The Hockey Show: Talk Dirty To Me About John Tavares

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Speaker 6 Welcome to the hockey show. My name is Roy Dolomy.
David Drork is to my left.

Speaker 9 He works for the hockey news. Ethan is in that chair over there in the shipping container.
Joining us is John Don Zaslow as a guest co-host

Speaker 9 ESPN Radio and John and Zaszlo show 2.0. And also joining us, Ant Nan Verke from Prime Monday Night Hockey.
He's going to join us here for the first

Speaker 9 segment. So Antnan,

Speaker 9 where were you last week and where are you going this week?

Speaker 14 Roy, great to see you and friends, Dave, Zaz, Ethan. Good to be back here.
My monthly appearance here on the hockey show was just back home in Toronto for the Leafs and the Flames.

Speaker 14 And God, I got to tell you guys, everyone's feeling a little tight up there in Toronto. Everyone's getting a little nervous.
Hopefully, one win the last six games.

Speaker 14 Talking to Craig Beruby at Morningskate. Oh, you know, we just got to get the puck in there and get going a little bit.
And they looked great.

Speaker 14 Austin Matthews, who has had a precipitous decline, as you guys know, from 69 goals this season to go to 24 entry Mondays play. I know he missed 15 games, but still hasn't been the same guy.

Speaker 14 If you look back at Bossy, Gretzky, Lemieux, Stamcoast, anybody who scores 60-plus, they don't have that kind of a drop. So it's been concerning what happens.
Matthew scores two.

Speaker 14 Leaves scored three in the power play. I love Ryan Huska, along with Paul Maurice, one of my favorite coaches to talk to.
But God, the Flames don't have much offensive talent.

Speaker 14 Love Nas as well, as we continue right now in Ramadan, one of my few Muslim brothers in the league. Nas, by the way, is great against the Rangers the next day.
Goal and assist.

Speaker 14 A good win for the Flames. But I just don't think the Flames have enough talent.
honestly offensively to compete. And Wolf, who's been such a great story, guys, as you know, he's in the Calder mix.

Speaker 14 Unfortunately, got blitzed. It wasn't really his fault.
Just the leaves looked really good.

Speaker 14 What I want to throw to you guys, though, especially since you mentioned Dave's bona fides with the hockey news, I got to interview Landy McDonald and Daryl Sittler at the intermission.

Speaker 14 Now, think about Sittler, 10-point game. And I said to him, you know, when you think back at that moment, that game, what do you think about it? He goes, honestly, I'm shocked no one's broken it.

Speaker 14 I said, what? You think someone's going to have a 10-point game? He said, I'm just at some point, Gretzky, Lemieux, Ovechkin, somebody would have done it.

Speaker 14 So I want to throw out to you guys first off. Do you think anyone will ever break Sittler's 10-point record? Then I got a hockey news thing for Dave in a second.

Speaker 12 Sittler, first what do you got no 10 points in a game no i hope not as a goalie i sure hope not

Speaker 14 by the way the closest to it this is crazy yager had a seven point game sam gagne had an eight point game back in 2012 showed up to his father dave gagne loved him on the north stars great panthers like it dave gagne's a good years for the pantheon

Speaker 14 Dave, on the topic of the hockey news, I'm talking to Lanny McDonald. And of course, I'm just staring at the stash.

Speaker 14 And I said, Lanny, I got to tell you, I said, I read your book, by the way, back when I was like nine years old in 87, I saw the cover of Lanny, and I said, that mustache, you got to tell me about the stash.

Speaker 14 And, you know, what was the first time that you grew it? And he goes, well, I don't know the first time, but I've had a lot of. lucrative offers to shave it along the way.

Speaker 14 And I said, I remember, I said, I have a hockey news like from years ago. It's literally just your face.
And it's like, you know how you have an outline of somebody, you can tell who it is?

Speaker 14 It was just the mustache and like the bucket helmet. It's so amazing.
And Lanny goes, it's my signature mark. I can never get rid of it.

Speaker 14 It makes me think about, guys, Barry Melrose, for years at ESPN, I told him, why don't you ever cut the mullet? And he goes, I tried to, and they told me I I couldn't. I said, why?

Speaker 14 He goes, I was just going to go get a haircut. And I go, I'm tired.
It's been 20 years. Whatever.
They go, no, no, that's part of your look. That's your signature.
Give me a beggar's signature.

Speaker 14 Then Lanny McDonald must dash.

Speaker 12 Yeah. I mean, I'm thinking like silhouettes like Mark Messier comes to mind, like a recognizable, but like.

Speaker 8 Jonathan Zaslow in the backwards cap.

Speaker 9 Yeah.

Speaker 12 Well, I'm curious now, how much was he getting offered to shave that mustache? Because like at what point do you really have to start considering these offers? Like five figures, six figures?

Speaker 12 Like, what are we talking here? That's the follow-up question that I have for Lanny McDonald.

Speaker 14 Yeah, we have to find out because he, um, Thomas Hickey, of course, is part of our Amazon Monday Night crew, grew up in Calgary.

Speaker 14 He said, I still have vivid memories of listening to whatever Car Commerce was GMC. And the way it would end would be, and tell him Lanny sent you.

Speaker 14 And I said to Lanny, I go, like, what would happen if I did that? Like, I went to an auto dealership in that air and go, hey, Lanny sent me. Am I getting 10% off tires?

Speaker 14 Am I getting free all changes or what? But he didn't give me an answer.

Speaker 2 And then talking about Toronto, you know, Toronto and Florida are tied atop the Atlantic division right now.

Speaker 2 And you mentioned the season that Austin Matthews is having, obviously not anywhere near near the year that he had last year. What's like the tenor in Toronto surrounding Austin Matthews?

Speaker 2 And of course, you know, you remember this past, you know, when we're in the

Speaker 2 team, the Four Nations, you know, you can look at his performance there as well. Like, how are they feeling about him right now?

Speaker 14 It's a great question to ask. He's one of those guys.
He's kind of like the golden boy. Like, he is above reproach.

Speaker 14 You know, having been born in Toronto and growing up in Ontario, a lot of those horrible 80s Leaves teams, no matter what, they just adored Wendell Clark because he was the one guy that was tough and would fight and could score and he was hurt a lot of times, times, had terrible back injury, but Wendell was that guy.

Speaker 14 So I thought with this Leafs team, they kick the crap out of Mitch Marner. They'll beat up on him.
They'll beat up on their goaltend, their defense, whatever it is.

Speaker 14 But generally, they're always favorable towards Austin Matthews. So I haven't heard much criticism at all.
While I was there, their whole thought is he's much more hurt than you think.

Speaker 14 Like he's playing through an injury. So rather than why is this guy, relatively speaking, stinking up the joint, it's what a tough guy.
Clearly, he's not 100%. He's still playing.

Speaker 14 By the way, they always beat up on Marner. He's on pace for 101 points, which would be a career high.

Speaker 14 And we all know the rumors of the fact they apparently went to him allegedly trying to trade him for rantoning.

Speaker 14 Jason DeBurns, my podcast co-host, I think it's all in Scripture, said if he was Marner, he would not return to Toronto.

Speaker 14 Neil and are still having another wonderful season, but no, Zach, specifically to Matthews, they love AM34.

Speaker 8 And then, I want to ask you, right now, the Caps just became the first team to clinch a playoff spot last night. They're on 100 points.
The Jets are also on 100 points.

