The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Canadiens Defeat Sabres in Game 7 OT + Conference Finals Are Set ft. Kevin Woodley & Greg Wyshynski

Episode Date: May 19, 2026

Jeff Marek and Greg Wyshynski break down an instant classic from the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the Montreal Canadiens defeat the Buffalo Sabres in overtime of Game 7 to punch their ticket to the Eastern Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes. The guys react to how Montreal found a way to survive and advance, the biggest turning points of the series, what ultimately went wrong for Buffalo, controversial calls that had fans talking, and the fallout from one of the most dramatic games of the postseason. Then Kevin Woodley joins the show to take a deeper look at the goaltending storylines surrounding the four remaining teams ahead of the Conference Finals, discussing the key goalie matchups and which netminders could ultimately decide who reaches the Stanley Cup Final. Plus, more reactions and analysis from around the NHL playoffs.#TheSheet #NHL #StanleyCupPlayoffs #MontrealCanadiens #BuffaloSabres #CarolinaHurricanes #KevinWoodley #GregWyshynski #JeffMarek #HockeySHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Ninja: https://www.sharkninja.ca/ninja-crispi-pro-6-in-1-countertop-glass-air-fryer-rose-quartz/AS101CRS.html?utm_source=Meta&utm_medium=Paid+Social&utm_campaign=H1NinjaCrispi&utm_content=NinjaEN&dwvar_AS101CRS_color=cdb9b8Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Conor Hallibuck for Owen Power. Who says no? Winnipeg. Connor Hallibuck for Owen Power Plus. Connor Hallibuck for Rasmus Tallinn. Now you're talking. Now you got something. Oh, by the way, one of the things that I've been on about the last couple of days,

by the way, welcome the sheet once again for this Tuesday, May 19th stamp. One of the things that I've been wondering about and talking about with people, and we can't seem to come up with anyone, although Zach says Drew Doughty. Jason Greger says Chris Chish. have we ever seen a player like Rasmus Dahlin in the sense that he's Norris vote guy. One day he'll probably win the Norris trophy. And maybe, probably. Who mixes in a combination of skill with like Rat King Light.

Like we ever seen someone, like normally like the rats are all the forwards. Have we ever seen a defenseman that does like what Brad Marchand used to do and still collect up Norris votes in the process? They've been mean defensemen. They've been tough defensemen. Yeah. But not like defensemen that make you want to chase him all over the ice and chop them down. Well, I know what you're saying. You're saying like is there a Marchand-esque defenseman?

Yeah. I would argue it's Pronger, but the problem is Pronger was so big and scary that no one wanted to chase him. That's it. He's just mean. But no, he was dirty too. Duncan Keith was dirty. Like there's a lot of guys that were dirty. Not like this.

Not like you're going to chase them around the ice. Not in an antagonistic way. You're right. Not in a. Anyway. Maybe it's because they, but again, that's my pronger example is, is, I think, valid in the sense that maybe it's because they think they can beat up Rasmus Dahlene. And some of the, like, you know, like when Scott Stevens, that's the key. Dirty stuff on you, you're not going back and being like, I'm going to beat up Scott Stevens.

But they look at Daly and they're like, I could, I could take this guy. That's the key. whether it's like Ken Linsman or Dennis Polanich or Brad Marchand or Matt Cook or like whatever, the key to making it all work is the person you're doing stuff to has to believe that they can really take care of you, that they could really dust you if you came down to it. Anyway, that is not the big story. We've started with a couple of asides here, but I do want to pick up on, does Buffalo now need to make the big move? More on that in a second.

The last three games have been owned by the Buffalo Sabres. But then you know what happened? Hockey. That's just still. Like hockey happened and the Buffalo Sabres are out in the Montreal Canadiens advance. So now very much the dream of the Montreal Canadians versus the Quebec Nordiques in the Stanley Cup final is still alive. Greg Wischinski. The Alex New Hook Bowl, as it were.

Yeah. So I would agree with you on the Sabres kind of closing out the series better than they started. I think the series was lost in game five. I think Gabe five was the moment when you could have tipped it and them laying an egg on home ice, including an atrocious second period is why they were in the pickle they were in last night. I don't know about you, but after Buffalo tied the game, I did not come away from the next 10 minutes of hockey thinking the Sabres were going to win that game. I thought the way that Montreal responded was really impressive.

And so while they haven't been the better team in either of the games seven that they've played, they are the most resilient team in the playoffs, and I will proffer to you, sir, that although I have assigned the echoes of the St. Louis Blues Stanley Cup winner to other teams in these playoffs, I will now create a senior thesis stating why Montreal has the loudest echoes of that St. Louis Blues team. Let me count the ways.

Charismatic rookie goaltender who brings humor and swagger to the proceeding, and has the innate ability to give them the backbone and victories and bounce back after losses. And an overall team that seems to have that same ability. Their record after defeats is stellar, not only in the postseason, but in the regular season. If we remember Merrick, the calling card of that St. Louis Blues team was experienced adversity and then forget it ever happened. Take out the little men in black blinky thing and go puch-ch-up. And then it's wiped from your mind. And that's how the Blues won the cup.

but they also won the cup, thanks to the connection to their former player coach seemed to have with the players grabbing their attention, having the right messaging, pushing the right buttons when necessary, which I think Marty San Luis, who I think doesn't get the credit he deserves as a tactician, if we're being honest, has done a masterful job. So if you're looking for reasons why the Montreal Canadians are going to get past the Carolina Hurricanes in the conference final and play for, or potentially win the Stanley Cup.

It's because I think they have very loud echoes of a St. Louis Blues team that did the same. Okay, let's pick that conversation up here after we do this. The blueprint is powered by Fanduel. Download the app today and play your game on Fanduel. Welcome to the program, as we mentioned earlier. Greg Woshensky from ESPN and ESPN.com is here more on his colleague, Emily Kaplan's news today about the Vegas Golden Knights. That's coming up.

But we'll talk about the Montreal Canaan's advancing. We'll talk about the goaltending we've seen so far. and a preview of the men between the pipes with Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and In-Gole magazine. And as much as we can do, as much as we have time for, a little conference preview action. But I do want to later on park some time to talk about Vegas and John Tortorella and the second round pick with you. In the meantime, back to what we saw happen yesterday. Why didn't Tage Thompson pass that puck to a wide open Zach Benson on the two-on-one? instead of trying to toe drag everybody and everything.

To, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, miss as opposed to a simple pass to Benson for its happen. What am I missing? I thought the game was over. Was Lindy Ruff's mantra just F and pass? No. It was just F and go. He went to the crease.

He went hard to the net. Oh, yes, he did. And he made it back. decision he did I mean not to get ahead of ourselves but this is the the fundamental difference between what the Carolina Hurricanes just experienced what the I'm sorry with the Montreal Canadians just experienced and what they'll experience against the Carolina Hurricanes the hurricanes are not going to give the Canadians what the Sabres gave me out Canadians they're not going to get leads they're not going to you know have these horrible decisions by by

veteran players in crucial moments. It's one of the things that makes Carolina Carolina is that they don't give you anything to work with. They don't make those kinds of mistakes. And so I do think that Montreal played well. I think their goalie played exceptionally well. And I think that they had some very heroic offensive performances, especially from Alex Newhook.

But I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, and I don't mean it to besmirch, Les ha batons and the century of it. history that we all get to hear about. But I think Buffalo lost the series more than Montreal won it. What do you say? I say there's only one. There's no original six. There's original one, Montreal and everybody else is an expansion team.

You've heard me say that before. Look, not up until the last three games. The last three games were run by Buffalo. And the Buffalo Sabres, yes, and those three handed it to the Montreal Canadians. And a series like that exposed a lot of the flaws. and I think the big one, and that's why I mentioned Conor Hallibuck off the top here.

The big one is they still need goaltending. They do because Lion was leaky. UPL's been leaky all season long. This is a team that if you believe that they are a consistent playoff team, and I do, like I think like this is closer to the real Buffalo Sabres than obviously the one we saw at the beginning of the season.

This is a team that's going to be a handful for everybody in the Atlantic for a while. So are the Montreal Canadians. Is it time already? that they make the big move. You know, teams get to a spot where they're ready for the big move. Yarmoukhekhalanin tried to make a big move with St. Louis this year. That didn't work.

So we know that it's in the back of his mind. If you're Yarmalkekeleinen now, a couple of things. One, where are you on the tuck contract? And number two, do you take a big swing to try to bring in maybe the best goaltender in the NHL in the last five years in Connor Halibuck. You've already made a deal with Winnipeg. You're already made a deal with Winnipeg. And I know the Yarmo impression is coming up here.

