The Athletic Hockey Show - Top 5 disappointing players in the postseason

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

Sean, Frank and Sean are back together, they look back on Mikael Granlund's dominant performance for the Stars in game 5 vs the Jets as Dallas takes a commanding lead, they ask if the Hurricanes / Capitals series is the most boring playoff matchup, and Frankie presents his top 5 most disappointing players, so far this playoff season. Guess who is definitely on the list?Hosts: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeWith: Frankie CorradoExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff Domet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. What up, it's the athletic hockey show Wednesday edition. Oh, Frankie Carrados back. He's back, baby. Sean McAndoo is still here. Sean's and Tilly also still here. Unfortunately, back in Washington for more Caps Hurricanes. I'm sure we're going to talk about that serious because everyone seems to hate it,

except for me. We'll get to that down the line. But boys, Finnish wingers, scoring hat tricks. again, just not the one you thought. Are you talking about Casper Haltonin in the O HL championship series, the San Jose Sharks second rounder? That's the finish guy you're talking about, right?

Yeah, that's a guy I know. I know so much. 55 minutes on that guy. So much about prospects in general, man. I'm an expert. I knew you were talking about that finish scoring winger. Oh, boys. What's going on?

Nice to be back. I mean, the Dallas Stars, we were talking about all the great finish players on their team. We just didn't know that Granland was going to say to Miko Ranton, hold on, I got this one tonight. You can have the night off, buddy. I'll take it from here. What a hat trick.

This feels like pure justification for the trade grade that I wrote for that back in February. It took a lot of heat for that one. What did you give it? That's why I paused after Frankie tried to, throw it back to me because I was I was busy I was busy Googling this I gave it a I gave it a B and people and people were screaming at me online about that mainly because of Cody Cici but I that was that was all I thought when I was watching that game last night is the trade completely justified now like that's enough to me that is like that's enough to make a midseason trade worth it if the dude who

you get back, ends up having a hat trick in it, in a playoff game, it's like, okay, we're at minimum, we're going on even on this. What would his actual value,

like if, if that was at the deadline, they're like, look, this guy is guaranteed at some point in the playoffs. We don't know when, but he's going to have three goals in a three one win. What is his asking price then?

Like, that does it just become an automatic first round pick? Like, what do you? Yeah, I got a, I got a, like,

the Cody C. element of this thing. This guy gets, he takes a lot of shrapnel from multiple fan bases. Like he gets it from leaf fans. He gets it from oiler fans. And then, you know, it's still, he goes over in the trade. It's still a significant upgrade based on who they would have had on their back end last year.

The guy played five minutes short handed last night. Like he's been good. Cody C.C. Like, and last year with the Oilers, he gave you quality minutes. for the most part. So I mean, I think, I think it's a good trade.

As far as like what the asking price would have been, if someone told you this guy is going to have a hat trick in this moment. I mean, you need those types of things. It goes without saying. So if you know, if you get that in writing, you go throw in whatever pick that,

take whatever pick you want. I'll take a hat trick from this guy in the playoffs. I've never, I've never done this before because it's lame. But I think I almost, I think I almost have to. I have to read what I wrote aloud on the podcast

Oh, I can't wait for it. Oh, we're getting a dramatic reading. Drum roll, please. Are you an actual Stanley Cup contender? Did you just add players who seemed capable of helping along the way? If the answer to both of those questions is yes, then a trade can't be bad. It's simple, but it's true. That was like, that was the first paragraph.

Okay. I think this is like, this is maybe the most correct I've ever been about anything. This is the blind, this is the blind, this is the blind squirrel finding the acorn. I'm going to lean on this for the rest of my life because of last night, because of a hat trick in five short-horted minutes. I cannot wait until the Jets come back and Granlin scores it was O'Net in overtime of Game 7, and we yet to do this show again.

Yeah, and Kyle and Kyle Connor, you know, nutmegs Cody C, C, for the game winning goal. Grandlin loses an edge or cops it up with the blue line, two-on-one the other way. Yeah, I don't know, man. Like, the, A, the Dallas Stars have built up this really nice buffer now in the series. So there's a lot of comfort there. B, the depth of the Dallas Stars is on full display, which was always going to be the strength of their team. You know, how much scoring ability they have scattered throughout the lineup and how capable those players are. And then C, and this is not exclusive to Dallas because St. Louis did it as well.

again, they have cracked the Connor Hellebuck code, especially when he plays on the road, where he just can't get comfortable and got significantly outplayed by Jake Ottinger last night. That's Team USA starting gold hender, Jake Ottinger, for those of you keeping track. We're watching it. We're watching it happen.

