Spittin Chiclets - Spittin Chiclets Episode 493: Featuring Seth Jarvis

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

On Episode 493 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the boys jump right into playoff hockey, recapping Game 1 of each of the eastern playoff series so far. Seth Jarvis (01:02:49) joined to discuss the Canes and their Defensive structure, as well as just how good Necas has been this year. Soon after, the guys hop back on to talk about the juggernauts of the western conference. A big thank you to both the NYPD and the FDNY for an unreal battle of New York’s finest and bravest as the guys recap just how special of an event this years 50th annual Heroes Hockey Game was. Where is William Nylander? Have the Rangers been forealzies all along? What will the team in Utah be called? Find out in this weeks episode.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Well, she's your love. They say you're drunk at speech. She's just so good at that. I like to poke the bear. I like to stir the pot. But then you come on in and take it up a notch You hit me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot Hello everybody and welcome to episode 493 of Spittin' Chicklets

Presented by Pink Whitney from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka Here in the old Boston Sports Podcast Family Chicklets Gang What is up? The playoffs are finally here. And you know what, Biz? This is actually the most wonderful time of year. Never mind Christmas, so let's dive right into it. Biz Nasty, how's it going, buddy? I knew you watched the Islanders.

Holy hell, we got playoff rear admiral, ladies and gentlemen, high-stepping out of the gate with the fog machine, the laser light show. Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na. Hey! It is Christmas. It is Christmas right now. I am fucking fired up. Obviously not as fired up after your bees spanked my Toronto Maple Leafs.

We won't dive into that quite yet, but where the fuck is William Nylander, folks? Where is he, Biz? It ain't where's Waldo anymore. Did he stay in Florida, Biz? It ain't where's Waldo anymore. Did he stay in Florida, Biz? I think he might have went to 11 after game 82 to celebrate a full year of health, and he must have pulled a back muscle in the back room, the champagne room, as the kids are calling it. That's my only fucking explanation at this point,

and I've used every resource in my phone, okay? I never call in favors either. I never snoop around. I never ask about nothing. What was your DM? This, the crackhead comments, the crackheads,

the, you know, the, the Redditors and all the Leafs fans in there digging up the fucking tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists. They're saying, they are saying that Keith was so disgusted by his game in 82 in Tampa Bay. I watched the game.

We had it on the TNT broadcast. He was fucking the dog the entire game. The clip of the high stick and him not touching the puck was, yeah, what was happening there, dude? People are saying, oh, if he touches it, it gets blown down. It's like, it's not just that. He just fucks the dog on a line change back to the bench, and when he just curls and doesn't go after the guy who touches it

and who ends up zipping that pass fucking all the way up to the far blue line, you're not clogging up that lane. It's the seize part for him. So, all in all, 82 was a debacle. Then you get Keefe's fucking post-game comments saying like, hey, listen, obviously that's not the typical Willie we're used to seeing, but I think that's just him telling us he's sick of regular season hockey. To then miss the first fucking game of play.

He hasn't missed a game due to health since 2016. He missed, I think, a few in 2021-22 to COVID. And I said we were going to talk about it later, and all of a sudden it just fucking hooked me right in, and I'm talking fucking bees and leaves right on the hop. You're a leaves junkie that just can't get his picks

because they stink. You know what they do? The milk cartons? The missing guy? Where the fuck is William Nylander And what about McMatthews McMatthews too No McMatthews I know that hurts too

McMatthews Yeah that was like I think Is he frozen Oh no did we get Frozen wit Oh folks Rarely does

We got a witzicle He's frozen There must be a storm Going on at Witt's house Or maybe the kids unplugged it You can keep going alright Oh we lost Witt He's gone now But we can a storm going on at Witt's house, or maybe the kid's unplugged it. You could keep going, all right? Oh, we lost Witt. He's gone now.

But we can keep rolling. He'll just chime right in. Ironically, I believe Willie was the only Maple Leaf to play all 82 games this year, if I'm not mistaken, right? Yeah, he's done it the past few years, R.A. It's a mystery. I don't have any answers. I'm sorry for taking up the oxygen at the start of the podcast,

but I believe that's probably the number one question mark in the hockey world right now is where the fuck is William Nylander? Yeah, I think maybe because the plays we just talked about, the high stick, and then when somebody was scuffling at the bench, he just kind of looked at him. I mean, maybe he was hurt. Maybe that's not why he was that engaged. There's no way that if he had any part of a bumper bruise on him

that he would have been playing in game 81 or 82. You're talking about the play in Florida where, I don't know if it was John Tavares or someone close to their bench was getting into it with Matthew Kachuk, and he didn't bother stopping by. Yes, he looked disinterested. He looked disinterested probably the last five to six games of the season compared to what he'd been doing at the start of the year.

I don't think he had a goal in his last 10 or 11 regular season games. Right? So probably not the ideal time to go on a cold streak. But then you see the lack of effort, which to me doesn't tell me you're playoff ready. It's brutal. Horrible body language. But because it's Willie, we can all kind of laugh about it and say,

ah, slick Willie, the handsome, good-looking guy who put up 99 points, who got a big contract. Ah, let's just wait for last year's playoff, Willie. Well, he wasn't even in the fucking game. So, bit of a problem there. And what's so bizarro, Land, about an R.A. is the fact that he played 82. Day of, all of a sudden, William Nylander's questionable. And then the day after the game the next like morning or early afternoon when they had their skate around he's back on the ice for

the optional like nothing fucking happened so i don't know if this is this like hangover type thing where they lost him in florida like did he did did he go to the strip club and then maybe take the wrong drink and the next thing you know, he went on this fucking 48-hour excursion where they couldn't find William Nylander and then voila. I don't know or K or what happened, R.A., but if we get last year's playoff, Willie, then the Toronto Maple Leafs will get back in this series. So I'll leave it at that.

We could talk more about the game breakdown when we get there, but that wasn't even the first one to kick us off. The Carolina Islanders one was, you guys had the FDNY-NYPD broadcast. It was tremendous. I was viewing from my phone as I was watching that first game.

Great job, everyone. We're going to talk about that whole thing at the whole FDNY-NYPD broadcast, the 50th game. Great job, everyone. We're going to talk about that whole thing at the whole FDNY NYPD broadcast, the 50th anniversary, at the back part of the podcast because we're going to have a ton of people to thank, including the Game Notes guys, Dave

Portnoy, who's done so much for the police department, given the Jonathan Diller situation, the horrible incident that happened in New York a few weeks ago where he was senselessly shot. So a tremendous job by everybody on the Barstool side. And we appreciate if you came here to hear about that off the hop that you wait till the back end so we can give it the proper flowers it deserves. So bravo.

A couple of clicks to you too, Rear G. All the people in the back. And of course, the firefighters and cops who put on a hell of a show. All the people in the back. And of course, the firefighters and cops who put on a hell of a show. So I'm going to send it back over to you, R.A., for the Carolina Hurricanes and Islanders tee up. If you want to go through that and then send it right back over because I have some thoughts on not only the series, but an interesting game one. Real quick, R.A., and before we dive into all the hockey, the game review segments.

New sponsor. It's now presented by ESPN. If you didn't know, ABC and ESPN Plus are home to the Stanley Cup final this year. RB is looking to bounce back after being eliminated in round one last year, despite having the best regular season in NHL history. None of that matters anymore. Predators, Panthers, Canucks, Jets, all looking for their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. And as we know, like I said, the Stanley Cup playoffs and final on ESPN, ABC, and ESPN+.

Let's dive into it. Yeah, the Islanders-Carolina game looked like a doozy of a game. We didn't see too much of it down in New York. But Freddie Anderson, man, just continues the stellar play. His numbers toward the end of the year, he was like 9-1 with like a 1-3-6 goals against three shutouts. Just a stellar performance, but do you think the Islanders can hang for this whole series based on the one game?

I mean, they're in it late until the third period. Oh, oh, Witty Wi-Fi. Witty, what happened there, buddy? I had to hold the fort. I'm sure these people are sick of hearing my fucking voice at this point. Now, did you find William Nylander while you were gone? Boys, I do not know where he is still he was not my host thank god because he's not a bad looking guy in my wife's home but i'll tell you what i got i got i had restarted my computer i

had restarted my computer right before we started and then it just died so now i'm kind of panicking this thing's one of those monster max and then tomorrow i have career day at school for rider which i don't even know what I'm going to say. Yeah, I do a podcast with a guy named Ward Hogg who loves illegal substances and another guy who's just thumping everything because he's a complete wheel and loves Raya and then our producer's tiny wrist, but he's a great guy. And now it's like, and then how am I going to explain when my internet gets screwed up, the show can get somewhat canceled.

So I'm sorry because we were buzzing and I still didn't find neilander though i still didn't find well one good thing is that you're back uh this the second thing is where the fuck is wheeling leilande what's up guys wit here before we continue it's new amsterdam time new amsterdam's own pink lemonade flavored vodka pink whitney and it's the time of year I keep talking about. Springtime. And then we turn into summertime. And nice weather out at the beach. Outside at your patio.

Watch it's a playoff hockey. If you're into the NBA, watch it's a playoff NBA. And pouring yourself a nice cold Pink Whitney. We got the big bottles. The 1.75ers. We got the little shots. You can buy those all packaged together. And you go to the bar.

You can order it any which way you want. Energy drink, soda water, on the rocks how I like it. It doesn't matter. It was flowing at the NYPD-FDNY game. All these Islanders fans said they're going to crush it at their big tailgates they have before the playoff games, as they did before the fire department and the police department played. And golf season. Golf season has arrived.

This is a drink for the golf course. So go down to your local liquor store. Go down to your local tavern. Grab some Pink Whitney. Get involved. And thank you so much for supporting the brand. And thank you to New Amsterdam for creating this amazing drink. New Amsterdam's own pink Whitney.

We're getting right into this, um, hurricanes. I'll be serious. Buzz. And I heard this. Frankie Borelli was going nuts when I saw him. I would say they carried play for 55 to 60% of the game outshot them.

I think it finished at 8 to 10 shots. Like, that's rare. He said that they had 10 shots through two periods. Carolina, is that true? Carolina did. Carolina did. Buddy, I honestly, if I could have had a video camera of what went on in the locker room, I would have assumed Rod the Bod went in there and, like, flipped the table.

We ended up interviewing Koozie postgame, and he's like, you know what was said in between periods. He's like, nothing. We knew, we knew we weren't good. We knew we were going to come out in the third and turn it on in which they did. And the third day they took over their dominance,

but Hey, Islanders still got a few high dangerous, high danger scoring chances. I would say like, if not for Freddie Anderson, it was the Islanders game. Okay. Okay. Let's start there. I would say, if not for Freddie Anderson, it was the Islanders game. Okay?

Okay. Let's start there. And they could have took a 2-1, 3-1 lead easily off a breakaway from Barzell. I want to say Nelson had a half breakaway. They'd missed a breakaway pass. The guy ended up knocking it off his stick or whatever. And then, of course, the RA, I don't know if you mentioned this one yet, Noah Dobson, 10-bell save from Freddie Anderson diving across. So there was legit at least three goals right there.

And, Whit, if Islanders can't find that goal scoring, which they always seem to have a problem, even with their high-end guys like Barzell, I love him to death. I think he's a great skater. I think he makes great plays. But you've got to fucking come through in the clutch there. Those are the moments in which playoff players are made. Yes.

So these are the things that I have to ask about. One, you mentioned Kuznetsov doing a little press conference. My dad, who's a very opinionated man on certain players in the NHL, has always hated Kuznetsov. He hated his bird celebration. He's old school, a little bit of a boomer. And he said that in the interview after they asked Kuznetsov. He hated his bird celebration. He's old school, a little bit of a boomer. And he said that in the interview after they asked Kuznetsov about Anderson Stella play, and he said, that's what he's paid to do.

Is that true? Like all grumpy? I said, I might've been kidding around, dad. He said, no, I wasn't kidding. He wasn't kidding. So did he say that though? Is that what he's paid to do? Okay.

So time out. We asked him four or five questions. That was not one of them. So is this a creation from the mind of Dan Whitney? He would never be able to or just make that up, but maybe it was another interview or something. Time out. Sometimes when I'm thinking of asking my question,

I completely black out, and I don't hear what the other guys are asking or even what the answer is. If you roll back the whole TNT interview from on the bench after the game, out and I don't hear what the other guys are asking or even what the answer is if you rolled back the whole TNT interview from on the bench after the game I don't think he ever said that's what he's paid now I'm calling him right after like your dad's legit he's probably got like a like a hate wall of who's this likes him so much that like he just was like this is probably what he'd say but no no I gotta call him I'll call him i'll i'll address that he did do the bird the call first goal less than two minutes into the game so that's probably

what irritated him and gave him like ptsd to it from a time he did it against the bruins or something yeah oh yeah and then he's like rod the bar told him he hated it but now he doesn't mind it because i'm like yeah yeah yeah but and's like, he still probably doesn't like it, though, which I was laughing at. Okay, back to Frankie Borelli, who had us over to Borelli's, the original OG restaurant, 1953, right next to the old Nassau Coliseum. But he'd had a watch party at his new restaurant in Long Beach, R.A. Land, from when he was at the charity game. And so he was all, he had a buzz going. He was like, they should have won the game. They played so good.

They outplayed him. Talked about the 10 shots of Carolina through two. He was ranting and raving about the Palmieri miss. Oh my God. The Palmieri wide open net. And actually it looked like Anderson kind of kicked at his stick. And like he had some, I don't know if he meant to or anything, but he kicked at his stick, and it was a wide-open net off the side of the post.

That was a grade-A chance. Wide-open net. The save was – the save you're talking about on Thompson was out of control. Frankie also was mentioning that Anders Lee had a defenseman beat, and he had him, and the D was kind of holding on, and Lee had the puck and ended up getting a penalty while holding the puck. And he said it was one of the worst calls he's ever seen.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, he took his loose hand and legitimately touched Brady Shea, and Brady Shea just blew up. And it was a bullshit call, and it shouldn't have happened. And then Kuzi ends up scoring on that ensuing power play. So it was a bullshit call and it shouldn't happen and then koozie ends up scoring on that ensuing power play so it was complete bullshit lee was disgusted patty wall looked like he was going to have a nervous breakdown his blood pressure might have got to i don't know what the top of the the blood probably when he was going at bruce putro his first game as a colorado

athlets coach he was right back there he was ready to put a fucking hole in the TV on the bench. But very resilient. They were, right after that point, they ended up scoring that tying goal. It was, like, Carolina likes to get aggressive, right? So it was Burns and Slavin on the ice, and Burns makes the play up the wall, and the defender for the Islanders,

I forget who it was, he ends up holding the blue line. Great little pinch, keeps it in and slavin and burns are already get going on the offense they're ready to gallop and join the rush which that's how they play they split like five connected and they want to really pursue the puck well they leave that net front net front wide open and lee's just sitting there and then that uh man kid, the father's the coach who played in the NHL. I think he scored over 400 goals. John McLean. Dude, he used to wear the Jofa, that old school Jofa.

And he played. I'm forgetting his son's first name. But Curtis, right? Kyle. Kyle. Kyle McLean. Well, close enough. I got the K right.

No, we played with Curtis McLeanan in in the pittsburgh penguin system ah okay and he played with the wheeling nailers i played with him there and he ended up going all the way to the nhl event he was silky dude oh he was unbelievable and he played with the islanders that was a story i told on the podcast where he was playing free game soccer and he had a good little start to his nhl career, even though he's a little bit older in life, and then he popped his Achilles, and I don't think he was ever the same after that, which sucked. But to get back on track, I don't think he was even supposed to be playing in that game. I'm drawing a blank on who ended up being a scratch.

I don't know if it was due to illness or maybe it was a last-second change, but he got inserted in the lineup, and he's been a spark plug for them so it was pochon it was it was uh j j yeah yeah gabriel pochon and that's that's a tough loss he's a vet yeah so the other the other comment would be is i don't know what they're gonna do as far as goaltending the islanders uh i don't think varlamov played bad at all he had some pretty good saves of his own. Wasn't crazy about the first one. Kuzi scored on it. Sometimes it's hard to track that puck through those cross-body

screens, but fuck, dude, he's in that reverse VH that Lundqvist always talks about, and like, buddy, like, he's fucking, he's basically on a shit angle, and he goes and puts it by your ear because you're not going to stand up. I don't know, man. I feel like goalies have bailed out a little bit on the fact they just want to hang it on their knees all the time like and when they get beat hot like when you ride your fucking hookups like

yeah like the fucking god kicking kicking pillows like the god the The Lucy God. Oh, yeah, yeah, the Lucy icebreaker. The Lucy breakers right here. The nut breakers. Get to Lucy right now. Yeah, you pop my pouch. So here's the problem, I would say. Oh, and back to the goalies. The fans lose their mind when goalies get beat up high

when they're just chilling on their knees like that. So I think a lot of people at home who haven't learned from Henrik Lundqvist about this style, they're like, why is he on his knees right now? That is an easy save. Now, there's so much more that goes into it that most people don't know, but I could see the frustration. The problem with me after game one is, and now we were open, we didn't get to see it, but basically hearing from you

and hearing from Frankie, if the Islanders were able to play that well and the Hurricanes had the first two periods playing that poorly for them and they still didn't win. Yeah, that's it right there. It's like, uh-oh. No way this is going more than six games. And I did owe all Islanders fans an apology who came at me hard. Last year it was not in five.

It was in six, and two games were OT. I still think it wasn't as close of a series as six with two games going to OT sounds, but I misspoke. I said it was five games last year and it wasn't. So the one positive sign though is let's say they go in game two, right? The Islanders. If they can outplay them for at least more than half the portion of the game and squeak out a win, I'm going to be like, damn, all those meaningful games coming in,

the last, what, 12 where they had a win out to even get in? That means something. Because you're used to that muscle memory of having to win every fucking battle, every loose puck battles, every blocked shot matters, where I'm not saying the Hurricanes fucking took it easy coming in, but they didn't have to have that type of desperation. I mean, fuck, even Game 82, I know they were sitting some guys, but they went in and lost to Columbus, right?

They were winning a lot, though. To be fair, they won a ton. That's fair. So that, to me, is the advantage that the Islanders have where it seems like they finally kind of understood the systems that Paddy Waugh has been implementing. So that's why i say all of a sudden if you fucking take it back one one and you're going back to long island okay but if

you see the the the hurricanes team like you did in the third period it's it might even be over in five fucking games but uh the the the steal of the deadline end up might be in kuznetsov because even on that second goal he makes the entire play whether it's on the fucking back check to get the puck whether it's in the offensive zone staying patient to not just throw it at the net from a bit I guess a bad angle meanwhile he fucking scored from it the first time ended up going low to high and then he ends up being the D on the other side to make the play to the net so huge game for Koozie unreal post game interview this guy's as cool as a cucumber he loves it he cares and he's happy again look out nhl hurricanes are buzzing and um he had he had

he had a good start when he got over there i think the the realization for him that he was in the minors and then getting the deal done and getting over to a contender. He was so happy. And you saw him in the locker room. His play did slip a little bit towards the end where you were like, I don't know. Is he kind of going back to what was going on in Washington where he didn't play well for a long time? So to see him come out early and get that first goal. He won them game one. Yeah.

It's like, all right. Well, he's ready to go. And what a deadline acquisition, as you said. My thing for the series is that I would say whoever Carolina plays this year, not their only chance of winning, but their best chance of winning is a team who can just cycle in their offensive zone, the Canes' defensive zone, and just wear you down. And it's the man-on-man thing where Canes fans are all pissed off that I've kind of brought it up a few too many times in their opinion. But if you can just grind them

down low, then that's kind of maybe their only weakness. I'm not saying it's a big weakness, but if they're spending a ton of time in their D zone, man on man, that is going to be exhausting. They're so good at not allowing it to happen because of their transition game. The problem is I don't think the Islanders have a group of forwards who are going to be able to play in their end, cycle the puck, and really wear them down. Yes, in the first two periods it sounded like they did. It sounded like they did.

But I don't know if they'll be able to continue it. No, that's a great point because we asked Martinuk about the D zone and the man-on-man and how it's the catalyst to this team. And he goes, actually playing for long periods of time in the offensive zone is the catalyst to this team. And he goes, actually playing for long periods of time in the offensive zone is the catalyst to this team. And just as aggressive as they are in the D zone with the man on man, I don't know if you watched fucking Orlov, every chance he got, he was pinching in and that F3 was supporting him.

So they just keep applying pressure and they want to keep it waves and waves and waves coming at you like a hurricane. waves. Coming at you like a hurricane. Yeah. Coming at you like a hurricane. You know who sings that, Biz? You know who sings that? No. Neither do I.

