Puck Soup - Reacting Normally To The First Games

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

Sean and Ryan talk about the first games of each series, the coach and GM changes around the league, and the draft lottery.   Sponsored by Athletic Greens (athleticgreens.com/puck) and Betterhelp (betterhelp.com/puck)

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and Nonsense. Part 2. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I am Sean McIndoo from The Athletic. And folks, I don't know if you know about this.

The freaking playoffs started. Or only... Did they? Oh, crap. Yeah. Nobody told my favorite team. Well, you know what? How do you want to do it?

I was going to go in order of the series as they started, basically. Sure. But we can start with... Oh, let's do that. Okay. Let's do day one then. I think back to happier times. That's right.

But, you know, were we ever so young? Yeah, let's start with that Hurricanes Islanders game. I'd say day one, all the close games. Yeah. You know, on the ice was the Bruins game that close, I don't know. But other than that, they're obviously everything kind of worked out. But yeah, so Islanders Hurricanes, what did you think? I guess pretty much what we were expecting, the low-scoring, not boring.

game, but, you know, not... Folks. Uh-oh. Yeah. But I think, interesting that Carolina wins that type of game, because I think, you know, the Islanders were sort of that one wild card team that I think a lot of us looked at and thought, they could do something. And given Carolina's injuries, given the goal-tending situation,

and given the fact that you just, like you have to pick one of the wild card teams, right? Like, you got to. Legally obligated. That's just the rule. And you get that and you go, okay, well, you know, maybe they could do so. And you're thinking if they do,

it's maybe going to be those two one games. So if you had said game one is going to be a two one game, I think a lot of people would have gone, aha, this is, here's the Islanders. Yeah. Getting on the board. And, you know, it was a close game. You're not hanging your hands.

head if you're if you're the islanders but it it was a little bit of a missed opportunity maybe because when you're trying to pull off the upset you kind of have to to land the punches when you have a chance at them and uh they they nearly did it's going to be a good series but two to one game but i thought it was uh you know the islanders just didn't really generate any scoring chances which you would expect against carolina i guess you would say right like yep um i i obviously can't Carolina was getting to the net a decent amount. Only scored two because Sorogans really good, and they didn't score any at five on five.

I believe both of them were power play goals. So, you know, um, Caroline is a tough team to go down two nothing against in a game. Yep. And, uh, especially if you don't, if you don't have the scoring punch that, you know,

I don't think it's telling the tails out of school to say the Islanders don't have a lot of scoring punch, you know? I don't know. Like, it was just one of those games where it's like, yeah, I mean, okay, let me say this. This is Barzal's first game back from injury. You could tell. You could tell, you know. He was showing off the Matt Barzell speed, but not really much else, if we're being honest, I think.

And I don't know. I thought Carolina just did a really good job of, you know, keeping, keeping most people away from the net. But Barzal especially, it was just like, no, I didn't see much of him at all. Yeah. No, I think that's fair. And, you know, Carolina is a very good defensive team that it feels like maybe doesn't get credit for that, just because there are very often other things to talk about with that team. But good start.

good start for them. That's, it's, it's, it's the playoffs, right? You're very, if you're a coach, you're very happy to win a two one game. Mm-hmm.

And, yeah, like you say, I think the Islanders, obviously some stuff to work on, but it's not, like, they didn't get killed or anything. They didn't give up a goal at five on five.

So that's really all you're looking for. And if you get beat, special teams in the, I mean, that's almost always the difference in the playoffs, you know? But like you said, nothing to hang your head about, nothing to overreact to, you got beat two, one by a good team, by a team that, you know, finished higher than you in the standings, by a decent margin. So, you know, is it good to lose?

No. Is this like the worst loss? Well, we'll talk about some of the worst losses you can incur in a game one a bit later. I don't really have a lot to say about this game. There wasn't really much to sink your teeth into, I don't feel like, other than just going like, yeah, when a team scores like four minutes into a game, you're going to be on the defensive of a lot, you know?

Yep. Anyway. Yeah, let's do the Bruins. Basically the same story here. The Panthers give up an early power play. the Bruins score pretty much immediately. And it felt like that game was over, you know? Yeah, again, like another close game.

Mm-hmm. On paper. I don't know if it was... Yeah, what were the shots? The Panthers... So this was, I feel like, a good introduction to a lot of people who maybe didn't watch a ton of Panthers games this year. where it's like you look at the shot clock and at some point in the game

they were almost out shooting the Bruins two to one I think something like that and you were like okay now let me think if I can remember a single scoring chance you know like the the classic thing where they outshot the opponent by a decent margin but

they just weren't really that threatening and obviously that's kind of the Bruins whole thing is like you're not allowed anywhere near Arnette sorry Sort of like a boxer who's thrown a lot of punches and even landing a few, but the other guy doesn't seem bothered at all by it.

That's exactly right. This is even more so than the Islander series. This is the one where it's like, if you're going to have any chance, if you're the Florida Panthers, you've got to, you've got to have any game that you've got a shot at has got to go your way. and that's what makes it frustrating here because I don't know. I mean, do they have a better game in them? You know?

Do they? I guess I would say maybe Matthew Kachukh has a better game in him. Like, I know he scored their only goal or whatever, and it was a nice goal too. But, you know, like, again, the Bruins go up 2-0 and you're like, well, this game's over. What are we fucking doing here? Let's just run the clock the rest of the way. I know, I believe if I remember right, the deserved to win o' meter was like 50-50, basically.

Okay. And if you had said, well, on the ice, this game is going to be 50-50, dead even right down the middle. I think I, and Patrice Berserun, sick, by the way, is not playing. And other guys are maybe playing with a little, a little illness.

I would be like, yeah, but which team, you know, finished like 45 points ahead of the other one in the standics? You know what I mean? Yep. And like, again, I think the,

the Panthers have like some really strong talent, but the Bruins have that depth. And obviously the Panthers are, are playing like the guy who's supposed to be their third string goalie. I thought he played well, you know. It was, that was a weird game because he made some spectacular saves and also didn't look great on a few of the goals. Like there were times where he looked like he was fighting it and there were times where he looked like Ken Dryden. So I feel like that is kind of the like third goal you've heard of experience.

You know what I mean? Like Alex Lyon is a guy, I think a lot of NHL fans have, seen play over the years just because he seems to get a cup of coffee every couple of years, you know? But sometimes, you know, like, there's a reason these guys aren't, uh, aren't, aren't, aren't, aren't full-time NHLers. There's, there's a reason Alex Lyon at 30 years old has, says here, 39, uh, career games in the NHL.

Mm-hmm. And like you say, didn't play bat. certainly played well down the stretch, you know. But the third goal in particular, where he has it sitting on his pads, like, that could happen to anybody. Yeah. But with the Bruins, it just kind of felt like an inevitability. Yeah.

Did you, were you surprised they went with Alex Line? You know, I just don't know what's going on with Sergey Barovsky. You know, like, when's the last time he even got into a game, right? So, I mean, I guess I can look this up, but it feels like it's been a minute. And, yeah, he last played on March 27th. I don't have a, I don't have a problem with a coach going, well, we have a third string guy who has played more in the last two weeks than our supposed starter, who is in particular. really good in the first. And it isn't listed on any injury report that we've seen.

Yeah. It's just they were riding the hot guy down the stretch to make the playoffs. And it worked. So why not stick with it? So do you stick with it for game two then? You know? Are you going back to him, going back to the, I want to say the kid. Alex Lange isn't a kid, but do you go back to the third stringer for game two?

Or do you go to the $10 million? Again, like, I don't think he played that bad. like you said, he kind of looked like he was fighting it, but how many goalies did the Bruins make look like they were fighting it this year? That was weirdly phrased, but you know what I mean. I don't think he was the problem. I think the, the, the, the, the panther's depth showed, uh, or lack thereof, I suppose.

And I think, you know, like, again, I saw a lot of stuff of like, well, look, I mean, you know, are the Panthers, are the better team? Sure. But like the Panthers could win the series. It's like, man, they had like 92. They finished with fewer points than the Calgary Flames and the Bruins had like 140 points. Like, what are we talking about?

You know? Mm-hmm. And again, I don't think they're a bad team. I just think that. If you make any mistakes this Bruins did, this is the best regular season team in the history of the NHL, they're going to, as they say in British soccer, put you to the sword. They're just going to be like, oh, you fucked up once, that's it, bye, you know? That's a great say.

We've got to steal that. British soccer terms are so cool. Like, almost all of them. You know, they say like, oh, shambolic defense or whatever. and you're like, whoa. The one that I've argued before we need to bring over more is cheeky. I need to see more cheeky plays from NHL players. Yeah, but if you try a cheeky play, like some guy on the Anaheim Johnson is going to try to beat you on.

I got to check what the code says about being cheeky. Probably not great. You know exactly what it says. Don't fucking do it. The one I always like to say. a defense is at sixes and sevens. I don't know what it means. Okay.

But you're like, oh, this defense, they're falling all over the place. They're at sixes and sevens. It's just fun to say, I feel. Yeah. But yeah, I don't even think that was the case with the Panthers. I think they just ran into a team that's significantly better than them in game one. And didn't have its captain.

