32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Old Brown Shoe

Episode Date: May 6, 2022

Unexpected Standout. Jeff and Elliotte discuss the play of Connor Ingram (14:00) and his path to the NHL while recapping Thursday night’s matchups (14:00) and looking ahead to what looks like a fun weekend (30:00). Elliotte also tells us how one of the Sportsnet staffers surprised the panel with pork and broccoli before their Thursday night broadcast (12:15).But before all of that, the guys touch on Kelly McCrimmon returning as the GM of the Vegas Golden Knights (00:30), interest in Travis Green and John Chayka (4:15), changes in Vancouver (5:45), and the New Jersey Devils season-end press conference (6:20).Music Outro: CARRTOONS - Lighta ft. Rae KhalilListen 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: 105.9 The X, NHL Network 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.

Jeff, Osama Farouk went out and got us all spicy pork and a broccoli dish, and we all took a bite of it at 7 o'clock. You did it. Yes. CarCast again. Here we go. 32 Thoughts to Podcast presented by the all-new GMC AT4 lineup. Marek Friedman-Delic along with you along Elliott's drive home. And Elliott, before we get to the games, and there were a couple of doozies, specifically Nashville, Colorado.

We're going to get to the Conor Ingram and Cale McCartock. But first, some newsy bits, a couple of things to go over, starting with the Vegas Golden Knights. Kelly McCrimmon returns as general manager for the Vegas Golden Knights. Bill Foley saying he's back. We should credit David Shane who had the report. And by the way, David announced this week he's leaving the beat. He's going to another beat in the city.

That's a good way to go out, David, with a good scoop like that. So, yes, Bill Foley has said that returning next year will be Kelly McCrummon as GM. What we are still waiting for is clarity on Peter DeBoer as head coach. I thought it was interesting that DeBoer had his press conference and said, you know, we still don't have clarity yet, and now we know McCrimmon's back, and we still don't have clarity yet. So I'm curious to see about the timeline to that one. I have to say I'm not surprised that they aren't making a change at GM.

One of the things I've heard is that as disappointing as this season has been in Vegas, they are really trying to react properly to it. They are trying to take the emotion out of it and not do anything they later regret because they're mad about how the end of the season went. So upon hearing that, I had to say I wasn't surprised that McCrimmon is returning. See, one of the things that I considered here or wondered about, and I think Peter DeBoer is supposed to meet with Kelly McCrimmon and George McPhee, I believe he said later this week, which considering we're recording this at 1.32 a.m., I'm guessing that means later today,

if they haven't met already. When I saw the Kelly McCrimmon news, I wondered, okay, so does that mean, to your point, they vacuumed all the emotion out of this, and now they're looking at it and saying, the story here wasn't performance. It was injuries. Therefore, everybody is safe.

That's what I wondered about. As soon as I saw that McCrimmon was back, I wondered, okay, if it's injuries that we're leaning on here for our excuse or reason that things went south for us this year, does that mean then that Peter DeBoer is automatically back? I can't give you a 100% answer to that right now. I do think the Golden Knights are going with the answer that injuries were the major reason that they didn't make the playoffs this year. Now, I had some people who say to me that in Vegas' case,

they didn't know if that was an acceptable excuse because that was part of the plan. And while I would say, okay, I will listen to your argument. I will potentially purchase your newsletter. I would also say this. Nobody banks for that. And there are a lot of teams in the NHL that have kind of said that they would also be willing to tempt fate about using LTIR and adding good players, but they would never have expected that the outcome would be the way it was in Vegas this year. This was an exceptional year in terms of injuries by almost anyone's standard. And this was a warning to teams that this can blow up in your face, that this can absolutely blow up in your face. So I understand the argument that people make when you say that. I just don't think there was

anybody who believed that this was going to be the outcome in terms of man games lost when Vegas you know tried this this year a couple of other things before we get to some game breakdowns and uh and game discussion uh Travis Green his name popping up obviously there's a few coaches openings there might be some more Green's name was a name I heard pop up like a few teams I think are going to be interested in talking to him and i'm not surprised at that when he was fired in vancouver this year i i figured it would get to a point where teams would start doing their research on him and i think he will be part of a couple of these interview processes a couple other names you know i wanted to mention i think rick tocket his name will be

in some of these obviously and another name i heard for the first time you know calgary's successful season is that gonna put kirk muller on a couple of lists so those were some of the names that i was hearing you know another name heard, and it's not for coaching, it's for obviously would be for more of an executive position if he re-enters the picture. I heard John Chayka's name this week. A couple people told me to keep an eye out for, you know, where he could resurface and where he could end up. He thinks that there's been some contact with him and at least one team, if not two. The obvious one you could think of right now

would be somewhere like San Jose, but I don't have any proof that it's the Sharks. I heard his name. A couple people told me, keep an eye out for him this week. Okay, some interesting names there. Vancouver Canucks and their scouting staff. What do you hear? What do you know?

