The Athletic Hockey Show - Sergei Bobrovsky belongs in the Hall of Fame

Episode Date: June 10, 2024

Ian and Laz are back on a Monday to discuss Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final with the Cup itself making an appearance at center ice, “Keeper of the Cup” Phil Pritchard saving all of his Cup-touching gloves, the Oilers getting voicemails from their family members, Sergei Bobrovsky’s Hall of Fame credentials, Kris Knoblach’s Buffalo Bills line, the OGWAC bandwagon, if Canadian teams get invited to the White House or not, the 4 Nations Faceoff, and more.Plus, The Athletic’s own Jesse Grangers joins the show to talk about Sergei Bobrovsky’s stellar Game 1 performance, updated Conn Smythe odds, and the goalie market heading into free agency. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. We are back. It is a Monday edition, a Stanley Cup final edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. It's Ian Bennis, and he's back. We think he's landed back in Chicago from his travels, his follies in the Western Conference final. It is Mark Lazarus. He's actually home, folks. He's home.

I made it. I think I just arrived from my flight seven days ago. That's what it felt like on that. series, but I am here and I am excited to watch hockey on my television and then go to bed in my bed and then talk about it with you, Ian. There's nothing better. Yes, this is, this is exactly what we love. And so, you know, we're excited to kind of dive into, at least we have something to sink our teeth into game one. We made it. We're at the Stanley Cup final. This has been, like, look, look, there's nothing better than the Stanley Cup playoffs. It's the best tournament

sports, yada, yada, yada, all the cliches are true. But all. All the cliches are true. But oh my God, does it take a long time to get to this point? Like the first round feels like it was years ago, let alone two months ago. It is such a long grind. You know, you do this six-month regular season that we always talk about, this grueling 82-game grind. And then, oh, my God, these guys have been playing for two months already. And it's the 10th of June.

And they have potentially two more weeks ahead of them. The TV people are out of control, man. the way they're dragging this out, like, there's no reason. Like this, like, I keep seeing in like my Facebook memories, like, you know, oh, I was at the, the Hawks won the Stanley Cup on this day, two years, 10 years ago, and the Kings won the Stanley Cup on this day. And it's like, why are we just starting the Stanley Cup final? Like ESPN and Sportsnet, uh, you're on my list, man, because this is ridiculous.

Like, the fact that you could win the Stanley Cup on like the 24th, I think is game seven. Yeah. And still be hung over for the draft if you're in that front office. I'm sorry, that's a problem. That cup crawl, that week of just getting absolutely blitzed, that's a sacred part of hockey. That is woven into the fabric of the NHL, and you are robbing these people of the opportunity

to destroy all their brain cells for a week. I'm offended, frankly. Today, June 10th, just to piggyback on that thought, today is the anniversary of Alex Ovechkin swimming in the fountain after winning the cup. So think about that. Ovechkin swimming in the fountain, they've already won the cup.

Can we really call it? Was it swimming? Was it swimming? Flailing? Kind of flailing. Flailing might be the word, yeah. Flailing. Flailing in a fountain for Ovechkin. Yeah, so we should be right now.

This is, this is cup crawl time. This is when you're dragging the cup through the streets of your city, going from bar to bar, letting Randos touch it, you know, have a drink out of it. This is where people get the greatest photos of their lives when they just happen to walk into the bar. They're following the crawl on Twitter. Like, this is what?

it's all about. And we're not even not even a game two yet, man. So speaking of the cup and the guy that holds the cup, the keeper of the cup, his name is Phil Pritchard. You probably know him. You've seen the guy. He's the white glove guy. In fact, great intro on ESPN ABC on the weekend, kind of talking about the Stanley cop and the gloves. First of all, I didn't know this guy kept every pair of gloves. Yeah, that part was a little creepy, wasn't it? To me, the white gloves are the ultimate sign of respect. I've kept every pair of gloves I've ever worn with a Stanley Cup over the years. Every pair has a story and if they could talk, it'd be a great chapter in a book.

And he's got them in Ziplocs, like kind of, I guess, right? Like, Ziploc bags? It's from 1994. Yeah, it's major Howard Hughes vibes. Like, does he have jars of urine somewhere from, like, where he brought the cup around? Does he, are his fingernails, like, secretly like 12 feet long? like, I'm sorry. The keeping the gloves thing, that might be a bridge too far for me.

I don't know. Yeah, I thought, okay, I thought, okay, it's interesting. I'm going to say it's interesting. I thought of something, too. You know how people always say, like, there's a Canadian curse on the cop, and Canada's ever won the Stanley Cup, you know, since Bettman took over as a full-time commissioner for the 93-94 season, a Canadian team has never won this down the cup. because remember, he took over late in the 92-93 season.

He handed out the cup to the haves, and then he had his first full season. I'm not wondering, Lise, is this Phil Pritchard guy, the curse? He started with the Rangers, with the gloves. It could be. It could be. Maybe Canada needs to, like, steal these gloves

and, like, have a big burning man funeral pyre for these gloves to exercise the bad hockey gods that have prevented them from winning the cup all these. years. This could be the guy. But anyway, we saw this guy, Phil Pritchard, roll out before game one of the cup. Now, I got to tell you, apparently, according to Mike Russo, who's covering the cup for us in South Florida, apparently this was a thing in the 1960s, that before game one of the Stanley Cup, they would bring the trophy out onto Saturday Ice to kind of just, I don't know if it's a photo op or just maybe make the two teams understand this is what you're playing for. It's kind of nice passion tree, all of that. I had never.

thought of this. They did it before game one of the Edmonton Florida series Saturday in Sunrise. I want to know what people thought of this. What did you think of it? I didn't mind it. Like I do love the like the cup is in the building. Like that always feels like a big deal. I always remember the 2015

final game six, Blackhawks, Lightning, and we're in Chicago and it's one of the worst storms that have ever swept through Chicago that time here. Just apocalyptic stuff. And the Stanley Cup got delayed. because the roads were flooded and the cup got delayed and it became like, oh my God, is the Stanley Cup going to get here in time? And they barely made it.

They rolled in like halfway through the third period. I love that vibe. Like it always, it is very genuinely exciting when the cup is in the building. I don't know if this really detracts them at. The cup is everywhere during the playoffs. It's on every TV station. You know,

it's at the parties they throw. It's not hard to find the Stanley Cup. It's at the fan fest, things like that. So I don't think it's a huge deal. I mean, remember during the COVID year, during the bubble, they had it just sitting at like center ice, like 20 rows up during the entire. I loved that. That was so cool.

That was kind of cool. That was like, you know, in the World Series of poker when you get down to the last two guys and they dump all the money on the table. That, like, this is what you're playing for. Like, I love that vibe. Like, that was so cool. You can't do that when it's a packed house. I get it. But we did that and everybody was fine with it.

So I don't mind this. I wouldn't want to see it. before every game, I wouldn't want it to be over exposed. There is something special about bringing the cup out when someone's won it. But I could get behind this. This one didn't bother me. Yeah, like I feel like, I almost feel like, was this a little trial balloon where they're just floating it?

I wonder what the feeling, like, because this has the potential to be a new tradition now or reignited this old tradition. And I'm with you. I didn't. I just got to remember, less is more. Less is more with the Stanley Cup. just you don't want it there all the time. Yeah, I think so.

