Puck Soup - The Wait Is Over

Episode Date: May 19, 2026

Sean and Ryan talk about the conference finals, the eliminated teams, and more.  

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McAnew from The Athletic. And we're finally out of the second round. It took longer than I thought it would, quite frankly, to get a winner in that Buffalo Montreal series. Really? You were not in on the, this is going seven from the opening face-off? No, I guess what it really... It's funny, I guess, because I thought the Habs were going to win it in six.

on home ice, but it just didn't work like that in the series, really. I guess both teams did when, both teams did when their first home game, but then lost every other one, is that right? Yeah. Something like that, yeah. Yeah. But game seven overtime, what more can you ask for? Not much. That was a fun game. It was a fun game. But in the end, you know, let me, let me start you off with this, Sean. Did you think the better team one. I think either of those teams in that series could convince themselves that they deserve the

win. I think the Sabres were better for some pretty decent stretches last night. I mean, the second and third period were Buffalo periods, and there's a little bit of score effect there where you're already up to nothing, sure. So, you know, in that sense, did the best team win? I mean, put it this way. It didn't feel, I didn't come out of this feeling like I did after the Tampa Game 7 where you're like, wow, Montreal just pulled an escape act. They really got away with one there.

This was more like, you know, the Sabres had it. The Sabres were, they were right there, but I can't say the Habs didn't deserve to win that game. Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it. It's funny because, like, I said it last night, but I felt like if they didn't close it out in regulation, they weren't going to find that extra oomph in overtime because, like you say, they, especially the second period, but even the third period, too, they completely, I thought, carried it. It did, like, the score was part of that, but didn't it kind of feel like the fatigue was catching up with Montreal a little? bit. Didn't you feel like you were watching a tired team against a team that still had enough legs to get them through? Yeah, a little bit for sure. You know, I think that when the Sabres were looking their best at various points this year, not just like in this series, they could kind of do this to teams a little bit. But ultimately, what it boils down to is that in the regular season, for example, you had your best players being your best players. for the sabers, you know, like Thompson, Tuck, like these were,

there's a reason they were saying Alex Tuck's going to make $70 billion this offseason, right? And it's, and it's, that number may have dropped a little bit in the last couple weeks. Yeah, and isn't that the whole thing, right?

Like, what did Thompson do at five on five in the series? I think he had one goal, something like that. Maybe, yeah, goal and an assist. What did,

what did Alex Tuck do? And was the goal? that was his 5-and-5 goal? Was that the stanchion goal? Yeah, I believe it was, yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. And what did Alex talk to?

He didn't do shit in this series. Like, I don't want to say completely invisible, but for a guy that's supposed to be the guy who's driving games for you and stuff like that, as invisible as you would kind of not want him to reach, I guess. You know, like, yeah, no points for Alex Tuck in the series. Yeah, not really much of an impact. Not a point. Minus 8, which, you know, plus minus. But when the number gets higher than the number of games played in either direction.

Yeah, I would score it 8 to 1 at 5 on 5 when he's on the ice. And this is the crucial part for me, right? Is like underlying numbers, 54% of the chorusy, 53% of the shots for, 47% of the expected goal. So it's not like he was, they were giving up a lot of high dangers when he was on the ice. At five on five.

You know what I mean? And so, like, maybe you don't say a guy who's like a winger who's on the older side is the problem there. But again, they needed him to be the difference maker. And he was like, I'm good.

Thank you, though. It's about right. It's tough. Like, Montreal's best player, showed up and I mean the guy who really showed up was Alex Newhook right like yeah

an unbelievable series five goals at five on five in the series can't do better than that really you know pretty tough um and so yeah like at the end of the day because here's the other thing

it's not like Caulfield had an unbelievable series right No, he is especially off the power. Slavkovsky. Didn't do much. Like, you can go down the list. The Canadian's best players weren't necessarily their best players. They were, you know, Demadov had his moments and stuff like that.

But, like, Alex Neuhoek is the MVP of the series, in my opinion. And I guess the other thing is, like, Doebish, apart from that one game, was plenty good enough to carry it through. where, again, Buffalo didn't really feel like they had a goalie. Yep. Yeah, and I mean, the Sabres wound up back with their guy. And that was the right call, by the way. I'm not putting aside everything I'm about to say. I think going to UPL in game seven was absolutely the right call.

Yeah, I would agree with that. But, I mean, what did you think of the OT winner? winner. Not great. I mean, it was it was a little bit of like a moving screen and maybe he was anticipating a tip or something like that, but it was a bit of a whiff. I can't remember where I saw it, but yeah, someone, someone said like you can kind of count on him to give up one stinky goal a game and maybe you don't want it to be in-saving it for overtime. Yeah, I don't want it to be an overtime of a game set. I would have, but I would have told him to do it on the first shot and then you have the rest of the game to figure it out.

Yeah. So where are we with the HABs? Is this, they seem to do this once or twice a decade. Is this, has Cinderella arrived at the ball? Are we doing all that stuff? Or is this just a team that is pretty good

that has also gotten a bit lucky in back-to-back game sevens? they've definitely gotten a bit lucky I think that's like undenay I think you could you know you could say well you know they found a way to win and all that kind of stuff but what do they have nine shots on goal in the game seven against Tampa

yeah something like that and I just don't know how you could with a straight face as a Canadians fan go like oh yeah we feel like we're rock and roll in here like everything's going our way like they didn't have the best series here and they won anyway credit to them.

Yep. But I don't know. Like, it doesn't exactly fill me with confidence that they're going to saunter into the Eastern Conference final and go, boys, we got this one. I mean, ultimately, this is like, uh, uh, rest versus rust like to the extreme, like the all time, the most rest versus rust you could kind of possibly have. One team that went to two game sevens, the second one was an overtime game seven, and the other one in NHL record 12 days off between rounds. And not for the first time because they also swept the first round.

So, I mean, that, I don't know what to make of it as a consequence, right? Like, 12 days off is insane. We've never seen anything like this and this extreme. And the conventional wisdom on Russ versus rest is that the rested team has an advantage in the long run, but game one, it might flip the other way. Yeah. Which makes sense, but also, I mean, who knows? Put it this way.

I'm guessing the Carolina Hurricanes and coach Rod Brindamore were probably not just sitting around eating Cheetos for two weeks. Yeah, they got one day. off, maybe two, and then he was like, okay. Yeah. Everyone gets a day off. That means only eight hours in the wait room instead of 10. It's your cheat day. That's right.

Yeah, I really don't know what to make of this series. I guess I will pick the team I think is better in that I think Carolina is the better team. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But like if you told me, you know, Coughfield has a good series. and Freddie Anderson turns into playoff, Freddy, like... See, that's the one that really concerns you on the... Absolutely.

The Rust scale, because you had a goalie who was red-hot playing some of the best hockey we've ever seen from him. Him having two weeks off is not ideal. No. By the way, did you see they asked Dobish after the game? Yeah. Yeah, you've never played this many games, right? Like, this is crazy.

This is kind of a grueling schedule. And he's like, wait, me? You're talking about me? No, I can play 40 more like this. This is no problem for me. He could. And he was, like, he was fun with it. And, like, this is, when you're a goalie and you're winning and you talk like that, everyone loves it.

Yeah. Now, he has one bad game and everyone will be like, maybe this rookie should stop running his mouth and, you know, all that nonsense. But, yeah, he was, he's fine. I feel pretty good about the goaltending if I'm a Habs fan. Yeah. Like, all right. No, like, again, they would have kind of put the fear in you in game six. Like, oh, shit, this guy doesn't have it.

He's a bum. It's all over. Turn it back into a pumpkin. And then in game seven, he's extremely good. Yep. Let's see here. What did they have for expect? I don't have it in front of me.

But, yeah, I mean, they, he certainly saved several goals above expected over the course of the series I would have to think. About six, it looks like. And that's just a five-on-five. So on the one hand, I don't think he's that good reliably. Like, I think he's a good goalie. I don't think there are too many goalies where it's like, oh, yeah, he's going to save about one goal above expected per game at five-on-five alone.

Probably not. But given the match-up, who's in the other crease? Maybe. Maybe. I swear, I don't remember, like, how Carolina was playing. Like, I, I would have to go back and check my fucking notes. Like, what color uniform do they wear? I don't.

Well, it's the NHL, so it's either black or red, maybe blue. Well, they probably, yeah, they probably got like 18 different ones. You see, I think was Emily Kaplan reported that the Sabres were thinking about, wearing the black uniforms last night? Yeah, it was because Lindy Ruff wore like the black jumpsuit or whatever for for morning skate or practice or something, I think. And so people were like reading into that. And Emily just like kind of asked and was told.

Because they would have been fined. But they, I guess you could, they would have a great league. So you can, you have rules about what uniforms you can wear. But you can actually just wear whatever you want. Yeah. You just got to cut them a check. And why would you want to cut them a check normally? But sometimes what if we want to have fun out there?

