The Athletic Hockey Show - Stanley Cup Playoffs: Power ranking the round one matchups

Episode Date: April 21, 2023

To wrap up the week, Hailey and Sean share their thoughts on Thursday night's playoff games, before diving into a power ranking of their interest levels the in round one matchups so far.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowUpgrade your closet with Rhone and use code NHLSHOW to save 20% at https://www.rhone.com/nhlshowLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at http://linkedin.com/nhlshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Hey, hi, hello. Welcome to the Friday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. I'm Sean Tinteli. I'm sitting in the host seat today. It's a rare occurrence on this show. It's rare occurrence for me in general because Craig doesn't trust me with the keys either. That's fine. I'm here because Haley Salviant is ill, right? Scale 1 to 10, I'll second. right now. A seven. I would say, you know what, it ebbs and flows. I would say I was about a nine when I woke up at 8 a.m. with, you know, the sweats and a wicked cough that got me out of bed. But right now I'm feeling like a seven. I probably sound terrible. It's always fun to cough yourself awake.

There's this weird thing that happens when I'm really busy with work, I don't sleep and I don't eat, or I don't drink enough water, all those four at the same time. I get sick right after that happens. So shout out to the women's world championship. That's wild. Who could imagine something like that coming in the past? I don't do math,

but somehow that adds up for me. So I should probably take better care of myself. Yeah, it's like, and for me, like, it's like if you mix in, not eating that much, and then when I do eat, only eating pure shit, It's like that makes me feel bad too. I don't understand it. Nothing makes sense.

I don't know what I did to deserve this. What am I doing wrong here? It is funny to watch you like... You know what though? I'm sorry. I think it's something it has to do with the fact that it was 20 freaking degrees in Toronto and then it snowed. I don't think this is my fault.

I blame the weather. Sure. I drink enough water. Actually, you know what? I didn't because the I-AHF does not provide... ample resources for their media members. If you don't get there by the 11 o'clock game, there's no water left.

And if there is water, it's a warm bottle of aquafina. This. So this isn't my fault. This sounds like, that sounds like almost a made-up complaint. Like if someone were like, like, and that's not a joke. Like that, that is what the IHF does. Like they're, there, the whole, the whole vibe there is, is, screwed up and they

Yeah, it's hot dog mixed with French fry at the Denmark in session stand. All over again. They treat the women's tournament like a like a second tier event, which is another conversation for another day. Scared over that one. Kaley, it's really funny to watch you like

snap into radio voice because like 30 seconds before we were recording. It was like, hello. Hello. Hello. I think I need you to host.

I need a lawsuit. You're using a very, very professional sports net radio voice. It's a jarring. It's a jarring transition for me personally. Do you want me to sound weepy and? No, I don't mean, I want you to sound comfortable, really. That's not my business. Yeah.

Okay, so we had a busy night last night. Every night is busy in the postseason. Four games. Almost every night, even though the schedule switches up here a bit down the road. But another four-game night. But that being said, I was not super thrilled with the results. I feel like we had some duds mixed in there. We had early games were Toronto 7, Tampa Bay 2, Rangers 5, Jersey 1, late games, Colorado 3, Seattle 2, Vegas 5, Winnipeg 2.

So let's start, unfortunately, with lightning leaves. I know that's one that you watched particularly closely. I know I just crapped on it, but for a 7-2 game, I feel like this might have been because of the nonsense that happened towards the end, but that's about as entertaining as a 7-2 game can be, I feel like. Yeah, and I mean, I thought the first, like, two, I thought the first period was really good.

You could just tell how much, like, anxious, energy there was in the building like that came through on the TV. I thought Samsonov had a way better game. I think Mitch Marner like getting the scoring off early was obviously really important. I thought the lightning did such a good job taking away his time and space in game one. Like we know that Mitch Marner, when he has the puck on a stick, he can do great things with it, but he needs the room. And he was not able to even create any for himself in game one, maybe towards the end of the game, I mean, no, the pocket of time in game one in the second period where the Leafs weren't a disaster, Mitch Marner was better with the puck on a stick.

But in game two, he was, he was way better. I mean, Morgan Riley had a great game. John Tavares gets the hat trick. There's fans trying to fight, Tanner Jano. Luke Shen is showing why I keep talking about why Luke Shen back to the leaves is incredible. It was, it was a major, that was a major vindication moment for you, especially when Dom had. Do you know how many texts I got about Luke Shen last night? I mean, Dom, Dom did it in a very dumb way where he like shrouded it in some, in some irony,

but he had to like publicly kind of eat shit on Twitter last night for it. He was like, I went, I went Luke Shed in the, in the, I changed my mind. Luke Shen should never leave the Leafs lineup because he was captain and tie on that. The thing for me about Luke Shen that I said was like he adds a different element to Leif's blue line, right? Like, sure, I think everyone can agree that Timothy Lilligran is a better puck moving defender than Luke Shen is. But like, obviously the Leafs don't want another puck moving defender in the Leafs lineup, especially beside Morgan Riley. They need somebody who's going to go and do what Luke Shen did last. night which is pommel tanner chenelle because who else was going to do that geo let him rest did

you know the guy who who is who is taunting tanner jano did you like maybe go to high school with him or what are you talking about your relative i feel like a relative is this like a fergus a shot at fergus ontario you think people from fergus just try to fight make league players it's a it's a it's a shot at Southern Ontario maniacs who who look who are looking for a piece of one of the one of the toughest dudes in the league I couldn't believe what I was seeing I couldn't believe how long

that lasted the entire process was just like that it wasn't just some isolated three point or three second snap for that dude like he was continually continually gesturing out of it was wild yeah I the refs it took them a bit but they got that under

control but I don't think I've ever seen anything like that. I kind of like that they let it, that they let it go for a while. I'm on, I'm on board with that. Bad sign for the lightning last night is that their three most effective forwards,

pretty much any way you slice it, whether you look at game score, or if you look, or if you watched it, or if you look at the natural stat trick, data, uh, the only people that a good game were Corey Perry,

Pierre Edward Belmire and Pat, room, which is, God bless those guys, right? Corey Perry in particular, he scored, he's doing Corey Perry, you know, proto-rat sort of stuff that you expect from him, which is great. We were talking before the show about how much of a blessing the ducks gave us when they bought him out and allowed us to have the Cory Perry mercenary experience. We're richer as a sport. We're richer as a sport for that.

