Puck Soup - The Second Round Begins

Episode Date: May 18, 2022

Sean and Ryan do postmortems for the eliminated teams, preview the second-round matchups, then talk coaching changes, awards, and the Coyotes' new arena agreement. Sponsored by Mack Weldon (mackweldon.com/ps) and Trade Coffee (drinktrade.com/puck)

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hockey and Nonsense. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. Sean McIndoo from The Athletic. And the second round has begun. stayed up late last night and not well okay sorry didn't mean to bring up a sensitive subject

who cares doesn't even matter all right um well let's let's start i guess with first round fallout and was this the best first round of all time or at least recent memory i i can't speak for like 1968 or whatever, but Well, it would have been back because like 19, like in the olden days, the first round was like 14. Yeah, the four

best teams in the league. That's right. So, uh, it's up there. Uh, it recent memory. Yeah. I mean, uh, the, I believe that this was the, we got basically the most games and the most

game sevens of any round since 1992. And I know that only because I happen to just write about that 92 season a little while ago because it was the 30-year anniversary of that first round where we had six of the eight series went seven games. The other two went six, and there were four game seven sevens at the same time. on the same night, all playing out simultaneously. But that was also 30 years ago. I get that half the people listening to this are like,

shut up, old man. We don't care about what happened in the old days. Yeah, I would say have the people. Back in the original 22. The, the, have the people in the NHL probably are like, I don't know, 1992. What? What's that?

But the other thing about this is 328 goals. I think that's the most since like 95 or something like that. Have you heard, Ryan, the dead puck era. It's over. It's over. And then here's Barry Trott's coming up out of the clock. Yeah. As long as we only ever go back to 95, 96, the dead puck era is over.

As long as you only go back to the consensus year that the dead puck era began, it's over. No, there was a lot of offense. Faker. Yeah, exactly. It was fun. It was absolutely lots of fun, good series, different mix of stuff. So, you know, if you're one of those defense first freaks, then, you know, there was the right series for you. And there, you know, a little bit of drama. Not really anything enormous upset. wise, but you had underdogs hanging in with teams that they weren't supposed to hang in with, and that's always, that's always fun. And, you know, it's not the worst thing in the world for the NHL to have a playoff year where the best teams win. Yeah. You know, if anything, just to reset it a bit so, so that the upsets matter, you know, feel more important to going forward. So yeah, and it's, I got no complaints. I do. I have one complaint, but. Yeah.

Overall, big picture. That was a really good first round. So this is the other stat I pulled. The teams that in total goals for in the regular season, the teams that advanced the second round were ranked numbers 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 16. The only two teams that eliminated a team that scored more goals than them in the regular season are the Rangers. and says here the Tampa Bay Lightning. Who'd they be?

Not sure. Okay. All right. I just thought that was really cool. You know, usually it's like, yeah, the 23rd place team. You know, it was interesting, though, because I think it was Travis Yost had a piece a little while before the playoffs saying that, you know, he looked at it and that actually regular season offense

correlates pretty much as well as defense to playoff success which is surprising just considering how many times we hear it defense is what wins man it doesn't matter how many goals you score

you gotta be able to keep the buck out of the net blah blah blah blah blah and he found that at least at whatever the time range he was looking at it wasn't really the case and this kind of reinforces that and maybe maybe slowly but surely

we can start changing to thinking that, you know, everything's got to be defense. And, uh, maybe not. Maybe the Leafs will hire Barry Trots and... Yeah. Yeah, well, okay. So let's, let's talk about it. The Leafs, they lost.

Oh, yeah. Um, but, Sean, they got so much respect. Yeah, that's... These guys are just swimming in respect after getting eliminated in the first round again. In the handshake line. which is where you want to get that respect. Yeah. Really.

Now, see, if it's me, I want to get respect and win. Like, I feel like they gave the Tampa Bay Lightning a lot of respect. You can't have both. You can't have both. To go through the lightning line, you guys suck, actually. Yeah, we don't respect you guys. Picking on, he bullies, picking on the kid that slapping the lunch tree out of his hand for the seventh time in a row.

That's, I don't respect that. Oh, pick on someone your own. size. Yeah, exactly. So let's start here. All right, because I've been doing this, the whole thing in Toronto right now, and I think the format here for people wondering is we're going to kind of go through the teams that got knocked out, and then we'll circle back to round two. So we're not ignoring Tampa just so we can talk about Toronto. We'll get to them in a bit. But the thing with the Leafs, the big debate, do you, stay the course, or do you make major changes?

And I would love to hear your take as a neutral fan, someone who's, you know, you're not, you're not a Leafs Homer, but you're also generally not one of those internet weirdos who just is, wants to see misery come to Toronto at all times. what would you do here? Because they just had the best regular season in franchise history. And as you may have heard, the playoffs this year, I think, to quote, let me check my notes, everybody, literally everybody agrees that it felt different this time. So do you run it back or do you go, you know, it didn't feel all that different at the end.

end when the results came in. Right. So we got to do something a little bigger than what we all know they were, they're going to do anyways, which is, you know, tinker around the edges, bringing a few veterans, swap a few guys out. So what would you do? A few things on this is they don't, obviously, they're the Toronto Maple Leafs, they don't have a lot of cap flexibility as things stand right now. Basically, I think they can like re-sign Sandine and Lilligran, and that's probably

about it. Maybe Jason Spetsa, if he, like, you know, signs for minimum wage, like, 7.50 an hour, or whatever. Literally, yep. It'll be tough because, like, I look at this team and I say, you know, they did everything you would reasonably want them to do in the playoffs to push Tampa to the brink of elimination or, you know, the defending Stanley Cup champion. that shit, including they scored more goals in this series than Ham did.

But with that having been said... Some of which even counted. That's right. With that having been said, I think that I... The first thing I look at, well, the first thing I do is I try to convince John Tavares, you know, Arizona's really nice. Nice intimate setting to play in I said this on Twitter

Because Greg was like I don't think And that's Greg Wysinski from ESPN You might have Is he a hockey guy or is he I think he's like one of the like First Take guys Okay

But he said something along the lines of I don't do anything And I said the first thing I do is I try to figure out a way To trick John Tavares into waving his no move clause and then I get him the hell out of town. Because for as much as, you know, like I don't think he's bad or anything like that, but I also think that contract is getting worse every single minute, basically. He's like, so I was looking at it and like I looked up his goals above replacement the other day.

and basically every player you would compare him to by war, like for like even strength offense, short-handed defense, whatever. Most of those guys are pretty good players, generally speaking. And some of them is like, oh, there's Sidney Crosby, there's Nazam Cotry, guys who would really want on your team. But also like in the grand scheme of things, he had the same Gar this year as Tage Thompson.

And it's like, oh, I don't think I want to pay $11 million for Tage Thompson, especially because Tage Thompson scored like 10 or 11 more goals than John Tavares this year on a much worse team. So I kind of look at it as, oh, yeah, he was a really good offense-only player. And, you know, much of that was on the power play. You could put half the league on the Toronto power play and get pretty. similar results, I feel like. Well, not in the playoffs. Well, sure.

But, you know, over the full 82 games, blah, blah, blah. You know, you don't play Andrei Vasilevsky, the full 82. Not that he was great in the series or anything, but he's pretty good. No. So that's the one thing that I'm like, like, that's like just a glaring problem with this roster. I'm a little concerned that the defense is maybe getting up there age-wise, especially if they bring back Giordano for, again, if you're Toronto, you're like maybe next to nothing,

maybe sign for league minimum, that kind of thing. But the other big area I look at is not a single goalie that Toronto Maple Leafs stressed this year finished with a goal save above expected that didn't have a minus sign in front of it. This is a problem. But really, Ryan, I mean, And if all their goalies have negative goal saved above expected, then really, maybe the expectations are the problem.

Yeah, they're just not fair. But yeah, I mean, that's the other big issue. They're obviously looking at, oh, what do they do with Jack Campbell? And I really don't know the answer because I generally would say he's pretty good. But also, he's going to cost a shitload of money and they might not have it. Well, we don't know if he will or not. I mean, if they had... Again, he was a negative goal saved above expected guy this year so they can go,

how's two million bucks out? And, you know, it's the sort of thing where he says he loves playing in Toronto. But if you're his agent, you're going like, Jack, we got to see what's out there. We got to see what's out there. And, you know, especially given that he's not, I mean, this is a guy who took 10 years to establish himself. So he's not swimming in money. And now he can take a discount to find the perfect situation. It's tough.

There were people, remember in like October and November, screaming about how the Leafs needed to get, get this guy locked in. Yeah. God, imagine if they had signed him back then, like five years, six million or whatever. Five by five, everybody's jumping out a window, right? Like, it's a nightmare scenario. Obviously, you want to get rid of Marazek. as soon as you possibly can.

He's got some movement protection. But the other thing that I would legitimately look at, and I would not imagine it's ever going to happen, is I at least, given the options that are suddenly out there for coaching, I at least think about it. Yep. Well, but apparently they won't because they seem to have already answered that question yesterday. When they didn't have to, I mean, Shanahan could have said,

you know what is this we like Sheldon keef we like Kyle Duvess we like everybody but this isn't I can't give you an answer two days in we're going to evaluate we're going to et cetera et cetera I mean we saw Vegas finally get around to firing their coach weeks after the season yeah that was a weird one so he could have said that but he didn't he said we're you know as far as the off ice everyone's coming back and and I kind of get that because if he cracks the door even a little bit than this being Toronto, it's just weeks of, you know, arguing over Sheldon Keefe and then, you know, you probably don't want that. Just to cycle, to circle back on Tavares, yeah, I mean, 11 million, we can argue about at the beginning of that contract, how close he got to living up to that value. He clearly is not living up to it at this point. It's virtually well, let's say it's very unlikely that it's going to be a U-shaped curve and he's going to go get closer to it the last three years. But at the same time, this is not one of those NHL contracts where you're looking at it going like, geez, this dude's got five years left and he already stinks and he's locked in at this big price.

He was pretty good this year. Point a game. Yep. You take that from your second line center. And there's an argument that says, like, I'd rather be. paying $11 million for an $8 million guy, then $8 million for a $2 million guy that is, you know, that we're locked in on. And three years left is not great, but it's not awful for somebody his age when you start trying to figure out what the end game is. I just don't see how I'm not spending a lot of time thinking about exit scenarios for him just because I can't see it.