Yeah. What if we want to wear our way worse uniforms? Oh, yeah. I think the current Buffalo... I feel like just the fact that they even considered it may have been enough to anger the hockey gods. They had the whole Adams Division storyline laid out and then you're going to switch to... You save those ones for Carolina. Because that's your revenge of 2006.

Sure. But the other thing is, too, though, like, I just kind of think it's loser-brain shit to be like, if we wear different shirts, we're going to, you know what I mean? Like, grow up. Are you guys serious or what here? I got bad news for you about what it's like around here at playoff time. Oh, yeah, I'm sure. I can still make my kids.

I can still, like, make one of my kids sit in the shed for. there's not that many bees out there it's actually fine you know what I wanted to say this too how about Phil Deno how about yeah that's oh I forgot like we can dump on

on Tuck and Thompson and all that but he was like he was a key to the series purely based on what he was doing defensively and then he scored last night and then he scores

And I got to say, like, when the Habs traded for them, didn't it feel like a little bit like they were getting out over their skis a bit? Like, what do you guys need? You really need the shutdown center playoff warrior type for, you know, your second ever playoff appearance. Well, what it really felt like was like, oh, that's nice. That's nice that they're doing that for the old man who sucks now. You know what I mean?

Like, boy, have I? Whatever team traded him away, it's good. thing, they didn't play any really good centers in the playoffs. Yeah, it's true. They could have used to Philip Dono. That's, hmm. So, you know what? I'm looking at this.

He had four assists in this series as well at five on five. He was their second leading score. I think you get bored of just shutting down to H. Thompson. That's crazy. So, yeah, I'm really excited for this Eastern Conference final. I think they can maybe cook up some real fun stuff. What it is at the end of the day for me is who would be surprised if it's another sweep? But I just don't see it.

I think this one's kind of going six, maybe seven. You got the team that always sweeps against the team that wins road games. Yep. Game seven. Yep. Pretty cool. Yeah, you want to do the Western. conference final night?

Yeah, might as well. Hell, hell, why not? This is another good one. We got a really good conference final. I don't know if you saw this, but somebody pointed out to me that if the Sabres had won last night, it would have been the first time ever in the NHL that the top seed in all four divisions made the final four. And in fact, even if you count the six division years, there had never been two division winners in each conference final. Wow.

So we nearly had it, and Montreal ruined it. But we still have, I mean, Colorado, Vegas, I think an awful lot of us would have pointed to that at the start of the season. Sure. Like, you know, all respect to, well, it probably would have been Dallas and Edmonton. I don't, we didn't have Minnesota as a top team back then. But you're thinking, like, yeah, this will be where we'll wind up. And, yeah, and it should be.

and Colorado is going to be a big favorite, rightfully so, but this Vegas team can beat anybody. They are, it's like we've been saying in the last couple of weeks. They're like the crafty veteran, like, throw sand in your eye kind of, uh, win by hook or by crook team, like, exemplified in a lot of ways. And, you know, we, we obviously haven't done the podcast since they closed out their series. but if you look at how they did Anaheim kind of

pushed them around for a good chunk of that series and it just never felt like it mattered, did it? You know, like basically every underlying number was in Anaheim's favor except high danger chances. That's the only one. And that was like,

Vegas was plus one in the series or something like that. And I think that there are like kind of two key factors to that. One is, again, Wiley veterans, they have a lot of good shutdown players. And Anaheim has a lot of guys who have never been in a playoff before in their lives, at least, you know, at the NHL level. And the other thing is, were you going to stop Mitch Marner, the greatest player in the history of hockey?

The greatest clutch player, Mr. May? He looks fucking phenomenal, man. All right. So I got to say this. The whole Marner thing has been really overdone and beaten to death, and it's too much. And also, that breakaway goal was one of the sickest things I've ever seen. Maybe the greatest playoff goal of all time. Like that conversation.

And I was watching it, like, in real time. And I'm, like, because I'm already in full eye roll mode over the Mitch. Martin. Yeah, of course. You have to play her ever because he scored a couple empty neck goals. And I'm just like, he's going in. And I'm like, here we go. What do you got, Mitchie?

And he did that. And I was like, all right. I'm just going to sit down. I'm going to take the L on this one. Just going to maybe watch a movie or something tonight. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there's just kind of nothing you can.

Look, I don't really have any other way to talk about this. But like, did you see what Victor Wimbunyama did last night? I did. And I didn't fully understand it because I'm not a basketball guy, but my various timelines have been flooded with people flipping out. And yeah. A seven foot four guy hitting a 30 foot three-pointer. I saw that. That I'm assuming was AI because I know that that's not supposed to happen.

I mean, it was crazy. But someone posted just like, what would the equivalent of that be in the NHL? The Mitch Marner goal, but like if Mitch Marner was a guy that shouldn't be able to move like that. Yeah, that's a great, that's a great example. I mean, look, so the thing is, Victor Wambayama, after the, so for people who didn't see, he put up 41 points against the reigning NBA champions in a double overtime game. I think it was 24 rebounds, three blocks, 20 shots where he like affected the trajectory such that they missed. because he was just playing.

He's the best defensive player in the world right now. Is that a stat now? Do we have? Yeah, they have that, yeah. Oh, that's cool. And, like, he talks an insane amount of shit as well, which is awesome. And after the game, there was a reporter who asked him, like, do you, do you kind of, like, are you kind of taking this series personally?

Because Shea Gilgis Alexander, like, is the two-time MVP, and you felt like you should have been the MVP instead. And he was like, yeah, that's right. That's exactly right. And it's like, man. Oh, God. Can you imagine one NHL player doing that? Yeah.

No, I can't. You cannot. But he was like, yeah, no, that's exactly, that's exactly how I feel about it. You're correct. And I went into their building and I, I mean, the real, the real thing on, and I'll tie this back to the, this is like if Marner had scored that goal and like the whole building had just gone like fucking whisper quiet. Like, did you see the difference in crowd audio before and after that three?

It's fucking crazy. There's just a guy in the background that kind of puts his hand, like his face in his hands. Yeah, and you hear the impact of the face. Yeah, it's crazy, man. But again, this is like if Marner was like, yeah, fuck Nathan McKinnon also. You know what I mean? Like, oh, it would have been awesome. But yeah, it was, it's that level of an individual performance right now for

Marner to for me. Like he's just, he's just going off in a way that I'll put it this way. Obviously, he's a great player. Obviously, Vegas is a great team. I don't think that you would have said they have a player capable of rising to that going into this series. You know what I mean? Well, yeah, I mean, you would have thought that Eichael would be the guy and he hasn't.

And even then, like, you're not looking to Eichel and you're saying like, and he's going to be playing transcendent offensive hockey. The kind of way that Eichael plays doesn't lend itself to highlight reels necessarily. It's more of a lockdown thing. And he makes goals look easy to score, right? Like, he can very effortlessly do a lot of things that, like, I think of the Siddines as being able to do. The Siddines aren't flashy players.

And Jack Eichael, I don't think of as a flashy player necessarily. But Mitch Marner's like, oh, yeah, the 360 behind the back, like, between the legs goal. That's actually no problem for me. I just, I never, I've seen a lot of Mitch Marner play off hockey. I've never seen anything close to this level of, like, it's all going so easily for me. Who could have seen this coming? For real, though. Like, leaving aside all the Toronto jokes, everything you want,

I think that shit's overplayed, as I've said plenty of times before. This is a level of hockey from Mitch Marner that like, if Connor McDavid scored that that goal, you would have been like, hold on, what? And Mitch Marner just like, it does not feel like this was in his bag of tricks ever. Yeah, the goal was wild. I do wonder and we'll find out how much of it is opponent versus how

much of it is Mitch just fighting another level. And there's definitely a big chunk of the second one. I just don't know. Oh, I don't think Anaheim is very good. For sure. Because I think you could argue that

Anaheim and Utah were the second and third weakest teams that he's faced in the playoffs. Oh, yeah. Short of the 2021 habs. I'm not counting the bubble there. No, but that like all the other.

series that he got dumped on for, he was playing lead level teams. Yes. And maybe not so much here. But, I mean, those teams were right around Vegas in the standing. And all you can do is play the teams they put in front of you. That's all you can do. You're in a crappy division. Good.

Win the division. And they did pretty easily. Yep. Nice of Anaheim to hang around, I guess. Like, they had, what would you say? Like, they had like some stuff where you could go, oh, that's something for the future. Benet Zeneca, I thought, had a perfectly good series. You know, Dostel was...

He was not great. He wasn't great, but he also wasn't bad. Like, I don't think he's the reason they lost the series or anything like that. He wasn't the reason they lost the series, but he had, he has the worst numbers of any goalie, any starting goalie in the playoffs, not counting the guys who played, like, one game, like the Philip Gustafson guys. Of guys with multiple starts, he has the worst numbers. I believe, though, like, wasn't, yeah, it seems like he was okay at five on five and like horrible in all situations.

