The Athletic Hockey Show - Vegas Golden Knights desert soap opera is a must-watch, Tampa Bay Lightning torch the Florida Panthers, is Phil Kessel a Hall of Famer?, Multiple Choice Madness, and more

Episode Date: April 25, 2022

First, Ian, Hailey, and guest cohost Sean Gentille discuss the must-watch Vegas Golden Knights soap opera unfolding in the desert, with the team blowing a late two-goal lead to the San Jose Sharks over the weekend in the latest episode, eventually losing 5-4 in a shootout and putting their playoff hopes in serious jeopardy, Robin Lehner’s confusing injury status and future with the club, the “players are expendable” storyline, their yet-to-be fixed salary cap woes, and more.Then, the group talks about the Tampa Bay Lightning downing the Florida Panthers 8-4 in a Sunday drubbing over the weekend and discuss who would be favored in a Lightning-Panthers playoff matchup, Steven Stamkos’ legacy, and the frontrunner for the Masterton trophy.Plus, to close things out, they open up the mailbag and answer listener questions about the NHL-equivalent to MLB’s 3,000 hits, if Phil “The Thrill” Kessel should be a hockey Hall of Famer if he plays 1,000 consecutive games and scores 1,000 points, if Jack Eichel is the new Matt Duchene, and a couple of Multiple Choice Madness questions about Evgeny Kuznetsov’s shootout stick-twirl and which Eastern Conference playoff team is most likely to miss the tournament next season.And, right now you can get a 6 month subscription to The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back, everybody. It is your Monday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. It's Ian. And is Haley Salvean with you, as always, in the big chairs. But in an effort to kind of bridge the gap that we have with the Tuesday show, we want to let our listeners know it's a fake rivalry that we got going with Gentilly and Custis. It's not. No, it's not.

Oh, man. Okay, well, listen. But Higgins, then why are we having a show? We got Gentile with us. Hello, hello. Craig couldn't make it. he's plotting against you actually you guys came up again

we just recorded the Tuesday show and it's fine we talked about this at length we're recording the Tuesday show on Monday because there's only one game on Monday night so who cares but yeah you guys you guys came up again I think he's well as you know

we're extremely lazy the last segment of our show is just reading comments left by other people and Salvean jumped in the section last week and started started stirring the pot it made Craig mad because that's the that's the one thing i've said this about Craig i've known Craig for almost 15 years now he's just he's a really he's quick to anger right he's like he's a hot head he's got a terrible

temper so he got pissed and he and now he's and now he's plotting against you guys so that's why that's why he couldn't make it this doesn't bode well for my potential contract extension in the summer It might have come up. That's all I'll say. Yeah. That's fine. Amazing.

But listen, we, this is going to be great to have you on here, Sean, because I think there's a great soap opera brewing in the desert that I think we got to lead off this show with. And that game on Sunday night, I got to tell you, was one of the most unbelievable ending, like with two minutes or whatever it was, two and change that. I'm like, okay, Vegas is up two by two. I can't wait. It's going to be Vegas.

It's going to be for all, like, pretty much. all the cards and then here like the shark scoring, Timo Meyer's scoring with like 0.8 seconds left was unbelievable. Like I, I'm trying to figure out gang like what is going on in Vegas because this is the most compelling soap opera that we've seen in the NHL in a long time. You said that the soap opera is brewing like it's there.

It brewed. It's there. We're pouring it into cups and drinking it right now. Vegas, and I feel like we've made like little jokes about, or, you know, it'd be, you know, last week we talked about in how, you know, either they're going to miss the playoffs and it'll be kind of funny or you get like a Vegas Edmonton first round. That's also kind of funny. So it's a bit of a win-win situation. And I heard Sean talking about this on a Tuesday show last week because I subject myself to listening. Dumb.

Dumb, don't do it. But it was like you were making a really good point. And this is the thing about Vegas that really interests me is, you know, you were talking about how they just made these like, they just had to keep upgrading on people. And to me, I see the Vegas Golden Knights as that old man who can't stop tinkering with his house. There's nothing wrong with his house. His house is fine. And he keeps fixing his house. And he's like bored.

and he keeps doing things and now the house isn't very good anymore. It's like, you know, your bird feeder was really nice but now you have a new one and none of the birds want to come anymore. Or your bookshelf is now ugly.

Like, I don't know, like there's just things. They can't stop and it's unnecessary. Did you guys really need a coy pond? Like, why did we build this in the backyard? Yeah, they're gilding the lily. You know, you only have a certain budget and, you know, the bird bath was fine. You didn't need the koi pond.

And now you can't afford your hydro bill. Like, I don't... Like, that's how I see the vexed gold nights. I love the koi pond analogy because koiponds are, essentially, they're useless, right? Like, they're pointless. That is, like, I don't know what to do with my money thing, you know? Like, let's just get these, like, huge fish that creep me out, you know? Yeah, they're showy and they're pointless.

But here's my question. Is that part of the Vegas act? Like, it's almost like... Like, are they playing into some sort of vagus narrative of just constantly going big for that market? I think Bill Foley is. I mean, that's part of the process there, right? Is he just, and credit to him, like, conceptually, I'm there. Like, I get, I like the idea of having an owner who's just like, we're in it to win it.

This is it. Love it. We're spending everything. Like, go for it. We could afford to have more of those guys who were just, who won it so badly that they'll make, that they'll make potentially disastrous decisions in the pursuit. And I think part of that's also, by the way, I need to say, in the interest of full disclosure,

I went to sleep on Sunday night. I didn't see the end of that game line. Oh, wow. I wasn't. I wasn't paying attention. So I had to catch up at the end of it. But oh my, oh my goodness. So one of our commenters had a great, had a great, kind of a great line was that this is the best way to kind of,

it's been a slow process, but we've like kind of officially introduced Vegas fans to what it means to be a hockey fan, because you've had all these different levels of disappointment that they've had to endure over the last, over the last five years, right, or whatever it is, where they, they lose in the conference final. And then there's like, just run down the list. And now the next step, like they have, they have reached their final form now where you have this big, this, they finally get jack up. Eichael and it's like they're like this is it. This is the big year. And they have, you know, they're kind of their biggest disappointment yet. I don't know. I, the, it's not, it's funny to see their playoff chances and all that stuff at 10, 11 percent. It's wild. I think for me with the Golden Knights, it's like, and you know, whatever, the Coy Pond analogy, it's kind of funny because it's

kind of true. But you think of like just, you know, the Jack Eichael trade is the most recent one. And when we're talking about the upgrades that they've been making, you know, Jack Eichel is a very good player. The goal he scored at the dome a cup like last week or two weeks ago. Not a lot of guys can shoot the puck like that. Like I get it. And I think most fans want an owner who will spend the money who will say, I don't care if you're 20 million dollars over the cap. Like you can spend however much you want. Like here's my money. Do what you want. Win us a Stanley Cup. Like that is much better than not having anything at all. And you're, you know, trying just to get to the cat floor. But, you know, you give, this is a cap league.

