The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 165: Win Or Go Home

Episode Date: May 9, 2017

Jon Press joins the show to discuss how the Capitals have managed to claw back into their series and force a Game7 against the Penguins, the importance of game planning for your opponent and optimal lineup management come the postseason, and the ramifications the result of the upcoming do-or-die contest could have on what the Capitals look like moving forward. The topics covered include: 1:00 Washington's dominant Game 6 performance 3:24 Adapting stylistically to your opponent 7:54 How this postseason differs from past ones 10:03 The impact of coaching in the playoffs 14:49 Barry Trotz's adjustments 18:19 Splitting up Ovechkin and Backstrom 23:19 Andre Burakovsky entering the spotlight 26:08 The window to win with this particular team 30:17 The emotional rollercoaster of a Game 7 Sponsoring today’s show is SeatGeek, which is making it easier than ever before to buy and sell sports and concert tickets. They’re giving our listeners a $20 rebate off of their first purchase. All you have to do is download the free SeatGeek app and enter the promo code PDO to get started. Every episode of the podcast is available on iTunes, Soundcloud, Google Play, and Stitcher. Make sure to subscribe to the show so that you don’t miss out on any new episodes as they’re released. All ratings and reviews are also greatly appreciated. Thanks for listening! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

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My name is Dimitri Filipovich. and joining me as my good buddy John Press from the Japers rink. John, what's going on, man? Oh, you know, just kind of hanging out. Mellow evening on the home front? Yes, yeah, very mellow evening. You're selling it a bit short here. I mean, we're recording this on, what is it, Monday evening now,

just after game six finished. It finished like literally minutes ago, so we haven't had a chance to necessarily let stuff marinate or let it sink in or truly digest the numbers. But at the same time, I feel like, this is a good good good time to have a chat with you here, experiencing some of that raw emotion as a Caps fan. After a positive, on a positive note for once,

I feel like we haven't had too many of these opportunities over the past few years. Yeah, let's give it a shot and see what's what we got to talk about. So that was, you know what? I feel like this has been the case for most of the series because pretty much by any objective measure, other than I guess the wins and losses, the capitals have been the superior team,

especially at 5-15. But that was that game, performance was about as as dominant as as we've seen here so far. I mean, it was, you know, I don't think the capital shot totals were through the roof or anything by any means, but it just seemed like the, you know, they stifled anything the penguins really wanted to do. It felt like, you know, it was a very listless performance from the penguins. And a lot of that probably just had to do with the fact that the capitals were really playing a strong game without very any, any flaws in their attack. Yeah, I think that really as to the extent,

that while the game was still a competitive game, the caps had pretty good control over it. And their shot totals weren't through the roof, like you said, but they pretty much stifled everything Pittsburgh had wanted to do. With a few minutes left, I think that Crosby, Kessel and Malkin had combined for two shots on goal, a few shot attempts at all. The Penguins had nine shots through two periods. And frankly, I think that's the kind of game that the caps want to play. You know, they get, you saw it in the first round against Toronto, some, and you saw it earlier in this series a little bit, where they sort of got lured into playing these up and down games, trading chances and whatnot. But that's not really the game they want to play for the most part. So this one was

a lot more like what they have had success with for, really the past two years, especially this year. And you saw it executed pretty fabulously. You know, at both ends, they limited the odd man rushes against, which had been in Bugaboo early in this series and even a bit in Toronto series. They executed on the power play. And, you know, and Braden Holpey was super for them when it was still a game. And throughout the game at five on five, you know,

Pittsburgh got those two four and four goals late to put a little lipstick on the pig. But, you know, it really was just to a tee what the caps wanted to do and they did it. Well, I think this postseason so far from the Capitol's perspective, stylistically, has been fascinating because, you know, I think you can make a very fair argument that from top to bottom, this Capitol's team is the most talented in the league and has immense depth and skill throughout and can really kind of. play any sort of style you could possibly get into with them and they'd be perfectly fine playing a high scoring uptempo game but then we saw in round one against the leaves like the only chance Toronto really had to beat them was to get into this sort of uh you know a little out of control frenzied pace and and take advantage of their youth in speed and we're we've also seen that a bit here with this Pittsburgh team uh a part of it is just due to you know injuries and and uh a depleted roster

