The Athletic Hockey Show - Sidney Crosby exits Game 5 with injury, Florida Panthers may be finally settling in, and a look at Thursday's slate of games

Episode Date: May 12, 2022

Jesse Granger gets the call-up to sit in the host chair as Ian is on vacation, and with Sean, recaps Wednesday night's playoff action, including Sidney Crosby's injury and the Rangers' comeback, Florida Panthers are starting to look like the team we saw in the regular season, and a look at Thursday night's games.To wrap up, the guys discuss a new shootout rule proposition, and in "This Week in Hockey History", a look back at what may be one of the weirdest stories in NHL history.Have a question for the show? Email [e-mail], or leave a VM [phone]!Save on a subscription to The Athletic: theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to a Thursday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show with as usual Sean McIndoo. I, Jesse Granger, am taking over in the host chair for Ian Mendez this week. Pretty excited to be on. I usually join you guys for Granger Things, but a full hour of me and Sean should be fun for the first time. There was some good hockey last night. Which of the three games last night peaked to your interest the most, Sean? I would have to go with the Rangers and penguins to not to push the competition too much here.

But I have another podcast that I do. Normally we record on Wednesdays during the day. And due to some circumstances, we had to record Wednesday night during the games. And we started recording, and it was two to nothing for the Penguins. And we basically did an autopsy of the Rangers season. And then, you know, as we're talking,

And we're talking about how, you know, boy, it was a great season and they made great progress, but this has got to be a real disappointing and, you know, Sterking this and Louis Deming that. And it was kind of like, oh, did Cindy Crosby just go off the ice? That's, that maybe isn't good. And then bang, bang, it's two to two and, and you go on from there. You know, obviously any time any team is facing elimination, there is a great drama inherent in that situation, especially when it's on home ice, especially when they were, I think. think it's fair to say probably the favorites heading into the series. And then to see them come back like that and just flip that series around to the point where now, Penguin's still up three to two.

Still a great position to be in. But as we're recording this, we're waiting to hear what the status of Sidney Crosby is. Boy, your best player and your best two goalies aren't around. I don't know how good I feel even with the lead that late in the series. I totally agree with you. I wish I could remember who tweeted out so I could give him credit. But somebody mentioned last night, the penguins looked like a different team without

Sidney Crosby on the ice, which is not that surprising. But so did the Rangers. It felt like the Rangers were a different team after Sidney Crosby left. And if he can't play, you have to wonder how much momentum, how much confidence that gives the Rangers with the way that that game ended. And like, I don't think even prior to that, I think there was not a lot. to take. I mean, it was 3-1 Pittsburgh. They were winning that game. And even the one game, like, the Rangers hadn't outplayed the Penguins for long stretches in this series.

They had, I mean, they haven't done it all year, right? This team hasn't won games at five-on-five all year. They've just gotten really good goaltending and been able to overcome some of the, like, getting out shot, getting out-chanced. And in this series, it just wasn't working. As soon as that Sydney Crosby injury happens, I felt like the Rangers were the better team. They were the more energized team. It's going to be so interesting, especially if Crosby can't go in the next game, to see if that carries over or if the penguins can kind of reload and say, all right, all right, Crosby's out. Like you said, they're on their third goalie. But if they can relax and kind of get their footing back under them, I still think Pittsburgh's the better team.

I think you might be right. I mean, man, Cady Crosby had been so good all season and in this series and it goes without saying I mean you just hate to see this and even if you're a Rangers fan look I've Rangers fans are allowed to be to be happy that if Sidney Crosby

doesn't play because it's you want the Rangers to win I get that but you hate to see it go this way it does give you know look there's a difference between losing a player in the middle of a game when you can't really adjust and having a couple of days to process it and change up what you need to change.

But one thing that you and I have talked about in the past is how game-to-game momentum in the NHL playoffs really isn't a thing in the way that we like to imagine it is. Every game seems to just be a fresh start. In-game momentum maybe is a different thing, but game-to-game, you don't really see it. But whenever I'm looking at a team like the Rangers, it has to make a big comeback, I'm always wondering, you know, even if they get a win, okay, but what's actually changed? You know, if you're down 3-0, 3-1 in a series, you get a win, okay, but has anything changed to make us think that we can actually do this? And here, I mean, if you're the Rangers, you're looking at this right now, well, we got these guys.

We've absolutely, we go into Pittsburgh. You know, they don't have, if they don't have Sid, we can win that game, absolutely. And then we come back to it, and the garden's going to be rocking and we're favorites again in game seven. It's just, you know, I mean, it almost feels not worth saying that, wow, Sidney Crosby getting hurt as a game changer. But it absolutely is. And again, we don't know as we're recording this if he's even going to miss game six or what the situation is. But obviously, especially given his history, you see him go down and leave like that. Boy, this looks bad for a Penguins team that, as I said, almost felt like they had.

their ticket punch to the next round. Yeah, you mentioned the garden rocking. How cool was that atmosphere? It's been a while since we've seen Madison Square Garden like that. I've been to 30 of the 32 ranks. Madison Square Garden is my favorite one. I haven't seen it like that loud and crazy in a while. That was really fun to watch last night.

And it was quiet when it was too much. I mean, that was, you know, I mean, it's New York. So, New York, you rarely get that dead quiet that you get in some arenas, because, you know, even when the fans are shell-shocked, they'll tell you that. You know, they'll let you know. But it was, it was quite, I mean, it's, it's, you know, I know there's rangers fans out there probably be like, yeah, you wrote us off. We never stopped believing.

The fans at the building seemed like they weren't, weren't believing very much when it was 2-0. And, uh, but, you know, that's been part of the story of this, this playoffs. And this season is, is the comebacks. And, you know, 2-0 isn't. game over like it was maybe a few years ago. And we saw that in the Pittsburgh game, and we saw that in even more pronounced way

in the Washington, Florida game, which, boy, I mean, you hate to talk about Washington Capitals playoff collapses because we've only got an hour, but that was, that's a frustrating one, because they had them. They absolutely had the, arguably the best team in the league

right down on the mat and they let them up. Yeah, that was a great transition. The Panthers, I, I've been kind of waiting for this. And like, obviously, they're the cardiac cats all season long. This is what they did all year. It was come from behind. Maybe not three nothing, but they did have a few of those. And for me, it was more so just looking like themselves. They, they were fast. They were playing in transition. They were turning defense into offense so quickly. Barkov doing what he's done for so long. I don't know. I, For me, that was the first time in this playoffs that the Panthers. I know they'd won two games prior to that,

but this was the first time that I really felt like, okay, maybe that regular season Panthers team has arrived here in the playoffs and we can actually see them. Do you think that this is a sign of things to come? Or is that just a, I mean, there was a lot of open ice and that game turned into just a back and forth shootout and that suits them. Or do you think this is, are we finally starting to see them settle in and maybe be this offensive team?

that they were in the regular season here in the playoffs. Yeah, I think as a relatively young team that hasn't really had playoff success, that is one of those games that makes you, you look around the room and you go, guys, we can do this. Like, this is, you know, this is our first, not even game, period, period and a half, where we really look like what we know we can do. Now, let's keep that going. Now, we just finished saying momentum in the playoffs, game to game, not here.

huge and and obviously you go back to Washington for game six. The script could could flip again, but it's, it's certainly for for the Panthers, you've got to say, okay, that's the level we need to be at. And the danger, and I know this well as a lead fan, the danger is that they look around and go, okay, look at it. See, we can flip a switch when we need to. Right.

