The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Heading West ft. Bob Stauffer & Cory Lavalette

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

Bob Stauffer and Cory Lavalette join Jeff Marek on the Sheet. Discussing Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals between the Edmonton Oilers and Dallas Stars, recapping the first game of the Florida and Carolina Eastern Conference finals, and monitoring the NHL off seasonShout out to our sponsors!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Ninja Kitchen Canada: https://www.ninjakitchen.ca/products/ninja-crispi-4-in-1-portable-glass-air-fryer-cooking-system-zidFN101CGY?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=olv&utm_campaign=25Q2-Crispi&utm_content=en👍🏼Budweiser: https://www.budweiser.ca/ca_enReach 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/@Flames_Nation🚨 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-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, Jeff Merrick here. Let me tell you about Cozy. Everyday home furnishings made easy. Cozy is modern, built for real life, practical, and designed to make your day-to-day feel a little lighter. You need to refresh your living room? Cozy makes it simple. Shopping for furniture shouldn't feel like a chore. Cozy makes it easy to breathe and easy to enjoy the process. It's your home, your way. With Cozy, you can unlock endless possibilities. Its modular design grows with you. Add, rearrange, or swap pieces on your sofa, no problem.

Stylish selections and design assistance to help you every step of the way. Transform your living space today with Cozy. Visit Cozy.ca, C-O-Z-E-Y.ca, the home of possibilities made easy. A day like this, you dismiss all formalities off the top and all the trivialities off the top and all the tee-ups off the top because Bob Stauffer is very much in demand and they are demanding him at the rink. Game one, Oilers facing off against the Dallas Stars. We're going to get a hot 15 from the Radio Color commentator for the Edmonton Oilers,

the host of Oilers Now and regular panelists on the Oilers Regional Broadcast. He is Bob Stauffer. We're kicking it off with the man. Bob, how are you today? How is life in Dallas in advance of game one? Well, I can't think, Jeff, of any place I'd rather be than Dallas. I mean, when you're one of the final four teams playing, that's what it's all about. Everybody else in the league is watching you.

And, you know, it's all about. And everybody else in the league is watching you. And, uh, you know, it's, uh, it's about 90 degrees. I walked back after, uh, the morning, uh, skate today and the availability of Chris Knobloch and Jack Michaels is going to do the game on the radio with me tonight. Uh, you felt the heat a little bit, but I get the sense that, you know, there's, there's an expectation in the trajectory of an organization where you want to be, and this is where they want to be. So I'm in a very, in a very good mood, to say the least. So here becomes the question. And I mean, here we go.

These two teams meeting once again. Uh, the obvious position about Dallas is listen, they've improved. Uh, Miko Rantanen, Granlin comes in CC on the back end. Lee and Bichelle has been a nice, uh, been a nice find this year for them. Probably, you know, didn't, I mean, Jim Nill didn't have to go big game hunting for a, for a big blue liner because of Bichelle's emergence. I think him and Petro Bic have been really good, uh, together in these playoffs and in a bottom pairing capacity. Here becomes the question.

How much better are the Oilers? And I know we're not gonna see Mathias at home probably till the middle of the series, but how much better are the Oilers this time around? Well, it's funny you mentioned they're different. Like they're a lot different than they used to be. You know, from November the 9th until February 6th, Edmonton had the best record in the NHL

during those three months. They got off to a poor start and I mean they went to the seventh game of the Stanley Cup final and if Dmitry Kulikov doesn't pull the puck out of the net and they don't go up and score maybe Everton maybe were but the reality of the situation is Everton's got a very different makeup and complexion to the team. They don't have the same team speed at forward, not having the likes of specifically McLeod and Holloway and to a lesser extent Fogel. But what did happen is Stan Bowman when he took over made some subtler additions, put Coles in, plays a heavier game, plays a heavier game, can skate, picked up a cap in our waivers for depth. But he identified, he told me, Jeff, back in November,

we gotta upgrade the defense. We gotta get at least one, possibly two more puck movers. So they brought in Klingberg, and then none of the big trade breakers had Jake Wallman being out there from San Jose, and the others gave up a first round pick, but what's probably gonna be a 25th to 30th sort of pick to get Wallman. And I think it salvaged their year.

They added Trent Frederick, they didn't trade away. Evander Kane, he was on LTIR. And so we finally have started to see what the others can be in the playoffs. They are a complete, to me, they're a different team than last year. They're an older, more experienced team. The puck does the work.

They're not as reliant on guys transporting it because they can transition it. And I think right now their defense is better than it was last year. And I mean, Vincent D'Arnais, with all due respect to Vinny, he's a great guy. I mean, he played the first three games of the Dallas series and then I had to pivot to Philip Roberg in game four.

And I don't think there's any way to underscore. I didn't think Klingberg would be as good as he's been. I didn't think Kane would be as good as he's been. I thought Walden could be a pretty effective player, uh, but they have a different dimension on the back end. Stetcher came back in a game four against Vegas. He plays very well with nurse. So, you know, there ain't one in their last nine playoff games and they've

dominated three of those games, like where they've been infinitely superior to two pretty good hockey clubs, you know, LA and game five and then against the Vegas Golden Knights in game one and game four. So, uh, it's clear that we all know how good Dallas is one of the best run organizations, the league well coached, all that. They're a real team. They're a good team. This is three years in a row for them. But this is three out of four for Edmonton. And I don't think people should sleep on Edmonton's forward depth.

And Jeff, they rolled over the four lines in overtime, right? They didn't sit there and load Connally up in overtime. They just rolled over the four lines in overtime, right? They didn't sit there and load conically up, up in overtime, they just rolled over the four lines against Vegas. So I think they're a different team, an older, more mature team, maybe a little bit more physical upfront, and probably a little bit better in the puck,

moving in the back end than people realize. One of the things that I've, that I've kind of marveled at here with the Oil is, because like everybody, Bob, like we're like, okay, so is it just like they turn the switch in the playoffs and things are different and they get it like I know there was that stretch where they're the best team in the NHL but the one thing that I come come lately I've been coming back to is this idea that late in the season the Oilers took a major negative and that was the injury so Connor and Leon and Hyman and Kane and Frederick like all these injured players

They turn that into a positive because all of a sudden like you mentioned pod Colson Okay, you mentioned like Yan mark all these Connor Brown like everybody is playing up a little bit like they have that experience now Late in the season playing higher in the lineup to me That paid off against LA that paid off against the Vegas Golden Knights. All the big boys come back, but as you've seen it, like everybody's scoring here. Everyone's playing with a confidence that we haven't seen the Oilers play with in a long time. And I can't help but thinking, and maybe I'm reaching for something that's not there.

You're there. You're around the team. You can tell me if I'm on base or off base here. I think it's because with all those injuries, all these other guys played higher in the lineup, did well, and now there's that confidence that they're skating with. Am I just making something up in my own head here, Bob? No, no, you're, Jeff, you're totally on it because you get it and you understand the feel of it. I mean, the reality is the final 14 games of the season, and not one of those 14 games that both Connor and Leon play. The last time Edmonton played Dallas was in Edmonton. The stars built up a four, nothing lead. McDavid and dry settle were out on the lineup and Edmonton absolutely tilted the ice in the final 35 minutes of the game, made a game of it. They lost four or three.

