Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Talking some Jacques Martin with Jon Chik of Locked On Rangers!

Episode Date: September 3, 2020

Today is a very special episode of Locked On Penguins as Hunter is joined by Jon Chik of Locked on Rangers to discuss their hiring of former Penguins assistant coach Jacques Martin. Hunter talks about Martin's defensive impact and the scheme he likes to run, as well as how he'll fit in with the Rangers coaching staff. The two then discuss the goaltending market and free agency as it's sure to be wild. Will teams spend less this offseason due to the flat cap? The two ponder that question, plus talk about the Stanley Cup Playoffs and how we're getting at least one Game 7 in this second round. Finally, they touch on the awful playoff commercials that have been playing and how overplayed they've become. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, welcome to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast for Thursday. This is your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter, at L-O. Ones War Penguins. Today's episode, we have a very special episode. We did a crossover with John Chek of Lockedon Rangers. We talked about Jacques Mertan going in the Rangers and what Rangers fans can expect for him, as well as the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Also talked about some really, really bad playoff commercials that are very, very overplayed. Tomorrow's episode, we will have Jeff, known as Latang Colt from Penguins, Twitter on. We're going to go over the TSN Trade Bapboard and look at some players that could be a fit for the Penguins, even though there would be a lot of salary cap things to figure out with that. As always, this show is brought to you by rockado.com. Amazing selection, reliably low prices. All the parts of car will ever need, visit rockago.com and tell them Lockdown sent you. But for now, guys, enjoy this very special crossover episode with John Chick of Lockedon Rangers. All right, welcome back, everyone. We've got a special crossover episode for you guys say.

This is John Chick with Lockdown New York Rangers. joined by Hunter Hodes of Lockedon Penguins. Hunter, how we doing today, buddy? Not doing too, too, bad man. You know, just another day in paradise as we keep going through the playoffs and, you know, just through the whole pandemic and everything. Yeah, I mean, I know that obviously both of us

would want our team to still be alive at this point, but the Stanley Cup playoffs are still the Stanley Cup playoffs and they've definitely been a lot of fun to watch. And hey, we're going to get at least one game seven this round with the Avalanche and the Stars there, which just been a crazy series. Yeah, it looked like we weren't going to get any game sevens or game sixes as every series was three games to watch.

but it looks like we may have a team that actually comes back from the three games to one deficit. So we'll see how that game seven goes and really excited to watch it. Absolutely. And, you know, I figure we'll jump right into this here. The obvious connection here with Rangers and Penguins is that your assistant coach is now our assistant coach, the Rangers hiring Jock Marte to the position of assistant coach. He essentially replaces Lindy Ruff.

What are your general thoughts upon hearing that, you know, the Rangers have hired Marte as a coach? And do you think this is a good hire for the Rangers? Yeah, no, he's a really, really good hire. He's a big upgrade over Lindy Ruff. I would always see a lot of Rangers fans go at Lindy Ruff because the defensive numbers under him look like we're kind of pissed poor. But, you know, he'll bring different voice to the room and different element.

When him and Mike Sullivan were running their defensive system and when it was working, they would do a 1-2-2 neutral zone trap. It didn't show, it wasn't as good the last couple of years just for obvious reasons with the personnel. But when it was really going, a lot of teams just would not get chance. I mean, early on this season, the blueprint was there at times, especially when, you know, Cindy Crosi was out. And Chris Teng missed some C games, and they're getting Malkin missed some games. And so they would just play better defensively and they would actually stick to the blueprint. But when they would all come back, it would just go to all hell.

But, you know, in 2016 and 2017, that neutral zone trap just frustrated a lot of teams. He does really good work on the penalty kill. The Penguins penalty kill was always mostly top 10 under Jacques Martin. So that should be an area of improvement there for the reason. Rangers. But yeah, I think this, someone like Adam Fox will really benefit from Martin, you know, just with his defensive system. And, you know, he did, he did also trap a lot when he was the head coach. So, you know, he'll bring that kind of thing to the Rangers. But, you know, I do really think this is going to be a good hire for them. Yeah, for sure. And, you know, the Rangers penalty

