Shaun Newman Podcast - #842 - Brother's Roundtable

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

The brothers are back discussing all things NHL playoffs.

Let's do it. Welcome to the Brothers Roundtable, another edition. We've been talking some Godfather and a whole bunch of other things. We'll probably get in all the things today. We're a little short, Sean. Yeah, we're a little short. Tell the guy, hey, be here at this time. Yep, yep, yep, yep, I'll be 15 minutes late. So Harley's going to roll in here and we're going to be halfway through it.

Regardless, we'll tease him when he gets here. Where do you want to start? Do you want to start? Like the last time, Dust wasn't here. We absolutely crap. All the predictions I was going to make last time when I wasn't here were correct. Oh, yeah. Yeah, well, 100% right, always.

You know, I'll be honest, there's been some things that have been said on this show that have been really smart. And there's been some things where, hmm, but what I like about it is it just shows that the playoffs aren't that, you know, it just, oh, the other's lost two and they're done. No, no, they're not done, you know. And, oh, Winnipeg's going to roll through St. Louis. No. You know, they just got their big win last night. But that has been a heavy bruising series. Sheifley's out now.

Yeah. That series is not over. So at the start of the playoffs, I thought this from the beginning, as I thought the East was easier to call than the West. I thought the West was going to be closer, and that is proven true. The West is really tight. All eight teams that are in the playoffs are really good.

If you look on the East, I thought Montreal was the worst team in the playoffs, and Washington looked like men against boys against them. Not that Montreal didn't try, but it was really tough. I honestly thought Montreal deserved to win one more game. I think it should have been three, two, now, I thought they played, they were fun to watch. They were a fun team to watch.

I thought Montreal losing their goal ten or hurt them. Sure. Yeah, I thought Montable. That's their guy, right? And he played really well. But Washington was just bigger and stronger and meaner. They pushed them around. Don't get me wrong.

But for a small, fast Montreal team, they were fun to watch. Like they, they, you know, it's just little things happen and it changes the course of a series. Montable going out certainly hurt them, right? and at the end of the day Washington goes 4-1 and you know you can't rewrite any game but Montreal was a fun

they surprised me I watched that was one of the series I actually like I enjoyed watching St. Louis is another team that is a team that everybody thought was going to get rolled and you know they come in with that big winning streak and they've been fun to watch

they play a fun game of hockey I want to go back to Montreal for just a second I think why they're fun to watch is because I think Marty St. Louis has the guys having fun. And that's why they're actually in those games because they're not good enough to win. But they're actually having fun and so they're actually enjoying their boss. Well, and they're a bunch of young guys, so sometimes they don't realize they're not supposed to win. Yeah. Like they're just out there playing. Right. We're, we're playing hard. So the second series, I had Carolina to win and I, a big

reason for that. Carolina is a good team, but when New Jersey loses one of their top fours. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, they're top forward. They're top forward. And then in game one loses one of their best defensemen. Yeah. Like, that's tough. That's just tough for Jersey, right? They're just, we're in a position. And Carolina just came in, old veteran playoff team, and it just showed. Yeah, Brindamore had those boys ready to roll. They've been here before they know what it takes, and they came in, and the games were close, right? We had multiple overtimes.

And yet, Carolina just finds a way, right? Now, the third series, which I had picked this one, because I thought Florida was the real deal still, and they showed in the first round, they are really, really freaking good. They made Tampa Bay look. Like, you look at Tampa Bay's lineup. It's amazing how much better Florida was than Tampa Bay. But I don't know Tampa Bay is tired. You know, some of the old guys, Kutrov hasn't scored a goal in 14 playoff games.

So is that, so if you're, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, yeah, what are you doing there? I don't know. Because it does it feel like that, hey, we're just going to run the guys back for another year? You have some great parts there, but what are you doing? I don't know. You know?

Like it? Here's the thing is, if you look at the type of players Tampa Bay has and the type of players Florida has, Florida has so many guys that you'd hate to play against. Hate. Like, you look at Chuck and Bennett and Ryanard and. And Marchand? Like, when they picked up Marchand, you're like, oh, man, I already disliked this team. You know what kind of irritates me? Florida picks up Seth Jones and Brad Marchand.

The Oilers pick up Jake Wallman and Trent Frederick. So if you ran everything back and Florida meets Emmington in the finals, They picked up a number one defenseman and a first line forward who is an absolute agitator. Yeah. And the Oilers picked up a third, fourth line guy that can bang bodies and a guy that's had a good year and is a top four defenseman. So I will note right at this very moment that one guy around this table took Florida hard in all three of his drafts because he looked at what they did at the deadline. You know what I love when Dustin comes on the podcast? He loves to pat himself on the back.

He sure does. I'm so great. I just think he's won it for the last 10 years. Like he always wins, doesn't he? I'm just saying someone had the right insight. Now, the four series in the east. Toronto, Ottawa. Toronto.

