Puck Soup - Puck Soup After Dark

Episode Date: May 12, 2022

Sean and Ryan are recording while games are going on, and talk the Barry Trotz firing and coaching musical chairs, the various ongoing playoff series, awards voting and more.   Sponsored by Athletic Greens (athleticgreens.com/puck) and Raycon (buyraycon.com/puck)

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. But we also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and nonsense. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McIndoo from The Athletic. We're recording this, what time? It's 7.33 p.m.

Yeah. And the reason why is this is a true story. I went to the Pup show last night in Boston, excellent show. If Pupp is in your town, go see them. Phenomenal band. I had one drink at the show. And I was hung over until about 3 o'clock. Couldn't get out of bed.

Yeah. That's real. Yeah. True life, I'm almost 40. I may have called Ryan a lightweight for that, but you know what? You're not wrong. I don't, so the problem is... You're not much of a drinker, are we?

I don't drink at home, and there hasn't been a lot of going out lately for obvious reasons. I suppose. So that's what happened. I would have loved to record the podcast at 10 p.m. or 10 a.m. So I'm not doing this while I'm watching the Rangers Penguins game. Uh-huh. But penguins are up one nothing. Yeah.

Yeah. So this will be a fun way to go through the podcast. Everything that we talk about, now is going to be either out of date or something far more important. So like when people are like furiously trying to figure out why we didn't, like, how are they not talking about the Milan Lucci suspension? Well, it hasn't happened yet. Right. Yeah.

The part where Milan Lucci took out a gun and shot Jamie Ben. Yeah. Santa Rice. Yeah. We're not going to tell. I mean, that's going to happen later. It's, yeah. It, hey, you know, somebody's going to step up and defend MacKichuk.

Yeah. So. But yeah, let's start off with the least timely news we possibly can. Earlier this week, a shocking dismissal. One of the most successful off-ice people in the sport today, Pierre McGuire let go by the Ottawa senators. Yeah. I think everybody. in the hockey world was shocked when they saw that headline because they were all like me

going, wow, I totally forgot Pierre McGuire worked for the Ottawa senators. And I'm in Ottawa. That's right. And I forgot this dude. Like this guy, just in case people outside Ottawa are like, well, maybe they had them doing locals. No. This guy went completely invisible the moment he got here. It was wild.

Yeah, they, it's so funny because when they hired him, everybody was like, well, he can be like the mouthpiece for the organization. Finally, somebody in this organization can open their mouth without saying something ridiculous. And, yeah, I mean, Pierre, whenever you think of him on TV, like it is, but between the benches roll. This guy spends, it feels like his entire morning on the radio with different places. And as people here in Ottawa have pointed out, he used to be on the radio in Ottawa often. So, like, we heard him much more here before he got hired here, which, you know, leads to lots of fun speculation about what exactly happened with that hiring. Yeah, well, the other thing is they were like, oh, yeah, he's going to do a lot of stuff

on the hockey operation side. Never once, I don't think, publicly, have they said, like, what he did, period. Yeah, until he got fired and then they sort of blaming him for Michael Delzado signing. Oh, I didn't see that. Which didn't work, but that was like in Bruce Garriock's piece. Oh, okay. So that was kind of the, I mean, it's not, but that's not even like a knife in the back. That's like, you know, that's like a pair of especially sharp tweezers in the back on the way of.

I'm going to look up. I couldn't tell you what that contract was. But, like, that's what the Ottawa Senators. They sent him down to the minors, but, I mean, it wasn't. Sure. He wasn't terrible. He was what you should have expected when you signed that guy. Yeah. So, yeah.

Two million bucks and he's signed through next year. Yeah. I mean, I would have said the Ottawa senators have bigger problems, but do I know. Did you, one last thing on this, just I brought it up mostly as a joke. Screw that. We're doing the whole show on it. Great. Did you see the thing that a couple?

I can't remember where I saw it, but it was like the rumor is that the league basically told Melnick to hire Peter McLeod. I did see that. Yeah. Yeah. I did see that. I mean, yeah, maybe. You should do it there. We know the league does tend to, I mean, we've heard that they're trying to keep trying to set Peter Shirelli up like he's the, like the ugly friend you keep trying to set up on a blind date.

I always thought that what made more sense was that it was a Eugene Melnick call, that he, you know, famous TV guy, that, you know, that he felt that would be a positive for whatever reason. Pierre Dorian saw that and went, uh-oh, I can tell when my replacement is being hired. Right. And immediately set to work, I wouldn't say undermining him, but certainly solidified. his own grasp of of the job, which is probably what you should do in that situation. Yeah, understandable. You know, if you remember, there was this whole, like, the very first press conference, Pierre Dorian was like, no, I made it very clear that Pierre McGuire reported to him

and not to, not to ownership or anyone else. And, yeah, and if, I don't, again, power struggle feels like maybe too dramatic, but that whatever the politicking was that as the season when I'm Pierre Dorian won and if that's the case then I'm guessing here

I don't have even though I'm in Ottawa I have no insid don't listen to me I don't know what I'm talking about but the fact that Eugene Melick passes away and weeks later

they fire Pierre McGuire it kind of leads you to believe that maybe there was some dots to connect there or maybe they just thought he was the best guy for the job and it didn't work out. Who knows?

I don't think Pierre McGuire has commented yet, has he? Haven't seen it, no. No idea. Okay, so let's actually talk about the actual shocking firing, and it's Barry Trots let go on Long Island. The press conference was that Lou Lamarillo held. Was insane, I think. It was interesting.

Yeah. Yeah, he's like, I didn't talk to anybody about this. Never would have crossed my mind to maybe consult with any other person. I did what was best for the team, all that kind of stuff. All assistants are still under contract. And basically, he just said they needed a new voice. And now it's kind of started to come out, well, you know, in exit interviews with the players, maybe they were not the biggest Barry Trots fans.

And specifically, maybe Matt Barzal wasn't the biggest Barry Trots fan. Oh, okay. That is the operating theory now. And, you know, if you're choosing one or the other, you know. Definitely. I see why it makes sense to stick with Matt Barzal. Which, yeah, okay. I mean, that would make sense.

But so two points here. First of all, if you're listening to this and going, well, this is also out of date, you should be on the Patreon because you would have heard on Monday's bonus episode, Ryan informing me of this. and me not believing him. No, he thought I was joking. I did. And, uh, because I'm, I'm blown away.

I mean, I've said many times I think Barry Trots is one of, if not the best coaches in the league. Uh, and then my other point would be that the Lou Lamarillo quote was very, very funny because he acted, like it wasn't just, he didn't just act like the question of did you consult with anyone? Had the answer no. Like, he acted like it didn't even occur to him. Why would you even ask me this? No, of course I don't talk to anyone about the decisions I make. I'm Lou Lamarillo. I just do whatever I want. And whatever Lou wants has very often involved coaching changes.

I'll say. Yeah, Jesus. But still, like, wow. Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, look, I think that if you look at this Islander's Ross, and, you know, both this season and three seasons from now, let's say, there's a lot of weird contracts on here for guys who are maybe not the best. And Barry Trots rung as much success out of this group as, as you said, Sean.

Pretty much any coach in the world could have. Yes. You know, I think the thing that we have always said on this podcast is, is very high floor and maybe not the highest ceiling, right? Like, yeah, they made it to two Eastern Conference finals in a row in fake playoffs. And, you know, that's maybe about as much as you could expect. With that, having been said, they were whatever, a goal away, a one-nothing game away against the lightning in game seven last year. From playing the Habs for the Stanley Cup.

Yeah. A team they probably would have rinked. if we're being honest, right? So. Yeah. Can we just start calling John Cooper, the coach killer? Holy smokes. Has anyone else ever won a Stanley Cup in the last two coaches you beat?

Get fired within a year? Well, Xim or Map Arzal? Those are your two choices for who the coach killer here is. Allegedly. Allegedly. But yeah, no, so I guess let's talk about the fallout from this. as you say Lou is famous for fire in coaches

Lou is famous for making surprising hires let's say so where on earth did the Islanders go from here the obvious answer seems to be the guy who I mentioned earlier is still under contract as an assistant Lane Lambert no relation and

you know he's a guy who's been an assistant coach in the league for a billion years and everybody says, you know, it's the classic thing. He's been an assistant coach. He's ready. You give him a job he's going to do well. And maybe this is it.

But also, he could hire some guy I've never heard of. And I go, that's Lou. Yeah. Well, I mean, hasn't Lamarillo mostly when it comes to hiring coaches, I feel like certainly in the, after his first few years in New Jersey, it was mostly known commodities. Like he was sometimes two. no one. Like he would bring back guys or, um, the weird thing that he would do is make himself coach,

uh, but that was, that was during the season. Um, I think, Lane Lambert makes sense. I guess the other thing we should point out is if, if all the assistants are staying, that means Mitch Korn, uh, stays. So I guess we find out which one of them really was the goalie whisperer who can, uh, fix whatever goaltender you drop him in on. But, um, that was, seem to make sense, but who knows? I mean, there's other, there are big veteran names out there. Yeah. You know, the one that people started, started talking about, obviously, is Joel Quenville, not exactly employed right now, you know? And that's one of those things where apparently he would need to, like, meet with the league and be reinstated. And I don't know if this is necessarily the,

the best PR hire for the Islanders or whatever? No, but if anybody isn't going to care about PR, it is Louis I'm not real. I was going to say that. And also, say what you want about all the Ohio stuff, Joel Quinville, still a really good coach. Look at the Florida Panthers this year. Maybe not so much last year, but, you know, dangerous team at all times, any team he's coached that had any kind of talent, he was going to take him places. Mm-hmm. But yeah, and then, you know, as we've said on other podcasts,

like a third of the league is turning over their coaches. Now it's more than that. So, and then every coach, you know, who is maybe a little bit on the hot seat, that they just turned the heat up on that. Especially some playoff guys potentially. Yeah, they're... Absolutely. But, yeah, as well as, you know, Claude Julian still out.

there, Elaine Vignos out there. Mike Babcock is still out there, which again, if anybody was going to hire somebody and go, I don't give a crap what you think. Lou is the guy who would do it. So there are lots of names. But I mean, the interesting thing is when it comes to Lane Labbard is if they don't give him the job, you have to think they let him walk. I mean, can you really open the job up, not give it to him and then expect him to stay on as the assistant?