kill unit. It's a unit that has definitely struggled over the last couple seasons. Part of that is, it's just a byproduct of having a young team and, you know, just trying to figure it out and put all the pieces together. But, I mean, is he good enough that he can come in and, you know, maybe at least make this, I mean, a bare minimum, like at least an average penalty kill next season to maybe slightly above average? Can he make that kind of an impact right away? Yeah. Yeah, I absolutely think he can. I mean, our penalty kill was pretty good before he got here, but he transformed it into a really, really, really, really unit when he did get here. Like I said, it was like top five, top ten most of the seasons. He should be able to get yours to at least average, especially,

you know, as your younger players start to get older, you know, they get more experience. He's very experienced with dealing with penalty kills and being a defensive-minded coach. So I really think he can get that going, you know, get the Rangers, better defense, I think, in front of their goaltenders. And at the end of the season,

I wanted to get your reaction to this. He's let go by the penguins, so is Sergey Gonshire, so is Mark Recky. And I just wanted to know, were you in favor of the penguins? I mean, obviously Mike Sullivan's still there, but were you in favor of the penguins kind of cleaning house there?

Did that seem a little too extreme given that, you know, they've won two Stanley Cups. And I believe all three of those guys were there for the two Stanley Cup championship teams. So I just wanted to get your thoughts on that. Yeah. Mark Reiki was, I don't think was he, I'm not sure. Was he there for 2016-17? I don't think he was. I'm not 100%.

I thought I'm not seeing that, but yeah. I think Rekakka was still there. Marki came after that. So this is when I was recording an episode and when I was talking about that. I'm like, yeah, I kind of expected Mark Recky to go. he just was terrible with the powerplay. It was unacceptable how bad the player was power play was this season. It was like hovering at barely average with two of the best players in the world.

I know you're without Phil Castle who just makes the power play even much better, but to have an average power play with two the best players in the world, that's just unacceptable. He was just so out of his league. But then, you know, I was like, I think they're going to bring Martan and Gontra after I post the episode. They're all fired. So I was basically just like, don't listen to that episode. But, I mean, I was really surprised they,

did fire Gonshire. I think he was he did a good job with the defenseman and you know he turned air good rants into a semi-decent player for a little bit before he was traded. No one can save Jack Johnson because he's just unsavable at this point. Martin, I wasn't as I mean, I was surprised, but I guess like not as surprised as like Gonshar, I guess. But the big thing is they want new fresh voices in the room. That's the way to go about it. They're not going to fire Mike Sullivan. I saw people wanting to fire Mike Sullivan after this run. I think those people are a little bit delusional. I give them at least another half of the season and if the team doesn't improve it, or if they're just average, maybe you think about canning him, you have potentially his replacement

on the staff right now in Belucci. But, you know, I wasn't surprised that one of them was fired. Two of them, I was kind of surprised. But in the end, I'm fine with it. It gets fresh new voices in the room, fresh new ideas, and hopefully they can push Mike Sullivan to make some potential better decisions with the lineup because he was definitely not blameless in that first round series against Montreal with his roster management. Right. I mean, it sounds like from what you're saying, Mark Recky was probably going to be gone no matter what.

I mean, maybe if the Penguins would have gone on a Stanley Cup run and maybe then he would have been okay. But, you know, obviously the qualifying round loss to the Montreal, that leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouths. Do you think the other two guys may have been safe if they had at least gotten past Montreal or do you think they were gone no matter what? Yeah, that's a good question. I think they may have been able to come back. I think their contracts were up after this season anyway,

so Jim Ruther would have to make a decision one way or another. I think they probably would have kept Gonshar, and I was speaking to a couple of beat reporters for the Penguins, and they told me that, you know, they were really surprised that Gonshaw was let go just because of how much the organization respects him and just, you know, the job that he's done there. He also wouldn't be surprised that he comes back in another capacity,

though I think that would be kind of weird, especially after he was just let go. But Martin, that's tough. I think maybe he would have left, but I think Gonshire would have stayed, I think, is my guess, on that. Gotcha. And I saw you did an episode on Todd Reardon yesterday. He begins his second stint with the Penguins. He's a new assistant coach, Mike Volucci, another new assistant coach for the Penguins.

