The Athletic Hockey Show - Are the New Jersey Devils the most disappointing team in the NHL?

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

The New Jersey Devils got run out on Long Island last night, getting blown out 9-0 by the Islanders. Sean, Frank and Sean wonder if it's time the Devils pull the plug on this season, they praise the quietly red hot Philadelphia Flyers, they ask who would be the better Stanley Cup matchup, the Avalanche vs the Lighting or the Hurricanes vs the Stars. Plus Frankie gives his scouting report of standout players from the World Junior Championships in St. Paul Minnesota.Hosts: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeWith: Frankie CorradoExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff DometWatch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. What up, what up is the athletic hockey show for January 7th, 2026. Oh boy, I almost said 2025. It's been way too long. I'm here with Sean McIndoo and Frankie Carrado. Boys, we are technologically in line. Everything is fine. Definitely not recording after a long series of camera and mic-related issues for McIndoo.

Hey, buddy. How are you? No, and my camera is not freezing. I'm just standing very still because I'm so interested in what you guys have to say. He's back! Oh, there we go. It froze with him linking.

This is wonderful. Also joined by, of course, the St. Paul Kid, Frankie Carrado. You were just there for 25 days at World Juniors, buddy. How are you? Feeling good, boys. Yeah, yeah. Nice to be home. St. Paul.

Excellent. What a great time. Actually, that arena, 3M, Mariucci, like where the Golden Gophers play. That's one of the coolest rinks I've ever seen. Like as a guy who played junior hockey and played with a lot of like insufferable college hockey guys over the years,

I get it. I get the whole thing, man. The campus, the arena. It's all cool. It's all great stuff. Tournament was fun. Nice to be home and back, you know, on the NHL circuit, if you want to call it that.

Well, okay. So Frankie's given an A plus to Minnesota as the world junior host. and he wants to go back next year. Cool. Permanent sight. He was, you were Texas about this during the tournament. I don't think it ever goes back to Minnesota, sadly. No.

State of hockey, but they don't really get junior hockey, right? Like they have high school hockey. They have college hockey. So, I mean, it's not really, junior hockey is not really a tradition there. So, I don't know. Listen, there was a lot of people we talked to that came down from Manitoba, Thunder Bay, drove five, six, seven hours. there was a lot of people pounded pavement to get there from Canada.

So that was really cool to see. So wait, I want to hear more about the rivalry between NCAA dudes and junior dudes. Like how hard does it? How annoying are those guys? Let's start with that. How annoying are the college boys? Yeah,

I mean, I don't know. Like, they probably say the same thing about us. We're so annoying. They're so annoying. And they probably think we're annoying because we say stupid things like, oh,

played in the show H. You know, like you talk about Sudbury and London and Kitchener and guys will talk about Lethbridge, like it's the best place on planet Earth. So I think it goes both ways, to be honest with you. But it, you guys are rubs and the college guys are dorks. Yes, exactly. That's the dynamic.

But I get it, man. That was a pretty cool stadium to see. And happy to be back home. I'll tell you that. It was a long 12 days, but a very fun 12 days. I'm wondering if you feel as disconnected from the NHL as I did after the holiday break. Like I, after not really paying a ton of attention up until really, you know, January 2nd from Christmas on, I zoned out a little bit.

You got to, you got to feel out of the loop. Me, I feel bad for you. Me and Jeff O'Neill, so we stayed at that courtyard Marriott right by the arena in St. Paul. And so we would head down in the morning after our workout and watch NHL Network, watch all the highlights, have a coffee. We called it the hang around cafe because everyone would just hang around. there for bits and pieces. So we would put in our shift, watch the loop on NHL network.

So we didn't feel super disconnected. Just we were busy with World Junior stuff from the afternoon onward. Yeah. And you guys were also in the gym eight hours a day is my understanding. So that makes it tough. Well, it's funny. Like as the tournament went on, the gym became less and less crowded. It was like everyone had to put their best foot forward right off the bat.

