The Athletic Hockey Show - NHL Draft Lottery: which team deserves to win the Connor Bedard sweepstakes?, Gerard Gallant out as New York Rangers head coach, Florida Panthers take 3-0 series lead over the Toronto Maple Leafs, and more

Episode Date: May 8, 2023

On a brand new Monday episode of The Athletic Hockey Show, Julian is joined by guest cohost Mark Lazerus to discuss tonight’s NHL Draft Lottery, and run a couple of simulations of the lottery on Tankathon, which teams “deserve” to win the Connor Bedard sweepstakes, the New York Rangers and Gerard Gallant mutually agreeing to part ways, potential candidates to replace Gallant, with Joel Quenneville reportedly not in the mix, the Florida Panthers jumping out to a 3-0 series lead over the Toronto Maple Leafs, Leon Draisaitl staking his claim as the best player in the world right now, Jake Oettinger as the only true No. 1 goalie left in the playoffs, Cale Makar surprisingly nominated for the Norris Trophy, and the guys wrap up the show by handing out this week’s Conn Smythe Winner of the Week award.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowRight now, Nuts.com is offering new customers a free gift with purchase and free shipping on orders of $29 or more at http://Nuts.com/hockey23 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Welcome to the Monday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. My name is Julian McKenzie. You will not hear Ian Mendez's voice. I think he is too bogged down by all the Snoop Dogg, Ottawa Senators coverage, so he needs a bit of a break. He's actually in Budapest. So Mark Lazarus, who was in Chicago,

will fill in for Ian Mendez for this Monday edition. How are you doing, Mark? I'm good. I do not get, you know, I was so jealous. us of Ian when he got to, not that I've talked to famous people before, but he got to quote Snoop Dog and he just said Snoop said, which is so much

cooler than any like attribution I've ever written as a professional writer. Snoop said, like he's one of the few guys who we don't use his real name ever. He is Snoop. I remember when the Rock first became really famous. It was always Dwayne quote the Rock Johnson when he was quoted in it.

But it's just Snoop said. Like he is allowed even in the New York Times to be Snoop said. I love that. I'm jealous. Who is the coolest person you've ever quoted? Or, like, who's the coolest person you've ever, like, spoken to? And, like, you've written them down in an article. And you're just like, holy crap, I got to talk to this person.

Oh, my God. I had to think about that for a bit. Yeah, me too. That's a great question. And I'm trying to think. I mean, Jesus. I, you know, my first job was covering Mario Lemieux, which, you know, that's pretty awesome to be able to quote him on a daily.

But that's a hockey world thing. I mean, you know, John Hamm, I talked to after a Blues Blackhawks playoff game once. I don't think I quoted him, though, but, you know, JR, Jeremy Rutherford was going around showing, tell him everybody because he was big, he was an athletic subscriber. He was showing everybody on his phone, the A logo on his, on his homepage that he had our app as his homepage. So that's pretty cool. But, yeah, I don't know if I've had any, like, super cool interviews, though, like that. George St. Pierre might be mine. Okay.

I've actually heard of him. And I'm not a big fight guy. Yeah, the UFC. Like when he was like fighting, like he was the guy. Like I would, I was thinking about the other day, but like we would actually have like, like, my friends don't really do UFC watch parties anymore. But like when he was fighting, like we would do that. We would all sit down and watch.

And like he was going through like rehab on like his left knee at one point. He was trying to explain like some like underwater training he was doing. And like we were sitting down face face to each other. And he grabbed my left knee to like explain whatever pain was going on. And like my biggest regret is not having someone take a photo of us like, right? Like me talking to him. either him or Jerome McGinla at this point. And Jerome McGillah, that was like two weeks ago.

Jerome McGillah didn't get back to me for that story I did on guys who changed teams late in his career. I've always been a big Gignla fan, but now I hate him with a fiery passion because of that. I'm a very small, bitter man. Speaking of people being bitter, I will get to hockey stuff. But speaking of people, thinking of being bitter about athletes, I remember going to a Montreal Expo's event last year and seeing Vladimir Guerrero, who is like my hero. And I remember asking him politely for a photo.

and he declined the photo. My heart broke, man. I love that man. I'm still tough. It's all good, but like my heart broke, man. My greatest moment like that was when I was 12 years old, we went to Met Spring Training in Port St. Lucie, Florida. My brother had some kind of like spring training of his own back,

so we went down there. And this is, spring training was really laid back. This is 1992 because I'm an old person. Not 50 like you think, but I'm old enough. Okay, you're not 50. I'm sorry, I made that joke. your goal a couple years off. This podcast is off to a great start, Mark.

I just remember David Cohn was my favorite player. I was a pitcher, and David Cohn was my favorite player, and this is like in his prime of his career. And the guys are just walking around the campus. It's not like it is now where they're in these big professional stadiums. And I had a ball in a glove because I was 12 years old. And David Cohn, so I said, oh, Mr. Cohn, you're my favorite player. He goes, hey, you want to have a catch?

And we threw the ball back and forth like, like, no, 10, 15 times. and like you couldn't touch me for a year and a half after that. I was the happiest person that ever lived for so long after that. It's incredible, you know, when you're a person of that stature, what you can do for a kid at that point. Like you can just make their life as the best. I can't wait until Snoop Dog gets to own the senators. So the next time we have this conversation,

we can mention more cool hockey players. We got to get Snoop on the podcast. Look, Ian's the Snoop whisper. He's doing interviews, man. He's doing interviews. He's doing it. Ian's the Snoop whisper. We got to make something.

Anyway, we have to talk about hockey because that's what the show is about. Oh, right. There are, yeah, sorry about that. It seems to happen almost every time we do the Monday show. There's like a whole bunch of other rigmarole we have to get to before we get to the actual topics. I'm going to make sure we stay in line. But today is draft lottery day. We're going to get to other playoff stuff.

We know Toronto's burning because they're down 3-0 in their series against Florida. Had it hurt. Yeah, you know, it's easy mistake to make. Gerard Gallant, no longer the head coach of the Rangers. Some of the different award categories have been named. If there's one in particular I do want to ask you about, and we'll get to the Kahn-Smith winner of the week and a multiple choice madness question.

But the draft lottery. The 11 best teams with the 11 best odds of Connor Bedard all have a chance. You could be like the team I cover, the Calgary Flames and the four other teams in that bottom pile where they have a small chance at winning the draft lottery, but since they can only go up 10 spots, they don't really have a chance at that. So it's not really all that interesting for me.

But I am curious, Mark. For you being in Chicago, the Blackhawks do have a genuine chance at Connor Bedard. What is the vibe? What is the feeling? Take me through it. God, we have been talking about this day for since they traded Alex to Brinkett at the draft, like what, 10, 11 months ago, whatever it was. I just wanted to be over.

But obviously, this is a massive day in the life of several fan bases. And, you know, Black Hawk's fans seem to be resigned to the first. fact that they're going to get the number five pick, they're going to slip from three to five because there's just this pessimism around the team right now and they blew the tank and this that and the other thing. And I get that. But they have the third best odds. Anaheim's got the best odds. Then it's Columbus. Then it's Chicago, San Jose, Montreal, Arizona, Philadelphia, Washington, Detroit, St. Louis, Vancouver. Those are the 11 teams that can win Connor Bedard tonight. Full disclosure here. There's, I don't know if you faced this when you went to Calgary,

but when I took over the Blackhawks beat in 2013, people couldn't believe that I wasn't a Blackhawks fan. They didn't understand the difference between a writer, that I wasn't from Chicago, I grew up in New York, that I grew up an Islander's fan, that I didn't have any loyalties anymore, and that I was a purely objective observer. People couldn't understand that.