I think so. Anyway, it was, it was kind of a neat way to kick off the Stanley Cup. It's certainly better than when they have like the referee on the first game of the season go. Let's never do that again. Yeah, the referee as the MC for the season. No, we don't need that. That's that's not the way to go. No, but a Stanley Cup coming out, nice theater, nice drama, all of that stuff. I mean, it's such a, it's so cliche to talk about.

the Stanley Cup reverentially, but it's such a, it's got such a vibe, doesn't it? Like, it's like, you just see that. It's like, oh, man, it's the Stanley freaking cup. And, like, there's, there's nothing else that's like that. Like, the Larry O'Brien trophy, the, the Lombardi trophy, the commissioner's trophy in baseball. Like, they're cool and it's, you want to win it. But there's just this vibe, this aura around the cup that just makes it different.

And, like, you got to exploit that. You can, I got no problem with them exploiting that for, like, the, the puck drop of game one, especially when game seven, when we, when we see it next is about seven months away based on the way they scheduled this. Well, and I love the Stanley Cup why people will say it's the most impressive trophy in sports in North America is it's the only one that I think really does require two hands to lift, right? I think of the Super Bowl, you could just grab that Rose. Is it the Roselle trophy?

The Lombardi Trose. Oh, sorry, Lombardi. I'm just giving Pete Roselle credit where it's not due. And you just think of like, what was the Denver owner? The late Pat Boland. He like held it up with one arm and he's like, this one's for John.

Or John. Yeah. And it's like you can do it with one hand. And the Stanley Cup, it's in the World Series. Don't you feel like those little penance? They're going to break off? It feels so fragile, right?

Like I'd be afraid to pick that one up. Yeah. But you could do that with one hand, couldn't it you, the World Series trophy? How do you think you usually, people grab it by the base with two hands? Could be.

Because they don't want to grab it by a... Because they don't want to grab those little penance, those little flags, because they're going to pluck right off. Yeah, it's absolutely breaking off like a toothpick. So, anyway, I think there's something majestic about the Stanley Cup itself. I love... Look, and the advertisement, gloves notwithstanding of the thing. I love that opening.

The opening was great, but I want to know. I am dying to know how they settled on Imelda Staunton to be the voice. Like, she plays, for those who don't know who that is, He plays Queen Elizabeth on the crown, the older Queen Elizabeth, the last two seasons of that. But she's probably most well known to American audiences. For Harry Potter, she was Dolores Umbridge, the, like, psychotic teacher who, like, made Harry carve letters into his own hand as punishment during detention. You're going to be doing some lines for me today, Mr. Potter. No, not with your quill.

Going to be using a rather special one of mine. Did she know, is she a hockey fan? I need to know more about Imel d'Aston. It's the voice. It's the voice that works, right? It's a great actor, yeah, great voice, great actor, but it's like, how did ESPN of all the people settle on Amelda Staunton to talk about the Stanley Cup? Had she heard of the Edmonton Oilers before she said those two words?

Was she just like a hyper-professional reading from a paper? Did she get like, did she study? Does she naturally know? Does she have opinions on the McDavid versus Gretzky debate? I need to know more about Amelda Stanton. And maybe I'm the one who needs to write this. but I need to know more about this. So what I always think about is,

and I think you and I have the same kind of brain for this type of thing, wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall during the ESPN production meetings and they're like, okay, up next on the agenda, opening narration. Any ideas? And like who brought her name up?

Like, how did that happen? Like, what other names were in the mix? You figure they're going to put like Mark Messier to do it or something like that. No, that would be too polarizing. Or Leav Schreiber. He's like the standard for all this stuff. How did you get Amelda Stanton?

She did great. He's a great actor with a great voice. But it's the most random narration I think I've ever heard in any kind of sports context. You could have given me 15 million tries and Amelda Stanton would never have come to my head. But like, do you think they reach? I know Morgan Freeman is like in his mid to late 80s now. Yeah, he could have done it. Sure.

But do they, they reach out to him? and like his people are like, was she the first choice? Like that's the stuff, I'm with you. That's the stuff that fascinates me. I want to know, man. If anyone out there from ESPN is listening, let me know.

Like, how did you settle on Imelda Staunton, Dolores freaking umbrage to narrate the Stanley Cup intro about gloves in the Stanley Cup? I'm just maybe, maybe, maybe, hey, I'm thinking off the top here, the queen always wore gloves, right? So maybe they thought it was like regal. White gloves.

They went to get Queen Elizabeth essentially, the actor who played her. Maybe it's as simple as that. Maybe we're reading too much into this. I mean, Mickey Mouse wears white gloves. And now the Stanley Cup between the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida fathers. That's a narration I would have enjoyed. So the NHL, ESPN, ABC, they had that intro. The Edmonton Oilers social media team ahead of game one.

They tried something else too. And we're going to play a little sample here for you. But essentially, what they did is ahead of game one. They went on X, on Instagram, on their, all their social media channels. And they published essentially voicemails from loved ones, parents, spouses, people who help the Oilers players get to this point in their career, basically wishing them luck via voicemail. Have a listen. the Stanley Cup to win. Now,

now four sieges of your greatest from your great time. Hey, Sam, it's Rage. We're just thinking about you, and wanted to

wish you and the entire team, good luck. Hey, Dee, so proud you, man. Congrats on making it this far. You work so hard for this. Hi, Connor. Hey, pal. Just wanted to send you.

Okay, so there's a little taste of the Edmonton Oilers and it's loved ones. on how accurate it is that parents are the only people who would ever leave a voicemail in this day and age? Except for Sam Gagne. It was his wife, Rachel, at the very beginning. Hey, Sam, it's Rach. Have you ever left a voicemail for your wife?

Just going to ask you the same thing. No, I'm text. The best one of the biz, like, hey, Sam, it's Rach, good luck in this Stanley Cup. Also, could you pick up some eggs on your way home? That would be the real voicemail. But this is pretty cool because it is. Because you know what it does is it gives you a little bit of an understanding of kind of the journey that these guys got to, all these people that are emotionally invested and have a stake in them reaching there. I loved it.

I think it's great. But yeah, I'm with you. Yeah. I don't know the last time I left the voicemail. Yeah. Like, I'm a huge sap when it comes to anything parents. thing at this point. I got like you. I got kids and my kids are 8 and 12.

They are not athletes, but they do play sports for fun. Like I got one daughter who's in cross country and track. She's dabbled in tennis and basketball. My other daughter, I'm her soccer coach. And, you know, they're both bad at sports, but they like to play, which is all I care about. But like I get so, I like well up with pride when my eight year old is looking in the right direction playing defense and soccer and actually like runs to the ball,

whether she even makes contact with the ball or not. I'm like, yeah, she's trying. So I can only imagine what it's like to be Connor McDavid's parents and to see like, holy crap, we made that and we helped in this journey. Yeah. Like the, I can't fathom the pride that it must be to see your kid reach like the highest of highs in their field. Like, you know, I'm not getting too, my dad called me up last week, just out of the blue and told me how proud he was of all the stuff I'm doing at the, like,

It was really cool. I got emotional about it. It's like, it's like, you don't hear that too often. And it means something. And it's like, I can only imagine what it's like to see your kid reach, have a shot at the goal they've had since they were like three years old, right? So it is. Like that's the, that's the emotion behind these.

Like, you know, the sacrifices these parents have made and the money they must have spent and the time they got up, the driving back and forth to the rink at stupid hours, especially if your kid's like an American, an ice time is so hard to come by. and you're playing at like 11.30 at night on a school night, and you're playing at five in the morning on a school day. Like the sacrifices these families make, I get annoyed having to let my kids back and forth to school.

