The Rink Hockey Podcast

Episode 4: Quick Shifts & Hockey Shenanigans

• The Rink • Season 1 • Episode 4

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In this week’s episode, we’re keeping things loose and lively. We kick things off with a handful of smaller hockey storylines of stuff that caught our attention around the league. Then it’s game time. First up: Blind Top 5 Rankings, where chaos reigns and the hockey gods decide whether our lists make any sense at all. After that, we fire through a round of Rapid‑Fire Hot Takes, tossing out bold opinions faster than a breakaway in OT. It’s a lighter episode, full of laughs, friendly debates, and plenty of puck‑talk energy. Lace ’em up and enjoy the ride.

SPEAKER_01

Welcome

Intro

SPEAKER_01

back here at the Rink Hockey Podcast. Today's episode, we are gonna have some fun. We will start off with a couple of topics and then jump into a couple NHL-related games that I'll explain later as we go through them. If you enjoy what you hear, like, subscribe, and share. It's free and greatly appreciated. You can follow the rink on social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube for more haves and hockey content. Don't forget to head over to my Instagram and enter for a chance to win a Science Latkowski jersey. You have till the 30th for that. I want to also thank once again our sponsor, Connected Room. Check out my bios for all those links and 50% off your subscription. Joining me today once again are my boys Jordan and Donnie. How's it going tonight, guys? What have you been up to? Enjoying life.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, keep him busy. Keep him busy, like in the warmer weather right now, and starting to see all these potholes come out of the woodwork in Winnipeg, you know.

SPEAKER_01

I think all my tires are gonna fall off by the end of this week. It's freaking brutal out there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Windshire washer seasons.

SPEAKER_01

We're gonna start off with a couple NHL topics, boys, and then I'll explain some games I'm gonna put you guys through later, and we'll see how at each other's throats you guys get. Um, first one is going to be uh I chose it because it was just funny

Pillow Fight in the Pacific

SPEAKER_01

to me. Uh, McDavid calls the playoff race in the Pacific a pillow fight. Literally said a pillow fight. Um, the three best teams in the West right now are all playing each other in the first two rounds, which is crappy. But first off, the Pacific battle, Jordan. What do you think of those teams in there? Do you think any of those teams have a chance at even possibly? I know everyone has a chance to go into the cup final, but on paper, do they really have a shot against those three big teams?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, they do. I mean, I mean, calling it a pillow fight is is pretty funny. Um, you got Anaheim in first right now, which is you know a little bit of a surprise that they're sitting in first, but you did expect them to at least compete for a playoff spot this year. And then you got two proven, you know, veteran teams in Vegas and Edmonton. Yeah, they're not having good years. I you can't rule Edmonton out. They've been to the cup finals the last two years. Like, you gotta believe that when it really matters, they're gonna turn it on. I I'm never gonna count against Nick David, and then Vegas has a good team too, with Eichel there. They're just having they're getting the worst goaltending in the league so far this season, right?

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, it's garbage. Yeah, so it's just uh honestly, he is. Like, I don't I hate when people are like, Oh, he's he's an elite goaltender. I'm like, no, he's not, he's the farthest thing from it, and it's starting to show this season, really.

SPEAKER_00

He's a good backup goaltender, like a good 1D for a team, right?

SPEAKER_01

Like, and like we talked about it on our previous podcast, uh, Vegas didn't really do a heck of a lot, but or they added like uh what's his name there from Calgary.

SPEAKER_00

Um they did they did their moves early. Anderson, yeah, anderson.

SPEAKER_01

No, and yeah, they I I can't remember what this I don't know what the stat line is, but I remember like they were struggling against any team that was up in a playoff position when they played them. A lot of their wins are coming from teams that are not in the playoffs kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02

But sorry, I also think Aiden Hill just hasn't shown that he can be like a full workhorse goalie in the NHL. Like that year they won the cup, I think he only started 27 around 30 games that year.

SPEAKER_00

I think he showed that he can't be.

SPEAKER_02

No, that's that's what I'm saying. Like I think his highest point total was last year, where he played or game total, he played 50 games last year. He only has 22 games this year. Like injuries are an issue, right? And since he's come back from injuries, he's been even worse than he was. Like he had that one magical uh cup run where he kind of was was pretty good for Vegas when they won the cup that year, but kind of a one-shot wonder in terms of uh anything else outside of that.

SPEAKER_00

He did one good run.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and then just just sorry, just on your point on Edmonton there, Jordan. I I just feel this year is completely different with the man. I know the talent, top end, you'll have Dreisidel back in the regular season or end of the regular season here. Bouchard's having a quality year. Just the void in net and the disappointment that McDavid must have with taking that salary cut this year, trusting in the management, the executives of the Oilers to build a team around them to really give this one last shot within the next few years for Edmonton to win a cup. They've completely failed in net. I get what they were trying to do with that Tristan Jari trade. Skinner has drastically outperformed Jari post-trade on the Penguins. You see where Pittsburgh is in the playoff race. I just Tristan Jari, Connor Ingram, you put either of them in net, and I think when the going gets tough, both of them are gonna fail.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, Ingram's been in a way better goalie there, right? Like he's been their starters. Jari has been probably gonna be their starter going into playoffs, and like that's a roll of the dice.

SPEAKER_01

That was the worst move. That was the worst move Evermonton did, and then they just they just put their hands in their pockets and said, Oh, well, I guess that's what we're running with. Like, why didn't you try to improve it again? Like, I think it's been an issue the whole time.

SPEAKER_02

I understand what they were trying to do with that trade with what was available in the market at the time. Like, I I totally understand the reasoning behind it, but it just it just hasn't worked out. And in the long run, you paid you paid assets to get a goalie worse than the one you previously had, and Stuart's flashes in the past, right?