They almost tied it on a, you know, a game time goal in the final minute. And they outshot the stars 44 to 24 without McDavid and Dry Settle in the lineup. Everybody and remember that doesn't include Kane and Frederick. They didn't have those guys who were, you know, one guy's playing third line left wing. It's completely different player than it was a year ago at this time. And then Frederick's given them a dimension as well. So they had lots of guys out, lots of players got opportunities. The coach is, you know, one of the things he did, and we all like Jay Woodcroft, but the others used 23 forward tandem units on the PK in the first 13 games of the season in 23, 24.

And Chris came in and gave identifiable roles to every player. And then he tried to keep Connor off the PK but Connor back on the PK a little bit against LA and more so against Vegas partially because of what they were doing. But he diversified the minutes and it's so Connor Leon have played less going into this series than they have in the two previous conference final appearances at Edmonton's had. Their time on ice is down from those two playoff years. So the orders are less reliant on those top end guys. They've got more people. They've got mature, experienced players that have been in these situations before. And that run last year helped out as well. You know, it's interesting. Whenever someone mentions Connor McDavid on the penalty kill, you were there to see the

genesis of all of it. I can recall, I can't remember the year, but I mean, Edmonton would run out, um, Matt Hendricks and Laurie Korpakowski. Those were the two penalty killers. It was late in the season, all of a sudden on a whim on a, I don't know what they said, and they started firing out Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent Hopkins. And all of a sudden the, the, the complexion of the PK totally changed. And it's funny because it's such a copy cat league and all of a sudden the, the, the, the complexion of the PKA totally changed. And it's funny because it's such a copy cat league and all of a sudden other

teams started to do that where once upon a time it was just dive in front of pox, jump in front of pox, take it off the shin pads, take it off the hips. All of a sudden, now you have skill guys out there that are playing a pressure defense and a pressure penalty kill and everything changed, Bob. But they didn't, they, the truth of the matter is from, you know, when Chris took over on like November, I guess, 11th of twenty twenty three, really until midway through the L.A. series. And it was because L.A. was running five forwards on their first power play unit and were quite affected.

Yeah. Chris didn't use he didn't use Connor and he took Leon off even though Leon was their best face off man. He Leon didn't get, he didn't use Connor and he took Leon off, even though Leon was their best face off man. He, Leon didn't get used on the PK as well. Um, but those guys, we know this about McDavid and Dry Settle, the numbers speak for themselves. They deliver comp. I mean, Leon Dry Settle against Calgary two years in 22 playoffs had 17 points on five in five games with a high ankle spring.

Like Darrell Sutter said after the game we got beat by one player was he referring to Leon or was he talking about Connor like those guys McDavid dry subtle and Bouchard since the start of the 22 playoffs are the three highest scoring players of the league nobody can debate whether or not they show up they just you know they lost game seven of a Stanley Cup final bounce it could have gone either way now that said Jeff Yeah, you can make an argument They might have been lucky to have beaten Dallas right like Dallas lost game one at home last year But David got a double minor right to start the first overtime period

Letters killed it off and then McDavid wins game one with an OT winner The orders were down two games to one in that series back home in Edmonton game four down to nothing and on the ropes And the orders flipped the switch and then in game six Skinner made 33 saves orders got out shot 34 10 by Dallas and the orders won the game two one so you know that's how tight it is you lose the series or win a series in six or seven you know it can now if it's reoccurring year after year after year like maybe Toronto, there's greater criticism, but I, I got it. It's gotta be stated. What cool beliefs have been playing? They've been playing Boston, Tampa, and Florida. Like those teams are powerhouse. They're not the easiest teams to beat,

but the one thing about the orders guys is McDavid and Dry Cytle elevate and they care. And they, they defend like they were defensive. Jeff on the comments about the ability to defend. We briefly talked about Connor with Connor about the power play on Saturday. I brought it up again yesterday. I brought up how good the analytics were in the power play. He's like, I don't care at the analytics

or we have to be better on the power play. And that's him taking ownership out of an area that has to improve. Cause the orders know how good Dallas is on special teams. Okay. Uh, I got one hot question left for you. Cause I know you got to get to the ring. I'm not even getting this, Bob, this isn't even going to be a question.

I'm going to be the most irresponsible host I can possibly be right now. I'm just going to say a name to see your reaction. Stuart Skinner. So it's an intro.22, 901 last year. That was the same percentage of the two goalies. So I've Jeff, I've watched Stuart Skinner since the 1213 season. That was a lockout year. And I played for the South Side Athletic Club at Edmonton.

They had a kid named Tyler Benson. You know who he is. I remember he shot the lights out. Everyone thought superstar guaranteed. Right, so I'd go down and go see him play. And James Hamlin was on that team, and Stuart Skinner as well. So three guys off that team.

Now that's the athletic club I played for with Guy Gdowski, who's the head coach at Penn State. So I'd go down and see him play, and they'd play Sherwood Park, and Sherwood Park had Carter Hart, and they had Sam Steen. Like there were some really good players. And all I thought of when I watched Stuart Skinner was, because Carter Hart and they had Sam Steele. Like there were some really good players. And all I thought of when I watched Stuart Skinner was,

cause Carter Hart was seen as probably the better technical goaltender, but Skinner was big. Like, and I'm like, these guys are both gonna make it. Like I was completely convinced they were both gonna play. And you know, I interviewed Jim Neal today for our show and he talked about goalies being 26 and you don't wanna, like they reached their height at 30 31 Skinners from Edmonton he understands the pressure and for whatever reason he seems to be able to

recalibrate after a tough stretch in the playoffs and play pretty well that's what happened last year they're going to need that to continue this year because the rest of the teams that are left not which is not to say that LA and Vegas weren't real teams, they're good teams too, but there's no freebies. You're going to need goaltending. So I think Skinner has a chance to continue to improve and evolve. Will they be considered, you know, in the same light as a guy like Jake Otter? Probably not, but he wasn't last year either. And he, you know, he had a pretty good series for the orders to help him win Absolutely. All right. Listen, I know you got a hustle. Thanks for for popping by really appreciate the time you be well Best to Jack and enjoy game one. Yeah calling in time. Take care. See you John

There is the great Bob Stauffer from Oilers now radio color commentator for the Edmonton Oilers and you watch him on panels During your Edmonton Oilers regional games. All right So that's a quickie there with Bob. He had a brief window for us and we're like, Bob, we'll take it. So let's get to what's coming up on the program today. Daily Outlines presented and powered by FanDuel. Make every moment more with North America's

number one sports book, our friends at FanDuel. And you just heard from Bob Stauffer and game one is later on tonight. Connor Brown game time decision, we'll get there in a couple of of moments curry lavalette will be stopping by in a couple of moments Let's talk about what we saw in game one yesterday Between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Florida Panthers and if anyone saw my give-and-take or back and forth with Chris Pronger over the weekend Pronger won that based on what we saw yesterday in game one. We'll get into that in a couple of moments We'll do a little bit more on the Oilers and the Stars coming up later

on this evening. Florida and Carolina. Shane Gostis-Bear doing his best impression of 2007 Daniel Alfredson. A couple of little notes here on coaches and who may end up where and it looks like Brendan Shanahan. Well I shouldn't say she looks like. Brendan Shanahan has well I shouldn't say she looks like. Brendan Shanahan has been granted permission to talk to the New York Islanders, but a top management position there. We'll get into that still to come on the program today.