You know, he's... It's obviously very far-fetched. Yeah, he's got full, no-move protection. You know, he's a Toronto guy. I don't know if you've heard this, but he's... He even had some bed sheets. It was a pretty... It was a small story.

It's really become very funny how much they mention... I don't know if you know this. This guy, he's from freaking Toronto on, like, ESP... Because they were like, Nick Paul grew up going... Yeah, it's like half the league grew up going to Maple Leafs game. So I know that. Yeah. So I don't know, I mean, Tavares, I don't know what you do other than, you know, you bring it back.

You, there's, you know, Ellie Friedman talked about whether maybe at this point he'd be more effective as a winger, which makes sense. But then you've got a gaping hole as you're in. Right. Yeah, I think Elliot's, second line. I think Elliot's solution was Mitch Marner is your number two center now. Hmm. Which, I mean, I don't, I don't remember him. He probably did at some point, played center for like whatever his, the eerie otters or whatever is.

Yeah, in junior, he played some center. Oh, there you go. And I remember when they drafted him, it was kind of like, oh, center or winger and then he immediately went to center. Nealander too. Nealander's actually played center in the NHL. Right. I don't think Marner ever has. But it, you know, it didn't go great.

I mean, that would make sense. I just don't. The only way you're getting out of John Tavares now, and unless he wants to go, like, I mean, if he goes behind the scene that says, like, guys, give me a camera.

That's one deal. No, I, but I don't see that happening. Yeah, I don't know. The only way you do it is, is if you wanted to let it get ugly.

I mean, you could go to him and say, we're stripping you of the captaincy. Right. You know, we're doing this and that. Oh, yeah,

you didn't, uh, we found a hang nail in your postseason, uh, medical run down and we're going to put you on LTIR. You could do all that. Good luck ever signing another big free agent again. So it's not, I don't think there's a great answer there.

And that's part of it, right? You can sit there and say, blow it up, how? And what does that mean? Because Taviris isn't going anywhere. You'd be insane to do anything with Austin Matthews. Mitch Marner, I mean, you didn't move them last year. I guess it's an option. You could certainly, you know, get value back and clear a lot of cap room.

But that doesn't seem like, how do you make that move and come into next season looking better? Right. No, you don't. I think at this point, I don't think trading William Nealander is blowing it up anymore. You're not moving Morgan Riley. He just signed him. So, you know, you probably realistically can't. Right.

But at the same time, it's... And then, yeah, like everybody you would want to move on defense has at least some movement protection. Yeah, and, I mean, look, it's not... Movement protection isn't everything. Like, you know, there's ways to... Yeah, sure. And not even, you know, nothing nefarious. You just go to someone and say, like, look, we don't really feel like you fit into the plans going forward.

what are some scenarios that would work better for you? Let's work together and do it. Like there's been a lot of talk that, you know, maybe they have to move Jake Muzzen. You know, Marazic, ideally, you can move one way or another. Maybe it's a buyout. Maybe it's, you know, I'm not worried about the no movement protection for him because you go to him and say, dude, you're our third string goal. Come on, man. You want to go, do you want to play or do you want to not play?

But it's tough. And also, there's a good argument to be made that. that this team had an amazing regular season. They're one of the five best teams in the league. They played one of the other five best teams in the league, and they lost the coin flip, and yeah, you can get hung up on what happened in previous years. But that's a mistake.

Let the past be in the past look at what you got going forward. And there's 25 teams in the league that are probably begging for the Leafs to blow it up because they would love to see that. I get it. I get both sides. Like I literally wrote a piece where I argued both sides at the same time. I was just on the radio before we did this in Toronto on their big morning show doing the same thing. You know, it was like every time one of the hosts would ask me like, well, you know, what about this? I would be like, yeah, but counterpoint and give them the opposite view. I don't know. I don't know what these guys do. and there is, I will agree that it did feel different this year.

Like when I, last year when they lost to Montreal, and I did like my year-end mailbag, like people were despondent. Yeah, of course. I heard from more Leaf fans than I've ever heard from saying like, I'm done. I can't do this anymore. I'm out. And, you know, whether any of them actually stayed out or not, the fact that people were even saying it,

in a fan base where it's always like a badge of honor that, you know, there's nothing you can do to us that'll stamp out our loyalty. People were like, I'm done with these guys. I haven't heard any of that this year. Yeah. I think this. And, you know, if you take a step back, you could sit there and go. Yeah, they playing the best team in the league. They beat their pants off in one game. They gave them everything they could handle, had them on the ropes, got kind of screwed on a. a five on three in game six or else maybe they win that game got kind of maybe screwed on

on a couple of goals in game seven hey you know what happens it's hockey you don't get to cry about it but you also don't have to throw a temper tantrum and flip the whole table uh i don't know i'm still not sure what i would do with this team yeah it's like you say it's it's one where you can very easily argue both sides and then uh you know you're right to back where you started at the end of it. You go, I don't know. It's impossible to say. And I kind of think it is, but whatever.

And the other thing that you could say is, you know what, you run it back one more time and then this time next year, if and when, it's the same thing. Because at that point, Austin Matthews needs an extension. He's got one year left. At that point, you know, so that's when you say, okay, you know what, if it's not going to happen, this is when we got to take the big steps and that this year wouldn't be the year to do it anyways. We'll see.

I mean, it's not like the Atlantic is looking all that much easier next year. Good chance you've got to go through Tampa again. So it just, if anything this year just absolutely reinforces as if it needed to be how badly they blew it last year. Because last year they got handed, you know, oh, we had to play the two-time chance. Well, last year you got to play the 18th place team and it worked out exactly the same. So, you know, that was your year where it was right in front of you. And you blew it then. So I guess if you ran it back after that, I guess after a much, in theory, better season, I guess you do it again.

Yep. All right. Let's move on to a team that they seem like they might be actually getting closer to at least partially blowing it up or whatever you want to say is. looks like the Pittsburgh penguins are pretty content to move on from McGee Malkin and Chris Lattang, if reports are to be believed. You know, I think in the, like, post or whatever, the final press conference, press availability, whatever you want to say, Crosby kind of indicated he doesn't really have a lot of optimism that Malkin and Lattang will be back, certainly not both of them.

maybe only one of them, maybe neither of them. But I think it was Rob Ross. He went on the radio and said, basically, the penguins went to both guys and said, three years for $15 million, what do you think? And both those guys were like, no, we're good. That's not going to work for us. Which, you know, I get that from both sides, basically. Speaking of, you know, understanding both arguments, you know, these guys are both going to be on 35 plus contracts.

You don't want to give guys that age, $7.5 million, $8 million, whatever they think might be the asking price. And you don't want to give them too much term because we see it all the time. Guy who's awesome at age 35, 36, still. The next summer they come back and they're cook. They're done. Yeah. Whatever. And Malcolm said he wants to play three or four more years, which is great.

But if he wants a four-year contract, that's what scares me. If I'm a GM and I've won three cups with these guys, I'll go as high as I can possibly afford to go on the cap number for you. I'll even go too high. You know, I don't want to screw up my, leave myself with nothing left to address other errors on the roster. but I'm not worried about overpaying. It's the years. It's always the years that scares me. And if that's what these guys want,

then I guess it makes sense. But I mean, they offered him three years, but at a discount. Yeah. And the other thing is obviously, like, normally you would say, you know, because like Joe Pavelsky isn't exactly signing for what a player, he only signed for one year.

And he, I would argue, didn't sign for what a guy who, if he had done the same thing Pavelski did and he was 27 years old, everybody would be like, well, you're going to give this guy $6 billion, you know? And I would argue that both Malkin and Latang, they had perfectly good years, but they didn't have the kind of year Joe Pavelsky did. And I get, but on the other hand, I get why they're going, well, look, I've made all this money for my entire career. I'm not going to stop now.

Look at what Alex Ovechkin got. Yeah. And that's, I think, what it comes. comes down to is if you you've been in Pittsburgh your whole career, you've won a bunch, do you want to stay here and try to keep winning, or do you want to maximize what you can get on what could be your last contract? Almost certainly your last contract. And, well, I mean, unless it's, you know, if they go short term.

But yeah, definitely your last long-term contract. And it's, it's, that's not a loaded question. there's not a right answer on that. The players are absolutely within the rights to say, no, we would like to maximize our earnings. And if Pittsburgh is being fair saying, yeah, these are the options. We can go low cap hit with some term.

We can go higher cap hit with little term. But if you want cap hit and term, we're not going to be able to do it. And you've got to explore elsewhere. Now, the trick is to do that in a way that doesn't leave players feeling insulted and it sounds like maybe that's already failed

for Pittsburgh because the fact that this is even out there and Crosby seemed to allude to it but I mean remember this is Pittsburgh's got rich new ownership you know they're not counting pennies because well they I mean

where are they so if you see it being a Boston guy. I can tell you that everybody in Boston hates the Red Sox ownership. They don't just let superstars walk for, okay. Yeah, maybe that was a bad example. But I mean, do we doubt for a minute that Pittsburgh is going to be spending to the cap? No, but I think they're going to be like, this is what we think you're worth, take it or leave it. And I think both Malkin and Lattang would go, well then I guess I'm going to leave it. What are you talking about?

I'm not taking this kind of short money. But like I say, I get it from both sides because I agree. Those guys aren't seven, eight million dollars anymore. Now, Sidney Crosby might not think so. He might disagree with that. But that's objectively how it is. So it'll be really interesting. Like, you know, one of those things.

It's going to be really difficult for me to picture of Gennie Malkin and Chris Lattang in like another team's jersey. Well, I mean, we've all been picturing Malkin in a King's jersey for the last decades. A classic of hockey Twitter, yeah, for sure. But yeah. And if they go, then it's fascinating to see what comes next because

if you're Sidney Crosby, you're 35, you just had yet another great year. You're still not in your prime, but you're still an elite player. Are we going to do a rebuild? Really? the last few years of Sidney Crosby, we're going to do a rebuild, or are we going to, you know, and you hate to use the term, but is this a reload situation where you take that money

and throw it at somebody else, maybe a little bit younger? Yes. Try to build around that. I think that would be the argument. But then who? Like, there's not a great, you know. It's not a great market. So, yeah.

