Shaun Newman Podcast - #432 - Brother's Roundtable

Episode Date: May 18, 2023

The Brothers are back at it for week 5 of the NHL Playoffs. All things Oilers/Leafs and predictions for the conference finals. Recorded May 18, 2023. SNP Presents: Luongo & Krainer https://www.showpass.com/snp-presents-luongo-krainer/ Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast Let me know what you thinkText me 587-217-8500

This is Vance Crow. I'm Alex Kraner. My name is David John Parker. This is Alex Epstein. This is Leighton Gray, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. His heads are falling off. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Brothers at it again.

We're going to talk to some Oilers because obviously, you know, a tough week for Euler fans, a tough league for Leaf fans as well. I want to, you know, I listen to Bob Stauffer and their, breakdown and everybody's breakdown of the oilers and how they you know this that and the other thing and the only thing's staring at me after we left game five and campbell had come in and i was just like campbell starts game six right and i think i don't know a lot of fans well yeah i think yeah probably and and then they started skinner and and and and then the panel said oh no they made the right choice and everything else and blah blah blah so this i've been wait i've been i've been pent up and rage i'm

calmed down a little bit but okay here here here Skinner started all 12 games. He allowed 38 goals in those 12 games. He had a 3.68 goals against average, an 8.83 save percentage. He was pulled once versus L.A. He was pulled three times of his Vegas. Campbell on the other side came in in relief in four games. One of them was significant.

That was the game four against L.A. when they were down 3-0 after the first. In those four games, he allowed just two goals. He had a 1.01 goals against average. It was the best in the NHL for goalies in the playoffs. Now, he only played four periods. We can argue about all that. Or just shy of six periods.

Apologies. Four games. He played 118 minutes. He had a 9-6-1 save percentage. He was number one in all playoff goalies and goals against average. Once again, I understand he didn't play that much. And he was number one in all of goalies and save percentage. Save percentage in goals against average.

But anyways, I'm looking at that. And I just go, like, I don't get. everybody knows how big of a Stuart Skinner fan I am, right? But game six, you're walking in, you need to win. And everyone's like, oh, they made the right choice, and it's for the future, and it's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, aren't we here to win? If we're here to win, why isn't, why isn't, and I was hard on the camel, but you need

somebody who's going to, I don't know. What game did they pull them out? What was the third game they pulled them? So they pulled them in game five, game six. They pulled them at game one and game two and game six, right? Well, they pulled them in game five. Pull them in game five. Game five.

Because they pulled them and then they're like, well, we're going to play in game six. Oh, yeah, right, right, right, right. Yeah. I don't know. You know, if Skinner had a nine, tens, eight percentage, we probably wouldn't be talking about this. But you have, like you say, when you look at them numbers and it's hard to argue, so you win the LA series, so you can't argue with that. And then after four games, you're two-two. So you can't really argue with any of that.

Skinner starts game five. and it just felt like to me, because I was, I thought for sure they're going to start Campbell in game six. Because you look at the number, the underlying numbers that you just said, Sean, and then we just pulled him for the third time. At what point, and I guess the coaching staff felt like, hey, we've got this far with Skinner, we're going in the game six. He's always rebounded this way we've got to go.

But again, I go, yeah, I think that's the right choice when he's at 9-10. But he's below 890. So, I don't know. I think it was a mistake they for sure made on that. The only thing with any of that, though, is, like, Campbell hadn't started a game since, like, a month and a half before that. I understand. That's the only thing. So now you've got a goalie that hasn't really started any games.

Joseph Wohl for the Toronto Maple Leafs had played 11 NHL games. He comes in and game four gives him a game. Game five gives him another game. To me, I get it. Normally, I'm the most staunch on, like, you leave your goalies alone. But as a defenseman, when your goalie can't stop a beach ball. And Skinner, this isn't, like, I hope this, you know, Skinner was possibly a Calder trophy winner this year.

It's not like he's a bad hockey player. But what happens in the first, like, 10 seconds of game six? He gives the puck away on the boards. And everyone's like, oh, he was a bad bounce. It's like, go back and watch it. He rims the puck into all the bodies. They bow, boom, boom, boom. it's in the net and you're like and that's how we start off he had four goals on i think it was

15 shots i remember doing the math and sending out it was a 773 save percentage when they were up what four nothing whatever you're just like how are you going to win the oilers are great not they weren't up for nothing but you get the point it was four to four two it's like the oils are a great hockey team but we've all been there where you're you're just like can we get a save well and i guess too i kind of look at it where we're talking about vaselleschi or helibook somebody is a real legit number one has been for years but skinner came in had a good last half of the season started through got through l a you know you're still still underlying numbers though underlying numbers aren't great you're talking about three poles in 11 games right right like i'm going like where

where's it's this is a masaleski we're talking about Campbell was brought in to be the starter paid like the starter skinner kind of ran with it why are we so four poles not in 12 games no no I realize that up until game five. There's three pulls and 11 games going into the 12th. Which I think is quite a bit. Well, it is. Especially if you have a safe percentage under night. And the thing about what you always want your players to be is have their head in the very

moment in the game, being present. As a coach, you also have to do that where you have to be present. You got this big idea of what your plan is going to be. But as we know from Mike Tyson, that all makes sense until you get punched in the mouth. As a coach, you have to be present. And that means you have this. great plan, but when things change, you have to change your plan. And I look with Stuart Skinner. I like Stuart Skinner a lot. But when the team doesn't have faith in your goaltender and your

