32 Thoughts: The Podcast - The Odds Are Not in the Jets’ Favour

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman open the podcast by analyzing Game 4 between the Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets, where the Presidents’ Trophy winners now trail the series 3-1. They then shift to the Edmonton Oilers–Vegas Golden Knights series, highlighting Edmonton’s 3-1 advantage (14:27). Carolina’s 3-1 series lead over Washington is also discussed (26:19). The Final Thought looks ahead to Game 5 between the Leafs and Panthers on Wednesday night (34:58).Kyle and Elliotte answer listener voicemail and email submissions via the Thought Line (44:39).In the final segment, they break down the latest NHL news and notes. Elliotte previews Ken Holland’s expected announcement as the next GM of the Los Angeles Kings (1:00:05). They discuss the remaining coaching vacancies across the league, starting with Vancouver (1:05:14). Elliotte addresses Rick Tocchet’s likely move to the Philadelphia Flyers and considers the Bruins’ options if that happens (1:08:20). They also discuss what direction the Kraken might take (1:09:50). Finally, the guys cover changes to offer-sheet compensation thresholds for next season (1:11:41) and conclude with speculation on when a new CBA might be announced (1:15:20).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Elliotte Friedman & Kyle Bukauskas.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

So to sift out the anomalies here, Elliott, we've got because Marchand has played 32 games against Toronto, we've got minimum 30 games played against a single opponent in the playoffs. I'm sure you can guess who number one on the list would be. Sorry, I wasn't listening. I apologize. I was typing something out. I thought you were going right to the end. Okay, hit me again It's very true to form I thought you were going right through sorry

Well, you usually like a chance to have a couple hacks in the I do you're right. You are right Let's do that again. Let's tell me just quickly tell me again Welcome to 32 thoughts the podcast presented by the GMC Sierra at four x Tom Schermati Elliot Friedman Kyle Bacoskis back with you Elliot before we get started. How's the elbow doing? You are playing hurt through these playoffs just like the players are nobody's much better. Much better now the bursitis I'm dealing with it okay, and I just got it shot up and I can still talk.

Good, and it hasn't affected your voice yet. Thank goodness. It's nice to know it hasn't spread. Oh, geez. All right, so you're in a good shape. No more beach body. That's for sure. No, that's right. We didn't even make it to June. The Summer Beachbody did not make it to the month of June. And now the odds don't look as good for the Winnipeg Jets to make it to the month of June. The President's Trophy winners are down three games to one at the hands of the Dallas Stars. We've talked about it. I think anytime you've been asked about it didn't matter how good, how pretty, how ugly it was going to look.

Conor Hattelbeck just needed to win a game on the road and I wouldn't even say this was a poor performance on his behalf, but another game away from Winnipeg where he was the second best goaltender. Jake Ottinger, the brilliance of Mikael Granlund, leading Dallas to a commanding 3-1 series lead. Yeah, I wasn't crazy about the first one, but I don't think it's as if Hallebak lost the game. We were talking, watching, you know, do you think that the Jets sagged at that one? Do you think that took the air out of them? And the guys on the panel disagreed

because they said, look how hard the Jets are playing. You know, you don't play that hard when you're sagged or you're despondent or anything like that. But I think after the third one, that was a real gut punch for them. And not even so much that was Hello Bucks fault, but just the circumstances. That follow through penalty, the double minor to Flurry, could have gone either way. I know a couple guys felt strongly that it was a follow through. What did you think? I thought follow through too. I mean, we were texting a little bit during the game like it was reminded me of Thomas Chabot on Mitch Marner in the first round. To me that one was much more clear. Chabot was much more clear on Marner than this one. But it gets the puck.

Right that's the thing like Chabot didn't even get the puck in that instance but it was a clear follow-through and I thought in Flurry's case that it was as well. Like hey I wouldn't said I thought the Patrick Vittal as tough as that was for the Jets fans to digest I thought that was the right call and allowing it and on Tuesday night. I thought that should not have been a penalty I thought it should have been a follow-through. That was a tough one for them there, too So Kyle, I think there are people out there who would agree with you. But who didn't was interesting. After the game, Scott Arneal, the Jets coach says they made the right call. The officials on the ice made the right call. This is a veteran move by Arneal and I think a smart play.

Number one, he was upset the previous game about the controversial winner by Petrovich. You can't do this too many games in a row. You're down 3-1. You might need a call on home ice in game five. Whatever Arneal thinks, he's conceding. Now, the thing to me that stood out was we've seen a lot of situations over the years where there's an even up call. So Dallas gets the double minor. Connor goes on the breakaway.

And I don't know what you want to call what Haskin did, slashing, interference, holding, you name it, you can do it. I would agree with it all. Even Haskin looked like he thought he got a penaltyaway and was hooked and was held, interfered with, slashed, you name it, and they didn't get the call and the stars go right down the ice and score the clincher. That's a tough one. That's a really tough one for the Jets to handle. I know if I was on their bench, I'd be going psycho. So this is Arneal smartly saying, you know what, we can't do this twice in a row, we're toning it down, and we're hoping we get a call in game five. This will be a huge challenge for Winnipeg.

I don't think it's insurmountable. Of the three teams that are down 3-1, I like their chances more than I like Washington's. And I would slightly put them ahead of Vegas simply because of how everyone's been playing both teams in each series it's a huge huge challenge and Hallebok has to be at the front of that but I don't think it's impossible you just you don't even have to think about the fact you've lost nine straight on the road.

You just have to win another one at home. That's all you have to worry about right now is win another game at home and then you can deal with whatever. Then find something different on the road. Like stay in Denver and fly in game day. I don't know what you do. Just deal with the one at home first. I thought it was interesting the discussion, you know,

Blake Wheeler kind of led the charge there at the first intermission about how all season the line of Shiefly and Connor and Velardi have been so deadly for Winnipeg and the fact that they had made a little tweak there in game five. I wonder if Scott Arneal goes back to what had been so successful during the regular season after shooting some blanks here in a big game Tuesday night. I have to think more about it but you know I'm not going to argue with Blake team dynamics he really understands them. I tried simply to think of what the reasons could be and for me I wondered if it was something about the road that

he wanted the matchup a little bit more. In certain matchups against them said we need to change this up a bit and it was pointed out to me too that since Velarde came back, the numbers haven't been as strong. Now Velarde came back from an injury, maybe he's not all the way back there. I don't know. I don't want to speculate. But I think in some people's eyes it's been noticeable that things haven't been as potent or as impressive since Velarde returned from injury earlier these playoffs. So I don't think Arneal's decision is indefensible, but again as you said, A, going back home and B, season on the line, does he change it? So it's also the return of Miro Hayskinen,

and I don't know, I guess, am I shocked? I can't say I totally am, because I mean, he's been out a while, like clearly the injury he was dealing with was not insignificant, but just under 15 minutes of ice time, I mean, had the great pass to Grandland to set up the hat trick goal, and what really felt like the dagger there on the evening.