And, you know, we can go down two goals, three goals, four goals in the regular season, happened a few times. and we can flip the switch. And of course, in the playoffs, it's usually not that easy. So it will be interesting to see because in the other room, if you're Washington, and that's a veteran team. They've won a cup a lot of those guys. And, you know, they're not going to hang their heads and quit.

But there's got to be a feeling you know when you're an eight seed. You've got to take advantage when the opportunity is there. And they worked hard to get the opportunity and see it disappear like that. It's got to be demoralizing. I'm really curious to watch the start of game six because I, you know, maybe this is one of the games where it does carry over. And we see the Panthers come out flying and the caps are flat. Or maybe, you know, the Panthers are feeling a little good about themselves. And they crack the door open again.

And a Washington team that knows how to win kicks it down on them. We'll see. Very, very hard to predict game to game. But at the end of the day, when you're the best team in the series and you've got a three, two series lead, that's the position you want to be in. And it didn't look like it was going to be that way. And boy, if you're a Capitals fan, you're just clenching your teeth over seeing a game that you thought you had in your back pocket slip away like that. For sure. I have been a Sergei Bobrovsky backer for a very long time.

I've been waiting for him to prove everyone wrong in the playoffs for a very long time. And I'm still waiting. Sergei, I need you. Like, he made some big saves down the stretch, but you can't go down three nothing to the eight seat at home in a game five. It's just, what is it about Sergey Bobrovsky that he just has not been able to, like this year was a resurgence for him. He was much better than he was the last couple of years. He was no longer that albatross of a contract. Like he was a great goalie this season.

And then the playoffs get here. And like in the past with Columbus, he had bad playoff runs. And it was always like, well, he's playing on Columbus. Like they're outmatched and he's tired from carrying him all year. Well, this year he's got the best team in hockey. And he's still struggling in the playoffs. I want him so badly to turn this around and and have a playoff run that a career like his deserves. And he just does not seem to be.

able to put it together. Yeah, and it's frustrating and you don't see a lot of 120 plus point teams going to the playoffs where you're still kind of wondering if we're going to see a goal-tending situation. Right. Look, a lot of us thought this was the year Spencer Knight takes the torch, not even a torch passing, but just takes it from Sergei Bavrovsky. That didn't happen.

Like you said, Bavrofti is quite good. Led the league in wins, good numbers, and Spencer Knight was maybe. Maybe not as good as we thought he might be, but you do wonder. I mean, it's, it's, you get to game six. I don't know that at this point it feels too late to make any sort of changes. But, you know, they get on to round two, which it looks like they're likely to do. That, that's still in play. And it's, it's certainly one where, especially in this series where you looked at it and said, okay, hey, what's, what do we all know is Washington's,

weak spot. It's in goal, of course. So this is the only matchup the Panthers are going to get where you looked at it and went big edge in goal to the Panthers. And it hasn't quite been that way, which is, you know, this first round, and I'm not, I'm not going to start talking about it in past tense for the Panthers and the Capitals. There's still, uh, still a couple of games to go potentially. But if Florida moves on, this did expose some, some cracks. and create some questions, I think, around that team. And it'll be interesting to see if they move forward, the competition level is only going to crank up in the next round. For sure.

So we go from a series where there's a lot of questionable goaltending to, one, where I think has been the best goaltending overall of any series in the playoffs. And I've been so impressed with Ottinger, 23-year-old kid in his first playoffs. And he's, I think, leads the league in safe percentage in the playoffs right now, has been phenomenal. Obviously, Jacob Markstrom has been one of the best goalies all year, leads the league and shutouts, he's doing it again for Calgary. This series has kind of been the traditional playoffs, like one-nothing, two-one wins almost every night, not much open ice. There's a lot of

tight checking games going on here. What do you think between the stars and flames? Yeah, it's been, obviously, goals very much at a premium. I thought the first two games of the series were kind of ugly, boring games. They were the sort of games where if it's your team playing and certainly your team winning, you don't care. And we get into this every year. There's always some team or two that everyone else goes, oh, they're boring and that team's fans go, yeah,

but it wins. And we go, yeah, we're not disputing that, but still we don't want to watch it. And that was this series for the first two games. But since then, this has been a really good series. Bad Blood, low scoring, in some cases, sure, but with chances, you know, low scoring with great goaltending is fun. Right.

You know, low scoring where you're making 18 saves that hit you in the chest is not. But this, it's been good and it's been, you know, one of those series where you're sitting there, you know, the excitement from this series comes from the moment you sit down and watch the first period, the next goal might be the goal that decides it. And who's going to make the play? Because, you know, nothing's going to be easy. There's, there's not going to be any bad goals allowed. So who's going to be the one that makes the big play?

Who's going to be the one that, that steps up and, you know, Johnny Grudeau, a couple of games ago getting the penalty shot. Classic moment. And you're sitting there going, man, this is your guy. This is the guy that is, you know, it's his job to, you know, to get that goal. And, you know, we saw earlier, you know, him with a breakaway. and not scoring scores on the penalty shot. You know, Andrew Manjia Pani finally shows up last night, all of these things.

It's fun to see. And it's, it's been an ugly series in a lot of ways. And it's not a series that you would show to a new hockey fan to convert them. But there's been a lot here to like. And full credit to Dallas, too, because a lot of people thought, you know, this is Calgary in five games. This is their speed bump on the way to the battle of Alberta. Right. Dallas is giving them all they can handle.

And that's, Dallas is doing what the Dallas stars do. And that's, that's a good compliment to pay to a team in the playoffs, especially a road team, an underdog team, that they can sort of exert their will. Not that Daryl Sutter is going to run away from a defensive battle, but this, this series has felt like Dallas stars hockey, even even the games they're not winning. Yeah, for sure. And they've done this before. They just did it two years ago in the bubble.

