The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Oilers Fire Kris Knoblauch and Avalanche Eliminate Wild ft. Tyler Yaremchuk & Greg Wyshynski

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

Jeff Marek is joined by Greg Wyshynski for another edition of MvsW on today’s episode of The Sheet as they break down a dramatic night in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the biggest stories around the NHL. The guys dive into the Colorado Avalanche eliminating the Minnesota Wild in Game 5 after Brett Kulak delivered the overtime winner to send Colorado through, what ultimately went wrong for Minnesota, and what’s next for both teams moving forward. They also tee up a pair of huge Game 6 matchups as the Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens battle in a pivotal showdown, while the Anaheim Ducks and Vegas Golden Knights continue their heated series. Beyond the playoffs, Jeff and Greg also get into major coaching news around the league, reacting to the Toronto Maple Leafs firing Craig Berube and discussing the fallout surrounding the Edmonton Oilers moving on from Kris Knoblauch, what these decisions mean for both organizations, possible next steps, and much more from around the hockey world.#TheSheet #JeffMarek #GregWyshynski #MvsW #NHL #StanleyCupPlayoffs #ColoradoAvalanche #MinnesotaWild #BuffaloSabres #MontrealCanadiens #VegasGoldenKnights #AnaheimDucks #MapleLeafs #CraigBerube #EdmontonOilers #KrisKnoblauch #HockeySHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Ninja: https://www.sharkninja.ca/ninja-crispi-pro-6-in-1-countertop-glass-air-fryer-rose-quartz/AS101CRS.html?utm_source=Meta&utm_medium=Paid+Social&utm_campaign=H1NinjaCrispi&utm_content=NinjaEN&dwvar_AS101CRS_color=cdb9b8Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oilers coach out, Minnesota hockey team out. Ryan Johnson in. With that, welcome to the sheet for this Thursday, May 14th. Glad to have you aboard today. The lovely haircut you see beside me is Greg Wyshinsky's. And in between the two ears are Greg Wyshinsky himself, who is at the capital of ESPN right now. Yeah, in Bristol, Connecticut for some meetings and stuff.

No, I think I had my haircut the last time we talked to you. It's just that it looks better than it usually does. and also there's a great. Oh, I like what you're doing with your hair. Keep washing it. It's good. That's great. I try.

Keep washing it. Yeah, that's good. We've got a lot to do today, but really quick and the quick little sort of preamble here, if you want to do triage for how you want to handle this. The biggest stories in order today. Minnesota, Vancouver, or Edmonton for you. As we do our triage here for the topics, the jour. What am I right in the rundown for the show now, Mary?

Pretty much. Blueprint. Brought to you by Grugashinsky and Fan Duel. It's knoblock, obviously. It's not only for the team, not only for the implication of what it means for the next two years for the team, not only for all of the backroom chicanery going on with Bruce Cassidy, but also because they handed a guy an extension that hasn't started yet and then fired him before the extension starts, which I don't know, Merrick doesn't seem like very good personnel management to me.

It's just where I'm sitting. I don't know. No, you know what? I kind of like it. Like I don't like it for Chris Oblock. No, but I like because the idea of, well, he's not the coach we want. He's not the coach we think we need right now. But damn it, we're paying him, so damn it, he's going to coach. When you're this close to the Stanley Cup, you can't think that way. You can't work that way.

It's got to be, if he's not our guy, I know it's going to be a tough one to go and sell him to the owner. But Darrell, you're going to have to chomp down hard on this contract because we need a new coach. I actually applaud that as opposed to just, well, we're paying him. So he's going to be our coach, damn. But you're paying him because you thought he was your coach. And then you were wrong. But how are you wrong? He got them to two Stanley Cup finals in consecutive seasons, Merrick.

Look, I'm not arguing whether it's right or wrong. I'm saying if they have the belief that he is not at this point. And I think a lot of those have to do what Connor and Leon said. More on that in a moment. If you firmly don't believe that he's your guy, then don't double down on it just because you're paying him. I know he got him to the Stanley Cup final twice. he's got what he's coached one of the best teams in the NHL in the last few seasons. I get all of that.

My only point is if you've made the decision that he's not your guy, go to Edmonton for not saying, we're actually paying him and his new contract hasn't kicked in yet, and it's a pretty dime, and it's going to be three years, are we cool with that? It sounds like that wasn't even a discussion. It's he's not our guy. We have a ticking time bomb of a contract year with Connor McDavid, so let's just get on with it and find another coach because we cannot squander the next two seasons. I have absolutely no faith in this management group being able to identify whether or not he's the

guy. The guy who just got you to two consecutive Stanley Cup finals, the guy who presided over a team, who by the way, we just all gave a hall pass to because Connor was playing on one ankle and because dry sidle was hurt and then maybe Bouchard was hurt. Like all of these things conspired to give the Oilers a hall pass in their first ground loss to the Anaheim ducks, except for the coach. Now that the coach gets blamed. He's the one who needs to leave, despite all of the other excuses that we gave this team for their first round loss to the Anaheim ducks.

Listen, you know where I'm at. The first thing it's always, is it composition or is it coaching? I think in this situation, it's both. Like the moment that I saw in that last game, Noblock throwing out McDavid, who's injured, Dreysidal, who's injured, on the same line together. Did I mention this is on the road where Joel Quenville can match up as he sees fit. And every time they were out there, he had Jackson McComb and Truba out there to shut them down. And who was the defensive conscience of that line?

Do you recall? So everyone can hear me in the back. Kesperi Kappaninan. At that moment, I said, I think it might be time. But this is what I'm talking about. I think it might be over. This is throwing spaghetti at the wall, man. This is desperation.

This is looking at Bruce Cassidy and saying, hey, this guy gets instant results and can give some semblance of a defensive system. Stan, I listened to Stan's press conference before we hopped on Merrick. I know you didn't get a chance to. And basically what he said, I'm going to read you kind of what he was getting at today, which is that he doesn't believe the team has any foundational piece besides the power play that they can rely on when they don't get a power player if the power play doesn't convert.

And that's a fair criticism. And so their Hail Mary pass in the remaining two years, maybe, of Connor McDavid's tenure in Edmonton, is to get someone who can come in, install a defensive system, give them some level of personality when it comes to another facet of this team besides the man advantage, and hope that they have the time to do so so they can rely on another part of this team to get them through the tough times. it is a complete Hail Mary to believe that Bruce Cassidy can do that with like you said the roster he's being given but I guess it's the only card they feel like they have left to play to win a cup within the next year

because it could easily just be the next year and then they have to trade Connor. It could be. It could be. There's one of the things we're going to get to you here in a couple of seconds because there is like, as we say that doomsday clock attached to all of this. Let's get to what's on the program today. The blueprint and more on Edmondson. Trust me.