Yeah, I mean, that's, Lane Lameau. Lambert has been mentioned with a lot of teams, most notably the Red Wings, because he and Iserman go back, you know, I think there were roommates or something in their early days in Detroit. So like that, that would seem to be a logical hire in theory, but anyway. Yeah. The other thing with Lane Lambert, and I was surprised at this, he's 57 years old. Yeah, he's not a young guy.

I thought he was like young guy. And even when you look at it, like even his photos, he looks like, you know, like a good, you know, this is a fresh new thinker. And, you know, maybe he is. But he's, he's not somebody who's, you know, put it this way. He's, he's not going to be looking to spend five more years as an assistant somewhere waiting for a door to open. Yeah, he's, he's like three years younger than Barry Trots, a guy that we think of. Right. This is the oldest coach in the world.

Yes. Yeah. So. But hell, Bruce Boo. Brudra is 67. I still feel like, and Bruce Brudrow could be available. I mean, is available. That's right.

It sounds like. I mean, even though he's not been fired in Vancouver, he's available. I can't believe that Pete DeBore is not available yet, but I still expect that he will be. I know you, I can't remember if this was even on the show or if this is when we were talking off air. I know you kind of shot this idea down. Of the teams in the playoffs, I still wonder if Florida would look at Barry Trots if they lose in the first round of Washington. Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, obviously, as I think was pointed out when we said this last time, they started 7 and 0 under Cuenville.

And so, like, you go, oh, well, any idiot could coach this team to a pretty decent record. But my thinking is just like, if a guy wins your. a president's trophy, all other issues aside. I think you've got to run it back with him. You would certainly think. What about Edmonton? After the great record that, you know, Jay Woodcroft did agree with it.

But remember, at the end of the season, there was those stories going around that he wanted an extension now, and the Oilers wanted him to wait until after the playoffs. Yeah. And now, you know, they're on the brink of elimination. They kind of, like, I, like, almost had they melted down. They didn't really melt down in the third period. They, they came back and won the game, and then they had one bad shift in overtime.

Yeah. Conner McDavid was out there for like almost two minutes or whatever. He got turned styled, and now it's three to L.A. And I don't know. I'm just, uh, it's, it's so, we'll talk about the, uh, the oilers, uh, in a minute here. But, um, it's really interesting to me. what's going to happen if they get eliminated, which they have a pretty good shot of doing it right now. And as you say, like, they aren't married to this coach, but the regular season results were so strong that,

I don't know. This is another one where it's like, there are a lot of good coaches out there, but can you get a better one than the one you got right now? The one you got right now is kind of a known quantity. Yep. So I kind of see it both ways where, again, there's a million actually good coaches out there. Barry Trots comes in.

And that's the thing. You know, Barry, you know, the question, is there a coach out there better than what you got? There's like four. If it's Barry Trots, then I say, yes, there is. Yes, but so the thing that I guess is, you know, is Barry Trots interested in keeping the, you know. He's close to be in 60, and he's done this for a million years. And if he wants to, he's probably got a couple of bucks in the bank. If he wants to take a year off, who could blame him?

You know? Yeah. Or even, you know, somebody fires a coach in January. What's all Barry Trots up to? Mm-hmm. Gets off the beach, wearing a Hawaiian shirt. Yeah, I'll go to Winnipeg. Well, I guess Winnipeg also.

needs a coach. He's a Manitoba guy, and that is the rumor about Winnipeg is that they want Winnipeg slash Manitoba guys for their coaching position? It has been, yeah, he makes a ton of sense for Winnipeg. I'm not sure Winnipeg makes a ton of sense for him, but it might. Yeah, no, I agree. It might. And God, I mean, if he's, if he's the guy who can make goleys better, then imagine Conner Hallibuck allows four goals all season. Yeah. But yeah, yeah, I, There's going to be so many musical chairs with this, and it'll be really interesting to see who's left kind of standing, too, because, like, you know, the Lindy Ruff thing in New Jersey,

where it's like the players seem to be giving them a vote of confidence, but everybody else is like, can't stick with this, can you? And they fired some assistance, I believe. Which is the thing you do when you don't want, when you want to fire a coach, but you don't want to fire the coach. Yeah. Well, or when you want to undermend, mind the coach and make it very clear that basically put a big giant flashing arrow

pointed right at him. He's next. He's next. Yeah. But yeah, it'll be a wild summer coaching wise. I can't, like we said, there's going to be more coaching changes after the first round. Like two, three teams are probably going to fire their coaches. Then what's certainly possible.

Yeah. So why don't we take a quick break and then we'll be right back for we'll talk about all the series that are going on. How's that sound? Today's show is brought to you by Athletic Greens. You know, lots of us would love to get better gut health, more energy, better immune system. But you probably got your reasons why you haven't done anything about it. Maybe you hate taking the pills. Maybe you don't like the taste.

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All you have to do is go to athletic greens.com slash pot. Again, that is athletic greens.com slash puck to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. All right, we're back. We promised you oilers talk, and here it is. This is all Yassapuya Yarvey's fault. That's what I've read in the Edmonton media today. Yeah, that sounds about right. I mean, I didn't watch the whole game.

But I did watch some gifts that showed up on Twitter, so I feel pretty qualified. I watched the third period and the overtime. Well, you got all the good stuff. Yeah, I got the really entertaining part, it seems like, yeah. So, I mean, that's a terrible loss for the Oilers. Not to say they played terribly, but, you know, game five at home. You can't go down four, too. fall behind and then

the bit you know it's like the sky parts the light shines down and your two big guns just go no screw this we're not letting this happen we're gonna win this game and then overtime comes around and that and the way they did it was wild because like

they just couldn't stay out of the penalty box in that third period and it didn't matter yep there was like a double minor and they scored a short-handed goal during, it was crazy. They, they, and then, yeah, the second they got that late power play to, to, to, uh, potentially tie the game, I was like, there is no way this game's not going to overtime. And then it did.

Yep. Um, and Edmonton did not touch the puck in that entire overtime. Yeah. It was whatever, two minutes, not even, but. Duncan Keith sure didn't. No, oh my God, he's been so bad in this series. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Last night was the first time I didn't watch every single hockey game all night. So I've seen a lot of this series. He's been awful. He's been really, really bad. And, you know, I saw some people blaming Mike Smith and believe me, no one to pick a fan of blaming Mike Smith. That is your wheelhouse. And Roll Buddy R.L.

He has not been the probably, you know, he's like a 940 goalie in this series. Yeah, he gave up five goals last night, but watching the, watching the, highlights back today, I couldn't be like, these are classic Mike Smith boners that he's, that he's strong. Like, you know, game one, obviously. That's, he's 100% the reason they lost game one. Absolutely. But like, a lot of, two shotouts, am I right about this?

Like, he's been good. Yeah, he's been. What did you think of, what did you think of the Connor McDavid quote where he said that four goals has to be enough to win in the playoffs? Yeah, like I saw people taking that as, oh, maybe that's a shot at Mike Smith, maybe that's a shot at the depth guys who were getting scored on or whatever. I think it's just like a generally true statement. You score four goals in a playoff game. You should probably win that game.

Yeah. I thought so too. I'll be honest, when I first saw that, somebody tweeted it out. I thought like, oh, okay, that feels spicy to me. And then it didn't. Several people said the context, it made it. clear that it was definitely not a shot at Mike Smith, and it was more just the kind of generic we've got to be better defensively that players always say when they lose any game.

And I got to say, he's right. Like I said, if you score four goals in a game, that ought to be enough to win you 95% of your games. I can't imagine there were too many games in the entire NHL this year where a team scored four goals and lost. Yep. So. Yeah. Did you see the stat that said, and I think it was the last, the, the Oilers have now lost each of the last five playoff games in which both Connor McDavid and Leander Cytle scored? That's one of, I did see that stat.

That's one of those things that it feels like it ought to be impossible. Yeah. But then you go, oh, that's because they're the only guys on that team that's been able to score for the last two years. But, I mean, if there's ever a stat that drives home, like, I mean, that is the most oiler stat of this. 100% of Nick David era, right? Like, I mean, because, you know, one of those things is that you know from, if you watch hockey, those stats are almost always, those stats are almost always fake. You always see that, right? Like, they'll be like, you know, the Leafs are 4 and 0.

when Wayne Simmons scores this year. And you're supposed to be like, wow, he scores such important goals. And it's not. It's just like, yeah, they're 4 and O when, by definition, you spot them a goal because we're only picking the games where this one particular guy scores. So, I mean, you can pick literally.

And if Wayne Simmons is scoring, probably they're playing a team, it's not great. That too. But you can take literally any player and his team will have a probably have a very good record when he scores. Yes. To be 0 and 5 when both those guys score is wild.

