32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Kraken 5, Pavelski 4

Episode Date: May 3, 2023

Welcome to Round 2! Jeff and Elliotte discuss the exciting start to the second round with Florida-Toronto (10:15) and Seattle-Dallas (00:00), address a potential rule change (16:20), preview Edmonton-Las Vegas (22:00) and New Jersey-Carolina (28:30), discuss the schedule (25:00), look at what the off-season holds for Boston (39:00) as well as the Rangers (30:40), and talk Flames as they begin the process in finding a new coach and GM (50:40).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call The Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailOutro Music: Gitkin - Hold OnListen to the full track hereThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: KJR FM, KTCK-AM, NESN 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.

You still there, Freach? Oh, yeah, I'm still here, yeah. Oh, there you go. Okay. Thanks for cutting me off while I was rambling. I'll believe you. That's fine. Oh, yes, it's time for another edition of your favorite car cast.

32 Thoughts presented by the GMC Canyon AT4X. Merrick Friedman and Delich along with you. Two games and a bunch of news to go over today, so we'll try to make it as painless as possible. The Seattle Kraken, Elliot, let's start here. Even though it felt like a Joe Pavelski night, because it was a Joe Pavelski night, the Seattle Kraken draw first blood of their series

against the Dallas Stars. Yanni Gord, with the overtime winner, was just saying to Amel before we started the podcast here, this one had the feeling and had the aura of a three or four period overtime. Down, Brooks Tran gets his own rebound, puts it back toward the goal and never got through. Now Seattle scores, scores on the far side. It's hammered in off the rebound.

Yanni Gord, the overtime hero here in game one. Yanni Gord, the overtime hero here in game one, and the Seattle Kraken take a 1-0 series lead after a third-period heart attack. They come back and take the lead in the series. And Yanni Gord, a two-time Stanley Cup champion, who in the absence of McCann has really stepped up his production, and a rebound by Ottinger that gets put right into the play Yanni Gord and he buries it. And again, this starts on a turnaround shot right there. A real beauty. But Yanni Gord ends it. 5-4

is the final on route. Joe Pavelski with four goals. Welcome back. Max Domi with three assists. But it's the Kraken who have the headline coming out of this one. The Dallas Party Poopers. That's the Seattle Kraken. Don't they know they ruined a good story? Not that they

really care, mind you. No, but I think this is a very Pacific Northwest type thing to say. They really harshed the Dallas buzz. Is that how the kids say it, Elliot? Did I say that right? They really harshed the buzz of the Dallas Stars. Well, take your word for it. Let's put it that way. Obviously, I'll take your word for it. Let's put it that way. Obviously, the big story is that Seattle won the game. But the thing everybody's going to be talking about is Pavelski. And the symmetry is incredible. It was 2019.

He's injured in the game against Vegas. He comes back 15 days later. A goal and assist is the Sharks beat Colorado in game seven. And then here in 2023, he gets injured against Minnesota. He comes back 15 days later. He has four goals and they lose in overtime. And again, full credit to the Kraken. For the first time, they didn't score first.

They were really under siege at the end of regulation and for a good chunk of overtime. Grubauer didn't back down. He's held strong. They got goal scoring depth all over the lineup. The story continues. That's a huge win for Seattle. I don't think it's a devastating loss for Dallas. You know, they lost game one of their series to Minnesota in overtime. So they've been here before. I can't imagine that Ottinger is going to be that shaky. He looked really shaky early in the game. He recovered. The winning goal actually reminded me a bit of BX's goal in 2011 that sent Vancouver to the final in the sense that I don't think everybody knew where it was obviously the cameraman didn't and I felt for them because you know you think the puck is going

one way it hits something and goes another but it was one of those kinds of goals where everybody had to react kind of quickly and I don't think everybody knew where it was but I think if you're Dallas the thing you're looking at is you're saying Ottinger's not going to be like that. He's not going to get rattled like that. And you feel that you're going to be better in game two. Can we park a little time here talking about Joe Pavelski? Sure.

Because you're right. This was Joe Pavelski's night. Welcome back Cotter. You know, he scores that goal to make it one nothing. And even just that one would have been a big enough story, let alone scoring a hat trick, let alone scoring four goals

and becoming the oldest player in NHL history, regular season or playoffs, according to Sportsnet stats, to score four goals in a game. But the thing that impressed me most about it, Elliot, scoring four goals is one thing, but scoring four goals four different ways, there's a shot. There's a tip. It's Harley from inside the line. He shot, score!

Pabelski tipped it! You've got to be kidding! He's got two here in the first period! There's a rebound. Harley will get it out into the skates of Pavelski. Domi onto the wing for 10. And what a shot! Good on the save, scores!

Joe Pavelski with the hat trick! And then a bunt. Four! You've got to be kidding me! Joe Pavelski! It's amazing! And a lot of these are really high-skill plays. Four goals, four different ways by Joe Pavelski. Your thoughts on his night? The tip and the bunt. The fact that they both were up as opposed to down. Yeah.