SPEAKER_00

And he didn't have numbers showing that he was gonna be better, like there was nothing showing, like, oh, in the last few years he's actually been good. He has actually been bad the last few years in Pittsburgh, and then they just thought he was gonna come over and play for a worse defensive team and be an all-star.

SPEAKER_01

It was like, oh, maybe a change of scenery, but no, like the stats of the stats, right? Like, either of these guys are not starting goaltenders, in my opinion. But also, when you look at the playoff views, and we all know the the east right now, how stacked it is and how hard it's gonna be to even make the playoffs over there. Then you look at the west. Do you guys think it's time the NHL sits down and goes back to the 1v8 playoff format? As of right now, in the first two rounds, you're eliminating two out of the top three teams in the in the uh west there. Like so Colorado, if you fit finish the central one, they're gonna get a wild card, obviously. But then you have Dallas and Minnesota as as your first round matchup. And arguably those are your not arguably, they are the three best teams in the West. Do you guys think it's time to switch the playoff format back to 1v8? Donnie.

SPEAKER_02

100%. 100%. Um this honestly gives me flashbacks to 2018, I believe. When the Winnipeg Jets were the second, were they second or first in the league? Had to play Nashville in round two. That's amazing. Exact same format where I think the Jets ended up winning that series, losing to Vegas in the Western Final, but it feels like that exact same thing where two of the best teams, the two best teams in the league are playing each other so early in the first three rounds. I'll throw a controversial take out there. Screw travel costs and uh proximity from city to city. As a hockey fan, I would love to see like a one versus 16 format. Screw the one versus eight, go one versus sixteen, mix them all up, go straight up point percentage, point totals, whatever that the ranking goes, top in the league versus last team in the playoffs, crossover east and west. Kind of saw a little bit of that in the bubble with the North Division. I think perhaps Tabs won the Western Conference that year. It would be fun, right?

SPEAKER_00

There's no way they go through one to sixteen.

SPEAKER_02

It's my chaotic hockey fan.

SPEAKER_01

But like imagine, like it'd be so fun. You'd have right your first round, you got Colorado versus Philly.

SPEAKER_02

Like let's take a look at those matchups just.

SPEAKER_01

So you'd have Colorado and Philly as your uh or uh one to 16, sorry, Colorado, Utah. My apologies. Colorado, Utah. You got Dallas and Philly, you got Carolina and Anaheim, Buffalo and Detroit, Mini and the Islanders, Tampa and Ottawa, Columbus versus Pittsburgh, and then hey, look, Montreal versus Boston. There you go, Gary. You just gotta you still have your uh you would still have some east-east-west west matchups, right? It would still be it would be fun. I agree. It's never gonna happen, but it should, in my opinion, be hell fun. Uh, another controversial take that I read earlier today is someone suggested to do like uh play in play-in uh rounds, you know what I mean? Where uh like by baseball where you have the play-in rounds first and then you start going as well, yeah. Like a lot of people are looking at that. I think just the start, we go back to the one versus eight at this point. You're still gonna have rivalry matchups. I get people want rivalry, but it's just it's ridiculous, in my opinion, that our top three teams in the West are gonna verse each other right away, and a team like Edmonton or even Utah are gonna have a more of a cakewalk to the uh Eastern or Western Conference final and then verse a beat down team, basically, like a completely beat down team.

SPEAKER_00

So I saw that this format with the divisions. Um there's 67 percent of the games in the first uh series in the first round go to six or more games, whereas when it was one to eight, there was only sixty-one percent. So that's the argument, you know, against it, right? You're getting longer, better rounds. It's uh it's a better uh it's it's just better matchups. There's usually you're playing these teams a little bit more during the season, there might be a little bit bad blood there. Um, ultimately, I don't mind Vegas, uh I mean Colorado and Dallas and Minnesota all having to play each other. Like the old saying is you gotta beat everyone. And at the end of the day, if you're gonna go win the cup, I mean, yeah, it might take a toll on your team, but if you can get through, say Dallas gets through Minnesota, and then they have to go play Colorado and they can get through that, like and you're exhausted.

SPEAKER_01

I I agree with that, but I also agree with that.

SPEAKER_00

But those are the two best series that you're gonna see this season. This post season. Like, I also hockey, that's what I'm here for.

SPEAKER_01

I agree with that, but I also agree with if you're top three in your in your conference, that there should be some sort of reward for it at the same time, too. Like I I I get both arguments both ways, but um I don't know. We'll see what happens.

SPEAKER_02

But maybe the solution is like we talk about expansion of the league, right? We're at 32 teams. I think the next two are coming in to make it 34 within probably the next five years. We talk about probably Atlanta, Houston, other expansion cities. Maybe you're expanding the playoffs to beyond eight teams, maybe you're making that 10. Maybe you're having more uh like like we talk about the first in each division playing a wild card. Maybe you have more of those kind of scenarios as opposed to in division games and coming up with more of a hybrid with more teams making the playoffs, right? That could be a good idea.

SPEAKER_01

I'd be interested to see if they expand the playoffs. Yeah, like I'd be interested to see the expand the teams, then you give like whoever your first place team in each conference is maybe just like a a buy right to the second round. Like some or you can there's a whole bunch of things you can do to really spice things up. I just wonder if like I don't know, I don't know exactly how many years we've had the divisions now, but I wonder if it's time to freshen it up a little bit, basically.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, uh it works in cycles, right?

