The Athletic Hockey Show - Winnipeg Jets first team eliminated from postseason ahead of a weekend slate of elimination games

Episode Date: April 28, 2023

Hailey and Sean discuss the Vegas Golden Knights eliminating the Winnipeg Jets from round one, give a postmortem on the Jets' season, and look ahead to Friday night's packed slate of elimination games.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowStart making your financial dreams a reality with Chime. Get started at http://chime.com/nhlshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What's up, everybody? Welcome to another episode of the Friday Athletic Hockey Show. It's Haley Salvean and Sean Gentilly here with you. We are 11 days into the Stanley Cup playoffs. 11 days in, 40 plus games now. Sean, how we feel? Very muted entrance from you today.

I feel like you're like you're like you're like a foreign there. You're very, I'm not going to say low energy. Like this is, this is chill. This is like morning show. This is like morning show radio versus drive time radio. You're like ease people into their days. Yeah. Well, we're recording this on Friday morning.

And that it's not a traditional Friday show. Yeah, it's a Friday morning. We're not recording this on Thursday night. So it's not Friday. So maybe I'm a little bit sad about that. I'm so understanding. But it just makes more sense for us to record on Friday mornings right now because, well, what were we going to talk about last night?

Will the Leafs win? Well, spoiler alert, they didn't. We can save that for five minutes from now. For five minutes from now. I don't think I realized there were four elimination games today until this morning. It just didn't dawn on me. Like I knew that there were four series that were at three, two. I had to write about them last night.

night for tomorrow morning for the power rankings. But it was like right before we started to record, I was like, oh, right, there's four games tonight. They're all elimination games. Haley used the term morning, uh, morning, use the term moving day whenever we were, whenever we were getting ready. And that's true. I don't think I, I don't think I quite realized that all that, that all this shit could

go down tonight. We waited that long, we waited that long to have an elimination. We finally got one on Thursday night when Vegas booted the Winnipeg Jets. we are certainly going to talk about here. But we waited that long, and now we might go to the weekend with, like, what's left to decide? It's wild. Yep, it's all going to happen fast and furious.

I think most of us thought there was going to be more gentleman sweeps at this point, or just a sweep in general. Like, Keynes had a chance to put away the islanders, Bruins had a chance to put away the Panthers, the Seattle Cracken did not waste eight days against the abs. They're actually up three to two in the series and have a chance to boot the Colorado Avalanche at home in game six tonight. So that's another one of those games. So lots of teams who've, you know, hung around.

So yes, we'll get into some of those in segment two. But first, let's talk about the first team eliminated. And that's the Winnipeg Jets. Again, as we mentioned, the Maple Leafs had a chance to be the first team to punch their tickets to round two on Thursday night, but they lose to the Tampa Bay Lightning 4 to 2. It's more of a one goal loss. The fourth goal is an empty net or Austin Matthews gets them within one with three minutes left, but no miraculous comeback this time. So the Leafs are what? Oh and 10 in elimination games since in the last like 10? That sounds right. Yeah. Oh and 10. How about that? The streak. The streak continues. It's not great.

I think it just... For who? For Leifes fans and for the Leaves. It's... Yeah, they're 0 and 10 in close-out games since 2018. And I think it's really funny. I mean, this is the nature of the beast when you're doing playoff reporting.

But every single column that I saw after the 5-4 overtime win was, this team is different. And now it's, oh, well, they still have a lot to prove, actually, because they still can't win an elimination game. And it's just like, that's what you got to do in the playoffs. Like you got to just hop on the daily story.

But the shift was just like, Andre Vasilevsky, human being. And then it's like, oh, no, Andre Vasilevsky's elimination game, Andre Vaselowski. So I don't think anybody thought that the Tampa Bay Lightning were going to go down lightly. But we'll see. Leaves have two more chances. I feel like there's Leifes fans out there, though, who are like, if they don't win Game 5,

like, just, I'm not watching the next two. It's like, they got to do it now because I can't handle what's going to happen game six and potentially Game 7, knock on wood. It's a tough time for Leafs fans in your life. Yeah. I'm not one of them.

I just want to make that. They'll be fine. Domest Tisham will be fine. I think, you know, you brought up how badly some of some of these takes age and that's just that's a that's the cost of doing business right that's just the way it goes um when you have to make grand sweeping predictions or have huge takeaways based on one on one game basically because that because that because that's all it is we play these games we write our columns we make our points on

podcasts or the radio or whatever it is and then the clock resets and it's like we have to forget everything else and that's that's just that's a tough way to it's a tough way to do business and it's a tough way and it's particularly difficult to apply it to hockey because individual games are just acts of chaos it's it that you don't you it's tough to draw like long-term sweeping conclusions based on what we see over 60 minutes of hockey right and on some level it's not fair but also it's what we have to do because these games chaotic and random as they might be are also extremely consequential and you want to find patterns and you want to be able to make what we see in

these games predictive and be able to say like is Andre Vasselvesk human have they figured them out? Yeah. Based on what two games two games worth of worth of work and that's tough and it's a situation where people, me, you, anybody, you're going to take some else. That's just the way it goes. You're going to be wrong about stuff. Or there's going to be things that it seems like you're wrong about and then are proven right over the course of like a long series, right?

Yeah. It's a tough economy, honestly, the playoff post-game take economy because you want to find something that's meaningful and you want to find something that's, you know, trenchant and kind of sticky. But it's really tough to do after single games. And that is how you end up getting, like, should we stick a fork in Andre Vasselowski or whatever.

And of course, of course, of course, look, me and Dom for the powering, we went through, we went through each team and tried to figure out, you know, one player per that needs to be better. And who is at the top of Tampa Bay's list going into last night? I mean, it is Vasilesky because he let in 19 goals and four games. Right.

