The Athletic Hockey Show - NHL playoffs field wide open, league awards finalists named, and the Boston Bruins' murky future

Episode Date: May 5, 2023

With the Bruins, Avalanche and Lightning all eliminated, Hailey and Sean dive into what feels like a wide open playoff field. Hailey yells. Also, discussing the NHL Award finalists, who should win and snubs. To wrap up, what does the future hold for the Boston Bruins?Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowRight now, Nuts.com is offering new customers a free gift with purchase and free shipping on orders of $29 or more at http://Nuts.com/hockey23Upgrade your closet with Rhone and use code NHLSHOW to save 20% at https://www.rhone.com/nhlshowGo to http://dave.com/nhlshow to sign up for an ExtraCash account and get up to $500 instantly! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. All right, welcome everybody to another edition of the Friday athletic hockey show. It's Haley Salvian. Sean Gentilly here with you. Sean looks like you're in a undisclosed location. Do you want? I met a C-plus Fairfield Inn by the Las Vegas Convention Center. You can say that.

In my room number is... No. Bebe, beep, boop, boop, bo, beep. That was me flurring out. Yeah, I didn't actually say anything. And maybe I'm not even at the Fairfield in at all. I'm actually at Mandalay Bay. I was at Haqasan last night,

partying with Ryan Reynolds's soccer team. Not really. Hello. Hello. So, yeah, Sean's in Vegas. He's been deployed to go do supply. playoff coverage. I get to still sit on my couch.

You decide which is better. Can I decide? Like, do I load here? Yeah. Couch. Mm-hmm. My big, cozy, bodular sofa with my cute little dog. I will take that over the Fairfield in Vegas.

But we're into round two now. And I think the big thing that we wanted to talk about, Sean, Like, with the Bruins out, Tampa out, Avs out, has this playoff race opened up? Totally. Totally. I mean, those are, let's see, if you were to ask people at the start of all this, I would like, how about this? percentage-wise, those have to be three of the top four teams who were picked to win the

cup, right? They got to be. And they're all gone. know this is actually the this is sort of the the theme of the power rings this week for me and dom is saying like here's you know every it was a stretch maybe for a couple but you can see viable reasons why any of the teams that's still in the race can win the cup yeah and it's it's it's wild it's true and a big part of that is because yeah those those three teams got the boot a little bit early than we thought yeah absolutely because you look you know abs

obviously won the cup last year. The Bruin thing were the best regular season team in NHL's history. And Tampa were the back to back to back. Eastern Conference champions, you know, won two Stanley Cup, one to three cup finals. I think the Western Conference looks a lot stronger than we maybe would have thought in the regular season. And maybe it's just because we were focusing so much on the wild card race

and less on the teams at the top of the conference. Because, you know, we spent so much time talking about Calgary and Nashville, like, ooh, who's going to get in? Like, does anybody want to make the playoffs in the West that we almost kind of forgot? Or at least we didn't pay that much attention to, you know, the fight for the top between Dallas, Edmonton, Vegas. I mean, the Seattle Cracken. I'm noticing so many people now saying, like, I'm going to watch the Cracken more next year

because they play fun hockey. They're really good. It's like, yeah, yeah. They were one of the... They weren't very fun last night, but yes? Sure. Totally. But I think the West, like more than the Eastern Conference, I think, you could flip a coin,

you could pick a name out of a hat, and you could probably convince yourself that that team is going to win the Western Conference or the Stanley Cup. I'm on the Stars wagon in the West. Or Vegas. I'm actually having a hard time. Yeah, stars, maybe the Oilers, I don't know. Well, that's true and it's true for a couple reasons. One is that the East Coast bias is real.

It exists. It's not malicious, but people just don't watch these games. It's tough for the majority of hockey fans, the majority of hockey media, to stay up and watch games that start at 10.30 every night. Local time for them. That's the way it goes. Those are just the breaks. It's not, there's no, it's not a conspiracy.

there's nothing malicious about it. But the end result is the same, which is more attention is paid to Eastern Conference teams. And they're generally, you know, treated as, they're treated as favorites when the playoffs roll around. That's just how it goes.

And the other thing is these teams at the top, you're talking about the stars in Vegas, and Edmonton specifically at this point. Yeah. Those teams now are significantly better than they were, in most cases, a month or two ago. Like, they're just a month or two or three ago. Like, we've had to recalibrate how we think about those teams and how we talk about those teams over the last few months based on improvements that they've made and additions that they've made.

And the end result is that, yeah, that conference overall is in a much better spot now than it was, you know, say in February. And part of that's like, Jack Eichel's back, right? And Mark Stone's back. Because Jack Eichael missed 20 games or whatever. Mark Stone's back. You know, the Dallas is getting, you know, more production from its, from its depth forwards. And the stars are still are still being stars. Edmonton, deadline ads, big ones, important ones.

So these teams are better, A, and that's all. also just kind of built upon the fact that, yeah, of course, of course they're paid less attention. It's just the way it goes. It's not fair, but it's, it's reality. So let's maybe talk a bit about the candidacy for, for some of these teams and maybe who we would pick to win the Stanley Cup. And we can start with Dallas. They win last night, four to two. You and I had the, we'd always do the predictions at the athletic, and then you and I and Shane and Jesse will go through and write a little bit after. And it was funny, and I was somewhat surprised by this,

but maybe this just shows how deep my new Dallas stars bandwagon blood goes. I was the only person who picked Rupa Hince to win the Kahn Smythe. And at the time he was leading the playoffs and scoring. And one of the commenters was like Rupa Hince is leading the playoffs and scoring, and only 2.5% of athletic staff picked him to win the Kahn Smyth. And I replied to it. I was like, it was me. Yeah, sure.

Proud Hever. Take a lap. Let's go. But you've got Rupa Hints. Jason Robertson's, by the way, still isn't being as productive in the postseason as we would expect him to be particularly at five on five. So there's still a level for Jason Robertson to hit. And I mean, Joe Pavelski's back. The best old guy without a cup.

Do you think he can finally get a cup? Joe Pab. He's going to try to will himself towards it. I hate saying that. That's so lame. That was really horny of me. Daniel, delete that out. He's going to will himself?

Is that you're saying? He's going to will himself to the cup. Joe Pavellsky will simply choose to win a Stanley Cup after. He's trying really hard. He's scoring lots of goals. Whatever. And if you're a San Jose Sharks fan, sorry. He just didn't try it up back then.

2016. Just like, he wasn't feeling it, wasn't into it. He didn't want to will the sharks to a cup, but he will will the stars to a cup. Him and his little roommate, Wyatt Johnston. His son, Wyatt Johnson. His boy. My boy. Here's my nephew, Wyatt.

