The Athletic Hockey Show - ESPN riles up hockey fans with wonky scheduling, Vegas Golden Knights await winner of Seattle Kraken-Dallas Stars Game 7, Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers facing offseasons of change, and more

Episode Date: May 15, 2023

On this Monday edition of The Athletic Hockey Show, Julian and guest cohost Mark Lazerus discuss hockey fans’ anger at ESPN for airing a meaningless St. Louis Cardinals-Boston Red Sox game in primetime instead of Game 6 of the Vegas Golden Knights-Edmonton Oilers series, what to make of the 5 remaining teams in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, whether the Seattle Kraken or Dallas Stars will win Game 7 tonight and advance to the Western Conference Final, where do the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs go after respective disappointing playoff exits, and the guys wrap up the show handing out this week’s Conn Smythe Winner of the Week award and playing a round of Multiple Choice Madness.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for $2 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is The Athletic Hockey Show. My name is Julian McKenzie and welcome to the Monday edition of The Athletic Hockey Show. Ian Mendez, once again not with us. I believe this time is because he was served a knuckle sandwich by Milan Luchin. You can read his story with Milan Luchich from a couple of days ago. So once again, Mark Lazarus has joined us for the Monday edition. Mark, thank you so much for filling in in a desperate time of need. You know, I'm a little tired.

I had to stay up too late last night because the hockey game was on at 3 in the morning, I think, Eastern Time. This is so wild now as a guy who spent most of his life in Eastern Time and has now moved to Mountain Time. Seeing people be like, I don't like that it's at 10. I don't like that it's at 11, all these times. And I'm like, you know, it's still sunny out at 8 o'clock. I don't mind it that much. Yeah, but you know, Mountain Time to most of the world doesn't really exist. It's like this magical mystery time that like 12 people observe.

Like when you're watching TV, what does it say? It says this shows on at 9-8 Central. Nobody cares about Pacific, and especially nobody cares about Mountain Time. It's Eastern and Central. And the rest of you, you go figure it out for yourself because we don't know how to do that much math. I'm not going to lie, I think not too long before I moved. I just sort of assumed Calgary and Alberta was in the Pacific time zone. So you're not completely wrong about Mountain Time being sort of neglected.

But all that to say, there were a ton of people leading up. to yesterday's Edmonton Vegas game, who were incensed at the fact that, you know, if you're a big sports fan like we both are, you could have watched game seven of the Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celtics second round series early in the day and then have, you know, nothing to really do up until the evening where you think, hey, seven o'clock Eastern's a perfect time to watch game six between Edmonton and Vegas. No, ESPN decided to air St. Louis and Boston as part of their Sunday night baseball, you know, weekly game, which was a blowout as it looked, right?

Like 9-1 at one, at least that might have been the final score. That's what I saw at one point. And I think they had a split screen at one point where whoever was calling the baseball game ends up calling the first goal. Call Ravich, man. Geez, he's just calling the first game, the first goal of that game. I don't know if you saw the Troy Statcher tweet where he goes at ESPN. The fact that they missed the first three goals of that game.

I'm going to find that tweet real quick here. ESPN, he puts the little clapping emoji, missed three goals in the opening three minutes of an elimination NHL playoff game because we had to finish out a 9-1 MLB blowout. Hashtag grow the game. Mark, where do you stand on everyone being so mad about the scheduling of this particular game? And I think this could also extend into a much longer conversation about scheduling in the playoffs in general,

because it just seems as if it's been so weird. Look, I get it. It's infuriating. Who wanted to watch the Red Sox? And the Cardinals are like the worst team in the league this year, too. It's not even like a marquee matchup. Who wants to watch that for three hours? And I'm a baseball guy. I love baseball. So I get it. But like obviously a Stanley Cup playoff game should be a bigger deal than a baseball game. But it's just not. It's just not in this country. And it's frustrating. And I hate that kids that want to watch Connor McDavid can never see Connor McDavid because he's always on in the wee hours of the night. So he got a school night here. You know, school's not over yet. Kids could. couldn't stay up and watch that game. That's how you grow the game, right? Is by getting kids to watch playoff games, to watch Connor McDavid and Leon Drysiddle. That's how you grow the game. That's what it means. But the problem is hockey doesn't get a third of the audience that a crappy baseball game gets for ESPN. This is the whole thing about getting in bed with ESPN. It's bigger. It's got a much higher profile. It, you know, all of a sudden there are shows devoted. A lot of them are web-based, but at least, you know, hockey is being talked

about on ESPN, that's all well and good. But here's the totem pole, the hierarchy of sports in ESPN's minds. The NFL, it's the NBA, it's probably college football, college basketball, then it's baseball. And then I swear to God, it's college softball, which does really good numbers for them and is on all spring on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, all those channels. And then maybe it's hockey now. What you got with NBC Sports Network for all those years was priority. is hockey was their biggest priority, so we got the best time slots. That is just not the case with ESPN. This is just a fact of life we're going to have to do with.

It sucks. I hate it. It's bad for the game. But the fact is, there were probably, I haven't seen the numbers. There were probably 500,000 people watching that Oilers game. They were probably a million and a half people watching that horrible Cardinals Red Sox game. So that's how you get a split screen where they've got the hockey game up and they're split, split screening it with warm up pitches.

He was warming up. There was no batter and no umpire. He was just warming up when, you know, two of the goals were scored in the opening minute of this hockey game, of an elimination game featuring the best player any of us ever seen. This is what you get. And I don't know if it's good. Overall, I still think ESPN is good for hockey.

But this is a fact of life you have to accept as an American hockey fan now that you're battling with the big boys is that you are very, very low in their priority list. But like, I can imagine if you're in America, and that's the situation you're, dealing with. Like, it's either you're with NBCSN where, to my understanding, not that many people had or was not that accessible. Fewer people had. It was still like 75 million people got that network, but it's significantly fewer than got ESPN, yes. Absolutely. To compare it to ESPN, we're like, the biggest show on their network has a guy who says, well, the only thing I care about with hockey is that the puck is black. Like, it's, it's frustrating. Oh, Stephen A. Like that, but

that's what it is. That's essentially what it is. That's so, it's so, it's so, frustrating to kind of be in that position where, you know, not only that game, like if you look at some of the earlier games in the series, whether with that series or with the Leafs and the Panthers, they could even get Saturday night games for most of those series because scheduling, right, just with the way that was just scheduled and the SPN trying to make whatever fight they would have put up to make those games work. Like it just, like, I don't know. Just I feel as if more than ever this year, probably because of that ESPN deal, because

you're right, NBCSN, just the way they prioritize the sport, at least with. whatever scheduling decisions, it wasn't as noteworthy as before. But the NHL and NBC were partners. The NHL and ESPN are not at that same level. They're just not. No. It's just a exposure thing. And even then, how much more exposure are you getting?