The blueprint is powered by Fanduel. Download the app today and play your game on Fanduel. Coming up on the program, you've heard them, you've seen him, haircut and all. He's in Bristol, Connecticut, home of ESPN, Greg Wyshinsky, from ESPN and ESPN.com. Tyler Yeremchuk is going to stop by when we talk about the oilers around these parts. We go to Tyler. Chris Knoblock fired coaching openings. Avs eliminate the wild or the wild just, I don't know, Greg.

Stop playing hockey. I don't know what the hell that way. was that I watched last night, but I just saw the Minnesota Wild stop playing hockey, and we'll talk about Sixes a little bit later on tonight. I want to swing back to Edmonton in a couple of seconds, but now, I'm not sure if we have the Russo clip, Zach, if we have it standing vice. We had Mike Russo on the other day, and we were talking about the Minnesota Wilde, surprise, surprise. By the way, first time I've ever interviewed someone from his cigar bar. But there was Mike Russo at his cigar bar, which is so cool. Mike Russo has told me about this.

cigar bar multiple occasions because I don't know if I've shared this on the show before, but Mike Russo and I are cigar buddies on the road. Yes, I know that. Every Stanley Cup final, we identify the places to go. I've taken him to basements in Boston. I've taken them all sorts of places. And he's promised me that I get to go to that cigar bar because that is the cigar bar, I believe, where he may or may not bump into a certain general manager of a certain

Minnesota NHL team once and again. And I'd love to take part in that confab at some point. Do we have that clip standing by from the other days? I don't have that one. Oh, you don't have that. Oh, geez, I'm going to present the whole cigar, bro. We had it, right? Okay.

Anyway, we're talking about what would constitute a successful season for the Minnesota while. Now, you know my whole thing about the first round. I like the first round because everybody's healthy. But now, built into the conversation about Minnesota and Colorado is Joel Ericksonek and Yonis Burdine, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But then last night happened. and what could have been looked at as, you know, a successful season for the Minnesota wild, taking some steps,

Caprize off, I mean, APB, out on the expensive guy in Minnesota. And then they just quit playing in periods two and three. And that is going to be, regardless of what they did all season long, I think that is what is going to linger for Minnesota Wild fans. Don't you think?

Like, they go up three Cobb and then just, stop playing hot. I know it's the abs. I get it. Yeah. But man, what was it? Three shots in the second,

four shots in the third, and a big bagel in overtime. Capri's off, the round number. So two things on that. First of all, I think I'm getting soft in my old age because I do think

it's a successful season. They won a series against a higher seed that a lot of people thought was going to take them out. They played well against Colorado for the most part in the series, knowing that they were missing two key defensive pieces.

And so I got to tell you, the moment in which the Philadelphia Flyers fans started applauding and cheering their team as the siren was sounding on the overtime goal that ended their season in a sweep, it occurred to me that we should be more joyful about the progress our team is making the playoffs. I agree.

I know that doesn't sound like me. I know that there's probably people being like, where is the alien pod under Greg's bed to steal the cynic that we all love? Why are you now? And now he's like, we should be more joyful about it. Why are you me? What's happened to you? When you think about the like, I was thinking about the Atlantic Division recently because I was talking about the lightning with somebody.

And like, you know, they were out in the first round in like five straight seasons. But a couple of those were against the Florida Panthers who went on to win a Stanley Cup. The Minnesota while they're going to sit back and think about what happened in game five. They're probably losing in game six. And they're probably losing in game six to the eventual Stanley Cup champion who right now looks like an unstoppable juggernaut in this league. And I don't think there's any shame in that. So if there are Minnesota fans that really feel terrible, about the way things went last night.

I don't begrudge that. And I don't begrudge the idea that in a couple of days, you can be very angry with the construction of this team, which was an absolute donut like we've talked about before, where Ryan Hartman's got to lug the freight as your number one center. But for now, I think you can be really happy with the way things went with the acknowledgement that you lost to somebody really, really, really, really good. You really did.

But the problem with all of it is, I don't think that fans, this might just be the pro wrestling in me. I don't know that fans mind if you lose as long as they see an effort or they see a struggle or they see something they can hang on to and then say,

you know what, we were like Monty Python's night. We just kept going for it, but we just kept losing limbs and there's only so much you can do. But that didn't happen yesterday at all. Again, like after the first 20 minutes to watch that complete,

cave in by Minnesota. That's going to burn. I think you could be a I think you could be a realist about I think you could be a realist about a couple of things. First of all, you could be a realist about how this is version 1.0 of the team that will eventually challenge seriously for a Stanley Cup.

I don't think that they had a roster that could do it. You can't go into battle against a Colorado team that's five centers deep. They've got their fourth bet center playing wing and then Jack Drury is winning every faceoff. he gets as their number four center. It's insane how deep they are in the middle. Minnesota couldn't even match it up against that if Yol Erick's was healthy. So it's contingent on Bill Guerin to fix that in the off season. And by the way, we've been talking about this

for what, a decade about the Minnesota Wild being lost in the middle. Now, does that mean go and spend the rest of their capital on Austin Matthews? Hey, that's a solution. Maybe we should do that. Did Bill Garron get any quality time or recently with the Austin Matthews in a secluded place and they could have talked about such things? I don't know. Maybe he did. Can't think so. Can't know what you're talking about.

And even if we could think so, we couldn't say it because obviously that's tampering. And we know that very much that tampering is a very big deal in this league right now. But secondly, only Mike Keenan and Pat Quinn have ever done it. And Jim Benning. That's it. And Jim Benning. The other thing, though, dude, is that like we talked about this team lacking in players that can make a play or have a moment. And we both agreed that like Matt Boldy was kind of mat

And matureing into that person and he certainly had some big moments in in this series And in the playoffs for them Not so much in this series. Okay, but in the Dallas series. 100%. Yes. But when you look at what happened last night, and again, the story of the Colorado avalanche is the waves of depth they can throw at you and and player, you know,

getting Brett Kulak the big goal and Ross Colton the big goal and Parker Kelly the big goal. Like that's the story of this team. Yes. But when you needed it, but when you needed it, you had Nathan McKinnon scoring the biggest goal of the game. And that's not something Minnesota had in the series. It may not necessarily have on its roster. And I don't know how you fix that because when push that comes to shove,

Colorado will always have McKinnon. They will always have McCar. It's not just that. And Minnesota is going to have to find ways to find people to be the hero. It's not just that. it's there are two teams that right now seem like with all due respect we love you Montreal we love you Buffalo we love you Anaheim we love you Vegas there looks to be two teams that are on a collision course right now and that's Carolina Godzilla yeah that Carolina and Colorado okay who knows like sure things can happen I get it

but right now it looks like two teams are on a collision course and the two things the thing that those two teams have in common is they make really, really smart bets. They make really, really smart gambles. And they are two of maybe the two most efficient organizations in the national hockey league. You just mentioned Parker Kelly. Look, there's no spot for them in Ottawa. Who does something about it? The Colorado Avalanche.

