The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Slafkovsky Plays Hero, Sabres Crazy Comeback, and Canucks ft. Shayna Goldman & Jeff Paterson

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

Dive into a jam-packed episode of The Sheet with Jeff Marek as Jeff is joined by Shayna Goldman to break down an electrifying opening weekend of the NHL Playoffs. From the Carolina Hurricanes shutting out the Ottawa Senators to the Minnesota Wild’s dominant performance over the Dallas Stars, no series is left untouched. The duo unpacks the Philadelphia Flyers’ statement road win in Pittsburgh, the Montreal Canadiens’ thrilling Game 1 overtime victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning powered by Juraj Slafkovsky’s hat trick and OT heroics, and the Colorado Avalanche handling business versus the LA Kings. Plus, they discuss Vegas’ dramatic comeback against the Utah Mammoth and the Buffalo Sabres’ stunning late-game rally over the Boston Bruins—marking their first playoff win in 14 years. Later, Jeff previews the Edmonton Oilers vs. Anaheim Ducks series opener before welcoming Jeff Paterson to dive into a turbulent moment for the Vancouver Canucks, including the firing of Patrik Allvin, Jim Rutherford’s candid remarks on Quinn Hughes, and what’s next for the franchise. Don’t miss this comprehensive NHL playoff recap, analysis, and insider discussion packed with key storylines, standout performances, and must-hear insights.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.

The Buffalo Sabres have just won the stand. Oh, no, sorry, it just felt like that last night, considering all the euphoria yesterday. Welcome once again to the sheet, kicking off another week here at the Broadcast Center. That is my basement. For this Monday, April the 20th, glad to have you aboard today.

Should be a fun one. A lot to get into. A lot to bounce around about two. And also we'll, I'm going to circle back to another interesting press conference from Jim Rutherford. But more on that in a couple of moments. First of all, the best moment, and there were many to choose.

from. Best moment from the weekend. Think amongst yourselves for a second. And it all started with Brady Kachuk and Jordan Stahl fighting. But for me, the best moment was Sandra Jennerette. banging the drum at the key bank yesterday in advance of the Buffalo Sabres in the Boston Bruins game won. A game, by the way, I'm not sure if you knew this, was won by the Buffalo Sabres.

Kind of in spectacular fashion as well. With a couple from Tage Thompson, Matia Samuelson gets in. And then Alex Tuck, which turned out to be the game winner 4-3 is the final score. And everybody, you know, as a buddy of mine texted me yesterday, how would you like to be, at the end of yesterday's game, how would you like to be 25 again and in Buffalo and just leaving the key bank center? I would probably be getting home right about now if I was 25 again and having gone to that game yesterday,

considering all the time that I spent at the old odd to say nothing of the HSBC and all the different names it's had. Now, of course, it's the key bank. All right, let's get right to what the program is all about today, and a lot of it is going to revolve around the playoffs. The blueprint, powered by Fanduel, as you all know, download the app today and play your game on Fandul. Coming up on The Show. The show today, we have a number of things in people to talk about, notably.

Shana Goldman from The Athletic and the Too Many Men podcast will stop by. She's currently salting her tongue, getting ready for another candid appearance here on the sheet. You're a Slavkovsky, Hattrick Hero. Buffalo Sabres come back, weekend recap. Does it not seem like that Carolina-O-Dtawa game was like a million years ago? Jeff Patterson, by the way, we'll stop by and we'll talk about what's next for the Vancouver Connects. And here's the thing that I'm interested there. When I did improv classes and as a former English major, I was always told when you're telling a story, the most important thing is the middle.

And good storytelling always starts in. in the middle. I'm going to ask Jeff Patterson, when you look at this latest saga, because there did seem to be some finality to this era of the Vancouver Canucks on Friday, what was the middle? What was the middle of all this? That hinge point where it could have gone one way, but instead it went the other way. So we're going to get to that with J. Pat coming up at the bottom of the hour. In the meantime, I understand her tongue is sufficiently salted, and she's ready for another appearance here on the program. She is, Camer d'Al Franca, as we say in French, La Prémer d'Itoe, the first star, Shana Goldman from The Athletic and the Too Many Men podcast.

Hello, Shana. Hello, Bestie. Did I say that right? Hello, Bestie. Are you doing that right? Yes. Yes, you got it right. Okay.

Very hip. No generation gap between us. No, no cool gap between us. No, not at all. Wide brush thoughts here, because there's so many different places we can begin. For me, it was San Joseonaret and the banging of the drum at the key bang. I'm getting older. Hey, so I'm just getting all sentimental.

for this kind of stuff, but I just loved it. Was there one moment for you that, like, that's it. That was my moment. That was it. That's what made this weekend perfect when it come to hockey. I would say the first Tage Thompson goal last night because, you know, watching through all these games, I think we've seen a lot of really exciting first periods, which makes sense, right?

Like everyone's excited to be here. You're going to come out. You're going to be physical. You're going to get things going. But it does feel like a lot of the games have fizzled out as tons. rolls on, which can happen. And it felt like in that game, yeah, exactly. Game settled.

Game settled. Yeah. And we saw that a lot last night between the Sabres and Bruins, right? Like they come out, the energy, everyone's buzzing. And I think the Bruins did a great job quieting down the Sabres. But you get to a point where you're like, a goal, something. Give me anything here, Buffalo. Because, you know, we've heard the river hockey.

They're inexperienced or just getting, you know, to game one, isn't winning the Stanley Cup. We know all of that's true. But still this team earned their way, not just to the playoffs, but to first. in the Atlantic. I think that goal changed everything. You saw a complete turnaround by the Sabres with one goal, right? One shot changed everything because you saw the way they were pouncing on pucks to stop the Bruins from exiting the zone or the way that they were clearing the puck out before the tuck up the netter. I think you're seeing it was a Jason Zucker back check. That was two shifts before that, if I remember correctly. Like that was the moment that Tate Thompson goal got it

all going and then you go, okay, this is what, this is, you know, the Stanley Cup playoffs, this is what we're excited for. And you kind of did have a feeling once one went in that a whole bunch was going to go in. Like there was only so, like, first of all, territorially, like this was Buffalo's game for all three periods and the story of the game was Jeremy Swayman. That's how this thing is developing. Jeremy Swamon's going to just rob the Buffalo Sabbers of all their joy in game one and take a one-nought series lead until he was a little bit slow getting to his left post.

and Tage Thompson tucked it in. And the whole building exhaled and erupted in euphoria. And right away, you can see even just by like, you know, the following face off and the sabres win it and how they start zipping the puck around. Like what's the old saying? Goals go to your feet. And all of a sudden they're moving. Buffalo Sabres are moving and they're moving the puck.

And sure enough, they start to pour it on and it's the emotion and it's all those fans. Oh, it's funny. Something that you'll appreciate. I got a text from someone. from another team who said, the Key Bank has the vibes of the old Nassau Coliseum. It's real hockey fans. A lot of them still smoke

and they're there to watch the Buffalo freaking Sabres. There was like nothing corporate hockey about it. Those were real fans. And this person said it kind of reminds me of the old Nassau Coliseum. But you're right. Like it seemed like the minute that Tate Thompson scored that one goal, they were going to get a handful, and the Boston Bruins were sunk.

