The Athletic Hockey Show - Is Habs-Lightning the best series of the first round?

Episode Date: April 22, 2026

Brandon Hagel led the charge for the Lightning with a Gordie Howe hat trick and Nikita Kucherov snapped a 16-game playoff goal drought as the Lightning tied their series with the Habs. Sean and Sean recap night four of the Stanley Cup playoffs, including Morgan Geekie’s center ice goal vs. the Sabres, a historic win for the Mammoth, and a glass-breaking overtime win for the Avs over the Kings. The boys welcome Josh Yohe to discuss the Penguins’ sluggish start in the Battle of Pennsylvania and forecast a huge game for Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in game two for the Oilers vs. the Ducks tonight.Host: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeWith: Josh YoheExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff DometWatch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What up? What up? What's the Athletic Hockey Show for April 22, 2017. I am Sean Gentilly. I am in Edmonton. I am joined by Sean McIndoo, as always, who is at home. Frankie Carrados is watching U-18 somewhere.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure what he's doing. McIndoo, have you been showered with glass lately? I have not. I have not. No, not yet. Have you ever in your life been showered with glass? I don't think I have, actually.

I've seen easy life. I've seen some glass break. I've been party to it, but I don't think I've been showered by it. That was the headline on the thing Peter Baugh wrote about DJ Smith last night. That was a highlight from As Kings. I read that this morning, and I had missed that that actually happened. So I saw I showered with glass and was immediately very concerned for DJ Smith. That was, that might have been the highlight of Avs Kings.

Probably not. We'll talk about that later. We need to start with the game last night. It's HABS, it's lightning, McIndo. I know you're particularly taken with this one. It was Tampa Bay 3, Montreal, too. Nikita Kutrov ties it with seven minutes left or so. J.J. Mozer wins it in overtime.

I think we anticipated, we could have guessed a guy that was going to tie it. I'm not sure we had money on the guy who ended up winning it. And that series is tied at one. And it's been the best series of the playoffs so far, which I don't think is a shock. I think most of us, if we were going to rank them going in, probably would have had Dallas, Minnesota, as the big one. but this one was right up there and it's delivered everything you could want and more. Two overtime games, some great individual play, lots and lots of bad blood, a little bit of controversy here and there.

This is great stuff. And, you know, it was fantastic for two games in Tampa and now we get to go to Montreal and drop it into the bell center. and it's going to be something. I hope this one goes seven. I hope they go to overtime every single night. I hope they hate each other more and more with every game that goes by.

This is phenomenal. I'm loving it. It's hard not to, I'm trying not to overreact that loss from a Montreal standpoint. If you would have told them at the start of the series that you'd be tied 1-1 and have whatever, a lead with seven minutes left in game two.

I'm sure they would have taken it at the start of it. But I'm an overreactive person by nature. So I'm fighting it. That felt tough for them. Am I wrong? Am I overreacting? I don't know. I mean, this is the nature of the playoffs, right?

Because if you take game one and two and you just flip them, keep everything that happened exactly the same, just flip the order, then Montreal feels great. Coming home, 1-1, you know, they certainly, I don't think anyone looked at this series and said, Montreal is going to have a tough time hanging with the lightning. I think a lot of people pick the lightning to win, and they've got that sort of that winning pedigree,

whatever you want to call it, they've been here before. but I don't think anybody looked at this and went, oh, Tampa's going to blow them off the ice. But if you did think that, you don't think it anymore. I mean, Montreal has stood toe-to-to-toe with these guys. There hasn't been if, you know, the haps were in the playoffs last year, but it was sort of dipping their toe into it. And this is almost their first time on the really big stage of a winnable series. And sometimes maybe you worry the moment's going to be too big for a team.

It hasn't been. Montreal's right in the mix here. And you're right. I mean, the way that it did play out, they win game one, they've got the lead and you're sitting there going, geez, two nothing lead going back to Montreal. I mean, this is, the series isn't over at that point. Yeah. But, oh, that's.

And so you kind of get left feeling like what a missed opportunity. But it's the same thing from Tampa's perspective, right? They get a goal in game one and two plays out. out the same way, they're up to nothing. This is the right result. Now Montreal's got home ice. I feel like they still feel pretty good, even though they are probably playing a bit of that what if in their heads, if that had just played out a little differently. I wish I would have the courage to pick the Canadians ahead of this one. I didn't, I didn't have the guts. It was like my, I felt like my heart was saying to pick them, but my head is, my head is

garbage and it convinced me not to and I feel foolish now. I figured it'd be longer. Stupid heads or just... Damn you. Damn you head! I was with a co-worker last, I was with a colleague last night who was talking about

Josh Anderson like he was 500 years old. He's 31. Josh Anderson scored his second goal of the series last night. He's looked great. Not only was he not the Canadians old guy without a cup representative.

