The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Jonny Lazarus on Playoff Storylines, Sabres Goaltending, the Utah Mammoth, and more

Episode Date: April 23, 2026

Jonny Lazarus joins Jeff Marek and Greg Wyshynski to discuss the biggest NHL Playoff storylines, the Sabres lineup changes and goaltending dilemma, ridiculous overtime ideas, the Utah Mammoth and if Vegas is in trouble, and more!SHOUTOUT 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.

Johnny Lazarus is the host of Morning Cup of Hockey. He joins us on the program here to share thoughts on a number of different. You want to jump in, by the way, Johnny, thanks so much for joining us here. You want to jump in on the Who's a More Clutch team here or your general thoughts on Dallas, Minnesota? I don't know. I don't like to look on Greg's face when I joined, but no, I'm excited to be joined by Alex Lyons' number one fan, considering he's in the crease today for the Buffalo Sabres. Yes, that's just one point for me and negating one point for Colby.

What was the question, Jeff? Sorry, I'm distracted. Just a general thought on Minnesota, Minnesota, Dallas, what we've seen here so far. Oh, it's been awesome. I think it's lived up to every expectation that we all expected it to. It feels like a conference final, and it's in the first round. What's better than that? Well, I don't want to say, what's better than that?

What's better than that would be if that was the conference final? But, you know, it's been, it's been, you know what, I do have one gripe, though. It's funny. I was listening to, you know, the show so far today and just hearing the diving versus embellishment conversation. And that whole game last night, it felt like both teams were just trying to get calls. Yeah. Guys were falling. It's absolutely.

So, you know, I'm firmly of the belief here that now more so than ever, I mean, this has always been a thing in hockey. But more teams now more so than ever are content to play 50, 50 puck, five on five and take their chances on the power play. And part of the job is to go out there and draw penalties. I mean, it's always been. But now more so than ever, it's like, let's let our special team win this game for us.

What was the Marcus Felina line? It was like they just want to play a five on four. And last night, they took eight penalties. Oh, I felt so bad for that puck over the glass one that ended the game. Oh, De Nilely. Oh, you're off. Yeah, right. Terrible feeling that's got to be.

Oh, my God. So, Johnny, you bring up a good point, though. And I wanted to mention this on the show, which is that as a vowed guy who wants to change the playoff format and as a play-end game, guy and as a one through eight guy. Yeah. Oh boy. It's hard to make that argument this year, man. Like the Flyers, penguins, great. I mean, as far as the energy

and the passion goes, Minnesota, Dallas, incredible hockey. Like, the first round matchups. Tampa, Montreal. Every single one has been great. Every single one. Yeah. Good. So, even LA Colorado has been great. I mean, and then I Garrett, yeah, they've been one goal games. Like, I'm

sure the next time I see Gary Betman and like I'm talking about the playoff, I mean, it's like, Oh, yeah, what about last season with all those bangers in the first round? I'm like, all right, Gary. You won't say bangers, but you know what I'm saying. Yeah. I mean, even last year, it's weird, right? Like, you know, with the Rangers being out two years in a row,

I try to find some way to channel emotion in these playoffs and, like, pick a team in the east, pick a team in the West that I kind of want to, you know, jump on that bandwagon and follow and just find joy in rooting for them. I don't remember finding it last year like I found it in these first five days. even watching Ottawa and Carolina like that series while it's 2-0. Carolina, it's felt much tighter than a 2-0-0 series.

While Pittsburgh and Philly being 3-0, that is the weird series where Philly has been the most respectfully dominant team in their series, which I picked Pittsburgh in 5, and I think most people would have picked Pittsburgh in that series. So it's kind of fun to have the team that everyone picked against

have this sort of domination or glory. So these storylines, you know, I continue to find super interesting, even going to Colorado and L.A. where it's like I thought the avalanche would run them out of the building and totally dominate offensively. They've been able to score two goals. What does Nathan McKinnon have? One point? If that, you know, they're holding the avalanche to two goals each game.

And credit to Anton Forbesberg, he's been unbelievable. Artemian, their deadline pickup has the only goals in each game. Like, you know, these are things to look at that are fun storylines, you know, all the way to Anaheim and Edmonton, where Evan Bouchard and Connor McDavid have been held pointless in both games on home ice. When does that happen? Never. So I think you can find something in every single series that is shocking, surprising, or something that we really haven't seen before.