You can just feel Toronto fans are like, don't do this. I was an overtime goal away from Toronto sweeping. And now all of a sudden, that goal gave Ottawa life and now where do we sit? Okay, so I was talking about Kachuk. Went into Toronto. Well, they're back in Ottawa for game six now, right? No, I know, but they went into Toronto. Yes.

They should not win that game. They shouldn't win that game. They win at four rip. Now you're going back into Ottawa. If you're the Ottawa coach, it just win one boys. Win one. Game seven, anything can happen. Matthew Kachuk is a really good player,

but I don't think guys naturally want to get behind him. He's kind of like this weasily backstabber kind of thing. But his brother is the kind of captain where he actually rallies the troops and guys want to go with him. That's what it looks like from the outside to me. Well, that's why I said last show I don't think you were here. I said last show that if you can't resign McDavid, the guy I would trade him for,

and maybe it'd be a bigger package and a one-for-one deal would be Brady-Cachuk. It'd be bigger than one-for-one. You're talking about it. But I'm just saying, that's the guy I would go after. If McDavid won't resign and you have to trade him, that's the guy. McDavid's recent. Brady is actually likable.

He looks like he's having fun at all times. He's a bull moose. He's a big man. He's everything you want. He's everything you want. Yes. Now the Oilers are re-signing McDavid. Okay. Let's switch over to the West. The East, obviously, Carolina, Washington going to go at it in round two.

If Toronto, well, Toronto, Ottawa, winner of that is going to play Florida. And, you know, everybody's going to say there's no way either of those teams can knock off Florida the way they went through the first round. But if you get through the first round, there's a reason you did and you never know what happens. Hot goal. We've seen it all. And I reminded myself as I watched the Oilers in game. three, right, be down, score, then, like, you think about that series. That's the L.A. Kings, that was a poor coaching choice to challenge.

Like a very poor, as an M.ington-Lie fan, you're like, why are they challenging that? There's nothing there. Like, when it was kicked, like, oh, okay, no, I can see it literally go in the net. Then they challenge. And you think that little, like, they've had a lot of little moments, but that one in particular could have been four-four going in overtime. And, you know, the way the series had gone, L.A. was. right there. They were almost three-old. That might be the decision

you look back that changed the whole series. Whole series. They win that game because it's what, 10 seconds into the power play, Bouchard scores, they end up winning 7-4.

Then you come into game 4 and Eminton looks like a different team. They started shooting the puck from everywhere, which I think a lot of other fans if they just shoot the puck. And now they're starting to shoot the puck. And of course, they tie it up with seconds on the clock,

going overtime. I'll shoot them 17, 7 or something like that, all over them, win the game, going to L.A. and like almost put up 50 shots again and absolutely dominated them. Pickard hasn't had to do much, but when he's been called upon, he's made the saves, right?

And now you've got a 3-2 Emmett's on their team and they're looking like the world beaters again. Well, I think I went to game four. And so then me and Harley went to game four and what I didn't realize in that series until game four, and we like to hammer on the Oilers if they don't do well and coaching and this different...

Well, we hammered. on them for almost half an hour last time. So everybody loves to talk about the depth of L.A. You know, in the system and everything else. They're playing three lines and 40. And in that game four, and I think the difference in the series now, now that I've seen it, is L.A. came out and they were up a couple goals on Emmington in that game. And they, they, they...

Game four, you're talking. Game four I'm talking about. And then they got in the third and the Euler started hammering the L.A. defense. There was only four of them. they were playing, right? Four defensemen out every second shift. And they took punishment and they just started to tire out.

And all of a sudden, Emmington, and as that series wears on, LA's playing three lines and 4D. And you just see him starting to tire out. So then they get to game five and Emmetton's all over them. Why? They're just, they're tired. And they're beat out. And I can't believe in the NHL that this is, I understand,

okay, 10 minutes left in the game. Yeah, we're going to go down to 4D and three lines. They're playing 60 minutes practically. Like in that game, of their defensemen played a little over two minutes. One of their forwards played under two minutes. Like they're practically going three lines 40. And I think that's what you're seeing.

They were putting Kempe on the point. Right. And I'm like, as an Euler fan, I love that. Kempay from in the danger zone is almost 100%. It's irritating. Well, it's kind of like at noon hour when you get up enough and the other team decides to put Quinny up on Ford. You're like, now we have them.

Oh, congratulations. Look who shows up on time, eh? Perfect. Great, great to see them. So, what I was, the wisdom rolls in the room. What I was going to say is, when we're talking about Brady could check,

the reason why they're still in the series is because they have a leader who, you know, when things get hard, he keeps pushing and guys filing behind them. What the others have is two of those guys. Because when, like, even the game they lost where they came all the way back from four down or whatever it was,

like David and Dryside will play to unreal to get them back in the game and then give it up with 30 seconds left or whatever it is. but they got a couple of those guys. And I think the injuries at the end of the season to a bunch of their guys, it's taking them a couple of games to work the kinks out of that. You look at Klingberg back there. Like he's actually starting to play really well back there.