Okay, let's move on to the Bruins because there's a pretty similar, kind of a situation going on with them, speaking of the market, is it basically all hinges on whether Patrice Bergeron decides he's going to retire. Yep. And it, you know, all the Boston reporters were like, you know, it's actually really normal for everyone to hug and kiss Patrice Bergeron as he's leaving the... I don't think they kissed him.

I don't think that that happened, but maybe. I feel like you... I just slipped a few in. Yeah. But like, that seemed a little bit different than any normal, like, captain shaking everyone's hand and saying, good game out there, all that shit. And if he retires, as it stands right now, obviously things can change. They can make trades, blah, blah, blah, all that shit. But as it stands right now. The Bruins up the middle are going Eric Howla, Charlie Coyle, Thomas Noosek, question mark.

Yep. That's not going to cut it, I feel like. No, it's not. And that's... As good as all the wingers on that, they have some pretty good wingers at this point, you know? Craig Smith, Taylor Hall, Brad Marchand, David Pasternak, these guys are incredible for pretty much... For their roles, they're pretty much the best you can get in the league, I think, I would argue. But at the same time, you got to have better centers than Eric Halle.

Let me throw a name at you. John Tavares. Okay, perfect. Leaves-eaten half that money, right? Is that? You know, maybe take Jake DeBrusk back? I don't know. There you go.

I mean, it would be an attractive place if you're a center to go to Boston and knowing that those wingers are waiting for you. Correct. On the other hand, you've got to replace or be perceived as replacing an absolute legend. Yeah, a guy who, if he is retiring, they're also raising his number to the rafters on opening night. Like, we're not waiting around, you know? And so, I don't know. I look at this, I look at the center market right now, and it's not great.

If you're trying to Find a guy who can be Reliably your center for the next Even four or five years Nazim Kodry Like is that the Is that the absolute best guy? Can you imagine Boston

Imagine Boston bringing in Nansom Kodry And he's on the same line as Brad Marshand Oh geez Yeah They just got to remind him in the playoffs Like as soon as he gets out there for warm up He's like gonna hit this guy into the board Is it no no no no he's on your team

Now. Same shirt, same shirt, color. Remember? Yeah, look, look down. Yeah. Obviously, there are some,

just like there are every summer, there are some pretty attractive, uh, RFA centers. I think Pierre-Luc Dubois is the guy that, like, jumps off the page, uh, in,

in such a spot. But with that having been said, the ruins don't have the ability to offer sheet, uh, certain players because they don't have, I think they don't have their second round pick, uh, next year.

If I'm, if I'm not mistaken. Um, so they would need to re-acquire that. You can always, yeah, you can get it back. Yeah. So they need to call, I think, A and I. I think they gave up those picks for, what's his name?

I'm looking at this year. Yeah, they have their second. They do not have their first. Well, that doesn't, next year. That doesn't count. Yeah, next year is the second. Next year. Because it would be.

Yeah. So. Next year in the hamps. Yeah, I mean. So, like, if you want to take a run at Pierre, Luke Dubois, or something like that, like, yeah, sure. Seems like a good play. there, all that kind of stuff.

But, yeah, it's, yeah, I'm just looking at the list of free agent centers, and I'm like, there's a not bad argument that, like, Vincent Trocheck, who's not even primarily a center anymore is, like, the fourth best one available. And one, you know, because, like, Claude Giroux is obviously better, but, and he's not really a center anymore either, but also he's 34. of Gennie Malkins, 35. You know, like, you don't sign players like that except as an extreme stopgap kind of a measure, right?

Like, you're like, okay, we have a center that's a year or maybe two away. We can get away with giving Claude Jureu however much. And here's the thing that I didn't realize until I started looking at this cap-friendly page. I should have, but it didn't, until it was staring me in the face. Because I'm sitting here going, well, I mean, yeah, if Bergeron walks, that's awful, that's your heart and soul, but it's also $7 million in cap room.

And then I look at it and I realize they're already capped out for next year. They are. Without Bergeron because Charlie McAvoy's new deal kicks in. That's right. And that new contract that they get Hamas Lindholm. So that basically eats up more than, it's about eight and a half. half million. Yeah, and there's more than Bergeron.

There's a new contract on the book for Jake DeBrusk, too. That's right. And he's only getting a minor raise, but, but. And they might even, and they might trade him. When you're losing your best and most expensive player and your cap situation is getting, geez, I mean, Bergeron could want to come back. And I don't even know, you know, assuming he doesn't want to do the play for the minimum thing, they're going to have to move guys.

out to make room for it. They are literally at, just looking at cap friendly, they're about half a million down in terms of, their cap hit that they finished this year,

they've got about half a million in extra space, and that's with all the RFAs coming out, that's without Bergeron, that's with, you know, man. Yeah, it's really tough. Everybody's signed. There's money.

Yeah. They're going to have to aggressively. Yeah, and like obviously a pretty good answer there is Charlie Coil. He makes more than $5 million. But much like John DeVares, he has a full no move clause and a modified no trade. And I mean, we just listed him as the second line center. Well, you know, if he's your second line center going into a season, you got paid, wait a second, that was true last summer. Yeah, let's just say the Bruins were lucky Eric Haula. became a reasonable number two center option.

But I think the other argument you can make is you can stick any center in the league between Marsha and Pasternak or Hall and Schallon Smith. And they're going to look pretty good. So, all right, let's move on to the Washington Capitals. And what's interesting about the Washington Capitals is not so much their cap situation, although I guess that is a little interesting. It's more that they basically at the year end press availability was like, everybody was like half dead at the end of that season.

Apparently Nick Baxteram has such a bad hip issue that the coach was like, what he did to be able to play this year isn't going to last. He's got to look at some other options. And that kind of read to me like, I don't know if there's a surgery he can get or whatever, but also like he might not play next year. He might retire, that kind of thing. Like, that was kind of the tone. Basically, he may need hip surgery and that if he does, it's a big, a big rehab.

Like, it's not like you have the surgery and then you're good for camp. This is maybe miss a season or, you know, and just also. rehab sucks, man, like you. Yeah, and at his age, he's paid so much money. He's won a Stanley Cup. Like, it's crazy to think that this is true, but Nick Baxter's 34 years old, you know? And he's going to spend a good chunk of next season at 35. And the idea that, like, you know, the thing that everybody says when guys start to get a little bit older is like, do you really want to

go through all that to be ready to play in the NHL next year. Especially, like, it's not like they're going to take the money away if he, if he's forced to, like, LTIR, retire. Well, that's the thing. I, it, generally, that's always how we look at it, is that, you know, okay, well, nobody actually ever retires. And he's got three years left. Yeah.

At nine million. So it's a lot of money. I don't know what that is in terms of actual cash money, but I'm assuming it's it's a big chunk. I mean, it looks like it's about $24 million like. Yeah. So that's a lot to walk away from.

Now, the easy answer is you just say, well, okay, his hips messed up, he goes on LTIR and, and that's that. I don't know.

I mean, if he, if there is surgery available to him that would get him back into hockey shape, can you still LTIR that? Is it still, does that money then come out of the team's pocket? I would love to see, and I haven't seen this. I hope somebody smart writes it someday.

I really want to see like a deep dive into how this stuff works as far as the insurance. Because we always say like, oh yeah, insurance covers it. But our insurance companies really thrilled. You know, it feels like every team's got millions and millions of dollars and injured guys who are maybe not super injured. They're just old. Yeah. I would love to know how that goes. But at the end of the day, I mean, you're also,

it's not like Gary Bettman's going to go throw a sack over this guy's head and drag him off to get hip surgery that he doesn't want to get. Yeah, it's just interesting because if he can't play for even, you know, half of next season, that suddenly gives the Capitals a lot more cap room to play around with and that sort of thing. There was also Tom Wilson wouldn't say, what his injury was, which is rare for a season ender. Usually you're like, you just like hand the media a list of every injury you suffered over the course of the end.

And you're like, oh, you stubbed your toe in November. Ooh. You know, like that kind of thing. People were saying maybe like ACL tear or something like that and Wilson wouldn't confirm it. So who knows? But like that, again, like, can you be ready at the start of next? season if you tore your ACL in the playoffs? I typically, no.

I wouldn't think so either. It's getting a lot faster these days, but yeah. And then the other injury was Carl Hagelin took a stick in the eye in practice, and he said his vision's never going to be 100% again. You hate to hear that. That sucks. And he said he's not thinking about retirement or whatever. with it, but also, you know, we've heard guys say that before, and maybe not with eye

injuries, but with other injuries. And then they're like, you know what, I can't play like this. So. Yeah. Yeah, that's it. I mean, you get out there and it's one thing to be able to read the eye chart and all that, but when you get out there and the depth perception is maybe not exactly what you want it to be. Yeah. That's a big deal when there's a puck and or a 220 pound human coming at you at high speed and you never know. But yeah, that was pretty frightening what he was describing. How much longer did Brian Barard last after he? He came back.

Yeah, he did make the comeback. But he wasn't the same player, but he did make it back. But, yeah, it was not the same. to, was not the same. I just looked it up. It took place in 2000, and he retired in 2008. Okay. Yeah, that's longer than I would have.

Yeah. No, that's definitely longer than I would have thought. So, yeah, the capitals are in an interesting position because it just kind of seems like that whole group's running out of gas a little bit, you know, like they can play. And certainly they were sunk by goaltending. They're going to, I think they said they're going to look at, um, like a veteran to be the guy because Samsonov is, well, both their goalies are RFAs now that I say that, but you can't stick with both of them.

You've got to make a decision and then give yourself some insurance by it. And the goalie market is, yeah, no, you could. The goalie market is not great this year. Correct. After last year, there been a lot of names out there, so that's worth keeping in mind. You know, at the same time, I think if you're any of the Eastern playoff teams, you're sitting there going, we had 100 points, look at the teams below us,

who's really coming up? We make the playoffs next year. Yeah, probably. Sure. And then, you know, who knows, except for Washington, who knows, ended up being we play the best team and, you know, gave him a ride, gave him a tough series,

but got the result, everyone expected. Yeah, and that was a series that went six games, right? Yep. Yeah. I, this is a pet, It would look like it was going to go seven because they had the lead. Yes, but instead, the team that's much better than them won instead.

Yes. And that's one of those things is like that's a pet peeve of mine where it's like if you, you know, if you, if you gave them a tough series, they won a third of the games against you. You know, like, well, I mean, you know, not really. Like, yeah, there were two overtime games, I guess is what what makes it feel a little bit different. but like, you know, they won one out of every three games they played in the playoffs and they got outscored.

