Empty Netters Podcast - Forget Rantanen, It Was Aways McDavid’s Revenge Tour w TJ Oshie and Greg Wyshynski | LIVE.EP17

Episode Date: May 31, 2025

JOIN US FOR OUR 17TH EPISODE OF PLAYOFF PUCKLINE NEWS, WE ARE JOINED BY TJ OSHIE AND GREG WYSHYNSKI PRESENTED by BetMGM. Download the BETMGM app and use code “NETTERS” and enjoy up to $1500 in bonus bets if you lose your first wager! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is Friday. We are back with another live episode of the Anteander's Pock Line News, brought to by snaps. Look at this hat, dude. Look at this hat. Oh, are we going to get you one of these? So it's this hat snaps, but your ball marker snaps to the back. Oh, okay. You can get it all the time. You can get, you can get, you can get, you can get, this one says ice is ready for us, you can get, they got a full NHL deal now. It's pretty safe. Pretty safe. As you can see, we're joined by T.J.O. She live from DC, from DC, DC, you can see. Maybe in Minnesota.

You know he doesn't know. I don't know. I've been everywhere. I wish that moment was live so much because Oh, she literally forgot where he was for him. Yeah. Hey, how was the golf tournament? It was good.

It was good. The boss lady, honestly, I could not believe how good she is vulnerable. That's so great, dude. That's so great. Where was it? Golf at all. She was hitting like 2.30 off the tee. Like, it's great.

me? No, dude. All the other wives were like, do she play golf? I'm like, no. Not at all. God, she missed her calling, dude. Well, yeah, it's probably that, or Lauren's just watching, oh, she's like in the house,

do it as a cove. She's just like, imitating the form, dude. This is what I'm talking about it. Every time you walk in the garage, I pull out a club, throw down like a flattened box. I got to take a couple of things. Is she, in the scramble, is she hitting from the fronties?

Yeah, yeah, so it's so valuable dude if you have a girl playing with you that hits from the fronties and can actually pop drives Oh yeah, you're like waged in every time so cool Uh, format there's a three couple alternate shot scramble so all the guys see off all the girls do the approach Edg chat is saying that the our mics aren't on hold on so we're gonna check that up chat but you keep going to go oh shit yeah I'm Okay, yeah, so like the guys tee off on every odd number hole, the girls see up on every even number hole. And then you literally just alternate all the way until the ball gets in the hole. It's genius.

I actually love the format so much. And it can't turn around it like four hours, right? Instead of chasing balls everywhere. I love a scramble dude. Dude, even when I'm out with my three buddies and everyone's like trying to keep their own score or whatever, if it's just like a summer afternoon, I'm like, let's just scramble, dude. But let's see if we can shoot five under at this course and we'll find out and we'll zip around. It's awesome. For sure.

For sure. We talked about this before we went live. Before we get into the Oilers game, we didn't want to get your take. A player's take on the Paul Maurice situation. So for you, and everyone in the chat, if you aren't aware, there was the interaction between Paul Marisse and Ron Brindamore. Ended up being the case that Paul doesn't like when coaches go through the handshake line after a series. Rod didn't agree, they had a little bit of a discussion. Osh, as a player, is that something that ever bothered you

or ever even crossed your mind? Honestly, it never bothered me, and I almost preferred it because in a playoff series, especially if it's someone that you're familiar with, the coach's mind and how they make a justice team is, I mean, that's all you do. You're playing the same team every game. your systems don't change, but you make little adjustments. And if you have a veteran team, yeah, sure, the players can kind of make some adjustments on the fly.

But the whole day, from the day before it's then, to the game before, to the current game, is all small adjustments by the coaches. And so a little bit, it's like a coaches kind of mind game, like, what are we going to switch? What are they going to switch? And how do we counter that? And so I think it's a huge part of the series is how you play the game, how your coaches bring those little adjustments to you. Also, there's so many coaches in the league that are so well respected.

As a player, we never get to see them. Unless you're by chance walking in the hallway. Oh, pretty cool. Yeah. Unless you're by chance walking in the hallway, going to the locker room, you would never, sometimes it's like our previous coaches. You know what I mean? I went, I don't know, a while without seeing like Barry Trots.

If we played them in the playoff series I would love to go give them a big hug after and win or lose and be like, hey man, I miss you a great series but a lot of coaches you never get in me there's coaches I play with for 15 years never met them and so if you get to do that in a playoff series

it's just it's part of the respect to the game I think it's great I don't I mean I don't care if it doesn't happen but I think it's a cool part of the game I completely agree and I think that was our take is like you know there was a big uproar Obviously a lot of people hate the Panthers because when a team is buzzing, it's easy to hate him.

But there was outrage about it online, which I thought outrage was a weird response. I totally understand being like, that's weird. But I think that's all it is, because it's weird. I think it's funny from Maurice, too, because like we were talking about, he's gone through handshakes before. And last season, when they beat Boston in round two, he had such a lovely interaction with sway. And I was like, that was amazing. So I'm like, yeah, part of me is like, Maurice, why don't we like this? This is like, you have good interactions with the guys that they appreciate.

It's a strange thing. Again, it doesn't bother me, but I just think it's a strange thing. Oh, shit said before we recorded that, it was like, because could Maurice have that one comment where he's like, there's 400 people on the guys, you know, there's no few guys in tracksuits? And maybe it's, maybe that's the answer where it's like, hey, dude, you and your assistant coach go out. Yeah. That's it. You know, we don't need everybody, I guess.

But I'm so with you that it's like, it's not, I think it's nice, like, it's cool for your POVO to be to be like I never get to see those coaches but I actually think it hits in reverse too where how often does uh you know Paul Maurice get to see Jeremy Swamen and he wants to go hey dude that was actually a really good series and I'm glad I got to say that to you you know yeah those opportunities too and you also I mean in the handshake line you you almost kind of people's character comes out a little bit so everyone in hockey is generally a great human being I think but in the in the in the in the you shake hands, like win or lose, like if they win and they're like, hey, yeah, good series. You know, you're like, I don't know, maybe like we just battle our ass on. Like extremely hard. Like, I cross-checked each other as hard as we can.

And the fact that you can just be like, hey, man, great series, great battle, you know, like maybe that says something about you or vice versa. And you, you see that in the coach, too, how you shake their hand, you know. Usually it's something easy. Like, okay, love your game, great series. Best of luck next year. We'll see you next year. Whatever it is. We saw that in round one with you guys with Willie and Anderson.

Like those two were trying to kill each other all series. Absolutely. But how great is that? Yeah. How great is that? Also, I don't know. He's won a lot of series here in a row. Maybe he's like, I'm talking, I just want to go back and start prepping the next series.

I'm not. Yeah. We win that much. Maybe you're like, I'm sick. Get the fuck out of here. Okay, I'm ready. You're not going to answer this. I already know.

But is there anybody that you, in the handshake line, that you were like, that wasn't that chill after a playoff series? Yeah, actually in the bubble, it wasn't in the bubble. I actually kind of lost my cool a little bit. But in the bubble, I think it was a, I think it was a mistake by me. But there was like 30 seconds left and we're about to, we're about to lose to, uh who do you play islanders about to lose to the islanders oh yeah and like games over right maybe there might be less might have them like 15 seconds left but like we're lost the game's over

we're gonna lose and someone on their bench like made just like a terrible cocky comment like uh i don't even know what it was like enjoy your golf game or something like that from the bench, right? And like, I would, you never in a millionaire say that, like, when the series is already over. Yeah, maybe, like, as a series is going, you want to get in someone's head, cool. And I turned around to the bench, and I just happened to lock eyes with Barzal. And I was like, are you kidding me? So we get in the line, and I shake his hand.

