32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Kyle’s Summer Of Kawhi

Episode Date: May 16, 2022

What a fun first round! Jeff and Elliotte recap each of the five-game sevens from the weekend including the two OT thrillers on Sunday with Dallas-Calgary (1:10) and Penguins-Rangers (5:30). They then look ahead to the off-season for the teams that were eliminated — Pittsburgh (9:40), Dallas (14:40), Toronto (21:10), Boston (36:30), L.A. (41:50) and Washington (45:40) — and preview the four matchups we’ll see in the next round — Battle of Alberta (49:30), Battle of Florida (51:20), Colorado-St. Louis (52:50) and Rangers-Hurricanes (54:30).Check out the limited edition 32 Thoughts merchandise line HEREMusic Outro: Blah Blah Blah - Goodbye L.A.Listen 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: Bally Sports West, ESPN New York 98.7FM, NBC Sports Washington, NHL Network, Sportsnet 960 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.

hey freeze you've seen the uh the new 32 thoughts merch right i have to say it's very creative i was not asked my opinion and that's why i think it's so good and so creative because i was not asked my opinion but my stuff looks better than yours right like mine's like way cooler and hipper and like mine's probably better right fridge when the first thing i saw was a sweatshirt that said yellow laces on it i was like like, are you freaking kidding me? That's the first thing I have to see. That's one for the hardcores. Check out the online store.

The link is in our show notes. 32 Thoughts merch. Check it out. Welcome once again to another CarCast edition of 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the all new GMC AT4 lineup. Elliot, a lot of this is going to revolve around this podcast today. It's going to revolve around the teams that have been eliminated, but we're also going to do a little round two preview, but up first, a very crazy Sunday night,

whether it's the Rangers eliminating the Penguins or the Calgary Flames eliminating, I want to say the Dallas Stars, but I really want to say Jake Ottinger. Let's start there. Calgary Flames, Dallas Stars. We'll get to the Rangers and the Penguins. Man, oh man, command performance by Jake Ottinger. And the tweets were plenty about Jake Ottinger. I thought the ones reminding everybody that it's okay to take a goaltender

in the first round of the draft were particularly salient as it related to the goaltender that made 64 saves. Your thoughts on the Flames dispatching the Stars in overtime. Johnny Gaudreau with the heroics. And the C of red erupts. Four wins down, 12 to go. The Calgary Flames eliminate the Dallas Stars with a 3-2 overtime win in game number seven, setting up a second round showdown with the Edmonton Oilers. Buckle up, hockey fans. But the big story is the Dallas goalie.

How do I sleep three? That's this podcast. That seems to be a thing. First of all, I thought Calgary was never going to score. I thought we could have played until next weekend and Calgary was never going to score. I thought this guy was going to win the series single-handedly and take Dallas into the second round. And finally, they beat him.

And like I said on the air i don't want to hear anybody say he got beaten on a bad goal or a bad angle or anything like that that was a hell of a shot and this guy deserves zero criticism he faced almost 20 shots more than markstrom faced a game and he almost won it just Just a phenomenal, phenomenal performance. Like I said, he was the best player of the first round. I thought Calgary was never going to beat him. The right team won. The wrong individual, Ottinger, lost.

But, you know, those Flames players, they deserved it. And I think the guy that really stood out to me a lot was Goodrow. At the end of that series, game six and game seven, I thought he was the best forward on the ice for either team. I thought he was very dangerous. I thought he was consistently creating good chances, and he deserved the goal. Now, I think the one thing now for Calgary is Tanev.

You know, how long is he going to be out? Could he miss a chunk of second round? He's a guy they really are going to need. But that's the way it is. I'm so psyched for the Battle of Alberta. You have no idea. I'm so psyched for the Battle of Alberta. We have the BOA and we have the BOF,

the Battle of Alberta and the Battle of Florida. We're going to get to both when we preview the second round. But a couple more things about this game specifically. It wasn't just a good shot by Johnny Gaudreau. It was a perfect shot. There was a tiny little space that he had to hit, and he nailed it. Like, that was, like, you know, I always do this on Twitter and talk about how I love ugly goals in overtime, and I really do.

But, man, you've got to tip your cap to that shot. Like that is the perfect shot by Johnny Gaudreau to beat Jake Audreau. Another person we should mention as well, I thought was outstanding, was Miro Haskinen. Miro Haskinen at times decided he was going to try to end this thing himself. He was all over the ice.

When he was up joining a two-on-one, he was always the first man back, never out of position. He had, as much as we talk about Ottinger, he was great. Markstrom, great. Goudreau, great. Miro Haskinen as well. I thought, Elliot, he had a tremendous game. You're right, Jeff.

I mean, he was good, but Dallas just didn't have enough guys who made that kind of an impact. I mean, the fair way to say Dallas just didn't have enough guys who made that kind of an impact. I mean, the fair way to say it is Calgary deserved the series. Ottinger almost won it for him. He just didn't have enough support. There weren't enough Heiskanens out there. Not that there are, but there weren't a lot of Heiskanens out there for Dallas.

That's for sure. That's true. We're going to get to the what's next for Dallas in a couple of seconds here. But the earlier game on Sunday, the Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins, Artemi Panarin ends this one in overtime as well. Rangers fans go home happy. Final score, 4-3. The bread man gets it done. Cross ice.