I mean, what else can you say? It was an incredible performance. Oldest player ever to score four goals in a game, regular season or playoffs. He had some chances in overtime. To me, one of the more interesting questions that comes out of it is if you're Peter DeBoer, are you putting him back with Hintz and Robertson

or after a four-goal game, no matter what you know what I'm just gonna leave them with Domi and Marchman well listen considering how good Domi played with them with the three assists and I thought Marchman was really good too I'd be tempted just to leave it I know you listen when when you lose a game your coach is always tempted to change something I don't know this was the one thing that I might look at and say i don't want to touch it but then like elliot how do you not reunite with all the respect to other lines out there the best line in hockey it's right there pavelsky's capital be back that's why peter deborah has paid a lot of money to make these decisions. And by the way, settle the argument. After he scores the third goal,

do you think he's telling DeBoer, put me back out there on the bench? He's jumping over the boards. What do you think? There's nothing subtle about that. Sometimes there are subtle ways that players will indicate to a coach that they want to go out there. I think Bob Biora was notorious for when it was time for him to go out, when he

had caught his breath and he was ready to go, he put his glove on the boards. And that was the indication that I'm good to go. That was subtle. There was nothing subtle about what Joe Pavelski did. He tried to jump over the boards, Elliot. Now, here's one that I'll throw back your way. Did you not think that when all those hats started

to hit the ice and it took a while that that was going to kill the Stars' momentum? I did. You actually texted about it, and they also had the TV timeout right after that, because DeBoer had kind of a grimace on his face, and I thought he might have been thinking that too.

I mean, what are you going to do? You can't fault the fans. It's the playoffs. It's an incredible performance. Yeah. You know, what are you going to do? Tell them not to do it. You can't.

I get it. It's the tradition and fans are going to do it anyway as, as a celebration, but just strategically, you know what I'm saying? Yes, I do. One other flashpoint moment, because we talked about this last podcast. I don't want to dwell on it too much. And, you know, you and the panel talked about it plenty on the show on Monday.

Tyler Sagan gets hit by Adam Larson. Yanni Gord confronts Sagan afterwards about embellishing. I looked at the hit a number of times and yeah, he pops him from behind. Sagan goes down. He probably could have stayed on his knees but then he flopped over onto his left side to draw the call I thought BX had brought up a really good point about things like getting hit in the face with a stick like hey I just took her in the

face I better make sure we get a penalty yeah out of this one so I I get it from the player's point of view but how did you see the Sagan-Larsen situation? I think I've spoken a lot about this last week, then on the pod, on Monday, and now tonight. I think everybody knows how I feel. I don't like these things being judged in slow motion. I don't think it's really accurate. But to me, I was more interested in Gord's reaction

because it's clear that a lot of people feel we have a problem i would really appreciate ron's perspective on the issue and that is that we just had a play where cogliano suffered a fractured neck on a two-minute minor right so i think that the referees are sensitive to that and i think you have to take that into account on the call on the play like i think if i was officiating i would be sensitive to that too so i've said a lot about it i think there's an issue i just wonder if some of these officials are afraid to call embellishment right now or don't want to call embellishment right now it's a hard call but the one thing i do know jeff is that there's a lot of people who think it's a problem and it's as bad as it's ever been okay meanwhile in toronto what do we do now the toronto maple

leafs are saying that to themselves as they uh they embark on a journey in the second round of the playoffs uh the florida panthersthers arrive in Toronto and spoil the party. Nick Cousins kicks off the scoring. Brandon Montour finishes it off, but it's Carter Verhage with the game-winning goal. Brody comes across. He's trapped. Here's a break for Hagee. Scores! And a counterpunch by Florida, and they're back in the lead.

4-2 is the final. And don't look now, but Brandon Montour has six goals in eight games, Elliot. He's had a wonderful season. And he's carrying right on and having an even better playoff right now. Matthew Kachuk with three points. Matthew Kachuk with nine hits. Matthew Kachuk with 20 minutes and 45 seconds worth of ice time where it seemed like

every time he was on the ice he was doing something your thoughts on this one first of all i don't think anybody should be panicking about anything that happened in that game for toronto i think it's a very different series tampa there protect the middle of the ice and grind you a bit. They're not as fast as Florida. Florida's a quicker, quicker team. And, you know, the one thing is, Ron played a clip in the pregame of Jim Montgomery talking about how the Kachuk line with Bennett and Cousins beat them. Over the balance of the seven games, where do you feel like the differences

were in the series between the two teams? I thought that that Bennett line was pretty dominant. You know, Kachuk's an outstanding hockey player. And we didn't contain him, you know. I thought they always changed the momentum back to them every time they were on the ice, pretty much. I thought that if I'm looking at the series, that was the biggest difference. Because statistically, our power play was better.

So that means our penalty kill was better than theirs. You know, there's a lot of things. But in the end, that line kept making plays. And they're on the ice again, winning a battle behind a net. They score. Like every time Boston got something going, Paul Maurice threw that line over the boards and kind of changed the momentum.