I just hear there's going to be some changes coming, and I don't know which side of it's on, if it's amateur or professional, but obviously the Canucks are beginning to make some changes. They had their media conference this week. They basically threw the gauntlet down with Bruce Boudreaux. And I just heard that there's going to be some more changes coming in their professional hockey staff. And scouting would be one of the areas. I don't know what the timeline is.

I just heard that, you know, that's coming. By the way, Jeff, the other thing, too, I should mention is, you know, Tom Fitzgerald had a media conference today and it was a little bit of a different one in the sense that we didn't get clarity on Lindy Roth. He talked very positively about Lindy Roth. As far as Lindy's concerned, I go back over two years ago when I started the search for what I felt was the right person to help this young group grow and develop. Someone with experience of that, developing young offensive talent at the NHL level. Lindy was the guy I told everybody that stood out above everybody else, because that was extremely important to me and the organization to make sure we really grow that young talent to its fullest.

the organization to make sure we we really grow that young talent to its fullest and um i don't think there's any doubt that lindy came in and has done that over the last year and a half the support that our players have for him because of how he treats them and uh i told you that another part was finding somebody who was genuine who had an open door policy, very transparent, very positive. And he checked those boxes for me. But we didn't get a specific answer on whether or not Ruff is coming back this year. So I think we're still kind of waiting for a bit more clarity on that. In Ruff's case in particular, I don't think it went unnoticed. And it certainly didn't get unnoticed outside of the Devils themselves, that Jack Hughes came out to endorse Lindy Ruff.

I really like Lindy. We have a really good relationship, me and him. He's put me in a lot of positions to have a lot of success. He's a guy that drives us up the mountain. He's a really competitive guy. He's not happy with where we're at either so you know my personal opinion is you know I really like Lindy and I want him to be around next year but um we'll see what happens and you know I really appreciate what Lindy's done for me the last two years I cannot help but believe that is not an insignificant thing.

You know, I will say this. I had a couple coaches reach out to me on Thursday, and they weren't crazy about, you know, a couple of the assistant coaches getting let go, Alain Nasruddin and Mark Recchi. You know, that drives coaches crazy when a team has a rough year, and it's like two assistant coaches that get let go. So, I mean, I don't know what's going to happen there,

but there were some really hard feelings about that particular move. You know, further on that Fitzgerald press conference as well, and no surprise, and he addressed it bluntly and directly. Again, I'm not going to hide behind or tiptoe around. We need another NHl goalie to challenge and be able to play lots of games for us i don't know who that is like we talked about new jersey and how this is going to be you know if not job number one right around the top and fitzgerald addressed that and said look we need an nhl goaltender that can play a lot of games here that's no surprise to you, right, Freed?

No, I don't think so. And, you know, he talked pretty positively about Blackwood. And I'm really curious to see about that because the word during the season was that it wasn't a great relationship between him and the team. great relationship between him and the team and you know people stress to me as they often do in any relationship that it's not one side's fault it was a situation where there were maybe things that devils could have done better but there are also things that blackwood could have done better and it'll be interesting to see after the way that he kind of talked about it do they think that there's a way to repair it to the point where blackwood could be a devil next year because there were definitely points during the season

where that didn't seem to be the case uh one of the other things we'll move on after this one one of the other things that fitzgerald mentioned as well was being open to the idea of moving their first round pick for an impact player of course um I said this two drafts ago when we had the three first round picks. I'm open to whatever can help our team improve. And if that is using a pick like that, wherever it may be to help bring in a player that we know and feel will help impact, you know, the results that we are looking for. Absolutely.

