The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Off and Running ft. Bruce Boudreau

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

Bruce Boudreau joins Jeff Marek to kick off Day 1 of NHL Playoff Coverage on The Sheet. Discussing the Lekhonen 'Legal Goal', a dominant first game from the Carolina Hurricanes, a strong start from the Toronto Maple Leafs, and teeing up the first game sof the Edmonton/LA and Montreal/Washington seriesShout 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👍🏼 JP Wisers: http://www.jpwisers.com👍🏼 RVEzy: https://www.rvezy.com/ownerReach 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.

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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. You know what the NHL absolutely hates? And I mean like really can't stand. Anything distracting away from the games. Listen, we had a wonderful weekend full of hockey. We had some really, really exciting games.

Probably the most exciting game was St. Louis and Winnipeg on Saturday. I still think the best actual game as far as quality of hockey over three periods, was Minnesota-Vegas last night. But in anticipation of tonight where the Montreal Canadiens will face off against the Washington Capitals where we'll see the Battle of Florida as well and the Edmonton Oilers facing off against the Los Angeles Kings and say nothing of Dallas taking on Colorado Dominating headlines

The uh, how shall we put it? Zach Phillips the tornado in the trailer park today Jim Rutherford, Jim Rutherford Just tornado right down the middle of the trailer park. Hold on a second here Let's talk about some things Maybe speculate on some things that probably shouldn't be speculating on publicly is this thing on This microphone work into that did that? Oh it did. Okay. Yeah, and and now everyone okay? We got a lot to get to today and Bruce Bruce Bujold's gonna be stopping by.

Now the Gabby interview I recorded about, what was it, about an hour ago, Zach. We had a chance to talk to Gabby. Gabby's very busy today. He's in Sarkakis, New Jersey for the NHL Network. So that interview, and it's about 20 minutes long, and we go over a lot of the stuff from the weekend, will present in about 15 minutes time.

And I'll hang out in the chat. But we gotta do Rutherford. He is the gift that keeps on giving. Now, we're gonna talk about Jim Rutherford, we're gonna talk about Hughes, we're gonna talk about Tocket, speculate on what's next. We have some coaching dismissals we have to go over as well

from the weekend, Rangers and Ducks. We've got all the action on the ice and the headline dominator Jim Rutherford coming up here. So let's get to it. Daily Outline provided by our partners and friends at FanDuel. Make every moment more with North America's number one sportsbook, FanDuel, North America's number one sportsbook app provider. Coming up on the program today, the very first playoff edition of the sheet here. We're going to kick it off by talking about, well, I'm going to talk to Bruce Bujold here coming up in a couple of moments.

Some locker clean out, some Jim Rutherford stuff coming up in a second. Can you tell who wrote this one? It is Zach Leafs Thump S Sens. I had to take advantage. Leafs Thump Sens. I'm gonna I'm gonna make my puppet host here say this. Leafs Thump Sens. How many more times can you say it? And we're gonna talk about legal goal. Yeah we're gonna I want to make a couple of points about the Arturia Lekkinen situation from Saturday but let's get right into Rutherford here. Again, the NHL can't stand it when things off the ice dominate the headlines.

That's why when there are coaching changes, they would like it to be outside of game days, which is what you see as the playoffs go on if you're sort of new to this. And you look at the timing, what teams will try to do at a courtesy of the playoffs is they try to time their announcements on non-game days. Doesn't always work and especially right now where there are games every day it's near impossible and that's why we saw the La Violette and Cronin dismissals on a game day. But nonetheless, Jim Rutherford, the headline machine, the headline maker, a lot of it revolving around the future of Quinn Hughes. And I like the way that Blake Price framed it on Twitter.

I don't know if it's tampering, but it's tamper-y. Here's Jim Rutherford, the Vancouver Canucks. Have a listen and a watch. The one thing that we will be sure of, that we will have enough cap space to offer him the kind of contract that he deserves. That's the one thing we can prepare for. And it may not boil down to money with him. He said before he wants to play with his brothers.

And that would be partly out of our control, in our control, if we brought his brothers here. So there's many moving parts here, agree 100%. This franchise cannot afford to lose a guy like Quinn Hughes and we will do everything we can to keep him here, but at the end of the day, it'll be his decision. Well, we gotta be careful with tampering here so we'll just leave it at that. I probably crossed the line anyways. There comes a moment in your life and I really can't wait for that moment to happen in my

life. Zach, maybe you can't wait for this to happen in your life to everybody in the chat right now. Maybe you're waiting, waiting, waiting for this to happen in your life, everybody listening, everybody watching. There comes a moment in your life where you wake up and you say, I-D-G-A-F. And that's how I'm going to live the rest of my life. You know, I wake up and I put my pants on and whisper to myself in the mirror,

I-D-G-A-F. I can't wait for that day to happen. Zach, maybe you're the same way. Did your mother first swallow that pill a long time ago. The one thing about Rutherford that we all know is if you ask Jim Rutherford a question, he will give you an answer. And so we should never, you know,

go after someone for having the nerve to be honest or speak candidly. In this era where we live, where everything is corporate speak, where everything seems to have a certain polish on it, where everything seems to be framed and couched in a very specific way as to A, give the impression that you're saying something

when really you're just serving up an empty calorie bowl of cereal. There really is something to be said about someone who will give you an old school answer. Like if you go back and read old interviews or like I've got stacks of, if I can flip the camera around, like there's all these boxes of old hockey news magazines and I'm always impressed when I go back and flip them open and read quotes from people. It's stunning and I always come away with it saying the same thing to myself.

One, I wish people still spoke like this and two, you could never get away with talking like this these days. It really is incredible how things have changed. But to the Quinn Hughes situation, again, what Blake Price from the Secarison Price show mentioned is probably that line that Jim Mutherford is walking here. Is it technically tampering, saying well we can either sign him or bring in his brothers? We've all thought about it, we've all discussed it, but it's not a thing to say it. I'm sure they've discussed it internally in Vancouver as well.

It's one thing to say, you know, we will make the maximum amount of cap space available to Quinn Hughes, but it might not come down to money. It might just be this guy wants to play with his brothers somewhere down the road. That's not a surprise either. I think we've all wondered about that. Like the moment the New Jersey Devils selected Luke Hughes fourth overall, we all said, okay, is Quinn on the clock? And at what point does he go to New Jersey?

Does he make the free agency or is it a trade? So it's not as if we've all haven't had that conversation. Is it tampering? I sent a text to someone from one team who said, you know, we're just having that exact conversation right now about this and what do you do if you're the New Jersey devils after hearing that? My first thought is now, Quinn Hughes, because now this has become a story. Like, when you get, exactly,

when you get lobbed a question like that from the media, you can do one of two things. You can, because it's a hot question, make no mistake about it, like there's a fire emoji attached to that question. That's like I'm gonna send this question, attach a fire emoji, boom, hits. That's what that is. Right? You know what you're doing when you ask that question. So there's a there's a flame attached to the question itself. You can either extinguish it or

you can pour gasoline on it. Zach, I'll turn the recreation over to you. Did Jim Rutherford extinguish that or did he pour gasoline on it? No he did what my dad does in the summer when he's starting the fire and he takes the Tim Hortons trays and he just threw them onto the fire and then he came in with gasoline and a blow torch and lit it up way bigger than it needed to be. I appreciate him from our side of things doing that and answering the question that way because well here we are 10 minutes into the show and that's the biggest thing we've talked about after the first weekend of playoff hockey but I thought about Quinn Hughes too.