Corey Lavallette's gonna stop by here in a couple of moments. In the meantime, Zach, when you looked at yesterday's game, like I had a back and forth with Pronger over the weekend on TwitterX, and my whole point was the winner in this, with Austin Matthews scoring and Max Patcher ready and going to a game seven, I said the big winners here are gonna be the Carolina Hurricanes. And Pronger came back and said,

well, maybe not so fast, you can get a little bit sleepy with too much time off, the Florida Panthers are on a roll. The Florida Panthers are in a groove. Actually, he didn't say Panthers. Whoever wins the series is gonna be on a roll, in a groove. And that is exactly what happened in game one. But, and we'll get into this with Lavalette in a second, that did not look like the Carolina Hurricanes to me.

They did not look crisp. They did not look like that team. Now mind you, they're playing against, you know, metropolitan division teams. And as we mentioned before, when you play in the Atlantic, you know about your team fast. You know all the flaws, all the flaws get exposed. And perhaps that's what Florida did last night to the Carolina Hurricanes. But I still think that this is a much better Carolina Hurricanes team than they showed last night. One of the things that was interesting is Carolina tried to play like the Florida Panthers.

We'll get to Corey in a second. Get your thoughts on that one. Did Carolina do their best impression of Florida last night? I thought they did. It was kind of interesting. I thought the biggest mark that they made was the, what is it that you say in this time of year, the blue ice? Oh, the gravity.

It has more gravity. I don't know what it is. Like, you just put blue on ice and all of a sudden people fall down. Grade 11 physics was my last physics class. Maybe someone more intelligent with a taller forehead than me can explain it, but I just look at you, blue ice, blue paint on ice and guys fall down quick. Don't know what it is. I – I –

I understood that and I appreciated that effort put forth by the Canes to do that but I thought it was interesting because what I saw from them in Series 1 and Round 2 against Washington and against New Jersey was they were like, we play this way, we're gonna wear you down, good luck. Like let's see how you do when we do this. Florida, we talked about how when they played at the Maple Leaf specifically, they were like, come get in the mud, come over here, let's play this game, get in the mud.

I was surprised to see Carolina start to go down that road. Like I know Carolina can play heavier hockey. They can play that physical style, but like some of the stuff that Florida does is what they started to do. And I thought that was interesting because it was like, that's not what you do. And then you saw the Panthers take control of that one.

I just thought it was interesting to see which team is going to be the one to break from, we do this, come join us. And last night it was the Panthers dragging in the Canes. I didn't expect that to be honest. We're getting into the Pacifics as we say in the Atlantic about the Carolina hurricanes here in a couple of moments with Cory Lavallette and Zach hates it when I use that bad pun. In the meantime-

I just heard you use it way too many times. That's all. In the last couple of weeks you've used it way too many times. That's all. In the last couple of weeks, you've used it way too many times. Hang around, man. You're gonna trust me. You're gonna hate working with me. You've only done a few months.

Try a few years. Coax Jeff Domette, who's now producing over at The Athletic, what it's like working with me for a number of years. Your motor home or travel trailer, ladies and gentlemen, isn't just for getaways. It is a moneymaker on wheels. Most RVs sit parked in the driveway. With RV-EZ, you can rent out your motorhome or travel trailer and earn over $20,000 this year.

Founded, owned, and operated by Canadians, RV-EZ takes care of everything, including full insurance coverage provided for every rental. And best of all, you choose when to rent and set your own pricing. List your RV for free today at rvezy.com. That's rvezy.com. RV easy, rent your RV, make money easy. He is our friend whenever, well, he's always our friend. And whenever we wanna talk about the Carolina Hurricanes, he's always our first call.

He's the senior editor for the Nurse State Journal. He is on the Carolina hurricane's beats, writes for the athletic and has a great picture on his Twitter X feed of broken teeth. Now who's, hang on, if you follow Corey, you know what I'm talking about here. Whose teeth are those? They're my son's teeth from when he was a little kid.

Actually my Brody, I know you have a Brody as well. I have a Brody too, yeah. Which we chatted about our intersecting quasi-jaws. Yes, correct. Links to that, yeah. So they were his and I mean, before I was even, I was writing for SB Nation for Kane's Country and doing some stuff for Hockey's Future and all that.

When I had another real job, was just had a Twitter feed for fun and it's been that way forever and I don't know it makes people really mad I don't know why it's just a picture. And you know Elliot actually actually switched to an image like that for a brief time years ago yeah and there was a bunch of hey you can't do that. That's already taken. That's corny. It's corny.

Sorry. Well, listen, I threw something out there about 45 minutes ago and someone, and I apologize I don't have the person's name handy, sent me this. Now I don't know if you follow Science Girl on Twitter X. It's one of my favorite follows, at Guns N' Roses Girl 3. It's an of my favorite follows at Guns N' Roses Girl 3. It's an outstanding feed. And what she put out about 12 hours ago, researchers at King's College London,

hey, listen, hockey players, pay attention. Researchers at King's College London have successfully grown a tooth in a laboratory setting, potentially changing the future of fillings and implants and maybe hockey players everywhere. They can now make teeth in a laboratory. Coriolavolette, do you have a thought on that before we talk about the games? That just makes me think about, uh, what is it?

My big fat Greek wedding where the aunt talks about having the second baby, that she absorbed the second baby in the womb and that he found teeth in her shoulder or something. That's all I can think of is that nightmare. All right. All right, we'll park that conversation then, Lyle. Okay, so last night's game, I'm trying to make the point

with Zach a couple of seconds ago, and I think Zach was pretty much on point with this, uh, little rusty. Like, I don't think that's the same Carolina hurricanes that, well, it's not that we saw against New Jersey and Washington floor is a different beast, but I don't expect to see that Carolina hurricanes team in game two. Just, they just seemed a little bit off a little too, if it's possible, a little too rested and not quite as sharp as we're used to. You cover them consistently. They just seemed a little bit off, a little too, if it's possible, a little too rested and not quite as sharp as we're used to. You cover them consistently.

What did you see last night out of the team you cover on a 24-7 basis? Yeah, I posited that to Will Carrier this afternoon and he shrugged it off as no, we play all season. Basically, we have to get prepared in different situations. That's not really what's what's going on. I do think there's there's something to that. You know, to me, the biggest thing that's standing out right now, and I hate to pin it on one guy and a potential injury is Jordan Martinuk does not look like the Jordan Martinuk we've seen the last two and a half seasons. He blocked a shot in game three off his foot, um, you know, limped off the ice. And I think maybe there's something serious there.

He hasn't really practiced. He did the morning skate yesterday, um, but he's been taking practices off. He came out for a practice during that break. Um, and, uh, pretty much shook his head and came off the ice immediately. So he's a, he's in one of those situations where he's probably you know popping a pill and jumping on the ice for for the game and and trying to To power through and that's it. You know, I'm not enough people talk about him, but that's a huge huge loss to To what they do is just that little half a step that he doesn't seem to have right now is It's really tough to make that up, especially when you're a key penalty killer, you're on

the checking line that does such a good job, all of those things. So I'm a little that that worries me as you know, on top of Jalen Chatfield's a big part of what they do out there missing him too. So I yeah, I think the time off probably did that and getting behind early, that's not, you know, when they get ahead, they're almost impossible to beat. I mean, you don't see them relinquish leads. But being behind and then going down too, I tried to look back and the Panthers hadn't given up a two goal lead in the playoffs since like 2013 or something. You're just, you're not gonna,

you know, come back from two down against that team. You know, we talk a lot about, like I live just a little bit north of Toronto and that's the team where I end up most, most nights than not. A lot of talk about, you know, the ghosts, you know, ever the ghosts in every teapot, ghosts around every corner for the Toronto Maple Leafs. How much of a conversation is there around this team about the Eastern Conference final and not being able to win a game going back to where it was in 2006? Yeah, I think it was Dan Rosen today who asked Rod that question and you could tell he didn't love it. Shocking.