All right. All right. Were you thinking of Here I Am, Rock You Like a Hurricane? That's what I was doing. That's the song you're singing. Here I am. Coming like a hurricane. No, I think it's rock you like a hurricane. Not my version. Well,. Coming like a hurricane. I think it's rock you like a hurricane.

Not my version. Well, Biz comes like a hurricane. Not my version. I'm the guy who sings the lyrics, but I butcher at least a few words each sentence of it, but I'm still fucking having a good time. But if people get the tune and get the beat, it doesn't really matter. You got it. It's a Scorpion. You got it, baby.

I mean, tied after two beers. I thought the Isles very much alive early in the third. I mean, I wouldn't count them dead at all. I mean, Valois played a great game. What if they lose game two? So here's the problem, folks. That's my different opinion after a new game. Here's the problem.

Special teams, Islanders were dog shit coming in, and the PK was actually impressive after they gave up the first one. They kind of figured it out. Weird thing. They had Polak playing the top of the diamond on the kill and he had like two or three blocks at the top of the diamond as a defenseman. So I don't know if that was just a weird sequence

where he ended up there randomly or 3D on the ice him being the top or 2D and only ones down low. No there was 2D two, but he ended up as the high forward, basically. Two to three times, at least two he had blocks on. So I'm thinking, I mean, the face you're making, normally the D-man is either in front of the net or closer to the flank position. He's not at the top of the diamond as a defenseman up top.

It was just bizarre. So special teams for the Hurricanes are incredible. Best in the league. I think they had the best penalty kill and third best power play. R. Ray, you can look it up. And they also are third in goals by defensemen. So they have these cannons from the point, and they filter pucks to the net,

and they get that second layer of offense from the back end. So there are so many things and weapons that the Islanders did not see in game one from the Hurricanes. So we're trying to sell this as a series. I think they're going to fucking rinse them the next three. That was their only chance to get a W. You think they're sweeping them? I think at this point, yeah.

Yeah, because Carolina had the second-best power play in the league at 26.9% and the best penalty kill in the league at 86.4%. And a franchise record in least amount of shots given up per game. That's what was so shocking about the fact that they gave up 34 to the Islanders is they've averaged 26 shots given up a game this season. That's fucking impressive. So I've said enough about my wrists are sore from stroking off you Canes fans.

Last year, I would say in the first round, the most popular upset pick was the Isles over the Canes. I think a lot of people were saying they got a chance, and it was mainly with Sorokin's season being so legendary. This year, it doesn't seem to be as popular because of how dominant the Canes are and how maybe the Islanders really kind of had to grind to get in. But if they can get game two, yeah, it's like I know it sounds stupid. And if you – what's the adage?

The series doesn't start until you lose a home game. If they go down 2-0, how are the Islanders going to beat them four out of five? I think we could probably call curtains on it. But if it's 1-1 and we saw UBS Electric for the FDNY-NYPD game, that place will be rocking. Yes, yes, yes. So who knows? I can't wait to see who starts.

I imagine you go to Sorokin, even though Varlamov kind of, they rode him down the stretch. He's that good where it's like, dude, here you go. It's a must-win game for like dude here you go it's a must win game for us here you go ilia so uh second thing anderson could end up being uh the mv if the canes go on to win the stanley cup freddie anderson's gonna have an enormous part of it probably right there for con smith and maybe it turns out that the injury and the time that he had granted a lot of its rehab but it ended up helping him. For a guy who has a tough time staying healthy,

if he was able to recover from this injury and not get overworked through the regular season and goes on this run in April, May, and June, we may be like, wow, that actually was a good thing for him. So we'll see. Yeah, his last 10 games went 9-1, 9-1-0 with the 1-3-0 goals against a 9-5-1 save percentage with three shutouts, his last 10 games went 9-1, 9-1-0 with a 1-3-0 goals against a 9-5-1 save percentage with three shutouts in his last 10 games.

And this is a nice little segue, R.A. Why did the Leafs not re-sign him, Biz? Did we ever find out why? Did they just think he wasn't the guy or didn't want to pay him what he wanted? I don't even – it was kind of a long time ago. Now it feels like. But fuck, man. That guy, when he's on is unreal quite the timing to to bring that up with well we're going into the old horror show for you the boston bruin 1957 i believe was the last time they beat

him in the playoffs 1959 is the last time the Leafs have beat the Boston Bruins in a playoff series. The last three have gone to seven, which gave me a little bit of hope. The deflation of my confidence when William Nylander didn't play game one drastically went down. I tried to keep it together on the panel. At this point, that was a shellacking. I know for a fact that the Toronto Maple Leafs can't win this series unless

William Nylander is like back healthy and playing to what we know, what is William Nylander. Um, I actually thought the start of the game, first of all, a hundred hits in the game, total doubled the amount of the first game. So it was just an absolute cage match from puck drop.

Um, my one criticism maybe of the least is like a you still want what well one well from that aspect of the physicality i want them to play physical i want them to match that intensity uh you have to also remember there's a puck out there sometimes that's a big problem that i had remembering in my time in the nhl that there's a big part of the game, too. The huge part of the game, that black little rubber thing that's bouncing around out there. You got to pay attention to it to some degree.

And up until that point where the fourth line for the Bees scored that goal, I was actually happy with the way that the Leafs were playing. They were playing physical, mean. I thought it was Marner at first, but that little jousting match between Domi and Brad Marchand off the opening faceoff, that got me fired up. But the minute that the Bees scored with their fourth line, boop, game over.

Their fucking wires crossed. Leafs couldn't make a fucking play. They couldn't string two passes together. 0% on their power play. 60% on their penalty kill. I don't think it was Sammy's fault by any regards, but he wasn't

himself, or at least the way he's been in the last 30 games of the season. Everything could have possibly gone wrong. The JT at second line center, and I know there was a decent amount of special teams but I think he played 15 and a half minutes 11 million dollars for a guy who's gonna play fucking second line at 15 and a half minutes where you're there's no type of sustained offensive zone pressure with

him controlling the puck it's just like yeah like that's fucked up right so he's the third line center if Willie can get's the third line center. If Willie can get back to second line center and then you got Matthews at first line center, now we're talking about the possibility of us getting back in that series. Biz, we missed the first half of the game, but from watching the second half

and just talking to B's fans, it sounds like Pat Maroon was buzzing out there. Pat Maroon was everything is there. Pat Maroon was everything is advertised as a Stanley Cup champion. People want to make cracks. Even Jack Edwards' own friendly fire. Jack Edwards chirping him about the barrel

he's got on him. He was moving around great, but he helped create that first goal. It's all the details to his game why he makes him an effective, efficient fourth liner. He's good in the offensive help him on it, yeah. It's all the details to his game why he makes him an effective, efficient fourth liner. He's good in the offensive zone at eating

it below the goal line. The wall work that he had on the first goal, getting it back to Boquist on a platter for him, right to skate into. On the first power play unit, too.

Him, Shattenkirk, Danton Heinen, like $3 million in the first power play unit. So Boston had only scored two or three power play unit. So Boston had only scored two power, two or three power play goals in their last 32 attempts coming in. So the power play was cold and ace brought up the point on the broadcast

where they actually took Marshawn and McAvoy off the first unit to correct those two guys. I actually read a couple, but I read a couple of tweets like leading into it too. And you know, I, I take everybody's opinion seriously, especially if they're watching one specific team enough. And I remember someone saying like, yo, get Shaddy more involved in the game. And his specialty is power play.

Kind of like, I guess when like, I remember when Caberly Caberly came over when you guys won it, I feel like he was playing 15 minutes by the end, but he did help out the power play. They found some form of use for him. So great job by the coaching staff to make adjustment. And how about the Spider-Man? Jake fucking DeBrus. You don't think that guy wants a new fucking contract? The Leafs killer.

He's a Leafs killer. Oh my God. I might have to kidnap him and fucking Swayman. One big swing. The Matthews miss. He had the wide open net when Swayman tried for the post check. I mean, it was a tough play, but I mean, that would have been huge if, you know,

one-one game. Sure, I think that yes, I think that tells you it's not our night, so to speak. Like, you see that, and then they go back down and score to make it 2-0. As soon as you guys made it 2-0, RA, I'm like, this one's over. It was just like you could tell the brains were scrambled.

People sent me the winner meter because the Leafs. I saw that after. What the hell? What is the math that the Leafs are 82% winner meter in that game? It's like a silly analytic measure. Real analytics people would say throw it off a cliff, but it's just funny because you could tease people With the wind meter

And Toronto was at what? 78 or 82% on it It was all junk time nonsense In the third period when they were pressing And B's were like okay They're just keeping a tight house But also Swayman played incredible

Another way that Toronto Can get back in this series there may be a goaltender controversy can I give you my opinion on this yes I'd love to hear it so I switched it up shocker everyone listening I mentioned I don't know if it was on the show I

think it was but I've been telling all my buddies all my Bruins fans friends around here that I would legit this was earlier, just same rotation you've been doing every other game. You mean since February 19th and 20th? Back-to-back games was the last time that Swayman played back-to-back. He won them both in Edmonton and Dallas.

Yep. So here, here. But I've changed that opinion so now i'm going with this and my thought process on that entire thing was like all right well they tried trading all mark to bring in some help they weren't able to so you have this strength of two goalies right taken up and all marks a big cap it you wanted to try to get rid of him he didn't want to go anywhere so let's use them both right like let's use both strengths but now i've switched it now if i'm the bruins i'm playing a guy until he loses when he loses then other guy goes in he's playing until he loses and you just know all right when i go in

if i win three in a row and then i lose the fourth i got three games and then it's sway's turn right or all marks turn and then you just know if we lose we're going to other guy nothing personal they're both so good that we can it there's no there's no locker room larry we're comfortable with everyone then then a guy can go on a run swayman could win six in a row right and then you but but if he loses it's all marks turn and some people think it's crazy but but buddy, your strength is these two guys. And changing them every other game, as I thought would be the play, is a little too much. Because if you're winning, you're winning.

But that's what I think it should turn into. We ride a guy until he loses. We got a goalie controversy, don't we? Which, is it a controversy, though, if they're such good buddies and they both know the deal? And they both know the deal? It's not really a controversy if they're both like, all right, this is what we're doing. I think, listen, the term controversy is being used extremely lightly here. And, of course, by a Leafs fan in order to stir it up. But, buddy, they have done this the last two months.

The last eight weeks, they've gone one guy goes,, they've gone. One guy goes, the next guy goes, one guy goes, the next guy goes. So I'm like, okay, well, how, like how long have they been doing this? And when's the last time that this guy has played in back-to-back games? So I had our boy jazz at TNT. Look it up. The good thing for bees fans is it was in a back-to-back or maybe it was two days apart and it was against Edmonton and Dallas. Maybe it was Dallas then Edmonton, but Sway won both of them. So at least you guys are good in that regard. But I was talking to Boosh after the game because he said on the broadcast,

he goes, I'd be doing what you've been doing the last two months. I'd go right back to Allmark. And then Hank's in the seat, but here's the difference. Hank was used to playing 65-70. So he's the bulldog mentality. If you took Hank's net away after a playoff win, he'd probably fucking murder your family because that's just how he's programmed, right?

That's why you should have told him, as long as you don't lose, you keep the net. That's what the Bruins should be doing. I like what you're saying. If I was a coach, I feel like that would be a fair thing to say to both of them, where they would both agree upon. It would just be something new that they had never experienced before. Therefore, from a Toronto perspective, I'm fired up.

Because I'm saying, they haven't done this before yet, boys, in the last two months. Let's fucking go and take advantage of it. This guy's going to be tired. Well, heading into last night's game, Brewins had won seven straight versus the Maple Leafs dating back to last season. Over that stretch, Swayman was 4-0-0 with a 9-61 save percentage. So I go right back to him, man. He's been 0-0 at least for the last year. Okay, but Diffney landed back and kidnapped fucking Swayman.

Allmark was 3-0-0? So that means Allmark was 3-0-0? It's like if they won seven in a row, four and three. It's not that crazy to think that Swayman's then – play him until he wins. Yeah. Play him until he loses. Play him until he loses.

I want to make something clear because I – or not everyone, I shouldn't say everyone, but I'm a Leafs hater and most people listening know I don't want them to win. I want them to lose. Not just – I don't want them to get sweep. I want them to, like, blow a three-goal lead in Game 7, like, in 2011. 2012, whatever that year was.

I really felt for Austin Matthews not getting 70. I just wanted to make that clear. That sucked, man. And they played him those two games, and it just was a bummer. As a fan of hockey and an American hockey fan and this legendary goal scorer, the greatest we have in the game today, I wanted to see 70. So I was bummed out about that, and I want to let Leafs fans know,

as I assume they were all bummed out. I'm with you on that. That was a kick in the dick. But to then have that be the first game and have that team look that pathetic after their little nice little start. Yeah, the start was good. What were shots? Five nothing and then boom. Beecher scores a goal. Montgomery said after

it was the best game Beecher's ever played as a Bruin. When was the last time you got a fourth liner playing his best game ever for a Maple Leaf? They don't ever show up. Well, time out. I don't think fourth line is what should be criticized right now. Fair comment, when's the last time that has happened?

I can't tell you. But the fourth line in the last 15 games for the Leafs has been awesome. And they're the only line that scored last game to get back that goal that they gave up on that odd man rush. Which we jumped into the pinch on the broadcast. You could see both ways here. Some people might say, why the fuck is Edmondson pinching on that play? Just stay back.

Stay within the dots. And we're all good here. But, man, you're out there against the B's fourth line. Stay aggressive. You got them at the tops of the circles. Pressure down there. Use your momentum. Where Revo was the F3 coming back,

our system was you have to be a responsible F3 and come back. So as far as the fourth line for the B's and really the entire bottom six, bravo. I think that it was a very underrated bottom six throughout the course of the entire regular season. Because you got Morgan Geeky, who's fucking awesome.

Yeah. Great, yeah. He was great. Did Seattle just give him away? Yeah, I think they did. I don't know how they got him. He trucked somebody in the corner. He ran somebody over in the corner when we finally got to start watching the game.

Trent Frederick, I thought he played excellent. Patty Maroon, you already mentioned it. Is it Boquist? Yeah. Has he been this good all year? He's always flying. Lauko has been awesome as well. Lauko is nasty.

Guys, I do have some good news about the, for Leafs and Leafs fans. I've been told by my friends in the production world that Austin Matthews and William Nylander will be a part of the Amazon series. That's what they want to hear. That's what they want to hear. I don't give a flying fuck about your Amazon. I've also been told that the stuff that was filmed with William Nylander was incredible content. Like A-plus content.

They're still filming it right now. They're down on the beach. He never went back. They stay with me and Florida boys. Were they playing fucking volleyball like Ken and Barbie? I don't know. Were they doing the sequel already? We'll be stunk.

Listen, I'm excited to see what these- Do we have any rumors of the injury? Has anyone heard a thing? Other than the fact that they got a falling out and then he got healthy scratch, which is crackhead content, no, I'm not going there. I haven't heard a thing else, but just bizarre that he would be there the next day

ready to skate and practice like nothing happened. So I don't know. I don't know. We can move on from Leafs-B's unless you guys have any other questions or anything else you want to talk about. I just want to mention, Beecher, he scored on his first shot on his first playoff shift. That's pretty good shit right there, huh?

Oh, yeah. What a feeling. Back to Kyle McLean. He scored his – well, the only eye on this goal. That was his first shot in his first playoff game ever. So pretty cool moment for a couple guys out there, you know, first time out in a playoff game. Get one of the boys. a couple of guys out there, you know, first time playoff game, get one of the boy.

Hey, it keeps you in the lineup. All right. Fucking right. It does. Also, we want to send our best wishes to Jack Edwards, busy.

Just mentioned, he's going to be retiring at the end of the season. You know, we've discussed his issues quite a bit on the show and, you know, the long, the long haul with, he was fantastic at his job.

I'll tell you somebody put the, after game seven versus Montreal in 2011, they put the, you know, he did that soliloquy about the British and comparing the British to the Canadians and all that shit. I went back and watched that overtime on YouTube. His call of that game was fucking masterful. Like, no matter who you root for, like, he wasn't a homer in that.

He just called the game fantastic. And when he was at the peak of his game, he was as good as anyone. So, Jack, we loved you for two decades here. You did a hell of a job. Happy retirement. Love you, Jack. A couple clicks for Jack. Go!

Congrats, Jack. I've been watching Bruin Talkie fun for a long time. Some people, he wasn't their cup of tea, but he got people talking. He got people talking either way. And it sucks for somebody to not really know what's wrong like like he doesn't really he doesn't know what happened so that's what's such a kick in the dick for him but i was i was a critic but i could still commend him for a long career where he had a ton of bruins fans dying for his calls of games goals i was dying for wins so yeah

when his homerism would come out and it after wins. I was dying for him. Yeah. Congratulations. When his homerism would come out and it would get clipped, it was like fucking Christmas morning. His best homerism ever, and I'm sure it's on YouTube, is when Dallas was in their heyday of being mad men with Avery. Oh, hot. I think Brian Sotheby was in a fight that game, and it was just a gong show in Boston.

It was an afternoon game, and he was going at Art. He was going at Avery, and he just went off the handle with Homerism that day. So that's one you can kind of check out if you're a big Jack. From 2011. They have stripped the will of its blubber. Was that that game? No, it was versus the Carolina when they were wearing the Hartford uniforms. Stripped the will of its blubber.

That's an all-time. Also want to wish a happy retirement to Columbus play-by-play guy Jeff Rimmer. He was the Blue Jackets guy for the last 20 years, so want to give him well wishes as well. Enjoy your retirement, Jeff. Couple clicks. Couple clicks. There you go. There you go.

Absolutely. And he was there. Was he there from the beginning? I believe so. If not, he might have been a year or two, but he was there for 20 years. So I think actually it would have been 2004. He might have missed the first couple of years, but he was there for 20 years. I know that for Columbus.

Blue Jackets, the sneakiest, most undercover, best fan base in the league. Yeah. Lunatics. Lunatics. The team hasn't done anything besides that one year or towards. And they packed the building. It's a madhouse. And they're just searching for a winner. So all you Blue Jackets need. They should hire me as the GM. Yeah, that'd be greatts and they pack the building. It's a madhouse and they're just searching for

a winner. They should hire me as the GM. I should be the GM of the Columbus Blue Jackets. We're going to bring in Ty Masuse. Ty Masuse is going to run the power play. This is Jing Jong Wing and she loves the umbrella. We call this the chopstick for check. She's teach that too it's a split it's a two one two

split we want you to stay aggressive on the pokey oh they're aggressive they were actually chanting cbj at the end of the game at that game like i mean that's pretty good squad yeah oh last thing on them and i know this is side note of playoffs, but we have so much to catch up on. Unreal video of Gavin Brinley's teammates from Michigan and a bunch of friends went to his first game after he turned pro. They all had all his jerseys on from USA Hockey, Michigan, and there was one clip that really got to me. It made me a little emotional, And I was looking at it,

and it was Seamus Casey. Seamus Casey, Gavin Brinley, and Jacob Fowler, the stud goalie at BC, the Canadians pick. They grew up playing together. Brinley's father coached them. I think he played down in Florida, ended up retiring there, and he started the Florida Alliance. And these three kids grew up playing together followed at BC Casey and Brindley went to Michigan and Seamus Casey's sitting there and he's watching his buddy in one of his best friends in the world he's in the NHL Seamus Casey'll get there too and you could tell the kid was like crying a little bit just thinking of all the memories of these kids from eight nine years old growing up growing up together, dominating, going to USA Hockey, winning World Junior,

playing at Michigan. And it was just awesome to see such a close friend be that happy for a buddy, for his dream to come true. It was, you can check it out. It was all over social media, but congrats to Gavin Brindley and what a move by all his buddies to come see him. One of them was Rucker McGrody,

who's going back to school. He's not going to sign with Winnipeg. So that was kind of surprising. But it was a cool moment for three kids from Florida to really change the landscape down there based on Brindley's dad forming this team and the Florida Alliance. It was awesome.

Did we talk about Cutter Gauthier's game? He had his first NHL game, too. Did we record after? He had an apple. He did. He had an apple. He did. He had an apple. Yeah, we haven't talked about it yet. The villain.

The villain has arrived. I cannot wait for this guy at Anaheim. Amazon better be following him around or I ain't fucking watching. Give me Cutter Gauthier. I want the turn cutter. All right, before we go any further, here's a few words from our friends at Body Armor.

