022: Stanley Cup Playoffs - Power Plays and the Science of Superstitions

Why are the Stanley Cup Playoffs called “the Madness on Ice”? Because no other sport blends grit, superstition, and glory quite like hockey. In this episode, we break down how the NHL Playoffs work—from the point system and seven-game series to power plays and the science behind superstitions. Plus, we dive into what makes the Stanley Cup the most coveted and chaotic trophy in pro sports, complete with hot dogs, baptisms, and strip clubs. With the Cup Final in full swing, there’s no better time to get caught up on the stories, strategy, and chaos that define the NHL’s biggest stage. 

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Chapters

•  08:08 - NHL Playoffs: Ice, Sweat, Repeat
•  16:02 - Why Hockey Players Have No Teeth
•  21:51 - Beards, Curses, and Cup Lore
•  25:59 - Hot Dogs in the Stanley Cup
•  30:06 - Gold Medal or Giant Beer Chalice?
•  31:27 - PWHL: Women Hit Hard Too
•  38:32 - Iconic Moments
•  42:08 - Taylor Heise: Skating Into Stardom 

Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00.738)
There's been many stories of people playing with broken legs and broken ribs and arms and they just play through it. There's a funny thing in the hockey community where when they list people on their injury report, they will just say that they have a lower body injury, which just means it could be anywhere below the waist. though people know that. Yeah. Even though people are like, yeah, he probably has a broken ankle. No, it's just a lower body.

locations of all the waste.

Speaker 3 (00:23.918)
Have you ever wondered why people get so hyped about their favorite sports teams? Well, it turns out it's not just about the game. It's about the community. My name is Teryn.

And I'm Ambre. Welcome to Almost Fans, the sports podcast that's fun, a little bit educational, and will give you plenty to say when you're trying to keep up with those diehard sports fans in your life.

Speaker 3 (00:51.81)
Welcome back. Today we're diving into all things Stanley Cup. What it is, why it matters, and all the icy drama that comes with it. But before we drop the puck on all of that, we're starting with our favorite warmup, the hat trick. This week's top three, athlete cameos in movies and TV shows. Spoiler, some are Oscar worthy and some, well, let's just say they tried their best. Ambre, what is your number three?

think I have any Oscar candidates here to start off with. I also need to give a quick Teryn aimed disclaimer on my first one here. I need to say I do acknowledge that there is a negative looking documentary out about him on Netflix. I don't plan

Brett Favre, I don't plan to watch it for at least one year. I will make no comments on this. I don't want to hear about it for at least one year. Okay. So my first one is, I'm just going to try and get ahead of all the crap you're going give me on that.

But no, you can't cut me off on that. I will still say it.

Well, I will have no comments about that documentary. It looks pretty bad. You should watch it because I know.

Speaker 3 (02:08.75)
Bad for him, like it makes him look really bad. Yeah. will watch it.

Not ideal. Yep. Well, just so you know, I don't plan to watch it for a while, so you can tell me all you want, but I will have no comment. My number three is Brett Favre's cameo in There's Something About Mary.

Quite the lead in.

Four and a half minutes later.

Speaker 3 (02:36.462)
Have you seen this movie? What? Yeah, this is where we get all the hate for Teryn.

You're going to get roasted on this. It is a great, great movie. At the very end, he pops in and he just plays like the stupid quarterback boyfriend role. So he nails it. I adored Brett Favre. So when he appeared in this movie, it was one that I watched like back in high school. But yeah, at the very end, he pops in as Mary's boyfriend, long lost boyfriend. So cute.

so cute.

25 or something. I know. Okay. That's my number three. That's yours.

My number three is the one and only John Cena. Actually I put two movies down because it was hard to pick from one or the other but Trainwreck and also Barbie. Did you know he was in Barbie? No. He's Mermaid Ken or Merman Ken. How can you miss him?

Speaker 2 (03:28.278)
What part?

that's right!

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he's in Trainwreck. He's so funny because he's like the gym obsessed, overly emotional boyfriend of Amy Schumer. She's the main character. Have you ever seen Trainwreck?

Yes, a long time ago. I can't pull that in my brain.

Yeah, it's 2015. Also, this is just a side note, but like LeBron is also in that movie. Well actor LeBron, but John Cena is pretty funny because he like plays this just awkward, so vulnerable, know, Amy Schumer. He's like trying to get her back. So funny. anyways, John Cena.

Speaker 2 (03:52.938)
Terrible

Speaker 2 (04:06.19)
I really like him. Between him and The Rock, like those WWE dudes who go on to act, they kind of like hit a lot of the same genre films I adore. Okay, my number two, I'm sure you haven't seen this movie, but Dan Marino shows up in Ace Ventura Pet Detective. No. such a cringe-worthy comedy. I don't think you'll get roasted on this, but like...

My friend group, my age group, we grew up watching this when we were younger. It's, my gosh, what is his name? Jim Carrey, like super cringy, over the top of comedy. But Dan Marino plays this. gets the Miami Dolphins mascot, a live dolphin named Snowflake, and Dan Marino get kidnapped. It's like the big plot of the movie. So Dan Marino's character is to just be like,

helpless and only have a couple of lines and look confused. So he like checks that box perfectly. It's so like believable, know, confused and just sort of standing in place kind of thing. So he didn't have a whole lot of lines, but the movie is so cringy except I watched it over and over again when I was a kid, but Dan Marino, Ace Ventura. Yeah.

