32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Islanders Shocker

Episode Date: May 9, 2022

We didn’t see this one coming. Jeff and Elliotte kick things off in New York as the Islanders fire head coach Barry Trotz after four seasons (00:01). The guys discuss what impact this move has around the league, who might Lou Lamoriello hire next season and why the sudden change. They also touch on some news out of Winnipeg (8:15), penalties in the playoffs (49:45), and what might be happening with a pair of All-Star defensemen in San Jose (12:45).They then recap all the series — Toronto-Tampa (16:10), Edmonton-LA (24:00), Boston-Carolina (27:10), St.Louis-Minnesota (30:50), Dallas-Calgary (34:50), Colorado-Nashville (38:30), Florida-Washington (43:30) and Pittsburgh-New York (46:00).Music Outro: Margo & Mac - It’s So EasyListen to our 32 Tracks playlist on Amazon Music. All the tracks you hear on this podcast during the playoffs are featured there.This podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: 101 ESPN, AM 970 WFLA, SNY and Sportsnet.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.

A decision like this doesn't happen overnight. It's over a period of time. Unfortunately, it is my role to make the best decisions for the organization going forward. And I believe that this group of players needs a new voice. In no way is anything negative on Barry Trotz, who, as each and every one of you knows, if you've had the opportunity to meet him, is a tremendous human being. In saying that, I'm open for any questions. Okay, welcome once again to the podcast, 32 Thoughts, presented by the all-new GMC AT4

lineup. And Elliot, we recorded a full podcast late, late, late, late, late, or early, early, early, depending on when you go to bed, Sunday night slash Monday morning. But you're going to hear that in a second. This is the very latest news, and it revolves around the New York Islanders announcing this morning that they have relieved Barry Trotz from his duties as head coach. Your thoughts?

Lou Lamorello, Monday morning surprise. There were some rumors that this could happen but as you know the chances of proving that until low lamorello was good and ready to tell us that that could happen were zero so i think we just had to wait and see it play out. And to be honest, I'm not even sure the assistants really knew in New York what was happening. It sounds like it caught a lot of people by surprise. And I was on the conference call this morning with Lamorello and he said that I believe this group of players needs a new voice. And I think it was Andrew Gross, one of the reporters there who covers the Islanders, who said, what are some of those

reasons? And he said, I'm not getting into them. So we really weren't given a lot of information. I think that there's going to be a lineup of teams going after Barry Trotz. And I think first and foremost on that list are going to be the winnipeg jets i have to think that they have to be looking at that and saying this is exactly the guy that we need and he obviously has the the manitoba connections played with the regina pats yes and that's saskatchewan but still he's a western canadian guy well he's from manitoba but i i don't think they're going to be the only one it's like i gotta think there's some coaches that are already in place are going to be a little more nervous right now.

I just think that there's going to be a lineup of teams going after him. I think one of the questions is going to be like, don't forget, he was under contract for another year. He doesn't have to rush into anything if he doesn't want to. What does he want to do? I think there's a lot of coaches if you listen to Paul Maurice they're going through some degree of burnout I'm not sure that you know he's one of those guys I'm just trying to say that I think that it's going to be as much on Trotz making a choice on

what his future is and what he wants to do right away as opposed to all the teams going after him but i can imagine him and his representative the phones are buzzing off the hook the moment this got announced well it is interesting too um you look at the history of barry trotz and here's what i've always thought about bar Trotz. He gets the absolute most out of what he's given. That was true in Nashville. That was true with Washington Capitals and they won a Stanley Cup. And I really think that was true with the New York Islanders. Like I know this was a bad season and I know there's everyone has their own opinions on what went wrong and what happened this season. But I was always of the belief that behind the bench, Barry Trotz was able to

squeeze out the most of this group. And this is a little bit of an older group as well. I've, I've always believed that, that Trotz got the most out of this Islanders organization, out of this Islanders team rather. I don't know how you could even argue against that.

Like Jeff, a lot of your takes are just garbage really, but you, you, you can't argue against that. Like Jeff, a lot of your takes are just garbage really, but you, you, you can't argue against that. Uh, it was a major cornerstone in turning the Predators into one of the best teams in the NHL. I was actually thinking about this this morning when the Predators honor Barry Trotz, whenever he retires, like what do they put up on the

banner for Barry Trotz? You know, Bill Torrey has a bow tie, for example. Like what do they put up for Barry Trotz whenry trotz you know bill tory has a bow tie for example like what do they put up for barry trotz when they put his banner up there look the washington capitals he got them to the stanley cup and won them and look what he did with the islanders he took them how good was that tampa team last year and he took them to a one, nothing loss in game seven. And like, like he brings in structure. He makes teams better. I mean, there's, there's no question about it. That's, I think what's so shocking about all this.

And, and that's why I think that there's going to be like, I think there's going to be an avalanche of teams going after him saying, you know, Barry, what do you want to do? What's it going to take for us to get you? It's going to be really something. I think that the interest in him is going to be sky high. As I said, it's always going to be a big question about what does he want to do? And then the other question becomes who's the next head coach of the New York Islanders? And as much as there'll be a list of teams lining up for the services of Barry Trotz, I would imagine there'll be a lot of coaches

getting in touch with Lou Lamorello and promising they won't say a thing about it, Elliot. It's like the Iserman one last week. I don't want to talk to you because if Iserman finds out, I'm out. You know, Lamorello could do anything. It's not like he's going to tip us off. I don't know what to predict here, to be perfectly honest.

