The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Welcome to the NHL ft. Pierre McGuire

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

Pierre McGuire joins Jeff Marek to kick off the week on The Sheet. Reacting to a busy weekend around the NHL as the NHL Hart Trophy race heats up, the St. Louis Blues take over the Western Conference Wild Card, Nikita Kucherov bails out on an empty netter, Leon Draisaitl hits the 50-goal milestone, and numerous NCAA players depart for their NHL teams...Shout out to our sponsors!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Funny and Trivial. That's how I want to start off the show today. It's kind of like how I see the show actually. Funny and Trivial. There was something this week that I think made all of us laugh. That person's name was Seth Jarvis. Still is Seth Jarvis. I want to make a point about short-handed goals as well.

Before we get into everything, CHL playoffs, Frozen 4, college kids turning pro, Ryan Leonard looking your direction. Hey Jimmy, snuggeroot. We'll get to all of it here in a couple of moments and saying bye bye to Vancouver and Calgary. Not officially but we're all grown-ups here. We know how this is playing out and the St. Louis Blues keep on winning. But funny and trivial. So it's made my day. First of all, Seth Jarvis, as much as everybody talks about the Kachaks, and they're great, they're awesome.

For my money, the funniest, most entertaining interview in the NHL continues to be Seth Jarvis. I've spoken to him a number of times. Every single time is a delight, and every single time you come away with a laugh and you probably learn something along the way, either about hockey or about him. And he's a really funny guy. So scores another short-handed goal, his fifth the season for the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.

That ties the Carolina Hurricanes record. He is now tied with Kevin Adams, who is currently the general manager of the Buffalo Sabres. Afterwards, our good friend Cory Lavallette asks an excellent question. You might think it's a ridiculous question, but I know Cory Lavallette and I know what he's thinking when he asks this. I'm going to ask a question here that many people might think is a little bit ridiculous, but I'm going to ask it because I know I'm going to get a great answer or comment or just blanket reply from the most entertaining player in hockey, Carolina's Seth Jarvis.

Let's go back to Saturday, shall we? The guy you're tied with is the GM in Buffalo now? Is that the GM in your future? Is that the natural progression? Kevin Adams is the... Me being a GM? Yeah. God, no. I don't... I'm gonna... No. No. He... Yeah, I'm not gonna be a GM ever.

First of all, someone recorded that. Someone saved that. So when somewhere down the road, South Jarvis, by the time he turns 40 or something like that, is working his way towards becoming a general manager somewhere, either in the NHL or at some other level of hockey, we can play this one back for him. But, young Zach, I wanna make a point. I wanna make a point. I have a point, I have a point that I wanna make here.

So, that's five, okay? And you know how I feel about short-handed goals, don't you? No, I'm- We've never had this conversation? Specifically what? No,, don't you? Uh, no, I'm... We've never had this conversation? Specifically what? No, I don't think so. I love it the way the PWHL does it, short-handed goals should end the penalty. Right.

I've maintained for years and years in the NHL there is no such thing as a penalty kill. Your job is to endure the two minutes. You're not killing it, you're just enduring the two minutes. A full penalty kill means you killed the penalty, i.e. the penalty is over. That does not exist in the NHL. You just endure two minutes. So, I was wondering on the weekend, how many times this season has there been a shorthanded goal scored and then with the remaining time teams cause a power play goal. So on the same penalty you have a penalty kill like a short-handed goal and a power play goal. If any idea how often this has

happened in the NHL just this season. No. Okay. But actually in the recent couple of weeks I feel like I've seen it two or three times. Yes you have. Yes you have. Okay. You're paying attention. Alright, you're an excellent pupil. Okay, so it happened a pair of times on Saturday. Or over the weekend rather. In the Rangers San Jose game it happened. In Buffalo Philadelphia it happened. We go back to February the 7th, Colorado Edmonton.

It happened. And then we had three in January. We had one in January. We had one in December. We had four in November, early spike, and one in October. So two, three, six, seven, uh, eleven, twelve. This has happened twelve times. You know what all those goals have in common, Zach?

What's that? None of them should have counted. They shouldn't have happened? 12. This has happened 12 times. You know what all those goals have in common, Zach? What's that? None of them should have counted. They shouldn't have happened? They should not. None of them should have counted. In this era where we're trying to add as much goal scoring as possible, your boy Jeffy is trying to take goals away. Do you have a quick thought on that one, by the way? Do you enjoy that rule?

I'm going to blast that one to Pierre Maguire here in a couple of seconds when he joins. I don't think I've had that conversation with Pierre yet. An actual penalty kill, ending it. So this is my problem. I'm gonna be honest with you here. I have no issue with the way it currently is. Like I find these things interesting when they're brought up. Like your rule about the face off in the offensive zone

where you shouldn't be in the neutral zone. Like I find them interesting. I have no real issue with those but like a lot of times you pose the question to me and I'm like I don't got a problem with that. I'm not gonna be somebody who's shaking my fist at you telling you this is a terrible idea but I just I don't really have an issue with the way it is right now, so I just don't really care. And I don't say that disrespectfully, I just don't. It's fine as is. I'm okay with the rule as is, so I'm not going to put up a stink one way or the other. Now accepting applications for producer of the sheet, please send your cover letters

and resumes to... So what you're saying is you're just essentially humoring me with all of these various ideas. Which I respect. Which I respect. It's good to humor your elders. Keep them amused. But like I'll tell you if I don't like them. I would tell you if I don't like them.

I just personally be like, whatever. Yeah, sure, change it. If you don't, I don't really care. Like I'm fine with it. Okay, one thing that I know you like this weekend, and I wanna get to Daily Outlines here in a second, we're gonna get to Pierre Maguire. But can we fire up that one?

I'm not, normally I'm not a big fan of doing this. I'm not a big fan of it, just like, here's a screen cap and this tells you a story. But on Saturday, so I get home from my kid's hockey and hop on the bike and I'm watching the Islanders and the Tampa Bay Lightning. It's a pretty good game, like the bolts go up for nothing and then cue the comeback, here come the Islanders. And I'm like, holy smokes, we have one here.

This is fun. Like the Islanders are going for it here. You know, Barzels injured, Nelson's been traded, but they're still trying to make it interesting, much of the chagrin of Johnny Lazarus. Now they end up losing this thing, but in the process, like Nikita Kucherov has a beautiful and easy chance to end this thing, to ice it, but instead tries to force a Passover to Brandon Hagel. Just like, look at this! Like, honestly, again, I'm not a big fan of like, just grab one screen cap and say, this tells a story. But the caption for this is, he passed.