I think they get it now, but I will say this. There are two times where I have rooted for an outcome for the Blackhawks. Either way, I've never rooted for them to win or lose, whatever. I don't care. I'm one of those sickos that roots for Triple Over. in the games that I'm covering, like, I just love the best story. Because right even writers just hate that. That's insane. I love it. I love it. I covered four triple overtime games and they're all awesome. They're some of my favorite

nights ever on this job. I love that. I love the challenge of it. I love the fun of it. You know you're covering history. I love that. I don't care who wins or loses. I honestly don't care. There are two times where I cared though. Game seven against St. Louis in 2016, there was, the Blues had a one-goal lead in the third period. And I had this dawning realization that I wanted the Blackhawks to lose so bad. I had covered 12 rounds in the previous three years, two cup runs, and then I went to a game seven of the conference final, and I covered that Stanley Cup final between the Kings and the Rangers.

I had covered probably 79, 80 games a year in each of those years, because I went to every road game at the Sun-Times, and I was just dead inside. Like, I needed a real summer, and there was this tangible possibility that I might actually get a full summer off, and I might be not have to work two days from now. It was the most incredible sensation washed over me. Good Lord.

And Brent Seabrook hit that he had a double post shot with about three minutes to go. And Blackhawks fans to this day lament that moment. Like that was the end of the era. That was one of the greatest moments of my life. I was so tired. Like I had lost all rational thought. Like I just wanted to go home. And so the Blackhawks lost that game and I got my summer and it was great.

Now, of course, I'm missing the playoffs terribly. I miss, you know, the excitement. carrying all that. You don't know what you got till it's gone, my man. Yeah, exactly. It's true. But like, God, how about every other year? Because that was, you know, nobody's going to feel sorry for me.

And I don't blame it. But that's physically and mentally exhausting to, you know, work 29 days a month like that all year. The second time, it's tonight. I'm rooting for the Blackhawks to win the draft lottery. I selfishly want the Blackhawks to win the draft lottery because it's good for me professionally because I want people to care about the Blackhawks again. And I probably shouldn't admit that. It's certainly not going to destroy me if they don't win.

They'll probably be a part of me that's chuckling inside because I'm so anti-tank and I don't want them to be rewarded for this. But purely selfishly, Connor Bedard makes the Blackhawks interesting again. It makes the fans excited again. It makes them more competitive again. It expedites this process. I don't want to cover shitty hockey for five, five, six more years. I want them to get, you know, I don't need them to win, but I want them to be relevant. I want my job to be relevant, right?

So selfish. And I think this is probably true of beatwriters in every city right now, all 11 of those teams. They kind of deep down, they might not admit it because they're not as stupid as I am, but they're probably rooting for something good to happen to their teams tonight. I mean, he is the best prospect we have seen since Connor McDavid, or maybe if you want to stretch it beyond to Crosby or Ovechkin, that is your right. But like, do your point, yeah, he would make a lot of people's jobs interesting. If you are the owner of said teams that we have a chance at Connor Bred,

these fans are going to want to come watch your games. Like, there's a lot writing on this. And I get this happens every year. You can think about that with so many other number one overall picks. But with a player of Connor Bedard's magnitude, the skill that he has, like he makes such a significant difference. Like, I was reading that piece that we put up last week on, on which team deserves him more and all these different landing spots. And seeing where he could be placed on different teams, he's already a team's like second line center. He's already a team's first line center. He makes that much of a difference today joining any of these teams who have a chance at

Connor Bardard. And I feel envious as someone who is covering a team that was nowhere near bad enough to go get a Connor Bedard. And I think there are like a small faction of fans who, especially after hearing President John Bean, say, oh, hey, you know, before we traded Matthew Kuchukaway, or anyway,

I'm kind of mangling it a little bit. But there was a reality where the flames could have rebuilt. And maybe it put themselves at this situation. Like, I kind of, I kind of feel a little, you know, I want in on the fun. If I'm not, if I'm not going to cover a playoff team, at the very least, if they have a chance at the draft lottery, at the very least if they have a chance of a generational player, like, I don't know. I want to be where the action is. I want to be where the people are. I would, I would at least say that you had an interesting season to cover. Like, oh, I'm not good. I'm not going to, I'm not going to. There was drama there. There was in, you got a coach fired. You had a team that was in the playoff race until the very, very end. I have

covered a team that has been trying to lose since October. Like actively trying to lose. Like a management that is like, I want this to be as bad as possible. And it's been kind of fun to watch the Blackhawks basically, you know, give Kyle Davidson the middle finger by playing real hard. And, you know, Luke Richardson did a good job getting them playing on. And that's why they're, that's the third best odds and not the best odds. I've kind of enjoyed that because it's been, you know, kind of amusing to watch.

But it, I need this more than you do, buddy. I'm just saying, I need it. Okay. Let's try to make this. Eric Stevens needs it. Aaron Portsline needs it. You don't need this. Oh, God. Yeah, Eric Steve, Eric Stevens and Aaron Portsline. Cory Massesack needs this. Oh, God.

And hey, look, Adam Fantilli's out there. That's a guy who also has to think it'll be depending on who's number two. He's got to think about that too. You're absolutely right. There's a part of me that almost wants the Blackhawks to get the second pick because we've written so much about Connor Bedard that there's literally nothing left to say about him. And Fantilli feels like a fresh start. So I almost take fucking out of Fantili. I'm telling you, but after Bred, after Fantilli, I can't wait for the draft because who's third? Is it Leo Carlson? Is it Will Smith? Is it, is it Matt Feynich? Like, there's so many different possibilities.

But here's something I want us to do, Mark. Something that I think will guarantee fun for the both of us, even though it looks like you already want more fun than me. Let's go on the Tankathon website. Tankathon, great site where you can simulate the draft lottery, all these mock drafts. And actually, if you can do it for the NBA, the NFL, NHL, MLB, not an ad, but, you know, just want to add some context for the listeners at home. Let's go to the NHL draft lottery simulator and let's both click on it and let's see what results come up. Let's try to predict today's NHL draft lottery as best as we can.

Oh, I got an upset. Okay, you already clicked yours? I'm going to click on mine right now. Okay, tell me you're upset. And then I'll tell you what happened with mine. The St. Louis Blues get Connor Bador. No, yeah. No way.

Followed by Columbus and Hops. Chicago. Wow. They're like 10th or 11th in best odds. Yeah, they moved up nine spots. They think they're 10th. It can happen. When the Blackhast got Patrick Kane, they had like the fifth, they had like an 8% chance or like the fifth best odds. It happens. Man, I got Arizona jumping five spots to first, which. Do you think the NHL wants that? Like the NHL's project, but do they want Connor Bedard in Arizona? I've long had this conspiracy theory. Like, Like everyone's talking about frozen envelopes and stuff. For me, it's guaranteeing that Arizona gets the number fourth pick

because Mitchcoff lines up perfectly with their arena, where he'll finally be coming over the year that they opened their arena. So Arizona can get Mitchcoff. I think that's been my conspiracy theory all years, that Mitchcoff and Arizona is the perfect match. That's actually a really good idea. And nowhere near as overt as wanting Connor Bedard to play in Arizona, which, oh, God,

that Connor Bredd plays in Arizona. He will have to play in a 5,000 seat rink for the next few years. I don't know if people want that. That's what I'm saying. I don't know, even the league, which, you know, that's their pet project and everything and protecting Arizona at all costs. I don't know if they really want that. I don't know if I want that.

Look, Arizona, they have a good core. They've got some good young players. He can make them pretty darn good pretty quick. He would make, he would like ramp up their contention window, like, bringing a lot closer than what it should be. But like, am I allowed to say I want him to go to Aarheim?

