The Athletic Hockey Show - Game 5 of Maple Leafs-Lightning on deck, Kraken push Avalanche to brink of elimination, vintage Bobrovsky appears in Panthers win

Episode Date: April 27, 2023

Ahead of Thursday night's Maple Leafs- Lightning matchup, Ian checks on how Sean is feeling about the team, about watch parties, and the pair make some predictions. Then, the Kraken may be the feel good story of the playoffs so far as they push the Avalanche to the brink of elimination, and Sergei Bobrovsky looks like his old self again in the Panthers' win over the Bruins Wednesday night to stave off their elimination.Then, in "Granger Things", Jesse Granger discusses Golden Knights- Jets, and how the odds stack up for matchups currently at 3-2. Then to wrap up, lots of Swiss Chalet feelings in the mailbag and a look back with "This Week in Hockey History". Have a question for Ian and Sean? Email [e-mail] or leave a VM: 845-445-8459!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/hockeyshowStart making your financial dreams a reality with Chime. Get started at http://chime.com/nhlshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. All right. Here we go. It's a Thursday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. It's Ian Mendez, Sean McAdoe with you. And here we go. I said, look, in full disclosure, we're recording this on Thursday morning. I said to Sean here in the kind of the prep room, let's check back in 12 hours from now.

Are you up for a post-game 5 athletic updated sales? segment if we can reconnect tonight. Well, you know what? Bonus episode. It's going to depend how it goes because, boy, the vibes around the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to be very, very different 12 or so hours from now, one way or another. It'll be. The monkey will be off the back.

The dragon will be slayed, all of that stuff. Or it's going to be right back to here we go again. Going back into Tampa, got a game six. oh my gosh, we can't do a game seven and on down that road. So we will see. Can I give you my outsiders? Like, I obviously have no emotional stake in this series. I feel like I can come at this from a very objective angle.

I would love a neutral point of view, yes. So here's what I think is going to happen. I think Tampa Bay is going to win game five. And I don't know if it'll be in kind of a, you know, like a 4-1. I feel like Tampa Bay is going to win game five. Okay? I feel like game six is going to be a seesaw affair that's going to play with your nerves and your motion. And then Toronto is going to win in overtime.

I think they're going to play. I think it's too easy. You know this as a Maple Leafs fan. Oh, yeah. It's too, you have to look at what is the law of maximum stress? Like, you can't just win in game five, four to one, Toronto wins and off we go. It can't be that easy. So I think they lose game five.

They have a moment where they kind of let game six slip through their fingers. They make you think, oh, my God, here we go again. And then Michael Bunting with the game six series clinching overtime winner. That's what I'm feeling right now. I love the drama and I love the result. I hate the journey you're taking me on there. That's no fun. But you're right.

I mean, why would we think it's going to be easy? I, this is something I flagged two years ago because a lot of this is, you know, people who've been listening to us from the start, remember the conversation we had two years ago when it was Montreal. And the Leafs were up three to one. And that was the infamous podcast where I laid out exactly what was going to happen in a series where everybody was already looking ahead to the next matchup. and the stat that I flagged back then is that since I want to say 1963 there was a series that the Leaves won in five games and since then

they have won one seven game playoff series in less than six games one and that was against Ottawa 50 years that was the sweep against Ottawa which means the Leafs have not won a series in five games in 50 years. They have won more Stanley Cups in, I'm saying 50 years. It's 60 years. They've won more Stanley Cups in the last 60 years than they have won short and sweet, easy, stress-free series. And their whole thing is they don't win Stanley Cups.

That's their whole trademark. And they do this even less. They're more efficient at winning Stanley Cups than they are in winning series in five days. I started watching hockey in 1963. You've seen the Toronto Maple Leafs win more Stanley Cups than you have seen them. Just win a nice, stress-free playoff series. It's always six or seven games. Everyone that they've won.

They've lost some short ones. They don't win them that quick. That's a crazy stat. It's wild, right? But here we are. And they've earned it. I mean, you know, to the extent that you earn anything in the playoffs, where, you know, little plays and bounces and calls and all of that stuff can determine everything.

Tampa has still been the better team for very long stretches of certainly the two games in Tampa. The last time we did the show, it was 1-0 Tampa. They, you know, there'd been the blowout. That night, the Leafs go out. Great response game on Home Ice. Exactly what they needed. Those two games in Tampa, I mean, look, Tampa was the better team in Game 3. The Leafs kind of stole one.

Tampa was the better team for first half a game for. And then, you know, the Leafs sort of tilted the ice going the other way. And then, you know, they were in that comeback. But, I mean, this is not a 3-1 series where you're looking at going, yeah, man, one team is just speedbacking the other ones. I mean, this one feels like it's, they need a miracle. This is, it's still Tampa. It's still, God, I've hated every, for the last 72 hours, every mention of Andre Vasselowski and how much he is struggling. I mean, we all see the shutout coming tonight, right?

Like, I mean, you absolutely could see that happening. There's a million ways it could go wrong. But to their credit, they've at least positioned themselves where a few of those million things could actually happen without necessarily costing them the series. Now, you talked about how you kind of saw the future a couple years ago. I want to take our listeners, I think our producer Danielle has this clip available, I think. We don't have to go back two years.

We've got to go back one week. And remember, when we had this conversation last Thursday, Toronto Maple Leafs, like you said, they were down one-nothing in the series. They got smoked in game one, gave up a seven spot. This is, remember, here we go. This is from last week. I mean, we could be talking next week.

This series could be over. Tampa could have swept this series, for nothing. And it's done, I think. Yeah, game four would have already been in the books. Yeah, Monday is game four. And we could be talking about a sweet. sweep and we could be talking about, you know, by that point, Dubis and Keith and everyone are probably already fired.

Yeah, absolutely. And that wouldn't shock anyone. We could be talking about the least being up 3-1 because they, you know, they flipped it back and we're all having a laugh. Hey, remember, we all panicked after game one. Wasn't that silly. All right. So do you trust my vision here?

My ability, that's why I'm telling you, I feel like maybe we can, we can play this out. Toronto loses game five, Toronto wins game six. Michael Bunting series clinching overtime goal. I love how people go back and actually listen to the show last week. We discussed like every possible scenario that could have happened. And then we picked the one where it was like, hey, what can you say, man? We're just good at this. Yeah.

Yeah. The Michael Bunting comeback would be something. And boy, there'd be nobody happier than Lee fans, Michael Bunting and Michael Bunting's agent. Because, oh, my, talk about going from number one on some of the free agents. agency lists to a healthy scratch tonight, we're told, at least as a Thursday morning as a plan, that they are choosing to hold him out. Boy, it's been, I mean, it's been a fascinating series as just about every first round series. That's the beauty.

You dive deep into any series in the NHL, especially in the first round, and you just get so many little storylines and things happening. I tell you, man, and look, I wrote a piece very tongue and cheek. after the big comeback on Monday night. But one thing I said in that piece that was very serious, there is not a Maple Leafs fan alive who thinks this is over. There is not one Maple Leaf fan out there. I know fans of other teams, I know you love to, you know,

we'll plan the parade, here we go, Leafsink, they've got a rept. There is not one real Leaf fan who feels, you know, even remotely confident that they're going to win tonight. Now, you're happy the way the series is going, and there's things going on that are making you think, all right, they have learned a few lessons and this is very obviously setting up well. But there's not one Lee fan who's like, you know what, I feel really good about tonight. I'm looking forward to the I'm going to sit down and really enjoy this. We're all just waiting for that other shoe to drop and we're going to be waiting for it right up until it doesn't happen.