The key to Kutcher off, looking at this on Saturday. I realize if you're listening on your favorite podcast platform here, you're probably not seeing this because it's audio only. But for those of you watching on YouTube he forces a pass over to Hegel and it went as imagined. Now I will I will give it to Kucherov because the end of this game became all about Nikita Kucherov. I don't think we spent enough time talking about Nikita Kucherov so let's

do it now. The game became Nikita Kucherov because after that gaffe, he back checked like he's never back checked before to interrupt a scoring chance for the Islanders to tie it and then beat out an icing to keep to keep it alive in the offensive zone. Like uh-oh I can't go I can't go back to the bench and face John Cooper. Like the whole time, I'm just thinking like, what goes through John Cooper's mind? Like how many other players are nailed to the bench

or getting some type of discipline? But the thing is like, it's almost as if you kind of have to accept some of this type of goofiness every now and then from Nikita Kucherov, because for every one of these plays, we've seen them do stuff like this before just try to force that extra pass just because man if I nail this it's going to be outstanding for every one of those gaffes you get about 25 incredible plays so with margins like that you're John Cooper what do you do other than laugh and just

go huh coach even though it's a one goal game it's a one goal game it's like an empty net with that much room tries to force a pass it's unbelievable like I made sure that second screen grab was in there as well because yes it's even funny it's funny to me too looking at the next opportunity that he had, he didn't just try to force the initial play. He stops up the Islanders defense and goes by and then he comes back around and tries to make the pass. It's so good.

Oh my God. Yeah. But I mean, yeah, right though. It's like, how many amazing plays has he made this season that we probably don't even talk about or notice or you know It's just not even on our Minds like it's that doesn't cross Past our desks and then that one comes up. We're gonna talk about it

You know the one that I always and I always laugh at myself for this because I'm like, oh Merrick. You're such an idiot That fake one-time pass to Braden Point in the slot that I always bite on. Like, oh, here comes the one time, oh, it's a pass. I've watched that play for years, I still bite. Like, do you not watch that play and bite every single time? Just because his body position is so perfect. I'm just like, Merrick, you dummy.

You dummy, you dummy, you dummy. You dummy, you dummy, you dummy. You don't deserve the job you have because you keep biting on this dumb F in play. Like we've seen this a million times and you can't get it through your thick skull that he's gonna pass it to Braden Point. I've seen it a million times, I still bite. I can't stop.

But the thing is though, he's so good that, like I'm telling people this, like we don't know this, but it's like he's so good, that pass goes across and the one time the goalie, the defender, whoever, the coach of the opposing team says, don't bite on it, he shoots the puck. I know. Oh shoot. It's in the back of your net. I know.

It's like, what are you going to do? You're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. It's the closest thing we've had in the NHL since Pavel Datsuk to something like that. To just like thinking at a level that nobody else is close to. Like he is like the cerebralist player. But then he comes up with these bonehead moments. Yeah. It's awesome.

I love him. Yeah. I love him. All right. Hope you love him too. I suspect you do. Should we be making more heart trophy noise for him? By the way, they're talking about that on Morning Cup Hockey. Discuss amongst yourselves. All right. Here's what's too, I suspect you do. Should we make more heart trophy noise for him, by the way? They're talking about that on Morning Cup Hockey.

Discuss amongst yourselves. All right, here's us coming up on the program today. Thanks for joining us. We got kickoff the week here on the sheet. Daily Outline, powered by FanDuel. Make every moment more with North America's number one sports book, that is our friends. Those are our partners, our pals

at North America's number one sports book, FanDuel. Coming up on the program today. We've got a lot to get to and we have a big surprise for our first guest of the week, the one and only Pierre McGuire. We should talk about college players turning pro, we should talk about everything that happened around the NHL over the weekend, we should talk about Kucherov, maybe I'll even float that short handed goal idea his way.

Speaking of players turning pro, NCAA signing, we're looking in your direction Washington, looking in your direction New York, looking in your direction St. Louis, and as I mentioned, we're all grown-ups. Technically, the math says they can still do Vancouver and Calgary. Interesting thing about Vancouver and Calgary is, quick little point, we always talk about everything's all about expectations. That's why everyone in Vancouver's looking at this season as a disappointment. Everybody's looking at Calgary

as this has been an outstanding season. The records are almost identical, but one very much trending upwards, the other just surrounded by question marks. Good news if you're a Gabriel Landisgog fan. That's me by the way. Body contact. Gabe Landisgog.

Colorado Avalanche. Is it gonna? Can it really? Will it please? Gabe Landisgog just in time for the playoffs. Cross your fingers and hope so. And the CHL playoffs kicking off in earnest for the playoffs. Cross your fingers and hope so. And the CHL playoffs kicking off in earnest over the weekend, some interesting results and some interesting stories to tell you about,

including a great inspirational story about a netminder in Madison hats as the Tigers take a two nothing series lead over Swifty. There we'll get there in a couple of seconds. In the meantime, joining me now on the sheet to talk about a number of things, whether it's NCAA, whether it's the NHL, or whether it's a family member, maybe your son turning pro and scoring a goal in the ECHL. He is Pierre McGuire and he joins me now. Pierre, how are you today?

I'm excellent, Jeff. Nice to visit with you. Pleasure to have you on board as well. Now, what can you tell us about young Ryan? He had he had a good year at Northeastern portal last year, uh, to leave Colgate university after three years, um, you know, he, he had, he has a certain identity to how he passed the play. And, uh, there were some different teams that were pursuing them and, and he had been to Minnesota's development camp two years in a row and, um, you know, he decided to take an opportunity that they had provided for him. He's really happy to have done it. Here's what we're looking at right now. There's his first pro goal. What is,

what does dad think? What goes through dad's mind when he sees his son's first pro goal? I know how much his mother drove him to a lot of rinks cause dad wasn't around very often. The summers were for dad. The liners were for mom. And for all the mothers out there, um, that's cool. It's really cool. I love it. These outstanding.

What's that? Sorry. He's lucky. He had such a good mom. Hockey moms. Like I've, I've always said, Pierre, there's a special place in heaven for hockey moms. I know we focus so much on the dads, but there's a special place in heaven for hockey moms. The interesting, one thing that I wanted to,

it's so, you've talked about this before, you know, hockey is everywhere and hockey is small. So his assistant coach in Iowa is a guy by the name of Kevin Schmidt. Yep, Kevin Green. Lived, so his brother, Matt lives about a block away from me, Matty Schmidt, uh, who played in the ECHL with, uh with with four different teams as well

So I texted him today. He's like, oh, yeah, Kevin's there. Here's kid is here This is this is everything coming together this Rubik's Cube is all clicking together here on a Monday Well listening congratulations that's Orion his first pro goal playing in ECHL with the Iowa Heartlanders That is that the ECHL affiliate, as you mentioned, for the Minnesota Wild. Sticking with college really quickly, whether it's players turning pro, whether it's, holy smokes, look at Penn State all of a sudden here, what caught your eye?