And, you know, here's the ESP, the game was on ESPN 2, which anybody who gets ESPN to ESPN, gets ESPN 2. ESPN 2 is a major station to get it. But that's not what it was scheduled for. And then the problem was they switched to ESPN without like any warning. They didn't say, okay, you want to keep watching this game, switch. It just happened. So people missed a goal because ESPN switched to the main channel.

Like, it was just botched all around. Like, it was just poorly handled. You know, the way they, it's just, it feels, as a hockey fan watching that, you just go, they do not care about us. And that's what's frustrating is you just know how unimportant you are in the grand scheme. And there are so many people at ESPN that love hockey. Remember, when ESPN got that deal, it was like, you know, we're getting all these stories about all the hockey nerds at ESPN.

And it's true. They love how. There are so many great hockey people that have worked at ESPN long before they got hockey. But it's the higher-ups. You know, like local Chicago sports radio, there's a ton of hockey fans in it. But the rules from like the management of the two main sports stations out here is don't ever talk hockey. So something like winning the draft lottery has to happen for anyone to talk hockey, even like during the playoffs. That's just the mandate that comes from above.

And ESPN's mandate from above is clearly that baseball is more important than hockey, a regular season baseball game between a, you know, a horrible team that's a blowout, is still going to get more eyeballs than hockey. And it's a catch-22, right? How are you going to get more eyeballs to watch hockey if you put it on at stupid hours? How are you going to grow the game if you don't, you know, spotlight the game? And that's the trick, right? But, you know, Disney makes a whole lot of money.

They know what they're doing, and they know that they're not going to become rich. They're not going to get Avengers money out of the NHL. And that's just how it is. And to adding to that list of, you know, how are you going to grow the game? I'm not saying this, but people are going to wonder, well, how are you going to grow the game when the five remaining teams in the Stanley Cup playoffs are Seattle, Dallas, Vegas, Carolina, and Florida. Doesn't matter in the NFL, man. Kansas City Chiefs are the marquee team. Green Bay Packers are the marquee team. There's like 80,000 people in Green Bay, and that's a marquee team. I'm with you.

I put out a tweet earlier in the weekend saying how, like, people basically arguing over that stuff and whoever's left. It's like small, it's small peanuts compared to the problems that the NHL and hockey faces. particularly in America, with regards to marketing itself and making it so appealing to the point that we don't have a discussion that we're having now where it's competing with a blowout in a random mega. That's another frustrating thing about this baseball game too. We're not talking about a September game

where it's in the middle of a pennant race or a team that's fighting to stay in the wildcard chase or anything like that. We're in May. We're not even at the all-star break yet. I'm not even at the point where I really care about baseball that much. Like that's what makes this so much more frustrating. And for people in Canada, obviously,

people in the East who might want to watch this, that 10 p.m. start that's obviously going to affect people. I know I'm going about being in a mountain standard time. That's two hours behind Eastern Standard Time for people who don't know what that is. That is more of a reasonable time. But even then, like I get it. It's super, super frustrating.

And I get that nobody out West wants to have a game at like five in the afternoon on like a Tuesday night or something like that. But this was a Sunday. You know, there's no traffic issues getting to the arena. because it's rush hour. It's a Sunday. There's just no reason this couldn't have been done better. Just move the game to ESPN2.

Like full, just full blast. Just say, you know what? Give everyone a day's notice. Like, this game's going to be on ESPN2. And then everybody would have been happy. Like, it's just, but, you know, and then now you talk about the small markets and everything like that. And again, it's the same problem, right?

But this is why hockey is different in the NFL is I will watch any football game, right? Like, if there's a football game on, I'm going to watch it. That's how American TV consumers are. They don't do that for hockey. They don't do, like for baseball, I watch every Mets game. I'm not going to watch a Cardinals Red Sox game, but I just don't care. The only sport I do that with is football and hockey is hockey is my job. So the reason that the NHL is so dependent on the big markets,

it's not because everybody in America wants to watch the Chicago Blackhawks. It's because the Blackhawks have a city of four million people and a huge fan base, and that's what drives the ratings. Only Buffalo, Boston, maybe Minneapolis, actually have, quote unquote, hockey fans. everyone else is a fan of their team. Chicago's not a hockey town. It's an incredibly great Blackhawks town. But I know this as someone who has covered playoff games

once the Blackhawks were eliminated in the past. Everybody tunes out in this city once the hawks are eliminated, right? And that's how it is in almost every major city in America short of Buffalo, maybe Boston, maybe Minneapolis. They're not hockey towns in this country. They are towns for their teams and they love and they have great passionate fan bases, but they're not watching an Oilers Vegas Golden Knights game. They're not.

So the reason the NHL caters to the big markets is because there's a built-in audience. It's not because, you know, everyone in San Jose is tuning in to watch the Maple Leafs or to watch the Bruins. It's just that if you have the Bruins on, that's a big city with a huge fan base and your numbers are going to look better. That's an extra couple hundred thousand people that are watching your game, which in terms of NHL ratings in this country is a lot of people. That's just how it is.

You're right. But it's funny because the more and more you talk to people who are in different markets, in the NHL, the more and more you realize how regional fans are, and I don't think it's just a unique American problem. I think it's something that affects Canadians too, because it's one thing to be in Alberta where you have people who live in either Calgary or Edmonton who could be fans of either team. It's a whole other thing to be in Montreal and be like, well, yeah, find Carter McDavid-David's playing. Why should I watch Vegas, Edmonton, especially if the game is on at 10 o'clock. You guys only unite around your hatred of the Leafs. That's the only unifying factor.

I mean, to that effect, I mean, I'm sure they're the same deal with Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto. There's definitely some of that as well. But yeah, like you can go into any of those Canadian markets. And once their team is out, yeah, they're not necessarily going to care about the, like a lot of people like to make this whole thing about Canada's this great hockey country. Just like a lot of the, in a lot of those bigger markets in the states, once their team is out, they're not going to give that much of a damn about, you know, other teams.

Like there's the whole Canada's team thing. That's not a thing. It was never going to be a thing. If Edmonton was going to be the only Canadian team standing when this was all said and done for the third round, I promise you, it was not going to be a thing where everyone was going to unite around Connor McDavid and the Oilers.

Maybe people would have picked that to happen because, you know, for prognostications and all that, but you're not going to see at Maple Leaf Square in Toronto, people are going to be like, hey, man, we got a roof for Connick David. Like, that's not all right. That only worked for the Raptors and for the Blue Jays because it is literally Canada's team, right?