And then a couple late nights here, late night there. and then it's empty in the morning. I think there were only two days out of the 12 I wasn't in the gym. There were some other people, though. They were no shows. Absolute no shows. Name names. Who wasn't?

Do it. Do it. Do it. Yeah, I mean. How about our rhymes with? Cheryl Pounder was killing me. So right away, first day, she goes, I'll be in the gym tomorrow. No problem.

Every single day. I go, Cheryl, you weren't in the gym. No, tomorrow's the day. Tomorrow's the day. And we finally got to day 10 and she goes, I'm not going to be in the gym. Never mind. I said, well, yeah, it's been 10 days. You haven't been in there.

The great, the great, the great bit would have been if you showed up on day 10. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Oh, man. We've had, okay, let's, what was the story last night, boys? Let's start, let's start with New Jersey. They get absolutely spanked, nine nothing to the islanders. We were talking about this before.

we started recording. Like, what is, what is the shape of this season for them? Let's, let's dive in right there. Is this a, is this a, it's not their year kind of thing where they move on? Or do they have enough chips in the middle of the table and our expectations high enough now where they, they don't really have that, they don't really have that opportunity. I'm kind of on the fence there. You know what's crazy? If you say that it's not their year this year in New Jersey, which is fine. Like, I think that's a fair thing to say, this would be the year where it's so up for grabs. Like no one's really, I don't know, no one's really that much of a front runner in the Eastern Conference. It's so, so close.

And we've always kind of seen them as this team on the cusp. So if it's not their year this year, and it wasn't their year last year or the year before that, is it going to be their year next year? Like, what's coming that's going to help them progressively get that much better, other than, you know, maybe some players have some career years and, you know, your goaltender stands on his head. I don't know. Like, maybe that's a bleak. outlook, but it has not gone well for New Jersey. And here's the, you know, how it kind of cascades

and gets ugly for you. They have that game against Carolina where Luke Hughes, it was not a great performance for him, right? And he's getting booed off the ice. And they come back with that against the Islanders. Like, I don't know, man. Usually that's those, those types of moments is like, okay, we can't let this get any worse. It's a rallying point. Instead, it got way worse. You let and nine you left your goal tender in. He's saying it's all his fault after the game. I get it. Like they had the shot advantage.

But holy, man, I don't know. This might be a little bit of like a little bit of a reflection point for the devils to say like what actually are we? And is that going to help us win? Yeah, two things. First of all, on last night,

wouldn't you love to be able to read the mind of Patrick Waugh as he's watching another goalie get left in? To get lit up for nine goals? Like, do you think he's got, I hope Jacob Markstrom didn't go to breakfast with any random other NHL goaltenders and get any advice because that could follow up. Here's my question. Here's my answer, I should say, to your question of, is this their year? What do they do?

Is it, you know, do you just, who are you asking? Because if you're asking me, it's not their year. If you're asking me last night was the exclamation point telling me, It's just, this isn't the year. If you're asking Tom Fitzgerald, good old Fitsy, I think you might get a different answer because this guy has gone from the mastermind who has put together this contending team to within a few months. He might be on a hotter seat than just about any GM in the league.

Yeah, right. Like he should have had his cap in order a month ago maybe. Not getting Quinn Hughes. not getting Quinn Hughes because of the cap, because of the no trades, because of basically managing himself into a situation where he couldn't, didn't have the flexibility to make the big move when it was right there, right in front of him. And obviously every Quinn Hughes highlight in Minnesota doesn't help. He may now be under the gun. So if I'm, if I'm Fitsy, I might not be in a position where I feel like I can say it's not our year. I'll do a little bit of

selling will come back next year because I might in the back of my mind be going, yeah, I can set the table. Am I setting the table for the next guy who's going to come in in the summer and win with this team next season? A word on Markstrom, by the way, this is an incredible stat from the evolving hockey guys. That game, the biggest difference in gold saved above expected between two goalies who each played the full game. So, you know, Sir Okun was good, Markstrom was bad, but this is the incredible part. Markstrom has last night the worst single game goals saved above expected for any goalie in a full game where they weren't pulled.