That was the thing that like you just brought up there. He hears that and he's probably sitting there going, what the fuck Jim? I'm gonna be asked about this nonstop now. And the thing is, Every question. The summer's not even gonna make it go away. Right, it's not like, okay yeah we're done,

now the summer can come. No, like this is, you know, Vancouver's a hot market. Like that is going to be asked all the time. Like what's the end game here now? Well there's no games to be asked about here either in this. Like he can't be like, hey I'm just here to talk about hockey. Quinn, there's no hockey.

This is what you have to answer because there's no other distraction for you. Like you have to take this head on. Like if I was Hughes, I probably is not helping the situation here. Or also let's just take like the tampering aside. Imagine that conversation to like, hey boys come play with me in Vancouver. We just dealt with what we did all season long with the Miller and Patterson drama and then these guys went out there and said, yep

there's beef with them. And that came from Jim Rutherford who did the sit-down piece and said that and then you hear them the press her presser today yeah we're open to trading EP 40 or like we'll listen to offers on him is the better way to put it and then he says this now Quinn calls his brothers and says hey the hard way to do this is you two coming here, but let's make it happen. Even just tampering and how the logistics of things aside, you think that's the most appealing pitch to them

in all of this as well? That was kind of my next thought after that. I can't imagine that opens the doors to them being like, I would love to go play in Vancouver. That seems like a fun spot for me to go and deal with, you know, the media every day and stuff. Like, not, I'm not throwing stuff onto the media here,

saying they make people's lives difficult, but just after this situation, it's like, that doesn't seem like fun, that doesn't seem appealing to me. The other point is, like, which team right now would you rather play for? Which one has, like, the brighter future from here to the next five years? It's the New Jersey Devils.

Yeah. Like, what are you walking into? Like? I don't even think that's something that gets entertained I think it's something that that's like saloon talk. That's just like what you and your buddies at the bar Can you imagine if we had the Hughes brothers together? Ah, but the twit the plot twist in Vancouver. Dun dun dun. Yeah three more like that's That's kind of no one no one expects that to happen. But now all of a sudden this has been lobbed into Quinn Hughes' court and he's gonna be asked about wanting to play with his brothers.

And we all know what the contract status is and when it expires, the only question is, and now this is where this conversation is gonna turn, everyone's gonna make their fantasy trades. And that's gonna dominate conversation with Quinn Hughes. Because Jim went out there and said, he wants to play with his brothers. Normally you do that when you're prepping a market

for something, when you're getting the market ready for something to happen here. Kind of like when you, listen, when you saw Jim Muthaford do that interview with the Globe and Mail. Like that was, Jim Muthaford do that interview with the Globe and Mail. Like that was, Jim Muthaford doesn't do anything by accident. He's been at this too long. Like he does things very, very deliberately.

And that was the chumming of the waters for the J.T. Miller trade. And it was shortly after that that J.T. Miller got dealt. That's a good point, yeah. You did kind of warn us on that one as well. Like hey, you know, maybe some of these things aren't just done. We talked about it on the show. Like, hey, he came out and admitted there was all that speculation, you know, it's just the media stirring this up. It's a narrative. And then Jim Rutherford was like, Yep, they don't like each other. Yeah. And by the sounds of things, by the sounds of things, like it may have like the way you heard Rutherford talk about it today about how it wasn't just isolated to those two individuals and how it got all around the room and ruined the chemistry, it was bigger than we thought. If anything, as bizarre as this is going to sound, if anything, the media didn't talk

about it enough. Did I just say that? We didn't talk about Pedersen and Miller enough? When you hear Jim Motherford say like that it affected the entire room, like everybody in that room, and the chemistry of the team, I don't know man. Hell of a presser and they're not gonna pick up,

they're not gonna exercise the option on Rick Taukett essentially sending that into his court. So now we can make the argument that they've sent one tennis ball into Rick Taukett's court and they've sent another tennis ball into Quinn Hughes' court now. Yeah. All in one press conference. Yeah, just exciting way to go out and end the season. It's good for us to talk about, but.

Zach, it's Monday It's Monday Okay, we got a lot to get to here today. Let me a couple of things here You know one of the big stories is you know who is gonna show up the Ottawa Senators are trying to make beliefs We all know about the history of trying to make beliefs woes in the postseason. But one thing I want to point out here, after the weekend's worth of action, curious what your thoughts on this one. I know that you didn't get a chance to watch one of the games that I really want to talk about here because you had Leafs postgame responsibilities

yesterday. I thought the most entertaining hockey game we saw was St. Louis Winnipeg on Saturday. That was fun. What a great, like honestly what a great way to kick off the Stanley Cup playoffs. That was so good, so entertaining. Jets fans got real quiet in that first period. It's like, holy smokes, here we go again. Conor Halibuck lets in a loafing shot from the point. Late they get to be like, oh boy, here we go. But by the end, it turned into a hell of a hockey game and a real emotional roller coaster.

But if you're just someone, like I don't have skin in any of it, I just wanna see good games. Best game I saw, shouldn't be a surprise. These two teams for the last five, maybe six years, whenever they get together, they're really, really good games. All three periods, shift in, shift out, even though Minnesota really dominated in that first period yesterday. I thought the best actual hockey game was Minnesota-Vegas last night. That game was outstanding.

Now, a couple of thoughts from you before we get to Bruce Boudreaux here. Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators, we start the interview with Gabby on this point. First of all, how was the show last night at the bar? Greta? It was a lot of fun. You know, I've only got to do a couple of these live in-person shows here now, the first one being in Nashville when we went and did that. So last night we did a pregame show, we did a postgame show. It was a lot of fun.

You get to meet people who watch the show and have been following along. It was really good. I mean, obviously it was Easter Sunday, so a little bit more difficult for people to get out, but still there was a good turnout there. Greta, it was pretty busy, so the shows were fun. But I'm just kind of building my own experience of getting out and doing this kind of stuff is a lot of fun for me right now Jeff yeah. It's a it's a good time. Ottawa did I think what a lot of us thought that they would do say all

the right things before and then have it all fall apart. I don't think the goaltending helped them whatsoever. I hate to be right about this thing about Lena Solmark and big pressure situations., you can look at all the goals individually and say like, oh man, like how's he supposed to save that? Oh, that's a tough one. Oh man, that's a tip. Oh, that's a deflection. Oh, this was point blank.