It's the only team that's there. Yeah, and Hock, it's like, that would be like, well, you know, Chicago fans are going to root for the blues because it's the Midwest's team. No, that's the teams you hate the most. The team's closest to you are the ones you hate the most. Let me ask you another question about these small markets. So Seattle, Dallas, Vegas, Carolina, and Florida, those are the five teams remaining as we record on a Monday. The fact that these are the teams that are there, I understand it's our jobs to watch hockey

and keep, you know, keep ourselves up on what's going on. But let's say we're not at liberty to follow these games. games that were coming up with, you know, whatever combination of teams we get when it gets down to four. How excited would you be at these matchups? What would you think of these matchups? Give me your thoughts on it. Because there are a lot of people who are saying like,

oh, you know, this, the NHO got what they wanted. Toronto's out in it. All these big teams are not in it anymore. You got what you wanted. Look at this small market teams. Let's get rid of all the money-making teams. Yeah. Yeah.

It's like, I love it when you have new blood. in the final four and in the Stanley Cup final. I fully and freely admit, though, it's better when you've got a blue blood against the new blood, right? When you've got like the Bruins against a team like the Hurricanes or the Panthers. When you've got, you know, the Montreal Canadiens or the Chicago Blackhawks against a team like the Seattle Cracken. That kind of gives it a David and Goliath kind of thing.

It gives that upstart feel and it kind of creates a storyline there. And for the record, it's silly that we're calling the Carolina Hurricanes like some kind of startup. They are good every year. They are contenders to win the Stanley Cup every year. They're not going anywhere. Like, they're one of the best run organizations in the league. They've got a great fan base. They're one of the loudest drinks in the league.

Like, at some point, when do we graduate them? Like, remember when the Nashville Predators were the eight seed in like 17? And they went to the Stanley Cup final, and all of a sudden, that was like a real hockey market, right? And all of a sudden, Nashville was a marquee town. Like, when do we start graduating these teams? Like, the Carolina Hurricanes are really good. The Florida Panthers won the president's trophy. last year.

Seattle has a crazy excited fan base and one of the best arenas in the league. And Dallas has a great fan base. Yeah, I mean, they're playing at freaking Nirvana. You know, Dallas has Pantera playing after their goals. Like, there's a lot. Carolina's got, what's, I already forgot his name. We did the story and I can't remember his name. Carolina, the rise.

Carolina has Peti Pablo. Right. I mean, you've got some, like, marquee, like, cool, you know, musicians participating in this. There's a lot to like about these teams. There's just this attitude of, oh, there's, it's sunny there. We can't like hockey. That's not allowed. It's too.

around there. Like Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay in 2015 was kind of like, oh, look at that. They made it to the Stanley Cup final, this Sunbelt team. Now they're like the marquee team in the league. At some point, we have to graduate Carolina out of this like, you know, quirky sunbelt team. That is a very real franchise that's not going anywhere anytime soon. And Florida is on its way. I know, you know, that's a team that makes a lot of money. That arena is far away from anything. But they have a great deal with that arena and they make a lot of money. Vinnie Viola is not going anywhere. The Florida Panthers. there's going to be around for a long time. It's time to just get the hell over it and accept that teams in warm places are going to do well. Vegas is going to do well. Carolina's going to do well. Florida and Tampa are going to do well. Just get the hell over it already.

Yeah. Yeah, it's basically it, especially, look, if we were both NHL players looking for contracts, looking for places to play, as enticing as it is to play with Connor McDavid at Edmonton, Florida, especially now with the team that they have, Have. Give you a little, give me a veterans bin. And obviously there's tax benefits in Florida and in Dallas.

You make a lot more money playing in those cities. Absolutely. That's just the way the states work. Absolutely. Also, you can't be one of those people who go on Twitter and complain about how no one likes your sport or no one watches your sport and then get mad about this. Because if the point about growing the game is, you know, to see more and more people watch, to see more people get into it.

dragging in all the casuals and stuff, this should be seen as a good thing. The fact that we don't see the typical teams we would have expected to be in this place. There's a golden opportunity for basically all of these markets to look at a run like this and use it as a galvanizing point to get people interested in the sport

and then turn it into a team like Tampa, like you said. Right, and these are some fun teams too, right? The Florida Panthers, they just go. Carolina, I know they're ridiculously well-structured, but they are fast as hell. Dallas has this reputation as being this grinded-out team, but that's not how they're built anymore. They got stars all over the place.

You got hints, you got Robertson, you still got Ben and Sagan. They got the best goalie left in the playoffs. Dallas is a great team that's fun to watch. Seattle just comes at you in waves. They don't have any real marquee names, but that's kind of what makes them all the more impressive. They have, in theory, horrible goaltending and no marquee names, and all they do is score goals.

They just keep scoring and scoring and scoring and scoring. These are good and exciting. Vegas plays an exciting brand of hockey, and they've got Jack Eichel and Mark Stone. There's so much to like about some of these teams. I don't give a shit if they don't come from major metropolitan areas necessarily. And they kind of do. Vegas is a big city.

You know, Rale's not some hole in the wall. You know, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, West Palm Beach, that is all the Florida pan. There are millions of people in South Florida. They're all New Yorkers and Ontario people, so they already have their allegiances. That's kind of one of the problems they have down there. But there are people down there. Like, these are not, you know, when people complain about Columbus, Columbus is one, I think, one of the ten biggest cities in the country now.

Like, this is a lot of people there. These are a really good city. These are cities you want to grow the game in. It can only be good to have, you know, what you did in Tampa was good for the game. Tampa's a solid fan base now with great ownership and a great team. Same with Nashville. There's great, you know, fan base there now. You have to build out these individual fan bases to grow the game, you know, league-wide.

I just wish that hockey, and I know it's going to take a long time or it'll just never happen. I just wish the fact, I just wish we were able to be able to be. able to have more of an emphasis on individuals in this league because we're going through all these different teams. We're going about how good these teams are. But like imagine if we were able to approach this and say, man, Florida's in the conference final. That means we get to see more Matthew Kachuk and how he's been playing well. That's how the NBA got huge, right? The NBA was 30 years ago, the NBA was the same as the NHL. It had maybe even smaller. I remember that when the Rangers won the cup in 94, SI had that cover where it was like hockey's hot and the

NBA is cold. And, you know, in the 80s, you know, the NBA finals were on tape delay at like 10.30 p.m. on CBS. Like, the NBA got big because of it stars, star power. The gay, I love basketball, but basketball is no different than hockey. It's not like it's a that much of a better, more entertaining game. It's a more entertaining product. And that's because there's so many superiors. Look at what Tatum did yesterday. Look at what LeBron's doing. He's just, it's a 900-year-old man on bad knees. He's just willing his team to a championship because he can. Like, look at what was Steph Curry and what the Golden State Warriors, one of the worst franchises in sports

for how long? That was a small market team for all into Oakland? Oakland? Look at the A's right now. They're terrible. But because you had Steph Curry, bam, that's a marquee franchise now. Now, all of this said, I mean, I can go on and on and on about how we should love small market teams and all this and expanding the game. The ratings for the conference finals and the Stanley Cup final

are going to be abysmal. They're going to be terrible. And they're going to be so bad. And here's the thing. This is my my plea to the hockey world, anyone listening, don't care. Who cares? If the ratings are bad, you still got to watch it,

and it was still fun for you, and you can go tell someone else to watch it, and maybe they'll start watching it. The TV deals in place, this is year one. Bad ratings this year are not going to ruin the sport. They're not going to ruin the salary cap. They're not going to ruin your time. Just enjoy it.

