32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Penguin Kyle?

Episode Date: May 22, 2023

We have had a couple of days to process everything. Jeff and Elliotte discuss what might be next for Kyle Dubas (2:40) and where Toronto might go from here. They also get into the situation in Calgary (19:20), Spencer Carbery (24:30), potential changes to the regular season (25:10) and the Ottawa sale (26:30).Plus, the guy break down both conference finals — Dallas-Vegas (29:30) and Florida-Carolina (36:40).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call The Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailOutro Music: Boy & Bear - Silver MoonListen to the full track here*interlude [sample "HEAVEN TO ME"]This podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: KKGK, Sportsnet and WQAM-AM.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

You know, you're right. I could have died. I just parked in my driveway, so I just started. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Amal. I apologize for that. Stadium. It was awesome. It was so awesome. As a matter of fact, I went and saw him the next night as well. And you know what really captured me? You know what got me right away, right into the show, first note, all of it? He opened with In The Air Tonight. Probably his biggest hit. He started with In The Air Tonight. This is the equivalent of Lynyrd Skynyrd opening up with Freebird. This is the equivalent of leonard skinner opening up with freebird this is the equivalent of jimmy buffett opening up with margaritaville and in that spirit it's taken us how many years have we done this podcast about a million it's taken us that long to realize we should probably give the people what they want and that is the news and

that is what we're going to kick this podcast off with. It is 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the GMC Canyon AT4X, Merrick Friedman and Delitz, your favorite law firm. Can I just say one thing, one thing first? What? I'd like to thank anybody under 25 who's still with us after all those examples from Merrick. Thank you. Hey, man, the sweet spot of the bat is different for everybody, okay?

Like, I'm just sharing a little bit of my youth. Holy smokes. Thank you very much. Actually, you know what I wanted to mention today? Those are your Benny Goodman always open within the mood. Hey, you know what? Just as a quick aside, we'll open up with an aside. The passing of Jim Brown.

You know my favorite Jim Brown hockey story? There is an actual connection here to the NHL with Jim Brown, legendary football player, and that is Jerry Buss, the former owner of the Los Angeles Kings. This probably would have been in his first year owning the team. Jerry Buss hired Jim Brown to sit beside the philadelphia flyers bench when they came to play the los angeles kings to try to intimidate paul holmgren and ben wilson i don't know whether he like wore a tight shirt or even took his shirt off i don't know but that was the first thing that i thought of i'm sure you thought of something quite different probably football uh but when we got the news recently that jim brown passed i just

wanted to make sure that we got that story out there on the podcast okay so the old references and the quick little quip is out of the way let's get to the news starting with kyle dubas and the pittsburgh penguins we had a lot on the Leafs here to kick off the show, but let's start there. What's the latest between Dubas and the Pens? So on Saturday night, we reported that the Penguins were expected to ask for permission to speak to Dubas. As we taped this early Sunday evening after Game 2

of the Western Conference Final, I hear that they do have permission to speak to Dubas. So if this is going to go anywhere, I think we're going to find out pretty quickly. From what I understand, Pittsburgh was very close to ending their search. I think there was the possibility that we were going to find out

who the new head of Pittsburgh's hockey operations was going to be early this week. I believe that was the plan. And I believe that's where we were headed, Jeff. And again, I just want to make sure I'm not convinced it might end up being that case, but I'm not convinced it's going to be a president of hockey operations in GM for Pittsburgh. I think they're going to hire, quote, one lead hockey person and kind of fill it out from there. One of the things I was told is they might only use the president of hockey operations title if they have to promote someone else to GM to get them out of another organization. Anyway, I think they were getting really close.

If you've heard all the podcasts, you've heard the names that we've kind of talked about. I think Matthew Darsh was one person from Tampa. They were taking a real hard look at, we'll see where it goes. But now Dubas has dropped into the middle of all these searches. And I will say this, I had people who were kind of telling me that the whole idea of Dubas maybe going to Ottawa at some point and spicing up that rivalry with Toronto definitely appealed to some people. But I think Pittsburgh is going to make their pitch

and see if that appeals to Kyle Dubas. And I think that process is underway. You know, the Kyle Dubas talk, the Kyle Dubas content was everywhere this weekend and the conversations were wild. And I just want to make sure that I throw this out there on the pod, just as I don't ultimately think this is going to happen but one conversation i had someone was speculating that they could see dubas talking to fenway sports but not about the pittsburgh penguins rather about baseball and it would be a very kyle dubas move to swerve everybody and end up working in baseball for fenway sports and not... Why didn't you just say Liverpool? He's going to talk to Fenway to run Liverpool.

