Puck Soup - Domingue Mode

Episode Date: May 4, 2022

Sean and Ryan run down the results of Game 1 in every series, then talk about some potential coaching changes for non-playoff teams.

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 in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I am Sean McIndoo from The Athletic. And it's the playoffs. Yeah.

Have you noticed this in the TV watching? No. Is that a thing? There was no hockey on Saturday or Sunday night, so I just kind of assumed. There was hockey on Sunday afternoon. There was. Did you watch it? Not one second of it.

It was up against the Celtics game, so what was I going to do? But, yeah, no, didn't watch a second of it. But here's how you know it's playoff time. is they actually stagger the start time so that, like, people at home can watch more than one hockey game at the same time. Can we just talk about, you know, especially as, you know, as somebody who grumbles and complains constantly about the NHL, the playoff schedule in the first round is perfect. The best. It's absolutely beautiful.

Like, it's four games a night. Mm-hmm. No back-to-back. no gaps, no weird travel things. Your team plays every second night for however many games it takes. For two weeks, yeah. And that's it, which is the way it used to be back in the day,

but we were told that we couldn't do that anymore because more teams share arenas with the NBA and there's other TV considerations and what have you. No, it's perfect. And the starts are more or less staggered as well. A plus. It could not be better, I don't think. Yeah.

And I guess we should try to keep that in mind in January when there are 12 games and 10 of them start at 7 p.m. Yeah. Can be done. A better world is possible, I guess is what we're saying. I've said all along there needs to be one game when it's a busy schedule, five games or more starting at the same time. there needs to be one game and it can be the worst game that's designated as like the emergency game. And if all the games are in intermission at the same time, that game has to start again. Like, just go, I don't care if you've only been, it's only been two minutes since the intermission started.

Get back out there. Yeah. Or just have a game start at 730. Well, that could work too. Well, I couldn't because the NHL has never tried it. Yeah, but they're trying now. And they will only try it again if we give them positive. positive feedback, and so I am...

And even then, not really, probably won't. You know, you know what's funny? You mentioned about, like, oh, arranging arena dates and stuff like that. There was a fear for a minute there that the Kings were going to have to play in a back-to-back in their series. Yeah. Because of a Kevin Hart show, a Kevin Hart show. And we muscled Kevin Hart out, which, frankly... the man's a box office draw.

He is. More than the NHO, I would say. Oh, 100%. I was surprised. I wonder, like, I feel like there's a story here. Like, did the NHO, like, clamp down a little bit? Is it maybe because of the new TV deal? They've got, they got, like, a little more strict on if you're going to.

My theory, the team that, or the, the ownership group that owns the Kings own Staples Center. Mm-hmm. So they could be like, no. But there's got to be, like, something in the context. with a performer saying, you know, on, you are either guaranteed this night or you are subject to be moved, you would think. You would think.

So I'm just wondering if like, because it seems like league wide. Every year I complain about this. Why are there four, five games one night and three the next? Why is this team got it back to back? Why is there two? And I'm always people very patiently explain it to me like I'm five that, well, the buildings and the travel and all of this stuff. And yet this year, it worked.

And I don't know. I feel like something went on. It probably is the new TV deal. They probably wanted to give the TV partners a nice, you know, dependable schedule. And it's great because everyone's going to be well-rested as long as there's no, like, triple overtime games to screw everything up. Yeah, the other thing, of course, is that they didn't want me and you to start saying fake playoffs again. Another back-to-back? True.

That's it. It's more you, but, yeah. And, of course, as people know, I will not say fake playoffs until my team is out, at which point I will then reevaluate everything. And I'll probably blame the schedule. Yeah, that's right. And the one last thing I guess we have to say on this is that because they bumped Kevin Hart, it'll be the Los Angeles Kings and the Edmonton Oilers in Jumangi III. Yes.

They're going to be playing that role. Yeah, in Jumangi 3, Connor McDavid gets teleported. it back to being Wayne Gretzky in NHL 94, and he has to not get his head to bleed. It's very, very dramatic. And then at the end, he refuses to come out and come back. You know what? Let's actually just start with that series then.

I didn't have that down first, but here's how we're going to do with folks, is we're just going to talk about every series. Everybody's gotten through at least one game right now. And, you know, we're going to talk about every series, by night. So, for example, the four games that are being played tonight, we're going to talk about those games. And then after the break, we're going to talk about the four games that were played last night, and we'll be playing tomorrow night, et cetera. Make it easy. So let's start. The LA Kings are up one

game to nothing over the Edmonton Oilers. What was your initial, like, big takeaway from this guy? It feels like, maybe this is a candidate thing, but it feels like the, Kings went and won a good game on the road and people just want to talk about the Oilers. And I don't think for reasons that are that hard to figure out, the Oilers losing is a much more interesting story than the King's winning. Yeah, I mean, bad play by Mike Smith. What? It is, yeah, believe it or not.

But here's the thing on that one. I was talking to somebody yesterday about this. It feels like if you only. read about that play, you think that like Mike Smith gave the puck away behind the net and the king scored. Immediately, yes. As opposed to he made a save, regrouped, the play continued, and then they scored. Now, the giveaway still leads to, you know, the turnover and the goal and all of that.

But I do feel like we all jumped on the narrative a little bit there that, you know, this is good old Mike Smith again. But, yeah, goaltending was the story. And I'm starting to think that Philip Danoe might be good at hockey and might actually, you know, might take last summer that that was a ridiculous contract is maybe wrong. Yeah, I mean, that to me is the story. Obviously, McDavid scored that highlight real goal because he's Carmen McDavid or whatever. That was so sick. Yeah, you fucking rock.

Down to nothing. He's like, screw this. I'm just one versus five, man. Understandably so. He's played enough games for the Edmonton Oilers. He knows what's up. Yep. But like, yeah, that goal fucking rock.

But other than that, I didn't feel like he had like a particularly big game. Other than the one incredible goal he scored. I wasn't sitting there going. And you know who was awesome tonight in the loss is Connor McDavid? Which is a very, like that's a very Connor McDavid criticism, right? Like other than the one goal that he created single-handedly out of nothing, Yeah. He was pretty, pretty average.

Yeah. Yeah. No, and, but I hear what you're saying. Yeah, like, you know, and that's DeNo's job. Like, you're not going to, you're not going to be able. I guess the issue is, right? Like, in general, you're saying to yourself, well, all we're going to do is not let Connerick David get two points against us and we'll probably be okay.

Well, they went out and didn't let that happen, right? So, yeah, that's it. Yeah, I'm looking at the, at the numbers now. like he was fine. That's maybe about it. And you'll take that. If you're the king. Every time.

Yeah. And yeah. I mean, Philip Donoa was, yeah, Austin Matthews last year in the first round. And now Connor McDavid,

he's pretty good. I still, I still feel okay with having picked the Oilers in this series. But it goes without saying if they lose to, night, they're in enormous trouble. Yeah.

And enormous trouble beyond just this series, because losing game one at home means that you're in a fight. Losing game two at home and going down 02 puts you in danger of a sweep. And, I mean, God, you hate to even think it. But if they get swept again. Yeah. No, for sure. I mean.

And by yikes, I mean. I'm rubbing my hands together because that would be just fantastic. Yeah. Fodder to watch. Yeah. So, like, that's the thing, right? Is what has been the criticism of, uh, of the, of the oilers forever is, uh, they can't do shit without Connor McDavid on the ice.

Well, he had, I said he had, he had good underlying numbers. I was looking at the wrong tab. He had very good underlying numbers. Um, And then when he wasn't on the ice, they didn't do very much. You know what I mean? And, and, you know, you need your Evander Keynes and Ryan Nugent Hopkinses and all that. You need them to be better, full stop.

And, you know, they weren't. And maybe you say that's just kind of like one game and it's not a big deal. And maybe you just say, well, you know, the kings are a, are a very good team in their own right. Like all their underlying numbers are better than I think everybody would expect. Like if you look up, you know, where they rank in the league, that kind of thing. But I don't know. I mean, I just, you know, who didn't have a good night was Leon Dreisheidel.

No. He was quite bad as a matter of fact. At the power play goal, but. Yeah, but like at five on five especially, uh, 28.6% expected goals. Yep. Well, that's not going to get it done. You know, and like similar underlying numbers for any stat you want to look at, basically. But outshot 9 to 2 when he's on the ice at 5 on 5 on 5 in that game the other night.

So that's not, you need more from Drys Eidl, and you need Mike Smith to not shit his pants at a crucial moment. But then again, he's Mike Smith. So what are you going to do, you know? It's, this is, this is it. I mean, that was kind of a game where if you're Ken Holland, that went about as badly as it could have. because you're one of those teams that people said, oh, they need a goalie, and you didn't go get a goalie, and you look smart for about a month after the deadline,

because Mike Smith started playing well, and then this was not a great Mike Smith game. I feel like the Oilers come out tonight, and it's a cliche when a team loses to go, oh, they're going to be better the next night. But I have to feel like this is, If they don't come out really smoking tonight, something is absolutely wrong with that. Yeah.