I'm like, hey, like, basically that, what the hell was that? And I kind of, like, grab his arm, like, a little tighter. And I was like, I was like, that. that's so Bush League, and he's just like, what are you talking about? And so I think it clearly wasn't him, but I was like, you know what I'm talking about? I literally shoved him in the line.

Two hands, two hands? It was like a, not like a, like, let's drop our gloves here. But like that was, you know, that was bullshit. We need the bunch of bullshit, I didn't say anything. Yeah. I picture, like, finger in his face being like, you know what you fucking said.

He's like, I actually go. I mean, I was, and I was, I was pretty upset, right? Because we had to go freaking to the bubble. And we did all this stuff to go there. I didn't, wasn't allowed to go to Tahoe because you couldn't travel. Oh, shit. And, like, everything sucked. And I know him.

And he's a great guy. And so I was like, how can you do that? You tricked me. But clearly, he was like, but it clearly wasn't him. Like it clearly was, it clearly was someone else. He was like, I don't know what you're talking about. That is, uh, it was my mistake. But, uh, that was the only time that, but yeah, there's, there's, I don't have a specific example.

But there's some guys that like, they won't even say anything. They'll just shake your hand and go by, which is, which is fine. Whatever. Yeah. That's so funny. Okay. And then, oh, to pivot a little bit here as a guy who won a Stanley Cup, we are, what, five days? five days from game one yeah what are these guys thinking right now like what's

going through their head they just won the Congress miles they've got the cup prep they got media day all this bullshit coming up they got to get tickets for everyone they never met in their life what's going through their minds so the advantage for these two teams is they've already done it right and they did it recent last year so except for the new guys on the team that never been in the situation everything is going to be routine they're going to know what to expect there's a lot of media there's a lot of ticket requests there's a lot of travel stuff usually the families aren't allowed to stay in our hotel so then

there's it's honestly it's the team services guys like this is probably the most fun and the hardest time of the year because they're they're needing to get people new hotels they need to get all this other stuff it's a little like it's a lot but it you know the first couple days it feels good so you feel like accomplished you know you're there a lot of attention And then after two days, you're like, I just want to get, I just want to get to the game, you know. And it doesn't stop once you get into town because then, you know, then all the media is at the rink. You know, everyone travels ring to rink.

So it's a little hectic. That's nice that they have five days. Like that's plenty of time to rest. And these guys are clear, like their bodies are shot. I know they look fast and everything online or on the games. but on TV, but I mean, your legs are like, your body is just like everything and emotion too, right? So much emotion that goes through the series. So it's probably going to be some quality time for some rest here.

Absolutely. Did you got, you guys, you started in Vegas, right? Like game one was in Vegas. Yeah, they were waiting for us. Yeah. I've always kind of thought it's nice to start a huge series on the road because it's a little bit, you don't have the crowd behind you, but there's almost a little less pressure if you lose. Is that game because you're like, whatever?

Like, we just need this. Do you agree with that or would you rather just start game one? No, absolutely. And they, it's almost like, because when you start on the road, you're like, let's just get one. Yeah. And when you start at home, you're like, we have them in two. Yeah. That's so true.

And so when you're starting on the road, it's almost easier. It's like, all right, go in there. There's, and also there's less ticket request. You get in the hotel together soon. So that bonding from like the series before immediately starts. At home, you go home. You have your kids, you have whatever. You have to drive into the rink.

You're not on the bus. So, I mean, road games in the playoffs are from. I've never gotten more sleep in my life. God, that's amazing. The summer camp element of road games in the show is so funny. It's just like, yeah, I sleep a well. I get to hang with boys. It's fantastic.

Absolutely love it. Dude, we were kind of, last time, on the show earlier this week we were talking about McDavid and just everything he does and how unbelievable it is but i wanted to talk to both of you i feel like for years now it's been like three years i feel like barkoff has been on that like he's so underrated people don't appreciate it and then slowly people have learned about it i think he's somehow still underrate because like this guy just feels like a when you look at everything he does from from his play on the ice to his leadership, I think he's the top five guys in the week. And that, that pass he threw to

for the game winning goal in their elimination game was just, to me, it was like, yep, that is a perfect example of how fucking good this guy is. And I feel like you get to play him a little bit more than you play a guy like McDavid being in the same conference. How fucking good is this guy? It's hard to describe. The closest thing that I get to is, like, prime time. and Copatar. Because I was in the West, and so I was there when they were winning all their cups. I was losing to them in playoffs, and they would go on to win. And he was just so well-rounded and solid that it's like, it's almost like you forget

sometimes when someone's not the absolute best at one thing, like, you know, OVee with his scoring goals. Like when it's someone that's just good at everything, you don't realize how good they are because they're not in the top category of one thin, right? They're going to assist guys like, man, that's unbelievable. So they get all the attention because they're at the top of the stat sheet and whatever it is. But when you got someone that's really good on face-offs, really solid and de-zone, never gets knocked off the puck, good goals for, got pans, skatered, massive.

Like, all that he's got a full package. And so he's so good. he's I mean that passed when he's behind the net and it's like it's an area pass right the guy's behind the net when he's passing so he's like reading the play and you know knowing or hoping that that was it was braggie or uh yeah yeah yeah yeah right uh you know that you hope that he's on the same way like when he was thinking the same thing clearly he did and tuck the tough upstairs so yeah absolutely incredible too and the cope accomplished it's like To me, it's like Bergeron, Kope, Barcoqom.

Like, we've had three, you know, obviously all of them playing at the same time for a little bit, but it's just like, Jesus Christ, those guys are so insane. And Barkov was just mental. Yeah, absolutely. Osh, we know you've got to run, so I just want to leave you with this. A lot of people in the chat saying that you looked incredible on ESPN, which we agree. So can you just tell everyone a little bit about that experience? Thank you.

Yeah, it was, it was wild. I hope you couldn't tell but my leg was shaking so bad and we're on stools right and so your legs are up you know just like a high whatever desk chair and there's like a place to put your feet and you're they really

they want you like high up and so your top of my like quads were like on the desk and my leg was shaking so bad that it was shaking my whole body so I had to dangle my left leg off of the chair because then it could just shake on its own down in the corner.

I can't tell you. Like, that's the most nervous I've been since my first round of Ta-Haha in the American century. 100%. Those are maybe the only two times in the life that I've been that nervous. Dude. So it was, but it was an amazing experience. All the guys on the show made me feel really comfortable, even though I was really nervous. And the producers were great.

I mean, ESPN. Like, it was, yeah, completely first class. And it was fun. It was super fun. Hell yeah, man. I think people actually did notice it was for a little while. It was trending on Twitter that people thought there was an earthquake going through. I absolutely don't.

I absolutely don't doubt it. And honestly, it's so much, I have so much more respect for those guys. Because you have an earpiece in. And they're like talking to you while you're talking. So if you can imagine having one ear plugged, how weird that sounds anyways. So plug one ear and talk sounds funny. And then you got to look at people. I was worried about like where my hands were.

My buddy made fun of me for having a pencil instead of a pen. And and then they're like counting down like, all right, give the PK and three, two, one, or whatever it is. Like that's so hard to do. And they, it looks like everyone makes it look easy on TV. So it was, it was. It was a cool experience, man. So fun, a lot harder than I thought. The ESPN's phenomenal.

It's true. The first time we did something for NHL network, we had those year pieces in, and you kind of forget about it. And I remember saying something, like kicking into someone, and then something came into my head, and I was like,

did I become schizophrenic overnight? What the fuck is going? And then you're like, oh, yeah, it's someone telling me to do something. It's multitasking. It's hard. But you crushed it, man. It was awesome.