Do you feel good about these hires? Do you like these guys that they've brought in? Yeah, I'm fine with Todd Reardon coming back. Reardon was really never cut out to be a head coach. I mean, I think everyone saw that with the Washington Capitals, how they just had two first-front-knit's in a row. It's kind of been over his head. But the one thing that he does know how to do very well,

well, two things. You know, he runs a very, very good power play. When the Pengman, when he was coaching the power play, I think was 2010 and 2014. They finished top 10 in the league every season. I think the best that they finished was third. Maybe they were first one year, but I know they're definitely third in one of those years.

And this was before Phil Kessel came in, who of course transformed the power play into one of the best power plays this team has ever seen. But, you know, he just, he knows how to run a power play, which is really, really, really good. It can't be worse than it was this last season. He'll instill some new ideas with that. He also works well at defensemen. Chris will tang at some of his best seasons of his career when he was with Todd Reardon. So getting Chris back to that level, I mean, Chris did go to another level after Reardon left in 2015-16, but if Chris can get back to that level and to a level that he was when Reardon was here, that would be very, very good as well. He also can work with Brian Dumlin, who

just continues to excel, John Marino, Marcus Peders, and all that. And then with Volucci, I think this is a slam dunk too. I know he's never coached in the NHL that he's just mostly been in the minor leagues, but, you know, he's overseen the development of someone like J.T. Miller and James Neal and Tyler Sagan. So, you know, he's been around the league for a long time. I mean, like I said, I know he hasn't coached in the NHLB. He's just been around the game a long time.

He's been around Jim Rutherford for a long time. I wasn't surprised when he was promoted. and I said it earlier. I said it yesterday on my episode, too. If the team struggles next season and Mike Sullivan is cans somehow, he's decided that I was going to replace Mike Sullivan. They will not give the keys to Todd Weird, and that's for sure. Fair enough.

Shifting gears a little bit, I thought we could kind of turn our attention to free agency as, you know, Penguins fans and Ranger fans, we all kind of start to look toward the off season. I'm noticing the Penguins, it looks like they have 10 free agents, and I'm sure you're aware of them, but I'll just run through the list really fast for anyone who may not be. You've got Justin Schultz, Matt Murray, Conner Sheary, Jared McCann, Sam Lafferty, Anthony Angelo, Dominique Simon, Tristan Yeri, Yusso, Ricola, and Patrick Marlow are out of this whole list. Are there one or two guys that you really need to see back with the Penguins next season? I mean, do you want to see Matt Murray back? The goalie situation. Just give me a feel for that if you can. Two of them, Tristan Jari and Jared McCann. Tishon Jari is going to get signed. I think they are going to trade Matt Murray. There's been a lot of Matt Murray trade rumors last couple days. It looks like that my

be a bidding war, which is nice for me. Hopefully Jim Rutherford can get a nice return for him and a team can overpay for a two-time assistant league up champion goalie. But I think Connor Sherry is going to walk. I wouldn't be surprised if they did resign him, but I think he's gone. Though I just really don't see the room for him coming back. Marlow's gone. Justin Schultz has gone. I can tell you, John, that I was talking a couple B reporters and the organization was not happy with Justin Schultz and the way that he came into the bubble and the way he played. But yeah, he still somehow got a lot of ice time. He's gone, though. So that opens up a spot on the third pairing.

You so reclosed in Mike Sullivan's doghouse. He's probably not coming back. Sam Lackle might be back maybe on a short-term little deal. Dominic Simone might be back. But Jerry McCann, I think, should come back. I know he's been the subject of trade rumors lately, but you've got to give him new competent linemates. It wasn't right when he was with Marlow and Hornquist on that third line in the playoffs. It was just that line was just there.

And the possession numbers were just terrible and they weren't getting a lot of scoring chances. I just want to see McCann with two competent wingers on the third line so that he can play center because I do think he is a good center and a lot of his struggles were because of his shooting percentage tank tanked. So I think it would be wise to give him a new contract, but you know if he's going to ask for $4 million per, you know, you might have to say no to that. Everyone else I honestly think is going to walk. They just don't have the cap space. I know they kind of want to cut salary just because of, you know, COVID and everything like that.

So there's probably only a couple of their RFAs, UFAs combined that they're going to bring back. Now that we have a break during this episode, it's time to talk about rockaw.com. It's a family business serving auto park customers online for 20 years. You go to rockout.com to shop for auto and body parts from hundreds of manufacturers. They have everything from engine control modules and brake parts to tail limbs, motor oil, and even new carpet. Whether it's for your classic or daily driver, you can get everything you need and a few easy cliques delivered directly to your door. Best of all, the prices at rockadoaddle.com are always reliably. low and they're the same for professionals and do yourselves.

