Puck Soup - Do Or Die

Episode Date: May 10, 2023

Sean and Ryan discuss where all the series stand (including you-know-who), then talk about the Gerard Gallant firing, the draft lottery, and more.   Sponsored by HelloFresh (hellofresh.com/pucksoup16) and Raycon (buyraycon.com/puck)

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I am Sean McAnew from The Athletic. And we're like halfway through the second round. Isn't that crazy?

It feels like the first round took forever, and this one is ripping by. It is. And it can't go quick enough because it stinks. It is bad. So, okay, I literally had that as the first thing written down. I've seen this take a few times. Has the second round sucked? I think it has.

Yeah. I mean, it's, we've got... A lot of blowouts. A lot of blowouts. What, one overtime game? That sounds right. How'd that one work out, by the way? Not awesome.

Not fantastic. Interesting. And you've got one series three nothing, one series three one that feels closer to three nothing. And then a couple of decent series. But some good story, some lots of goals in at least a few of the series. But I mean, look, round one was very, very good. From an entertainment perspective, that was a fantastic first round. And this one, maybe it's just suffering by comparison, but has not delivered.

Yeah, no, for sure. I think the stat they said last night during the Dallas-Seattle game was that there have been 17 different four-goal leads in the second round so far. Wow. There were only been 14 games, you know? That's not fantastic. It's up big. Yeah. They can pull away again.

And it's reminding me, actually, in the NCAA tournament this year, in the first two rounds of it, I can't remember the exact numbers here. But I believe the teams that won spent eight times more time leading by eight goals or more than losing at any point. Wow. Like they just every team that won in that tournament like jumped on the other team and sounds like the early 80s NHL Yeah it was ridiculous like it was crazy because every game you're watching you're like oh this one's nine to one this one's eight to two whatever it is And yeah every single game was like that and it does it's funny because like watching these games like Seattle uh Dallas last night being being a good example where it's like Yeah, I guess Dallas did score a shitload of goals in the second period, but it didn't really, it didn't feel that way so much to me, like watching the game.

And then, I guess that's also true of Carolina. I'm assuming you watched the Carolina game, right? I saw big chunks of it, yeah. Yeah. So what was funny about that game was they went up, I think, what was, they must have. gone up two one because they gave up almost they gave up a goal almost immediately and they go up two goals like halfway through the second period and I literally thought to myself like this isn't like totally against the run of play like a two one lead for either team is plausible

but like this has been a really close game and then they scored three more goals in like five and a half minutes yeah and I was like oh shit okay wow um And what it struck me watching that game was there was a lot of time in that game where nothing was happening really at either end. And then it seemed like Carolina had like two or three big pushes throughout the game and was more interested or more successful maybe in just denying New Jersey any kind of access to the net, you know? and then when they had their chance, they took it and converted, obviously. But I don't know. I guess what I'm saying is all these games have felt closer than the final score might suggest,

except maybe in the Edmonton Vegas series. Like all those games have been like yikes. I guess except for the first one in that, that was kind of close. But the last two have been kind of like, whoa, Jesus Christ, okay. calm down everybody. Yep. So, I don't know. So, yeah.

Bad round, but could set up some pretty good matchups in the conference final. But we'll get there. Yeah. The other thing I want to say here, and this is like kind of an overarching feeling I have about this round and its quality overall is how many, good goalies are left standing? Like actual good, I trust these guys goalies? Jake Ottinger?

I think list over. That might be the list. That might be the whole list. Isn't that crazy? And in fact, it's crazy because I was just, the radio thing I was doing just before we record this, I found myself saying that Jake Ottinger's like the only proven

goalie left in the playoffs. And I was kind of like, wait, proven goalie. The guy's like 25. And he just got lit up twice in this series. And he said like one and a half good seasons. And I'm like, all right. This guy's bankable. Now there's a guy I can trust.

But like Stuart Skinner and whatever like fifth string goalie Vegas is going to be wheeling out tonight. Right? Yeah, tonight's game. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's tonight. Gruberr, obviously, you know, nice track record with Colorado. But it looks like anybody can have a nice track record with Colorado a little bit. Um, Sergei Bavrovsky, obviously he has the pedigree, but like, you know, he's a two, I think the only current two-time Vesna winner who's like active in the league.

Mm-hmm. And yet, they didn't even trust this guy to start in the fucking playoffs this year. And maybe he wasn't healthy or whatever, but like, no, I mean, but he hasn't been good for years. Years. I mean, since he went to Florida. He has not been a good goaltender until right now. Yep. Toronto and New Jersey, both using Capitals castoffs, as we've said before. And New Jersey, in fact, is saying like Akira Schmidt, a guy nobody had ever heard of until like three months ago, that guy's our starter.

Yeah. And the Leaf's Capitals cast off now hurts. And they're turning to their third string guy instead of the proven playoff goalie that they went out and got in the. offseason. Yeah. And obviously, Carolina, like the second they give up that bad goal last night, everyone's like, playoff ready is back. Yep. It's like, okay, well, I mean, we put the cart before the horse with that one a little bit, I feel like, but, you know, the points well taken.

Every team has used two goalies at this point. Yeah. And we're getting pretty close to every team having started two goalies. Dallas won't have. As Seattle, I can't imagine Martin, And Martin Jones is started. Martin Jones came in last night. I don't think he's started.

And Edmonton hasn't started Jack Campbell yet, although they've used him a couple of times. But I mean, we're getting right up there. Yeah. In a league where the cliche is, if you've got two goalies, you don't have one, it sure are a lot of teams that have two goalies. And a lot of teams that have one goalie sitting on the sidelines

because the four best goalies in the playoffs all lost in the first round. That's exactly right What's interesting here I just looked it up 28 different goalies Have played in the playoffs so far That's a lot for There are only 16 teams in the playoffs

Yep You know Yeah absolutely So yeah It's It's really fucking interesting Yeah the only goalies That have not

Given up a start yet To their backups Grubauer Ottinger Sonov, which it looks like he'll do that tonight. Skinner and Braswa. And that'll change as well, because he's, he's hurt. And I mean, we've already got like, I mean, Carolina at least has already used three

goalies. I don't know if any of the other surviving teams are up to three, but that's extremely rare, you know, and we may see some other teams get there, especially if they go on longer runs. I mean, Vegas has got Jonathan Quicks sitting there and other guys. potentially, you know, who knows me, but we do see Matt Murray for the Leafs at some point. It's, uh... Yeah, you're right. Carolina, the only team to use all three.

But that's, uh, it's very, very rare to use three goalies and have any kind of success. Penguins did it famously a few years ago, but they're the exception. Yep. Um, all right, why don't we get into last night's games? I have it written down here, devil's on the brink. what do we think of how things have gone all of a sudden for? Yeah, boy, I'm so, I'm so hesitant to count the devils out because. Agreed, totally.

You know, this has been the story of their season, really, you know, slow start and then roar back to life, saw it in the first round. But that one last night was a tough one, because I think a lot of us, you saw them lose the first two games, look really outclassed, and we all went, aha, this is the same thing we saw against the Rangers, hold on, wait until games three and four, come out, sure enough, win game three. And then last night, that's got to be a bit of a demoralizing one. I mean, it's not over, but I think at this point, Carolina certainly looks like the better team. Yeah, totally.

It's a bad position to be in if you're the Devils right now. Yeah, like I said, like they just did not let the Devils anywhere near the goal last night, except on that first one. And even that, like, everybody was killing Freddie Anderson because it looked bad, but, you know, obviously it got deflected right out in front of the net. And so whatever. But what was interesting watching that game is that it took Lindy Rough till, I think, the fourth or fifth goal to make the pull. And this just, again, like. circles back to the devils don't have a goalie they trust yeah it really it really does seem to be

that simple um and not that the goalie would obviously you would like van check to be better than he was last night but that i wouldn't i wouldn't put a any game where your team scores one goal i'm not really putting that on the goalie um unless unless you know extenuating circumstances i guess but last night certainly wasn't one of them um i think the that they said during the game last night was, and this is when I knew the devils were, you know, in a lot of trouble, was Carolina is like 11 and 2 at home in the playoffs over the last two years and like two and nine on the road or something like that. And when you're a team that can pick up that road win, as they did last night, like pretty

easily, does not pretend good things for the devils because Carolina has two. two more home games, you know? Yep. Yeah. It's tough. It is. And it's, the Akira Schmidt story was great.

It's awesome when goal is hot. Right up until it wasn't, yeah. But sometimes they don't stay hot. Sometimes they do. At least for long enough that you could ride them out, but maybe not the case here. So, I mean, again, I'm not counting the devil's out. They're a really good team.

And if they get, you know, we saw it in the Ranger series. If they get fired up, they can take it to Carolina tomorrow night. Absolutely. Why wouldn't they be able to, you know? But on the other hand, you know, they got to win three straight. And I can't imagine too many teams are going to have an easy time doing that against this Hurricanes team. Yeah. So where are we at then on the hurricanes?

Because it feels like they've been everybody's kind of the smart persons pick, the analytics darlings, whatever you want to call them for years. But then this year with all the injuries, it was just kind of like, all right, maybe this is just not the year. Yeah, that was definitely my thought coming into this. Well, I didn't even think they'd win in the first round because I figured Sorokin would be. be enough to, you know, stop their, their offense, like, dead in its tracks just because they didn't have the horses. But obviously, I mean, you know. So, I mean, are we back to, like, Carolina's elite team?