My name is Uncle Joe. Okay, tell me about Joe Pavelsky in the stars. What's not to like about them? So I didn't watch that game, well, here, here, here, Here's what I'll say about last night. Watch the first period of it fairly closely. And then after that, me and Jesse Greenger and Daniel Nugent Paulman went to dinner. So we were sort of, we were at a place that had, that had the game on.

It was, it was within eye shot. And we're just like, you know, BSing and talking shop and catching up. And every time we would look up at the TV, it was, you know, stars have the puck. Stars have the puck. Stars have the puck. And I was like, this is not, this is not going to be good. And let me tell you, the stats, the stats bore that one out. That was a, that was a clinic by them.

That was one of the best single game performances, I think we've seen by a team. You know, really all playoffs, honestly. They controlled 80% of the expected goals. You know, just, it was, it was an ass kicking. And it was one of those games on the Seattle side where you're like, okay, are they, are they starting to run out of gas? Like that was that was, it feels like the pivot point for them.

But man, the stars are, the stars are awesome. This is exactly what people hope they would be, you know? They're getting huge, huge contributions from Hintz

and Pavelski and other dudes are stepping up too. It's a blast. We love the stars. We do love the stars. You guys had them first on the power rankings this week. Mm-hmm.

we can just kind of move down the list and this was the other game from last night, the Florida Panthers. They are up to nothing in the series heading back to Florida. This could be a quick series, folks, but not in the way that people in Toronto thought it would be.

I mean, I don't think the Leafs are going to get swept here and I do think this one. I mean, I said, no, because I said I thought Toronto was going to win this series. I picked Toronto in six. but like you can't continue to take this team lightly. There were some growing pains with the new Palm Marie system. Like we look at Calgary and think of like Hubert O and Weger,

oh, they struggled to adjust to a Darrell-Sutter system. Well, the entire Florida Panthers team, except for Matthew Kuchuk, had to adjust to a Palmary system, which was very different than the freewheeling style they were playing the year before. So there were some growing pains there. And now I think Paul Maurice is like, okay, it's time to, time for forgiveness. He's on a bit of a victory lap tour too, by the way. Did you see his quote about Toronto Media, basically?

It was perfect. And I also saw, I saw a couple people, because, of course, I'm a hater, and I looked at their replies. And I looked at the quote tweets. I saw people, like, with platforms who just, like, straight up didn't get it. They didn't did it. Oh yeah. They didn't realize like like what's he saying here? He was what because what the direct.

So it might not be worth for it. So it was like. Somebody was asking about the Bennett. Someone was asked about the Bennett cousins could chuck line. Like is this like one of the best lines? I don't think. Or something. It's like it's not the best line ever.

I think we're just in Toronto. Yeah. Which is like what? Uh huh. And as someone who lives in the city of Toronto who goes to the rink in the city of Toronto who has been in that press box. I can objectively say that is goddamn hilarious. It's true.

To have in any spot, to either you're actually like, I don't understand what you're saying here. That's just like, it's next level. He's shitting on you. You know, that's like... Not you, not you in general, sir, who asked the question. It's just, no, obviously not you.

You weren't there. I just, I think it's hilarious because it's not, and it's not even the people who are there in the press box or in the scrums necessarily. It's like the extra, extra, extra, extra, extra, extra, extra media. Like the ticket sales thing, like CP24 and CTV, like the news stations were doing stories about the fact that the Leafs couldn't buy, Leif's fans or Canadians couldn't buy tickets the day that they opened up for the Panthers. And then literally a day later it opened up for Canadians. It was just so people who, who live in South Florida or Florida in general could buy tickets before all the Leafs fans book their vacations and the dynamic pricing boosted them up.

So it was just like, shut up. Like not everything is about you getting to go and watch the Leafs and have a vacation. Like, chill out. And everyone's like, well, I'll just buy it on the secondary market. And then two days later, everyone starts complaining about the guy who's a ticket scalper who's wearing the jerseys with his daughter.

And I was, I'm having this moment where I'm like, Can everyone just stop complaining about everything? Like if the guy wants to spend thousands of dollars on hockey tickets with his daughter wearing opposing teams jerseys, just who gives a shit? Shut up. Anyways. It's definitely in this. We're definitely in this cycle too. Sorry.

I mean, not. I love it. I'm going to go outside. Yeah, you're doing my job for me. That's great. I don't want to sit here and get mad about the Leafs at 732 local time. That's fine. But I will.

This is just one of those. It's one of those things, too. Like, I, to go back to the guy and his, you know, the father and daughter who, you know, are trolling. It's funny. It's funny. And they're just like, and they're all, but they're also just like random people in the stands. And we've now had, we've now had. He's a ticket scalper, Sean.

Whatever. Yeah, okay. So who isn't? No, lots of, there are lots of ticket scalpers. They're like, this is like a 48 hour new schedule with these people. Yeah, and then somebody, and then there were people being like, there were a couple Panthers fans, like, in Leaf Square yesterday. It's just like, why are they there? It's like, oh, my God.

Who cares? This is what, this is what we're doing now. I'm going to lose it. We're taking random people who show up on TV during Toronto games. I'm going to docks that guy. Let's, let's write news stories about this guy for three days or whatever. Yeah, it's because nobody wants to write about how Sergey Bobrovsky is like cooking. the Leafs.

Right about the guy and his daughter and how they're assholes for, you know, not going to hockey games. Okay, so like, so playoff Bob, playoff Bob means two things. Yeah, let's move on. I'm getting upset. Sorry, everybody. I don't care, whatever. My voice went up a bit.

I love that, I love, yeah, I know, I'm trying to move on. This is how you must feel whenever I get upset about Leafs fans and Leafs coverage. And it's not, I'm sorry, I'm going to say, like, I think Leafs fans are great, they're passionate, have so much fun. I'm not trying to dump on fans. It's just the new cycle of the last three days. I feel like every day there's something new that we're like, ah! Like, can we just stop? It's one of those things where panic is starting to set in based on the results or certainly based on the first game. I know we're too close to a game too to really know what the fall is going to be from that.

And that's just, it's the way it goes. It's a, it's a, it's a feedback cycle that's just never going to stop because extra attention is paid the Leafs. That extra attention makes people resentful, which creates more attention because people just can't get over, like they can't get over the Leafs hit her. And I'm including myself in this too because like I get annoyed, God knows I get annoyed by the coverage and the coverage of the team and the tenor of the coverage of that team. And then people like me or whoever else complain about it.