They beat a Colorado team that was obviously decimated with injuries, but was a fast team that they made look not so fast and slowed down and made them play in the mud. And then they did it to the Golden Knights in the conference final. And then they obviously ran into Tampa Bay. But the way I view the West, I don't know if this is the right way to view it, but the way I view it is which one of these teams is going to give Colorado a fight. And I think everyone kind of pointed to Calgary before. the playoffs, but I kind of, like, I don't know, I've watched the flames too many times over the last

few years, look like a really good team in the, in the regular season, and then just not be that team in the playoffs. And I got to admit through five games, I'm kind of worried about the flames. I, like, I'm, I'm almost starting to lean towards maybe is that St. Louis, Minnesota winner going to be the one to push Colorado in the West? Yeah, I don't know. I still think Colorado's the best team in the Pacific. Absolutely. Yeah. They have not looked like the swarming, fast team that they were in the regular

season thus far. And that's a credit to Dallas. They do that to everyone. Yeah. No, they have. And it's, it's, you know, you still feel good about where this is at if you're Calgary. You know, I mean, that's, that's the thing.

And maybe that's the mark of a good team. And, you know, we'll talk briefly about, I'm sure about Colorado. and yeah, you come into any series. You want to have a sweep. You want to have blowouts. You want it to be easy. But it's usually not easy in the playoffs. And like we said, Dallas is playing Dallas hockey and making every second of the game hard.

Every inch is a battle. Every goal is just a fight to get. Calgary is still up in the series. they even even when they were down two games to one they have pushed back and they are coming through this I don't know you know again series not over we're gonna all these three two series

we'll put the same disclaimer on all of them certainly certainly not over especially going into Dallas for game six but full credit to Calgary in the sense that you know it's going to be a battle you got to come through a few of them And so far they're doing it and they've played, I would argue, their best two games of the series in the last two games. And that's what you want to see. Yeah, for sure. Like you mentioned, all three series go to three to two. And today we have four more series all already at three to two. I think early in this first round, we were kind of getting nervous. Like, man, this is a lot of blowouts. This is not the close, awesome action we're used to for Stanley Cup hockey. And it hasn't, we haven't, we haven't maybe. necessarily got all the playoff games, or sorry, overtime games that we're used to. But

if we end up with seven game sevens, I think we'll take it, right? I mean, we still got a ways to go. But these series are shaping up to have more game sevens than we've seen in a long time. Yeah, all closed series except for the one. And that, what we've kind of lacked in overtime and last second classics, yeah, nobody remembers. Nobody remembers the, the, the, the blowouts in game two and three as long as you get to those, you know, those big finalies. And it's, yeah, it's out of the seven, I don't know. I mean, if we're almost certainly not going to get seven game sevens, but we could

absolutely get three or four. That starts to feel kind of likely. And that'll make for a great weekend of hockey, too, to have it set up so that, you know, we get to settle in on a Saturday night potentially and watch three or four. game sevens, that would be, that would be something else. At least it would be, yeah, for you guys. I mean, I'll be, I'll be watching my, my Leafs collapse. But it's, um, the rest of you who can flip around the channels. That'll be fun. Well, let's, let's start with that one. Toronto, Tampa Bay tonight, obviously, uh, Toronto took a three, two series lead. I feel like, I mean,

I think you are like most Leafs fans just waiting for the bad stuff to happen. Yep. Um, as someone who has no attachment to this. Look, I have no attachment to this team. I think we talked about this last week, too. When I watched these two teams, I don't know, man, there's something about Toronto. And like, maybe it's, like, I like, I like watching Toronto. I subconsciously root for Toronto just because it's fun hockey. Like, I'd much rather watch them than the, this Dallas stars. It's just more entertaining to watch. So I end up rooting for Toronto a lot. And to me, this series looks like two really talented teams, incredibly talented teams with tons of star power on both sides and just looks like one team is a little fat and happy with two cups. And the other team is the team that has

been banging its head against the wall and wants to finally get some winning. I don't know. I'm not saying Tampa Bay doesn't want to win, but it just, Toronto feels fresher to me. It's so, it's so remarkable what one game can do because, yeah, I mean, what you just described, you know, one one team is deprived and hungry and one team's maybe a little fat and happy. That game flips differently in the third period a couple nights ago. And it's one of these teams is a champion that wants to stay champion and the other team doesn't know what it takes to be champion. And look, after game four, obviously Sunday night was a complete disaster for the Leafs. They go in to Tampa.

They get smoked. 48 hours of everybody in the hockey world talking about how this Leafs team mailed it in, they don't start on time, you know, all the demons are coming back. And their answer to that is they go out and they play an awful first period at home in front of a very loud building. And they just sleepwalk through the first period and they're down to nothing. And I tell you that the autopsies were ready to go. Like everybody is ready to bury this team.

And then finally, for arguably the first time in this era of this team, certainly of the, you know, the quote unquote core four era, which is really now a core five with Morgan Riley, all the stars at the same time have their big game. and all, you know, four goals, all of them from the star players directly created by the star players. This is what the vision has always been for the Brandon Chanahan, Kyle Duba's era, was, you know what? We're building around skill and the reason we do that is because when push comes to shove, our best players will make the plays that your players can't make. You know, our best are going to be better than your best. and it didn't work against Columbus and Montreal, teams that on paper didn't have players that could rival what the Leafs had, and yet we're still able to shut it down.

Tampa can put out, you know, Tampa's best five can match the Leafs, but for one night at least, it was the Leafs guys who got it done. I will tell you right now, there is not a Leafs fan on the planet who is celebrating anything right now. You know, you can feel good about the team. confident. You don't have to do the whole doom and gloom act. And you can say that they played well. And they have. There have been six periods, I would say, in this series, that the Toronto Maple Leafs have dominated the two-time champion Tampa Bay Lightning's. And that's all of game one, first period of game two, and the last two periods that we just saw. That's not bad. We haven't

seen that from pretty much any other team over the last two years. And look, this Tampa team, they've got to be exhausted. They played a ridiculous amount of hockey, go on down the list. But on home ice, a team that never loses two games in a row, game six, a huge amount of pride, a team in the Leafs that, I hate to say it, still has this infuriating habit of patting themselves on the back and easing up whenever they do anything well. And, you know, everyone's talking about how great they are now. So it would be very in character for them to just kind of come in and take it easy.

in game six. I still feel like this one's probably seven games. But here we go again. Toronto Maple. 0 and 7. 0 and 7 in elimination games in the Austin Matthews era, by which I mean with the chance to eliminate the other team. Oh.

We'll see. O and 7 with the chance to eliminate 1 in 8 following a win in the playoffs. Those are the two big numbers to look at. Hey, we've been saying all year, the Leafs have got to slay the dragon. Here you go. Home ice, two-time chance. You got them on the ropes. Get your sword.