I mean, he doesn't have a great defense. And here's what it is. And again, I don't. Here's what it is. He gave up five short-handed goals in the series. Wow. That's too many. I'm going to go ahead and agree with you.

And obviously you want your goalies to stop shots when you're on the penalty kill or whatever. But like at a certain point to what you were saying, you need the team in front of you to not put you in a position to give up five short-handed goals. They're supposed to be all the way at the other end of the ice. I can't imagine anyone pointing at him and saying, that's why they lost.

Right. But there was no path to the ducks going deep into the playoffs where he was good. good and he wasn't good. No, that, yeah. At the end of the day, that's sad. That's right. And also I think, you know, Cutter Gautier, that's a guy with the ability to put a lot of goals on the board, zero goals in the series.

You know? And I'm sure if you dig into the matchups, it's like, yeah, he played one minute without Jack Eichel stapled to him. And it's like, okay, well, that's how that's going to go. But, yeah. It's, I think this is what I would say about Buffalo as well. Taking it as a whole, it felt like they got here unexpectedly. And maybe both teams you would say unexpectedly early. Like next year was maybe the year they were supposed to have it all figured out, you might say.

Buffalo is a little older than them, though, in certain ways. Try it again next year. This is fine. Like, whatever, you got out of the first round. Yeah, Anaheim especially, this is, this, this, even being in the second round was house money. They beat a really good, well, they beat a really talented Oilers team, a flawed team clearly, but a team that not a lot of us picked them to beat,

you build off this. This is the learning experience. This is, you know, all of that good stuff. I think you come out of, I think you could make a case that the Ducks will come out of this playoffs happier than any team. other than whoever wins the cup. And Montreal would be right there as well. But as far as what they accomplished,

I don't think we need to over-analyze it. Super young team, got some good experience, prove they could hang. Now you figure out how to take the next step. Yeah, aren't they one of the youngest teams in the league, too? Like, that's the... Mm-hmm. Now, did you see the stat that Montreal

is the youngest, Conference finalists since 1993. I did not see that stat. That's crazy. Which is kind of surprising. And again, speaking of getting there earlier than expected, right? Like they're... Montreal is, in fact, the youngest team in the league.

Average age of 26.2. Anaheim, fifth youngest, 27.7. And that's with, you know, a bunch of guys who are, like, late pick. You know, John Carlson is bringing up that age curve a little bit. and that kind of thing. Chris Kreider, not exactly a spring chicken, et cetera. So, yeah, there's, there's all the reason in the world to be optimistic if you're, we'll do losers' corner on them a little deeper in a minute.

But, yeah, there's nothing to hang your head about here. You just got beat by a team that is better and way more experienced than you. That's life. Let's talk about the abs. another team that I don't I don't think I've seen play in three months. Let's talk about when's the last time they played?

It's been... Last Wednesday. Yeah, it's been almost a week. They've had, which feels better to me. This feels closer to the right amount of time off. Yeah. I feel like a week is probably anything up to that I'm okay with,

but after that you start to worry, I think. And yeah, and they are, what's interesting is unlike Carolina, every team has got injuries and problems and stuff going on we don't know about. But Colorado, like, Kail McCar look like he was being held together with duct tape. Absolutely. At the end of that Minnesota series. So is he, you would assume he's better now, but is he back to 100%, probably not? Is he, is his shoulder going to pop out every time he gets hit?

Maybe. Well, I guess we'll find out. Because he's going to get hit. I'll tell you. Vegas is, I don't think it's too hard to figure out what part of the strategy is going to be in that series. Let's see how much McCar can handle. So that, yeah, that's a big part of it. But I don't know.

The odds came out this morning and they had both series at about 70% for the favorite, Carolina, Colorado. Yeah, that feels. I feel like that's about right. Yeah, that feels about right. I might actually even go, I think Colorado might be even a little stronger than that, honestly. Yeah, it's, it's, again, like, a Vegas is much better than a 93 point team or whatever they, they've finished. We don't know the Mark Stone situation quite yet. That could matter a lot.

Yep. But beyond that, I just, Vegas has done a great job against the teams that the format put in front of them, but Colorado is not that. No. And they're going to really, like the margin for, you can beat Colorado in today's NHL, any team. Yeah, I don't think. The margin for error is small. Yep. And what it really boils down to for me is this is a goaltending matchup.

Do you trust any goalie in, in this? series? Not really. You know, where you're like, and frankly, I think you had some stat on Dovish earlier, but it's like, is he the most trustworthy goalie left in the playoffs? Like, that's crazy. And yet. I mean, I'm kind of trusting Freddie now, but you're right. Like, it's, it's, uh, this in the West, you're not completely sure.

Now, the argument would be that Colorado's got two guys. That they can switch back and forth if they need to. Hey, so did Buffalo. And in theory, so does Vegas. But Vegas just does not seem to want to go to Aden Hill. Nope. So, I mean, I think that's another advantage, Colorado. Totally.

But obvious. I mean, we could just cut the same clip for every playoff series we're ever going to analyze. If the goal tending is lopsided, that'll be the series. Yes. But how do you ever predict when that's going to happen? Well, I think what you would say is Colorado is certainly the team that is better positioned to make the other team's goaltending look back. You could have Connor Hallibuck, you know, gold medal game back there. And you're like, yeah, but Colorado is two power plays away from chasing him from the game.

You know? So that's that's the big concern. that I would have if I were if I were Vegas. It's just like they don't need a lot, like you said, the margin for error is such that they don't need a lot of wiggle room to make whatever goal you put in there look horrible.

I mean, how many goals did they score on the wild with another team where you were like, oh yeah, you can trust those goalies for sure. How many goals did they score against those guys in five games? Yeah, I would definitely try not to give up nine. They scored 24 goals.

Don't give up nine goals in the first game and get absolutely smoked. But, I mean, I guess the difference is Minnesota responded to that by switching goalies. And I don't know if Vegas will because John Tortorella seems to love Carter Hart. He. More than he loves his dogs. Wow. It's a situation in Vegas where, like you say, they just don't trust Aiden Hill, it seems. Like, I don't think you go out and get Carter Hart if you trust Aden Hill.

in the first place. And to his credit, I guess you would say, like Hart has not given them any reason to look down the bench. I can't think of a game where he's been, like, horrendous or anything, you know? In a way that you could say Anaheim probably did. And basically every other team in the playoffs still, apart from Carolina, has had that kind of a game from their starting goalie, this playoff.

That's true. And so I don't know, like it's tough to, I don't know, it's kind of tough to parse all that, but it's just how it is. If you want to say it comes down to like which team can, you know, maybe the week off helps Macar get back to 100% or something closer to it at least and all that. But this one feels like another kind of longer, longer series. So are we making picks for these two series? Yeah, why not?

Let's do it. I'm going to go Colorado in five. Okay, great. That makes sense to me. That is totally defensible. I'll go Colorado in six. Okay. And boy.

Carolina, Montreal. You know what? Give me Caroline in seven. Six for me. Flip, flip the script for both. You're taking Caroline in six? Dude, you, teams never win series on the road. What are you doing?

Canadians can't win at home. That's good point. Thank you. I think it might be because the Montreal fans are just not... They don't care enough, you're right. It's either them or the ghosts from the forum, or maybe both. I don't think it's the ghost It's not like they built it on the

Well the one The one yeah but the for you dude Do you know the forum ghosts did make the trip To the new arena And one of them wandered too close to the ice and got hit in the head by tange Thompson It doesn't make any sense I'm sorry I watch all these ghost hunter shows on Discovery Channel or whatever

They're not like getting up the oh oh yeah Abraham Lincoln's ghost here he is at the freaking capital building It doesn't happen. It doesn't work that way. What if you invite them in? Is that only vampires? I'm pretty sure that's only vampires. I saw a post last night that was like, if I don't own my apartment, do I need my landlord to invite the vampire in?

It's a really good question. It's one I hadn't considered. That would not apply to the Habs forum goes or anyone other than Sidney Crosby. All right. Why don't we take a break? We'll come back with Losers Corner and some other stuff. All right, we're back. And let's get into Loser's Corner here.

And we'll start with, you know, what's up with the Sabres? What do we think about the Sabres going forward? I mean, they're, in theory, they're in good shape going forward. Got a lot of young pieces, a lot of stuff that's worked. A lot of guys signed for next several years. A lot of guys signed. Obviously, Alex Tuck is the question, but they'll get that done, I strongly suspect. I don't.

They have the perfect excuse to not do it, though, don't they? Do they? Yeah, he no-showed the second round of the playoffs. I think you can squeeze a little bit. That was close. But, yeah. We don't want to more than double his salary, and he's 31, I think, right? 30 or 31, something like that.

Well, I guess we'll see. But the big question of Buffalo was going to be, was this year a real sign of progress, like a real, like, did they draw a line between the before and after of all the misery they've been through? Or was this like one of those magical years where everything goes well? And I'm not trying to chalk it all up to, you know, whatever you want to call it. But was this one of those years you look back on and go, you know, we were good, we were ready, but also things just clicked in a way they normally don't. I tend to think it's the latter. It certainly has some of the signs of that.