And then he, and sure. And it's a fair, it's a fair, you know, claim to stake. But then he comes out last night and he's their best player and he's, and he, you know, 23 or 25 stopped some, you know, 10 bell chances. He finished it 1.75 goals saved all if expected. I don't know, I don't know. He was, he was unbelievable. And it just feels like everything that all those things that everybody bought, everybody bought real estate on over the last few days, it's like, all right, well, maybe hold on that.

Hold the phone. Yep, that's the business in the playoffs. So yeah, Leaves miss their chance to be the first team to punch their ticket. But the Vegas Golden Knights do not miss. They beat the Winnipeg Jets 4 to 1. Jets are eliminated. Vegas moves on to round. two, Vegas wins that series, four to one. Let's check in with Jets Head coach, Rick Bonas. Let's

see, let's get a vibe check from, from Bones here. Overall thoughts, I'm so disappointed and disgusted right now. That's my thoughts. Um, okay, so Rick Bonas, he's disgusted. He's not happy. Disappointed and disgusted right now. That's the like, clippy, grabby part where you hear that and you're just like oh my gosh but then you kind of listen to the rest and it's it's the we've got a world-class gold tender that can match up against anybody uh we've got two centermen that that we think we can match up against anybody we got wingers we've got guys in the blue line like the jets on paper should have been better and and yeah sorry that was the shovel day off quote from after the trade deadline that was the the contrast

of the Shevoldeaf quote saying, we've got great this, we've got great that, contrasted with the disappointment and disgust after they lost. And yeah, it just shows they probably should be better than they showed. Like on paper, they're not a bad team, but the results just haven't been there.

Yeah, and that's the team's general manager talking about a roster that he built, right? Of course, on some level, every player, because Shevled Dayoff has been there since the start, every guy is a shovel day off guy in one way or another. So of course he's going to have some level of, you know, some level of,

of attachment to these guys, which is part of the problem when having a general manager of a team who's been around for 15 years, it feels like at this point and, you know, to what end? But the problem I think with that statement, in the biggest issue that I think is, up in there, it takes the tone of stuff you see more often from fans, which is like, man, if everything about this team goes perfectly, like, we're going to have a chance.

If every player is as good as they possibly can be, like, we'll really be working with something here. And that's not how it works. That's not how anything works. That's not a hockey season's work. That's on how playoff runs work. You can't just assume. that Connor Hallibuck is going to be a Vezna caliber goaltender at all times.

And you can't just assume that Mark Shifley is going to finally turn into a defensively responsible player when he's 30. And you can't talk about Blake Wheeler, like he's an elite winger when he hasn't been that for three years. And he's 36 or 37 years old now. And you can't ignore, you know, issues with players like Pierre-Luc Dubois or Nicolai Ailers or Josh Morrissey, who was like, a black hole, basically, in his own end until this season.

Like, it's easy to see every single one of those players in the most positive light possible. That's something fans do. That's certainly something general managers do when you're talking about players who they've handpicked over the course of their career. I get it. I get it why they're saying that. But it's not right. And it's not the right mindset to come and do a team building exercise.

with, right? Where you're like, sure. You can say that about every single team. You can gas up any team in the league. And if you portray every player, every top end player in the most charitable light, every team's going to look good. You could say it about, if you talk about the Arizona Coyotes, you can do that, right? We have an elite, an elite scorer in Clayton Keller.

And Carol Valmalko took some major steps forward this year. season. He's a workhorse goaltender. And we like what we've seen from Connor Mackey, who's a player who's a thrive when he's just kid. You can you can frame any shit team as positively as you want for public consumption. And it's going to look that way. But actually playing games and going up against, you know, another elite or quasi-elite team in the first round there is a wholly different thing.

And I think now more than anything, and maybe it took Rick Bonus. Maybe that's Rick Bonus's single biggest contribution to the Winnipeg Jets, right? He's being able to come in from the outside and show these guys for what they are and open some eyes in that organization. Yeah. From the tip top. Because at the end of the day, it's working. No, I think shovel day off has been okay with the status quo for far too long. And I wonder.

So I think one of the big takeaways from this Jets team is like how many, all these players, when it mattered the most, basically dipped back into their bad habits from the Paul Maurice years. Right? But it's like, do we blame Paul Maurice for that or do we blame Kevin Shevelte off for that? Or do you blame Rick Bonas? Or do you blame the players? Like, like, I don't know. Yeah, like how many coaches do players get? I mean, they had two basically.

But how many chances do you get? Like, there's a lot of blame to go around. and I think what's interesting, and Marat said this very well too, is, like, this wasn't some one-off emotional explosion from Rick Bonas. This was the culmination of seeing the problems in that room with that team, addressing them at the beginning of the season, finding some success early in the season,

and then watching through February and down the stretch of the season, all those best habits that he thought he corrected, backslide to where they were before in showing like maybe they weren't sufficiently addressed or maybe they were, these players just had to go back to their natural state like passing into traffic on a two on one or, you know, fanning on a shot, taking a long shift, playing poorly defensively.

I really thought. We had Marat on and we were like, we were wrong. The Jets are amazing. Oh my God. I definitely really thought that Josh Morrissey's on ice shooting percent was going to be 30 for the entire season. That seems sustainable, sure. A lot went wrong. And it seems like that one minute tirade was needed, as you said, because at the end of the day,

if that's what wakes up management, if that's what wakes up ownership, that could be an important tipping point that finally leads to some action from this team. Winnipeg is only won one playoff round between its lost to Vegas in 2018 and the one right now. They've won once. So it just hasn't been good enough. And now the Winnipeg Jets, like they are actually, this is an okay time for this to be happening, I guess, because this is a natural place for them to start moving on from certain players and making some changes. They have a number of guys whose contracts are up next summer. So, yeah, they're not walking in free agency,

but we know you can start moving guys out the summer before. You can try. Mark Schifley, Blake Wheeler, Connor Hellebuck, Pierre-Luc Dubois' future is a question mark. Like, there's some big pieces. Is it really? Apparently, yeah. Is Pierre-Lucs' future a question mark?