Spitting Chicklets is brought to you by Body Armor. Real hydration, real ingredients packed with electrolytes, vitamins, and nothing artificial. Body Armor has great taste and flavors like my favorite right here, strawberry banana. Also got blue raspberry and a whole bunch of other stuff. And not only do we hydrate with Bar-Di-Arma, not only does Connor McDavid hydrate with Bar-Di-Arma,

but now the NHL will too. We're all in the same kit and caboodle over here. It's good stuff. So congrats to our friends at Bar-Di-Arma on the new partnership with the NHL just in time for the playoffs. Get your Bar-Di-Arma today at Walmart or a local grocery store near you. Sunday afternoon, Tampa, Florida. Battle of Florida once again, third time in the last four years.

No surprise went down to the wire, more or less. Panthers squeezed out a 3-2 win. Well, they had a 3-1 lead. Stamko scored late. Bobrovsky, what a fucking game he had, man. I mean, he earned his $10 million in this game alone. Is he going to do this again, R.A.? Is he doing this again this run?

I mean, today he was unbelievable. Vassie was very good, too. But fucking Bob was sick. He was absolutely insane today. I was very impressed right off the hop with Vassilevsky. They got that first goal, but they went to make it 2-0. He had no stick. He made an amazing save in front of the net.

Kicked the leg out. I was like, oh. And Vazzy, overall, and coming back from a surgery like that, you're not going to expect peak Vazzy. But he did struggle. And then it seemed the last month he found it. And that's why everyone's like, holy shit. Not only does Tampa have the pedigree, but they got their star goalie who many people for a long time. This guy's the greatest goalie in the world.

And he's rounding into form. That's what they say about soccer players he's in form right now i always like that he's getting into form and i was like fuck florida got a little bit of a lead but now he's kicking they tie it up one one all of a sudden it's back and forth what i noticed though the depth of the panthers which is all we discussed last year. First off, it was discussing how much Bobrovsky was just stealing games, putting on a show once he came into the Boston series. Then we talked about the bullies, the bullies of the Florida Panthers in Sunrise, the worst location for an arena I've ever seen.

But they beat the shit out of everyone, and then we talked about their depth. And today, I'm watching that fourth line of the Lamborghini with Ratbag Cousins, and what is it? Is it Stenland? He's a monster. Is that his name? Stenland? He's fucking huge.

Buddy, they had two or three shifts where they had the puck in the offensive zone cycling Oh yeah, Cousins can cook. They were cooking, and they had it 45 seconds. Enough where they got a change and like a new line came on when it wasn't even the second period where the offensive zone was close to their bench. So if you're going to be able to throw that fourth line,

forget the superstars. Forget the Reinhardt with the beautiful tip on the first goal. Forget Barkov with his wizardry with the puck and how he sets guys up. Forget Kachuk, just the all-around beast he is. It's just to have a fourth line that good, that's how Vegas got it done. And Florida was all injured and all banged up. So I guess if you're looking forward to a possible Canes-Panthers Eastern Conference Finals rematch, maybe that was one of the reasons

they dummied them. It's because they're able to be that team that can play in the offensive zone and cycle you to death oh yeah that's what carolina doesn't want so tampa i this this series i think it's going seven i said six you said six for i said six for florida florida's just too strong right now another thing too early signs that the power play is not going to slow down was that the best power play in the nhl all season long? I mean, you said Carolina was second, right? It had to have been fucking. What's this? Sam Reinhardt might have had 50 power play goals of his own, but it's clicking on us right here.

Tampa was first, 28.6. Oh, Tampa was first. I meant to say, I said Florida, right? I know, but I'm just, Tampa was first. What was Florida's? Florida was eighth. Oh, okay. I thought it would have been better than that, but nonetheless, it was very

impressive most of the season with Reinhardt, but they get two in the first game. The biggest question mark for me, and like I said, I got Florida in sixth, was going to be their discipline coming in. Because you went back a couple years ago, every whistle was a doggy pile and they want to be known as this tough team team and and scrums after every whistle I feel like maybe refs

would have been a little bit of fed up of that coming in where if it was happening too much they just start taking guys and then all of a sudden Florida's playing idiot hockey not the case very disciplined obviously they had to be because of Tampa's power play coming in you just said it was first overall in the league so a great job in neutralizing that staying disciplined. And like you said, it's nothing against coop or cooch or what they were able to accomplish this year in Tampa Bay. It's just more so of how Florida is built.

It just, you know what? If Sergeyev, if I don't know who's got the healing powers, he's already skating with an, I don't know how that's possible. Yeah, Wolverine style. If he were himself and were able to be inserted in the lineup,

then we'll talk about it going the distance to seven games and Tampa having a chance. But as it sits, not a fucking chance. Six games for the Panthers. And I know we missed saying the amount of games, the other two series. I had Toronto in seven. And then before that, I had Carolina originally in six

with the Islanders. If I could change it now, I'd say five. I don't remember my games. I picked Toronto and I actually made a video. I made about a five-minute video because our preview, our picks were going on game notes just because it was Friday the day before. And I had the Bruins and then the video was too long and grainy so i had to make

another one and i switch it to the leafs i don't know what the hell i was thinking i just saw boston play kind of uninspired it's kind of uh that that sounds like more of a chirp but just not great hockey inconsistent hockey the last like month and i guess watching the final two games where maybe they were throwing it they looked so bad I was like I think it's the Leafs here I wish I could change that one but I was on the Leafs then I was on the Canes um who did I pick in Tampa Florida I think I picked the Panthers if you could look that up quick but uh biz how about this stat in 450 minutes playing together five on five Forsling and Barkov were on the ice together. Four hundred fifty five and five minutes.

They were on the ice for nine goals against. We had Tampa in seven, by the way. I Tampa. Oh, I don't love. I don't love my picks, boys. I don't necessarily love what I redo. I was I was on the way to play golf. So excited.

And I guess I kind of rushed through those. So I apologize, everyone. But you know what? If I picked against if I picked for your team, play golf, so excited. And I guess I kind of rushed through those, so I apologize, everyone. But you know what? If I picked for your team, you're screwed either way. So Panthers fans are happy. But I gave it to Sid because he's my boy for the Selkie, but Barkov needs to be probably nominated for the Selkie or maybe even win it.

You said that 450 minutes this season, five on five together between him and Forsling. How many goals have they allowed? Nine. That's crazy. This isn't them playing against their lines either. They're playing against the world's best. Every night. Nine goals against.

Holy fuck. Hey, a couple clicks for Barkov and Forsling. Come on here. Yeah, a couple clicks. So, Florida is able. Come on here. Yeah, a couple clicks. So Florida's able to just come at you in waves. They're able to have a D. And Ekblad's back. I don't know.

Did he play before the regular season ended? I don't know if you guys could look that up. But he was injured. I know he had missed the beginning of the year with Montour. I think he got banged up again. But he looked good. Montour is such a great puck mover and skater. Forsling is a freak

the way he moves around. He floats out on the ice. They just have all the makings of a Stanley Cup winning team. So, go ahead, Jim. Wait, Ekblad's last game before the playoff game was April 2nd. So he hadn't played before the regular season ended. Okay, so that's hard. You're hopping back into that.

Now, Tampa's going to have a lot to say. Kucherov's MVP season, how dominant he was. Pasha said it on the group chat. His seam passes on the power play, like, everyone knows he's doing it. And I think he's able to do it not only because of his incredible skill and his high-level vision,

but he has such a rocket one-timer that you have to be that scared and ready for that that it just gives him the ability like if you're not a shooter if you don't have a weapon of a shot they're always going to be looking for the dish but he's able to wind up and then he just comes down and right to the last minute like is he shooting or passing and he can do either so he found point and Bobrovsky robbed him a couple times so yeah if Bob's going to play like this again and they're going to get that depth from that fourth line, grinding out teams for minutes at a time during their shifts down low,

Florida probably will end this thing in six games. But I think Kucherov is so dominant that he's going to be able to win a couple games. Then you never know if Vasilevsky steals a few, and we get this thing to seven. And seven, as we all know, guys, is a coin flip. Absolutely. I don't know if they're going to hold that 19 shots every game either with that's pretty good they suffocate you

but you're right they'll pop off next game by the way we're going to let you know our game recaps are presented by ESPN that was how this came all about ESPN came on for an ad deal with us. Can use a little highlights now on the mix. So it's going to be awesome.

So tune in on the YouTube. You'll be able to see all that. Awesome. Good stuff. Next game, Rangers Capitals scoreless after one. Looked like it might have been a tight one. Then Rangers ran away with the second 3-1. They outscored them that period.

Jimmy Veazey, man. First out of the game. Jimmy Veazey? You mean the fucking Rampire State building getting his first playoff goal? Well, Veazey gave him the tap in. Did you see that dish? Veazey gave him the tap in on a beautiful dish. Rampy, Rampy, Rampy, Rampy.

In the most electrifying building in the world, Madison Square Gardens. This guy, he is him. That's what the kids say. He is him. I think that's used about McDavid and Kucherov and McKinnon. he is him that's what the kids say he is him i think that's used about like mcdavid and kucherov and mckinnon is him fair enough fair enough if he is him that rempy then fuck man there's a lot of kids out there that think i can be him i can be he is him um all right so first call great little cycle down low um Tic-tac-toe, baby. Goudreau throws it to Vesey. Beautiful little dish over to Rampire.

State building. He smacks it in. Right next shift or whatever, 45 seconds later, a minute later, what did you guys think of the hit? I thought it was a hell of a forecheck and a great body check by LaFayette. Soft, no penalty, right ball. Yeah, dude. Capitals fans are coming.

They got nothing, buddy. Yeah, dude. Capitals fans are coming. They got nothing. Very mean things. You're talking about my forehead and my ears and my bad hairline. Like, all I did was say it was a good four-check and hit. Fucking A. The internet's so mean. Oh, that's good. So, the tough thing is, right, the Capitals going into this game,

they don't have Jensen and they don't have Rasmus Sandin. So you got Dylan McIlrath, who was a very high pick from the Rangers, who I didn't even know was in the NHL anymore. He's playing. And then Vincent Iorio, who gets just truck stick. And I felt bad for him. You could tell his shoulder was banged up, maybe a separated shoulder, hopefully nothing too serious, but he couldn't come back to the game. But dude, Lafreniere hits him shoulder but he couldn't come back to the game. But dude, Lafreniere hits him shoulder to shoulder and he just goes into the boards very awkwardly and Trocek slides it over to

Panarin and Artemi Panarin will be screwed out of a top three finals for the Hart Trophy this year, but easily could be there. He could easily be in that mix, but he won't be. He didn't score a goal in the playoffs. Get Ranger's cock out of your mouth, buddy. Holy fuck.

I've been saying to you, since you picked him to miss the playoffs like a dumb motherfucker with your big nose, I'm going to go Capitals fans mean to you. I've been saying this team is for real. It's not for gazey. It's for real. And Parnarin last year had two assists in seven games against the Devils. He did nothing.

And to get that monkey off your back after this crazy regular season, that is a huge relief. R.A.'s talking about McClain and he's talking about Beecher. Yeah, first game, first goal playoff. Well, dude, Parnarin has pressure. He can't have that regular season and no show again. I got one. It's 2-0.

I don't have to think about not scoring in the playoffs anymore. I am now. He is him, you fucking idiot. And I'll tell you, I'll tell you, Zibanejad, if he gets going, you are going to regret the day that you said this team was a bunch of Fugazis because they have all the makings. Trouba's fucking hard to play against down low they got keontre miller joining the rush they're playing the fucking hershey bears buddy pump the

fucking brakes they're playing the hershey bears and if it wasn't for lingering shooting fucking roman candles and lightning bolts out of his ass all season long they'd be fucking picking a lottery pick so pump the fucking brakes. Who got the engine running? It was Arempe, the Rampire State Building. Panarin was fucking in no man's land before Arempe got them going in that second period. So he is him, Mr. Fucking Wi-Fi. He's gone again already. Hey, he faked the Wi-Fi because I just bent him over in his own argument.

Bye-bye, Woody boy. Just like you in playoffs, bitch. You're a Maple Leaf disappearing act. Like Nylander. Fucking tat. I mean, Shesterkin did his job, did it well. Lindgren, I thought that second goal was a tough one, man. You've got to make a save in that spot.

I mean, the first one, not much you can do about the second one. I thought that was a bit of a back breakup. Yeah, no, I have a much better. Well, I think you texted the chat. You're like, ah, maybe bring in the backup. Maybe bring in Kemper. I think he's I think he's earned. Yeah, that was here.

Hopefully you're not the coach. All right. That was it. You're going to lose the guy in the locker room who got you there. But thankfully, Carberry, even though he's got a bald head like you, didn't make the same decisions with that noggin. And he kept him in for that. But if you throw Kemper in there and embarrass him,

it just throws everything all out of whack. He's earned the right to play through that. And I didn't think it was that bad. And the game isn't that out of touch at that point. It's only 2-0. But they don't have a chicken dick's chance in hell in winning that series, so it doesn't matter anyway. I would be shocked, like

legitimately shocked if this goes beyond five. Like, chop my dick off Lorena Bobbitt style guarantee almost. Maybe not, though, because I'm all for one on dick bets. I think you bullied a wit too much. I think you chased

them away. I did. I was the big bad boo-ins in this one. So, gee, what do you say? We haven't announced that guest yet. Seth Jarvis, Carolina Hurricanes young stud. Absolutely one of the funniest characters in the league right now. Tons of laughs. You're going to enjoy this whether you're a Carolina fan or not, so we're going to send it over to Seth Jarvis

right now. Alright, before we go any further, here's a few words from our friends at DraftKings. The chase for the Stanley Cup is on, and if you're looking to light the lamp, nothing beats the action at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NHL. From the start of playoff bids all the way till the hoisting of the cup, DraftKings Sportsbook has you covered with same game parlays, live betting, odds boost, and so much more. I've been all over the DraftKings since they got legal here in Massachusetts. Unbelievable.

I have over 10 and a half overtimes in the first round. I got three hat tricks in one series. 50 to 1. All kinds of great stuff out there. Jump on it. There's so many options you just could not get back in the old school days. DraftKings, you want to download it right now. Use the code CHICKLETS.

New customers bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets instantly. That's code CHICKLETS, only on DraftKings. Brown is yours. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Or in West Virginia, visit 1-800-GAMBLER.net. In New York, call 877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY 467-369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling.

Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort in Kansas. 21 and over. Age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. See DKNG.co slash ICE for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms, and responsible gaming resources.

NHL and the NHL Shield are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. Copyright NHL 2024. All rights reserved. All right, it's time to bring on our next guest, one of the league's funny young characters we've seen lately. The 21-year-old son was taken 13th overall by Carolina at the 2020 NHL Draft. He's currently in his third year already,

where he's already set career highs in goals, assists, and points. It's great to finally welcome to the Spittin' Chickens podcast, Seth Jarvis. How goes it, my man? Doing great, man. I'm just pumped to be on here with you guys. You a longtime listener or what? Oh, I've been following this since in junior and all the –

the sandbaggers are my favorite. That's what I like most, but these are all – How about what we did to Willie in our sandbagger with him? I know. We bug him about it all the time. We're joking pots, him and Colesie. Well, hey, you should have introduced him as 30-goal scorer, Seth Jarvis. Congratulations on hitting that mark, man.

That's a huge accomplishment. Thank you very much. Yeah, it is fun. You did it against R.A.'s Bs. Now, I think that if you put a list together of the most improved players in the National Hockey League for this season, your name would be at the top of that list. And I think that everything that's been talked about about it

was your off-season and how much work you put in this off-season into your training to come back in order to make this big leap. So what was that like? Was that a conversation at the end of last season with Rod the bot and how you were going to take that next level? Or was that just something within you said, I need to do this? It was something within me. I think my second year, you kind of hear that sophomore slump.

I felt like I went through the sophomore slump the whole year. It was a tough one for me, just kind of grinding through that. So I left kind of with a tough, tough taste in my mouth. So the whole summer, I had that kind of motivation of I just want to go back and really shut a lot of people up. I want to prove myself right, and that's kind of what kind of motivated me through it. Seth, it's kind of similar between your second and third season at the Portland of WHL. You went from 39 points to 98 points in three fewer games. Was there any similarities between that and the

Carolina experience? Yeah. I think in junior, it's a little bit like I was 16 when I put up 39. I was playing like 10 minutes a night. You're not playing a whole lot in my the next year I got more of a chance and I think the same same kind of situation I mean last year I still had a lot of opportunity I think this year I'm just taking uh taking more ownership on it and capitalize a little bit more you mentioned like the the jump that year and then that was your draft year and unfortunately right it was COVID so it was all over the internet and zoom and all that shit that must have bummed you out but what are your memories because i've been told your internet wasn't exactly phenomenal in winnipeg during the draft yeah i was fighting a lot of

stuff i uh i was probably sorry that's for me that i didn't have to go to a combine and show any of my but uh yeah doing the interviews over zoom was interesting like you said my wi-fi was awful so i had a lot of calls that were kind of cutting in and out i had to ask for people to repeat questions all the time which i'm sure got annoying but i tried my best and i mean when you uh when that's kind of all you can do it's it's tough to tough to sit on a laptop and talk to people all day but it's uh it's I made the best of the situation. Seth, how well were you as a kid when you sort of separated yourself from the pack? Obviously, your first round pick, you had some skill.

Probably, I think maybe when I was like 15, I kind of felt like I was starting to figure it out. I think up until then, all my buddies growing up, we were all kind of neck and neck. And then you stay in Winnipeg, there's only so many people to play against. Then when you kind of venture out and play tournaments tournaments you can see how many unbelievable players there are so it's tough to tough to gauge but when you kind of i think at 15 i started playing a little more out out of tournaments playing playing other places and seeing where i stacked up against uh against other competition quickly about the minor hockey i reached out on twitter said hey any of you canes fans if you have any questions shoot them my way for seth jarvis and that was one of them everybody always talks about like the gthl or maybe what's going on in bc what's the minor hockey situation like in manitoba

and you know is there a lot of good competition coming up there and coaching and i guess just for those who are unaware what's it like growing up there playing minor it's pretty cutthroat i mean it's like it's not like you see the Toronto and the Vancouver with all these skill guys. We got a little more grit and grind. We got a little kind of dirty hockey in Winnipeg, but I mean, that's why a lot of the guys that come out of there are usually pretty tough or got a little bit of grit in their game.

I think it's just how everyone grew up playing. Probably a good thing for you experiencing that, like maybe being a little bit undersized, their game. I think it's just how everyone grew up playing. Probably a good thing for you experiencing that, like maybe being a little bit undersized, like dealing with that type of punishment that you're going to see as you continue to go on, obviously, through the WHL and higher leagues. Oh, my God. I was getting beaten to death from the ages of like 8 to 12, 13. I was just getting dummied every night.

There would be a few guys on each team that were like hitting puberty before everybody else. Just full grown beards attacking you. Hey, any names you want to call out here on the spit and chicklets podcast from those fuck heads in Manitoba who were chasing you around? No, we're going to keep them. We're going to keep them out of this. They know who they are and fuck them.

You're, you're, you're so so young that you're kind of of this generation where it's changed a little bit into a year-round sport. Where Biz and I grew up and it was season ends in March or April, skates away until September. For you at 12 or even younger, like 10, were you already doing the summer tournaments and the skating all week? And kind of how you have to be now, unfortunately, in my mind, was that how you approach it where there was never really an off season growing up? Not at all. No, that's awesome. We would play like you'd have like a summer team and you'd play maybe like two or three tournaments, but you would practice once or twice a week. And then I was playing football all summer. I played a ton of football, but it's awesome. So my parents wanted me to play other sports other than hockey.

And I thank them for it because I think it made me a better athlete. And then just got my mind off of hockey. I was able to kind of decompress a little bit. That's what it is. You become athletic in other ways. And then it translates to hockey in the long run. But playing those other sports, you're running around, you're dodging hits, and you're just doing different things, right?

Yeah. I know a ton of guys play baseball. Baseball is really popular. Football, soccer, all those things. I don't love the hockey all year round, but like you said, it's kind of becoming one of those things you kind of have to do. It's become a lot more prominent. Do you think there's a possibility you would have played

for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers if your NHL career wouldn't have worked out? Because they're on a fucking heater right now, aren't they? Don't even get me started on my Blue Bombers. I love them to death. I don't know. I had to stop. I got to the point where I was a quarterback. I couldn't see over my line anymore.

That's a problem. I was struggling. But in my mind, when I was like 12 and 13, I was like, oh, I'm going to play in the CFL 1,000%. But thankfully. It wasn't even an NFL dream. It was just CFL. No, I want to be a Blue Bomber legend. That was kind of my mindset.

