32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Combine And Cale

Episode Date: June 3, 2022

Jeff is in Buffalo at the NHL Scouting Combine and he kicks things off with some of his findings, and there’s some really good stuff on Juraj Slafkovský, Conor Geekie and Ottawa (00:10). The guys then break down game 2 between Edmonton-Colorado (16:45), look ahead to Lightning-Rangers (27:20), and discuss the Jack Adams award (34:20).Check out the limited edition 32 Thoughts merchandise line HEREMusic Outro: Monowhales - New ThreadsListen to our 32 Tracks playlist on Amazon Music. All the tracks you hear on this podcast during the playoffs are featured there.This podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman. Music coordinated by Carson Illidge.Audio Credits: AM 970 WFLA and Bally Sports South.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.

that's a nice jigsaw puzzle for you all i gotta go to bed me too well elliot this will be a first for the 32 thoughts podcast elliot is driving home in his car i'm in a hotel room in buffalo at the nhl scouting combine more on that in a couple of moments no no i think we should start there i think we should do like like that. With the combine? Colorado just took a 2-0 series lead, just beat Edmonton 4-0, scored three goals in five seconds. They're chanting Frankie outside a ball arena, and you want to

talk about me and Buffalo? Yeah, let's do that first. Let's have a little bit of a slight change of pace. You're at the combine. Tell us what you're doing there. I've done this for a number of years. Honestly, Free, it just one of my favorite things to do. You know what I'm like around anything with prospects or, you know, junior hockey, minor hockey, youth hockey, for that matter. Like it's a real happy place for me. I really love it. Um, scouts are some of my favorite people in the world get to talk to a ton of them at events like this.

So I always look forward to this one. So what we do is we're, we come down for a couple of days. So I always look forward to this one. So what we do is we come down for a couple of days. And this year I'm with Sam Cosentino, Jason Bukala, Carolyn Cameron, Mike Fleury from the features department is doing some anchoring here as well. Nice. And essentially what we're doing is, you know, Mike's working with the features department,

recording interviews for guys that get presented as features before the draft, during the draft, et cetera. And then, you know, Sam, Carolyn, Jason, and myself do interviews with the kids just for background information. Just so you meet the kids. So how many interviews would you guys do in a day? So today we did 12. We were going to do 13, but David Juracek, the defenseman, had a travel issue, so he couldn't make it.

I think we have 11 tomorrow. Tell us. Give us a couple of good stories. Give us a sneak peek. The moment that steals it for me today was Conor Geeky of the Winnipeg Ice. So his older brother Morgan plays in the NHL with Seattle, as we all know.

So he's a really personable guy. He is a, he's your quintessential dude. Really good hockey player. He's going to be a first round draft pick. Make no mistake about it. Infectious personality personality remember how we talked a couple of years ago about Hendrix Lapierre of the Washington Capitals now his personality is just like so engaging one of those guys you just always want to be around yes Connor Geeky is that guy and he's up for any challenge so he talked about how he likes singing. And he dove right in. Sam asked a question about karaoke or something.

He jumped right in. And he said, oh, yeah, my karaoke song is Heading South by Zach Bryan. And right away, Sam goes, all right, sing it for us. And most kids are kind of shy. No, I don't want to do that. I don't want to make a fool. Right away, starts belting it out. We've got it all recorded.

It's great. Starts belting it out. We've got it all recorded. It's great. Starts belting it out. And he's really, really good. Geeky as the male Natalie Spooner. He's up for all of it. I'm just here to have a great time. I'm playing hockey. Let's not lose sight that this is the Toys R Us of life.

And we're here to have a good time. There was one other moment. It's funny, Friedge. You look for spontaneous moments in situations like this because so much of it, you know, these kids are all sort of rehearsed and they don't want to say anything wrong. And a lot of them are pretty nervous. And this is the beginning of their next life. I can recall back in 2019 when we were at the Combine interviewing Cole Caulfield.

And he made some crack about being able to juggle. And we all said, can you show us? And we looked around and we didn't have anything in the room except someone brought Tim bits. So Cole Caulfield grabbed three Tim bits and started juggling. And that's the first place that my mind went. And we heard Conor geeky singing.