I'm not even going to bring up Montreal. Well, I just did, but. I'm not going to dive into it. I mean, this is like they've, they've played out the string. They're at the, they're at the end of the, of the, of the, of the, of the, of the particular, of this particular group. Like, the choice has been made all, all, all, all, damn nearer, right? And this, the craziest part about all this is like, you think, you think about the pivotal moments in the Jets organization over the last five years. Like, what have they been?

They've been dust. It's been dust in Buffalo. not randomly deciding to retire, right, but just like, I mean, in a sense, you know, caught everybody by surprise. They certainly weren't ready for it. That's, that's one thing. And then Paul Maurice pulling the plug on himself in Winnipeg last season. That also was a decision that would not have been made.

That was a decision that was made for management and for ownership. Yeah. But Paul Maurice would still be coaching this team if he didn't, if he didn't realize, wake up when he realized, oh shit, Mark Shifley's not listening to me anymore. Yeah. And I think it's really interesting. Like we all thought last year was going to be the year with significant change because Mark Shifley's saying at exit meeting media day. Like, I got to think about my future here. And the only thing that they did was bring in Rick Bonas and strip Lake Wheeler of the C.

those were the sweeping changes. So let's see if that actually happens this summer. It probably should. I feel like, you know, Jets fans let us know in the comments, but I feel like most people would agree with that. We good? Let's table the Winnipeg conversation and get to... I just can't wait for them to bring back.

It's going to be one last run. For this team that's accomplished so much, we get one last bite at the Apple next season. You know that's what's going to happen. That's going to be what happens if there's no market. for any of the guys with one year left on their deal. Because that's Blake Wheeler is a UFA in 2024, Mark Schifley,

Nino-Neider-Rider. For Blake Wheeler in 2020, in 2023? Like, no thanks. I'll maybe wait and bring him in, you know, after the year for one-sixth of his current cost or whatever it is. Yeah, Leuque du Guas, a restricted free agent. They're going to trade him, right?

Who do you think they'll trade him to? It would be so funny of Montreal I was like, oh, we're good. We watched, you know what? We watched that first round series. We're fine. You can keep him. We watched the last month of the season.

Never mind. I mean, he still scored 27 goals. We got to move on from the Jets. We're just going to sit here and dump on them for another 15 more minutes. I wasn't dumping on them. I think I was being really constructive. I am. Yeah, let's take a break.

They annoy me. Okay. Well, everybody annoys it. you. Like, what team have you ever been happy about? The 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have a thought on, you know what, before we move on, do you have a thought on Vegas punching their ticket? It's just, I wasn't surprised. Yeah. Like, Mark Stone's back. He's great. We love Mark Stone. As we're seeing, we're seeing God mode, Mark Stone.

He's so much fun to watch. We do love Mark Stone. He's just, if you watch a lot of hockey. He makes me smile. If you watch enough hockey to know what you're watching, like, along the boards and just all the, all the stuff he does, he's a blast. Good for Jack Eichel, too. Yeah. Jacoby.

Jacobi. Eichel. What was it that Ian said? Oh, it's because you were tweeting about Jimmy Butler, and I responded with Jimothy. And he said, bring this chemistry to the Friday podcast. I felt like a dart for me, honestly. I was like, are you being rude? Being a smart ass.

That's what everyone. People don't know that about Mendez. You smart ass. Welcome back. I'd like to apologize to Ian Mendez. I think I went a little too far. No one's going to know what you actually called him because it's been it's been deleted in post. But let's just say.

Let's just say she crossed the line. Anyways, as we mentioned, this is, um, for all my golf fans out there. Ugh. This is moving day. Friday night, it's moving day on the PGA tour. I know Friday's not moving day on PGA, but it is today in the National Hockey League.

Four games. Sean's looking at me very confused. Do you know what moving day is? It's the day where, like, the leaderboard moves around a lot. Where everything shuffles. Yeah. I get it.

Why are you looking at me funny? Because I called it the PGA tour? Oh. It's the day before the final round. It's Saturday. See how far into golf analysis we're going to get here. Well, I can tell you that when you talked about how Brooks Kepka wasn't going to be allowed to play at the Masters a couple weeks ago, you were very wrong about that.

Did you even watch full swing? No. I don't watch the F1 show either. Well, I don't care about that. I was talking about golf. Anyways. Fun fact, my dad had his pro card. And he made me read a golf etiquette.

book before he let me on the golf course. That's very funny. Well, because he took me on the golf course once and I took the cart and drove around and I got in trouble. Yeah, that seems like it'd be frowned upon now. Yeah, I didn't have my driver's license, just kind of took the cart and left. Because he said, like, bring the cart around the corner and I went way too far. He was like, where are you going? Anyways.

Doing donuts on the greens and whatever, whatever, southern Ontario public course you guys were on. Yeah. Wild wins golf course in Rockwood, Ontario. Anyways, let's table that because we got four elimination games in the NHL. Hurricanes, Islanders, that's game one, seven o'clock Eastern, Bruins Panthers, 730, Stars Wild, 930, Crack and Avs, 10. Look at all that sweet spacing out.

Yeah, credit the league's killing it with the playoff game schedule. It's nice because I don't have to watch the intermediate. Totally. All apologies to people who are in the central time zone who are really taking this one for the team. Sorry. Sorry folks, but it's better for us this way. Yeah. My life is better for it. So, um, canes are up three to two. Bruins up three to two. Stars up three to two. Crackin' baby up three to two. Let's just go through these. Who do we think moves on? Who do we think is forcing a game? Let's maybe start with Bruins Panthers, actually, because Matthew could chuck the rat king. Rats spelled backwards as star. Let's go. You're just like,

you're just like reading shit from your meme folder now. Yeah. Thousands of memes on here. Thousands. I pay for extra eye cloud storage just for my raccoon beams. Anyways, you really killed my flow. there. I was really viving on the Matthew Gachukh thing.