They know what's at stake right now. I think betting on Leon Dreisidel, another game where his underlying numbers are like, you know, unbelievably bad. I'm not betting on that. You know what I mean? But, you know, like this is a team with two of the most dangerous offensive players in the league. you got to make Jonathan quick work harder than this. Yep. Full stop, you know?

And he was very good. Like he... Yeah, absolutely. But it's not... It wasn't an easy night for him, but it's got to be. That's what kind of scares you about the Kings is the Kings are a team that, especially against an opponent like the Oilers, they can hang around and steal one every now and then. And once they steal one, you start getting into the situation where if they steal another,

we're really in trouble. And I'm not necessarily. saying they they stole game one in the sense that they didn't they didn't deserve the win but um you know the the oilers are already in that danger zone where even if they are the better team that isn't necessarily enough when you're already a game down yeah and you've shown that maybe the gap isn't as big as it could be so we'll see like i say i i think they um i think they come out tonight and win um but if they don't who look out yeah one last thing on this i I can't believe this is true.

I just looked this up by period. High danger chances by period for the Oilers at five on five. Five in the first period, one in the second, zero in the third. Yep. That's not going to get it done to them. That was, like they were good in the first period, even though they were trailing. You were kind of like, all right, you know what, this is okay. They're not going to be trailing for long, yeah.

Yeah. And it's, like, I really felt like watching that game that after McDavid scored, I'm like, okay, there it is. The switch has been flipped and here we go. And nope. So full credit to the Kings, even though we're mostly talking about the waves. They played as good of a road game against that roster as you probably could with those two players at the top of it. And we all agree that this is Yassupil-Yarvi's fault.

Exactly. And so now let's move on to the other. I almost said the other game where the goalie screwed up. That's not really true. Boston Carolina. Bruins going back to Allmark tonight. Okay. I hadn't seen that.

Yeah, a little surprising. But I don't know. Like not indefensible or anything like that. I didn't think he played great in game one. But he didn't play badly. Like a lot of the goals weren't necessarily his fault. And what was the final in that one? Five to one. Five to one, I think.

So, yeah, I mean, you're not going to win a lot of games, only scoring one goal. But I was surprised at that in the sense that I picked Boston to win that series. Same here. And a lot of people did. And I saw a lot of people having it kind of as a coin flip, like the models. I think I had them. I had Bruins in six maybe. This is a thing I should have pulled up, I guess.

No, forget about it. It's now, now you just go with, you get to just say that you would have done what. Yeah. It's, that surprised me that that game wasn't more competitive. And especially, you know, if you're Boston, you're sitting there going, like, we maybe got a gift with Freddie Anderson being out for the start of that series. And yet, I thought Ranta looked shaky early on. Like that, I didn't watch a ton of it, but it, because the Leafs were. run at the same time. But at the beginning, there were a couple where he was looking behind him,

and that's often a sign that a goalie isn't feeling it. Like when he's looking behind him and the puck isn't there, but he settled in and was very good. So that's, you know, that was kind of your thought is you looked at these two teams and said, Boston's better than you think, and Carolina doesn't have their goalie. Well, maybe Carolina's fine in that. So, Yeah, I mean, this is a game that I think, like, obviously it's 5 to 1. But the Bruins didn't really, for me anyway, didn't really, like, look particularly dangerous until it was already, like, 3 to 1 or 4 to 1, where it was just like, yeah, this game's over. And then it's like, oh, they're getting a lot of scoring chances all of a sudden. Well, you know, who gives a shit at that point?

But, yeah, that was just kind of like my big thing was like the, I felt like the Bruins just kind of didn't show up for the first period. obviously Carolina scored two in the early in the second I want to say and then or maybe late in the second actually now that I said like it just got away from him so fast the Bruins that I don't know like I just I never really felt they were fully engaged with the game if that makes sense yeah it was that that was a disappointing one for for the Bruins. And so we'll see tonight. I don't know.

I feel I just finished saying like, I think the Oilers are going to come out and it'll be, they'll be okay. I don't know that I feel that with the Bruins. I won't count them out. Absolutely. But that was, that was a bit of a demoralizing one.

Yeah. And this is the classic situation of like, hey, it's not over till, uh, till the home team loses, right? Um, And I looked, I had the Bruins in seven. So, yeah.

Okay, we're trending in that direction, certainly. Just in terms of home team's got to lose at some point, right? It's usually how it goes. But, yeah, I think this is a series where, like you say, Ranta didn't look great to start, but, like, Carolina doesn't necessarily need him to be great. They need him to be competent, which he was for most of the year. And that, you know, both of these are really good teams. And this is a situation where because of the wild card, you know, maybe they wouldn't be playing under normal circumstances, but at the same time.

And maybe they would. I honestly don't know off the top of my head. But at the same time, like, these are just two of the, I don't know, 10 best teams in the entire NHL and they have to play in the first round. It happens, you know. Yep. And of course, we need the Bruins to bounce back so that we can finally get a team winning a division they're not in, which the Bruins felt like our best hope. Has that really not happened yet? Not yet. I guess that makes sense, right?

A few years of this system. And the crossover doesn't happen every year. Right. But yeah. Fingers crossed. And also to do that, you would have to be like a seven seed. Yeah. And so like the idea that a seven seed is going to, you know, plow through two rounds.

Yeah. Okay, that's fair enough. But yeah, I don't know. Same thing kind of with Drysidele. Like you just want to see more from like Marshand and Pasternak in particular, right? That's what it boils down to. But yeah, anyway, Sean, do you have any thoughts on this Toronto Tampa series? It's fine.

It's going great. Yeah, that was the best, certainly the best playoff game we've seen from the, the Leafs in this era. I said on Twitter that it was their best playoff game since the Pac-Quinn era, and I had somebody push back and say, like, what actual game in the Pac-Quinn era was better than that? And so now I think you might have to go back to, in 93, they beat the Blues 6-0 in a game 7.

I think that might be the last time that the Leafs played this well in a playoff game. It was, and it was such a, like, I'm like, I think probably mostly fans. When Kyle Clifford took that stupid penalty and it was five-in-haping. God, what a fucking dumb shit penalty that was. And I'm like, that's it right there. You know, the crowd was buzzing. You know, things were loud. Tampa's going to score twice on this power play.

Crowd's going to go dead quiet. We're going to get 50 shots of guys with heads slumped on the bench. This is it. Kyle Clifford just ruined our season. And they proceed to have what I with only a little bit of hyperbole said was maybe the best penalty kill I've ever seen. Yeah. Because for the next five minutes, the Leafs had better chances than the Lightning. Absolutely.

Not even close. Yeah. Crowds going crazy. And then, you know, they get the goal. I mean, it was the absolute perfect game one. Everything happened for the Leafs that you could possibly have asked for. Matthews scores a couple. Marner snaps the streak.

Campbell looks fine and gets the shutout. Vasillesky doesn't look good. Victor Hedman gets schooled on a goal. Kuturov isn't great. Stamco's is missing open nets. Like when Morgan Riley is splitting guys' faces open in fights, it's a good night. Yeah. Now, having said that, obviously, everybody is thinking it's one game.

game and Tampa is going to be way, way better tonight. So we'll see where it goes. But for one game, I mean, it was as close to perfection as I think this team's capable of. And this is the thing. When it comes to the Leafs, there's been this narrative around this team that for the last few years. And, you know, when I say this team, I'm talking like the Matthews era version of this team that, oh, when the going gets tough, they quit. They shrivel, they shrink away from it. And they don't.

You look at the history. When this team, when things are bad and everyone's dumping on this team, that's usually when you see their best. You know, when they were facing elimination against Columbus and they're down three nothing, they score three times, tie the game, win in overtime. When they lost the Zambooney game, they're playing the lightning the next night. Everyone's waiting for them to get killed. They go into Tampa and they beat the best team in the league.

and on down the list. They lose John Tavares in game one against Montreal and lose the game and everyone's going, oh, here we go again, and they come out and they play great and win the next three games. It's when things are going good, and anybody is saying, nice job, that they,

that's when they shrink. As soon as they, like, I've never seen a team or root it for a team that's more eager to hang a mission accomplished banner and say, good enough. We did it, yeah. You know, and I mean nothing, you'll never get a better example than against Montreal, right? That once they're up three to one, they fall apart.

Once they have that amazing comeback against Columbus, historic comeback, three goals in the last few minutes, tie the game, win it. People are going, oh, they got all the momentum now. They come out and they lay an egg in the deciding game. And go on down the list. Like every time this team gets a streak together, anything is going well, they just, pat themselves on the back and the next game, they take it easy. So I really want to see what happens tonight. Because if this is, you know, one of the narratives he started hearing after game one is, is this a different Leafs team? You'll see that tonight. If they come out flying again,

knowing that Tampa is going to do that, then win or lose, I will feel a lot better about this team versus if we get the slow start, you know, oh, wow, what do you mean we, what do you mean Tampa's still here? They didn't just pack up and go home because we played one good game. Then you'll know it's the same old from this team. So I'm really interested to see how tonight goes. A little bit terrified. But that's, that to me is going to be the story. And if Tampa comes out and plays great and chips away and wins a road game, then okay, we're in for a long series. But if I need to see this team not sleepwalk through the first 10 minutes, which is what they would typically do for the last few years.