goaltender starting to lose faith in himself, you have to make the change. I don't care if the other guy hasn't played at all. It doesn't matter who your backup is. If your team has no faith in the goalie and the goalie has no faith in himself, you have to make the change. Well, I think the other thing that you bring up that's interest does, because I thought there was, see, I thought there was two mistakes that the coaching staff made with Vegas. So, I mean, we're talking about pro hockey team. So they've got to have different power plays, different penalty kills, different systems. And part of his adjustments, they always talk about adjustments, right? You go into game one, you'll lose what's the adjustment. Maybe it's just the energy. But at some point, and dad brought

this to my attention, so March Osso got interviewed after the game six win where he scored a hat trick. And he said, yep, coach told us that the Oilers play a man-on-man system. So he said, you just just have to beat your man to the net. You have to be better than that man. So if you're the coaching staff for the Oilers, and how many goals did Vegas score, everything's around the net, everything's cross-crease,

and you see this, where's the adjustment? Where's the adjustment going into game four, game five, where you know what, this man-to-man's not working on this team? Let's set up maybe in more of a zone defense or a structured defense. I mean, these are pro guys. They used to be able to flip fairly easily, but there was no adjustment. was like, we're going to play older's hockey because we're better than you, and we're

going to run the tables. And then it just didn't happen. The other thing, too, is, so last year, you were 369 goals against Savage. This year, you were 350. So they've actually gotten better as per their goal tending, right? I mean, if you want to go that way. But I, this going, this was the same percentage. This was the same.

What was the safe percentage last year? But this is going to Jay's point where maybe it's, it's partially to do with your goaltending for sure, 100%. But is this solely laid out on the goaltender? No, I think this is more of a team defense structure. They need to adjust more to your point, right? Sure. I mean, Vegas is not the same as L.A.

And if they'd got by Vegas and played Dallas, Dallas is a different team again. Right. And just to go in there saying, we're the Oilers, we're going to play our game. Well, that's fair. But maybe against Vegas, you needed to win two-one games. In fairness to the coaching, and I brought this up on the last Brothers roundtables, they did make some modifications to especially their penalty kill, where they're keeping tighter to the net because,

Because Vegas was trying to just crash the puck. A tight triangle in front of the net with one extra guy that's kind of going out and coming. And they missed that in the game that Nurse was missing because when he was tight to the net, he was tough to deal with because of his long reach plus his big body. Mike Smith last year, if this is right, had a 9-1-3 save percentage. Does that sound right? That sounds right. And a 337. What did you say?

369 overall. Was that regular season? Yeah, because Smith didn't play all. He didn't play every minute. I bet. Sure. So it says 9-137 is what Mike Smith was. Right.

Right. So I don't know. I just, part of it is I think you give the guy a break. Skinner's a rookie. Give him a break. Throw in the old vet. Let the old vet take the heat at the end of the year if you can't get it done. To me, to me, part of it.

But I didn't like that there was no coaching adjustment throughout that series defensive. What did I say to Jay, whatever game it was against Vegas, where we were sitting there and I'm like, They've already figured out Stuart Skinner, wrapped the puck on him, go to his feet. He has these slow, long, big... You know, you watch, like, Bobrovsky in Florida. He has this beautiful way of covering the posts.

Or Vasaleski with Tampa Bay. He's really fast for a big goalie. Stuart Skinner is not that. So what did they start doing? They started doing these plays where they either tried wrapping around the net, and Stuart Skinner was on the opposite side so many times and they just couldn't finish it off,

or like Stone did on the one power play. They just drove the net and pushed the puck far aside. It was like, I don't know, I'm sitting there watching. I'm like, they're just, they're attacking how slow Stuart Skinner looks. And it got exposed against L.A. a couple times where he's like, how is he letting that in? I know it goes through like a little tiny hole where he's covering the bomb. But what is that? And over and over and over again, they just, they exposed it.

And so like, or Jack Campbell. Or high glove. All Jack Campbell does is it just messes with the shooters because it's a different look. Well, and he's especially a different look. Campbell is quick, not as big, not as strong. structured. Like, he's almost the exact opposite. And he didn't make it look easy.

That 3-0 game in L.A. when he came back, remember how many times? Like, oh, my goodness. And yet he just battled. To Kelly Rudy said it. He came in and he battled. And the thing is, I don't think the team lost faith in them because if they had, they would have, they would have, McDavid would have approached Woodcroft said, listen, we need a different goalie.

Like, how many times, Dust, in the middle of playoffs, you know, were players talking you about different things all the time? So I think the others. Yes, but there's moments in time where, and I'll, go back to, you know, now this is senior hockey, but I remember in game, what is it, game two against Wainwright. Wayne Wright. And our starting goal, he led in a goal and I saw a whole bench and I went, oh, crap,

I got to pull them because we're screwed if we don't. It actually took a goal that should have, shouldn't have went in and it went in and the whole team knew it. And the starting goal is a little bit hurt, so that probably tied into it. So it wasn't, you know, it was, you just couldn't physically. I remember because it was actually the second goal. Because the first one went in and we all went, huh. The second one, though. It wasn't that the goalies are bad.

It's just a, like, the Oilers were scoring almost at will until Vegas was scoring at well. And anytime you've got to score five goals just to tie a game. Yes. I mean, you're asking a lot. You have to make that change. Yeah, just for a different look of nothing else, right? Like, especially when Campbell gave you the game against L.A., and especially when he comes in

and he just, you know, he's battling. It forces it, Vegas to adjust again, because now their whole power. part plays about let's get it down low let's get around his feet well now they're not going to beat campbell like that so you might get a win in one game just because they haven't made the adjustment now Vegas goes into game six or game seven and maybe they've made adjustment back on that but i think campbell would like you say give them a really different look so that there's you got to make the other team adjust just going yep no we're going to keep doing the same thing and hope it works different that's the definition of insanity the other the other question um unless

anyone else to say on goal tending that came up on the others was where did dry saddle go you know after he had the explosion of goals and everybody thought he was going to break every single record under the sun and then is that an adjustment by Vegas that they did was you know people are mad or you know when you lose everything gets scrutinized right um i i don't worry about dry saddle and the reason is this is he had chances and in the first couple games everything went in the net in the next couple of games he hit the post or he hit a defenseman's in an open net and you go, you know, you can say, well, dry settle wasn't the same. Well, sometimes puck's just go in the net and then some games they just don't.