No, like, or captain, you know, the best two-way center in hockey or whatever you want. And, you know, who knows who else was sick and also, that's what I'm saying. Even the goalie was maybe sick and all it. Is there, is there any reason to think the Panthers can win this series? Other than, it's hockey and. Hockey's random.

No, not really. I would agree with that. Yeah, there are just so many, there are just so many layers to the way the Bruins can beat you. I was reading an article this morning about like, Hey, just so you guys remember, Taylor Hall, who is a former league MVP and is making like $6 million or whatever, he's on their third line and he loves it. Yep. You know? Like, I don't know what else needs to be said about it, you know?

All right. I felt like those early games were just kind of like the appetizer for two late games went to overtime and were pretty, we're pretty. pretty sick actually. I thought both of those games were really fun. What did you think of, we'll start with again, the earlier of the two, what did you think of Oilers Kings? Full credit to the Kings, man, because everyone's picking the Oilers, not just in the series, but it feels like there's been a late shift to the Oilers being the pick for the West, including being my pick. Oh, for sure, yeah. And the number of people who are picking them to win

the cup is you're just like, Yeah, I mean, you don't want to go with chalk across the board. Understandably so. Like, I have Dallas, in my bracket that I filled out, I have Dallas winning the cup, actually. Yeah. Not looking so good after game one. But everybody, I feel like the kind of like, well, I'm not allowed to pick the Bruins. I will pick the Oilers instead.

Makes a lot of sense. I get it. Mm-hmm. I think that's exactly it. So, I mean, credit to the Kings. we'll start there. And yet, I don't know, it's, give me your perception here because it feels like, you know,

the thing with the Oilers for so long is, have been, you know, they never seem to get to the level you want to see them get to, even when, even last year, you know, they go to the conference final and you're thinking, okay, maybe this is it. But they, and then to have a game where you're up by two goals late in the third,

you blow the lead tying goal comes with seconds left and then you lose an overtime. Yeah. I don't feel like there's a level of, I don't know if I'd say, panic or if people aren't doing the same old Oilers thing.

And like I even tweeted it. Like it's weird when it's not your team. I still have no doubt Edmonton's winning this series. And yet, you know, I know if I was an Oilers fan, maybe it would feel very differently, but it doesn't, I'm not seeing a lot of that. Like, have you, you know, either from oiler fans or from, you know, just in general, like,

it doesn't seem people are pointing at this going like, oh, here we go again with these guys. It's just sort of like, all right, a little bump in the road, but they'll be okay. Yeah, I think this is, you know, same old oilers kind of a thing would be an understandable reaction. but I think this is what it boils down to. Connor McDavid, no points. And most people are going, well, if he gets like one point, that's the game. And the number of games you're going to hold Connor McDavid to one or zero points. How many times did that happen this year?

Like 10, 12s? Yeah. You know, like. So again, when you're the underdog, you know, we said it with Panthers Islanders, you've got to land the punch when you get a chance. And the Kings did. The Kings got a win. I wouldn't say they stole one.

But they did have a lot of things work. Like I said, I think the Oilers let him up off the mat. That was a dumb ass penalty at the end of the game by Bouchard. Tying goal with 15 seconds left and the overtime goal, both power play goals, that can't be something that has happened very often in the playoffs. No, I wouldn't. Not that either call was a bad call necessarily. The overtime, I know a lot of people were sort of arguing on.

but okay I was wrong it was zero uh points for McDavid uh only seven times this season but then like 31 point games which I guess makes sense but I mean I just don't think this is a guy's a playoff guy I think that's that's right but regular season glory boy I was just going to say though so I'm like oh uh so 37 games where he has uh either one or zero points that means uh uh There were like 45, 46 games this year. Am I doing the math right on this? That he had multiple points? That's insane.

This shouldn't be, you know? Yeah, 45. I just figured out the mouth of my head. That's fucking nuts. Sorry. It looks to me like he had more four point games than he had zero point games this year. This guy's pretty good. You ask me?

Yeah. And now he said one bad game, so he's mad. Good luck. What's the over under on points for game two? Three and a half? Gotta be. Five and a half tonight. No problem.

Yeah, like I said, it's one bad penalty by Bouchard, who I thought had a really good game up until, like, I was sitting there going, oh, I don't know Bouchard's kind of jumping off the page for me a little bit here. And then obviously he scored the goal, so that always helps your person. perception. But, um, yeah, and then, and then they score with seconds left and, you know, um, what can, what can you say? Well, you know, you, I guess I'll say this. I did the, the, the hockey PEO cast like, uh, right before the playoffs started, like the Thursday or Friday before. Okay. And, uh, we, we got to ask the question, like, what's, what's a, what's an

upset you would not be at all. to see in the first round. And I said the Kings. I think the Kings are really, really good. And I think the Oilers, as good as they've been playing, do have a couple of question marks. I don't super trod. Like I'll say this, going into game one,

I saw a lot of like, looks like the Oilers have found their goalie. And I was saying, I don't know. I guess, look, last year I was saying I like Seward Skinner to be their guy for a while. I don't know why they went out and got Jack Campbell, just given the cost and all that kind of thing. And so, like, I'm not shitting on Skinner, but it's just like I'd like to see a little bit more before I say, this guy's their goalie of the future, you know? and again, I don't think he was necessarily bad. Like, I'm not hanging the loss on him by any stretch of the imagination. But it is just like one of those things of,

is this a guy who can give up four or five goals a game? Yeah. I feel like that can happen sometimes, you know? Mm-hmm. On the other hand, again, like, I'm not counting on Connor McDavid to be held goalless against Drewis Corpusalo. I agree. almost all of that other than I still,

certainly before the series would not have said, I saw the Kings having a great chance. And I still feel that way. I look for it to next week when the series is already over, and I'm like, well, okay. But if there was a fifth game, I think Edmonton would be good shit. Yeah, I don't know if I would say they have a great chance.

I think of just, like, in the first round, like the, you know, the big upsets. Like, to me, it wouldn't be an, upset if the, the Rangers, or not a huge upset if the Rangers beat the devils, and we'll talk about that obviously in a minute. But, you know, I think, again, just the way the oilers were being perceived, how many people had them going out and would have them going out in round one as like a realistic possibility. And I think it's a more realistic possibility than like not going to happen, you know?

So, yeah, I mean, the Kings are just a team I have a lot of time for, I guess. All right, Stars Wild. Let's just talk about it now. What did you think of the Dumbah hit on Pavelski? I think that's probably not a penalty. But I do see where, like, it's. It's one of those gray area ones, right? I mean, it's, it's, we start breaking it down, we freeze frame and all this stuff,

and it's like people want an answer. They want to be like, ah, there you go. Okay, that frame shows that it is or it's not a penalty. It's, you know, interference, we talked about this before. It's very poorly defined in the rulebook. On purpose. On purpose, yeah, exactly. It's put in the hands of the referee.

I know, like, I've seen people say, well, we need to define it. and yeah, you could, you could, but like, what does that look like? Are you going to put in the book like 0.5 seconds, and you're going to expect the referee to, I mean, to do a tenth of a second calculation on the spot? It is sort of one of those you know it when you see it things. And obviously, when you do that, you create all sorts of situations where game management and all of this ends up dictating it. I wouldn't have a problem if those hits came out of the game.

I like big hits, but I mean, it's, this was, the puck was gone as he starts the hit. You know, like I don't, I don't have an issue saying, hey, once the puck is gone, you got to, you got to stop if you at all can. And, but that's not what the rule is right now. So it's, it's a big hit by a guy who throws big hits. and very unfortunate because we all love Joe Pavelsky, but I don't think I can get myself worked up to suspension levels, anger, and obviously the league didn't either. I mean, I have no faith in the league to even for suspendable hits.

Well, I mean, I guess. Well, I got good news for you. They're going to chuck the book at Michael Bunting tonight or later this afternoon. But yeah, I agree with you. This is a hit that I don't want to see in the sport. And this is one of those hits where when it happens, everyone goes, oh, you hate to see this in the sport.

But what can you say? It's not the rulebook. And it's like, right, again, it's left intentionally vague. So that hits like this are allowed to happen. I do think, Given the, like, given the fact that he hit his head on the ice, our perception of it is even worse. Like, if he doesn't hit his head on the ice, which, you know, that can happen on a clean hit just as much as a dirty hit. Like, that's kind of almost divorced a little bit.

Maybe not just because if you, well, I guess this is the issue, right? They took blindside out of the rulebook. And that's why people have a problem with this. I saw people using the word blindside, blindside, blindside. Yeah, again, that's just they took it out of the fucking rulebook because they're like, well, we kind of like blindside hits. Well, but the other thing is like, I mean, a blindside hit to me is like an open ice, you're coming across the blue line.