But somewhere along the way, that team needs saves and needs Linus Ulmark to be a superstar goldhander. And you can reason away all the goals. And Maple Leaf's got some really, really great looks last night on Lena's All-Mark but I walked away from that going there it is again like you need your goaltender I keep you in or steal you a game and that wasn't there but then the Ottawa Senators did themselves no favors just taking all that energy they had and enthusiasm and running all

over the rink. Running all over the rink, chasing hits, chasing just chasing getting licks in on guys and I gotta be honest with you know outside of a couple of moments with little eruptions by the Maple Leafs, real discipline by the Toronto Maple Leafs like almost you can say like and I've never said this about a Leafs team in the in the season, kind of clinical at times. The way I put it last night in the show was very mature. And I think that was the same word that I've heard used now across a couple of different shows on our network here today

talking about that game and the way the Maple Leafs played. And I'm curious, like what you think about this, because this is kind of how I laid it out, was there was years past, specific moments that stick out to me, where it was the Montreal series where Matthews is getting grabbed by the caller, I think it might have been Shea Weber, and he's laughing and the cameras got the picture of him.

I didn't like that moment, because, you know, it was like back to him, not willing to engage, not willing to be a part of it. Mitch Marner against Florida, Matthew Kachuk face washing him. He's standing there with his hands glued to his hips and he's smiling at him and not willing to engage. I didn't like those moments because it made me feel like these guys just don't have any interest in being involved. Last night against Ottawa they didn't go back at them and start throwing punches and stuff like that but what they did was they went eye to eye with senators players and

The sends would come in and throw crosschecks and stuff and you could see every one of the Leafs guys would stand there They'd put their sticks on the guys hip and be ready to go ready to engage where there's JT and Nylander Tanf Carlo all the way through the lineup I just thought the response the way that they Tanef, Carlo, all the way through the lineup. I just thought the response, the way that they did engage after the fact was very poised, very mature. And I think in a lot of ways, it actually pissed off the senators more

because in years past, I think the response allowed the other team to feel like we've got them. They're not gonna do anything back. And I think last night, it was, they're not gonna do anything back. And oh shit, this is, like we can't get them to draw into this. You know what, hey, let me get to Bruce Boudreau here.

Let me make one final point. You know what it, now that I'm thinking about it, you know what it reminds me of? The Atlanta Thrasher's in the old Southeast Division for the longest time, had decent team, had Ilya Kovachuk, superstar, they finally make it to the playoffs. They're facing off against the New York Rangers in the opening round and they get crushed by the Rangers

because Ilya Kovačak spent the entire series not trying to score, play hockey, He spent the whole series chasing Sean Avery and trying to get licks in on Sean Avery Instead of actually playing and the next thing you know Colva Chuck was packing his bags along with the rest of the Atlanta Thrasher's That's kind of that. That's the most recent comparison that I can make Let's get to Bruce Boudre This segment is, by the way, a presentation of JP Weiser's. JP Weiser's proudly Canadian celebrates the moment with a limited edition Stanley Cup bottle, the perfect match for you and your game night crew because the playoffs are best enjoyed with great whiskey and good company. Now you and your friends can lift the Stanley Cup bottle for Canada with JP Weiser's, the official whiskey of the NHL for 165 years.

JP Weiser's has been woven into the fabric of Canadian celebrations, bringing people together to raise a glass to the passion and pride that fuel Canada's game. Again, this interview with Bruce Boudreaux recorded about an hour ago. I'm just going to go hang out in the chat for a while. So join me there as you enjoy this interview with Bruce Boudreau recorded about an hour ago. I'm just going to go hang out in the chat for a while. So join me there as you enjoy this interview with Bruce Boudreau. First off, Gabby, how is lovely Cicacas, New Jersey today? You know what? Um, it's about the way Cicacas is every day.

There's not much sun and it's a little dreary, but I mean, it's, uh, uh, you, it's got a nice skyline where you can see into Manhattan, but that's about it right there. So it kind of sounds like teams that are own one after the weekend, uh, kind of dreary, a little depressing right now as a, let me, let me start here. Well, we sort of go wide brush on some of these games here as a coach. What happens when your team loses the first game and how much does it matter whether it's at home or on the road? Well, I mean, I think it's a lot easier if you lose the first game on the road

as long as you learn from it. I mean, that's the biggest thing to me. I mean, I wouldn't get too down after losing the first game on the road as long as you can improve upon that and you can get better. There were some games out there that I was pretty like, I mean, unimpressed with this weekend. So I mean, it's going to be interesting to see how these teams bounce back.

Who specifically? I'm guessing Ottawa might be one of those teams. I mean, that's their first kick at it here with this group but where Ottawa be one of the most disappointing teams for you coming off the weekend. Yeah, I mean, obviously because they knew what they had to do and they knew what they couldn't do. And what did they do?

They can talk about, you know, outshooting them and five on five chances in that. But I mean, the playoffs are more than that it's it's an all around thing and and when you take dumb penalties and you're gonna let that power play who seems to be going quite well right now on the ice you're gonna get beat and it's a it's it was easy to see the leaves weren't retaliating and auto all was auto Ottawa was getting frustrated. But like I said, if you can learn from that and then the next game be better, but if you come out the same way and the same thing's going to happen, I mean, so I mean, uh, I give them a pass on game one because they weren't going to beat

the Leafs in four straight, but if they now know what they're up against and what they have to do to win, I think it would be a good learning experience for Ottawa. Let me get a couple more thoughts here on the sends before I shift it over to the Maple Leafs here. I wonder too, if that is just a matter of experience. You can say all the things, yeah, we know we can't do this. Yeah, we know we have to focus on that.

And then the puck drops. And then the emotions drops and then the emotions all rise to the surface and all those things that you said you wouldn't do, you're thinking about as you're sitting in the penalty box. Like when you look at Ottawa and I can't help but saying, oh, it's so much of this, you take your leads from the coach, you take your leads from the captain as well. Um, how did you see, you know, both, you know, uh, Travis and, and Brady here in that game? Well, I mean, uh, Travis never shows a lot of emotion. I mean, but I mean, I'm, I'm pretty positive that, uh, um,

that they talked about all those things with Brady and you said it said it at the beginning here, is that we can talk about it, but if you haven't been there in seven years, for seven straight years you've been thinking how great it's going to be in the playoffs and what an amazing feeling. It's like for seven years you haven't had Christmas, now all of a sudden Christmas is coming. How am I supposed to respond to it? I think that's almost what it was like for Ottawa, which is why I say, hey, I hope they learn from that.

They can do that one game. They can't cross check everybody every game because the refereeing is different, the play, the pace, the physicalness. I mean, there's so many things that are different that hopefully in 60 minutes, if you're an Ottawa fan, that you sort of gathered it all together and said, okay, now we know what we have to do. Maybe we can beat them by doing this, but we know we can't beat them

by doing that. How much of that the sends loss do you pin on the goaltender? How much of this is, is Linus Almark? You know what? I don't really, I mean the goals that they were scored, I mean they were pretty, like goals one and two were wide open chances. Even if you score four goals on the first 10 shots. I mean I thought the sixth goal was weak. I think that's the one Highmore touched a little bit with his glove. Yeah, the high tip. But I mean, I

think he should have had that. But I think mentally he was like, gosh, we've lost this game. And but I mean, I don't hold him responsible as much as I hold Ottawa allowing two grade A chances in the first seven minutes of the game. I mean, you know, I mean, when you get behind the eight ball that's exactly what the Leafs want. Then you've got to open it up. And if you open it up against the offense

on the top two lines in Toronto they're going to get more and more scoring chances which is what they did. You know, what about the Maple Leafs goal tender here, Anthony Stolarz? This is his, our real first kick added here and had a tremendous regular season. Um, but having said that rebound control, uh, very much an issue for, for Stolarz on, on Sunday night. How did you, how did you read the Leafs netminding situation?