I think that's the way we all saw this thing. Yeah, well, a couple notes there. First of all, the Sabers fans that were smoking darts in the upper deck. We had that earlier in the regular season, 10-10, love them. Great work. Nassau-Cosia, high bar to clear, because the vibes there, especially when they came back for, you know, after being at Barclays and they went back there, I think that brought the energy even more.

So great comparison. in. But no, like you were saying, it got everyone's feet moving that third period. I think that was so important. Because before, like, I'm looking at my notes. And earlier in the game, you know, I'm looking at that McLeod line thinking I've seen them way too much. I have seen Ryan McLeod out there far too much. And he was playing with Quinn and Jason Zucker, who I think Quinn had some really good passes last night. Zucker obviously had that back check I mentioned before. But at the end of the day, they had a 37% expected goal rate.

They're outscored 2 to 1. And I watched them going, I don't need to see that much of that line out there. I'd rather see the Norris line out there with more Benson and Don because I thought they were very noticeable and more of that. Thompson line. Also not a great night for Zadaroff and Peak. I mean, they, they broke even in shots. They were two one in goals in their minutes, but I still didn't love what I saw out there from them. So I think there's a lot you can build off of just from those last few minutes alone, right? Because it's that you can't count the sabres out. And I think that's really important here for a team that when the win streak started in December, one of the biggest trends was that

they were scoring first and figuring out how to defend leads, which you need to know how to do. But I think at some points, they were going a little bit too defensive shell. And they got better as the year went on with that. But it was a theme throughout the rest of the season. Their best games were when they scored first. But as they kept growing and advancing, and I think they got better after the Olympic break at five-on-five. You saw them starting to win games in different ways. So here's one to take because going into the series, if you had to predict an outcome like this, right?

Like here it is, one team's leading. And in the last few minutes, flips the game on its head, takes over, and. crushes the other team. I think you would have predicted it the other way around, right? You would have expected the Bruins, a more experienced team. Yep. Would be the one to do this to the Sabers. Just like they did, at the end of the regular season,

there was that Wednesday night game where they won it in overtime. They kind of just flipped the game late, and there they go. They took over. So the fact that it was a Sabres doing it too, I think is a really interesting point for them to build off of. All right, bouncing around here. What the hell happened between Minnesota and Dallas? Like everything clicked from Minnesota.

Brock Faber, Outstanding, Joel Erickson Eck, outstanding. To me, the moment where I said, man, this is a different Minnesota wild team, was watching Vlad Tarasenko get out to the point to block a shot. It didn't look pretty. It was a really ugly block. But nonetheless, that's not Teresenko's game, but watching him sell out like that to try to protect the lead, that's when I looked at this game and said, man, this is a different Minnesota wild team.

And Jason Robertson scores and nothing. Like Dallas came out with nothing. And here's my question for you. Because this is the way it felt to me. And even Gulletson shook it off at the end in the post-game presser. If what happened with Peter DeBore and Jake Ottinger didn't happen, would Glenn Gulleson have pulled Jake Ottinger? It almost seemed as if that last game, Ottinger, was protected

because there was no, it didn't matter what was happening with Ottinger. And the only way, maybe if he pulled himself. But given the way things were going, and the way a couple of those goals went in, I kept thinking to myself, there's no way Gulletson just wants to light a six-to-one game on fire even more than it already is and throw the Ottinger question on the table. Did it not feel like Ottinger had Yank protection because of DeBore last year?

It felt like that to make sure. A little bit. A little bit. I don't think it was fully on him either, though. I think the stars only generated like a 37% expected goal rate. I thought Thomas Harley had a really rough game out there. And I think this first half of the year was tough. But he rebounded enough post-Olympics that I wasn't concerned about him going into this.

And I think, too, the lineup looked really top-heavy, which, you know, the star's best strength is their deep forward group. And without hints, it puts Duchenne on the second line. You have no play drivers for the bottom six. And I think the bottom six looked pretty exposed, pretty one-dimensional. And it's not what you want to see. It's not what we've seen from them a lot of the year. So it's not fully on Jake Ottinger. And I think that helps too, right?

Why pull him if he's not the problem? But I think here the important part of it was let him try to problem solve it and get all of the potential playoff demons out of his system. And look, it was a rough game for him. He was not as sharp as he should have been even when you consider what his workload was. But I don't think, I think when you combine the divorce situation of last year, which rightfully should be talked about and you combine what the team did in front of him, you don't just put it on your shoulders in game one, right? You wait and see what happens in game two. But I do think you have to be smart about it moving forward from here because obviously Gulletson has learned a lot about Jake Anton Jurum during the last year and his mentality.

And then you have to fully coaches to factor in two. So it's something I'm sure will be discussed between, you know, that game and the next one of how do you handle this situation with him? What things can you do? Will this hurt him, help him? And how do you figure it out from here? Because if he has another poor start, what do you do? You obviously can't wait forever.

but I would imagine he comes in a lot better, a lot sharper. And if he doesn't and you just see the confidence isn't there and you know what you have to do. Go to the bullpen. You go to the bullpen and that's the moment that Minnesota probably says, now we got them. Which is the opposite of the last time they matched up, right? 100%. That's exactly what Minnesota did.

They went, we're going to go with Flurry after Gustafson was a better goalie and it destroyed their series. No surprise. It just for Walsh that gets the start in that one. Like there were some, like I think the Colorado, L.A. game one, there are some people with the sort of raised eyebrow with the starting goaltenders. I had no problem with either of it. They both made sense to me. But Jesper Wells, that's been the better goaltender down the stretch. He's the guy, grab him and ride him.

Yeah. Did I think he was going to get game one? Honestly, no. But when I saw it, I'm like, I think it's the right call because Gustafsson, his season-wide numbers look pretty good. And if you look at the two of them together, it's, you know, the best combined state percentage in the league. But when you split the season and go through the ebbs and flows, you see where the issues were with Gustafin. He had a really poor time in January going into the Olympic break. He comes back.

He's better. But then down the stretch, he's not playing at the level that they need. And they had some big time games there. So Walshead was a lot more solid for them. And I think he came up with some really big saves that you go, yes, this is exactly why he's the guy in game one. And you don't change it unless you have to, right? Because some teams might want to keep their goalies fresh. If anyone's going to do that, it's going to be Rod Bray.

I don't think Heinz needs to join that, right? You're leading in a series. Rest Anderson for a game, go with someone else. You don't need to do that with Wallstead here. I don't think it's going to be an issue unless he looks fatigued to a point that, you know, you're seeing something in practice that's off. But to me, he earned the starters net until he doesn't. Philadelphia, Pittsburgh. I want to frame one thing one very specific way.

When we look at all the free agents from last summer, there's two that jump out as the best value signing. Dan Vladar Anthony Mantha First of all Do you think I'm missing anyone in the top two And second of all I mean my vote here goes to Dan Vladar Would it would your vote go to Dan Vladar as well

As far as best value free agent signing in the off season People are putting his name I would need to People are putting his name on the heart ballot He ain't gonna win You ain't gonna be top three But his name is on heart ballots Dan Vladar

And there he was a day. I can't go with that. Come on, let's go. Snuggle up. Let's go. Come on. You can do this. Come on.