The weekends you have to spend on the road if you're an elite hockey. I mean, I love that the Oilers spotlighted the parents and the families because nobody does this alone. You always have help along the way. And I thought it was really cool that they spotlighted that. Yeah, I loved it. You know what they should have done, though? Like Ryan Nugent Hopkins parent should have said, hey, Ryan, it's mom and dad.

If you have a breakaway on Sergey in game one, go upstairs. Go upstairs. Oh, block her side. Go block her side. Go high. Because, you know, R&H among many Oilers who had just grade A chances in game one against Bob. And I got to tell you, like, if you didn't watch the game and you just saw 3-0, Florida, you'd been like, oh, classic Panthers just snuff them out.

like they play a heavy physical style. That's really not what happened. Edmonton had their chances, some great A chances, just couldn't bury them. And we talked about this last week, as when you weren't on the pod, the idea that if Sergey Bobroski, I know Chris Johnson wrote about this too,

the idea that if Bobrovsky wins this Stanley Cup, that my gosh, he's going to have unbelievable credentials for the Hall of Fame. A couple of Vezna Trophies. a Stanley Cup, you know, arguably now we're looking at a Kahn Smyth. Like, like, it's amazing how the narrative around this guy has changed in 15 months. Because go back to last year before the playoffs, it was the Alex Lion show.

So this guy's done a remarkable job, but he was his dialed in as I've ever seen. He was almost Tim Thomas in the 11 cup for Boston, like just dialed in laser focus. You're not beating this guy. That's how he looked in. I don't think it's sustainable for seven games, but he's. was dialed right in in game one. I mean, honestly, I think he was a Hall of Famer probably before this playoff. He right now probably is already

dinched with his performance in this playoff run. If he wins the Stanley Cup and a Khan Smyth, I mean, he's like a first ballot guy all of a sudden. I think that's what we're talking about here is how quickly does he get in? I mean, you look at who they're letting in now. And no offense to Tom Barrasso and Mike Vernon, their careers can't hold a candle to Sergey Birovsky. Two-time Vezna winner, two-time Vezna winner right there. that's Hall of Fame level stuff. Like that's something that very few goalies can claim.

So if he adds this championship to him and he wins the cons, I do think he'd be the favorite to win the Khan Smite, that Florida wins, I mean, he is inner circle almost. Like he becomes like he's in like the, you know, is he a top 10, 20 goalie of all time conversation? Like the bar is not very high to get into the Hall of Fame right now. We're letting people in that don't belong in the Hall of Fame. Sergei Bobrowski belongs in the Hall of Fame.

And all he's doing now in my mind is he's burnishing those. credentials. Like, he's already in. Okay, I'm going to bring up another name then for you. Because, you know, two Veznas in the Stanley Cup. And it's a guy whose name I already invoke, Tim Thomas. Is Tim Thomas a Hall of Famer

by those measures or metrics? Or was his, okay, so I guess here's my point on Barbrowski. He's had a weird career art where he was super dominant, really good in kind of Columbus or whatever, you know, he was dominant, Vesna caliber. had the dip and now he's back. But the resume is awfully similar to Tim Thomas.

If two Vezna's, maybe a Stanley Cap, maybe a cons might, I guess, I mean, do we know how to assess goalies for the Hall of Fame? Is that part of this too? We don't. We obviously don't. I mean, for too long, we didn't have enough goalies in, right? And now we're getting too many goalies in to make up for it, where we're just like, oh, that goalie was okay.

Tim Thomas, that's an interesting critic, his peak was really short, but holy crap. was it good, right? He was elite, elite for a handful of years there. He did not have a super long career, but he does have two Veznas. He did win a Stanley Cup. He did almost won that Stanley Cup on his own in a lot of ways. Again, once you let in Tom Barrasso and Mike Vernon level players, you have to consider, like Tim Thomas is a better goal. He had a better career than those two guys. So I think that the bar has been has been lower to the point that you have to start considering a lot of people. We know, we do our shadow,

Hall of Fame Committee every year. Yeah. Eric Du Hatchick, who's been in that room, runs this. And, you know, we try to go through the process. We nominate players. Every year I nominated Steve Larmer and got no votes and it pissed me off. So last year I tried something different. I tried to nominate Corey Crawford.

Now, most people right now are probably rolling their eyes at the idea of Cory Crawford being a Hall of Famer. But this is a guy whose career, he never won the Vezna. That's the difference. But his numbers, his success. it dwarfs a lot of the guys that are in there. He's won two Stanley Cups. He should have won the Kahn Smyth in 2013.

He proved how elite he was when the hawk started declining. He got better. They won 50 games with him being the only reason why. Like you can start making these arguments for a lot of borderline players that you don't even think are on the borderline. And so Bob is, you know, he's a no-brainer to me. I'll tell you what hurts Crawford. And this is of no fault of his own.

It's the 2010 Cup with Niemie. And that, for whatever reason, it's in people's minds of, ah, the goalie is kind of replaceable. It's almost the Chris Osgood effect. It's exactly what it is. It is the Chris Osgood. That was the argument I got most of it from people was, oh, it's just Chris Osgood. Yeah. And because Detroit, they want a cup with Vernon.

They want a cop with Hachick. You know, in that window of time, you're like, ah, the goalie's replaceable. And that's fair. Like, I could certainly live in a world where Corey Crawford is not considered a Hall of Famer. The problem is I have is he had a better career than people that are in the Hall of Fame now. That's where you start running into these kind of like, I don't know how to approach this. Like in my head, not a Hall of Famer. Based on the criteria, these 15 mysterious people do behind closed doors with no accountability whatsoever, he's a Hall of a favor.

Yeah. It is. It's the stone cutters in there. You're right. Yeah. They're controlling the British crown. They're keeping the metric system down. They're robbing cavefish of their site.

They're rigging every Oscar night. They're making Steve Gutenberg a star. Come on. So I think, like, for me, I'm a big, and when we do this Shadow Hall of Fame thing, and you can tell me if I'm wrong on this, I'm more of a, give me your best five, six years. Like, I'm a big peak guy. And maybe it's like, it's the Sandy Kofax thing in baseball, where if you looked at the totality of Kofax's career, like, that guy only played whatever a number of years.

Give me his best five, the best five years of Sandy Kofax are better than the best. five years of anybody. And that's why I felt like to me, Eric Lindross, Hall of Famer. Peter Foisberg, Hall of Famer, Paul of Fame. So give you the best five years. So Tim Thomas, there was absolutely a window of time from let's call it 2008 to 2013, whatever. He was one of the best gold terms of the planet. But so Bobrovsky's weird because it's not a five year continuous window. It's kind of like two years here, one year here, another two years there. But I think at the end of the day, if you give me five, six unbelievable Hall of Fame caliber seasons, that's enough for me to think about putting you in the hall. Yeah, I mean, there's an inconsistency to Bobrofti's career that prevents him from being an all-timer.

Like in that Hachshik-Brodor-Wa conversation, right? Just because there's been too many years where he disappeared. We used to think of that contract of his as an absolute albatross, like the worst contract in the league. Nobody's complaining about it now. So there is that factor to him, which I think does knock him down a peg, but not nearly enough pegs where he should be considered whole of very good. He's in. Two Veznas, he could win a cop, he could win a consmite.