Yeah, it's so hard. My very first one, I was breaking down a play, and I didn't know, it was the first time I put the earpiece on. And so I didn't know that, like, I'm listening to, like, the play in my ear while I'm talking. Oh, dear. And I was still talking, and the play ended, so my ear went silent. And I was, like, I kind of, like, stopped, and I was, like, am I cut off?

Like, I don't know. You said, yeah. I don't know. And then, like, PK and Nash was just, like, staring at me, like, yeah, what? I don't even know what I said. I think I said close out the series. That's how I ended it. And it was game four.

They couldn't close up the series. It was awesome. They're like, what are you talking about, dude? God, that's so funny. Well, dude, everybody loved you. I don't know if you can see the chat on yours, but they're going crazy, dude. Mandy, oh, gee, Mandy says,

this takes are crazy good, and he's articulate and entertaining. So that's high-guise. That's, I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. That's awesome, dude. And, bro, you can dress it, man.

Yeah. Great. I was not expecting that. That was incredible. So I picked that suit up at suit supply, like, the day before. And I just don't, I was never, I've never been, like, a nice suit guy. Like, you know, a lot of guys like to, you know, have, like, the check. Hold on.

All this stuff. Was that suit off the rack? Yeah. They just had to cut the pants a little short. That was off the rack. I don't believe. It would be terrible. I don't believe.

That looked tailored. It looked specific. Oh, no. That was a good eye. And the shirts, the shirt still had the fold lines in it. And I'm trying to, you ever try to get the fold lines out with an iron? And like, you just can't, I couldn't do it. It couldn't do it.

So I'm like, I tried to stay buttoned up. I'm like, as long as you can't see this line here, then I'm good. My hair, I did my hair like three, four hours before. And so they're, I was, I don't know. It was almost better. There was a little chaotic for me because then once, once I settle down, it is. What time to make you about it. You know, you just, you just, you just, just, just, just, it's just, it's, it's,

get out there. Kind of get in there. Luckily, that was the only one, though, because it got chopped off yesterday. Without my permission. Thank God that you went on ESPN before the channel, because we needed this one on TV. Yeah. Dude, we don't want to hold you out anymore if we've got a run. But thanks for pop-in-law.

Yeah, see you again soon. Thanks. Enjoy your Friday, brother. Appreciate it. Appreciate it, boys. Have a good weekend. Chat. Sorry, I haven't been in the first periods.

I miss you. Maybe game one. Yeah, maybe game one. I like that. Definitely game one. I'm playing game one. I'll be there. Awesome.

Beauty. All right. See us. See guys. See guys. I don't know to do this. Unbelievable stuff. That was actually some great,

some great content. Oh yeah. I mean, some really good insights from the handshake lines. That was amazing. It always is. I'm so going to be asked with the handshake line. That was my biggest thing.

It's like I felt like I didn't want to sue or Maurice because I don't care. Like I said, on Twitter was like, I don't care. I don't get why people are getting so worked up about it. It's not that big of a deal. If you don't agree with it, you don't agree with it. And I totally understand it, but there's no reason to get pissed. Yep. And I think I was like, I think where he's trying to come from is a level of respect. Yeah, this is for the players. But my whole take was like, I think the players want that. You know, it's like, man. Before we washed out, I always loved it. If I lost toward one a game, going to the handshake playing when a coach was like,

Hey, great fucking game. Dude, you know my great horse. I was like, yeah, that was one of that. I think about that all the time. I sure do. You sure did. That's amazing. Do we want to bring Wisch in?

Oh, yeah. All right. All right. We've got our boy Wish pop up in right now. There it is. Look at that. Hey, let me get straight here. I'm wearing my Cleveland Parogi's hat.

The Cleveland Parogies, the Cleveland Monsters of the HAL became the Cleveland Perogies and had alternate jerseys and every single. thing. It was earlier this year for Cleveland Parogi's Hockey Club night. It was Pucks and Parogi's night. They sent me the hat while I was on the road for the playoffs and I wanted to give them a shout out by wearing my lid. The problem is the logo is supposed to be like a parogiized C, but I don't think that they really thought it through because it does look like it does look like a cheesy poof. So, I mean, that's fine, though.

It's the thought that counts. Anyone who puts love, as a Ukrainian, anyone who puts love on pierogies, I'm going to give love back, even if it looks like a cheesy poop. It's a sick hat. I don't think I've ever seen you in a hat. That was the biggest reaction for me.

It's like, it looks great. You look great in it. It's fantastic. So I, you know, I normally, I normally rock the big updo. you know, slather a bunch of gel in there, a little bit of color here and there. But when I'm doing stuff in the home studio, man, sometimes I'll pop on a chappo, especially when I'm doing stuff with Arda, because, you know, he's usually wearing some sort of, you know,

mandolarian hat. And then I'm like, I could rock a hat too. So it's all good. I want you to do it in the full mandolary mask. He's got the gear. I don't have the cosplay stuff. I'll tell you this. I have cosplayed before at Comic-Con here in New York.

I don't know if there's any Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild fans, but I once dressed up like a Curric from that game. I had a leaf mask, and it was really cool. That was the only time I ever cosplayed for Comic-Con. That's so sick. We did it because we get, you know, the Comic-Con down here. We've done a few rips down there. But I don't know if we ever, we just have, like, we kind of dip the toe in the cosplay, you know, like I'll wear, like, a shirt or something.

But I've never gone full, full costume. No, God. When I was in high school and the first Men and Black movie came out, me and my best friend dressed like men and black to go to the movie theater. Oh, you see the, because we were, like, because we were very cool. And we said this would definitely be a way to get laid is to dress like the men in black. for the movie. And then make the girl forget about it immediately. Blaster after if you're golden.

That's incredible stuff, dude. Let's see, dude. How you guys, did you guys pick the West series? Like, how do you guys divide up who gets which series? Oh, like, who's covering it? Yeah, yeah. I think, oh, wait, like my, A, Siri, turn the music off.

Turn the music off, Siri. I think it was about to play. play a limp biscuit song. I'm not quite sure how that happened. I just started talking. So I think there's some geography involved because Ryan Clark from ESPN, the hockey writer Ryan Clark, not the football yelling at RG3 guy, lives out in Seattle. And then Kristen Shilton's in Canada. So her travel back and forth to Edmonton was pretty easy. And I said I want to be on the East. Like we didn't cover the East as a network. like we broadcast the West.

We have our pick of which conference to cover, which is maybe what your question was. But I was like, I love a challenge, man. I love being a one-man gang in coverage where I'm lugging around a tripod and a camera myself and setting it up and doing hits on TV. And I love being able to kind of like dig into a series that is clearly the B series of the final.

I mean, everybody's got the attention on Dallas and Edmonton. So I really enjoyed covering it. I wrote some good stuff. I got another piece on Brad Marchand, out on Monday. They were both really easy teams to cover with a lot of really good personalities on both teams. That's awesome. And I love the image of you just huffing around with the job making it work. Making it work anyway. That's amazing. If everybody, everybody go on ESPN and watch the piece that's come out from the game last night already. I have a couple questions

for you because this is one thing that I've been saying for so long. This objectively had to be, the certainly deepest group of forwards, top nine forwards I've ever seen on a playoff team in the Dallas stars. And in your article you said, arguably the biggest collection of talent Dallas has had over these last three Western Conference finals appearances. And they got rinsed. So what happened? I mean, according to Pete DeBore, it's the best team he's had on paper, but not the best team he's had, which I think is him saying that for whatever reason they failed the chemistry test in the postseason. He also kind of like made a comment about how long. the previous series had gone.

