Puck Soup - Living On The Edge

Episode Date: April 26, 2023

Sean and Ryan break down where all the first-round matchups stand.

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'm Sean McIndoo from The Athletic. And, boy, a lot of hockey going on this week. In my opinion, there's a lot of it going on.

Let's just get right into it. Why are we wasting time here? Let's talk about last night's games, then tonight's games, then tomorrow night's games, in that order here. And we'll start with the Minnesota Wilde putting in a no-show performance against the Dallas Stars last night. Yeah, not great. Big penalty right off the back. fall behind and we get the first shutout of the playoffs. Yeah, it's crazy that it took this long, right?

Like how many games would there have been? Somebody pinged me and Mendez on Twitter and they're like, is this a record? And we didn't know, but it feels like it would, it feels like it would have to be a record in this era, at least. Like maybe go back to the 80s when shutouts. were hard to get. But, yeah. And if you had to pick a guy to do it, not a bad thing.

Jake Ottinger's a pretty good one. Him or O'Mark, I guess you would say, right? Just the way things of... Yeah. But yeah, watching this game last night, you're like, do the Wild know that they're allowed to go near the net? Mm-hmm.

Like, that was my big takeaway watching that game. Would they have, like, five scoring chances? all night. It was crazy. Dallas just completely locked them down. And then, and like you say, I guess the big story here is that Felino penalty, because it happens almost immediately. And wouldn't you know it? After the game, Marcus Felino was like, oh, it's bullshit. Yeah, well, he was... This guy loves complaining about penalties. There had been a lot of complaining about penalty calls in this series.

And for this year's playoffs, that's saying a lot that this series stands up between like the coaches going at each other and then the players. And there have been some iffy calls. And Felino in the last game

with that weird thing where he got called for tripping on a play that seemed to include every foul other than tripping between the two of them. I think they checked everything in the rule

book other than tripping and so they called tripping. He was a little more muted this time. I mean, I think everyone kind of looks at that and goes, it's a penalty now. Now where did you come down on the whole minor versus major? Like was this a full on knee? Was this more of a leg to leg trip thing? I don't know. There's lots of different views going out there.

I think the real time play, how do you call it anything but knee to knee? and then like if you want to break it down, you know, frame by frame and all this shit. Like maybe, maybe you can say, because he made the point like I didn't knee on knee him. I, our legs collided or whatever like you said. And it's like, I mean, I guess man, but when you hit a guy with your,

when you trip a guy leg to leg like that, if we want to call it that. Um, and he goes flying the way he did. Yeah. they're going to call that five in a game every time. I don't know how else to put it to you. You would think that they would.

Like the breakdown they did on, it's T&T, right, that's got Bissanet. Yes, TNT, where they sort of walked through it and not defended Felino in the sense of, oh, it wasn't a penalty or anything, or even that it was a bad call, but saying that it was more of a legitimate hit where because who's the guy you hit?

That's a great question. Because he was, he was like adjusting to, you know, a pocket bit in the air and he was sort of spinning around and, you know, what have you. Yeah. I thought that was, that was interesting. The, I tweeted out the, the rule book, something that I think a lot of people don't understand about the rule book is every penalty has a different distinction between minor

and major. and in some cases match penalty and there's very little consistency like you would if a new hockey fan it's a not uncommon question they say like what decides

if something is a minor versus a major versus a match and the answer is it depends what penalty you're talking about because it's so different and kneeing is one of those where there is basically

nothing in the rule book that is useful to other than it's at the referee's discretion and it's based on the severity of the foul, which doesn't mean any. It's basically, it's basically, did it look fucking crazy?

Yeah. Because if it did, and in this one, I got to say, in this case, it definitely looked crazy. Yeah. It's one of those you know it

when you see it. And the other thing is, some people would say, okay, if you're going to give a major, but why kick him out of the game, does that imply intent to injure? Again,

it depends on the, uh, it, It depends completely on the penalty. And in the case of kneeing, every major has to be a game misconduct. So they did not have the option to make it just five. But they also didn't think it was intent to injure

because if it was intent to injure, then that's a match penalty, which is still five in a game, but it's a different category, what have you. So they just felt it was a severe enough accidental knee that it had to be five in a game. But you changed the type of penalty, something else, and there's a whole different explanation of two versus five versus whatever else.

It's very weird. Yeah. The other thing, and I say this, basically any time there's a big reffing controversy, is it's like, do you think after you tell the refs they're all fucking idiots after the game, do you think they're going to, like, give you the benefit of the doubt the next time you do something fucked up? Yeah. Yeah.

Not awesome timing by him to do that on the first shift. And it's the same thing with like John Cooper And we'll talk about that whole series later But he's like I don't know what the ref had to gain by awarding that goal And it's like you can't phrase it like that man They're gonna they're gonna let your ass up now What are you doing? He's manipulating them man

Yeah He's a manipulator It's true I know this But this is a It's the thing I always say Anytime the fans they're chanting like Ref you suck, RefU suck

It's like no say they're good Then they'll be Then they'll want to make you happy. Yeah. This is simple. This is like human psychology 101. Well, plus also, like, there's the psychology of if this guy's going to call me a jerk, I don't like him.

But in the NHL especially, there's this like stubborn, if we get criticized, we have to lean into whatever we did to get, because otherwise then people say, oh, you only gave him a minor because he criticized you last time. So now you've got to be like extra, like any team that complains about the repping, tends to get screwed even harder next time just because they have to show you that it didn't work. Do you think there's any chance of a suspension? Like there hasn't been anything so far this morning

about hearing or anything. Like it's, yeah, I think this is one of those where they look at it and they go five in a game is. I mean, it's basically a one-game suspension issue. Oh, yeah, the way, yeah. Yeah. And again, like, I got no problem. If you want to just say, like, you get thrown out of the game for a hit like this, that's fine with me, you know?

It's just one of those things where it's like, oh, everybody hates to see a guy go knee on knee. Okay, well, this guy did that. But it is. It's such a weird penalty because obviously there are times where you see a guy, you don't really see this anymore. But back in the day, you used to see guys do it intentionally. They would stick the knee out. Oh, sure. And it was a dirty play to try to hurt.

and even these days what you will see a lot is a guy will go for a hit and miss and they kind of stick the leg out to try to get something. Almost instinctively, yeah. But then you also have, you know, somebody on Twitter asked me this and they're like, if two guys collide knee on knee, why is, why does one guy get a penalty and the other guy doesn't?

Like why the guy who falls down the other guy gets the penalty? but if two guys, like to go knee on knee, both guys have to hit the other guy with their knee. So, you know, and in this case, though, one guy's clearly initiating the hit. So I guess he bears responsibility. Right.

That's just the answer to that question. It's like when you have the puck, you're the one getting hit. Yeah. Unless you're a covalve that one time. Yeah, which was awesome. Yeah. Where are we at on the series?

I mean, it's three to two. I can't imagine you're going to say it's over, but it's, it's. Feels like the wild are really on the ropes here. Again, they were bad. Like, it's not that they lost. It's that they got killed, right? And I would say, I would say even, what was it? I guess that was game four, the one before this one, they got killed.

They were definitely better in game four than game four. game five, like I said, complete no-show. But yeah, you know, it's just the situation of do I expect a wild to win two games in a row now? I mean, it could happen, but I'm not optimistic on their chances, that's for sure. It's a week old, which in the first round of the playoffs feels like a year. But it was the, since our last show, that. That night was game two of the series when they started, the Wilder up 1-0 in the series and they started Flurry and got smoked?

Like, how big does that now start to loom as a, like a coaching decision to, you know, they win game one in overtime because of some fantastic, and then you go to Flurry and get shelled and, you know, they've lost three or four since then. Well, you don't understand. They were doing it all year. Yeah. So it's actually, it's actually totally defensible and very, very smart. But it's one of those things.

It looks smart if it works, right? You know, we. But, well, again, like, we might have said this last week. I don't, I don't remember now. But the thing is, like, even before the playoffs started, like, the last four or five games for he played, he was like 80 or 885, something like that. Like, he was not good leading into the playoffs. even though, yeah, like they were splitting games, but like he was getting lit up for four or five games

before the playoffs even started. So like, it seemed to me that Gustafson was the way to go. Like the reason you would be splitting time, even though the other goalie sucks, in theory, is to rest your actual starter for the playoffs, get him, you know, lighten the load a little bit. And then they didn't do that. So, yeah, I, I didn't like that decision at the time.