That was Brennan Gallagher. Josh Anderson, not even a valid choice, not even eligible. He's not qualified. He's only 31 years old, and you limited it to 33. But it is fun to see guys like him. I don't want to turn every discussion of every series

into like, this is what the playoffs is all about, because that's corny. But like, to some extent, seeing someone like Josh Anderson step up in play at a thousand miles an hour like he's still playing for Columbus or whatever is that is kind of what the playoffs is all about and like oh yeah right Josh Anderson still

can skate and still pounds the bejointed out of people and is still capable of you know pumping in a goal of it every now and then it was fun to watch and he's that classic guy where you know the Habs went out and got him years ago now gave him a great big contract everybody kind of looked at it and went okay okay sure about this one and it was like wow but

just wait for the playoffs and every year i get tricked every year you know Montreal will come in to play the least late in the season and you're like how's he doing this year and you're like oh he's got 20 points great job montra great great great management there and then the playoffs comes around and it's a war and he's he's the guy scored he wanted he wanted tom Wilson in that series last year so bad. So bad. And it didn't really work out for them. And it became, you know, probably too bad, right?

Like, it sort of became a bit of a side show. And now, you know, maybe that's a little bit of learning process, not that, you know, it wasn't like Josh Anderson had never been in the playoffs before, but maybe just as a team. Like you look at this. And, you know, Tampa, it's funny. I feel like for the last couple years, we have rightly and correctly all focused on the Florida Panthers

as the to be charitable, the team that plays on the edge, plays right up to the line. Realistically, they're just dirty as hell and they cheat constantly. Yeah.

And they get away with it. But now that they're not in the playoffs, it's sort of like, oh, right, Tampa was right behind them. In fact, they almost, the Panthers almost learned how to play that. way from the rivalry with Tampa Bay. So they're throwing everything they can at these habs, and so far Montreal's been able to deal with it. I mean, we saw Slavkovsky drop the gloves

last night. Yeah. Maybe not the best idea. But that, you know, that sends a message too to the team, to everyone. Like, none of us are back and down. We're all in this together. And it's been, it's been a nasty, nasty series, but I think if you had told me going in that there'd be as many penalties and scrums and fights as there have been, I'd say, okay, well, that's playing the Tampa's advantage. And it doesn't really feel that way. It doesn't feel that way. Yeah, like Montreal's been able to handle it. What did you think, speaking to Josh Anderson, of the hit at the end of regulation? the Nick Sabrin hits him from behind gets five minutes Yeah One of those fake five minute majors that we see so often these days

So that the referees can go and look at it Yeah and apparently whatever they saw Convinced them it wasn't five minutes I guess he should have Like I don't know what five minutes for hitting her behind looks like Yeah I'm like I'm at the point now

you kind of alluded to this. I'm at the point now where when you see a five-minute penalty, I just assume it's going to get pulled back. Like regardless, regardless of how bad a hit it was, it was or wasn't. Like, I call five. We need to spend August going through, going through these calls and seeing which ones actually end up resulting in a dude being in the box for five minutes,

let alone, like you knew that one. It's the playoffs. Like, you're, like, you're not going to, you're, You're not, and it's, and it's, and it's, and it's at the end of regulation. You're not going to put someone in, in, in the box for five. Like, we're, like, just cut the, cut the side show, cut the BS. Like, you're, you're, you're not serious about this. So, so stop the dog and pony show, you know, replay stuff.

And it, it, what were they expecting to see? Because it's, it's, it's a hit for, if people didn't see it, it was a hit from behind open ice. And, uh, Scott Sabron, not Nick, sorry, to, to him. Apologies to the entire Sabrin family. Apologies, Danny Sabrin, all of them.

All of them. The whole family as I do the Austin Matthews checking the back of his jersey thing to get the name right. I mean, that is, that's a five-minute penalty.

Yeah. And I don't know what they were looking to see on the replay. You know, just see if he pulled out like a barbed wire baseball bat or something and just, He actually had a switchblade in his skate that he pulled out.

Oops, we didn't realize that at first. Now, I mean, part of what they may have seen is the fact that Josh Anderson gets absolutely drilled from behind, manages to look up and gesture at the referee before realizing that he's hurt and then curls up in a ball on the ice and, you know, misses the rest of regulation, but miraculously recovers in time for over. overtime. Interesting. It's interesting how that works. I will tell you what shocked me about that whole scenario was that overtime rolls around

and Sabrin is back on the ice. Yeah. I looked at that and I said that's his last shift of the game. We might not see him again. We might never see him again. Yeah. Because it's exactly. I mean, if you're going to have and yeah, depth matters in the playoffs and everything,

but you have to, you want to have a fourth line, those third and fourth lines that you can send out there, but you got to trust them. And to throw a hit like that with six minutes or whatever it is left in a tie game is in the moment. It's the kind of stuff that gets guys lost on the bench. And then they're never heard from. Yeah. I mean, you just, you lose the trust of the coach. You know, and if I can't put you out in a close game in a series where the games are close all the time.

What's the point of even having you in the lineup? But he was out there taking a regular shift. It's wild. In overtime. But, yeah, that was a nasty one. And these, yeah, we need to come up with a term for these fake five-minute reviews. Yeah, it's a fake. It's a fake review.

And it's fascinating to me because anytime anyone ever raises the idea of like penalty replay review, which is a terrible idea for the record. But whenever they do it, the referees association gets their backup and goes, no, no, no, absolutely. And yet, referees sure do seem to love reviewing looking at replays of penalties because they choose to do it. Yeah. I think we're, I feel like we're in a weird, there's like a dead cat bounce going on with replay where people are trying to incorporate it more again because of how well the ABS system has worked in baseball. Like people are like, actually, replay can be good. Well, and then we had Monday, Monday night in Carolina, which.