Yeah, better for it. but man if you have three forwards who are really two forwards who are over 50% expected goals percentage and or are trending in the right direction and all that stuff if you have three guys on your team that are that are hitting those marks and one of them is 37 year old gory perry and everybody else is just underwater you're having a tough time and that's what and that's and the lightning the lightning found themselves. I don't want to completely steal from our next segment because we are going to go through the series

and kind of talk about how much we've enjoyed them so far and maybe how much we expect to enjoy them moving forward. But man, Tampa Miss Victor Headman and then Miss Eric Jernak more than I think people anticipated because they got, for sure. That group got caved in yesterday because now you have Ian Cawknack. playing big minutes and Zach Bogosian playing more than you'd like and Nick Purbix they're trying

to spread out the minute trying to spread out the churnack and and uh in headman minutes equally between their guys yeah and it and it's and it's not working and it's certainly not going to work if the only the the blue chip dude in that group right now is the only the only one is mikhel sergachev and he was he was brutal last night so man It's wild. It's wild how that series pivoted after one game. It's crazy how different the vibes are. Yeah. It'll be an interesting thing to track moving forward.

I mean, it's not totally new either for a series between these two teams because remember last year, game one, the Leafs come out flying. They win five, nothing. This is going to be different. Woohoo. And then they lose five three in game two. I feel like every, and I was in Dallas for the playoffs. I was covering the Stars Flame series last year. And I remember. being in Dallas and going to, oh, I forget what it was called. It was like that cool outdoor massive patio that was like on the trail, something ice house. Let me know if you're listing, Dallas people. Yeah, it's on the, it's the end of the Katie Trail or something. It's at the end of the Katie Trail, ice house or something, or something like that. Anyways, we were there and

there was some blowout between the leaves and the lightning, like, and back to back nights. It was like, what is going on in this series? So I honestly hope that it doesn't. continue that way. I think lots of goals. It's super fun. You know, I don't think there's many Leaves fans who are going to play in about a 7-2 victory, but I kind of hope these games kind of get checked in. I think the thing that bodes very well for Toronto is the fact that they've now, even in the loss, you score three on Vasilevsky, game one loss, and you score seven in game two. and I know that Vasilevsky's numbers the last couple years in the playoffs. Like he's led in like, I think his goals against average has been around three in the playoffs last year.

The thing that Vasilevsky's always done though is he's locked it down when it matters to keep his team in it. And I think we- That's the whole thing, right? Yeah. Post-loss Vasselovsky is a different beast. Post-loss Vasselovsky's a beast. I saw Leaves fans last night being like, don't bring. bring up those numbers. Don't do it.

It is funny. But I do think, you know, he kept the lightning in it at one point in the second period, I believe. The Leafs had tons of ozone pressure. It was like four or five shifts in a row where they were just pressing, pressing, pressing in the ozone. And Vasilevsky kept coming up with big saves. And then Ian Cole, like the momentum almost shifted so quickly. Then the very next shift, Ian Cole goes down and scores.

So that was one of those examples of like, this is what happens when you have Vasilevsky in that is he'll keep you in it and give you the chance to make it three to one. But then the Leafs responded by making it a seven two final. The thing that doesn't bode well for Michael Bunting is how much I don't think anybody missed him. Do we want to save some of this?

Do we want to save some of this? Oh, okay, sure. We're stealing all the Leaf's goodness. I know you have like a million things to say here because it is. it's like you're in the middle of it. It's the one that, you know, it's the one that everybody wants to talk about.

Yeah, let's move on. We do have something playing, right? Let's move on to my favorite game of the night. Aves cracking. What was that? Was that Aves cracking? Aves cracking. Unbelievable.

Producer Danielle, jump on here if you want. You guys watched more of this than I did. I like kind of. I kind of fell asleep. Yeah, I was like, I was back for part of it. Colorado wins three, two. Mainly behind what they scored two in rapid succession there to kind of put them on top. I mean, fill me in on this because, like I said, I was snoozing.

Okay. Well, Danielle, do you want to go or should I? Anyway, I'll go. Cracken make it to nothing in the first period. It's another unbelievable start by our friends in Seattle. It's the Cracken's depth versus the. the star power on the abs. There's no way that this could work.

Oh, but it did in game one, and it did in the first period. It's everybody's favorite psycho, Brandon Tanev, and Justin Schultz, it's 2-0. And then the second period, so I will say, we're very good radio hosts. I went to walk my dog and came back as 2-2. Did anybody see the two goals?

That's the question. Welcome back up, Brandon Tannib's blowing the kiss to the crowd. Oh my God. That man was blushing. Sean, did you see this? Tanna blows the kiss to the crowd and there's a man like in an Av's jersey sitting right there and you can just see him be like, like, like, blushing. He wouldn't blush.

He wouldn't, any, who wouldn't blush from a blown kiss by Brandon Tanna? I would. Any of the genders would. But yes, then the abs they tied up two, two quick succession, two quick goals in the second period. And from then on out, that game was a battle. Like, it was so physical. It was really chippy. Both goalies were unbelievable.

Like Philip Grubauer had a great game. So did Georgiev. I was watching that game. And for a second I forgot about Dallas, Minnesota. and I was about to say something dumb, like, I think the Western Conference is being called, like, way differently. There isn't crappy refing in this in the West. And then I was like, wait a second.

I forgot about the other Western Conference teams that are playing right now. General, general lack of consistency. Yeah, Abbs Cracken seemed like it was being officiated differently last night because guys were, like, hauling each other down. There was, like, huge hits. Like, Yanni Gord, this isn't a surprise. to anyone, but he might be like the perfect playoff player. He's just like his fingerprints are all over the game.

He's so fun to watch. He's physical. He's like all of his stick details. Like he's the perfect, he's the perfect player you want in the postseason. We all knew that. But he has shown that even more now. And that was the problem. Like he is specifically giving the Aves trouble because it's not just the Crackens

depth against the Aves stars. it's depth players like Yanni Gourd who know how to win and know how to shut down Nathan McKinnon going up against each other. So that's made this series like way more interesting that I think people thought it was going to be. And I, then it's, the game winner comes in the third period to make it three, two. It was Devon Taves.