Like when you're down in the corner, there's eight guys all around. I mean, if anything, it was blindside because there was like there's a player who cuts right in between them right before the end. impact so right i mean at some point i'm not trying to be i'm not trying to do the whole like keep your head up thing but at some point you you i don't think a player getting ready to throw a hit can be held responsible that the other guy doesn't seem coming when there's everybody is around and you know i mean yeah i guess i guess the word that i didn't come out of nowhere right i guess the word that i think of is when like a guy is already being physically engaged

by a guy on the, by an opponent. To have a second guy come in and throw a hit like that. Like that to me is more, it again, is blindside the right word? No, I think predatory would be how I,

like, you were like, oh, I'm going to knock this guy's fucking head off. Yep. Basically is how I, is how I viewed, uh,

the hit. And like, obviously you hit to hurt. Like that's why you hit. The, no, but it's rare that you would see a guy go, oh,

I, to separate a guy from the, an opponent from the puck. Mm-hmm. I mean, game one of the playoffs, you're hitting to hurt. For sure. Yeah, you're right. Sending a message or whatever you want to say. It's not even sending a message.

It's the war of attrition, right? Like, let's start putting some bruises on these guys that we're going to see for seven games. Yep. And like I said, like really unfortunate outcome in terms of obviously hit his head on the ice and like unlike uh i hate you hate to see this kind of hit in the game but we actually don't have that big of a problem like you actually hate to see a guy like don't show me the replay of a guy hitting his head on the ice you know yeah um it's tough like i get why there wasn't a suspension i don't necessarily agree with it but i totally get why there wasn't and and i get why

why Dallas fans are pissed off and, you know, that's hockey at this time, the time of year. The, the refs are going to, are on the side of like, well, we're not going to, we're not going to call too much here.

And the, the leagues are certainly not looking to suspend guys, because they're like, you know, one game is worth two or whatever, and we don't like to give out more than a two-game suspension. So you've got to realize, you're going to really earn it. Anyway, let's talk about the game.

Imagine if they had suspended after they do a review and determine it's no penalty, right? Like it's very... Did he get two for it? No, I don't remember. He didn't get two. Well, what happened is he didn't get anything for the hit and then Domi comes in and jumps him.

That's right. And he gets two for that, even though, you know, Domi's like wailing on him. they even that up, Caprizov jumps in, doesn't get anything, which would have been third man in if they called it a fight,

but they didn't call it. Like, there was all sorts of, I mean, the level of game management that went into just that series of calls was bizarre,

but... Yeah, in part because, like, as you say, there were just a lot of, like, name brand players on the ice for that, for that series or that sequence,

you know? So, yeah, they're not, they're not going to be like all of the star players in the series, you're off for two minutes or five minutes or whatever. But yeah, what did you think of the game itself? I mean, what we expected, right? Big battle, close game. This is, I think out of all the series, this is the one you're looking at going, like, if you said seven games, five of them going to overtime, you'd probably be like, yeah,

that could absolutely be the case. Yeah, I thought coming into the series, this was maybe the most evenly matched of all the first round series, honestly. And I don't know, like I thought after the stars scored their second goal, that really was like kind of a punch in the face for the wild. like that woke them up a little bit. You know what I mean? Like, oh, shit. Okay, like I know the Wilde scored first in the game, but I just felt like

Dallas scoring the second one was that you made me bleed my own blood moment. And the Wild came out like gangbusters after that. And Dallas was on the defensive. And then I thought Dallas probably had a better third period than the Wild did. But then once you get to overtime, like, who know yeah anything can happen obviously so um yeah that that that was just where i thought uh where i thought the game kind of shifted was the wild were like oh you shouldn't have scored two on us that fast sorry you know what i mean that was a big mistake right there yeah you guys fucked up big

time yeah um and so yeah i thought i thought this was a a pretty even game and the wild maybe slightly deserved to win it and then that's exactly what happened so i don't I don't have a big problem with the way either team ended up playing and obviously Dallas being down one Joe Pavelsky for a huge chunk of that game, that's when you would have said, well, I mean, you know, maybe that's the difference in the game. So yeah, I don't know.

Again, this is the game that it's like five one goal games, five overtime games, whatever you want to say. Yeah, for sure. Which means congratulations in advance to the wild on the sweep. For sure. Tonight's five-hunting win. And now, okay, Monday night was the night of blowouts? Tuesday night, or no, it's the other way around.

Monday night was the night of close games. Tuesday night was the game of like ass beatings. Just bloodbaths. I recorded all the games. I haven't watched them yet, so. Okay. Well, I got, I, I'm getting pretty excited about what the Leafs are going to do, the lightning based on what you're saying.

Can I, can I suggest one to not watch for you personally? Yeah. Probably good. Yeah. All right. Again, let's just go in order of the way they were played. Rangers open up a two goal lead on the Devils and really kind of never look back. I think shots at one point were like 8-1 and the score was 2-0, something like that.

and it's just like, oh yeah, the devils did not come out of the locker room ready for this game to start. And this is one of the, like it's, the narrative's almost too easy here, right? Like the young upstart, fun team up against the more veteran-ish team

that had a long run last year. And it's like, oh yeah, the young guys didn't realize the level they had to get to or they were nervous or they were into, or they were intimidated or whatever it is. Yeah. And the veterans kind of take them to town,

which, I don't know, I mean, sometimes the easy story to tell is the right one, and sometimes it's just lazy. So I'm not quite sure which is the case here. I pick the Rangers to win this series, but, you know, we... There's very obviously another level to New Jersey that we will...

presumably see soon. We better see it soon. I will just defer to the take I saw from this guy, George Gershwinski. Okay. He said, all the Devils needed was for Vitechak Vanichek to not lose this series. Sounds like a Devil's Homer take to me. It does sound like a Devil's Holmer take to me. It does sound like a devil's holmeski. But I think that's maybe not totally fair.

I think the Rangers did just outplay the Devils for a good chunk of the game. With that having been said, yeah, Vanichek, this is the difference between having a goalie where it's like, oh, he was like a cast off from a not particularly good team last year, right? And the other goalie won the Vezna and had a lot of heart consideration. Yeah. You know? Yep, no, it's the same in the next series we'll talk about. Like, goaltending's random and it's hard to predict and weird things happen, especially a short series, but I do feel like we've almost moved too far away from considering

goaltending when looking at playoff matchups. I totally agree with that. To the point where we kind of just hand-wave it away, like, you know, here's how the forwards and defense and the five-on-five and the special teams, and okay, well, that's probably good. I pick this team in seven, and you're like, yeah, but, they have a wet bag of potatoes in goal and the other team has got Patrick Woss, so maybe we should factor that in. Right.

No, like, here's the thing. I think that, I think that kind of analysis kind of does work a little bit for the regular season, like, unless you have a Chisurkin or a Sorokin or whoever, like, an elite elite goalie, that kind of analysis is kind of fair, I think. Like if you're going, oh, who's going to win this game? Is it the team with Auntie Ranta in net or the team with Vtec Vanec? It's like, I don't fucking know, you know, but over seven games against the same team every night, like this is the thing where you have to go, well, like, as much as people want to act like a goalie's not kind of part of the team, he is, you know?

So I don't know. I don't have a lot of, uh, I don't put a lot of stock in, in like, you just kind of, I guess you only dismiss the goaltending thing and say it's random when the team with the better goal he loses,

certainly, you know? Do, do you feel like the devils have to win game two? Like, it's so early in the playoffs to be talking about must wins, but does it kind of feel that way? They just,

they can't get their asses kicked like they did last night. You know, like if they, if they lose four nothing, five, one, whatever, you know, like, if they have another three goal loss, I'll just be like, oh, maybe these guys don't fucking have it, you know? But like, and I did want to say this as like, kind of more at the end of this, but we'll, I'll say it now.

Broad spectrum, do not draw any conclusions from one game in the playoffs. Like, yeah, it does shift, like, losing game one or winning game one if you don't deserve it. does shift the odds that you're going to win a seven games or a best of seven series significantly. Like huge shift in likelihood. Like the Rangers are at 60% to make it through this round now. And I think going into the series, they would have been at like 45, right? So like, that's how much one game can change things. But with that having been said, like,

Any number of things could have gone wrong for the devils last night. And they come out tomorrow night, like their fucking shirts are on fire. And they score three goals in the first period. And you're like, oh, what were we worried about? Yep. Yep. And then we all go, oh, they've figured it out. They've...

Right. Yes, okay. Now they know they got their legs under them, and here we go. So... Yeah, people were making this point last night. and I think it's it's good to keep in mind keep this point in mind

in general, not for any specific team. But the lightning got their asses beaten the first round in game one of the first round last year. They got fucking killed. I don't even remember who they played, but it was like,

they lost pretty badly. And then they went to the Stanley Cup final. You know? Like, you don't have to overthink it that much. Oh, right, they played the Leaves, and the Leaves won 5-0 in game one last year. And everyone was like, well, that's it.

And then Tampa won 5-3, the next game. And then the Leaves won 5-2, then Tampa 1-7-3. You know, like, it just goes to show, again, taking results from any one game and saying, well, this is indicative of how everything's going to go. You know. Thank you. You're asking for trouble. Thank you for saying that.

I appreciate that. Any final thoughts on this, on this devil's? Still think the Rangers are going to win, still think it's going to be a competitive series. Yeah, my take on this, Chris Kreider went fucking psycho mode last night. He was incredible. Yeah, it's cool when Star players do that. It is, yeah. I like to see it.

Here's the other thing I saw last night, and this will be a great segue into, I believe the stat was Chris Kreider is now the Rangers' all-time leading postseason goal scorer. Wow. With 35, I think. More than Mark Messier? I thought Mark Messier had 35 against the devils in that one game. 30 years ago. Well, he's guaranteed he'd score 35, I think, is what it was. And then he did.