Is this, where are we at on the potential for a comeback in this series? Because I feel like 48 hours ago, I was very excited about the second round, how it was playing out. And now it feels like it's almost over with the three, three to one series. Well, the thing is the Jets could win at home, but they can't win on the road. So how are they going to, how are they going to win the series at this point? That's the biggest hurdle for me is they just, they haven't won on the road, this entire playoffs. Is there like, what are the circumstances in a three,

one series where you guys would look at it and say, okay, this, I still feel, I still feel okay about this one going along. You know what's weird? I feel like it's rare. It is, it is rare. I would almost rather be the road team down 3-1 where you've got to go and win like, okay, it's all right, we'll win game five in their building. They're all showing up for the, you know, this is the easy one.

They think they're going to finish us off. we beat him in game five suddenly the doubt start then we're home for game six and then game seven who knows by that point there's so much pressure on the other side that we can take the fans right out of it whereas in this case i mean yeah go ahead and win game five dallas got game six in their back pocket and you're probably not back no no one would ever think this way but maybe there's like in the back of your head we're going to scratch and claw and grind for a win at home just to go back to Dallas so we could lose. What do you get out of that?

One more dinner at Nobu in the Rosewood Hotel. That's what you get out of it. Totally worth it. Yeah. Just a little more yellowfin tuna at Nobu. I got like 15 minutes from Miro Haskinen last night. It seemed like he was, you know, looked like a dude who hadn't played in a couple months. Was, you know, moving around, find out there Winnipeg won his minutes.

That's kind of to be expected. Frank, I don't know if you, I don't know if you on him at all last night, but what are he, what did you, what did you think? Yeah, like, I think with, with Haskinen, I kind of expected it to be in that like 15 to 18 minute range. And of course, they, they dressed 11 and 7. So, um, there was going to be a little more of a buffer for him. But you're right. It looked like a guy who was coming back, um, working through something like not, not the, the 25 minute version of, of Mero Hayskin. Um, but I think when, when it's also, um, um, but I think when, when it's also, said and done and he touches the puck and it goes through him.

You can see the quality of play that he can kind of produce moving up the ice. So not a bad thing, of course, like that goes without saying having him back in the lineup. It's just, you know, you want to get him back at some point sooner rather than later. You just don't want him coming back and leaving. Yeah. You know, because if you could have waited, like if you could have, things are going well for Dallas. If you could have waited another week and maybe that did him some good. or maybe you're just at the point where it's like,

this is it. It's not going to get any better. Like you need to just come in and knock off rust. It's either six months or it's right now. And so, you know, you knock off the rust and you got your guy back. But yeah,

I thought he looked like a guy who had been out for a while. But there's your starting point. And hopefully for him and the Dallas stars, it gets better as the series, you know, moves on. And, you know,

I think Dallas is going to win. So that gives him a little, you know, a little bit of time off as well before the next series would start in theory. And then you can, this is where going up three, three one helps even more because you're going to have, it's a playoff game. We don't want to say that it's low impact. We don't want to say that it's low stakes. But up three one in the second round, that's about as low stakes as you're going to get. So you see, so you get another, another night maybe of being able to, you know, if you want to dress seven, if you want to play them 17 minutes, if you want to like keep easing them back

back in, I think the next game coming up is another pretty good opportunity to keep knocking off the rest because you're going to want that dude in top form at some point soon. And I think it's clear that that played into at least part of the decision, right? Yeah. Especially like when Pete DeBor, he put it pretty plain. He's like, yeah, we don't mind going 11 to 7. That's just more shifts from Rico Ranting. Yeah, I guess it would be.

Yeah. Put it that way. Sure. I feel like we're maybe. shoveling a little too much dirt on the Winnipeg Jets. I absolutely, I absolutely am because I did it. I did it last round and it came back and it came back and burnt me and I have, I've learned nothing.

I'm doing the exact same thing that I did in round one. I just don't feel like if they win game five at home, loud building, all of that, we all go, yeah, sure, but they can't win on the road. And then they go in the road and finally for once Connor Helbeck has a decent game. And suddenly we're all going, oh, oh, how did we not see this coming? And then who knows and get, well, that's the problem. Then you got Pete DeBore in game seven. Well, where he's, he's the undertaker at WrestleMania.