Ratt. Anyways, he gets the OT winner. Paul Maurice goes on a, you know, he's an expletive, expletive, expletive gamer. He really changed his tune after calling, basically calling Matthew a piece of crap a couple years ago in the bubble for the Mark Schifley thing. I know we just like kind of drag Paul Maris a little bit, maybe indirectly for what's gone on in Winnipeg. That right there, that press conference performance is example A of how that dude has lasted as long as he has and why he's why he's been an NHL coach for half of his life at this point is he can turn a phrase he's funny he can he can he can turn it on and be super congenial and media friendly whenever he wants to because that that line gold yeah post game presser you know what let's roll the clip let's roll the clip

that guy is uh and then you put a long string of profanity gamer is he not a gamer like i had time i'm a times he did that in calgary to us and win a pick drive me crazy how he could just out of nowhere pull a puck so i don't know there's what 700 guys in the league 640 of them jam that thing as fast they can't the net and lose it and he pulls it across right he's got just a gamer. Matthew Kachuk is a gamer. He gets the OT winner to force the team to game six back in Florida. Again, that's tonight.

And then, you know, how teams do the like, here's the hat or the belt. They have the pucks from the game winner in Florida. I don't know if you've seen the post game videos. It's kind of cool. The guy who's like the player of the game in the room gets the puck. And then they have like a thing that shows all the pucks all the way up to a Stanley Cup. It's kind of corny.

but kind of cool at the same time. Penguins did it. Chuck gets the cup. It gets the puck, excuse me, not the cup. Matthew Guchuk gets the puck and he goes in the room and said like, you know,

remember this room boys, we're going to be back for game seven. So if you believe in Matthew Guchuk, if you are part of, I was trying to think of like a funny fan club name, like Luke's troops.

But I almost said Maddie's patties. That is a hamburger restaurant. Okay. If you believe in Matthew Kachukh, if you're a rat king worshipper, maybe you think that the Florida Panthers are going to force a game seven against the Bruins.

We've really gotten... What do you think, Sean? We've really gotten the full Matthew Kichuk experience in this... Oh my God. In this series, right? This is him at the top of his register. He is being such...

Like, the... I had the... And this is the thing. Three days ago, I think it was three days ago. When he did the cross check on Garnet Hathaway, I was like, man, you know what? He's really hard to defend sometimes.

Like, I go on air all the time and talk about how Kachuk should be a hard trophy finalist. And then he goes and does something stupid like that. And I'm like, God damn it. Like, I got to tone it down in the Kachuk thing. And then he goes and scores that gold. I'm like, yes. He's the king.

Linus Lomark won at a piece. Like, think of all the things. All the things that we've seen from him in the last. in the last week or 10 days, the cross checking stuff after the whistle, which the second time he did it was legitimately funny because it was clear that he was just like... I'm going to do this again.

I'm doing it again, yeah. Yeah. Annoying Linus Olmark to the point that he wanted to go after him, he's out there scoring goals, you know, going through the legs at one point in this series. Like, this is the Matthew Cuckechuk experience, right? this is as good as it gets for him. And he's clearly from the start, from the very jump,

from when Boston wins game won, he has plotted out his own arc. He has set his own narrative for this series really from the start of it, where he's like, no, that's fine. You guys, like, I know you don't expect to see us back here. That's fine. And that's been the tone that he's had, you know, throughout all of it. do I think it's going to work in the sense that, you know, where it's to the tune of the Panthers advancing?

Like, no. No. They're going to make it fun, though. That's kind of what we've already said, right? They already have. If this series ends tonight, right, it's going to have been, it's going to have been a success. Just because of all you can ask, and I think this kind of goes really to, this extends to every series. except for maybe Winnipeg,

Vegas for obvious reasons. That one just didn't. It didn't grab me. We got eight first round series. Seven of the eight in one way or another have been compelling. And it's because of stuff like Kachuk, you know, a, you know, doing all the on-ice stuff that makes him a special player, that makes him a hard caliber caliber player.

But also, he might be the best showman we have. in the league because he gets it he knows exactly what he's doing like I said he's got an like an arc that he's created for himself and his team in in this series and he plays it up and he has fun with it and he has dragged that series in its own way to a higher degree of watchability I think then then maybe we would have anticipated I see see I disagree with that because when we were talking about this series that I think the Bruins are going to win but I think the Panthers are going to make it fun. Totally.

And that's because of Kachuk. Let's get back to the original question. Do the Panthers force a game seven or do the Bruins move on tonight? I'll say the Bruins move on tonight. But Linus Allmark or Jeremy Swyman, I guess we'll see. Because they completely abandoned their goalie rotation, right? And they just kind of started riding Linus Allmark. He got, like, there was no question about it.

Sergey Bobrovsky was the better goalie in game five. 44 saves on 47 shots, I believe. But Brovsky was great, but he didn't need to be that great to be the best goalie in that game, right? Sure, because Almark was just fine. He let in three goals on 25 shots. Even before the catastrophic mistake that he made when he played the puck behind the net on the game winner, he had been very questionable, right? So you got to wonder. You got to wonder what...

Do we see Jeremy Swainman? I mean, it worked during the regular season. And also when that's a CISC... And this is why I go to the Wild series when everyone lost their mind because, you know, Dean Everson started... Started Mark Andreo. In a game, too, bad call.

100% should not... There's a time and a place for goalie rotation. Yeah. But you can see the logic because that's what those guys were used to. Goleys or creatures a habit. You go through the course of an entire season playing one way, dividing the labor one way.

if you're going to switch up, you better be sure it's going to work. Totally. In the last game, I understandably had seen people saying, like, should say, wait, me, maybe start this one? And then Allmark came out and did what he did. So game six is going to be interesting,

because if they lose, then that's a whole other, whole other can of worms. But it's going to be interesting. Oh, this just came in. Ryan Lomberg is out for the series, for the Panthers. He's been a relevant player for them.