And yeah, now obviously it does feel like that was just Dallas saying, okay, we're going to take care of this one now. Yeah, to state the obvious, it's nice to have two goalies that you trust enough to start in the playoffs, but it's even nicer to have Jake Ottinger and just be like, yeah, I'm not even going to remotely. Yeah. Has he still got all four limbs? All right, he's good. He's pretty good.

He's pretty good. Are the limbs still gigantic? Yes. Okay. Oh, interesting. One other thing I want to point out about this series, Carol Caprizov, one goal, that's it. Yeah, and...

It's a problem. Did I see... What did somebody say on Twitter that this was... He had gone pointless for three games for, like, only the some ridiculously low number in his career, and that, obviously, they got shut out, so he's now pointless in four. and that's the first time, I believe, in his career that he's been gone, he's gone pointless and four.

That's, that's very plausible. By the way, he scored Minnesota's first goal of the series that doesn't have a point since that. Yeah, one goal, no assist, five games. Yeah, and like, like, just the fact that it's, you know, the first goal. Like, he hasn't figured into any of their last whatever, uh, two, five, 12 goals. That's crazy. For a guy who's, I mean,

he's a phenomenal player. And it's always weird this time of year, right? Because you see a guy like that. You go, oh my gosh, what a, you know, what's happening is he's letting the team. And then the series ends in there. Like, he actually has eight broken ribs and cracked pelvis. All right, okay, maybe that makes a little more sense.

Yeah. You do always expect to. expect to hear that this time of year. But, and, and this isn't, this isn't like a guy where it's like all the, all this stuff he was playing through. He, you know, he was a key cog on our third line or whatever, you know, this is Carol Friza. Yep.

And, you know, him at 80% is supposed to be better than, him at 70% is supposed to be better than, you know, your average next guy up at 110%. But, yeah, anyway. I'm looking at the numbers he had. We had four shots in game four, but other than that, two, one and one. So it's, you know, it's not like he's, it's not like he's all over the place and just puck's not going in. Like there's just nothing. Yep.

All right. Let's move on to the Islanders Hurricane series, where the Islanders staved off elimination last. night. They were on the road. Backs against the wall, on the road, all this shit. Yep. And, you know, I'm going to go out on a big limb here, and I'm going to say this was the game they needed from Ilius Arrogan. Carolina was all over them, most of the night.

They were, yeah. And it didn't matter. This is what you're afraid of. If you were Carolina, this is the game that you kind of worried about. where you're the better team and he pulls it off, which is not to say the Islanders were, I mean, they didn't get, they weren't getting speed bagged out there. And some nice goals too, that the Barzell won, especially on the two-on-one.

That was really nice night. That's what you need. So it's still, I mean, look, we're all still picking Carolina, I'm assuming, but, you know, and the injury situation, although, Spaschen Ajo came back after Man, that looked awful, didn't it? It sure did, yeah. People didn't see it. It's like he gets hit in the face

with the puck. A point shot from the Islanders and the eye, they knocked the puck in, like, I don't even think it hit the ice. It did not hit the ice. It goes off his face and the guy just bats it and scores and then everyone's kind of looking at this. And he was bleeding like crazy.

I mean, it looked like he had had all his teeth knocked and it turned out to not be not be all that bad, said the podcaster who would cry if he got a bad paper cut. But that's, I did see a few people saying, like, why didn't they blow the play dead? But there's no. That was, I mean, literally the puck didn't hit the ice. That's why.

I mean, there's possibly. There's no time. And also, it's not an emergency situation as much as it would be for your eye. It's, I mean, that's... To say that we should just blow the whistle whenever someone gets hurt is weird to me. Yeah, for sure. I guess I don't have too much else to say about this game. The series is going, I think, more or less how most of us expected it would.

Where, you know, Carolina is clearly the better team. People, like, even Islanders fans are just kind of like, all right, Let's pick it up here a little bit. We got tea times to get to or whatever. But, you know, the Islanders are winning kind of how we expected the Islanders to be able to win in this series, right? Like, they're not necessarily like, I guess in game three they did kind of run the show a little bit, huh? but, you know, I guess the other thing to say is that so many injuries on Carolina that, like, you wonder if it's just a, you know, a matter of time for them, like, they just don't have the horses to put the puck in the net at this point.

Well, and that's the thing, right? Because even if you still think Carolina's winning a series, and I imagine most of us do, you get a chance to get in and out quick in the first round. That helps. In theory, you finish first. You get that easier matchup, and I don't think anyone looked at the Islanders as pushovers, but this is a series that you're going.

If we can get this done in four or five, get some time off, get healthy. It looks like Rangers and Devils could go long. Let's bank some rest. And now it's not going to happen. Yeah, it's just one of those that, like, you feel bad because the list of injuries on Carolina at this point is pretty significant. Like, at some point, like, what can you even say? And honestly, like, Patchretti and Svetakov, like, these are both long-term injuries.

This isn't a, like, Terravine as well. Terravine and now too, yeah. Terravine and like getting hand surgery. I don't know what the, what the timetable is on that, but I'm assuming it's not like, like one of those maybe by the cup final things.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah, you're just not really expecting him to come back. And that's why, that's why, like, the Aho thing was so scary last night because you're like, well, if he's out, like, Yep. Who do we have left, you know?

Marty Natchez, I guess, would be the answer. But yeah, anyway. Let's move on, whatever. The Oilers, the Kings, not looking so hot for Los Angeles these days. Really feels like Game 4 was there, you've got the foot on the throat and you let them off the mat kind of moment. Yeah. where they were up to one, go out to, it was a 3-0 lead, right?

It was, yep. And let them come back and, and the audience went over time. Yeah. I mean, well, I picked Edmonton to win the cup, so I obviously think they're the best team in this series, but, I mean, it's not like it's an unwinnable series for L.A., but it's kind of one of those series where you've got to take advantage of

you know, you hope you get four free swings and you got to land each of them and they, they didn't land one in game four. And then game five was just, well, I don't want to say it was all Oilers, but it was very clear who the best team was. Yeah. It was a situation last night where once they scored that, the king scored that second goal to make it three, two going into the first intermission, I was like, all right, we got a game here. And then the Kings like barely showed up for the for the second period. They just didn't, they didn't come out of the room, you know, with the kind of, uh,

that you want. It felt like one of those games, and I'm completely projecting here, but it felt like one of those games were, right, like it was back and forth in the first period, five goals, three to two. Everybody's tweeting out like, this is crazy, this is great, hook it into my vein. And then it almost felt like one of those where both the teams go in and both coaches are like, settle it down. This is too exciting. This is too end to end.

We don't want to do that. And you can certainly understand if you're the Kings, you're like, hey, we don't want to get into a track meet with the Edmonton Oilers here. But they almost went too far the other way because Stuart Skinner was looking shaky. It was all, you know, potentially going in a bad direction. And doesn't, doesn't, the L.A. just sort of didn't, didn't, didn't, them since then. And credit to Edmonton for that, obviously they were a big part of that. But what were you, did you, if you had been Jay Woodcroft, would you have, were you surprised at all that Stuart Skinner started game five after Jack Campbell had to come in and win a overtime game?

No. No. Again, like you got your one goal you can trust and then, you know, Jack Campbell. Like, it would be one thing if I thought Jack Campbell looked good in bailing them out, but he didn't, right? It seemed like he was fighting him. Yeah, and like, you know, there can be a million reasons for that, including, like, you know, he didn't get warmed up. He hadn't played in quite a while, that kind of thing. But against a team that is causing problems around our net a lot, I'm not like, you know, who I'll put out there is the guy that can't seem to catch the puck right. Yep. You know? I think it was absolutely the right move.

I was mildly surprised just because, you know, again, the coaches. tend to stick with the guy who, and like, Skinner wasn't good in game four, so. No, for sure. But it definitely the right move. Yeah, I think the more interesting aspect of it for me is that like, you know, in the, in game four, it was like, oh shit, we need a bunch of goals. Let's put McDavid and Drysidal and Kane together. you know, two of the best playmakers in the world who also are really good at, I think they each have a rocket Richard or does, does Drysaitle not have a rocket?

