The Athletic Hockey Show - Florida Panthers eliminate Boston Bruins in Game 7 OT stunner, Darryl Sutter out as Calgary Flames head coach, Snoop Dogg part of Ottawa Senators ownership bid, and much more

Episode Date: May 1, 2023

On today’s jam-packed Monday edition of The Athletic Hockey Show, Ian and Julian discuss the Florida Panthers’ stunning Game 7 overtime win to eliminate the record-breaking Bruins in Boston last night, the Calgary Flames relieving Darryl Sutter of his head coaching duties, Rick Bowness staying on as Winnipeg Jets head coach, the Seattle Kraken ousting the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche, what to expect from a Toronto Maple Leafs-Florida Panthers second round matchup, Ian’s report that Snoop Dogg is part of the Neko Sparks ownership group bidding on the Ottawa Senators, and the guys wrap things up by handing out their 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 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/hockey23Upgrade your closet with Rhone and use code NHLSHOW to save 20% at https://www.rhone.com/nhlshowGo to http://dave.com/nhlshow to sign up for an ExtraCash account and get up to $500 instantly! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. It is your Monday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. It's Ian Mendez, Julian McKenzie with you as always. And boy, man, we often say, like, you know, sometimes you feel like, man, everything is happening at once in the hockey world. That's what it's feeling like right now. On the ice, off the ice. The teams that both you and I cover, I think potentially have,

some significant off-ice news that we will get into. That being the Ottawa Senators and the Calgary Flames. The Ottawa Senators news is, and I dropped it just before this podcast started, and it's a seismic piece of news. We'll get into that later, but let's be honest here. The Game 7 stuff is what everyone wants to talk about.

The defending Stanley Cup champion and the record-setting President's trophy winners are ousted on home ice within hours. of each other. Who could have seen it coming? Julian, who? I don't know, man. It's, it's, you know what's funny? Because I look back at those first round predictions that we made, and I have to say with the Seattle Cracken, none of us saw it coming. They deserve a ton of credit for getting over the hump. That is the Colorado avalanche. And I get they're not built the same way. It is still the defending champions you have to go through who have Nathan McKinnon,

who have Kail McCar, and another big. bit players who are able to help them be a great team. Miko ranted in, certainly not a bit player, but like they have guys. Like this is still an upset. And it wasn't even the biggest upset of the day. And even for us, like, I hope we take that moment where we get to tell everybody we told you so about the Boston Bruins, but even we didn't know that they were going to lose in seven games to the Florida Panthers, at least at the beginning of the series.

I did say what it got to game seven, that the Panthers were going to win. but we did not know at the beginning of the series that the Boston Bruins would lose to Florida. And that is surprising in itself. But we do have the audio. We did keep the receipts. So we got a couple of audio clips here from early April. I believe April the 10th.

If I'm not mistaken, right? Chris Flannery, our producer, April 10th and April 17th. Yeah, that's exactly right. Am I right on those dates? Yep. There we go. April 10th and April 17th, have a listen. As Julie and I,

we just want to take our little quick victory lap here. here. We saw it coming. We saw it coming. Here's us in April talking about the Bruins. No team has ever finished a President's Trophy winning season where they had 119 points or more and then won the Stanley Cup. Like wrap your head around that for a second. The Boston Bruins are the ninth team to be awarded the President's trophy, finish the season with more than 119 points. The previous eight, none of them won the Stanley Cup. The takeaway for coaches is if you're in first place and on track for a president's trophy, you've got to stop at 118 points. That seems to be the magic cut up.

Anything more than 118 points at a president's trophy is like the kiss of debt. I don't get it. It's crazy. The one series I thought would have ended in a sweep, I'm not convinced anymore that it'll end in a sweep. Probably would have been Florida Boston. But even then, like, just I have a hard time thinking that like Florida, I can't win at least one game.

Now you're seeing reports that like a sickness has, an illness has spread through the Boston Bruins. Playoff fever. Playoff fever, clearly. I'm not saying Boston's going to lose. I mean, we have stakes with Boston for something else. We're not saying that Boston's going to lose. We're just not, we're just saying Boston's not going to win.

Could you, could you imagine if the Boston Bruins lost in the first round? Could you imagine? Yes, I could because that's the stupidity of the NHL. Like, like, dominant. It's not out of the realm of possibility. that's all. No, it's not. It's absolutely not.

Nothing. Like, like, people forget, like the Tampa Bay Lightning were like the best team in the NHL in 2019. And they lost in the, they were swept in the first round by a team that had never won

a playoff series in their history. And, and remember in game one of that series in 2019, Tampa had a 3-0 lead early in the game. They did. And remember everyone was like,

why are we even bothering with this series? This series is going to be so watched. We would have thought like, this is a waste of waste of days. So there you go. This isn't like, and I see everybody saying, this is the greatest upset of all time.

This is an all timer. I don't know that it is. Like can, can something be an upset if it felt inevitable to people like you and I? Like you and I looked at this and said, this feels like it's going to, uh, uh, this feels like it's going to implode.

But like, I guess Florida, like, I'm not shocked. That would have happened like second or third. round. Like, I'm on record thinking, okay, like, I could see them losing in the conference final to Tampa. I don't know if anyone, or how many people thought the Florida Panthers would be the team to do in the first round. Like, it's not impossible to predict that the president's trophy

winner would lose in the playoffs. I don't think that's impossible. Look, if you, like, there's been, they're the seventh team since the year 2000 to get ousted in the first round. And I don't have the specific number on me. I tried to do some research. I for out to finish doing it. But I think there are fewer President's Trophy winners who have gone on to win the Cup since 2000 than the number of those who have lost in the first round. Like, we could figure this out at some point during the show. But like, it's not impossible to think that they were not going to fall short.

But for them to lose to Florida, like, that's something I was, I'm still surprised by. Like, that is, wow. Plus the Bruins had a lead. They were up three, two on them with like, like, like what? 60 seconds. Not so much time left to go. Like they should have had this in the bag. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. I mean, and that's the thing. Like, like, like I see people saying that the Bruins collapse is worse than Tampa in 2019. But, I mean, Tampa got swept. Like, they didn't even have a chance to win that. Boston had three chances to close out the Panthers, including two overtimes, Julian. Like, game five, Matt Kachuk. game seven, obviously Carter Verhiggi, and then not only that, the thing that I found fasting,

go back to game five. The dying seconds of regulation had Brad Marchand on a breakaway. Like he could have ended, like, that's how close. Oh, man. So, like, the fact that, like, there's a massive point discrepancy between the Panthers and the Bruins that does nothing for you in terms of an upset. And, like, you mentioned, you mentioned the Tampa upset. that people are pointing to going as far back as the 70s

