The Athletic Hockey Show - Carolina Hurricanes eliminate New Jersey Devils to move on to Conference Final, Alex Pietrangelo and Darnell Nurse given one-game suspensions

Episode Date: May 12, 2023

Hailey and Sean discuss the Hurricanes being the first team to punch their Conference Final ticket, and questions for the New Jersey Devils moving forward. Also, previewing tonight's Game 5 between the Maple Leafs and Panthers, Golden Knights and Oilers, including one- game suspensions for Alex Pietrangelo and Darnell Nurse. To wrap up, their take on the Flyers naming Daniel Briere GM officially, and Keith Jones becoming Team President.Have a question for the show? Email [e-mail] or leave a VM: [phone]!Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for just $2 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowRight now, Nuts.com is offering new customers a free gift with purchase and free shipping on orders of $29 or more at http://Nuts.com/hockey23 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Hello, everybody. It is a Friday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. Haley Salvian here with Sean Gentilly. It's a Friday morning pod. No Friday after dark. Sean's been jet setting. He's jet lagged.

Yes. Hold on a second. He's a sleepy guy. Yeah, that's right. I'm mixed in trips to Dubai. Jet setting. Jet setting between the beautiful cosmopolitan mecas of Edmonton, Alberta and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Not a lot of direct flights between those two places.

So I had a brutal travel day yesterday, and we could leave it at that because nobody gives a shit about sports writers complaining about their travel. but I am I am hurting oh so we're gonna I always I feel like every time we say we're gonna make this a quick pod and then we talk for an hour and 15 minutes and Danielle's like I'm gonna kill you I'm very rarely I'm very rarely ready to fall asleep and bang my head off my microphone when we're recording I think that's where I'm at today so it might be it might be short so we're setting the tone early but again like we're still in the playoffs here so that makes that makes that makes lining up a podcast very easy. So we're just going to do a rip around the league. Obviously, the Carolina Hurricanes. They're the first team to make it through the conference final. Sean, you were covering the Vegas

Edmonton series. So we'll dive into that. Talk about the Dallas Stars, the team that I've been on their bandwagon for a while now, my stars. And then we can talk about the Philadelphia Flyers making some changes in their front office. So let's start

with the Carolina Hurricanes. So they beat the New Jersey Devils last night. They win the series. They make it through the conference final. They will play the winner of the Toronto, Florida series. How'd they do it? They needed someone to produce points, and they found it. Like, this is what we said before.

Like, it's brutal to have to sit here and rehash the same thing over and over again and talk about injuries and whatever. Some black of juice to top the lineup. But it's true. It happened. They needed somebody to step up. fill the gap, right? There's a lot of really capable role players.

There's a lot of really capable forwards there, and they needed a few of them to actually dial it up and banging some pucks. And in that series, we saw it from Jordan Martinuk who's got a five-game point streak. He's been fantastic for them. I don't know if you did. Did you see that highlight or the, it was on Twitter?

He was just, you know, streaking. down the right wing. Puck kind of popped out to him. He was in free. And whoever was calling the game was like, Jordan Martinuk is turned into Wayne Gretzky. I did. I was like, where are you?

I was like, yeah, I saw the goal. What were you? Well, but he, and it was like, as he said it, he like, you know, ripped this nasty shot that one, you know, goes bar down with it. Because he's, because he's been, he's been unbelievable, right? That was the Jordan Martinuk series that we watched. five game point streak, whatever else.

Jasper Fast was a difference maker. He scores a series winning goal. To me, that's what the takeaway from that series was, was that everyone knew that the canes were capable of doing it, but it was going to take somebody kind of leveling up like that. And I think Martinuk was the guy in that series against the Devils. So good for them. It's fun to watch.

And just to refresh everyone's brain, Jordan Martinuk was placed on waivers in October. That's correct. And we all knew that the canes, like, I think when that news came down, we were like, Rod, are you okay? You love him. It was a cap thing. It was a cap thing.

But nobody picked him up. Someone could have taken him. Yep. He was for free, plus his cap hit. 1.8 million. It's free. One free. Jordan Martinuk.

And everybody passed. That was a, man. That one game we thought we thought maybe, maybe, maybe. Jersey was going to play their way back into it. It didn't happen. It's tough. Tough to come back against the Carolina Hurricanes. Who to thunk it?

Yeah. Really good stuff from Freddie Anderson, too, by the way. Shout him out. He was unreal once he drew back. and really good. I think the contrast of the two teams is really interesting, right? Because for the devils, it's just like, oh, my God, we just need a guy to go in and stabilize in net, right? I mean, Akir Schmidt was great in the first round.

Great story. It's good stuff. Wasn't that good in the second round. And then Vitech Vanichek was Greg Wischinsky used this, so I'm stealing it for him, an agent of chaos in the postseason. Yeah. An agent of chaos. And then you look at the cane side and I don't think it would matter. I mean, yeah, there was a game where they put up eight.

But in general, generally speaking for the first round and the second round, it doesn't matter who's in that for the Carolina Hurricanes. Like it really hasn't because. Been true for years. Totally. Like they don't need to go out and pay big money for, you know, a Vesna caliber goalie because they play a structure that. protects their goaltenders.

So yeah, it could be Freddie Anderson. Yeah, it could be Auntie Ranta. It could be Pieter Kucetkov. It doesn't matter because the canes are going to... Did I say that right? I think so. Thank you. I think it's important to try to pronounce people's names.

Yeah. Huh. Imagine that. And not make fun of them. Dom. Lus Chishb. That's one of my pet peeves. Just learn how to say his damn name.

It's our friend, Dom, God damn it. Hard to spell. Not hard to say. Dom has forever been Dom in my phone. It's just Dom. It's reasonable. I don't know another Dom. Copy.