So that's since 2007. So that's 38,000 games played by goaltenders where they weren't pulled. And Markstrom had the worst in terms of goals saved above expected out of any of them. That is remarkable stuff. So, and I look, this isn't just about him. I know he took the blame and, you know, said, put it on me and, you know, really went off postgame on himself, really. Like, I'm not saying that he's the be all end all of their problems because this is a mid-five team. They're mid-tables in terms of expected goals for.

They're, you know, somewhere worse than that in actual. So this isn't just based on Jacob Markstrom. But, you know, when you're dealing with a performance like that, that's a hell of an exclamation. point to a pretty nasty, pretty nasty run for them, isn't it? That's wild. Yeah. And I think one narrative that always surrounds the devils is, well, if they weren't so injured, they would have been way better, right? Like every year the injuries really pile up for them. And okay, like, they didn't have Jack Hughes for a while, but he's back now. And if you look at the injuries on this team, it's Zach McEwen, Kovsevich, Datenoff, Simone Nemitz. Like the one of most consequences,

because he's started to really like make his mark. And, you know, I guess Kovacevich is a good defenseman as well. Don't get me wrong. But I guess if you look at their lineup and you're like, you still have Dougie Hamilton, Brett Pesci on your right side, Seganthalor, Hughes, and Brendan Dillon on your left side. And I'm like, you know what? That's not, that shouldn't sink you. Like the injuries that you have shouldn't sink you.

And then up front to look at like the moves that they made, like, you know, the young kid Gritsook is playing. You bring in Connor Brown. Like, I guess what I'm saying is like, on paper, it shouldn't be a team that loses nine nothing. It shouldn't be a team that, that has two bad performances back to back. Like, there should be a little resilience there. And it's not like Jasper Brad is out and he sure's out and all these guys are out. Like, the big consequential guys, they're playing. So it's, I don't know, it's, it's a really weird situation. man. They're healthy enough.

They are healthy enough that for the middle of the season, this isn't an injury situation anymore. So I don't know. I don't know what they do. I mean, what they do next could be win two games and you're right back in a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Isn't that it?

Isn't that the variable for all these teams? Like, that's just the nature of the league this year. Where if they go and win three or four, then maybe people forget. But which teams is that realistic for and which teams are just fooling themselves? Because that's going to last right up until the deadline in the East, where you're going to have everyone is going to be one good week away from a wild card. There are three points out of a wild card spot today, but there's also four teams ahead of them. That's true for them.

That's true for the senators. We were talking about them before the record. like it's easy that the glass half full side when you're looking at the bottom of the Eastern Conference is like okay there's only a few points separating us from playoff position the glass the glass half empty part is that there's five teams four teams six teams for some of these like it's making up three points theoretically isn't that tough but when you have when you have a half dozen other teams that are also trying to make up those three points it gets it gets a little bit more complicated especially when some of those teams you got the Sabres who have lost again finally, but have been red hot. You've got the Leafs who have been pretty good for the last quarter of a season. And you've got the Panthers sitting right there. Does anyone think the Panthers really aren't going to make the playoffs? No, I think the Panthers are going to make the playoffs.