when like Ken Dryden and the Canadians upset the Bruins who are the reigning champions at year. People say that's still the biggest upset in NHL history. Like is it closer to that? So, okay, but here's my legitimate question for you and for the listeners. Can something be a huge upset if we felt like it was very plausible

that it was going to happen? Like to me, when I think about crazy, like I think about like the USA miracle on ice. Like that's a, nobody thought you, were winning. But in this age of parity in the NHL, I don't know that a 40 point discrepancy is like insurmountable. I don't know. I don't think so. And the Panthers won the President's trophy the year before. They made some changes. But it's not like they were your classic number eight seed or, you know, wild card team. They, they had a lot of the, the structure in place from a team that

had 122 points themselves the year before. So I don't I don't buy it that it's like this holy smokes massive upside. Where I do think I bought, what I do buy into is I think this is the end of the era for the Bruins as we know them, crachy and in particular Bergeron. Like you watch that game, you watch the ending of it. The way Patrice Bergeron left the ice and the way that he kind of soaked it in, that felt inevitable that he, that's it for him. Didn't that feel like it to you?

Yeah. It felt like that. I mean, it's one thing for guys, like, remember, I don't know if you remember the 2021 Stanley Cup final when the Canadians lost to Tampa Bay.

And all those Canadians players went to Shea Weber and they're giving him hugs and stuff. They know like that's basically it. And he hasn't played a game since, you know? In this case, I just looking at Patrice Bergeron,

seeing all those guys hug him. Brad Marchant's the very, very last guy to hug him before they step off the ice. Like, yeah, that looks like a guy who, like, it, it, I, I, I, I understand that produce Bergeron still has to think about it with his family, and he might come back for another year. It certainly felt like it was over. Also, I have to mention this now, just like two episodes ago, if you see B. Scatterbraid, more Calgary Flaves News just breaking as we, as we go here. Oh my gosh.

This is, this is the day. I'll let you break it to the listener. It's the second episode three weeks. So that's it. Yep. So Darrell, for those wonders,

yes, Darrell Sutter has been let go. Pierre LeBron just dropped it. Elliot Friedman as well, but Pierre LeBron, who's our guy, got that news. Wow.

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Yes, he's gone. So, but we kind of felt like when True Living said, let's go our separate ways, it kind of felt like,

maybe this is the end, It's time for fresh coat of paint all over in Calgary, right? Isn't it feel that way? Yeah, but at the same time, like, Daryl Sutter had a two-year extension. Like, that's what complicated things with all of this. It's one thing if both those, because if Daryl didn't have a contract, and I think the year the way, the year went the way that it did, it's much more clear to say, hey, both those guys are gone.

Even a guy like Brad, who I think if the offers may have been right, or if some other factors worked out, he might have stayed. But I think just with the way this season went for Daryl Sutter and that Flames team and all of those pieces that they got in the off season, like those pieces have to work. Like they sign those guys to contracts. It has to work. For guy like Daryl to not get the most out of that team, like it just kind of felt as if the writing was going to be on the wall for a guy who style has been described as old school. And unfortunately, he's taking the fall. He's taking the fall here.

It kind of had to happen, I think. So, yeah, I mean, I guess I know what you mean in terms of there's no GM in place per se, but, you know, I look at it this way. Now the GM gets to come in and make their own hire, right? Mm-hmm. Like, they get to make their own hire. Yeah. That's what I wonder too with that, not to hijack this, but with this conversation, you completely, the biggest thing for me with that GM search

was how much of a factor Darrell Sutter was going to be in all of this. And if Daryl stayed, then I think that whoever the GM was, they were going to have to deal with that. And I think it would have lessened the candidate pool for those guys. I understand Craig Conroy is the favorite for that job.

He's an internal guy, he's played for the team before, was an assistant to Jay Feaster when he was GM, that becomes a GM. but now you open up a possibility of so many other guys coming in who could do it. One quote that's gone around, Don Maloney, who's the president of hockey operations in the interim GM. Yeah. He said that he would like to have a progressive thinker, someone who's on the cusp of an opportunity.

Like, no disrespect to Darrell. Darrell is a guy who had direct line to ownership and has, I mean, maybe it's not. Like, this is a guy who has a lot of power in that organization. If they had brought in a new guy, it would have been very difficult, I think, for those two to coexist, at least right away, especially if that GEB wants to put their imprint on this team. Like, and I don't know, like, I think this is a move that had to happen in order for them to get the progressive thinker that they want. And I think for some of those players in that room, too, who were not happy about how this year went, some of those guys are probably in favor of that decision. And I think that this move happened, because some of those guys might have said something about how, this year went and they said, you know what, a change need to be made.

Darrell Sutter will go down as one of the greatest winners in terms of head coaches. He has the two Stanley Cups. There's the legacy attached to him. But sometimes a life expectancy for a coach, it ebbs and flows. And I think for a guy like Darrell, I think the writing was on the wall for him. Okay. That being said, then, let's move this to one other team that had a little bit of coaching news on the weekend, and that's the Winnipeg Jets, Kevin shoveled day off.

Julian saying that you know what, Rick Bowdo is going to come back. Bones is coming back. And the reason why I bring that up, his post-game press conference in which, and I know he tried to walk it back a little bit on the weekend, but he said he was disgusted

with the way that his team performed in game five. It felt like a definitive kind of breaking point between the core of that team and the coach. Like, I don't know that that I've ever seen in the NHL. often see that type of raw emotion and honesty on a podium from players and coaches. We saw it. And then if we shoveled day off to come back and say, Rick Bonas or coach next year, to me,

it's a message to the core of that team, right? I think so. I mean, here's what I'll say, just to start off here. It's fun, it's really interesting to see people after that season went the way they did say the things they're saying about the core and that they're fed up of the core. I don't know if I'm wrong in saying this, but if you're going to keep Rick Bonus, like you're endorsing a side of this that says,

okay, like, we're going to change things inside that core. And I don't know if you have to necessarily change everything, but there are two people I'm looking at in all of this. Blake Wheeler and Mark Shifley, those two have been around this organization for years, and when you think of the core and you think of the figureheads at the top of that, it's those two players.

I wonder what their fates will be with all of these changes. There's no way you don't address those two with regards to their futures here in Winnipeg, regardless of whatever the contract status is or whatever their fates are supposed to be if things play out normally. Like those two guys, it starts with if you're Kevin Shevold Dayoff, if you're just management, it starts with those two. You know, maybe Kyle Conner stays, Nikolai Euler stays. If Connor Hellibuck is not interested in sticking around and sees the direction of the team and says, you know what, man, he's not. out of here, put me somewhere else, he's gone. That's going to happen. But inevitably, there will be changes with this team because there have been

too many years where they've had opportunities and they've squandered them. This year especially, this is a team that at one point was the best team in Canada and they found themselves as a wildcar team and they get dusted by the Vegas golden nights. Like, it's unacceptable. Something else to change. I thought Murat, his writing on the weekend was just phenomenal

in terms of being able to sort of encapsulate what Jets fans are thinking right now, which is a sense of frustration that there's no direction here. And he really, I thought Murat is just a terrific writer, but he really got it on the weekend. So if you didn't read that, I'd encourage you to check out, to check out his stuff.