The last 33 were into an empty net, but that's okay. No, I was right. Yeah, 35 all-time playoff goals. And now let's talk about the Leafs Lightning game, where Braden Point scored, I'm going to make sure this is correct. Yeah, his 37th and 38th career playoff goals. And the fourth goal was massive. Oh, no, I'm sorry, 39th and 40th career playoff goals.

That's even more. If people didn't, if people weren't watching the game like that, that was the, I wouldn't say the turning point of the game, but, you know, the Leafs were on the way back. It'd come from three nothing, three to crowds rocking. Everything's, you know, going. tilted and and he just scores kind of one of those solo effort goals, not in the sense

of an end-to-end rush, but just like, yeah, I'm going to get the puck near the net and screwy. Eting dust. Just a big plateful. Yep. You know? He was just like, I was on one side of TJ Brody. Now I'm on the other one. Yeah, I would rather be here. So I'm just going to be here. So, yeah.

Yeah, man. Talk me and the Leaf fans down off the ledge on this one. Or don't. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's tough, right? Like, again, you just look and you see the, who was that? Was it a Brody penalty for holding too? Boy, that sucks. Yeah, it was the Brody holding penalty.

Got the hand on each shoulder of Stamco's, I want to say. Yeah. Yep. Yep. And that was the backbreaker. That was the Hulk Hogan leg drop in that game. Like they come out, they immediately score on the power play.

Okay, well, you know, like, I know the Leafs mounted a bit of a comeback, but it's like how many times. That first period is inexcusable. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, as I got to, you know, just for fun, I got to write a column last night off the game,

What a blast for you, huh? Yeah, yeah, that's cool. Like, this is, this game should have been the only game you've been thinking about for 12 months, right, since game seven against the lightning, right? I mean, who cares about the regular season? You're going to make the playoffs. Everybody said, everybody inside and outside the Leafs said, regular season doesn't matter. They go through the season. here you go.

By November, you know you're getting the lightning again. You know you got home ice a month ago. You know, you know exactly everything is all lined up, and then you just come out in that first period looking totally lost. Like, it's, like, I've been a Sheldon Keith guy mostly, but, like, that first period moves the needle significantly to me on the coaching question. Because it's not all. on the coach.

But something's wrong with this team. Like leadership, coach, whatever it is, that they would come out that way. Versus a lightning team that looked like, they look like exactly like a team that had been there a million times. Yeah.

Like a team that didn't give one crap about the regular season. You know, oh, but they lost nine or their last seven. Who cares? Who cares? No matter. They get to the playoffs and they go, okay, playoff time. And the Leafs were just like, wow, these guys are hitting and being fast.

And, you know, we're all confused and throwing off. I don't know, man. And then, classic Leafs. I've made this point a million times before, but people love to go, oh, you know, the Leafs fold in the face of adversity. No, actually, when you throw actual adversity at the Leafs, they play pretty well. it's you know how many times have we seen them crap the bed go down 3-0 nothing in a playoff game and then suddenly bang bang bang

game's tied because they flip the switch it's it's when things are going reasonably well that they check out but they come back two power play goals three to two everything's great I sent a tweet

you can check the timestamp I said that you know things are looking good for the Leafs the only problem is now because they're two for two on the powerplay, game management kicks in, and there's going to be, you know, some shady Tampa powerplay. And right away, we get the phantom slash call. That was, look, I hate when I see people going, oh, these fucking rats. Oh, boy, oh, boy, you know. But that slash call, like, I was, why.

Watch the replay. The guy on the lightning goes, like when they blow the whistle, the guy on the lightning goes, I didn't do anything. Yeah, because he slashes the lead player immediately afterwards. Right. And, and like, that's one of those things where it's like, that's not, that's one of the, you could, you could call the, you could call a slash on every guy touching the puck, if that's a slash, you know. But, again, all you need to know is the, the guy on the, the, the guy on the lightning.

was a Corey Perry was like, well, that wasn't me. And the rest, like, no, I know it was the other guy. And he's like, oh, yeah, yeah, it was the other guy. That's the ticket. So there's been a lot of officiating talk coming off of that, partly because of those two soft calls and, you know, one of them leads to the power play goal that turns the game. And there's been a lot of, I don't know if you've seen the Wes McCauley

talk. I see that he is trending on Twitter. That's not great. No. I don't want to be a ref doing that. So he was obviously the senior ref in that game. There is some history here.

He had to, Keith got fine for yelling at him earlier in the year. The Leafs are apparently 0 and 8 in the playoffs with West McCauley repping. And beyond that, there is some history between McCauley and his family and Keith. And I don't want to get into that.

other than people can go look it up and decide if they think there's anything to that. At the end of the day, it's up to the Leafs to make it an issue if they think it's an issue, and they never have. So I guess you leave it at that. The power plays were 8 to 2 for Tampa heading into the third period, which sounds, given what we know about the NHL, pretty stunning. but one of those power plays was the failed challenge. And multiple of them was the Michael Bunting hit. So it's not as, like this wasn't a reffing issue.

Getting a couple of bad calls is going to happen to you in the playoffs. And at the end of the day, that's just kind of that. Let's talk about bunting. Like it's... Well, okay, let me first say this about the reffing thing. Leaves are down to nothing before a single penalty gets called. Yep. Yep. That too... There you go.

Yep. There's that. But yeah, the bunting hit. I don't know what the fuck he's thinking there. He jumped into the guy's fucking head. Well, that's what he's thinking. He's thinking, I'm Michael Blunting. I'm a, you know, I'm a pest.

I get involved physically. Now, there had also been, like, they had gotten tangled up earlier in the game, and there was some, you know, the Leafs attempted spin-off. It was one of these things where, like, Keith kind of like, his defense was so mild that you can kind of tell the Leafs are like, yeah, we know this guy's getting suspended. But, you know, was that, hey, these two guys are coming together. They've already had, he's expecting contact.

He's bracing for it. And instead, like, one guy sees it and one guy doesn't. But it's just, it's stupid. You can't do that. And it's not. insanely stupid. It's not the turning point of the game, whatever, but yeah, 4-2, it's still a game. And there's been so much discourse over Michael Bunting, you know, recently and whether he draws too many penalties, whether he takes too many, you know, how the refs call him.

And obviously, they have sort of, the officials have figured out what this guy's act is. And so, you know, this, like this, I mean, Austin, Matt, Matthews could have thrown that hit and he would have got five in a game. But this blows any... It's like the Nazim Cadry stuff, right? You're just like, well, we can't argue that you're getting called unfairly if you keep doing dumb stuff like this. So he's going to get suspended.

Maybe by the time people hear this, we'll know, but he's got a hearing today. At like 3 p.m. It'll probably be one or two games. I have to think one. Again, just they hate giving guys more than two games. and they consider one game in the playoffs, two games. They should honestly give him one game for the hit

and then one game for that moment where the officials are reviewing it and he sees the replay and starts waving his hands around. Like, well, I didn't even do anything. Like, dude, just, you know, going off the ice acting like he's so completely shocked after he just took a guy's head off who didn't have the puck.

I'll say this. There was a shot during that review basically or like maybe as they were ramping up to do the review where they just cut to Sheldon Keefe looking like I'm a coach who's about to get fucking fired

like the look on his face like I tried I tried to I was watching it on my iPad I had the Rangers Devils game on the big TV and and And I like, I tried to screenshot it because I was just like, this is so an I'm getting fucking fired face that I couldn't believe it. But then the like my TV streaming app doesn't allow me to actually like take a screenshot of live TV.

So it's just a black screen. And I was like, fuck. This is like the perfect when he gets fired. Like we can go back to this, this part of game one and be like this is when he knew basically. Well, I mean, he knows now if they lose the series. Oh, my God. And look, it's game one. Yep, you don't want to overreact.

You don't want to overreact. I'm just going to say this. As much as the Leafs laid an egg, especially in the first period, I thought the last two periods were pretty fucking even. Yeah. And, I mean, the third period means nothing. right and I was thinking this and thankfully it didn't happen but I was like if I hear one leaf player say like well I was pretty happy with how we responded in the third period like

who you know when you're already down seven to two or whatever it is um but yeah I mean you can you could say if you're the Leafs you can go hey guys once we woke up and started playing we we were stride for stride with these guys but all we're going to do is not completely no show the first period against a team that's gone to three straight cup finals. What do you say? But who knows?

I mean, maybe they will again, right? Like, I mean, they, uh, man, uh, we've seen this before. I've, I've seen multiple league games where I was like, okay, well, the one thing we know is they're going to come out. They're going to come out gunning.

They're going to have a hot start, you know, whether it translates or not, who knows, but oh, boy, they're going to, and then they don't. Happened in game five and six against Montreal. Happened last year. Remember they had the one blowout loss in Tampa, and they come back home. Yep.

Wasn't a very good start. The piece that I wrote last night, basically what I said is, look, this series is not over. This could absolutely be just, you know, one game you write it off, burn the tapes, whatever. It could even be a turning point.