Speaker 8 It's going to be an epic battle down the stretch to see who wins the president's trophy.

Speaker 9 But neither of these teams really did a whole lot at the deadline.

Speaker 8 And I know sometimes we kind of get caught up up in who made the splashy acquisitions at the deadline and whatnot. Do you think they did enough?

Speaker 8 Do you think too many teams around them got so much better that they might not be serious candidates to go deep in the playoffs anymore?

Speaker 14 So, Ethan, I always worry about it.

Speaker 14 I look at the Carolina Hurricane specifically, and I say, you know, they're one of those teams, they're always B plus, A-, but come playoff time, they can't elevate. They can't get to the next level.

Speaker 14 And that's why I did love the ransom to move. I said, no, he's a superstar that can transcend.

Speaker 14 Of course, they could have done their due diligence and made sure he actually wanted to sign a long-term deal. But regardless, you pivot, you do what you got to do.

Speaker 14 To your point, with Winnipeg, and by the way, I'm going to be making my fourth trip to Winnipeg coming up here. Oh, thank you.

Speaker 14 Yeah, I know, Roy. Thankfully, home game this Monday, by the way, we got Canucks Devils.
We built it as a Hughes Bowl, and then Jack Hughes got hurt, but at least we get to see Quinn Hughes.

Speaker 14 So I'll just be driving through the Meadowlands here at 35 minutes in Newark. But the week after that, Denver, can't wait to see the Avalanche, but Kiddin McCarr up, close and personal.

Speaker 14 Then we've got Winnipeg, then Edmonton to close the Amazon schedule. Kings Oilers, as you got into the final game.
But Ethan, to your point, Jets, I'm going to watch them again, April 7th.

Speaker 14 And everything I keep saying about them is Halliburton's about to win his third Vesna. They've got three great lines, solid defense.
I love Morrison. I think he's a top-10 defenseman.

Speaker 14 Schifely Connor obviously leads the attack. Power Play has been a little quiet recently, and you wonder how important that is come playoff time because, you know, you have to score goals at 505.

Speaker 14 You can't just rely on penalties. Less penalties are called in the playoffs.
But I think it's a fair point. I was talking to Mark Parrish yesterday on NHL Network.
I'm with Kevin Weeks today.

Speaker 12 Another former Panthers.

Speaker 14 We love the former Panthers. Exactly.
Good call, Dave. If I said, you know, who's coming out of the central, no one's saying the Jets.
Like, I, me and Perry boasted the stars.

Speaker 14 Uh, Demers and Weeks, he said the avalanche. Like, no one's going like, yeah, Winnipeg's a T2B.
They're going to win the division.

Speaker 14 And everyone's going, eh, I want to see what Halabuck does in the playoffs. Like, he has yet to prove that to me.

Speaker 9 And they don't think

Speaker 12 Toronto of the Western Conference. They can be as good as hell in the regular season, but nobody thinks they're going to do it in the playoffs.

Speaker 16 Are they actually the best team in the West?

Speaker 9 Because

Speaker 9 I'm not concerned.

Speaker 8 As far as points are concerned, but look how good Colorado looks right now.

Speaker 11 To me, they're terrifying.

Speaker 8 McKinnon, McCarr, the way Nature's has been playing since he's gone over there, like they've been

Speaker 8 better since they traded Randon, which is an insane thing to say. And their lines after the trade deadline, you look at them, and they're as deep as anybody in the league right now.

Speaker 14 And the single best reason to watch the NHL playoffs is going to be that series, Dallas, Colorado.

Speaker 14 Like, it's maddening to me because either of those teams could be co-favorites to win the Stanley Cup, and one of those two teams is going to be out after the first round. Amazing.

Speaker 9 All right, let's get to the video portion of this segment. We have a video of two two fans at a Capitals game from 20 years ago and most recently.

Speaker 9 So these fans were kids when they showed up to this Capitals

Speaker 9 in 2005 with Foam 8s on their head. And 20 years later, as grown-ass men, they showed up to a Capitals game.
Now those Foam 8s have autographs on them and they are celebrating Alexander Ovezkin.

Speaker 9 Now, Alexander Oveskin scored last night. He now has 888 goals in his career.
That's seven away from breaking the record. 888 goals for the grade eight.

Speaker 12 Is he going to hit 1,000?

Speaker 9 No.

Speaker 12 He could still play for a few more years if he wants to.

Speaker 2 Do we know yet when Gretzky is going to start following the Capitals?

Speaker 4 I think he started.

Speaker 14 I think it was five goals to go.

Speaker 15 Oh.

Speaker 9 I think he started. Yeah.

Speaker 12 I guess as soon as you're in the realm of he could do it this game, which five goals in a game isn't that crazy for a guy like Ovechkin. So yeah, that would make sense.

Speaker 2 All right. Hopefully, I mean, he gets it done in a timely fashion.

Speaker 9 I don't know if Redsky wants to be spending two, three weeks on the road with the cabinet.

Speaker 12 Imagine if he drags it out.

Speaker 9 He's got his own private jet. In Utah, apparently, Michael Sergachev has a chicken farm, and he's given eggs.

Speaker 12 He's a smart guy.

Speaker 9 Yeah, he's giving eggs to his teammates.

Speaker 9 In a tweet from Bell Frazier, who's in the locker room, I just have a lot of eggs. Once we hit like 24, 30 eggs, I start giving them away to my teammates.
Obviously, I feed them well.

Speaker 9 I take care of them. Now there's a shortage of eggs so guys appreciate it more now

Speaker 12 eggs are expensive if there was anywhere this was gonna happen though Utah yeah

Speaker 12 communal kind people from what I've been told I haven't been there but seems like a happy place right I don't know correct me if I'm wrong fellas but it seems like this is like Winnipeg maybe

Speaker 8 all of Canada Calgary Edmonton I don't know I didn't would know Canadian geography better than we would.

Speaker 14 Well, I'll tell you this right now. Here in New Jersey, I can tell we have an egg shortage.
It's just unbelievable. I mean, we don't need to get political into hold terrorists right now.

Speaker 14 But, God, we can't even get enough eggs here in New Jersey. Forget about back home in Canada.

Speaker 14 And I will tell you, speaking back home to Canadians, there's people, one of my best friends will not buy strawberries. It's what do you mean?

Speaker 14 He goes to my local grocery store, it's only from America. I said, that's going too far.
A man needs his strawberries.

Speaker 9 There was another tweet from that presser. Nick Buxted apparently had a comment that Sokashev's another former panther.

Speaker 9 Huge Panther. Huge stanza.

Speaker 14 I'm not expecting my chickens like that.

Speaker 9 Yeah, Brooks said to him

Speaker 9 about his Sokachev's chickens potentially having bird flu. You should check that.

Speaker 9 And Sokachev said, it's insane.

Speaker 9 He disrespected my chickens like that. I still gave him eggs because he said his wife went to the store and there were no eggs.

Speaker 2 That is disrespectful to claim that

Speaker 9 his birds have bird flu. Right? Yeah.

Speaker 9 That's bad. He's doing a service to everybody, too.

Speaker 12 Yeah, that's a knock-on wood joke. You don't do that right now.

Speaker 9 Yeah, not right now.

Speaker 9 And I'm going to extend my Islanders shit talk streak on this show, even though.

