The Athletic Hockey Show - Chicago Blackhawks win Connor Bedard sweepstakes, Vegas runs over Edmonton and Will Smith is ready for NHL Draft

Episode Date: May 9, 2023

Sean Gentille and guest co-host Max Bultman discuss the Chicago Blackhawks winning the draft lottery and the right to draft Connor Bedard, and the Anaheim Ducks and Columbus Blue Jackets who lose out on the lottery, but will gain a top rated immediate impact player to add to their rosters. Sean and Max look back on a big game three effort by Vegas in Edmonton on Monday night, ahead of looking ahead to the other three series, Seattle vs Dallas, Carolina and New Jersey, and Florida poised to sweep Toronto out of the second round and a ticket into the conference finals and the tough news out of Denver, with Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog scheduled to miss the entire 2023/2024 season, as he will undergo cartilage transplant in his right knee on May 10.Will Smith, the top rated US born player ahead of the NHL's 2023 draft joins Sean and Max, and talks about breaking Auston Matthews US Hockey scoring record with the US U18 team, committing to Boston College along with teammates Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault and the United States capturing Gold at the U18 Men's world championship in Switzerland. Smith talks about the upcoming NHL combine, who in the NHL he emulates his game after and how much he is looking forward to the draft in Nashville in June. Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for just $1 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. Well, well, well. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Good morning, good morning, good morning. From the Tuesday boys. Craig isn't here. Sean Jantilly. I'm with Max Boltman.

He's officially a Tuesday boy at this point. We don't need to differentiate here. Craig is off doing boss work somewhere, I think, or maybe taking a vacation. He could be launching on a beach. Football playoff game. I forgot about that. I went to the first one last weekend.

It was intense game. That's right, because you were talking about it before our interview. With our guest, by the way, an appropriately time guest, Will Smith, who I think, Maxie, is it fair to say that he's crystallized as the top-ranked American player in this draft? Is that fair? Am I talking on school as a very remedial prospect of nowhere? here? No, I think the World U-18 cemented it. He was outstanding.

We talk about that, obviously, in the interview, the tournament that he had, which was pretty crazy. Did not ultimately get the Kuturov mark, but I think he tied Jack uses 20 points at that tournament, which is ridiculous, so. And he passed, is that where he passed

Matthew's program record for points? On the all-time list. Yep, exactly. Him and his Lama, Gabe-Prow passed it. And Gabe Pro passed it again as well. Yeah, past it more. It's a good time to talk to Will. He's a name you're going to hear a lot over the next.

Oh, gosh. Six weeks? How far out are we from the NHO draft? Yeah, seven. Six or seven. And it is, it is, Cori and I were talking about this as short of a runway as I can remember. Like, it's going to come fast.

We'll talk about that. We'll talk about the lottery results that obviously took place last night. Chicago Blackhawks stumble and bumble and gross everyone out on their way to the number one overall pick they're going to take Connor Bedard spoiler alert

only had one game last night and I was there in person in Edmonton watched Vegas take a 2-1 lead in that series. We'll talk about that a lot as well plenty of stuff in the hopper here but Maxie let's start

let's start with the with the lottery results um this is something that you have a lot of a lot of stake in honestly it's been you're like i don't want to say number three prospect guy it's not nope that wouldn't prospect adjacent that wouldn't be fair but you're you're part you're part of the prospect family in addition to the work you do with the red wings uh you're You're on the live stream last night reacting with the Prondog after the results came live. Let's talk about the dart first. Well, we won't belabor the point because we've all heard a lot about him. We're going to hear plenty more about him moving forward.

When we were talking before the show, I thought you said something interesting about, you know, your thoughts on where he projects kind of generally as a player, but also specifically next season with the Chicago Blackcox. I feel like this is something that could turn into a thing. Is Connor Bedard a center long term? Is he a winger long term? What does he do next year? And we need to, we should talk about that here because that's the, that's the mode that we're about to shift into because the lottery is over. We don't need to, you know, hit the tankathon button anymore. Like that, like those times are complete. It's time to shift into this next phase of dialogue. And I think, you know, Badard's best position, whether it's

next season or down the line is a big part of it. So what kind of, what do you expect from him as, you know, quote unquote, prospect of Jason Ryder? Yeah, no, I mean, I think next season, given what the picture in Chicago looks like, they should put him at center and just try it. But it's kind of funny. You often will see teams break a guy in on the wing to have him adjust. I think long term, if I had the right to Connor Bedard, I would be strongly considering him on the wing long term. I think he's kind of Patrick.

He's very Patrick Kanish. And if there's a franchise that knows that it's okay to have your friend face your franchise be a winger, if that's what they're best suited for. It is the one that he will be drafted to now. I'm not saying he can't do it. He's obviously he's played center. He played at the World Juniors. Like, you know, we're going to see where this goes. And center is valuable enough that you own.

owe it to yourself to at least try. But what I think is when you have a player who can be that dynamic, who is on the smaller side, unless it's like so fluid, so natural, we're talking like Jack Hughes here, why not let them just not be bogged down by the defensive responsibilities of the center position if you can avoid it? Now, it may be that they get Connor Bedard and it bumps them so much that they don't get another, you know, lottery break for a guy who can do that, really. easily that could happen, I guess. I wonder, you know, I do wonder how they see themselves

in the coming years here. But my instinct is three or four years before. I think he should probably be basically just replacement Patrick Kane. And I think that's still a tremendous outcome for them. Yeah, I was talking to somebody about this last night, about how teams have, and it was, honestly, it was about this topic exactly. I can't know who it was. But it was how teams, have dealt with ultra elite I'm trying to like wean myself off as saying generational because that word just has come to lost all meaning and also come to annoy me deeply but this like top this top shelf ultra elite center prospect and how they've been used as rookies in McDavid McDavid I don't he didn't play a shift did wing I don't think I don't

think so. Sidney Crosby played a little bit of wing, and he hated it, and he shouldn't have been there. And it didn't make a ton of sense. It was something that Eddie Olick did with the Penguins way back when, you know, just kind of based on the assumption, somewhat understandably that, you know, 18-year-olds can't play center in the NHL. So Sid did get some time.

That allowed him to, you know, get some nice photo ops with Mario Lemieux at that point and whatever else, but it was very clear, I think, in the case of Sidney Crosby, that that was not, and it's a different skill set and whatever, but Cid's just, he's a center to his core. Like, that's just what his skill set is. It's what his mindset is. It's where he's best, where he's best served. I don't, and for everything I've watched and everything I've seen about Badaard, I mean, the shot is the differentiation point there, right? And you want to be able to free that up and have him, you know, be able to deploy that without, without thinking about defense. I don't know. It's an interesting problem to have if you're the Chicago Blackhawks.