I was covering the, I was in the, that happened as I was covering a hockey game. And it was like, I've never been more confused about anything that's taken, because like I had to follow it completely through Twitter. I wasn't, I wasn't watching the game.

I've never had less of an idea about what's gone, about what's been going on in hockey game than that. I was, I almost, I almost called you and asked like, what the hell happened here? Because it was impossible to track. I would not have been able to help you because watching it live, I also had no idea what was going on.

We didn't know what was being reviewed. We won't do, you know, I know it's, it's, it's, it was Monday night, which is forever ago in the playoffs. We had no idea what was even being reviewed. And, and, and even when they announced, no goal, goal over return. Okay. Well, it was only like minutes later when somebody figured out what they were actually looking at. It's such a screwed up system. So, uh, and, and I'm already.

seeing it, you know, especially because Montreal Tampa is such a it's such a nasty series and such a fast series that you're seeing people go like, well, we need some sort of it. No. Nope. There's no, there's no analog there. There's nothing in hockey that can turn into

a 30 second check like baseball. Like don't, don't, don't, you know. I know you think, I know you think it's that if we just do replay, review, all the calls are going to be good and everything's going to work. We're all going to agree. and your team will always win and all of that stuff. Come on.

Ain't happen. A little bit. In the other Eastern Conference game, Boston 4, Buffalo 2. The Bruins didn't blow this one. Buffalo added two at the end. One of those Bruins' goals, though, it was an all-timer from Morgan Geeky, wasn't it?

A snipe. Absolute. What a beauty. Look, I mean, I'm sure people have seen it by now. If you haven't, you will, because it's an all-time blooper basically gets the toss-clough bounce on a flip-in from center ice. Tell me I'm not alone on this. I've always felt like if I was in the NHL, I would do that often.

Do the little, try to short-hop the goalie. And I feel like I would score 15, 20 goals a year just off of those. Every time I was supposed to dump it in. Depends on how often you'd play Uco Peca Lukinen. There's got to be a way to, like, you know, throw a little bit of a spin on the puck and set it up there. I feel like that would be my – now, I mean, my total goals from all other plays would be zero. But I feel like that would be my specialty, be the guy who could do that and the fake ring it around the boards and then you put it on net after the goalies already started out is – those would be my two. patented moves.

Kuturov's got a shootout move. There's the Datsu move. That would be my move, which is just get the puck and fling it towards the net and try to short-hop the goalie. I think that one underscores too. Like, you know, fluke stuff happens. I'm not going to bury

looking in for that. But I think that does underscore the biggest reason to believe in Boston here is like the goalie gap in this one is just enormous. Swimming was was really, really good again. He was, but also, I mean, this, the series is 1-1, so, you know, I don't want to,

and again, this is, you flip the order of the games and the narrative, the momentum, and everything feel completely different. But it's not like the sabres are getting goalied here. The ruins have dominated 100, maybe 110 minutes out of 120 minute. series so far. Yep. Sabers have got some work to do.

They've, this is, this has been a great story. Everyone loves the story. Game one was, you know, just the visuals alone coming out of that were incredible, right? Sabres in three, blah, blah, blah. But I think when you look at it in the cold light of day after two games, like Boston, I think they're positioned pretty well. I mean, the Bruins, you'd prefer to be the Flyers coming back home up to nothing. But for a 1-1 series, I don't know how it goes any better for you,

how you could feel any better about your game than the Boston Bruins have to right now, going into that crazy building and basically owning it for the vast majority of those two games. Yep. Utah, 3, Vegas, too. That one's also tied 1-1. oh my god my my my heart my heart increased 10 sizes diagonally across the continent when I saw west Mifflin zone Logan Cooley scoring that scoring that game winner man um I

tell me if I'm wrong about this I wasn't watching this one super closely we were at an establishment so it was and it was late Vegas looks slow yep they I'm not I don't I'm not sure I'm ready to quite ready to pick Utah to get this one done, but man, they're certainly the faster team out there. Is that just because Kooli is always one of the fastest guys on the ice? And he's, you know, from my hometown and all that stuff maybe. But I, there's a gap there. And I think it was pretty apparent last night.

Yeah, and you didn't really see it as much in game one. And I still think Vegas is the better team. I still think they're going to win the series. But yeah, this is what you want to see from an underdog. which is the counterpunch. And very, very interesting to see what it looks like going back to Utah. I'm saying going back to Utah, going to Utah. Going to the playoffs.

There's no back to. This is it. This is the, you know, this is the debut. What kind of weirdness do they have? Is it, you know, I know that it's an unwritten rule of the hockey universe that whichever, the newest team in the league, we all have to say that it's the loudest. building and all these fans are so crazy. And so I'm sure we'll all be doing that, but it might be true.

And this is a series. And look, I think Vegas is a better team, but this is a vulnerable Golden Knights team. It wouldn't shock me to see them come out of the Pacific, but this is also, they seem very wobbly. They seem like it wouldn't take too much. And maybe a game three win for Utah is that moment that kind of pushes them. and we find out how much pushback they have and maybe they don't have as much as we thought.