Fifth best shooting percentage at five-on-five. Ninth best save percentage. I don't know that you look at. either of these, like, either their goaltending or their, like, their skater roster one through 18 and go. Yep, that actually checks out for me. That, that ticks a lot of boxes, et cetera. Like, I just, I don't know, man.

I think that they, I think this is, this is a good team. It was a weirdly down year in the Atlantic. I think next year also could be a weirdly down year in the Atlantic. Weirdly down here, but there was, I mean, they were in a race to, what, 108 points with three other teams? Like, it's a pretty good division. Like, I mean, you're right, there wasn't the 115 point juggernaut like we're used to, but that's a pretty top-heavy division. I think what I would say is this is a good team, not a great team, and what I would maybe compare it to minus the interpersonal drama is. like the Canucks a few years ago,

or it's like they undoubtedly have a bunch of good pieces in place. There's no question about it. But taking their roster as a whole, I don't know how repeatable 108 points is. They don't need to get to 108 to make the playoffs, of course. But is this the, is this like the upper limit of what they can kind of accomplish? I tend to think the answer is yes without, you know,

bringing in better play. I don't, let's put it this way. I don't think they get the kind of repeat performance if their second or third best forward, whatever you want to say. Next year is Alex Tuck. Yeah. So I guess the question becomes, what's that path to improvement? Because I think, I mean, a free agency is not going to be good this year, especially if Tuck isn't your guy. So the fact that, hey, you know, the hockey world finally got to see good things happen in Buffalo and the fans are great and all that other stuff, maybe that does open a few eyes on some UFAs that wouldn't normally have taken the call.

But I don't know that that makes a big difference. So and prospect wise, I mean, they're okay, but a lot of their youth is already there. Yeah. So it comes down to Tray. comes down to Yarmow working the... And if there's one guy, we know we can trust work in the bones. That's it, right? So here's my question.

Yep. You put Owen Power in play after what we've seen from him so far? Is he... Because, I mean, you got to... I'm not saying you got to get rid of this guy, but you got to give up something to get something. and is that where you deal from? If you're targeting someone on the defense to move on from,

I think you start with Bowen Byram, who had a good playoff, and he's signed for next year, but after that he's a UFA. Mm-hmm. And, you know, power is, I think, roughly the same age, but, like, signed for, he has this huge extension that I think it kicks in next year. cheap. Right. Or is it only that? Okay. Yeah. He's, oh, no, it did start this year. Um, but 8.35 through 2031 like, which you, you don't have to be a Norris guy to. No, that's, that's a totally okay number. Eight and change. Yeah, that's a totally okay number that's like achievable for him. But like,

Byram is on a kind of discount deal at six and a quarter. And I don't, I don't, don't know. I think it's easier to talk yourself into, we can move on from him if you want to, if you want to juice things. I agree. I just don't think other teams are offering you anywhere near as much for a guy who, like even when he signed that short, you know, kind of bridgey type deal in Buffalo, he sounded like a guy who maybe had one eye on the door. And that's when the team stunk. So, you know, he may have completely change that. Maybe he signs an extension July 1 and that's all over with, but

I just wonder that. The other guy that I have to admit, I had completely forgotten. Okay. Is Devon Levi is still kicking around in that

system. Did not play a minute this year? Yeah. In Buffalo, in the NHL. If I'm remembering, right, his numbers in the AAHL were like good but not great. His numbers in the

HL have been they've been good but they have been declining for a couple of years. And I'm just looking at box card numbers there so content is missing. Yeah.

And it's hard to really dig into HL performance and all that kind of thing like expected goals against and all that. There can be a million factors that go into why a goal

but you're right that it's kind of put up or shut up time with him you know like and at that point do you go okay well obviously Alex Lyon isn't going to be our goalie of the future so maybe you move on from him

but even then Colton Ellis Colton Ellis is in the way and so you're going like okay it's not a bad thing to have multiple youngish goalies you believe in but I, you know, if it gives you the flexibility to trade Lion,

look, there's going to be a lot of teams that want goalies this summer. And you just go, oh, well, that was one bad game for Alex Lion. He actually was pretty good for us. I don't think you're getting much for veteran goalies on this market. No, and I mean, honestly, what it really boils down to for me is like, why on earth, if you're the Sabres after this season, are you hanging on to your, like early 20s draft picks or mid 20s, you know.

You want a first round pick out of us? We're happy to package that with somebody and, you know, make an addition to the roster that way. I think that's the only way forward is you identify a guy who's not in your long-term plan like maybe a Bowen Byron or whatever. And you go, him plus a first, what does that get me off your roster? Yeah. You know.

And you target teams that are kind of looking to, let's put it this way. You know, you know, who would be pretty helpful for the Sabres? And look, there's other stuff that would have to happen here. And we'll talk about this team later. Wouldn't you feel like maybe, you probably couldn't get them to eat money, but maybe if Vancouver eats a little bit of money, on Elias Patterson. Dude, I was banging that drum a while before the no trade kicked in, which obviously

complicates that, although we have no idea where Patterson's head is at. Yeah, that's still something I would look at. Now, look, obviously he's not a game breaker anymore. And maybe you would say there was only really one or two years where he is. ever even was. But, like, that's the kind of, like, team I'd be targeting, team that's like, you know what, we actually do kind of suck.

Maybe it's time to, you know, we have good players, but maybe it's time to pivot and move in a different direction. You know who I would love to, and this would never happen. But wouldn't you love Yarmota call up Columbus and go, I'm going to absolutely knock your socks off with a Zach Werenski offer. You're going to get on power. You're going to get, well, you don't need a Norris.

Well, you know, you know what? You're right. If it's, if it's power for Werenstki and, you know, obviously other stuff on either side. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But to just say, and then you just do the pronger, the programmer thing. Yeah. Good luck. They both play 30 minutes a night.

Yep. Yeah. 100%. It works. Every single time. except it didn't work in San Jose with Burns and Carlson, but that's... Well, that was a real... That's the exception that proves the rule.

That's my new phrase whenever someone... Yeah. Somebody pulls up a counterpoint. This is the obvious counterfactual. Yeah. Right. Yeah, no, I think... I just don't think their forward group is good enough.

It's that simple. And I don't trust their goaltending either, but that's, you know... Mm-hmm. So again, I mean, how do you, if it's the forward group, how do you not sign Alex Tuck? Well, I just don't

think that he makes your, I don't think he makes your forward group better. I mean, he had, like, 80 points or whatever. I mean, I don't think he can subtract. Because that's the thing. If you let him go, and I'm

with you 100% that that would be probably the fiscally smart thing to do, but then all these trades you're talking about you're just trading off the back end or wherever else to get a forward who replaces Alex Tuck in your top six and you're not any further ahead. I just think Alex Tuck had what you'd call a contract year. You know what I mean?

Hmm. That's it. I just, is he a good player? Yes. Is he the kind of player that I'd personally be excited to pay? Let me put it this way. Just to compare him to another guy on the Buffalo Sabres, who used to put up a decent number, not nearly as many as Tuck has, of course. But how many years away from being Jason Zucker is he?

Yeah. I mean, running over goaltenders and getting penalties for it. And by the way, he didn't have 80 points this year. He had 66, which is a good number. But there's a pretty fucking big difference. There is. There's a lot more 66 point guys in the league. Yeah, and look, he scored 30.

I'm not saying he doesn't score 30 goals a year because he does. But I just, am I that excited to give $12 million to a guy like that? I don't know, man. I think maybe you can't make it up in the aggregate. But again, I just kind of. Do you want to hear a little story about a team trying to make it up in the aggregate when they lose their top winger? Yeah, no, I've seen money ball, you know.

But this guy right here is Matthias Mace Macelli. His only flaw is that he kind of sucks. And he makes $20 million a year. Yep. But yeah, again, I just, I just, I think the Sabres punched above their weight this year. That's it. And you can do the thing that I think teams have done in the past. Columbus is a good example of this where it's like.

Like, we actually didn't punch above our weight in here. And let me tell you why, my friend. You know what I mean? Like. Yeah. But I mean, the thing is, you're 100% right. But it is, it's virtually impossible to make that call in real life. Like, can you imagine?

I understand that. You are more like either directly or even indirectly to that fan base going, like, this year was a little, a little bit of a fluke. And we're going to take a step back. Like, you just, you can't. And I'll be honest. I think there would have been people who would have said the same about Montreal last year. They traded two first round picks for Noah Dobson, who they haven't, hasn't done a ton yet. He was hurt in the first round.

But, you know, maybe that, you know, we could have said the same thing then. Ah, you know, here they go. They're getting out ahead of themselves. And, no, turned out they were ready to take the next step. I'm trying to, a little bit of this is cope on my part. I am trying to talk myself back into the Sabres. Look, it would be great. That hurt to see.