Maybe it's Zeev Boyam taunting the BC bench. Boy, is that kid loaded with skill and cockiness. Anything grab your attention more than anything else over the weekend in college hockey? Boston College going down, Minnesota going down. I think it speaks to the rhythm you have to have to win in college hockey. Minnesota got knocked out of their league tournament, big 10 by Notre Dame. You know, you look at Boston College, they got knocked out of their league tournament by Northeastern. My son was on that team. And when you're an elite team and you lose rhythm like that, Jeff, I think that says a

lot. When I coach in college hockey, if you lost in the first round of your league tournament, there's a good chance, even though you might've been in the top 10 seedings, there's a really good chance you went going to the NCAA tournament. Now all of a sudden these guys are going. I think part of it is because pairwise has been such a big thing for all the coaches and the players. But I think they got to look at some of this going forward. I really do. That being said, Ryan Leonard is not going to disappoint the Washington Capitals. Gabe Perot is not going to disappoint the New York Rangers. Jimmy Snugger is not not gonna disappoint St. Louis. Like these guys that are leaving,

these teams that have lost, they're really good. Jacob Fowler's not gonna disappoint the Montreal Canes. No, he's not signed yet. Will he sign? Yeah, I think he will. Let me, you know, I'm curious about some of the coaches that we're seeing here now, and it's an interesting, like the three of the four here are fascinating to me.

You know, I'm fascinated with, uh, with David Karl in Denver and eventually someone is going to make it very much worth his while, um, to leave. I've wondered about Chicago. Um, I look at Jay Pandolfo and you know, the NHL rumors have always been out there about him and I wonder about the Boston Bruins. I look at Pat Ferschweiler and I wonder about the Philadelphia Flyers. I talked about that last week

when John Tortorella was dismissed. Like three of the four here, like do you get a sense that all three are just sort of knocking at the NHL's door here? I wanna get to Penn State in a second, but do you think that all three might be knocking at the NHL's door here? I think Jay is. Jay is for sure because he's got his godfather is Lula Amorello. That's who brought him into the NHL. That's who cultivated him. That's who taught him how to do things at the right level. And so obviously I'm not saying Patrick Walsh losing his job, but there's this amazing greeting

that's gone on with Jay Pandolfo. And he also was an assistant coach for the Boston Birds and a skill development coach for the Boston Birds. So he knows Donnie Sweeney and he knows Cam Neely and he's won Stanley Cups. So I wouldn't be surprised, but I still think he's going to stay at Boston University. They've built an amazing brand there. David Quinn before him, and then obviously Jay taking over after seeing different stuff going on and doing a good job. First

Wilder I think has done an amazing job at Western Michigan. He used to be an assistant in Detroit with Jeff Blaschel. I spent a lot of time around Detroit back then. He's a really competent coach. So would he get any chill opportunities? Probably. Probably. The one guy, and David Carr will, I think if he wants to go, he'll be able to go. And you talk about Chicago, I wouldn't be surprised about that at all, Jeff. But I would give you a couple other names and one of them is Greg Carville, who is Kale McHarris UMass. I helped recruit that player. I drafted that player, Scotty Bowman and I drafted him and Whether it's Lucas Mercury, whether it's Dosh Wismellis, just now today, they're the sign with Boston. They've lost a lot of guys there.

And so I don't know what he will do, but I do think you're going to see a path of college coaches going to the NHL preseason. You know, Penn State is a really interesting story here. So I was talking to someone on the weekend. This is before Penn State made it to the Frozen Four and one of the points that this person was making to because we're all wondering okay like how many CHL kids are gonna are gonna jump to Division One here who's going where are the schools I mean there's gonna be a lot of like Michigan and Michigan State

obviously Minnesota etc. BU and this one person said to me, the one thing that he keeps hearing is, don't be surprised if Penn State, I don't know, I think the term they used was like War Chest, like really opens it up to try to get players because they need to produce a star here. And all I'm thinking is they make it in their frozen forest. This is a major shot in their frozen for is this is a major shot

in the arm for that program. Could Penn State end up being one of the big players in all of this as they try to attract CHLers? A hundred percent. Absolutely. First of all, Guy Gadowski is an Edmonton guy. He went to Colorado college. He's a coach at Penn State.

Before that he was a head coach at Princeton University. I had the privilege of working with him when he was a player and I was a management person with the Ottawa Senators back in the 1990s. He played for our farm team down at Prince Edward Island. He is a man of honor. He's a tremendous person. His son just actually went into the portal. His son spent the last two years playing at West Point. And now his son is considered one of the top players in the portal. So don't be surprised if maybe his son and stuff. But here's what, and his son's name is Mac, by the way. I wouldn't be surprised if they did become big because there's a thing, and this is for our Canadian audience, called NIL, name, image, and likeness.

In Ohio State, their women's program has used this NIL money unbelievably well. They have been a contender every single year for the NCAA tournament since NIL has been a big thing. I think with the Big Ten TV money and the big football and basketball money that Penn State gets, the big 10 TV money and the big football and basketball money that Penn State gets, they could become a major, major player in Division I college hockey. Their building is phenomenal. They have a thirst for winning there, just an amazing thirst for winning. And Guy Gdowski is a tremendous help. These are really good. Okay, let's bracket the college conversation here. Let me shift gears to the NHL. And there's a huge test on the weekend for the St. Louis Blues.

Here we go, St. Louis versus Colorado. Okay, St. Louis, let's see what you got. And St. Louis ends up coming out on top. And I don't want to see that everybody's getting like the soap and warm water feeling it's 2019 all over again, because it's a much different team and a much different vibe. But nonetheless, here we are all of a sudden, you know, I was talking about how, you know, the Colorado Avalanche or maybe the scariest, um, third place

team in the NHL, I think we could say that St. Louis Blues are the scariest wild card team in the NHL. I think we could say that St. Louis Blues are the scariest wild card team in the NHL. Whoever, like, I think that there is still a path for Dallas to win the Central, but if you're Dallas or you're Winnipeg, do you want any part of St. Louis right now? No, I was talking about that on my podcast last week, so I totally agree with you.

And this is for all the Boston Bruins fans out there. Cause I think you know where I'm going with this, Jeff. It wasn't Jim Montgomery's fault. No. This speaks to why you have to be really careful when you fire coaches. What's interesting there, when you watch them play, you can see the role Steve Ott has as an assistant there.

You see the role that O'Julian has in terms of how they're playing in the neutral zone. And you can see the role that Jimmy Montgomery has in terms of how they're managing the bench and playing in the offensive zone. St. Louis is a scary team. I would not want to play them in the first round. And one of the things that's come out of the four nations, Jordan Bittington's back to where he was, and to your point in 2019. That guy's scary, man, right now. He's scary. I watched them play Montreal the other night. They didn't just beat Montreal.

They beat Montreal up. They beat them up. And you look at the influence, the influence of Brilberg and Holloway on the St. Louis Blues. Yeah, massive. It's gigantic, Jeff, what's happening there. It's gigantic. I mean,'s happening there. It's gigantic.

I mean, Holloway's, going back to November, one of the best players in the NHL. When you look at the stats and you look at how he's performed and legitimate, like solid top six role. You know, I'll tell you, every year I try to look back and say, okay, so what was the trade that had the most profound impact? Like, you know, a couple of years ago was the barbachev deal at deadline with

Vegas and the aforementioned St. Louis. And I'll tell you, at the time we looked at it, I went, okay, nice move, but player, you know, at towards the end of his career, how great is this cam? Fowler trade worked out. This Fowler trade, not Whisper. It's so good. It's worked out great for the St. Louis Blues. Ever since Fowler got there, I love what you just said.