Kings two, or excuse me, abs two, Kings won. Nikwas scores in overtime. That's after Landis Gag tied it with about three and a half minutes left. Where does that one rank on the gut punch scale here? Like that's just, you know, I at no point watching that one did I feel like the Kings were going to win the game? they're just such

they're a tough watch but then you know whatever they they hang in there for the for the majority of it but then to they did it

they did it one too right like yeah this is and again it's they this was a chance to steal one

this was a chance to you know and I don't even think if the Kings win game too if they get the overtime goal that that anyone is going oh we got a series I mean, everybody's still picking Colorado in this one.

Yeah. In any series, if you're the underdog, there's going to be a couple games where you got a shot. And you got to take advantage. And the good news is, we all made our jokes about how abs in three and this is not even going to. And the Kings have shown, no, we're right there. We've, you know, we're not rolling over and credit to them for that, I suppose. That game also is just proof that a late goal in any kind of overtime action is enough to make a game interesting. That was a slog for the vast majority of it.

But everyone's like, oh, well, incredible late goal by Gabe Landisog. And then Nickwell wins it. It's fun. It's fun because the way it ended. But games that are scoreless after the process was just, it was painful. one of the more non-competitive series in the first round is penguins flyers and we're going to talk to Josh Yoey about that kind of unexpected result there coming up after the break all right we're back we're joined now by about Josh Yoey who's on Flyers penguins of course he's gotten a personal taste

of the of the of the cross-state rivalry there the Flyers fans are making his life miserable I mean, I actually kind of enjoyed dealing with Flyers fans. I don't know. They're actually very entertaining to me. One guy, like, he was in my DMs last night telling me off and making fun of the penguins for being dealt with. I said, dude, I said, maybe just enjoy the success. Come on, you got to enjoy this. Why are you making fun of me?

Like, I don't matter. And he writes back, like, it's so cool that you responded. I'm like, sure. Yeah. A big shot like you has the time. to mingle with the Hoy-Poloe in Twitter DMs. Right. And the Hoy Palloy is out in Philadelphia.

Josh, like, okay, so I'm not in Pittsburgh. I am in Edmonton. I have a sense for how the fan base has reacted to these first two losses. But you tell me, man, on a scale of 1 to 10, how pissed off are people in Western Pennsylvania right now? I think they're more depressed than they are pissed off. That's a better way to put it. They're kind of like, they're not even angry.

They're just curling into a ball. Like, oh, no, this is the team we were supposed to be all season. Oh, my God. These last six months have been a mirage. Oh, no. This hasn't just happened. And now it's the Flyers doing it to us. Like, because the Penguins didn't even put up a fight in the first two games.

There's nothing to really be angry about for the fan base. I don't think. I've watched as many of the other playoff games as I can. And they're all competitive. Like, they're all entertaining hockey games. I don't know what, was that the penguins were doing in these first two games. There's just nothing competitive there.

The scores were 3-0-0 and 3-2. They may as well have been 6-0. That's how bad the penguins have looked. And I think everyone's maybe in a little bit of a state of shock more than anything. We all thought that going into the season, the penguins are supposed to be the team that was tanking. And then they didn't. But now they are. So that's pretty good.

I mean, they'll get a high pick in the playoff draft. Is there, I mean, having watched those two games, you're right. Like, this is, like, domination would be the wrong way to phrase it, because domination is you're losing 7 to 1. But as far as two relatively we thought evenly matched teams, this is about as one-sided as it gets. And maybe even to an extent that the scoreboard, which hasn't been friendly to the penguins, is maybe making it seem closer than it is. What's the adjustment? What do you do to change this? What's happening here?

Are the Flyers just a better team than the Penguins? Or is something gone off the rails that can be fixed from a Pittsburgh perspective? Well, first of all, Sean, you're in Edmonton, so I want you to tell everybody there that Stuart Skinner has been the Penguins' best player in these first two games. He's actually been really good because the games could be more lopsided than they are. And maybe they are thanking for McKenna in the playoffs, which is an interesting approach. but it don't work that way. I got to check the CVA on that, but I'm going to be sure that's just act surprised in the lottery when Bill Daley flips that card.

There it is. I'm sure that won't get hockey fans worked up. No, because you're right, these games have been, here's something, the Flyers aren't even trying to score. They are just sitting back and waiting until the Peguins do something stupid, which is happening about every 30 seconds. and they're just counter attacking and getting enough offense. I do think Philly might be a little better than we realized. I think Porter Martone, it's only been a few games. I mean, he's got star potential just oozing off of him.

He's really good. He's made a very clear difference. I think, oh, and Tipp, it's a lot better than people realize. They have some players, yes. And I think they're playing an incredibly disciplined style, which can be harder to do at home. and I'm curious to see if they can duplicate that at home. But they've just played a perfect defensive hockey series through two games.

But the bigger story still to me is the futility of the Penguins. They have been unable to figure out the trap Philadelphia is playing. They have been unwilling to simply dump the puck and go to work. And it's interesting in the Crosby era. Listen, the Penguins won the Cup three times. They've been to four finals. They've been to five conference finals. They've done a lot of great things in the playoffs.

