Shaun Newman Podcast - #1050 - Brother's Roundtable

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

The Brothers are back discussing all things NHL playoffs. Watch the Cornerstone Forum 26’https://shaunnewmanpodcast.substack.com/Silver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: [e-mail] Grahame: [phone]Bow Valley Credit UnionBitcoin: www.bowvalleycu.com/en/personal/investing-wealth/bitcoin-gatewayEmail: [e-mail] Get your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500

Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. I'm joined by the Brothers. Well, once again, we can't seem to figure our lives out. Dust off. And so it's Jane Harleon's studio with me. Although, you know, am I the only one? Even if the weather was there were in, I love the first round because every night you flick on the TV

and there's so many games going on. It's just like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And then you hit the second round, and all of a sudden, don't get me wrong, if the oil is there in, it would be different. But you hit the second round, nah, it still wouldn't be different. I think this every time,

first round of NHL playoffs is so much fun. It's the best round of sports, of playoffs in any sport. And then you hit the second round, it just slows down, right? It slows down. When we have one game last night? You're like, this sucks. And I don't know. Is it the teams in it this year?

Like, that are remaining? Are you excited with what's sitting there? You know, are you, like Colorado, Minnesota first game? What was it? 9.9. 15 goals. You're like, this is wild. Of course, game two at lessons.

but like is anybody staring at Anaheim, Vegas? Eh, it's been a decent series. But then you look at Philly, call Carolina, and you're like, I don't know. I watch a game. There's not a lot of media lines right now, you know, like Kutrov's out, McDavid's out. Like some of your big stars are out,

some of your big panther, the bad panthers, the leaves. Nobody's in. So you got these. I got a problem. Give me a, oh, no, I don't. Never mind. Carry on. Sorry.

Well, he does have problems. I do have problems. I do have problems. You know, I will. One of the things that doesn't have a problem on that you have a problem right now, though, is losing that game today. Yes.

Well, so a couple of thoughts for the folks out there. First of all, without Dustin here, there's going to be less arguing. Oh, we'll try and find a way. Yeah, we will. Us three don't argue quite as much. You throw Dustin in there and everything gets a little higher up. You know what Wade said after the last one when we're going out?

And for folks who don't know, Wade's the guy who owns the building. I mean, he goes, so were you guys picking on dust again? I'm like, always wait. We always get kind of snow. But dust is easy because he comes out with these hairbrain schemes. He's summer on the road today. We can still pick on him. If anyone cares too, the leader of the Don's Cup right now, you're looking at them.

I don't know if I can hold on to it. I'm gaining. I have been gaining. As for you, Harles, I got a new pair of skates. And my first skate was Wednesday. My second one was today. And I don't care what anybody says. You know, guys say, oh, the skates are so much better now.

And you get them heated up. They feel great, and I'm like, who? Like, I feel like swearing right now. I won't right now because all the kids listening, but who likes getting new skates, heating them up? They do not feel good. I do not feel normal on the ice. I can't turn properly.

I just, I don't feel right. You know who's dead last in the Dodds Cup? Dustin Newman. Dustin. That's probably why I didn't come. We probably won't see him for a month now. It's, uh... I mean, he did win back to back, but...

And then he's out. And then Owen was taking a page from his book last year, so that's his family has gotten dead last two out of two years here no no it's been more than that because owen drafted my team for me that year i couldn't make it and i was like oh let's pick tamp and they lost out first round remember they got upset by it was a columbus or somebody dustin pick tampa this year yeah own picked tampa last year anyways yeah um new skates no new equipment sucks in general but the skate like you know you get new shin pads new elbow pads whatever but the skates my feet hurt but it's any equipment the wife has been on me

to replace my elbow pads for how many years and I've had them since like first year midget. So like we're going on 25 years. I don't know. And I'm like, do I really want new elbow pads? And I'll tell you why. Because once you get comfy elbow pads, there's no reason to change. And you know whose elbow pads I'm still using? Dads.

Dads. Dad, give them to me a midget. They're from 1970 something, I think. Now that is a parapet. So tell me. Something that would get built today that would last 50 years. They look like they've been through the, but they're awesome. They've got.

It's a whole thing, right? Like, then you've got to get comfortable with the stuff on the ice and stuff just doesn't. You know, I was off today. I had a post and a crossbar just couldn't quite climb back into the end of the game. We were close. It was a good game though. It was good. Yeah, and Darien showed up.

So all of a sudden the pro guy brings his pro brother and they play on the same team. It's nice when it's, they did it against us. We beat them. when they were together. Yeah, we did, as the four Newman's together. Yeah. Okay. First off, happy early Mother's Day to every mom out there.