He's starting to look like the old Klimberg that was really good on Dallas. He said that he got burnt on that one play. And you can obviously tell he's not 100% because it took him a little bit to. Can I say something about the defense for a second? There is very few players in the league that play in the world that don't make. any mistakes and sometimes you get a very good defensive player that's a defensive defense a man and he's pretty solid defensively doesn't move the puck well or whatever but if you all your top guys if even if you watch

McCar and all them guys there's the odd time that they still make you know the past didn't work something didn't work we focus on Emerton so you see it with Bouchard or you see it with Klingberg or you even see it with Walman or nurse like nurse has been a plus player for the last six years and think of how much people people have hammered on them. And everybody goes, yeah, well, that's because he's on the ice with McDavid and Drive-side only score so much. He's a plus player. When he's on the ice, you'll other score more goals than the ALL. And what do you focus on? You see his gaff every third game or his one bad game out of four or five. And then everybody

hammers on it. Actually, I think this year has been one of nurses' best years in quite a while. Well, he's getting older. And defensemen mature a little later than forwards. Goleys are even a little later than defensemen sometimes. So the thing about Bouchard, because everyone always points out his mistakes, which he makes quite a few. He makes enough, yeah. The problem is that the puck is always on his stick, and he's a creative player. Right. You're creative.

Hey, everybody, everybody, but let's be clear on Bouch, that game for, when they tie it up, who makes the play on? Byfield. Byfield, keep the puck in and strips the puck from him. That's another little moment where you're not. like, I mean, all he had to do is, you know, right? What did they ask the coach after? What if, what if? What if?

It's like, well, that's what LA is going to be asking if this series ends. That's a young player, though, that just learned a really hard lesson. Like, Byfield's a young guy, and he's playing all the time. And he's, you know, and so a young guy goes, oh, I'm going to just walk around the guy because I always walk around. He's standing still. And then I got the free goal, right? And, like, that's going to sit with him for a long time.

But Dustin makes, I think Dustin makes a good point about the guys that are making the mistakes, the guys that are in the play having the puck and making the plays all the time. If you look, if you think back to last year, a guy like Desirene, or a guy like Ty Emerson this year, they don't, they're not in the play as much. You know, they're that six defenseman when they play. They're out there, sheltered minutes. And so everybody goes, oh, he had a clean game. Yeah, because he didn't do anything.

You know, he's just out there for as little as possible playing against the other team, third to fourth line and dumped the puck out. Now, having said all that, if we ever got Ekholm back, like that would balance out everything really well. Has anybody heard if Ekholm is... So I did read that Ekholm they think will be the second round, but it's kind of like he looks like he'd be back for the third round and would he be back for a game seven in the second round?

Kind of that's the time. Yeah, so we're still a ways away from getting an Ekholm back. That's where they're hoping. That's what makes Klingberg so huge, though. Because now you've got one more defenseman in the mix that can actually make plays I'm, good out there. They've made,

just so, just so, we're all clear on this too, right? Number one for time on ice, on average, in the playoffs for Eminton, Evan Bouchard. Yeah.

26 minutes. Number two, darnel nurse. So, you know, Jay's not wrong with, you know, these are the guys that they're putting out all the time. Well,

and I don't know. Bouchard has had a couple of blunders, but overall, one of the things you've noticed, and it's, It's probably a little bit easy because you've got the forwards, the danger of attacking too hard on L.A. and leaving a McDavid, sorry, L.A. attacking too hard on the Euler defense and leaving a McDavid to get a pass and then have it the other way. But the Oilers defense has actually been pretty decent, right?

Like, once again, it's funny what a week can do. And I know this. I thought about this as I was watching. A series is never done until you lose, you know, what is Don Cherry's famous line? You know, a series never really is over or a concern until you lose on home ice. So they lose two there. They come back home and they find a way to win. And then they find a way to win again. And then they go to L.A.

And absolutely just like, I'm watching the game. I'm like, this is something to be watching because this is not the team that showed up in game one. And like a guy like a Vander Cain, you talk about maturing? Remember Vander Cain when David would get cross-checked on the ice? He'd come in and blow the guy up and he'd be in the box. Now we're on the penalty kill. and we've seen how good LA's power play's been and he walks in, gives him a cross check,

gives him one more, and then backs off and doesn't do anything more, said, let's go. And he gets to the DMA, oh, you know, maybe not. That's a mature move too. And Van der Kaine, you know, is he grabbing the puck and dancing people? No, but man alive is it happy to see him back in the lineup because he is a heavy, heavy body, kind of like the way Wilson played the Montreal Canaanans

where he's just running guys over. You're like, pull. And sometimes guys inspire other guys. I notice since Kane's been back, all of a sudden, Heimann's hitting a little more. And you know, and you get Frederick going on it

because you got someone leading again. You just mentioned three guys that were hurt at the end of the year. Or weren't playing. Weren't playing. It's taken a couple games for Heimann to get back in the swing of things.