Yeah, right. It's exactly. The thing, though, that might get overlooked in that. And I, like, listen, we can't discount the Winnipeg Jets. They are the president's trophy winners for a reason. They're a great team. Like, when they play as a team, they're very difficult to beat. But as much as Connor Hallibuck can snag a game, in theory,

Jake Ottinger can do the same thing. So now that road becomes got to get a game past Ottinger in game, in game five, in game six, in game seven. Do we think at one point there, Ottinger's going to look at that and say, actually it stops here, right? Like it's, I think there's a lot of layers to it, not saying that it's out of the realm of possibility,

but I mean, it makes it that much more difficult. It's not like you're going up, against a goaltender with an 858 save percentage? I'm not sure I can pick against Ottinger in three consecutive games. I think that's kind of what it comes down to. I try Jets fans. I didn't try very hard, but I tried a little bit.

It was just my, it's just my latent jet hater tendencies finally coming out. They've bled through at points during the regular season, and now I'm just basking in it. tonight's game is my god it is not tonight it is tomorrow night my calendar is all is all screwed up we got we got watching carolina that's a series it's a series i'm on game five back in washington carolina is up three one we're we're doing the discourse again about the carolina hurricanes whether they're boring whether they're not whether they're bad for hockey

whether they're not. I think we've seen that play out over the last couple days. I'm here for your questions, boys, because I feel like as someone who's at Ground Zero on this one, I'm uniquely qualified to answer them. So how bored are you? Pretty bored, pretty bored, pretty bored. People where I was here,

it was in my write-up a couple days ago, I was getting pity text from people who were like, man, you have to in-game. three. They was like, you have to, you have to watch this, huh? Like, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's playoff hockey. Like, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, not out here watching, you know, whatever. The, let me ask you this. So you're, you're at every practice, you're at every game. I think both these coaches are fascinating because they have different ways of how they want to play the game and how they view the game for me anyways, from, from, from what I see and what I hear from both of these guys. And not to say one's right and one's wrong, I don't believe, I don't believe that to be the case. But Spencer Carberry, I find interesting because in a lot of his like press conferences or media availability, he talks about puck touches. And not every coach mentions this, but like, you know, clean puck touches.

He'll say our touches were good. He'll say our touches weren't good. You must notice that when, when he's talking and you're in the building. And, you know, for a team. that values having the puck, how clean they can play with the puck, you know, the number one priority for the Carolina Hurricanes is to make all these puck touches as dirty as possible and muck it up. And that feeds right into what the Carolina Hurricanes do well. So it's a great fit for Rod Brindamore and his team. And that's what they've done essentially. Like that one

element that we hear about a lot with Washington, it's like, well, let's make let's make this as mucky as possible for them. And that's been, that's been part of the difficulty for the Washington Capitals in this series from what I can see. I think another thing Carberry is good at, he's almost better at it. He's better at explaining it in a way than,

than Brindamore is. You know, people see the, whatever, you see, you see the spam shot attempts from, from the point in just, right,

people want to write it off his spray and pray. And like, as if there's no, there's no real thought or behind it. And like there is. Like there's there's a little bit more to it. And Spencer Carberry is better at explaining that than Rod Brindamore is. Like like you like you like you can tell that Carberry has respect for the approach mainly because of.

Uh, the chaos that it creates in front after the initial, you know, let's just fling it out there and kind of and kind of see what happens. And I think that's something that a lot of the detractors of the of the hurricane style kind of kind of lose. is they act like there's no next level thought behind it. It's just like flinging at the goalie and see what happens. And that's really not it. And the other thing is you have to be willing to go to the chaos once you create it. It's not enough to throw it at the net.

They're not throwing it at the net and saying just let it bounce off a skate. Let's throw it to the net and then let's all dive in there and see what we can do with it. Did you just find a way to work in their slogan? Was it cause chaos? Was that a pun? I said you got to go to the chaos, but yeah. Oh, you have to, no, you said you have to create the chaos. I thought you were working in a little pun there.

Dude, that's on, that's for sure on a rally towel down there. Yeah, yeah, cause chaos. Yeah, anyways. Yeah, you're, you're working with the team admin hand and hand right now. You know, I get a thousand dollar check every time I say the slogan on. I, I have seen it, um, on both sides of the spectrum. And I think some of it has been dependent on who the goaltender is in the net. And what I mean by that is like, I've been in pre-scout meetings come playoff time

when the goalie coach for your team is going to do the pre-scout as far as what the other goalies bring into the table. And I've seen it where, you know, they'll say, we need to throw a lot at his feet and challenge him that way because his footwork's not great. And so we're going to see if we can create some situations in front of the net where he's going to have to be up and down. He's going to have to move around and we're going to bring the battle to him. I've also seen it the other way where goalie coach comes in and he says, let's not even bother with these types of things because he's too good at dealing with these, you know, sharp angles, shots from distance. We need to save it and we need to find a way to put the puck into an area where we can shoot it with some conviction to put it past the goalie.

