2 Vintage Sports Guys - Episode 11

Episode 11: Join Joe as he welcomes back Paul from the depths of despair (otherwise known as a work trip) and they discuss the NBA Play-In games and the start of the NHL Playoffs!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome back, everybody. This is two vintage guys. I am one of your hosts, Jorendacci, and my good friend and partner. And he's been away on vacation. Uh, had a whole stream of guest hosts this week and last, but he's back in his pit. Talk to us. What's going on, Paul?

SPEAKER_01 0:26

I'm back. I am. You did very well without me. I'm proud of your guest hosts. You had a uh a should be Hall of Famer, even. I don't know where you came up with that one, but that was fantastic listening. While I was gone, so it's probably um a downturn in the show's history now that I'm back. You probably should be better off with with guest hosts every other week, but we'll see what we can do.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Anyway, so we are gonna start. We're gonna talk two things, people. We're gonna talk the NBA 2026 SoFi play-in tournament. I love that they had a sell rights, like to call it that. And then we will jump into the NHL playoffs, which do start this Saturday. So, with the playoff games, we're not gonna break it down in stats and all that crap. We will talk about just the play-in tournament itself. I think this is really working. I think we would all agree that the NBA season is way too long. I think we'll also agree that because the players are never going to take less money for less games, they're never gonna do anything about it. So that'll continue. And we have the seven to ten seeds that play this single March Madness style game uh to move on. So we had the Hornets as the ninth seed beat the Heat. The 76ers uh played the Magic, the Magic moved on, and then we had the Magic play the Hornets. So at the end of that, the Magic wound up with the eight-seed to play the Pistons, 76ers wound up with the seven seed to play the Celtics. So let's talk about the East first there. What's your thoughts, Paul?

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Well, obviously, I will be a pro uh Sixer fan, but you know, it'll be a hard climb. It's it's I think back to your point. Yes, this every season in every sport is long, so a way to make it entertaining at the end is kind of fun. Charlotte had their chance, right? MJ's team. Um, but uh there's a chance for an upset over the Celtics, a small chance, but appendicitis has sidelined embiad, so we'll see if he can come back. Probably one of the top five players in the game, Tyrese Maxi, who, by the way, I'm waiting on a Tyrese Maxi auto that I pulled from Topps, and I think I've been waiting four months for it. So I'm about to inquire where the hell that is, but uh, but yeah, I pulled a Topps Now Tyrese Maxi auto a few months ago. So maybe maybe I'll do well with that.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

That's my old joke, right? Give each team a hundred points in two minutes, you can wind up pretty much with the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

It doesn't mean it's a bad thing, it's good. Now that everything's set, we'll get going. It's playoff weekend. NHL starts today, basketball starts what tomorrow, I think, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:23

So yeah, so well, we have uh let's just talk about the Western Conference, even though you and I are more Eastern Conference guys. The Clippers played the Warriors, Warriors beat the Clippers, and then the Suns and Trailblazers played, and the Suns beat the Trailblazers. So we had the Suns then beat the Warriors for the seven seed. We had the Suns wind up as the eighth seed versus the Thunder. So the Thunder should roll right over the the Phoenix Suns.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

The Thunder will crush them. I mean, I think the rich get richer. Is it an end of a dynasty there with Golden State uh limping into the playoffs? We'll see if if they can just go on a playoff run, and that's the beauty of the playoffs. That's why everybody tunes in. Like with any sport, you know, the top four seeds, either through money or through player development, really take it on. So uh I think Thunder roll uh the whole way in. So we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Well, the two seeds to Spurs, and I mean Spurs finished 62 and 20 to the Thunder 64 and 18. So I think I can think I think you can take your pick with one of the two of them representing the West in the finals, right? Thunder Spurs, that should be a good uh Western conference final. And then in the east, I think you're looking at at you know, one-two, Piston Celtics. And pick your poison there. Celtics have the experience, obviously, but Pistons, I mean, start to finish this year, they just rolled, they rolled through it. Uh any cards uh of thought?