What did you think? What was kind of the discussion amongst all of you in studio on Tuesday night seeing him back in action again? He's a really good player. Like I said at the beginning of the broadcast, the best defenseman in the NHL who was yet to win the Norris Trophy. And I think if that doesn't change at some point, it's not going to look great on all of us as voters. I think he's an incredible defenseman. And you know, he

wasn't perfect. And Winnipeg made his life hard. They bumped him and they pushed him around a bit. They wanted to make him feel it. But generally generally I thought he was very good. He wasn't as reckless as he normally can be at times, which I am not surprised about, but he's a great player. You can just tell that they all feel better that he's around. Everything is just calmer. You know that good things are going to happen. And you know, all of a sudden Dallas, how often does a team have two number one defensemen? But I would argue with him and Harley, they have two number one defensemen.

And you can mix and match and you can go up and down and you can put them together for long periods of time. I would feel really calm if I was a head coach and I especially with Harley's growth this year and I knew I could put one or both of those guys out for you know Kyle 40 minutes 45 minutes if you separate them you know you can have one of those two guys on the ice for 45 minutes of a game. I would feel very very good about that. It certainly is a luxury to have for Pete DeBoer. Elliot I also got to say you made me very very proud on Tuesday night. Mm-hmm. Out of you had. Very proud. Pointing out Grandland Stick Tape. So I gotta tell you I couldn't remember where

I heard this from okay and I have never sweated anything in an intermission more than that. As you know this year at the trade deadline I was sweating for about 12 hours until they got the Rantin deal done with Dallas and Carolina. But I don't even think that was as much stress as waiting to see if Grandlin came out for the third period with the white tape. Because I knew if he did not, Scott Oak was going to destroy me on national television and you could tell BXA was waiting for it too. I'm surprised that BXA didn't call

the trainers in the Dallas room and say just make him put the black tape on just this once. They made a good point too, like I just kind of forgot about it in the moment. He's got two goals in the game with the black tape on. Who switches when you've scored twice? But it didn't matter. He got the hat trick with the white tape. But after it happened, you know, you reached out and you said it was a thought line writer. Yes, Tom from Minnesota.

Tom from Minnesota, and he would know because he saw him in Minnesota. So Tom from Minnesota, thank you very much. I'm sorry I didn't credit you. When I told BX, you wrote that to me, he's like, some guy on a power plant is gonna be going to work tomorrow and telling his buddies, Elliot steals all my stuff. So we were kind of laughing about

that. Dave Tomlinson pointed out that he'd mentioned it in a game, which he did when he played in San Jose and scored a goal against the Canucks. Someone sent me a tweet tonight from Max Miller, one of the young hockey writers out there, who said that he wrote about it a couple years ago. So I'm really sorry I couldn't remember who to credit, but Kyle, everybody was coming out of the woodwork claiming credit for this one after it was done. Yes, that's like one of those, right, how many people say they were at, you know, the Miracle on Ice game in 1980, all these years later. Or like when a trade happens, I wrote 12 years ago predicting that this trade was going to

occur. Yes, exactly. I've come for my credit. I've come for my flowers. That is great. I loved how Blake Wheeler too was also like, oh, you guarantee that? Like, he held your feet to the fire. Oh yeah he did. Like I said, if I was wrong and you know I've been wrong, those guys were ready to kill me and they were going to

gleefully do it. No, I, because you said that and I'm like, oh my gosh, and as you're going, I can't remember who told me that, I'm like, we've talked about this before on the pod and then I'm thinking, yeah, it was someone on the thought line wrote in. You know what, Kyle, I knew I was safe. But imagine it's the night where he doesn't do it. Right, like he went through a dry spell after four nations. And he's like, got to mix it up.

I'm not doing this anymore. Anyway, Winnipeg. Didn't happen. Just got to win one game. But we are two victories away potentially from Edmonton Dallas in the Western Conference Final two years in a row. And the only thing I don't like about that potential matchup, Kyle, first world problems. You can't get there from here. Yeah, I have another 12 hour day in Denver for old time's sake.

I will fly an airline forever if it gives me a direct from Edmonton to Dallas. There we go. Shout out Star Alliance world. Elliot Friedman. I thought the symbolic image though, the whole night, Elliot, there was the broken stick blade, I think it was Hayden Flurry's, left in the hallway as the jets were coming off the ice after the final buzzer and it was white tape on the blade. Ooh, you know I want to say one thing about that guy Hayden Flurry is we were talking about it the way he's played he's a UFA at the end of this year.

I don't know what Winnipeg's plans are for him, but that guy has proven he's an NHL player. Very impressive under the circumstances and shouldn't have been a high stick. Okay, the Edmonton Oilers have taken a 3-1 stranglehold on their series against the Vegas Golden Knights shutout winning game number four twenty three saves for Stuart Skinner. I guess we're not totally surprised Elliot that the Oilers are looking like the faster team but I gotta tell you I may be a little bit surprised they are looking like the heavier team as this series has gone on here. The depth is starting to take over I don't know where you want to start here, but that was a top to bottom,

Oilers well-rounded victory against a Vegas team that just didn't look ready for what was thrown at them on Monday night. I expect that Vegas is going to come out and play their best game of the playoffs in game five. Kyle, I think they're one of the standard-bearer teams in the league. Kyle, I think they're one of the standard-bearer teams in the league. I don't remember too many big, big games where they looked as flat and as overmatched as they did in game four. That was shocking to me. I always try to credit teams for playing well,

as opposed to teams playing poorly. But I'm not used to seeing Vegas come overwhelmed like that in a big game. And I can't imagine knowing how pointed Bruce Cassidy can be. And knowing the pride that a lot of those players have. I can't imagine there's a lot left being unsaid in the aftermath. They were pounded by the orders in that one. And it is always a reminder, my first year at hockey night, the second playoff series I ever did was Montreal-Tampa Bay, the year Tampa Bay won the cup. And John Tortorella said said if you're a good team Momentum should not matter game to game no matter how badly or how weirdly or how?

Painfully you lose a game you shouldn't if you're a good team It doesn't carry over because in a playoff series. It's only one game and you would have thought if you didn't believe that that game three would have been devastating for Edmonton and Soaring for the Golden Knights, but the absolute reverse happened the oilers are a good team and they shook it off like Taylor Swift and just moved right on and Steamrolled Vegas and game four. I'm actually shocked at how badly Vegas was manhandled. I'm not used to seeing that from them in a big game. They're too good and too proud for that generally. Who would be more surprised about what a VanderKane

has shown to this point. I imagine the player himself knew that he was capable of this, but even within the organization, like, could they have imagined that he was capable of providing this kind of impact after missing the entire season before playoffs? Well, the big winner so far in the way Kaneane has played in the playoffs is of course Edmonton car dealers. Yes. They are getting lots of free advertising.