And so, I don't, I don't necessarily see this as they think Logan Thompson is a goalie who can't handle the puck's, you know, the volume and the puck's at the feed and the pucks from distance. I just think that's the Carolina hurricane's mentality where it's like we are going volume. We're going bodies to the net and we're not passing up any opportunities. And there's something to be said for, you know, you want to make adjustments as you see fit. but it's like this is our process and this is our plan and we're sticking to it and everyone's on the exact same page. There's no guessing about what we're trying to do. And that's, you know, over time, you'll wear teams down if you play that way. You also have to have the horses that play that way. And Carolina, that's what they got. They got guys that can skate. They got guys that

that are, you know, bigger bodies that win these pucks back. And it doesn't feel like they're they're wasting them because they can get it back. Or if you can just simply rush the other defensemen into making bad decisions whenever they're doing puck retrievals or if they're trying to clear the crease or whatever, there's a loose puck in front, you know, that puts pressure on those guys. And if you're Washington and you have Alex Alex Alexe of playing a bunch and you have John Carlson, maybe not playing his best, playing his best hockey, those, you know, getting, flipping the ice and getting that process,

started is is dodgy it can be difficult and we've seen we've seen that turn into a problem at times here too from from from from from from from fan specifically though is you know they're all all over me in the comments and and whatever else i've i haven't looked in the comment section in years and i've somehow gotten suckered into doing this for the stuff i've i've written in this series there there is one frustrating element here carolina fans have this need this urge and it's born I'm sure of years of being told of how boring their team is and whatever else so on some level I get it but they they have this tick where any kind of criticism of the system anybody saying like hey this this this is maybe not this is boring this is not

the hockey I want to watch ideally you know my my perfect series is you know add stars or whatever that's the kind of hockey I like to see being played They want to act like that's some kind of indicator. Like it's a moral failing or something or that it's like you don't, you don't understand hockey and you don't appreciate the sport because you don't think that, that what Carolina does night in night out is, is the sport at its peak. It's like,

oh, no, you just, you just don't, you don't understand it. You don't have, your palette is not refined enough to appreciate what, what Rod Brindamor is doing on a nightly basis. You're not enjoying their little art film.

Yeah, right. And it's like, no, I get it. I understand it. I just don't like it. And I, and I think that's, and I think they, that's something that they need to, they need to kind of get over. And I'm not even saying that I don't like it. I've enjoyed, I've enjoyed the series, right? Like, you mean, give me, I don't care. But if, if someone who's watching this is like, nope, not for me, that doesn't, that doesn't necessarily mean that they just don't get it. Like, like, people are free to, people are free to dislike whatever, whatever's going on there. If they, if they so choose. I totally get what you're saying because I think the Carolina hurricane's viewing experience is vastly different in person than it is on television. Because I've called a few games this year. I called one in Montreal and I called one down in Carolina between the habs and the canes. And you watch them on TV and you're like, okay, I get it. You know, straight line, dump it in, forecheck, retrieve it, shoot the puck, defend, high flip out of your own zone. You can pretty much figure it out. person, you watch it and you're like, holy smokes, they're tenacious.

And wow, did like that win that battle again? And it just, I don't know, something about the way it comes through the TV doesn't reflect the way you feel when you watch it in person. So I have an appreciation for that. I also have an appreciation for this. It is not easy for an NHL coach to get that many players year after year with all the turnover that team has had to buy into play. playing that way. It would be easy.

Like, we got new bodies in. This doesn't work for this guy. Doesn't work for that guy. And it doesn't take much. And then it's like, well, we've, we've kind of lost our, we've lost our backbone, our foundation of our team. Not the case. So like Rod deserves a lot of credit for continually getting guys to buy into that.

And hey, if other fan bases think it's boring, who cares? Those aren't the fan bases that watch you for 82 games a year. If your fan base appreciates the way you play. then that's really all that matters. You're not trying to appease the opponent fan base. Stop worrying about whether people watching on TV think your team is fun. Enjoy the 3-1 edge in the second round of the playoffs and move on. All right.

Time for a break. We'll be right back. All right, we're back with a segment that we just pulled out of thin air. It might be recurring. I kind of like this. Frankie's top five. We can adopt this moving forward and apply it whenever. we need something.

Let's tell the truth here. Okay. Our producer JD was like, here's an angle we might want to get to. Why do we talk about the top five most disappointing guys so far in the postseason? And he twisted our arms and we obliged. So let's just put this out there, though. There needs to be a viewer disclaimer to this.