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Um I just thought it was funny how you how you mentioned at the beginning the how close the race is on kind of both sides now, and it's legitimately the exact opposite. Everyone in the east is like playing up to try and like take grab of that last playoff spot, try to get into those wild card spots, and the west is the exact opposite. It's like no one wants it.

SPEAKER_01

Everyone's on losing streaks, they're all they're all trying to they're all trying to lose. They're like, ah, screw this year, we're all gonna go for uh first overall pick.

SPEAKER_02

Like, just just for reference, quick, there's 10 teams in the eastern conference right now that if placed in the Pacific division, they would all lead that division ahead of Anaheim. Ten total teams on the east side.

SPEAKER_01

If you go into the whole league, how many how many of the top 10 league uh teams in the league right now are from the east compared to the west, too? You know what I mean? Like, if you go to the overall standing seven out of ten. It's like all the east, you know what I mean? It's it's it's insane. That's what I'm saying. You know what I mean? So like I don't know. I think it's time to maybe look at a little bit of a change, but we'll see. Yeah. Um, moving on, just do another quick little segment here.

Next Team Canada GM?

SPEAKER_01

Doug Armstrong stepped down as Team Canada's GM this this uh past week here. Um, I want uh there's some options. I'm gonna list a couple, and then I want you guys to give me who your favorites are. And if you have one that's completely off the books I didn't even mention, then let's hear it. So I got a couple options here. Stevie Eiserman from the Red Wings, Jim Neal, Dallas Stars, Kyle Dubas out of Pittsburgh, Julian Brizois out of Tampa, and Kent Hughes from the Montreal Canadiens. Jordan, who would be your favorite right now, either from those guys or off the books?

SPEAKER_00

Whoever decides to actually put Bedard on the team next time. Whoever decides to pick skilled players and not a bunch of grinders, a bunch of lot grinders, and maybe don't take Bennington. I don't know. Um, honestly, probably Breeze Ball would be my number one. He's just been very proven in Tampa and what he's done, but all these guys are good options, right? Yeah, the person actually that I like Dubis would be a pretty big wild card to me. I don't really know what he would do. Um, as unpopular opinion as this might be, the person on that list that I'd like least want is probably Stevie UI, honestly. And I love Geisherman, but I just I don't know, the way he uh goes about managing sometimes and builds his teams, I don't know if that's good for best on best. That's fair.

SPEAKER_01

Johnny.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I'd probably lean towards Brieslaw as well. I think when you're looking at these replacements, you kind of by default look at general managers that have won cups, kind of built teams that have got to the top there. Um yeah, I think I think Brieswell would be the best pick. We talk about I think you had Kent Hughes in there, Dante. I think he is still a little bit too green uh until the Habs can really build this thing, which which I don't know, next Olympics is four years from now. Maybe the resumes look completely different when it comes time to name a GM. If it's one year out from those Olympics or whatever that timeline is, I'm not sure. Um but I right now you look at Tampa Bay, the success they had with those back-to-back cups, the success they continue to have as one of the best teams in the East still, even though you think their core is declining, they trade Stamcos, they they're a team that that executes to win. So that would probably be my pick as well.

SPEAKER_01

I'm going, I'm going Breezewall as well, like you said. Like a team uh every year for you hear on like these before the season starts, the preseason somehow, oh Tampa Bay's probably gonna take a step back this year or step back or whatever. And they never do. Uh so Breezewall definitely for me is the one. I would love to see out of all those guys on there, I agree with Jordan Yeiserman. I he's a big name, but I'm don't want it anything to do with the team, to be honest. But I would like to see if you uh Breeswall is your GM and then your assistant GMs. If I could pick one of those, I would go Jim Neal and Kent Hughes, honestly, just for perspective. Like we all mean Donnie, you know about Kent, he loves his young players and loves to give them the shots. So all three of those guys together, I think, give a very broad view of different ways of building a team, kind of thing, instead of what we had this year, which we all know how that went basically. And uh, I the only other thing I laughed at here, I'm gonna read it real quick. It was a comment from Reddit, and the guy on here said, I would just name Wayne Gretzky. He'll know nothing about what's going on, but at least his name will be associated with the team again, basically. It's what this guy said.

SPEAKER_00

But the only the only bad thing about Breeze Wall is any Canadian that's on Tampa Bay with him and uh Cooper as the coach is probably gonna be on Canada.

SPEAKER_01

So well, that's the difference. I'm curious to already be a conflict. I'm curious or not. Um, I wonder so too. I also we're not gonna talk about it right now, but I wonder who the coach is. It might even be a different coach, like you said, Donnie. We're we're quite a while out from the next um team or next uh Olympic team Canada. We'll have to see how it uh plays out, basically.

SPEAKER_02

As Canadians, let's let's hope that the Americans stick with Bill Guerin so that they don't have uh Cole Call on the team. That's another team.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, let's go.

SPEAKER_02

I wouldn't I wouldn't say five basic gold medal game, but I think they got a little lucky that gold medal game.

SPEAKER_01

Like, yeah, if you sim that game a thousand times, Canada wins that freaking game 99% of them. But anyway, whatever. I digress. Let's move on here. All right, we're gonna play a couple of little games with you guys, a little fun games. Some people have seen them on uh TikTok and everything like that. We're gonna do a blind top five game first. Uh, you can both chime in together if you want, or I'm gonna I'm gonna say a person's name, and if you want to converse with the other, that's perfectly okay with me. So basically, it's top five. I'm gonna give you a bunch of players, and you gotta rank them from best to worst without knowing who they are. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, let's do it individually. Well, we can chime in as needed, but all right.

SPEAKER_01

So we're gonna start with Donnie

Donny's Blind Top 5

SPEAKER_01

first, okay? You're not top five, your first player, Seth Jarvis.