Well, last night in the first 10 minutes of game one, that line went over the boards five times. And it's even more impressive to think about that when you figure in that Bennett got a penalty and Dallas Aikens sitting next to me he pointed out why he said it's the exact same thing that Montgomery was talking about Toronto got off to a good start they had a couple of chances and Paul Murray said I'm sending that line out to change the momentum and so you know that's what he's doing now and florida is a faster team i wonder if toronto's gonna go 11 and 7 i wonder if they're gonna go back to gustafson to get his speed back in there you know florida's fourth line

doesn't play a ton so you could probably get away with doing 11 and seven. But I wonder if the Maple Leafs are going to consider that. This is going to be a different series for them. And, you know, the one thing about Kachuk is he's taken a lot of big hits. You know, he took one from McAvoy last series. He took one for Shen and he keeps going. He's showing that that's not going to stop him. So I think you're going to have to live with the fact that that's who he is,

and he feels very confident right now. You just have to stick to your strengths. And Toronto's strengths is up-tempo. They shouldn't be afraid of playing at this speed with the Panthers. Not at all. First of all, Sergey Bobrovsky I thought was outstanding, again, for the Florida Panthers. 34-save performance.

Do you have a thought on the Panthers' net minder here? I know there was a little bit of, I don't know, gamesmanship, or maybe there was nothing to it this morning at the skate with Alex Lyon going off first. But nonetheless, thoughts on Bobrovsky's evening? He made eight saves in the last two and a half minutes I think it was nine in the last three and a lot of those were really good chances I thought it was interesting that Matthews was shooting at his blocker because he gave up eight blocker goals against Boston that was the way the Bruins beat him, so they were looking for that.

You know, he hadn't had a four-game win streak all year, and he's got one now. I don't know if he's found his 2019 magic, but if he has, it's bad news for the rest of the NHL. Look, like, he's playing the best he's played in a long time, and I don't know how much longer this is going to last I'm sure Florida is sitting here and saying you know one of the things I've heard with him in Florida is it's been so enigmatic here they are they have him signed to a 10 million dollar AAV contract and Spencer Knight got a big extension you know before this year so they were obviously saying like hey you know we're

we're not sure that Bobrovsky's our guy you know the one thing that I know the Panthers have felt with him is just uncertainty at times they haven't been able to figure out why it hasn't gone right and other times when it's gone right they haven't been able to figure out how to keep it. So I think there's like this feeling of let's just ride it as long as we can. Hope it lasts for 11 more wins and see where this takes us. Because I've been told that one of the things that has kind of frustrated them about the whole Bobrovsky experience is they seem to feel there's no rhyme or reason at times as to why he's going right or why he's going wrong. So just enjoy this while it's happening. Elliot, one more thing I want to get your thoughts on.

And this isn't specific to the game, although it's an infraction that happened in this game. But it's more a big picture NHL rulebook question. Yeah. So towards the end of the game, Sam Bennett got a double minor for high sticking. He got the second penalty for drawing blood. So he high stick cuts open Ryan O'Reilly. And one of the things about this incident was Ryan O'Reilly doesn't wear a visor. Now, visors came in in 2013.

All players who have suited up in fewer than 25 games must wear a visor. But it's grandfathered, much like helmets were previously. So Ryan O'Reilly chooses not to wear a visor. Now, if he was wearing a visor, he wouldn't have gotten cut. We wouldn't have been dealing with that second minor penalty. Right. Do you think that there's anything here where the rulebook needs to be amended? Because for certain players, visors are mandatory.

And in those cases, the face wouldn't have been struck by the stick. And in those cases, the face wouldn't have been struck by the stick. Ryan O'Reilly is choosing to not wear a visor, not protect his face, because as I mentioned, visors are grandfathered in. And therefore, he did get hit in the face and drew an extra penalty. Is there a conversation to be had here in the offseason? Only among crazy people. to be had here in the offseason? Only among crazy people.

I just passed a Dairy Queen and I almost drove into it. And not because I felt like a peanut buster parfait at 1.30 in the morning. The reason I disagree with this take is it's still a high stick. Yes, I agree with that. I'm talking about the second minor, but it's the second minor because of the injury slash drawing of blood. That's the one where I have an issue

because O'Reilly chooses not to wear a visor. If it's anybody else who's wearing a visor, they don't get cut. Do the rules allow O'Reilly to make that choice? Yes, they do. That's what I'm saying. Is this a conversation that should happen in the offseason?

No, I completely disagree with this. If the rules allow him not to wear a visor, and the rule says if you cut someone with a high stick for four minutes, that's what you got to deal with. The players were given the choice, as you said, beyond a certain age. If he chooses not to wear a visor under the rules, which allows him to do that, I don't think it means anything different.

And I wouldn't want to see that. All right. Let me guess. Yeah. Was the person who suggested this to you in any way, shape, or form employed by the Florida Panthers. No, this came to me in my little exhausted brain watching hockey on Monday night and trying to find topics that will annoy you on the podcast. Well, you found one. And considering you almost drove into a Dairy Queen, I think I've found one here.