This was fun, this was a fun year for them. And I would love to see them back in the playoffs and all that kind of stuff. But like you say, they were like a hundred and eight point team, whatever it was. And I've seen plenty of teams be like, look at the Kings last year. We had 105 points, whatever the fuck the number was. We're a good team. And it's like, yeah, well, I mean, you got back into the playoffs. Good for you guys.

Then what happened, you know? I just, is there like a huge upward trajectory for this team? I don't know. I really don't. Like, I think this could be. You've got the young guys on the back end. Yeah. Rasmus Daly.

And for a guy who was a pro-bril. has taken another leap, where he now feels like for the first time, he legitimately feels like he's in the... Like, he's not in the best defenseman in the league conversation because it's McCarron Hughes and then everyone else is playing human sports, but he might be the best human defenseman in the league. Especially going forward.

Like, you know, you can, obviously you can say Werenst, he's up there as well. Werenski's on the older side, you know? And like, you know, three years from now, if you say Dahlene has been a Norris finalist two out of the next three seasons, what am I going to say no? Of course not. That's totally plausible. But you need power to take a step, I think.

Yep. And again, I just look at, look, man, I'll put it this way. This is a team that scored a million goals this year, right? top three points guys Thompson Dahlene tuck and then beyond that McLeod, Donne, Quinn, Zucker, Benson. Like, and a lot of these guys are- How repeatable does this feel? Everybody you just mentioned is under 25 other than Zucker.

So, I mean, there's, I think it is. And McLeod's 26. McLeod's 26, yeah. You know, there's, I think there's room to grow here, but you're right. It's not, this is not. The ceiling on this offense doesn't feel reachable. Like, if we're saying this is the ceiling on this offense,

what they did this year, they scored a million goals, like I said. You know what it would have helped in this playoff run? What's that? More than one goal from Josh Norris. I mean, Dylan Cousins didn't light it up in Ottawa this year, but man, does that ever feel like it may have been? Yeah.

Not ideal. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You get a guy like Josh Norris because you're like, hey, we know he's hurt all the time. But when he's healthy. But when he's healthy. He will move the needle. Yep.

He's, I mean, he was good-ish during the season. 60-ish point-paced. When he was healthy, he was very good. Yeah, I think so. But, yeah, just nothing in the playoffs. Yeah. And again, like. Like, I don't, I'm not saying I think Josh Dohn or whoever, Zach Benson, like, I don't think like it's impossible that those guys get better.

But it's to the extent like how much does Ryan McLeod come back to Earth a little bit? Is this what Jack Quinn is or is everything we saw from before what Jack Quinn is? You know, like that's, like I say, taken on the balance, I think this is a playoff team next year. I think if they improve their offense in particular, make it a little more repeatable. This can be even a quite good playoff team next year. But it does feel like there's a ceiling that might be this. Might be a hundred-ish plus points and a second round exit. Yeah.

A hundred-ish points can get you into the playoffs pretty much every year. Oh, yeah. Who knows, but yeah. So there you go. Anaheimer, Minnesota next. You get to pick. Let's do Minnesota just because it feels forever ago. And I think this one is relatively simple in that they kind of, they made their step.

Now they're a good team, a very good team. They got to figure out how to, how do you get past Colorado? Dallas is still there. but I think you chalk the season up as a success and you keep moving forward and it all comes down to what do you do with Quinn Hughes and what's the number end up at there and how crazy does it get and does it leave enough room for anything else? Yeah, I think that's all correct. Obviously, they much like Buffalo don't have like a ton of game-breaking talent at the top of their lineup. Buffalo doesn't have anyone like Caprizov because very few teams do, right? But you need maybe one more impactful forward, I think, if you're the wild.

It is, the good news is the Hughes contract extension wouldn't kick in until after next season. Yeah. So they still have him dirt cheap for what. he is. And that gives them just an insane amount of flexibility to, obviously this is a dog shit UFA class, maybe the worst we've ever seen. It gives them the flexibility except that Caprizov's deal kicks in this summer. So a chunk of that disappears.

They have $13.5 million to spend for next season. And they have to basically replace a few middle to bottom six forwards. and that's it. And then if you trade one of your goalies, you have, A, something to bargain with, but be even more cap flexibility. Yeah. I think the goalie move might be the piece here.

Yep. And like part of the reason, I guess we kind of didn't talk about it up top, but part of the reason they lost this series, or the series didn't feel more competitive, is because Joel Erickson-neck was hurt. Right? Like, if Eric Seneck is healthy, and I'm saying like 100% or whatever, as close as you can get in the playoffs, let alone like just not missing games.

This is a more competitive series full stop. He's a great shutdown center. He can't be your best center, can he? You know, like, if he's your number two center, you're like, we're fucking cooking with gas here. We have something unbelievable going. And that just, you know, in reality, not what they what they had up their sleeves. So yeah, and I know Brodine was hurt too. I don't know how much more I have like time for Brodine is like a huge difference maker beyond this season.

And now he doesn't have to be given that they have Quinn Hughes. So that's nice. But. But, yeah, again, this is just a ceiling problem. And unlike Buffalo, A, we're in a division with Dallas and Colorado problem. Yeah, I would agree. And it's, like, how do you get the ceiling high enough? That's going to be tough.

But they've got a lot of good pieces in place. So I think they should be fine minus the division. I mean, you got to figure out how to finish higher than third in the central, but see how it plays out. Yeah, they're just in that weird spot of like you kind of have to hope Colorado has a bad year so you can get out of the division. And look, I mean, Colorado wasn't unbeatable last year. Colorado was kind of where Minnesota and Dallas were at. So who knows? I don't, I certainly don't think you base your entire offseason around assuming that Colorado is going to be 120 point team every year.

No, for sure. It's just as matchups go, you're like, fuck. You know what I mean? Like, that's, that's just kind of the problem for them is they can't, they don't have, again, they don't have the high end forwards that match up with Dallas or Colorado. They just don't. They have one, but ideally you get two or three in there. I don't know how you fix that in the offseason.

Again, I think trading a goalie gets you pointed in that direction, but no matter which goal you choose, people are going to be like, how do you let that guy go? Oh, yeah. So. Anaheim. I mean, we kind of already touched on it in the first half. Like, I think you're just, you're happy, you got the experience. Obviously, they've got some things to figure out with some of the older guys. John Carlson, you know, is that?

Something you're even interested in. But great young team were even better this year than anyone expected. Lots of ceiling down the road. I think you're happy and you keep moving. Well, there's one question I have about this team. And it's, I don't know that it's possible to address it, honestly. Carlson, Truba, and Goudis are all UFAs. And those guys played big minutes for you this year.

Obviously, Carlson kind of more down the stretch or whatever. But like, do you want to bring back Jacob Truba, 32 years old, John Carlson, 36, Redco Goud is 35? Is Trouba only 32? Yeah. Wow. But you know what I mean? Yeah. No, but it's it's, what's the number?

What's the, what's the term? Like, I think you'd, maybe not Carlson, but like, I think you'd be happy to bring those guys back on not. quite the contracts they have. And I think it's also kind of a case where, especially on Trouba, you sort of go like, look, you had a nice big contract, you were not treated well at your last stop, came over here,

we were willing to eat the big money because we were doing the rebuild and everything. Now it's time for you to take a little less to continue to be a part of it. And we're treating you well and your family's happy and all the stuff that didn't happen. Don't your kids like Disneyland?

Yeah. Of course. So I think that that should be pretty doable. And if he says no, you know what? It's, I can get $9 or $10 million somewhere. Okay. All right, good. Go have fun in Seattle or wherever you're going to wind up.

The only issue is they have $40 million in cap space right now. And so anybody they want to sign, you say the number. I don't give a fuck. Yeah. But you can't. I mean, you. Well, and it's interesting, though, because they've got all that cap space. But wasn't it, you remember the player survey that we had that we talked about a little while ago,

where it was like, yeah, the ducks are the worst to deal with? It wasn't the player survey. It was the agent survey. It was the agent survey, right. Yeah. And like, Pat for Beek is the worst, which is not necessarily a bad thing to hear about your GM when it's agents talking. but that doesn't suggest that he's going to be handed any blank checks out. For sure.

And the other thing to say is, I'll just read you their RFAs here. Carlson, Gautier, Ian Moore, okay, that's fine. Minchikov, Zellweger, and that's it. But those guys are going to eat up a pretty good chunk of that $40 million. But even if you get to like, oh, we have, we'll old. quote unquote, only have 15 million to spend. Okay, that's fine. Yep, that's still 15 million.

You can still get good players for 15 million bucks. So, you know, the other thing that they have to do is figure out what's going on with Mason McTavish. Yes. Was that just yet, is this like another Jeremy Swayman where it was like, yeah, the contract dragging into camp just screwed the whole season? Or like, what are we doing? Obviously, that's the hope for... Guys, 23, he looks 53. He plays...

