Transcript of Connor McDavid is OUT + Are The Stars Done? | The Hockey Show New

Round 2 is starting to look a lot clearer. We will talk about the playoffs of Ant-Man: Burke. This is The Hockey Show.

Mafi wak lelo bdesala wahad kontinuo e shi norbintu studio.

David Druaga at The Hockey News is right there. Rose and Ethan— they're both doing stuff.

They're here.

I'm very glad that you are finally back.

Yeah, I'm back. Hi.

Hi.

I miss you guys.

I, uh, we missed you too. It's been a lot of, uh, a lot of shenanigans.

A lot of putting up with me. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. Well, I'm Roy Bellamy. This is The Hockey Show. So we are moving on with the playoffs. The Avalanche and Hurricanes have moved on. So the Flyers. The Flyers have taken out the Penguins the night before. We can assume that this is going to— that this was the last dance for Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin. Playing together in Pittsburgh. We can't safely assume though that this might be the last dance for Sidney Crosby himself in Pittsburgh, but who knows. Uh, he's entering the final year of his contract now. Uh, he's going to go into free agency as a 40-year-old. So what are we looking at here, Pittsburgh?

It's kind of shit or get off the pot time, right? Like, if they want to have any more success with Sidney Crosby, you would think that they need to get it done in the next year or so.

Yeah.

How much longer does he want to play is taken into consideration. Does he want to go after another Stanley Cup? Does he want to quote unquote ride off into the sunset? Like, it seems like the window is closing in Pittsburgh. It felt like that it was opening this year again. Like, they came out of kind of nowhere. They're a divisional playoff team for much of the season, and then they got smacked in the face by their cross-state rival.

Yeah.

So I don't know. Ethan?

Yeah, I think that there's clear changes coming. I'm not sure exactly what those changes will be. Look, if they move off of Sidney Crosby—

Chris—

Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh.

Wow. That was bad.

That was rough.

Shalom.

Listen, I got a lot going on back here. If they move off of Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh, like, the fans are going to riot out there. So I'm not really sure exactly what they're going to do. But Kyle Dubas did say in his kind of like postmortem that changes, basically hinted that changes need to be made. Changes are coming and they're finally going to blow this up because look, we all saw it clearly. Like nobody really expected the Penguins. They were expected to be one of the worst teams in the league this year. Elliott Friedman came into the season telling you that this is the only team that everybody knows is up for sale. They sold at the deadline. They got into the playoffs because they're in the weak Metro Division and they got really hot towards the end of the year. They fooled me into thinking that they were actually a playoff quality team. And then, I mean, look, they ended up going to 6 games with the Flyers. But at the end of the day, like, they kind of were who we thought they were right when it came to the playoff time and they just weren't good enough.

And now Letang was a disaster in this series. Malkin looked good and so did Crosby, obviously. But I'm not sure what they do here. Roy, I think they've got a lot of, a lot of questions to answer clearly in Pittsburgh.

Well, I certainly hope that Sidney— in the whole series, I certainly hope that Sidney Crosby had a very good Passover. Um, but, uh, what are you seeing, Dave?

I was trying not to go off on a tangent with that, and you just brought me right back.

Why was it—

why didn't we hear that more often? He's been playing— well, he's been playing in Pittsburgh for like 2 decades now, and like, why, why is that like—

yeah, that's, that's a good point.

But yeah, totally off the rails.

Pittsburgh.

No, like, impressive by Philly. Like, a well-rounded series. Only 2 guys in the entire Flyers roster had more than 1 goal, one of them being Travis Sanheim, the defenseman, the other one was impressive rookie Porter Martone, who I'm really enjoying watching.

But what about Dan Vladar's performance?

I love Dan Vladar's performance. I thought he was great for them all year. To see him kind of step up in the playoffs was really kind of nice because you want to see somebody continue that regular season. What surprised me was that the Penguins didn't go to, uh, Shilov earlier in the series because I think that would have changed things significantly. I know, like Stuart Skinner, we know Stuart Stenner, right?

Yeah, you've seen him before.

Sheilob, I thought, was more of a difference maker for Pittsburgh. He made more of the— what are they— the, uh, goal saved above expected, or whatever the stat is that I can never word it right, because we're above expected. There it is. Uh, I just was very disappointed in Pittsburgh. You get back to what Ethan said, like, it turned out that they, they pulled off the mask and, you know, it was the Scooby-Doo villain all over again.

Okay, so, uh, we know that the Flyers are going to play the Hurricanes in the second round.

That's going to be interesting.

The Ducks knocked out Oilers last night. Um, now that— not— yeah, last night. Now she's very happy.

Nobody's going to Edmonton.

No, no, nobody's going there. Now we know that the Wild will play the Avalanche. And I mentioned the Wild because Ethan's wearing a sweater, uh, back there. He's, uh, very happy that this is—

I own way too much Wild gear for a person that isn't actually a Minnesota Wild fan. I have a jersey, I have a hat, I have a t-shirt, I have a Quinn Hughes Team USA jersey on the way. And I was looking this morning at buying a Matt Boldy jersey as well. They happen to have 4 of my favorite players in the league. I have way too much Minnesota Wild gear for, again, a person who is not a fan of them.

Get yourself some matching gear is all I'm saying.

Yeah, I know. I realized after— I realized after I got dressed today that I have a Brock Faber shirt that matches my hat.

That's Dwayne Rolison's, guys.

This is— this is very much the current Minnesota Wild look, right? This cap. But the jersey is like the mock, like the fallback to the Minnesota North Stars that they did. That is their alternate. That is one of my favorite jerseys of the week.