If we are talking about your favorite player, there is a good chance he is possibly injured right now. and is playing through. So please understand that we are well aware of that, but we are just going to point out some guys that maybe their teams would like them to provide a little bit more at this point. Are we all, we're all on the same page. Can I just add to that?

If the league is, and all its teams are going to decide that they just are not going to tell us anything about injuries for two straight months, it's not on us to give everybody the benefit of the doubt. I think that's half the reason they don't tell us is so that we're not allowed to criticize anyone because you never know when it's like... A hundred percent. You're like, ah, Patrice Bergeron didn't look great on that last shift. And he's like, yeah, I got a hole in my lung.

And you're like, okay. Oh, okay. But no, that's that's where I landed with Carlson. I was like, not saying anything. I was like, he was bad against the Canadians. So I was like, uh-oh. I kind of edged around it. And I'm just like, I guys probably hurt whatever he looks.

He doesn't look like himself. Tell us something. We need to be honest here. Or don't. Just know that we are probably doing this segment under the premise that all these guys are hurt. With that being said, I'm not going to number these one through five, but I'm going to give you a five pack of guys that likely their teams would want more from them. You guys ready to go?

Let's go. Okay. Austin Matthews. Connor Hellebuck, Matthew Kachuk, Aiden Hill, Pierre-Luc Dubois. Where are we at with those five guys as far as potentially needing more for their teams? It's a good list, and I got to say I appreciate the courage of picking five guys who are still active in the playoffs. Because usually this is the part where you go, ah, you know, Nikita Kutrov didn't score. Oh, I, that's, that's, no, we're talking about guys that are playing right now.

Guys, we're going to light it up tonight. That's a cop out. Are you kidding me? Remember the Crosby-Ovechkin dueling hat tricks? We're getting that from Matthews and Kachuk tonight. And they're going to point at Frankie in the, up in the press box. Yeah, that Ozo on the athletic hockey show called us out today. Like, keep in mind, okay, Austin Matthews has two goals in the playoffs.

Austin Matthews can be a good two-way player. He can play against Sasha Barco. and he can play great defensively, he still has to find a way to score. And this is a guy who falls into that category, could be dealing with something, you know, might have some kind of lingering issue.

But, I mean, the reality is Toronto Maple Leafs are not being the Florida Panthers if Austin Matthews doesn't factor in offensively. It just, I have a hard time seeing it that way. So he, like,

you know, he has to find a way to put one past Sergey Brabowski here. There's just no way around it. We have still not seen an actual Austin Matthews goal in the playoffs this year. He's had two, one of them into an open net because of a beautiful setup from Mitch Marner and one of them kind of a seeing eye shot that he almost fanned on. And he is, out of all those guys, he is the one that clearly isn't right physically

because he hasn't been all year long, but you're the highest paid player in the league. He's got to score, period. There is no path for the Maple Leafs. where Austin Matthews is just highly paid Philip Dono out there. So. Philip Don't know, catching some strays. Everybody keeps pointing out correctly that,

yeah, he's still playing well defensively, he's still doing the things in a 200-foot game. Great, wonderful. Scor goal. He's, I will tell you right now,

if this ends badly for the Leafs, you can always try to guess, like, which member of the core, four or five is going to be the one who wears the goat horns. It's Matthews this year. He hasn't got anything yet. It's him by default because they've gotten plenty from,

okay from some of the guys. And, and, you know, Willie Nealander has been good. Amulets been okay. The amulets, the amulets, been working. Johnny, give it a shine. Give it a little dip in the, in the, the little jewelry shiner and a shake. So if we stay in the series, like Matthew Kachuk had a three point night to start the playoffs.

He had two goals and one assist. He scored another goal in that series against Tampa Bay. And he hasn't scored since, I want to say that was game three of the first round. And he hasn't, and he would be another guy that falls into that category of dealing with something. You would have to think so. He missed a lot of significant time from the Four Nations face off onward.

He looks hurt. He does look. look hurt. And so you can't call it a disappointment. But playoffs and the kichucks kind of go hand in hand where it's just like that guy can be such an X factor. And, you know, hasn't scored yet against Toronto. I think looks like a half step behind. Might not be even worth discussing further than that. But like, you know, he's he's less. He's a difference maker. Yeah. But we also know just because of the way, you know, I think Florida's better equipped to win a series with whatever they're getting from him than Toronto is from, from Matthews. Is that fair? It's more, it's easier,

yes, it's easier for me to imagine Florida figuring away through with minimal production from Matthew Kachuk than it is for me to imagine the same for, for Toronto. Yeah, I, I totally agree. Like the depth battle favors the Florida Panthers in this series. So, that's, I mean, that, that's something that the Leafs, at some point, it has to be the Leafs best players were so overwhelming that there was just nothing you could do about it. And, you know, through four games, that's really not the case. It's, it's been Toronto in the first two games, they were faster. They generated off the rush. And then, you know, game three was a coin flip, but game four, we started to see shades of Toronto Maple Leafs in playoff years past where don't, capitalize on your chances. The Florida Panthers bogged everything down to, you know, to their speed.

