to run sorrows out for the remainder of the season just burn him out until he's nothing like at the end he's just like a mustache and a blocker and that's it that's that's

uc sorrows by the end of this season the rest of him evaporated yeah it's just a blocker and a blocker. And that's it. That's UC Soros by the end of this season. The rest of him evaporated. Yeah, it's just a blocker and a mustache. It's the remnants of UC Soros from this season. Anyway, great work by Neshe. And you know he's going to want it. Totally. I got all my angry DMs from the Bruins fans who are

upset that I'm not picking Allmark to win the Vesna. But to me, Sorokin's a great pick too. To me, Hellebuck's my guy. I'll tell you this, if Nashville makes the playoffs, Soros could steal it. Well, he's got four more games to do so. We'll see what happens here.

Listen to the 32 Thoughts podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. You know, Elliot, let me back up to Wednesday. We went into Wednesday night saying, you know, we can't wait for this game. Calgary, tough loss Tuesday against the Chicago Blackhawks. The wheels came off there. They got to spin around the very next day with the very same net

miner, Jacob Markstrom as well, facing off against the Winnipeg Jets. This was a game where the Winnipeg Jets could do a couple of things with a win, namely open up a sizable gap, namely four points, and eliminate all the tiebreakers

and capture all of them at the same time. And it seemed as if not only were the Calgary Flames very much aware of what was at stake, but shift in and shift out, the Flames, to a player, played like everything was on the line. Like, did you see any coasting in any shifts? Or was Calgary saying, we know we can't afford to lose this game every single shift?

The Jets fire it in beyond the Flames net, and the final few seconds are going to come off the clock at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg. And in what was their biggest game of the season, the Flames get their biggest game of the season, the Flames get their biggest win of the season. They battle back to beat the Jets by a final score of 3-1 to move into a tie for the second wildcard spot in the Western Conference. And they knew they had to win it in regulation too, Jeff.

Because Winnipeg has the tiebreaker on both Calgary and Nashville. The Predators and the Flames have to beat out the Jets. That's the Jets' greatest advantage. And Calgary is one up on the Predators in regulation wins, so that's still up in the air. But to me, the Flames knew they had to win that game in 60. And there's a couple things that I thought were really interesting. First of all, again, they gave up a goal early,

but they've just gotten used to it. They found a way. And I was talking to someone today about Zdorov, okay? And this has been a crazy year in Calgary with a lot of up and down stuff. But I don't know if there's a player who found a better fit in the nhl than nikita zadorov in calgary just the way that they use him and the way they depend on him he makes some plays sometimes where you look at him and you're like where exactly was he going there but it never ends badly for him in the long run in terms of again on wednesday night he's confident enough to make big plays and he's consistently done it and uh this summer it's not

a great free agency and the flames are going to have some big decisions to make after the year do they sign some of these guys or do they move them? And someone said to me, depending on what Calgary decides to do with Zdorov, this is a guy who went from a player that a lot of teams would have said, eh, can't help us, to a guy who I think a lot of teams are going to look at and say, if we have the right coach and the right structure, this is a guy who really can help us. And I guess I'm not surprised at all in the least

that in a game that Calgary absolutely had to have, he made some of the absolute biggest plays. You ever thought on Markstrom? That was the guy that came out shining for me from Wednesday night. It's interesting. Like he did a really great interview with Sean Reynolds post game

where like a couple of questions in, I was listening to to it i was typing and it was one of those interviews where you're like did i just hear what i thought i heard you rewind it and you watch it again where reynolds asked about playing the back-to-back and he basically said i didn't i didn't play yesterday so i could i could show up today that was good must have felt like a gut punch last night what did this like basically saying i suck so bad it didn't matter. First of all, I love the answer. And secondly, Jeff. He's really good.

He's really good. You know, the thing is, is that if you're Calgary, that win over Winnipeg, the result on Tuesday night against Chicago probably made you even angrier that you blew that game. Because if you win that game, you're two points up and you've really got the pressure on the Jets. The great thing about this time of year is no matter what happened to you early on,

you can completely eliminate and change the narrative. You can come out here now and you can say everything that happened the first 76 games is irrelevant if they get to the playoffs now and he's a star it's like the road to perdition all debts are paid if you do this and you could play markstrom every game now two days off vancouver on saturday night day off off Nashville, day off San Jose at home. Like Jacob Markstrom could play every game now. And if he gets them in, the first 75 games are forgiven.

How are you feeling about the Winnipeg Jets down the stretch here? Now they do have one extra game on the Calgary Flames. You talked about that game on Saturday against the Nashville Predators. And then it's San Jose Sharks in Minnesota. Those two are back-to-back and then finish up against the defending Stanley Cup champions. Yeah. I mean, I don't know what to say about them. You know what they feel like to me?