Is he explaining his mismatch?

Yes, he's eat the spleen.

Look, you know, you get dressed, it's 7 o'clock in the morning, you're really tired, and you end up with a red hat and a green and yellow jersey. It happens sometimes.

Yeah, late night games does that to you. The Wild took out Dallas. Quinn Hughes, 2 goals and an assist last night. Trade seems to have worked out.

A little bit, right? Vancouver, oh my God. Let's not talk about Vancouver. I don't know why I brought Vancouver up. That series was a lot of fun. I wasn't sure what to expect out of that series as they both were really good and both kind of solid defensive teams that can put up a little bit of scoring, great goaltending. Jesper Wallstedt was spectacular, a bit of a surprise maybe that he started that series, but he turned out to be great. But what's next for Dallas? Like, this is what, 4 straight years now disappointing. They didn't even get out of the first round for the first time in all those years, right? Because they had 3 straight Western Conference Final trips.

Yeah.

So, yeah, I don't know what— they fired their coach last year. Miko Rantanen, he's great, but they've got a lot of, you know, Jason Robertson, Wyatt Johnson, like they've got some really good players in Dallas, but they just can't get over the hump.

Yeah, to me, Dallas is even more interesting than Edmonton, David, because Jason Robertson is an RFA and I think his contract is up. Like they're going to have negotiations this season. He's going to and probably should want more money than Miko Rantanen, who's on $12 million. They're already in a cap crunch. I don't really know what they do. And clearly, uh, something has to change. Like, I saw a lot of people saying this morning that, you know, oh well, if you look at the numbers, like, the Stars, they shot 3%, they kind of got unlucky, like, they were really even with the Wild at 5-on-5. No. I watched that series. The Wild dominated that series at 5-on-5. They outscored them 13-4 at 5-on-5. Uh, the only reason Dallas was in that series is because they were phenomenal on the power play. They scored 10 power play goals in this series, basically kept the series even. Even because of that. I don't know what you do if you're Dallas because they have so much talent. This is such a talented team, but something is not clicking when it comes to the playoffs. This is 4 straight years with a disappointing exit for a team that has Stanley Cup or bust expectations, and now this is a huge setback.

So you can't just keep saying like, one of these years, oh, we won't shoot 3%, we'll get lucky, the bounces will start to go our way. You earn your bounces in the Stanley Cup playoffs. That's what everybody says, right? And Dallas has not earned their bounces. Something about the way they say something about their roster construction. It's not Stanley Cup worthy. It doesn't matter how good they are in the regular season. We've seen it now. They've lost 3 straight years in the Western Conference Final and then in the first round this year. Something has to change in Dallas. They can't just keep running back the same team, kicking the same can down the road because it's not working. And you can't just say that one of these years we'll get lucky and the goals will go in. The goals have not gone in. Gone in. It's a large enough sample size.

Well, one thing is You're not gonna win very many playoff series when your power play goals double your even strength goals. That's one. And second of all, Jamie Benn's a free agent. I don't think they're gonna bring back the captain. Do you?

That Jamie Benn?

Yeah.

I mean, that's a tough one, right? He's one of the few guys— I mean, he was on a million-dollar contract, so I don't imagine it would take a lot to bring him back.

Uh, he was a, he was a liability in this series. Yeah, that was a liability. He was minus 6.

That's a tough—

he had the turnover that killed the series. He was a liability. He took some really bad penalties.

He—

something's not right in that locker room. Like, he— and he's the leader of that locker room. Like, I, I would move on from Jamie Benn. I, I, I, I don't know.

Minus 7 with no points.

Minus 7 with no points. There you go.

He—

something has to change. They've got to change something in that core. I don't know if it's a trade.

I just don't know what they're changing, Ethan, looking at their— looking at their numbers. Like, they're locked into a lot of these guys for several years. Like you mentioned Jason Robertson being RFA, they're gonna have to pay him a significant amount of money. He's coming off a deal that he was making almost $8 million. They're gonna have around $11 million in cap space, give or take, next season, and how much of that is gonna have to go to Jason Robertson? Where else are you making changes? I'm not saying you're wrong, Ethan, I'm just saying they're kind of backed into a corner right now.

Well, the good news is, Dave, they have 3-time Jim Gregory Award winner Jim Nitzke.

Aye, that's a spoiler.

That's a spoiler. That's a spoiler. We'll get to that in a second. The Oilers, I mean, just that, that was just, that was bad. It's not a good look if you want to keep Connor McDavid, uh, as his extension starts in this upcoming season. In the 6 games versus the Ducks, the Oilers allowed 3 or more goals in every game except for one. And even trading Stuart Skinner for Tristan Jarry, uh, before the deadline did not help their goaltending or the goals against average because they were 8th worst in the league this season. It's been bad, bad defense and everything. So it— they didn't deserve to win the series. And Connor McDavid himself did not look good. Goal, 5 assists. He was a -8 and he was on the ice for 13 goals against.

God, think about it. -8.

Yeah. What do you think about this series?

I thought it was great if you're betting the over. Yeah, it was fun to watch. It was exciting. I guess I'm a little disappointed in the Oilers just because of what we've seen from them the last few years, but I think you kind of touched on it. They made a big trade trying to, you know, spark their goaltending situation, and it blew up in their face because they ended up trading the best goaltender in that deal in Stuart Skinner.

Yep, it's a lateral move, really.

Well, Connor Ingram, good on him for stepping up and trying to be the guy for the Oilers, but man, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said Connor McDavid, 1 goal, -8. He was clearly— something was off. Like, he would show flashes where he would have those bursts.