Okay, but listen, we got more game seven to sift through. Man, I feel bad for everybody listening because like this should have been an episode where we're just going in on the playoffs. Oh. And now we're going it on teams that are not in the playoffs, because of news just break. Again, this is the second time in three weeks.

We've had a show completely interrupted by the Calgary Flames and their news. I don't know how, I don't know how Haley was able to do this show and whatever stuff like that would happen. But like, this is a pretty big deal for Daryl Sutter to be gone from the Calgary Flames. But also, it is a big deal that the Boston Rooms are gone from the playoffs. It's a big deal that the Colorado Avalanche are gone from the playoffs. Like, today, forgive us if we're a little bit all over the place today. It's a big deal that stooped off, you know. Yeah.

Might be interesting to the Ottawa. I said. Forgive us if today is a bit of a bit of a day for us. Yeah, it's a day. And we'll get, listen, we'll get to the, the, the, uh, the snoop stuff in a bit, uh, but we got more game seven fallout in that, like the Seattle Cracken, okay, let me phrase it to you this way. If your favorite team is out of the playoffs, or you're like us and you don't really, you know, you don't really cheer for a team per se, you're, you know, you're kind of in the industry and you're not really cheering. Mm-hmm. Um, are you not,

are we all not kind of just pulling for the Seattle Cracken? Like is that our collective bandwagon team here? The second year developed out of nothing. They just took out the defending Stanley Cup champions. Like, is that the team we're pulling for? Or no? Like, like, because I kind of feel like I want to pull for them. They feel like the least polarizing team of the ones left in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Is Carolina polarizing? Like, I don't find Carolina. I don't know if they are either. I know, like, some people get annoyed with the storm search stuff, which I think is great. And they claim to be the loudest fan base in the league. I don't know if that's necessarily true. But, yeah, like, I think them and Seattle are probably on the low rank in terms of fan bases and teams that annoy people. Like, if you had said, like, the Leafs, what a great story.

Are they the team to cheer for? I'd be like, I don't know if that's necessarily the case. I don't know if even the Emmington Oilers would necessarily be the case as well. The Golden Knights have managed to upset a lot of people with the way they handle things over in recent years. There's a lot of teams, I think. How do they become? Go ahead. How did Vegas become so quickly, like, kind of where Seattle is kind of like a lovable kind of new team?

Like Vegas, it was like right away, we just hated them because they went to the cup and we're like, we hate you. I don't think it's necessary. No, I think we liked them when they went to the cup. because it was an incredible story. I think it said immediately after, like, remember, like, people love the social media, the way they handled that, and then that changed.

And everyone's like, wait a minute, there's so much more annoying now. And just the way that they're, like, taking in guys and in and out and trying to make the playoffs and stuff. Like, there's something about their DNA that has changed in recent years. Like, I think that first year when they were still an expansion team, when they go to the final, they were still, quote, unquote, pure. And I think in recent years that has changed. And I don't think the players in management,

don't mind all that much. But like, I think Seattle is still in that honeymoon phase with expansion teams. There's still a liked team. Do we need to wrap our heads around? And I'm not, I want to make this clear, I'm not sleeping on Edmonton. I'm not sleeping on Dallas. But there is a chance, Julian, that in like 12 days from now, we could wake up to a world where the Western Conference final are the two newest teams that leave, the Seattle

Cracken against the Vegas Golden Knights. Oh, that would actually be really. really cool. See, so we just need to prepare our listeners for that. Like, but just prepare people for that. I'm not saying it's going to happen. Just, just know that it's on the radar. It's on the radar. It's possible. That's actually pretty cool. That would actually be super cool and super frustrating for so many other franchises at once. Imagine you're like a fan of a team that has like, I don't know, two or three playoff series wins in the last like how many years. And you're like, oh man, like we go about these old school ways or, you know, we're trying to find a way to like get more success. And then. you look at the two newest franchises who found ways to be playoff teams into the conference final. People would be so mad at that. It's like, why were these guys able to do it? Like, what the hell's going

on? Like, people would be frustrated at that. I would love it personally. It would be such a cool story to see, I mean, for sure, we'd get new blood out of a Western conference team. Even if we would be robbed of another year of Connor McDavid and Leon Drysidal trying to get to the

that's what comes at the expense of it. I know. Vegas, Seattle, as cool as that would be, it's another year where Connor McDavid is denied an opportunity to go to the Stanley Cup final. That has to be acknowledged

at all of this too. Yep. That's a great point. And McDavid and Drysidal just salvaged that series when it looked like it was going off the rails and, you know, L.A.

Boy, L.A. probably deserved a better fate. Listen, this has been, I know we often suffer in this industry from recency bias Or not even just this industry. Like, right?

So often you go out and be like, that's the best hamburger I've ever had. Or that's the best movie I ever saw, whatever it is. Okay. I kind of feel like right now we're like, this is the best first round I've ever seen. And part of it is we had game seven upsets on Sunday night. We got a game seven on Monday evening

between two, you know, historical rivals. And this is going to be a lot of fun. We had the Toronto Maple Leafs, you know, exercising a demon that we didn't. that they could do when they did and the Oilers. Anyway, do you think this is the best first round that you can remember? Or do we just not remember other first rounds and therefore we're like, this is the best first round ever?

I mean, how many first rounds can we point out where the greatest regular season team of all time gets upset in the first round? I mean, you want to go back to Tampa, I guess 2019, but like that happening, like, how many, has that ever? happened before? How many times does that happen where the President's trophy winning team and the defending cup champion, if there were two different teams, yeah, if there were two different teams, how many times does that happen where they were both gone from the first round of the playoffs? It's one

thing if you, if you've done both and you're the reigning cup champion and all that. But like, how many times does it happen where you lose both the reigning cup champion and the President's trophy winning team in the first round? I don't know how many times that happened. In the same night. In the same night, within hours. On home ice. That is insane. Yeah. And of course, we got to acknowledge the Leafs too.

I know a lot of people are really happy about that, I guess. Not I guess they are happy. Are they a polarizing team? Do you find? We're talking about Seattle and Carolina. Do you find Toronto polarizing? No, not at all. No, everyone loves them.