He is in. You know, the guy that he might be a little, like, might be a good parallel for Bob Brofsky is Mark Andre Fleury in that he kind of had a weird blip in the middle of his career where he like, I don't want that guy in my net, right? There was a window of time. Flurry from like 2010 to 2015 was kind of like, he lost the net during the playoffs. He lost his net.

Thomas Vokun, they felt better about Thomas Fokun in 2013 than they did flour. They felt better about Matt Murray than they did flour for a window there too, right? So there was a time where you're like, I don't know, and then he kind of reestablished himself in Vegas and kind of propelled himself. But there's the same thing, right, where you're like, you're really good, you have a dip, and then you're back. That's how we feel about. Flurry is fascinating because he's a compiler, right?

He's just been around forever and he's been on good teams. So he has over 500 wins. Like he's going to get in the Hall of Fame and everybody loves him. He's the best teammate ever, all that stuff. But he's really never been one of the best goalies. Like you talk about your four or five years of peak. Was Mark Andre Fleury ever really one of the top three goalies in the league in any year? He doesn't have a vest in there, right?

Yeah, he's never been in that conversation. Like he's, he's always been good. I'm not sure he's ever been great, but he's been good for, he's been good for so long. Did he not win a Vezna? Did he? I don't even remember.

I thought he did in the, in the, in the Vegas season, I want to say it was the shortened season, like the 20, whatever that 56 game season. Was that not Flurries? Did he not win the Vesna? The, the, the, 2020, 21 season he did with it. And then he got,

remember he became like the first, reigning Vezna trophy winner to get traded in the offseason. Right. Since maybe it was Hachik, but it's pretty rare. So anyway, that's how we feel about Bob. It's kind of like you're unbelievable. You take a dip and then you reappear. But that's good enough for me.

That's fair. That's fair. I think the totality of Bob's career puts him in that conversation easily, just like Flurry. Again, you have 500 wins. You're going in the Hall of Fame. I'm not arguing that Mark Andre Fleury doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame. I'm just saying that there was very few points in his career

where if you had, you needed one goalie to get you a one win, that was the guy you were going to turn to. He was never really that guy. And I feel like there were a couple of years there where Bob has been that guy. Yeah, just like Tim Thomas was that guy, like in that little window, a little window of time. Look, we're very mindful. We're recording this on Monday.

There's a game on Monday night. He's going to give up like 37 goals tonight. Yeah, exactly. No, but we worry that if, we jump too much into the weeds, like we don't want to break down game one. Because if you're listening to this on Tuesday, we want you to enjoy

the conversation without this feeling like it was timestamp. I do want to ask you about this because on Media Day, I think it was Media Day, it might have been the day before Media Day last week. Oilers head coach Chris Knobloch was asked about, you know, Florida's coming in and they got the Cup final experience

of being there last year against Vegas. You know, does that get? give them an edge and he comes back with an all-time clapback. I don't know how much experiences, you know, beneficial. You can ask the Buffalo Bills, how important Super Bowl experience is. Buffalo Bills fans are like, why are you dragging us? Like, what a drive-in-by-av-I.

Haven't Buffalo fans suffered enough? My God, man. What do you do in here? What did you think of that comment, though? Like, and if you're Paul Maurice and the Panthers, is that whiteboard material, bulletin board material where you're like, hey, guys, this is what they're saying. If you need bullets and board material at this stage of the game, you are pathetic, weak-minded, and don't belong in professional sports.

So I don't buy that shit at all. Like, bullet and board material in professional sports is the dumbest thing in the world. Like, these guys do not need more motivation. They're playing at the highest level. They are the world-class athletes and they're making a lot of money. You don't need faux motivation. That's it. I loved it.

I thought it was great because, like, that's the attitude you have to have, right? When you're the team with no experience and you're going up against a team that has been kind of playoff hardened. And the narrative in the NHL is always Wayne Gretzky walking by the 1983 Islanders locker room. That's always the cliche, right? You got to learn how hard it is. You have to lose before you can win, yada, yada, yada, man. If I'm Chris Knobloch, Chuck Knobloch. If I'm Chris Knoblock, F that, man, no, screw that.

We don't need that experience. That experience doesn't mean anything. We're experiencing it right now. we've got three rounds of playoff experience. We've been through some battles. No, I don't need that. That doesn't make a difference to me. That's the attitude you have to have,

whether you believe it or not, whether it's true or not. Good for Knoblock for saying it, although I do feel bad for Buffalo fans, just always catching strays. Yeah, this one was like, what are you talking about? Why are you bringing us into all of this?

But anyway, to me, I love this type of stuff. It's great drama. It's great theater. It kind of adds something to, the Stanley Cup final. And like, I love to, down goes brown, McIndoo, is the guy who coined

the phrase, old guy without a cup, right? OG, WAC, old guy without a cup. And this Stanley Cup final is littered with them. I think if Dallas had emerged into the final, I think we would have all been team Pavelski, right? Like all of us would have been like, who doesn't want to see that guy win his Stanley Cup? He's just, you know, quintessential pro seems like a legible guy.

But now this old guy without a cup, there's a few really interesting guys. I'm wondering, is there one that you're jumping? Obviously, Bob Roshky's on that list. He's, you know, in his mid-30s now, I don't want a cup. There's Kyle Opozo, who's Adam Henrique, there's Sam Gagne? Like, is there one old guy without a cup that's kind of pulling at Laz's heartstrings

here this month? I like Sam Gagne a lot. He's such a good guy. Everywhere he's been, everyone raves about him. And he's, I like that. the story of the guy who's not really on the team, but's on the team and playing a big role behind the scenes and being a good teammate. So I would be very happy to see him, but I think the answer here is Kyle Loposo. I mean, he's been through so much in his career. He's a former captain in the

NHL and, you know, he was not even supposed to be on the roster, but, you know, circumstances had him playing in key moments and key games. He's such a likable guy. He's like the quintessential Oghwack. I've always said Oghawak. I don't know if that's an official term or not. the old guy without a cup. I just always use it as an acronym. It's an Agwack. Like he is the guy like,

he's the guy who gets the cup, right? He's the guy that if the Panthers win, Barkov's not, I keep hearing Aaron Ekblad. No offense to Aaron Ekblad. He's still a young man. That cup is going to Kyle Oposo first. If the Florida Panthers win that win.

Oh, no, I would say maybe Barbarovsky. I suppose, yeah, I guess he's been around long enough to do that. He's been long enough, right? I guess I'd be okay. Yeah, that would be okay. But Opozo is certainly in that conversation. Just everything he's been through in his career, everywhere he's been, he's been like a model teammate. I think a lot of people will be happy to see him

like the Stanley Cup if it comes to that. Have you ever done a story because you covered a team that won three Stanley Cops on how they determine who gets it in what order? Because that does seem like a last story. When the Hawks won in 2010, the morning of, and this was pretty brazen stuff, the morning of Jonathan Taves went up to Marion Hose and said, you're getting the cup first tonight. Like he, they talked, like, he openly talked about it and told,

and gave host to the heads up that he was going to get it. And I think that if you're like a veteran captain and you've been around long enough, you're having those conversations openly, right? You're talking to your teammates who should get it. some players are really superstitious and would never even mention the Stanley Cup until they won it. And what are we going to do when we win it? Those Blackhawks were talking about it openly for months beforehand. They were basically the 85 bears doing the Super Bowl shuffle.