Ever since Fowler got there, you know who's taking off? It's just Falk. Justin Falk. Justin Falk, you got to watch St. Louis a lot to appreciate what Justin Falk's doing as a player. He's not at the beginning of his career. Louis a lot to appreciate what Justin Falk's doing as a player. He's not at the beginning of his career. He's closer to the end than the beginning. He's playing really good hockey.

He's playing really, really good. And I think getting a player like Fowler's helped him a lot. So it's interesting to see because I know Boston at the beginning, they're like, oh, this is all Jimmy Montgomery's fault. We'll get Joe Sacro in there and he'll show everybody. But our team is none of that. Montgomery is a new league coach and he's proven it in St. Louis right now.

It's been phenomenal. The team's, the team is spectacular. Now you mentioned the Montreal Canadiens a second ago and like that, I'm not sure if you got, had a chance to watch that game yesterday against the Florida. Oh, what, like what an incredible, and first of all, front and center is Nick Suzuki, who is just like low-key Patrice Bergeron for the Montroccans. He grew up a huge Bergeron fan. I remember when his buddy Brady Lyle was playing in Providence. Nick was really upset that even though it was Providence that he wore 37, he's like, you cannot wear that number.

And he was like legit, like you gotta change that number. Brady played together before, anyhow. You have a quick thought on what we saw, like a really gutsy effort at the end of a road trip. You know what ends of road trips are like, let's just get out of here. You're against a defending Stanley Cup champions, like a really gutsy effort at the end of a road trip. You know what ends of road trips are like, like let's just get out of here. You're against a defending Stanley Cup champions, always a tough out. And every person like yesterday to a man, just giving everything to win that game.

Gallagher, Suzuki, Slavkovski, Josh Anderson. You ever thought of what we're seeing out of Montreal right now? Their road trips stunk until yesterday. They were so bad on that entire road trip, but man, they brought the heat yesterday. Wayne Hudson's pretty good too, Jeff. I think he was a freak. Yeah. And the guy that gets beat up a lot around Montreal and doesn't deserve it is Michael

Matheson. And Michael manned up big time yesterday. That whole group, you know, Caden Gouley's not 100%. He manned up. David Savard, you know, Caden Gouley is not 100%. He manned up. David Savard, you can tell he's not 100%. He's still playing as hard as he can. The most improved player on the defense is Jaden Struble for the Canes. He's been very good for them all late. But you talk about courage and effort. I'm so glad you identified that. There's no analytic number for it. The Canadians have courage, they have character, and they have guys that care about one another. And I got to tell you, I'll be behind the bench. Mark, how are you standing

there? Really, your staff are doing a real good job with that group. You can say whatever they want. I only have one thing that I would dispute with them. I never would have started that road trip in St. Louis. I never would have started that road trip with Montembeau. After what Montembeau did last Saturday night versus Colorado, he was no good in that game. They're lucky they got a point on that. He was no good. He's tired. Not his fault.

He's worn out. I would have said, you know what? You're getting off until we play Thursday night in Philly. You're going to get from Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and you're off until Thursday. And then we're going to play it Thursday. We're going to play Dobish Friday in Carolina. We're going to play you Sunday. That's how we're doing it.

That's the only quibble I would have with this coaching staff in terms of either manager or roster. Yeah. Would it be enough to take Marty St. Louis out of contention for the coach of the year if Montreal gets in? No, I would definitely have him in contention for coaching. I don't think, you're gonna probably laugh at me for this,

and this is for all my friends in Winnipeg. I think their coach isn't getting enough credit, Scotty O'Neil. He's done a heck of a job at that team. Like I'm telling you, he's gotta be considered, he's gotta be mentioned, I believe that. You know, it's so interesting, Peter, just a quick little sidebar here on the coach of the year.

It seems as if, and it's an easy story to follow so you can see it. And this maybe also probably explains why John Cooper's never received the coach of the year award. It's always, it's generally the coach that takes a team with low expectations and takes them to a position of prominence as opposed to having an elite group of players and keeping them at an elite status. Like I'll look at Scott Arneal. This isn't a shot at Rick Bones. It's a lot of its circumstance, but you look at the progress of Cole Perfetti and

you look at what he's been able to, you look at, you see that goal against Vancouver, you have like, hold that whole graffiti. Like you look up what he's been able to. How about Gabe Velarde? How about, like you go down the line, I love what you're saying because I know how much you watch and you're not missing much. You know, Josh Morrissey, if he's playing in any other market, no disrespect, mental Olympic. Well, how do you think he's perceived around the league?

I see people saying, well, is he really a number one guy? Watch them play. Yeah, he is, yeah, he is. Now, I know they brought in Luke Chen, obviously, at the deadline, and Logan Stanley still has a presence there, but when you look at the back end and you think about the playoffs,

even with Chen, are they big enough back there? That's my biggest concern. You know, Dillon D'Amello is a thick guy, but he's not a big guy, you know? I'll give you an example. Again, look at when Washington, let's look at 18, 2018, Washington wins a cup. They're big on the back end. They're big. It's 19, St. Louis wins a cup. They're big on the back end.

20, Tampa wins. They're massive on the back end. 21 Tampa wins. Colorado wins. They had one small guy, Sammy Girard. Everybody else is big. You know, you'll look at it. Like massive defenses win in this league. So that's my question mark about Winnipeg

is how big are they? You know, Vancouver and Calgary, bless them. They're gonna end up with almost identical records and the perception of the market is gonna be completely different. For Calgary, it's holy smokes we actually came this close. What a successful season it's been for our organization, quite the opposite for the Vancouver Canucks.

For Vancouver, they need to start with the situation behind the bench and where that's gonna go. And I know it's always interesting, hey, Pierre, like it's a team option on Rick Tauke, but Rick Tauke doesn't wanna coach there, like what are you gonna do? So I always sort of kind of look at that and go like, well, sure it is team option,

but if Rick Tauke doesn't wanna be there, and I have no indication that he doesn't, right? I know that there's been discussions about a contract, but still hasn't gone anywhere and you look at what the Calgary Flames have done. And there have been some outstanding performances and that's led by Dustin Wolf, who's, you know, as advertised, you know, AHL goal of the year, plate of the year, all of that, and jumps into the NHL full time and he is legit. Um, I don't know that Nasim Qadri's 30 goals, uh, have been announced loud

enough at all around the NHL, but nonetheless, it was a really, really good season from, from Nazem Kadri. When you look at these two markets, Calgary and Vancouver, what pops to your mind as the headline for the remainder of the season and into the summer for these two? What a great job Ryan Huska has done as a coach at Calgary Frames. And not treading Ross Mousanderson at the deadline, I think was interesting for Calgary. The target thing is huge. And I don't know if we ever will find out the truth about what happened in their dressing

room at the start of the year, but something really happened there that fell this team up. And it breaks my heart because I really respect Rick a lot. I had him, he was a player, I was a coach and he did so well for us. And I got to think if he doesn't want to go back there, Jeff, he's probably going to end up in Philly. I'm hard pressed to think he wouldn't if he doesn't go back to Vancouver. So that's going to be the biggest story coming out of Van, what happens with their coach. And I think in Calgary, Husker and Craig Connery have done a magnificent job with that team. They really have. It's been outstanding. I'll tell you, I think we talked about this around trade deadline. I thought that Calgary was going to kind of be like Philly last year where all season long it was no, we're not making moves.