I can drag. I can tug a war you into this. Come on. Let's go. Dan Bled by. He was awesome. He was. No, no, he was.

But is it MVP caliber? No. Do I think he's the best value signing in the league? No. I think the Flyers defensive structure down this stretch is the key to their success. Has he been really great behind them? Yeah, absolutely. But it's not him alone.

And I think it's the way the entire team defense, right? And it starts right up front. You see guys like Forcer and Noah Cates and like their commitment to defense. And it trickles down the entire lineup. Their pairs were both really good. The top four pairs. I thought York and Drysdale were doing what they knew two. They generated a ton of offense and they looked pretty good defensively too.

And obviously the Sandheim pair looked good as well. So I don't put it fully on Vodard. Does he have to be good here? Yes. But do I think the Flyers need someone to be outstanding? No. I think with Mantha, what he did, especially when you look at his history leading up to this point,

I think he's like the bigger win here because we all saw a lot that we liked from him earlier in his career. And it just kind of fell apart. And then every time he moved, you were like, maybe this will work. Maybe this is the fit that will get him going. And it just wasn't. And this year, yes, he had a poor game one, I would say. But I think generally speaking, this season, he stepped up in a big way and has really raised his value up more. Okay.

So what was the story then in game one? And was it Travis Sandheim? Or was it? Because I don't want to see the first two periods of Porter Martone, but the third period of Porter Martone. Not just the goal either, but the screen on the Sanheim. After Sanheim dangles and Sauterblom and gets that shot in past Skinner. To me, that goal is all about the screen in front from a kid that looks like he's been playing in the NHL for five years already.

And he's been fantastic. Like he has been going up in tough minutes. I think he got five minutes of Sidney Crosby last game. so you're going heads ahead with the best of the best and you look calm, cool, collected, and better than that, like, you're just purely effective. That's so impressive. He is one of the stories of the playoffs so far. I'm working on something about playoff breakouts.

He's going to obviously be at the top of the list. What in our tone. Okay. I mean, he's been fantastic. Yeah. I think, though, the biggest theme for me, like, you look at it and you go, he is one of the stories, but it's also like this team writing the momentum that they built themselves down the stretch, right?

You look at this impressive run to the playoffs. I don't know. Did some of us think it was just? going to drive game one. I don't really know what to say like, yes, I picked the penguins in the series, but you knew it was going to be a battle. And I think game one, you see it of if any team can frustrate them,

this team has those two-way chops to do it. So it'll come down to, you know, can the penguins re-center themselves and play back to their strengths? Because the flyers are going to make life difficult in every which way, and they did on both ends of the ice last game. The Montreal Canadians go into Tampa. Or should I say,

Yuri Slavkovsky. goes into Tampa and the hat trick including the overtime winner on a really bold shot. Like, players generally don't take that. I know it's power play, but at the same time, like it's a risky shot because it could end up going back the other way down the ice. But when you're feeling it like Slavkovsky was on Sunday, you rip that shot. Now, was it Andre Baskolovsky's best performance that we've seen? No.

As anyone really worried about the Tampa Bay Lightning? based on history, no. Although, let me pause on that. So Montreal goes in here and throws a scare into the Tampa Bay Lightning. Like, they've done their job. They got their split. Now it's back to the Bell Center. One more game and back to the Bell Center.

I don't want to get too ahead of myself here, but I'm about to. If the Montreal Canadiens can do this, that's four first round exits in a row for the Tampa Bay Lightning. And for a first round exit. sits in a row for John Cooper. At what point do you start to ask questions about Tampa and about John Cooper? Like we just assume like death taxes and John Cooper is a coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Again, I know it's game one.

I know it's game one. You're going to get dragged for this one. Oh, I'm totally getting dragged for this one. Look at Merrick. He's firing John Cooper, you idiot best coach in the NHL. And I think I would, you think. Yeah, thanks, Zach. Yeah, thanks.

Appreciate that. The MVP we need, Zach. That's my pal. Like, he was looking out, looking out for his host here. Had a boy, fired me under the bus fast. I don't know. Like, how are we feeling about Tampa right now? Normally we say, oh, they'll be fine.

But they've been out in the first round, twice against Florida, once against Toronto Maple Leafs. And right now, the Montreal Canaan just went in there. And I don't want to say handed it to them. But they tried to out physical the Tampa. Like, you could tell, first of what, Josh Anderson's hit. and everything, and you could tell that Arbor Jack Eye is dying to fight Cory Perry. He's just dying to fight Cory Perry. And like, that's Tampa's game.

How are you feeling about this series now? How are you feeling about this? Okay. I am not on the fire John Cooper train just getting us to see. I'm not saying they're firing. I know you're dying to fire John Cooper. Okay. I'm not dying to fire a junk.

We're spreading right now. Okay. John Cooper to Toronto. There we go. Get Nick Alberger on this one. Get Nick and Rosie on this one. Yeah, we're going to see it now. Like, I can already picture like the Gossip Girl, you know, do the lightning need a spark and go from there?

I think it's going to depend how the rest of the series goes and how much it's do the Tampa Bay Lightning adjust? How do they handle things on defense? Because Dasu, obviously, is doubtful for game too. We don't know what's going on with Victor Headman. It puts more on Mozer and Radish's play. And while they were so good in the regular season, I don't think they had a perfect game one here. But it also depends on what happens in net. I think the Vasilevsky conversation is going to be the most interesting one.

Because when you go back to what he did to earn the reputation of playoff Vasi, right? He had incredible play through three straight Stanley Cup runs, trips to the final, I should say. He was unbelievable in series clinching games. I think it was eight straight games he allowed to combine two goals against and saved like 17 goals above expected, like something absolutely ridiculous. I wonder how much he's a slow starter in the playoffs and hasn't had the chance to. I've been looking at this a lot because I was very curious about what he did

in those three straight years that he went to the cup final, how much he got better as the series went on. And I think that was the case, right? He comes up in those big game, five, sixes, and sevens, and as the playoffs roll on. And you also have to think about his workload. He played a lot this year. His defense wasn't perfect.

It wasn't as better as it was. I think it was in 23. I want to say was the worst defensive performance in front of him. And I think all that turnover in Tampa over the years, like really bit them and really weighed heavily on Vaselowski specifically. But I wonder if he can heat up. And we look at the last few years and all these first round exits, he doesn't have the chance to do it.

So if he's not at his sharpest and the team isn't and both have been true the last few years, they're completely screwed. So what's going to happen this year? Right. How does the team center themselves and not just say, well, they made the mistakes that put them in this position? Montreal forced them into the mistakes. This goes both ways, right?

The Canadians came into it, and even though all that momentum swung away from them when that Josh Anderson goal was not allowed and it was overturned, and then you have the penalty that follows, you look at it and go, that game could have spiraled for Montreal right there. And for a young team, you would expect it to in that moment, and it didn't. So it can't just be, oh, well, Tampa's battle tested,

and they let this one slip away. Montreal was that aggressive in this game to force Montreal, to force Tampa Bay to let this slip away. And I think recognizing the difference is going to be important here because it's not just on the lightning to be the best version of themselves. They have to stop the Canadians from being the best version of themselves. And this is two teams that are very similar stylistically. So all of that's a conversation in front of the blue paint. And then you're going to have to have that talk about Vasilevsky and whether he can re-center himself and be the playoff vassie we know sooner than game six or seven.