And Frederick's looking better. And Kane's looking better. He didn't play all year. Like all of a sudden, all the guys that were out, are starting to find their groove again. And you forget, Kane's a legit top six guy.

You know, when he's healthy, he's legit top six. Well, and I mean, Perry playing with McDavid and Drysaddle, he's looking 10 years younger. Well, the thing about, like, playing with McDavid and Drysadle, they're so cerebral and they're passing that you need someone who can actually think the game like they think it. And Perry's probably one of the only guys who can. Well, Newgen Hopkins can, but New Jersey then has to center the second line. That's right. But you throw Perry out there. He's older.

And if you throw him on any other line, Perry doesn't do much. But because he's out there with those two, all of a sudden. and he can actually think the game. Well, it's a very simple game for him when he's out there with them to. Go to the front of that. If you get the puck, give it for one of them to. I mean, it's very straightforward. And if someone bumps, you just fall on the goalie and accidentally lay there like you just got, you know, blow on.

He's strong. And he's big and strong enough. Man did I hate, man did I hate playing against that guy, but watching them for your team? You're like, do you guys remember the Oilers playing Anaheim? Yes, when he grabbed the pad. Grab the pad and open it up. So the puck went five hole while he's laying on the ice because someone knocked him there. God, I hated that.

So the question I've got is, is Emmington playing as well now or as L.A.? Like, Kempie is tied with McDavid and Dry Settle right now for top points. If you would have came on time, Harles, you would have heard the answer. Because what I said was me and you went to the game and we realized that they're playing three lines 4D. So I was saying I think L.A. is getting tired. Yeah. And we seen that.

I thought we seen that in that game four. where also in the third period in the overtime, Emmington took over. I found it actually interesting, too, them putting Kempi up playing defense. Yeah, well, they're trying to spark something. Yeah. And the other thing is, we always forget, is after every game, they're going to make slight adjustments, right?

So, you know, what do we know as Oilers fans? For this, what the fourth year we played him? You give Kempay any room around the slot. It's in the net. Like, I mean, it's just, he's that flipping dangerous. And the last, for sure, two games, for sure, the last game, you didn't see many opportunities like that. And I just want to point this out, because can one of the coaches on the Oilers, just tell, tell the guys, when you're reaching

to block a shot, don't give it a ramp, turn your stick so it's flat, so when it hits, it doesn't go straight up top shelf. They had two goals like that where they're reaching to block the puck, you know, try and get in the lane, right? They're coming right across to Kempe, and instead of just keeping it flat, you know what I mean? Like that half turn of your quarter turn of your hand so that your blades flat. So when it hits, it doesn't ramp and go faster. It actually slows it down.

They did that twice, and it both went top shelf, and you could see Pickard like, what am I supposed to do with that? Leave that alone, I'll take the shot. But if you're going to do it, just turn the stick. My one little quorum. Like going out and blocking a shot and lifting a leg? And lifting a leg.

It absolutely is. you know and I get what they're doing they're trying to get over there and they're reaching it's just reach and turn your stick just that ever anyways small details it's small details and I felt for Pickard because he's sitting there I think when you're when you're reaching too

for in my mind you're trying to reach to meet the stick where it's shooting right like it's better than being two feet away well and what you actually learn is you actually don't need to touch the puck necessarily if you hit the shaft of the stick at all it's going to make the shot, not go where it's supposed to.

Right. But they're, on the two goals I'm talking about, they were late. So if you're going to put your stick in the lane, which is a lot of the times, a no-go, don't do that. Just let the goalie have the clean shot. So he doesn't have to factor in it bouncing. Like look at Kane's goal the other night. It wasn't a stick.

It was a foot, right? Bing, off and in the net. They've had a bunch of those. Even Bushart's first goal in game four. Right? Right. It's if you're going to block a shot, block the shot. If you're going to put a stick in the lane, just do it in a way that it's going to not ramp the puck. Because when you do that, it goes, you know. I know I was late.

But did you mention that we were at the last game? I might have mentioned. Yeah. Oh, you were at the last game? You were at the last game, Harals? Maybe show up on time, hey? Unbelievable. Did you show up?

Did you show up to the game after the first period was done? Eminton did sure show it up and didn't give the old birds? Hey, we had, we had Mason and Cass with us, their very first playoff game, and we wrecked all regular season games for them to going forward. That's, like one of the top two games I've ever seen live in person. That was unreal. And the building was nuts.