So I had written down here, did the Leafs look good or did Tampa Bay look incredibly bad and the Leafs capitalized, right? Both. Both. I think you don't get a game. That's kind of my answer. Yeah.

Because, for example, and this is a stat I wanted to say earlier, uh, first period of game one, The Leafs spend seven minutes on the penalty kill. They put together 0.26 expected goals for. They allow 0.25 expected goals against on the PKK against the Tampa Bay Lightning. That's fucking crazy. Let's not get into the second period.

They didn't look quite so good on these expected goals on the PK. where, but like, you know, you don't want, generally speaking, this is where I get into, did Tampa play badly. You don't want to give Tampa Bay Lightning about 13 minutes of power play time in a game. Generally speaking, that will go real bad for you. It will, and obviously that'll be something they look at. Now, the game was called real tight, I think because of, partly because when you give a major out early in the game, You sort of have to follow that. And the major was absolutely the right call.

Like not even, and the suspension and everything, no issue with that whatsoever. But, you know, you do kind of have to. And then the Leafs take another penalty. And so now it's seven minutes against the home team. So, you know, the next Tampa penalty is going to get called. And next thing, you know, it's one of those games where you're calling things, which is fine. That's what a lot of us say we want in the playoffs. But yeah, there's a lot of games that I've watched with this Leafs team and others where, you know, at the end of the game, you look at the numbers or you look at the like deserves to winometer or whatever and you go, oh, I didn't realize it was that one-sided.

It didn't feel that one-sided to me. This one-sided. Yeah, I agree. And look, full credit to the Leafs. But, yeah, Stephen Stamco's isn't going to miss too many empty nets. Victor Hedman isn't going to lose too many 101 battles to David Camp. Yeah, he looked bad.

I didn't think he looked very good at all in this game. Nikita Kuturav isn't going to have many games like that. And Andre Vazolevsky isn't going to get, you know, you're not sneaking four past him, yeah. That Mitch Marner goal looked like, as somebody told me that the Mitch Marner goal where he comes in in Deeks and Vasselowski goes the wrong way and like it looked like in a video game

when you accidentally activate manual goaltending, you weren't meaning to, and you just skate your goalie off into the corner, he was bad. So I think all the things that the Leafs did well are things the Leafs can do well and can continue. All the things that the Lightning did bad are not going to keep happening.

Right. And one last thing I want to say is, like, you know things are going well for you when Mitch Marner is scoring in a playoff game. It's like that was when I knew that game was over. The second Marner scored him like, good night, everybody. That's it.

We're done here. If Mitch Marner is putting one past you in the postseason, you're fucked. Full stop. So, you know, obviously you'd like to see it continue if you're the Leafs, but I feel like it's just going to be tougher sledding the rest of the way. So we'll see. One last one before the break here. Minnesota St. Louis. You got a little nasty.

Yep, which we figured it would. nasty, yeah. They don't like each other. That always makes it fun. But yeah, I don't know. You know, this is one of those games where you kind of expect a game where, I don't know, the wild aren't going to do too much offensively, you know? Just that's just kind of, they don't have that kind of personnel to be extremely,

I know they scored a million goals this year. They were one of the highest scoring teams in league, so was St. Louis. But if you had said, hey, what do you think is more likely a low-scoring game between these teams and a high-scoring game between these teams in game one? I would have said low-scoring all the way. Yep. And it feels like this one is kind of the one that you want to analyze and extrapolate from the least, just because we all picked this series to go seven. So. I had Minnesota and six.

Oh. Sorry. Wow. Sorry. So. Everyone else to go in seven. So, I mean, the interesting story here was going into the series was what do both teams do about the goaltending?

Because both teams had theoretically a case to be made for two guys. And St. Louis certainly picked right. I'm not sure I'd say that Minnesota picked wrong. I'm going with Mark Andre Fleury, but I wonder, have they, said, do we know who's starting tonight? I don't think they have said. Oh, that'll be a game time decision, all that stuff. Okay.

It'll be interesting to see. Because, I mean, there was talk that they would use both guys in the playoffs, and that's always dicey because, I mean, when do you make the switch? When do you go back and forth? And maybe this is it. I mean, I didn't think Flurry was bad, but, I mean, he's given up four goals on not an extraordinary number of shots. He's, you know, he wasn't great.

The goal is never the reason you lose when you get shut out, but that's, uh, uh, it. Four goals on 15 shots is not going to cut it. 15 at 5 on 5, I guess I should say. Yeah. But yeah, so that's not going to, that's not going to get the job done. That's your, that's your opening. And I think if, if they go, if they go back to Flurry, that suggests that Fleury is their guy. Um, uh, or at least the guy that they want to ride.

Now, obviously, if they lose game two with Flurry, then you know, you probably make the switch then. But I don't know. Very impressive by the Blues, like really impressive, especially with all the, you know, these two teams fight all the way down the stretch for whole mice. And Blues just come in game one go, yeah, who cares? And they play a great game. They did play well. They capitalized on their opportunities, I think you would say much better. than did the wild, obviously.

But, yeah, high danger chances at 5 on 5 in this game were 12 to 4 for Minnesota. So, like, just everything went in the net for them, basically. And, yeah, so it's just a, you know, these two teams are very evenly matched kind of a thing. And, you know, I guess if you're the wild, you're like, yeah, I mean, I mean, I don't expect David Perron to go fucking psycho mode on us every game for this entire series. And if we can shut down your Tarasankos and Bouchnevich's and whoever else, then you're feeling pretty good about it generally. Like, I guess what I'm saying is you're like, you know what,

if David Peron's going to beat us fair play to him, but like it's not going to happen too often. Yep. So. And also, like, I guess we should say, Vili Huso. had a really nice game for himself. Really good. Yeah. So, you know, that kind of answers their question. I think at that point you just go with who so until he has like two bad games in a row minimum, right?

Because it's like, yeah, this guy was our guy for the entire back half of the season, basically. Yeah, I think you give him two losses, unless, of course, obviously they get blown out tonight, seven to one. then that changes it up. Maybe. Even that. I was impressed. I was impressed with the Blues. Yeah.

And I'm not panicking if I'm a wild fan, but obviously, you know, again, anytime a team, home team loses game one, you can rationalize it away all you want. But you've got to win game two. I mean, you're really in big trouble. And, you know, that's. It's stating the obvious, but that's where they're at. Yeah. All right. We're going to take a break.

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like say you're, whatever, you're a Toronto Maple Leafs fan and you're like, they did not sufficiently praise how well the Toronto Maple Leafs played. That's because we hate that team, Sean especially. and tough shit, I guess is how I would put it to you. And hey, you want to have a conversation where people are going to be mad no matter what they say about their teams. The Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Rangers last night went to three overtimes. Igor Shusirkin made 79 saves in the loss. Yeah, huge Henrik Lugquist vibes.

Oh, my God. Right now. He tweeted during the game and I'm like, okay, so he is watching it. He's having like Vietnam War flashbacks, basically, of just like, I've got to make another 40 saves this period. No, no, I hate this. Yeah, that was a... Poor guy.

That was a phenomenal game by him. It locked. It was so fun. But the flip side of that is that was not a great game by the Rangers and or a really impressive effort by the penguins. A penguin's team that I think a lot of us didn't really think had a great shot at this series. I picked them, but I was kind of just being a contrarian doing that. I didn't fully believe it.

I had Rangers in six. So there you go. Yeah, I mean. And in the first period, it felt like, okay, the Rangers are going to fucking walk out of the building with this one. Absolutely. It really felt like, you know, the Rangers, especially the way they were down the stretch, and the way Pittsburgh was down the stretch, were the better team,

goaltending aside, and then you factored in that the Rangers had arguably the best goalie in the world and the penguins had their backup. But the penguins went out there and certainly, well, I mean, after the first period, were... They ran them out of the building in the second.

They ran them out. They were unbelievable in the second. And if you're, you know, if you're the Rangers, you're looking at that as the game's going on, going, okay, this is why we've got the best goalie in the world. He can steal this one for us. And then we can regroup and get back to it.

And ultimately, it doesn't happen. And, but, you know, the other story we've got to talk about is Casey to Smith leaving. We don't know what his situation is. Yeah. But that's, boy, let me ask you this. After the first overtime, let's say. Sure. If you're a Rangers fan and you're a Penguins fan and you're a Penguins fan and you're

sitting there. And magic hockey fairy pops in and says, what do you want? Do you want to win this game, but your goalie gets injured and is uncertain for the rest of the series? Or do you lose this game? Like, are you happier? Which would you be happier with? I feel, I mean, certainly, I think the Rangers don't take that win.