Speaker 12 I was wondering if you were going to get to that. Yeah,

Speaker 9 I got no choice. I got to continue the streak no matter what happened with the Panthers this week.
But here's a video, and there's sound on this, by the way.

Speaker 9 Here's a video of an Islanders fan chirping at John Tavares who made his return on the island.

Speaker 9 Hey, Jordan, you're a traitor, a liar, a snake, a fake. You should have told us.
We want to go pick for you, you thought it fake.

Speaker 9 You suck. You'll always suck, Tavaris.
You'll always be a loser. Always.
I love you as you. Always, and you know what I'm saying.
You should have told us. And you fake 45.

Speaker 9 I love you.

Speaker 3 I used to love you. Oh, man.
I used to love

Speaker 9 loser mentality.

Speaker 12 The lady in the background is the guy's going off. You can hear her.
She's like, I love you.

Speaker 15 That was like,

Speaker 9 I used to love you, I think what she's saying.

Speaker 12 No, no, she was saying that to the guy who was screaming at you.

Speaker 9 Oh, my God.

Speaker 12 She was saying it to the guy. He's like ripping Tavarsa Newman and she thank you for speaking for us that guy is getting laid or he got laid that night for sure

Speaker 12 loser allenders talked dirty to me in bed about john tavares loser

Speaker 9 loser team lose a fan base allenders this season you gotta change my acquisitions well yeah yeah as soon as that one acquisition that i would well as soon as that one release i should say happens i will be on that ass you think i saw him he got scratched recently or was held out of practice and he deserves it

Speaker 9 freaking he had two assists last game by the way uh so yeah there's that too so but i I guess he's

Speaker 8 Does Taverus still scar you guys from 2016?

Speaker 2 I mean, Trochek was tripped. Everybody knows that.

Speaker 9 Yeah, everybody knows that.

Speaker 9 Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that, except for the referee.
Everybody knows that.

Speaker 12 It's okay now. Standing up.

Speaker 9 All right, wins of the week. David.

Speaker 12 My win of the week goes to a young man in the OHL by the name of Jake Carabella. This young man had something happen to him the other night in a game against the Flint Firebirds.

Speaker 4 He lost his cup.

Speaker 12 And there it is, if you're watching on YouTube. The cup's just kind of hanging out in the ice.
And the first guy they show is a guy named Wang, which is just hilarious.

Speaker 9 But anyway.

Speaker 12 So the ref goes and grabs the cup, picks it up, takes it over to the bench, gives it to Tarabella. And you know what he does? He says, thank you, and he shoves it right back in his pants.

Speaker 12 Is that one of the most hockey things I've seen all week?

Speaker 9 Yeah, he used a towel. He used the towel to give it back to.

Speaker 15 Well, yeah, because

Speaker 15 he's clearly not wearing it properly, that it's falling out like that.

Speaker 2 Like, I used to do that when I was 10 years old, and we wanted to be super lazy in Little League, where you wouldn't wear the entire jock strap, and you just wear the cup, stick the cup in your hand.

Speaker 2 It's like, yeah, it's very dangerous.

Speaker 9 No, I was a catcher, so I had to make sure that was maintained properly.

Speaker 14 They'd be like, Roy, let me hear it. You start banging on your cup.
Otherwise, you can't give you that mitt.

Speaker 9 Yep. Yeah, just like that.

Speaker 9 My win in a week earlier this week, the Seattle Kraken held what they called an oops all-goalies game. And their goaltender, Joy Dracord, dropped the ceremonial first puck.
Now, it's really

Speaker 9 a real sight to behold to see dozens of fully padded goaltenders out there playing like their position players. It was a beauty, man.

Speaker 12 If I got to do that, I would just hit guys.

Speaker 9 You want to check? Yeah.

Speaker 9 What else am I going to do?

Speaker 12 I'm not going to try to score on like 25 other goalies. I just want to go out there and bang around.

Speaker 2 It doesn't look terribly organized.

Speaker 9 No, it's not a goalie fight.

Speaker 14 If you ever lost a good goalie fight, you're going to drop the gloves and just start fighting every goalie you could. That'd be awesome.

Speaker 12 I don't want to fight. I just want to be a troll.
I just want to go out there and hit people.

Speaker 9 That's hilarious. Ethan.

Speaker 8 Adnan mentioned Connor Hallebuck earlier. This guy's pretty amazing.
Win of the week from the Jets Canucks game. Last week, we went with a goalie.
We're going back to the goalie well here again.

Speaker 8 Watch this save that Connor Helibuck makes. Comes out of his net, dives all the way back with his stick out.
This guy's unbelievable.

Speaker 9 Look at how close that puck is to going in right there. Wow.
Unbelievable.

Speaker 8 Adenan, could this guy legitimately win the heart trophy this year, not just the Vesna?

Speaker 14 You know, I looked at the odds, Ethan, yesterday, and Dry Settle is the favorite.

Speaker 14 Halebuck is second right now, which I was amazed amazed because I actually thought McKinnon, if you just said to me up top of your God, McKinnon for the heart.

Speaker 14 No, right now it's Dry Settle, Halebuck, then McKinnon, and Halebuck, I think, is going to get nominated. Could he win? Absolutely.

Speaker 14 I mean, if the Jets end up winning the president's trophy, and he's the biggest reason why, and he's going to win his third venison. We've seen it before.
Josie Theodore, Carrie Price,

Speaker 14 Halebuck's been an incredible story.

Speaker 14 He's a triple crown categories. Wins, goals against, shutouts.

Speaker 9 I mean, regardless of if the Jets win the president's trophy, the way the Ollis played this season, I mean, they're pretty low in the standings right now. I mean,

Speaker 9 it should

Speaker 8 If any skater should win it, it should be McKinnon. He's going to lead the league in points again for the second straight year.
He's been the best player in the league this year.

Speaker 8 His team is going to be, you know, one of the main contenders to win the Stanley Cup way more than Edmonton is this year.

Speaker 8 And we all know that as great as Dry Sidle is, he's not the best player on his team.

Speaker 9 So it's like,

Speaker 9 isn't he the MVP? He is this season, though. Fails of the week.

Speaker 14 Dry Sidle is, by the Case of Dresden, 49 goals, 11 more than any other skater. So insane.

Speaker 8 Yeah, his goal scoring numbers this year are insane.

Speaker 12 Fails of the week, Dave. My fail of the week is us as a collective hockey community.

Speaker 9 What would I do?

Speaker 12 For our collective lack of an understanding of the man that is Matt Rempey. What are we doing with this guy?

Speaker 12 Is he a lug on the ice that just like runs into guys and gets called for penalties at this point?

Speaker 9 That's not interference.

Speaker 12 He's got speed. He's got hands.
We just can never see them because he's out there like a freaking Frankenstein on the ice. He can't, like, look at this.
Look at that.

Speaker 12 Look how quickly he gets up the ice. Like,

Speaker 12 there is skill with this guy, and we can't really see it because he's been branded and partially rightly so. But I just feel like there's more to the man than what we see.

Speaker 12 And now he's like the referees, every time he sneezes or he looks at a guy, he's getting called for a penalty. I don't know.

Speaker 9 Yeah, he's getting penalties called on him that are not actually penalties because he is who he is.

Speaker 12 So I just think there's more to Matt Rempey that meets the eye, and I think maybe we're starting to really push him into a corner, and maybe unfairly so. I don't know.