Yeah, you're not going to mind him being on, you know, an extra quarter to a half of a rush chance per game by being up at the blue line and hopefully, you know, take off a little bit, leak out a little bit sometimes early. I don't know. You can justify it either way. I agree with you about the kind of different skill sets there. I get the level of hype is similar to production, whatever, but, you know, I think Crosby's got kind of more of that superstar grinder thing going for him that makes it natural, et cetera. If it were me, I would. But again, I think next year it's almost a no-brainer. I think he almost has to play center next year. So it's almost a moot point. It's just they're going to see if it works or doesn't, you know? Yeah. You think the Blackhawks

wouldn't mind maybe throwing him on a wing for Jonathan Taves possibly? Dude, I had this exact thought last night. Like, so you're going to welcome this kid who's going to be to face of your franchise for the next decade into your locker room. And just weeks ago, you made the decision to publicly release a statement that said, you're not going to bring back the guy who's been your standard bearer. You know, that would have been one heck of an era bridge if you could have him there to, you know, just kind of run the room for a year with Bedard. I wonder if they regret it.

I really do. Well, that organization having something regret would be nothing new. it's worth repeating that they are going to use a draft pick on Connor Bader that they shouldn't have in the first place because they should have been docked that because of their organizational conduct and their failure to protect or report anything about Cuyo Beach, which they were investigated and settled for and deserved a lot, a hell of a lot of a stiffer penalty than the one they received. Now it's whatever less than two years later.

we're talking about the Blackhawks coming out of a rebuild and saying on the on the broadcasts over and over that they you know deserve that they deserve this pick and whatever a lot of people don't think so and i'm one of them you know that's it's insane to me that that team i know they were whatever publicly shamed to some extent and they got fine the the two schmill and people like that people like that they were whatever publicly shamed to some extent and they got fine the the two schmill and people like lost their jobs, but that organization didn't pay enough. Feel bad for the fan base because they had nothing to do with it here, but the fact that they didn't lose a first-round pick, and the New Jersey Devils lost one for playing cap gymnastics with Ilya Kovalchuk during a time that was allowed, and that the Arizona Coyotes lost the first-round pick for holding illegal workouts ahead of the draft, the fact that the Chicago Blackhawks got out of all this

without having to give up one of those under any circumstance. And now they get to parlay it and do a player who's, you know, people are writing in pencil, you know, his Hall of Fame induction 20 years down the road or 25 years down the road. It sucks. It sucks. And I was, and I was upset to see it last night.

It was a loud response to it was immediately. Drag these losers. Because it's still, it's impossible to like get over the fact that it's still, the same people still own the team. Like, the buck should stop there. And it never does. That's the way this country is structured at this point.

The plutocrats always win, right? That's kind of the way it goes. But to see it play out so flagrantly there, and to see them sell 500 or a thousand, whatever it was, all those season ticket packages they sold in the immediate wake of the Badaard Investors, the Badaard lottery win. I saw Ben Pope

from the Chicago Sun Times said that he had, and forgive me if this number's wrong because I don't have it in front of me, but they've added two and a half million dollars in revenue and ticket sales in the first hour or something. That's repulsive and they don't deserve it. And fans of Chicago might, but the people that own that franchise,

the words is, uh, don't because ultimately this is their fault. It, to me, it is a little tough to know because, obviously I agree with you there, but it's just, would this, would this pick have been the one that they had? They should have been dark picks for three years or something. Like it, it shouldn't have just been one. There needed to be some escalation on an organizational level based on what we saw the punishment turned out to be for the devils and the coyotes. Like, That, in hindsight, probably wasn't talked about enough, honestly, when the punishment went down. Like, what are we talking about here? The Devils did something that was allowed by the CBA, and it was retroactively disallowed in their punitive. It's insane.

And you have... Totally. And you go across sports, and that is a standard, is that when you embarrass the league, you pay a fine, usually in the form of a draft pick. So I completely get that. I just, I wasn't sure because I felt like people were talking about, like, okay, they should. shouldn't even have this pick, but if you're saying it should have been multi years for sure. 100%. I mean, whatever means jack shit coming from me. But yeah, they should have lost two or three years of first round picks. You are not alone in the sentiment. I mean, it's, I don't know. This is maybe a little neither here nor there, but I felt like there was almost a point where people were thinking like, you know, retroactively should they have been allowed to just, okay, you can't win

this lottery. It seemed to be the, the, the, the, tenor of a lot of stuff I was seeing, but on some, like, in other leagues, that would be, or in other situations, you'd say, well, the punishment's been levied, like, this is what it is. Again, I keep, I don't mean to keep

harping on this devil's Kobochuk thing, but this is the one that's fresh in my mind. They just made that shit up. They just made it up. They saw something they didn't like, they made up a penalty, they imposed it unilaterally, despite the fact, again, that this is, that this was permitted by the collective

bargaining agreement, or it certainly wasn't explicitly outlawed by it, the NHL can just make this shit up if they won. And they've done it before, and they'll do it again. And if they wanted, if they wanted to make it up after, you know, after the season, if they would say like, all right, Blackhawks, you know, you're ineligible to win. You can get the second pick or whatever. That sounds crazy, but it's directly in line with what they, with what the league is done in the past. They, they, they make. their own, they set the rules, you know? Yeah, you're right. That's kind of the wild card here as I'm thinking about this and just like, well, what are they supposed to do? Like, they can't

tip the scales, but you're right. If you're going to change settled, settled policies in some cases, I guess, whatever, should have just, if they would have done it, if they would have docked them two draft picks, two first round draft picks, this would have all been avoided. And it should have been two in the, and it should have been two in the first place. because what they did is a hell of a lot worse than Chica putting kids on exercise bikes at the team facility or whatever it was. I was truly not anticipating talking about this for as long as we have. But I'm sorry. What are you saying?

No, that's all. We can wrap that there anyway. But, I mean, it's certainly not going to be a popular. It was not a popular outcome here. No, they won. They won. People shouldn't be surprised by it. You know, everyone was like,

Flooded, the conspiracy theorists were out in the weeks things. Because the Weeks thing. Folks. So do people know, here's how this goes? That drawing was over. So Weeks did know the outcome there,

but not because it was rigged, because it had happened two hours ago. It happens in a room. Aaron Ports, I don't probably have an article on this already. He published, he made his move last night. He was,

he was quick on the button with that one. And he didn't, Well, and time better for it. Yeah, because in that case, I think it told a lot of people how it works. But it was a production mistake. So it's a mistake. That's a rough error. You know, people will remember the order leaked a few years ago, like a half hour before the show.