Yeah, that's one of those stats, too, where, like, you know, Jordan Bennington's been pretty good in the Blues series so far, coming on, you know, halfway through as he has. And, you know, when he won game four, I guess, or three maybe, they were like, oh, that's his first playoff when since he won a Stanley Cup. And it's like, I know that was only like two, three playoffs ago. That's, I get all that. But also like, yeah, that doesn't seem like it should be possible, right? Like the, they were like, oh, yeah, he's now the winningest goalie in St. Louis Blues history. He's got like 19 wins or something. It's like, oh, that's like not a lot of playoff wins.

That's like a regular amount of, like Mike Smith almost certainly has more playoff wins than that. And now, granted, Mike Smith's like a million years old. So whatever. But you see the general point where it's like 19 is like, the all-time record for a club that's been around for 50 years? Can that be right? That feels surprising to me, although I'm... But it is.

...drawn to think of who else it would be, and, yeah. It was Mike Leia and Greg Millen, I think, had the high... You know what? That absolutely feels like the... I think that's what I saw on. ...very blusy stat. Yeah. Ah, man, so...

Oh, I guess we should probably mention the Los Angeles Kings. Yeah, yeah. You know who's been... phenomenal in this series is this guy they signed this past summer. Phil Dono. Yeah. Ooh, he's going psycho mode. He, and I don't know where this is coming from because, you know, I got a nice,

up-close look at him in the Leaf series last year, and he was phenomenal defensively. Yes. But he never struck you as somebody that was going to, and didn't he, like, go through the playoffs and have, like, one goal in 20 games or something? Something like that, yeah. And I remember when the kids. signed him. I was thinking like you're going to get five million to a guy who just scored one

goal in 20 playoff games. And now he's underpaid. Right, yeah. Three goals to assist in five playoff games so far. But also like, you know, they didn't sign him to be this guy. This is a nice byproduct for him for sure. They signed him to make it so

Anse Kovatar didn't have to, you know, get the tough matchups every night. And he's also doing that. Like that's the thing. he's not only being the shutdown guy that everybody kind of thought he would be, he's putting the puck in the net. Yeah, which is just, I mean, that's, that was always what it was watching the least go against him last year. Because you're like, it is so frustrating to have our first line being grounded into dust by this guy. But at least they're still even because they're not really a threat to score to come back the other way.

Now, I mean, if he's doing that too, Yeah, I mean, I still, I think the kings are headed in the right direction. I like what they've done, the rebuild, everything. I don't think they're good this year. Like, win a playoff round good, but I'll say this. When I was looking at, because, you know, it became pretty clear, you know, maybe a week before the end of the regular season that they were going to make the playoffs. I was like, don't I think these guys stink, though? And then I looked into it.

and all their numbers are like, there isn't too much that's like absolutely spectacular, but all their numbers are just solid. They're just solid. And, you know, I guess the thing I would have said was, do I trust Jonathan Quick to win anybody a playoff series in 2022? I don't. But then again, he's going up against Mike Smith.

So, you know. But, you know, they're just a solid team. And Jonathan Quick had a really good regular season. and, you know, I hate to say it because I thought, again, I thought the oilers really improved under Woodcroft, but they're fucking oilers. Yeah. And they lost to the Jets last year, humiliating.

They got swept. This would be worse. Oh, this would absolutely, mm, would it be worse. I think getting swept is worse. I think getting swept is worse. I think if you are the, 12th best playoff team

and the format serves up like the 14th or 15th best team that I mean that is the hockey gods just rolling out the red carpet they're holding the door over and saying please by all means and if you you know smile and wave and then confidently walk right into the glass window next to

the door I feel like that's worse I get what you're saying But then, you know, the thing I was about to say, though, was like, then the year before that, they lose to an awful Chicago team in the play-in, which 100% fake. But it doesn't, like, help the narrative that, like, Mick Choker and Leon Fraudsidal are costing the Oilers by not being leaders or whatever, you know? And so that's why Ken Holland goes out. Look, we need rings in the room. That's why we got to go pay for Duncan Keith and all this shit. And it's like, oh, really?

Like, do you think that was the problem? And not like everything else that was obviously, okay. Well, I guess, you know, I didn't win two or three or whatever, however many Stanley Cups he had with the Red Wings. So, you know, good luck with all that. And then, you know, all the problems that you would have said the Oilers would have coming into any random series, not just to get. the king, but just like, what are the oilers' weaknesses?

Well, they can't score when McDavid and Drysiddle are off the ice, and their defense isn't very good once you get the top pair off the ice, and Mike Smith is 41 or 42 years old, right? And two of those three things have been a problem in this series. Yep. So, it's the same old oils. They're playing the Kings. But yeah, no, I agree with you.

I just thought this was their golden opportunity to at least, you know, get a win in their back pocket and then and then you see from there. But I guess not. What did you think of the Darnel Nurse thing? I haven't seen a head belt like that since Harley Race. Yeah. Looked like he tried to kill the guy. It was insane. Like, I don't know what he could have possibly been thinking.

Like, usually a headbutt in this league is like you're in a scrum with a guy and then you're, like, you're like, you're like, like whip your head up and it's on purpose or whatever. But it's from a relative. There's that kind of subtlety to it where it's like I'm going to maybe get away with this. Right. And it's usually a nudge to the chin kind of deal or something. Yeah. Make it make it look accidentally on purpose.

Darnell nurse backed up eight feet and launched himself. He did that. Who was the soccer guy who did that years ago in the World Cup? Yeah. Yeah. Kind of did that. Yes. I won't say I'm surprised it was only one game,

but I would not have been surprised if they had given him two games, even knowing that that would have meant to games. Yeah, I mean, the multiplier of playoff games over two and grade seven, game sevens over ten. Yeah, that was my thought. And a lot of people said it doesn't matter, one's the rest of the playoffs anyway. Yeah.

I wouldn't go quite that far. But, you know, things come back. I mean, at this point, what could you possibly do that didn't result in an injury? And he was super lucky that it didn't. But what could you do that resulted in no injury that would get you a multi-game suspension in the playoffs? Yeah. No, I look. Baseball bat stick swing, maybe?

Yeah, I mean, that's going to feel like it, it, like you'd have to do it to a guy's head. And it just, like, hits his helmet and he's fine. Yeah. Like, you would have to get really lucky to commit something as potentially injurious as this and not have it result in an injury. I don't disagree with you that it should have been more, but like I totally get why it was. No, I'm kind of in that these days where when I see a bunch of people on Twitter or in a comment section or wherever talking about like, oh, my God, we have to suspend somebody. my default position is to be prepared for it

not to be anywhere near as bad as it sounds and this one I saw it and I was like holy crap yeah it was they were underselling it that was that was really meant to headbut him that that's that's the simplest

way I can put it he did put it this way if you're gonna get suspended for headbutting he got his money's worth on that one he he did not leave anything in the tank. And, you know, I want to say this too about, like,

you're seeing this more and more in the playoffs because there have been a lot of blowouts. Guys are doing some real cheap shit in the playoffs because their teams are getting their asses kicked. Yep. You know? And, and like, that to me is, like, that should be more suspension worthy

of like, yeah, okay, you're pissed because you're getting your asses. is kicked. So, like, there's even that extra level of, I don't know, I don't know if premeditation's the right word, but like intentionality maybe. Of like, oh, I'm actually really serious about, you know, like, I couldn't believe that there was no real penalty for Tony DeAngelo whipping his stick at Brad Marshand's, uh, empty net attempt over the week. Yeah. Like, that's just one of those things where it's like, that's dipshit territory. It is.

You're not going to get suspended, but they could have fined them for that just for being, just for being a loser on that. But yeah, no, there is. And usually we see this stuff early in the series, and then games five, six, and seven, it starts to disappear. But, I mean, I didn't get that. Well, they didn't get it. And also, you know, this wasn't something, it wasn't like they were losing 6-2, and he did this with a minute left.

Like, this was in a crucial. I mean, it was a total, I mean, it was inexcusable just by the nature of what he did, but it was also completely inexcusable for a guy who's their best defenseman. Absolutely, yeah. Go get himself suspended. I did see someone raise this point. I think it was on Twitter earlier today of, um, doesn't the, like, if they lose the next game, doesn't this just give them fodder to be like, look, we all agree it was a,

stupid penalty or a stupid suspension and you shouldn't have done it, but we kind of gotten out now. Now we can go, well, look, we would have won if, if, I don't, I don't feel like, the Oilers are one of those teams that I don't feel like they get outs anymore, fairly or not. Like, we're all going to do the same, the same dance, the same Connor, does Connor McDavid want out thing? I mean, I don't think missing Darnell Nurse is going to be. I don't, I don't disagree with you, but like, I wonder, you. Look, we all know what the Edmonton media is like.

They're going to go, look. This was a dumb shit move, obviously. But we've got to give Ken Holland four more chances. Yeah. He didn't have his best defensemen. He's down to his last five chances, though, Ken Holland. Yeah, absolutely. Time is up.

You've got five more swings at this, and then we're going to seriously consider maybe maybe moving up to president. All right, let's talk. I mentioned it just a moment ago. let's talk about that Carolina Boston series a couple of games now where the Bruins have just been like we didn't get off the bus for this one oh well

yeah um they first of all I was impressed with Boston in Boston oh they look awesome yeah they look unbelievable down to nothing

defense men yeah and I know like we do our daily game picks at the athletic and a few of us picked Boston in game three and people were flipping out. People were like, have you not watched the series? Carolina's kicking their ass. It's, they've got

no chance. And even you know, I think a lot of us were just kind of doing it because we're like, you know what, this doesn't feel like a sweep, so this will be the game that they win. And instead, they came back game three and four and played great. And I mean, I hate it. I hate

this, but you got to give it to Brian Marshall. Like the guy was absolute, that was Masterclass. nominal, I mean, like somebody said, having five points and calling Tony DeAngelo racist was the single greatest playoff performance. That's better than Patrick Sundstrom's eight point game right there. But, you know, it was great.