He does. Okay, so they do each have a rocket richard. And then, like, maybe the best, like, one of the best pure, like, goals scorers in Evander Cain in the world, right? Like, let's put those three guys together, see what they can come up with. And the answer is a shitload of goals, obviously. Yep. But yeah, I just, you know, I was a little surprised to see that line spend a lot of time together last night, too, you know. By the way, Jacidal does not have a Rocker Richard.

I double check. No, that's what I thought. I was so confident. He did have the 50, but. Yeah, did he score? Was it a 52 goal season or something like that he had? I closed the window. Well, shit.

So, we'll never know. by my being wrong. Yeah, well, it was 52 this year. He had a 50 a few years ago when he was the MVP. No, the year before he was the MVP, he had a 50. And then he had 55 last season. So he's out of three times. Boy, if you had said, does Leon Dryside have three 50 goal seasons?

I don't think I would have pulled that. But anyway, yeah, seeing those guys mostly stay together, I was a little surprised by that, honestly. And we all love the Like when they signed Zach Hybin Right we all made the joke about Oh they're just going to like bounce the puck off of them Yeah they did it off the face

That's right That's uh and that was another one that looked like When you first saw it you're like oh no But apparently just got him in the chin not the mouth So right Did you see the replay of the like that goal was very funny Because it was a I think it was Bouchard who shot it Yeah

Like, he winds up, takes a shot. You see the puck go in, but, like, I've never seen somebody score a goal that big and not celebrate. Because you could just tell he was like, oh, I just drilled that guy directly in the face. And there was this, like, very awkward, like, half celebration before, like, Hyman moved. And... Well, the best was Hyman went to the bench still, like, did the, like, high bobline still holding his face? Well, he's, like, holding his face together. And you could kind of see him, like, see him, like,

smiling about it. Yeah. Like this is fun. Like him going, this is fucking ridiculous. Very funny. But now here's the stat that a lot of people were talking about. And I think it held up for at least the first Oilers goal.

So like I think the Oilers scored 15 straight goals with dryside along the ice and none with him off. So good. And then, uh, well, look, you can't stop a guy like Brett Kulak from scoring on you. You know what I mean? You can only hold a guy like that off the score.

so long. But, yeah, no, like, it was funny that that was, like, honestly, it's funny. Like, they scored that first goal together. Um, or maybe the second, it might have been the second one. But, um,

they actually, when, when, uh, the cane, dry-sidal McDavid line was on the ice last night, they got out scored. And it was like the Bugstad line was, was fucking eating, uh, throughout the game.

Like, They were just all over the kings for a good chunk of that game. And, yeah, outscored them two nothing with those guys on the ice. So at five on five. So, yeah, that's very funny as well. To dip back a little bit just because, again, it was since our last show, any thoughts on the high stick controversy in game three? All I'll say is this.

There's a lot of people who are taking, who are taking like the one grainy, like this guy shot it on an iPhone 5 video, office TV. Office TV of the ceiling cam. Yeah. And they're just like, boom. Well, that's definitive. Like, I don't even know what side you're arguing. But you're, yeah. The level of confidence people have when they tell you something is obvious is impressive to me.

it's really really funny I it was I mean that's what makes it inconclusive but here's the other thing and I say that you know like if you miss that high stick

like if you're an official and you miss that high stick I don't know I don't know what you were supposed to like oh well the best player in the world saw it he was only eight feet away or whatever and it's like this fucking guy

McDavid there were like three plays last night where a guy like fell down or maybe even got tripped or whatever. First hand in the air was McDavid's. Yep. So like this guy is the boy who cried wolf, you know? He's been deputized by his coach to be around. Yeah. And like I get that it's instinctual on some level.

Like you see a high stick. Your hand goes up. I had somebody tell me they're like, yeah, everybody does this. And it's like they didn't used to. Like, you didn't use to wave your arm. Now, I mean, guys would complain at refs and, you know, look for a call and stuff like that. But this thing, like, you see it now even on an offside call. Like, a guy's going back to play defense, and he puts his hand in the air for the office.

Dude, that's not your job, man. Play defense. You're, like, we'll catch it on replay if we need to, unless it's that high stick. But I don't know. I wrote a whole thing on the day after people hopefully have read where. You know, my whole argument was that, whether it was a high stick or not, and you still can't tell if it was, had no influence on the play whatsoever. If it was a high stick, it was like the softest brush of a high stick. And I know it had an influence in the sense that if it should have been a whistle, then if the whistle goes, the play stops.

But the puck still landed on Acombe's back, same as it was going to, went to the same place, it was going to. Echholm has a chance to clear the puck later. You know, if the puck comes back to him, he has a clearing chance. Yeah, that's the other thing. It's not like he tipped it and then it went right to the guy who scored the goal. Yeah, this wasn't the Eric Carlson handpass Timel Meyer thing from a few years ago, which is why we got this expanded replay rule. But I'll say it again.

And this should be the rule for offsides as well. If the other team touches the puck in between, then it shouldn't. you shouldn't get a get out of jail free card. If they have the puck on their stick, like I don't mean touches in it like it ticks off a skate or something, but they have the puck on their stick, that's a reset. And anything that came before it,

we don't care about anymore. Because this is just, this is just ridiculous. You're trying to slice it too thin. It's the same thing as like, well, there was an offside 28 seconds before, uh,

the goal got scored. So, well, fuck off then. Maybe, maybe, maybe you should try stopping the, scoring chance.

Like that happened in the, like it happened in the Islanders game last night where it was I think 22 seconds, but it was on the power plate and Carolina worked around. The Islanders never touched the puck. So I could see that one where you're like, hey, the zone entry created that whole thing. But as soon as they have the, the other team has a puck a chance to clear it, a chance to do something with it. Like, it's just to get out of jail free card at this point. It's silly.

Yep. And I kind of alluded to it earlier. You know what all this like complaining about the fucking. officiating comes off to me as if you're a player or a coach. If you're a fan, like, you know, go nuts. I don't, it's fine. What you're supposed to do. Yeah.

But if you're a player or coach, you know what it comes off to me as loser shit. Yeah. It's like, oh, we got to work the rafts because we can't fucking win on the ice. Whatever. Although, I guess, I guess Rod Brindamor complaining about the Terra Vinen thing, even though his team got like seven power plays in that game or whatever, and the Islanders didn't get any. Right.

Was that in the same game as the missed high stick in overtime? The other missed, the mist high sticking penalty in overtime. You know, I don't think it was, but I could be. Because that was the six. You want to talk about a week ago. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, then there you go. Yeah. But it's just like, fuck me. Like, look, again, I know these reps are doing a bad fucking job. I'm watching the games. But like, when a coach or a player I can even kind of understand, but when a coach is doing it, I'm just like, man, shut the fuck up. Just coach, you know?

Well, that's part of coaching these days is. Yeah. Again, it's these kids today. Yep. You know? Participation. Trophies. That's right.

So two other things on this series. One, how do we feel about Corpus Allo all of a sudden? He's giving up a lot of goals lately, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Um, not ideal. Not ideal. But also it's, it's the Oilers.

I mean, I, not ideal, but also this, it's certainly not a series where you're looking at it going, oh, man, the king's goal tending is, is their problem. I mean, I gave up 11 goals in the last two games, though, man. Like, he'd look good to me the first three games, but yeah, the last couple. Is there, I mean, Okay, are, is he your starter game six, or do you go to Copley? Yeah. You want to talk about a guy who couldn't catch the fucking puck last night, you know? So yeah, you go back to Corpus Allo, hopefully.

That plus, and then this is the other thing I was going to talk about, three days off between games because of building conflicts in L.A. I did not know that until you put it in the outline for the show. I was like, what does that mean? Like, it's, he must mean like two days and then like he's counting. The game day is, no, like three full days. That sucks. Yeah, they don't play until Saturday.

Yeah. That's, I don't like that. That's crazy to me. So, I mean, if they get to, are they now like two days behind? Like, because that'll mean that'll be the series that goes seven. We all have to sit around and wait. That's, uh, I don't like that. I'm looking, you know what?