But my dad quickly made me realize. He coached his high school football team. He showed me some of the guys. And I was like, no, this isn't for me. So some of the info we have gotten is that you are like die hard winnipeg you think it's the best city in the world so do the guys give you a pretty hard time about that oh whenever we land it's awful my first year i think we landed and it was like minus 42 with the wind chill and i'm 19 and i'm like still pretty new on the team so i'm not saying a whole

lot and i'm just like getting off the plane getting screamed at by everybody telling me how big of a shithole this place is and stuff we're landing in the middle of january so like they're not it's not doing me any favors but i get uh i get way too much heat for it were you kind of a guy that you got picked on your first couple years i heard that uh you know maybe you're hockey smart but maybe it doesn't exactly translate to life smart skills i believe the word step on who cares when you're this good doesn't even matter buddy he goes oh no i go is he a smart kid he goes no he's an absolute dumb dumb but hockey sense wise through the charts yeah i mean i'm working on it i think uh i still get chirped to no end now but it's it's it's fun i bring it on myself like yeah like steppard i'm sure i think marty said he was talking to you guys they they those two guys gave it to me endlessly my first couple years i bet now what's uh uh what's

the backstory on you loving duke and then why were you wearing that harvard shirt after the boston game after your 30th goal was that would that have to do with a bet you lost no so the duke thing uh my mom played college basketball so we watched basketball like all growing up the marsh madness was huge and like when you're like nine and ten you love whatever team's winning and in my case duke was always pretty good and winning so i I just kind of stuck with them. And then just so happened, I ended up getting drafted here. And I didn't realize Duke was so hated down here. So I got a little bit of heat for it. And then the Harvard thing.

So Jack Drury on our team went to Harvard. And he's, again, very, very smart, very smart dude. I'm on the lower end of it. So it was kind of like this running joke that I went to Harvard and I was reading the local media and they kind of ate it up. And so Jack actually graduated this summer and they got him like a Harvard alumni shirt and he gifted it to me as a gift.

I cut off and wear it on my equipment every game now. That's legendary. And it's got the cutoff sleeves, which kind of goes into my next question. I talked to Justin Williams about this guy, Biz, and he said I had to ask him about him being the favorite for the Jersey Guy Award this year with the Hurricanes. So I think you need to explain to everyone, Seth, what is the Jersey Guy Award given for,

and how do you feel about being the favorite? That's at least what Willie said to ask. The favorite's a stretch. I don't know if I i got actually on a two-year repeat right now so he's going for it who is pesci on our team oh pesci pesci yeah it's our trainers from new jersey our trainers a nut job bill berniston so he's a diehard new jersey guy like he's just through and through and so he has this award that he hands out that he like picks like five or six guys and whatever he thinks is at the most New Jersey, like, like people or whatever.

He gives an award to call the Jersey guy. And like, it's like a cutoff. And then like that easy car, easy curl bar that you like put under your arms and just do this. Oh yeah. And so that's the award you get, but it's pretty prestigious.

And I think the award ceremony is coming up here in a couple weeks so biz this is what willie said you're from jersey biz willie said jersey guy award is given out by our strength trainer every year in an awesome video presentation reasons to win it include playing hurt playing hard potentially cutting sleeves off shirts fist pumping at the bar etc and cetera. And right now Seth's the favorite. Well, right. Okay.

So going back to fist pumping at the bar, you're single, right? Yeah. And you guys have an unreal, unreal singles crew there in Carolina. Who is your singles crew? Who do you guys go out with?

Give me the, give me the names. Our singles guys are me and Svetchy. So that's all you need. That's all you need. That's all you need, buddy. That was like me and Taylor Pyatt. That was like when I was hanging out with getting all the residuals from Paisley. Exactly.

I'm just sitting back door right now on Svecci's. Have you been at Burnsy's Zoo at all? Does he still have the zoo in his house? Well, he's still got to talk about the singles crew. We can't just go past him. It's just him and Spechie. No, there's got to be a couple other guys, no? Jack Drury is single.

He comes out decent now, but then other than that, everyone's kind of got their girl. Okay, but does he have square wheels? Because usually those Ivy Leaguers have square wheels. No, he's smarter than everybody so he's got these mind games he can play he can lie on the spot me and him what a great quality i'm gonna put that in my raya profile a great liar well you just want it all figured out that's unreal sorry all right go ahead oh that's right now i was asking about bernzi does he still have

a wild collection of animals i know he's got the place out in Texas still. Yeah, he's got his ranch out in Texas. I'm supposed to go there this summer, so we'll see if that happens. But he's got nothing here. He's got two big dogs, but that's about it. Do you ever drink any of his coffee that he brings around in that bag? Are you a big coffee guy? God, no.

I've seen some guys drink it, and it's like five minutes, you're shitting your brains out. Really? I don't know what he puts in that, but it's like it just immediately hits your system and just sends guys haywire. Okay. It's like the NHL's Russian gas pit. Exactly.

Burns his coffee. You ever get a peek inside that bag of his, the mystery bag? I could fit in that mystery bag. I don't even – I can even – the coffee machine he's got like uh ultrasound thing he sleeps with that he wears all night like he came to the rink i think yesterday he had like burns on his legs because he had the ultrasound on too long at night and it burnt like little scars in his legs like just like stupid stuff like that he's got he's been playing 20 years he's still doing this shit i know well that's why he's been playing so long yeah true um i was uh i was watching a post-game interview with

rod the bot and they asked him like what's been your favorite part about this season and he kind of answers it the same every year it's just a group of guys and you're kind of just going through guys as we talk here and just how much like how much how much camaraderie there is in that locker room and how you guys keep adding unreal guys. What's it like going to the rink every day with this group and how much you guys have kind of became a family? It's so much fun. Every day, it's like you guys understood.

You go in with your best friends every day to the rink. You just go in there. You show up. Everyone's going after everybody. Everyone's yelling. It's so much fun. Just the energy there is every morning like even if like we had a tough stretch there uh earlier in the year we were losing a bunch and like still like you're you're losing but you come to the rink every day everyone's smiling everyone's happy everyone knows that you're going to get out

of it and i think that's just what's special about our group is there isn't like a sense of panic there's never a sense of like oh we need to win like we know what we have and we know that when we play good everyone's relaxed everyone's calm everyone's having fun we got to interview uh ajo at the all-star game such a nice kid and it's soft-spoken but i imagine if he is saying something in the room it's just like everyone's just eyes on ears listening because it can't be that often where he's speaking up to the team right yeah he doesn't snap does he he snaps on it like himself he'll snap on me sometimes but he yeah he he's like he's getting a lot better i think in the two years i've been here or whatever he's gotten a lot better speaking out and be more comfortable doing it and like you said whenever he talks everyone listens

he's he's kind of our guy he's the best player on the team. He's our leader. He's someone that when he's yelling, when he's really upset, you know something's going wrong. It's fun to have a guy like that. He's so competitive that anything you can do can kind of tick him off. He has some outbursts sometimes. How popular are you guys when you heard Don Gensel was coming to the team? Unreal.

Him and Koozie have been unbelievable additions to the team it's been it's been sweet just not only like the players obviously you guys can tell how good they are but the guys and like the way they came to our locker room immediately gelled like you had no no issues no kind of feeling out time it felt like they've been there the whole year just the way they kind of came in here koozie's loud koozie's yelling and then gents is a little bit bit quieter, but they're both awesome. Oh, a couple huge pickups. Now, I forget who we talked to last year. Or no, it was Ajo.

We were asking him who's had the hardest time adjusting to the man-on-man, and sure enough, it was Bunting, and he ain't even there anymore. So, I don't know. It must have been a really tough adjustment. But how hard was it for you coming in? Because we actually posted a clip the other game where there was a mistake made. It was in the D zone.

You just so happened to get close to pasta where this man on man, does it get confusing sometimes? Or do you guys have it so down pat that you got, it's like in the back of your mind, it's easy peasy. Well, how dumb did I look in that clip? I left 47 goals,

score, have a breakaway on net. Like I just look like, I want to sprinted out of the zone too if i had to check up with him i thought rod is gonna punch me but um it's tough i mean like there's obviously everyone's kind of switching to that more quadrant now that vegas one with boston's boston does really well but i think the man-on-man for the most part is easy enough when you can kind of tag on but i think when there's switches happening the d like to jump a lot now so when they dive down fours

aren't the smartest people in the world so we get a little confused and it can kind of mess everything up but like in that clip that's that's a forward not making the right read when you do the man on man are you guys able to at least yell off switch to each other or not even with that? Is he like, no, don't even do that. Yeah, we. OK, there's a lot of people yelling help all the time. Someone come and someone come and help this guy out. So I was screaming help.

I think one of my students get over the blue. Help, help, help, help, help. I got pasta. I got pasta. Get over – Get over the blue. Help, help, help, help, help, help. I got pasta. I got pasta. Get over here, Burnsy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. One of the best clips of a locker room interview this season was you when your name was brought up for the All-Star game,

and you're like, no, I'm going to Mexico. And I'm guessing you were 100% serious, like, dude, I got my tickets. I do not want to go to the All-Star game, right? Yeah, a little bit. I mean, it would have been cool, but, want to like earn it i want to i want to yeah vote it in like like how fishy got in like stuff like that i feel like the fans vote and i didn't want to get my hopes up i didn't want to get all pumped up like oh my god i might go and then get crushed because it's in toronto you know they're going to send a few more canadian teams so i was already kind of

prepared for it but uh no there was a was 100% a lot of truth to that, that I wanted to go somewhere warm. I was ready to drink beer and lay on the beach. Okay, because someone said somewhere that maybe you don't drink, but that's obviously not true. That's also a little running joke we got going on. Yeah, I have fun. I pick my spots.

I know when to have fun. I've learned when not to. Oh, so you get so buckled that the inside joke is that, oh, no, no, he doesn't even drink. No, but me and Marty have some fun together. So it's... Martinuk? Yeah, Marty.

Well, actually, we had him on a couple years ago. Remember, he was put on fucking waivers by them, by you guys. Beginning of the last season. That was crazy for how good he's been since then like rod's gonna be looking at like thank god nobody picked him up so the craziest thing is we were having a beginning of the year like team party with all the wives and everybody and everyone's downtown and me uh cockney i mean special cover like going down there we're a little bit late. And he calls us. So we also saw he goes on where he calls us and goes, boys, I just got picked up. I'm leaving right now.

And so we start shitting ourselves. Like, oh, my God. Like, we feel so bad. Like, he's leaving. We're not going to get to see him. We're not going to say goodbye. Like, he just got picked up. And we show up.

He's hiding in the bar. He pops out. He's fucking fucking with all of us. We all shit ourselves. It's hiding in the bar. He pops out. He's fucking with all of us. We all shoot ourselves. Oh, my God. He's stupid shit like that. He loves to get on us. He's another spark plug in that locker room that you guys got.

What was he talking about you in that clip, the Duke one, where you were swearing back at him? About the NC State stuff. Yeah. He was giving it to everybody about NC State. He was wearing this NC State football jersey all day, just making sure everyone knew it was his Wolfpack one. You obviously got a great personality.

Have you ever had any coaches or veterans either in the NHL or previous leagues tell you to kind of tone it down a little or did they just let you fly? Not really. I think Rod last year a little bit just reminded me I have to be a professional sometimes. He knows it's kind of who I am, little bit just reminded me i have to be a professional sometimes and he he knows like it's kind of who i am and and it's what makes uh i think i think being myself is what makes me play

so well and being comfortable so he understood not to not take that away but he just wanted me to make sure i know that this is a job and uh to focus on a little bit but no everyone's been so great with me i think i i came in quiet and was able to kind of open up a little bit more and now we're here when you came in um obviously you had played a few few games in the ahl that last year junior when the season ended but were your expectations within yourself i'm gonna make this team or was it kind of like i don't know what's gonna happen like how did that first camp go where you ended up making the team and playing that entire rookie year and kind of lighting it up for for an 18 year 19 year old yeah i had no idea what was going on everyone

kind of told me that this team was set there wasn't really any spots for me so i kind of just went into camp trying to make make a good impression i i wanted to leave if i was going to get cut i wanted them to have to pull me out and not not make it easy for them and i just made sure every day that i i showed up and i know how much rod loves hard work so that was kind of the number one thing on my mind was i might not be as skilled as everybody else out here but i'm gonna work twice as hard and just see where that gets me who do you think uh you have the most to thank or the most thanks for in terms of who you are as a player like was it a coach growing up? Was it your father, a sibling?

Who was your biggest maybe role model within the game? God, I could list probably a hundred. That's probably why you're so good, dude. You're lucky you got that many people. Yeah, I think all through different stages. My dad, when I was really young, he knew nothing about hockey, so he was on YouTube showing me how to shoot and stuff like that. No shit.

He would sit in the backyard and pull up how to take a wrist shot and then just show me and we tried to learn together little stuff like that like he spent a ton of time with me and then getting older like getting a junior i had mike johnson who uh who was in pittsburgh i don't know if you had him when he's no he was after me but yeah guys he pulled he coached portland too didn't he yeah so that's where that's where he was with them and and he was great for me. I had him and Don Hay, who were two kind of polar opposite coaches, but was an unbelievable experience for me. And then right when I got to the NHL, Derek Stephon, like you guys mentioned, him, Martinuk has been unbelievable for me, Paul Stastny, another guy.

Just guys like that, older guys. I came in, I wasn't saying any words. I was just kind of sitting off to the sideline in my my own business and they pulled me in and really took like stepper especially took me under my wing took me under his wing and just like everything i need anything i needed he was there for me on the ice off the ice he was just someone that uh i owe a lot to uh you said don hey he's the pretty intense coach who used to coach in vancouver for the giants as well yeah yeah i heard he's like a drill sergeant it well yeah so like we i got him near the end where he couldn't do some of the crazy stuff but i've heard of him breaking players wrists with his stick oh that's

not good can't do that frowned upon can't quite do that anymore he would just shoot like we would do every practice we would do a blocking shot drill and he would just wire pucks at us and like we're 16 blocking shots like you miss one he's screaming at you so it was it was fun just letting out his frustration so i also read that your father and you talk i don't know if you mentioned earlier when you said you you like playing football growing up your father played at the university of north dakota yeah yeah he he had a quick little stint there and and so uh and but it was actually your brother who got you into hockey not your father Your father played at the University of North Dakota? Yeah, yeah. He had a quick little stint there. But it was actually your brother who got you into hockey, not your father. Yeah, my brother, my older brother, Caden, he played hockey before me,

so he kind of went through everything first. And, yeah, it led me the whole way. He was my skills trainer in the summer, so we spent a lot of time together. He's out in Vancouver with the Giants right now. He's's their skills coach so he's working his way up the ranks but he he like he's another guy that i forgot to mention that i owe so much to just someone that not only a role model in my life that i i always want to be him like no matter what until i was probably 17 i wanted to be my older brother and then just the way he's able to be with me in the summer now, he's the only one that knows how to push my buttons and really get me going.

If he knows I'm having a slow day, he's on me pretty good. So it's exactly what I need, especially during the summer. So at what age did he get you going? I mean, you might have already mentioned it earlier, but at what age did he get you into hockey? Like I was probably four. He would have been 10. And so I just wanted to play with him.

Like I just wanted to be on the ice with him, hang out with him. So I was four years old. Him and his buddies were 10. We lived right beside an outdoor rink. So I'd be out there all the time with them. They would be giving me hell. That's probably where the toughness started was I was getting hit from behind by my brother and his buddies for fucking 12 years.

But I just wanted to hang out with him. And that was, he's kind of what led me into everything. That's awesome hearing that. And with him being your skills coach in the summer, he's obviously watching all the Canes games. Is he kind of texting you after games about certain plays, certain maybe moves you did, or is it not really like that? Like we've talked to guys who use Adam Oates

and they're going over clips and stuff like that. Is he doing that with you or maybe just in the summertime? He does a good job. He kind of waits for me to reach out. He knows that like earlier in the season, I reached out a little bit just because I wasn't feeling great and wondering what was going on. And that's when he helped me out.

But he does a good job at not like he's not bombarding me with anything. He's not sending me clips or advice he knows uh how i kind of deal with myself and he knows that if he thinks i played bad i think i played way worse so he does a good job at just kind of staying off to the side unless i reach out for help so so i'm pretty intrigued so like as far as these skills you're talking about like obviously now with with the way the nhl is a lot of guys have to work on these things in the off season you see like all the pylons set up they're doing shit that we never used to used to do uh we had alex tuck on where he used to he worked with a like a power skater where he basically reconfigured his stride where he could skate faster with the puck what is it exactly that

you're doing in the offseason like skill specific like what type of drills are you doing that has advanced you i think the most stuff i've been doing is like just more focused on little details of stuff i figured out i do a lot in games like i do a ton of stuff with rims and picking up rims the offensive zone defensive zone that's a good one actually it's harder than people think oh like if like no one understand like if you're a winger and you're catching a hot rim and a d's pinching down on you being able to make any kind of play like you're going to get yourself 10 more second assists because you're bumping out to a two-on-one and stuff like that so just little details like that and just being able to extend the play in the ozone when you can pick up a rim on the wall and i keep moving and make plays out of it i i say this all the time one of

the most fascinating things about kucherov is when it gets rimmed around, he like, it touches his blade. And next thing you know, it's on his forehand and he's making a play within a split second, even on his backhand for him. So that, like you just said, is just like, that's kind of what Adam Oates was talking about. Like even for defensemen, like just constantly doing retrievals and getting used to that.

Because in a game, how many times is a puck being dumped in your corner? So interesting to know. Aside from that that any anything else anything out of the ordinary uh the biggest thing in the last couple years i've worked on is doing everything on my backhand is being like you see guys like patrick kane who has an unbelievable backhand sydney crosby has an unbelievable backhand so being able to like skate up the ice and if i'm on my backhand make a cross ice pass and not have to move to my forehand just to make things a little bit quicker be able to move the puck a little bit faster and get into other guys hands that's weird coaches always told me to stay off my back they said you stay off the ice um you know you bring up it like maybe at the beginning of the year you weren't like thrilled

with how you were playing and you've kind of just taken off was was that more kind of like the whole team was a little down at the beginning of the year and everyone picked it up like what do you think you were not doing that that kind of finally switched up to get you on this role you're on now yeah i think the team as a whole uh we weren't great we we were winning games but we weren't winning how we kind of wanted to we were kind of just squeaking by especially against uh teams we thought maybe we should do a little bit better against but i mean it's the nhl so like everyone's everyone's good you're playing against a good team every night but it's just the way we were winning we kind of knew we were just getting by and not and not dominating like how we're kind of used to

so and for me personally it was just a matter of being able to be more effective on the ice i wasn't looking at my points necessarily. I was looking at kind of more just creating chances. I feel like when you're creating more chances, the points are going to come. But I felt like there's a lot of times where I'd end up in a game, I'd maybe have one shot, and, like, I really didn't do anything. And so stuff like that just kind of edged or weighed on me a little bit,

and that's where my brother kind of came in and helped me out. Freddie Anderson coming back, that was another huge shot at the arm for you guys as well. Oh, yeah. He's been unbelievable since. He's like, what, 8-0-1 or 8-1 right now? He's coming back. He's been just incredible. It's kind of crazy, actually.

Willie also wanted me to ask you about playing pickleball with Jeannie Bouchard. I don't know if this went bad for you. I don't know how this went. She's beautiful. She's beautiful. I actually got her number on my phone. Oh, Jesus.

No, no. We're friends. We're friends. We're friends. We're friends. I met her at, or no, maybe it's not the number. Maybe she followed me on Instagram. Maybe that's what it was.

You did that Sportsnet thing with her. Yeah, yeah. But we're buddies. But when did you play pickleball with her? The other day, actually. I had like her pickleball tour or something made a stop and rally so we uh a few of us went out there and played and yeah we got like a little pro-am celebrity thing and it was me and uh jesse something i forget her name i should probably know

that and then jeannie bouchard and uh cockney emmy played a little two-on-two i've played pickleball that was my second time ever and so i was just getting absolutely throttled by everyone out there. You were. I got one clip. I played like this. I was just whacking it like that. Got one point. I feel like I was at Wimbledon. I put my hands up and turned around.

I was in Wimbledon. I was in this tiny 400-seat park and rally, but it felt so cool for five seconds. Was it sold out were people there watching yeah it was actually pretty it was packed it was like a pretty good event but uh not not way more than i was expecting for pickleball do you have a celebrity crush like do you have a you have a girl that if you could ever get a date with you'd pick maybe like a who's the girl with the big jammers now the sweeney sydney s Sweeney. That's always a trick. Yeah, you can always go that route.