But then full credit Carolina, right? They took a punch back. They took a counter punch, and now they're winning the fight again. So two straight, this is the interesting thing to me, two straight games where the road team is a total no-show. right and or at least for a large chunk of the game

like once Boston took control in game four it was like clear the decks we're done here we don't even just run the clock for the rest of the game

we don't need to make a big thing out of this and I wonder how much of that is like you know having last change matters these are two really good coaches

it matters a lot with Patrice Bergerontoe I think Yes. Like, he, getting him against the Sebastian Aho line is big. Put him in the torture chamber, yeah, no. But, you know, then if Brindamore can get the stall line out against the Bergeron line, well, okay, this is what happened last night, right?

So, this game, to me, feels like seven. You know, I guess I wouldn't be surprised if it's six, and Caroline wins tomorrow night. Who could, or depending on when this gets released, tonight. Who could be surprised by that, but like it just, I thought going in, this felt like a seven-game series. I'd still think it's a seven-game series. Yep. This is always that weird time where, you know, that because you assume a series is going seven,

you end up like picking against a team in game six. But no, I'm with you, I think. I like Boston's odds in Boston, and then who knows. knows, but those are good teams. The other thing to say is it looks like Lindholm might be ready for game six. Oh, okay. So it doesn't hurt. He's really good.

Sean, we got to talk about it. Tampa Bay Lightning. Moose to the Toronto Maple Leafs blow, what, a 3-1 lead? Two-nothing. Leaves came back, made it 3-2. Tampa ties it up. And then the Leafs get the way. winner with five minutes to left or whatever.

Yep. This was a game I was watching on my phone between sets, so I did see part of this one, but the part of it I saw, the least were getting their asses kicked up and down Main Street. It was the first period. They had like three shots on goal. Got outshot 14 to 3 in the first period on home ice after. A total no- show.

Yeah. They got blown out in game four. The entire hockey world spends 48 hours calling these guys soft. They're quitters. They have no heart. All the old narratives get dug up. For the first time in the series, all the old narratives get dug up. All the ghosts come back.

And their response is they come out and they play just as bad in first period in front of a really loud building. Like even that didn't do it. I know, like, last year with Montreal, you're kind of like, well, you know, there's no fans in the buildings. Maybe that's sort of it. And no, like, loud, loud arena didn't do anything. And I mean, the shovels were ready, man. Like, it was.

Like, I even, after game two or three, like, it's that point in the series, like, everybody knows all year long that the Leafs were going to be. judged 90% based on whatever happened in the playoffs, no matter how good they were in the season. And they were really good in the season. Set a team record for points, all that stuff. Wasn't going to matter if they lost. But when they drew Tampa, you could at least kind of conceive of, look, if they just slug it out, they go back and forth, and at the end of the day, the champs are a little bit better, maybe you could see at least some people saying, we got to run it back one more time.

and game four blew that out of the water because game four was just that's the one game that everyone went back on. And it was ready to go with after one period. And then apparently Jason Spetson gives up and starts talking about all the inches in life and starts telling them about all the inches that he's missed that were right in front of his face and gives the greatest inspirational speech of all time, uh, because the Leafs come out for the next two periods. Like their fucking shirts are on fire.

And, and just overwhelm the Lightning, which again, if, if the Leafs end up losing the series, that's what's going to be so frustrating. Because we've now seen, I would say, six periods of the Leafs just stomping the lightning. The first three periods in game one, obviously, the first period of game two, even though they got scored on at the end of it. They were really good. And then the two periods on Tuesday night. And the great thing about it, especially if you're in the narrative business, is for maybe the very first time in this era, it was all the big names doing it. And it was, look, it's great in a playoff series when guys like David Camp for scoring goals,

you know, it's great when Andridge cash can get in there and, you know, Piraangvall is having. You need guys like that sometimes. But this was the game where it was like, you know, the core four, which is really a core five with Morgan Riley that they're going to be paying almost 50 million for next year. They got all their money's worth on Tuesday night from those five guys. and this is what the vision always looked like with the Maple Leafs when they started down this road is we will be able to overwhelm you because our better players will be better than your better players

and there's not going to be anything you can do about it and it hasn't worked an awful lot and Tuesday night it did and it was fun as hell to watch I'm sure if you weren't a Tampa fan You were just neutral watching that game. Maybe you're hoping the Lees would lose, but you had to be entertained by that. It was fantastic.

And absolutely none of it will matter if the next two games go badly. And look, we all know the deal with Tampa. They never, ever, ever lose two in a row. The Leifes never, ever win when they have a chance to close someone out. or when they're leading a series. So, you know, all the signs would point one way for game six at least. But who knows? We'll see where it goes.

But, yeah, I'm, I loved it as a fan. I've enjoyed it all day today and I'll enjoy as much of it as I can tomorrow up until the game starts. And then it won't matter at all. Yeah. I will say I picked the Leafs in seven. Yep. So, you know, but I, I said this yesterday to somebody, but, you know, Charles Barkley was on the, was on the Turner broadcast, and he said basically, like, whoever wins, game five wins a series, really hard to disagree with that. I, it would be, like you said, like Tampa doesn't lose two in a row, I kind of, I know, like Toronto lost two, last three in a row.

row last year, but I kind of have a hard time seeing Toronto losing this series. The problem is you can absolutely see them losing game six. Sure. Because, you know, Tampa, they're at home. They're going to have the matchups, the crowd, everything. And then, I mean, another game seven in Toronto. I mean, that's, yeah, on paper, the Leafs, based on how they played, especially at home, should be the favorite against Tampa in game seven,

which is a huge compliment to him because Tampa's a fantastic team. But it's not going to take very much to go wrong. Yeah, however, they are the Toronto Maple Leaf. They are. Like if the anthem singer wobbles on one note, that whole bench is going to be like, oh, here we go. It's going to be, it'll be something.

But I will say this. I love the fact that, you know, the, like I say, the two, the two, the two, the two, the two gimmicks here. Tampa never loses two in a row. Toronto never wins when they're leading a series. And the fact that the Leafs could win this series in seven games without either of those things ever not happening. Like that is some pro wrestling protect the gimmick booking right there. Yeah. Like that is brilliant to figure out a way to let both of these teams keep their signature.

but still have the series end in seven. Lose by DQ, real 50 booking, yeah. That's a, yeah, exactly. Like the Florida Panthers show up and distract somebody. And yeah, that's it. The lightning have their foot on the rope, but the ref doesn't see it. Yep, exactly. You got it.

Yeah. All right, what was the blues are up three to two on the wild right now? Yes. That's simultaneously surprising and not surprising, I guess. I guess it's more surprising in how the Wilde have gotten down 3-2. Because much like the Maple Leafs, when they haven't shown up, they've just been like, oh, yeah, hockey, what's that? You know?

It's been a weird series. It's really weird. We all expected, I think, a close series. I mean, I feel like, I think we said, last week, right? I said that everybody picked this to go seven, and I think you said you had it going six. I did, yeah, Wilden six was my pick.

And it has been that, and yet not, like, I mean, I wouldn't say there hasn't been a good game, but there certainly hasn't been a classic in this at all. It's been you know, three, four goal games and the last two have been five to two.

Credit to the blues, man. I, you know, I don't know. I don't know. how we can I don't think you can be a recent cup champion and be underrated but maybe

maybe we all wanted to move on to the next thing a little bit too quick well I mean the big question for them

was always the goal tending because you were like well you know who is Vili Huso really and it's like oh he's the guy

who's like 27 or 28 or whatever and he makes less than a million dollars like that's that's kind of the profile on Vili Huso and

yeah, he had the hot two or three months or whatever. But, you know, the wheels fell off. And maybe we should have expected them too. But also, you know, my stance on Jordan Bennington is, I think, pretty well documented. Yeah, you love the guy. Yeah, he, it's the best goal in the NHL. Right, of course. Totally worth the six years, six million per.

But just like, was he as bad as he appeared? Like, is he, in the grand scheme of things, as bad as he appeared for most of the second half of the season? I would say probably very few actual NHL goalies are that bad. And so the idea that he comes in halfway through the series and kind of is a savior a little bit, you know, obviously the blues of won two in a row here, and he's been good. The real question, I guess, in net is for Minnesota now, because you know, Mark Andre Fleury, they bring him in to be the guy. He's given up a shitload of goals the last few games, and he, uh, he wasn't very good in,

in game one either, you know? So, like, I don't want to say he's the reason they're losing the games, because I think it's obviously bigger than that. But like, now they're facing elimination and they're like, do we go back to the guy we rented or do we go to the guy that we just like gave his starting job away right when he got hot? Yeah, 906, save percentage for Mark Andre Fleury and Cam Talbot has not played a minute in this series, which is surprising because that was one where I think a lot of us looked at it and we thought Minnesota might flip back and forward. There was, you know, question going into game one, who was going to start.

Yeah, like I said, Talbot was great down the stretch. Ever since they caught Flurry, he was like, no, this actually is still my job. Yeah. So, and obviously this is, game six is here. your last chance to make that move. I mean, you're, because clearly, if you, if you go with Flurry and he plays poorly, you're going to lose, and then the series is over. And if you go with Talbot and he plays poorly, the series is over.

And if he plays good, then he starts in game seven. So this is your last, barring a really weird, you know, shootout or something like that. This is kind of your, your last call on the cold-hending. Yeah, the scores in all these games have been kind of, a lopsided like there, you know, I think there have been empty neck holes that kind of make it seem a little less close than, than they were maybe. Yeah. But nonetheless, like, 4-0-6-2-5-1, 5-2-5-2, like those are big numbers.