And I'm like, my dude, you know, it was just a scant two rounds ago that you were praising your team for overcoming the manpower losses of Jason Robertson and Muriel Heskin and in winning in seven games against Colorado. Like, you can't have a both ways. Would you think it should have been a sweep without those guys against Colorado? Come on, man. You know, it's a great question. I don't, I think the, the rant and in line not doing what it did in the previous two rounds

was a real problem for them. That was such an engine for them at the end of the Colorado series. in the beginning of the Winnipeg series. To have rant and go on ice cold when he did was really a problem. And then, you know, I think that, again, the simplest way to explain what happened against Edmonton is of the four teams in the conference finals, the Oilers were the least bothered team.

Dallas did nothing physically to bother them. They did nothing on the scoreboard to bother them. I mean, Edmonton leave is that game one loss being like, all right, probably not going to have three straight power plays and three straight power play goals again in this series. It probably ain't going to happen, so we're good. And then, you know, they never scored the first goal in any of these games to really put any pressure on it on Edmonton and have them exhale a little bit.

And then obviously in game five, like two goals on two shots and they're cooked. So I don't think they did anything to really shift the momentum or even make Edmonton all that concerned in the series. And Dallas is usually pretty good at that. I mean, they can play physically. They can put goals on the board. They can put you in a position where you. you're coming back in a game in the third, but instead they played right into the Oilers

hands. And it was a pretty, I mean, I don't want to say pathetic. That's probably too harsh of a word, but extremely underwhelming showing for Dallas. I couldn't agree more. I was saying yesterday, we were doing a fun little live show game. And I went scorched earth on Vegas because like Vegas was, you know, they beat them two years ago in the playoffs. They were a great team.

I think a lot of us expected a lot of Vegas. and I thought that it was the most piss poor performance ever from them. And then this was arguably worse. So I'd know for it and say pathetic if you want, because I completely agree. It's like anyone could see, in my opinion, that first game in that third period, great job doubts.

Way to storm back. That's amazing. But you had to know that that wasn't a complete flip of the ice. Oh, yeah, no, we just started playing so great and figured out Edmonton. It's like we went three for three on the power games. That's not going to happen every game. No.

So the way they came out in game two just completely flat, looked flaccid, they looked scared. I was like, well, that was a really bad game two. And then also you're losing at home. And then it was just like the same story, game three, game four. And then they started game five. It's just as bad as it gets. So I was just like, I mean, this is fucking, this is just a brutal chilling. And so many Oilers fans were jumping all over us being like, can you just give the Oilers credit for playing the great game?

And I'm like, listen, we have been, but it's also. ignorant to not act like these teams are playing poorly because they are. Yeah, we would say Dallas didn't play to get a potential. I think they agree with that. They didn't. And their potential is to have as strong or more, even better of a supporting cast than Edmonton did. And when you look at the players that stepped up for Edmonton in the series,

whether it's, you know, capping in with the empty netters or Yanmark last night. And, you know, they're losing guys in the lineup and guys are moving up and contributing. Like, I mean, up until game five, Wyatt Johnston was completely invisible. You know, they got nothing out of other guys like Marchman and Ben. Like it was just a really disappointing showing for a team that definitely had the depth to try to win the cup this year. But to give the Oilers their flowers, man, one, they did prevent Dallas from doing the things that might have rattled Skinner, whether it was getting to him near the crease or more importantly, getting rush attempts. That guy is, his state percentage is quite under, below average when he's facing rush attempts.

and Dallas didn't have hardly any of them in the series. And the second thing that they did extremely well was, and this kind of speaks to are the Oilers now playing championship level defense, man, like four shots on goal in the third in each of the last three games is pretty fucking impressive. Like that's like, that's like 95 devil shit right there. And that's like not what you expect from Edmonton. And we can talk about Dallas and them freaking out offensively and not really having an answer.

but there's something to be said for the way that Edmonton is closing out these games. And wish, I would, four shots in the third period is impressive any time, but I would even argue game four kind of and five literally, your life is on the line if you're the stars in that period. And to get four shots in that scenario, when you're like, hey, boys, everything's into the net, we need lumber, chasing the game. That's even more crazy to me. Right.

But I mean, luckily, we now know it's all Ottinger's fault. So, like, you don't have to worry about blaming anybody else but the goalie. Bro, let's talk about that. that. That has to be, we were dancing, we were live during the first period. So I was like, it took me so out of the moment because I was so flabbergasted. That was the most psychotic panic move I've ever seen in my life. And wish, if they had been like flubbed wrist shots from the blue line, no screen that he let in, like, okay, maybe, it was literally a power play where you broke down and Corey Perry's nude in front of the net and then a full clear on breakaway. Yeah. After you get up to

start game five and you can get your all-star goal. Yeah, a breakaway where it looked like all the stars controllers have been unplugged. Like they were just in a coma and let Matthias Yanmark getting back of him for a clear shot at Ottinger. And then the other one obviously is I like Maverick Fork as a player, but I mean, that's what happens when you stick a rookie into a game five in the conference final, which is what Pete did. And then he takes the high sticking penalty, a minute 47 into the game to put McDavid on the power play, hoping and praying you're not going to get down again.

in the game and guess what? So, I mean, like, it was a panic move. If he really wanted to give a jolt to the system of this team, it probably needed to be something in the lineup before the game, like scratching Jamie Ben or some shit. Like, there's ways to, like, wake them up if you're looking to wake them up that don't involve you pulling a demonstrably better goaltender than your backup out of the game after two goals.

The post game was just embarrassing, man. Like, I keep on revisiting what I heard last night and just the idea of, of, you know, him claiming he's not putting it on Ottinger, but it clearly is putting it on Ottinger that they keep falling behind in these games. And then doing something that I don't think is recoverable, if you're Pete DeVore,

which is the idea that your franchise goalie can't beat one team in your conference, which is what he said about Ottinger. He said he had enough of a, you know, of a sample size to see that he couldn't beat the Oilers. And I'm like, pretty good chance you're going to see him next year, Pete. Like, pretty good chance. You're going to see the Oilers again. you just went on the record to say your goalie can't beat them.

Like, how do you recover from that? Can you imagine of like, you know, Coach of the Rangers at some point, which is like, yeah, it's good, but Lungquist will never beat Carolina or some shit. Like, what is, you can't do that with your franchise goalie. You just can't. It's not motivation. It's the admission of defeat. Especially at a position that is so mental, right?

Like all the players to do that to. And wish, I will never know. but I was like, I almost thought Otter said something in that timeout because he goes back to the goal. Like, you know, he comes in there. They do their timeout and then he starts skating back to the goal as if like I'm playing still. And then he gets yanked. Doesn't even shake his miss hand. He's so pissed to the point that I was like, did he say something in the timeout being like, we're dead voice.

And then Auditor and the divorce like, get the fuck out if that's how you think. That's the only excuse. Otherwise, it was a temper tantrum for no fucking reason. I'm so glad you brought your tweet because I saw that before we started to record. and I was like, I want to talk about this so badly, because that is such a good point. Like you have, you have just told the enemy your biggest mental weakness, which you're right. Like, you are going to see them again, most likely. And I genuinely, I was thinking, this is it for DeBore and Dallas after that yank.

And then after those comments, I'm like, you've got to be shagy. If I'm a player on that team and you're asking me to go out there and stand in front of water, who is an amazing young oldender after saying that shit like I would have something to say if you're Jamie Ben and you don't before next season go up to

DeBoar and be like that was fucking insane like you have to address that because that is not what the team needs it's not what otter needs there were a lot of overreactions on Twitter or people being like I would demand a trade if I were otter and sleeping on it I'm kind of like

listen it's not that crazy because that's just that lack of respect and confidence in your all-star level goalie, it just felt like such a petulant comment. It's like, oh, you got dipped down by the Oilers again, and now you're going to, you're an adult man, you're a coach in the NHL,

you're essentially, blame it on your goalie. That's, they might have won that game if he stayed in. Yeah. There was, I got to, somebody put in my feed, Ottinger for Swainman, and I'm like, oh, that is like a Stephen A. Smith first take level take right there. That is an incredible take on that idea. I saw that a few times too.