And I think that's kind of what's making this first round so fun. I mean, the Dallas, Minnesota one, you know, maybe has been the only one that hasn't been a surprise yet. I'd say that 6-1 game one is probably the biggest thing that stands out. But other than that, I really do think you can find something in every series so far that is not what we expected. So outside of every point that I make here on this program daily, I thought the best point that anyone has made so far this week,

Johnny was on your show and that was Mike Johnson. Oh. Sorry. Okay. Definitely not something I said. No, you've had some good. You've had some moments. It had two moments.

An interesting one, too. We can get to that. Yeah. So when you're asking, when you and Colby were asking about like the nature of like, why this is so violent this year? Like, why, like, where did all this instant hatred come from? And he focused on Goudis and Matthews and how Maple Leafs players were just derided

from all over the league. And everyone now in the NHL is like, I don't want to be true. I don't want to be called what Morgan Riley was called. I don't want to be called what all these guys have been called or how. So the minute there's any drama, everybody's on it right now for fear of being painted with the brush that Maple Leafs players have been painted with.

First of all, Greg, do you agree with that? No, I don't. I think that's, I feel like I can listen to, I feel like I'm listening to NHL Network Radio with how Toronto-centric that take was. I think, let me tell you something right now. I think that the fact that NHL player safety has been so absolutely kid gloves with a lot of the brutality that we've seen in the last season and a half. and maybe that does tie into Judas Matthews a little bit.

I think people, I think these players know that they can take liberties. And I think that everyone knows that the more liberties you take in the playoffs and the more you physically dominate your opponent and wear down your opponent and in the case of the flyers, Johnny, antagonize your opponent, the better you're going to be. And so if the sheriff has his feet kicked up on the desk sitting back with a cold, sasparilla,

and he ain't patrol on the town, then you know you can get away with all that stuff. And I think these guys are getting away with all that stuff right now. Okay. Let me throw another thing on, log on to the fire. I'll throw it back to you on this one, Johnny. Is this then, maybe not MJ's Matthew's Goudis point? Maybe we just need to look in the rearview mirror and say,

this is the Florida Panthers. This is the Panthers effect. They bullied their way to the Stanley Cup. You remember how the guys, we were mentioning Carolina a couple of seconds ago before he came on. You remember how every. Everybody went at Sebastian Aho last year in that series. Like it was poor Ajo was just getting fed every time he was on the ice. And Carolina couldn't do anything about it.

So maybe that's what it is. But whatever it is, it's been nasty. It's been nasty this. There's a couple of things that stand out, which actually, I think Jordan Schmaltz mentioned in our show this morning, where the young kids, too, that are coming in, they don't really give a shit. about like the guys they're playing against. Like Porter Martone yesterday in the first minute of the game, he's in front of the net after a whistle,

and he's getting into it with Latang and Malkin. You know, this kid's been in the league for a month. He doesn't care that it's Lattang and Malkin. You know, that to me is part of it too, where I think these younger guys now kind of have egos and confidence in what's a good way, and they channel that in a good way, where they're not phased by who they're going up. Like, the fact that Sidney Crosby is getting cross-checked by Sandheim,

and, you know, these guys were teammates in the Olympics a few months ago. Like Sidney Crosby doing what Cindy Crosby did yesterday with the embellishment or whatever you want to call it. I loved that because I thought that was so far gone. Like people have so much respect for Cid and he hasn't been in the playoffs for three years. So you don't see this kind of treatment toward him

over the last three years. But nobody has necessarily treated him like he's this untouchable God. And I think we haven't seen that around Crosby since, you know, Jacob Trubo took him out of the playoffs in 2022. too. Like I haven't seen Crosby hit like that in three years. So, you know, I think seeing that, I think, obviously I think Mike Johnson has a great point and nobody wants to be called those things. But I look at the Buffalo Sabres all year long and they had each other's backs. Like it wasn't anything new for Buffalo. You know, so I look at that team. And then I think about Matthew Goodchuck on his podcast said, he said this week, like they had meetings before every round.

And they would go one by one, first line left winger, talk about this guy, what pisses him off, how to get under his skin. And Matthew said, like, I'm paraphrasing. He said they'd get deep and they'd get dirty in those conversations. So what for all of our viewers and listeners here, so what Johnny is talking about, like, this is nothing new in the NHL. I remember, who was it? Colby Armstrong telling me the stories of getting homework before every series. And what they would do is every player was assigned a player on the other team.