And it seems like, you know, just every other game, somebody can't make a stop. So it, it, I, like you say, I think these are two very evenly matched teams. think maybe you would say you like the skill on St. Louis better, but maybe like the overall like one through 20 for Minnesota better. I think maybe that's fair to say. That's, that's fair to say. And by the way, so. Vladimir Tarasenko, hell of a game for a guy that didn't want to be there and that it still doesn't seem like they wanted. And who was sitting there for the taking. Seattle could have had them Seattle could have had them

and flipped them to anyone for Yeah And uh God who did Seattle take from St. Louis? Man they They took Didn't they get done in free agency? They did sign Vince done.

Yeah yeah right. Yep. Which uh Not not a bad player but I mean Yeah I Hey it's it's always easy to look back and find stuff like that

But, boy, good player. And certainly, if he wants out, they should have a market for him, you would imagine. You would think. Yeah. Especially now he's only got one year left after. Is that it? He's only got the one. Okay.

Yeah. So that's a pretty movable contract if they still, but obviously we're getting ahead of ourselves a little bit because they're probably going to win the series just mathematically at this point. And then what we got going on right now? Right now the penguins are up two nothing. The capitals are up one nothing end of the first period. Jeez. Yeah. Well, I'm now torn because as I said on the mailbag today,

look, I've been going completely over the top banging the drum for the Florida Panthers as like the bandwagon team. I'm the guy I was always crying about how little offense there is. finally this team comes along, scores four goals a game. I'm not saying they got to win the Stanley Cup, but for them to go out in the first round, especially if they go out losing low-scoring games, that is just going to retrench everything that we hate about how people view this league.

And I'm saying the people inside the league, that's going to reinforce every idea about what a playoff team looks like, which is why I can imagine them going to get in Barry Trots to teach him and all that. So I hate that. Flipside, the Leafs are one game away from playing the winner of that series. Really spiking the, getting ready to spike the, like you got the full windmill windup going.

I am not. If people were around last year, let's just be very clear, not a victory lap. Oh, let me be clear. Yes. If you like your race, you can keep them. Well, we don't, and we won't if this doesn't go well. Yeah. No, oh, if this doesn't go well, yeah.

Let's talk, I don't want to say too much, but like the penguins, right? Like, obviously they're up to nothing and three games to one in the series as we record this. Feels like even if they don't win tonight, it's going to be real hard for the Rangers to beat these guys three games in a row. Pretty surprising, honestly. Like the Rangers of, you know, Shisurkin's been chased out of two straight games. Yeah. Incredible.

And I, I did pick the Penguins to win this series, but it was a bit. I didn't feel great about it. And I was picking. Penguins to win this series. I was. Yeah. I was picking the Penguins thinking. I did not.

I had Rangers in six. Whoops. Whoops. You could, it could be in seven. You never know. But I had the Penguins winning, but that was like Casey DeSmith holds down the fort for a couple of games, and Tristan Jarry comes back. Having a third string goalie come in, I did not. If you told me that, I would have bet on New York and four or five.

Well, it's probably all that freaking spicy pork and broccoli disguised eat. Have you heard about this? Oh my gosh. It's so funny. It's the funniest thing. He ate food. And the guy to eat food. Yeah.

You can't beat it. You can't. This is why this is the most. Yeah. This is the funnest league in the world. Yeah. Because the guy, the guy, he was like, you know what? I had some broccoli too.

He fucking had to broccoli. This is why it's the hardest trophy in sports to win because you might have to eat spicy beef and broccoli. It was pork. Oh, I'm sorry. You're right. This is one thing you're not allowed to get wrong. Yeah. No.

I, uh, okay. Can you believe it, though? A guy in the NHL ate freaking spicy. He's eating food, man. In the NHL, that means he put ketchup on it, but... Yeah. That's it. But yeah.

Um, yeah, no, he's, he's been very good in this series. I do not have his stats in front of me, but like, made a bunch of saves. Yeah. I can't say he hasn't, you know, these aren't, these aren't like, uh, six, four games or anything like that. So as we're saying this, and as we're talking about how great things are going for the penguins, Sidney Crosby just, Sidney Crosby just left the ice after a high hit.

Uh-oh. He left on his own. I mean, it wasn't carried off or anything like that. But I did not see the hit. I saw him walking off the ice. And our friend, Sean Gentile, just tweeted, uh-oh. So. Yeah, he's a big penguins fan.

so that makes sense. Yeah, and the Rangers are, according to Twitter, about to score. And there it is. Oh, yeah, look at that. Well, there you have. Yeah. So anyways, Katie, delete everything we just said. Yeah, the Rangers are the best team in hockey.

All about the Rangers. We never doubted them. No, no, no, never, never. Yeah, let's quickly talk about the Panthers. You know, obviously the series is tied, but they look bad in this series. They look actively bad for large chunks of the season. And not losing the series because of goaltending. Which I think would have been suspect number one, two, and three for anyone if you had said that they were going to be vulnerable.

They just haven't looked at all like the 2022 Florida Panthers. And I don't fully know why that is. I would say it's a big thing of like, if you. You, if, you know, obviously it's still just a two-two series right now. So like, let's not plan the funeral just yet. But, like, if you said at the end of this series, oh, yeah, by the way, Sasha Barkov got hit by a truck before game one. And they just kind of, like, taped all his injuries back together.

I go, oh, that makes a lot of sense, actually. I don't think he's been particularly good. He's fourth on the, I mean, he's the most used forward by, it by a decent margin, but like, they're not like, you know, using him as kind of as much as I would have expected them to. Let me put it that way. Given how much they've been down in this series. No.

And tied 2-2 and that was with a game four late comeback to get to overtime and then win in overtime. 11 goals in four games plus a team that averaged, I think, seven goals a game. game in the regular season. They just hung nine on everybody all season long, yeah. Yep. So, yeah, that's, I mean, it's not there. And the Florida is so good that until it's game over game seven, I'm not.

Like, they were just like, they flipped the switch and they were like, okay, we're going to dominate this game and win it. But again, you know, kind of like, and in fairness, I remember I, I heard this a lot from Lee fans because I would constantly kind of, every time I think. said anything about the Leafs. I'd always put the caveat. Yeah, but they got to do it in the playoffs. They never do it in the playoffs. And then I would go on and sing the praises of the Fort Panthers and people would say, well, what have they ever done in the playoffs? This is, this is the only team that has been longer without a playoff win than the Leafs.

And they haven't, you know, they haven't even come particularly close. And I don't, it's weird. When it's not your team, you just kind of roll your eyes at that stuff. But maybe it is happening. And the Rangers just scored in time. 2-2, yep. 2-2-2. in New York now. So like we said, the Rangers are the best team in the history of hockey.

Everybody agrees. Yeah, I think that's all the series. Am I missing any? Well, we should, we should we can talk Calgary, Dallas a little bit if we want to, and we should probably also just briefly mention

the avalanche just destroying the Nashville predators. Yeah, okay. It's already a few days old. Let's do this then. Let's quickly talk Stars and Flames, take a break, come back, do the preads out.

Mm-hmm. Okay. So, yeah, two series, or four games or whatever it's been where it's like, I think both, or every game pretty much, I haven't felt like anybody's stolen anything. You know what I mean? Like, it's been, it's been just like, oh, yeah, the consistently better team has been the winning the games. And it's that simple.

Jake Ottinger has been excellent, I would say. And like Jacob Markstrom, yeah, listen to this. 960 for Ottenger, 952 for Markstrom. Not a lot of goals to go around in this series, I guess. No. Although games three and four were, I said this on the mailbox, I feel like games one and two were boring. People called them boring.

And the people who get mad at that, yeah, they did. And the people who get mad at that and, you know, start giving you lectures or, and it's often the fans of that team. Oh, of course. And they say things like, well... It's not boring, so that's fine. Yeah, yeah, they say things like, well, this is how you win. And we're going, yeah, we agree that they win, three to two Rangers.

We agree that you can win this way. Oh, my God. But it's boring. And... But games three and four, I feel like everyone got so dug in on that that game's three and four, I saw people go in like, more boring hockey. And I was like, well, this isn't boring. This is...

And it's, you know, there's been bad blood and it's... It's been... an entertaining series. I don't, I don't mind what we've seen so far. I would say on the balance, it's been like, fine, you know, but you can't say, you know, they've combined for like 150-something shots in the last two games, not including whatever they do tonight. So that's a good amount of shots. That's up and down action. That's everything you want. There was a really nice penalty shot goal from Johnny Goddrow. And, and, you know, the flames lost, uh, they lost game three,

but like Gougros had a breakaway with like two minutes left or whatever and the penguins just tied it. Screw this. This is now just a live watchalong. Yeah. Me and Ryan are just going to watch this. Holy smokes.

Hockey Rocks, dude. The Rangers stink. The Rangers are terrible. And the penguins have got this. Take away Shiserkens, Vezna. Yes. They read it on stage and then he goes up to accept it

and someone just comes out and takes it out of his hands. That's enough, Igor. Who was it that had to run up when it was like the moonlight situation? Yeah, sure. Yeah, because they said Lala Land. Yeah, that was it. They said Lala Land won the Oscar.

Two five whole goals. We got to. I mean, both of these guys could use some pork and broccoli right now. Okay. The last two goals have not been great. Let's not go crazy. Can you even say that? I don't know.