I want Eric Stevens to be happy in this case. You'd mention all the different drillists who would be happy. I just like what they have going on there. That was a bad team. But, I mean, Troy Terry,

Trevor Zegris, Mason McTaffish, like, they have some really, Jamie Driesdale, they have some really cool prospects there. And if they get Conorbertard there, they might not be like contenders right away.

But I just like that cool assembly of young talent there. And I just feel like it would just be the coolest just for him. He's also the Pacific Division, too. So I guess there's some other Pacific Division teams, like the Flames who would not like that. But I would love to just get the opportunity to at least see him like two, three times a year.

Like, that would be really fun. Yep. There's a part of me that wants to see a team like St. Louis win it. Like if St. Louis or Detroit, teams that have been, well, Detroit, Detroit's hard because they've had such bad lottery luck over the years. Yeah. And they've been in this rebuild for like 114 years.

And Steve Iserman, Steve Weizerman gets the longest leash in NHL history and nobody's allowed to say anything bad about him. But the fact that they were still trading futures, they were trading good young players like Philip Aronic for futures this year and everyone went in Detroit was still happy about it. Like, I'd love to see Detroit kind of,

I think that's a team that the NHL would like to see bad dart at, like a Detroit or a Philadelphia, kind of a big market that's not actively trying to lose. I think that would be a nice setup that the league would be cool with. But you kind of don't want to see these teams that are at the bottom just be awful forever either.

You need to see something could happen. What about Vancouver? Where he's from? The poor kid. The poor kid. He went to Vancouver. My God. He goes to Vancouver. He would be heralded as their savior.

He'd go without a point in the first game and they'd run him right out of town already. Oh, my God. Okay. Give him a bit of grace. Give him three. Give him three games. Give him three games in Vancouver. This is Vancouver, man.

They don't give you three games. I'm going to say this. And I know this is the Monday. tends to be the Canadian version of the show. We cannot have Connor Bedard in Canada. He can't go to Montreal. Because you've already got Matthews and you've already got McDavid. The NHL needs a superstar like that in the States.

And Nathan McKinnon is one of the best players in the world, but he doesn't have the superstar aura that McDavid has. He doesn't have the PR team behind him that Matthews has. We need one of these guys has to be in the United States. Has to be. You cannot have all three of them in Canada. Plus, you know, dry titles up there. Like, we can't have every top prospect being Canada because Montreal is a massive market for the NHL.

Nobody in the United States cares, though. Nobody in Nashville cares. Nobody in Florida cares. It's got to be in the States. For him to become the kind of star, the NHL needs him to be. I hate to say it. And this sounds, you know, all jingoistic of me. And I ain't that guy.

But the NHL needs him south of the border. Okay. But also, we complain. all the time about how bad the NHL is at marketing its stars. Does it really matter if he goes to Anaheim or Arizona or Columbus or Chicago if the NHL might still bungle how to market him in the first place? Well, sure. I understand that like, okay, fine, like Austin Matthews and all those guys are in Canada

and people in America don't care about Canada. But for guy like Austin Matthews, who's at least in Toronto, that's at least the one Canadian city Americans can name. Yeah. Like, I don't really feel they've marketed him all that well. Nathan McKinnon should have a superstar aura. He has a Stanley Cup. He is exciting to watch.

He is a top. You could say he's a top three player. You could say he is a top three player in this league. You could even make arguments at different points that he should be number two because of the accolades that he has. Kail McCar is a top five player in this league as well. And Kail McCar should be in there. Yeah, there's plenty of guys that should be. Absolutely.

Absolutely. With Bedard, you get to start fresh. Yes, but also like the NHL has to show me that they are able to, market this guy properly. And I also understand, too, because of the culture of hockey and how certain things that they say, you know, being all about the team and not necessarily seeing things to put themselves out there.

Like you remember when Connor Bedard, I think right after the gold medal game was asked about some of like the cool stuff. Like he had that comment about, you know, oh, I'm not going to make this about me. I'm going to make this about the team. God, the way that every hockey writer fawned all over for that made me sick. It made me sick, man.

It's like, all right, we get it. Saki's a team sport. I'm with you. Like I get it. We're so insufferable. Hockey people, we're just so insufferable, all of us. Like, there's a part of me that saw that. I was like, okay, good on the kid for, you know, not affecting, you know, there's how scouts look at him.

He's like, oh, he's a selfless player. But there's another part of me that just want to go to the kid and be like, what are you doing? You should be fun. You should be cool. I'll say this. You're dope on the ice. Be dope.

I'll say this for hockey. And this doesn't matter as much as it used to because we're in the cord cutting era and the streaming era and all that. But ESPN and Turner having broadcast rights in the states, it's they're doing a better job of elevating some of these names and giving them higher profiles. You know, people still watch SportsCenter in that horrible first take show. They still kind of watch those. So if you put them on those shows, it's different than being on NBC Sports Network,

which did a good job covering hockey, but just didn't have the reach. So if you bring in an 18-year-old phenom and you put him in a major American city, ESPN's going to glom onto him. And they're going to do what they do, which is make them a bigger deal than they're probably should be. That's what ESPN does. That's what they're great at. And that's what the NHL needs them to do. That's why ESPN is a rights holder. NHL desperately needed ESPN's cachet and power to make these guys stars again. And, you know, one year in, you know, a guy like Connor Bordardt coming in can change the game in that respect. It's never going to be,

you're never going to be LeBron James or Steph Curry. That's just not hockey's place in America. But you need, you need an American-based young megastar who's excited. And we're at the point now where I feel like everyone's heard of Connor Bredard now. So he's going to come in with a lot of... I'm about to sit down and write a column saying to pump the brakes in Connor Bidard. I feel like we are out of freaking control with this kid. Like out of control. Like the common everyone knows what's his NHL comp?

I keep hearing Patrick Cain. Patrick Cain's great. It's the greatest American that ever played. He's a Hall of Famer. He was the best player in the world exactly one season. 2015 and 16. That's fair. Patrick Kane doesn't single-handedly change the game.

I mean, he did a damn good job. I mean, that's the thing, him and Tayes. His impact is huge because everyone who's 25 years old or younger plays like Patrick Kane now, and they all cite Patrick Kane as their favorite player. But he, by himself, would not have been enough for the Blackhawks to do what they did. They had Marian Hosa and Jonathan Taves. They had so many stars aligned at the same time. Connor Bedard's not going to come in and make the Anaheim Ducks the greatest team in the world for a decade.

No. Conor McDavid's the greatest player who ever lived and Edmondon's still trying to get over the hump eight years later. I'm just saying we are putting way too much on this kid. I mean, way too much. I don't think, I mean, I think he elevates a franchise. I'm not, that's the thing about hockey. Like there's no one player who brings it. It's not like basketball and even basketball to a certain extent. There's that element of team too. But Connor Bred will not elevate a franchise to the point where they are a stand in the cup contender. Like I don't, I don't, I don't know if I've seen. anyone do that. I'm not saying necessarily you're saying that, but like, you can't, you can't dispute the fact that he'll change your franchise. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying is let's pump the brakes because he's not going to fix everything for one of these horrible teams. That's fair. If he's on the Blackhawks next year, the Blackhawks are still going to suck. Yeah. Sorry about that. They're going to be looking for a top five pick again next year. They'll just sell more jerseys and more tickets, which is great, I guess. But this is one player plays one third of the game.

I'm still thinking about your first take comment and thinking about how earlier this year where Stephen A. Smith said that the only thing he likes about hockey is the puck. And I'm just trying to picture like, Stephen A. Smith just try to be prepared to ask Connor Bedard questions. And then he's got to do some like Twitter apology that's so disingenuous.