It is scheduled for the same day as, um, as three other potential game sevens. Jets, Golden Knights, don't think that one's going the distance. Rangers Devils, feels like that one is. And then Lightning Leafs. I'll refrain from commenting for my friend Sean's sake. But yeah, so that's, that was last night's games. Do you have any other thoughts about anything we saw last night that I missed?

No, I don't think so. I mean, it wasn't, we made it through the night without any huge controversies, huge problems, that sort of thing. So I feel like, well, I was going to say I feel like all the teams that are leading three two are going to win the series. But I feel that way all the time, just about where it's like whoever, whoever's leading the series, especially if they won the last game, my brain is just like, wow, yeah, clearly, they're all set. All set. I do that. No problem. Yeah. Absolute confidence for 31 of the 32 teams. We'll get to that later.

All right, yeah, no breaks this week, no ads, just quirk of the schedule, I guess, you know. All right, yeah, I guess the Bruins game is where we'll start tonight. That's the early game this evening. They're up three one on the Panthers. Looks like the Panthers. Looks like the Panthers. The Sanchthers don't have a lot of runway left here. I don't think they have any runway left. Well, I got the one game. Yes. I suppose they do have that.

You know, they won a game. They got them in game two. You know, win a game in Boston. You know, raised a few eyebrows, but that was sort of like, all right, Boston's, you know, the brothers are sort of like, all right, we'll get serious. And won the two games. And now Bergeron may be back, Krati, not yet. But, you know, that's the thing, right? You look at Boston, they're doing this without their top two centers.

And there's still... That is the thing. Yep. They still look like a big brother, like, with the arm extended, holding the little brother off. He swings himself wildly. Like, it's, you know, I can't wait to find out what Matthew Kachuk has in store for tonight facing elimination.

Yeah. What dastardly heal stuff he's getting ready to pull. But I don't, yeah, I don't see the Panthers having much of a shot here, unless something very remarkable happens in terms of an injury or, you know, some, some weird thing. Yeah, I mean, I guess what I would say is, Bennett and Kachuk in particular have been really good for the Panthers. And obviously, like, they have guys like Carter Hage and Sasha Barcov.

Anybody's seen this guy? Do we have to put out an APB here? Yeah. I'm not noticing them a lot on the ice. Let's put it that way. Mm-hmm. Which, again, like, that's pretty surprising to me, honestly. Like, he's, you know, he's, in my opinion, this guy's pretty good.

And yet. Some might say the most underrated player in the entire league. Yeah, and now we're starting to see why, huh? This guy's getting eaten up. Yeah. It really feels like the Panthers have, like, become Matthew Kachuk's team, doesn't it? Like, yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

And I guess we should, I mean, we should also say they were missing in her neck blad. and it's... Yeah, that doesn't help. That wasn't going to help. And back to Sergey Bobrovsky. Yeah. Which also didn't help. I mean, it didn't...

He hasn't been awful, but it certainly... I always love... Like, I like as a coach to play the goalie change card when you need, you know, when the series is starting to spin away from you and you want to, you know, plant that signpost and say, okay, things are different now. But in this case, it wasn't. Yeah, and I mean, look, how long was the Alex Lion experiment really going to last against anybody, let alone, like, you know, the best regular season team in the history of the NHL? Mm-hmm.

How long was like, whatever, like a 31-year-old, like, career A.A.L. Like, good career A.HL guy, but, like, you know, you're playing the Boston Bruins here, you know? I got yelled at for implying that I'd never heard of the guy. People are like, he's been in the NHL for seven years. It's like, yeah, he played three games a season with a different team. Right, yeah, 29 total games. Now, I only know who he is because he played college. He played for Yale, I believe. And he was really, really good when he was in college. But that's the only reason I know who he is.

Otherwise, like, I couldn't tell you the difference between him and any other random third string guy that gets called up in emergency. So I guess you've kind of already answered this, but who are you starting tonight if you're, well, I won't say if you're Pras, because I don't want to insult you, but No, you gotta go with Proprovsky. Like, you know,

yeah, obviously he gave up a bunch of goals in the last game, but like, are we gonna sit here and say that was his fault? The Bruins were fucking all over these guys from like, maybe like halfway through the first period in game four. They're like,

they completely dominated. the game. And even like, I know, I know Florida like made it close for, for a minute there in the third period, but they were, but the Bruins were just like, oh, you're going to try to make it close. Okay, sure. And then they just scored three goals very easily. That's cute that you get. Yeah, exactly. That's nice. I will say, I mean, you guys scored a little goal for yourselves. That's cool. I guess my question is, if I'm making this decision, which one of these guys has the best chance to get really hot for three games. Because that's what I need.

I'm not worried about like, oh, I'd rather lose four to two than five to two. I need somebody who's going to go Yarrow Halak for me for three games. And I mean, you would think it would be the $10 million guy who's had a couple of business. You would think that, wouldn't you? Maybe not. Yeah, I think, you know, they squeezed all the juice they can out of it. an Alex lion, you know?

Like he, if you want to say he's the reason they got in the playoffs, because he, like, played really well for them down the stretch, happy to say that. That's, that's, yeah, sure, absolutely. I'm not trying to take anything away from him on that. But you can only go so far with that, I guess, you know? I'm just looking, as we're recording this, the Paul Maurice quote that just came across is everybody's healthy, everybody's game time, and I'll give you the truth later. Cool.

This sport loves its fans. I'm sure that's really messing with Boston. No, that's... Oh, no. I was going to say, I... If I'm like, I'm not... I can't sit here and go like, oh, the fans really are going to be like, well, you know, I was going to watch the Panthers game, but Paul Maurice was a little cagey about who was

going to... Like, no, that's not how it works. But it is just like, do you think it fucking matters, dog? Like, come on. What are we talking about here? Jim Montgomery is furiously tearing up the game plan because now Matthew Kachuk is a game-time decision? Oh my God, it could be.

Well, what do we do? I don't... Wait a minute. You're telling me Nick Cousins is healthy? We've got to redo the whole lineup. Not Zach Delpy. I'm going to assume those are Panthers players, man. I don't even...

They are, yeah. Okay. And again, they're doing all this without Birchran and Creachie. Like, that's what's crazy about it. They're like beating the shit out of these guys and it's like, oh, do you have your top two centers? No. And then we're all on the road. Yeah, that's right.

Yikes. Yep. But, yeah, the- And I mean, against a team that's, yeah, it was a wild card eight seed, but a team that had 120 points last year. Like, it's not... Yeah, I wonder what's different. I can't. I can't figure it out.

Can't figure it out. Never get to the bottom of this one. No. But yeah, no, it's, um... Look, I guess the other thing to say is, granted, I watched this, uh, me and my friend went to a bar and watched, uh, the Friday night game. So I wasn't paying as close attention as I probably should have been, you know? Um, but like, I, I felt like the Panthers kind of, you know, played them. relatively even in that game.

But then, you know, the Bruins were just like, okay, enough. Again, like you said, it's cute that you hung around a little bit, but we're not, we're not messing around here anymore. So, yeah, we'll see how that one goes. I don't, I don't, I don't give the, the Panthers much time left, you know? But how she goes. The other game tonight, looking like Seattle's giving the abs. a little bit more, you know, the other, okay, so here's the, here's the thing that was making me

laugh the other day is, uh, they, they, they got Nathan McKinnon on the record saying, like, this is actually the toughest first round I've ever been in. Okay. And this was before they lost the other night, you know? And I was just like, didn't you like lose at least a couple of times in the first round before you, like, that's, uh, yeah, that's a, that's a fair question. Well, did they lose in the first round, though? They, they never made it out of the second round. Yeah. But, well, I went back and looked it up and there was a series where they lost to Nashville in like six games or something. Okay, was that, yeah, 2018.

Yeah, I'm looking at it now. The last four years they did least made it out of the second round, but there was. Yeah. And I was like, well, you lost one of those rounds already. Well, that one, that one was easier than this one after three games, four games, whatever it is. And I, man, I didn't see this coming. I pick Colorado in four. Now, if you had told me Seattle was going to stretch to fire six,

that wouldn't have shocked me. But I didn't, this is, they're giving them everything they can handle. And tonight is huge because no-Kale McCar. No-Kal-Macar suspended for one game. What did you make of the hit? Awful. Absolute dumb-ass penalty. Sorry, I don't know what else to say it, man.