It's funny. Speaking of animals in a movie, my number two best athlete actor is Mike Tyson in The Hangover.

That was my next one!

Speaker 3 (05:28.142)
Okay, then you're missing the best of all the best, but we'll talk about this one for now. He is like, has the tiger in his house and they drunkenly drugged whatever they are in the movie, steal his tiger and then he punches Alan. I actually had to go back and rewatch the scene because I was like, I know he has like an epic scene in the movie, but it had been so long since I'd seen it. So anyways, it's so funny.

Action out!

Speaker 2 (05:55.63)
He's not like a really awesome actor, but the shock factor of Mike Tyson with his face tat in a huge mansion owning a tiger, it all sort of just makes up for his line delivery. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Nobody expects that much. All right, so then I'll just go to my number one, which how in the world could you not pick this as your number one? It is Michael Jordan in Space Jam.

that was just too obvious.

What do mean too obvious? It is like one of the best movies of all time. Okay, but also let's be honest. Okay, players that make a cameo in this movie, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Mugsy Bogues, Larry Johnson, Sean Bradley, and Larry Bird.

I know.

Speaker 2 (06:41.198)
Can we also just have a moment of peace in acknowledging how much better the first Space Jam was than the second one? yeah, LeBron, bye-bye. Yeah, bye-bye. Let's go back to Michael Jordan. I mean, it was okay, but Michael Jordan, yeah, the original. I think I bypassed that one because he didn't feel like a cameo in that movie. He felt like a really central character. don't know. didn't even like...

I you're right. guess cameo to me is just like, they're not an actor really. So they

Yeah. But I do. But I agree with you. If we're just talking about straight up athletes in movies, that has got to be the penultimate for sure.

Okay, I see now where that maybe got lost, because if it's just like a short snippet in the roll, then.

Yeah. But yeah, MJ for sure, of athletes in movies.

Speaker 3 (07:33.39)
King. King. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:39.854)
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All right, friends, we are so excited to dive into today's topic, which is NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. We are joined for the second time this year. time. Simmons, you're the first person we've invited back a second time. That's big. That's quite an honor. We should probably make you your own trophy. yeah, plaque. That's even better.

I'm gonna on my wall for it.

We'll the trophy for the third time you come back. Oh, there we go. And almost fans pennant. So joining us today is the one and only Jake Simmons. He's our friend, our coworker, like I mentioned, second appearance on the podcast. He's sharp, hilarious, and always game to talk sports, especially the icy kind, which is why he's here today. And perhaps most importantly for today's topic, Jake Hales from the great state.

Speaker 2 (09:19.84)
of Minnesota, which basically means he was born with skates on and a firm opinion about line changes. So who better to help us dive into today's episode all about hockey? Hey, Jake, we are so excited to have you.

be back and you know, it's just like the tulips blooming in spring, another year of Stanley Cup finals with no Minnesota sports appearances for the wild. It turned me into a Timberwolves fan, which is going to probably be short lived as well. So that's just the cycle that we, uh, that we experience here, but glad to be back. So I did talk about the cup and there's just so much excitement around this time of year. It's really one of the best seasons for just sports watching in general.

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:04.302)
It is. It's exciting. feels a little bit when playoffs first start, it feels a little bit kind of like March Madness. Every night, every night there's an NHL game on, a playoffs game. It's exciting. It matters for next steps as the team sort of dwindled down. I love that vibe of it. So Stanley Cup playoffs have a couple of nicknames, the Road to the Cup, the hockey finals, my favorite, the madness on ice. But overall Stanley Cup playoffs are known for un-

paralleled intensity and physicality. A lot of times players are playing through injury. PSA, I fully support people taking care of their bodies and feels like Stanley Cup playoffs. It just doesn't matter as much, know, like that ankle or that whatever injury that's like moderate to severe. We're just going to play through it for the playoffs. yeah, competition is fierce to put it lightly. Okay. So I did this in episode eight.

but just in case folks have sort of lost some of the knowledge, I'm gonna hit up a 60 second overview of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Actually, I think I could probably hit 40 seconds. Okay, so there are 32 total NHL teams divided evenly into two conferences. So 16-16 Eastern and Western, mostly based on geography. Half of each conference goes to the playoffs. So eight over here and eight over here.

Qualifications, how do you get into the playoffs? It's pretty much what you would think. It's points based on wins, losses. Overtime or shootout losses have different point categories. So you get into the playoffs and then basically it's the best of seven all the way down until there's one team remaining in the Eastern Conference and one team remaining in the Western Conference and they battle it out the best of seven for the Stanley Cup.

How did I do, Jake? Did I hit everything?