But yeah, they play a style that, you know, pushes guys the outside. It limits chances. It limits high danger chances. And when it does eventually get to the net, then they have capable goalies to make the stock. I'm not even trying to, you know. extend too much credit to Freddie Anderson either. I just think it's, you know, he's playing well. And he basically lost his job at the start of the playoffs. He's hurt. Look, I hadn't won a series in, you know, a hundred years or however long it was. We've seen him come out and do it twice. Good for him.

That's all I'm saying. He's been great and the Carolina Hurricanes will await the winner of the Florida Toronto series. Ah, I think a Cain's, Panther's series would be kind of fun. Give me that. But maybe also really terrible because they would just be forechecking. I'll take it. I'll take it. No, we need more, said it before,

Southeast Division Supremacy. We need these teams involved whenever we can get them. I love it. Again, it just goes back to that first series against the aisles. that was like the Sebastian Ajo series, right? He was great and he carried him. But it was, I mean, it would be unfair to expect him to do that for all that much longer. That's just not out.

No team works that way. Even teams that have, you know, we always used to joke about it with the penguins in the playoffs, right? Where there would be Crosby series and then Malkin series. Sometimes Jordan Stahl series or whatever. But you need different. guys to be able to step up and carry the mantle against different teams, is that whether that's because of, you know, maybe playing styles mesh more, maybe, you know, there was something that the devils were doing that the maybe, you know, compliment Jordan Martinuk a little bit more,

whatever it was. But you can't have, but I don't care if you have Leon Drysidal and Connor McDavid. Like, you can't, you can't rely on one guy for an entire playoff run. That goes doubly so when you're talking about, you know, a roster that has Seth Jarvis at the top of the lineup of it, at the top of lineup rather than Leon Drycycle or whoever. You need, you need to share the load. And I think that's what we saw from Carolina. So that's a good team's deal. I think it's interesting because for all the talk of, they need more goal scoring at the top of the lineup,

what are they going to do without Svetnikov? What are they going to do without patch ready? what are they going to do without Tara Vinen? It hasn't mattered because they're getting it, as you said, from different people. And it's been different guys carrying the series or different guys carrying a game. I mean, Paul Stasney was the hero at times in round one, right? And now it's Jordan Martinuk and it's Esper Fast. And Spassian Ah, by the way, still leading the team in goals and points.

Like he's still playing well. Jacob Slavin is a plus 14. like Brent Burns. Point production from those guys as well. Yes. Well, they had one of the most active D groups in the regular season. They asked a lot of those guys, right? They were pretty quiet in the first round.

There actually wasn't that much offensive production in the first round from their blue line, which was uncharacteristic for this Kane's team. But then, yeah, you're getting Brett Pesci and Brent Burns and Jacob Slavin producing more in the second round. And it's all kind of coming together. Like, I don't, yeah, sure, there's some injuries on that roster. but like what's a major hole in the Carolina Hurricanes right now? If they can if they can just rely on on getting the goals somewhere. It doesn't matter where they come from.

Yeah. Who cares? They've shown for two rounds now that they're that it's going to come from somewhere. And that's what happens when you play the way that they play. When you have such when you have that amount of buying from from the team in the in the in the in the system, right? Yeah. They're they're as good a four checking team as we've seen. in the league for years and years and years and years and years.

And that's always going to give you a chance. And that's the Rod Brindamore effect, baby. Past and future guests, Rod Brindamorne. Yes. Let's try to get him on the show tomorrow. I should have him on today. What's anything going on? He said yes.

He said any time. He said any time. And the first time he said yes in a very limited window. 24 hours. You're like, hey, what's up? So what's going on tomorrow? Hey, is Rod busy tomorrow? Shout out to Eric.

Wife's out of town. Kids are out of town at a tournament. He's free. This is my off night. Sure, I'll hop on a podcast with these two idiots. Yell at them a bit. And I was like, oh. Okay, this was a funny one before we move on from the Keynes conversation.

Eric Halle loses again. He becomes the first player in Stanley Cup playoff history to be eliminated by the same opponent in three consecutive post seasons while playing for three different teams. So that's the Preds, the Bruins are now the New Jersey Devils, Eric Halle. Sorry, dude. The Preds is the real. That's real knife twist. Yeah. Let's look at the Devils for a moment just before we move on to the other teams that are still in it.

because sure, it sucks. Lost in the second round, but I don't think anybody's looking at, unless you're a diehard fan and you're like you were cup or bust this year, but I don't think anyone should realistically be looking at the season as a failure for the New Jersey Devils

when you consider the turnaround that they had. I mean, they beat the Rangers in seven. That's significant for the local fan rivalries here. And this isn't a team with a window that's about to shut, tight. You know, this isn't like the last shot for the New Jersey Devils. This is, this is year one with, I mean, this is year one of Jack Hughes's eight year contract. Like, their window is wide open and they made it to the second round and they put up a good fight. I know nobody wants moral victories

this time of year, but if there was a team to talk about moral victories, it's a Devils. It's them. Yep. There's so much optimism with that group and they don't even have all their good young players injected into that lineup yet. Luke Hughes just came out. Like Simone Nemich has barely played. They have a couple really couple young forwards who've yet to have yet to break through that they like a lot too.

Yeah. Like things are bright in New Jersey. I am going to be really curious, though. They've got a lot to do this summer. They have a lot of restricted free agents, including Jasper Brat, Sarankovic. Boquist

There's a ton of restrictive Him, let's say. The big one, the big one, the big one was at the top. To a lesser extent, yeah. And, and? But they've got money coming off the books as well, right? Tomas Tatars coming off. Miles Wood's coming off.