I'm not sure. I guess I'm wondering how. Pittsburgh feels about this. Because on the one hand, hey, you play great, you win game one on the road, but,

boy, I don't, this is, and we don't know the status of DeSmith, and we don't know the status of, of,

Tristan Jari going forward. Right. But, or Ricard Raquel, or Ryan Ligran. Yeah. That game was a bit of a war of an attrition. Maybe kind of,

yeah. And Louis de Ming was great. He, you know, He came in and did the job in very tough circumstances. Like that's really hard to do to come in cold. Absolutely. Double overtime playoffs.

I mean, he was phenomenal. But, I mean, even spotting a one game lead, if this series is Louis Deming against Igor Sturkin. Yeah. It feels like it's going to be a quick one. And look, like the goals, the. the penguin scored in this game like obviously

the triple overtime goal like what's he supposed to do a guy one foot in front of him tips it in but like you know it's just it's just Jake Gensel getting a clean look

and it was funny I don't know who you had on the broadcast up up in Canada but it was Ray Ferraro and Sean McDonough down here and Ray Ferraro is like it's amazing that Jake

Gensel is the kind of prolific goal score he is because he doesn't have a good shot. He doesn't skate particularly well. Like he just rattled off. This guy's not good at most things you would think a good goal score is good at. And yet, he scores like 30 goals a year,

every year. And he looked so, you know what I would say, Jake Gensel's biggest skill is he just seems to really manufacture something. Like a kind of late career, Tame Mussolani, where it's like, oh,

where'd that guy come from? Holy shit. You know what I mean? And it's like, oh, he just put it in the back of the net because he appeared next to the goalie all of a sudden. And that's kind of what he did last night, especially on that second goal. It was like, oh, he was not there and then he was there immediately. Yep.

Who is the Rangers defenseman on the winning goal? Is it a tell? No. I got to go back and watch it if, you know, if you're just listening to this, if you didn't notice. Like, there's a defenseman in front with mouth. And he just skates away, like to nowhere. Like not to go cover somebody else or to go chase the puck. He just wanders off.

But with like some purpose as if he's chasing an assignment that like what assignment do you have that isn't cover the Hall of Fame or who's right in front of your goalie? I guess this is just further evidence that the fix was in. Yes. The NHL picked up the phone. They called MSG. They said, hey, the team in the biggest market in the country, they got to lose. Yeah. Because we love Sidney Crosby.

You and I were talking about that in the break. The goalie, we have to talk about the goalie interference call. I thought it was the right call. I didn't think it was a clear-cut, easy, obvious one, especially since it was a goal on the ice and the league has felt more reluctant to overturn. but you can't go and skate straight at the goaltender and then say, well, a defenseman nudged me, so I had to run him over. Or I had to make contact with him, which he did.

I know some people are saying it was the defenseman who actually knocked him flying, but it doesn't matter. You can't touch a goalie in the crease. You can't go straight towards the crease. And then, you know, and I've got Rangers fans sending me like screen caps and like, look at his The pruder film. Look at the angle of his skates. And it's like, dude, you don't, this isn't NHL 95.

You don't like, you know, just because you turn your skates, you suddenly teleport in the other direction. He was going to hit the goalie no matter what. And you can't do that. And he hit him in the head, too. Yeah. He hit him in the head, which is, like, you know, maybe that doesn't factor into it as far as. But it just makes it like look a thousand times worse. Yeah.

And it very clearly led to the goal. Like, there's no question. This wasn't one of these like, well, maybe he had time. to reset or whatever. It's, yeah, it's not... That's right. It was the right call. I thought there are some of these where I go,

oh, yeah, this is an easy one. I didn't think it was necessarily easy, but the feedback, like, I'm hearing from so many Rangers fans who are like, well, it's Sidney Crosby, the league love, Sydney Crosby. It's like, come on. Yeah, the league hates the New York market. They really don't want the Rangers.

They would hate New York to go on a deep playoff run in their first year of new TV contracts. Yeah, you're right. The fix is in. You really thought this went through really well. Do you want to know what I thought the kind of the theme for the night was for not just this game, but like every game played last night? What's that? Was kind of like, if you were going to make up like, okay, what happens in this game? Tell me exactly what happens for each team in this game.

Because all four goals for the Penguins come with Crosby and Malkin on the ice. The Rangers get a power play goal. They're a power play. They're a team that deals pretty much exclusively for most of the year in offense on the power play. They get a goal from Andrew Kopp, who every Rangers fan has been in love with all ever since they got him, right? They score a shorthanded goal because Chris Kreider just goes on one of the fastest guys in the entire league. There's a stupid penalty. There's a goal where you're like, okay, well, look, like, we got to wave this off, right?

And then, you know, the Penguins win despite the fact that, like, we don't have a lot of faith in this goalie. That's kind of just like a parody of how you think. think of a ranger. And, of course, like, the Rangers get out shot 600 to 12. Right. After the first period. Like, this is just kind of like, oh, yeah, this is exactly if you were drawing it up based on, like, the stereotypes around this team.

Yeah, it was a little on the nose. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, and very similarly, Florida, Washington last night. Yeah. that one surprised me. I didn't think that, you know, I mean, not, I didn't pick the Panthers. Maybe I did pick the Panthers to sweep,

but I don't know, I guess. I had cats in five, yeah. I guess, I was going to say, you know, I could see Washington going with Florida offensively and winning, you know, four or something, but to see them not necessarily grind out a 2-1, Like it wasn't, or three, two, it wasn't like a boring game. But yeah, maybe that's the ticket.

Maybe this is, you know, and again, I hate these narratives, but this is where everyone will be like, yeah, here's the veteran team that knows how to win against the glory boys who want to win six to five and blah, blah, blah. But you've got to be a little nervous if you're the Panthers right now because you're like, like I wrote today or yesterday or whatever, like this is the best team they will ever have. If you can't at least run around with this team,

when. And they haven't won in 25 years. By far, by far the longest stretch in the league of not winning so much as a playoff round. I mean, I don't want to get too far ahead, but geez, if they lost in the first round this year, that, oh boy, that would sting as badly as it could. But, I mean, I still think the Panthers are going to be fine. Yeah, so I guess what I'm saying is like who scored for the capitals last night?

Because that's off, Oshy, Wilson, I think Lars Eller was, had the other one. But it's like, oh, yeah, all those guys are the guys you expect to score for the Washington Capitals. And then the rest of the team kind of didn't play very well, but they didn't, they didn't give up a goal, right? And Sergey Borovsky doesn't look great in game one. and the you know I thought the Panthers looked dangerous

they had the better of the play most of the night but I think they maybe ended up getting a slightly out shot overall right yeah 38 32 yeah and it's just like

oh yeah I mean you know the Panthers are a team that if you can if you can get them kind of going backwards a little bit

like if you can if you can enter the zone with speed or whatever, they are very vulnerable at defending against the rush. And, you know, here we are, right? Like that's, look at how the Capitol scored certainly, certainly the OSHA goal, but a couple other ones too, I think. Yeah. But yeah. So I guess the one thing that is surprising is that, like, Vanitychek was quite good.

Yeah. very good and that's not something that I saw coming for this series. That was part of what you, you know, even though you could look at, even as good as their record was in the season, you can look at the Panthers and say, well, it's a younger team, not a ton of experience, maybe there's, but the other thing you would look at with Florida is you go, I'm not sure I trust the goaltending, but we know we don't trust the goaltending in Washington. So they have the better goaltending even in this series. And it might be the only one where you confidently say that. for them. But, yeah, I mean, Washington's

goal-tending stinks. We all know that. And then the guy comes out and he plays, I don't know if I'd say a great game. Like, it's sort of a tribute to the capitals that this wasn't a goalie stealing one, but this was certainly a goalie being good enough, even very good against a very dangerous team, especially in a situation where when Drew gets the early goal and it's

two to one now early in the second, And the next one, you know, the next one isn't game over, but you really don't want to be down two and then have to open it up against Florida Panthers because that's when they just cave you in. And instead he holds them in, gets him into the third, and then they take over from there. Yeah, and he stopped 30 to 32. Can't really ask a goalie to do more than that against any team, let alone, you know, a team that scores like the Florida Panthers did all season. So, yeah, to your point, like I think, I think four to two obviously. like kind of maybe

makes it sound like it was a little less close than it was but I will say that like if you're the Panthers you've got to be like we kind of played like shit especially in the early going like once once we got up 2-1 it was like oh yeah we're all set and then the Capitals were like no you got to actually play the entire rest of this game yep and that was

just kind of how I saw it. Like I watching, this was the game, admittedly, that I probably watch, well, that's not true. The Colorado game is the game I watched the least last night. But, you know, I was pretty

involved with, with Pittsburgh and New York. So this was a game I was watching kind of between periods and then like I had it, you know, on my iPad in front of me. So I don't have the strongest grasp on this game because it was definitely like one

that I was not paying as much attention to, but, you know, Panthers got to play better, full stop. Like, I think the Capitals played about as well as the Capitals can, and we didn't see the best of the Panthers last night, basically. But not, like, I'm not hearing any panic from you here, or any even real legitimate concern that the Panthers are in trouble here. Yeah, I mean, again, you don't want to lose a home game in the playoffs, right?