And I will even say that I'll, like, except the explanation that he just got confused about where the puck was, because the people didn't see it. I mean, he just, it was almost like Dale Hunter-esque as far as, like, how late it was that he went over and hit this guy. Puck's nowhere near it. Absolutely no possible way for that player to expect he's going to get hit. And it's McCann, right?

It's a good player, best goal scorer on the other team. And, like, it was so ridiculous. that you're watching and going, what the hell was, what was going on there? And the explanation some people, is that he just, the puck went in a weird direction. He lost where it was. He thought it was about, you know, either McCann had it or was about to come down. But even then, I mean, you're responsible for knowing where the puck is. So, you know, by saying he got confused, I'm taking it from Dale Hunter territory to just huge, dumbass.

taking a terrible penalty. And they call it five and they review it and they bring it back down to two. But then he gets suspended, which suggests that the Department of Player Safety did not agree, let's just say. Yeah, and I guess the other thing to say about the suspension, obviously, is that McCann is, I believe, ruled out for tonight's game. Like, he's not going to play. That was the indication. Yeah, I mean, you never. fully no, but

we haven't seen lineups or practices or anything yet as we're recording this. But yeah. I mean, it takes a lot to be suspended if you're Kail McCar in the playoffs. Yeah. But this was a lot.

The guy, you know, he said he said he should get a penalty for a play that the refs missed or whatever. So he's actually a perfect game. That's right. I forgot. He's very honest. He's, uh, yeah. So maybe that was the,

the payback here. Look, it's, I, Okay, going back to the thing we were talking about on the kneeing penalty, where the minors and majors, I will say this, the rulebook gets really weird here. When it comes to interference, do you know what determines minor versus major? No. You don't, because nobody does unless you're like a huge loser who reads the rulebook. the only this one they actually do give some guidance other than just your discretion but it is based

on the violence of the hit. Huh. Makes sense. But nothing else, right? Like it doesn't say anything about how late a late hit is. It doesn't say anything about how far away the puck is. It doesn't say anything about whether the player has any reason to suspect they're going to get hit. It's just purely the violence of the hit.

So as far as. them reviewing it and reducing it, look, clearly they did that because it's Kielmaqar. Right? I mean, if it's if it's not a star player, that's five every, everybody knows that. But strictly by the rulebook, they could have made the case that, yeah, it was, the hit was super late and the puck was nowhere nearby, but he didn't absolutely crush the guy into the boards. He just delivered a regular check. So technically by the letter of the rule book, it's two minutes instead of five. Again, just, I say that not to defend him, but just to point out, the rulebook is really weird

on this stuff. But I'm glad that Department of Player's Safety suspends him. I know some people were like, it should be more than one game. Maybe it should, but his team is two games away from elimination, and he's Kail McCarr, and they're the defending Stanley Cup champions. They're not suspending him for two games unless he pulls out of, baseball bat and absolutely goes to town on the guy. And even then, iffy. Yeah. They would have to feel like the guy really didn't earn it at all, you know?

Yeah. Got any other thoughts on this one? Obviously, you know. Game tonight, man. This is, I mean, this feels like, this feels like the sort of game where it's two to two, series is getting away from them, a car is suspended, that you, this is the game where you could see everybody panicking, and then the avalanche come out and they make a big,

it's a big statement win. And you gotta go, right, these guys are the, you know, Nathan McKinnon has one of his games. And you go, but Seattle killed him in game,

in, what was it game for? Seattle is giving them everything they can handle. I mean, obviously it went to overtime or whatever, but like Seattle deserved, I,

last time I looked at the deserve to win oh meter, like after that game, They were above like 80%. They were fucking all over these guys from the jump. So, yeah. Yeah, I mean, just huge credit to see. I have been asleep at the wheel on this team all year long. No reason for it to change now.

But wow, are they ever to give the defending champs, even with injuries and all that other stuff, to give them everything that they can handle is impressive. Yeah, no, like, you wonder how much of it is just like, oh, you know, we're in this building. It's people are going apeshit, whatever. But at the end of the day, like, you got to win the games and they're doing it in a way that suggests it's not a fluke, which I would have said was how they won a lot of their games for most of the season, right? Like they were, they were the shoot. This team, I believe it's the fourth highest team shooting percentage since 0708 this season.

Yep. Right? So, like, that's one of those things. It's like, oh, it's a fluke. Like, even if they're, you know, getting 52% or whatever of the expected goals, you don't expect a team with this roster to be shooting at that high of a percentage on a consistent basis. but they haven't played that way in this round at all. Like when they've won, you've been like, oh, they totally earned that.

Like, you know, they didn't like steal a game or whatever, you know. No, I wouldn't say so. I guess the other thing we should say is Valor Nietzscheese can not, not playing personal reasons. Nobody seems to know what's up there. But, you know, we've mentioned injuries, but it's really absences between that. a personal reason's absence. Yeah, they said it's not disciplinary and it's not injury, but other than that, they're not getting into it.

But it doesn't sound like a return would be imminent. He played earlier in the series, but, and that's, I mean, he was nearly a point of game this year. Yeah, he's a really, like, if you want to say he's the player that got them over the hump last year, like he, I think, who, who, who, who, who, McKinnon must have won? the Khan Smythe, right? Didn't McCar win? Oh, it was McCar. You're right about that.

But, like, Nachushkin had as good a claim as anybody, really, last year. Yep. So for him to be out like that, it's a problem. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. It's so tough to talk about games that, like, by the time the people are listening to this. you know, a bunch of news might have emerged or, you know, oh, this guy's not playing.

This guy is back in the lineup, whatever. So I don't have, I don't want to spend too much more time on them. So why don't we instead talk about tomorrow's games? If we must. If we must. All right, I'll make it easy on you. We'll start with the devil's game. Okay.

Boy, that series flipped, didn't it? Oh, did it ever, yeah. Man, I, on my show on the athletic hockey show, which we do on Thursdays, so that would have been after game two, I guess, of that series. Yeah, that sounds right. We were talking to Jesse Granger, and he was like, man, like, I now, you know, I had picked the Rangers to win the series, but he's like, now I'm not sure they're going to lose a game. because the first two games in Jersey were so one-sided that you're just like,

all right, the devils aren't ready, the Rangers are like, this is, here we go. And, man, full credit to the devils. They were just, they flipped it. They flipped a switch somehow. Yeah, I mean, well, part of it, and we said this last week, was like, you were just saying, okay, the devils need to like play their game and not have their goalie look terrible. And the goalie was like, can't help you. Yep.

Again, this is why you don't go get the guy that like Washington said, no thanks. Yes. You know? Although, hey, that seems to be working out okay in a different series. But then they go, oh, what about this guy who was in the USHL two years ago? How does that sound? And it's like, oh, that's actually, that's actually perfect for me. Thank you.

Akira Schmidt. Like, he seems to have flipped it, uh, flipped the whole series on its ear, basically. Oh, and the other thing, I guess,

is, uh, Lindy Ruff after they got crushed in game one, was like, what if I stopped making stupid lineup decisions? Right? Like, cause,

because, because he's like, we'll take Seagenthal or out of the lineup. Well, I think he moved Miles Wood up to the top line. And it's like, what are we, fucking doing here, man.

Like, and, uh, yeah, then he was like, not only, this was the best part. Not only will I, will I, uh, will I not put Miles Wood on the top line? I believe he healthy scratched him for either game three or four. I can't remember which one now.

But it's like, you, you put this guy on the top line like three days ago, man. That was doing. Yeah. Yeah. It feels like Lindy rough like, you know, a lot of times in the playoffs, you say, just stick with what worked in the regular season. And apparently Lindy Ruff came in and said, all right, guys, how about this?

We lose the first two games. Everybody thinks I'm an idiot and they all write us off. And then we become unbeatable. Just like we did in October. And they were like, all right. Will the fans chant about firing you? And he was like, I hope so.