This could be the game where they're like, you know what, this, finally, this is the night that it sunk in. And the light bulb went off on some of these guys. But what it did do is, I think this now removes the, They were so bad and they started so poorly and they looked so lost That I think this removes like the any remaining middle ground that there could have been as far as

Sure. What if they lose the series? But what, you know, what if they play well and they get goalied or, you know, there's injuries or whatever? And now it's like, look, you guys just gave away a game that you had 12 months to get ready for. There's there's no more like, well, yeah, we got a lot of respect in the handshake line. nonsense. Not that there was a lot of room for that, but I think now it's pretty solidly

in, if they lose the series, it all gets blown up. Everyone's, yeah, for sure. Wouldn't, look, I said it last year. I think this is not the, I think Sheldon Keith doesn't have it as a coach. I know those guys like them or whatever, but like, I don't see it. I feel like most coaches,

could get these kind of results out of a team this talented. Yeah, I would agree. I think most coaches could probably get a top five talent team into the top 16 year after year. Yep. Anyway, let's move on to Jets' Golden Knights. I was surprised, man. I didn't see it coming.

I really was not at all. not on the Jets. You know, I was, when it came to that series, like everybody else, I was like, well, the goaltending. Goaltending could be what evens this or even tilts it for Winnipeg if things go just right. I didn't see Winnipeg coming out and just kicking Vegas all around the ring. And they did. I mean, full credit, man.

That was, that was impressive. Comprehensive, I think. kind of a basically excuse me once the once the just really got going you know beginning of the

again like they came out of the dressing room for the second period and they were just like this game is over we're going to win now goodbye you know like it was

um Vegas Vegas I guess kind of started to answer a little bit after that but you know, again, like you're going to spot Connor Hallibuck a two-goal lead, like, it's going to be tough for you. And then obviously, like, I guess you have to say, like, well, you know, this is why Rick Bonas has a pretty decent history of playoff success over the last few years, you know.

Maybe this is why Jake Ottinger's save percentage looked pretty good last season, you know? Like, the Jets just kind of really had it. and Vegas not so much. Mm-hmm. Now, did this, I'm assuming you pick the Golden Knights? Yeah. Did this tilt, you know, obviously it tilts your perception of the series, but are you, are you now doubting your pick, or is this one of these, like, still a lot of hockey left to go deals?

I think there's definitely still a lot of hockey left to go, but I will say this. one more game like this out of Eichel and Stone I thought like no-showed that game And you know That was the best playoff game Jack Eichel has ever played Right sure But at least with Stone like You go okay he hasn't played in fucking six months

Or however long it's been With Eichel it's like Yeah like you say This is your first fucking playoff game And this is how you show up Yep And, you know, Stone, again, another player coming back from injury, first came back, I think you're less concerned. But yeah, no, Jack Egole, you think a guy would really want to jump up and grab the moment, but there's time.

There's time, for sure. If you had to, okay, so having seen game one, knowing Winnipeg's up one-nothing, you get a do-over. What's your pick in the series? Still Vegas? I think I would still say Vegas for now, yeah. I would too with, I think, roughly the same amount of hesitancy that you just kind of head there. Yeah.

Yeah, I guess I just feel like, you know, if one of the best players on the other team is like, oh, and especially because Nick Eelers didn't play, right? Like, if that continues, I kind of continue even more in the, well, Vegas will, they'll write the ship here, you know? But like, Adam Lowry was one of the better players

for, uh, for Winnipeg last night. And it's like, yeah, I don't expect that to continue, you know? Um, but yeah, so anyway, um, I don't, I don't have a ton to say about this game. Like, this is just a kind of pretty standard like, oh, whoa, kind of a game.

You get those every one. in a while in the playoffs, and yeah, I don't have much of it. How, I'm not going to say, you know, is it now, but how far into the series before you're looking at the goaltending in Vegas? Two games. Two games, right? Like, like, if they have. Jonathan Quicktime, would you go to that card?

Yeah, sure. I seem to recall that, like, he at least started hot. I guess I kind of lost track of Vegas. I think he had, like, two good games, and then, like, the third game. they got the doors blown off and people were like, oh, yeah, he's back. 9-01 and 10 games with Vegas. Okay. Yeah.

I mean, if you're down in a series two, nothing going to, like, and let's not forget, I know we do this for every team this time of year, but Winnipeg's not an easy building playing in the playoffs. Sure. A guy with that much experience, you know what? Oh, what did you think of Pierre-Luc Dubois? Trash talking after the second goal. Did you see that?

Yeah, I did. It's cool. Okay. Good. All right. Like I said, I want everything to be professional wrestling, right? Yep. And so, you know, like when a guy's talking shit after a goal, that to me, I'm like, let's go.

Let's fucking do this. Yeah, let's move on to the last. game here. Seattle beats Colorado? Yeah. Speaking of did not see it coming. Totally. So I'm in that fun spot where we're a game in and I already have one wrong prediction because I picked Colorado to sweep because I'm not a coward who picks every series in six like everybody else.

I'm brave and wrong and dumb because Seattle look good, man. Seattle, it's, you know, the crazy thing with them is, well, there's a lot of crazy things. But like, you keep waiting for like the star to hop over the boards and you're like, oh, right, there isn't one. But then you also keep waiting for like the crappy fourth line to hop over and there isn't one of those either. So, I don't know. Colorado still wins this series. But hats off to Seattle. They already made me look dumb.

again. Yeah. I said I just like flippantly said Colorado wins a series. Did you see anything that made you question that? No. Okay. I think this is this is a classic like you did, excuse me, you did not need the deserve to win O meter to tell you who deserved to win that game, right?

Like, again, not telling tales out of school. Colorado is a better team. in Seattle. And, yeah, I expect the abs to eventually be the team that we expect them to be. What were shots in the game? I'm pulling this up now. Yeah, 3530. Yeah, like I say, I don't think, I guess the only thing you would say is,

Colorado's whole thing is like, oh, we can rely on some like average goalie to get us where we need to go. And sometimes that's going to bite you, I guess, you know? On the other end, their old average goalie, who's been below average since you got to Seattle, I don't expect him to stop,

uh, whatever, 30 shots, 35 shots a game, you know? Yep. I don't have a ton else to say about. about it. Now, segment, so.

If, uh, if Seattle wins game two, does that worry you? I mean, you know, you'd be down to, like at that point,

does that tilt you to Seattle's going to win the series? I guess it would be the better. It's the playoffs. We're worried all the time about everything, but, uh, yeah, sure.

Um, just if you're, if you're down to nothing, the odds that you're going to win that series are very small, you know, um, but other than that, like... I'd still bet on Colorado to win that series if they go down 2-0.

Like if you... I guess I wouldn't at that point, but only because, like, again, you got to win four out of the next six. They could vary, or five, I mean, you know? But, yeah. They could do that, obviously. But, um, at the same time, like, that's really hard for even the best.

team to do against the worst team in the NHL. You know, if you take the Bruins and they play the coyotes five times or five times in a row, the odds they win four of them are not that great relative to what you might expect.

So, yeah. Yep. That's it. I don't have much else to say. Like I said, long first segment here, apologies, I guess. But we'll take a break. We'll be right back. This week's episode is brought to you by better help.

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that didn't make the playoffs starting with the teams that are firing or mutually parting ways with everybody we can just say firing I think in most of these cases well it's it isn't it isn't right

because like I believe it was Trilliving and Lavie-Let were just both like their contracts were up and they were like yeah we're good but I mean I don't know. Yeah, you're right. It's technically they're not.

And Dallas Aiken's too. They're like, oh, they weren't fired. They were, you know, relieved of their duties. Allowed to let go. It's like, you know, my boss. Oh, that I'll call a firing. Yeah. My boss calls me in and he's like, Sean, we're not renewing your contract.

We don't like you. We think you've done a bad job. Get out. And I'm like, I mutually agree that I shouldn't be getting out as security is dragging me away. I don't know. I'm suspecting all these guys would have taken extensions if they were offered, but they weren't. Yeah.

But yeah. The Anaheim one was... Let's start with the ducks. That's what I was... Like that was... We've known that, I mean, you knew Dallas Akins would have been fired during the season, if not last season, if it weren't for Connor Bedard hanging over all this. Like, we can just say that, right? Like there's, I still, you know, I like him as a coach.

He came up through the Leaf System. He was a well thought of guy then when he went to Edmonton. But like it was, his record in Anaheim absolutely gets you fired 100 times out of 100. Oh, for sure. Unless you're doing kind of the stealth tank thing of let's keep the terrible coach until three, seconds after the final buzzer and then we make the move. So probably the right call, but yeah, I mean, that one, nine seasons out of 10, that move would have been made in November.

Yeah, and, you know, I think maybe the Ducks wanted to avoid the thing Vancouver didn't avoid, which is we hire a coach who, like, goes 500 the rest of the way, and everybody is mad at us for finishing fucking 8. thought of They did. That's exactly what they did. And you know what? Part of it is it's a lot easier to do that in Anaheim than a market like Vancouver, right?

Where you just go out and give up four goals a game. And people go, oh, that sucks. But they move on with it. Whereas, I don't know. I still, I've had people suggest to me that they think that was the plan in Vancouver, too, was to just let Boudreau. dangle all year long. Yeah, of course.