Like this now it's officially a series as opposed to Yeah, we all expect the Panthers to win right? And everybody goes, yeah, sure. Including Capitals fans are like, yeah, I mean, come on, obviously. But yeah. And and you know, as as we say with every home team that loses a game one, like you can't lose game two. Nope.

Sure can't. And I don't think they will. Oh boy, folks, he said it not me. Now is the time to get mad. Guaranteed win for the Panthers. You hear me hockey gods? Prove me wrong. Here's the other game I didn't watch very closely.

Colorado Nashville, for my notes on this game, I just wrote down, L-O-L. Yeah, that apparently was also the Nashville game plan. So, man. Two nothing, like four minutes in, three minutes in? Very quick, yeah. And I was like, okay, I don't have to watch a second of this game. And then I checked in with it every month and a while, but. My prediction for the series was I had Colorado in five, but with them losing game one,

and then we'd get 48 hours of panic, and then they would just dominate the rest of the series, which maybe I was on to something, but I should have made that pick for the last series. for the Washington, Florida one. But, yeah, incorrect. And I think the best line I saw somebody say that, like, I picked the avalanche to win the series in six, but I didn't realize it was six minutes because that was, ooh, that was, I had absin six as well.

I didn't see a single person. No, I'll back that up. I saw one person picked Nashville. I don't know who it was, but one out of our 40-something writers in our preview, pick Nashville to win the series. everybody thought Colorado was going to blow the doors off and win, and yet this went even worse for Nashville than I think any of us expected.

Yeah, I mean, like people made a big deal, and rightfully so out of that Kale McCar goal, but it was just like, no, this is just illustrative of the skill gap between these teams, right? Like, they don't have anybody forward or defensemen who can do what Kale McCar just did. Like, you can talk about your Roman Yosys and Philip Foresburgs all you want. You know what? I'm going to put this question to you.

We, on the mailbag for the Patreon, we got this question. And it was Lucas. We're going to burn it now. Sorry to the Patreon listeners, I guess. But true or false, the emergence of Yossi Soros has set the predators back significantly in the picture. Yeah, it's an interesting way to view it. And I would assume the logic here is that by finding this goalie who papers over so many of your problems, it prevents the team from either addressing those issues or maybe even doing the sort of full rebuild that you could argue that

they need to do. I would disagree though. I mean, I would say that, anytime you find your goalie of the future, which I think they have, you're happy to take that. I mean, that is, we always kind of disassociate goaltending from the rest of team building, sometimes for good reason, because it's, A, so much harder to predict and B, it's kind of its own separate thing. But having a goalie is part of building a winner. Sure. You know, they've got a good one. And I also don't think, you know, he's not the reason that Matt Dushain has a career year or, you know,

Right. Stuff like Roman Yossi does what he did. But I do, you know, my answer is no, but it's not an immediate no. Yeah, I get where you're coming from. But also, you know, having a world-beating 27-year-old goalie is not actually that bad. With that having been said, my answer is yes, because they should have blown it up two years ago. And Saros kind of made it so they couldn't by being really fucking good. Okay.

Anyway, yeah, you know, like you say, I think everybody kind of expected a Colorado walkover. I think this is just kind of like fucking spiking the football and doing a whole team coordinated end zone dance. Yep. You know? It's only game one, but like, and Nashville could even win a. game or two in the rest of the series. But like, I think everybody's kind of like, yeah, fair enough. You know, nobody's like, oh, this is outrageous and outside the bounds of what anybody

could have expected. It also really felt like a team that is sick of hearing about how they never get it done in the playoffs or how they never, you know, never get out of the second round. Yeah. How about we rip the throats out of these guys we have to play in the first round? Yep. Exactly. And then put their head on a pike in front of the arena for everyone else to see the rest of the playoffs.

It goes back to that Darrell Sutter quote where he's like, where, you know, they asked him like, what's the difference between finishing seventh and eighth? And he was like, why on earth would you want to play the Colorado Avalanche? Are you kidding me? They're going to gut whoever they play. And then here we are. The one interesting thing that I'll point out, though, is with the avalanche, with the whole like, oh, you know, they don't, they can't.

get out of the second round. They keep losing these heartbreakers, hard series in the second round. And one of the things I thought, I wasn't even watching the game, but when I was hearing about them just destroying Nashville, I kind of went, boy, they're going to win this series in four, get that rest.

Has that been a factor in the past? Have they played like some long series in the first got beat up? And their first round series going back to 2019, one in five games over the flames, five games over the coyotes, swept the blues last year.

So they've played two games over the minimum in the last three years and still lost all those games. So I don't know, maybe the extra rest than the rust is an issue. But obviously... They should just play all of games two and three, no goalie in the neck, give themselves something to play for. Or just play game two like they played game one. and then like just hand the microphone to the predators and say go ahead and say I quit and we'll just call it a series.

They'll never say them quit. But yeah, Calgary and Dallas is the last series we've got to talk about here. Nasty game last night. That was my big takeaway. That was just a nasty one. But again, if you were being like, hey, what's kind of like a parody of a Calgary Dallas game? It's 1-0, and the Dallas Stars are the team that doesn't score

because the one thing Calgary is good at is like locking up. You know, if you're going, if you're line matching or whatever, they're going to be able to put the clamps on whoever, including Jason Robertson's line. And that's what they did. And the other thing you would say is if there was one goal, you'd go, well, it's going to be some combination of Lynn Holm Kachuk and Goddrow. Yeah.

On the one goal. And, of course, it was on the power play. some nasty stuff at the end of the first. Interesting choice by John Klingberg and Rasmus Anderson to get in a fight after a fight after the buzzer, which is an automatic ejection. Yeah, that was not guys who usually do it. Well, Matthew Kachuk usually is in the middle of that stuff. But yeah, interesting.

Is that true? Matthew, Chuck. Yeah, every now and then. He's got the, occasionally. But, yeah, poor John Klingbergh. Ask for a trade so he can go

go somewhere. They keep him around for the playoffs and he lasts a few minutes in the playoffs and gets kicked out of the game. The other thing was, Jacob Markstrom gets a, he gets a shutout

with 16 saves, which is he made fewer saves. He made fewer saves. He made fewer saves in getting this win than Louis de Ming did and he didn't come in until the game was 90 minutes old and he was busier than Jacob

Markstrom was. Unbelievable. That's not good for Dallas but it's very good for Daryl Sutter. Yeah, everything wrong with the Dallas Stars is summed up in, they put up 16 shots and got shut out in game one of the playoffs.

Like, I'm going to look it up really fast, but like what percentage of those shots on goal came from just the top. No, actually not that many. Tyler Sagan had more shots than anybody on the team. Sagan

and Ben. And that actually, I would say, you don't want that to happen. Because those guys are cooked. Well, yeah, Jason Robertson, one shot. Rope Hintz one shot, Joe Velsky, zero. That's, hey, that's, if you're

what you're looking for, if you're the, if you're the flames, those guys combined for two shots on goal. The problem with a game like this is always, you know, whenever you lose in the playoffs, which every team does, you know, you always, you're always, you're going to every series going, we're going to lose a game or two, probably, especially when you're an underdog like Dallas. You want to be able to come out of the games that you do lose, at least going, hey, we've got, we've got better than that. We've got another gear.

And certainly Dallas, I'm sure, would look at it and go way away. We had 16 shots. We can be better than that. Problem is Calgary is sitting there going, we can be better than that too. And we just won and shut you out. And we didn't, like you saw our C-plus game. So, you know, it's tough. When you're a big underdog like Dallas is, you've got to find a way to steal these games

where neither team is, you know, really at their very best. And they gave it a run. They were close. But I think this is, this is obviously. a good sign for Calgary that even though I didn't feel like they were fantastic, they were good enough. It's all you got to be. All you have to be is good enough. So yeah, this is a series I'm very interested in because I do think Jake Ottinger like can steal a game or two. Yep. And obviously the Robertson line is one of the best in the league. You know, like this is a bad matchup for

for Dallas in so far as maybe the actual best line in the league is the Lindholm line with Cichuk and Goddrow. Yep. And another line where you're like, oh, they might be one of the best in the league.

They have to go up against those. Like, having a line that good and they're not even the best line in the series. Yep. That sucks. That's a tough bounce. It is. But that's what happens when you're the fucking eight-seed.

You're going to play a team with a good line. Yeah. Or the seventh seed, I mean, they're sitting there probably still pretty thankful they weren't the eighth seed today. But yeah, that's... Right, sure. That one was, I don't know, I'm not a huge fan of the one-nothing games. I am resisting the urge to point out that, scoring is already backed down under six goals for the first couple of nights of the playoffs.

But let's see where it goes. What did you think overall of the officiating? It felt like especially night one there was this theme of they didn't put the whistles away. They are calling everyone. We talked about it in the Toronto game. But just in general, like are you actually feeling like anything has changed? Maybe this is going to sound crazy. but I'm going to wait more than two nights of the playoffs

to make any big decisions about, or proclamations rather, about whether the refs are calling a different standard in the playoffs. Interesting, yeah. That's just me. You know, watching a lot of the games, like I haven't, you know, I've watched bits and pieces of every single one,

and any time I've seen a penalty, I haven't been like, ooh, they're calling this real tic-ticky tack, you know? Like, look at the Lindgren penalty. last night, like that should have been five in a game. He almost the guy in the face. Yep. Didn't get shit.