Especially ones that carry the Rolls Royce. You know what? Where is his GMC Sierra Denali? Where is it? Great point? Yeah. Come on GMC, you should be putting one in his driveway. You saved that for the clincher. Now game five, you roll up in the Denali and it's like series over. By the way, have you gotten yours yet? I have not, no. I only wanted to space it out. Okay. Alright. Alright. Great car. Anyway, let's

move on. I think you hope that it was going to be like that. But you don't know until you get there, right? He needed time to rev up. Frederick needed time to rev up. Remember Frederick game one of the playoffs? We were like, oh my goodness, like he's not going to be able to help. The team won to a point where now Frederick is going more. Now Kane is going more. He warmed up. Like when he ripped his helmet off the other night and looked like he was ready to fight Hill, I guaranteed you the other older players were like yes This is a Vander. This is the Evander we need I guarantee

The Golden Knights did the right thing they put up a wall between him and Hill so that that wasn't going to happen But I guarantee to you every oiler fan in the building and every oiler on the bench Wanted to see it happen and they were like This is the Evander Kane we need Hyman to 59 hits and 73 games in the regular season in the playoffs as I said the other night I do not have a university degree, but that is not quite one hit per game in the playoffs now He's at 65 for 10.

So he's number one in the playoffs. He's going into Tuesday's game. He leads Adam Lowry by I think 18 hits. And Hyman has gone from averaging less than one hit a game in the regular season to averaging six and a half per game in the post season and he's going hard at Patrangelo. When the Oilers beat the Flames a couple years ago in that great battle of Alberta and one of the Oilers told me it was almost like in that moment that Kane decided he's taking

Kachak out of this series. Like they felt they never had to worry about Kachak as much because Kane was so mad at him. And you look at Hyman and Patrangelo, Hyman is hitting Patrangelo so hard and going after him, and he's a great player, that's what you do, that Hyman is trying to take Patrangelo out of the series. Now I think it's harder to do with the defenseman but he's kind of made it his personal mission to do that and

It's a dangerous thing to do like coaches don't like it to say, okay We're gonna not gonna worry about the regular season as much as we're gonna worry about the playoffs Because sometimes it's hard to flick that switch particularly when you got guys who are injured but this year that's clearly Euler's clearly reached a point in the regular season where they said you know what we're not going to chase after the division anymore we'll accept our fate whatever it is but we're gonna make sure that we're ready for the playoffs and it was was Dicey after they lost those first two games to the Kings. But it appears now and they better close this out of course. But

it appears now as if that was the right strategy for them. Because Frederick got started. Now he's better. Kane got started. Now he's a force. And clearly Hyman also held back a bit. And now he's a force. And all their depth guys, Pod Colson, apparently they're calling him Podzilla, which I think is a great nickname. He's given them a lot of good minutes. And Kaepernick and Stetcher, who hadn't played in a month, they finally got their chances to play. And I thought they were both really good, particularly Kaepernick. He understood the message like you're going in

there to hit people. And and he did. There's been a few episodes of this show you could title pod zilla over the years. The two and three hour ones? Yes, yes. Yeah, exactly. I thought there was Vegas had the early power play Stuart skater made like a point Blank save early on and like there was a huge roar from the crowd like the building Yeah knew how big of a moment that was and they were off and running from that point He told Jean afterwards much less nerves that he felt than starting in game three Aiden Hill

Meanwhile, we talked about him and Evander Kane, he didn't appear interested at all in any composure in the first period. You were on Tuesday with the Markazian feud and someone reached out to you about a interesting theory about why Hill maybe was acting the way that he was to begin game four. Yes, that's true. I was really surprised because you don't normally, like I understand goal's looking at what's happening in the playoffs. Stollers has been injured on a play. A lot of people didn't like Pickard's been injured. I think that was more of a fluke. I don't believe there was any attempt to injure him by hurdle there, but I can understand Hill looking at this and saying I don't like the way Golders are being treated and I'm gonna protect myself. He really looked like he was on tilt though in that game although he made a huge save at the end of the first period it was clear that whether it was Sean Burke or anyone else Burke

the great goalie coach in Vegas went to him in the intermission and said you know what you got to dial it back like One thing that happened there late in the first period, Kyle, was there was a play where I don't remember which Edmonton player, it might have been Kapanen, knocked a Vegas guy down and he was motioning his arms like, where's the call? One of the things that the Oilers fans know, because they've been complaining about it a lot, is it's not like the referees really favor Edmonton. Edmonton is minus nine in penalties. They've taken 36 and drawn 27.

So it's not like you can look at it and say, these guys are getting the opportunities to win these series on their power play. They're a minus. So, you know, I thought about that too. But Mike's theory was that Hill was upset about how he was playing. I generally think he's played pretty well. But there's another goalie in the league who said that he wonders if Hill got hurt.

And he is angry that he got hurt and that now he's lashing out because of it and we'll never know until the end of the postseason whenever that is going to be for Vegas but I'd be curious if this goalie is right like these goalies always have great insight on each other. All right interesting stuff going back to Vegas for a game five and the Oilers with an opportunity to go back to the conference final for a second consecutive year. Meanwhile, the early game on Monday. Okay, hold on. Before we move on to the early game, I've got to say Skinner, I can't imagine anybody

was unhappy for him except Vegas fans, obviously. I thought he looked much more confident in game number four. He didn't flop around as much. He didn't, Pucks obviously didn't get through them. The saves, to me sometimes it's not how you save it, it's how you look. Do you look confident? He sure did. And he just needed a W and he got his W and I'm happy for Skinner. And secondly, I had some angry Vegas fans DMing me and saying, I was wearing a pink suit, and the Oilers' victory song is Pink Pony Club.

And I just wanted to say, I wore the suit because I like it. And I didn't even realize that was Edmonton's song. Pure coincidence. I understand that everybody out there thinks we all have our biases but this was not an example of it. No, whether it was bubblegum, whether it was Pepto, your allegiance lied somewhere else, not the Oilers. My allegiance was to the suit, not the team. And it was a beauty. It was popping on television. I'll tell you, Elliot, that was a good choice. Great suit, Deb. She hit that one out of the park.