But when they fail in the playoffs, the playoffs, they often do so spectacularly. Like they either put it together or they fall apart. We see this a lot with this team over the years. And listen, look at the power play. You've got Crosby, Malton, Carlson, Raquel, and Russ. That's a pretty darn good power play on paper. 0 for 5, 2 shots on goal for the whole power play in game 2,

gave up a pathetic, shorthanded goal, also gave up a 2-on-none. That's what they did on the power play. These are a bunch of Hall of Famers. I don't know how you fix that in 48 hours. was going to try, but it's been stunning to see just how inept the peg ones have looked in these games. Well, that first period in game two, I think, was it summed a lot of it up. They had 19 shot attempts or whatever, and two of them were actually on net.

Like, they're getting zone time and then just completely, completely running into a wall. And it was wild to see it's a one-o series. You play one period of game two, and you have 19 shot attempts in the first period, right? And you should be feeling okay about, like, if, if, if, if, if those are the, bullet points that you get, you say, all right, things are, things are going fine. There's no reason to panic. It felt like they lost that game already after the first period. And there was, and there was, and there was no score on the board just because the degree of futility that they were showing when it came to actually turning that zone time into anything meaningful at all. That's right. It's like there's

this, this big wall in front of the slot area that they simply either can't get to or refuse to go to. And you're right, the first period was interesting. They had the puck the whole period. which is good. And I actually, they actually tried to get the puck deep and more turning the puck over in the first period. But I don't recall one really good look in that period that they had. They just kind of threw a few pucks toward the net

and the flyers block them all. That's pretty much all it was. And if you look at Philly, like for really the last month of the regular season when they got hot, they're not giving up goals. Their goal prevention in general has been very impressive. And I do think Fla-Dar has played a role in that. He's been good.

but I don't know what to make of him because he hasn't been tested in the series at all. The flyers, like you said, Sean, they're putting up that wall in the penguins. You could feel the frustration in the building. At the end of the first period, I was thinking, oh, boy, they're in trouble. You could just feel it. And by the way, the penguins are not built to win two-one games. In fact, it's an unbelievable stat. I don't think they won a two-one game all season.

That's games. And I think they only won three-two game, which a game. in Vancouver in January against the pathetic Canucks. They don't win low-scoring games. They need a track meet, even though they're old. Like, that's when this particular group of that. They scored the second most goals in the NHL this season. I, I honestly, to God, don't think people, not enough people realize that.

This was a, this was a really, really, really productive hockey team. And they were, clueless. The Krosby era. Did I see that? Correct. It is. That's wild. And it's, and Anthony Malthas, their leading goal score with 33 goals.

He has zero shots in the first two games of this series. I've barely noticed him. That's always kind of the book on him, by the way. Gallup, he'll score some goals. He's a free agent this summer. Careful. Somebody's going to offer him something ridiculous. It might not be the bad ones.

Yeah, he's going to get $6 million for seven years now, instead of $7 million for eighths or whatever. Yeah, that's the way that might go this summer. But, I mean, he's been invisible. And listen, Crosby has a history of killing the flyers that is to the point that we just expect it. We just expect anytime he sees that logo, you know,

that gift that you see going on when he's like staring straight ahead in the locker and like he wants to kill someone. Like that that's always what we're expecting from him against them because that's all we've ever known. He's been really bad in these first two games. I don't know. Is this injury stuff? He all,

he didn't look hurt, he didn't look at a guy who almost tore his MC on the Olympics two weeks ago, but he does, he does know. Yeah, I mean, it could be. I doubt he's 100%. Of course, I could also counter that by saying then why the hell was he playing in Washington

in a meaningless game last Sunday if he wasn't 100%. We always look. What's Crosby, I think there's always a natural assumption, well, there must be something wrong. He can't just be playing poorly. Is it father time catching up a little bit? I hate to bring that up, but he is 38.

He'll be 39 this summer. Yeah, when you're 38, that question gets asked. It does, and it has to. Like in the playoffs are a faster animal. Everything's at warps speed. We know this. And he just hasn't looked close to himself in these first two games. To the point that it's, I think, been a little alarming.

And now tonight he goes into Philly, the building he has owned more than any other. I'm sure there will be a comfort zone for him there. He likes playing there. Historically, Sidney Crosby goes out and scores a goal in the first five minutes. He's like, oh, okay, here we go. What if he doesn't? I don't know. We have to monitor how he looks.

I think that's fair. It really feels like this game tonight has two distinct paths that could go down, and both of them, in hindsight, will feel obvious, right? We're either going to get a repeat of the first two games, where the Flyers will just lock it down, and the Penguins are going to look a half step behind all night, and we'll go, yeah, the Flyers are better. This series is going to be sweet.

We all figured that out after two games, of course. Or, like you said, Crosby scores early, here come the penguins and we're all going to be going. Yeah, of course, a proud team of champions like the Pittsburgh Penguins aren't going to lay down. Of course we're going to have a series. We knew that. We're all going to be very, very smart in about 12 hours. We just don't know which direction. Yeah, I think that's true. I mean, there's also the possibility of, like, Philly comes out and scores three goals in the first 10 minutes. And this place is going to be a zoo tonight. I have no doubt. No, I mean, I think a lot of different things are in play. And guys, I'm telling you, not just because of how the penguins lost the first two games, but just how pathetic they looked. Yeah. Like, if they get swept or losing five, I'm thinking about Kyle Dubus right now, and there's a lot of people in Pittsburgh like, oh, you got to bring Gino back,

and you got to keep the guys together. I'm not so sure any of that's going to happen if they keep looking as old as they've looked in the first two games. I'm not talking about Sidney Crosby. I'm talking about everybody else on the roster over the age of 30. You have to wonder how Kyle Dubus is feeling when he watches his team look this bad against a young team in the playoffs as to get his attention. Thank you for all those reasons for Penguins fan optimism, Josh. It was my pleasure. When you come to Philadelphia, the negativity just hits you right in the face and you almost become that way a little bit.