It's coming. It's coming. This is Yarmot to Chevy. Okay, let's go. Yarmour to Chevy. Hey, it's Connor. It's me, Yarmow. Now, I know we don't have a palm trees in Buffalo, but you certainly don't have been in

the Venepeg. So come on over to Buffalo. Buffalo is basically a ruba compared to Vinipeg. So come on over. So listen, first of all, this is a very funny conversation to be having because I thought for a millisecond, everyone was going to buy into the idea that you can do this with a cheap tandem or with cheap goaltending. Isles Fix is on Twitter and put out this stat earlier today or maybe it was yesterday. Jacob Dobish, 9,6,000 against the cap, obviously a rookie contract.

Freddie Anderson, 2.75, Carter Hart, 2 million, but we know why. And Wedgwood at 1.5. You know, obviously the other parts of those tandem do make a little bit more money. But the point is that there was probably a notion from some people that the paradigm had shifted and that you could do this with a cheap tandem in order to try to win the cup. Forgetting, of course, that, you know, in the last decade, we've seen Vasilesky win twice and Provovsky. That's not been there.

So, could we pause on that? But what you're saying, though, is what I believe, which is that you do need a guy that you can count on, you can rely on. And that that guy will probably make a good amount of money as Connor Helibuck does. You know when we had this exact conversation and GMs were giddy about it after the Chicago Philadelphia final of 2010, Michael A.M. versus anti-Niami. And every GM went, the Flyers got there with Leighton? How much does he make?

Wait a minute. The Hawks won it with Anteinymy? What does he make? And everybody went, that's one position. It's good that we have Kevin Woodley coming up here because one of the things we can ask him about. Everyone around the NHL went,

look, Chicago just won a cup. Philadelphia just got to the final. Neither of them paid their goaltenders. Why are we paying goaltenders? You should pay goaltenders because it's the most important decision. Predating that was the Christmas. Osgood conjecture of like, well, if you've got a team as good as Detroit in front of Chris Osgood, you can certainly have Chris Osgood as your goal and you'll be fine.

Look, I understand why people don't want to believe in the one guy high-price quality goaltender thing because we have seen other teams kind of sneak through. And I do think that you can win with a B-level guy. I mean, Braden Holby was not for my money on the elite tier of goaltenders. But he was probably on the B tier. He was probably right underneath that. Same with Jordan Bennington. Like you need a guy that's better than Alex Lyon.

And you need a guy that all due respect to his performance in Game 7 is better than UPL. And those guys usually make a little bit of coin. And so the idea that you can just do this thing on the cheap because some teams right now, based on their cap numbers, are doing it on the cheap, I just think is misguided. So you look at the goalies that are out there, right? Sergei Birovsky, if he doesn't, go back to the Florida Panthers. You look at the history of the Buffalo Sabres going back to Grigorenko and Zedoroff. They're not a whole lot of Russians.

There's like none. I don't know if that is deliberate, but it's probably more than just a little bit of a coincidence. And for massive names, there's Connor Hellebuck who's kept that door very much open about, like, look, he knows where he's at. He's 33 years old. He wants to win a Stanley Cup. You look at the Buffalo Sabres out as a team that is on the Ascent. And you can see them within a couple of seasons making. it to and winning a Stanley Cup.

And again, to the other point, I know you were joking about the palm trees, but like, Conor Hallibuck doesn't need the sun. He's good. He's applying his trade in Winnipeg. Thank you very much. He's good with Buffalo, right? It is a market that you expect he would like. It's fine.

And one other thing, you know how Terry Pagula is about USA hockey. And filling his team with as many American players as possible. Again, this is just like the musings after the Buffalo Sabres losing a game 7 because the goaltenders leak. And I know it was a knuckleball, but still, you got to have that one and UPL's been leaky for a while. So that one makes sense to me for the Buffalo Sabres. I want to get on the Montreal page here in a second, but that one makes sense to me. You had me until you tried to like use Game 7 as the reason. No, it's not just game seven.

This guy stopped all 17 shots he faced in game 6. The last goal, and we could talk to. Woodley about this because I texted him about it because I was curious too. Like is that on is that on UPL? And he gave me all the reasons why it wasn't. And in fact, on the risker, a goalie gave you a bunch of reasons why it wasn't on the goalie? Holy smokes.

I know. I know. I asked the Democrat. It's a Democrat's fault and they said no. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So the, but, but I mean, on a wrister like that, you expected to rise and it didn't rise.

It was a knuckle puck and it got past him. When you look, it's green. I don't deny that adding Connor Hill about. exponentially increases the chances for this team to win a conference. But that being said, like, is that the only need? That, to me, is the most pressing need for the Buffalo seniors. You don't need any help in the middle? Well, you need Josh Norris to keep the hospital bracelet off.

For one, I thought, I thought Helen's excellent. You got a little something with Noah Oisland. I mean, you got a little something with Noah O'Sland, no doubt. 100%. He looks fantastic. I think what this playoffs is shown is that Tage Thompson is probably more effective as a winger than a center. I mean, certainly if you can improve in the center spot, you do it.

But I think the goaltending is more repressing need than going out and finding a top six center. Josh Norris look good. Like, Josh Norris healthy, he's a really good player. It's a really good player. Weird to say this, but probably easier to find a goaltender than a top six center in the league right now. Like, it seems like the teams that have them all have them.

You know, like Colorado goes four deep and Florida's not trading any of their guys. and Carolina and so on and so forth. But I don't know. Can I interest Buffalo and a slightly used Jacob Markstrom for either Josh Donor, Zach Benson? Down with that at all or no? Your New Jersey is showing, sir. Your New Jersey is showing.

Please cover that up for the program here today. All right, Montreal Canadians here. It's like bluntly we've seen this before from Montreal. We saw it in 86. We saw it in 93. It's a, it's the goaltending show. And there's nothing wrong with that. Like historically, the Montreal Canans have always had strong goaltending, strong goaltenders.

And in some cases, goaltenders that change the position, whether it's George Hainsworth, or whether it's Patrick Waugh, or whether it's Jacques Plont with his puck handling. They've always had goalies that have changed the way the position is played. I got a tweet from someone. I don't know if I mentioned this with you. I got a tweet from someone. I wish I would have written it down because I really want to give this person credit. This is not mine, but it's a great example of who Jakub-Dob.

is. He said he's a combination of Peckerene meets Tim Thomas. And if that's not like the most perfect way to describe Jacob Dolbish, I don't know what is. First of all, he is massive. That's the first thing you see. But then that guy jumps around the crease. Again, we'll get Woodley on this in a second, but he jumps around the crease much like Tim Thomas, circa 2011, on route to a Stanley Cup. Your thoughts on Dobish here. There's an inherent luck involved in that too, though.

Like, there were some pucks that hit him last night that maybe on a different night, don't. But he was there. That's okay. You know, can I just make one point about that? You know what goalie teams will always talk about? We like bigger goaltenders because bigger goaltenders give you accidental saves. Yeah. That's one thing that UC Saros will never give you.

You'll never get an accidental save out of like Delcovic or UC Saros. Like every save will be a real save. Sometimes you're just big. made the save because you're big and that's a bonus accidental saves bonus for any team take them all day long

I think I think my takeaway is that for a rookie it's pretty remarkable that he hasn't really allowed allowed a lot of those moments that are like deflating for his bench

and then uplifting for the opposing bench like he's he's made the saves he should make he's made some he shouldn't have made and did he steal the series I mean, an argument could be made that by virtue of their goaltending, not being anywhere near as good as we all thought it was and him being better than we think he was, that maybe he did.

But he's the backbone right now of this team, and he's, you know, who's to say he couldn't pull out another rabbit out of his hat against Carolina? Thought about Elaine Vigno last night. And what Elaine Vino was saying. I think about it every night, baby. Well, I know. I know you got that shrine right next to your bed. He was the swinging his bachelor New York had for a little bit.

But it was actually in New York when he said this. when he was asked about goaltending, and he said, hockey's simple. If my goaler is better than your goaler, I win. If your goaler is better than my goaler, you win. That's it. That's hockey. Maybe we just break it down that way.

That's how that series played itself out. Montreal had the better goaltender. So who has the better goaler in Carolina, Montreal? No one's playing better than Freddie Anderson right now. I shouldn't say that because we haven't seen him in like 10 days. So I don't know. I don't know. Like the best goal he's been Freddie Anderson.

If there's one path to victory for Montreal, it's that Freddie turns into a pumpkin as he's done in the past. Or Freddy gets hurt, which he's done in the past. And so that's always kind of been the thing. And, you know, like maybe this is the postseason where it doesn't happen. That's always a possibility. Hell, we never thought Washington would be Pittsburgh. They did. Then they won the cup.

