Shaun Newman Podcast - #441 - Brother's Roundtable

Episode Date: June 1, 2023

The Brothers are back at it for week 7 of the NHL Playoffs. Panthers vs Golden Knights, Dubas to Pittsburgh, Treliving to Toronto and the long wait for the finals to start. Recorded June 1, 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

Check, check, check it's all bad. Welcome to the Shawnee-Man podcast, another brother's roundtable. Another week where Jay is, like, he's just gone again, you know? Like, you work with the man, hey? Fishing trip. Is that where he's gone to? Yeah, he's gone to a fisher trip. It's like, hey, Jay, what day at time Thursday?

Well, I'm gone. Like, you've been, we've, I think, what is this? Week seven? Yeah, I think he's gone five days. I think it's week seven, right? I should check that here while we get five. fired up while I search for this. Are you excited for the Stanley Cup finals?

The only thing about Jay missing is I know what he's going to say even though he's not here, so I can actually fill in his parts. Are you going to start chirping yourself? Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much. Brothers Roundtable last week was, week six. So this is week seven, and Jay missed for sure the first two.

So at a seven, he's for sure missed three, if not four. That's hilarious. Kind of sounds like his picks throw it. Stanley Cup Fives. I'm not going to say too much. I can't either. I can't either. I won one for two.

Yeah, I think all of us went one for two, wasn't it? Harley still up? Yeah. Yeah, well, here. Well, no, no, no, no. Is the playoffs hard to predict due to two reasons, injuries and goal-tending? Like, is that it?

Is it partly to do with how tight, all the teams are? Yeah, but I think the unpredictability comes down to injuries and goaltending because goaltening is almost impossible to predict. But Brovsky didn't even start the playoffs. Yeah. Well, going into the playoffs, $70 million goalie, like that looked like one of the worst trades in NHL history coming into playoffs.

And then all of a sudden, but Borovsky is all of a sudden turned it around and now you're going, oh, maybe he's worth some of that anyways, right? Like him and Aiden Hill was not a starting goaltender at the start of the playoffs either. Vegas has had five goalies. I know. I know. He's their, what, fourth string? Yeah.

And then they brought in quick after. But he's a fourth string goalie. Yeah. And they're in the Stanley Cup final with him. Yeah. I'm just chuckling about this. It's not like I'm like anywhere better than, I'm just slightly better than Jay. but Harle's just knocking out.

Okay, you should have taken this in the draft with Dan Mack where he picked all the winners Harles. Harley rate now is 10 for 14 on series by series round by round. Now, for the listener, if you've been listening, as you understand that every round we start again. So it's not like he knew Vegas, Florida was going to be in the final. But every time we have a new series, Harley is 10 for 14, Dust 7, me 6,

and Jay didn't get either one right. last round, he picked a Dallas Carolina final, and both of those were wrong. The problem with Dan-A-Over-all then? Five for 14. Five for 14. Yeah. That is abysmal. Yeah. You picked Dallas in six and Carolina and seven.

The big man don't know hockey. The problem with Dan Max is you've got to do everything. It's like March Madden. It's great. So you've got to pick right at the very beginning. Well, but that's what I mean for this, right? Like for the listener, they know it, right? From the start, we picked the first round, and then, you know, if you're abysmal,

you get to read, you know, everybody get to see how everybody's doing. And saying all that, I make fun of Jay, I'm one better. I'm six for 14. I'm under 50% at this point. I might as well be a monkey, really. I actually, you know, when they have that dog knocking down the balls, down the stairs and it bound, I'm like, I'm like, I'm so stupid. You might as well just have Sean doing the same thing because that's what it feels like right now.

I was, I was betting on, honestly, in the Vegas series, I was betting on, to be Ottinger, again, even though the playoffs up to that point had showed me something different. Injuries and goal-thending? Yeah. I don't know. I tell you what, I was saying this on the live stream on Monday night. I understand momentum doesn't carry over game to game. But when you're down 3-0 and you win game 4, you're like, there's a little bit of mental shift there.

And then you go into the opposing teams building and win game 5. Without your captain and everything else. And you come home for game six, I just went game seven as a lock. And I was completely wrong on this. You're forgetting about the other half of the equation, though. And that is the mental state of Vegas as they get closer to, you know, game seven, or their backs get pushed up against the wall. They start to play differently.

