0:00

Here we go. Everybody is just on

0:02

the beat screaming. Kill, kill, kill. This

0:04

is hockey. Oh my lord. Wow.

0:08

This is the Puck Podcast. I

0:10

was very entertained and excited.

0:12

I couldn't believe how good it

0:14

was. Shut your yak. This is

0:16

the Puck Podcast. There's a point

0:18

where it just becomes absurd. That

0:21

was countless. Countless.

0:23

This is the Puck Podcast. Hi,

0:26

I'm Wayne Gretzky. And you're listening

0:28

to the real great one. This

0:30

is the Puck Podcast with Eddie

0:32

Garcia and Doug Stohlhan. OK,

0:34

guys. Show us what you got. From

0:39

Los Angeles, I'm Eddie Garcia along with Doug

0:41

Stohlhan. Thanks for joining us for another edition

0:44

of the Puck Podcast. It's Wednesday, February the

0:46

21st, 2024 on this

0:48

week's show in the first period. We discussed the past week on

0:50

and off the ice in the NHL, including a game

0:53

that featured three hat tricks and a

0:55

player scoring back to back hat tricks.

0:57

We had a pair of outdoor games in New

0:59

Jersey and a GM change for one of the

1:01

worst teams in the league. Second period, Connor Breguie,

1:04

radio played by Playman of the Colorado Avalanche, will

1:06

join us, talk about the abs

1:08

and Nathan McKinnon season. And in

1:10

the third period, we will read your emails. All that and

1:12

more coming up on this edition of the Puck

1:15

Podcast. Before we get into all that, time for our

1:17

quick off-ice support. Couple of minutes about what's going on

1:19

with us. Hello, Doug. How are you?

1:22

I am Dandy, Eddie. How are you? I'm

1:25

not so Dandy. I'm under

1:27

the weather. I've

1:30

got a sore throat. I've

1:32

got chills. I've got like body ache.

1:36

Are the chills multiplying? Are

1:38

they electrifying? No. So

1:41

you did not recently see the movie Grease. No,

1:43

that's for sure. Although I do have some

1:45

nostalgia as far as watching something

1:48

on television to share with my off-ice

1:50

report for this week. But

1:52

I would ask you first if there's anything you would

1:54

like to share from the past week since we last

1:56

spoke about what's happening in your

1:58

life. What's

2:00

happening in my life the Italian

2:02

accent that is still acceptable not

2:05

offensive the only shot

2:07

only Accent

2:10

you can do that in Irish. I think they

2:12

said it was kind of like the

2:14

still you can still do those without people being

2:16

canceled No,

2:18

I got nothing. So sorry to

2:20

hear you're under the weather is your

2:23

lovely bride Karen feeling okay At

2:26

last check she was I I

2:29

have awoken here in the Around

2:32

noontime on Wednesday and she's off

2:36

Doing things probably taking care of her elderly

2:38

father So

2:40

I haven't had a chance to check in with her today, but that

2:42

last check I think she was doing all right and

2:44

what's the What's the calendar

2:46

say on the wall there? How many

2:48

days has it been since you or

2:51

Karen have slipped in her bees?

2:54

I Have not happened

2:57

thankfully again That's

3:00

how it has not happened again, but we have had

3:02

we've had issues with her be And

3:05

so he is no longer allowed to sleep with

3:07

us in our bed I don't know how common

3:09

that is for people for probably for smaller dogs.

3:11

I imagine it's not that Uncommon,

3:14

but I don't know our dogs have always slept with us.

3:16

We've always had medium sized to

3:18

small dogs and

3:20

he for whatever reason if

3:22

you move around in bed with him he

3:25

gets very upset and will growl and will

3:27

make a bunch of noise and Karen

3:29

is a very light sleeper. So she said she's like

3:32

I can't I can't do this anymore He's

3:34

gonna have to sleep outside of

3:36

the of the of the bed and in

3:38

a little a little x-pen He's

3:40

got a nice little bed in there. He's got you

3:43

know room whatever but she's like I can't take this

3:45

anymore. So The

3:47

mystery of why her be was given

3:49

up. Yes Used

3:52

to be solved. It is true. He's there's

3:54

a lot of times where he's very sweet

3:56

and he's he's great But he has he

3:58

definitely his issues. So

4:01

we're working through it and it

4:05

is what it is. Is Addie still allowed

4:07

to sleep in the bed? Yes, yes she

4:09

is. Oh my, well that is definitely a

4:12

pecking order. Well she's a very well behaved.

4:14

She does not know. I know but her

4:16

sees that. Tough man. I mean

4:20

you know when it comes to your sleep you

4:22

got to take care of that. So that is

4:24

absolutely right. So now

4:26

that football season is over which

4:28

you know when you and your significant

4:30

other are both huge football fans that

4:32

takes up and especially you know Fresno

4:34

State College football for me, the Chargers

4:38

for her and Steelers for me,

4:40

that takes up your weekends for

4:42

many months. That's what you're doing

4:44

and it's gonna take up a lot of your time and

4:46

we watch other games too. So during football season our Saturdays

4:49

and Sundays are pretty much spoken

4:51

for for the most part. So now

4:53

that football season is over we're looking for

4:55

things to watch together and we watched

4:59

the second season of Loki which we enjoyed

5:01

that. And so

5:03

I just was on YouTube scrolling

5:05

around and there's a, maybe I'll try and

5:08

see if I can get the guy's channel,

5:10

but there's a guy and I'm sure there's

5:12

many who has classic football

5:14

games on his channel

5:17

and they're pretty good quality.

5:19

So before you go on,

5:22

you've decided to fill your

5:24

offseason by watching football. Well

5:27

maybe a little bit of it. So

5:30

I'm scrolling through there and I'm

5:32

like, oh, I'm big nostalgia guy

5:34

and I'm like, oh, this is

5:36

great. So I'm watching a little bit

5:38

of this one and a little bit of that one trying

5:40

to figure out which ones I want to watch and you

5:42

have no idea who won these games because these are just

5:44

regular season games on a week six in 1982 or whatever.

5:48

So these are not like, you know, the best of the best.

5:50

It's just the games. So I

5:52

stumble upon a Monday night football game

5:55

from 1982, Chargers hosting the

5:57

Bengals. And I'm like,

5:59

you know what? But I think Karen would really

6:01

enjoy watching this because that's her old team. That's

6:03

air choreo That's the team that got her into

6:05

being a football fan. It's at the old San

6:08

Diego Stadium Which is no longer in existence where she

6:10

and I saw many many games Yeah,

6:12

and I think she'll enjoy this so we were having dinner.

6:14

I'm go. Hey, I found something for us to watch tonight

6:16

I think you're gonna like it. So

6:19

she sits down we get ready and I hit play

6:21

and she's like, oh, this is really great so we're

6:24

watching it and And

6:26

he the person's channel included

6:28

the commercials which I absolutely

6:30

I hate commercials Regularly,

6:33

but when it's the old

6:35

commercials that you haven't seen in a million

6:37

years, it was high entertainment. So It

6:40

was a lot of fun. The game actually was really

6:42

really good Both

6:44

quarterbacks passed for over 400 yards,

6:47

which at the time was an NFL

6:49

record Ken Anderson versus

6:51

Dan Felt that is correct And

6:54

So it was shocking to watch a game where

6:56

they actually threw the ball like they throw the

6:58

ball today I mean because sometimes you'll watch some

7:00

of those older games and it's run

7:03

run and if it's third down and

7:05

five They might run it again, you know, it's not

7:07

the game we know today And matter of fact, even

7:09

I think Don Meredith had talked about

7:11

the new rule of you can't touch a receiver

7:13

down the past five yards You

7:16

know, and he said trying to players trying to still

7:18

adjust to that but Just

7:21

some observations though from

7:23

and the commercials is what

7:25

I was gonna mention. Yeah We

7:28

had you know commercials for things that don't

7:30

exist anymore like Radio Shack It was right

7:32

before Christmas time and they were plugging these

7:35

amazing handheld games for your kids You know, it's

7:37

like a little dot on there. It's you Football

7:40

game. Yes late to death, but there's

7:42

was like a knockoff of that one,

7:44

right? It wasn't exactly that one Then

7:47

you had I don't think low and brow

7:49

exists anymore, but it does does it really

7:52

yeah Well, we were talking about

7:54

that brow we were talking about that at work

7:56

not too long ago And I somebody said somebody

7:58

asked me what kind of beer do

8:00

you like?" And I said, Lo and brow, I'm a

8:02

Lo and brow man. And the people that know I

8:04

don't drink were laughing and the guys like, Lo and

8:06

brow? I didn't even know they made that anymore. And

8:08

I looked it up and I'm like, in

8:11

fact they do. It's the RC Cola of

8:13

beers. Wow. So that was fun to see

8:15

something. And then of course the jingles, you

8:17

remember them immediately even though you haven't heard

8:20

that commercial in a million years. There was

8:22

some perfume that she was like, oh, that

8:24

stuff smelled awful. That's

8:27

a good impression of the camera. There were a

8:29

couple of commercials that we

8:31

won't see today. One was a smokeless

8:33

tobacco commercial. And

8:36

then there was one with OJ Simpson. Him

8:38

and Arnold Palmer were doing a

8:41

commercial for Hertz Renticar. But

8:43

one thing I noticed that I

8:45

thought was interesting, no

8:48

fast food or any

8:50

food commercials at all. Nothing

8:52

for McDonald's, nothing for Pizza Hunt, nothing for

8:55

food, which I thought was very interesting.

8:57

They had every break,

8:59

cars and

9:01

beer, every break. And then some other things

9:03

mixed in. But every break you had a

9:05

car commercial and a beer commercial. Well,

9:09

that is surprising that you would

9:11

have thought a Burger King would

9:14

get in there. You get any for

9:16

Wrangler jeans or anything like that? No.

9:19

No, I don't remember Wrangler jeans. I

9:22

mean, it was the holidays. So maybe they were

9:24

a little bit more emphasizing the

9:26

shopping there. Perhaps. Yeah.

9:28

And I guess there were a few like perfume

9:31

and I guess that was for the husbands, for

9:33

their wives. Right. You got to get something for

9:35

the special lady. It did seem kind of weird

9:37

that you had perfume commercials

9:39

in Monday Night Football, but I guess that

9:41

would explain that. But that was

9:43

a lot of fun. You get a case of

9:46

low and brow. She gets some lovely

9:48

perfume. Yeah. And so that you might

9:50

recall this because you're of a certain

9:52

age. But back in the day, of

9:54

course, there was no internet, no

9:56

ESPN. So you were reliant

9:59

on the halftime. highlights to get updated on

10:01

around the league. Like literally seeing the highlights

10:03

and knowing what was going on. You could

10:05

read it in the newspaper. But that

10:08

was a big deal. Howard Costell and the

10:10

Halftime Highlights. And again, this person did include

10:12

it in his video, which I was thrilled

10:14

at. So they're going and

10:16

it was the old NFL films footage. So

10:18

it looked amazing and had the old NFL

10:20

films classic music. So I was just in

10:22

heaven watching that. And

10:24

so we're watching it and every time, you

10:26

know, every highlight started with a quarterback. And

10:28

I was yelling out the name. Oh, Mike

10:30

Pagel. My wife's like, oh my god, how

10:32

do you know all these guys? I'm like,

10:34

when I was a kid, that's all I did

10:37

was watch sports and everything. So we're watching. We're

10:39

watching. As opposed to today. Well,

10:42

actually, I don't watch

10:44

Mother's Day. Again,

10:46

you're off season of NFL

10:49

is watching NFL. Go on. So we're

10:51

watching and I'm naming all these players

10:53

right and left. And so

10:55

Kenny Stabler, the old Hall of Fame

10:58

Oakland Raiders quarterback is winding

11:00

down his career with the New Orleans Saints. And

11:03

Howard Costell is a Kenny Stabler

11:05

is injured and in comes Guido

11:07

Merkins. I'm like, who?

11:12

Guido Merkins. I'll

11:14

never forget that name now. And I'm

11:17

like, I have never heard of that guy. So

11:19

yeah, what

11:21

a QB tandem New Orleans had that season.

11:25

Who could forget the youngster out

11:27

of Sam Houston State? The

11:30

tandem of an aging Ken Stabler

11:33

and a young buck Guido

11:35

Merkins. Man, that was Guido.

11:37

It sounds like an Italian

11:40

to pay for the

11:42

cancer patients. Oh

11:46

man. Yeah, that was that

11:48

was hilarious. I loved it, but it was a lot of

11:51

fun. I was the trip down

11:53

the nostalgia lane there was fantastic. with

12:00

the term gabagool. Yes. So we,

12:02

we have it. We play it all the time on, uh,

12:05

on the show, uh, as a drop.

12:07

Gabagool. Yeah. Yeah. Anytime

12:10

something, anytime something Italian is mentioned. Yeah.

12:13

And, uh, so for those that aren't familiar,

12:15

it is an Italian deli meat. Uh,

12:19

but I loved the comedian that said it sounds

12:21

like an Italian ghost. That's

12:25

it. This, this house is harder. I tell you, there's

12:27

a gabagool up in here. I'm

12:30

going to plug the guy because he's got a ton

12:32

of games. If this is, oh no, no, you're going

12:34

to promote him. Uh,

12:37

his channel is called Dave. This

12:39

channel is a guy, Dave Volsky's

12:41

back door. Wow. And

12:44

you're going to plug that. Are you? Uh,

12:46

V O L S K Y. He's got

12:48

a credit here and he's going

12:50

to plug. No, I'm like, how old are

12:52

you? Childish.

12:55

Um, so he's got a ton

12:57

of old football games here and they're good quality too, which

12:59

is, I don't know how he pulled that off, but anyway, so

13:02

that was my fun thing of the week. That

13:05

is a, believe me, I've done that

13:07

many times. Uh,

13:11

at work is look up old

13:13

games, old, uh,

13:16

old footage, old players, old plays. I remember,

13:18

I remember that game. And then I'm, I'm

13:20

always shocked at how old it is. And

13:23

I'm like, that was from, uh, I look up the player and

13:25

I'm like, my God, that was from the 1995 season. That's

13:29

nearly 30 years old already. And

13:31

my wife and I still remember it like

13:33

yesterday. The only thing she really complained about

13:35

was she hated that they didn't have the

13:37

score up. Right. And that's one thing

13:39

we're so used to. And the down in distance. Yeah.