I don't think you can. All right, let's take a break. And we'll be right back to talk about the predators getting annihilated and then awards and the draft lottery and Marlowe retiring and all that kind of stuff. And then we'll wrap it up. All right back. Today's episode is also brought to you by our friends at Raycon. It's the hockey playoffs, which means lately I've been listening to a lot of sad and angry music.

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You can go to buy Raycon.com slash puck today to get 15% off your Raycon order. That's buyraycon.com slash puck to score 15% off. Buyraycon.com slash puck. All right, so the Preds are out. The Colorado Avalanche made it look really easy. I wrote for what we learned this week. I was like, I don't think I've ever seen a team get its ass kick this bad in the salary cap era. And I looked it up.

I looked at whatever. There's been like 28 or 30 sweeps or whatever. And I think the Aves finished plus 12 in four games and the record was plus 13. but they finished like plus 70 something in shots on goal, and that was by far the biggest record. So I feel comfortable saying this is the biggest ass kicking in the cap era. And in fairness, Nashville without UC Saros, like we all expected this. But yeah, like you're right, like plus 12, and that was with one game where the other team's goal,

he stands on his head and gets it over. 49, yeah. So. Yeah. Final shots in the series were 176 to 112. 176 shots in four games is so many. It's an average of 44 per game. That's a lot.

I almost hate to do this because we make fun of when this happens. But is Kail McCarr getting into the best player in the world discussion? You know, he's really fucking good, isn't he? Boy, oh boy. Jeez, he just... I saw people going like, all right, we get it. Kail McCar is good, and it's like, I mean, no, he's beyond good. He's got, he had 10 points in four games from the Blue Line.

Played 101, almost 102 minutes. They probably had like four shots on goal when he was on the ice. Like, he just, he never didn't have the puck. It was fucking incredible. He's amazing. Yeah, he's unbelievable. That all having been said, the whole rest of that team is really good too, and that helps make all the other guys who are good look good.

Yeah, but we agree that Colorado is the rich man's version of the Leafs, because they have to get out of the second round. Yes, that's right, yeah. And they'll be playing presumably a pretty beaten up team. Although, you know, we'll see how Minnesota's St. Louis ends. But yeah. They swept in the first round last year. They swept St. Louis.

Yeah, the exact same thing. And it didn't help. Nope. Yikes. They look really good. They look scary good. Like Darrell Sutter was on to something. Well, can I just say that?

What a great quote. It was a great quote, but it bugged me because it was like he said eight days and it's like, no, if you sweep it's it's only seven days. You know, so I feel like the math box. Yeah, you probably, maybe he was talking about an extra travel day. Yeah, it's probably. He was including breakup day as the on there. That's fair. But yeah, so let's talk predators.

I already published my, what are they going to do this offseason? They don't really have a lot to do this offseason. Just a couple of guys who are at the bottom of their roster that need to be either replaced or re-signed, depending on how you feel about like Luke Cunning or whatever. But then obviously, what's his name? Philip Forsberg. Philip Forsberg. I kept wanting to say Roman Yosey, but I'm like, that guy signed forever.

No, Philip Forsberg needs a new. contract and he said uh you know after they after they uh you know did the season ending press conferences or whatever he's like the goal is to stay here um and the most recent quote i had seen from david poyle before the other day uh was like we've agreed on everything except the aav basically um which so great yeah so you have not necessarily agreed on Because, I mean, that is the hardest thing, is it not? I would say maybe term is just because they have the extra year to give. Yeah, it's weird to agree on term and not have the AAV, but you're right.

Maybe the term is eight years. Okay. Because no other team can give them eight years unless they trade his rights. Right. So, so the issue is this, as far as, as far as I can, can tell. There's two guys on the Nashville Predators who make 8 million bucks a year. And it's Matt Duchayne and Ryan Johansson. Two guys the predators don't want to have on the roster anymore. They're like, we would love to cut our losses with these guys. And maybe Matt, hey, Matt Dushain had a

great year. I was going to say, Matthew Shane had a great year. And is this one of those things where you look at a guy, you look at his salary, you look at his contract, and you go, we really need to move on from this guy, but we can't because his value is underwater. Oh, please let him have a good year so that we can maybe move him. And then fast forward, he has a good year and you go, maybe we don't want to move him now.

He's got to hold on to him. Four more years. Boy, oh boy. He's, he's, he's a lesser version of like the Jeff Skinner dilemma. Except... Yeah, Jamie Ben, sure, all that. That's another one. Contract value declining.

every year. Fair to say. Yeah. So that's interesting. So those two guys are making 8 mil. Roman Yose is making a shade over 9. Now, if I'm Philip Forsberg, I look at the other guys who signed UFA contracts

when they were like 27, 28 years old. And I'm looking at like Jamie Ben. And I'm going, well, he got like 9, 9 and a half, whatever he got. Like, I can see where the predators go, we're drawing a line. Nobody gets paid more than Roman Yosey. the, you know, the,

the, the, the, Nicholas Lidstrom rule, right? Yeah. It makes perfect sense. But it's the best player. It always makes perfect sense if, if you can get people to buy into it. I mean, that's what I was going to say.

That may, it makes sense for the predators to say, this is our line. You can't make a cent more than Roman Yosey does. Like the avalanche tried that with Nathan McKinnon for a few years, and then eventually it's like, right. Right. It had to not work anymore. Yeah.

But so, I don't know. know, like the market for left wings who signed contracts around the same age, like Philip Forsberg, especially if you're like, well, look how much better I am than Duchayne and Johansson, like, let's be serious here, you know? Do I only deserve a half a million dollars more than these guys? No, I would say if you're judging it against the two contracts that the predators have given out or other teams have given out, Philip Forsberg is a $9 million player as a starting point. I think you could. I think the comparison, you know, if you wanted to go a bit lower,

but Thomas Hurdle would be another one, and he's north of eight. Yep, but he's a center, not a left wing. So there is that to consider as well. But in fact, that probably even hurts Forsberg's argument, right? But centers generally speaking, are more valuable than me. But that's really all the predators have to do this summer, except I think their coach's contract is up.

I think John Hines' deal is up. Apparently he has an option. So his deal is up. They can walk away if he's not their guy or they can keep him for a year if he is their guy. But here's the thing. The Predators kept Philip Forsberg and I fucking hate this term,

but I'm going to use it anyway because it just seems to be the industry term as an own rental. They used him as an own rental. with the understanding of, we might not bring this guy back. And if they don't bring him back, what is this fucking team?

You know, they don't have, like they have a decent amount of cap room to spend, but like the core group of this team is not very good. They're a goalie, a defenseman, and, you know, depending on how you feel about the repeatability of the Matt Dushain season, do they even have a kind of like, forward you want to build around?

No. That's been their problem for years. They've had two okay number two centers making number one center money. Boy, do that. If you don't have Foresbury. And it's, you know, in a way, it's a lesser version of the problem that San Jose had with Thomas Hurtle, where you're looking at that roster going, look at all these terrible contracts. Are we really going to give another guy eight years? That doesn't seem smart.

But are we going to let a good player walk away for nothing? nothing when just because we signed a bunch of other bad contracts, that seems even less smart. I don't know what they do. Our buddy, Adam Vingen, at the Athletic head of peace a couple days ago where he kind of took some swings at the organization and the plan and at David Poyle and saying, like, should David Poyle be the guy in charge of this and in charge of these decisions? and is he somebody you move on from not necessarily in the sense of firing them because David Boyle is basically royalty in the NHL, but is he a guy that should be moved upstairs and, you know, bring in somebody else to, that's tough. The predators are in a tough spot.

And I don't know where they go because you're in a division with Colorado and Minnesota and St. Louis and some other teams that at least might seem like they have a plan to be on the way up. So how do you get good within the next few years? How are you a top two or three team in this division next year, in the year after, and the year after that? I think there's not like a clear path to that because, you know, like I've seen people say,

oh, you know, I didn't think, I thought the predators were maybe a bubble playoff team. They made it. They backed in. But they made it. And, you know, they got eviscerated. Their guts were strewn all over the ice. Like, it was brutal.

I, again, have not seen an ass kicking that bad in whatever, like the 20 years I've been watching the NHL closely. Yeah, that was. You know, to go into my old-timer mode, that's what first round used to look like. Yes. Back when, like, the Oilers or the Islanders or Mario's Penguins would be, even Marriott's. Play a 58-point team, right? Yeah, exactly. And it would just be, you would just, you know, absolutely, you'd load up on guys of your hockey pool.

You knew they were only going to play four games, but they were going to get you 11 points each in doing it. I think you could make the argument to me for Nashville that, you know, everything we just said about them is true, but that the playoff series doesn't really teach you anything because Colorado was just that good. Time will tell on that. You know, if Colorado goes out and loses in the next round, then that changes the leg. you view this through. But I really do believe that Colorado is legitimately a fantastic team, best team of the league. So, you know, maybe you just go, hey, we ran into a juggernaut.

What are you going to do? What maybe I look at even more, and you never want to look at just one game. But that last game of the season against Arizona, where they, all they had to do was win against an Arizona team that's actively trying to lose. you've just got to win and you avoid Colorado. They would have been playing Calgary, still a tough matchup, but as we're seeing with Dallas, you got a chance against Calgary.

And they blow a 4-0 lead and lose that game. And that's it, you know? 4-0-0-0-0-lead gone, 4-0-0 playoff series arrives. Yeah, and like, you know, I can even see an argument, excuse me, for like, well, look, we kept it close for four games and they swept us. No, they got out scored by 12 in four games, an average of a three goal loss. Including one overtime game where you deserve to lose by three. Minimum, yeah.