So I'm not, you know, that's just like, because that's specifically what it is. It's like local beat writers will be like, well, how can you say that? Look, they went six games. Okay. I guess that's true that they did go six games. They came reasonably close to stealing that series, I think is a fair way to put it. They were right there for getting away with a series that they probably didn't deserve to be that close in. And that happens in the playoffs sometimes.

Well, again, like that's what I'm saying, though, is it just kind of, it kind of feels like these guys are out of gas. Maybe two years ago they do win that series, right? But as a group, while everybody's getting older and it's harder to stay healthy and all that kind of stuff, this is just all, like, you know, this is what happens when all your. best players are like 30 to 37 or whatever. So, yeah, but like you say, who in the Eastern Conference barring, you know, a big-time PDO bender for 60 games, which is totally possible for, you know. It will happen. If somebody, one of those teams, one of those teams will probably jump up and make the

playoffs because you almost never see the same teams. But until it starts to happen, if you're, if you're watching, you're watching, you're Washington, you're like, I'm... Operate under the impression that you're going to make it. Yeah. Absolutely. The flip side is you could also say for Washington, that means we can take a step back, try to get a little younger, and still maybe be the eighth playoff team,

which is what we were this year anyways. So there's that too. All right, let's move out west. And maybe we can go a little quicker here because I don't think there's as much to say about these teams. The Dallas start... Yeah, plus we're both Eastern guys. We don't even watch these games. I've never seen a single Minnesota.

a wild game my whole life. The Dallas Stars, let's start with them. Seems like they're going to bring back Jim Nill, and then everything else, who knows? It is kind of, because Rick Bonas is now out of contract. If I'm the Dallas Stars, I'm not particularly interested in bringing him back. He says he still wants to coach. Well, good luck.

Yeah. I think that's perfectly fair. It's, and they got a bunch of guys who were hurt. They do. This is an old team, you know, as far as some of the big names, and presumably Klingberg is gone. He says he wants to come back.

I don't know how they make it work, though, just financially. Well, yeah, that's it. I mean, he might want to come back, but he also, during the season, made it pretty clear that he wants. eight years and, you know, big, big dollars, which is fine. I mean, he signed what turned out to be a pretty discounted deal last time around, so, you know, go get, go get your money. But, like the thing to say about the stars is they have a little under 18.3 million in cap space. And John Klingberg is their only really big UFA.

So you go, oh, well, seems like it's a pretty easy decision. Well, they also need to resign these guys, jails. Jason Robertson and Jake Ottinger as restricted free agents. Now, Jason Robertson has a very legitimate claim. I will be very interested when the PHWA vote totals come out because I think that's a top five MVP guy. No question about it in my mind. He should be top five.

Yeah. It's obviously not in the top three, but... No. And I don't think he'll be in the top five of the voting, but he will certainly be on some ballots. You won't really be. God, he was so fucking good this year. To argue that.

At 22 years old, like. So, so here we go again. Another guy coming off an entry level deal who, in theory, has every right to say, I'm a $9 million player now. He's absolutely, I'm a $10 million. Especially if Tyler Sagan's a $9.85 million player. I'm the best for it on the team. I, you know, if I was an unrestricted free agent, I'd sore past $10 million.

so I want nine or ten. Or does it turn in, you know, and then the team's counter will be well, while all of that is true, this is the NHL and you're expected to take three years at like $6 million. This is a classic you give this guy $8 million, or eight years, I mean. Like eight by eight, that's the easiest decision you could possibly make in the NHL, I feel like. I don't think you're going to get them at eight times eight though, I mean, but eight, Eight years, yeah. You do it if you can.

But then it's, then it's the big money that that wipes out all that cap space. Absolutely. Or do they, do they come? And, you know, and this is, you know, to tie it back to the Leafs, this is what the Leafs were facing with their guys. And they kind of split the difference and said, what if we took fewer years, but also gave you the huge cap hits? And then they waited for the rest of the league to follow along.

And then that didn't happen, you know, a week later, Braden points like, no, I'll take six point something to stay in Tampa. So here we go again with the, you know, and every year we do this. We, you know, with the RFAs. But this is a real interesting one because, yeah, this guy deserves to be paid like an elite star. Does Dallas do it now or do they say, you know, why don't you wait a few years so that we can squeeze a bit more around you and then just take our word for it that we'll look after you in three years, which they may have made. not do. Yeah, especially because Ben and Sagan are both signed for at least three more years. So I guess that's the trick, right? Is like, can you get them to take, you know, lower money for

three years? And then the Ben contract is off the books. And then you're like, well, name your price. I guess you can make that argument. That's true. But, you know, three years from now, once the cap, in theory is going on. And that's it, right? Right. Again. It might make sense if you're, you know, to say, yeah, I will take three years, take less. Do it with the understanding that in three years, there's no more discounts.

And then when the caps up, I'll get a lot more. I don't know when Jason Robertson walks to UFA status. I don't think it's in three years. No, that would be the other way to do it. I think you'd have. arbitration eligibility and maybe one more year. Like RFA for one year. And that's it.

If you're an RFA with one year, you've got all sorts of power. Yes. Because you can just say, yeah, I'll take my one year and walk up to free agency. And then, oh, now you're in trouble. And then obviously, Ottinger, who, you know, if things were reasonable, would get Conn Smythe votes at the end of the playoffs. like that's how good he was in the first round. He was so good. Oh my God, dude.

Like, it was fucking incredible. And, yeah, like Dallas went to seven games in an overtime against Calgary and maybe should have been, would have been out in five with any normal, with any normal goaltender. And this is, so, you know, this is part of it is you look at Jake Odenger and you say, like, what do we have here? Clearly, you, he was hot in the playoffs. So nobody's looking at that and going like, yeah, I think we got a 960 goalie here. But do we have our goalie for the next decade? Because it's that old thing, right? You say, well, you know, if goaltending is the only reason they didn't lose in five, but goaltending is part of the team.

And if they've legitimately got a superstar goalie now, then that's part of what you factor in when you're looking around the team. I would say that I wouldn't necessarily bank on superstar, but like extremely competent. I mean, they drafted him in the first round. He's put up numbers that are pretty consistently above average everywhere he has gone. And if you're Dallas and you're like, oh, you know, we kind of just kind of threw shit at the wall this year. We brought in 15 NHL goalies just to see who could take the job. And Jake Ottinger beat out a bunch of veterans, you know. I think it's totally reasonable to say this is our goalie now.

How could you say anything different? Yeah. Yeah, I think it's more how, you know, do we feel like we've legitimately got a star goal? In which case, you don't worry about taking a step back. Let's keep going. But, yeah. So, yeah, there'll be an interesting team just because I think we all agree that, like, apart from Nashville, or even you want to say with Nashville, just two teams that were like, we insist on absolutely backing into the playoffs.

We want to be scoreboard watching every single night for the entire. entire last month of the season. Yep. Like, just two, just absolutely uninspiring teams. And, um, again, like, you're like, okay, well, that, that, that top line, they were, they were one of the best lines in hockey. That's true. Uh, the problem is the rest of their lines, uh, are going to be a year older and worse.

And, uh, they already weren't good. So I, I, I honestly, you could tell me this Dallas stars to, like, finish fourth in the West next year because Oattinger goes crazy again. And you could tell me they finished like 14th. And I go, I'm not surprised, I guess. Yep. That's about right. So, all right.

A team that might find themselves in a similar position this summer, the Cap Hell, all that stuff, the Minnesota Wild. Yep. Now, I'm on the record as saying, I don't think it's as bad as people are making it out to be for this year. Next year, you know, when it goes up another four or five million, whatever it is, or maybe just two now that I say that. But when it goes, I, I just don't think it's as bad as people are making it out to be.

It's not good. They're going to lose Kevin Fiala for basically nothing, probably. It sure sounded that way. Yeah, that's kind of like even the GM was. We should say not for nothing because he, He's an RFA, so they'll trade him. But, like, nothing that will help for next year in all right. It'll have to be, like, a pure cash-out thing.

And there will be a bunch of teams that are more than happy to accommodate Kevin Fiala at whatever his number is. And they're, you know, they, they, they, teams that miss the playoffs, I guess I should say, will be more than happy to give Kevin Fiala whatever. There's already a lot of talk here in Ottawa about that being an option. Yeah, we heard New Jersey. in the last week or so as well. So like the wild will probably be able to pit teams against one another and maybe get like a good prospect in a first round pick or something like that.

But the odds that he stays in Minnesota. Basically when your GM goes out at your year end press conference and says like, yeah, I don't think we're going to be able to keep them. That's a pretty good indication that you're not going to be able to keep. Absolutely, yep. So, I mean, the cap hell is very bad next year. It's real bad. They lose Fiala.

I do wonder if they try to find a taker for Matt Socarello, who still has value. And he had a nice year for himself. You got to say it. Everybody kind of shit on that contract, me included. And he can still play. I'm pretty surprised, but, you know. It wouldn't be a contract dump. It wouldn't be like, you know, let's just ship the guy off to Arizona.

There's probably somebody out there who would be willing to pay this guy $6 million a year for two years or at least something close to it. That's doable. But, you know, again, it makes your team worse. And then the other thing with Minnesota is what do they do with the goalies? Because Talbot's signed for one more year, but he doesn't seem happy with how things played out. And Mark Andre Fleury is a UFA. and who knows if he even wants to play, he wants to come back. I think they said yesterday, or the day before, he wants to, he would like to stay in Minnesota.

He liked it there. So that's, but, you know, there's also, he could go back to Pittsburgh. They have goaltending questions of their own. But I think the reason I'm a little more bullish on the wild next season is full season of Matt Boldie, who I thought was really good as a rookie. and then Marco Rossi comes in. And I think that's immediate Kevin Fiala replacement. You know what I mean? Like one of those two guys I think can be just as good as Kevin Fiala.

And I like Kevin Fiala, but I think I'm... That's pretty... For a guy who had 85 points, that's... Yeah, I mean, like... Yeah, maybe they don't match the, uh, match the point total necessarily, but like, all 200 feet of the ice, whatever, like Marco Rossi, was very good in the HL last year.

