The Athletic Hockey Show - Will the 'artist' Brad Marchand bring the Maple Leafs down again?

Episode Date: April 25, 2024

Hailey, Max and Sean look back on night 5 of the Stanley Cup playoffs, headlined by Brad Marchand's masterful performance in game 3 vs the Maple Leafs, vintage LA Kings Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar evening up their series with the Oilers and the top ranked Dallas Stars in trouble, down 2-0 to the Stanley Cup Champion Golden Knights.They look ahead to tonight's games including the Islanders and Canes, and the battle of Florida which features the best goaltending duel in the playoffs. Plus they address the Sharks firing of head coach David Quinn, the love fest for the Coyotes in Utah and PWHL New York being eliminated from playoff contention.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What's up, everybody? It's another Thursday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. It's Haley Max and Sean here with you. We're going to recap night five of the playoffs today. Nothing too crazy. Like nothing creative this week. I'm so sorry.

We're going lazy and we're just going to talk about the games. I feel like people like that, though. What do you guys think? It's too late now. I already said we're doing it. Sounds like the decision is been made. like hockey. Some people like hockey. Some people like hockey more than others, in fact.

Mm-hmm. Some people just need a job, you know? Okay. That's great. Some insight. Some insight, maybe into the three people on this podcast. Okay, let's start with the first game of the night last night. Bruins win 4 to 2. They take a 2-1 series lead over the Toronto Maple Leafs. do you guys have any major takeaways from this game? Because I have quite a few, but I can throw over to Max first,

if you have a thought on this Leifes Bruins series or just the game from last night. Oh, yeah, also several thoughts. I did like the brief moment where we were all split over whether Brad Marchand skated by the Leafs bench and said one of two different things based on the lip-reading experts, either it's over in five or this is over in five, or still 35, as in still 35 seconds left, just a taunt to, you know, you're up by two goals late now.

I really want to believe the former. It's probably the latter. I think that sounds like something he would say too. I didn't realize, I didn't realize there was a second possibility there. Oh. Wait, which one did you think he said? I just figured he said it's over in five. I didn't, I didn't realize that he was also maybe pointed.

at the clock for them. There's like looks. He like looks at the clock first, right? And that's what, I mean, you can't tell where he's looking, but that's the argument. I regretfully think that that's what he said. That's a shame. Yeah, I think that makes a little more sense. I mean, I love the idea of the former.

Don't get me wrong. Because I kind of think, Sean, this one might be trending that way. You're still, uh, still 35 is pretty mean. That's a pretty mean thing to say. So I think I think I'm still. we have to get that lip reading girl on TikTok who everybody goes crazy for we should all start tagging her make it happen start tagging her I don't even know her name but start tagging her in all these videos because I remember God when uh here we

they were doing lip readings of like Kylie Jenner and Timothy Shalame at the Golden Globes being like I love you or you look so good in this shirt I really thought that we'd saved our Shalamee, Kylie Jenner. I thought we got that out of our system before we started recording. In the 45-minute pre-show, where I talked about my love for

Timothy Shalame and respect for Kylie Jenner. I think what we've got here is maybe Frankie Carrado's fault. That was my thought when I was watching that game last night, was that he said on our show yesterday, my phone is ringing, I apologize for that. He said on our show yesterday that

we haven't had the Marshawn game yet. And I like kind of, you know, I didn't roll my eyes, but I was like, are we going to have that? Is it a guarantee? Are we sure? And it was. Sounds like you guaranteed it, not Frankie. Yeah, right. What I said, I mean, I was, I was all over the place yesterday, too. I kept saying Leafs and Five to DGB and he was not happy with me afterwards.

Oh. But, man, that's a vintage, vintage Marcian game, right? Mm-hmm. Scores three times. Twice. Twice. Oh, that's right. It stirs the pot constantly.

Says something when he's skating past. Either way, either way it was mean. I loved it. I love seeing, I think that's one of the joys of the playoffs to me, is watching these series and knowing that player X, Y or Z at some point is going to break out because there are guys where you know that their impact is inevitable, right? And Marchand is one of those guys for Bruins. And I think we saw in a couple other instances last night too. But it's a blast. It's a treat to watch.

Well, I think it was, yeah, I think calling it the Brad Marchand game is the perfect way because it wasn't just that he was being a rat. Like he was all over Tyler Bertuzi and like kind of a funny way. he was just like getting in guys faces you could tell that he was having an impact in that way but the goal he scored that ended up being the game winner was gross like it was perfect like top corner between the bar and sampsonov shoulder like perfectly placed from the slot like that's what makes brad marchand like special right and i i feel like i always bring it back to women's hockey but when i was doing the abbey murphy story when we were talking about how like she's such a rat. She's a pest in women's hockey. Remember John Robleski saying like, people don't give her

enough credit or people who play like that enough credit because if they sucked at hockey, people would just laugh at them, be like, shut up. Like, you're so annoying. Like, you're trash. But, like, you have the skill set to match up the way that you run your mouth and you piss everybody off, which is why people don't just, like, laugh you off. Like, it gets under your skin more because he can piss you off and he can talk down to you that way and then score a goal. like that. And then he gets the empty net goal to put the game away. And yes, then the moment of like still it's 35 or you're done in five, whatever he might have said. It's a long series still. Like we can say that. It's only two one series lead for the Bruins. But a game like that,

like it's, you can say it's still too early. But I think a game like that when you have three games to look at, even though the Leafs did win one of them. It becomes very clear that Boston's impact players have been playing better than Toronto's. And it starts with Brad Marchand. He's got two goals for assists through the first three games. He's tied for the league lead and points with Connor McDavid. Jake DeBrusk has been great. Three goals, five points, not super far behind. Jeremy Swayman has the best goals against average and save percentage in the playoffs. Like we can have the conversation about how goalies haven't been great through the first round. Jeremy Swayman is the exception to that.

1.51 goals against average in a 95 say percentage. And when you look at the leaf, Sampsonov is a 3.05 GAA and at 895 say percentage. That Trent Frederick goal he led in, like you have to save that, regardless of what Marchand's doing to Bertuzi at the blue line. You have to make that stop. It's not good. And their top score, it's Austin Matthews, one goal, three points, exactly half of Brad Marchand's production. Max Domi and Tyler Bertuzi are next. Marner and Tavares have one assist. It comes down to the impact players for me through the first three games.