I meant to mention this off the top, but we found out this is a somber note. Scotty Schmidt, who played noon hour with us. You know, like I can't speak to all of us. 10 years I played with him. Yeah, passed away just yesterday. And so condolences to the Schmidt family. I know it's a somber note in the middle of all this,

but I thought I better bring it up. We all played, you know, we were playing the day they rushed them off and found the brain tumor. I feel like I tell people, and I'm not saying I'm 100% on this, but I think it was a new and our group that recognized something was wrong with Scott.

We were on the bench. We were on the bench. I remember sitting on the bench and a bunch of us discussing it because he was out there. And it's like, what is wrong with Scott? It's like he's delayed or something in his thinking or something. It was very strange.

And I think it was Quine. And Quine and then Painter who went and anyways. It's a sad note because, you know, you play hockey with a group of men. Really nice man. Yeah. Just a really nice man. Condolences to the Schmidt family. And I just wanted to make sure we brought that up as all of us have played with them for years and years and years.

You got three other series in the West that are all three two. You know, Minnesota looked like they were going to go up. Three one, three two. Now you got Vegas three, two, and are they starting to find, you know, a little bit of what we've been talking about with the Oilers? There's so many series, actually. You know, even the Florida, Tampa, like Dallas, Colorado, like there's... Charles, we already talked about Florida, Tampa. All I'm saying is there's a lot of Pickham series, right?

You get a balance one way, a good save and a different, like a lot of these series could easily go one way or another. There's a lot of good series to watch. The West is tight throat. I thought Colorado was coming on and they were going to walk away with it. Well, they did. Man. Game four, they absolutely. This is why if you're an Euler fan, you know, L.A. could walk in just the way, like, because you look at Colorado game four.

I'm like, I don't want to meet that team. That team looked unbelievable. What they would shoot him, like 48, 17 or something? Like, they were all over them. And, like, everybody was flying. Yeah. Everybody. Lannisog looked like, you know, we talk about Kane, Lannisogg back in that lineup,

and him getting his first goal. Three years. Yeah. Like, super cool, super cool moment to be happening in front of Colorado fans. It kind of sticks out to me for Colorado. Macarra has two points, right? Like, you're talking about one of the best players, and I get great playoffs.

Everything changes a little bit, right? But it just, that's one of the things he's, is typically one of the points leaders on that team and for him to be down so low, you know, does it mean their power play struggling a little bit? It, uh, I, I think that Colorado Dallas, I think there's a lot of people out there's surprised by that, but I think it just goes to show how deep Dallas is. They have guys on their first, is done yet though. No, I agree with you. I think it's still a pick-up, well, they're back in, they're back in Colorado for game six. That place will be rocking. And anytime you go back into somebody's home barn, they're going to get an added

me up from that and if Dallas can come in and silence Crowder and Jordan Jerry can play well. I would love to see a minus Sammonton series. I'd love to see three game seven. Who do you think is the best the team that is down three two right now that's going to come back and win? I'm just going to steal Sean spot here and start asking questions.

The way St. Louis has been playing, I would say St. Louis. St. Louis? And knocking out Shifley, assuming he's out and he's not coming back, that's a big hole and St. Louis has been, they're going back to their building. I agree with Sean actually. They play

a hard, heavy, physical game and like, I don't know. Hella. Like, you got Bennington in the Nets, which I know you got Hellebuck on the other side, but Hellebuck looks very... Hellabuck got pulled twice. Got chased twice. And honestly, one of the goals last...

The second goal last night... It was awful. It was terrible. Like, you talk about... But in saying that, Helibuck's a big gamer, and he is, you know... Right. If I look through the series, You cheer for Ottawa, but they were down three rip. I think Toronto wins one of the last two.

If you look at the St. Louis series, I understand what you guys mean. I think Hallibuck has, Hullabuck will take the team on his shoulders to get him through this series. I think Winnipeg finds a way. I pick Dallas to go to the finals. By the way, I'm not saying Winnipeg would do it. No, no. I'm just saying the question was. I'm just commenting on it.

Minnesota to me is younger like Montreal, not quite as young, but. Same idea. So the team for me is Colorado. I picked Dallas Go to the finals. Colorado has the Emmington-type weapons that just, they just got to win two games. Like, they win one at home. Anything can happen in game seven? To me, Colorado is the one that can come back.

Dust? So. You're going to say Ottawa, aren't you? So he's going to say Ottawa. I don't actually think they're going to do it. But you're cheering for it. I picked him at the start of the series. And I'm hoping for the most chaos in Toronto,

And if Ottawa comes back from three rip to beat them, I think Toronto absolutely implodes in the whole thing. It'd be really healthy for my draft. All I'm saying. The thing about Toronto is, as soon as they lost one game, not two, one. You could feel it. You could just feel it. Everybody was like, oh, come on.