Slay the dragon. Let's see what you can do. Or we go back for Game 7 Saturday night in Toronto, in which case all bets are off. I can't even imagine how wild that'll be. Yeah, those are pretty damning numbers, the 0 and 7, 1 and 8. As much as I am rooting for the Leafs, just because I think it's more fun when that team is still in the playoffs and they're entertaining to watch. I do think we're heading for game seven also.

And I feel like, man, what a game seven that could be. I mean, I'm getting ahead of myself. But I was talking about it yesterday with Rob. Like this series, the stars are really shining. Like, obviously there are a lot of stars on both sides of the ice. And that makes it easy. But like that game the other night, it's who's scoring the goals? It's Stephen Stamcoast, Victor Headman, John Tavaris, Morgan Riley, Nealander,

McDonough, Austin Matthews. Like it's, there was no, like, and I said this yesterday to Rob, like, when, when Kivirontas scores a hat trick in game seven, it's cool, like the guy that no one's ever heard of. But for me, give me the superstars playing at their best, like battling it back and forth, goal after goal. Like, yeah, I don't know. There's something about just the star power in this series has enthralled me. I am so locked in on that series more so than the others just because, like I said, I feel like there are so many stars and they're all delivering. And like you said, maybe for the first time for Toronto, they're all playing their big game at the same time. It's really fun to watch.

So, all right, we've got three games. We still have three games to talk about. We'll hit those on the other side of the break. So don't go away. All right. So we already discussed Toronto and Tampa Bay, but we still have three other game sixes tonight, starting with Carolina and Boston, which has been a very back and forth series. You mentioned the lack of momentum transferring from one game to the other. I feel like that's really true in this one.

It feels like Carolina was starting to take control of this series in the last game. But like you said, things switch quickly. It's going back to Boston. What do you expect from the Bruins tonight? Yeah, I feel like I learned my lesson because I, like a lot of people got burned a little bit with the first two games. With Carolina, looking great, kind of, I don't want to say running over the Bruins. I feel like that would be a little extreme. but being clearly the better team.

And, you know, it came back into Boston, you sort of thought, oh, you know, is this, is this going to be it? And even if they get a split, this one could be quick. And then Boston, to their credit, you know, I mean, this is an older team, some guys still around from the Stanley Cup a decade ago. These guys don't quit. They did not lay down. They did not. Even as a wild card, everyone's already, you know, talking about who Carolina is going to get in the next round. They fight back.

Play great. And, you know, it didn't carry over to game five. but this is, you know, so far, if home team wins every game. I don't necessarily think that's going to, that's going to stop. This one feels like a long series, a game seven. It's weird that we always say that.

You know, the game sixes are so strange, right? Because we sit there and go, oh, it feels like a game seven. So this team's got to win. And we always pick, you know, a lot of times the underdog. But I'm not sure the brunes are on home ice. I don't know. You know, there's a lot of pride here. we don't know. This could be it for the Patrice Bergeron era in Boston.

So, you know, I got a feeling they don't want to have it end on home ice. Obviously, Carolina gets to say in that, and they're playing really well, even with the goaltending situation. But, yeah, I still like Boston. Yeah, you brought up Carolina's goaltending situation. I think it's fascinating that they can be doing what they're doing with just like i guess Pittsburgh's doing a similar thing but like how good is this team if freddie anderson can can come back um he was so solid this year i was the moment they acquired him i was excited to see what he would do because i've i've always kind of said i think it's i think it's easier to play goalie for carolina than any team in in hockey um i

thought them letting nidelkovitch go was a big sign that they feel similarly that it's like maybe that was a little bit of a mirage. We realized that it's easy to play goalie behind the system. You put a goalie as talented as Freddie Anderson behind him, and I was like really pumped for that. It sucks that he's been out, but they've still been able to control games. If they can get past this series, if they can get Freddie Anderson and Net, to me, that really changes things out east. Because I think Carolina, even without him, is dangerous. But with him and Net, I really do think that I think that's the piece that this team has not had the last couple years.

I think they get good goaltending in the regular season and they get good stats, whether it was Morazic or whoever, and they kind of trick themselves into thinking like, all right, we fixed the goaltending. And then the playoffs get here and it never works. I feel like Freddie Anderson, they may have actually fixed it this time. I know that's not specific to this series because he obviously, we're not sure when he's going to be back. But I don't know. To me, the interesting thing with Carolina is if they can get Freddie Anderson in there and play as well as they have in front of Ranta, this team is really, is really dangerous. They really are. And that is, you know, you don't want to get ahead, but the story or a story of the first round has been goalies being injured.

And you start thinking, okay, well, who's going to come back and who maybe is, you know, is going to be there. I do have to. And I know every Hurricanes fan knows what's coming and they don't want to hear it. As a Leafs fan, I do have to caution you. Freddie Anderson's track record in the playoffs has not been great. Or at least it's not been great in Toronto. and even to some extent, Anaheim,

does that have anything to do with what would happen in front of a, you know, frankly better team in Carolina? Not necessarily, but the Freddie Anderson game seven experience is not one that I would recommend. So, maybe the best way to do it is to not get there. It's funny,

as we're saying this, and as I'm giving my full-throated defense of the Bruins and why they're going to win, I went and checked our daily picks that we make. And I picked Carolina tonight. So that gives you a sense of, you know, where I'm at wavering on this. And you've got Boston. So. Yes, I do.

And we should point out, because if people don't know, there's six of us that make our picks on every game, every day on the athletic. And right now you and I are leading the pack. You're a game ahead of me. So this is, we should maybe put spoiler tags around all of this because we've, we've been doing, well, we've been doing well-ish. We're not exactly crushing it, but... I think my record is 20 and 12 now, which doesn't sound great until you realize, I think

at one point I was leading at 7 and 6. Yeah. Like early on with the first, because I mean, the first two games in every series were so unpredictable. I feel like we were all wrong, like right off the bat. I feel like we're starting to get a feel for these series now. And it has been fun reading the comments because, I mean, it's just nothing but people go, have you not watched the games? You idiots, how could you possibly think that St. Louis is going to win

tonight? And then you just, you know, St. Louis wins and you go back. And it's like, oh, okay, that was, that was interesting. I still don't, I think all six of us have, for example, picked Florida in every game. That was the one I was going to bring up. Well, someone posted in the comments, they're like, has anyone picked the capitals in a single game in this series? And I'm, and I thought, and I'm like, yeah, actually, I don't think we have. And it's because Florida lost game one. So then of course, we're all like, well, they're not going to not win game two. So then we all pick them.