There's time to change it, but this isn't an entirely new conversation when we're talking about the Leafs and the playoffs either. No, and I think we got a zero-in on Mitch Marner here. Matthew's had a quiet game three. He was unbelievable in game two. And obviously, that's the game they win, whatever. You got to keep it up game to game. Marner has the really nice assist in game three to open scoring there tonight's great play but man and I saw the stat that came out later and then I think he's tied for third all time now

and Leif's assists in Leif's playoff history yeah but it just I continue to be underwhelmed by him every playoff game and I know it's probably a pile on honestly at this point but you know there's just certain moments in the game where you expect a player like this who's paid like this who's this central to your team to really demand the puck on his stick, want to make more. He had zero shots on goal last night. He has four shots on goal in three games. I know he's the playmaker first.

I need Mitch Marner to take over a game if I'm paying him this much money, if he's going to be this central to my core. And the plan is to do this again, right? Like he's going to, it's only going. And with no Tavares around eventually, I need much more from Mitch Marner if this is going to be the plan. I think what we saw last night with that passed and nigh is it was unbelievable. right, that's, that's as skilled as it gets.

That's Mitch Marner's game. That's the stuff we see from him for 82 regular season games a year. And it's the kind of play for a lot of other guys and for a lot of other Superstar players, you're like, that's the start of it. That's the thing. That's the spark. That's the damn beginning to break. And that was the thought I even had with Marner last night.

I was like, maybe this is it. Like, maybe this is when things start to pivot. and it wasn't. No. He was barely noticeable for the rest of the game. Max, he said at zero shots,

which is a major problem, especially given power play time. Keith is putting him in positions clearly going out of his way to try to get him started, which is understandable

because you need him to be good. But man, to come out of that game with that stat line, ultimately, after it seemed like maybe something was starting to shift for him early on,

is a bad, bad sign. I think I usually feel like people are, as Max said, like, piling on and being too harsh on Mitch Marner. Like, a lot of times I see stuff and I'm like, just leave him alone. Like, he's doing fine. But I do think, like, in the playoffs, there was one little play. And I actually think a former player, and I'm forgetting his name actually tweeted it. Was it Jordan Schmolds?

Justin's. I don't know who it was. Anyways, a former player, Jordan, producer Jeff knows what I'm talking about. It was a little play around the boards where Marner could have gone in for a puck battle and pulled it off the wall and he bailed. And so instead of being hit on the numbers,

like not boarding, but like having a guy on his back, he pulled out and ended up going behind to try to take the puck out from like between his legs or like make a skilled play instead of just going hard to the boards. And it's things like that where it's such a little play, but you watch that happen. It's just like, man, like you've got to get in there in the playoffs. Like you need to get in the trenches.

It sounds like such a stupid hockey man thing. But it's like you watch Mitch Martyr in the playoffs and it just looks like he like can't like elevate or change his game to that level. Like everyone knows the playoffs are different. It's not just some like media made excuse. for when teams lose, right? Like, it is different. And he has shown an inability to adapt to that environment.

And I think that's why he gets crapped on the way that he does. I still think people take it too far, but you see stuff like that. And it's like, man, Mitch, like, just do the damn board battle. Like, just go on the wall. It's fine. You're fine. Frankie went into detail on this yesterday. Like, a lot of it comes down to the fact that it's not an effort thing because that's,

that's where it gets like a little fuzzy for me, right? Like, whatever. It's not. But it is him falling back on what works for him during the regular season and falling back on the stuff that does, you know, make him a top seven winger in the league. Right? Great. It's just not the way it goes anymore, right? There's changes that need to be made.

And it's not an effort thing. It's just a matter of, you know, I think his brain is wired in such a way that, causes that causes stuff like that to happen. I think he's trying to outthink the play, basically, right? He's like, okay, I can go get this puck, get a hit, and then this guy's probably taking it from me, or I can go around him and try to surprise him, pick the puck up and possess it. I think I get what's going through his head there.

But you have to keep it simple in the playoff. We see this every single year. It is simple, simple hockey is what wins. The skill pops because it's simple hockey. I don't think he doesn't want to take the hit. hit. I think he's more focused on what he could do if he, if he avoids the hit. Yes. Right. But like,

what I'm saying is just take the hit. Because if you take the hit and then the puck gets frozen on the boards and someone's going to come in and pull the puck out or something, like just take the hit. So that's the thing. We're not, I'm not. I know you're not. I know you're not. No, no, no. I'm saying like I am not going as far as I see like some of these clips going and being like, he's a bum, trade his ass. But like you see stuff like that. It's just like, Mitch.

And it's like, it is kind of like a subtle difference in the result. The result is the same. Totally. I think that's where we, you know, we can quibble over what's going through his head, whether it's effort,

whether it's like, whatever. The end result is the same is that he's losing board battles and his team is worse off for it. And when that's the result, I, like the process almost doesn't really matter. Like,

because it all comes out in the wash. Totally. They're worse off for it. Yeah. And I think, one really good playoff game taking one big hit. Like he shuts everybody up. And he almost did that with that assist, right?

If he would have followed that assist up with like a better first period, a better game, like playing harder. Everyone would be like, my bad, bro. Like we were wrong. Like Mitch Marner is the ability to shut up all the people who are being so extra about him. But he's got to do it. I think the other point to make about the Leaps Bruins game last night.

And it's part of the series. So we talk about like the impact players in Boston showing up, whether it's the goalies or the stars. The special teams battle is very slanted. The Leafs have scored one power play goal on 11 opportunities and their PK hasn't been great because the Bruins are power plays operating at around a 50% clip through the first three games. So that's a huge problem. Yeah. And you got to kind of let the Bruins power play just that just is what it is, right? they're going to be really good, that they've got some game breakers, they've got a lot of history

together. You do what you can, but the key, I think for Toronto is the power play. And I do think this is where they probably miss William Nylander, especially a guy who has shown over and over again that he can score goals in the playoffs, big goals for you. This is the moments where, you know, you can get the puck on his stick. And this is, this is the area of the game that I think William Nealander's absence is affecting them the most is on the power play. Yeah, I would agree. Um, okay, let's move on. We don't need to get into the whole discourse that happened around Sheldon Keith's quote about Marchand.