Are they the favorite at this point? I think you kind of have to say that, like, with all their guys being hurt, do you know how many fucking goals they've scored in this round? They're up to, like, 21 or something like that. In four games against a team as good defensively as the devils are supposed to be? And again, like, part of that is the goalies, you never should have trusted them. Three of their most dangerous, what, four or five forwards out? I'd say four, yeah.

Well. Marty Nache is going psycho mode on him, you know? It's been really, really impressive. Like I said, I didn't. Look, Jordan Marnook might be the MVP of this round right now. He's got nine points in four games. He didn't have any in the first round. And I guess that's the one thing that, as great a story as that is, that's the part that makes me want to pump the brakes a little bit and go, wait a second.

Yeah, they look great, but they look great with George Martin looking like Wayne Greta. Sure. Is this going to last? Is this actually anything other than a four or five game fluke? Fluk's a bad word because fluke makes it sound like he's just, you know, having pucks bounce off his behind. But is this a mega hot streak that is not going to last? Sure it is. Yeah.

So, yeah, I don't know. But like you said, the devils are a real good team, and Carolina is making them look like not a real good team, which is a big compliment to the Carolina hurricane. And as I said before, like, you know, we were all kind of waiting for the devil's goaltending to turn back into a pumpkin. Here we are, you know. And it's a situation where Carolina is making them pay for every mistake in the way that Florida did to Boston in the first round.

Oh, you made a mistake? It's in the back of your net every single time, basically. And obviously, you know, I wouldn't say any goalie is this bad, but this was always the risk they were running. and if Carolina plays Florida in the next round, which is, it certainly looks like it's trending in that direction, it'll be two teams going against each other that are kind of succeeding in the same way a little bit. So I'm really curious to see that, but like, look, Freddie Anderson's had like,

what, two bad games in this playoff? One? Mm-hmm. Probably two. think you would say too because he wasn't particularly good in that one game in the Islander series where they gave up four or five but like if all the if they keep playing this well all they need is for Freddie Anderson to be fine and they will keep winning you know you got to hand it to them and I like you say I don't want to start backing up the the loader

full of dirt onto the devil's grave quite yet but we should all support. I know. Just, you know, one last thing to say is playoff Freddie, the guy's got a better save percentage in the playoffs over his career than he does in the regular season. Sure. And as a Lee fan, look,

he gives up bad goals at bad times. That absolutely did happen, so I do get that. But this thing now, we're like, every time he gets scored on, we're all like, oh, it's playoff Freddie. I mean, if you do, didn't have the numbers in front of you, you would think this guy just totally turned into a pumpkin when the postseason arrived. And that hasn't been the case for the most.

Totally. Yeah. Where is he in terms of league-wide save percentage at this point? Freddie Anderson, Freddie Anderson. He's been at 930 in the playoffs so far this year. It's not, it's not like the kind of thing that you want to, uh, that you want to like poo-pooh him for, you know? Mm-hmm. Um, can't do much better than 9.30. But that's, uh, if you want to say that's the, the, the, the environment in which he is doing his goaltending more than him, him personally, I, I'm perfectly happy to say that. But, you know, if you, they don't, they don't, they don't like, put,

an asterisk if you win the cup. Oh, they had a system goalie this year, you know? Yep. I got nothing bad to say about what Caroline is doing. They look really good except for that one game in both rounds. Both of them were game three now that I think about it. What's that all about? Anyway, Dallas, Seattle, you have any thoughts on this one?

I still think Dallas wins, but can't help but be impressed by Seattle, man. Like this, they just keep. They're scoring. They're getting Ottinger. like I said. Yeah. Which is, again, like this, man, don't you wonder, like, Seattle does pull this off and goes even deeper. Like, at what point does this start changing people's philosophies of,

you know, are there GMs out there going, yeah, we'll do the thing with the four second lines. We'll, you know, we'll, I mean, I don't know how you replicate this. I don't know how you sit there and go, what if our best defenseman was like a Vince Dunn type guy? Right. What if our best forward was. was a Jared McCann type of guy, and we had two lousy goalies, and it's still somehow all

worked. But it is working. And it's working. You know, it's a hell of a ride for, uh, for them. I, I, again, I think Dallas wins, but I've been wrong about Seattle pretty much everything that's come out of my mouth in the last 12 months. So, well, that's, that's probably not good news for Dallas. Yeah. Uh, I mean, so that's the thing, right, with the, with the two second lines thing. I, I, I, I think I said this last week. This is a team that had the, fourth highest shooting percentage in the like advanced stats era as a team. You know what I mean? Like fourth highest ever.

And as you say, you don't look at this roster and say to yourself, well, look, they got Carr and McDavid. They got Leon Dreisdell. They have Ryan Nugent Hopkins. They're going to fill the net. What are you talking about here? You know, but, you know, they show, I think it was like close to 12% in the regular season. And in the postseason, it is similarly.

They're almost at 15% in this series alone. I don't have the full thing in front of me here, but they're, they're, they're just scoring on one and every, like, six shots, basically, five shots. Or, no, one in every six or seven shots, I should say. And that's a recipe for success. I don't know, like, that you can replicate it, but it's working for them, obviously, you know. And this is, but this is the other thing to say. You know what their record in the playoffs right now is?

There's six and five with two overtime wins. Yeah. You know? But that's, I mean. Goals in their series, 35 to 35. Yeah. Sometimes it's just finding them in the right place. Yeah.

No, like, I guess that's if you would say, okay, they went, they went seven games in the first series and they're tied to two, two in the second series. Obviously, they're only going to be six and five, but just them having like a dead even goal difference kind of, to me, tells the story of how they're doing this. The puck's jumping in the net for them. And they're also not really getting goaltending. Again, I don't know if that's sustainable, but it's working so far. Like I don't want to, like I said, they're getting to Jake Ottinger. They have what? Uh, 14, 17 goals in four games against them? Did you think there would be any stretch in the playoffs where Jake Ottinger gave up 17 goals in four games?

Yeah, if it was against Edmonton. Maybe, sure, yeah. But, you know, Colorado in that second round series we all knew was coming, maybe, but sure as hell not Seattle. So, yeah, I look, like Dallas took it to him last night. There's no two ways about it. But they clawed back into that game. There's no, no quit in Seattle, I think is what the, the slogan is, right? But you also can't get to get into a situation where,

or you go down four nothing in any, like halfway through any game and really expect to win. So I don't know. I'm really, I'm really curious to see how this works out. I'm like you. I think this should be Dallas's series. wouldn't surprise me at all if they won the next two games and that was that, you know?

But I would have said that going into this series like, oh, Dallas should beat these guys pretty easily and I said it about Colorado and they keep doing it. Now, I don't know if the things they do well translate to a 16% shooting percentage

or whatever it is, but you can't knock them for, you can't knock them for doing it. It's just... Oh yeah, no, I mean, this is... It's a situation where do I expect them to keep doing it? Probably I don't. But at this time of year especially, like the...

They'll regress, they'll regress, they'll regress. That shit's for the regular season. You know, they only have three more games in this series. They don't have to regress right now. That's fine. A lot of things can happen in a seven-game series. This is now three. three-game series.

Bingo. I mean, and they need to win one of the next two to turn it into a one-game series, and then you throw your hands up, right? I mean, then it's just, who knows? So hell of a ride, man. Imagine being a Seattle fan, relatively new to this, and this is your first playoff run. It'd be pretty cool.

That would make me into a fan, I think. Yeah. I can't imagine how you weren't on board after the regular season, if you're a Seattle person. But yeah, now, I mean, any kind of a deep playoff run should be getting you pretty hyped up. I mean, it worked for Vegas, right? You know? Sure did.

It's weird to think about, like, how would Vegas have worked out if they had been bad for the first two years instead of insanely good? Are we talking about them as like, oh, this is one of the exciting markets in the league? I don't know. It's hard to say. It's not. I guess that's why you have these really expansion team-friendly expansion draft rules. Yeah, that guarantee the teams will be good. Good-ish anyway.

Unless you're Seattle in the year one. So, yeah, I don't know. I do think it's going to be very interesting once Seattle is done to see where things shake out as far as what people project them to be next year. but we'll save that discussion for when they're actually out. I don't want to do it right yet, but I really, I'm curious to see whether people slot them in as a legit contender next year. People expect them to be a team that slides back.

Yeah. Am I right about this since the last time we did the show, Joe Fevelski has scored six goals in four games, including one four goal game? Did he have the four goal game? Yeah. Yeah. I think we recorded all of last week's episode before. the second round started.

I think last week's episode, I think the entire game got played during the seven hours that we were recording that episode last week. Again, it was just a classic thing. We had to talk about a shitload of teams. And it was a kind of heavy news week. Sure was.

But yeah. Pavelski, having a whopper of a series. Max Domi's having a really good series. I think he leads Dallas in total points right now. That was a sneaky. Deadline pickup. Yeah, you know, I thought he, let me put it this way. I did not think there would be a point where, oh, you know who Dallas is leading score in the second round is?

And you're like, well, surely it's Jason Robertson. No, he doesn't have a single goal. He only has one assist. Well, it must be Joe Pavelski. You would think, but it's Max Domey. That was not high on my list at all. The fact that Jason Robertson has been kind of a letdown in the playoffs is it's the classic, right? It's bad news for Dallas, except here they are two wins away from going on to round three.