They were so confident in themselves. So I think more often than not, like the leadership corps will discuss it. They'll sit down over a drink in the second round and say, all right, we win this thing. What's the order? Who gets it first? And they kind of hash it out among themselves. and I don't think it's not done on the spot. It is absolutely done with some premeditation.

I would love to have been sitting at a table with the 2001 Colorado Avalanche. They're all sitting around. Do you think everybody said you got to give it to Ray Bork? Or was there one guy who was like, you know, let me just make a case here for, you know, insert name here, some other random guy from the ab. Because to me, Sackick handing it to Bork was the most obvious. obvious slam dunk of all time. Like there was no question, right?

There's no question. Right. And some people kind of roll their eyes at like these guys that are just like chasing cups at the end. But the Bork is the quintessential proof that it matters. Kimo Teamanin in 2015 played like three minutes a night for the Blackhawks. Didn't seem to bother him when he was lifting that cup over his head at age 40 for the first time.

It met the world to him. And that's why even if even if it is like, you know, if the Oilers win and Sam Gagne doesn't play, it's not going to matter. He's still going to feel like he won the Stanley Cup because he's been working with this team. He's been practicing with this team. It's a special thing to get there. Obviously, you want to play a major role on it.

But everyone who gets their hands on that cup feels like they won the Stanley Cup. Well, especially with Gagne, you've got to remember, he lived through a lot of those lean years in Edmonton, the Decad of Darkness, where in between going to the Stanley Cup in 06 and getting McDavid, it was awful. It was terrible. There was just not a lot of traction there. And so, yeah, I'm with you.

Like, I think Ocpozo, which actually, Ocpozo, when you phonetically sound it out, sounds a lot like Ogui. I think the K is silent. It's Opozo. I think it's Opozo. Is it a Pozo? Why do I always think?

And I always hear Ocpozo. I don't know. You Canadians pronounce Mazda, Mazda. So I don't know what. You guys don't know. You just do your own thing up there. Are you a pasta or a pasta? I'm pasta because that's the word.

What do you guys have against the short A sound? It's the weirdest thing. You guys hate Schlaws. Hey, we love A more than anything. You like that. You sound like you're all from Chicago. Chicago. Do you say Chicago?

You say Chicago, right? If you say Chicago, why can't you say pasta or Mazda? What do you have against that sound? I say Mazda. The Mazda one. It just like grates my brain whenever I'm in. Wait, what should I?

Now you've got me confused. Is it Mazda or Mazda? It's Mazda. Yeah, okay. That's what I say. That's not what they say on all your television commercials. It's Mazda. Really?

Oh, it drives me nuts. It's like it's nails on a chalkboard. As our producer Chris Flattery points out, it's Canada, not Conada. Canada. So maybe that's why it's Mazda. Maybe it's just, Mazda. It's a federal law.

It's a raw. You know what I thought about too? Speaking of federal laws and stuff. And maybe this is a story I should write, given that I live in Ottawa. I have no idea. I have no idea on the answer to this. If a Canadian team wins the Stanley Cup, do they get an invite to our House of Parliament? I got no idea.

No idea. Does like Trudeau bring them into the, I don't know, what's your, what's your White House? basically Parliament Hill, basically. Yeah, I don't know how that works. It's been so long. None of us remembers. Oh, man. Like, will Joe Biden not invite them, you know,

the Edmonton Oilers to the White House if they win? How does that work? No, why would he? Why would he be like? There's like two Canadians on the Oilers. Why would they get invited to Canadian parliaments? The Oilers, they have 18 Canadians on the team. Oh, that's right.

It was the Canucks that have no Canadians. Yeah, the Conucks only have three, I think. I think the country have three, right? I think the only have like 18. That's right. The only of the most Canadian team ever, yeah. Oh, man. I don't know.

You have a major North American professional sports team. You're supposed to go to the White House. I don't know. The Raptors didn't get an invite to the White House, did they? I don't know. That's a great question. This is what I'm saying. Oh, man.

Somebody needs to dig into this. I want to go back to something here real quick that we kind of crossed over. The parents and the voice, the families and the, voicemails thing. I kind of want to get back to that. Oh boy. He's got something to say. Something's grinding his gears. I spent eight years as a suburban sports editor before I started covering the NHL. So I have dealt with youth sports parents. And they are the worst people on the planet, generally speaking. Like, there are obvious exceptions. Based on sport, like, I know you mentioned soccer. Like, is there like one sport in particular that you're like? Baseball. Oh my God. Baseball

parents are absolute psychopest. If you're out there and your kid plays baseball, calm down. Calm down. Stop yelling at everybody. Just calm down. But I'm wondering, like, how many of these parents that are like now so cute and dainty and happy and proud were just absolute nightmares when their kid was coming up through the youth hockey ranks?

Like, were they just like, like, do you have to be like an absolute lunatic to get your kid at that level? or because their kids clearly had so much natural ability, they didn't need to be. They didn't have to yell at the coaches and yell at the referees all the time because their kids were so dumb. I want to know which of those people leaving a voicemail

so happy and calmly and politely were just had their pictures on the side of the referee's dressing room. Like, beware that this person might come at you with a knife. Because hockey is up there. I understand, look, there's a lot of. of money, and like we talked about the time and the effort and the money that goes into hockey, some of those parents are absolutely terrifying. And I just want to know which Oilers parent was the worst youth sport parent out there.

Boy. But I think it depends. I know you're saying, you know, baseball is the worst. But I think it's a function of the parents that you're exposed to the most, right? Like I would say you talk to a lot of people that would be like, oh, hockey parents are the worst or baseball parents are the worst. And you know what? I've talked to a lot of parents who have their kids in, like, dance,

and they're like, no, no, no, you don't understand. Dance parents are the worst. Oh, absolutely. Right? Anything that's competitive at all, it brings out the worst in so many parents. Like, that's why I have to have a sit down with my, every time my daughter's soccer season starts, I start talking about, I don't care about your kid's scholarship.

Your kid is eight years old. If you come out, I do a spreadsheet, and I get equal playing time to every kid. I have down to the minute when I take them out of a quarter to make sure everyone plays the same amount. If you complain to me one time, you are banished from this field and I will never talk to you again. I just don't want to hear it. There are so many stories of in Canada in particular and in places like Toronto where the youth hockey program, you know, there's such a culture around, you know, putting your kid in the spot so that they can get noticed by an OHL team or noticed by an NCAA program. like it is not unheard of that you'll pay the coach to put your kid on the ice.

Like, hey, make sure. Oh, sure. Make sure little Logan gets, you know, 15 minutes of ice time. Here's 1,500 bucks for the season. Like, that's not, that's not unheard of. Isn't that crazy? Well, in the States, that's like, that's a problem. It's like, it's not quite as overt, but you have like AAU, you know,

basketball and some of these travel teams that you have to be on because the high school coach also coaches the travel team. And if you don't, if you're not on that travel team, which lines the pockets of that coach, you're not going to make the team in high school. Like, you have to like, like, there's all this kind of quid pro quo stuff happening to make sure your kids get to this. There's so much politics. Again, I am so glad that my kids are smart and not athletes because I just, I wouldn't be able to handle it. After being exposed to that world for so long as a suburban newspaper sports editor, I have no patience for these people at all.

by the way, just now I'm going to circle back on something. Our producer Chris Flannery says, when the Toronto Raptors won the NBA finals in 2019, via NPR, it says, quote, the Raptors had already ruled out going to the White House before an invitation was even extended with Raptors player Danny Green saying it was a, quote, hard no after their 2019 championship win.