It's like the guy that's just a happy dude is up for the challenge. Isn't afraid of having the spotlight on him and having people watch him or in this case listen to him in another kid's environment that might be absolute terror and absolute hell anyway conor geeky was outstanding we talked to the big three as well so we talked to shane wright shane wright talked a lot about how Ryan Kessler has really helped him, specifically on face-offs for the past little while. Logan Cooley, who's going to Minnesota next year, played in the Penguins Elite Program,

played at the U.S. program as well. We spoke to him. Really engaging guy. Actually, I asked him about his cousin, who's this, like, I think he's either 14 or 15 years old out of Pittsburgh is Pittsburgh's making great hockey players right now by the way like elite level players remember this name preach John Mooney Jr. he's the next one coming out of this Penguins elite program and Yuri Slavkovsky so Yuri Slavkov who we had on the podcast not too long ago you

know a star at the Olympics a star of the world championships, just a star in general. And he'll be a star of the draft as well. He walks in and right away, the first thing you notice is this guy is big. I think he lists right now, Freedj, at 6'3", 218, maybe 220 pounds. 118, maybe 220 pounds. Like you walk in and you say, A, he's big and you see his frame and you say, he's still got room to grow here.

And, you know, I was texting with his agent, Jerry Johansson, and he said, ask him what he had for dinner when I took him out on Tuesday. It was like this huge steak, macaroni and cheese, potatoes, dessert and everything. It was like, he just left me in the dust at dinner. It was this impressive eating performance by Yuriy Sl kofsky he talked a lot about craig ramsey and how craig ramsey is has helped him and helped his game and he did that in our in our interview we did with him on the podcast yes that's right talked about ramsey again he gave us a great quote

he said you know craig ramsey always says to me i wrote it down here for each shoot the puck it has a bad habit of going in is his advice to erase laugh got and an interesting note too we asked lavkoski about because he's a winger yeah but we asked about playing center as well and he has played center before in his life and he said that a few teams asked him if he would be able to play center at this point or play center in the NHL. He was trying to remember. And the two teams he gave us were New Jersey and Vancouver. He was trying to remember which teams asked him if he could play center as well.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I could be making something out of absolutely nothing here something out of absolutely nothing but that's what podcasting and sports discussion is all about you just said two teams asked lukoski about playing center minimum two team no he said there were a few teams the ones that he could remember he believed it it was New Jersey and Vancouver. Okay, here's my thing. Where does New Jersey pick? Second.

Where does Vancouver pick? 15, right after the Winnipeg Jets and before the Buffalo Sabres. Why would the Vancouver Canucks be asking Slokowski if he can play center? They're not getting him at 15. Unless they move up. Thinking emoji. I think you have to always do your due diligence. Like, what would it cost to get into the top three?

I think everybody has those conversations. You know, just like you talked about the other day, you know, Tom Fitzgerald of the New Jersey Devils making a list of, okay, who from which teams would we be willing to trade the second overall pick for? I think if you're any team, you're the Los Angeles Kings, you're the Dallas Stars, you're the Washington Capitals, or in this case, the Vancouver Canucks, I think you see what it costs, don't you? And if you're going to see what it costs and if you're fine with it, then I think you have the obligation to be as thorough

with your interviews as possible. Way to completely ruin a good pitch. No, I do like that thinking because you know my brain, and it goes to that same place that you do. So, yeah, let's snuggle up on the grassy knoll here and think that the Vancouver Cadets are trading up to try to get in the top three. But one of the more interesting things, I don't want to gush too much here about the scouting combine.

We have a lot of NHL playoffs to talk about. No, I don't want to hear this stuff. It's good. This is the best stuff you've ever done on the podcast. First of all, it's a very low bar I'm jumping over when you're saying the best stuff you've ever done, Merrick. So Pierre Dorian popped by. And he came in and he sat down.