It's just such a joke, man. Every time. I should have taken it. He will, Connor Bernard will not be mentioned on first take. I take that back. You are correct. I mean, unless they get P.K there and they let P.K. run the show. Pekay's been on first take. I just, it's, it's frustrating with the SPN because they do so many things well and their website's so great for hockey and they do a good job at the... Not better than the athletic though. And then, no, certainly not. And then, but they just, they're so dismissive of hockey, a team, a sport that they have paid a lot of money for the rights to and they're just like, hockey.

And it's just, it's just infuriating, man. It's just infuriating. Okay, we got to get to some other stuff. I think we've gone through enough of the Cot-Ber-Badar conversation. Where do you want him to go? What's your number one pick for that for Conradard? I want Anaheim for sure. If he goes to a Canadian city, which in this case would probably be the Montreal Canadians, I would not be mad at that.

It would be kind of fun to see him play for the luscious franchise like the Montchardat Canadians. Vancouver as well. It would be kind of funny considering all the, I don't know if they deserve it, considering the way that they went about their year, but it would be kind of fun to see him play for his hometown team. So I think my power rankings would be Anaheim, Montreal, Vancouver, as like my top three teams I'd want to see him play for. Selfishly for me, I want him to come to Chicago because I want to write a home.

Yes, yes. But objectively speaking, I'd like to see Columbus win because they try to win this year, right? And then bad things happen to them. They went out and they got Johnny. They were injured to hell and back. Yeah, like I feel like that's a team that if you're looking for the word deserves, I would like to see a good thing happen to Columbus. They've lost so many star players over there.

I'd like to see a good thing happen to Columbus. That's a bigger city than I think most people realize and it would be good for the league. I think the league wants them in Philadelphia or Detroit, though. They'd love it if you were in Chicago. Philadelphia or Detroit. I think they'd like to see it. I think those would be very good for the league if he's in Philly or Detroit.

I would love to see Connor Bordar play for John Tortorelli. You're absolutely right. God, that would be a nightmare. Now that you mention it, I don't want that to happen. Yeah. Well, hey. Block shots, Connor. Why aren't you blocking enough shots, Connor?

You want him in an American market so it could be marketed better. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Until the NHL proves me otherwise, I feel justified in my skepticism of Cotter Burtar being marketed properly. They can't even do that. Yeah. You are wholly justified.

Absolutely. Speaking of big markets, we'll get to playoff games, but we should talk about the fact that Gerard Galant is no longer head coach of the Rangers. And there is a serious discussion at some point that I do want to get to with, with the discourse around the Rangers and who the next coach could be. But let's start with the fact that he's no longer head coach after the devil's Rangers series played out the way that it did. The Rangers had a 2-0 series lead. Then the Devils woke up and now the Rangers are done and now Galant is done.

How do you feel about that move? How do you feel about him being gone as head coach? I mean, on the one hand, it's kind of crazy, right? I mean, he had 200 point plus seasons. And then went to the conference final last year. Yeah. They lose in seven games this year and he gets fired, which is, it's kind of crazy. But at the same time, you know, Gallant does a lot of things well.

Players like playing for him. He's a great regular season coach. He is not a tactician. No. And when you get to the playoffs, you kind of need someone who's worried about the matchups and who's worrying about the adjustments. The Rangers didn't make any adjustments once, you know, they won the first two games. They just played that way all the way through.

Even when, you know, Lindy Ruff and the Devils figured out how to get their transition game going again. Galant never really responded. And I can understand if you're the Rangers' perspective, we're thinking, look, this guy's good, but he is not going to win us a Stanley Cup. He does not have the playoff style acumen to win a Stanley Cup. I can kind of understand it,

but it's still shocking. I was cynical me. I was like, oh, it's because they're going to go get Joel Quenville. When I was a hide-eyed, lots of thoughts on that, let me tell you. Oh, I want some of those thoughts. Let's keep talking about this, but save those thoughts because that's where I want the discussion again. Barry Brooks of the New York Post reported that Quenville's not on their list.

So then I'm thinking, well, what the hell are they doing, right? Like, in a cold, cynical world, you could say, yes, Joel Quenville's a better coach than Gerard Galant. And he would give a star-laden team a better chance to win the Stanley Cup. He knows how to coach. He's a master of matchups and playoff adjustments. His record, my old colleague at the Sun Times, Mark Potash used to keep this stat, his record in games 5, 6, and 7 is he's got like a 95% winning percentage.

It's absolutely incredible. He is probably the best, you know, in-series adjuster the league's ever seen. I mean, Scotty Bowman included. So I get it. But if you're just going to go get some, like, you know, you'd call up the minor league coach from the HL or just some other retread because this is the NHL and it's always retreads, then I'm like, maybe he should have given Galant another chance because he was doing a pretty good job,

wasn't he? Like, this is a really strange situation in New York. So you don't like, so like, like, Peter, Lavulette might not be better than Gerard Gallant, especially if you forget the tactician. How many times do we have to hire the same people? I said that about Peter DeBore and Peter DeBore everywhere he goes, he wins, but it's like, oh my God, how many, how can you keep getting fired and keep getting jobs immediately afterwards?

I don't know how that works. I don't understand how that is. Are there only 32 people in the world who know how to coach hockey? I don't understand this at all. But it's just the familiarity and, you know, the coaching tree, the brethren. It's like how Peter Chiarelli is a candidate for. every single GM job every single time. It's like, have we learned nothing?

I don't know. Shout out Peter Shirelli, though. Is he, I think he's in St. Louis now, I want to say? I think he's got some kind of like an advisory role there, yeah. Well, the one, the one name I keep seeing floated around that makes me laugh is Daryl Sutter. Darryl Sutter for the next two years is going to be $8 million. And we'll probably be back in Viking Alberta on his farm, just, you know, tending to his cattle or whatever he has. I've never been to his farm.

Why the hell would he leave his farm life to go coach in New York? And I want to say, kudos to Calgary for doing that because, like, you know, we've all heard about how much friction was going on between the players and Sutter and that room. It was a bad fit even when they succeeded. It was like that's different than what's happening in New York where they just were losing in the playoffs. That's a lot of money to swallow. And I feel like five, 10, 15 years ago, especially in a market like Calgary, that never

would have happened. They never would have swallowed that much money. But they realized they had no choice. they had to make that move for the good of the team. And it's good to see teams that are, you know, willing to eat some money for the betterment of their, you know, of their franchise. 84 million is more than 8 million. Yes, yes, exactly. And what I say 84 million, I, you know, Jonathan Hubert will come to mine and there are other guys with money as well.

But, I mean, I guess here's the thing with Darrell Sutter too. Like, Tyler Toffoli has sung his praises at different points. I remember at the exit interviews, Nikita Zedorov mentioned some good. things. There's an interview circling around where Troy Stetcher, who was acquired from Arizona by Calgary, spoke to Canucks Media and said that he likes Daryl. There are guys in that room, I think, who liked Daryl. It's just that they were definitely outweighed by people who probably did not, not probably, they did not like Daryl is a really good coach with an incredible track record, but he's a certain style that isn't, that doesn't really mesh with young players that come up.

Now, you talk to, when you talk to coaches around the league, they say, look, I've had to adjust the way I treat people now. Like I have to talk to them differently. I have to manage them differently. I can't just staple them to the bench and not tell them why. Darrell Sutter is as old school as old school gets. And that can succeed in the NHL. And there are veterans who are going to love that.

Like, you know, the Blackhawks, you know, loved playing for Joel Quinville. It was a country club atmosphere, but he would just absolutely bench your ass if you did anything wrong. And some guys love that. And some guys want one of these young communicator types who will sit down in the next year locker and put his arm around you and ask how you're doing. And, you know, what can we do to help make you and put you in a better spot? Like, that's how, you know, this next generation, and I'm all for it. Like, I would love to see, you know, I don't like seeing these guys getting berated and screamed at and treated like, you know, cattle. It's good to see that these modern coaches have a modern outlook on these things because the players demanded.