Speaker 9 My favorite of the week comes from Avalanche Maple Leafs referee Kelly Sutherland. Oh, no.
Wrong place, wrong time.

Speaker 9 He fell forward, and the Pucks stopped it. Oh, no, fast.

Speaker 9 And that's not the worst case because

Speaker 9 Stephen Lawrence came in and scored.

Speaker 4 Former Panther show.

Speaker 9 Oh, McKenzie Blackwood.

Speaker 15 Yeah, I see.

Speaker 14 They're fighting with the Stars for second place essential. Imagine if they fall by two points.
The Stars get homeoise because of Kelly Sutherland's boo-boo. That is a disaster.

Speaker 8 This was a huge game for the Panthers. This tied the division.
This tied the Atlantic division because the Lease won this game.

Speaker 9 Well, I mean, the Panthers won after the Maple Lease Lease won, so technically.

Speaker 2 Nah, but still,

Speaker 2 you'd like to be ahead by two.

Speaker 9 Yes, absolutely. But, of course, this road trip did not help the Panthers not.
You got one more. You got one more tomorrow.
Yeah, I got one more tomorrow.

Speaker 2 You feel good about the road trip, you win at Washington.

Speaker 17 You'll feel good about it.

Speaker 9 Back-to-backs, too, away and home. That's ridiculous.

Speaker 9 What are we doing?

Speaker 12 Well, they got, what, three back-to-backs in the next two weeks? Because I think they got a road trip coming up where it's a back-to-back, two days off, and then another back-to-back.

Speaker 12 Very strange what the schedule makers have done to the Panthers.

Speaker 9 It's just stupid. Ethan.

Speaker 8 Guys, the Buffalo Sabers are really bad. And anytime you lose to the Buffalo Sabres, it's really bad.
But this is one of the worst ways you can lose to the Buffalo Sabres here.

Speaker 8 Tomash Hurdle has a breakaway with an empty net, tries to dump it back to Jack Eichel for some reason. Not really sure why.
Puck goes the other way.

Speaker 8 Sabers score to tie the game with like less than a minute left. We go to a shootout.
No goals in overtime. Here comes Alex Tuck, I think this is.
Beats him for the winner. Sabers win.

Speaker 8 They had an empty net goal to put it away. My fill of the week goes to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Speaker 9 And just to tell you how bad the Sabres season has been, there was an own goal on a delayed penalty when the Sabres played the Utah Hockey Club.

Speaker 12 And it didn't even go to the goalie. Like, if you score on yourself, the other goalie should get credit.

Speaker 9 No, it was a bad pass that went across the length of the ice cream.

Speaker 8 I think that's how the Utah Hockey Club scored their first ever goal in the preseason this year. It was a goal that was a bad pass into an empty net on a delayed penalty in the preseason.

Speaker 12 That's very appropriate for the former Coyotes.

Speaker 4 That's ridiculous.

Speaker 14 By the way, a a good reminder for all the sports media out there, like Ethan pointed out, Bruce Cassie Affords was asked by a reporter who simply said, empty netter, a couple of guys in the ice there, didn't score the goal.

Speaker 14 And Bruce paused and goes, is there a question in there? Always ask a question, especially to a pissed-off coach minutes after they should have buried an empty netter.

Speaker 9 Not great.

Speaker 4 Not great at all.

Speaker 9 Adnan, thank you for joining us. Prime Monday Night Hockey.
Adnan Burke.

Speaker 14 Thank you so much, fellas. Appreciate it.
I'll see you guys again soon. I can't wait for the playoffs.

Speaker 9 Be well, brother.

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Speaker 6 Tiffany Piñota joins us from the fourth period, and the GM meetings have wrapped up this week.

Speaker 9 And they were talking about league business and whatnot, and maybe some rule changes. Maybe not.
Who knows? But

Speaker 9 yeah, the general managers gathered together in Florida to talk about what's going on in the league. But there was a major issue that came from the Devils GM, Tom Fitzgerald.

Speaker 9 His son, Casey, was cut under the chin by

Speaker 9 Yeah, another phone. Tom Fitzgerald, another phone.

Speaker 2 Huge goal, game 7, 96.

Speaker 9 Gigantic goal. But his son was slit by a skate in a freak accident.
He

Speaker 9 luckily made it to a medical facility and got stitched up. He is okay.

Speaker 9 Also, what happened with the Canadians and the senators, Josh Anderson was wearing cut-proof skate socks and the back of his leg got slit. Luckily, the socks saved him.

Speaker 9 Shane Pinto, as you can see in this video,

Speaker 9 right there.

Speaker 9 That could have been a career ending. That was right.

Speaker 9 Didn't that happen to Hoobrido a few years ago? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 12 Yeah. In a preseason game.
Yeah.

Speaker 9 That was that could have been.

Speaker 12 Yeah. Cut his Achilles or some crazy thing.

Speaker 4 Ugh, God.

Speaker 9 So Tom Fitzgerald has made an impassioned plea to institute.

Speaker 9 cut-resistant protective gear for the players.

Speaker 9 You know, kind of grandfather them in, kind of like the visors and whatnot. So,

Speaker 9 what are we hearing from the GMs? Is there any traction on this happening, David?

Speaker 15 Seems like there is.

Speaker 15 You know, they want to be obviously cognizant of how to protect these guys on a regular basis. And you know, athletes, they're creatures of habit.

Speaker 15 So, any type of adjustment or change, and they're going to go, whoa, whoa, whoa, I don't like this. Hold on.
Sometimes you got to force the issue.

Speaker 15 And, you know, even when you show them these types of videos and you show them what happened to other guys,

Speaker 15 some guys are stubborn. So

Speaker 15 from a GM's perspective, they want to make sure their guys are safe.

Speaker 15 And some guys have been wearing neck protectors. I know Angel Kopitar in LA has been a big proponent of that.

Speaker 15 He's been wearing it even in preseason games and wants that to be a regular thing for the rest of his guys. I think the more we see this, the more this is going to come into play.

Speaker 15 Whether they make it mandatory or they grandfather it in, like you said, for the younger guys guys coming into the league.

Speaker 15 Well, we'll obviously have to wait and see. But yeah, Tommy made a nice plea, a good argument, an emotional argument to have this instituted across the league.
We'll see exactly where that goes.

Speaker 15 Everything is optional right now, including the

Speaker 15 protective, Kevlar protective

Speaker 15 socks and things like that, which obviously helped Josh Anderson. Even at the end of that video, he's kind of looking out going, wow, I got lucky.
And he did.

Speaker 8 and it's again just a reminder for him his teammates and even people other people around the league you got to protect yourselves because it's a fast high-impact sport and anything could happen let me ask you as somebody who has never played hockey before what's the issue here like why do these why are these guys so resistant is it a tough guy thing or is it a comfort thing like what's the this seems so obvious to me to wear everything possible that would be cut resistant it's more of a comfort thing honestly Like these guys, again, creatures of habit,

Speaker 15 they've been doing this since they were, you know, four years old, five years old, and they haven't had to wear it.

Speaker 15 And they feel like it's going to be restrictive in some fashion,

Speaker 15 which, you know, when you're on the outside looking in, you're going, that doesn't make any sense. That's silly.
But when you're playing it.

Speaker 15 You know, and you have to put something else on that you're not accustomed to or used to, it's in the back of your mind. Eventually, I think it will get pushed in fully across the board.