Panarin off his stick. Collects. One shift here on the power play. 15 seconds with advantage. Pops for Panarin. Top the right circle. Moves in. Shoots for Panarin. Top of the right circle. Moves in. Shoots.

Off the... It's in! It's in! Artemi Panarin scores! And the Rangers have won game seven in overtime! Unbelievable! They're mobbing Panarin in the far corner. The Rangers are moving on after another comeback victory.

Wow! You know, what did we talk about? Panarin, didn't we say in the third period that he could decide this? Just did. Boy, oh boy. Four and a half, just five minutes in on a power play. Panarin finds the back of the net. And boy, the jubilation.

Unbelievable. This is now the shaking hands ceremony. But boy, the jubilation. Unbelievable. This is now the shaking hands ceremony. But boy, the Rangers. Igor Shcherkin was real good. Your thoughts on what we saw in the early game on Sunday. Well, first of all, just the second time ever we've had two overtimes in Game 7. You remember about a week ago, Jeff, we were all complaining that there were too many lopsided games and there was no drama.

Those complaints are long over. Look, we got five game sevens. We got two game sixes. We only got one sweep and no fives. We got our second day ever of multiple game seven overtime. I mean, what a fantastic weekend of hockey. Yeah, it was great. You know, Panarin wasn't very good in this series, I didn't think.

I asked Matt Marstrom, the producer, for some of his underlying numbers, and his underlying numbers were pretty close to where they were in the season. This was one of those situations where I didn't think the analytics and the eye test equaled up. The analytics were pretty close, but the eye test to me was he wasn't making a huge difference you know but he scored and i really wondered if they were going to give miller a penalty shot there in overtime oh big time the penalty shot goudreau got in dallas the foul wasn't

as bad as that one so i can understand overtime not necessarily wanting to call i guess they didn't want to go back to joey juno and ken reggett but that series to me ended up being a total total toss-up and you know shisterkin lost his game and then all credit to him he battled back and found it louis doming gave pittsburgh everything he could give them finally just ran out of runway. Jari clearly was far from healthy, battled for them. Crosby was not 100% battled for them. I know we're going to talk about the future of the Penguins, but to me, the Rangers over Pittsburgh was a young team taking advantage of an older team running into some injuries and the younger team finding their legs as that series continued the Crosby's injury

Jeff changed the series it absolutely did and I was happy to see he was felt comfortable enough to play game seven but to me that was all about legs and I just thought as that series went on, the youthful Rangers found their legs. They did. Standout performances for you in this series. Jake Gensel, I thought was outstanding. And what a goal, albeit controversial, is all trying to measure whether his stick was indeed under the crossbar. Evan Rodriguez as well, who played well.

I know you were a big fan of Panarin. How did you feel about Mika Zapanijad? The turning point of this series was the iPad smash. Every parent of a kid could identify with Kreider's iPad smash. I was going to ask you, what did you think of Chris Kreider this game in this series? He scores his fifth goal to kick off the goal scoring table. All people are going to remember is him grabbing the iPad from Mika Zibanejad and saying, just play hockey.

Don't worry about the highlights here. Okay, then. So, Elliot, what becomes of these teams? What happens to the teams that have now been eliminated? We just talked about the Pittsburgh Penguins, and there are huge questions there. there so let's start there malkin letang rust i mean there are other rodriguez there are other players as well but those are the big three decisions how do you see this shaken out for the penguins so i mean jeff i mean for me the first question kind of is, we've already seen one sort of change at the top, Fenway Sports Group. Do they have any other things that they're going to do?

Do they have any other people they want brought in that might change the organization in any way, shape, or form? So that's the number one question I have. Could that change the direction of the organization either? When it comes to those players, you know, this is what I've heard. So Crosby has three years left on his contract. I've heard that Malkin and the team discussed tying his contract into the end of Crosby's term. So he would sign for three years too. But I just heard they couldn't get to the same ground. That's where the last I heard, that's kind of where it was,

that they had talked about that kind of a term, but they just weren't able to get to the number now that was a while ago i don't know if that's still on the table i don't know if that's still changed i don't know if they're they're looking at other directions but that's kind of what i heard with malkin when it came to letang i just heard that philosophically they were not in the same spot. Again, I don't know if that's changed. I think obviously all of this is going to get serious right now, but I just heard that when it came to what Letang was thinking and what Pittsburgh was thinking, they just weren't on the same page. And I'd heard with Rust, it had started that way,

and I think there had been some movement, but obviously not to the point where it was anywhere close to a deal. The Penguins have made it very clear that they want to improve their cap situation. And I think if all of those players were initially going where they wanted and players should ask for what they want at the beginning anyway I don't think the Penguins saw it as a path that was going to work for them so that's why we were where we were. You know, the other thing too is, you know, someone said to me, look at the way Fenway Sports Group manages their other teams.