SPEAKER_02

I have no clue where to go with this, man. It's so tough because it's literally like you're taking one player's name, and I kind of have to gauge since you're not narrowing this down at all. You're not making it around the city.

SPEAKER_01

I'm not narrowing this. In the future, I'll narrow them down right now, completely broad. It could be anybody. Past, it could be, it could be McKinnah, it could be current, past, anything. I'm not gonna this one's gonna be completely broad, and hopefully it screws you guys up a little more.

SPEAKER_02

I'm gonna wing it here. Let's toss uh if we're doing all time, these are all time, so you're not just current players, right? All time. I'm gonna toss Seth Jarvis at four on my list. I think I think you're gonna have some like fucking John Scott or something.

SPEAKER_01

Well, your next player, Donnie, this one will hit at home. Let's see what you let's see what you rank this guy. Your f one of your favorite players of all time, Andre Markov.

SPEAKER_03

Unbiased? Unbiased?

SPEAKER_01

No, no, I want your biased opinion.

SPEAKER_02

I think I think it it's it's tough because you got a player in the middle of his career. Like, are you considering full career trajectory what they're gonna project to be versus someone that's done? I'm gonna I'm gonna put Markov at three.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Oh boy, this is gonna get spicy here. Your next player is someone else that hits home for you, Donnie. Oh my goodness. Dale Whis.

SPEAKER_02

The Dutch Retzky What a legend.

SPEAKER_01

The Dutch Retzky legend. What do you think? Now you know why I wanted to do this individually for you guys.

SPEAKER_02

You have to put Weeze at five, man. Just as far the magical moments were unbelievable with him. The overtime goals in the playoffs that won uh 2014 run, his fighting with Lucic, but his peak was a blink of an eye. And then he beef it alone. But I've I've played against him in Winnipeg. He's still pretty damn good. Okay. Wow, those guys are legends.

SPEAKER_01

But uh your next player, you got one and two left here. You got Wyatt Johnson.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know, man. I I like Johnson's game. I guess I'll have to put him at two and just hope you have like Gretzky or something. Or it's gonna be a joke.

SPEAKER_01

Johnson at Johnson at two. Alright. So that means your number one player. Do you want me just to tell you the player right off the hop? You ready for it?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

George Paros.

SPEAKER_03

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01

Number one player. How are you?

SPEAKER_02

Put him at six. If we rank this priests on ability to run this priests on ability to run Department of Player Safety, he'd be at 100. We'd make 90 95 new positions and rank him at the bottom.

SPEAKER_01

The only list that George Paros ranks one out of those players is who has a master's degree. And that's about it. Uh well, all right. Next time, don't worry, I will narrow it down. Jordan, you're up next though, okay? You've

Jordan's Blind Top 5

SPEAKER_01

now kind of seen the trajectory of players that could be coming at you. This will be a little different, okay? Yeah. Round two, Jordan. Your first player is Patrick Kane.

SPEAKER_00

I'm putting the two. Kane is potentially the best uh American player of all time. So not putting in ones hard, but I'm gonna, yeah, I'm gonna gamble go too.

SPEAKER_02

Jokes on you. This is a list to rate how street taxi drivers. And you put that in the screen.

SPEAKER_01

Well, number two on this uh player for you now, Jordan, is uh kill my car. I think Jordan's Jordan's gonna start to see what kind of players he's gonna get now, and hopefully it throws him off a little bit. Because Donnie's was kind of more all over the place, and yours right now. You gotta kill Makara too.

SPEAKER_00

Like Makara has the trajectory that he could be like a top three defenseman to ever play the game. Like wherever he is in his career.

unknown

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01

He's he's he's been the consistent best defenseman every single year in this league for many years now.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but there's a there's at least a handful of defensemen alone that I put ahead of him if you were giving me a list of pass.

SPEAKER_01

So it's gonna make it a little tough. I'm not I'm not narrowing it down this time.

SPEAKER_02

I would I would look at Merrick here, Jordan, and probably put him behind Makar would be mine, or Kane.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I'm gonna go four.

SPEAKER_02

I'm just gonna hope long-term legacy players.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Alright, Jordan. This one's gonna hit home for you now, okay? Oh Jerome Ginla. Now you guys now you guys know why I picked you guys, like I wanted to do individual because I kind of put players in there for you boys.

SPEAKER_00

Uh again's one. And it's not even a debate. That's that's the easiest thing I've ever done in my life. He's by far my favorite player to ever play. He's legitimately the reason why I played hockey growing up. Uh yeah, he's he's one, and it's not even close.

SPEAKER_01

Alright, your next one. Ready for this one? This one should be hopefully an easier one for you. You got spots three and five left over, so you've kind of spread it out nice. You got Paul Bissinet.

SPEAKER_00

Does his office uh count or not?

SPEAKER_01

His podcast fame does not count towards.

SPEAKER_00

I'm gonna put Biz at five, and I just hope that someone that's at least close to Makar comes up, or else I feel bad putting him four.

SPEAKER_01

Your last guy, Jordan, not bad of a list here, okay. Number three, Wayne Gretzky.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah, I'll put Gretzky at three. That's fine. There you go.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, you got Wayne, you got the great one there.

SPEAKER_00

You probably could have put him up higher, but uh I'm okay. It's not bad behind the game. Jordan Jordan's not bad of all time.

SPEAKER_01

Not like he holds every single record possible, except for goals now, I guess.

SPEAKER_00

But yeah, he also played against guys with pillows on their pads that uh were afraid to go down.