I just want to say that everyone conveniently left out part of the quote where he said, we need to play through this. Like everyone was just quoting the, he's elite at it, like basically making it seem like Sheldon was being like, he's so good at not getting calls. But like, yes, he said that, but Sheldon also said, like, our team needs to be better at playing through what Marchand's doing and like nobody tweeted that part of the quote. So just like listen to the whole clip before you freak out. It's series management.

We see it from everybody. Like it comes in one way or another. I don't, I don't really care. Yeah, we don't need to get into it. My point is there also an element though of genuine respect there. Like I listened to the whole clip and I was like, he's right. Like show me the line.

Marshan is very good. It isn't art. He's saying he's elite at doing what he does, which is what we just said. It's just. Yeah. I'm sure he'd love to get the. He plants the seed. More of that in his guys.

He plants the seed moving forward. Like, it's just, it's normal coaching stuff. Yeah. Okay, let's move on. Do we want to go Vegas, Dallas here? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So as everyone knows, I've been picking the stars to win the Stanley Cup since the preseason. And it's not looking great. Not looking great for us here, Sean. Vegas takes a 2-0 series lead. It was a better game, I think. We saw shades of playoff Ottinger last night, particularly in the second period. It was 1-1, and he had two, like, unbelievable saves on Shay Theodore.

And it looked like, okay. And as we're talking about the Spark, it was like, okay, here we go. Maybe this can be it. And Ottinger had a good game. But they still go down 3 to 1. Jason Robertson's the only one to score for Dallas. just this is why we said that Vegas is a nightmare fuel first round matchup for anybody, right?

Because they get Mark Stone back, Noah Hannafin scores last night, Marchesos, great in the playoffs again, Jack Eichael scores last night. They're just a machine and Logan Thompson's just solid back there. Does this mean that I can pivot to whining about the Markstone LTIR stuff since it is adversely affecting me? since it does seem like it's going to demo my stars, you know, stars that win the cup pick, which like you I've been holding on to for the last whatever, seven months.

Can I, can I cry about that nonstop forever now? Is that the way it works? Yeah, Sean, you can. You'll find a welcome audience out there. Ready for it, right? And I have to say,

as much as like it is pointless whining, right? Like Vegas followed the rule. rules, this is whatever. There is, you have to say it, right? Like, Vegas is built, Vegas and Dallas are built so similarly to each other. And Vegas has just that extra $9 million in there that makes their version of it pop that much more, right?

Like, these are two, this is why Vegas is such a tough matchup for anybody and, and certainly for Dallas, because Dallas is deep and complete. And Vegas is deep and complete, like 10% more, right? And it's not, not a coincidence. how that 10% happens, right? It maybe is okay. It's within the rules, but this is,

this is the game. It's, they're just a better version of Dallas right now. I thought Jake Ottinger was not terrible last night. I, especially looking at the highlights, like, I don't think,

I don't think it really comes through in the save, in the safe total necessarily. I thought he was, he was certainly better in game two than he was in game one. So maybe that's something Dallas can hold on to moving forward. Because the way that dude played in game one, especially after the regression from what we'd seen from him over the previous month when he looked like the guy that, again,

preseason, Jake Ottinger was my Vesna pick. Like, I was all in on the stars. He started looking like himself down the stretch. And then game one rolls around. And he wasn't good enough. He wasn't all that close. Game two, like, you know, look.

I thought he was great. Yeah, he looked better. He looked more comfortable. I think that's one reason maybe for Dallas to, you know, think that things can swing back here. Because if he would have been bad last night, I think I would have been fully ready to write that team off, honestly, because you're not going to beat the Vegas Golden Knights four times in five games.

Yeah, with mid-Jocon. It ain't happening. And he was at least a little bit better than that last night. Yeah, I think the final score maybe makes it look like it was a bit like a more high event or like bigger blowout. Maybe I know losing by two goals isn't much, but like this game was tied until like 19 minutes into the second period. So it was it was one one for most of the game. Like the shot totals weren't super high, 26, 21. Like this was a good game.

Like we knew going. in that I think we knew that the Western conference games were going to be better than the East and we knew that this series particularly was going to be very good. But yeah, like when you've got a guy like Noah Hanofin who is one of the trade acquisitions when you have all that money and Noah Hanofin like hasn't really gotten an opportunity to like be a big game player in the postseason because the Calgary Flames didn't consistently make the postseason. But Noah Hanifin's like a, he is one of those guys who's like very good at everything like not an elite offensive defender but like good offensive production throughout the season and he gets an opportunity to come up big in a playoff

game and he gets that game winner and jack ikel gets the empty net goal like it really just came down to that hana fin goal in the second period and like i said like that's where ottinger was great like the amount of saves he made at important moments to keep that game one one in the second period like really kept Dallas in it and they couldn't beat Logan Thompson and they did not beat him at even strength. Jason Robertson goal was on the power play. So is there a question of like stars five on five scoring to be had? Like I know we had that conversation last year, particularly with Jason Robertson because he wasn't scoring at five on five last year in the playoffs. But like we've been talking about how great that top nine is all season. So they're going to need some of that scoring depth. They're going to

try to beat. They're going to try to beat this Vegas team. That blue line is just such a problem. They held the stars of 21 shots. And that's one of the deepest, most elite board groups we've been talking about all season, 21 shots. But that's one of the reasons we like the stars to begin with is that their build was Dutch that they could expect to win two one games, the three one games. It's just it's so we expect this exact same thing of Vegas. Right. And so it's, they are perfectly comfortable playing these games where, you know, they get they get out shot by almost a two to one margin in game one. And I think part of that's because they're winning 3-1, like the whole game.

They get the early goals and they can kind of lock it down. But they're perfectly comfortable just knowing that they can generally keep you low. And if they have to, you know, play a little looser, they get down. They've got to try to make this a 5-4 game. They're comfortable with that too. It's why we like Dallas and it's why Vegas won to stay on the cup last year. Yeah. I like what Jesse Road post game, by the way, Jesse Granger, who's on this series.

the headlines, what's wrong with the Dallas Star is nothing. They've just run into the defending NHL champs. That's right. It's a good sentiment and it leads with some perspective from Pete DeBore who said basically the same thing. They figured everyone else, they figured out everyone last year too. So we're not alone in that boat. And it's true. They're a championship team.