You did. So now that I've found this note, I am going to pluck it over and over again like a fiddle just so i delight in annoying you through this podcast i did want to say something quickly about montour just quick sure a lot of the points and the goals get the accolades and they deserve it someone who followed that boston series told me he's an underrated battler in his own zone now. And they said, that's actually the biggest change in his game. People always knew he was offensively talented. No one ever doubted that about him in Anaheim. They would tell you that in Buffalo,

they would tell you that. And even though he set his career high this year by 36 points, they said that the talk in watching that series was how he fought the bruins and how he battled the bruins and that was what people said really sets montour apart is he's much more competitive than he ever used to be in terms of fighting for the puck and he deserves credit for that yeah he looks so radically different than when he and i was glad you guys had dallas akers i'm glad dallas is on the panel talking about montour specifically because i can recall every now and then checking in with with

san diego when brand montour was playing there the hl affiliate for the anaheim ducks and you know you do your regular checklist and you go through players. And, you know, Marty Wilford was handling all the D and he was doing a really good job graduating players, as you remember, from San Diego to Anaheim. Wilford was outstanding for the Ducks in that capacity. And, you know, the conversation always around Brandon Montour was, well, you know what? He's the first guy to join the rush

and he'll get deep in the zone, but he has the skill and he gets back quicker than anybody on on the ice and so he can cover up for his own mistakes but that's going to need to change when he gets to the nhl and you can recall what he was like when he started in the nhl he was like free wheel and he's a flat out fun defenseman to watch yeah and you look at the brandon montour now it's a completely different guy like the offensive instincts are still there the skill is still there everything that you know marty wilford and then dallas akins tried to do and help this guy have you know eventually paid off but he done with you he looks like a different more controlled yet still wildly creative and more competitive

player i just loved watching that wild guy that was all over the ice. I'm not going to lie to you. The Tasmanian devil. That was Brandon Montour. Okay, so those are the games from Tuesday night. Wednesday, it is day two, the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and that will bring with it another pair of games, the New Jersey Devils and the Carolina Hurricanes,

the Edmonton Oilers and the Vegas Golden Knights. We'll start with the Canadian squad, the Edmonton Oilers and the Vegas Golden Knights. This one looks like it could be a doozy, Elliot. These are two teams we look at and say, these two teams can legit win the Stanley Cup. The biggest development in that series happened on Tuesday when Mark Stone left the practice early.

And so we showed that during the late game, Seattle and Dallas, and Kevin and Jennifer, they did not like the look of it. The way that it happened in the middle of a drill, they didn't like the way he gingerly kind of walked off the ice and they didn't like the way that the coaches looked when they saw it happen you know there's a lot to unpack here and i don't want to jump to any conclusions you know bruce cassidy he wasn't you know he just said look at this point in time, I've got no reason to believe anything bad, and we'll see what everybody says on Wednesday.

One former player who's now an executive, he texted me. He said he didn't like the look of that at all, especially with Stone's history of back problems. All of a sudden, there's this slight air of mystery here that nobody wants to see from an injury standpoint. So, you know, I think that's a big deal because if for any reason he can't play or he's seriously affected, that's a huge tilt to the series. Like this could be a Stanley Cup final. If you told me those two teams were going to be in

the stanley cup final i would say that's a great series so obviously i'm i'm really interested in watching it so stone's health to me is a big deal can vegas stay out of the penalty box to me that's a big deal you cannot give the edmonton power play chances. I really like Vegas's depth and whose goaltending is going to hold up. Vegas had to be ecstatic with the way Brassois played in round one. Skinner found his game again at the end of round one. I think that's a huge question as to which team is more comfortable in goal. And Edmonton has McDavid and Dreisaitl. And Vegas is a really good structured defensive team. So is LA, but eventually those guys punctured that. So you're wondering if another really good structured

defensive team is going to be able to contain them to the point where they won't simply run roughshod all over you. So at this point then, Elliot, let's talk about the schedule. Okay. And well, in one case, very specifically Edmonton and Vegas, it changed from game two being Friday. It's moved now till Saturday. With the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Florida Panthers,

there's an extra day between two and three, so Thursday to Sunday. So no Saturday night for Toronto Maple Leafs fans, and ditto for the Dallas Stars series with the Seattle Kraken. They go Tuesday, Thursday, and then Sunday themselves as well. This one has people, to be generous, Elliot, wondering. This has people wondering. Your thoughts on this game?

Well, you know, there are fans in Edmonton I do feel very badly for. Like, it was announced that the two games were going to be wednesday friday and if you're an edmonton fan or someone traveling to vegas who bought tickets and now it's saturday like i get that i i feel for those people and they certainly have a legitimate gripe i would say i hope you can stay an extra day in vegas and enjoy enjoy it because Vegas is one of the best cities to be in. And if I got to spend an extra day in Vegas, I would definitely not call that a punishment. But I understand where people are coming from. So this is kind of what I understand happened.