13:42

That was the score. Mostly she's like, what's the score again? What's

13:44

this? Cause there was a lot of scoring in that game. You

13:46

know, you got to have hard to keep track of everything, but

13:48

yeah. Well, if you go

13:50

to a YouTube and you're an NHL fan, which

13:53

I assume you are. Cause you're listening to the

13:55

show. Yeah. Otherwise you're just a fan of me

13:57

and Eddie and God bless you. If that's

13:59

the case. But

14:01

if you're listening to this and you're saying, I wonder if

14:03

they have this for hockey. They do. They've

14:06

got to look up everything. Yeah, YouTube

14:08

is amazing. If you just look up

14:10

full classic NHL games, there is a

14:12

playlist of 937 videos. And

14:16

as I look through it, here we have

14:19

the looks

14:21

like, well, depending on how they do the date

14:23

here, you know, some is, yeah, I

14:25

think this is May 1st, 1995, Senators Bruins. Or

14:29

it could be January 5th. You

14:31

know, it's that 0105. I don't know how to

14:33

do it here. But here's

14:36

a December 31st, 1996 game

14:38

between the Avalanche and the Blackhawks. And

14:41

there you go. There's a game I might have to

14:43

look up. This

14:45

week I mentioned in the open, we had a game

14:47

where three players had hat tricks in the same game.

14:51

And they said the last time it happened, I

14:53

think was in the mid 80s and it was

14:56

the Kings. And it was all three players were

14:58

on the Kings against the Sharks. It was Luke

15:00

Robitaille, Yari Curry, I think

15:02

Mike Donnelly all had hat tricks

15:04

and they went over the Sharks. I may have

15:06

to go find that one if it's available. But

15:08

anyway. For sure. No, it is fun to go

15:10

back and watch and see how much the game

15:12

has changed and the broadcasts

15:14

have changed the technology. And

15:18

I will say there's certain errors

15:20

that I prefer. I think the

15:23

NFL of the... and

15:26

it's because of what I grew up with.

15:28

But the NFL of the late 90s was

15:31

outstanding. Very physical though. My goodness. I

15:33

can definitely admit that a lot of

15:35

the hits back then should

15:38

be, you know, guys would be getting

15:40

arrested today. But

15:42

it is fun to watch and go back and

15:44

watch teams that all

15:46

the players remember, the teams you remember. And just

15:48

the... Yeah, just a random

15:50

game. It is fun. I've been doing that with baseballs

15:55

during the off season. Baseball, the MLB has

15:57

a fast channel

15:59

free as well. supported television channel

16:01

and no show random games and one of them was an

16:04

Angels game and I'm like well I'm watching this yeah I

16:06

remember you talking about that yeah and it was a Royals

16:08

Angels game from late season where

16:11

George Brett got his 3000th hit

16:13

and just looking at the

16:15

Angels lineup I'm like I don't even remember Ken

16:17

Oberkfeld on the Angels much like starting second baseman

16:19

one of the things I got a huge kick

16:21

out of was some of

16:23

the receivers would get in a three-point

16:26

stance yes I'm like oh man

16:28

that is so old-school I would love to see

16:30

somebody do it today just for just for a

16:32

gag it would confuse the

16:35

defense well I guess it's a

16:37

running play yeah is this guy a down lineman what's

16:39

going on here and now how do you jam that

16:41

guy as he gets up I

16:44

don't know that's it is good it is good

16:46

I'm glad you found it glad you enjoyed it

16:48

and glad that you will have something to fill

16:50

your offseason I still implore you

16:52

to watch the show Peacemaker

16:55

yeah it's phenomenal you'll

16:58

you'll love it I promise you if what if

17:00

I if I watch the first episode and I

17:02

don't love it what do I get in return

17:04

for my lost time with your with your full

17:06

endorsement on this I feel like I deserve something

17:09

if this doesn't work out I'll

17:11

put it this way if you watch

17:14

it I don't like I don't like what's

17:17

his name I'm not a fan of him and I didn't

17:19

like him in either of the movies I watched John

17:23

Cena John Cena so there's

17:25

that that's pretty big that is

17:27

big but I will say if

17:30

you watch it and you don't enjoy it

17:33

you'll be the first person I've ever talked to

17:35

or known that did not enjoy it I'll

17:38

consider it a lot of people that don't

17:40

like that type of stuff is like that

17:42

was really good I never liked

17:45

John Cena but that was really good yes

17:47

it is it's extremely well-made and he gets

17:49

made fun of throughout so

17:52

you'll enjoy that for your consideration we'll

17:54

see yeah all right let's get into

17:56

this week's show we write in feedback

17:58

at puck podcast.com If you have some

18:00

shows you want Eddie to watch in this off season, or

18:04

you want to back me up in that peacemaker is excellent.

18:07

It is time to get into the first period. We've got

18:10

a quick note on every game played

18:12

in the last week in the NHL and

18:15

we will discuss some things about them as

18:17

well. Not every game, it's some of them.

18:19

And we go all the way back to

18:21

last Wednesday and we had three games on the

18:23

schedule. We had the Panthers beating the Penguins five

18:25

to two, Anton Lundel, a couple of goals for

18:28

Florida who at that point had won seven of

18:30

eight. He had the Jets

18:32

getting by the Sharks one nothing. Connor Hellebuck only had

18:34

to make 17 saves for his third shot

18:36

out of the season and 35th of his career. Morgan

18:39

Baron had the only goal of the game.

18:42

And Capo Kakin and tough loss for San Jose

18:44

38 saves in net allowed just the one goal

18:46

and that was not enough. The wild beat the

18:48

Coyotes three to one, Jonas Brodein gets the game

18:50

winner, Mark Andre Fleury 25 saves in net. Arizona

18:53

goalie, Connor Ingram left after the second period

18:55

with an injury, didn't return, wasn't put on

18:57

IR, but he has not played since that

19:00

issue. A tough

19:03

loss for Pittsburgh as they are

19:06

not in a good spot in the standings. And

19:09

they go into this game, they only allow 23

19:11

shots total. But

19:14

unfortunately for them, five of them find the

19:16

back of the net. So five goals allowed

19:18

on 23 shots, not good. You

19:20

only got two yourself. And

19:23

Florida is playing great. There's no shame in losing to

19:25

Florida, but these are games on home ice that Pittsburgh

19:27

has got to find a way to get at least

19:29

a point in. Moving

19:32

on to Thursday where we had 12 games on

19:34

the schedule and I was told that

19:36

it was the first day in NHL history

19:39

where you had five matchups

19:41

that were previously Stanley Cup

19:43

finals matchups. However, I only

19:46

count four. So maybe

19:48

they were wrong or maybe I'm wrong. The

19:50

first game we're gonna talk about is the

19:52

Maple Leafs, beating the Flyers four, three and

19:54

overtime. William Nylander gets the OT game winner,

19:57

but Austin Matthews the natural hat trick in

19:59

the second period. goals 43, 44 and 45 on

20:01

the season. Now

20:04

this is definitely one of the Stanley Cup finals, where

20:06

he matches the Lightning, knocked off the Avalanche 6-3. NHL

20:09

points leader Nikita Kouturov had two goals and

20:11

an assist. Tampa Bay was trailing 3-2

20:13

in the third, they closed it out with four unanswered goals

20:16

to get the win. Blues bounce the

20:18

Oilers 6-3. St. Louis scoring

20:21

four unanswered goals in the second period, helped

20:23

them get the victory. Jordan Kyrieu with the

20:25

game-winner. Corey Perry scored his first goal as

20:27

an oiler in the loss. Canucks

20:29

defeat the Red Wings 4-1. Elias Lindholm,

20:31

two goals for Vancouver. Thatcher, Demko, 27

20:33

saves in net as the Canucks became

20:35

the first team in the NHL this

20:38

season to reach the 80-point mark. Kraken

20:41

surprised the Bruins in Boston 4-1.

20:43

Joey Decord, 36 saves in net.

20:45

Maddy Benieres, who has been the

20:47

all sophomore slump you talked about last week, one

20:49

goal and two assists. David Pasternak, his

20:52

34th in a losing effort. He

20:54

had the Panthers shutting out the Sabres 4-0. Anthony

20:57

Stolar, 45 saves in the shutout

20:59

for his seventh career shutout. Carter

21:01

Verhage had two goals as

21:03

Florida won its franchise record 10th

21:06

straight road game. Stars

21:08

roll over the Predators 9-2. Dallas jumped

21:10

out to a 4-0 lead in the first

21:12

period, never looked back. Matt Duchain and Wyatt

21:15

Johnston each had a pair of goals. Kings

21:17

edge the Devils 2-1 in New Jersey. Quentin

21:19

Byfield gets the game-winner on the power play

21:21

in the third period. And David Riddich had

21:23

26 saves in net. That was a former

21:26

Stanley Cup final matchup, Kings versus

21:28

Devils. As was Dux against

21:31

the Senators. Anaheim with the 5-1 win.

21:34

Mason McTavish, two goals. John Gibson, 15 saves

21:36

before leaving with an upper body injury. Then

21:39

Lucas Dostal took over, allowed one

21:41

goal on 19 shots in

21:43

the combined victory. Penguins

21:45

beat the Blackhawks 4-1. That was also a

21:47

Stanley Cup final rematch from back in the

21:50

day. Sidney Crosby, two goals. Alec Nadelkovich had

21:52

27 saves in net. Connor

21:54

Bedard was activated off the injured list for Chicago.

21:56

Played 21 minutes, 17 seconds, had an assist, was

21:58

a minus 2. Sharks surprised

22:01

the Flames 6-3, Philip Zadina 2-3rd

22:03

period goal to help his team

22:05

rally to just their 6th road

22:07

win of the season. And

22:10

the Rangers defeated the Canadians 7-4, Chris Kreider with

22:12

the hat-trick for New York goals 25-26-27, Adam Fox

22:14

had a 4 point game with 4 assists. I

22:19

guess technically this could have been a

22:22

Stanley Cup final rematch but

22:24

the Rangers never played the Canadians in

22:26

the final. They did play the Montreal

22:28

Maroons so I guess

22:30

you had a New York vs Montreal final,

22:33

that would be the 5th one I guess

22:35

but I wouldn't consider that actually a rematch

22:38

because that's not the same. I don't

22:40

believe the Montreal Maroons turned into the Montreal Canadiens,

22:42

I think those were separate teams but anyway. I

22:46

think they did. Oh did they really? I

22:48

think so. I'm going to look it up. Alright well

22:51

then I guess that would technically be the 5th rematch

22:54

of a Stanley Cup final game.

22:57

Yeah it's going back a ways, I'll say that. That's

23:00

for sure. Let's see they

23:02

are, well let's put it

23:04

this way, if they didn't then Montreal Canadiens

23:06

are not an original 16th. Does

23:10

that make sense? Because the Maroons

23:12

were playing in

23:15

the original 6 so if they did

23:17

not become the Canadians or get absorbed

23:19

by them. Interesting. It's

23:22

something to be looked up for another day.

23:24

But anyway. Yeah. As

23:26

for the day of games, great day of

23:28

hockey obviously, you get the full line up

23:30

there on a weekday. Not usually

23:33

the case, usually that's a Saturday schedule

23:35

but an impressive

23:38

outing from the Stars against the

23:40

Predators, 9 goals. They

23:43

are in a dog fight for

23:45

the Central Division, that's going to be a

23:47

fun one to watch. Unfortunately the playoff picture

23:49

is pretty much clear in

23:54

both conferences I would say with the exception

23:56

of maybe one team on the outside looking

23:58

in that can sneak. in each

24:01

but otherwise it's pretty clear we'll get to that in

24:03

a bit but that was a big win for Dallas

24:05

at the in the Central Division Pittsburgh

24:07

rebounded nicely and got the win

24:10

but they should be a

24:12

Blackhawks team that's terrible Rangers

24:16

have been struggling offensively a little

24:18

bit here and there kind of spurts

24:20

there's didn't seem to find their stride

24:22

here and a big win for the Kings in

24:25

New Jersey to get a big two points

24:27

get a good night from their goalie get

24:30

some timely goals overall

24:32

an impressive one but the the most impressive win

24:34

of the day I thought that really needed it

24:36

was Seattle on the road in Boston they

24:38

need when they need to start getting some wins they

24:40

are not scoring enough goals this year I think

24:43

their fifth lowest in goal scoring league

24:45

wide them getting four goals in Boston

24:47

to win on the road big

24:50

two points for them as they continue to push

24:52

for to try and stay in

24:54

a playoff race so

24:56

you mentioned the Thursday a lot of games and

24:58

a nice night of hockey and then that brings

25:00

us to Friday where we had

25:03

one game hurricanes beat the

25:05

coyotes five to one Jordan Martin took scored

25:07

16 seconds into the game to

25:09

get Carolina off and running Piotr Kachetkov

25:11

made 31 saves in net but

25:14

this was a day that there were no

25:16

NBA games because it was the all-star break

25:19

and this game was only a one game

25:21

mind you and this game was only available

25:24

on the NHL network so you had one

25:26

you had one game and

25:28

most people probably couldn't watch it

25:30

so interesting yep the NHL is

25:32

known for its absolute

25:35

inability to capitalize on

25:37

opportunities the schedule is

25:39

well known there are no NFL games

25:42

there are no NBA games there

25:44

are no MLB games spring training is not

25:46

started yet you have the sports calendar to

25:48

yourself what do you do with it

25:51

I tell you what we do we schedule one

25:53

game and we put it on a network

25:55

nobody has or minimal people have

25:57

we put it on the least viewable

26:00

network possible. Awful.

26:03

And we also do not include a Canadian

26:05

team. So it's not going to be a

26:08

big game in Canada for any reason.

26:10

We're also not going to include any

26:12

teams of national fan

26:14

bases. So it's not even

26:16

a Blackhawks Rangers game, a Bruins, Red

26:19

Wings game, nothing of that nature. No,

26:22

no. Let's make it the

26:24

Carolina Hurricanes and Arizona Coyotes in

26:26

the smallest professional barn

26:29

in North America. Awful.

26:33

Awful job by the NHL. Awful.

26:37

All right, let's move on to Saturday. We had 13 games,

26:39

including the first of two outdoor games at

26:42

MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. The Devils beat

26:44

the Flyers 6-3. Nico,

26:46

he sure had two goals, including the first

26:48

goal, just 32 seconds in, although not the

26:50

fastest goal in an outdoor game ever. Owen

26:52

Tippett had a couple of goals in defeat.