There's so much focus, though, right? We're not playing Florida and Boston or Florida, Boston, Tampa. Like, we have to win this, right? Like, we have to. But they do have to. They have to, right? They're playing a wild card. They have to win it.

It's the complete opposite scenario of Florida. You know, as Jay and I driving up to the hockey game and I said, like, you look at Florida when it's in Florida and there's empty bottom of the bowl seats in Florida. They're one of the favorites to, they just won the cup. And there's empty seats in Florida, right? And then, so you've got no pressure in Florida. You've got as much pressure as any one team. in the league in Toronto and so they lose the most not only that the team they're playing

is Ottawa well no no no no and they haven't won the cup in no no no no no no tack in their history with this group of players well and I think it's a group of players somewhat like because the oilers I mean McDavid comes out all the time and says we don't panic and the Oilers don't look like a team that panics they look like a team that as the game goes along they start to up the pressure up the pressure up the pressure where's Toronto looks like they get tighter sticks, tighter sticks, and start to panic. Right. And it's just a different in personnel.

Yes. Yeah. I'm hoping for the greatest chaos and for Ottawa to pull out the reverse sweep. It would be pretty fun to all. Okay. So if you're L.A., if you're L.A. if you're L.A.'s coach right now. I mean, you've gone five games like this. What do you do?

Do you try and find a fifth defenseman at least run five even guys? Like what is his game plan here to beat Emmeton in game six? What's the plan? He might have screwed himself already, but yeah, you've got to find some. someone who's like, you can't roll out with 40. You might also want to just have the copatire of the world say, boys, like, we probably should have won this series four or nothing, right? Were that team still?

We all lean into they're tired, but I'm like, these are professional athletes that have trained. I don't think there's anything that's, you know, going to slow these guys down. Nine Ford's 4D, they get a couple nights off and then they could go back at it. And, you know, like, you just, you got to hop out to an early lead, And then you just got to go, boys, we can't relent. We have to go. So what's their strategy on Pickard? Now that they face Pickard for...

Shoot. Like, because they're going to focus on that, right? I think they're going to focus on what are we doing to Pickard versus... So they had Skinner figured out. What are we doing to Pickard? That's going to be a focus. And I think a focus is going to be continued to get the Pucks out and put pressure on Eminton's defense.

One of the things, for four years straight, Skinner's, right? Skinner's wraparound ability to stop it was ungodly awful, right? Worst in the league. And they tried it on Pickard. Was it last game in the game before? And he made a nice save. And I'm like, they got to figure that out because now the lateral movement of Pickard is better.

It just is. And it's noticeable. Every time they wrap the puck on Skinner, he wasn't close once. It was, I just couldn't believe it. So the thing that Pickard doesn't have, though, his lateral movements a lot better, obviously. He's just not as big. No, he's a smaller goal. When I say shoot, I mean it.

You just got to shoot the puck because he's not as big, which means there's more holes. Yeah. You've got to create the space for Kempe, Kopitar, Beinfeld, them guys to be able to shoot. And wouldn't you agree that the Oilers defense, as good as they've been, they don't have that comb. Yes. It's not like they, as Jay, you pointed out early, they didn't go out and sign some first. Go in a bang, boozeard and make him cough the puck up. Yeah.

When you literally allow them to have time and set up and come out as a unit, you've got to cause chaos. So they had decent success at the start of the series by just trapping. That's what they did. They either four checked hard if they had a chance or trapped. And I think they've been trapping too much late and they've got to get back in there and forcing the issue on the creative defense. What's the Oilers' answer been to that? When you have five LA Kings standing on the net, you can't look for the beautiful play. Just start shooting the puck.

And finally, they started doing it. Game three, game four on stair, game five, sorry, game four and game five on stairs. They were firing the puck from everyone. They almost hit 50 shots back-to-back games. I know one of them was overtime. But they just started shooting the puck. And then the trap doesn't work anymore

because now you've got to bouncing off bodies going in the net. How many of them have went on? Why is that? Because I've got five guys sitting there. You're talking about the defensive zone, I'm talking neutral zone. They were trapping and the Oilers are having trouble getting through. But the thing is, the Oilers have a bunch of creative players

who are good in the neutral zone like McDavid, like Bouchard, and they're starting to get better of breaking through that trap or having a better response to it. And L.A., in my mind, has to get back to forechecking hard. Instead of sitting back and trapping, they can do it some of the time, but they've got to get in there and bang. Draw the Oilers into penalty trouble, which can happen,

and then allow your power play to do what it has. LA's power play has been a little bit nullified in the last couple of games, but let's not kid ourselves. That power play looked better than the Oilers. But that's the secret to winning. Game six, going to be interesting. Did you notice that the Oilers started rolling out McDavid on the penalty kill last game? Yeah.