And what you would do is you would get on the phone and call previous teammates, previous coaches and get like everything on that guy. Like what pisses them off? Dirt all behind the scene. And really, really personal stuff too that can set that player off. And then to Kachuk's point on his podcast, they would all get together and compare notes.

Okay. All right, Johnny Lazarus, you had Greg Wyshinsky. Tell us everything you found out about Greg Wyshinsky that we can all use on the ice. That is like that next level. But it's like it is nothing. you like that's been that's been going on for long the idea of you it would be like a 12 volume

set john that you'd have to go through with i just call my cousin jason he knows it all that's right um no and and to your point there like that's how it used to be with guys like claude lemieux and sean avery too like they have a roll of of taunts and a roll of decks of things that they knew that certain guys would always get you know set guys off and now it's become sort of like normalized where it's become me know that we're not studying the power play today boys we're studying trolling that's that's today's lesson here in the what it is but i don't think everyone can do it i don't think everyone can do it like we think about or our i think it was it was either last year or 2024 i think it was last year's cup final in game three where you really saw the oilers try to like take it to the panthers and beat

them in their own style but the oilers couldn't do it right like cori perry who'd cori perry fight. He fought somebody at the end of that game. And I remember having the conversation with Colby and probably listening to you guys had the same one about like, is this good that the others are doing it? And it really just showed that they were kind of unraveling. And that's not their style of play. You know, you can't out Panther the Panthers. But these teams now, I think, are trying to impose their will on one another. And you're seeing the teams that can handle it and punch back. And you're seeing the teams that maybe, you know, are more talk than they are action. You know what the problem is all of them is. It's hard to imagine. It's hard to

Imagine Jacob's Slaven doing like a kill Tony routine. You know what the problem with that is, though? They're going to have to make bigger buildings through all of this. What do you mean by that? Because people freaking love this stuff. Oh, yeah. Because hockey fans gobble it up and the buildings are too small. You have 25,000 people that want to buy tickets.

It's not 18,000 now. This is the way you're going to continue with the game. How much are you going to kick out of the people trolling Hurricanes fans the other night like why is it double overtime and half the building is empty like there are people who like didn't watch the game that saw the picture circling and well it's like oh because they celebrated the goal for like five minutes yeah yeah they're going yeah they wanted to beat the traffic because everyone thought the game was over it's actually because um tom dundan makes them repay for parking after two overtimes so everybody everybody left i don't know anyone can you

i don't know he was laughing how much he's can you believe how much he's can you believe how much he's taking for being the owner of the Blazers right now. Like I was listening to Sports Talk right the other day and like, they're just chronicling all the little shortcuts he's taking on the Blazers and the money. Like they're not giving out T-shirts at a home game for the playoffs. Like their social media managers not traveling with the teams so they can save like, $1,500 on hotel rooms. That stuff matters.

Maple Leafs have been roasted about that with Keith Pally with, with, you know, the $900 for the kid in the flag. We were talking last week here on the show. My buddy Bob was making the point. it's only going to be a matter of time before the Maple Leafs change the 50-50 to the 80-20. He's trying to squeeze out more value from the 50-50. We're going to make it an 80-20 and stick 80-percent at MLSC's coffers. I think I saw the flyers 50-50 raffle. Was that like 151K last night?

Something like that. Yeah, it was bail money. Everybody. Everybody in Western Ontario, in Western Canada, by the way, Johnny's like 150,000. Like, in Western Canada, it gets like to a million. Like, they go quick. The 50-50 at those Cluelers

Cup final games were like It was insane. Yeah. It was insane. It was like Mega millions. It was crazy.

I've only bought a 50-50 like once and I was pretty drunk. It's hard to convince me to be that. I've never heard of like anyone winning those things. Boston Bruins and the Buffalo Sabres. Thoughts where we are now.

Series Tad I won. The venue shifts. Johnny Lazarus, the venue shifts. What was the stat? It was like the Sabres have only led for three minutes in this series out of 120 minutes, something like that. Pretty concerning if you're a Buffalo fan.

But I got to say, like I think, and Dan Bilesma said this morning, like, momentum does shift from game to game. Like people say it doesn't, but, you know, you can feel it. And sometimes, you know, the change of scenery from city to city, building to building, whatever you want to call it, it matters. And, you know, obviously tonight in a 1-1 series, to me, there's no pressure on Boston in this game. and the Sabres have all the pressure with everything that's got on in the past two games to get out to a lead at least at the start.