Okay, game four. Canes and caps. I don't know really at this time, Elliot, this era, you don't see as many examples anymore of true home ice advantage in terms of quirks of a building or a dungy visitors dressing room with old ratty towels that teams have to deal with. But I don't know if you caught Rasmus Sandeen, the stick being stuck between the boards on the 4-2 goal, which delayed his ability to start getting back and completely open things up eventually for Sean Walker to put the game effectively on ice. But man, it just seemed like it was that kind of night for Washington. And it kind of felt, I don't know, a bit of a Pick'em series going in for these teams. But suddenly the top seed in the East is on the ropes.

Yeah, that was wild with Sandeen. Like, just crazy with Sandeen, his stick. That's when you begin to question your belief in a higher power, that someone really is against you when that play happens. So I guess Hurricanes fans, Kyle, are not happy that their style of play is being called boring or the series is being called boring. Number one, I didn't realize that the goal by Gostisbear the other night was the first first period goal in the entire series. Yeah. Okay. And that was gorgeous too.

It was a great goal. Gosset Spare is a heck of a player. I didn't realize that. That's not good. You should not have. Doesn't really support the argument there, right? Yeah. You can't, you know, I'll say something else in a second, but when you've played three games and there hasn't been a goal in the first period,

tough to fight that evidence. But I will say this, Carolina fans, when you're up 3-1 in a series and your playoffs are going well, you should be putting your fingers in your ears and saying, la la la la la, I can't hear you. Enjoy the W's. Winning is beautiful. You've got to, you've got to close it out. But if I don't care if people found me boring, if I was on the edge of advancing to a conference final, I would be enjoying every second and I would not care how anybody else viewed it. I would also say kind of tough for Tom Wilson to taunt the Hurricanes in a game they're losing in a series they're losing. I think you've got to pick your spots a bit better than that.

Yeah, I don't think he liked how Jordan Stahl absorbed the direct punch to the face. I think that's what that was in reaction to there. But it was a solid shot, like I even for a guy as big as Jordan Stahl. I mean, I know you'd prefer to get hit with gloves off than gloves on, but that didn't look very fun. Well, he's got a granite chin. Yes. Yes. And maybe that's what Wilson was coming at him for going, you've hung in there for far

worse. You know, we've talked about it. Carolina, they defend at an elite level, like the way they defend individually as a team, that Stanley Cup level, they started game four poorly again, like the way they defend individually as a team that Stanley Cup level they started game four poorly again like just like they did game three Anderson held them in until they found their legs but I thought that the key thing about this one was the playoffs are all about punch-counter punch punch Washington cuts it to 2-1 early in the third. Counterpunch, Taylor Hall makes it 3-1 three minutes later. Punch, Ovechkin cuts it to 3-2.

They hold. Sean Walker makes it 4-2 and then they score the empty netter. If you can counterpunch to the punches you take in the postseason, you're going to be fine and the Hurricanes did it twice in game number four. One of the things that someone on an analytics team sent me is that, because this is a guy who always looks at shooting percentage and he says this is where the trouble can, this is where you have to really be aware of the numbers. So Washington was an 11% shooting team in the regular season.

I think they were the best shooting team in the regular season. I think they were the the best shooting team in the league. They're half that now in this series against Carolina. So when if you depend on that kind of shooting and obviously like I think there's a lot of things that go into shooting, the talent of your players, how good shooters they are, obviously the kind of passes you can make or the opportunities you can create around those shots, but if it dries up you can be exposed and right now it's dried up for Washington and you heard Carberry talk about a post-game four they made some adjustments to their power play and it doesn't matter the

Hurricanes are just locking it down. And so all of a sudden you're sitting there and that some of the things that you did really well during the regular season they aren't working for you here and there's only one solution in those situations Kyle and that is you've got to be greasy and the capitals are gonna need greasy goals if they are going to prolong this series well the other thing Carberry mentioned too is just he can even feel the experience of the hurricane starting to come through as this series has gone on you mentioned how well they defend like they also just pressure the heck out of teams all areas of the ice and that is quintessential

hurricane hockey. I thought on the TNT show Paul Bissonnette in one of the intermissions did a really good breakdown of just how Carolina, how quickly they were getting to puck battles, winning them and hemming Washington into their zone for extended periods and okay you do that once and then the accumulation of it all you could see how that eventually led to Goss's Bears goal that got them going in game number four, but all those things are just starting to dad up a bit It's a big hill to climb You know when you're down three one like sometimes you're down three one you're like we're right there

We're doing a lot of the things that we do well, and it's just not going our way. Carberry, you can see the frustration on him. You can see the frustration on the Washington players. The fact their power play is being throttled, it creates doubt on them. And I'm not saying it's impossible. I will never say it's impossible.

We've seen too many weird things happen in this in these playoffs and overall but when you when you're not being allowed to do the things you do well or the things you do well aren't working for you it's harder and that's the challenge that the Capitals face right now. You see Nikitian took warm-ups before game four? You know what? I'm glad you mentioned that. Thank you, Kyle, for mentioning that. Yes, I did. And it kind of reminded me of when Landiscock took warmups in game two of the first round

and then played game three. And I think it's a good thing to do. Bring the player in. Let the player feel part of the group. Make him feel a little bit more at home. I think that's really smart. You know, Chad Field, and I love watching Chad Field play. He's battling an injury clearly, so we'll see what happens there.

But I think a lot of us, the easy way to think is you're up 3-1 in a series, let's put Nikitian in now. If you're ever 3-1 in a series. Let's put Nikesh in now. If you're ever gonna put him in, put him in now. I will tell you in the playoffs a coach will never think like that. A coach will never think that this is a good time to experiment when we don't need to. So I saw Brendan Moore's quotes about it. I still think this would be a hard thing. I totally understand where he's coming from and just because that's an easy thing for us on the outside to think, I guarantee you that's

not how Brendan Moore thinks. So I'm not convinced it's gonna happen. All right and they do hope that Chatfield will be able to play in game five. If he can't play, then you do it. But not because this is quote unquote the convenient time. I just I refuse to believe Brynden Moore would do that. Okay, takes us to the final thought, which is brought to you by GMC. Two days off between games four and five of the Toronto Florida series. At Toronto practice here at home on Tuesday,

Anthony Stolar skated a bit before the regular group. Barubei would just say that he is doing much better. Evan Rodriguez skated with the Panthers optional practice. Paul Marie saying he's not cleared, but also has not been ruled out for game five. Also, I wonder, like we talked about the jolt that Kasperi Kapanen gave for Edmonton in game four. Like I wonder if Barube was watching that and thought, okay, who in my stable could provide a similar spark, whether it's a Nick Robertson.