Yeah, it's just easy swap for swap. It's dumb. You know, Pete was talking like a guy that thought maybe he was going to be fired last night. I think he didn't go scorched earth, but he was saying some things that were really incendiary about this group. Ben was asked about pulling out in Journey kind of just said, it's not my call and didn't really elaborate beyond that. And I don't think he wasn't particularly happy about it. But the idea that the idea that you are down to nothing in the game and the best response, is to make you start worrying about your goaltending even more than you probably are,

which is what happens when you replace Jake Gattinger with Casey to Smith is insane. It's counterintuitive to what you need to be doing at that point in the game, which is concentrating completely on the offensive end. But now all of a sudden you're like, all right, well, the guy that we depend on isn't even in the game anymore. So now maybe we got to like not, not, you know, jump the puck and leave the zone. we got to take care of our defensive end a little bit more than we even want to. If that's a game 5

and it's 2-2 in the series, maybe I could hear this because you're like, I don't know, you know, just we need to spark that game or something. But facing elimination, pulling out the best player on your team is so wild. And wish, how about Ray having to sit right next to him?

Like, Otters? And he's like, Jake Onders been pulled and he's upset. And that was so a savage. I was like, Jesus Christ, move the guy. It's just like, you know, he gave up two goals on two shots, but Jake, not your fault. Just want to let you know in case you're an earshot of this, not your fault. Anyways, it's just like, I felt so bad for everybody involved. That was a good impression, dude.

It was a fantastic impression. That was a good impression. Mostly they are unleashed in the press box to my friends in the media, but you get my ray. You get my ray on this one. You also put in your article wish that, and you just brought it up, that what the stars do with DeBoer will be fascinating. and none of us here are rooting for anyone to ever lose their jobs. But from my POV, I can't even believe he got home last night still employed. Like, I literally cannot fathom that that wasn't done immediately.

Well, the question is, is that where do you turn? I mean, that's part of the math in dismissing your coach is where do you turn? Who is the next guy? Like, is Gerard Gallant the guy? Is Jay Woodcroft the guy? I mean, the Seattle Cracken just had to hire Lane Lambert as your head coach. I mean, like, that's where we are right. now in the coaching carousel. It's not to say that there isn't a better solution. It's not to say that

there isn't guys out there that maybe are circulating around that could make an improvement on what they already have, you know, like a Jeff Halpern or somebody like that, just to throw a name out there that's got a little bit of history with Dallas. But like, that's the trick about any of this stuff. It's what the conversation was about Brindamor as well, which is that you are making so much money in the regular season being successful. The stars have the best points percentage of any team that Pete's coached in the regular season, you're always going to the, you know, penultimate round of the playoffs. Yeah.

Which is a nice bit of revenue for your owner and your, and everybody. I mean, that's true. You can't ignore that. I mean, at the end of the day, it is a business. But, you know, when, when you don't get past that point, when you keep bumping up against that ceiling and when you could make the argument that you're getting, you know, sort of a downgrade each year you're heading there to that round. I mean, there's reasons to believe that it's time to move on.

He's got one more year left on its contract as far as we know. But again, boys, the real issue is, you know, who are you hiring? Who is the guy you're bringing in? I got to take. I want to hear the torts. Don't say courts. Well, if you said, okay, I was like, don't even fucking say torts. All right, what is it?

It's this, dude. So DeBoar goes to, is that in Vegas and they can't win the cup. He gets canned. Cassidy comes in, immediate cup. Cassidy is also about to get canned in Vegas, I think, because he's gone too far. They're not hearing him in the room anymore. So Dallas does the same thing. They go, oh, we'll just fired DeBore for Cassidy again, win an immediate cup.

Cassidy, we fired in Dallas three years from now, but they will finally get over the hump. Wow. Interesting take. I mean, it would probably take someone being fired that hasn't been fired yet. Agreed. And to go there. But as right now, I don't think, I mean, Pete's maybe squeeze as much he's going to squeeze out of this team. but I don't know if there's another coach that I really like trust with getting the same level of results that he's gotten with that team.

He's a really good coach. I know. He just burns out in places. He does. And burns his players out. And it never seems to end all that well for him. But there's no arguing with the success that he has. And that's, again, that's a lot of money you're leaving on the table where all of a sudden you're losing in the first round of the playoffs instead of making it all the way to the conference final.

Yeah. It's Friday. I want to get a little weird with you guys. guys. I was thinking about this. We got trades in the NHL. Why don't we consider the possibility of coaching trades. We're looking at

a team in the West who has lost three straight Western Conference Finals, who can't get over the hump. We got a team in the East who's got a similar issue. What if we do a DeBore, Rod the Bod, swap, just trade them, see if they can get over the hump, little new blood, get some new guys.

I don't know. Maybe. I love it. Just give it a shot. But uh, Logan Stancoven running through the streets of Raleigh right now screaming. No. Like stop. No, no, no, shut up, Dan. Shut up. I just got.

I just escaped it. Don't bring it back on me. Uh, but it's, it is, I like, I like what you say about the, the element of, you know, who's out there. Who are you going to go get? But part of me is like, listen, not, not being reactionary. I, you have to fire it. And I, I, I hate. this part of all of our jobs is like talking about guys getting fired that sucks is someone's

live with his their job you don't want to talk about something getting fired but realistically when you look at the stars when you look at those comments i just don't see a world where you don't move on and it's similar in in the boston situation it looks like we might get a marco stern hiring i want more of that more fresh blood like let's get some younger guys in the league who call mike madonna who where's he who seriously it's like you know but but honestly it's like There are guys who are coaching in the HL level. There are guys coaching overseas who have great track records, who are good coaches. I understand that if you're a team like Dallas, you're in a compete now, right?

Like this team thinks that they should have, could have won a cup or at least fought for a cup. You don't necessarily want to hire a super inexperienced coach where you're like, they don't know how to coach in the playoffs. That's a disaster. I get that. But at the same time, it's like, yeah, what are you going to do? Just hire another one of these guys. Like, are you going to hire a Woodcroft who couldn't get it done in the playoffs?

So it's just like new blood, fuck it. Like, give me a break. Give it a shot. I don't know. It's like you see, you know, Bednar comes in and does really well. Carbs is doing really well. I want more of these young guys who are getting first shots because I think it's good for the league.

Yeah. And he just named two guys that had success at the AHL level that they became, you know, NHL head coaches. I think in Carbs case, he was also an assistant before he became the head coach of the capitals as well, which I don't think Bednar was before he was hired. So there's a, there is a ton of different ways. to look at it in a ton of different directions you can go. But ultimately, there's always going to be hesitation because, like I said,

I mean, if you plug and play with DeBoer next year, you know you're making the playoffs. You know, you're probably winning at least around. And it's hard to, like, give that up. Yeah, correct. Even if you don't necessarily. And the interesting counter argument that DeBoer made last night. I don't know if you guys heard this, but he's talking about how it takes teams a while to break through.

And he bought up specifically the Washington Capitals. who lost in the second round for three consecutive seasons before finally getting past Pittsburgh and winning the cup. And it was interesting that he bought that up because if we were to believe that he has one more year left on his contract, he's like, don't fire you boy. I'm Barry Trots, baby. I'm going to figure this thing out in year four. That was a really, really interesting. I mean, pizza smart guy.