Right? Like he has to be sharper in game two and in game three for this series to have some life because the lightning are a great team in front of him. But he is one of their most valuable players, right? You could probably say this year it would be Coutchroff and he's right there behind him. I want to share something with you. So one of my favorite things. Well, first of all, I'm pretty done with like microphones on players. Here we go, boys.

Let's go. Boys, here we go. Bucks in a deal. I don't give a shit. But. Mike's on referees. Ah, now you got me. Or mics on coaches.

Now you got me. And let me take that one. How about a referee made available at the end of the game to talk about what happened in said game? Now you really got me. Now we have Dave Jackson on social media explaining everything on behalf of all the officials. But yes, I would like that too.

Now, you know what I really love? It's one of my favorite sort of game inside the game things. And I just wish that we could hear more of it. I love hearing French Canadian coaches yelling and arguing with French Canadian referees Marty Saint-Louis and Francois Saleron swearing at each other or arguing with each other in French yesterday was outside of Sandra Generette

with the drum outside of that those were my favorite moments watching Marty go out of them in Francaise and watching Francois Cran spin back and give it to give me this one Shane like I know you look at him like Jeff, No, I like this. I like this.

An interesting conversation here. I don't care if I don't understand it. French guys swearing at each other. I love it. I just love the sound of the energy. It totally is. You know, and part of it is just like the whole Montreal thing.

Like I'm not sure like you probably weren't watching the hockey night feed yesterday. But like there were like cutaways to churches in in Montreal, you know, filled with people like watching the game in church. Like, dude, that's Montreal, man. Like that's it. Like there's so many different layers. to the fandom for this for this hockey team. And they do travel well.

And when they do travel, yes, they can be annoying. I get it. It is a very, very passionate fan base. But nonetheless, I just wanted to throw that in there. Marty, San Luis and Francis was wrong last night. That was mint chip ice cream. That was awesome. Yep.

Passes vibe check 10 out of 10. Love it for St. Louis too because I think last year, his playoff appearance was obviously very short. But this is your like, welcome to the postseason moment even more than last year, right? Because for the Canadian, it felt like last season was like, well, they're just happy to be here. They worked so hard post-4 nations to make the playoffs. You see the potential, but really no one had them advancing. And this year, you look at it and go, okay, you can actually see the future, right? The core is elite.

The supporting cast is young, but you see the building blocks that if it doesn't work this year, there's still a lot to be happy about and a lot to plan for for the future. But also there's your future yourself on the other side of the ice that adds another fun element. It's St. Louis versus his former team. And I know he doesn't, you know, put much stock in it. We've seen him say it already because his time in Tampa is so far removed, but it's another interesting element of it. But to see him on the bench fired up and going at it is exactly what you want because this team, like, you look at some teams and like the teams take on such an identity that you can just link it to their coach, right? And you would think the Carolina Hurricanes number one

of the hurricanes are Rod Brindamore across four lines, three defense pairs and they're perfect, right? Like they're everything that he could be in more. Everyone's got to be. The thing about the thing about Carolina too is you have to be an athlete. The only way you can survive with Rod Vindermore because he works you so hard and expects a high work rate is to be an athlete. If you're someone that's just going to cross-check someone to hell in front of the net, there's no spot for you on the Carolina hurricanes. But if you're an athlete, there's a spot.

Anyway, I just want to interject that. That's one thing about. No, that's, it's so true. You have to be an athlete. And it totally works for them. And with the Canadians, there's so much of St. Louis, I think that you can see in there. And it's more than just, you see him teaching Cole Caulfield, how to take his kinds of on timer and things like that, which is a fun,

vibey element of it. But it's the idea, I always go back to that instincts over systems and how he encourages players to play to their strengths and tries to put them in a position to succeed that you can see Lane Hudson play as a rover, right? And just go. So I think it just starts with him and trickles down the entire lineup.

So if he's energized on the bench, I'm sure the rest of the team is too, because they all, you know, they all have that synergy. My friend Nancy in Arizona is a long time, actually even before Montreal Canaan's a Quebec Nordiques fan. And so we were texting yesterday,

and she's doing some of the loose-lipped translation of what was happening between Maris-Saint-Louis and Francois-Saint-Luay and Francois-San-Laure. Anyhow, I just thought I'd throw that in as a little flavor puck for you. Before we hustle here, and Jeff Patterson's on the other side. I'm going to talk about the Vancouver Canucks situation. I just want to get your thoughts on New Jersey with Sunny Meda.

And what it feels like to me, because, you know, Dubus, Tulski, meta, like at some point there's going to be a tipping point for all of this. Like the way that I've looked at it is kind of like baseball did 30 years ago and we've moved from can you play to

can you think. And does it feel like the New Jersey hire is a tipping point or we're still not there for you? I don't think we're there yet. But I think it just shows how we're getting there more and more because okay, everyone knows I have this analytics list. I tweeted out all the time and it started because

I did a story about the rain way back when and how they use data and how they should more. And I got to talk to a lot of people who worked for teams. And I kept asking the same question of like, what do you need to make it work? And they kept saying it has to go through the organization. It can't just be that you have this analytics department that you build and they're off to the side and that's great and wonderful. Yes, that's important to put the resources in, to hire the right people, to build that

foundation. But it has to go through the top of the organization, whether it's someone at an AGM level, someone at the GM level, right? or a GM just being as open and embracing it. So people will look at this list and go, look, the Toronto Maple Leafs, they have the biggest staff around. And yes, there's does on paper look like one of the most robust steps. But it's absolutely useless if you don't fully integrate it into your organization, right?

And it's not saying you need a nerd to run the ship and only think like a nerd. No, it's an extra tool at your disposal. It's more resources and it's something to help you counteract your biases and inform your opinions more so. So I think the devil's taking that leap to have someone at the top of. their organization and they've had people high up in years past, you know, that have this data-driven approach. It's leaning into it a little bit further. And I feel like that's something that will help this team because they went so far the other way over the last couple of years, right? Here they are, this great rush-based team coming to the league with all of this speed. Look at the New Jersey Devils.

You can't look away because they're going to score on you if you do. But then it all kind of falls apart and it felt like they tried to become something that they're not by getting tougher, by grinding it out more instead of playing to their strengths. So now you have someone who, who can come in, I think, do a better job of identifying what this team actually needs, helping them play to their strengths a little bit more and adding more substance behind that while still working on the fringes around what is a very talented core. And I wonder if this kind of perspective is exactly what they need to round it out a little bit more. The one thing that I've always sort of marveled at and sort of actually shaking my head at

is everybody who owns an NHL team. Like you don't get rich by owning an NHL team. You get rich and then you buy an NHL team. This is the truth of sports. And in all of their other businesses, in all of their other businesses, the approach that they take is all data-driven. Yet when it comes to their sports team, it's magic. And get the guy that's got the feel or the pulse and all of it,

which flies completely in the face of what made them beyond wealthy, to the point where they can afford NHL teams or teams in other leagues. It flies right in the face of what worked for them in their quote-unquote other primary business. You don't I mean? Yeah, absolutely. Like, do you still need the hockey sense and someone that could truly get a pulse of the organization

and does it help to have people with experiences? Yes, you look at the Colorado Avalanche. Like Joe Sackett, former player, there you go. But they also have, you know, the data-driven approach that helps them fuels things and helps them get everything going. It's just something to use and lean on. Why not? Because we watch games where emotional people,

we're biased people, that if you see Evan Bouchard make a mistake, And it goes in the back of the net because they don't have stable goal tending. You are thinking about Evan Bouchard being bad defensively. It does not matter how much he's improved since Paul Coughby took over because you know, in your heart of hearts, that he is bad. And that bias is going to guide you. And it just, we're inherently biased for people. It happens.