Yeah, I thought it was, I, I didn't think it was overly great, but I thought it was a learning experience that he got away with in his first game in the playoffs. And he'll know better, like the rebound control will be better. I think he won't have as much movement in the net the next game because he got the butterflies out and I think getting a lead when you're uh, when you're Anthony Stolar's is you're playing with a little bit of found money rather than if all of a sudden the first shot would have went against him, uh, would have went in against him and he hadn't played in the playoff game before he might be going, Oh, what's going on

here? So, I mean, it's, uh, I think he got away with one a little bit. And I mean, he can look back and he, if like, I'm a pretty positive guy, so I would have been looking back on, on chances and, and shots on goal and come away with it and said, Hey, listen, I did pretty good allowed one in the, in the first one in the third. So I'm pretty happy with myself, but I know I can do better. And that would be a pretty positive thing going into the next game. You know, pretty much all the big boys for the

Toronto Maple Leagues found the back of the net, um, save Austin Matthews here. But you know, the, the one player who is for whatever reason, such a galvanizing player loaded with skill, the playoff production has been a criticism in the past. You have a thought on game one from Mitch Marner with three points last night? Yeah, I think it's great for him.

I think, boy, is he proven everybody, like, I mean, I don't know Mitch at all, but he seems to be the guy that says, okay, you know, you know, I'm not signed. You don't think I score in the playoffs? I'll show you guys. We'll see where this goes, as he has a lot of faith in his ability.

And I mean, it comes to the forefront as a, as a coach against him. I always thought he was the best player on that team. And I mean, he creates the most, his passes are so good. Like Austin Matthews, you had to worry about because he was the finisher, but Mitch Marner was always the guy that was, he was either killing a penalty or he was creating an opportunity. And, you know, obviously the playoffs haven't gone so well for him or the whole team for that matter. But I mean, this whole year, it's like with a hundred points, he's putting it on his back and saying, OK, let's, we will talk when this thing's over, but, uh, I'm, if you didn't want to get me, you're going to have to pay for me right now, because this is

each he's showing how good he can be. Every, uh, every game, the price goes higher and higher for, uh, for Mitch Marner, Bruce, every game that goes by is what it seems. Oh yeah. I mean, a hundred percent. I mean, uh, cause you know what? I don't care what his money, what they say they can afford or they can't afford or whatever, somebody will pay it. I mean,

for Mitch Marner. I don't care what that number right up, right up to the max, somebody would pay it for Mitch Marner. And you know what? He'd sit there and he'd say, Hey, I'm making this amount of money. But I mean, you guys want to get mad at me because you think I'm making too much, I'm going to show you. This is the way he plays, that he wants to show people how good he is, and he's obviously pretty good.

There is something though with him and the lure of being a Toronto Maple Leaf, and maybe you can say the Maple Leafs are relying too much on that. I mean, you can relate with this, Booth. I mean, you played for the Toronto Maple Leaf and maybe you can say the Maple Leafs are, are relying too much on that. I mean, you can, you can relate with this, Booth. I mean, you played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, you played for the Toronto Marlboro's. Like you understand that tug, that gravity that can exist between a player and that team for whatever reason.

100%. I mean, I always wanted to be a Leaf. I didn't want to go anywhere. I would have given my eye teeth to stay there my whole career. And I think Mitch is of that same volition. But back in the day, we didn't have as many people telling us what's best for him in his career. And so, I mean, I really do believe he is going to do what he wants to do. But I think he will listen to people that give him the advice on what to do. Um, and it would be, you know, it may, it might be something he doesn't want to do,

but he'll do it on the advice of other people. Like I, I'm willing to bet rent and would like to be in Colorado right now, sure. No matter how much money he's getting paid. And I mean, uh, but sometimes that's a strange lure, that money thing. Let me ask about one of your other teams, the Minnesota Wild. Of all the games that I saw this weekend, the Minnesota Vegas game to me was the best hockey game.

It might not have been the most exciting. Winnipeg St. Louis was from the opening faceoff right to pretty much the end of the game was, was excitement and lead changes and a great game. But as far as just a pure hockey game, I think the best one I saw this weekend was Minnesota and Vegas. And you know, Bruce, for the last five or six years, we always talk about how styles make fights.

Styles make good hockey games too. And for whatever reason, Minnesota and Vegas, I mean, you know what I'm talking about, Minnesota and Vegas for whatever reason, Bruce, you probably understand it better than me. They just mix well. And every time these two teams get together, it's a really good hockey game and we saw it again yesterday. Yeah. Cause I think both teams generally think they can win and they both play. Listen, Minnesota is,

is built a lot like what Burnwood want is, is they're big, they're tough and they're, and they're physical. And you know, Vegas is in the, uh, built, uh, like Kelly McCrimmon and George McPhee want them, which is big and strong and tough. So it makes for a playoff, a really good playoff game. I thought it was one of two, um, playoff, a really good playoff game. I thought it was one of two playoff games so far this weekend that were actually good playoff games. I thought the St. Louis Winnipeg game for 55 minutes was a real good playoff game as well, where they played within themselves, but at the same time, they played harder than a regular season game. So those two games were really good games.

I mean, I thought like, like I said, Ottawa to me gets a pass for game one. I thought Dallas was horrible. They were exactly what I expected them them to be and just and I like I like everybody in Dallas, but I just have not been a believer in them at all. And I think they really miss a Nathan McKinnon type player. They got a lot of great players, but they don't have a Nathan McKinnon type player. I thought New Jersey didn't even belong on the same ice as Carolina, even though the score was relatively close for the most part. So I mean, I hope to see

there's a couple more teams haven't played yet and see those games play and start to get into a groove of playoff hockey. One of those teams is the Washington Capitals who we'll see tonight. I want to rewind and get to Winnipeg, but let me get your thoughts on the Caps because we'll see the Caps and the Montreal Canadiens. And of course we all go back to 2010. And remember that it was kind of a similar situation, a top team facing off against a team that just barely made it into the playoffs. What do you make of the Capitals this season?