We're in a cap, like a hard cap era. And you traded away the kind of players that teams need to be successful in this kind of space, right? Like Alex Tuck didn't make a whole lot of money and he's a good player. That's the kind of guy you want on your team to produce in your middle six and not cost a ton of the cap. But, you know, now you have Jack Eichel. He makes $10 million and everyone else is feeling the squeeze. And now look at the guys in their bottom six. Like, I couldn't name half of those players.

I don't know who they are. And maybe that's me just being ignorant, but it's like you're feeling the squeeze and they're getting like, you can feel them getting more and more top heavy. And that's great if those players work out the way you want them to. LTIR, sure, that's great. But you got to make the playoffs for that whole thing to work. You know what? Loki was my favorite part of Sunday's game.

I don't know if you saw this or heard about this. So Vegas has this soul-crushing 5-4 shootout loss to San Jose. And after the game, they had their season-ending awards on the ice today. I saw that. And I'm like, oh, my God. Are they, did they do like shirt off their backs, like the full thing? like that is that is brutal brutal because that's it

that's it like and I know we've had several instances of this over the last like couple weeks where like and this is probably why they're in the situation they're in now we've had different backbreaking losses or different backbreaking blown points like for them over the last couple weeks like it happened against the Canucks it happened against the devils

it happened again last night but ultimate and I know they got a Tuesday big showdown blah blah blah but if this doesn't work out like if and if they end up missing out, which the math is deeply against them right now, last night is going to be it.

Like, that's the pivot point for their season. When we look back on this and say, when was it done for real? It was Sunday night, right? And they had to sit out there on the ice and do the whole rigmarole, like dog and pony show, which is just, oh my God,

that's unbelievable. I really regret, I really regret not paying attention to the last, I was like, oh, yeah, they're up. They're up too. whatever. They're the sharks. The sharks stink. They'll be fine. What a mistake. What a mistake. And we didn't even talk about

what's happening with Robin Leonard. Yeah. Yeah. It's, so what is, what are you, both of you think about this? Because if you go back a few days, both our own Jesse Granger and Emily Kaplan reported that Robin Leonard needed season ending surgery. Next day, Pete DeBorne's like, wow,

first time hearing of this. And we're like, what? Like, what do you mean? And then he's backing up on Sunday. And I don't know, and I go's a great example, right? Anytime that there's a dispute between a player and a team over an injury, it's over. Like, there's no coming back. I think of Lindross with Philly. Like, I, like, it's over. Like, I think that this relationship is fractured beyond repair.

My question is, out of Kelly McCriman, Robin Lennar, and Pete DeBoer, who doesn't come back next year? Because I don't think all three of them can. Probably at least two. Yeah. Don't you think? I think if they don't make the playoffs, look, they were second in the Pacific, I believe. I don't remember exactly.

I think they were second or third in the Pacific Division when Gerard Galant got fired. If they missed the playoffs, Pete DeBore's not coming back. How many more bites at the apple with that goalie situation are you going to give this guy? Like, how many times are you going to allow him to screw it up? Like, he screwed it up with Flurry. He's in the process of screwing up with Leonard. Like what's happened over the last three days with them? It's very clear.

Like we're not telling tails out of school here. There's a common denominator with the goalie issues in Vegas. And it's DeBoer. So he starts Lennar, yanks him, quasi throws him under the bus after the game. And then the day after Jesse Kaplan are like, okay, Robin Lennar's done, actually. He's going to have surgery. He's been playing hurt. and then he's and then he's back in the backup role the next day.

Like, I don't think it's unreasonable to say that Robin Lennar saw, like, experience what he experienced in that game and was pissed. He's like, yeah, I'm playing, I'm playing hurt. And I just got yanked and dumped on by my coach. Like, what am I doing here? Like, I'm out, right? And then, you know, of course, it's a playoff race and there's still games to be one and they need Robin Leonard, at least in some capacity.

And then they can, you know, maybe some conversations were had. Maybe some people were convinced of certain things. And then he's back in the backup chair, the next game. It's crazy. And like I said, I think to bore, you know, he's got to be gone. You hate to, like, and I'm not saying whether he should or shouldn't be,

but it's just, it's impossible to see him come back next year. Yeah. And again, it's not like I'm saying, like, this guy sucks. Like, he's gone. but look at how quick they were to get rid of Gerard Blant. Look at how quick they are to make changes with the organization in general. Like they move players out. Like we've read it and heard it before where it's like if you don't have a no movement

clause on that team, like you've got to be ready because anything could happen at any given time. Like that's just the vibe of that organization. That's the way it works. And it comes from Foley because Foley wants it worse than anybody and he's willing to do whatever it takes. And if that means moving guys out and not telling them, they're trying to pull some stuff with Dadov or whatever, like, like, it's going to, it's going to happen.

People are expendable. Weren't there people? I, who was telling me this? Like, I, somebody was, I think Jesse was, man, man, I forget who was talking about it, but, like, apparently, like, players in that locker room used to make jokes about, like, well, we're all expendable here. Like, if we can't help them win, like, we're toast. Like, players are aware of that.

Like, what does that do for morale on your locker room and that organization? And this isn't, like, a. recent problem. This isn't, it's been a, go back a couple years, but focus on this season specifically, it's been a season long problem for them. They haven't had it together at any given point. And it, and there's, it's just been kind of a, you know, a cascading series of problems for them. And imagine if you're like, imagine if you're Chandler Stevenson or Riley Smith, are these guys who are always the fodder, they're always the guys who are, you know, the names that pop up when it's like, they need to shed five million dollars.

is Riley Smith, you're done. When the bill comes due, and we've been hearing it for years, it's like, oh, yeah, they're just going to move out Riley Smith. So what does that do if you're Riley Smith? And that's the, look, and sorry, Sean, but like, that's the thing. They didn't fix their cat problem here. Nope. Even Daryl Sutter, it's like, they're the Stanley Cup favorite because they have a $100 million

payroll. That's such a great, like, passive aggressive dart from Daryl. And then he, like, kind of paused and, like, did the, like, Daryl shrug, like, those are, I guess. End of press conference. Like, all right, thanks. The only loss here is that we're probably not going to get Edmonton versus, versus Vegas in the first round.