And he asked you, I think Jacob Slaven was asked that too as well. And Jacob was like, you know, I wasn't even here in 2009. So what does that mean to me? Leafs get it all the time. Hey, how about 67? One black and white. I don't, I don't think they love that. And it, you know, you gotta, you gotta be careful with those things. They become narratives and they eat away at you. And, you know, does that mean anything changes if they do win one game? I don't know. I mean, the Panthers aren't going to carry either way. If, if the Hurricanes win, win one game in this series or don't win any, you know, they're, they're going to try to do their business in seven games, whether it takes four or seven.

So but yeah, I mean, I think it's a veteran enough team now. You know, you've got a couple of young guys there. Jackson Blake looked a little look like the moment was a little big for him at the start of the game last night. I thought he settled in well. Logan Stankov and I thought looked really good. Scott Morrow really had a tough time. That's a tough, tough, tough situation.

He had a tough night. And like I said, I mentioned Chatfield and if he can't go, your options are limited. Alexander Nikitian is immensely talented. He didn't look great in the game five. Had a couple of moments where he looked good. He did it against Ovechkin, which you can say is good or you can say, well, that's the most immobile guy on the ice that you should be

able to keep up with him. He threw Mangy a panty around pretty good. Yeah, yeah, that's true. So yeah, so that's a tough night for a couple of young guys, I think, that you need those moments, but everyone else has been through this. They really don't have that excuse. I don't think anyone's gonna panic there. Okay, to the violence.

So Shane Gostis, Baron Bradmar Schan, 2007 Daniel Alfertson and Scott Niedermeyer in the Stanley Cup final. Aaron Echblad, you just mentioned Jason Blake. There's another elbow from Aaron Echblad. And then there's Andrei Svetsnikov channeling his internal Sam Bennett on Anthony Stolarz. I'll tell you what, and Zach and I were talking about this before the show.

I believe this is deliberate from the Carolina Hurricanes. They are going hard at the show. I believe this is deliberate from the Carolina Hurricanes. They are going hard at the net, almost as if to say, we know they're gonna do it to Freddie, so let's do it to Bob before they get a chance. Agree or disagree? And I think it happens to Freddie in almost every series. I think every team knows if you bump this guy around,

he could end up hurt. It happened in the New Jersey series You know, I don't I don't think it was intentional from Timo Meyer But you know, Freddie gets run over and all of a sudden he's out of the game So yeah, I mean those are the games you play in the postseason. I don't think anybody's out to try to Necessarily hurt a goalie, but I think you do want to kind of get in their cage a little bit, rattle them up a little bit. Um, so, you know, we'll see where that goes. The gas to spare stuff to me. I mean, yeah, he probably overreacted that. I haven't heard that there's probably a fine coming.

I don't think anything. I don't think anything. I think, I think there's nothing from any of that last night. Nothing. I don't think there's any, but to be honest with you, 90% of, of history would say that would be Brad Marshawn doing something like that. And then getting a power play out of it. And that situation, Shane Gostis bear gets a power. I mean, the game's over by then, but he's, but he's still, but he still comes out on top in that situation. So I mean, do you hate, do you absolutely hate that he did that? No, he probably didn't

love that he got into a fight and never got his gloves off, but yeah, it was a kind of rewatching it now. Brad didn't love that. Yeah, so I mean, I don't hate that. I don't hate that they've kind of leaned a little more into being physical and tough and trying to dispel this idea.

I'll tell you what, if we can, uh, you can maybe isolate the moment. I'm sort of doing this on the fly with Zach. If you can go back to like, if Goss this bear doesn't get his own stick up. When Marshan is coming at him, we're probably looking at a suspension here for, for Brad Marshan. Like if you can go back to it. So Marshan gets hit and Gostesbierre turns away, looks over his shoulder and surprise, surprise,

Marchand's coming in, stick high to his face, right? Like that's just pure anger. If Gostesbierre doesn't get that stick up to defend himself, you know, and it's interesting in the playoffs, sometimes guys will say, all right, I'll take one for the team. And if Gostis-Bear at that moment, again, game's over, like it's empty calorie time, but for these two

teams, if Gostis-Bear just says, all right, I'll take one in the mush here, we're probably looking at a Brad Marshand suspension. If he doesn't get a suspension. And he might, he might need that new technology that grows teeth from King's College in London. come on, let's go. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, in Marchant, you know, for everything Marchant does that's right about being a good agitator, he has crossed lines plenty of times.

Yeah. You know, and I think he's tried to paint the picture that he's passed that, but you're not wrong. I mean, that could have, that could have turned, uh, turned a bad way for him. And, uh, he, you know, that line has been so good for Florida all postseason. They really asked that they can't afford something like that. Let me, uh, let me, um, go back to a conversation about Scott Moro and I should have followed up, but thankfully Lopin in the, in the, in the chat says Nikitian back in

After that game by more if Chatfield can't go like is that the the feeling? Around the team at this point or too early to say I Mean, I think that's the way you have to go right now if you don't go You know if you can't get Chatfield back in I don't think you can put more back in there was He had a tough time and you know, I feel bad for him because it's, you know, it's your, it's your NHL playoff debut and now all of a sudden everyone's thinking you can't play in this league and he still has a bright future. He's a, he's a good young player. Um, it's a tough situation. You know,

you're going against, you know, the best team in the world and you, you know, kind of got fed your lunch a little bit so but yeah I think you know you probably lean toward Nikitian I haven't seen a whole lot of you know Riley Stillman or or Ty Smith getting those opportunities in practice that would suggest that Rod Brindemore would put them in over Nikitian should you know should Chad Field not be able to go I I'm kind of I'm starting to feel like chat feel might be ready to go he was out there again this morning skating and. You know they need him he's a very important piece I don't think a lot of people know how good he's been all year and kind of the recovery he allows and you know.

Rod brindlemore made the point of you know you lose a guy like him and it's a loss, but it also knocks everything else out of kilter. You know, I mean, you've got Sean Walker playing with Dmitri Orlov. They haven't played together all year. The Hurricanes and the Capitals were the two teams in the league who played their sixth defenseman the most. You know what happened to the Capitals? They lost Farahvari and it hurt them. They missed him big time really desperately

and the hurricane defense yeah miss miss chaffields right now and chaffield might not be their fastest jacob slaven is is close too but he erases a ton of mistakes with his acceleration he is a quick quick quick player uh and especially when you're playing with a guy like orloff who's not maybe the fleet is to foot um he's so important and you know, they miss him, they miss him. But that's what class is about, right? You've got to fight through these injuries. I didn't love that Rod Brindamore kind of was like, well, you know, we, we've had injuries and, you know, well, everybody has injuries right now.

You know, everyone's going through it. Everyone's you've got to, you know, you've got to find ways to make your way through that. make your way through that. Freddie Anderson, uh, conversation is an interesting one going back and forth with, with someone last night watching the game and, um, coming to the sort of conclusion that not, not that the Carolina hurricanes need Freddie Anderson to channel his inner Dominic Hachick meets Patrick Waugh meets Marty Bordur meets Glen Hall. But this isn't a team that is going to outscore you like the Oilers can. Like, not that all of it is predicated on, on, on Freddie

Anderson stealing periods, but not that I'm going to pin everything on Freddie Anderson, all those goals last night, but if Freddie Anderson isn't, isn't stealing a couple that should have gone in, it's, it can be a tough night for the Carolina Hurricanes. Like, you know, Svetlana Kovtsov has snapped in eight. He's been great. Um, but it's not as if it's a, it's a murderer's row of goal scorers. Yeah.