for them, but it's pretty much, unless they've had these kind of brief flurries with the counterattack where they've taken advantage of the odd man rushes, the penguins haven't really been able to generate anything at 5-1-5 on offense. So the capitals have really needed to kind of play more of a slow, methodical puck possession style of game. And we could, you know, if they get by the penguins here in round two and they play a team like the Rangers in round three, it might be sort of a similar thing where you want to limit those counterattack, odd man rushes that the, the that are the Rangers bread and butter. So just fascinating seeing how these individual series are dictated by stylistic matchups

more than anything else, really. Yeah. And I think, you know, I think this is what the Caps want to do. And, you know, I think that while the shot totals through the first part of the series were very lopsied in the Caps favor, it was a lot closer in terms of scoring chances or high danger chances or, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, uh, the, the, the, uh, the, the, the, quality sort of versions of those shot metrics. You saw the Pittsburgh Penguins getting odd man rushes, numerous oddman Russians per game,

basically early on. You know, they get Benino or they get Colin shorthanded. They get two-on-ones with Crosby as part of it in Kessel. And, you know, that kind of takes a lot of the wind out of the sales of those big shot discrepancies. because the caps, you know, they had chances, but there's a difference between, you know, those odd man rushes, you know, clean breakaways and then a shot from just inside the dot with a couple defensemen in the way and Flurry square to the shot. So, you know, that was a big part of it. And I think, you know, frankly, the way Mark Andre Fleury played for the first half of the series

up really until the last at game five, the third period of game five, you know, it was frustrating the caps at times and you saw it wearing

on the caps at times and they'd be impatient and that's when they get burned but they got their heads on straight and certainly for the third period of game five and for the entirety of game six and they just have done what they want to do and it, you know,

it certainly helps that Pittsburgh doesn't have Chris LaTang. You know, anytime you're missing a Norris caliber defenseman like that, it's hard to recover from. And I think you've seen their defense wear down a little bit over the course of the series. And, you know, that's something that the caps knew from the outset would be a big factor in the series. frankly, I don't know that Pittsburgh has a single guy in their top six right now who's as good as, you know, a Morgan Riley or a Jake Gardner that they saw in the first round. So I thought that was an area that they could take advantage of and both with their physicality and just playing these guys who are not necessarily equipped to play the roles they're playing in because of the Latang injury. and I think that you've seen a little bit of that.

Yeah, I mean, we're especially seeing that as this series is going along here. Like, you know, it's very unfair what Ron Hainesie's having to do just out of necessity because there's no one else to eat those minutes up. But it's like the capitals are really feasting on him. And it's, you know, he's went in his mid, mid to late 30s now and has a lot of miles on his body and probably shouldn't be playing those types of minutes. But he has to. And you're right.

I think the capitals have a massive advantage there. I'm curious from your perspective, you know, in previewing this series, whenever it started about two weeks ago or so, and as it's gone along here, like, I've really enjoyed watching it and following it as a fan. But in terms of, you know, generating content, whether it's with podcasts or articles or having discussions with other people in the game, like it's, I've reached a little bit of this kind of gridlock or stalemate here where it's like there's only so many times I can say the same things about the series and the capitals or it's. It's like, you know, they're the better team. They're playing very well. But sometimes the playoffs are just unfair. And, you know, if Mark Andre Fleury keeps standing on his head and stopping 93% of the shots he's facing, the penguins have a chance. And it's, it's like, you know, you have to keep generating the daily content for your blog.

But it's, I'm just like curious how we, how we paint a different picture here rather than just kind of saying the same stuff, even though it is technically true. Yeah. Well, I mean, shoot, after two games, the caps dropped the first two games at home, massively out shooting the penguins. And, you know, no one wants to hear, yeah, but keep doing it, and it'll eventually hopefully turn around, but we might not have enough time now for that regression to hit. You know, the caps are, you know, a game three bounce or two away, maybe from, you know, not being around when Marc Andre Fleury turns into a pumpkin or whatever.

And now maybe they are around to see some of that. But yeah, it's the same thing. You know, what got me, what I was thinking about, the thing that makes it a little bit different is something I've been thinking about for a little while now. And that is, you know, we talk a lot about whether there are differences between playoff hockey and regular season. in hockey, right? And, you know, are the playoffs really a different beast? You know, everybody talks, it's grinding. You don't get the pretty goals in the playoffs and all this other stuff. And, you know, I'm not so sure. I buy a lot of that. And at the same time, we talk a lot about the impact or minimal impact, really, that coaching makes, right? So, you know, we generally accept that there are guys like