It's weird the way that, you know, going into the playoffs, you know, Winnipeg was a top team, Washington was a top team, but no one's saying that either of these top teams are going to win the Stanley cup and that's rare. Do you have a thought on the Caps? Yeah. Well, I mean, uh, uh, the Caps haven't played very well for the last 25 games. That's probably the reason being, I mean, the first 50 games, they were arguably the best team in the league. They were definitely in first place right outside the gate. They

had the best goals against average. They had nobody getting hurt. They had the same six defensemen played for 60 straight games. They had Alex was scoring and they were still scoring. They had the best shooting percentage in the league and so everything was going well for them. I don't know if it was the chase got too big, the chase with Alex got too big for them and they couldn't focus as much in the last say 20 games, but all of a sudden they went from the best defensive team to the worst save percentage team in the league, which is with three goals or more on them. So it was pretty difficult to understand.

I'm really looking forward to see which capital team we have tonight. Is mean, is it the one over the last 15 games or is it the previous one? I'm thinking you'll see the one of the previous 15, the first 50 games rather than the last 32. Hope it's a great series. Let me get a closing thought here on the St. Louis Winnipeg game that we saw on Saturday. I think Scott Arniel isn't getting enough headlines for what he's been able to do with this Winnipeg Jets team. But I think that the work that Jim Montgomery

has done this season with the St. Louis Blues should be and is pretty obvious to everybody, casual or otherwise, who's watched the St. Louis Blues this season. This was wild. I'll just be blunt, Gabby. This was a wild, fun ride. You're right.

You mentioned earlier outside of the last five minutes, this was just a flat out fun hockey game as a coach. What do you take away from that game? I mean, if I'm St. Louis, I'm saying, Hey, we can beat these guys, you know, like, I mean, but I mean, they can beat them if I mean, poor poor Braden Shen like I think he had what 50 hits or something That night, I know I mean, I don't know how his body cuz he's not built like Luke Shen I mean, he's not gonna be able to to do that for the whole game every game

But I think this is a six game series and I think I mean, I think it's going to go back and forth. This is a mono a mono type of series and I loved it. And I think in the end, Winnipeg is, is used to playing these games and winning them. And I think that's the reason they won out in the end. I think if, if St. Louis had had gotten the lead, they can defend as well. And Bennington can definitely defend a one goal lead. So I mean, I just think it was a real playoff game and where the physicality was there,

but they played within the lines for the most part. And I mean, it was up and down and there's speed to this, both units or both lineups. And it was really fun to watch. It sure was. And more great hockey on the horizon. Enjoy your time tonight at NHL Network, and we will chat soon, my friend. Thanks always for doing this for Gabby.

Really appreciate it. All right, anytime, Jeff. Thank you. Mother's Day is coming up. Make sure you're calling your mother, but doing a little more for someone so important is never a bad idea. Get your mom an Aura digital picture frame. Photos and videos are a great way for mom to share and relive great memories. Maybe you got a couple of great

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That's AuraFrames.com. Use promo code SHEET. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. There he is, Bruce Boudreaux, the one and only, and I'm sure there was that moment there where you got that, oh that warm feeling in your chest when he talked about always wanting to play for the Maple Leafs and never wanting to leave. You know there was um now you know there there was a time, Bujjo once said you know because there was a time there where he was being I think considered for a position on the bench. He always only wanted to be a head coach but the one team that he maintained he would go on the bench as an assistant coach was the Toronto Maple Leafs. Now also just because Rick Tauket is in the news today and now that ball has been

lobbed over to Rick Tauket from Jim Mutherford and Patrick Galveen. They will not exercise the option. It's up to Rick Tauket. If he chooses to come back there are some vacancies as we know around the NHL. See Philadelphia, see New York, see Anaheim. We'll see what happens with teams like the Boston Bruins. You know, it's over to Rick Tauket. There was a time where the Maple Leafs, when Sheldon Keefe was coaching, that the Maple Leafs made Rick Tauket an offer

that would have made him the richest assistant coach in the history of the NHL. I believe it was either at or just under a million dollars. To be an assistant coach with the Maple Leafs. Where is assistant coach salaries at now? It depends. It depends on the market. It depends on the team and it depends on the team, and it depends on the candidate, but I can assure you,

there's no million dollar assistant coaches. Yeah, fair enough. That's one of those like, hmm. I'm gonna go team. When was that a bean, do you know? What year? I wanna say that was three years ago. Yeah, would have been nice.

I want to get into a couple of things here because time is becoming our enemy here. I just had a lot of fun in the chat. Time is becoming our enemy here. So I want to get a couple of thoughts in on the Arturia Leckoning goal from Saturday. And a couple of thoughts on that Game one and if Dallas has any chance here. But before we get there I want to introduce a new partner here on the program RV Easy. I've always wanted to do this. Always wanted to do this.

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Always wanted to do that. Just hop in an RV and vanish. I looked at this website. Just hop in and just become a rumor. just just hop it hop in and they just become a rumor Whatever happened to I don't know he got in his RV and he was gone Here I found his phone. I need that he just vanished. He's just gone Yeah, how did you see the the Arturia Leckoning goal on? Saturday and the subsequent debate around it. First of all, do we have

the clip? I want to make a point about over times here. I want to make a point about over times. I was talking about this during the Women's World Championship final yesterday. Let's show the clip. This is the opening goal in what was a game that was dominated by the Colorado Avalanche. Really great performance by Mackenzie Blackwood as well. But here's Lekkinen kicking off the scoring. So it's one of the weirdest goals you'll ever see. Normally situations like this, the puck just goes wide or over the net. But is it okay? First of all, this comes into semantics. First of all, he's not deliberately kicking the puck. He's trying to save his knee from injury. But technically, that motion is a kick.

But I wouldn't describe it as a kicking motion. That was a, I'm trying to balance myself here and make sure I don't blow my knee out in the process. But the actual movement was a kick. To me, that's a goal all day long. Obviously, to the officials me that's a goal all day long. Obviously to the officials that's a goal all day long. I think to most sane people that is a goal all day long. Here's the one thing that I'll always say when I thought about this because a lot of these a lot of these goals I look at and say do you

want that goal to be a Stanley Cup winner? How would you feel if that because now we're in the playoffs, so I always look at this, like every single goal that goes in, I'm like, how would I feel if that was a Stanley Cup winning goal? Like every single goal, I don't know what it is. I'm just wired that way.

And I looked at that one, and not only did I like it, I loved it. And here's why, Zach. This is my thought and has always been my thought. For 60 minutes, I want goals to be clean and beautiful and precise. Like I want them to be like highlight goals. Like oh yeah, that's a goal. But I like overtime to be stupid.