They don't want to go down two nothing for the third game in a row. But Alex Lyon, you know, I think throughout his career has been able to come in and settle things down. And people forget, like he has started the exact same amount of games this season as Ukopakalukin has. You know, it's not like it's a starter backup situation. This has really been a one A one B. And I said it's kind of like the way that Omerk and Swamen were handled a couple years ago. But, you know, it's two different names, right? These aren't guys who were necessarily Bezina caliber goalies, although they have been great.

But I think throwing Lion into the game at the end of the game, too, to get him into the rhythm, into the feel, into the atmosphere of the series allows them to feel more comfortable starting tonight versus how do youPL finish that game and lion goes in cold tonight. So I think it's a good move to throw a line in there in game three and see what he can do. Throw line of the Lions, as it were. I felt like it was sitting right there. It was hard to really gauge what Buffalo was in game, game two, because I mean, like, UPL couldn't stop a beach ball. And like, so you had all this momentum in your, all this went in your sales from game one and the crowd and everything else. And then like all of a sudden adversity hits in a way you don't expect because your goaltending has not let you down like that the entire season. I think it just kind of like knocked them off their tracks.

I'm with you. I'm really fascinated to see what we learned about the savers tonight because I think we've all assumed they're. were going to be a wagon and that they were going to stay on track and that and that when adversity hit they could kind of like shrug it off just because they've how good they've played but now they're going against the veteran crafty team like you said has no pressure on them that they're clear underdog in the series they've kind of outplayed them uh if you go period by period in the series sway and so on the road swayman i mean it's swameman but but merrick it's also just like you can count what is it two periods basically the sabers have you know cranked up the machine and really gotten gotten to their game

i mean the brunts have played really well in this series and i maybe that's partially you know gripping your sticks new to the playoffs whatever the hell with the sabers or it's just you know the the the bruin just kind of knowing what to do in a series like this johnny you want me you want me to yeah i don't know that was directed toward go for i was just going to see you have something the color go for it i think buffalo was for sure the better team in game one um despite boston and being up to nothing for the majority of it. The Sabres, as far as, you know, coming out of the emotion of a, you know,

playoff series for the first time, and over a decade, I thought they played a really strong game. And I think right now what's killing Buffalo, which is what's killing a lot of the teams that you see that aren't doing well in their series is the power play. Like if Edmonton finds a way to score one power play goal, they're probably up to nothing in the series. If Buffalo finds a way to score one power play goal,

they're probably up to nothing in the series. You know, the power play has hindered these teams. And for Buffalo, and I got on Buffalo fans, It's like, what are you bullying your power play for? You got the best team in the division playing on home ice for the first time in 14 years, boost those guys up. So tonight, you know, when Buffalo goes on the road and their power play, maybe doesn't get off to a good start and goes 0 for one, that gets in your head. I mean, think about the Florida Panthers the year they won the president's trophy. I don't think they scored a power play goal until game four of that series against Tampa.

And, you know, like, you hear Aaron Eckblad being mic'd up saying like, we did it, we finally did it, you know, stuff like that. Like that stuff that weighs on when your powerplay is not clicking, it really, like the negative energy kind of flows through the bench. It's like, oh my God, are we going to get another chance? Like did we just ruin our one opportunity?

And where are we going to get a goal from? You know, like so I think Buffalo, if they can figure out the power play, they'll be fine. And if they don't, they're probably going to lose a series. And I think that's like a cliche,

low-hanging fruit thing to say, but it's just a God's honest truth. Speaking of power plays, Johnny, are you in favor of changing the penalty shot rule? where you can decline the penalty shot and get the power play instead? To be honest, I haven't put a lot of thought to that, but I think about it every morning. I guess, yeah, you should have the option.

Why not? I don't know who would pick it. I'd much rather get a breakaway than a two-minute power play. No, but the idea is like if you're up by a goal and you just want to run the clock, and so you give the team the option, like, 45 seconds. I don't need the shot. I need to run the clock. Yeah, that's a fair point.

Yeah. I would probably say, take the power play, run the clock. Yeah. Even an overtime taking a four on three for two minutes over, you know, a 50-50 chance. Four on three, four on three is like almost automatic now. It should be. I would take that over the shot. Merrick, I think that's the point.