But it just got so out of control with the whole situation that they had to do it. Yeah, it's like maybe they shouldn't have started interviewing replacements in like November. Yeah. Yeah. How did this get out? I don't know. You fucking talk to a bunch of people. Well, yeah, but I mean, it's Vancouver, right?

They have a very strict, nobody is allowed to talk to the media policy. So I can't believe that that's what they say for sure. Come on, man. Um, but yeah, like you say, there's no surprise here. On the other hand, like I think that, because I remember at the beginning of the year, there was a lot of talk about like, you know, the ducks could, you know, if things go right, the ducks could be playoff competitive in this kind of thing. Because I remember they went on that big run last year and they looked like they might make the playoffs.

Do we remember this? Like last year? Yep. I went, I was like, I know they went on that big run, but then what happened, right? And the answer was they won like 12 games on the last 40 or something like that. They were horrible down the stretch. Okay. But if, see, the thing is, if you only focus on the games that they won, their record was pretty good.

That's exactly right, yeah. Okay, yeah, here it was. They went 21, 12 and 5 in the middle of the season, which is really good. And then they went 8, 21, and 6 in the last, what is that, 35 games. You went 8 out of 35 games? That's a problem, you know? Mm-hmm. And so, like, I just always figured, like, yeah, they went out and they got Ryan Strom and John Klingberg, but.

they weren't exactly setting Dallas Aiken up for success. And I don't know. For me, it's just like, in retrospect, why would Dallas Aikins take that job? Like, I got to think there are no future forthcoming NHL jobs for this guy, right? Not head coaching. He's a guy that, you know, and actually I was surprised because I said this with when he left Edmonton, where I was like, well, okay, he should go take an assistant job somewhere under some veteran guy, do a couple years there,

and then come back as a head coach. And instead, he ended up going to the ducks as their HL guy. So still as a head coach. You know, he's a smart guy and also it's the NHL and they recycle these guys. But, yeah, no, I mean, he's not, I would be shocked if he was a candidate for any head coaching job like this summer or

into next season, whatever. Like, I'd be shocked. Yeah. But now the next coach, maybe he gets to work with Connor Bardard, Adam Fantilli, one of these guys. They have, what, like a 26% chance

or something? Seems... Yeah, I wonder if they kind of hold off until the lottery in before they hire, right? Who knows? Let me ask you this. Do you feel like it's insane that the lottery is May 8th?

Isn't it usually earlier than that? Yeah, it feels like it's usually like the first week of the playoffs, and they've pushed it back, and I'm not sure why, but... Is everybody off? Yeah, maybe. Heighting the drama. That's it. But, yeah, no, it is later than usual this year, but...

Okay, good. I'm glad I'm not like... insane for this take. All right, let's talk about the other tanking team that fired their coach. And this time, I actually fired the Columbus Blue Jackets. Weird one, I feel. A mild surprise. You know, the record has been awful, but.

Sure. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, why do you say weird one? mostly because I never thought they were going to be a playoff team in the first place. And then, so for them to like not be a playoff team, I'm like, okay, sure, you know. And then you add in all the injuries and all that kind of stuff. It's just like, yeah, this only makes sense to me.

You know, I don't. But isn't it one of those situations where as a GM, if you're looking at a coach who's put up that record. And yeah, there were injuries, but he's got that record. You either have to say, coach isn't doing a good enough job with the roster I gave him, or you have to say the roster I gave him is crap, and he's doing it the best he can with them, in which case, why am I the GM again? Like, are you surprised at all that there wasn't a GM change? You know, that's kind of where I was, where I was going with it. Like, the, the team, the roster is bad

I kind of flippantly like my thinking was like man we went out and got you all kinds of players we got you Johnny Goodro we got you Eric Goodbranson and it's like yeah the second guy is like the problem here you know like yeah what are we fucking talking about

um to me I just like uh between the the the injuries and the fact that the roster just kind of stinks and it's a lot of young guys like I'm again I don't want to defend the job that like Larson did or or even Aiken's did because like just so they were so bad all year right but look at what these guys had to work with that's all yep I again like if you're if you're

Columbus you're like well we have a really good shot at either Fantilli or or Baderd, and in that case, I would simply love it if we had an actual good coach that, like, we weren't just hiring to shepherd us through a, um, a rebuild. Yep. So, I mean, he only gets two years. Uh, and this is, I mean, when we always say, like, hey, coaches don't tank. Yeah. No, obviously players don't tank, but this is why coaches don't tank.

because it's like, look, boss, I got you, maybe Connor Bedard. And it's like, that's great. We're going to use Bedard as bait to get, you know, whoever the bigger, more successful coach is to come on over. Yeah, I think that's about right. And Brad Larson, we should say, is like 45, so lots of time left to see where. Yeah, and.

Again, not a guy who's going to. to get a head coaching job as this very next one. You know, again, like the classic example of a guy who is going to be able to do the Dallas Aiken's thing. He goes back to the minors or he takes an assistant job somewhere and, you know, four or five years, maybe more. And he's like, well, look, I do have NHL head coaching experience. And have you ever coached NHL.

team before. Well, almost. Technically. But no, he can go like, I mean, you saw what the, you saw what that team was. And every GM in the league will be like, well, yeah. You know, hindsight's 2020 and all that. Let's move on to the caps. Now, they're the other team that fired their coach. Or again, just decided not to. Contract expired, but. Yeah, decided not to renew their coach. How are you feeling about that?

Not surprised at all. I think this is like, Peter Lavillette's one of those guys where he's bounced around a lot. He's got a strong track record, but seems to be a guy who's got a shelf life. And when there have been lots of really good coaches who've been that, you know, Ken Hitchcock was a guy like that. that. Pat Burns was a guy like that. You get three or four, maybe five years out of them,

and then it starts to, you start hitting diminishing returns pretty quick. And given the season the capital's just had, and given that he was, you know, his contract was up, I wasn't surprised at all to see this decision get made. Yeah, for sure. Um, yeah, I, I just, um, I'm not sure the caps have it anymore between the age and the injuries and, uh, guys. may be wanting out and all that kind of stuff. Again, if you just said to me, like, yeah, this is, this is the end of the line for them and they're going to, they're going to try to be around it and they wanted to make a change, like this is the only change they could make before they make like real changes.

Yeah, okay. That all checks out. I'm not. You know, again, the contract stuff, if he had one year left on his deal, maybe you say we run it back, but a guy like that. I mean, this is a guy who's 20 years of experience. He's not taking a one-year extension. So you need to make more of a committee.

Like, you really do have to make the decision now, and I don't think it was probably all that tough a decision. Nope, not at all. Speaking of not tough decisions, the penguin's clean house in the front office. Yep. So, I mean, we, I think it was last week we were asking the question, like, would they even get to the locker clean-out press conference?

and the answer is no. Nope. I thought they might let him do the, you know, hey, you can, you can, like, address the media, and then that's it. But Fenway was just like, absolutely fucking not. Yep. And did you read the,

Josh Yo's column on The Athletic about, he carved them good, man. Oh, boy, you missed a good. I love a good columnist carving a guy. And this one was, oh, he didn't hold back, basically called him a... Did you call him a coward? I'm not sure if he actually used that word.

He said he didn't have the spine to be... And it's like, I don't know what that was. And there were, well, I mean, you read the piece. It was, there was quite a bit more there. And I'll say this. Like, I love a good carving, but you always kind of roll your eyes a bit when it's, you know, somebody just gets a good.

guy on the way out the door where it's like hey where was this during the season well i mean with josh where was it during the like he wrote it during the season too so oh boy did he yeah yeah yeah kind of why i didn't read it honestly i was like i get it yep yeah um but yeah it was a good uh i mean hey um yeah basically saying like you know ron hextel was this tough guy on the ice but when it comes time to make tough decisions as a gm uh not so much so yeah, no, not remotely a surprise there. Brian Burke goes to. And what was the, what's the name of the other guy that also,

there was one other guy and basically, and somebody said after the fact, like, he was the one who was all about acquiring Granland. He was the one who pushed really hard for. The assistant GM that Hector apparently deferred to. Yeah, then that actually makes a lot of sense that he would be let go to, because that was maybe the worst trade of the year in the NHL. Yep.

So, yeah, I do you think we'll ever see Brian Burke in a front office job again? Probably not, right? I would be surprised. At least one with any, well, I was going to say one with any decision-making power, but I'm not sure anyone was ever fully sure what he was doing in Pittsburgh. like sure yeah but yeah

I don't know that's going to be an interesting job to fill because yeah that's what I was that's what I was about to say like they could go in any number of directions here

and I don't think anybody would be but it's a tough one right like I mean on the one hand yeah you want you can go be the GM of Sydney Crosby's team but

given the direction that seems to be headed it's not going to be an easy easy spot and yet that's one of those franchises where everybody's like well obviously you know obviously there's

such a draw to be the GM not only of Sydney Crosby's team but just like a marquee franchise you heard the same thing about Chicago I feel like where it's like oh do people really want that job and it's like well I mean

And this is the joke I made in my column this week about being Brad Larson and Dallas Aiken's where you're getting blamed for like an unwinnable situation a little bit, where it's like, you know, there's only 32 of these jobs, but there's only maybe 10 where it's like, ooh, you're the GM of that franchise or coach of that franchise? Wow, okay. The only question, though, is, is Pittsburgh one of those teams when they don't have, have Mario or Sidney Crosby in their prime.