Yeah. And that's kind of, eight minutes left in the game. Yeah. And that came after, it was, it was just a fun one. You missed out. You should have been awake at midnight. I'll throw, I'll throw Devantes.

The annoying thing is, like, I was awake before and after that, which is aggravating. I'll throw Devon Teves in the, I know everyone loves to talk about the Aves Elite Talent. He's in that, he's in that group. I think what we have there is, you know. Goal scores yesterday are Taves, Nitchushkin, and Lekkonen for Colorado. I think that's basically what, that's basically what people talked about at the start, right? is those three guys are in that group of five, six, seven players at the top of the lineup that makes it impossible, honestly, to pick against the abs here.

The other issue for Seattle, and again, takes with a grain of salt because I clearly didn't pay a ton of attention to the game last night. Eberley, Benares, and Jared McCann have zero points through two games, and they're getting worked over pretty well. in terms of chance generation and pocket possession. That needs a change if Seattle wants to extend this beyond, you know, five. If they want to have, if they want this to be like a six or seven game series in which they have a real chance, I know we're going out on a limb here, but those guys are going to need to be better.

And it's not just that they're getting snake bitten either. They're not generating chances either. So. Yeah. But it is. it's always funny to see these pre-series narratives kind of play out in real time, right? Because that is what we've seen. The Havs' best players have been their best players,

and they haven't been able to compete the Cracken Havent with the very top of the lineup. Very interesting. The game that I watched the most last night, East Coast bias, American team bias, Metropolitan Division bias, was Rangers' five Devils 1. That series let me down. I'm disappointed. Yeah, I am. This is a shame.

I think we have Chris Crider to blame most primarily for it. Because he had two more goals. Huh? Can he just not? Yeah, just calm down, dude. Yeah, we're trying to get a seven gamer here, I think I think was my pick. And it certainly isn't on track. Chris Crider, two more goals last night after having two in game one.

all two or all four have come off some kind of deflection i'm like kind of hesitant to call the goal last night from on the shot pass from kane a true deflection because he was so far to the side and it was such an obvious deliberate attempt by kane to to to uh hit him you know hit him hit him hit him where he needed to be hit but my god four power play goals by the way for for chris kreider overall all all four on deflections all four on the power play i saw I had seven power plays last night. Seven. Only five players in the entirety of the playoffs last season had more than four.

Wow. Like Chris Kreider has put in four rounds worth of work with a man advantage, basically, and we're through two games. The other big part of that series, I know we kind of, we just alluded to him before, but Patrick Kane, vintage performance, Mark Lazarus wrote. Unbelievable. Mark Lazarus wrote about it pretty extensively. That's why the Rangers went out and got this dude, right?

Like, you know that he's not a good five-on-five player anymore. He hasn't been for a couple years. He's going to, he's going to, you know, bleed some chances when it comes to his defensive work and, you know, whatever. You take it. You take it because of what he brings, what he's still capable of bringing at his top end. And you take it because you got to believe that at some point during these games, Like the creativity and the muscle memory and the offensive ability that he still has is going to win out. And that's exactly what happened.

He had a three-point game last night. You know, he had that pretty unreal setup for Crider on the side of the net that we talked about. That's why they went out and got this dude, right? And I thought it was hilarious that after all the talk about him being a defensive liability, it was a good stick in the D zone to strip the puck of someone on the devils that led to his, like, unreal goal. It was such a like, anybody who is, you know, talking about Patrick Kane, there was a clip going around. There was like a devil's fan saying like, mark my words, Patrick Kane, you were going to notice him more when he makes a mistake than anything he does in this series. And, yeah, he strips the pocketbook and goes down and has an unbelievable one-on-one effort.

VTek V-Vanichek. looks like the unproven guy that everybody kind of thought. Yeah, Vitechuk, Vanechek looked like the guy who got yanked from a game one start last season for the caps, right? Like, this is a guy, you know, good as solid as he was in the regular season. That's all the devils needed him to be. So credit where it's due. Yeah. You know, this is a guy who's, he's got some leaks on his resume, on his resume, right?

Especially when it comes to the playoffs. He and he and he and Simpson off last year. Both were bad. And look, here we are. Yep. I thought that he was better, obviously, in the first period because the devils get out to, you know, a quick one-nothing lead,

but, you know, then the devils can't finish because Igor Shusirke and locked it down. And then the Rangers score five in the second and third period. Like, it's just not, not your offense going stale and your goalie not stopping the puck is a very bad, combination to happen in the postseason. I think a lot of people probably expected this. I do think most people would have picked the Rangers over the Devils. The conversation that you and I had about about this was like, you know, if the Devils can set the pace, then maybe they'll give the

Rangers some trouble. But it's been the Rangers with the pace of play and like, you know, defining the way that this series is going. Their offense has been incredible. Their power play. They're getting so many power play opportunities and their power play is very good. Again, they had, I mean, they went two for seven, uh, last night, but seven power play opportunities. Like, even if you're not scoring on all of them, it's, there hasn't actually been that, there hasn't been a ton of five on five play, but the Rangers are doing a, a good job in, in all situations. Um, and last night was just another, what both games are five one finishes for for the Rangers, right? So it's like, eh, this wasn't what I thought. Did they,

Galaxy brain taking Seagenthaler out of the lineup, you think? Obviously didn't matter if they lose 5-1 again. I mean, there's stuff that's happening with those lineup decisions that are going to be prime for second-guessing. Oh, whenever. If and when this is a short series for the devils, right? It's funny. They started out with some wild, not wild, but some loud criticism of Lundy Ruff.

and we're on track, I think, to finish on the same kind of note. A quick note about Patrick. We're not going to get fire, Lindy, again. No, I don't, I don't know about that. I don't think it's impossible. If they make it back, if they make it back to Newark for game five

and they get waxed, say, I don't, I don't think it's, I don't think it's impossible. That is so mean. You are underestimating the means. meanness of devil's fans. Truly. That's really rude. What are you going to do?