Well, and like, you know, Sean and Harley being defensemen probably don't understand this. They haven't scored a lot of goals in their life, right? But I know for me, and I've seen it with dust and I see it with all the guys, there's times where everything you shoot goes in the net. Yes. And then there is times and you could be absolutely just picking corners and it's crossbar and hit them the top of the shoulder. and it just, it won't go in.

Yeah. And that's what it felt like, and it was weird because I want, in that game three, the orders were up one rip, and dry side it goes down there, cross-ice pass one time that he's put in all year, and he hits post.

Yeah. And just, my just initial guy's, oh, yeah. Because once that starts happening. Well, and then all of a sudden it creeps in,

and then you're clutching the stick a little tighter. There was one just after that, J2, where a defenseman who wasn't even looking, he takes the shot and it's an open net and he hits the defenseman skate and you go yeah now that just kind of keeps happening for a little bit and how do you switch that you can't you just keep shooting and then all of a sudden he'll flip again and away you go and away you go again it's a strange thing i'm i'm less concerned about dry saddle and more concerned about the rest of the cast right but the

rest of the cast was hurt like van der kane had a something wrong with his thumb so that's what he came with after the season was over. So he had something wrong. And then his other hand, he'd had wrist surgery out. Right. So you got a shooter that's going around that can hit and disturb people, but can't shoot. Zach Hyman hurt his something down below, knee, leg in that hit there in about game three. Yeah.

Right. He wasn't the same after that. So two of your other three guys, whatever, I haven't heard anything about news. Was he the same before that, though? Oh, Zach Hyman was unreal in the LA series. and the first couple games, like his ability to track guys down, get in front of them,

take the puck away from him, is unbelievable. And after that, he'd go to the net hard, he'd battle, but he wasn't the same player. And so you can have the greatest player of McDavid and Drysidal,

but if all Vegas is going to do is focus on shutting them guys down, you have to have Kane and Nugent Hopkins and Hyman and them guys absolutely being the best players. Actually, when you look at the Oilers as a whole, on the whole team, you probably don't make that many changes this summer.

Like, you can talk about getting rid of Yamamoto, which I'm good with. But you look past that and you go, okay, on defense, how much do you want to change? Well, you obviously have to sign Bouchard, but you're probably not making huge changes on the defense at this point, I don't think. Well, the question goes back. Minds me of the goalie question we had a couple years ago with you. So you can replace Cici, who you're replacing him with. Sure. You can replace Kulak, but who you replace Kulak?

But this is what I mean. Like it's easy to talk about, but you've got to have someone better taking that spot. Kulaq's 2.75 for the next three years. Tell me who you're going to find that's going to be better suited. I'm not worried about Kulak. I'm not worried about Kulak. But this is what I mean, right? You can visually go, oh, we can replace Yamamoto.

That's what I say about the defense. I don't touch them really. Bringing in at home was a big enough change that makes your whole team better at this point. And you're going to have the whole year next year. And you're going to have the whole year. As long as you get Bouchard back, you're off to the races. On forwards, you go, Yamo is the main guy. Now you can go well.

There's a couple guys on your bottom, you know, your fourth line. Sure, whatever you want to do there. But Yamel's the only guy probably pull out. And then you've got some young kids coming up like Holloway. And that Rafi, Levoix. They probably fill the gaps. So how much do you really change the line? You probably don't change the forwards that much.

Well, they had an expert on Bob Stauffer with the money stuff. And he pretty much said you pretty much got to get rid of Yamamoto. So you have the money to sign Bouchard. Sure. Then you re-sign McLeod and. Clim Kostin, you bring in Dillon Holloway and Raffey-Lavoy, and now you're signing one or two guys for 750 grand each, and we all carry on. Yeah.

There's your lineup for next year. Yeah. Sorry to disappoint. But I don't see that as a bad thing because I think they're awfully close. No, but it would, you know, and then you're hoping out of that between Raffey-Lavoy, Dylan Holloway, one of them guys, can they be that top six forward? Did you, did you hear, um, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, press conference? No.

He's getting asked about, you know, one of the things I had on here was, you know, the fan freak out, right? You lose, and I'm speaking specifically to the Leafs and to the Oilers, right? Because, you know, like I had them, predict them both going deep, and then they don't, and what does everybody do? Well, we've got to change everything, but everybody freaks out. So the reporter, you know, one of the reporters is asking Holland about all these, you know, we're going to make big changes. We're going to make big changes. And Holland says something along the lines of, you know, in my years in Detroit, we made the playoffs. I think it was like 18 years.

Don't quote me on the numbers. And he goes, I think 14 of those years we were Stanley Cup contenders or favorites. And he goes, the year we lose was probably one of our best years. And we lose to the Emmington owners and they go to the Stanley Cup finals. And he goes, in the next year we go and win the cup. And he goes, so when I look at it, he basically said, you know, sometimes you just got to stick the course. You look at our team and we got the team.

Everybody was, and he goes, we just didn't get the result. He said, one of the lovely things about the NHL is if you make the playoffs, You got a shot. And that's different than most leagues. And so, you know, when look at the oilers, it's like, well, how much change do you really want to do? You would like, everybody would be healthy. How many times do we just say, if you could remain healthy through the playoffs, look at Colorado. If you're not healthy and you don't have a dummy getting busted with a prostitute and, you know, whatever that was, game three round one in Seattle.