So he's done for the series. David Craichy, there hasn't really been an update from Bruins yet on the status of guys like David Craichy and Patrice Bergeron. Obviously, we know that Bergeron made his series debut in game five, and he scores

a big goal for the Bruins. I mean, the Bruins were the better team for most of that one. It's just Boebrofsky was the better goalie. So I really don't have that many concerns about the Bruins moving on Bergeron scores and his return. David Creachie didn't play, but he is traveling. So Creachie traveled to Florida. We'll see if there's an update by the time we're done. David Pasternak's probably the big other one to talk about here. Again, I think we both agree that the Bruins are going to move on,

whether that's tonight or after seven games. But David Pasternak, who I think I voted to be the cons might trophy winner. Untimely slump. Untimely slump. Untimely slum. from everybody's favorite fashion star. He needs to shoot the puck more. That's what his problem is. He knows it. He said it after that game against Florida. I think Jim Montgomery said it.

He's got to just shoot his way out of this, which is a wild thing to say about David Posernock, who's never shown much hesitance to shoot the puck, but it's true. You know, he's got, he hasn't been bad either. Like he scored twice.

He's led the Bruins in five on five shots. He's led them in individual scoring chances. But it's not the level of, you know, chance gathering. It's not the level of production. Dominance. Of dominance that we saw from him.

And that's, you know, if the Bruins are going to be the Bruins, if they're going to be the 65 win regular season juggernaut, that we all saw. Posternak being not just good, but outstanding, heart caliber, you know,

60 goal capable, basically, is a big part of that. And he hasn't been terrible, but he also hasn't been as good as they need him to be to be, you know. And that's a big part of the reason. That's a big part of the reason that we're talking about, you know, can they close out Florida in six or whatever?

Because, yeah, he's been good, but not great. Yep. The depth on the Bruins is just wild. They were up three, one in the series without Bergeron or crachy. And it's just you look on the wings. And usually that would just completely torpedo a team. But when you've got Tyler Bertuzi, David Pasternak, Taylor Hall, Jake DeBras, Brad Marchand on your wings. Throw a Nick Folino in there.

Throw him a bone. That forward. Those are your top nine wingers. Those are just your wingers. That Bruins forward depth. What Paul Maris has done, would it. What he's chosen to do has been basically to match up Barkov against Brad Marchand. Like whatever their lines end up being, he's sending Barkov out there against Marshawn.

And Marchand's line is winning the battle. Not just neutralizing, you know, a Selky caliber center or a big-time point producer in Alexander Barkoff. He's beating, he's beating it. He's handling it. So that is almost the most remarkable part of what, of Florida. of finding a way to get this done. They've had a goalie change, and they've got nearly nothing from the Barkoff line to the point where-

It's Kachuk and Sam Bennett. Yep. Sorry, Flem's fans. That sucks. Brandon Montor. Yeah. Totally. Kachuk and Sam Bennett and a little twist of Sam Reinhardt too.

Yeah. All right. I think it's kind of the year of the road team. Road teams are 25 and 15 in the playoffs so far. That's the most road wins through 40 games in any NHL postseason. Wow. Yeah. That's crazy.

I just saw that from Sportsnet. Wild. So I think I'm going to go with the Bruins on the road today. So let's move on to the next one. Bruins are moving on. There isn't going to be a game seven, Matthew. I'm sorry. But I wouldn't hate it if there is.

Can the Hurricanes Islander series end? I would prefer that to end tonight. Yeah. See, this is what I'm saying. And this brings me back to what I said about Kachuk, and I know you think I'm wrong here. Not every six game series is created equal. What do you mean?

I'm not, I didn't say you're wrong there. No, I mean, well, when I was like, he's. No, I said the, I said you were wrong when it said it's been more fun than expected. I said it was going to be fun. Mm-hmm. But like, it's, Matthew Kachuk ratting around and talking. shit after games, like that adds something that makes us look forward to these games more than we would, more than we are and say Cain's Islanders, which feels like it's been over for three

days even though, even though it's not. Totally. I agree with that. Not every six game series is Creed Evil. Totally. Every single one of these series is different that we're going to talk about. We might have another goalie thing going on here, too, in that series. It seems like Freddie Anderson's going to draw back in.

for Carolina, which is... Well, Ranta's really good at home. This game is in... It's on Long Island. Mm-hmm. So save Ranta for a home game in case there's a game seven, or just test out Freddie Anderson. Test them out, see what happens.

I think Rod Brindamor realizes that, you know, at some point, at some point you're going to have to play someone else. God bless Antirontah, right? But he's been a backup goaltender for a few years now. I don't know if that dude is, you know, I wouldn't bet on him being able to hold the every other day workload of the, of the NHL playoff schedule. I think he realizes that he needs Freddie Anderson, you know, ready and tuned up a bit, you know, if this is going to keep rolling for him. So that's, that's interesting. Yep, we can keep this one close.

I think we both think that the canes are going to win tonight. Cains are going to move on. That's our prediction. let's stamp it in there. I'll say that, but every single Islander's game, you've got to say, Seroquin can steal it. You can steal it.

For sure. Yeah, totally. But I'm also not one of the ones who thought that the Islanders were going to upset. You got it. The other guys need to hold up their end of the bargain, right? And that hasn't happened in any real way for Seroquen, too. So yeah, I'm with you there. What was it?

Like Bo Horvett finally scored in the power play in game, And everyone was like, oh, I thought this was going to be a thing sooner. Guys might want to try scoring an even strength goal every now, every now and then. Yeah. All right. Stars Wild. Joe Pavelski was skating yesterday. I saw that.