Sweet old in Europe, he's about to get, he's about to get his ass booed out of town again. I did want to know this about Patrick King. Like I was talking about him like he was some, like he's been some disaster of a five-on-five players so far in the series. He hasn't, right? It's not true. 64% expected goals percentage. You know, obviously he's got, he's putting in unreal work on the power play. one-oh on goals

you know he's playing he's playing everybody even like I don't I don't mean that that's that he's been trash in the first two games there but you know

on balance the way the way he played in Chicago the way he played in New York you know there are going to be chances that that take place when he's on the ice because of his work that's just the way it is

but that doesn't mean we've seen we've seen many of it or much of it much of it so far okay last game of the night with the other Western Conference game. Just call this

the Mark Stone comeback spectacular. Vegas 5, Jets 2. I really enjoyed that one and not to not to spoil stuff in the next segment, but I think I've enjoyed this series more than more than I realized. How much this one did you watch, Haley?

Not as much because I was watching Cracket Avs, but I did see Eichols first playoff goal. And then I saw one of the two Mark Stone goals. Way better performance by these two guys in game two. In game one, Mark Stone zero shots on goal. It's understandable. He's coming off back surgery.

There's a little bit of rust, okay? You get a one-game cushion when you miss 39 games of the regular season because of back surgery. Yeah. And that's always like the great point. I know Jesse Granger was, you know, tweeting a lot about this. Yeah.

To the point where people are like, it's just, it's fine. It's fine. But he was talking like, why would you want your best player out of the lineup for half the season? Like, that's the example as to why you don't throw Mark Stone on LTIR if he doesn't need back surgery because he's going to come back and play like crap in the first game. But he looked really good in game too. But he and Jack Eichael, Eichael had two shots on goal in his first playoff game and they were

both dash three. in game one. So they needed to rebound and they did in game two. Not a lot of people are out there having elective back surgery. Like just because. Like, yeah. Well, he tried to rehab it before surgery, right? And then he got the timeline where it was like, if the rehab's not helping anything by this

date, this is the last possible date you can have surgery and be ready for the playoffs. And that's what he did. Like, I know we made jokes about the LTIR thing. We even wonder if that's what was happening with Landisog. And then obviously he's not coming back, which is unfortunate for, I mean, hockey, he's a great player. And it's unfortunate for the Aves. But like a lot of the LTIR jokes, like, I feel like sometimes we talk about it ironically. Because it's like people aren't missing entire hockey seasons just because their GM wants to circumvent the cap.

Like, Landa Skog wasn't out with a knee issue to save them the cap hit. And Mark Stone's not getting back surgery. because the Golden Knights like to circumvent the cat. Like that's just not a thing. Totally. Totally. And it's, it's anybody who's ever had. And also it's allowed, even if they were.

I'm sorry, Sean. And also it's allowed. That's what I was, that's what I was coming around to. Yeah. Like in Stone's case, like anybody who's ever had back surgery or been around a person who's had back surgery, this, the, your, your doctors or your, like, no, your PT. Nobody ever wants to advise anybody to have back surgery because it's just like a slippery slope a lot of the time down to down to future issues and pro athletes are no

different. Mark Stone, Mark Stone didn't want to have his back operated on, but he tried to rehab it already and now, now here we are. Like, that's the way it goes. But nobody ever, there's, there's no such thing as minor back surgery. And the fact that he came, that he came back at all is, is pretty remarkable.

But yeah, what I was, I mean, I'm with you on that. I think that's, I don't know if that always comes through, certainly in the way that I talk about LTIR and in, you know, caps or convention or whatever, however you want to phrase it, I don't care. I don't care the teams are doing this. It doesn't bother me. It doesn't bother me that the lightning did it with, with, with, with Kutrave.

If the abs would have done it with Landisog, which obviously, they clearly weren't now, but if Landisog were to show up in the lineup in game one or whatever and been 100% like, whatever, don't care. We're not haters. More teams should do it. It's just, it's all, but it's also become part of the game. And something that, you know, we're not, we've seen it happen more than enough times now where it's like, it's not an unreasonable thing to assume, right? When you have an elite expensive player, be on the borderline for, for that sort of thing.

And then the team, and then their team uses a bunch of, a bunch of their, their cap space to go and add and then whatever. It's the way it should work. That might not be true. It's the way the team should use it. It's a mechanism they can use. If they want to get this figured out in the next CBA, that's their business. But in the meantime, you know, you can't knock teams for doing it this way. And even in this particular, you know, example, it doesn't matter because Markstone was hurt and had back surgery and came back.

Mark Stone's also a maniac. He's a, oh, God, absolutely. He celebrates after he scores. I feel like people in hockey have been talking about this for years, like even back to when he was on the Sends, but the dude loves to score goals. Which is funny because, like, in person, he's very... Reserved?

Reserved. He's funny. Like, he's, like, he's dry and has a clear sense of humor. But he's not, like, a loud, demonstrative dude. And then meanwhile, he scores goals, and you're half expecting him to, like, corkscrew down into the ice or break a handglass. or something. The dude's a blast.

Yeah. And I am, I'm psyched he's back in the lineup and I'm psyched to get, you know, at least a handful more games out of him because he's a treat to watch. Absolutely. I think we're going to talk about in the next segment we're going to rank the playoff series so far, right? Like we're going to go through and say these are our favorite ones. The one thing, you know what? We can save it for the next one.

If you want to know what I was going to say, stay tuned. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to go to break and we're going to come back with our rings of the series so far using a very scientific method, 8 through 1. We'll be right back. All right, we're back. We're counting down all 8 series in reverse order of how excited we are for the remainder of them. Does that make sense?

I think so. I think it does. No offense, by the way, to the teams that are at the bottom here, right? someone's got to finish and last that brings us to number eight the Carolina Hurricanes

versus the New York Islanders which is just like I think it's there it's there for a couple reasons it's there because the canes are up too oh it's fair to wonder whether the aisles

even have the firepower necessary to you know come back here but also we talk about it every week I feel like I talk about it constantly the cane The Cain's injuries are it just puts a damp on all this.

And we have another one. We have we have, we have Tevo Terrifinen who broke his hand and is out for the duration of the playoffs. No call on the play, by the way. Did a full on like Adam Graves on Mario Lemieux, which is a reference for the elderly, the elderly among us at this point. But he got him right on the hands. He had the puck at the time, which I think is what makes that just. That game was a joke. extra greedy. That game is embarrassing.