And it turned, we didn't know if it was correct or not, but it turned out to be exactly correct. And that's how it happens. It happens because as much as we like to think that Bill Daley and his little cards are the only people who know at that moment, it has to be a little more for the sake of the production. they got to prepare that little graphic where the things fly up and all that. That's the part. That's the part that the NHL gets is that like, okay, well, whatever, we can turn this into content. We can turn this into a TV production.

We've seen this in the past. We've seen them. They'll put video of the draw itself just for posterity sake on the internet, right? We're going to get that again. If it's not up already, like, we're going to see the actual draw. they're understandably wisely trying to turn this into a television production as they should. And that's what they're screwing up. They're not, they're not corrupt.

They're inept. What people always call for is they want to see the drawing itself. It's never going to be about the little balls with the logos on them. But here's my question to you. If you were just doing this number draw, I think there's actually a way to kind of make it interesting. Yeah. Because you pull the numbers up and you have like the like team still eligible and you

could have all the teams lit up and the second of all comes where it's a nobody's combination, they dim and you're just like, 100%. By the end, you'd have that draw. You solved it. You solved it. Vancouver was one digit off of Bedard. And if that was up on the screen of like, okay, if the digit is 13, it's Chicago or 14 or whatever, 12, and if it's 13, it's Vancouver.

it's 14, it's Columbus, that would have been incredibly suspenseful. I don't know how much back end it takes to do that, like how much code you have to build into the, whatever it's going to be or who has to know all this stuff, but I think that would be a pretty good TV event. Nothing that the league does, and this is their fault, nothing that the league does here is going to be satisfactory for people

because there's always going to be, I mean, people like I was, I was running the blog last night. Me and Mac and McIndoo were, you know, tasked with, with, with, with blogging the draft lottery, we had great stuff. By the way, if anybody's listening to this, there's a, that's a great clearinghouse for all our draft content because it's great stuff from you and it's great stuff from Corey and Corey and Scott and everybody else.

It's a kind of a great landing page for all that. But me and McIndoo were doing, doing a lot of the live work. And, you know, at some point after the flub, I was like, you can't. I was like, don't yell about a conspiracy. Like, stay woke here. Keep the eye on the prize. Be mad about the Black Rocks, but this isn't, they didn't put their thumb on the scale there because it's too hard.

Pulling a conspiracy off like this is difficult. You go with the Occam's Razor, you know, the easiest explanation tends to be the correct one that is here. Like, what's more likely that, you know, the NHL had a production screw up or that they executed some sort of high-level conspiracy that involved accounting firms and and 32 member teams. Yeah, there's, you know, all those teams that are eligible in that room watching this all play out.

So to me, that's always been the answer to the conspiracy folks is if you think that it's rigged, then you actually think the whole thing's WWE, because everyone's in on it. If you think that Pat Verbeek sat in a room and like allow that to play out, I have some bad news for you. It's not how it works. Yarmmo, these guys. Yarmo loses out. I mean, we should talk about Columbus.

I feel so. We say this. We can probably say this every single lottery. Let's move on. Skip Anaheim. Happy for Anaheim. You've got three amazing centers. It's all good.

We're going to Columbus. Yeah. Yarmo needed this. Columbus needed this. If you, okay, I tweeted this last night in response to the Blackhawks thing. I don't know if it was, you know, whatever. But like, lotteries do not have ethics. I meant it about the tanking.

You could apply it in a number of different ways. but if there is an ethic of man that team got cooked this year it is Columbus because they went out and they signed Johnny Goddrow if you had someone that you were saying that team was not just you know blatantly trying to bottom off for this guy it was them and they're going to go home just on the outside of this they're still going to get a good player they might get Will Smith who are going to talk to in a second it's going to be a great outcome you know who makes a lot who makes a lot of sense for the Columbus blue jackets a ton and I think he went they're in our staff mock last night.

So it's still going to be okay. But they did lose out on this. They were in this position. They did not tank. I feel really bad for the Blue Jackets. A big part. Look, was that team overrated? Had in the last season?

Absolutely. Were they over their skis in terms of what they thought in that room that they would do 100%. It's not a particularly good hockey team. It's thin. They don't have quality depth at any position. And the goaltenders, you know, as we saw, we're all, I mean, God bless Eunice Corpusallo, but there's a not sold on him based on his contract, right? Like, there's holes there.

That being said, that is a team that got decimated, decimated by injuries and went from being like overrated, maybe, you know, middle of the pack mediocre to, one of the few worst teams in the league. And it truly was, it's one of those cases where a team can actually blame injuries for a huge chunk, for being that bad. Like, it's always everyone's favorite excuse and it's typically overstated

because there's more to it than that. You still got to play the games. But what happened to that team at the start of the regular season was just bananas, right? Across the board at every single position. So yeah, there's, It's a roster that maybe wasn't as hot as everyone would have liked to have believed it to be at the start.

But they came about it. They came about this finish in an honest way. And it's like enjoy Will Smith. Enjoy, you know, maybe they're the ones that are content to wait on Mishkov. I don't know if that's, it seems like, I don't. You almost got to win some games, frankly. So I don't, I think it's fair. I think it's fair to wonder, wonder whether that's where Matt Vey ends up.

But we shall see. I did want to talk about the ducks for a little bit because you brought them up. And we can finish this and that'll be the extent of our draft conversation. You watch a lot of Adam Fantilli. He is like you, a Michigan man. Is he more or less aggravating than you are about it? I guess we'll find out. I'll tell.

What kind of player are the ducks? You never really know until you leave, right? Is that some weird saying? You freaks out. No, but I guess I might become one, I guess. Too many. I was fine with Michigan until I encountered more of you people in the wild. You, Stephen Nesbit.

Mike Persak, if you're out there. Ugh. Anyways. I feel like Mike has to be way loud. about it than me and Ness. Oh, dude, you have no idea. This is our, this is our mutual pal, Mike Persak, who covered the Pittsburgh Pirates for years. Run off by Ben Charrington, I heard.

Or not Ben Charrington. Not Ben Charrington. Who's the owner? I forget the owner's there. Bob Nutting. Run off by Bob Nutting. Silenced. Silence by Bob Nutting.