You can go to rockado.com right now and see all the parts of bill over for your car truck. You write locked on in there, how did you hear about us, Fox? They know we sent you. Amazing selection, reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. That is rock auto.com. Yeah, it's crazy. You just touched on this a little bit, but it's crazy how much of a difference it can make depending on who you're out there with.

Because you look at what the Rangers, you know, Ryan Strom, he's going to be a restricted free agent this off season. And it's a situation where, you know, it seems about 50, 50, although I'm kind of starting to see some whispers that, you know, maybe the Rangers are going to get a deal done with him. But, you know, he's a guy who's kind of been a journeyman. And then this past year has the best season of his career. And, I mean, listen, he deserves credit for that, but it's also due at least in part to the fact that he's out there with Artemian every single night. And we saw what he did this season. But it really is crazy how much of a difference it can make, how much better somebody can look, just depending on, you know, who their linemates are.

Yeah, that is pretty crazy to me. I mean, Pascal Dupuypley played with Sidney Crosby after playing on like the third and fourth lines for some of his career. And then he had his career season. And they paid him. But, you know, I think his contract was a little too rich, even though I do really like Pascal Dupuy as a player. So, yeah, when you're playing with Artemone, Perno, your numbers are going to grow up, you know, same as playing, I think, with any star.

So, but yeah, I think in those contract negotiations, they're going to have to be pretty careful because, you know, do you think he can repeat this next year? If they play, play him with him or if they play him in the bottom six or whatever, that's, I think, going to be the big question. I'm with that, I guess. Yeah, it's crazy, man, because, you know, the Rangers have eight free agents right now, and, you know, some of them are restricted, some of them are unrestricted. But the bottom line is with just about all of them, you can really make a solid case either way for either bringing them back or letting them walk.

I mean, with Ryan Strom, as you just mentioned, can he do this again? How much of this is because he was out there with Artemian Panarin? Is there going to come a time where, you know, we'll have a better second line center and Ryan Strom will move down to the third line and then his production, you know, tails off. and then you've got guys like, you know, Tony DiAngelo. He just had a phenomenal season for the Rangers, but can he do it again? And do they really need him, given the fact that they have other two-way defensemen, such as guys like Adam Fox and Jacob Truba,

and even, you know, coming down the pipe in future years here, we're going to see Kay Andre Miller and Nils Lunkwas at some point as well. So, yeah, I mean, it's crazy, man. I'm glad I'm not the Ranger GM. I'm glad I'm not the one in charge of all these decisions because, you know, I've been spending a lot of time on free agency. You really can make a case both ways for a lot of these players. and I'm sure it's kind of the same deal with the Penguins as well.

Yeah, it's going to be a crazy market in the crazy offseason, especially with the flat cap. I think you're going to see some teams try to shed salary any way they can with the COVID situation. And just, you know, they're not going to try to pay these players what they want because just because with the flat cap is not going to go up for the next couple of seasons. It was expected to go up a lot these next couple of seasons. But, you know, this happened and teams are going to have to live with it. You know, Seattle is probably licking their chops right now with some of the free agents

and the players that they can get in the expansion. draft because some of these teams aren't going to be able to pay some of the players that are up soon. So it's just, it's going to be a crazy offseason with these RFAs and UFAs. I'm hoping we get an offer sheet at some point. We saw one last year with, um, uh, his, it's, his name is, it's one of the, it's the Carolina player and it's just killing me that I can't. Oh, Sebastian Otto. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. I thought, I just didn't think of it for a second. But yeah, so we saw one last offseason. We're really hoping maybe we get another one this offseason, but I'm not going to hold my breath for it. Right. I mean, is there any chance that you could see the

penguins going after one of these top tier free agents from around the league? I mean, it sounds like, you know, the penguins, from what you're telling me, they're kind of just going to focus on their own guys. I mean, we do have, you know, these big name free agents like Alex Peter Angel, like Taylor Hall, like Tori Krug. Is there any chance the penguins make a play here, or do you think that's out of their price range at this time? Yeah, way out of their price range. Yeah. I mean, they're trying to cut salary anyway. They got to dump some more salary and you can't traded. Praying that Jack Johnson gets off this team so the team can contend again, but