Like, that's what we as, you know, we as a culture are losing out on, because that have been great, but don't seem like it's going to happen. I feel like we're dumping on the Golden Knights. We're not. I am. I am. I am. I am.

I am. I am. I am. I am. We've been waiting for this for five years. They coasted in as an expansion team. You know what? It was the social media for me.

You know what? If they didn't piss me off in 2019, I wouldn't be so freaking angry. That's the cycle of life for NHL team. It's like once, like the first sign that you have entered a different phase as an organization is when people start dumping on your Twitter account. Like that's like the warning flare. And when that happened with them. The Carolina Hurricanes are.

aren't going to be cute and funny next year. Let me tell you. Twitter started getting annoying this year. And then if they, like, lose in the first round, it's done. They're toast. But I think all of us as hockey fans are, we're kind of happy to see Vegas going through this

because it's like they didn't go through any, their fan base doesn't know pain. Okay? They don't know adversity. So if they're going to get all of it at once, I kind of like it. Like, welcome to the NHL. Welcome.

Talk to a Flyers fan. Talk to a Sabres fan, a Flames fan, and Senators fan. Like, pick any fan base that hasn't one of companies. Yeah. Flames fans are, they know the pain. No, they're definitely normal and react normally to everything for sure. Yeah. I will say this.

Here's where I appreciate Vegas. So thank you, Vegas. Is it they're giving us something to watch down the stretch here. Because the playoff races are duds to varying degrees. Like, we can only get so excited about. you know, about seating, you know, seating races. The wild card race in the Western Conference is incredible right now. Yeah, that's it.

But that's it. But that's it. Like, and we're lucky. And we're lucky to have it. It's giving us something to track because God knows we're not getting any of that in the East. I am going on. Oh, the East is wild. I'm going to go off track, Ian, because, so I did the power rankings last week because

Dom is on gallivanting in California. And I was like looking into the Dallas stars a little bit more. And I don't know why that team is so funny. They're really funny. They're really funny. Like I looked and it's like they're second in the wild card race. And I think Saad had this tweet too. And he was like, you could tell me that they were going to be the number one seed in the

wild card, the two seed in the wild card or missed the playoffs entirely. And I could believe you in any three of the situations. like this team and Dallas is interesting as a potential flames first round matchup because it's like you know the flames have matched up well against them in the regular season you would think it's good but they can also like randomly get really good and hot at the right time and then you're screwed like they are so funny like they've lost like 31 games or something this season and they're like in the playoffs and I don't know why that made me laugh are the stars good I don't know But it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. It's, it's, I've said this multiple times. I said this on the Tuesday show, which recorded before the Monday show. They're just like, some of their games are just 56 minutes of garbage. And then you get like four good shifts from Robertson Hints in Pavelski. And then they just white knuckle it and win in a shootout or whatever. And that's what is scary about them in the playoffs. Yep.

And also Jamie Ben and Tyler Sagan like come a little. live against the flames in the playoffs, apparently is a thing I've been told. Like, Flames fans are afraid of Jamie Ben. Like, no, no, no, no, not the stars, not the stars. No, no, no. We're not doing that again. I don't know how afraid of 2022 Jamie Ben, anybody needs to bail. That's what they said in 2019-20.

I don't know if that's completely true. But anyways, Ian, you could take the reins back. I just thought that was kind of funny. The Dallas-Nashville wild card race is like the only thing I'm paying attention to right now. and it's like just kind of funny to watch. It's the only thing anybody needs to pay attention. There's nothing else to pay attention to. UCSarros is going to play 69 games this season,

which is double the amount he started last year. Like Nashville should be like kind of scary in the first round of your Calgary, but like in flames fans of, you know, they're very upset often about Jacob Markstrom's usage. Like Markstrom is going to be the rested, you know, ready goaltender in that matchup. UC Sarouse has played a lot of hockey. You got to hook, hook sweet little boy UCSaros up to an IV.

He's so small. He's like, he's, he's just 5'11. He can't handle this. He's taller than you. He's like a modern, modern thing, Darren Pang, right? Like, it just looks different than all the other goals. Can you believe, that still blows my mind, like when, I mean, and we watch it, like, Ian, you and I definitely did, like, we, we watched short goalies, right?

Yes. Like, we're, it is wild to me. And I, and I said that about Soros. kind of tongue and cheek because he's obviously dude's almost six feet tall. Like he's not some little guy. He's listed as six feet tall. Right. I mean, fine. So am I. No, you're not.

In shoes. You throw me in some AirMax 97s. I could be scraping six feet. But like they, we talk about UC Soros like he's like, like you said, Darren Pang. Like he's some five, some five five guy out there who's just you know, among the redwoods. And he's not. He's taller than the average person. It's very, it's very, it's very funny.

I wrote a story about Dustin Wolf at the beginning of the season, and he ended up, he was backing up, um, Dan Lidar the other night. And they gave marks from just like a full day off to sit in the press box. And I interviewed Jamie McClennan for the story, who is listed at like 511, just about how like size in terms of goaltenders has changed over the years. And yeah, like, he was a backup goalie. He had a long career and like, nobody called him short. And now it's just like, um, so what's the, challenge for like a short guy Dustin Wolf who's six feet tall like technically. I don't know.

But also there's no way that, you know, I'm basically just calling like Jamie McLennan like short. But also there's no way Dustin Wolf is taller than Jamie McClennon. I've seen them both in person. Oh my God. But guys, everyone fakes. Every, every NHL player lies about their height. Like I can't stress that enough.

Like, they're adding to a wild, a wild degree. Yeah. No, wait. I was at a, I went out for a drink on the weekend and this bartender She was really cool. I loved her. She told, she made this joke to us. I don't remember how it came up.

She was like, no man is actually five foot 11. It's not, no man is five 11. Because if they are like, if they're five 10 or five 11, they round up to say they're six foot. Yep. And if they say they're five 10, they're actually five foot nine. She's like, no man is five 11. They're all lying to you. Whoa, whoa, no, no, no, no.

I am, I am actually five, ten. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Anyways, that bartender was great. I unhinged my spine when I got measured when I was like 18 or 19. And they're like, you're 5.10. I'm like, all right, we're good. We're set here.

I can claim it. So I'll be 5.10 until I die. All right. Look, listen, as much as San Jose, I'll try to get this back on the rails for a second. As much as San Jose. Good luck. And Vegas was the game of Sunday night. I got to tell you, Tampa, Florida is a close second for me.

because if these two, like, let me ask you this. Let's start with this question. If they end up meeting in the playoffs, who are you picking? Because I kind of feel like you got to go with Tampa, don't you, to win this a best of seven series? I'm not going to pick them to lose a series until they lose a series. I don't know about you guys.