Speaker 15 But until then, you're going to see a little bit of resistance from the players and them wanting it to be their choice, which I get to a certain extent. But

Speaker 15 I think eventually this is going to be a mainstream thing in the National Hockey League.

Speaker 12 Yeah, Ethan, just kind of thinking about like guy like Martin Brodor wore the same chest protector for like 30 years. Like look at Matthew Kachuck.
He wears the same ratty piece of whatever shirt.

Speaker 12 Like these guys wear the same gear for 20, 30 years. So it doesn't surprise me that there'd be pushback and starting it from a lower level would make sense.

Speaker 12 But Dave, I wanted to talk to you about something else that kind of came out of the GM meeting.

Speaker 12 Something that I've been clamoring about for a while, and it sounds like it's not going to happen, is an extension of the three-on-three overtime from five minutes to 10 minutes, just because I think it would cut out like 95% of shootouts, which I think we'd all be in favor of.

Speaker 12 So it doesn't sound like that's happening. It also doesn't sound like there's going to be any rule changes in the immediate future.

Speaker 12 And it sounds like the playoff format is going to stay the same because Gary Bettman said he loves it the way it is.

Speaker 9 Why?

Speaker 12 Are they just adverse to change? Are they just really happy despite what, like, what the, I guess, what guys like us are saying? Uh, it seems like Gary's just very happy with the status quo.

Speaker 15 Yeah, there haven't been any big need for like, you know, big rule changes.

Speaker 15 They reviewed goaltender interference. They reviewed some of the other different plays, offsides, just making sure that everything's kind of aligned there.

Speaker 15 With respect to the playoff format, they really...

Speaker 15 Their argument, and it's worked, and it's, I understand it. I don't agree with it.
I think it should change too, but I get why they're so strong on this one.

Speaker 15 To have the rivalries kick in right out of the gate has meant a lot for the league in terms of its ratings and

Speaker 15 everything that's tied to that. So, for the potential to see Colorado Dallas in the first round,

Speaker 15 even though that's like a conference final, Stanley Cup final type of matchup in terms of the caliber of these two teams, it's going to draw a lot of attention right out of the gate when the playoffs begin.

Speaker 15 And that just means more eyes, that means more potential revenue, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 15 So, but from a leak perspective, they feel that that argument is valid, and that's why they don't want to change it. And again, I get it, but

Speaker 15 my preference would be I'd rather see that as a conference final, for example.

Speaker 15 But the potential to have Tampa, Florida in the first round, Toronto, Ottawa first round, Colorado, Dallas first round, Edmonton, LA first round. There's so many different storylines tied to it.

Speaker 15 It just boosts ratings significantly. And again, good for sponsorship.
And then you hope that the viewership continues round after round after round with all the hype that's built up in round one.

Speaker 15 That's the league's argument.

Speaker 2 Where are we on the all-star format?

Speaker 15 It's going to change.

Speaker 15 I don't know if we'll have an all-star game per se next season. There will be an all-star weekend.
To what extent, that's what they're trying to figure out over these next few weeks here.

Speaker 15 There's going to be, I think the skills competition is going to stay. They'll tweak a few things there.

Speaker 15 But because everyone is going to be in New York and they're all going to fly to Milan for the Winter Olympics,

Speaker 15 I think there's going to be some type of international flair to it. Obviously, piggybacking off Four Nations leading into Olympics, it makes sense to do something in that type of format.

Speaker 15 To what extent, I don't know yet because they don't even know. But there will be an all-star weekend.
I don't think the game itself will happen. I think there will be other activities around it.

Speaker 15 A skills competition, maybe an expanded one.

Speaker 15 I'm sure they're going to bring three on three in some capacity back as well in some type of competitive format.

Speaker 9 Frank Sara Velli has written an article on

Speaker 9 power plays being at its lowest level since the 1963-64 season. Like penalties are just not being called.
There have been 747 fewer power plays this year than last year. That's a 12% drop.

Speaker 9 I shouldn't say penalties aren't being called. It's probably more of the

Speaker 9 4-in-4 type situations where they're matching penalties on scrums and stuff like that. And the GMs don't know why.
What are you hearing out of the GM meetings about the power plays being lowered?

Speaker 15 Yeah, there's a little bit of confusion with regard to that.

Speaker 15 And

Speaker 15 publicly,

Speaker 15 the league and its

Speaker 15 entities, including the GMs, they don't like to criticize the refs publicly. So we'll see what they're saying behind the scenes.
Eventually that will probably come out.

Speaker 15 But there's some head scratchers. And a lot of people,

Speaker 15 you know, they wonder why

Speaker 15 certain calls aren't being called, certain penalties aren't being called, why they're just letting everything go. In Toronto, I sit in the press box and Toronto's management staff is right above me.

Speaker 15 And you get to hear a few comments being made as to why that wasn't called, that wasn't called, and how was that called, but the last four weren't.

Speaker 15 I mean, mean i've even sat there i'm sure you guys have too you sit there and you start well that should have been one well that's a hooking call that's interference that's this that's that and they kind of let it go um

Speaker 15 if it's consistent across the board

Speaker 15 and then i don't think people have much of a problem with it overall but if it's if it varies game by game, then

Speaker 15 that's where the concern really starts to factor in.

Speaker 15 So even if they're calling less, if they're letting things go, as long as it's the same in October as it is in June, teams really don't have much of an argument, and they're comfortable with that at the end of the day.

Speaker 15 They'll be heated in the moment, but at least they'll go, well, at least they didn't call that crap in November and December, and all of a sudden they're calling it now or vice versa.

Speaker 15 The league just wants, the players just want consistency. If the penalties are lower and they're letting guys get away with more stuff,

Speaker 15 so be it, as long as it's the same from game one as it is to the last game of the cup final.

Speaker 12 Dave, it is March 21st. We are less than a month away from the Stanley Cup playoffs beginning.
And as I look at the standings this morning, I noticed something very interesting.

Speaker 12 I noticed that all seven Canadian teams are either in a playoff spot or within two points of a playoff spot.

Speaker 12 So we've got a legitimate chance of having all seven Canadian teams in the playoffs, which would give your nation basically a 50% chance of winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in, I don't know, like 50 years?

Speaker 12 How long has it been? 1999?

Speaker 7 Since 1993. 1992?

Speaker 9 Been a while.

Speaker 12 What's the excitement level up in your neck of the woods? Are they like getting jacked up generally?

Speaker 12 I know that it's very compartmentalized with who roots for who, but it seems like this should be like the time for Canadian hockey fans.

Speaker 15 Yeah, well, I'm in Toronto.

Speaker 15 So

Speaker 15 it's a little, the vibe's a little different here. It's it's a combination of

Speaker 15 the hell with everyone else. We just want the leafs to win.
And

Speaker 15 this team's not even good enough because they lost a couple nights ago and

Speaker 15 blow this team up, even though they're tied with the Panthers and points.

Speaker 15 I think in the other markets, like Ottawa is hyped. Montreal, ridiculously hyped right now with what they could potentially do.
There's a lot of pessimism in Toronto.

Speaker 15 There's a lot of pessimism in Vancouver, too.

Speaker 15 They're very similar in that respect. Edmonton's hoping that McDavid and Drysidel are healthy as they're getting looked at, I think, today as well.
So they're hyped.

Speaker 15 They want a chance at the Stanley Cup again, but they want to make sure their guys are good.