26:55

70,328 in attendance for this one. You

26:59

had the, well, I say

27:01

typical. That won't be the case with the other

27:03

game. But you had the players entering the stadium

27:05

wearing some sort of themed outfits

27:08

for the Flyers. They were in their

27:10

Rocky outfits, the same type of outfit

27:12

that Rocky wore when he ran up

27:14

the steps in that

27:16

famous movie. And then the

27:18

Devils had the

27:21

track suits and the gold chains, kind

27:24

of the stereotypical, I don't

27:26

know, Italian? Yeah, I don't

27:28

know. I don't know what that was going. But I

27:31

will say the Flyers really committed to the bit. Because

27:33

if you remember, Rocky lost in that movie. Oh,

27:36

that's true. They followed through by losing in this

27:38

one as well. It wasn't a

27:40

draw. He lost. He just fought the

27:42

good fight, though. Yeah, he just made it.

27:44

He made it 15 rounds with the champ.

27:46

That's all he wanted to do, because truly

27:48

belonged and didn't. He gave a respectable showing.

27:52

And that's why it's one of the greatest movies

27:54

of all time, because it's not the ending you

27:56

see coming. Rocky II was Yo, Adrian. I did

27:58

it. Or

28:01

was that one with the first one was him yelling

28:04

Adrian just trying to get her in the ring with

28:06

him Because he was celebrating. He didn't care about the

28:08

post game or the post fight.

28:10

The second one was yeah him

28:13

becoming the champ and the

28:15

great ending of him crawling up the ropes, which I don't

28:17

think would be legal but Yeah

28:22

double knock yeah, I mean the ref is

28:24

is derelict of duty watching

28:26

these two dudes the guy can't see Cut

28:29

me get in there The

28:31

Panthers crushed the Lightning 9 to 2

28:33

for their 11th straight road win While

28:35

also taking over the division lead and the lead

28:38

in the conference from the Boston Bruins Matthew Kuchuk

28:40

and Sam Bennett each had a pair of Goals

28:43

after trailing one nothing the cats rolled

28:45

off seven straight goals Tambay goalie Andre

28:47

Vasiles kilo of six goals on 22

28:49

shots before getting the hook Maple

28:52

leaves roll over the ducks 9 to 2

28:54

Austin Matthews second straight game of the hat

28:56

trick goals 46

28:58

47 and 48 it's his sixth hat trick

29:00

this season Which is the new

29:02

maple leaves franchise record? Oilers

29:04

got by the Stars for three and overtime

29:06

defenseman Evan Bouchard two goals including the overtime

29:09

game winner for Edmonton Hurricanes

29:11

beat the Golden Knights three to one Carolina

29:13

gets third period goals from Seth Jarvis and

29:15

Stephen Nathan to get the win Spencer Martin

29:17

in that 29 saves Jets

29:19

over the Canucks order to gave Velarde a couple

29:22

of goals mark Shifley on a four-point night a

29:24

goal and three assists Kings

29:26

rally past the Bruins 5-4 in

29:28

overtime LA defenseman Brandt Clark scored

29:30

his first NHL goal in overtime

29:32

It was a breakaway coming out of the penalty

29:34

box Red Wing shut

29:36

out the flames 5-0 James Reimer 38

29:39

stays for his 30th career shutout You

29:41

had the Predators over the Blues 5 to 2 Philip

29:44

Forsberg the game winner for Nashville Sabres

29:47

knocked off the wild 3-2 in

29:49

overtime Henry Yoki Haru with the

29:51

overtime game winner for Buffalo Capitals

29:54

got by the Canadiens 4-3 Alexei Protis

29:56

with the Cape winning goal in the

29:58

third period getting some good names here. The

30:01

Blue Jackets beat the Sharks 4-3 Boone Jenner, the

30:03

only goal of the third period with 12.9 seconds

30:06

to play was the difference. And

30:09

the Black Hawks got by the Senators

30:11

3-2 Chicago snapping an eight-game losing skid

30:13

Jason Dickinson, the game winner with a

30:15

minute 52 to play. Well

30:18

just real quick on that Ottawa

30:20

Chicago game, it's obviously not

30:22

worth mentioning beyond the fact that having

30:25

watched the Ducks Senators game and

30:28

looking at their roster, it's baffling how

30:30

bad that team is because they got

30:33

some very good players and

30:35

you just you watch them and you're like how is this team

30:37

this bad? And they've made

30:39

the coaching change and as

30:41

frustrated as I am as a Ducks fan, it's

30:44

got to be maddening to be a

30:46

Senators fan and have the players you

30:48

have, the talent you have

30:50

on that roster and be this bad,

30:53

especially defensively and in net. It just

30:57

it boggles the mind unfortunately as

31:00

my wife says goodbye to me and heads

31:02

to work for the day. As

31:05

for the other games, I mean

31:07

Florida's win is by far

31:09

the most impressive. The

31:11

Maple Leafs beating the Ducks 9-2, what

31:14

could he do? You're beating

31:16

an AHL team that doesn't care. The Tampa

31:19

Bay Lightning are a playoff team and

31:21

you absolutely destroyed them

31:23

in their own barn 9-2. That's

31:25

incredibly impressive by them. The

31:29

late game heroics of

31:32

both Ottawa and LA

31:35

thrilling conclusions to a

31:38

couple of teams that are fighting

31:40

for that third playoff spot, both

31:43

of them coming up big and you mentioned Evan

31:45

Bouchard getting the overtime game winner early in that

31:47

one, Brent Clark for the

31:49

Kings in a rare

31:51

four on four goal in

31:54

overtime because when you have a power play you get the

31:56

four on three, he comes out of the box makes it

31:58

four on four. sprung for the

32:00

breakaway and scores it. Corey Perry, by the way,

32:02

scored for Edmonton as well. So

32:05

making contributions with

32:09

his new team, but that was a couple

32:11

of big wins against good teams, both on

32:13

the road. Dallas, in Edmonton's

32:15

case, they're excellent. Boston,

32:18

obviously, excellent in LA's

32:20

case. But the game of the night to

32:22

me was Columbus San

32:24

Jose. No, I misspoke.

32:26

It was Nashville, St. Louis, because those are

32:29

two teams fighting for their playoff lives, and

32:31

they played each other. And

32:33

for Nashville to go into St. Louis and

32:35

get that win in regulation, huge two points

32:37

for them, very good performance,

32:40

I thought. Bennington did not

32:42

have a good night in net. UC

32:44

Saros did, 35 saves on 37 shots, and

32:48

coming through with a variety of

32:50

goal scorers, five different goal scorers, two

32:53

of them from the blue line, I

32:55

believe, for, or no, just the

32:57

one from the blue line for Nashville.

32:59

Luke Shen got the goal. But

33:02

Luke Evangelista getting a goal,

33:05

not a guy you would expect to score,

33:07

but Philip Forsberg is, Ryan O'Reilly is, huge

33:09

effort, and I thought big win for Nashville.

33:12

That was the game. I

33:14

watched and was very impressed with their

33:16

overall effort. Is there, they're

33:19

still chasing, but are

33:21

still trying to hold off,

33:23

I should say, the blues in

33:25

the push. And that was a

33:28

big, big two points for them. I

33:31

will say about that Kings win, that was as

33:33

excited as I've been about a win in

33:35

a while. Obviously, Boston's having

33:37

a good season. And I

33:39

know four on three is

33:41

not five on three, but in overtime, you

33:43

feel like Boston at home is going to

33:45

get that goal right after Brandt Clark takes

33:47

the penalty. So the Kings, the one thing

33:50

that's been good for them all season long

33:52

has been their penalty kill. So

33:54

that comes up huge for them. And then the

33:56

pass off the boards, because you want to clear

33:58

the zone. you don't want

34:00

to ice it. So Philip,

34:02

don't know, makes this nice little soft pass just

34:04

off the boards to give Grant Clark a chance

34:06

and for him to skate in and you

34:09

know, beat the reigning Bezna trophy winner for

34:11

his first NHL goal. The look he had on

34:13

his face was so awesome as

34:15

he turned to his teammates with a look

34:20

of, did you see what I just did? And

34:23

that's my first NHL goal and we just won

34:25

the game. And that was a lot of fun.

34:28

I don't know other than a playoff game winner, I

34:30

don't know that it'll get better as

34:33

a, you're in the penalty box. You feel terrible because you're

34:35

worried you're going to be sitting there while the game winning

34:37

goal is scored against your team. They

34:40

kill it off. You get out and as soon

34:42

as you step on the ice, you get a

34:44

scoring opportunity and you bury it against the good

34:46

team against the reigning president's trophy winner against the

34:48

raising Bezna. And yeah, it's

34:51

a phenomenal mood. The only thing better would

34:53

have been on home ice to

34:55

celebrate with your fans, but it's also nice to shut

34:57

the place up, shut the barn up. As

35:00

for the outdoor game, I watch

35:02

it. Yeah. Yeah. It was

35:04

well done. It was good

35:06

ice, good presentation by, by

35:10

I don't even know who broadcast ABC.

35:12

Sure. Well done. You

35:14

know, from top to bottom, it's just not, it's

35:17

not special in the sense that

35:20

it feels like it's been done many times before

35:22

and it's, it's very paint by numbers, but

35:25

it was still an enjoyable production

35:27

and enjoyable and it looked incredibly

35:29

cold there. And I was

35:31

glad I was sitting in the warmth of my home.

35:33

I will say it was, I, I, one

35:36

of the things I love about traveling is

35:38

to get a different perspective on things. And

35:40

like for the, I think one of the

35:42

bigger ones for me, we've

35:44

got the Eiffel tower and then going

35:46

to DC, cause you always see those iconic

35:48

shots of the Capitol and the

35:51

Washington monument and the Lincoln Memorial. And once

35:53

you're there, you see, you know what the

35:55

layout is. We see it on TV. You

35:57

kind of, it doesn't, it didn't compute for

35:59

me. So now when I see those things,

36:01

it has a completely different feel

36:03

to it. And I was thinking about this, how

36:06

many stadiums have I been in that

36:08

have had an outdoor game? And

36:11

it actually wasn't that many, at least for... Yeah,

36:14

it actually wasn't as many as I thought. I looked

36:17

it up. So I went to MetLife

36:19

Stadium this year, so it felt different watching

36:21

that, knowing that I've actually been in that

36:23

stadium and kind of around there. So that

36:25

was kind of cool anyway. No, it definitely

36:27

gives you a different... Because

36:29

you remember what angle you had of that. And oh, I

36:31

went over there to get... That's where that team store was.

36:33

And that's where we got... We took

36:35

this picture for sure. It

36:37

definitely changes your viewing

36:39

of that. But overall, man,

36:42

it looks cold though. And

36:44

good performance for both teams on the ice

36:46

was fantastic. So moving

36:48

on to Sunday, we had only three games,

36:51

but the other outdoor game, the second game

36:53

at MetLife Stadium on back-to-back nights. Rangers

36:55

beat the Islanders 6-5 in

36:57

overtime. Rangers were down

36:59

4-1 in the second period. Our Timmy Panarin ends

37:01

up with the game-winner Vincent Trocek out of paragoles.

37:04

Rangers have won seven in a row at

37:07

that point and improved to 5-0 in outdoor

37:09

games. He also had Matt

37:11

Rempe making his NHL debut in

37:13

an outdoor game. Apparently, he's the first player to

37:15

ever do that. He got in a fight in

37:18

the game. The Islanders,

37:20

by the way, now with that overtime loss, 14

37:22

losses this year. In

37:25

overtime or shootout, attendance

37:28

79,690, third largest outdoor crowd ever. Now

37:34

this was, to me anyway, the better

37:36

matchup, the more interesting matchup. But

37:38

it did... It felt like it kind of

37:40

took a little off of it because I just saw

37:43

them play an outdoor game the

37:45

night before there. So it just didn't

37:47

seem as special. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even

37:50

though this was a better game and a better matchup.

37:53

But I was like, oh, I'm watching this again. This

37:56

just happened. But good game. Right. And

37:59

they... I

38:01

liked the jerseys on New Jersey by the

38:03

way. I liked that a lot. I

38:06

think they should keep that going. Not sure

38:08

about the oversized numbers on the helmet. I

38:14

get that. I mean, it's for outdoor. You know, you've

38:16

got people sitting further away. That's fair. So

38:18

I get that. But this Rangers Islanders

38:21

game, I did not like the kits

38:23

for either team at all. But

38:26

then again, they didn't ask me, nor will I buy

38:28

one. The Islanders,

38:30

man, they are, it's

38:33

very uncharacteristic that they are not able to keep the

38:35

puck out of their own net this season. Usually

38:38

that is their bread and butter. And

38:40

it is not the case this season. They

38:43

are struggling in that regard. And this was an example

38:45

of that. And you mentioned Matt

38:47

Rempe. Not only did he make his NHL debut, and

38:49

you said he got in a fight, he had more

38:51

time in the penalty box than he did on the

38:53

ice. Only four minutes and 26 seconds of ice time,

38:56

five minutes of penalty time. And

38:59

first thing he did was fight Matt

39:01

Martin. And

39:03

I'm sure it was, I hope

39:05

it was everything he hoped it would be. And I hope he gets

39:07

to play an indoor game. Get

39:10

that environment. But if that's your one NHL

39:12

game, was an outdoor game, what

39:15

a memory that will be for him and his career. And

39:18

by the way, Lou being Lou, the

39:21

Islanders did not wear any kind of themed outfit

39:23

getting off the bus. They just wore the old

39:25

suits like they would if it was any

39:28

other game. Because old

39:30

Lou is the enemy of fun. He

39:32

is. I mean, you got to wonder what kind of

39:34

a grandpa he is. Like

39:37

usually grandpa is the fun one you

39:39

go over. You get some candy. You

39:41

get some toys. Grab my fingers. Yeah.

39:44

Yeah. He's going to be the, you know,

39:46

I'm glad you're here. I got some yard work I

39:48

need you to do. Clean the attic. Yeah.