Let me just get this out of the way. You know what they feel like to me? They feel like the most tightly wound team in the NHL that is a great way to put it there's no release valve they are wound so tight it's uncomfortable that's what the jets are the thing that amazes me and jets fans have heard me talk it's like a broken record they have that weekend in florida they beat the panthers and the lightning back- back to back Hellebuck plays both games and I'm like okay they're good we're good

they're good then they lose to Carolina they lose to Boston then they beat Nashville and I'm like okay that's going to really help them and then you know they lose to the Kings they lose to San Jose and that one had a lot of

fallout off the ice too yeah you think they're putting everybody away and they let everybody back in and now we have a real schlamazel as gary galley would say in tribute to gary galley of using schlamazel i agree with you i think they're really round tight this whole thing about Shifley to the wing so the theory is that Shifley and Dubois both want to play with Kyle Connor so this is why Bonas did it

it's okay you're both prefer to play with Connor and Connor should file this away for his next contract negotiations so you're both going to play with Connor, and one of them is going to have to play on the wing. And, you know, I mean, like, I thought that was set up so well the other night.

They score the first goal. They're at home. Their fans are really into it. I agree with you. I think wound tight is the best way to put it. Okay, so, Elliot, we didn't get to see Jonathan Quick versus his former team. Play him, you cowards!

We saw Laurent Boissois, who's been real good for the Vegas Golden Knights in action against Los Angeles. And it's the Vegas Golden Knights that come out on top on Thursday night. Into the zone come the Kings. Stevenson knocks it down in the slot, chipped away, and this one is over. A resounding victory for the Golden Knights against their division rival, the L.A. Kings. Final score, Vegas 5, L.A. 2.

Lauren Brosseau, 5-0-3 in eight starts for the Golden Knights this year. He finishes with 30 saves on 32 shots. Vegas puts up five goals against the starter Jonas Corpusalo, Kessel, Barbashev, Stevenson, Watt, and Marcheseau. Yeah, you know, I was going to ask you, what did you think about Quick not getting to face the Kings? I know it isn't in L.A.,

but it's tough to second-guess that decision when it's 5-0 before you even really know what happened. Loose puck, turnover, Knights get it, Marcheseau hits the post and goes in! Knights take a 5-0 lead! That's another

way to do it. Build on the lead. Marcheseau's 27th admitted into the second period. Vegas has Filled on the lead. Marcia Sows, 27. Upended into the second period. Vegas has a five-pepping lead. You know, first of all, raise for the Golden Knights video coach who got the Kings goal disallowed. They were up 1-0. Offside challenge, no.

And the Golden Knights go right down the ice and score. I think what that also says to me, and we'll see if I turn out to be right about this, is that as it stands right now, if game one of the playoffs was tomorrow for Vegas, Laurent Boissois is your starter. Yes. That's a heck of a comeback story

because he had a long road back to get healthy. So can't argue with Cassie's decision the way it's turned out. And I'll say this too. You know what this says to me is that vegas doesn't want to play la first round they're like they come into this game they're one point ahead of the others this is their game in hand and bruce cassidy i'm not in the mood for sentiment i'm going for this wobble you you know nobody easy, but they'll take a wild card two over the LA Kings. And, you know, I could hardly blame them for that.

One other player for Vegas that I want to make note of, who has had a pretty nice little run here for the Vegas Golden Knights, Pavel Dorofeev has come up from Henderson and really performed nicely for the Vegas Golden Knights. Elliot, it looks like they have a quote unquote, another one there in Dorofeev. Just put that name in your hip pocket for future reference. Let's leave it at that.

Tough name to forget once you hear it. Elliot, let's park some time here with college hockey. Here's your final. Actually, I want to talk about college and I also want to talk about some of the junior stuff because there are some big results in the, in the CHL playoffs. Well, we got to get to Kitchener-Windsor. We're going to get there in a second, but

here's your final Minnesota and Quinnipiac. So Quinnipiac upsets Michigan and that opens up questions about your Luke Hughes's, your Eric Portillo's, your Rutger McGrory's, et cetera. And I guess for BU going out six, your Rutger McGrory's, et cetera. And I guess for BU going out six, two, it opens up a question about Lane Hudson, but I, I don't know, I keep going back and forth.

I can see Montreal both signing him and I can also see Lane Hudson go back to BU for one more year, but anyhow, your thoughts on what we saw in college hockey on Thursday. Well, first of all, Jeff, would you say that you're surprised with either of the results? I'm surprised that Quinnipiac over Michigan. I thought it was going to be Michigan, Minnesota.