And, I mean, this kid's not going to stay cold for two full months. So you wouldn't think. You sort of sit there and go, well, when he gets going, ooh boy. Yeah. And I guess one last thing we should talk about is how injuries may or may not be impacting this series. You wonder about Robertson just because you're not You're not used to this guy Only having two goals and however many games they've played

Right like I don't I know he hasn't scored one in this series Because I'm looking at the series Stat sheet But I think he only had one or two in the last round Like and people were kind of talking about it But also like they kind of breeze past in Minnesota So what do we really care about that But now now you're right

It is more like a point of concern a little bit and yet they're more than keeping up with with with Seattle here offensively so yep I don't know I um I wonder if he's heard I guess is my point but what about Miro Heiskenon now there's a guy yeah that was a an ugly moment and but I mean that's a that's a classic hockey thing right is to see the guy come back with the carved in face and play 30 minutes or whatever it was. 31 minutes last night.

Can you believe that? A game after taking a puck to the face. And apparently I saw this quote was basically like the facial injury is affecting how he eats and sleeps. And he's like, yeah, I'll just go out there and play 31 minutes. No problem. Not a big deal to me. I'm Mira Heisken. And that's 31 minutes in a game that like wasn't even.

Yeah. You know, geez, imagine if they went to overtime or, you know, played a one cool game. the guy's a stuff. He's really good. But the other injury thing, I guess, is Jared McCann is back. Only played 13 minutes. It was his first game in like three weeks, I want to say. So, no, he played against Colorado.

What am I talking about? But a week and a half, two weeks he hadn't played. And I don't know if they were just easing him in or if he's you know, maybe playing at 80% or what, but, um, nice to see him back. He's dangerous. But I mean, played 13 minutes, but again, like, this is this whole Seattle depth thing. Like, he was, he was mostly a 15 minute, 15, 16 minute guy during a lot of the regular season, too. So not, not a huge drop.

Like, you would think maybe you would assume a 40-goal guy is, is your 20-minute forward, but hasn't really been. in the case with how they've used him. But yeah, that's obviously big. Yep. You know who I'd like to see get going for Seattle, by the way, is Tolvinen. Mm-hmm. There's a guy, boy, I've always been a fan, but I just, I don't feel like he's really doing a lot out there, you know?

Nope. And look, like, if you're in a situation where a guy you picked up basically for free mid-season, and you're like, boy, we really need to get him going. Like that both speaks to how little offensive pop they have, but also how much depth they're winning with. You know what I mean? So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see if Dallas can kind of get a better handle on controlling their depth with, you know,

with hopefully having a full lineup and that kind of stuff. But yeah, yeah, this has been a... a really fun series so far like last night's game not being a blowout kind of notwithstanding like this is this is what you're looking for isn't it yep yeah it's it's been actually i was going to say it's been the best series so far i'm not i'm not sure it has been because best series in this round i yeah well i i i was going to say you know we'll get to Vegas, Edmonton, but it's been a very good series. Up for this lousy round, this has been pretty good. Yeah, sure. All right, why don't we, uh, why don't we take a break? We'll come back and we'll

talk about tonight's games. This week's episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by Hello Fresh and folks. You like cooking at home? I love cooking at home. I do it quite a bit, three, four, five times a week. I'm happy to do it. It's a, it's something that gives me a lot of pleasure in my life. And one of the things I didn't like about cooking at home for a really long time is like, okay, you find a recipe that looks good online, you go to the store, you're like, oh, I got to buy like nine lemons to make this, to make this, uh, dish. I'm not going to use nine lemons, you know, whatever. It gets, uh, it gets expensive and it gets to be kind of a headache, right? But, uh, Hello Fresh makes it all way easier. They give you like a pre-portioned, uh, ingredients that gives

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Again, that's hellofresh.com slash PuckSoup 16. Code PuckSoup 16 for 16 free meals, free shipping. And that's just part of the reason why. HelloFresh is America's number one meal kit. All right, we're back. we got to talk about tonight's games and Sean, I hate to do this to you. The Toronto Maple Leafs, not doing so hot. Do we, in fact, got to talk about them?

I feel like... I feel like if we skip them, nobody would notice. Nobody would mention that. Yeah, they'd just be walking around all day going, I feel like there were some takes that I missed out on, but I can't put my finger on it. My take is that playoff hockey is stupid. and nobody should like it. When I talked to you for the bonus episode the other day,

what did you say? What did I say? Yeah, you basically said, oh, this not caring about any team things that old RL has going on. Yeah, your whole thing of like being kind of like generally a hockey fan and an NHL fan, but not having one specific team that dictates your mood on a given day is,

yeah, it's looking pretty wise. Right. Yeah, we'll be laughing in 30 years when the Leafs finally do win that Stanley Cup. Pretty generous estimate from you, but okay, sure. So what do you think? How do you, I mean, obviously, you don't, you're not going to feel like it's going well, but like, what's your general take on this series? The Leafs played well enough to win, you could say, in the first two games.

Didn't, and I mean, it's the playoffs, so nobody, you don't get any, you don't get any moral victory points. But, you know, they... Now, you say that, but what if they show you a lot of respect in the line? Okay. All right. I need an update on that. I want to hear how much respect there was in the handshake line. So, you know, you go into game three, you're thinking, all right, you know, win this game, keep playing like that.

Hey, we can, maybe we can do this. game three they they were not good and i know you know it went to overtime and one bounce goes different and i thought game three was unequivocally their worst game of this series like not even of the yeah not even not even a debate and i mean i i guess not their worst of the playoffs because game one against the lightning where they just got absolutely smoked but um and and so now obviously you're down 3-0. You need, it's not enough to just be the best team. If they can even manage that against the Panthers.

It's, you know, you need all sorts of things. You need all the bounces. You need, you know, to win four straight is going to be extraordinarily tough. Now, they go out tonight. They win that game. Now you're coming home. Obviously, a lot of people will point out, well, you know, the Panthers last series was three to one,

and we all thought that one was over, and here we go. But, boy, it's tough. And again, like, if they had lost game three, but it had been like game one and two, they're the better team, and they didn't dominate those two games, but they, you know, they were the 60, 40 better team for those games.

If it happens again and they lose, maybe the feeling is different, but right now, I mean, it, it kind of feels like we're back to the, round one vibe where it's like if this ends the way it looks like it's going to end, then what do you do next? So, I don't know, man. And no, no Simpsona of unless they're really pulling a fast one on them.

They're going with Joseph Wall. So, you know, a guy with like 15 career games, which you really... I wouldn't even guess it was that many, right? I mean, and he's been good and you don't really have a choice. Sure. I mean, Matt Murray has not played in a month because he was hurt like he always is. So, yeah, a ton of discourse, as they would say, around the, you know, the core four guys again. No production whatsoever from them in this round, no goals scored.

And yet also there have been some numbers put out saying like, hey, if you go by expected goals and this and that, they're playing just as well in this series as they were last time. And it's just the puck just isn't going in. Yeah, when you're getting goaled by Sergei Bavrovsky, like that's on you. I don't know what you tell you. That's it. I mean, it's so I don't know. I mean, it's it's not, this team is talented enough to win four games in a row. But it's also, you know, we can be realistic and say that it's extraordinarily unlikely that it's going to play out that way.

And full credit to the Panthers, too. I know there's all sorts of people out there. Everyone's talking about the Leafs, not the Panthers. Yeah, I invite you to learn about how math works and how, you know, the media business works, if you can't understand why the focus is more on the Leafs and the Panthers. But the Panthers are playing great. everything, almost everything,

including especially the goal tending, is clicking for them at just the right time. Full credit to them. I mean, they don't, I mean,

they got Paul Maurice behind the bench. Why wouldn't it all be good? I mean, that's it. You and I both said all year long. That was a great move by. One of the goaded coaches of all time. Hey,

check the win totals. You know what I mean? Exactly. How many coaches out there are winning more than Paul Maurice? Morest. There aren't many. Not many.

Yeah. So for me, I guess this is what I was saying last week when I was like, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves with the, you know, the Leafs, they got out of the first round, isn't that a big deal? Like, I didn't think this would happen. But I was kind of like, even if they, you know, go seven games in the second round, is that really something, you know? And like this is like the absolute worst outcome of that,

of like not only is it going to erase any goodwill that the coaching staff and the GM and the players might have built up by winning a round against a really good, really successful Tampa Bay Lightning team. This is actually like maybe even worse to win in the first round and then immediately get swept by a worse team than the one you just beat on paper, you know? And even if it goes to five games, like this is. This has to be really tough to the point where people are already like, okay, so when Kyle Dubus gets fired, where is he going? You know what I mean?

What's going to happen to Sheldon Keefe once he gets scanned? Yep. And, you know, if I'm them, I do have like an empty file box in the corner of my office. Maybe I already put one of my plants in there. Well, I mean, don't forget, Kyle Dubus doesn't even have a contract. So he, I know. He could say, you know what, I'm out. I'm going to go pick my next spot.

So, yeah, it's been pretty, Sunday night was a really demoralizing game as a fan. Oh, yeah. You know, too, it would be bad enough if it was like, it'd be bad enough if it was like, hey, like they're playing well and just all the breaks are going against them and they're down three nothing. But that really was a no-show.

And how many times does it happen with this team? How many times, you know, how many times does Keith get up there and go, whoa, it's baffling? I can't understand it. Yeah. And didn't I say this when they got eliminated last year? I was like, I feel like the coach just doesn't have the juice here. He doesn't know, like, how to get a team at this level to take that step or whatever.