Like excessively. And then that just, and then that just sort of keeps the feedback loop, you know, going to, right? I mean, we're,

we're going to have, like, I think I'm just going to go on a social media cleanse. Don't, yeah, don't say things you don't mean. You will not. You certainly will not.

We're not going to spend. be online for a while. I, this, this, just a lie. It's an open lie. I meant Tick, I meant Twitter,

not Tick-Tock. Yeah, right. I love my Tic-T-Tox. What were you saying, though, Butrovsky? No, well, but beyond that,

like the leaves out rates for today, and we can move on from this, from it after this, like, we're gonna spend, it's already happening. I know it happened

into last night, or from, like, really last night into the morning. I'm like all whacked out because I'm not used to Pacific time. I feel like I'm half to sleep still. But like the Sam Lafferty hit

versus the Sam Bennett hit. Sam Bennett, you know, whatever body slamming Matthew Nyes. It was Thursday night Raw. It's not when Raw is on. Wrong one? Thursday Night Smackdown. Smackdown is closer to Thursday than on Thursdays.

It used to be on Thursdays. Friday night Smackdown. Friday night Smackdown. That's it. And that's what's going to be the dominant narrative for the next 36 hours. You know, like, I just, I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it.

I want to talk about playoff Bob. I tweeted about the Matthew Nyes thing and then I deleted it like immediately because I was like, what am I doing? I don't want to do this. Just don't. There's no. There's no point. Wait a second.

So Sergey Bobrovsky last night. I'm going to read this one so we can kind of move on from me being angry at everybody. I apologize. Leaves fans here are also great. And Leaves Media. Everybody's great. Toronto scored two goals in its first six shots last night. And then Bobrovsky stopped the next 30.

He is now won five straight games, four straight on the road. No. Four of those were on the road. Four of those were on the road. He is. He's gotten progressively better as well. Yeah. And Paul Maurice did that tricky little thing

where it seemed like Alex Lyne was going to start game one. And everyone's wondering, ooh, what's going to happen here? And then it was Bob. He's playing unbelievable right now. But I don't think it's as simple as saying that the leaves are getting goalied. Because the Panthers are... That's a cop out. I do think Sergey Bobroffsky...

The leaves aren't getting any bounces because of Sergey Bobrovsky. They hit his post like six times last night. But Brovsky is stopping everything. Guys are blocking shots. This is an incredibly physical series, too. There was like 83 hits in game one. Jesus. There was like almost 90 last night.

I don't have it right in front of me. I think it was like 40. I was probably over 90. I think it was like 40. 47-43 hits last night, insanely physical. I mean, Matthew Kuchuk and Sam Bennett are throwing like nine hits a game. We know that the Panthers forecheck is unbelievable. We know that they have this ability to capitalize on their opponent's mistakes.

And the Leafs are making them. And so are the Panthers. Like, their blue line's not great. And I know that that's kind of the big narrative in Toronto is like, How can the Leafs expose the fact that the Panthers D isn't that good? And they're making mistakes. Those blue liners are making mistakes, but the Leafs aren't capitalizing on those opportunities.

The Panthers, every time Toronto makes a bobble, every turnover, it's turning into, I mean, at least to my eye test, it's turning into a medium to high danger chance or it's in the back of the net. They are very good at, you know, taking a mistake and running away with it, I think Jackie Redmond posted this. She's from NHL Network. She had it from Sport Logic. This was after game one.

In round, this was actually after round one, sorry. In round one, the Panthers had nine goals within five seconds of a turnover. That's the most in the playoffs. In game one, Carter-Ver Hage's goal

after the turnover on the blue line makes it 10. The next closest team has five. The Panthers can and will make you pay for your mistakes. it's not just as simple as saying LeBrofsky's playing better than Samsonoff. It's not.

No. And it rarely is. You know, the goalie thing can be, can be a cop-out. And also, it counts. Golly play counts.

Yeah. Like, I know everyone like in Dom does, and I always, I always bust his chops for this. Dom does it. He's like, God,

they've been like, the Panthers, the Leafs have been the better team. I'm like, have they? You sure about that? because I think the goal is on the roster. And if you, I think he's on the team.

And if you, if you loop that in and you count those guys equally, like, I mean, whatever. It's, it really is. It's funny. It's funny to see. And Bobrovsky's been really good. And I think, you know. Babrovsky. Babrovsky.

Back on the job. Back on the force. I, I know that he's got a lot of, he's got wins on his resume. He's got the series win over Tampa when he was with the Blue Jackets. Obviously that's a huge one. But I don't know if this is like, if I'm biased because of his involvement with some Flyers Penguin series back then. But for all these years, like, maybe until now, playoff Bob.

to me has been like a pejorative. It's like this is this playoff, playoff Bob is bad. Oh. There's been, he's been a bow, because he has. He's kind of had a,

you know, a, um, there's two versions of, of this dude in the post season. Right. And I've, and I've focused,

I think on the, on the, on the crappy games, maybe, maybe unfairly over the last, over the last couple years, right? I,

because he's, man, he's been really good. He looks really good. And all it takes in series like this, you know, this is that game last night, that, you don't want to look too far ahead in neither direction here, right? But that's one of those games where if we're, if it's five days from now or a week from now, when we're trying to, we're doing the post-mortem on the leaves, that game is going to loom large.

Last night? Yeah. Because that's the one. They're up to nothing. They blew a lead and then had a goalie steal shit from them Which is Their start in the second period is what torpedoed them I don't know what happened there

Yeah, what's going I was cooking dinner Chopping my onions and watching the TV It's like, oh, what just happened? We were a top... Duck my head into the fridge and I pop out and it's tied and I'm like, whoa We were a top golf. It happened quickly.

I just saw this tweet also. This is from Julia, their Leafs fan. My dad was at the game tonight and was talking with his friend the whole time about how could Chuck and Bennett are rats and they want them to get hit. After the game, they talked to the random Panthers fans that were sitting beside them.

Turns out it was Sam Bennett's parents. Oh, my God. But they are rats, and that's a good thing. I mean, we're going to take away the hit to Matthew Nyes because I'm not trying to glorify a 20-year-old, potentially having a head injury. But that line's a problem. It's not just Matthew Kachukk.

It's a problem, although he is problem number one, but the Bennett-Kichuk combo with, you know, it's Nick Cousins that's up there right now. Like, they're an issue. They are hemming in the leaves. It doesn't matter who's matched up against them, whether it's the fourth line or it's, I mean,

Game one, Mitch Marner got announced that he was like a Selke finalist. Mm-hmm. And then he played terribly. He looked bad. He looked real bad. And not good defensively up against Matthew Kuchuk. So, yeah, they've got some things to figure out if Toronto wants to make it out around two. But you guys had the Florida Panthers as the number two ranked team on the power rankings.