Persak lived in our spare bedroom for a little bit. He's a perfect human being except for the Michigan. shit. When he gets going on that, I want to backhand him, and I've been close. Anyways, Adam Fantinelli. Like, the duck should be happy about this, right? And I wrote about it, and I wrote about it last night through the lens of Jack Eichael, who is the last, you know, hard luck number two pick who had the misfortune of coming up against a true all-timer in his draft year. a lot of similarities there. A lot of similarities with, with I think part of their player profile

with their production in their college year with the way, with the way they project just overall Dom crunch some numbers on this for a thing I wrote here in Edmonton last night where those guys would have been, you know, based on point production,

they would have been better bets than I think 10 of the last 13 first overall picks. I mean, this is like, yeah, this needs to be stressed because I feel, I know you feel bad for the Blue Jackers. I feel worse for the Ducks than Ducks fans than anybody else because this is the second time this has happened to them. God bless Bobby Ryan, but, you know, Sydney, I think all things considered they'd rather have rather would have had Sidney Crosby than Bobby. So I feel bad for the Ducks fans,

but only insofar as, you know, that's how special Bedard is. It's not a knock on Fantelli. It's not a knock on what he should be. He seems like he's, you know, everything you could hope for in a second overall pick and a dude that would have gone first in, you know, literally 10 out of 13 years. I was going to say 9 out of 10, but we have like kind of the direct, a more direct percentage here, right? Yes. And I think they should be very happy. I know that I'm sure you feel that close. And I, in my head had kind of circle what's the most fun outcome here. It probably is Trevor Zegro's feeding one-timers to Connor Bader. Yeah. But Adam Fantilli is a.

tremendous player. It gives them one of the most coveted things I can imagine, which is three young, you know, top six, if not top line centers on the same team. Cori and I were talking about this last night. My immediate instinct is I would flex Zegras to the wing in time, however you want to do Fintilly's first year or whatever. But like in time, that's going to be your top line Zegra's Fantilli player X. McTavish is on the second line. Corey says, would you do what Pittsburgh did with Crosby, Malkins Stahl, in which case I think McTavish would be a tremendous comparable for Stahl there. Yep.

And we saw how that turned out, you know, so I'm not saying any of them are Crosby or Malkin, but outstanding players. Malkin play with Stahl a little bit as a rookie, too. He was the wing and Stahl was in the center. And I think you could do that. Because you said this before. I said this before every discussion on this podcast either comes back to the early 2000s, Detroit Red Wings or the late 2000

Pittsburgh Penguins. That's the way it goes. The only two teams. There's only two. Oh, in the thrashers. You know what? I really like the piece that Eric Stevens put up last night.

He was at a Ducks Watch party near the Honda Center with some fans and Fribeek was there and whatever. I think the people there, the people who Eric talked to have the right perspective. They're like, yeah, of course. Including Pat Fribke, by the way. He was like, yeah, we're not going to lie.

say that we didn't want Bedard, but, I mean, look at what, look at the opportunity we have here. We, we get, we get a chance to pick from everybody else, and there's some great players in the, you could tell for people just trying not to say, like, the Anaheim ducks with the second overall pick select Adam Fantilli, but he's talking about, you know, being able to add size down the middle and this and that. It's fine. They're going to be, it's one of the best situations in the league. Honestly, like, if you could start a team with anything.

You're going to go with three centers picked in the top 10. If you redraft these guys, they're all going in the top five. You got a DECOR who was quietly really, I love the guy they picked last year, Minchikov. I don't know exactly what he's going to look at the NHL, but he was just a stud. People like him, right? Yeah, like tremendously skilled. Now, is it too aggressive?

I don't know. You love like the extent of my job. Like, yeah, he was good. He's a first round pick. People liked him, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Crazy season.

So I'm a big Mitchikoff guy. So I think they're at a great situation. Find a goalie, I guess. Find a couple. But like this is the things. You can find these complimentary wingers. We know this. This is what everyone always harps on is that when you need to trade for one, you can do it.

You might be able to trade for William Nielander. Brother, that is a professional segue. We love it. We love it. We have actual hockey games to talk about here. We can move on to that before our interview with our new friend Will Smith. last night one game Vegas wins 5-1

in Edmonton goes up 2-1 in that series it's a game that I covered I am in Edmonton as we speak that was an ass kicking by Vegas and it was a response to an ass kicking we saw by the Oilers in game two we had three games here I don't think

it's been it's been back and forth to a kind of aggravating degree honestly we haven't had both teams show up And I'm starting to wonder if it's possible for both of these teams to play well at the same time. Because their strengths are so diametrically opposed. And the things they try to do and the will that they try to exert are on either ends of the spectrum, basically. What makes these teams good is just so far afield from each other that I'm not sure if both can be good at the same time. it's a very good question

like it does seem like at this point the game's either going to be one of these teams is scoring five goals and if Edmonton is not scoring it seems like this can happen I think this is what it comes down to is that Vegas is puck dominant you know their puck possession style their puck dominance

we saw a rule and I shouldn't even say that honest what I should say first off is that we saw a really diverse offensive game from them last night where you know they were doing a really good job of getting things started, getting the puck to Eichol in particular in their own end, having him lead the break in one way or another and turning that into offense. And in his case, turning into three points. It's a diverse offensive team. But when they're

possessing the puck like they did last night, the Oilers, it sounds even more reductive than I intended to sound. But that negates, you're not going to get penalties called. You're not going to calls if you don't have the puck, right? And you're not going to get that many calls in the second round most of the time, especially after the way the series has gone under any circumstances. So much of Edmonton's success is built on the power play that if, and even though they are a better five-on-five team than they have been in the past, even though they improved in that space at the deadline, if you have a team that can keep the puck away from them at five-on-five and completely negate the possibility that they draw calls or get anything, you just throw that out the window. Things could

get ugly, fast. And we saw that, we saw that last night, you know, it was a, it was a fun game to watch. Yeah, I wrote about Eichl after the game. I thought he was, this is like exactly, this is Zach, this is Jack Eichol at the top of his, at the top of his register. He looks as good as, as, as good as we could expect. And it might be a recency bias or whatever, but if, if Vegas can get 80% of what they got as a team, last night, like, this is, this is not a seven game series. I feel like you can kind of talk similarly about Vegas and New Jersey in that way. New Jersey has yet to play a close game in these playoffs. Have they played a single, like, nail biter here?

Or it seems like they've all just gone back and forth, 4-1, 5-2. Yeah, I mean, other than the, other than the, other than the, the Schmead game in game seven against the Rangers, I mean, there was the overtime game. I mean, that was the one, right? One overtime game and they won it. But since then, they're not that, they're not that close. We need one of these series. And we're honestly, we're seeing it in Dallas and Seattle, right?

Seattle stomped them last game. And they've, it's, these series are close. The games within them are not. Tonight, May 9th, we have Carolina at New Jersey. We have Dallas at Seattle. And then tomorrow, uh, I can't read the schedule from here. What's that say? Tomorrow is Leifes Panthers and Edmonton Vegas.