And, you know, it would be one thing if they were getting like, like you said. They're playing really well in losing every single night or whatever. But it seems like every time they have a bad loss, he's just like, your guess is as good as mine. I don't know. It's like, don't you get paid like seven figures to know? Yeah. Like, whose job is it to get them to start on time?

Whose job is it to get them to play 60 minutes? Whose job is it to get them to not do what was a game two or game one or game two? I don't remember, but, you know, play good first period and come out and just say, hey guys, let's not crap the bed completely in the first minute of the second period. I don't know. I don't know who's job. I can't remember who said it up, but it was somebody on the TNT panel was like the thing with the Leafs is when they're playing well, they still only play well for like 48 minutes of the game.

And they have 12 minutes where they're just like skating around out there. It's usually enough. And that's why a lot of people are saying like, including me, that this is, it would be very on brand for this team to come out tonight and play a great game. Yeah, sure. And, you know, win five to one. And we all go, oh, boy, wait a second, hold on. And then in game five, they come out with little party hats on going,

weren't we great in game four and just do nothing and get rolled there. Who knows? Or they win four straight and, you know, that's like I had a call him today. And that's what I basically said. Like at this point, the one thing. the one thing we know is it's over for this version of the team because they're either going to lose and you finally have to have to make changes like you can't you can't I'm not saying you have to tear it down to the studs but you can't run it back again or they pull off

an all-time comeback and all the stuff about they they don't come through is finally dead it's it's finally buried even you know even if they get swept and round through whatever they pull off a comeback from 3-0 down, then at the very least, we've moved on from that chapter of the team. So one way or another, this stupid team that's ruining all our lives, is gone in a few days.

My life's actually going pretty good. Yeah. I don't care if these fucking guys win or lose ever, you know? It's nice. Must be nice. It's pretty nice. And like I said, I would like this team to win the cup because I hate all the, you can't win with just a bunch of guys who are really talented.

It's like, you can't? I feel like teams have done that before. You know? But maybe when your best defenseman is Morgan Riley, maybe that's the problem, you know? Maybe when your goalie is Ilya Samsonoff. And I almost said Jack Campbell, but it's Matt Murray. That's even worse. Yep.

But let's talk about the Panthers. they look you know they they did not have the hottest start in the series like we were saying but they're getting just enough to win and they were they got i would say they got more than enough to win against boston not only just because like they won that series but because when they when it was going right for them they were making boston look ridiculous these fucking guys won the president's trophy these fucking guys had a 135 points in the regular season really making them look like

idiots out there, you know? And I guess I'll circle back to something Sheldon Keefe said. I think it was game one where Verhegey had the breakaway goal and he's like, that's the one guy you don't want getting a breakaway. It's the one fucking guy and we gave

him the puck, you know? And it's like, yeah, but they have like four or five guys like that where if you make a mistake, they're going to make you pay for it. They do not have the depth. For sure, they don't. But their top two lines are so good at controlling the play that, like,

they will force you to make mistakes, and then they will bury those mistakes. Maybe, again, maybe not at the rate they did against Boston and they're doing currently against Toronto over a long enough period of time. But you don't need it to be over a long enough period of time. Mm-hmm. you know and so like you you got to give them all the credit in the world they're they're playing

a very different brand of hockey than i think we're used to the panthers playing like even if you watch them in the regular season like the way they played in the regular season isn't totally like obviously there there's a lot of similarity but like I don't feel like they were as opportunistic or whatever you want to say like able to generate so many just flat out giveaways and mental mistakes by the other team or creating the appearance of mental mistakes by, you know, finding seams and all that kind of stuff. I don't think they did this in the regular season. I think they were more of a, like they did it kind of by volume team.

If you look it up, like they had a lot of, like, they're, they're, near the top of a lot of like the counting stats at five on five or whatever, you know. And I wouldn't say that's been the case for them in the postseason. And yet they're, they're still winning all these games. And, and what really stands out with them is the four check, just the relentless. Again, forcing you to make so many. Right on you. Yep. And, and, you know, it's, it's so effective that it's one of the, like I was watching some of the games with my dad. And he's like, why don't the Leafs do that? Why don't, why doesn't every other team do that?

And part of it is because when that's, when Matt Kachuk and Alex Barkoff is why, right? That's a big part of it. But it's also just, you know, if when you go that aggressively on the forecheck and you don't get there and you don't win the battle, the puck is coming back the other way real fast in a lot of cases. And you look like an asshole. And everybody says, what are these guys doing?

Yeah, come on, man. Like, what are, what is this, 1987? Like, we're not clogging the neutral zone anymore because we got two guys. guys behind the net while the other team's breaking out because they missed on the forecheck, but these guys don't miss. So. And now I'm doing the SpongeBob fish thing. He don't miss.

Nope. But yeah, that's how they're doing it. They are once again, just forcing a team to make mistakes. And they're not getting the conversion rate they did last time, but against Boston, they don't need it to be that high. you know, there's a difference between playing

against Linus Allmark and Ilya Samsona. I don't know what to tell you. There sure is. And, like, why wouldn't they be, like,

supremely confident that they can just keep doing this now, you know? It's working, you know, like there's no reason to second guess anything. Like,

like maybe New Jersey could be in a situation where it's like, yeah, we got to rethink this a little bit. Like, Caroline is taking it to us and or even Dallas, right? Like, oh, shit, maybe we got to think about this a little bit because it's two, two in this series and, and what we've been doing, what we did against Minnesota maybe isn't going to work against Seattle.

Florida is like, we have proof of concept against the best regular season team in the history of the NHL. And we're going to play these guys who like the second they turn the puck over, they start crying because they're mentally weak in all this shit, like the way they get talked about. Like, why wouldn't Florida just be like, we're just going to do that actually more? Yeah. Yeah. So, were we wrong about Palmaries? I wouldn't say so. Again, this is two rounds, right?

Like, we have one of the longest tenured coaches in the history of the NHL. We have his whole career to be like, oh, it seems like this guy's not very good. you know he took he took teams to to deep playoff did he win a Stanley Cup with Carolina

or am I thinking or was that that was Lavie-a-lette he took them to the final in 2002 took him to a cup which nobody thought was

right so like he can do this once every 21 years maybe you know God is it oh my God I laughed when you said that but

no that's just the math on this one brother Man, I laughed and then I stopped laughing real quick when I ran those guys. Yeah, I was at my cousin got married this past weekend and I was talking to, and he's, I think, 10 years younger than me. I want to say he's like 30, 31. And he has two younger sisters and I was talking to them. And they were like, oh yeah, you know, back when I was in like junior high in like 2008 or whatever and I was like, fuck off. I don't want to hear this.

Yep You know what I mean? Like that sucks to hear But But yeah Paul Maurice You want to know What Paul Morris's first year

Behind the bench was? Sure 1995-96 That's wild to me Coaching Hartford for 70 games And he was like the younger Wasn't he in his 20s? Like he was like 28 or something

So to me he's still like he's like in his he's like 42 sure yeah no he for real he's only 56 which is crazy for an NHL coach to have almost 1800 games of regular season experience yeah at that age uh you want to know how many guys on the Panthers were alive when Paul Maurice began his career as an NHL head coach god can't be many please tell me there's like at least five or six there's nine okay but that's really helped by the fact that two stalls are on this team. You know what I mean? Yeah.

But yeah, it's both stalls. Bobrovsky, Zach Dalpy, Radko Gudis, Alex Lyon, Nick Cousins, Brandon Montour, Ryan Lomburg. Those are the only ones. Wait, no, I take that back. Verheagie and Duclair were both like newborns. And Barkov had, depending on when you want to say he started this. jaw. Well, I guess, you know, because he took over kind of early in that season. I guess Barkov technically was alive as well, because he was born September 95. So it's actually

12. It's not as many as I would have thought. But yeah. It's still not a lot of guys for a guy who's got 1800 career games. But anyway, let's move on. Let's talk about, well, do you have anything else? One last word. thing I would say is assuming the Panthers win this series, it is, first of all, it's fascinating to me that I'm already hearing from some Lee fans, and it's some, that any call to like make any changes of this team are wrong. It blows me. How do you arrive at that opinion? Well, I'll tell you, part of how you arrive there is you start from the premise that a lot of fans have just internalized that it is literally impossible to make a trade and get better in

this league. That you just can't trade anyone good in a trade that works for you. That if you are trading Mitch Barner, William Neeler, whoever, by definition, you have to be giving them away for 50 cents on the dollar. That's the only way it can possibly happen. We have just, GMs have been crying for so long about how hard their jobs are that the same people who think Kyle Dubas is a great GM and a super smart guy also think it's completely impossible to expect him to win or even break even on any major trades that he might make in the season.

I think it's going to be very interesting to watch how it plays out with the leaves, but I do think the added element of this is they lose to the Panthers, especially if they get swept. They will have just lost to a team that last summer did exactly what the Leafs have spent the last five years telling us he can't do, which is have a great regular season, have a letdown in the playoffs, and then change things. The Florida Panthers did not run it back. The Florida Panthers did not stay the course.

They made a very controversial coaching change, and they made the biggest trade that we've seen in the offseason in years. And that trade wasn't just trading picks and prospects. They traded core pieces to get back a different core piece and sure seems to be working. So that's going to be an interesting dynamic. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, I guess. Yeah, I get what you're saying. But like, what I'm saying is I don't know how you go, this team that keeps losing in like really kind of embarrassing fashion.