No, we're not making moves. And then trade deadline rolls around. Yes, we're making moves and bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. I thought like, I know Craig Conrad kept saying, we're not trading. We're in the race here. This is important for our kids and Conrad's area. And like, this is important for all of our guys. And you listen, good on him.

And now you mentioned Rasmus Anderson. Now it's a matter of, this is the kind of guy you want to have around your kids when you're rebuilding your team. And I guess the idea is then you want to peak with this team when the new arena is built. I want to get your thoughts on offer sheets because there's like, you know what this league is like.

This is a league where whatever was successful before, that's what everyone's going to do the next off season. And I can't help believing that, you know, I can't help thinking that a lot of teams out there are looking at what St. Louis did with a success. And, you know, you mentioned how well the, the offer sheet boys have been playing, Holloway and Broberg. And I can't help but thinking, you know, is there another general manager out there that says, okay, so Army did these two in Edmonton.

I'm going to do McTavish and Dostal in Anaheim, or I'm going to do Marco Rossi or I'm going to whomever like fill in your, your restricted free agent offer sheet eligible. Like can, are we, do you think going to head into an off season where offer sheets, which have always sort of existed out there almost in like fantasy land, like fictitious evil, like Kaiser Sose land, follow the usual suspects fans out there like, Oh, Kaiser Sose is going to get you. Ooh, offer sheets are going to get you.

You know, like, is it going to become more of a thing now that it's been done? Like almost a perfection here, Pierre by Doug Armstrong. Well, first of all, he deserves a lot of credit on that one. Here's my question for you before I answer it wholeheartedly. Don't you think Edmonton put themselves in a tough spot? When they went out and got Arvidsson from LA and Skinner from Buffalo, they were redundant at that position and they were adding pretty significant cap problems to their team. So that exposed Brodeward

and that exposed Holloway in the marketplace. I think if you're a team and you're looking at the same thing, what did Edmonton do wrong? Let's look at that. And so that would be my answer, what they did wrong. And they obviously had to trade some other guy, had to trade Cody Cece out of there just to become cap compliant. So there was stuff going on there. On the other side of it, I do think there'll be offer sheets. I do. I really do. I can't tell you who's going to get it and who they're going to get it from. But I do think offer sheets are going to be part of this. I remember how Matt, and you were part of this, I think not in a bad way when Ryan O'Reilly got the offer sheet Valery that was a nasty man. I don't know what I'm talking about. That was a whole lot of nasty when that happened.

And listen that like that was that was nasty for O'Reilly when he went back Like there are some dressing rooms that understand it like the Sebastian Ajojo office sheet. I went back to Carolina, arms open wide. When Ryan O'Reilly went back to Colorado. It was, I remember, man, it was, it was, it was not good. Yeah. There was a whole lot of, wow, you tried to leave. You, you tried to leave. Like I'm with you, it can go, it can go one way or the other.

Right? Like it can. I was one that stood out and I'm like, oh it can go one way or the other. Right? I was one that stood out and I'm like, oh that was a whole lot of nasty. That was a nasty one. If you want to scare Leafs fans, we can have the Matthew Nyes offer sheet conversation right now. He's so good. I know it's about money, right? I get it. Everybody's laughing at peace. But if you're him, you won the lottery. You're playing Boston. I know.

Mitchell Martin. Come on. There's, I'll tell you, I said it to him when he was on like a month ago. There's one person who I feel must've done something incredible in a previous life, like pulled an entire family out of a burning house. But there is, when you have a look,

like can you name the player that I'm thinking of here? He played with Austin Matthews and is now playing with Connor McDavid. Well, yeah, I can. I know him very well. He's a good child book author. Yes, he is. He owns the Bulldogs. I know him very well, he's a good child book author. Yes he is. Like he owns the Bulldogs, I know.

Do you think, in a previous life, Zach Hyman must have done something princely to deserve this, like what did you do? You must have been like the kindest soul ever. It's like, you know what, he had a great previous life. This is what we're gonna give him, playing with Matthews, playing with McDavid. You know what, though?

The one, I can tell you this, he earned that opportunity in Edmonton. Oh yeah, he did. And he fit, like there was a fit there. I respect that young man a lot. I watched him, I remember as a kid when he was playing in Michigan and he was drafted by the Florida Panthers.

And for whatever reason, why didn't Florida want him, Joe? Can you explain that to me? He just, I, you know, I, I don't know if that was so much that Florida didn't want him other than as, as much as it was. He really wanted to go to Toronto. That that's what I, that that's what I wondered about. Like, like, again, like Hyman wasn't like a first round pick or a second pick. Again, yeah, he played at Michigan and you know, had a sort of, you know, pedestrian type career there with the Wolverines with Red and it wasn't until his last year, I think he would

have been playing with Dylan Larkin, that he really started to pop some numbers. But I always wondered if that was just sort of, I'm going to maneuver my way here to Toronto. That's what I wondered about Hyman. I saw his, I love the way that kid carries himself. I know he's a man. Oh, totally. But he just cares himself so first class. And you're right, he has won the lottery twice.

Oh. He's won the lottery twice. Absolutely. Did you have a thought, I'm just gonna throw a dart here. I got a couple of minutes left with you, so I wanna throw a couple of darts. Nikita Kucherov just supremely skilled. Every now and then.

Talking about Saturday afternoon with the goalie poll, is that where you're gonna go down to? Okay, so Zach, hang on. What? I'm watching this, part of me is like, okay, it's Kucherov. Zach, can you put up this on the screen for Pierre? Okay, so the title of this picture is he passed the puck. Like, okay, so this, I, this would have iced the game obviously for Kucherov and he tries to force the pass across the Hegel. It doesn't go now in Kucherov's defense, a great back check to this

rep, what could have been a tap-in for the islanders, race down the ice, beat out the icing to keep it hot in the islanders. Like, he understood, like, okay, I messed up here. Like, part of me looks at that and says like, okay, like, that can't happen. And then the other part of me says, every now and then, Kucherov is going to do something like this, where you're John Cooper and you pull your hair out, but then he's gonna give you like 25 incredible other moments and with margins like that, you're gonna win cups.

Like how did you digest that when you first saw it? And then when you put it in sort of Kucherov context, how do you look at it? When I was watching it going, I can't believe Kutcheroff just did that. I'm like, what is he doing? When I go, this is the weirdest empty net opportunity monopole I've ever seen. Yeah, that was crazy. And then, you know, I swung my glass.

The other was going to come back and score that she's going to be. And Patty was going to look like a genius. And obviously they didn't. But I was, you asked me what I thought of it. I said, that's the weirdest open opportunity I've ever seen. I couldn't believe he did that. That being said, I love what you said about, there's going to be 20 to 25 times a year where he does something. Oh, wow.