He's hurt.

But yeah, and you know, nobody really talks about what the depth that the Oilers have. I mean, Leon Draisaitl was good, but man, that was tough. Go ahead, Ethan.

Sorry, I'm working on something back here. Okay.

Yeah, no, no, no.

Let's talk about, let's talk about—

go ahead. Go ahead.

Um, first of all, Connor McDavid met his match in Jackson Lacombe in this series. How good was Jackson Lacombe? I'm going to talk about him in a minute. Um, he's good. This was, this was clearly the, like, in the same way that it was for Dallas, this was the 'something has to change' series for the Oilers. Two straight Stanley Cup Finals, now you lose in the first round to a young Ducks team that— I love this Ducks team, I'm as high on them as anybody. I picked them to lose in 5 games coming into this series because I just thought that the Oilers were going to be too much, have too much experience, McDavid and Draisaitl were gonna be too much. I get it, McDavid was hurt, Draisaitl was coming off an injury. If you're the Oilers, you cannot do the thing that the Panthers are going to do this offseason. Which is we went to the Cup Final 2 years in a row and we got a little too beat up and next year once we're all healthy and once everything's alright, we should probably be back where we were, you know, 2 years ago.

You can't do that if you're the Oilers because clearly you're not good enough. McDavid called them an average team all year after his— in his press conference after the game last night. He's 100% right. That is a totally fair assessment. If they were in any other division other than the Pacific Division, they very well could have missed out on the playoffs. But they were in the Pacific Division, they got lucky, they ended up in the playoffs, and they got waxed by the Ducks. Like, that Game 5, they beat up on them pretty good. That was them keeping their, their playoff— their, their season alive. They had nothing for them in Game 6. And, you know, Hyman makes it 3-2, it was a kick, and after that the Ducks come right down and score and the series is over. So they have a lot of soul-searching to do. They've got Darnell Nurse on a 9.25. He the same amount of goals— he put the same amount of goals in his own net this year as he put in another team's net this year. So that might be arguably the worst contract in the league. They have a lot of changes to make.

Their forward depth was not good enough, their defense depth was not good enough, and their goaltending— we all know the goaltending situation. They've made a lot of bad roster decisions. Stan Bowman, see ya, buddy. Kris Knobloch doesn't look like him and Connor McDavid are on the same page. Might be another see ya buddy situation. The Oilers have a lot of decisions and a lot of changes to make, and I think Bob Stauffer said last night these changes could come fast. We could know a lot about what's going to happen in Edmonton within the next week.

After exit meetings, huh? Yeah, it's looking bad in Edmonton. All right, it's award watch. The NHL has started announcing nominees for its major awards. They started with the Vezina Trophy. Ilya Sorokin, Jeremy Swayman, and Andrei Vasilevskiy are the nominees for that trophy. The Lady Bing was announced yesterday for sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct, uh, and we'll get to Dave because, uh, he has a rant about that one. Uh, Anze Kopitar, who deserves it, Cole Caufield, who deserves it, and Jake Sanderson, they're the nominees for that trophy. They will announce the Jack Adams finalists today. That's for Coach of the Year. So let's talk about the nominees for Vezina, Dave.

Uh, I mean, Jeremy Swayman, very deserved. He was a big reason why Boston was even in the playoff conversation this year.

Yeah.

And it was cool to see that just because of the whole mess that's happened in Boston with their goaltending situation before Linus Ullmark got shipped off to Ottawa and started that whole mess. So good on Swayman. I thought Sorokin was spectacular this year on an Islanders team that kind of was up and down in terms of their defense. Like, I know Patrick Waad got a lot out of that team. during much of the season. But man, I've always liked Sorokin. Uh, but I think my— it— I don't have a vote in this, but I think if I did, I'd have to give the nod to Vasilevsky. Uh, I don't know, it kind of felt like he was maybe on the downslope. And so to see him bounce back in such a big way— he almost won 40 games this year, dude. He had 39 wins. Like, that's really impressive. So, uh, for me, it's got to be Vasy.

All right, so let's talk about the voting process for the Lady Bing. You believe that the referee should choose.

I don't understand why. Look, I, I think it's a very, very big privilege that we get to vote. Anybody that gets a vote, I think that's awesome. And hopefully next year you'll be in on that, Roy. I think we've been kind of pushing for that now for a few years.

Yeah.

Um, this one, it's like the most gentlemanly player. How the bleep are we supposed to judge that? We're not in between the, in the boards. We're not, you know, on the ice. We don't hear how these guys interact with each other. You know who does? The refs. The refs deal with them very much face-to-face. And if there's an impartial body of people that could vote on this and have a legitimate voice in it, it's the officials, I think. And I'm just championing what Greg Waschinski has been saying for a long time. Uh, this is— I'm jumping on his bandwagon with this. I think he's dead on with it. I think that getting to vote is something that is taken very seriously by everybody that I know that votes. And for this particular award, I just think we're almost doing the players a disservice, because basically what are we doing? We're looking at penalty minutes and points.

Yeah.

And I don't know. I just think if there was a more direct way that we could quantify this, then great. But I just think it makes a lot of sense. You've got GMs that vote on things. You've got broadcasters that vote on things. Why not have the officials get in on that?

All right.

It's time for Puck Luck. It's sponsored by DraftKings. DraftKings.

Okay, I'm ready.

The crown is yours. You are not ready because Ethan currently has the hot hand.

Yeah, I do.

You're going to go with him.

Yeah.

What do you have, Bedowski? I'm 2 of 3, baby.