Boldy, like, came up midway through the season and was 39 points and 47 games at, what was he, 20 this year, 21. So that's a guy, that's a guy I really, I really am pretty high on both of those guys, I guess. And they're bringing back pretty much all of their decor, who I thought,

you know, they have a pretty good decor. So, yeah, I'm, if they can figure throughout the goalie situation. I'm not, I'm not as worried about it as I think other people are. With all that, having been said,

that's a tough division. So, who knows? And then finally, the Los Angeles Kings, this is an interesting team. This is a very, very interesting team. Obviously, they have to replace Dustin Brown.

They have to give guys like Adrian Kempe new RFA, contracts, all that kind of thing. Mikey Anderson's another pending RFA, but they turn over almost all of their blue line. And you, they have the very interesting question of, what do we do in net? Because Cal Peterson's extension kicks in. Yeah, and it's a big one. It's a big one.

And Jonathan Quick has only one year left. No movement protection, which I think if you told the average person that, they'd be a little surprised, but he's 5.8 against the cap, but only 2.5 million in actual dollars. But a 10, almost $11 million cap hit between two goalies. Right. And I don't think you look at this team and go, goaltending is a huge strength. No, but that's what I'm saying. Like, for that much money, you find a way to ship out quick, I feel like, right? And you probably can. Yeah. After the playoffs he just had, uh, that's, Yeah, you don't bank on a age 36 season renaissance being repeatable, I think is basically the point.

And then, you know, like they do, even with all that having been said, they will probably have the cap space to go out and get a free agent or a trade target or whatever. Like, they're going to continue the philosophy they had last season of like, no, we're going to kind of go for it a little bit. You know, we go out and get to know. We go out and trade for Arvinson. I think they'll do at least one of those kinds of transactions again this summer, and they'll be able to squeeze it all in comfortably and feel good about it. Yeah, this is a classic rebuild that's out of the rebuild stage and into the, like, to end. And they had a real good year.

Surpassed expectations for most of us. Would have been nice to be able to close it out against Edmonton, but I don't think you can look at this as anything less than a successful year, and that means the roster has earned the right to expect continued improvements from management, and I think that's there. And look, lots of picks, lots of prospects still there. So, I mean, they didn't give up a ton to go and get Victor Arvinson. They sure didn't.

They have, you know, they could make another move like that, bring in a middle six, guy continue to, you know, put pieces in place. They could go maybe a little more aggressive. We thought last year with Jack Eichel, they'd be in the middle of it and never sounded like they were. But, you know, there won't be anyone like that this year. We don't think. But could be guys bigger names available. You know, maybe they're in on Fiala, you know, something like that. Yeah, there's lots of ways it could go. And it, I think it's, it, the future continues to look pretty bright if you're a Kings fan. I'm not sure there's all that much more to say. than that.

Yeah. No, it's, I guess my only thing that I would add to all the, all the kings are going to even power up more is, they have to also look at it. We're in the same division as Calgary. Edmonton, two teams have made it to the second round. Probably can't count on Vegas to be as bad as they were this year. Probably can't count on Vancouver under Bruce Boudreau for a full season

to be as bad as they were this year. And now you're like, okay, well, who are we boxing out of the playoffs to be maybe the fourth or fifth? Like, as much as I think the Kings were a good team, I don't think in a normal season they're as good as Vegas. And so then they're competing with Vancouver for a wild card spot, realistically. And maybe you say Nashville and Dallas take a step back, but maybe they don't. it's it's just going to be they're going to be a fringe playoff team next year even if they kind of improve a little bit is my is my kind of take before anything actually happens so yeah it'll be very very interesting to see uh to see what the kings do and and how things shake

out but okay with all that having been said we're going to finally take our first break and then we'll be back to talk about the second round thank you hey gang it's heating up outside And when it comes to stylish essentials, perfect for the hotter days ahead, there's no better option than Mack Weldon. From hanging at home to that much-needed vacation, from the conference room to the happy hour, they've got you covered. Their innovative daily wear system takes the guesswork out of getting dressed, even for the most indecisive of guys. And folks, I got to tell you, last summer they sent me a pair of swim trunks. Nice as pair of swim trunks I own. Buy a lot.

They're really comfortable. they look really cool and they do that thing. Once you get out of the pool, they're drying out super duper fast. So here's what you're going to want to do. You're going to want to go to mac weldin.com slash PS and enter the promo code PS. And when you do that, you're going to save 20% on your first order. So again, that's macweldon.com slash PS and enter promo code PS for 20% off. Stock up on the warm weather essentials like bathing suits, polos, shorts, all that kind of stuff.

Don't want to miss out. All right. Second round. It started last night. It was the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Now, what's notable about those two teams is they're both in the same state. Did you know about this? No.

Interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it turns out they're both in the same state. And Florida Panthers did not look great, I would say, in game one. Didn't look great at all. It's closer than the score kind of suggests. It kind of got away from them at the end there. But you don't want to lose 4-1 at home against your cross-state rival in game one of the playoffs.

Generally, or the round, generally speaking, I think that's true. You know, you play all year to get home ice advantage, and then you lose it in game one. Yeah. Am I doing that right? I mean, Florida looked good to start the game, and it was one that could have, you know, could have kind of gone either way. but way too many penalties. Yeah, you can't give the Tampa Bay Lightning six power plays. And if you do, you can't give up three power play goals.

And that's, you know, that's kind of it. I know there was a little dicey on the, what was it, the third goal, where there was the challenge for goalie interference, which then led to the power play for the, you know, so obviously if that call goes differently, which it maybe could have a whole different game. Yeah, obviously at that point

you're challenging just to go like, you know what, we're going to lose anyway if it doesn't go through. Who gives a shit? Yeah, exactly. The leverage in that situation is all in favor of challenging if there's any chance, which there was.

I'll just say real quick because I had a bunch of people tweeting at me and everything on the interference. And some people were confused saying, like wait a second, I thought you said if someone's in the crease, in the blue paint, then incidental contact. It is, but it's not where, don't look at somebody skates, unless that's where the contact is.

It's not about, is the goalie, you know, the goalie is standing in the crease, but if he's leaning forward and the contact comes over the white ice, then that's what you look at. It's not based on where people's skates are. Same with the attacking player, his skates can be in the crease, but if the contact that they're looking at occurs elsewhere, where, then that's what you look at.

So that's maybe the part that isn't clear for some people. I thought it was the right call, but certainly worth the challenge under the circumstance. Absolutely, yeah. It could have gone, like you said, could have gone either. Like totally, even, like, even if, you know, by the letter of the law, what you just said is correct, you're like, well, you bump the goalie in the head right when the shot got there.

It's one of those where, given the, where it is in the game and, you know, you're going to be down 3-1 with four minutes left, if there's even a 10% chance. then it's worth the gamble. Absolutely. So. But yeah, it's, you know, obviously I think we're all up pretty much of the belief that the Panthers can get up off the mat here in game two and give the lightning a game and probably even win, you would say. Like there's a really good chance that they win, obviously. But, you know, you don't want to start down one game.

and, you know, I'm trying to remember, they lost game one to Washington, right? I think so, yeah. So, you know, it's not the worst thing in the world, but also the Tempe Lightning are a better team than the Washington Capitals. Quite a bit, yeah, and it's, you know, to state the blindingly obvious, it makes Game 2 crucially important. And game two was probably their best game of the last series where they came out. Oh, they stomp the capitals of that game. Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, we'll see.

Yeah. Yeah, I think this should be a really entertaining series. Like I said, the game last night was 4-1, but much closer than that for the vast majority of it. This has the potential to be an amazing series. Yeah, absolutely. You know, last year, really kind of didn't get to that level, but this year absolutely could.

So, English-cross. A lot to like about both these teams, so much high-end talent, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, great to watch as a neutral fan. I'm glad that I get to watch this. Yeah, well, think of it this way. How bad would the Leafs have lost last night, you know?

Really bad, potentially. Yeah, could have been. Can't wait to watch Tampa, a sweep the next three series and win the Stanley Cup. It's going to be fun. The other game that happened last night, the Colorado Avalanche, the St. Louis Blues. Number one star of the game,

the post. Mm-hmm. This is now the second of five Colorado games that fit into the ultra-rare category of an utter butt-kicking of an overtime win. Yeah, that's right, yeah. They just absolutely smoke the blues, almost start to finish, and barely won in overtime, because if you post, but you got to say this is the part where you have to say some nice things about Jordan Binnington.

It had a couple of really, really good saves. You know, it's interesting. I thought the abs maybe didn't do as much to get into the real, like, high danger. chance zone. A lot of scoring chances, but maybe not as many high dangers. But with that having been said, every time

they did have a high danger, Jordan Bennington was right there pretty much. So he had a really nice game. You don't have a, you don't back your way into a 51 save performance. Let's put it that way. So this, this is just, you know, kind of like the Nashville game,

except it didn't happen in game one where if you're St. Louis fan on the one hand you're saying hey we just took their absolute best shot and we took them to overtime we were one bounce away from from winning that game and this is you know this is that the flip side is if you're colorado you're going uh we just completely smoked you your goal he stood on his head everything that could go right for you went right and we still won yeah no it's exactly the same as game two of the first round yeah did it did it give you any sort of pause i'm assuming you pick Colorado, everyone pick Colorado.

Yeah, no shit. Did that game give you any kind of pause or, you know, make you wonder? Or are you just like, yeah, that's, some of the games are going to be close. Nobody thinks Colorado is going to win every game eight to nothing, but a lot of us think they're going to win every game.

Yeah, I mean, you never want to predict a sweep. Like, you have to be, you have to be really willing to go out on a limb. Now, did I kind of think there would be a sweep in the first round? Yeah, but the blues a much better team than the National Predators. Yes. And with that, having been said, they got outshot 54, 25 in the first game.

So, you know, like I... And what was it in overtime, like, 13 to nothing? You know, I, that's something I feel like I might be able to look up really quickly. Started with, like, a minute of power play time, so it's... But yikes. Yeah. It's, it's... Boy, it's really...

it's just one of those things where it's like the avalanche look unstoppable right now. And it's the second round, so game two could come and they look terrible. Yeah, we all remember last year, right? It's happened before. Up to nothing against Vegas last year, and we're all writing our stories about how they're over the hump and then didn't happen. So, you know, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. but let's again if they if they put it uh if they played the way they uh they didn't game one looks like it's going to be a sweet because i don't like i said i don't think you want to go

around counting on well look as long as our goalie makes 51 save we're going to be in pretty good shape so yeah i mean like oh my god i'm looking at these underlying numbers 70% of the core sees 71% of the fenwick like and and they didn't and they didn't and they didn't didn't blow them out. That's a testament to how good the blues were defensively in a way, you know, but with all that having been said, if you hit four, I don't think I've ever seen a team hit three posts in one period in the playoffs. I'm sure it's happened and I've seen it, but like nothing's springing to mind. And the other thing that I was so struck by was it was, you know, obviously very close for most of the game. St. Louis scored first and went into the

first intermission with the lead. But I was just like, every time I look up, the, like, the avalanche are coming into the zone at a hundred miles an hour on a three on two, every single time. Yep.