Jim Rutherford seems to make, have this personal and just have it out for the fan base. It just doesn't like him. But I'm not saying that. There's partial Hornquist could potentially be on the trading back. His trading block is $5.3 million is a bit too rich right now. I know he had his rejuvenated season, but you know, that cap hit is just going to look, I think, worse and worse as a couple of years go by. But it's just, I think a lot of these big name free agents are out of their price

range. One, free agent, though, that could be cheap. I would really like them to go out and get as Dylan DeMello. He can play on the right side on the third pairing. He probably signed him to do like a one or two-year deal for just a couple million per season. He's a free agent again. He was a free agent last year.

He went to Ottawa, then he was traded to Winnipeg. So he'd be the perfect Justin Schultz replacement. It's elite defensive suppression numbers. He can move the puck. He would just be a really good fit in Mike Sullivan's system. So those are the kind of players that I think, you know, the penguins are going to try and go after, just one of those, some of those lower tier price players. that's kind of what I've been thinking the Rangers are going to do as well.

I mean, I don't know that this is the season to really go nuts and free agency because if you look at, you know, you Google a list of the top free agents available on top 25 free agents, top 30 free agents. And, you know, you look at it and there's good players, no doubt, take nothing away from these guys. But I kind of get the feeling that a lot of these guys are going to be end up being overpaid because I don't know that this is the deepest free agent class that you've ever seen. And so if you're the Rangers, you know, every now and then you'll go on social media and you'll say, oh, man, we should go after Tori Krug. and, you know, Tori Krugge is a great player. But again, you know, you're kind of, if you get Tori Krugue, you're probably going to be paying him, I don't know, five and a half, six million a year somewhere in there.

And you already have several two-way defensemen on your team. So you're kind of going to handcuff yourself as far as what you can do in future years. So I just don't know whether you're the Rangers, the Penguins, or really anyone else. I don't know that this is the year to really go nuts and free agency. Unless you're one of those teams that thinks like, man, we are Alex Peter Angelou away from winning the Stanley Cup. We're Tori Krug away from winning the Cup. We're Robin Lennar away from running the cup. You know what I mean?

So, yeah. Unless they have a lot of salary cap space. You know, you look at team like Colorado. They have a ton of cap space, I think. Going into season, they have to be careful because they have a couple of extensions they're going to have to do coming up. I think Rantam, my car is going to be up in a couple years.

I think Ranton is going to be up in a couple years. So, you know, they'll have to worry about that. But, you know, they have a lot of cap space right now. I definitely see a team like that. I mean, my question is how many of these big-name free agents didn't even know when we make it to free agency. I think the Blues are going to really. re-signed petrangelo, but it's going to be pricing.

And for crude, he's probably going to want over $6 million. It's probably going to be closer to $7 to $8 if I had to guess. But yeah, just, you know, a lot of GM just make mistakes in free agency. I don't think this year will be any different. I think you'll still see some mistakes. You know, the goaltending market, especially with Braden Holpe, some team is going to overpay him way too much, you know, he was bad this season. So I'm just fascinated to see, you know, how teams approach this free

agency in just such a different time that we're in right now. It's going to be very interesting. And, you know, the first day of free agency is always nuts. Everybody just kind of hits the ground running and, you know, players sign with teams faster than you can even, you know, tweet about it really. So, yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it as well, man. And, you know, it really is going to be crazy. With the Penguins, though, let me just kind of play devil's advocate a little bit here.

So obviously, you know, Crosby, Malkin, they're getting into their early to mid-30s at this point. A couple guys on that team getting a little bit older. Chris Lattang is another one. Is there any pressure to kind of, I don't know, maybe not this year, but next year in free agency, to kind of add to this team before the quote unquote window closes? I mean, are we at that point with the penguins? Or you feel like they can still be a, you know, a very good team for a lot of years going forward

with that same core group? No, I think they're at that point. You know, there's probably only about a couple, two to three years left before this really, really starts to go downhill and they get the crossing Malconi into around like 35, 36, 37 years of age. after the 2022 season, Malkins' contract is up, Lattang's contract is up, Capon's contract is up, and, you know, it's going to be pricey to retain, you know, some of these,