Miracles can happen. Trends could be broken. But that's the path because otherwise, I just think of all of the things that Montreal did well against Buffalo and all the things Buffalo allowed them to do well, whether it's winning faceoffs or special teams or, you know, Buffalo not converting their chances and all these things. And I just have watched Carolina for two rounds. And they do all of those things good. And that's daunting. Yeah. And by the way, they actually have a home ice advantage.

not one where you should have one, but you got to stay at a friggin hotel because you get the tummy rumbles because of how nervous you are. They have an actual home ice advantage. They play well in Raleigh. I want to ask you about one specific moment in the game seven, and it was when Jason Zucker ran into Jakob Dobish.

I'm convinced, though, that was going to be a penalty until Dobish just like went Dealey Plaza on everybody there. I'm pretty sure that, like, Jean-Ibert, when he was like, okay, have a look here. Like, oh, my goodness. Where's Mrs. Kennedy going?

Oh, my goodness. To Parkland. And then he gets up and he talks to the ref. I don't know if it was Wes or not. No, is John A Bear. And I'm pretty sure what A Bear said was like, I was going to take one, but I'm going to get you on goalie embellishment. I can either take you both or make no call.

And he chose to make no call. No, no to him. And I thought, yeah, but hey, I mean, listen, just that's like one of those where you watch it in real time, you're just like, oh, are they going to concussion spot this guy based on how I thought, listen, you know my position on that one too, right?

Because we had that conversation before at the beginning of the series. Like if that is not a position where concussion spotter comes down, now it looked like originally on that first play that we're talking about that he hit his head on the post, it didn't happen. But he did grab his head going down. I'm like, okay, if there's no concussion spotter on that one, then there's not going to be a concussion spotter what we saw last night.

And again, I got a couple of emails and tweets about this too after having the conversation. If the concussion spotters are too aggressive about checking a guy's melon, then running the goalie becomes a tactic. Because if you know it's only going to cost you two minutes. Right. I mean, there's no way around it.

It's one of those unwritten rules. I mean, you run the goalie and you get physical with the goalie, but you don't ever run the goalie to hurt the goalie. Like, it's one of those unwritten rules, I think, in hockey. Once upon it, no, there was a guy that were number 24 in Detroit. I'm not sure if you ever saw some of his handiwork with the Red Wings. Sir, I am old enough to remember when Chris Kreider was treated like a wrecking ball against the Canadians. I understand, I understand.

By the way, I'm not saying that the concussion spotters are chained and gagged in a room somewhere in the, arena during a game seven. I just don't know what they're there for. I'm not not saying that. I just don't know what they're there for. Especially in that series. Especially around Dolbish. Especially around the, okay.

So what are your indicators? Is it gets hit in the head? Grabes his head on the post. Is it grabs his head after getting hit? Okay. I don't know. Has an immediate bout of emotional anger and going after the referee?

I mean, I don't know. Maybe let's in a goal, let's in a goal right. after Zucker just ran him over? So I did some journalisming this morning. Why'd you do that? And I called Scott Bartlett, who is the agent for Alex Tuck. Yeah.

And I like to reach out to people to answer questions that I don't know the answer to. And the question I had this morning at the aftermath of a series in which Alex Tuck did not tally a point and I believe minus nine is you have everybody and their mom saying he cost himself millions in this series. Did he actually do that? Now, obviously Scott is partisan. He's got a financial interest in the amount of money Alex Tuck will make in his next contract. But he makes the point that general managers aren't going to be scared off by this series. And I said to him, okay, but what if your guy and his calling card is as the final piece of a playoff puzzle,

which I believe Alex Tuck's calling card is? He's the guy you need. He's the truculence and the pugnacity and the goal scoring and a poll. total package of a player that you want to push for a Stanley Cup. And then in the second round of the Stanley Cup, he did nothing. How does that impact it? And Scott said, well, you know, he did some things that didn't involve the score sheet, blocking a big shot in game seven.

You know, it wasn't for not a lack of trying. He had five shots on goal. It's not this guy like this guy doesn't know how to hockey. He just had a bad series. And I tend to believe him. I tend to believe that if he hits the open market as one of maybe three guys worth a damn that could go UFA, if that, right? If that.

Yes. I think he'll still secure the bag. I do think we overreact sometimes to what we think the perceptions of a player are based on a bad playoff. And I don't think this really impacted his value and his worth as much as we think it did. Again, it will depend on the team. That's looking for him. But I don't think he's going to go anywhere where he's not going to be really close to winning a Stanley Cup. That one's going to be really curious one too

Because now we're starting to see Whether it was formerly Hellaneous Now Hellenus Really step up in these playoffs And the Noah Osslyn injury was Was really tough for them too Like now you're starting to see like that next wave And like when this team is a consistent

Hey they're going to go to the Stanley Cup final type conversation These are the guys are going to be front and center For all of it And if you are Yarmackeleinen all of a sudden now you have really you really have options and in any negotiation like bartlett will tell you anybody will tell you the only leverage you can ever have is are you willing to walk away and that's why i'm watching this one and i'm thinking about carolina and i'm thinking about colorado specifically and how disciplined they are about their financial decisions to the point

where they walked away from miko rantin and over 500 000 like that is how disciplined you have to be how disciplined is yarmalekyllian and going to be here around Alex Tuck. And how much loyalty does he have to tuck as a guy who went from senior advisor to general manager? Certainly less so than you'd imagine Kevin Adams would have had. And listen, I think more of a problem for Tuck in his value and worth is he's 30 and he plays that style of hockey.

And what does your body look like playing that style of hockey in six years, you know, on a long-term contract as an unrestricted free agent? That's the question that I think more general managers in front offices would have about Alex Tuck than he got, you know, skunked in a playoff series against Montreal. Big questions for you for the Buffalo Sabres in the off season. We're going to be talking like, I know we're talking a lot about the swords here today. And I get it. It's Montreal's Day. Congratulations to the Haps.

We're going to be talking plenty about Montreal as they make it at the conference final here. But like the big decisions here, tuck is a massive decision. The goaltending is a massive decision. I really do wonder what Zach Benson gets on his next contract here as a restricted free agent. Beck Malmastine is a UFA. They have no first, they have no second or no third this year. And then the other one is, what's Lindy Ruff's future here?

Like I was under the impression it was a two plus two deal. It was two coaching, two management. Does he come back? Does he come back as a head coach for this team? I mean, I don't see why not, right? I don't, I don't know. Does he want to come back? He's tired of it? He's done with it?

I don't know. I don't know. Does he want to come back? To chase a cup with his team that he believed could? I understand all of that. Yes, I get all of that. But I don't know that he wants that. Or does he want to like work in either way?

He's like with the Buffalo Sabres. Period. But is it behind the bench? Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. He seems like a lifer. Yeah, I think we covered all of the Sabres things.

I don't know we could do much more than the half an hour we've done on the team that lost last night. But yeah, goaltending. Well, they kind of were the story. They were the story. I know they were the story. But, like, I don't know how much more juicy you can squeeze from the stone. I think we've kind of written the obituary. So then it's up to Kevin Woodley to save this program from Ingoal magazine and NHL.com.

when you want to talk about go to one place, and that is Kevin Woodley's home studio from Ingole magazine. Great to see you again. Great to talk to you again. Off the top of the show, I said this. Hella Buck for Owen Power. Who says no? Cool.

Is that a fit for the Buffalo Sabres? Oh, that's a really good question. I mean, that's a fit for any team, no? Unless you're playing fire wagon hockey. Well, the thing is, like the one thing that, Because we all talk about, you know, goaltenders this, gold tender is that. And you'll actually focus in on this goaltender works for this system and this team

and won't work for that other team and that system. Like you drill it down to that fine a point. Like if Buffalo is going goalie shopping, is that a fit for how they play? Well, listen, like, that's why I said fireway in hockey. If you're going to give up a ton off the rush, if you're not going to defend the front of your net, if you're not going to allow your goaltender to have sightlines,

then it's not so much is Connor Hellebuck a bad fit. It's more, is it worth it to invest that much in that goaltender? You know what I mean? Like Conner Hellebuck can play anywhere. And I think if you look at the last two seasons, you see the difference with the same team between Conor Hellebuck behind the top three in the NHL defensive team, New York, or sorry, Winnipeg, New York Jets.