And the final buzzer goes off. And even then we're going to have one eye on the replay booth just in case. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I ask you one, one other thought here on the Leafs. And look, they have a great energy outside the arena, home games or road games, Maple Leaf Square, thousands of fans cram in. I want to ask you this question. I want to ask this question to the listeners too, because I don't know, like, if you look

at the age demographic of the people at those gay, the outdoor parties, it's like, people in their 20s, right? Like, this is a, it skews younger. But here's my question. If you're a diehard, huge fan of a team, are you going to a watch party? Because I can be honest with you. I'm the kind of guy, and people know this,

I'm a diehard Dallas Cowboys fan. And maybe that's why I relate to you as a Maple Leafs fan is that I understand your pain and the frustration and all that stuff. But I would much rather be watching meaningful games, important games, curled up in the fetal position in my own living room, than in being, I don't want to be around 10,000 people.

I feel like these people aren't diehard fans, but I don't know how to, I don't want to paint everybody with one brush. I just feel like the really big fans don't want to go to a watch party. It's a different attitude. I'm with you. Yeah.

You would never get me, like, it's tough to get me to go and watch a game with like two people. You know, like literally, if you were like, Sean, why don't you come over and watch the leave game tonight? No, no thank you. I'll be, you know, downstairs, watch it on my own, all of that stuff. I'm not going to a party with 10 people, let alone 10,000 stand around.

And, you know, I don't, misery loves company sometimes. And certainly when the game goes well, wow, what a great environment. I mean, that would be, that would be awesome. You know, one of the best nights of my life was the second night that the Blue Jays won the World Series. I was at my buddy's house. we weren't at the game, but said, you know what, let's just jump in the car and head downtown Toronto and just see the chaos that's going on and just be part of it. It was awesome. I mean, it would be

something like that. That would be great. I'm not doing it during the game, though. There's no chance. If you do, I'm not saying you're not a real fan, but you're cut from a different stock than I am. Let's put it that way. Okay, let me throw this scenario. I don't want this scenario to play out. I don't want this to play out for you because, again, I understand what you've been through with this team for decades. If there's a game seven, Toronto, Tampa, I think you need to change the karma,

change the mojo, whatever you've been doing for 30, some odd years hasn't worked, okay? Yeah. Okay? I think you and I need to get together to watch that. I will, look, here's the thing.

I'm going to invite you. Immediately not. Just you and I. Nobody else, no other people. You change up the karma. You live a 10-minute walk. from my house. This isn't a weird request. Yeah. Around the corner, you change up the mojo.

And then what happens? And do you watch the game or do you watch me watch the game? Do you just sit there? You see that. I'm live blogging for the athletic. Yeah, exactly. With the phone out and this is, wait a second. Why do you have your podcast, Mike? What's happening? I don't. Listen, I'm throwing it out there as an option. If you feel like you need to change, change the The invitation, man. I tell you, it's going to be fascinating if it did come to a game seven. Because the mood will be, obviously, there'll be a lot of doom and gloom and everything.

But I do feel like there's going to be a certain segment of the Leaf fans. If it came to a game seven that are like, you know what, let's go. Let's get. Why not? Why wouldn't it be game seven? Okay. We're ready to go again. We're ready to get hurt again.

You know, you can't hurt us anymore. or let's see what happens. And then, of course, the hockey gods would come up with a new way to torture us. Yeah.

You can't ever be anymore? Boy, I don't, yeah, I'm out of the prediction business on this one. I've already, I picked Tampa to win the series in five. Was that a real prediction

or was I working a little reverse jinx? Reverse jinxy. No comment whatsoever, but I'm already wrong on my predictions so I'm just going to sit back and I'm going to watch and I'm going to do it alone

and, probably in the dark. Okay. I love it. I love it. All right. So look, Toronto Tampa has become obviously the Maple Leafs coming back from 4-1.

That, that to me was one of the great stories we've seen in the first round coming back from 4-1. But is there a better story in hockey right now, Sean, than the Seattle Cracken? Here's this upstart kind of underdog expansion team in year number two taking on the defending Stanley Cup champions. And raise your hand,

if you even knew how to pronounce Ty Cartier's name, before yesterday. If you'd just seen the name, you'd be like, who's that guy, kids comes in, scores in his first ever NHL game, makes it sound like a playoff debut to remember. And the Seattle Cracken have pushed the aves to the brink of elimination, which is not a sentence I ever thought I'd be uttering. But here we are.

Like, I think that's the best story of Ron one of the playoffs, the Seattle Cracken. Did not see it coming. You talk about wrong predictions. I had Colorado in form. That was my prediction there. So it's fantastic and you're right. Like you never want to, you know, we're a week and a half into the playoffs.

You never want to start getting into Team of Destiny and all of this nonsense. But when you have your best player or at the very least, your leading goal score gets taken out of the series on a cheap hit. Yeah. And you're saying, well, we just said 40 goals out of our life. up and you drop this kid that no one's ever heard of into the lineup and he goes out and scores a goal, boy, you got to feel like there's something clicking here. And I did not see this coming at all. In any facet of it, I looked at this matchup and I went, hey, man, fantastic season for Seattle. Awesome that their fans are going to get a taste of the playoffs. But they don't have the

goal tending. They don't have the special teams. You know, Colorado's been kind of cruising through the season. There's, there's no way. And it's, it's full measure. And it's not even, you know, it's not like they're fluking their way to it. It's not like they're just getting crazy hot gold tending or all the bounces are going one way. They're going punch for punch with the champs. And they're earning it. And it's going to be, boy, that game six in Seattle is going to be something else. And I'm sure not writing off the abs in any sense. But boy, it's, it's a great story there and and it's and it's awesome for for the NHL and for Seattle because I mean, this is how you get new fans hooked in in a new market, right? I mean, you can do all the ads

and all the fun and have the mascot and all that cute stuff. This is how you get people, this is how you make new hockey fans is you show them something like this. And I got to imagine there's, there's some people getting hooked right now. Yeah. No, it's, it's going to be off the charts Friday night for that that game at climate pledge. And I'm thinking it's, also going to be pretty, pretty rowdy in, in South Florida. As the Panthers on Wednesday night, Sergey Babrovsky, a 44 save vintage Bob performance, staves off elimination. Matt Kachuk takes advantage of the Linus Allmark misplay in OT. And I'm thinking back and I'm like, man, Sergey Bobrovsky, where have we seen this before? Where he stares down a team that just set the

record for wins and it's like, oh yeah, 2019. The guy did that, like, ironically, that's kind of what earned him this deal with, with the Panthers, which he has not lived up to. And he pulls it off in game five. Here's my question. What is, what should be the confidence level, John, that Bob can do this in game six and Bob can do this in game seven? Can he do this two more times and pull off another Sergei Bobrovsky slaying the dragon miracle here? I mean, what's the confidence level? The confidence level can't be high because this guy has not been good. good for three years now. You know, three seasons, four seasons in Florida.

He has not lived up to the deal to the point where he gets replaced by Alex Alain at the beginning of the series and nobody really raises an eyebrow. Nobody says, oh my gosh, what a controversial decision. You know, what's Paul Maurice doing? Everyone just kind of goes, yeah, okay, that makes sense. And even for him when he swapped in later in the series, he didn't really feel like, okay, you know, it was, I mean, it just felt like a classic coach move of, hey, we're going to, we're going to shake things up because we're down in the series.