39:51

It sucks. You're going to earn your keep. But

39:54

obviously the attendance at both these games was

39:57

fantastic. So as far as events, people going

39:59

to them. still obviously the

40:01

NHL's thrilled and they announced they made it

40:03

official that next year it's gonna be at

40:06

the the horseshoe For

40:08

and I love that. I love that Columbus finally gets

40:10

to be a part of this and gets to host

40:12

it and That's gonna be

40:14

a great event for them. And I hope you

40:17

know Yarmul Keckalynan you're gonna have

40:19

to buy a ticket to go my friend

40:21

spoiler alert There were two

40:23

other games the Kings got by the Penguins two

40:25

to one on Yarmul Yawger Jersey retirement night Adrian

40:27

Kemp is scoring both goals for LA in the

40:29

third period Cam Talbot had 29

40:32

saves in net Sydney Crosby the lone goal for

40:34

Pittsburgh is 31st and the avalanche beat

40:36

the Coyotes 4-3 Nathan McKinnon tied it

40:38

with his 33rd goal of the season extending his

40:40

home points straight to 26 games

40:43

from the start of the season Devon Taves had

40:45

the game-winning goal in the third period interesting

40:48

decision to make this Yarmul

40:51

Yawger Jersey retirement night the

40:53

man played for 26 NHL franchises and the

40:56

Kings ain't one of them. That's true That's

40:58

very true. You know, it's like you've got

41:00

a lot of teams you could pick from

41:02

that have a that could also have a

41:04

history With Yarmul Yawger. Yeah, that's your name

41:08

He definitely had a good time which he always seems

41:10

to do he did he did

41:13

the pregame skate with the team Which

41:15

was awesome. They all wore the mullets,

41:17

which is interesting because he doesn't have the mullet anymore But

41:20

well not all of them there were a couple of guys who didn't do

41:22

it and I'm thinking hey man What really Sydney

41:24

Crosby did it for God's sakes, but I did

41:26

notice a couple of guys didn't wear the mullet

41:29

I don't know what that was all about but

41:31

he had a good time skated around took a

41:33

lap and then his I don't know if you

41:35

heard any of his speech but he

41:38

Apparently he's got a young girlfriend, which is shocking

41:41

But he said I had to explain to my girlfriend About

41:45

me playing in Pittsburgh because she wasn't old enough

41:47

to remember That's

41:49

been a while it has been a

41:51

while but good for him man remember that model

41:53

that tried to embarrass him Yeah, that

41:56

didn't go. I mean yeah, I slept with a

41:58

model. I'm a single man And?

42:01

Yeah, he don't care. Yeah, you got

42:03

me. Yeah, exactly. Good night there for

42:06

your Marry-Ogger. Although I have

42:08

to say that, I mean, you know, we, Pittsburgh

42:11

was very unimpressive in that game. He's not

42:13

to take anything away from my Kings, but

42:15

boy, not a lot of

42:17

offense there. And I was like,

42:19

is Eric Carlson even playing in this game? Because

42:22

I don't even remember his name being mentioned. That

42:25

signing certainly has not worked out. Yeah,

42:28

other than Crosby. Kyle Dubis. Kyle

42:31

Dubis is the GM there now. And

42:35

part of the – I'm sure no matter who they hired as

42:37

GM, this was not his decision. It was

42:39

the – we're going all in with this corps

42:42

to try and win another cup with Crosby,

42:44

Malkin, LeTain. And

42:46

so that was his marching orders from ownership,

42:48

was go get veterans. And so

42:50

he went out and got the best defenseman he could

42:53

find, a guy that was exceptional last year. It

42:56

has not worked. This team is not going

42:58

to make the playoffs, barring something drastic

43:01

in these last few weeks. And

43:04

I think they've got to be sellers, but as

43:06

we've talked about, it's going to be very difficult

43:08

to be a seller because of the contracts

43:12

and the no movement clauses that they have tied in. I

43:15

think I listed it off the other night, the other

43:17

week. Crosby, Malkin, Rust,

43:20

Raquel, Smith, Carter, Carlson,

43:22

LeTain, Graves, and Pederson

43:24

all have either

43:27

no movement clauses or no trade clauses and

43:29

a net Tristan Jari does. So

43:31

you can be a seller, but I

43:34

don't think the phone's ringing for Jansen

43:36

Hurkins, okay? So there's

43:39

only so much you can do. They're screwed. They're

43:42

committed to with this corps for not only this year, but next

43:44

year as well, the only player that comes off the books that

43:46

I mentioned, is Jeff Carter. So

43:49

this is what the

43:51

Penguins are and they're not going to get better

43:53

anytime soon. It's going to be a long road

43:55

down, unfortunately. They

43:58

are... Yeah,

44:01

there's just not enough there and the veterans

44:03

are not enough to keep them going anymore

44:05

and there's just not enough depth. And

44:08

they've lost a key player to injury which we'll mention later

44:10

on in the show as far as this season goes. I

44:13

move on to Monday, we had 10 games, this

44:15

was President's Day in the US and also I'm

44:17

told Family Day in Canada. So I don't know

44:19

how you celebrate Family Day, I guess

44:22

with your family, what if you're single? You

44:24

don't have to make one, I guess, but

44:26

happy Family Day to all those in Canada. We

44:29

had the Wild outscoring the Canucks 10-7

44:31

in the game that featured the three

44:33

hat-tricks that we mentioned earlier. Joel Erikson,

44:35

Ek and Kirill Kaprizov had three goals

44:37

in the win, JT Miller three goals

44:39

in the loss, Erikson, Ek and Kaprizov

44:41

also had six point games because they

44:43

had three assists as well. The

44:46

10 goals was a franchise record for the Wild. Vancouver

44:49

had a 5-3 lead going into the third period,

44:51

they allowed seven goals. It

44:53

pissed me off because I had the over-under at 16 and

44:55

a half, I had the under. That's a tough one. I thought

44:57

it was a lock. I'm

45:00

like, the third period, I mean,

45:03

absolute bonkers. It's 5-3 going

45:05

into the third. Okay, it's

45:07

already been a high-scoring game. We

45:11

still got another seven

45:13

goals to go. That's

45:16

crazy. More than

45:18

that I think actually, right? That was nine.

45:20

Nine goals in the third period. Good

45:23

Lord. Crazy. One

45:26

of the craziest NHL games I've ever seen

45:28

by far. When you get

45:31

eight goals past a goalie plus an empty

45:33

netter, two empty netters,

45:36

and you get eight goals past a goalie and you

45:38

only have 25 shots, it's a bad night

45:40

for Casey De Smith in net. Bruins

45:43

beat the Stars, 4-3 in a shootout. Charlie McAvoy

45:45

gets the shootout. Game winner David Pasternak tied it

45:47

in the third with his 35th goal of the

45:49

season and Boston reclaimed for his place in the

45:51

Atlantic from Florida by knocking off

45:54

the Central Division's top team. Flames

45:56

down the Jets 6-3, scoring the final five goals

45:58

of the game. Now some cod Audrey had two

46:00

and Sean Monaghan a natural hat trick and

46:02

a losing effort for Winnipeg.

46:05

Golden Knights blanked the Sharks 4-0, Logan Thompson

46:07

29 saves a net for his fourth career

46:10

shutout and 28 year old

46:12

rookie Mason Morelli scored a

46:14

goal in his NHL debut.

46:17

Red Wings beat the Kraken 4-3 in overtime,

46:19

defensive event Ben Chirat gets the OT game

46:21

winner for Detroit, Maple Leafs knock

46:23

off the Blues 4-3, Auston Matthews did not have

46:25

a hat trick in this one but he did

46:28

get a goal his 49th of the season and

46:30

there has never been a player in NHL history

46:32

who's had three games with three

46:34

straight hat tricks. So there's that. Oiler's

46:37

down the coyote 6-3 of Andrew Kane

46:39

couple of goals, Nick Buchstad two in

46:41

the loss for Arizona their 10th loss

46:44

in a row. Hurricanes

46:46

beat the Blackhawks 6-3, Carolina jumping out to

46:48

a 4-0 lead in this one, Kater Baddar

46:51

did get a goal in the loss his

46:53

17th of the year and that's 21 straight

46:55

road losses for Chicago. Senators

46:58

knock off the Lightning 4-2, Matthew Joseph a pair

47:00

of goals for Ottawa I think against his old

47:02

team I think he used to play for Tampa

47:04

Bay. And the

47:06

Ducks defeat the Sabres 4-3, Frank Petrano two goals

47:08

and Troy Terry gets the game winner in the

47:11

third period. The Ducks

47:13

road trip was baffling losing

47:15

Montreal in an embarrassing effort come

47:18

back and beat Ottawa losing

47:20

Toronto in an embarrassing effort come

47:22

back and beat Buffalo so every other game I guess

47:25

they're going to actually try. I

47:27

guess that lets me know when to watch. Disappointing

47:31

loss for Seattle I mentioned the big win

47:33

they had in Boston then they come back

47:35

on home ice and lose

47:37

to Detroit that's unfortunate if they're trying

47:39

to make a playoff push. Calgary

47:42

I can't figure out they lose they get shut

47:44

out they come back and have a great effort

47:46

against Winnipeg they're up and down

47:48

like a yo-yo it's very tough to predict them

47:50

which is probably why they're going to be big sellers

47:53

here at the deadline. Maple

47:55

Leafs are getting their offense and defense

47:57

connected I think it's a... Riley,

48:00

apparently. No, well, I

48:02

mean, let's keep in mind they played the

48:04

ducks for one of them. And, uh, the

48:06

blues are not great this year

48:08

either, but yeah, it's, it,

48:10

it does speak to if

48:13

we needed to make a move, Morgan Riley seems like a

48:15

guy we could afford to lose and not miss a beat,

48:17

at least in the short term. We'll see game

48:20

of the night was obviously Boston Dallas

48:22

as that's a potential Stanley cup final

48:24

preview. A lot of them are, but

48:26

you know what I'm saying? Those are two of the best

48:28

in each conference. So that was

48:31

a good one and, uh, impressed with Boston

48:33

getting that win against a Dallas team that's

48:35

been playing very well lately and has more,

48:37

I think, to play for them, Boston. I

48:39

know Boston's in a battle, but I

48:41

don't think the Bruins after last year care too

48:43

much about where they finished. It's all about restarting

48:46

in the playoffs and getting off to a, uh, a good

48:48

start for them, and then the Oilers

48:50

win. Uh, unfortunate you mentioned 10

48:52

straight losses for the coyotes. They had a

48:55

great start to the season. It

48:57

has fallen apart, but the biggest win. Could

49:00

be yet to come if they get a, uh, uh,

49:04

an arena announcement here in the near

49:06

future. And

49:08

we wrap it up with eight games on

49:10

Tuesday. You had a battle of division leaders

49:12

with the arrangers knocking off the stars. Three

49:14

to one Igor Shasturkin 41 saves a net

49:17

cap. Oh, Kako gets the game winner and

49:19

New York has one eight straight. As we

49:21

record this show avalanche knock off

49:23

the Canucks three to one. Ryan Johansson gets the

49:25

game winner. Nathan Mckinnon did have an assist. He

49:27

extends his point streak to start the season to

49:29

27 straight games. And Alexander

49:31

Gorgib had 24 saves in net. We'll

49:34

talk about Nathan Mckinnon and more in the

49:36

second period with Connor McGahey Panthers defeat

49:38

the senators three, two and overtime, Anton

49:40

Lundel, the OT game winner as

49:43

the Panthers moved back into first place in the

49:45

Atlantic and then the top spot in the Eastern

49:47

conference. Panthers are riding a six game

49:49

winning streak as we record this Islanders

49:51

edge the penguins five, four and overtime.

49:53

Defensement Adam Pelish gets the overtime game

49:56

winner for New York in the loss.

49:58

Pittsburgh defenseman, Eric Carlson had an. This

50:00

to reach eight hundred. Career. Points:

50:02

Capitals defeat the Double six two hours it

50:04

or of us can and can't have a

50:06

mic. Michael each had a pure goals for

50:08

a Baskin. He now was at eight hundred

50:10

and thirty for his career. Fifty seven away from

50:12

brig. Wayne Gretzky is. All. Time goalscoring

50:14

record. Predators to be the Golden Knights for

50:17

three. Craig Smith with the game winner for

50:19

National Kings, beat the Blue Jackets five to

50:21

one. Peel Dubois would your goals and quit

50:23

by Feel that a highlight reel goal that's

50:25

worth looking up of You didn't see it.

50:28

Cam Talbot Thirty three saves and that Kings

50:30

our fiber ones. Inspiring head coach Todd Mclellan

50:32

at the Jets down the wild Six three

50:34

Gable rt a pair goals in the wind

50:37

for Winnipeg. Well. I think

50:39

the urge to borrow when a year phrases

50:41

and a long time term with use your

50:43

on the on the show. I.

50:45

Believe that was the death knell for

50:47

the Pittsburgh Penguins. Playoff chances are that

50:50

was a brutal loss on home ice.

50:52

the Islanders by the way that was

50:54

there twenty first overtime game this season.

50:57

Twenty. One they've only play them

50:59

even played sixty. They've

51:02

played fifty five games. Twenty one of

51:04

them have gone to overtime. That's no

51:06

one has benefited from the loser point

51:08

more than me. New Yorker. Exactly exactly

51:11

right the and yet they got the

51:13

win here. Beauty goal by pill. it.

51:16

But Pittsburgh, man, you gotta win that game on home

51:18

ice. You gotta find a way if you want to

51:21

make a playoff push. Just not going to happen. And

51:24

I think that the pain is just

51:26

beginning. Ah, For that franchise

51:28

the, they're going to miss the playoffs

51:30

this year. And as I

51:32

sat there and cap hell for a

51:34

long time to come. So you're looking

51:36

at be in San Jose Sharks level

51:38

bad within a year to in my

51:40

opinion and day it's just I can't

51:42

do this. is gonna have to be

51:45

a miracle worker to get out from

51:47

underneath these obligations he's got. Because the

51:49

players have the leverage, they don't have

51:51

to go anywhere. ah

51:53

the the devil's that's a couple of

51:55

points you need a lease get that

51:57

gamed overtime for your playoff push And

52:00

the Jets, another impressive win, six

52:02

goals, man, three, another impressive

52:06

defensive effort as well against a wild team

52:08

that's been playing better lately. And

52:10

the Kings, your Kings, Eddie have been playing very

52:12

well in these, they seem

52:14

to have, you get that good road trip, you get

52:17

that first game home, you kind of worry about a

52:19

drop off. Luckily, they played a urinal

52:22

cake and pissed all over them,

52:25

did what they're supposed to do against Columbus, got those

52:27

two points. And our back looking

52:29

like the team we saw in the first

52:31

half of the season, Talbot is playing well

52:34

in net. You've

52:36

got a goalie tandem again, so things are looking good

52:39

for LA to make the playoffs, I think

52:41

they've solidified their spot as a playoff team.