I am the only hot hand in this crew here, I'm the only person that has actually hit a puck luck.

So Dave, okay, stop talking shit and get the damn puck luck.

We're going, we're going to the games tonight. We are going to go with 3 moneyline picks because moneyline has been where the money has been for me. So we are going to ride with the Montreal Canadiens. I believe they are going to close out the Tampa Bay Lightning in a raucous atmosphere where, Roy?

Bell Center.

Bell Center.

In Montreal. I think they close out the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight.

When we tune in tonight, they're going to say, and from the Bell Center.

And from Center Bell. Montreal. Next up, we're gonna go— guys, I think the Bruins are forcing a Game 7 tonight. I'm gonna take the Bruins at home against the Sabers. I believe we are going back to Buffalo. I liked what I saw from the Bruins in Game 5. I liked what I saw from Pasternak in his celebration where he was screaming at the fans, we're coming back, we're coming back. I'm taking the Bruins to force Game 7, and I think we're gonna get another Game 7 out west as well. I'm gonna ride with the Utah Mammoths I like this team. This has been a very competitive series. I've not liked what I've seen in net from Carter Hart for the Vegas Golden Knights. So I'm going to rock with the Mammoth. Put it all together. Canadiens, Bruins, Mammoth, all on the money line. That comes out to +654. Thanks to our partners at DraftKings.

DraftKings, the crown is yours. I'm sorry, Dave.

No, you know what? It's, it's fine. I have— I've got Montreal, Buffalo, and Utah tonight. So now that we know where our votes are, our bets are different. We know why Ethan will once again make me look like an asshole.

David!

Good luck, everybody. Uh, it is time, ladies and gentlemen, for the Hockey Stat of the Week. The Hockey Stat of the Week. Ethan!

Hey guys, I'm back here.

We know you're back here.

All right, this is from @Braylon_Breeze on Twitter. The Kings are the first and only team to make the playoffs all 5 seasons under the current ESPN and TNT T-Sports deal and never win a playoff series.

Oof.

That is 5 straight first-round exits for your Los Angeles Kings, although this year they finally got to get away from the Edmonton Oilers and they got swept by the Colorado Avalanche.

Yeah, they kind of ran into that buzzsaw.

Well, figures, right? Like, it sucks for the one year they don't catch the Oilers, it's when the Oilers get bumped out in the first round too.

All right, it's time for Rosa en un Minuto. Rosie, take it away.

I'm gonna try to do this in a minute, but I'm gonna try to do it clearly because people don't understand me. So, hola hijos, esto es un minuto de hockey con Rosie. Oficialmente los playoffs ya entraron en modo locura. Carolina barrió a Ottawa 4-0 sin drama, sin estrés y sin respeto. Los dejaron ir. Filadelfia mandó a Pittsburgh de vacaciones en overtime. Cam Jorkan notó y Crosby quedó mirando al vacío. Anaheim eliminó a Edmonton. Zimak David otra vez sin copa y dijo que su equipo es average. Gracias por la honestidad, Connor. Minnesota eliminó a Dallas y por fin ganó una serie después de 11 años. El pueblo celebrando como si hubiera visto un milagro. Bueno, fue un milagro, creo yo. Buffalo y Boston siguen peleando. Montreal tiene una etapa contra la pared. Y Vegas y Utah parece una serie escrita por alguien con problemas emocionales. Resumen final: ya hubo barridas, lágrimas, funerales deportivos y seguimos en primera ronda. Porque en los playoffs no existe la lógica Sobre el caos con patines. Esto fue Un Minuto de Hockey con Rose, tu resumen semanal de pasión y un poquito de caos.

All right, that was Rosa in un minuto. Before we get to wins and fails, let's get to Rose in a Minute. Rose, take it away.

Okay, let's do it in a minute because you people don't understand in English.

You said that in English last time.

Hey kids, this is One Minute of Hockey with Rose, and officially the players have entered full madness mode. Carolina swept Ottawa 4-0. No drama, no stress, no respect.

No respect.

Philadelphia sent Pittsburgh on vacation in overtime. Cam York scored and Crosby was left staring into the void. Anaheim eliminated Edmonton. Yes, McDavid without a cup again, and he said his team was average. You also average. Thanks for the honesty, Connor.

Wow.

Minnesota eliminated Dallas and finally won a series after 11 years, making history with the Timberwolves. Buffalo and Boston are still fighting. Timberwolves Oh, they made history. They made history.

We'll get to that in a second. We'll get to that in a second.

Pardon, pardon.

Okay.

Both Olympique de Marseille are still fighting. Montreal has Tampa against the walls and Vegas, Utah looks like a series written by someone with emotional problems.

Oh, wow.

We've already had sweeps, tears and sport funerals and we're still in the first round because in the playoffs logic doesn't exist, only chaos and skates. This was 1 Minute of Hockey with Rose, your weekly recap of Puck talk, passion, and a little bit of chaos.

All right, it's time for Wins and Fails. Dave, what is your win?

Oh man, uh, my win of the week, it was up in Buffalo actually prior to Game 5 between the Sabers and the Bruins. They're doing what they always do in Buffalo out of respect because they're right on the Canadian border, they sing both anthems. They always do this in Buffalo. When the microphone started cutting out while the girl was singing O Canada—

gotta have batteries in that mic, man—

the crowd inside the KeyBank Center took the cue And it was an awesome move. I think we have a clip of it. Uh, this is so cool.

It sounds like Zinovia.

Really?

Genovia!

Nice Princess Diaries reference, I like that.

I've never seen that movie. I mean, that's glaring.