Got a two-minute minor. And they reviewed it, right? Yeah, that's right. Which, again, that this is a very strange review system. But remember, the game was rigged against the... I guess the phone must have been down. Like, the Gary Bettman's burner phone that he uses to call in the anti-rangers reviews must have been on the Fred.

That's a tough break for him. Yeah, I mean, so, like, that is kind of my thing. It's like, you just, you just can't, well, look how many penalties are right. Well, the playoffs have been going on for a night. So please relax. Yeah, we will see. But, I mean, there were, yeah, you're right. There was the one shady call I thought of all the ones in the Toronto Tampa was the one that put the Leafs on the Five on Three, which did end up being a very important call.

but if you're Tampa, you're sitting there, even though the Clifford penalty was the right call, anytime you get a full five-minute major, you kind of know that they're going to be looking for something to hand the other team, unfortunately. But that was the one out of all of them. Other than that, I thought they were, yeah, you're right. I mean, they're out there. But we see that in other games where you're like, yeah, there were a dozen obvious penalties tonight, and one team had two power plays and one had one.

So I guess if you're a fan, if you spent the last few years complaining and saying this is how you want the games officiating, you can't turn around now and be like, wait, we only saw like 25 minutes of five on five. That's, you're getting what you're asking for. To be fair, I haven't seen many people saying that. But I also try to avoid people complaining about officiating at all costs because it's just, you know, usually it's crybaby shit. Yep. is what I would say is whenever people are like, oh, the rest are so bad. Yeah, I'm very unbiased.

And I'm not a homer, but this call that just happens to have been against my team was the worst call ever and the league is rigged against us. Yeah, that's pretty. But yeah, you know, I guess the other thing we should talk about along similar lines is

the suspensions that came out of the first night. I haven't seen anybody say we're going to have any hearings or anything today. So I guess Ryan Lingren's free and clear. But obviously, it would look pretty bad if after the officials reverse a major that they... Yeah, well,

it's, I guess would it be the first time that ever happened? Probably not, right? So, whatever. Um, but obviously Kyle Clifford gets a game. Uh, probably did the Leafs of favor with that one for especially after not play Kyle Clifford. Sheldon Keefe kind of defended him.

Because after thinking that he had blown the series for them, I think everyone's second thought was that's it for Kyle Clifford in the playoffs. Yeah. And Sheldon Keefe, after the game, was like, no, we're going back to him. And thankfully, now they don't have to. Yeah, that's right. And then Jared Spurgeon only gets a fine for trying to injure someone. Pavel Butchenevich, you can't.

You slashed him, or cross-checked him, rather, right in the ankle. Yeah, very clear attempt to injure. From the last guy in that series that you would expect. But, yeah, I know Greg had a thing where he said that, look, that there was no injury on the play. Department of Player Safety tends not to suspend for stick fouls when there's no injury. And I get that to an extent, but I mean, there has to be a line somewhere. You can't break your stick over someone's head.

You can't spear somebody in the throat and then go, well, they didn't get hurt. You wouldn't think. And cross-checking a guy right in, I mean, not even the back of the lake, like the back of the ankle. Yeah. Like that looked like a guy trying to, you know, do in a guy's Achilles. Like, that's... Um... Me and Eugene Melnick would...

would like to start an investigation into this. Yeah, well, I've got bad news for you. Uh-oh. I can't say I'm surprised because, again, this is, there was no injury, the league does not like to suspend, and it's a star player. You know, if Kyle Clifford does that and Jared Spurgeon hits a guy from behind into the boards, I think we probably still get Kyle Clifford getting one game and Spurgeon not. So I'm not, I can't say I'm surprised.

but that was a nasty ugly point. I can't believe. I am kind of surprised just because it's so fucking obvious what he's trying to do. The fact that he didn't succeed in injuring Butchnevich should not be like, well then I guess it's fine.

That's fucking crazy. I think, yeah, like saying there's not an injury on a clear attempt to injure play. Like I get it if it's, you know, hey, you went for the check, you caught the head, you were sloppy, you got lucky, the guy didn't get hurt. Because, I mean, what? Like, if, if, if he doesn't get up, what, what's the call there?

Like, if he, if he does blow it his Achilles or it breaks his anger, or, you know, whatever, then what are we dealing with? Like, you know, multiple games, he kicked out of the series. It would probably have to be, right? Like, I mean, Jesus Christ. But I guess the Department of Player Safety has taken the, side show Bob, you know, attempted murder. You know, what is that, really?

Yeah. They don't give him Nobel Prize for attempted chemistry, you know? Yeah. But then again, like Kyle Clifford, there wasn't, I don't think there was an injury. Like, I don't think he missed the game. Maybe I'm wrong on that. But I get, though, it's Kyle Clifford. Like, Kyle Clifford was an easy guy to suspend.

Like, even this is the one time probably the Department of Player Safety will ever suspend a guy in the playoffs. and even that player's fan base is like, sure, that's fine. What a relief. You sure you don't want to go to? Could we appeal? Yeah. It was an easy one.

But they still got it right, but it was an easy one to get right. Yep. Okay, we'll take another break and we'll be back to talk about the news that doesn't involve playoff teams, and there's a shocking amount of it this week. So, bye, bye. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp Online Therapy. Life can be overwhelmed. Many people are burned out, might not even know it, but symptoms can include lack of motivation,

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get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash puck. So if you've considered giving it a try, This is a great way to do it. That's BetterHelp. B-E-T-E-T-E-R-H-E-L-P-E-L-P dot com slash puck. Okay, so I said stuff about teams that did not make the playoffs. Let's start with truly like the most incredible shit I have ever seen in my life. The Jets, horrible all year. Everybody, you know, I didn't remember this,

but apparently there were a lot of people who were like Jets, one of the best teams in Canada this year. I was one of them. I said top five in the league. Wow. I mean, no, nope. I thought they'd be better than they were. I thought they'd be better than they were.

But I was shocked to have those takes revisited for any reason. And seeing those, I was like, yeah, I mean, that I don't know what that was based on, but anyway. Well, I mean, for me, it was based on one of the best goalies in the league. Excellent forwards.

Good enough blue line, I thought would be enough in the central to, yeah. You didn't think. They have like four books. Two? Good top six. Maybe.

Maybe. On reputation, perhaps. But like Blake Wheelers. That's all I go by, man. I don't. I don't. I don't. watch anyone outside of the Eastern time zone.

Yeah. And I mean, God, if you're watching the Winnipeg Jets, like call a doctor, there's no reason to do that. They are boring, too. Anyway, after all that, it seems like they're not going to bring their coach back. Why would they? But it seems like they are, because they have it already announced, or not announced, but it's leaked that they are giving Kevin Shevolday off a three-year extension. Oh, have they not formally announced it? I don't think that's been formally announced it. announced, no. I wonder if they won't even bother if they'll just, they, oh yeah, no, he's always

been time for these four years. Yeah. Surprising to some extent, I mean, he's been to GM the whole way. He's clearly got the trust of ownership. And so I don't know that, like, I didn't come out of this season going, they need to fire the GM. And I guess, if he needs, if he needs, if he needs an extension, that's, you know, maybe your only other option. But. So what's the case for firing him other than the team is bad. He built it. Yeah. That's, and seemingly, everybody on the team hates each other's guts.

Well, that seems to be part of it too, yeah. Yeah. And, you know, like if you're going to bring in someone new, now's the time to do it because they have a ton of RFAs and UFAs that need to be swapped out, but also like enough of a, like, man, I'm looking at this core. Blake Wheeler, 35 years old, signed for two more years at 8.25. Blake, can we just point out Blake Wheeler had nearly a point of game that you keep saying he's cooked? He had 60 points in 65 games this year.

Now, he's not 90 point Blake Wheeler anymore. And, yeah, two more, the next two years could not be fantastic. But he's a top six forward in this league. I mean power plays, mainly. Mainly power plays. That's really all he can do anymore. Which, like, hey, there's space for players like that in the league, right? But he just, at five on five, he's like a drag on the team.

He had 40 even strength points. Like, you know, you're right. Like, the numbers are not. Negative war on this guy. Did he really end up with a negative? Point. Okay. Didn't realize that.

Yeah. Like his, his five-on-five play is actively bad. I bet a lot of those five-on-five points were empty netters extra. You know, like, is that even strength, or is that five-on-five? You know what I mean? Yeah, I am surprised by that.

That's, uh, okay. Yeah. But anyway, um, yeah, they're, they're, uh, they're in a tough, they're in a tough spot going forward. Um, and, and Mark Sheifley sure sounds like, like he wants out. Wants out. Absolutely.

And also sounds like he still considers himself an elite star player. Which bad news about that, Mark. Well, here's the thing. He can think that. Yeah, like, the question is, is there one of the other 31 GMs who thinks that?