a Quineville or Babcock at one end and, you know, maybe some guys at the other end. But for the vast majority of coaches are in this kind of middle, you know, somewhat minimal impact kind of state that we kind of think of them as being in. But something I've been thinking about a lot with these caps teams and how is it that every time they come up short in the playoffs and, you know, suddenly they're short. shooting percentage drops off the table and suddenly their power play drops off the table or whatever. And I really think that a lot of it owes to something that people are sort of missing in the analysis and that is that, you know, regular season hockey, it's not the NFL. You don't

game plan for specific opponents for a week and then play them, right? You pretty much, you might know one or two things that you want to key on, but you've got games back to back. You've got a day off in between minimal practice time, all this other stuff. Whereas in the postseason, I think it really sets up to allow more of that individual game planning for opponents. And that's why I think you see the caps maybe early in the series struggle against some of these teams. Like, you know, first round, Toronto gave them trouble for the first three games, maybe four games. And I think part of that owes to battle. Cobb's preparation for that series. He's obviously a tremendous coach. And, you know, he has some

schemes, you know, the forechecking schemes, or neutral zone schemes or breakout schemes that can trip up the caps. And then maybe as the series wears on, the caps make some of those counter adjustments. And, you know, maybe saw this a bit of the same thing in this series because, you know, Pittsburgh had sticks in every lane. You know, the caps were getting a lot of shots, but they were from the outside. It was that Pittsburgh was jumping on the counterattack in a way that, you know, it's in some places looks like straight up opposition research type of game planning. So I just kind of, I wonder if that's a thing that people don't really pay enough attention to

in terms of the game planning for specific opponents. And obviously, you know, at some point these massive shot differentials, should lead to more goals anyway. But I think that you take a deeper look at maybe how some of these systems are set up and how some of these coaches prepare for different games. And maybe there's a reason that Bruce Brudeau has had some stumbles in the playoffs. You know, you can win a lot of games in the regular season with a decent skill advantage and a few wrinkles in, you know, your power.

play, for example. But come playoff time when a team has time to prepare for that, I think maybe it becomes a little more difficult. And it's something that, you know, I just kind of been thinking about a little bit. I haven't gone too deep on it, but, you know, it's food for thought. Yeah. Well, Bruce is listening to this podcast right now. I'm like, hey, what the hell did I do, man? Come on. Exactly. Exactly. No, I definitely agree. I think that, you know, for people like you and I, I would like to see us dive more into that type of systems-based analysis and X's and O's because, you know, I do think there's probably an appetite for it for that type of content from readers and listeners, but also it really is sort of the stuff that makes these playoffs as interesting as they are. And with a guy like Barry Trots, for example, it's always really tough. I mean, for every coach, it's really tough to separate the team.

the personnel they have from the coach and the job he's doing himself, right? Because especially in the regular season, it's such a, you know, a talent-driven league that it'd be really tough to mess up, uh, this Capitals team in the regular season. Like they, you know, you could just, I, I feel like I could probably guide them to, uh, to a very successful regular season. And I, I definitely don't think that I should be an NHL coach as much as I like to make fun of them sometimes online. Um, but at the same time, like, it, when you enter the postseason, that's really where some of this stuff is heightened and spotlights placed on it. And, you know, I thought that maybe he's been a bit slow to react

in some of these series. It's taken a couple games, but at the same time, at least he's actually reached those conclusions. And, you know, I thought a big turning point in that Leafs series was just basically gluing that Niskin and Orlov pairing to the Matthews line and really slowing them down a bit. And after that, the way the Leafs could attack the Capitol has really changed and was and was neutered a little bit. And at the same time, in this series, you know, you see stuff like, you know, Nate Schmidt is finally getting into the lineup and playing. And maybe some of that was just, you know, the good fortune of Carl's or having to miss a couple games and them having a chance to give Schmidt finally that opportunity or, or whether it's moving

Ovechkin down to create more, more to three score than line attack and moving Burkowski up. Like he's, you can actually pinpoint specific changes he's made from an X's and O's perspective, with his lineup and with his players as these series have gone along. And that's the stuff I do like to see from my coach where you can actually see a discernible impact beyond, you know, he's motivating them in the locker room before the games and he's a fun guy to be around. Like that's what these coaches are actually paid to do at the end of the day. Yeah, I think that's right.