Very, very interesting. And happy to see it, honestly. Like, you don't want to see an old guy, an old guy get concussed in round one and have that be that. Yeah. Um, this, this is, the whole thing is trending so hard for Dallas that it, that it makes me almost hesitant to, to pick them. You know what I mean? Explain. I just, I feel like everything's, everything's breaking their way. You know, they've, they've been, they've been stronger pretty much across the board despite not having Pavelsky because of guys like Tyler Sagan. Tyler Sagan and Wyatt Johnson and he's, and he's in, he's in.

it's perfect from from from a narrative standpoint this is like perfect because they're they're on the verge of winning a first round series based you know i know i know rupertins had a had a unreal he's been unbelievable this whole first round unreal he is stepping up huge but they're they're about they're about to get this done with in a series where the big line got broken up because of injury where jac got injure until he got to minnesota until he got that first start in Minnesota had been shaky. He was unbelievable in game one. He was fine.

Game one was like a goalie battle. And then game two and three was whatever. This isn't, okay, here's what I'll say. Here's the better way to put this. This is not Calgary Flan. I'm just saying I disagree. This is not Flame series, Jay Cottinger, right? In the narrative with the stars for so much of...

You were right. Games two and three were sub-900, say, percentage, three goals and four goals against. game one, he faced almost 50 shots. Sure. He lost. It's okay. Yeah, and double overtime.

Anyways. I'm just saying, I'm just saying, this series has been about the stars showing that they're more than the top line and they're more than playoff Ottinger. Well, that was the whole reason why people like me and you, I think, actually, I think you picked Minnesota. I picked Dallas to win this series because they're not just a one-line hockey team anymore, right? And that was the thing about last year's Dallas Stars. It's a one-line team. This is the point you're making.

Like, I'm with you. Last year, they're a one-line team. Jamie Ben and Tyler Sagan not very effective. They didn't have enough depth. Sure, they had Miro Heiskin in on the blue line, but there just wasn't enough there. If it wasn't Joe Pavelski getting a big goal against the flames or Jake Onger, making

55 saves or whatever it was that he did, that was unbelievable last year. It wouldn't have been a seven-game series. Like the flames were the better team for most of it, but the stars had Joe Pavelski and Jake Odger. But now, yeah, they've got more than one line. They've got more than one guy who can step up on any given night.

I mean, they still kind of need some more from Jason Robertson, and they're still leading the series three to two. And Tyler Sagan's been on that top line. He's showing that he can, you know, fill in different holes and different roles in that lineup. Guys are stepping up. Rupa hints, again, has been excellent. Unreal.

Four goals, four goals, three primary assists, four secondary assist for Rupin's. The hat trick he scored was a short-handed goal, a power play goal, and an even-strength goal. Mm-hmm.

But you got you got Sagan with four goals. You got the Donov with three goals. Jamie Ben's scoring at big moments. Ben, Glendening, Mason Marchman has a goal. Tidal Andrea has a goal. Like these,

like there's, you know, we're getting up and down the lineup. Yeah, we're seeing quality, quality minutes from that, from that entire group, which is, you know.

And then, and then we're seeing Jake Ottinger, lock it down, right? He's allowed two goals in the last two starts. Shut out in game five, only, what, two goals against in game four? He's playing great. So game six, it's in Minnesota, stars are up three to two. Who moves on? Or do we see this going seven? I want to pick, I pick this to go seven at the start, so I'm going to stick, I'm going to stick with that because I want to see, I want to see a game seven, and I feel like this is kind of our, I got to pick it somewhere.

But that's pure, that's pure, that's purely, that's purely, that's purely freak out, you know? You personally freak out. Yeah, I can't, I will have no stakes in a game, and I'm just, like, scared. How many points does Carol Caprizo have in the series, by the way? Is this a guessing game, or do you want me to look it up? In your opinion.

Guess. Guess. Four. No. Two? No. Cam, looking it up. He's got one.

Oh. One point. Oh. One goal. Is that bad? He's got as many goals as Sam Steele. As many goals is Marcus Folino. As many goals is John Klingberg in the series for the Minnesota.

Wow. That seems bad. Yeah, I mean, Ryan Hartman's been like the man. It's so. body that like one of the big storylines. I'm saying I said someone who I think wrote it maybe for the series previews.

Like this is great. Robertson versus Caprizov. These are like two, you know, two S-tier wingers in the league. And Robertson, he's been, he's been fine. Caprizov's been on a milk carton from a production standpoint. Milk carton.

That's rude. The Russo Army's going to get you. They're probably not happy with them right now. They're a finicky bunch. Yeah. Eric's an Eck not being available. Like he's played one game. That's got to hurt them.

Obviously, Boldie is not scoring a hat trick a game. I do appreciate Minnesota's attempt to win a playoff series without a first or second line center. I mean, like, that takes guts. It takes something special. And they're closer to getting it done. than they should be. I've liked Brock Faber, I will say,

the diving block in game one. I was like, who is this kid? Holy shit. I did a, he was on the Olympic team. He was in the men's Olympic team. Right. Because, you know, obviously, no NHL players. That whole thing was bizarre.

They did a, Minnesota did a press conference with Matthew Nise and Brock Faber after they were announced. And I had known, I had heard Brock Faber's name. I had known that he was a legit prospect. You know, this is when he was still part of the King's organization. When he showed up on the Zoom, I was like, what, is this?

Is this like my friend's little brother or something? Like, well, like, what is this? He's the most unassuming. He's got the big black frame glasses. He just looks like, you know. A nice boy. He looks like, yeah, he looks like, exactly. Nice neighborhood boy.

100%. So it's fun to see stuff work out for him because he seems like, I love everything about. Got it. I love the shot of him celebrating in the stands last year after after. Yeah. It's fun. Now he's playing.

Look at him go. Joe Smith and Mike Rousseau had a story on The Athletic Today, Five Reasons, the Wilder on the brink from stars to special teams. And they kind of, the lead is, I mean, I don't think Rousseau would write something like this. If there maybe wasn't something going on. It's like Caprizov is in the longest point drought of his career, likely playing banged up and feeling the pressure as his team faces elimination in Game 6. Yep. Is this going to be a big Caprizov game because he's been so, like, meh? Is he going to be able to put the team on his back?