And I think that's fun and spicy. Okay, let's move back into the West. And instead of just going Vegas, we can go Vegas Edmonton here. Because I think that series, I think I kind of wrote down that it was going to go the distance. And I think game one was like the perfect example of what I expected this series to be, which is Vegas doesn't have dry sidle. Vegas doesn't have Connor McDavid. but they have Chandler Stevenson, Mark Stone, Jonathan Marchesoe, Ivan Barbashev, Alex Petrangelo, did I say Jack Eichel yet?

Like they have a death by a thousand cuts and it's not depth like the Cracken, it's plused up depth. Like they've got guys up and down that lineup. And what happens? Leon Drys Hecidal scores four. He's unbelievable in game one. But the Golden Knights score five. and it's from four different guys.

Man, that Ikel, the Eichel Marches-So Barbershev line, that feels like something. Uh-huh. That feels like something. The, you know, Jesse Granger said this last night in between hitting absolute bombs off the tea at Top Golf. Yeah, did you lose at Top Golf? Oh, yeah. Jesse and D&B beat my ass.

Those guys know what they're doing. Jesse, for anybody, anybody doesn't know, Jesse Granger's probably like, he's probably like 6-2 or 6-3. Jesse's tall. And he was just, he realized, I think, like, he was screwing around for a little bit. Then I was like, all right. He just hit in the back, the back of the net at top golf. He beat my.

But you don't get any points for that. Sure you do. Oh. And so he was hitting it consistent. Yeah, I've never seen someone score like 250 points at top golf before. He managed. But in between that, he said, you know, and I thought this was a good point that that game almost, even though the Oilers

lost, it almost, he almost feels better about them, about them moving forward, you know, because they did some, they did some stuff that, you know, could bode well moving forward. Yeah, I don't know, that, that, um, that series is, oh, Christ, I'm going to be it, going to be at game two and, you know, 36 hours or whatever it is. That one's fun. I always like seeing whenever you have forwards, like, this is a Mike Sullivan thing. When you have, you have like two, on a line, you have two concrete presences, right? And you kind of rotate guys in and out based on that.

And I feel like we're seeing that, you know, Bennett and Kichuk are a great example, because depending on the circumstances, it might be Nick Cousin. it might be Cardover Hagee, you know, you kind of rotate someone in there. I feel like that's sort of what potentially what Vegas could have with, with Eichl and March or so, and then Stone and Chandler-Stevenson. Like those, that pairing is what makes the individual lines go. And then based on what you needed a given time or in a given matchup, you can maybe flex someone and do it.

And that's always, that's always really fun to watch. But I don't, yeah, these series are all, they're all in a good spot here. I'm excited to watch it, to watch the rest of them, honestly. Who do you have in that series? Except for maybe starts. Because we're trying to go out of how open this is and how everyone can win. So obviously you think the Panthers are going to beat the Leafs. Yeah.

I still don't know what's going to happen. I'm confused about that. We're both on the Stars bandwagon. But when you look at Vegas, Edmonton, where do you stand? Because I pick Vegas. I picked Edmonton because I felt like I should. That was the matchup that I, I don't like going. back and changing my series picks based on the first game vibes it just seems well no it just

generally seems unfair like i pick the oilers i pick the oilers to win the west at the start of all this right or did i yeah i don't know i always picked i picked dallas from the west the whole way through i either i either picked dallas or edmonton i definitely didn't pick i didn't pick Vegas i know that for i know that for certain so it just felt this ingenuous i'm going to go back and say like no actually never mind. I like, I like the way the Vegas is playing. Sure.

Predictions are stupid. Yeah. Totally. I hate them. Totally. Okay, the final series, and this is the big question. Are we underestimating the Carolina hurricanes? I'm not.

Okay, but let me, maybe I'll rephrase this. Are we making too much of the injuries to the Carolina hurricanes? Not you and I, but like, us as a society. Uh-huh. Because, and we've done this on the show, and we've like almost walked it back at times, being like, okay, we get it, Svetikov's out, we've got to stop. But, because it's true.

No patch ready, no Tevo Tera Vinen, no Svetikov. Svcikov, big loss. Max Patchretti, not actually a subtraction from their lineup and it needs to like stop being almost phrased that we play three games. Yeah, it sucks. But it's not like that. something that the Keynes had that led to their success all year that's now gone. It's certainly not a loss.

Yeah, it's certainly not a loss on the part with Svetnikov. Like, he wasn't in a lineup. And Tara Vinen wasn't as effective this year as he was last season. It's almost like when you and Dom got into an argument over who should be in the NHL's top 100, he should have listened to you. What was that, Tim Stitzla, over Tara Vinen? Did I lose that argument? Yeah, you did.

I honestly don't even. And that's why Tim Stitzel wasn't in the top 100. It was terrifying instead. I've had so many. I've had enough arguments with Dahm over the last couple years where I just kind of block them out and move on to the next one. Yeah. Yeah, you know, it's, that's tough.

Because we could say the same thing about the Cracken, too. We're just constantly focused on the fact that they, for whatever reason, there's not, there's a lack of juice at the top. of the lineup. And it is what it, like, it's just the way, it's the way the team's built. It's annoying to continue to have that is one of the talking points around this, around this team for months and months and months. But that doesn't make it not important. Sure, of course. But it's interesting. I feel like I would love to be a fly in the wall in the room or hear the way that Rod Brindamor kind of talks about it because I saw some of his

quotes and it was just like, yeah, it's really hard to win. without with missing three guys from your lineup. That's an entire line. But we keep doing it. And that's like they keep winning. They've won five down. They're up one nothing on the series. I mean, the devils,

it looked like everything the Keynes were doing was like new to New Jersey in game one. And it's too early to say that the devils are toast because they went down early to the Rangers and finished strong. But, you know, this is, you know, you got Jordan Stahl going up against Jack And we'll get to this later on the show and we talk about some of the awards. Jordan Stahl should have been a Selke finalist this year. Wow. It's crazy, I know.

It was Mitch Marter instead. Leaves a hater. I'm not a hater. I'm not a hater. If you're in the playoffs, who do you want matching up against the other team's top, top guy? Is it Jordan Seller or is a Mitch Marner? That's what should decide the Selkee. Who do you want?

Who do you want against Jack Hughes? Mitch Marner or Jordan Stahl. The entire Selky debate just gives me, it gives me heartburn. It gives me like, it gives me like, it gives me like, Adjita. Yeah, I'm like, I don't, like, this is, it's, it's really hard. That's the hard, that's the hardest out of all of them, because. I think the lady Bing is the hardest. That one doesn't count.