SPEAKER_02

So second made a bunch of electricians.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, Kane would like break his that guy's ankles three times on one deep. Like, come on.

SPEAKER_01

That's fair, that's fair. Well, all right, it's not bad. It's good for a first round. Then that's just to get you guys' feet warm. The next time we play this game, they will be in like uh categories, basically. So my ranking was five far better than Donnie's. Just saying. Well, Donnie's was a little more difficult as well. I tried what I tried to do is I wanted to give Donnie like some difficult ones at the beginning, and then I was hoping that when it came to you, you would be like, Oh, uh, this could be any. I was trying to get you to put Gretzky at five, basically. But yeah, not bad, not bad. All right, we're

Hot Takes - Blindly Agree or Disagree?

SPEAKER_01

gonna want to the next fun game here. This one will be a little bit back and forth between you guys. So, rapid fire hot takes, basically. So, I will cut you off if it goes on for too long. But uh basically what's gonna happen is I'm gonna select either you or Donnie. So, let's, for example, let's say I pick Donnie. I'm gonna ask him to agree or disagree prior to telling him what the take is. If Donovan says agree, then Jordan, you're automatically disagreeing with the statement. You guys don't know what it is, and then I'm gonna tell you the statement and you can go at it. Make sense?

SPEAKER_02

Like argue for their blind statement in our favor of the thing.

SPEAKER_01

Yep, exactly.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

Ready, roll? All right. Round one, Donnie, agree or disagree.

SPEAKER_02

I have to hear the question first.

SPEAKER_01

No, no, no. Agree or disagree.

SPEAKER_02

I'm gonna I'm gonna say disagree.

SPEAKER_01

Donnie, you're disagreeing with this statement. Jordan, you're agreeing with this statement. Round one of the playoffs is better hockey than the cup finals. Either one of you guys go. It's either one of you guys go. Donnie, you start us off.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, like the nature of Stanley Cup playoffs is you eliminate shittier hockey teams as you go, and the two best teams are left at the end. And the stakes of the Stanley Cup final just brings out the best hockey in the world. We look at these last few Stanley Cup finals with Edmonton and Florida. Edmonton was down 3-1 in the cup final, made it 3-3, lost a tight game 7-2-1. I don't think it gets better than the Stanley Cup final.

SPEAKER_00

I like I like your argument. I do think the Stanley Cup final is good. It's two teams that are uh supposed to be there. They've battled uh to get there. The my biggest problem with it, it's one game. One game a night, every other night, maybe every third day. First round, you got multiple games. You every night, three games a night, four games a night. You're getting able to watch from six till twelve, one o'clock. Um, every single game is competitive. All these guys are putting everything they have on the line. A lot of the teams are still healthy at that point, so they're not battling with injuries, and uh you're able to uh see who wants it more, and uh, I find you get a lot more uh high uh high intensity games that way.

SPEAKER_02

Sorry, Dante. Was the question about the quality of hockey or the quantity of it?

SPEAKER_01

It just says round one of the playoffs is better hockey than the cup finals.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I took that one, I think.

SPEAKER_01

I mean winners and losers here. You know, it's all good. No, I just um okay, round two, we're gonna go Jordan, agree or disagree.

SPEAKER_00

I'll agree.

SPEAKER_01

Donnie, you're disagreeing with the statement. Jordan, we're gonna start with your first argument. For you're agreeing with McKinnon is a better player than Connor McDavid.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, okay, I can I can definitely make this argument. Um Nate's a better centerman, he's better at face-offs. Um he his skating is the second to uh McDavid, so he's right behind him there. Uh, I think he has more compete level, uh higher heart, um, puts in a higher effort every shift. He doesn't play with probably another top uh three player in the world in Dry Cidle. Um's good, but he's a defenseman. He's not a winger, he's not on a sh line every single day, and yeah, game in, game out gets to play with him all the time. And uh I uh I think he honestly makes everyone around him better, and uh yeah, he just his compete level and level of uh that he plays at every single shift is what I give it to him for.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I won't I won't even argue the compete level. Like I think McKinnon has a motor on him that not very many people in the NHL have, not to mention top players. I just think as far as pure talent this game has ever seen, as far as foot speed, ability to operate at that high foot speed and make players look stupid and distribute the puck, playmaking IQ, everything. I think McDavid is the most talented NHL player in the history of this game. And I think if you put him back in Gretzky's era as far as just talent goes, I I think he's he's blowing Gretzky's records out of the water. I think so would Patrick Kane. Oh, I agree. Like like just like just a level.

SPEAKER_01

According to Jordan's list, two people would a Ginla and Kane.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Like the quality of players that are coming out nowadays, but the training and just like everything from the the grassroots up to being NHL superstars, it's it's insane how much this game has grown. Um and and as far as the McDavid factor, like I sure he has dry sideline and then you often see them kind of split up and playing on different lines, they kind of load that up as needed as a team. But I'd like to see McDavid in it if you just picked up McKinnon, put McDavid in his spot, like how different. Yeah, it'd be cool, you know. But very comparable players.

SPEAKER_00

Nate also has the cup, so saying agreed.

SPEAKER_02

I think McDavid for sure gets one by the time his career goes. Might not be next time.

SPEAKER_01

Nathan McKinnon missed a wide open net. Just saying, McDavid would never McDavid probably would have tried to pass it. McDavid just went one on overtime and then turned two both garbage. All right. All right, these next couple ones are gonna be probably a little bit quicker because they're complete BS that I made up. All right, Donnie, agree or disagree.