You have a daughter, show her Princess Diaries.

I have to— okay, all right. My win came at the end of the Flyers-Penguins series, as we mentioned.

Yeah, what could it be, Roy?

It is not because Sidney Crosby lost. That would not— that was not my— that's not my field, by the way. Spoiler alert. Cam York had the game winner. So it was in overtime. And Sully, it was this. He threw his stick into the crowd with no regard for human life in the first few rows. A potential loss suicide. Cam York and the Flyers have vanquished the Pittsburgh Penguins, dude. And now I can laugh at Sidney Crosby now that he's gone down for the rest of the season. Thank you. Hee hee, ha ha, hee hee ha ha, hee ha, ha ha, hee.

Can you imagine though, like, you spend $800 on some lower bowl playoff tickets, you're a Flyers fan, you're going crazy.

And now you got a $200 stick!

And then there's a helicopter bolt coming at you in the shape of a hockey stick. I mean, it's a great souvenir, but it cost you some dental work, maybe.

What an honor that would be. Like, lawsuit.

Lawsuit.

Oh, and you know that there were fans hiding out there.

'Would proudly wear around a broken tooth.' Absolutely, if I took a stick to the face after what happened in Philly.

Now the Flyers are gonna have to pay for my dental work. What's your win?

Yeah, that's fair. My win of the week is from Minnesota. Uh, Rose just mentioned it. This is the first time ever that the two teams in the NBA and the NHL, the Minnesota Wild and the Minnesota Timberwolves, have made it to the second round in the same year. That is awesome for the fans up there in the state of hockey. I'm really excited about the Wild. And I mean, if I cared about the NBA, the T-Wolves would be a team that I root for.

You're not wearing a Miami Heat hat?

No, I'm wearing a Minnesota Wild hat. Yeah, think about too many, too many things Minnesota Wild for a fan, a person that is not a fan of that.

Yeah, think about this though. The Timberwolves were bad when the North Stars still played in Minnesota and then they created the Wild. They were bad when the Timberwolves were actually making the playoffs. And now this is happening for them. So good for them. Rosie, what's your word?

You know, I know sports. My win of the week is the Edmonton Oilers are eliminated. Put that up.

Yes.

Yeehaw. Wahoo.

Woohoo. Oohoo. Yes, because nobody has to go to Edmonton. So, well, maybe they have to go to Montreal.

So, well, there's direct flights to Montreal.

I'll go back to Montreal.

Montreal's fun.

At the Bell Center. All right, it's time for Fail or Save. Bell Center. David, what's your fail?

Another crowd reaction for my fail of the week. On Wednesday night, the Flyers finally finished off the Penguins, as you just so eloquently remind us, Roy, winning Game 6 at home, throwing helicopter sticks into the crowd. During the game, before it was over, the Jumbotron was showing some stuff around the arena, trying to get the fans pumped up, as they tend to do.

Yeah.

And they showed a suite full of the beloved Philadelphia Phillies, the hometown baseball team. And what did the crowd do?

They booed them!

Wow.

Yes, they booed the Flyers Phillies fans booed the Phillies players. And look, I get it, the Phillies are struggling this year. At that moment, I think they were just 9-19. They've won 3 straight, so they had either won just the one game. Either way, they're in 4th place in the NL East. They're having a horrible start to their season.

They fired their manager.

They fired their manager. It's been a big shitshow for— right across this, literally across the street from the Xfinity Mobile Arena that it's called now. Where the, the Phillies play right across the street from. And man, yeah, just, I don't know, it's a very Philly move.

Yeah, they boo Santa Claus.

Yeah.

So that's what that town does.

Didn't they throw batteries at Santa Claus?

Snowballs.

The whole thing. Snowballs, not batteries. That would, that would be a felony. That would be a felony if they, if they did that.

Well, it is Philly.

My fail before the hurricanes knocked out the Senators for the rest of the season. One of the main scrums that happened during that series led to something that really should earn a suspension for one player. That is Ridley Gregg. Yeah, Sean Walker was tangled up with Warren Fogel, and then that sucker punch happened. Dude, that can't happen. And I don't believe that Gregg's going to end up starting the regular season because he's probably going to get suspended for that.

That's gutless. that, I'm sorry, in a sport where fighting is allowed, where you can literally square up with somebody, go toe-to-toe anytime you want, as long as it's between the whistles, but what is that?

He's got a hearing with the Department of Player Safety on Monday.

If there is—

we'll see what happens there.

—a definition of a non-hockey play, an intent to injure, taking somebody who has no opportunity to defend themselves and sucker punching them, whether face, chest, anywhere that they can get hurt, that is just so bleeped up. I totally agree with Paul Bissonnette on that because he's been going off for a few days. I don't agree with Sean Avery who said, oh, it's part of the game.

Like, no, no, no. Third man in. That's not part of the game, really.

That's just so messed up. I don't like that at all. No. No me gusta.

Ethan, what's your fail?

Yeah, just to touch on what Dave said, Biz said that Greg should get 5 games for that, which I think would probably be fair. My fail of the week, guys. Jim Neal. He has won 3 consecutive Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year awards. Are you reading that off the screen? And say again?

Are you reading that off the screen? That took a while for you to get out.

Yeah, I'm, you know, a lot, lot going on back here. Like I said, Jim Gregory has, or Jim Neal has won 3 consecutive Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year awards. And none of those years have the Dallas Stars advanced to or won the Stanley Cup. And Bill Zito has not won the Jim— Jim Gregory— Jim Gregory— goddamn it— of the Year Award despite trading for Matthew Kachuk— this is a fail— trading for Matthew Kachuk, going to the Stanley Cup Final, and then winning back-to-back Stanley Cups. No, Jim Neal wins instead for running out a defense of Ilya Lobushkin and Matt Dumbaugh and Alex Petrovic and, I mean, Tyler Myers and To play devil's advocate, all 4 seasons including this one, Dallas finished with over 100 points.