Sorry, my phone started ringing and it came through my computer and like closed everything. No, you know who that was calling? That was the King's Oilers series wanting us to pivot to them. Great job, Max. Thank you. That game was fun. I feel like every, I kept making mistakes last night with my channel flipping. Because every time I would switch between Edmonton, L.A. and Vegas, Dallas, like, things would happen in the other game, which was very devastating.

But I was, I did start with L.A. Edmonton and I got to see the first. first two Adrian Kempe goals in the first period. And let me tell you, the second one was very nice. It was even better to rewatch it. Shades of Alex Carpenter at the rivalry series, Kayla Barnes is playing the, or I guess I should say, Anzay Kopitar is playing the Kayla Barnes in this scenario with the nice little saucer pass and Kempe's Carpenter with the one hand on the stick deflection to beat the goalie. It was gorgeous. That's all I have to say. I feel like he's not, I feel feel like Kempe's not talked about enough as maybe not an elite goal score, but pretty close. And the goal, he fell back a bit this year in terms of just overall production, whereas

last couple he had 35 and 41 goals dipped a bit this year. But that, when that dude is on, when he's clicking, like, he's capable of scoring in a bunch of different ways. He's got shots sick in a lot of different aspects. I really like watching that dude play hockey. And I think you can say the same about Copatar too, who is just like, the overtime,

I mean, whatever, yes, I want to keep gassing up the writing that we have on the site today. It's really good. Eric Stevens wrote at length about Copatar after that, right? It's just like the combination of skill and smart

in veteran aptitude and then just like genetic you know ability really that go that went into scoring that that last one in OT man is just just just just sick stuff I'm I'm glad that on jac copatar is still on jacopatar like every every year you can rely on him to to do it to you know produce in a certain in a certain type of way and we're getting that again man he he was unreal those two guys campaign copatar like that's that's it That's great. The Kings elite talent is beating the Edmonton Oilers' lead talent. How about that?

In one game, we should say. I mean, whatever. We're only as good as our last game. If I had told you, though, at the start of the series, that the Oilers would get a two-goal game from Dylan Holloway. You would have never in a million years said that they find a way to lose a game like that. Get a two goals from Holloway and they'll lose. Right.

I don't think I would have signed off on that one. It was a great Skinner game after being pretty solid in the first game. But this was a huge bounce back for the LA Kings, obviously, especially in the first period. Because they did not have a good start against the Oilers in game one. And I saw there was a clip after the Hyman Hat Trick and all the hats are flying. And Drew Dowdy just laid into everyone on the bench, like just ripping everybody. and he came out and had a really good game too. So after the Kings go up to 1 or 2-0,

Edmonton scores and then Dowdy gets another one, like at a huge moment. And that was a big game for him. It's 2012 and L.A. You can make a convincing argument that Drew Dowdy was the best defensive defenseman in the league this year. Yes.

He was like, when I was having my Norris Trophy ballot dilemma, I was. I was like, yeah, my freak out. I got three emails, by the way. Three emails from people being like your ballots on it. I was like, it's due at five. If you wanted it at three, make it do at three.

Sorry, I'm taking my time. Anyways, got really pissed off. I was very rude to Rob Rossi. He sent me in very nice email and I said, I'm aware of the deadline. And I haven't talked to him since. Good. I'm aware of the deadline.

It hasn't passed yet. Anyways, I had this moment of, like, I really want to include, like, a strong defensive defender on my Norris ballot because that's the whole point of this. And it was, like, Boersling from Florida and Drew Dowdy had, like, some of the best defensive numbers in the league this season. But I think the problem with that would mean you're, like, bumping down or out, like a kale Macar, Adam Fox. And then it gets all complicated.

So anyways, Drew Dowdy was, like, a huge. conversation for me internally for my Norris ballot. And the fact that we're talking about him that way, based on where he was, yeah, eight years ago, five years ago is, is fascinating.

Like his career is, his career arc is, I can't sit here and say that it's something that we've never seen before because I'm not, I'm not authorized to talk on stuff going back, you know, who knows from the, maybe,

maybe there's someone who, follow the similar arc. We have not seen anybody like Drew Dowdy in my lifetime to go from, you know, he's had, he's lived five or six different lives. And his rep has changed

and shifted and improved and dropped and then gotten better. Like he's, he's, he's not the same guy that he was three years ago. And in three years ago, he wasn't the same guy that he was two years before that. It's wild to see the different phases of

of in the different life cycles that he's gone through over the last decade or decade plus. It's not a perfect comparison, but it reminds me a little bit, especially when we talk about kind of the perception as it relates to the cap hit as the arc of Sergei Bavrovsky, where we were all so certain that that contract was going to be horrible by the end. And then here we are. And you can maybe make a little case of this for John Tavares too. But you're getting pretty close to the end of it.

And you're like, only a couple of years left. This worked fine. and it looks like it's going to continue working fine through the end of it. And we'll talk about Brovsky, I'm sure, who's been amazing for Florida. But yeah, similar feelings about Dowdy. All of a sudden, you look at the $11 million capet, and you're like, you know what? Yeah. Yep.

Yeah, we like this. Does anyone have any actual concern, I guess, about Edmonton? I don't think you take this fairly. I don't think that was a great skinner game we got yesterday. It wasn't. I know Knoblock defendant. but you you watch not all not all those goals were bad but enough of the there were there were two mixed in there let's say where you're like oh is this is this gonna is there gonna be a

hangover effect from this the good thing about skinner I will say is that he's had bad games before he had bad games during the regular season like he seems like a dude is capable of bouncing back from it but you know we've seen it with the orlers already man like well I think there's bad juju when it comes to the goal pending there and I it's tough not to watch something like last night and think that it's not rearing its head again for them. It's popping up, but like along the same lines of what we said earlier about like, you know, you got two goals from Dylan Holloway and loss. The flip side of that is you had a bad Stuart Skinner game, a relatively quiet McDavid game,

and you still took it to OT. Like you were that like, that's kind of a perfect LA storm. You got a bad Skinner game and a relatively quiet offensively McDavid game and you still needed OT like that, that would put a little bit of a of a scare in me, I guess. I do wonder how or if this series will level out because we've obviously seen like two very high scoring games. You have a 7-4-Edmonton winning game one and then a 5-4 OT game. Like I do wonder like if and when we'll see like the grinded out to one win like a one-one tie going into OT. Like I do wonder if this series will chill out in that sense or if it's just going to be like they're each just going to take shots like game three.