We stress about it. You and I got a stress about it. It's kind of our job to stress about the health of the league. As a hockey fan, you don't have to give the slightest shit about it. this. Just enjoy the game. Enjoy an exciting Florida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes matchup. It's going to be a good series.

It's going to be fun. It'll be a bunch of goals scored. And just don't sweat the ratings because that's ESPN's problem. And let me tell you, Disney's got money. They don't have to, you don't have to worry about it. Turner's got money. They're going to be okay, guys. Don't worry about the corporations. It's going to be okay. Here's the thing. I'm with you on all of that.

But what if the third round games are of the same quality as the second round games we've seen so far? Because I think that's important that has been really bad. I'm sorry. Aside from some of those games in the Leafs Panther series, it's been really hard to watch some of it. Even Emitting, the Golden Night series, there's been some good moments too. But like, we did not get the same quality as we got in the first round of this year's playoffs. And I think when we look at the ratings too, we have to consider that in mind as well. There's a possibility that, hey, we could hype up these matchups as best as we can, but if Carolina and Florida is a slog, some of those low ratings might be justified.

Well, the problem is there's just too many blowouts, right? We're not used to so many blowouts in the Stanley Cup final. When it's a playoff game, it doesn't matter if it's a boring two to one game. There's so much tension on every single possession that it carries you through. Now, I don't know if it's because we don't really have a lot of good goalies right now. That's what I'm thinking. And there's just a bunch of bad goleys out there, mediocre goalies at best. Or if it's just that Brofsky is too Vezed us. Right, but he's doing. real well, but it's been a long time since we've seen Sergei Babowski be this good, right? Like, this is unexpected at the very least.

Yes. This offensive explosion runner, where everyone gets 100 points and everyone has 40 goals, this is the side effect of that, is you're going to have five to one playoff games. You know, when Jamie Ben was winning the scoring title with 87 points, every game was three to two or two to one because nobody could score a freaking goal. So this is like, you know, we all wanted more offense. We got more offense. This is what you get.

You get a lot more blows. You go back to the 80s and the early 90s when scoring was up, and every game was like 8 to 3, 7 to 2. This is what you get. You get blowouts. The beauty of hockey for the last 20 years with all the, you know, how difficult it's been to score is every game was close, so it always felt like it was in the reach, even if it wasn't.

Now, in this modern NHL, where you can score three goals in three minutes, you know, a 5-2 lead is probably the equivalent of a 2-1 lead back then, but it doesn't feel that way. It looks really bad. It feels less exciting. So I think this is just a side effect of mediocre goaltending and this offensive explosion. More offense leads to more blowouts. But like I want an NHL world where I mean, I want the goal scoring, but I want both sides to get it.

Like you say eight three, I want seven five. Yeah, that would love a seven five playoff game. That would be amazing. I would love that to death. I want us, give me seven five. I'll handle the bad goaltending if both teams are able to do it. because that's what makes the game really excited when it gets to that point. Like, if it's okay, like this one goaltender is super bad and it's 7-2, you two now.

But what really gets us going is pretty much like what the beginning of Vegas and Edmonton was last night, where it's like within how many minutes, there's three goals scored between both teams. It's just utter chaos. I don't mind if the goaltending is mediocre just so long as both teams are able to score. But we haven't seen too many moments of that in this postseason. And I wonder how it will translate to the third round with the teams, that are remaining. Vegas can score goals, Dallas can score goals.

Seattle and Carolina might be a bit more balanced and Carolina might be a bit better structured defensively, but Florida's able to chime in as well. Like I'm very curious about what these potential matchups could look like. Yeah, and it's funny. You go back to talking about what the NBA was like in the mid-90s again. And, you know, I was, I love those Knicks teams back then, fighting with the heat and holes and the Pacers every year. But every game was like 84 to 81.

And like these were not good high-octane offenses. and that was kind of when the NBA, well, the storylines were great, the games were awful. And, you know, so it's, now you get every game is 120 points. You got guys, like, going for 50 points every night. That's more exciting, right? But it also leads to games.

Like, Game 7 lasted yesterday between the Sixers and the Celtics was a bad game. It's a bad game. It got bad in the third quarter. Yeah, which is, you know, when you wanted to get exciting is the second half, right? So, like, like, I think the NHL's faces, as long as there's this offensive explosion, you are so much more prone to these blowouts where, you know, in the past,

in the very recent past, a good goalie could overcome a team's bad effort or vice versa, or you just grind it out, or it was just so hard to score, it didn't matter, you could completely dominate the game and like the Leafs and Lightning series was like that where, like, you could dominate the game, but nobody was scoring, or you couldn't get like a big lead.

I think this is just the new reality of the NHL right now. This is like the monkeys, Paul Wish, where you're, I want more scoring in the NHL. Well, here it is! We're in the era of superstars. and every game sucks now. Like, I miss the trip. I want more triple overtime.

I want more, you know, guy team pulling their goalie down to one with the last three minutes to go, trying to scrap it and tie it. Like, we're not getting that. We're getting more exciting plays, but we're getting less exciting games. Is it just me or if you've had any use of a monkey's pile of this postseason, like, just, it's not working for you.

It's not going well. It's like, I want to go to the second round. You do, but you only win like one game. I want more scoring. Yeah, you're just going. going to get all these blowouts in round two. I don't know what's another, like, be careful what you wish for scenario.

It's like, I want new teams. It's Seattle, Dallas, Vegas, Carolina, Florida, potentially the conference finals. I don't know. Just, I don't know. Be careful what you wish for. It might be the motto of this year's postseason. Yeah, we're all a little hypocritical

when when it comes to our fandoms, too. There is a game seven that is happening tonight between Seattle and Dallas, because I know I keep mentioning that there are five teams remaining, It is physically impossible to have conference finals with five teams. It'd be fun to watch. It'd be amazing to watch. It'd be hilarious. Like, imagine like one, two pucks, three teams.

Yeah. Like, what if, like, there's two teams that play against each other in a game one, and then the matchup changes in game two, and then it's a completely different match for game three. It, I'll work that out off the show. Game seven, Seattle versus Dallas. Who wins that game and why? I always come back to goaltending.