I'm just putting it out there. We're just throwing things out there on this podcast today. But the conversations were huge over the weekend. I'm sure everyone you spoke to had a thought or a theory. It happened to me. I'm sure it happened to Amel and most people, if not all, listening to this podcast right now. One of the things that you mentioned on Saturday, I thought was really interesting because it backs up something that someone else told me.

The Maple Leafs organization was stunned. Outside of everybody at the top level who knew what was going on, everybody in this organization, when this news came out, when this news hit on Friday, this was one of those where were you when moments for employees of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Yes, it was. And we sort of talked about this a little bit on Friday that Kyle Dubas was in the office all week. and as I said to you, I got word from people on other teams on Friday morning before it broke that Dubas was gone that he was coming back, and it lines up because he'd been there. He told Shanahan he wanted to be back, and until Shanahan told him face-to-face he was firing him,

I think a lot of the Dubas loyalists thought for that reason he was coming back, that he didn't indicate he would. So I think there's a lot of shock i texted somebody i know at mlse on saturday morning or sunday morning excuse me i don't know what date is anymore and i said how's it going there and he said it's like game of thrones wow and you see it like you take a look at all these stories that are coming out now right and we're working on them too and we had a little nugget on saturday night but all these stories are coming out about who did what who vetoed what everybody who's pro dubas is is going hard after shanahan and

everybody who's pro shanahan is saying look he told you the way it all unfolded and at some point in time we're going to get especially since dubas hasn't spoken yet we're going to get more of a winding narrative of how this got here but right now like the smear jobs are all on everywhere and oh yeah dubas is gone spezza resigned you know we'll see what else happens. Who Shanahan and the new general manager decide to keep? Does anybody else just walk or get poached somewhere else? But this isn't the last of this that we've heard. And you know what's interesting to me is, you know, I mean, you know me, Jeff, I try to figure out the best possible ability I can as to what actually happened.

And I know obviously we're not there yet, but you know, the one thing that really I talked about on Saturday night that I think is important here is that there definitely was a feeling from Dubas that the current reporting structure didn't work. It goes Dubas, Shanahan, Bord. Bord thinks about it, goes back to Shanahan, and goes back to Dubas. Now, I heard about this after we taped the podcast on Friday, and I worked on it all day Saturday. And initially what I heard was that Dubas tried to cut Shanahan out.

He wanted to report directly. And I spoke to some people who I would consider pro-Dubas people and even not so much Dubas people. And they told me that they did not believe that was true. But they do think that Dubas did try to use the word I used, which was streamline. He thought that they could not get things done quick enough. And some of the decisions that they're going to have to make this summer, he believed that the way that their reporting worked it wasn't going to get

done first of all he was worried things were going to get out he was worried that decisions could not be made quick enough and he proposed that and i don't know like i said i don't know exactly how well it was worded but in addition to everything that shanahan spelled out publicly people told me that that particular request was not well received and after when they heard that dubas had kind of proposed this they were not surprised that things ended up the way they did. Whatever the case is, there's obviously some damage inside the organization. And I think one of the things that's going to happen here is with the way the front office is constructed, does Shanahan feel it can continue to do good work as a United front?

Or does he feel that I know MLSC, I know the people who work there i know the way it runs they won't like the kind of stuff that came out this weekend as a reporter i've got no problem with it i'm chasing it the same everyone else does however i know the way it's going to be reacted to. And I think that to me is going to be the question is, do we have a situation where the Leafs say, based on what we saw come out this weekend, we're going to have to make more changes because this is not going to work. Do you have a thought on players through all of this? I know we talked on Friday specifically about Austin Matthews and that conversation and

that discussion and that decision. You mentioned it on the weekend as well on the Saturday show. Do we know of or do we have a feeling or is there a sense of where a lot of the key players sit with this team? Or is that even a premature conversation right now, considering there's not a general manager that's been installed? in a premature conversation right now, considering there's not a general manager that's been installed. You know, I think this, like the biggest decision