And then we're thinking, okay, it's even. By the way, if you're like, well, how come you, you know, you got to go off the board a little bit. I picked Nashville to win game one against Colorado because I, my gut feeling on that series said, this is the series where the underdog wins game one. We all freak out. And then the home and then the favorite crushes him for four straight games. So I thought Colorado is going to win him five, but Nashville would win game one. And I got roasted for that, like mercilessly.

So don't, you know, it's, it's a weird thing because, you know, what happens is because of the format, there's six of us. Like five of us might, like I think, for example, five of us have picked the wild tonight. And I'm the only one who picked the blues. And people go like, wow, well, what's going on? How could you think the series was that lopsided? Well, we're not saying it's lopsided. You know, sometimes you flip six coins and it comes up heads five times. That doesn't mean, you know, what's going to be.

We didn't all get together and go like, hey, we all agree like Minnesota's definitely winning. Like one of us throw a vote to St. Louis. This isn't a survivor. We're not planning it that way. We're, we just got to go with, you know, with their guts. And a lot of us, you know, it might be a 55-45, but you land on the same same place as everyone else. But, yeah, apparently. So anyways, whatever happens tonight, Boston, Carolina, if Boston wins, listen to the podcast.

If Carolina wins, go based on what's in the picks. Either way I'll look smart. Genius. Speaking of our terrible picks, I was saying this yesterday. I think the hardest series for me to get a feel for is Minnesota, St. Louis. I feel like every game I watch, I'm like, man, I don't know which. And honestly, it's both teams are playing well. Like I think these teams, I think St. Louis has so much scoring power.

I mean, they had nine 20 goals scores in the regular season, which is unbelievable, like unfathom. I don't even know how you can get nine guys on the same team to score 20 goals. and they seem to have Minnesota's number. Their record against Minnesota was incredibly good going into this series, but Minnesota has kind of fought back. I honestly thought this might, the way it started, I thought it might be a short series for St. Louis.

Obviously, my feel has not been right. Minnesota has stretched it out, but the Blues do have a three-two lead going into tonight in St. Louis. So what do you think is going to happen? Yeah, and I pick St. Louis. So here's why Minnesota's going to win. No, look, it's, we said game to game momentum.

I mean, this has been such a weird series because this is the series that at the beginning everyone went seven games, right? That's why you guys are all picking Minnesota tonight, not because you think Minnesota's better in St. Louis, but because that's the outcome we need to get to game, the game seven that we have all assumed this series would go to.

And it's headed there, but, like, where's the overtime? Where's the classic? Where's the, you know, the three, two? like there hasn't been that each if each individual game makes you think one of these teams is significantly better than the other um and it's it's added up to a close series but it's it's been a very strange one because if you um you know if if you especially if you have just tuned into one of these games you know like you're not a fan of either of these teams but there was one night where you're like you know what i'm going to watch this game you have come away with an impression that one of these teams is is head and shoulders above the other and

It's not been the case. This might be one of those series where, you know what, maybe it's 5-2, 6-1 all the way down the right. And then we get to the game 7, and that'll be the 3-2 overtime classic. I would take that because it's been an entertaining series. It's been a fun one. And I've been impressed with St. Louis. And I don't know if it's a, you know, they won a couple years ago. Maybe we move on and Minnesota's the shiny new toy.

And, you know, I did see a lot of people. certainly picking Minnesota, but St. Louis has reminded us that, like, hey, you know, we're the last team that it wasn't the lightning to win the Stanley Cup. And we're the last team to win a Stanley Cup in a full real season that, you know, in front of fans and all of that stuff. Maybe don't write us off just because we run up against a pretty good team. What are your thoughts, especially as a Vegas guy, on Mark Andre Fleury in this series? Yeah, I'll be, I'll be honest. It's, it's a tough decision. I don't think it should be out of the question to go to Cam Talbot. Now, having said that, I think Mark Andre Fleury has played fine. I don't think he's led in many soft goals. I think most of the

goals have been, like, you can explain, like, okay, that was a tough save to make. I do think that St. Louis is really shooting for a lot of rebounds. It kind of reminds me of the cup final in year one in Vegas, because Flurry is so aggressive. The Capitals basically took the game plan of we're going to draw him out of his net, and we're either going to draw him out and pass it across for a wide open because he's challenging so much, or we're going to shoot low because as a goalie, the further you get out of your blue paint, the more dangerous rebounds are because you got more room to, you got more space to travel to get back into position because you're so far out there. And I do think that Flurdy has been overaggressive at times in this series.

and I think there's plenty of reason to stay with Flurry. I mean, he's the veteran guy. He's been in a million of these games. He just became the third winningest goalie in playoff history. There's tons of reasons. And like I said, I don't think he's been bad to where you're saying, man, we're like, I don't know if we can win with this guy in that. Like, I think he's been solid.

But at the same time, was it 13 wins in a row, Cam Talbot had? Like, Cam Talbot was insane at the end of the season. So you have this goalie who was playing really well. And he was your guy prior to the deadline. And so I don't know. Their backs are against the wall. They absolutely have to win tonight. I don't know if this is the game.

Like I think maybe if you were going to go to Cam, you probably should have done it in game five when it was 2-2. I think putting him in in his first game in St. Louis in an elimination game is a tough spot. I think I would definitely stick with Flurry here. But if this team gets through St. Louis and they win two more games where they're having to outscore St. Louis, I do think Cam Talbot should be an option. Obviously, I think the world of Flurry, everyone who has read any of my stuff or listens to me knows that. I personally would stick with Flurry, but I don't think it's crazy to consider going to Camp Talbot at all.

It would be such a gutsy move to make that change now after. I'm surprised, because I remember, game one, Minnesota, there was some question, who's going to start? who's going to get the first start. And, you know, I remember thinking that's obviously a big, a very big decision to make, but we're going to see both these guys in the series at some point. And no, it's been all flurry so far. And look, the other thing is, and this shouldn't be a factor, but it is. One of these guys is the guy your GM went and paid up big to get at the deadline as the big splashy acquisition. And to turn around now and say, you know what, with the season on the line,

I'm going to go to the other guy that you tried to replace. That takes some guts. And, you know, it's if you think it gives you a slightly better chance to win, your season's on the line. You got to do it. But that's very often not the way that it works. Yeah, I think it's just going to be a tough spot. Down 3-2 going into St. Louis.

That's a, you're not doing Camp Talbot any favors throwing him in that there. No. All right. And then our last game tonight is maybe the most dramatic of these. I think just because the Edmonton Oilers are facing elimination, they just lost game six, or sorry, game five to go down three to two to the Los Angeles Kings. We've all been tight. It seems like we hype up the Battle of Alberta every year only for one of them.