They should just let them keep doing this. that dude you should look at my mentions right now man my favorite one i got one of these and again it's this is a it's a small number of leave fans a lot of it is the same dudes replying to me like six times as they're just getting angry and angrier but sure the best one with somebody was like oh for 19 years you told them you said you this team needed to win around and now that they've won around you don't think that's good enough you're moving the goal post art aren't aren't and it's like yeah you're right man that's Sorry.

Like I told my unemployed kid to actually get out of bed for 19 straight days. And then the one day he did and then fell down the stairs. I acted like that was a problem too. Way to move those goalposts, man. Yeah. God. Oh, man. All right, Vegas Edmonton. Fun series.

Fun series so far. Boy. It's nice when teams just score a lot. lot of goals, you know. Yep. Yep. Uh, the Leandro Saitle show for a lot of it. I, I still, look, I'm, I'm sticking with the Oilers as my cup pick, but they need to win game four, I think. I think. Yeah, you can't go, you can't go down 3-1, right? Like, that's, that's just not going to work for you. Um, yeah, it'll be really interesting because, like, they couldn't get, like, you know, they obviously have the firepower to score a shitload of goals.

They have 10 goals in three games, and you're looking at that going, I've got to pick it up a little bit, you know? Like, that's the level of belief that everybody should have in the Edmonton offense. But this is, is this Stu Skinner turning back into a pumpkin? Or is this, you know, is this the supremely talented Vegas defense just throwing a blanket over? McDavid and Drysidal.

I personally don't really think it is, but it's interesting, that's for sure. So are you, which of these paths, which of these doors would you pick if you had to pick one? Are we looking at this going, yeah, Edmonton's down 2-1 in the series,

but Drusitle is on fire. He's as hot as anyone we've ever seen. McDavid has been very good. The Oilers are going to be fine, or are you looking at it going, if I'm the Golden Knights, Dracetyl's on fire as hot as anyone's ever been

and McDavid's still good and we're still up to one in this series. Like we've just taken, we just got punched in the mouth and we stayed on our feet. Like, Dracetyl's not getting any better. McDavid might, but you know, probably like

this is as good as the Oilers offensively can be and we still handled it. Are you feeling pretty good about where you're at? Yeah, I guess I'm feeling good in that I'm up two games to one despite giving up three plus goals a game on average, right? Like to give up nine goals in the first two games and you're like, this just might be the thing. We've got to win every game six to four or whatever.

And then to have that kind of a master class defensive performance in game three where we're, what was Edmonton shots on goal, 28 shots on goal. And it's not like they didn't give them power plays because they definitely did, you know? I guess they only gave them two now that I look at it. But it's a, you know, I guess my point is that that all, that kind of has to be the strategy to accept Edmonton's going to punch us in the mouth, as you say. and we have to be able to stand that. And if you, if you want to say that, like, what happens every time Edmonton loses, you know,

for the last like three years? It's McDavid and Dryside will have a goal apiece and, like, maybe, like, you know, Nugent Hopkins has a third one. But the other lines get caved in. And you win that way. I think, like, that has to be the strategy. Obviously, you're trying to stop McDavid and Drysidal, but at some point, you just go,

they're going to, they're going to score, they're going to get their goal, you know, at least one, they're scoring every night. And if what we're doing is concentrating on shutting down your, you know, Matias Yanmarks or whatever, claim Costans, okay, you know, Coston had a good first round, hasn't done shit this round. If you want to say that's the difference between winning and losing for Vegas, I buy that, yeah. Yeah. No, that's, uh, how scared of you are the Vegas

goaltending situation? Like, if I'm, or do we just not carry? Like, yeah, I think again, this is, this is the, this is the, this is the, this is the, this is the this is the, this is the Bruce Cassidy thing, right? Like, you take some bum off the street. I'll get him to like 870, you know, just, just, just lucky fan. You want, you want a raffle. You're the starting goal.

tonight. We'll lose we'll lose, uh, you know, five to three or whatever. It's not going to be that bad. And, and, you know, obviously like Aiden Hill, I feel like he played a decent, yeah, he played 27 games for him this year. Like this isn't, this is, Aiden Hill, 27 games, this is a guy that the sharks were like, were all set. The sharks, yeah, walked away from this guy.

16, 7 and 1, 915 save percentage. This is Bruce Cassidy. folks. This is what he does. You give this guy a goalie to work with? Look out. Brassois, 11 games in the regular season. 7.0 and 3, 927. It's just how it goes.

I think at some point you do reach the bottom of the barrel a little bit where it's like, look, we're on our fifth string goalie. What do you want from us, you know? But it keeps working. and if you want to say that Vegas is playing a little more a little more protective around their own net than they would normally be yeah sure and the only reason Edmonton's scoring goals in this series

if you want to say it's because of the power play of course you know they have they have 10 goals in the series five of them on the power play If you're giving up only five goals in three games at five on five or with empty netters or whatever, you're in good shape. It doesn't matter who you are. So, yeah, like you say, just take the punch. Know you're going to get punch. Take it and, you know, roll from there. Yep.

This one, like, I feel like I feel like I'm not saying as much about this series because this one, out of all of them, feels like the one that's really got twists and terms. left. Totally. I don't feel like it. Dallas, Seattle is a closer series, but that one, you know, literally by the number of games, but also just it feels like we're closer to the end than the beginning, whereas this one, I don't know, Vegas goes out and wins tonight, then we got, maybe it ends quick, but I don't think that's, I think there's a long, there's a lot of runway left on this one.

Yeah. The other thing I want to say about this series, you know, he's getting his feet under him a little bit. Big Jack Eichel. He's having a really good series. Well, he had a really good game one and three, two not so much. But he's going to be a handful for Edmonton the rest of this series. And, you know, I actually haven't really taken note of if they're hard matching them against anybody. But like, whatever they're doing ain't working.

That's for sure. And, yeah, like, if he's the guy that you're like, oh, he can go punch for punch with McDavid and Drysidal, I wouldn't go quite that far. But, you know, he's got that offensive power. And if you're saying, like, hey, Mark Stone, you're kind of the shutdown guy. And if you want to throw in a couple of goals here and there,

go nuts. Like, I think that can be a winning strategy for sure. Yep. I agree. Yeah. Why don't we take another break? We'll come back and we'll do, God, there was a lot of news this week that was not directly related to the playoffs. So let's come back and talk about that stuff. This week's episode is brought to you by Raycon. Folks, let's face it, with coffee starting at $5 and our bank accounts always stretched thin. We are officially entering a dupe session.

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That's buyraycon.com slash puck to score 15% off. Buyraycon.com slash puck. All right. News round up here. I'm going to go in chronological order of how they happened. Starting with Gerard Gallant out in New York. York City. No surprise for you, I don't think.

You've been, I feel like all season long, you had him on the hot seat, and I was like, ah, he can't be on the hot seat. And I guess in the end, he didn't get fired during the season, but two years. That's not a very long, non-s. How many coaches have made the playoffs two years in a row? Not just made the playoffs, 110 and then 107 points. Yeah. And not even...

Not like this guy got in with 96 or whatever two years in a row. Not even, you know, not a guy that came in as like a, oh, yeah, but one year he was an interim coach or something like that. Like, they hired him. He was the guy. They gave him this roster. He gave him 210 point seasons and they were like, not good enough. You're out. Yeah.

And not completely, you know, not without reason. This, they did not seem to be able to adjust. at all. That's been the knock on him a lot is he's not a guy that makes adjustments on the fly very well and he saw that in the New Jersey series for sure. Um, but what now? Fear the Rangers. Yeah. Well, I want to, um, I want to talk about a little more like the, the, the thing you said about they, they, uh, they didn't adjust. right? They didn't adjust in that series.

They didn't generally adjust very much over the course of the regular season. Like their lines changed a little bit and like who played on the power play. But the X's and O's stuff, like he didn't seem like he was a very X's and O's coach. And I had seen something that kind of implied that the players themselves were kind of like,

all right, with this guy. You know, I'm trying to remember. I also saw someone suggest, and I, the reason I'm going to say this will become obvious in a second. I saw some people suggest that the Sutter thing, when he got fired by Calgary, report multiple flames rescind trade requests after Sutter firing. And that was Franks, Franksever Valley said that. Oh, I didn't see that. 960. Oh, wow.

Okay, this is the quote. In talking to various people around the league that have connections to Calgary, the sentiment that any trade requests that were out there or demands, so to speak, have been rescinded now that there's been a coaching change. That, I think, opens the door for some players that might have been hesitate to eventually resign, hesitating, sorry. That'll, of course, be the call of whoever's the next general manager. I believe there was at least a handful of players who had spoken honestly and frankly

to former GM. Brad Trilliving and President of Hockey Operations Don Maloney who are in the room for exit interviews to say exactly that. Essentially, it's as simple as, if this guy's back, I don't want to play here. Yikes.

And I feel like I saw something about that was a similar thing with, uh, okay, uh, Dan Rosen tweeted this the other day. From what I know, the Rangers have a lot of respect for

Gerard Gallant and everything he did in his two seasons, but there was feedback after-exit interviews and discussions with Galant that led to the decision to part ways, essentially a new voices needed. So it sounds like these freaking millennials need another safe space. And, but isn't that interesting? The Sutter one? Like there's somebody actually wrote that column. Yes.

Yeah, no, well, did I read it? No, did I see the headline and say, I don't need to read this. I get the gist of it. You did, yeah. You got it. Yeah. So, yeah, it definitely sounds, again, like the whole exit interview thing, which is, what's interesting is, though, like, Daryl Sutter is a lot of things. I don't know that I've ever heard Daryl Sutter described as a player coach.