And I don't think that was unintentional that he's just like bringing up the capitals that needed four years under the same coach to figure it out. Yeah, he was doing a little of both, eh? your point. Like he was he was lobbying for himself for that fourth year, but also just in case he gets fired was kind of going scorched earth on some people that. Yeah. He's like, he's like, he's like, I would love to, you know, coach these guys next year, but also fuck these guys. Like yeah, that's a bit of a dichotomy. But your thing is, though, if we're talking about Pete coming back and like under what conditions could he come back. First of all, he's going to have to mend a fence with Ottinger. But, you know, if you look at their roster, I mean, again, Jamie Ben's probably coming

back. Jim Nill has talked about the idea that he's going to be a star for life. They've got some other UFAs. Like, they do have the opportunity to change the mix a little bit to make it feel different than it was this year and maybe improve the team. And is that enough to kind of like change the vibe going into next year or is the vibe just, you know, we're just going to keep on making the same mistake over and over again? Yeah, that's the fear. I do. I do. want to ask you one question, something I brought up on the pod before, and we can move on from the coaching situation. I think that there is an un-talked-about element of lack of adaptability from certain coaches, especially some of these older coaches. We've mentioned before when before it was with

Vegas and then left to Dallas, that next year Vegas played Dallas in the playoffs and beat them. And there are guys on that Vegas team who has said to us, we got into playoffs and we just looked at what Dallas was doing, and we were like, this is just DeBoer's system. We played this last year. We know how to beat it. They adjusted and beat it. And I think that we've seen a few times in the playoffs here.

It's like, I mean, I look at a guy like Knoblock who comes in with that Oilers team last year, does what he does the second half of the season, then takes them to game seven of the Stanley Cup final. And so many times through last playoffs, I feel like we saw the Oilers make not only in series, but in game adjustments to their competition that got them through to the final. And I look at Carolina with Rod, I look at DeBore and Dallas, kind of as far as their coaching style, and Rod, you could say that in his lifestyle, stubborn coaches who are kind of unwilling to make changes to their systems and adapt.

And we're seeing it's like, yes, when you have a really talented roster like Dallas clearly has, like Carolina clearly has, you're going to win a few series. But then when you get into those, you know, third round, Stanley Cup final. And it's every team is so good. You need to make adjustments. And I don't feel like we see that from DeBoer. So to your point, yeah, I'm like, do you guys just want to lose in the Western Comments final every year? Because if so, congrats. Keep ripping it. You're going to lose in five. Enjoy your golf in the beginning of June. But at some point, it's like you have to make a change if you want to take that next step. At Medcan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health, from the big milestones to the

quiet winds. That's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led, full-body checkup that provides a clear picture of your health today and may uncover early signs of conditions like heart disease and cancer. The healthier you means more moments to cherish. Take control of your well-being and book an assessment today. Medcan. Live well for life. Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. That's the truth. The guy that I always think about when it comes to that as John Cooper, who I think is, for my money, the best coach in the league.

There was a time when the lightning couldn't break through the conference final themselves. They would keep getting there and losing. And at some point, and I think it might have been after the disaster in the first round against Columbus, you know, Coup's just like, we're going to dedicate our entire regular season to learning how to defend in the playoffs. And it may not necessarily manifest in being a very good. regular season points-wise. We know we're still going to make the playoffs.

But we are going to learn how to play like you need to play in the playoffs. And I mean, it paid off with back-to-back cups, albeit, you know, pandemic cups as the panther probably point out when, if we went again. But but Cups nonetheless. Yeah, absolutely. Wish, last one I wanted to ask you about was you came on. It must have been summer. I can't remember exactly when, but maybe it was when we were doing our division previews.

And we were all talking about this and a great. reading about this, but you had a quote that was something like the Oilers got the best, last June, the Oilers got the best two weeks of Stuart Skinner's career. And it still was one game short of a championship. Do we think, is he even better now? Or is that still a massive, like, oh, fuck, I don't know that we're good enough to beat Florida in seven? I struggle with this because I didn't think he was good in game one. of the final. Yep. And I didn't think that he should have gotten the lion's share of the credit for game two.

Dallas missed 40 shots in that game. That's so crazy. And they had more giveaways in the first two periods of game two than they had on any full game in the playoffs up until that point. They played like shit. But I got to give him all the flowers for three and four. Like that Skinner played really, really well in those games. What worries me is that I don't think that he was.

as bothered as he's going to be against the cats. Like there's no Sam Bennett buzz in the crease in the same way there will be against Florida or guys crash in the net. Yeah. Or even like, I mean, I have to probably check the numbers, but I think the Panthers are just going to have more high danger chances than Dallas what did insofar as like you think about what Barkoff is able to do around the crease and the way that Verhegey scores goals.

Like I just think that the offensive attack on Skinner is going. going to be different. But again, the bar does, the bar is not set for him to be games three and four. The bar for him is set as don't screw it up. Yep. That's so real. Right. So like, I mean, he's, he's a modern day Chris Osgood in some ways, right?

So, like, he's just got to go in there and not screw it up. And I think that he's probably reached the point in his career where he's not going to screw it up. I mean, I'd be really, really surprised that we saw Pickard again in these playoffs. Oh, my God. Same. Yeah. I think Skinner's just not going to screw it up.

Does it mean he's going to be the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, point of winning or losing in the series, probably not. But I don't, if the question is, where was last year the best two years of his life playing goal, I mean, maybe, but he is, he's probably in the midst of the same kind of run now. Yeah. Agreed. But I still, I still credit Dallas's failure and Edmonton's defense more than I credit the goaltender, which isn't fair to that guy, but it's just how I see it. No, and it's real. And I will say this too, in terms of, of what they need from him. The three series in a row, slightly unfairly in round two against Vegas, but three series in a row,

you have all the narrative when the predictions are coming in are other team, Euler's opponent, has the huge advantage in goal. Darcy Kemper, Evesna finalist, Aidan Hill, say what you want, I think he's good, but, you know, everyone was saying Vegas is the goalie edge, and then Jake Ottinger, obviously, everyone's like, huge goalie advantage. And then those goalies, for whatever reasons, didn't play well. in any of those series. And now you're going against Bob.

And I just don't think you're going to get a bad Bob. The Oilers could win this series. I just don't think they're going to win the series because Bob is getting yanked from games and getting lit up. You'll get like one game of bad Bob. And that'll be the game that makes his numbers for the finals look terrible. Yeah. And then the rest of the time, he'll make every save they need him to make and be the best penalty killer on the team. Yep.

And then in the third period of a one goal game, you're just like, man, that guy just stole it. You know, it's usually the way it works with him. He's never, he's never got the numbers that really blow you away. And I've had many arguments with those in the goalie analytics community about how good he really is. But man, I mean, I covered that Carolina, Florida series. I'd want that guy in my crease. He's really good when you need him to be. And that's game seven last year, right?

Like, Skinner didn't play horribly in game seven. He played well. He played well. Sam Rynard shot back. And Bob was like, I'll get you every save. I would be really surprised at the end of the series. we're talking about like the goal tending. I think at the end of this series,

we'll be talking about the special teams and I think we'll be talking about the depth on both of these teams. In particular, in particular, if you are matching Bennett and Barkoff against Leon and Connor, well now that Marshan,

Listerine and Lundell line might become the most important line in the series. Like that line has produced insanely well. for Florida. And when I look down the Edmonton lineup, I'm impressed. I mean, they're missing some people.