I tried not to because I knew that, you know, the hockey gods, if they hear you, they they find a way to to take it from you but I'm still I'm not sold I'm not sold on the Kings or you know as much as I respect what they've done so far and I'm not certainly not willing to turn you know to start past tensing the Oilers but game five was that was a tough one that was that was a brutal way to lose on home ice, boy, that was, that was rough. What were your thoughts on Connor McDavid's quote afterwards about if we,

if four goals has to be enough to win in the playoffs, I think is what he said. Yeah, I'm glad you brought it up. I was, I was going to ask you. I think it's,

I think it's a sign of a very, very frustrated player. I would, like, I think my initial thought when I hear that is, wow, that's not good leadership. A captain stepping up in front of the media and saying four goals has to be enough, basically saying, me and Leon are doing it. Our job, you guys need to be better on defense.

The goaltending has to be better. That's my initial thought. But when you put in the context of everything that's happened over his career, how things have led to this point, I think it's just, we ask these guys as captains and especially as the best player in the league and the face of hockey at times, we ask a lot of him. You have to be perfect. You have to be the right, the good, the best leader. You have to be the best captain. I think that is a, a sign of frustration. I think it's, uh, probably wishes he hadn't said it, but it's understandable considering what he and Leon did in that third period. I mean, they put them on the same line together. They, they hadn't done it in a while. And it was incredible how they took over that game. When, when, when they put them on the same

line together, it felt like every time those two touch the ice, It was four high danger chances on that shift. And then they'd go off the ice and the game would kind of go back to normal. And I almost found myself like counting the shifts down until McDavid's going to get on the ice again. And then as soon as he does, it was dominance. And they'd almost score or score. And when you do that as Carter McDavid and Drys Idol and you still lose the game, you score that huge power play goal, five minutes left to tie the game.

And it's like, it felt like, man, this is the moment for McDavid and Drysidal. they led this team back from two goals down. They're going to win this game. They're going to win this series. And then Adrian Kempay had other ideas. What did you think of it? Like I said, not a great quote, but I understand. The quote itself, when I first saw it, like, the next day, you know, popping up on Twitter or wherever it was, I thought, like, oh, no, this is it.

Here's, you know, finally, we've all, everyone outside of Edmonton, it feels like has been trying to manifest the Connery David Wants Out story. and despite no evidence that it was ever the case. But here it is. Finally, you know, here he's thrown his goal to end around to the bus. And then it quickly became apparent from the context that no, that's not what he was saying. He was saying we need to be better defensively, which, yeah, that's, that is always true in the playoffs. So I didn't think the quote was, despite my initial reaction, that concerning. You know, the way you describe that game, I've been saying for years, I always, I keep picking

the Oilers in the playoffs. And people always say, yeah, but the blue line, the depth, the goaltending. And I go, yeah, but what's going to happen when Connor and Leon just say, you know what, screw this, we're sick of it. We're going to drag this team. We will drag 18 carcasses over the finish line if we need to. And they have that game. And it felt like that game. And in fact, you know, this is a very Leafs fan thing of me to do, but it reminded me of the Toronto game. Right. It's the same thing. We talked about this is, this is what you want. your Toronto. The skill guys take over and they win you the game. And it happened in Edmonton except they didn't win the game. And it's, and I don't know, did you see this stat that the Oilers

are, have lost each of their last five playoff games where Connor McDavid and Leon Dressidel both score. How is that even possible? How is that, uh, you know, that is, uh, that stunned me when I saw it. Because you're, you're used to seeing, you know, you probably see it all the right they pick any random player on any team and they go their record when he scores is seven and one and you're like yeah because they got a goal like that's right you're telling me they got an extra goal in that game you only need three yeah there's yeah so there's they get one from this guy um that blew me away and i don't know if that means anything i don't know if that's just you know hey weird stuff happens sometimes but um that i mean that's that's what you want you're the

oilers you're sitting down going we want to feel like we start with a two nothing lead because is Connor McDavid and Leonhardtner-Sider are both going to do something no one else could do that's going to create a goal. That should be enough, but it hasn't been so far. But, again, you know, L.A. is a mostly young team. We're not expected to be here. Like, I'm not slamming any doors.

I still feel like Edmonton gets through this. But again, I say this as someone who's been picking the Oilers for five years now. Yeah, I just looked. It's me. and Lu Shizian on the Oilers tonight. We all, we three picked the Oilers to force a game seven. I don't know if that's a little bit of wishful thinking on my part. It's a pretty solid group, but I don't know.

I think we're, I think, I think, I think us three are actually in first, are, are the leaders are the top three in the standing for now. I mean, we're like one game ahead of last place, but that, I guess that's a good omen for the Oilers. So the, the, the gambling guy, the computer model guy, and the just picks. whatever out of the air, just to be a contrarian guy, all on the same page. What could possibly go wrong? Definitely. Awesome. Well, those are the seventh series.

I feel like we got them all set. When we come back, we are going to get to your mailbag questions. So don't go away. All right. Let's open up the mailbag for the week and hear what the listeners are thinking about. And as a reminder, you can reach us anytime at the athletic hockey show at gmail.com. Or you can leave a voicemail at 840. 445-4-5-8-4-9.

We're going to start out with Patrick from Chicago who says, Sean, I know you love everything about the shootout and wouldn't change a thing, but I have a rule change. He's got a rule-change proposal for it. The shooter can go behind the net. I'm 100% in favor of getting rid of shootouts, but if it's here to stay, this might make it a little more exciting. Thoughts? Yeah, well, I agree with you about getting rid of the shootout. I got to be honest When I first saw this

My knee-jerk reaction was no way Dumb idea My second reaction was Maybe I mean Obviously if you're going to let guys Go behind the net And try wraparounds or come around

You have to get rid of the rule that says the puck has to move forward Which is sort of I think problematic questionably enforced as it is, but also nobody wants to see a shootout where it's like a video game. The guy's just spinning around. You may have to put probably a shot clock or something on there. I don't know. I've seen thousands upon thousands of breakaways in my life.

I've never seen someone intentionally go behind the net. So I feel like this would be something that would either never be done or would be done so rarely that maybe it would occasionally result in. the goal, but I feel like it would be pretty easy for a goalie to defend. Well, you tell me, you're from a goalie's perspective, if you know someone's going around the net, don't you just swing the stick around and knock the puck away from them? Or how does that work? Yeah, I do, that's, that's what I was going to go with this is I think if it, in a one-on-one situation, if the player's behind the net, the goalie has a massive advantage. Because when in regular play, you can't just necessarily tomahawk your stick. That's what I call it. Like, if you're

coming around on blocker side, if you're coming around the right side of the net, you for sure are going to tomahawk that stick along the ice to make sure there's no pass or wraparound attempt. But on those, you can't necessarily do that and just commit to the swing in your stick around because if that guy sauces a pass in front, you're way out of position for that shot. But if you know, it's just him and there's no one else that he can pass it to and you only have to worry about him, it seems like it'd be pretty easy to defend. I don't know if Patrick is hoping for some Michigan goals in the shootout, which would be sweet. Like, that was the first thing that popped in my head when I thought, when I saw you can go behind the net is, oh, man, I wonder when the first person is going to try a Michigan.