Speaker 15 And Winnipeg is just, I mean, they're rolling and they're waiting for game 83 because that's what they're so focused on postseason play that they just want

Speaker 15 that to get going. I think more Ottawa, Calgary, Montreal, those are the markets where everyone's really hyped up about the potential of making the playoffs because the Havs weren't expected to.

Speaker 15 Calgary wasn't really expected to this season, and Ottawa was hopeful.

Speaker 15 But there needed to be a lot of things to go right for the sends, and they have this season with Travis Green behind the bench. So I think there's more, it's more of a selective, market-wide type of

Speaker 15 excitement and exuberance for the potential of making the playoffs in those three markets versus pessimism in Vancouver and Toronto

Speaker 15 and

Speaker 15 expectations in Winnipeg and Edmonton at usually a pretty consistent high.

Speaker 2 Which Canadian teams would the Toronto Maple Leaf fan root for to bring the cup back to Canada?

Speaker 9 Ooh,

Speaker 9 that's a great

Speaker 9 question.

Speaker 15 That's a really good one.

Speaker 15 I would imagine

Speaker 15 definitely not Montreal. Right.

Speaker 15 Probably not Ottawa.

Speaker 2 Like, what was it like in the Stanley Cup final last year?

Speaker 15 I think they were kind of like, all right, cool. We'll watch.
And,

Speaker 15 you know, the Blue Jays suck, so they couldn't deal with that in the summer.

Speaker 15 I think half of them were cheering for Edmonton, and the other half were like, whatever, we just like hockey, go Florida.

Speaker 8 How mad were people, though, when the Cup went in the Atlantic Ocean? Like, was Canada, was there a day of mourning in Canada when that happened?

Speaker 15 There was like a collective sigh, like a hand on the chest. Matt, what are you doing?

Speaker 15 And then they're like, okay, it's safe. It's good.

Speaker 15 We're okay. I think that was the cupkeepers' reactions, too,

Speaker 15 when that happened outside Elbow Room. But it was...

Speaker 15 Like, there's a crazy, obviously there's a crazy passion for the sport and for everything tied to it, but it's also like market-driven.

Speaker 15 In Toronto, I'm sure there were more fans cheering for Edmonton than there weren't.

Speaker 15 I would imagine Calgary would be the same, Vancouver. I don't know if Toronto would be all on board with that, and definitely Winnipeg, I don't think they would care.

Speaker 15 But definitely, they don't want Montreal and definitely not Ottawa getting anywhere near a Stanley Cup.

Speaker 15 The cup run that the Havs were on in 2021 when they lost to Tampa and beat Toronto in the first round,

Speaker 15 that was all hands on deck. Just

Speaker 15 anything against the haves

Speaker 15 works well for Toronto fans.

Speaker 9 All right. A couple of questions before we get out of here.
Did the league talk about Donald Trump's idea of having a NHL, KHL all-star game? And where are we on the CBA?

Speaker 9 I mean, there's an influx of money coming in for the league. So is there a league piece right now?

Speaker 15 The NHL, KHL stuff,

Speaker 15 that's never going to happen anytime soon.

Speaker 9 There you go.

Speaker 15 Thank you. So that's really the end of that.

Speaker 15 With respect to the CBA, I've never seen the NHL and NHLPA so harmonious before.

Speaker 15 Going back to like the 2003, four lockout or four, five, whatever it was,

Speaker 15 and the previous one. And I've never seen it.
Even in the last regime, the tensions were always high. Like you'd have to walk on eggshells talking about it.

Speaker 15 I've talked to Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly and the executive director of the NHLPA, Marty Walsh, and his number two and Ron Hainesy, former NHLer.

Speaker 15 Everyone's reaction has been, we're good. We'll figure it out.
We're not too concerned about it. I've never seen that before.

Speaker 15 And keep in mind, they had to agree on everything tied to Four Nations because it was a joint venture between the NHL and NHLPA.

Speaker 15 They had to agree on bringing the World Cup back because, again, joint venture, and they did that relatively seamlessly.

Speaker 15 They had to agree on the cap numbers for the next three seasons and the projections that are moving forward, and they did with relative ease.

Speaker 15 The negotiations, as Bettman said this week, are going to start in April, but they've had discussions across the board for the last little while, for the last several weeks.

Speaker 15 So

Speaker 15 I don't think they're at a point where these talks, these negotiations are going to have to fine-tune anything because there will be some sticking points.

Speaker 15 I know the players are going to want to have a chat about expansion and where those revenues go.

Speaker 15 Because right now, that is strictly shared by the owners and the team and the leagues, excuse me, the league and the teams argue that, well, we're giving you new jobs.

Speaker 15 So that's where your influx of revenue kicks in.

Speaker 15 But that's going to be a talking point

Speaker 15 along with a few other things. But there is nothing pressing that is going to risk any pause

Speaker 15 in labor peace.

Speaker 15 The goal is to get something done this summer. Maybe, I mean,

Speaker 15 the

Speaker 15 very aggressive goal is to get something done by the Stanley Cup final.

Speaker 15 Again, aggressive, we'll see, but I would be shocked, based on everything that's happening right now, I'd be shocked if by next season, at the latest, we don't hear that the league and the NHLPA have extended their CBA several years.

Speaker 9 Well, it sounds like good news coming out of Florida with the GM meeting. So David Piñota, thank you all for joining us.

Speaker 15 Make it easy. Absolutely, boys.

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Speaker 6 All right, it's time for the Panthers recap presented by Jaganmeister.

Speaker 9 Serve it code or don't serve it at all. JagenMeister, damn, that's code.
For more, visit JaganMeister.com. Drink responsibly.
On Saturday, the Panthers played at Montreal, and that was terrible.

Speaker 9 Terrible, I tell you, it was bad. They looked uninterested in this game, but the Canadiens They really put their best effort into that one.
And the Panthers deserved this loss.

Speaker 9 Probably not as much as the Canadiens deserved that win, according to Paul Maurice, fellas. I mean, it was not a good game.

Speaker 12 No, the Panthers did not look like their usual selves. They weren't physical.
They weren't really playing up on their balls of their feet. Montreal took it to them for a good two and a half periods.

Speaker 12 And by the time Forta woke up, it was definitely too little too late.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it was a horrendous first period. And, you know, maybe if after that first period, they're only down one nothing.
They're down two-nothing.

Speaker 2 And, you know, you're in the game, but then you get to a place in that third period. You can't give up the next goal.
They do. They lose 3-1.

Speaker 9 Yeah, it's one of those situations where you go down early and you go down by two goals and then you spend the rest of the game trying to catch up. And they did.

Speaker 9 I mean, they put shots on net, and they put attempts, at least on, they tried, but nothing doing.

Speaker 12 No, Sam Montabeau did look good in goal for Montreal. Another former Panther.
Goodness gracious.

Speaker 9 I mean, it was bad. So that was Montreal.
And on Sunday, again, the back-to-back, and

Speaker 9 this is a running theme for the Panthers for the rest of the season. They played the Islanders.
Now, this loss,

Speaker 9 they lost 4-2,

Speaker 9 was probably the most angry I've been at this team in a very long time. And I'm talking about, we went to Edmonton twice and they lost.
We flew 10,000 miles. I don't want to hear you complain.

Speaker 9 I'm going to complain about this goddamn 15,000 miles, 10 cities to Edmonton and back.