Speaker 1 (11:59.118)
Pretty good. mean, yeah, it's an absolutely brutal playoff schedule. I mean, if you just see the, you know, last game of the season to the first game of the playoffs, is night and day in terms of physicality, the speed and the NHL has done something different to where they don't see the entire teams from the conference.

one through 16 and have everybody play each other. They keep it in division for mostly the first and second rounds, which means that you get a lot of teams that have played each other a bunch in the season that don't like each other, that are going to play each other hard. And a lot of the times those games go to game seven and that's something that changed within the last 10 years. And people have opinions on it. I think it's great for the sport in terms of you get really exciting first round games compared to like the NBA or it's.

you usually pretty boring and some blowouts, but at the same time, you get a lot of teams that are the two best teams in the conference that have to play each other in the first round because they're in the same division. So that's something that happened this year with Colorado and Dallas. Those are both Stanley Cup favorite picks and they had to play each other right in the first round and Dallas won in seven games. So it's a very brutal schedule and it's a very hard playoffs to win. And even just to get to the conference finals, it can be a way to beat up a team physically and mentally.

That's wild. had no idea that they played in their divisions first, well, actually I need to go back because they're not just ranked based on their wins and losses, their overall schedule, they're getting points. Can you explain that a little bit more?

Yeah, totally. So a win is two points, a loss is zero, obviously, but then overtime or shootout losses. So if you lose in overtime, you lose in a shootout, you get one point, which is interesting because the game is coming to a close. You're like, I will never be able to make up the two goals that were down in the next three minutes. You're still going to try really hard to at least tie it because you get credit for ties. And Simmons mentioned, so

Speaker 2 (13:57.226)
Eastern Conference, Western Conference are further broken down within each of those into divisions. And usually those divisions, you know, again, it's based on geography. So they're the teams that are nearby you. So they're usually your rivalries, like a Michigan, Ohio situation. So yeah.

Yeah, the Ohio State, Plains,

Yeah, but except for it's Red Wings vs. Black Hawks.

or Blackhawks' Blutes.

that a bigger rivalry or did the Red Wings just not make it to the playoffs?

Speaker 1 (14:24.27)
The Red Wings are actually an Eastern Conference team. somehow split it right between Michigan and Illinois. So the Red Wings play in the Eastern Conference, Chicago plays in the Western.

Those Western Chicagoans.

A lot of people say that the central division, which is in the Western Conference, is the strongest division, at least this year, that has your Colorado's, your Dallas's, your Minnesota Wilds, your Winnipeg Jets, which all made the playoffs. And the Wild are actually lucky to have a wild card, because it meant that they had to go out West to play Vegas instead of having to play their divisional foes, which let them make it to six games before they lost.

Interesting. Heartbreaking. Jake, so sounds like Wild is your team, right? But have they been your team all along because they were born in the year 2000? Did you have a team before? Was it the Stars?

I was two years old when I was in 1998, though two years old on the wild keep it. So I had no other memories of other teams, but yeah, right. Here's my, homage to the Minnesota North stars, which are now the Dallas stars relocated down South and they turned into the Dallas stars. They are division rival, but also I kind of like rooting for them as well. cause there's a little bit of heritage there, but.

Speaker 1 (15:43.788)
Yeah, usually I'm a big Wild fan, by the time they get out, you kind of look at some other teams that you like just based off of their players or the way that they're playing in the playoffs or some storylines too. tend to do that a lot over the last 10 to 15 years as the Wild do not make very deep runs in the playoffs and you look for other teams and players to root for, exactly.

I have a plan B, Simmons, I got to ask you question. I watch a whole lot of sports on TV. I watch almost even more sports documentaries and every athlete, every sport, every athlete is like my playoffs or my championship or my Super Bowl, my whatever is so hard. It's so grueling. But fans and players and coaches from NHL, it's a different level. They just talk about it differently. I get the sense that it actually is

different than some of these other playoffs. Like NBA, that's a best of seven situation. There's other best of sevens out there. But what is it about NHL that is so different? Is it that the teams are more close knit and is it more violent? There's just more hitting. Like NBA, people aren't getting knocked on their butts all the time, but an NFL game tackled. What is it about NHL?

I'd say the speed and physicality is just absolutely unleashed. There's one of the players in the playoffs this year. Forgive me, I do not remember him, but he has recorded a hundred hits already in the playoffs, which surpassed his regular season total. So that just goes to show you that through 82 games in the regular season, they are not hitting as much as they do in the playoffs, which means that players are going to probably get injured. They're going to play through injuries.

There's been many stories of people playing with broken legs and broken ribs and arms, and they just play through it. there's a funny thing in the hockey community where when they list people on their injury report, they will just say that they have a lower body injury, which just means it could be anywhere below the waist. Even though people know that. Yeah. Even though people are like, yeah, he probably has a broken ankle. No, it's just a lower body injury. Yeah. You just have a lot of people playing.

Speaker 2 (17:38.71)
Asians blow the waste.

Speaker 3 (17:43.938)
Just tell her about injury, extremity injury.

hurt and they're still playing because it's that important. And you really need your full team working all four lines, all three pairs of defense if you want to win because you have to have that depth versus the NBA. can kind of have your stars carry you a little bit and you know maybe have some bench players come in. But yeah, you need all four of lines rolling. You have great goal tending in order to win because it's just all these games come down to just a couple different shifts usually and somebody gets a puck bouncing the other way.