I mean, they could re-sign Miles Wood if they want. But I doubt they would bring back Tatar. I don't think so. He looked cooked. They just, they have a lot of work to, do. There's a ton of restricted free agents in UFAs. They do have a lot of money to work with, but 34 million in projected cap space goes away pretty quickly if you're trying to pay Tim Omeyer. So it's like, do you try to keep Tim O'Mire or do you save that money and get a real number

one goalie? Because yeah, Vianne check is signed for next year, but do you want to do that again? We got some, we got some... Schmead. Some things. you think they go with you think they you think they're going to keep the same goal in tandem i don't think it's i don't think it's i don't think it's impossible no what you look at me like i like i'm whatever like i got a third head i don't know maybe that's just recency bias because they were pretty bad in the playoffs but yeah because everyone was like all woo woo vana check all seasons so i don't want to be all of a sudden like revisionist history like he's actually terrible i

And he's not old either. He's 27. He's fine. He's fine. Maybe they go back. That's what I expected from. And what? Just let McKen, just don't qualify McKenzie Blackwood?

If you're not like, take him off the books. They have no, yeah, just you have no use for this guy, clearly. Just let him walk. I really thought Timo Meyer was great in that series.

And I think, I think that's kind of, you know. But he didn't score. Sure. And that's true. You know, score, whatever. You're the big trade deadline acquisition. Find a way to find a way to ban a couple in.

But he looked good. He looked enmeshed, I think, with the overall team. I thought he was doing a lot of stuff. And I think that is part of the, you know, that is one of the things that devil's fans should be psyched about. You know, you can feel better about how he looked at least. Because that, you know, if he comes out and looks just like totally how to play. again in that series, then you start to wonder like, what are, should we even? Yeah.

What do we do here? What's going on here? So he looked, he looked good. You like the pushback. They could have folded up and gone home and they didn't, right? That's, that's all you can expect from a, from a, gosh, a young team as good as they are, but also a team that made that ridiculously, that 40-point leap from last season. Right.

Like, what else do you expect? You won a series. All the young guys, you know, developed in a meaningful way. And they didn't go out like punks against against the Panthers. Take it. Panthers. Panthers. All Southeast Division teams are the same.

Against the hurricanes. The gains. Yeah, I think whatever happens with Tim O'Meer, because obviously he has the big $10 million qualifying offer is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights. whatever happens with him at least they didn't have to give up much for him like let's say

let's say he doesn't stick around you still got Dawson Mercer's conversation's a lot worse if Dawson Mercer's plan for the I heard a radio conversation and I don't ever mean to shade anybody but there was somebody who was saying like if I'm the devils I'm trading Dawson Mercer I don't mean to shade anybody but this person's name

but I'm about to yeah here's his address I'm about to docks this idiot No, I'm just kidding. He's a lovely person, but it was really funny conversation because it was like, if I'm the devils, I'm trading Dosson Mercer so I can fit Tim O'Meyer under the cap. I was like, what do you, what do you mean? It was one of those times where I wanted to like text in to the radio text line be like, but they didn't want to trade him for Timo Meyer. Uniscendant vile, nasty, harassing text or radio text line. To 650, 650.

Hey, you idiot. The shoe is on the other foot this time, my friend. No, I didn't text it, and people who do that are either very kind or very, there is no way of between. I don't know if I was, I was not in the trade Doss and Mercer for Tim O'Meyer camp, but I think it took like a couple of conversations I had with Mazassack, with Corey Mazasak to really understand why they like to. covers who what covers the sharks now but cover the devils for for years and he was like uh-uh basically like dawson mercer dossom mercer's a dude and they and they shouldn't they shouldn't even take it all that seriously so and he and immediately after that probably not all that coincidentally like there were times down the stretch where he was like is he their best

forward. Right? Like he looked, he looked, yeah, I mean, he's not, but he looked,

that he's a huge, huge, huge piece. And he's, and he's a big reason to be excited about that team moving forward. I, for,

and they are not short on those either. So, salute to the devils, man. Yeah. This is, that's, this was, it was a good run.

Run it back next year. Yeah. Those are fun to watch. Um, okay, let's move on to the one series that, it hasn't been a blowout game every single night. And that's Toronto, Florida.

We'll keep it tight here. Yeah. It's game five tonight on Friday. The Panthers are up three to one. Yeah, Toronto. Toronto wins game four. But they're basic, there's only, there's only two ways for this to end.

And that is a historic comeback from a three nothing deficit to become only the fifth team in NHL, history to do so. Will they lose the Florida Panthers in the second on the playoffs? And it's not going to be a sweet because they won game four. Uh, who. Every single, every, any, it would have been worse for them to get swept, right?

But I think it's worth, okay, but this is, would it have been worse to get swept or is it worse to come back home to Toronto and then lose on home ice to the Panthers in five? That's certainly something you can criticize them for. Like whatever happens here. Just. Either win the series or get swept. Every game kind of brings with it, you know, a different, a different peg to, to roast these teams. To roast this team, right?

Where it's like these teams, this team. Just the leaves. Game five, it's like, all right, well, a bunch of losers. But a bunch of losers gave everybody just enough hope and stuck around just a long. long enough to get cooked at home, right? That's what happens. If they win game six, it's like a bunch of dogs, man. They, they like...

They got that dog in them. Negative, the negative connotation. Oh. I try not to use a guy at that dock in a lot of all that much. You said it to Rod Brindamore. That was months ago. It's played out. Okay, continue.

laid out. All right. Kylo-Yemoto said that about a dry-siddle, yeah. Drysidal. It's like, did he actually say that? Did you make that quote up? I left it out. I left it out.

Oh, you did. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't actually put it in the series. Put it in the story. I was like, you know, eh. But no, if the Leafs lose game six, what's turned into? Chokers.