And I always have to be very careful here because I walk the dance of trying to figure out what occurred. And, you know, I work for the rights holder and they don't always like me talking about this stuff. So Toronto was supposed to be every other day. It was basically supposed to be Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Monday. That was kind of the initial plan. Monday that was kind of the initial plan and then you know the Heat are playing on Saturday afternoon at home and the Panthers really objected to that they didn't want that and I don't think Vegas was

really crazy about moving the extra day back I understand how they feel the one thing I was thinking today watching Stone was that could end up being the best thing that could happen to them. Because if there is any concern about Stone here, the extra day might work out for Vegas. Although I don't think they were crazy about the overall idea, which I understand. So I think this was a lot at the panthers urging they didn't want that i do think at one point jeff a back-to-back was pitched in that toronto florida series wow and it didn't go anywhere i i don't know why it didn't happen but someone told me at some point there was a back-to-back on the table you know i'm a saturday guy i'm very

happy to have the oilers on saturday night obviously if toronto's not there if edmonton's there i'm really happy with that you know as for the next weekend i don't like it as a traditionalist for hockey night in canada on saturday night but one of the things that's going to happen there is the series that goes that long is the Leafs are going to play on Friday and Sunday. And I suspect if our network isn't going to get Saturday, they won't be too upset with Toronto playing on Friday and Sunday because you get two weekend games. And while it's not what I like personally,

I don't know that our guys are going to be too upset about that. That's the schedule situation. Now devils and hurricanes Elliot in a second, we're going to talk about the New York Rangers whom the New Jersey devils dispatched in seven games, but your thoughts on this one. And by the way, this one features a Selkie trophy nominee and Nico Heischer.

So Selkie finalists came out, Patrice Bergeron, shocker, Nico Heischer from the New Jersey Devils, and Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Your thoughts on this series, sir? It became clear the Islanders were not going to be able to score enough to beat Carolina. Carolina, they're one of the highest IQ teams in the league. They're incredibly disciplined.

They know what they want to do, but you have to be able to score to beat them. I know it sounds stupid. It really sounds stupid. But one or two goals is not going to be enough. You have to be able to put like a curvier number there like the occasional five jersey can do that this is the bigger challenge for carolina they're playing a much more potent offensive team even though at times they had trouble scoring against the rangers that was a shisterkin thing as much as anyone else yeah but jersey has the firepower to score against Carolina.

That's going to be the Hurricanes' biggest challenge in this series is can they shut down Jersey's offense as well as they shut down the Islanders? And I don't think it's impossible, and I don't think they're incapable, but I think it will be harder I just think that that potency of the Devils is much more of a challenge to the Hurricanes than the Islanders

I know you're a big fan of Sebastian Ajo he's hot Brent Burns playing some really good hockey around playoff time you always have to watch someone like Jordan Stahl as well. And this is a team that has game breakers. So you got to be careful facing off against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Although this one should be an exciting series because New Jersey, as we saw against the Rangers, can be a really exciting team. And speaking of those Rangers, all kinds of questions after a first round exit, after a loss to the New Jersey Devils in the battle of the hudson and the first thing we look at is the coach what is the future if any you think with gerard gallant here all the tea leaves say that they're gonna make a change in a lot of ways it's the easy thing to do i've said this many times this year you know who the owner of the rangers is he's a volcano and not a dormant volcano one that actually tends to erupt from time to time and this year i think there were times that galant knew he was in trouble i absolutely

think there were times this year where the Rangers looked around and said, okay, who's going to replace him if we make a change? I think they sent out feelers, and I think they were looking into who could be out there and who might be interested. But Gallant righted the ship, and I really liked the way the Rangers went into the playoffs. I said this on your show, your radio show on Tuesday, Jeff, I don't care if you're the best coach in the NHL. If your best offensive players are going to have the kind of series that these players had,

you're not going to win in basketball. when you play a minute and have no stats, in the stat box, they call it a trillion. And Lafreniere had a seven and a whole bunch of zeros. At even strength, he wasn't the only one. There were a whole bunch of Rangers at even strength who just did nothing offensively. And that's not Gerard Gallant's fault. Like to me, the whole thing is when the ship goes down, the ship goes down together. I don't like this idea that we fire Gallant and everything is better.

That's not the way this works. We fire Gallant and everything is better. That's not the way this works. Maybe you can do certain things differently, but your best players have to be better than that. And I thought the game seven, you know, it was stunning. Like Shesterkin giving it to his teammates in game five. You know, I don't always like that thing publicly, but for him, I understand it.

He goes into game seven with a 937 save percentage. And he's like, where is everybody with me? And I understand that when you're a coach, you know, you take blame for a lot of things. But I think what we saw from the series and the reason the Rangers lost it was a lot more than just the head coach. You know, further to your point about your stricken, that's not the first time that we saw a player, you know,

get aggressive with, with teammates and kind of like, you know, get angry at them. You can recall that Blackhawks game where Jacob Truva, as he's going off, you know, Chuck's his helmet and barked at the bench.

Right. And what they went on, what was the win streak they went on after that? Like after that, it was like, okay, this losing is over and the Rangers turned it around. But it had to take something to your point. It had to take something as public as Jacob Truba, their captain, having a meltdown on the bench

and chucking his helmet. So that's not new territory. And I'm with you on the, on the production as well. And the one guy that I keep coming back to here, whom the New Jersey devil is just like, I'll be blunt. The devil's just suffocated him. And that's our Tammy Panarin.