And to an extent, you know, a coach kind of is in a damned if you do, damned if you don't, situation on that because the second you move Ovechkin onto the third line and move Burkowsk, up, a move which, by the way, has been tremendously successful and has really allowed some of the hockey world to see what a gem Andre Berkovsky is. But, you know, the second you do that, you got half the people saying, you know, if I'm going to lose, I want to go down with my guys playing the minutes. How do you demote Ovechkin at this time, you know? So half the time your moves, half the people are going to call panic moves. Other people are going to give you the benefit of the doubt maybe, but, you know, he has certainly made some of those

roster moves lineup-wise that have worked out. He's also, they've had some tweaks in what they're doing on breakouts, and that was a sore spot in that Toronto series for sure early on, and that's like one of the areas that, you know, I thought that, you know, through three or three, probably three games. Babcock really had a pronounced edge over trots. And that's a place where it is kind of a, you know, it's not necessarily zero sum, but, you know, it's a direct battle between those coaches on some of these tactical things. Whereas, you know, people always talk about, and in this series, especially through the first couple games, flurry out playing Holpe. And that always sort of irks me a little bit because, you know, it's not one-on-one, you know, it doesn't really matter if

Holby's out-playing Flurry or Flurry's out-playing Holti. I mean, Flurry obviously was out-playing him. It's, you know, it's whether these guys are good enough if they're playing well or they're not playing well. And it has little to do with the guys in front of them, you know, if the caps were winning each of those games, four-three instead of losing them three-two, I don't think that would make Holti suddenly a better goaltender in those games. You know, he either was good or wasn't good. So, you know, but coaching on the other hand, you know, if that's a clearer sort of chess match, a clear like act and react kind of situation. Yeah. Well, I think people were missing the point a little bit with the move to the decision to move to Etchkin down to that third line with Lars Eller

because, you know, obviously instantly for a lot of people, it was a little bit of a blood in the water thing where they could use it as an opportunity to make me you know use it as an frame as an indictment against the wetschkin and the way he's playing and how he's not making some sort of a massive impact but i i thought that it was a very fascinating decision by trots because you know the capitals have dominated the puck so much in this series and they've been winning the shot battle but at the end of the day you do need to convert those shots into goals and some of it is just random luck and bounces and will you hope that it'll even out time before you lose four games, but some of it is also just creating better looks and throwing

and throwing a different dynamic at the opposition. And, you know, Berkovsky has looked perfectly serviceable in that role. Like, you know, I, I had posited that he seemed like a natural fit to takeover for T.J. Oshki next year on that top line with, with Baxter and Ovechkin, and that still might be true. But, you know, now they have all of a sudden these different looks and maybe you keep Ovechkin with Ler. Like it's, moving this stuff around in these different chest pieces is, is the smart thing to do here. And I think it's definitely given, it's made it tougher for a team like the penguins to defend them because all of a sudden now you're going to have, you know, at least one dangerous scoring line out against someone not named Crosby or Malkin for the penguins.

And that's huge for the capitals. It is. I mean, you have, all of a sudden, you have Baxter, uh, backstrom, uh, with Ocean Berkovsky looking good. You have Kuznetsov, Johansen, and Justin Williams, who may be the best trio they've had in the whole series. And then you have Ovechkin with Eller and Tom Wilson running around hitting people and creating some looks. I mean, Ovechkin in game five, he had a bunch of shot attempts. He was low down the lineup in terms of ice time. I think he was about seventh among forwards in ice time. but he led in scoring chances and shot attempts.

So, you know, he's going to get his looks no matter where he is. I mean, he's Alex Ovechkin. You know, he shoots the puck. It's what he does. So, you know, I don't think anybody's got to worry about him getting his looks. And if you make the other two lines look a little better, all the better for it. I mean, this is a team that literally has spent the last 365 days, basically, trying to formulate a way to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins.

They have had a singular focus on this series in a way that you don't even see in sports, really. It's like the 2004 Red Sox against the Yankees or something where like every move they made was with one specific team in mind. And part of that for the Caps was getting a top nine forwards that could really, you know, score because it wasn't Malkin last year that did him in. It wasn't Crosby that did him in. It was that Kessel line, the HBK line. And that's what they wanted to do. And up until they made this switch, there wasn't a single goal from the bottom six forwards in the entire playoffs other than the

three that Tom Wilson scored against Toronto. So they needed to do something. And they did. And it worked and, you know, suddenly here we are. Yes, here we are. I do want to talk a bit more about Berkovsky in a second here, but let's hear from our sponsor, pays and bills, and we'll, we'll pick it back up on the other end of the show. We're deep in the trenches here with the playoff season. If you're a fan of a local team that's still fortunate enough to be competing for the title, that can be both a blessing and a curse. While I'm sure you'd love to be soaking up the full experience by going to the game in person and enjoying the type of unique atmosphere that can't really be replicated anywhere else.