Yeah, I guess. I understand. I just, to me, if you're Dallas, you're playing desperate hockey, but you also think like nobody expects us to win a single game. Heck in game four, half your crowd didn't show up to the game, and you win it. That's awful. And then game six or game five you go there, Vegas is like, in my mind, Vegas is foaming at the mouth. We're winning this on home ice.

It's going to be a party tonight. We're moving on in the Stanley Cup finals. And then you lose again. And a no-name or scores two goals to beat you. And if you're a Dallas fan, I apologize, because maybe he is a big name. Does that not work for Vegas because it's a party every night in Vegas? Yeah, maybe. And then they come back to Dallas, and I'm just like, where, how do you get big six?

Oh. Ooh. Anyways. I've been saying that the fourth line for Vegas was going into what you're talking about, depth definitely plays part of it as well because that fourth line was unreal that game. I think they had three goals out of the six playing as a fourth line. The thing, too, that surprised me, and I didn't realize this until after that series was done. But talking about save percentage against Vegas, Hellebuck and Ottinger, which I would think are two of the top and goalies, right?

Everybody was talking about Skinner and need to be changing goaltenders and whatnot, right? But Hellebuck versus Vegas was 886 save percentage. Ottinger was an 87 and Skinner was an 875. So like, man, is that bad? Terrible. Is that just a heater? Are they just on a heater? Vegas?

Yeah. I don't know. You get in those moments where it's like, you just find ways to win, right? I realize that. But you're talking about three different goalies and three different series of three different teams you're playing against and you're lighting the goalies up on all three. Is that partly to do with coaching? Well, no doubt it is.

What I'm saying is you can't, you know, teams don't have a save percent against them of 885 in a whole season. So you get hot. You get hot. Yeah, well, I mean, look at Florida, right? Like, I mean, they go from, they showed they didn't make a single, now, in fairness, Tim McAulff did say they did do the big trade at the start, but at the trade deadline, when they're four points out of a playoff spot,

they did not make a single trade on the trade deadline, Florida. And that didn't bode well for them. It's not like all of a sudden they went on a heater, right? they squeak into the playoffs. Not true. Every team this year made one trade. It might not have impacted their roster, but every team did make a trade. On the trade deadline?

Every team made a deal on the trade deadline. The only thing is, is it might not have impacted their roster. It might have been, you know, somebody in their minors or something, right? But every team this year made a game. So injuries in goaltending? Goaltending being the biggest wild card out there? 100%. You get a hot goal.

and it don't matter what you do. And I think of, actually I was kind of... Just call me on my boat. Now I'm like, are you sure on that? Yeah, yeah,

I'm sure. So here's the thing. You've got a goaltender who's red hot in Florida. Oh, yeah, you got Bobrovsky playing out of the line. And you've got a team that's lightened up hot. So something has to break. What's going to give?

Right. I don't know. The unmovable force or the... Unstoppable object. Yeah. I don't know. Florida, I've doubted them in one series when I thought they'd lose to Toronto. And after that, I've given them, I've thought they're going to go, like, after they beat Boston,

I thought Toronto was going to finally over that hump. And then they decimated Toronto. And after that, I'm like, all right, Florida's the team. The way they're playing, they're going to, you know, they got the goaltending. And I'm big on goaltending. And, you know, but can they make Barowski look average? Well, Vegas has a solid team. A solid team, right?

there's a team that can do it, I would have said Vegas or the Amiton Oilers, right? I know everyone's going to call me a homer for that, but I mean, like, the Oilers made every goalie look pretty average, you know. Um, except for Aiden Hill. They made it Aden Hill look pretty average the game before the final one, right? Yeah. Like, I mean, the Cup's going to stop in a new city this year. Yeah. Oh, well, Florida or Vegas. Nobody's ever, who would you rather see it go to? Like, like, Shea asked me, you know, Not Vegas. She asked me the other day, he's like,

Dad, who are you cheering for? And I'm like, honestly, I don't know if I really care. And I mean, normally you got a little bit of an inkling of like, oh, I'm kind of pulling for this team. But these two teams, I'm just like, I don't know. Do I care? Do I really care if Florida gets their first cop or Vegas? I really liked Vegas in the beginning when the atmosphere

and the cool things were shown. But I don't know if it's like sports net or what. I feel like they haven't shown any of the dude at the start of the game. And maybe I'm missing it, folks. But like, when they played Emmington, they didn't show any of that. I thought that was always so cool. You know what I'm talking about?