Happy Mother's Day. This is Mother's Day. It's, you know, it's coming up and should have told the moms. Because I know, I tell the story from time to time. Like, you know, I don't think I would have got as far in hockey if it wasn't mom dragging me every summer. Oh, man, she drove me nuts. I was like, I don't want to go anywhere.

And then she'd load me up and we'd go to some kid. camp somewhere else and that's how I met Larry Wintoniak right was MVP camps and so mom I asked mom about this probably five years ago or something I'm like was it like awful take me she's like oh it was awful to get you in the vehicle but once you're there you love hockey and so I guess you know that as a parent so sure to tell the moms because uh they do spend a lot of time in the old arena or the ball diamonds now yes yeah any of the sports any of the music calls I think of Dustin talking about Becky and I think she's been on the road four or five uh like not weekends like four days a week going to different places for dance so i'm sure she's

starting to get ready for the next stage now we'll go from moms to heart memorial finalists the trophy awarded annually the player uh to be judged the most valuable to his team the three finalists kuturoff mckin and mcdavit if you were uh taking a stab who would you say it's got to be i feel like it's got to be macdavid although you might give it to McKinnon for the President's trophy winning Colorado Avalanche, but I mean... I think you can make an argument for all three.

If you go... That's why they're, Jim. But I think it's got to be McDavid because Drysidal was hurt the last 20-some games. So was Hyman? Right, and so if you go, and the goaltending is still in flux, right? And so if you go most valuable to his team,

I think if McDavid wasn't there, the older is, do they make the playoffs? You know, Kutra's really valuable. to his team, but I just think McDavid has it this year. He should have it. I mean, McKinnon was in, it's hard to argue. McKininin is on the number one team in the league, but they were the number one team in the league. Yeah, they're, well, they're still, that would, that would be a negative against McKinnon

in this. Well, look at Colorado right now. They're, man, we'll get to the playoffs here in a second. I would agree. McDavid, it just seems like, especially all the things that happened to know others this year and him winning the scoring race and everything else. Like, he's, he's probably. the shoe in, but who knows.

I feel like he dragged the Oilers into the playoffs this year. I agree. Draft lottery. Toronto, number one. First text to Lerge. Just like I said, I don't know if I'm more upset that Toronto got first overall

or that Vancouver ended up getting bumped down like that, right? Like that was so mad, right? Like, big Nucks fan, right? I, you know, it's a big deal for Toronto. I like that the one team for me is San Jose, moving from nine to two. Yeah.

And they get to add either another top centerman or a top pair of fenceman to that potent lineup already. Like it is going to be, they're going to be legit here. They're going to be a wagon. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that whole division is about to get somewhat turned where you've got Anaheim,

that's starting to really come along now, right? Obviously, in the playoffs. You're going to see San Jose here right away where they're taking another step forward, right? You've still got Emmington in there. I mean, yeah, we talked about it. You can't argue with Vegas either. No, that's right.

And Vegas is probably, Vegas feels like that team like Colorado and Dallas where they're just always there. Yeah. They never seem, I'm not saying they'll always make the playoffs, but they kind of seem like they're always in there. They got Carter Hart, right? Like, I mean, they've had their go-to,

goaltending woes, you know, and they always find a way to just have, you know, like they had Thompson. I'm like, they go from Thompson giving them away and then him playing for the Canadian Olympic team and being an all world this year. And you're like, they can't, and then they want to, and then they got Carter Hart. It's even some of the other guys. Like, oh, Rasmus Anderson's available? Yeah, it goes to Vegas.

It goes to Vegas. Oh, Mitch Martin's available? Yeah, it goes to Vegas. Thomas Hurtle. Yeah, we'll send him to Vegas. Like, they just seem to keep picking up the guy and you're like, what is the rest of the teams? Is it just the tax bracket?

Does everybody want to live in Vegas these days? I'm not, or is it just better management? Vegas wouldn't be a bad spot. Part of it, though. You'd be anonymous there. Part of it too, though, is the weather, right? Like when we went down and watched Tampa, like the facility has its own fishing pond behind the rink.

Well, Corey, with a line of fishing rods where guys are showing up in their shorts. You can go fishing after your job. done practice, right? Like, everything is right there, right? Like, or you go to Eminton and... Well, I agree. I was thinking Miami when LeBron James played in Miami. So if anybody's ever been there, you go to... So you got Miami, but then you've got this water area and then you got islands out in it. And then you got the ocean, right? And the islands is where all the big houses are. And so LeBron had a big house. So he would take his boat across the bay to the arena to practice and for games.