So I don't think the confidence level is high, but can he do it for two games? Yeah, absolutely he could do it for two games. Any goal he can get hot for two games, especially a guy like this where we know what his ceiling is from his career, right? I mean, we've seen him be an excellent goaltender in this league, and we've seen him be in this exact situation. And it's the kind of thing where, you know, he was, he was good in that game, made a ton of saves, did everything they need him to be. He didn't stand on his head. I mean, nobody was watching that game thinking this is late 90s hash out there. But, you know, you go into

the game six. If get halfway through the game, Boston's out playing them, but they're not getting the pucks past him. That's when it does maybe start to get into your head a little bit. And obviously, you know, it's a cliche, but it's true. you take that series back to Boston for a game seven, anything can happen in a game seven. Oh, yeah. Like this is getting a little bit of those David Volick vibes right now where you're sort of like, okay, you know what?

This, a lot of weird things can happen. And you have full credit to Florida. And nobody, none of us thought they were going deep into this series. And here they are. They're making it happen. Man. Like, who's the, who's the David Volick? on this team.

Yeah, I'm not sure because David Volick was a decent player. He wasn't. Is it like Anton Lundell? Yes, you know what? I'll go with that. Is that the guy? That's, yeah, sure, that can be our pick.

That's our David Volick. Congratulations. Yeah, it's going to be, that's going to be interesting that, you know, they got Bob Brofsky kind of going here. This is weird too. Like, we're sitting here having this conversation on things. Thursday morning, and none of the first round series have wrapped up. Like, you know, Toronto, Tampa obviously could potentially wrap up in a game five,

but everything else we're seeing going to at least a game six and everyone who was down three one, you know, the Islanders and the Panthers, they kind of fought back to stay alive. As we sit here today and you look at the landscape, how many game sevens do you think we're going to end up with? Realistically, what's the maximum number again? Like obviously as a fan, I know you wouldn't want that number to be eight. That's right. Everybody wants seven game sevens, unless your team's already lost three games in which you're grudgingly accepting the, I mean, I'll go down the list.

Seattle, I still see that one, maybe going seven. Dallas, Minnesota has felt like seven all the way. I don't see it in Vegas, Winnipeg. I think, I think L.A. had their shot at Edmonton game four and wasn't able to finish the job. I don't know about that. Devils Rangers has felt like seven the whole way. Did you even know when it was two nothing Rangers, you felt like that was a seven game? I guess I should say from the beginning.

Yeah, because when you're right, when it was two nothing Rangers, we were sort of thinking, boy, this is going to be sure. Right? They won those two games on the road. Yeah. So that's, but I mean, that gives us, that gives us three out of the eight and I'll say, I mean, I'll say at least one more of the series that maybe we're not thinking surprise us. Let's go four out of eight. I would take that. Yeah.

Listen, four out of eight is great. And if ever seen a lot. How weird will it be if, if the Leafs finish the job tonight that they would be the first team through? Home and cooled. Yeah. Just sitting back.

For everyone else going, come on, guys. What's the hold on? What's the rush? Yeah. Yeah. And then you're going to see the plethora of columns from like Myrtle and Seagull and whoever,

well, maybe even you, whoever, like just looking at, is this too much? Too much. Are they getting rusty? Is this, we've never seen this for Toronto. You know, it's going to be awkward is if they, you know, if they win tonight and then, you know, and then like the media shows up on Saturday and they're like packing up lockers and stuff

and everything, they're like, no, no, no, no, you, it keeps going now. You guys get to go. There's another round. You play like a new team and they got to like, oh, Matthews and Martin would be all confused. like, wait, what do you mean? Like, it's, yeah, it's, it'll be a tough. It's, it's, it's the learning experience, right? Yeah, yeah, it would be, yeah, it would be unbelievable if they could pull this.

You know, I was thinking about this too, in terms of Toronto being, like, just to give the listeners to paint a picture of how long it's been since Toronto won a playoff series. I was thinking about this today, okay? Because when Toronto won their last playoff series, it was against Ottawa and I was a very, I was, I'm going to call my, a cub reporter. I was a young reporter at the time, the early 2000s, but I was working for Sportsnet. I covered that game seven, Toronto and in Ottawa. That was the Joe New and Dyke, Patty Lalim game. And I came home and I remember because thinking, you know, I got the spring ahead of me and my wife was pregnant at the time. Okay? So just to paint the picture, later today, I will be picking that child up from university to bring her home.

Oof. Like, think about that. So the last time the Leafs won a playoff series, she was in utero, and I'll be picking her up from University today. Maybe this is all like a, like, maybe this is the key. Like, is me picking her up. She's the one.

She's the chosen one. She's the chosen one. That could be it right there. It's, I mean, it's been a long time. I think it was Sean Fitzgerald was, he found like the newspaper the last time the Leafs won a series. and he was like tweeting out some of the ads. And it was like a flip phone.

And it was like, it can take pictures. And it was like, that was the big deal. Like, like nobody's ever like, you know, like shot video on their cell phone of the Leafs winning a playoff series. Nobody has ever been like, hey, the Leafs won tonight. I didn't, oh, I didn't get to watch a game. I'll go on YouTube and check out the highlights. Like that has never happened. And it hasn't happened yet.

There's no high-deaf TV, right? What's that? Like television wasn't in high definition, right? I don't think it was. No, not, yeah. I don't think so. Boy, it's, it's been a while. May still be a while.

Nothing's over yet. Anyway, so that, so that kind of made me feel a little bit old and in terms of thinking about the leaves plow off drought in that manner that, you know, our daughter, I'm about to pick her up from university later today and bring her home from residents. But this really hit me in the fields. And it was your column today, the old guys without a, Cup. Now, every year you do this, hey, who, who's the kind of the, the plucky veteran that,

you know what, this grizzled guy, we got a, we should all cheer for him. And every year it's been Jumbo Joe and it's Patty Marlowe and it's, you know, the usual cast of characters. We have a new entry this year and this one really hit me in the fields and made me, nothing has made me feel older than reading the Jordan Eberley. Yeah. Babyface Jordan Eberley is now on the old guys without a Stanley Cup list. What the hell is this? Yeah, I know. And this is, this is, this is, this is, look, this is not a subjective thing. I've had the same rules for this column every year. It's you've got to be at least a decade in the league and you've got to be at least 33 years old by the time the

playoffs are going to end. And every year you look at it and there's there's somebody on that list. You go, oh man, that's. And I don't know how Jordan Eberley like two years ago scored that World Junior's goal and now he's already 33. I don't know. Maybe it's some birth certificate scandal that he got on that team, I don't know, but... He's the Danny Al Monte of... Yeah, he's still roommates with Taylor Hall, right? They're still like trying to figure out how to make their mac and cheese and, uh, and yet somehow... Magnus Pay Harvey's in there too?

Yeah, sure. It's, you know, the future and... Still 2010. And he's somehow an old guy without a cop. Man, it's not... There's a few of them. Like, Jared Spurgeon's on the list. Have you seen a photo of this guy?

You look up any photo of Jared Spurgeon and try to figure out what year in his career. He looks exactly the same from his draft photo all the way through. He's on there. So does Eberley. Yeah. Heberley has like a little bit of that baby face a little bit. Yeah, a little bit. I mean, and it, look, I mean, stuff like this, you know, especially for for guys like

us, this, this kills me because you're talking about a 33 year old being old. And but in hockey, especially now. Yeah, that does make you old. I mean, Wayne Simmons is 34. And, you know, this feels like maybe this is it for Wayne Simmons. but you never know. Somebody just tweeted me that John Tavares next year will qualify for the old guy list. It's pretty wild how it goes, but I don't know.