Edmonton will cook them. game four, LA will come back and it'll come down to like a big game seven. Like it almost, it feels like it's either going to, Edmonton's going to step on the pedal or this is just going to be them like punching each other in the face until game seven, which would be fun. I'd watch that. I didn't think the others were going to sweep them in the first round. Like, like we're still so early in the series.

Like you're talking about favorites where you're like, you know, four game or five game series are relatively rare. So it's, you got to, I, I find. myself having like tap the brakes myself where it's like they've played two games it can't overreact all that much just yet that's why i said i'm curious to see how this will turn out totally i don't think that was a hot take it wasn't i was walking back my own previous hot takes oh okay let's take a quick break um those are the three games from wednesday night we'll tee up Thursday nights two games when we come back and it looks like we have a little bit of news prime video to become the

home of national Monday night NHL games in Canada, beginning in 2024, 25 with Prime Monday night hockey. So we can maybe talk about that a little bit in the next segment that's coming up next on the Athletic Hockey Show. All right, we are back very quickly. So this came out while we were recording the first segment.

So the announcement is that Prime Video is going to become the home of NHL Monday Night Games in Canada, starting in the 2024-25 season with Prime Monday Night Hockey. it's a two-year agreement between Rogers, Amazon, and the NHL to bring live games to more fans across more devices. That sounded very paid partnership-y of me at the end. I was just reading verbatim which I've sent, but I do not have a paid partnership. It's very clear, very important to say that we're still holding out for Omaha stakes, though, for our season-ending party. I don't have much of a thought.

I think this is great if it ends up being more people get to watch hockey, right? But like for I think all of us, I mean, for you too, this has nothing to do with you. You're American. Like you can just watch ESPN Plus or TNT. But for me, I just like, I stream all the games. I don't really watch. Like I don't really go on to like Sportsnet or TSN. I just go on my little bell.

Fybe TV and I log in to my parents' cable package and I stream all the games because my dad pays for NHL Center Ice or whatever that package is now called. As the sentence went on, it became less and less interesting and less and less relevant.

Prime Fititor become the home of national Monday, NHMHB. It's only the national games and only on Mondays. I almost don't care at all. I thought you were saying as my sentence went on about how I watch hockey. I was like, that is the meanest thing Max has ever said to me. The more you talk,

Haley, the less interesting it becomes. No, I just, just the script. The script on the paid partnership. Yeah. I mean, the main thing I think when I see this is that it's going to, like,

great, you want to watch national televised Monday night games and you pay for Sportsnet? Guess what? You got to pay for Amazon Prime now. Yeah, yeah, too. It is wild how many extra things you have to pay for now with like sports streamers.

Like I have to pay if I want to watch the NFL now, I either have to pay for TSN Plus to get a bigger NFL package even though I already like we have TSNN. But you have to pay for the beefed up TSN or DeZone. It's like what the heck? Why do I have to pay for everything? Like should I just get cable again? You know it's free? Butstreams. Fart always there for you.

illegally stream to your heart's content. What did you say, man? I'm premium, so I pay a subscription to buttstreams.com. It's an interesting recurring charge on your credit card. Allison has asked some questions. Yeah, but now she's on board with it once I showed her the light. I'm really mad about Red Zone. If we're going to do this, I'm really mad about Red Zone being taken off my cable package that I was already paying for.

You're a Red Zone guy? Yes. Oh my gosh. Oh. You're, how are you not? You're not a Red Zone person? No. You're an anxiety boy and a Red Zone boy. That's interesting.

You know what I'm serious though. You know who always. No, no, no, wait, wait. The thought of being invested in like a Bengals, Ravens game that then changes to like Steelers. Then watch their Benz's Ravens exclusively. It, it's, I couldn't think of another. other football team, clearly sees how much I love football.

To Steelers' rounds. Causes me such like a physical, like reaction. I'd be like, no, oh, like, I need this. The good thing, though, is that you don't have to pay for Red Zone. You can just access it on buttstream.fart. And I will. You need to stop saying butt and fart on this podcast. for the buttstream.fart

ad ad read. Let's go, yeah. I think people must have thought, I think his name is Jason is like, thing is Jason on Twitter when he was like making a buttstream dot fart joke about the World Championships game. People must have thought he was just like some Twitter asshole being like women's hockey's such part.

This is where it's relegated. People who are like, wow, that's so rude. One of his, One of his coworkers saw that and thinks very differently of him. Jason, why do you hate women? That's my question. It's tough.

It's an inside joke. You have to listen to the athletic hockey show to get it. Okay, let's move on to teeing up the two games on Thursday night. It's Florida versus Tampa game three. Carolina versus New York Islanders game three, both of those series. Florida leads to nothing. Carolina leads to nothing. Those games transition to.

Tampa and Long Island. I think the Florida Tampa series has been, you know, if they're both on at the same time, I'm going to flip that one on first. I don't know how you guys feel about that. But that's how I've been kind of operating as I'll start with Florida,

Tampa. Because that series has been, and Florida's up to nothing, but it's been closer. It's been fun. It's been close. Two, three, two games. It doesn't get closer, right?

Like, this is what we wanted out of this series. It's been that, It's been the only series, I think, that has gotten a goaltending matchup that really is particularly compelling. Yeah. At least the first couple games, I think this has been the best series on the docket, and yet it's 2-0. And it seems like very possible that Florida is going to just continue to be a little bit ahead. I think this feels like a Tampa win. Like, that's the conventional wisdom is when the first two games are as close as they've been.

excuse me, generally, you kind of expect the team that's down too O to come back and, and get it done for sure. I'm just, it is nice to watch high-end goaltending against high-end goaltending at times. Like, I feel like this is our best chance at having the three-over-time or four-over-time game that, you know, everyone cries for around this time of year, including me. We haven't gotten it yet. and it's largely because most every other series features either one or two goaltenders that's playing like buttstream.

Stop. Stop. I mean, whatever. It's the way it goes. Like, I'm not saying these guys are bad as a baseline, but we have, we haven't. Stop saying buttstream. fart. Burtream dot fart.

So stupid. But Florida Tampa looks like the one. And that goes, even though. Florida's got, you know, the Panthers are a machine in all the ways that we've kind of outlined in the past. But, man, Pabrowski-Faseleski's been good. And I'm looking forward. Actually, you know what I take that back because I have to write off these games tonight. So I'm hoping against hope that we don't get the triple overtime game tonight, but it kind of feels like it's coming.