But it's, again, I think, I think a big part of the reason going behind the net is so dangerous. Like, to me, as a goalie, I hate when the puck's behind the net because you have to be on your goal line. You're sitting with your heels on your goal line. and whenever the puck comes out, it's really hard to get that depth that you need in order to make the save. But if it's just a one-on-one situation, it's no longer dangerous.

I agree with you. I don't think it would happen very often. And if it did happen, I don't think the goalie's going to have much trouble with it. I agree with you. I do love the idea of somebody going like Doug Gilmore, 93 playoffs behind the net, and just going back and forth around and around

and wearing the goalie out. But if you read the, occasional feature that I do with Ian and Sean Gentilly where we do rules court. We already saw this in the last one. If we're going to keep the shootout, the rule change we make is we change it from breakaways to two on ones, put a defenseman back there, two forwards coming in and then let them do whatever they want. That's the fix here.

I don't know. This one, I applaud the creativity, but I think this one's a no for me. I totally agree with the two on one. That sounds like a lot more fun than a shootout. You just get more variety of what happens. I don't know, he throws a defense. It feels a little bit like hockey too. It gives the defensemen something to do in the shootout.

So like you got these stay at home defensemen once the game goes to overtime. Even in three on three overtime, the stay at home guys are pretty useless. It actually gives them something to a way to impact these games. I like that. Yeah. Awesome. And then lastly, we've got Dan who said, Sean was discussing things he would address if he were the NHL commissioner. The first thing Sean should do when he becomes commissioner is to create a competition committee,

committee like the NFL. It's ridiculous the NHL is controlled by the GMs. A rule I want to see implemented is eliminating players playing the puck with their hands. Over the years, players have been allowed to play the puck more and more with their hands. Playing the puck with your hand in the offensive or neutral zone should be treated like icing. Playing the puck in the defensive zone should be a two-minute minor. The exception to all these is if your hand is on your stick. What do you think? So two things here. Playing the puck with your hand, it doesn't bother me too much. You know, if the puck is in the air, I'd rather have somebody grab it with a glove and

just drop it down rather than swinging with their stick or waiting for it to hit the ice and start bouncing around. I think there's even an argument you could make that, you know, should we start allowing hand passes in the neutral and offensive zones like we do in the defensive zone? I don't know if I feel strongly about that one way or another. As far as competition committee, I mean, we kind of have that. There are some players who are involved, but the rules are to, by the GMs, which stinks. I've said this many times that the, you know, the GMs are not

neutral parties here. They don't have the best interest of the sport at heart. They have the best interest of their own team and their own job security. And so it doesn't make sense to have them hold all the power. Although I'll say, I think the last time I went in this rant, I had somebody tell me that actually maybe the GMs don't have as much power these days as they did even a few years ago. So that's worth watching. But yeah, I would absolutely, I don't know if it'd be the first thing I do when I'm commissioner, but I change the way the rules get changed and made and implemented. But playing with your glove doesn't bother me. Yeah, I think there are some, I don't think you should be able to hand pass in the offensive zone because I think there's a skill to getting that puck down on your stick and passing it, whereas I think just hitting it over to the guy.

I don't know. I feel like that kind of takes the spirit out of it, like you're supposed to pass it with your stick. But I agree with you in that I don't think it's a bad thing at all that guys are. catching pucks with their hand. How many power plays would be ended because the guy couldn't catch the puck at the blue line. And like, what are you going to do? Just like, if you can't high stick it, you're there's not a lot you do there. There are a lot of plays that are saved by defensemen jumping up and grabbing that puck at the blue line and holding it in the zone late in the game, final minute. A great example is that Golden Knights Sharks game. Brent Burns jumped up and

grabbed that puck to keep it in right before he missed the net. And then it was, they scored with 0.0.07 seconds. left. That doesn't happen if Brent Burns isn't allowed to grab that puck with his stick or with his hand. Good point. All right. Now, let's wrap up the show with a look back at this week in hockey. Back on May 8th, 1988, amateur referees worked the New Jersey Devils Boston Bruins playoff games as NHL referees walked off due to a restraining order brought on by the Devils. Sean, explain this to me. Yes, I love this because when we were prepping for the show, you got to that. You were like, what the hell? And I was like, wait a second. Do you not know this story? And then, well, you can tell them what you told me about 1988. Yeah, 1988 was two years before I was born. So I do have an

excuse for not knowing. How are you even feeding yourself, you child? My, okay. So, but that that excites me because I get to tell you an abbreviated version of the craziest story maybe in NHL history. And if you don't know, then there's definitely some listeners out there who don't know. So it's 1988. The Devils have made the playoffs for the first time ever. Had it had in the last overtime goal in their last game, they make the playoffs. They went around.

They went another round. Now they're playing Boston in the conference final. Great underdog story. And in game four or five, I don't remember which game it is. But they lose. they don't like the officiating in that game and coach Jim Schoenfeld of the Devils waits for referee Don Koharski to come off the ice

so he can yell at him. And he basically follows him down the hallway yelling and screaming at him. This is the infamous, you fat pig, go have another donut and stuff like that, starts yelling at him. And at some point, he gets close to Don Koherski. Don Koharski stumbles or maybe gets pushed.

but you know sort of loses his balance and immediately says you pushed me you're done you know which yes I mean if a coach physically assaults a referee after the game that's going to be a massive suspension. Koharski says you push me you're done. Sean Felt says I never touched you. That's where the you know you fell you fat pig go have another donut and all this stuff. It's all captured on film. It's this it's this massive mess.

The NHL suspends Jim Schoenfeld. for indefinitely or for at least the next game. But we show up for game six, and the New Jersey Devils, it's Lou La Marello, is trying to get the suspension overturned. He wants to appeal the suspension. He wants his coach behind the bench for this crucial playoff game. Well, here's the problem.

According to the League Constitution, the appeal process is it has to go to the League president, who is John Ziegler. Nobody knows where John Ziegler is. John Ziegler is AWOL. He's off the map. Nobody can find him. Nobody can call him.

To this day, we do not know where John Ziegler was during all this. There are some rumors out there that are pretty wild. And yet nobody has ever stepped forward and said, here's what was actually going on. So the devils have nobody to appeal to. So they go to court and they get a restraining order from a judge that says, because we haven't been able to appeal, our coach gets to coach. So this is, by the way, all happening behind the scenes. We don't know it. We all think Sean Fell is suspended.