They're universally loved. And certainly no one has made a point to make fun of them for the fact that they've celebrate the first round the way that they have. Absolutely not. So tell me when you saw the, footage of the streets of Toronto flooded with energetic, young, enthusiastic people celebrating a playoff victory for many of those people that it looked like in the shots, either the first time in their lifetime or the first time that they would ever remember a Toronto Maple Leafs.

So you're talking about people in their kind of early 20s, you know, late teens, early 20s, that demographic. You would never have been alive or remember a lease passers. So I want to make that clear. I think it's not like the streets were flooded with like 45-year-old guys like me who were like, we've done it. Like, you know, because we've all seen stuff before. If you're 45, you've seen the Leafs go win some rounds.

So do we allow a little bit of like, okay, like, listen, these people have never seen this happen in their lifetime. Just let them have fun. Or do we need to mock them? I need a ruling from from you here. So here's my thing about it. I have no problem with the fans celebrate. that. I see the celebrations and I wonder if they win round two, they win round three, what's it going to turn into? I'm curious about that. I don't have a problem personally with fans

celebrating that. Like, I think for a lot of those people, they've been the butt of jokes for so long, and they were the butt of some really intense jokes. And their team finally found a way to win in the first round. What are they supposed to do? Not celebrate, like, not take a moment to gloat and be like, Ha, we actually did it. We beat a team that gave us fits last year. We finally got over the hump of the first round. You know, John Tavares, who... Those is the one thing that I will have to laugh at, though.

What I find really funny is that the Leafs got to this place because of the play of players who they would previously malign and be pissed at. John Tavis, for whatever reason, drew a lot of flack for people, especially last season. He can now say he has ended postseason series droughts. for two different franchises. Both I think on O.T goals as well. Morgan Riley.

When they beat the Panthers, right? Yep, correct. And he won the Jop a T goal, yeah. Morgan Riley, people have been dumping on this man all season for the way that he's been playing. He was probably the best defenseman in that series. He played really well in that series. People love to dump on Alex Kerrfoot, too. He got himself a big goal in that series as well.

The funniest thing for me is that Leaves fans, they've been complaining about some of these players and not coming up in these other moments, in these big moments of the regular season, those were the guys in addition to Austin Matthews and Mitch Barta and Ryan O'Reilly who helped the team get to that other side. And they do not give a damn as they celebrate. I have no problem with them celebrating.

I, for me, it's funny to see them forget all that other stuff about, you know, dunking on certain players of theirs. But I don't have a problem with them celebrating. I think it's fine. It's okay. Like, it's memories that are going to stay with them for a long day.

time. And I think people are allowed to celebrate when their team does one. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's funny because I think there was a stretch with baseball. Remember when everyone, like the, they would win a wild card round and like the goggles came out and the champagne and people got I love that stuff. I love that stuff. And I think, you know what that is? That is a generational difference between you and I where I think, and again, it's more about people like me understanding that, okay. And I love like Janice last week when he was asked after the Buckska bounced, like kind of his answer that, you know, sometimes you just, not everyone can win. And sometimes you just got to celebrate the little successes in life, right? And so,

listen, I get it. But now it's Toronto and Florida in round two. And Sergey Bobrovsky, for three games, played well. But you know what's funny? In those three games, Julian, his save percentage was 906. His goals against was 3.41. It wasn't like Bobrovsky went full, like kind of what he was back with the jackets. He didn't go like 2012 Barbarovsky, whatever. Like he was just okay.

He was good enough to win. Like, are the Leafs like overwhelming favorites in this series? Is it a coin flip? Does Florida have an edge? Like just your initial assessment. now that we know it's Toronto, Florida. What that tells me, and we've seen it throughout the series too,

is that even if Sir Sir Cigabroovsky was just okay, like that Florida Panthers team was able to battle back and get some big goals. They did that against, again, the greatest regular season team we have ever seen in the Boston Bruins. Like, this is a postseason where people are going to understand that Matthew Kachuk is a game breaker. And he has played for him.

like a game breaker in that first, like through that first round series. I don't know if I feel comfortable saying the Leafs are an overwhelming favorite. I'm not saying they're necessarily going to lose. I still have to think about what I would want to predict that series to be. But I thought it was really

interesting to see Leaf fans be like, oh, we want Florida. Do you mean the team that beat Boston the way that they did? Yeah. You want those guys? You want Matthew and Chuck coming at you? You want Carter Verhaghy? You want all these guys? Like, I'm here for Matthew Kachuk in a seven game series against the Toronto fan base.

Like, how many shifts will it, let's set the over under here. How many shifts will it take for Matt Kachuk to become public enemy number one? I'm going to set the over under at seven and a half shifts. Under. Under. All it takes is for him to get in, all it takes is for him to drive the net and hit Ilya Samson off once. Once. done. Forget it. Everyone hates that guy. People are going to hate him by the end of that series, regardless of how it goes. People are going to hate this man. And if it wasn't a parent before, man, the Atlantic Division, having that guy in there for like the next like what, like eight years, they're not going to like this guy. They shouldn't already like this guy. They will not like this man.

Okay, Julian says take the under seven and a half shifts. Matt Kachuk becomes public enemy number one. So we know Toronto, Florida. What we don't know is, Carolina's opponent. And I think we need to bring our producer Chris Flannery in here for this segment because Chris is diehard Rangers fan. Like diehard Rangers fan is Rangers Devils game seven tonight. Chris give our listeners a sense of and we're about seven and a half hours. By the way, it's an eight o'clock Eastern time puck drop tonight. Yes.

So we're about seven and a half hours, whatever, away from the game. Like take us, like can you eat lunch? Okay, Chris? Or like, do you have that little thing? like you're nervous or like take take our listeners through how you're feeling right yeah no i'm i'm fine for now because i'm doing this i'm working i have stuff to do uh you know my i'll hang out with my daughter this afternoon you know i i have some things going on around six o'clock i'm going to start getting antsy it's like i do not want to wait till eight o'clock that's a that's a real

uh bummer that that i have to wait that long um you know i got to tell you i i feel obviously it's been a real up and down series for the rangers i feel like the first goal to tonight really, really matters. If the Rangers can get the first goal, I think they're going to be in good shape. Shesterkin's been excellent the whole series. When the Devils play with the lead, they are a really, really difficult team to play against. They just clog up the neutral zone. They're looking to turn puck's over and they become a real problem when they play with the lead.

So I think the first goal is gigantic for both teams, but obviously as a Rangers fan, I'm hoping it's the Rangers to get it. And that game's at the Rock tonight. And I'm going to ask both of you guys this question. And this isn't, again, this isn't a recency bias thing. Okay, because the road teams have played really well. If you guys had your choice, would you rather play a game seven of a playoff series at home or on the road?

I think I'd rather play on the road. I would rather play on the road. Try to plant that like Chris, like you're saying, Rangers score that first goal tonight. What's it going to do to the crowd? They're going to get a little antsy. They're going to get a little uptight. Right?