So Jeff Baric hates Quinnipiac. That's what we've learned. Listen, hang on. My family grew up in Livonia, Michigan. I've been to, you know, I haven't gone to Yost Arena yet. My kids have. I'm embarrassed to say that I've never been to

Yost. It's all my checklist of rinks I have to get to, but I've, ever since I was a kid, um, spending so much time in Michigan, I've, my, uh, a number of family members went to, went to Michigan. Um, I've been there for various sporting events and the campus is gorgeous.

So I have a very soft spot in my heart for Michigan Elliott. Understood. Here's my question about Saturday. Yeah. The NCAA championship game begins at 8 o'clock Eastern time on Saturday night. Carolina plays in Buffalo at 1230.

Can Rod Brindamore get from Buffalo to Tampa? I'm saying yes. And he'll probably run knowing Rod Brindamore. That's right. He doesn't even need to fly. Brindamore's in such great shape, he can run from downtown Buffalo

to Tampa before the game. Whoever's working ringside on that one, check to see if Rod Brindamore is wearing loafers or running shoes at that game, because he might just make that run for a scump style. Who knows? Really stiff back.

I bet he runs with a really stiff back. Anyway, I think the Devils are going to bring in Luke Hughes. I think everybody's kind of... I would be surprised if that didn't happen. Quick edit, Amal. Luke Hughes will be joining the New Jersey Devils this weekend in Boston. Don't know when he's going to play, but the third Hughes brother is en route to the NHL. Congratulations to his parents, Jim and Ellen.

What an incredible accomplishment to get three children there. accomplishment to get three children there. I think with Hudson, I don't have any confirmation on the way that this kid's leaning. I've heard some people say go. I've heard other people say, say, I have no basis that I want to report with any confidence. Alex's talk's brother is also a Montreal prospect. Be curious to see if, you know, what he's thinking, does he want to come out? So those are the names we're all kind of talking about there. Now I do want to talk about Matthew Nyes for a second. Okay. Sure.

So I went on your show today. Like, I don't know what I did to Leaf fans this week. Like they spent a whole day being annoyed at me today because they didn't like what I said about Nyes on your show either. I couldn't believe I didn't, I kind of didn't think that i said about knives on your show either i couldn't believe i didn't i kind of didn't think that you said a whole lot other than this is one potential place where there might be a hold up i don't know and that was like a five alarm fire all of a sudden elliot well the thing is like i have to say i've been spending a little a lot less time on twitter lately because you know the i don't know how everybody feels about the for you tab but the for you tab

puts all this stuff into my timeline that i have no interest in and it's just tire fire after tire fire of people fighting with each other and i'm like i don't want to deal with this so i've been spending a little less time and and as my buddies were joking about how i was trending after the game on Thursday night, but I had some people, I had a couple of people text me like, what did you say about Nyes? And I go, I don't know what. Anyway, the whole thing here is that I think it's going to work out.

I believe that he's going to end up in Toronto, and I think he's more than happy to play for them, and they're more than happy to have him. I just said if there is one potential hang-up here, and that's an if, it's going to be bonuses. Now, the Leafs don't like to pay performance bonuses because of how tight their cap situation is, and players like Nick Robertson and Rasmus Sandin have accepted that.

They didn't sign for bonuses and it helped get them to the NHL quick. Made it easier. Yeah. Made it easier. Yeah. So this one, I wouldn't be surprised if there's no performance bonuses.

I heard there was some haggling over the signing bonus and I assume this is all going to get worked out. I really do. But I had heard there was some haggling over the signing bonus i don't want anyone to listen this podcast and try to get nize ruled ineligible for the ncaa championship game but you know i don't think that anything happened here that was untoward

but i just you know someone just said to me that if there was going to be any haggling it was going to be over the signing bonus and i don't think it's going to be a problem, but that's what someone said to me. If there's going to be any haggling done, it's going to be over the signing bonus because the Leafs are going to try to do anything they can to save whatever dollars they can on the cap for another year. And if you're mad about that,

I can't help you. If you're mad about that, keep walking until your hat floats. All right. Very good. We wish both Minnesota and Quinnipiac all the best on Saturday. Kitchener Rangers in the OHL, Elliot, have swept the Windsor Spitfires. No, let me amend that. Have swept Shane Wright and the Windsor Spitfires. No, let me amend that. Have swept

Shane Wright and the Windsor Spitfires. And that's a stunner, right? Oh, that's a one versus eight. The Kitchener Rangers, I looked at on paper and said, how are they not amongst the top teams in

the OHL? How are they not amongst the top teams in their conference? And it seems as if they have started to put things together now. Well, they certainly did against the Windsor Spitfires, who loaded up and paid a premium for Shane Wright at the OHL trade deadline. Anyhow,

in his 20-game stint with the Windsor Spitfires, Shane Wright scores 15 goals, 37 points, and in the playoffs, only four games, one goal, two assists, good for three points. And now it's where does Shane Wright go next time? I'm assuming it's going to be Coachella Valley, right? Because they're a pretty good team.