Buffalo wins 10 in a row. The Panthers are the Panthers. All of a sudden, the Leafs are playing well. Like, listen, Boston's probably come back down. I don't know. It's too many teams to leapfrope. even though it's two points. It's just there's all the parity,

all the teams that are in the way, good luck, that's a lot of choppy water that you've got to get through. Are they the most disappointing team in league right now? The Devils? It's got to be Winnipeg. It's got to be,

I put the jets ahead of them. But in the east, probably. What about the Rangers? Wouldn't the Rangers be up there for you? And for that matter, didn't we have higher expectations for the Blue Jackets as well? I don't know.

wasn't too far in on the blue. I think they were a great story last year, but I was, now, did I think they'd be the worst team in the Eastern Conference, which they are this morning? I don't think so. I certainly thought Pittsburgh and, uh, maybe Pittsburgh, maybe just Pittsburgh was, was worse than them. So I got, I got ag on my face, but I'm sure a lot of people thought Philly wasn't going to be as good as they are. I had a conversation with Kurz, like at the start of the season where I feel like he sold me pretty successfully on the flyers. I was like, I don't know. I don't know. Did I think that they're going to be, you know, third in the Metro division and have Trevor Zegrois given Hall of Fame interviews after, after, you know, games like, like he did last night.

I don't, I don't think so. But I'm not surprised to see them in the mix. I don't know if I'm just diluting myself there or what. I'm surprised. I'm actually very surprised and quite pleasantly. Like, I think Philadelphia has been an unbelievable story this year. But if you told me coming into the year that they were going to roll out Erson and Vladar, they were going to have Christian Dvorak as their first line center.

They were going to give Trevor Zegris an opportunity to see if it works. And they got a new coach. And I'm like, no, that's like a team that's ready to pick in the top three, top five. But what they've done, like they have, they've blown me away. And they won again last night against Anaheim of all teams too. So credit to Philadelphia, they've done a lot of things well, even though, you know, like Kerr's has given you a good argument. and maybe he was probably right at the time, but I think you could have looked at that team at the beginning of the year

and said, no way, that's not a team that's going to be around the playoffs. The fundamental bit of the argument that resonated with me back then was basically like, is Dan Vlodar particularly good? Like, no, right? Is Trevor Zegers going to automatically make them, you know, a top five power play in the league? No, but they were so deficient in those areas last year, in terms of just alone, those two spots,

power playing, goal tending, that if they got something halfway approaching competence, that they were at least going to be in the mix. So again, I like them as, you know, maybe kicking around on the periphery of a wild card race. Did I think that they were going to be third in the division? Like I said, no, I'm absolutely not. So, I don't know.

I'm fine with it. I think the league's better when the flyers are good. That's a corny thing to say, and you hear it about a lot of other teams. I do feel it strongly about them. I agree with that. And I think the league is better, not only when the flyers are good,

when the flyers have a little bit of like F you to them. 100%. We have something to prove. Zegra says something to prove. Talk it has something to prove as an organization. You know, they've been kicked around a little bit. Like they have something to prove.

And you know, it's wild of all that stuff that you mentioned. Like you mentioned the power play, there's still the second worst power play in the league. And that has been a constant for Philadelphia. Like every year, they're last or like second last when it comes to power play. Like that's that's just who they are and it still hasn't changed. But they're they're really well coached team.

They're stingy. They don't give up much. I'll put it to you this way. They stick to their guns as far as what their philosophy is and they're not going to deviate from it. And you're either a Philadelphia flyer or you're not. And I don't think that's the worst way to think about things. Mm-hmm.

We're going to take a break. We're going to come back and talk about a pair of potential cup up or cup. or cup matchups, I should say, that we saw last night. Stick around. All right, we're back. Two games last night that did not feature potentially the worst goal-tending performance in the stats era, as the Devils did. Tampa beats Colorado 4-2.

Carolina beats Dallas 6-3. The stars are shuffling. They've lost six straight, so that's not great. This might not be the best time to ask this question. But fellas, of those two, Carolina, Dallas or Tampa, Colorado, which one do we like as the potential cup preview for May? I like Colorado, Tampa. I like Colorado Tampa, but I also could see the stars there.

I guess the reason why I say Tampa over Carolina is who's in net. I just, I have a hard time trusting who's in net in Carolina in the playoffs. And it does feel like every year, once a team is able to figure out how to beat the hurricanes, the dam breaks kind of quickly, right? Like it's that whatever it is that you get them to back off a little bit or you get them running around in their own zone with like their, their sort of man on man style. And it's like, that's it. Like you crack the code and you beat them. Now it's not an easy thing to do.