And when he was done, he'd jump on his boat and go home. Yeah. That's a pretty nice lifestyle. And then if you go like way in the way back machine, when Corey Cross first came on the podcast, he talked about different climates and how he noticed when he went to Toronto specifically and then elsewhere, how many more hindries he started to have because of the climate. And you think the warm weather and how much easier it is on your body.

Like that'd be part of it too. You think about. Plus you go to Vegas, like you say, you aren't the guy. Yeah. Like they got so many showstoppers in Vegas. I think that's part of the reason people like going to New York, too. It's just, you just blend into society. All of a sudden, you're not this person.

Whereas in Eminton, you walk around anywhere you go. Or Toronto. Right. Or Winnipeg or, you know, Calgary or Montreal. If you're Toronto. They just Matt Sundeen and who are the two others? Cheka. Yeah.

What do you do there? You just take the best player available. So you take, you take McKenna? You take McKenna. You don't second guess this. Just take McKenna. You just have, all of a sudden, now you're making Matthews excited because you've got a top end talent that you've just replaced Marner with is what you've done. And if I got to watch McKenna and the World Juniors in Minnesota at Christmas time, we were there.

And we watched him at the U of M arena. So it's just a big bowl, right? So like there isn't a bad seat in the house. I think we sat, I don't know, 15 rows up. And he will find Matthews with a pocket. over and over and over again. If there's one thing he looked like he was frustrated with his line mates on the world juniors,

is they were surprised sometimes he got him in the puck so fast and they didn't get it off. And you could just see him like, fuck. Whereas you think Matthews is all-world when it comes to letting that puck fly. Yeah, that could be a nice fit. You know, I would be interested to see, too,

the scouting staff out there. Who's the number two guy from Europe? The Swedish guy. Oh, I just. just had it all pulled up here continue on with your thought well remember when leo carlson all of sudden like when anaheim drafted leo carlson he kind of came out of the blue like he was listed top ten but nobody thought he was going to be drafted that high and you look at the type of player he's turned into and so if you're toronto Toronto is a hockey mad city now but kenna's

going to do going to do one or two things he's going to thrive in that and be unbelievable stenberg stemberg or do you take the stemberg who nobody knows about it north america because he's from overseas, but does he walk in and just, because they're talking about he's going to be a legitimate number one centerman. And so if you're Toronto and you worry about, like,

I think if I'm, if I'm sent Sundyna and Chaka and you do your interviews, that's the thing I'm focusing on. Who's going to be able to come in Toronto and handle the media and all the publicity and all the pressure for the next 10 years? That's what I'm,

that's my biggest between the two of them. The only, knock, I guess I've heard about McKenna is like you're strictly like goal scoring, right? There is no defensive side to him, right? And versus Stenberg. Stenberg plays a lot of penalty kill. So you're getting a little bit more of, you know, arguably or is McKenna better? McKinna is a winger, right, versus a centerman.

So he played his position as soundly. as anyone on the ice, but he didn't grab the puck, dance through six guys and go put a top shelf. He was very opportunistic, which you go, you put him on a line with, like, Leon Drysidal, and Leon Drysiddle scores 50 because that guy can find him over and over and over again. But he didn't make any mistakes with the puck all game long. Now it's just World Juniors, and I know he's going against the best and the best. But, like, he was sound. He just didn't make any mistakes. And then on the power play, he was lights out. Like, he must have found, they didn't score on it, but he must have had like four or five opportunities on his one shift alone

where he just could see the ice exceptionally well. I don't know if you're going to go wrong either way. I mean, San Jose is going to get a hell of a player one way or another. I'm saying, like San Jose could literally have a top, because the other guy's a number one center type. Yeah. You go Celebrini and him won two. I saw a cool, well, I didn't know, I didn't know this until, you know, was watching

some things come across X. You know how PWHL does their draft rankings? No. They call it the gold plan. Once a team is mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, every point they earn in a remaining regular season games

starts adding up, and the most points puts them first. Oh, wow. So if you lose, if you're mathematically eliminated first, you get your worst team in the NHL, it would motivate you to win games in order to get not to, not. And it's kind of, and it kind of makes sense because if you're the last team eliminated, you're going to have less games.

So you might be the best team of the ones eliminated, but if you only got three games left to go, you might just not get enough points to get a high-up draft. Well, here's what Barstool, or Barstool put out, or Bar-down, I should say. Here would be the NHL draft order if they'd done it for the NHL this year. New York Rangers would have the number one overall pick, then Vancouver, then Florida, St. Louis, Calgary, Chicago, and that's how it would go. So it would change most of the team's slot relatively similar, but the New York Rangers won the most games after they were mathematically eliminated.