they're going to have to make this offseason is what to do with Matthews. And, you know, I'll say one thing. I did have one player reach out to me and say that they weren't even sure if Matthews would have signed by July 1st with Dubas. Because if they made big changes

around the draft, like the question became like, how would Matthews feel about it? But what he did tell me is that the Leafs he felt would have been, and this is one of the players on the team. He said to me, they would have been very confident. Like last year, Posterknock with Boston, the Bruins didn't trade him. They believed he wanted to be a Bruin and they eventually got it done. He thinks that's what the Leafs would have done. If Matthews hadn't signed with Dubas there, they would have kept them and they believe they would have lot about their exit interviews and Calgary's exit interviews with the players changed the trajectory of the franchise. What they said about Daryl Sutter and what we don't know yet is, and I've heard it, they were kind of tough on some of the players on their roster.

So we're all still wondering for where that's going to go. I heard that Toronto's exit interviews were pretty tough. I heard the Toronto players were pretty blunt about what they thought was said. And that's something still to work on. But what this player told me is that they think you should keep an eye on what maybe unfolds over the next few weeks because he thinks some of the players were really blunt about why it didn't work okay the other conversation and man this one was a hot button on the weekend as well and it all depends on who you're talking to. Who takes over then from Kyle Dubas?

I mean, I think we're going to see a redundancy of names. Some of the names that have popped up around Pittsburgh and popped up around Calgary will be some similar names. I think that will be part of the search by the Toronto Maple Leafs. But, you know, the old, what do you hear? What do you know about the GM hunt? You know, the old, what do you hear? What do you know about the GM hunt? I stand by what I said the other day that, uh, that it's the Toronto Maple Leafs and there will be a ton of interest.

And I think there is, we know they have permission to talk to Brad tree living. And I, and I think that absolutely tree living will be a person who is going to be an individual of interest in this particular search i think there will be plenty more to me they interviewed george mcphee when they hired lou lamorello like i don't think george mcphee is is leaving where he is to come back in the setup that's going to be with the toronto maple leaves i mentioned d mentioned Doug Armstrong the other day. The only way I think Doug Armstrong is coming to Toronto is if he's running the show, right? We interrupt our program to bring you this important message.

I've been spitballing. Who else could I think of here? Mike Gillis, he interviewed for the Maple Leaf general manager job, I think 20 years ago. He's still out there. He just ran for the head Leaf general manager job, I think, 20 years ago. He's still out there. He just ran for the head of the Players Association. So I don't know if it even makes sense. But that's a name that popped into my head.

Gar Snow is a name that popped into my head. I'm just throwing stuff out there. I'm in my brainstorming phase. But these are kinds of all the names that come back into your mind that's one of the things here like how is it all going to work now i think there are people and i think tree living would be one like tree living has worked with some pretty powerful personalities in calgary yes there was ken king there was brian burke there's murray edwards like i don't think that scares him a great deal

and i think there will be others who are kind of like that i think there will be others who are like that i think there are people who are going to be comfortable with the arrangement as it is. I think there are people who might not be so much. Like, you know, one of the names that's making a lot of the rounds right now is Mark Hunter. I think you're going to hear Mark Bergevin. Like Shanahan said experience, and this is someone who needs to hit the ground running. And put it this way i loved all the memes i saw on twitter when i used the phrase bite the other night i saw hannibal lecter i think james myrtle did that one that's a good one james i i saw a

few other ones like i thought it was really funny. You know, the thing is though, is that one of the things about life is, and we all know them, is there are people out there, they don't want to be on the hook for any big decisions. They're happy to be an anonymous part of a big decision, but they don't want to be out in front as being the person who made this big decision. Like some people are not wired that way.

And I don't think that's a criticism. It's just a recognition that that is not for everyone. And the person who gets this job is going to have to be someone who's not afraid to be the name and face of difficult and painful decisions. And that is not for everyone. And that's what I meant by that. And that's exactly what they're going to look for. I'll say this too, Jeff.