I do wonder if the Islanders could become a team that asks about Joel Quenville and, you know, what are the rules here? What are we allowed to do? I could see them potentially at least investigating, does this make sense for us? And then everybody kind of figuring out what this is going to take or what Quenville has to show. It wouldn't surprise me if that was the case.

But again, predicting what Lou Lamorello is going to do is borderline impossible. That's a fool's game, trying to predict Lou Lamorello, trying to get any information out of that corner as well. We interrupt this program to bring you a special report. All right, another update. This is 90 minutes after Jeff and I did an insert. I just had a thought, and I wanted to include this.

So we're all sitting there and we're wondering, Lou Lamorello says the Islanders need a new voice, but he doesn't tell us anything about it. This is my updated theory. During the exit interviews, enough of the players said, we kind of need a fresh voice, that it convinced lamorello after thinking about it for a few days that that's where he had to go and the reason he

didn't give us much in the conference call is a he doesn't like to share private conversations that he has with anyone and in this case the players and, he thinks so highly of Trotz as a person and what he did for the Islanders that he didn't want to say that. That's my theory, and I'm going with it right now. It doesn't mean that Trotz is a bad guy or anything like that. He most certainly isn't. I just wonder if in this particular case, the islanders organization thought that this group of players and this coach had just run its course which seems unbelievable to me considering all the success but when you're looking for reasons this could have happened that's what's in my head right now okay uh that's the very latest barry trotz out as head coach of the New York Islanders.

Now, here's the podcast we were about to release before this news broke. Now, back to our program. We will start your week with a look back at the weekend that was around the NHL and the Stanley Cup playoffs. Welcome once again to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the all-new GMC AT4 lineup. Elliot is en route to his palatial estate. I'm in my home. Amel's in his home. And we're about to talk about what we just saw on television.

But before we get there, Elliot, a couple of things from Saturday. One, I want to talk about the San Jose Sharks with you and the reports about Burns and Carlson. But first, the Winnipeg Jets situation and Mark Shifley saying, I'm not asking for a trade. Yeah. You know, first of all, I would like to say that Jeff's property is actually larger than mine. I think everybody should know that. Number two, on Shifley, it's been tough. Like the Jets have been trying to be really careful about this, but it was a story that really had to be followed up after Shifley's comments. When Kevin Sheveldayoff met with the media, he made a point of saying that he hadn't yet met with Shifley

and he was still going to talk to him. So I basically spent a lot of the rest of the week trying to figure out what had happened here. And from what I understand, Shifley and Sheveldayoff, after having a conversation, Shifley did not ask for a trade. Now, this is still kind of in the Jets' court. You know, what do they want to do here? Does that change their feelings? How do they go about this?

And the point that somebody made to me was they have two more years of Pierre-Luc Dubois before he's got unrestricted free agency. They have two more years of Mark Scheifele before he goes to unrestricted free agency. But if they are not going to know if they can keep Dubois long term, does it make sense for them to trade Scheifele now? And I think that is part of the process that they're going to be going through in the next little while. And I think in some ways, Shifley dialed down the pressure on them by not coming out and specifically asking for a trade.

I think what this does is it gets the Jets some breathing time to figuring out. Dubois said it could take a while before his situation is sorted out. It just gives the Jets some room to breathe without a Shifley situation hanging over them in addition to figure out what they want to do. The Jets got two pieces of pretty good news. One is that from Shifley, and one, I understood that Connor Hellebuck told them the similar things. If the team is not rebuilding, if the team is willing to try to keep winning, Hellebuck is okay with staying. And I think they were a little worried about what he might say too.

So I think just in the aftermath of a bad season, they've been given some good news from Hellebuck, some good news from hellebach some good news from scheifele and it just allows them to breathe and ponder their situation a little bit and like you know jeff i think it's good for the jets to be in a situation where a couple of their cornerstones have you know given them a little bit of a vote of confidence here. I think that is good news for the Jets too. Now, I still think they have a big job this summer, and I still think they have some tough choices to make.

But I think that, you know, what Shifley did was buy them some time. Okay, but if I'm hearing this correctly then, the vote of confidence is only if they're not going to go the rebuild route yes and i'm not convinced they want to do that anyway so you think that there's a chance that you know you mentioned pierre-luc dubois a couple of seconds ago so there is a chance then that come next season both pierre-luc dubois and double nickels mark shifley are both on the Winnipeg Jets. I don't want to make any predictions like that. I think that the safest way to say it, Jeff, is at this point in time, I don't think the Jets have made any decisions.

I just think what this does is allows them to breathe a little bit and figure out what they want to do or what the proper path is. San Jose Sharks, Brent Burns, Eric Carlson. Do you want to pick up where you left off on Saturday? Okay, so what do we know? We know that the Sharks, they're not going to rebuild. They want to contend or at least keep moving forward with their new general manager. Well, that doesn't mean they're coming back with the same team, right?

Like we know that that team is flawed and some things have to be fixed. And the situation there is, you know, like every other team, there's really not much cap flexibility coming here. So if you're in a tight cap situation like they are you have to figure out creative ways of of breaking it a bit and what i've been told and again people here are being very careful i think there's a recognition that the carlson burns situation just it hasn't worked the way everybody hoped. They had a vision of how Carlson and Burns would work, and it just hasn't worked. They're both right-hand shots. They're both

tremendous offensive talents. They both need to have lots of power play time. It's a luxury you can't afford to have two of them and i think what they've looked at is if it makes sense for them do you move on from one of them now i believe they had some trade talks with a couple teams on carlson this year however i don't think that's gone anywhere and i'm told it's not that likely because it's just a big contract right oh yeah burns has three years left and the contract actually in terms of actual salary goes down and he's still a heck of a player now carlson has a total no move clause burns has three teams he can be traded to without permission i just think that everybody

recognizes here that there's the possibility that this might be one of the ways the sharks try to break up their log jam as long as they get what they want they're like i was told specifically by one of the teams they are not giving burns Burns away. Like that is just not happening. There's a package they want and they're going to demand it. If that doesn't happen though, and they still need to create a little bit of flexibility, I keep circling back to Vlasic. I keep circling back to that one.