52:44

And now it's down to whether Nashville or St. Louis

52:47

will get that final spot. All

52:49

right, let's check the standings in, if you recall

52:52

a week ago, we didn't have any movement in

52:54

the standings from the previous week. Is that not

52:56

the case this week, especially when you

52:59

look in the east at the Atlantic division,

53:01

the Florida Panthers are your new first place

53:03

team. They and the Bruins are

53:05

going back and forth obviously this week, but the Panthers

53:07

check in with 78 points, moving

53:10

up from second to first place in the Atlantic. They

53:12

are one point ahead of the Bruins who dropped down from

53:14

first to second with 77 points. And

53:16

then you've got the Maple Leafs moving into the third

53:19

spot up from the number one wild

53:21

card spot in the east with 68 points. Top

53:24

three in the Metro are still the same

53:26

Rangers first 77 points, Hurricane

53:28

second 71 points, Flyers third

53:31

65 points. Your

53:33

two wild card teams Tampa Bay drops from third in

53:35

the Atlantic down to the number one wild card team

53:37

with 65 points. Detroit has

53:39

64 points as a number two wild card

53:42

team. Then you've got New Jersey and

53:44

the New York Islanders each with 60 points, the

53:46

two teams on the outside looking in at

53:49

a wild card spot at the moment. Well,

53:51

you mentioned those two teams and

53:54

then you drop down another two and that gets you

53:56

to the Washington Capitals who have 58 points. You

53:58

have to go below them. The. To. Find

54:01

the Pittsburgh Penguins! So the Penguins

54:03

are eight points out of a

54:05

playoff spot and that's if they

54:07

catch a pass for teens. I.

54:10

Don't see it happening. I do. They have

54:12

three wins near last ten games. It's just

54:14

not. Not. Gonna happen for

54:16

the penguins this year. I don't think

54:18

they are now holding off Buffalo and

54:21

Montreal. To not fall below

54:23

them in the overall standings. Which.

54:25

Would be embarrassing for the Penguins because

54:28

they rebuilt win this year and Buffalo

54:30

Montreal were not. As for the teams

54:32

chasing the Devil's in the Islanders both

54:34

only four wins in their last ten

54:36

games, they're not exactly making a strong

54:39

push. I. Think the standings in the

54:41

Atlantic you can lock that in. I know it's

54:43

a one point difference right now, but I think

54:45

Florida is going to win the division. Boston's gonna

54:47

finish second tomatoes going to finish third. I don't

54:49

think that's the matchups run. a wants the first

54:51

round of that's when they're gonna get. Tampa,

54:54

Is not playing well but has a good enough

54:56

cushion. I think that they will make the playoffs.

54:59

And I think Philadelphia's secured their

55:01

spot. They survived the the trauma

55:03

of losing Carter heart. Yeah,

55:06

I think they're going to make the playoffs with

55:08

sixty five points, and that's a matter of. The.

55:10

Are they a playoff team or

55:12

the a wildcard team? Or.

55:14

Not but I think the ribs and I think

55:17

the only got of we might see his New

55:19

Jersey. Possibly. Catching

55:21

and passing Detroit. For.

55:24

A wild card spot maybe Tampa, but

55:26

I don't see Gathers making a push.

55:28

I don't respect them at all. This

55:30

year think there is a mirage as

55:32

we talked about a with overtime loss

55:34

as they have a minus twenty two

55:36

goal differential. their garbage t basically in

55:38

my opinion and they're not make playoffs.

55:40

the Devil's of underachieved all year and

55:42

are this year's Florida Panthers if they

55:44

get in. They. Are going to be

55:47

a very dangerous team to play. I'll reach the

55:49

see what they do. The trade deadline is well

55:51

if they do something to shore up the goaltending

55:53

position which is lot of what we're hearing or

55:55

tried to do but Philadelphia five point lead our

55:58

New Jersey and the Islanders for that. The

56:00

respond the Metro. I think we've all been

56:02

kind of waiting for them to off with

56:04

they have to their credit they have not

56:06

done it. Yes and or John Tortorella as

56:08

got that team believing and they are playing

56:10

well. You saw it even in the last

56:12

a New Jersey which was a big win

56:14

for teachers in regulation in the outdoor game.

56:17

Philadelphia, Still played fairly well. it

56:19

just New Jersey made some better place

56:21

and. Yeah that they're going to

56:23

make it. I think it it be surprising if they

56:25

did not this point in life. Out of

56:27

playoff matchups in the East or a bit different

56:29

than they have been the last couple weeks you

56:31

would have Florida vs Detroit. Rangers.

56:33

Vs Tampa Bay Bruins vs. Maple

56:35

Leaves and Hurricanes vs. Fires in the

56:38

West. Everything stay the same top three

56:40

in the Central same as it was

56:42

before even though it's very tight.

56:44

Dallas. Is. In first, seventy six points,

56:47

Colorado right behind him with seventy four points when

56:49

a peg not too far back. Seventy.

56:51

Three point. In the Pacific

56:53

Vancouver, eighty points most in the

56:55

Nhl leads the division. Vegas in

56:57

second with seventy points. Edmonton. Has.

57:00

Sixty nine points and the Kings of the Blues

57:02

are still your to wildcard teams l a Sixty

57:04

six points. St. Louis. Sixty points. But

57:06

as you mentioned, be kings are now one point

57:08

bag of Edmunds and. For. Third of

57:10

the Pacific. Although Be oil is a play, one

57:13

fewer games are you got it? I don't ask

57:15

me to fear and it's it's. gonna be a

57:17

good battle for that third spot because you'd

57:19

like to avoid. Having. To play the

57:21

central winner. Or. Vancouver in that

57:24

first round if you can. And but then

57:26

again the the reward would be playing Vegas,

57:28

the defending Stanley Cup champ. So tough matchup

57:30

either way for Vegas for the Kings and

57:32

Oilers. Are Nashville is tied with

57:35

St. Louis for sixty points apiece, but the

57:37

Blues a place you were game, so they've

57:39

got the edge at the moment as far

57:41

as that second. While correspond, they got Minnesota.

57:44

Has. Suddenly gotten themselves a little bit

57:46

into things, at least in the

57:48

discussion with fifty. Points. yeah

57:50

they've got six wins in a last ten

57:53

games so they have made a push to

57:55

get back into playoff race which is i

57:57

think trying to save bill guerin job It's

58:01

gonna be an interesting race between those three. Seven

58:04

of the eight playoff spots in the West

58:06

are locked. You can put those teams in

58:08

the playoffs, punch their ticket. St.

58:11

Louis, Nashville, Minnesota, Seattle, Calgary, are

58:13

all fighting for that last spot.

58:15

There's three points separating all five

58:18

of those teams. If

58:20

any one of them get hot and

58:22

make a push, they can really solidify

58:24

themselves. And then you've got the rest

58:26

of the league. So it's not gonna be a great playoff

58:28

push here. I'm hoping

58:30

New Jersey makes a push because that's the only thing

58:32

that'll make it interesting in the East, otherwise it's just

58:35

seeding. And then in the West, I

58:37

keep an eye on the Nashville, the St. Louis, the

58:40

Minnesota, the Seattle, the Calgary games on a nightly

58:42

basis to see who's moving up and

58:44

who's moving down. Plamp

58:46

match up same as a week ago

58:48

and the week before that Vancouver versus

58:50

St. Louis, Dallas versus LA, Vegas

58:53

versus Edmonton, Colorado versus Winnipeg.

58:57

As far as stats real quick, your

59:00

race for the Art Ross trophy in the scoring title,

59:03

it looks to be a two man race between Nikita

59:05

Koutrop and Nathan McKinnon. Koutrop leading with

59:07

94 points, McKinnon has 92 points.

59:10

Connor McDavid, I guess you always have to mention him,

59:12

83 points. Too

59:14

bad he was injured at the beginning of the year. And

59:17

then the Rocket Richard trophy for

59:19

your leading goal score appears at

59:21

Austin Matthews barring some sort of

59:23

injury is going to run away with that. He has 49 goals,

59:26

10 more goals than Sam

59:29

Reinhardt in second place. Yeah,

59:31

I mean, he's got, but we are on

59:34

a pace for a lot of 50 goal

59:36

scorers. Posternach, Koutrop, Reinhardt, Zach Hyman,

59:38

all could be 50 goal scores this year. Nathan McKinnon,

59:40

if he continues to be hot, if Artemmy Pinerin gets

59:42

hot, he could reach 50. And

59:45

amazingly, Sidney Crosby, man, 31 goals in

59:47

53 games. He's doing

59:49

his bit on that team. He just does not

59:51

have enough help. And the

59:54

old magic jack strap is still

59:56

working for Sidney Crosby. It's good

59:59

to see you. the big news off the ice this week

1:00:01

in the NHL and that would be the firing of Yarmo

1:00:04

Kekkalainen as the general manager of the Columbus

1:00:06

Blue Jackets. He was in his 11th season

1:00:08

on the job. Seems like he'd been there

1:00:11

longer to be honest with you but he

1:00:13

was the first general manager born outside North

1:00:15

America. Relieved of his duties he

1:00:17

was the third longest tenured GM in the

1:00:19

NHL. Team President John Davidson and

1:00:22

the hockey operations team are assuming GM

1:00:24

duties on an interim basis including dealing

1:00:26

with the upcoming trade deadline before looking

1:00:28

for a full-time replacement. Davidson said in

1:00:31

a news conference that the team is

1:00:33

focusing on an external candidate so they're

1:00:35

not looking to promote

1:00:37

from within. Kekkalainen's firing with

1:00:39

the Blue Jackets comes with them

1:00:41

in last place in the Eastern Conference and on track to

1:00:43

miss the playoffs for a fourth straight year. By the

1:00:46

way if you're curious Doug Armstrong in the longest tenured

1:00:48

GM right now in the NHL he's been with the

1:00:50

Blues since 2010. Yeah I think

1:00:55

it's overdue for Yarmo. I mean they

1:00:57

have not been good for a long

1:00:59

time. He was kind of the Elgin

1:01:03

Baylor of the NHL. Elgin

1:01:06

Baylor was a long-time GM of the Los

1:01:08

Angeles Clippers and the Clippers were terrible and

1:01:10

everybody wondered how does this guy keep his

1:01:12

job. Well Kekkalainen is

1:01:14

kind of that same thing. I mean they had

1:01:17

the the brief playoff run where they beat the

1:01:20

Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round. Beyond

1:01:23

that I mean what does

1:01:25

Yarmo have to hang his hat on and the

1:01:28

free agent moves you got to give him credit.

1:01:30

He went out and got Johnny Goudreau signed. He

1:01:32

went out and made the trade to get Patrick Leinay. You

1:01:34

think those are good moves and yet the team is absolutely

1:01:37

terrible. By the way

1:01:39

I saw the Blue Jackets against the Kings. Do

1:01:41

you have any goals Johnny Goudreau has this year?

1:01:45

I'll say 12. Seven. Yeah

1:01:48

Johnny Hockey.

1:01:52

His bank account I'm sure is happy about it. But look

1:01:55

none of us criticized that move when they

1:01:57

made it. We were certainly surprised by it.

1:02:00

But we were surprised by where he chose

1:02:02

but we weren't surprised by Columbus's interest in

1:02:04

him No, no, I don't

1:02:06

I don't blame them for signing them at all. Right,

1:02:08

right, right. I'm just saying That's

1:02:10

the Columbus blue jackets. I mean even when they make

1:02:12

a great move Doesn't

1:02:14

work out right? No hundred percent. It's

1:02:16

the The flames

1:02:18

go get John Jonathan Huber doe and think

1:02:20

we made a great trade here We made

1:02:23

the best of a bad situation and Huber

1:02:25

doe immediately stinks. So it's

1:02:28

Like that's what I'm saying. You can't blame Keke line

1:02:30

and he drafted some good players You know

1:02:32

you see that the guys that they've drafted over the

1:02:34

last few years Nobody

1:02:36

was questioning those those picks they

1:02:39

go out and get Patrick line a they go out and

1:02:41

get Johnny Godreau did

1:02:44

nobody questioned that it just hasn't

1:02:46

worked And so it's

1:02:48

overdue. I like that John

1:02:50

Davidson put himself as the interim GM Because

1:02:53

he's the team president and if the trade deadlines

1:02:55

coming up You're the one that should be making

1:02:57

the moves for the long term of

1:02:59

the franchise. So If

1:03:04

you're an assistant GM if you're

1:03:06

in the front office you certainly don't like to

1:03:08

hear we're looking for external candidates But

1:03:12

I think it's overdue for a change It'll

1:03:15

be interesting to see who they hire

1:03:18

and what direction they go in free

1:03:20

agency Do they try and start

1:03:22

over? With

1:03:25

a new GM and say we're gonna go build up

1:03:27

from Long term or do they try

1:03:29

and make some fixes and bring in some veteran talent

1:03:31

to try and make this team more competitive in The

1:03:33

near future that's a that's a question

1:03:35

for them in the offseason and the moves that they make

1:03:37

at the deadline Will I

1:03:39

think indicate as well? Let's

1:03:43

get to the ER reports The

1:03:45

struggling Pittsburgh Penguins will have to claw their

1:03:47

way back into a playoff spot without star

1:03:49

forward Jake Gensil He is going to miss

1:03:51

up to four weeks with an

1:03:54

upper body injury Gensil's 52 points tied

1:03:56

with Sidney Crosby For the

1:03:58

team lead New York Rangers of Washington forward

1:04:00

Blake Wheeler for the rest of the season a

1:04:02

right leg injury he had 21

1:04:04

points in 54 games in his first

1:04:06

season in New York. New Jersey Devils

1:04:08

put goalie Vitek Vanicak on injured reserve

1:04:11

the Blues do the same with Justin

1:04:13

Falk and Scott Perenovich. Buffalo Sabres put

1:04:15

defenseman Owen Power on IR. LA Kings

1:04:17

do the same with Carl Grundstrom and

1:04:19

Blake Lazat. They're both on long-term injured

1:04:21

reserve while they activated Victor Arvidson who

1:04:23

got hurt in his first shift at

1:04:26

home against the Blue Jackets last night and no

1:04:28

announcement on that so I'm guessing he's having some

1:04:31

some sort of MRI which doesn't sound

1:04:33

good. Wasn't

1:04:35

a re-aggravation of the injury? No idea he

1:04:37

was skating into the zone and

1:04:40

he just stopped skating and was like cruising while

1:04:42

the puck was at his feet and you were

1:04:44

like why is it not? Controller disconnected. Yeah exactly

1:04:47

no that is a great description

1:04:49

of it and you're like

1:04:51

what is he doing and he just skated around the boards

1:04:53

and went right to the bench and that

1:04:55

was it so. On his first shift. On

1:04:58

his first home shift of the season yeah.