Yeah. Like, I was just like, that makes a fan out of anyone. Like, they raised the level of the fan experience in the NHL, bar none with what they do in Vegas. So for that, like, super cool. But part of me is like, I want them to suffer for 50 years before they win their first cup. I'm kind of in the same boat. I don't know. I just, because I feel.

The only one the cup, what, five years in the league? Is it five? 84, right? 79. To 84. Five years. Five years. All right. I don't know.

I don't know why. Dust. I'm just saying like I would like to see the Oilers win the Bloody Cup again, and I don't, you know, stupid Vegas, you know. But in saying that, like, Vegas has done a lot of things right. They have. Interesting if Florida did win because, you know, a lot of Florida teams winning the Cup, right, as well. What do you think, like Tree Living to Toronto? We talked about that last time.

Before we get to that, I just wanted to also note going into the Stanley Cup finals, there is 29 Canadians between the two teams on the two teams, I guess. So next closest is seven with the states. Well, that's not surprising. Most of the players in the HL are Canadian. I think it's just over 50%. 55, something like that.

What do you think of the Leafs going out in Bradtree Living? See, I don't know, because Tree Living didn't do a great deal with Kachak. Like, if he would have signed him right away, he would still, he's still being Calgary. But he didn't. And then so Kachuk said, screw you and left. I don't know. I don't know. I disagree with that.

It probably got to a point where Chuk was just done with Calgary. Yeah, but he was willing to sign the year before. left and tree living didn't get it done and then half a year later kachuk said you know what instead i'm just kidding i'm out of here when you're the gym of a team you have to take care of the most important parts first and kachuk was it and everybody knew it so we'll stick with tree living for a sec tree living uh um went from um being the assistant general the phoenix coyote's VP blah blah blah blah blah, down to the Portland Pirates,

and then he's been the Calgary Flames General Manager since 2014, 2015. And if you look at the flames before he went to them, they finished,

they were 90 points, 94, 90, 42, 77. They had five straight years of not making the playoffs. Okay? 2014 onwards, they lost in the second round,

did not qualify, lost in the first round, did not qualify, lost in the first round, you know, lost in the first round, lost in the second round, did not qualify. So back and forth. But, you know, out of his, what is that, one, two, three, four, five,

out of nine years, they made the playoffs. And they were an okay team. There were an okay team. Well, Calgary Flames fans might disagree. Like the year the Oilers smashed them, I think everybody in Emmington, We're thinking, oh, man, this is going to be a series, right? They had a team there that should have, you know, could have.

Actually, the last couple of years I've been, if I was a Flames fan, I would be happy with the team that he had built in the last couple years, right? Except for this last one, when he lost his best player. Right. Well, when everybody was, I mean. When everybody was like, he raped, you know. I was surprised. He took advantage of the Florida Panthers and took all their best players,

and then now Florida's in the first players. finals. Right. With Kachukh being the best player with Kachukh being in the conversation Kahn Smythe. For the Kahn Smyth. I don't think anybody saw what he was going to get back for any of that though, right? Like I think for what he was able to

get, I was very pleasantly surprised because I thought this is Calgary was going to be a tire fire all over again. Yeah, okay. But he could have made the deal with Kichick. And he decided to wait instead and

This is where we need a call-in show, so some flames fans, I can just hear them. They're just like, you, M. and Tinoilers talking about our flames, thinking, you know what? It's just like, if you're the Maple Leafs, you look at that and you go, okay, so five of the nine years, they made the playoffs. They, they didn't have any deep runs. It's not like they made the Stanley Cup finals underneath them. Were they a good team? Yeah, they're a good team, but I would say most Flames fans, or at least hockey fans, watch the Johnny Hockey years and went. They're a little light on.

Contrast that with the Maple Leafs then. Okay. So you go, Kyle Dubas. became the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2018. So he's been that... Almost immediately became a top five regular season team. One, two, three, four, five years. Five years he was with him.