The players are taking control of their lives. And, you know, this is what happened in Calgary is like, Darrell Sutter is just not everyone's cup of tea. Nah, man. fine. But what's really interesting is that, like, and one of their rookies actually, Jacob Belte, was quoted in Jeanette de Morayat, kind of explaining the dynamic of Daryl, where he could be this guy who, like, if you do something wrong, like, he will let you know about it. He will yell and he'll do all that stuff. But if you're like leveling with him in like just like a normal way, like he could come across as a nice guy. But that's what makes him so confusing. And I think also contributes to a big out. Like, I don't want to say two-faced. But like, it's very confusing to have a guy who's going to ream you at practice for doing something wrong. But then, like, we'll come to you behind your, we'll come to you behind the seeds. And be like, hey, man, you actually played well. Which in that, I don't know if you remember the Jacob Peltie story where he makes his

NHL debut. And we all asked Darrell like, hey, like, what did you think of the kid's debut? And he's like, what number is he? Like, that was that was bad. Like, in the moment, like, we're all thinking like, okay, like, that's just Darryl being Darrow. And I think the players thought that too. But the fact that that. story took such a life of its own outside of that market. And people like media people, I know people in the front office were not happy. People were generally upset about what happened. And there are players who, you know, it's one thing for them to be like Darrell is Darrow.

But I think there are guys who were generally not happy about how that went down. Like, I really didn't expect that. I thought we were just going to let that blow over because that's just Darrell and people just assume that's just what it is. But I was genuinely surprised at how people just took that as like a like a point of, not contention, but people were upset about that. Yeah, and they should be. Like, we should treat people like human beings, right?

It's not too much to ask. It's funny, you talk about how confusing it is with Darrell. It's confusing as a reporter, which I'm sure you know well. If you talk to him on a practice day, he's telling stories, he's funny, he's going on and on and on for your feature stories. It's the best. You talk to him on a game day, it's one word answers. It's two word answers. He's completely dismissive of everything you ask.

I covered him for a couple of playoffs. series, three playoff series over the years. And I learned never ask a question on a game day. There's no point. But on off days, he was one of my favorite coaches ever. He was like the nicest, happiest, you know, most relaxed guy ever. Like, he is just, he's got both sides of that personality. And as a player, I can certainly imagine it's hard to know where you stand with a guy when, like you said, he's doing that stuff in public and then coming around and, you know, saying, hey, how you doing, buddy? I've seen Daryl, like, talk to reporters about what they did for vacation and being all nice to them.

And then the very next day, he'd be like, well, if you watch the game, you would have noticed this. Like, I can't handle that. Like, I got lucky. The worst I ever got it with Daryl was when I asked me who he was starting a debt.

He was like, he legit said, like, I know you're new here, but don't ask me that question. I'm like, holy crap. Anyway, we're spending a lot of time on Daryl Sutter. But the Joel Quenville discourse that did come up over the weekend. It should be noted to.

Stan Bowman also was brought up. Elliot Freeman on Hockey Night in Canada, to mention the flames and the penguins are among teams interested in in having Stan Bowman as their as their GM as we as I understand both whenville and Bowman have yet to be reinstated by the league after their actions from what happened in Chicago but like the fact that both of those men's names have been thrown out there in the cycle for some of those job vacancies I know I don't feel great about it I would love to know how you feel about it uh I don't like it.

No, I don't like it. It's funny. When the Rangers fired Galant, the way I process my thoughts is by usually writing. I write. So I started kind of noodling around on a column of what would I write if this happened, if the Rangers hired Joel Quenville. And I'm of two minds on it because from what I understand, I've spoken to a lot of people about this over the past several months, anticipating that this would happen eventually, is Joel Quindville's putting in the work. He is talking to people not like mandated, like this isn't like court mandated stuff where he is calling people. and talking for hours on end with people who are, you know, social progress leaders in the hockey world,

what he did wrong, why it was wrong, how he could approach it in the future. It seems to me that he is putting in the effort. And isn't that what we want? We want these guys. We don't want to just punish people. We want to rehabilitate people, right? We want to, we should want guys to acknowledge their mistakes, to own their mistakes, and to improve themselves.

And then we should give them second chances. That's what we should want, right? We shouldn't just excommunicate these people from society if they're putting in an honest effort to improve themselves. But I also think that every single person who was in that room, including Kevin Shevold-Dayoff, who got off Scott free for this, Stan Bowman, John McDonough, Al-McDarysic, Jay Blanc, Joel Quenville, and Kevin Shevold Dayoff, who was the assistant GM at the time, none of them should ever be in hockey again. because they just what they did was so unforgivable and so egregious and so callous and so indifferent that I have a really hard time imagining a world where I'd be happy that they're back in the league. So I'm of two minds on it. I would probably prefer that this not be, I would love for NHL teams to not even consider them to say,

you know what, this is not a person that I want leading my young men, that I want in charge of my, that's the face and the voice of our franchise. I would like for it not to be an issue because nobody would want to hire them. But this is hockey. And Joel Quenville is one of the best coaches we've ever seen. Like I said, his track record is impeccable on the ice. And it's not the least bit surprising that he's going to be back. Joe Quentville's going to be back in the NHL at some point, whether it's the Rangers or not.

At some point, he's going to be back in the NHL. And I'm just, he hasn't said anything publicly to own up to this, right? He, even after the Jenner and Block report, put him in that room, he said he had no recollection. I didn't know about this until the lawsuits came up 11 years later. So he does not deserve the benefit of the doubt yet. He is going to have to go on some kind of serious tour, apology tour and explanation of everything that he's gone through in the last two years before I can buy the idea of him being back in the NHL. It's going to take a lot. And again, I just wish that, you know, there are seven and a half billion people in the world.

Is Joel Quenville the only guy? Is he the only guy you could hire as your head coach? I would like to see the team say, no, no, we don't want that. We don't want the PR hit. And we don't want the toxic personality traits that led to this in the first place. We're just going to find someone else. But that's not how the NHL works. Like I said, this is the retread league of all retread leagues.

And Joel Quenville will be back in the NHL. And he's got a lot of work to do, a lot of work to do for anyone to be even mildly okay with that. I like here's where I've I'm going to try to organize my thoughts about this as best as I can. And I think this applies for both men. And you touched on it with the work that has to be done for them to get to even a point. Or at least I want to touch on that point. Like I want to know what work that they did. Like you're saying you want to believe that Joel Quentville is talking to progressive people. Like I want to know about that. I want to know, I would want to know every single thing that he's done to warrant an apology. and to warrant a second chance. I'm with you. I think he will end up in a situation where he returns to the national hockey league because he was such a good coach that with all these teams interested in him, it's going to happen.

He will get that second chance. It's what happens. The cream always rises to the top, no matter how poisonous they might truly be. Joel Quenville will get that second chance. And maybe that applies to Stan Bowman, too, as an exact, considering the success that he's had. I really want to know what they would have done,

to warrant that second chance. Because I do not feel at ease with just those two just being put into whatever organization they end up with and then a G or a president of hockey operations just saying, well, they were reinstated. So that should be enough. Like I think at this point now, considering what we have seen with the Block and Jenna report, I'm going to throw in Logan Mayu as well. And so many other horrible stories that have surfaced in the hockey world over the last few years. I think if you are going to go down that road, and I'm not even saying that's the right thing to do. I don't think Quenville should get a second chance.