Winnipeg Jets? but and and and carter hellabuck last year behind uh you know a bottom third in the n hl defense of performance by the new york jets like there's only so much gold tenders can do like if if you're the savers and you have this great team and you think you can get guys to buy into playing a certain way defensively and he's an upgrade for most teams right it's just i guess the what i'm saying is just because you get him doesn't mean it fixes everything else like goaltending never exists in a vacuum even for guys as good as Connor Hellebuck. And I think the last two seasons with the Jets

prove that. I will agree with you, the New York Jets are terrible. And I will go on to say that if the Winnipeg Jets said you can have Connor Hello Buck for Owen Power, like Yarmot is breaking the sound barrier

saying yes to that trade. Absolutely, I'm going to say, I don't think that gets it done. No, I know. Hold on. Merrick keeps on saying this. Who says no thing? like it's Taylor Hall for Adam Larson, and I'm like, okay, where's Josh Done's name?

Where's Zach Benson's name? It's Connor freaking Halibuck, the guy who just delivered a gold medal to a hockey star nation, and you're getting them for Owen Power? Hold on here. I said Owen Power Plus Plus. I said the headline just to get your attention. There's no way it's going to be a one-for-one deal. Not a chance.

But you know what I'm going for. The big piece going back the other way would be, and it's not just because of the money, would be something to address something in Winnipeg needs, and that is another young defenseman with size. That is a very, very small defense and just got smaller when they let go of Stanley and Shen, neither of whom, by the way, played last night, discussed amongst yourselves. But anyway, we're just sort of wondering what Buffalo does here, Annette, before we transition to the big four that are still standing here, Kevin. And I guess, you know, like, and I answered it more in terms of, you know, what Hellebuck is, not so much, you know, what he isn't as opposed to the price tag attached to it.

And I think, you know, the point of the Olympic gold medal is a good one. Because I think when Connor Hellebuck got back to the Winnipeg Jets, I know within, even within that coaching room, there was a thought, oh, if we can get that guy, then we got a chance to make the playoffs. But that guy doesn't exist. And this is not a Connor Hellebuck alone discussion. Like that guy doesn't exist at that level behind your team. Because instead of two or three East West backdoor chances, you know, one of which he makes a miraculous reach back paddle save, one Nathan McKinnon misses,

the Winnipeg Jets give up six or seven of those a game. Like it's not the same. And it's not just that you need to limit those chances. But it's that if you have a team that doesn't, Connor Hellebuck has to play differently behind you. And so all those saves he made at the Olympics squared up on a guy in glorious shooting positions don't happen if he has to back up a foot and lean to his right, anticipating the backdoor play that gets through at two or three times the rate behind

the Winnipeg Jets compared to the Olympics. So I'm with Wish on the price tag and the likelihoodness of this happening. but the point I was trying to make is more. And I think this is what you're asking, Jeff, like the horses for courses thing. Does Connor Hellebuck fit? And he does. But you don't get Olympic level.

Connor Hellebuck, unless you get that Olympic level defending. And again, the Jets two years ago provided that level of defending specific to East West Passes, specific to screens. And that's what you saw in the regular season, two seasons ago.

No, Zach Worensky or Quinn Hughes or Jacob Slaven walking through that door. to give him the same environment he had in the Olympics. I wanted to ask you about Colorado's goaltending. I think we saw a little bit of a wobble from the tandem in the Minnesota series. I don't know if it's shaken their faith at all in the goaltending. But what did you see from the lumber yard?

What did you see from Wedgwood and Blackwood in that series? And what do you think we can expect out of them in the final? Yeah, and I mean, a little bit of a wobble. At the end of the day, I think that's a fair statement. What's really interesting to me as we look at the way things are developing in these playoffs is we're having tandem sort of carry over longer. And Scott Wedgwood was a no-brainer to start that series. Like Scott Wedgwood should have been in the Vesna Trophy conversation.

I think he probably would have been. And that's looking at the adjusted numbers I have from Clearside Analytics. I think he would have been except for the game's played. Like the game's played is the only thing that keeps him out of that conversation. Because yes, it's a good environment. Yes, there's a ton of run support. but he outperformed at a level that warranted that conversation. We did a breakdown at Ingole and he should have been in it.

So the problem is when you go back and forth throughout the season and that becomes a part of your rhythm, then asking the same guy to play every night for two or three straight weeks under a spotlight and a pressure they've perhaps never played under before, it just kind of feels like a big ask. And so it's sort of picking those moments on when you're, are going to go the other way and not just, hey, do we see a dip in performance? Or in the case of Wedgwood and the Wild, not even a dip in performance as opposed to, are there some things that the Wild are getting to in his game consistently? And would McKenzie Black would give us a different look? And I know Bedner spoke about screens and a bigger body to look over them and all those

things. But it's about giving them the night off. I know a lot of people ripped the Wild for going to gust of sitting in game two instead of Wallstead. But my counterpoint is I'm willing to bet there were conversations knowing the goalie coach Fray Shabbat there about if we keep going to Wallstead, do we get diminishing returns versus

if we give him, like I'm not sure you get game three yes for Wallstead if you play him in game two is the point I'm trying to make. And as we get these tandums back and forth, you know, the willingness to go to the other guy isn't just about getting a better performance. It's about

when you go back to the other one, is he reset and that much better? Yeah. Let me, when we're talking about Goldangue right now, we have to start with Jakob Dobish, though, right? Like this is like the phenom, you know, 86 Patrick Waugh, right? Like the only rookie, I think that Red Fisher allowed himself to talk to. Like, Red used to have in the Gazette. Red used to have this thing where I don't talk to rookies.

Like, that's it. Rookies don't have to talk to Red Fisher. Made an exception for Patrick Wa. I mean, right now, his name is being whispered amongst the Jacques Plants and the George Hainsworths and the Patrick Guas, etc. of, you know, of Kerry Price of Montreal lore. Of course, that's exaggerated. But what do you see in Jakub Dobish? Because, by the way, by the way, so I got a tweet from someone. I've mentioned this to Greg and his side.

I was, I got to get there. I got to give this to Kevin. So I got a tweet from someone saying, Jakub Dobish is a combination of Peca Reney and Tim Thomas. I mean he's he's got the length I mean that's not a bad one actually it's not a bad one I think there is more structure under his game than maybe there wasn't Tim Thomas although I wrote many stories over the years

about how Thomas added that to his game but he's got that remember the Battlefly instead of Butterfly of course yeah Battlefly Thomas yeah Dolbush absolutely has that I think a lot of people have pump his tires somebody in Vancouver has to

very good Kevin very good very good um hey listen and you're talking about Montreal greats you're talking to a guy who's got Ken dried and half sleeve tattooed on his on on his arm so um oh wow dobish i think a lot of people are missing some of the points on dobish's aggression though to be honest with you because yeah like five minutes into game one he comes charging out on Eric shernak and you see that aggression right but it's in straight lines and it's it's if you look at where he starts from, it's from a conservative depth initially. Like he gets to his angle first and then if he makes a read on an open look, he will take ice. But reeling in that aggression is part of what's allowed him to succeed.

And we think of there's a bit of a, there's a bit of a bigger trend in goaltending in the National Hockey League going on that I think Dobish is a great representative of. And that is that depth and I've learned a lot of this from McKenzie Skapski, and the sort of the approach of the Calgary Flames, which is built off of things he learned from Benoit Lair with the New York Rangers. And you see it in Dustin Wolf's game, which may surprise some people because he's barely six foot. And you also see it in the evolution of Devin Cooley.

And that is that depth is no longer a north-south discussion. When we think of goaltending depth, we think of relative to the top of the crease. Does he have his toes inside that line? Does he have his heels out? Is he well outside of that? And so as the game got faster, goalies backed in. But they speak of depth in terms of East West and staying inside the lines of your post.

And if you look at Dobish earlier in his career, there was a tendency to get outside of his lines and play too aggressive East West. I can count on one hand in these playoffs, the number of times where he's been caught outside of his post. And the point would be as the game becomes increasingly dynamic East West, you need to stay more contained and shorten those movements. Also, for a guy of Dolbush's size, like if I've got a 6 foot 5, 6 foot 6 goal tender, I'd kind of like some of that frame to actually be in the net. And so earlier in his career, he would get caught outside of his post a fair bit. You're seeing that rained in. Don't ignore the goalie coaching change that they made in Montreal in late January.

Both of the guy's numbers took off after that. So there is an element of that Tim Thomas battle in him. Like he never gives up on anything. There is definitely, I like the renting comparison. We tend to think of size as high. and square footage. Ian Clark here in Vancouver uses a phrase called length. And sometimes it's physically, like there are big goalies.