I mean, they're wearing pads, but that doesn't make up for the fact that like your body is still getting crushed. It's still making impact with other bodies, with the boards, with the ice. I mean, the pads are just like, like the super.

You guys are both wearing hockey pads, right? Do you feel like you're a knight in armor? Do you feel like there's still some weak points you could get a pucker, you know?

I a little tumble, I'll be just fine. But if I were laid out on the ice, I'm not going to be moving well tomorrow or for a while.

Speaker 3 (18:45.272)
Yeah, to me it's not like it's less about like the getting hit on like my chest and my whatever my shoulder. It's like the neck swings back or the, you know, your ankle that turns, you know, and that's not nothing about that is protected by padding.

Yeah. And also hockey is one of those fun sports as long with soccer as well, where you really do get to block players shots, which could be 95 mile an hour slap shots coming right at you. And it can go right into the ankle of your skate. And that's not going to feel good, but those are the teams that usually have that extra effort is they're the ones that are laying out, trying to block that shot versus having it try to go to their goaltender. So it just, it really means a lot more. People play with a lot of heart and there's a lot of.

stuff that you never know about until after the series comes out. Yeah, they're playing with two broken legs or something.

like that. That's insane. Jake, I want to ask you about one more thing before we move on to some more in-depth things about the actual Stanley Cup trophy, power plays. First off, Teryn, do know what a power play is?

Yes, that's when you have more players on the ice than other team. I think you asked me this in the last one.

Speaker 2 (19:50.402)
I think I might've. Yeah. So if the player gets a penalty, then they're off the ice, which means one player, one team is playing at deficit. Okay. It feels like in the playoffs, I see teams doing power plays more often than in the regular season. Is that a correct assumption? Is that just because they're playing harder? So maybe there's more fouls that are happening.

I wouldn't say necessarily. I think what ends up happening is a power plays become a lot more important in your special teams, which is your power playing your penalty kill become a lot more important because a lot of the times on five and five hockey, especially in the physical playoffs and the fast playoffs, there's not a lot of ice to be able to make a play. So just taking one player off the ice, your chances of scoring a goal become that much higher. but the refs usually tend to swallow the whistle a lot. You'll kind of see that if you're watching any.

playoff games, you know, those final five minutes in the third period, they're kind of just going to let the boys play, which a lot of the announcers say, which means refs are kind of putting away their whistles. They're going to let the play decide this versus having a controversial call with, you know, two minutes left in the game and all the teams on a power play, which gives them a much better chance to score. So I think it's more that the power plays just become really important, which you'll see teams that have better power plays tend to make it longer in the class because they have those opportunities to score goals.

Amazing. So they're happening with the same amount of frequency. It's just that they're like way more impactful to the

I'd say the impact is really there.

Speaker 2 (21:17.868)
Yeah, that's fair.

Speaker 2 (21:22.146)
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Okay, the Stanley Cup. I know I talked about this a little bit in episode eight, but here I want to dive into this a little bit more. Fun facts. The Stanley Cup is the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, which had me asking, okay, well outside of North America, what's older? I will tell you in case you're wondering that. The Ashes Urn is a cricket trophy, which dates back to the 1500s. The Skorton Silver Arrow is an

archery trophy from the 1600s and the Calcutta Cup. Can you guess that one, Jake? I bet you've heard of this. Maybe.

Is it like horse racing or something?

Speaker 2 (22:50.19)
Rugby, 1800s. I probably couldn't have placed that, but when I read it, I was like, that sounds somewhat familiar. Yeah. The Stanley Cup is 35 inches tall, which is the equivalent of a bar stool. Talking about hockey, figured that a reference to a bar would be appropriate. Weighs about 34 pounds, which is about the weight of a four-year-old child, which is what I have. So it also feels relevant. Hoisting this sucker up in the air. mean, it's like not, I mean, 35 pounds for

Like a fit hockey dude is anyway, but yeah, 35 pounds. are over 2,200 names engraved on the cup. And this includes players, coaches, team owners. Each winning team can put up to 52 names on the trophy. I'm so confused. Where are they at? Oh, they're on like the rings on the bottom part. There's like little cups.

used by that weird

Speaker 2 (23:46.312)
a little stem and then these huge rings where all of the names are written. you might guess after many, many, many, many, many years, they run out of real estate for names. So what happens is when the newest ring gets full, which is about every 13 years, the oldest ring gets removed and then put into the Hockey Hall of Fame. So still lives in infamy, but not on the actual physical cup.

be way too big and way too heavy if you were able to include everybody.

Yeah. And it would weigh way more. A lot of players are superstitious about the cup. First off, a lot of players won't even touch if they are division winners, conference winners, they won't even touch the trophies from those victories because they're afraid that it'll bring them bad luck toward the Stanley Cup and they will not touch the Stanley Cup until they have actually won it. Very superstitious.

We talked about this before too. The cup has a keeper. Let me tell you more about Mr. Philip Pritchard, who is the cup keeper. It's one dude. It's been the same dude for 25 years. Do you a obsession with I don't know because he's got to be, I mean, he started, he's got to be like in his 50s or 60s.

you

Speaker 1 (25:04.11)
I mean, he's had beautiful white hair for as long as I've known him.