Sam Malinsky. There's another one. Like go up and down the lineup. Like really smart, safe bets. And Carolina does the, does. the exact same thing. And over the course of time, enough of these smart, safe bets accumulate,

and then all of a sudden, what do you have? A team with depth. So instead of going out to pay for your depth, in the off season, these two teams make really small, safe bets. And not all of them pay off, but because you do them in the volume that you do, eventually they do pay off.

And that's to your point. Colton scores a big goal. Sure, there's always an eighth of him again. Colton scores a goal. Parker Kelly scores a goal. I mentioned Sam Linsky. Carolina does the exact same thing. Look at how good Jankowski looks for his smart, safe bets on both sides that accumulate and you turn into playoff juggernauts.

But smart safe bets, but also hyper aggressive. Like, yes. Yes. I know I'm kind of arguing against myself right now with the conversation we had about Knoblock. But like, you know, the Colorado Avalanche acquire Charlie Coil. to be a solution in the middle for them. And then they trade Charlie Coil and get Miles Wood off their cap, right?

Yep. After last season. And then that, you know, they make the aggressive move on Rantanin. All of these moves, all of these cap savings, they result in Brock Nelson. They result in Nassam Khadry. They result in, you know,

all of these little pieces here and there that they've been able to acquire within the last year that have created this juggernaut. In Carolina's case, I mean, the most famous aggressive move we've ever seen, acquiring Miko Rantanin, and then trading Miko Rantan after 12 or 13 games. And that nets them Logan Stankovin and Taylor Hall, who are two pieces of the best line in the playoffs right now.

And Kandre Miller. Let's throw that into. Right. And using the draft assets they got from Dallas, they got Keogne Miller, and then signing him to that contract. So it's not simply just making the smart small bets. It's also being incredibly aggressive in bold moves that you believe are going to help set the dominoes in motion to create better things for your team down the line. And I mean, there are so many front offices that don't trade rant in twice, right?

There are so many front offices. Oh, God. This is our guy to score the big playoff goal. And we're going to double down to this guy, even though we know he doesn't want to live in Raleigh. So, I mean, it's also the boldness of the managing from Eric Tolst. and Chris McFarland easily. Agreed. I got nothing more to say about that one.

And these two teams look like they're headed towards a Stanley Cup finally. Quick thought on, because I want to circle back to Edmonton here, and then Tyler your armchacks coming up. They're sharp in the pencil even more coming up at the bottom of the hour. I said not that I'm some sage, right? Vancouver connects crystal ball. I just couldn't wrap my head around the idea that it wasn't going to be Ryan Johnson at the end of all of this.

And Ryan Johnson and an elevated role now for the Siddins in Vancouver. Evan Gold seemed like the bell of the ball for a while. One day we'll find out exactly what happened there and why that didn't work out. Do you have an idea? You want to pause on that one? I have an idea. Here's my theory on Evan Gold. I know there's a lot of people that are kind of thinking like he wanted to go and be too bold with the amount of people he wanted to ship off from Boston to this Vancouver managerial structure.

And that might be true. I mean, I know he was definitely going to bring some people from Boston with him to Vancouver. you're paying you're paying two guys right now upwards of what like five million dollars maybe not to work right and you probably have an idea of how much you want to pay the guy that's going to be your new general manager and i get i i i gotta believe that money was involved in this man like there if you're bringing in r j as your internal solution after all these public flirtations of people outside the organization be it pere dorian be it to Evan Gold. I have to imagine there's a fiscal reason for it beyond simply just like we didn't want to give the guy too much power or something.

So I truly believe, and I think it's just dollars and cents, yeah. Might have given me a little stick tap when I put this theory out on Twitter the other day, that there's a financial reason why Evan Gold's not the general manager, the Vancouver Canucks. I mean, at least being that's part of the equation. I've always maintained in situations like that. If that's going to be the determining factor for your organization, fold the tent. And this goes back to what we just said about Edmonton. Edmonton could have just said, like, look, no, no, no, he hasn't even started it.

It's no deal. We haven't even paid him new cash yet. He's our coach, period. But they recognized, okay, again, rightly or wrongly can dispute and dispute. But they said, we don't believe this is going to be our coach. He's not the guy. We can get someone better. So we eat it.

And that's the way you have to do in sports. And that's the way you have to do it. Not just sports, but in all of business. All of them. That's situational, though. That's situational. Like they're in a much more desperate place than Vancouver. Vancouver.

Like they have a ticking time bomb, like you said earlier, of Connor McDavid's contract. That's true. And so they're going to throw money after money to try to win a cup within the next two years. Vancouver doesn't have nearly anything close to that pressure point. Vancouver's trying to sell tickets. Right? And Vancouver thinks they can, you heard Rutherford as press conference, spin this thing around in a year. Because now they fix the culture.

Does a Canadian team need to sell? Yes. Like, really? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Because as American, I was also always in the impression that you just put things on the ice and people pay to show up. No. No. Not true.

Not true. Look what happens in Winnipeg. Look what happens in Winnipeg. Like, your smallest market in the league, though. But the thing is, like, that softens all of it was like, Vancouver,

Winnipeg once looked over the cliff and didn't like what they saw and all of a sudden it was matching contracts for Mark Shafley and Connor Hallibunk. The Canucks are going to draft somebody third overall and they're going to put them on a post

and then everybody will want to re-up their season tickets. You know hope sells, right? And so then Malhotra doesn't go to be you? Come see the team that Caleb Malholtra will join eventually. How about that situation? Hold on, hold on. But to your point, isn't making the Sedeen's co-presidents, you're functional?

Here's hope for all of you, morons, paying to see this. franchise. Toronto just did it with Matt Sundeen. Right. So here's the elevated shine role. Listen, when you see this all the time with organizations, when you know you're going to have a bad season, what happens? All of a sudden, we're retiring jersey numbers.