I made that point this morning on ESPN was the idea that like if you were going to adjust the rule, it couldn't be a five. on four. It couldn't be either a penalty shot or a five and four. It's like it could be a penalty shot or like a five on three or four on three. And then, and then, at least then you have the incentive for the defenseman not to go and hook the guy who's a mile ahead of him. I think, but I, but I have time. How about, okay, how about, how about, how about this one? How about this one? Let me, let me complicate this even further. Please do. Here's, here's, here's, here's your option. Either a penalty shot or a one minute power play. I would take the

I would take the penalty shot. I mean, if you lose the offensive zone face off, that's like 30 seconds off the power play already. You take the penalty shot. Why would it only be a one-minute hair, like, you're not incentivizing. No, if you want to give a team, if you want to get into the,

you know, choose the option of what you want here. Because like, to me, like the infraction is the infraction. And if you want to change the rule book, that's fine. But the infraction, the call is a penalty shot. For taking someone down with the court- -coring chance. While we're at it, I have an idea. when it comes to overtime

overtime rules. Instead of the shootout instead of the shootout, do college football OTT give each team a four on three power play like tit for tat and like let's say Buffalo goes first, they score, then Ottawa has to score to stay alive. You got one of those things. I have, I love that idea.

Four on three. I love that idea. No, that was always my solution. It's not hockey. That's always my solution to the shoot has always been that. It's like my problem with the shootout, not to really get this for the hundred time, but like is that it doesn't resemble the game that was played before it. It's not a team event. I mean, there's no defenseman playing his position. There's nobody feeding you a pass to

put you on a breakaway. Like the idea that you're settling a team game with a one-on-one forced mechanism to make sure that you get the game done within the, a TV window is a joke. So you and I are relying on the idea of trading power plays, but I will say this. Like if, if the consideration is we got to get this game done and not have to go all night, then A horrible idea. Home ice advantage. If you're the home team and you get first crack and you score games over. There you go.

Hang on. So if you get first advantage and you score the game is over? Yep. The other team doesn't even get a crack at the power play. That's right. I don't know if I like that. Give the home team something for being at home. You know what I mean?

You already get an advantage with the change. Now you get the advantage with the power play. And wouldn't that make the three on three even more chaotic with the visiting team knowing what's lying ahead for them in the trading of the power plays instead of the shootout? Okay. Well, why now? You know what?

I'll get involved more of this shit. It's Thursday. We're having a good time. We got more hockey on the horizon. We're the first out of the playoffs. Talk about three-up three-up time. You want to end it? Three-on-three overtime?

Two pucks. Go. Oh, come on. If you just want to end it, two pucks, go. First one that goes in wins. Two pucks. Two pucks. First goes in wins.

Like a youth camp? Yeah. It's like when your air hockey game has that the extra puck come out and you're just like rocking and rolling. I just want to. I don't know, but you guys, I've always just wanted to see a game with two pucks. Like an NHL game with two pucks. Just to see what that would look like. You never thought about that.

What would hockey look like? I honestly. Really, eh? Can't say I have. Man, I got no life. Man, I really got no life. We should touch on the one we haven't talked about yet. Do you think Vegas is in trouble, Johnny?

You know what? I said today, and Colby asked me if I could change my prediction from, you know, one of the previous picks I made, what I would pick. And I said Vegas and six, but I do think Utah is much better than I thought they would be, or I've looked much better than I thought they'd be. And it's their speed, it's their skill, it's the inexperienced guys who don't seem phased, like we talked about with Martone. You know, you see the same thing from Logan Cooley.

Dylan Gunther has been excellent so far. That one-time goal he had was nasty. But even that play on the game-winning goal they made, like, you know, Jack Eichael just a split second too late on a stick lift. They had one white sweater in the middle of four gold sweaters, and the white sweater wins that race and wins that battle to score the goal. Like, you know, those are little details that you'd expect Vegas to be sharper on and not expect Utah to be sharper on,

but Utah, I think, has shown that they can play this playoff style. They're fast. They're gritty. They're getting stops from Vamalca. They got a pretty strong back end. And, you know, Vegas has still played well. And I'm not trying to disrespect Vegas, but I think I underestimated Utah.

And going home tied 1-1, like no one knows what that building is going to look like, but I imagine it's going to be rocking. So I'm excited to see what game three and games four I look like. The best line, really quick on you, the best line that I've seen so far in the playoffs, Logan Cooley, Kyler Yamamoto,

and Dylan Gunther. Are we all on the same page that so far has been the best line in the postseason? Best line in the playoffs? The Caulfield line. You have a Caulfield that's been pissed the drop yet. Best line of playoffs.