We have priorities. Yeah. And that was one of the other things that Holland was talking about green bananas. he's not buying green bananas and waiting for them to turn yellow. Like he's ready right now. This is not a sit and wait time at all either, right? So what happened when you turn brown like me? I'm an old brown banana.

Is Toronto different? Like, you know, like you look across the Canadian markets. I think Toronto is in a worse situation than what Eminton is because they've got more guys that are closer to contracts. And what is Toronto going to do? Are they going to get rid of their GM and their coach or not? Well, Dubus came out and said he's not going anywhere if it's not Toronto, which is fine and all in Danny to say, I mean, until it happens, right?

I know, but you know what? So here's if I'm, if I'm, if I'm, so I'm looking at cat friendly, just to pull up the Leafs and see the guys they have to bring back, right? So everybody else is, you know, Tavares, Austin Matthew still, Austin Matthew has a year. Tavares 2, Marner 2, Nealander a year, so you got to sign Kerfoot, you got to sign, well, O'Reilly's a free agent, Camp, a carry, Michael Bunting, Wayne Simmons, Austin Reese, Justin Hall on defense, Luke Shen, and Eric Gustafson, all are, you know.

So their core is still around. Does that not sound like to me, if I'm, A, I'm trying to get Matthews underwrapped for another eight years, right? I don't want to go right down to the bitter wire with him. So his no trade kicks in July 1st. So if I can get him locked in for another eight years, he's my number one center. You want your number one center.

Of all the names you just read there, you pretty much could just let all of them walk. You might bring back O'Reilly if he comes back for cheap, like a Corey Perry or something, right? So O'Reilly's willing to come back for a million bucks a year? Okay, now you get your third, fourth line center. But you let everybody else walk because they didn't get it done. Maybe there's one or two other guys there.

Bunting was a big distraction this year. Simmons, Zach Asson, you kind of let that clear out a little bit, and then you bring in some supporting stuff. But you get rid of the GM and the coach finally got Toronto past the first round for the first time in 19 years or whatever it is, and now you go fire them because they didn't win the cup. Like I feel like it's a little bit like the Tampa Bay, Emmington Oilers, so on and so forth, Detroit Red Wings thing is, okay, now they've taken some

tough losses that group. And they finally showed they could win. They had a tough, tough series against Florida. Don't you come back with that same core again? Isn't that what you do? Isn't that how you win? Isn't that how you build a winner? Like, do you get rid of Marner and Nylander now?

Because now you're going to bring in, doesn't that sound all of a sudden like, okay, we're going to, we're going to trade and we're going to bring in Nick Suzuki from Montreal because we're going to give them Neelander. We're going to bring in, you know. I got one year left on some of your main guys, part of your main call. Sorry, you got to start to sign them, but I'm just saying, like, how does anybody you're bringing in from Marn or how is that going to help? No, what I'm saying is there's no way to make major changes in this next year anyhow.

I don't think. You've got one of you left with them. If you don't think, the only thing they said, though, Matthews, no trade clause kicks in July 1st. Right. This is his last year. So if he's unwilling to sign for eight more years, you, that, has to be a consideration. Yeah, because after July 1, you can't trade them.

Well, you can trade them, but you have to get his approval. So it limits. He says all the right things. He says all the right things. Says he loves it there, wants to stay and go to the winner. But everybody says that. We're going to find out by July 1st. We are literally six weeks away from North. So, okay, if you're the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs and, you know, June 30th,

June 28th, you haven't signed Austin Matthews and you're not going to. Are you training them before July 1st? I'm kicking tires. Isn't that your job? It's my job. I can't lose Matthews for nothing. This guy is legit. Look at what Nashville got for Eckholm.

We're talking Austin Fffin Matthews, right? I mean, we're talking about what team, what would Colorado Avalanche give me for Austin Matthews right now? I think you're thinking of the wrong team. No, well, they need a second line center. Boston Bruins need a number one. Okay, so what would they give me? Right?

I'm just throwing it out there. I mean, my expectation is... You might be able to get Taylor Hole out of him. My expectation with Matthews is... If he's going to sign eight years. So I don't think it would get to that point. I think Matthews will sign. How much does he sign him for?

13? Well, are you going to sign him for more than what McDavid signs for? Here's the thing I don't... But McDavid's going to sign in one to two years, though, and he'll get it raised. Here's the thing I don't... Here's the thing I don't under... That I don't know with any individual player. Because some of them guys now are starting to read the writing on the wall,

and they're signing for less so they can build a championship team. So is Austin Matthews want 13 or 14 million a year, which he could probably get from somebody? Or does he take 11 again? You know what I mean? That's a bigger question, I think. I'm not saying he's going to take eight or something dumb, but would he just say, you know what,

sign me to the same deal for another eight years and take the extra two or three million so we can continue to add players so we can win a championship here. So we can make it past the first round one time in seven? I'm just, it'll be interesting to see what kind of guys these guys are, right? I'm interested to see what Dry Sidal McDavid. Are they, is Dry Sightal want to be the highest paid guy? Or do him and McDavid go to Ken Holland and go, you know what?

Let's re-sign, let's re-sign McDavid at 12 and a half. Give me 12 and let's, and with the cap going up over the next couple of years, let's see if we can keep this going. Well, I mean, if you're the Emmington Oilers, you still got a couple years on Dry Settle. You've got three years on, uh, we're having the same conversation about Drysiddle next summer. Next summer. I mean, we got a year. We got a year before we're having this conversation. And a lot can change.