I did have one person tell me that, and I think this is a person who would not be interested in the job, but would be the kind of person that they would want. job but would be the kind of person that they would want he said to me that what he didn't like about all this is that the maple leaves aired all of that dirty laundry he said that he could go in there and he could have a good run and when it's all over all of his business could be thrown out like that and he said that would give him pause that was one person who said that to me he said i know you as a reporter think that's a great thing because it's all out there but he says me i don't think that's right you know you mentioned the name mark hunter there a couple of seconds ago and this weekend, the people that I speak to, people that I rely on, people who've definitely, no, no chance, no way, don't even bring up the conversation. Like there was no one who was in the middle like, yeah, well, maybe we'll see.

People were either, yes, 100% he'd be in or 100 he wouldn't be in i think you're gonna hear a ton of names a ton of names until this is over a ton of names i don't disagree like we're barely scratching the surface on where this is gonna go yeah i like sugar i like sweets i don't like the spicy eats i need bridges calgary flames and their hunt craig conroy tuesday elliott yes so this is going to get announced we all believe on Tuesday and the only reason that I'm not coming right out and saying it's 100% him and I know there's been reports out there and I don't I don't question any of them is that I'm not convinced the contract is actually signed so you know I'm just playing it safe so Craig Conroyroy is going to be the gm i don't think

that was the case necessarily when this whole process started but then i think as it went through he gained momentum and i think the other thing that happened here was that i think craig conroy made it very clear that if he didn't get it, it was time for him in Calgary. It was time to go somewhere else. And he's a longtime flame. He is given a lot to the organization. And I think the organization felt that if a first-time GM

was going to beat out Craig Conroy, it really had to be an incredible candidate and i just don't think they got to anywhere else where they said yes we absolutely have to have this person i had a conversation with someone on sunday and he reminded me that when craig conroy was traded to calgary he didn't want to go. True. And not only did he go, but he became like a beloved flame. He left, signed with LA, and he got traded back because he realized, and the Kings had realized, you know, Calgary was what was best for him. And I just think that they've thought about this guy who they've invested

so much in, we've really got to get knocked off our feet to pick someone else we don't have this all confirmed yet but they're going to add more people than just conroy so i think part of the process became how do we do this how do we make it so that he has the best possible group around him and so they have Maloney they have Pascal they're going to bring in someone with experience and my guess is it's just a guess my guess is Dave Nones who's been there as part of the interview process Dave Nones has been around for a long time and it's just someone around him with an additional level of experience. And the other one, too, is Ginla.

I believe Ginla coming back to work with Conroy, I think, was a very big part of this. Ginla's son was taken by, I think it was Edmonton. Royal Kings, yes. Yeah, Western Hockey League draft. He's got one more year before that. I think Jerome's going to coach there, and then I think he's going to join the organization too on some level.

You mentioned a couple of names for the coaching position as well, Elliott, Mitch Love, amongst others. He's been the coach of the year two straight years in the AHL. They lost a really tough playoff series to Coachella Valley the other night. Calgary basically has to decide. There's nothing much more that guy can do in their organization. So the Flames have to decide, is he our guy or not? Kind of similar with Ryan Huska.

And the other names I mentioned, Kirk Muller, I do believe Muller's going to get a look there. I've heard Muller has interviewed elsewhere too. But I do believe Muller's going to get a look there. I've heard Muller has interviewed elsewhere, too. But I do think Muller is going to get a look there. Travis Green, I think, is another guy on their radar. I did not mention Andrew Burnett, but I should. The whole Huberto connection, I think, is not insignificant. But the other name I wanted to mention, because a couple people told me about this,

Conroy and Aguinla know Alex Tange very well and I've heard they both think very highly about Tange and the other thing I've heard is that Calgary wants to improve their offense not only in terms of the kinds of players but in the way those players are taught the system they play the encouragement of more of an offensive game and obviously a guy like brunette would really appeal to that but so would tangay like i've been told that conroy and again i think that tangay has a very elite offensive mind. So people said to me, you would be stupid if you did not include Tonga on this list as a potential person in the Calgary search.