I mean, I don't know. There's a ton. I couldn't even. Yeah. No? You can't put me on the spot like that. I got to do some Instagram deep diving before I do it. One of the other guys was saying they were impressed

with your ability where you can take a nap and fall asleep anywhere at any time it's one of my specialties actually yeah well that's it you just like if you could just fall anywhere take a couple breaths boom close your close your eyes and you're out yeah but i can't sleep at night which is my biggest problem so it's kind of like a give and take so i'll sleep a lot during like i'll take a i'll probably after this probably take a nice two hour nap wake up eat dinner and then be up until three in the morning but i was gonna ask being a single during like i'll take a i'll probably after this probably take a nice two hour nap wake up eat dinner and then be up until three in the morning but i was gonna ask being a single guy like i remember when i was in the nhl i was out to dinner every night right at home or the road

are you going out to restaurants you get maybe a chef once in a while what's the meal situation at home yeah a lot of going out a lot of it's uh definitely not cost efficient but i mean i can't cook so i'm kind of like hosed that way there's a little bit so that saves me a couple bucks but like yeah i'm i'm pretty well known around this area in a lot of the restaurants lunch every day at the rink though you guys get the chef like every team does yeah but you get sick of the ring food sometimes you go to the restaurant again and it it just keeps adding up a little bit. Well, speaking of adding up, apparently you and Gensel are just all over each other. Like, who's going to take the hometown discount?

Who's going to take the hometown discount? Like, how are the contract discussions coming along? I don't know. He gives me a ton of shit for no reason. It's crazy. And he's the new guy. I know. And, like, he's acting like he's not going to be asking for like $11 million or whatever.

He ain't fucking getting into Carolina, those cheap fucks. You ain't getting shit either, buddy. You better slow down on that Uber Eats. It's like the Bergeron rule. No one's getting above Ajo. Yeah. You better start fucking learning how to cook. I'm going to send him to an office sheet to pay back for a cocky Emmy.

You're going to be eating ramen noodles with the contract you're getting with how cheap that team is. I'm going to go to a craft dinner and start stocking up for a cold winter. You're going to be signing a bridge deal for League men. Yeah, 30 goals, what? How do you kill your downtime, Seth? TV, movie guy, cards, whatever else? Sleep, man.

I have to sleep a lot. It's the worst of me. Golf a decent amount. We're getting nice weather now, so we can get out a little bit more. But, yeah, that's kind of it. I'm not doing a whole lot. Brady Shea's a problem on the golf course, I heard. Yeah, Brady.

Yeah, I hate him because he's, like, good at everything. He's good looking. That's what Hazy said. He goes, it drives me crazy. Stupid. No one should he's good at everything. He's good looking. That's what Hazy said. He goes, it drives me crazy. Stupid. No one should be that good at everything. One of the Carolina Hurricanes fans asked about the beef with Brent Burns' son. What's going on there?

Yeah, his son Jagger, he's an awesome kid. He's hilarious, and me and him, he's only he's what nine years younger than me so we're not crazy different and we have probably the same like mental age same height yeah so we go toe-to-toe a lot and like i'm over there a lot for dinner so i've been around him enough that uh me and him we've had some good battles and it's just fun to fun to mess with them or do you got a unique nickname in the locker room was it just javi like why at the end i got like 500 nicknames and i don't know how many you want me to say on here but it's uh right now brady shea calls me ton of fun that's a great one to have though yeah well it's because he thinks i'm fat so it's that's one of the behind it but that's the that's a great one to have though yeah well it's because he thinks i'm fat so it's that's one of

the behind it but that's the that's the one that's kind of sticking right now that i can't seem to escape who would you deem is the most underappreciated player on your team like who is who's the unsung hero of the carolina hurricane so far this year this year i mean shazzy again he's having another sneaky like he's got he's got to have maybe 15 goals already like he's he's doing great pesci's another one that's unbelievable on the back and i don't think it's talked about enough forward wise like we have so many guys that just do so many little things that make such a big difference like they might not put up a ton of points but like just like killing penalties blocking shots like you

hear it all the time the stuff that wins championships i feel like we have a bunch of guys that kind of just dig in and put their ego aside and and do those things for us is rod is rod somebody maybe calling out a guy at intermission by name like right in front of everyone or would that be more a one-on-one meeting after the game or intermission or something like that um for the most part is after there's not a not a ton of that there's been a few few times but that's only if you really messed up and uh but yeah for the most part he does he does a good job at kind of keeping it away from the team and addressing individually uh we heard after you get out of the hot tub there's some remnants of some green stuff in there what's that yeah they're blaming you for

staining the hot tub water well i got this cream on green stuff in there. What's that all about? Yeah, they're blaming you for staining the hot tub water. Well, I got this cream on my legs that I use for games, and it's tough to get off. I shower, and they, yeah, not anymore. That was more last year than anything. Now I'm cleaning up. I've gotten off. This is following you, bro.

I know. I can't get rid of it. I can't get away from it. I got to lean into it now, but it's, yeah. No, it's better now. I'm, I'm keeping it tight. What's, uh, what's the special cream that you used to use? Like I used to put the deep cold on my legs.

That's how everybody, the old stretch in a bottle as we used to call it, you know, a couple of Sudafeds, a couple of Advil and then Gil Deep Cold. Get it out. Yeah. A few Sudafeds. And then, uh, it's like, uh, I don't really know what it is, actually. I think it's supposed to slow down the lactic acid buildup in your legs. But don't quote me on that, because I don't know if that's allowed.

So maybe it's not. You for sure used this and then scored and then just kept using it. Yeah, someone handed it to me in a bottle. I was like, oh, nice. But it feels good. I mean, it leaves a little remnants in the hot tub but everyone's adults they can grow up i feel like this year the league is finally starting to maybe take notice and show the respect that neches deserves like he i i watch your guys games over time it's out of this world

but he's so good and and and it's finally starting to kind of, everyone's becoming aware of how nasty that guy is. I feel like you could tell me if I'm wrong but this is like a 40 goal guy in his future, like 80, 90 point guy I would think. Yeah, he nailed it on the head. I think he's probably the most skilled on our team, like individually skilled.

Like the stuff he does, everyone makes fun of him for it but I think he triangles people, like puts it under their stick and goes around them 15 times a game. And like sometimes it's unnecessary. Like there's no reason to do it, but he does it for fun. But it is so cool some of the stuff he can do out there. And like he does it so fast.

Like his skating's incredible, his hands, like everything, the way he operates has all the makings of, like you said, a 40 goal 90 80 90 point guy probably when he gets going the fastest player on your team right oh no most definitely yeah he winds it up he just starts it's crazy kind of like on the defensive side of the puck with slavin and how he's such a wet blanket i'm gonna suck going one-on-one on that guy in practice his ability to close on guys is stupid it's crazy he's like a sneaky sneaky fast skater like it's not it's not pretty like some guys are

pretty skaters he's not the prettiest skater but oh my god is he fast and it's just like he's like he's running out there and he just yeah like you said closes the gap he's got probably the best hand-eye coordination knockdown stick I've ever seen. If you try to flip anything by him, like Sauce, it's just knockdown makes it look so easy. Yeah, he does do that a lot. The Lidstrup.

The Lidstrup. Lidstrup did that to me at the Joe Lewis. Didn't see a shift after it. No, I'm dead serious. And Yans always used to practice it in practice after to try to get good at not only like a cross-site saucer pass, but if you were going one-on-one and you crossed the red line, if you could even get it on Lidstrom,

he would bat it down every time and boom, he'd be going back the other way. He was just, you talked about the hand-eye, just disgusting. It's demoralizing. It is. The clip last year went a little viral of of slaving pivoting and then staying with mcdavid that's when i think everyone started being like what the fuck like every other defenseman's

getting walked and i think even mcdavid was shocked like how is this guy still with me that's that's the first time i was like oh my god because you're right it doesn't look super fluid and it's not like my car but he's always right in your face and never getting beat. So I think he's finally getting his flowers, too, the past few seasons. I hope so, yeah. He deserves it. He's an unbelievable dude, too. So it's just, it makes all sense.

Seth, I know they don't do the storm surge every game, but have you let it, and how does that, like, get determined? Do they talk about it before the game, like, during, if, you know, the game's wrapped up? Like, take us through the whole storm surge aspect. Yeah, we haven't, since I've been here, we haven't really done any special ones. We like throw some stuff out, like into the crowd sometimes, but usually if it's focused on anyone, they'll determine it like right in the circle, right at that time.

Usually Marty does a pretty good job of picking somebody, but for the most part, it's been pretty calm. Like I think our last home game, we were shooting shirts and towels into the stands. But that was kind of it. There hasn't been any like the Holyfield or any bowling or basketball, anything like that. I read an article, too, when you were a kid. You had something called a mind map that your parents found, I guess, when you were moving. Or they were taking your clothes out of some wood.

Can you describe what that is? I've never heard of that before. He looks confused like it doesn't exist. What was that word? It was a whiteboard. It was described as a mind map that you said NHL circled. I never heard of that before. Yeah, I was probably like nine and probably watched some motivational video on YouTube or something.

I thought it was the coolest thing ever. So I made like a little board of, yeah, just basically goals. I guess you could say like a goal sheet or whatever and i think the only goal on there was make the nhl so i didn't know that's what's going on or the blue bombers qb yeah exactly one of the blue arm hope but yeah i'm pretty sure only make the nhl and then i think i wrote every nhl team's name on there but they're gonna start calling you uncle Rico on the team from the Foley and Dynamite, just cocking back with the arm.

Oh, my God. Well, boys, that was great. Do you have any more, R.A.? Yeah, I was going to – Svetchnikov, another Michigan. How's that play in the room? Do guys have fun with the Buster's balls? Well, he's calling it – Jarvis is calling it the Svetchnikov now. No, well, it's – yeah.

I think last night was the cleanest one I think I've seen him do. Like, just a matter of him. Like, he didn't really lose stride skating around the net. I'm able to pick it up, and no one really knew it went in except for him off the back bar and out. But just, yeah, everyone expects it from him. He's another guy that's so skilled that. Can you do that that easy?

I don't get how nowadays all you young guys you it used to be you like the original mike leg michigan he went down and picked it up but now like svetlakov it's just while moving somehow how do you guys do that they move they move it they move the toe to the ice and it just kind of rides up the stick have you tried it in a game i would throw that thing to the neutral zone if i try that yeah it wouldn't even i rod would have pinned me to the bench if i even attempted to i've like i've thought about it but i don't have the balls to do like especially if you miss he's like oh i whatever no you can't tell him anything so he kind of just goes on about his business but yeah if if a lot of other guys did that, they would,

uh, they're catching your full. Hey, once you sign your extension next year, you should try it. When you get back to the bench, tell Rod, you go,

Hey, you're stuck with me now, motherfucker. Eight years. You know, he's going to let me do that. That's true. Yeah.

Hometown discount. You should be able to do whatever the fuck you want out there. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, Seth, thank you so much, dude. It's, it's a pleasure to watch you play out there. Yeah, that's awesome. Well, Seth, thank you so much, dude. It's a pleasure to watch you play, man.

You play with heart and passion, and it's a Western leaguer. That's who you are, I'd say. That's what Bedard was saying last year about Vegas winning the Cup. So good luck in the playoffs, dude. Hopefully we can get a sandbag with you one time. We'd love to do that, and we appreciate you coming on the show. Awesome. Thank you guys so much. This has been great.

Our pleasure. Take care, buddy. All right, guys, before we go any farther today, we are talking about Kraken, one of the OG crypto platforms. These guys have been around way, way, way longer than the hockey team for over a decade, in fact. And Kraken's world-class security is like

having an all-star goalie protecting your assets 24-7. It gives you peace of mind when it comes to trading, which is very, very important. With over 190 cryptocurrencies available, there's something for everyone here. Biz, wit, RA, and even myself. Or maybe, or maybe you're just looking for new ways to approach crypto. The Kraken Learn Center is an awesome, awesome educational resource for all experience levels. So join the 10 million clients already using Kraken's intuitive platform to buy crypto. Go to kraken.com slash chicklets. That's kraken.com slash chicklets and see what crypto can be. Not investment advice. Crypto trading involves risk of loss.

Big thanks to Seth to jump on. Always the kid is an absolute character. Huge crack up, man. I hope he's around the league for a long, long time. But anyways, after we sent it to him, we watched the night games tonight so we could come out, give you the freshest news of the day. Colorado, Winnipeg, Nashville, Vancouver, and I'm going to preview Vegas, Dallas. Colorado, Winnipeg. Barn burner. Big time barn burner. I'm going to get a noise complaint

this late. Barn burner. Absolutely. Well, your boy Jazz, unreal stat. First four games, there were 20 goals in 240 minutes. There were 13 in the 60 minutes in that game tonight. Just an absolute wild take of a game. Actually, we didn't even draw picks on it yet. I had Winnipeg in six, Biz.

Who would you like on this one? Well, I'm going to go through all four of mine so far of the series that we've covered. Canes and Isles, obviously I have Canes in six. Toronto over Boston in seven. Florida over Tampa in six. And then Rangers over Caps. They ain't the Fugazis in this one. They're the Fugazis in seven. Florida over Tampa in six. And then Rangers over Caps. They ain't the Fugazis in this one.

They're the Frielsies in five. If it even goes that far. Over the Bears, you mean? The Hershey Bears, correct. Yes, yes. That lineup is not going to get it done against the Rangers. Let's put it that way. Yeah.

All right. Well, the series we've done so far, I got Carolina in five, which I actually like right now. I have, what was our next series there, fellas? Oh, I got the Leafs in seven. Hate that pick. Jesus, what the hell was I thinking? Then I had the Rangers in five, which I still kind of love that.

That could be a sweep. And then the last one in the east would be Florida, Tampa. I have Tampa in seven. So that's be a sweep and then the last one in the east would be florida tampa i have tampa in seven so that's definitely a possibility you might go three for eight in the first round last year i went eight for eight so i'm kind of really hanging my hat on being the champ last year um so i know you didn't remember that as you threw that chirp out you dopey motherfucker so i know i know i don't right now right now looking looking around i'm not comfortable i'm not happy with my picks and it's all because of your leafs i don't know what i was thinking all right you go through yours all right uh i got carolina in six

uh tampa bay in seven i'm gonna laugh at this in washington and seven uh and boston in five so far so good on that one. G, who you got? What about you, G? I got Carolina in four, Boston in seven, Rangers in five, and then Tampa in seven. And that's the one I don't feel too confident about. You always don't feel confident. All right, did you just take Washington because you said, like, originally you're not afraid of the Rangers,

so you're just trying to say the Rangers are a joke? No, no. I took it because I got that huge bummer on Washington so I gotta sort of have to root for Washington. What's your ticket? The Futures. 75 to 1? 400,000 to 1. 150 to 1. Okay, that's a lot of juice.

That's a lot of juice. Yeah, I mean it's enough to root for it. Plus, you know, I like to fuck with Rangers fans a little bit once in a while too. Oh, you think? You think? Just a wee bit. We gotta's enough to root for. Plus, you know, I like to fuck with Rangers fans a little bit once in a while, too. Oh, you think? You think? Just a wee bit. We got to move on to this game, the most crazy game so far in the first round. First of all, Winnipeg and the fans, that building and that exterior of the building where they got everybody lined up between those.

It was fucking insane. And they came out fucking pretty guns a blazing. I mean, I guess they gave up the first goal, but but once they got theirs they were ready to roll after that even then though they ended up going down 3-2 that mckinnon snipe but back to the crowd outside 1993 we've been over this the last canadian stanley cup winner but there is some sort of and i'm an american but there is some sort of, and I'm an American, but there is some sort of magic and feeling you get when the playoffs start in Canada that's a little bit different. It really is.

And it's out in Edmonton, and it's right outside the arena in the street in Winnipeg. That looks like a time and a half. I was actually thinking, because we're going to be at the finals. We're going to be at both cities in the finals no matter what. And I was like, Winnipeg would be a time. Oh, my God. It would be a time seeing those guys on the run.

Oh, and then, you know, Canada just cares so much, and they just want a cup so bad. And I just, the first game in Canada, you're always a hole. And then Vancouver hadn't had a game since 2015. So starting off in Winnipeg with the whiteout, with the crowd. The crowd that I think I mentioned last week that was called out earlier this year

about fans not necessarily showing up the way that you'd think they would be. But they were ready to go tonight, dude. Oh, and Nuchuskin, he shut him up quick. Tough turnover, kind of bad. Actually actually it wasn't a bad tough turnover it was a horrible change by the two defensemen

and Manson throws it up to him and I was like, oh my god oh my god is Colorado going to come up boom, Winnipeg and can we talk about Adam Lowry Army Tech's of the chain, Adam Lowry when it gets best on best

as Canada's fourth line center, I don't hate that call as of right now. He just had two, and he just dummied Rantanen for one of the goals and walked McKinnon. I'm like, okay. Adam Lowry, Team Canada. I see this happening. After he scored his first one, he gave it the goal signal, too.

There's a great photo of it online, but he definitely got them going. I felt like that game was played in fast forward. It just felt so much faster where every shift, it didn't matter which line from either team took control of the puck. It just seems like they were going in

overdrive. I'll tell you what, man, I don't get to watch that Kyle Connor enough. He's not the biggest guy as far as thickness, but he wins a shit ton of fucking puck battles man he is an absolute water bug gamer in the offensive zone so they are i mean as far as the depth's concerned that was one thing i felt that they had over the the abs coming into this one and we've already broken down this series but a lot of team or a lot of people and and uh with strong opinions kind of laughed

at us at the fact that i took the jets but an underappreciated back end morrissey was a guy we didn't mention in the breakdowns um obviously huge at the point department some people were a little critical of maybe where his defensive game had gotten towards the back half of the season but he comes up with that huge goal so buddy that dylan he's a fucking beast towards the back half of the season, but he comes up with that huge goal. So, buddy, that Dylan, he's a fucking beast on the back end. Obviously not Hellebuck's best, but if he's got to play against four,

they're calling him Forgiev, because he's given up at least four goals a game. And then the backup, is it Anunin? How do I say his name? He didn't dress that way, actually. How do I say his is it Anunin? How do I say his name? No, he didn't dress that. I know. How do I say his name? Anunin?

I think people know what we're trying to say. He was sick. So I was like, why are they not pulling this guy? Ten shots, four goals. Forgiev. Forgiev. Forgiev. And it turns out they basically had an e-bug in there.

No offense to whoever the backup was, but they weren't willing to give him a go, even after Forgiev was just sucking him in. And that game, it goes back to the deadline, and Merles, who fumbled his insider information, saying Jake Allen was going to the Avs. McFarlane didn't really address it. And now you're like, holy shit, dude. It's been a

struggle for a while now. I tweeted out, Paul Georgiev. And a bunch of people were like, because then he caught fire and he made some big saves right after that. And people were like, oh yeah, good call, good call. Look at him now. Well, buddy, he sucked in a few more.

So it's like, I don't know what you're going to do. And I think the whole premise on Avs fans who didn't think they needed a goal, it was like, this team's fine, it doesn't really matter. Almost looking at Vegas with Aiden Hill, even though he played great, we're fine no matter what. It's like, no, you're not. No, you're not.

And that turns this around, which I don't see happening. So in their last cup run i felt like they were built where they could outscore their problems where they had darcy kemper if you go back to his numbers he had an average goals against uh average and then his save percentage was 900 so it was nothing special so they were able to get that second third layer of offense where listen obviously they can score at a premium now, but they're not going to outscore their problems anymore that the way that they're playing in their own end. They were, they were abysmal at the amount of breakdowns and fucking heavy chances they

were giving up. I don't care who the fuck you are. You could be the 84 Oilers for fuck sakes. You ain't going to outscore those types of problems in your own end. So not the abs I was expecting. They don't have that goalie who's going to make the big stop right now. So if I'm their coaching staff and I'm their leadership group, I'm saying, boys, we need to sacrifice a little bit of the offense right now

to tighten things up defensively. Because this is going to be a quick fucking series if they don't. And that's just how they can roll four lines, Witty. So that's what Lowry brought up after in the press conference. He said, we just got to our depth and that's our biggest strength is our depth and rolling four lines and, and being able to play his line against the top line.

And then you open up Connor and you open up Shifley. And as much as Pierre, Luke Dubois got in shit this year for his effort with the Kings, enough credit probably hasn't been given to Velarde. And he had two gross assists in this game. He slid that one over to Shifley. Shifley right away is pointing at him. He's like, that was an awesome.

And then his other one, I'm kind of fumble-fucking right now, who was other out. There's a lot of goals. Yeah, exactly. There's a lot of goals. But basically, Lowry bringing up the depth, it's like, oh, my God. It's hard to picture. And now Druin, when we did the preview, it's like, oh, my God. It's hard to picture. And now Druin, when we did the preview, we didn't know Druin was out.