Because they're rolling out five forwards on the power play, and it's like, well, if you want to do that, throw McDavid. He gets the puck. Good luck stopping them. What I was saying, I think it was last time, is like the thing about the five forwards is, even when I was a D-man playing on the power play, when you roll your most skilled forwards, now you've got to be worried they poked the puck off yet. They got a break away or even a half a half-year. decent chance and you're dealing against the elite score.

You're dealing with the elite score in the entire NHL. We talked about this. The last one, I think, is L.A. was rolling five forwards on the penalty kill. So you need to expose that. How do you expose that? You have McDavid out there on the penalty kill. Speed. Now they need to worry about that or they need to change what they're doing, right?

Or they just got to see more doughty being out on the power play after that. partly, I'm sure, because McDavid's out there, you can't allow the fastest guy in the league to be able to just poke the past somebody in the way you go. It's a bit of a mind game that way, just having them out there because is McDavid the greatest penalty killer? No, not at all. And every Euler fan's like, what happens if he blocks a shot? I'm like, he's not blocked, you know, like, possible. Don't worry.

I've played a long time. You can play where you don't have to block shots. Okay, L.A., Minnesota, does Minnesota win game six? In Minnesota? Yeah. I'm going to say yes. We're going to go to Game 7 there.

Colorado. What are we doing for the silver coin here? Okay, wait a minute. Where's my silver coin that I missed last week? You missed last week? It's gone. Yeah. We voted in that.

So did you guys have a competition for this week, or you decided you probably couldn't because I wasn't here and I probably won't. Did we have? No, we never did anything. No. No, we decided it wasn't fair if you're not. One rip, boys, one rip.

Thank you, Silver Gold Bull. Yeah, you were so much smarter than the rest of us. Three of us went six and two. Great. Three of us won six and two, and I said, you know what? Florida's walking in game one and torching the balls. Well, we got four games. What do we have left for?

How many series are left? Sorry, we got five series left, all game sixes. You can pick the game six winners. Okay. All right. Who's going first? I'll go first, sister Oh, no, how about instead of doing all five,

do you want to do all five or do you want to go one series by the series? Okay, go series by series. I'm going to pick Toronto in game six. Oh, and then he goes first. Interesting. I'm going Ottawa. Ottawa, baby. Just made Toronto's walking in and winning.

Toronto. It's got to go seven at least, guys. It's got to go seven. Okay. Just to watch the Toronto fans. Harley, Winnipeg, St. Louis, Game Six. Uh St. Louis

I'm going to go St. Louis. Winterpack. Now I have a choice. I'm going to go with St. Louis. I think they're going to win at home. Dallas, Colorado, dust. Colorado. They were my pick to meet Florida in the final.

Colorado. I'm going Colorado. I think Colorado at home as well. All right. Jay Vegas, Minnesota. Vegas. Vegas, baby. And I'm going to pick Minnesota.

All right, here we go. Eminton, L.A. Kings. I'm going to start. I'm going to take Emmington and six. Eminton and six. Eminton. We better have a tiebreaker. I believe me and Harley picked the exact same five.

So a tiebreaker on the Emmington L.A. game, how do you want to do a tiebreaker there? I don't know. Total goal. Total goals. Like we did last time. Okay. Total goals in game six.

Dustin's got to go first. No, no, no. It's all about game six. We're not worried about game seven. Okay, so game six, total number of goals. In the Amitin, L.A. But I'm going first? Well, you won the silver coin.

You get to go first. We'll go seven. Seven. Who goes second? Well, I got, I'm going. We're going clockwise. Yeah. Oh, this is putting me between the rock and the hard place here.

Well, you were laid, Harles. Maybe show up early and get a better seat. You know what? We should have made him go first because he was late. Show up to an entire show. Some of us actually have to do some work, boys. Oh, boy. You can talk to your wife about that.

Okay, so what's funny about that is last time when I wasn't here, Seth listened to it, who's my operator? And you guys were like, yeah, next time we don't want Dust to show up, we'll just turn something off on a well. And Seth goes, turn something off on a well. Dustin doesn't do anything like that. He can still be there. I'm going to go eight.

Oh, Harley's going up. Jay? Jay's in a bind now. And I've really kind of hamstrung dust to that seven. That's fine. I'm good. Jay sitting there going, is the oilers really only didn't get one? I'm going to go five.

And mine number was four. So I got four or less. I'll take that. So what happens if there's six scored? Well, Jay, I guess. Yeah, why didn't you take six? You would have really. No, six.