They should have given up eight goals in that game. But, yeah, no, like, again. But my point in saying that is you got an uncharacteristically good season from Matt Dushain. You got a guy who's a Vesna finalist. Not going to win, but very deservedly a Vesna finalist. And again, like Roman Yosi had a Norris caliber season. He's also not going to win. Oh, had one of the great offensive seasons by a defenseman ever.

in the ever yeah when you factor error in yes yeah so like with all of that having been said are you re-s what are you resigning a philip forsburg away from right like are they like let's say they re-sign forsburg they give him whatever amount of money he wants because they have a ton of money to spend this on they have like 25 million in cap space or something they run it back with pretty much the same group where's that get them yeah because You know, Columbus looks like they're going to be better next year than you are right now. I don't know. That's fair, which gets into one of the points that Adam made was pick a lane.

And we say this all the time with teams. And I think maybe sometimes that we being just hockey people in general, that you have to be one or the other. You have to be a 110 point cup contender or you should have 50 points and be dead last. try to draft first. And there's got to be a middle ground, but you don't want to be in the middle ground year after year after year. On purpose also. And yeah, and you, yeah, you don't want that to be your ceiling and your floor, right? Like, I mean, you can't, you know, it's one thing to be the senators and say, like, if everything goes perfect, we can squeak into the playoffs. Okay, as a rebuilding team, maybe you say that, but you don't want that to be what you're saying if, as Nashville. I don't know.

I don't know what they do. It's really interesting because they are locked. I mean, they're not locked in so far as the only guy with any movement protection on the team is Roman Yose. And you probably don't trade him, period, regardless. Right. But like last summer, David Poyle goes, well, look, we got to change some things up. Arvinson's out.

Ellis is out. And, you know, they traded both of them effectively for futures, like guys who are relatively young or draft picks or whatever. And how do you not, I don't understand the philosophy if you're just like, but we do have to resign Philip Forsberg. You know what I mean?

Like, does that make sense? Like, you don't trade Arvinson and Ellis with an eye toward the future and then also go, but we could never in a million years like Philip Forsberg walk. Yeah. And, you know, especially since,

like how old is, is Philip Forsberg, right? Like he's... 27, he's on the... Turns 28 in August. Yeah, he's, you know, partly because he came over in that he was, the prospect who came over in the trade,

we sort of think he's younger maybe than he is. He's, I mean, he's not old, but he's not give him an eight-year contract young at all. And obviously, you know, the thing, if you're a Preders fan, you might say, well, the play here is to sign him and trade him somewhere.

do the old sign and trade, fight some team that wants to do a eight years. Oh, yeah, which happens constantly in the end. It has never happened. Like, it just, we pull it out every year and it almost never happens. They, they, apparently, Zach Hyman was close-ish last year with the Leaps and Oilers, but didn't happen. Um, yeah, but I mean, certainly nobody is trying to give up eight years for Philip Worsberg and give up a bunch of great assets to get him. Um, yeah.

And, uh, yeah, that's just not going to. Not going to happen. So tough one. Interesting one, though. You know, as an outsider, kind of fun to see where they go with it. I mean, you know me. I try to trade every player on this team. They're just, they're just.

You disagree with me when I said Philip Forsbrook wasn't old. You're like, this guy's six years past his. Right. No, he's going to be productive for another four or five years, but you've got to pay him the extra. extra four three or four and do you want to do that if you're like what if you're the predators or you're anybody else do you really want to get in that business I don't know I don't know but the other thing is like they have maybe a couple like pretty

good prospects but nobody where you're like oh sure fire this guy's going to be a difference maker in the NHL so I don't I don't know I don't know what the deal is but anyway let's talk just one can I just just one more thing, sorry, out there with Nashville. You may. Dave still got the Shea Weber thing hanging over them. If he were to retire. I mean, why would he?

Why would he? But, yeah, I'm just putting it out there. It's not like it was at one point where there was like a scenario where they could get like a 30 million charge. But you think it's bad now with some of those contracts that are locked into. Yikes. I don't know. Yeah, no. All right.

I mentioned some awards finalists have come out. Let's just run through them real quick. They started with the Norris. Makar, Yossi, Hedman, perfectly reasonable top three. I don't know that I would have had Hedman in mine, in my top three. Charlie McAvoy guy. Charlie McAvoy instead. But like, Hedman scored a million points this year.

He's been one of the best defensemen in the league for a million years. I think he only has one Norris. So, you know, I get it, but I also think it's Macaars to lose. Mm-hmm. I think that's pretty reasonable. I think that's likely. I would not be shocked if Roman U.S. he won it, but I would certainly bet on Cala McCar. The betting favorite has to be McCar.

All three, again, had great seasons. Like, there's nothing in this that is very surprising. One that is surprising to me, honestly. The Vesna was the next one. Shisurkin, sure, Saros, yeah, absolutely. Jacob Markstrom, number three? Yeah. Kind of didn't see that coming.

I mean, he had a great year. I'm not saying he didn't. But if I'm like, how do you not have Freddie Anderson in that? It was awesome. Yeah, Freddie Anderson was very, very good. Seroken's a guy that a lot of people, like he came on strong late. The Rangers just scored at 4 to 3. Yeah, and 4 to 3 and Sidney Crosby not back, which I mean, obviously, by the time you're hearing this, you've already read a million things on that, but yikes.

But yeah, Sorokin's a guy who made it made a kind of nice late push for himself probably, you know, didn't start well enough. His team was so bad, blah, blah, blah. I'm a little surprised Vasilevsky didn't end up in the top three either. Like, I don't, I think Markstrom's a perfectly good top five candidate, but I'm surprised he's top three. Yeah, the, that's all. I think that the thing would have been, um, they, they like wins and they like guys who start 60 plus games. And Freddie Anderson, Freddie Anderson started a lot, or won a lot of games, finished with 35 wins, but he only started 51 games, finished seventh in wins behind all those guys, not by a lot. And, you know, Igor Shisterkin obviously didn't start a ton of games either, but you couldn't, couldn't not have him there.

So I think maybe that's it. Jacob Markstrom, from a GM's perspective, a guy who starts 63 games, maybe is, is more your guy. I wasn't surprised by that. And the other thing with Markstrom is he led the league in shutouts, had a ton of shutouts. He did. Most of them at the beginning of the year. Like, he was like 9.50 at the end of the end of the end of October. GMs already kind of had planted the seed there, but I'm not at all surprised.

And the other thing I guess that I'd say is, remember, it is the GMs who vote on this. And Jacob Markstrom was a free agent signing. And they love to pat each other on the, but that's, you know, look at that. He went out and got this guy. And, you know, that's so much more interesting than, you know, somebody that you either draft or maybe sign at a bit of a discount. Like Frannie Anderson was a UFO guy too, but there wasn't. like the big bidding war. Right.

So I don't know. I wonder if that could play it. But yeah, your point about wins is well taken because, of course, Grubauer was a Vezna finalist last year. Yeah. Yeah.

And Sergey Bobrovsky this year, stunning. Did you know he led the league in wins this year? Tied with Vasselowski? Um, I didn't, but I mean, it was the number one goalie on a pressing trophy.

Yeah. Doesn't feel shocking. Yeah. Yeah. And then the last award that came out just this morning. is the finalist for the Calder, and it's Michael Bunting, Moritzider, and Trevor Zegris.

A lot of really good rookies this year. A lot of really good rookies. You know, like I've said it a million times, I'm so sick of people going, I don't know if you know this, but Michael Bunting is old. Oh, no, well, in that case. Are you serious? Yeah.

Because it seems like he still qualifies for the award, right? Okay, well, then I guess I don't care how old he is. If he qualifies, he qualifies. I'm with you. I'm 100% with you. And if you don't like it, change the rule. We've already done that before. We could change it again.

In fact, I'm in favor of them changing the rule. Yeah. I think it is kind of ridiculous. But with that having been said, he played really well all season. Admittedly, he had some very good line mates for most of the year. But I cannot sit here and act like he didn't have what I thought was the most impressive rookie season.

Now, did I misread? Or you were, like, your tweets on this seem to be suggesting that you would have maybe even voted for him as the rookie of the year, like number one on your ballot. 100%. Wow. Yep. Sider, look, I'm not, and like, people are like, oh, clearly this guy, yeah, I saw him more inside to play plenty.

He's a really good player. and he's much younger, so he's only going to get better, blah, blah, blah. But, like, you know, Barrett Jackman won a rookie of the year as a defenseman. And I'm not saying Moritz-Sider is Barrett Jackman by any stretch of the imagination. But what I am saying is, it's not for, as you've said before, Sean, who's going to have the best career. It's the guy who had the best season as rookie. It's not best prospect. It's best rookie.

It's not if we had a draft of all. the rookies who would go because there were probably five guys who didn't get nominated that would go ahead of Michael Bunting. But yeah. And here's the stat. He had 58 5 on 5 points this year. And gosh, how many overall? I don't remember off the top of my head.

But not much more than that. He wasn't a guy who lived in like he dined out on the power play. He had 63. So five points not at 5 on 5 this year. You know who else had 58 5 on 5 points this year? This guy, you might have heard of him. It's named Connor McDavid. Everybody's like, yeah, he's the best player in the world.

And, like, again, a million to say it a million times. Points aren't everything. But, like, when you have the same number of points at five-on-five as Connor fucking McDavid, like, the idea that people are like, you're going to be kidding me, you think this guy was the best rookie of the year. Do I? Yeah. One hell of a pass last night to set up that winning goal to.

He's really good. And, you know, at his age, he should be. I get all that. But I will say this, though. I did find it very funny that somebody pointed out that Michael Bunting is like two weeks younger that Nathan McKinnon who won the Calder trophy in 2014. Yeah. That is pretty, okay. And again, I'm in favor of changing the rule because that's ridiculous.