Stuart Skinner is a really big, tall, goaltender who doesn't have length. He doesn't have the ability to extend and sort of that natural flexibility and mobility. Length can also come from compete and battle. And so Dolbisch has it physically. I think he has it mentally and mentality-wise. And you see that in his game. I think some of the goalie coaching change. And even before that, with the previous goalie coach,

I know he was an all-a-de-disciple in terms of getting him within the confines of his crease. There's an element of that. It's a lot more controlled than maybe some of the narratives and stereotypes around it. You know, he beats his spots and then he'll come out. And then the other part too is, like I saw your tweet last night, Greg, about, you know, like, I can't remember the exact phrasing, but just like, you know, like he's talked about himself as this goofy goalie and he's great in the media and all the quotes. but honestly like I think there's a maturity there

that gets missed a little bit within those quotes you know we talked to him last summer at the Ingo Radio podcast and he talked about like you know he spends his time in St. Louis early in the summers but he's not working with the goalie coach there he's focused on the gym he knows that he doesn't want to go out and be a shooter tutor in the early months of the summer but then at the end of those gym sessions they have a shooting room and he grabs a stick and he works on puck handling

but when he works on puck handling he doesn't just rifle puck all over the place. He goes into, we talk about Pete Frye and the mental stuff. He does visualization so that when he's firing these pucks in the shooting room, he's actually like closing the eyes and walking himself through, okay, puck behind the net, eagle turn, flip it to my forehand, rim it off here. Like there's a, there's a maturity there in his game and his approach that I think gets lost a little bit in the sort of goofy, goalie aura that he brings out. And probably in the rookie aura too. I mean, we all think of them as this kid, you know, and, Like he's put in the time.

Let me ask you about Carter Hart. Six games against the Anaheim Ducks, 935 per se percentage, 1.99 goals against average against a pretty darn good offensive team, as he saw in the Edvin series. Every sense I get from people around the Golden Knights is that Hart's game is steadily improving as the playoffs go on, and that might actually give them more than a puncher's chance against the avalanche. What say you about Carter Hart at this point?

Oh, interesting that, that whoever told you that has got good numbers because I've got him. Now, I don't have, I didn't look this morning. I apologize, but going into game seven, so Dolbush might have passed him. But going into game seven last night, Carter Hart had the best goals saved above expected by Clearsight for the second round. So I know there were questions. So I tweet from you, Greg,

heading into the second round about, you know, the ducks and their shooting percentage going out up against Carter Hart in the second round. But you're right, his game got so much better in the second round. there was a crispness to it. He looked fatigued to me a little bit towards the end of the first round. There were mistakes in there that were not used to him making. He's very technical, technically sound like that's the root of his game. The foundation is that efficiency.

And we just saw holes and mistakes and that we're just not used to. And don't forget, he missed three months. And then he came back and he went on that incredible run down the stretch after Torch took over, coming off a three-month injury. and maybe there was a little bit of fatigue that set in playing again not something he's done hasn't played a lot this year and all sudden you're playing like every second night in the first round against a pretty good uh utah team offensively but to me there's just there's a sharpness in the pushes he's beating plays to their spots um he just looks a lot more crisp would be the layman's term i i would put on it in terms of his game in the second round it

you know i think there's some pretty good defensive support in front of him and they don't ask him to do too much, but even on the laterals that Anaheim was able to create, like he was just getting across early angle rotation back to his post, putting himself in spots where they had to make great plays to beat him. And when you add the defensive pressure that comes from the Vegas Golden Knights, that becomes that much more difficult. Now, it's obviously going to be a step up against the avalanche. And I would have been a little wary as the tweet was coming out around one because of some of the things we saw against Utah. But I thought the game got better as the second round went on.

Freddie Anderson. Whenever we talk about Freddie Anderson, we seem fixated and history leads that conversation about things like hospital gowns. And can this guy stay healthy? Do we look at this Freddie Anderson and say, this is Freddie Anderson healthy? Or is this something different that you see?

Oh, I think it's fair to say this. is Freddie Anderson healthy? Because, like, for NHL.com, I had to break down every playoff series starting in round one. And I'm very, I should, they had to. I said I was, I was blessed to be able to break down. Because NHL dot, hey, NHL dot, they forced at gunpoint to break down these goalies. They, uh, they give me the opportunity to do.

So it's not a small project. It requires compensation. And they, they give me the grace to be able to do it. And so, uh, you watch 100 goalies on 17 different goalies going. into the first round. I'm 100 goals on each of those 17 and do your video breakdowns. It takes some time and it takes an investment and I'm grateful that they allow me to do it. Where were we?

What we're talking about? Freddie Anderson. Plug my boss. I only got one wrong in the first round and that was Walshead over Philip Gustafson. And there were a few I wasn't sure about. Freddie Anderson was never one of them. And that was largely because of what we've seen in the past playoff wise. Like he did this last year.

Maybe not to this degree, but he was really good for the first two rounds last year. Now, the second part, though, was when I looked at Clearside Analytics, he had an 868 expected save percentage this year. 868, the lowest in the national hockey league. And this is, I think this gets lost. Carolina goalies had three of the lowest, so three of the toughest, three of the lowest expected save percentages, three of the toughest defensive environments in the NHL. Quantity? No. And that's probably perfect for Freddie because you're not having to work your way.

I mean, what really hurts as a goalie or what tests you as a goalie is push stop, push stop, team cycling around the offensive zone, power plays against you when you really got to move and move and move and you get into your legs for long periods of time. What Carolina does give up, however, is quality, at least in the regular season. They give up a ton off the rush, like the easy goals, the gimmies, the backdoor stuff. the rush mostly because they dominate it one in and they make mistakes and then the puck goes the other end so two things have happened in the playoffs one that's a very difficult way to live in terms of your focus and your concentration when it's one of 82 when it's a Tuesday night in Columbus and you're watching the other goalie stand on his head for 10 minutes at the other end you haven't seen a shot

and the next one you do seize a two on one so your ability to sort of lock in and focus come playoff time is just that it's just it's just easier you've done it you know how to do it you're not going to let your attention wander. Two, the mistakes that lead to those types of chances in the regular season are less likely to happen in the playoffs. Because everybody else is also more dialed in than Tuesday night in Columbus or Thursday in Nashville or whatever night it is. I don't know what city I'm in, right?

Like, there's just an attention to the detail. So I think those things have combined well. And Freddie, because they didn't overuse him during the regular season, I mean, Brandon Bussie was fantastic. Kachetkoff before he got hurt, put up great. numbers behind a really tough environment. The only question becomes what happens if we get into five, six, and seven of some of these series as opposed to four straight?

I thought there were signs of fatigue in his game in round one, game two double overtime. I thought you could see it. That crispness I talked about with Carter Hart, and that's a part of Freddie's game. There's such a big goalie, but so much technical efficiency in his movements. and the way he controls his crease, that looked like it started to slip. And I thought, like I actually wondered if there had been a game two nights later

instead of three nights later, if they didn't have two days off before they travel back to Ottawa, I wondered if we might see a switchover just to give him again a chance to reset. And that's, you know, at the end of the day, because they swept, that still remains a question for me.

But the fact that they've also had 12 days off means he should come into this, you know, pretty much about his rest of, that is possible as any goal it can be in the playoffs. But whether it's this round or the next round, are we going to hit a point where they have a decision to make, like Buffalo did, like Colorado did, like more and more of these teams are facing

as we move away from the Workhorse Number One. Okay, away from the Stanley Cup here, this just breaking, so it was about just over a week ago, or under a week ago, actually, Ryan Johnson, the general manager, the Vancouver Canucks talked about how, you know,

it was a really unfair environment to judge Adam Foote with all the drama and the injuries and et cetera, et cetera, distractions and goalie injuries, was tough to get a good read on, you know, should he return or should we fire him. Darren Drager, the Vancouver Canucks continue to make changes. Sources say Adam Foote has been let go as head coach. So that much like John Chaka, musing about Craig Barubi and saying he's a great coach, a week later he was gone, same thing in Vancouver. So Foot is out.

And while we have you, how do you see the goaltending in Vancouver? I want to ask about a Columbus goalie in a second here. But how do you see? I think we're all sort of frustrated watching Satra Demko unable to perform because when he does perform, he's flat out one of the best goaltenders in the NHL, but he can't seem to stay healthy. How do you see the Vancouver goaltending situation? You're right there.

You got your thumb on the pulse. I think it will depend. And my understanding is he'll be ready for training camp or if not for training camp, then for the start of the regular season on Thatcher Demko. Like all indications are that the hip surgery's, you know, been the thing that should solve a lot of the other problems. I have some questions about how it took this long to identify it or maybe the truth is they had identified it and they just didn't want to go in and fix it.