I mean, whether or not they... I actually like that. You know, then guys aren't throwing the season, right? You're not... All of a sudden now you get where, yeah, guys are now injured reserve and they're like all the teams are, you know, he's been battling this for the last two, this injury for the last two years,

and so now he's going to get surgery. And all of a sudden you've got three guys like Vegas who they're shipping all their guys to go get surgeries all at the same time. So everybody can come back next year, right? The pre-laughtery, the teams were Vancouver, Chicago, New York. So there's not, it's not like it's a crazy change. But now New York gets first. Vancouver, being the worst team, does get second.

And a team like Chicago actually drops to sixth because they didn't win by this ranking. They didn't win enough games. That's an interesting concept for sure. Well, instead of the draft lottery where, you know, you know. People hate the draft lottery because it's like, I don't know. Well, everybody wonders if it's rigged, right? Whenever somebody, because Grabber wants to say that, and I'm going,

so are you telling me they rigged it so Emmetton could get all them first overall picks? I doubt it. Do you think they rigged it so McDavid would go to Emmetton? Does that make any sense? But they did change the rules because of Eminton. Yeah, but if you were rigging it, would you put McDavid in Emmetton? Not a chance. If you're rigging it, you're putting McDavid either in Montreal or Toronto or Boston or New York.

You're one of the original six. L.A. Or a southern team. Yeah. Yeah. You're not putting them in Emmeton. I would agree. Okay.

I thought it was an interesting idea. I actually. No, actually, I like it. You lose out. Now you want the first overall pick, start winning. Go win it. Yeah. That's right. And it would actually make, not that there would be a whole lot. Well, there would be people paying attention to that. You've seen the NBA have their mid-season, what do they call that? You know what I'm talking about?

No. Their mid-season championship where they can win money? You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, I know it a little bit, yeah. I've seen vaguely seen that. Where's that going? Are you saying the NHLs to do that too? No, I'm just, I just think that we get set in our ways that this is the way it's always been done. And the NBA, do I follow the NBA? But not really, but NBA fans, in the middle of the long, freaking season, they're still regular season games, and now they can go out and win.

So this year, the New York Knicks won the third annual NBA in-season tournament, the Emirates NBA Cup by defeating San Antonio with Spurs in the championship game. And the championship game is in Las Vegas. and all 30 teams get in, it's a knockout, but they're all regular season games until I think the championship game, right? Like, it's an interesting... It's just something else.

It's just something else. Well, I think I look at baseball. Now, this is for playoffs, but by adding so many more wild cards, it's made it so much more exciting. You go back to the first round of the NHL reminds me of March Madness, the first round of March Madness.

Well, March Madness is... It reminds me of the first weekend of wild card baseball. Like, that's what everybody tunes in. It's so excited. and that's where the upsets happen and who's going to beat who and then you kind of get into the grind after that. Well, if you look back when there was only 24 teams, two-thirds of the teams made playoffs, not half, right?

It was 16 in the playoffs out of 24, right? So two-thirds of the team, so if you take that same model, realistically, we should have 24. Right. Well, in the NBA has a plan. So seven plays 10, eight plays nine. I think it is. I mean, and all the teams, all the teams love it because where do you make your money in the playoffs?

Well, there's so much, so in the NHL playoffs this year, who is the two teams that would have been on each side would have been hit the wild cards? Columbus and Washington or Detroit. And so that's a one, best of one game versus Ottawa and Philly. I don't know. Once again, I mean, it's just the NHL reg. season so long. I don't know of a single fan that's like, oh, 82 games, let's go. It's like, no, everybody thinks it should be probably 60 games. It should be a shorter duration. I don't like how long the playoffs go for at the end of it. Well, I know because to me,

when May long hits, everybody forgets about hockey. All of a sudden, it's the lake, and it's summertime. It seems like May long is that time. And we're still sitting in the semifinals. Yeah. Well, and then they've changed the finals to be more, more resemble, uh, that super where they have like that week, media week, and then every game, it takes like four games to get to every game. You're like, oh, I'm like, let's just get this over with. I agree.

Like I said, we agree too much. We agree too much. Okay, you got four series going on right now. The Wild Avalanche. Don Cherry, we'll always say you're not out of it until you lose on home ice. I don't think anybody's surprised Colorado's up too. They are the President's Trophy.

And for all the President's Trophy winners that have come before, they're a world beatinger. They are fun to watch. They got the best defensemen in the NHL. They got a top three of the league in McKinnon. Until I started watching this series, I am surprised. If you would ask me to start the series, I thought she's a coin flip.