Sure. Like when they haven't had those, they've been the team that's like packing up to move to Kansas. So it could be a tough train. And you could say that to some extent about Chicago too. But it's going to be a tough transition. But there's a mess. Yeah.

For sure. Yep. The one thing I've really enjoyed is them being like, oh, the penguins are really going to try to build out their analytics department and all this stuff. And it's like, didn't they used to have one of the really good ones? What happened with that? Oh, that's interesting. They let all those people go. Huh. Okay. Not all of them, obviously, but... I guess the other thing is, apparently with Fenway, it's, they're willing to be creative.

Yeah. Right. Right. In composing a front office. So that could be interesting to watch. You know, they're going to be thinking about like non-hockey men for the... Potentially, yeah. Bring some baseball guys over. theoretically. There's lots of ways it could go. Lots of up-and-coming candidates, or you just go back to one of the old recycled guys, or you bring in the up-and-coming guys

and put them in charge and put the old recycled guy as the figurehead. But we will see. Who's a former penguin player who's available? Was Acky Berg a penguin? I feel like he was, right? I don't think he was, but you know what? He could probably trick him into saying that...

Who am I thinking of? Like a 2004 Penguins guy that has... That I guess is like a similar vibe to Ackyberg for me. Yeah, 2004 Penguins was all Ackybergs. It was just like... That's what I'm saying. So who... Oh, fuck, who am I thinking of?

Martin Straca is the... That wasn't it. Okay. But hey, I'll wind you up and I'll try to... Just 45 minutes of me naming penguins. I was thinking of Ramsey Abed. There it is. There it is.

That's the guy. But hey, speaking of going in a non-hockey man direction for a GM hire, looks like that might be what the Calgary Flames do, or maybe not non-hockey man, but like Don Maloney in parting ways with Brad Trilliving, basically said like, maybe we'd like to give a young guy a crack at it. this.

It's interesting. Yeah. I mean, that's, and would make sense. I don't. Yeah. Again, tough situation, tough decisions to be made, tough market. I don't know that I'd want to be a rookie young first-time GM having to sit down with Daryl Sutter and talk about what the lineup should look like.

Now, did you see the reports that by the end, Daryl Sutter and Brad Trillard, were not on good terms. I did not, but that doesn't surprise me. Sure, yeah. And I even said, well, I didn't see those specific reports, but I did see some things that seem to be implying that maybe even Trilliving wanted to make a coaching change, and it may have been a me or him kind of deal. And they said him and...

Yeah, but Don Maloney did say... We'll take the 70-year-old coach. Don Maloney did say, though, like, I'll always... All options are on the, like specifically when asked about Daryl's. Like, I haven't made a determination on that yet or whatever. Which, again, like, if you're letting the, okay. Well, I guess this is where we get into the Bradtrue living legacy talk. Okay.

When he gets let go or decides to leave, I guess is a better way to put it. I instantly see a bunch of people going, you know, he could be a really good fit for the Penguins job. And I'm sitting there going, what is Brad for Living's legacy? Like, what am I missing about the Brad for Living experience that, um, that like all these, all these people are like instantly, their mind goes straight to,

uh, he should instantly get another job. I mean, the flames were really good last year. Yeah, sure. And, you know, that he took, what felt like an impossible situation last off-season

and turned it into something that at the time people thought he had really salvaged it. Sure. Didn't work out that way. Now, the flames have, let's see here. One, two, three, and one was kind of fake, obviously. Four playoff appearances in nine seasons with Brad for Living. Five, if you want to count the bubble.

Um, went through a hell of a lot of coaches. Hartley, Gulletson, Peters, Ward, and Sutter in nine years. That's a lot of coaches in nine years. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and obviously the Peters thing was, and then going to war was a, not totally his fault, but. Kind of a weird one, but even then, that's, that's still a lot. And, but here's the other thing. They didn't, they didn't draft particularly well while he was, uh, while he was the GM.

there was a point several years ago when like half of all the NHL buyouts, uh, like, you know, guys being bought out of their contract was by Brad Trilliving. Like the half the league was Brad Trilliving or half the league's buyouts, total number was Brad Trilliving making buyouts, including of contracts he himself had signed.

And that didn't include the James Neal contract, which he traded away. Wow. Yeah. Uh, put it this way. I'd certainly want to talk to a bunch of people before I turn to him as my immediate choice. Yeah, I think that's a good way of putting it.

Any other thoughts on the flames? Obviously, like you said, kind of a tough situation. Got to figure out what direction to go in now because, boy, I, I mean, you talk about contracts getting bought out. They've got some tough ones still on the books from last summer. So they do. Yeah, we'll be, we'll be interesting to see. Yep. All right.

We'll take another break. We'll be right back. This week's episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by Athletic Greens. There are our next partner here. And I say it all the time, folks. I take AG1 by Athletic Greens literally every day. And I gave AG1 a try because they sent it to me. And I was intrigued by, you know, replacing all the various supplements and

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com slash puck. All right. I guess we'll wrap up here by talking about the draft lottery. You know, now we know what the odds for everybody are. And yeah, it should be pretty interesting. as Sean said a week or two ago, like yes, Anaheim technically has an 18.5% chance to win the lottery itself,

but because a bunch of teams can't get the first overall pick, the actual odds they get first overall is 25.5. Columbus next 13 and a half, Chicago 11.5. And then, you know, go down the list, San Jose, Montreal, Arizona. Philly, et cetera. Really not a big gap between, like, you know, Washington at 6%, San Jose at 9.5, considering that's, you know, five standing spots.

It really does kind of squish up. You tell me, as somebody who's been known to have his finger on the pulse of which prospects are elite, what's the tier here? like, is there a, like, okay, there's three guys and then a drop off? I mean, I guess it's tough because with the Russian kid, right, you don't, it's sort of the circumstances of having to wait a few years, but. Right, and that's why I would, I guess it depends on which team we're talking about getting

the third versus the fourth pick. Like, frankly, I don't know enough to be like, oh, you know, Matt Mae Mitch of who for a while there was like, you know, this kid's going to be neck and neck with Badaard and then, you know, things don't always work out that way, obviously. Ask Shane Wright. But it's just a situation where the fact that he's signed, I think, till 2026 in Russia, like does that line up with a team's timeline for being competitive again? Like, Chicago, for example, where it looks like they're down for a few years of

tanking. If they don't, if they end up picking third, like, do they go Leo Carlson over him and just get Leo Carlson over to the NHL and, uh, and, and that sort of thing like earlier, I don't know that there's that much of a gap between Carlson and Mitchcove, but, um, I mean, there might be depending on which team we're talking about. Um, but yeah, other than that, like, you know, I don't know that obviously there's two like potentially franchise defining players in Bedard and Fantilli at the top of the draft. And then Mitchkoff was considered in that tier for a little while and then now he isn't. And Carlson's maybe like a step below that.

And then there's kind of a more definitive step down. But like even the guys like 5, six, seven, eight are all considered like, oh, those guys are going to be like players as opposed to. You said Mitchcoff's not in that three-headed tier anymore, because it was kind of, I feel like heading into the season, it was, Badaard has always been on his own level. And then it was Fantilli, Mitchcov neck and neck. Was that, did Mitchcoff take a step back? Or is this because Ventilly was just so good during this, during the season that he moved up? I think it's probably a combination of the two. Mitchcov was, if I'm remembering right, he started with.

with St. Petersburg this past season. Give me one second. I'll look that up just to be sure. But then he got traded mid-season to Sochi and like fucking took off. Yeah, he started with St. Petersburg and spent more time with their VHL team, like their junior team. And he was like fine there, but that's not a great league. But then he gets loaned to Sochi. and he has nine goals and 20 points in 27 games.

And Sochi was like a bad team this year. So they could afford to like put Mitchcov in situations where he's going to like excel and he did. So it's it was kind of a mixed bag season and obviously his dad just died. And so like that's obviously a different consideration that we have to that we have to keep in mind about like like how teams are going to be able to evaluate. Like, I don't know if he's playing in worlds or what, you know. So, yeah, I think that, and then obviously Fantilli winning the Hobie Baker and rightly so. I don't know, I don't know where the teams are going to, like, say the differentiating point happened.

But I think I think it's fair to say that Mitch Kov is. now considered like a solid three as opposed to like, you know, he could go second. It wouldn't be surprised at all. What makes that so interesting is all year you were looking at it going, uh, whoever finishes dead last, remember, there's, there's only two lotteries now. So you're guaranteed a top three pick. So you're going to get one of the big three. And now it sounds like maybe that big three is, is more of a big two, which is obviously

huge for Anaheim because they've still got, chances are they pick their 55% chance that they put their third. they can only pick one, two, or three, but it's a little more than a coin flip that they probably get that third pick. So, yeah, that's, and they're one of those teams that you would think, right? Like, can you be a little more patient? Do you take Mitchcoff? But if it's, if him and Carlson are close, then I don't know, probably take GMs.

Put it this way. GMs are not very good at the marshmallow test typically. Yeah, and again, like, it's just the thing of, like, you never know how things go with guys who were signed kind of longer term in the KHL where, like, again, I believe his contract runs through 2026. That's a long time from now, you know. So you're not getting this kid till he's like 21, 22. And obviously, like, that kind of worked out for Minnesota, you know, fair to say.