And I want overtime to be chaos. And because of that, whereas I want really pretty goals for 60 minutes I want ugly goals in overtime I want really messy sloppy ugly goals and I don't know that we're going to see an uglier one than that in these playoffs. I'm looking at that and I'm like, I wish that was game seven, triple overtime here. And that's the one that goes in just because I want OTs to be ugly goals. Ugly. I kind of producer makes quoting you here. He's going to put this on a card later. That motion is a kick, but I wouldn't describe it as a kicking motion I know

I quote but that's but yeah first of all I you know what I'm getting at right yeah I agree with you a hundred percent not deliberately kicking but like the leg does come out like the actual motion itself it's a kick but he's not trying to kick it. No, I agree with you on this one. Okay, ugly goals. You agree with me on ugly goals. You want ugly goals in overtime. Give me ugly. Give it off someone's hip, off someone's ass, deflected off a skate,

fans on the shot, and it goes, give me that all day long. Goalie just whiffs on it, puts it in his own net! Player puts it, oh, that's what we need. This year, Stanley Cup final, write it down, please, please, if there is on it puts it his own net or player puts it oh that's what we need this year Stanley Cup final write it down please please if there is a hockey lord I want like I either want the most in their own net to win to lose this Steve Smith

Steve Smith flames Edmonton Oilers I want that as a Stanley Cup winner. Quit about happy. That's what I want. So I either want the OV on his back goal, or the ugly goal. That's a beautiful goal. That's a beautiful goal. Right, but that's what I'm saying. I want one way where it's the most beautiful, or the other way where it's the most ugly. If it's just a nice goal or a good goal, it's like, okay. It's exciting, but I would want the other end

of the spectrum for that by the way speaking of good goal the bane of my existence good goal is a go-goal describe now is legal goal what I'm liking now is you're starting to see officials that this has been happening now for about a year a year and a half official some officials trying to go out of their way and we've seen some officials trying to go out of their way and we've seen some really awkward pauses because of it, try not to say good goal. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. I'm liking when my phone blows up when these happen. To everybody who still like tweets at me and DMs me and texts me, I love it. Please, whenever it does happen, I'll get like just blank tweets, good goal or just goal. I still love it. I still smile. There's still work to be done. But yes, now we're seeing that's a legal goal. Legal goal? I've never seen anyone get arrested for scoring an illegal goal.

Is that where we're at now? Are like flatfoot's hitting the ice or cops coming out with handcuffs? I'm sorry sir, that's an illegal goal. You're gonna have to come with me. What? Legal goal! Just so you don't say a good goal. Legal goal made me laugh. Legal goals, how nice! It's just a goal. No, I liked that. That one made me laugh because it was like,

there was a conscious decision that was made by that ref to not say good goal. He knew not to say good goal. He was like, hmm, what is the other way that I can put this one? What are other ways that you can describe it without leaving it as just, it's a goal? That's one thing actually. Just tweet at us at the sheet. Yeah. Tweet at us. That's it. I want to see. What

are other ways? What are other ways to say goal? No, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What are these other ways? Yeah, other ways to say good goal. Like we had legal goal. I want to know other ways that referees officials can say this to drive Jeff nuts. That's, to see these if Jeff can tweet at me the shots are 8-1 Then I can I can at least feel through these ones that you guys I saw I don't have time to go through it right now But like oh whoever that person was and I apologize for not having your name handy Thank you so much in the Dallas Colorado game for tweeting at me the SOG shots 8-1. It will never not be funny. 99 problems. The shots 8-1. I live to torture you now with that.

No, that's so bad. Like, I mean, I'm glad it happened, but brutal. Brutal. No, man. It's good. It's good. Okay, a couple more things here. Just me, just me, or was that Logan Stankhoven goal, the second one, the loudest you've ever heard a puck hit a pipe? Now, I've heard, people tweeted at me afterwards, I put that out on Twitter on Saturday, and by the way man, Carolina just skated New Jersey into the ground. Like that score was a four to one final. That should have been like eight to one. That game was like an eight to one game. I know Carolina is the, let's spend the first 15 minutes

warming up the core C and fire, fire, fire, puck, puck, puck. I get that. But at the same, but at the same, but they do that, right? Like, so that, okay. Can I tell you a backstory on that I'm not gonna say who the player was but years ago I had a Carolina Hurricanes player telling me that I'm like so what are you guys like what's the strategy like first period for Carolina he goes you know our team we're team analytics we spend the first 15 minutes warming up our Corsi. That's what we did to keep everybody happy.

So that's, warm up the Corsi. Anyway, so it's the Corsi Kings. The shots tilted, all of it. Carolina just skated New Jersey into the ground. I know no Hughes. And then the injuries, whether it's Dylan and Luke Hughes and Cody Glass gets hit by his old goaltender who's trying to chop someone in half with the paddle.

It's just like New Jersey can't, couldn't get out of their own way after a while. And Logan Stankhoven, who I really cheer for, I really want Logan Stankhoven to have a great playoffs. I really want, you know, Logan Stankhoven to really distinguish himself here among some, you know, really high-end talent with the Carolina Hurricanes. he's gonna get every option to do so I have a chance rather to do so but that second shot that honestly I don't know whether it's just like I don't know they sweeten the sound at at Lenovo like I don't know but that sounded so loud did it not did that not strike you at all or am I the only one that pays attention like how loud the pipe is or the crossbar is?

First of all, it's my favorite sound in the NHL. It's my favorite sound in hockey. So I'm particularly sensitive to it. But man, that was, that was, that was fierce, man. Just me? No, I'm, I'm glad that you see these and notice these things too, because I do, and my roommates, my girlfriend, whatever it may be, they're like, what are you talking about?

How did you notice that? Like I'm viewing all the game, but it was the other day, you texted me about something about like the lighting in the game. I was like, thank God you saw this too, because so did I. And everyone else thought I was nuts for this. But I was gonna ask you if there was anything to that now you saying this is at least Maybe confirming that you don't know the answer but like I don't

I'm gonna something to that where mics and arenas are jacked up or the ones over the glass are tuned up No, I'm gonna notice that as well Yes, I'm gonna ask and I feel like in Toronto on the sports net broadcast It's not quite like that. Like I feel like you don't get at least in Toronto. You don't get it Maybe it's just Scotiabank whatever it is, but like it's not even I'm not even talking about fans I'm talking about like actual arena sound. You know what else you hear in Carolina there to Jeff. I noticed a lot is the Sound of when a guy gets hit into the boards for some reason

To me it feels like that's like it pops through the screen through this through the sound when you're watching it and like when that puck hit that post I know I'm like in public school and I gotta like evacuate like leave your books and put your shoes on leave like that's like how sudden that was first First of all great shot. It's probably one that Markstrom needs to have but it's just a perfect shot. You know I wouldn't call it a necessarily great goal. It was a perfect shot and it was just super hard. Anyway my whole point about it, my whole point about it, I

really want good things for Logan Stankovic. Again don't cheer for teams cheer for players. I really want good things for Logan Stankovic. Again, don't cheer for teams, cheer for players, I really want good things for Logan Stankovic. By the way, Spencer Newton submits this one and I would love to hear, like close your eyes for one second, I've thought about this, imagine an official saying this. So Spencer Newton in in the chat says we have a great goal Like if we're gonna describe goals like I want an official to be really flowery of like We have fucking awesome goal Look at it again. I just looked at that. I just looked at the replay guys that calls fucking awesome

I just looked at the I just looked at the replay guys that calls fucking awesome Center ice they turn on the mic after video review. We have a fucking unbelievable Who's that guy that was the bands West it's up to you man, let's go next level I saw a j-rock said that is an acceptable goal. I think that one would drive me nuts. That would drive me nuts. But be as flowery as you can. If we're going to go like good goal, okay, so now we're describing the goals, are we? Okay, so I've never seen anything like that. Before I tell you whether it was in or not, let's just say that was an incredible play.