And Minnesota has played well. Minnesota has, you know, you talk McKinand McCar on one side. Minnesota's got Quinn Hughes and Capriose off on the other side. But Colorado's just playing at a different level. They are. They are also getting like, To me, Wedgwood is playing unreal.

Well, especially in that first game when he only led in six. No. You watched the last game? Like, it could have been a different game. He definitely played better than the Minnesota one. Were you surprised they started Minnesota, started Gustafson. Gustafsson? No, I wasn't because they had went back and forth between the two goalies all year.

They didn't have this number one guy all year. And so to me, it would be like, okay. let's go with the other guy, give them a break. I'm sure they'll go back with Walshead here in game three, but to me on that team it wasn't surprising. The, like power play, penalty kill can get you far in playoffs. You need that solid goaltender that is like that game could have easily been won by and Oslo. You're talking game two.

Yeah, game two. That game could easily. Game one reminds me of the Battle of Alberta, the first game where the flames would beat the Oilers. Wasn't it, 9-6? 9-6, yeah, and then Eminton, one-in-one four straight. You're like, what is going on? It was unbelievable. That game was unbelievable.

And game two started, it was two-one in the first five minutes. You're like, here we go again. Yeah. But Colorado moves a puck so well. Everybody thinks, oh, it's McKinnon. When you watch them play, they do not play this dump and chase, and we're going to hammer everybody. No.

They move the puck. It's puck control. It's fun to watch. Yeah, if you're a Colorado fan, you got a fun team to watch. And you watch that team and you go, oh, and okay. So Carolina's kind of running the show over in the East right now, has not lost a game yet. They're now 7 and 0 in the playoffs. And they do it by very stingy defense, very tight, very hard to play against.

So Carolina Colorado final would be interesting. Well, right now you look at it and it almost seems destined, doesn't it? It feels destined. Like, I mean, don't get me wrong, can there's been. Vegas or Anaheim come out of there and all of a sudden shock Colorado. Sure. I mean, I don't think anyone... Injuries, goaltending, anything can change. Carter Hart gets hot.

I mean, Anaheim... How much Anaheim hockey did you watch this year? Now you're watching them. You're like, this is a fun team to watch. Yeah, this is actually a pretty good hockey team. Just before we get on to that, I looked and there's 14 teams that have swept their first two rounds and then wound up most of the time,

one in the Stanley Cup. Anaheim lost in game seven the year that they swept their first two, but it went to game seven, right? So you win those first two rounds by sweeping? Like, you think of how much extra health? You know what? I'm glad you told me that, Harle's. If Carolina beats Flyers in the next game, I'm shutting the TV off. Hand him the cup.

But, I mean, Colorado's on the, they're on the same trajectory. They're on the same trajectory here, right? But, I mean, you look at both those series, right? I mean, obviously Carolina's up 3-0, but you go, Carolina versus Philly. We all knew that's kind of a lopsided. To me, to me, whereas Minnesota,

you don't think they're out of it. I mean, when I was watching that, it is, when I was watching that Philly game, right? Like, to me, they hit like four posts and you go,

are they just gripping it just a little too much, gripping their stick just a little too much? That would happen the day, Sean? I was gripping a little too hard. A little too hard. Hey? Yeah.

But, you know, it's, everybody's excited for playoffs. You're going in. and you're just off just that little bit. And then you look at Colorado. Colorado is putting those posts in, right?

Where, you know, I don't know. No, but you're talking with Colorado. And maybe Jay will disagree on. Like, you're talking. Colorado has elite, elite. McKinnon. Colorado has also been in the playoffs. How many years, right?

I understand. You're very familiar with what you're going. Chris and go, man, that guy's elite. I'm not saying he's not a good player. He's a good player, but do they have a McKinnett? No, they have a good team. But like... On a team like Colorado or Emmettin or Tampa Bay,

Zegris isn't on the top line. And like, what did Philly do, I thought well against Pittsburgh? They kind of bullied them. And then they were running to Carolina, and I was chuckling. They're down 3-0 or about to be. And at the end of the game, anybody watched the end of the game, where they have like a line brawere?

but nobody drops their gloves. They're like swinging with their glove on. I'm like, what the heck is that? I'm like, Rick Tocke's got to be sitting there going, just drop the Mets and go at it, right? You want to send a message, send a message. But Carolina, I'm probably welcome it. Brindamore's team isn't going to shy away from that type of style.