And we're getting the alumni out. And it's remember the good old years. When it's a good season, you don't have to do any of that. Like go have a look like when numbers are retired, when they have these types of. ceremonies. It's in bad years. It's in bad years. Why do you think they do salute to the troops in the third period?

It's because they're trying to get people fired up at the right time with some red meat for the audience. Come on. We've talked about this. I never, by the way, I always think about that interview we had that one with that one dude remember on the old MBSW we had that interview with that dude that talked about how it felt as a veteran when they did all of that stuff. Oh, Jeff. Oh, yeah, who served. Oh, God. And he sent me his book, too. What an interesting guy.

What a great dude. He was such an interesting guy. It was for those, for those I have no idea what we're talking about. We had a guy on the old podcast that talked about what it was like being a veteran that was featured in those moments. And it was such an eye-opening conversation because it was their perspective on kind of maybe being used as a part of the game night entertainment versus, you know, something salient. It was really eye-opening that conversation. If anyone has the MVSW archive.

on their device. Go back and listen to that episode because it was fantastic. I read his book when he, because he sent us copies and I remember reading it right away. And it was just like, I was just stunned page after page. I got to hear somewhere. Oh, wow, I haven't thought about, what a nice guy. I haven't thought about that for a while.

We haven't really talked about the sort of the playoff landscape a whole lot because, I mean, outside of Minnesota and Colorado and what happened last night. And more on Edmonton coming up at the bottom of the hour here in a couple the moments if you're listening on a podcast, there's no bottom of the hour. Dummy, don't think like it's radio Merrick. Like, there's no bottom of the hour. What am we going to do like time checks? You do time checks now? It's not like you're sinking dark side of the moon with the Wizard of Oz. People don't have to start the podcast at the top of the hour to understand what the hell you're talking about. Oh, really? No. Okay. I just arrogantly assumed that everybody started at the top

of the hour when we go live. We'll do the double time checks now. 155, five before the hour. Why do DJs always do double time checks? If you say like 155, you don't have to say five before. the hour. Thanks. That's a PSA for all of us listening to all the dumb DJs out there. Anyhow, I digress. Can I ask a quick question before we get to the thing? Were you guys in Canada cognizant of the Ted Turner starting every show five minutes after the hour on TBS thing? Or is that completely an American reference? I'm sure that I came across it because when I started at AM 6. No, when we switched from Mojo to AM 640, when I worked to chorus, we would do the same thing to sweep the top.

But that, but that, but that, but that, but that, but that, it was it either 05 or 07.

I can't remember what it was, but we would try to, we would try to sweep, sweep the top of the hour. It was all about, um, uh,

uh, TSL, time spent listening. Yes, we would try to sweep, we would sweep, Ted Turner's big innovation for those was that his,

starting all of his shows. Yeah, it was starting all of his shows on TBS, Turner Broadcasting system. I, you know what? Five minutes after the hour in order to get you watching beyond the top of the hour, so you would flip channels. Correct. So like the Andy Griffith show would start at like 605.

Correct. So he had to tune it at 605 to see the Andy Griffith show. Radio tricks. We used to do that at 640 all that. I don't know if they still do, but we used to do that at 640 all the time. By the way, just a quick note on Ted Turner. I read somewhere online. Someone brought up a great point about the kind of billionaire that he was.

And we used to have like cooler billionaires because Ted Turner became a billionaire and just spent all his money on like cool fun stuff that he liked, like baseball and wrestling and movies and like cool stuff as opposed to stuff that's going to like sabotage the universe. Like back then like billionaires like Ted Turner were cool. Like you really loved having billionaires like that around unlike the class that we have now. Well, because he was a guy that learned sailing to win the America's Cup. Right. And now the billionaire study would be like forcing the America's Cup to give them an America's Cup.

Like an honorary America's cup Just for like being on a boat once Yeah Okay hard transition Then Montreal Buffalo This thing's headed seven right Like this isn't going to end tonight, is it? It could

It could I think Buffalo Did a real good job They didn't do a good job Staying out of the box in game for But they certainly did a better job managing their emotions They got the break of all breaks on the Tage Thompson goal.

They got the break of all breaks in the T.H. Thompson goal. But that puts some wind in their sales. And I thought they played really well in Game 4. By the way, remember that one playoff season? I think it was 2011, maybe 2012, where every game there were like three or four, too many minutes on the ice, where everybody was just like firing it at the boards

at every line change and every official bit on it. And it was like nonstop, too many minutes on the ice, too many men. I was like, I think TSN ran like a counter as well. Like on every single night, like how many too many men? How many high sticking infractions can one series stand? It's incredible.

The parade of the penalty box of both those teams in the last few games was just high sticking, but like high sticking specifically. I don't want to say the game was unwatchable, but it's just like, at some point I was just rolling my eyes when I saw there be another power play in that game. I know. That's why I can't call the road. I wrote about that's why I wrote about this on

because it's too many powerplay. You can't. I wrote about this on ESPN.com today in a bigger piece about lessons learned from the postseason so far. And I'm just really impressed with Buffalo. Like they, they, they've, you could see the education and trying to learn how to win in the postseason and managing your emotions. A lot of, all of this stuff is managing your emotions. I talked to Bill Armstrong from the Utah mammoth about this.

One of the things that he did, and I think that Pat Verbeek did kind of the same thing with Anaheim was you got to bring. bring in some guys that have been there. I know we always joke about rings in the room. Rings in the room. You need to do when you have a young, inexperienced team in the postseason is to let them know

that the biggest difference between the regular season and the playoffs is that every loss feels like the end of the world in the playoffs. Because there's such a finite number of games in your series and everybody's paying attention.

The media scrutiny gets longer and louder. and you're on the road. Game three is a good example for Buffalo. You're on the road. And now Montreal's up 3-1, and Bell Center feels like it's going to explode. And you feel like shit. You just feel terrible.

You feel like the weight of the world is crushing you because you've let the lead slip away. And having some guys on a team to kind of just give you a little bit of a mental health check is really important. Utah had it. Anaheim has it. Buffalo has some guys,

but not many, the Flyers had no one, basically, to do that. And so to see the maturation of teams like Philly and the Flyers, I think is, I'm sorry, the Flyers and the Sabres, rather, has been really impressive to watch them learn how to manage their emotions in the playoffs without having a bunch of Jedi sages to give them that kind of advice. Really quickly, because Tyler's standing by. You're in at Bristol right now at the headquarters of ESPN. Are you going to see P.K. Suban today?

Do you know if you're going to see P.K. today? I can guarantee you I will not be seeing P.K. Subban. Because I'm curious if he's been asked to carry the torch yet. And if so, is it with Madame Belavu? Because that would tear the place apart. I think P.K. is too busy getting trolled by the Buffalo Sabres' social media team from not being able to pronounce the name of their goaltender. Which was a great, great bit, by the way.