Because don't forget, he's had both hips surgically repaired before. And to be honest, it's a fairly common surgery. There are some kids that have it in their teens, almost like a boutique surgery to sort of prevent future damage or to, and something like not to this extreme. You wouldn't have major hip surgery to widen your butterfly, but it does do that. But I don't know anyone that's had it twice, right? So that's the degree of uncertainty. It doesn't mean it can't create the same improvement. When he spoke at the end of the regular season in the sort of post regular season media availability,

There was, I can't remember the word he used, I apologize, but like just he was fired up about finally feeling good physically. And I think when you look at the amount of injuries he's had with the last little while and imagine the constant grueling rehab and all that work and just to come back and get hurt again, you know, that takes a toll mentally, not just physically. And I'm not sure hockey was fun for him anymore by the end by this last time. So if he can reignite some of that spark and put some of that back in, like there's no question how good he can be as a goaltender. But beyond that, like there are questions about what they do in terms of they got $13 million tied up in goaltending here for the next three years as a rebuilding team. Is there value in Thatcher Demko? If you're in a rebuild and everybody's talking about top defensemen like Heronik and all these other guys that do you trade them? Do you keep them?

even if you successfully pull this rebuild off in three years or four years instead of five or six, they're not going to be in their prime by that point. So move them now. I think you probably have to have that conversation around your goal tending, but you probably need to create a little value in the asset first. Or rehab a little value, rehab being the operative word in the asset. Because Jim Rutherford handed him eight and a half million dollars for the next three years. Like that's Connor Hellebuck money, right? to bring this back to where we started the conversation for a guy who hasn't made it through a season healthy yet as a number one goaltender.

So I think you're going to have to show people that the hip surgery did what it was supposed to and then see if you have a market. Lanken in as a 1B at 4.5. Again, honestly, Jeff, you want to know where the biggest decision lies? Is we talk about coaching? Nicholas Mantepalo? No, no. I don't even know who that is. Oh, sorry.

No, I'm thinking of that's Ottawa Senator's defenseman. I'm thinking of... You just see one to three occurs. Call there. Tolapilo. That's it. Nikita Tolopilo. Nicholas Montepalo,

Nikita Tolopilo. No, I'll do you one different here. Golly coach. Not even goalie coach. When Ian Clark stepped aside as the goalie coach for reasons in terms of his body not being able to do it, he had a director of goaltending title.

The director of goaltending title was taken away from him. And he is the guy that Nikita Tolapilo specifically told me. He signed in Vancouver amongst three other offers. to work with Ian Clark. The director title was stripped,

and it's my understanding that it was stripped along the lines of, we don't need a director of goaltending, we have Jim Rutherford. I think if you look at the decisions around goaltending in the year and a half since, I could make an argument that that was a mistake. And so my question, and I genuinely have no idea which way this is going,

I don't know which way the city and Slein. And Ryan Johnson, they certainly have working relationships with Ian Clark, but he has another year left on his deal with the director title stripped. Do you see him become more active in this? Because I, you know, Archer Shilovs, they gave away for a fourth round pick. Yeah. Like, they now have two guys who are overpaid based on what they deliver, and they've walked

away from one guy who could have been, he was great in playoffs for Pittsburgh. And those two guys that are making 13 million this year, total appeal requires waivers. So unless they're going to carry three, they're going to. going to risk losing him. And oh, by the way, he's a six foot five or six foot four goal tender and profiles like a bussy, like a Dolbush. I'm not saying he has the exact same skill set, but the kind of guy that I think teams are going to be looking at come waiver time and being like, yeah, I know the numbers weren't there in the NHL, but that was the worst defensive team in hockey. By the way, that's what Vancouver was. So, like, I think the decisions go beyond just who

you have on the ice. It's, are you going to build out our department again? Are you going to make decisions as a group? Or are you going to let other people make decisions around or goaltending who don't necessarily understand the position at the same level. To me, I got to keep you, you keep them around. You have to, like to head up your department. I am such like a, you've talked plenty about, you know, goalie coaches going to the Hall of Fame, Francois Lerre is, you know,

one of the obvious ones, Ian Clark right there. To me, Ian Clark, Ben, Ben Waller, who officially, like he officially retired. Just retired. You don't need to officially retire to be in the builder category. Give me a Mitch corn. Like, yeah, like trust me, if you guys want, want to help me beat down the door on the Hall of Fame on having this conversation because I'm told they just treat goalie coaches like other assistants and why would we put an assistant

in the Hall of Fame? Some of these guys have changed the game and the position. Absolutely. Yep. Hey, Woodley, real quick, do you go Mel Holtra? You go Malholtra in Vancouver? I had, no, listen, I should probably actually be texting and messaging my bosses at the NHL right now based on the report that Jeff broke here. No, it's right. No, Drager, Drager, Drager. No, Drager is Tregg. That's Treggers. That's not me. I'm just reading tweets. Eating and tweeting. Eating and tweeting. But honestly, Greg, I think that's the assumption a lot of people would make the relationship between Mani and Ryan Johnson, get the band back together, like all these guys that sort of,

you know, harken back to an era where it meant something to be a Vancouver Canuck. And this is what I love most about their messaging. It wasn't just about fixing things on the ice. It was about fixing things off the ice. Community involvement. there are a lot of things. I mean, I've been on a soapbox here on the local radio waves over the past year, fair bit about just how much the standard has slipped in terms of how you treat people, how you're seen and how you interact in the community. And I think Mani Malholtra, not only does he check all those boxes,

but he has a relationship with Ryan Johnson. They've done a lot of the heavy lifting development-wise for a thin prospect group with the Abbotsford Canucks and one of the number. American Hockey League title together. I think as that prospect group gets deeper as they go into this rebuild, that's the type of teaching coach that you want to be a part of your organization and the risk of losing him to another team to keep out of for another year. Didn't make a ton of sense to me.

Then the next question becomes, because there's a lot of people that believe they have his son, Caleb, uh, really high on their draft board with the number three overall pick. Yeah. Would you make it? Would you do that with, with, with dad? as the head coach. So we'll see where this goes. Obviously, not reporting any of this,

but I think a lot of people do a straight line way back to that press conference between that and the Vancouver Cadux job. Really quick, last one for me, and this is just personal because you know the field a lot better than I do. Does Jet Grieves already have the fastest glove in the NHL? Columbus Blue Jackets, not minor. He has an incredibly fast glove. I'm going through him.

There's 62 rollies or whatever, 64 now, Jeff. Like, you make me, like, my brain is not a computer. But, like, I'm not seeing things. Like, I'm not seeing things here. Like, this guy's glove hand is incredibly fast. Like, think twice about trying to beat a glove. He's got a great glove. He's got a great glove.

Mostly if I'm top of my head without having any pre-scout him, because obviously I didn't break down the Columbus Blue Jocke's these playoffs. Take a neutral glove position. Like, we're seeing a lot of this in the playoffs, guys. Like, take a what, watch, watch. Like, that fingers up glove position where the goalie sort of present it out like this as opposed to having it in more of a handshake like shooters know this now like if you see a goalie fingers up then you want to shoot over his pads because that movement that sort

of turning rotation is very difficult if you see a guy in more of a handshake position that takes an extra second to sort of get it up high so um like there's so much mechanics that go into it and then pre-scouts and all of those things jet greaves has a great glove i i prefer neutral gloves i think we're seeing a return of this. Ilya Sorokin is up there on that list as well, Jeff, in terms of guys that have incredible glove hands. Right. From a neutral position,

the conversation I had with Sergei Namoff, their goalie coach about the way that works. Just it had like the nukes were going off in my head. Another guy who I then watched it in the American Hockey League the following week that hasn't like to me the same level and the same mechanism glove as Ilya is still in the playoffs. But he's not playing. And it's Jacob Fowler.

So one of the things that I Okay, we're going to go down to Fowler. Okay, we're all heavy on time here. But maybe not so much this year, but was the knock on Fowler that post-to-post he was too slow? People in LaValle that I spoke to when he first showed up, they were like, yeah, you know what? He's going to be really good, but he's not fast enough post-to-post.

Was there something to that? The only thing. Was that something to that? You know what? I haven't heard that. And I didn't see it. but I wasn't out there with a stopwatch. So the things that I saw in the games I watched in the American Hockey League

and the little bit I watched on TV in the NHL, and I prefer the American Hockey League viewing because it was in person here in Abbotsford. The only thing I saw, and I talked to a couple scouts about this, and this is a lot for young goalies. Traffic management. Traffic management is a lot of experience and feel, but there are things you can do to put yourself in a better position to find sightlines as a smaller goalie, especially.

you can't find yourself going back and forth, picking lanes, getting there early, depth decisions around traffic. That was the only part of the game. I had a goalie coach was like, oh, my God, he's the real deal. He's just got to figure this out, and that just takes time sometimes. So I hadn't heard a lot about the side to side. I certainly didn't see anything in it when I watched him here that led me to think he wasn't fast enough.

