Episode 8 - Playoff Catch‑Up: Round 1 Fallout, Round 2 Fire, Draft Lottery Talk

 After a short break, the boys are back and the playoffs have not slowed down. In this episode, we catch up on everything we missed from Round 1 — the upsets, the overperformers, the disappointments, and the storylines that stole the show. Then we roll straight into our thoughts on Round 2: the matchups, the momentum swings, and who we think has the edge moving forward. To wrap things up, we shift gears and break down the NHL Draft Lottery results, what they mean for the teams at the bottom, and how the board might shake out heading into draft season. A lot has happened since we were last on the mic — so let’s get into it. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Alright,

Intro

SPEAKER_02 0:15

we are back finally. It's been a minute, but the playoffs definitely didn't wait for us. Round one came in swinging. Teams got bounced, brackets got busted, and we've got a lot to say about all of it. Today we are breaking down every first round result, giving our thoughts on the matchups coming in round two, and then wrapping things up with a look at the NHL draft lottery and what it means moving forward. Make sure to like and follow this podcast. It is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and most other major podcast sources. Also be sure to follow the rink on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube for all hockey content. My boys are back as well today. We got Donnie and Jordan. How are you guys doing today?

SPEAKER_03 0:57

Hey, hey, doing good?

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Doing good? Good. Just watched uh the flames fall from picking fourth to six. It's just my dream.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Best day for you today, eh? Well uh it never happens. We will we will touch base on the draft lottery at the end, but first we're a little behind, but uh uh let's start with some West playoff recap. We'll go over a little bit of the first round recaps, and then we'll also bounce back and forth between what the round two looks like after we recap two of the previous series. So let's first start off with Colorado

R1 - Colorado vs LA

SPEAKER_02 1:33

sweeping LA because it's probably the easiest one to talk about. There's no surprise here, in my opinion. I don't even think LA I wished LA would have won a game for Anzai Copatar, but this game wasn't really close. Donnie, what do you think?

SPEAKER_03 1:46

Yeah, I don't think LA had a chance. I think we all knew that coming into the series here. President's trophy winners versus uh an injured LA team. I think they got some of their guys back going into the series, but yeah, just not winning a game, couldn't really get much of their offense going. Like you're saying, it would have been nice to at least extend the series a little bit for Kopotar's sake with his Swan Song end of career season there. I think Kopitar actually went pointless, which most of their team did. Yeah, I think he did. Um so yeah, just just a crappy matchup. You would have liked to see more from that team.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Jordan it f it felt like Colorado was kind of on cruise control in this series, like they did as much as they needed to to win those games. There was the one game that went to overtime, never felt like they were gonna lose that game, and then in the closeout game, they honestly dismantled LA and LA's desperate effort didn't even look like they were on the ice.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Yeah, like in our pre in our preview for the preview podcast, Jordan, you had Colorado sweeping. I had Colorado and five, trying to give that one game to Kopotar, just didn't happen. So they seal there, they sail right into round two pretty easily, and then they're versing the winner of the Minnesota Dallas.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Probably the only one I got right, I think, from the first round.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Well, we'll go over that. Look, we did not do well. I can tell you that we did not do well. Um that's why we need Donnie here. Um, Minnesota beat

R1 - Minnesota vs Dallas

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Dallas in their series, so therefore it's Minnesota and Colorado. Uh Jordan, what'd you think out of Minnesota? Uh kind of, I mean, they were kind of the underdog in most of in most betting areas. So what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 3:22

I thought they were actually a little they they impressed me. Like I thought they were good. They were definitely carried the play five on five. I thought uh Talus was almost nowhere to be found five on five. The only reason why they were in that series and made it to made it as far as they did to the six is because of the power play. Like they scored so many power play goals to capitalize there. But Minnesota dominated five on five and really took it to them. And watching Faber and Quinn Hughes out there together, that is so much fun.

SPEAKER_03 3:52

Yeah. This series here, I think there was a lot of swings from one to the next. Like we saw game one, Minnesota killed Dallas 6-1. Didn't really know what we were gonna get from Dallas in the next two games. Dallas rattles off the next two wins with a double overtime win in game three. They're looking good going up 2-1, and then they happen to lose three straight and losing six. So uh this Dallas team, I think they definitely underachieved in this series. I don't think they got the goaltending they wanted from uh Ottinger throughout the duration of the series here. And yeah, they're gonna have some questions to answer too. Jason Robertson, right?

SPEAKER_02 4:28

What do you think about Robertson? Do you think he's leaving or do you think he gets re-signed? Like, I don't know their cap situation, but it's got to be pretty tight. They have some pretty big all-stars on that team that have or carry big salaries. I know, I guess, like uh just looking at it briefly, they have a couple guys that are UFAs that they might save some money on. But if you're Jason Robertson, you sticking around or you leaving?

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Yeah, I I think Robertson stays there. I'm pretty sure they're gonna make a good push to try and keep him. It's probably gonna be around what Rantnon uh is making. I I think Dallas tried to gamble and see if Robertson took a bit of a step back. Um he didn't. He didn't at all. I thought he was their best player in these playoffs. I thought he was actually the only one that got anything going uh for them. He's just a guy that uh they were able to rely on through the season, and I think they have to pretty much keep him there.

SPEAKER_03 5:20

Yeah, they we talk about Dallas's core being so solid and still relatively young, right? They had Ranton as a top guy at 12. I think Robertson will come in similar to that. I think you have to pay him for what what he produced this year in terms of goals and points. Then you have Rupe Hints, who they definitely missed in this series, right? Hints wasn't available for them. Yeah, Hinz was a big contract. Yeah, the the big contract, I think they look at moving, which I think they had him on LTIR down the stretch here. Tyler Sagan makes 9.8 for next year. So if you can find a way to draft pick, yeah, one left. One left. Um, and then on the back end, you have Heiskin at 8.4. They just paid Harley 10.5 starts next year. So going from four end to these playoffs. He did not play well. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

It's crazy seeing some of these salaries, and then yeah, you've they just disappear. Like it's just it's disheartening, too. And I'm sure the Dallas fan base weren't very happy about this. I mean, I know me and Jordan screwed this one up. We both had Dallas and seven for the series here, so we're we're already looking great, yeah. Um, but then you know, moving on from Minnesota, like they, in my opinion, they do pull the upset off here because I think most people had Dallas, they looked good front to back. Everyone was playing well, and then you now we're in round

R2 - Colorado vs Minnesota

SPEAKER_02 6:36

two and they're going up against one of the most powerhouse teams of Colorado. And as we're recording this, game one's already done. And what was the final score on that? 9-6. It was an absolute unreal game, absolutely unreal. Like you look at that, and it's hard to like it's hard to judge a series off of just the one game there. Obviously, these teams are gonna clean up their act, but Minnesota, even though they didn't score as much as Colorado, they did show that they could score. You know, seeing Quinn Hughes versus McCar is really fun to watch those two take control of games. McCar left the game actually for a little bit, but thankfully returned. But for me, this series is gonna come down to which goalie ash she steps up, I think. Wallstead did not look good this game here, and yeah, neither did uh what's his name there? Uh Wedgewood, right?

SPEAKER_03 7:24

And Gustifson, Gustifson starting tonight, actually, and it's game gone right now as we're recording this.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

So Gustinson did start. So that's what I was gonna ask. I was like, so you go in with who who with your second game here, and it looks like they went with Gustavson. It'll be very interesting, but what do you guys think? Like Donovan. Do you think the edge is the Colorado? Obviously, I I think it has Minnesota.