Yeah. Like when you talk about players that need to be better in the playoffs and you're looking at the New York Rangers to me, exhibit a is our Tammy Panarin. Like there were other players like Chris Kreider produced. Now, you may say, oh, yeah, I did a lot of power play scoring. Well, those goals still count. They count.

I thought Chris Kreider was effective, but I keep coming back to Panarin. I mean, when your high-priced help isn't helping, that usually spells disaster for your team come playoff time. That's the guy that I circle. I know you've talked about Alexi Lafreniere. The guy that I circle here is Artemi Panarin. I'm with you on that,

and I think that's why you're hearing a lot of Joel Quenville. Now, we don't know if the Rangers are going to be able to do this. They have to go through the NHL, and the NHL has to decide whether or not they're going to reinstate joel quenville in addition to the fact that quenville won three stanley cups in chicago the fact that canary had enormous success under quenville is why i think you're hearing his name like i don't know where this is going to go so i'm going to wait to let it play out and see if it's going to be possible. But I think the Rangers are looking at this and they are saying,

Panarin had huge success under this coach. And that's one of the reasons they want them there. But I heard there was after one of the games in the series there was like a huge argument behind closed doors and like everybody could hear it and they could hear the coaches and management and everybody was so frustrated with the way it was going. And I guess there was a big argument going on. And everybody could hear the fact that tempers were boiling over. And so when that happens, there are consequences out of it. And when you lose in the first round, there are consequences out of it.

And I do agree that Gallant's going to take some of it, but I think this is bigger than the head coach. Elliot, one more thing on the New York Rangers before we move on, and that is, you know, this is a team. Chris Drew went out of his way to bring in stars at the deadline, two specifically, Vladimir Tarasenko, and then the future Hall of Famer, Patrick Kane. Tyler Mott came in as well.

Nico Mikula comes in on the Tarasenko deal. But do you have a thought maybe most specifically on Patrick Kane through all of this? Like, I don't think any of these players are coming back to the Rangers, but I do wonder what's next for all of them, most specifically the future Hall of Famer here. Well, I just think the biggest question with Kane is, is he going to need any kind of procedure you know you and i we talked about it a lot about the rumors that he might need something and i think if he had not been traded at the deadline it was possible he might have to get something done

and then potentially be on time for next year. I think that's the question right now. Does he need any work done that might take him a while to recover from? I don't know the answer. I think that's just sort of the question right now is, in any way, shape, or form, is he going to need any work? Listen to the 32 Thoughts Podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Hey guys, Mike in Fort McMurray here. So I totally agree with your comments on what Derek Lalonde said.

I think the hockey world just needs to take a chill pill and stop being poopy pants about stuff that we'd say, because it's a little ridiculous. I just finished a pot up while I was raking up my leaves. So I'm going to put tinfoil hat theory on here for a second and just say that maybe he was trying to fire up his ex-team and get them going because they look so poor. So just tuck that away underneath your lid for a little bit and see if that resonates and kind of filters into what Jeff likes to do and go down

weird rabbit holes. Anyway, thanks, boys. Love the pod. Really enjoyed it today. Made raking the leaves so much easier. Thanks. Hi, guys. Matt here. Just listening to your Friday pod about Derek Lalonde and him getting picked on for revealing, in air quotes, Tampa's secrets. Look, if Tampa can do a study and figure out that Vasilevsky has trouble taking shots from the point, I guarantee you that any other team that has any sort of analytics department already knows this stuff. Like, he's not revealing any secrets that people don't already know. The blowback has been completely ridiculous. Thanks, guys. Love the pod.

Turning our attention to another team here. Tuesday was player media availability for the Boston Bruins after their disappointing and surprising exit at the hands of the Florida Panthers. There were questions, there were tears, there were injury reveals. There was Patrice Bergeron speculating about his future and talking about his injury. And perhaps most interestingly, when that injury occurred. Was the vaccine something you carried into Montreal game or was that in that first period no I was I was healthy you know

again to that question you know it's it was the plan we've talked about it for you know two or three weeks probably two weeks in advance or two and a half weeks, whatever. I talked about my hips and my groins. I needed to take some, not play the back-to-backs and kind of heal that or make sure I was staying on top of that. Not necessarily heal it because it wasn't that much of an issue, but then the last week, everyone was going to be part of that, those two games to be ready for playoffs.

And so that was the talk that Monty kind of had with me. And, you know, I agreed. And so the Montreal game was healthy. And, you know, it was a coincidence that it was in Montreal. i was healthy and you know it was a coincidence that was in montreal and you know it's just an unfortunate you know moment and timing that happened and yeah looking back and if you had a crystal ball obviously i wouldn't play like me right but no one no one knew that uh there was jeremy swayman um fighting back tears that was those were tough that's a tough interview to watch.

And then when he started talking about how he owed the guys one more save, I'm like, how do you not feel? I know, right, Elliot? Like, how do you not feel for him? Yeah. I just wanted to do my job. And that was one save short. So, it sucks.