And normally in a situation like this, a lot of it's managed. The general manager will agree to do an interview, but it can only be about the draft. Dorian sat down and said, ask me anything. I'm wide open, happy to talk. So we talked a lot about his background in scouting. So we talked a lot about Ottawa and ottawa and his prospects and the future of the team and i asked him about brady kachuk and he said that at the end of the season at the exits he said brady kachuk came to the team with a list of things that the guys wanted and the team wanted

and the team needed whether it was things that need to happen with the dressing room things that need to happen with the team he sort things that need to happen with the team. He sort of came really prepared with this. And you expect this from a captain, obviously. This laundry list of things that he feels and the team feels they need for next season. And, I mean, you know me, Freach. I could not resist following that up with, what did you think of Brady Kachuk in Calgary? And Pierre Dorian took a very long pause was about that long and then he said molson is a great sponsor of ours

that sounds like the pause he took when amber asked him about what he liked better about the Senators. He said, we're a team. Yeah, it was a great pause. And it was really funny. And he said, look, he's a big family guy. He brings that vibe to the Ottawa Senators room as well. But I just thought it was a great line. I asked him about the possibility of three goalies next season, and he said that is a strong possibility. I did ask about Josh Norris, because when the GM says, ask me anything, you kind of have to. And he said he doesn't negotiate through the media. Had to ask.

Then you should have followed up with the next question. It should have been, why not? He told me to ask you anything. Why not? I'll just go to the agent, and he will. I want to end on this with Pierre Dorianian because it was a really touching moment too we talked about the upcoming draft and you know where ottawa is picking and you know are they going to hold on to the pick are they going to trade the pick could they move up how hard is it to do both moving up or moving down how do you weigh the draft in different areas and he talked

about that and then he said look this is going to be a really emotional draft for me personally you know we all know about pierre's scouting background after he you know realized he wasn't going to make it as a goaltender and he really i think at the age of 14 he decided he wanted to be a scout um and that was the the career path he chose his father was a legendary scout with nhl central scouting and then with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1990 to 1994, his father passed away right before the draft in 1994 of a heart attack. He was 49 years old. And Pierre said, look, I turned 50 in July. This is going to be an emotional one for me because my father passed away right before the draft at 49. And I'm going into this draft, and this is my 50 year as I'm selecting for the Ottawa Senators. It was just a really sensitive, tender moment from Pierre Dorian.

And listen, that's an organization that's had, you know, going through the passing of their owner, Eugene Melnick, as well. It just sort of got the impression this was going to be a special one for him, an emotional one for him, and one where he's probably thinking about, you know, the late Pierre senior, Pierre Dorian senior. So it was nice of him to stop by and some really good stuff there from Pierre Dorian. Well, I got to say, that's a really nice story. That's a really nice story you told. And listen, I just love being around these people.

I love being around the draft crowd, the prospects crowd, the scouts crowd. Draft is always about, A, the, the prospects crowd, the scouts crowd. Draft is always about A, the prospects and B, the scouts. And I've made this point on this podcast and elsewhere countless times. The spine of this industry is built by some of the people that are not compensated very well in most cases and have jobs to keep them away from their families for long stretches. At times their jobs can be very dangerous. I always think about scouts, you know, driving, you know, across icy highways to go watch a period, you know, fueled by lack of sleep and some bad coffee. And it's the lifeblood of the industry.

And I don't think we paid enough attention or give enough respect to the men and women that help, you know, keep this industry going. And things like the going and things like the combine things like the two days of the draft are days where a you think about the kids but i also think about the scouts as well for each what i think this is about for you is you get to talk to people and we're in a situation now where movement's becoming a lot more free particularly in canada true and people are getting a chance to see other people now. Like that's the thing I've missed the last two years is just talking to

people. Yeah. So I completely understand where you're coming from there. I'm a little bit jealous that you get to do that. I've been jealous a lot the last couple of weeks. I'm jealous of, of Dave and Kelly who got to go to the battle of Alberta. I'm jealous of you that you're at the combine.

So I'm just coming across as a very jealous person. That's one of the seven deadly sins you shouldn't have. You're becoming, now remember our conversation the other day, Elliot, if you're not a good person, do you know what your personal hell is going to be? Do I need to remind you of this? Oh, yeah. For those that missed it, we've decided if Elliot is a bad person from here on the rest of his life,

that his personal hell will have to be watching the Kale McCarr zone entry from game one on a loop, clockwork orange style, with his eyeballs propped open with toothpicks for the rest of eternity. That will be your personal hell. So don't be jealous. Don't be envious. Just enjoy that we're all part of one big wave. Elliot, we're all part of this together. thank you jeff for that wonderful heartwarming lesson we also talked to uh brad

lambert oh yeah whose uncle is the uh the uh the new head coach of the new york islanders and he said that he uh you know he doesn't talk with with lane lambert much but obviously his father does um and you. Just joked about how wouldn't that be interesting if the New York Islanders ended up selecting Brad Lambert. He'll be another first-round pick. Highly, highly skilled player. Anyway, a fun first day.