But once it happens, it feels like it happens pretty quick. that's, I guess, my argument with Tampa over Carolina. And I think with Colorado Dallas, Colorado's been such a juggernaut, such a wagon, but you could flip a coin in that series as far as I'm concerned. Like the Dallas stars are a really good team, and I would even make the argument that they haven't even played their best hockey. Like, they can play better than what they have played based on the guys who are there and, you know, injuries that have happened this year.

So I don't know. That's that's kind of where I'm at with that. Yeah, if I had to bet on one, put me down for Colorado, Tampa. I think we're all kind of sleeping on Tampa a little bit. And maybe some of that is because the East is such a mess and they haven't had to be very good. Maybe we're just kind of bored of these guys always being near the top. But this is starting to feel like it's setting up to be their year. So, well, yeah, we put them up against the, the sleep.

Lumping Colorado Avalanche, spirally, plummeting, losers, two straight regulation losses. But if I'm doing it based on what I want to see, give me Dallas, Carolina. I want Miko Ranton in Revenge Playoff Hockey, Chapter 2, where you flip the script, and now it's the other side that's mad at Miko Ranton and not vice versa. I would love to see that. as a guy in the narrative business, give me Miko Ranton in playing for the Stanley Cop against the team he didn't want to stick around with. All right, so they're 03 and 3 in their last six Dallas is.

They've been outscored 26, 16 in those six games. How long would this have to continue for us to be nervous about them? Because I'm not there yet, but there's a certain point that this slide would kind of extend to, where somebody would start asking the question, And like, are they, are they as good as we thought they were? It's not after six games, but it, but it could be coming. But you know what I think happens now is because you get this long Olympic break, it's almost like two seasons where you could have whatever bad juju you want going into it and you come out of it like with a total reset. Like, we haven't seen this in such a long time where were you playing well going into the Olympic break?

Well, that's bad timing because you don't want that momentum to go away. And it works the other way. So I wouldn't, like, Dallas is a really good team. Like, I don't, I don't think you can argue that. But if you were, if your team wasn't playing well going into this Olympic break, it's almost like a little bit of a, it's a little bit of a life raft, to be honest with you. Like, it's a complete reset. Everyone goes away, comes back, refreshed, and we kind of start the year all over again.

So that's why, like, I think it's a great question that you pose, but I'm not overly concerned. And you don't want to have a month of bad hockey, but I think you can come out of this thing and really like make some hay coming, you know, late, late February and early March. Right. And then come February, we have the Jim Nill factor where he's going to be sitting on his couch and watching seven of his players participate in the Olympic tournament. You know, they have every good player on Finland, basically, is a Dallas star. Is there a general manager who's going to be more terrified watching these games?

than Jim Nill because it's like you're this isn't just these aren't just spare parts this is Miro Hayskin and Rupa Hins and S. Lendell and Ranton and like these are these are these are these are brand name guys all largely playing for Finland so man it's going to be it's going to be it's going to be a tough tough afternoons in the nil household whenever when ever when over when Finland's playing it's such a good point you know what like I kind of equated to a little bit of like just from my time in European hockey right like there's some cross-border stuff that happens. There's like Champions Hockey League where, you know, the top teams from each country in Europe will play each other. And it's like the fan interest

isn't that high. The team interest isn't that high because the domestic league is so important over there. And you're not going to compare the two, obviously, because the Olympics is this far greater, like spectacle than, than anything like that. But you're right. Like for someone to add there, but I really, interested in his team winning. And so much can can hinge on their success. Yeah, like, I, I'd be watching that very, very nervous just to be like, I need everyone to get out of there okay, because especially if you're not playing well,