Wouldn't you guys rather play on the road? Yeah, like if you win that series, especially if you're not favored to win. I mean, there's a chance you aren't favored to win if you're the road team in that in that do-or-die game. You suck out all that energy. You leave as a happy team. You get to hear everyone be quiet.

Like that is a pretty sick feeling. At the same time, like if you win on your home ice, like you have the crowd behind you. They're all amped. It's all exciting and all that. But I don't know. There's something about being the villain and ruining a party like the way the Florida Panthers did

and so many other teams before them, like that's pretty cool. I see where you're coming from with the road team. I think that has swayed my opinion. I think I'd rather be the road team. At that point, like, I wonder how much pressure is on you in that moment, too. I don't know.

Like, you're, again, if you're in that situation, there's a chance you're not favored. So I might like that situation. Yeah, it's interesting, especially in this series because they're, you know, Rangers fans are very, you know, it's New York and New Jersey. It's close. There's going to be a lot of Rangers fans in that building.

So if they, can suck the energy out of the devil's fans to start, you're going to hear some Igor chance, you're going to hear some let's go Rangers. So that starts to work, I think, against the devils in particular, because then they want to do maybe a little too much. Rangers can maybe capitalize on that. But honestly, over the last, however many playoff runs, the Rangers have been on, they've won so many game sevens at home on the road. I don't necessarily think it matters with this team in particular. They've just done it so many times. But for sure, starting the series on the road, I think was a good thing for the Rangers because, you know, with all that talent,

they, they kind of get their confidence from scoring goals. So when they go on the road, they don't really have to put a show on like they would at MSG. And so, yeah, I mean, I don't think it hurts them to be on the road for this game seven. I think they just, you know, play a quiet game and try to score first. Yeah. Why don't we have a regular segment? Like, we need to come up with a catchy name for. Yeah. I like producer Chris Bring his two sets into things. You got a great kind of podcasting voice. You speak with confidence, almost like you've done this for a long time.

I kind of feel like we should be bringing you in. Listen, I'd be happy to join you guys. You guys are the pros for sure, but I don't mind jumping in anytime you need me. I'm happy to do it. All right. Okay. Well, listen, this is going to sound facetious when I'd say it. But like legit, good luck tonight.

Thank you. I know, like, and Julian and I, we watched those games last night. there's nothing better, right, than watching Game 7, especially in overtime, when you're not kind of emotionally attached to the game. Oh, my God. It's so freeing, it's so liberating.

You just get to enjoy the action, the tenseness. You see everyone freaking out in the audience and you're just sitting back on your couch just like, yeah, I don't have to worry about any of this. Like, this is fun. It's also good. Like, it's one thing to not have a dog in the race, but then you're at the game and you have to,

a file from the arena and you're trying to figure out like what your story is going to be. It truly is bliss when you are legit just at a game or on your couch and you have no responsibilities for this game. You just get to see the game as it is and enjoy it. Listen, now it's time for the show where we got to talk about the Senator's news today. I'm telling you about all this news popping up out of nowhere. It messes with your brain, right? I'm not alone in this.

No. And so... Thank you. I want to take you... This is wild. I want to take you through the process of this and by extension, obviously, the listeners, because this is a fascinating story. So we reported this about 1130 on Monday morning that... And I can't even believe...

I think this might be the first time I'm saying these words out loud. But Snoop Dogg is part of the consortium with one of the groups, led by a Los Angeles-based entrepreneur named Nico Sparks, Snoop Dog is a potential owner of the Ottawa Senators. He's all in on this. So I'm going to walk you through this because obviously, and I think somewhat rightfully, so Ryan Reynolds has dominated the new cycle on this particular story for the better part of three months, four months, where it's felt inevitable. But I'm going to take you back, Julian, to January when I, the first time I wrote about this group led by Nico Sparks, one of the things they said was they have the goal of being the most diverse

ownership group in hockey history. They wanted to have a number of people of color in positions of power, that they were going to put a consortium together of 12, 15 people, and the majority were going to be people of color, and they want to change the NHL, not only at the grassroots level, but at kind of the boardroom level too, okay? So the one thing they told me in January, Julian, was, we believe that we have a celebrity that's on par with Ryan Reynolds.

And I was like, okay, yeah, whatever. Like, who is it, right? And so between January and April, So four months I was pestering people close to this group around this group and I'm like

who's the who's the celebrity Is it the rock? No. Is it, I heard at one point Floyd Mayweather They're like no.

I heard the weekend. They're like no. And I'm like, who the hell could it be? And I think here's what here's what I really think happened, Julian. I think last week

this story came out that the Ryan Reynolds group and full credit to Bruce Garriac of Post Media. He was the one who had it. And he was the one who had the story that suggested that Ryan Reynolds and the Remington group were prepared to make a $1 billion. Do I need to do the Dr. Evil? $1 billion?

Or is that Ed Belfort? $1 billion. Ed Belfour should jump in with a billion dollar. Are you too young for the Ed Belfour, a billion dollar reference? I'm not aware of it. I might not be too young, but I'm not aware of it. Okay. But this is why, remember I always said, like the, every episode of the pod, I feel like I could teach you something.

So back of the day, I think when Ed Belford was playing for the Dallas Stars, he was arrested on, I think it was like public intoxication. Like something fairly like not overly serious, but he was, he was booked in charge. And apparently, he tried to talk his way out of it by offering a one billion dollar bribe to the arresting officers. He was like, I'm Ed Belfour and I think it was like a billion dollars. No way. Yeah. Ed Belfort. Hockey players don't make that much money.

No. No. Anyway, back to this story where I think, honestly, I think what happened was the Reynolds group dominated the news cycle last week. And I think all of the other groups. And I still believe there's four or five other groups that are interested in. I think all the other groups are like, are you kidding me? like honestly are you kidding me like this is a runaway now like why on earth would anybody try to put a bit in if you're telling us Ryan round is going to go in for a billion like like honestly so I think like they

felt like there's a lot of other groups and I don't know what the other groups are thinking I've been in contact with some of them but I think they felt like are you kidding me like like we're losing the PR battle here so after months and months of me trying to chisela this, I finally kind of got something loose on Friday night that led me to believe it was going to be Snoop. And I'm like, what? Like, you wouldn't have believed, like, my initial reaction, like, my jaw hit the floor. And then I spent all the, so I texted my editor.

And I work with Naucco, Asano, who works out of Vancouver. And I texted her Friday night. I'm like, shout out, Nowco, man. Nauco's amazing. And I said, you're not. You're not going to believe. I sent her a note on Slack. I'm like, I said, play a game with me.