Tomorrow we have more interviews. Jeff, any other rumors from the combine? Anything else you heard that was good? No, it's just sort of, I mean, everybody has a different opinion on who should go first, who should go second, who should go third. So who do you think that was good? No, it's just sort of, I mean, everybody has a different opinion on, you know, who should go first, who should go second, who should go third. So who do you think Montreal's taking? I still firmly believe that they take Shane Wright.

You know, I've talked to some teams who have said, you know, Yuri Slavkovsky, but what I find is the teams that aren't close to having their hand on the first overall wheel or aren't trying to get their hand on the first overall wheel tend to be the ones that are contrarian about it but you put yourself in kent hughes's shoes here general manager of the montreal canadians you're looking at the future of the montreal canadians here and the montreal canadians forever have been screaming about centers and you could be looking at the next 10 years, you know, running out both Nick Suzuki and Shane Wright under the tutelage.

Let's not forget, this is a factor here too. Under the tutelage of Martin St. Louis for the next 10 seasons, you could have these two guys, that premium position. Now, Iri Slavkovsky is an enormous talent. Logan Cooley is an enormous talent. I'm not asking you who you're taking first. I'm asking you who you think Montreal is taking first.

That's what I'm saying. I think Montreal takes the two-way center and Shane Wright. Okay. I'm sure you've talked to teams as well that are Camp Cooley or Camp Slavkovski. No, I'm focused so much on the playoffs and just kind of what's going on right now. I'm like a compartmentalized guy. I don't do a lot of draft stuff yet until it falls on my lap.

So I'm not there yet. You're more in the thick of this thing than I am right now. I'm making up rumors about who's not getting qualified. You want to go there now? Okay, so who else is not getting... I saw your list on the blog. Let's do the games.

Okay, so let's get to the games. And listen, Thursday night was an interesting one. The Colorado Avalanche take a 2-0 series lead by virtue of a 4-0 shutout. Lekkonen, Manson, Rantanen, McKinnon, all with goals. Nazem Khadri, three assists. Pavel Frantsoz with a 24-save shutout. They're chanting Frankie both in the rink and outside the rink as well.

Fantastic. Just tremendous. What did you make of this one? There's two people you didn't mention, and a lot of people won't mention them as the stars of the game for colorado and there were a lot of good players you mentioned there i really thought that mccarr and tase were unbelievable in this game there was one moment where mccarr had mcdavid on a one-on-one played played him perfectly, used his stick, poked it to the corner.

That was brilliant by Makar. See, you, I think, are one of the people who believes that if Canada had gone to the Olympics, or really anybody had gone to the Olympics, that Makar and Taves were going as a pair. Yes, and I also wonder about Ekblad and Wieger. Okay, I agree with you on that. I think it was possible. But Makar and Taves, yes. I think they were Ekblad and Wieger. Okay, I agree with you on that. I think it was possible. But Makar and Taves, yes.

I think they were going as a pair too. I think you're 100% about that. And game one was really strange in the sense that they outshot them and they outscored them at 5-on-5, 3-to-1, when Makar and Taves were on the ice. But Taves had a weird game. He had some weird plays and he kind of fell a couple times. It was like, what's going on there?

It was a little bit off. But tonight I thought both those guys were dominant. And, you know, McDavid in the postgame said I didn't play very well and he took the blame on himself, which all good captains and leaders and great players do. Those two guys made life really difficult for him tonight. They didn't give him a lot of entries. Like we showed in the second intermission,

there was one entry where Byram shot him down, and there was another entry where I think it was Helm did it on the power play. But just generally, I thought those two guys were excellent. They played him as well as you can play him. I just don't think you could do it any better than that, and I don't expect it to happen too often. I think McDavid is too good. But it was interesting.

Jay Woodcroft split them up right from the beginning. They had a 48-second shift at the end of the first period where they played together, and they were really good. But for the most part, he split them up. And, you know, Taves and McCar, Cadre had a great night. McKinnon had some points. Manson scored. Lekkonen was really good.