That's my job is to improve our hockey club through all the assets that we have. Yeah. Which would indicate to me that the New Jersey Devils feel Tom Fitzgerald feels they're pretty close to having all the key pieces in place would that be accurate Elliot no one normally when you see a team saying we're open to moving this first round pick that's generally an indication that we feel we're further along in our development cycle yes and you know last year I think it was last year, they made similar noises. It was either last year or two years ago.

As I'm driving home off the top of my head, I can't remember, but it was one of the last two drafts. They made similar noises about we could be in a situation where the Devils are willing to trade a first-rounder. A couple years ago, they had a few of them. Three. Yeah, so I do think that's kind of been the way they're going and if you've heard them talk about their overall situation

they all talk about how the underlying numbers are very good they just need to get better goal tending or just get better depth so there is no question that that is a team that's preparing to try to take a jump. Elliot, Osama Farouk is one of my favorite people around Hockey Night in Canada, one of my favorite people around the NHL on Sportsnet, and he hit a home run on Thursday. So, you know, the show opens at 6.30 Eastern with the pregame show and 7 o'clock Eastern with the opening before puck drop

of Rangers-Pittsburgh game two. And, you know, Louis Domingue, with the interview with Emily Kaplan, where he said he ate spicy pork and broccoli. So Osama had the idea that we should do something with the spicy pork and broccoli at the seven o'clock opening of the broadcast so he went out and initially he tried to do it for 6 30 but he couldn't get back in time so at seven they brought out three plates for the four of us but four forks

of spicy pork and broccoli and um you know we had it had to eat it. Like, if you bring it out and you put it on the set, Jeff, you have to eat it. Pre-game meal of choice for Louis Domingue, the spicy pork and broccoli. I see there's only three plates, I guess. Our bodies are a temple. So, like, we put into our body what we want to get out of it. So, I'm not so sure this is going to get much out of us tonight,

but we'll try. I would not be eating this during the course of a game. No chance. Not expecting going into the game, of course. And when Elliot eats broccoli, he gets gassy. I don't know how he could play a game, let alone talk. Good luck, Elliot. How was it, Elliot?

Not bad. I'm ready to go out and stop 17 shots. You might need to. So Louis Domingue, it worked for him, guys. Your thoughts on... and i didn't know if anybody was going to do it so i just grabbed the fork and i went for it and then kevin dave and kelly followed suit you know i think that it's the kind of thing that we're all trying to get a bit more comfortable with doing lightening it up a bit and having a bit more fun if some had

a great idea and i thought it worked perfectly on that elio let's move to some of the games that we saw well let's move actually to all of the games that we saw on thursday night starting with nashville and colorado was this the connor ingram show or was it the kale macar show both were outstanding in that game on thursday night in denver i have to tell you i would have to give it to Conor Ingram simply because Kel McCarr gets a lot of nights. He's up for the Norris Trophy. He's going to win lots of Norris Trophies.

He may win a Hart Trophy or two before this is over. Kel McCarr gets plenty of nights. This is Conor Ingram night. So I was doing my Nashville radio hit on 102.5 The Game there. And I said, you know, if Connor Ingram can just make a couple of saves early, and even if Colorado wins 3-1, he at least creates a belief in Nashville if he battles that they've got a shot here. And, you know, what does he do? The first shot beats him.

And I'm like, oh, my goodness, this is going to be bad. And then what does he do the first shot beats him and i'm like oh my goodness this is gonna be bad yeah and then what did he do he made 46 47 saves in a row before they won it in overtime yeah they didn't win and you know him he'll be like oh we didn't win but what a performance what a great game and at least what he does is he drags Nashville into the fight. The Predators now at least think, all right, we've got a goalie here that gives us a shot. Now they've got to do something about those very long stretches where they don't have the puck. I mean, Colorado is so good. But let's see if anything changes when the venue shifts to Tennessee.

So a couple of things here. So for Connor Ingram, that's game number five. NHL game number five for Connor Ingram. What a performance. I thought the save on Nazem Kadri was probably his best, although there were a few that are in that competition. Patrick Williams has covered the AHL forever. Yeah.

And he's one of the AHL's finest reporters and analysts as well. And he tweeted out on Thursday night about how Connor Ingram's been killing it in Milwaukee all season long. I got a text from someone with an NHL team saying, the thing about Ingram is he's killed it in the A forever. Our staff loves him. You know, this was a great night for him, like all around.