And it's like, oh, boy, there's a little bit of that feeling of we've seen this song and dance before here in Leaf Nation. I heard Pierre Luke Dubois on that list. He is 100% deserving to be there. He was, that line, you know, it's, they've since maybe broke it up. I will see if we'll see if it's long term. But, but his line, it's him, Tom Wilson, Connor McMichael. They were good against Montreal.

They weren't, they weren't great. They controlled run to play. They didn't score all that much. But it was still like an effective, it was an effective series from the Dubois line. Against Carolina, they've been bad across the board. Like there's, there's no, no zone time. They're losing the territorial battle badly. We're not, we're not seeing any real offensive production.

We see Tom Wilson bump up. back up to the Ovecgen-Strom line in game four, which is probably not signed for Washington moving forward. The reason the Caps whole thing worked in the regular season is because Pierre-Luc Dubois was good. He was, like, him showing up and showing out as a legitimate play-controlling second-line center who controlled the puck, produced points, played tough minutes with Wilson and,

uh, and, and, uh, in, in, and, uh, in, he was the rug that tied the room together for, for Washington because like,

you be, you look at the way stuff has worked for, for the caps. It's like, okay, Ovechkin's old, Strome's, strums,

strums kind of limited in some ways as, as, as a one C, blah, blah, you start, you started, you started looking at, at that team and, in picking nits and,

and finding problems. The reason it works, or it worked, at least in the regular, season was because Dubois was really good. And we haven't seen that from him. I can't scare him. And the thing with Pierre Luke Dubois, when he does play his best and when he has played his best, there's a little, there's an element of grumpiness to his game,

right? Like he arrives and he's ornery and he's physical. And if he doesn't do that, then it's like it's, he's out there. It's not like you're not really having that, that significant impact. But I think, you know, he, he needs to have. the foul mood, and then that leads to him playing productive hockey. All right, let's get into a couple of the goalies. I'm trying to remember the other ones, yeah. We got Aiden Hill and we got Connor Hallibuck. Right.

Connor Hallibuck, it goes without saying, like, especially on the road. This is a guy who's going to win the Vesna. I know people that voted for him for the heart, like for their number one vote for the heart. And during the regular season, I would say those are. fairly justified. But now come playoff time, it fell off in a big way in the St. Louis series. His teammates bailed

him out. He had a chance to redeem himself and has at times in this series, you know, they had a 4-0 shutout on home ice, but for the most part, it has been regular below average for him. And that's still not

to his standard, his level. And so now you look at it and you say, well, it has to be considered a disappointment for Connor Hellup Buck. And Aiden Hill, you know, in Vegas, they're on the brink. And he doesn't look like the Aden Hill that won a Stanley Cup a couple years ago. Like he's, he's been really leaky in this series. And I think the Vegas Golden Knights, as much as they're a great defensive team,

they need a goaltender who can give you 906, 907 type stuff. And he's nowhere near that right now. Yeah, Hill is all the way down in the, in the, in the 870s and say a percentage. It's just not not going to work. Would you consider a change in Vegas? I mean, you're not going to do it in Winnipeg,

you wouldn't think. Although that's not like going around. People are floating that around like that you should start Eric Comrie. I mean, you're not doing that. You're living and dying with six or seven years left on this contract. Like, I mean,

I know that you got to fight to you got to live to fight. another day, but I, I, what damage does that do? I mean, that's, unless you can cook up a fake injury or something, I don't know how you do it in Winnipeg, but in Vegas, we saw them win a cup going back and forth, right? It's, hell of like, 850, say, 851 say a percentage is over 10 goals or negative 10 goals saved above expected. Like this is, this is, this is, 1980s, Pokedic is like, those numbers are substandard, man. you know what though Sean I don't even think you can veer away from Aden Hill at this point

like you're going to go Akira Schmidt or Ilya Sampsonoff and that's against the oilers who are who are really potent right now and and are getting like they're getting it from everyone at they get the Adam Henrique game they'll get the Connor Brown game like they're and not to mention it's still kind of just cooked in that McDavid and Drysidal are going to be unbelievable as well. Like that's, that's been a constant. I don't know.