Like you said, Fransos was the best story because he got the shout out on his birthdays on Friday. To me, it was all about Makar and Taves. I thought those guys were so good in the big moments, the things you don't see they're tough to beat and i don't think this series is over by any stretch i think edmonton has a lot a lot in them but that was a textbook performance by the avalanche tonight with uh their number one goalie hurt and unavailable leckanen man, and Rantanen. Don't blink or else you'll miss all three goals.

Everyone on the Edmonton bench was spinning. We saw a timeout after the Manson goal. One of the questions coming out of this one, much like we had questions about this coming out of the first game, game three, do you stay with Mike Smith? I am. Unless you think he's tired or injured i am he made a lot of good saves in this game a lot of good saves in this game i'm in buffalo so i'm watching the tnt show so i didn't get a chance to watch you guys what did kelly say about it i don't remember off the top of my head but i know we were talking and we were both saying the

same thing that he was really good and you know that three minute surge there was a bad giveaway there was a puck battle lost and the third one was an awful line change that created two-on-one actually somebody said to me there was an hl defenseman i have to go back and i have to look at this he said that for whatever reason the Oilers aren't great at defending two-on-one and he said that the weirdest thing about it is that Dave Manson has done such an unbelievably good job with their defensemen and still for whatever reason they don't defend two-on-ones very well and are you looking at it and saying you know what you hope Smith makes one of those saves to bail you out? But I thought he made a lot of saves in this game that bailed them out, especially in the first period.

And those were three golden chances the Oilers handed Colorado in a three-minute span. Kelly and I were talking, he wouldn't have taken them out and I wouldn't have either. Yeah, the only reason I ask is it seemed as if, you know, there might have been a moment where they considered it after the Manson goal and they called the timeout to try to calm everyone. The two nothing goal. Yeah. I thought if it was going to happen at all, it was going to be after the third one. After Rantanen. Yeah.

Unless he's hurt or you think he's exhausted. I'm going with him. I don't think he was the problem. I don't think he's the problem at all. I know you don't have to have your gloves on to make saves uh i know it's not a rule that the whistle blows but man whenever i see a goaltender lose a blocker or lose a catcher like i just cringe just knowing the potential for it is that thankfully i don't know if mckinnon did it deliberately you know didn't shoot glove recognizing that smith didn't have a glove and he went short side instead but that

whole thing had disaster written all over it for like smith's hand yeah you're right you're right about that that could have been really bad the other one too that was really weird was like when cassian took byron's helmet off on the bench and Byron fought back, which was perfectly fine with me, I'm not sure that's a situation where it should be coincidental minors. I don't think so. I kind of looked at that one sideways and said, that's a it's for nothing kind of call. What do you think, Landis Scott?

Of the hit? Yeah. I had some other fans DMing me, and I know you other fans are still salty at me about the no uh about the offside play which i don't like to discuss because it gives me post traumatic stress disorder i'm fine with the hit but i'm fine with the hit i'm fine a few of them sent me dms i responded the thing is is that they say it's a blindside hit and the one thing i'm reminded of blindside hit was taken out of the rule book so that doesn't exist anymore and actually i think when you watch it at full speed

he gets them body to body i have to admit just as a human being i'm not crazy about the whole blindside thing but it's body to body and i don't think it's suspendable i could be proven to be wrong but i don't see it as suspendable as it stands right now we're not sure that that's why yamamoto got hurt but i'm sure we'll find out over the next few days yeah i was fine with it i was fine with the hip the the problem is and this is for an even bigger conversation you and i have talked about this before you know you can get significant injury and significant damage done to your head from hits that don't even hit your head. Absolutely. Whiplash.

That's all that has to happen. You know, our mutual friend, our former colleague, now, you know, doctor who works with, you know, people like Dr. Charles Stater, Dr. Allie Rendley always reminds me of this. She always says like, you hockey guys are ridiculous. You think that just because you didn't get hit in the head, it's not going to affect your head. Like she said, I treat more people that get hit in the stomach that have concussions that get hit in the head. Your problem isn't headshots. Your problem is hockey.