going into this thing, we need to, like, we need to find something coming out of it. But I, I just, knowing what, what we've seen from the stars and the guys that are around there, I think this is just nothing but like a little blip. in the radar. They're way too good to let this spiral into something worse. And it's not even a Bill Garron situation where, you know, he's, he's, he's, Jim Nell is not the GM of, of team Finland, either. Like, at least, at least Garron can say, all right, you know, roll the dice on, on, unplan Matt Boldie for the, for the, for the, for the country where I'm from and the country that I'm the general manager of. This is, this is Jim Nell crossed his finger and hoping, hoping,

nothing bad goes, oh, nothing goes particularly badly in the, uh, in the finish games. But yeah, he's going to be rooting so hard against them in the quarter final. Like, it's just minimize, minimize the risk.

And then he's going to have to fake it when, like he sees them all when they come back. Like, guys, I was really rooting for you. I was really hoping to go to the gold medal game. Frankie, before you let you go,

man, let's give us like a couple takeaways about players from, from World Juniors. Yeah. We don't need, we don't need the breakdown on, what O'Dag's putting up in the courtyard gym. Let's talk about

actual guys that we're going to be seeing at some point over the next bunch of years. You know, the Gavin McKenna conversation is fascinating because he's such an incredibly talented player and some of the passes that he makes, like they're truly NHL elite level passes. But parts of his game

do need to evolve. Like his ability to win battles, come up with pucks, especially when it's on the wall. Like that's something that it's an area he has to improve on. And he would know that. That's part of the reason why he went to play college hockey, just to play against those bigger, stronger guys and learn that part of the game. But no doubt, like, he was very productive. He had 14 points in seven games. I mean, and people still feel,

you know, polarized on him. I mean, if you're, if you're productive, production equals points, points equals wins to a certain degree. So he's doing something right. Evar Stenberg, I think a lot of people came away from that tournament really liking what his game is all about. Like he is Kucherov-esque with a little bit of, like he's got some dog in him where he is going in. He'll pursue the puck. He'll come out with it. I was a big fan of what he brought to the table. Keaton Verhoff did a nice job jumping into the lineup. He moves the puck well. He's a big right-handed shot. The one guy that I think made a really good name for himself is the Latvian defenseman, Albert's Schmitz. I would be shocked.

maybe not shocked, but I would be surprised if he wasn't a top 10 pick, big left-handed shot defenseman who plays against men in the Finnish pro-league, Liga. He was really good as well. So, I mean, there's, we're going to, we'll hear these names. And as far as the drafted guys go, like Michael Hage, I was so incredibly impressed with Michael Hage. Like, I didn't know that much about him.

I know he's had a massive couple years at Michigan. But this guy is stepping out of, if he wants to, he'll, he'll step. out of college, he'll go right into Montreal's lineup, and he'll be a player. Like, he'll be an impact guy. I think he's that good. So, yeah, this is just, this is just more pro-Montreal Canadians bias from Frankie Carado. That's what it is. That's right. We see it. We see it every week. You're pushing the pro-habs agenda. That's right. Give me an American player that you like, please. Who did I like on the Americans? So the American, well, I mean, I really like Cole Hudson. I mean, and he had that scary moment where he gets...

That's Habs, that's bias adjacent, I would say. No, that's, you know what that is? That's Washington Capitals, unbelievable scouting, without ever being in a lottery situation, right? Like, how do you get, you get Mr. American World Junior Ryan Leonard, then you get Mr. American World Junior Cole Hudson. I think that they've done an unbelievable job identifying those players. So, yeah, I was a big fan of him. Spellacy. Spellacy was really good for the Americans. I thought he had some big moments throughout the

tournament. Will Zellers was awesome. He was scoring goals for them. It sucks when you lose in the quarterfinals, you don't get to see these guys play in the really big ones, right? So you're almost like out of sight out of mind. But I think the tournament lost a little bit of juice when the Americans didn't go through, unfortunately. Now we get to watch Evar Stenberg's March to the first overall pick That seems like that's what It seems like that's where we're going on

We'll see The pro Evar Stenberg They're out there They're out there and listen is taking over If a team decides to draft Stenberg first I don't think they would be disappointed I think if a team drafted McKenna first I don't think they would be disappointed

Nikita Kutrov with some extra dog in them doesn't appeal to you that's something's wrong. Winnipeg Jets, you're on the clock. Oh, man. Start thinking a moment. Exactly. Ivar Stenberg.