And listen, we've talked about buyout before for Mark Edward Vlasic. If they can't get what they want for Brent Burns and an Eric Carlson move is so difficult, do we just circle Mark Edward Vlasic and say that's probably the way they go? I mean, it could be. If you read the quotes about Vlasic and you watched the end of season media conferences, they really talked up Vlasic it sounds like he's coming back it sounds like he's coming back for each maybe they're trying to shine him up a bit

I don't know but yeah you're right like they certainly sounded like they're not buying him out we'll see uh one of the stories to follow uh into the offseason. Meanwhile, to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Sunday evening, if I read the panel correctly, it wasn't so much that the Maple Leafs lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning 7-2. It was more how they lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Would that be an accurate snapshot of what the panel was discussing on Sunday evening? I don't even think it's just the panel that feels that way. I mean, you had to see that watching.

It was a beatdown. And the thing that's interesting about it is during the game, I started looking. I was thinking about something and I went through some of the playoff series. I'm thinking I went through some of the playoff series. And so this core of the Maple Leafs made the playoffs for the first time in 2017. So since then, you go through, and it was Washington, two series with Boston, Columbus, and then Montreal. So I think they've had nine games where they led in a series in those five playoffs. You know how many they've won? They've won one. They have a decent record when they're tied. They have a great record when they're behind. But when they're ahead of a series, they're one in eight. They're one in eight. And the only win

they had was last year against Montreal when they were up 2-1. Every other time, they've lost. To me, that's mental. I remember watching an interview once with, you remember I used to cover the NBA, with Larry Brown, the Hall of Fame basketball coach. And he would tell his players, don't be afraid to win. And he would tell his players, don't be afraid to win. He believed in there was a fear of winning. That as crazy and as counterintuitive as it sounded, he saw it in some of his teams.

And I'm not in that room. I can't tell you 100% that that's the reason. But you look at the numbers and you look at the evidence, and especially look what happened last year with Montreal, you can't help but wonder if there's something to that. Because on Sunday night, Jeff, they had a chance to get a stranglehold in that series, and they laid a total egg. I'm listening to the panel on Sunday night, and I'm thinking about it, and I don't know. To me, it comes down to the essential question, which is, is it a matter of composition or a matter of coaching? And I'm not, again, I'm not there. Just like you said, you're not there either.

So we don't know. I have no clue. I can't hot take this one. I can't try to point to something and say there, there's the issue. There's the problem. I don't know. All I do know is it's one or the other isn't it it's a matter of it's the wrong mix or it's not being led the right way i don't know

i don't know the answer i have to say this too i think that kevin as much as it pains me to say this is on something with the matthews usage thing that they don't put him out to start and a couple of times now it's really prevented him i mean there are so many penalties being called if you're the team that's getting all the power plays you're fine because then matthews is going to be on the ice the whole time but if you're the team that's on the penalty kill yeah matthews is going to be on the ice the whole time. But if you're the team that's on the penalty kill, Matthews is not playing. And we've seen this now a couple of times in this series where they've had trouble getting Matthews into the game in the first period.

I think it affects him like it would affect anyone else for game five. Enough of this stuff. I'm throwing this guy out there and I'm saying it's ride or die with Austin Matthews. Like, I really think they have to do it. They've won games one and three. They've lost games two and four, so I guess it's their night, but I'm going with them. I think they might be out thinking themselves a little bit

with how they're starting games with him. And the thing about it too is we've talked about this a number of different times and this is not the any sort of new revelation but that's what the elite level players crave yeah just throw me out there against whomever i don't care give me any situation just get me on the ice as much as you can how did you see the jack campbell pull i actually thought it was gonna come sooner kelly and i thought when it was three nothing in the first period that they should take him out and then say, look, maybe we'll reinsert you in the second.

But it came a bit later than I thought. I could understand what they were saying. Maybe we'll wait for the TV timeout. They were killing a penalty at the time. They maybe felt it wasn't fair to Shalgren. But here's the other thing that is a bit different with all this is that and this is the year of the two goalies like you know over half the playoff teams have already used two goalies and we're barely halfway through the

first round but toronto's really in a bad situation with that because I was texting with someone and they were like, put in Shalgren, put in Shalgren, and I'm thinking the worst thing that could happen to Toronto is in this blowout game, either one of them gets hurt. Like, they are really hosed if one of those two goalies gets hurt. But that, hang on, that underscores

one thing. We're not in the era of two goalies. We're in the era of three goalies. Four. Four goalies. I mean, i mean take your pick like if anything like this sort of you know cements that as goofy as it may sound you might want to think about you know using all of your draft picks on goaltenders one of these one of these times but you're right like that's a scary one for the maple leafs it's a scary one for any team really i want to ask you about the third line yeah hagel paul and col, who were just outstanding. And we

talked about how important the Yanni Gord line was to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Certainly that's an obvious story. I thought that that Paul Colton and Hagel line was outstanding on Sunday night for each. Colton was the only Lightning player in game three who was not credited with a hit.