And I'll just... We couldn't get out of the first round. That's right. They were a top five regular season team all five years. So if you're the Maple Leafs, you go to a guy who's got general manager experience and you listen. We talked about Shanahan's comments last week about, you know,

like, is Dubus the guy because of his comments? So what did I say? He's 2018-19 season. He becomes a general manager, okay? So the years before him coming, they lost in the first round, they finished 105 points, 95 points, two years prior to him becoming general manager.

They lost in the first round, four to the caps, and the year before that, four, three to the Bruins. And then his five years, one, two, three, four, five, they made the playoffs all five years. And, of course, they lost in the first round every single time, except for last year.

Except for this year right now. And they lost in seven games, seven games, five games in that qualifying round when they were in the bubble. And they lost in seven games. So seven, five, they went the max every time. Regular season points. They were a top five team all five years, I think, in the regular season. They were, well, 2018-19, or 2019-2020 is a weird year. They finished with 81 points.

It says they finished. That's their, you know, I don't know. 181, 177 in the short year, 115, 111. Yeah. So I don't know. You know,

we argue about Kyle Dubus last week, and, you know, like, is anyone going to hire him for a GM and everything else? If you're the Maple Leafs, I don't know,

you get somebody who, this is going to be his job and everything, but like, I don't know. Like, if you're truly living, you've got to be happy at the spot you're in. And saying that, like,

I look at Toronto and they've got, they got some guys like he's going to have to do some work here right because obviously we've talked about matthews and july first right uh you've also got nilanders coming into his final year uh sam laffertie t j brodie marg de adano lilligrin they're all in matt murray all in their final years right see i don't hear anything outside of matthews and nilander those are the only two that really bug me after that you're like okay with laffertie being i guess so it's not going to make or break your team. It really comes down to Matthews and Nealander.

You know, is Giordano top four defensemen at this point in his career? Yeah, maybe not. Like, how old is he? No, no, no. Gerdano is not a top. So, I mean, he might be a top, he might be a top four, but like, maybe. Maybe. Maybe. T.J. Brody. He's okay.

I just think Toronto's got a lot of okay players. I just, I look at, I don't know. Who's the team? When I, when I think about, you're asking about, travel for living and when emminton signed ken holland i was pumped because this guy's a winner he knows what he's doing means means somebody on this table had his shirt out of boat uh holland and hollins made dust of believer uh i would say i was completely wrong so i yeah i'd to me tronel and getting tree living uh i'm just like i don't know struggling with struggling

I don't know if you're any, I don't know if you're any really, you fill in for Jay, usually he's the one who struggles with names. Trelova? Tree living. Try love it? Anyways. So I just wonder, you know, if you're trying to, I don't know. Everybody thought going into the season, he'd done an amazing job of repairing a,

take any Calgary Flames fan that I talk to. Heck, even as an Oilers fan, getting, getting Cadry, getting Huberdo. Like, and it went on, Weeger. You were like, oh, man, I remember just thinking, like, the Calgary Flames are going to be something to mess with. And then, of course, they got all the one, you know, one goal losses, and I think they'll be better next year, whoever they get in. Like, I think they'll be better. I think they're going to be a force to be reckoned with. I think they're a good team.

So he's done a good job, and maybe the team didn't perform and everything else. Yeah. But at the same time, if you're the Toronto Maple Leafs, you look what Kyle Dubus has done. And, you know, I don't know. Is it, could they have been better? Okay. But if you go back through, like, they lose to the Panthers in the second round this year. Could they have had a better showing?

Yeah. But the Panthers could just very well win the Cup this year. So you've lost to the Cup winner. And last year they lose to the Tampa Bay Lightning. And the year before that, they lose to the Canadians who go to the Stanley Cup finals. And the year before that, they lose to the Columbus Blue Jackets who did not, in fairness. And then the year before that, they lose to the Bruins. It's like, well, I mean, you can pick apart that every time you want.