I don't know what to tell you. Yeah. So, wait. Luckily, we're in the sports media business where, you know, we still get to be young guys in this business. But boy, hockey, 33 and year old. So, wow. So if John Tavares' qualifies. qualifies next year, then I guess I would, like Matt Duchenne would be on that list.

No, they were the same draft year. It would. In 2009, right? They, I would imagine they would be. Yeah. Holy cow. And why did you pick, by the way, like 33, is it just like an arbitrary? Like, how did you settle on 30?

It probably was one year when I sat down to do it. That was the age I needed it to be to get the people that I wanted to write about on the list or to get enough people. And it just, it just sort of stuck. And it's like, I mean, I've changed the. rules up. Anything I do is not exactly the most scientific method. But, you know, that was that was where it wound up. I mean, you can be 33 years old and have 15 seasons in this league. That's, you know, it's a long time. And I know, you know, there's people out there who are still,

you know, especially if they're older like us, you're still kind of maybe stuck in that like 2002 Red Wings mindset where you're like, no, no, that 33 is not. Well, 30, 38, 39. There's, I mean, Mark Giordano's the oldest skater in the league. He's 39. There's not a single guy in the league at skater over the age of 40 this year. It's a young man's league. So I don't know. If anything, I might have to move the age cut off down. Yeah. And it's wild too because when you think of Wayne Simmons, and maybe it's the way that Wayne played the game. Like he, you're not shocked to hear that Wayne Simmons is 34. In fact, you'd probably think, ah, he's probably older than 34, right? But he's got a lot of hard miles on him.

Yep. But you're telling, so what you're telling me is that Jordan Eberley is one year younger than Wayne Simmons. Is that right? I think so. That doesn't, that doesn't feel right to me. I think they're within. Yeah, because, well, because Simmons was drafted. Simmons, emberley was drafted 2009. Am I right? Wasn't he the, the year before they got the three first round picks? Because he was a late first rounder. Or maybe he was, maybe they had two, two picks one year. And Simmons, I want to say, 2000. So that could, depending on how they could, they could be within a year. What do you got? Jordan Eberley, Jordan Eberley was born on May 15th, 1990. Okay. So May 15th, 1990.

And Wayne Simmons was born August, August 26, 1988. Okay. So, okay, almost two years difference. Okay, that makes me feel better because I feel like, in my mind, I feel like there's a bigger gap than one year. Yeah, I mean, some of it obviously is just, again, it's the playing style. It's, you know, 15 Wayne Simmons years or 14, is, that adds up to a lot more than, than a lot would. But, boy, that is, that is something.

You know what else happened May 15th, 1990? Oh, wait, is this playoff related? Going to make everybody feel old because they just, that game one of the Stanley Cup final the last time the Oilers won a Stanley Cup. And was that the, no, 1988 was the year where the power went out, right? Yeah, this was the 1990, the Mark Messy a year. The last year they won. So this is the anniversary.

That is the anniversary in 1990. That's Peter Claymont, triple overtime. You're right. If I'm not mistaken. Yeah. So there you go. Talk about, how did you, how did we not think that Jordan Everly was going to be an Edmonton Oiler with that sort of, I mean, that's, that's all is perfect.

Born on the day of Peter Clemah's Triple O T winner. All right, Sean, time to bring in our guy, Jesse Granger. For Granger Things brought you by BetMGM, the exclusive betting partner with us at the Athletic. So Jesse, my man, I had a chance to listen to some of the Wednesday pod. We had, you traded Russo for Rutherford. Fun show.

I listened to about half of it. Didn't get to the rapid fire and all that stuff. But I know you said you had fun in Winnipeg. You didn't have fun traveling because traveling was a bit of a nightmare. But I may have missed this and Sean and I need to know, did you, did you hit either Boston pizza or Swiss chalet? I did not, unfortunately. It was cold as hell in Winnipeg. Let me first say that.

30 degrees. Zero Celsius. Zero degrees. What is going on? It was 90 degrees when I left Vegas. Landed there. It was zero. and my hotel was right next to the arena.

So I didn't leave that like 800 foot area for pretty much the time I was in Winnipeg. A lot of brown social house across the street from the arena. There it is. No, I did not try it. Did you say that to any Winnipeg people that you thought it was cold as hell when it was zero? Because they would have given you some stories about what cold is to that. Yeah, yeah. I think I did mention it to somebody in the arena and they just like laughed.

Like somebody out on the street where to teach. shirt is going, oh, yeah, all right. I think I found the Vegas guy. Right. Well, that's the other thing. So they had the whiteout outside and like everyone from Vegas, not just me, but like all the media, we're up there. We're looking like, wait a minute. These people are going to be outside for five hours? Like, how are they going to survive? I honestly don't think I could do it. I, like, not like I don't want to do it. I think my body would shut down in the street. Very impressive. You know, but on the, on the flip side, though, I think a lot of us would go to the heat that you get sometimes in Vegas, it's 110, 115, which is 40 plus Celsius.

And some of us think, like, I don't think I can handle that for five hours. Right. Yeah. No, it's true. I've gotten used to it here. I love the, even people in Vegas, a lot of people don't like it when it's 110. I love it. I'd take 110 every day.

Strange guy. Yeah. So, I got to ask you this because you've covered this series. You were in Winnipeg. Clearly didn't take our restaurant recommendations to Swiss Chalet, but hey, that's for another day. might be going back tomorrow. That's true.

There you go. Okay, we want a picture of you. Text us the picture of you with some Swiss chalet sauce. But tell us how much of a factor in this series, like Laurent Brassois, who was obviously the backup to Connor Hellebuck for a couple of years, is kind of outplaying his old counterpart. Like how much of a factor is that in this series that the goaltending? Because I think we all thought that was going to be the definitive edge for the Jets.

Yeah, I mean, it's been huge. You mentioned he was Connor. Lelbuck's backup, the fans in Winnipeg reminded him over and over and over that he was his backup. Bresois's been good. I wouldn't say he's been excellent or spectacular, but to be honest, that's kind of what the Golden Knights have asked from their goalies all year long. Like they keep all the shots to the outside. They don't allow much high danger. And they just asked the goalie to stop the ones he should, and we're probably going to win on most nights. And he has done that. I think where the goaltending matchup has been, where it's been the

most crucial is Connor Hellebuck hasn't been very good. I love Connor Hellebuck's game going into this series. I picked Vegas 4 to 2. I said it might go seven games and I think it's going to be because Connor Hellebuck steals a game or two here or there. He just hasn't, I don't know what it is going on with him. He just doesn't look himself. He doesn't look set on some shots. He's kind of looked off balance. It's not just the shots that are going in. He just has not looked sharp at all. There was a little stretch in game four where the Golden Knights had a power play and he made like five huge saves. And I was like, oh, here it is.

Like he finally found it. Golden Knights might be in some trouble here. But then five minutes later, they scored on him and he didn't look the same after that. So I'm not sure if it's, I mean, you got to give the Golden Knights some credit. They're obviously keeping him off balance. They're moving him around a lot. They're not letting him get comfortable. But he certainly hasn't been what the Jets needed in order to beat Vegas.

Obviously, they've got a lot of injuries now. So that team is not even, I mean, with Morrissey and Shifley both out. They're not even what they were to get the eight seat in the West. They were going to need an A-plus series from Connor Hellebuck to make this a long series with Vegas. And I think they've gotten his C game so far. He's still, it's only 3-1. He's still got a chance to maybe rectify that and have some big games down the stretch here. But yeah, I think the goaltending matchup, Breslau's been better.