And he seemed determined to make up for that he threw a big hit right before the first goal i gotta think lilligran's going back in for toronto like this series there was a shot of stamkos on the bench as the national anthem just finished and the puck was dropping and he had this focused serious look to him like it was like it's my time to show up in this series and he scored in the first period victor headman left circle headman to the left corner zips it crosses kucherov right circle kucherov center point stamp goes score what a bomb from stamp goes up high over stick. One minute in, the Lightning lead 1-0. Wow, now you see how fast he didn't hesitate.

It was a beautiful pass by Kucherov. I think Hedman wrapped it around the boards. And then Kucherov gets it. Stamkos goes up high. Right up into the slot area. Way up. You know, Hall, I feel for him as a human being. He got his opportunity.

It just hasn't worked. They got to take him out. I got to tell you, I can see the clouds circling over Tavares and Nylander right now. Nylander's shifts late in the second period. I know one of them really got picked apart on social media. It's a big game for both of them. It's tough. They probably got some plays that made them feel good about themselves

with the goals and the plays in the third period. But I think sometimes it's almost even tougher for you when you produce the game that's pretty much over because then people get on you even more. You really have to know how to channel your energy the proper way, but I can just see where if Toronto doesn't close out this series, where all of the frustration is going to head to. All right.

Well, it's a, they're going back to the center of the hockey universe where everything is always calm and nobody overreacts. So everything will be totally fine for game five. The Los angeles kings even up the series with the edmonton others with a four nothing victory uh this one elliot was about kopitar this one was about quick this one was about grunstrom do you have anyone else you want to add to this list trevor moore mikey anderson i thought mikey and, like I confess, I have

not seen a lot of him. That was the best game I've seen him play. Like what's the other's biggest advantage? The biggest advantage is they have McDavid and Dreisaitl. What's their second biggest advantage is that they have a physical team and the Kings don't really have a big blue line and they've pushed it around at times this year. I thought Anderson and some of their other guys, but particularly Anderson really physically stood up to the Oilers. I thought it was really impressive. I could see McDavid coming out in game five with 11 billion points because

honestly, Jeff, that's the quietest game I've ever seen mcdavid play they swarmed him though every time the minute he got into the zone there were four kings around him i mean how many times you see four kings and we've seen listen we've seen mcdavid do it before where he danced three or four guys but every time he entered the zone he was circled and to the point about mikey anderson i mean mikey Mikey Anderson is going right at Connor McDavid. And McDavid grabs him in, as Louis mentioned, and grabs him in the guillotine, you know, in front of Chuck Liddell there at the rink on Sunday night.

He's going right at McDavid. And whenever he's on the ice, they are just circling him every chance they get. I just think McDavid's too good and the others are too smart now not to adjust to that somehow. But I will say that that was as good a blanket as I've seen a team throw on him. I thought it was really cool to see Chuck Liddell there. I've always been, you know,

like I'm not a big MMA guy like you are, but, you know, Kevin was talking about it tonight. Like he was one of the guys who didn't have a lot of technique. He just stood in the middle of the ring and threw them, or the octagon and threw them. And I always liked watching Chuck Liddell, so I thought that was really cool.

But, you know, I've always been a big Jonathan Quick guy. I was really impressed with him tonight. And I think the others, it was too quiet. You know, I don't think their performance was as bad as I thought Toronto's was, but they missed an opportunity tonight, and I expect them to be a lot better on Tuesday. Jonathan Quick with the glove off tries to catch a puck. Yeah.

That's one of the lasting images that I'll take out of Sunday. By the way, I wanted to say thanks to all the people that sent us videos of goalies. I remembered Anthony Emme, but say thanks to all the people that sent us videos of goalies. Like I, I remembered Anthony Emmy, but I couldn't find the video. A bunch of people sent us the video and then Ken, we brought up Mark Andre Fleury and Joey Kenwood sent me Garrett Sparks from the American hockey league.

And we got sent other ones. Always great to have the viewer feedback. That's for sure. Thank you for doing our work for us is essentially what Elliot is trying to say here, ladies and gentlemen. The Boston Bruins, even with their series, the Carolina Hurricanes, 2-2. 5-2 is the final score. Series tied at twos. And this one was remarkable.

I mean, Charlie McAvoy enters COVID protocol. Josh Brown draws in. So no Lindholm, no McAvoy. Josh Brown draws in. So no Lindholm, no McAvoy and Marchand, Pasternak, Bergeron, go to work, Elliott. Well, you know, sometimes people ask, like, do you think Brad Marchand is a Hall of Famer? As a matter of fact, we were talking about this, I want to say two or three days ago, and I can't remember who asked it. they said to me if brad marchand's career ended today and i'm sure there were some people who would really like to see that and brad marchand's career ended today would he be in the hall of fame and i said 100 yes

where are you on this debate i'm a huge i'm the wrong guy to ask because i'm a huge brad marchand fan i'm i'm i know everyone focuses on you the dirty stuff, the cheap stuff and all that. He's one of the most skilled players in the game period, has the championships, has the numbers, has the elite level play over a long period of time. I'm bought and sold. I'm a Brad Marchand guy. And a night where, as you said, they were really shorthanded. Lindholm out too. They lost a Norris Trophy caliber defenseman, and they might be out for a couple games with it. He had a five-point night, and he absolutely delivered. Now, I know that's not what everybody's

talking about with him, and I'm curious to see where that's going to go. He got into D'Angelo's head. D'Angelo lost it. He threw the stick at him on the empty netter. Very clearly, Brad Marchand was out there to take Tony D'Angelo mentally off the game, and he succeeded in doing it. I think a lot of people out there can read lips. I am curious to see if the

league is going to step in on this one i got a note while all this was going on about a situation about a decade ago where a team uh was going after another team with some stuff on the ice where the league basically stepped in and the referee started telling players if you don't stop that you're getting misconducts and i actually checked with one of the players and he kind of confirmed that to me he laughed and said yeah it happened we were warned so i do wonder if that's going to become like no more of that particular thing. Because if you do, we're going to call you for it. Since I now know it's happened at least once, I wonder if there's the possibility it happens again.