The game is about to begin. Jim Schoenfeld comes out and he's behind the bench. Now, as it turns out, the referee that night also happened to be the head of the officials union. And he says, no, we're not officiating if that guy's behind the bench. That guy assaulted a referee. He was suspended. If he's going to be there, we're not.

And they walk out. And the NHL literally minutes before the start of the game has no officials for this. this crucial playoff game. Again, conference final game. And they don't have anybody and they don't have the league president. And so what they end up doing is they basically get the three guys nearby who have some officiating experience. Wow. And they throw them out there.

So that's the amateur referees. One guy comes out in a referees jersey. Two guys come out wearing yellow windbreakers. So you'll sometimes hear this referred to as yellow Sunday. So they refs the whole game in that? They refed the whole game. I think they got a, like, linesman jerseys, like, after the first intermission or something.

They come out. Like, we're all sitting around. The game gets delayed by an hour or something. They have to announce to the fans that, you know, something has happened. Finally, the teams come back out. These officials come out. Two of them wearing what look like raincoats. Almost immediately, as the camera is watching these guys, one of them almost falls.

Like, he stumbles and, like, bumps into the other guy. And the other guy, like, helps him by. And you're just sitting there going. Oh my God, this is three stooges stuff. Right. Anyways, end of the day, the game goes off relatively without a hitch after that. Like there weren't any huge officiating problems. And then John Ziegler does eventually reappear and upholds the suspension and what have you.

But it was absolutely one of the wildest things. If you've never seen it, you know, go on YouTube and look it up, not just the Koharsky-Shonfeld confrontation, which you know, you may be. have seen before, but that there's some YouTube clips of like the actual broadcasts where the announcement, like Bob Cole and Harry Neal are just like, we don't know what's going on. The game was supposed to have started. We don't know where the teams are. We don't know, you know, anything that's going on. And just imagine this all on the backdrop of like imagine something crazy happening and

everyone being like, we don't know where Gary Bedman is. He's off the grid. We can't find him. We can't contact him for days at a time. It was absolutely the, quite possibly the most bizarre story in NHL history, which is really, really saying something. I don't think that happens in the age of like texting and cell phones and internet. You wouldn't think so.

But I mean, this was in 1928, you know, there were still phones. We don't know where the guy was. He's just disappeared. That's insane. I tell you, there are theories out there that are pretty, pretty wild. And I normally never buy into something like that except, I mean, how is it, you know, John Ziegler passed away recent. Like you think at some point somebody would have come forward and been like, you know, he was, he was ill or he had. Now, it's, it's pretty crazy.

All right. And we'll wrap it up with, I was also not born for this, but I do remember May 10th, 1970, Bobby Orr scores his famous overtime winner as Boston beats St. Louis four to three for a four nothing series. Sweep Bruins won their first title since 1941. Sean, tell me why that's the most overrated goal in NHL history. Oh, my God. You heard that, guys. That's Jesse Granger saying that this is, okay, I put that in the notes. I'm not saying it.

I read it properly. I think I'll say, I'll say it. I put a question mark on the end of it. Okay, I'll say it. I'll say it. Most overrated goal. Yeah, I think you're probably right. And because it is, I mean, didn't they do for the 100th anniversary, I feel like

they did a top 100 plays in NHL history. And this one was either first or maybe second to Mario Lemieux scoring five goals five ways, which is not a play or a moment. It's a whole game, but that's a different thing.

It's iconic, but it's to me, this is one of the greatest ever sports photos. But because of that, we have to pretend it is a great goal. And I'm always surprised. There are a lot of fans out there who believe, if you said, like, what does that moment capture?

They would say, oh, Bobby Orr scored a goal while he was flying through the air. And he didn't. The goal he scored was a very kind of, I mean, it was a Stanley Cup winner, obviously, but it wasn't, it wasn't in the top 100 of Bobby Orr highlight real goals. It's just that after the puck goes in, he gets tripped by the defenseman and kind of goes flying. And again, amazing photo. And it was, it was the first Bruins Cup in a while and it was a big moment and everything. But as far as goals go, it was not a great goal. And for people to act like, you know, this was one of the,

and it was a really good Boston team against an expansion Seattle Blue or the St. Louis Blues team that because of the playoff format, an expansion team had to go to the finals. They got swept every year. Like, and it was a sweep. It was game, this wasn't game seven or something like that. That's where I was going with it.

For, the reason I say it's most overrated is because what I remember like seeing that photo as a kid and thinking in my head like that was like a game seven overtime winner like that's that's just the the feel you get about that play because of the way it's talked about and the way it's remembered and then it's like oh wait no it was four enough it was Colorado Nashville um like yeah are we gonna except for it was in the cup final but it was even worse because that blues team like you said it was an expansion team they they had a whole division of expansion teams one of these crappy teams has to make the final and they do, and then they play against a Boston team that just absolutely mopped the ice with them

for nothing. There's no drama at all. Like, if you put the context into it, it actually, like, not even just the actual, like, you mentioned the actual, like, scoring of the goal wasn't that impressive. To me, I don't really care because hockey, you score ugly goals. To me, the, the ugliest goal can be pretty if it's the biggest moment. But to me, that moment wasn't even big enough to, I feel like it's overplayed, like, what that actually meant. Yeah. And, like, like, Like, you know who else scored a cup winning overtime goal in a sweep against a third-year expansion team? Uveh Krupp of the Colorado Avalanche. Yep.

Does anybody remember that as a great? No, that also wasn't a great goal. I'm not saying, like, if you're a Bruins fan, obviously, this is, you know, this kind of ended a cup drought and everything. Great. Have that moment. But the idea that this is, you know, it's overrated in the sense that this is on everyone's Mount Rushmore of NHL moments. It wasn't a good goal. It's a great photo.

It's a great photo. But that doesn't make it a great play. Awesome. Good stuff, Sean. Well, thank you so much for having me as a host for the full show. This was a lot of fun. Yeah. And thanks for stepping in.

And yeah, shout out to Ian, who's just on a well-deserved vacation this week. And hey, it's the playoffs. You've got to keep going. Next man up. And that's how we do it around here. So it's the age of the back. backup goalies. Sometimes we need the backup hosting lineups as well. Happy to be the eBug.

Awesome. And thank you for joining us. We'll talk to you next week. Again, as always, you can email us your questions at The Athletic Hockey Show at gmail.com or leave a voicemail at 845-4-5-8459. If you aren't an athletic subscriber, join us at Theathletic.com slash hockey show to get an annual subscription for $1 a month for the first six months. You can also subscribe to the athletic audio plus on Apple Podcasts to get all the bonus content from our entire network. Start with a 30-day free trial, then just 99 cents a month after that.