Yeah. If it's not tonight, it would be like game four to either tie up the series. or to stop Florida from sweeping or something. But despite the fact that Florida's up to nothing, Vasilevsky's save percentage is better than Bobrovsky. Like he's been, this is what people would have expected, I think, from Andre Vasselowski, right? His goals against average is 2.49.

And his safe percentage is 922. I think we all knew that Vasselowski was going to be big in the playoffs. But Bovrofsky's been hard to beat. at some point Kutrov's going to score in the series. He's got two assists through two games. Like he's, there's just guys who haven't gotten on the board for Tampa that you just like, it's inevitable.

Like it's Anthony Duclair, um, hasn't scored yet and he was been, I mean, he's not like a Kutrov type, but he'd been really good for the lightning. Um, brain point only one goal.

Again, Kutrov zero goals. Steven Stamco is, is leading the way, but you've got to imagine that. some of the other big guns for the lightning are going to get on the board here soon. And for Florida, Sam Bennett is out. I know that Sam Bennett's not the world beater that's going to have like a huge impact on this series.

But like the lines had been really balanced like Sam Bennett makes it like it's playoff Sam Bennett, right? Like this isn't like losing a Sam Ryanhart or Carter-R-Haggie is more what I mean. But that's a, that's a, that's an important subtraction from the, the floor to line up, especially when we're looking at how the line shake out. So there was a big identity piece. Yeah, there were some conflicting reports about how long he was going to be out. It looked like he took a shot right to the hand. But I think Paul Marie said that it looks better than they initially thought.

So we'll see if and when Sam Bennett can come back. But yeah, that's like what I meant was this isn't like, you know, you're not losing one of your big, big guns. But San Bennett's important to the Panthers. what I have felt like over the last couple games, and really this probably goes back a little bit even to last year, but doesn't seem like Florida has kind of taken on that Tampa character where there's now like eight guys in their lineup who win a game is close late. You're like,

that guy can score the big goal, that guy can score the game winner. And there's like eight of them. And that used to be Tampa's whole thing. It was like they can kill you on any line. And maybe a lot of, maybe a little more of Florida's is concentrated in the top nine. But it's still just every single shift.

There's someone on the ice that you're like, do not let that guy get the puck if you want to continue to play this game. Yeah. They're getting chances from Tarasenko, too. I thought he was. He's one of them. He was, yeah. Oh, yeah, I don't mean, I don't mean, I shouldn't say two.

I'm not like from that group, but he was, he was noticeable in game too. I thought, which is a good sign for them. All right. So we'll see if that game goes to 3.0 and keep Sean working all night. Do you have to do power rankings tonight, too? or those toast for the playoffs. What do you think?

I don't know. That's why I'm asking. Ash cow, baby. We can't stop power rankings. Oh. Okay, well, good luck with that. Ignite. Yeah, right, exactly.

Only further guarantee is that we're getting triple a T and Panthers. Yeah, have fun, everybody. This game's going in the distance tonight. The other game on the schedule is Carolina against the Islanders. The game two was wild. the comeback by the Keynes. The social manager was like very saucy online to the point where I don't know what happened with her.

I hope she's okay. People were being very mean to their social media person. And I kind of appreciated her tweets. I thought they were funny. Anyways, Keynes Islanders game three tonight. What do you guys think? This series has actually been like game two was very fun.

I think part of it is what we can't, what we've come to expect from that series. And we saw it at times last year where. You know, the islanders are holding a lead. The hurricanes are dominating run-of-play. The shock clocks out of control. I don't know. It wasn't holding my attention. This might be a me problem, honestly.

I might be alone on this one. But it wasn't, it didn't have me locked in until the last, you know, a few minutes. And then, you know, all the way in, let's go. But I don't know. I thought game two is sort of, if we're grading out all the stuff we've seen, that was, Ellen was a little bit of a slog for me to

through. I mean, the intrigue of game two was just can you really have 12 shots on goal and win an NHL playoff game, which is that was the storyline, right? Through the entire late stretch there. And the answer is unsurprising. I guess I'm just deducting points from the Islanders that I shouldn't because I've just seen this over the last few years with the cane specifically where it's like, you know, okay, the the attempt count is way tilted and they're losing and you just kind of like roll your eyes and I don't know. I've got a bad habit

of checking out of games when that's the way that they're going. And I did that honestly to my detriment in game two. Like I missed, I missed the first goal of the of the comeback.

Because I was like, okay, this is just one of those games in Carolina where they dominate five on five play and lose and whatever. I just sort of phone that one in. And clearly that was a mistake

because, you know, as good a comeback as you're ever going to see. who knows? It's good to replay at that one. I found that there was I found that there was something entertaining

in that game at least about the inevitability of the Carolina hurricanes. Like it just hit a point where it's like, okay, like this is going to happen eventually the way that they were playing. The Islanders had one shot on goal

in the third period. They had four in the second. Like I know that obviously when you know that there's only 12 shots in the total game, you know that there was going to be like a period or two where they just didn't do much.

But it was like, the third period specifically was like, okay, when is this going to happen? When is the damn going to break? And it was nine seconds apart between the Jake Gensel, or not Jake Gensel, excuse me, the Sebastian Aho and Jordan Martin O'Kolls. And like those nine seconds, it was like, oh, my God, here we go. What's going to happen next? I don't know.

And maybe that's where I need to amend my thinking about the Carolina hurricanes, because in past versions of them, they just lose that game and move on to the next one. Yeah, they lack that ability to turn all those opportunities into actual production. But I do think that's why this year's Kane's team is the one, like we talked about this last week in the preview is like, this is the deepest, more, most offensively talented, Kane's forward lineup at least that we've seen in their current window of contention, which makes that sense of like, oh, my God, they're going to get goalied or oh, my God, they can't score into like, this is going to turn out. pretty well for them. Like there is a sense this year, again, of that inevitability of the Keynes versus like, oh God, they're going to do it again. They're going to win the Corsy battle and not score. Yeah. Plenty of recent Canes playoff teams have give up re-goals on 12 shots. And that is, it's a loss and it can it can become a big problem for them. Right.