Series has taken a nasty, nasty turn to it here. 5-2 is the final score between the two. By the way, if you were Rod Brindamore, who are you starting in game five? I'm going Antti Ranta. Yeah, I get it. I am. I can't. I haven't seen track record. I have to. I have to go to

my guy. Would you not feel the same? I'm trying to... We love the Kachetkov story. I get it. We all love him, but he's been here for five minutes. Yeah. My head says rant up.

My heart says throw the kid in, but I understand. I think you're probably making the right call. Put it this way. If I was, if I didn't have any hands on the wheel and I don't, and I was just making, Hey,

let's have fun with it here. Putting Kachetkov because it's a great story. Yeah. That's what, that's what I'd like is if I'm in the backseat, but if I'm Rod Brindamore and I've got a hand on the wheel or two hands on the wheel, everything changes. Yeah. Anyway, I go rantive for the next game.

5-2 is the final score. The St. Louis Blues beat the Minnesota Wild. That series at twos as well. Jordan Kairou with a pair, David Perron with a pair, Pareko and Falk, both over 30 minutes. Notori Krug, Scott Perunovic comes in, and Elliott, Jordan Bennington gets the win. I didn't realize it was his first win since 2019. I remember that last year they got wiped out,

but I forgot that against Vancouver in the bubble, he didn't win. I completely forgot about that. Obviously, I'm happy for Biddington. That's great for him. He lost his job. You know how competitive he is.

We have four series that have gone through four games, and we know all of them are going six. We're all talking here about the amount of blowout games there have been. The good thing is these are getting deeper, and I guess that's the tradeoff. We get blowouts, but we get deep series. You know, as I've said to you before, my biggest concern, Scandella got hurt. Is St. Louis going to run a defenseman? to you before my biggest concern scandela got hurt is st louis gonna run out of defensemen

when i when i look at these two teams right now my number one concern for the whole series in terms of what could tip it is this st louis gonna run out of blue liners so the one guy that i'm happy for here as well like i'm happy for bennington i think we all are uh but jordan kairu what a shocker what a shocker that you would be happy for him. I am really happy for Jordan Cairo. I know there's been both him and Robert Thomas. What have we said about them the last couple of years? When are they going to bump up the ice?

When are they going to bump up the ice time? When are they going to start to hand this thing over to the kids a little bit more? As much as we thought the All-Star weekend was a big coming out party for Jordan Cairo, I get it that it's tough to grab a top six spot on the St. Louis Blues team. What was it? 920 goal scorers. Like it's a really balanced offensive attack. I'm just glad that he was able to distinguish himself in this one. And pop those two goals.

And scored that one gorgeous, like absolutely gorgeous goal for you. Nice play by Falk off the wall to Mikula. Clears it ahead, but to the red line, Perron strips it, dumps it into the Minnesota zone. Perron and Greenway will punch at one another, and the Blues get it in front. To drag, Kairou, score! Yes, my wife wishes I love her as much as you love Jordan Cairo and Robert Thomas.

I admit, I'm a little biased. I'm a little biased. The All-Stars found his mojo. 8.36 to go in the second period. Cairo extends the lead to 3-1. What a backhanded goal and a great smile on the face of Kairou. The other thing I want to say about the St. Louis team is I'd like to credit whoever told it to me or where I saw it,

but apparently if you look at Pareko's shift chart and all the different defensemen he played with, it's incredible. And I remember noticing it a little bit that he was out there with some different people. But if you really look at Pareko's shift chart and see who he played with and how many different guys, like if someone said to me, if you gave a Norris trophy for a day, he would win it, and it was so good you'd let him have it for like another week.

Ooh, that's an interesting concept, award trophies daily. So next year, we'll do the in-season Stanley Cup and the in-season daily trophies. Like we don't annoy people enough already. Okay, who won the Hart Trophy last night, Elliot? Oh, I can just imagine Dallas Stars let's go to Saturday because we're going to see these teams again on Monday

dude Dallas Stars the Dallas Stars Joe Pavelski again. Jake Ottinger again. 39 saves. 4-2 is the final. Stars lead this series 2-1. And, you know, all season long,

and this has always been Jim Nill's MO. As much as there's been a sort of rush to try to move in more youth, and listen, they certainly have, whether it was Jason Robertson ortson or or rupe hens and miro hasken is a young player jim nill has always believed you get in and it's the veteran guys that get it done for you and that's partially right it is joe pavelski but ottinger's putting on a clinic here yeah for the dallas stars fridge he's been outstanding hasken has been outstanding

as well and through all of this, John Klingberg's trying to fight everybody. Which no one saw. Which no one saw. After game two, I said to Kelly, do you think you have to tell Kachuk to stop doing this? And he said, no, I don't think it's that bad.