That's stupid. I agree. But the rule is the rule. And, you know, if that is the rule, like, you can't go. Absolutely. Your reason for disqualifying him or docking in points or whatever can't be, but I think he's so old. Mm-hmm. I think that he played in a pro league last year in Russia, so he shouldn't be a rookie of the year.

Yeah. Okay, grow up. No, the NHL says here are the rookies. Yeah. And you pick the guy from there. Oh, I'm with you. And, like, I just want to say on Zeris, like, uh, more of very, very important. a, more of a boy, we really

liked watching this guy play this year. Like, he had a very nice season. I'm not taking anything away from him. But, like, I don't even know that he was the best rookie in his own division. Really? So... Yeah.

I thought, I thought Caliav had a fucking unbelievable year for... Did have 61 points. Yeah, it's a lot of points. But... What did I just say, though, Sean? He's smart. He smirked. Oh, you're not allowed to do that, that's a good point.

I forgot about that. Yeah. You did smirk, didn't he? Yeah. Well, maybe next year, Trevor, gets a salted at the award ceremony. Maybe next year. I don't think maybe next year works for the Calder,

unless you're... It worked for Michael Bunting. Yeah, it's true. Maybe next year, five years from now, maybe next year. Maybe. All right, let's talk real quick about the draft lottery. Montreal wins at this.

This isn't fixed, by the way. It just happens. The drafts in Montreal. It's not fixed. So that's fine. Yeah. But obviously, the big surprise is the devils end up to. Yeah.

And again, big surprise in the sense that we look at the odds and they had a smaller to number than other teams. But completely and utterly within reason of this, like this, you know. Yeah, they stink. They're really bad. They're bad. And the NHL, you know, they've won the first pick twice. The NHL has put rules in about not being able to win too many times,

but they do not come into effect yet because it's the NHL. And all the GMs in the room who are like, I'm actively tanking right now. So can we delay this for a few years? Right. So none of that has anything, none of what you saw last night had anything to do with being eligible for next year, which, of course, is the Connor Bedard draft. and oh, if you thought there was tanking this year. Yeah.

My goodness. This is, yeah, we're going to see a tank fest. Yeah, and deservedly so. Bedard and Mischoff are unbelievable. So, like, they're, you know, I don't want to say necessarily Connor McDavid-David-level prospects, but. Badaard, I think, is pretty close. Pretty close. Yeah.

So anyway, that'll be really interesting. I think a couple of teams have like two lottery picks. Columbus obviously is one of them. I'm blanking on the other one, but there's a number. Buffalo maybe? Columbus and Buffalo this year, yes. Yeah. They both have Buffalo has Vegas's pick.

Columbus has Chicago. Both of those were lottery protected but didn't win the lottery, so not protected. Doesn't work out that way for them. Yeah, obviously this is the Shane Wright draft, but Corey Promin had a very interesting story about like, should it be though? And I think that, you know, like he's been the consensus guy for a long time. He didn't have a great season.

But I personally, you know, I didn't watch a lot of OHL this year, but I'm willing to chalk it up to that kid didn't play at all last season. Yeah. Which also, though, yeah, I mean, that does, but that also means that you're sitting there going, And he hasn't looked like a number one overall pick necessarily for two years now. It's just weird to me because Shane Wright, I'm certainly not a junior watcher, but I've been hearing this kid's name for five years now.

I mean, he was literally four years ago, you can find articles about how he's going to be the number one pick in 2022. And he was one of the few guys who got the special exemption to play in the OHL early, which is something that you can apply for. And many of the guys who have got it have gone on. to become superstars, not everyone. But yeah, it's interesting that there is, you know, to me he feels like, like he's a prospect in the kind of more closer to, I guess, like the Jack Hughes level

where everyone expects him to be good, but not, this isn't like your, he's not a franchise player. Start engraving heart trophies right now. Because obviously we know in Montreal those are going to Nick Suzuki, so it doesn't Doesn't matter. The best center in the world. Yeah. He gets to learn firsthand from Nick Suzuki.

That's right. But yeah, you know, I think this is going to be a very interesting draft because you could tell me like the top five or six in any order. And I'd go, sure. Yeah. Yeah, all those guys could go one through six. Yep. Shane Wright's probably the only one I would have a hard time seeing dropping out of the top two. but everybody else

it's like, yeah, okay, that's fine. Yep. So, yeah. Do you know of any websites where people can learn about the... What is a good website to read about elite prospects? I'm sure there is one.

I just can't think of it off the top of my head. All right, one last thing here. Patrick Marlowe retires. I don't think anybody's surprised by this. Here's the question I have for you. I think we all agree that once he passed Gordy Howe for games played

Hall of Fame or is he a first ballot Hall of Fame? Yeah, I don't I mean, I'm not, I think he gets in the Hall of Fame, partly because everyone loves the guy.

And partly because he does hold one of the great records. Now, again, I think when we talked about it last time, if you look at the other sports and you say, who's the all-time games leader in football, it's not as,

it's not necessarily guys who are like, oh, yeah, that guy. has to be in the Hall of Fame. Marlowe never won any awards, never was like a significant MVP candidate, anything like that. He was never, ever a guy that you looked at and went.

That guy right there is one of the best players in the league, or the best in the world at his position. But there are guys in the Hall of Fame that that's also true of. I mean, that was true. Yeah, quite a few guys. I won't go down the list. So I think the fact that he's just so well liked to

respected does get him in. And the numbers are solid, you know, 1,200 career points, nothing to sneeze at. He played in the dead puckest of dead puck eras, all that. I mean, you play 20 plus years and, you know, you get to 1,200 points. It's maybe not as impressive. But also, it's not as, you know, guys did in the 80s. Yeah, no, I mean, I'm not, I remember even a few years ago having this discussion and feeling like, oh, I know Patrick Brown was not a Hall of Famer.

But then he played for the Leaf So now I'm good with it Yeah He passed Gordy Howe left him in the dust Yeah Go to hell Gordy How That's what Patrick Marl That's a direct quote

That's exactly what he said I think And they took the opening face off that night That's right Which is weird that he was miced But Yeah And then he got on a

A dirt bike And did a big wheelie Out of the island That's crazy That's right Yeah But yeah no He again

Like you say A beloved player Played a really long time you know got into 56 games this year that's a crazy number for a 41 year old and you know was he good no sure he wasn't

but to be still in the NBA last year didn't didn't play this past season right right right which made it very funny when he announced that he was going to make an announcement about his future and you're like dude you're 43 he's coming back here he yeah

I have a feeling and also you know what he's got more running him can we We love the fact that this dude played until he was 42 or whatever looked exactly the same in every photo that was ever taken of him from his draft day on. And also never stopped looking surprised at all times. And let's all have that sense of wonder about the world. He's cool.

We love him. So, Sean, remember when we took that break and I said, whoa, it's 3-0 Washington? Yeah, I just, dude, I've been writing my article about the, demise of the Panthers. It's three to three. Yikes. What a sport. This is why we don't do these shows

while there are games going on. Because we wait until the games are over and then we sound smart about them. Plus we're just sitting here clapping like seals every time they're, oh, they did it again. I love gold. Oh, that's wild. And people are listening like, what the hell are you talking?

They're like, yeah, that game finished 19 to 7. Where are you shut up? Oh, all right, my bad. But yeah, so Sean, why don't you hit me with some plugs, brother? Find me on the Athletic. Another fun week. I had my, well, I had my draft lottery power rankings, which are always fun. But the draft lottery is over, so don't read that one.

Today was the Ogwack rankings. That's the old guys without a Stanley Cup. That one was a lot of fun. and Friday, I don't know if I should say what Friday's post is, but let's just say it's going to, it's a ranking,

it involves all 32 teams and everyone's going to be mad at me at the end of it. I promise you, you think your team should be at the top of these rankings and you're going to be very mad when they're not.

I thought you were going to say, let's just say I've written a manifesto. Yeah. Uh-oh, that's not a good word. Yeah. Let's just say I have already written about a certain

Toronto Maple Leafs team winning a playoff round call it a victory lap if you will No, I'm definitely not doing that In fact, when they lose it I have a lot of theories about the novel coronavirus and I've laid them up That's right

COVID-19 they call it Yeah and then for me Again, EPRinkside.com Use the code I Love EP When you sign up for an annual subscription They'll tack three months on to the end of that 12 months absolutely free. And we are getting into the time of year, as I said earlier, the Nashville

Predators have been eliminated. I already have a post up about here's what I think they're going to do this summer. And is it just a bunch of the stuff I already said like 20 minutes ago? Yeah, of course it is. 100%. I'm not going to do that much work, right? But there's going to be a bunch for other teams too. and then you don't have to wait for the podcast.

You can just read it. Wow. It's so convenient. It's a good deal. Yeah. And then there is one other thing I wanted to say. I found out this morning that Mike Muldoon, who was an editor at the Lawrence Eagle Tribune, which is the first newspaper I ever worked at, he passed away this past weekend, taught me a lot about the newspaper industry, a super nice guy, super funny guy,

consummate, like, pro-local sports guy. The best is super, just awesome, awesome guy. Anytime I ran into him in the last, whatever, a few years since I stopped working at that newspaper, it was always a delight to see him, and so he'll be missed. RIP to a real one, all that stuff. Yeah, that's it. Thanks, gang. I was going to plug the mailbag, but Sean already did it without.

Yeah, it's already up. And he shared, let's just say some controversial dinosaur theories that I don't agree with. But that's it. Bye bye. Thank you. See you. 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, it's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and Nonsense. too