SPEAKER_03 7:45

Yeah, like right now, Colorado's up 3-1 in game two, pretty much halfway through the game here. Um I don't know, like like Minnesota has two very good young goalies. They they went with Wallstead the entire first round. He played really well against Dallas. He faltered in game one in a very high octane no defense game. Um yeah, if Gustifton doesn't give you the juice and doesn't make a save here in game two, I'm I'm I'm primed to go back to Wallsted in my opinion. But uh I just Colorado is we talk about the the premier teams in the NHL and you look at their depth down depth down the middle, right? I think Nazim Kadri right now is playing second or third line center for them. They got Nick Wah there, just such a deep team. And I think any you have to have a perfect game plan to even even get a game from them, in my opinion. They they've shown they can beat you in tight, low-scoring games. They can also play the track meet style and blow you out when needed, like game one. Yeah, and they just they can just beat you in so many different ways. It's so tough to match up against, right? Oh, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

I think the big shock in the first round was game one seeing Wallsted as the starter for Minnesota. Like I thought maybe you see both goalies in that series, that first round series, but he got the net from the start to finish, which was I thought and I thought he played really good. Um, he wasn't good in game one, and I don't know why they didn't pull him when that game was closer, uh maybe after the sixth goal or something, right? Like he obviously just didn't have it in game one. He's just head wasn't there. Yeah, so then you go to Gusison today, put him in a bit of a rough spot, probably against the highest powered offense, and you haven't played for three weeks. Like, that's that's a long break. Um, to me the the toll is Colorado got away with a sweep. Um, Manson got banged up, but outside of that, like they got out scotch-free pretty good. Um, Minnesota went through a battle with Dallas and lost Jonas Rodin um probably for the series, it sounds like um top four defensemen makes some some of these guys like Middlestead uh step up and have to play bigger minutes. That's a big loss. And then I think the biggest loss is Joel Erickson Eck. Um if he's out any longer than these first two games, I don't think Minnesota has a chance because that's their number one center.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

And he's a good face-off guy, too.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

He is very good. Faceoffs, all situations they rely on him, right?

SPEAKER_03 10:15

Yeah, I just I don't I don't think this Minnesota team's gonna be able to shut down Colorado, so you're almost left to resort to your top players trying to outscore them. Which is gonna be hard. I know game one didn't work, but that's almost the style you need. You need those Caprezovs, Boldy, Hughes, Faber guys to carry you if you want any shot in that series.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

No, 100%. Uh Donnie, what what's your prediction for the series?

SPEAKER_03 10:39

Well since it's almost 2-0 Colorado already, um or one-one. I I I think Minnesota fights back on home ice. I think they win game three. It's not gonna be a 3-0 Colorado lead. Uh I'm gonna say Avs and six is my guess. I think Colorado claws two games back here. I think they have the better goaltending. Uh I think Walstead or Gustavson, when they're on their game, are better than Wedgwood or Blackwood on the Colorado side. And I think they find a way to at least win two games here in the series. Jordan.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Yeah, I honestly before the series started, before the Ericksonek and Brodean injury and kind of news came out on them, I was gonna pick Minnesota to win this uh series. Um, I thought it was gonna go seven. I'm still gonna go with seven. I think Minnesota pushes back and kind of gets it, but I'll think Colorado's gonna have the edge overall.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

I'm gonna go Colorado and five, honestly. Yeah, I agree with uh the points of Donovan there. You're gonna have to try to outscore Colorado here if you want to beat them. And I frankly don't think that there is a single team in the playoffs right now that could even come close to it. Uh even if you open up the game and excuse me, and uh play high offense, their offensive depth and threats are just so hard to shut down. Like you shut down McKinnon, and then you gotta worry about the second line of codry coming back, or third line of cadre or second line of Nelson because right now Nelson's playing second line center, cadre's on the third, you got Drew are on the fourth, Waz on the wing. They have so many defensive or uh uh depth offensively and defensively, too. When you look at that team, so I'm just gonna go with Colorado in five. I uh I don't think anyone's really gonna stand a chance against them, to be honest. And then uh, you know, segueing into that, you know,

R1 - Vegas vs Utah

SPEAKER_02 12:37

Vegas and Utah Jordan. We both had Utah winning, we both had Utah winning this one. You picked Utah in six, I picked Utah in five, and uh Vegas obviously wins that series there in six year in six. Um, I still think the future is pretty bright in Utah, maybe a little couple moves here and there to uh bump up their depth and and uh such. But what did you think watching the series go back and forth?

SPEAKER_01 13:03

I thought uh Utah looked great through two games. I will I thought my prediction was gonna be bang on. They stole one in in Vegas. I'm like, this is perfect. This is exactly kind of what I thought. The speed's gonna take over, and their power play was buzzing. They have all these guys I can shoot, and then uh Vegas said, Well, we're gonna actually stop letting you score on the power play, and um we're also just gonna keep hitting you, and your legs are gonna be lost, and we're just gonna dominate uh the last couple games of this uh series. It just felt like the experience and um the physical play of Vegas and wanting to slow it down got to Utah. I thought Utah did a good job early in that series, like I said, first two games of using their legs and their shot and taking advantage of Carter Hart, who's been probably mediocre, um, played better at the end of the series, but uh and had the but they did they did good on taking good shots. And Vegas eventually just used their experience and adapted and shut down what uh what Utah was gonna do, and they never adapted back.

SPEAKER_03 14:13

Yeah, I think I think that series was closer than what it looked like. Like Utah actually had a 2-1 series lead after three games, lost back-to-back overtime games, second one game five being that double overtime loss on that short-handed, I think Brett Howden goal. Vegas scored. But before that, Utah was pushing and had tons of chances in that game to end it, right? So you get one of those overtime games going the other way. This is a completely different series, right? And Dante, you alluded to the fact of how young that team is, they're kind of coming up into their own, getting some valuable playoff experience. Got a bunch of young players still coming. In uh Daniel Boo, they got Dmitry Simeshev, they got TJ Ginla joining them in the next few years. They're they're building something scary there in Utah for sure. I think versus the start of it for them.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Yeah, and you know, like you guys all said, they're uh Utah dominated the beginning a little bit up 2-1. And for me, what I noticed is uh Vegas slowed the game down. They started plugging the neutral zone a lot more where Utah is generating a lot of their speed, and they just slowed it right down, and Utah did not know what to do with it. They even I remember I can't remember which game it was. It might have been that overtime game you were talking about, Donnie. But they slowed the game down to the point where they made Utah start dumping the puck back in to get some forecheck going, and Utah just couldn't get a forecheck going. Vegas was too good at their defensemen picking up the puck and moving it quickly out of the zone, and then that was basically it for there. But uh Vegas moves on, and uh they versed

R1 - Edmonton vs Anahiem

SPEAKER_02 15:41

the winner of the other series where what a surprise. Jordan and I both picked wrong again. We both had Edmonton, I had Edmonton in five, Jordan had Edmonton in six, and well, Edmonton did not look good. There were injuries that were key injuries to key players that were brought up, but I'll let uh we'll go to Donnie first here. But there are some very strong words said by Dry Seidel and McDavid at the end of the series. Donnie, what'd you think of it overall?

SPEAKER_03 16:11

Yeah, I just I with with where they're at in the McDavid situation and the pay cut he took over the next two years, kind of just showing his faith in the team and giving them the cap flexibility to go and add and really try to win a cup in the next little bit here in Edmonton. This is just a huge failure from top to bottom. Stan Bowman acquisition. They tried the Tristan Jari trade. I did like the Dickinson and Doc additions that they had prior to the deadline there. I thought they added some some good uh playoff bite ahead of the playoffs here. But uh like you said, Dante, I think the ducks' young uh talent and speed just took over this game, even game six when when the Oilers' life was on the line. You just saw Anaheim kind of skate them into the ground, took a multi-goal lead. Edmonton tried to fight back with with what effort they could, and the goaltending just gave out again. I think uh Connor Ingram ended up being back in the net in that game six. For some reason. Like like you said, Dreisidel and McDavid both had some pretty blunt comments on their feeling of where this team is going and the direction of where they see things going from the Oiler standpoint. And the management, if that's Dan Bowman, or they're looking at making a change his offseason, Knoblock, they have their work cut out for them. They have some major glaring holes they really need to address in the offseason here. Um, in an effort to keep McDavid and Dreisidel part into the plan, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:32

I think you listen to that press conference and you can just hear in their voice how bad they think the front office has let them down and uh and fumbled the bag on this. Um, if you don't make that trade for Jari, you have Ingram coming off the books, you have Jari, uh you have uh Skinner coming off the books, your brand new starter goaltender. Now you're locked into uh Jari, who I thought played actually good for them in uh the one game he got in, and then they pulled him. So there's they have no confidence in him, they don't want to run with him, they don't want to give him the net. So now you have a guy at five million dollars that you don't trust, and you need to try and find your starting goaltender. It's almost an impossible task. On top of that, they're slow, they are so slow outside of their top uh two guys that like the fourth line for Anaheim was skating circles around the rest of that team. I was never seen that Ryan, Ryan Paling at a year.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