But they've been going the distance. They can't close out. They finally close it out. The one thing I will say about tree living is that he was building Calgary more like Stanley or more like a playoff team right when I look at what Dubus was doing in Toronto he had his team and he had his identity set until the trade deadline came and then it like what is Toronto after the trade deadline right whereas tree living was more along the lines of I am going to build this team so that when we get to playoffs,

then we have a chance. Now, they didn't make playoffs. And Hubert, who were cutting his point production in half. I don't think anybody saw that coming. Never mind, one goal losses, right? What do we say about Calgary, though? They made it pass the first round twice in seven years. In nine years.

In nine years, which you're living. So you talk about him building a playoffs team. This goes back to the argument me and Dust had about whether they were a good team or not, if you can't get past the first round, right? Over a course of nine years, you go, mm-mm. They made it pass the first round twice. Yeah. In five years, Toronto made it pass the first round once.

Once. But I tell you what, I like what Picksburg done. You know, how is it that Picksburg just slowed, don't in the general manager, president of hockey ops, which I, you know, you just, they took a guy in Caldubus, who's young, who's, you know, the Shanahan's comments was, you know, basically, you know, like, He just caught, like, is really stressful on my family and things like that. And he equated that to, I don't know if this guy's in it. So the Maple Leafs instead of, I don't know, and I don't know if this is what they should have done saying, hey, how about you come do a different role for us for a few years while your young family grows up and I knocked off the mics?

Anyways, why they didn't take, why the Leafs don't take a young guy, young family and just try and, I don't know, keep them in. And maybe they didn't want them in. But Pittsburgh goes, oh, we'll take Dubus. Kyle Dubus does not want to be anything other than a GM. He's not the GM of Pittsburgh. What is he? President of Hockey Ops. Oh, I thought he was the GM over there.

I thought it was a brilliant move if he's the GM because if there's one thing that Pittsburgh needs, it's an updating of their thinking on how to build a team. So they put him as president of hockey ops. Hmm. I didn't realize that was the role the game. And I'm just like, I think that's, well, maybe, you know, maybe it won't work for Pittsburgh.

Maybe Kyle Dubus isn't the best. I have no idea. But instead of just like waiting, Picksburg reaches out, they get opportunity to go talk to him. That's exactly what they do. They, he already, they take what Shanahan says,

because I agree, like Shanahan, I find the reason he didn't bring him back. Very interesting. So Picksburg doesn't put him in the same role so that he, they probably talk to himself. Well,

what if you did President of Hockeyoffs? It's a little bit different. You know, it allows you to be around your family maybe a bit more, and it's still going to be working. intensive. You know, we're rebuilding.

Not going to be in the spotlight. We got to figure out, we got to figure out what we're going to do after the Crosby, Melkyn-Latang era, and it's coming faster than anyone gives credit. And they bring in a, I would say, a relatively brilliant hockey mind. Look at how young he is and how he's gotten where he is. You don't get there because you're a dummy. What Kyle Dubas was really good at was bringing a new way of thinking to the game. He epitomizes that.

The challenge Kyle Dew has had a little bit was I think he needed to integrate more their traditional way of thinking into how he saw the game. And I think he would have been extremely successful. And I think that takes time and experience and all the rest of it. But if there's one thing that Pittsburgh needs, like if you look at their team, you know, they signed Jeff Carter, who was kind of at the end, you know, they needed something different than what they were doing. And they seemed like they were trying to do the same thing over and over and over again

instead of trying to add different pieces or a new way of thinking to their older players, which they already had, you know, Crosby and Pelkin are still good, but they needed to add to that instead of, I don't know, going back to the same well as kind of how I think of it. Dubus helped lead Toronto a regular season record of 221, 109, and 42. That's pretty good in your first five years as a GM. As your GM. Really good.

It'll be interesting, as you say, with Picksburg's core leaving here right away. What has Picksburg look like once they all go? And here's one other thing I didn't realize about the Penguins. The Penguins have not announced the general manager as of yet. The team has around 20 million in projected cab space with Nick Bonino, Jason Zucker, Tristan Jari, being most prominent free agents, Drew O'Connor, and Ryan Pelling are both RFA's. So they bring him, and they got to hire a GM. I didn't realize that.