Do you have a thought on what Anderson means to this team right now? Not just necessarily stopping pucks, but also making sure that Carolina doesn't have to try to pump five behind the future Hall of Famer on the Florida crease. Yeah. I mean, it's not a, I'm certainly not a knight he's going to remember and be excited about.

I don't, you know, there wasn't the, you know, Photoshop a beach ball behind him kind of moment in that game or anything. I think, you know, the Panthers finished their chances and the Verhage goal is just a heck of a backhand, you know, really good play. Good player. You know, yeah, yeah. So, you know, not a great night for Freddie. They need him, but you're right. They need they need him to you know be the goalie he was in the first two rounds nobody stopped more expected. You know expect had a better expected goals saves above expected goals and fredderick anderson in the first two rounds and then last night. You know five in on twenty shots you know there's no way you're coming out positive on that no matter what what the chances were like. So I think a lot of a lot of him. There's a lot of Martin bro door and I don't want to say Frederick Anderson's Martin bro door, but there's a lot of when the team in front of him is playing well. of defense that can make that big save and when the team in front of him maybe isn't playing as great he's not a steal a game kind of goalie i think peter kachetkov has has steal a game goalie potential freddy's not really that guy most nights he's more of a uh steady and he's going

to give you a chance to win most nights and you know i don't think any goalie in the league that you dropped in last night was going to make a difference in that game necessarily. Do you have a thought on Ajo? Um, sound the siren, Carolina Hurricanes fan cast chiming in on the chat. Uh, Ajo needs to bury breakaway and multiple two on one chances that have to be had. Not that you want to pin everything offensively. I mean, especially I've been mentioned by Sebastian Copp, but like Ajo,

Ajo drives it. Like Aho stirs a drink. Like that's this, these are the moments here for Sebastian Aho. Do you ever thought on him? Well, the goal he got last night, which was off his skate, was his first even strength goal of the postseason.

And he started- Did you think there should have been any dispute, by the way? I know that there's plenty of you know who fans that are like, hold on a second here, hold on a second. Yeah, I mean, the rule is you can't propel it into the net, which to me is you see the puck sitting in front of you and you take a swing at it. That was an angling of his skate.

I guess his skate kicked back after the fact but he just angles it in I didn't have a problem with that goal you know it's a kind of a weird rule anyway you know as long as we don't have guys trying to like kick pucks while goalies are trying to cover them or while guys heads around I think I think as long as you're as long as your skate blade stays on the ice you're fine kick away as long as the skate blade stays on the ice, you're fine. Kick away. As long as the skate blade doesn't come off the ice. I know I might be opening up a can of worms here around the crease and I get that and

we're all sensitive to skate slashes, but to me, I've always looked at it like you can kick the puck anywhere around the ice except over the red line. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. But you know, I don't want to be critical of Ajo because he put in another good season. He's a great two-way player. I haven't found him to have as many dominant spurts this year as he's had in seasons past. He didn't really take over games for 10 game segments like he was capable of in recent years.

So you'd like to see him maybe get to that level where he's, you know, kind of taking over games a little bit, being the dominant scorer that I think. And I think Carolina gets criticized for not having a goal scorer. If you look at who scored the most goals over the last seven or eight years, I was right up there. And I mean, a lot of its consistency is not scoring 50 or 60 or even 40 a year. But every year you can count on him for 35. But they need him. I mean, he's he's super important.

And, you know, he's their best. He's their best forward for sure. I mean, I don't think anybody would debate that Jacob Slavin is probably their best player. But he's their best forward and they and they they need him to, um, you know, they need him to produce Seth Jarvis is his ideal running mate. He said, that's the guy that he feels like is the guy who should be alongside of him. He's got him there. He's got Svetlana Kov playing well on the other wing.

Uh, they need to produce it's that simple. And they like, you know, they did get a goal last night, but, um, you need those two goal games out of your top line in the playoffs to win games. Hey, Zach, watch this. You think I was going to like playing with Marner? Well, Rod, Brenda Moore did, uh, somebody, did you, did you hear that quote the other day where he said, somebody asked him about superstar players, blah, blah, blah, and he said they're coming.

And now everybody's got their conspiracy theories about the Hurricanes having whatever they have. It's Warner, it's Brock Nelson. It's, oh yeah, I know, it's, of course. It's good. Feed the beast, right? Feed the beast. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So. Keep it cranking. Okay, you know, we have a, so Spencer Newton says Taylor Hall needs to be the series X factor and make a huge impact." Do you have an X factor? We'll end on this one. Do you have an X factor player for Carolina in this series?

And then we haven't really touched on Florida much, but follow that up with maybe a thought on what you saw out of Florida in game one. I'll start with the Florida stuff. I think they were really good. You know, they have their fourth line was better than I thought it has been much of this postseason. And that's that's something that Hurricanes have done really well is, you know, their fourth line has been really, really good. And last night, I thought, you know, Florida probably had the

advantage on the fourth line. So, you know, I think Florida, obviously, if they can score on the power play against Carolina's penalty kill, they're going to walk away with this series. Carolina can't be giving up two goals a night on the power play, especially on three chances. You know, that's as many as they gave up in the whole first two rounds. So, so there's that. So, you know, that's important. As far as X factors, you know, I think Sean Walker to me has had a really, really good postseason. He's so, he's so good. And if they, if they can get Chatfield back, I think you get him back in the alongside

Gostis bear and it frees up Gostis bear that that pairing dominated even even on the road possession wise. Now Gostis bear didn't score a ton of goals, Walker didn't put up a ton of points at even strength, but we talked about it, the way the Hurricanes play, if you can have that rolling kind of, all right, here comes the third line and the fourth D pairing,

and they're playing in our end again, and maybe they're not scoring, but now, crap, here comes Ajo, and then, oh, here comes Sve and then oh, you know, here comes special cough and it just kind of when they can get that rolling so much of that is just you know those bottom lines those bottom pair that bottom pairing being able to do that even though they're not supposed to be that guy. So to me I think Sean Walker is an important important piece he's had a great playoffs he's a he's a

great little player player he's a great little player player. He's a really good player. So here becomes a question. Um, Luster, rain in maybe Lundell, maybe for Hagee leg. Who does Walker fire a puck off of in game two? Well, Luster in is a, is a hurricane draft pick, if you recall. Yes, he is very good. So that one. Yes.

Second round, second round pick from the Eric Hall a trade Hall of Famer yeah now yep yep now the much hated Eric Hall and Raleigh oh boy yeah it's vicious yeah and you know what Sean Walker is not a big guy but he's got a little bit of that fu in his game I like you know Gostis Barrel's surprising to see him react that way because that's not really his mo But Walker's a feisty little guy. He's pretty much in every scrum. He's probably the most willing willing out of those defensemen to really To really be in there and throw some guys around and and get involved so I wouldn't be surprised to see him do something

Everywhere he's gone. Everybody's on gone, Cory, everyone just goes, I didn't know he was that good. Like everywhere Sean Walker goes, I knew he was good, but I didn't know he was that good. He's really good. Nice player. Listen, always appreciate you stepping up and stopping by. All the best to Brody. Hope his teeth are okay. But if they're not, don't be worried. King's College, London, developing laboratory teeth now. I don't know why I'm so fascinated with this. Maybe because I got bad teeth.