And this spring that is proving me stupid that I'm sticking with. it because I have a lifetime of experience watching Stanley Cup playoff games where goaltending makes all the difference. And I'm going with Ottinger. I'm going with Dallas. I picked Dallas to win the cup going into these playoffs and Ottinger was a big reason why. And he doesn't look like himself. He's had a couple of games where it's like, wow, what is

going on here? And Seattle is, like I said, Seattle's a lot like Carolina where they're so deep and that it doesn't matter if a couple of guys are having off nights because they're still going to come at you in waves. So Seattle's scary that way. But if it's Jake Ottinger versus Philip Grubauer, I don't care how good Gruber has been in this playoffs. I'm digging Ottinger, like without even thinking about it.

I'm going with Dallas. Here's the thing, like, goaltending, I'm of that theory too where, you know, just better goaltending should rise to the top, but also what I think has been very apparent in this postseason and pretty much for every postseason, you don't need the goaltender, you need a goaltender. And at different points in this postseason, Philip Grubauer has played like a goaltender that the Seattle Cracken if needed.

And just, I don't want to sleep on the Cracket anymore, man. They're able to start, get off to great start. You mentioned how balance they are as well. Dallas, they have the firepower to do it, but they've had moments where it just doesn't click for them, right? Like, I just, I really would love to see Dallas make it, but I don't want to sleep on the Cracken. And I think the Cracken might actually win this game seven.

And we could get a Seattle, Vegas conference final. It'd be wild. Oh, my God. All the people that rail about the freaking expansion drafts, they will be having a field day. Think of the hot take blitz we're going to see over that. Oh, my God. Imagine being a fan of a team like Vancouver or Calgary,

teams that have not won that many playoff series since like the 90s fans who like complain about their GMs or ownership, just mismanaging the hell out of their teams. And then here come the two most recent teams, most recent additions to the NHL, and they have found a way to see playoff success in their infancy. Is this the fourth time Vegas has been in the Western Conference Final now? Oh my gosh.

Six, seven years that they've been around. And it's absolutely absurd. It's absurd. I got no problem with it. Like, I'm not one of those people. I like an expansion draft that actually, like, gives a new fan base something to cling to. You know? Like, I was disappointed that Seattle was so bad last year.

And I'm glad. I was glad to see them, you know, that it all worked out in the end. Because, you know, again, you talk about growing the game. The whole expansion system for decades was, congratulations, you're part of the league now. Here's the worst team you ever saw. Enjoy. Go spend that money. No, you want at least a competition.

competitive team, right? Like, maybe it's got a little too far in the other direction, but it's good that these new markets get competitive teams because that's how you build a fan base. And now there's a couple million new fans in the league because of Vegas and because of Seattle that weren't there before. That's a good thing. It's good for the league. It sucks if you're the Vancouver Canucks and you've never won the Stanley Cup and you're

seeing this just tearing your hair out. I get it. I get why you wouldn't enjoy it as a rival, but it's good for the overall health of the league that these new teams come in and are competitive right away. Small thing to add as well. I imagine the NHO would love a Golden Knights Crack and matchup because it'll be a lot easier to sell the Winter Classic. Yeah, that's true.

And the next expansion team, another $700 million dollar and it'll become an $800 million bid for the next expansion team since that's the primary source of revenue for the league now is just adding teams. Just add the teams. We're not going to market Connor McDavid, we're just going to add more teams. Hey, man, shout out. Houston, man. Shout out to them. They'll probably get that 33rd, Kansas City.

Not Quebec. All those different teams. Sorry, Quebec. No. Yeah, sorry about that. Quebec. Can we talk about some good teams that are out of the playoffs as a result of this weekend? I want to just spend a second or two on the Eminton Oilers because I have to admit, as good as the Vegas Golden Knights are, as stacked as they are as a team,

I am surprised that the Edmonton Oilers were not able to get out of that second round. This is a year where they had Connor, they had Leon, they were playing really well. Nuge had himself a dominant regular season. They made these additions at the day. deadline getting guys like Nick Eukstad and Matias at home, goal tending. That was a whole big arguing point last year with how they should have made that better instead of using Mike Smith to their advantage. No, they got Stuart Skinner. They signed Jack Campbell that didn't work out, but Stuart Skinner was their guy. It did not work. Where are the Oilers go from here with after another

year where they fall short of expectations? I don't know. It's tough, right? I mean, you know, this is, you had eight years of Leon and Connor together and you have not. And you have not won a single third round game yet. You made to the conference final last year and got swept. That's the best they've gotten. I mean, that's distressing, right? You are squandering the primes of two of the best players we'll ever see. Again, it comes down to goaltending, right?

Oilers did not have satisfactory goaltending this playoffs. They score goals at will. They have the greatest power play we've ever seen. You should be able to win playoff series when you score on 60% of your power plays, whatever it was. Like, ridiculous power play. That should be sufficient if you just get adequate goaltending. and they didn't. Jack Campbell wasn't the guy. Stuart Skinner, you know,

might win the Calder Trophy this year, but it was a little dicey out there for him. He wasn't really ready for the moment. And it comes down to goaltending. It always does. Even in this era of offense, you still have to have someone stopping the puck. And when did the Oilers get that big save that won them a game? They just didn't get it. This team's not good enough. Like the West was wide open this year. And we're all thinking, well, this could be Edmonton's year, right? It's Edmonton or Dallas. All the great teams are out east, and the West is going to be a cakewalk for one of these good teams.

And it's not. The West is pretty good. The West has a lot of pretty good teams and no great teams. Edmonton was not a great team this year. They ran hot and cold in the regular season. They closed strong. They were really good. They could have won the Stanley Cup with the talent they have and the power play they have.

They could have won the Stanley Cup, even with that goaltending they have. But you need to do better by Connor and Leon. You need to have a deeper forward. You can't just rely on the top six. You can't just rely on the power play. You need better blue line and you need, adding echo home was great. That was a really good addition.

But you got to stop the puck. You got to do better than Jack Campbell. Who thought that signing was going to save the Oilers? Jack Campbell. I didn't. Anyone, I didn't think it was going to save them, man. Look, there was something about how he played in that postseason the year before,

just with the way that he kind of, I find he's so emotionally puts too much on himself. But, you know what? I'm not a goalie expert, and I shouldn't be that critical, but those are just easy observations that if I can see so many other people could see, the fact that it got to a point where they had to put in Stuart Skitter to be the guy, and the fact that Jack Campbell, the guy they're obviously paying more sitting on the bench, like, man, that's going to be a really interesting situation.

That happened to Bobrovsky, too. I mean, Bobrovsky was on the bench for a couple of years now he was a backup at $10.5 million, and now he's the savior of Florida again. It's voodoo, right? Like, none of us don't understand goaltending. But you have this window with these great players still under contract. You got to do better than maybe Jack Campbell's a good enough. But like, this is just so frustrating because I genuinely thought they were doing better this year.