I know a David Camp doesn't have the same offensive upside. I mean, the way they ran lines at Tuesday, it looked like he's keeping it the same. I just wonder how how hardly they're looking at that. Did you go to practice on Tuesday? I did. Did you see any changes? I did not. But then he also said afterwards, he's always thinking of things. Oh, I love Borubi. He doesn't want us to know, right? He just wants us a little bit uncertain. And he's been the most calm of that stuff, all playoffs, in terms of not rushing to make a change. You know, one of the things that I often look at is the surest predictor of future behavior is past behavior. When things looked bad against Ottawa,

did he make changes? Move Max Patchready up to the second line. See, I think against Ottawa, it never hit crisis mode, right? They were still in control. I don't know that you would say, and Toronto fans can disagree with me if they want to for sure

But I don't think they've hit crisis mode in this series yet. It's 2-2 It's More nerve-racking than it was after the first two games, but I don't think it's crisis mode So since he didn't hit crisis mode in round one and didn't change So since he didn't hit crisis mode in round one and didn't change My theory is he doesn't change for game five. We'll see if I'm right or wrong, but that's my theory Now if they lose game five Then all bets are off Kyle, but that's my theory for game five. What do you think of my theory?

No, it's a good one. It is a good one. Just because of, as you say, how he has handled his lineup. He's basically made one change the whole playoffs. He's been fortunate to be able to run the same six defensemen every game to this point. And then partway through the Ottawa series, out came Nick Robertson, in came Max Petruetti, and he's made some in-game adjustments, of course, in terms of line combinations. But other than that, he's left at the exact same injury to the goalie, that's a decision that they were forced to make, not one by choice. But that would add up.

I just wondered after watching Edmonton on Monday, how much they're thinking of it. It's a good rationale, Kyle. A lot better than a lot of your regular rationales, but it's a good rationale I have to say. Gotta elevate in the playoffs. Can I tell you about my trip to get an iced Americano on Tuesday morning Yes, your coffee trips are always worth a good story. So let's hear it. So I went in there. I ordered my iced Americano and

Ken who's one of the baristas Great people by the way at my local Starbucks. They're a really nice group. But Ken, who was one of the people there, he says to me, did you just shake your head at me, because I went to get a coffee at Starbucks? Maybe. No, I don't judge.

I don't judge, Elliott. You did, I saw you. See, there's no video for this, but Kyle and I are on video, and I saw him shake his head as I said that. Anyway, you are judging. Everyone is free to enjoy coffee how they want to do it. I won't judge.

Okay, so anyway, so Ken is there, and he goes, who do you think is gonna win the Leaf game tonight for the purposes of this podcast? I said, I don't know. I don't have a great read on it but whoever wins game five wins the series and he goes can I tell you what I think and I go sure. He goes the Leafs win. They win this series in six. They beat Carolina and they go to the Stanley Cup final where they play Edmonton and And I said, well,

Sportsnet would love it if it was a Toronto-Edmonton Stanley Cup final. My bosses would be really happy. And I go, who wins? And he says, the Oilers. The Oilers win the Cup this year. And I said, okay. For a Leaf fan, that's an honest prediction. I give it to you. he goes and then you know what happens after that I was like no tell me like he's a really nice guy, but he's he's on a roll now Don't stop him. He's on a roll. Yeah, and he says Marner signs with the Oilers so he can play With McDavid in the summer.

And then the Leafs go out, they use the money, and they make themselves a better team, and they play the Oilers again in the Stanley Cup final next year. And I say to the Leafs win this time he goes no or there's and six. I thought the story was ending with McDavid ending up in Toronto I thought that's where he was going with that. There were lots of places this one could go like there were lots it was it was like choose your own adventure book I was trying to figure out which way this was going but no anyway so it was it was just fine he's a nice guy so I figured I'd throw it in here. Can I weigh in on the Matthews discourse for a second? Yes, yes you can also but actually before you do that because only because you brought up coffee

I just want to shout out Kyle and the gang at September Coffee they sent in some very nice coffee beans into the NHL studios for oh, I saw them last night. Yes So thank you very much for for that. That's a very nice treat Go ahead Elliot and the both of us are getting in trouble at the end of this podcast, but okay, so Matthews He is making the maximum Effort to play a Barkov-like two-way game. And there's a lot of mutual respect between those players.

Barkov has talked about it before, how much he likes Matthew's game. And I think that's very real. He is trying to become, Matthews is, an elite top two-way center. I always remember one of the stories that Gary Galley told me when he was playing for Boston and Cam Neely was struggling. And Harry Sinden, the Hall of Fame GM, came down to talk to Neely about it. And Neely said, I'm getting my chances.

I'm getting my chances. He said Harry Sinden stopped him and said, I don't pay you to get chances. I pay you to score. And you know, I have a line, Kyle, that's life in the big city. That's just the way it is for Matthews is that I think he's made an honest attempt to be the best all around two way player he can be. And I believe this year's playoffs have shown that. But on some level, because he scored 69 goals,

because he's the captain, because he's the highest paid player, everybody realizes that he's gonna be judged by that. And so he's gotta come through and he's gotta score. I think it's important to mention that he's battling something here and eventually we'll find out what it is. But, you know, he's playing hard. He's

got a score. This is a massive game on Wednesday night. The heat is boiling. I'm sure you can feel it at the games. I can feel it over the TV screen. Massive, massive game on Wednesday night. I heard a story. So game five against Ottawa. It's a poor night for the Leafs. The market starting to melt down. What could have been a sweep is now going back to Ottawa for game six. Craig Barubei usually goes in after a loss to address the team.

And apparently on his way to do that after that game, Matthew stopped him and said, we're good here. We'll, we'll sort it out. Players talked, game six, he opened the scoring. He was the driving force behind a lot of how they went about ending that series that night. And so I like hearing that it's like, okay, there's some growth for a guy in his first year as captain. You mentioned, you know, clearly not at a hundred percent, but here's, here's an opportunity to really make your mark and put your stamp on something here despite it all is kind of a clean slate where now it's the best of three. You earned home ice in a situation like this with how you played during the regular season, now is about as good a time as any. You can always rewrite your narrative.

Always. Always, always, always. That was The Final Thought brought to you by GMC. With that, we'll take our first break. Missed the Thought Line last episode. It is back today. That is next on 32 Thoughts, the Podcast. MUSIC MUSIC

All right, welcome back. Time once again for the Thought Line. Elliot, I have a question for you before we get started. Uh-oh. So when you're out driving, are you a tire half full or half empty kind of guy? I was wondering if you heard about this. What happened, what happened, what happened? Yeah, so I was driving into work for the production meeting

on Monday night, Game Four Vegas and Edmonton and I hit a huge pothole in Toronto and I immediately said to myself, that's not good. And I slowed down and I was listening like was there any noise or anything like that? And it's tough to tell because the roads in Toronto were so bad. And like, like I got to tell you like this pothole Kyle, you could have swam in it. But there was a car in front of me and I didn't see it until the last second. And it was a big pothole. Anyway, so you're listening, okay, is there a problem here? And I couldn't tell, and then all of a sudden, the warning light came on, right front tire pressure down,

I was like, bad. So I was able to maneuver it onto a side street. And I wanna shout out Chris, who came to change the tire. He was incredible. He was there quick and did a great job. It was funny. There was a bet going on at work. Who did you call first?