Yeah, they're second in their division, I believe, last time I checked. So yeah, absolutely. But the other one is Conor Bedard had Regina with two wins on the road in Saskatoon and big comeback for Saskatoon, two overtime wins in Regina. That's a series.

Is this going to turn into, this is a really deep cut here, but I'm going to see if you can go with me on it. Remember Adirondack and St. John's? Calder Cup Final where no home team won a game. It was a seven-game series. Calder Cup Final where no home team won a game. It was a seven-game series. Calder Cup Final and every road team won. That's kind of like what this one feels like here.

Saskatoon couldn't win at home. Regina couldn't win at home. We're four games deep and we're all tied up. Barry Melrose was a coach of Adirondack there. Even Bruce Boudreau got some action in the playoffs as well. What year was that? 1992, sir. That was Adirondack and St. John's.

Yes. Wow. Deep cut for you, Elliot. That sure is. But no question about it, it's great. And I feel bad for Saskatoon in this series because I love Saskatoon. It's my favorite cities in the country. Like, everybody's rooting against them because everybody wants more Conor Bedard games.

Everybody wants Conor Bedard in their building because he sells out. That's what everybody wants. Now, so I wonder, does Saskatoon say this is close enough? We'll take three home games with Bedard and win the series in six. We'll take three home games with Bedard and win the series in six. Or they say we want the fourth home game and take their chances in a game seven. I would say if it was up to me and I was in charge of the Blades, I'd be like, Connor, thank you for three.

I never want to see you again. I think most would think that okay so elliot a couple of days ago on the radio show you mentioned something about the chicago wolves that has really kind of sparked a conversation and sparked a lot of buzz around the nhl with the idea being that the Wolves are planning to go without an NHL affiliate next season. I want to expand a little on this and what type of feedback have you received? Because I got it in my timeline right away, not just from people that follow the American Hockey League or cover the American Hockey League, but it seemed like a lot of people jumped into this one. Fans, former players, Curtis McElhinney jumped in on my timeline on it, as did Mike McKenna.

I mean, this one got a little steam behind it. No, I do not care to expand. Podcast over. Good night, everybody. See y'all. So the thing that was really interesting about this is that it came as a kind of email blast to agents the wolves searched out the email addresses to all the agents i guess that are certified by the players association and sent out a note to all of them

saying look these are our plans next year. We're planning on going independent. And if you want to come play for us and you're unhappy in your situation, please reach out. And, you know, I spoke briefly to Wendell Young, who is the general manager of the Chicago Wolves. And he said, you got a lot of phone calls and I, and I'm not surprised at that. And I think the players who will be interested in this is maybe some players who are a little bit older. Chicago pays very well historically, so I could see some players looking at it and saying,

I can handle this, make a little bit more money. Maybe some prospects who haven't been happy in their current setups. And also, you know, one of the things that someone said to me is that definitely they will get is a lot of teams now are four or five goalies deep and you can't find places for all of them to play.

And some teams will say, well, if we can get a second AHL spot, as opposed to an ECHL spot, maybe we'll do that. If we can get a second AHL spot as opposed to an ECHL spot, maybe we'll do that. So I do think they're going to have the opportunity to find some goalies. Now, they still will have to deal with the AHL rule that you can only have five veterans in the lineup.

And I think people are really curious to see how that's going to work. But I will say this, Jeff. There was definitely a feeling across the NHL that if there is one team that was going to do this, it was going to be that one because they make it very clear. And Young did say to me in the top two to three lines of every affiliation agreement they sign with an NHL team, they make it very clear they want to develop and they want to win. And even though they won the Calder Cup a year ago with the Hurricanes as their partner, they're going to miss the playoffs this year.