I said that. I don't know if Bowman should get a second chance. If teams are going to do that, because that is the way where players or troubled people get those second opportunities, those teams better be upfront about why they're getting that second chance. And if they do any type of ducking, like, they're in the wrong. You could totally tell that they're doing this with total disregard for a victim in this particular case, Kyle Beach,

because Joe Quinville getting a second chance or Stan Bowman getting a second chance. Kyle Beach is not getting that second chance to play in the league. No. So I don't think that's fair. Kyle Beach was saddled with quote unquote character issues. Yeah. And never played in the NHL. And where did that come from?

That came from the Blackhawks. Yep. The Blackhawks decided he had character issues. That was what we always heard. Why should those guys get a second chance to do it? Everyone that was in that room after game four of the Western Conference Final in 2010, when this was called to their attention, not one of them had the guts to stand up,

not even the guts, the decency, to stand up and say, no, this is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong. None of them went to the press. None of them went to the police. None of them went to human resources. Not one of them had the courage to stand up and say, no, we can't just sweep this under the rug.

for an assistant video coach to protect the guy who cut clips for special teams meetings. That was more important than a player on the team than a human being. When you read the General Blockbord, I went back and I read it again this weekend. And just, you know, there are multiple, you know, who knows if everyone's covering their own asses in this, but there are multiple accounts that Quendal was all agitated by it. It's been too hard to get here. We can't have this distraction, yada, yada, yada. Like that callous disregard

That says something about somebody And I don't think anybody that was in that room Should be allowed in the NHL Because not one of them had the courage to do this To do the obvious thing Not even the right thing The obvious thing Not one of them did

And I have a really tough time for giving that And even in spite of that We will likely still hear Joel and Stan's names mentioned in the rumor mill For more of these vacancies Joel Quinville wrote a letter of recommendation, basically, for Aldrich to HR a month or two later. Congratulations of winning the Stanley Cup. Use an exclamation point.

Joel Quenville used an exclamation point. I don't know. And then he went, and then three years later, he, you know, gets convicted of criminal sexual conduct with a minor because the Blackhawks did not stop him. You're going to, like the ultimate point I'm trying to say, you're going to have to convince this. this to everyone else, why these people deserve second chances, considering what I want to, I want to be the bigger man here and look at the bigger picture and say we want it, we want people to rehabilitate all. I want to be that guy. I don't think I'm that guy. I just don't want them in the league. I don't know if this. And I don't know, I get people are going to hop on us and

say people deserve second chances and you did bring it up at the beginning. And look, I'm all for second chances too. But for this, I really have a hard, hard time reconciling with that. I have like, especially in the market I'm into, just the idea of like Stan Bowman being a GM, where there's still a couple years off from the Bill Peters thing happening. And the president of hockey operations is saying you want someone progressive and someone on the cost of getting their chance. Like that is a complete 180 on what they would want ideally.

And like they would get like, no, that would not be, that would not play out well in the media here, I would think, even if Stan Bowman has the resume that he has. But, you know, we're just going to have to get used to the fact that these names are could be trotted out there because it's one thing to go through the retreat carousel. But if you're going to go through the not even reinstated carousel, like, geez. It says something about the league and the people running it.

Let's talk about some of the NHL action that's happened in the last little while. We'll get to the Emmington Orlers at some point. But I do want to start with this Panthers Leaf series because the Florida Panthers, at the beginning of the playoffs, I'm pretty sure a lot of people thought, Hey, you know what? This is a team that might win one or two games against the Boston Bruins. Not only have they upset of the Boston Bruins in the first round, they are now three up on the Toronto Maple Leafs as we speak. And they don't play again until Wednesday. So that means there is so much time for Leafs fans to cry over the core four and to see all these mock trade proposals of Mitch Bardoig shipped out because his NMC kicks in on July 1st. You're talking about Connor Bedard or whether or not Arizona might want him.

They might not even have to wait. Maybe Austin Matthews joins them when it's got. Yeah, all the one-two bunch, Matthews and Burdard. I'm not obviously kidding. He's not, I don't think, I mean, I would be studded if it got to that point. But the fact that the Leafs, remember, Leif's fans, they really wanted to go to round two, man. It was the first time they had done it since 2004. Look, what is it that Leaves fans wanted?

They wanted to win a round. They never said anything about winning games in the second round. That's it. They never said anything about that. You got to be more specific with the Monkey Paul Wish. You got to be more specific. Because now we could just say, if they get swept, we could just say the Leifes haven't won a second round playoff game since 2004.

We could just keep the storyline going basically because it means nothing that you won the first round if you couldn't get a single win in the second round. It has been almost 7,000 days since the Leif's won. a second round game. I looked this up the other day. It is like 6,947 days now since they won a second round game. But here's the thing. Here's what we love and hate about Toronto, right?

Is they go out there on Wednesday and they win game four. Oh, they're winning the series. Oh, we got this. Everything's fixed now. We can be the Panthers four straight. Yeah, we want, we want Carolina. We want Carolina. I mean, totally.

In the bag. Like, there's no fan base that goes from, well, no, that's not true. Pittsburgh is, Pittsburgh goes from zero to 60 back to zero faster than anybody. Damn. But Toronto's a close second where they are, we're the best. No, we're the worst. We're the best. We're the worst.

There's no perspective from game to game. I always write it up for years now. I don't know whether I believe momentum exists in the playoffs. If it carries from game to game, I know it exists within games. But I always ask players that they believe that. If you win game three, does that carry over to game four? Most of them usually say no. But oh my God, in Toronto it sure does.

If you lose a game, you're losing every game forever from now on. If you win a game, you are never losing again. I love it. It's so fun to just watch from afar. Like, as a charter member of Team Chaos over here with no dogs in the fight, it is objectively hilarious what is happening right now. And if the Leaves go and they win, they win four in a row, it's a great story. It would be so cool.

Yeah. Like, I'm good either way, man, because it's either hilarious or it's awesome. I'm good either way, man. I still can't believe, though. I think so put up the stat, like Tavaris, Marry. Matthews, like no goals through the first three games of this series. Remember, people were cheering Austin Matthews in the last series because he scored a goal at a clutch moment.

Like, what's really interesting for me is seeing all of the goodwill from that first round series. Because remember, there were videos of Leaf fans celebrating the OT goal. Like people like Morgan Riley and Alex Kerrford, Kerrfoot, who were dogged by Leaf fans all season, John Tavares too, who were dogged by fans all season. They came up huge of that series. Heroes and like nowhere to be found. Tavares, the most maligned captain in the league probably was all of a sudden,

my captain! Oh, captain, my captain. We love you, Johnny Tavares. It's hilarious. John Tavares might be the most maligned point-of-game player I have ever seen. Let's trade martyr. Yeah, let's trade our 99-point freaking Selky finalist. Selky trophy finalist.

Dog, no, but seriously, John Tavares, like Mitch Marder, I mean, You know, that's a whole other story itself. But Jod Tvers, if he was virtually in any other market, he would not get half the hate he gets. This is a kid who put it, there was the photo of him sleeping in the Maple Leafs blanket. And everybody looking at his stats and saying, to hell with that, you make $11 million.

How dare you be a point of game player? It's incredible. I mean, that's what we do. That's what we do. Like, Rangers fans turning on Artemian, an $1.5 million player because he's not produced. He's, that that's, you know, is that the art? Is that why they traded a fired Gerard Galang?

Because he needs someone to unlock Artemey Panera and unlock him. He's been on like my MVP ballot like four straight years. The guy's awesome. He's like a player. What are you doing? Anyway, I realized we did not provide any significant analysis about why the Leaves from the hole that they're in. I think that's okay.

But it is objectively funny. Yes. It is. It is. I'm sorry. It is. I just think, I don't have no dog. I have no dog in the race.