Like who was the first person? Because I was going to be late. I was going to miss the production meeting. And I actually called roadside assistance first because I figured they would take the longest. But so I called David Azuma and I told him I was going to be late. And then someone else while I was waiting someone else in the business, a good friend of the pod, I'm not going to say who, happened to call me about something. And he's like, wait a sec, are you not putting these? Do you have a spare tire? I go, yeah. He goes, you're not changing yourself. I go, no, like I could, I've done it, but I'd rather a professional does it right. Especially if you damage anything.

And he started ripping me and he was like, what kind of wimp are you? You don't know how to do a spare tire. You don't trust yourself to do it. Then after a couple of minutes of ripping at me, he goes, Oh, by the way, I'd call the company too and have a professional do it. He was just busting me for like three minutes. But yes, I hit a pothole and We're still waiting to find out how long it's gonna take to get a new tire here because there was a significant gash In the tire. Oh boy. Yeah, I'm sure the tires are very high-end too. So Search is on to find a replacement the highest like I've got to get vibranium from Wakanda to replace it.

That's good. You're calling up team Penske to see if they have any spares. Yes, yes. That's great. All right to today's submissions we begin with Austin from Edmonton was stoked to hear you guys talking about 29, Leon Dreisaitl, wearing a tuque in Vegas. The tuque is from Happy and Olive, an amazingly locally owned restaurant in Edmonton, which is sadly closed for three weeks in May as the restaurant was hit by a car, my goodness.

They could use a shout out. Leon always wears the tuque on the road and we saw it a lot during last year's playoffs. Happy and Olive doesn't do a massive amount of social media but they always post when 29 is rocking the tuque. It's been fun to follow for a couple of playoffs now and was fun to hear you guys talking about it on a recent episode. So there you go that That's the story behind it. That's a great story. I'm glad you will. Hopefully, if we get a chance to go to Edmonton this year,

it will be open again. Yes, you bet. Be loved to check in. Thanks, Austin, for explaining that one. OK, Yasha from Minnesota. Hello, 32T. I was watching the intermission of a game and saw Rick Tocket on the panel. Yes, back doing some work for TNT.

This made me wonder if it was possible for a team to hire him or any other coach during their playoff run to benefit from his experience. Like the trade deadline for players, is there a restriction on when a coach can be added to a team? That's a great question, actually. All contracts in the NHL end at the conclusion of the official season, which is June 30th. So even though Rick Tauket is not back as head coach of the Canucks for next year

and they have given him permission to talk to other teams, he is still under contract with the Canucks. So if you wanted to hire him as say a consultant, it's actually a really smart idea. You would need their permission to do it. I don't see why it couldn't happen as long as the Canucks said yes. An interesting member of the NFL last year, and I know Dom would remember this, when Robert Sallow was let go by the Jets, remember Matt LaFleur of the Packers brought him in to just help out on his stick and doing pre-scouting of opponents for the remainder of that season. So see it happen in football. Yeah, that was, what happened to Salah was crazy last year. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's a good question. Yeah, thank you, Yasha, for submitting that.

Up next, Riff from Planet Earth. Gents. Question about the second goal by Florida in game three against Toronto. The puck was played with a broken stick before it went in the net. Should that have negated the goal? Shouldn't the play have ended when intentionally played with a broken stick so there was not a continuation? Keep up the

awesome work. I'm glad somebody asked about this because we had a lot of debate about it, Kyle. And I'll tell you what we came up with. I think the biggest question would be yet. First of all, yes, it's a penalty. Like it's not a penalty shot or an automatic goal. We if the net was empty and the goalie was pulled, we would be having a different conversation, but it's not that. Putting your hand over it, that is a penalty shot. This was not a penalty shot.

I'd say two things. Number one, Kevin's argument that it shouldn't have been blown dead was that they didn't have possession. He just whacked at it. And therefore, you could make an argument that you shouldn't have blown it dead. And the second thing was that it's possible in all that craziness it was simply missed in the moment.

You know, you can't discount that. There was a lot going on. But we generally felt, if anything, it was a two minute penalty but we generally felt if anything it was a two-minute penalty but you could really make an argument that there was no possession and therefore it wasn't the worst thing that the play was allowed to continue. Yeah just looking back on the game report Elliot as a refresher like it's not like they had called Carlo for playing the puck with an illegal stick and then you know the penalty just obviously he didn't have to

go to the penalty box because the Panthers scored right after to negate it but it didn't end up on the on the score sheet in the end so they could very well just through all the mayhem have flat-out missed it. Right, that makes sense. Tyler, dear Elliott, I may have a problem on my hands and I need you to help assess the damage. Okay. Last June, I proposed to my then-girlfriend and she said yes. Nice. We are set to get married on June 21st, 2025. The only problem I've come to realize is that the latest possible date for the Stanley Cup final is reportedly June 23rd, 2025. That's true.

How and when does the Stanley Cup final schedule get decided? Is this determined in advance of the playoffs or dependent on the duration of the first three rounds when might we know the schedule for the final series my fiance is having nightmares about our wedding night being ruined by a game seven maple leaf loss breaking the hearts of all of our guests your kissy noises and talk of erect nipples tell me you're the man I should turn to for relationship advice. Please help. So it will be determined by how long the third round goes.

So that's your answer. They don't make it out in advance because you just never, because there's always the possibility to move things up if the playoffs end sooner. So you simply have to wait to the end of the third round to see if there's room to make it up. Yes, you are correct. June 23rd is the last possible day. The one thing that could really help you, could help you if it goes all the way to game seven is if, if, if it sets so that the game seven would be June 23rd history recently is game six would be on June 20th and then

there would be two days off. So you might get fortunate that way. Recent Stanley Cup finals, two days off every travel day. All the best. I hope it works out for you. Now, I'll tell you one other thing. Deb Matyishka, who used to work with me at The Score, Deb set a wedding date on the date of game seven of the 2004 Stanley Cup final, way in advance. Oh, that's right. I heard about this. She covered the flames and we were like, there's no way the flames are going to be in game seven of

the Stanley Cup final. And of course they were. So she missed it. But I remember asking her about it and she said, you just had to embrace it. You have to go a little bit outside of the box and you might have to do some things that you won't like to do but the world stops for no one and if somehow your wedding ends up on the date of game seven of the Stanley Cup final and the Maple Leafs are there, if you try to hide it, it will not work. You must find a way to embrace it. Way to go, Martins St. Louis.