That's a skilled guy who's able to play with McKinnon. So it's just one of those things where you're looking at a heavy team. Like you brought up the D. I think Sandberg had a tough turnover on the Miles Wood goal, but a heavy team with big D, and they got this home ice crazy advantage. Now, saying that, and with this big win, the

Fs didn't play bad. I mean, the shot differential was huge. Some of that was at the end. They got the power play at the end. They were able to come back and somewhat make it a game. I mean, there was, what, 30 seconds left when they made it 7-6, but if you're able to get to Colorado and knowing that if there's any traffic, even without traffic, some of those goals,

that Forgiev's going to be sucking them in, Winnipeg's going to feel great because they got to – the same way I said that Carolina had a weak showing for them and won, well, dude, Winnipeg won with Hellebuck not playing great. That's the thing right there. Buddy, you know next game. You don't think he's going to be pissed off after giving up six? He's going to be kicking.

Man, it's, yeah, you got McCarty, you got McKinnon, and Shushkin, and Rantanen. But after Rantanen was just, oh, my God, Lowry made him his bitch on that play. And it's one play. But, yeah, you got some superstar talent in Colorado that Winnipeg can't match. But when you go down the lineup, buddy, and that's playoff hockey, it's kind of a mismatch.

And you saw it in game one. So I love what you're saying about Kyle Conner, dude. He just – and he gets his shot off so quick. The Shermanator. The Shermanator. Just that firebush buzzing out there. Shermanator was my waiter at a restaurant in LA one time. Come on, the actual one?

I was like, oh shit. Yeah. Maybe I'm imagining before. He was my waiter. I don't know if it was a long time ago or somewhat recent. Gee, were you with me? Was it West Coast Wagon Tour? I don't know.

I have heard the Shermanator is a waiter in LA, though. That's like on the record. I think I remember this in the group text. Now, wait, you're forgetting the biggest factor of it all going into this series. The bulletin board material, which is the Fugazi of the West. The fraud squad, as they're calling them now. I sent the tweet. I think it was John Liu who said that Nikolai Ehlers brought up,

like, yeah, that guy who told Ryan Whitney we're frauds. We're using that as Baltimore material. Now, I'm guessing John Liu brought it up to him. Unless, like, they're already talking about it. And I sent the dude. I sent him the tweet. And he goes goes you can never ever let anyone know oh no who i am i go yeah dude no shit you'll never play again in this

thing i go they'll be they'll be fucking winston from winnipeg he'll send you anthrax in the mail peggy from the peg she'll she'll put This little mink She'll put up Nice little hot pictures DM you Looking for a little meet up And then show up And stab you in the throat Oh yeah

So I might take her down When we're there For the cup finals And I also said Peggy from the peg Buddy What are you talking about

With these guys as frauds Are you watching this team So Yeah I think that player Realizes I think that player Realizes that this job ain't easy throwing out these hot takes and having to eat them once in a while ain't easy right all right

not at all but not at all just to go back to the game man I mean this game like epitomized the disparity in the goaltending business I mean Colorado had exactly two times as many shots as Winnipeg did 46 to 23 and it was interesting there were six goals in the first only one in the second then six more in the first, only one in the second, then six more in the third. And your boy, Nemestnikov, got one. Did you catch that? Oh, Nemestnikov!

It was a turnover, though. I think Manson threw it to the middle, hit a stick, goes right to him. Yeah, I guess, Biz, that's what you're saying. Some different plays where you're like, this doesn't seem like... But I just think with Colorado's pace, this series is far from over.

It's just that, like, dude, without a goal, you're nothing in this league. And back to tonight's backup. Arvid Holm, his name is. He's a 25-year-old Swede. He's never had an NHL start, regular season, or playoffs. And ironically, he was Winnipeg's sixth-round draft pick back in 2017. Now he's backing up the opposite team. So I don't know if we're going to see him or not.

He's never played, but I would have thrown him out there tonight after the way Yogi was going. Oh, Morrissey. Just, you know, he gets that beautiful shot in to tie it up quick there, and then he gives the apple over to Kyle Conner. Just the way he kind of controls the tempo. I kind of use that term for a lot of defensemen, and so it's probably me using it too much,

but it's slowing down the pace when you have it and it's like you're able to see the ice so well that you're able to kind of know exactly what you're going to do with it before you get it that's him and he i mean i don't think anyone i certainly didn't see this offensive outburst he's had these past few years i guess it makes sense seeing how well he passes the puck and running that power play. But the Jets, dude, they ain't no frauds. No. They ain't no frauds. Not at all.

Not at all. The other game tonight, Nashville-Vancouver, kind of the opposite of the first game. Not a ton of shots, a lot of great goaltending. Vancouver ended up winning it 4-2. They got the empty net. It's a seal at late. What most impressed you about Vancouver tonight

and what was the difference in the game? Not much impressed me until that 12 second. I was like, what is going on? And the crowd was great. They brought back U2 where the streets have no name. The entrance song that they played for quite a while, including the run that they had in 2011. That was my favorite song growing up. Still to this day, one of my favorite songs.

And so I remember loving that. But they brought that back. They're getting all the mojo. Somebody broke the news they were wearing the black unis, which they ended up not doing, which I do not love the blue and green. I've never been a big fan. I'm over them. I think that they had their era.

I thought that they would be going black with the matte black helmets every home game this playoff. So I was surprised because somebody said that. I don't know. I saw it on Twitter somewhere. But they come out. I thought both teams early looked a little bit, not flat, maybe nervous. They were just kind of, there wasn't much pace to the game.

Biz said to the group right away, he goes, this looks like it's in slow motion compared to what we just watched. So all of a sudden, though, they're able to able to get like Quinn Hughes getting that shot through I thought it was tipped maybe it hit a Nashville defender but boom they come alive and then Dakota Joshua who was the guy we've mentioned all season long with this Vancouver turnaround he gets three points he gets that third goal the game-winning goal and then he ends up getting the empty netter he's just he's just a big old dude. He'll play physical. He'll fight. He goes to the net.

It's like that's the type of playoff player that they need, and he showed up big time. Now, Biz Garland, too. I saw you tweet that. The water bug. Oh, this guy was in everyone's face. Back in Arizona where he was hungry again and trying to establish himself in the league.

This is a guy who asked for a trade at the start of the year, and Dakota Joshua was a guy who got for a trade at the start of the year. And Dakota Joshua was a guy who got called out in training camp by talk. So between these two guys, they've become part of the heart and soul of the team. What did he say about him? I don't think he was happy with how he'd prepared himself in the summer to come in and dominate to take that next step. I don't think he was as physical and using his body as well as he would have hoped early in the season. And when I say call out, it wasn't like he ripped them to shreds.

I think he said he was disappointed in what his expectations were and how he was going to come in to kind of take control of that role. And throughout the course of the season, he's done it. And from all the messages I'm getting, like Vancouver Canucks fans are basically saying, outside of the obvious, these two guys have become the heartbeat of the team. When they needed a play most tonight, it seemed like Garland was getting it done,

even in the first two periods when they were brutal. Because I felt in the first two periods, they were undisciplined. They couldn't really execute plays. I felt like Petey was soft on his feet. He wasn't as strong. He seems to fall over quite a bit and getting maybe a little bit too out muscled.

I thought, um, I thought, uh, Miller had some outbursts, like some shifts where you were like, okay, he's got his spunk.

But, uh, overall, I think that the depth, and that was the one key that I had coming into the series. When I've talked to a few people, whether it was local radio or this or that was I thought that throughout the season between Dakota Joshua uh Mikheyev Lafferty Garland they had a Hoglander all these guys hit double digits and

goals so I think that these guys can be a huge factor and that's where they outweigh Nashville in my opinion outside of Nashville's top guys. Obviously, the factor's going to get it done, and why you have to stay disciplined against this Nashville team is since the FU2 tour, they've had one of the hottest, if not the hottest power play in the league from that time. So stay out of the box, and you're going to stay out of trouble. But the third period, to me, for Vancouver,

looked much like Carolina Hurricanes figuring it out after playing sloppy for the first two against the New York Islanders. It kind of, they look uncharacteristic, maybe backed themselves in a playoffs a little too much, where finally they got back to their game in that third period. And if I'm a Canucks fan, feel a lot more relieved after seeing that effort after what I'd seen in the first period. And if I'm a Canucks fan, feel a lot more relieved after seeing that effort after what I'd seen in the first 40. So especially to get Lindholm going too with that first goal,

which was a kind of an uncharacteristic goal for Saros to live up or let up, excuse me, that far out. It was a bit of a squeaker, but overall the fact that Vancouver got that first win, 0 for 13 in franchise history, the Nashville Predators are in series that they don't get the first win in the first game. But they dropped the first game. That's a tough stat.

I think there's no way Vancouver loses a series now that they got game one. I like that you brought up Lindholm because not only did he get that goal, but he was the guy in on the forecheck on the winning goal, right? He goes in, eliminates the man, and then Garland sneaks in, makes a beautiful pass to Joshua. So that's nice to see him going because offensively, he did struggle

ever since he got over there. The broadcast mentioned he had five points in his last six regular season games, but I think only like 12, 13 points in the time he's been there. So not much in his game, but he looked real good. Peterson. I don't know. Now, I got Canucks.

I tweeted out, is he playing tonight? I don't think I heard his name. He had a one-timer on the power play that just whistled over the crossbar. Other than that, dude, I don't know if I heard his name. And I looked at his game log. He's got one goal in his last 14 games. And so a bunch of Vancouver Canucks fans messaged me. No, he's injured.

He's injured. Well, then I had somebody reach out and say, he's not injured. He's not injured. And he's just playing like shit. So I don't know, right? I don't know the truth. I'm not in that locker room. They have no chance.

Like maybe they could advance without him going. Even then it's going to be tough. They have no chance of doing anything without him. I mean, buddy, the beginning of the year, the run he's on, he signs the deal. You think then it was like, oh, I'm going to play that good. I'm going to get this deal. And then all the pressure's off.

I mean, it seemed like it was so much better with the pressure on to produce his UFA season. And now, like you mentioned, just like kind of a shell of himself. And when he's involved and he's like, because there's a lot of times, and he's a skinnier guy, but he's also like he'll get in the mix. He'll throw his body around almost when he has the puck, the way he protects the puck, cold shoulders. There was none of that tonight. So I don't really know

what's going on with his game, but I was shocked to see that game on him tonight. And they were able to get the win, so it's good. Maybe talk's talking to him and trying to figure out what's going on, but with anyone, best players in the world, fourth liners, East Coast League

players, confidence, you lose it, it's hard to get back. Doesn't matter how good you are. Maybe that's the case for him right now, so they got to get him going. But I like JT Miller's game a lot, but overall it was that depth, it was the depth that they used, right? To Joshua Garland,

Lindholm's playing a little bit down on that third line. Couple stupid penalties though. And they were kind of like all pretty decent calls by the ref. The DJ, DJ Seppi, his trip late in the third. It was just kind of stuff.

You're like, buddy, you're in the offensive zone. There's no reason to take us. Any, any coach will ever tell you an offensive zone penalty 200 feet from your net, like a stick infraction.

It's like, it's just so unnecessary. So they were lucky to get that win. Got a shout out that save by Demko early in the first question marks about him thought he ended up having a real good game the zucker goal was a little odd maybe thought it was kind of similar to lindholm's like look like he kind of should i could have should have had that one but dude that save you're like whoo any question marks about demko he just kind of shut everyone up with that save, you're like, whoo! Any question marks about Demko, he just kind of shut everyone up with that, you know, post-to-post save.

You pumped, or we all pumped, the Winnipeg crowd. I think given maybe the energy on the ice in the first two periods, I thought Canucks fans did a good job of keeping the energy high in that building. They were excited for that first game. The anthem, them taking over the anthem and belting it all out uh it was uh it was really cool to see and a well-deserved first playoff game at home you said since 2015 yeah and also they went down one nothing and the crowd kind of like as the face as the puck was dropping at the for the face off they got going again like yeah almost it's all

right right like good which sometimes in some of these cities, you're like, here we go. But I think they just hadn't had playoff hockey in so long. The crowd got behind them, which is nice to see. In Canada, especially, where sometimes it gets ugly. If Toronto goes down 1-0 early in Game 3, they ain't cheering as the faceoff's getting dropped. So, I love seeing Vancouver back in the mix. They get a win that I thought was at least going to be going to overtime

once they tied it up. R.A. had a nice little bet for me, Biz. He said, look at this bet. Over under 10.5 games that go to overtime in the first round. He had already bet it, so I was like, wow, no shit. And I looked up. Last year had 14. So I took it with them we don't have one yet but um kind of an interesting bet all right at least you got

something to root for when they go to ot yeah i do now and you do as well yeah and i got that i have that other one too it's uh if there's exactly three hat tricks in one series because the odds are wicked crazy like between 50 and one and like. So if one series has three different hat tricks, Biz, nice little payout. Oh, it was any series? I thought it was Winnipeg, Colorado. No, no. It was a specific series, so I have eight bets for each one for each series. If you didn't get a hat trick

in that game, if you didn't get a hat trick in the Winnipeg, Colorado game tonight, that series isn't getting three. And the fact it has to be exactly three makes it even more impossible. Well, that's isn't getting three. And the fact it has to be exactly three makes it even more impossible. Well, that's why it pays out 100-1. As far as Nashville, I thought because they look tight late. I thought they got pretty sloppy.

A couple of those goals, not Saros' fault at all. I mean, shoot and gallery out front, a little pizza action, but I think Saros will bounce back a bit. There are only 43 combined shots in this game. Like we said, not a very highly offensive output in this game, but see how Nashville bounces back. Whit, what did you have in the series? Because we didn't get to this one last episode.

I got Vancouver in seven. Okay. Gene, what did you have, buddy? I had Vancouver in six, and I'm still very confident about it. Okay. I had Van in seven. And I have Van in seven as well, so see what happens there. We got another preview to get to.

Vegas, Dallas, this is going to be an unreal series. Basically two cup contenders going at it. They've each, they've each beaten each other in a conference final the last few years. So this is sort of a rubber match. Dallas is a one minus one 40 favorite Vegas, a hundred to make one 20 during the season. Vegas went three and over versus them.

Dallas. Oh, one and two Dallas, great power play. Sixth in the league penalty kill in eighth in league, Vegas, 20. Sixth in the league. Penalty killing. Eighth in the league. Vegas, 20th power play in the league. 16th penalty killing. I don't know if we're going to see Hill or Thompson,

Biz versus Ottener, but Dallas, I mean, they seem like they're going to be a steamroll, but the defending champs, man, I don't think they're going to lay over for anybody. So I have Dallas in seven games. This is going to be a big boy hockey series. The reason I have Dallas is the goaltending situation for Vegas. I don't think it's as stable as last year.

And that's saying a lot because it wasn't very fucking stable even last year. But of course, we know what to expect from the Vegas Golden Knights. You know, game one, Mark Stone's going to be coming out of the tunnel. He's going to be ready to go. They got Petrangelo as well back in the lineup. So they have basically their full team with Hurdle now in the tunnel. He's going to be ready to go. They got Petrangelo as well back in the lineup. So they have basically their full team with Hurdle now in the mix. So they got

that strength down the middle. They got an unreal top nine. They got that big heavy back end, but not the goaltending I believe that they're going to see from last year. Dallas, I feel like we've been talking about them in all the pods leading up. You know exactly what to expect from them.

They have two first lines and then two third lines, in my opinion. They don't even have a fourth line. That's how good they are up front. One of the deepest teams we've seen in a long time. I even view them deeper than Florida and the East. And then we saw what they did with the back end at the deadline bringing in Tanev. I didn't think they had any issues even before that uh Haskinen's an absolute beast and right now Ottinger's playing

out of his fucking mind I don't know if you saw that last game of the season with that fucking paddle save he made everything is going his way I got the Dallas Stars in seven I don't need to be long-winded about this at all so I got dallas and six um but now that i know everyone's back i made that pick all of a sudden yep stone's coming back so now it's two years in a row stones left the regular season at the exact same time he started skating at the exact same time and he's been ready for game one it's it's amazing i will once again reiterate as much as i hate vegas don't blame them. They are doing nothing wrong.

They are going by what you're allowed to do based on the CBA and in the league. So anyone who hates them like me, at least don't call them cheaters because they're not. They're doing it. They're not. They're not breaking any rules. Oh, sorry. It's not a rule that I agree with, and it's a rule that I think that needs to be addressed. But it is what it is.

Okay? Now, Hurdle hasn't played in the playoffs in a long time. Last time he did, granted, it was like five or six years ago. San Jose, he was a beast. You know, he's chomping at the bit. Okay? I don't... I like Dallas at six because even with Vegas, all these guys coming back,

like Petro, you don't know how healthy he is. he's even like is he definitely playing have they already said that my understanding is he's in so you know if he's going obviously he's good enough to to start game one but it does mean he's battling something stone last year he wondered what he'd have after back surgery was great so i guess the spleen thing will be nothing for him. But Stevenson playing where he's at. Marcia Sowe's last year, his conspite year, and then the fucking 40 goals he got this year. It is an amazing team. Okay?

Thompson and Hill this year, they're pretty even. I think you could go with either one. I mean, Thompson's never played a playoff game. That's what's shocking to me. Oh, I saw a tweet that's crazy. So every year Vegas has made the playoffs, Pete DeBoer has been involved. The first two years they played San Jose,

he was the coach. Then he was the coach of Vegas. And then now they're playing him as he's the coach of Dallas. So that's kind of funny. But it's going to be a war, dude. It's going to be a battle. It's two big teams.

I just think that the way Vegas ran through the playoffs, out-muscling everyone, the huge defensemen they have, Dallas can play that game. This isn't a team that's going to be really intimidated by them. They're able to play down low with them. So it's like Edmonton got super lucky. The path that my Oilers got, it was a miracle. It took an absolute miracle for Vegas to lose to Anaheim

and then L.A. to come back late and beat Chicago. For us not to have to face Vegas, that's a nice sign. But now Vegas-Dallas, you almost feel bad for the Stars. I mean, this year they had. It was something else. But you said it. The fourth line is a legit fourth line. I know you're saying maybe not, but Faska, Dodonov, though,

he was injured for a long time, so he's got a lot of skill in that fourth line. Then Sam Steele with those other three lines, dude, all of them are considered first lines. The other stat I saw online, since Crosby and Ovi were rookies, they're 2-3 in goals in the playoffs since then you know who number one is? number one in playoff goals since 2005

2006 great guess R.A. Joe Pavelski playing with Jason Robertson playing with Rupe Hintz and then they're coming at you with Duchesne then they're coming at you with Duchesne.

Then they're coming at you with Marshawn, Mason Marshawn on that line. Marchment, excuse me. Marchment, no, it's okay. Marchment, I should have said his name correctly. That's on me. And then that third line with the two young bucks and the grandfather, Jamie Benz, sitting right shotgun with them. So it's amazing to see. Sagan had a pretty good season.

I can't wait to see this series, how it unfolds. You know there's going to be some shenanigans after the whistles. It's going to be interesting, but I think Dallas gets it done in six. I think they're too good. And, like you said, Ottinger, dude. One of the other reasons

nobody talked about Dallas that much this year is because they never had any... They were doing what was expected of them to be done. All year, they were just playing good hockey. Then Otten just struggled a little. Well, now he figured it out. It's been a great hockey team from October to now. Let's see if they can continue

because they got their toughest test in the first round, possibly. My theory is that neither of these teams will reach the finals because they're going to take so much wind out of each other's sails. It's just going to be so big, so physical. I mean, even go back to a few years ago. Wasn't it Jamie Benn who ended up whacking Mark Stone over the head? Wasn't that the situation that happened where Jamie Benn ended up getting a sussy? Was that against Stone?

I thought it was. No, last year they played in the Western Conference Finals. Did it happen then? I thought it was maybe a couple years ago that it happened where the wires had crossed. So maybe I'm wrong. You Dallas Stars fans can correct me because you usually do. I think the X factor in this series though is going to be the glass banger at home that's good i don't know what hookers he's bringing uh riding shotgun there on

the glass but if he's not banging as hard as he can bang and distracting vegas's goaltenders i don't know this actually that was last year it was in the conference final last year okay checked it from game three and then suspended for cross-check on Mark Stone. So, yeah, the glassbanger, dude, I mean, the amount of blow that guy must be on at those games. Like, fuck off, glassbanger. Take a hike. Hey, so you're saying

maybe he could be a liability? R.A.'s like, DM me. Are we going to Dallas for the playoffs, guys? I'll suck your dick. I'll suck your dick for a bag of blow, baby. Pavelski's going to turn 40 over the summer. Do you think there's any possibility this might be a swan song, like this could be his last season?