A round of applause for everybody. Okay, now that I've got your attention. Think about that, though. They come out from the Leckonen one, they reviewed that kick, and they're like, in an unseen set, never before seen set of circumstances, we have an unbelievable goal. Folks, first of all, that's a goal. Second of all, I wanna remind you all,

your job at the end of the day is to stay alive, because if you stay alive, you'll see some weird shit. Just like this are Turi Lekinen Goal to Sunrise we go Give me that call Yeah, I'll be unique way to go about it is for that way Okay, I've lost a little bit focus focus over what we're supposed to be doing now. Where are we going now? That's I think that's that's most of the stuff that I wanted to get out of. Did I mention how good Mackenzie Blackwood is? Mackenzie Blackwood was great in that in that Colorado Dallas game too.

Like to me it this one might go down. Remember that year that Vegas when they won the cup they picked up Ivan Barbachev for the trade deadline and we all went like okay like decent and it turned out to be like the move that put them over the top and got them the cup. they picked up Ivan Barbachev for the trade deadline, and we all went like, okay, like decent, and it turned out to be like the move that put them over the top and got them the cup. If Edmonton would have gone further, Matias Sackholm would have been that trade. To me, I wonder if we look back at this season, if Colorado does this, and it looks like

they got the weapons to do it, we look back and go, Mackenzie Blackwood. That was the trade. That was the trade they owned. And the great signing afterwards, too. Just. That was the trade. Missing his chance. And the great signing afterwards too. Just Picasso. Yeah. Picasso by Carlotta.

Agreed. Where are we going? What are we doing? You're in control. Set the controls for the hardest sign. What do we got? Where do we wanna go to? Games of the night?

I guess that's probably the reasonable spot to go to. I think so. Let's do games of the night because we have a number of them. And as always, we'd like to remind you of our friends and partners here on the program. The sheet is powered by FanDuel, home of the same game Parlay. Make every moment more on FanDuel. FanDuel, proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them. We got four games tonight. We got the Montreal Canadiens facing off against the Washington Capitals. Game one. All right, Samuel Montembeau starts. Logan Thompson starts.

We're all waiting for this one. Like as Gabby just mentioned a couple of moments ago, Washington hasn't played great down the stretch here. A lot of it revolved around the OV chase. He broke the record in a loss. What can I say? Montreal on the other hand, even though it looks like they squandered it last week, that game against Chicago had a good comeback again, the game against Carolina insulted it away on game 82. Montembeau versus Thompson. The ghosts of 2010, we'll see what prevails tonight. It's game one. Meanwhile, game two. If game two is as entertaining as game one,

don't move. St. Louis and Winnipeg. Jets lead the series 1-0. Jordan Bennington starts. Connor Hallibux starts. I didn't think either goaltender was exceptional in game one and that's fine. Like there were moments where I was like, Bennington's got to have that. There was the floater from the point where I said, Connor Hallibux got to have that one. I really do wonder if the game plan is going to be the same if you're the St. Louis Blues and just go out there and try to pound the Winnipeg Jets into dust. Now the other two that we really have to mention with the Winnipeg Jets, Mark Shieffley was outstanding. We all talk about players that have the burr under the saddle

after not getting the nod from the foreign nations. Shifely obviously one of those players. And don't forget, Mark Shifely here, Mark Shifely is one of those players where when the playoffs are done for his team, he still watches. There are a lot of players who just wanna get away from it and just leave it. He is the 24-7, 365 hockey player slash hockey fan. And he's probably realizing that, look, I'm closer to the end than the beginning of my career. This really might be my best shot at it.

And you can tell every single shift he's leaving it all out there. He's like look maybe finally we have the team here. Shia Flea was amazing in game one, Kyle Connor was great in game one as well and that game was so entertaining. Such an entertaining and the fans were super loud too and the whiteout baby the whiteout. Vic texted me after he's like I disagree with most things you say but I agree on the whiteout. Thanks Vic, appreciate that. Can I pause you on this game quickly here? What do you expect from Hellebuck here tonight and the

reason I ask this is I among with I think a lot of other people, kind of got, as you kind of let off the show with a little bit there with Hellebuck, was, oh no, here we go again. I think those were the exact words my dad said to me when that game had started unfolding the way it was. They got it on the rails and they won that game, but let's call it what it is. It's not the prettiest game for Connor Hellebuck

it's not the one he's gonna look at and you know ask for the DVD of at the end of his career, but How do you kind of see him responding tonight? I'm not like I'm asking you on the spot here like a prediction you think this is Hellebuck bounces back He's dialed in, you know, you can't beat him tonight you think there's another shaky one in him? Like, what are you expecting? Because the, the body of work he's put together here so far, it's not like he's a choker in the playoffs, but he hasn't been necessarily Vezna heart candidate

kind of guy in the playoffs year in, year out. It's really hard, um, in the NHL to steal a game. I think you can expect a goalie to steal a period to steal two periods. It's reallyL to steal a game. I think you can expect a goalie to steal a period, to steal two periods. It's really rare to steal a game. Considering the story that's been there around him in the postseason. And many have wondered, like if by the time the postseason rolls around, if he's just flat out tired, that guy plays a lot of games. Like I feel bad for Eric Comrie.

Can I get in a couple here? Can I get the playoff spot already here? Like, can I get a couple here. Can I get the playoff spot already here? Like get a couple of games. Um, I think that eventually somewhere, if the Winnipeg Jets are going to have a run, he's going to need to have that statement game. Not unlike the guy that he's staring at 200 feet away in the St. Louis blues, that Connor or, um, Jordan Bennington out of the four nations. I remember going into the four nations final, that Canada, us game.

What were we saying about Jordan Bennington? One of the things is baked into the Four Nations final, that Canada-US game, what were we saying about Jordan Bennington? One of the things that's baked into the pie is one bad goal. And when you're team Canada with Jordan Bennington, you have to know that you're playing, in your mind, down a puck. Because there's gonna be that one bad goal. And in that game, there wasn't that bad goal.

And that was a game where, all of a sudden, even though Connor Halibut, even though Jordan Bennington, the season previous, you know, probably was a candidate for the the Vezna trophy, outside of that Stanley Cup final in 2019 when the Blues won, we've kind of looked at Jordan Bennington and kind of said like, he's good, I wouldn't confuse him for a great goaltender, but now that conversation is done. Like he's silenced everybody. Connor Halliburke's gotta shut some people up now, right?

Does it mean steal a game, steal a series, hard to steal games, man. It's hard to steal games in the NHL, but somewhere along the way, he has to have that moment where he quiets everybody up, where he shuts everybody up. And so like, you know what? That story about me is over. That's what he's gotta do.