Not so much because Brassois stood on his head, but just he's been making all the saves he should while Hellebuck hasn't been as good. And is there anything about what the knights are doing with hell? Because in the Toronto series, there's been all this talk about, Andre Vasselowski hasn't been good. And it's, for the last 72 hours, it's been the long shots, that this apparently has always secretly been his kryptonite. And that he doesn't deal well with screens. He doesn't deal well with the long shots and the tips and all of that.

And we've seen a ton of that. The Leafs certainly seem to be trying to. It sounds insane when you're talking about And Vasilevsky to say just any shot on net is a good shot, but that's how it feels right now. Is there something like that that seems to be happening that has Vegas figured something out? Is there a book on Connor Hallibug? Or is it just, hey, you know, we always talk this time of year. Goleys can get hot.

Sometimes they go cold too. Yeah, I don't think. I mean, there have been some tips and some screens in front. And to be honest, like Vaselowski, like, that's every goalie's weakness when they're hot. Because when you're feeling confident, you see the puck. you're going to stop it, right? And like those screenshots, those deflections, it's almost, like, it's hard to feel confident you're going to stop it because you don't see it or, or it's deflecting right in front of you. You kind of just have to have good positioning. There are goalies who are better

at it than others, but it's not a, you're not very certain when you're making those saves, right? You're just like hoping I'm in the right spot and it hits me. The Golden Knights haven't done a ton of that to Hella Buk. They've scored in a lot of different ways. They've, he just, yeah, I think it's just a case of, like, I don't know about cold because he hasn't been terrible. He just, hasn't been his spectacular self that you kind of expected out of him. And I think he's, I think maybe he's trying to press a little bit as the series has gone on. He hasn't made some of the saves he wanted to. So he's coming a little further out. There was a play in game four where Mark Stone drug him like all the way out of his crease and then fed it back side to Brett

Howden for and Howden ended up missing the wide open net. But it was like, wow, you don't see a goalie get fooled like that very often, especially one as good as Hellebuck. So yeah, I mean, I think he's, I think he's pressing a little bit, which he kind of has to. His team's down three to one, and they're really counting on him with two of their best players out. So as we bounce around, Vegas has pushed Winnipeg to the brink of elimination. And Sean and I talked earlier,

Toronto's done that to Tampa. And then we have a whole bunch of series that are at three, two, that Carolina's got a chance to close out, Boston, Dallas, Seattle. That's a bit of a surprise. Let's bounce around here. And maybe what we need to do is look at this

from the vantage point of the teams that are trailing 3-2. Like, which are those teams? Panthers, Islanders, you know, Minnesota, Colorado. Like, who legit has a chance to maybe come back here and win two games and move on to round two? Yeah, I was with all these series at 3-2, I was interested.

I like to do this with the odds where I kind of make a prediction in my head, okay, which teams do I think will have the closest odds? And then you go look. and it kind of matched reality, but I was surprised by some other ones. For me, when I look at these teams that can come back, the Islanders stick out to me. And for one, I don't think Carolina's been as impressive as I had hoped they would look. I picked them to win the Cup before all the injuries all season long. I changed that pick once they kind of got banged up, but I still thought they were going to be a really good team.

What's interesting to me is the Islanders, kind of like I mentioned with Hellebuck, I thought that Sorokin was going to have to steal games for them, but they've actually had the expected goals advantage in this series over Carolina. Carolina has outshot them because hurricanes fire a crazy number of shots from the point. That's just kind of what they've been forever. But when you look at high danger chances, the islanders have the advantage. And they've got the advantage of expected goals, high danger chances. They're controlling the dangerous chances in this series,

and they should have a huge goalie advantage. I don't think Sorokin has played to his to his caliber yet. I think he's still got a lot to give. So when I look at that series, the Islanders are plus 300 to win the series. So three to one odds. They are not the closest series. We can talk about it in a second, but the abs have crazy odds, even though they're down three to two. But yeah, I really like the Islanders.

I think that they've been the better team in the underlying stats. They've got the better goalie who can play better than he has. I think, and they looked good in that last game, I think the Islanders, despite being down a game, needing to win these next two, I think the Islanders are in really, really good shape. Yeah, and do you think, like, do you guys think, like going back home for Game 6,

that almost feels like, hey, listen, we got the energy, we got nothing to lose. We're going to play with the kind of, with a little bit of energy, nothing to lose, got the fans behind us, take it to a Game 7 that, like, going back, and that fan base in New York is fantastic. And I see your point, Jesse.

I could see them winning a game six. And then you go to a game seven. And it's, you know, we hear all year long, right? Like, oh, home ice, you know, you play the whole regular season to get game seven on home ice. But then by the time you get to a game seven, it never feels like home ice really matters. And especially if it's a 3-1 series where now you've lost two, I mean, it's, that's going to be a nervous building, all the injuries and everything. You made a good case. You're selling me a little bit on the Islanders here.

And if it does get to a game seven. I mean, home ice, but also, like, would you rather have Antironta or Ilya Sorokin back there for a big game seven? I mean, there is a lot to like with the Islanders. No, yeah, absolutely. So you mentioned the Avalanche. And Sean and I'm talking to it. Seattle Cracket, I think, are the best feel-good story of the Stanley Cup playoffs. They're just this underdog team on a little bit of a magic carpet ride.

I mean, who's not pulling for them if you, listen, if you're a Colorado fan, obviously you're not. but I feel like everybody else is kind of thinking this would be a great story. But is there a smart play here on Colorado to say, they're the champs. We're going to give them a car back for game six. Just hold your horses here. Like maybe Colorado is still the favorite in the series? Yeah.

I mean, so I think you'd have to be crazy to bet on Colorado at this point. The odds are heavily in the avalanche favor. I mean, they're still plus money because they're down three to two. But for them to be, for them to need to win two, great games against the team that they've been outplayed by in a lot of these games. They're only plus 150. So you're barely getting one and a half to one odds. Seattle's only minus 185 needing just one win. For me, so like I've been saying all year, the avalanche are going to turn it on when the playoffs get here. But man, the more I watch this series, and to be fair, I haven't

watched every game because they're always on at the same time as the Golden Knights. So I am usually catching highlights and trying to watch the recap out. after. But you look at the Aves roster, and they're so thin. They're just not as deep as they were last year. Like, you look at their third line. It's Ben Myers, Lars Eller, Dennis Malgan. They've got J.T. Comfer centering their second line. They're banged up. They're not as deep. And then you look at Seattle, and they don't have the stars, but it feels like the Cracken are rolling out four second lines right now. I mean, that team is so deep. They're pressure in the abs. I think they're, I'm not writing the avalanche off, but at only plus 180, or sorry, at only plus 150 and minus 185

for Seattle, I think that is a crazy line for that series. Like that, I thought you'd be able to get more, more than plus 150 with Colorado with the way things have gone. What do you think, Sean? Yeah, I mean, I like, I still like Colorado to win, to go to game seven, even to win the series, Caleb McCarckh coming back, all these things. I'm not going anywhere near that number. if you're talking about a team that's got to win two. I mean, remember, you know, just to put it in context for people, if you think it's an exact even series, you think a team's 50-50,

and they got to win two games in a row, that should be a one-and-four chance. You should be getting four to one odds. So if you're, you know, if you're getting less than that, that means you think this team is, you know, more likely than a coin flip in each of those games. And obviously, you know, the books aren't going to give you those full,

um, the full odds. but you got to pick and choose there. 150? No way. Not, not, I will, if anything, I would, I would probably just go and say, you know what, if I feel that confident, I'll go put some money on just game six. Because, I mean, the odds can't be that much worse for, for just a game six. And then, you know, I'm not, I'm not worried about a game seven scenario as much. That's, that's nuts to me.