I don't know. Like I have a chipped tooth here that I've never fixed. That goes back to a hockey stick I got when I was in like grade 12 in high school. I never got it fixed. I used to think that it was cool. Now I just think it looks stupid. But I've never gotten it fixed. You got to think about teeth, Cory.

You got to think about teeth. Well, the Hurricanes have an Invisalign sponsorship maybe the next time you're through Raleigh. You grab Tom Dundin and ask him if you can get on a, yeah, the best part about it is the elevator, the elevators have these Invisalign with the players on it and none of the players are smiling. I'm just like, what's the, okay. That's awesome. You're the best. Great smile, great information. Thanks, Corey, as always, pal. Thanks, pal. Hello, fans of podcasts. Max Rochton here from the Guardian Football Weekly, which I think you should give a listen.

It is good. It comes out three times a week, and the podcast delivers you analysis, news, both the good and the bad from the beautiful game, and maybe even the occasional fun. So, we're going to have a little bit of a fun, but we're going to have a little bit of fun. So, we're going to have a little bit of fun, but we're going to have a little bit of fun. So, we're going to have a little bit of fun.

So, we're going to have a little bit of fun. So, we're going to have a little bit of fun. So, we're going to have a little bit of fun. So, we're going to have a little bit of fun. So, we're going to have a little bit of fun. So, we're going to have a little bit of fun. So, we're going to have a little bit of fun. So, we're going to have a little bit of fun. So, we're going to have a little bit of fun. So, we're going to have a little bit of fun. So, we're going to have a little bit of It is good. It comes out three times a week and the podcast delivers you analysis, news, both the good

and the bad from the beautiful game and maybe even the occasional laugh. He's angry about everything. He doesn't have a great poker face, does he? I would like to play cards with Bruno Fernandes. You can listen to the Guardian Football Weekly wherever you get your podcasts. Hopefully see you soon. You can listen to The Guardian Football Weekly wherever you get your podcasts. Hopefully see you soon. There he is, the great Corey Lavallette who stops by from the Northstate Journal and covers the Carolina Hurricanes. You can read him in The Athletic as well and he's a regular here on this program.

Um, oh, Zacharoo, someone in the chat, who was it? I gotta find it here. Oh, it was Colton Davies. Colton Davies, who by the way, has a great piece up at dailyfaceoff.com, previewing this year's edition of the Memorial Cup, and not to overhype it too much, maybe we'll see what happens when the games start. This might be the best field I've ever seen with Ramoski and Monkton and London and Madison Hat. This one has

the makings of one of the best tournaments we've ever seen. Check out Colton's piece previewing the Memorial Cup at dailyfaceoff.com but he mentions as I glibly asked about Aho and Mitch Marner. Colton Davies in the chat, I don't know, Jeff Marner and Barzal sound like it could be fun too. So Shanahan goes to the Islanders and takes Mitch Marner along with him as the news of the day. CJ had this out, Elliot had this out.

That's the Islanders have asked for permission to talk to Brendan Shanahan and that permission has been granted. I don't think to anybody's surprise, I kind of always felt that Shanahan was going to end up in the New York area on one of the three teams, if it was going to be the end for the Toronto Maple Leafs. So he goes, another one, we send another one, hey, Maple maple leaf send another one from Toronto would to the islanders wouldn't that be kind of Poetic JT at the end of his time with the island

I like being here blah blah blah walks in free agency goes to Toronto Marlon Goes to the islands. So Taveras, Shannon, and Marner. I wasn't saying JT goes back. That's not what I was saying. I was saying Marner does to the Leafs, going to the Islanders, what JT did to the Islanders.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love the soap opera of all of it. And I think we all do, right? I love the soap opera of all of this. You know, I was having a conversation with a manager yesterday floating the idea of paying players to waive their no trades. Which he didn't like.

But he said, yeah, it would loosen up, would loosen up player movement, but nonetheless. That is one of the new stories of the day. Shanahan, in advance of a executive and management meeting at MLSC tomorrow, Shanahan has been granted permission to talk to the Islanders. So read the tea leaves on that one. Do you wanna go to the Ninja Crispy right now?

It does involve Shanahan. Oh yeah? You don't say. So, Crispy Inbox, look at you Mr. Transition. Bugging me for my cliches, Atlantic Pacific, and now all of a sudden you're turning into the transition machine. Okay Mr. McClain, we'll get there. email the show at the sheet at the nation network.com Time now for the crispy inbox presented by the ninja crispy four-in-one portable glass air fryer question about Brendan Shanahan coming up But watch these wings first Meet the first of its kind the ninja crispy portable cooking system the power of a full-sized air fryer in the palm of your hand So you can cook big or small batches. Just prep it, crisp it, serve it, and store it all in one. That's kind of the same way that Zach prepares the show. He just warms it up.

Anyhow, it's an all-in-one system that includes four quart, six cup temporary glass containers, and two storage lids. Ninja Crispy is thermal shock resistant and can go from frozen to crispy in minutes, folks. With the Crispy Power Pod, you get the power of a full-sized air fryer in the palm of your hands. The four quart container fits four pounds of chicken or veggies. Cook a personal-sized meal in seven minutes

in the six cup container. Max Crisp, bake, air fry, and re-crisp with the Ninja Crispy. You can prep, cook, and store anything from crispy favorites with the Ninja Crispy. You can prep, cook and store anything from crispy favorites to one dish meals. Visit their website, that's in the link of the show description and stay tuned for your chance to win a Ninja Crispy. And congratulations to FNARIC for winning,

oh sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself here and getting all excited about throwing broccoli and cauliflower in the Ninja Crispy. Again, the way to get in the sheet at thenationnetwork.com. What do we have in the Crispy inbox today? Zacharoo. So this one is about Brennan Shanahan and the carousel that's taking place. Hey Jeff and Zach, I've been seeing that there's interest from my Islanders and Brennan

Shanahan as their new president of Hockey Ops and I've asked to speak with him. My question is, when teams see former GMs, coaches, presidents that didn't succeed somewhere else, why do they all seem so confident that they will work for their team? It's a new environment, new players, different cap, it just seems like so much recycling. Mikey in New Hampshire, Go Rangers Go. I think a lot of it like anything else and this is true in life. I know it's most pronounced in sports and if you're watching or listening to the show most pronounced in hockey

But I assure you this exists in other businesses as well And this is the business of networking and familiarity and the one thing that I've always tried to point out Like when I first started watching hockey as a kid, I assure you the NHL was not a multi-billion dollar business and there weren't billionaires everywhere, okay? Like it was, you know, the hockey had your own business, whether you, you know, in the automobile industry, the restaurant industry, oil,

and you kind of had a hockey team on the side and it was fun, right? It was fun for owners, but it wasn't as, it wasn't the, there weren't the, the numbers involved that there are now. It is a much more professionally and you can argue and rightly so corporate run entity. And as such, one of the new abilities

that everybody has to have is the ability, you've heard me say this before, Zach, to manage upwards, right? And if you're going to sell someone in, and I understand the idea of, you know, why is someone so excited when another manager pops up who didn't work in another market? That's because, first of all, this is a very hard job.