And that's the thing with Austin Matthews, too. Do you want all that conversation going into his final year? Because everybody's going to be bringing it up. All that final year is going to be a wait on the entire team. He's got a no trade starting July 1st. You got to figure that out before July 1st. I think the other thing that we don't like to hear about as fans, but if I'm an organization like the Toronto Maple Leafs,

how much money does Austin Matthews bring me in as my number one center on the Toronto Maple Leafs? Like he's a legit, you know, he's led the league and goals, he's been an MVP. This is a guy, if I'm the owner of the Toronto Maple Leaf Police for a second, I want to obviously love to have McDavid there, but I want Austin Matthews on the team. He's just as a guy that I can center around for advertising, for selling seats for everything.

So I'm resigning the guy. It'll be fine anyway you can. One of the interesting things here is we, you know, of course, the playoffs are still going on. It's an interesting form. We'll get to that. is as we get closer and closer to July 1. Certainly we won't go past July 1 with us,

but it'll be interesting to see if any of these things, you know, get locked in because, you know, as a fan of the Maple Leafs, they got some questions to be answered here over the coming weeks. You know, Jay, you said he says all the right things and he says he wants to stay in Toronto, but you really don't know what his true feelings are. No. Until July 1st.

We'll know. You'll know by July 1st. And you can't fake it at that point. Just like Johnny Goodroll. Absolutely. Oh, 100%. Matthew Kachukh. You know exactly what he thinks when he makes his decision.

Yeah. What do you think of the, the, well, the final four, you know, the only team that would have made this real, I was like, can you imagine Seattle, Vegas, Carolina, Florida? But you got Vegas, Dallas, Carolina, Florida. Like, did anybody see, well, I mean, I can go through the numbers on our predictions, but I mean. Carolina going to the conference finals. That's the only one of the four I got right. Dallas. Well, I'm going to win the Don's Cup.

So I'm feeling really good about myself. But that might be more on strategy on how we were doing the Don's Cup. But, I mean, after two rounds for me to pretty much have locked it in with the exception of Paul Newman absolutely blazes a trail, I'm feeling pretty good about it. I would say this about the four teams. If we had sat at the start of the year and talked about them four teams, Was there any of the four that you would have said,

nah, they're not even making the playoffs? I mean, they were all legit teams. Carolina, everybody thought could definitely lead their division. Vegas, everybody thought they'd be back in there. Dallas, nobody had any reason to doubt them. And Florida was the president's trophy champion that went through a little upheaval with Kachuk versus Huberdo, who also lends to the argument that you have that much upheaval,

there's going to be time that needs to be taken. So you have last year's president trophy champions against Carolina, who was one of the favorites going in. You have Dallas, who was at the final. two years ago against Vegas who's been in the final four, four to the six years. So it's more, it's more the store. I think the biggest, the biggest thing for me is Carolina missing three of their top six forwards and still being there, right?

Right? Florida absolutely squeaking into the playoffs. Which again leads to you got to make the playoffs. Yeah. Anything. Every year we talk about this, right? You've read, you know, how many, I wrote Seattle off completely. Then I started watching them more.

Oh, man. Like they were, you know, minutes, roughly minutes away from being in the conference final. And honestly, I was kind of rude for him. So out of all the four teams that were the wildcards, Florida was the one team that actually scared me. Now, I thought with how good Boston was, I thought Boston was going to beat him. But you knew with Florida, at least they were a legit team.

Whereas I looked at Winnipeg and I went, God, that team's a mess. And I didn't think the New York Islanders had enough to go anywhere. But Florida was a team, I thought it could go somewhere. But you look at it, Hellibuck gets hot and they squeaked by Vegas. all of a sudden you're like let's let's just put it in this way so let's say that in winnipeg instead of winnipeg losing three of their top six forwards that vagus does and winnipeg's totally healthy and when and vagus lose peter angel rather than winnipeg losing morsey wonder how that series shifts left that speaking of petriangel we should we should

you know last week we were ragged on nurse and his uh his suspension if it's in the rulebook Dust, tell the stats we were talking about after that. So there was two times in the regular season. There was an instigator in the last five minutes, and both times there was no suspension, which I think what I was saying, wasn't that it wasn't a rule, but the NHL plays politics all the time

and to their own detriment because they look like a joke half the time. And so you've got most suspensions get reduced in the playoffs because it's the playoffs, except for this one case where you never hand out suspension in the regular season, but you hand out a one game suspension in the playoffs so that you can even it up

or appear to be fair is what they tried to do, which is why I disliked it. Which I agree with you. I'm not even going to argue about it because I agree, we read that afterwards and it does look like that. Yeah, ridiculous. All right, well, let's talk predictions.

Okay. Here's where it sits after. So last round's predictions, Jay got two right. You had Dallas and Carolina. were the two right. Neither one did you have the correct game, so it doesn't really matter. Dust, you got one right. You had Carolina and five, so you're correct on that. Harley, you got two right. You had Florida and five, which was a ballsy pick, and it worked, and you had, well, the other one, you had Dallas.

And then I got one right, I had Carolina, and I didn't get game, you know, it was just a tire fire. So Harley's eight for 12 through two rounds. Dust is six through 12. Sean's 5 through 12, Jay's 5 through 12. So you pulled up a little bit. I'm gaining. I'm running out of time, though. So that brings us to round three. Dust, who you got in your... So we got Carolina, Florida, Vegas and Dallas.

Okay, so I'm going Vegas because I said that the winner of Vegas and Evanton was going to the final. So I'll stick with that and I'll go with Vegas. And then we got Carolina, Florida. And, God, it should be Florida's to take because Carolina is banged up. But you know what? I'm going to go with Carolina because they've been my team for forever. Why not? Carolina, Vegas.