The fact that they were able to survive this one, it's, it's another one of those that you feel like, okay, they're going to be just fine here. I should have taken my own advice. I've been talking about, I've been making that same point for weeks and months now, right? Like this is, they got the juice at the top of the lineup

that they haven't before. And then I just sort of forgot, forgot what I was preaching for that long. I'm disappointed at myself. Let's get another one. Let's get another, let's get another extremely lopsided game that, you know,

that the islanders lead regardless and some kind of crazy comeback in the third. I'll take it. Because I kind of missed the first one. you turned into a Canes hater despite the fact that you were a big canes guy. It's very weird. Okay, we're going to take another break

because there's only two games, so we don't have anything else to Tio. We'll take another break and come back with the final segment of the athletic hockey show. All right, it's the final segment of the athletic hockey show. One might say it's the only good segment on the show, but nobody sends us questions. Nobody can get through the troll.

He's really ramped up his rhyme game. They're not rhymes, they're riddles. Yeah, what are you talking about? I don't know. I'm confused. And Max is like, what the hell is going on? You idiot, get back on track. I had no idea what was happening there.

Yeah. It was a Craig thing. Do you know who Craig Cussons is? He used to work here. Yeah. Anyways. Anyways. We're going to do a little bit of non-playoff news here for the final segment because David Quinn was fired as coach of the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday.

No replacement was named. The Sharks, of course, finished last in the NHL, obviously failed to qualify for the playoffs for fifth consecutive season. Yeah, I don't know. My thought after this was like, why? Yeah. It's because they were some, I mean, yeah, they finished with the worst record in the league. So it's Mission Impossible. mission impossible. Mission accomplished

in one way, but the way that they made it to that record is about as brutal as it gets, right? They start 0, 10, and 1. There's another stretch where they lose 18 and 19. But was David Quinn supposed to do better with that roster?

Like, is another coach going to coach that specific group of players with that specific group of injuries to hurdle, Logan Kutcher? Then they trade DeClair. They trade hurdle. was another coach supposed to do better with that set of circumstances? I think you can expect another coach. I think it's reasonable to expect your coach,

regardless of how bad the roster is, to not have two worst in class losing streaks over the courts of the season. And especially where they are moving into their life cycle as a team, you're going to have Will Smith up at some point. You're going to have another high draft pick. There's a lot of young players coming up. And for as good of a college coach as David Quinn was, we have seen from him in the past,

especially with the Rangers, not the best at developing young players at the NHL level. So on one level, it's brutal because I think he's a good hockey coach and I think he got something of a raw deal. But I can also see in totality, when you look at the way their season went and you look at the way things might go moving forward,

I can see why you get it done. It's a shame. I just feel like if you're going to waste a hire here, basically. Whoever replaces him is not having any more success here. You waste the new coach bump. To me, even for me, like, I think about, like, who's taking this job that seems so unwinnable and seems to not have really much grace, too, for when the inevitable happens. Like, that's kind of what I, I think the sharks, like, are going to need a couple.

They will eventually get out of this, but they're going to need a few years. And if you think you're taking this job and David Quinn just got fired after two years, knowing exactly what the deal was, that would startle me, I guess. Yeah. I agree. Like, I think if you're, like, so it's going to be somebody who's probably, it's going to be like a, either a brand new coach, like somebody from the farm system or someone we aren't super familiar with.

Like, maybe they go a Spencer Carberry route. Like, maybe that's the answer is like, get your guy from the minors or whatever. Or it's going to be like a current NHL assistant who got fired from a head coaching job. in the last three years who gets another shot at a head coaching job because they want another crack at it. But it's probably not going to go super well because you have the head coach of the sharks. Right. That's kind of what like, like, my mind goes to like, you know, I live in Detroit.

I've covered the Red Wings. My mind goes like, oh, could this be a landing spot for Jeff Blasheel? But I was like, well, if it's Jeff Blaschel, he's already done that once, like, try to coach an unwinnable roster somewhere. Are you really jumping for that, you know? Does DJ Smith want this job? Like, that's where my head went to is like, does DJ take this? Or is he like, I just did this for.

six years with the Sends. Mind you, he had a long leash, but when you watch what just happened with David Quinn, is like, do I really want this gig? That's a spot. That's a spot for an unemployed coach. I don't think that's a job you take. Blatchel is a great example. No, I will be staying on the Tampa Bay Lightning's bench.

He's going to get another shot at some point. He doesn't need to take over one of the most brutal collections of NHL talent that we've seen in recent history. Yeah. I just don't think like this isn't, this wasn't like a young player laden roster either. You had Fabian Zetterland, 24, and William Eklund. And then the rest, it's Mike Hoffman and Michael Granland and Jan Ruta, Luke Cunnan. Like this wasn't, this wasn't like, we need to protect our prospects.

Like this was, this was not it. So I don't know. It's kind of a weird move for me. And the quote from Mike Greer didn't like, tell us anything. Of course it didn't, but it was like, he's a great man and a great coach. Just like, okay, then why did he get fired? So anyways, we don't know. And there's been no replacement announced. I assume they'll take their time with that. So they don't end up just running through coaches in San Jose, but we'll see.

The other non-playoff news, there was the big arena tour and introduction and welcome to Salt Lake city yesterday. There was 12,400 fans in Utah who like packed that building to say hello to NHL Utah. Can we call them that yet? Or they still Arizona? I guess the sale went through. They're NHL Utah. Aren't they wearing like matching hoodies that said NHL Utah or was it Utah NHL or yeah? Yeah. And I just want it's like really funny that they're copying PWHL Toronto, PWHL New York. Who copied the Washington football team? and whatever else. That's just like the move.

That was a joke. They didn't copy anybody. They didn't have time to make branding. God, you're rude. Everyone's so rude to me today. I'm just going to start calling the Utah Mammoth. That's your pick. Okay, well, I was going to get to the name conversation after we quickly just said.

The welcome was very cool. Ian Mendez was boots on the ground for it. A lot of fans showing up just for them to be introduced to the city. I don't know, it seemed nice. Those guys are hype, man. They were, they were, they were into it. Andre Turney looked like he just won the lottery, man. He could not have looked any half.