So let me, let me ask this then. I'll, I'll, I'll pull up a theory that my old time podcasting buddy, Dave Lozo used to throw out. Because both of these teams are,

they've got weak goaltending or they've got goaltending that's not playing well. And they're facing elimination. Do you essentially approach game five the way that a baseball team in the playoffs game set you know where it's like the pitcher walks the first batter

and it's like someone's up in the bullpen right away there's no you know we are just going to go as soon as there's the first side of trouble we go to the bullpen now here you got the bullpen is one guy but are we in a situation where if Aden Hill or God forbid Connor Hellebuck

looks shaky gives up a couple kicks a couple of rebounds and then gives up a goal you're just making the chance change right away or are you doing the usual to you know you give them at least three do you does that feel is that panic move or is that just knowing the situation and saying we don't have time to mess around i think that's that's an interesting point and i want to go back to game seven winnipeg versus the st louis blues where i think given the way that series had gone up till that point and you watched i believe it was matthew joseph who flew down the wing and put that

puck in off the rush. There would have been some thought, do we just pull them here? We're not going to win this game and we're down. And they didn't, obviously, because it's Connor Halibuck, so you know, you're going to live and die by him, but you ended up winning the game. And then in the third and in overtime,

Hella Buck made the saves he was supposed to make. He did. And you stuck with him. So that would be the example that I would cite as to why you maybe just leave the leash long for these guys and say, we're just going to do it with you or we're not going to do it.

And you got to find a way for us or we're just going to die with it. I mean, I think the gap between them and the backups is just too big. I think that's got to be considered, right? Like there's just such a drop off

between Hull Buck and Eric Comrie. And there's a drop off between Hill and Simpsone off. I kind of think so. I'm not a, I'm not an I'm not an I'm not an I'm not an I'm not an I'm not it's hard to imagine a scenario where I would sign up for that in an elimination game true can I can I can you want to hear a funny story about game seven last year maybe not I know so there's something something in Ilya Samsonov's past just makes me not trust them all that much in an elimination I'm seeing I'm seeing

I'm seeing Trent Frederick fly down the wing throw a puck to the blocker side and samsonoff try and grab it with the glove. Am I remembering that correctly? Or was it the other way around? It was something like that. It was Lillim-esque. It was Lillimesque from back in the day, unfortunately. All right, Frankie. I think it's time for you to go. What do you have going on this week? And anything? Yeah, we got the Leaf post game on TSN tonight.

So we'll do that. Yeah. And we'll see what happens there. How consistently have you done that this post season? I've done some leaps. We've done some jets. So we're doing both teams kind of every night, which has been nice to follow. And then tomorrow I'm back in London for game five of the OHL final

between the Oshoa Generals and London nights. So London's up 3-1. And it's been good. Like, Easton Cowan's been exciting. This Casper Halton, and I joked about him at the start of the show, he has played eight games in an OHL final in his career. four this year for last year.

So eight games, he's got four hat tricks. Good God. It's pretty remarkable. And I started thinking about this last night. You know, San Jose is going to be drafting someone really high this year. They have Celebrini. They have Smith. They have Eklund.

They're going to be adding like a prime goal score in this Halton and kid. And they're likely adding their number one defenseman of the future in Sam Dickinson, who plays on the same team as Haltonin. I'm watching this happen and thinking, man, this team's not going to be bad much longer. They're going to be a pretty exciting team. They got all the pieces coming. So it's nice to see these guys at a younger stage first

before they move their way up. The important thing is now I can, now whenever Casper Haltonin shows up and as a hatchet in the NHL, I'm just like, yeah, I knew this guy. I've been on the Casper Halton train for years. 100%. Yeah.

Yeah. Thanks. Thanks, brother. next week. See you, boys. All right, there goes Frankie. Sean, we're back by ourselves. And this week, I have learned... What have we learned, Sean? It is possible if you're a minority owner for an NHL team to get suspended over posts.

Doug Seifu, a guy who I think I was vaguely aware that he existed up until a couple days ago, has been suspended indefinitely by the NHL over some posts he made on... Twitter slash X in game four of the Maple Leafs series against the Panthers. It actually is possible for the league to take action against the Florida Panthers for something they do against the Leafs. It just has to be an owner doing something to a Leave fan. Serving that one up on a platter for you, brother. You know what?

This guy, hey, the, this, what happened was there was a Leaf fan trolling them, and they always get the retaliation, right? It's always, that's how it goes. Yeah, it's heartbreaking because I always assumed all billionaires were just like cool dudes. Cool, yeah, I know. And it turns out maybe some of them are kind of dinks. I love reading TJ's writer for this is making me laugh.