That guy. It's unbelievable. He's the leading scorer in the national hockey league. How many people really know about it? Right? 109 points. Yeah. And we'll share a hockey junkie. and now I don't think anybody wants to play that team. I don't think anybody wants to play Tampa right now. You gotta finish first in the Atlantic. Do not finish in the 2-3 hole. Oh, I know.

Well, listen, you might be looking at Battle of Ontario and Battle of Florida too, like in the opening round here. Like this could be really special. You know, the thing that I keep pointing to about Tampa, two things, one, the goalie's healthy, and two, the presence of Ryan McDonough. How about the ceremony, Mr. Vinic, and everybody in Tampa for McDonough's 1000th game.

Amazing. That was Montreal, Canadians-esque. And they do ceremonies better than anybody. I was really shocked. I've known Ryan a long time, you know, going back to when he was a kid playing high school football, baseball, and hockey in Minnesota. What a player.

What a player. Probably the angriest, I got to say this one to you Jeff, probably the angriest I've ever been. I was sitting in the lobby of the Weston Hotel in Toronto getting ready to do something for TSI at the time. And it was announced that Ryan McDonough was being traded. And I went crazy on Montreal Radio. I was yelling on the air. I couldn't believe it. I've never been that angry. Who could have thought of that? What rocket scientists in Montreal's

front office thought that that was a good idea? Do they even know Ryan McDonough? Could you imagine how good Montreal could have been? Subban on the right side, McDonough on the left side for years, for 10 to 12 years. Yeah. Oh my goodness. I know. Like it's crazy when you think about it.

The weird thing about it too, Pierre, is like going back, remember when everyone was going goofy, before his no trade kicked in about Vanilla Cavalier going to Montreal? Like McDonough's name was in that. And so was Carey Price's. Right, like the, now this now, mind you,

this is before these two had really sort of popped as superstars in the NHL, in their defense. They were still in a state of potentiality versus actuality. But like, I don't know, I look at Ryan McDonough and just go like, wins follow this guy. Like success follows this guy. It's no secret that Tampa gets Ryan McDonough back and all of a sudden, even they can afford to lose Mikhail Sergeyev to Utah. McDonough's back and this is a team we're saying like, don't bet against Tampa.

I think a big part of it is Ryan McDonough. I really do. Because of leadership, 100% and a bill, he's a winner, he knows how to win. The underrated part of their defense, that J.J. Moser's a good player. Oh, we said that going back to the Phoenix days, oh yeah. That J.J. Moser's a good player, and I don't think people realize,

unless you're watching Tampa Nightly, you don't understand how good this guy is, he's a good player. He's excellent. Let me finish with this. So five goals away now, Alexander Rovashkin. And Zach, if we can fire up the Washington Capitals schedule here.

So let me know. It looks like Ryan, like the story tomorrow against Boston will probably be Ryan Leonard. Hey, let's have a looky. Probably should have been playing in the NHL this year, but nonetheless. But nonetheless, when you have a looky. Probably should have been playing in the NHL this year, but nonetheless. But nonetheless, when you have a look here, so it's Boston, Carolina.

Carolina's really gonna play them tough. Boston looks like they just want this season to end. Chicago's essentially playing as many people from Norfolk as they can. And then it's the Islanders on Sunday. Five goals in four games for Alex Ovechkin, Pierre McGuire, can you see it? You might get five Friday against Chicago,

but can you see it? You know, that juicy Friday red number that Chicago would be there. I could just see that. I spent a lot of Friday nights in Washington watching the Capniz, either as a coach or a broadcaster. So I would say that Friday can be a marquee night for him. Okay.

Let me ask you this one. We just showed that, uh, that still of Nikita Kucherov with the empty net. Yeah. Let's say that's Alex Ovechkin to break the record against the Vlachox. Does he drill it or does he, or does he pass it? Hey, Stromer, you take this. I don't want it. Does you remember when Jay Weber shot the puck through the net in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Blew through it. Yeah. That's what old Vetchkin's going to do. He's going to put it right in there. You're not going to pass it off. That thing's going to get hammer time right through the net. Yeah, you're probably right.

You're probably right. This has been a great chat. You're the best, always appreciate it. Congratulations again to Ryan. That is such a wonderful story and for you to talk about mom is always fantastic. You're the best, my friend. You be well, continued success, and we'll check back soon.

Talk to you soon. Thanks a lot, Jeff. Take care. There he is, the great Pierre McGuire, joining us here on the sheet on a regular basis. And yeah, his son, Ryan, making some noise with the Iowa Heartlanders of the ECHL scoring his first pro goal in his first pro game on the weekend. Anything jump out at you from that conversation with Pierre?

By the way, anything in the chat? Anything from McQuire? I'm always curious. I'm always curious when you're in the middle of a conversation. I don't know what people find interesting. I know what I find interesting. But I don't know what people find interesting. You on behalf of people, what do you find interesting?

Zach, speak on behalf of people. Well, I just thought it was interesting the conversation he was bringing up about Morrissey and Winnipeg and kind of just how he doesn't get noticed elsewhere, because I feel like we get wrapped up into these things so we know. Yeah. I'm not trying to say we know more than other people.

We're like, we're watching it all the time and it's sick. You kind of forget that it's not that well known outside That's someone like that is that amazing and just kind of gets glossed over like it is it they just don't come up in a conversation as often as they probably should be and just Bringing that up in Winnipeg and Morrissey and also Scott Arneal and the job that he's done. They're just kind of like Eh, the Winnipeg Jets have been unbelievable but new coach and Morrissey, awesome, Hallebuck awesome and doesn't really get talked about that much. It's just kind of like there they are but keep it moving. Like you know they are unbelievable. You know

what people in our chat didn't like? What's that? nice the nice oh I didn't like that the show almost went off the air technical problems something wrong with that America's ice storm whatever on the weekend so I just lost suddenly lost power outage yeah sorry but and instead we'll talk about the the Toronto Maple Leafs and their two big wins on the weekend of over LA and Anaheim. Correct.

People really did not like that. Correct. People don't like the thought of their players getting offer sheeted. I know. Oh, but you could fire around like, oh yeah, just screw Verbeek, steal McTavish, steal Dostal.

No, yeah, screw you Billy Garan, we're gonna steal Marco Rossi, ha ha ha. Wait, our guy, Matthew Nives. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, pump the brakes here. It's not right. Not happening, not happening. No, I could see it becoming more prevalent. It's interesting too how like,

there was the notion going in- This year only. That these GMs would be so mad. This year only? And here's why. Teams are still gonna be up against it for their salary cap. In a couple years, it's gonna be more of a significant bump

and then a year after it's gonna be an even more significant bump. So there'll be more room to match. I think, not that I'm gonna be watching, just gonna light one on fire here. I wonder if this is one of the last great opportunities for that strategic, a team's right up against the cap here and I'm gonna stick it to them.