There was also a story about how Marcus Felino wants to go from the villain to the hero. So look out for Marcus Felino, big, big game from Marcus Felino. We'll see. No bullshit from Marcus Filino tonight. It's easier said than done, I think. Yeah. The wild do need a boost from Caprizov if they're going to make this a seven-game series. Their special teams need to be better as well. I think that's another big thing. What they said specifically was that the special teams stink. Subscribe for more.

That's Rousseau. I love that. And yeah, Erickson X absence. I feel really smart because I just pulled this story up and I already said that. So I love that. I love that for me. Ryan Hartman, Sam Steele, like, Freddie Goodrow. Hey, hey, God bless these dudes. We know what we're talking about with a once in a while. We love these. I love Freddie Goodrow.

Freddie Goodro is a solid NHL player. Yeah, he's one of the many, one of the many relevant bottom six players who Ron Hexel just decided to do that time. In segment three, we are going to build our bottom six for the penguins based on penguins retreads that are currently in the playoffs right now. We'll see about that. Stay tuned. All right.

Final game. Let's move on. Oh, I will say also the Pete DeBoer thing is real. The DeBoer bump? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Very much so. I feel like I use this stat all the time, but that guy just brings his team deep into the playoffs

his first year. We did it in Vegas, San Jose. They get sick of eventually. Yeah, we don't need to talk about that part. First two years, round three or Stanley Cup final? Book it. Dallas Stars

win in six. Let's go. Wow. Seattle Cracken. My Seattle Cracken. Yeah. They're up three to two. This is some... Playing on home ice.

I'm feeling been to Vindication. Insert, Captain Holt. Vindication! Cracking her up three to two. Yeah, cracking up three to two. They can kick out the Stanley Cup champions in game six tonight at Climate Pledge. How shocked are you by this?

That was one of the, I had to force myself to not just. just basically, I think I might have even tweeted about this. I did force myself to not make jokes about the abs, about the abs, beating the cracking into three or whatever. So I just convinced, I just convinced myself that the top of the line of for Colorado, meaning Nathan McKinnon and Cole McCar, Cole McCar, Nathan, Nathan McKinnon,

Kail McCar, and Miko Wren, and we're going to be enough to do it by themselves. And that clearly, clearly, clearly has been wrong. That series has way more juice than I thought it would. It's been fun to watch. And a particularly remarkable thing that's gone on here is that the Cracken have gotten this far, despite getting kind of next to nothing

from Mattie Baneers and Jared McCann, who's obviously hurt but was not producing, even before McCar knocked him out. lineup. The guys at the top of Seattle's roster with the umph per 60.

You know, you got Jared McCann scoring, yeah, I know it sucks. You got Jared McCann scoring 40 goals. You got Maddie Baneers, you know, bringing true, like, elite two-way talent on and on and on. Those guys have been maybe not irrelevant, but

close enough. It's been it's been Yanni Gord and it's been Morgan geeky and it's been contributions from truly the depth players in that lineup.

We said it before, we said it a million times. They've had 13 players, I think, that scored 13 goals or more. That's wild depth. Even though the top end isn't there. And those guys have come through in a big way.

And here they are. They could advance tonight. I love it. I was wrong as hell, but I love it. It's awesome. Jayden Schwartz has been excellent two goals, five points through five games. Justin Schultz five points.

Yanni Gord is like the perfect playoff player. I mean, we already knew this based on his track record with Tampa Bay. Sure. You know, one of the big things that people are talking about with the, with the devil series is, you know, Andre Pallat. I mean, his stats speak volumes, but like Yanni Gord's, Yanni Gord might not score as much as Andre Pallat does, but he is incredibly valuable. These guys know what they're doing. And he knows what to do against a guy like Nathan McKinnon when he's matched up against the Aves top line. And then what happens when you can,

at the very least, just minimize the damage that McKinnon and Ranton can do, then you have, like I could tell you who's on the Crackens' fourth line right now, the third line. I don't know if I could tell you that I know everything about the bottom six in Colorado right now. Totally. Alex New Hook, Dennis Mugin.

and then you've got like Daniel Sprung and Brandon Tanev in Seattle like Tolvinen like there's... Tolvinan has been unbelievable he's like that guy has just found money it's so funny it is so funny to see him for years for years since the Preds draft him

it was like okay they need to find a place for this guy because he's got an elite shot he might not be that great at other stuff but he's got like an elite NHL skill set, maybe figure out some, some, like a spot for him. And he got some extended a run.

He had points in Nashville where it looked like he knew what he was doing, but then they waived him. Yeah. In a year that, and of course he ends up, whatever. Yeah.

He would have been, he was on pace if he would have played a full season with Nashville to be like a 25 goal guy or something. Like, for God's sake. And you're talking about Morgan Geeky coming up big.

He's the fourth line center. Yeah. Right. He's shooting at 40% clip right now. Good for him. I love it. But he's got five shots on goal he scored twice. Like,

it's great. Like sustainable as hell. Shoot more. You got to watch out for those Morgan Geeky heaters, man. They'll kill you. Shoot more, bro. We haven't mentioned our boy Gruberauer yet. God bless him.