Now, I don't know as much about Liverpool, but I looked at some of their stuff with, for example, the Red Sox. You know, a few years ago, they basically had to move Mookie Betts to the Dodgers because they just didn't think it made sense and I've heard that they are a very analytically inclined company and they want their

moves to be justifiable from that standpoint so I think that's going to be a lot of their decision making. Do their moves make sense to them from that kind of standpoint? And I just don't think, in addition to their desire to get out of their salary cap position, I don't think there was anything close. Now, maybe we'll find out something has changed since then. But the last I'd heard is that they kind of agreed malkin was they were looking at the same term three years but they weren't close latang i heard they were never close and you know rust i'd heard they'd move closer but they obviously still weren't there we'll see where this all goes now uh as i mentioned there's a couple of others evan rodriguez

ricard raquel but the one that we've talked about a little bit in the past Elliot and listen Casey DeSmith is an impending UFA Tristan Jari still has one more year of term on a 3.5 million dollar deal I think we all wonder about Marc-Andre Fleury

and a return to Pittsburgh here for each well I do think that is something that both Fleury and the Penguins, without breaking any tampering rules, kind of consider, because I don't want anyone to think I'm accusing anyone of tampering here

or saying anyone is tampered here. But I do think there's been an understanding that this could happen. And I also think that's one of the reasons flurry never went to washington is because he wanted to go back to pittsburgh and he was worried that if he went to washington he wouldn't be able to go back to pittsburgh i think that was very much a factor in that but it makes sense jeff it really does uh let's get to the other team that was eliminated on sunday and that's the Dallas Stars. And we've been talking

a lot about what this season means for the Dallas Stars, and if there's not some return on investment for the owner, it could be a very difficult summer with some very difficult decisions. And we're going to have a conversation like this about the Toronto Maple Leafs in a couple of moments, but

did Dallas do enough this season getting into the playoffs and taking the Calgary Flames to seven games, the command performance by Jake Ottinger to essentially, I'll just be blunt, to save some jobs here? See, I think that if jobs are changed, it's going to be a lot of the individual people's decisions. Like, you know, we've talked about this.

They considered a coaching change at the All-Star break, and I think they came kind of close but ultimately decided not to do it. I don't think anybody's going to be surprised here if Rick Bonas, the man who has coached almost 3,000 games, says, you know what? It's time. It's time for me. I think the other question is, how does Jim Neal feel? I believe he's got another year under contract.

You know, as we've discussed, the Dallas Stars are going through an internal debate about their decision-making and how they kind of look at things. And they've really made some indications that they would like to change their processes about certain things and i believe neil is one more year i don't think he's in danger of being fired or anything like that i don't get that sense like that. I don't get that sense. But I did wonder if, you know, he might simply say also, it might be time. You know, for example, if they hire a new head coach, that person's probably going to want more than one year under contract that Neil's going to have. And unless they're prepared to give Neil an extension too, it doesn't necessarily line up.

So I wonder if Jim Nill in any way, shape or form is considering it as well. So those are my first big questions about Dallas is not necessarily the head coach and the GM in the firing line. But are they in situations where they're saying, you know what, it's time for us. And we might just choose to make these decisions on our time. As far as players go, we've talked a lot about John Klingberg this season. We know that he wants an eight-year contract. He wants term with the Dallas Stars.

We know that Dallas is uncomfortable with term for players in their 30s braden holtby uh is another name that's out there as much as this this season was you know jake ottinger cementing his position as starting net minor for the dallas stars for the next however many years braden holtby is also an unrestricted free agent at season's end, as is Alex Raduloff. We know this whole thing for the future will be built around Ottinger and Miro Haskinen and Jason Robertson and Rupe Hintz, etc. How do you see Klingberg? How do you see Holtby? Is it time for Alexander Raduloff? How do you see some of the players that we've been discussing this season?

Well, Klingberg, I think if he wants that deal, it's pretty obvious the writing's been on the wall in some time that it's not going to be in Dallas. I think the team to really watch this summer could be Seattle. I think they're going to look at the way this year went and they're going to say that wasn't the way we envisioned it and we're coming out there and we're going to be looking at some things.

I look at a Klingberg. I even look at a Letang, and I think they're going to go after some players with offensive ability, and I think that's both up front and on the blue line. And I do think that some of these other teams have kind of indicated internally that they're expecting Seattle to be aggressive in the market if they want them to be. And that's kind of what some of these UFAs are banking on. So what Seattle thinks and how they will pursue is definitely going to have a factor on the market. I mean, the goal is Ottinger's now.

What does Holtby want to do? If he wants to stay there, it's going to have to be at a lower rate and know he's going to be the number two. I don't know if that's acceptable to him or not. Radulov didn't play. You know, Gurianov is a guy who also, at the end, Jeff was kind of in the doghouse. I got to think that the older guys, they're just going to cut them loose,

and the younger guys, we'll see. I mean, I could see whoever the next coach is, assuming it's not a bonus, being asked, you know, we've got Guriano up here, and he scored 20 goals a couple years ago. Like, do you see him here? I could see Dallas saying, do you see there's a chance that you can make it work for this player? I absolutely could see that. I want to ask you about Jake Ottinger, who is a restricted free agent.

We just saw Igor Shcherkin sign a four-year $23 million deal or $22.5 million deal, which was a pretty big number for a goaltender coming off his first contract. Do you think we see same with Jake Ottinger now, or do we still need to see a bigger body of work? They drafted Jake Ottinger in the first round. They've had a plan for him. If they're not going to sign him to a big deal now, as far as'm concerned jeff no one is like you know him better than anybody else you just saw what this guy did for you and if you really believe he's a cornerstone player for your team and after this series i'd love to hear why they wouldn't then you sign him for as long as you can and they'll probably do the same same thing with Robertson. That's the other one.