That's not how you want to go through your life. What did you, did you have any strong feelings on the penalty call at the end of regulation, the high stick? You know, obviously, Braden Shen was pissed, but it's like you hit him in the face with your stick, brother. I don't know.

And the thing is, like, the stick was like three feet off the ice, but that is, the rule is based on proximity to the body, not. To the opponent. Yeah. Yeah. And the other thing about that is also they were pulling each other down a little bit. So, like, it's not like, you know, he was, the guy was laying on the ice and he caught a stick in the face. he was being pulled down and into the stick.

And, you know, having said that, they absolutely could have let that go, but they had called a penalty on St. Louis when they were down. They killed it off. They call a penalty on Colorado. St. Louis scores. So in that kind of mental balance of managing a game that referees do, we called a penalty that led to the game tying goal, that means we got to give the other team a power play before the end of it.

And boy, the second they got that, the blues got that penalty, I'm like, this game's going overtime. Or the power play, I mean, not the penalty. They were going to screw, yeah. I was like, absolutely this game's going to overtime. Of course, I have to wake up relatively early and record a podcast, so there's no way this game's not going to 1250.

Seven overtimes. Yeah. But yeah, I, Like I say, I don't know about you, but it still feels like it's abs all the way in this one. And if games go like this one did, it's going to be a quick series once again. I was a little worried about rink rust or whatever, you know, because they didn't play for a week, but 54 shots on goal. Can't argue with that. And you know what?

The Blues fans at this point have made it a huge part of their identity that they are disrespected and, Now, Sean, do you hear about how late these games are starting local time? This is BS. No. What? Yeah. Yeah. That's, so anyways, enjoy it, blues fans.

We've given you, you know, two guys who don't think you have much of a chance in this series. And we look forward to hearing from you a week from now when it's three to one. Yeah. For Colorado. All right, the other two series, let's start with your. early game tonight. The New York Rangers, the Carolina Hurricanes, the battle for Adam Fox. Whoever wins, Adam Fox has to play for them from that one.

Okay. Yep. Should be a good one. I think I like both of these teams a pretty fair amount, like I thought. Frankly, I didn't think either of them would win their first round series. I don't think that was my picks anyway. Or Rangers Penguins might have been like a toss-up, and I leaned Rangers because of the goal tending.

But Bruins-Kaines was a total toss-up, but I had Bruins and sevens. Yeah. And the good part is if the Rangers lose, we don't have to do the Rangers post-mortem because we did it last week in game five while we were watching live, and there were a few goals behind.

Yeah. Carolina's the better team. Absolutely. I don't think there's any question. the Rangers in theory have the edging goal tending although didn't really see it until the very end of round one against Pittsburgh I think you could certainly make the case that

you know they're playing Pittsburgh without Sidney Crosby for a couple games and with their third string goalie for a big chunk of it and still barely beat them and they should get you know they should be a big underdog to the hurricanes, but certainly not impossible to imagine. No, and the other thing is, as that series, sorry, as that series went on,

I just kind of felt like, oh, the Rangers like better players are coming alive instead of kind of like Mika Zabanajad obviously had that big game six, and Chris Kreider scored a couple of goals too, and then Panarin obviously scored the winner in overtime. and I just, and yeah, so like, I just think, you know, if it took the Rangers best players a while to get going, and I think we would all agree that it did, well, they're going now, you know, and if that's the case, it's not going to be easy for Carolina because, you know, the, say what you want about everything else, they did the thing that, Boston does every year where the Bruins couldn't get a goal from anybody that wasn't on the Berger Online.

And I think a lot of that is down to, well, Carolina has a really good defense score and they didn't let an end and even like defensive forwards. And they didn't let anybody near the goalies, the whole series. Yep. And that sounds about right. And, you know, not near the goalies. we don't know who the goalies necessarily will be. It doesn't look like it's going to be at some point, at least for game one.

It doesn't. No, not for game one. And, uh, yeah, and a bunch of X-Rangers on Carolina. It's always funny. Including Tony DiAngelo, which that will be a nice,

added wrinkle. Oh, he was on the Rangers? Yeah, he was. He was, I don't remember, I don't remember why he left,

but probably, I'm sure it was nothing. Mutual parting of the ways, You know, pleasure doing business with you. MSGs probably can't wait to welcome them back for game three. So, yeah, that should be a fun series. Yeah. And then one last one, battle of Alberta.

Now, Sean, we mentioned earlier that the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning, those guys play in the same state. I don't want to do the old Greg bit, but you don't have state. in Canada. You have something called Providences, I think they're called. That's right. Yep, you got it. And they're in the same one too. Isn't that fun? They are. Isn't that fun? They're like 10 a half hours there.

Yeah. Have been for a while. And they used to play each other a lot. And then they stopped doing that, mainly because They had to talk shit for 20 years. Yeah. Well, and Calgary too. They never even made the playoffs the same year for a long stretch. Yeah, that's true. But it was mainly, like, for you kids out there, imagine Colorado, Detroit when, in like, an era where murder was legal. And that was pretty much what the Battle of Alberta was, which has very, very little

to do with what it will be this time around because, you know, it's neither here nor there given today's league. And Matthew Kachuk's sitting there going, yeah, that would be great. Yeah, let's see. That's, yeah, good point, good point. Boy, I wonder what stupid thing Milan Luchich is going to do in this series. Oh, sure.

Isn't it exciting to try to imagine? Yeah. Like, what's, I wish I could, like, bet the overrunder on, like, Milan Luchichich penalty minutes. Number of times that, like, Mike Smith ominously skates out to the blue line during an otherwise completely, uh, innocent scrum in the Calgary end. Like, it's going to be, it's going to be great.

But it's, yeah, it is going to be fun, man. The crowds are going to be wild. I did like, I don't know if you saw somebody on Twitter tweeted that like we've got the, in round two, we've got the battle of Florida and the battle of Canadian Florida, which is pretty much. That's a good joke. Pretty much bang on. Yeah. I'm looking forward to this. I've been saying for years and years, how much I want to see a battle of Alberta.

It's wild. 31 years for two teams that are in the same division every single year is, is pretty crazy. and it's going to be fun man like you know Connor McDavid did the thing that we all said we were either worried about or looking forward to which is he just went you know what no I'm not I'm not losing this series he went insane no I'm not losing I will drag

everyone else with me we don't know the deal with Leondresaitle it sounds like it's a sprain which is if it's a high ankle spring, that's real hard to play through it. It doesn't heal quick. So that could be a big piece of it. And then, you know, you look at Calgary. Geez, Johnny Gerdrell getting the Game 7 OT goal.

You love to see it. Yeah. It sets up as a great one. Much like that Colorado game last night. That game seven in Calgary was just like, can these fucking guys just score a goal already? Like, oh, my God. Jake Ottinger's like, I might just give up a goal. just to go home.

And that wasn't even like the first game of the series where that happened. God, yeah, I just pulled up the game logs for the playoffs. They had 54 shots in game four. 48, 41 in game 3, 38 in game 6 and

67 in game 7. 67 in a game that went one overtime. That's fucking insane. We have seen some really unbalanced, games in this playoffs in terms of shots and shot attempts and, you know, whatever other metric. And yet a lot of them have ended up being close because of goal tending. In that game seven. Oh, sorry.

Go ahead. Yeah. Well, I'm going to say the difference so far is that mostly it's been the goaltending keeping the worst team in the game, but then the better team still wins. Yep. Which is maybe a better result. Shot attempts in the 75-minute game seven. 134 to 59 for the flames.

Oof. A hundred and thirty four shot attempts in one game. That shouldn't be allowed. That's too many. That's too many, yeah. Ruff's going to come out there. Stop the fight. That's it.

We're done. But yeah, I'll be really interesting to see what this Calgary. Like, I think the Oilers are obviously a better team than Dallas Stars for a bunch of reasons. But, like, I can very. easily see the Calgary Flames just like kind of casually cruising to 40 shots a game. Maybe. You know, let's, you know, let's put it this way. Like the Kings kind of gave the Oilers all they could handle,

and Calgary is a much better team than the Kings. So it'll be interesting. I think this is, as much as we were just saying, like, Tampa and Florida is going to be a fun series. I think this one's guaranteed to be, like, really fun, really, really good. So I'm really looking forward to this one. Yeah, me too. It's going to be great. Yeah.

It should be at least. It should be. This is the NHL, so probably won't be now. Now we ruined it personally. Can't win them all. Probably did. Probably did. Yep, but let's take another break and then we'll come back and talk about all the other stuff that's happened in the last week or so.

Today's episode is brought to you by Trade Coffee, otherwise known as the company that got me away from just buying the same old stuff from the grocery store and whatever was on sale and got me into drinking actual good coffee to start my mornings. Trade coffee connects customers to the freshest and best tasting coffee that they've ever made at home. They do it by partnering with some of the country's best craft roasters. We're talking independent businesses and big cities, small towns, everything in between. I mean, trade customers are truly impactful for these independent roasters and often the largest source of new growth for them. And we're talking expert taste of coffee, trades coffee team actually taste tests everything, thousands of coffees, and they keep 450 different kinds live and ready to ship every day.