I don't know. Night to night, it's different. Did not look good this year. In the regular season or the playoffs, he's a pretty key piece. So you have to either figure out how to fix him if he needs to be fixed. If he doesn't need to be fixed, you're happy.

And if you can't fix him, then trade him now before everyone else figures it out. A lot of money to move, but yeah, I think, I think that's correct. Obviously, you know, again, we said it last week with Mitch gov, where it's like, you are not allowed to leave the greater Philadelphia area this summer, sorry. And you've got to kind of do the same thing with McTalmers. You're here at the gym every day or the rank or whatever, working out, figuring it out

because this can't, you're, you know, when you're 23, you're supposed to not take a step back. And he did. Mm-hmm. Yep. Hey, speaking of a loser's coroner here, how about these Vegas Golden Knights being very nasty guys? They're not letting Bruce Cassidy interview elsewhere. And now the thing that's really funny to me is like, Hey, we're in the middle of a playoff round.

We don't want to deal with that stuff. Yeah. What's there to fucking deal with? Impossible to check yes on the little form. This is just Vegas. They're just being idiots. This is a team. And look, I've praised this team a lot for, you know, they don't care about anything but winning.

And I think there's a lot of fan bases around the league that would respect that. Yeah, shout out to gamesmanship. That's great. But also, like, they're just a bunch of pricks. in that organization. Top to bottom, in terms of just how they conduct themselves, how they deal with others,

how they treat people. Like, it's from, I really think it's from the top all the way down, and everyone has just figured out that this is how you act when you're part of this franchise, and this is a particularly transparent example of them just being,

just being dicks, because they can. Yep. It's, um, it's just, you know, other teams have no problem with this. And like I said,

I'm all in favor of gamesmanship and, and that kind of thing. But if you're going to do it, like go do it in the meet, do it like a, like you're a wrestling. He'll be like, and we'll never let him interview.

He's under contract for us forever. You know, like, Don't do it You were about to do a Ted DiBiasey laugh there And I feel like you backed out at the last second I really don't feel like I have a good DiBiassi I loved you know

The million dollar man where he You know I want you to dribble a basketball A hundred times and I'll give you ten thousand dollars That was the greatest Bounce this basketball 10 times Pulls what

Seems to be an actual kid Like a real not a plant, pulls him out, gives him a basketball, the kid bounces it nine times, and he kicks it. He boots it into the fucking 50th row.

He laughs in his face while the kid cries. Oh, that was the greatest. All right. And yeah, that is the Vegas Golden Knights. They would, if that was personified

into a hockey team, that's what we call. But they don't do it, though. They don't come out in the fucking sparkly tuxedo, you know? They just kind of do it behind the scenes.

Like how you imagine he was ordering Virgil around, like, around the time of like WrestleMania 7 where they finally had their big blow off. What? I mean, we got to, we got to talk about their other thing, which is not talking to the media, which is the worst thing you can do. Oh, you don't want to talk to us? Man, I hate, I hate media controversies. Because it's the two dumbest opinions possible, right?

There is like the sanctity. We are the voice of the fans and they are trembling in fear. I'm down here in the damn trenches. You don't understand, Sean. Guys like me, we're in the trenches. We're out here. This is exactly like World War I. We are representing you versus the flip side of like, oh, we don't need the media at all.

And we should just get all our updates from Mitch Martner's Instagram page and, you know, all of that. Well, here's what I don't understand. Like it's here's. All I'll say on this is it's in your contract. You have to do this. So, friggin, do it. And stop being pricks about everything. And I'm going to be preempt.

In fact, we don't even have a show. So I'll just do the rant now. I can't believe the league gave them their second round pick back after they met with Batman this week. They should have at least been like, okay, it's a fourth round pick. Gary always chickens out. just because you put the second round pick at the end of the round, so it's like four picks later. Absolutely ridiculous.

Yeah. I'll say this. I'll say this. I don't even know what their fucking problem was here. Because they're like, oh, now we're not even going to talk about it. We're actually, okay, we accept the fuck, whatever the fuck. We're not even going to talk about it. We're moving on.

What the fuck were you mad about you? Just won the series. Yeah. Oh, our guy got. suspended. It doesn't fucking matter. He didn't lose a cent because you don't get paid during the playoffs. And you won

the game anyway. So just shut the fuck up. Because this is the other thing. This is the thing that drive me fucking crazy. Here's every presser question that Vegas gets. Boy, you guys won out there again tonight. What makes you

so great? You know what I mean? Like, why is Mitch Martin or the bravest boy in the world. Like, every, I'm more, it is hard to find a more sycophantic media group overall than Vegas.

I don't think they're sycophantic, but I, I do think, you can't have it both ways. You can't be like everyone wants to come play in Vegas, partly because it's such a low pressure environment, and isn't that wonderful? And then turn around and be like,

we won't even talk to the, that's, yeah, that's what I mean. Like, the reason it's low pressure is that the media is just like, we go to bed with our little fucking Jack Eichael PJs on every night

there. Like they just love that team. It's that simple. And if you're, if you're gonna like big time those guys, like I think that's pathetic. I think that makes you look like a dipshit. I'm sorry.

Like I'm, I feel like this last couple weeks is the point where and I know certain fans were already there, but I'm just, I'm over the Vegas act here. Yeah. on the ice great team you know fun to watch all that stuff i'm just i'm tired of the entitled prick thing that they do and i know they gave the league half a billion dollars

but i do not understand why i don't know maybe maybe i'm wrong maybe betman isn't going to cave on it and and he'll actually enforce some sort of consequences but it sure feels like vegas gets to do whatever they want and everyone else has to follow the rules. Let me say this, though. Is that official that the league is giving them their second round pickback? No, but they get to appeal. Right.

They get to meet with Betman, and it's widely assumed that they will have to pretend like, we're sorry, we won't do it again. And then I'm just assuming he'll give the pickback because that's what he always does. Like I say, I think they might bump it down to a fourth. Yeah. Whatever it is. It'll be some, you know. Yeah, yeah.

But let's say, let's live in the fantasy world where they actually enforce the second round pick thing. Does that cost John Tortorella the job if he wants it for next season and beyond? You don't think so? Because he's won two rounds. He's, he's, yeah. No, it doesn't. But winning two rounds, that gets you fucking fired in Vegas. Bruce Cassidy, get the fuck out of here.

You know, like Pete DeBoer, beat it. He'll keep the job for another. I'm just saying it's... Until they move on to the next option. But, yeah, no, I don't think he... I mean, losing a first-round pick costs Pared Dory in his job. That's why I asked. Because A, it was a first-round pick, and B, they already wanted to fire Pira-Doran.

Right, yeah. I got news for you. He wouldn't have been fired that day if that hadn't happened, but he would have been fired anyways. So this is, it's sort of like, though, oh, should Mike Varebel get fired? from the Patriots for what he... No, because he went to the Super Bowl. If they were four and 13 in his first year, then yes. And if that sounds like that's not how ethics should work, then this is...

But let me... What I'm saying is getting to the Western Conference Final is kind of like the standard in Vegas. Like, that's the bare minimum that you should be doing most years. And so I wonder if... Let's say they get fucking killed. Or even let's say they don't. Let's say it's a six-game series, which I still think is kind of getting killed, but nobody else does. If they lose a second-round pick and they only win two games in the Western Conference final,

I think that might be enough for them to be like, we're good. I don't know. Just how do you, how does Kelly McCrimand fire somebody for being a prick? Sure. I understand. Hey, speaking of not letting coaches interview or whatever, opposite is. true. Yeah.

The beautiful, look, as a guy who does hockey takes for a living, nobody's doing it for me like the Edmonton Oilers these days. They're doing me the biggest favor every single fucking week. It's an unbelievable relationship I built with them. Because they are now going to interview Craig Barubi for their vacant head coaching position, which they kind of, to accidentally, oh, I guess we've got to fire our coach now. Whoopsy, Daisy. Okay, here's my theory. Salute.

Here's my theory. Because I'm going to say something that I recognize is a little bit dangerous in the sense that it could backfire on me. And it's a phrase that you don't hear very much. But I don't think Stan Bowman is this stupid. I cannot imagine a worse option for the Oilers. And again, I say this, I like Craig Burb as a coach. I hope he coaches again.

As bad as it was in Toronto, I don't think he got exposed as, you know, a fake, you know, anything like that. There will be other situations that will fit for him. But in Edmonton, with two years left, like, you're going to bring in the guy who's going to turn Carter McDavid into a dump and chase merchant? There's no chance. So what I'm thinking is, A, it's a little bit of the whole, like, hey, let's just talk to somebody and get. get their, hear what they have to say about our team, whatever you. I honestly think that this is more about them putting pressure on Vegas for Cassidy. They want Bruce Cassidy.

And so, I don't think it came from the Oilers, the Cassidy thing, because it forced them into the ugly situation with Knoblock. But might as well take advantage of it now. You can see the way the wind is blowing. everyone's kind of ticked off at Vegas about this. So, hey, wouldn't it be great if some other team was in the same situation and instantly, without any question, gave us access to their coach? And I think that's what's going on here.