I apologize. It comes on the side at Wawa, brother. That's not ours. Yeah, that's the truth. Enjoy the game, brother. Talk to you soon. guys. All right, Macon, there are two other games tonight.

We got Dallas, Minnesota. We got Anaheimed Medvedenton. We'll start with Ducks Kings. Ducks Kings. Oh, my God. Ducks Oilers, because that's the one I'm on. I'm of the mindset here that things went about as well as they could have for Anaheim in game one.

You keep McDavid off the score sheet entirely, which is crazy. It had literally never happened in an Oilers win this season. And you get 68% Leon Drysidal. He didn't, he had his legs. He's fine there. The issue was timing. He looked like a guy who hadn't played a game in a month. And you certainly don't expect that to continue.

So I'm of the mindset that, you know, that was a chance that they frittered away just because they managed to to keep those guys, at least off the score sheet. I think, you know, six, two, each has three points tonight is a very, very real possibility. Tell me I'm wrong. I don't think you're wrong. I mean, this is this is what happens in the playoffs, especially when you've got a favorite underdog scenario. We're seeing a play up very much in the LA Colorado series where, you know, when you've got when you've got the established favorite and everyone goes, oh, they're going to win 5-1 tonight. And then you get a close game instead.

You sort of go, okay, well, that's a, that's a bit of a moral victory. That's, you know, we're playing them close. We're playing them tight. We're in this series. We're showing that we can compete with them. And it's like, yeah, but also, you're only going to get so many opportunities to get a win on the board. And when one of them flies away, especially, I mean, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, uh, that game won, you know, I'll be honest. I was, I was, I was so revved up with the, uh, all the, the crazy stuff that happened in the Ottawa Carolina series on Monday night that I went to bed when we were two periods deep in the Oilers game and Edmonton's down going into the third period of goal. And I'm looking at that score before I turn the light off going, uh-oh.

Uh-oh. This is big trouble in Edmonton if this plays out this way and then woke up the next morning and checked. Yep. There you go. Edmonton came back, got it done. You know, the old cliche, they don't ask how they ask how many. I mean, we have to ask how a little bit, because we're especially early in a series, you're trying to analyze and figure out how it might go.

But also, when you're under as much pressure as the Oilers are, it kind of is just how many. And they got it done. And look, if the ducks come back and can get a win tonight, split the series, go home, make it into something. Okay. Then let's see how it plays out. But you're right. It doesn't, it's not that tough to picture the Oilers flexing a little bit. And then we, we all end up looking back at game one going, boy, if that second half of that third period, it played a little bit differently.

We got a whole different series, but the Ducks took their best swing. The Oilers took the punch and then the fight was over. You're not going to get too many, you're not going to win too many series when you lose games because of Jason Dickinson and Casperi Capitan. Like, you can't, you can't get away with that too many times against the Oilers. and Anaheim's already used one of their bullets. Okay. Dallas, Minnesota. My question after two games of this is about G.8. Gottinger.

879% percentage. He hasn't looked particularly good. At some point, maybe it's this series, you know, maybe the stars win the cup, and we never ask the question. But at some point, we need to start, wondering about everyone loves Jake Ottinger and he shows up on preseason

Vesnalists and blah blah blah but you know he is a guy when you look at the at the stars postseason flame outs in one way or another over the last few years all those losses in the Western Conference finals he's a guy

who not undeservedly has escaped the amount of blame you'd expect from a goal tender who was responsible who is at least a net for all of them. And I think if if if this series goes the way it has in the first two games, that is going to change. Jake Ottinger is going to be wearing the collar after this one. If they if Minnesota somehow pulls pulls this off. I know it's early but I think I think he's tracking towards a narrative shift surrounding him. I love it. You're setting the stage.

I'm picturing my mind Connor Hellebuck sitting on the bench kind of scooching over and patting the seat next to him like come on come on over to the big name goal. bullies who have been slapped with the reputation. Are we sure? Are we sure about this guy? It's, and look, I mean, you said we've got to start thinking about it. Pete Tabor's out there going, I'm ahead of you, man. And seriously, yeah. And look, the reality is, you're right, it's early. It's, you know, two games in after Jake Ottinger gets the 40 save shutout tonight, the whole, the whole narrative will shift to something else. We will delete this recording. Exactly. You never heard.

it. But the way that things ended last year for Dallas does kind of play in here. And the ghost of Pete DeBore yanking Jake Ottinger and, you know, you're trying to go back to the net and an angry Pete DeBore. That kind of does play into it. And that's sort of why the way that that all played out last year was so potentially alarming if you're a Dallas fan. Because look, man, goalies are first of all they're all huge weirdos to start with there's not a single normal human being who's ever put those pads on um and it's and it's such a psychologically tough position to play that you know it's not is is there such a thing as a goalie who can't do it in the big games maybe not but if if a goalie believes it one way or another then it becomes self-fulfile

you're halfway there uh you know i i'm still i a lot of the concerned Jay Gottinger was, you know, game one was just a mess. Game two, everything for Dallas was, was better. I would say Jay Gottinger was a bit better. But, I mean, this still feels like a long series. This is all, this is just sour grapes because I've picked him to win the Vesna in October for the last three years. Like, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just sour, right? You're, you're an absolute fool.