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Yeah, I mean, I think I think your biggest players, I don't, you know, when uh Wem Wemby's a little banged up and injured. He's he's out, you know, he's been out for a few days, but I mean, if he can somehow get back in, um, you know, that's gonna be a great card. I think some of your your longtime stud players in the NBA will will uh will do well. So it's it's it's the rich get richer, you know. So, you know, if Wemby can come back from his injury and do a little bit better, then we'll we'll be okay. So here's what I'll say.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

I I I'd add I'd start advocating to make everything best of five. Best of seven, four rounds between basketball and hockey. I mean, it's great when you're sitting there, you're throwing a game, and the series is still going. But really, for for excitement, I I best of five, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Yeah, no, that's a good point. I think if you moved it to that, you'd you'd really make it an impact. So we'll see. But yeah, that would be great to see.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Because it's kind of funny in best of seven how many teams come back from three-one down, right? Uh it's you know, and with basketball and hockey, uh, as you well know, they do it different than what we're used to in baseball since we're kids, right? Baseball, it's first two at home, three on the road, last two at home. Hockey and basketball, it's a two-two-one-one-one. And that really makes the difference, especially coming back uh you know, down three, one.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Yeah, exactly. That two, two, one, one, one, that's yeah, that is the old style of doing it. But when it's when it's more regional, like NHL is, um, you know, they don't do NHL changed everything, so they don't do the 1-8-2-7 method. They they go into division. So Pittsburgh's playing the Flyers, 2-3 is playing each other. So you have good teams that are gonna lose in the first round because of the playoff format that Greedy Gary did a few years ago.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Yeah, let's switch over to uh the hockey. And I I'm not sure I'm loving all that, but uh, I'm gonna kick it off to you. You do it. I'm running color. Talk to me about the NH playo NHL playoffs starting today.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Yeah, it's super exciting. You've got, you know, and I I'm sitting here before the show, I pulled up all my all my young guns. And and of course, the best young guns aren't in the playoffs. My condolences on your islanders there. Um, but Nishkin and just say, if you can't make it, you don't deserve to make it.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

No crying. Well, you know, they make it last year because they sucked the last the two years before that. I think they made it on the last game of the season, and then of course got knocked out in the first round.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

So it's a whole new day, right? You've got Buffalo back, right? You've got Utah Mammoth playing their first playoff series since relocating from Phoenix. New ownership, new money, new attitude means you win. Phoenix didn't do it for years and years. And uh, I'm looking at Dmitry Simeshev for uh Utah in my Young Guns collection. Um, Carolina's a perennial, great one. Alexander Nishkin uh for that one. The blue jackets went on the biggest dump at the end of the year, losing, I think, eight out of their last 10 and did not make the playoffs. Uh, so I'm looking at Jack Williams, Young Guns. We'll see if that team blows itself up. Although Rick Bonus basically came out in the press and said the guys gave up. And if he's back, he will tear up the whole team, new culture, new everything. The next day he got an extension. So that tells you that the uh uh the coach was listened to. So um Minnesota's a great team. I'm looking at Zev Beam for uh Young Guns there. Um, and then I'm looking at a Pittsburgh Penguin who I'll be rooting against in Harrison Brunnicke. So it's all about the young guns, it's all about the new players, Buffalo, but but really the youngest team, and the and the the most different team is Montreal Canadians playing near Tampa Lightning. Montreal has, first of all, their young team. Second of all, they've got a guy who's 5'8 on a good day, another guy's 5'9, small, fast team that's exciting. I think Montreal wins. Of course, I'll take the Flyers over the um wheelchair-bound uh Penguins with Malkin and Crosby and Letang. I mean, that's their this is their last chance. Uh, but like we said, when the format changed, you're playing two versus three, where in years past, you know, penguins could have gotten a worse uh opponent and probably maybe won a series, but hopefully they've got no chance. Rick Tocket going against his old team came out with something typical of Philly saying we need a little bit more hate in the game. And uh I'm I'm all about the hate. So we'll uh we'll hate the penguins like I did when I was little.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

So here's my Trevia question to you. How long has it been since a Canadian base team won the cup? I I'm gonna say 35 years. 35 years. Well, just pick the team. Who do you think it was?