I want to hear Harley's first because I think he's been riding our coattails a little bit. I'm going to ride his. I think Florida is going to win over Carolina. I don't think that's going to be an easy series, probably six or seven. And I'm going to take Vegas as well over Dallas and six. You can't say six or seven, Harles. We could all say, well, I think there's a lot. You're going to win in five or six or something.

Somewhere between four and seven. Yeah, that's right. Carolina. I'll go Florida and six. Florida and seven, Vegas and six. How about that? Vegas and five.

Wait a second. Wait a second. Oh my goodness. Okay, Vegas and how many? Dust. Five. Carolina and seven. Carolina and seven.

All right. All right, Jay. I'm going to go, I think, I've been thinking all along. The funny thing is I'm going to win the Don's Cup because I have Vegas because nobody else took them. so their last team available, so I got a whole bunch of Vegas in our draft. Think about that. Yeah, that's funny.

Isn't that funny? And I've been against them because of their goaltending. So I'm going to stick with that theme because I believe Audinger is the best goalie left with Paul Gies to Bobroski. Didn't you get pulled twice in the last series? Yeah, right? He did. Are we talking about starting their backup here? So I'm going to go with Dallas to beat Vegas in six.

And I'm going to, I like, I like, I like, I like, Carolina's defense. And I think they're a lot more unflappable than the Toronto Maple Leafs were. Rod Rendemore. So I'm going to go with Carolina in a full seven. And I had, you know, I've been, I thought the Oilers had the better goaltending.

I agreed with what Bob Stauffer said. So I had the Oilers like walking Vegas because I'm like, they got persuas. And the guy who scared me was actually eight in hell. And when I went to game three, I was excited that he didn't start because I'm like, I've seen Bursau. I see how he, how he, you know, anyways, Brasaw gets hurt, and comes Aiden Hill.

I'm like, ah, crap. That was my thought process while sitting there. So I look at the goaltending, and I get the Ottinger being yanked and everything else, but I look at goaltending, and I'm like, if there was ever, you know, what happened in game seven when they needed him? Ottinger was there, and he was good.

So I look at, I look at Dallas getting by Vegas in six games. I'm still not sold on, on the amount of goalies Vegas has gone through. I think if they had a number one, a true number one, they'd probably get right to the finals. Maybe I'll be wrong. And then on the other side, every time I doubt Florida, and I picked them in the first round because all you guys didn't,

I'm like, well, I'm going to take Florida. They seem to win. So, you watch, I'll pick Florida and then Carolina will find a way, but I'm going to take Florida and six. So I got, like, oh, man, are you guys excited for this round at all? with the teams that are left? It's hard to, I obviously excited because it's playoffs, but I find it a real hard time to watch any kind of hockey this time of year.

It's plus 30 outside. I'd rather be outside. It's been a long winter as it is every year. And so anytime you can start getting outside and actually spend some time outside, I'm outside a lot more. Why doesn't the NHL? Bump it up? But like pull the season start earlier so you have your Stanley Cup final.

like right now like may long like I don't know why they don't because then you'd be ahead of NBA right because the MBA is you know in the semifinals right now they could they could start the season they can have training camp at the end of August start the season first week of September and and be and so you would be starting it a full five weeks before so you would have been you would be then done when you would be done by the by may long may long yeah that would seem better wouldn't it. I think for what I'm cheering is as minor hockey starts in September. Yeah. Like beginning of September, minor hockey's going like in a place like Lloyd, it's going.

Well, sure, especially your elite teams. There are tryouts, lots of time or that end of August, start September. I look at the four teams and little things. So I don't know. I'm a little bit like Harley. I mean, it's four teams. You can watch that much. If it's on, sure, I'll turn it on. So I look at, who's the guy you're cheering for for Vegas? You know, is there a guy there that, you know, you look at a guy like what Mark Stone, gone through. I'd say Mark Stone for me. Right, as the captain. I look at guys like March Osoe and Riley Smith and William Carlson, guys that were thrown away. Maybe it's too fresh, but I can, the knights can go fly a kite myself. And then I look at Dallas and I go, you know,

you got guy, Jamie Ben. You got a guy like Jamie Ben, Ryan Suter. You can cheer for that. Right? For them guys to get a cup. You look at Carolina, everybody's, you know, Rod Brindamore is the coach. But you got Jordan Stahl there. You got Jordan Stahl. And, um, you can't share. And, Man, Brent Burns, I like... Yeah, Burns? He's 38. Yeah, he's running out of... Is he that old?

Yeah, he's running out of time. He is a beast. He's a beast. And to see Burnsy win a cup, right? So there's something that cheer for there. And then you look at Florida, and I'm not a huge Matthew Kuchuk. I love to have them, but we don't, so I hate him. That kind of feel.

But, you know, who else is there? You know, so Racco Gudus. Abrosky to cement that he, you know, he's won two Vezinas. Does he cement that he wins? you know, one of the best goalies of all time. If he wins a cup, does he?

Who else is on that? Paul Maurice walks away from Winnipeg because he can't feel the fire and walks on to Florida and then leads him to a cup. It'd be pretty cool. That one would be pretty cool. Sam Bennett, thrown away by Calgary. I don't know.

So I try to look more at the, what's the stories of different teams? Both Florida and Vegas could win their first cup of all time. Are you all, you know, there's the, I don't know, it's not the NHL, or sports purists, but the Vegas Golden Knights, you know, on all the broadcasts, they try and like,

oh, man, they've been so good. For the six years, they've been in the NHL, they've made it to the conference finals or some bloody stat like that. Is there a party that goes, screw them, they've only been in the league that long and I don't want to see them win? I don't know. To me, it's 50-50, or do you like that they brought in guys, you remember Brad McCrimmon is their GM now, cut his teeth in the dub.