But that might have been a function of who was in the office. Yeah, that's absolutely a Trump thing. But they were invited. So there you go. So you do invite a Canadian team to the White House. Maybe that's only in the NBA because it's such an American league. Before an invitation was extended. So I don't know if they even were extended.

Well, that's because every time during the Trump administration, that was always a thing. Like, that was always one of the first questions is, would you accept the trip to the White House? And like, I know the penguins did and people were mad about it. Like that was like a, that was, but they were invited. It is, it is protocol to still invite a Canadian team, it looks like. Yeah. Okay. Well, we'll have to see what happens. Maybe we should reverse this thing, and Parliament Hill and Ottawa should invite the Panthers to come on up here. That don't change the motion. Yeah, it's Canada sport, right? It's your national sport. I think that'd be cool. Actually, you know what's weird? You know what? You know what? Is actually on the books is Canada's national sport? And it's not hockey. Do you know what it is? Is it lacrosse? Yeah, it's lacrosse. Yeah, it's lacrosse. Yeah, I knew something. Yeah. There you go. Who says Americans don't know anything about it.

Canada. Lack cross. Lass knows it all. A lacrosse. Hey, before the Stanley Cup finals started, every year, Gary Bettman, the head of the NHLPA,

Marty Walsh, they do the joint press conference, kind of state of the union, ask away. One of the big things that came out of it, Las, is that the details for the four nations tournament, which will be Canada or Canada, United States,

Finland, and Sweden. Four team tournament in February. And later this month, there's going to be six players from each roster, kind of like the initial rosters are going to be unveiled. And that part of it, I think, will be fun. Like, who are the six players for each team? There'll be no-brainers on the top six. There's not going to be any controversy among the top six. No, I don't think so. The one name that I will say will likely be off of Canada to start, my understanding, would be Kail McCar. because he was on the 2018

World Junior team that's under investigation. I don't believe he can necessarily be on that. But here's the thing. I don't know how much of this is like a hockey Canada thing and how much of this is like an NHLPA thing. And so I don't know.

Is there a gray area where they can say, well, this isn't a hockey Canada event. He can play in it. That part I'm curious about. Yeah, that's just something that's going to hang. until we have any kind of finality in that case, this is always going to be something that that hangs over

every single player on that team. And there's a lot of them in the league. Like that was a team full of superstars. So that's going to be hanging over and fairly or unfairly, mostly probably for a lot of these guys unfairly, but that's just going to always be the case. Anytime there's movement in those cases, you got to go talk to those guys and get a comment out of them.

And that's just the way this is going to be until there's some kind of finality in that case. Yeah. And by the way, speaking of that, on Tuesday, there will be court dates set for that. So people wondering, you know, when are these guys going to go on trial? We're going to get that answer on Tuesday. And last, my understanding from kind of trying to, we'll say read the T leads here and being close to this case and following it very closely. I don't think this this court case will actually start until April of 2025.

So like, let's say 10 months from now. So I don't think you're going to get any closure or anything like that. And those guys are not going to be playing between now and then either. Nobody's obviously going to be signing them at this point. Well, certainly Gary Bettman made it very, well, Gary Bettman made it very clear that until that their legal issues are resolved, you know, they're not going to be playing in the NHL. The question that I've seen posed and I'm curious about, is the door open,

for them to go play elsewhere. Is the door open in a league like the KHL? Like something like that. Are they allowed? I don't know if there's legal issues. I don't know quite how it works up there, but are they allowed to leave the country when they're hanging over them? It's a good question. My understanding is

they weren't necessarily deemed to be quote unquote flight risks. Right. Because, you know, they turn, they voluntarily voluntarily turn themselves in. They're also fairly well known in terms of, you know, the odds of them fleeing are pretty small. But yeah, maybe there is a restriction on them,

hey, they can't go overseas to play. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be interesting. Getting back to the the Four Nations faceoff, I want to say it's called. Four Nations tournament? Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Four Nations face it. I am having trouble getting excited about this. Like, I can't,

wait for the actual Olympics when you have a real tournament with all the teams. This feels, I don't know. I'm having, I'm having trouble imagining that the players will be playing this like it's a life or death situation like they would the Olympics. It feels so forced and phony. The only four teams not having, you know, Czechia in there, not having, you know, so many other, Germany and Denmark, there's so many good teams out there now. do you feel like this is going to land or is this just going to be like a glorified

All-Star game? I think it'll be somewhere in between the All-Star game and like a best-on-best tournament. But maybe leading a little bit closer towards Best on Best. And I mean, I think about the old World Cups of hockey, 96 where the Americans were so good. And it was such a sort of this great moment,

I think, in American hockey that they took down Canada. Those guys, they left it all out on the ice, right? But part of that was it was a legitimate best-on-best tournament. And yeah, a World Cup sound like this is the four nations face-off. It sounds like a, you know, like a preseason tournament. Yeah, I'm waiting for the sponsorship tag to come into this. It just feels so just forced. Like, I almost wish they just would have waited until the Olympics.

Okay. And had that bring it back to the true best-on-best hockey. Okay, let me ask you this question then as you, obviously you're somewhat on the fence about this tournament. Maybe even cynical. Are you cynical enough? Me? You? Are you cynical enough that you would want now the final, which by the way, the final game will be played at TD Garden in Boston?

Yeah. Are you cynical enough that you want that final to be Sweden versus Finland? If in Sweden versus Finland, that might be the most, that's the real rivalry, right? Like, that would be a hell of a game. But the atmosphere inside Tinti Garden for Canada, U.S. would be amazing. Sweden, Finland, not so much. I don't know. Canada.

When the World Cup was in Toronto in 2016, I covered it. And it was fun. And like Team North America was amazing. And the team Europe thing was kind of stupid. But, you know, they went on a run. And that was kind of fun. But it never felt important. It never felt like it mattered.

Like when you're like when I was in Sochi covering the Olympics, it felt like the games mattered. That Russia-U-S game felt like it was like the fate of mankind rested on it. And then, you know, Canada, US, like that game felt like it had weight. And I just, I don't know if this is going to have any weight at all. It's, it's a manufactured first time ever, one-time only thing. It only involves four teams and not necessarily the four best teams, no offense to Finland.

there are years where Czechia is a better team. And so it just feels so phony that, look, I'm going to watch it and I hope the players take it seriously. And I want to see U.S. Canada and I want to see Sweden, Finland. I want to see all those teams play each other. It could be great. I hope it's great. I want it to be great.

But I still, I just kind of wish that our return to crew international hockey had just waited one more year. Wouldn't it killed us to wait one more year for the Olympics and have it really feel like it mattered. You know what? I would have done it, and I've talked about this a number of times, but I would have done a best of,

let's say, let's call it a best of three or best of five, Canada versus USA only, and you alternate games with the men's and women's program, and then you do the same thing for Sweden and Finland over on that side. I like that. Best of five, yeah. Like just scatter it throughout the year. Like, you play like once a month,

you have one of these games. Yeah, something like that. Oh, that's great. Yeah, just in the, in the absence of a true best on best, everything is going to feel really diluted or not, not quite where it could or should be. This is just going to feel like, you know, Kirkland brand Olympics. It's just not going to feel like the real thing.