Nobody's done it since 2019. That game is, okay, so they stomped them, right? It was eight four. It was an ass kick. The thing I guess is that Florida didn't have a ton to play for, but I don't know, man. The lightning are fully operational, I think. We were worried about it a few weeks ago. I'm not really sure why.

They've won three straight, demolish the number one team in the conference. They're six, three and one in their last 10. Like, they're fine. The thing for me, like the Panthers are so fun to watch. And I love that matchup. Like, I don't think it's possible for the. them to meet in the first round. It's most likely that Tampa's can play like Toronto where Florida is going to play

against whoever ends up being the, what the second, no, the second wild card. Second wall card, yeah. Yeah, it'll be Florida versus Florida versus, Florida versus the caps. Boston or something. Washington, it could be Pittsburgh. Yeah, there's a couple of. The pieces, I have, you know, like, it's literally, like, I was looking, the penguins could play like five different people at this, five different teams at this point.

So it's kind of a bit of a mess there, so I have no clue. But the thing to me about like Tampa, Florida, I mean, those games are so much fun. Tampa is always going to have the ultimate Trump card that is Andre Vasilevsky. He is so good and he's proven that he can be that good in the playoffs. Can Florida say the same thing about their goal tending? No. And, you know, you look at things like goals against, goals for per game. Tampa Bay allows fewer goals per game than Florida, not by like a huge margin.

It's like, you know, Tampa scores three and a half goals per game and they allow like 2.75. Florida scores four goals a game, but they allow, you know, almost around three. So things like that, things like that matter in the playoffs. Like, you know, the Panthers have one of the best expected goal rates in the league, but that is mostly lifted up by their goals, their expected goals four. Sure. Like their expected goals against rating is very middle of the pack.

Like their expected goals against per 60 is two and a half. You know, Tampa's rate is, you know, 2.3. So I don't know. I just think the lightning have like a better defensive system. Like they're, I don't know, they don't allow as much. They don't give up as much. and they have a better goalie. How is that going to match up against, like, a high-octane offensive group in Florida?

I mean, we've seen it in the regular season. But I don't know how that's going to work in the playoffs because I don't know if you could call it. I hate the word heavy hockey. I think that's whatever, you know, whistles go away. The game gets tighter. Offense kind of goes away. I mean, it didn't when they played in the first round. Some of those games were crazy.

So I don't know. The regular season is never really the, best barometer of what's going to happen in the postseason. But I just think Tampa has things for me that make them harder to bet against. And that's their goal tending. And they don't allow as much high danger offense against. They don't allow as many goals, et cetera. Also, Nick Paul five points in his last five games. He's good, man. Between the legs. Brandon Hagle. Those guys, that team know, that front office knows what they're doing. Yep. And they needed some, maybe they needed some adjustment time. Maybe they needed to get that forward, the forward group figured out. I think they may have. And that would be bad news for everybody else. And I mean, Florida made good moves at the deadline, too. Like, Claude Drew is a point per game player almost in Florida right now. He's been playing well. You know, Kerr's did a story. You know, that weight of wearing the sea has been lifted. I can't imagine it's easy being a captain who, what, one one playoff round?

nine years in Philadelphia. It's not great. So, like, Drew's been good. Like, the Panthers are a great team. I just, I just think it's so hard to bet against Tampa. I'm not picking Vibrovsky over Vasilevsky, ever. No. And that's it.

Not ever going to do it. No, or Spencer Knight. Okay, let me give you, you tell me if, if this is a scary stat for you or not. So Florida, they lose on, on Sunday. That busts a 14 game winning streak for the Panthers. Okay. So I decided, and I'm like, I don't know why I got a bad, when they were winning so many games, I'm like, I got a bad feeling.

I don't like when teams win too many. And that sounds stupid, but I'm like, I don't like it when teams get too hot. Sean, you would remember the 93 penguins are the best example. Or, you know, they win 17 in a row. Ah, yes, the first hockey team I cried over. Thank you for reminding me. I wasn't alive yet. Yeah, thanks for that.

For you. Okay. So I looked it up. In the salary cap era, there have been 13 instance, like 12 previous instances where a team had a 12 game winning streak during his season. Zero Stanley Cups. No team in the cap era that has had a 12 game. And the best example to me, the only other team to have exactly a 14 game winning streak, the 2010 Washington Capitals who got halacked in round one. I got a bad feeling.

I got a bad feeling here. Well, especially when like, you know, the flames were on a win streak. It wasn't by that much. But like, you can win while still playing like crap. And it just like, you just feel fine. You don't tweak anything. It's like, well, we're winning. I don't know.

I mean, that's a, I don't know. That's weird. It's weird. It's a strange stat. The Halak. I was just like staring. off into the middle distance, like thinking about the Yaroslav Halak run in 2010. When was the last time Babrovsky, like, showed you that he could be a number one in the

playoffs? That year in Columbus. That was one. It was one time. And it was, and it was. And when was the last time Vasilevsky did it? Six months ago or whenever the playoffs were nine months ago? Yeah.

I know. It's, and the other guy I want to talk about real quick about Tampa. and he was in the news this week because he became the all-time point leader for the franchise is Stephen Stamco's. And in a weird way, do both of you ever feel like we kind of short-changed Stephen a little bit? Like, we're going to look at his career.

At the end of this guy's career, and he's closing it on 500 goals. Like, at the end of this guy's career, he's going to be a number one overall pick. He's probably going to have 600 goals. He's going to have multiple Stanley Cups. Like, he's going to do everything that you would have thought he could do and more. And yet I somehow feel like his name isn't at the tip of your tongue.

when you talk about the best players in the last 10 years? Or is that just me? I think you're right. And I think it's because when he was at his peak, right, when he was at his absolute. Who else was? He pays the Crosby tax. He pays the Oveskin tax.

And also, not coincidentally, around that same time, it's when the injuries started cropping up, right? Where he had a couple years that were not lost, but close enough to it. Then he comes back. and he's in a little bit of a different phase of his career now. That team is fundamentally different now than it was seven years ago, let's say, because you have Nikita Kutrov and you have Braden Point.

So he's just kind of, it was the timing for him to be talked about as like one of the, we'll say, three or five best players of his era. It was, it just didn't, it didn't work out, right? But, man, he's going to have, I mean, Ian, you said it, when this is all said and done, when it's five years from now, or whenever we're putting the cap, the capstone on on Stamcoast's career, it's going to be really, really impressive. His numbers and his accomplishments are going to be staggering, honestly.