That would be, that would be excellent. Yeah, I mean, Kira Schmidt, I don't know. I mean, this isn't Alex, this isn't an Alex Lyon's situation. he's a 22-year-olds, but I guess you write it as long as you can. 100%. And then the other thing is, not that he needed some sort of coming out party,

but Jack Hughes is just. Psycho mode. Headed shoulders above anyone else on the ice when he's at his peak. Just, man, what a player. Yeah, he's really, really good. It's probably all that freaking Chipotle, right? I don't think you have those commercials up there. No, we don't.

Very annoying commercial. Like, oh, I'm sure Gentile will make me watch it then. It's not even, it's not even the, the Maddie Baneers one is actually worse in terms of being annoying. Okay. But they're both very annoying, and I hate them. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't know what else to say about those. But if you get the chance, don't seek them out.

The other thing, we're going to talk about the Rangers, I guess, a little bit. The power play in particular has not looked good last couple of games. And part of that is New Jersey is a really good defensive team. They're good at keeping you away from the net and that kind of thing. But aren't these guys supposed to have a shitload of all stars who can all put the puck in the net and make plays and stuff like that? They are. What are they? Like 0 for 11 in their last two games?

something like that. Yeah. And, you know, just two goals scored. And look, it's, especially in this year's playoffs, it's been the power play show league-wide. I mean, this is where all the offense is coming from. So when it disappears on you, not great. We should say, I guess, like, we're making it sound like the devil's just absolutely,

you know, put the boots to the Rangers. It was a 2-1 game in overtime and then a 2-1 game in regulation with an empty netter. So this is still, like if you're the Rangers, you're sitting there going, if that was our worst and your best, then we're still okay. But, I mean, home ice back to New Jersey. Home team has not won a game in this series yet. That is true, yeah. It's funny.

It's a weird one. But I don't know, like, again, like this is just like you watch the game and you go, oh, are the, are the, are the Rangers even trying to, uh, get near a Kirishman? Like, you would think you got your net front guys like Chris Kreider or whatever. And, and you would think, uh, oh, you want to be in this, uh, this child's face. This guy was, again, was in the USHL two years ago. And, and it's like, they're not, they're not doing much to bother him at all. And again, part of that is the New Jersey Devils are really good at keeping guys away from their

goalie. But, uh, you know, what does he have 15 games of NHL experience? You got to, you got to do better than that. Yeah. Yeah. You got to do better than that. And, uh, I don't know. I, I, obviously I think the Rangers have the horses. I think that they can, maybe not like dictate the pace of the game or whatever, but like more so than New Jersey. I think that like quick strike offense, they have the talent to make you pay for a mistake in a way that maybe New Jersey kind of doesn't yet. I think they're more coming along in that regard. You know, two, three years from now, I don't think I'd be saying that.

But for right now, you know, and the Rangers just aren't doing it yet. I'm really interested to see how that all works out. But I guess I'll say this. If the Rangers can can kind of keep up with the devils more than they didn't in game four tonight, I think I'd pick them to win the series. I still, I'll still pick them. I think I pick them to,

man, I think I picked them to win that whole division. I had the devils going to the Eastern Conference finals. Really? Okay. Yeah. But. Just sucking up to Greg.

Oh, yeah. There's a guy I'm really trying to impress. So, boy, but yeah, it's, we're at this. And again, we always say that pretty much anytime a series is tied to, too, oh, it feels like this one's going seven. Kind of does, doesn't it? I mean, I know that there are a ton of series that are tied right now, but, like, if anyone did, I throw out some random predictions,

and I'm pretty sure I said this one was going to go overtime game seven. I'm feeling okay about that right now. Wow. Can't beat that. I'm going to look and see real quick what I thought this series was going to go. I had the Devils in seven coming into the series. Look at you. All right?

I had Boston and five, Toronto in six, Islanders in six. I'm feeling too good about that one. Feels unlikely at this point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, hey, let's move to the Western Conference and we'll close with the one that you're going to want to talk about for like 45 minutes or so. Yep.

Vegas, looking pretty good. Boy, I... Looking pretty good. Man, full credit to the Jets. They came out in game one and really surprised me with how much they took that game to them. And then Vegas, like, got up those to them. solves off and was like, all right, going to do this?

Let's go. Now, what did I see? Isn't the Jets have lost something like nine straight at home in the playoffs? Wow. Which seems amazing. I did not hear this staff. It's not that I can't believe it from a, you know, when you look back at their recent history, because, I mean, they haven't won a series since.

They're not that good. 2018, but I mean, that building is so loud and so, it gets so crazy during the, during the playoffs. It sounds like. Well, I mean, it is to start, but then they get taken out because they keep losing. Yeah, I'm looking at, last year didn't make the playoffs. God, they got swept by the Canadians two years ago. Got swept by the Canadians and this, this obviously was, yeah. And then they, you know, they beat the Oilers.

but I guess that that doesn't count right because we're not we're not counting the yeah someone said that that was a fake season yep St. Louis in 2019 they lost all three at home that's really funny 2018 they lost the last two at home they they beat Vegas in game one and then lost four straight to lose series. Why doesn't anybody want to play in Winnipeg? Hmm well it's it's the last two at home. They beat Vegas in game one. They beat Vegas in game one and then lost four straight to lose a series. Hmm. Well, it's the lack of Wi-Fi and parks that is the main thing. That's right.

Yeah, that's, uh, that's tough. I, and, you know, Winnipeg's beat up injuries. You don't want to say it's over because it's still Connor Hallibuck versus whoever Vegas is thrown out there on a given night. But right, this, I mean, this one feels pretty over. Pretty over, yeah. And like, again, it's, it was so funny. Like, apparently they were chanting, you're a backup at Brasua. That's a great chant.

It is, but it's like, yeah, and he's beating your ass. Yeah. You know, like, that's the real problem here. You don't want to scoreboard someone who's, like, doing better than your team. Yeah, but it is, it is great. And, I mean, we should point out if people don't, like, Basois was the backup in Winnipeg a few years ago to Hellebuck. So it wasn't, you know, they weren't just completely coming out of nowhere on him on that one.

Again, it's, it's, the series is three to one. Game three was double overtime on a, on a bad bounce. So, you know, this is, we're one bounce away from talking about this series totally differently. But, but the flip side of that is, again, like we said with L.A., when you're a team like Winnipeg, you've got to land every punch. Yeah. They had a chance to land one there and they didn't get it done. and I don't know. I don't.

I'm not ruling this out the same way I feel about some of the other series, but I don't. Yeah, game, what was that, game three, I guess, the double overtime game. That was a real puck, don't lie game. That was, I know it went to double overtime, but Vegas should have won that walking away. So the fact that they've won narrowed, Lee, fair enough to me.

What was it? Game 4 just felt a little closer, but, and maybe, maybe you even say it was like a 50-50 game or whatever, but like, you can't let a team get up 3-1 on you. I don't know how else to, how else to say it, you know? Yep. In a series or, I was talking about that individual game, I believe they were up 3-1. Okay, yeah, yeah. But like, in the series, it is also 3-1. Especially when you've got to play two games in a very tough building in Vegas and a game at what should be your own tough building that you can't seem to win in.

I get like I could see the door creaking back open on this one, but it's, yeah, this is, I mean, Vegas is the better thing. Like you said. It's the hell of the factor. Yeah. That's, oh, I mean, the other thing we have to say is Josh Morrissey, not being in is. Yeah, that doesn't help. That is... In Vegas going like, oh yeah, really having a lot of injuries.

That sucks, huh? Yeah. And they're like, well, we really only are like two and a half, three. And it's like, oh, I guess I don't care then. Yeah. And Winnipeg's like, yeah, but see, the difference is our guy is actually hurt and he can't play in the playoffs. And Vegas is like, oh, damn, okay. That sounds serious.

All right. And then we finally get to it. Tomorrow night, Thursday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs can end the series with a win. Critically, this is one of those where they can end a series by losing. For the 10th time in the Austin Matthews era, the Maple Leafs take to the ice with a chance to end a series with a win. Is it that many? 10? Wow.

They are 0 and 9. Oh. Including 0 for 2 against Tampa last year. Yep. Go ahead. I mean, so we did the last show after game, after game one, right? So the Leafs, it just, no-showed.