Second of all, this is one place where I think the hockey industry has kind of fallen down. So I am going to sort of agree with our email. I forget the person's name. Can you remind me? Mikey. Mikey. Mikey. This is where I will both, I will both disagree and agree with you. One, you see a lot of familiar names because these are people that are sort of in the network of managers. And if you're worried about selling in your boss on your hire, there better be a background to that person. Or you can justify the hiring based on what they've done previously. Why are you hiring this person? Well, they ran Team X for a number of years and did this,

and even though it didn't ultimately work out, they have the experience and they have knowledge for how to run a hockey team, and let's face it, winning the Stanley Cup is really, really hard. The one place where I feel that hockey has fallen down is creating managers. I know there's only 32 of these things.

I know it's real hard, it's a very specific skill set. And there's not, I mean, there are places you can go to sort of learn about hockey and learn the ins and outs. I mean, Shane Malloy has been part of this process for a long time, and I think Shane's a a really really smart guy. He should probably be working you know full-time in a management capacity by this point but nonetheless I digress. This is an industry that hasn't nurtured that position much like in radio and I started in radio and essentially worked radio my whole life until I fell in

love with doing podcasts. The one area and this has contributed to the downfall of radio is they never invested in producers. You know, once upon a time like producers were sort of on par with you know who the the front-facing or front-sounding I suppose host was of the show but they decided to go cheap Zack on people like you and I've always maintained that was part of the downfall of radio These are the people that put programs together The guys like me just bark out the sounds but the people that put like the the the guts of a show together Those are the ones you need to invest in and you can tell what a well-produced show is now

Most times I'll say to Zach at the end of a program, Zach that was a nothing like a well produced show. That was a there's nothing like a well produced show and that was nothing like a well produced show and I say it tongue-in-cheek but like seriously like you need to invest in production when it comes to to radio and to podcast. Thankfully we do that here at The Nation Network. And I think in hockey, the place where they've fallen down is managers. You know, once upon a time,

and this sort of has changed a little bit, once upon a time, you didn't get to be a manager unless you were a hockey player. Right? I understand now you don't get to be a coach unless you played hockey, but you didn't get to be a manager. And I would always say to myself,

you know, salaries kept going starting in the 80s where we started to see some big money here. Salaries started to go up and up and up and up. Everybody got themselves an agent who nine times out of ten was also a lawyer. And I always say to myself, no wonder salaries are going up at this incredible rate. With all due respect, if you're negotiating a salary, and on one side of the table, Zach, there's someone that went to law school, and on the other side of the table, there's someone who dropped out of high school at grade 10 to shoot frozen cow patties off the side of a barn in Swift Current.

Who do you like in that boardroom battle just out of curiosity? Now thankfully, that's not necessarily true all the time anymore. But it's a long-winded answer to a really good question, and that is I don't think that this industry has invested enough in managers and cultivating managers and having some type of like there's a lot of I'm sure you've noticed this there's a lot of places you can go to learn how to coach there's a lot of coaching seminars that are available and classes you can take there's a lot of these things that have sprung up online the coaches site is great. There's a lot of places for coaches. Where's that for managers?

Show me where that exists in a grand and consistent basis. Anyway, does that make sense to you? Like that's how I've always felt about man. And then listen, these are the people that make some of the biggest decisions all season long. For your team, obviously. Now, do they need to run everything up the flagpole, maybe as high as the owner? Yes. But there's nowhere where these people can learn how to do this job. That's why it's tough when someone just sort of takes over and hits the ground running.

And that's why you look at a lot of teams and some teams with, you know, essentially brand new general managers. You better have senior advisors around. You know, when Pierre McGuire was on with us last, earlier this week, and we talked about, you know, who you're plucking away from the Florida Panthers, what's the first name that he said? Rick Dudley for the Buffalo Sabres. Put him next to Kevin Adams.

There's a guy that's been around and run teams and is running, helping to run one of the most successful organizations in the NHL right now, a team that might go back and run teams and is running a helping to run one of the most successful Organizations in the NHL right now a team that might go back to back with the Stanley Cup victories That guy beside Kevin Adams I always kind of look at it sideways when it's like brand new brand new manager and no one around them like Yeah, you're setting yourself up to fail. You're setting yourself up to fail. I hope that answers the question I don't know if it does. It's a little rant about not developing managers. And then somehow I took a swipe at radio.

How long do I? Why not? No, I think it answers the question. I just thought it was timely seeing that email. I thought it was timely just given what we're hearing and watching people get hired coming in and out. No, I think it answered it. Good job.

Way to go, Jeff. Couple of other things answered it. Good job. Way to go Jeff. Couple of other things. I answered a question. I did a journalism. Chris Johnson we mentioned a couple of seconds ago. CJ and both Elliott out with the news about Brendan Shanahan being granted permission to speak to the New York Islanders. And he's going to bring in Lou to coach. No, I'm just kidding. Why are we looking at Lou to manage? No, I'm just kidding. Am I? Can we see that? Hey, I'm pausing that for one second at the end of all of this like the ultimate soap opera twist Shanahan gets the the poho gig and brings Lou to manage

Because of his loyalty to Lou No, I Don't know about you Zach and maybe in maybe anyone in the chat or anyone listening or watching. I always try to think of like the craziest scenario for every single change. If this is that. Yeah. You do that. And then we're going to get pictures of Lou in the, I don't know what airport that they

would fly into for the Islanders. Probably just JFK. But pictures of Lou in the airport again. He's got a pen. He's holding a pen. He's gonna sign a contract. Yeah. Um, Darren Drager talking about the Seattle Kraken and their hunt. I'm of the mind. And he, uh, he put David Quinn out there mentioning the, that Seattle has asked about Lane Lambert also mentioning Mitch Love from Quinn LBC. I am of the mind that, not that it's Mitch Love's gig to lose, I really do wonder if that's the direction that the Seattle crack can go.

I think Pittsburgh Penguins also have a strong desire or a keen interest in Mitch Love, as we mentioned. Like he's gonna become the next hotness in the NHL after Spencer Carberry wins the Jack Adams. And Dave Paniota, our friend from the fourth period, Brad Shaw to the New Jersey Devils as an assistant as he turned down the assistant job with the Philadelphia Flyers,

looking to move on to bigger and better things. Those are the latest news bits of the day and we have a game tonight. A game. We have a game. By the way, congratulations to Ottawa. Emily Clark with the game winner yesterday. Ottawa over Minnesota PWHL final game one. Here we go, games tonight, one of them, the sheet powered by FanDuel, home of the seven game parlay. Make every moment more on FanDuel. FanDuel, proud to connect fans

to the major sports moments that matter to them. American Airlines Center, Stuart Skinner, facing off against Jake Oettinger. Jake Oettinger with his 919 save percentage. Stuart Skinner overall, 884, but coming off two shutouts against the Vegas Golden Knights and the three games when he came back sports a 944 save percentage. No Connor Brown on the ice this morning. He is as we like to refer

to him as a GTD, a game time decision and lines looking a little bit different here for the Dallas Stars. We'll see what happens when they get there. The finish line is intact, Hins with Granlin or Antonin. Robertson with Duchenne and Wyatt Johnston. Mason Marchman with Sam Steele and Tyler Sagan and then Jamie Benn on the fourth line with Beck and Dodonov. I don't know if these lines stay intact other than the first line but it is relatively interesting here. The other thing that I wonder about, I threw this out as a poll, what is more likely? Because we've seen the Oilers kill teams with their depth, right? Like 13 forwards have scored for the Edmonds and Oilers and for the Dallas Stars it's like the first line is getting it done.