There is no one perfect coffee, but there is a perfect coffee for you. And trade's human-powered algorithm will find it. And they even have a first match guarantee. Trade is so confident they'll match you right the first time that if you don't. they'll take your feedback and an actual coffee expert will work with you to send you a brand new bag for free. That's right. Sends freshly roasted beans from 60 of the country's best craft roaster small businesses who pay farmers fair prices to sustain, sustainably source the greatest beans around the world. So whether your friends call you a coffee snob or you just know

coffee when it tastes really perfect or you're like me and you never really put a lot of thought into it and thought that all coffee was the same. Trades real coffee experts, personally taste test, those 450 rows, so they know exactly what to recommend to you. So, right now, trade is offering new subscribers

a total of $30 off your first order plus free shipping when you go to drinktrade.com slash puck. That's more than 40 cups of coffee for free. Get started. You take their quiz at drinktrade.com slash puck. Let trade find

a coffee you'll love. That's drinktrade.com slash puck for $30 off. And don't forget, Father's Day's coming up, trade subscription. It's a perfect gift for the coffee lovers in your life. All right. A couple of items. We mentioned one of them earlier is Vegas did fire Peter DeBore. After all, kind of everybody thought that was coming. You know, two weeks ago, I think we talked about it at length when they got eliminated. So, you know, you know, two weeks ago. I think we talked about it at length. when they got eliminated so not really too much to talk about here except to say I'm really interested to see where they go

with their new hire because they like everybody else except the New York Islanders will be like please Mary Trots come coach us in theory but Vegas is the one team where I'm like that's like it obviously doesn't fit

what they're kind of trying to do like just in their team building philosophy or whatever, that doesn't really line up with. You don't want all these like nine and a half million dollar guys trying to be 60 point forwards, you know? Yeah. But you also want to win. You do.

You do. This is part of, like I think Barry Trots, I've said it many times. I think he may very well be the best coach in the league. I really don't want to see him wind up with like, one of the offense first teams, like one of the exciting teams, but maybe he does. I mean, that's somebody, somebody will hire him. He, we, I found it funny yesterday when you saw the headlines, like the Jets have interviewed

Barry Trots. And I was like, I feel like Barry Trots interviewed the Jets. Correct. Would be more like, wouldn't it? Like, it's, it's him going like, why you? Why should I choose you guys? And I think that's going to have to be the pitch for everybody, but the Jets in particular. because it seems like they're going to try to pretend

like they don't need to rebuild at least for one or two more years. But like Barry Trots, obviously their defense is like not very good like on paper. But the idea of Connor Hullabuck behind Barry Trots team, they're going to give up 40 goals all year. So. But yeah, so for Vegas, like there are a lot of options out there. Like, for whatever you might think of Joel Quenville or even Mike Babcock, like, Vegas is the kind of team that's like, yeah, we'll spend a shitload of money on our coach.

We don't care. Yep, exactly. And those are guys with obviously strong track records, you know, in terms of how they're viewed in the league, certainly. And Quenville's resume speaks for itself at the NHL level, Babcock maybe not so much. But like if they, boy, if they hire Joel Quinville, like, can you fucking imagine how good they would be next year? Yep. Boy, oh boy.

Yep. That's, that's it. And, uh, which again, that's why it was so bizarre that it took this long to make the announcement. But yeah. I still think the only explanation that makes sense is they had to figure out who the front office was going to be before they. you don't want to have a GM fire a coach and then fire the GM a few days later.

But yeah, I don't know. It's, yeah, Pete DeBoer is a good coach, but there was no way going on that. He always seems like he wears out his welcome after two or three years or whatever it is. As many good coaches do. Yeah, absolutely. And then whoever hires him and someone will hire him, it might not be right at the start of the season, but I can't imagine that unless he chooses, he's not going to be out of work for the entire season.

And whoever gets him, boy, that first year Pete DeBoer bump, huh? Yep. Usually works out pretty well for you. So that'll be really interesting. We mentioned, you know, obviously the whole Barry Trots thing, and Lou Lamarillo was like Lynn Lambert, you were already the assistant here. Why don't you just step into the big office?

Yep. Took a few days, but not a huge surprise. No. Any relation? This is... I think I said on the show last week, no relation. And I stick by my story. We're going to ask you every week. You know, it's funny. I don't know. I'm assuming not, but I guess there could be

somewhere in there. I have no idea. It's just fun to see the headlines. Lambert takes over Islanders. Yeah, a couple A couple people added me like, congratulations. Oh, thanks. Yeah, that's right. Until he gets fired. That's right.

40 games into the season. Yeah. But, yeah, it's, um, that's an interesting hire. And I, I loved Lou's explanation where he was like, well, the games Barry Trots missed this year. I thought like, did a great job. Oh, okay. That was, so like a three game audition or whatever it was then. Awesome.

Great. I wonder if he knew that. But yeah. yeah no it's uh i mean this this makes sense you never know with lou right and and like we said last week i'm i remain surprised every time i see like you know a photo of lane lambert or like you know how old he is because i've just in my head he's like the bright-eyed 40 year old and he's not so he waited for his chance he's finally got it the maybe not the most patient environment but i'm sure he'll he'll take it yeah i again you know

Now we get to see how much of it was just like Oh, Barry Trots is a coaching genius And Mitch Korn is a goaltending coaching genius I do want to see like if Mitch Korn sticks around Because he's not Apparently he does not have a personal services contract With Barry Trots Right imagine if he was if he was Lane Lambert's guy

This whole fucking time He's not very he's like I really kind of don't like Barry Trots But Lane Lambert Oh that guy kicks ass I love him He's my dude Yeah that would be great That would rule But yeah, so, you know, we've said it, I think, every week for the last two months.

There are going to be so many coaches. Oh, I guess we should briefly talk about that Vancouver and Boudreau figured it out. He's going to be their coach next year. Not really a surprise, I feel like, but they kind of kept a suspense a little there. That was fun. The way it played out was weird. Yes. But all is well that ends well.

and all as well that ends with Bruce Boudreau in the league and in a prominent role. So not a lot of job security. Nope. No. So Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, technically Edmonton and Florida, but it feels like both those guys are just going to get the jobs. Technically Montreal, but it feels like San Luis going to get the job. Technically Nashville, but since John Hines is doing their post-season availability,

It seems like he's sticking around Philadelphia, Seattle, Vegas, and Winnipeg. That's still a lot of the league that's going to be... And Seattle, we're not sure on, right?

Like, we think... We've seen them show up on a few lists of coach, you know, contract up, but I don't ever see them listed when the insiders dive into it. Yeah.

Yep. So, yeah, we'll... Maybe should be, but, yeah. That is so, yeah, there's going to be lots of, lots of movement. And it, it kind of feels, well, let's see. I, I'm curious to see if any of those teams hired somebody before Barry Trots makes his decision. Yeah, I think you kind of can't. Or is everybody waiting for Barry Trots?

You know, it's like, it's like July, well, I guess it's not, it hasn't been July 1 in a couple of years. But it's like, okay, the big guy, like, the big guy, like, the big guy, like, a big free agent signed. Okay, now we can go with the rest of the... Everybody else, like every domino starts to fall. Because even if you're one of those teams, even if you're like, you're Chicago, and you're like, yeah, Barry Trots wouldn't make sense for us. There's probably coaches out there that maybe you want to talk to,

and those coaches are waiting for Barry Trots to decide, because then that gives them more teams to talk to and more leverage. I'm not saying a coach would turn down a job now, because these things are hard to get, but I just feel like this could be the log jam. Or it could be an opportunity for someone else to move quickly on something and get in, steal a guy before anyone else can. Yeah, like you say, if you're Chicago or Detroit,

and you're like, yeah, Barry Trots isn't the guy for us. But this other guy is you can go in and kind of maybe make a splash, but it really does just feel like Trots is going to set the market because he's going to probably get a bunch of money and all the coaches want to also get a bunch of money. The other thing is, you know, if you're a GM and you go to your owner and say, I want to talk to Barry Trots,

but this guy's going to want $5 million a year, maybe your owner says, forget it, or maybe your owner says, yeah, well, I would do that for an elite coach. And you don't get Barry Trots. Now your owner's sitting there going, well, what are we doing with that $5 million? And now does that help push a Joel Quenville back into interview? Or, you know, Mike Babcock?

would probably wouldn't be at that level, but once you've talked yourself into the big name, veteran crusty guy, does that end up being the lane you have to stay in? Yep, absolutely. All right, let's talk about the awards nominations that have come out since we did the show. The Hart Trophy for the league's MVP

is voted by the media. Us and Matthews, Karah McDavid, Igor Shisirkin. Who you got? Can't really argue. I mean, I think that would have had Matthews. That's a pretty clear one through three. Yeah, I think, I mean, you could make a case for Johnny Girdreau or other guys and, you know, Jerry Robertson.

Well, we're about to make a case for somebody else in a second when we talk about the Ted Lindsay Award. But, yeah, I'd be if I were voting, I'm a shisterking guy all the way. Okay. I think you can make a pretty clear case for either Matthews or McDavid, but I think with Chisirkin, you just go, well, the Rangers. And everybody goes, yeah, absolutely fair enough. Yep. Yeah, no, I don't have a ton to even say on this one just because there's not, you know,

there isn't that weird. It always bugs me with this stuff when, you know, somebody will go, wow, Johnny Goddrow deserve to be a finalist. And it's like, okay, who are you taking out? I don't know if I'm taking someone out, but he deserved to be there. And it's like, oh, it's, we got three, man. Now, let's see the voting. Yeah.

It could be, you know, the voting could go in a weird direction. But, yeah, I mean, so far, seems like they got it right. Yeah. So the Lindsay, the most outstanding player, as voted by the members of the NHLPA, Matthews, McDavid, Roman Yosey. A little surprising. I mean, you would think players maybe would understand the goaltenders more, or rate goaltenders more importantly than us lazy media who only look at the points.

But maybe they also do for defensemen. You know, the Yossi versus McCar thing was always going to be interesting. And remember though, the Lindsay is the best player. It's not the most valuable. Yeah, most outstanding. Yeah. Overlaps quite a bit in practice. So I don't know.

If the players think that Yosie's better than Macar, that's interesting. You know, as opposed to just being more valuable. But, yeah. Again, don't hate it. Yeah, like I say, a little surprising just because, you know, it could have been Jason Robertson, it could have been Johnny Godreau, it could have been Igor Shusirkin,

and everybody would go, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. You know, but. I think that's fair. I think this is going to be one of the years where they split the votes. I think probably Shusirkin should win.

I wouldn't be surprised if Matthews wins. I'd be kind of surprised if McDavid wins. But I think McDavid will win the Lindsay. Okay. That is my prediction. All right. Yeah, that's interesting. I could see it.