Speaker 9 And they lost. And I wasn't as angry as I was when they lost to the Islanders on Sunday.
And And come on, man. They blew a two-goal lead, just like they did in Boston.
And, of course.

Speaker 9 Third-period lead.

Speaker 8 Third period lead. Common theme here.

Speaker 4 Defense.

Speaker 9 Well, no, I mean.

Speaker 8 What's going on recently on?

Speaker 9 Kulikov got hurt.

Speaker 17 He left the game.

Speaker 9 They were down.

Speaker 16 Well, obviously, Kulikov big loss.

Speaker 9 But what's going on? I can't quite. Oh,

Speaker 8 that Ekblad guy.

Speaker 12 Yes, he's very. He matters.

Speaker 9 He matters.

Speaker 8 For all those people that like to sh ⁇ on Ekblad a little bit, give him, you know, some flack for how he plays, This guy is super important because, I mean, look at the way

Speaker 12 we don't know what he took.

Speaker 9 Right, that's the other thing.

Speaker 8 It's like, we don't really know how much of an impact this actually had on his play this year. He's been a great player for them for a long time.

Speaker 8 And clearly, he's really important because not only do they miss him, but we saw what Seth Jones was as a number one defenseman in Chicago, right?

Speaker 9 That was the whole thing when he came here.

Speaker 8 We thought him moving down the lineup in Florida would make him a more effective player. And he's been awesome since coming over.
Don't get me wrong.

Speaker 8 But now he's had to shoulder that load as the number one defenseman. And you got a two-goal lead blown in

Speaker 8 Boston, a lackadaisical effort in Montreal, and then another two-goal lead blown in the third period against the Lowley Islanders who

Speaker 9 dated so far.

Speaker 9 But I mean,

Speaker 8 it was ugly.

Speaker 8 And you see some of the things, you know, even in that Toronto game, which was a great win for them, you saw, you know, a pass go through a wide open lane that you don't usually see where, you know, the defense is usually a lot sharper than that.

Speaker 8 So I think they really miss Aaron Eckblad, and hopefully he comes back right ready to play because he's going to be coming back for game three, the first round of the playoffs.

Speaker 8 If they're in a 1-1 series or even, God forbid, they're down 2-0 to Tampa, Toronto, Ottawa, like that's a big hole to dig out of, and they're going to need him to come back firing right away.

Speaker 2 I think it's going to be a blessing, actually. Him missing all this time.
I mean, yeah, he's going to come back a month off.

Speaker 2 And we know what he's looked like, especially after they lost in the Stanley Cup finals.

Speaker 2 He was super banged up. And now you're talking about another run into mid-June.
And then you want Eck Blad to play again the entire season. I mean,

Speaker 2 if this could happen to one guy who needs a little bit of rest here, I think it's going to wind up being a blessing in disguise for this team.

Speaker 8 And the other guy who's out too, Chucky.

Speaker 8 Like, I think Chucky is another guy who, with the physical way that he plays in the playoffs, obviously he's he's coming off an injury, so it's different, but getting him some time off to kind of get right, get back to 100%

Speaker 8 is going to be huge for him in the playoffs. And I think he's going to have no problem coming back, firing on all cylinders.

Speaker 9 As far as Kulikov is concerned, Palma Reese says that he expects Kulakov to return before the end of the regular season, which is, I hate that statement.

Speaker 9 I hate that statement because there's a month left. in the regular season.

Speaker 2 Well, and they don't have to be forthcoming in that league.

Speaker 4 No, absolutely.

Speaker 9 It's a lower body injury. It's It's an upper body injury, actually.
Yeah, it's an arm injury.

Speaker 12 Well, that's the weird thing, right? Is an arm upper? Because it's dangling. My arms are dangling.
My lower body.

Speaker 9 It connects to my shoulder. It starts at the upper body.

Speaker 2 Hey, man, they don't have to say anything. Yeah, we think he'll be back before the end of the year.

Speaker 9 If this was the NFL

Speaker 9 and Paul Maurice did that, he would get fined. Like, there's.
There's different rules. There's different rules.
They're operating within the rules that are made.

Speaker 12 It's like with Matthew Kachuk and LTIR. They're not making the rules.
Don't hate the player. Hate the game.

Speaker 9 Yeah, I hate the player. It's just the fact that I don't know when he's going to return, and I hate that because now we got to rely on whoever the Panthers are going to send up from Charlotte.

Speaker 9 And who could that be?

Speaker 12 Tobias Bjornfott, Bigfoot, I think is the nickname I've heard once or twice, which is pretty cool.

Speaker 2 He was fine last night.

Speaker 9 No, they liked him. Yeah, yeah.
They're going to shelter him.

Speaker 8 They're going to shelter him.

Speaker 9 Yeah, he needs real seasoning. He needs a little more season, but good that he's getting.
He's a former first-round pick.

Speaker 9 Yeah, you're just saying.

Speaker 9 Last night in Columbus, that one,

Speaker 9 I want to say by the skin of the teeth.

Speaker 2 I mean, it was a goaltenders duel, but that was as exciting a 0-0 game you're going to get. That was a great game.

Speaker 17 How long has it been since the Panthers have gone to overtime without?

Speaker 2 It was at Columbus six years, five or six years, also at Columbus.

Speaker 9 Five years ago.

Speaker 12 I think Goldie said it was the same Goldies, too.

Speaker 9 This is the Cambridge and Bob.

Speaker 12 It would have been Bob for the Panthers.

Speaker 9 It was definitely...

Speaker 12 Elvis has been in Columbus for a while.

Speaker 3 Yeah, maybe.

Speaker 1 Maybe.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it was a great game. Normally, you know, sometimes you get the 0-0 game.
It's like, this is kind of shitty game. There were a ton of chances, ton of posts, especially Columbus.

Speaker 2 The goal tending for Columbus was fantastic. I mean, Bobrovsky had to make some saves too, but he had a goal disallowed.
Easy call.

Speaker 9 Puck was clearly kicked in.

Speaker 2 You're a little bit nervous, though, because you get the goal during the third period. It's like, wow, you know, this is where we're going to lose it.

Speaker 2 But Barkov in overtime, which felt like really his only good chance of the game.

Speaker 9 Yeah, two shots, Uncle.

Speaker 12 Is Barkov getting a little bit more aggressive lately? Does it feel like?

Speaker 9 Shoot the puck.

Speaker 12 Well, it feels like he's shooting a little bit more over the last week or so. Like, I don't know, like, even that overtime shot, that's the thing.

Speaker 8 There was that Tampa game a few weeks ago. This was a sick shot, and I'm screaming out here as he's loading up here.
Jones back to him.

Speaker 16 I'm screaming, shoot, shoot, shoot.

Speaker 8 And he shoots it ping right in.

Speaker 9 Mana is in the shooting lane as well. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah, the four on three in overtime.

Speaker 3 It's too easy. Yeah, it's too easy.

Speaker 8 But he had that game a couple weeks ago against Tampa where he scored twice, two snipes right past Vasileski. And it felt like since then he's been a little more aggressive.

Speaker 8 He had a game earlier this year, I think it was back in like December against the Blues where he kind of decided in overtime. It was the same thing.

Speaker 8 I don't think it was a power play, but he made that sick play.

Speaker 8 He did. He drew a penalty.
And then it was a four-on-three. And he made that sick play to draw the penalty.
And then he just decided this game's over and fired it right past the keeper.