I was trying to increase his odds. I was trying to push Sean lower because I know Sean would lower so now he gets four instead of five right i should have taken five so no no i never mind so if six gets scored what happens then we'll flip a coin so me and us got to have a secondary how about we have a spelling contest secondary thing fourth or six i don't know you want to go on total shots or something or what do you want to do here who's got more shots in the game emminton or l a emminton that's not fair hey hey you made the rule no we got to look at me something that's be a little more

uh... why don't you just do hits why don't you do hits why don't you do it's been total shots it's been total shots

oh yeah total shots go ahead dust or you want me go first on this one you go first okay total shots hey 70

oh 69 right there we are well done gentlemen thanks for for hopping any any

any file you know I don't we haven't brought up blue jays I know we've been talking in NHL I know sorry co-ups nobody's talking NBA NBA still plays

yeah is there anything anything else that we need to bring up that we haven't talked about I I know I just I'm just every time the playoffs

the first round's so awesome you think oh this team's gonna roll through it or this team and you've got some teams battling and I think it's great tonight there's four game sixes how great is that really

and one of them's Toronto, Ottawa. Like, if Toronto, here's the thing, is I want, even if Ottawa doesn't win it in seven, I want it to go to seven, because I know Malcolm Ragkey and all the Toronto fans will be so, they're squirming right now. They're squirming. Well, they're squirming right now. They're, they're, they're, they know, it's a fan base.

You're just nervous. And in fairness, I, I feel their pain because great, game three, the oilers, I was nervous. Game four, I was nervous. And then. Okay. But it's different between the oilers and the Maple Leafs, because the oilers made, the Stanley Cap final, a couple years ago they made the conference final. The Maple Leafs with this group have not done anything.

They won one round? One round? One round. One round. And going back to the Phil Kessel days. That's right. Like it's been a long time. And so you sit there.

No, they won last year one round. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So you've got this whole team. They made the semifinals with Sundin. That was the last time. That was Wendell Clark and they lost to L.A. That was way bad.

I believe, right? And Grexki scored three in games. game seven. And they still talk about the high stick. That would have been 93. That's because Montreal beat L.A. In the final. That was, that was conference.

The Maple Leafs fans still talk about Grexie taking the high stick, not getting called, and then he scores a goal to win the game and game seven and yada, yada, yada, but they still talk about that because they've had nothing to talk about scenes. Is that true, though? Is that, have they only made the first one one round since that? Yeah, I think so. I don't know. The Maple Leaf fans.

fans will reach out. I know it's once in the last like. Well, I know it's once since Castle days, but I didn't realize. So this is, when everybody talks about, oh, you know, Matthews is this great player, Marner's this great play. Like, this is the crunch time right now where you're like, you need to win this series. It's been too many years. You're not playing Florida's going to the finals or Boston or Tampa Bay. Like, you need to win this series. What's, what's Toronto? Last year, last year is you got to win, you got to win with McDavid. Okay, here's the plan.

I mean, Toronto can't even make the finals. So he wants to get his piece of. Okay, last year, I thought it was last year. Last year, they lost in the first round in game seven in the Bruins. The year before, they lost in the second round. They won the first round against the Lightning. They lost in the second round of the Panthers. Then the year before that, lost in the first round of the Panthers,

lightning, sorry, in Game 7. The year before that, game seven against the Canadians. The year before that, they lost an qualifying round to the Blue Jackets. that would have been in COVID. Yeah, but the blue jackets were. Okay, run it back. No, no, no, no, no. Just let me finish.

They lost in game five, so that was three, two, right? So that was when they had that five in Eminton. Year before that, they lost in game seven to the Bruins in first round. The year before that, they lost in game seven in Bruins in first round. The year before that, they lost the first round to the capitals in game six. Did not qualify, did not qualify, did not qualify. And you got to go back to they lost in the conference quarterfinals. Oh, that's, to the Bruins.

That would have been, that was the first round. Quarterfinals, that's first round. Did not qualify, did not qualify, did not qualify, did not qualify, did not qualify, did not qualify, did not qualify, did not qualify, did not qualify, did not qualify. Yeah, keep going, Sean. One in the conference quarterfinals, and they lost in game seven, no, they beat this, lost against semifinals against the Flyers and O four. So, O four was the last time. O four. Conference semifinals, that's second round.

second round. So they won two, they, so that was the last time they won the first round. They won a round in 2004, they won one round here last year. They went to the conference finals

in 01, 2002 and lost to the hurricanes the year they went, well, the first year they would have went to the finals, I guess, right? Lost in conference finals.

This is why Toronto needs to go game seven against Ottawa. This right here. Well, game seven, the sticks of me. Yeah. You look at that.

That is a, that's pretty impressive. No wonder they're all, you could feel it in their fan base, up three nothing. And then they lose one game and they're like, oh, no. You know what reminds me is like, you know when you're driving from a long trip and you get close to home and you get feel that like, I got to stop, but you can't stop. I'm going to make it home, but like the turtles poke and its head out the shell there. That's where the, that's where they believe.

If it goes to game seven, that, that is what it's going to be. You can always tell when Dad's got a total polking his head out because he just starts driving faster. Oh. All right. Gentlemen, thanks for hopping in. All right.