I figured that they would have swayed a little bit more in Seattle's favor. And you're right. I don't know that I would touch. You know, one other series I want to hit on here is Boston, Florida. And we know that you're a big goalie guy. I mean, should we put some faith in Bob doing this again and again? And maybe Florida can come back from 3-2? Man, that was some vintage Bob last night. I was so excited watching it.

I, man, I just, I love watching Sergey Bobrovsky. I watched way too many Columbus Blue Jackets games over the years, probably more than anyone that's not a Columbus Blue Jackets fan, just because I like watching him play. And it's been a while since we've seen a game like that from him. That stop on Marshand on the last second breakaway was so awesome. Having said that, the Bruins are pretty good. I don't know if I'd be putting any money on the Panthers,

but if you look at him, so we mentioned Colorado has the best odds to come back. New York is second. Minnesota is third with plus 350. Florida is fourth at plus 550. And the kings are right there with them at plus 550. So the odds tell you the Panthers and Kings have the same chances of coming back in their series. And those are the two least likely down three two to come back. Despite a pretty good game by Florida, I thought that Boston was the better team in that game too.

So you're really going to have to get a big performance out of Bobrovsky. But, I mean, if anybody can do it, I guess it's Sergey. He was awesome last night. Boy, I'm surprised that the king. are lumped in there with And I say this as a guy, I pick the Oilers to win the Stanley Cup, let alone the series. So I'm, I think the Oilers are winning this series. I think we said in the first segment, you know, I'm, I feel like LA missed their chance with that comeback in the overtime loss.

I wouldn't be surprised if that one ends in six. But game six in L.A., they beat them twice. They've shown, you know, they had an overtime loss, send it back to over to game six. boy, 550. Same as the Panthers. That strikes me as a little bit odd. Not only is it the same as the Panthers, but actually Edmonton's odds are minus 900,

whereas Boston is only minus 800. So according to the odds, the Oilers are the most likely team to win up three to two, which I agree with you is a bit surprising with how close those games have been. I mean, it's... Go to back to game four. And it was 3-0. L.A.

They were almost up 3-1. Yes. If not person late... That's a time. I mean, Edmonton's a great team, but Boston's a great team. And LA is a better team than Florida this year in my mind. So boy, that's, that's what that one's a little tough to figure. But is that part of that now let me think about how this is working. Florida's going home for game six, right? No, but LA's going home for game six. They both are, yes. And I mean, I suspect some of this, right is there's, there's probably, Edmonton's a big Canadian market, probably maybe getting a little more action coming in on them. versus at the other end of the spectrum, maybe not a lot of Panthers fans pouring money into this thing. So, I mean, that can tilt it a little bit, but a little. Edmonton is minus 175 to win in L.A.

So pretty big favorite. They're a bigger favorite to win in L.A. than Colorado is to win in Seattle for game six. So just kind of shows you whether it's money going on the Oilers or just the public, the odds makers thinking that if we don't make the oilers a massive favorite, that's probably what it is. You mentioned the Canadian market, but it's also Connor McDavid. And the casual fan who isn't super into these games couldn't tell you who the third line is for the Kings,

he says Connor McDavid, he sees that he's only minus 110, say it's even 110 each way. That person's putting money on Connor McDavid every single time. So it could be them protecting themselves against if we don't make this line a little overinflated, money's just going to pour in on the oilers. Yeah. That's fair. That makes sense. Listen, Jesse, appreciate the visit. I know you got a big day ahead with a potential clinching game for Vegas as you get set for that one. So I know you got to cut loose, cover the morning skates and all that fun stuff. But we appreciate you getting up early, hitting us up on the Thursday pod and we'll talk to you again next week. Awesome. Yeah.

Thanks for having you guys. Try it on and bundle up if you've got to go back to Winnipeg. We'll do. All right. Great stuff with Granger. Super disappointed that he didn't hit up Swiss chalet. But we actually have some, believe it or not, shall we have some Swiss chalet related comments in the email.

So a reminder you can get us at The Athletic Hockey Show at gmail.mail. The athletic hockey show at gmail.com. You can also leave us a voicemail at 845-4-45-845-845-85. So last week we talked to Granger about you got to hit this rotisserie chicken restaurant that we have on this side of the border. It's called Swiss chalet. But there's also another place called St. Hubert

and it's kind of like a fun rivalry. St. Hubert is kind of in the eastern part of the country. Well, Greg writes in and says, you guys need to know. Who we got? Greg and Vincent. Both of them writing in, guys, you need to know that the parent company that Swiss chalet, Kara Foods, actually bought St. Hubert in 2016. I remember, this is from Vincent, I remember that during the acquisition, they said they wanted to take advantage of the expertise developed by St. Hubert.

I admit I've never been to a Swiss chalet, but the Quebecer in me suspects they may have taken over the Saint Hubert sauce, which is iconic here in Quebec. Anyway, keep up the good work. Sorry, Sean, as a Habs fan, I hope the Leafs are out. by the time you guys record again next Thursday. So there you go. A little turns out. Appreciate the honesty.

So, okay. Swiss-L. Olin's St. Hubert. I didn't know that, and I'm a little bit shocked at that. The idea is kind of like the Leafs buying the habs or something like that. I knew that they had this parent company that owned all sorts of different places, and they kind of mix and match them sometimes. I will say this.

I've had my share of St. Hubert. I used to work with French people. So, you know, you'd sit there and go, hey, guys, why don't we get some Swiss L.A. for lunch? And they go, oh, yeah, right. And they'd take your order and then it would arrive and it would be St. Hubert because, you know, they were loyal. So I've had some San Hubert. I've had the St. Hubert sauce.

It's very good. It's not the same as the Swish-L-A sauce. And they didn't change the Swish-L-A sauce anytime recently. I can tell you that. I'd be shocked to find out that they were messing with that. So both places very good. Both have their own sauce. But it's different.

I'm 99% sure that they didn't mess with them. 99% sure. But it's funny. I also didn't know that Swiss LA owned St. Hubert. It's like, were you, whenever you were a kid and you and I grew up in the same time, kind of 80s, 90s, pre-internet days. But like people would say things like, you know that Coke and Pepsi are owned by the same company or like, you know what I mean? Like there would all be crazy rumors like that. Like, did you ever hear that one when you were a kid that someone was like,

Coke and Pepsi are owned by the same company? I don't know if I heard, but I remember like, you know, Somebody saying like, you know, seven up and, is it seven up in Coke or seven up and pep? Whatever the combo is. Seven up is with Pepsi, right? And Sprite is with Coke? Yeah. It's like, oh, you're blowing my mind right now.

This is, uh, this is crazy. And then the, if it didn't have like the same like the, the brand right on it, like hostess was a, you know, the good one back then. Right. It was on everything. You're like, okay, I know what I'm getting here. But, uh, yeah, those, those other ones were, uh, that, that got confusing. Yeah. Hostess got taken over by Frito Lay, right?

in Canada? Isn't Frito Lay? I miss those little, little munchy dudes, right? Like, you don't find that anymore. Cartoon characters. Back in the day, man. That was the go-to.