And I think people are going to say like, hey, wait a second. Did we give this guy, did we give this guy's flowers during his, during his career appropriately? Absolutely. So he, I just pulled it up. Like Stamcoast was drafted in 2008. So if you kind of pick like from 0809 to now. The top three scores in the NHL are Sidney Crosby with 1,115 points in 893 games, which is wild.

Patrick Kane, who has 1,107 points, and Ovechkin with 1100 points. And then you have Steven Stamcoast with like 9663. In 919 games, like this is a more than point per game player over the last decade. but look at who the three players are above him. It's Crosby, it's Cain, it's Ovechkin, and he's sandwiched in between Malkin, Baxter, Copa Tart, Claude Drew. That, to me, is the tier that he's on.

Like, when it's all said and done, you've got those three, which are like the cream of the crop, the thousand point guys in 900 games or whatever, and then you get, like, the Vgeny Malkin, Stephen Stamcoastro. And those guys are the top of the second tier. And it's not, like, it's the second tier.

It's like one B. One A, whatever. Yeah, one A, one B, you know. They're Hall of Famers. And, but do you think part of it, too, for Stamcoast is they won, like, they won that first Stanley Cup essentially without him? Like, he had his, like, kind of Kirk Gibson moment where he showed up for the shift. He scores a goal against Dallas, but, like, that was it. Like, is that part of it, too, where people will look at him and like, I don't, you know, how much did you need him?

And, like, also, too, you know, he, I mean, he, I mean, Crosby won his cups. You know, Kane won a couple cups. Like, Ovechkin won one. Like, you know, all three of those guys kind of, like, had their cake before Stamcoast did. And then when the Lightning finally did, he wasn't really a part of it. Yeah. And that plays into it, right?

So, like, so many things in my life, it always, it comes back to Chris LaTang. I feel like I end up talking about him just constantly. But I think that's part of the reason that Latang, you know, isn't quite thought of in that top defense, like he, maybe people put him a step below Duncan Keith or Drew Dowdy or whatever. And I'm convinced that a big part of that is because of the cup that they won when he, that the Penguins won when he was hurt, when they had Ron Hainesie is as a top pair defenseman and, and when, when Letang missed that time.

I think whether it's subconsciously or whatever, I think we do kind of hold that, hold those runs against, against elite players when they're not around for him. The other thing, the other thing with Sam Coast, I think you guys are much more equipped to answer this than I am. How much do you think him missing out on the Olympics hurts him? Because that is such a, that's such a rep builder, whether it's Ryan Getslap, great example. Unbelievable international player. Maybe they don't, maybe they don't win, they don't win those goals without him. Like, really, one of the five best players on those teams, right? Phenomenal. That's a big part of the narrative with him now that he's done. And Samco's,

through no fault of his own, never had those moments. Yeah, like he got left off in 2010 when he was left off. Remember, he was young. He's a 50-goal score. 2014, he breaks his leg. He was a lock for that team. And then 18 and 22, we don't even send NHLers over. So he, it was never like he, he wasn't like- He left off for Sweet King, Chris Kunitz? No, he broke his leg in 2014. Remember? He couldn't play. Right. I always get those mixed up. 2010 was him, you know, paying his dudes and being like, yeah, sorry, dude, you're 20.

I think I mixed that up last time when you did a show all together. Yes, you did. That's okay. Yeah. Hey, I want to ask both of you to the 32 nominees for the Masterton Trophy dropped on Monday. And, you know, it's the award for our listeners who aren't familiar with it is the award that is handed out for, you know, dedication and perseverance and sportsmanship in hockey. And as I looked at the 32, the list of 32, like the one that jumps out to me, like I, like the guy. guy that's going to get my vote is Kerry Price because he obviously went through a difficult

time this year. I didn't think he was going to come back. He did. Is Kerry Price the automatic for the two of you as well? Or are there some other names in there that you might be like, ah, you know what? I could have a conversation about this. I think this year, my vote is for Kevin Hayes. And I think my vote would be for Carrie Price next year. Like, I know he's come back. he played a couple games. He is being, he's day to day right now. He's being evaluated. Right now I saw the Canadians voted on that.

Or voted, geez, announced that. Like, I kind of see that. Like, I know, you know, Oscar Lindblom won the Masterton the year after he, like, made his full comeback. And this is completely different. But like, like, Carrie Price should win the Masterton. I guess I'd kind of lean on the side of him winning it next season. Because I think Kevin Hayes,

is also at the top of that list for me. Like what Kevin has gone through like personal tragedy, personal injury. Like, you know, we still don't even have everything that happened with his brother. And that's not our, you know, personal business to, to dig into. Like, that is a personal family tragedy that he went through in the middle of the season, at the beginning of the season, gone through injury. He's come back. This has been a really horrible season.

Like Kevin Hayes is at the top of that list for me. But obviously what Carrie Price has gone through is you never want to win the Master 10 for like a horrible tragic reason, right? Like it was the same thing with Bobby Ryan when he won it. Yeah. Remember Ian? And he was like, this isn't really like, this isn't the trophy you grow up winning for the reasons that I've won it. You know, that's the one thing about the Master 10 is when people kind of debate who should win. It's like we're debating who's.

Yeah, who had the worst thing. Who had the worst thing happen to them? in the last couple years. Yeah. But it's haze in price for me. You know, honestly, not that I ignore the Masterton nominees when they come out because they don't, but sometimes, you know, we get conditioned to look at the nominees and you're like, okay, that guy blew out his knee last year, that guy broke, that guy broke his leg.

Like, you kind of go down the list and you're like, this is just, this is a, this is a, who came back from the worst, yeah, who came back from injuries the best. And that is not the case this year. I think we have a really good, interesting, kind of diverse group of nominees. Like, I don't know. I don't think Jake DeBrusk should win the Masterton, right? That goes without saying. But I think the thought process that led to him getting the nomination from the Boston

chapter in the first place is really interesting because it's like this guy has contract stuff that's going on. You know, he's said that, you know, his careers are crossroads and all this stuff. and through it all, through whatever, you know, the trade request, all this, all that, all the drama that's happened surrounding Jake Debrusk and Boston, you know, this past season, he's been great. He's having one of the best seasons of his career. And I think that mindset, you know, and again, Jake DeBrusse should not win this award. But I think when you look at the nominees and you see like the diverse kind of, you know, places that all these guys are coming from. Like, Kyle, Kylo Poso, I think people forget how ruined by concussions that guy was. Chris Hanev in Calgary, like nothing terrible has happened to Chris Hanev. He's just a dedicated dude who, you know, who plays his ass off every night, right? So you have like different kind of categories of nominees here. And I think a lot of them are really, really interesting.