But, hey, I mean, it's been, this series so far has not lived up to the hype in the sense that this was the one that, you know, was supposed to be going overtime every night and everything. And it kind of feels like a bit more of a feeling out. But it's tied one, one. And it just, this feels like what we're getting early is just the building blocks. Yep. What can still develop into a classic late in the series. and you're just sitting there going, yeah, I remember for the first few games, it was just two teams hitting the big moves on each other,

and then they had to figure it out down the stretch. I still think we got a lot of hockey left to go on this. But, yeah, I mean, you're right. You look at Dallas. Fired a coach for losing in the conference final because that wasn't good enough. This is a tough one if they can't get it done against a very good Minnesota wild team but you know also the you know it's it's weird i wrote about this this morning the the the whole playoff format thing in this series do you realize the minnesota wild are not even the best team

record wise to start on the road this year i that was one of those thoughts that i was kicking around i was like a reshirt like should we be as mad about about the playoff formatting as we are and minnesota wild and then i saw and i saw you lay it bare and in the post this morning like they They finished, and, you know, what I'm referring to, they finished behind the Canadians in the standings. And I haven't seen much if any, you know, Canadians fans are, you know, saying, oh, the terrible playoff format, we got to play the lightning. We should be playing someone. There's, there's been some of that in the east just because the seven and eight seeds are facing each other, which is pretty ridiculous.

But, I mean, I look at it more from the Minnesota perspective that, hey, you don't get to play the playoff format card if you lose here because you finish seven. You finish seventh overall. You're going to play a good team in the playoffs in the first round. And if you lose to that team, then you weren't really a cup contender to start with. Dallas, hey, I mean, you could say third best record in the league. They, you know, if anything, they're the ones who have got the complaint that, hey, we should be getting a cupcake in the first round here instead of a real good wild team. But at the end of the day, like, you've got to beat the good teams. you're not winning the Stanley Cup

with playing three 70 point teams and then somebody couldn't find it's not it's not a cop out you're gonna have you're gonna have to beat these teams eventually like I'm I'm so much I'm way less angry about the playoff format than the average person I feel like like it is it is it perfect no is it is it unfair sure should it be changed yes but I don't have it in me to get all that angry about it

Like if you're Minnesota and you want to win a cup, go beat someone good. Like tough luck. That's like both these teams. Dallas, if you can't beat the Minnesota Wild, you weren't, you know, what was the path to a cup? You don't. Sorry. You couldn't beat the Wild, but you were going to go through Colorado. And, you know, like, it's tough logic.

This isn't 1984 anymore. There's not 21 teams and 16 of them make the playoffs and one of them has 52 points. And if you're the Oilers or the Islanders or the Islanders. or whoever the powerhouse is, you get a literal first round buy, pretty much. Those days are gone. I want the format to change. I'm on board,

but I guess the best way I could put it is you sit me down at a sports bar and get a couple of beers in me and then say, hey, what's bugging you? I'm going to hit you with a whole bunch of stuff. Man, that's so true. That comes up.

It's not that high on my list of things to change. And to bring it back, just, you know, yes, we want it to be fair. we want to think this is a great matchup man i mean i far be it for me to agree with gary betman or even seem like i might be agree with but some of these first

round matchups are pretty great i'm kind of i'm kind of close to i'm kind of close to agree with i mean if if if the weird format serves up a couple of absolute a plus matchups that maybe shouldn't happen till the second round but we get them i i don't mind eating my dessert before the end's the broccoli right like The ends justify the means. There you go. I'm fully prepared to watch a three-overtime game in the press box in Edmonton tonight on my phone

because that feels like, it feels like Minnesota and Dallas have one or two of them. One or two of those in them. I'm fingers cross, man. I hope so. Let's go. Hit a break. We back to you what we learned. All right, we're back. Sean McIndoo. I would like to tell you what I've learned.

What have we learned, Sean? Boilers coach Chris Knoblock and Oilers goal-tender Connor Ingram are both from the same town of 372 people in Saskatchewan. They're from Imperial Saskatchewan.