He's certainly a guy, like, his whole vibe, I could certainly see, I could see some players liking that. And obviously he wins. And, you know, when you win, there will be, you know, players will follow you. But whereas Galant kind of was called a players coach. Like he was the guy that was going to come in after Quinn had, you know, there was a feeling that maybe he wasn't listening to the veterans, wasn't giving them as much of a say in things. And Galant was this guy who comes in, calms things down. He's not a, you know, he could still be a gruff guy, obviously. But he was supposed to be more of a players coach.

So for him to last two years, partly because of feedback from the players, is interesting. Yeah. No, that's because, I mean, you can't say you didn't let the big dogs eat. Like, they stuck with the veterans on the power play, you know? But I, so I wonder, like you say, if this is a situation where they, um, they were just like, look, we don't play a particularly, like, fun style.

We're not scoring a ton of goals at five on five. And if we're going to keep losing, like, might as well make the change for the coach. And, you know, obviously the younger guys, they, the Rangers would have a vested interest in bringing those guys along. And Galant's like, they're never going to get a chance to do that. They're going to be, like we talked about, I think last week. They're third liners and they're really good at being third liners. So why would I mix it up a little bit? And I wonder, like, if there were factions in the locker room on that front of, like, I love Galant.

He lets me go fucking psycho on the power play all the time. I'm just out there for three minutes at a time. If there were those factions, like, we're not there, obviously, but wouldn't you assume that it would be the top line guys would be saying, I love this guy. And, you know, the topococos of the world are going, no, I don't. Well, that's what I'm saying is, like, who are they listening to? too if you're if you're if you're Chris jury or whoever but and then this is the other thing that you want to that kind of feels like it needs to be said is lately it feels like James Dolan is getting a little more involved in decision making oh no shit but but like I did see

some people suggesting like okay well um you know like this might be not be good enough for James Dolan. Maybe it doesn't matter what the players or Chris Drury thinks. Including, again, like the quote from from Gallant when they announced the mutual parting of ways or whatever included like I would like to thank Mr. Dolan for the opportunity or whatever he said.

And maybe that's just something you say, but that guy's not your boss anymore. You don't have to thank this fucking guy, you know? Yep. And so I wonder if that was maybe a little pointed or if I'm reading too much into things as a guy. I think maybe you do have to thank him if you don't want him to turn around and go, no, we fire that guy. It wasn't mutual.

Screw that. Well, everybody knows it wasn't mutual, though. Yeah. When they say mutual parting aways, was his contract up? No, I don't think it was. Does that then mean that he doesn't get, like, he still gets his, I would imagine. Yeah.

Right. I guess, okay. Let's see if I can find how long his, uh, his, his, uh, his, contract was for. Gerard Gallant's staff history, it was a four-year deal. Okay. I mean, it's the Rangers.

He was supposed to be around for the next two seasons. Rangers, it's not that they need the money. Yeah. But it's just like, that's how quick they were willing to pull the shoot. And, you know, maybe in a mutual parting of the ways, they pay him half his salary or three quarters or whatever.

because that can all be negotiated. Well, if I'm him, you're paying me my full salary. And say, say I'm fired if you want. I'm not saying. By the way, cat-friendly says that's $3.5 million. Okay. I mean, that's... I'd be happy to not work for two years for $7 million.

I would not work for half of that. If anybody out there wants to make that off. Yeah. So this is got to be at least until we, you know, probably, a couple days from now with the Leafs. This has got to be the most interesting job opening, right? Because 100%. No question about it.

I mean, on the one hand, if I'm a coach and I've got my pick of these jobs, which isn't really how it works, but, you know, I'm looking at like Anaheim, Columbus, or 110-point Rangers team. Give me that team. The flip side is

Gerard Gerard Glenn just had 110 points back-to-back years and got fired, so you're not coming in with a lot of patience, right? You're not coming in with like, hey, everyone, it's going to be a three or four year plan and all this stuff. Their window to win is right now. Right now. Like, year one right now. So it's, uh, you have to hit, like you say, you have to hit the ground with like 105 points. Or everybody's going to be like, what's this fucking guy doing? At least Galant knew to tell

Seroquin, like, hey, won't you be like a 920 goalie? Yeah, that was smart by him. It's too bad he forgot to do it this year. That's... Well, in the playoffs, he was 931. That's true. He remembered in the playoffs, but it was too late by that. The other thing is that...

And it's a cliche, right? But it's cliche, because it's true a lot of times. Teams sort of go back and forth on the types of coaches they hire. So you had Quinn, who was the college rookie. Then you went to Galant, the grizzled veteran. I can't imagine they go back to another rookie or young coach. No, this will be recycling someone. There was a rumor, obviously, I'm sure everybody knows about this.

There was a rumor that they were going to try to talk to Joel Quinville. Right. Larry Brooks reported that that was not the case. Correct. And so, yeah, like you say, they are really interesting in that there are, I believe, one, two, three, four, five, six vacancies right now? Five? Something like that.

What do we got? Anahe, Columbus, New York. Calgary and Washington, I think. Am I missing any? I don't think so, but I'm very quickly typing in. Yeah, it doesn't look like I'm missing any. All right. It doesn't look like I'm missing any.

Although, hey, I said this. Five vacancies plus Sheldon Keith in a couple days. Right. And maybe DJ Smith is still twisting in the wind. That's true. And the other thing, I said this the other day, even before we knew who was going to win the draft lottery. I said several teams in the draft lottery should fire their coach immediately upon learning they won the draft lottery. I would say Chicago is among them.

Yeah, I know. Although, hey, speaking of coaches with four-year deals, right? Luke Richardson did. Man, this guy was a coach forever in the minors, though. I really like Luke Richardson. Yeah, but I don't know. We'll talk about that. And plus, I guess the other thing is whoever,

wherever Kyle Dubas goes and then brings Sheldon Keith with him, that's another opening potentially. Yeah, did you see the thing someone suggesting, like he would go to Pittsburgh? That was, and they would fire, and they would, It was, yeah. And they would fire Mike Sullivan to bring in Sheldon Key. And look, he did not...

Oh, boy. Larry Brooks did not, like, he was not reporting that. He said, I'm passing on with somebody... Someone made that suggestion to me. Yeah. He's being a bit of a, you know, a crap disturber there, but... Uh, boy. Imagine that would go.

I'm sure that would go over great. God, I might wait. I might wait and see on that before I make any decisions if I'm like... Washington or somebody like that. Oh, I could get Mike fucking Sullivan. Okay. Sounds great. Yep.

It's too bad you can't trade coaches anymore. That's a good times. Those were good times. But yeah, so the Rangers coach, like, I think you got to go with a veteran, but I also don't know, like, who's really out there that I'd be like, oh, yeah, you got to lock this guy in. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm.

Like, I don't, like, Laviolette's out there. Yeah, and that wouldn't be my choice. No, I don't think it would be mine. John Heinz sure isn't my fucking choice. Still. Oh, wait, no, he didn't get fired yet. No, he's not yet. He's, uh, well, but, and that's the other thing.

Like, there is part of me. The new GM's Barry Trots. Like, do you think, is there any possibility that, like, I mean, Trots hasn't, he hasn't started his GM yet? Well, that's what I'm saying. Like, once he starts, does he go, and my first order of business, of course, is we got to get rid of this coach. I'm just wondering, like, if you're James Dolan, do you, like, go find the back channels that won't get you hit with a tampering and just go to Barry Trots and go,

do you want to come be the highest pay coach in the NHL for the Rangers? I don't, I'm sure the ink's already dry on that contract. Like, I know he hasn't started. Yeah. But I, I'm sure that he's already signed something. But if he goes to the predators and says, I really want to take this opportunity. Yeah. I don't know. Anyway, I'm just... But, but, like, who else is out there that's, like, the kind of coach that you're...

I mean, you mentioned Quenville. Like, Mike Babcock is still out there. I do wonder if he gets another shot somewhere, and maybe New York's not the right place, but... Bruce Boudreau? Like, I mean, you want to talk about a guy that has a lot of regular season success and can't get it done in the playoffs, right? Yeah, I don't... Man, let me look. There's a site of the athletic apparently had a piece.

Okay, Peter Lavalette, they mentioned Mike Babcock, Jay Leach, who is an assistant with the cracking. He's assistant to Seattle. He's 43. Chris Knoblock is a guy you're hearing a lot. He's the HL coach. And again, this normal circumstances, that makes a ton of sense. Where the Rangers are at, not so much. Yeah.

Yeah. And also, like, part of the, part of the knock on, on Glant was that the young kids never seemed to develop. Mm-hmm. And yet, I mean, most of these young kids passed through the H.L. So is that, does that, I mean, Lefrenier and obviously wasn't, but. Oh, I know what the answer is. I know what the answer is. Andrew Brunette. Yeah. He's on this list. To pull that guy out of New Jersey? Jack Cappiano, Bob Hartley, Jay Pandolf. Andrew Brunette?

Yeah, devil's a associate coach. For a lot of reasons. Like, he just started at BU. The Rangers just hired a BU coach, and it did not work out, you know? But I, and hey, look, let's say you can't get Andrew Brunette. Somebody else gives him a job, whatever.

Mike Yo's still out there. I'm just, I'm just saying. The other name that Arthur Staples is, is Daryl Sutter. And if you're in win right now mode, sure. That's a boy, that's a guy with a short shelf life. By the way, I just double check.