Again, I'm with, I'm with Mark. Like, if, if the. Leifes actually come back and win the next four games. That is a really interesting story. I remember when the Raptors made their NBA championship run, it was really cool to see the way Toronto was like going nuts. Absolutely. Like I like seeing that, you know, I like seeing droughts end.

I think it would be great. I'm just, this is the way it has to be. It's either they got to win it all or they got to lose like this. Because if they just like losing six or seven games to the Panthers or they make it to the conference final and lose in five, whatever, it's got to be spectacular on either side. And thank God, that's what's happening. Oh, man. It just, I just can't believe it. Just be careful with you, what you wish for, I guess. You kind of have to. And let's give, let's get Florida some credit here. They were the, they were the president's trophy team last year, you know,

and they've got Matthew Kachuk who's, you know, we're talking to, you know, we keep saying that this guy's in the top three, this guy's in the top three. Kach might be in the top three players in the world too. This is a good team and they got major 2012 Kings vibes here where Bobrofs He's looking like Jonathan Quick, and this is looking like a team of destiny and all that. We've seen this before. And maybe we shouldn't be so surprised that Florida was kind of coasting there in regular season for a while because they looked like the team that we saw last year. They just looked like a great team. I think if the Panthers make round three and Matthew Kachuk, I mean, I think he's already done enough to have us start having that conversation.

But if he definitely plays a rule in game four, we might have to do a whole other podcast on whether or not, Matthew Kachuk really is a top five player in this league. Well, that's, I mean, we're going to get to Leon Dricidal here, too, who is looking like the best player that ever lived all of a sudden. You know, who's Nathan McKinnon, Kail McCar, Matthew Kachuk, Connor McDavid and Austin Matthews, like, there's, who's your top three right now? Like, it's, this is, we're in a golden age of stardom in the NHL right now. The top three right now, and we can get to Leon Tricidal.

My top three right now, Connor McDavid, Nathan McKinnon. Oh, God. This is what, it's impossible. Whatever you say here, you're going to regret five minutes later. Leon Drysidels in the top corner now, man. It's probably Kail McCar.

It could be, but I think it's Leon now, man. Like, this is what I say. It's impossible. Leon Drysidal has 13 goals through eight playoff games. Evander Kane and Nathan McKinnon had 13 goals to lead the playoffs last year. Yeah. Leon Drysidtile's freaking awesome. Last year he was awesome on one leg.

On one leg. Again, there's so many, we talked about this a little bit the last time I was on the podcast. The fact that he's in Edmonton, the fact that he's playing in McDavid Shadow, the fact that he's not North American, all these things play against us giving Leon Drysett of the respect he clearly deserves. He is unbelievable. He's a 50 goal score. He's an MVP. And he's like an afterthought. Like most hockey fans, you ask for their top three players, won't mention.

and Leon Drysidal. This is a shame. It's like what, it's like what of getting Malkin used to face, but like on steroids. Like Malkin never got the credit because he was, because Crosby was there and he because he was Russian and all this. You know, it's magnified even more with dry sidel because being in Edmonton, it's just not a major, his games are on too late for most of the continent to watch. And most people just see the box scores and don't see the player.

He's freaking unbelievable. Jay Woodcroft was talking about it the other day. was saying he is the ideal power forward now because of the size of strict that he has and the skill he has. There's not a lot of guys like that left in the NHL, true power forwards. Nope. That's the thing is Connor McDavid is always going to be more exciting to watch than Leon Drysaint. Leon Drysidal is not a flashy player. He's not dangling and doing it.

He's just scoring a lot of freaking goals and he's the best passer in the world. Yeah. So it's insane. It's got to that point. It's incredible. Yeah. To say, though, that series tied at one, game three will be tonight. Actually, no, sorry, I'm getting my games crossed up here.

It's like game three or game four? My brain is completely forbidden fried. I'm trying to remember what game is supposed to be tonight with the Oilers and the Golden Knights. Well, this stupid NBA style schedule we got with all these days off in its own games. Really throwing me through loop, man. I hate it every other day. That's the way the hockey gods intended. Okay, game three is tonight.

Sorry about that. I had a mini brain fart. being said, that game two, the power play, the way it clicked for the Emmington Oilers, three for six, the movement, the passing, the scoring. I just, we just have to shout that out really quickly. Incredible. Really awesome. It's amazing to me that, like, why, I watched the Blackhawks for years with, you know, Jonathan Taze, Patrick Kane, Marion Hosa, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabick, all these superstars,

Patrick Sharp suck on the power play for year after year after year after year. We see it with so many teams where they just can't get the power play to work. And then you watch Emmington. It's like, well, why the hell can't everybody do that? you've got an extra guy out there. There's all this room. Why can't everybody just sling the puck around the way they do it? It's really incredible. No, it's really amazing to see.

And I don't know, man, that that Oilers team, looking like the team to beat for the Stanley Cup right now because of their offensive prowess. But that Vegas team, like, I still think that series goes seven. Seattle's there too. I think we have to, I might have to stop sleeping on Seattle, man. I really want Dallas to win that series. But the cracket are so balanced.

They get the first goal of the game when they do. It's just like Gru Bauer's playing a lot better than what we normally expected to play. Like they might have everything. See, I keep coming back to, you know, I picked Dallas to win the cup at the beginning of the playoffs because they had the goalie, they had the stars, they had the defense, and they had the best path because they didn't have to go through that East Gauntlet. I still, I think Dallas is the best suited team in the West right now because I don't trust the Oilers goaltending.

I don't trust the Cracken goaltending. And Vegas, I just see too many. flaws there too and their goaltending is suspect. Jake Ottinger is a stud. But then you watch last night's game. It's like, oh my God, what happened to Jake Ottinger? That's the playoffs for you. It was just, if you force me to place a bet right now,

it would still be on Dallas. But I feel shakier about that every day. Last thing before we get to the conspife winner of the week. Actually, two things real quick, because I know we're running low on time a bit. But just any thoughts on the Devils and the Carolina series going the way that's gone so far? It's really a boring series. Yeah, it's not that interesting. I watched every second of that series so far.

And, you know, I thought I was looking forward to it because it's two fast teams. I'd love to get in transition. But Caroline is like, I know they got destroyed in game three. And the Devils came back from 2-0 down against the Rangers, and I would never put it past them. My pick was Dallas over Jersey. So I think Jersey can go far. Their goaltending is deeply concerning to me. You know, Schmidt and Vaniszek, I'm not confident either of those guys.

Freddie Anderson I'm not confident in. Auntie Ront. I love them. I'm not that confident in them. It's a wild series right now. But Carolina's system is a work of art. And I know that teams are, it's frustrating to watch. It's frustrating to play against.

But the plug and play nature of it where it doesn't matter who's on the ice, they all play exactly the same way. That's a tough team for anyone to beat. And the more I watch them, the more I think, man, Carolina is the best team left right now. That's a team that doesn't matter that they lost all their top scores. because the way their system works, anyone can score. It's so efficient and so effective. Yeah, it just works.

And I mean, yeah, the Freddie Anderson goaltending, yeah, they really didn't look great against the New Jersey Devils. That's like the biggest thing I'm worried about with that team. I mean, they have him, they have Auntie Ranta as well. What teams left have goalies you trust? Justerkins out, Vasilevsky's out. I mean, Bobrovsky? Do we trust Bobrovsky?

I don't know if I'm playing like vintage Bobrovsky right now. but the guy lost his job to like five different guys over the last two years. You know, the Cracken had the worst goaltending do I've ever seen this regular season. Who's left that you really feel? Stuart Skinner's a rookie. He's got a sweet stash, but is that enough? And if he goes down, you go to Jack Campbell. Right.

You know, the Leaves to Samson have looked really good, but now he's hurting. I mean, it's Ottinger. Ottinger is the only like true elite goalie that's left. in this field, it feels like. And when it comes down to it, goalies are everything. That's true. You don't need the goalie to get you through the playoffs.