As soon as, as soon as the leverage. You could make it to seven. As soon as the heat turns up a little bit, as soon as, like, people maybe You start to think that there's a real chance that this happens that go out like punks. Game seven, they drag themselves all the way back just to lose to the Florida Panthers. That's probably the worst case scenario. Is it where you would know? That's a sincere question.

Why would I know? I'm mad at Leaves fans. Because you're in because you live there. They were so mean about the Kachuk story. I was like, you know what? I'm done. I'm sick right now. Why are we talking?

That was a Jersey short reference. That was true. Goodbye. It truly was. It was like for a minute they lapsed into the fake like the way everyone makes fun of Leaves fans where it's like, wait a second. What does this have to do with the Leafs? It was like a bizarre world's timeline.

Like he doesn't even have a goal in this series, you idiot. I'm like, yeah, he just has more points than. every single other person in this series. And the whole point of the story is like all the other things that Kachuk does. It was literally about like, Matthew Kachuk doesn't need to score the goal because he's digging in the corners and people are like, you're an idiot. He didn't score. Like,

as if there wasn't an entire series that took place before the Toronto Maple Leafs were even involved. And it's like, this story came out two days late. He hasn't been good since Monday. It's like, yeah. You know what you should have done?

That's how this works. It just, it just, I snap my fingers and I have a 2,000 word story with 12 people interviewed and it comes out within your timeline. You should have talked to a dozen people. That was a rough day. Somebody also, this one actually pissed me off. Somebody responded to that story saying like, he's not going to date you, babe. And that one I was like, really, like, can we not?

Like, really? When it was a Leafs fan, it was like Michael Bunting is king. or whatever. And I was just like, is this real? Like, you are so angry about the Leafs that you're actually going to like

make that kind of comment to a female reporter. Like, that's why I do my job. That pissed me off. So I'm, I'm mad at Leafs fans right now. Leon Drysidal's not going to date you, bro. A,

a, That hurt my feelings. You never know. B. Yeah, you're probably right. Yeah, you're right. Anyways, that was an interesting, that was an interesting day. But that was a lot of fun.

That story was a lot of fun to report out. It made you feel like you were just like sitting around talking to the Kuchuk family friends. My favorite quote was Taryn Kichuk talking about how she would basically just get hit by her brothers and then that she didn't get to watch Disney. Disney channel. And I was like, oh. No Disney channel for day.

Karen. But for the Leafs, I feel like nightmare scenario would be either like getting their butts kick tonight on home ice. Like you win game four. There's the fight. There they are. And like everyone was saying like, there's one. You just got to win one.

It starts with one. And then if they were to get like just obliterated tonight on home ice, nightmare fuel. But also losing in seven. It's like you bring. You do like for Leafs fans. And then I think the other nightmare would be like getting to seven and then losing. Because it's just like you gave us hope that you were going to be like historic and then you didn't. Game six is the sweet spot when it comes the when it comes to the series last year.

They tried. But there's there could be major changes if the Leafs don't win this series. Is this the only game tonight? Is there another one? There is another game. Vegas, event tonight. Well, let's talk about it now.

I mean, we didn't even talk about the Leafs. I just complained about how Leafs fans were mean to me. Good. We don't need to,

there's enough least content on the site for people who want to consume it. Courtesy. Yeah, I don't think Leafs fans even listen to the show. They're not short off. I don't know if I doubt it.

I think they listen to the Leafs report. Yeah. Let's talk about the other game tonight because that was the series that you were traveling on. It's, uh, Edmonton, Vegas.

Series is tied to two. Yeah. Let's start with the suspensions. Petrangelo. Alex Petrangelo. I'll use his full name. Sorry. Alexander.

Alexander. James Petrangelo. It probably is James, honestly. That sounded pretty smooth. One game suspension after the sumo chop to Leon Dreisle's hands. That's a good. That's not a bad one. That's not a bad one.

We were in the press box in Edmonton, or no, wait. It was afterwards. It was me, me and D&B, Dana Nugent Pullman and Jesse Granger, we were trying to go back and forth over, like, how many different, like, how many different metaphors we could use on the, on the Patrangelo chop.

I think I, I think I settled on, I think I settled on lightsaber chop, is the one that I used first. Because it was. Sure. cut off Anakin's hands. I can't believe

they actually gave him a game for it. I'm surprised. You thought he wasn't going to get suspended? I thought they were going to find some way to avoid it, yeah. Yeah. I thought he should have gotten two. I think the fact that him... So, okay, so here it is.

First, Petrangelo gets one game after the cross check. Darnel Nurse gets one game. And also Jay Woodcroft got fined $10,000. That's funny. I was like, why? Why did Jay Woodcroft do? sprinkle it in there. That's under rule 4621 for the instigator penalty rule.

Essentially, if you have an instigator in the final five minutes of regulation, you have an automatic suspension pending a review. After the game Woodcroft said that he thought the fight was between two willing combatants, obviously after review, the department, I always say director of player safety, department of player safety upheld the suspension. So nurse gets one, Petrangelo gets one. My problem is, is they should not have had like equal punishment. Like I think the nurse ones by the book, so I get it. And by the way, I think Woodcroft, he almost sold me on that in the moment when he was like, look, it was, it was the right call. But he was like, oh, I don't know, through the first seven or eight punches there. Like, like, whatever.

It was their guy. Like, but like, by the end, by the end of it. I mean, Mark Stone even said, like, they were talking about fight on the face off, too. So. Just the way that, look, man, like, the way that, the way that it actually went down, even though they talked about it before. And even though, and even though, um, who was it? Was that Hague or Roy? Yeah, it was Nick Hague.

Was like, he was ready for it. The timing just didn't work out for. Yeah. The time, the time just didn't work out for. What do you laugh? Totally. There's a truck outside my window that says milk. That's easier on digestion.