Like Connor Brown hopefully is going to be okay and can come back. But I don't love their bottom six as much as I love Florida's bottom six. And that's kind of maybe a point of demarcation in the series. But you know what's funny? I think that's been the case every series with this Edmonton team. I saw someone say the other, you know, I was like, you know, here we go, rematch. It was always these two teams, blah, blah, blah. And someone was like, yeah, and both teams are probably better than they were last year. They are. And I think they are, but when I look at

Edmonton, I'm like, how? I've been saying this every series. Like, yes, they have the two best, two, maybe the two best players in the world. But I do look at their depth. And frankly, on paper, and by the statistics of the season, their depth isn't good. But they've been insane all playoffs. Like, it has been the difference. We've said it a million times now. Guys on the Kings were like, we lost that series because we lost the depth battle, and that is unacceptable. And they're right. But, you know, fortunately for Edmonton, these guys have stepped up and it's unbelievable to see. To me, the biggest difference is save for like a pretty good one or two, I don't think that they've faced that grade of

defense in L.A., Vegas, and Dallas. I know Dallas. I know Dallas. looks at their D as a strength, but you had Miro coming off an injury. And then, frankly, I think after their top three, it drops off a lot. Florida has four guys who could be a one on more than half the teams in the NFL. So it's like, I think that's going to be a huge factor.

Who's the fourth guy? Mikala? Yes. And again, Mikala is a cloud talking with someone. He's playing like, I mean, I know what you're saying. I think he's playing like it in these playoffs, but I don't quite know if he's on that level yet. But again, to your point, though,

you throw him and Seth Jones, together on the second pairing. That's better than anything they had on the team that won last year. Exactly. Seth Jones is on their second pairing. He's a pretty good player. I mean, Seth Jones, he's the classic, like, you know, get him in a situation where he's not the guy and he's like, oh, I'll be the best player on the team.

And, like, that's what he's doing. It's unbelievable. Dude, that is so right. I had someone on the Panthers tell me that. Like, he was miscast in Chicago. Like, his best hockey came when he was sharing the spotlight or maybe even. you know, in the spotlight of Worensky in Colombia. Exactly. And so he comes from Florida and they're like, dude, we're good. We have

Eckblad and Forsling as our top pairing. You don't have to do shit except your job as the second pairing guy. And I think he's done extremely well with that mindset. Now, things will get interesting if Echblad leaves to free agency and all of a sudden Jones is the number one again, we'll see what happens there. But for right now, I mean, he's perfectly cast. Yeah. I'm getting ahead of myself, but I will say this is what I have my eyes on at the All-Star game in Florida, what, two years ago or three years ago, whenever the fuck that was. We were with a bunch of the guys

at Elbow Room, and Seth Jones was outside, and there was a big line, and they were like, can you get him in? Not that I had pulled, but I was just with the group. So we were like, yeah, yo, he's with us. And Seth Jones said, I don't like this place too crowded. And if they win the cup, he better take his ass into Elbow Room.

That better change immediately, dude. That's all I have to say about that. Well, again, like, if that ever happens, Seth, if you're listening, there's a cigar bar right down the road from Elbow Room. That's true. I like to haunt that place. Get yourself a whiskey. Get yourself a smoke.

They got lots of TVs. I'm personally not an elbow room man myself. I've been there a couple times. I've experienced it. I like a bit more of a chill atmosphere. Yeah. You and Jonesy. Me and you, baby.

We're good at in Fort Lauderdale together. Oh, incredible. Okay, which, what, you got the Marsham piece? When does that come out? Tell everyone else what you got coming up. Monday for Marsha. Shand Tuesday for my pick column and then Tuesday also for the final probably edition of Kahn Smyth Watch, which for those I don't know, the gimmick is that I ask all the writers

who probably will be voting on the award what their current ballots are, their top three. We do the same thing for the NHL awards during the season. I was both heartened and scared when someone in the betting community told me that when these articles come out, they move the lines, which is like, that's actually hilarious, Unlimited power. Yeah, you're affecting Vegas. Yeah, right. So, but it's always fascinating to see, I've gotten a bunch of the ballots in so far, you know,

and it's interesting to see the mindset of some of the people that are going to be voting on this thing. It's not as cut and dry as you'd imagine. Connor's the favorite, I assume. I haven't tabulated it yet, but he's obviously on a bunch of them. But, I mean, there's also a lot of Barkoff love, a lot of Bob love. I want to do. Get stew in that.

Stu love does not exist. And the reason why is because we do it right in hockey, which is it's an MVP award for the totality of the playoffs. Yeah. So like, you know, it's hard to square. Like, I mean, maybe if he has an incredible final, he can climb back into it, but it's hard to square a guy who got yanked and sat,

winning the MVP for his team. But it's a really interesting mix of players. And I think the top three will be a little bit different than what the current lines are. Yeah. Stu's going to have a shutout in game one, and you're all going to be eating your words. I mean, it might be in future right now. Yeah. And then I'm in Edmonton on Tuesday for Media Day.

It's going to be, it's going to be a zoo. And I spent a good, like, 90 minutes last night booking my travel out for the next few weeks. Oh, dude, good for you. We're about to do that right after we got off. You got to do it early, especially, I mean, I, normally I'm a last minute guy, but when it comes to Edmonton and Florida, I learned the hard way last year that you. you got to lock in those flights. Those flights go away real quick and all of a sudden you're on a, you know,

a two-hop skipper between Edmonton, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, and then off to Florida. I'm just like, I'm cooked. There's only one flight from L.A. to Edmonton, and it's flown by Harrison Ford, so we've got to get on it pretty quick. There are times last year I'm like, in order to get to Fort Lauderdale on time, I'm going to have to be on a plane with a bunch of sheep and cages in order to get this. Yeah. True, dude. It's so true.

A tandem skydye with Tom Cruise over the Everglades is where, is how I'm getting it. That actually sounds sick. I would do that. Yeah, it sounds sick too. I mean, he is the literal, he's the manifestation of destiny from what I understand. Yeah, truly. All right, Wish, you're the best. Thank you for hopping

on and we'll see you in a few days. Yeah. All right, boys. Thanks, everybody. Great stuff, buddy. Absolutely incredible stuff today, man. I want to run through some quick hitters with you before we go. And I'll just rapid fire. But just real quick, huge shout out to Wish. Guys, in the chat, if you're not following Greg Wischinski on Twitter, IG, everything,

reading his articles, make sure to do so. He's one of the best in the biz. It's really unbelievable, unbelievable human. So just a hilarious start to that hockey game. To go to take a penalty, WISH talked about it, to take a penalty and then just go down in two minutes. and then to give up a full, clear, full ice breakaway in the first seven minutes of an at-home game five elimination game.

Hilarious start. Dude, hilarious. And I do want to say this. It's obviously, like Maverick Bork is obviously not trying to high stick anyone there. But when you, if you're Dallas and you have had the start to literally every game in this series, literally, every single one. and your fans are bitching about calls, your coach is bitching about calls. You've just got to start that game and make sure you don't take a stupid penalty.

Yeah. And again, Maverick Bork, amazing player. But like, that is a flailing one-handed stick that you're like, you're trying to up over it around a guy. Like, you can't be doing that, pal. So it's just, it's an absolute nightmare start. Then, yeah, giving up a breakaway. I don't even know what to say. You give up another breakaway to McDavid later in the game.

I know, but that one is like just outrageous, you know, I don't want to get ahead of myself. But like that is a message for Florida who has given up a lot of odd man rushes with stupid pinches, bad passes. You will die against this team if you do that. But I was dogging Dallas hard. We were playing bingo last night and I was dogging them. I was like, this is a mercy rule dude to end it.

But like I did with Carolina, I want to give them a few stick taps for the fight. You could have laid down immediately. But you tried to fight. You kept getting it to one goal. And then you immediately gave up another goal. It was, I can't imagine what Dallas fans were feeling watching that disastrous game. It got scary because the Oilers became, the Oilers are the executioners, as we know. We know that they have killed their opponent, the first chance they've gotten every round. Every round. The first chance they get to eliminate a team, every round this playoffs, they have killed them. They are the executioners. We all know this. And then last night, they also became the emergency response team.