They had had the additions that sort of worked last year. And then they made the additions that should have put them over the top. They ended up going like one round short of where they went last year. And they, and they look like a better team this year. Like, it's so weird. It's, it is so frustrating. clear that if there's any takeaways to take away from this playoffs, that Connor McDavid's are fraud.

And Leon Drysidal is a trash player. And they should probably, I mean, if you can trade him, you get a couple of second or third round picks for him, you do it. But, you know, just, just, you know, wave them for the purposes of termination and move on. It's just not working. Mark, I mean, Leon Drysid only had one assist in his last four games. What a bum.

Bum, total bum. And he had two legs, too. He had two fully working legs this time. Seriously. Just, it's pathetic. These guys are pathetic, and they need to play more defense. That's what I've been told. Yeah, Leon Drysadle on one leg better than Leon Drysad on two legs.

That is the biggest takeaway from all of this. But yeah, if you're the Emmonson-Oilers, you go through a year like that, that is super frustrating. I mean, they're just going to run it back, right? I mean, they're going to maybe- I mean, that's all they could really do. What can you do? You can't do anything else? You just got to run it back and hope that.

And it was a good team. It was a really good team that was fun to watch and beat a lot, you know, won a lot of hockey games. But, man. Got to stop a puck. We're getting closer and closer to cap-friendly o'clock, where, like, we start looking at Leon Dricidal and Connor McDavid's contracts. And we see that Darnel Nurse is signed for, what, seven more years at a rate that I think is more than what Kale McCar is making. And people want to, hey, man, if, if the evidence and oil, you can't figure this out,

Connor McDavid, Leon Drysato, might go somewhere. They might go to those U.S. You don't want to get to the point the Blackhawks were in about four or five years ago. without having banked a few Stanley Cups first. All the misery and cap problems the Blackhawks went through was a lot more easy to swallow because they had won with that group. So the fact that, you know, Taves and Cain had those

matching eight-year 10.5 million a year contracts, they didn't win anything on those entire length of those contracts because they were, they kicked in the year after their third cup. Who cares? They got three cups. Yeah, that's it. Like, you got to do it now while they're in their 20s. It doesn't happen when they're in their 30s. Like, there's got to be some, urgency in Edmondon, the plug, whatever holes are there, because you've got a few more

years of this. You've got to keep running it back for a few more years, and then there's decisions to make. Mark, can you imagine if a team was trying to be like a Chicago that had all this front-loaded talent and gave all this money to some of their core players and it just didn't work? Man, I can't think of another team that would do anything like that. Oh, sorry, the Toronto Maple Leafs are having locker cleanout day today. Yeah, but you know what those Blackhawks had? Those Blackhawks had incredibly good third and fourth lines. And they had an incredibly good second defensive pairing in John Berson and O'Duia. That team, you know, you need more than the top six and one defenseman.

Like it was not Taves and Kane willing themselves. They had like seven or eight guys plus incredibly useful role players. They had a team. They had like with the Cracken have now, but with like six Hall of Famers on it. You can't just have the six Hall of Famers. But I was told Noel Achari was enough. I thought Sam Lafferty would have made a difference. Oh, Sam.

I remember putting Sam Lafferty in a flame straightboard once. I thought he would have probably made a difference. He was really good this year for the Blackhawks. Yeah, he was nice. He was a decent. He seems like a guy who would be a great playoff performer as like a third or fourth liner. Just with the way this Leafs team is just like year after year after year of getting kicked in the nuts. And they went around this year.

They win one game. It had been almost like 7,000 days between like when they last one in the third, in the second round compared to this year. It had been almost 7,000 days since that happened. It feels like it's been 7,000 days since they beat the lightning in the first round. Yeah, that too. It feels like a whole eternity ago where all those fans were celebrating and you're seeing clips on the NHL website of all these fans just like rolling themselves onto the ground,

wearing Matthews jerseys and them yelling, we want Florida. I had a back and forth with some good friends of mine who are Leafs fans. And I remember and they were trying to go, they didn't show the video of fansing. We want Boston and that we want Florida video was a lie. You mean to tell me that only those 20 drunk fans at Maple Leaf Square, those are the only people who wanted Florida. Those are the only people who wanted Florida. It's a defaing. Those are the only people who wanted Florida.

Those are the only people who wanted Florida. Those are the only people. It was just them. It was a total lie. Totally lie. Anyway, I had to get that off my chest because that really, that just got me on my nerves today. But it seems as if we're on the precipice of some kind of change in Toronto. Like, something has to happen.

How dramatic can they really change things, though? I mean, is trading really Neelander really that big of a game changer? Like, you're not getting rid of Matthews. Right? Yeah. Yeah, but I mean, it's really the core three, right? It's Matthews Tavarison Marner. And Morgan Riley, if anything, would be your core four.

And those guys are still signed. I don't know if I agree with that. I don't know if I agree with that because I think there have been moments where William Nealander has been able to. He's a good player. But there have been moments where he's able to produce when Matthews and Marner and haven't produced or Tavares. Yeah, but Neelander is the only one you can do anything with, right? Because he's got one year left. You know, Marner and Tavaris have, what, three, two years left.

Matthews has he as a full year left. Yes. But at like, you know, $12 million. And Riley is signed in perpetuity, basically. Like, I don't, you can't, you can't, dramatic. overhaul this roster. And obviously, trading like an Austin Matthews is not on the table. He's one of the best players in the world.

You'd be an idiot to do that. So, like, how dramatically can you really change this roster? It's still going to come down to finding that third and fourth line, finding those role players. It's not going to be some dramatic change. And if you get rid of Nylander for whatever, fine, whatever, that's not going to dramatically change this team. It's got to be a overhaul of everyone below those guys.

That's where the change has to come from. that's where success is going to come from because we see it over and over again. Mike Babcock said this once. It was during the 2013 playoffs. They were playing when they were playing the Blackhors. He said, when you get to the second round of the playoffs, every single team in the league has a great top six. It's what comes after that that separates you from the other team.

And, you know, it was absolutely right. You got to have a fourth line that can play 14, 15 minutes a night and check against the top, you know, the opponent's top guys to free up your best player. You need those guys. That's what makes the difference. in the playoffs. And the least don't have it. They just don't have it.

But like, I guess what are they going to do to get to that point? Is it moving a guy like William Nealander to ensure you get other pieces that could bolster that depth? Is moving a guy, I mean, this is a slightly different look at it, but what about Sheldon Keith's 10-year-as head coach? Is this the end for him? This is a guy who's, what, like the most successful regular season coach for this team? Has he not been able to get enough out?

He just hasn't been able to get enough out of this team. Yeah. No, you could absolutely justify that. You could absolutely justify coaching change. Yeah, it's just, it would be pretty wild just to get to that point, but it would probably be the necessary thing.