Like people have talked about Conor Ingram at the AHL level for a long time. People that are deep into hockey know all about Conor Ingram. It's a tough transition. It's hard. Like the NHL is a really hard league to play in, and it doesn't always work out certainly for goaltenders I was just even just

for it sounds like a David Bowie song if we could be heroes just for one day even just for one night that he was able to have that I'm really happy for the guy you talked about him on on the show on Thursday night as well I'm just thrilled for Connor Ingram the old Kamloops Blazer net minder talked about him on uh on on the show on thursday night as well i'm just thrilled for conor ingham

the old cam loops blazer net minder you say it so well jeff it's so true i mean for people who aren't familiar with the story uh this was an individual who in january 2021 came forward and told the nashville predators that he needed help and uh he has said that the predators were incredible to him he mentioned brian poyle in particular as a person who was incredible to him he mentioned the goalie coach ben vanderglock and he's also mentioned mark borovetsky who's also been very open about some of the challenges that he has had so you know he had a real big problem with ocd. He didn't really understand it was OCD. He went into the player behavioral program.

He spent 40 days there. He said it was incredible for him. His parents said that they couldn't even talk to him for a while. And they said that after about a week when they were allowed to FaceTime him, they noticed an immediate difference. You know, the thing about that, that the performance on Thursday night is going to do, Jeff, is that you know you're going to change when you ask for help. What you're worried about is are you going to change for the better? And people are going to see that performance by Ingram on Thursday night.

They're going to read his story or hear about his story. And they're going to say not only did he get the help that he said he needed, but he got better. Someone out there is going to see that and they're going to say, he got the help he needed. Now I can get the help I needed. And that's important. That's a victory. Listen, I've said this before, you know, going back to day one of the Nashville Predators organization, they have had some of the finest people in the industry and some of the most compassionate people in the industry with that organization. And that's a great reflection on David Poyle,

all of David Poyle's staff. If you're a player who's going through something, I would hope that every team would be as compassionate, understanding, and helpful as Nashville has been to Connor Ingram and others, not just players as well,

but people on staff that is a first-class organization. Colorado now leads that series two games to none. The venue now shifts. The Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins. 5-2 is the final. A couple of interesting notes on this one as well,

and a lot of it, unfortunately, revolves around injuries. Brian Dumoulin and Barkley Goodrow, specifically Ryan Lindgren, not in the game. Either Justin Braun draws in for him. The Jeff Carter hit on Igor Shcherkin. I thought that was an accident. What about you? I don't want to call it an accident,

and I don't want to say that Jeff Carter tried to hurt him. I just want to call it sloppy. Yeah, that's fair. Because I think he knows the goal he's coming around, but I don't think he's trying to destroy him. It's just like hockey's fast, man. Like hockey's a really fast sport. I just think it was a sloppy play.

That's all. That's fair. I think that's good. Two goals going a really fast sport. I just think it was a sloppy play. That's all. That's fair. I think that's good. Two goals going off Matheson. Crosby getting mugged at Madison Square Garden by three Ranger players and still scoring. By the Penguins, Sidney Crosby out through center with 90 seconds to go in the second.

Weaves his way into the attacking zone. Crosby to the slot. Hands it off to Rust. A backhand to right. Pat's safety. Sirkin rebound. Cros attacking zone. Crosby to the slot. Hands it off to Rust. A back hitter. Right pat. Safety circuit. Rebound. Crosby scores. Crosby puts in the rebound. And the Penguins with some life late in the second. It's 3-2. 1-26 to play in the period. My goodness

gracious. Sidney Crosby. There's guys with skill. There's guys with will. And then there there's Sid just was not going to be denied Josh was not going to be denied oh that effort by Sid one against three he's making just something happen Brian Russ gets a shot away Shesterkin kicks a rebound right out to Crosby. And Sid following up, fending on to the left.

Fending off guys to his right. Somehow he's able to keep his feet. Your thoughts on what we saw on Thursday night at MSG. And Aaron Judge there crushing beers. Yes, yes. I like that too. I'm a big Aaron Judge fan. And you're a big beer fan too.

I'm a big fan of beer, yes. Cheering on the beer too. That was good, Elliot. I'm liking that too. I also like Riz too. I'm a big fan of beer, yes. Cheering on the beer too. That's good, Elliot. I'm liking that too. I also like Rizzo. I'm a big Rizzo guy. So one of the things that people are kind of talking about is we haven't had a lot of close games, Jeff.