SPEAKER_01 10:03

It well, it was Toronto or Montreal. I'll I'll flip a coin and go with uh Montreal in 1976. How about that?

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Uh you're half right. I would have obviously went with the Canadians too, because you gotta, but 1993, Canadians won. It's when they beat um when Gretzky went to LA for that one year and took them there.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Ah, there you go. There you go.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Well, that's so yep, and now it says the odds are basically stacked against them because there's only seven NHL teams in Canada. And you know, the other it's a 30 32-team league.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

So the odds of them winning get Yeah, I'd have to see if Dreisidel's still injured. I mean, Connor McDavid's a perennial, so Edmonton there. I don't think Winnipeg made it. Uh they crashed at the end of the season. So, you know, it's it's up to Montreal, and I think they've got the best chance to to do it. Montreal going the whole way. So well, we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

If you look at if you look at the sum of the the numbers, it it almost it's kind of weird, right? Edmonton's back in. This will be three years in a row that they could try to go. They lost obviously the last two to uh the Panthers, and I don't think they're as good as they were either the two years they lost to the Panthers. But you never know if they get on a run. But the Oilers, so this year we know the East was really top heavy, right? So some of these teams in the West, including the Oilers, wouldn't have even made the playoffs if they were in the East.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

But you know, speaking of Wilders, yeah, the whole disparity between the East and West. Yeah, yeah. I I saw that, but that's that's the way the cookie crumbles. You play you play who you play and you win against them. So no crying from the Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

No, I don't I I agree. I don't think you could complain because you take into account who you played all the year, you know, it's it's never any one thing, but but I'm just saying the east was really point-heavy this year, and somebody's playoff teams in the west wouldn't have been made it point wise compared, but you know, a lot of things happen.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

It'll be it'll be really interesting to see, you know, do new people tune in after the Olympics and after the USA won. Um, what are the numbers in NBA versus NHL? I I I hope that the Olympics uh cause a little bit of a bounce back for for the NHL and we get some more guys playing. It would be really nice. Obviously, I'm a hockey guy uh more than I am anything else. So uh it would be nice to see what the Olympics could do.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

I I you know I think the biggest thing with hockey compared to the other three sports, and this will now sound totally political and a hundred other things with an ism at the end of it, they're mostly white, and that doesn't mean they're mostly American white, they're you know Caucasian white all from all over around the world, and it's not really a multicultural game. You could count on one hand, right, how many African-American players there are, and uh there, I don't think there's many Indian players, if any, right? When you when you start talking to us certainly basketball and football and soccer, you have such a larger fan base because it's multicultural or national.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

But the one thing I will say is that's why the Olympics, and I saw Sidney Crosby interviewed on uh Pat McAfee the other day. Um, you know, it's why their international tournaments do so well. So multicultural, yes. The NHL is comprised of Canadians, Russians, Finns, uh every country in Europe almost is represented, not a majority of an Americans. So from a multicultural perspective, it is certainly that from a monochromatic, that's my big word of the day, I guess. Um a polite word. Uh yes, they are certainly that. But they are they are multicultural, and so you get the the mix of of uh I'm rooting for a Russian and Mitchkov, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Uh so so here here here's the key nationality breakdown for 2025-2026 opening day roster. Canadian, 42 percent. United States, 27. All right, so right there you're at what 69, almost 70. Sweden is 10, Russian is 7.7, Finland 5.4, Czechoslovak 2.8, Switzerland 1.5. Yeah, I mean, I can hear a lot of things you would hear from other sports in there.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