And then the high stick on Scott Mayfield, who's on the ice holding his face as Jordan Stahl makes a pass through the slot to Yesper Fas to win the game. I wonder why Scott Mayfield couldn't get up and play defense. Oh, Jordan Martinook hit him in the face with a stick. A joke. I hate complaining about the refs. It was a joke. Yeah, and I saw people, and it was people who I, like Mike Rup was kind of did as a pruder breakdown of it saying, like, all right, this is because Mayfield popped up Martinook's stick in it.

And that's, I, whatever. I don't like. Nope, nope. We don't need to, it's not that deep. No. If it's a penalty, call the damn penalty. Totally. Control your own stick, Jordan Martin.

It was just funny, it was just funny watching every possible excuse for that kind of melt away in the discourse where it's like, well, the linesman, the linesman can't make that call. Then you can't out. Zoom is out. You've been out. That's right there. And the ref is right there. Yeah, it's an embarrassment.

And, you know, just one of those instances, too, where just both teams, both teams get hurt in different ways. The Isles taken L directly because of an ignored call. And that's what it was. I think an important thing we need to start doing. We need to be careful with how we phrase this stuff. They didn't miss it. They ignored it.

They chose not to call it. I think there's a difference between missing, between not seeing something and actively choosing, you know, actively choosing something like that. That's really seem to be the case there. So, yeah, you have the Islanders that are getting nailed because of that. And then the Hurricanes lose one of their few remaining truly dynamic offensive talents for the rest of the playoffs because of another one.

Same deal, you know? Terrible. The refs right there. J.G. Pagos slash is terrifying. I have him so hard that it broke his hand. No call. Shout out the table for like not even really responding to it. I think that's...

He did the like handshake like after he released the puck. Yeah. But I didn't know until Rod came out after. I was like, yeah, broken hand knee surgery. It was just like, oh my God, was he mad? He was like, he was like just barely keeping it together angry there. He's like, I can't take another huge fine. Yeah, can't eat another fine, but also who is...

Really mad. Who's gonna, who's gonna, who's gonna, who's gonna, play on my top line now. Yeah. Oh, it's terrible. People, I mean, it's only been two games, so I might, I'm not trying to jinx the Carolina Hurricanes here. But this was the one series where I think people were trying to convince themselves that there was going to be an upset. Yeah. Like, just because of Ilya Sorokin. And I had the, like, I had the tweet of like, people are, people are picking the

islanders to upset the canes. Not me though. I just not, it wasn't a thing for me. Like, they have upset potential, sure. The logic, but no. The logic with all that track, I understand why people are doing it. Syrokin is great. The hurricanes don't have a ton of finishing talent for all their puck dominance. And also, the Islanders were getting Barzal back. So you're adding like a premium offensive player.

Him and Horvath had been good together. The power play with those two together had been really good. And obviously, that hasn't come to pass. The iOS power play looked pretty anemic. But. But, Seroken hasn't been good enough to steal games. So here we are. Yeah.

But there's still Sebastian Ajo and the canes have one of the most active and efficient blue lions in the league. Like Brent Burns exists. Super sniper. Rod Rindamore yelled at me about Brett Burns. Don't think I forgot about him. Brady Shea. Like the canes still have a lot there.

There's a reason why they still won the division, despite the fact that they were missing patcher ready all year and Andre Svechnikov for the end of the season. So I'm still with the canes, but I do think they're probably going to make some adjustments to like make this even more low scoring and gritty in the neutral zone. So it's like, it's going to be rough. I'm sorry. Much love, much love the super sniper Jacob Slavin who had two goals and who had two goals in game two. But this just seems like this seems like a short, boring series. Yeah.

And possibly like more likely than not the end of the line for the hurricane. It's just because of the attrition that they've had to deal with. So that's number eight. Number seven, we've talked about it. In some detail already, this is a little bit of a bummer. I'm upset that it's down here. But again, someone's got to be in this spot. Number seven is abs cracking.

I don't know why ass cracking just isn't. It's not quite. I had them ranked higher than you did. You had them ranked last though, which is why they're so low. Yeah. Well, we bumped them up. We broke the tie with Keynes Isles. Number six, another one we talked about

because it was because they played last night. Knights Jets, I feel like this one is number six, but rising. I'm more excited about this one now. I'm more interested in seeing how it plays out now than I was 48 hours ago. We'll say that much. Yeah, well, game one was...

It's because of Mark Stone. I thought game one was really interesting, too, though, I thought, what a great time for the Jets to finally get their crap together. And that was such a good Rick bonus game. Totally. Like for all the crap that he took in the regular season, that team completely fell apart. And then they come out in the first game of the playoffs in Vegas, a really hard arena to come in as the away team too, especially in the playoffs. And they only allowed the Golden Knights to have 17 shots on goal and two in the third period.

And they also had. Like we were saying that Connor Hellebuck, if Connor Hellebuck stood on his head, then the Jets would stay at a chance. He didn't have to because they were so stingy defensively. That was kind of a for like a defensive game on one side. It was actually a very fun, fun opener. Totally. And they had their big boys scoring goals too. That was a big thing for the Jets.

That wasn't happening down the, I mean, do we say down the stretch when it's something that happens from the all-star break on? I mean, it was really... The second half of the season? Yeah, it was like really, as soon as they came back from break, Wheeler and Kyle Connor and Pierre Luc Dubois and Mark Sheifley primarily went in the tank. And part of that was because of bad luck. You know, their shooting percentages were low for them.

Their goal totals did not nearly match, you know, their expected totals. So the process was there to some extent for those guys, and they weren't getting the bounces. and they weren't shown the finishing, the finishing touch. But, man, it was there in spades in game one. So that's interesting. And that's the thing that makes you think that that more than anything is the reason that you feel like the Golden Knights really have a chance here in a way that maybe people weren't.