If you want to come right down to it, like, you can get significant. Like, it is a dangerous but very legal, from my point of view, it is a dangerous but legal hit that Landis Gog delivered. You know, we talked about this the other day. Like, the Trouba hits are big and they're not illegal. very legal from my point of view it is a dangerous but legal hit that landis gog delivered you know we talked about this the other day like the truba hits are big and they're not illegal i think some people are struggling with the kinds of injuries we're seeing you know it was really good for me actually to see on thursday was seth jarvis yeah talking to the media yeah you know he said that yeah uh i'm doing a lot better than i have been the last couple days today is definitely the best Yeah.

Did they diagnose you with a concussion? I'm pretty sure, yeah. I couldn't imagine what else it was. I mean, look, this is the game. People are going to get hurt because it's a violent collision sport. And in the playoffs, people play hard. At the end of the day, fans want their players that they cheer for to want to win the stanley cup as much as they want their team to win it and in the playoffs they do like they they do hits they wouldn't do in the regular season they take a hit to make a play like they wouldn't do in the regular season and jeff i agree with you i don't think that's suspendable under current rules i don't think this series is over

you know colorado looks great like that's the kind of win people look at and i got a couple of these texts the other night that's the kind of game people look at and they say colorado's never losing again they're winning the cup i understand that was a great performance but i don't think that series is over as great as they looked i would not write off the oilers no because we haven't seen the best of Connor McDavid in this series yet. And that will happen. Game three at home, first of all, it's going to be Bedlam in that rank. They are going to come out like crazy in that first period. I don't think this series is over at all.

It will be very interesting to see Colorado in the first 10 minutes of that game because I'm with you. Edmonton comes out with everything in that first 10 minutes. And we're going to see what Colorado can do here. I don't think that Jared Bednar changes the way that he coaches. He's fine to have his big boys up against Woodcroft's big boys. No problem. He's happy to do it. boys up against Woodcroft's big boys. No problem. He's happy to do it.

And you know players love that. I don't think he's going to change that at all for each. I just want to see what Colorado does when Edmonton's got that building behind them and they're playing with lit matches in their boots because I think that's how Edmonton comes out. I don't think you should play with lit matches in their boots? Because I think that's how Edmonton comes out. I don't think you should play with lit matches in your boots. I don't think it's safe, and I'm not convinced it's effective. Thank you for the PSA, Dr. Friedman.

Well done. Thank you very much for that one. Let's get quickly to the Rangers and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Was this one a shock to you? I know we wondered about things like, you know, were the bolts rusty after nine days off? And, you know, there was a rhythm the Rangers were in, play a day, rest a day, play a day, rest a day, just jerk is on fire, keeps that vibe going, seven straight wins at MSG, 37 saves, they're chanting Igor's better around MSG, which is just a delightful and delicious chant. Was that kind of predictable in your mind, or did you see that game going a different way?

I don't think it was predictable. I'm not surprised the Rangers won, but Corey Schneider, who's the shutdown line, at shutdown line, who I follow on Twitter. First of all, I can't believe that nobody's hired this guy by now. I really can't believe he's not working for a team. Too expensive, too expensive, too expensive.

Maybe, maybe, maybe he doesn't want to, I don't know, but you know, some of the stuff he keeps track of, I think is really smart. And it's fascinating.

He's so good. And one of the things that he keeps track of is cross-ice passes. He said five on five, Florida had two all series and Toronto had seven. And he credited the Rangers for seven in game one. And Justin Bourne's been talking about this is what happens when you keep playing as opposed to get a break. I always remember the 2007 Senators talking about it. Oh, that's right.

Yeah. They had about eight or nine days off because they beat buffalo in five and detroit and anaheim played that great seven game series and look anaheim was winning that cup they were they were the better team but i remember the senators told me in retrospect that they just never got started they'd been away too long you know, Kelly talked about in some of those series that you do battle drills and practice, but you can't create the hate among your teammate that you need to be really good at it. And, you know, I think there's really something to that, but, you know, full marks to the Rangers.