Leaves versus Panthers, huh? Right, right. We have another Oilers game. So we shall see, and we will leave the Toronto Maple Leafs talk to the other days of the week. I feel like we've strayed from our duties as the American hour here talking about the Leafs too much. Also, what's left to say? Maxi, I think that's it for the first segment. We're going to go to our chat with Will Smith, who very, very graciously took.

time out of his schedule. It's hectic, hectic era for that, for that young man. He's coming back from U-18s. He's got trying to squeeze some beach time in before, before stuff really, really gets wild here with draft prep. It was a great talk. Best American player in the draft, according to none of them than Max Bolman. So enjoy that. And we'll be back afterwards with the only good segment on the show. All right. We are thrilled to be joined by U-18. gold medalist, top NHL draft prospect, US NDTV legend, I think at this point, I'll say it, whatever. Will Smith, how you doing, man? Good. Thanks for having me. We're hoping that you can take a break here because it's been busy and it's going to keep being busy. So I'm hoping you're

off to getting some beach time or something here for the next couple weeks. Is that what's going on? I hope so. A couple of actually a couple of of the boys from the team are going to a Punta Kana tomorrow so we'll get a three-day trip there and then we'll come home. Love it. That's good news. Has the medal gone on any trips yet? Have you brought the gold medal in it

anywhere fun since you won it last week? I mean, we went to the Detroit Tigers game. We had to go on the field there, which is pretty cool. So that and probably just not taking it off the whole ride home. I saw that when I was at that game. How did Schultz just get the first pitch by deference of being captain, or was it the hometown thing? I think it was because he's the captain.

Fair enough. You couldn't like play rock paper scissors or something for it. Like stake your claim, dude. I guess so. So it had been a while for you guys to have won this tournament. You know, for I think 17 was the last one. I mean, what was the anticipation like for that? And what did it mean to you guys to be the team?

team that rents the ship and gets the gold again. Yeah, I think it's pretty special. I mean, we have all the pictures up in our hallway and the locker room. So we know when the last year of when the U.S. has won. And I mean, last year, there's a little bit of disappointment going going and losing that last game with such a good team. But, yeah, it was pretty special that we got the U.S. back on top. Start of the final. I mean, it was a tight game most of the way. And, you know, go into the third with a deficit? What clicked after two periods for you guys? What was that locker room like after two periods? Yeah, to be honest, it was actually, it was pretty chill in there.

I think some teams would be pretty stressed out. I think we kind of just looked at it like it was our last 20 minutes together from our two years. And coach came in and gave a pretty good speech. And we went out there and we were firing it all cylinder. So for you guys, I mean, your line with Ryan and with Gabe. It's, you know, Sean alluded to it. It's going to go down as one of, if not the best so far in the history of the program. I'm wondering, like, from your perspective, what has made it so successful for you guys? What works between the three of you? Beyond being good players. You're all great players, obviously. Yeah, honestly, I think it's the off-place chemistry we have. We're all going to BC. I think everyone knows that. We're such good buddies that we're

always together off the ice. So I honestly think that that helps us with the chemistry on the ice. When did the BC discussion start? Is that something you guys have been talking about for years? Like, when did it actually crystallize? Because the fact that it, you know, that's certainly the plan right now is it is for you guys that all end up there together. That's cool. And that's something we don't see that often. So when did, when did that process start? Yeah, I think coming into this year is probably where that picked up. I mean, I committed or, uh, last year and then Gabe was still kind of undecided most of this year and then as we started playing better and better together the recruiting kind of picked up and we're like why not why not come over so he probably made his decision and he's the right one he's the guy that it seems like

more and more people have taken notice of over the last month or two and just everything that he brings to your line like how do you break down his game what makes him a unique prospect Yeah, I mean, everyone sees the moves he can pull off. And he's so smart, though. I think he can find anyone anywhere at any time. So I think it will look like he's in a bad decision or a bad situation where he's got nothing really out there. And then he'll make a quick move.

And all of a sudden we got a 2-1. So, yeah, he's a really special player. One of the best parts about talking to guys in your position, especially coming out of the program, is, you know, We see the strides you guys make there. We see how you improve just year over year. Is there a guy in the group who you think maybe is flying a little bit under the radar or someone who's really, who when you look back at where he was a year or two ago,

you're like, okay, like this, he's, he's leveled up here. Is there anybody that sticks out for you? Yeah, I think Zid Bouillon on our back and he's just, his game just gotten better and better as the two years went on. And he ran our power play all year this. here and did an awesome job with that and like I said he just got better and better as the year went on what about Danny Nelson the guy who I think he might have been the player of the game in the gold medal game the guy coming out of the high school ranks and I think he used to play d right

like he kind of just jumped up to forward yeah he uh yeah he got us going in that gold metal game when we needed energy shift and um that line went out there and he got that tipping goal um from Eve. So I think he had a different situation from all of us where, like you said, he was in the high school route. And then he joined us after a year and he was, he was awesome all year. How does a guy like that work in? Like you guys are, have all this chemistry you've been building up and he comes in from outside and how does that process go? Yeah, I mean, it's a little weird having someone come in after a year. But I mean, he gelled in perfect, especially off the ice. He's, he's an unreal guy.

So, I mean, he blended perfectly in the room and he fit right into the lineup. So you broke Austin Matthews' record, points record with a program. When was that something that you realized was a possibility? Like, was it on your mind from, I mean, maybe not from the jump? Or like, was it, was it something you built towards? Did it sneak up on you? Like, what was, when did you start really becoming aware, like, this is something that could happen?

This is something that I could pull off. Yeah, I think as we got to the end of the year, around the 45 game mark, it was probably when that talk started to get going around the locker room. And, I mean, we weren't worried about it. It was kind of, if it happens, it happens. But it was pretty cool. It got to happen at Worlds. And, I mean, we all love watching them, too.

So it's pretty cool. Do you hear from anybody after you broke it? Anyone pop up on your phone that you weren't expecting? Not that I can remember, actually, because, I mean, the time. change was crazy and everything like that but um just uh probably family mostly you guys get pretty well traveled over those two years what's what's the best city you've gotten to see uh broad i'll have to go with uh basil where we were for world so i think we uh saved the best trip for last and that was a great time we got the it's not it's not a it's not a bad it's not a bad place to be in

general let alone when you're winning when you're winning gold medals huh yeah it was sweet So you get the downtime here, hopefully get some good time in Punta Kana. When does the real prep for like the combine and the beast that is, you know, the draft process really start for you? Yeah, I think probably the start of this month is kind of where everything starts picking up. Like you said, the combine's coming up and then the draft. So I think right when we get back, we're going to work and it's like we're in season again. So yeah, it's going to be a fun summer. I'm sure you know the volume of interviews that await you when you get to Buffalo and beyond.