Um, what is more likely Edmonton's depth drying up or Dallas's depth heating up? Here we are at the halfway point of the Stanley Cup playoffs. What do you think is more likely? Because that or the Oilers depth has been incredible. Everyone's contributing. Dallas, not so much. I want to read something from DJ Bean here, our friend at What Chaos, before we get your thoughts here. Either happening obviously helps the Stars, which is why I've been hammering this point. If both teams play the way they've been playing, Edmonton wins this

series easily. Enormous and unlikely if. I agree with that. If these two teams are playing the exact same way they've been playing, Edmonton wins this series. If Dallas's depth heats up and Edmonton's depth up front dries up a little bit, it's a different story. I still maintain though the whole thing is gonna hinge around which Stuart Skinner shows up. Is it the one we saw in those last three games against Vegas or is it the one that has, how we like to say, sometimes been hard to hit, Zach,

then the goalie that's been hard to hit. I'll ask you this to start. If you were to rank the three, Winnipeg, Colorado, Edmonton, in terms of depth, yeah, let's put it that way, terms of depth, quality of depth. How would you rank the three? Because I'm going to give you an answer, but I want you to do that first. I mean, this is just obviously a recency bias because we've seen them do it. I would obviously go with Edmonton number one. Okay. I would have put Winnipeg ahead of them, Edmonton 2 and then Colorado 3. I know why you're saying recency bias. I think just bigger sample size. I prefer the Winnipeg

one. So now how I'm going to answer this question is I think it is likely to see Dallas's depth heat up, not get insanely hot, but hotter because I think they just came from a series where we are looking at it with recency bias saying, wow, that depth really didn't get going. And in a lot of ways, I think they just went up against a team that has really good depth to match and was able to kind of negate some of the abilities of that depth.

So I do feel like we're gonna see some heat, like some kind of dial up here from this star's depth. I don't know that it's gonna be outweighing what we see from Edmontons or counteracting it to the same point, but I feel like the Winnipeg one kind of just left us with this like, oh wow, Dallas has not been playing that great.

I think we might see them turn it up here. Back porch country brings up something that never happened. Remember when Merrick was given a 20 second clip on hockey night during the playoffs in 2006, Cherry laughed when he and LeBrun had their 20 second segment, I started at hockey night in 2008. Yeah, that's right. Remember who found the clip of you in the game that I was at. Oh, that auto, that auto, I go, sorry. 2007 is when I started. Sorry.

Cause that was that, uh, yeah, you were at that game that December 29th, 2007 Washington Ottawa with Robert Thomas correct and think Robert Thomas gonna think Robert Thomas gonna play with Mitch Marner next year I mean it would be really unlikely because that would mean they would have to resign Marner in Toronto so we're gonna find a way to get Rob here. Oh, geez. Alright, let's see. Pablo says Edmonton has the deepest forward group in the league by a mile. Right now they do.

Right now they do. Mr. Public Pain. Jeff, Rantanen. Rantz has decided to beat a whole team now how many times? That's true and that's hard. Yeah, for Rantanen, Rantz has decided to beat a whole team now how many times? That's true and that's hard. And Rantanen just says like, yeah, I'm calling game here. But here's the thing, a lot of people have wondered about this one. If the Edmonton Oilers put Dreisaitl's line, okay, like right now they've got McDavid and Dreisaitl split up,

so you put Dreisaitl, pod Coleson and Kaepernick if they put that line which is shut down Ikel put that line up against the root Bay hens line and if Dallas if their depth scoring continues to perform the way they have or I guess in this case haven't sings over fast right what if on Jergo's on Gerber's flames yeah yeah I know trust me I know he does he there's a lot of what ifs right if you know the old saying Zach all I know is the beginning part and I don't really know if some butts of candy and nuts, is that the one? We'd all have a Merry Christmas, yes. If some butts are candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas.

Anyhow, that is your one game on the board this evening. It is game one between the Edmonton Olders and the Dallas Thurs. This one at eight o'clock Eastern, right? Anything we leave on the table today? Erin Ambrose, by the way, tomorrow. And if you've, I tweeted this out yesterday, her clean out day yesterday with the Montreal Victoire,

there is a four clip sequence of her being interviewed in the locker room. This is like a master class at how to handle, and a lot of people remarked at it saying, coming off of what we heard from the Toronto Maple Leafs or what we didn't hear from the Toronto Maple Leafs Ambrose's closeout was was genuine and heartfelt and raw and above all honest and just makes you appreciate her that much more Ambrose can be on the program tomorrow but I encourage you before we

have her on tomorrow go I know Zach if you had a chance to look at those clips like I just great like honestly like that was to me that was the best scrum performance I've seen from any hockey player all season long man woman animal vegetable whatever that is like the best scrum performance I've seen do yourself a favor and like she gets into things about how you know she came to Montreal to fix herself like as a human being. Like who talks like that? Like who's that honest and who's like that raw and then talks about her own performance and talks about, yeah I read what everyone said about me and you guys went at me hard and all that but like she's not saying any of it in a mean way and a lot of it is like self-reflective and her trying

to be honest and trying to let you inside of her head. Honestly, it is one of the best things that I've seen in a scrum setting for a long time. Do yourself a favor and check that one out before Ambrose joins the show tomorrow. We leave anything out there? We leave like a hanging curve ball out there? We need to take a swing at it? Are we good? No, that was a good point though. I think that the interviews by or the interview with

the clips that are put out of Aaron is really awesome and it is a good point tying that back to kind of Toronto as well and not trying to make this all about them but if they just kind of go out there and speak with honesty, people walk away and being like, yeah, but people get mad about stuff because it's like it feels like you didn't see what we saw. And Erin just goes up there and is like, this is how it was. This is how I feel. This is what happened. People are like, wow, thank you. Thank you. And just completely gives you a peek inside of her life and her life as a professional athlete playing with the Montreal Victoire or maybe Gonna be playing with Seattle or Vancouver. We'll see what happens in the the PWHL expansion draft

But nonetheless Ambrose will be on tomorrow and if we're lucky she'll bring her dog Henry By the way from that Georgina blaze team. There's one player still playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Who is that player? Sean Walker look at you. All right trivia boy. I know yeah steel trap steel trap All right. Listen, thanks for our guest today for stopping by Bob Stauffer off the top of the show from Oilers now Koi Lavallette recovers a Carolina Hurricanes for the Athletic and North State Journal Thanks so much for stopping by. Thanks for being part of the chat. Thanks for watching on YouTube live Thank you. I'll be maybe in the archive too, on your favorite podcast platform.

We very much appreciate it. Hit the like button, leave a comment. It really helps all of us here. I'm encouraged to say that because it really does help a lot of us here. So if you can, do it if you are so inclined. Hope you enjoyed the program. We are back again tomorrow, 3 o'clock Eastern,

right here on our daily face-off YouTube channel. Also, Morning Cup of Hockey, which has just been on fire through the playoffs. That'll continue tomorrow with Johnny Lazarus and Colby Cohen, DFO Live at noon, and then back here with me, Zach Ambrose, and at least one other guest too. We'll see what happens tonight between Edmonton and Dallas,

and whatever news breaks too. Who knows what we'll have tomorrow. Anyhow, enjoy the rest of your day. Enjoy game one of the Western Conference final and we will talk to you tomorrow. I can't get out my head, lost all ambitions day to day Guess I can call it a ride I went to the dark man, he tried to give me a little medicine I'm like, nah man, that's fine I'm right against those methods, but no

It's me, myself and how, don't be fixing my mind Do you wanna break it? I turned on the music I do wanna break it I turned on the music It's enough, enough, enough Sometimes you lose it Helping on the days that went wrong