They finished 1st or 2nd in their division, and it's a regular season award, and bleep myself because I hate that I'm defending it, but I'm just, just doing what I'm doing.

You don't need to defend anybody, Dave. Just because they're your friends, they're allowed to make mistakes and make bad decisions. Who's my friend? Let's vote. Don't the, uh, vote for this? Yeah, the people that vote for it are the writers, aren't they?

No, this one's the broadcasters.

Oh, okay. This one's okay. Yeah, biased, not great.

Rosie, your fail.

My fail of the week is Ethan, isn't it? Oh, well, Ethan, but no, it's game 4 for the Bruins. The defense was abysmal. They let 4 goals in the first period and the crowd became the visitors' crowd. So Bruins crowd, stick with your team even if they're losing. Come on.

You're giving a fail to the Bruins fans.

Rose calling out Boston faithful. Yeah, I'm so sorry.

Well, and the defense because 4 goals in one period. Come on. All right.

So if you are watching The Hockey Show on DraftKings Network, please go to our YouTube site and subscribe at The Hockey Show DLS, because coming up next, we have Adnan Virk from the NHL Network. He's going to talk about the playoffs with us and maybe a movie or two. And I have a new crush. We'll talk about that later. That's coming up next. Adnan Virk from NHL Network and Prime Monday Night Hockey joins us, and I want to get this out of the way right now. You okay? Yes, I'm fine. Adnan Virk. Adnan Virk. Holy cow. Yeah, I want to get this out of the way right now so we don't get back to this. Have you seen the Michael Jackson biopic?

I haven't, Roy. You know, I talked to Antoine Fuqua. When Set On Fire was still in operation, however many years ago. And I remember interviewing at the time, he was talking about Michael going into production, and I asked him specifically, I said, listen, we all love Michael Jackson, of course, who doesn't love his music, etc. I said, but I watched that documentary on HBO, Finding Neverland, and I said, I could be honest, Antoine, like, I was pretty shook. I go, I don't know if I can listen to Billie Jean ever again. And he goes, well, I promise you, when this movie comes out, we're going to deal with all the subject matter that you're talking about, Warsaw, etc. And then the first trailer, I'm like, I think they're gonna go into this stuff. And then the first reviews are like, it's a sanitized version of Michael Jackson, there's nothing about the sex abuse allegations from 1993 on. So that's not to say I'm sure it's not a good movie. Matter of fact, I read Owen Gladman, who's a great critic like Variety, called it electrifying, entertaining. So the kid, you know, who's Jermaine's nephew playing Michael, is very good.

But Roy, I have no interest in a movie which isn't going to deal with, as I called it, warts and all. The reason I love Walk the Line is it's Johnny Cash being unfaithful to his wife and being addicted to amphetamines, but then also falling in love with June Carter Cash. Ray is Jamie Foxx being an adulterer and dealing with infidelity, but also being an incredible singer, one of the greatest of all time. So I'm not— I don't want to support a movie which isn't going to tell the whole story.

Well, and then it seems like there might be a sequel. Uh, obviously they're not going to end on 1988, but there's a sequel. Yeah, there's going to be a sequel.

But you're right, they kind of ended it with the, like, yeah, Michael then became a— like, wait until what happened next. Like the rare biopic which wants to be a sequel. Like a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger. Like, imagine, like, and then what happened with Sinatra when From Here to Eternity came out.

That feels very appropriate though. I, I, I'm, I'm totally with you, Adnan. I can't get behind something that, that kind of, for lack of a better term, whitewashes the history from something that's so apparent. Maybe they would've gotten away with that making this movie like 15 years ago when, you know, we weren't necessarily, uh, putting so much spotlight on the realities and how crappy things have been in a lot of different ways. But yeah, I just, I, there's some people who, once you know something about them and what they did, it's hard to kind of turn back the clock and be like, yeah, but I really loved him before I knew, like, no, it, it doesn't work that way. At least not for me.

100%. Even, and people will laugh at people like you, me, and go, oh, you guys are hypocrites. You support this person, this person, this guy. Listen, I can't go into the baggage of every single person ever and look at what they've done. But to your point, I know what a few people have done. Like, I know what Harvey Weinstein did. I know Woody Allen I know what Michael Jackson's done. So yeah, I'm sure my heroes and some people that I love have done some unsavory things. We're all human. But those acts specifically that I'm pretty sure they did, cuz again, I've seen, yeah, well-researched documentaries and hours upon hours and investigative research. I'm like, yeah, I'm pretty sure something went there. There was a foul. I just can't get behind it.

But to your point though, if there's people that we are championing or that we are supporting and then we learn something new that we didn't know, then, oh, guess what? I'll change my opinion. I don't have to dig my feet in on someone just because I like them today. If I find out that they did something horrible, maybe I'm not gonna like them anymore. My God, what a concept.

My wife always says, she goes, you know, I said Martin Scorsese has been married 5 times. She goes like, how can you support that? I go, what do you mean? She goes, well, he cheated on one wife, they had this issue. I go, okay, that, I mean, that's a personal issue. That's not gonna impact my viewing of Goodfellas. But yeah, I'm not saying I should live my life like Martin Scorsese, but he's allowed to make a mistake. He's allowed to get divorced, et cetera. And like you said, if there's new information that came out, If God forbid he beat one of his wives, okay, well then fine. Then if I want to turn my back on him after a decade of support, fine. As you said, we were all allowed to change our minds. That's the problem with today's world. Everyone just sticks in their heels come hell or high water.