So now they're the executioners and the emergency response team. And that is going to be very hard to beat. And shout out to Knoblock, too, right? Because you said it earlier. He's unbelievable. That dude, I think it's sixth ever to go to the cup, your first two years as a head coach, first since Scotty Bowman. Yeah.

So, like, they are absolutely buzzing right now, which is incredible. But, Dan, you had mentioned DeBoer. We were talking about it with Wish. He's so right about you know what you're getting. But listen to this, dude. He has been to six of the last eight Western Conference Finals, if you go all the way back. Three straight with Dallas, missed playoffs with Vegas,

two straight with Vegas, missed playoffs with sharks, wet with sharks. He's 10 and 24 in those games over the last eight years in the Western Conference Finals. And there are some bad losses in the game. The sharks to that 2019 Blues team, awful. Vegas to Montreal.

Awful. And then Dallas. he got rinsed by Vegas with Dallas and then gets rinsed by Dallas or excuse me, I flipped that, but you know what I'm saying? He got crushed by Dallas with Vegas, then crushed by Vegas with Dallas. He can't do this much longer. No, it's, you're fired.

You're fired. You lose. You get nothing. Good day. I mean it when I say I hate talking about coaches and talking about their jobs. It is a person's livelihood. But I am telling you right now, like, You are, you're fired, dude. Like, this is, if you're Jim Nill and you don't fire this man literally tomorrow, and I don't give a fuck who's available.

Hire me. Hire me to coach this team. But you just, it's, you have to make a move here. It's weird. Hockey's weird, because I don't know who is to blame when your star forwards go so cold. Because it's hard for me to go, it's completely the coach on not making adjustments. Because at the end of the day, I'm like, hey, hey, Dutchie, say, score a goal. him and granny had a horrible series.

You know, like they couldn't even, they felt like they couldn't stick handle. They couldn't pass. They were whipping stuff. I mean, I feel like you got to add, I don't mean to dogging the old boys, but if you're going to mention, I think Granny was actually buzzing several times,

but if you're going to say that, like Sags and Ben. Yeah, yeah. Sags Ben Dutchie in that series. Like those are some of you, those were your old dogs, like your depth dogs who. Why, Johnson? Who did some, well, but he's a stud. I'm talking about your old dogs.

who are like, those guys need to step up and they completely went to sleep. Robo got hot too late. And I commend him for getting hot and doing anything. But he just got hot too late. Rantanin, dude, have a theory for you on Rantanin. I think that the Keynes getting killed ended any hope of the revenge tour narrative

and it sucked the life out of Rantan. Yeah. He was like, oh, if the Cains were winning, Rantan would we still be scoring? Because he's like, I want to play them too. But when the Cains died, the Cains killed Rantin. The cane sucked the life out of Rantin.

They killed any momentum. Yeah. Yeah. He had no reason to stay hot, dude. So, like, I think that's fucking crazy. I like that take. And Dan, Dallas, this playoff, seven and no when they gave up two goals or less,

two and nine when they gave up three goals or more. And I'm not saying they didn't score a lot of goals in the games they gave up two or less, but you had the biggest depth, firepower offensive lineup in NHL history, and you couldn't win a fucking game if you gave up more than three goals. I know. Like, that's fucking insane, dude. I want to just get into it. to the final matchup for a couple minutes here before we close out.

We're obviously well beyond an hour here. I think this Florida team is so good. I think this Edmonton team has been playing so well. I said it last night. It was always these two teams. I can't believe we ever thought it was going to be anything different. We're so dumb for thinking it was. Both teams are just playing.

I'm like, how could either of these teams lose? I'm obviously on the Panthers bandwagon. Yep. But I do look at Edmonton and I look at how calm Connor feels. They do have, you know, Florida last year was like, we went last year and we lost. We've learned some stuff. Yeah. Well, Edmonton has that factor now too.

And I think that that's a bit rattling if you're Florida. Like I know a lot of Florida fans are very cock. They're not cocky. They're very confident. They're pretty unbothered by this matchup. But I'll tell you what, man, every single round this year, Edmonton gets in and the other team is unbothered. They're like fucking.

Edmonton, they've got two players. Fuck this team. We're going to get in Stu Skinner's grill. Skinner has a shutout in like every fucking series. And I'm like, dude, you're just, you lose. You eventually just lose to this team. So I think that this series, if you are a confident Florida fan, I think you are in for a very rude awakening.

And I'm not saying you're going to lose, but I'm saying like, I think this is going to be a fucking battle. Yep. We will do our full prediction on the pod for Tuesday morning. but McDavid is so good, you're right. He, so he got his 100th assist. Second fastest to 100th playoff assist. Gretzky did it in 70 games, which is fucking hilarious.

McDavid did it in 90. The next closest is 125. And he's been really picking it up. He's still not quite scoring at the rate, but he's, you know, he's on that trajectory of, I think Wish actually tweeted it. Maybe you said that he could win consmite and lose again. I know, it would be so funny. But he's on that trajectory.

Like legitimately, that would be so funny. This is the second time in this. series, Dan, that we saw McDavid score a late second period goal right when Dallas got it to one to push it back to two that completely deaded the game again. Well, that was what I was about to say. Connor doesn't need to score. He's never been a score. He needs to score backbreaking goals and that's what he's doing.

So good, bro. So like, that's it. I don't give a fuck if he's not scoring all the time. All he needs to do is score the goal that kills you and that's what he's doing. So he's, Connor is at peak Connor. He is. peak Connor and it's about to be the Stanley Cup final so that is another thing for Florida that's like that's bad that's very bad for you did he Edmonton fans in the chat

tell me and you might remember did he always do the flying J mouthguard thing coming out because I swear Matt that was a Matthew Pachukh then well Matthew choose on it Connor has always had it hang he's always had the flying J out okay because I feel like him and dry settle doing that now everybody's doing it I actually think if you don't do it you're not good I think you should all just either wear a mouthguard or don't wear a mouth bag that's interesting I like that I like that. And then you said it. He had a great quote after that was like,

we feel calm. You know, this isn't a big deal to us at all. I loved that. And I loved this too, Dan. And I know I'm just gassing upstew because I love them. But this, I'm glad they won a game where he saw if you go by him.

Because, you know, they'd only won if he gives up zero or one. Yeah. And if he gives up more, it's like, well, we lose. I'm actually glad that he was like, I didn't play that great. I gave up three goals on 17 shots and the boys had my back. So I actually thought that was great for my boy, dude. My boy, Stu, the stash, fear the stash, dude.

And otherwise, man, it's, God, we talked about Otter enough. Oh, last thing for you, I'm actually really glad that Freddie or Marci will win a cup. I'm really glad that the Bruins shit got everybody. That's nice for Bruins fans. No matter what, all those trades, one of them is going to get a cup, so that's nice. That makes me very happy. Yeah, that's beautiful. All right, amazing shit from the chat.

guys thanks for bearing with us with the mic stuff edge you're a hero for getting that worked out uh peep the peep the shirt on cp netters bear beautiful stuff like we said snaps baby new sponsor of the live unbelievable stuff we can you can get all this information we have snaps on our on our bio and all that stuff check out our merch on the screen right now we've got the lakehouse crew and then yeah oilers fans cats fans we've got those amazing shirts we drop the new rat pack shirt for you cats fans make sure you scoop one of those everything's in the link in our bio empty netters dot shop go there check it out have a phenomenal weekend folks we will i think we'll be back for the live on monday i think so yeah um and then you know we're we're we're getting it

going here we're going to be hitting the road we're going to be buzzing around for the final so make sure to follow us on everything and we will see you soon have an awesome weekend everybody thanks to osh thanks to wish have a great weekend skate hard