Are you like frantically looking over that? Can I get some of that? What is this milk? Excuse me. Set some up. We'll see about that. Let me test it out. Um, anyways, the suspension.

It was, yeah, two, two games would, you know, it would have been, it would have been more fair to see Petrangelo. Yeah, I think if they were going to give Nurse the suspension after the review, then I think Petirangelo should have had two because what they did is not the same. Yes, one is a by the book automatic suspension for the instigator penalty. The other one is skating over to a guy. at the end of the game on an empty net shot attempt and trying to whack off his wrists. Like, that's not like digging in the corners and you slash a guy and it's like oopsies, like that really hurt.

I mean, I think the fact that dry sidle didn't get hurt, at least in the moment, it's hard to see if he would have left the game or something because it was so late in it. But actually, did you see the clip of drysiddle on the bench being like, don't fight him okay? He's like, you sweet boy. Every day that passes, I love.

love Leon Driesidal more. He's so sassy and funny, so sassy and sweet. Big fan of Leandri Sidal. But McDavid, what's not the like? McDavid said that's about as

intent to injure as you can get. Obviously, McDavid going out and talking and saying like, I would like to see suspension. Yeah, that was wild. I think that it should have been bigger. And I understand that we're going to get ahead of this part. Okay. I understand. we understand that the oilers have been going at Petrangelo All Series.

There was a cross check to the neck from Kane that didn't get called. There's been all this shit. That one that hit, his head, like, crunched into the boards. Totally. We get it. Petterangelo is getting targeted. But, like, you can't go out. He finally, he freaked out.

He freaked out. It was like, it was a couple games worth of frustrations. We haven't. We didn't, I didn't really. didn't really hear from all that much over the course of this because I was on the first four games there like didn't hear from them much over the course of it which is I think sort of atypical right like he's he's got it he's usually is around you know after practice and stuff he was kind of kind of keeping to himself for sure which was not a surprise but we all like we all we all talked about it at some point me and Jesse certainly did like you know, maybe not like when's he going to freak out and try to chop off Lian and Dry Settle's arm, but that was a long time coming. It was because it was because of the cane stuff and it was because of some other stuff that happened.

And we were all like really, for the last couple games, we were all sort of waiting for something like that to happen because it, because it would happen with Kane and Colissar in game two. everything was like the temperature was high for the last for the last few games right and also some sniping with some like passive aggressive stuff but it started with woodcraft and kind of got you know involved bruce they've been pissy with each other basically for the for the duration of that that series so it wasn't a surprise see something happened but the degree to which we saw it was just was just crazy and the other thing The other thing that happened about this,

we didn't really see what happened in the corner because it was like, you know, because A, it was so late and it was in the far right corner from the press box. But what we did see was, was Petterangelo run up and, like, kind of, you know, that have this scrap start with McDavid. So we're like, what the hell is going on here?

Like, did one of the, like, you got McDavid, McDavid versus Petrangelo? Like, what the hell happened? And it turned out it was a slash. But yeah. I mean, I'm glad they did something about it, of course, you know, it should have been more, but it was a, I don't know, I had sort of assumed that they wouldn't because that's the hell it works. Totally. And I think we could have, we could have seen it.

Like, if anyone's surprised that they each only got one game, like, you're not paying attention respectfully. Like, they're not going to go and have, you know, the series is the best of three now, right? the player safety, they're not going to suspend Vegas's top defender for two games for two of the final three games this year. Give them. No, give them what you gave them a car. Like, that's clearly what the cost on Star Defenseman doing something out of pocket in wild it is, right? But if you're Michael Bunting, you get one game. You piece of crap, you are out for three.

Yeah, you know why? It's because the refs are biased against the Leafs. you know everyone in the league saying how do we screw over the Toronto Maple Leafs and get them out of here more quickly right right because nobody wants the biggest

nobody wants the center of the hockey universe to make it farther in the playoffs that's not good for business term just makes me sick to my stomach on us all right so you were let's just actually go to that actual series versus the versus the suspensions

why did Edmonton jump out to you as a favorite after game four. It's a competent five-on-five team against another pretty strong five-on-five team in Vegas. Like we had known that they've gotten better. We'd known that adding Echolm and Pugstead were relevant, you know, those are relevant pieces. Matthias Yannmark back in the lineup, too,

he had missed some time in that series. You know, they're adding relevant. You know, they have solid, solid depth pieces there in a way that they haven't before. but they also hadn't really put it together like that. So when you have, especially in those first few periods, when you have a team that controls the run of play as drastically as they did,

it was them across the board in five on five. That's been their issue. It's been their bugaboo. And the other thing that we saw in that game. Did you just say bugaboo? Yeah, I put it in my story too. I don't give a shit. Talk like an old-timey, old-timey carnival barker or something.

And then you look at the guys who actually were scoring the goals. It's Newgen Hopkins getting off the Schneide. It's, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's guys like that are, that are producing in a, on a night when it wasn't working for, for McDavid or, or, or, or, or dry saddle in the way they've gotten a custom to seeing. So I, I think, you know, the fact that they are that, that, that they were that dominant and that they were getting. goals from from the from the secondary guys is just that's exactly that's exactly what you'd expect and that's exactly that that's the best you could hope for if you're a fan of that team is is to have a game because i guarantee you last year if it's a situation like that where you know that's a game they lose because they don't have they they don't have the contributions from

i'm going to push back on that i'm going to push back on that because their depth players were really good in the second round of the playoffs too and that was a really really real like that was a real thing because everyone kept talking mac david mac david mac david but like vander kane had a hat trick in one of the games against the flames you know there were nights where mac david maybe didn't score as much but it was like new jen hopkins got the dagger against calgary in the second round you know like their depth guys were actually pretty good last year and but mac david was like unbelievable i think this year their show like i think the oilers this year are more complete team that when they play like that last night,

that's like when you, we were texting about this during the game, I was like, this Oilers team, like right now, yeah, it's one game. They've got to, like, the question remains, was that just a really good game? No.