I think you put the call in Toronto. Toronto goes, yeah, of course. We don't care. And then it's just a way to apply more pressure on Vegas, both PR-wise, which Vegas doesn't really care about, but also Gary Batman does care about it. And you could kind of see Batman being like, guys, enough. Like we just, you guys look like idiots here.

We just saw the Leafs go, yeah, of course, you can interview our guy. Knocked off. That's my theory. Even Stan Bowman is not dumb enough to honestly consider hiring Craig Burabee. I think you're right that they will not hire him. I cannot go so far as to say they're not that dumb. because of the other stuff I've seen them do in the last like eight months or whatever, you know? Sure.

It's just, look, what it boils down to for me, and I firmly believe this. This isn't like me, you know, well, because we're going to talk about the Canucks GM hire. If you have an open position, interview literally everybody you think is even remotely qualified. Get 50 different opinions on. Because apparently part of what made the Canucks go with Ryan Johnson is that basically every GM candidate went in there from what I read and was like, oh yeah, you guys need to like tear it down and do like a five year rebuild. Like every single person they talked to said that. And they were like, all right, well, if we're doing that, we might as well stick with the guy we know and the Sedeans who we trust and all that kind of stuff. And so you go in there, you go to, you say to Craig Barubi, to Bruce Cassidy, to Claude

Juliet, like just anybody who's ever been a head coach in the NHL, you say to him, what do you think? And you don't have to agree. Yeah, that's exactly right. You don't have to agree with what they're, what they say, but you just like kind of take the big, at the end, you synthesize it into one big thing of like, what is the situation with our team? from the outside.

Because like, if you're on the inside, you're Stan Bowman, you're sitting there going, well, what we should do is trade for Tristan Jari and nobody ejects strongly enough that you go, never mind, right? So you get 20, third, what, they wouldn't interview that many guys, but you get 10 people to tell you what they think your problem is and what they would do to fix it. You then can do the second round of interviews and go, okay, everybody, said this, why, how do you do that, basically, you know? And so talk to, talk to Craig Barrube, and Craig Barrube is going to go, I want you to make your best player 30% worse. Yeah.

And you go, okay, thanks, big dog. We're all set here. But just talk to him. Find out. This is why Vegas shouldn't be preventing people from talking to the Oilers. Vegas should be going out to every unemployed coach and under the table saying, if you get an interview with the Oilers, we will give you $100,000 to tell them that Connor McDavid is the problem. That's right. Because after they heard it like the fourth or fifth time in a row, I feel like that would... Now I think Stan Bowman is done enough to fall for that.

All you're going to do, you just get them to say, you know, Steve Eisenman actually started playing a lot more defense and his production took a hit. But if you think about it, you've ever heard this story? Stan Bowman starts going, well, now, wait a second. I can stay friends. That guy had a lot of success. Production took a hit.

It had nothing to do with the fact that he had just turned 30 and was following the exact same career path that every star offensive. Well, guess how old Connor McDavid is. You know what I'm saying, brother? Oh, hmm. So, yeah, obviously that's just like a funny thing that happened. The Canucks hired Ryan Johnson. The Cedine Twins will be co-presidents of the team.

I'll say this. Everything I read. everything that got, you know, what do they call that? Radioed where you say something on the radio and just someone summarizes it and posts it. Oh, okay. I didn't know that that had a term, but yes. Well, I feel like radioed is like you say it and then they go, you know, the Canucks are going to rebuild for 40 years Purple Monkey dishwasher, that kind of thing. So maybe that's what getting radioed is.

But just people summarizing the many radio appearances that, that. people do in Vancouver. It seems like they're saying all the right stuff. They understand what the problems are. They have a plan that they're maybe not putting out there too much for how to fix it, but

long story short, hefty rebuild on the way in Vancouver, which is the only move they could make at this point. So shout out to them for figuring that out, but the...

Correct that code. I mean, not easy to do. And I think, again, that's why you interview 500 people for that job. Every fucking AGM in the league they talked to, right? And they all said, yeah, you guys are awful. You should rebuild. And so finally, Aquilini had to be like, I have a good idea. What if we rebuilt the team?

And everybody was like, boss? You did it. You're amazing. Here's the question, though. They have one big question to answer. this off season, besides trading everybody who's any good on the team, is Adam Foote still the coach? Mm-hmm. Because, on the one hand, you want to get your new guy in as quickly as possible so that, like, the relatively young guys on the team, of which there are a growing number, you can have them turn it around, right?

you can have Zeev Buem take a step earlier, Marco Rossi, that kind of thing. Or do you keep Adam foot because you really want to be bad again next year? That's the question. Plus, you know, and if you're Ryan Johnson, you get the added bonus of delaying the start of the clock and all that stuff that we talk about.

think that that doesn't apply here because if there if everybody's like you need like a five year i think i think it was a drance article was like they understand that this will take at least five years and if that's the case fire two coaches in five years who gives a shit you know like i think they i think if they are recognizing the severity of the problem you're all set on that but so i mean i don't want adam for to be my coach I don't know. I mean, just Adam Foote, they were so bad last year that, put it this way.

I think this, it would be, from a purely hockey perspective, it would be almost as bad to keep Adam Foot as it was if the Leafs have kept a ruby. But from a meta perspective, it makes a lot more sense. Yeah, if you're going to tank another season, this is the guy. Oh, yeah. The question is. How much does, how much damage do you do to guys who are out here? Yeah, yeah, because like, man, if you, they have some guys they can trade too.

That's the other thing. Like, even beyond Patterson, like, you could trade Ronik. You probably should, you know? You could, maybe you could trade Debrusk. Probably couldn't, but maybe you could. Yeah. Do you think you could trade? Marcus Peterson?

I'd fucking trade it. somebody who, like on July 5th, somebody who misses out on Tuck and whoever else and goes, damn, there's really nobody. I think Bessard's not going. Like, he has a full no move and he just really does seem to like Vancouver. Like he, the reason he got on the market in the first place was they were like, we don't want you to come back. And then when it, whatever their options were dried up, they were like, come on back. And he was fucking happy to do it.

How many guys get told we're all set? and then they go, I'll sign with you anyway. It's going to be incredibly rare. So I think he's just like the Vancouver guy. And that's fine. You need expensive veterans to be leaders on your team and all that kind of stuff as you rebuild. That's fine. I just don't know who's, again, signing up for like six more years of 30-year-old Brock Besser.

That's all. Yeah. Maybe somebody. And he's a good player. Some team whose GM is, doesn't feel like he has. six years of job security to worry about. Yeah, yep. He's a good player, too.

I got no problem anyway. And they do have the potential for a lot of young guys to come in, Coots and Lechromaki and that kind of thing. So there's a lot to like about the future in Vancouver, but I think the next three or four years are going to be pretty, pretty tough. But if they get it, then that's all you can ask for. Speaking of young guys, Matthew Schaefer, unanimously wins the Calder Trophy

at 2 p.m. on a Wednesday. Uh-huh. Did you, he didn't like the heartwarming clip where he was surprised by the news? He was so shocked. I mean, look, there was a lot of emotion in that clip.

That's great. I just think the way they did it makes it go, or makes me as a guy who watches the sport go. Oh, they don't think this is an important trophy at all.

Who gives this shit? Like, you want to give out the King Clancy this way? Absolutely. Go nuts. This is, this is, even if it was a normal Calder year, let alone a unanimous Calder, like he deserved better treatment than this,

quite frankly. They're trying to go viral or whatever. Who gives his shit? Gotta go viral, man. Ugh. But also. insanely one last chance to talk about

how insanely good Matthew Schaefer was as a rookie. First unanimous since Timoselani. I think we had talked last week we weren't sure if there had been one before

and Salani of course would be that guy but Salani had to score 76 goals as a rookie to do it. Yep. No. He had an unbelievable season. He deserved to be the unanimous Calder winner, I think.

And I guess, whatever, 190 of the media agreed with me, and probably more than that. But again, to me, there's nothing to discuss about him winning the Calder. He should have won it. And in fact, he should have gotten a bunch of second place votes as well. Okay, great. You know what I mean? Like, he should have been first and second on half the ballots. I agree.

That's fine. But just to do it this way, Like, they did this kid dirty and that sucks. There's no, apparently the NHL is like, there's just no good way for us to give out awards. Sorry. We can have a crappy award show. Everybody goes, boo, don't do that. They go, no, we, message sent.

We got it. Everybody does not say that. Some of us, only me, but I like the award show. Well, look, when I was at Puck Daddy, I used to do, here's the thing. Greg used to make me do like the five best and worst thing. And I would be by like three on best. I'd just be like, oh, a guy who deserved to win the award won it. That counts as the best.

And I could have gone like 15 deep on, you know, turning over the wrong magic cards for, uh, for Copatar. And the time, uh, oh, fuck, what's his name? Joshua Jackson did a joke that was received so poorly that he said on stage, I don't write them. Were you there for the Chaka Khan incident? Was that? Oh, I mean, that was the first award show. She put the cup upside down. Yeah.