SPEAKER_02

Uh I'll go agree.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Jordan, you're disagreeing. Jordan, you're disagreeing with this statement. Jonathan, you're agreeing. Nail Yakupov faked being bad at hockey so he could live a quiet life in Russia away from the spotlight of Edmonton.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah. I think you just see some of the flashes from his his rookie year. He told that overtime winner where he completely cooked it down center ice and did the double-knee celly. Uh, I don't know, like just the drop-off from the first year and the flashes you saw to the rest of his career. It almost feels like you just like he got abducted and replaced with someone else who's never played hockey before. And it's it's hard to really fathom how our player goes from first overall and such a unanimous pick to to where he ended up.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I I definitely disagree with uh the statement because I just think he was bad at hockey. He just wasn't good.

SPEAKER_02

Just shit all around. It's just amazing to me just shit all around. It's just amazing to me how many scouts got it wrong, right? Like he was like unanimous the first pick in that draft.

SPEAKER_01

And maybe it was probably one of the biggest busts.

SPEAKER_02

Maybe it was a lack of just like uh other talent, and they were just looking at a very depleted pool and like, okay, what's the best piece here? You know, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01

No, no, no, Donnie. Your your argument is not on why they did. You're he is really, really good and decided to go to Russia.

SPEAKER_02

On a side note, have you guys heard the uh you guys know Arthur Kalyev? Yeah. There's some crazy rumors.

SPEAKER_01

We'll we'll keep we'll keep that for another conversation because that's a future that's gonna be a future hot take. You're talking about how uh he replaced his brother, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, that's gonna be uh we're gonna do a future episode one day that's gonna be conspiracy theories in the NHL. That's number one we missed. Yeah, we'll go well, we're gonna go through that one day. Okay, next one. This one's a more of a similar or easier one. Uh Jordan, agree or disagree?

SPEAKER_00

Uh I'll agree.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, Donnie, you're disagreeing with the statement of the NHL should allow teams to go over the cap if they can afford the penalty to do so. I uh for example, like NBA can go over certain teams can spend way more money than other teams, MLB, all that kind of stuff. Jordan, you're agreeing. What do you got?

SPEAKER_00

Um it's hard because I I don't actually agree with it.

SPEAKER_01

Um you agree. You got you agree. Let's see.

SPEAKER_02

As a blue jays fan, you have to agree with this, Jordan.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Uh I think hockey's just a different sport. Um, and it's hard to keep a lot of your superstar players happy. So I don't think superstar players should count against the cap. Therefore, it should be uh it should be able to go above cap because they should just be free money since they make your team so much money uh by selling their jerseys and stuff. There you go.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, the economic input is like would be legit, right? You'd have all these superstars just pushing and pushing for higher contracts. Look at the money thrown around in the MLB. It would kind of be similar to that. Um but no, like obviously from a from a competitive standpoint, you want every club to be relevant. You look at some of the teams in the MLB that just can't compete, that are in smaller markets, Oakland A's, right? There's teams that just like from a logistical standpoint are not able to build competitive rosters with that kind of structuring of salary cap. So I think having the hard cap, uh, I'm very interested to see how this playoff cap is implemented this year. Uh, we talk a little bit about teams already finding loopholes with their salary structure, like like eBug back like third string goalies being dressed over backup goalies to save that little difference in salary between those two goalies. Um once if Vegas makes the playoffs, you never know what they're gonna pull off, right? Markstone's already on IR ready.

SPEAKER_01

They're gonna not ice a whole, they're gonna not ice their entire fourth line and then just have everyone else up front loaded, like or or teams just not icing a full roster.

SPEAKER_02

Like, is that also possible? Like, if you don't want to go to the show, from what I've read the point.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, like from what I read, it there is no rec there the requirements are very low for what you're supposed to dress every night. There, you could technically get away with not dressing one or two players, nine forwards, and you could get away for it, just like how in the international you can dress an extra one. Uh the NHL, they don't actually specify like if you you don't need to dress up to that amount of things.

SPEAKER_00

They thought good teams like Edmonton, they thought good teams like Edmonton would actually just go like 6D and only uh 11 forwards, and just so you can double shift dry settled McDavid, stuff like that. That's fine.

SPEAKER_02

Who needs a goalie? Just go six forwards all time.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, they pretty much play with other goalie now, anyway.

SPEAKER_01

So Faus Edmonton, I'm dressing either goalie, and I'm just telling a defender to sit in front of the net. Um, all right. The next one, once again, a little bit out of there. Jordan, I mean, Donnie, dis agree or disagree.

SPEAKER_02

I'll disagree this one.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, Jordan, you're agreeing. If a goalie takes a penalty, they should have to serve it, and the backup must play.

SPEAKER_00

100%. I think that is awesome. I think that if a goalie wants to get in there and mix it up, uh, I think that the backup should have to come into the net cold and punish your team and have to try and kill this penalty off and maybe get hurt, but that's on your buddy goaltending pandemic at his risk. If he wants to go out and be a superman and get into the scrums, that's on him. The only time I think the goalie shouldn't serve his own penalty is if it's a goalie on goalie fight because I want to promote those and I want those in the game.

SPEAKER_02

So what happens if your backup gets a penalty too?

SPEAKER_00

Then you have to put a player in it.

SPEAKER_01

Get get that emergency backup goalie from the stands immediately. Then you're uh yeah, you just you're you're putting a player in there or you're playing with no goalie. Good good luck on that penalty kill. Five on four, it's a five on goalie. It's a five on three, basically, no goalie. Donnie, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna switch my answer to agree on this one and agree with Jordan. No, you can't switch it. I think it would be chaotic and good for the game, and uh encourage more goalies to fight. Like to your point.