And 90% of the time, I'm only stupid 50% of the time. Well, let me throw another name onto that list. And, and that is interesting. More of, more of an accent on, on, on offense coming off of years of Daryl Sutter. Let me throw another name out at you,

and that is former teammate of Craig Conroy, Mark Savard, currently coaching the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL. I think that's a great name too. I mean, it's the same things that we just talked about here. Like he's a guy who really knows offense. So why, you know what, Jeff, I think that's a great call. Elliot, last podcast, we referred to him as the new coaching hotness in the NHL. Is this going to be a big one for Spencer Carberry? Yeah. Someone told me he's visiting like three or four teams. So I, like, I think that, uh, he's going to have his interviews this week and we'll,

we'll see where this goes. I don't want to handicap it, but I think he's going to visit his interviews this week and we'll, we'll see where this goes. I don't want to handicap it, but I think he's going to visit a few teams this week. And I really thought that we might be moving towards a conclusion on some of this. Even Columbus might be pushed a bit farther back because Yarmulke Kalayan went overseas, but the teams that are interested in him,

I think they're going to get their conversations with him this week. We'll see where all of this heads. Jeff quickly, just some other news. I thought Larry Brooks had a really good column in the post on Sunday. You know, he mentioned a couple things that the players have apparently agreed to 84 games,

which means we could see a different schedule matrix next year. That's one thing that you and I had been talking about for a while. That was, I hadn't heard that before. And you know what? You asked me the last pod, you know, is there anything the NHL players association can do with the coyotes? And my answer is not really. I don't think there's a lot they can do.

I know that there were some people who wanted to grieve last year but they they didn't think they could win brooks had some notes in there about complaints about travel the coyotes not living up to proper travel rules so it looks like what the players association is trying here is like death by a thousand cuts, let's just find everything that we think they're violating and see if this can add up to anything. So that's kind of where I think it is. Jabs. Not the knockout punch, just the selection of jabs.

Stinging jabs that accumulate over the course of a fight. Okay, Creed. Good boxing reference. Interesting times this week, we suspect, although I think we kind of, and correct me if I'm wrong here, Creed, good boxing reference. Interesting times this week, we suspect, although I think we kind of, and correct me if I'm wrong here, Elliot, kind of halfway thought we'd have a conclusion by now or something by the end of last week,

but it hasn't happened yet. This is another crucial week for the Ottawa Senators and the impending sale. This thing has to be close now, right? Yeah, like I said last week, these things are really complicated, these bid packets, and you have to go through them and you kind of have to figure it out. And look, there's a lot of rumors about who might be the front runner and who feels confident. I'm not comfortable with any of that stuff right now because I think it moves

around, especially when they start to look at the bids and pour through them and see what the numbers really mean. You know, it's like buying a house, you know, there's, there's so much you have to go through. You know, the other thing too, is like I said to you, Jeff, there's been so many twists and turns in this story. You have no idea, you know, what, what is coming next? Like on the weekend, we saw Donovan Bailey added, We saw Russell Peters added. Like you just don't know, you know, who's going to be next. So the one thing I'm really curious about here, I'll say this. It's kind of the one question. We reported that it was believed that the highest bid early was Sparks,

Nico Sparks, around the 925 range. I am very curious to see what the sparks number this time was and what the ownership group looks like like someone said to me it's a big group there's a lot of different people that says to me they bid a big number and the league and the banks are trying to go through and find out exactly what it means now historically and we saw this going back to geez you know the um 1967 expansion and then all through the expansion of the early 70s and to my knowledge it still exists the same way to this day, the NHL has always preferred a single owner or a single entity owning their teams. Unless it's two telecoms and Larry Tannenbaum.

Unless it's two telecoms and Larry Tannenbaum in the case of the Toronto Maple Leafs. But correct me if I'm wrong. That is the preferred ownership setup for the NHL. A hundred percent, Jeff. A hundred percent. All right. On that, we'll, we'll wrap up the news section or the, the in the air tonight section or the Margaritaville section, Elliot,

or the Freebird section. The kids like the hits, Elliot. So we lead with the hits. The geriatric session. Ask any kid in America what he or she wants and they'll tell you it's the hits, the hits, the hits, the hits, the hits. Give you the hits. We'll give you the games in moments. We'll be back in a sec.

Listen to the 32 Thoughts Podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Johnson steps up for a change. Mark Stone up and it's Stone. The field. Shoots. And Resend. Scores! Vegas overtime.