1:05:01

Vegas Golden Knights activate Shay Theodor

1:05:03

off of injured reserve. One

1:05:06

signing of note to mention from the past

1:05:08

week Detroit Red Wings signed forward Michael Rasmussen

1:05:10

to a four-year contract extension where 12.8 million

1:05:12

24 year olds appeared in 55 games

1:05:15

this season he's got 11 goals and 12 assists for

1:05:17

23 points. Was due to be a restricted free agent

1:05:19

at the end of the year ninth overall pick in

1:05:21

2017 drafted by Detroit he's got 109 points

1:05:23

47 goals 62 assists in 293 games with the Red Wings.

1:05:30

Law and Order reports NHL Commissioner Gary

1:05:33

Bettman upholding the five-game

1:05:35

suspension to Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman

1:05:38

Morgan Riley as he appealed that

1:05:40

suspension of course for the cross-check on

1:05:42

Ottawa's Ridley Greg after he did

1:05:45

the slap shot into the empty net. And

1:05:48

off the ice Law and Order report

1:05:50

prosecutors dropped a domestic violence charge against

1:05:52

Boston Bruins forward Milan Luchitz saying that

1:05:54

the decision by his wife to invoke

1:05:57

marital privilege made it impossible for

1:05:59

them to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

1:06:02

The Bruins said they will not have

1:06:04

Luchich return to the team this year that his

1:06:06

leave of absence will continue for the rest of

1:06:08

the season. Of course, Luchich was a member of

1:06:10

their Stanley Cup winning team in 2011, arrested

1:06:12

on suspicion of assault and battery on a family

1:06:15

member November 18th. Brittany Luchich

1:06:17

told responding officers her husband had pulled her

1:06:19

hair, said he didn't try to strangle her,

1:06:21

but she declined an offer for medical treatment.

1:06:24

He had been released on his own recosvices

1:06:26

and pleaded not guilty. Luchich has said he

1:06:28

wants to play in the NHL again. Well,

1:06:32

good luck. If

1:06:34

the Bruins, the team that have a history

1:06:36

with you, don't want you to return, I

1:06:39

can't see a lot of other teams wanting to

1:06:41

sign you next year. But he's on, I mean,

1:06:43

he's on his last legs anyway. That's what I

1:06:45

mean. You're not an impact player anymore. And

1:06:47

you come with a little bit of

1:06:50

baggage and some questions. It's

1:06:53

doubtful. I don't see it happening.

1:06:55

But I'm sure he does want to

1:06:57

play. But it's a pisser for

1:06:59

his career to end like that. There's no doubt.

1:07:01

But we don't know what happened. And we'll never

1:07:03

know what happened. Two people do, him and his

1:07:06

wife, and they're not talking. So not

1:07:08

even two investigators, apparently. And

1:07:10

a couple of random shots to close it out.

1:07:13

You made reference to this earlier. There were some

1:07:15

big announcements made at the outdoor games in New

1:07:17

York. One of them was that they're going to

1:07:19

be an outdoor game next season at Ohio

1:07:22

Stadium, the home of the Ohio State football

1:07:24

team. They used to call it the horseshoe,

1:07:26

but then they enclosed it. So I guess they still call us

1:07:28

that, but it's not really a horseshoe anymore. Anyway,

1:07:30

it's going to be the Columbus Blue Jackets hosting

1:07:33

the Detroit Red Wings March 1st, 2025. We've

1:07:36

been calling for this game for a while now. The

1:07:39

NHL finally listened to us. It made too much

1:07:41

sense. You know, you get somebody new involved. You

1:07:43

get some excitement with that organization, which hasn't had

1:07:45

a lot of things to be excited about in

1:07:48

a while. That venue seems like a classic venue

1:07:50

to have something like this. So looking forward to

1:07:52

it. And you involve an original 16 with

1:07:55

a national fan base, global fan base

1:07:57

that will pack that place. to

1:08:00

make sure it's a full event because let's

1:08:02

be honest, if it was just if

1:08:04

it was the blue jacket senators, that's not going to be a

1:08:06

full barn. Um, but red wings fans

1:08:08

are going to make that trip. It's going to be a, it's going

1:08:10

to be a great event. The only thing that

1:08:13

would have made it better is if it was somehow

1:08:16

connected to the rivalry

1:08:18

game between Michigan and Ohio state, whether it

1:08:20

was the week before or the

1:08:23

week after, uh, that would have been ideal,

1:08:25

but I get not wanting to tear

1:08:27

up that field to put in a hockey rink

1:08:29

during this, during the season. So best

1:08:31

case scenario, good for Columbus to have a

1:08:33

marquee event, something to look forward to, I

1:08:36

would be super excited if I was blue

1:08:38

jackets fan. And this was coming, I

1:08:40

would be going a hundred percent

1:08:42

getting tickets, buying the, all the

1:08:44

merchandise and be looking forward

1:08:46

to it because when's the last time Columbus

1:08:48

was in the spotlight in

1:08:51

the NHL and got to, got to show

1:08:54

itself as the host. Uh,

1:08:56

it's been never other than a draft or something

1:08:58

like that. So I hope they, uh, I hope

1:09:00

they go all out and I'm sure they will

1:09:02

as an organization and put on a great show.

1:09:05

Uh, the New York Islanders are going to host the 2026 NHL All-Star

1:09:07

Game. Uh,

1:09:10

of course, there's not going to be an All-Star

1:09:12

event next year because of the four nations face

1:09:14

off event. But the next time there's

1:09:17

an All-Star game, uh, the Islanders will be the hosts

1:09:19

of that. Sabers and devils

1:09:21

are going to play exhibition games in Prague

1:09:23

next season. And the stars and Panthers will

1:09:25

play regular season games in Finland next

1:09:28

November. Uh, and Sharon Kachirye

1:09:30

has been named the 20th captain in the

1:09:32

history of the Philadelphia Flyers, the 31 year

1:09:34

old forward has played all 11 of his

1:09:36

seasons in Philadelphia. He's the team's

1:09:39

first captain since they traded away. Claude Giroux back

1:09:41

in 2022. Horn.

1:09:44

Today's goal horn comes courtesy of the

1:09:47

Calgary Flames. We're

1:10:00

excited to be joined by a friend

1:10:02

of the show Connor McGahey, the play-by-play

1:10:05

voice of the Colorado Avalanche. You can

1:10:07

follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at

1:10:09

Connor, C-O-N-O-R, McGahey, M-C-G-A-H-A-Y. Hey Connor, how

1:10:11

are you? Good, I'm

1:10:13

sorry I've been more elusive than the Loch Ness Bunch.

1:10:16

I apologize. Well, perhaps it would

1:10:18

be the Abonble snowman would be for the Avalanche.

1:10:20

I was trying not to be too obvious, but

1:10:22

that's so much better than what I said. I

1:10:24

do love the, would it be a paw, the

1:10:26

footprint that's on the, they still have that on

1:10:29

the jerseys, right? Well, it would be a foot,

1:10:31

but no, they did away with that. You should

1:10:33

go with snow. The sea

1:10:35

from the Colorado flag. And

1:10:37

how about the mascot? Is

1:10:40

the mascot still a, or am

1:10:42

I confusing something else? No,

1:10:44

it is not. No, it was. It's a

1:10:46

dog, isn't it? Yeah, it's Bernie. Bernie. Oh

1:10:49

boy. What a way to start

1:10:51

off. Well, the Avalanche check-in at 34, 18, and 4, 72

1:10:53

points as we record this, second in the

1:10:57

central. We were all pretty

1:10:59

sure the Avalanche were going to be a playoff

1:11:01

team. Would you say generally speaking, the season has

1:11:03

gone as expected? You

1:11:06

know, that's a tough question to

1:11:08

answer because everyone always assumes that,

1:11:11

well, at least because

1:11:13

they've won the central three straight years now. And

1:11:16

so the expectation is to win it four straight years.

1:11:19

So I, I

1:11:22

think it's probably not gone as well as

1:11:24

people would have wanted it to or have

1:11:26

liked it to. So,

1:11:30

but again, it's the second

1:11:32

season that matters. And you know,

1:11:34

we have, I guess it's

1:11:36

now 25 games left for a

1:11:38

final push to, to win

1:11:40

the fourth division title and have

1:11:42

home ice advantage instead of perhaps

1:11:47

going to Winnipeg in the first game

1:11:49

of the playoffs, for example. It's

1:11:53

a lot more favorable if you're

1:11:55

Colorado and you can win the division because

1:11:57

then you don't have to go through both.

1:12:00

Winnipeg and Dallas, if you don't win the

1:12:02

division, that's exactly what you have to do. And

1:12:05

the two best goaltenders with no

1:12:07

disrespect to Thatcher or Demko, who they'll see tonight

1:12:11

in the National Hockey League. So I

1:12:13

think it's been a little bit underwhelming, not

1:12:16

from an offensive perspective, but from a defensive

1:12:18

perspective for sure. Well Nathan

1:12:20

McKinnon has not been underwhelming. Having

1:12:22

an MVP caliber season, 91 points,

1:12:25

second in the NHL, 33 goals, fifth in

1:12:27

the NHL, and he is writing this

1:12:29

26 game, Point Street, as we are recording this,

1:12:31

which is a franchise record. Has he

1:12:33

taken it to another level, or is this just the typical

1:12:35

awesome Nathan McKinnon? Yeah,

1:12:38

believe it or not, there's more, I think.

1:12:41

You've got 90 points in the season, you've

1:12:43

gotten to 90 points five times, only active

1:12:45

players with more. McDavid and

1:12:47

Crosby have gotten there seven times, Ovi

1:12:50

was six. But

1:12:52

it's just, I

1:12:55

keep coming up with reasons almost on a

1:12:57

nightly basis where he is the Hart Trophy

1:13:00

winner. And

1:13:02

everybody in and around Tampa Bay

1:13:04

would disagree, in and around Edmonton

1:13:06

would probably disagree. But again,

1:13:08

everyone has to remember the definition of the trophy,

1:13:10

the player who is most valuable to his team.

1:13:14

And when it comes down to it, if

1:13:16

Nathan McKinnon is not going, the Avalanche aren't going.

1:13:18

And to me, there's no better argument

1:13:21

for a Hart Trophy win than that.

1:13:23

But no, I, again, believe

1:13:25

it or not, and with the playoffs upcoming,

1:13:27

I think you'll see another

1:13:30

level of Nathan McKinnon, one of the all

1:13:32

time great postseason performers in

1:13:34

NHL history, Nathan McKinnon, everybody

1:13:37

forgets that. So as

1:13:39

good as he's been, I'm going to

1:13:41

expect him to even be better down the

1:13:43

stretch and into the postseason. Well,

1:13:46

the abs obviously are led by an elite

1:13:48

trio with McKinnon, Mikko Ranten and Kale McCarr.

1:13:51

How those guys are going to be front and center,

1:13:53

of course, and keep you relevant for sure. How's

1:13:56

the depth though? Do you feel like the depth is there

1:13:58

for this team to have a deep playoff run? We'll

1:14:01

see. I mean the trade

1:14:03

deadline is approaching and we'll see,

1:14:05

because my opinion doesn't matter. Chris

1:14:08

McFarland's opinion is the only one that

1:14:10

matters if he thinks that this is

1:14:12

a team that can or

1:14:16

is deep enough to

1:14:18

rumble through the

1:14:21

Stanley Cup playoffs.

1:14:23

Probably right now

1:14:25

you're certain for a couple pieces

1:14:28

and a lot

1:14:31

hinges on Valerian and Truschkins whose return

1:14:34

is uncertain at this point, but if

1:14:36

you add him into that lineup, Gabe

1:14:38

Landeskog, who did skate with a team

1:14:40

this morning, very lightly,

1:14:42

but if you were able to plug

1:14:44

him into this forward group during

1:14:48

the Stanley Cup playoffs, then the answer is yes,

1:14:50

I think they are. Ross

1:14:52

Colton and Miles Wood

1:14:54

have exceeded expectations for

1:14:56

me and if they're

1:14:58

playing on a third line with Logan

1:15:01

O'Connor as designed, then you're

1:15:03

deep enough. So basically it just

1:15:06

depends on the return frankly of two

1:15:08

players and if either of

1:15:10

those are in doubt, then we'll

1:15:13

see if Chris McFarland is

1:15:16

willing to pay any sort of a price

1:15:18

for players to add into

1:15:20

the ranks going into March

1:15:22

and April. Is Landeskog a

1:15:24

possibility? Because I was under the impression that

1:15:26

this was not going to be an option

1:15:28

this season. Well not during

1:15:31

the regular season, during the postseason and that's the only

1:15:33

way you could make it work with the

1:15:35

long-term injury relief as

1:15:38

well because his salary does not count

1:15:40

against the cap during the Stanley Cup

1:15:42

playoffs. So for his medical status and

1:15:45

the financial status of the team, the

1:15:47

regular season is not a possibility but

1:15:51

the postseason I think, and

1:15:53

I'm not sure how great of a

1:15:55

possibility it is, but it is a

1:15:57

possibility. Okay, You mentioned the trade deadline, Colorado.

1:16:00

The make in addition not long ago and

1:16:02

veteran Zachary see how is he fit in

1:16:04

so far. Are you think right during their

1:16:06

road trip where the avalanche? we're not good.

1:16:08

I. Use noticeable almost every single like.

1:16:11

Every. Shift. Doing

1:16:13

the little things rights, doing the

1:16:15

hard work, Out, which is

1:16:17

impressive considering that he is thirty nine years

1:16:20

old and nobody else wanted to sign him.