Because if so, that's good news for one. Like, you know, he, he, he, whatever. Like, he's not bad by any means. And this is another thing of like, Like, you know, how much of how much of these guys being maybe bad defensively is that their coach, the coach who quit halfway through the season. I just don't think he was a very good coach. No. You know?

He certainly had worn out his effectiveness there. Yeah. I think it's fair to say. Yeah. And so, you know, like, this is a team where, you know, they have a lot of guys signed for, like, big money. the next few years. And so I guess in that way, you're like, well,

you might as well bring Kevin Chevaldei off back. Yeah. Wheeler's the big one. I mean, I think Wheeler's the only one, at least among the forwards that you would say is a bad contract. Kyle Connor, seven million for a center who can score.

Oh, Kyle Connor rocks. He's so fucking good. Yeah. Nick Healy's only $6 million. Yeah. But like that Josh Morrissey contract isn't very good. Obviously, the nation-shade contract isn't good. Yeah.

Yeah, there are just, this is a classic team where the middle of the lineup is your bigger concern where everybody makes $5 million or more. Is that right? You know, like that kind of a team? And like Dubois needs a new contract and who knows, like, if you're- Yeah, and that situation seems weird again, you know, and it's, I still, I like, I like him as a player, but he certainly hasn't been great in Winnipeg. No.

This is now stop number two, and you mentioned how it kind of feels like there's problems in that room, and I don't know if he's part of that or not, but he seemed to be in Columbus. I got reminded the other night of somebody had like a funny tweet about the Pierre Luke Dubois spends too much time at home. Depot thing. Do you remember this? No. What was that? No. This was, when he had that, that, that really bad year, there was a rumor that, like, he was helping his, he was spending so much time helping his dad with, like, a maybe failing, uh, home renovation business or something like that. Like, he was basically working a full-time job in addition to being an NHL player was the rumor.

Um, I, I don't believe it, but that, you know, very funny, very, very funny. Yeah, that is. Yeah. But it's interesting that, yeah, Pierre-Luc Dubois seems to have worn out as welcome in two stops in a row. And is that a PLD problem? Or is that a John Tortorella and Paul Stassney or assholes problem? Yeah. Yeah. That's the question that you have to ask at this point. Stastney's a fun. Whose fault is it? Yeah. Stastany seems like a guy. And the fact that they didn't move him at the deadline was one of the more.

More interesting non-mov. Yeah, you would assume he's gone, right? I mean, you're not. You would think. But Kevin Shevoldeuf's back. We love Paul Stasney. He rocks. To me, Schifley's the most interesting guy, because he was, what was it, five years ago when he had like 80 points.

He was 23 years old. You're like, all right, this is your franchise center. And he signs the deal. It wasn't that long ago that when you were talking about great contracts in the league, it was Nathan McKinnon, Alex Barakoff, and Mark Sheifley, all being right around 6 million. And he's been consistently a point-of-game guy ever since. It just, he hasn't found that next gear ever. Like, it's just he's still that guy.

Like I said, I mean, they're a team where, you know, for a long time, like, oh, look out for the Winpeg Jets power play or whatever. And they still have that to some extent. They had a pretty good power play this year, if I remember incorrectly. But it's the five-on-five play that sinks them. And you go, okay, well, look at how bad the defense has been for you. Like, basically ever since Dustin Bufflin called it, like the defense in Winnipeg has been not very good. Yeah, and true believing, even though he hasn't been fantastic in New York.

Yeah. They didn't replace them, certainly. Yeah, it's just can like a Marr Schifley or even a Blake Schifley or even a Blake Wheeler, can they, if there's a change of scenery or whatever, can they kind of find their game again? I would obviously, for obvious reasons, say Shifley more so than Wheeler is a yes or at least a probably. Yeah, just given the age. Yeah.

And the other thing with Shifley is I do feel like, you know, he's, it feels Jets fans I wouldn't say are turning on him but certainly maybe the shine is off and part of that

is the playoffs last year that idiotic hit that he throws that gets him kicked out of the series you know that I feel like kind of and some of his response

to it at the end of the series and some of his comments this time around on the ice when he's on the ice he's still good and he's still worth

six million like there's some team that's to be out there needing a first-line center going, yeah, we'll, we'll jump in on this guy for $6 million, assuming they move him. And yeah, now it's shovel day off will be the guy to do it. Did you see the report today about what they're thinking for their next coach? No.

Apparently, and I'm going to search it as I talk so that I can give credit. But apparently Randy Carlyle. No way. Randy Carlisle. No way. Absolutely not. Come on. Apparently from Elliot Friedman, that Scott Arneal and Randy Carlyle.

Now, I'm seeing that as one of those things where I see people attributing that to Elliot Freeman. I don't see him, he himself saying that. So maybe. But I know sometimes what Elliot says on the radio or wherever it gets misrepresented. but Randy Carlisle, who of course, you know, played in Winnipeg. Randy Carlisle and Scott Arneill, another guy who, oh, what a track record of success, Scott Arneal had. But another former jet. Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. Scott Arneal, two years as a head coach in Columbus, 10 years ago, finished under 500 and missed the playoffs both years. I'm going to say, though, in his defense... Lasted half a second season. It was Columbus, so I mean... It's Columbus. That's what I was going to say in his defense. So I guess the question is, if you're Kevin Shevoldeoff, who's side are you on in the locker room rift situation?

Because, like, Paul Stastney is out here saying, like, you know, we got a bunch of guys who only play for themselves and not for the team or whatever. You know, that's a kind of a paraphrasing of the quote, but like that's kind of the vibe we've gotten all year is that there's a there's a chalk line driven, drawn down the middle of the dressing room. And you're not allowed to cross it if you're one of the selfish guys or whatever. And so does he think, I don't even know, is like Blake Wheeler and Paul Stassney, are they on the same side of this divide or are they? I don't know. I mean, everyone loves Blake Wheeler, so I can't imagine that he's on whatever the wrong side would be,

but you never know. But yeah, what do you, that's, I think the offseason there will tell the story, right? When you, there could be moves in Winnipeg where you go, oh,

holy crap, they traded that guy, and then that will help us figure it out. But, you know, the other things. Let's put Nick Euler's on a good team. What do you say?

Yeah. Kevin Shevoldeoffs, he's never been a big trade guy. You know, there was famously for years, he never made any trades that were player for player of any significance. And that's changed a little bit lately. But, you know, I will say Randy Carlisle in Anaheim, the second tour duty, like led them to 200-point seasons. And there were decent teams. But, you know, he has had decent success. But again, even he hasn't coached in three years.

Yeah. And this also kind of gets into, is this the kind of coach you want to bring your team into the next era? Or is this a team, a guy you want to coach, you know, your guys who are like 33, 33, 34, 35 years old? It's certainly for Randy, if it's Randy Carlisle, that suggests that this is not a rebuilder, a step back situation. This is, unreal. This team can win. This team stinks, man. They're not good.

Let's go to another coaching change here. Jeff Lashel. Not renewed. Not fired, but not renewed. Right. Fair enough. Yeah. I think the surprise here is that it took as long as it did.

And Steve Eisenman was very patient. Obviously, the defense, of Jeff Blasheel and his record would be, look at the team he had. He wasn't given the tools to succeed with, and that's fair enough. But it felt like the wings took a step back this year. It did feel that way. And even with Steve Eisenman doing the extremely slow but steady rebuild, you can't be taking a step back.

So not a remotely surprising move. And now the question is going to be, who do they go after? What type of coach do they go after? Yeah, you know, it's interesting because obviously the only two coaches Eiserman has ever hired are Guy Boucher and John Cooper, neither of whom had NHL experience. I think neither of them had even been an assistant in the NHL before they were hired. Gie Boucher didn't last long, but obviously they had a really good first season and went to a Eastern Conference final game seven. they lost one nothing to the ruins. Am I right about this?

I think so, yeah. And then I don't know if you've heard about what John Cooper has done with Tampa, but it's been pretty good. And so, you know, this is basically the opposite of Winnipeg as far as I'm concerned where he's going to maybe not go off the board, but he's not like, well, I got to go out and get a guy who's coached in the NHL for 15 years or whatever. Like he's obviously unafraid to be like, yeah, this guy who's like, one in the QMJHL and the USHL or whatever.

Like those guys, like as long as they've won trophies, that's I guess all I care about. So. Yeah. So I think we both agree. Mike Babcock is the guy there. 100%. You know, I've seen people say Lane Lambert, who obviously has been an assistant coach in the NHL for a thousand years.

Yeah, his name's been around forever. Yeah. And he's interviewed a bunch of different places. He's close to being like the Mike Futa of coaching searches. But the connection for Eiserman is that they were apparently roommates on the Red Wings, however many million years ago that was. Okay. Well, there you go. Sorry to all the other candidates.