Another win for Vegas to take a 2-0 series lead. The Flamingos are on the ice. Vegas strikes just a minute and 12 seconds into the fourth period. And a 2-0 series lead for Vegas. Mark Stone with a great play in the neutral zone. Gets it over the blue line, over to Theodore. Theodore, the shot on net. And the rebound is there for Chandler Stevenson.

Redemption for Chandler Stevenson. Two bad penalties. Gave up a goal on one of his penalties, but he gets the winner, the silencer, and the Stars go back to Dallas with nothing in their satchels. All right, welcome back to the podcast. Elliot, do you remember Cozy, oh, I don't know, five minutes ago, seven minutes ago,

when we were all wringing our hands and saying, oh no, I'm so concerned about the Vegas Golden Knights goaltending situation. Don't look now, but Aiden Hill is kind of doing a job here for the Vegas Golden Knights. They grab a 2-0 series lead. Another overtime game. Chandler Stevenson with the Heroics. Chandler Stevenson, who by the way, is going to go down

as one of the best trades. You mentioned George McPhee earlier on the podcast. One of the best trades that George McPhee ever made. A fifth round pick for someone who contributes as much as Chandler Stevenson. Amazing. Your thoughts on Vegas? The overtime win and being up 2-0 heading to Dallas.

Sean Burke, coach of the year. Can we redo the Jack Adams? Cause you know, he's had an unbelievable, he's done an unbelievable job there. I think we showed a graphic earlier in the game of the five goalies who've played this year for Vegas. And it's been pretty amazing you know I heard a great story about Aiden Hill and that is that when he was in Arizona apparently Rick Tockett told him you have to start taking your career a lot more seriously like one thing about talk it is he's really serious about you know just the way

what you control is you don't always control everything that happens to you but what you do control is how you prepare and the effort that you put in and do you take life seriously or not and i think if i remember correctly hill was late for a team meeting and talk it just lost on him like apparently he said you're just not serious like you're not you're not a person who understands what it takes to be successful at this and i was told he kind of put the fear of god into him and another guy too that we should credit who was really good for arizona was cory schwab uh the goalie coach there but you know people said to me jeff that this was a guy that didn't always realize what it took and now at the biggest time

of the year for the vegas golden knights he's up to nothing on a guy who's one of the year for the Vegas Golden Knights, he's up 2-0 on a guy who's one of the top young studs of the National Hockey League. He closed out Edmonton, and now he's got a chance to do it with Dallas. And all credit to the kid. He's playing great. One other thing here about that game on Sunday afternoon was just how resilient Vegas was. I mean, Dallas was doing a job making sure that nothing was getting on net. Ten shots after 40 minutes, that's it. Five shots a period. Like Dallas was putting on the shot suppression clinic. And we've seen teams get really frustrated, lose their cool,

start running around doing things they normally wouldn't do. And I know we've talked a lot about the structure of Bruce Cassidy teams, whether it's his previous team, the Boston Bruins, or this one, the Vegas Golden Knights. They were just relentless. They just stuck with it. Jonathan Marcheseau ties it up with 2.22 left in the third.

You can feel this coming. Off-gear kicks it off to the corner. Suter gets it, but it's a very lazy puck around the wall. And not only is it a lazy puck by Suter, This was a team Two lackadaisical. And Vegas has been trying to get their legs underneath them here for the latter part of this period. And now they've got a building full of energy. This was a team that was just flat out relentless, Elliot. And as Kevin Bieksa pointed out, post-game, they capitalized on a bad line change where two guys go off from the Dallas Stars

and that was their moment of opportunity. And they struck. That was pretty impressive by Vegas, not to lose their cool when they couldn't get anything going on Ottinger. I agree with you absolutely, Jeff, and a high IQ play by Shea Theodore to recognize that two Dallas players went off, so he could go to the net and he would be okay. I think the other thing too is Stone and Eichel,

I think, have been brilliant. You watch Stone. He's far from 100%. There was a point in game one, I think he was late coming to the bench twice for the start of periods. And it's obvious, like he's still in there, he's getting his treatment. In the first period when he had that one great chance to strip and then a shot that Ottinger saved, he know, he's getting worked on on the bench. Like, he is far, far from 100%.

But he's going out there. Like, he's just competing his butt off. And, you know, the thing about Eichel is, you know, Buffalo was a great story this year, a really good story. And you kept on hearing, boy, we're just better off without him. We're better off without him.