Hey, if they win the cup, you know. I ain't fucking speculating Pavelski rumors on retirement right now. Roman, did he sign again? He doesn't have any years signed after this season. Really? Yeah. Yeah, one-year deal this year for 3.5. Dude, it could be a Ray Bork special.

Hand him over the cup first, Jamie Benn, and then just skate off into the sunset. That would be amazing. That would probably lock up the Hall of Fame for Joe Pavelski. Well, I don't know. He's American, so we know they don't like Americans up there. Oh, Hall of Fame. G, who do you got in the series, buddy?

I said it on Game Notes, but I got Vegas in seven. I just feel like this Vegas team is just built for a playoff run. You guys kind of said it all. I mean, heavy on defense, tons of depth, and I just it sucks it all. I mean, heavy on defense, tons of depth. It sucks for Dallas.

I don't think Dallas is going to win the cup if they do advance because Vegas is just going to beat them down so much. But I just love Vegas. I can't bet against the former champs. I don't know what it is. It's almost impossible to repeat, but betting against the former champs, I just can't do it. So I got Vegas in seven. If we go to Vegas for the finals, Merle's is going to get a divorce.

And then we have to go back there for the draft, dude. Yeah, that's like, don't do that to me. No. Jesus Christ. No. All right. Yeah, I got Dallas in seven as well. I don't think they really have an Achilles heel on that team.

The goaltending, the D, the forwards, I mean, they're pretty well stacked. I don't think they have a real major weakness that can be exposed, but we will see what happens. We'll end it with this. I think it's probably the most exciting first-round matchup that everyone's looking forward to. Wait, y'all boys up next.

Edmonton, this is the 10th overall meeting between the two teams. Third year in a row, Edmonton beat them in the first round 4-3, then the next year 4-2. Edmonton, minus 190 favorite. LA, 100 to make 160. During the regular season, Edmonton 3-1- 100 to make 160 during the regular season Edmonton 3-1-0 versus them LA was 1-2-1

any concerns with Edmonton going into this series with goaltending D you feeling confident about your boys here or what? I feel very confident you're looking and we're talking about the best hockey team in the National League since November now I made the biggest mistake of my life

and I never did quit him. I kept watching, but I publicly said I did, and I've renounced that a million different ways, a million different times, as there's many Oilers fans who won't take me back, but there's a lot who took me back with open arms, and they know that this is finally the year, guys. Like I said, the path worked out perfect, okay?

We're able to get LA. We own LA seven games, two years ago, six games last year. I have them in five games this year. Okay. And then we're moving on and we're going to fucking pound whoever wins that Vancouver Nashville series. I'm telling you that right now, LA will be a tougher series than the next round. that right now. LA will be a tougher series than the next round. That's a fact. But LA, as I say, we own them. I'm not overlooking them. Yes, I'm picking them in five because of our star power, because of bringing Corey Perry in, the man who just goes to cup finals. He also has one back in the day. He's got one, but he's been to a bunch since. Okay. Now, Evander Kane and Yanmark right now are a little banged up.

They didn't play at the end of the season. I guess they skated today. But, dude, this team, they got Dylan Holloway, who looked phenomenal at the end of the regular season. He could skate like the wind. So if that's a guy that you can get out and get in maybe the third line playing with McLeod and Perry, oh, that's a weapon of a line. If Holloway can really stay in the lineup,

I don't know how it's going to work out depending on Kane or Yanmar. Now, Oilers fans, I feel like it's a 50-50 split where Leon and Connor have to play together. Or no, Leon and Connor can't play together. Now, I would love to see a team, an Oilers team, where they're not having to play together all the time, where you got Leon playing with Nuge, and then you got up top Connor, you got him with Hyman.

You can kind of figure out the wingers from there. But this team, guys, for a long time has been dominating this league. They're incredible off the rush. We've talked about the power play for years. Yes, LA Kings, one of the best PKs in the league. I think they finished second. It doesn't matter how good your penalty kill is when you have these five players on the ice.

That's just how it works. Bouchard's cannon from the top. You got McDavid and Leon going back and forth through people's triangles, just making people dizzy. You got the king of the goals in the crease, Zach Hyman, and then you got Newt floating around. Great disher, nice release. This team is so goddamn good,

and there's so many people out there right now who think they'll never win, and their time is now. They're better than they were last year. So is LA. I'll give LA credit. They're a better team than they are last year, but Edmonton's reached a new level. Knobloch came in. They figured out how to play defense. They put in a system. Their star

players are willing to sacrifice themselves and their points to play a little bit more defensive style hockey. And when you have Connor McDavid, anything is possible. That's a fact. Okay. So we're going to go into Edmonton and we're going to win the first two games. And then we're probably going to lose game three. And then we're going to win game four. And then we're going to go into Edmonton, and we're going to win the first two games, and then we're probably going to lose game three, and then we're going to win game four, and then we're going to win it at home game five. We're going to rest up as Van and Nashville play a long series. This is the year in Edmonton.

This is the absolute season. The madness outside the arena. Fucking Jasper. We got White Ave. It's all these different areas in Edmonton, crushing pints, wearing their jerseys, honoring Joey Moss, singing the anthem. It's the fucking cup

coming back to Edmonton, guys. And you all think I'm crazy. I know you are. I know all you out there. I don't think you're crazy. Portnoy doesn't either. You got Portnoy on the train as well. I never said a word to him, but I actually love it because this dude, he can't lose right now.

He put in a parlay of Scottie Scheffler when he was five shots back in this tournament at Hilton Head, parlayed with the Celtics. That's $120,000 to win $1.3 million. Scottie Scheffler ended up pretty much running away with it. He's got a five-shot lead going into tomorrow

morning. He's got three holes left. So then he has the Celtics at basically 12-1. They're plus 150. And he hopped on the Oilers. He was asking me for a team, but I didn't want to give him a team because then he'll just torture me and blame me if they don't win it all. And he took them on his own. That's how hot the Edmonton Oilers are.

So I cannot wait for this all to begin. I think that the Kings, if they have a chance, Pierre-Luc Dubois, the dog, needs to do something. You just took the only thing I was going to say after you took all the meat left on the bone. Well, you got L.A.

You got L.A. You got Deneau and Kopitar and Fiala. I got Edmonton in five. Kempe is an Oiler killer. Kempe plays great. He's had a great year, too. Well, I got the Oilers in five. I think it couldn't have been a perfect first-round matchup. The only chicken-dick's chance that the Kings have is the last two years they've stayed so undisciplined.

Yeah, they were taking a ton of penalties. After penalty, after penalty, where they were just feeding into the Oilers' power play that was running, I think, at, what, 50% after the first round in both years. So just remarkable. But listen, Pierre-Luc Dubois has been hibernating all season long. And the only thing I can remember, probably the best part of his career was when he had that quote unquote explosive two round playoff when he was playing with the Columbus Blue

Jackets. And I feel like we remember that Pierre-Luc Dubois. Well, if he can get back to playing that game with the third-line matchup that he will have against Edmonton Oilers, that's where they could potentially chew them up. And they got Deneau at the second slot and Kopitar at the first slot, who if I'm Edmonton, I'd probably go with the separate the two-headed monster. I'd probably put McDavid and Dreisaitl

running their own lines because those guys are going to be hard to go head-to-head with. And as far as the top nine, I would say it's pretty close to even outside the fact that you have the McDavid and Dreisaitl factor. Like, Arvidsson was a beast last year in playoffs.

Did you remember his series against the kings are against oilers last year yes you said kempi can fucking roll so they got guys in that top nine who could play the d outside of dowdy i don't trust them as much i don't know the top four are good they got gavrikov with roy and then they got mikey anderson and dowdy are good together they're good they're solid but, from six guys, I don't know. Compared to what Oilers have and their top four, I trust the Oilers D squad more than I do the Kings D squad. Is that – do you?

Yes, I do. And what's funny and kind of crazy to me is Kulak and DeJarne have kind of started playing against top lines a lot. Right. And then Ekholm's the king. Ekholm is that Swedish monster, the bearded animal. He's out there. He's cross-checking.

He's got the cannon from the point. I think he was top 10, if not even top 8 in 5-on-5 points by defensemen this year. And then Bouchard had over 80 points. First defense to do that for the Oilers since Paul Coffey. They have all the makings of a cup team, and Skinner's looked real good. So it's a lot of excitement right now, and you're so afraid when your team has expectations.

It's just like, oh, my God, we're getting into this again, the ups and downs. And they also get fucked on the start to their game. A lot of these games are going to start at like 830, 840 in Edmonton. ups and downs and just, and they also get fucked on the start to their game. A lot of these games are going to start at like 830, 840 in Edmonton. So that's kind of a kick in the dick when they have the home game starting that late, but it's all for TV. Maybe even 850 some of them are starting in Edmonton, but it doesn't matter. No excuses.

The Oilers are here and the Kings are just in the way right now. Yeah, both teams are on their second coach of the season. Biz, I want to ask, do you think there's any potential for a little revenge factor with Cam Talbot, the former Oiler? You know, some guys get fired up when they go against an old team. I think a lot of people are counting him out and have been questioning goaltending for LA all season long. He was an all-star, started out incredible,

had the dip after, well, when McClellan and the whole team was struggling, I think everybody had a dip, and then has regained his confidence slowly in the back half of the season. So, hey, man, he's, yeah, he's shown signs of brilliance at times. I just can't trust it going in where he's on an island. I feel like he doesn't have a guy where he can rely on. I feel like Skinner has played better over the course of the whole year. And like I said, I feel like the guys in front of him also help Skinner out as well. So it should be interesting. I have Oilers in five just for the simple fact where they're determined and destined to go win a Stanley Cup. Some of the guys in the Kings lineup are on the back half of their career,

mainly Dowdy and Kopitar, but they do have that young juice. I mean, we didn't even talk about Quinton Byfield as well, so there are game breakers in that Kings lineup. Yeah, so Byfield did slow down a bunch. I don't think the last nine or ten games

he might have had a goal or an assist. He slowed down second half of the year, which is understandable. He's still real young. My last two things, L.A.-wise. When Hiller came in as coach to replace Todd McClellan, he put in this 1-3-1 system, so they're a little boring to watch because they just kind of claw. In the neutral zone?

Like, defensively. That was something McClellan was already doing. Are you talking? I'm talking like forechecking-wise, dude. Yeah, so they typically sit back in the neutral zone. Yes, they get boring. Yeah. Oh, yeah, they try to lull you to sleep,

but it did seem to affect Edmonton the last couple years. The biggest way to beat it is usually the given goal, like a quick bump, and make sure you kind of change up where the puck is going, because they try to draw you to the wall, and it's hard to get access to the middle in order to gain that speed through the neutral zone, much how Edmonton likes to play. Well, it hasn't really bothered them the last two years. It has made the series a little bit more competitive.

I just don't think it's something that Edmonton hasn't seen before. And Evander Kane's my other thing, because when they went to the Western Conference Finals, they were overmatched completely to Colorado. He had 13 goals in 15 games. Last year, he really did struggle in the playoffs. It sucks he's going in banged up, but I do have a weird feeling that for them to win the Stanley Cup,

he'd need to be a big part of it, so hopefully he's able to get going and get some big goals, four-check hard, throw the body around, be a prick to play against after the whistles, that type of stuff. So we'll see how his health ends up being, if he's able to go and he's able to be. He's not 100%, that's for sure. But if he can make an impact, that's a huge difference for Edmonton.

Yeah, all three of you guys have Edmonton in five. I have Edmonton in six. I don't know. LA might squeak another W out of there, but Biz, your desert dog's in the news once again. I know we did a big story last week, but it's official. They are definitely going to Utah. They're not going to have a nickname right away. They're going to do sort of like the Washington football

team, what the professional women's teams have been doing, which is using the city name. I guess they just don't want to rush into a shitty nickname. They want to take their time with it. I disagree with that. I actually like the Yetis and having a big snow monster guy. The Utah Yetis.

That's also not 100% confirmed either. They said they're likely going to do that. There's still a chance that they find a team name. I guess Ryan Smith feels very rushed in this process. I think gotta have a nickname yeah yeah you gotta have a name you need a fucking yeah exactly you gotta come on so i disagree with you guys where he's getting jammed up and there's way more other important things to figure out like who's the training staff gonna be like are they bringing back the entire coaching staff and management? Like, you know, setting up your whole department of operations and how you're going to run your organization. I think there's a way more important decisions to be made than rushing into a team

name. And I would do both in the next, what, two months. I, I think that from a creative standpoint, sometimes these things shouldn't be rushed. And if they don't have a genuine name that they enjoy and that they could build around from like a mascot perspective, like as, as dumb and as much as I hate Buies guts, I think from a marketing standpoint,, or whether it's a gritty or buoy, these ugly fucking mutants running around and the kids love them. So you have to make sure you have a good catchy name. That's going to be, they have a lot of that figured out though. Biz, like Elliot was saying on 32 thoughts that they're bringing tourney back. They're bringing Bill Armstrong back.

Like they have like a lot of the hockey department, other stuff to figure out though. Like, I mean, I don't see it as to be the biggest deal in the world that this team just has utah even if it's what what do they normally have for soccer utah fc so it would be hockey club in this case who gives a shit um yeah i would like to see a nickname personally we'll see how that plays out um the the the press conference from this clown

was morello correct that's what they were dealing with for five years that was the most if if i could have ever been inside gary betman's brain as this guy's like let me breathe like he must have been so pissed off so disgusted with this fool sitting next to him. This idiot can still get back into our league if he gets this arena in the next five years? I mean, talk about having no clue. Talk about not being able to read the room. He just crushed this city, and he's crushed it for quite a while the way he's ran that team. And then he's telling reporters to let him breathe for a minute the guy is an idiot I've never seen anyone get bitched

at a press conference like that my whole life Gary like Gary Bettman just bitched him around the whole time he grabbed by the arm like like look this is what he means like I'll translate for him it's like he was speaking English dude what the fuck you gonna translate for him it was hilarious then he says uh was he losing a lot of money yeah you betcha he was losing a ton i was like i thought it was ai at first because i'm like i never heard betman say anything like that before it was just a comical shit show and then the guy's like he tried to make that joke biz off oh five years and then five years after that five and gary was like look at him like he wanted to do the homer simpson like fans oh here's probably so disgusting to be there i've never seen more cringy clips come out of a press conference in my life.

Like the office kept coming. I'm like, it was it was like one thing is if they were coming there. Check. If there's a new team coming there, you're like, oh, this new owner is kind of cornball. But he's bringing a team to say, no, dude, they're leaving. And you're still making a fool of yourself. I'll say it here. Now, this is not a crazy take.

That man will never own an NHL team again. No, he's done. Bettman will go to the ends of the earth to make sure that guy doesn't own a team again. So, hilarious clip, though. Sad day for all the Coyotes fans. People work for the organization. It sucks to lose a team. I do think they are going to get one back.

It's going to take some time, obviously. Um, probably about seven years is my guess, but, uh, six. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was given a little more year as a buffer, but, uh, yeah, just crazy nonsense.

And, and, you know, you, it didn't seem like the sports business was one for the owner. Like, you have to, it's about the people in the sports world.

It's not about pinching every penny and keeping season ticket holder deposits when you just made $350 to $400 million profit. So we can move on. I think we've covered a lot. It's always like owners of sports teams, it's their hobby, dude. It's never about, for the most part, I mean, obviously there's examples around in every league,

but dude, you're so rich. You're like, yeah, this is my hobby. I own this team. I'm going to try to win a title. I'm going to spend money here, spend money there. It doesn't work when you're looking at it the way they were. So that's a good point. The good news is, though, is they're getting an amazing owner in Ryan Smith.

He's been first class. He flew down to Arizona to go golf with the guys and meet with their families and kind of explain to them that it's going to be a smooth transition, that he cares about them, and it's going to be a way different situation as far as the way that ownership is treating the people on board than it was in the past. So he will be coming on the podcast at some point. He wants to talk with us and talk about his forward thinking and how he plans on to grow the NHL in Utah. And I talked to him on the phone

personally, guys. People are so focused on this, oh, it's leaving a market that has 5 million people. And obviously, population is a huge component to TV ratings and a lot of things that go into these markets and how they're sustainable financially. But they got 1.2 million people in that market, and they show up in droves and support the community. And when it comes to basketball, apparently he told me they draw better than the Phoenix Suns. So it's all about community support, not necessarily the overall high-end numbers.

So interested to see. And I want to say they already had over 11,000 deposits on season tickets since they announced it on the opening day there. So kudos to them and excited to see hockey work in Utah. And Biz, there's already cities in metropolitan areas out there that are smaller than Salt Lake City that work. I mean, Raleigh's got to be way smaller than Salt Lake City, right? They're pretty successful.

It's about community support and how you're running your team and how fun you're making it. So a perfect example, R.A., would be the Carolina Hurricanes. Yeah, keep your eye out. I think, what are they, the Honey Bee State or the Beehive State? I would like to see a bee logo, like Georgia Tech with a sign of a sting. Those are pretty cool logos. Would you get an insect with a stinger on them?

That could work. See what happens. I mean, it beats the shit out of fucking a jacket. They're known for their bees there. They're the Beehive State. Yeah, that's the name. So I think it's actually on their state flag as well. Never knew that.

Well, all right, you named the Vegas Gold Knights mascot. You should be naming their mascot. Yeah, all right, we'll get on that. Well, all right, you named the Vegas Gold Knights mascot. You should be naming their mascot. Yeah, all right, we'll get on that. Buzz, buzz. Pilly's buzzing off. How about one more thing?

Shane Doan, his retirement banner, somebody left that at Gila River Arena. Like, that is the, like, how the hell does that happen? That's just a huge insult.

I know we don't have to dive into it. It's like, we're not the hottie boys over here. Just a huge insult, the fact that someone just took that.

I loved how the guy gave it back to him, though. That was cool. Yeah, it was. It was a good gesture, but it could have never happened in the first place. Anyways, moving right along here, we've got to give a little kudos.

Nikita Kucherov, Connor McDavid joined a very exclusive club. The fourth and fifth players in NHL history to put up 100 assists in a season. Kucherov also became just the third player ever to score 40 goals and have 100 assists in the same season. The only two guys to do that, Mario and Wayne.

This season, too, Biz, I know we talked how great the season's been. Nine players with at least 100 points, 350 goal scorers, 160 goal scorer, 33 players average at least a point a game. So offense is going up. Great stuff. Great time to have fans at the NHL. Yeah, bravo. Congrats to those two guys.

I feel like we've beaten that drum a ton. Give them a few more flowers, and let's keep it moving. Playoff time, baby. Yeah, they made it official, so we got to give a little stroke off. Yeah. Marc-Andre Fleury, our old teammate, the flower. He's going to be back for one last season, his 21st. He signed a one-year deal with Minnesota for 2.5 mil,

includes a no-move clause. He passed Patrick Waz 551s last year to take over second place. I do not think he's going to catch Manny Brodeau at 691, but 21 more games, he'll pass Waugh and Longo for second all-time in games played by a goalie. Whit, did you want to chime in there, buddy? I just love that Billy Guerin said, like I told him,

you're not ready to be done yet. Billy G was like, you still got too much to give. You're still too good to shut it down. And I think he loves Minnesota. He's been very open about not wanting to be traded this year. His family's comfortable this year. And it's in that city, sorry. And now it makes a very special next season, right?

His last game in Pittsburgh, his last game in Montreal, which I don't even think he played this year, correct? Weren't we talking about how they didn't even start him that game and what was going to be his last game in Montreal? It's a great thing that he's still in the league. The prank videos, the different press conferences, the soft-spoken flower with

the thick French accent. I love that he's coming back, and I love that Billy G was like, we need you one more year. You still got too much in the tank, so it's a cool story. Based on what he's done for the league, I hope he gets a nice stop at those places you mentioned. Oh, he will.

At the Bell Center, there's a beautiful presentation for him, as well as Pittsburgh. Fuck, he should get one everywhere around the league, just like Derek Jeter got on the way out. Yeah, the farewell tour. I think David Ortiz had something similar to that, too. His last season, practical jokes, he's going to be like the fucking Joker with the stuff

he's going to be pulling off. Duhame on Colorado is probably like, fuck. He put his car on, he took the tires off his car and put a flower bed on it the other day, so he's going to get them again. Dirt in the grave. Jeff Cotta hangs him off after 19 seasons. Played with Philly,

Columbus, LA, and Pittsburgh. Paris Stanley Cup, so obviously with LA. 851 points in 1,321 regular season games. Had another 84 points in 133 playoff games. Also played the 2010 Stanley Cup. And just an awesome scene. We'll see this a little bit more. I think it's just

indicative of the respect, guys. The Islanders all lined up after him, you know, dapped him up and shook his hand. Just, you know, we love this sport. It was just such a classy move by the Islanders, and I'm not sure I've seen that, like, in the last few years, Biz. Have you noticed that, other than referees and linesmen? Not sure, but what a weapon this guy is. He got it all.