Yeah? And they've, you know, to see guys get a chance to start fresh and do it right, I mean, they're obviously doing something right. There's a, maybe, maybe teams like Buffalo and Phoenix would like to call them. I mean, Phoenix can't even get approved for an arena, right? And Vegas walks in the league and in four to six years, they're in the conference finals. Man, Phoenix. Like, how long did they stay there? I actually saw someone talking about how Calgary has to be wary because of what happens in Phoenix.

and Phoenix not getting a new rink. I'm like, yeah, but Phoenix doesn't have a new rink and they have no fans. Like, it's a little different than Gallagher. And so if you're a Tempe resident, okay, I get it if you're a diehard hockey fan. But if you're anybody else, you're like, so we're going to spend all this money for a team that nobody really cares to go see anyways. The only, the only stat that I had heard about was the population age in Tempe is extremely old. So there's a lot of 70 plus people there versus the younger crowd. it's like 70-30, right?

So you've got an extremely old neighborhood, right? So do they want something like that coming into their neighborhood or into their area, right? That's the only thing with any of it. It's a retirement community. They don't want their taxes to go up. Just wonder if you couldn't, like, how many hockey markets could you stick it in and they just, and it would go like wildfire? Well, here's, well, I think Seattle's done good.

I think, I think Vegas has done great. Yeah. And if you ever go down? Seattle, I think, wasn't it you that was saying that they're the second highest for ticket prices in... It was not me. There was, I'm pretty sure they're one of the top four, top five call it, in the entire NHL this year for ticket prices, Seattle. All I remember is off of some of Sean's old podcast with the hockey was how many guys love playing in Seattle because it was just a zoo. They love playing in Seattle, all of Washington.

That's right. And so you felt like it was going to go good. there you look at the names they brought up so you got Houston and you've got Kansas City and you've got Sacramento City and Sacramento and you go Milwaukee and nothing really jumps out at you is there anything jumps out of it how about like I love the idea of Hamilton yeah well the Hamilton's probably far-fetched because does Toronto want to do that I know they don't but would could you ever do a team like Moncton or something or or how it becomes like this

The Saskatchewan Rough Riders of the... Or how about Saskatchewan? Saskatoon. Population size isn't there. They say, yeah, but they say the American, so the American corporation does not want to have another team in Canada. Because if you're talking money and business, it makes way more sense to have Houston.

It makes way more sense to dump it into Phoenix, Arizona, and watch them just suck. I talk to the... But they said here over the last 12 years, Winnipeg is one of the bottom teams for revenues. Yeah. The Winnipeg people love having the jets there, and it's exciting for them, and they pull the crowd, but the revenue's not there like it would be if you're putting it in Houston. I talk to...

Which just sucks. I know it sucks, Sean. I can just see the look on your face. I talked to Dave. It's like, why do they play 82 games? Why don't they play like... 70 games? 70 games.

Why don't they do these same? Well, because it always comes back to money. It's like... It's just the... The fan in me, the hockey player in me, is like, I get money, but at some point you're making enough bloody money. Make it work for the fans so you love it. Which is almost the opposite of how senior hockey is, right?

You play 16 to 20 regular season games, and then if you go the full gauntlet in the playoffs, you're playing 12 to 16 games. Right. Well, I mean, and that's the best time of you know. That's when anybody wants to come out anyways. I don't know. It's just certain things is just absolutely irk a guy.

I talked to Dave about this exact thing, right? and he said never in Salt Lake City. He said that would be his worst out of any of them. He said that is like the least hockey market you're ever going to find. He said he's not surprised with Seattle at all. In actual fact, he was thinking the same way as you go to Portland and now you've almost got two because he said it's a great, everybody loves going there, you're right beside the ocean.

Houston just because of the population, right? but he said Kansas City he could see Kansas City but you know it's like they really want Houston Houston I think is the third largest television market in the states so like they would love to add that that's part of it Saskatoon is not as high I don't believe right poor old Saskatoon um before I let you out of here just uh I You know, I know there, I forget how many games the Jays are in, you know, switching sports here for a quick hot second. What are they at now? Here, I'll bring up the wildcard standards.

The Js are 25 and 18. So what's that? 35, 43 games in? Yep. Doing good. Have you watched, I just, I've caught a couple games, but I actually watched my first full game the other day outside on the deck. I think I enjoyed that more. Did you think it was quicker than it used to be?

Well, it is quicker than it used to be. Yeah. And it is more enjoyable because it's quicker, actually. And they got a fun little team to watch. I don't mean little. I mean obviously, but like they, they look like the old Lloyd Mr. Liner's team. Hey, fun little team. Fun little team.

Well, boys, appreciate you coming in. No, I just want to comment on that. Sure, yeah. I'm going to say. I bring up the Js and everybody's like, no, no, because I've watched a few games. Plus, I like the J's 30. J's on 30 or whatever they call it. Yeah, J's and 30.

And the thing I love about this team that you've not seen forever since Robbie Alamar days, Tony Fernandez back in the days, is they actually have a lot of ball players on the team. Like guys that do more than one thing. Like you watch Kermier and you watch Chapman

and you watch who's Whitfield Mary, Merrifield, Mary, Mother. Mary, Mary, Merri. Oh, good call, guys. Maryfield. Maryfield.