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All right. Yeah, Burakowski. You know, it's very cool to see that he's finally starting to, you know, get some national love and attention here, scoring some of these goals here against the penguins in round two. It's interesting because he's coming up for a new deal this summer. And, you know, I don't think people want to be looking ahead right now and worrying about expansion draft stuff and new contracts and what this capital team is going to look like next year. you're focused clearly right now on this series and the rest of this postseason. But, you know, from my perspective, it's interesting to think about some of this stuff. And, you know, generally we wouldn't see a guy like Berkovsky get all of a sudden a long-term deal on a second contract. He seems like a prime bridge candidate. But at the same time, I mean, I'm sure you're as big of a fan of his game as I am. And it seems like he's a prime candidate if he gets put into a bit more of a scoring role next season, if T.J. O'She walks in free agency to just absolutely explode offensively with accounting stats.

And then you run the risk of potentially, you know, missing out an opportunity to buy some cheap years for him after he becomes more expensive. So like, what do you do with him? Do you just try to lock him up as long term as you can right now? Or do you kind of play it a bit more conservatively and go for a bridge contract? Yeah, I mean, I don't know, there are a lot of moving parts this summer. I mean, this team, no matter what happens in game seven, and or beyond is going to look different next year.

They've got Oshy free agent, Shattonkirk's free agent, Justin Williams going UFA, and then they've got guys like Kisnetsov and Berkovsky who are RFA. So there's a lot of moving parts. I'd love to see him lock up Berikovsky for a while. I think he's got an incredibly bright future. I'd love to see him lock up Kuznetsov for a while. I think that guy also a huge part of the future. obviously. Absolutely, you run the risk if you don't lock him up of having to pay him the big,

big bucks on his next contract. So it's going to be tough. It's going to be, you know, what do they see as their window right now? Are they hoping that Berikovsky is here and maybe they have one more kick of the can next year, which they thought they might not have prior? I mean, this is the second year of the two-year window that Brian might. McClellan, you know, his words, not mine, that it was a two-year window. So I think that maybe they've got a little bigger window than they even thought. But this team's going to look a lot different next year. And Berkovsky, no matter what kind of deal he's on, he's going to be a huge part of it. Well, how much of that different look do you think is going to be influenced by how this game seven shakes out?

Because you'd like to, you know, believe that the people running the team would be able to take a more, you know, cool calculated approach and take a step back and realize that regardless of whether they wind up winning or losing this game seven that it's still a really good team and will be considered a cup favorite again heading into next year if they pretty much brought back most of these guys but at the same time just we constantly see this uh with with pro sports regardless of the league where it's like you can only go through so many of these uh premature playoff disappointing playoff exits before you know the fans start clamoring for change and then um maybe the people running the team feel like they're on the hot seat and they have to mix things up.

And then all of a sudden, you can really get yourself into danger. I mean, I'm preaching to the choir a little bit here because we've seen the capitals themselves go through this cycle. So it's, I don't know, like, like, it seems like it's a fair, fair question to raise how much the result of this one game is going to influence what this team is going to look like moving forward. Yeah, I don't think that the one game is going to make that big a difference. and for all, you know, for all I just said about them looking very different, there's only so much change that they can make. I mean, they're not trading Alex Ovechkin. And I don't think he's going to retire to the KHL just so he can play in the Olympics or something next year. But, you know, Nick Baxter's obviously going to be back. Guys like his Netsov and Johansson and Andrei

Berkovsky are going to be a huge part of sort of that secondary scoring. I guess it'll be interesting to see what they do with Oshy. You know, you and I both know that he's on the wrong side of 30 now and just scored 33 goals while shooting a ridiculous 23 percent. Then, you know, he's going to want to hit a home run and free agency, I would think. And I think we both would be very gun-shy on anything that's more than a couple years. in duration. So, you know, I think I think they'd like to try to find a way to keep him. I don't know how much, you know, sort of the sentimentality is going to play in there. I know that he and Ovechkin are close. I know everybody loves T.J. O'Shea here here in Washington. But, you know, sometimes you got to make

business decisions. You know, maybe Justin Williams is a cheaper, easier guy to bring back also. But, you know, then you're going to probably let Carl Alsner walk, which is something that at the beginning of the season, I didn't think they were going to be leaning towards. But now I get the impression that they are. And other than that, you know, you'll see Nate Schmidt and Demetia Rolov playing a bigger role next year with Niskin and John Carlson, probably in your top four. Brooks Warpick will be here unless George McPhee does the team a tremendous favor. Right. And, you know, so it's going to look fairly similar. They've got maybe a couple guys knocking on the door down in Hershey and they'll, you know, maybe retool a little bit. But it's, I can't imagine them making too many changes based on the outcome of this one game, which is, you know, win or lose, they're playing the second best team in the NHL over the course of the season.