There you go. That's good. Good luck, Tyler. All the best to you and your better half. One final one here from Danny. Hey guys, I saw Brad Marchand has some pretty great numbers against the Maple Leafs in the playoffs. What are some of the guys with the highest numbers per game versus one team in the playoffs over their career? Maybe any names we wouldn't expect. Thanks. Yes, you are right.

Brad Marshann, 33 points in 32 career games against the Maple Leafs going into game number five in the playoffs. So to sift out the anomalies here, Elliot, we've got, because Marchand has played 32 games against Toronto, we've got minimum 30 games played against a single opponent in the playoffs. I'm sure you can guess who number one on the list would be. It's gotta be Gretzky.

Yep. Against who? I'm gonna go with... it's gotta be one or two teams. I'm going flames. Yes. Yeah. The only other guess was Jets. Yeah. The only other one was Jets. Yes. Two points per game in the playoffs

74 and 37 number two on the list Norm Allman who ran rough shot in Chicago Over his career 46 points and 32 games Bobby Hall number three 50 points and 35 games against Detroit and Mark Messier is both fourth and fifth on the list. 1.4 points per game against Los Angeles, 1.27 against Calgary. Wow I would not have guessed Norm Allman that high. Yeah well Danny wondered if there was maybe any names we wouldn't expect. Norm Allman would. That would definitely be a name you wouldn't expect but he was a heck of a player. Yeah great good question and yeah Marcian as great as

he's been 15th on the list when it comes to minimum 30 games played. That's impressive. Alright that'll do it for the Thoughtline. We'll take one final break and take a look at some other news and notes around the league. Stay tuned. Okay, some other news and notes around the National Hockey League. The announcement is coming. It's got to be coming, right? Elliot, you've reported, we've talked about it on the podcast a few times, everything trending towards Ken Holland becoming the next general manager of the Los Angeles Kings. It's been heading in this direction for a little while now.

This is a man who had options, who's been around this a very long time. I imagine the fact though, that the Kings are still very much in win now mode and geographically where they're located versus where Holland likes to spend a lot of his time. Probably one and one A in what attracted him the most about this opportunity. Yes, so I think that's absolutely one of the reasons.

I think there's a few reasons here. The biggest one, I believe, is that they're trying to win now. With the Islanders, it's a longer project, I think. And it's not that the Islanders aren't trying to win now, but it's going to be more work to get there. So I think that appealed to him. I think the second thing is geography. He's a West Coast guy. That's a better fit too. But the number one reason, I believe, for him is that I don't think this is going to be a long term contract. You know, Kyle Dubas is signed for seven years. Holland's last deal with Edmonton was five years. This I think is going to be very short and it's going to be about can he get the Kings over the hump and into big time contention window right now.

This is not about a rebuild. This is about going for it now. This is not about a rebuild. This is about going for it now. So I think that was the fit. One of the things I'm curious to see about here is, is Holland going to be bringing someone with him who will, I don't even know if train or learn the job is the right way to describe it, but will there be something here eventually as part of this that would be kind of like a succession plan? I had heard the Kings, in addition to considering interviewing some people internally, were asking about some newer or fresher or younger names around the league that

have had some experience and could maybe come in and be part of their team and maybe potentially take over for Holland. Now I think only Holland and the Kings can answer this but again as I said I don't think this is going to be a long term contract and secondly I heard they think this is going to be a long-term contract and secondly I heard they were planning on talking to some younger people. Obviously one of the names that's going to come out is going to be Ryan Martin who used to work with Holland and Detroit and now works with the Rangers. It could be a bit sticky because you know the Rangers might not be willing to do it if there wasn't a promotion involved but if and I stress if the Kings are doing this he

would be one of the names that would be most connected to Ken Holland. So kind of similar I guess in st. Louis right where you've got the succession plan of Alex St. now Doug Armstrong has been there forever I understand but just like the multi-year plan of where they ultimately want the organization to go. You know it's perfect you mentioned that Kyle because Holland and Armstrong are tight and it wouldn't surprise me at all if one was the model for the other. That's it's good thinking. On a roll here today. You are big roll. All right the New York Islanders entering week three of their general manager's search any updates there?

So there were reports this week that they're going to interview Mark Bergevin Yarmouk, Ekalina and Matthew Darsh You know, I think Holland did look at them geography was one thing. I think it's a longer path. That's the other And I think he felt LA was a better fit I've also heard the Islandenders have put out the word, who are some younger, newer people we might want to talk to? Is there anyone out here we're missing? So I think there could be some other names to this. And I think one of the challenges for everybody

in this story, the Allenders new president of hockey operations or GM or both, is that nature abhors a vacuum and people want information and they want this to move fast and sometimes these things take time and rumors start flying and it's impossible to contain them. One of the things I've heard that the Islanders have made clear is that whoever the new president of hockey operations slash general manager is they will report to the majority owner Scott Malkin. It's not like you're gonna be reporting to anyone else you'll be reporting to Malkin. So I just wanted to put

that out there. Okay, the remaining coaching vacancies around the league, Elliot, why don't we start in Vancouver? Okay, Dom demands that Vancouver goes first. It's his one rider in his contract with 32 thoughts. Vancouver goes first. There were reports on Tuesday that the coaching search was down to Manuel Houtra and Adam foot. I'm not interested in picking a fight with anybody here. Rick Dallowall knows what he's doing. He's extremely well connected. Let me just say what I've heard about this. Obviously, those are two people that the Canucks know really well. Footspin on their bench, Malhoutra's running their American Hockey League

team, and teams are always comfortable with people they know. So I'm not surprised to hear that. Here's what I'd add. I believe they've interviewed Mitch Love, the assistant coach in Washington. That's more informal. Obviously Love is still working. I think the Canucks would like the possibility of meeting him face to face, but he's got a lot of interest out there. Love will have options. They've also interviewed Marco Sturm. I heard the Canucks were very happy with that interview. He's also got options too. And I think Sturm has a real chance in Boston. You know, as a matter of fact, I didn't realize it until I was talking about it with the group tonight. Kelly Rudy knows Sturm, Kevin Biaxa knows Sturm, and Blake Wheeler played with Sturm in Boston and is a huge fan. So all of those guys are actually pretty excited to see that Sturm has a chance somewhere.