It's the only logical move. There's nothing else that makes sense. Sign these guys for as long as you can, because when players are that good, the price never goes down. The price never goes down. Music to young players' ears. Okay, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

They lose in Game 7 to the Tampa Bay Lightning. You know, after last season against the Montreal Canadiens and when Toronto decided they were going to essentially run back with the same core one more time and give it another shot, the hue and cry and general belief was, was well if it doesn't work this time there are going to be changes yeah but we talked about the season and the performances matthews marner specifically what we saw in the playoffs in a seven game series against the defending Stanley cup champions and said, hold on a second here. Have they done enough to keep the wolves at bay and allow people to carry on with this program? What do you think? Well, I think if you're judging by the fan reaction,

the answer is no, I'll say this. I thought the last three losses before this one, which was Boston number two, Columbus, and Montreal were worse than this. I thought those were three series Toronto should have won. You know, you can make an argument that they should have won this one too. I didn't think this was as bad as the other ones. Now, what somebody said to me was like, when I said that on air on Saturday night, I would tweak it, but I wouldn't like go through it with an ax handle and make major changes. Like Jeff, I grew up in Toronto. I've got a bunch of friends who are hugely fans. They generally don't bother me about my work. I mean, they tell me how much I stink,

but they generally don't bother me about my work. This one, they came after me. I mean, they tell me how much I stink, but they generally don't bother me about my work. This one, they came after me. I said, I didn't think this one was that bad. Like it's six in a row. And as we all know now, five in a row in record fashion in deciding games. So I look at it as, I didn't think this one was as bad as the last three. The Boston one was rough. Columbus won. The Montreal one was embarrassing. Columbus won. The Montreal one was

embarrassing. I thought those were all bad losses, but this one, I didn't think so. And so I see this one is independently from the other ones. I just think the general public looks at it as it's six in a row and in the quote unquote real world out there, you don't get rewarded for that with no change. And I understand why people think that way. I think sometimes I'm a little detached from it. And it's always good to have a good group of friends to remind you when you're too detached. Like Amber went to the game on Saturday night. He, we did our hits. He wasn't working the rest of the show. And he went to the game with his wife. And he said that the crowd after the game, they were mad. They were mad. And I think

that is an accurate presentation of how a lot of people feel. Judging from the response I was getting, not only from friends, but from other people who saw what I have to say. The thing is, Dubas has one year left. Are they going to extend them? I do think that they feel that they do want to bring back Dubas and Keefe. I generally think that that's what they want to do. The first question I have is, do they let Dubas go into next year with no extension? That's one thing I kind of wonder. Can I jump in right there on the Dubas-Keefe dynamic? Sure.

So one thing that I've always, whenever I've asked this question, I always get interesting answers. I don't know if I've asked you this before. How many coaches do you think a general manager should have before management makes a decision on him? Ownership making a decision on the, on the general manager.

Correct. Well, the thing is Dubas has only had one. That's what I'm saying. Whenever people go after Dubas, I'm like, okay, that's fine.

You may disagree with the job that he's done. You may not like some of the players. You may not like some of the contracts and that's cool too. But I always like asking that question because I think it pauses people and there's no magic number, but I know the number is greater than one. I don't even look at that as a big thing here for me. I look at the overall direction of the group right like i thought a lot of his personnel moves in the last couple years have actually worked out pretty well i think the marazic one is going to be a big problem i think they're going to have to figure out how to extricate themselves from that one

and make it work which is not going to be easy but you, you know, I think a lot of the players he brought in this year were actually good ads for that. I think the biggest challenge right now, and I think the key for Dubas, if he's going to make this work next year and in the future, is Tavares and how they are going to do this. Because I think Tavares is going to have to be made into a winger. He can still take face-offs on his strong side,

but he can't play a lot of the center role anymore. For Dubas to be successful, I think next year and into the future, I think he's got to present a coherent plan on how to do that. Like I look at Nashville this year. One of the reasons they got into the playoffs is they lit new fires under Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansson. I think they're going to have to look at that and say, how do we do that here? Now, Tavares is still an effective offensive player. Like, I'm not worried about his numbers cratering, but I do think if you looked at that series against Tampa, like I asked some teams for underlying numbers, they said Marner's and

Matthews were pretty good. Tavares, unfortunately weren't. And I think in a lot of these games, good. Tavares, unfortunately, weren't. And I think in a lot of these games, unfortunately, especially when they get faster, it's tougher for Tavares at center now. So one of the things I'm wondering is, are they going to have to split Marner and Matthews up? Are they going to have to be your top two centers? Now, I proposed this to some people around today, and I got some interesting answers. I got some interesting answers I got some people who said they think that could actually work really well and I had some other people who said they don't know if they like the idea of Marner as a full-time center but I will say that answer was kind of in the minority like if you put Tavares on Matthew's wing or on Marner's wing permanently, do you suddenly make him a better

player and yourself a better team? And the other thing they talked about was if you're not going to do that and you're going to keep Matthews and Marner together, you probably have to find another center to play with Tavares, or you might have to play with Tavares with Matthews and Marner. So I do think that that's going to be one of the challenges they're you might have to play with Tavares with Matthews and Mark. So I do think that that's going to be one of the challenges they're going to have to do. The second thing, Jeff, I look at with them is, and I thought about this a lot today, is they're going to need an absolute prick who can play in their top six. Like they have some guys who are really tough guys to play against like simmons clifford guys like that but they've generally been guys who've played deeper down in the lineup

like to me the biggest problem toronto has is not their skill it's between the ears they have had too many chances when leading series or to knock someone out and their record is poor. That's all between the years. And I think killer instinct can be taught. And the reason I say that is I talk about myself. I was the softest teenager alive and I've come a long way since that. My attitude was really soft. that. My attitude was really soft. I think you can teach it, but I think what you need is you need somebody like that who is a regular line mate of those guys and has a huge impact on the game. I think bunting is a little bit of that, but I think you need even more. I think they need somebody who plays big minutes up front who is a complete take-no-prisoners

hockey jerk, for lack of a better term. I also think, Jeff, they've had a lot of conversations with Giordano about returning. I wonder if they're going to go with the whole idea of more kids get a chance to play and we bank cap space and see what we can do.