Aaron and Brooklyn writes in via email, and Sean had an article this week talking about every team of the NHL, what's your best postseason run that didn't end in the Stanley Cup? So Aaron's got a question for us. Got me thinking, would you rather have 30 years of your favorite team, A, being a powerhouse,

they're fun to watch, they're always a Stanley Cup contender, but they never win, or B, in that 30 year span, you missed the playoffs 29 times, but in the one year you make it, you win the Stanley Cup. So Aaron has a, would you rather, your team's a consistent powerhouse for a couple decades, never win, or you win the one time? what is it for you and you know assuming that in this situation I don't know which one I picked

so you know if you're not going into every playoffs thing and well I know they're not going to win the cup you've always got that little bit of hope man I I'm tempted to say give me the cup within a certain range but 30 years I mean 29 years

and no playoffs I feel like that would I mean geez the the 19 years without a playoff series win has drained a lot of my, you know, excitement for the Leafs. I can only imagine no playoffs 29 to 30 years. But if you squeeze the window down a little bit, it's interesting. Like, it's kind of like saying, you know, in the first decade of the cap,

would you rather have been the San Jose Sharks or the Carolina hurricane, right? Because they, Carolina wins the cup. They missed, I think, the two years before, almost a decade after. There was like one year they made the playoffs and they went to the playoffs. conference final. So like every year they made the playoffs, they had a big run, but then they would miss a bunch of times versus San Jose every year, almost every year, going deep, had a trip to the final, but you know, all these, these heartbreaking ways to lose. Man, I don't know. It's, it's, it's, at a certain point, yeah, you'll take the cup, but I, you know, I wrote that piece because it just,

it really bugs me when people take this view that like, hey, if your team doesn't, win the cup, season was a failure. Season was, you know, doesn't, doesn't, you know, if you tell someone, oh boy, those 93 lease, man, I love that team. Oh, they didn't even make the final. So what? I had the best time as a hockey fan watching that team. And I feel like every NHL team has a couple of those seasons where, no, they didn't win the cup. Maybe they didn't even go to the final. Maybe they didn't even go all that deep. But it was a great run and it was, you know, it was a lot of fun and we need to celebrate that because otherwise you've got a league, an entertainment product where your value with proposition is, hey, come watch the NHL, 97% of you will be miserable every

year. Like, who's going to sign up for that? And it's interesting because just last night, I don't know, did you see the Yanis after the NBA, right? That press conference was phenomenal. Yeah. The scar player for the Milwaukee Bucks, he was number one. They were the number one seed and they got upset the first round, which is very rare in basketball. And a reporter asked him, like, is your season a failure? And he did this very eloquent answer about how, like, no, it's not a failure. You don't win every year. You know, it's a process and all of this stuff. Really interesting stuff and kind of hitting on some of the same ground. I can only conclude that he must have read my piece and he was inspired by it. That's right. And that's where, I mean, he forgot to mention me by name,

but that's, it's cool. I mean, it's always good to learn about a new reader. Yeah. Yon is. Janus A in the in the comment section. That's right. Yeah. Was there one fan base out of that your column? And you kind of went through every team and said, okay, here's your most fun playoff run. And I know you had a hard time, like team like the Habs, right?

You're like, you know, got such a rich history that, you know, the Halak run in 2010. Like, you know, you had to pick one from every fan base. Was there one fan base who were like, hey, man, you got it wrong? It was actually this. There were quite a few fan bases where they would suggest other things. And some of that was an age thing. Like for the Devils, for example, I picked 88.

The first year they made the playoffs, John McLean scores, and overtime to send them there. And they go on, they win two rounds. They have another donut game and all of that. And I had some Devils fans go, you know, for me, it's more 2012 when they went, made the surprise trip to the final against the Kings. But then again, I'm a little too young to really remember 88. to remember it at all. So there's a lot of stuff like that. Nobody got mad at me because it wasn't really that sort of piece.

Like nobody was like, you're an idiot. You know, because even the, even the ones I was picking, you know, there were still positive memories. But I will tell you,

the one, and this is, you're just going to have to take my word for it. But you mentioned Montreal, right? Yeah. And I said Montreal is a tough one because Montreal, when we were growing up, more than any other team embodied that,

hey, you either win or you failed, right? I mean, we, this is what Montreal does. We win championships. We don't do parades for winning around or whatever. We win championships. And, you know, obviously it's been 30 years since then. I said, you know, you could go, I went with the Halakir, 2010, and they beat Washington

and Pittsburgh, two best players in the league and with the goaltending. I said, you know, maybe you could do 89 also where they went to the final. There's some other runs, the one where Chris Kreider, wiped out character. price and that sort of thing. I, as I was writing this, legitimately forgot the 2012 run to the final. I didn't mention it. I didn't.

There's no honorable mention. I wonder why. This is the psychological damage that apparently has been done to me as a leaf fan that I, two years ago, and I just like did not to the point where I think there were some people in the comments, like, did he not mention that? Like, is that a bit? Is he, is that a joke that he's

like acting like that didn't exist? It, literally did not occur to me to include that as an option. So I don't know. You can figure it out, I guess we all deal with difficult times in our own ways. You want to talk about, you know, we were talking earlier, we had a hard, we have a hard time wrapping our minds around the fact that Jordan Eberley is the age that he is. The fact that two years ago, less than two years ago, the Montreal Canadiens were

in the Stanley Cup final, that doesn't feel right at all. No, it does. I mean, those two seasons will always feel a little weird. Weird. But because I was, because I did like remember the, like, for Dallas. I had the like their 2020 run to the final in that summer playoff. And I couldn't remember. I was like, there was a game seven overtime and somebody scored a hat trick, but I can't

remember who it was. And so I had to go back and like find it and I wanted to find the clip and include it. And I'm just watching like those playoff games from the bubble. And it's like, what even was this? What is? It looks so strange. And it's weird because I remember when they announced they were doing the bubble and everything and thinking like, oh, this is going to feel so weird to watch. And it did a little bit.

But I think we were just all so happy to have hockey back and that they were able to pull it off. But then you go back like two or three years later now that we have the crowds and everything. And you're just like, what was that? Like a guy scoring a game set. have an overtime. And like, you can hear like 20 people cheering. It was the strangest. It's just so strange. And, and yeah, there's going to be, maybe it just got blocked out of our collective memories. I'll go with that instead of the fact that I'm just a sore loser who can't handle watching his team blow a 3-1 lead. Okay, a couple of quick other emails. Adrian in Portland writes in on

your last podcast. You guys are talking about visors as though they're great protection. However, we still see players getting hurt with sticks going up inside them. Last week we even saw a skate into the face. My question you guys is, why don't NHL players wear goggles? They provide way more protection than visors. They would wrap around. They could make a wraparound model that provides full vision.

We've got anti-fog features now. So why do players wear visors instead of goggles? And now all I can think about, you remember, you heard it up of a baseball fan. Do you remember early 90s, Cincinnati, Reds Chris Sabo. Yep. Chris Sable was a third baseman, I think he played third base,

with Cincinnati and he had the goggles. And like, then there were some NBA, like Kurt Rambus, NBA guy. There were a few guys in the NBA who did it. Why did Chris Habo wear? Chris Sable had goggles, right? Like he did. Yeah, but why?