I've never seen yeah, paling look that good in my entire life.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

He never seen him look at boosters on his skates when he was skating past these guys. Darnell Nurse is slow, he doesn't move well. He I think had seven points seven goals or something at nine and a half million dollars for the year. Unacceptable. They signed Wallman, who had one good uh stretch run for them. Then he goes and gets gets paid from he's unexist unexistent in this uh series. You don't notice him. It's just an absolute fumble. And from what I heard, is you guys have next year, or we're looking at going elsewhere. Yeah, I mean both players Dry Siddhart and McDavid are before so he's out of there. I'm like I'm not staying around if McDavid's gone.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

No, if McDavid leaves, yeah, Dry Siddle's out the door, too. Like, I'm summarizing these quotes, but McDavid's big quote for me was the whole organization has taken a step back. That's that's huge coming from your captain. And then the other two comments. I'm summarizing the words a little bit here, but uh Dry Siddle said, How do you have the best player in the world in your team and you're not looking to win? And then he said he had two years left, and who knows where that goes. We have two years and need to get significantly better. That's just for me, your two best guys calling out your office saying you guys didn't do anything, basically. And yes, they they I agree, Donnie. They added a couple of good bite players for playoffs, but those can't be your prime acquisitions going into a playoff run when you know you have weakness everywhere else. And just like Jordan said, you traded for Jari now, who has term and who you clearly don't trust, when you could have in the offseason been pursuing a guy like Bobrowski and had the money to kind of throw at him almost.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Now you're you got for one of the Minnesota guys, right? Like there's options around the league.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

I mean, who knows? Like, I mean, I've been talking with you guys a little about it. Winnipeg is a question mark of what they're gonna do. Minnesota has two starting goaltenders, Buffalo had two starting goaltenders with them for most of the year. Hell, Montreal's even got options on their back end now, which we didn't think about at the beginning of the season either. There are so many there's so many options, and it looks like Edmonton's kind of tied their hands up now and aren't gonna be able to really look at any of these things. So you look at that, and it's just you kind of shake your head with what's going on over there. And I just I just I would hate to be part of the organization to say that we let Connor McDavid walk away because we couldn't get a bloody goaltender. Like you know what I mean? Like, that's what it's gonna come down to. We we couldn't get a goal.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

Uh wouldn't be the first time Almondon lost a superstar.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

Yeah, like it's like history's repeating themselves. Well, Gretzky's gone. Well, guess what? McDavid's gone too. And if you trade McDavid, you're never it'll be the question of the history did we get enough or did we not? You're never gonna be able to put value on McDavid on what he's actually worth. You never will, you'll never be able to figure it out, right? So I don't know. But not enough, enough about Edmonton. Their kudos to Anaheim. They move on there, they showed that speed really did kill them. Their counterattacks were just something to watch. Like it was pretty amazing, actually. Their young guys were starting to step up. I just want to say one key player for me that impressed me the most was Leo Carlson. He truly looked like a first line elite centerman that series, both offensively and defensively. He looked really, really well. So

R2 - Vegas vs Anahiem

SPEAKER_02 21:48

now they're playing against Vegas. Uh, Donnie, who do you have in that series?

SPEAKER_03 21:53

Uh, game one's done. Vegas won 3 1 on an empty net goal, the pretty tight game. I think Martiner got a Flip out goal at the end. I have the Ducks here. I think as far as Vegas' game plan, they can probably try to play the Ducks similar to what they played Utah in terms of young players, speed, etc. I think the Ducks just have more high-end talent right now than what Utah does. Uh you mentioned uh Leo Carlson, Troy Terry, Cutter Gauche, those levels of players that can put the puck in the net. Jackson Lacomb is having a ridiculous. I think he has 10 points in in seven games. We saw that one stick check he randomly had where he threw his stick back and broke up a two-on-one, playing good hockey on both ends of the ice. I I I like this matchup for Anaheim and and Jordan, like you were saying, Vegas' key game plan against these young, fast teams is trying to grind them down, slow them down to what Vegas wants to play and beat them in a structured approach. And I just I think Anaheim has has a good matchup here if they're able to get to their their four-checking game, dumping the puck in, getting after pucks, forcing turnovers. I I'll say Anaheim and seven, just because Vegas is up one-nothing right now. Um I might have said six before the series, but yeah, I'll I like the ducks in this one.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

I um yeah, I just want to take a quick second and just point out Jackson Lacombas. This is his coming out party. Like he's showing himself how good of a defenseman is. He is doing it on both ends of the ice. I know McDavid was compromised, but regardless, he's still McDavid is still able to fly out there and he's able to skate with him and shut him down, and then on top of that, put up nine points and let his team in points for uh the first round. Great, great play there. Um for me, this series comes down to three factors. One is Dolstall better than what he was against Edmonton because he wasn't good, he was not good against Edmonton. Um they got lucky because Edmonton's goalies was worse. Um, but he needs to be better against this Vegas team who's gonna apply pressure and and has a little bit more firepower throughout their whole lineup uh than Edmonton. Um, the second thing that it comes down to to me is uh special teams units. So uh Anaheim really fed in the first round on having a great power play against uh Edmonton. They they I think were seven for ten or something like that, something crazy. Um they uh didn't score any goals on the power play in the first game. I think they had four or five opportunities. If Vegas can shut down that power play, Vegas will win this series. It's simple as that. And they Anaheim needs to figure out how to get that uh power play going. And then the second the last one is for me, uh this one's more just fun to watch. It's gonna be the Leo Carlson versus Jack Eichel matchup. Um I think Carlson is definitely taking strides to be a like a top 10 maybe center in this league, and he's trying to turn into the exact type of player that Eichel is currently. So can he be good both ends of the ice, right? Like it's just it you can see kind of the comparisons between the two. So that's where my other uh did just side note.

SPEAKER_03 25:24

Did any of you see that sick Carlson spin around pass to Lacomb for attacking? Yeah, and then and then he didn't even shoot the puck, he just overpassed.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

Yeah, or something in front. Yeah, that was that was rough. Um, but um to me, I just think the experience of Vegas might come through, and I'm worried about the stall uh not getting back to his early season form. I got Vegas winning this in six. Vegas and six, which means Anaheim's gonna win, obviously.

SPEAKER_02 25:56

Yeah, so if you're picking Vegas the six and I suck at picking two, I'm going with Donovan, so I'm gonna go Anaheim. I'm gonna go opposite here as well. I'm gonna go Anaheim, and I'm gonna go in seven as well, just because yeah, Vegas is up already, won nothing on the series. But that was another game where Anaheim could have easily won. Uh, Jordan pointed out a lot of good things for me for this series. It's gonna be the experience. You know, Anaheim is very young. Can they overcome a very experienced team on the Vegas side there? Um, well, that takes care of the West. Let's jump over to the East here.

R1 - Carolina vs Ottawa

SPEAKER_02 26:28

Um, some great series over here. Let's start with the Carolina sweeping Ottawa. There was only two sweeps in the first round. We talked about one. Let's talk about the second now. Donovan, what'd you think about it?

SPEAKER_03 26:39

Yeah, I just it just felt like Ottawa never had a chance to get into this series. Uh I think game two was the double overtime win that Carolina pulled out to go up 2-0. That was really the one chance that I thought Ottawa, if they were to pull out a game and make that series 1-1, never know what they could do. But uh their power play absolutely killed them in the series. It was atrocious on the Ottawa side. I think they had six five-on-threes throughout the series, like lengthy five on three. Which is crazy. Didn't score on one of them, and so many of them looked absolutely disjointed. They couldn't even get set up in the zone with a two-man advantage. Uh, yeah. Like this is just a perfect example of an experienced playoff team that's coached the right way by Rod Brendemore. Um, they're actually Carolina that round wasn't really carried by their Aho and Svechnikov and Jarvis top line players. It was more uh Jackson Blake. Um who am I missing there? Um the Dallas player, Stankhoven. I think so. The leading goal scorer right now in Taylor Hall. That line is carrying the weight. Ewers is playing great. He's dynamic and doing doing what he does. I think he's actually looked better with Carolina in the playoffs than he has with the Jets. Um but yeah, it's just it's just a matter of kind of a team that all four lines can go and contribute and get goals when you need them. And when you don't get one line going, there's another line that kind of picks up the slack, and they're we talk about how good they are defensively. Dante, we saw a lot of them against the Habs this year. They just kind of they they they they jam up the neutral zone, they play such a structured defensive game. It's boring as shit to watch if your team's playing against them. But it's it's very effective, right? And Freddie Anderson also had a very good series. He made some pretty ridiculous saves uh when he needed to. Um the only thing with Carolina for me is they're sweeping uh they swept Ottawa, they're up 2-0 on Philly now. That might go to a sweep. Dante, we talk about the Buffalo Montreal series. We'll talk later. It's it's a late start to that series. Like if this second round series with uh Philly ends in four games, Carolina could be sitting for a week and a half before looking around the city.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

I don't think that's a good thing or a bad thing, you know.