So there you go. Like he's going to be in on the conversations now about who to bring in and who he can work with. Isn't that interesting? Like I just, if there's an organization, you know, you're going back to who you want to win the cup and you're like, why does it matter if Vegas wins it in, you know, oilers in that conference? You're like, absolutely that's right. And then you listened to Jay last time talk or maybe a couple ago would talk about, you know, the things bagis has done right one of the things i admired about ken holland when he's

detroit or the the theicksburg penguins is their ability to main relevant over a long period of time and they just do smart little things can't hollons continued to do little things in emminton that continue to do that and foster it and over a year over year and you hope that eventually that leads to a cup run where you go win a cup uh but you look at uh you look at i don't know you look at take the Calgary Flames. The Flames to me, and I'm sorry, Flames fans, because Oilers lived this for 10 years, where we just, like, jettison the GM, jettison the coach, start over from scratch. They're going to come in, put their mark on the team, and you're like, a mark on the team

means five years of pain. Now, maybe the Flames will be different, and they'll get the right coach in. The flames weren't, like, last in the league. I know, I know, I know. I know. What do you think the chances are, and I highly doubt this would ever happen, but what do you think the chances are that Pittsburgh picks up one of Marners or Matthews? Would that be interesting, right?

You trade you. You let go of Dubas with all this free cap space, right? I don't know if they can. I don't know if Toronto can keep all them guys. This is the other thing, right? And then you literally walk in. He does have experience with both of them. The thing is, though, is that it's Toronto's to lose right now, and Toronto would

have to screw it up to lose them. So does that happen with Nealander and Matthews coming up? If you're trying to win the cup, can you afford to keep all four of them guys? If you're Toronto, you've got to find a way. And if I'm Toronto, Matthews, Marner, and Nylander are not the guys I let go. Tavares would be. Fair enough, but Tavares is still under contract here. You don't think you could trade Tavares?

Two years. I think he's got left. You don't think you can trade Tiberius. You can trade anyone. Sure, you can trade Tavares. There'd be takers on that. So if there's one of the three guys I'm trading, or four guys, Tavares would be the guy.

You can trade anyone, and especially if you retain some of the salary. It's as simple as that, right? If you get Tavares for what's he making right now? I don't think you can try and retain any kind of salary, though, if you're trying to want to cover it. No, no, but here's the thing. John Tavares, uh, cat friendly, come on you, a sucker. Come up here. What is he making?

It's 10 what? 11.25. 11.25. If all of a sudden that's, you know, you got an extra three. mil of that just hanging out because you take three mil and now the team gets taveras for eight just for argument's sake you've freed up eight million dollars guess you have to play replace john taveras but now maybe you get to go spend and now you bring in two guys right or in the trade you bring in two years too yeah fairers yeah right

i don't know idea the the thing is is that matthew's new neil isn't going to start this year it starts next year so do you hang on to taveris tell the trade deadline then trade him where he's got one year left plus the remainder this year, you probably do. And then when it comes to the money situation, you're less concerned. So when it comes to, like, if you're not giving up on Matthews and you're not giving up on Nylander this year. So, you know, like I said, if you have to trade someone, Tavares is the guy, not those two and not Marner.

Somebody put on Twitter. I'm sorry, but the Penguins announcing Dubus minutes before Shanahan introduces Tree Living is Toronto's GM is diabolically catty. Love it. The only thing that they were saying, though, is with playoffs starting tomorrow, Betman is told all these teams, you can't announce anything. Nothing is, so it's either today or else you're waiting to have to playoff. 100%.

But, I mean, that's a great tweet. You know, Milan Lushche and the team you see that Canada won the World Cup. World Cup? World Championships. World Championships? That sounds right. Flames fans are going. How about Latvia?

Hey? Did you see the celebrations in Latvia? No? No. You should look up to celebrations. They made it a national day off in Latvia after that, right? And I know people are upset because, you know, you've got Latvia who's not supposed to be any kind of a hockey team that's making the finals, right? and what does this do for the game?

Well, I tell you what it's doing for the game in Lafayette right now, is you've got guys that are probably now young kids that are going to experience, going to experience something like that with their national, the amount of national product. It's a world championship. No one in North America is paying attention. No, but I mean, we all remember when Canada won gold in Vancouver, right? You remember where you're sitting.

That's what I mean, though. It's the world championship. So, like, if it's the Olympics, yeah, we're paying attention. With the world championship or not, so a team like Lafayah, sure. It's fantastic for them. Well, it's fantastic. Yeah, that's right. Anyways.