I've got a personal relationship with Phil. So when he was a kid, he said that he really wanted to win the Stanley Cup and quickly found out that wasn't really in the cards for him. So he wanted to work in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Maybe he could touch the Stanley Cup in a different way. And so he was the one who suggested that the Cup have a keeper and have a really

I've known him.

Speaker 2 (25:29.966)
specific ceremony for the presenting of the cup. There's a red carpet, Mr. Pritchard, Phil, first name basis, and the other handler wear white gloves when they present the trophy. So he talks about the symbolism of how he puts on white gloves to handle the trophy, but the hockey players pull off their gloves and they can touch the trophy with their bare hands because they've earned it because they won the Stanley Cup playoffs. So, you know, they're all like touching with bare hands. Yeah. Anyway, so that's some of the background of the cup.

Each player on the winning team gets 24 hours with the cup. Here's some weird stuff that have happened. 2017, someone ate hot dogs out of it. That's only like mildly weird. In 2008, a newborn baby got her newborn photos in it and then pooped. So that's happened. There were multiple babies had been baptized in it. It's gone to Niagara Falls and went over to Afghanistan to spend some time with the troops in 2007.

A lot of people have slept with it, a lot of pool parties, a couple of strip clubs, and a lot of alcohol has been drink.

out of it after the

I was going to say, what would your cocktail be if you could drink anything out of the cup?

Speaker 2 (26:44.334)
It feels like it just calls for a margarita with some salt on it. And some sort of fruit on maybe a couple of moderately sized umbrellas, some pineapples. That's where I would go. What about you, Teryn?

Yes

Speaker 3 (26:58.307)
Yeah, give me a margarita out of the cup. I mean give me a margarita out of any cup

It'll be a sizable margarita.

When you say you're just gonna have one margarita tonight.

It's like a gallon. Jake, if you had 24 hours after winning the Stanley Cup to spend with it, what would you do with your Stanley Cup?

Man, I mean, there's been a lot of great players from the state of Minnesota that bring it back to let all the mere mortals take a look at it. So I'd probably bring it back here, try to it have some fans, you know, a bit or something. We got to get some mojo here and the twin cities. So whatever we can do to try to get, everybody rallied around that. I would probably do that and maybe take it out on one of the beautiful lakes. know Matthew could Chuck.

Speaker 1 (27:49.208)
brought it to the ocean last year. so maybe it, maybe a little bit of water and fresh water with it might help keep some mojo there. But I also just love the idea of just pouring your favorite bowl of cereal in it in the morning and just going to town. Like when you're a kid and you used to have like four bowls of cereal before school, like just pouring an entire box of, know,

What was your sugary Captain Crunch? Was that it?

I mean Reese's puffs would like, those never last. Those would never last past when mom brought him back home from the grocery store. Down in two hours after. So yeah, probably a big bowl of Reese's puff.

That was a P.

Speaker 2 (28:25.934)
My son loves Froot Loops, so we only get them on vacation. So it's like a special thing. I'll get the family size. It's as tall as he is almost. I mean, he eats like five bowls for breakfast. We get home and he's like, I have a snack? And I want Froot Loops. And then before bed, I want Froot Loops. Anyway.

I just, I, and I will say this too, like props to him because I tried doing that like a couple of weeks ago, right? Like five bowls of cereal before I started my day and like, can't do it anymore. like really like just have him cherish that as much as.

Tell them to it up right now.

Like who would have thought eating so much sugar and dairy in the morning would just like ruin your day as an adult?

day.

Speaker 2 (29:06.638)
Wait, okay. So Simmons, I have one more question about the Stanley Cup for you. Would you rather win the Stanley Cup or win an Olympic gold medal?

I think it, well, what's the Olympic gold medal in? Oh, Stanley Cup, yeah.

Yeah, but like winning it, mean, gold medal, you're better than Canada, Russia, Norway. I don't know what other teams are good at hockey.

yeah, I mean, I just think the odds of, if you are a player that makes an Olympic roster as an American, your odds of winning that gold medal are so much higher than you possibly winning a Stanley cup. you're on a one out of 32 teams versus, you know, being one of the top three countries in the world, I just think.

So like the prestige and honor of medal is not as high as Stanley.

Speaker 1 (29:53.164)
I mean, it's definitely is that huge thing, but I mean, every player dreams of, you know, wanting to win the Stanley Cup versus, you know, wanting to win. I bet a gold medals, you know, number two or three behind that, but I think, yeah, Lord Stanley is number one.

Yeah. I mean, there's probably a number of sports out there that are like that. Like I imagine NFL players want to win the Superbowl before they would be interested in a gold medal.

Yeah, I'm excited for you guys' flag football podcast. That's gonna be a big one.

You

Buckle up for that. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:25.592)
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Okay, so I know we're talking a lot about Stanley Cup today, but I also wanted to save a couple of minutes to hit up the PWHL, so Professional Women's Hockey League. They just wrapped up their championship series. It's the Walter Cup, is that right? Yep. Jake, tell us who won that series.

Minnesota Frost went back to back, Walter Cup champions. I know I'm saying a lot of things that Minnesota sports do not win, but for some how the PWHL Minnesota team, Minnesota Frost in their first season, won in their second season. won in a thrilling overtime victory. So as much as I'm saying the wild aren't good, there's something in the water right now. The Frost have figured it out and they are now back to back Walter Cup champions, which is awesome.