SPEAKER_03 28:46

I honestly think it's bad on one line.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

Quick side note. Quick side note. I don't like the NHL doing this NBA thing where you start the first and second round when the first round's not done. It's it's dumb.

SPEAKER_02 28:57

So uh yeah, like the whole point of if you sweep a series is you wait a little bit, get rest, but then you get the rest, you get the rest of the next round, and then if you're coming off a seven-game series, you get the day or two, and then the next series starts, you know what I mean? Yeah, having this overlap right now, may or I mean, thankfully, this round one, it only overlapped for what one game, I think, right? With the Montreal series, they're only only only series going to seven. So, but like it still just doesn't make sense, and I get it's for their viewership crap and all the revenue and all the bullshit, but come on, just fucking finish the first round before you start going on to the second, it's not hard.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

Yeah, I agree. Um, so I'll I'll just add to that quickly. Um, I thought it was two teams trying to play a very similar style. Like Ottawa wants to be what uh Carolina does and plays, that's kind of like their style, too. They want to be that heavy, quick four-check team, get on you, and hard to break out against. Uh, one team was still trying to figure out and how to make it work properly, and the other team's a master of it already. Um, if you looked at Allmark's stats, and I told you that at the beginning of the series, hey, through four games, this is gonna be his stats, you'd think Ottawa's winning that, winning the series. So power to uh Frederick Anderson and how well he played. Um ultimately it got pretty scrappy and dirty at the end of it. I thought that uh Ridley Gregg uppercut was one of the dirtier things I've seen in a playoff game. That you know, guys in a headlock by someone else, you just come and full out uppercut them. I there's no spot in the game for that. Um I kind of knew Carolina was gonna win this. I didn't think it was gonna be a sweep, um, but uh good on them to uh get the extra rest.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

You did pick Carolina to win in six, so at least you got the team right.

SPEAKER_03 30:47

I picked Ottawa in seven, so just on Allmark there, he only gave up nine goals in four games, and he had a nine thirty-two throughout the series.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

The funny thing is goaltending was their biggest question mark going into the series, yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, meanwhile, uh I'll bring him up quickly. You have during the season the Chuck calling out your goaltenders, and then in the and then the playoffs, your goaltender shows up, and he was hell pointless the whole series. And and for me, I think he was recording a podcast. Yeah, and for like the Chuck was a non-factor for me in this series, so I don't know. Ottawa, we've we've talked about them quite a bit here and there. They're all they're they seem to be that bubble team that can't take the step forward, and then they finally make playoffs and they get embarrassed and swept. And but they're they're a team that doesn't seem to be bad enough to rebuild, but not good enough to contend. Do you know what I mean? So I wonder where Carolina, uh not Carolina, sorry, where uh Ottawa goes from here. Do they look at moving to Chuck and do they not? I still don't think the Chuck's a captain, in my opinion. I don't think he I think he's probably one of the worst captains in the league, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

Um he does everything for a hockey player that you want, right? Like he goes out there, he'll fight for teammates, he'll grind it out, he'll go in the corners, he gets the dirty areas, but his actions off the ice and in between play is not team-oriented. He had a play in this series where he just skates by a guy in a one-goal game and spears him in the stomach and takes a penalty. Yeah, if anyone on your team does that, you're losing your shit. But you're the and on top of that, you're the captain. You're the captain of the team. You have to set the example. No, I'm just gonna go by and spear this guy and take a two-minute penalty for no reason. Carolina ends up scoring on that, and that's uh like you just can't have that stuff happen, right? Like, yeah, that's not captain mentality.

SPEAKER_02 32:41

No, it'll be interesting to see where they go from here. A lot of trade rumors around him. I guess we'll see in the offseason. If you do move him, you're getting a pretty decent haul for him back. Yeah, who knows? Maybe he has to go play with his brother in Florida and you get some pretty good assets back out of Florida, but it'll be interesting to see. Um, so Carolina advances there, and they're now versing

R1 - Philly vs Pittsburgh

SPEAKER_02 33:01

Philadelphia, which was surprise, surprise. Jordan and I picked Pittsburgh to win the series. Jordan picked him in five, I picked him in six. But the veterans just did not show up this series. Philadelphia's young studs were out flying, and especially Porter, uh Porter, right? Merton is his first name. Porter hook, right? Uh, he he looked fantastic. Uh he looked, he did not look like a rookie to me, to be honest. He he dominated large aspects of certain games, and he just he seems the puck seems to find him. He's one of those guys where the puck's always on his stick, and when it's on his stick, it's not really on there for long. Uh, so Philly kind of pulls the upset off on the veterans here. Uh, do you guys think that if you're Pittsburgh, like you you weren't expected to make the playoffs this year? Everyone thought they would be moving their players out this year anyway. They're older guys. If you're Pittsburgh, do you do that now in the offseason? Do you think that this was the last time they see playoffs for a little bit? You got Carlson on the back end, he's older, Letang, older, Malkin, older, and then of course the big Crosby up front, all getting older. Do you think they start to move on from some of these guys, or what do you think? Any of you?

SPEAKER_03 34:13

I don't think they can. Both of you.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

Like, like, like you look at Carlson's contract, they're you're not gonna be able to move on from that. I think the only person that they could potentially move on from immediately is Malkin. I would assume that he probably only wants to stay in Pittsburgh with those guys. I'm not 100% sure, but you would think after the season he's had, you probably give him a one-year deal if it's not working, you move him at the deadline kind of thing. I think they probably kind of run it back for one more, hope to get some young youth in there to get their speed up and hope that it works kind of like a Cinderella season against again like this one.

SPEAKER_03 34:52

I I think Pittsburgh's in a I don't know. I think they're a team that like it it we we talk about our expectations for them going into this year. People thought they were missing the playoffs. Crosby, where is he getting traded to, etc.? I think it's more important to the Pittsburgh organization that they do right by Crosby, Malcolm, Latang, Carlson, these veterans that they have to give them kind of to your point, Jordan, one last Swan Song effort to win than trading them off and getting pieces back that could accelerate their rebuild. I think it's more important to them that they do right by these players. These players retire right off into the sunset together. They're all very similar ages, and then they look at a retool rebuild from there. Um they're kind of a weird mixed bag team to me. Like we talk about these veterans, they have some other complimentary players who aren't young in like Ricard Raquel. I think Anthony Manta had a great year. I think their one really good young player that contributed this year was Ben Kindle.

SPEAKER_02 35:48

Um I like Ben Kindle.

SPEAKER_03 35:50

But but aside from him, I don't know what what real top prospects draft picks the Penguins have coming outside of that.

SPEAKER_02 35:56

For McGordy, come on. For McGordy being one of them, right?

SPEAKER_03 36:00

And then goaltending. We talk about that Jari for Stuart Skinner trade. Uh Skinner lost them the first three games in the series. They went to uh Archer's Sealovs, clawed back a few more wins, and then ended up losing in six.

SPEAKER_02 36:13

I did like Sealovs coming in there.

SPEAKER_03 36:14

Yeah, but I I think I think Pittsburgh's kind of fine with where they're at. This this playoff run was kind of gravy for them on top of their season. And I don't think they move any of those guys. I think they come back again, maybe look at some other free agent editions that could complement their team and see what they can do next year. That's kind of my thought.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

No, fair. Uh round two

R2 - Carolina vs Philly

SPEAKER_02 36:34

has already gone on their way there with Carolina and Philly, as you were mentioning earlier. Carolina's already up 2-0 in the series. Donnie, what do you think that series ends with?