Speaker 8 Same thing here.

Speaker 8 I love when he shoots the puck, guys. I love when the captain just decides this game is over and we're going to shoot the puck and it's going to go in and we're going to win this game.

Speaker 8 And the Panthers looked desperate at times last night. There was some desperate, that penalty kill at the end of the game was desperate penalty killing, but Columbus is desperate as well.

Speaker 8 They've scored one goal in their last four games. They're kind of fading from the playoff race a little bit.
Montreal is hot. All of a sudden, the Islanders are hot.
The Rangers are hanging around.

Speaker 8 So it looked,

Speaker 8 those were two teams that really needed a win last night, especially Tampa won.

Speaker 8 Toronto won as well. So the Panthers had to keep pace with these teams.
That was a massive win for the Panthers last night.

Speaker 9 Alexander Barkov is who he is because he's a playmaker. He's great defensively.

Speaker 9 I mean, he's bound to get another Selkie trophy and has an excellent shot, which he does not use often enough, especially his backhand. And it's very, very good to see him get pucks on net.

Speaker 2 Tomorrow's huge because you win tomorrow, you're talking, and not only is it a win against the Capitals, but it's back-to-back wins. You come home

Speaker 2 and the schedule softens up significantly at the end of this month. Like, you're talking at home against Pittsburgh, Utah, Montreal.

Speaker 2 You could hit a little run here if you win tomorrow.

Speaker 9 Well, the good news is that Alexander Ovechkin will not break the all-time goals. Probably not.

Speaker 9 Unless, of course, he scores seven, which I doubt.

Speaker 12 Because if he does break that record tomorrow, what would that be, Zaz?

Speaker 9 How many goals in the game?

Speaker 12 I was trying to set you up for a bad news tomorrow.

Speaker 4 Yeah, that would be bad news for the Panthers.

Speaker 2 I mean, he'd have to score seven goals. I imagine it'd be bad news for the Panthers.

Speaker 9 Cats for your boys, as Caps for your boys.

Speaker 2 The Caps or the Cats?

Speaker 8 The Cats.

Speaker 2 I mean, the Cats are obviously my boys. I mean, come on now.

Speaker 8 I want to ask you guys about.

Speaker 9 Well, hold on.

Speaker 9 Let's dive further into this matchup between the Capitals because, I mean, if you look at that team, Tom Wilson is having a career year. 30 goals.
30 goals. Career, I mean, it's a career high.

Speaker 9 He is a one away from a career high in assists, and he has a career high in 57 points this season. and of course the capitals are tied for the president's trophy right now um with 100 points

Speaker 9 they got a game enhanced so they're at the top of the table and they have one more regulation win so they got the tiebreaker there

Speaker 9 this is a good team and as much as it's been a surprise for the capitals this season

Speaker 9 They are a really good team, especially Golden.

Speaker 12 Fun, exciting. Yeah, I mean, Logan Thompson has been amazing.
You remember when he got traded during the draft and people are like, what's going on with Washington made it?

Speaker 12 But yeah, he's been spectacular. Jacob Chikrin, another amazing addition for them the offseason.
He's been great, but just a fun team to watch.

Speaker 12 I wonder, guys, how good are they going to be when the playoffs get here?

Speaker 12 Because I remember a Panthers team a few years ago, really fun, really exciting, a lot of end-to-end, a lot of high-scoring games. They didn't really fare that well once playoff hot.

Speaker 2 Oh, we did not play well that series against Washington.

Speaker 12 So, and they won that series, and then he got swept by Tampa. So, I'm wondering: is this Capitals team a playoff for real team or are they a regular season for real team? Damn it.

Speaker 9 I've got to take. Oh, no, it's a sports whisperer it's ethan

Speaker 9 past the second round what yeah

Speaker 8 really jaeger meister jaeger bomb

Speaker 9 okay well okay

Speaker 8 i i i'll tell you why i just don't i just think the teams around them got

Speaker 9 better

Speaker 8 and they kind of held steady and i understand not wanting to mess up the chemistry that you have on the team right now because things are rolling i mean they made pier luc de bois into a good player and he's been rejected everywhere he's gone and all of a sudden he's been awesome for them this year.

Speaker 8 I just think the teams around them got a little better.

Speaker 11 They're probably going to get a pretty favorable matchup in the first round.

Speaker 2 Montreal in the first round, Carolina.

Speaker 9 Yeah.

Speaker 8 You know, if they get Carolina, I mean, I'm not a big believer in Carolina at all. So, but in New Jersey, they're not going to have Jack Hughes.

Speaker 8 So, I mean, they've got the favorable side of the bracket, but I just think this is one of those typical president's trophy seasons where a team has an amazing regular season.

Speaker 8 They ride the coattails of this awesome chase that they've been on with Ovechkin, and then they just kind of fizzle out a little bit.

Speaker 8 Again, I think the teams around them just got better and they just kind of held steady. They didn't really make any improvements at the deadline.

Speaker 2 I'll tell you what's a weird thing to me where let's say Ovechkin comes one or two goals short at the end of the season of Gretzky's record. And then we're watching the Capitals in the first round.

Speaker 2 And like he scores a goal.

Speaker 2 I'm supposed to pretend that he doesn't have more goals now than Gretzky?

Speaker 9 Well, like it's weird.

Speaker 12 You could add all of his previous playoff goals and he's blown past Gretzky already.

Speaker 2 I mean, obviously you could say the same thing.

Speaker 2 Oh, well, Gretzky is playoff, but still, like, if we're doing this whole chase for Gretzky and he's one short and then I watch him score two more goals, like, I'm

Speaker 9 that didn't happen.

Speaker 2 I'm pretending that he doesn't have more goals now.

Speaker 9 The division of regular season stats and players

Speaker 12 for what it's worth. Brain severance, regular season and playoffs, right?

Speaker 8 A quick Google will tell you: Gretzky has 66 more total goals than Ovechkin. He's got 1695, and Ovechkin has 1629.

Speaker 8 So he would have to score 66 goals.

Speaker 8 Yeah, I was going to say they won four cups, five cups.

Speaker 2 It's weird, though. Like in the National Football League, they count Belichick's career playoff wins to catch Shula.
Like, why don't we do that with this?

Speaker 9 Yeah,

Speaker 9 it doesn't make any sense.

Speaker 9 Back-to-back, by the way, between Saturday at Washington and then Sunday at home, when they finally return against the Pittsburgh Penguins, I have nothing to say about them.

Speaker 12 Well, we'll be scowling from the press box, yes?

Speaker 9 Yes. Yes, we will.

Speaker 8 A guy they got to get going is

Speaker 8 the guy I always love to talk about is Reinhardt. He's been really quiet since the Four Nations and even a little bit before that.

Speaker 8 I think the absence of Kachuk is a big reason why he's had to be more of a distributor, especially on the power play. But they really need to get him going down the stretch here.

Speaker 8 And this is going to be tight. It's going to be tight down the stretch.

Speaker 9 John Don Zaslow, thank you.

Speaker 2 Yeah, thanks for having me, guys. I like being able to talk some hockey, you know, rather than just by myself.

Speaker 2 I got other guys to talk about it with. Yeah, that's great.

Speaker 9 Adan Verke and David Penata was on the show. You can watch that on YouTube for those who are watching on DKN.
Okay, goodbye.

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