You need a goalie to get you through the playoffs. And it's just a matter of one of those guys getting hot. That's what's so weird about this goaltending position to you. You could throw out so much money, like a guy like Senator Bobowski who's making a bunch of money that he's making or he Grisha Sturkin. You might end up losing to Akira Schmidt. Yeah.

And I'll say this. You know, I know this is, this probably isn't the lineup that everybody wants to see the potential Stanley Cup final matchups we have here in terms of ratings, in terms of size of cities and all that. But this is the most wide open playoffs I could remember. You can make a case for every single team to win, and you can make a case for every single team to lose this round. Like, this is wide open.

Like, we talk about the goalie factors, the injury factors. I can see any one of these eight teams winning the Stanley Cup this year, and that's exciting. Okay. Last quick thing before Consmite winner of the week, all the different, some of the different award nominees are starting to come up. Can we just have a quick conversation about Kail Makar being a Norris trophy nominee, which sounds really weird to say, to question that because he's so good. But there's so many good defensemen this year. He was not in my ballot. Worthy of that. He was not, he, like, I don't know. It's like, I, here's the thing. There are so

many good defensemen this year who are going to be left off the bout completely who have produced just as much, if not more, than Kim Makar while yes, playing more games. But like, I don't know. I get that Kail Makar should be in that discussion, but just this year of all years, it's difficult. It feels lazy to me, like just to default to Kail Makar. Because look, Kail Makar is the best defenseman in the world. Nobody's going to dispute that.

He's the best. But he missed more than a quarter of the season. And in this year where you had, you know, Brett Burns and Vince Dunn and Hampas Linholm and so many good, you know, obviously Adam Fox and Eric Carlson are going to be on every ballot. It's how do you how do you settle on Kail McCar playing 60 games?

I don't care how good he was in those 60 games. He played 60 games. It's not enough. Just this year of all years, it's kind of, maybe this is a bad analogy to make. I can understand that like if you leave off Kail Makar off your ballot,

it's sort of like leaving LeBron off your MVP in a weird way. Again, not the most perfect analogy, but because he's so good at his position, like the thought of leaving off Kail McCarer car. It's like, well, why would you do that? But, like, even if you go through, like, like, Dom's, like, defensive and offensive ratings, like, you look at guys like a Brent Burns who did as well as they did. Hamas Linholm, it should be getting a lot of...

Brent Burns was number two on my ballot. Like, he had... Man. People slept on Brent Burns this year. He was freaking amazing. And I know the Jacob Slavin factor plays into that when you're playing with Jacob Slavin, but his numbers in isolation were spectacular, offense and defense. He's the perfect fit in that team. And he deserves more credit for his team's success this year than Kail McCar does. He just does. And I hate to say this as a voter, like you shouldn't think this way, but Kail McCar missing a quarter of the season, that's an opportunity as a voter to recognize someone else, right? Because you have, it's hard not to vote for Kail McCar every year for

the rest of his career. But this year, it was easy to do because he didn't play a quarter, more than a quarter of the year. He missed 22 games. This was your chance to recognize somebody else who deserves to be in that conversation. And, you know, it, it, it feels, feels like it's just like you default to kill my car and that shouldn't be how you vote on things. And I understand it's a bit of a moot point because it's either going to go to Eric Carlson or maybe Adam Fox. Yeah. And that's a whole of the debate in itself. Eric Carlson is going to win going away.

He shouldn't, but he's going to win going away. Is it going to be going away? Going, he's going to win handily. I had Fox number one. I had Carlson numbers. I don't supposed to reveal the whole ballot, whatever. Carlson has, he had over 100 points and that's all. He's going to win going away.

I'm sure of it. I don't know. I mean, I would love to be surprised, but I'm not expecting to be surprised. I wonder how close those votes will be, because I don't think you're the only person who had Adam Fox number one and Eric Carlson number two. I think other people might think so. I love Eric Carlson. I love the fact that he had this. Love Eric Carlson.

Just one of my favorite players to watch ever. I just, it literally says all around defenseman in the description of the trophy. All right. Time for Consumithe winner of the week. If you've been following the Monday edition of the show, you know during the year we have, at our Jack Adams award winner of the week. We're going to do it with players for the Kahn Smythe. I bring you, Mark, four potential nominees.

Joe Pavelski, who had a four-gold game last week, five goals in his last two games. Leon Drysido, who had a four-gold game last week as well, six goals in his last two games. Matthew Kuchuk, who has four assists in his last three games. Or Jack Hughes, who had a four-point game against Carolina on Sunday. Between these four men, who do you think is most deserving of the Kahn-Smife trophy winner of the week award.

It's Leon Sebastian Jaguer. Of course it's Leon. I don't care that he lost. It's Leon. Like, this isn't even a discussion. It's Leon, right? Leon Sebastian, Cheger. I mean, I get it because he did, because he did lose the cons smite. But to your point, yes. Drysidal could lose, like, the Oilers could lose in this round that he could still get cons smite votes. Like,

it's not even, it's not even close at this point. It's Leon. He's having one of the greatest playoffs of all time. And this was his best week of that. It's Leon's, right? You can't argue against Leon. No, I'm not going to argue against Leon. Also, sorry, Jigier lost the final one that Kansmythe year. They lost the final.

That's what I was trying to say. But no, you're right. Like Leon Drysidl, insane performance. Kind of wild that we had the back-to-back four goal games from Fibelskine-Drysaddle. Both men lose those games. But Drysidle... It's a team sport, Julian. Yes, that's fair.

That's fair. That's fair. And that's why marketing is the way that it is in the National Hockey League. No, but for Leon Drysidlidal and that Oilers team, the way that they're able to... to click. Like, it's just, it is something to behold with the way that they go about things and the players that they have.

And Leon Drysettle just by, because Joe Pavelsky at 38, literally willing his team to an overtime, like that deserves a close second place. I don't think it's necessarily Leon going away this week. But like, you know, Leon should win. And we both agree on that. But we should show some love to Joe Pavlsky for the fact that he comes, his first game back from a bit of a layoff and he scores four roles. Like that is...

Love to see it. That is insane. And he does it, the way he does it with those incredible hands, that hand-eye coordination he has for those tips. I mean, it's him and it's Chris Kreider, like the two best I've ever seen at it. I love watching it. All right. I think we've done enough damage for the Monday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show.

Mark, this wasn't so bad. It was tolerable. Yeah, more or less. I'm sure we already lost the anti-wil crowd once they saw that both of us were on. Yeah, just the names being on the description of the podcast. We lost half our listeners probably. Julian McKenzie and Mark Lazarus, the soy boys. Oh, the soy boy.

With the Z at the end, don't forget. Yeah, they made that Fox News joke last time they were on. I didn't like that. We need to bring back that right-wing Ian Mendez back next week to level this off. Yeah. Yeah, he's in Budapest. Bring him back. Thank you for listening to the Effrona Kaki Show.

Please follow us on your favorite podcast platform and leave a rating and a review. We'd really appreciate it. Seriously, we really would. Pop Quiz, Mark. Who's the best producer in the game? Is it Chris Flannery? It is Chris. It is Chris. I almost flubbed your last name.

No, you didn't. Chris Flannery, thank you. Make sure to check out Max Boltman and Corey Promond's Draft Lottery live stream tonight at 8.15 p.m. Eastern on the Athletic Hockey Show YouTube page, which you can follow at YouTube.com slash at the athletic hockey show. They will give their instant reaction to the winner of the draft lottery in real time, and they will also have some immediate analysis there.

And right now, get a one-year subscription to The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit theathletic.com slash hockey show. Peace. End course.