If people haven't seen it, the Sabers asked a bunch of children. to say Ukupakalukin and goofing on PK's inability to say it, which I thought was really clever. Oh, that wasn't just PKs. That was moose too. But you know what? Suban had a great comment on Twitter about it too. Like he sees the joke.

Even though his brother platooned with him in the minors. Which Malcolm was his partner in the American Hockey League. You don't know his name. Anyhow. Okay, let's get to more of the top story of the day. The Oilers are searching for a coach, whoever will they ask. Well, we'll ask Tyler,

I'm Chuck, who he thinks they'll be asking. And my suspicion is Vegas if they ever allow permission because as of right now, they've been denied. Hey, Tyler, how are you? Oh, I'm good. I mean, denied. Well, we can get all the synonyms for denied out. Okay, we can get all the synonyms for denied out there.

It's the same thing. There's a lot of ways you can say it, Merrick. Put up the stop sign. How are you, Tyler? I'm good. I woke up this morning at 8 a.m. as I usually do. and I had eight text messages from producers and other people. When they fired Noblock, we need you on this show, that show.

And I sat there and I went, where have you all been for 72 hours? We declared him dead on Tuesdays, Oilers Nation every day. We've done the thing that news stations section, Liam and I have declared Bruce Cassidy, the next head coach of the Edmond Oilers. We've declared the race over. It's conceded. It's done. Wish?

There's so many ways I can go here, Tyler. But Merrick and I were talking about this earlier. Do you think Knoblock deserved to get fired, despite all of the injuries and all of the mitigating factors, the exhaustion of those two cup runs that led to the Oilers losing in the first round? I don't think he shoulders the majority of the blame at Edmonton, but I think he wears a good amount of it still. He got a chance to hire his own staff this year. Paul Coffey left the bench. He let Mark Stewart take on a bigger role running the blue line. He brought him Paul McFarland to run the forward group after Glenn Gulletson went and took the head job in Dallas.

He got a chance to kind of put his stamp on the coaching staff. And what happened was the defense got worse. The penalty kill was absolutely terrible for pretty much the entire season. And I also think that his personality type, very calm at times. He can be kind of monotone. He doesn't really react to things. When you hear Connor McDavid at the end of the regular season say, the regular seasons become monotonous to us. And I do think the Oilers sleepwalking through the regular season is a big reason why they lost in round one of the playoffs.

They just weren't ready to dial it up and play playoff hockey. Like Chris Knoblock's personality type, I don't think fits what this team needs going into such a make or break year. So did he deserve to get fired? I mean, in two of the three seasons, he's been behind an NHL bench. He's gone to a Stanley Dublin, been a combined three wins away from winning the whole damn thing. So I don't know if he deserved to get fired. but I also think it's a justified decision if that makes any sense. It seems as if, and this happens with coaches all the time,

you have your ideas and you dig in your heels. And no matter what anyone tells you or what evidence there may be about the decisions you make, you wall them off. There were times this season, and I just cited one with Greg. That last game against Anaheim with 2997 and Caputin on the same line on the road, easy matchup for Joel Quenville. That's a two-foot pot. I say to myself, I'm sure that he's heard that there's probably another way to do this.

Essentially, was the problem that there wasn't enough water getting from the well to the village? Or was the issue that the coaches didn't care to have a drink from the water that came from the well? To draw a really strained analogy here. I don't know. Like, I'll cut him some slack. for that decision late in the Anaheim series because we now know Connor McDavid was on one ankle and I mean you even look

like when Zach Hyman was not throwing a check for the final two games like that's where I'll maybe lean to like what Greg asked me earlier like how much does the injuries and all that should it have absolved knoblock and like Connor McDavid I don't think could drive his own line so I think they kind of had to make that decision and Leon Drey said

it was taking the face off a lot of the time and all of that so I'll absolve him a little bit there but I do go back to along those lines the start of training camp when again the oilers had these two young exciting players and ike howard and matt savoy in camp and everyone was like all right if they break camp like these are two young pieces who could you know really mesh well with a mac david and a dry sidle and they started the year connor leon and trent freder as their top line and it's like why you've had all summer to think about this and you're going big guns together with trent frick a noted top six winger like that was a weird

choice for me. And throughout the year, like the 2997 nuclear option, when to put them together, that's gone. That's pre-Noblock. That's Woodcroft. That's Tippett. That debates always existed here. So I don't think that how he handled that is super high on my list of reasons I was frustrated with Chris Knoblock. But I do look back to that start of the year. And it was like, why was that happening? Why did Chris Knoblock decide on that to start? Well, because Connor and Leon needed a goal score, obviously. Now, here's the thing I'm wondering about. When Connor and Leon both talked about, about the team taking a step back. I think most of us were like, well, of course it did.

The roster is not nearly as good as it was in the previous two runs. Yeah. You traded for Tristan Jari. Like, no shit. Management made the roster worse. You have taken a step back. But do you think that they meant coaching? Like, do you, how much are Connor and Leon part of this decision and saying,

hey, if you have the chance to bring in someone who can give us a defensive acumen, and like Bruce Cassidy could, you got to make this move. Do you think that they killed the coach? So I think they were a factor. I think of the moment after they lose game six to the Florida Panthers and Connor McDavid's asked like, why couldn't you deal with this Florida four check?

And he said something along the lines of, we were just banging our head against the wall doing the same thing over and over again. And it was like, hmm, in the moment, it was like, yeah, he's frustrated. He just lost the Stanley Cup again. He's fried, whatever. And then I think about before the Olympics,

break when Leon Drysito was asked who needs to be better and he said everyone needs to be better. And he kind of said it starts with the coaching staff. And it was like, whoa, that's an interesting phrase. And then I think about Connor McDavid after they got waxed by the Tampa Bay Lightning was asked, why aren't the Oilers as well coached as the Tampa Bay Lightning? And he deflected and said, that's a question for Knobber. And it's like, okay. And then Leon in his exit interview says, everyone took a step back, management, coaching,

the players. And it was like, all right. So now there's been in the last calendar a year where these. two guys have included coaching pretty bluntly in their evaluation of the team at four different points. I think that kind of tells you right there how they felt. Talking to Tyler is like watching the end of the usual suspects. All the clues were there, Merrick. You know, Bruce Cassidy's name, Bruce Cassidy's name was on a coffee mug. Like, we didn't even know where the breadcrumbs were. Tyler knows. Skokie, Illinois. Oh, yeah,

here we go. I mean, there were Oilers fans when the Golden Knights fired Bruce Cassidy was seven games left in the season. There were people in my YouTube job being like, there we go. Teams can do it. Fire Knoblock right now. Like this wasn't, and people are making it seem like it's this mess and the oilers got, you know, and I guess they did kind of get caught trying to have their cake and eat it too. Because I do think if they didn't think Bruce Cassidy was a possibility, I think there's a world where they keep Chris Knoblock. I think there's powerful people in that organization and decision makers who wouldn't have minded having Chris Knoblock back for another year.