SPEAKER_03 36:44

I think it ends in five. Um I think Philly finds a way to win one game on home ice here in games three or four. Game game two was closer than game one. Game one was pretty much Carolina from start to finish. Game two was uh Taylor Hall overtime goal to win it. Uh I'll take Carolina and five on that one, which would have that series ending on Monday, Dante.

SPEAKER_02 37:06

Wow, what a surprise. Next week, yeah, and they'll be off for another week and a half. Jordan, what do you got?

SPEAKER_01 37:12

Yeah, I like I thought Philly in game two was a lot better. They kind of uh skated better. They moved their like they were up 2-0 to start the game, couldn't score any more on Anderson, unfortunately, after that for them. But uh, I thought there was actually a chunk in overtime, probably about a five-minute period, where they dominated play and had Carolina back on their heels. I thought they were gonna win it entirely.

SPEAKER_02 37:36

Overtime, they completely dominated all Philadelphia.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

Yeah, it was it was unbelievable. I I thought that Philly was gonna win that game, and then Carolina just hangs around, hangs around, hangs around, and they they're timely scoring, right? I think Philly squeaks out a couple games, but I'm gonna go Carolina and six.

SPEAKER_02 37:54

I'm also going Carolina and six. I think Philadelphia will take their home games here, and then Carolina will shut the door for the rest of the series. Um, it's gonna be a good one, though. Uh everyone keeps asking, is Carolina the favorite? I mean, I don't know. That being said, Carolina definitely has the easiest path to the finals, in my opinion, uh, from these first two rounds. They added a good easy round in round one in Fitz Ottawa, and it looks like they're gonna be breezing by Philia here as well. Um, that side of the East was pretty easy matchups, and then you scoot over to the other side of the East here. Hold on, one second.

SPEAKER_01 38:27

One second. Does it feel like like for Carolina? They've they've been there like kind of every year, they're kind of pushing, right? They keep getting to the conference finals and not taking that big step. They lose to uh Florida, every year Florida, right?

SPEAKER_02 38:39

Every year, Florida, they're gone now.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

So I'm like, is this not feel like this has to be their year if they're gonna do it? This is their best chance at doing it, like and if they don't do it this year, there's they have to really look at themselves because there's no big guy that they're going up against until probably the conference finals, whoever comes out of Montreal Buffalo, we're gonna talk about here right away. But those two teams should be banged up, both had long series in the first series. I'm sure this next series is gonna be long too. Like Carolina is kind of it's there for their taking, right?

SPEAKER_02 39:10

This is Carolina's year, in my opinion, to do something if they are gonna do it. I kinda agree with that. That being said, if they don't do something, I don't know. I still think they feel like they're in a good spot going to the conference finals multiple years, coming up once against the Stanley Cup champions, and then next time against two young up-and-coming teams, either Montreal or Buffalo. I can see Carolina just sitting pat and saying we're just one or two pieces away. They may have thought they were one or two pieces away when they added Ealers there. Ealers was a grid ad for them, in my opinion. It really uh gave them another wave of scoring and speed. So I guess we'll see how it plays out. But I do agree with you that this should be their time to do something. They've had an easy first round, and I mean the second round's not over yet. Who knows? Philly may Philly, Philly may come back here and get four games in a row. Who knows, right? I'm not gonna rule them out yet, but we'll see how that one just plays out.

SPEAKER_03 40:07

Just a fun stat. I'm just looking at their playoff history here, Carolina. The last six seasons, they have lost in the conference finals five times.

SPEAKER_01 40:17

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 40:18

And they've lost in the second round that other season. So second rounder conference finals the last six years just can't get to the big dance. Yeah, so to your point, Jordan, I think you're right. I think if they somehow get stonewalled, especially by young up-and-coming teams like Buffalo Montreal, I think they really need to take a look in the mirror and re-evaluate how they're doing things.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:37

Switching over to the other

R1 - Buffalo vs Boston

SPEAKER_02 40:39

side there, Bill, Buffalo beat Boston 4-2. Jordan and I, guess what? We both had the Bruins uh winning that series. So um Buffalo, Buffalo, we're good at that. We should we should really make a podcast. We should cancel this whole fucking podcast. We clearly don't know what the fuck is. We clearly don't know what the hell I'm fucking talking about. Uh but but Boston, you know, everyone they're another team that no one really thought was gonna make playoffs. They did a kind of a retool for themselves, but Buffalo just really showed them that uh like speed kills, man. Like though Buffalo was a fast and strong team. But outside of like Boston's couple big names that they have, I just didn't notice enough from that team depth-wise. Swayman played good once or twice. I mean, there was one blowout game, wasn't there? Maybe I was thinking series. 6-1, right? There was blow one blowout series games there. But you look at the series overall, and I mean for me it ended on a real sour note there. Boston clearly was frustrated at the end there. You see Mac uh McAlvoy with that very dirty, dirty slash. Uh, I don't know who he slashed there again, but um Benson. Benson. Like not yeah, not something you want to be seeing at the end there. But um, Donnie, in your opinion here, does Boston need to do more retooling or do they need to go towards a four rebuild, or do you think they're fine? What do you think?

SPEAKER_03 42:04

I think they're they're also a weird team to me. Like, not they don't have veterans at the age of Pittsburgh, but it's kind of feeling similar in terms of not a lot of young blood coming and contributing. Like we have James Haggins, I think, played three games, zero points. Minton played the entire series, didn't pick up a point. Like they have these young guys that are in their lineup and took steps this year. But you look at their they're just their point totals. Pasternak had seven points in six games, Geeky had four points in six games, and then the rest of their lineup either had two points or less. So to your to your point, like they were carried by Pasternak. Um I think this year their bread and butter was playing structured, hard physical games where similar to Vegas, maybe with less talent, they try to grind you down, uh, hit you, and then rely on solid goaltending to win games. And to your point, Dante, I think Buffalo just got to a point, especially later in the series, where they just completely wore this entire core out. Um, I know like Elias Lindholm, some of these older players, Zadorov was injured playing hurt. Uh it just felt, yeah, like over the series, game to game, like it felt like Bob Boston was in it at the start, but you could see the entire team kind of wearing down and just kind of fizzling out in six games here. Um But yeah, this is another team, like I think as you're going, you need to find a a big thing that a lot of these teams that have been contending for years in the NHL are now steering is you need to almost like hit the refresh button and find a way to inject youth into your lineups and get uh contributions from entry-level contracts and draft picks, right? So Boston uh made that trade for Carlo. They were supposed to get Toronto's pick this year, so now that's next year's unprotected. They have Hagens coming in. Uh these next few drafts, they can find a way to do that and potentially get guys that come in right away and they can still take advantage of Pasternak's uh prime of his career.

SPEAKER_01 43:57

They got Hagens or a couple guys there.

SPEAKER_03 43:59

But they're they're Just not a team that that that really scares me as as a Stanley Cup contender. Even making the playoffs this year, I don't think anyone really had them going beyond the first round, if at all, right?

SPEAKER_00 44:09

No, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

I thought like the reason we picked them, Dante. We agreed that we thought Swayman might be able to outdoel their goalie and you know make it hard, but as soon as there was high scoring games, it was in Buffalo's favor. That's kind of what ended up happening. Um Boston showed in those first two games in Buffalo why we thought Boston had a chance in the series. Swayman played really well. They let the first one slip away. They they had to win that game. I thought when they lost that, they were probably done for the series. I thought, like, if they could have taken game one and game two, it's a completely different story, right?

SPEAKER_03 44:44

They were they were up three-nothing in game one and they gave up four straight to lose that one.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

But like they they play they were playing the exact game style that you thought they could that would let them beat Buffalo. Buffalo ended up just being able to outscore them, outwork them, skate uh skate circles around them. Um, they put uh Lion in, who ended up playing good for them after UPL let a backender in from center ice. Um one of the most embarrassing goals I've ever seen in playoffs.

SPEAKER_02 45:13

It was brutal, actually.