a lot of these players are just up after that season. I think Brian Russ contract is up after that season or the season after that. So it's just, yeah, there's a lot of pressure to add, you know, from going into next season and going into the season after that. I mean, that's why they traded their first round pick. I didn't agree with the asset management for the Cepaarie captain and trade. but I guess it's a new point now

because you're nother just really didn't give a shit about it but you know the time is now they're trying to get that for a Stanley Cup for them I don't know if it's going to happen but you're going to probably see them trade more assets to get more players to come in they're not going to really sign anyone for agency

like I just talked about because they're trying to cut salary and they're just too far up against the cap but yeah it's really about just two to three years more of this window before you know it really, really starts to just slam shot as they just get well under their mid-30s and into their late 30s, if we're being honest. Yeah, I hear you.

And, you know, the thing I keep telling Ranger fans, I've kind of been preaching patience as far as, you know, because they definitely took a step in the right direction this year, you know, that second half surge and getting into the 2014 playoff tournament, getting some playoff experience and all that good stuff. But I don't want them to kind of overextend themselves and go reaching for free agents that maybe they shouldn't. And, you know, you have to keep in mind as well, you know, they've got guys, this guy, Mika Zabedadad, you probably.

heard of. In two years, he's going to have to be paid. So you have to make sure that you have some cap space available for that. And, you know, again, I just don't think this is the strongest free agent class that we've ever seen. And the other thing, after, after this next season ends, Brennan Smith, Mark Stahl, Henrik Lunkwis, all free agents, all their contracts coming off the books. And I think at this point, probably fair game to say that all those guys are probably overpaid. So maybe if you're the Rangers next year, maybe that's the market to dive into. I haven't had a chance to take a look at who will be a free agent around the league next season, but definitely, I could see them maybe being a little bit more aggressive this year than

maybe they will be this year. Yeah, I'm definitely thinking that too. And, you know, I just wonder if that was Hendr-Lunquist last year off because, you know, those two young goaltenders in that next season. So I wonder if they're going to try to, like, buy now, you know, ask him if he wants to retire. I think that's going to be a fascinating story as we go into free agency is, I don't know if he would want to play for another team.

I think he just really likes it in New York from everything I've read. So that would be a big chunk of salary off your cap too. I think it's like, what, $7 to $8 billion that he makes. So that's a fascinating situation. I'm really curious to see if he calls it quits just during this off season. Yeah, there's so many different ways that this could go, and I don't think any of them are off the table. I mean, he could retire.

It's possible that maybe they talk him into waiving the no-move clause and you train him to a contending team. You know, I'm definitely optimistic about the direction that the Rangers are heading, but by that same token, do I think they're going to win the Stanley Cup next year and give Henrik Lundquist this storybook ending to his career? No, I really don't. So I would love to see him, you know, if he's up to do, if he's up for it, waving his no move clause and accepting trade to a team like, you know, maybe the blues,

you know, they might be looking for a backup goalie after they just traded Jake Allen, maybe a team like the avalanche, a team that gives him a chance to win the Stanley Cup, even in a backup role, hey, the Stanley Cup is still the Stanley Cup. You still get your name on it. So I would love to see that, but then there's this part of me that's like, oh, but man, he could play his whole career with the Rangers, and that's pretty cool because nobody ever does that anymore. Nobody ever spends their whole career with one team.

So, yeah, it's crazy. And then a big X factor here, I mean, we all know Igor Shus Thurkin's going to be back next year. He's going to be the man. He's hopefully going to be the franchise goalie. But you've got Alex Georgiav, who's a restricted free agent. And I think a lot of Ranger fans and analysts are counting it as a little bit more of a slam dunk than I am, that he's going to be back next season because the Rangers, they tend not to really pay their backup goalie.