Who cares? Because I was like, well, Jack Hughes doesn't have that many penalty minutes, but is he an asshole? I don't know. He might be. I don't know him. You never know. I thought game one in that series went about as well as it could for New Jersey. And I know, like, the.

For Carolina. For Carolina, excuse me. The end numbers are tilted a little bit because of score effects, I think. You look at the way they played in that first period. They did exactly what they wanted to do. And by the end of the game, they were getting actual production from people who weren't Sebastian Aho or Paul Stasnian, basically, which was... Five different goal scores.

That's great. Because that's like, that's what they're going to need. Great of a player, Azahoe is. And as much as Paul Stasney stepped up, if they want to keep this going, they're going to need actual production. Like, pucks in the back of the net from Seth Jarvis and Yaspari Kokanymi and, you know, whatever. Pick one of those forward. They're all very good. But some of those guys other than Ajo needed to start scoring goals.

And I think we saw that in game one. It's a good sign. Totally. And that's what worried me a little bit heading into round two. Again, when we did the predictions piece, I kind of wrote, like, I am a tad concerned based on the production from round one because it was, uh, Paul Stasney and Sebastian Aho had seven of, or it was, yeah, it was seven of Carolina's 16 goals in the first round. They had 16 goals, 10 at 5 on 5. And it was mostly carried by, you know, Paul Stasney stepping up in Sebastian Aho, which you would expect. And what made me feel better was the only team, no team had a worse offense than the devils in the first round of the playoffs.

They scored the fewest goals, the fewest at five on five, the fewest per 60s. So it was like, yeah, if you can score two goals per game, you're going to be all right if your opponent's only scoring one. And that's the thing with Carolina that we maybe, you know, overlook is even if they're not scoring, they are stingy enough defensively that two goals should be enough. They don't need to beat the devils 5-1 if the devils are only scoring once a game. But getting that offense, clicking and scoring those goals, obviously, that's a good thing.

And I also wonder if we need to consider, is like that five, they score five. And it's like, yeah, we're not, we're not shooting on Ilya Seroquen anymore. It's Akir-Schmidt and it's Vitech Vana check now. So we'll see how that that series continues. I will say, I don't actually, I may have. actually picked the devils but i feel like as we're having this conversation i did yeah i did but whatever it was just based on vibes it's like it's a coin these these series are coin flips anybody pretends that that they know the way this is that the way this is going to go is lying to you yeah

so i'm like yeah fine devils more people need to score than sebastian aho and then five different guys score in game one i was like oh shit okay there you go but i do think i think the canes are are going to be that I think at the end of the day, I mean, if we get like a Carolina, Florida, Eastern Conference final, if either of those teams come out, I think that's great. I mean, I think you and I,

we had Rod Brindamore on the show. We talked about this. We were talking earlier in the year how this is the year for Carolina. And then I think at some point, because the Bruins, because the injuries, the narrative shifted away from, this is the year for the Keynes to win the cup.

It's not going to get any easier. No. But maybe it is still. The only thing that was left in the lineup was Paul Maurice's tooth falling out. Oh, God. Big glow for Paul Marie's his tooth falling out. He celebrated so hard that his tooth popped out, it looked like. Like Charlie Day's dental work up in there.

Paul Marie's season. Yeah. All right. We're going to head to a break when we come back. We're going to actually shift away from some of the playoff talk because I feel like we've been talking about these teams for a week. It's only round two. The playoffs are very long.

I'm not having a good time. NHL's been announcing the rewards finalists. We're going to discuss that. And maybe look ahead at what comes next for the Boston Bruins. Goodbye. We'll be back. Well, not goodbye. We'll see you soon.

Goodbye. Okay, welcome back. I said goodbye, but we're back. Hello. We're still here. So we wanted to do a little non-playoff talk. You did. Well, you don't actually partake in lining up the show, so it's...

I think that's beside the point. I say every week, what do you want to talk about today? I don't care. So I lined up the show. Let a rip. We put in non-playoff talk, so that's we decided. Do you don't want to do this? I think this is just you as an awards voter this year.

No. Me as a non-awards voter flexing. That's what this is. No, because I wasn't going to, I don't need to talk about my ballots. But these are, this is what's being. You know what? You actually, you actually kind of can't. No, it's not officially yet.

I can probably say who I had or who should be on something. I don't think. It'll be easy. It'll be easier for, easy for people to tell. This is topical because they are being announced. Yeah. I'm not flexing. It's the eye holder, I think.

Yeah. So the NHL's been announcing the awards finalists. The Norris. The Norris, the Selke, the Lady Bing, and the Calder have all been released. Let's discuss. Let's start with the Norris Trophy. Eric Carlson, Kail McCar, Adam Fox. So we're going to go through.

Who should win who was snubbed? Eric Carlson. Should win? Yeah. Give it to him. Why? His defensive metrics were terrible. David Quinn kind of, I don't want to say that Quinn sold me.

on it because I was he was he would have been my pick you know when when when uh when ballots were due um I think the when when you look he what Quinn said basically it was like he's just so good offensively that any issues he has defensively just don't matter and that's true that's true and Quinn Quinn also said you know this a lot of that had to do with our team with what we asked of Eric Carlson with you know the way we're playing around him especially after the trade deadline, which it seemed they've felt like they really hit a wall there. I don't think we need to overthink this one.

And I'm all for rewarding guys with more complete games. I think that's an important thing. But we also need to recognize history as it happens in front of us. And I think that's what we saw from Eric Carlson this year. I know, like, this is, and people like, well, what if he didn't have all those points? He did. Like,

whatever, he did. They're there, they're there. Let's stop doing that. He didn't have, he didn't have 71 points. Yeah. No, he had over 100. Yeah.

What was the final number? One second, I was looking at it. It was on ice. And Fox, Fox would be my, would be my second choice. And I have a lot of time. It was 101 points. I was, I was kidding to say, 100.

Oh, shit. That's why I said, that's why I said, I didn't. Well, that's why I said 71. Like, oh, if he had 30 less points than he did, like, yeah, well, yeah. He didn't. Okay. If we, yeah, if, if, if he, if he were less good than, than he was, then maybe he wouldn't win an award. But I, I, I, I, Adam Fox would be a second on my ballot and probably fairly close.

I have a lot of time for the season he had. Dude, does everything. He does everything well. I love, I love Adam Fox. is a player. McCar, I mean... It's tricky because he didn't play as much. He didn't play enough.