My only other thought, because, you know, like, obviously Dallas loses out, Vegas into the Stanley Cup finals. Did you like the long break to Saturday? Like, why? I assume they had scheduling and they had to me. But, like, we've had now how many days and no hockey? Yeah. And it's just like, I don't mean, I haven't heard anyone talk.

I mean, don't get me wrong. Sure, can you find talk about it, folks? Yes. But like the break has been strange. It's like why such a- The NHL always does this. Like the scheduling always seem ridiculous. So somewhere in their scheduling and they're like,

listen, we're going to do this. It's going to be really smart. Oh, yeah, blah, blah, blah. And they just get in their own way because you could have had, you could already had, well, heck, game one tonight and still a Saturday game. Yes.

Like, I mean, what are you doing? But they're probably trying to time it out with the draft and all these different things. And you're like, they're overthinking themselves. You're overthinking. Just play the games. Play the games.

The only thing that they are under a little bit of TNT is got all the games, so they TNT might be scheduling conflicts on their side, right? With what? Right now in the U.S., the, I get it, but they have obligations, right? And that's what the one thing. So John Chan was talking about is, yeah, it's a regular season baseball game. but the viewership down in the States baseball is way bigger than hockey is even for playoffs. It's just hilarious, right?

It's just retarded. They got Saturday, Monday, then you got a three-day break again and play Thursday. And then it's Saturday and then Tuesday and then a three-day break again. And then you skip the following weekend like you're playing Friday and then nothing Saturday or Sunday. So you're scheduling your hockey games like around Major League Baseball regular season games. So, or you take a look at the NBA. The NBA plays tonight, Sunday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday, Thursday. This goes back to bumping up your season a month so that you're not competing with the NBA finals.

Yes. Yeah, to me, you don't have to, like, I, I, you know, if your team's in the NHL finals, you're just like, you're just like, you're, you're dying right now. Can we get this thing going? But to the rest of us who, you know, sun's shining, it's like. You can't take a break. You just keep rolling. You just got to keep roll. Well, I mean, as soon as you stopped, right?

And as soon as all your teams lose out, it gets worse because more and more people are like, eh. That's why you got to keep going. Like, I'm just like, where are all the games at? Like, you know? That was one of the things with ESPN is ESPN would have had to put one of the playoff games on their second channel. And so they didn't want to be viewed on a second channel because ESPN guaranteed baseball games to be played on their first channel. That was part of the bargaining agreement with baseball, right? Like, does that even freaking matter at this point?

Like, there's like six Sportsnet channels in Canada. Does anyone care what sports channel it goes on? You go, oh, they're not going to watch it if it's on ESPN 2. Really? Like, if people see it there and they want to watch it, they're going to watch it. And if they're a baseball fan, they're already watching baseball. 100%. There's baseball on every day.

Yep. Every day. Every day. There's 162 games in a short, like, there's baseball games every day. Well, that's part of the reason. and why that one emminton Vegas game didn't start until what

8 o'clock at night or whatever when you're on that did that would no other games on that was that was ridiculous as well right like it's just it's on and on

it's like can we just get the blue collar guy in those meetings just like be guys just stop being stupid and let's just be smart about this and do what's smart for the game

and stop worrying about too many MBAs up there they're like well based on my formula blah blah blah maybe a couple engineers up there hey one too many

maybe one too many analytical guys up there yeah anyway boys we'll uh I mean at least by next Are we picking our champ? No we already did that

We did it last week We did last week We figured that Oh yeah Who did I pick Vegas? I think I picked Vegas Uh Me

Jay and Harley I'll pick Florida I'm only one with Vegas Vegas baby Vegas Anyways I feel pretty being on Harley's side on this one, the way he's rattling it off.

Regardless, we'll catch up next week. I tell you what, if anything, is drawing out how long the brothers' roundtables go, because I was like, I thought, you know, I was like, I'm sick of talking to you guys. I thought for sure we'd have one more and it'd be done, but at this pace, I mean, it's like, we'll be all the way to July before this sucker's done. Somebody's delaying me getting me a bottle of scotch.

That's what I think. Jay's buying. Jay's buying. No matter what. All right, boys.