That's it, right? That's, but Minnesota didn't spend a third overall pick on Carol Caprizo. True. And also, like, they were never in a timeline where they were like, oh, well, we tanked. And we ended up with this guy we're getting three years from now. You know, they never, they never were in that position. So, yeah, I don't know. I, I think we've done this before.

but like let's just, where do you, where do you want Baderd to go? Have we, have we done this on this podcast? I don't remember. We probably. You know what? I like Anaheim. Columbus, I don't know, man. Like the franchise needs it.

They deserve it 20 years. I mean, they've just kind of been there. I, can the NHL have another superstar go to a little market that's, you know, I mean, McDavid's been great in Edmonton. but Conner McDavid going to the Edmonton Oilers cost the NHL a ton of money. Sure. So I don't know.

Chicago, it's just, I mean, the whole way that they played that season and how over the top it was. I know, I mean, that's great if you're the league. That's the big money destination. Of course, yeah. San Jose'd be fun. Montreal would be fun, man. Montreal would be awesome.

it would be so sick. Arizona, I don't know. Philadelphia, they'd wreck them. Washington, I mean, that'd be a pretty clear, that'd be pretty cool passing the torch deal. Sure. Detroit, obviously, that, I mean, their fans will tell you. They'd be able to really hit the ground running with him.

Never, yeah, never win the lottery. I mean, that would be great. St. Louis, be cool. Vancouver, obviously, being the hometown guy. Lowest odds to pick first of anybody, but at least they're technically still. Yeah. And then congratulations to the senators

for being the winning the spot of being the team that was bad, but not bad enough to have even a chance at Connor Bedard. Although 5% shot at Adam Fantilli, so. And the Sabres can't get either of those two guys. Yeah.

I also kind of want Columbus to get Fantilli just because it's really funny when Columbus has to be like, We love this guy who went to Michigan. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It happens weirdly a lot, Jack Johnson, and then, uh, uh, why am I blanking on his name? We're, Zach Werenstke.

Um, and then Adam Fantilli, like, that would be, that would be sick to me. He wears, he wears the sweatshirt to the press conference. Yep. Yeah. Face paint. Um, but yeah, apparently, uh, and this wouldn't be a first for, uh, for, uh, for, uh, uh, uh, uh, a high pick at Michigan of late, there is a thought that he could,

that he could go back for one more year to Ann Arbor. That's right, because it's not like, why is it that the NFL and the NBA, you have to, like, declare for the draft? Well, so you have to declare for the draft, but the difference is that more, and you're seeing this more, actually, I want to say a kid from Yukon just said he's declaring for the draft,

like Yukon, the team that just won the national championship in basketball, just declared for the NBA draft, but was like, I'm not hiring an agent so I can retain my NCAA eligibility. That's it. It's the agent, right? Yeah. And I don't know enough about football to know if they do that in football. But like baseball, like you can draft it out of high school and be like,

oh, fuck that, I'm going to college. Yeah. And I guess it's right. Hockey's the same. because there is no declaring for the hockey draft. Like, they could draft you. And then you're just, all right. Okay.

Well, that's interesting. I believe that's why. But, yeah, that would be really interesting. I don't know that a Hobie Baker winner, I certainly don't know if it's happened recently that a Hobie Baker winner went back for one more year. But, yeah, not a lot of freshmen when the Hobie Baker. either. So the last three that did it, Eichel and Korea in addition to Fantilli.

And all of them, they won it in their draft eligible seasons. Isn't that a funny quirk? So, yeah, that's, I don't know. I wish they were fucking doing it tomorrow instead of making me wait another three weeks. But yeah. Yeah, it's going to be weird when it's like, round two. Well, I don't know. I was going to say like, you know, round two of the playoffs you think they'd want to do. But round one is actually, I think I like this, because round one is more fun. Round one is the fire hose round. So let's give us something to look forward to. Round two is always kind of feels like a letdown to me. So, for obvious. Obvious reasons, probably. But yeah, it's, I don't mind it. We should probably mention a couple things that have happened just as we've been recording. I don't know if you're on. Oh, I don't know about this. What happened? Two things. Matthew Nyes is in a regular sweater in Leif's practice,

so he's the guy who's going to tag in for bunting. Far more importantly, Patrice Bergeron, not practicing, not going to play in game two. Wow. Not sick, according to the Bruins. This is an injury now, not illness. Sheesh. So.

You don't like to see that. You don't. Now, I mean, two things come to mind here. One is, you know, Bergeron famously. What did he have like a hole in his lung or something years ago and they let him play through that? So there is part of you that goes, he's got to be really hurt, but also it's the Bruins and they're playing the Panthers and they're already up in the series. So this might just be being smart. Precautionary or whatever.

Yeah. But that is worth keeping. I know no details on what the injury is, but this is injury, not illness and already ruled out for game two. Well, it just says it's not illness. No, according to... Go ahead. Okay. Well, yeah, I didn't see the direct quote, but...

The direct quote, this is from Ty Anderson. Ask Montgomery if this is related to injury or illness at this point, quote, it's not illness. Okay. All right. So I've seen Fluto and Elliot both said injury, but it does seem like maybe some room for interpretation there. But yeah, definitely worth, you know, hey, by the time people hear this, more information will probably be out there.

But that is, I would be, yeah, I would be not surprised at all for that to, for that to be the case. So, yeah, I guess that's it for this week's episode. Again, like, you just, I can't sit here and dissect all these games eight ways from Sunday. And then, you know, but again, by the time you hear this, you're like, great, what happens in game two, and then the complete opposite. You know, it's just, it's tough to, it's tough to, uh, to get two up or two down after one game, in my opinion. That won't stop people, you know.

In my opinion, it's not tough at all. That's exactly right. It's extraordinarily easy. For me, I found, I find nothing to be easier. Um, so yeah, uh, Sean, why don't you go ahead and hit them with the plugs? Find me at the athletic, uh, including, my piece from last night. And I may do that for other Leaf Games.

We'll see, basically, if... Why would you do that to yourself? Something happens. We've got people writing on it that night. And there's been some good stuff out of that. You can also find my bandwagon rankings. Later this week, I've got my pressure rankings. I also had like just my playoff rankings on Monday, my top 16.

Don't go back and read that. It's two days old. It's completely wrong. And it's, I disavow it entirely. And lots of fun stuff coming as well as my podcast with Ian Mendez, the athletic hockey show, which you can find us on Thursdays. Sorry, I was just laughing at a quote, Brad Marshand on Zedano Chara in the Boston Marathon.

I was surprised he didn't win the race, to be honest with you, that he didn't throw people into the crowd and go for the win. It would have been good. I'm not impressed by Sedano Char running a marathon. Like, I can run 20 steps too. That's not a big deal. That doesn't. You don't have to be in shape for that.

That's right. Decent time for Big Z, I guess. I don't know anything about marathons, but everyone was like, oh, he did it in like three hours and three and a half hours or whatever. I was like, oh, if you're all saying, that's good, I'll take your word for it. Did he beat Travis Yost or not? I don't think he did. Okay.

I think Yost toasted him. Imagine kicking. He said ano chair as butt at an athletic event. I'd never let him live it down. I'd just be adding him on Instagram every day. I'd be updating his Wikipedia page every single day. Then he comes to your house and like lifts the roof off it. He goes, hey, shut the fuck up.

Oh, sorry, sir. You know, anyway, yeah, for me, E.P.Rinkside.com, much like Sean, I did a, it would be cool if this team won. ranking. I updated my power feelings heading into the playoffs. I went 13 of 16 for playoff teams

at the beginning of the year. So I feel like that's pretty good. You know, I don't feel like you're a genius to be like, oh, the top half of the league, these teams will be the best ones. Did you have New Jersey on your list? Absolutely fucking not. Okay.

You got to be out of your mind. Yeah. Let me, I can pull it up really quickly while I, uh, while I also say patreon.com slash puck soup. Lots of bonus stuff at this time of year, as you might imagine. Um, but yeah. So, um, you know, we, we got, we got a lot of stuff going on all over the place. Uh, what were the three that I missed? Um, I didn't have Seattle making it for, for obvious reasons.

and I had Calgary and Pittsburgh in and yeah and Washington in so who did I have out Nashville did you get them no I didn't say Nashville was a playoff team good I'm trying to I can't remember so they would have been

yeah I didn't I didn't think they had it last year Um, oh, the Islanders, I had him 17. And they, and they finished 14 in my feelings. So, hey, good for them, you know. Um, but yeah, any, anyway, uh, that, that's hockey, I guess. Um, yeah, that's, uh, that's it. Thanks so much, everybody for, for listening and, uh, checking out all the, all the stuff we write and record elsewhere. and hey, we'll talk to you next week for more playoff.

First round could be pretty close to wrapping up or feeling that way anyway by the next time we talk to you. Could be. Crazy how fast time flies at this time of year, huh? Yep. Clock is ticking. That's right. Well, enjoy the games tonight and I guess all this week.

I don't know, whatever. Bye, everyone. See you. Thanks, everyone. Bye-bye. 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.

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