And that glove hand, man, he made some saves. And again, we can get biased by short viewings, and it's impossible to keep a big picture when you watch too many goaltenders. But it reminded me so much of Sorokin. There was a calmness to it, an efficiency to it. Like guys just, you know, and this is an NHL high-end prospect. It was Jonathan La Caramacki, who the one thing he does is shoot, walk into the hash marks on the power play with time and space

and just rip one by the shoulder. And it was effortless. Like, just beat it there with the glove. And I was just like, that reminds me of Sorokan. Well, it's about time once I finally got some good goaltenders. That's right. Don't make me pull out the Ken Dryden tattoo. Trying to get your show off the half sleeve here.

Well, thanks for creating this out about gold tenors and the difference between Tolapilo and Montepalo. Always good to have you aboard to straighten things out for us, Kevin. I've heard of one. You're the best man. We'll talk again soon. Take care, guys. Thanks for having me. There is.

Tolapilo, Montepalo. Nicholas Montepalo, should be playing more, by the way. I live in a real Italian neighborhood. It's all, it's all great to me. It's not, it's not Italian. Real quick on the torts fine, because I don't want to talk about that real quick. I did. Just want to go a quick thought on that one.

You still think there's a way back, okay? I do. I was wrong to think that just flying across the country to kiss the ring was going to get the pick back because what's the sense of that? I mean, you want them to show that they understand the lesson you're trying to teach them by wearing mics during the games and having the coach speak after a, you know, a, you know. series elimination and all those things. You know, I think there's probably some nuance on like some of the other things that we've talked about, like not opening the locker room and things of that nature. But the totality of what the Knights have done in the playoffs and during the season, I think

added up to the NHL really feeling like they haven't heated the previous warnings. That being said, I mean, like, if they do all the things they're supposed to do for this round and maybe the next round. I got to, I kind of believe they get something back for it. The pick? The pick? The second round?

Well, I know. It's massive. It's massive. It's like I can see maybe it's a fourth instead of a set. Like a second round pick could be playing in the NHL in two years. But again, like that for that sends a serious message. It does.

That's not just, that's not just Vegas. That's like a massive message to every other NHL team. It's every other. team and again as a journalist as a member of the media as a rights holder i completely thank the league for stepping up and ensuring that these teams do understand how important it is to follow the regulations that are in place and and help you know promote and publicize the league like that's that's important it's just kind of there's been harsher punishments for other things that probably

required harsher punishments than a second round pick for some of this media access stuff But the other thing I've been thinking about with Cassidy, by the way, because he obviously is still in limbo, could the Golden Knights satisfy the moral obligation to allow a fired employee to seek work by giving the Leafs permission to talk to him? Or giving anybody in the East who might change coaches the permission to talk to him,

even if they restrict it for the Kings, the Oilers. That's what I'm thinking about lately. I thought about that too, and I don't know how the league would react to that. Again, not being an expert in like contract law or what this entails is for like taller foreheads and me. Like can you restrict him from talking to a certain bunch while he's under contract but

still allow him to talk to another group of teams and what does that mean legally? Like essentially could the Oilers come back or the Kings come back? on Vegas for them not allowing those teams to talk to Cassidy, yet at the same time, allowing teams in a different conference to do so. Again, I know that during Locko's a pretend I'm an actuary, right? And I know all these types of things, but I'm like, no clue. No clue. It's a fascinating question because I think like a lot of things in hockey, this was sort

of handshake agreement. this is how things are done. It's the way it's done. It's the way it's done. You allow him to get another job. But there's no actual reason to do so. You have him under contract. He's an asset.

So I do wonder if they can have their cake and eat it too by opening up his possibilities to the Eastern Conference but restricting it in the West. Maybe it's the same argument as if you get fired from a tech company. Like you can't go work for another tech company, but you go go work at Wendy's. You go work at a movie theater. You just can't work for Google. You know what I mean? I do wonder if there's a bit of that going on.

But isn't that already baked into the contracts that are signed? Like I just assume the like contracts. Oh, no. It is usually. Yeah. Like a non-compete. Yeah. These are the,

these are the non-competes. I don't know that in Bruce Cassidy's case, like you get fired with the your left on term. Here's the teams you're not allowed to talk to. And listen, hang on a second. Maybe we get there one day. Right? Maybe that ends up, maybe coaches contracts are going to get more complicated.

But you're right. Like, this is right now. This is the way we do things. But isn't the function of having to ask permission, acknowledgement that permission must be granted? Yes. Like that tells you the team has to give permission. And a team can say no to you and no to you and yes to the Leafs and yes to whomever.

Like Jersey or someone. But like, you know, I kind of think that the Knights have a way forward here that they could do right by Cassidy, in theory, whilst also keeping him out of their own division. If you're the NHL, like the NHL has a lot of, like, conduct that is detrimental to the league, would this fall under this category? Because this really makes a pretty significant franchise look petty. Okay, but is the conduct, so what is detrimental to the league not having the Edmonton Oilers be competitive in one of Conner's last years there? No, it makes. That's essentially what they're depriving you of if not letting Cassidy go to the Oilers. Again, I don't know contract law.

I am not a contract lawyer. I don't know if you in this situation, and I'm sure that there is a very, very expensive group of lawyers that I'll say, I would like to challenge this or take this on to see where we can go. I just don't know whether you can say, yes, you can talk to this group but not that group. It's either you're talking to every, you're allowed to talk to anybody or you're allowed to talk to nobody. But having said that, in the process,

what are you doing to the reputation of the Vegas Golden Knights? If I'm the NHL, does this fall under behavior detrimental to the league? Because, man, it makes them look so tiny. It makes them look so petty. And it's such an important organization. Yeah. Yeah, it'd be really a shame

that people thought the Vegas Golden Knights were morally depraved. Like, it'd be really a shame if people thought the Vegas Golden Knights had no sentimentality or nostalgia or feelings or human feelings towards ex-employees. Like, it'd be a real shame of people thought about that about the Knights. I know, I know. I get all that. Again, part of me is really curious to see how far that they want to push this. And if they do allow a team. in the Eastern Conference to talk to Cassidy,

and he ends up taking a job there. Can Edminton or L.A. go back at the Vegas Golden Knights? I don't know. Again, I don't know. They were not allowed to us, but you grant. Yes. Yeah.

Where does that head? I don't know. I don't like. No one. No, we don't know. Could you sue a team for trading someone to someone else other than the team that You know, this is different. This is different.

We're not trading him to you. We're trading him to the other guys. Well, look, dude. I'm suing you for depriving me of this player. I'm happy to bring back 1987 and Michelle Bergeron going from the Quebec Nordiques to the New York Rangers for first round draft pick and cash. I'm happy to go back to those days if we want to do it. You've got one year left on term.

We can actually trade our coach. I'm happy to bring the fellas Spizitos back into the world. I love to see that again. But I don't think that's. going to happen. I would like, listen, personally, I would like to see Cassidy coach the Oilers because I want them to be better in Conner's last couple of years there. Yeah.

I think they've got bigger issues than simply the coach. I'm kind of wishing Dale Tallinn had given this roster all its good players before Stan Bowman showed up so they could win cups like the Blackhawks did. So hang on. Here's what I wonder if this happens now because of this. If, to my previous point, the more that I think about it, the more I'm talking to myself, into this year, if coaching contracts start to get way more detailed than they are with the contingencies of dismissal.

I get dismissed. I'm allowed to talk to everybody like in the contract now. And if not, are there a list of teams like an O'Rae Clause that I'm allowed to talk to and teams I'm not allowed to talk to? Because trust me, whether it's, you know, pick, Pick your coaching agents out there, right? Whether it's Neil or Glassie or whether it's Gil Scott, like all of them right now are probably looking at this going like,

we might want to do something about the contracts here. We just may end up getting more sophisticated coaching contracts. I'm really torn because I do want Cassidy to coach the Oilers. I do want guys who get removed from jobs to be able to get other jobs, even though they might be under contract because they're not wanted anymore by the people that signed them. And then there's a part of me

that really loves what Vegas is doing to screw over division rivals and more importantly, shatter the norms of this league. Like anything that happened that makes me think of like Colin Campbell saying, oh, this is the way it's always been done.

I'm in favor of shattering that norm. I think Colin Campbell was probably the first guy to step up and be like, you fire a guy, you let him get. another job. It's not NHL way. And I'm just like, oh, please, please just never let this man work for another year.