Or they simply say Lilligren and Sandin are going to play and we'll see what we do around that. But like, that's what I look at with them. I think the biggest question is where, where are you going with Tavares? What are you doing for your top lines? And I just think attitude needs to be

taught. And the best way to teach it is by consistently putting your best forwards with somebody who's a real jerk to play against in a regular manner, because I do think it's between the years for them now. I really do. They remind me of Washington before Washington won. They brought in guys like T.J. Oshie, they developed a Tom Wilson, and they finally won. I don't care that they haven't won in four years, because if you're a Capitals fan, you'll take 2018 if you knew that you were getting four knockouts right after that. What about the other issue, Jack Campbell? right after that. What about the other issue?

Jack Campbell. You know, I had, I had a lot of debates about this today with people who are talking about it. Like, I think their offer to Campbell, the first one was three years below Morazic. And I think it was somewhere around two, seven,

five. I thought Campbell played really well. I think he stared Vasilevsky in the eyes and held his own. I think they should do everything they can to keep him. I just don't know they're going to be able to. And you know, Jeff, I think the other thing too is, we've talked about this. How many real good certain number ones?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. There's only a handful. I would take my chances with Campbell based on what I've seen this year. I think he needs a good backup, but I got to tell you, if my choice is Campbell or going out and spending on someone in the market,

I mean, you tell me who you're going to trust more than him after this year. Well, that was the one question we had about Campbell going into this season. He hasn't had a season, a full season, as a starter in the NHL. Now there are more answers. I'm with you. If you have a shot at re-signing

Jack Campbell, when you look around the marketplace and who's available, I know that there's going to be a lot of teams sniffing around the St. Louis Blues. I think that's probably pretty obvious, right? Do you think St. Louis is going to keep both of them? No, no, no, but one's a UFA.

That's what I'm saying. So what if they decide to sign Vili Husso and make Jordan Binnington available? Yeah, I mean, there's been rumors that they've done that, right? I mean, I think that would depend on how the season ends for them. You know, how does St. Louis finish up?

Who's their number one guy? You know, right now, Binnington has reclaimed the job and won them a series. If he beats Colorado, gives them a great showing against Colorado, you think he's going to be available? I don't. Going back to your point about finding a miserable player in your top six to play against, they tried that this year with Nick Ritchie. That was the plan.

I mean, it seems like a million years ago, but I mean, I don't think that that's completely foreign to Kyle Dubas. I don't think that's a completely foreign idea to this Maple Leafs team. The problem is, as we found out, general managers don't let those guys go. I agree with you, Jeff.

I'm just, I'm throwing out my ideas. I really believe with Toronto, this is as much a between the years issue as it is a skill issue. I do wonder, I do wonder if this is going to be Kyle Dubas' summer of Kawhi. Is this the year that he does the Masai Ujiri move? that he does the Masayu Jiri move where he takes a popular player and moves him for another really good player a deal that shakes the foundation of his team but it paid off for the Raptors and I'm not making any predictions as to who it is that they trade or who it is that they go get. I do think this year he will recognize that he has to take, doesn't necessarily mean it will happen, but I do think he will think big.

Couple of things, future for Jason Spezza, future for Ilya Mikheyev. Well, I think Mikheyev is gone. You know, I know they had some opportunities to try to involve this year too and they you know they didn't because they they liked his number and and the way he played during the season i just don't see any way they're going to be able to fit mckeah uh spetsa i think that's probably going to be up to him and them i mean he was still an effective player in his role, and he's obviously got an impact on the players on the team. You know he's going to play for a low number. Like, I have a feeling if Jorgano is the same deal,

a Toronto guy, if he's willing to come back for a low number, and I think it's already been discussed, there's going to be a spot for him. By the way, there was one quote from Sheldon Keefe I was kind of wondering about, the one about the respect and the handshakes. The handshakes, yeah. By the way, there was one quote from Sheldon Keith I was kind of wondering about, the one about the respect and the handshakes. The handshakes, yeah.

We got a lot of respect in that line from their team, which is nice to see. It was a much different tone, a much different feeling of respect on the other side from what we've experienced previously. I think we're certainly earning respect in the league. But again, we're not in the respect game, we're in the winning game. So we've got to find a way to do that. When I first heard it,

Jeff, I was probably the same as you. I was like, what on earth is that? That's like my wife's boyfriend smiles at me when he leaves the house in the morning. And, you know, I kind of asked around on it. And I think what he was referring to, it didn't come out, I bet, the way he meant for it to come out. But I think what the way he was referring to was that I think in the past when they lost some of those series the other teams

and I don't even know if it was in the handshake line it was probably just more in general the other teams like kind of mocked them or like made fun of them about how they played and them collapsing I don't think Tampa was doing that I can't speak for him because I haven't spoken to him, but I tried to find out what that was about because it was a very strange quote that was not received very well by a lot of people.