They get their doors blown off. Everyone's going, here we go again. They go out for game two, play great. Tampa plays bad. Victor Headman's not in the game. Leifes win game too pretty easily. And then we go back to Tampa. Game three,

Tampa's just the better team for most of that game. The Leifes get a tie and goal with a minute left, and then they win in overtime. Game four, Tampa's a far better team for the first half of the game. They are up

four to one. I don't know if you've heard it was 4-1, right? I don't think that's ever come up before. And then the Leafs score three times in the last 10 minutes. Go to overtime, get a power play in overtime, win that game. So, yeah, up 3-1. And, I mean, the big takeaway, especially, you know, for game 3, but especially game 4 was it's like that's the game that the Leafs always lose.

The Leafs lose those games. and then, you know, everything follows from there. And to go into Tampa twice and win those games, depending on your point of view, either shows that this team is different and they figured it out and all the narratives have changed, or it shows you that actually we were building narratives around coin flips and now the coin came up different a couple times.

But the first one's way more fun. So let's, we'll stick with that. I don't know one single Lee fan who feels like this is done. Yeah, feeling good and confident about it. Yeah, feeling good, absolutely. I mean, you, like, you know, three ones better than pretty much all the other options. Rather, if I was you, I'd be sick to my fucking stomach right now.

But also, we're sick to our stomachs. Yeah, like, it's, it's put it this way. That crowd is going to be rocking tonight. It's going to be a fair, sorry, Thursday night. It's going to be a fantastic environment. But if Tampa scores the first goal, it's going to go dead quiet. Absolutely. It'll just be, they'll cut to like the, you know, the outside area to just be like one plastic bag blowing through an empty parking lot.

Like, we're all waiting for, you know, the other shoe to drop here. But, I mean, Tampa, and part of it's because Tampa's been, like I said, the better team for more of this series. And if you don't count game two, which obviously you do, but with headman not being playing, That was a huge factor there. They've been easily the better team. Vasilevsky's been bad, flat out. He's putting up, like, 80s numbers. But are we sure that that's going to, you know,

especially the fact that we've had like two days now of everybody being like, actually, Andrew Vaselowski's bad. And he can't stop point shots and tips. He can't handle traffic. Like, we can all see the 45 safe shutout coming, right? Like, that's not. Sure. Yeah.

So, you know, it's, like I wrote after game one, I said the, after they got blown out, I said, the Leafs are going to flip it and they're going to win this series or they're going to lose and everything blows up. And it's even more true now. I mean, if they, they blow this again, I don't think anyone will be shocked, but that'll be, you know, the end of everything. But they have full credit to them, man. And I'll tell you, as a fan, it's been fun as hell to why.

watch those last two games. I mean, a lot of them were not fun at all, but that's, it's part of what the playoffs are as a fan, right? Like, you want those, you want those memories. Like, you want, like, that comeback on Monday night. That's phenomenal to watch as a fan. You're just sitting there. This is really fun. So, okay, now you as the neutral non-fan boy here, like, tell me what you're seeing on, on this series. Um, you know, it, it's, it's, it's, interesting because you said that thing about like the lightning have been the better team for more of this series. And I really only think like where I was obviously they did not, the Leafs did not play well in game one, obviously. But they, I think they, again, acknowledging the headman thing.

game two like they they beat the brakes off them and then game three i i don't think they played particularly well but like they they did the thing again where like you know you don't uh you you don't actually get to go near our net sorry you know and um and then game four was it was a toss up i guess um yeah the i'm just looking at it now you're uh Your favorite site, they deserve to win ometer, was 77% lightning in game three. And I think it finished exactly almost 50-50 in game four, which for the first half, it was all lightning. And then, you know, the Leafs came stormy. So it kind of gives you a sense of how crooked the first half of the game was that a team could score four straight goals and needed all four of them just to get back to 50-50.

So, yeah. I know this partly because, and I'll just be, like, I was 90% done my article about the Leafs losing game game four. So I had like all these stats and everything ready about like, yeah, yeah. I mean, the lightning have just been the better team. Okay, now I'll take a sick of water and look up at the TV and see how the third period's going. And it was like, oh, delete, all right. Yeah.

So I guess I'm saying, I, I think. think it's been closer than you're making it out to be. Okay. But with obviously a slight edge to the lightning just because of they play really well in the loss in game three. But my big thing with this series is it's gotten nasty. These two teams do not fucking like each other. No.

And that is sick. That's what you're looking for in a series. Austin Matthews and Stephen Stamco has the first fight in the huge. history of the NHL between two 60 goal players, not in the playoffs, like anywhere. Now, that sounds really cool. If you haven't seen it and you're like, I'm going to go look that up on YouTube, don't bother. It was one, it wasn't a fight. That was, I can't believe, I think that's one of those where they just gave them majors where they're like, you know what, neither of you guys are ever going to get another fighting major. So we'll just, we'll do your little favor here.

The Gary Betman, it's a thermostat. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, it was quite the third. Stamco's just felt the need to punch somebody eight times. And then Austin Matthews felt the need to, like, I guess not get punched in the face anymore. But, uh, uh, yeah, no, it's, it's nasty, man. There's, and it's, it's one of those where, like, some of this is for once coming from the leafs, which is not, I don't mean that in the sense of, oh, you know, it's, it's always all these other teams picking on my poor maple leaves. But they don't push back all that much in the playoffs.

That's been part of the knot. Famously, that's like the whole thing. And now, like, they're the guys where, like, Morgan Riley's got the blood all over the jersey and, you know, guys are getting in fights and all this stuff. It's been, I think there's been, like, four or five fights in the series. And somehow the Leafs have resisted the urge to put Wayne Simmons in the lineup. Michael Bunning goes back in tomorrow. Apparently, his suspension is up, and apparently he is.

at practice today's skating with the players that are going to play. So we'll see how that goes. So that's, I mean, that's three free power plays to Tampa. That's good for them, I guess. Smart.

But, yeah, and I mean, you sort of made a reference to it with the, earlier with the Simpsonov's playing. Pretty good. Pretty good. After game one,

game one was a disaster, but. Sure. Yeah, of course. but yeah you can't know let's put it this way if I had said oh by the way just so you know I just came from the future

and yeah it looks like Samsona was going to out dual Vasilevsky in this series what do you think you're like well you're not for the future man come on who's gonna believe that yeah that you know that we're going in and it's just the Leaf strategy is hey no such thing is a bad shot on

Andre Vasilevsky like just fire it at the net but that's what they're doing like all these shots are just these long-distance shots that are either screened or tipped. And did you see not, La Lone,

on where he was talking, because he obviously was Tampa's assistant coach for a while and he was like, yeah, we, he just said it on the air. Like, it feels like that's what kind of started this conversation. He was like, well, we were very aware

that, like, he, this is his weakness. Like, he can't stop Bucks from, you know. So we changed our, whole defense around. And I'll just say this on national television in Canada. I'm sure nobody will pick up on it. I would have loved to have seen his text messages after that. Yeah.

What's funny about that to me is the book is out on Vasilevsky. Don't shoot glove high this time. Just shoot from a million miles away. He's never going to fucking see a company. Finally, we have a book on somebody that isn't just shoot glove high. You know what it reminds me of? Yeah, what's that? Is when

I was in many, many years ago in my younger, days. Me and a bunch of friends signed up to play in a ball hockey league, but we didn't have enough for a full team. And so we were talking to the guy who runs it, and he's like, yeah, I got another half team. I'll combine you two. They've got a goalie. You guys don't. It'll be perfect. You guys will just play together. Cool. And we get there and we're like warming up with these guys we've never met before. And the goalie's great. Like, this kid's fantastic. And then like, they pulled us aside, one of the other guys on the team. And he's like, hey, just as an FYI, don't let the other team have any shots from far off.

like close in it's great but the goalie we don't we don't really want everyone to know this but like the goal he's legally blind so he can't see it like from far away he won't be able to see it but if it's like in close within his like field vision he's all set so and we're like do we like should we get like a ball with a bell in it or something like what do you what do you mean don't let the shit just block shots from out far and then he'll be fine on the close in stuff and it worked. So what I'm saying is Andrei Vasilevsky is legally blind, I think. I suspect that that's that's what's happening here. Could be it. Could be it. You just never know. Yeah, you got anything to say about the whole officiating thing in this series. Obviously, everybody's trying to work the

fucking refs and it's very annoying. Yep. Yeah. And it's, I mean, honestly, the stuff that keeps been saying about the lightning is he's making valid points in like a weird way. Like he's really leaning into this complaining about the lightning in a way that sounds like he's complimenting them but very obviously isn't.