I don't think he played enough to win. I think he played enough to get on balance. I think that's fair. I don't necessarily think he should have been top three. And that might be controversial for some people who already hate me in the chat. I just think you look at somebody like Hampus Linne. home. His defensive impacts were excellent. Miro Haskinen, you know, guys who played more games, like play a very good defensive style. I think the thing that I don't, I don't necessarily think

it's wrong that Kail Makara is a Norris finalist because his impact in the games that he played is greater than, you know, most defenders could do, right? So, what he does in 60 is comparable with the field in 82. Exactly. Like, I think Dom had, Dom had his, like,

game score that showed, like, you know, the overall impact that Kail McCar had in 60 games. Like, this wasn't, like, put on a pace for 82,

and it wasn't that far behind guys who played the whole season. Totally. And that's the justification for Kail McCar being a Norris finalist. A lot of people were talking yesterday online. Like, he only played 60.

why is he this high? And I know I just said, I don't necessarily think he should have been top three, but that's just because I think there are guys who were snub that had really strong seasons. And that more just speaks to the fact,

again, that there isn't like a defensive defenseman of the year award, more than anything. But again, Kale McCar's impact in 60 games is not that far off of, you know,

what Adam Fox did in 82. And, and like, he's, I mean, he's incredible. Nobody's suggesting that Eric Carlson is a best, better defender than Kale McCar right now. Where did you end up landing on the season that Quinn Hughes had? Because a lot of the snub

discussion as related to Kail McCar kind of centered on Quinn as a voter. Like where did you, how did you do that math for Quinn? So I know I even tweeted about how like people were underestimating the season that Quinn Hughes had. I mean, he had a really

good offensive season. I think people who say that Quinn Hughes isn't good defensively don't watch the Vancouver Canucks often. the problem that I had with Quinn when I was deciding the top five defenders of the year is that there were guys who had strong numbers on both sides of the puck that were on better teams that made the playoffs. And that's not a great way to do things because Carlson's team didn't make the playoffs. The sharks were very bad this year. Like, you know, just because you're on the outside looking in doesn't mean that you're a bad defender.

I just think I had some guys, quite frankly, at the end of the day, I can probably share this. It's fine. At the end of the day, I was stuck between Kale McCar, Dougie Hamilton, and Quinn Hughes for the final two spots of my Norris ballot. And it was like, can I justify not having Kail McCar on my Norris ballot in favor of Quinn Hughes? Can I justify not having Dougie Hamilton on my Norris ballot in favor of Quinn Hughes? I wanted Quinn Hughes to get that kind of recognition, but like Dougie. Hamilton was great this year. He had a resurgent year. Kale McCar, 60 games, wasn't that far off the impact that Adam Fox made in 82. So I think that Quinn Hughes didn't get enough credit,

probably because when people like to talk about the Vancouver Canucks, they like to talk about the shit show that is the Canucks. Like Elias Patterson flew under the radar. The guy had over point per game season. He looked incredible this season. But every, you know, when we talk about the Canucks, It's about, you know, oh, here's some more drama. So he did end up on the outside looking in for me, but he wasn't my all-star ballot because you get six. Sure. So I ended up. He ended up on the outside.

The question, you know, the question always turns into if you put Quinn Hughes in your top three, that means someone else is on the outside. And some other fan base is going to be pissed. I mean, yeah, you can't do it for the fans, but. No, I mean, like, it's, but this is, but this is what we're talking about here. It's like, totally. Canucks fans are mad that Quinn Hughes wasn't, wasn't, because they're the people understandably care about this stuff. They're saying, oh, that's his bullshit.

Who was he beating? Who was he, who was he, he, who's he going to beat out? Was he better than Adam Fox and gave this one home and Cam McCar and Miro Haskinin? Like, maybe some of those guys, but top three, like it's tough. And there's so many voters. It's not really a wrong answer, honestly. No, I think. There's a lot of people.

I think what at the end of the day with these ballots, like if you can stand up and defend the choices that you made, like there isn't a wrong answer. And this is why every year when the ballots are due, I get emails from Rob Rossi and Emily Kaplan being like, hey, your ballots not in yet. And like, hey, it's not due until seven. I'm taking my time with this because like this shit.

This is, I mean, it's, it's, I'm very proud that I get a vote. These are all like this stuff matters. Like I'm not just going to fly by the seat of my pants and be like, oh, I think this guy should win the Selke. If you have a vote, like you've got to think about this. Yeah, if you have a vote, you got to approach it with intellectual honesty and consistency and treat it and treat it seriously because reputations are built off this and contracts. And contracts are built off this. It's important. And yeah, and I, whatever, I'm glad you. I'm glad to treat it that way. Thank you.

Not surprised, though. All right. So the Norris is the... So the Norris is the... I think that's going to be one of the most interesting. The Selke, the finalist, Patrice Bershron, Mitch Marner, Nico Heeshire. I think Bergeron's going to win it again.

Is there even... Is it possible to bet on this? Does Vegas have odds set? The odds are probably not great. They should just take it off the board, honestly. people, it's Bergeron, it's always Bergeron. People were certainly knowing that this is like, odds are, this is the end for him. That sort of thing plays, it plays into the thought process too.

Like, we'll give him one for the road. I would be. I mean, it's not even just. In physical shock if Patrice Bergeron doesn't win it this year. But it's not even just like, oh, he might retire, just give it to him one more time. Like he was the best defensive player in the league this year. It's on top. It's on top of being good.

Like the play and the narrative converge into the right space there. So, yeah. Can we have the Mitch Marner finalist conversation quickly here? Sure. He was, he had so many moments. He was a good defensive player this year. Like he. Mm-hmm.

I almost don't care. My problem is, is like the guiding question. that I have with this again, as I just said, is like, when you are in the playoffs or you're in a very important game, who do you want matching up against the other? Who do you want covering McDavid in game five of the playoffs? Game seven, you know, a big must-win game in the regular season. Do you want it to be Jordan Stahl, Erickson Eck or like Mitch Marner? I, you know, am I galaxy braining that? No. I don't think. so. I think I and I think what you're doing is you know voicing the the logic that has locked wingers out of the discussion for for most of the awards existence. I'm not saying it's a bad thing necessarily. You can say that you can say that you can say but like the question is like is it just that is that is that just the reality of the game where you're saying centers have

more defensive responsibility like that's just the way. it is. So they get right of first refusal on this. I don't even think it's the defensive responsibility that I was talking about though. I think it's like they're, it's the way that they play defense.