Revenge series. Big Phil. His name I still can't spell. Have we talked about that? No. I misspelled Philip. group hour's first name probably 500 times over the course of my career it's one l two p's and i just can't you can't do it i can't see this is going to make people think that you hate the crackin even

more should we address that why do you hate the crackin i'm not even going to make you address that i do think it's just it's not sean's fault that we don't have a cracket beat writer yeah i it is there's a weird there there's like a weird some kind of weird things taken hold where it's like i like sean doesn't like the crack and I love I love them I wish I was at these games I would have loved to have gone to do you see the gifts that they're giving to media god damn it yeah send me one via mail

I mean that that crack and rum sucks I don't like rum but whatever it's not good but but still it's something it's something I'm a Dave Hacksdall fan he's done a good job this year yeah for sure yeah was it just because he was nice to me when I was in Seattle maybe oh sure oh sure

But no, I mean, like Grubauer, you know, he stole game one, and he's been pretty solid, pretty solid just on balance here. Yeah. We love it. The guy was the worst goal in the league by a country model. So bad. And now he's one game away from knocking off the champs. We love it.

This is what hockey's about. This is why we like watching this shit. It's fun. Yeah. It's great. I don't know if it's going to be harder for Seattle. to beat the abs with Cail McCar back. I agree.

I thought one game was not enough for Cail Macar suspension personally because of the fact that he didn't get the game misconduct. Like I thought if he would have gotten the boot in that game, then one game was fair. I think a one game suspension for that is superstar treatment a little bit.

It is. But I'm glad he's back because I love watching Cal McCar. But now it's going to be very, very difficult for the Cracken without Jared McCann to beat Colorado with Kail McCar back. That's the tradeout that's happening right now. Ty Cartier, awesome.

Super great story. Scores in his NHL debut. Comes out of Coachella Valley. He's on the top line. He's next man up for Jared McCann. It's awesome story. Not great heading into game six that Jared McCann is still out and

Kail McCar is back. But it's fine. What are you in and Dill? this is fun it's gonna be a fun I think so I'm excited I think I'm gonna get chicken wings sounds like a plan

Wings and fries twist my arm Why don't you Wings and fries Wings and fries Maybe a milkshake for a sweet Trude later Yeah sure I'd like to have diarrhea Wings in a milkshake

Don't say that Ew Grow up That's disgusting. Grow up. People have bodies, Haley. Sometimes those bodies betray us. If we eat wings and milkshakes.

Just the way of the world. The L.A. Kings still don't play because of the goddamn basketball. Kings don't play until Saturday night. This series is like out of sight out of mind. Bring it back. I was loving this one. Hello?

The flow has been completely, completely disrupted on this. Yeah. Like the Devils, Rangers, Leafs, Lightning, game six, or Saturday night, and so was Kings Oilers. The last time the Kings and Oilers played was Tuesday. March 15th. Oh, the St. Patrick's Day parade was Royce around the corner.

Yeah, Tuesday to Saturday. Wild. So anyways. That's another big. So basically, we've got a big weekend. Friday, Saturday. Wednesday, wings and fries and milkshakes. And we'll see if there's game

sevens on Sunday and Monday. Do you have a thought on Devils Rangers, quick? Gerard Galant's last stand. Let's see. Arthur Stapel was implying it pretty heavily after the result coming out of game five. Can't blame them. That team

looks lost. All of a sudden, you got Mika Zabanajadz, is creating chances, but not, you can't hit water from a boat. And Artemis Panarian looks, looks, uh. Did you see the picture that sad kid wearing a loaf of bread on his head or whatever? Yeah. Staring.

Sucks, dude. A thousand yards stare. I was going to tweet it. And then I was like, you know what? If that was my kid, I wouldn't want. Yeah. I was like, you know what? He's having a rough day.

I'm strong anti-tweeting photos of children. Of kids? I know. I was like, this seems a little creepy, actually. I'm not going to. Or other people. That's a very, I don't, I don't tweet anybody's face ever. Okay.

Because I'm moral like that. Yeah. Yeah, you just shitpost about people. That's fine. You blur out their faces. It was just a couple days ago we're talking about how overmatch the devils looked against the Rangers, right? They're inexperienced, contrasted so starkly with the older Rangers, blah, blah. I don't think it was an experience thing

The Devils just played poorly And now they're playing well And I don't even I think there's things That the Rangers aren't doing well enough But part of me just thinks That the Devils are playing Their game now, no?

Is that an oversimplification? I think the Rangers at times Look like a team. Did that make any sense? Devils play good You just sound like a coach or something Devils The Devils have really got another game

They didn't They're skating fast and scoring goals. We didn't get to work. And the Rangers can't do anything about it. Too much volatility in our execution. It's Mike Sullivan. Yeah, I mean, how much credit we want to give the Rangers for last year? For what?

Last year. Like, good on them for beating a third string goalie, a series of backup goalies on their way to it. It's overblown. That's why I picked the devils in the first place. I picked Devils in six. Because of that bruise I had on my leg that was shaped like New Jersey. So let me just tell a story.

Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. You've already talked about this and we need to go. Let me tell you something. We're an hour nine in. The bruise at first, I wondered if it meant that the devils were going to win. And then when they lost the first two,

I thought maybe this just means devil's pain. And now I think it means Devils in six. Back the devil's in six. Okay. Do you want Gerard Golan to lose his job? Is that what this is? I mean, no. I want Arthur Staple to have to cover a goalie search.

Damn it. I want Arthur Staple to finish covering the playoffs and immediately jump into a head coaching search because I think Arthur would be so happy. Something tells me Arthur's going to have to alter some plans if he has to cover a coach search. Oh, brother. For Arthur.

We love it. All right. It's going to be a fun weekend. Are we done today? We're done. Great. All right. Yep.

It's going to be a super fun weekend. Lots of potential game sevens coming up. Lots of teams getting kicked out of the playoffs coming up. Lots of chicken wings and pizza and milkshakes. Toilet's going to melt. That's disgusting. Call a plumber. All right.

I'm ending the show. Why would you even do that? People don't need to know you that way. You're a podcast host. You don't go to the bathroom. If you aren't an athletic subscriber, you can join us at theathletic.com slash hockey show to get an annual subscription

for $2 a month for 12 months. Thanks, everybody, and we'll see you next week. Hopefully. I guess not hope. Hopefully, we will be talking about the second round by then. So can't wait. We'll see who's there.