But, you know, would it surprise you to see him get a Gronborg or whoever, like really go kind of outside the box and get a guy who's only. only coached in the age, a guy who's a college coat. No, it wouldn't surprise me at all. So this could be like, you could tell me like one of 40 coaches the Red Wings hire here and I go,

sure, why not? You know, so it'll be interesting. I just had somebody tweet me a picture of Capo Kako on his way to the net. Mm-hmm. And tell me,

look, his skates aren't even in the blue paint. And it's like, Yeah, dude, that's from earlier in the play. I got to get off. Yeah, you're right. I acknowledge that he was not in the crease the entire shift. Yeah, there was a point on that drive before they get to the Stemman's freeway sign where JFK hasn't been shot in the head yet. Yeah.

So he didn't get shot in the head. What's the problem here? Anyway, the other coaching change, I don't think anybody's surprised by, Flyers aren't going to bring Mike Yo back for some reason. Isn't that crazy? They're not going to bring Mike Yo back, which would have been absolutely shocking if they had. Might keep him in the organization, which fine. I mean, Mike Yo might just be one of those guys who's a good assistant coach.

You know what? I can tell you for sure. He's not a good head coach. Yeah. I feel like we've got, I feel like it's going to, well, I was going to say we won't see him as a head coach again. But if Scott Arneal is in the, yeah. Yeah. Scott Arneal is in the man.

But no, I don't, I've, sorry Flyer fans, I have nothing to say on that one because other than that you all would have been rightfully furious if that decision had been made immediately. 1736 and 7 in 60 games. 41 points from 60 games. And I understand they'd like run the flag up at that point or whatever, but like, good Lord. Yeah. 41 points from 60 games in the NHL? Yeah. Very bad.

And not even a team that necessarily gave like. hey, we're tanking for a draft pick vibes, although the smart-ass thing to say would be, how could you tell? But, no, I mean, there was zero chance they were going to continue with him, so we see who they go and get. Here's the other two situations that are interesting.

Okay. Bruce Boudreau, who is, we are told by Jim Rutherford, will be offered one year. Or I guess they have the option in place. There's an option and they, apparently the divide right now is Boudreau wants an extension extension. And Rutherford says you have one more year on your contract. So they will not extend him and they have basically said, if you get a better offer, go ahead.

No hard feelings. But we are not committing past a year, which is interesting. Considering Boudreau had a very positive impact on that team. record-wise, you could argue that it maybe wasn't as impressive as it looked when you factor in the goaltending and how the team was playing. But this is a bit of a surprise because Boudreau is very popular in Vancouver and Rutherford is basically saying you got one year. And so now the reports are that the status is Boudreau basically, I think it's June 1st

is when maybe the option would kick in. and he's got a month to talk to other teams. And if Philadelphia, Winnipeg, whoever else wants to pick up the phone and say, we like what you did this year, then he's free to go. And that if that doesn't happen, he potentially, well, then he has to decide, is he going to come back for one year? Or does he say no and leave and go home and wait for something else to open up, which is what he,

spent the last few years doing it's a tough situation yeah i i mean like if you're the canucks and you just went through all that uh for the last few years with your with your coaching scenarios like where people are just like you got you got to fire the coach they're they're so bad um and they're like no no no and then they bring in bruce buddrow and the team's unbelievable for pretty much all of his run. Like they dipped it once or twice, but you know, on the balance, you got to say that he was one of the more successful coaches in the

league this year. And they're like, yeah, we kind of like to see what he does in a full season. And if he wants to go somewhere else, like, what's the thing I always say about coaches? Don't fire the guy unless you got somebody better in your

back pocket. They don't. They absolutely do not. Maybe they, like, I mean, they don't as far as, you know, an assistant or something, but maybe Rutherford, he's been around. He maybe has somebody. He's got a line on somebody. Yeah, maybe. But.

So it's, I get, here's, here's the thing. If I'm a Vancouver fan, I probably like Bruce Boudreau. I probably want him back. There is a part of me that doesn't mind Jim Rutherford making clear that, like, no, we're not. He's got to earn it. He's got to earn it. And also, we're not happy with that season. Like, we're not patting ourselves.

on the back because we were good in the second half, we're going to go a little bit, you know, like I'm going to be a bit of a hard ass on this. And that's certainly, you know, compared to Jim Benning, always feeling like they were one depth guy away from the playoffs. I don't hate that from Jim Rutherford, even though maybe this isn't the direction I want it aimed. The other one coaching situation that I guess is worth talking about

is because we've talked about all the announcements that have been made, is the dog that didn't bark, which is we haven't heard anything out of Vegas. Yeah, that is true. Which is surprising, because I thought if they didn't make the playoffs, I thought Pete DeBoer was gone the next morning. First move, yeah, absolutely. If not that night, like, you know, after the game, he doesn't even go to the press conference.

Yeah, they deactivate his key card while he's doing. Like the door closed. Oh, I forgot my, I forgot my sneakers. He's doing the press conference. For example, somebody is walking by in the background with a cardboard box filled with pictures of his family. And he's just like, what is that? That's my plant. So nothing yet, which certainly doesn't mean that nothing will happen.

But I'm surprised. And it would indicate one of two things. Either they're not going to fire him or they're not sure who gets to decide to fire him. because they're looking higher up the organization. Okay. Okay. I love it. If it's going to be Kelly McCriman or whoever else,

then maybe you take a breath. But, you know, this is, they've only been in the league five years, but I think it's fair to say Bill Foley has not earned a reputation for patience as the owner of that team. So, I mean, am I wrong that I would be absolutely shocked if Pete DeBore was back? And I think he's a fine coach, but...

I think, you know, the line on him is correct. Like, he just wears out his welcome at some point, and he can't get the guys to go anymore. And maybe we've reached that point. I think, I think, look, like, is it his fault that they didn't make the playoffs this year? No, it's the fact that they had, you know, they probably lost a combined, like, 250 games

from all-star caliber players, right? Like, that... And part of that obviously is like they knew what they were getting with Jack Eichol, blah, blah, blah. We talked about that last week. But, you know, I didn't see a team where even when everybody was like back in the lineup and maybe obviously not at 100%. They're playing like shit, man. It didn't seem like he had them ready to go. And the whole goal-tending thing.

Like, how do you bring Robin Leder back if Pete Tabor is back? Yeah. Like, there are teams in the league. league where I would say, like, yeah, it was just one of those years. Everything went wrong. Everybody got hurt. Burn the tapes and come back ready to work in September. Yeah. Like, the Islanders are going to fire their coach, right? Like, yeah, good example. They were really bad for most of the year. And they're not going to fire their coach for obvious reason. Buffalo is not going to fire their coach for obvious reasons. Vegas is like, yeah, we might

keep them. Really? A team with that level of aspiration? Like, organizationally? Okay. I was, again, I was surprised, like on, like, put it this way. When I, when you first, I can't remember which of the coaching stories broke first. It might have been Blasheel. I'm not sure.

I was like, oh, I must have missed the Pete DeBore news. Maybe it would just, maybe it didn't even get, maybe I didn't even see it because it was so obvious and it wasn't there. I guess Chicago would be the other one we're kind of waiting on, but you can wait there because Derek King is still under contract and you can do a search. That one, I don't think it's a surprise. Vegas really surprised me. Yeah, no, I totally agree.

I didn't even think of that. So, yeah, it's going to be, we talked about it a couple weeks ago. We're like a third of the coaches in the league don't have contracts for next year. Yep. So it'll be It'll be a wild ass summer That's for sure But yeah

Anyway, that's it We're done We're gonna do plugs now And Sean's gonna go first on the plug I got a whole bunch of stuff My last power rankings of the season Are up at the athletic Where I ranked every

Playoff team And it already looks very wrong So apologies on that I have my bandwagon guide If your team is out and you're looking to jump on a team's bandwagon. That's there. And I've got my, today my pressure rankings.

In other words, who needs to win in the playoffs, which teams don't just want to win but need to win. And I don't think it'll be super surprising which teams are the top of that. Number one, the Vegas Golden Knights. Yeah. Oops. Oh, well. Okay. Note to editor, take this out for some reason.

Yeah. for me, same as usually, P. Rinkside, I got a ton of shit over there. Me and Dimitri, Filippovich, did a look at one strength or one weakness for every team in the playoffs. I took half of them. He took the other half. I didn't have to come up with 16. Only eight.

That's work smarter, not harder. That's what I always say. And then, yeah, just the usual stuff for me throughout the playoffs. and then once teams start getting eliminated, I will have, as usual, my where do they go from here, like breakdowns of what a team's summer is going to look like or maybe should look like. And if you want to sign up for EP, EPRRinkside.com, an annual subscription, use the code, I love EP, all capital letters, all one word, and you will get 12, or nope, that's wrong, three months tacked on to your 12. That's how it works. for free. So check that out.

And then, of course, the Puck Soup Patreon, where it's a new month. That means in the next week or two, we're going to do bonus episodes and stuff like that. So keep an eye out for that as well. And that's Patreon.com slash puck soup. And that's it. Thank you for listening. Thank you for the support. Enjoy the playoff games.

Round one, best time of the year, as far as I'm concerned. It's fun. It's great. So. And we'll have some, probably some team. autopsies to do this time a week from now. Wow. Crazy to think about, huh?

But that's how it goes. All right. Thanks, everyone. Bye-bye. Bye. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows.

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