I know that's a very uniquely Canadian thing to have these these prairie towns that, you know, have 15 people and whatever. I can't run the odds on this because it's not possible. The fact that a coach

in a goaltender and end up with the same franchise from a town like that, from a town of that size. And literally, if you go to the Imperial Saskatchewan, like, town website, it's, it's, they just have, it's like we have a water tower and, you know, three streets. Do they have a group photo of the entire town together? Just, I'm not kidding. There's like, it's a selfie with somebody there is, there is a, there's a photo carousel on the, on the, on the, on the, on the municipal website for this, for this, for this town. And one of the photos is, there's like, it's a, it's a, there's a is it's just of a house. It's just like a normal like ranch like ranch house. It's like, okay, here's like, here's the post office. Here's, you know, here's, here's, here's, here's the water

tower. Here's like an overhead shot of the of the four blocks of town. And then there's one that's it just looks like, it looks like any house you've ever seen. And there's no context at all. It's just like here's, here's one of our, here's one of our, you know, 60, 68 houses. It's incredible. And the fact, and I know that there is some kind of personal connection between their families. obviously it's not possible to live in a town that's small and where everybody doesn't know everybody. But the fact that you're talking about a playoff team that has a coach and a goalie or each from that particular place was just mind-blocking to me. I've got some small town, Canada and both sides of my family. And here's the thing that I can't stop thinking about with this is if the Oilers win the Stanley Cup,

imagine being in a town to go into Imperial baby it gets two Stanley Cup visits I mean do you do you roll those together do them back to back to a 48 hour binge

or do you do you spread it out you know does I mean how many how many photos it's literally it's like we're got like we're taking the cup to the to the elementary school we're taking it

we're taking it on top of the water tower like it's it's there's there's not much else to do what would you do the cup if you had your day. I would, uh, I have, I have a plan for when I win it. I, it's, you know, I'm just going, I'm going back to, I'm going back to the pool at Maryle at Mew's house. That's where it was in some of the bandwidth to win it. I think I,

think it needs a return trip. You're going to be going to reunite it. My, my thing has always been, I would get, I would get a bunch of my buddies together from like my whole life. And we're going to, we're getting together. We're going to play up ball hockey. You're pick, the teams, ball hockey, one game, winning team gets to pass the cup around. Losing team, you do not touch the cup, you're not taking any photos, you got nothing. You get to play one game for the Stanley Cup. I think it would be, I mean, the number of shredded ACLs off the opening face-up would be impressive. I wouldn't take it in public. I would just stick it in my living room and sit there by myself and play, you know,

PS5 or something. I would be a groundbreakinger in that way. Here's what I learned. And I like, I learned two things about, uh, the new GM of the New Jersey Devils, sunny matter from,

they hired away from the floor of Panthers. Yeah. First of all, I learned that he had the same taste in 90s clothing that I did. The, shocker jacket, the whole deal. Dude,

when I, when I, when I, And I finally get hired as GM of the Leafs. Let's just say there's a lot of... You actually might too, by the way. I don't know if you have chat GPT on your phone or not, but... I haven't...

I mean, I've got a couple of voicemails I haven't checked. I'm assuming that's my buddy Keith calling, but... Did you ask Gemini if you have an interview coming up for the Maple Leafs, Joe? So I love that photo of Sunny, the devil's. I mean, I'll just say. That beats the bedsheets. Pajamas, yeah. It's not pajamas, man.

I knew you were going to correct me on that as soon as I started saying pajamas. They're bed sheets. I know, we know, we know, we know. Stop calling him pajama boy. It's been 15 years. But here's the other thing, Paris is 43 years old. Leave him alone. There's the other thing that I learned about Sunny Mehta, which is I had known that he was a poker guy.

Yeah. And I saw there was, somebody asked him about it at the, I don't know if it was a press conference or somewhere else. Like, how does your poker strategy affect? And he gave like a really thoughtful, interesting answer and that kind of got circulated on social media. And I'm a poker guy myself. What I didn't realize is I didn't realize he wrote the books on poker that I had back then. Oh my God. I used to read the Ed Miller, you know, the two plus two books and all that. Like, I was all over that. And because I didn't know you were, I didn't know you were that much of a poker guy. Back in the day, I mean, like everyone else, right?

You went Vegas together a couple years ago. Were you like, were you like slipping out on me? No, no, no. I can't. I can't. I can't play. Not allowed. I'm playing online on the, until they start opening up some five and $10 tables in Vegas.

I don't think. I don't think I'm going to, I don't, I don't think I'll be doing that. But yeah, I do, I've probably got those books somewhere. That's incredible. And I feel like there was some, I can't remember the exact circumstances, but I ended up like, there was something with Ed Miller, where like we ended up conversing about something. I don't know if he, a hockey guy or whatever. I didn't realize until just yesterday, because I was looking it up,

because the reason I went to look it up is I wanted to know. Is Sonny the first guy to have gotten into poker during the lockout in 2004, 2005, the way we all did, to then become like a pro poker player and then get it. Like, it has this come full circle. And no, he was already doing pretty well at the tables before then. But I just thought that was very cool. I own the, I've literally got the book on this. And imagine how fun it would be if you owned poker books for. written by the guy who was the GM of the team you root for.

Alas. Alas. Alas. Would have been cool. There's still time. Your post went up today. This morning, it's the panic rankings, basically. The pressure rankings.

Yeah. Everybody wants to win in the playoffs. Who needs to win? I think it will shock people to find out who's ranked number one. And I'm sure their fans will be really cool about it because they really enjoy. when outsiders gentle gentle

criticism from people who aren't from Alberta yeah exactly I don't know what you're talking about all right

Sean have a good day we'll talk you next week Frankie Crato probably back who knows he's again big timeness for TV stuff

for you 18s we'll see if he's back who knows Haley and Max are back with the show with the show on Friday

rather I will be on a plane to the greater Disneyland area We'll talk to you down the road. Enjoy the games. Enjoy the puck. And thanks for listening.