Or is this going to be the jumping off point? Completely fair question too, by the way. That series has been ridiculous. Totally. It's tied two, too, right? In Vegas, pump them the game before. Yeah. Tide 2-2 and all four games have, sucked in one way or another because also very interesting narrative running through that

running running through that story and it's just something that uh ken volpe from from sinbin asked bruce cassie a couple days ago it was something that we'd been talking about basically and and ken just straight up asked him yeah bruce cassie great by the way great quote cool smart dude loves explaining stuff like i like he was he was great to cover i love when people explain things to me oh i've it truly like it's it's it's it's it's it happens so infrequently. When you find a guy who like, who actually does,

he doesn't just speak in generalities. He gets specific. Like, that's a treat whenever it happens. But Ken asked him, is it possible for both of these teams to play their best game in the same game? Because they're so like,

they're diametrically opposed, right? Like they're stylistically in, in Cassidy, like he thought about it and me like, like ponder the question for a second he goes probably not probably not you know and he and he gave it and he gave a really good answer i think that made it that made it's way into daniels in the daniel's story i mean it was and it's it's true so that that was that's a whatever that's a digression that i didn't mean to go on but i i that's okay i talked about milk so yeah that's fine to me for as good as

Newton Hopkins was at times last year, and as good as, and as good as Kane was, I still, there's something different about watching that team win a game, when they go one for six on the power play, and they just say, oh, well, you know what, screw it. We're going to be a dominant five-on-five team in control, you know, just kick their head in in terms of, and every single five-on-five metric you could expect through two periods. I don't, and I don't think that, we didn't see it to that degree last year at least. And if that's something they can sustain, they're going to be a problem. And that's the reason I picked them to win the Western Conference. And it's because of stuff like that. It's because they've shown flashes of that with with Echholm and Bukestead and a healthy

lineup there before, you know, before the playoffs began. Totally. And I think, yeah, watching that game, you, you watch them play that way. And it goes, boy, if they're going to do this, like, again, they can, this can be the new thing for the Oilers and the postseason. Like, that's going to be a really hard team to beat because they're not always going to go one for six in the power play like you know let the like what like of course we're we're going to watch this game tonight and it's going to be like will carry it comes out and has three goals and like and that's and that's it and we shake up what's going to happen but when you when you're working a playoff series like that all you can do is write the story that's in front of you that night and that was the story right yeah so yeah and

But it is. It's tough not to be a prisoner of the moment, but, you know, for me. Canadian bias. It's me. Finally, I was, uh... I love Canada. All the... I love Western Canada.

All those great nights I had in Edmonton, they really, they just won me over with their passion. That Joey really slaps. That's great. I had a great meal there. Joey, it's the Joey Bell Center about up. by the rink. Bell Center. Is that what it's called?

The Bell Tower. The Bell Tower. Yeah. We're on Canadian City. Dumbum. You know what? Because they're all the same. Yeah.

The other thing from that game that was great is I think there was some talk about like should Jack Campbell get the start? Stuart Skinner was just okay last game. And I liked that Woodcroft went back to Stuart Skinner. He didn't tight the leash and he was really good. Like sometimes a guy. just needs that vote of confidence from the coach. He got it and he only let in one.

Yeah, dudes, he's got, there's something about that dude. Skinner. He's got like, there's some kind of X factor there, I think. But he's got some Riz. We'll just say that. That's what the kids are saying these days, right? People keep saying that. I'm like, what do you mean?

What do you mean? Davidson has Riz. So true. I totally get it now. Oh, that's the shortened version of charisma. Yeah. Yeah. Do I have Riz?

We don't need to have this conversation on, Mike. Third segment, everybody. Don't say that. It's not the third segment yet. We have to talk about the Dallas stars very quickly. Jason Robertson is not scored a goal in this series, and it doesn't seem to matter. It doesn't matter.

They did make, you know, there is, one good step. You know, they're reuniting the Hintz-Pavelski-Roberton line. So maybe that will kind of jumpstart things because that is one of the best lines in the league, the last two seasons. They're back together. Robertson did have a three-point night in the last game last night. Rupa Hance has been unbelievable. Miro Hayskinin, unbelievable. I don't think he gets enough attention for how valuable he is to that team. He played 31 minutes with a huge gash on his face. The stars are a better team when Heiskenen's on the ice. Shocker.

Their number one defender makes their team better. That's crazy. What a stupid thing I just said. I mean, it was a debate. It turned into a whole stupid pissing match, straight out of 2012 between Michael McCurdy and the Dallas Stars official account, which is like... Oh, really?

No, thank you. Did you not see this? No. Oh my God Did he say something bad about Heiskenen? Micah posted So I mean everybody

Obviously Super impressed By the game That Hayeskinin had Was that the 7-2 game Or the 5-2 game? Oh god It was the

It was not last night Not last night Yeah He played like 31 minutes In that game And play on the ball With a fish bowl On his face

After they're almost getting His cheek carved up right? Yeah. And Dallas's results with him on the ice were like, you know, not great. And Micah pointed it out and the stars, you know, pushed back. And it was just like being transported back to a debate that would have been had like in 2012 where it's like, I kind of thought we were, I kind of thought we were done with this. The stars ended up deleting the tweet and whatever. Probably, probably the right move.

Mero Haskin is a good player. Dallas's results with him on the ice, you know, in that game. or whatever, but you got to account for the fact that, uh, my God, they watch the dude come out and play for, play forever with a bond villain scar in his face. Yeah.