The question you're going to get a million times, I don't know, I'm probably not even the first one to ask it to you, but I'll give you one of the early ones. What's the team that drafts you getting as a player? Yeah, I think I take pride in making guys around me and want to play with me. So I think I take pride in making the right play, but I can also be a score. So my hockey IQ and deception is kind of where I try to differentiate myself out there with my linemates. Do you got a player or two who you model after or who you hope you resemble or anything like that? Yeah, I try to watch Jack Hughes a lot. He also played at the program, which I think everyone knows that.

And I mean, he's been unreal this year. So again, to watch The Devil's Play has been nice. have you, have you seen Jack add anything to his game in particular over the last couple years? Like, like, I mean, because he, he leveled up this year.

We saw, we saw, like, he's up, up over 40 goals. We saw, you know, a production kind of explosion from him.

Like, what, how do you, as someone who's, who's watched him, you know, the last couple years, like,

do you feel like he's gotten better at anything in particular over the last couple years? I mean, like you said, the goal scoring, his production skyrocketed this year. And, I think that's something that I,

I tried to work on too is, you know, knowing when you have that shot to take it. And, yeah, I think his goal scoring. That's great. Awesome, Will. That's everything I got. I really appreciate you coming on here with us on a weekend and make sure you enjoy Punta Kana for us. We'll be up here. Yeah.

I'm jealous of you, buddy. Have fun. Well, thank you for having me. Great stuff from Will. I hope he enjoys Punta Kanta. Max, you mentioned the Blue Jacket. is a potential landing spot for him. Where else do you like before he go to Brick?

I mean, at this point, I feel like he's got to go on the top five. So, you know, San Jose, Montreal, I have to think would be strong options for him there. The wild card, you know, where's Montevichkov going to go? But I think Will Smith has given himself a chance with the way he finished this season with a tremendous final statement at the U-18s to go as high as maybe three. And I love it. I think it's a great fit if that's where it is in Columbus, but somebody's going to be really happy with him.

Made it a five-player draft. I mean, we were on the outside for so long about it being four-deep and stepped up and did his job and gave us a really solid top five. That's right. I'd like to see what next. What's next for him? He's a really fun player. All right.

An honorary Tuesday boy. So many are. Can I give that out? I don't know if I can give that out. Yeah, of course you can. Okay. You have, it's the word I'm looking for. You're like, you're on probationary member.

If you keep your shit together for the next little bit, we'll send you one of the Letterman's jackets. Okay, perfect. Thanks again to Will and again, we're coming back with the only good segment on the show. This is the only good segment on the show. So you tap your phone a few times, magically land in the comment section for our episodes

in the athletic. app. I gave good instructions a couple weeks ago. I don't think I'm capable of doing that again. Tap listen. Tap, tap, tap, tap a roo. Go to Discover, look at any, go down to NHL, tap NHL.

You'll see our little show cover. It's blue with a puck on it. You can find your way from there. It's not that complicated, right? And now I have to do it and navigate back to our interview with that Craig and I did with Colby Armstrong. He was outstanding last week. We talked a lot about the NHL's, you know, the televised product and what Colby's

doing there. Actually, actually pissed off a couple people in the comments. So we'll, someone will knock this out before, you know, before we go any further, there's Brandon S. Couldn't find him. guys there were three game sevens all involving american teams two with major upsets in the second round starts tonight do we really need to spend the whole episode talking ratings interviewing media members it's a fair complaint uh the answer though unfortunately is yes we did we did have to do

that because that's what we want to talk about sometimes you book the guest before the games that's that's right and the last thing truly the last thing we want to do to you guys is give you something that's completely timestamped like that and that is tough these episodes can't be time-stamped. Games, whether it's the previous night or the night after, you got to be careful because we want you, we want you folks, this is no joke, to be able to listen to this on a day that isn't Tuesday. We want this stuff to hold up.

So if we're talking about things that happened 24 hours ago or things that are going to happen in 12 hours, kind of doing a, we're doing a bit of a disservice. And yeah, the balance might have been out of whack last week. That's on us. But, you know, we wanted to talk to Colby about, all this stuff and he was and he was really good so the interview went long and this is his life this is this is what he's doing he's bouncing around he's figuring out how to make national television

on on a really really high level and that's what we want to talk about so whatever sorry but not not completely sorry breaking news here with the tuesday boys news desk max you've got some bad news for us for Gabriel Linescoq and the Colorado avalanche specifically. Yeah, the avalanche just announced that Gabriel Landiscag is going to have a cartilage transplant in his right knee tomorrow

and that is going to keep him out for the entire 20, 23, 24 regular season, which is obviously Gabriel Lannisog, you know, I don't think I need to tell anybody what he means to the avalanche, but that's a pretty seismic one for a team that we just

saw how tough it can be for even a reigning champ to go forward without him. Oh, God. Yeah, we saw they weren't the same team without him. Not at all. And they lost a lot of guys. You know, they lost cadre too, but I think that was the point. That's a team whose salary structure is so,

I don't want to say fragile, but it's complex by design. Like, it has to be. When you have a lot of good players that you're trying to fit in, you're just trying to put yourself in a situation to continue. tend for the next whatever, five, five, six, seven years, which was, which was the task, especially, especially coming off of, of the cup season. And a whole lot of that hinges on Lindisog being good and available and, you know, a huge, huge part of things for the next however many seasons.

That's, that's brutal. They're saying, they're saying now that he's out, so. Yeah, I mean, that's the, I guess, the silver lining for their cap is they can try to go, That gives them the flexibility to look now. They know that he's out. This is, I guess it would be worse if they got this news in November or whatever. But that's, that is, that is brutal. Cardilage transplant for a 30-year-old, yikes.

This news is horrible, but you also can't be surprised by it because whenever you see guys, like the timeline kept shifting, right? This was not supposed to happen to him this year. It was, he had, he had the off-season surgery and it was, We had the timeline and then that got extended several times. And for them to say also at the start of the playoffs or at the end of the regular season, like he's out no matter what, the fact that they made that announcement and say he's done for the postseason, regardless, was a really bad sign. But man, even this, this is worse.

This is worse than anybody could have expected reasonably. Yikes. Yep. No doubt. No doubt. All right. Well, and God knows we'll have more on that on the site. I'm sure Pete's writing something as we speak now.