So I could see maybe a trade being worked out. there or maybe he just gets a better offer of being a restricted free agent and ends up somewhere else and that could open the door for Lundquist to stay for one more season just finish out his career with the Rangers but yeah man it is an absolutely fascinating situation i think you hit the nail on the head with that word because again this this could go one of about three four five six different ways here with Henrik Lunkwist yeah that's going to be really really interesting to watch yeah jeff has a big decision to make with with those goaltenders it's not going to be an easy one probably one way or the other because you know you're not really going to have three goals going

season. That's just, that just can't happen. So something's going to have to give, you know, maybe a team like Calgary could use Henner Conquist. I don't know if we're going to sign back Cam Talbot. He'll be goalie needing. I mean, Chicago is going to need a goalie if they don't want to re-sign Corey Crawford. There's just, the goalie market is just really, really big this offseason. It's bigger than it has been in a long time. Yeah. So a lot of teams are going to be looking for new goalies. So that's just, I think that's the big talk of this offseason is the goal-tending market, to be honest with you. Absolutely. Definitely it'll be interesting to track there. And, you know, I figure we can end this maybe with doing a couple of predictions. I'm going to put you on the spot here, Hunter. Who do you think is going to lift the Stanley Cup this season? Who you got?

Oh, man. This is, I'm going to go Tampa. Tampa is really impressive me right now. I think Vegas can take them. That series would go seven games if both of those team meets in the Stanley Cup final. But I like Tampa too much right now. They're giving me some 2018 Capitals vibes. I hate to say that. But they really. really are. It's not the team that embarrass them in the first round in Columbus, and they crushed Austin. I know without Tuka Rass, but still Yarsal-Lock is a very capable goaltender. Us Penguins fans would know that far too well as well as Capitals fans. So, I mean, that Boston team was also really, really good. But I just don't think Philadelphia, the Islanders can be for them four out of seven times.

I know the Islanders have been really impressive. The little stingy system that Barry Tross runs is very boring to watch. It's annoying to watch. but, you know, it's effective. Yeah. They're going to keep doing it until they're eliminated or until they somehow win. But, you know, I just, I really, Campa, they're just so deep at every position.

Their forwards are incredible. Their defense, they have the X-Pactor goal in Vasilevsky. I do think Vegas is going to meet them there. I don't think, I just don't think Vancouver is going to beat them two more times. They got really lucky in game five that their goaltender just turned into God for 60 minutes. to decide. Pretty much what happened, yeah. I think they outshot them 43 to 17.

And he just was like, yeah, I'm going to be God for 60 minutes and just not let anything pass me. That's for Demko, right? Yes, it was Demko, yeah. I was surprised they've been more string for that. But it worked. Yeah, yeah. I won't see Colorado go against Vegas, though, but I mean, who knows what's going to happen

in that game seven, though, to be honest. But I think it's going to be Vegas, Tampa in the final. Fair enough. I think I'm going to go with Tampa. I mean, that's kind of the pick to make, right? right now on the Eastern Conference, because we don't know who's going to come out of Philly and the Islanders. But, yeah, I think you made a great comparison there, you know, comparing this Tampa Bay Lightning

team to the 2018 capitals, that team that's been knocking on the door and knocking on the door, knocking on the door, and then, you know, finally ends up breaking through sooner or later, you know, the talent just kind of shines through. I could definitely see Tampa getting to the finals. I'll take them to win the east. But I'm going to stick with, in the preseason, I said avalanche over maple leaves in the finals. So, yeah, I didn't do so well with the Maple Leafs. We saw what happened there.

They choked again in the first round. But yeah, I got to stick with the Avalanche at this point, especially that they've won games five and six in the series against the stars. And might be able to complete the three one comeback, which would be a lot of fun to see. Yeah, that would be, that would be a really fun. That's going to be a fun game seven to watch. I don't know if they can beat Vegas in a seven game series.

Vegas can just roll two number one lines at you like it's nothing, and they're just a juggernaut right now. But that would just be, I think everyone's rooting for a Vegas call the Western Conference final. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I would love if Colorado came out of the West, though I will say that. Definitely.

And now, is there anyone you would like to see win the Stanley Cup? Forget about who you think is going to win. Just any team that you're pulling for for one reason or another? Yeah, Colorado, for sure. I love Nathan McKinnon. I think he's a top three player

on the planet right now. There's just a fun team to watch. I love watching Kelmokar, Wantonon, Landis Kog. I mean, hopefully Grubauer can come back. I'm also a big Dallas Starsan. I know they kind of play a little bit of boring hockey, not as boring as the Anders, but still, you know, I love watching Jamie Ben and Tyler Sagan and Rajulov do their