They're not in Pittsburgh Penguins. I think of Eminton back when Kane was his first year in Emmington. And the game, like it was a zero-zero-zero game. halfway through the second like Emmington was playing like dog shit and then the they line up just outside the blue and cane wax the other player right on the top of the laces right as they're lining up next thing you know sticks are whacking whack and next thing you know like cane drops the gloves with the guy and now all of a sudden it like just brings everybody back into the game.

Like, you need one of those shit disturbers. Well, isn't that what Couturee is? Isn't that what he's supposed to? Well, Cotteria is an interesting one for me because he used to be a first-line center for Philly. Now he's gotten older, and so now he's kind of playing that fourth-line role in penalty kill, and he's the captain. And he's on the power play. And he's on the power play, but yet he's playing fourth-line. So I don't know if he's playing fourth-line to limit his minutes.

Is that the idea? Because, like, they, I thought in the first round they got in Pittsburgh's head by like, just, they were just, let's go back to Pittsburgh for a sec. Pittsburgh overachieved this year. Yeah, fair. I mean, at the start of the year, everybody had Pittsburgh as one of the bottom three teams. They had Pittsburgh drafting with Vancouver. And they all of a sudden, oh, Crosby and Malkin and Lattang and Carlson, they have one last hurrah and look at us go. And then they hit the playoffs and that's all they had.

And so, yeah, Philly had younger legs and they're banging. and bodies and we all feel good and then we hit a real team and all of a sudden here we said. You know, is it that surprising to me? No. No. Did anybody sitting here think we're going to go to Game 7 or Philly's going to sneak one out of here? Nah. Four or five games, Max, and we're sitting

3 and O carrying on. Yep. Well then switch over on the other side of the Sabres, Canadians. Now, Buffalo only lanes one game to nothing. Game two goes tonight. I don't know. I'm pulling for the Sabres. I I normally would cheer for the Canadians because I like a Canadian team to be there.

And Montreal has such a rich history. And that building, like, when they bring the flame in and everything, it's just, you can almost feel that sitting on the other side of the screen. You're like, that place has got to be rocking, right? But I don't know. Sabres got a soft place in my heart for a team that a city has never won. Has a rough go. They've never won.

And 14 years out of the playoffs. Yeah. You know what's, one of the interesting storylines there, I think, is Alex Lyon, because he's come in and he's been the goaltender now. And they talked about how Alex Lyon had went to different teams over the last few years and give him a boost in goaltending, but never really has stuck around to be a number one guy. And did he start the playoffs number one guy? No, he didn't know. Pecky Luchanan started as the number one guy. And they let in the goal from outside the blue line, right?

And they had the loss. And all of a sudden, lions come in and very quietly, it's not like he's getting a lot of talk. But now they got through the first series and now they're at one nothing against Montreal. And so I think that's kind of cool. They're a fun team to watch. I like watching Buffalo. I like watching Montreal, though. I do think, I love seeing St. Louis.

It's a tough series for me to pick because, you know, it is fun to see Montreal in the playoffs. And they do give a lot of energy, but it's fun to see Buffalo in the playoffs. Can one of those two teams give the hurricanes a run for their money? Yes, I think both teams can. I think both them teams are going to give the hurricanes a way bigger run for their money than Philly. Absolutely. Well, then you switch to the final series, Vegas and Anaheim. I personally think Anaheim can win this.

I mean, I've watched it. I'm like, man, Quinnville is one of the best coaches all the time. You take away all the stuff that went in Chicago, and I know you can't just write all that stuff off. But like his coaching pedigree speaks for itself, and here they are tied one-one with the Knights. And I thought, honestly, I thought in game one, I thought they might have been the better team in that one too.

And Vegas is Vegas. And you look at it and you go, it's 1-1 going back to Anaheim. That's a tough, like, you know, what do we say? I remember having the conversation. It was probably with dust for all. Emerton got the right team. They got Anaheim. We're going to have a good first series.

Oops. Hope we go. Oops. And now Vegas is sitting there going on. We don't got to deal with the oilers, but now we've got to deal with Anaheim. I think one of the differences for me between. Vegas and Emmetton's goaltending.

So Anaheim to me is all world talent right now and they are fun to watch. They still give up some offensive chances and they don't have that experience and that lockdown D and if Carter Hart

can continue to play at the high levely is Vegas is full of veterans. So that's going to be real Emmettom was a different monkey for Anaheim to beat, for sure, that would have felt great. Can they have enough pride and push and grit to get through Vegas now? You would give a pass to Anaheim going, hey, you made it back to the playoffs, and you knocked off the last two going to the Western champions. It'd be easy for them to go lose to Vegas in six games and go, yeah, we had a great year.