That, that matters, that matters too. I'm not here for any Miro slander. Oh, God. Never, never, never, never. So that series is, uh, Dallas is up in that series three to two now. Uh, that went last night,

five to two against the crack in. Like, just reinforced, too, that they're doing this without Robertson. And that's part of that. That's because of, you know, we mentioned him in Power Rings this week. Fgeny the Donov, he's been really good. And he's like kind of the front man for, you can mix Max Domi in there too. The stars went out and added irrelevant dudes at the deadline.

And it's paying off now. And that's why you go get those dudes for what, because there's going to be a series. It circles all the way back to what we said about Jordan Martinuk and whoever else. Yep. You can't expect the playoffs are long. Guys are going to get cold. It's just the way it happens. Okay, but Robertson's been cold like the whole time.

Uh-huh, sure. Like, I'm not, I'm not trying to like, you know, absolve Jason Robertson here. He needs to be better. And I'm not trying to dump on him either, but yeah. But like, yeah. You know, shit happens. Totally.

And bad play happens. And unlucky streaks happen. And you need to put yourself if you're a general manager in a position to weather those moments. And Jim Nill did it. You got Max Domi's been great. You got Dadov who's been, that line, if you look at Dadov, they've only, they've been on for 10 goals, four and four against. Daddanov is just throwing Pucks on net. Only Pavellski has more shots and more individual shots per 60 than him.

And that sort of idea just extends across, you know, whether it's Jamie Ben, whether it's, whether it's Domi, Wyatt Johnson, whatever. They're getting good minutes out of those dudes and they needed them. Because we're having a different conversation if those guys aren't stepping up right now because the Cracken are pesky. Yeah, I mean, they have the star power

and the depth to match up against the Cracken step that everybody loves to talk about, right? 16 unique goal scores now for the Seattle Cracken and the playoffs and they're doing it. Like, it's crazy. And, you know, Burkowski and Jared McCann haven't even scored, you know, because they've been out,

which is actually McCann scored. So that's 17 unique goal scores. McCann scored last night. So that's 17 different goal scores in the series, not including Andre Berkovsky and now just including their 40 goal score. Like they're crazy, crazy depth on the crack. And but as you mentioned, Dallas has the depth to match that.

No Mason Marchment. He's out. That hasn't seemed to matter. And yeah, it's fine. Like Jason Robertson hasn't scored and it doesn't seem to matter because, I mean, obviously it helps when you've got Joe Pavelsky and Rupa Hintz who keep producing the way that they are. Hintz had a bit of a scare.

So hopefully he's going to be okay and able to play because he's just been incredible. Can you hear me? Can you hear anything I'm saying? There's a. Yeah, yeah. Okay. It's the milk truck? What's going on?

Yeah, the milk truck is doing something weird outside. Rupa Hintz played an entire season on a bad groin. I think it's going to take more than a scare to keep that dude out. And yeah, Pete DeBoer last night said he's okay. I'm not worried about an injury or anything like that. So it looks like he's going to be fine. I mean, he is tied for the playoff points lead with 18. And I just want to say that I chose Rupa Hintz to win the Kansmite trophy.

That is true. Honestly, I can vouch for that. And she's dabbing on camera. Let's go. who there's a there there is a vocal a vocal number of stars fans who listen to the thread I show who will be thrilled no that you've been that far in the tank for them to jump star wagon let's go baby okay so the final thing we're going to talk about today is a bit of news outside the postseason it's the philadelphia flyers yesterday they

made it official, Danielle Breyer. Did I say Danielle? Mm-hmm. Producer Daniel Breyer. Producer Daniel is the GM of the Flyers. Breaking news. You ready?

Let's go. She's going to do it from SoCal because she can't leave the ducks, but she is going to run the flyers. I'm putting gritty in that. Let's go. Yeah, here we go.

He's so big. Daniel Breyer. Intram tag is gone. He's officially the general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers. And Keith Jones was named the president of hockey operations. So I'll talk about this yesterday. I think some people were maybe being like, what the hell, why didn't they, why didn't they get somebody with like more experience in an NHL front office given Breyer

is somewhat new to this position? They should have gotten like a more veteran guy who can help guide him, blah, blah, blah, but like they very specifically are doing it different than that. Like this isn't a Patrick Alvin, Jim Rutherford situation. Breyer is going to be the guiding hand for decisions on the ice. Same with John Tortorella. Sure, Torrance is going to be involved in personnel decisions. Yeah.

Keith Jones, former NHeller, he played for the Flyers. He's been a broadcast analyst locally and on TNT. people love that dude all the people were like he's a great guy he can be good in front office i don't know we'll see but love that dude that's the point like he is going to be the like media facing talk to people nice guy and that's okay yeah yeah what's the problem here it's i think people are just so used to the to the way

the um just the organizational model that's kind of taken hold over the last bunch of years. I feel like it goes back to like Brennan-Shanahan and Trevor Linden when he kind of had that job with the Knox. It's like you it's like you have this you get the guy with some risks.

You hire you hire yeah you you hire that guy and but he's like the the lord of you know the overlord for everything. This is like kind of a more old school president you know a president position where you hire Keith Jones to be

the front facing guy with organizational ties because like obviously this is a pushback against what happened with him before right because you had Chuck Fletcher who is just who is another extremely nice guy but you know totally didn't connect with a fan base whatsoever

Keith Jones helps with that Dave Scott from from spec to core was another one that the fan base turned on that guy You want to have like someone with, you know, camera training and built up cred, you know, with the fan base. It makes, it makes sense. Rebuilding confidence from the fan base is really important. Because, like, I don't blame Flyers fans for being, you know, cynical, even cynical about these decisions because there's just been like what has been, like, what has there been to, like, be happy about. And, like, be optimistic about in Philadelphia.