Me the Jets. The Jets. Because, especially with Kyle Connor, if goals. start going in for that dude he's got a history of scoring in bunches and that is the kind of variable that they're that they're going to need to to pull this out so yeah um i think this is number six overall but but rising for me right yeah for sure all right number five the best of the bottom half for us this is number five and falling it's it's devil it's devil's rangers i had it ranked high because of, again, probably because of my Metro Division bias here,

but also because it's still, even though it's too well, it features, it features so many dynamic, dynamic offensive talents, right? And that's the kind of stuff we want to see. We want to scope out what Patrick Kane does for the next few games and whether it can keep it going. We want to see if Chris Crider can score two power play goals a game for the rest of his life. We want to see if Jack Hughes and Tim O'Meyer can figure it out on the devil's end of

things. So yeah, it hasn't been particularly competitive. And 2-0 is 2-0. But I'm still tracking this one pretty closely. Do you have any thoughts there? Yeah. The thing that I'm kind of tracking with this is what makes this series interesting is like, did the Rangers shoot themselves up the power rankings

to be the team that could come out of the East? If it's not Boston, is it the Rangers? Yeah, I mean, it's tough, it's tough not to look at that lineup and look at the talent that's up and down it and look at, look at Igor Shisterkin, and look at the power play, and look at those top three lines primarily.

And just say, like, man, if they can, if they ever get the mix down pat, right? If they can have three really reliable lines at five on five and get that power play production and get you start clicking at the right time, like all the ingredients are there. They haven't been able to have, and all of them have worked at one point or another this season,

but they kind of haven't all worked at the same time, right? So the thought that could be coming, even though it hasn't so far this season, is what makes the Rangers like particularly entreating because you're like, man, if they can just, if they can just figure it out, they're going to be, they're going to be lethal. Okay. Yeah. That was number five.

We have our, our top four coming up. We're going to hit a break. And then we'll be back, we'll be back to close things out and reveal our, our top four remaining playoff service. All right. We are back. Sean Silly, Haley Salvean. One of us is sick. The other one is not.

I'll let you guess who is who. Number four, on our playoff, first round rank so far, Edmondson Oilers versus Los Angeles Kings. Fourth, in fourth place, pretty decisively. Like, we, between the two of us, we, in our, again, very, very complicated, very, I think our top fours were the same. Mathematically sound. Yeah, yeah, I think, I think we, I think we match each other here.

Edmonton, L.A. I think almost couldn't have gone better for an entertainment drama standpoint over the first two games, right? What have you, what's been your takeaway, especially given the way things went a couple nights ago? Well, I think the Kings have done a really nice job with McDavid at five on five. The things that we talked about heading into that series was looking at how good Philip did know was against Connor McDavid last year. thinking like, hmm, well, the Kings have gotten better. They've added improvements.

Like, what are they going to be able to do now? And game one was really fun. The Oilers come out hot. They get two quick goals in the first period. They're in front of their home fans. Really great start for Edmonton. And then the Kings just kind of turn the tide in the second half of the game had a really good third period to end up winning an OT.

And that's, by the way, without Gabe Valardi or Kevin Fiala in game one. And then game two, it almost starts the exact same way. The Oilers coming out hot, really good on the power play. Leon Dreisdell has been the best player for the Oilers so far, which is like a great thing to have with McDavid's getting, you know, defended pretty well at five on five. Well, at least you got Leon Dreisital on your team. Like he, I hate doing this because he's not underrated. He's not underappreciated.

But this season specifically, like we talked about Connor McDavid so much and so often. that I think dry sidle's point totals kind of fell to the wayside sometimes. I get an unbelievable year too and he's an unbelievable player. And the only reason he wasn't on my heart ballot is because I refuse to put two guys from the same team on a heart ballot. But dry sidle's been really good in the playoffs. It's been funny to see like he was so good last year basically on one leg. And now it's like, wow, this is what dry sidle can do with two legs in the playoffs. Oh my gosh.

But the Kings have been a formidable opponent, I think, as we expected. Like, I don't think we looked at this series and said that the Oilers were going to run away with it. It was a great series last year, and I hope that this one goes the distance. Like, this better go seven games. The Oilers getting quality depth from Derek, from Derek Ryan and Klim Koston scored in that last game. And Van der Kaine seems like he's, you know, knocking, not knocking off some of the rust. I mean, that's the wild part about Edmonton. And it's, it's fascinating, honestly, that this is, that bodes well, you know, on a night, on a night when those guys, when the big boys are not, not necessarily producing it at even strength, you can count on Derek Ryan to make a difference and Klim Kosson to, you know, beat, beat Corpusello with a laser and all that.

It's really, really interesting. Look, I love the Kings. I try to say that as much as possible. I've really enjoyed watching them this season. I love what they did at the deadline. I love what they did in the offseason. So I'm looking forward to seeing how stuff plays out because they're fun.

But, man, on the other end of things, we're here one one in the series, and it still feels like McDavid hasn't quite, hasn't quite had his moment, hasn't quite made his mark. And you're just waiting for him to, wait, waiting from to do so, right? He's not going to be held out for long. That's the thing. It's not going to last forever.

Like you can say great job by the Kings, but you're almost kind of like waiting. It's like, oh God, when's this going to turn? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. All right, number three, Bruins Panthers. I don't think any of us saw this coming necessarily at the start, at the start of this. even though Florida is not your standard second wildcard team, there's a lot of holdovers from the president's trophy team last year. They obviously added Matthew Kachuk,

who'd better be a heart trophy finalist, and they were playing their best hockey at the season down the stretch. So this isn't like your standard, you know, someone scrapes, someone scrapes in, and, yeah, axes. But also the counterpoint was that the Bruins aren't your standard number one team. they're not, they're not, they're not your standard,

uh, first seat in the, in the conference. This is as big a regular season juggernaut as, is, as we've seen. So it was always going to be interesting. Throw on the fact that Patrice Bergeron,

uh, is out of the lineup after getting injured in game 82 when he was playing in Montreal in front of his father and his family. It's, I mean, what, it's a storyline, right?

That's, that's why Bergeron's out. Um, this one's, this one's, this one's, fascinating because the Panthers took it to Boston in a way that we haven't seen any team. Yeah.