That's so awesome. So I didn't realize this, but the PWHL is quite young. It started in 2023. So the Frost won the first two years championship, the Walter cup, the first two years, and then we're only at the third year. Yeah. Just wrapped up the second year. So they've won the Walter cup in all of the time that it's been available to win.

Speaker 1 (32:08.792)
We just wrapped up our second.

Speaker 3 (32:16.684)
Guess who else has done that?

Who? The f**kers. the first two. Not 100%, the first two. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's so cool. Minnesota Frost. So in its inaugural season, so in 2023, it launched with six teams. It seems like they're being really smart. They, meaning PWHL administration, whatever, are being really smart with how they're growing this league, but it has grown quickly in terms of viewership. So started with six teams. They're still at six teams.

But the viewership has gone up rapidly. Fun fact, PWHL players are unionized. So not only is the league growing, but the players have got their stuff together and, you know, are hopefully being treated right. There's Olympians in the PWHL, there's NCAA stars, international pros, all sorts of really amazingly gifted athletes.

Thank

lot of badgers. Hold on. I have a quiz for you about that in a second. Hold on to that. There's two expansion teams planned and they are in Seattle, in Vancouver. Jake, if you were to pick the next two teams, it sounds like they want to do they're like, well, maybe, but we're not telling you now, but it sounds like there's going to be two more teams planned for the year after that. What cities do you think need PWHL teams?

Speaker 1 (33:37.804)
Yeah, I mean, I think they're doing being really smart in terms of where they're expanding. These are the two teams that are out West now, but they both have huge hockey markets. Vancouver is a ginormous hockey market. So it makes sense that they fit there. And then Seattle, you have a young cracking team in the NHL that's about three years old. So now having this PWHL team, I think is great for the growth of that sport. I can see that they're going to probably want to move to the Southwest a little bit. and that's always a little bit of like a faux pas with hockey is trying to.

put those teams in these dry, deserty climates. There's, you know, has been success there and I can see them wanting to expand just because there's so many people down there. So I can see them maybe wanting to try to sneak in with the new Utah hockey club in Salt Lake and maybe add a team there or even try to go out to California. But then you're really competing with so many different teams and markets and Hollywood stars and everything. So I think what they're doing right now is really smart and I could maybe see them.

wanting to look at Utah or one of those mountain regions to keep expanding the sport.

Yeah.

Does New York have a team?

Speaker 1 (34:44.098)
They do. The sirens.

You know what hit me when I was looking through the teams? It's 50-50 Canada and US right now. And it will be after Seattle and Vancouver join as well. This will be 50 % of the team. So four out of eight are from the US and four are from Canada. Thought that was just interesting. Okay, Simmons, tell us what you know about player allocation. Okay. So we're adding two teams. It's not like all of the players on each of these two teams just appear out of thin air. So how will the PWHL do this in a way that's

fair.

Yeah, they are going to do an expansion draft, which we've seen a lot of teams such as the NHL. They've had two new teams come in the last eight years now. they, when expansion draft pretty much is, them being able to look at all the other teams and draft players from those teams. And because there's two new expansion teams, it's doubling the amount of players that they're going to be taking from each team. So I believe each team is going to be getting two players that they get to draft.

from each team. I think six existing teams will be losing about four players off of their roster, which helps great for the parity of the league because all of these games are so close together. It's giving these new teams a lot of great key players that could be impactful, but they still have a salary cap. So you can't just take your best PWHL all-stars and put them in Vancouver because they won't be able to pay all of them. So it's very strategic in terms of

Speaker 2 (35:47.52)
existing team.

Speaker 1 (36:14.798)
who you're going to take, also these six teams that aren't in the expansion get to protect two of their players. So these could be some of their star players they want to protect or a young player with a pretty favorable contract that another team might want to grab. They can also select that. And then something that they're doing as well, which I find is really awesome, is after they send out their protection list of, here are the players that we get to protect before the actual expansion draft.

Vancouver and Seattle get to talk with some of the free agents and trying to even just see if they want to sign with this new team. So maybe you're a player that's not getting a lot of playing time in New York and you want to go, you know, to Seattle, which is an awesome city. They might be able to talk with them and have them sign before the actual expansion draft. So I think it's really good for the league in terms of getting the players some power to see where they want to play. And also really making sure that these six teams are looking at and saying, who do we want to protect?

who's gonna maybe go to these new teams. So I think it's gonna be very exciting for the league too, just in terms of shaking things up once again.

interesting. You know what's also really interesting is the thing about the Minnesota Frost. So they've had these two amazing years back to back. The first two years, the Walter Cup was, you know, a thing to strive for. The first two years of PWHL existed at all, but this was like, this is their last year because next year they're going to be losing some members from the team. It's not going to be quite the same. And yes,

know, athletes retire and whatnot, but this is like a guaranteed four people out of this locker room will not be here next year. It's like an interesting sort of bittersweet last hurrah with all the same ladies.