No, it's certainly not. I know NBA, it's funny though, that's the what the NFL wants. The NFL is now playing how many games in Europe? I was at a work conference this week and we were talking about the NFL and Germany and London. I don't know what South America, if they're back in Brazil or not, but everything is dominated by money, growing the sport internationally, and and NFL is desperately trying to do it, you know. But from a hockey perspective, I mean, don't get me started on all the international, you know, taking college kids, you know, spots in the in in college hockey and and what leads up. But who knows? I think you know, some people will get it excited. You know, we've got another month and a month and a half of playoff sports, and then we'll we'll go into the summer where it's just baseball, and we'll see if baseball can keep its numbers up.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Well, just just to to finish that off with the MBA players, and this is only talking the 2023 season. 70 to 78 percent of them were black players, and up to 90 were white players. And the you know, they break the demographics down with Latino, Hispanic, Asian, and then multiracial, right? So that's why I think the NBA globally, right, has the bigger draw than I I realize that most of hockey's nationalities outside of Canadian and American are what we mentioned, right? But there's a lot of key demographics there, which I think why it remains the fourth uh sport. Yeah. And I think always will be.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

I think I think always will be at the end of the day. I think basketball is a bigger draw. Um, it's an exciting game. You've got college basketball tournament um, you know, leading up to these playoffs. NBA is exciting, let's face it. It's it's a great sport, great fun. Um, I'm just caught in my hometown team, not not not healthy uh as we go into the I mean, you know, well Paul George is 82 years old, his knees are about a hundred years old, you know, and uh and M B's coming off appendicitis. So yeah, it's definitely it's it's hockey's a niche sport, it really always will be.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

But um well, I think what one of the reasons it's a neat a niche sport, and I think you know this better than anybody because you're still paying for it. Uh when you and I grew up, and even as our kids grew up, you could just give them a bat, a ball, and a glove, and tell them to go play outside or at the park. Yeah, you give them a football, you could give them basketball, tell them to head to the net for hockey. It's ridiculous. It's it's crazy. It's bucks, it's money, right? You still are paying for one, like all over the world.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Well, and I think that's that needs to change in baseball. I think I forget what all-star game it was. In the last five years, there was an all-star game without one um um African-American starting player, and that was born in America. Um, so bat baseball needs to do a better job of reaching out uh across the inner cities, building parks, getting bats and balls in kids' hands. That's a big push. Little league needs to come back, and it doesn't listen. Everything is going too much, too fast, too much money, too much emphasis. Kids aren't playing sports, um, aren't playing multiple sports. They're playing one by the age of 10 and they're specializing. And instead of it being fun, uh, it's turning into a business. So, so that's where we are. I think maybe uh maybe on tomorrow's show we should make some predictions. We should probably start calling uh and making making calls. I know tonight I'll be rooting for the Flyers. Uh NHL Senators starts at 3 p.m. Uh in Buffalo. So uh we'll go with that for today. And maybe on tomorrow's show we'll make some predictions, and it'll all be about playoffs on both the uh hockey and basketball. So why don't we leave it at that?

SPEAKER_00 18:56

All right. Well, I will say this. We should just make a who's just gonna win the cup prediction. And uh and uh since the games all start today and we're not gonna have to jump up on it. So give me your who's winning the cup. And then we'll go series by series tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Okay, so there's two ways to look at that. I can tell you that the Flyers are gonna win the cup, uh, in my homer way of doing it, because they've won so many games to get in the playoffs. We've got to go with Colorado. Um, so I'll I'll do that western team on the Colorado. It's nice to see Utah in there, but the Avalanche should probably run. And on the East Coast, if I can't pick the Flyers, then I'll have to go with Carolina. Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

Carolina's gonna be a little bit more than a lot.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

We're gonna go with Montreal, the young team that I talked about earlier. I'm gonna go with Montreal.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

I don't even think get past uh my veteran Tampa, but okay. But I will say Colorado is winning the West. I'm gonna be a bandwagon and say Buffalo is gonna go from worst to first this year, and it's gonna be Buffalo, Colorado, and Colorado's gonna win the whole thing. But we'll get into that deeper on tomorrow's podcast, and that's it. So say goodbye, Paul. All right, goodbye, Paul. All right, goodbye, everybody. We will talk to you soon.