Now Eichel's giving his answer. With every playoff game, he's getting better and better. And Kevin pointed out the Vegas guys were getting creamed in the circle. Creamed. Except for Eichel. I think he finished 15-6. And he won a big faceoff at the end of regulation in the Vegas zone with the score tied.

You know, this guy, he is, I sound like my grandfather. He is growing up in front of our eyes. Like he's just, we are seeing Jack Eichel become what everybody thought he was going to become. And you know, it's a great trade for Buffalo. It's a great trade for Vegas. Win, win, win, win. You made fun of me for being the old guy at the start of the podcast,

Del. Oh, you were. Physician, heal thyself. The one thing too, Jeff, I will say is in every series they play, Dallas gets better as the series goes on. That's true. I don't like this 2-0 hole to Vegas, but the Stars do get

better in every series. They, as, as it goes, they really do. Um, that is real close. Uh,

both games have been overtime. All four games that we've seen so far on the conference final have been overtime as well. The most recent Saturday night. Uh, I think we're all buckling in for at least a couple of periods of overtime, knowing how Carolina and Florida has behaved,

but that didn't happen. We got one pretty much right off the bat. Matthew Kachuk with the overtime heroics, so it is back-to-back OT winners for Matthew Kachuk. I think we all enjoyed the celebration, which is, come on, here's the door, who's with me? ...Rinehart, near point Montour,

down here on the near side, sweeps it around, far boards, burns, pressured over there by Sam Bennett. Bennett's got the puck. And remember, Carolina with their success short hit. It's in front. It's gone. Oh, scores. It is over.

And it is Matthew Kachuk. And he said, let's go home. Matthew Kachuk in back-to-back games has won in overtime. It only took a minute and 51 seconds. A power play goal in overtime. The Panthers win it. 2-1. Matthew Kachuk again ends it.

What a weird sequence of events. Those slave and stick goes right into the scheme play to Burns. And you got two defensemen unable to really make the play. The Florida Panthers take a 2-0 series lead going back to Sunrise to which Elliott Friedman says what? Well, I think the same thing as I think in the other series. It's no disrespect to Florida or Vegas, but I just don't

think these series are over. I didn't realize until John Bartlett said it that it's the first time the first two games in each conference final have gone to overtime. Full marks to the Panthers. I'm loving the Kachuk celebration. Like, just point to the door.

Let's get out of here. Let's get out of here. Like, Ryan Johansson did that in an exhibition game. He did that twice, I think. I absolutely love it. And I also got sent a video of another player who did it jeff malott i think for the manitoba moose in february 2022 scored the shootout winner and skated right to the zamboni or the dressing room door and skated right off like i think that is so funny i absolutely love it you know what it

reminds me of what the panthers remind me of right now? It's like when Hasek was in goal in Buffalo. They didn't have the best team, but they felt invincible. And there's no flukes, okay? You get to this point, nobody should be making fun of the regular season they had

or anything like that. You'll get here by fluke, even with great goaltending. When you win 10 times in the playoffs as they've done so far, you've earned it. There's no such thing as 10 fluke wins in the Stanley Cup playoffs. But to me, they remind me of the Hasek Sabres right now. They feel invincible because this guy is so unbelievable right now that no matter what goes wrong, they think they're going to win

or he's going to bail them out. You mentioned the Matthew Kachuk celebration a couple of seconds ago, and I love it too. Pointing at the door, that's awesome. I totally love it. And I love that players now feel a lot more comfortable expressing themselves, sometimes in a hilarious fashion, sometimes in a nasty, mean spirited fashion where some players will go down their team train and keep on going right past the other team's bench. And I'm all here for that too.

Did I ever tell you the best celebration I think I ever saw? It happened a couple of years ago in my hometown, just a little bit North of Toronto. Hit me. Are you going to love this one? Cause you could just imagine the visual and the intention wasn't nasty but you can imagine how the other team must have felt watching this okay so it was girls hockey I think they were seven or eight years old oh god no but you got that way do you hear the celebration Elliot wait till you hear this. It's so innocent, but so brilliant. I just love it.