Because that's what St. Louis did to Edmonton, type offer sheet. That's why I wonder, it's like, okay, is this like the last real chance for a while that a team can do this So if you want you you want Matthew Nye's at times Put that on your show Zach put that out after dark Zach a

Couple of years ago when I was like just doing my own channel talking about the leaves It was during free agency the one year Robert Thomas was up as an RFA and I did a whole video on why the Leafs needed to offer sheet Robert Thomas. So didn't they, hang on a second here, refresh my memory. Was that the year they had a chance to take that draft? Was that, didn't they have a chance to take him and it was it Rasmus Sandeen they took instead or was that the Timothy Lillagren year? Uh it would have been 2017 so I think Lillagren. Leafs had a chance to take him. Um I believe Mark Hunter would have been with the Leafs organization at that point. Mark Hunter may have just had you know had Robert Thomas in his backyard all season long

with the London Knights. Was that Lilligrad? Was that Lilligrad instead of Robert Thomas? How did the show just turn out? It was at 17. Was it Lilligrad? Yeah. And where'd Robert Thomas go? 17th overall they took him him that would be 20th overall Let's get out of here we can end how did the show just turn into like roast Zach I don't know but Highly this is I'm just staring at the numbers games played points Hey, man It's an imperfect science Mm-hmm, it's an imperfect science. It's an imperfect science. I don't

know, like London's far from Toronto. I don't know. I don't have anything to say to you anymore. I don't want to throw anything else that's going to get you dragged into this and there's's gonna be something else that pops up. Oh yeah, what about this guy? You know that this one could have also happened? I'm just throwing it out there. Could have had that guy. Just throwing it out there apropos of nothing. Anything else we want to get to here before we get to the games? Oh, I know what I wanted to mention. I know what I wanted to mention. I want to mention, we mentioned the Frozen Four, and that's gonna be exciting. An amazing hockey, man, Ziv Boyum of Denver. God, is he good.

Oh, I know it was all about Hudson on the US Blue Line and the Royal Juniors, much of the detriment of Ziv Boyum, but man, every time you watch this kid, he's so fantastic. Minnesota, you got a good one. Minnesota, you got a good one. Minnesota, you got a good one. CHL playoffs over the weekend. You want to fire up. We should do this with some type of regularity

because there's a lot to go over here with the CHL playoffs. And on a show like this, where we're not sort of confined by time, we'll go through all three leagues here quickly. So in the Ontario Hockey League, a couple of things to pay attention to. And I want to every now and then sort of point out a few things here. And the Kitchener Rangers are up on the Flint Firebirds two games to love.

Jack Pridham has been excellent. His father, of course, the assistant general manager of the Toronto Maple Leagues, one of the architects of the salary cap, we should point point out to when he worked with the NHL. Jack is a prospect for Chicago. In the opening game of this series we had a captain's fight between Matt Andonofsky and Connor Klatenberg. Really hard-hitting series, but the one thing that I want to mention here, and everybody involved with the Kitchener Rangers, whether it's Joe Burch or Mike McKenzie or fans or anyone, cover your ears.

Someone is going to steal head coach UC Ahokus. He is one of the best kept secrets, I think, in maybe all of hockey behind the bench. If you've ever seen any videos of him speaking, if you've ever seen any of the evidence of him coaching, you ever seen the teams that he's coached and what they've been able to do, Zach, someone is going to steal UC Ahokas. I know everyone's crazy once again for the London Knights to come out of the OHL, go to Rimouski for the Memorial Cup,

but I'm telling you, don't sleep on the Kitchener Rangers. A hocus the first time I saw him was the positionless hockey, right? That's when I was talking about positionless hockey. You see a hocus. Yeah, it was very interesting. He's fantastic. Really progressive, really smart, players love him. Enjoy him Kitchener, enjoy him. It was a great hire, a spectacular hire and it's going to make someone look really really smart, whoever that is, who hires them next being junior hockey. It's all about development not just for players but also for officials and also for coaches and managers as well. So there just a quick little note there. Which other league do we want to have a couple of notes in here?

I've got both QMJHL and WHL, Jeff. Let's go to the QMJ, let's go to the Q. Let's go to the Q here quickly. And there's a couple of things here. Moncton Wildcats leading the Quebec Rampart. So the one thing you have to understand is essentially the Q, what the Q does is a 1v16. Now, Sherbrooke and Blainville are more close than they are apart and that's why that's a 1-1 series. The one that stands out here is Halifax and Drummondville. So Halifax is up 2-0 on this one and you look at it and you say, how?

I mean Drummondville, I think it's third place team in the Q this year, they've lost their number one goalie, Riley Mercer, and it's really, really hurt the team. I know there's been injuries on both sides, but the Mercer injury has really stung. I think Monkton might be the best team in the entire CHL. They are just so good, so deep, so well coached. Gardner McDougall's team, and all that guy does is win everywhere he goes. I wonder about the World Juniors next year if Gardner McDougall ends up behind the bench at the WJC.

They're up two nothing over the Quebec Ramparts, and this is a team that I think we all expect to be there. In Rimouski, who's hosting, Rimouski's got a really good team too at the Memorial Cup. In the Western League, there's one thing that I really want to focus on and it's something that I can relate to although I was nowhere near the quality of goaltender that this young man is. Western Hockey League after the weekend here let's focus if you can fire up the board here have a look at what's going on I want to focus in on the Medicine Hat Tigers and the Swift Current Broncos. Harrison Manigan is a 20 year old netminder for Medicine Hats who

last week lost his father and returned to the team and played game one. Willie Desjardins is the head coach of Medicine Hats said it was a goaltender's decision. There would have been five days after his father, who name I believe is Darren, passed away. He goes in there and throws a shutout in game one. The celebration after was really emotional, as you can understand. I can relate to this one.

When I was 16 years old, I lost my mom to cancer, to brain cancer. Not that I was anywhere near the goaltender that Harrison is, but it crushed my career. It crushed my hockey career. Like I was a shell of myself and I never recovered. I was never able to get back up to any type of level. I mean, you know, booze and drugs didn't help, but I was never able to get back

to any type of level of play like that so I mean everyone's situation is always different, but I can I can relate to trying to put together a hockey career while losing a parent so congratulations and thoughts to that that entire family and that young man good for him coming back. And you gotta see the closing moments too of that game, Zach, and everyone watching and listening. It's available on YouTube. You can go have a look. It's a really beautiful moment for a special young player.

And if you lost a parent, you know what that's like. Okay, let's get to the games. Then that's a sort of quick little snapshot of what's happening around the CHL. As the playoffs progress we'll sort of narrow it down and focus on a couple of different stories as well and mention a couple of things. And there we are, that's after the first weekend. So huge surprise, I guess Halifax beating Drummondville has to qualify as the major one around the CHL. Alright, FanDuel are friends. Proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them. And the sheet is powered by FanDuel, home of the same game parlay.

Make every moment more on FanDuel. Alright, we have games tonight. We have four of them. Alright. Roster updates, daily face-off, the fantasy Twitter feed. We have Minnesota facing off against New Jersey at the Prudential Center you think st. Louis is gonna catch Minnesota here you know who hopes so you know who hopes so right now Winnipeg and maybe yes if they end up getting first place more on Dallas here

in a couple of seconds I think anybody like nobody wants Colorado their third nobody wants st. Louis, they're wild card. When's the last time? And I know Vegas is super hot right now, I get it. But when's the last time you looked at the playoffs and said, oof, nobody wants that third place team and nobody wants that wild card team. But here we are. But here we are.