I think in a lot of ways that's true, but what we are getting is we're going to get deep series. If we don't get some close games early, but it means we get six or seven game series because the teams are going back and forth, I think I'm okay with that as long as we do get the six or seven gamers. This one is, I think, is going to get there. I agree with you.

The Goodrow injury is a big problem for New York. Dumoulin, whatever it is, is a big problem for Pittsburgh. You know, Zucker took warm-up, so I got to think he's pretty close to being ready. You know, the Lindgren one is big, and obviously the Pittsburgh goalies are big. I thought Domingue was really good. Again, I thought he gave them a chance to win. You know, I have to tell you, Jeff, I wasn't surprised Pittsburgh lost this one. I thought this was a game the Rangers had to have. You know, I have to tell you, Jeff, I wasn't surprised Pittsburgh lost this one. I thought this was a game the Rangers had to have. You know, I had someone look it up for me.

The Penguins average about 29 years old. The Rangers average about 26. I'm not surprised that the Rangers had some more legs to them in game two. I thought that was a real tall order. When I saw Evgeny Malkin's walk-in shot where he's taking a deep breath while he's going up that sixth floor ramp at Madison Square Garden to enter, I just said, you know what? The Penguins, they're the older guys, don't have the legs tonight. So I thought that was perfectly set up after a long overtime game for the Rangers. And

hey, it's a tight series and i don't panic either way in this one that's one of the tests hey when you're going up that ramp as a player if your legs feel good at the top you know you're gonna have a good game but if your legs don't feel good uh-oh this is gonna be a a long night at msg i remember the first time i ever did it glenn healy the first game i ever did at msg i did with gl. Yeah. And he said, you're going to do something with me. And I said, what's that? He goes, we're going to walk up the ramp together so you can understand what that's like. Ah.

And halfway up, I wanted to roll back down. It is pretty unforgiving. Washington, Florida, 5-1 is the final. Vanacek chased. a couple of goals you know certainly you know the Marchman goal the Verhage goal probably that's uh the Capitals uh goaltender would like to have back yeah but at the end of the five to one final as a series is now tied do we say that's the Florida Panthers team we thought we were getting in the postseason they took Lombard out which I felt bad for Lombard because he's you know he's had a good Do we say that's the Florida Panthers team we thought we were getting in the postseason?

They took Lombard out, which I felt bad for Lombard because he's had a good year as part of that team. But I think that was just a sign of, you know, we're going to try to skate it down their throats this time. And they moved their lines around. And again, I thought Washington did a pretty decent job of, you know, shutting things down at time and making it difficult for them, but they weren't getting the saves. I think we all recognize that that was Washington's big concern in this series, was they were going to get the saves. As you said, there was some flukes, some ones that Vanacek would like back. The first one from Ekblad was really fluky and weird.

You know, hey, that's the Capitals' Achilles heel, and it bit them in Game 2. I liked Ovi, like, bleep happens, let's go for Game 3. It's a tall order for the Capitals still, and we'll see where they are with Tom Wilson. If they don't have him, it's a big, big problem. Okay, we'll finish up here with Dallas and Calgary, but before we get there, want to ask you are you a fan of jim ross the wrestling announcer of course so what one of

the great things about jim ross like ross is one of the legends you know one of the greats at calling a match so many you know iconic and you and historical matches have his voice attached to it. But Jim always had one saying that he would always slip in when a match was either dull or boring or not living up to what people may have thought it was. He would always slip in a reference to an old brown shoe. That was the key that Jim Ross knew that this was a bad match or this was a tough match to watch. Elliot, I got to be honest. Dallas and Calgary was an old brown shoe for me.

How was it for you? It was going up against Nashville, Colorado, which was an insane game to watch. That's fair. That's fair. You have a choice. Now, Yeah, you have a choice. Now, Jeff, you're not wrong. Like this is, I've called it three yards in a cloud of dust a few times now.

It's like, it's like 1960s NFL football. It's the Cleveland Browns give the ball to Jim Brown. He tries to run over people and the Baltimore Colts give the ball to Alan, the horse Amici, and he tries to run over people. That's what this series is. Amber was saying to us what adjustments have to be made. I'm not sure what adjustments have to be made. Kelly said that if you're Calgary, you might want to play with a bit more pace.