And I just, I don't know, I question how seriously these players are going to take it. The Four Nations face off. presented by Kirkland. All right, Laz, here comes a real sponsored segment, not a fake one. I just made up with Kirkland. As always, on a Monday, we bring in our pal

Jesse Granger. For a little Granger things, presented by BetMGM, the exclusive betting partner with the Athletic, and we need to know, Jesse Granger, were you smiling ear to ear as a goalie guy on Saturday night as Sergey Bobrovsky pitched

just an impressive, dominant shutout in game one, like really one of the best goal-tending performances you're ever going to see from a goalie to open up the Stanley Cup final. Like what were what were you looking for? What were you seeing out of Bobrovsky in the opener? Yeah, I mean, just the hockey fan part of me was very

excited. I've been covering hockey for eight years now, but Bobrovsky is one of the guys that like when I was, before I covered hockey, and I was just a fan. He was one of my favorite players to watch. I watched way more Blue Jackets games than anyone that lives in Las Vegas ever should because I just

liked watching him play and I and I hated the reputation that he had as he didn't perform in the playoffs. It would happen every year and I would always argue well, he's too tired. They, they wrote him into the dirt to see that guy that's had that reputation of can't get it done in the biggest in the biggest stages to have that kind of game to open the Stanley Cup final was a lot of fun just from a fan perspective. From an analyst perspective, it was cool. I mean, he, he, everything's working right now for Bobrovsky. And I think that like we don't talk enough about how the goalie style matches with the defensive system, the defensive system the team is running. And I just think what the Panthers are doing defensively works so perfectly with what

Babrovsky's doing right now, which is when I watch him, he's so confident on his skates. He challenges everything. And he's playing way up at the top of his crease. Every time he thinks there's a shot coming, he just telescopes out there, gets his feet set, and it just looks like you can't beat him. I mean, I don't, you saw there was only, what, six shots taken in the third period by the Oilers. I think it's because he's in their heads. The shooters just feel like they can't beat him at this point.

He's coming too far out. But in order to play that way, you've got to be confident that your defensemen are not going to allow the pass across. And the Oilers are going to start looking for that because he's challenging so aggressively. They're going to start trying to fake those shots and pass it across. And I just think every time they tried it in game one, Florida had the answer. they had the center of the ice locked up. And just the way the Panthers are defending, it's perfect right now with the way Bobrovsky's on fire.

The save that he made, I'm not even sure you got a piece of it, but when he stack the pads and does the windmill, like when Bobrovsky and Mark Andre Fleury, when these guys retire, does that just disappear forever? Like you do not see 25-year-old goalies ever stacking the pads that way, that old school kind of like desperation move. Is that going to die with these guys? probably. I mean, we've seen, we've seen moves that have already died, right? I mean,

like another move that like we don't see diving poke checks anymore. You'll, you'll see a guy use his stick when the player's close enough to reach it, but you'll never see a guy dive other than maybe flurry on the, on the off chance. And it's, what's funny is like the new techniques that these young guys are learning. It's the opposite of that two pad stack. You have to keep your body upright because it covers more of the net if you're just talking geometry here. but yes, it is going to be sad if we lose the two pad stack, the good old cartwheel, throw your glove up in the air and hope it snatches it.

It's like the best play in hockey. Like who doesn't like get excited when they see that? It's, it's pretty great. And it's effective. I mean, it's worked. I don't know like in terms of like if we had a goalie do that a hundred times and a goalie try to slide across. Like that's, that's a play where you're probably not going to make the save anyway.

So it's a low percentage play. I'd love to know the, like I'd love to find out the analytics like what is more effective. Doing that or trying to get across in a controlled manner. It's like sliding into first base or running through the bag, right? Like what's actually better? Yeah. No, you know, I always think about, if you think about the Barbarovsky athleticism in these playoffs, I always think it was Matt Dumba, right, that he robbed in that Tampa series. Like, maybe the greatest save I've ever seen in my life or close to it anyway, just the desperation, all of that. And I think that image, Jesse, is seared at our minds from the opening round.

And then obviously he pitches a game on shadow. So it feels to me like if we're talking about the cons my favorites right now, that he would be at the top of list. And I'm curious now that we've got one game of the finals under our belt, there's still a lot of raceway to go. Like, who are we looking at in terms of consmite odds? Is it Bobrovsky by a mile? Is like McDavid right there?

Like what are we looking at right now in terms of consmite odds? Yeah. So even though the consmite is obviously for the entire plan, playoffs, we tend to put a ton of emphasis on the final. So it's not surprising that after one game where he was like just superhuman, Bobrovsky goes from, I think he was the third favorite to now being the favorite to win the cons smite. He's at plus 220 right now. Arkov, who was the favorite entering the cup final, is still right there with him plus 270. And then you've got McDavid at plus 300, so three to one on Connor McDavid. And then Matthew Kachuk would be next at plus

450. A little surprising that Evan Bouchard would be below that ahead of Leon Dricidal. A little surprising for me, but they're both close at 1,600 and plus 1,700. So not a huge shift because, again, we're taking the entire playoffs into account, but Brobowski's game one was enough to put him at the top. I always find like whenever it's like, well, let's do a Kahn-Smith watch. It's like, well, you can't because 99.9% of the time, it's going to be on the winning team. So like, the reason right now that Bobrowski's number, one is because his team is up one nothing in the final and was the favorite going into the final.

Like if the Oilers win, Bobrovsky's not winning the cons might. It's going to be McDavid or it's going to be Scharder Drysidal. Like it's it, I, picking, you know, anytime there's a cons smite watch, I'm like, you're just guessing who's going to win the cup. 100%. Although I'll argue if Bobrovsky wins three games and they all look like game one, I'd give him the consmite even if he doesn't win the cup. Well, you would, yeah, because you're Mr. Goli.

Yeah, nobody else is going to do that though. Yeah. Can I make a, I think you guys would be open to this. Can I make an appassioned plea and a consmite argument for Calvin Pickard? He saved the entire postseason run. You did. The great reset. They'll be writing books in the evidence about the great reset.

And you know what, Skinner. Skinner is obviously going to come under fire for giving up those goals. But like, I didn't think there was much he could do on him. I thought it was more just Edmonton only. spent 10 minutes of the entire game defending. And when they did have to defend, it was a disaster. And they were just breakdowns everywhere. And they were backdoor one-timers.

The fact that they didn't have to defend much and still had those kind of breakdowns is worrisome for me going forward. I thought Skinner played well. I loved McDavid's comment about how this is the hockey gods getting us back for game six of the Western Conference final, where they got completely dominated and won. That shows me that this is a mature guy who knows it's a long series, who knows his team played well, who knows he got,

sometimes you just get goalied in this league, even if you're the Mighty Edmonton Oilers offense. I thought that was a really, that was a good captain quote right there. Like, you know what? You know, we got away, well, now they get away. Well, it'll be fine.

We'll be all right. I like that attitude after a game one loss. It's only one game. You know, Jesse, you're the goalie guru, the expert. You know, we're talking about Bobrovsky and Skinner with you. And I wouldn't mind just kind of expanding out a little bit

looking league-wide at goalies because we're about to hit the point in, you know, less than three weeks where the goalie carousel is going to be in full swing. In fact, wouldn't be shocking if at some point between now and the draft, there's a trade or two. Teams are going to be looking at a free agency. Let's start with free agency first, only because I know you've written about this in terms of UFA goalies.