And really for the duration of the regular season outside of a few. It's one of those things where you're like, if they can keep this up, and Bergeron is not traveling to Florida for games three and four. So that's a big, it's a big reason to think that they're going to at least have the chance. They're going to be able to get the matchup they want on and on. This one got interesting in a hurry. Yeah. And it got to the point where I saw, you know, some Bruins fans saying, like,

should we be going with Jeremy Swayman in game two? Because Linus Almark looked like a human in game two. And I feel like, I feel like that is maybe overthinking it with a goalie who's probably going to win the VESDA and especially the way we've seen, and we'll get to it. We've seen the, like, you know, the goalie switching. with the balance of the starting goalies bite teams in the butt feels like pulling Linus Allmark

isn't the play but I mean if he puts up another stinker that's the benefit of being the Boston Bruins is Jeremy Swayman's pretty good goalie too I'm not worried about the Bruins but I do think and this is what we'd always said is like I do think the Panthers are going to make this a fun one yeah

and Sam Bennett coming back that seems like that's where it's true playoff Sam Bennett playoff Sam Bennett's great I feel so bad when I saw the line rushes with Bennett back and I know that this is the way that they played in the regular season when they were together as well but Sam Bennett to see with Matthew Gochuk

on the wing and it was just like oh what would have happened if Sam Bennett got consistent runs up the middle with good players on the wings in Calgary what could have happened imagine that who's to say I wanted to say about

Omar because he was he was not good in game two he was outstanding in game one I think that's like worth note and you know whatever you can't you can't stick with a struggling goalie forever especially when you have a legit option behind him

I'm not saying that but he was he was really really good in the Bruins game one win to the point where now in hindsight after the way things went in game two you're like wow did they what what happens if if Lenis Almark is

only 80% of what he was in game one there or what kind of conversations are we having are we having right now That's interesting. All right. Number two, unfortunately. Stop doing that.

No, I don't like the Maple Leafs. It's Leifes Lightning. Yeah. There's just so much there. We kind of said it. We said it in the first segment. I was all ready to, like, if there was any way to ding these two teams' points, I would have. But the way that game ended with the extracurriculars and that stuff between the fans and Janelle.

and Pat Maroon screaming at whoever. Like there was enough stuff down the stretch there where you're like, all right, let's fast forward. I'm psyched for Saturday night. I want to see what happens here. Even though it doesn't seem like there's going to be headmen, it doesn't seem like there's going to be Chernak, which is just obviously doesn't bode well for the,

for the competitive level of this series because it's worth saying again, even aside from the score, Toronto just dummied the lightning on Thursday night. Oh yeah. I think what makes this series so great. And again, we love goals. I did say earlier,

I would like to see maybe a few less blowouts. But we love goals. We love goal scoring. So that makes it fun. But there's just the stakes are so high. And that's what makes this a very interesting series. Like just think of what's on the line for Toronto. The coach, the GM, their jobs.

the future of this, like, core group of players, where are they going to go next, what's going to happen in Toronto. There's just so much at stake for a team that is lost in the first round of the playoffs six years in a row. So game one was a huge stinker, but that was fun. Like, that was fun for people who hate the Leafs and fans of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Game two was fun for people who love the Toronto Maple Leafs. And we know there's a lot of them, like, this series is something for everyone. whether you hate the Leafs or you love the Leafs. There's been lots for everybody in the first two games.

The one thing that I wanted to say in the first segment that we kicked down to this part is the tough thing for Michael Bunting is I don't think anybody missed his contribution to the lineup last night. Kelly Yarn Croke. I've said he should have been on the top line to start the postseason. regardless. Michael Bunting has not been particularly effective, in my opinion. Sure, he scored 20 goals. In my opinion. In your opinion, and also in observable reality, in fact, yes.

Okay, but the thing is, is you try not to nitpick too much at a guy who scored 20 goals this year and makes under a million bucks. Like, there is still value in Michael Bunting. The problem is, is when he's on the third line, from Austin Matthews, he's not doing as much. He can't drive his own line. And you could think, like, okay, well, that's fine. Just keep him with Matthews because they play well together, but they, they hadn't really been. He wasn't great in the first game. He was a rat on that play on Eric Cernack. And like, I am not going to, this has been my word of the day, apparently, is

Galaxy Brain. I'm not going to Galaxy Brain myself into thinking that Bunting was like waiting for the hit and, like, jumped a little too soon. Like, I'm sorry. Maybe that's true. Maybe that's what it happened. But I think you and I had the exact same point. I don't know what was worse. The fact that he jumped up and hit a guy in the head or that he complained to the ref before the guy's body even hit the ice. Yeah. It's because it's because it was a rat move. He knew what he did. Yeah. And but the thing is, is like, Calli Yarn Croke looks better on that top line. He does way more to create space and get the puck and keep the puck for Matthews and Marner. And then they move Ryan O'Reilly from the second line.

to the third line gives the Leafs more options in the top nine. I mean, Matthew Nyes is having like a baptism by fire here coming from the NCAA championship to Leifes playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the team to beat at the east over the last couple of years, but he looked fine. So I think there's a lot to like about the series. There's playoff Corey Perry, there's Vasilevsky.

I mean, Stevens, Stamcoast, Braden Point, like there's just so much talent and so many storylines in this series. that there's only one that we thought was better. Totally. And if you're more, and if you're, if you want to hear it more, honestly,

I'm, this is not even a joke. If you want to hear more about Michael Bunting and just kind of the rock, the rock, uh, the, you know,

the, the rock and in the hard place that they're stuck behind. And that the leaves are, that bunting is. I thought, I thought James Myrtle wrote something pretty, pretty good and pretty trenching yesterday about it. Number one.

Be bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, There you go. There you go, computer. Hello. Hello, computer. Stars wild. Oh, baby, we've had everything in this one. We've had dirty hits, aggravating discourse around dirty hits, wild goal-tending decisions, some offensive dynamism on both sides. What are we going to get next?

What will Dean Evanson bless us with for game three? That's the question. Oh, baby. And look, there was a big, I thought, I thought, Chana Goldman did a good job of explaining,

like, how, you know, maybe the decision to start Flurry in Game 2 shouldn't have been that much of a surprise because it's what the Wild had done,

you know, really throughout the season and it's kind of the direction that the league has moved in. Philip Gustavson had made 51 saves or whatever it was in one game. Just a historic franchise record playoff debut. Let's not overthink it.