That's wild. Robert G., watching the Cracken score four goals on Otter, Jake Ottinger, in like six minutes. It's reminiscent of the Cracken versus National Game where they set a new record of goals. Sorrows has let past. Honestly, curious what it's going to take for them to be treated like a good team instead of a fluke. When they beat the abs, and this is, you know, germane, I think, to what's gone on in the last five months. minutes. When they beat the ads, it seemed like the story was, yeah, as are hurt. We were right back to the crack and we'll bow out with time to the rest of their opponents. That's a, that's a good

point by Robert. Um, okay, but the answer is, it's, sorry, like, we did, we saw us with the Islanders. They went to two straight Eastern Conference finals. They pushed the lightning to seven games, you know, like a one zero game the last time. And still no one will admit that that was a good team. Like, I agree here. Like, I think they're a good team. I think the Islanders were criminally underrated through that whole thing. But when you don't have the stars, the headliners, and you're not having these giant regular seasons,

this is what it's going to be. It's, there is not going to be going, they can win the cup, but people will say it was a fluky year. That's what's going to happen. The tough part for me with that, and I look, I know that a lot of people are just kind of like, oh, cute stories, Seattle Cracken, you know,

they have a bunch of guys who scored 17 goals or whatever. I understand. A whole lot of people are saying that. On my end, what's frustrating about this is that picking them to lose to the Colorado Avalanche or picking them to lose to the Dallas stars is not... Disrespect. It's not an indict. I truly, to use the clear, I truly mean no disrespect.

Yeah. When I... I mean, yeah, you're right. You're talking about the race. You got to pick a winner sometimes. Right? Like you, when that's part of our job,

I hate making series picks, but you got to do it. And it was, it's tough to pick against the abs. And it's tough to pick against the stars. By the way, that series is not, I mean,

it's obviously not over yet, but they hung four on Ottinger. I don't think anybody, like, like Robert said. Was Dallas the number two most popular cup pick on our staff? I'm almost certain.

I think it, I think it had to be. The other teams play games too. and when our job is to watch all these teams and make assessments of them like we're not just watching Seattle and saying you know great story we're watching Dallas and saying the team has high in talent at every position

their issues with depth have been corrected you're getting meaningful scoring from you know from Evgeny to Donov and Jamie Ben is still playing you know playing and producing and Tyler Sagan had bounced up to that first line and replaced Pavelski and done work. We knew that Pavelsky was coming back. There are reasons or there should be behind people picking against the scrappy surprise first round, first round upstart that aren't necessarily disrespectful of a team like the Cracket.

I love what they did. I said it at some point, at some point, whether I wrote it or not, the way they played the abs should have been extra encouraging to them because for all we've talked about not having, you know, they don't have a ton of juice at the top of the lineup. Yes, Jared McCann scored 40 goals.

Yes, Maddie Baneers was, you know, in the mid-20s. But those are their guys. And that's a, production aside, that's tough, that's tough to, you know, throw out there against, against the rest of the top shelf contenders.

But the fact that they did that against Colorado, while getting nothing from those guys. In McCann's case, it was because of injury. In Baneer's case, it was just, you know, some rough play and some crummy luck. They got effectively zero production from those dudes, and they still beat the abs. And that was a great sign for them. And it's a good sign for them moving forward.

I'm not surprised that we're seeing this. Did I pick them to lose in the series? Yeah. But am I shocked that they're going up, that they're up to 1 on the starters? No way. Because that's a good team. It is one of those things of just, you know, especially now that Heisken and is hurt, and if he's, if he misses, do we know, is he out tonight for sure?

That is a great question that I don't have an answer for him, honestly. I don't know. I probably know more after morning skate, I guess. Now that he's hurt, it probably does come up more. I give him that fans are sensitive to this, but like, my advice is, like, who cares what we predict? It's totally true. Like, I, I, I'm begging people to pay less attention to this shit, because we have to

do it. It's part of our job. Everybody hates it. What percentage of media people, Maxie, do you think, look at prediction stuff as like the bane of our existence? Ninety-95. It sucks. It sucks. You're set up to fill. Totally. And that's why the move, and I guess I went against my own typical advice here, the move is it just pick up sets. And if you're wrong, whatever, and if you're right, you, you you know, you can crow about it. So yeah, maybe. You pioneered that.

Think about Josh Cooper, the ride Josh Cooper's heaven right now on the Panthers. If he had just picking to lose the Boston like everybody else, no one. I was a limit. I saw that. But now he gets to. He gets to, and he does.

Coupe. Yeah. He annoys a shit out of me. Text me about the Panthers constantly. Leave me alone, Josh. I beg of you. No, he did the right move. It is the move.

That's just sour grapes talking because that's what I should have done. And I didn't do it. it. And I mean, you've seen like the NBC something like a football desk pick up on this finally after how many times they got screen shot it. They get cooked in the screenshots shots by having, you know, you can tell, like Dungee or whatever.

It's like, all right, I'll just pick the factors. Like, okay, go lions, I guess. They're smart. They're smart and we're dumb. That's the way it goes. Cooper is the only one that gets it. All right. Tyler Ram. Hashtag Tuesday, boys. Crazy.

The Minnesota Wild Talk makes me wonder, do any other writers have a named following like the Russo Army? No. The Domheads. The down goes browniex. The Mendez men. What's the athletic metric used to indicate that a writer gets views to their material? Well, we're not going to talk about that last part. I'm sure me and Max are going to have a conversation about the off mic, because that is always a topic of discussion.

I need this little red dot on my screen to go away before I'm comfortable with that one. Yeah, my New York Times property laptop is about to explode, I think. We need more writer-based fandoms. I know, I'm trying to think of some off the dome here. Dom has it. It's the Dom hive or whatever.

But that doesn't have the same ring, does it? Dom's named following is, or they're Swifties, actually. Oh, yeah, exactly. He doesn't name them anything. there's a one to one ratio of people who have who have clock emojis in their in their in their Twitter display names and people who follow Dom I I dear listeners I wish you could see what Max is doing right now I think this is this this this is a dog related thing it was really frantically waving analysis at William S it's stupid to end articles with an athlete's career

stats when the article has nothing to do with their playing career please explain why everyone does that unless the answer is there's a word quote to be met. William has played four seasons of U-13 basketball. This is William giving his own stats. William has played four seasons of U-13 basketball wherein he amassed 1.9 rebounds and one block

and 28 games played for the cathedral cannons. Well, those numbers are rough. It's okay. Here's what it is. Here's what it is. Guess what? I don't go to the career stats. It is a word count thing. You got a problem with that? It is a word count thing and I don't go to the career stats unless I don't

know a damn other thing about the guy. That's it. No joke. That's what it is. Even though all of us here at the athletic compulsively write long and everyone's shit is longer by 20% than it needs to be as a rule, you go to... And we've had meetings about that fact that are met with the theory. Speaking of the Dom heads, suspect number one, what are you talking about? Career stats is when you don't no shit about a player. That's not about word count. That's saying, like, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't have anything here when people aren't returning my calls.