But I think compromise, and this is the theory from all. all the information I've been able to scope out. My theory is the compromise between the two camps. One was fire the coach. We aren't winning with this guy. The other one was give him better assistance. And look, we can go back to the cup final, just like we did when he had better assistance.

I think the compromise was everyone agrees Bruce Cassidy's an upgrade. If we can get that guy, we get that guy. But let's not throw Chris Knoblock away for no reason. If we can't get Bruce Cassidy, let's keep him. So let's talk about that because Stan pushed back on that today in his press conference. Like he said they went through the process. of review after the season like he said that they would and that the conclusion they came to was to change the coach.

There was a delay because he needed to do it face to face and not everybody was in the same place. So I tend not to believe him and I don't think you believe him either on that timeline. But at least their line that they're selling is that he goes no matter if Cassidy is available or not because that's the conclusion they came to. Do you buy that though? No, I think he's lying to us. I just don't believe it at all.

I don't. I think they sat there and wanted to get permission to talk to Bruce Cassidy and obviously didn't. And then the information got leaked out by whoever wanted it out there, whoever benefited from it being out there, certainly wasn't the Edmonton Oilers. And they sat there and went, well, certainly can't bring back Chris now.

I also think it's funny that yesterday, you know, I saw Friedman had the report and a couple of people did too, that like Bruce Cassidy's number one preference is to coach the Edmonton Oilers or something along those lines. And I kind of thought, like, is that the smoke signal from the Cassidy camp telling the oilers? Like, hey, you can fire them. Like, 24 hours had gone on since the initial report. That was the Cassidy campaign.

Like, don't worry, we'll be here for you. We're interested. You can let them go. I can't help of thinking through all of it, too. And I keep referring it as a doomsday clock. But it is, and it feels like it. Like, right now, the Oilers don't have, like, Stan Bowman doesn't have the luxury of. of time on anything.

Something doesn't work. You kind of have to change it right away because you're attached to Connor McDavid's contract. Like if Connor had done a four-year deal or a five-year deal, I don't think we're having the exact same discussion. But now it's almost as if the general manager has been backed into a corner where all of a sudden he has a finite amount of time here. It's like a Keanu Reeves movie.

A finite amount of time to get this thing back. on the rails. And if you have any misgivings about anything, you don't have time to say, let's see how this plays out. You just don't have that. You don't have the luxury of having time. I was curious if one of the people who was okay with keeping Knoblock was maybe Bowman from the perspective of like, ooh, does he want to save that bullet? Does he sit there and pick the assistance with Noblock and say, hey, you didn't do a good job picking them yourself. So we're doing it with you this time. and we pick the assistance, then Bowman's got lit in the chamber for when the oilers are inevitably two, seven, and three to start next year, and he can go like, Piff.

Coaching change, let's get the new coach bump and all that. But I think, again, Bruce Cassidy being on the market probably changed that equation a little bit in all of this. But you're right. Like, every decision they make right now is incredibly consequential, which is why, again, it has to be an experienced. You know their track record. You know what they're about head coach. as much as we can talk about the many Malhotra's and maybe some other guys around the hockey world who haven't had a crack at an NHL bench yet and be like ah, they'd be interesting, they might fit.

I don't think of the Oilers you can take a chance on anybody right now. It has to be a sure thing. So it probably has to be Cassidy if it's not him, which again, I think it is like a Lavialette or someone like that. Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, pause on that, pause on that. I was saying a Dave last week, Dave Peno to last Friday when he was on, or maybe it was the other day, actually all these days all run together. I would just like to be in the room. No, it was last week.

I would like to be in the room to hear, because all the names have to be out there for a discussion. I would have loved to have been in the room if slash when, and I would believe that the name would have come up. The name Jay Woodcroft would have come up. Hell yeah. Let's go. Woody 2.0, baby.

So I had the take in the 2024 run when they turned it around. I said the whole time they would be doing all of this with Jay Woodcroft behind the bench. That's not like revisionist history or me looking back. I had that take every day on the show and people were heaping praise on Knoblock. I was like, why are we all thinking Jay Woodcroft is suddenly a bad coach? I don't think he was. I think he got fired because he couldn't get a save.

And again, I think his loyalty to Dave Manson heard him because I don't think Dave Manson could really run a modern blue line, at least in the fashion which the Oilers needed. They had to play up-tempo and fast and they were a little bit too old school off the glass and out, don't make mistakes sort of thing. Like you can look at how Evan Bouchard kind of blossom coming out of that move. So I think Jay Woodcroft is on it. If they would have given him fresh assistance to that season and if he could have gotten a save, like that was still Jack Campbell era in Edmonton.

He had to go on waivers in November that year. Like Jay Woodcroft got dealt a crappy hand at the end here. I think he's a fine coach. There's just no shot the Oilers of doing it. Oh, I don't know. Hang on a second. They fix the goaltending. Obviously you should come back.

But no, doesn't ever, at this point, Again, like doomsday clock here, everything has to be on the table. Everything. All of it. Don't you think? Even if it means, okay, we know it's the right thing. We might not like it, but we know it's the right thing. We go back to Jay Woodcroft.

And again, I've kind of just lived my life the last 48 hours being like it's Bruce Cassidy. So I haven't spent it. No, I know. He's no. Listen, he is the preferred candidate. We get it. Like, that's it. But if for whatever reason, Bill Foley digs in his heels, no way, no,

how he's my employee. That's what I was going to say. Don't we all want to see what that looks like? Don't we all want to see the Oilers having turf their coach and the Vegas Golden Knights being like, no, he signed through next season. I don't know what to tell you. Couldn't they just make him like head scout or something? Like couldn't they just give him some other assignment within the organization

that's not head coach and just be like, I'm sorry, he's an important asset to our organization and Edmondton can't get him? Yeah, and I don't know how the language is in those contracts. works, but I mean, I would just be stunned if Vegas was allowed to do that. Like, I know I asked you kind of blank earlier. They are. They are. They are allowed to do that.