We're going to be back next year. Like you could see that happening here. Well, the one thing too, right, is that first series, Anaheim's power play was, you know, was it the power play? 50%. It wasn't it's end. Yeah. I mean, come on. No, but what I'm saying is, was it the power play or was it Eminton's lack of penalty kill?

It's a little bit of both. But when you get on a heater like that, every time he step on the ice. But it hasn't been the same against Vegas, right? Well, new team, right? And they've stared at it for, they've been doing the game. Well, I know. I know, okay, so just for all you Euler fans, I know that Eminton has McDavid, who should be MVP this year. But Vegas after McDavid is no slouch.

I mean, they're rolling out Stone, Eichel, Marner, Hurdle, Dorifave, Barboshev, like, they got guys they're rolling out every shift that are legit hockey players. And this is going to be a tough test for Anaheim. And Vegas still has guys in that team that have won the cup. They know what it takes to win, and they have better goaltending than Emerton. Vegas's backup goalie is better than Emmetons. They traded away Thompson for Pete's sake. Yeah. Yeah.

The guy they traded away. The guy they traded away earlier, who retired is still better than the goalies that Emerson has right now. You remember when Mark Andre Fleury was playing there? And they were giving him away. They were going to pay a team basically to take it. We talked about me and I tell you. Me and you would have taken him.

I said, Mark Andre Fleur would be great for the Oilers locker room back then. Yes. And then we're like, well, they won't trade in division. I'm like, why wouldn't they? If they didn't have to give away It would mean you were running the owners back then Sean we would have found away And the other thing we would have done

Is we would have signed Broberg and Holloway So right now the team would be different under me and you Wow We would have picked up Logan Thompson too You would have to get rid of Logan Thompson We'd take it too We probably have three guys right now Hey

Just getting on to the power play too though right Like That game The last game They had a five on three For Just over a minute and then a four-minute power play, and they didn't get a shot.

But, I mean, Philly's power play has been abysmal, too. Oh, man, that's been tough watching. They had a couple of chances, but, like, it's funny. I was watching Carolina. It's a five-on-three, and they stick three guys across the blue line, and Philly was having a hard time getting in. I'm like, how is this possible? There's three guys there.

But is that just Philly doesn't really have, Like when you look at Philly's lineup, they have some nice players. Nobody stands out for me of the guy that gets the puck and drives that puck. Like, you know, the Oilers both, like McDavid is really good at it. But, I mean, Colorado's got McKinnon, even Nakes. You watch him skate with the puck. They drop it to him. And he's doing a couple of head fakes and this and that.

And everybody's standing around. And then he goes. And then Colorado's really good at, he gets across the blue line. He already knows where he's moving the puck. Can you imagine a five on three and sticking three across the blue line against Colorado? Rattle. Yeah. That would be, well, I mean, I hope to see it in the finals if that actually occurs.

But I'm like, McKinnon's going to poke it around you and have a breakaway. I feel like, I don't know. But Philly couldn't even get in. Well, because to me, Colorado, there's a lot of timing and there's a lot of seeing a play ahead. So they're cutting across a blue line. And it's almost like, to me it always reminds me of what you talk about a quarterback. So he's got his first option, his second option, his third option. So if you watch Colorado come in, that guy's coming in.

And in his mind, he's going, if I pull this defenseman, I'm, flipping it over to Lanniske. If I pull this defenseman, then I'm going to flip it over to McKinnett. If both, if neither of them come and this winger comes, I'm going to drop it to NACash who's beside me.

You know what I mean? And so when he crosses a line, he's just looking who comes and that's where he flips. And then they're in, then they set up and away we go. Kind of like what I did to Todd today. Oh, that's a great example.

Great example. Todd goes Darian and leaves Carly for a breakaway away and walks in his cars. Yeah. That felt pretty good. Yeah. No, it was a beautiful play. But part of it too, like Colorado, all them guys have played, well, not all of them, but a lot of them have played together for a long time.

Like, that's part of the reason why I feel like all of us brothers being on the same team, right, is you get to know where. Well, you have chemistry. Yeah. Start to understand the players. There's chemistry, Harle's. There's chemistry Harle's, but the other thing when you put the four Newman brothers together is just the talent, right?

No, but if you look at the Colorado, some of them have played to, together a long time. Some have not. Nakesh only came back over to that team last year. Landisogs have been gone for three years. Nassan Cadre is going. But you still understand how... Brent Burns just joined the team this year. I mean, we were all gone for... Brent Burns is and playing on the power plays?