But the way I look at it is this is the way Calgary is built. This is the way that Dallas has to win this series because they're not a big scoring team. It's got to be a grinder series. It's got to be two teams fighting for the puck. You make everybody battle for every inch. You know, I do wonder if Daryl Sutter is going to tell Kachok, like, no more worrying about fighting Roffaffle or fighting Klingberg or fighting anyone else,

just play. I just think that this series is going to be whoever scores first dictates the terms. So you better score first. And in this case, it was Joe Pavelski and Michael Raffle. Now, do you think that,

I'm curious about this again, I'm not inside the head of, of Matthew Kachok. Nobody is, but what a fascinating place that must be. Do you think Matthew Kachuk going after Klingberg the way that he did was a response to how Klingberg spoke about Rasmus Andersen in the post game after game one? Well, I do. It was interesting. I always defer to Kelly and Kevin because both those guys had long careers. Kelly played for 19 years and Kevin played, I think, for 15 years. And they both said it wouldn't matter because we're right on the focus of the playoffs and winning the game. They didn't think there'd be anything from that. And then it lasted one shift. anything from that and then we found it lasted you know one shift and so they were laughing about how how wrong they were and i and i i think that like i think for most people they weren't expecting much to come of that but it's kachok right and he probably thinks yeah he thinks about that probably more of a level than the rest of us do so i guess the answer jeff is yes but i again if i'm the flames nobody has to be dragged into the series i i think that ben like he did it a little bit i thought sagan really tried to be a

physical yes to reach the physical level of this series yeah i'm still waiting for ben to do it and if i'm sutter in the flames i'm I'm like, let's just stop tempting fate with this guy. They were hit. Was it Luchich that caught him with that big one in the corner? Yeah. Just hammered him in the head. I was like, oh, geez. And I had the same thought.

Why are you going to try to wake this guy up? Why would you do that? Yeah. Why would you try to get him emotionally invested just leave him alone i'm with you on this one but you know people are like are you worried about the flames heard of the flames i'm like not really this series is is playing out exactly the way that i thought it was gonna play out and i just think that the flames they play hard they play hard all the time i i don't really worry about it.

The only thing I'm really worried about is that we might set the record for the fewest goals in a seven-game series. That's the only thing I'm really worried about. So far, it's two games and three goals, so we let you escape from your car and into your bedroom and into your slumber, games on Friday we should get ready for, starting with the Carolina Hurricanes and the Boston Bruins. That's the first one on the board.

7 o'clock Eastern, the Hurricanes back at Boston where there are changes. Hampus Lindholm, oof. Jeremy Swayman gets a start. Lena Solmark got the first two. Swayman starts at home. Your thoughts on Game 3, a series so far where I'll just be blunt,

Carolina's just had their way with the Boston Bruins. Whatever they've wanted to do, they've done. Well, I have to tell you that Kuchetkov is one of my new favorite players in the NHL. You know, we heard a little bit about him, and someone sent me video of him when he was playing for Chicago Wolves this year. There was a fight at the other end of the ice, and he goes down to join it. And then when he's kind of turned away,

he starts lipping off at the opponent's bench. And I was sent that after the whole Marshan thing. And I loved Brenda Moore's reaction. What did they ask him? What did you think about seeing that? He goes, like, not much, really. This kid, he's really interesting he's first of all he's a massive human being and secondly he's really talented and thirdly he seems

to be completely fearless you can't fault him he can't say well he's picking on the softest guy out there like he picked a fight a slashing match with Marchand. I mean, you look at all the penalties to the goalies so far this year, Jeff. Like you could see Marchand is thinking the goalies are a protected species here. I can't do this. And then he's like, whatever, I'm going to do it because this guy's coming after me. If you would have told me that Carolina would be up 2-0 with Ranta standing on his head in the first 10 minutes in Game 1 and then getting hurt in Game 2, I wouldn't have believed you. But as you said, they've been really good.