I'm adamant now, after game three, that this has to stop for Calgary. You've got to win a series down. I don't like predicting four- and five-game playoff series. I think that this league is too tight, and these teams are too closely matched. I thought Calgary was going to win this series, but I didn't think they were going to blow them out. And they still might win this series.

As you said, ottinger is playing great and their offense is not as lethal as it was dallas to your point they have a game plan and they're disciplined enough to stick to the game plan like robertson has been very quiet and i think he could break out at any time but i think generally he's been very quiet. And I think he could break out at any time, but I think generally he's been very quiet. But the Calgary big guns, like if Chuck has to stop worrying about Klingberg or anybody else, those guys have to worry about scoring. And the other night, you know, Sutter,

and I don't think the quote was as bad as it came across on social media, like the one about when Goudreau doesn't score on the breakaway and Sutter said, it's his job. It was a lot worse reading it than I actually think it came across. But the one thing I did think about Jeff is that there are times in a playoff series, like Sheldon Keith's message after the game on Sunday for the Leafs was, you know,

we got our split. We're good with that. There's no way on earth that Shelton Keith is okay with the split. But he's saying that because he's kind of like, look, we still have a chance to win this series. We just got our asses kicked. They're going to be piled on enough. I'm going to kind of protect my team a little bit.

And I think that's the right move. I think that that's where, in this kind of situation, I still think Calgary can win this series, but they're in a dogfight. They're in a really tough dogfight with a mature team that knows how to play. And I just wonder sometimes, with a comment like that, with Sutter's bluntness I just wonder if a guy like Goudreau is like that's not what I need to hear right now okay so that one's a lot tighter than many of and by that I mean me uh than many of us thought listen I'm never shy about calling for a four or a five I think it's as insulting as it may be to some teams.

I think it's kind of fun to be honest with you. And every now and then you're right. Avalanche and the Nashville Predators. Avalanche wins seven to three. They grab a three nothing series lead. Look to close out on Monday. Gabriel Landeskog, four points. Kale McCarr, three points.

But one of the big stories coming out of this one was the Darcy Kemper injury. There's a chance he plays game four on Monday. We'll see what happens on Monday. But that's a scary incident. And it's happened before to goaltenders. You know, listen, this is how Bernie Perrant, this is how his career ended in 1979

with Don Maloney's stick. Complete accident, but there it was. Whether it was Rick DiPietro and Sidney Crosby, whether it's Henrik Lundqvist and his teammate Mark Stahl, it's happened before. But, you know, Elliot, you and I talked about this plenty in the green room. From the goaltending fraternity, there's about zero appetite

to put any type of bars across the sight lines. Well, the amazing thing about it is it's not the first time it's happened to Kemper. It's the second. It happened to him in 2019 as well. So even if you argue that it happens as often as lightning strikes, it struck him twice. But you're right.

The goalies have really fought it. I can't remember if it was you who pointed it out. I think it was you who pointed it out to me that actually the stick didn't go through his eyes. No, not the cat's eye. No, underneath. It went the one below. So it wasn't even the cat's eye here that was... And first of all, I would like to say this.

I think it's disgusting. I don't get caught up on too much Twitter stuff. Like, it's just, it's too much now. I thought it was disgusting that people were saying Ryan Johansson did that on purpose. Or a player knows that there must be something on the end of his stick, so he doesn't react that way. Look, I understand the hot take world. Sometimes people just have to have hot takes because it makes the world go around.

But there's a big difference between hot takes and stupid takes. And the whole thing about Ryan Johansson doing that on purpose is as stupid a take as I've ever heard. There's no way you're doing that on purpose. And it was an accident. It was a gruesome accident. I'm glad Kemper's okay. I wonder if they just hold them out, you know, just for precautionary reasons, let them heal or up three, nothing. But, you know, I'm with you, Jeff. I think the NHL realized a long time ago, look, they wanted to change

equipment. As any negotiation goes, there's some things you're going to win and there's some things you're going to lose. And they were fighting on the chest protectors. They were fighting on the pads. They were fighting on the jerseys. And I think the goalies just said, we want to be able to see the best we can. And that's where we're holding our line. And I think the NHL said, look, if we're going be able to see the best we can and that's where we're holding our line and i think the nhl said look if we're gonna fight to win we're gonna fight to win some of those other things and we're just gonna have to concede on the goalie masks as many may feel it is ridiculous because this is your eyes we're talking about here the The goalie fraternity, they feel the risk is worth the reward.

Like, it's just that blunt. Like, there's no chance. Like, to a person. I have not heard, I don't know if you have, Elliot, I have not spoken to one goalie who said, yeah, you know what? We should probably put a bar in there.

Like, no way. They will not go for anything that hampers their sight lines at all. In their mind, it happens too infrequently. And again, the risk is very much worth it. By the way, Jeff, I have to say this. I agree with you. Of all the goaltender interference calls I've seen in the playoffs,

rulings one way or the other, the one that confused me the most was the one on saturday afternoon with leka i know it was outside the crease but i really thought when i watched it again on sunday morning i really thought that ingram just didn't have a chance to make that save i've disagreed with some others here and there but the one that kind of confused me the most was that one you talked about hot takes a couple of seconds ago it's this is the opposite of the hot take i don't know what to make of that one because i can see it both ways that's fair i really can that's one of those and normally like listen it's kind of my job to have an opinion on these types

of things but i can see that one completely both ways like i would be i would hate to be in a position to make that call because i can i can see both ways on that one good to see milk toast merit showed up for the podcast i know right like sorry you're not you're not gonna get that i would hate to be the one deciding on that one because I can completely see it both ways there. Okay, so that's the Colorado-Nashville series. So 3-0. We'll see if the Avs can close out and sweep on Monday. Florida Panthers and Washington Capitals. 6-1 is the final score. The Caps grab a 2-1 series lead. Samsonoff has been really good. I know there was a lot of moaning and whining and complaining about

Samsonov this season. He's been good, Frege. Capitals power play has been good, Frege. Ovechkin has been good, not just scoring, but ask Jonathan Huberto and Alexander Barkov, his physicality as well. And you know who else has been good? TJ Oshie

and Anthony Mantha has been really good for the Caps. Their best players have been their best players. There's no question about that. And the Mantha one is very big because, as you know, Mantha's always kind of had that label of which Anthony Mantha are you kind of getting.