Yeah, to me, to me, the award show sucks. We all agree. I'm not agree. Than this. But yes. Yeah, two on a Wednesday. I don't know. That's that's the insane thing Like well because are we not still doing the award show for like a couple of awards I you're asking the wrong guy They scrap that this year I don't even know They probably did who cares if they did I care Well okay you know who should care

Again if they're doing like an actual award show for whatever The Vezna the Norris and the heart or whatever it is That's fundamentally saying Matthew Schaefer the award you won doesn't matter go fuck yourself. You know what I mean? Kind of is. Kind of does say that. That's the thing that I think sucks.

Again, you want to give out the one of the 52, this is the nicest guy in the league. We love him awards like this? Fine by me. I don't care about any of those awards. The Mark Messier Leadership Award, give it to a guy while he's in line at fucking Whole Foods. I think that's great. Just throw it out of a moving car as he's walking down the street. Yeah, he's going to pick up his dog so it doesn't.

That's fine. Because it's one of the 500 awards in the NHL nobody cares about. But, oh, man. To do that, again, if it's a normal calder year, it kind of sucks to do. When it's a first unanimous calder year since a guy who's 50 years old won the calder, maybe you treat it with a little more respect. Very fair. Yeah.

Have they given out any other awards or is that the only? That's the other thing. It feels like that's the only award. And then they were like, okay, we'll see you in a month. Do the rest. I feel like they did kind of various crappy ones. But let's see. I'm looking at this.

I'm Googling it. I don't know the answer to this. Yeah. There's the finalists that they roll out. That they roll out what I think this is. You're right. Now, unfortunately, I'm on the NHL page. So I have to scroll through 800.

He's a nice guy. Yeah. But I would take it. This is what I'm saying. If they were just doing like every other day, here's one of the nice guy awards. Okay. Well, at least they're giving out the awards on a pretty consistent basis. They're like, no, we're giving out one award show on.

Wasn't it like on the Today show as well? So he wasn't even really on the Today show. It was like two in the afternoon. So what are we doing? You know? Yeah. I'm with you. Bizarre.

Just bizarre. What a stupid league. Finally, PWHL Final. I didn't watch a second of last night's game because there was a different game on. But Ottawa wins it. Last second goal in the third period. Pretty cool. One minute to go.

And then we got a nice long review. We had to review it. Well, you got a review. This is how you know they're catching up to the NHL over there. That's right. Anything the men can do. the breakthroughs and review technology. Montreal, yeah, they're still up to one though, so.

Yep. But smart move by Ottawa did not allow it to get to overtime where Montreal could activate cheating mode and start tackling people. Did you see the trip on the game two goal? Yeah. You're just allowed to do anything you want. Apparently. It's like when you watch like anything from the pre, like let's say the 2002 Stanley Cup final. Yeah.

And a guy's like, oh, he's about to get a breakaway. And then there's just a guy water skiing on him behind it. And nobody even mentions it. No, it's totally legal. Yeah. Unbelievable. Yeah. They go prison rules in overtime.

So good on the charge for not allowing it to get there. Great crowd last night. 17,000 almost, I think they had. Yeah. And yeah, game four, tomorrow night, game five, if necessary, Saturday afternoon. That'd be all right. Wouldn't it, would it be at the bell center? No, I don't think they're...

That sucks. They would have access to the bell center. That sucks. They should, my opinion. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe. maybe they would. I mean, Montreal's going to be on the road. You know what? I don't, I hadn't thought they would, but.

I'm Googling now to see if that's, if that's a possibility. I don't know. They probably have it. There's probably nowhere they've announced that. Like if this goes to Game 5 and the Habs lose, we can, you know. Anyway, I hope that's what they do, but whatever. The other PWHL news is, it did, it did say it is at Plasbell, which is not the Bells. In Laval, yeah, that's right. It is. Other PWHL news, though, expansion, four teams.

Detroit, Hamilton, Vegas, San Jose. Interesting. Interesting crop. You know, we Yeah, it's an interesting mix, and it's a big leap forward. I mean, the league's doubling in size in two years, but

yeah, I mean, you kind of I want to strike while the iron's hot, and it feels pretty hot right now. It does indeed. I don't think you even necessarily, like it's a new league, right? There's going to be a churn. I don't think you need all four of these to be hits necessarily. If three years from now, we're looking at the first batch of six expansion teams and two of them moved or two of them, like, that's okay. Yeah.

You got to, you know, poke around a little bit and see if you can find the, uh, the right mix. Yeah, and like, it's really funny about Hamilton just because of like the NHL would never go there in a million years at this point, you know? They're too afraid of the Leaf's political power,

but they're, but PWHL, they're like Toronto Scepters, who cares, get lost. I'm a little surprised. There were a couple of markets that I was a little surprised didn't get a team. Buffalo feels like it would be

more top of mind than Hamilton, for example, right? But I think part of the problem with that is, did you see the reason that Calgary didn't get a PWHL team? No. I think it was the whatever, like the ownership group that like owns the flames and the hit men. They were basically like, yeah, man, how many teams do you want to play at the Saddle Doe? Like, it would be, because they have a lacrosse team.

a um a WHL team an AHL team and an NHL team already play there so they were like we just don't have the physical capacity to have another team play here it's that simple that's why

and I wonder if that changes with the new building but that was the stated reason why and I thought that was really interesting um Have they said where I don't think they've officially announced San Jose But have they have it Has there been any reporting on?

They have announced Oh they did announce Now for a lot of San Jose was the last one yesterday I think Oh I must have missed that yesterday But have they said where they're playing Because the Sharks A HL team plays at SAP Center as well

Okay Vegas that's pretty cool They're going to play a T-Mobile Mm-hmm Um And then Detroit, I think they said it's going to play at Little Caesars when possible, basically. Because that's another building with multiple tenants. So it'll be interesting.

I think this is a fun mix. Two East Coast, two West Coast, you know? Yep, they're certainly kind of spread it out a bit. And, yeah, like I say, if they get, if two of these are big successes, then you're a good job. shape. You know, it's still, the league, it's been up and down and, you know, the big success in some spots, New York is, you know, maybe not playing out the way you'd like. That's, that's okay.

Like, go to any sports league starting up and this is what you see. Yeah, you're just trying stuff. That's exactly right. What was the other? Oh, the other thing is that I wanted to say is, like, I love the pace they're expanding at because it just means there's going to be more goals scored. when you're so rapidly expanding the number of roster spots, like look at how scoring went up in the NHL when they added two teams in four years or whatever it was.

Right? And the PWHL does need that. Oh, every game is two to one. It's crazy. It's, yeah, you need a little more offense. And so if you take the bottom, basically, the bottom half of every roster in the league in the in the first two or the last two seasons I mean

and you're going those are all like just you know going to be middle middle of the lineup people for every team in the league especially because like a lot of the name brand players in women's hockey are getting older you know so like they're they're going to cycle out they're going to be less effective at a certain point and it just it just all increases offense God, who did I see recently that was like,

oh, Megan Acosta declared for the draft. Yeah, that was weird, eh? Agosta, did I say Acosta? Augusta. She's like 38? Yeah. Hasn't played in a few years, and she's just, you know what I'm in.

All right. Hell yeah. That's great. Let's get the names out there, and let's, again, this is just all about getting as many teams going as possible, and if they feel like it makes sense financially, the one thing you don't want is for teams to fold.

That's all. Mm-hmm. But other than that, I think there's a lot to like here. So anyway, that's it. Sean, why don't you hit him with the plugs, brother? Let's get out of here. Fine, The Athletic. Newsletter just went out.

I'll be on with Sean and Frankie tomorrow. And I have some posts this week. I've got probably tomorrow my annual all-playoff bus team. in which I point and laugh at all the failed players, one from every team, which means I do have to pick from the conference finalist, which means I will inevitably reverse jinx someone into a con smite. But, yeah, and more to come after that. Great.

I am continuing to do my normal NHL notebook. I believe it's going to be published tomorrow. just ahead of the conference finals. And I don't know, I'm talking to some college people about, you know, the college game all summer long. So we're going to be doing that as well. So check all that out over at Elite Prospects. And then go to patreon.com slash puck soup where you can get all kinds of bonus episodes, including one we did the other day where we took a big, it's called the Encyclopedia of Sandwiches,

and we compared every NHL team to one. the sandwich on the, I think it's 40 available to us. We had a lot of fun doing that one. It was a well-received episode. John Torrell doesn't talk to the media. This is the sort of journalism that he's preventing. And of course, nobody got mad at any of our sandwich tape.

Yeah, everybody was like, yeah, you nailed them all. Bang on. Everybody, we like all the same sandwiches you do for all the exact same reasons. So there you have it. Thanks so much for listening. We're going to go do a mailbag. over on the Patreon right now. Have a good one. Bye-bye.