So if you can have something to help mitigate that or help count the things that you're not calculating in your mind. You're watching the Canadians game last night. You see them scoring multiple power play goals. In your brain, are you calculating where their zone entries are and what's most effective and how they're doing this? No. So if you can put a number to it and add some substance that you can go back later and really dive in, it obviously helps.

And then there's the predictability factor and everything that they build off of those basic things that they're calculating as games go on. It just helps you have a more complete picture. Nerd. Yep. Listen, I'm sitting here with the goddamn notebook of everything I've seen in these games, counting my tallyes of penalties taken, when they're taken, who's scoring power play goals? I have tables drawn out. Yes, I'm in a nerd. I just want the Burnbook.

I just want the Shannon Goldman Burnbook. That's all that's how I really care about. Just give us a good Burnbook and we'll all be happy. We have the Too Many Men Burnbook above my shoulder right here. It's there. I love it. You are the Premier O'T. You are the best.

My friend, enjoy the games and we will be checking back and bothering you regularly. Take that one to the bag. Thanks for having me. Hey, by the way, any pickle updates really quick. Any Dill updates? Where we got? Anything new? Come under your nose.

I saw that. There is PBR. I haven't found it yet. it says it gets released early May, but I have seen on TikTok people are getting it early, so I need to find that. You saw the tweet from Corey Lavalette who sent that to us. Like, Corey, bless that. I had actually already saved it and was like, hey, this is something we have to leave an eye out for

because, yeah, because anytime there's anything new or rare, like I'm very on top of that, as you know, I am sick. I have to try it all. But there's the Bushlight Apple's coming back too. So that was already being talked about. And it's like, wait, wait, when you're looking for those, also look for these. So whoever finds it first wins and, you know, can get it so we can all taste it. It's a beautiful thing. Glad you're on it. Glad you have

the time to be on it. It's awesome. You're the best. Shana Goldman from the Too Many Men Podcast and The Athletic as well as joining us here on the sheet. Thank you, Shana. She's excellent. Oh, one of the things, by the way, and we're going to open up with our next guest here, Jeff Patterson, and ask him this question. And there's been a lot of answers. I mean, there's been a lot of Hendricks and a lot of Jerome McGinla's. Some of our older fans have mentioned, you know, Daryl Sittler and Patrick Marlowe. And the, the, the, the, the, the, The QOD essentially because there's a really wonderful piece at Daily Faceoff right now about which NHL veterans are most deserving

of their first Stanley Cup. And spoiler, sorry, Scott Maxwell. He has Brent Burns as number one. Eric Carlson is number three. Claude Giroux of the Ottawa Senators in at number two. Let's bring aboard Jeff Patterson, the host of Ringwhite Vancouver, and ask him that question before we get into and try to unravel the Gordian knot that is the Vancouver Canucks and Jim Rutherford.

Jeff Patterson joins us now, which is You know, I don't want to bias a jury here, but I don't think I saw one Luongo in there, although he does have a cup as an executive with the Florida Panthers. Do you have a person in mind when I say your favorite player or maybe the best player to never win the Stanley Cup? To me, it's either Boria Salming or Marcel Dion, but I'm an old. What about you, J. Pat?

Who are you going with here? My glib answer would be anybody that has worn of Vancouver Connected Jersey. But that's still a work in progress, as is the current state of this hockey club that we'll get to. I mean, Daniel and Henrik, obviously, just having my career has sort of mirrored their time in the organization, so watch them grow up and reach the heights they did and obviously get to a game seven and not quite get it right.

But I was glad to hear, and I'm not surprised, that others have said Jerome McGinla, as you know, an affinity for the time I spent, calling his games in Kamloops way back when. And so watched him, in through the ranks as well and get close, but not close enough, ultimately. So I put Daniel and Henrik at the top of the list, followed very closely by Jerome. Trevor Lyndon in that conversation, I would probably throw into that mix as well.

Anyway, J-Pak, wait to see again, my friend. I hope that things are going well. There's never a dull day in Vancouver and things got extra spicy again on Friday as we were treated to yet another newsy Jim Rutherford Press conference. but before we get there, it did seem like Friday was at least felt like the end of something, the end of a very specific era. I know that nothing's clean and black and white.

It's all areas of gray. But it felt like that was sort of the signaling of the end of the Rutherford era here, as he won't commit much past a few more months with this organization. anytime I've ever done an improv class. I don't know if you've ever done an improv class. They'll always tell you when you're telling a story, start in the middle. It always makes it more compelling. And I go back to, I'm an English major, University of Guelph, you know, something of the most interesting fiction always starts in the middle.

That's how you capture attention. When you look at this, whatever, this thing that just happened with Vancouver over the past few years, is there one moment that, maybe for you represents the middle where, you know, there's two different directions. This thing can go in. It can go to the left or to the right. Like, was there, was there, we always focus on, okay, what's the beginning of this? What's the end of this? To me, I'm interested, what's the middle?

What was the middle of this Vancouver Canucks saga? Was it Quinn? Was it J.T. Miller? Or was it Borg? Like, what was it? What was the middle of this? Yeah, I mean, my initial answer would probably be the, the day that they peddled J.T. Miller. They came to the conclusion that they just couldn't move

forward as individuals or as a collective and they had to trade a guy that had been a hundred point player and looked to be the heart and soul of this hockey club. And they decided that J.T. was the one to go and that they would hang on to Elias Pedersen, who they had committed to. And we know how that story has played out here over the last couple of seasons since he signed the contract. So you're right. There's a bunch of sort of stop and drop off points along the way. the trade of Quinn Hughes, I think a lot of people would look at that and think, okay, well, that was it. Like when they came to the realization that this guy wanted out and there was no path forward,

but I would back it up because I do think that the trade of JT signaled to Quinn that maybe there wasn't a future for him here and that this team was in deeper than we all thought. And you know what, Jeff, I might even back it up a few weeks before the trade of J.T. Miller to that explosive Gary Mason Mason article in the Globe and Mail where Jim Rutherford essentially aired all of the dirty laundry. Because to that point, to that point,

the fan base was divided. There were a lot of people that believe the smoke signals that were coming out of the locker room, but there were just as many that said media fabrication, you guys just looking to pile on this hockey club, and you're looking for a story,

then the president of the hockey ops opens up and just basically lays it bare that these two guys cannot move forward together for whatever reason that they have tried. And it's just, it's untenable. And so, yeah, I would say

that is sort of the middle of the story. Obviously, the start was Rutherford being brought in to repair the damage and have been done by the previous regime. Patrick Laveen was his hand-picked guy. And now you look, I mean, Rick Tockech was their hand-picked coach. He walked out the door last summer.