They earned that win. They played great. The thing about the Rangers I'm really seeing, Jeff, is that they're getting better. I think when you look at them from the start of the playoffs to now, I think they're getting better. Well, see, I have that sense about the avalanche. And what I keep wondering in my mind is, I wonder if now that they have the 2,000-pound piano of the second round off of their back, it seems like the Avalanche are skating with a new confidence. Now they've slayed that dragon, and now it's on to the third round,

and they don't have to hang around that narrative anymore. I don't know what it is about the Rangers. But, I mean, listen, Kreider was great all regular season, 52 goals. He's got nine in the playoffs. He scored, you know, the opening goal in the, uh,

the game a couple of nights ago, Panarin scores, the bandage at all the questions. Okay. He's the number one spinner in the regular season. It's show me time. Now in the playoffs, he's got eight goals.

Adam Fox with a couple of more assists. Frank for Trano is looking like a wonderful pickup. He was great in game one as well with a goal and an assist. What a release on that shot for Trano has. But Philip Hedl has seven goals in 15 playoff games for each. Two goals against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the kids with Kako and Lafreniere. What's with Philip Hedl all of a sudden?

Well, one of the things I heard about Hedel is I was sent a note and someone sent to me that one of the things that he needed to learn was just how to play the North American game, right? You know, obviously he plays overseas. He probably played a lot on bigger ice and, you know, you have to make the transition. And, you know, one of the things they said that he's really improved on is finding open ice in the smaller surface. And if you look at the third goal that the Rangers scored in game one.

They need to be better at getting pucks out. Right now, Lafreniere, left point, left corner, Hedl. Cycles for Kako by the net. Top of Kako. Looks to make a play in front. Hedl scores. Nobody took by the net. Tapo Kako looks to make a play and Brian Hedl scores. Nobody took the guy in the hash mark. Four guys are around the net. What the heck are they thinking?

That's a perfect example, they feel, of a play that he's learned to make that he didn't know before. And, you know, sometimes it just takes time to get there. And I think also they said that, uh, you know, like a lot of good young players, he tried to beat everybody one-on-one and he had to learn to get that out of the system. But the one thing they really praised is that he put in the work. Like some people cut corners. Some people aren't all there or all in.

The one thing about Hedl is that the Rangers said that that was a kid who never shied away from putting in the work. And you always give the benefit of the doubt to someone who's willing to do it. And he had a tough season. Yeah. His name was all over trade rumors. You remember what Gerard Gallant said when he scratched him? He needs to watch the game and just watch Mika Zibanejad. Because that's what we want him to be.

How'd you like to be a kid and hear your coach say that? Just sit this one out and watch Zibanejad. Just watch kid. He's been handed nothing here. Like there have been, he's heard all the rumors. He's not dumb, right?

He's the, these guys know all of this. As much as Dragaland is a player's coach you know i'm sure that that doesn't do wonders for his confidence when his coach is out there not just only scratching him but telling him like look man go stare at sabanajad that's all we want you to do that's okay that's a tough pill to swallow and it probably goes down sideways and scratches your throat on the way down i gotta got to give it to him. I really got to hand it to Filip Edel.

Seven goals in 15 games. He's become a, not the story, that's just jerking, but a story with the New York Rangers here. I'm flat out impressed, Frege. I'm flat out impressed. Okay, and how many times do you think on Friday, if I give you an over-under of 1,000, 1,000, okay,000, okay?

Okay. How many times do you think we're going to hear the Vasilevsky stat at record after a loss? Over or under 1,000? Over. Yeah, I agree. I agree with you. Over 1,000.

And you know Tampa's going to be better. Well, here's Tampa. Last three playoff seasons, 18-0 after a loss. I have no doubt that Tampa comes back better. No doubt at all. And again, it's just like the Edmonton Oilers. It's their job to get a split. Edmonton can do it against Colorado.

Okay, but are they in trouble? No. Tampa's job is to get a split. If they don't, are they in trouble? Nope. They're going back to Tampa. But I'm with you. I think they're better get a split. If they don't, are they in trouble? Nope. They're going back to Tampa. But I'm with you. I think they're better in game two.

I really do. Elliot, before you wrap up the podcast, a significant award handed out on Thursday, and that is the Jack Adams. The coach of the year goes to Daryl Sutter of the Calgary Flames. Your thoughts on this one? I think Sutter is very deserving.

I laughed when I saw the video. Ron throws to it, it's Brian Sutter presenting the award. I'm like, oh, I wonder who's winning this. And then Brian Sutter, who had a huge smile on his face, he was so happy to present it to Daryl. It was kind of a nice moment, really. And some people look at it and they're like, well, you look at the playoff results and maybe it doesn't stand.