Good-looking guy. He's tall, handsome, fucking huge rope, $100 million in the bank. What'd he play? this guy is. He got it all. Good looking guy. He's tall. Handsome. Fucking huge rope. 100 million in the bank. What he played with playoff games. He played close to 1500 games. Over 800 points. Played how many playoff games? I think he's played

150 playoff games. Two Stanley Cups. He's won a gold medal at the Olympics. It's just 11-20 goal seasons. I think he's got 4-30 goal seasons. So he did it all. And being the ultimate team guy too. Beloved by his teammates.

I'm happy he got to end it in Pittsburgh where he had a great time. Much like kind of how you just described Flower and how he loves it there. He said the minute that he got to Pittsburgh, they embraced him with open arms and he felt right at home. And that's not always easy, especially in the back part of your career. So a true legend of the game.

I was fortunate enough where I got to play under 17 with him for Team Ontario. And he was a stud then, and you knew he was going to go on to do bigger and better things. And after being a first-round draft pick with the Flyers and it not working out there, quick stop in Columbus, kind of like Quickie. Same kind of timeline. Not that quick, but yeah, it was quick.

And then it was off to L.A. to do all of his damage, where we really remember him for. The first time I saw him was lockout year. The Phantoms, Philadelphia Phantoms, the Flyers AHL team, they were a good team. Then they grabbed Richardson Carter after their OHL seasons. We played them in the second round.

They were both incredible. They ended up winning the Calder Cup. So he also was a Calder Cup. They went on this amazing run. I was like, who is this guy? He was so fast, dude. In his heyday, he was so tall. He had this long stride.

He flew. He could shoot it coming down the way. He could score any different way. And then it was kind of brutal for him. I mean, they decided to move on from Richards and Carter. Richards went to L.A. Carter went to Columbus. He's just like, oh, that was when Columbus didn't have much going. He didn't like it there.

And L.A. brought him in, knowing that he might be a piece that they'd need. And it certainly was because he goes on to get the Stanley Cups, plays a huge role there. And I don't know him personally, but he was a part of the greatest draft in the history of the NHL, the Paul Bissonette 2003 NHL draft. So he's one of those superstar 85 birth years. There's a bunch of them around and they've all started to retire. Corey Perry is another one still going. And congrats to him on an amazing run. Yeah, another retirement to announce.

Czech goalie Pavel François, he went 6-0 during Colorado's Cup run a couple years ago. He announced his retirement on Saturday. He was affectionately known as Frankie to his fans. He was an undrafted free agent when Joe Sackick signed him a month before. He turned 20 years old, played 73 games over four seasons, 44, 21, and 6. Had a great little career. I know he wasn't in North America a long time, but won a Stanley Cup 6-0 in a cup run.

So, like we say, always like to acknowledge guys when they finish their NHL career. So, enjoy your retirement, Frankie. You guys know him at all? You ever meet him? Run into him at all? No. No? No, I did actually.

Well, we were out there a couple years ago. I ended up going to a check bar. I don't even know who it was. And his whole family was there after he won that game that we were at, game two. Yeah, game two in Colorado that night. So I ended up getting drunk with his family at a check bar. Chalker.

Chalker. Shut up, Frankie. Chalker. How did you end up in that one? Big deal. Marty St. Louis, not going anywhere. No surprise there. The Habs exercised their option on him.

He'll be in Montreal for at least another three seasons. He's been behind the bench for the last two and a half years. Oh, I love this. And I was one of the guys I sent a tweet out about Slavkovsky. And he turned everything around. 50 points, I think. 20 goals. He looked great at the end of the year.

Suzuki had an awesome season. The young guys are getting better under St. Louis. Now I think that they'll start seeing a little bit more pressure of the year. Suzuki had an awesome season. The young guys are getting better under St. Louis. Now I think that they'll start seeing a little bit more pressure from the media. That's probably, with Toronto and Vancouver, the toughest market to play in, they're going to start getting a little anxious after this rebuild's been happening,

get another higher draft pick this year. Lane Hudson came in, played the two games against Detroit. What I tell you guys, he looked phenomenal. He was flying around. They got that guy coming in next year. They got that Reinbacher they picked, high draft pick last season, defenseman. There's a chance that things could get

pretty good, pretty quick for Montreal. Love St. Louis there. It's an exciting time if you're a Habs fan because there's been some days of darkness and you're at least seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. St. Louis is the guy, I think he's perfect to continue to have this team grow and learn to be pros. So it's awesome.

They're a fun team to watch. And we should mention those last two games against Detroit. What an amazing two nights of hockey. Detroit ended up getting fucked over. They tied it up. Oh, my God. Perron scores with three seconds left. Their playoff hopes are still alive.

And boom, Washington ends up getting it done. And Philly had pulled the goalie. So Washington actually locked it up with an empty net goal. But good effort by Detroit. Disappointed it did not end the season. Disappointing for all of us. I'd much rather see. Imagine watching Detroit right now with Patty Kane going against the New York Rangers.

I know. That would be a playoff series. Not the fucking Hershey Bears in the mix. Going back to your 2003 draft class thing, there are four guys who are still currently playing in the NHL who were drafted in the first round of that draft. Can you name them? Holy shit.

You got Perry. You got Flurry. You got Flurry. Yeah. You got Perry. Yeah. holy shit so you got harry you got you got harry got flurry yeah you got perry yeah um pavelski wasn't that draft it wasn't that draft um oh my god this is gonna bug me dude can you give me can you give me the i wouldn't even get the conference that's a clue brent burns burnsy burnsy was a first-round draft pick to the Minnesota Wild. He was drafted. I want to say he was drafted as a D-man,

then switched to forward, and then was obviously back to D. Showed up to the draft with a short-sleeved dress shirt. And the other guy. Give me the team. He was drafted by Nashville. Ryan Suter. Ryan Suter. Ryan Suter. Still going.

Unbelievable. If you go down the list of, I'd be curious to know what draft, NHL draft, it's obviously a little different now because there's more teams, had the most games played out of guys drafted in the first round. It has to be that. There's like 12 guys with 1,000 games, isn't there? If not more. It's remarkable.

It is remarkable. So I know I'm biased because I went in the fourth round of that draft, and that's my claim to fame. But it is the deepest draft of all time. And Nathan Horton got screwed by injuries, right? He was right there. He would have gotten there. Eric Stahl.

Oh, my God. We've said this a million times. If you're a hockey fan, go look at that draft. And then you got Bergeron in the second round. Yeah. Yeah. Shea Weber. All the guys.

Some other coaching news. Not as happy as the last one. Sabres fight head coach Don Granato after three-plus seasons. A record of 122, 125, and 27. They also fight assistant coach Jason Christie and video coordinator Matt Smith. The last time Buffalo was in the playoffs, 2011, it's a 13-season drought.

It's a league record. They've gone on the eighth coach in the last 12 years. 20 NHL teams have played at least 50 playoff games since the Sabres last played one. 50? Yeah. Don't know. 20 NHL teams have played, yeah, at least 50 games since the Sabres last played one. 50? Yeah. Don't know. 20 NHL teams have played.

Yeah, at least 50 games since the Sabres last played one. 30 teams have played 25 playoff games in that span. The only other one who hasn't is the expansion crack. And, of course, they just got here. They played 14. So, yeah, we feel bad for Buffalo fans, man. We're not trying to kick them down, but it's news. We want to report it.

Whit, if you were going to hire somebody for Buffalo, who would you hire? David Carl. Recency bias. That would be a guy that you chuck a bunch of money at him, and it's not a team where you're like, oh my God, like San Jose, you kind of knew. I think David Quinn might have known going there, this could

get kind of ugly with this roster, but Buffalo's got some players and some prospects, but bring in somebody, it doesn't matter who that will stress defensive structure and not giving up chance after who? So that's the other argument

is like you bring in like a Joel Quinville if he gets reinstated or a Craig Berube because you have to have somebody in there with Stanley Cup experience that the players are going to respect even if he's being hard on them. There's going to be some uncomfortable situations on getting this team where they need to be and molding these stars that they have on their team currently

and then the guys coming in to start playing a structured system that they can rely on that can be dependent over the course of 82 games. Hey, going back to last year, it was fun to watch Tate Thompson light the lamp and score as many goals as he scored and watch all these other high-flying offensive players, even like Darlene. But they need to learn how to play from a five-man unit perspective on the ice. They also, and a little bit of pressure on Kevin Adams moving forward. He took responsibility partly as well. I don't think he refueled on this off season coming into this year in preparation to have maybe a little bit more sandpaper and guys who could fit in certain roles in order to help them win hockey games.

That's going to be the move next year. Another thing is too, you always talk about, oh, the future's bright. We got all these skilled players and prospects. You're going to decide who you're gonna move off of who are the guys that you're gonna want to eventually go to war with and who are the guys where it's like ah we got a lot of these types of one-dimensional skill players we don't need we don't need too much of this we can find a Lowry or a Dakota Joshua. Bingo. Bingo. Or start fucking developing them. Not always the same bullshit. Biz, unreal point there because Dylan Cousins in his end of the year press conference actually made a point that they need to feel more uncomfortable.

Kind of like you just said. They need someone that can come in there and push their buttons. Basically, and Elliot and Jeff were talking about this basically calling Don Granato soft he said basically he wasn't pushing their buttons enough which I think that's to your point they need someone like a Joel Quenville like a Craig Berube someone with experience Stanley Cup experiences to get in there and and push their buttons a bit yeah and I I mean he just seems like a player's coach and an easy guy to get along with and he he's not like a big in-your-face type of coach. And if it's not in him, then, hey, not every coach coaches the same.

Like, look at how John Cooper does it. He does it a little bit more methodically where he gets them thinking, and he's a good motivator. So I don't think he was the right fit there anymore. If they would have ran him back one more year, I would have been interested to see on maybe the adjustments that he made on how he was interacting with his players.

But ultimately, you don't want to be too buddy-buddy. You just want to have their respect. And that's what they're going to need. They're going to need a guy behind the bench where when push comes to shove, he's getting what he wants and his systems are being implemented and they're not fucking the dog offensively.

I got a name to keep your eye on, Biz. Dean Evison. getting what he wants, and his systems are being implemented, and they're not fucking the dog offensively. Or you're not playing. I got a name to keep your eye on, Biz, or your ear on. Dean Everson. Former Minnesota coach. Yeah. Would you hear something, R.A.? I'm going to do a little something on the campfire. Ooh.

Rumor boy. Pull that out of the sky. Yeah, no, Dean Everson. That's definitely a name I would say keep an eye or an ear on for the next Buffalo Sabres coach. Leave it at that. Winter Classic, for the first time, it's not going to be on New Year's Day, boys.

We're going on to Wrigley in December now because it's going to be on New Year's Eve, expanding the college football playoff. I think some of the games are going to be on TNT, correct, Biz? So they're going to have the Winter Classic at 5 o'clock at Wrigley Field, New Year's Eve. I don't know. It's going to be on a Tuesday.

I actually enjoy that better because I want to get out of the game, see the ball drop, and that's good for me. I don't go the distance on those nights anyway, so just a little bit of entertainment, and it's going to be a good time. We're more than likely going to do a live show there, so now we just have to figure out what day we're going to get there a little bit early. Hopefully we could do something at the sports book, the DraftKings sports book that's now in Wrigleyville.

So, yeah, look to see all the plans that we set up for that awesome trip. And like I said, the game's going to be on a Tuesday. So we probably end up getting there on Saturday and or Sunday for that live show. And the last time we tried to throw one there, there was no sound. So we owe it to the city of Chicago to bring a live show, and we'll bring some heavy hitter guests just like we did in Toronto at the All-Star Game.

Absolutely. About to wrap up here, but we did have a very special weekend. I'm going to send it over to you, the FDNY NYPD 50th anniversary game. A special day. You were between the benches. Take it away. you, the FDNY NYPD 50th anniversary game, a special day. You are between the benches. What? Take it away. Yeah, I've just grown to love this event.

And it means so much to the people there, not only just to the people playing in the game, but the fans and the families. And we met we met families that came in from Michigan. They come in from all over to get to see their their cousin or their uncle or their brother play in a game in front of 20,000, 18,000 people where these guys will do anything to win. It is their Super Bowl. We went over it last year. And this year, I think it was a little more special

and obviously a little tougher because of what had happened so recent with Officer Jonathan Diller, who was killed in the line of duty. And there were people who knew him. And then we found out he was a Chicklets fan. He was a diehard Islanders fan. He loved the Isles. And so just to be a part of this game that was so close to his death, it meant so much. And that's why Dave Portnoy had come, who raised all this money and then matched all the money raised to give to Officer Diller's wife and his one-year-old son.

And there was a video of Dave in the locker room. He even came up on the pregame show and mentioned it was one of the hardest things he's ever done. One of the most emotional things he's ever done just because seeing this little baby and his wife, it's just so difficult to imagine this kid not growing up with his dad. And for us to get to be there, it's a lot of fun. And I think the guys appreciate it too. I talked to the coaches after, Coach Wakey of the police. He just thanked us so much for being a part of it. It makes it a little more special for the guys. You see some of the clips on Instagram and these guys, it's playing hockey. It's what they love to do. It's what they grew up doing.

And you forget that most men's league hockey players like yeah they're they're a plumber electrician they're a lawyer it doesn't really matter these guys when they're going to work they're putting their life on the line and and and it can happen any day where the worst imaginable scenario can go down which is what happened to officer diller and that's why these guys get this moment of having this game and for us to get to be there and see what it means to them and see before the game these guys getting ready to play. It's the same exact way a team would be getting ready to play a

Stanley Cup playoff game because that's what it is to them. So I got to come again and be in between the benches. I took a puck off the wrist. It missed my dong by about two inches. Thank God my dong is two inches. And then a puck came over the glass another time and buried Grinelli in the shoulder.

It could have knocked him out. So we had some action going on right between the benches, but it was a phenomenal game. The fire, and here's the thing. I was talking to some police officers, and it sucks to say, but not a lot of people want to be a police officer in this day and age and you you got so

many people out there who can't stand cops it's like and a lot of these people be the first first people to call 9-1-1 if they need help so it's crazy to me and i've said before there are bad apples everywhere there's bad guys and bad women who are police officers but a very very high percentage of them are amazing people that are willing to risk their life for you and for strangers and so right now right it's hard for these guys to get some some younger kids coming into the police force and going into the academy and then making their team a little bit better whereas i think being a firefighter yes any single day you can go to a fire and not return. Scary isn't as much

as that is to say, but there's a lot of people that are willing to be firefighters and want to be firefighters. So you're getting these young, talented kids that are coming on after maybe serving in the military. And that's an easier way to get on a lot of big city fire forces, fire departments nowadays is to be a veteran. So they're getting better and better and better. And the police, they got some good players that are getting older and they're not getting as much in. It was good this year to see the police added a young buck that was a rookie in the game.

Olsen was his name. He was flying around. He was in the mix. He jumped into a pile when his feet went over his head. There was action. There were some fights. Physicality. Brian Yandel came and joined us, one of my closest friends from the rink shrinks.

He's a Boston police officer, and so he plays for the Boston PD team. And he said recently that they played the New York Police Department. He had shown up. He had his kids practice. He's on the phone walking into the rink. He's like 10 minutes before they're going on the ice, 15 minutes before. And all the New York guys, they're foam rolling. They're doing the dynamic warm-up.

It's like, holy shit, we're in one. They're chipping the pucks in. They're running guys over. They're all wearing shoulder pads. But this game's physical. It's great to be a part of. We had the pregame show. Jeff D. Lowe was nice enough to host.

Biz, you were awesome. We zoomed in with you from Atlanta. It was great to get you on there. It was just a blast, dude. Fire got out to a 4-0 lead. Then they were up 6-2. All of a sudden, it's 6-5, which was the score last year. It ended up 8-5.

It's 6-5 with a minute left. Police had a chance. And so it was too little, too late. And I don't know when they're going to get a win again. It's hard. The Fire has that kid, Zay, and Lopes, and then they added this other kid, Pascali, I think it was. We were told, Biz, he's one of the best roller hockey players in the world.

He plays for Team USA. He's their stud. Let's get him out to a Chicklets Cup. That's what we said. This kid dangled. Like, sick one-on-one moves. You guys crushed the broadcast, as always. Obviously, it sucked I couldn't be there.

I love doing the calls, right? It's what I did for the Coyotes. Army hopped in, did a great job. Merles was involved in the broadcast. So, just, it sucked that I couldn't be around all those amazing people, including our own WAC pack. And just from the bottom of my heart, it takes a long time for all you guys to set this up. Gee, you included R.A. Witt and all the other amazing people on the Barstool side behind

the scenes. So I just want to thank you guys for all your attention to detail and putting on an awesome 50th anniversary FDNY NYPD hockey game. And I hope we get to do it moving forward. And how about that Selly from the fire team breaking in the door I mean a million views instantly on Instagram like that's an all-time celebration for a goal yeah and nobody and nobody can do it you gotta be a firefighter to do that Selly which makes it even better but dude the pre-game ceremony which was

hard at the 49th because they go over buddy one, one thing that hit me hard was they saved at the end for Officer Diller. And then there was a woman who was murdered, actually. I think she was a fire captain. I don't remember. It was a horrible story. They saved them, too, for the end. But they listed off the names of New York Police Department, New York police officers and New York firefighters that passed away this past year, all from, um, nine 11 and, and, and what, and the cancer they've

gotten and what they dealt with it, buddy, there was like, there was like close to 40 names on both. And I mean, that's 23 fucking years ago. And those people went into those buildings and all those people passed away that day. And now it's, it's what they were breathing in and the recovery looking for friends and bodies. And it's like, Oh my God, 23 years later, they're listing off that many people from both departments.

And then the bagpipes came out, they played amazing grace after, and it's hard not to get a little emotional sitting there during that moment. And you could tell all the fans, the moment of silence, extra long, nobody said a fucking peep.

And it was just an amazing experience. I'll do that every year as long as we can. It's an absolute blast, and it's an honor to be a part of. Hey, boys, a couple clicks for the NYPD and FDNY. We love you guys. You guys rock. And all police officers and firefighters out there. I know a lot of police officers.

You don't feel a ton of support these days, but there's a lot more people than you think. What do they call it? The silent majority that respect what you guys do. So I say thank you to everyone I meet. Thank you for your service and what you do to help. Same to the firefighters and all you New York guys. Thanks for putting on a show again.

We appreciate it. And quick shout out to everyone that helped put on this broadcast. show again. We appreciate it. Quick shout out to everyone that helped put on this broadcast. Frank Hill, Tom Reno, everyone on the FDNY team, everyone on the NYPD team, Lisa Litvak, Mike Rosenblum for producing it, and like Whit said, all the first responders

across America who put their lives on the line every day. You're here. Alright, so guys, we will be back to you Wednesday at noon, our first live on the internet show. So we'll have some chat stuff going. I know Biz's crazy brain is already like, I can't be looking

at the chat the whole time. I can't think of the chat. Look at the chat. Know what I'm going to say. So maybe Grinnell will be in charge of the chat. I'll be trying to keep a look at it. But it's nice because it's 2.12 in the morning right now. It's great to bring you guys the up-to-date stuff in the playoffs. But Wednesday at noon is going to be a good show,

and then it will release right away as a podcast. And we can't wait to bring it to you. And then Friday at 11 or 12, we'll have game notes. So we got you covered three days a week. This is usually when R.A. starts going out. Yeah, I was about to put on my movie for the night. Hockey's over. Put on Thief of the 900th Time.

All right, everybody. We love you. Have a great week. See you Wednesday. You can get liquor cheap But how much is your love? They say a drunken speech Is just so good that

I like to poke a bear I like to poke a bear, I like to stir the pot. But baby, come on in and take it up a notch. You hit me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot. She hit me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot. I said she needs a detox to cleanse her mind. Another week rolls in, we're on the road again. Thought I was safe and sound in my minivan.

But I said something that crossed her line. Oh, and I know she felt it. So I said she could have a free one on the chin. She went below the bell. Shit. She had me with a cheap shot. A cheap shot. She had me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot She had me with a cheap shot, a cheap shot I think we need a deep talk

You've been so on time