1:16:22

ah and sell the second half of the

1:16:24

season. So. I have absolutely loved

1:16:26

him and he's been a good

1:16:29

addition And that. I

1:16:31

just get a sneaky suspicion that he will

1:16:33

be a difference maker in the playoffs and

1:16:35

not sure why. John of

1:16:37

the June was an interesting ah season addition. I

1:16:39

know he has relationship with Nathan Mackinnon how's he

1:16:42

looks? So far this is. I

1:16:44

think he's been great. I think talk

1:16:46

about exceeding expectations. I think he's fit

1:16:48

in wonderfully. And he's had really

1:16:50

want to. His best years on are

1:16:53

really since coming in the league and.

1:16:55

Ah yeah, I think it took ah

1:16:57

some refocus in new environments, a commitment

1:17:00

to work, and he's done all of

1:17:02

those things. and frankly, it's paid off.

1:17:04

And so I've loved him. Either.

1:17:07

On the Powerplay on the top line with

1:17:09

Mckinnon and ranted and but. Ah

1:17:11

I think Drew and. Ah

1:17:14

has really shot up a lot

1:17:16

of skeptics, which which I was

1:17:18

really happy about because. Wanted.

1:17:20

Him to do well and he has done well

1:17:23

and.you can just tell he is loving the game

1:17:25

again which is good to see. We're

1:17:27

talking of Carnegie he the radio play by

1:17:29

play voice of the Colonel Avalanche or has

1:17:31

anyone emerged the season that has been a

1:17:33

bit of a surprise or is any younger

1:17:35

player may be taken a step up this

1:17:37

year. I

1:17:40

mean another good question. I

1:17:43

think that same Gerard, after coming back

1:17:46

from spending some time in the player

1:17:48

assistance program has been tremendous. Very, very

1:17:50

good. Are you play arguably playing some

1:17:53

of the best hockey? Ah, I'm of

1:17:55

his career and. Logan.

1:17:57

o'connor's well thirteen goals for

1:17:59

him 25 points appropriately

1:18:01

enough for number 25

1:18:03

plus 18 has been just pretty

1:18:10

much mr. reliable for most nights

1:18:12

so I mean those two off the

1:18:15

board I would say have been two of the ones who

1:18:17

have been a very very

1:18:19

pleasant surprise for Colorado. When

1:18:22

you look at the central division and you

1:18:24

look at the most competitive three-team

1:18:27

race so to speak as far as who's gonna win

1:18:29

the division who's gonna end up second

1:18:31

and third certainly you have to go to the

1:18:33

central Dallas and Colorado and Winnipeg how do you

1:18:35

how do you kind of handicap that race the

1:18:37

rest of the way? Yeah I mean it's the

1:18:39

thing the Avalanche have going against them

1:18:42

is games played they and Dallas going

1:18:45

into the game versus Vancouver tonight have

1:18:47

both played 56 Winnipeg

1:18:50

is behind having played three less

1:18:52

games so Winnipeg has three games

1:18:54

in hand is a

1:18:56

point behind Colorado Dallas

1:19:00

has lost beyond regulation

1:19:02

in two straight Winnipeg

1:19:07

very interesting because one

1:19:09

of two teams on

1:19:11

Monday afternoon to score

1:19:14

hat tricks but lose Vancouver being the

1:19:16

other one Sean Monaghan after

1:19:19

coming over from Montreal gets a natural hat trick

1:19:22

in the first period versus Calgary they

1:19:24

end up losing that game which is a

1:19:26

favor that Nelson cadre and the Flugs

1:19:28

did for the Colorado Avalanche there at

1:19:30

the Saddlebone so that I think that's

1:19:32

gonna come into play the games played

1:19:34

could come down to it which

1:19:37

makes every game that the Avalanche play even

1:19:39

more important because they they know they don't

1:19:41

have any breathing well

1:19:43

Connor people that are familiar with your work know

1:19:45

that you have some very creative and entertaining calls

1:19:48

and my favorite I don't know

1:19:50

why you're laughing I'm serious my

1:19:52

favorite was call JT comfer

1:19:56

877 cash now I absolutely love that one however

1:19:58

JT has moved on

1:20:00

unfortunately to Detroit. Is

1:20:02

there a new call that

1:20:05

you have for this season or anyone

1:20:07

else that would be maybe your personal

1:20:09

favorite? Oh I don't know

1:20:11

I just throw stuff at the wall and

1:20:13

see if it sticks and I

1:20:16

annoy myself everyone else seems to be happy so I

1:20:18

guess that's the most important

1:20:20

but I

1:20:22

guess I when Miles Wood scores

1:20:24

you know they call him Woody so

1:20:26

I just pull out a line

1:20:29

or two from Toy Story when you pull

1:20:31

Woody's drawstring. Nice. Either there's a snake in

1:20:33

my boots or somebody's poison the waterhole or

1:20:35

a reach for the sky

1:20:38

so that's probably my favorite. Good

1:20:40

stuff Connor always appreciate the time we've been playing

1:20:42

a little bit of tag I'm glad we finally

1:20:44

were able to connect and always a pleasure to

1:20:46

have you on thanks for the info and best

1:20:49

of luck to the Avalanche the rest of the season. Pleasure

1:20:51

is mine Eddie thank you so much. Time

1:21:10

for the third and final period here on the

1:21:12

Puck podcast and Doug if you haven't had a

1:21:15

chance maybe you could check and see if we

1:21:17

have any new patrons on patreon for this week.

1:21:19

We do not. Alright well that's fine we want

1:21:21

to thank everybody who has been

1:21:23

and continues to be a special friend of the show

1:21:25

on patreon if you'd like to be a special

1:21:28

friend patreon.com/puck podcast

1:21:30

to support the show

1:21:33

also a shout out as always to our friend

1:21:35

Dave at Talley custom hockey jerseys calm he is

1:21:37

the man who is provides

1:21:39

us with great puck podcast merchandise there is a

1:21:42

team store if you go to Talley custom hockey

1:21:44

jerseys calm you can get jerseys of course as

1:21:46

well as hats and even a beanie so we

1:21:49

thank him for making the quality merchandise for

1:21:51

the show to support the

1:21:53

show and also if you were in need for any

1:21:56

kind of custom hockey jerseys Amanda C's Dave

1:21:58

at Talley custom hockey And

1:22:01

with that, we get into the email for this

1:22:03

week and Doug, why don't you lead

1:22:05

us off? Alrighty then, let's

1:22:07

take a look at what our friend

1:22:09

Dave has to say. Dave Taylor says,

1:22:11

hey fellas, I will confirm that Valentine's

1:22:13

for the classroom is still very much

1:22:15

a thing. We were talking about that

1:22:17

last week, getting Valentine's if you're in

1:22:20

school. Eddie, let's

1:22:22

get you a back scratcher. Let's not use a

1:22:24

highlighter. Although the flexibility is impressive

1:22:27

there. I mean, whatever you got to do, man.

1:22:30

It's the thing that was the closest and

1:22:32

handy. Yep. Uh,

1:22:35

Dave continues, Valentine's for the

1:22:37

classroom is still very much a thing. Their rules

1:22:39

are it has to be pre-packaged and

1:22:41

you have to provide enough for the entire class. That

1:22:45

sounds fun. Uh,

1:22:47

very personalized too. Here's something from the

1:22:49

folks at Hallmark for all of you.

1:22:53

Dave continues, I'm not a huge football fan and

1:22:55

I don't really follow a team, but this past

1:22:57

Super Bowl was one of the better ones going

1:22:59

into overtime. I will say the NFL made sure,

1:23:01

sure made watching just via streaming super simple NHL.

1:23:04

Come on as to star

1:23:06

Wars, the original trilogy will always

1:23:09

be my favorite. I grew up watching the original

1:23:11

trilogy on DHS and I and

1:23:13

my brothers wore out the tapes. It is one

1:23:15

of the trilogies that I know all the lines

1:23:17

by heart. Yeah. Return of the Jedi

1:23:19

was the first grown up movie I got to see in the theater

1:23:21

as to the prequels. I don't hate them outright,

1:23:24

but I'm just deeply disappointed with squandering. What

1:23:26

could have been the sequel started off strong.

1:23:28

Jedi through some curve balls, but

1:23:30

I loathe that last one. What a disastrous mess.

1:23:33

Anyway, not a lot of hockey talk from me this week. I'm

1:23:35

hopeful my red wings can stay the course and

1:23:37

make it into the playoffs. This year as my girlfriend

1:23:40

team, the coyotes have withered still not

1:23:42

as bad as Doug's ducks, but I share his

1:23:44

pain having had several years rooting, but not engaging

1:23:46

in two of the bottom of the barrel teams.

1:23:48

And that is Dave, our long

1:23:50

time listener and possible NHL

1:23:53

legend. Our

1:23:55

next email comes from Michael in Iowa who

1:23:58

Michael in Iowa seems like. maybe a

1:24:00

new, I don't recall Michael in

1:24:02

Iowa, maybe it's kind of a

1:24:05

generic name, but I don't recall a Michael from Iowa

1:24:07

before. So Michael, this is your first email. Thank you.

1:24:09

If it's, if it's a, if

1:24:11

you've sent them before that I apologize. It's the first

1:24:13

guy that he wrote in before. Oh, well, I

1:24:17

don't read these things. Hey,

1:24:19

Doug and Eddie, a few months ago, I wrote

1:24:22

in and asked for your advice for

1:24:24

a new hockey fan. You said go see a game

1:24:27

live. Well, I was finally

1:24:29

able to do so. A friend who also

1:24:31

recently got into hockey and I went to

1:24:33

see the Cedar Rapids Rough Riders of the

1:24:36

USHL and we had a blast. We

1:24:38

will certainly be going to more games. Well, that's awesome. Very good.

1:24:41

I just as a longtime NFL fan. One of

1:24:43

the interesting differences of hockey is the point system

1:24:46

for wins and losses. I recently learned that

1:24:48

the PWHL uses a three point system

1:24:50

awarding three points for regulation win. Two

1:24:53

for an overtime win and one for an

1:24:56

overtime loss and wondered if you think that the

1:24:58

NHL should consider doing something similar. It makes some

1:25:00

sense to me to reward a team for being

1:25:02

able to win a regulation versus overtime. I mean,

1:25:05

if losing an OT is not as bad as

1:25:07

losing a regulation, why should winning an OT not

1:25:09

be worse than winning a regulation? I

1:25:12

also like the idea of each game always

1:25:14

being worth three points instead of some being

1:25:16

worth two and others worth three.

1:25:18

Anyway, thanks for everything you do. That

1:25:21

is the multiple emailer, Michael,

1:25:24

in Iowa. Yes. This

1:25:26

has certainly been an email we've

1:25:28

had before over the many years of us doing

1:25:31

this show. This topic has been brought

1:25:33

up occasionally. I mean,

1:25:37

I'm not against it necessarily.

1:25:41

I'm not clamoring

1:25:44

for a change necessarily. It's

1:25:46

not on the front burner for me as

1:25:48

far as things the NHL needs to change. But I don't know.

1:25:50

What are the pros and cons of this as you see it?

1:25:55

I'm done with the loser point,

1:25:57

personally. So I was just talking about

1:25:59

this. with Julius who has an

1:26:01

email coming up later at

1:26:04

work and because

1:26:08

we were talking about the Islanders and

1:26:10

21 overtime games is absurd in

1:26:12

a single season for any one team. So

1:26:15

my proposal as we were talking about it and

1:26:18

what I would say is it's just winners. If

1:26:20

you lose you don't get anything because you lost.

1:26:23

If you win in regulation you get three points. If you win

1:26:26

in overtime you get two points. If you win in a shootout

1:26:28

you get one point. We're not

1:26:30

going to treat every win the same.

1:26:32

A regulation win should be worth more

1:26:34

than winning in overtime and an overtime

1:26:36

win which is a team event

1:26:39

still should be worth more than winning

1:26:41

in shootout. So you

1:26:43

want to move up the standings win some games in

1:26:45

regulation and if you're just good at keeping games close

1:26:47

and losing an overtime or shootouts then you don't get

1:26:49

anything. I think it would

1:26:52

reward the good teams but let's be honest and

1:26:54

I'll be honest with you Michael as much as

1:26:56

I can nothing is going

1:26:58

to change because the owners want the...

1:27:05

Parity? Parity. The owners want parity. They want

1:27:07

the the standings to be as congested as

1:27:09

possible so that as many teams as possible

1:27:11

are in a playoff race and they can

1:27:13

say look it's only a four point difference

1:27:15

for these teams they're still in it even

1:27:17

though we all know how hard it is

1:27:19

to make up and catch

1:27:21

and pass four points within ten point

1:27:24

ten games or something so they're not

1:27:26

going to change anything because the owners

1:27:28

don't care. This is something fans and

1:27:30

media talk about and think about. The players

1:27:33

don't care. The owners don't care. The

1:27:35

coaches don't care. There's no push for this from

1:27:37

the league so get

1:27:41

used to the three point or the the system we

1:27:43

have because it's here to stay for the NHL. I

1:27:45

am afraid but I'm very happy to

1:27:47

hear that you got to go to a game and took

1:27:50

a friend that's also a new hockey fan

1:27:52

had a blast that is exactly what minor

1:27:54

league hockey is all about is

1:27:56

getting new people introduced to the sport in

1:27:59

my opinion getting access to live

1:28:01

games, affordable, fun, and it's

1:28:04

addictive. I mean, you get

1:28:06

going to those games and you see all the jerseys,

1:28:08

especially in the minors, all the different jerseys everybody's wearing,

1:28:11

and you like some, you don't like some, you wanna get

1:28:13

one of your own. It's very fun.

1:28:15

So hope you get to go to more Cedar

1:28:18

Rapids Rough Riders games of the

1:28:20

USHL. And yeah, and

1:28:22

let us know who your NHL team

1:28:24

is in Iowa. Our

1:28:28

next email comes from Thomas. He's a Ducks fan of

1:28:30

the Bay Area. He's also co-host of the TK331 podcast,

1:28:33

which is Star Wars related. He

1:28:37

says, hey guys, great show as always. The first half

1:28:39

of this email is primarily for Doug. I totally get

1:28:41

not wanting to watch the Ducks this season, given that

1:28:43

how things have gone. I certainly haven't watched as many

1:28:45

games that I usually do and have

1:28:47

turned some games off early. That being said, you had

1:28:50

some really bad luck to pick the game against Montreal

1:28:52

to pay attention to. Yes, that was

1:28:54

a terrible game. But if you

1:28:56

watched or listened to their previous game against Edmonton, things

1:28:58

would have gone better. Yes, they lost, but

1:29:00

it was an entertaining game and they played well through most of

1:29:02

it. And if you'd instead chosen to watch

1:29:04

their next game against Ottawa, which I did, you'd

1:29:07

have gotten to see a fun, easy night for the Ducks.