I just double check Jay Pendolfo never played for the Rangers, so that's out. He played for three teams, but not for New York. Not the Rangers, yeah. Can't hire a former player who didn't play for you. Man, I got to say, like, this, it's not an exhaustive list, but it's a pretty good list

nothing on this list is making me think like oh yeah that's the guy they gotta do it yeah no it's crazy hmm I don't know I'm just thinking what do we think of

yeah that feels like but what about a Bob Boogner what's he doing these days I mean it feels like we're past the point where anyone else is getting fired other than Keefe, right? Like, I don't think...

I wonder. I mean, like I said, Nashville might make a change. Yeah, I was thinking, sorry, I meant as far as the team's still in the playoffs. Teams still in the playoffs. Yeah, it feels like everybody... But I'm not hiring John Hines. I'm not, like, I like DJ Smith as a coach, but I'm not making him the head coach of the New York Rangers, like, under... No, no, no.

These circumstances. No circumstances. Yeah. But, I mean, it is, it is the, it's going to be interesting. If the Rangers and Leaves both have openings, like, at some point, you see it in other sports, right? Like, teams go digging at other teams coaches. And suddenly do you start here and like, well, maybe John Cooper is looking for a new challenge or something? I don't know, man.

It's because, yeah, who do you go and get? Andrew Burnett, $10 million a year? Like, he's just waiting until the Leafs and the... This sounds dumb, but do you think, does the Andrew Burnett thing at all, does his stock lower just based on the fact that the Panthers are winning? Like, does it at all make you, because that was kind of the knock on him, right? Is that he got that team as far as they felt like he could get them and he got out-coached by Cooper. And so he wasn't going to be the guy to get them the next step. Does that?

Sure. I don't know. I see what you're saying and I mean I guess I can't put my mind or myself into the mind of the one of the 200 hockey men but you know he goes to New Jersey and they immediately become one of the best teams in the league. Yep. Am I going and is that a coincidence? And if you're a 200 hockey man, this guy has scored a game seven overtime winner. Wow. That means he's a winner.

That's right. Never played for the Rangers though. That is a problem. Yeah, that's rough. All right, let's move on. Chicago won the draft lottery. This sucks. We all hate it.

Yeah. Everybody's very mad. And very understandably. Yeah. Well, it's just, I think we've said this before. It's not that the NHL is rigging the draft lottery by any stretch of the imagination. But if you were just looking at appearances, you would go, well, clearly they're rigging this. Yeah.

We knew going in that this was the one scenario other than maybe Arizona where you'd say everybody is going to go. The fix is in. As long as they don't screw up the TV broadcast, though, that'll be... Sure. Oh, man. Have they addressed that, by the way? Has anybody... Kevin Weeks, anyone commented on that?

You know, it's funny. because so the way it worked was for people who didn't know this. They invited three reporters into the room with Gary Betman as he pulled out the ping pong balls or whatever. And they were like basically locked in this room, not allowed to use their cell phones, none of that stuff. And they watched it and they were like, it was all above board. And the headline that Frank Serra Valley used was like surgical precision with how this had to be carried out. And it's like, well, they announced that Columbus didn't get it before they went to commercial break it and revealed that Columbus didn't get it. And also the Ducks logo was upside down.

So how much surgical precision is upside down and backward? There was surgical precision in the drawing itself and then the TV broadcast went to crap. Because, right? Like people, I think by this point know this, the drawing takes place before the TV show. Yes, of course. And then there's like everyone's locked in the room. can't. Yeah.

But yeah. So it was a mistake. There was a mistake. There was no conspiracy theories. But that really, like it's just so weird. Like Weeks hasn't tweeted in two days. They didn't mention it on the broadcast, even on Sportsnet, because we got like a sportsnet panel and then went to the US broadcast for the actual reveal. And then came back.

Like not even a passing reference. It was very strange. Like it was just like maybe if we don't mention it, nobody will. notice that we gave it away. But anyways, no conspiracy, but man, this, it sucks for so many reasons, including that the Blackhawks openly tanked, including all of the Kyle Beach stuff that people are mad about,

which I have mixed feelings about because, yes, obviously, you can make a strong case that the Blackhawks shouldn't even have a pick this year because they shouldn't have picks for a few years because of everything that came to light. And yet I'm still like, I'm not on board with people who haven't mentioned the case in a year. And now because their team didn't win the draft lottery,

they suddenly, like, Kyle Beach isn't your Uno reverse card for anything good happening to a team you don't like. Like, it's, it's, I don't know. I don't love the way that feels. You got to look at Bedard in that jersey. Yeah. Now, in the flip side, it's great for the league and the economics and all of that stuff. And look, I mean, Blackhawks fans are great fans. And is it better than him being in Columbus or Anaheim or somewhere on some level, maybe?

I don't want to even say that because Columbus fans will hear me say that and make up a whole dialogue that I didn't say to prove that I hate their team. But it's good for the marketing and accounting departments, but it's frustrating for everyone else. To that end, Chicago, find $2 million for the Kyle Beach thing without the loss of picks or anything like that, which is a sizable punishment, I guess. Did you see the ESPN article about how many tickets they've sold since... They were making that in like an hour. 5.2 million in ticket revenue in less than 24 hours. And like the two things have nothing to do with one another. Like I've seen people like, oh, they got rewarded for the Kyle Beach stuff.

And it's like, what are we even talking about? But also, you know, it is, I totally get, if I'm like a coyote's fan, I'm like, again, we lost a first round pick because we talked to some kids the combat workout. So, I don't know, it is frustrating. Let me ask you this. And we won't do the whole big debate. You can just give me the 15 second answer. Seeing how this played out, watching this team just shamelessly tanked. And then get rewarded.

Can I get you it all back onto the goal plan bandwagon at all? No. All right. I tried. Yeah. I tried. I can't do it. I can't do it.

Current system works great. I don't think this system works great either. Again, like here's what I think. No draft. Yeah. And then you make up a bunch of rules about who you can and can, like how many guys you can have on ELCs in your organization. and all that stuff.

You just make up those rules instead. And then like, hey, if Connor Bernard wants to go to Chicago, it goes to Chicago. But like, Connor Bardard wants to go to Vancouver. Yep. You know, like, I've seen people saying like, oh, you know, what if you pull, he's not going to pull a Lindross, folks. Look, it would be. We say that absolutely every year.

But like. He's not pulling a Lindros to not go to arguably the biggest market in the United States for hockey. I'm sorry, disappointed. I will say, though, I hope it happens. It would be extremely funny. It's not going to happen. It's the same thing as offer sheets, right?

Oh, I hope there's like six offer sheets this year. There might be one that gets signed, and then, of course, the other team will match, is the most likely outcome every single summer. Man, can dream, though. I can be like Tucker, a man in his dream. Yep. But, yeah, do you have a... have any thoughts on

on Anaheim getting Fantilli? Yeah, assuming they do, and I guess there's a little bit of question there, both as far as who will be number two and, you know, this is a spot you could trade out of.

Like, nobody's, like, no GM is going to ever have the guts to trade the Connor Bedard pick, but maybe here. I get that it's frustrating, as people have pointed out, Anaheim was number two in the cross. be draft and now here they are again. Sure.

But they're getting a real good, but I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but they're getting a guy who would be a perfectly exciting number one pick in any other draft year. He would have been the slam dunk number one pick last season. Yeah. Not even a fucking question. He would have been the number one pick with a bullet. There wouldn't have been this Shane right. Oh, wow, he dropped a four.

They would have done the thing where they walk up there and they're just like, and infantile. And everybody's like, well, of course, sure. Yeah. Yeah. You know. No, no surprises, no drama to it. And the only thing is, obviously, they have McTavish.

They have Zegra. Like, in theory, they're set, excuse me, set up the middle. Mm-hmm. But, you know, you're not drafting for need at two. No. And Fantilli is like, going to be better than Mesa. McTavish. I don't know. That's just, or at least that's what the hype around him is. So as much as we should like Mason McTavish and Trevor Zegris as players,

Amphantilly is going to be better than them in all likelihood. If things progress as people are saying. The really interesting thing really starts at four because Leo Carlson is almost certainly going to be number three. Has it has that now become the consensus? That's pretty much where everybody's at. from what I understand, yeah. Okay. So. But even though, like, as our prospect guy, is Mitch, Mitchcoff's going to be a better player, isn't he?

Isn't that, like, 15 years from now, or we, or is it closer to? He had kind of the, the, like, up and down season where, like, he started very badly. then he got traded to a bad team where they could like give him more minutes and he fucking cooked. And in fact, I'm on elite prospects like consolidated top 32, which is like elite prospects daily face off, Bob McKenzie, Central Scouting, Sportsnet, like just go down the list. Basically like everybody, they combine into one big list. And on the one big list, the most recent one, does have Mitch Gov too still. Okay. Or three rather.

I'm sorry, not two. Fantilius, too, of course. But the difference is that Michkov is signed till 2026, I want to say, in Russia. So, like, if you draft this kid, you're not getting in for two or three years. It's either 25 or 26. Right. So you're not getting in for two or three years. And I guess it is, like, we're kind of at a point where,

I mean, I'm tempted to sit there and go like, yeah, I'm thinking long term for my team. I don't, we get them in three years. But three years of 18 to 21 for offensive forward is that's not nothing. Like, it's, you are missing out on something. And then obviously you get into who's the GM and how much rope do they have. And, you know, if I'm Columbus, am I, is it the next GM who's going to benefit from this guy? I'm just, okay, so Carlson's almost a sure thing. Yeah, I would think so.