Sifu weighed in on the conflict between Israel and Palestine while responding to Eliefs fans who compared controversial hits by the Panthers to the conflict in the Middle East asking him, hey, what's worse? Using headshots to win a series or using Starvation to win a war? Among the replies from CFA's accounts were actually being a whiny, dope, anti-Semite

is clearly worse, loser. An E-Sword, 51st state anti-Semite loser, Israel, now and forever until every last Hamas rat is limited. Cool. This is great, great stuff. You know, a phrase that you always really want to see

if you're getting trolled is among the replies. Among the replies. You're being very cool and under-control. role like just the very uh also cj did this guy solid because when he when he screen capped the screen capped the reply is he left out the fact that it happened at like 11 12 p.m. right so you can you can you can look at the time on the clock maybe connect some dots imagine imagine old duggies state of mind whenever he was he was he was uh going off on on his phone there so yes i'm glad to see that It is in fact possible for an NHL owner to face some kind of, some kind of repercussions for his behavior.

I mean, this is, this is going to be, this is going to throw the Panthers into disarray. I mean, not having, not having an owner just, you know, able to weigh in is, is going to throw them off. I learned that the Florida Panthers are a bunch of scumbags, but I knew that. You knew that. I knew that. But I did learn, weirdly, it is. is possible to be a scumbag team against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the biggest market that nobody ever shuts up and still just get away with stuff that nobody talks about.

I know we've all, I know we talked about Max Dolme for 72 hours. Okay. I know the, we can, we can talk about it for another 90 seconds here. The international emergency of Max Domi shoving a guy, it was, it was, it was very, very, very awful and terrible, and we all agree that he needs to go to Alcatraz. I heard they're opening that back up. The dirtiest thing in this series so far is the moment no one's talking about, which is the Florida Panthers opening the bench door as William Nealander skates by so that he

goes hip first into the corner. And it's like nobody, we did, like every Lee fan saw that and flipped out. And it was not a whisper. I'm not even saying, like, get suspended or whatever. Have you seen a replay of this anywhere? Have you, other than on, like, mad leaf fans on social media? Nobody's talking about it. Nobody, just, just gone.

You know, it wasn't a line change. It was just, oh, here comes a guy. I'm just going to open the bench door. Maybe this is. If he fractures his hip, no big deal. Maybe this is a false flag by Doug Seafood to draw attention to himself. he's playing four-dimensional chests he's he's definitely not he's definitely not just hanging out in the in the in the owner's box after a couple pops and and been screwed around in his phone

definitely not this is all this is all tactical stuff to draw attention to himself away from his team doing stuff like open he saw the he saw the bench door and he was like that's the dirtiest play of the playoffs obviously are completely impartial and not anti-leafs national hockey media will not let this go unless I love this I love social media I love I love I love whenever we get like

national media is compromised because the least thing takes from you I've heard enough of them over the years where I'm not going to say you won me over I don't completely believe it but I'm getting a little closer all I'm saying is the grand unifying theory is that

significant chunks of the media, blah, blah, blah, department of player safety, league head office are so terrified of being called Pro Leaf that they've overcorrected to the other side. It's not that they're anti-Leaf. It's not that anybody, because Ward knows, give the Leafs of Stanley Cup, this league is swimming in money. So deep down, you know, all the people who only care about the bottom line want the Leafs to do well, which is most of who I'm talking about.

but man, the, the Twitter army is going after, you know, who, who yell at every national writer, you know, you're being pro leaves every time they say things like maybe don't open the bench door. You guys are, you guys are kind of winning the battle. It's working. It's working. Works on me too. But I feel like this is a safe space where you and I can just talk. We're not recording this, right?

No, this is just, this is just us. Just us. Okay, I'll go back to pretending to be a partial neutral guy. Just as gals, gabbing on the computer. That's it. Yep. All right, dude, I think that about does it. How's the newsletter going?

I'm reading it. It's fun. Yeah. People do seem to be liking it. Lots of people are getting signed up. I'm doing it again tonight because I'm tagging in for Myrtle once more. Can't wait. lots of fun

I get to put that together as I watch the Leafs yeah there's gonna be the newsletters is gonna be full of randomly capitalized words and misspellings it's just gonna be nothing but gifts

of them opening the bench door from different angles and I you should I mean no joke use your use your platform to defend the put upon Toronto Maple Leafs you know that's right and I also have some thoughts on the

Israel-Palestine conflict that all definitely. That's always a good idea. That's on the athletic hockey show Patreon feed, which is a thing that exists. All right. Thank you, folks. Thank you, Sean.

Thank you, Frankie. Thank you for listening to our little show here. We're back next Wednesday. Haley and I have the next T-A-H-S overall, which is tomorrow. See you then.