It's just not done. Like, that's like a quick phone call. That's a quick phone call from Gary Batman saying like, look. Yeah, Gary will step. Technically, Bill, you're right. But come on. Do you know how petty this makes our league look? Not just your team.

It makes our league look petty. If you don't want them, fine. Let them go find work somewhere else. But to Greg's point, we haven't seen this. That'll be so funny. It'd be so funny. It would be very, for that to be the way

this whole thing goes down and they're caught. Like, again, people saying they're panicked and whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, they handled it poorly, whatever. I mean, I just think they were trying to upgrade their team at any cost possible. And if that cost was potentially upsetting

Chris Knoblox's feelings, then sure. And this is probably more Oilers' home or bias of me to say this next part. But like, when the Vegas Golden Knights are cutthroat and trademark Andre, Lurie after telling him he'll be a golden night for life and do all that stuff. Everyone's like, yeah, that's how an organization's ran. You cut it at all cost.

Then the oilers do it. And everyone's like, what a joke? But you said something interesting, though, Tyler, which is that they wanted to upgrade their team at all costs. Don't you think they do this because there's no other way to upgrade their team? Like, they don't have a treasure trove of things to trade. Like, if they're going to do big moves this off-season to improve the roster, or it's going to be like a money in, money out deal with like Darnel Nurse and someone else's

defense or something like that. Like this is the only card they really have to play to improve the team of the short term before they either say goodbye to Connor or trade him. Yeah. And I mean, that's fair. Like looking at this summer and how they could add a big piece to their top six or round out their blue line, it's not, they're going to have to get creative. I don't think it's going to be as simple as, you know, Stan sending a text to 30 another GMs

and saying, hey, darnel nurse for free anybody? like that's just not how it's going to work, but if they want to get creative, like they do have a little bit of financial flexibility, $16.8 million in cap space. So they can go out and sign a few pieces, although the free agent market sucks. But I mean, I was talking with DJ Bean from what chaos. And he had the idea of what if you actually kept 50% of Darnel Nurse? Is there a GM out there? You know, Buffalo was willing to give up a ton of stuff for Colton Pereco. And don't take this as me comparing Darnel Nurse to Colton Pereco. But if Buffalo was willing to give up a ton of stuff to get bigger, more veteran, meaner on their blue line. Maybe they would look at a darnel nurse at 4.75 and sit there and say, yeah, we'll give you a little something for it. Like, we'll take them off your hands. Would Steve Eiserman in Detroit have interest in making his blue line older and more veteran?

We know Ottawa's in the market. San Jose. San Jose. San Jose. San Jose all day. San Jose all day. They have no ones. It's Sam Dickinson, Stan the bunch.

San Jose's the team I'm looking at. Would one of these? teams if you kept three to four million dollars all of a sudden go you know what free agent class sucks we'll think darnall nurse at six million and then again can you bring back connor murphy with the money you save and all these other things like yep it's just gonna have to be more creative than like the very lowbrow like trade morgan riley for darnel nurse like it's got to be different than that i don't think you're how gonna be able to do the luch each for neil think i i think i think merrick nailed it 50% retained on nurse plus it's a second rounder in 2028 for celebrini who says no

I was going to say Colin Graff, but you were like celebrating, boom, right? Holy smokes. I wonder about the McDavid of all of this, as we all do. And how much McDavid, I don't know whether he's vocal with Stan Bowman about it, but like, make no mistake about it. Like, he wrapped up a Christmas present here for the Edminton Oilers. And I don't think that McDavid looks at this and says, I didn't give you 12.5 million on my next two years just so you would only flip out the coach here. Like, how much do we need to keep in the back of our minds here, Tal?

Like, hold on a second. I went above and beyond with my contract. Now, what are you, like Sean Conner, in the intouchables, what are you prepared to do? Yeah, and that's what scares me about Stan Bowman being the GM, because I can sit here and go through a lot of really small moves that Stan Bowman's made him. And like, those are great. Pug Coal's in, you know, scooping up Rosal. for $1.5 million on opening night, claiming Kisperi cap in off waivers.

Like, he's made some really good, I think dumping Cody Sisi and getting Ty Emerson in the deal was a solid move. Like, he's made a lot of really good, smaller moves. But the big misses are such horrendous fall on his face, bad moves. And they've come in moments where he's tried to hit a home run, right? He tried to Galaxy Brain this Trent Frederick contract and be like, I might have our 3C for the next seven years. Let's lock him up for 3.8 million. He tried to jump the gun with Jake Wallman. That isn't looking good. Obviously, the Jari trade is out there. And that was again, a moment where he was trying to

hit a Graham home run. I don't know if he's a GM who's very great at hitting home runs. I think he's a very good singles hitter. And his track record through a year and a bit here in Edmonton has kind of shown exactly that. Hey, listen, man, that means he's Tony Gwyn. And that's great. That's a whole thing. I'll take Tony Gwynne all day. I'll take Tony. Favorite baseball player of all time. Gwen. Thank you for bringing up Tony Gwynn. My favorite. Thank you. Just my favorite. Anything else, Greg? No, that's, I mean, I, I don't know, man. It's such a Hail Mary. It's such a, we don't have really any other moves here. And we know that we have two years to fix this kind of situation. But again, I will be fascinated to see how much player input led to this.

Because no team was a fire a coach. They all talked about, Connor talked about like, like, But it's one thing to criticize the coaching staff. It's another thing to say it's time for this guy to go, despite the fact that he's got an extension that hasn't even started yet. Do you think Knoblock gets another gig, by the way, in short order? Or do you think he just sits on his hands and goes on NHL network and collect $7 million for the next three years? Again, I like him.

And from all accounts, he's a great guy. I don't know if he has the personality for TV. I don't think he's going to sit there and give you a great story. Fair points. Like that sounds that sounds so mean to him. But like, I think he probably sits, sits out for a year. I don't know, like, if you were getting paid. I know it's, you know, the coaching carousel.

And if you're out of the limelight for too long, it's back in. But like, he's got his money secured. I don't know if he's itching to, like, go jump on the Seattle Cracken benches and assistant next year or anything like that. So I think we'll see him wait and try to get a head coaching job in a year or 18 months or something. You just said that because he has echoes of Dave Haxthall. That's why you said the Seattle Cracken. He's the same guy. Oh, by the way,

I think I did. If Connor got Knoblock fired, does that enhance or eliminate the theory that he got him hired? Again, I've heard... Made him rich. There's a lot of stuff. Yeah, he made him rich. There's a lot of stuff flying around Edmonton.