thing, and Amirot Heis Hyskinen is going to win a Norris someday. He's just blossoming into a star. Also, wouldn't mind if Tampa wins. But, you know, the big two that I would really like seeing winter Dallas and Colorado. I really wouldn't care if Tampa won, too. But also, Vegas, I'm kind of like on the fence about Vegas because, you know, some of the media would just, you know, talk about Mark Andre Fleury more, even though he usually had nothing to do with this Stanley Cup run for Vegas right now because Leonard's basically been

starting the whole time. So I really wouldn't look forward to that. But the two teams I would like are Colorado and Dallas. What do you think? So I kind of got used to rooting for the lightning in this past round because they were up against the Bruins. So naturally being a Ranger fan, you're not going to root for the Bruins. And then, you know, you look at the other two teams left in the Eastern Conference. You get the Flyers. You got the Islanders. As a Ranger fan, probably as a Penguin fan, too. You're probably not going to root for one of those teams, I wouldn't think. Yeah, and then just the simple fact that former Ranger captain, Ryan McDonough, is on the Lightning, and he's got a chance to win the Stanley Cup.

So, I mean, I know there's a couple other former Rangers. You know, you got Kevin Hayes in the Flyers, Derek Broussard on the Islanders. I mean, Vladislav de Mesa Cuff. I don't really care about him. He's on the avalanche. But yeah, but overall, I mean, I think I would definitely have to root for the lightning. Just to see McDonelliff lift the cup. I mean, it would kind of be bitters sweet to see him do it with a team other than the Rangers.

But McDonough was awesome, man. It wasn't his fault that the Rangers traded him. The guy was, you know, a block shot machine and led the Rangers on some really deep playoff runs. So at this point, I think I got to pull for the lightning. And then in the Western Conference, I'll pull for the Avalanche a little bit as well. Yeah, Colorado, Tampa would be a really fun Stanley Cup final team. I'm honestly just cool with Tampa versus Colorado, Dallas, Vegas, just any one of those three Western Conference teams. I don't think Vancouver is going to get there.

I think Vancouver is still a couple of years away. But, yeah, I think I'm basically cool with any final like that. But, you know, since it's 2020, man, we're totally going to get like a Stars Islanders born final festival, trapping it down. Yeah, I don't think that's what the NHL is looking for because, you know, if you're looking to bring in some new fans, which at least seems possible, you know, everybody's kind of stuck inside these days. I don't know that that's the most exciting Stanley Cup final matchup that you can see. I think, you know, at least in terms of, forget about markets, just in terms of style of play. I think Lightning and Avalanche would be what the NHL would want to see and what would be most exciting for a casual hockey fan. Yeah, exactly. Lightning

Adelanch, Lightning Vegas, that would just be just a track meet between two powerhouse teams. Yeah, it would be a lot of fun. The only other thing I thought we could end on here, so these commercials that we've been forced to watch during these Stanley Cup playoffs, you know which ones I'm talking about? Like the Subway commercial and the one with the Geico commercial,

the woman's singing about. I can't. It's just, you know, it's so bad. Especially, you know, just with Ryan Whitney, get that commercial off my TV. I changed the channel when I see it. The Paul Mistonet or Paul Bisdenet or whatever the hell that is. It's just like, it's so overweight.

Yeah, the subway one is awful. I think the one with David Posternak and Kendall Coins-Field is just, you've seen that one too, right? That one is just really, really bad too. Yeah. I've never been forced to, I've never been forced to endure such a vast collection of terrible commercials just over and over and over and over again. The Paul missed the net one.

That one was, I'll give that one a pass. That one was funny like the first two or three times I saw it. By the 70 or 80th time that I've seen it, I'm done with that. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's just like the more productive commercials. They just get old after a while. And I just, you know, if the NBA is on, I switched it out for three minutes.

Or if there's a movie on, I switch that. I just, I can't watch. I can't watch them. They're so bad. It's atrocious. And, you know, definitely keep your, your remote handy. That mute button really comes in handy when those commercials are on. All right. Well, hey, Hunter, this was a ton of fun, man. I'm definitely up for doing this again in the

off season. We'll see what happens with the Rangers and the Penguins. But hey, yeah, enjoy the rest of the Stanley Cup playoffs and we'll talk soon, I'm sure. Yeah, yeah, you too, man. Yeah, we'll definitely do this as free agency comes in like October or something in the draft too. Absolutely. And Ranger fans, Penguin fans, thank you guys so much for tuning in. We'll see you guys next time.