But at the same time, then the flip side of that is, okay, that it just becomes that much more corporate with everything spelled out in these now all of a sudden sophisticated, more sophisticated contracts. Take your pick. I know. Yeah. Like that's the way it'll head. Coaching contracts will go from smoke-filled meetings on the Wirtz's boat to corporate retreats

like Bettman's board of governor's meetings did. Look, man, I want you to be able to trade coaches. I want those days back. Bring me those days. That would be fantastic. Executives and coaches.

I imagine the bounty some of these teams could get for an assistant general manager these days. My God, that's an asset. You know what? I hadn't even thought about like trading players for coaches.

There you go. Okay. So we want to Kevin Shevleday off. Who says no. And on that, we'll wrap up. you. Thank you, Greg Wyshinsky. Enjoy the rest of your day.

We're going to be, by the way, for Thursday, when Greg's back, by the way, we're going to be recording a show earlier that day, and we will tell you why. We do that. But that's coming up as Greg returns on Thursday. Zach, that was a lot. Anything in there that was interesting to you before we remind our friends here of all the reasons why you should use Airbnb? I mean, there was a lot of important stuff, but the one that is sticking out to me the most is I actually thought about it the other day about the idea of companies putting in non-competes with their employees and then relating it to the Bruce Cassidy situation. So you guys bringing that up now. I thought it was pretty funny. And I was

like thought about it. I was like, ah, that would never work. And then I moved on in my brain. And lo and behold, it was important enough for you guys to bring up here on the show. So I just thought that was interesting. And I like the idea of you can't speak to in division or in conference, but you could speak to those guys over there on the other side of the country, because that's okay with us. We'll only see you twice a year. I kind of like that idea. Why not?

Like, let's get a little crazy with these coaching contracts. There are no stupid questions. Let's trade coaches. Just so you know, listen, I'm in. There are no stupid questions, Zach. Only stupid people asking questions. So don't you ever be shy, sir, of just throwing them out there if you may indulge me for one second.

quick pause to remind you about our friends at AirB&B. Feeling at home when you're on the road. For me, that's the way to travel. You know, Zach and I have been doing a lot of travel lately, mainly to Western Canada for hockey games and interviews. Penticton and Colonna were gorgeous. If you've never been to the Okinawagon, do yourself a favor, no matter what time of year.

Highlights from the Okanagan for you, Zach. It was my first time out there, and I can't wait. to get back. It was amazing, trying to go in the summer and see some of the national parks and those kinds of things. You know, if you're heading out there, I've had great experiences staying in local and unique places on Airbnb. You know, you can really find something that fits what you need. And, Zach, because we do our shows and podcasts on the road a lot, we need a lot of space for our equipment. We can't be cramped. And we need to feel comfortable. Plus, it's always nice to find a place

with cool amenities like, I don't know, a pool table, outdoor space, or, I don't know you love this, a hot tub. It's also always nice to feel like you're going home as opposed to just going back to your room. Yeah, I think we all know that feeling. You know, I remember thinking this while we were at that cottage we booked on Airbnb last summer. While we're out on work trips like that, our place back home is just sitting there. So hosting our place on Airbnb could be a way to make use of that space on our own schedule and maybe have a little extra coming in while we're gone.

In Zach's case, maybe that means a few more additions to his junior hockey hat collection. What do you have now, Zach? I'm stocked up now. Kitchener, Brantford, Colonna, St. John. I'm hoping this isn't the end of it and I've got a lot more coming. We all need passions, folks. We all need passions. Your home might be worth more than you think.

find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host. We actually get a pause. Tonight, no NHL action. Western Conference kicks off tomorrow. Eastern Conference final kicks off on Thursday. So I'll be very curious to see what Zach comes up with for this. The sheet is powered by Fanduel. Get your brain working.

Play your game with Fanduel. It's the NHL season and Fandul is your home for all the action on the ice. From Blue Line to Batslip, we've got you covered all season. season with unique promos, live offerings, and more features to let you play your game. If you missed puck drop, don't sweat it. With a live same game parlay, you can build your bets up until the final buzzer. Download fan dual sports book today and play your game. Please pay responsibly 19 plus and physically located in Ontario.

If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2-600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. What are you juggling today, Zach? Yeah, so you can call this mailing it in. You call this cheating out or whatever you want to do on this. But I will have a full parlay for everybody tomorrow as the conference finals get underway. But for today, I just wanted to kind of showcase some of the stuff they have over on Fanduil right now. And some of that applies to specifically how you can bet on the conference finals.

So obviously the easiest thing that you can do would be taking a look at each of the individual series. You can see the avalanche and the knights. You can bet on a variety of different things. Whether you want to just bet on the winner, if you want to bet on how many games each team will win in, the exact, which I think the one thing that's really cool here, which you can see is the correct order. You could bet exactly how this goes, Jeff. So, you know, who wins game one, game two, game three. And you could bet exactly as it goes along, adding up to a big payout. But then one of the things that I did think was pretty interesting here, you could obviously do that for the Vegas-Colaroos series, the Carolina-Montreal series.

But then this is the one I love the most, head-to-heads in the conference finals. So if you want to bet who's going to get the most points in round three between McKinnon or Eichel, that is available. Natchez and Marner, Macar versus Theodore, Svetnikov versus Lovsky, Hudson, Gosses, Bear, and so on and so on. There's a lot of different combinations you could find. and all of those are available over on Fandual right now. And then as you get further and further along, you can also bet on an updated list of your Eastern Conference winners into the Stanley Cup winner.

And who plays who in the Stanley Cup final, as well as your Con Smythe winner as well. So that is all available on Fandual. And then tomorrow I will have Parles for tomorrow's first game of the conference final. What are the things that I do wonder about, Like the Buffalo Sabres, we're looking at the goat jersey. Yeah. And the NHS has had to wear it and you'll get fined.

Do you think if it's Colorado, Montreal on the final, the NHL will look at this and say, you should get one game with the Nordiques in there in Montreal. So you jump in here if I'm off base on this, but I was reading something that said that the NHL had approved that Buffalo could wear it? No, they see. They said, well, if you know where are you going to get, you'll get fine.

Okay, okay. So it was just flat out, no. I don't know. Then if they said no, then I'm going to assume they've got to stick to that, especially after what they've done of being such hard asses on the Vegas Golden Knights, where they've said, hey, you've broken these rules. You can't do it. Then I don't see them allowing it.

But that's one of those things where I think the NHL needs to abolish this. You've got to let them wear some other jerseys here. in the playoffs. Like if the sabres came out last night and they were wearing the goathead jerseys, I think that would have been pretty awesome. And so unfortunately, they looked at it and said, we're not going to eat the fine. We're not going to deal with the consequences of this. So they avoid it. But that would have been pretty cool if they came out. What, like, what do we need to be so strict on the jersey thing for? What does it matter? Who cares? There is a, again, like, basically, I'm with you. But again, I don't work in,

marketing in sales and there are strategies for all of this to maximize brand awareness jersey sales all these types of things so i don't pretend it's like i don't pretend to be an expert on contract law i will not pretend to be an expert on jersey sales and why things are done fair enough and why there's a finite amount of times you can wear your thirds and i get i get the part about you know market confusion etc i don't know man If it ends up being Colorado and Montreal, what's everyone going to talk about? Not everyone.

Some of the olds, like me. It's the Nordiques and the Montreal Canadians, man. They're talking about it. They've won them this year already, man. Like, look, Montreal is playing Hartford Whalers right now. Playing Hartford Whalers. They can play the Hartford Wailers and the Quebec Nordiques. They make it in the Stanley Cup final.

V two WHA teams. Which is kind of a cool concept, but the NHL won't allow it. Dan, then, then, dan, dan. It's great. It would be awesome to have fun. Just conversation starters. That's all it is.

I know. It would be fun to watch, though. Let Carolina wear their Hartford Whalers. The not happening league. The NHL. The NHL. Not happening league. That ain't happened.

Okay. We have, oh man, taking a lot of time today. But so we had a lot to get to. And a lot of laughs along the way. Thanks to Gail Winski, as always for Stop and Buy. He's back on Thursday. And thanks to Kevin Woodley from Ingoal magazine, who knows way more about goal tending than me and Zach

and you probably. So thanks to him for stopping by. Programme returns tomorrow. Brian Brook is aboard, civilian Wednesdays and all. So join us tomorrow, 1 o'clock Eastern. If you've already subscribed to the channel,

thank you. If you haven't, please consider doing so. Thanks to everybody in the chat. Thanks for your ears. Thanks for your eyeballs. Thanks for your fingers. As you type away during the chat,

we thank you for all of it. We're back tomorrow, one o'clock Eastern. Chip, your Zamboni driver. Thanks for the buns. Use of the Hall. The sheet turns tomorrow at 1. Eastern.

Last night of a day this month, I can't get