Game two tonight, St. Louis and Winnipeg. Colorado Dallas, Mackenzie Blackwood versus Jake Ottinger. Colorado Avalanche lead this series one nothing after skating all over Dallas on Saturday 5-1 the final there Nathan McKinnon just too awesome in that game two goals and an assist we'd had a lot of fun with the Arturia Lekkonen goal and how great Mackenzie Blackwood was you know they really miss Mirro Haskinnon obvious statement like he can't come back fast enough for the Dallas Stars and if he can't come back fast enough for the Dallas Stars and

if he can't come back fast man it's gonna be it might be a quick series here and if it's a quick series then look out because you don't win the Stanley Cup without having one quick series minimum one quick series that goes four or five games Dallas is still an excellent team. Dallas is a really, really good team. I don't know that they can skate for three periods with the Avalanche. Like watching that game, Zach, did you not say to yourself, man, I don't know that Dallas is fast enough? Because Colorado, it's like Colorado started the game by grabbing the Dallas Stars by the ankle and swimming out to deep water fast. And said, okay, let's tread water here. Let's see if you can keep up with us.

Let's see if you can keep up with us out here in deep water. And Colorado stayed at that pace and slowly but surely Dallas just got slower and slower. They couldn't do it. Can they, A, somehow slow down Colorado, not likely, or two, keep up with Colorado. That's a tall order. That team plays so fast. That team plays so quick.

Yeah, it was the waves that they came at them in, right? And it was like, in current form, I do not think Dallas has the ability to go head to head with Colorado at that. The other thing, too, you talked about how good Blackwood was. And we've had these goalie conversations. I mean, for me personally right now, hot seat Jake Ottinger. It's not that he was the reason that they lost that game, like

I'm not gonna put blame on him, but you want the guy that's waiting for him. You want the guy that almost beat Calgary so many years ago. You want that Jake Ottinger. We all want that. Dallas wants that Jake Ottinger. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. That we looked at her Brooks, like talking to Jim Craig saying, I know he's in there. Like, you know, that guy's in there. You can find them. I want the guy who didn't take the test. That's the way that's what they're looking for. I can, I can recall having the conversation like after that Calgary series, like, are we looking at the next Carey Price? Like that's how good Ottinger was and all the potential that he had. And that Goldie is still in there. Like, wow, does this guy like the next carry price?

I don't know. Like that's like, that is you talk about stealing games. You might need a goalie to steal a game here because you don't want to go down, you know, to Cobb to Colorado going back to ball arena. Forget it. This is all pressure on Dallas, man. Yeah. You feel so suffocated. If that's the case you go to you go back to Colorado down to out here. I just don't know how you mentally kind of I mean, they're pros and anything that happened. But that's one of those ones where

it's like you're you're in a hole and you're looking a long way up. Tough. Okay, let's finish on this one. Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings. This is game one at crypto.com arena. I know we've seen this so many times. And at the beginning of the season, and even into like Christmas,

I was saying, oh, I just don't want to see Edmonton in LA in the opening round and Zach you know what I want to see maybe more than any other series here in the opening round Edmonton LA I think this lines up to be a much now Edmonton's got like super duper star power as we all know with like two of the top five players in the world period maybe two of the top three players in the world period and you say to yourself man who's gonna beat them but then you look at the rest of the roster and you look at the health and even you look at like them the superstars themselves like McDavid and Leon Dreisle not at a hundred percent

health after 82 games Stuart Skinner versus Darcy Kemper listen LA's got the advantage in net LA's got the advantage on the blue line. I think they have the advantage with forward depth, but they don't have two guys in Dry Settle and McDavid that can win games individually. That's why this one is so fascinating to me. And one of the interesting things in it too is, I can't wait to see Byfield here. I really can't wait to see Byfield in this situation where I really can't wait to see Bifield in this situation where he's freed up away from the tight checking here. And that's where like, you know, there's Kopitar, there's Deneau, and then there's Quentin Bifield. All of a sudden, Quentin Bifield sees some ice and you become a superstar in the playoffs.

You really distinguish yourself in the playoffs. I wonder if Quentin Bifield can be that guy for the Los Angeles Kings. Talent's all there. It's all there laid out in front of him. All you gotta do is beat Edmonton. Went to the Stanley Cup final last year. Yeah this was when one of those ones I like getting in the weeds of hockey internet whether it's like on Facebook comments Instagram comments Twitter I mean Vic can attest to it. Last night during intermissions this guy saw me like reading Sens fans tweeting about the game losing their minds. Just thriving off of this. That's the kind of parts of the internet I go to. This

one has been fun to see people going back and forth because both sides are dead convinced that anybody who doesn't think their team is winning is like the dumbest person on earth. And it's just they're so convinced i'm reading this and king's fans are like you don't get it your goalie stinks you've got no depth euler's fans are coming back with just like you can't trust kemper he did it once he can't do it again you don't have tricidal mcgave and I'm like, let's go. Like this game, I can't wait to kick off here tonight. I'm excited. Also before we wrap up on this stuff,

huge shout out to Colton Davies for helping me get those boards ready that we put up today. The team at the Nation Network got those built and then Colton was the one, he sent me a text and said I can help you out with some stuff. We obviously did the pre-record with Bruce there. Colton was the one, he sent me a text and said I can help you out with some stuff. We obviously did the pre-record with Bruce there. Colton was behind the scenes helping fire

some of those boards together. And I didn't want to get through the show without thanking him for that and giving him a shout out because he's the man. There's a lot of secret weapons we have around here and he's one of them, you know what I love, and I get it from Colton every night. Western Hockey League updates.

Yeah, I'm getting them now too, I love it. So good, oh. Make it sound like I know something. Oh, they had the DuPont again, eh? Oh, okay, okay, keep that in the hip pocket. You're the best, Colton, thanks pal. And listen, everyone who was part of the show here in the chat or listened or watched on YouTube,

thanks so much for your attention. The program back tomorrow at three o'clock in the afternoon. We wanna thank Bruce Bujjo for stopping by, Bruce on the NHL Network this evening. Four games on the go around the NHL tonight. Enjoy them and if you're bored go back and watch the Vancouver Canucks press conference with Jim Rutherford just dropping flavor puck after flavor puck after flavor puck. Enjoy and we'll be back tomorrow three o'clock eastern. Don't forget morning cup of hockey. It was hot this morning too.

Colby and Laz going at it. Look forward to that tomorrow morning, 9 o'clock DFO Live at noon. And then our show at 3. Pace yourselves folks. Still try to get your rest. There's still plenty of hockey, but it's been great so far. We expect more great hockey tonight. Enjoy it.

The show is back tomorrow, three o'clock Eastern, right here on our daily face-off YouTube channel. Click the like, click the subscribe, and we'll love you forever. Talk to you. Bye. I can't get out my head Lost all ambitions day to day Guess I can call it a run I went to the dark man He tried to give me a little medicine I'm like, no, man, that's fine

I'm not against those methods but it's new It's me, myself and how this gon' be fixing my mind It's me, myself and how this gonna be fixing my mind Do you wanna break it? I do wanna break it I turned on the music I do wanna break it I turned on the music I turned up, up, down, down Sometimes losing

Helping on the days that went wrong