Like with the Stamco's Matthews fight. Like he was absolutely right. That was a play where Morgan Riley hits Braden Point. It's a point is as often happens to lightning players Braden Point dramatically dies on the ice. and then goes off and comes back two shifts later. But at the time, he seems hurt,

lightning guys are just jumping leaf guys left and right, throwing punches, everything. And it ends up, the Leafs get a two-minute power play because that's the most you can possibly get in that situation. But he does it as like, oh, what a smart play by the Lightning. That's a smart veteran team to know that the refs would never call it, all this stuff. And it's like, eh, whatever.

I don't want to get into the West Macaulay stuff. for reasons. Yeah, you can Google it if you want, folks. You can, yeah, Google it if you want or don't. If you run into some Angry Leaf fan on Reddit or Twitter, who's trying to tell you stuff about that, there's a good chance they don't actually know what they're talking about. And we'll just leave it at that.

On that point, by the way, I know because whoever was the reference, for game two after the whole controversy about game one. Like, leaves fans were like, he also hates us. And it's like, okay. Yeah. All right. Maybe if everybody hates you, it's more of it you think. It's, my thing with it is more,

if you have like a little a little like notebook where you've written down all the games where X ref has fucked you over. Yeah. You know, like, is like, oh, it seems like you're just a loser. Yeah. And you love crying about things. That could definitely be it. What did you think of

overtime penalty. Did you have any that set up the Leafs game four winner? Yeah, it's a penalty. Yeah, Sergachev tackled him. And it was a scoring chance, too. Like, Nealander's going in front of the net, about to have a great scoring chance,

and Sergachev dives and uses his arm to swipe his skates out from under him. Yeah. I saw like three lightning fans kind of going, yeah, but he got the puck first, and it's like, you can't. That's not how that works. Sure. Okay, great.

Like, I don't, I don't know, I don't know how you look at that play and go, well, I could have gone either way. You know, like, what? Except for that you look at it and go, you should never call a penalty in overtime is basically the only defense, unless the puck goes over the glass, which, of course, we all know we have to call. How about this? This just came across the wire here. Mark Masters. Michael Bunting is eligible to return from suspension in game five, but based on practice, he projects to be a healthy scratch for the first time as the leave. Oh, wow.

Okay, so that changed then in the last little while. That's interesting. That's all it says. It's a little, you know what? Whether you, whatever you think about Michael Bunting, man, that this has, the last week cost him a lot of money. Millions and millions of dollars. This guy was number one on, was it, daily face-offs free agent chart? Partly because it's such a weak free agent class.

God, is it ever. This guy's making under a million bucks in Toronto, has a 60-point season. Like, he's ready to go and get at least the Zach Heiman contract. And boy, he's getting healthy scratched. In an elimination game. In a game where they have, yeah. Because, I mean, it was funny. I remember when he got suspended after game one in the aftermath,

Mertl wrote a column and he was like, what do you even do with Michael Bunning going forward, including in the series? Because he's like, I mean, the Leafs, remember, they're down 1-0 at this point. He's like, the Leafs, he might not even get a chance to play. Leaves could get swept. The best case scenario is it's 2-2 or the Leafs are down 3-1.

And somebody in the comments was like, couldn't the Leafs be up 3-1? And Myrtle was like, come on, I'm talking realistic scenarios. Right. But here we are. And, yeah, I mean, you don't necessarily break up a winning lineup, I guess. I don't know, man.

That's rough. That's just rough on a guy who, like, has not had a big contract his whole career, and it's right there in front of you. Yeah, and now he's going to go to the Bruins for league minimum. And he's going to do the, I know we're not allowed to, according to Nazim Kadru, we're not allowed to mention him in the same breath as bunting. But, like, he's going to do the Nazim Kotry thing. He's like, I'll just go to a really good.

team for cheap and then next summer I'll make an absolute shitload of money. And you know what? Here's the thing. All that being said, there'd be a lot of lighting fans going. Leif still won that trade of bunting for SIRDAC.

Like to take him out of the lineup. It's going to be, it'll be a hell of a thing to watch. And by the time we do our show next week, we will either be talking about the Leafs finally getting over the hump or the Leafs finding yet another way

and being 0 and 12 in elimination games and probably having fired a bunch of people on Tuesdays. If I'm not mistaken, by the time we record our next episode, the first round will be over. Yes. Yep, that's right. Yep, the last possible day for round one is Monday, May 1.

So we'll be heading into round two next week. And you'll be, hearing so many previews and eulogies and all this kind of stuff. Yep. That's about it for this week, Sean. Why don't you hit him with the play? Well, wait, hold on. Do you have anything else to say about any?

I'm laughing because two Andre Vasilisky quotes have just come across the wire. One was somebody asked him, like, what did you do to fight through the screens? And he says, by myself, some bleeping x-ray glasses. So, okay, that's not bad. But the other one was, they asked him about, like, the mentality going into game five, and he says we don't look too far ahead of us. That's been the problem, Andre. That's exactly right.

Maybe try looking a little further ahead of you, and you'll be all right. You've got the freaking X-ray glasses. I'm hearing. You can find me on the athletic. I'm writing, like, a ton of stuff. Too much. Let's be honest. It's too much.

Yeah, they're actually pretty much. putting you to work in the content minds. You hate to see this. I don't like that. Like, what is this? Like, something happens and I have to write it about that night. Like, that's not,

that's not what sports writers are supposed to do. If you have not been reading my stuff this week, you can go get caught up. There's a bunch of it, including my reaction to the overtime high stick controversy in L.A. Edmonton. I had a piece after game four of the Leafs Lightning series in which I,

tried to explain to leave fans what had just happened, why something good had happened to the team instead of bad. It was a very unsurious post that wound up on the front page of the New York Times. So that was... And you're in a publication for which you are, of course, an employee. I am an employee, but they have like a little tiny section of their, when I say the front page of their website, like a little tiny section for us. And so they put this like headline about like,

You know, fans are confused about what happened in NHO. Like, hey, I click on that even if I didn't follow hockey. And it, you know, did some amazing thing happen? And instead, it's just some dude, like, basically being a jackass for 800 words. I found that very funny. I have a piece up today on Wednesday where I go through all 32 teams and I talk about your best playoff run that didn't result in a Stanley Cup. because I have long felt that those can be a lot of fun too. In some cases, maybe even just as fun as watching your team win a championship.

And I've got the old guys without a cup coming probably tomorrow. Wow. Now, Sean, you say watching your team lose the cup is just as fun as seeing your team win a cup? That sounds wrong. If I had to guess, now I feel like you don't know from experience, and I guess neither do I. Yeah. But I'm going to guess really, it's sort of...

That if you are a fan of a team and that team wins the Stanley Cup, okay. They like that. And if they lose the Stanley Cup, they like that less. Just my thoughts. Agree to disagree.

All right, fair enough. And for me, obviously, ePringside.com, use the code I love EP when you sign up for a one-year subscription an annual subscription, and they'll tack three free months on at the end just for you. So 15 months for the price of 12. You can't beat that.

Puck soup. Patreon is patreon.com slash puck soup. A lot of bonus episodes lately. We're wrapping up a busy month for all of us. And so there's a lot of stuff. The most recent bonus episode we did was our listeners tasked us to play two truths in a lie with a bunch of NHL teams. And so we did that. did half the league and hopefully they don't make us do the other half next month.

I bet they won't because I will not allow them to. But yeah, we had a good time with that episode. Me and Sean and Grunk Bedinsky, we're all saying real stuff and fake stuff. He did. He beat our, not to spoil. I guess the spoiling it is kind of beside the point, like the outcome. He beat our asses. He did.

But it was fun to know. No trivia facts. Yeah. We learned a lot. We did. We really did. And so, yeah, that's it for us. Thanks so much for listening.

And we'll talk to you next week for round two. Bye, bye, bye. Bye-bye. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. But we also cover movies, TV shows. It's and tools. It's your weekly bowl of Hage and Nans.

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