Maryfield. Merrifield. But you watch them. Let's bring up a different sport. They're ball players. Like they can steal bases. They know how to run bases or not make. Do you remember the team two or three years ago and they had some big hitters and how many

base running mistakes they made just alone, just base running mistakes? Or you got one out and you got a guy on first and they're not just advancing, bunting to advance the guy to second or hit like any of that stuff. Varsal and it seems like it's just I like the team. I like it more because it's a small ball team instead of just we're either going to hit the home run or that's it. They got that record of Minoa's been awful. Yeah.

Can you imagine if he ever picks it up? I know. If they actually get him back. You know, it's funny when you talk about, that's what the Oilers this year in the playoffs reminded me of. Well, maybe not all the fans could see it. But for me, it was plain as plain as day. Like, you just have to change a couple things and you still have a shot at winning

the cup. When the Blue Jays had all those rock stars, Batista, Donaldson, Incarnation, you know, I'm missing a couple. Anyways. No, but you, three for three there. Those are three, four, five right there. Right. There would be times in a game where you're like, you just have to play ball, small ball,

to advance things instead of just always looking for the same thing. Because when you get deeper into playoffs, you know, just to rely on McDavid and Drysettle to score you six goals a game and to think they can do that every single game, isn't realistic. Teams are going to adjust and it gets tougher and tougher and tougher. And the Blue Jays, that was the big fault on them. And when they were playing Kansas City back, like just a couple different things.

I haven't watched any games this year. Are you saying you can't do it? No, I'm going to add to what you're saying. Okay. Well, listen to the guy who hasn't watched a game yet. No, I was just going to ask, has anybody knows now with them not, you're not allowed to have the shift on?

Like, that's one of the things actually that I'm actually a little bit upset about is if your general managers can't figure out a way to get your star players to hit off field. Like, you've got half the field that is wide open. Yeah. But the problem is they don't, the big guys don't want to because they're paid on home runs. So if I can hit 30 bombs a year, I'm getting $10 million. Have Boba Chet hitting off field is crazy to watch.

But that's how he does. That's how he naturally hits. Oh, he naturally hits that way. It's just crazy to watch because he does it like every bat he's hitting off field. Going back to your point, though, you're trying to make between the Oilers and the Js. You know, you're right with, you know, if you're, you know, if you're, got a bunt or the hit and run but it's it's everything else it's that sometimes you need a guy to be able to throw a guy out of the plate or you need to be able to execute the double play or you need to be

able to you know hit the cutoff guy and and the jays is surrounded all of a sudden they picked up four or five guys in the last two years that they're have out playing in the field that do all that stuff and so if you equate that to the oilers you think of a guy like maddie's yan mark right guy can score eight to ten goals a year but he can also penalty kill and he and he can be the high guy He doesn't always have to be the star. And if they could surround McDavid and Drysidal... With a bit more. With a bit more.

So they got Bichette and Vladdy Jr. Yeah, they're going to hit their 30, 40 ding-dongs and 100 RBIs. But they're surrounding them with guys that, yeah, they can hit, but they can steal bases. They can do hit and runs. They can hit the cutoff guy. They can actually catch a fly ball and not lose it in the lights. Like, these are big things happening here. All I think of is that one game where Day Arna made, the two bad plays in like the two minutes.

They scored both. if he doesn't make those plays, they win that game, right? But literally, he... But I also, as a D-Man go, at some point, can a goalie just bail somebody out? Oh, true. According to Don Cherry, it doesn't happen. When you mess up bad, the goalie never seems to bail you out of that. Imagine a D-Man trying to throw the goalie under the bus.

Like, seriously. Hey, it's a partnership. You know, I mean, hockey is this, like, you know, when you're, when you're goaling, goalie's playing out of his mind, it seems like he can't. can't score, you know, and when your goalie isn't playing out of his mind, you can never score enough and everything else and it's in between. But like, you know, for two straight series, the only game were the Oilers goaltending stole them the game. They were down 3-0 and Jack Campbell, the rest of the time, the only time Skinner played really well is when they were scoring him

were up 4-1. It's the only time he looked like, and you're playing with a big lead. And so it's just different, except for him Jack Campbell came in that one game and everyone, oh man, we're in here. and then Camel just battled and battled and then there was life and all of a sudden they win and I understand what you mean like I feel bad for Keenan Fowler right now we play yesterday and the team in front of them just stunk right and there was nothing he could do in the white team just won it was unbelievable could roll three lines right there was nothing going on white winner lose we lost no we won yeah we're up one yeah we're up three rip we're up three I'll tell you about the line of Jervais and jay and uh shazzy shazzy they tore us up they scored out

goal every shift the whole game. It was not good. It was my first game back in a month. And no me, and Quinny and me weren't there. No, and you and Quine weren't there. We had Harley on the back end, stabilizing. It was supposed to be on black and I got traded over the white. Yeah, we picked up, we pick up at home late in the season.

And then we just beat him. Yeah. It's easy to play with two guys like Jers and Chessie, though, because I just had to give them puck. I really didn't have to do much else. Jason just floats through this lot. That's what he's best at. Pretty much.

Know what you're good at and do it. There's no sense of me laying down to block shots. I'll never get up. Oh, man. Okay, boys, well, for another week. Appreciate you guys hopping in, and we'll catch you. Well, we'll see what Florida, Dallas, well, Florida, Carolina, Dallas, Vegas brings us here in the next couple days. And who knows, maybe we'll get some other things happening in the NHL.

And I was going to, it was funny, I can hear Colby going, you should talk about some MBA. So I literally typed in the NBA. before you guys came in. And it's like, oh man, I haven't even watched a game. I'm not bringing this up. It's, you know, like the Lakers are in the semis. Well, maybe if you should get Colby

and he could talk about basketball and we got Harley and talking about baseball. Nobody's watched anything. Maybe while we're at it, we can talk about tennis, too. I've watched a lot of that too. Until next week, fellas.