They really seem to own the Bruins. You can see Cassidy's frustration with... Oh, we need a timely save. There's no doubt about it. I mean, you know, we got better. We're closer to scoring we scored a couple and I thought the young kid did a real good job we could have had more than two but you know there's something on your radio show I just wanted to talk to you a bit more about like Lindholm the

injury and I thought that was a clean hit by Svechnikov who's a really powerful guy, but you know, Jeff, this league has become a regular season league and a post-season league. And I know everybody bitches about the officiating in the playoffs. I will say this until I'm blue in the face. It is not about the officials. It is about the players. Like you heard what Svechnikov said, I wanted to finish my hit. I'm really sorry to see it, but I've got to finish my hit. This is a league that flips the switch. In the regular season, there are no hitters. You can go to the middle of the ice. You're not going to pay as much of a price. But in the playoffs, that is over. And more than the officiating standards and everything, over and more than the officiating standards and everything it's the players who flip the switch and i can't help but look at that lindholm injury and boy i hope he's okay because nobody wants to

see that but like that is a reminder that when the playoffs start you have to understand that there are going to be things that are going to happen out there that don't happen in the first 82 games and that now is the nature of the sport because you can't play 82 games like that but you will play 28 games like that further to that point and we talked about this on the radio show on thursday as well i don't know that we read anything into this other than maybe it's just a coincidence although i've talked about players that play on teams that are out of the playoffs and what happens when they get traded to playoff teams. Do we read anything into the fact that Hampus Lindholm

and Ricard Raquel were on the receiving end of two of the biggest crunching body checks that have taken them out of their series, hopefully just temporarily, both played on the anaheim ducks who weren't in the playoffs when they were traded i wonder about that i'm gonna ask around i'd be curious to hear what other people think it did make me wonder because you know somebody sent me a video of lingren he delivered a similar hit a couple years ago to Jonas Donskoy and he had a hearing for it and Department of Players Safety actually sent out a tweet

saying after this phone hearing you know Lindgren is not being suspended for these reasons and because he did everything properly he didn't target the head he didn't hit the head as a primary point of contact he kept his elbow in like you can find it and you know i showed the hit to kevin and kelly and they were like it's the exact same hit so you kind of have to understand that when you're on the ice with him that can happen and i wonder if raquel being a western conference player who wouldn't see lingering that much, and also having played a lot of games where you weren't in playoff contention,

I do wonder about it, Jeff. It's purely my question. I'm not saying I know the answer, but I do wonder about it. And I just think this is a reminder of what kind of league we have now. There is the 82 games to get to the playoffs, and then it's 28 games where everyone's dialed in all the time. So I remember talking to a manager. This is like 10 or 15 years ago.

This is back when I think I was doing the Leafs Lunch radio show. And one manager said to me, so we're talking about trade deadline. And he said, one rule, he said, it's not really a hard and fast rule, but one thing that I always try to follow is I never make trades for players that are out of the playoffs for longer than a few weeks. And I said, why is that? And he said, well, if you're a player and you've been out of the playoffs, going back to like the beginning of December, you're not as mentally sharp. You're not as

physically sharp because what are you playing for? You're just playing out the season. And it's obvious that you're a playoff team around December, maybe January, you start changing your life. So everything revolves around what am I going to do when the playoffs start?

You know, all distractions gone, this and that with the workouts, everything just becomes a little more sharpened and he said i've never forgotten this he said but when you're not in the playout when you're not when your team's on the play you of course you're going to try to be a professional all the players do but there's something different about a player who's just playing out the string you're not as mentally sharp you're not there he said, I always try to remind myself as tempting as it may be to trade for this player based on the reputation or how good we all think he is.

If he's out of the playoffs for a few months and his team isn't even close to the postseason, it's, he said, it's a dangerous proposition. Beware of what you might be getting. I've never forgot that. I think that's great. You know, it makes sense to me. I've never forgotten that. Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning. This series is all tied up at ones and the venue shifts.

What do you look for, Freach? Well, I look for a great game. I'm really curious about it. I'm curious about what Sheldon Keefe is going to do on his fourth line. You tell me if you think I'm curious about what Sheldon Keefe is going to do on his fourth line. You tell me if you think I'm wrong, but I can't see him not having one of Simmons or Clifford, who's now eligible to return, out there. You know, I wondered about Simmons because he took some bad penalties in game two.

Do you take him out? I think at some point in time you're going to need Spezza here to give you a boost. But I just look at that fourth line, Perry and Maroon and Belmar for Tampa. It's a good fourth line and it's a heavy fourth line. And I just wonder what does Keefe think he can win without Simmons and Clifford? And I'm not convinced yet. He does. What do you think?