I think you, if you're, who's picking fourth? San Jose. San Jose. If you're San Jose, you start thinking about it, especially because where they are in their attempted rebuild, let's say, versus where Columbus is, where like they've had high picks already. They have really good young, or, you know, really good young, prospects like in the

NHL already and you can't wait around for Mitchcove to be your next guy two, three years from now, even though they did just fire their coach. Whereas if you're San Jose or Montreal, that's when you're thinking okay, is Mitchcov

are... I feel like San Jose makes a lot of sense. He does. A brand new GM. I mean, they got one in Montreal too. Market that doesn't mind waiting. You're still clearing out some of the deadwood in San Jose. like Montreal, you could argue that, okay, they've done the tear down, they pick number one,

now it's time to start moving forward, and I don't even feel like San Jose is there yet. No, I totally agree with you. It would not shock me if Mitch Cobb went to San Jose at all. But like, also if they pass on him, I'll go, well, I mean, you know, he's not going to be there for three years. That's hard to sell, I feel like to a fan base where like if you're picking fourth overall and you just had a back, season, you're going like, you should be really excited about this Will Smith guy. You know what I mean? Or Zach Benson or I don't know, who's another guy that could go that high?

Andrew Crystal. Like, you're really excited about that guy. And he might not be here for another year or two, but he's certainly not going to make you wait three years. Okay. How, with the Mitchcock, how far could he fall now that we know the order? Like, because the other place it feels like a potentially great fit is Arizona. Now, in theory, they have the new arena in year three and would probably want a prospect in place there.

So maybe it's not a great fit. But, I mean, this is a franchise that is almost publicly said we're just hitting pause for the next three. Is Arizona picking six? Yeah. Because I'm also thinking. If Mischoff is still there, I would take him there regardless of. the time. If you're Arizona, are you calling up a San Jose or a Columbus and saying, like, let me get in there? Yeah, I can see that. I don't know. I mean, why would Arizona want to,

like, give up stuff to get a guy in the door or a year ahead of time, a year ahead of Mitchcove? You know what I mean? Like, with the ceiling on, I would say, I think the argument would be the ceiling on Mitchcove is higher than, like, Will Smith or whatever. And hey, don't mention this guy's freaking wife, okay? But I just think that ceiling is like obviously a little bit higher. And if you're, if it's a difference between, because like Will Smith's going to BC next year, you know, not British Columbia, Boston College. He's going to be picked by the Canucks. Breaking News must credit. That's right.

Two lines. But so it's, it's one of those things of, I'm not getting Will Smith for a year or two versus I'm not getting Matt Vei Michkov for two or three years. Give me the two or three years every time. Given the talent disparity. That's all. Yep.

Okay. We'll move on now to I didn't want to bring this up during like the discussion of the series, but obviously there's the Zach White Cloud thing where I don't want to repeat what was said about him, but I would say insensitive perhaps from a place of like true

ignorance of like, oh, I didn't know that Zach White Cloud was of indigenous heritage, let's say. And so a guy, I don't even remember the- John Anderson from ESPN. John Anderson, that's right. Made a joke about his name. And that was what it was. It was a joke about his name. It was not like a joke about his heritage or anything like that, but it was, you know,

he was making fun of a name. and, uh, um, not, not a great look. No. John Anderson apologized unreservedly.

He's been very clear that this, you know, he, he, he screwed up, he's owned it, but. And Zach White Cloud was like,

yeah, he made a mistake. And he's sorry about it and he apologized and that's all I needed. Yeah. So there you go. While, while also using it as an opportunity to sort of remind people like, of course.

Think about this stuff. And so, I mean, when you talk on TV in front of millions of people for a living, you have to be responsible for your words. But I guess credit for owning it at the very least. We've seen some pretty half-hearted apologies for people saying stupid things. This wasn't bad. This seems very sincere. It was pretty clear on it.

But, yeah. So I'm not sure what else you can really say on that. Yep. I just wanted to touch on it a little bit. And then one last bit of news here, this sucks. This is a tough one. Gabe Landisog, not playing next season, or not expected to play next season. I guess I'll put it that way. Yeah, it has a, well, I mean, he's having surgery.

The team announced he is not playing next year. I suppose it is possible he could come back early. And from the said, did you see, was it Mark, Mark Mathad had the tweet saying I had the same surgery and I couldn't skate it in NHL level. I was never back now different levels and different ages, different skill, all that sort of thing. But this is, I've seen, mentioned in a couple places that this at the very least could be the end of Gabriel Landiscag as an 80 game a year player in the NHL, which is just.

So here's the thing is, Gabriel Landiscock has basically never been an 80-game player in the NBA. Yeah, that too. Or, so the last time he played more than 75 games or, yeah, was 1718, which like, okay, that's not that. I mean, that's five years ago, right? But 18, 19, he plays 73. That's a decent chunk of the season. It's not like the end of the world.

though. But then 54 in 1920, obviously that's a shortened season. 2021 is a shortened season. He only plays 54 again. Last season, he only plays 51. This year zero, next year zero. Like, at some point, you know, you just kind of hope like this guy can be healthy in his regular life. I'm not even, like, as a guy who's not a Colorado fan by any stretch. of the imagination. It's easy for me to say, uh, you know, I hope he,

uh, I hope he prioritizes his, his life, his life after hockey. He's only 30 years old or whatever, um, over over getting back to the NHL and, and like Mark Matha said,

it's a brutal recovery process on top of at the end of it. You might not even be, because, uh, there were some people in the Puck Soup discord who were like, well, there are studies that you can, get back to playing sports within a couple of years after this surgery that like cartilage

replacement surgery. And it's like, well, there's a difference between like me being able to play pickup basketball twice a week after I get the cartilage and my knees replaced versus Gabriel Landisog being an NHL player in two years. And again, that's after two years. That's not even after one. So here's the crazy part. If Gabriel Landisog comes back for the first day of the 2024-25 season,

he hasn't played NHL hockey in 800-plus days, like 830-something. As much as I hate to say this, I can't imagine that he's going to be a super effective NHL player at the end of it. I hope I'm wrong. But, like, the most likely outcome here is that this guy probably doesn't play at a high level ever again if he plays at all. And it sucks. It really sucks a lot.

Mm-hmm. But that was a tough one. Man, really good, really likable player, you know? Yep. And, and, you know, brutal news for the avalanche as well, like, just from a hockey perspective of that that leaves a big void in that team. So it's... But, I mean, it also frees up a lot of cap money that they couldn't really use.

It's, man, it's tough, eh? Like, this... Stories like this used to happen all the time in the NHL and the sports world, right? I mean, you go down the list of guys whose careers ended early because of knee problems or back problems. And it's largely gone away in the modern sports world, NHL world. And it's just sort of like, oh, right, you know, this stuff still happens. It can happen. And, you know, it didn't happen on some crazy, dirty hit or something.

Just the nature of the sport, but it stinks. It really sucks. So happy to leave you folks with a nice high note here. Yeah. On that note, go watch the Leafs and eat at Arby's. That's exactly right. Sean, why don't you hit him with some plugs? You can find me at the Athletic.

Lots of stuff, including my column today on why I'm not particularly bummed out to be watching what could be the last Leaf game of the season tonight. It's generating quite a lot of feedback. Seems like this happens a lot for you. Yeah. So check that out. If you're interested and a whole bunch of other stuff,

I had my draft lottery power rankings earlier in the week, and it's going to have, depending on what happens with the Leafs, probably some more content on them. and the playoffs and all the rest of it. And you can also catch me at the Athletic Hockey podcast. The Athletic Hockey Show, whatever. Something like that. Some podcast I do.

You're around it, yeah. Go find it on Thursdays. You can listen to the other days as well, but the Thursday show is the best one. There you go. And for me, of course, E.P.Rinkside.com, sign out with the code I Love E.P. And an annual subscription,

they will tack on three months at the end, just for you. for free. That's an incredible deal. And of course, hey, look, the draft lottery is coming up.

You want to read about basically every player your team is going to pick. We have all that coming your way very soon. I should say that if you're looking for the very famous elite prospects draft guide, you will never find something more in depth than this when it comes to hockey prospects and all that kind of thing.

Don't sign up for the new EP, like, EP Rink side. only tier, which is a little cheaper because the draft guide is part of elite prospects and not EP ringside. So just a word of warning, get that out in front of everybody if you're trying to make your big financial decisions on this around the draft time, obviously just something to be cognizant of.

And then, of course, there's patreon.com slash puck soup and you can get all your bonus episodes and whatnot. Me and Sean had a new quiz in a bonus episode earlier this week that people seem to really enjoy and more bonus content coming this week. I think we're going to do an overrated, underrated with Greg,

and we're going to do a stick to sports as well. So that's all coming later this week too and check all that out. And lastly, if you guys want any cheap lap, I might know a guy. Are they signed? I can slap a John Hancock on there. Oh, boy.

Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hope nobody, from what I could tell, nobody actually fell for that, which I was hugely relieved by. But, yeah, that was a rough day for your buddy R.L. Yeah, it's a cool site. Sites going, sites.

It's really, really going great. But yeah, anyway, thanks so much. much, everybody. Enjoy the games for the rest of the week, into the weekend. Hey, you know, by next week, we might be talking about the second round is already over.

Fingers crossed. That's crazy. Wow. Ripping by. Anyway, have a good one, folks. Bye-bye. See you. Bye-bye. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you'll commute.

We also cover movies. TV shows, it's in tools, it's your weekly bowl of Hagi and Natsin's. Box two.