They also didn't do them a favor for doing part 1 and part 2. We already know Michael Jackson's story, so if you leave me with a half, I'm not gonna go watch the other half. Like, I already know what happens.

Well, you know, the bad half is coming up too. Yeah, apparently the, the good part of The Wizard of Oz is already played, but now they're going to go from black and white to color. And oh, black and white is a Michael Jackson reference. And it's, it's going to just get so much worse.

Oh, and by the way, he died.

Yeah, dude, what the hell? Supposed to say spoiler alert before you drop that.

Michael Jackson's dead? You didn't get the memo?

No, I was gonna— I didn't realize that, Roy. Maybe now I do have to see it now that I know he's dead. But have you seen it? Are you interested in seeing it?

No, I don't care. That's just me. I just don't care. I'm not into music like that.

But here's the thing, just talking about the fame of Michael Jackson that I think will kind of put it into perspective. I bet that there's 5 of us, right? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 of us. I bet 4 of us know where we were when we found out he died.

I know exactly where I was. I know exactly where I was at work. I was doing the show. TMZ reporting. What was that year? I don't know.

I don't know.

You don't know where you were?

I was at Old Navy. I know where I was. I know exactly where I was. I was at the checkout counter at Old Navy with my family.

I think I went to school. Take a guess. What year was Michael Jackson died?

Rose, you guess first. I think 2016. No, 2010.

Before that.

I know the year. I know the year. It was '09. Oh, I was in school. I remember.

Rose and Ethan weren't born yet.

I was an old man before I was an old man.

It was '09, right?

Right, Adnan? Yeah, that is correct. '09. So we're talking about a 17-year anniversary of a guy dying. Yeah, again, that's what— after that documentary came out and stuff about what he did, or allegedly did, I should say, I'm like, okay, well, this will— oh, MJ the musical, still a huge hit. MJ the movie still too. Like, man, I guess people just love these beats. And Jackson 5, I certainly love.

Back in the day, 2009, 17 years ago, because we're old, man.

The hell, we are old. All right, uh, early in the show we discussed the, uh, Vezina Trophy nominees and the Lady Byng Trophy finalists. Now we have just received word that the Jack Adams Award has their 3 nominees, and John Cooper, tell me, talk it in there, Roy.

I haven't seen it. Tell me, talk it's in there. Let's go.

No, talk it's not in there. It is John Cooper, Dan Muse, the guy talking, and Lindy Ruff. Those are the 3 nominees. So let's talk about who should win and, uh, why it's going to be Lindy Ruff.

Yeah, who should win and who's going to win.

Yeah, that's a weird way of putting it. I first want to mention with regards to, um, to The Lady Bing. I always find it funny, like, people who are non-hockey fans are like, well, understand, there's an award given to the guy who doesn't get penalties. I'm like, yeah, like, I understand. So he's like, so I know he's not a soft player. He's a great player who just doesn't take penalties. So it's always a foreign concept to non-hockey fans. I would argue some hockey guys are kind of like, yeah, like, I would have 4 Lady Bings. Like, it's a way of mocking somebody. But I have to say, fellas, because I did have a vote on this, guys, and I said Jake Sanderson is going to be in there, and I was blown away and thrilled he's in there. Guys, he plays 24 minutes tonight, you only have like 8 penalty minutes, I think, at 4 double minors. Like, that is awesome to me. So if there's one award I'm caring about, I know it sounds silly, but I really want to see Jake Sanderson win the Lady Bing. He deserves it, absolutely. Also ridiculous to Ted Lindsay and Mike Johnson at a passionate appeal about this, how is Nathan MacKinnon, who's arguably the best player in hockey, he was the best player on the best team, he's not on the top 3?

If you want to argue hard trophy celebrating, of course I totally get that argument, but the fact that Nathan MacKinnon is not for the Ted Lindsay, and again Again, it's voted on by fellow players, so I get it. You want to get mad at anybody, get mad at them. But McKinnon, not up for the Lindsay. I hope Sanderson wins the Bing. I'm upset Vlador, who's 13 goals against, not up for the Vezina, but not shocking. I hope Sorokin wins. I thought he was great for the Islanders. And for the Jack Adams, I think it should be John Cooper. Fellas, he's never won a Jack Adams. He's just long overdue. Although it's ironic because, as David alluded to, Muse, Tockett just beat, so I don't, I don't think Muse should be in there. Although obviously Pittsburgh had a remarkable season. No one expected them to be a playoff team. But with regards to Cooper, my buddy Jason Demers said the other day, because I got to be honest with you, Marty St. Louis is outcoaching John Cooper. I was like, why?

Coaching circles around him.

He goes, he's outcoaching him. Absolutely. He goes, this guy has never won a Jack Adams. I know he coached Canada teams, you know, silver, gold medal, all the rest of it. But I'm like, bro, Marty's doing a great job as far as matching lines, getting the best out of his roster. The Lightning look a little bit shook and Montreal could win it tonight in 6. So I think Cooper should win But it's interesting how the playoffs are always a different story.

You think he'll beat out Ruff? You don't think Lindy Ruff will win after getting the Sabers back in?

You got to look at where the Sabers were before they fired Kevin Adams.