Minnesota, New Jersey, the Prudential Center this evening. Nashville faces off against the Philadelphia Flyers. How many goals does Michkov score tonight? No Toterella and this guy just filling the net. All the skating woes are gone. What a minute into his first game after. Just like boom, oh, Torts is gone. Yeah, it's like all those skating problems that we're all hearing about, pace problems, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone. Dan Volodar will start for the Calgary Flames. He'll face off against the Colorado Avalanche at ball arena. Scott Wedgwood starting. Eric Johnson,

Jimmy Vesey in. Keaton Middleton, Miles Wood out. I mentioned earlier Natsum Kajri with 30 goals this season and not really much of a much of a whisper, but he's had a really good year. Dallas and Seattle I want to point out here. So Here's what I wonder about. So Dallas is six points out. Today's the game in hand. So if they beat Seattle tonight, probably will, all of a sudden it's four points. They go head to head on the 10th of April. And Dallas, if you have a look at it, let me just bring it up here. And you have a look at Dallas' schedule. They got Seattle tonight, then Nashville,

Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Vancouver, the aforementioned Winnipeg game, Utah, Detroit, and Nashville. But that's an easy schedule. That is a light schedule. Now you look at the Winnipeg Jets, it is not a light schedule. Tuesday they face off against the Kings in LA, then they're in Vegas, then they're in Utah, then they got St. Louis, then they got Dallas, Chicago, Edmonton back to back, Then they got Dallas, Chicago Edmonton back to back, and finish up against Anaheim. Six points out, but Dallas can do this. Dallas could win the Central. As much as we're saying like, oh no, after that Vancouver game, oh you know what, Winnipeg's got it all wrapped up, yeah, it's all good.

Dallas has a path here. You look at strength of schedule, Dallas again, hockey games and you know, you know what hockey's like, but Dallas could do this. Dallas could come in first. They got an easier schedule, all they have to do is win tonight, make the gap four, they got the head to head,

and then place your bets. All I'm saying is, there's more than a good chance, Dallas one of the hottest teams in the NHL right now, there's more than a good chance that the Dallas Stars do this. Yeah, no? Am I just making it up? Eating space cake?

You just gonna humor the old man? This is gonna be like the jailbreak rule? Yeah, yeah, Might as well make it up. I agree. Eating space cake, you're just gonna humor the old man. This is gonna be like the jailbreak rule. Hey, yeah, yeah, whatever. Let's just get to the show here, dummy. That's what it's gonna be. No, I agree with this. I mean, it's tough, because Winnipeg's going through that,

or that gauntlet of the schedule that you kind of just outlined there. But I'm excited by the end of the season here for the first time in a while. It feels like there's actual competition and jockeying for position. And he's like, yeah, sure, the playoff races themselves may not be as attainable. I saw one of the funnier memes that I've ever seen. It was like after the Columbus Blue Jackets lost the other day, someone put one out and

it was like, well, one of you has to make the playoffs. And it was a group of the Islanders, the Rangers. I told you, everyone's going backwards into it. You want this? I don't want this. It's a playoff hot potato. But outside of that. You hold this. You hold this. Yeah, outside of that though, it's like the teams that are in are like fighting for spots

and who's going to finish where and who's at home. Like, and you look at the Atlantic right now, the Leafs get that win yesterday. That's a huge win, because Montreal beat Florida in regulation. And that also pushes Montreal up. Like, these things are actually exciting here now of what we're looking at down the stretch. Looking at Dallas five game win streak, going into this,

you get hot, carry this thing over, get yourselves on a roll, get a favorable matchup into round one, and then all of a sudden Miro Heiskenen comes back. It would just be the most Winnipeg thing here for them to finish second and get Colorado on the first round. Yeah, I know.

Like, F me, seriously. But it's also like, Jeff, if they finish first, and you face St. Louis. That's why, they're cheering for St. Louis.'s also like Jeff if they finish first and you face St. Louis. That's why they're cheering for St. Louis. Are you like? That's why when they play St. Louis like honestly when they play St. Louis like everyone okay everyone switches sticks you shoot left no today you shoot right. We need St. Louis to catch Minnesota. When they play St. Louis. What day are they playing St. Louis? If you're Winnipeg and you're tucked into that spot,

they're playing St. Louis on the 7th. You know when you're playing minor hockey and you're doing a defending drill and the coach makes you turn your sticks around? Yes. Because you don't watch St. Louis the first round. Alright everyone, flip your sticks around. We want Minnesota. I know it's dangerous when you do what? St. Louis is the first route. Alright everyone, flip your sticks around. We want Minnesota. I know it's dangerous when you do stuff like that. Alright everyone, flip your sticks around.

Yeah. No? Am I overthinking this thing? That's the matchup. Even if you finish first you're like, Do you want that one? That's it! Like you got a killer at third in the central and you got a killer in the wild card. Nope. Yeah. Not interested. Meanwhile, Vegas is just like, we get a little respect over here.

We're one of the best teams in the NHL right now. A little respect over here. Yep. Colorado, St. Louis. All right. Young Zach. So we have four games of interest tonight to pay attention to. Mini New Jersey, Nashville Philly, Calgary, Colorado, Dallas Seattle.

Enjoy. Alright, thanks to Pierre McGuire for stopping by the show today. Thanks to everybody in the chat. Always appreciate it, including producer Vick. And we're back tomorrow with Greg Wyshinski. on tomorrow, right we got wish back. Yeah, I can full-time Tuesday All right, Greg's back. Yeah again. Thanks to be I'm a guard. Thanks to you for participating or watching or listening Getting notes from people saying they're loading up for their their playoffs and taking the podcast in the car along with them Thank you. Thank you. thank you, thank you.

Enjoy tonight. We're back tomorrow, 3 o'clock Eastern. Don't forget, Morning Cup of Hockey. Morning Cup of Hockey was awesome this morning. Morning Cup of Hockey was good. Today's was a tremendous show. Andy Strickland was on, breaking down the St. Louis Blues. Yeah, Johnny Lazarus forgetting who Cam Jansen is or who Cam Jansen was. If you're gonna forget who someone is, you might want to do a song a little less tougher than Cam Jansen was. If you're going to forget who someone is, you might want to do with some a little less tougher than Cam Jansen. And then Jay Pandolfo was on who is great. And again, like the rumors have always been out there about Jay Pandolfo and the NHL. And I still maintain that along with Marion Hosa and Miko Koyvoo, Jay Pandolfo over the course of his career should have won a Salchee Trophy. I think there was, was there one year he was runner-up?

Or maybe the second? I can't recall. But should have won a Selkie somewhere along the way. Anyhow, I digress. It was a great show. Check that one out in the archive and then listen live tomorrow. 9 o'clock Eastern and then noon Eastern, Daily Face Off Live. And then our show with Greg Wyszynski tomorrow,ora on MVSW Tuesdays right here on the shoot. Enjoy the games, talk to you tomorrow. I'm not against those methods but I knew It's me, myself and how this gon' be fixing my mind

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