Hope you like, hope you like Manitoba, my man. Let's go. Frankie, what else is up this week? Can you hang out a little bit? Do you have to travel? Are they giving you a couple days off? You know what?

I got a Habs game against Florida tomorrow, so I'll be in Montreal, but then I'm off all weekend and Monday. So that's not bad. Very nice. All right, man, enjoy the time. Me and McIndoo will be back to wrap it up after the break. All right, there goes Frankie.

You folks are stuck with the two of us. Sean McHendoo. What have we learned? What have we learned, Sean? I don't know if this is something I learned so much as I was just reminded, but it's a beautiful thing in hockey when you get to see truly elite talent at its peak. And I'm, of course, referring to Brad Marchand's trolling game. when it comes to the Toronto Maple Leafs

as he dropped a doozy yesterday. And I gotta say, I even feel like he's not getting enough credit for what he brought to the table yesterday. Because the soundbite that's getting the attention is the one about how Maple Leaf fans ran Mitch Marner out of town. Which is, I mean, that's, it's nonsense, but it's near perfect level of trolling.

Throw in some red meat to media and other fan bases and that sort of thing. Just kind of poking leafs nation with a stick. A plus there. And in addition to his A plus, he's going to get some bonus credit for me because he also slid in the part about how he was almost a Maple Leaf, how it was like, you know, it looked like if it wasn't Florida,

it was going to be them. Because first of all, that twists the knife a little bit on the fact that the Leafs didn't go out and get him at the trade deadline. First of all, they went got Brandon Carlo instead, which that deal has not worked out, to put him loudly. The fact that the Leafs were apparently going to make him an offer in the summer. And of course, he didn't get there. He signed right before a free agency. But don't sleep on the fact that by saying it was down to Toronto or Florida, he's kind of lightly implying some tampering. or at least some behind the scenes like,

how did he know that Toronto was going to come with an offer? Obviously, we all knew that. It had been widely reported. But, you know, he's sort of implying that, which circles back to the Mitch Martyr thing in Vegas. Just a beautiful, just all-encompassing start-to-finish bit of trolling done in roughly 30 seconds of talking. Just an absolute master at work.

No notes. The guy is the best of the world. but what he does. And he didn't, and by the way, didn't make it through last night's game. No, he did not. The Leafs and Florida, that was a nasty game.

I don't know if, if his comments had anything to do with it, but the Leafs actually, the Leifes looked like a different team last night. They looked like a team that was actually, I don't know what the word is interested. You know, even when they win lately,

which they've been doing, they kind of, you know, do this, trying to do the boring two, one thing. that was a nasty not quite Tampa Florida level game but not too bad

I don't know if that if Marshaun had anything to do with that didn't make it through the game but apparently it was fine I think my favorite part of the whole exchange was and I'm reading off course off of CJ's write-up on the site

they just seem like they've become a hard team to play against Marchand said that was a much tougher series than I think maybe we thought it was going to be they competed very hard so he brought out the little brother head pat and that's like that was

the exclamation points all of this look at you you're getting a little strong you actually you know they tried a little harder than I thought they would honestly way to go and also pointing to a team that is outside of the playoffs and saying well now they're playing now they've really learned they're just trying so hard

don't change a thing guys you guys are doing this just right oh he's so good at that buddy what I've learned is that the love affair between Jack Johnson and Jim Rutherford continues. Jack Johnson announces retirement from the league on Tuesday after 19 seasons. He is, of course, joining the Vancouver Canucks as a pro scout. I love it, and I say this sincerely. I'm not being a smart ass here. I love how much Jim Rutherford loves Jack Johnson. Signs him in Pittsburgh. This is my favorite part of this, by the way. Jack Johnson retires. He is, however, being paid $900,000 by the Pittsburgh. wins this season. So still on the books.