SPEAKER_01 45:14

Yeah, but like the like Boston, they they don't do a lot for me. Like, like I was saying, like when we were doing the round, the the first uh series, the first round breakdown. Boston reminded me of Calgary a lot from the year before where you just try, you try, you try. You're always going 100%, you just give your best effort, and it worked out a lot of the time. Um they need a lot of speed in that lineup still. They they're just they're not gonna keep up with like this Montreal, Tampa, uh Buffalo, even Ottawa, like they're all gonna outskate them in that division.

SPEAKER_02 45:50

Yeah, that's fair. I agree with what you're saying there. I did think Boston would give us a little bit more than that they did, but at the end of the day, they just they I don't think they could handle Buffalo's depth that they had and their overall skating. Um, it was a good series nonetheless, though. Buffalo moves on, and now they're versing the winner of the Tampa Bay Montreal series, which our boys you know what Montreal Canadians advance to the second round. Um, you know, this is the one that we could probably talk

R1 - Tampa Bay vs Montreal

SPEAKER_02 46:17

the longest on, uh, obviously. Uh, one thing I do want to say is this team making the second round, you know, every I I saw comments on Instagram, Facebook on how why are they acting so crazy, so happy about making the second round. This it's just a second round. And for us Montreal fans, we still thought we'd be in a rebuild at this current stage in where we are. You know, if you asked Donnie and myself a year ago or even a couple years ago, if we thought we'd be in the second round right now, I would have said no. I would have said, no, we're we're not there yet, but we're gonna get there, kind of thing. The fact that we're the youngest team in the league in this position, it's something to cheer about. That being said, the series was uh freaking gave me a heart attack every bloody game, a very well even series. Every single game, only a goal separated each each team's victory.

SPEAKER_03 47:16

Yeah, and like there were there were six total minutes that the game wasn't tied or one goal apart.

SPEAKER_02 47:22

It's insane in the whole series, absolutely insane. And Montreal pulls yeah, exactly. And Montreal pulls the win out here. You know, I a lot of I hate seeing oh, they didn't deserve to win game seven, nine shots on goal. We we we deserve to win the series as a whole, though. We we played well, deserved to win game six, yeah. Like we played well a lot of these games, and it's crazy, Donnie. I don't know if you would agree or not, but you probably will because I know we've talked about it. Jordan, if anyone would have looked us in the eyes and said Montreal's gonna win this series in game seven, and their top six are gonna do next to fucking nothing. I would never have believed you in a million billion years. I would have thought for sure their top six would be the ones carrying this series. They won us game one. The power play looked great game one, but then they got checked hard by that Hagel line and they just couldn't break through.

SPEAKER_01 48:17

Dante, to that point in our breakdown, we legitimately said like Montreal's first line is gonna get theirs. It's if your depth scoring can come through and contribute a little bit, that'll make you win.

SPEAKER_02 48:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:28

It was the complete opposite.

SPEAKER_02 48:30

I had the Haves winning in seven, Jordan. You're a little bit of a bitch, and you picked Tampa in seven. But uh they haves pulled it out. Uh uh, Donnie, you uh Jordan and Donnie, you guys were both here live in the ring for a lot of these games. We went through a lot of ups and downs on this. Donnie, how did you feel about it?

SPEAKER_03 48:49

I yeah, like like you mentioned, Dante. I think last year's playoff round against Washington, losing in five games, gave us a taste of what the score can do, what we're building towards. I think just even having this series competitive would have been good enough for me. Like if they have lost in six and seven, but they played hard, showed growth from their their core, I would have been fine with that. But you talk about how tight this damn series was from start to finish, Dante. I think I aged ten years. Oh, yeah. Um, we like you mentioned what our depth did. Uh I think it's very encouraging that this team performed the way they did without that top line going. We talked about Cole Caulfield's struggles. Slavkolovsky scored three goals in that first game, was held quiet after that. The power play struggles for the majority of the series, especially down the stretch. I think that line gets going against Buffalo, and that that series against Buffalo is going to be very high octane. But what impressed me the most, Dante, is how we shut such a veteran team in Tampa Bay down. Tampa Bay came out in game one. They tried to get under our skin and play this physical game style and bait us into pedalys and everything, and they very quickly found out that didn't work. And after after the Buzzer went in game one, you saw them completely go to a different style for game two, and they realized they have to play us a certain way. But just just the way this team I thought Dobish was great, unbelievable as a rookie goal. The boys positioning, everything he's figuring out in his game is so huge. But the the defense that this team played in front of him. And this goes to Marty St. Louis' plan and the message he gives these guys and the the just from the coach down Hagel disrupted, did what he had to in the first few games. But you look at like games five, six, seven, when it really came down to crunch time and when plays were made that decided this series, Kucherov, one of the best players in the world, but I was just so amazed at how this team was able to shut down Tampa Bay's high octane offense. And you saw their players get frustrated over and over. Game seven, we talk about the shots on goal, nine shots, oh whoop-de-doo. I don't think the shots on goal directly or accurately reflected the game necessarily. Sure, the territorial advantage was in Montreal's zone, but I don't think they really overextended themselves where Dobish had to make like ten grade A high danger chances or anything.

SPEAKER_02 51:04

I agree with that.

SPEAKER_03 51:05

Yeah, this team stuck to their uh stuck to their structure, stuck to their plan. They got Dobson back, which was a huge addition, and just just the buy-in from the lineup top to bottom was so incredibly positive to see Dante. And we talk about how this organization is building towards winning a Stanley Cup one day. This is just such a big step that I think any Habs fan would have never seen coming at the start of the year. And I'm so amped up for this Buffalo series, it's absolutely insane.

SPEAKER_02 51:30

Jordan, what's your rant? Sorry. No, it's a good uh this is like I said, this is what we're gonna talk about the most because like we we all said it when we were talking prior to the recording this, you know, we watched other series, but obviously we didn't watch them as intently as we did this Montreal Tampa, and having you both be able to be down in the rink watching this was just awesome. Jordan, you know, you're a Calgary Flames fan, but uh you were pretty punked for this team throughout this run, and you were pretty dedicated throughout this one run so far. What did you think of the series?

SPEAKER_01 52:02

I mean, like for me, you guys are two of my best friends in like the world, so it's hard for me not to cheer for the halves, especially when I don't have a dog in the playoffs. So I've kind of adapted into cheering for the halves and wanting them to go far for you guys. Um it's honestly amazing to watch these games with you guys and see your guys' um emotions and everything you guys put into this team throughout the year, throughout the years previously, and throughout this season to get you guys to this point and the roller coaster that these games and this series put you guys on was amazing to see, um, hard to see sometimes. Um, it was it was fun for me to kind of go along on that ride with you guys. Um, right no, no, it's not. It's just it that was the first roller coaster. Um I thought Tampa played very well. They did exactly what they wanted to do in this series, as to shutting down that top line, making it very hard for the top six to do anything, taking away their power play, and kind of making some of these games a grind. The thing that they didn't do well is getting Montreal to goat uh goat them into penalties, goat them into doing stupid things, being a young team and hoping that they make mistakes. Montreal said, I'm not doing that. I'm gonna sit here, I'm gonna play my structure, I'm gonna play what we've been taught, what we've been preached all season. We're gonna play solid defensively, we're gonna trust our system, and we're gonna put a line together of a guy that after game two, Habsfan wanted him cut and sent to the moon in Kirby Dock. Uh, Tex A, that a lot of people said also they wanted out of the lineup, and Bullduke, who you didn't even notice in the first two games, and that's gonna be our best lineman. They're gonna put up 12 points throughout the season, this series. I think this team did a great job of playing a structured defensive system and not playing above their means. Dobic played out of his mind. I did not expect that from him. Obviously, not being the Haves fan that you guys are. I hadn't watched him the whole season. I know what his record was. I didn't know he had that kind of poise to him because the games I did see, he looked very shaky and jittery sometimes, right? I thought he did a great job of settling in and playing his style. Um, they kind of touched on it at the end of the series that Vasi was is like his idol, and he like looked up to him his whole life growing up, and that's who he wanted to be as a goalie. Having that guy across the ice from him, he obviously said, I'm gonna outdo him, right? Like, I'm gonna be the guy, which really he stepped up. Yeah, and to anyone who says that Montreal didn't deserve that game seven, you're an idiot. You deserve nothing in hockey. You get what's what you earn, and they earn that win by timely scoring, a nice tip, an unbelievable bat out of the air from behind the goal line, off his hip and into the net. Um yeah, they didn't get a shot for the whole second period, which I don't think is true, but that's what they recorded. There's definitely shots that were at the net in fashion made stage, but they missed it. It's junk. Yeah, they had to weather a storm. That's fine. That's part of playoff hockey. Sometimes you get outplayed and win games. They also outplayed Tampa in game six and lost a one-nothing, most entertaining one-nothing game I've ever watched in my life. So I think Montreal deserved this series.