So yeah, I mean, you know, give it, give it to Hayes. Give it to price. I don't have, I got, I got no problem with any of these guys winning it honestly, because it is. It's such a unique, such a unique thing. All right. Hey, listen, I threw out on Twitter earlier on Monday that the three of us would be hosting a show together and that we would take some questions. And I got a couple of them that I think are pretty interesting.

Chris tweeted out us, and Chris is a Detroit native fan of the Tigers. And if you're a baseball fan, you know that Migi Cabrera hit the 3,000 hit plateau last week. And Chris's question is, hey, listen, I'm a big Red Wings fan. I see Miguel Cabrera getting 3,000 hits. What do you guys think is the NHL's equivalent of 3,000 hits? And so I should point out that there are a total of 33, like Cabrera became the 33rd player in MLB history to get to 3,000 hits. So it's a pretty exclusive club when you think it's basically 30 guys that have done it.

So what do we think might be the equivalent in hockey? for this. Someone said, I'm, is it, is 1500, is that too, that might be too much. Someone said 500 goals and I'm sorry to whoever, whoever said this in the comments or whatever, and the Twitter replies. I don't know. I think the math kind of checks out on 500, 500 goals. Is that not, no?

We don't like that. You know what it might be for me? And I looked it up, 1,300 points. And I know it's a random number. 1500 was too much. No, no, because 1500, there's only 14 players that have done that, right? In hockey history. So it's a little too exclusive.

If you take that number down to 1,300, which is what Jerome Ginnla ended up with, there's 36 players that have hit that threshold. So like maybe that's a number. 13 to 1,500 is like the ballpark that we're looking at here. Yeah. 1500's probably too exclusive. But yeah, like Crosby and Ovechkin, each of like 1,400 and change. Yeah.

Againla had 1,300. How many, how many, how many, how many, how many, how many one thousand points scores are there in Angel history? I'm going to put you guys on the spot. No, no, no, I have it in front of me. I want you to guess. How many what? Thousand points?

Thousand point, guys. Boy, oh, boy. 76. I'll say 75. Oh, geez. Look at us. Look at us. You guys, are, you guys are in the same wavelength.

No, I'm going to, no, I'm changing my answer then. Oh, sorry. Sorry. No. 102. Are we going to price? his right rules because if we are Ian Vendez is the winner.

The number is 93. 93. I'm closer though. I don't watch the price is right. 93. It isn't Brian Prop like number 93 on the list? Brian Prop is number 93. Right.

Yeah. And Spetsa's drag into the finale here. He's got 994. I hope it happens. Jason Spets is a Hall of Famer, by the way. Oh, you get no argument for me on that one. Yeah. That's funny.

Yeah. And I think Patrice Bergeron, might be closing it on it. He'll hit it. Well, he's like 976. 976. These are all the active guys. Bergeron's got 976. Sam Close is 963. He's going to get it. The interesting one

is Phil. Phil's at 953. Like guys, if Phil plays a thousand consecutive games, does he care enough to get to get a thousand points? Thousand straight games. He cares. He cares in his way. He cares about certain things. I see Phil Kessel is the guy who just like,

randomly retires one year and you never hear from him again. It's definitely possible. He might honestly, maybe just dedicate time to his. He's just like a UFA and then like disappears. To his poker career, baby. Phil's going to be a, Phil's going to be a golfer or whatever, like a pro card player or something.

He'll pop, yeah, he'll like show up on the web.com tour. It's like, wait a second. Is that what it's called? Is it still called the web.com? I think it's called something else now. It's something, some other random. Yeah, there's another sponsor to it. It's another, I don't know, but I know what you mean.

Okay, you mentioned you think Jason Spets is a Hall of Famer. Oh, it's the Corn Fairy tour. That's really stupid. Yeah, there it is. Yeah, corn fairy. That's exactly what it is. Corn with a K. Yeah, I hate that.

Is Phil Kessel a Hall of Famer for you, for both of you? Because let's say he gets to a thousand straight games played and he becomes the all-time iron man. He gets a thousand. let's say he gets to a thousand points. He's got his Stanley Cups. You can argue he should have had a consmite in there. Like, is he a Hall of Famer? First ballot.

No. That's expert bias. I think Phil Kessel's the guy that like get, like, look at how many people still haven't gotten into the Hall of Fame yet. Like, Phil Kessel can't be first ballot. Like, Kessel's going to be the guy that gets in like after like a, certain wave of players. No, there's going to be a Canadian backlog that everybody, that everybody needs to take care of

first. And Phil's going to, and Phil's going to pay for that. Daniel Alfredson is still not in the Hall of Fame. You were, you were preaching to the choir on this when we did our little hall of thing, like mock. Sivie and I got into it over Rod Brindamore's Hall of Fame case. And you know what? After I spoke to Rod Brindamore on the phone, I was like, yeah, he should be in the

Hall of Fame. Soft. Soft. That is soft stuff. I completely like, I was like, Haley gets tricked with a friendly, but you know,

but Rod Brighamor has Hall of Fame credentials. He does. He does have Hall of Fame credentials. Hey, let me read one more, uh, tweet that came out of us with the question. And this one's from Ozzy,

who wants to know, have we just witnessed Jack Eichel becoming the new Matt Dushain? And remember, Dushain was the guy. He went, when he left the abs, they took off.

When he went to Ottawa, they sunk like a stone. He goes to Nashville early on and it wasn't good. And now he's obviously bounced back and been good. But he was almost had this kind of black widow type of feel to him, like wherever he went. It was back. Is Jack Eichael the new Matthew Shane? Typhoid Mary Matthew Shane.

Yeah. I don't know. What do we think the sabres are about to pop off? Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Come on. They have been ever since I heard them blasting Taylor Swift in the locker room. they're playing fearless Taylor's version.

Very loudly. I was sitting in the radio studio, and it was very loud. And ever since the vibes have been awesome in Buffalo, but I don't know. Tage Thompson scored his 37th goal of the season a couple days ago. Do you know offhand what Jack Eichol's career high for goals is? 34, right?

36. 36. I knew, I knew. Tage Thompson. Tage Thompson now has it's amazing it's amazing and of course you know it's I should say it's not it's not that amazing Tate Thompson proud US NDP alumni stop that oh and the athletic hockey show bump that's right that's like a thing that they do like they're only having like national team development program we did that no no no no we did that by accident that happened a couple times accidentally and then we

we have now started leaning into it you guys should put the Quinn Hughes in it interview into the Hall of Fame consideration. I wasn't around for that one. That was all Craig. Craig like awkwardly interviewed Quinn Hughes for like seven minutes. Yeah. Jack set us up. He told us like stuff to feed.