Still on the books for Pittsburgh. Jim Rutherford hires him to be a pro scout for Vancouver. I just appreciate the obvious fondness between both sides there. Just a wild career for Jack Johnson, too. By the way, he's like at the forefront

of the stat wars for most of it, former number two pick. He hangs around for as long as he did, you know, and ends up ends up winning a cup. He's a fascinating, a fascinating fellow. He had a fascinating career. I hope he's a great pro scout for Vancouver. I hope someday very soon he's perhaps one of Jim Rutherford's assistant general managers. That's the only thing we can really hope for. And now that he is officially and formally retired, I wonder if there's going to be a day when I wake

up and I know the difference between him and Eric Johnson without having to think about it. Yeah. Eric Johnson, Eric Johnson's, his peak was better? Eric Johnson golf cart. Jack Johnson, endless, endless, the subject of endless Twitter fights over the entirety of his, of his career. Eric Johnson, number one overall pick, Jack Johnson, a couple of picks lower Jeff Carter, question mark? Jack Johnson,

Sidney Crosby's friend. Okay. That was how I remembered them for a large chunk is that Jack Johnson played it played at Shattuck with Cindy Crosby and they were buddies. That was the way he was identified

for the first chunk of his career until he became ground zero for the course he wars. Find you somebody who looks out for you the way Jim Rutherton. Truly. Looks out for Jack and or Eric Johnson. I'm telling you, man.

He should bring in both Johnsons. What's Eric doing? Is he still kicking around in Ross or somewhere? I think he officially retired. He hasn't played in a while, but. I thought he was made, I think I remember hearing that he was potentially coming back for, for this past season and then he ended up not.

Whatever. Someone hire him too. There's still time. There's still time. A scouting staff built entirely. of dudes named Johnson who were draft picks in the early 2000s. You could probably make that work.

I feel like that could be done. Sean McAnew, what's coming from me this week? I don't know. Talk about your posts. A lot of tech support, apparently, and I got a post up today where I pulled from the NFL. My favorite NFL stat continues.

The Chicago Bears have still never had a 4,000-yard passer. I thought it was going to. I thought it might happen. Narrowly missing out. And so I went and I pulled, I want to say, 11 stats from NHL teams of things that have either never happened or have not happened in way, way too long. And yeah, it's going to have, that's up as of this morning. Just kind of having some fun with that teams that have never had a hundred point score is

one of them. That's in the category of posts by you that I'm, I can't believe you haven't done already. Yeah, it's, it is. I get a little worried that, you know, sometimes, it does happen to me every now and then. I will be writing something and I'll go to research it. I'll type it in and I'll be like, oh, who wrote this article? This is kind of the end of my who's the, who's the, who's the dumbass who wrote this? The hell is Grantland? What is that? Oh, okay. Right. Yeah.

It's a defunct little red website from the, from the early 2010's. There's got to be a statute of limitations on that, right? Like, I'm allowed to redo. I can do the NHL 93 versus NHL 94 thing again. Just copy and paste. The cease and desist from Spotify will come in short order, my friend. Thank you folks for listening. Thank you, McIndoo. Thank you, Frankie. Haley and I are in tomorrow. Yes, we are back as well. We're going to talk Rangers. We mentioned how much of a mess they are too, and that muck of also runs the Metro Division. We're going to probably go a little deep on their struggles tomorrow with Pete Ba. So tune in for that. We'll have our typical, our typical silliness as well.

And the three of us, the boys, are back on Wednesday as well. So talk to you then. Thank you, folks, as always. And we'll chat very, very soon.