I think I owe the guys one more save. So, take the positives and move forward, but this one stings. Your thoughts on what we heard from the Bruins players on Tuesday. I think one of the most interesting things was there was one injury we didn't find out about. And that was Allmark. I'll tell you this the most fascinating thing about that one for me is so when i was a student reporter at western western had a really good football team in my second year there they went to the atlantic bowl which was the semifinal of Canadian University football. And they played St. Mary's.

And St. Mary's had a quarterback, Chris Flynn. He was an incredible player. Anyway, it was a great game. Came down to the last play. But during the game, one of their players, a linebacker, was out of the lineup. And, you know, he was trying to go on the sideline and he couldn't so western had a defensive end by the name of rich leslie and rich was a big guy he was about six foot five and he was very intimidating and right in front of me because i was on the

sideline he walked up to this player he grabbed him him by his shirt, and he said, are you hurt or are you injured? And I was like, okay, so I'm like 20 years old at this time, Jeff. And I'm like, I said to myself, what does that mean? And I knew in the moment not to say anything because it was a huge game. But I remembered, i asked him later i said what were you asking are you hurt or are you injured and he said that hurt means you're a little bit sore but you can go back in and injured is you can't play and you know he said to me like i think the player had like like a thigh

bruise or something like that and he was like in a big game like that you shouldn't be missing it because of a thigh bruise is what he was trying to tell me so when all mark came out and said did you get hurt during the series uh no yes or no you know i would say yes or no to the yes and no. Yes or no? Yes and no. Yes and no. Was the original injury in that Washington game, or was that building to that point? It was a lot of... The game that you left in the Florida season.

Yeah, well... Yes and no on that one as well. It is, yeah. No, it's maybe... It's hard to describe really. Is it one of the reasons? I don't know. It's something that I was dealing with at that point and we got me back in shape for game one. And that's it. There's a difference between hurt and injured. I think I know exactly what he's talking about. Now, I don't like to put words into people's mouths. So I want to say that this is my own opinion.

So based on my memory of 30 years ago, what he's saying is, yes, I had something, but it wasn't bad enough that I shouldn't have been playing. something, but it wasn't bad enough that I shouldn't have been playing. And, you know, the whole thing is the Bruins leave their goaltending decisions to Bob Estensa. And Bob Estensa, the former goalie, who's a goalie coach, he has enormous respect inside that organization and around the league. And I could always be wrong about this, Jeff, but I would be shocked if they played Allmark six games in a row when he wasn't healthy enough to play. Do I think that the Bruins wish that they could have played Swayman earlier and maybe change the distribution of their starts a bit? A thousand percent, yes, I do. 100%, yes, I do. But I just find it really hard to believe that Allmark was injured enough that they would have played him six games in a row. It doesn't make any sense to do that based on the way they did it all year. I think the reason they changed it is sort of like the age-old way,

and we're seeing it all through the playoffs. No matter what you do in the regular season, you pick a guy and you stick with the guy and i think they would do it like i said i think they would do it differently if they could but i just find it really hard to believe jeff that if omar wasn't healthy enough to play a guy like essenza would have continued to do that it's i could always be wrong but it would shock me. It really would. And again, I think until we know what the injury was slash is, it's really hard to say whether this guy was playing hurt or he was playing injured. Like we're talking from the back seat here.

None of us have a hand on the wheel. To your point, Bob Asenza has the hands on the wheel here. He knows his guys. He knows his goaltenders. He knows what's happening with them. Like, honestly, I don't know what to say about it because part of me now looks back and

says, well, they're up three to one. If he's hurt, why gamble? Just throw Jeremy Swayman in there. Like I know that Allmark played the lion's share of the games. I shouldn't even say lion's share.

He played more games than Jeremy Swayman, but it wasn't as if swayman only played 15 games he almost played 40 games this year yeah for the boston bruins i don't know this one's a tricky one when you're not getting sort of you know enough water to the village by way of information i don't know what to i don't know how to handle this one but one thing that will get headlines and will get talked about plenty as you have a look back on the season that was for the Boston Bruins and the playoffs that was for the Boston Bruins, and that is Patrice Bergeron. And he wants to come to a conclusion and make his decision by July 1st, obviously, so the Boston Bruins can make their moves in free agency. And he talked about the injury and the information being that the injury did indeed occur, game 82 in Montreal,

a game he wanted to play in front of his family. Your thoughts on this one? You know what? I think he's earned the right to make the call. We talked about this a couple weeks ago, about his father and the fact that in the video he says, I fight for, and he names his dad. David Krejci also said it's Boston or retiring. He says he's not going back to the Czech Republic to play.

I mean, this could be a seismic couple of weeks here for the Bruins. The other thing too is they've got to make some decisions bertuzzi orloff um orlov connor clifton like some of the interpretation of on orlov was he would want to go back to washington you know washington wasn't going to do what orlov wanted contract wise so. So unless that's all changed, I just don't know how there's a fit there, to be honest. But there's some big decisions to make.