I said, I think I got the celebrity nailed down, I think. Go ahead and guess. And she took a couple of guesses. I'm like, no, think bigger. And I said, Snoop. And, you know, it was like five seconds later she comes back with like five exclamation and question marks. I'm like, yeah, I think so. I said, just give me some time to try and nail this down.

And then this is the part that you will appreciate the most as a reporter, as a fellow journalist. Yes. I'm sitting in a movie theater. I take my daughters to see air, the Jordan Nike movie. Yeah, I got to watch that movie. Yeah, it's great. It's really good.

And I said, you know what, guys? Like, our daughters are a little bit older. They're almost 19 and 15. And I said, you know what? And I love spending time with them, but movies are like one of my favorite things to do with them. I said, let's go to the movie. Let's go for, and this is not a. intended to be a snoop related joke, but we did pick a 420 show.

It was a 420 showtime. I now think of that as I... Yeah. So we're sitting in the movie and you know the rule of you get the notification, shut off your phone, right? Let everyone enjoy it. But I know that I'm really close to potentially nailing this down. So I leave my phone on and sure enough like nine minutes into the movie, 10 minutes in

the movie, my phone flashes and it's one of these kind of sources that's kind of close enough to the situation where I feel like if I can nail them down and I had to run out of the theater and, you know, take the call in the hallway. And I'm like, and they're like, yeah, I think, I think that you're, this is it. So anyway, long story short. That is so cool. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's wild though, right? Like, it's a really wild story when you think about, like, we live in a I don't know. What's what's what crazier to you? That we live in a universe where the Toronto Maple Leafs have a legitimate chance to win the cop? Oh, we live in a world where there's potentially, there's two billion dollar bids for the Ottawa senators with their own A-list celebrity.

I don't know what's weirder. I feel as if like the second story should have more lasting impact for the legacy of the league as opposed to the former. No disrespect to Leafs fans. But like the idea that Ryan Reynolds was in on the Ottawa senators for a bid, like, there's, a reason why I got propped up the way that it did because for celebrities of his caliber to pay attention to the league and show that interest in the league, like, that's a big deal. Like all of a sudden, the Ottawa Senators could be this cool team.

For Snoop Dogg, who has already shown interest in hockey, do you remember that time he was on the, he's been on those L.A. King's broadcast before, you know, trying to provide commentary the way that he has. This is a guy who likes hockey. This is a guy who likes sports. This is a guy, for him being interested in the Ottawa Senators is still a show. shock, but like him being around the game of hockey isn't a complete shock, but that's also exactly what this league needs.

And this whole aspect of the ownership discussion has not been discussed enough in the fact that a team with persons of color leading it at the forefront would be a massive, massive deal. It's not something that happens every day in the big four of sports. So for it to be in hockey, which might be the whitest of all four of them, it would be insane. of all people to lead that charge, Snoop Dog, that is one of the coolest stories. Like, and I think if it's kind of funny, like, I don't know if it's cool to root for people to own certain teams or anything like that, but like, I get the hype with Ryan Reynolds, but Snoop Dogg owner of the Ottawa Senators would be real cool.

Do you imagine going to the, I mean, the Canadian Tire Center, that opening press conference gets flown in and he's just at the, at the, what's it called, the table or whatever that they have to do the press conferences and he's just there. Could you just imagine like people asking him questions and he's handling it? Can you imagine like Bruce Garriac trying to ask him questions and see how that goes? Yeah. I feel like you would handle it a lot cooler than Bruce. I don't know.

Maybe I don't know. I'm, I'm that kind of, although technically, I mean, I am younger than Snoop, right? So I should have that going for me. I got about five years on him. What's your favorite Snoop Dog song? See, I always, like back in the day, I always think about, like it was my last year of high school was gin and juice. So that's the one for me.

And I always love like it's the, the Penguins jersey. Like he's wearing that old school. Like the old school penguin's jersey. The biggest reason why that jersey is cool is because he wore it. Yes. So that's always the one for me that like, I don't know,

goes back to my childhood and the Penguins jersey. Like that's the whole thing about it. Yeah. But my answer would have been his, him on Still Dre with Dr. Dre by the way. Yeah. But like you would agree with me on this that there's not very many people who whose platform reach, whatever you want to call it, would be equal to Ryan Reynolds, if not a little bit more. But certainly in that realm, in that stress rate. Snoop is legit in there. And it's, it's, it's why.

That's a big deal. It is. I'm telling man, I had this kind of not sit on this, but like the ability to try to nail that down. without anybody else knowing about it is one of the, oh, I didn't even sleep really well last. I'm usually a guy like I sleep really well. Like I didn't say, I was tossing and turning thinking, I'm going to wake up and someone else is going to have, you know, snuck in there and had this. And I'm like, oh, like to be working. Anyway. Yeah. Man, that's, I just have to say, that is so cool that you were able to to, to have that story and to bring coverage to that.

because there has been a lot with Ryan Reynolds and some of the other ownership groups, but for that to be a potential candidate for the automobile senators, that cannot be overlooked in any of this. And the fact that it's stoop dog, people are not going to see this, because I don't know if we're going to do a YouTube clip, but in the case that we don't, I, what I heard this was happening, I decide to wear my stoop dog shirt, just because of how, like, funny this all is.

But, yeah, it feels like it's going to be a very busy May 1st for both of us. Man, what a crazy time. crazy time. And I want to say, I want to go on the record here and say, like, I don't particularly, maybe cares not the right word, but like, it doesn't matter to me who owns the Ottawa senators. I want to make this clear. Like, I, like, I, like, if it's Ryan Reynolds, great. If it's the Snoop, uh, Nico Smyth Consortium, great. If it's Michael Ann Lauer, fantastic. Like I, my number one desire in all of this is to see stable, competent, committed owners in Ottawa. And I don't care.

who that is. Now, I understand the allure of having Snoop or Ryan Reynolds. I totally, totally get that. Trust me. I get it. But the number one thing, we can't take our eyes off the main goal, which was this franchise for years was completely mismanaged and neglected. And we just need an ownership group in here. I don't care who it is. Come in here. And understand this market and understand this fan base. That's it. And if it happens to be Ryan Reynolds, that's awesome.

And I'm not going to change the way I cover this theme. If it's Ryan Reynolds, if it's Snoop, if it's Mike Antlower, like, whoever it is, I don't particularly care. I'm just going to try my best to hold you accountable. And I want you to do best. And I want you to do right by this community. I don't love that sometimes I see people say, like, you know, you should, I don't think as journalists and reporters, We should be putting our hat. Like, I guess here's what I want to say.

I don't want this to be construed as me somehow endorsing any group. I'm just passing along news that I think is significant. Right? 100%. This is a significant piece of news. Like, this is, anyway. Like, yeah, I don't think, I don't think you doing that. Here's the thing.