Now they have had to push Patrick Elvine out the door. Derek Clancy left. He was the first Jim Rutherford hire. And so Jim was brought in, given this opportunity to build up the front office and handpick his coach and he's basically, you know, here by himself. I mean, Cammy Granato and Emily Castingay are still here in the front office, but lots of people have seen greener grass elsewhere and chased after it. And, you know, this wasn't Patrick

Galvin's doing, obviously, leaving, but he's no longer the man in charge. And I think a lot of us wondered if he was ever, really, the man in charge, because it was such an interesting dynamic with with a president of hockey operations who clearly had the final say on all the big hockey decisions. Call me cynical, and I'm happy to invite that. But it seemed like Alvin got fired for decisions that he did not make. Ultimately, he was responsible for them. And going into that press conference, I'm like, okay, so Rutherford is going to present publicly the case why Patrick Alvin is no longer the general manager. I didn't hear a compelling case why Patrick Alvin

shouldn't be, shouldn't still be the general manager other than perhaps we just look at it and say the Vancouver Canucks are prepared to turn the page not just on Patrick Alvin, but Rutherford's seems to be at least strongly considering piecing out in this whole thing. Like did you hear a case for firing Patrick Alvin on Friday? Because if there was one, I missed it.

Well, I think one look at the standings. somebody's head had to roll and we'll see if there is future fallout here if Adam Foote ultimately is dismissed by whoever comes in and takes over as general manager but I think there's a prevailing thought out here and you kind of have to have the full feeling of this marketplace but when you see Ryan Smith of the Utah mammoth high-fiving with fans outside of T-Mobile

on the evening, the first ever playoff game, I am trying to just try to imagine a world in which Francesco Aquilini could approach a group of Canucks fans on the plaza outside the rink and, you know, mingle. So no. My sense is here that while a lot of people think that it should have been a package deal on Friday and that maybe Jim is past his best before date, I think this is all orchestrated that if Jim Rutherford goes, Francesco Aqualini is going to have to sit at that dais and face the questions that he doesn't want to face and meet the media that he just, stains. And so Jim remains in his job because he is a shield. He's a buffer between the media and by extension the fan base and the owner. And so, you know, if Jim's fingerprints are all

over this and if every hockey decision ultimately stopped with him, I mean, he tried to distance himself a little bit and said, I can't make decisions for other people. But we always wondered, like how much autonomy did Patrick Gilleen truly have? Did he just make the phone calls? And Jim made the decisions. And I think there was some element of that. But then in the same breath on Friday, Jim Relovert said the next person in charge is going to have complete and utter autonomy over hockey decisions. And of course, then he also talked about how, hey, his focus is on the higher and the draft. And at that point, he's going to reconsider everything. And so he may be preparing his exit as soon as this offseason. We just, you know, we just don't know. He's 77. He still seems awfully sharp.

I think he doesn't want this to be his last act in what has been an incredible career in the game and in the sport. And so I think some of Jim's personal pride is on the line here to stick around until this team has a little bit of traction and is starting to move back in the right direction. But my goodness, after what we just witnessed this season, I think we should all be settling in for a few more years of pain before the Canucks find their way out of the wilderness. You know, I'm not the first to make this point, but I'll make it here with you. I'm curious your thoughts on it specifically. A couple of weird sentences placed beside each other at that press conference. And the one that stands out was when Rutherford talked about how he knew that Quinn Hughes wasn't going to come back to Vancouver, that he wasn't staying for the long haul, that he was gone.

And that that was the reason he went out, and along with Patrick, who was technically the general manager, and spent a million dollars on Brock Bester and Thatcher Demko. and Connor Garland. That's a, that's pretty expensive for a, maybe we'll see if it's enough to lure Quinn Hughes back to the Vancouver mix. How did you greet that or those two statements beside each other? Yeah, I mean, that sounded like an act of absolute desperation on the part of the hockey club. And even at the time out here, like we all knew that they weren't going to do a whole lot in free agency.

And it really felt like movements on the part of the hockey club to placate the fan base. that, you know, okay, we're not going to jump into free agency, but here, here's a couple of shiny objects. Their object you already know, and many of you like, but, you know, are they in the best interest of the hockey club? Six by six for Connor Garland, you let Brock Bessor walk to free agency. You'd kind of dogged them on the way out the door, and then just a sec, we want you back here.

And it's a contract that you're going to find attractive. And then, of course, I think the one that really at the time, and even again, it was brought up on Friday, there were so many questions around the health and well-being of Thatcher DEMCO that it felt you're responsible in that moment to commit to him, even if it was just three years. Like, why not take the first 20 or 25 games of the new hockey season to see if this guy could possibly stay healthy?

And sure enough, by that point, you would have an answer that committing to him at any term and any dollar amount may not be the right call, especially after you had locked up Kevin Lankin and the way you did a few months earlier. So, yeah, I mean, it just wreaked a desperation. and Jim basically said as much it was done as a last gasp effort, even though he said he knew Quinn was already out the door. So how can that possibly be the best practices of running a modern hockey franchise

when really all you're doing is trying to throw the fields at your captain in this last gasp effort to get him to reconsider, even though the team was headed to the bottom of the standings? Rutherford seemed quite certain that this situation could turn itself around quickly. as early as next season. Because the culture is right now. And to use a Brian Brooke expression, in Rutherford's mind, they've shoveled out the barn,

so now it's time to show the horse. Do you share Rutherford's public enthusiasm and belief that this can turn around quickly? No, and I think that was one of the comments that really got lost in this avalanche of every other comment that he said was, I mean, people here have been screaming for a proper rebuild to do it right for 15 years, essentially since they lost game seven of the 2011 final.

And I mean, they were good the next year and won the president's trophy, but flamed out in the first round in each of the next two years. And then really, we've been living in a dark decade out here on this idea that a fan base in Vancouver can't stomach a rebuild when they have been force fed bad hockey for more than 10 years now. So yeah, you've got this fan base that finally got men. management and ownership on board to rebuild this thing and do it properly. And then the president steps to the microphone and says, oh, we had three young players. We had two veterans, a healthy Thatcher Demko. And I believe that we could be a whole lot better next year.

That raised a lot of red flags in this market. Now, I think the two statements can kind of be true. Like, they can be better. They better not be a 58 point team again next season. So there should be improvement from within. but I still think that even like the way Jim stated it, he's expecting whoever they get with their first overall or the first round pick, yeah, maybe step in.