And Chicago just does not have any patience for that. One of the things that I wonder about here is, you know, the threat of the good example. If this quote unquote works for the Chicago Wolves, good example if this quote-unquote works for the chicago wolves i wonder if this catches on with other teams that aren't owned by nhl organizations now it's not as if you know half the league is zoned independently if this is a fire it'd be a very contained one but i do wonder about the example here if this does actually end up working for chicago it's funny like i talked about that ever since you brought it up and uh see you give me homework and i do it you're like my teacher jeff yeah i'm not a very nice teacher and how come you never

bring your teacher an apple like really elliot kid is he going to kill you to bring me an apple every now because i can't find enough worms to put in them very nice if you take a look at chicago's history they had atlanta and that actually i have to say one team said they were surprised this happened because uh don waddell who's the gm of the hurricanes and really preferred not to discuss this don levin who's the owner of the wolves they have a good relationship and a couple teams did tell me they were surprised it would go this way between the two of them especially since they won last year but if you take a look at it when waddell ran the atlanta thrashers the wolves were their ahl team and since then they went through

st louis and they went through vegas and now carolina nhl teams told me that there's a reason this happens. And number one is that the Wolves make it very clear. They want to win every year. Like the idea you could stuff an AHL team full of young players and right off a year, like Chicago wants no part of that. And this year they proved it. They won last year. They're missing the playoffs this year.

They're not happy with that. So teams know that going in number two is that you know wendell young is the gm of the wolves he's there from the ahl team like he's hired in by them i think that's the only situation like that in the entire ahl every other situation like for example Syracuse is independently owned, but the Lightning have Stacey Roost and Jamie Pusher and Matthew Darsh running that team. Like that is the way it goes. Like the NHL team has the say over who goes there and how things are run. Chicago was a little bit more of, you can send us your players, but we're going to make a lot of these decisions. more of you can send us your players, but we're going to make a lot of these decisions.

And one of the issues last year, as a matter of fact, in the playoffs was Kachetkov, even though he eventually got called up by the Hurricanes, him playing versus Alex Lyon, playing for the Wolves as they went to the Calder Cup. And Lyons had an unbelievable finish this year. Great one for the Panthers.

So all of these issues that come up are a lot different in other situations the only other thing i want to say about this is i had some people who said to me do you think this is just posturing and it all gets resolved and my sense is there's as they said in dumb and dumber there's a chance. So you're saying there's a chance. But I had some NHL teams say to me that they think that they could see the Wolves being a full-time independent, that they think this is the way the Wolves want to go, and they say that it's probably, there's been so many changes now that it's probably likely we're headed in this direction.

Blues get it in front. Pitlick to the front of the goal. They score! Jeff, before we wrap up the show tonight, there's a couple of things we should mention. Tyler Pitlick with Nathan Walker. It went off of one of them, and the Blues have taken a 2-1 lead, 947 to go.

And that is the Jeff Merrick talk into existence. I couldn't believe this when I saw this. I was waiting for you to bring this up. In the St. Louis game. Oh, and then one of the fan calls, the listener calls the other day, was what happens if a goal gets scored and they lay it offside? And Brent Burns did it. He did the old fake shoot-in play and actually scored on Saros,

but it was blown dead. But you actually willed a call into existence. Well, it's happened a couple of times in the last week. There was the Boston-St. Louis game when we couldn't decide whether it was Trent Frederick or Jake DeBrusque that ended up propelling the disc into the nets. And originally the goal was awarded to Trent Frederick, who had like 30 friends and family in the stands.

It was in St. Louis. And then they awarded the goal to Jake DeBrusque after. But I thought, okay, so that'll be the one time that this happens. And, oh, it's a coincidence because we just talked about this. And then it happened again on Thursday, whether it was Walker or Pitlick who ended up scoring to make it two to one blues. And I started to get tweets and DMs and texts about what have you done now? Because honestly, Fridge, I had never thought about it a day in my life the idea of two people simultaneously hitting the puck and who gets awarded the goal i hadn't thought about it a day in my life until it was last week that we talked about it and now there's been two examples of it and i'd never seen it before and there we are boom boom life eh life elliotrick Power. Anything else you'd like me to do to hockey, Elliot?

Just send it along and I'm sure you'll find my rates reasonable. Just let me know what you want me to do. They're very reasonable for me because I'm not going to pay them. Now, here's something reasonable. Taking us out, a four-piece outfit from Vancouver, BC, who bring their shoegaze psychedelic approach i like that shoegaze psychedelic approach let that sink in to the masses melt just released a five-track ep that showcases the band's musical range and be on the

lookout for another single from the group on april 14, along with several more releases throughout the spring and summer. From there, another quiet Sunday EP. Here's Melt with Within You, Within Me on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Have a great weekend. You don't You'd be afraid to lose control To let go and just float All of these dreams Within you, within me So I feel by you, just how to love you And if you try to find yourself, a new road, well you won't I live for the purpose of When you know

Well, maybe there's hope All of these dreams Within you Within me Somehow I feel Part of you, it's kind of weird Deep underwater, your emotions crawl to you

Go where the wind blows off, the first time it's been