SPEAKER_03 55:42

What bothers me about that game seven commentary is all these fans at Tier Point haven't watched the whole series and they're just talking like Montreal didn't deserve to win the series at all, even though I think they were the better team in the majority of those six games leading up to seven. Um and they just they they found a way to get it done. That's what it comes down to. Years from now, we're gonna remember the series when we won't necessarily remember how.

R2 - Buffalo vs Montreal

SPEAKER_02 56:12

Um, I as Donovan mentioned before, it's gonna be very high octane, full of energy. These two teams can skate. We're gonna see a and you're gonna see crowds behind their team. Not that library of an arena Tampa had the whole time. You're gonna see quick, fast-paced hockey here. Um, when I look at this series, I'll start with my prediction. I obviously can't go against Montreal. I'm gonna go once again halves in seven. Um, for me, this series is gonna come down to I I posted about it already before. Can Buffalo beat the structure of defense that Montreal plays and find a way to beat Dobish consistently? Or does Dobish continue his stellar performance? And then does the Montreal Canadians top six wake up? And does that power play start to wake up? Yeah, because if if they don't get going here, but they're not gonna beat Buffalo. We need that, we need that first line to start to produce here. I think Marty goes back to our game one lines from the uh Tampa Bay series. I think we we reset and go back. You have Dobson back on your back end, and I think we talked about it briefly after you know, Buffalo doesn't play a heart-checking game the way Tampa kind of did does. They like to have an open pace hockey as well, which will help like guys like Cole Caulfield, who were smothered in the series, hopefully be able to get going a little bit. So I'm going halves and seven, Donnie.

SPEAKER_01 57:41

Just keep quickly, yeah. I just quick question for the two of you. Um, you mentioned Dobson there. I just wonder, do you guys keep Dobson with Hudson or do you put him back with Matheson, which he was for majority of the season?

SPEAKER_02 57:53

We talked about this earlier. We keep him, yeah. All right, Donnie.

SPEAKER_03 57:57

Hudson, that entire first series, I think he averaged 27 minutes a night. And and as far as MVP of that first round, like we talked about how Dwell Dobish played. I think Lane Hudson was an absolute monster. Every game against Tampa Bay, both ends of the ice. We talk about what he creates offensively, but even the defensive side saw some major breakups. He had a one-on-one with Kutrov early in the series, completely stripped the puck from him, went the other way. Um I have halves in six on this one. I think Montreal matches up really well against Buffalo. I don't think Buffalo has the shutdown center like Tampa had in Sorelli. They don't have that one line that they can put up against Montreal's first line as much as they can to shut them down as effectively. To your point, Dante, I think the first line is gonna have to get going and carry the offense, and they need to be more effective on the power play. Those are two really big keys. Buffalo has a much bigger decor than what Tampa Bay does. You look at Doline, you got Owen Power, Mateus Samuelson, they added Logan Stanley, those are some towering defensemen. They have Bowen Byram all mobile too, though, right? But I think there's gonna be a lot more opportunities for Montreal to counterattack and create offense with Buffalo. I don't think they're gonna be as structurally sound as what Tampa was in terms of chance creation and everything. So Montreal's four check is gonna be a huge key. But if they can get the first line going, the power play going, Dobson back playing a significant role, and then the goaltending matchup. You look at Jakob Dobish and how he played, if he keeps that up in this series, Alex Lyon, he played well for Buffalo in the last series down the stretch after coming in for Lukinen. But Lyon also has a history in his past. I think he was a Florida goaltender in a series where he got pulled, um, didn't finish the series. I think Montreal has the advantage in net with how Dobish is playing. I think Buffalo might have a better, bigger, maybe a slightly better decor, but I think Montreal has the advantage up front if that first line gets going. I like this matchup for them. I think Habson 6.

SPEAKER_01 59:55

Jordan. I will say that Dobish needs to keep playing how he has been, and he was able to do that for seven games, so he hasn't given me a reason to believe he won't be able to. So that's a positive. And Lion, I think, will come back down to earth. Um, my biggest question mark is that top line for Montreal. That is the I think has to be the biggest question mark for anyone. They have to be better. You have to get more from them, they have to show up in this series. This series is gonna be way more open. There's gonna be more ice. You saw it with Boston and Buffalo, it was back and forth, lots of chances, lots of rush opportunities. Montreal needs to stay in within their system and not overextend themselves to get these rush chances, still play their system defensively and be able to counterattack and get their odd man opportunities by counter-attacking. And they need that top line to score goals. Cole needs to shoot the puck, he needs to put the puck in the back of the net. Slawkowski needs to start going back to those dirty areas, start buzzing, start getting in front of the net, create some havoc, and Demonov needs to play how he did in game six. That guy took over game six in times. You watched him on the ice, and you're like, who is he? He's possessed, he is the best person out on this ice. But you only saw it for one game. You need that, you need that more from him. If their depth uh uh bottom six can continue to do what they did in the first round, Montreal will win if their top lines can come through. Unfortunately, I don't know if they will. And for that reason, this is gonna be super um popular at the rink, and you guys are gonna love me tomorrow for it when I come and watch the game. But I'm going to pick Buffalo in seven, unfortunately. I just think this team has a mojo about them right now. They have some young guys, they're able to skate with Montreal. I think they're just a little bit bigger and gonna be harder to play against defensively than Tampa. Tampa was able to get to those areas with like Brandon Hagel, whereas uh Buffalo has bigger guys that are gonna be going to those areas like an Alex Tuck. And I just think it's just gonna be that little bit. I think it's gonna be a hell of a series. I think it's gonna be back and forth action. It's gonna be much watch TV. This will be the best round of the second round. Everyone's gonna be wanting to tune in. I'm gonna take Buffalo and seven.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:16

Yeah, you went one for eight in the first round. So I'll take that.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:19

So that I'll take those. I was just saying, uh hope you guys all enjoyed Jordan's last podcast with the fuck that I um so that's uh we can uh it's uh it's gonna be good. It's nice. Hopefully, we can have a podcast again before the Stanley Cup final starts, the way Gary Bettman runs this damn league.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:35

Um still be on it.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:37

Yeah, exactly. But uh let's uh but to wrap this up for the end of the night here. Uh tonight we just

Draft Lottery Results and thoughts

SPEAKER_02 1:02:44

had the draft lottery happen and we all kind of shared opinions on it already. So to end the night, let's just uh quickly talk about it. The uh elephant in the room here, Toronto wins the draft lottery tonight. They moved up, uh I believe they were fifth, right? Yeah, fifth the first. And then San Jose actually moves up quite a bit too. I don't know what what was the original opinion? Does anyone or uh original spot? Does anyone remember where they were?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:09

Uh off the top of their heads? No.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:12

I'll have to look at it while you guys talk, but San Jose moved up. They they moved up quite a bit. They're I think they were nine or ten. I I want to say nine. I want to say they were ninth, but they moved up from ninth all the way to second. Um I know Jordan and Donnie and I, we both discussed this, but uh let's discuss it one quick last time here. Donnie, what's your thoughts on the Toronto Mate Beliefs winning this draft lottery?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:35

I just can't wait to see them draft Gavin McKenna and he become the savior of that franchise, lead them to their first cup since 1967. Looking forward to seeing that.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:44

Sarcasm is high out of Donovan right now. I just that that team's in total. But that's exactly but that's what that's the funny thing though, Donnie. Sorry, but that's what everyone is saying for them right now. They're all like McKenna's the second coming of Christ for their team all of a sudden. He's the savior. This is what they've been this is the piece they've been missing. I don't know what hockey they've been watching, but they're missing more than just one piece up front. That defense is probably the worst defense I've seen put together in a long time.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:10

I just find it very odd that arguably the two places that needed a star player the most for the league. If you're looking at Batman's optics, Toronto and San Jose continuing building what they have with Celebrini and their core there, ended up jumping up to one and two. That's all I'll say.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:29