He's on Colorado. He might be on the second unit, though. I don't know if he is. Is he on the second unit? Because what's the guy... Devon Taves plays on the second. Yeah, but do they have run two defense? They probably do. They probably do.

All I'm getting at, though, is even with Landisog being out three years, you can still see, like, the four of us hadn't ever really played together, minus out on the rink at home. And then you get us all together, right? And you still understand. We had that one game where Jay through the. You still understand where guys are going to be. The no look backhand pass gave the guy a breakway. I got to do that once in a while. Just keep him guessing.

You still understand where other guys are going to be out on the ice. You don't lose that. So for Landis Scott to come back, even after three years, they still know where other guys are going to be and where they're trying to get that puck to. I don't disagree with you. I do think that's part of it. I also think that you put like-minded hockey players together. The thing about Colorado is they got a bunch of guys that move the puck real well. You don't have a bunch of dump and chase guys.

And so if you take a look at our Nunear group, if you put, you know, Carly Clause and a Minish together, they can either really drive, because you got a guy that's a dump and chase guy and a guy that's a puck control guy, or they really won't play together well because they're two totally different players. And you look at Colorado, there's a lot of even little nuances. Like they'll move the puck up to the neutral zone, up to the red line, and a lot of teams are just tipping it in and trying to get on that fast forecheck. Colorado, they grab it and give it to the guy flying through the neutral zone because they're coming in with speed and with puck control.

I guess I was just talking about power play, right? So you've got that core nucleus on the powerplay that has been their power play. You take a look at Philly or Anaheim. They don't have that. Well, Colorado's power play has the best defenseman in the world right now in Cal McCar. And McKinnon's top three Ford? Arguably, he could be the number one Ford. Right.

We could build a power player on that. We could probably build a power player. We could throw Jay and Manish on that line and do just fine. Okay, prediction. Game three, Avalanche Wilde. How did we do last week? Sean took it with seven goals.

Oh, so me and you were the same, but then you beat me on goals. Oh, wow. Actually, we both got... And what was the final goal total? Seven, I think. And I said eight. Eight. So the difference...

Or six. Maybe it was six. No, the difference was no empty netter? I think so. Something like that. Yeah. Okay, predictions. Yeah.

Avalanche Wild game 3. Wild comes back to make a 2-1. I just can't see the Wild getting swept. I think Walstead, just to add a little caveat in there, Walsstead comes back and plays unbelievable. Colorado wins game. See, Harley has this dream that Colorado and Carolina don't lose a game and then meet each other in the finals.

Actually, no, I actually think Colorado is going to win game three and then Minnesota is going to win game four. On who wins game five? Colorado. Okay. There we have, folks. Do you want me to keep going? I'm going to take Minnesota to first game back.

They'll be jacked. Golden Knights Ducks in Anaheim. I'm starting it out. I'm taking Anaheim to win game three. I will also take Anaheim to win game three. Well, I guess I'm taking Vegas. Yeah. Can I'll be.

Buffalo, Montreal will let Harle's fire away. Since me and Jay are picking the same teams, right now. Why couldn't we do Carolina. Carolina. Who won last time now? Me and you. Beat dust.

Any surprises? No. Do you hear any arguments in the room? No. Who are you taking? You take it? You take a Buffalo or you take in Montreal the tie?

It's a win game two. This is in Buffalo. Buffalo. Buffalo. Montreal. It's going to be a seven game series this way. I don't disagree with you.

I think it's going seven regardless. I always. also I'm taking Montreal, which means... Come on, quit following me. You got... You're going to take the flyers to not get swept, I suppose. No. Are you taking the flyers?

Heck no. So I'm taking Carolina to get to finish the sweep. I'm taking Carolina, too. Okay, so that means we need a tie break. Because me and Sean picked all four games the same. Good God. Okay, which game do you want gold total on? Well, the Carolina Flyers game,

because that's your game four sweep that we're calling. So what's the final? What's the score in the end? You got to go first this time. I'm going to say 5-1, Carolina. So you're saying six total goals. Six total goals. And I'm going to say 3-1, so I'm going to go five total goals.

And the only reason I'm going five, I think it's going to be 3-1, but I'm going five just to eliminate Sean being out to tie me there. All right. Sounds good. Jets. He's making up for that empty-netter goal there, that he's not a call. there that he's not accounting for. So maybe it winds up 4-1 with the ATN.

He's going five or less. I'm going six or more. I feel like Philly's about to have an absolute train wreck on their hands. That's what I think. Yeah. They could be wrong. Okay, we're going to find out. I can't believe we pick the same four teams.

Jens, thanks for hopping in. We'll be back next week, folks.