SPEAKER_01

One of the fun one of the funny things about this is if it did ever happen, which we both know all three of us know it's never gonna happen. But if your starting goalie takes a penalty, let's say for a two-minute delay of game, and he goes and serves that penalty, and your backup comes in, the goalie then at the end of the two minutes, he's a player on the ice, he's got to get out there and defend with pads and all. No, he's he's at the blue line, or go for a breakaway all the way down the ice. I'm all for him.

SPEAKER_02

I'm all for it.

SPEAKER_01

Another, so this next one is another little fun one as well, kind of similar to the last one. Jordan, do you agree or disagree with this? Without all I'll disagree. Oh, poor take. Johnny, you're gonna agree. All right, so we all talk about three on three and then shootouts. Okay, if a game ends in a tie, it goes to continuous three-on-three pond hockey style. No offsides, no icings. Goalie can play outside the trapezoid. There are no rules besides intent to injure and goalie interference. So basically no penalties, no trip to calls. There's there's no penalties. It's just the only the yeah, you are the only the only two penalties that there would be is an intent to injure a player or goalie interference, or else you just have everyone tackling the goaltender out of the net. So it's three on three. There's no rules besides intent to injure and goalie interference. Jordan, you're I mean, Jordan, you're disagreeing with this. Donnie, you're agreeing with it. Good luck. Jordan's an easy one, probably.

SPEAKER_00

Donnie, you only try and go first.

SPEAKER_02

I think this is probably tied to the rumors that we've heard recently of the uh UFC NHL crossover event. Uh, both leagues kind of crossing over. There's gonna be UFC fighters joining the NHL, uh, and vice versa. Uh just making the game better, right? Kind of uh Jordan's face right now is priceless. Oh, I wish you guys. We'll accumulate both fan bases, like the revenue will be double for each each thing. And yeah, we'll just get to the point of like actually having like a hybrid sport here where uh everything can happen, fans don't know what's gonna happen, and you know, majority of them probably can't skate. Dana White is a great hockey player.

SPEAKER_01

Um Gregor can skate with the best of them, Jordan. It's probably out there Brock Lesnar, sleep like City on the ice.

SPEAKER_00

Obviously, the disagree with this is the superior take. Um, you just there has to be structure in hockey, and like if you were if we were to argue like just continuous three-on-three instead of going to a shootout, it'd be a it would be a hard thing to argue. But there has to be structure to not have offsides, to not have penalties, like it that's just caveman bush league stuff. Like the best players in the league, yeah, exactly. Like McDavid and Dry said, all just go to the dressing room, give us our one point. I'm not getting injured because they put AJ Greer out to come hit me from behind.

SPEAKER_02

AJ Greer would be the best player in the league.

SPEAKER_01

Uh, well, technically, that would fall under the intent to injure category, Jordan. So they would still get a penalty. Uh, so no intent there.

SPEAKER_00

If Paros is in charge of player safety still, then there's gonna be a lot of intent to injure, it'd be more than a three-game penalty when you have like 20 pounds on a kid, like and have them all balance from behind.

SPEAKER_02

This does sound like something the Saudis could invest in and develop as a sport, though.

SPEAKER_01

Well, they're actually what they you guys watched the movie Goon, obviously. Shout out to Goon. Great. Well, and remember that little uh there's a little clip where all the fight old rundown fighters are in just like a league where it's just fighting, basically. They each start at the other end of the ice and they meet in the middle, and all they do is fight the whole time. Now that would be if you have all your bet uh injured players, they should do that at the end of the game. You get to pick if it's instead of a shootout, each team picks a fighter to go to center ice, and the winner wins the game.

SPEAKER_00

Ryan Reese still somehow wouldn't drop his gloves. Tough sky in the league, but that never drops his gloves. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_01

Well, it's Ryan Reese for you. All right, boys. I'll uh we'll we'll we're gonna do this again one day as well for um the hot takes and for some top five rankings, but we'll end off

Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_01

with some final thoughts.

SPEAKER_02

Donnie, anything uh could be about anything. It kind of reminded me when we were talking about the um the no penalties and everything, but uh the PWHL game, there was a season game here in Winnipeg on the weekend. Sounds like the turnout was really good between Montreal and Ottawa. And one rule that I'd like to see implemented in the NHL that they've recently adopted is they call it a jailbreak goal. And if you're shorthanded and you score a short-handed goal, your pedaly immediately ends, and all four players go and selly in front of the pedaly box, open the door, that player comes out and selllies with their team. I feel like that would be a really cool kind of incentive for teams to create offense short-handed in the NHL, and would would be that kind of low impact uh move that the league could make to just add a bit of excitement without really kind of changing structure and uh just awarding teams, right? That are XL short-handed.

SPEAKER_01

Jordan, final thoughts.

SPEAKER_00

My final thoughts, more of a question to you guys. Um, do you guys have any idea what goaltender interference is right now?

SPEAKER_01

Neither nope, but neither does the NHL.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

No, man. What this league needs is they need to issue a set of videos uh clearly defining goaltender interference in all these different situations. And like honestly, at the end of the day, I think it's I think the ambiguity around goalie interference is is a strategy the league wants. Right? We talk about flipping a coin and every given instant one one night an identical goal will be a goal, the next night it's not, and it's just fully up to the the situation team at the time, right? But it just feels like if the league wanted to to handle this and and get rid of this issue of the question of what is goalie interference, they easily could by just defining it more, right? And then kind of creating a learning learning module for for fans, executives, and organizations to review, you know. But it's just it's ignorance.