I've heard Connor isn't overly vocal behind the scenes. It's more Leon and Hyman. Colby Cohen said that on our show yesterday. I heard that last night I heard from someone who was like, hey, Connor's sitting here. being like, I didn't hire Chris Knoblock. I didn't know it was happening. And that was always a theory was that the organization did it because they thought Connor would like it,

not because they knew Connor would like it again. What do you believe? I don't know. But it is, again, look, that Connor's former agent is firing his former head coach. That's how you end up with Adam Foot in Vancouver when you think you're doing right by your star player. Yeah. That went well.

That worked out. And then let's spend $125 million on players trying to convince him to stay after he's told you he's already going to leave. How'd that go in Vancouver? Okay. On that, we'll hustle. Tyler, excellent, as always. I'm sure this is like one of many hits you are doing today.

So make sure you have your throat lozages standing by. It's going to be a busy day for you, Tyler. Yeah, I think this was show four of six or four of seven for me. I've lost going to either way. They'll be more. They'll be more. They'll be more. You'll be good, pal.

All right. Tyler, your Remchuk from Oilers Nation every day. And, of course, Daily Faceoff Live. that goes noon eastern every day alongside Carter Hutton. I have to hustle soon. So, final thought on anything that we've talked about today. The floor is yours, Greg Wyshinsky. Essentially, what is on your mind, Greg?

Essentially, what is on your mind? I'm really fascinated by Vegas right now. Like, that was a very impressive effort minus the straw that stirs the drink, which is Mark Stone. you know maybe hurdles heating up at the right time you've got marner still playing really well dorfiev durfeev yeah dorfab obviously like on another level yeah he's just scored on a level yeah he's just incredible i i think they're if stone's not healthy they're going to run into the same problem that minnesota had which is that you need all hands on deck to try to compete with

colorado yes but that's to say that's that's to say they're going to get past anaheim which isn't guaranteed yet um but vagus is again that crafty veteran hand sometimes against the newbies. It's fun to see it. I read about Marner today too. I found it to be very interesting. The full-throated defense of Mitch Marner by John Tortorella, not in the sense that Torts would have his guys back,

but because a lot of us were kind of giggling at the notion of John Tortorella coaching Mitch Marner. And to hear him be basically like Mitch's hype man. He's like Flavre Flav to Mitch's. Chuck D at this point. I'll tell you. It's been really fascinating to see that. Tortarella is such an interesting guy.

There was that last year in Philadelphia, when the power play was completely nondescript and couldn't score, as much as people wondered, oh, could John Tortorella ever get along with someone like Trevor Zegris? What I was told is Trevor Zegris was the exact player that John Tortorella wanted all that. season. Like we make a lot of,

we make a lot of assumptions about who Tororella likes and who Tororella doesn't like, and we miss more than we're right. As for sure. And sometimes we misinterpret his tough love as being something more than that too. The other thing I want to say is I wrote about this in ESPN today. It's the six lessons we've learned from the Stanley Cup playoffs so far.

I wrote a big piece within that about the compressed schedule. And I don't, think we've talked nearly enough about the effects that compressed schedule had on player health, but also player mental health. I had a really good conversation with a player off the record or on background about the way that if you had a bad game, the next game is the next night and the next game after that is two nights. It was like a night after that.

Like the strain on these guys this season because of the Olympics and, you know, one example real quick. Columbus. Like we talked a lot about Columbus collapsing at the end of the season and what went wrong and everything else. They played 17 games in March. Oh, yeah. That's too much hockey. And so not only are they exhausted, they're mentally exhausted, and that could be as much of a reason.

Like when bonus is throwing these guys into the bus about not caring, they're just tired. Like they played so much goddamn hockey in the last month. And so I think we didn't nearly talk enough about the compressed schedule because many of us are like suck it up and you're stop being babies. But it really took its toll on these guys, both mentally and physically. All right, I've got a hustle. I've got an appointment coming up here so

let's let you go. And Dre, the rest of your day in Bristol. And say hi to P-K. Thanks, everybody. See how to P-K for us over there? All right, you do that. And Moose and all the guys at ESPN. All right, man, I am heavy on time. I got to stop booking like stuff like this close to the end of the show,

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we advise you to visit the link in our description or go to shark ninja.ca. We have a pair of games on the board this evening. last night was a shocker of a game just to watch Minnesota just stop. We have the haves and the Sabres at 7 o'clock Eastern. We have the Vegas Golden Nights and the Anaheim Ducks going at 9.30 Eastern. Both should be a lot of fun. And we remind you the sheet is powered by Fanduel.

Play your game with Fandul. It's the NHL season. And Fanduel is your home for all the action on the ice. From Blue Line to Batslip, we've got you covered all season with unique promos, live offerings, and more features to let you play your game. Missed puck drop, no sweat with a live same game parlay. You can build your bets up until the final buzzer.

Download fan dual sports book today and play your game. Please play responsibly 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866531-2,600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. Zach, wealthy them up. it's too bad we didn't get to hear the one yesterday. I think you would have liked it, but it's neither here nor there. You've got to listen to the end of the podcast wherever you get a podcast

because I did record it and drop it in there after we went off air. But for tonight, Jeff, we know that the habs and the sabers experienced a significant uptick, if you will, in high-sticking infractions in the last game. And Berkey yesterday talked about how he wants to see a tablespoon of, blood and it got me thinking. Pretty funny. You know, tonight, they're going to be on the lookout for sticks up and around the shoulder area in this game potentially.

So if you take a high stick and you don't start bleeding, you might have to zucker the refs in and cutter yourself a little bit to draw some blood to get an extra two. Wow. What do we got? We got a cutter go to get a Jason sucker. And we've got a Josh Done. If you take a high stick and don't. start bleeding.

You might have to zucker the refs and cutter yourself to draw some blood going pro wrestling style with this one, $5 wins you $224.26. Speaking of blood, I've got to go open a vein here in 20 minutes. So we got to get hustling here. So thanks to everyone for joining us today. Thanks for our sponsors, as always, Fando. We thank you, Ninja and Ninja Crispy Pro Countertop Glass Air Friar. We thank you for putting up with the shenanigans of the day. We thank you for watching.

We thank you for listening. We thank you for subscribing. We thank you for participating in the chat today. Pretty newsy day. And tomorrow will be probably just as newsy. It's only, as we record this, 2 o'clock Eastern. Plenty more silliness around the NHL to come. We're sure.

We'll document all of it right here tomorrow. 1 o'clock Eastern for the sheet. Sorry for the Zippy Extra, but your boy's got to go leak for a while. Arm leak. Back tomorrow, 1 o'clock Eastern for the sheet. Thank you.