Like, Mitch Marner was like, I mean, that's the thing. Like, Mitch Marner incredible on the penalty kill this year. He plays the most minutes on the Leafs team in all situations. I think Sheldon Keefe can trust Mitch Marner with difficult defensive matchups because

you know, they can get the puck and they can transition from defense to offense quickly. Like, I am not trying to knock down Mitch Marner's all around play. But, like, when you just, when you look at some of the other guys that were on the list, like the quality of competition, the D zone starts, things like that,

it's not, it's not there. Like, Copatar, like, Copatar. Like, it's not a center winger thing. It's like, hello and I will say it is kind of a center winger thing yeah but it is like like it always is and that's fine marter was on my salky ballot I'm gonna say this too I'm gonna I'll be he was on my ballot yeah I thought Mitch marner had a good enough year it was like you know these are my finalists these are the guys I think I should win it but like like let's throw him a boney at a good

year and he's a winger like screw it like the fact that he was a winger that posted this kind of these numbers that's great I'm gonna I'm gonna do this Mitch martyr's on my ballot he was not a finalist for the Selke. Definitely voted for Marion Housel one year. I think I think I had him in number one. I'm not getting. Because I'm all for it. I'm all for recognizing, you know,

outstanding defensive play or outstanding two-way play by winners. I just, I'm not sure that this is. I think when you look at all the guys who have been, who've been frozen out of this discussion, I don't know if, I don't know if this is the right, the right year or not. I don't know if Marner's,

if Marner's the right guy or not. It's interesting. It's probably just gonna end up going to participate. See, that's, yeah, and I don't mean to, I don't mean to sound, I don't, yeah, I don't mean to sound dismissive of the debate because, like, that's why, that's why we're here. But, like, this is, I mean,

we're talking about whether Mitch Marner finishes third or fourth or fifth or whatever. And I think it was mostly because I thought, like, Jordan Stahl had. Yeah, and that's fair. George Stahl had, unbelievable. Like the best defensive player on one of the best defensive teams in the NHL. This year specifically, too, he was superb.

So yeah, I'm with you. Yeah, it was more like it should be this guy, not like a why is Marner here conversation? But congrats to Mitch Marner, winger, finalist for the Selke trophy. It's great. Lady Bing. Who cares? I saw somebody.

We shouldn't vote for that. Like I just said, like, I just said, Like, I don't know. I think it might have been. Are you gentlemanly? I think it might have been Corey Manazazak. Somebody said, yeah, this is one of this is so, this is horrible because it's like, I don't remember somebody just said this to me. I don't remember who said this and I don't remember if they just said it to me or if they, or if they just tweeted it.

I'm going to, I think it was Corey, but whatever. Okay. Mark Andre Flurry for Lady Bing. Why don't goalies get votes for that? I don't know. Because we all look at PIMS. It's because you look at the scoring leaders and vote for the first person. Start the top, work down, vote for the first person who has a single digit penalty minutes.

Yeah, Jack Hughes. Seven penalties. Seven PIMS this year. Maybe six. Right in point. I wonder what the guys he plays against these. about the gentlemanly qualities of Jackie. Well, that's why we should be voting on the ladies.

It's stupid. It's stupid. Ruff should vote on. Moving on. The Calder. Okay. So it was Maddie Bineers, Owen Power, and Stuart Skinner. Those are the finalists.

Who should win? Who was snubb? Wyatt Johnson. You're pandering the stars fans now. I want them to like me. It's beeniers. Yeah. Of course.

I was talking about the snubs. It's not. I didn't say White Johnson. win. Who should win? It's Maddie Baneers. Yeah. I kind of feel bad for Logan Thompson, too, because he was eligible for it, and he just missed, he just missed too much time.

He was good at the start of the year. Yeah, he was good at the start of the year. He's an undrafted player. He's an older rookie than you typically see. Like, I think I was, you know, that was tracking to be, you know, a nice little, a nice little cookie for him at the end of this. But, yeah, he just, he wouldn't have won anyways. I don't think anyone would vote for a goalie in that. That's just like a goal.

That's like not saying that he wasn't good enough, but it's like the goalie thing, right? Totally. That's why I didn't pick Jake Ottinger to win the Kahn-Smith when we were doing our picks because like goalies never. I think I think me, if Thompson would have gotten some more starts, I think you'd seen him in there over Skinner. Yeah. I think Benares is going to win. Oh, and Power being if, you know what, I'm pleasantly surprised that Stewart's. Skinner was a top three.

Totally. Deser he deserves it. He saved their season, for sure. And Owen Power, lots to like about the season he had. His offensive impacts are really, really good, played super tough minutes, you know, played in all situations. They, Dong Renato asked a lot of Owen Power this season. And, you know, maybe some of the defensive work wasn't, you know, wasn't great, but he played most of the season as in 19. your own. So what are you going to do? He was, he was, he was, a dude just looks the part,

you know, you watch him play and you're like, you're like, this is, this is, this is a relevant dude for a long time. Absolutely. I mean, there's, I think I saw some people saying, you know, we're going to hit a point where Owen Power is, like, he might not win the Calder this year, but Owen Power is going to be the best player that ends up. Like the best final product from that draft. I mean, he was the first overall pick. It's not some galaxy brain idea, but I think it's because, like, Maddie Baneers had such a good year and there's all these guys other guys to talk about.

But, like, make no mistake, oh, and power is going to be the best most impactful player from that draft class. Yeah, totally. It's just the, he's going up against the guy in Baneers who arrived. I'm not saying that Maddie Baneers can't get better because he certainly, certainly can. We know that. You know that specifically. there's a lot of there's there's a lot of uh a lot of growth possible there but you could tell me right now that maddie baneers was like a finished product and i'd be like okay he's like he's like fully formed

he's got he's got the he's got the two-way game he's got the defensive responsibility he's got the production you know he's he's he's the guy this year but man power he's a defenseman defense can take longer to, you know, mature in that way. Yeah. If I'm the savers, I'm more than fine with having Owen Power finish second and quarter voting or whatever ends up happening, knowing what certainly seems to be coming down the road for him. For sure.

And this just came in to my inbox as we're recording the Florida Panthers. I'm sorry, Florida Panthers forward Sam Bennett has been fined $5,000. the maximum allowable under the CBA for cross-checking on Michael Buntings. That was the cross-check to the neck and then the cross-check to the back. So he was fined. 5K. So the last awards finalist to be announced is the heart. Oh, and I guess the Vesna.

I was just looking at the balance that we get the heart, the Vesna. GM's VAL. Who cares? Yeah. The heart, the Vesna. GM of the year. Things like that. very quickly because we've already been talking

very quickly because we've already been talking for an hour I wanted to get to the Boston Bruins because I think you and I both pick them to win the Stanley Cup I picked David Pasternak to win the Cotton Smyth Trophy when you look back to the summer and the the M.O., the goal, the plans from up top, it's how can we run this back? How can we make this the last one?

run. And so not only did the Boston Bruins have one of the best, not one of the best regular season, uh, in the NHL's history and losing the first round. Like they did it in a year where it was probably their best shot. Because now it's going to get a hell of a lot harder. So I just wanted to quickly talk about like this was the year for the Bruins. They lost in round one. Now what? That was the narrative from the jump, right? Yeah. This was the last dance type run. Now what?