So again, I think he may have options, especially depending on what Boston decides to do. I haven't specifically heard Mike Volucci's name in Vancouver, but I've wondered about it. I think they've interviewed Todd Reardon, but it appears likely that if not 100% that the Canucks will hire a first-time head coach, and I think they're pretty comfortable with that. They want somebody who's gonna want this job,

want this opportunity, and a lot of the names we've mentioned here would be like that. So I think one of the things that they have to kind of work their way through here is some of their candidates love and Sturm will have options but doesn't mean that the Canucks don't like them or aren't interested in them. Okay, Rick Talkett. Last pod, I doubted Philly and talked about the chance of him going back to TV. Someone who's really good person in the league, he called me and said, what was the first thing that you talked about when Talkett Love Vancouver? I said Philly. He said never

Go against your instincts Stay with your instincts. I think it was his way of telling me Philly now John Bouchigros put out one of his tweets on Tuesday afternoon John is very rarely wrong about these things. He's especially when he puts out pictures instead of tweets and I'm hearing it's coming. So that's one thing that happens at this time of year. Information swirls, people are trying to use their leverage, There's a lot of different rumors flying around, and you can doubt yourself.

But I was reminded, TalkIt, Philly, stay with it. We'll see on Wednesday. They also interviewed Jay Woodcroft in Philly, Brad Shaw, Jay McKee, but it looks like it's going to be TalkIt. Boston interviewed TalkIt. I always wondered about that. You know what talk it turned down in Vancouver at least 4 million and I and potentially more a season. You know, Boston wasn't willing to go there for Jim Montgomery. I always wondered if or why that would be different this time around. Boston, I think, has interviewed Sturm and I

think they like Sturm. I think they've also talked to Jay Leach. There's definitely more. I've wondered about the possibility of Woodcroft there too. But there's definitely more. And I think Sturm has a chance there. We'll see.

I wouldn't say that's a done deal by any stretch, but I think Sturm has a chance there we'll see I wouldn't say that's a done deal by any stretch but I think he's got a chance we'll see. Seattle they talked to talk it I heard he'd said no that was disputed to me by some people that he was maybe still in the mix but obviously that's not going to happen. Some of the other names I think they've talked to, you know, Don Granato worked with Jason Boderil in Buffalo, so I wouldn't be surprised if that's one of the names on their list. I had heard that one of the other people they might be interested in talking to is Adam Nightingale, who's the head coach

at Michigan State. I don't expect that to happen, but I had heard that he was a name on their radar. Nightingale worked in Buffalo just before Baudrill got there. They did not cross over. Jason Baudrill spent a lot of time in Michigan and Nightingale coaches Michigan State. So there would at least be some familiarity with them as well. I don't know for sure, but it was expected that they were going to interview Jay Leach who used to be an assistant coach and was in Boston this season. The last one

I have here is Chicago. And I'll just freely admit I don't have a great handle of where Chicago is right now, but I have no doubt that maybe some of the people I've mentioned um might have interviewed in Chicago as well. Like there's some guys I know out there who've interviewed like I believe Jeff Halpern has interviewed a couple of places. I believe Jeff Jeff Blaschel's interviewed a couple of places, but believe Jeff Blashill has interviewed a couple of places, but I just don't know exactly where. All right, very good stuff there. Finally, why don't we talk about, you know, you had the news on Tuesday that we know the offer sheet compensation thresholds for next season. So a little bit different, though not a huge change from where they were a year back for this season but I did think it was interesting you know last season for

example if you wanted to sign a player to seven million dollars it would have cost you a first a second and a third round pick now at that level it would just be a first and a third I understand you know the economics are changing with the salary caps going up So what a player a year ago may have been worth seven now He's worth more but just in terms of getting it that number there And not having to give up as much as he did a year ago kind of caught my eye Maybe it hasn't changed as much as you thought Kyle, but one of the things I'm most curious about is

What st. Louis did last year and how much of a jolt it put into their organization if it changes the attitudes. And they were ready. Hey, how about the Spice Adams meme that they put out in response to your article? That was good. That was really well done. I like that kind of stuff. I'll say this, like we're talking about 2026 picks because this would happen after the 2025 draft. You know, I had someone say to me, we've talked about how Philly is predicted to be an offer sheet team.

How many teams are really going to want to risk that 2026 first? Who with Gavin McAnon is doing right now? Yeah Like they're gonna be teams. They're gonna believe they're gonna be better. You always are nobody predicts They're gonna start they're gonna finish the year in last place unless you're a total tank rebuild But let's just say you're a good team that has Like the season the Rangers had this year or you get injuries and all of a sudden you're really in trouble. Like nobody's going to want to watch themselves sinking down to the top of the draft. And like look what happened in the lottery this year.

The 11th place team got first overall and you know Utah jumped all the way up to second. Look what happened in the NBA lottery that night. Dallas was 1.8% and they won the lottery. So I could see there being a McKenna effect over these first rounders, a definite chill. I don't follow the NBA as closely as you do, but it was quite obvious the conspiracy theorists were out in full force when the Mavs got the first pick. Do you think though too, Elliot, like I understand the whole idea. I got to tell you, like people were tweeting about, you know, it's illegal racketeering

if you fix the lottery. That's when I know people are really sensitive to this stuff. But do you think like now with the cap going up and it's easy to look at it and say, well, now teams have more money to work with, So the offer sheets are going to be just flying off the walls here. Well, the teams that are on the receiving end of those, they also now have more room to match. So I wonder if there's going to be the same boom as maybe we thought. I, you know, you're right about that, Kyle, because there were some teams that had big, big cap space that were really hoping the cap wasn't going up as much as we reported.

Oh, interesting. Because they were hoping they would have that advantage. One thing I'll say is that if you want to go with the one year big offer, there are some vulnerabilities next year. Now it starts to go away over the next couple of years because the jumps are so big that, yes, you could look at this and say, that's been kind of wiped out.

But Kyle, if you were someone who wanted to take the one-year plunge next year, there are some teams that would still have trouble beating that. Okay, yeah, interesting. Good point. One final thing here, Elliott, CBA. I know Gary Bettman would love to announce that the Stanley Cup final, as he mentioned, however many months ago.

Is it actually possible? Could it happen? That's his regular state of the union at the Stanley Cup final. I'll just say that this week it's tough to narrow it down. I'll just say that this week I don't think that's impossible. I don't want to say it's a hundred percent but I don't think it's impossible that happens. It's almost like hard to believe after growing up through the 0405, the 2012 lockout. We're not used to peace here. Yeah, everything's on track. Nice change. That will take it. Nice change. All right, very good. Big night ahead here, Elliot. Game five,

Leafs and Panthers from Toronto, pregame show on the air at 6 30 Eastern, 3 30 Pacific, puck drop a little after 7 ET, and then game five down in Vegas. The Oilers a chance to punch their ticket to the Western Conference final. CBC and Sportsnet as well, a little after 9.30 Eastern, 7.30 Mountain Time. Enjoy the games tonight. We'll talk to you again on Friday. Take care.