Yeah. Absolutely seen it. The next day, we got the Masterton, Zadanochara, Kevin Hayes, Carrie Price, all extremely deserving, unless you're Craig Morgan, who had a meltdown. Okay, you got to explain this to me, because I missed this entire. Okay. Craig Morgan, the day they announced, like quote tweets, the NHL public relations Twitter account and says SMH

Coyotes F Andrew Ladd absolutely deserved to be a finalist Okay And then he responded to somebody Three major Eastern hockey markets Get finalists One of those candidates has an argument over Ladd The other two do not

Hmm Okay Um and then he Did he indicate which one was the Well he indicated Craig Morgan I don't know

this is another response so I got a little tripped up there sorry you want to reward price question mark do it when he actually returns not when he makes a cameo appearance in meaningless games

at the tail end of the season ridiculous okay um and then bad news for Craig about who's going to win yeah and then someone replied to him

100% agree. Price played in a handful of games. Chara, I guess he is on here for playing one more season than he should have, at which Craig Morgan replies, which is the argument some are making against Ladd. The logic in this voting is incomprehensible to me. Hmm. I can't imagine caring this much about the Masterton Award, especially because you're like, oh, everything think Carrie Price went through this year? Fuck you, Carrie Price. Yeah. Just a bizarre.

Like, we've said it a bunch of times, like, guys who are, like, stumping for their, for the guys they cover to win a major award or whatever. This is, like, barely a major award, first of all. Yeah. As much as, and I've, I've said in the past, yeah, go ahead. My cranky view of the Masterton is I already don't love the way, the media gets so behind the low, like we write these glowing press releases for the players.

But this is it. Andrew Ladd, by the way, 50 games, 12 points. Good that he played. Yeah. And that he played well. But I mean, this is also a guy who was clearly a contract dump, clearly would not have been in the NHL if it wasn't for the situation of what the coyotes are doing. I don't know. I don't vote on the major awards.

I did vote for the Masterton. I don't think I gave a lot of thought to Andrew Ladd. I get... Oh, Sean, don't say that. You're not allowed to say that? It's incomprehensible. But, yeah, I don't know. Like, that's the thing is, like, okay, you want to say Andrew Ladd absolutely deserved to be a finalist?

Okay, sure. That's fine with me. You don't attack an SMH on there. You don't shaking my head about that. You know, like, I almost, I really do almost get the argument of, well, Zadano, I mean, come on, Zadano Chara. Yeah. It's just that he's old. Is that it?

Like, I definitely get that argument. It is, but the award is not in this, we get into this every year. The award is not supposed to be the, like, you know, after school special overcoming adversity. No, of course. who had the worst thing happened to him, a word. It's supposed to be commitment and everything. And yeah, play until you're 43 or whatever.

Does show great commitment. But, yeah. And so does coming back. I mean, Andrew Ladd, a lot of people thought this guy was just done. A lot of people are probably finding out for the first time right now that he wasn't done. And that he was playing in Arizona. So I get it. I don't get the level of frustration.

Yeah, that's the thing that I was. just like, he's still tweeting about this. Huh. I just, I just, I can't possibly imagine being that mad about anybody. And especially to be like, Carrie Price, boy, what a joke. Really? Yeah. That's a super.

When you said like one guy deserves it, I thought, I assumed he was talking about Carrie Price, who we all agree is, is going to win. Yeah. I think. Like, and, and, and, you know, you can, if you, you can, if you, if you, if you, want to really throw your hands up and say, oh, I can't believe. Like, you can do that for most guys that are Masterton finalists. So, yeah. Yeah, especially because you can, you can move the goalposts all over the place on what it should be. Yeah. So, yeah. For the record, my theory,

I voted Price Hayes and Anthony Declare in some order where Declare was my third guy. SMH. That's SMH to me. Is it incomprehensible, though? Comprehensible. I'm furious that that guy was your third place Masterton pick or whatever. The Selke, Alexander Barkoff, Patrice Bergeron, Elias Lindhol? Now that, I'm SMH on Elias Lindhol. He's not going to win. Patrice Bergeron's going to win. Yeah, it doesn't, that's the thing. Like we're talking about who got, we're going to find out that he got like 14 points to finish third ahead of 13 points for somebody else. but um linholm uh i guess the i guess the thing you would say is he was set he's a center who is second in the league in plus minus and had a bunch of points really nice season uh you know obviously not the complete 200 foot player that burseron and barkov are blah blah blah also i think probably um you know you would say matthew kachuk was the defensive driver on that line all that stuff but burserun's

going to win it and this isn't even a reputation award burseran absolutely was the best 200-foot player in the league this year. No question about it. He's going to set the record for most Selke's in a career. I would say some of them were just reputation awards. This is the reputation award award. But this year, he won million percent deserves it, and that rocks. I love it.

Yep. And he will get it, and it will potentially even be close to unanimous. And then next year, Bobhouse is going to be. Yeah. And then next year, Barkov's going to be the reputation guy because he didn't win it this year. And he didn't really deserve to win it, but, you know, he's not not deserved to win it for a few years. So fair enough. And then just right before we were about to start talking about the awards, the Lady Bing nominees came out.

Kyle Connor, Jacob Slavin, Jared Spurgeon, give it to Jacob Slavin again this year. That'll be fun. You don't see too many two-time Lady Bing winners out here. Yep. And it's, you know, the whole thing is just, I don't care about the lady being remotely, but it is fun. It is fun given, you know, that Jared Spurgeon got to, tried to break a dude's ankle in the playoffs. I forgot so. That is, that is a little bit amusing. This is a fun league, isn't it, folks? It is. Speaking of which, just, just real, real quick, we should, we should at least, since we were on the Arizona thing, we should talk about their, uh, they, they, they have. they have been warned they have to be on their best behavior for their new arena.

I have that on the outline as the coyotes have to be good little boys. Yeah, okay, that sounds about right. They do. So Katie Strang, who is on the coyotes are a tire fire beat these days. Busy, busy lady. Really busy. Got a hold of the contra. It was Strang and who.

Was it also somebody else? Who was it? Sean Shapiro maybe Could be Yeah They got a hold of the agreement Between the Arizona Coyotes and Arizona State That basically says

You know The Coyotes will have to not be Delinquent in paying their bills And all the other stuff That could just make everybody look bad Was basically Yeah and the owner as well basically can't be himself, it sounds like so.

Yeah. So, it was funny. Of course it's embarrassing. It was funny. Everybody kind of took away from it that it would be like a huge Arizona state logo at Center Ice and it would say the Sun Devils are the only team that plays here. But it was very quickly just like they're not going to change over the logo at Cendor Ice. center ice every game, which makes perfect sense, obviously. And they do get to change, I think, the ads on the boards, but like the coyotes have to do

it themselves. Yeah, spared no expense. Yeah, like Shane Don't's got to be out there, just, you know, the little wallpapering brush trying to put them up. That's right. But I will say this. You know what I do miss about the NHL? Just one small logo on either side of the red line.

Yeah. One facing one direction, one facing the other. That's fun to me. That's great. Don't get that anymore. You know what else I miss is actual logos and not virtual ones that appear to swallow a player as he skates through them and pixelates them and all that. That was fun as well. Well, I actually do kind of like that because I just sometimes I like to think like, oh, Capital One just ate John Carlson.

Yeah. That's it. And it is also fun when it's like some local, you know, like, oh, wow, this local used car website from Canada has bought the ice at Madison Square Gardens. Good for them. Yeah, you know, it's funny you say that. I never thought about that. That obviously they have different ads for different broadcasts. Yeah, swap them in. Were you one of the many people affected by the messed up feeds for whatever cable company in the Yes, last night we had, last night, the bell cable went down for much of Ontario and Quebec,

which I'm here with my, with my parents this week. So you can imagine how that just completely threw the entire night into disarray. And who, thank God the Leafs weren't playing, man. If that had been game one of the Leaf's first round two in a million years and the cable had gone down, that there would have been some, there would have been even, more very, very angry people. That's right. But yeah, that's it.

We're done. I don't have anything else to talk about, really, I don't think. And, of course, this is Puck Soup. So the second this happens, the Boston Bruins have fired Bruce Cassidy. Oh, okay. Yeah, exactly. He only has one year left, by the way. I left the coach's contract tab open, and I just saw it as I was closing some tabs.

only one year left. That'll be interesting. Could be. You know who else? Now that I say that, Peter Lavillette only has one year left. That's one where you can see. He's another guy that has a four-year shelf life, so he's right about there. Yep. And then he'll go somewhere else and be a real good coach there. Yeah, really good coach. You've got to like them for those first four years.

But yeah, that's it. Sean, why don't you say your plugs now? find me on the athletic I have I don't know what I've died I had a Leafs mailbag today I had a Leafs kind of wrap up

postmortem debate with myself on Monday I think on Friday I'm going to update my how I did on my oddly specific predictions and I've got a podcast with Ian Mendez

tomorrow where I get to be sad about the Leafs again for people's amusement yeah finally You've just not been afforded enough opportunities in the last few years. Exactly. And then for me, elite prospects, obviously, P. Rinkside, I have a series that I do in the playoffs where I look at every team's cap situation and go, what are these guys going to do this summer? Are they going to change their coach?

Are they going to let their free agents walk? That kind of thing. Basically, within an hour or two of everybody getting eliminated, unless they get eliminated at like 1.30 in the first. morning, which has happened a couple times in these playoffs, I will have that up and ready to go for you guys. So check that out. And if you want to sign up for, oh, and the other thing is Dimitri and Jay Fresh are doing series previews for every series. So those guys are really smart, much more than me. And they're saying all the good stuff that's very nice about every team and series

the entire rest of the playoffs. So check that out as well. And if you want to sign up for an annual subscription to EP Rinkside, it is the code I love EP, all one word, all capital letters, and that I believe, maybe the capitalization doesn't matter. I don't know, I've never signed up for it.

But they'll tack three months on at the end of your subscription for zero extra dollars. So that's an extra quarter of a year for free. Wow, what a bargain. And then check out the Puck Soup Patreon. Last week, me and Sean did a bonus episode, changing the results of various playoff series throughout the last 40 years or so

to get better matchups than the next round and talking about what would be different if those things happened. So that was a fun little exercise, and then we got a bunch of bonus episodes for other various. Puck Soup adjacent podcasts coming in the next few days and a week or so as well.

So keep an eye out for all that if you want to swing by patreon.com slash Puck Soup. And that's it. Thank you for listening. Thank you for the support as always. And we'll talk to you next week. Bye bye. Bye-bye. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons.

We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. But we also cover movies. Movies, TV shows, it's in tools. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. Box two.