Want to get through a couple more teams here. Everybody's going to love how much we talked about the Leafs, but the Leafs do suck out a lot of oxygen, folks. The Boston Bruins and the bout against the Carolina Hurricanes in seven games and the entire conversation revolves around Patrice Bergeron

and his future, his decision, the hugs of the teammates, thanking the referees, Brad Marchand using quotes like unknown for next year with him. Like we see where the, you know, if we follow the breadcrumbs here, Elliot, you know, where is this leading us?

Well, I think what it leads to me is that at the very least, and look, this is breaking news. It's pretty obvious now. He's seriously considering it. And this rumor has been going around for a couple of years. I think I've told this before on the podcast, but I had some people say to me that Bergeron was thinking of retiring, you know, after the bubble, which obviously didn't happen.

And obviously it didn't happen. And to be honest, I don't know how close it did or didn't come because there were a few players who found the bubble experience so difficult like a lot of us did really in life that obviously a couple didn't come back and some others did consider it but you know i think the boston players they know that how the organization feels if patrice bergeron wants to keep playing, there's always going to be a spot for him. And the fact that he kept on saying no, no, no, I think they always knew it was possible. And I'm always careful about players when I know they're coming close to retirement,

because some players are like, I'm retiring. And it's only if I change my mind in the summer that I'm going to play. And there's other players who are like, I'm not retiring. But then when they start to realize how hard it is to get ready for the next season and facing that next season, they say, you know what? Not worth it. Yeah. So I don't know where Bergeron is, but it's pretty obvious he's in one of those two places. So let's get ahead of ourselves then.

If he decides to retire, to call it a career, you know, there's still Pasternak and Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm. And Jeremy Swayman really popped this year and started to really establish himself as a net minder for the Boston Bruins. And they still have, was it three more years of Lena Solmark in net as well. So it's not as if Patrice Bergeron leaves and all of a sudden the Boston Bruins are a lottery team. But there's a big hole there. I've wondered previous about, you know, Jonathan Taves is in his last year with Chicago. Jonathan Taves is going to call his shot, what he wants to do. I've always wondered, and I think I've mentioned on this podcast,

I've certainly mentioned on the radio show, I wonder if that could be a fit to replace someone like Patrice Bergeron. You know, Taves could just go and wouldn't have to worry about taking care of the kids and, you know, shepherding these young players or carrying the franchise. He could just go and play hockey. Mind you, he'd be going to a really big spot, you know, taking Patrice Bergeron's spot. But nonetheless, if Bergeron decides to wrap it up, does that affect the direction of the Boston Bruins at all? I think it does because you need

another center, obviously. But the thing about them is I don't think their cap situation is too bad. I think they have some flexibility there. Obviously, there will be more if Bergeron isn't signed there, although I'm sure they'd prefer to have them. They have the ability to do some things. And if you look at them, they generally tend to be pretty aggressive. I don't think they're going to be looking to take a step back. You know, the thing that stood out to me in that series against Carolina is they just didn't have the scoring depth. And that's where they're going to have to figure this out. You know, I actually thought DeBrusque played not bad. I wonder if they kind of look

at Charlie Coyle right now at best and say, he's at our best when he's our third line center. That's the thing. Like, where are you going to add some scoring? Here's one of the problems.

Like, all of a sudden, you're the Boston Bruins, and in two years, you've lost Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. I mean, you knew that was going to happen. You knew both was going to happen,

but if you're pointing to, like, oh, we're having a, you know, we can't score next season, well, there's your answer. What's Pasternak's next deal going to look like? Yeah, because he's only got one more year left at a really nice $6.6 million contract. And I'm sure they'll be going back to the old

his quotes from a few years ago, like, I really don't need a lot of money kind of stuff. To me, that's the biggest thing. Like Bergeron's number one and Pasternak is number two. And then you figure out everything else. But like the one thing about the Bruins is, I think they've shown over the years that they don't really falter too often. Like they're a pretty consistent organization about being successful.

They're almost always a playoff team. They rarely fall out of it. And I think Marchand, who will probably be the captain of Bergeron's gone. He's shown that like, you know, his competitive nature, his work ethic,

it really drives a group, right? Yes. I just think that they're an organization. They always find a way to be relevant. I would expect that that's not going to change. Los Angeles Kings. Dustin Brown has now played his last game in the NHL.

I thought his tweet with the Stanley Cup was excellent and a real nice touch because that's how we all want to remember Dustin Brown, the guy grabbing the Stanley Cup. So there are some decisions here for the Los Angeles Kings who, you know, you might say maybe arrived sooner than we thought. You know, Adrian Kempe is an RFA, has our brights. Brendan Lemieux, same.

Mikey Anderson and Sean Dursey are both RFAs. Andreas Athanasiu is a UFA. And you have to be wondering the whole time, even though Kopitar and Doughty had no desire to continue a rebuild, let's bring in Danone, let's bring in Arvidsson here, you wonder at what point they really start to use some of the younger players in key positions. And we certainly saw that on the blue line.

I just mentioned Anderson and Dursey, but you wonder when it's going to be like, okay know what quentin byfield is playing the whole season he's playing in key situations he might make mistakes but we got to keep going back with him because we're invested ditto for guys like alex turcotte ditto for guys like gabriel velarde it's like there's a lot of prospects in this pipeline right now for the Kings. What does the offseason look like for Rob Blake? I thought Todd McClellan was really interesting after they lost the Oilers. Like there were a lot of us saying great series, awesome.