Speaker 1 (38:01.526)
Interesting too, just cause the league is so young. So you've, maybe you've had a locker room that's together for two seasons and now you're already kind of shaking it up. so it's not like they're not used to that because they are such young teams, but it is definitely going be something, especially when you got some secret sauce in the frost locker room. And you know, we're going to have some of those key players leave, which will be unfortunate, but I think it'll be interesting once all the teams have to submit their protected player list. And then everyone's going to be able to know, you know, what are players that are going to be available?

potentially in this expansion.

Yeah. So Jake, before we move on to our last segment of the day, which is She's Got Game, more on that in a second. Do you have any favorite memories of the Stanley Cup playoffs or underdog stories, things that, you know, in your long history of coming from a hockey culture, hockey family, hockey everything, favorite stories and memories? Yeah.

I think some that stand out is the Red Wings, Penguins, Stanley Cup finals in 2008 and 2009. These were teams that played each other in the Stanley Cup finals and then made it all the way back to playing each other again the next year, which is super rare, especially when we've said how hard it is to fight through all those games. You're playing so many games. You have a then a late off season and have to start it all back up again. That was also Sydney Crosby's first Stanley Cup in 2009. So that was very.

fun to watch this young kid from Canada, kind of the phenom of the sport, winning it. But some mirrors maybe to Connor McDavid on the Edmonton Oilers being one of the best hockey players, still hasn't won the cup. Not trying to draw any parallels, but I'm just saying that's very exciting for the sport when you have their best players winning in the biggest moments. And then the Boston Bruins in 2011 was a team that came back from down 3-1 and ended up winning the Stanley Cup in game seven.

Speaker 1 (39:52.654)
which was super excited. The Bruins were one of my teams that I kind of watched once the wild would get kicked out and they were kind of my Eastern conference team. So I was riding with them through that, which was really exciting. This might be like a 30 for 30 that you guys can tune into later, but I also caused the Vancouver riots in 2011. Boston Bruins ended up winning, which was definitely a darker side of that sport. And that just shows you how passionate some of these fan bases are.

Dang, I

Speaker 2 (40:20.526)
Okay, say passionate, we say alcoholic, perhaps.

Yes, that is also probably happening. But yes, Vancouver has now been to two Stanley Cup finals and game sevens and have lost. And then also, just think the Chicago Blackhawks, again, another rival. Otherwise, there's just so much success around these other rivals, but they had an awesome dynasty with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Taze. And their first Stanley Cup against the Philadelphia Flyers was super awesome. He had one of Patrick Kane's most iconic goals in his young career. And then they ended up.

being able to win, I think, four cups in the next six years following that. So there's been a lot of success.

Would last year's Stanley Cup final series have been better in your opinion if the Oilers could have pulled it out? And to be clear, they came back from a 3-0 game deficit and they won three games in a row. So it's three to three going into that final game. Do you feel like did the right team win?

I mean, that would be unheard of as the reverse sweep. So that would definitely be historic in its own way. But I do, I did like the Florida storyline only because the Panthers lost the previous Stanley Cup. So the Florida Panthers have won the three straight Stanley Cups, which again is very hard to imagine. And so I always like it when a team loses and they get the redemption. And that just shows you how important the Cup is. McDavid, one of the best players in the NHL won the Con Smythe, which is the NHL playoff MVP.

Speaker 1 (41:47.798)
Lost his game seven and refused to go out, out of the locker room to accept the award for this individual player award, because the only award he cares about is this team award for the Stanley cup. So I think it's going to be another good finals and it's a great era right now and hockey and a great one to get into between the NHL and the PWHL.

I'm totally cheering for the Oilers.

think I'm back in the oilers as well.

I like Connor McDavid. He's like, I don't want to talk to the media. I don't want to be in the spotlight. I just want to play hockey and I want to win. Add it. Teryn, he reminds me of your dad. He's not a celebration dude. He's like, I scored a goal and then I want to do it again. Funny. Yeah.

Any good?

Speaker 3 (42:31.04)
I feel like my eyes are glazing over. have no idea what you guys are talking about.

Sorry, I hope any of those made sense.

It makes sense. I understand what you're saying. I just can't relate. Got nothing to add. Yeah.

All right, folks, we are on to our final segment of the day, which is She's Got Game, where we highlight a woman doing awesome things in sports. And today, Jake and Teryn, before I hit you with my official scouting report on Taylor Heisey, Jake, what do you know about your fellow Minnesotan other than the fact that she probably learned to skate before she could walk?

I know a lot about Taylor Heisey. She's kind of our hometown hero right now for the state. She grew up in Red Wing, Minnesota, which is in the south eastern part of the state, played in high school and won the Mrs. Hockey Award for Minnesota, which is honoring the best hockey player on the women's side of the ice. There's also a boys Mr. Hockey. So there's Mrs. Hockey and Mr. Hockey. She won that, which is a super coveted award, especially in the state of Minnesota.

Speaker 1 (43:42.69)
Then for college, she headed about an hour up to the Twin Cities to play for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. There she won a ton of WCHA honors, made some frozen fours, and that got her drafted to number one overall pick in the inaugural PWHL draft. And thankfully she got drafted to the PWHL Minnesota Frost, which meant that she just had to stay home and throw on purple instead of maroon and gold.