Exactly. That's saying sources were out to lunch. That's like the classic trade deadline, right? Like, you know, three seasons ago, we had a career high, 28 goals. That's like, I don't know. I don't know what the text to me back right now, man. Yeah, you're talking to, you're talking to Mr. Trade Grade himself. The shit sucks.

All right, Christopher B. this is going back to something Colby said and we co-sign everything that Colby Armstrong says at every point going between the legs to shoot is now the kachuk somewhere Merrick Malick is pissed which is true Merrick Malick the 7 foot 5

New York Rangers defenseman who scored in the 85th round of the shootout whenever the shootout was still a thing one of those shocking goals in NHL history probably given the specifics of it Yeah, I'm willing to give that to Kachuk. Colby's pioneering it. These things just change names though, right?

Michigan, whatever. You're only going to be able to moss somebody for so many more years here. We might already be passed that time. I'll die on that hill, brother. It will always, wide receiver catching a jump all over top of somebody will always be mossing somebody, ever. In a couple years, it's going to be like, I don't know, it's going to be, you met cap. him or you decayed him. D.K.O.

The main reason I bring this up from Christopher B is because we got a fun one about Matthew Kuchuk coming up on the site in a couple of days. Haley Salvia and Jeremy Rutherford combined on a... I'm not going to go too far into the premise of it, but it's an oral history. They got a lot of people to talk about

Matthew's game and his life and his rise, I guess, is probably the right way to put it because dude is still story of the playoffs. Did they put his career stats in it? I don't think they had to.

I think those two knowing if anybody on staff knows enough about Matthew Kachuk is Haley and JR. They're not doing hacky shit like throwing his like throwing his his GSVA in there or something. Canada L says,

I now need Mertz. It says God is his stathead. That is a reference to a really a really wonderful conversation, a really wonderful question that was asked of Craig and I. Max you, you know, I'm going to put you in the spot here.

Perfect. I'm going to phrase it myself because I remember exactly how it was, how it was phrased to us. If at the end of your life, God welcomes you, God, God himself, long white beard,

white robes, welcomes you in heaven and says, I will give you statistics on anything, on any part of your life, anything you want I'll tell you how many slices of pizza you ate

I'll tell you how many times you narrowly evaded death I'll tell you how much time you spent looking at your phone what is the staff that you would pick I don't want to know any of those numbers yeah right exactly actually trying to avoid that's pretty much what I said anxiety guys baby that's definitely some kind of trigger

I was I was trying to think about I was thinking about the phone thing you know I would I can you imagine if someone if someone said like you've spent whatever a year and half of your life on your phone I'd never I never want to know that my answer was how many McDonald's or how many McNuggets I ate my one that's a good one stupid I want something I want something that's like completely meaningless but that I can just care like I'll be mostly encouraged that it's going to be a good number but completely meaningless in how I view my own life. I want like my beer league face off for something like that. Just so as I'm

walking around heaven, I can be like, yeah, no, 54% career. But it doesn't reflect how I view my own life. It's not like how many times in your life you skip taking a shower or whatever. Exactly. No, I don't want to know that. Not humiliating. Timothy S. I was talking about my direction to the comment section. He says, my direction is the comment section were just okay. Luckily, we have the Gentile positioning system for things like this. Which is. is a joke from Stick to Sports, my podcast with the puck soup family.

One of these 65 people to listen to that. What up, Timothy is? Anyway, my question is, who is the next American-born player to touch the cup? So who wins and which American is handed the cup by a teammate first since there are no American captains left in the playoffs? I love this question.

I love this question, and I did not read it beforehand, and this is the first time I've given a thought. If we're fast forwarding through some of these here, who are the teams we still think I have a chance to win the cup? I think Florida, obviously. Dallas. That commenter is going to kill me if I don't say Seattle. Vegas.

Is it Jack Eichel? I think based on overall vibes and based on stats here, I think it might be Jack. Cichuck is obviously a strong contender Cichuck is a strong Ottinger, is Suter an old guy without a couple? Ottinger isn't the guy on Dallas. Pavellski. So it would be Pavellski, Kachuk.

Pavellsky is the ultimate old guy without a cup. 100%. Well, we can't pick Pavellisky because we just are going to get destroyed for it. How about this? Seattle will kill us. How about this? If Dallas comes back and beat Seattle,

it's Povsky. Yeah, I think it's, either Eichel or Kachuk. Right now it's hard to go. I know, right. I know. You know, I'm a famous prisoner of the moment. Yep.

This answer is going to change tomorrow. It's completely true. We need to add this into the all 32. Oh, man. And then we'll get questions about why, I don't know who else is in this series, why Austin Matthews is getting disrespected.

I don't know if I can handle that. What would need to happen in these games for it to, for it, for it to flip? it back that far. No, it's not happening. It's not happening. It's impossible. You guys were great this week.

There are 23 questions. We're not going to get in all of them because they're 23 questions, 23 comments. They were all great. You're bringing the heat. We love you for it. And we are sorry. Craig and I are, I'll apologize on his behalf for talking a little bit too much about TV ratings last week. But it's interesting to us.

And this podcast, if nothing else, is a reflection of the shunted me or Max, your Craig, your Craig finds interesting. That's the way it goes. Self-indulgent nonsense. Here at theathletic.com. I only guess so that I can clip things and send him to Mike Persec when we mention him. This is like, we should have just talked about Persac for like 45 minutes. I got the most deep cut Bob nutting joke in there and he's not even going to hear it.

I'm just going to wait for him. He will. Mike's got an office job. He doesn't have shit else to do. Oh, that's so true. Just listen to his stuff on. Let's know what he wants his desk, eating his little lunch. Max, you thank you.

This is great as always. Fantastic. There's so much better to talk to than Craig, dude. You're a better friend, too. Better co-worker. Less power to give you a raise. Yeah. We'll see.

Don't forget describe to the athletic hockey show on YouTube. YouTube.com at sign the athletic hockey show. Max, you're back next week. Did you know? Filling in yet again for Craig, I'm the boss, Custin's. Thank you to Will Smith. Enjoy the games tonight. Enjoy the rest of the week.

Happy New Year. Courtes you of Craig. And bye. Curtis of me. This has been Tuesday, boys. That's like Tuesday, both threesies.