SPEAKER_00

I feel like, and a lot of leagues have this, but this is one of the big rules for hockey that is just up to the refs decision, it's not going to be the same every single night. It's just if they want to uh call it goal interference this night, sure, we're gonna call it. If we don't, no, it's a good goal, right? This team's down by a couple, and there's a little bit of contact, it's fine. Let's just make this a Closer game and more entertaining, right? Like it just it feels like there's no consistency call to call. You could have the exact same thing happen twice in the same game, and they're gonna be called different ways, which is such a head scratcher. I think they just need to go to the double I draf rule on this, where pretty much any contact with a goalie inside the crease, you touch the goalie at all inside his crease, it's no goal. Simple as that. That's fair.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I agree with that. It's not quite the the bread hole, like no foot in the crease rule, but yeah, any any kind of contact at all. Yeah, that'd be a good rule.

SPEAKER_01

So, my hot take, it's something that not really hot, sorry, not hot take. Final thought. Uh, we've been talking about this all week. Uh, player safety has been a joke lately with some of the decisions, the suspensions. So, as we're talking tonight, um, Pierre Luc Dubois was issued a match penalty for intent to injure Robert Thomas. So, that's it. It's an automatic um for NHL Rule 21, automatic suspension pending review of the NHL. Thomas also received a two-minute minor for interference on the play. And as I watch this play, I am very curious to see what Kurt Angle does. Because he or sorry, he Kurt Angles the guy. I'm very interested to see what George Perros does. Kurt Angle. Um reading the comments section right now where he just jumped him from yeah, Kurt Angle is famous for jumping people from behind and just throwing them onto the ground, basically. But he basically suplexes this guy that to he suplexes Robert Thomas to the ground, basically, grabs him from behind and just straight up turns around and slams him face first into the ice.

SPEAKER_00

Like so I I haven't seen the play, but knowing George Paros, this is gonna be a five thousand dollar fine.

SPEAKER_01

If this isn't more than five games, the player safety is just completely lost. We talked about this this week, about um how the NHL PA, I think it was, was asking for a full review, all that kind of stuff. Like they need George Perros needs to go because, like Jordan's mentioned last podcast, the NHL does a terrible job of protecting its stars. And yeah, this is when you when you get to see this, Jordan. We'll weigh into it maybe next podcast on whatever the fire or whatever the punishment is. But uh we'll be interesting to see.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, like I touched I touched on the Zari hit a bit, like that was one of the dirtiest hits I've put like honestly ever seen. They go shoulder on shoulder, top of the circle. Zari's off balance as they turn into the corner, and Greer's clearly behind him, like there's no chance he's getting to his shoulder or anything, and decides to two-hand push him in the back into the boards from four feet away, where he then spikes his head into the boards and instantly grabs his neck. Like my first thought was this guy could be paralyzed, and all that comes from it is a three-game suspension because they don't want to do an in-person hearing and fly him out and actually have uh real discipline on this. It's honestly a joke. And if they don't want to actually go that step so that they give too many games, as they say, um, so that they can uh appeal it and get it brought back, then they need to get put someone else in there who does like isn't afraid of that. Because I would much rather you give a guy seven games and it get uh appealed and brought back to five than give them three when everyone thinks it should have been five.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, that's fair.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I was listening to 32 Thoughts. I just got a few points here. I'm just watching the video over Dante. Uh so apparently the NHL is like very against appeal processes, they don't want to go down this path of having teams scrutinize their calls. They would rather have the right call issued at the initial point and not have an appeal process. To your point, Jordan. I think that's the backwards way of looking at it. I think giving George Parrows kind of the the the run of the litter here and just his call to make any decision on suspensions without anyone challenging it isn't the right way to go. Um but yeah, that that that uh that play by AJ Greer, I don't know. Like you can you can honestly see the decision making happening in the moment. He's looking right at the numbers, decides to push him right in the back. That's uh that's as blatant an intent to injury as you can get.

SPEAKER_00

That play was worse than the knee on Matthews to me.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, 100%. I agree. It should have been it should have been I think six, seven games was kind of the the sweet spot for that that he should have realistically got. But this this Pierre-Luc Dubois play, Dante. I'm looking at this a little bit more. The takedown is egregious. Like once they kind of contact each other and his like his it's a wrestling move takedown. But at the same time, you have Robert, like this is a power play for or is it five on five power play for St. Louis already? And you have you kind of have Robert Thomas backing in there already, kind of initiating the contact with Dubois. Du Bois trying to follow the guy with the puck. So I I I could also see George Purus look at that, blame Thomas and suspend Thomas and Dubois.

SPEAKER_01

But like how do you I I I I I get it, but like how do you like he's just gliding back probably into where he sits on the power play? Yeah, possession, you know what I mean? He's just gliding back, and he just gets taken down, his i his face slammed into the ice.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, well, sorry, quickly on your on the AJ Greer to your point there, Jordan, too. Like, you look at past history of players, AJ Greer has a rap sheet as long as my arm on on past suspensions and fines as well. So I think the book should have been thrown at him. It was obviously way too light. And yeah, I think uh it did sound like this offseason the NHLPA and the NHL are going to be renegotiating uh Department of Player Safety and looking at uh head safety in a little bit more detail. Um but it does it does sound like that that conversation and the push needs to come from the players, the player association. Uh, if they get enough players that speak up and kind of uh talk about it in these meetings, then it'll get dealt with. But I guess we'll see.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we'll we'll dive into this in a further podcast. We'll go into maybe we'll do a whole one just literally reviewing some of these decisions in the past year and dissect them and stuff like that. So we'll dive into this again a little bit later on. Boys, thank you guys for joining me again today. Thank you, everyone who listened. Like, subscribe for more, and we will be back with another podcast, hopefully soon in the future. Thanks, boys. Have a good night. Have a good one.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you.