1:29:09

What I'm trying to say is yes, the Ducks are bad,

1:29:11

but not as bad as that loss to Montreal would make

1:29:13

one thing. One more thing, I

1:29:15

have watched every winter classic since the first one, when

1:29:17

the snow fell on Crosby as he won the game

1:29:20

in a shootout. There have been some great games, memorable

1:29:22

moments, and just general fun, even in

1:29:24

years where the game wasn't great, it still felt like

1:29:26

a special moment. Despite my general

1:29:28

enjoyment of this annual event, the NHL has already

1:29:30

convinced me not to watch next year's game. As

1:29:33

I mentioned previously, I have

1:29:35

not watched a game featuring the Blackhawks in several years

1:29:37

and that's not gonna change just because they get to

1:29:39

participate in the winter classic again. The

1:29:42

NHL needs to stop rewarding this team with top

1:29:44

picks and marquee events. And

1:29:46

that is Thomas, the Ducks fan in the Bay Area.

1:29:48

And he is a Star Wars fan and does a

1:29:50

Star Wars podcast. So he chimes in on our opinions

1:29:53

of the Star Wars prequels and he says, while the

1:29:55

prequels are not great movies, I will

1:29:57

always have a special place in my heart for them, especially

1:29:59

episode one. And I'm hoping to get

1:30:01

to watch Phantom Medicine theaters again. I

1:30:03

have a lot of issues with that movie, but there's

1:30:06

no denying it has some amazing moments that are better

1:30:08

on the big screen. Also to those of you who

1:30:10

do love this movie or the prequels in general, more

1:30:12

power to you. Absolutely.

1:30:15

I don't care if somebody likes something. I

1:30:17

mean, that's, they're perfect. I'm glad there's enough

1:30:19

pain and misery in this world. But by

1:30:22

all means, find joy and enjoyment

1:30:24

where you can. So I,

1:30:26

they're not for me and I will never watch them again. I

1:30:30

was, as a huge Star Wars fan, I will

1:30:32

say there are moments. They do have some moments

1:30:34

that are, that are good. But

1:30:37

as overall, as overall movies, they're not, they're not very

1:30:39

good, but there are some, there are some fun

1:30:41

moments and exciting moments occasionally.

1:30:45

As our next email will prove. Yes.

1:30:48

Our next email comes from Dr. Puck. That

1:30:50

would be Kirby Black, MD, who

1:30:53

says, number one, my penguins are

1:30:56

incredibly frustrating. They show flashes of

1:30:58

brilliance, but most often exhibit exceptional

1:31:00

mediocrity. Number two, I understand where

1:31:02

Doug is coming from with regards to the Star Wars prequels,

1:31:05

but I must dissent the duels of

1:31:07

the fates and the duel on

1:31:09

Mustafar, both excellent choreography and

1:31:11

worth the time on YouTube. But

1:31:14

the overall plot is magically flawed. Hashtag

1:31:16

midi Koreans. And number three,

1:31:18

I love how Doug always comments on

1:31:21

the North versus South New Jersey. What

1:31:23

do you think of the bitter rivalries

1:31:26

between the East versus West Norway or

1:31:28

Sweden or Vermont or any other long

1:31:30

skinny North South oriented

1:31:32

landmass? Equally foolish.

1:31:36

Thanks, Kirby Black, Dr.

1:31:38

Black. If somebody wrote in and said, I'm

1:31:40

from East Norway, I

1:31:42

would, I would ridicule them as well because

1:31:44

there's, I mean, it's, I've been to Norway

1:31:46

and it's not a long drive from East

1:31:48

to West. Oh,

1:31:51

I'm from the, I'm from the East part of Chile.

1:31:54

Give me a break. You can always see the ocean

1:31:56

for Chile. I mean, come on. Oh

1:31:59

no, we don't. associate me with those

1:32:01

Westerners. No, no, I'm Eastern Chilean. Get

1:32:04

out of here. My

1:32:06

next email comes from Julius, a co-worker. He

1:32:08

says, hello, Eddie and Doug. Does

1:32:10

it bother any of you or anyone listening to

1:32:13

the podcast that casual fans of the sport will

1:32:16

say they are disappointed not to see any fights during

1:32:18

a hockey game both as a TV viewer and

1:32:20

as a live game attendee? The

1:32:23

blatant expectation that one will break out every game

1:32:25

infuriates me. Since it is a minor sport among

1:32:27

the major sports league, it doesn't surprise me when

1:32:29

you ask someone who doesn't watch hockey to describe

1:32:32

hockey players. The first adjective that

1:32:34

spews out is usually toughness accompanied by the

1:32:36

gourd image of a skater spitting

1:32:38

out a tooth or and still

1:32:40

wanting to play despite experience of medical

1:32:43

emergency. I just didn't realize

1:32:45

that to the general public fighting is the

1:32:47

main draw in hockey while hardcore followers know

1:32:49

fighting is nearly non-existent in games today,

1:32:52

which is interesting because there shouldn't be a desire

1:32:54

to watch fights occurring in sports or hockey for

1:32:56

that matter because it already is a

1:32:58

sport itself. Boxing and the MMA. The

1:33:01

fact that there are players night in and night

1:33:03

out that skate on millimeter thin blades without even

1:33:05

falling on their ass once during a game, an

1:33:07

actual skill that is a prerequisite to play should

1:33:09

be a marvel in and of itself and should

1:33:11

garner more attention. I would

1:33:14

compare it Julius to NASCAR. A lot of people are

1:33:16

watching for the crashes and they don't want to see

1:33:18

the cars just go around the track. It is a

1:33:20

great skill to drive 200 miles

1:33:23

an hour inches away from another

1:33:25

car without crashing. That's

1:33:28

not why some people are watching

1:33:30

and if somebody's watching hockey just for the

1:33:32

fight then what

1:33:35

can you do? I mean the NHL will take their money

1:33:37

but they're gonna be disappointed because there aren't many fights these

1:33:39

days. Julius continues, do

1:33:41

you think we just need to accept that hockey

1:33:44

will be a niche product till the end of

1:33:46

time? As to why hockey

1:33:48

isn't more popular from what I've heard other than

1:33:50

hockey being fourth fiddle in North American sports is

1:33:52

that a surprising amount of people saying that keeping

1:33:54

track where the puck is at all times is

1:33:56

labor intensive and thus a turnoff.

1:34:00

as hockey fans at fault for not explaining the game

1:34:02

well to the wandering observers, or as technology

1:34:04

and the massive amounts of available content

1:34:07

giving people entertainment fatigue. Entertainment

1:34:09

is supposed to be fun and for some people a way

1:34:11

to turn their brain off and wind down from a hectic

1:34:13

day, I personally would not call

1:34:16

hockey relaxing due to the unpredictable pace of the

1:34:18

action. It's also the only sport where I need

1:34:20

to have my undivided attention on the game, otherwise I feel

1:34:22

like I'm misinterpreting or misunderstanding what's

1:34:24

going on. But it is one

1:34:26

of those sports where the product sells itself in terms of how

1:34:28

awesome it is and yet people are

1:34:31

baffled at how hockey isn't premier sports on

1:34:33

television. Anyway, I will email again

1:34:35

sometime about my gripes about ESPN and ESPN Plus

1:34:37

as a hockey viewer, but until then, thank

1:34:39

you for showing up and showing out every week to

1:34:42

create a safe space for hockey fans worldwide. You

1:34:44

were one of the few reasons why I

1:34:46

wanted to pursue sports journalism. P.S., get Dr.

1:34:49

Brian Kennedy back on the show, please. Dr.

1:34:52

Brian will have to get his

1:34:56

restraining order lifted against

1:34:58

Eddie for him to have back on the

1:35:01

show. But if that happens, if they can

1:35:03

settle their grievances outside of court, then

1:35:06

I look forward to having him back

1:35:08

on the show. Well, his grievance is

1:35:10

actually with you. He was so offended

1:35:12

by your imitation of him, your impression

1:35:14

of him that he is

1:35:16

sworn off the show. Well,

1:35:19

his insistence on being paid in cake. First of

1:35:22

all, we don't pay our guests. And

1:35:24

second of all, neither one of us are going

1:35:26

to make you a cake. Much to the dismay

1:35:28

of that Toronto Maple Leafs broadcaster many, many years

1:35:30

ago. You recall that

1:35:32

story. That's right. I reached out to a

1:35:34

Maple Leafs broadcaster in the early days of

1:35:37

the Puck podcast and he asked how much

1:35:39

were we going to pay him. And I

1:35:41

laughed and said, you'll get paid when we get paid. Well,

1:35:45

then I guess we should have

1:35:47

paid him many years ago when we had

1:35:49

sponsors. A little bit. Our next deal comes

1:35:51

from... As for, no, I want to talk

1:35:54

about is it ever going to be more than a niche sport?

1:35:56

No, it's not. NFL

1:35:59

is king. NBA is second which

1:36:01

is college football college basketball Those

1:36:04

are gonna be that those are gonna be the

1:36:06

major sports and hockey is never going to be

1:36:09

a major sport in this country There

1:36:12

are countries in the world where it is. Canada

1:36:14

is one Sweden Finland

1:36:18

those countries exist, but United States is not

1:36:20

gonna be one of them and Just

1:36:23

be happy that we have a community we do it is

1:36:26

as we as Michael

1:36:29

from Iowa will attest it is a sport

1:36:31

that if you go see it live It

1:36:34

is addictive and you get it and

1:36:36

it becomes more enjoyable and you want to

1:36:38

watch more of it on TV But not

1:36:40

everybody has that opportunity not everybody is willing to

1:36:42

see it You can tell people something is great

1:36:44

and they still won't watch it as

1:36:46

I explained with Eddie and peacemaker

1:36:51

All right The

1:36:54

and as someone who's forced to pay attention

1:36:56

to the NBA because of his job that

1:36:58

product continues to get worse and worse And

1:37:00

people still watch it is it is it

1:37:02

is baffling. It is absolutely

1:37:05

baffling Our next email comes

1:37:07

from Chris Pete. He is in Battle Creek, Michigan

1:37:09

And he says good day Doug and Eddie how

1:37:12

much of a stomach churner was Kings Bruins

1:37:14

for you? Eddie watching JBR snag those soft

1:37:16

rebounds and put them in with ease was

1:37:19

brutal The Kings fought back kept it

1:37:21

close but going into the last minutes It looked like

1:37:23

a done deal then Boston forgot the cover of all

1:37:25

people coped fire for an easy layup and boom We

1:37:27

go to overtime go back and forth

1:37:29

until the penalty by Brandt Clark poor kid looks so

1:37:31

dejected sitting in the box He knew the game was

1:37:33

all but over but it wasn't the kids showed

1:37:35

impressive awareness speed and a nice set of

1:37:37

mitts Picking up a perfect pass from the

1:37:39

denote deeks and varies it for his first

1:37:41

NHL goal an overtime game winner What redemption

1:37:44

my first reaction was who I had

1:37:46

to look him up that 21 Clark brings some

1:37:48

strong stats from Ontario rain this year eight goals

1:37:50

25 assists for 33 points and 32 games not

1:37:53

too shabby and Crazy stats from

1:37:55

last year in the OHO with the very quotes

1:37:57

23 goals 38 assists 61 points and a plus

1:37:59

40 in 31 games

1:38:02

as well as seven goals 16 assists for 23 points and 16

1:38:04

playoff games from a

1:38:06

defenseman Wow I hope he can adapt his game

1:38:08

to the NHL and give the Kings another dynamic

1:38:10

defenseman but for now it just gives me a

1:38:12

reason to pay closer attention to the Kings and

1:38:15

look for more from this promising young man as

1:38:17

an aside I would like to offer a nickname suggestion

1:38:20

for the lad common hockey

1:38:22

naming convention would be to call

1:38:24

him Corky this would be

1:38:26

lazy since his brother Graham is a

1:38:28

New Jersey product one game so far

1:38:31

and no one wants the ensuing confusion

1:38:33

of calling them both Corky right so

1:38:35

since a brand is a type of

1:38:38

goose I suggest calling

1:38:40

Brandt goose and his

1:38:42

brother Graham cracker you're

1:38:46

welcome I'm

1:38:49

just yeah that's not gonna go well I don't

1:38:51

think his brother's gonna enjoy that I did not

1:38:53

know that a brandt is a type of goose

1:38:55

that's news to me I've learned

1:38:57

something today if that's accurate actually

1:39:00

reason to dispute a man that lives in

1:39:02

an area where geese are actually hummus is

1:39:04

a damn fine nickname as

1:39:06

for the Riley cracker

1:39:09

isn't crackers not as

1:39:11

for the Riley

1:39:14

Griggs scrum I have a few thoughts but

1:39:16

Andy from the UK's response last week was

1:39:18

so spot-on my feeble attempt would pale in

1:39:20

comparison good on you mate and

1:39:23

Eddie yes I was referring to the YouTube

1:39:25

dude with the whiteboards the hockey guy in

1:39:27

my last email you should have him on

1:39:29

the show to talk about Vancouver or whatever

1:39:32

but you share most of the most you

1:39:34

share more than a patch for hockey as

1:39:36

he's a Star Wars aficionado to might be

1:39:38

a good offseason interview I've said

1:39:40

maybe forces of evil become confused on

1:39:42

the way to your doorstep cheers

1:39:46

Chris Pete in Battle Creek yep

1:39:50

like that email a lot and like

1:39:52

the suggestion for the but it's

1:39:54

gonna be clarky oh yeah I'm

1:39:57

sure it is yeah Blake bloke

1:39:59

bloke the former first overall pick.

1:40:01

A lot of high hopes for him.

1:40:03

Not first overall. First round pick, sorry.

1:40:05

Yeah, a lot of hope for him.

1:40:08

The Kings really, they've got good defense win, but

1:40:10

they don't really have any good offensive defense win.

1:40:14