Well, here's this Toronto, who just hired what's his name, Chaika as their GM. Yeah. Um has been suspended by the league before when he was in Arizona for doing stuff with prospects, you're not allowed to do, and blah blah blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:46

Breaking news quick. I I did hear he already invited McKenna to a workout session. Yeah, probably. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:51

And to specify doing things with prospects that you shouldn't do, you know, we're not the yeah, we're we're he's just talking to them too early for our viewer fan base. You know, he's not doing anything else to them.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:05

Yeah, there's no Chicago situation going on. Um, but they go and pretty much Matthew said, Hey, we gotta get significantly better, or I'm out of here. The league is better when Toronto's good, right? Like they just they're gonna bring in more revenue. If Matthews leaves, Toronto's going down the toilet, they're into another 10-year rebuild that takes them forever to get out of, even though media is gonna talk about how they added one player in the offseason and it's gonna turn their whole uh franchise around, they get this pick, he's now gonna come in and replace the Martiner spot. Will it work? I'm not sure. But how does this guy who has these suspensions and allegations against him? All these GMs don't care for him because of what he was doing. He had an Arizona job, he just went and talked with these other people and then came back and said, I'm out of here, I'm gonna go work for them. It's just a lot of garbage that this guy was doing, and then he gets the first reward with the first overall pick. Yeah. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:03

Did you guys see the uh sorry, did you guys see his press conference where the um media the media attacked him for it immediately? They media attacked him and just he had no answer basically. I I did he's like I talked to I did my due diligence and then the media guy basically's like well I talked to all these NHL NHL officials. 20 good NHL sources too he said right like 20 like well known ones not just anybody's and they were all voiced their opinion against this and then his response was I guess we talked to different people I don't know I think this is another fucking media circus waiting to happen over in Toronto.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:39

Yeah in my opinion I personally I personally don't think this pick stops Matthews from leaving. You don't think so there's there was an article that came out today even questioning if Matthews is there next year. I think Chris Johnston had an article come out like questioning if if they look in a move this offseason.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:55

I I think he's good as gone I think he goes to an American team very soon either at the end of his contract or you know well if if people are holding McKinnon to be this all holy player which I mean we've talked about before he didn't look that good in juniors to be honest. Like he's a good player but I don't see him as like what some of these people are putting him on a pedestal to be if you truly in the Toronto organization see him as that and you think Austin Matthews is leaving I mean if you do trade Matthews you are going to get the pieces that you need to plug into your lineup yeah like your goaltender in my situation in my opinion I the Toronto goaltending is fine whatever they got stolars they got yeah they got stolars and uh what's his name um wool oh yeah those in the wool wool they got wool there so their goaltenders are fine my issue is their depth their wingers and their defensemen so if you truly think McKinnon is gonna be this guy he could be your new first line center and you trade um Matthews yeah you're probably getting a crap ton back for him to be honest but like Donovan mentioned me before too for a team that needs young talent they don't get their first round pick next year because it goes to Boston you know what I mean like so I don't know I still like I get it after that Philly they lose one to Philly and one to Boston back to back so like I get it be happy everyone obviously be happy to win the first overall pick I remember when me and Donovan were praying for that when we were doing our little rebuilds and have the opportunity flames move down to six. Well you can get on your poor flames can't get a tough pick of their life dependent on legitimately fourth is the highest they've ever picked and they got to pick Sam fucking Bennett and the the fun part about those guys couldn't do a chin up at the time.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:43

Dante those those first round picks that they lost these next two years yeah they got Scott Lawton who has since been moved on and traded to LA yeah and Brandon Carlo who has been absolute dog shit for dog shit. And they only got a third for Lawton at this deadline so they completely diminish his value and management.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:00

So like I said you know like be happy you got the first round pick but he's not the savior of your team you have issues up and down that lineup he's not going to save everything. And then Donnie we were talking about it uh in our little group chat prior to this as well so San Jose does move so they were ninth before so they moved from nine to two and now you're gonna be looking at either getting a McKinnon if he doesn't get picked first overall which most likely will but who knows then you have a choice you got Stenberg who's an unreal winger just loved what we saw from him at the uh junior stage there or does Buffalo or sorry not Buffalo uh does San Jose look at their roster and be like I don't really need the winger I would rather try to move down and get a defenseman that we need in Verhoff or something. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:46

I think yeah I think they either move down or they're just gonna stick and pick either that Chase Reed or Carson Carls one of the picker defensemen.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:54

My my prediction right now and we can timestamp this is Stenberg is going to be too much for them to look away from and they're just gonna stay at two and draft him.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:02

I hope something comes out about Stenberg and he falls to six you can only start a rumor if you want you start well start the rumor right now on the rink hockey podcast yeah get stem get Stenberg down to six for poor Jordan's sake. I heard he smoked a ton of pot it's legal in Canada so we can come here yeah exactly he's fine up here um overall though yeah I mean we kind of all rolled our eyes when uh Toronto won there you know there's always the questions of is the lottery rigged and I know the league does this live um ball like uh the live draft the live thing now you get to see the balls get put in it's a continuous shot even when they break for commercials or advertisement they still keep the shot live the whole time I get it whatever I'm it's just it I do agree with Donnie it is funny to me that you know you have Toronto and San Jose who needed these picks the most and they get it I'm just saying too after Toronto won the first pick they also had the highest odds until the last ball was drawn to win the second pick. Yeah so and I know don't I I know Don and you were asking like how the hell does that even happen and it's just the way like the way they do this uh lottery now with every team gets assigned a random amount of four digit codes basically at the end of the day that's what you get first place gets more than and then second place so on and so forth. But it's it's a combination of numbers it's a combination of numbers of balls and like it's just I don't know who they're telling me that like I mean just to play devil's advocate you're telling me that's what Toronto's numbers are but how the hell do I know how those are their numbers you know I mean and how do these teams get assigned these numbers I would like a little bit more depth. I do appreciate them doing it live now for everyone to see but I still would like to hear a little bit more on how these numbers are randomized if they even are randomized blah blah blah and then um yeah I just it's it's I'm just happy to I know we talked about it before I'm happy Florida didn't move up in this draft that would have been absolutely I would have just fucking lost my mind if they did but teams I feel bad for this draft obviously Vancouver dropping from one to three I do feel bad for them and then you know what's I mean they are a rival to us in some capacity but I do kind of feel for the Rangers a little bit dropping down two spots as well and then yes of course I feel bad for your flames Jordan they drop two spots as well which really sucks but it's a joke at the end of the day it'll be fine don't worry at at least at least the flames have their first round picks going forward right yeah just trade it back get that Liam Rurk at like 20 and be happy and get his brother to bring the new Sadines to calorie the ruck the ruck twins yeah the ruck twins yeah you know uh in the offseason after playoffs are done we will dive more into the draft because I mean the way the league works now is the draft's gonna be probably what two weeks after the playoffs end is when the draft starts based on how long based on how long these series go for now and how late we start the season. So we'll we'll dive into more of who these prospects are and we'll kind of look maybe at the top 10 teams and what they are hoping for here. But uh we'll wrap it up now

Outro

SPEAKER_02 1:13:16

for this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:17

We'll enjoy our second round of hockey uh any final thoughts Jordan um I think that the first round was everything it lived up to be there is a lot of good series um that Montreal and Tampa series was by far the best one and I think the Montreal series again this round will be by far the best one and hopefully continues on into the third round and it's by far the best one.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:40

So yeah history repeats itself Donnie what do you think?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:44

Yeah just it's so nice so refreshing to watch Habs hockey this late in the year I'm just excited to get a minimum four more games of Montreal Canadians hockey down the stretch and hopefully we can keep it going.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:55

Keep making content I was agreed I agree I was not ready for hockey beat done yet this year. I wanted the Bell Center to be showcased one more time with how passionate that fan base is um my final thoughts are I agree with what you guys said the first round's been great some series not as much as others I still strongly dislike the way this format is having some of these series be so dominantly easy for the top teams compared to where you got Dallas and Minnesota you got Tampa and Montreal like those series could have easily been like final series basically so I still wish they would change the format that being said happy to be watching Habs hockey uh go Habs go and uh enjoy the second round everyone go Habs go go Habs go go Habs go.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:43

Take it easy