And he's like. Well, this word experience has come up the whole freaking playoffs. Gain it, gain it, gain it. Experience is only good if you do something with it okay if you're just going to go throw it in the in the closet when you go home whether you're old or young it's useless so our younger players in particular that whether you played in the series or not you gained experience it's what are you going to do with it now? And that's why next year, starting tomorrow is going to be one tough year based on experience that I have. And they will be told that. And there's a lot of growing up that some of them need to do,

and they can do it and they will do it. I'm with you on Anderson. He really impressed me. I'm, I'm with you on Jersey. He really impressed me. One thing I'm really curious about is, does LA make a run at a guy like Philip Forsberg? The difference between them and the Oilers was Conor McDavid, right? And you're not getting a Conor McDavid. But I saw a team that really had to work to score. And I look at a guy like Forsberg, and I can see LA saying, look, if we want to take the

jump right now, that's a guy who can do it for us. So I'm curious to see if at all they're in that kind of market. Because if the answer is yes, I think we've got the answers to those questions, Jeff. Like, do you not think like a guy like that would be perfect for where they are? I wonder about Forsberg in a couple of places. I wonder about Forsberg with the Boston Bruins that you just mentioned. I could see the Vancouver Canucks being interested in Philip Forsberg. I could see the Los Angeles Kings being interested in essentially anybody who needs scoring.

I could see interested in Philip Forsberg. We know at times the Colorado Avalanche. They're losing Nazem Khadri's money, but I mean, Forsberg's going to make more money than Nazem Khadri's, what is it, $4 million contract that he has right now with the Avalanche. All I'm saying is I was waiting for you to say, Jeff, Colorado's interested in everybody.

So just fill in that blank. But yeah, I could see that with the Kings, absolutely. That was the big story going into the season too. We talked about this in all of our previews. Who's scoring the goals in LA? That remained a question. Victor Arvidsson could only score so many goals. Let me ask you about the Washington Capitals.

Justin Schultz, unrestricted free agent. Samsonov and Vanacek, RFAs with arbitration rights. What does Brian McClellan have in front of him now? Well, I think the guy who really surprised a lot was Max Dreher with what he had to say. Are you hopeful? And he even mentioned this. Are you hopeful that a summer of rehab and whatever you got to do is going to help you feel better next year? Yeah, I mean, I think so. I mean, we obviously were, we'll see what's going to happen. We have some decisions to make, but

those decisions aren't finalized yet. So we'll take it day by day. It's a decision on whether to have surgery or not? We'll see. We'll see what's going to happen. And what I think that might be, Jeff, is that if he's facing a kind of surgery that judging from his comments he could be facing, it's a lot to come back from a guy who's had the kind of miles on him that Backstrom's had. There's been some

rumors that that's what he's kind of weighing. And it makes sense with what he said. It's not just the injury, but it's the surgery you could have and the recovery from it. And it's a big deal. You know, it's a big challenge. Now, I don't know if that means he's going to retire or might he have to take a year off or something like that. I don't have all of those answers, but the one thing I kind of heard was if he gets the surgery that kind of is indicated with his injuries, it's a grueling, grueling thing and not insignificant. They're going to be in the goalie market this season. There's no question about that. They looked at it, Fleury and others during the regular season.

I think they will look at some others now. And then I think they will try to look at how they can inject some new blood into their roster. I mean, Kuznetsov having the year that Kuznetsov had was very, very big for them. If they were looking at a season next year where Backstrom was hurt and Kuznetsov hadn't had the comeback he had, I think they'd feel very, very uncertain. But I think Kuznetsov has at least given them a feeling that they've got something there. McClellan has not been afraid to make big deals. I think he will look at some interesting stuff again.

You know, like the one thing about Washington and their playoff series is they showed that when they needed to be, they could be a very disciplined team. They handed teams the blueprint to beat Florida. They were very disciplined through the neutral zone. They put the Florida power play in handcuffs. They played well enough to win that series.

They simply ran out of gas. If anyone beats Florida, they're going to look at how the Capitals played them to do it. But I think the biggest thing is Backstrom and his future. The second biggest thing is going to be goaltending. And I think after that, I think it's going to come down to what other changes do they want to make with their roster? Do they want to put more youth on their team?

Or do they go and get somebody who they think can still help them win now? You know what would really help them? A healthy and productive Anthony Mantha, who at times in the playoffs looked excellent. Elliot. Okay, it is now approaching 3 o'clock in the morning. So let's get to a couple of previews here before we let Amel wrestle with this beast and edit the audio.

Hey, man, Battle of Alberta. Let's start there. It's the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers. We haven't seen it since 1991. Both teams lived up to the end of their bargain, and we get to watch Conor McDavid face off against Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Kachok against whomever. Pick your target on the Edmonton Oilers.

This one should be a great one for you. Your thoughts? I'm really excited for it. As I said on the show, I think this series is going to be effing fantastic. That was a nice touch, by the way. A couple of the panelists are going out there. I'm not. I'm really jealous.

I wish I could go see it. This is what, when the playoffs were set up like this and this playoff structure was set up, Jeff, we were supposed to have more of these rivalries. And now we're finally getting a battle of Alberta. I think it's going to be spectacular. I'm not convinced Chris Tanev is going to start it. I don't know.