I don't, I mean, I think you take a gap here here. Yeah, totally, because you have, first off, you have Posternak who's making almost five more million dollars next year than he was on his last deal. Not that he doesn't deserve it, but that's a, that's a consideration. You have four and a half million dollars in cap overages from the 2020, 23 season that are going to carry over into next year.

and that alone, those numbers are alone are enough to make, assuming that they do have to replace Patrice Bergeron and David Creachie, those numbers alone are enough to make that really, really complicated. Like their, their cap-friendly page is not pretty. They have $6 million in cap space projected per cap-friendly, and they have 14-4-5, 6, 7, 8, unrestricted free agents and two RFAs. Not good.

You look at, and like, it's not just about, of course, like, it's about Bergeron and it's about Creachy. It's also about them probably, how on earth are they going to sign Tyler Bertuzi, right? Like, how, how do they keep him around? You probably price himself out. Totally, totally, totally. Like, you go on an Orlov. Dimitri Orlov.

Goodbye, yeah. Like, this is, this is, the bill has come due. And that's, adds, like, another. That's a knife, that's a knife turn after really, obviously, really, really disappointing first round for them. I don't know what they do because you're losing your top two centers. You don't really have money to replace them in free agency. And you don't even have a free agency class, really, that offers viable solutions. Like, what are you going to do?

You're going to go throw a bunch of money at Jesse, I said Jesse Comfer, at J.T. Comfer and make you throw some money at Jesse Comper, see if she's interested. She's pretty good. Yeah, well, like, what do you do? They don't really have, like, top young prospects that they can just insert into the lineup and hope that they fix it because they don't make a lot of money either. Or trade. They don't have draft picks. They don't have prospects to trade for win now players.

So I haven't kind of go ahead. No, finish what you're saying. No, I, like, so who plays center for this team? That's really what it comes down to. Like, you're talking about Pavel Zaka. Pavel Zaka. is there one C. He played well up the middle when he had to the same.

Sure. Charlie Coil has a two C. Like that hasn't, they've tried that in the best. It hasn't worked out. Yeah. Like that roster, as is,

you know, yeah, they have some money to spend. Yeah, they have some work to do it. As is, it's going to be tough for them that. They don't have money to spend.

I'm saying they, they don't literally not have money to spend. Like, so it's like, I think, I think we need, it's, I don't like,

they're in tough men. They are in very tough. I do think when you can look at it, like the bones are very good. Like you've got Charlie McAvoy, Hampus, Lynn home, David Pasternak, Brad Marchan,

I mean, Taylor Hall, Charlie Quill, like you've Jake DeBress, Matt Gris, like, the bones are there. There are good players left on the Boston Bruins,

but it's going to be filling out that roster that's going to be a challenge where you start to think, okay, do you need to subtract somebody significant to just, just be able to field a proper roster. Six million dollars left to sign what?

Seven players? So, Creachie and Merserang going to come back for $900,000 this year? Take another pay cut. To run it back again. I had Ty Anderson, who's on the Bruins, 985,

the sports hub in Boston. He was on my radio show. And he brought up two spicy ones. Linus Allmark's no move clause kicks in in 2020, he makes $5 million. Jeremy Swayman's a restricted free agent this summer. Do you trade Allmark while his value is the highest before a no move kicks in to open up $5 million in cap space

and make Jeremy Swayman the guy? coming off of business season. Do you like, I mean, what would the Ottawa senators give up for Lena Salmark? Oh, man. That's interesting. That's an interesting way to clear space. You have Mike Riley's buried penalty, what's they need to deal with. You have some guys.

Why did they sign him to that contract? I feel like everybody's known that Mike Riley's not that good. And then you have other, you have guys at the bottom of the defensive lineup, right, where it's Derek Foreboard, making three. Like, you're like there's, you try to try to try to. trim from and find a way to pay you probably try to trim those things before you move lina salmark the other one was taylor hall i mean i you know he makes six million dollars a year i don't know took less money to stay i i feel bad for taylor hall i know and this is i hate

doing this because i'm just trying to look at like who makes a lot of money and who could the bruin's get something for. But like obviously you don't want to trade Hall in Allmark. You want to get rid of Mike Riley and you want to get rid of, yeah, if you trade Taylor Hall, you're trying to replace Taylor Hall.

You got to replace Taylor Hall. Yeah, totally. So it's like, yeah, it's the Derek Forberts. It's the Mike Riley's. But even that doesn't, does that open up enough room to give you enough to do? Well, but also like you can't, you can't just assume that anybody's going to like,

who wants to, who wants to play Derek for, pay Derek Forward three million dollars a year? The Bruins did. The Bruins, a couple years ago. Other than that, I don't know. Yeah. It's interesting. Goodbye.

Goodbye, Boston. The flames and the jets kind of get a lot of the oxygen right now with like, ooh, big changes, interesting off seasons. But I think when you're looking at like the watchability of the off season, the Boston Bruins are pretty high up there. Okay. In the meantime, we have actual hockey games to watch tonight. That's right.

there's only one hockey game tonight actually I know I keep I keep thinking I honestly keep thinking I have to cover a game tonight and I don't No you can just go to top golf again and start practicing your swing Don't choke down on the club too much Okay And keep your eye on the ball

And don't grip the club too much either But you got to keep your wrist locked at the same time Yeah I think I was better Better with that last night than I have been in the past Pull the club straight back. You know what? That's enough. That's enough.

I don't give it. I don't give it. I don't give. I don't give it. Humored this. Don't be so rude. I don't know what. It's 8 a.m.

and now you can be mean to be again. I want to go lay down for a little bit before my day starts back up. That's the end of the show, folks. Goodbye. Thanks everyone for listening. We'll be back next week for another edition. Again, I think we're going to continue to record on Friday mornings just because there's so much going on on Thursday nights

and Friday after dark doesn't go over well. Sean's very mean after 10 p.m. And he's very quiet and not as mean at 7 a.m. so this works a lot better for me specifically. And just a reminder, I'm just kidding, Sean's not mean. And just a reminder if you're not an athletic subscriber, you can join us at theathletic.com slash hockey show to get an annual subscription for $2 a month for just 12.

months so check that out if you are not a subscriber you can read some of the stories that we that we talk about on the show and uh read sean not me i'm not very good uh thanks everybody i'll see you next week bye