Basically all this stuff like you should ask Quinn and they like ask Quinn and Quinn was like, I don't know. Quinn, Quinn no sold it. I make steak and potatoes. It's really funny. I should stop listening. Anyways, what was the question? Yeah, was a question.

The question was, is Jack Eichol, the new Matthews? Shane. I don't know. I think he would be even, I think there's more. What a great answer. I don't know. It's so dejected too. All right. See you guys later.

That's the end of the show. I think there's more at stake for Jack Eichol than there was for Matthew Shane. I don't know if he's quite at that point yet, but you look at the way things ended in Buffalo and just the sort of cloud that's followed him for the last for the last few years he's got more writing on it than

duchin does i think in the court of in the court of in the court of in the court of public opinion if this goes down and if they as expected end up not making the playoffs he is going to take a major major hit major hit it's already happened it's there people are going to blame him for this and duchesne didn't have the whole like is he like bad in the room vibe did he they just kind of had the like he he can't win it was never like Like Matt Dushan is like a mean person and people don't like he's a locker room. Well, I don't know. The avalanche didn't seem too disappointed to see him leave, right?

Remember there were some vibes around that. But, but, but yeah. Right. I mean, like, was he, I mean, you guys, was he liked in Ottawa? It's weird. Like, you know what? I wasn't there when he was. He was actually pretty good here.

Like he had it. He was like a point of game guy. He just came at a terrible time when this franchise was. imploding and he just happened to show up like the worst timing. I also just, I feel like there's just like, think with Matthew Shane like there's been like other problems that have happened at the same time within the team that he's on. Yeah.

You know, like he's just bad luck. What are you talking about? No, he was on some, he was on, that timing on the abs for him was tough. Like they didn't get, they didn't get good because Matthew Shane left. That was just kind of an unfortunate, unfortunate sort of thing.

I think the big variable with Jack, honestly, is like how much of this stuff is going to be attributed to room stuff or character stuff or teammate stuff. Like, that's what remains to be seen. Because I don't, like, he's been, he's been decent from a, from a hockey standpoint, right? And he's still coming back from the injury

and all that stuff. That's what the variable is going to be. Is if, because with Dushain, it always felt like bad luck more than anything else. Whereas if this, we're on track for Eichol getting blamed, for better or worse. Right. Isn't he already?

People are already asking the question online. Totally. Well, just like this question, just like this question we got from Ozzy. Thanks, Ozzy. Yeah. Sorry I didn't have a better answer for you. How about this?

We're at the point now where Jack, where they are going to need to win a Stanley Cup to write the ship for the narrative on Jack Eichl's career. Like, that's what's going to need to happen. And if it's, and if it's anything short of that, for the next five years or whatever, that is the rep for better or worse that Jack's gonna have.

That's fair. That the black cloud followed him from Buffalo to, and where everything is sunshine and rainbows and everybody loves Donnie meatballs and blah, blah, that like the dark cloud followed him to Vegas. He needs the win one or else that's what the epigraph is going to be. Did me bumping my elbow just get picked up on the mic? Probably.

That's really funny. Chris, leave it in. Leave it in. Leave it in. Hey, let's, let's, uh, let's wrap this show up, shall we? With a little segment we like to call on the Monday show, Multiple Choice Madness. Here, I got, I got two questions for the panel here. And on Sunday night, Evgeny Kuznetsov came strolling in for a shootout attempt. And as he's doing it, he twirls his stick mid, mid attempt. Like, I've never seen this before. And he ends up scoring, but it certainly generated some chatter. on social media, I want to know.

How do we feel about ifgeny Kuznetsov's mid-shootout attempt stick twirl? A, I love it, show some flair, some confidence, B, I hate it, it's needless showboating, or C, and this is important, I'm totally indifferent. Because you know what? Sometimes I think in hockey and in sports, we're like either you have to pick

a side, you know what, it gets exhausting. So if you're like, you know what, I don't care, I'm cool with that. Gentili. If Gennikuznetsov, do you like it? Thumbs up or thumbs down to that. A, I like it. I like it. Maybe not quite for the reasons that you outline, though.

Like, I think it's, I have no problem with it. If you want to stop it, then stop it, right? That's my stock answer for all this sort of stuff. But a big part of the reason I like it is if he would have missed. I like, I, I like guys trying this stuff because of the disaster potential. Like, go ahead, do whatever you want, twirl your stick, you know, just keep the puck moving, blah, blah, blah. But part of the reason I like is because it could, it could,

it could have blown up in his face, right? Keep trying this sort of stuff because I get, it's a win-win for us. Either we see someone pull off something cool or they do something catastrophic and we can spend an entire day making fun of them. Like I'm, I'm in.

Go for it. Haley? I don't really care. I feel like we spend too much time talking about things that like should be super cool, but it's like, I would prefer that to just, I don't know,

whatever, I'm indifferent to stuff like that. It's like, okay, that happened. Yeah, I hear you. I hear you. Okay, one other question to sneak in before we wrap up the pod. For the first time ever, I believe all eight playoff teams in the Eastern Conference have hit the 100 point mark. Meaning, you know what, they're all pretty much, you know, lock it in playoff teams.

They're juggernauts, powerhouses. Here's my question, though. If you have to pick one team from the Eastern Conference that you think might miss the playoffs next season, who would it be? A Boston. B, Pittsburgh, C, Washington, or D, somebody else. Let's get, let's let Hayley go first on this one. Penguins, Bruins, Capitals, or somebody else. You have to pick somebody who might miss the platform.

I don't like this because I don't know what's going to happen in the off season. Oh, that's part of the fun. That's exactly. Should I just say Washington because everyone keeps saying that their windows are closed? I'm going to say wash, man, this is so hard. I was going to like just be like, it's going to be Washington. Washington, because they're the eight seed, but like the difference between the eight seed and the four seed is eight points. Yeah.

And the difference between the eight seed and the nine seed is 20, by the way. Yeah, I know. None of the above. I don't know. I just see like Washington's the team that everyone is like waiting to drop off. But I also like, I don't know what the Bruins are going to look like next season. Like Bergeron's a UFA. Is he going to stay?

What's going to have? Are they going to end up trading? Jake DeBrusk in the offseason who's going to be their guy that they officially pick a net. I think I have questions about the Bruins. I don't know if I'm confident saying they're going to miss the playoffs, but everyone keeps saying Washington's going to, their window's going to shut and they're going to be bad and they keep not doing it.