Like, was there a, like he was like a squash player. Like he was like running to go play squash right after winning the world. I don't know. I mean, the answer to. why we don't have these is, like, I've never even seen a hockey player wearing at any level anywhere. And, well, the Hanson brothers, I guess, right? Wait, were those goggles or were those prescriptions glasses? No, they just had glasses. Those are just like big, big, thick glasses. And there have been, man, you want to talk about something that doesn't aid? You ever see photos of, like,

NHL players wearing glasses, like in the 70s? Like, you see there's like a handful of guys skating around. Al Arbor. Al Arbor. Al Arbor, who wore glasses as a player. That's wild. Like, you imagine somebody just skating out there with, you know, don't hit me. I got my glasses on. But, yeah, I can't. I mean, I know there's anti, there's anti-fog, but there's no way that the peripheral vision would be good enough. I mean, hockey players are very set in their ways.

It's, it was hard enough to get a lot of these guys to wear visors. I can't imagine doing the goggles. And I used to play squash, not well, but I used to play. And I hated the goggles. They bugged me. You know, I was, well, I wasn't working as hard as an NHL player, but I was probably breathing as heavy as an NHL player. So that, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't a great experience.

So I suspect we got a ways to, we got a ways to go on the technology, and then we got to convince somebody to actually do it and be the first one and look ridiculous. Yeah, who's going to be that guy? Two things on that. First of all, I want our producer, Danielle, we need a drop of radioactive man. I know Daniel's a big Simpsons fan. Like, my eyes, the goggles do nothing. My eyes, the goggles do nothing.

And also, what I love is we're talking about, like, Kurt Rambas and the NBA had the goggles and Chris Sable. Do you remember there was a brief period where Detroit Pistons villain Bill Lambere, he had like that, that like, it was almost like a phantom of the opera, clear face shield. That is, that needs to come back because, and I know like NBA players sometimes, but I mean, to have, the villain do it? It was like, because I remember like, Brian Marchman too, in the classic villain guy, if he wasn't on your team, there was that time where for a whole year, he had the full face mask, like the full eye. And it just infuriated people because you're, you know, you're going like, this, this guy, it's like in pro wrestling when like the bad guy has a cast on his arm for like three years and he's using it to hit people. Like, it's perfect villain stuff to get that full

face shield up there and still, you know, still be chirping people and playing the same way. That's great. Okay, real quick, I'm going to read this one from James in the UK because he's taking the time to write us from across the pond and he's a huge fan of the Thursday pot. Had some really nice things to say about our work together, Sean. And James of the UK said, was so nice to read or hear you guys read Patrick from Denmark's email last week about how he fell in love with the NHL. I wanted to add a little bit more story of how I fell in love with hockey.

from Brighton, so over in the UK, got interested in hockey in my teenage years playing NHL 94 on the Sega Mega Drive, what you guys would call the Sega Genesis. So I didn't realize they called this thing the Mega Drive over there. I think I like that name better.

Yeah, I've got a son who's very into video game history and that's... Mega Drive. I think I did know that. But anyway... The number of people who get in through video games, I tell you, man. That video game series made more hockey fans

than any marketing the NHL ever did. And so James says he fell in love with those mid-90s penguins, NHL-94. You could pick the penguins, crush most of the other teams, and I became a Penguins fan. And then by magic, I got hooked on to watching hockey on cable later on,

watching Sid in my late 20s. I'm fully locked in as a Penguins fan for life. In my 40s now with a young son, I'm so lucky that we live in the internet age and he can watch games and I can share video and audio with him. He loves Mika Zabandachad, and gritty. So he forces me to watch Rangers highlights

and All-Star Weekend mascot events repeatedly. But here's the thing. Unlike Patrick, I'm lucky to have hooked up a radio stream recorder. I actually listen to games as I'm getting ready in the morning. So that's pretty cool. That is pretty cool.

That whole story is cool except being a Penguins fan whose son is into Gritty. Like that's, ooh, that's got to be a little. I mean, the Rangers is bad enough. I agree. Yeah. But, boy, I don't know.

The flyers, boy, that's tricky. But hey, we've, you know, parenting's tough. It's a challenge. Yeah. Let's wrap it up a little this week in hockey history. Two quick ones for you here. Let's go back to April 27, 1994. Dominic Hachick, with a 70, that's right, 70, 70,

70 save performance in quadruple overtime to outdual Marty Bordur and the Devils, forces of game seven in that series. Is that the greatest goaltending duel of all time, just given the stakes, given the goalies? Yeah. I think it is. I'm sure there are probably,

well, actually, I shouldn't. I was going to say there's probably one-nothing games with more shots, maybe not, but the fact that it's hashed broder is just absolutely perfect. Was that the Dave Hannan game? Dave Hannan, a quadruple overtime. Yeah, Dave Hannan.

When you got the two, two of the greatest goalies of all time at the top of their game. It takes a generational superstar like Dave Hannan to crack the code. And you know what? For me, and it's weird because I actually went to look this up. Like that to me was kind of the Hachik coming out party. Like I know he had played a little bit in the cup final and he was kind of this kind of quirky oddity with Chicago. But like that's the first time I remember really like, like wow, this Dominic Hachic guy is legit.

But then I went back and realized like he won the Vesina. He was so good in the regular season that year. He won the Vesna trophy that year. But it was a weird, because he had gone from like a literal backup to the point where 92, 93, remember that was the year the Sabres trade for Grant Fierer in the middle of the season. And they give up a ton to get them

because they're, hey, we need a goalie. And meanwhile, they have arguably the goat sitting on the bench and exactly right away the next year he jumps in and just runs with the job. one of the all-time strangest sport stories that we'll ever see. Yeah, no, for sure. And one other one I want to do real quick, April 25th, 2012.

So just 11 years ago, Joel Ward with the overtime winner, Game 7, Washington beats Boston. And I didn't know this until I read this little factoid today. That made Dale Hunter, Sean, the first person in the NFL history to have coached a team to a game seven overtime win on top of scoring a game seven overtime goal. himself as a player. He did that, of course, with Washington against Philly in the 80s, 1988, I believe so. Did you know, I didn't know that? I didn't know that. I didn't, I didn't know that. I mean, it makes sense. There can't be that many guys who've even had the opportunity, but didn't he also have, with, with Quebec, was it a, was it a game five back in the five days against Montreal? So, I mean, this guy's Mr. Clutch. But, yeah, that, I did not know

that little factoid, but now I'm trying to think, has anyone scored a game seven, even gone on to coach, even gone on to be in a game seven? I'm not sure. But is Stefan Mattoe coaching anywhere? Somewhere, Nikolai Borchewski is going to sneak them onto the Leafs bench if we need them. Oh, man. All right. We'll leave it there. All right. So I'm going to, I'm going to just, I'm going to throw this invitation out to you again. If there's a game seven on Monday, my door is open. If You feel like you need to change the mojo, the karma. All right. All of that.

The door is open. Is your door open the entire time? Like if it's, you know, if it's game seven and it leaves down three nothing after one, can I like make the intermission sprint over and just. Make the switch. All right. We'll see. We, we'll keep that in mind.

Like I said, they lose game five. They win game six and OT. That's I'm feeling. Michael bunting. Michael bunting. I even want very specific. Michael bunting in game six. overtime now.

All right, listen. I don't know how you're going to get through this next whether it's 24, 48 hours or whatever, but man, try and enjoy it, but I know you can't. I won't. Not at all. You won't at all. But that's what makes it great.

All right, listen, this was a lot of fun. I want to thank everybody for listening to Thursday pot. As always, you can email us any question to the athletic hockey show. At gmail.com. Right now, get a one-year subscription to the athletic for $2 a month for 12 months. visit athletic.com slash hockey chute.