Look, it's a regular season award. I think he was a very fair and excellent winner. Very deserving based on the job he did this year. I could have been happy with him or Brunette or Gallant winning it. I think the other thing too, is I'm looking at the voting right now, and these are the broadcasters who vote on it. I'm not a member of this group. And it's clear to me that Brunette and Gallant kind of, you know, not split the votes because Brunette was a hundred points ahead of galant but i think there was

obviously the voters felt much more strongly about the two coaches in the eastern conference than any other coach besides sutter in the west and you know sometimes that happens i know that with the professional hockey writers association and i'm part of their voting for some of the other trophies. One of the things we've really worked on is trying to find more voters in some of the Western cities. Because for years, teams would complain that, you know, hey, there's a heavy bias where there's more hockey writers. And, you know, I think it's fair. And I know we've really tried at that.

But sometimes it works out that one conference has better candidates than another for certain things. And I think when you look at the voting here, and again, everybody was very deserving. I think that it's clear the voters felt that Sutter was a much more compelling candidate over anyone else in the West then either one of those two guys in the East had such an edge. So I think that's one of the reasons he won. And I think he deserves it. I thought he had a great year coaching. Just as a quick aside, we haven't talked about this award for a while here on the podcast, but I have thought about it a number of different times. And now that we've seen the voting here, you know who I think should have received more love? And I'm not disqualifying myself from this conversation because i should have given him more love as well when it came to the voting is todd mcclellan in los angeles i think he had an excellent season but i had people

who said to me they thought bedner too low and i had people say to me sullivan too low well bedner was fifth mcclellan sixth sullivan eighth and you know i had someone else say to me, Sullivan too low. Well, Bednar was fifth, McClellan sixth, Sullivan eighth. And I had someone else say to me, why is John Cooper never winning this award? Well, it's like Julian Breesbo on the GM award. All they do is win Stanley Cups. That's another one, I guess. Win Cups, you can't get coach of the year or the general manager of the year. All you do is win Stanley Cups. What do you have to do in this league? And you know what I say? I say, you can't get coach of the year or the general manager of the year. All you do is win Stanley Cups. What do you have to do in this league? And you know what I say?

I say you can't blame me for the Adams because I don't vote on it. You can blame me for a lot of other ones. You can't blame me for the Adams because I don't vote on that one. Or the Jim Gregory GM. You can't. That's the GMs. I have voted on that one before. So I can take some of the blame you know it's funny like

tonight when it got announced they were like what about this guy what about this guy what about this guy there were a lot of coaches who had really good years i'm just indicting myself more than anything else i'm just doing a may i call but i did not make public more than i should like i did not make todd mcclellan as public as I should have in this conversation. Because the more that I think about it, man, he did a great job getting this team to where they got to

and with the handicap of significant injuries specifically to his back end. And even though they brought in veteran players, we think of Danone, we think of Arvidsson, he did a lot of it with some young kids.

He really, really did. Great job. And and i think finally just before we wrap up you know andrew burnett is was a finalist here yes i know i said this two days ago there's a lot of radio silence there but i heard that him and bill zito had met this week i don't know exactly where this is all going to come down, but I do think we're getting close to some resolution on how this is going to shake down. We'll see what happens in Pantherland. Thanks for listening to the podcast.

Taking Us Out is a band we featured in season two and in season four of the podcast. How many seasons of this podcast has there been, Amel? Seriously. They are favorites of ours and it's the Mono Whales. in season four of the podcast. How many seasons of this podcast has there been, Amel? Seriously. Oof. They are favorites of ours,

and it's the Mono Whales. After the success of their 2021 album, Daytona Bleach, the three-piece group are back with a new single. Here it is with new threads. It's Mono Whales. 32 Thoughts, the podcast. All forever after

Something too good to be true All I ever ask for is everything that you want to do Hardly moving faster, burning out on the new fuse Call me a disaster, but maybe I just found the groove I got these music things kicking up the sidewalk I got these little things ticking like a time bomb Ticking like I'm Ticking my phone Ticking my phone

Tell me what you're after Maybe I got nothing to lose Always got the answers But maybe I just found the truth