Let's say I'm New Jersey or I'm Ottawa or Buffalo or Toronto or one of these teams that might be looking at an upgrade in, goal. Am I looking at the free agent market at all? Is there anybody that you're like, you know what, you can make a smart, smart signing here, get this guy in, or is that, is it the pool too thin this summer? So, yeah, this might be the weakest free agency pool of goalies that I can remember of any offseason recently. But I think there are still some values to be had, and especially in an NHL where you aren't given your starting goalie 60 games. That's like very few goalies out there are going to have that kind of workload. In a in a in a tandem system, I think there are some goalies that will be

signed for cheaper than than they should be and you'll get a value out of them. But I don't think that there is a guy. If you're a contender, you can go sign a guy and think this is the guy that's going to lead us to the Stanley Cup next year. To me, the top two free agent goalies available UFAs are Laurent Reisois and Anthony Stolars. So two guys who have been career backups who are just into their 30s, haven't proven they can be the guy, but have put up phenomenal stats. And I'll go to Laurent Rousseau. I know him very well. I covered him in Vegas. He had hip and abdominal surgery, not this past, not this off season, but the previous off season and has looked like a totally different goalie sense. And I remember him telling me after the surgeries, these these surgeries

fixed things that had been bothering me since junior hockey, that I had been limited in my movement and I'd been having to make different moves to compensate for those limitations. And now all of a sudden I can move however I want. And since then, he's had the second best save percentage in the NHL behind only Allmark in the last two seasons. Now, limited sample. He has not been carrying guys. He was the backup in Vegas. He played a little bit.

He played well. And last year, he didn't have to do much behind Hellebuck. So if you're going to make Brasua your starter or your 1B, that's taken a risk. He's never proven he can do that. But man, have his stats look good? and his he looked like a different goalie since those surgeries. And Stolar's very similar. His numbers were better than Bobrovsky this year in Florida.

Didn't play as much, but his numbers, goal saved above expected, save percentage, all better than Bobrovsky. Will a team take the chance to give him a little more workload? Or will they look to the trade market, which has a ton of options? Boy, yeah. I mean, Brasois, it's tricky because you're right,

the sample size, right? Is he a legitimate one? Is he just a 1B or whatever? Anyway, but the better market would be the trade market. You're going to see bigger names. You mentioned Allmark. There's Jacob Markstrom. Does you see Sorrows?

So, I mean, if you're in New Jersey, is it just a slam dunk that Markstrom's your guy? Like, do you see out of Allmark, Markstrom and Sorrows? Do you see three trades, two trades, one trade, no trades? What happens here? That's a great question. To me, I think John Gibson belongs in that same tier. Maybe not quite. It hasn't played as well as those other guys lately because he's been stuck behind a terrible

ducks team that it doesn't matter how good you are. Your numbers are going to be bad there. But I think Gibson, because the way Lucas Dostall played for the ducks, he's the future in net there. I think Gibson could be moved. Markstrom, at this point, I would be surprised if Jacob Markstrom isn't traded. I think last year they asked him to waive his no trade clause and he did. and then they didn't move him, which is you don't see that very often asking a player to wave it and then not end up making the trade.

He lost a couple of his best buddies that had played on that team for a long time. I would be surprised if Markstrom's in Calgary, especially with Dustin Wolf being the future there, and he looks ready to take that next step. So I think you're going to get at least one big goalie trade. I'm hoping for my sake and just for the fun of the league, we get a couple of them. The UC Saro situation in Nashville is fascinating because they've got Yaroslav Ascarov, which is the best goalie prospect in the world. I think he's going to be one of the top five goalies in the NHL,

not that long from now. He is unbelievable. Do you get what you can for UCSarros before his contract expires and try to bet on the young kid? That's a big risk. UCSaros is one of the best in the world. I think it's going to be super, super interesting. The goalie market, the trade market's going to be fun.

The free agency market, maybe not as much fun, but the trade market's going to be great. And I think we see at least one, I'll say two goalie trades, It's like legitimate starters traded this offseason. I'm genuinely curious to see. Generally speaking, the league does not like teams to make significant transactions during the Stanley Cup final. But because this final is so long and runs up so close to the draft,

there might not be any choice. We might see some like a Jacob Markstrom trade could happen during the Stanley Cup final because there's only like two days after the final ends before the draft. That week and a half window we usually have, it's just a couple of days this year. So the league might have to lighten up on that regard and just allow teams to do that. Yeah, if I'm a team and I'm on the verge of acquiring Jacob Markstrom, I'm not waiting for some phantom protocol that's, yeah, because what if some other team swoops in and betters the offer?

Right? Yeah, you got to jump while you can. Yeah. And anyone that wants to trade for Markstrom, it's very interesting to me because it wasn't that long ago, we thought he was done. Like he had a down year in Calgary. They weren't good. Yep.

Everyone was like, well, he hit the age cliff. That ship has sailed. And last year, he bounces back with one of his best seasons ever. And, like, that Calgary defense was a wreck. Markstrom's safe percentage on high danger chances right in front of the net was better than anyone in the league. I think he showed he's got a lot of juice left. Like, I think you put him behind the devils. That team is scary.

Guys, I want to wrap up the show with a quick anecdote here from the city of Calais. where on the weekend. Now, so if you know the landscape of Calgary kind of as a city, they have that tower. That sort of, it's that iconic tower that's in the middle of the downtown core. On Monday, that tower will be lit up in orange and blue, which of course are the colors of their art travels, the Edmonton Oilers. They put out, the Calgary Tower put out a statement on the weekend saying, just to be totally clear, Calgary Tower will be lit blue and orange on Monday, June 10th,

for Action Anxiety Day and for no other reason whatsoever. We've got love for our neighbors to the north and all across this province. But no, never. So I got to say, I love that. Boy, they had to put that disclaimer out, though, didn't they? Well, New York runs into this all the time with the Empire State Building, right? Because the Empire State Building thinks of itself not as a New York building, but like a global building.

So they will light up the colors, excuse me, in the colors of a non-New York team and celebrate them. And people are like, what the hell are you doing? So like, good on Calgary for keeping it,

you know, keeping it local, man. Like, nobody wants to see those colors in Calgary right now. Like, these are dark times. I remember being 14 years old as an Islanders fan

and watching the Rangers and the Stanley Cup. It was some of the darkest, darkest days I can imagine. It was, it was bleak, man. It was hard to watch. And nobody in

Calgary is enjoying this shit. Like Ian, you wrote the column about is Edmonton Canada's team. And they're sure is shit not Calgary's team. So good for them for kind of getting ahead of this one. But there's still going to be people that aren't on Twitter. And they look up on Monday and they're going to be like, dude, the hell. This is why sports are so great. I love it.

Sports are the best. There's a building that's afraid to light up two different colors because of sports. It's awesome. It's so great. I love it. I love it. No, well said, well said. Well, said. We'll leave it there, guys.

This was awesome. This segment, the show just flew by. We want to thank everybody for listening to this Monday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. If you're enjoying us, leave us a five-star rating and review. You know, Laz and I and Jesse and Chris Flannery of the gang, we would certainly appreciate that. Your next edition of the Athletic Hockey Show will come your way on Wednesday. Not one but two shots. McAdo and Gentile will be by.

They'll break down game two preview, game three of the state. Stanley Cup final, but Laz, Jesse, myself, we'll be back with you again next week.