Same with the penguins. So maybe I'll go, I don't know if it's off board to say Boston. It's probably stupid to say Boston, but I don't know. I'll go with maybe the Bruins. That's my like off the board pick. instead of going with the old aging core teams

that everyone keeps picking every year. Yeah, it's a boring. Picking the penguins or caps is boring, but... I know, so I'm going to be spicy and say Boston, even though it's probably not going to happen. But it's the penguins. It's the penguins. That division is tough.

If Gennie Malkin's a UFA, Chris LaTang's a UFA, Brian Russ is a UFA. You think all those guys are going to leave? I think it's very possible that two of the three do. And if that happens, yeah, then it's probably the penguins. I don't like the way things are shaping up for it for that team's off season.

Because at best, you're getting a lateral move to replace Brian Rust and Crystal Tang. Like you don't improve on those losses. If you think. At best, you make a lateral move to replace Brian Rust. And because you, I mean,

really you have to, if you think that the penguins, it all comes down to the Metro Division, honestly. Like if you think that the Islanders could maybe come back and by the way, Ilya Seroquan got hit. Haley, Haley,

we talked about this when you were doing the power rings last week, right? Like, unbelievable, like, low key. People are talking about what he's doing this season enough. It's because it's unbelievable year. That team is, that team is, junk.

And he got better. Right. That team is, that team is, that team was screwed from the jump because they dealt with COVID stuff before, before everybody was, their COVID issues came too early and they had to play through them.

They had a crazy season starting schedule where they were on the road for all of it. Like there was all sorts of crap that was going wrong for them early on. And they never dug out of it. They've been 15, 20 points out of the playoffs. I feel like since, you know,

American Thanksgiving, right? So they stink. But that just, that caused people to sort of discount the kind of season that's Roken sets, right? So if you think they're capable of bouncing back and you look at Washington and even though they're not great,

Like that the the core is still they don't have like some crazy UFA season UFA situation coming up like Pittsburgh does. Yeah I think I think stuff could get hanky for for for Pittsburgh but by the time we're doing this again The divisions do play like a big role in it because who's realistic yeah Boston was like The Pacific Division right is going to who's going to well in the Atlantic like who's going to pop up and kick Boston all the playoffs Buffalo is 30 points back of them. Detroit is 32 points back. The senators in Montreal,

like who is going to improve to the point where they're giving the Boston Bruins a run for their money for the four seed in the Atlantic Division. Right. Like even if you take a 20 point, even if you take a 20 point leap forward, that requires Boston to take a 15 point step backwards, right? Like it's,

anyway. I don't think the senators are a year away from making the playoffs. I'm sorry, I don't. Not unless they have a better off season than they've had in the last couple years. You can't keep just getting. Sabres, baby, wild card number two. There you go. There we go.

All right. Hey, listen, we'll leave it there. But why don't we give you the opportunity, Sean, to tell our listeners on the Monday show exactly what's coming up on the Tuesday edition of the athletic hockey show. I could read you a word-for-word breakdown of it because we already recorded it. There we go. We recorded the Tuesday show before the Monday show. I don't know.

Me and Craig talked about all sorts of nonsense. Dude, he's the interview. The it, well, don't, I mean, what do you think I'm getting to it? My God. Not a broadcast. It's building. It's a broadcast professional like you two are. For the love of God.

It's Troy Terry. He was great. We talked to him for 20, 22 minutes. Oh, boy. Again, like I said, I'm just a humble. I'm a humble internet, internet boy. I don't know, I don't know I'm talking about when it comes to setting up things and what have you. Troy Terry was awesome.

We talked to him about, we talked to him about Getslaff. We talked to him about Zegers. Just sort of talked to him about, you know, he was one of the funniest things he said, and he kind of reiterated this. He had said it before is like he was getting tired of being everybody's breakout pick, right? We're on like year where this was like year three of people being like, rather watch out for Troy Terry. He's a breakout candidate. And it finally happened. You know, he was kind of inching towards 40 goals here and he's been great.

So, yeah, he was a blast to talk to. Whatever me and Craig talked about is irrelevant. And did you, did you mention Jay Beagle's name or no? Oh, yeah. Oh, we did. Oh, my God. Did you mention that I got harassed online to defend his honor? Yeah, I did.

That was the first thing I said. I said, so you know, my colleague took a major, major hit for you, yes. no he was great he was great i'll wait hold a second i'll leave i'll leave i'll leave that i won't go in i won't go into what he said specifically about beagle or tyson nash but we got him rolling on that and he was really good okay awesome i have one thing to say okay if you saw this in a friend of both of our shows bobby ryan um they the anaheim ducks had this like awesome graphic because trevor zegra's past bobby ryan for the best single like the best rookie season the graphic they posted was unreal.

Like the ducks do, their social team like that. They do such like cool stuff. Like the freaking monkey, hello. Oh, you and the monkey. You're still on that monkey.

The puck drop. Oh my God. That monkey puck drop was the greatest thing I've ever seen. They also had cute bucket hats. The day that the flames were in town, very cute bucket hats.

I'm going to wear that. Congratulations. Way to go. I'm going to wear that bucket hat all summer. I'm not even ashamed that I like, got one of the free things at a game that I was covering because it was so cute. Was it reversible? Orange and black.

Aren't all bucket, aren't all, aren't all bucket hats technically reversible? No, no, no, no, I thought maybe they were.

The orange side with the little original Ducks logo on it is so cute. I'm going to wear it all summer. Anyways, the point I was making is there's a graphic that they put up with like rookie Bobby Ryan, like looking back like he's talking to Trevor Zegris and Zegris. I don't know. It was really cool.

Anyways, congrass of Trevor Zegris. Nice. And front of the show, Bobby Ryan. Very cool. Anyways. Love it. Bucket hat season is coming up, folks.

Not for, not for me. My head is too big for bucket hats. And I love bucket hats because they can, like, hide your face. So I can just vibe. And is it a one, it's a one size fits.

Like, these promotional giveaways, it's a one size fits all deal, right? Yeah. And I have like the perfectly sized and shaped head for free hats. Gentilly, you're out. If they're ever doing...

Way out. You're out. You're out if they're doing promotional giveaways. Dude, that thing would sit on my head like a bottle cap. That's not happening. I love it. Okay, listen, again, we're going to leave it there. And we want to, again, remind everybody,

tune in to the Tuesday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show with Custis and Gentilly. As Sean just mentioned, Troy Terry, going to join the show. Sounds like a great conversation. We thank everybody for listening to this Monday edition of the show. Subscribe to the Athletic Audio. on Apple Podcasts get all of our bonus content from our entire network.

You'll start with a 30-day free trial, and then it's just 99 cents a month after that. Right now, we've got a great deal for you. You can subscribe to the Athletic for $1 a month for six months when you visit theathletic.com slash hockey show.