You know, obviously Pittsburgh's missing their number one goalie and their best defensemen and I guess there are questions about how healthy the Sydney Crosby may or may not be at this point. But, you know,

if they don't win it, I can't see any specific lineup moves that they should make that would address why they didn't win at this time around. Certainly nothing on the ice, I'd say. Yeah.

Well, so, okay, let's spin it forward to that game seven now. I'm curious. And be honest with me here. I know that, you know, in speaking with you in the past, you've admitted as such that, you know, you've kind of, your emotions have died down a little bit here. You're more of a grizzle of it now. You've been through so many wars here that there's only so much more hearty. you can take and you kind of distance yourself a little bit emotionally from it.

But at the same time, I feel like you, as a Capitals fan, you're probably feeling a roller coaster of emotions right now leading up into this game seven. A little bit. In some respects, and I can't speak for all Caps fans, obviously, but sort of felt that 3-1 sort of resigned yourself. You almost checked out a little bit while still, having some hope but it's almost

like they're playing a little bit with house money as a fan right now. It would still be rough to lose it but somewhere along the way I did like I don't know I figured out like the secret of fan of like sports fandom or something like that because

like I can be pretty indifferent on losses but still be every bit as happy on wins and I don't know maybe it's just my old age or something, but it's like I got to this point where the losses don't hurt like they did in like 2010, but the wins, you know, when they come, they still feel pretty darn good. So yeah, I think that, you know, go out there, leave it out there. If they, you know,

if whatever happens happens. But, you know, if momentum is a thing that can carry over game to game, Obviously, I think the cap should feel pretty good about it. You know, if they play the way they play the last four periods of hockey in this series, there's no reason that they can't come out on top on Wednesday night. Yeah, yeah, I definitely don't think that the momentum thing has any do with it, but I just think that they've shown pretty clearly here that there's the superior team. And unless Mark Andre Fleury makes something like 45 saves or something, and Erroro Crosby just has an, you know, an out-of-body experience,

which I see, I feel like he's definitely capable of or getting him walk into. You know, there is a blueprint here for the penguins to take a game from them. They've shown that so far, taking three of them. But I just feel like if the Capitals play their game, they're going to be, you know, boys to finally get over this little hump here. And it's interesting. I don't want to look too far ahead because it's going to wind up, it's going to wind up being a pretty funny podcast.

if we're like planning out capitals opponents for the eastern conference final and potentially the Stanley Cup final and then they wind up pushing in the second round so i definitely don't want to get into that but it's like i think either one of these teams um it's going to be considered a pretty heavy favorite regardless of who comes out of that ranger's senator series which is also an interesting wrinkle to kind of look ahead to yeah i think that's probably right but you know at least for this caps team nothing ever comes easy and uh the rangers have played them incredibly well over the past handful of years. And any time you got Henrik Lundquist,

that's a guy that can single-handedly win a series for you. So, you know, I know that the caps are focused. You know, me and you could do our Barry Trots versus Philip Forsberg, Stanley Cup finals preview now if you want. But I think that we're better off probably hanging out seeing what happens in game seven here. We could always record it and then just stash it. Right. It could be like one of those things, you know, where like they print off the t-shirts for both potential champions. And then they just wind up like shipping off the other one somewhere else. And there's people walking around wearing like hilarious. Yeah, like outdated shirts that don't make any sense. So yeah, it's, it's, we could definitely do that. No, I think, um, you listen, I try to get you to take the bait there with my, with my potential jinx. And you really show that you have figured out this fan thing and that you are a real grizzle vet. So it's, uh, it was good to see.

John, do you want to plug some stuff? What's going on over at Japers, Rink? What are you guys doing these days? I mean, we're just trying to ride this thing out and provide sort of the key things that everybody needs to know about, write about it, react to it, inform people, and try to keep everybody on a little bit of an even keel and, you know, see what happens going forward.

Excellent. Well, I definitely recommend checking that out and enjoy the Game 7. and we will chat with you sometime down the road. Sounds real good. All right. The Hockey PDOCast with Dmitri Filipovich. Follow on Twitter at Dim Philipovich and on SoundCloud at soundcloud.com slash hockey pdocast.