Like, I'm excited that you got the story. And, like, the possibility. And I think we're allowed to let our minds wander and wonder about a world where Snoop Dog is the owner of an NHL team. And I think it's, I think it's totally cool to think about how cool that could be and the potentials that come with that. It's not necessarily an endorsement. But I think, like, to have such a high profile celebrity at a time when the league needs as much exposure as it can get, isn't this not something that would help the game? Is this not something that would be a positive?

Like, this isn't, both of us say, whether it's Ryan Reynolds or whether it's Doop Dog. And look, with respect to the other ownership groups, whether it's Michael Andlauer or anybody else, but Ryan Reynolds and Stoop Dog, I think there's like an element of visibility that comes into this that we cannot ignore. And while it's not an endorsement from either of us, if either of those guys get it, that's, I think that's, that's a positive, it could be perceived as a positive element to either of those two getting an HLT. And I think that cannot be overlooked. Yeah. Anyway, it's going to be really fun to watch this process unfold from an arm's length in the next two weeks, three weeks, whatever it is. But anyway, there's the background of how I kind of tried to chisel away from months to try and get that, you know, to get that answer.

And I'm not going to lie to you, it shocked me. I didn't, I don't know who I thought it was, but I never crossed my mind. It was Snoop. So, man, man. Yeah. What a day. Flames news, senators news, game sevens, recaps, game seven previews.

I still can't believe, like, not to jump back on the Flames thing. There's a part of me that still can't, kind of can't believe that happened. Like, the perception of Flames ownership is that they're not necessarily, I don't want to use the, how would I put this with Flames ownership? The fact that you have a head coach who is,

has an extension. that kicks in July 1st for the next two years. Letting go of that man and the money attached to him would have been a very interesting thing to do. And the flames aside that they were going to do it. But this tells me that the fit with him, and especially with some of those new guys that they brought in, it just didn't work.

And I think enough things were said during those exit meetings and throughout the season that said, hey, you know what? Darrell Sutter, we know you're about, you know, worth a little over $8 million of the next two years, you gotta go. This has to get done.

It was just such a wild thing. Like, we knew the, we know the fates of coaches who were coaching teams who were recently eliminating the playoffs. And we didn't know until today what Daryl Sutter's fate was going to be. And now that we know,

and at the time you're hearing this, there will be a press conference ahead with Don Maloney where they're going to talk about this. That's today? By the time you get, That's today. So like, okay.

But so by the time this episode drops, the press conference will either be happening or it will have already happened. So we'll know more details about this as it goes on. But like, this, to me, you look at the composition of the roster, you look at how they underwhelmed this year. I also think just with the way certain things went down this year, whether Daryl Sutter handling, Jonathan Hubertoe, the, they had to go take a shit comment, Jacquesa Peltier and his play in time. What number is he? There were just too many things that happened this year where you're just like, are you kidding me? Like, come on.

Like, I understand goaltending did not play well. I understand that like players up front, they underwhelmed. Jonathan Hubert of having a 60 point drop in his statistics is not good. But Daryl Sutter had to take some blame for this. And I think this is their way of doing it. And their way of saying, hey, you know what? like that we believe in the team that we have and we're going to try to give it another go for next year.

And they need someone to take over and get the best out of this group. And just I don't necessarily disagree with the decision to do this. Yeah. Like I just feel he just was not the perfect fit with that group of players. And I'm really curious now about who takes over. Anyway, so maybe I'll get some answers at that press. Listen, and we got to send you on your way to that press conference. Yeah, I got you ready to go.

Let's wrap up the pod here. Let's do what we always do in the postseason, which is a little consmite winner of the week. Did we hex? By the way, did we hex Jim Montgomery? We might have, I don't know. We gave him the regular season Monday, Athletic Hockey Show, Jack Adams Award,

and now that guy's out. So of the playoffs, I mean. Jeez. Fred. Sorry, Jim. Carefully here. So here we go. I'm going to give you some candidates for the Kansomite trophy winner of the week.

This is the player that we think maybe had the best week MVP of the playoffs past seven days. I'm going to give you a couple candidates here. We're talking about Sergey Bobrovsky. Three and O comes in, rescues the panther season. But as I said, kind of just pedestrian numbers. 906, save percentage, 341 goals against. Whatever. Phil Grubauer, though, he won three games for Seattle.

Much better save percentage, 934, buck 99 goals against average. but if you really like those stats, how about Jake Ottinger? 980 save percentage, half a goal, a game in helping Dallas close out the Minnesota Wild. Laurent Brassois did a wonderful job of going back into Winnipeg and beating his old goalie partner in Carter Halibuck. He was 2-0, 946 save percentage. But I'm going to give you a couple of skaters here that also had great weeks. And that would be Carter Verhege with the three-goal week for him, including the Game 7-Ral. overtime winner.

Did you just correct the spelling of Carter Verhege in the Google Doc as we were talking about him? And Laurent Broussois and Jake Arden. Look at you. Like, I just type those in quickly there. This is an audio-based thing. Philip Brubauer as well was misspelled. Good Lord.

Did I spell Austin correctly? Yeah, I think I did for Austin Matthew. This guy is live spell checking me, folks, on a Google dog for a podcast. I love it. I love it. Okay. Carter Verhaghi, three goals. Matt Kachuk, three goals, Austin Matthews, four goals in three games.

And then Rupa Hints, four points in two games. Those are the candidates. What do you got? Who do you think should be a consummate winner of the week? I'm giving it to Carter Verheagie. This is a player who might be, or not might be. He's very underrated in terms of his abilities, good score. The fact that he's able to get that game-winning goal and send the Florida Panthers

on to their merry way to the next round. I'm willing to give it to him for his heroics. I know Matthew Kachuk is there, and he balled out in this series, Sergei Bobrovsky, 3-0, the safe percentage and the goals against average I do not like. I think, though, and I feel like he might go this way, Philip Grubauer, 934, safe percentage, 1.99 GAA,

a complete 1.8, it's a complete 180 for what he was able to do in the regular season, and basically our perception of Philip Grubauer, pretty much since the last year he was in Colorado, and the first year he was in Seattle. Like this guy completely flipping the stats on his head. But because he was able to score a big goal that led to the biggest upset in the first round, I will give it to Carter Verhegey for his heroics.

So let me agree with you. I just got to find the email. I got an email from somebody who reached out to me last night after the game seven. Yeah, I want to give this guy credit. Name is Kyle. Kyle sent me an email and said, Ian, I want to give you a little fun fact on Carter Verhegey. that you can pass along to people.

So Carter Verhege obviously scores the game seven overtime goal to put Florida in and Boston out. He said, remember, Carter Verhege was taken in the 2013 draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Yes. And that was the year. 2013 was the year that Toronto lost to Boston. Yes.