And they're getting the really good one. I have to say, Jeff, if you would have told me that after three games in this series, we would have seen both Samsonov and Vanacek, including once in the same game, I would have said there's no way Washington would have been ahead in this series. So I am surprised. I thought it was really interesting to see how emotional Samsonov got in the aftermath of Game 3 when he was asked about the fans cheering his name.

Sammy, what was it like to hear the crowd, 20,000 people chanting Sammy, Sammy? I don't think I've heard that yet. It's close to crying. Yeah, thank you, fans. It is important to, you know, thank you, team. A lot of blocks today. It's more important we play together and we got a great result. pressure he's put on himself and how he probably hasn't felt very good about himself for a certain amount of time. I found that, you know, very, very instructive. But I give Washington credit. Their best players had to be their best players. Their power play had to be good. And one of their goaltenders had to be good enough. And so far they're hitting on all those things

and that's why they've got the lead. I don't think Florida's done. I still think there's time here. But the recipe for Washington to win is certainly there. And we should never lose sight of the fact that they are doing this without Tom Wilson. Tom Wilson. Which makes it even more difficult. The Pittsburgh

Penguins on Saturday night, 7-4 is the final. The Penguins lead the series 2-1. Would it be too simplistic to say the Penguins won the first period, the Rangers won the second period, and then the Penguins won the third period? It was a dominant performance in the first and the third by the Penguins, and then they let the Rangers back into it. No, I think that's very fair. And, Jeff, you heard what I just said about the goaltending in the Washington series. I mean, look at this one. If you would have told me it was Louis Domingue for two-plus games

versus Igor Shcherkin, who's picking Pittsburgh ahead two games to one? Yeah, well, if you're saying like, okay, we're going to have a game where Louis Domingue is playing against Igor Shcherkin, one of the goaltenders is going to get pulled. Who are you picking? Absolutely.

Absolutely. Not a chance. Now, Crosby has been otherworldly. And Dumoulin's out too. Like, theyrosby has been otherworldly. And Dumoulin's out too. Like, they're, I mean, they're really. And Raquel and Tristan Jari and Casey DeSmith. Like, this is impressive.

Yes. This is impressive. And the Rangers have their injuries too. Like, Goodrow is in particular. And Lindgren, those are losses for them. I'm not shortchanging them. But, like I said, you look at Shostakhin versus what he's going up against, and you're taking the Rangers 1,000 times out of 1,000. Crosby is just willing that team to victory.

The other guys have been really good too. He's not the only one. But I just look at him, and he's he's not the only one but i just look at him and he's unbelievable he's absolutely unbelievable how good he is and and how much of an impact he's having and he's just dragging them into the battle all the time he scores the unbelievable goal in New York, and he's pissed off. He doesn't get a penalty on it. The guy is so wired right now. He is wired to win this series. I still look at it, and I wonder, can Domingue, as great a story as he is,

can he really win a seven-game series against the Rangers? I mean, he's given them a shot. They're halfway. He's given them a shot. They're halfway. He's given them a shot. They're halfway there. He's got two more games. Can Louis Domingue win two more games? Like, I don't know how you break it down mentally.

I'm always curious how players break things down. Like, I remember, you know, Glenn Healy telling me the story, and I'm sure he's told you the same thing too, about that Islanders upset of the Pittsburgh Penguins back in 93. Yes. And Al Arbor walking around the room to every single player and saying, can you win one shift against Mario Lemieux? Yes, I can.

Can you win one shift against Mario Lemieux? Yes, I can. Can you win one shift against Mario Lemieux? And that's how we got them into that mindset of I just need to beat Mario Lemieux on one shift and we're going to be okay. I'm curious what's going on in Louis Domingue's head here. Because A, you're looking down, cross the ice at the goaltender that's going to win

the Vestland Trophy this year. And you're looking at Sabanajad and Panarin and like these kick rider and these killers. But then you got Crosby. This one is a fascinating series. The games have been so entertaining right from the get-go with the triple overtime game. This has been a great series. Pittsburgh leads this one 2-1.

And before you wrap up, Frej, any final thoughts on what we saw this weekend from you? Anything stand out, positive, negative? Anything you're curious about? What jumps to your mind from the weekend? I like the fact that they've established, look, if you're trying to score and you touch the goalies, that's one thing and they'll review it.