I just love it. Just thinking about it now. So she scores a goal at the far end from the scoreboard. And after she scores, immediately she skates down the ice and stands in between the hash marks and stares at the board and doesn't move. And then the one comes up to make it one, nothing. And the minute it got on the, she did this big, huge celebration, but she skated Elliot and stood at the hash.

How big was the brawl? And did the parents, and was it the parents fighting or the kids? Everybody was confused. Like, what is she doing? She just like darted to the hash marks and waited for that to get up there on the scoreboard i would have popped up then she did her celebration so if there's

anyone out there looking for a new celebration uh new in an nhl player american league junior college whatever steal that one because that one was awesome So when it happens in an NHL game and a fight starts with it, I'm going to be like, that's all Merrick's fault. Pin that one. I want everyone to remember that. Remember that. Pin that one on Merrick. Oh, by the way, in that Carolina-Florida game,

I'm more impressed with fake Michigans than real Michigan shots. That, to me, is real creative. How did you like the fake between the legs by alexander barkoff just an incredible goal and you know i give barkov a lot of credit because as you know and we talked about it there was a feeling on him that he wasn't mean enough and i still don't think like he's mean which is not necessarily a bad thing but i think he's very he's showing he's very determined yeah you know someone said to me what's the difference with the panthers now and the panthers then well the difference now is that bobrossky looks like a superhuman.

But, you know, your play rises. We talked about your play rises because your goaltender's good. I think Montour's at the top of that. I think Forsling is a guy that people look at really differently now. But I think also Barkov, the way he's played and that kind of goal, I think he's gaining new levels of respect. Every year, oh,

he's the most under, he almost became so, the most underrated player was like a ridiculous cliche. But now I think people look at him and they say, okay, like we can stop talking like this. You know, who is the OG of that?

He's been called underrated so long that he's no longer underrated. Uh, Louis Erickson in Dallas. Remember every year everyone would talk about how underrated Louis Erickson was in Dallas and everyone's missing the boat on him. And it got to the point where the conversation around Louis Erickson actually had to become, he's not underrated because everyone continues to talk about how underrated he is. And then he signed in Vancouver and that was the end of that. And that was the end of that. And that was the end of that.

So Alexander Barkov, that is finished, by the way, for Bergeron, if anyone's paying attention. Or should we say that's finished for Kopitar? I'll tell you what's picking up steam, Elliot. Oh, yes. I saw the Rangers fan, Phil. I don't even know how to pronounce his last name. Phil Kocher.

Is it Kocher? It's not kosher like a his last name. Phil Kocher. Is it Kocher? It's not kosher like a hot dog? It's Kocher? It's Kocher. Phil Kocher. Okay, well, he sends tweets about the 2012 Kings. It's like, talking about death by a thousand cuts, I'm going to have to listen to this now. The Panthers are the 2012

Kings. The only reason you can't say that is that they didn't make a huge deadline deal. Remember who those 2012 Kings got? They got Jeff Carter. Yep. By the way, actually, it's funny you mention this because I was thinking about this.

A couple guys were saying to me, imagine what the Oilers are thinking looking at this Vegas-Dallas series right now. And you know what someone else said to me? Imagine what the Penguins are thinking watching the Panthers. Well, they're thinking of that Chicago game. Exactly. They're thinking specifically about that Chicago game that gifted the Blackhawks' Conor Bedard and opened

the door for the Florida Panthers to maybe win the Stanley Cup. Books are going to be written. Certainly op-eds will and a lot of airtime will be used up talking if the Florida Panthers win the Stanley Cup. There's going to be a lot of chatter, maybe not books, but it's... Maybe short pamphlets about that game. About that one game late in the season, the one game that re-established a franchise and the one that allowed a team to win the Stanley Cup.

Okay, on that, we're going to wrap things up. And taking us out today, guys, a five-piece indie folk band from Australia that formed in 2009. Boy and Bear might not be a group many folks in North America have heard of, but Down Under, they're one of the biggest acts consistently putting out chart-topping records. From their upcoming album, which drops on Friday, here's Boy and Bear with Silver Moon on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Enjoy. When it raises its head But I burn the right And is it better to be brave or content As I burn inside

Some more And I don't know how you got so far With them hanging on They're living out past, you said I must have been sleeping When the thunder came back Crap spilling over I dream in alkaline

I don't love when it raises its head But I've been right. And is it better to be brave or content as I burn inside?