You know, Dreisaitl, even though he won't admit it, is clearly far from 100%. I think the fact it doesn't start till Wednesday gives everybody a couple extra days to get healthy. I think that's a great thing. I think that, you know, Markstrom would seem to give Calgary a big edge in goal. Calgary scores more players score than Edmonton generally does. more players score than Edmonton generally does, but the way McDavid played and the way he tends to play against Calgary, you'd be a moron to count them out in this series. I just think that McDavid has now proven he could single-handedly drag his team to victory. And is anybody going

to bet against that guy? I think it's going to be a great series. I think Calgary is the deeper team. And Goudreau's been great, but obviously Edmonton has McDavid. And he showed what his will can do. You mentioned that the Washington Capitals show the rest of the NHL the blueprint for how to beat the Florida Panthers. They'll face off against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Battle of Florida. And as we've mentioned before, Florida, from a team point of view, need to get past the Tampa Bay Lightning.

That is one of their, I guess it's fair to call it a psychological hurdle. You know, there's their state rival who's won three Stanley Cups in their history, two Stanley Cups in a row. They're the President's Trophy winners. They need this matchup. What do you think about Tampa and Florida? In their history, two Stanley Cups in a row. They're the President's Trophy winners. They need this matchup.

What do you think about Tampa and Florida? I think Braden Point's health is obviously a huge factor. Look, I thought Tampa was vulnerable against Toronto, particularly at 5-on-5, but they willed themselves to victory. They know how to play with a lead. They still have the best goalie, and I think the advantage is significant. Vasilevsky over Bobrovsky. I just think that there were points in that series,

particularly if point is out. I think there were times in that series that Toronto had them on the ropes and they couldn't finish. I think Florida will get opportunities in this series to take a commanding lead on Tampa Bay. Can they do what Toronto couldn't do? But Vasilevsky is, again, a huge advantage for the Lightning. And once again, I think what we've learned is that as tired as they are and as much as they've played, the Lightning are still very motivated for victory. They had lots of excuses to fall apart in that Toronto series, and they never did. St. Louis and Colorado.

It is the Blues. It is the Avalanche. If you're the Avalanche, you're sitting here looking at your watch, waiting for everyone to wind up their series. You've been resting. You've been chilling. You've been healing up. You're ready for the next round against a really tough out in the St.

Louis Blues. One of the most balanced attacks in the entire league, Elliot. I had some people who said to me today on Sunday that they thought St. Louis could beat Colorado. And while I don't think that that's impossible, I still do think Colorado is a favorite. Last year in the first round, remember last year they won their first six games of the playoffs. They swept louis they won two against vegas and then they fell apart that second game

against vegas though right that was they wanted but technically they want it yes but they were on the ropes you know they they swept nashville i'm not expecting them to necessarily win the first two against St. Louis. Kemper being healthy is obviously huge. You know, they looked dynamite in the first round. St. Louis, very impressive in the first round. The other thing, too, is St. Louis, the big advantage here for the Blues is that their blue line is getting healthy. You know, even Krug potentially could play.

Like, what I want to see from Colorado is what happens the first time something goes wrong in this series. We found that last year they fell apart against Vegas. I think we learn about Colorado this series. I think a lot of us suspect they're good enough to win the Stanley Cup. I think this series we're going to find out if they're really good enough to win the Stanley Cup. I think this series, we're going to find out if they're really going to win the Stanley Cup because they'll be challenged. And how do they recover? The New York Rangers facing off against the Carolina Hurricanes, or as we could also put it, the New York Rangers facing off against the New York Rangers blue line in Brady Shea, Tony D'Angelo, Brendan Smith, a bunch of ex-Rangers on that Carolina back end. How do you

see the Rangers Hurricane series, Rage? I think Carolina's the better team, but I think the Rangers learned a lot about themselves in the first round. I think that the fact that Shuster can finish strong is the Rangers' best chance here. He looked like he'd completely fallen apart early in that series, and he finished it much, much better. I think that's their best chance. I think the thing about the Hurricanes is that I just think they're so disciplined and they're so confident in the way they play.

They will force the Rangers to make the kinds of mistakes that the Penguins did until Crosby got hurt. Like the Rangers were on the ropes and Crosby got hurt and Domingue couldn't sustain. So when I look at this series, as long as the Hurricanes stay healthy, I think they will give the Rangers fits. But again, Ronta, maybe I shouldn't doubt him. He won a series. It's a big deal and I'm not trying to minimize it. I just think that if Shostakhin has found his game, once again, that's the big advantage the Rangers have had. I just think he's going to be challenged a lot because I think the Hurricanes are so talented that they will find ways to exploit some of the

mistakes that the Rangers make in coverage it's a great-looking second round phenomenal you're getting this podcast on a Monday there are no games so enjoy it it's a little bit longer give you something to do as you get ready for the second round which begins on Tuesday.

Taking us out, a four-piece band that was formed in Chicago in 2007, known as the pioneers of the genre ballroom rock, Blah Blah Blah produced beautiful harmonic music with Fistful of Soul. From their debut record, This Is For The Time, here's Blah Blah Blah with Goodbye LA on 32 Thoughts the podcast. That was an awesome first round of the playoffs. Goodbye LA I'm going home For now

Lots of stars Plenty of cars A smile being A poor heart's dream Where they say You might find your way Yes, our life and mine Goodbye, L.A.