It's just what the Rangers did with Gerard Galantz, right? He was maybe the best regular season two years stretch the Rangers have had in decades, and he got fired because they weren't doing enough in the playoffs. And that was with a conference final appearance. Well, one quote that's starting to float around now from a couple minutes ago, Austin Matthews had his media availability.

My intention is to be, here and apparently he would like to see the extension done before next season. So we know what this is going to be in Toronto. These next few months is just, okay, who is level-headed, calm, rational discourse, right? That's what it's going to be? Wusa. Something like Wusa. Serenity now.

Serenity now. Please, yes, because that's what it's going to be for the next few months. Is Austin Matthews going to sign? As far as I'm concerned, if the lease let it get to the beginning of the season, And Austin Matthews has no deal. Oh my God. No, it's, it's carnage. That's a problem.

It's carnage. It's a problem. It would pretty much be an organizational failure. Because you can't let him get to that point. But also, every city he goes into that he's going to get asked that question. Every time he's in, you know, Arizona, half of Canada is going to show up at that game. Are you going to Arizona? You go to Arizona?

Do you see that fan, I think, for Game 6 who was wearing that Matthews jersey with the Arizona? I love it. Oh, my gosh. You know, sometimes you got a, you got a, you got a. manifest something that you believe in in life, right? It's like, there was a Blackhawks fan late in the season who was wearing a Connor Bred Blackhawks jersey. We all laughed at him.

Genius. He probably got it at a half price. What number did he get on it? It was 98, and I know he wore 16 at the world. He was assuming it was going to be a 98, though. Ooh. It's available. That, man.

I got to say. 16 should be retired from Marcus Kruger anyway, so. Yeah, that's an incredible foresight on that part. But yeah, we're obviously going to see more unfold in the coming days when it comes to the Leafs and stuff. But just, wow, another team able to fall short. So congratulations, Mark. Congratulations to the United States on yet another year where they will have the Stanley Cup in their country. Congratulations.

Congratulations to us for our American team that will be predominantly Canadian and European. Yes. Yes. Of course. I always find the hilarious when people like get all haughty. Don't get me wrong. It's objectively funny that Canada hasn't won a Stanley Cup in 30 years. Like, it's really funny.

But it's like, yeah, USA's better at hockey. Yeah, with Canadian players. Like, relax, dude. Calm yourself. You know. Just to, not to put my age out there, since I've been alive, I have seen more Canadian MLS champions. I have seen more Canadian NBA champions.

Technically, I wasn't alive for when the Js won their last series in 1993. three, but that happened after the Stanley Cup was won. We have seen more Canadian winners in so many other big four sports as opposed to it's time to accept that Canada is just not a good hockey country. It's more of a, you know, well, we beat you in curling too last year, didn't we? Oh, you got some problems. Oh, no, we're just, we're just going to have to take basketball away from you now. We'll tell you, man, a couple years.

You're growing there. It's getting better. There's no doubt about it. Shea Gilgis Alexander is it all pro, not all pro. He's an all NBA, all pros NFL. Hey, man, there's more, more, more Canadian. It's coming up, man. We'll always have American football over you.

We kind of created a sport that only we can dominate. It's a very American thing to do is to create a sport, insist it's the only sport that matters and the biggest sport in the world. Call the winners world champions when literally no one else plays it. That's what we do, yo. But you will never have the Canadian Football League over us. That's true because it's weird. The 55 yard line, the rouge, there's some weird stuff going on.

You don't like three down football. I do like the more, there's more guys in motion and stuff. I like that. But some of the rules, I'm always seem to be in Canada for the Grey Cup. And so I've watched a lot of Grey Cups over the years. And there's some weird stuff going on up there.

When Henry Burris, shout out Henry Burris. Shout out Henry Burr's. He'll beled Chicago Bears quarterback is one of the iconic players of your league. Eh. Hey, Warren Moon is an icon. That's true. Use a great NFL quarterback.

Doug Flutty is also a CFL icon. Not a great NFL quarterback, but yeah. No, that's fair. But, hey, there's some, let's not slight the CFL completely. It's a good league. It is, it's good. It's fun. It's given to people some jobs.

We've got to like that. That's fair. In America, you can watch it on ESPN. On a better time slot than the Stanley Cup playoffs probably. Conspithe winner of the week. If you follow us from the regular season when he and I would do Jack Adams Award winner of the week, same premise instead of coaches, it's players. I'm going to give you a list of players who did pretty well in the last few days.

I think there's one that's. pretty obvious over the top, but you tell me if I'm missing anybody or if there's anyone else on that list who's better. Jonathan Marcia So, five goals, eight points in the last few days, gets himself a hat trick against Edmonton in game six. Jack Eichol, not to be slighted, two goals, six points in the last few games. Conny McDavid, three goals, five points, Maddie Beniers and Rupert Hintz also on that list as well. But give me your Con Smyth winner of the week. Has it been already a week since Bobrovsky knocked out the Leafs? Has that been more than a week now. I can't even keep trying. I guess less than a week. But I guess he should be considered

than that too. Dude found a way to get that going. I mean, the Panthers winning that in five. Sergei Bobrovsky definitely deserves consideration. You're absolutely right. Yeah, I mean, March is so getting a natural hat trick in an elimination game. It's hard to overlook that. I think I think, I think I'm comfortable with Marchesau. But let's not forget what Bob did in this round to completely turn the biggest city in your country upside down. That's very true. Yeah, it's kind of Hard to argue. I mean, you're right. This dude, I actually have another question with Sergey Mabrovsky.

Because someone brought up the point on Twitter, and I'm wondering if this is something that we should start talking about more. If Sergey Bavrovsky wins the Stanley Cup this year, does that make him a Hall of Famer? A Hall of Famer? Because he has two Vezanis. He does have two Vesnes. Wow. Like, I don't think so.

I don't think that the, like, but man, I was hoping for the carnage answer, which would be yes. I don't. goalie, it's hard for goalies. It seems like it's hard for goalies to get in, right? Like, you know. Absolutely it is. Chris Osgood and Corey Crawford's. There's so many guys that have won multiple cups out there that don't get a lot of respect.