And that epic it was for what? So he said, what about the fact that Carter Verhege is the guy that ends Boston's season and kind of does Toronto a favorite. You know, 10 years after they draft him, Carter Verhagie may have just done Toronto a huge favor. It's like the biggest, it's like the biggest,

his biggest moment as a Maple Leaf. As a leaf, you could argue that. 100%. Okay, last thing is multiple choice madness like we always do. So as we're recording this, we are down to nine teams because New Jersey and the Rangers are still in the mix. I'm going to give you some options here.

Like just from whatever perspective, however you want to answer the question is fine. What would be the weirdest Stanley Cup final that we could have that we could still, like is still on the table? Okay. Is it Carolina, Seattle? Is it Florida Seattle? Is it Toronto Seattle? New Jersey Seattle?

What, like Florida, Edmonton maybe? What about Toronto Edmonton? Like, like, whatever. If I told you right now, try to close your eyes and picture the weirdest Stanley Cup that you almost can't even imagine what would it be of the teams that are Florida Seattle is right up there man like what weird right I don't know how my brain is as well as Seattle is man like Florida to Seattle are you kidding me like that's that's really weird I would watch it but that would be really weird like the panthers getting in us this wildcard team led by Rathie Kachuk against Seattle getting in the second year

that's not what people had on their on their predictions in their brackets at Boston Edmonton they looked at Colorado getting into the cup final maybe. Maybe people thought about Tampa getting in. Even Carolina, Seattle would be like, you know what? As weird as that is, Carolina is a really good team in the Eastern Conference. Florida Seattle would be weird as hell. I think so, right? Like, I don't know why, but I guess maybe the travel Florida, Seattle, like you couldn't get a,

well, I guess Florida, Vancouver would be a little bit further. But like, geographically, there's, there, that, boy, I don't know. I think Florida, Seattle would be weird. But I think I'm still having a hard time with Toronto Edmonton. Like the all-Canadian match-up. You think that be weird? But because there are two Canadian teams, and we haven't seen two Canadian teams in the final since 19, what, 89? Like, it seems really weird to me.

Here's the thing. It's like, it would be weird if both of those teams didn't have the star power that they have. Toronto Edmonton, people thought, like, hey, you know what? Like, it would be cool to see, like, it's going to be framed as Austin Matthews versus Carnivant-David, but it's going to be three top five players in the same Stanley Cup final. Like, that's sick. Like, last year, we were all loving the fact that was Colorado versus Tampa Bay. Like, you have a Tampa Bay team loaded with all those superstars on their team and Colorado with Nathan McKinnon, Kail McCarr, all their superstars going at it.

Like, that is the type of final that we want. Toronto Ebenson sort of feels like they're in that same vein in that the Yenna Leaves team with Austin Matthews. John Tavares, Morgan Riley, you can add him in the bottom as well. Mitch Marner, like they have superstar power too. And then you have the Oilers

who have Connor McDavid, Leon Dryside, Leander Cain, Ryan Newton Hopkins. Like, that's awesome. That's cool. Like, it would be less weird and more like, like I think that's the final

if you look at the brackets now. Like, that's the final. I think a lot of people would want, except if you care a lot about ratings in the United States. But, okay, but if you, and I apologize, I don't know if the Stanley

Cup final this year is on ESPN slash ABC or kind of I think it's TNT this year. Okay. But couldn't you sell McDavid Matthews dry-sidal Marner? Like regardless of where they play. Could you sell that or no? Like you think that it has to be like an American-based entity. American-based franchise. The Toronto aspect would help in this, I think.

The Emmett's not a sexy market. No disrespect. to Edmonton, you know. I've hung around there once. People call it Edmondson. What did the Raptors, when the Raptors got into the final against Golden State in 19. I don't think the ratings were good for that series. The ratings weren't good, right?

I don't think they were. That was Golden State against Kauai. Like, it wasn't like there wasn't Star Power there. There was, it was, you know, I don't know you have the injuries and stuff, but like KD and, man, I don't know. Man, that would have been a different series if KD ends up playing, like, healthy. Like, he comes back in that series and I'm like, like, oh, boy, he might take this team to game seven.

And then he gets hurt. And it's like, oh, boy, like, you know, that kind of, they kind of hurt them a little bit. Plus, Clay Thompson gets hurt too, but the Raptors deserve that series. But we're not the NBA podcast, but the Raptors deserve that series. And it's important that we note this. But all that to say, without looking too deeply, I would think that the ratings were down for that. But I also think a big reason is because of how, well, I mean, a lot of those ratings we see, a lot of them are based off of, like, the states.

Like there's no, as far as I'm concerned, like, I don't see people putting like those two numbers together often for like, okay, how many households in North America watched like the Stanley Cup final? So I think in this case where you get a Stanley Cup final with like two Canadian teams, like maybe because Austin Matthews is in it. But like I don't think Austin Matthews in terms of the star power that he has and the market that he's in. Like we don't think of them as like a big star in American sports pop culture. and I think if he goes into the final I don't think that's necessarily something that's going to resonate all that much with so many hockey fans but also I don't care about that

and maybe that's me being in Canada but too I don't care if we want to be in a world where we have to care so much about ratings let's put all the big money markets in its own Super League and then you have your teams playing against each other. It always always always are when people are like man it's not good for ratings well it's like what do you want it to do like it's the most unpredictable playoffs

of all of the big four sports. Like you're going to, there is a chance you end up on the Florida, Seattle, and there's nothing you can do about it. Well, Chris told us, Chris Flannier, producer said ratings were down,

you know, somewhere in that neighborhood of 12 to 14% with the Raptors in. So you would imagine that there would be a significant dip in ratings if there was one, if not two Canadian teams of the final.

But listen, we've got to let you go. We've got to cut you loose. You've got a press conference again. Yeah, I got to go. So we look forward to reading all about that in the athletic here in the next day or two.

I want to thank everybody for listening to the Monday pod. Follow us in your favorite podcast platform. Leave us a rating review. You know we appreciate that. And here's a really, really important thing

I got to read here, Julian. In an ever-evolving world, it's important to have a constant, a rock, something solid to hold on to no matter what happens. For us,

that's our producer, Chris Flan. Thanks, Chris. But do you think, what the heck is going on? He's just adding this copy. But do you think? No, I didn't put anything in there.

Thank you for saying that he in those very nice. Yeah. Did he jinx himself by referring to himself as a rock, which just happens to be the nickname for the building that his favorite team is. No. No. I think he just jinxed himself. Anyway, we'll find out later on Monday.

Listen, had a lot of fun with this. I want to remind our listeners to you get a one-year subscription to the Athletic for a dollar a month. You visit athletic.com slash hockey show. Corsi.