It was honestly really nice. Like, I saw Clayton Keller like grab the mic during the introduction. We're like, yeah, we do it, Utah. Like rock star stuff from Clayton Keller. Yeah, you know what? Did that? Because they showed them the dressing rooms and did the Delta. center and they're like yeah yes acceptable working conditions let's go um and so the looks on

some of their faces it seemed like there was a bunch of fans like as they were getting off the plane and just some of them looking at like just coming off the plane and that experience it was like very nice but you're moving too far away from the mic so it's like sounds like you're falling down a hole or something. Sean fell down the stairs. But anyways, this is all getting us to the NHL Utah name conversation. Sean likes a Utah mammoth? I don't really like it.

Why can't it be mammoths? Call them a man. This is not a... Why can't we have a plural? Why? I don't know. I don't like any. of them.

You don't like the Hammett? They're okay. They're okay. I don't need the Utah Yeties. Oh, boy. One of my big league teams

is called the Yeties and the fellas in the group chat are really hoping that the NHL team gets named after. Yeah, and they can see

new, new game uniforms for those guys. Very simple. When we have, so we have a, the choice of eight and the fact that Utah

H.C. is like, fourth or fifth on the list for me is probably not a great sign. I guess outlaws would you got, like maybe, I don't know. I like the blizzard, the blizz.

That sucks. Blizzy? No one sucks. Utah ice sucks. Fury is the one that I can't. I don't like venom. I don't like venom either. Unless Tom Hardy is going to show up.

I'm not interested. Oh. My bane impression. Oh, you think darkness is your ally. You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it. Yeah, Utah Ice is not it for me. I don't know why Julian and McIndoo like this one. Oh, wait. I'm confused, actually. Why did they, I think they ranked these in reverse order. They're, on their ranking, it says McIndoo ranked it two. McKenzie

ranked at one, but it's ranked eighth. And they're both saying they hate it. So I'm going to bring this up with an editor. But I don't like that. What was their number one? All monitor Haley tattling on the story structure of her co-workers. Call the cops then. This doesn't make any sense. I think Utah Yetis was their number one slash number eight.

Mack and do. I'm very confused. Mackendoo had it number one. They had Yeties won Utah Mammoth 2. Utah Outlaws 3. That's the Utah Outlaws. I think that's one of the better ones, honestly. Why?

What are they going to have a little cowboy at all the games? Because it's plural. You could make it mammoths. It's a collective noun. What's plural of mammoth? This is all the Crackens fault. The fact that there's a professional, a high-end major professional sports team named the Cracken,

nice as all their gear is, is opened some unpleasant. doors. I don't care for it. It's also the biggest reason that I think you can't do Yetis. You can't have your two most recent teams be mythical creatures. Wait, what do you mean? Let's call a

Crackens are real. Let's call a cryptozoologist in here to get their take on the matter. Crack and are real? Also, the abs, the abs have the abs have the market cornered on Yeti stuff. Like, I don't. Really? Wait, did you guys know that the New Jersey devil's logo is a little devil.

Yes. Shaped in an N? Yes. Yes. Welcome to 1992 or whatever. Did you know that the Hartford Whaler logo uses a negative space to make a W? Yes. No, I didn't know that.

Nice thought. I don't know. You know there's a little arrow in the FedEx logo too? Yes. Well, now you're just being mean. am I someone who reads listicles about negative space and logos? Yes. Am I a nerd?

I just want to say I didn't know that. It's an N and a J and a devil at once. I didn't know that. So, whatever. I don't like any of these Utah names. I'm not going to lie. Don't like any of them. Try again.

Anything else? When the flagship state university had to go with Utes as the mascot, that there wasn't a great, like, alliterative bank to choose from here. The stingers. What about the Utah Royals? No.

Don't double up on another, the Kansas City baseball team. That's also a soccer team. That's a women's soccer team. The Salt Lake Snakes. Jeff says rough riders. I don't like, I don't like any of this. would you do that? That's Saskatchewan. That doesn't make sense for Utah. I guess Salt Lake City. Outlaws kind of does at least. No. I seriously. Like that's, is your mascot going to be a cowboy?

I could actually, that could be kind of fun. I'm coming around to Outlaws because of the Cowboy. I think I had that as number. Because me and Dom were there was a stampede to write the potential nickname ranking and me and Dom came in second place, unfortunately. But I made up my mind that Outlaws was my favorite. I liked out. You guys got beat out by Mac and Dew and Julian. Sure did. All credit to the winners, they were quicker on the trip than us. Yeah. Too bad, it's kind of confusing.

Again, take it up with the judge. Whatever. I'm going to call Myrtle. Okay, very, very quickly, finally, it's time for the PWHL Air Friar. So the New York team got eliminated from the playoffs last night on Wednesday. That was the first team to get eliminated from PWHL

playoff contention ever. And that means the gold plan officially starts. So this is, you know, credit to Sean McIndoo, actually. He's probably the reason the PWHL adopted the gold plan. It's the mathematical elimination model that means once you get eliminated, you start getting points to win the first overall pick versus a draft lottery. So I don't know. I think it's exciting. I think it's cool to see this happen for the first time. We'll see if New York can string some wins together. They have three games left. Really sucks. I picked them to win the whole thing. So you did. It sucks for me. If you didn't bring it up, I was gonna. Which one of you picked Toronto? I think it was Max. I did. Do such a thing. And Sean picked Montreal, I think. Somebody picked Toronto.

Somebody picked. Oh, shoot. So Boston and New York are going to be in the goal plan. And Max is going to get a Omaha steak that I'm going to have to pay out of pocket. Yeah, that's right. I'm going to have to buy him. Omaha steaks. But that's all the time we have. I don't know. I'm just excited to see how the gold plan works.

It's maybe not as exciting with six teams versus 32. There's not going to be as much chaos. But it's like I like that they're doing something differently. I love the fact that it's in place, even though it's not going to be implemented as, you know, as widely as maybe, you know, as as widely as it could be or should be. I love it. Yeah. All right. That's the end of the show, everyone. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Athletic Hockey Show. Just a reminder. You can leave us a five-star rating and review. If you hate the show, if you love the show, do it anyways. We would appreciate that. No prospect series this week. So Mendez, Laz, CJ, and LeBron will have the next athletic hockey show on Monday. Thanks, everyone for listening. And Sean, enjoy that 4-O-T game and the power rankings on Thursday night.

Don't actually review us if you hate the show. Just keep that to yourself. Yeah. Don't tell me that I have vocal fry. I don't need it. to hear it.