Sloposki's carrying the freight. Honestly, I think Carlson and Terry Kreider have been pretty good. Hmm. Best line in the playoffs. That's... We're two games in it. to see Kreider with a perfect screen in the other game for the ducks.

Crider just parked in front of the goalie. They said he couldn't do it anymore, Johnny. They said we got to put him out the pasture, Johnny. What about Boldie Ericksonac and is it Johansson on their wing? Marcus Johansson, yeah. Yeah, like that lines were pretty good. I mean, boldies play last night was unbelievable. That passed.

Unbelievable. The fact that Utah's won one and played really well, I thought, in game one, and they've gotten dick from the Keller line, basically. That's a point of concern if you're Vegas. That's a really big point of concern for Vegas. Because that's not, that line's not going to stay silent much longer. Yeah.

It might come alive tonight with getting the last change. But they're like, I'm with you, Johnny. Like they're a bit better than I thought. And they're in a really good position right now to maybe take the series. One thing that I noticed too just from looking at, I love sport logic. So I try to look at all the numbers and whatnot.

And like the other night, I think odd man rushes were like four for Utah, zero for Vegas. Like the fact that Utah doesn't allow a single odd man rush against, like in a must win game pretty much for them so they don't go down to nothing. Just shows discipline, right? Like that's just a little thing that shows discipline.

How much? Super encouraging. By the way, how much do we just give to Andre Tournier on that one too? Like whenever I see, like this Seattle crack in the beginning of the season, like the one thing where, we were all like, hey, man, Lane Lambert's doing a good job.

He was like Seattle never gave up odd man rushes. Like it just didn't happen. Like, oh, look at how disciplined Lambert has his team. How much of this is just Andre Tourne? I'd say a lot. Good amount. You know, I think when a team, when a team is discipline, that all stems from the coach, right? Like, to me, you know, whether they don't take penalties, stay out of the box,

have a responsible F3, are in on the four check, are aggressive on the forecheck, backtracking, they stay in the middle of the ice. stopping at the front of the net, protecting the house, all that kind of stuff. Like those, you know, again, like those cliche hockey terms or lingo that we use. Yeah, that all stems from coaching. But it's also, you know, the best teams I played on, the coach doesn't really say much. Like the coach just kind of has his systems, has his like two-minute little spiel. And the guys kind of hold each other accountable.

And everyone, you know, it's, again, everyone's kind of pulling on the rope, right? So it seems like Utah and all those guys are doing that. I think he's done a great job. he's going to make a great assistant coach to John Cooper when Coop gets hired by Ron Smith in Utah. Hey man, this might be four first round exits in a row for the Tampa Bay Lightning to say. By the way, let me close on this one, John.

What's with you and tattoo bet? What's with you in tattoo bets? I don't really know how it started. I think, honestly, like, the first one was like, oh, I commented on DFO Live maybe saying like if the Islanders made the playoff, so I got a tramp stamp. Yeah.

which I actually don't know if you're allowed to say that. I don't know if you're allowed to say that anymore. So we call it lower back tattoo. But I think that's just like, I don't know. I think it's fun to like do some sort of outrageous bed every year. And, you know, my mom being a Jewish mother, you know, not allowed to get tattoos. So like it's always kind of a thing that like freaks her out, which is fun for me in turn. Torture your poor mom.

Yeah, no, I think, you know what? I think, I guess the initial idea stand from like part in my take. Those guys had like a, like a pink, every year they pick a team in the NFL that like they, if that team wins a Super Bowl, they have to cut off their pinky. So it's kind of like a fun way to do that. I don't want to lose a finger. So I'd rather get permanent ink than lose a finger. So I think every year I'll kind of have like this sort of tattoo bet, which this year I think Sabres fans just kind of like forced it on me to do one. But I will happily get the offendinggan of sliding celly on my quad.

if the savers won the cup. So that's the tattoo bet for the postseason. Just get, Johnny, just get a W on each butt cheek. So we bend over it says, well. Just do that. Call that one your bet, and then we'll just put it all to bed. All right, bud. Zach, Jack, get me out of here.

Get me out of here. All right. Johnny, you'd be good. We're done. We're done. There he is. Johnny Lazarus.