But two Vezna's is two Vesna's, right? Like, that's how many multiple Vesna winners are not in the Hall of Fame? I'd be curious to see that. I've never even given it like a passing thought, which kind of like, you know, I'm one of those like small hall guys where I wanted to mean like something spectacular to get into the Hall of Fame. Like I kind of roll my eyes when it's the Hall of very good. But Tuvesnes is too Vezna, that's quite a peak. But over the course of his entire career,

how often was Sergei Babrowski the best goalie in the league? And I don't think people look at him as like, wow, I was lucky to see Sergei Vibroski play. And I feel like, you know, spiking two amazing years isn't quite enough for me, unless it's like Sandy Kofax type years. And I just, I don't think he's there. The two years where he wins Vezina's,

the fact that he can say that he was the goaltender for two of the biggest first round upsets in recent memory. Yeah. And you had a Stanley Cup to that too. Like, I don't even know whatever international success he might have. But like, I look at the resume and I think

it's worth making the argument. I think you can make that point. You do raise a good issue, though, the fact that how many times have we looked at Sergey Mabrowski and said he's like the best at his position? I don't think that's ever really been said, even in those years where he won the Vezina. The more you put it like that, the more I think he could get in

because that those kind of guys are getting in with more regularity, like the bar has been lowered. But in my Hall of Fame, I don't think what he's done, even with the Stanley Cup this year, would be quite there. Yeah, but that would be a really interesting debate. Especially if he wants a cons smife, if he wants a cons smithe in that run too, yeah, then that trophy case is looking pretty good all of a sudden, isn't it? It's looking real good, man.

I'm telling you. But Sergey Bikrovsky, I mean, played in all five games in that series, 4-1 record. Didn't allow more than two goals in each of those games. he's been real good. There's no doubt about it. Do you want to give it to him over Marchy? You know, no, I think I'll stick with Marchesot because, again, a game six, you know, Bobrovsky had, you know, a few games where he could, yeah, he had some little leeway there. But I don't mean to at all diminish what Bobrowski, obviously I was on who threw his name out there.

But what Marchesaw did last night was, let me ask you, what's your definition of a natural hat trick, by the way? when you score like three consecutive goals. So like you score one, did you score another one that you score? Like you score the next thing? Nobody on no teammates or opponents get in the way of that too, obviously, right? I feel like that's the traditional.

For me growing up, it was always three consecutive goals in one period. And I would get mad when someone would score like a goal late in the first and then two in the second. People would like, natural hat trick. And I would get all like, no, that's not what a natural hatric is.

I never thought about the period thing as like a marker. But as long as the player is able to score goals in consecutive fashion without any interruption, then that would be sufficient enough for me. Okay. Well, that's why I was excited about Marches those, because he did it in one period. We don't see that a lot. That is true. Like, like,

I'm the guy, like, I think it's my grandfather's fault. Like, when I play pool, I have, like, almost everything's a scratch. Like, if you do anything, like you miss the ball or you hit the wrong ball first. There's, like, 30 different ways to scratch. So when people play me in pool, they get really mad about, like, all these stickler rules I have. Same thing with a lot of the hockey things where it's like, no,

natural hatchet just got to be in one period or it doesn't count. Like I'm not pleasant to be around is what I'm saying. That's. Yeah, I can actually see that. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. We'll do multiple choice madness before you wrap up here. Which of the, not to bring up the five teams again, but which of these remaining Stanley Cup,

Stanley Cup are the most deserving to win the Cup? Vegas, Florida, Carolina, Dallas, Seattle. Which of these five teams do you feel would be the most deserving to win the Stanley Cup? How do you define deserving? Like the fan base deserving or? Fan base, the quality of play. I mean, it's Carolina, right?

Carolina's been like on the doorstep of greatness for a while now. I know they won a cup in 06, but this iteration of the hurricanes has been building toward this for a while. Any of the other teams win the Stanley Cup. It's like, wow, that sort of came out of nowhere a little bit. Carolina does it. It's like, well, this was the end of a process. This is like what Tampa did.

And now Carolina is king of the king of the league. So I think if you're looking at it that way, Carolina is the one that's like earned it, so to speak. I guess, but also if you look at Florida and the fact, fine, they snuck into the playoffs, but they knock off the greatest regular season team and another higher seat in Toronto. They beat Carolina.

Like, imagine them go to the final, just them go to the final after what they went through last year. That's incredible. Well, I guess there's a difference between deserving it and being worthy of it, right? Like, if Florida wins, they are certainly a worthy champion. But I feel like Carolina, has been building toward this for a long time, and they would be a legitimate, you know, this is a really great team champion, and especially doing it without three of their top guys.

I have to say with Carolina, it just, I think because of that they lost all those top guys, they've just kind of flown under the radar through these first two rounds. I know you were around the Carolina Islander series, but that didn't get talked about nearly as much as so many other postseason series. Carolina, New Jersey kind of happened. It was not a good series. It happened. But all the while, Carolinas must be a good series.

Carolina showed the talent that they have. Rod Brindamore has proven to be arguably the best coach in the league right now. They're a really good team in spite of whatever injuries and shortcomings that they have. They look like the team to beat of all the remaining teams left. We could get a Vegas Carolina series and really get a good series out of it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's almost no combination of teams left that would make for a bad Stanley Cup final.

And it'll make for bad ratings, but it won't make for, like, there's some good series to be added. There's some exciting brands of hockey. There are some stars still out there. There's Cichuk. There's Jack Eichol. There's Jason Robertson and Ropei Hints. I mean, there's a lot of fun to be had here. You know, whether it's, you know, whether people watch or not, I'm sure he's shit going to watch.

Especially, you met those first three names. I've got to imagine, if you are a big American hockey fan, you must love the fact that guys like Matthew, Chuck, and Jason Robinson are still alive in this postseason and can play huge roles for these teams. this is such a big deal for these markets and also if you are a fan of USA hockey. Jason, Jake Hodger's American. Yeah. And Jason Robertson should be one of the biggest stars in the league. He is, besides being just an awesome player,

he's an awesome guy. Like he's funny, he's like self-deprecating. He's got a personality. Like I remember I was first introduced to him really at the player car wash last year, you know, where the player media tour, where they come down. And he was hilarious.

He's so relaxed. And he's just like this young, happy-go-lucky guy. who happens to be awesome at hockey, you know, like he should be a mega star in this league. He doesn't look like every other hockey player. Like the NHL should be marketing the shit out of him. Nobody knows who he is. Mark, we could do an entire hour on what the NHL should do to market itself better. We could do an entire hour of this podcast in doing that.

But we only have so much time. So thank you for filling in for Ian. I'm sure Ian will be back next week once he returns from his travels out. in Europe. But yeah, thank you so much for doing this, man. I really appreciate these last two weeks with you, man. These have been fun. Absolutely, man. Always happy to be on. Always happy to have you on. Thank you so much for listening to the Athletic Hockey Show, dear listener. Please follow us on your favorite podcast platform and leave a rating and review. We would really appreciate it. I just have to say, I'm reading this. I got to say, Chris Flannery is the number one producer in North America,

maybe the world, just incredible. We're just letting these things get too far. I'm pretty sure. he's the one who wrote that, right? Yes. No, that's so nice you to say, Julian. That was really... Shout out big Chris, man. He is that dude. Thank you so much for your work, as always.

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