But I'll tell you a story someone told me on Tuesday morning. We were talking about the Bruins and their decisions. And, you know, when they signed Lindholm, so they traded for him and they signed him to an extension right away. And this person told me that they were a little bit surprised that Lindholm would do that sight unseen. Like it wasn't just signing with Boston.

Like he basically went from Anaheim to Boston, a huge change and signed right away. And apparently one of the things that Lindholm was sold on is that Boston always has a plan and Boston figures things out. And he said to me, that's what he's looking at right now. Cause we're looking at all the choices they have to make. And the fact they have the biggest bonus overage in the NHL for next year, which is going to knock about four and a half

million off their cap and you know he said to me when he heard that story about lynn holm he was like okay i'm curious to see what this is going to lead to and what boston's plans are for this last season i had someone because i had like you and a number of us, had conversations about Lindholm's decision to sign long-term with the Boston Bruins, and one person told me this totally fits the MO of the person, that Hampus Lindholm is someone who will wake up one day and will say, I want to spend the next 10 years of my life here and it'll be an abrupt change and he'll make that decision because he wants to try things like apparently that's him as a human being he just wants to go and put himself in situations to try different things he doesn't want the concrete

to harden around him for too long in any one place that's why this one person said to me you know what it does very much feel like a Hampus Lindholm I'm going to try this type move. So maybe that's from Hampus Lindholm's point of view that's Hampus Lindholm being Hampus Lindholm. I'm going to try Boston now for the next however many years.

That's kind of the MO of the person. Another team making headlines this week the Calgary Flames. They said goodbye to Daryl Sutter as their head coach. Don Maloney, in a really interesting press conference, president of hockey operations, interim general manager, etc. He talked about the number of interviews that he's done around the coaching situation. As you do at the end of every season, you do a thorough review of your season.

I interviewed 25 players, coaches, coaching staff, training staff, spoke to prominent agents who represent key players on our team, and it became clear to me that we needed a new voice to guide us forward. Daryl is a good coach and experienced coach. I want to thank him for his three years of... And came to the conclusion that this was untenable, had the conversation with Murray Edwards, who ends up beating just over $8 million worth of Daryl Sutter's contract. And now Daryl Sutter is X of the Calgary Flames. We had Jonathan Huberto in an interview saying things like, quote, having a new coach is

going to help my game and my confidence too. Your thoughts on what we saw the last couple of days out of the Calgary Flames? Well, I mean, it was definitely building towards that. I think we had a feeling it was going in that direction before it was announced Monday morning. I think everyone kind of knew on Sunday. I had said I thought it came down Sunday. Someone else said to me it was possible Saturday, but it was on the weekend. They knew it was pretty much over. And I wouldn't be surprised if even Sutter reached a point where he kind of heard everything that happened and said, this is not going to work. Although, you know, obviously he wasn't going to walk away from $8 million. I don't really know who would, but I think he realized it wasn't going to work.

You know, a couple of things I heard about those conversations number one I heard that the next thing like I believe that the Flames are going to start their GM interviews a process this week you know one thing that someone told me was that yes there were players who had harsh words for Sutter but what I was also told is I think some players also had some strong comments about why they thought some of their teammates could handle it or not handle it they wouldn't say who they just said that there will be some fallout there. You know, that some of the players who couldn't handle Sutter, they're going to have to be able to

handle the next coach, whoever it is. And so I thought that was really interesting. You always talk about the pendulum swinging. We go from the hard coach the players coach i assume they're going to look at more of a players coach this time but i think there were some players who kind of talked about well if you're going to make the change you better make sure that this player can handle the next guy so i heard that came up which i thought was interesting although like i said the people who told me wouldn't give me details and i think another thing that came up, which I thought was interesting. Although, like I said, the people who told me wouldn't give me details. And I think another thing that came up was that they need a captain simply because they have to have a buffer between the coach and the group of players. And I know there were people who felt this year that not having a captain there kind of affected things.

I'll say this. I know there's been a lot of talk about Mitch Love, who's done a great job this year with the Wranglers, and there's going to be a number of those players in Calgary next year. I know they felt very strongly about Ryan Huska. They're one of their current assistant coaches, although that's always a hard thing to do. But someone said to me that nobody unlocked Huberto like Andrew Burnett did, and Calgary would be wise to at least have that conversation.

It's late. You've already mused about driving into a Dairy Queen. You're on your way home. I'm hungry for ice cream right now. You're a little touchy. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is.

Probably best to wrap this thing up as it is a cozy 2.25 a.m. Eastern right now. Oh, my God. So take a side. Get your pillow, Elliot. Get your pillow. Taking us out is a multi-instrumentalist and producer from Brooklyn, New York. Gitkin writes music that's largely wordless, drawing on emotion through guitar-driven melodies. He's a modern-day guitar slinger that's informed by Greek and Middle Eastern modalities,

mixing blues and funk. From his 2020 record, Safe Passage, here's Gitkin with Hold On on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. 🎵🎵🎵 Hold on to this love we got Never feel this old Give it all you got Hold on to this love we got Don't you let it go Don't you let it dry