But generally, if you touch the goalies, you're in trouble. And without trying to score, and I agree with that, I think it's the right way to be. I think also, Jeff, though, I remember a year ago I said I would like to see the likes of Connor McDavid and Austin Matthews getting one more call a game. I think we're going too far right now. I think there are too many penalties being called

i don't know what the happy medium is i guess it's like what's the old line how do you define pornography i don't know but i know when i see it right like i just think there's too many penalties right now like what do you think okay so here's the question that i've been asking for years and everybody has a different answer hockey i look at let me know if you feel the same way hockey is a five on five game agree or disagree i agree hockey is a five on five game so we agree on that there are also power plays contained in that game it is a 60 minute game yes at what point do you say that this is no longer hockey because all it is is two teams exchanging power plays is it 10 minutes is it 14 minutes is it 20 minutes is it 24 minutes

is it 30 minutes like at what point do you say this really isn't hockey anymore? This is just we're going to play 50-50 puck and take our chances on the special teams. And I would submit that's not hockey. And we've seen teams play that before. We say, you know what, we're just going to play even up, even up, even up and take our chances because our power play is good. I would submit that that's not really playing hockey. And I don't have a magic number. I don't have a magic. Well, you know what? 18 minutes of special teams. That's all that I'm good with. But much like you and I'll use a I won't use your your your shameful pornography example. I'll I'll use jazz, Elliot. I can't define jazz, but I know it when I hear it. I don't know what that number is but there are just some

games where i feel i'm not watching hockey i'm just watching two teams exchange power plays and i don't know that's hockey i had a long talk with someone about this today i don't blame the referees i i don't think this is a refereeing issue so last year the competition committee met and two of the most vocal players were connor mcdavid and mark scheifele i heard and mcdavid obviously was disappointed after you know he didn't get a single penalty called against him in four games and they said call the standard call the rule book call the rule book it was was what they said. And the other thing too, that was pointed out to me tonight, and I kind of forgot about this is the Mayfield cross-check that injured Kucherov that there's no play from last year's playoffs. It's had a bigger hangover to this year.

Like some of the cross-checks I've seen called, I think are very legitimate penalties, but some of them, I think they're just looking for crossjacks because of what happened last year with, with Mayfield and Kucherov. And I do think there's going to be a happy medium. I'm curious to see if this is going to continue this way. I don't blame the referees. I would just be very curious to see how, like when, when this round is over, I'm going to try to reach out to some players and ask them, what did you think? Like, do you like this? Am I wrong?

Like, when I say I think this is too much, am I wrong? You know, like, I'm watching a guy like Matthews or other great players kind of get taken out of games. Like, one night Carolina had nine power plays, so all the Boston guys who don't kill penalties are out of games like one night carolina had nine power plays so all the boston guys who don't kill penalties are out of the game now if you commit that many penalties legitimately i don't feel sorry for you but this is happening a lot and i just wonder is this is this what the players want i would be curious to know if that's the answer here Here's the answer. No one's ever happy because no one has ever been happy

with officiating. This has been a story going back to well before, you know, well before you and I invented hockey, Elliot. Yeah, but I want to tell you, I don't get upset

at the officials for this. I'm not saying that, no, I'm not saying that you get upset at the officials about it. All I'm saying is it's a position that it's impossible for everybody to agree upon.

Yes. No one's ever going to settle on, oh, this officiating is great. It's never happened and here's the secret. It's never going to. Because the sweet spot of the bat is different for everyone on this one.

My sweet spot of the bat is different for everyone on this one. Yeah. My sweet spot of the bat hits it like 460 feet. Oh, please. What's the farthest you think you can hit a baseball? Oh, that's a great question. Put it this way. I've seen video of Reggie Jackson hitting it out of Tiger Stadium. Oh, it's crazy. That's not me.

I'm not doing that. I don't have a great answer for you there. Like I've, I've hit some good bombs in softball, but I honestly, I don't have a good answer for you there. It's a great question. The only reason I bring it up is, you know, I was at the, at the diamond with, with Brody this morning for his, for his baseball team. And I'm one of the assistant coaches. And so I do a lot of stuff with the, you know, I'll do the infield and I'll do fly balls for the outfield

and you know my biggest addiction this might be my biggest addiction in life other than coffee do you know what it is what's that hitting fungos man it's the absolute best it is the best feeling in the world Elliot

I love it. And you could just crack it and it sounds so good. And it just sails. It is such an addiction, Elliot. I can't stop. Sorry. No, there's nothing wrong with that. I remember when I used to do J's,

Jimmy Williams, when he was managing the Red Sox, I remember him coming to Toronto once. As usual, it was the Red Sox. There was a ton of controversy going on. I remember being coming to Toronto once. As usual, it was the Red Sox. There was a ton of controversy going on. I remember being on the field, and all the Red Sox writers were waiting to interview him before a game, and he was just hitting fungos. And one of the writers just goes, this freaking guy, all he wants to do is hit fungos. It's the best.

Then I watched. It was like a four-game series, and every day he was hitting fungos. I was like, you know i i kind of get that i get that when i when i retire i'm just gonna like honestly just go to the diamond with a bucket of balls every single day and just hit fungos because it's so much fun it's the best it is very therapeutic it's like the driving range yeah you know what yeah it's like it's like baseball that's a great way to put it it's like it's like baseball's driving range i love that okay uh hope everybody enjoyed the action over the weekend.

Plenty more to come and more podcasts as well. But taking us out tonight, a song you might have heard in a few places over the last year. Margot and Mac have only released one track, but it's a pretty solid tune. Here's It's So Easy by Margot and Mac on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Enjoy. I'm just being myself, cool as can be. When I'm being myself, you wish you were me. It's so easy. Get out your own way.

Easy peasy crazy fun. What's the point if it ain't no fun? I don't care what anybody thinks. I'm not living for them I'm living for me It's so easy It's so easy now Get out your own way

It's so easy When you break free