So I get why anyone would be, you know, weird about these decisions. But like, I think part of this decision was made to start to get, start to repair that organizational fan relationship. To bring in a guy who is cachet with a fan base because the fan base rightfully had turned on the brain trust of the, of the previous brain trust or of the organization. They should have. Like, I don't, I don't blame them. So I typically rule my eyes at this. and I certainly did when I heard it at first, when you're talking about choosing between Keith Jones or Eddie Olick for the, for that, for that executive job, like, I get it. My own response.

My own response was like, you know, just scoff a little bit. But the more I've sat with it, the more it makes sense, because you can have this guy be the connective tissue between the business side of things and the hockey side of things. He's not going to be in there, you know, calling for reports from the, from the analytic staff or, or, or, you know, Or whatever. He's not going to be the one talking to analysts about that. That's going to be Daniel Breyer's job. And that seems like, you know, it's something he's well suited for. You can make, like, if you don't, if you're a Flyers fan who doesn't like having

a former player at the quote unquote top of the food chain, like, okay. But you can make up what you lose there by smart hirings and smart or smart hires under Daniel Breyer. If Dan Breyer goes out and hires, you know, like forward thinking, like a forward thinking AGM, maybe someone who's got some experience, you know, builds out an analytic staff or whatever, none of that stuff's going to matter.

The person you won that job right now is someone who can speak directly to the fan base and connect on a real level. And I think Keith Jones makes sense there. Like maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. But the whole deal makes a lot more sense to me now than it did like, you know, 24 hours ago. Yeah, totally.

I don't think it's... They're speaking right now. They're speaking right now, by the way. Yeah, I'm seeing Charlie... Charlie's going to have this covered. Yep. I'm seeing Charlie O'Connor posting some of the quotes from that. It's, yeah, it's happening right now. And they confirmed that Breyer will have full oversight over hockey decisions as general manager.

So, yeah, this isn't a president of hockey operations. This is going to go from the TNT broadcast to deciding who's going to be, you know, the number one center in Philadelphia. And like, that's fine. That's okay. Because we've seen like the whole veteran president of hockey operations thing not work before. I'm sorry. Like I know it's a different, there are two different examples, but the Brian Burke Ron Hextall,

like that, that didn't work. What did what did having? A lot of experience in that room. Yeah. What did having the experience of Berkey do for the penguins? I don't know what went on behind closed doors. I don't know like what his actual job was or what he was doing behind the scene. but didn't seem to work.

And then you look at Alvin and Jim Rutherford in Vancouver and that's like, I wouldn't say that's going swimmingly. Well, yeah, there's two, those are like two separate things. That's what I said. There's said there are different examples. I said that. Did somebody just break into your home? I've honestly thought that's what was happening for a second.

In Pittsburgh, you had Burke who, it was like, what's he doing? What's his job? Probably, you know, went out and did stuff with corporate partners and grease palms and, you know, whatever. And then the flip side is in Vancouver. It's like, what is Patrick Alvin's job? Everybody knows that brother for it as the GM. Yeah. Yeah. How much, how much, how much, how much authority does Alvin actually have there and how, and how much oversight does Jim have and seems like a lot?

So. I think Breyer is going to be. interesting like up and coming GM to track to, obviously he, we don't know that much about what he's going to do there, but he's got some experience. He was working in the minors for a bit, right? He also did the, he did a general management program at the Wharton School of Business. And I think Comcast Spectators is from Charlie. They kind of look at him as the next, like, oh my gosh, I almost said Wonder Kid because I was watching Ted Lassel the other night. Yeah, he's 46 or what. Yeah, right, but I think they think of him he's 45 as like this maybe next up and coming general manager.

He's got a good hockey mind. He's got first-hand experience, obviously, having been a star in the NHL, and he has this openness to analytics. So he's got this mix a bit of like the old school of having played in the league and played for the flyers. and this new school of being open to the numbers. Obviously, he worked in the minors. He was a special assistant. We talked to him. He's interesting.

He went to GM meetings in Florida back in March. And it was right after he'd take the interim job. We talked to him at length. I think he's this isn't, he's done a lot since. And this is a guy who seems like he didn't retire all that long ago, right, even though, even though it was. He's packed a whole hell of a lot of work into those years. He was running the ECHL team and he was doing everything for them too. He was like, they were like here, basically.

Like learn how to learn how every aspect of an organization kind of is run. And he did it for years. I'm not, you know, no one really knows how this is going to, how this is going to work out. But when you talk to Daniel Breyer and you hear how he's spent the last five or six years, you're like, oh, okay, this actually, this makes sense. So, yeah, I don't know. I think this is, I get why people sort of hit the, hit the alarm whenever the Jones thing happened. But it makes enough sense to me. Yep.

All right. Good stuff. I think we're going to end the show. Sean can go back to nap. Oh, man. I'm going to go get some of that milk. I'll report back later. Yes, this so-called easy digestion milk.

Interesting. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you, everyone, for listening. By the time we come back, we'll be that much closer to round three. I think we will be in round three. Yeah, we have to be, right? There's no way in the series.

Because what, this is game five? Yeah. We'll be talking about the conference finals. How about that? How fun. I'm ready to be done with round two. The blowout games, I'm not having as much fun. That's always, this is always the, the lull, right?

Because the fun of the first round is gone, but also the stakes aren't that high. I think better days are head. That's so nice. Thanks. We'll leave you on that nice note for everybody. I invented that saying. That's, wow. He's so smart.

Better days? host, Sean Gentile, everybody. Great. Let's leave you on that nice inspirational quote from Sean. And just with a reminder as well, if you're not an athletic subscriber, you can join us at the athletic.com slash hockey show to get an annual subscription for $2 a month

for 12 months. Thanks, everyone for listening. We will see you next Friday.