And she's been racking up goals ever since. So now she's a two-time Walter cup champion. also was the Walter cup MVP last year. And she's also won a ton of national accreditations, won a lot of USA gold medals throughout her career. So she is absolutely crushing it. And she truly is one of our icons. I was just saying for the Minnesota loons, which is the soccer team when they had messy and inner Miami.

come out to their game, they brought out all the Minnesota stars from all the sports. had Justin Jefferson, had Kirill Kaprizov from the wild, and they had Taylor Heisey from PWHL, Minnesota Frost standing right next to Messi. So she has been on quite a tear here, even just in the last year.

That is amazing. So her senior year of high school, she scored, I had the stats, she scored 58 goals and 25 assists in 24 games. I know that you watched high school hockey. Is that normal? Yeah. That feels like insanity to me.

domination.

Speaker 1 (45:15.448)
Yeah, I mean that's somebody that wins the Missets hockey award right there.

Yeah

Hey, super fast. Okay. So she was a golden gopher. Quick quiz for you, Jake. In the PWHL, which NCAA team has contributed the most players? Is it the Gophers, the Badgers, or the Buckeyes?

I want to say it's the Badgers followed by the Gophers and then followed by the Buckeyes.

close. Badgers for sure. Otherwise, I wouldn't have asked this question, obviously. then Buckeyes. So Badgers have 16 alums who are in the PWHL right now. Buckeyes have 15 and then Gophers have nine.

Speaker 1 (45:55.086)
And all three of those college teams have been playing outstanding the last couple of years. Cause I know our, the Badgers women's hockey team won this year against the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Golden Gophers are always in there. So there's really great women's hockey from high school level all the way up to the pros now.

Yeah. You look at NCAA just championships and it's like those three teams just taking turns for the last, I don't even know, decades it seems. Yeah. So, okay. So she's a forward and her coaches and her teammates say that she's basically the engine of the offense and that some of her greatest skills or the best things about her playing style are that she's a great two-way player.

and also will back check and support her D. Can you break down that sentence? Two-way player and back check. What are those hockey terminology?

Yeah, I mean, it's kind of the same thing. We're back checking is when the forwards have to come back into the defensive zone to help play defense when the other team has the puck. And a lot of times in hockey and a lot of these great teams, you have these two way forwards that are not only offensively really great when they're attacking the net and scoring and getting assists, but they play awesome defense. So they're always getting back on the puck. They're always following their player around, you know, getting them out of jams when the other team might have the puck.

in the zone for a while and so she's one of those players that is that engine that you need from an offensive side of things, but also is going to get back and play some solid defense.

Speaker 2 (47:25.422)
What are other things that make Taylor Heisey great or make her a really awesome forward? Are there other skills, things that she does well?

think she just is very good vision in terms of the ice we're able to see for passing, racking up assists, and also just having really good chemistry with the other players in the line. A lot of times in hockey, you can have a great player such as Connor McDavid, but if you don't have the other players around him to be able to pass to and find those open opportunities.

That's where those superstars can really make a difference is, you know, passing players open or finding that little bit of ice that they can skate to, which is going to create an opportunity. And so that's where her game, I think, levels up of being able to really increase the other people around her and make them also great players.

Yeah, I love that. Her coaches and teammates also talk about how she's such a great leader, also off the ice. She's got grit and determination. She helps motivate the other players. So I imagine her being the person in the locker room, you know, at the time between periods, it's not halftime. What do you call that? Intermission. Great. Those two intermission points between periods one and two, and then two and three. She's probably the one who's in there, hyping people, high fives, chest bumps. I don't know, making things up, but.

intermission.

Speaker 2 (48:40.736)
She feels like she's that momentum builder.

She's called the black cat because she does just let people know what they want, know, what she needs out of them. It's going to be vocal. And then one of her teammates and friends, Grace Zumwinkle on the Frost is called the golden retriever. So you kind of get that yin and yang with those two players of having a black cat and golden retriever on your team. Makes it a winning combination, I think.

I love that. Teryn, what kind of dog do you have? Okay, so you're the blonde doodle and I'm the...

He's a... Ossie Doodle.

Speaker 1 (49:15.118)
Yeah, was about to say, who's the black cat golden retriever here?

I don't know. Teryn, you're the awesome tutor. We'll have to workshop this, I guess. That's awesome. Well, anyway, she's a super inspiring lady. It's really cool to see her somewhat at the helm. mean, drafted first in the inaugural season, won the first two cups. It's cool to see her being the person, a gopher to excel and kind of lead the charge in this brand new and rapidly growing women's...

I'm

Speaker 2 (49:46.83)
hockey league. So yeah, lots of applause for Taylor and for all these reasons and many more are why we've chosen to spotlight her for today's She's Got Game segment.

Speaker 2 (50:02.092)
That's a wrap on this episode of Almost Fans. From superstitions and heart-stopping moments to all the playoff drama. We hope you enjoyed this deep dive into the world of hockey. We've been seeing your reviews come in. Seriously, thank you. Your support means the world to us. And if you haven't yet, please drop us a quick rating or review wherever you listen. It helps us grow and connect with more Almost fans just like you. Thanks so much and see you next week.