Yeah, it could be first overall. But he mentioned a name check, Braden Coots, the first rounder from last year who played three games for them at the start of this season and is still going strong in Prince Albert. And he mentioned Jonathan Lecker-Mackie, who is coming off shoulder surgery and still hasn't come anywhere close to proving himself as a full-time national. hockey leaguer. So there's a lot of ifs there. I still wonder about their ability to attract

free agents this offseason. Like, why would somebody choose to come to the Vancouver Canucks at this low M? And you can say, well, they'll get paid. If they're going to get paid. If they're an unrestricted free agent, pretty good chance that they're going to find their money, wherever they go and that they should have some options at the very least. The Canucks don't have a lot to sell free agents on right now. Like the idea of two years ago, they attracted to Jake DeBrusc and I think part of the pitch was you get, hey, you can play with Elias Pedersen. Well, that's not much of a pitch these days. No. In fact, guys might ask not to play with Elias Pedersen these days. So,

you know, the idea of two veteran free agents, I have to believe it until I see it. And then he also mentioned a healthy Thatcher Demko. And that's just such an if right now. There's just no way of knowing, even though Demko, it was good to see him, and he said all the right things on Friday. And you want to give him a chance to, prove himself, but he's over 30 now, and he's got this long list of injuries that we all know about. And so I think at this stage of his career, those sorts of problems compound. And hip surgery is no laughing matter. So, you know, we have to see what he looks like.

But there were just a ton of ifs there in Jim's statement about them being better. I think they can be better, but I still think they're going to be in the discussion for top lottery odds again next year. Landon DuPont. History doesn't repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes. close on this one. Your thoughts on who takes over then for Alvin. There have been a number of names that have already been spit out there. It seems as if Ryan Johnson was the preferred candidate for Jim Motherford here.

I can understand. And I don't want to position this like it's some, that it's frivolous or it's just like a show pony. But they do need to, I think, internally show that they are going through a process. so they are at least giving the impression. And they may just end up going right back to RJ at the end of all of this. But I don't know if you want to say it's a public relations exercise,

but they are going to go through an interview process here with a number of different candidates. Does it end up with the general manager at Abbotsford? I will preface that by saying if it does, I'll be delighted for Ryan Johnson, a guy that's paid his dues. I think he's a sharp guy.

He's got great people skills. Those have been in short supply in the Connecticut. organization for too long now. He's got the championship pedigree of building the Abbotsford Canucks into the Caldly Cup winners a year ago. So there's lots of reasons to like Ryan Johnson. He's a hockey guy. You know, he's not a big brain data scientist. But again, we're seeing all different types. Some with

backgrounds in data science. Some with legal backgrounds, agents. It's impossible to know how a guy is going to fare until he gets the opportunity. But I will say this, that I think, the Vancouver Canucks absolutely. Forget the PR side of the exercise job. They have to pick the brains of other good hockey people out there that are interested in this job. Like there was a ton of heavy lifting.

When you're dead last and you don't have a lot in the stable in terms of prospects. There's a lot of work to be done out here. I would be fascinated because I think for far too long, the Connucks have even as they floundered near the bottom of the standings have had this sort of attitude of, we got this, we know best, you can't tell us. Well, how's that worked for you?

not very well. I would open this thing up. I would want people to come in and present to me ways that you think that you can turn this around. And whether there's a candidate that does enough to earn the job, I don't know, but at least you would get some institutional knowledge from outside of your own institution that I think you could probably be a pretty good learning for this organization. I hope that this season has sort of brought them to their knees a little bit and humbled them because, again, I think the way that they've conducted themselves, the way that they have treated the fan base for the most part,

treated the media, it hasn't been good. This is not a good scene out here on the West Coast, and so there's just a whole lot of growing up that has to be done, and obviously they've got to find the right person that can help this team get back to its destination, I don't say get back to its destination,

never won the Stanley Cup, and I think that's been part of the problem too, is they've chased that mushy middle, that it's always been about getting into the playoffs, forget that. Like, they have to find somebody that can lay out a plan here that can ultimately turn them into contenders. And at that point, there are no guarantees, but take your best kick at it, you know, a bunch of seasons in a row with a team that truly has the ability to compete for the Stanley Cup. Well, other than the drive, Mrs. Kennedy, how'd you enjoy Dallas? It'll end on that.

It's been a year. It's taken a couple of years off my life. Trust me. It's been a dark season out here. Bless you, bless you, J. Pat. I feel for the guys like you

that are on the beat every single day. There's a special place in heaven. I swear, there's a special place in heaven. You be well. Thanks so much for stopping by today. I appreciate it.

Yeah, you bet. Thanks, Jeff Patterson. From maybe to what, too soon, 1963? Anyway, yeah, things are pretty dire out there right now, Zach, with Vancouver. And, you know, that is an interesting. The one thing that I had not considered.

is how much Jim Rutherford, like there's an old political saying. You either play Shield or you play Sword. And I think that applies to sports as well. And right now I think Jim Motherford was playing Shield to keep Francesco Aquilini away from the media. Because if Rutherford's gone too, guess who's out there in front of cameras and microphones?

That's a great point by J-Patt. Oh, that's really smart. Good point. Yeah, I didn't really think about that. But when he brought it off thought right away, Yeah, if there's ever anybody who doesn't want to jump in front of microphones right now, it would be him. There would be a pretty short list. I think Keith Pelly would be up there with them, but Pellie ultimately did have something in front of a microphone.

Maybe Aquilini looked at that one and went, hmm. Who from MLS is going to Maple Leaf Square with the fans the way that Ryan Smith did? Yeah, no, not happening. Anyone? Not happening. The only person who could possibly fly would be, well, they're not even part of MLSC. I was going to say Atkins and Shapiro, who for those aren't familiar, are the guys who run Blue Jays. But they're not even technically part of MLSEs.

So probably nobody, Jeff. But the thing is, like, they have no, like, community. Like, I don't know that I've seen, like, two guys in executive management in Toronto have, like, less attachment to the community than those two guys. And this stretches back to when the Blue Jays brought him in from Clayton. Cleveland. But that is a story for another podcast. Yes, true. You know who, actually, you know who's like that?

It's someone that you met at the beginning of this season in Scott McCain. Scott McCain, who is the owner of these St. John Seedogs. He won't, like, sit up in, like, some booth and watch the Seedogs play in his private, you know, executive owner's booth. Like, he, like, walks around the concourse. He goes and sits next to fans. Hey, bring a couple of beers down for these guys. Like, that's Scott McCain. And you saw that up close and personal.

And that's that game we went to with the Seedogs and Cape Breton as well. like that is who Scott McCain is. Anyhow, I digress. Anything out of either Shana or J-Pat there before we move along to get you shining up here real nice? By the way, where did your beard go? I shaved it last night. I am kind of regretting the decision. I should have used not such a short razor on my face.

I feel like I look like a child here again. The beard is way too long. It was gross. It was bad. It was scratchy. But I don't know, man. I keep looking at myself in the camera and having to look away because I look like a little kid. I can't do it.

It's bad. I got to get this thing to grow back out. No return feed for Zach, please. No return feed. Exactly. Sticking out from this, obviously the Shield comment you just brought up that one. I didn't think about that. So it makes a lot of sense, checks a lot of boxes on why that happened.

But from Shana, we're talking about that. John Cooper being on the hot seat, more so you brought this up than Shana did, John Cooper being on the hot seat, I hadn't really considered what it would take. No, and I know you're not saying he's going to get fired or anything. He's the number one longest tenured coach in the NHL. If, again, it's one game.

I understand all that. But now Montreal's got the home split. They go back to Montreal after another game. And I don't know, maybe Montreal sticks it to him again. I just wonder, I just wanted like four first round exits in a row. If that happens with Tampa. Yeah.