I think he'll have one of them in. I don't think that he'll have both. I think that we'll probably see Jason Spezza for a couple of reasons. One, it's not as if that fourth line is playing big minutes, but you still want to have some type of answer for it or some type of security blanket around. I just don't know that if you're Sheldon Keefe

that you need both Clifford and Simmons. I think one will be out and Jason Spezza comes in. I know the temptation might be there because Simmons took a couple of bad penalties where they scored to go that route. But I think one of the two is out and Spezza probably comes in. Add a different look on the fourth line. And I also think that a guy who needs to make his mark on this series is John Tavares.

You know, we've seen the star players all show up at various points. I think game three has got to be a Tavares night for Toronto. Don't disagree. St. Louis and Minnesota. This is another one all tied up at once. My question with the Blues is how banged up is their blue line? I'm looking at all the injuries there and Letty missed a game. Bortuzzo left the game early.

Scandella's been battling something i just look at them and i say okay all of a sudden you're really really you're looking at uh rosen and he was a bit overmatched it was his first playoff game you know maybe you get into a situation where he's a little calmer in game two. But then if these guys can't play, you're thinking about Perunovic, who hasn't been out there in a while. All of a sudden, you're really thin. And this is a series where, you know,

everybody has to be prepared, no matter whether you play five minutes or you play 45 minutes, everybody has to be prepared for big boy minutes. That's the one thing i look at with st louis right now i say how healthy are they on their blue line because those are injuries that could tip the scale in this series they are um oil losing kings we'll finish this one off um listen the the line uh for the los angeles kings one, Alex Iafallo, I thought was outstanding.

Trevor Moore was outstanding. But listen, the guy that you talked plenty about going into this one was fantastic. And that is like, we've seen it before. Okay, from Philip Deneau. We saw it in Montreal and we saw it in game one. He was tremendous game two it seemed like that was the oilers team we thought we were going to get and we did and we even saw a nasty conor mcdavid like that hit on mike that hit on mikey anderson i know it's from

behind and but that's a nasty borderline violent conor mcdavid what do you look for in game three and i guess one of the big questions is going to be victor arvidsson yes you know you know what really impressed me about mcdavid was he made a bad hit there and he got a penalty and the reaction on his face was uh damn that's bad on me like that that's a bad penalty and he was like annoyed himself that he took the penalty. But it didn't stop him from being engaged physically the rest of the game. Like you see players from time to time, they try to engage physically, especially when it's not really their identity. And they make a mistake like that.

And they're like, I'm not touching anybody for the rest of the game. And he didn't do that. I was really impressed. Look, I think everybody in edmonton feels good about themselves after game number two but i believe the good teams can sit there and say there's no momentum from game to game that's over we start from zero zero yeah and the kings will go back to we're gonna bore them to death the number one thing I look at for this series is, do we get to a point, Jeff, where Peterson or Koskinen is going to play?

We talked about that going in with this is going to be deliberate platoon. Yeah. Like we wondered about the Boston Bruins and it seemed as if they were going to hand this thing to Linus Allmark and he's going to take it as far as he could, and that got to game three. Yeah. This was the one that we wondered about, deliberate platooning of goaltenders.

I don't know the answer. That's what I'm wondering about here. Wouldn't surprise me, but we don't have the answer. But we will see, and that's what's in store later on this evening as the Stanley Cup playoffs continue. Hope you're enjoying it as much as we are.

The hockey's really been good. Taking us out, a multi-instrumentalist and producer from New York City. Ben Carr, stage name Cartoons, is one of the most sought-after producers who isn't afraid to bring the bass to the forefront. From his latest record, Homegrown, here's Cartoons featuring Ray Khalil with Lida on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. I feel a little lighter, what is my lighter? And how I'm gon' light the joke is visceral Anywho, trust if people wanna reach you, then they will Mama said, drop your bags, wipe your badger with the bag You can't be takin' action

You probably got my, my flow like this I'm heatin' up round the world, I'm on the stab list I've seen a thousand bands at once, I'm a thousand bands at once You probably never wanted this, I probably never liked enough I grew up in the dirty south and I ain't talking country bones I'm from where the sun is up, up, until we won it Got sand in the bathroom, grams on the knife That coke in the right hand, attitude on the left

I got a flaming hot, that freedom chips So me and cup just came to kick it hard All right, all right, all right Style, baby, baby, form, vent Crazy, lately through it in the wind and now it's gone I feel a little lighter, what is my lighter? Outro Music