And then you throw in the fact that it just couldn't have gone worse. Couldn't have gone worse. Flurry immediately led in a shorty. Good Lord. Yeah, this is one of those ones. We're coming into it. We knew that the teams were pretty closely matched. We like the star power that they had that each team has had at the top of the lineup.

We like the goal tending matchup. It hasn't quite played out the way that we anticipated, but there's still just a lot of intrigue here. It's tied. let's go. I can't wait to see what happens for game three. It's been the best. Like I've been locked in on this series more than any other one.

Like I covered the Leafs Lightning for game one. And I sure, it's my job to follow this as somebody who lives in Toronto, but I care way more about Minnesota and Dallas. This series has been unbelievable. I understand that this is what the Wilde have done all year. but they had a chance to take command of the series in Dallas. Like they had a chance to go up to nothing and head home to Minnesota. And instead, like Dean Eveson like stubbornly stuck with that season long trend of the goalie rotation.

We know Mark Andre Fleury's resume. Like, Hall of Famer, I think we can agree. Mark Andre Fleury will end up in the hockey hall of fame. Like, yeah, he will. However, that was his first start. No goalie in the history of the league will ever, he's going to be a first ballot inductee. How many playoff series is he going to have spent, you know?

As the number two. It's crazy. The point is that was his first start in eight days. So you start him for the first time in over a week versus riding the hot hand who just put up a historic goalie performance. You don't want to let him build off of that. Really? Like, I don't care what you've been doing all year.

That's a regular season. this is the playoffs. I don't need someone to explain to me why they did it. I still think it's stupid. Totally. And it backfired in an aggressive way. That decision is why Minnesota lost that game because they played them even to expect of goals generally.

Flurry was almost at a negative four goals. Yeah. And Jake Ottinger was as expected. When Jake Ottinger was standard issue playoff. playoff Jake Cottinger, which is... Maybe even a level lower, because he let in three goals. Honestly, yeah. And they were nothing...

And they were more stoppable than not, I would say. So, yeah, that's a major hiccup. But what blows well, aside from the inherent drama with the Pavellski, you know, dumbud craziness, which again, I'm trying to just avoid discussing because hockey's more than, you know, dirty hits and in a playoffs, at least it should be. even aside from all that, that was a pretty even game in game two. And I think that blows well.

And so we're at evens through two games. Hopefully we get five more games of this because I've loved it. And I think it's number one, and I don't think it's particularly close for me. I just saw this from Pluto. I do apologize. It looked like Linus Allmark was not participating in Morningsgate. So I don't know if that means if he's like just having a rest

or if that means Jeremy Swayman's playing. or if Olmark is, I don't want to speculate because we just saw this, but just for people who listened to this and they heard the Bruin segment, Um, Allmark, not at Morning Skate.

I think the best part of this series is, you know, as we talk about the amount of skill and talent that's in the Leafs Lightning series, like this is, this is like a very, like, fun two teams that are playing against each other. Like, Rupa hints,

unbelievable in game two. Totally. delivered in every moment that he needed. He had the shorthanded goal, power play goal, and won an even strength. He was great on the PK, great on the power play. His defensive play was solid.

Like, they needed somebody to step up in Joe Pavelsky's absence, and that was hints. And I still think you... On that line for sure. And then you had Dadanov and Wyatt Robertson, or Wyatt Robertson, White Johnson.

Jesus Christ. Eh, what are you going to do? White Johnson and In, And, and Ivgeny Dadov are just, we're really good. And that's a reason that's a differentiation point for the stars from last season, is they have a guy like Dadenov. They're not a one-line team anymore. Yeah, who weren't around last year.

So, a lot to love there. Max Domi, playing well in Dallas. Good. It's not lost on anybody that he was the first one to go at Dumba. No. After the Povellski hit. No, sir. That's the biggest difference, again,

is this is not a one-line team anymore. Like this is a very different Dallas Stars team that played against the flames in the first round last year, which was, you know, you got to get basically that series would have been a quick one if Joe Pavelski wasn't around and Jake Ottinger wasn't lights out. Like those were the two dudes in that series. Like Jason Robertson wasn't as effective. I still think they probably need a bit more from Jason Robertson at five on five in this series. Like I know he had, you know, a primary assist on the.

power play goal from Hints, but I don't think he's done a whole lot at 5-on-5, so you do want a little bit more from Jason Robertson. You got to assume it'll come. He's too good of a player to be all that quiet for all that long. And what's great, too, is like, we're talking about the future of the Dallas Stars, which was Ottinger and Hints and Robertson playing super well, but they've also got like some of their, I don't want to call them historic because that makes them sound like they're ancient. They've got the ancient old men in Tyler Sagan and Jamie Ben scoring goals too.

Old man, Jamie Ben is a hero. He's 33 years old and he has three points in two games. It's unbelievable. What a miracle. What an inspiration. He's still walking. And then obviously with the wild Kareel Caprizov. They've got just so much talent on that team on the other side too.

And I think you just hope that we see Philip Gustafsson in game three because that'll be way more fun. Yeah. Let's end the Flurry experience for round one at least. I love Mark Andre Fleury. I met Mark Andre Fleury as a child. He signed my hat. It doesn't matter. He shouldn't have started game two. I'm sorry. I'll give my hat away if I have to. I'm sorry. You shouldn't have started game two. For every hat he gives away to a child, he's forgiven a shorthand. a goal in the opening minute of a game. That's how it works. All right, tonight, Carolina Islanders, Boston, Florida, potentially with Jeremy Swamoneman playing Dallas, Minnesota, Edmontonnelli Kings. That's it. We love it. And I'm going to go take a nap.

Sounds good. It also seems necessary. It's the wise. It's the wise prudent move. Thank you for your time. Also, this was from Fluto. It looks like Swayman's going to start. All right. There you go. He said it seems like, it seems like Swamon's in there. Very, very interesting. Oh, and also Nick Nurse got fired by the Raptors. This is not a basketball show, Haley. Okay. Okay.

Go lay down, please. Okay. If you aren't an athletic subscriber, you can join us at theathletic.com slash hockey show to get an annual subscription for $2 a month for 12 months. Imagine that. What a deal. We'll see you next week. Enjoy the games.

Enjoy the weekend. We'll talk to you on Monday.