And I guess the same, the same thing could be said about Bednar, obviously, if they dropped this one. I don't think that they will against L.A. But yeah, I just always feel like John Cooper is safe, regardless of if that's the right opinion or not. It's just I don't think about it. One day we're all going to be wrong. One day we're all going to be wrong. And then that day, John Cooper is going to get the highest paid NHL contract for a head coach coming out of this Tampa one for some team who gets all horny about the potential of John Cooper putting them over the hump. And that GM who pays John Cooper, Jeff, they will be a GM who hasn't watched the sheet because if they did, they would know that only three GMs in NHL history. Coaches, coaches, coaches, coaches, sorry, coaches have won with two different teams.

That will change one day. That will change one and there will be a fourth. But right now you got history working against you. All right. This segment of presentation of the Ninja Krispy Pro countertop glass air fryer, Shrek Ninja is elevating the air fire experience. The Ninja Krispy Pro is a family size cooking system that comes with a six quart, two and a half quart glassware.

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And also, as we dovetail now to Zach's shine here, Wishinsky's will. that's tomorrow, right, from ESPN? Yes. And ESPN.com. So looking forward to Greg stopping by tomorrow. We've had Greg on since Sunny Meadow was named the general manager of the New Jersey Devils, right? We've had that. Have we had that with Greg?

Did we get there? Hmm. I've got to go back and check that. Oh, I got to go. Have we not? I think we did. Anyway, all the shows run together this time of year as we're all finding out. By the way, your Penticton vs, our Penticton vs.

O-T-U-N last night against the Prince George Fugers. Holy smokes sticking to the Josh Ravensburg and onto the conference finals where they're going to get a tough test with the Everett Silver Tips. Prince Albert Raiders and Medicine and Tigers on the other side of that one. Nonetheless, congratulations of Penticton.

Went down to Cobb early in the series at home and then battled their way back. Congratulations to the Vs. had a great time there. The sheet is powered by Fanduel. Play your game with Fanduel. It's the NHL season, and Fandul is your home

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free of charge. Zach, we got games. Yes, we do have games. And I think that's part of the reason why the chat gets annoyed sometimes when the idea of the Toronto Maple Leafs being discussed comes up. They don't want to hear it. They don't want to hear about the Maple Leafs when there's games and playoffs that are going on. So, Jeff, sometimes I think it's best for us as a show and myself in particular to put a

cap on my Leaf's frustrations. But this morning, when I joined off the roster for the first time, I opened that jar and let it out in a rant. Casperi Cap Bannon Seth Jarvis Miko Rant and then $5.00 to $251.50.

That's a creative one. Good job. Sometimes I think it's best to keep a cap on my leaf's frustrations, but this morning I opened up the jar and let it out in a rant. Not bad. Thank you.

Just real quick, before we, before I move along here, what did you make at Dallas, Minnesota? Minnesota looked freaking unbelievably good and Dallas had nothing, and they're at home. And the only thing we came back with from Dallas from a positive point of view is look at the

pretty lights going up the stairs. That was it. Look, green lights. Wow. So I'm going to be honest with you here. I watched every game. I didn't catch the full Minnesota Dallas game. I was in and out.

That was a great. I have, no, no, no. I, oh, I double lose, Jeff. The reason of which I did not catch the Minnesota-Dalice game is because I came out from the hockey arena in which I was playing a tournament to find a pinkish liquid sitting beside my car. My car broke down and I had to get towed. So I was dealing with that during Dallas, Minnesota.

I sat in the car for two hours watching Sends Cains. and then the guy showed up when I was switching over trying to watch Minnesota Dallas and then I had to deal with that. So that is why I did not watch Minnesota, Dallas, to the full extent that I wish that I did. To the full glory. What happened to your car, man? I jumped in, no idea.

I mean, they're working on it right now. Shop was closed yesterday too. So they didn't even get in there to start working on it until today. It's just, it's been a, what a weekend. This next question is exclusive, obviously, to like, Toronto listeners slash views, but where rink were you at? Cheswood.

Oh, yeah, one of the classics. Okay, out west. Yeah. Really? So they were, we couldn't play at Scotia, which is where we normally play because there was a hockey helps the homeless tournament going on, of which they have NHL alumni

come out and play. So George of LaRocque was out there playing. I know Brennan Pruss was out there. I think Rob Shrempe was out there. Ooh. There was somebody else, another name that I wanted to tell you. I forget who it was right now.

But there's a bunch of NHL players out there doing the hockey helps the homeless tournament. So they took up Scotchupon and we went over to Cheswood. Yeah. So classic GTHL ranks right there. You throw Westwood into that equation as well. Yep. These are all the rings that played at when it was called the MTHL, which is, of course, they're forerunner to the GT.

I always thought because they, you know, the T-shirts that they have for the kids. Now I play in the G. I thought it'd be good for like the older set. I played in the M. I would wear that. No? I played in the M for the old folks like me, like when I was a kid,

back a million years ago. Yeah, sure. No, sure. No, sure. Sure, Jeff.

We should bring those shirts here. Yeah, I'm going to be a campaign. Yeah, we'll use the power we have on the show. Let's get a campaign going for Jeff. Yeah, yeah. Okay, very good.

All right. Thank you. Thank you, my 11-year-old producer, who I just gave down. on the weekend. That's enough. Zach.

He's 11th, folks. He's 11 years old. Thanks for joining me here today. Whether you're watching or a listing, we appreciate your attention as always. A big thank you. And to our bestie here on the program, the great Chianna Goldman.

Thanks to Jeff Patterson for stopping by. Oh, one more thing. Oh, yeah, what do you got? One more thing. Tomorrow, morning cup of hockey. Yes. 9 a.m. Eastern time. Cole Hudson joining the program.

Make sure to subscribe here to the Daily faceoff channel. The show is obviously here. First thing tomorrow morning, Colby and Johnny are joined by Cole Hudson. So please make sure to check that out. How did Colby get Cole Hudson? I wonder.

Morning Cup of Hockey, the BU Express. Let's go. Ryan Leonard coming up a little bit later on. Anyhow. So very much look forward to that. And of course, that's, don't miss the show. That show is awesome.

Billy Jaffe was great. on it this morning to kick off the program. And it sounds like Johnny's really going to get. Okay, I don't want to spoil it. And I want you to go back and watch or listen to the show if you didn't this morning. So Johnny's going at it with Buffalo Sabres fans all weekend long. And Laz has had enough. And so there is a bet for a tattoo if the Buffalo Sabers win.

the Stanley Cup. I don't want to tell you what it is because it was brought up by someone in their chat and I want you to go and have the full experience of Lazz swallowing this bet and biting down hard on it. It's on this morning's morning cup of hockey. And now I really want the Buffalo Sabres

to win the Stanley Cup. Las's got to stop doing this. Or one day he's really going to have to get scratched up. Anyhow. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Thanks to Shannon Goldman and Jeff Patterson for stopping by the program today. Thank you for your attention. Even if it's just in little bits and pieces here and there, it all matters to us here at the sheet. Thanks for joining us. If you've already subscribed to the channel, thank you. If you haven't, please consider doing so to find out like what Buffalo Sabres tattoo Johnny

may end up getting, where he may end up getting it as well. I'll talk to tomorrow. I'll talk to tomorrow. 1 o'clock Eastern right here on the shoot. They get ambitious day to