I think Lindy Ruff will win. I think whoever was responsible at the time when the Sabers did what they did this year and, you know, emerged, rose like a phoenix from the ashes and became like kind of a juggernaut kind of team that they are right now. It doesn't matter who the coach is or who the GM is. Lindy Ruff, Jarmo Kekalainen, they're winning stuff this year.

So, so hold on. So Jarmo Kekkonen should win the Jim Gregory— excuse me, the Jim Neal Memorial Award because he did what? He's still alive.

He's still alive.

Should we give it to— should we give it to— should we give it to Kevin Adams? Like, should Kevin Adams posthumously— He's banging on about this.

They're still alive. These men still breathe, Ethan.

But he doesn't have a job anymore. Kevin Adams would be posthumous. He doesn't have a job. Bang on.

The team is put together by Kevin Adams. It's being coached by Lindy Ruffin. And the team is a huge disappointment. Adams gets fired, Yarmouk takes over and the team takes off. So Kevin Adams is going to win the award. I'm like, but wait, he didn't do anything. He didn't construct the roster. And Lindy Ruff was the same coach when the team stunk. So I totally understand David's point. Like, bro, nobody expected the Sabers to be, as he said, excellent comp, like a phoenix rising from the ashes. But they stunk with Lindy Ruff. Now, I know they were great with Lindy Ruff as well, but that's what I'm saying. I don't think it's necessarily the coaching. I think the players just woke up. And how was Yarmouk taking the spoils of Kevin Adams.

That would be crazy. I just want to throw this out there. Bill Guerin should win the Jim Gregory this year. He made the trade.

You're just saying that because you have the jersey on?

He made the trade. He made the trade of the season that has elevated his team into a juggernaut and a Stanley Cup contender.

Couple names for you before we move on. Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, Seth Jones, Bill Zito.

Those moves don't win you awards! They happened before this season started—

No but I'm saying all those moves happen he didn't win shit. Nope. So just gotta give it to Jim Nill?

Should Jim Nill win it again because he traded for Tyler Myers who was a healthy scratch in Game 6? Obviously Ethan!

Alright alright alright before we get on to that—

We need to ask Adnan about the Flyers!

Oh no no shut up Ethan! Shut up Ethan! Before we get onto the playoffs we need to talk about these rumors that are happening in Ottawa. Because Brady Tkachuk has had enough. In his exit meeting, he says he's tired of hearing it. What say you?

Bedowski's right, we do need to talk Flyers. Or is that game 3? We'll get to it.

Let's just get to this first.

I'm always right, I'm always right. This is why we bring Adam in on this.

Guys, in the Senators, it's a mess. And I love Brady Tkachuk. I love the fact he's feisty. He's Gordie Howe hat trick, you know. What are you doing? But, but, but, but, but, but, but I like the fact you're gonna fight, but you're also gonna score, you're also gonna get assists. Like, what are we doing here? Like, Brady could chuck— especially the fact he was fighting on the road. Like, if it was in Ottawa, like, start of game 3, he's like, I'm gonna just drop the gloves and get going. I'm like, fine, I want to get the crowd fired up. I think it's almost like he has to get himself fired up. So like, I don't think it's the wisest decision when your best player has to drop the gloves in order to get himself fired up. Like, just, you know, get some smelling salts and get this gun and we'll get this going. Like, that's probably the best way to do it. So He was pointless in the series, period. Ottawa played very close games. It was a competitive series, but Brady Tkachuk was pointless. I don't think he's crazy about playing in Ottawa.

There's a lot of criticism around him and the team right now. Hey, that's great. You made the playoffs, but you still didn't do anything. It feels like the days, the days are numbered of Brady Tkachuk being in Ottawa. I don't think it's dealt this offseason, but he's not going to be there long term.

Can I say what we heard? Go ahead. Roy and I were given an interesting piece of information as the Panthers season was ending about Brady Tkachuk. I'm not going to say where we heard it. It or who we heard it from. Don't give up the source. Nope. However, this piece of information told us that Brady Tkachuk may have been planning quietly his exit from Ottawa for at least a few months. For what it's worth, this didn't come as a big surprise. Yeah, like Roy and I weren't surprised. And I will say, going back to listen to Brady's exit, while he was very upset and he talked about the frustration and about how he's been committed— he's always been committed to Ottawa I didn't hear him once refute the rumors. I didn't hear him once shoot them down. He just talked about how he's very frustrated by it, how nobody has said it. The words haven't come out of his mouth. No denial. Wow. Wow. James is right.

Listen, ever since they came back to the Olympics and everyone's like, oh God, this American won. I'm like, it just was, what we, what are we doing here? Like, yeah, okay, he's American. He's a proud American. They won the gold medal. Like, he just, it's an odd vibe in Ottawa. And I'm telling you right now, these Canadian cities better watch it, man. It's colder up there. We got issues with taxes. These players do not want to necessarily play in Canada, especially the way they're treated. Brady could just tell every friend he has, dude, don't play in Ottawa. It sucks up there. I'd rather go play in Florida like my brother, go play in Dallas or go play in Vegas or these other places.

So with no taxes right now for Ottawa. Well, you mentioned the Canadian cities and playing up there. There's going to be a new Western Conference champion in the year 2026 because the Oilers have been knocked out by the Ducks. Connor McDavid was not good. A goal, 5 assists, -8 on the ice for 13 goals against. And of course, the goaltender and defense for the Oilers were not good either. First round loss. What do you think about that, Adnan?

No excuses, right? But he wasn't very good. And I think he's hurt. Now, again, no excuses because everyone's hurt at this time of year. But I think between him and Drysdale, those guys did not look sparkling, particularly of all the numbers you said. The -8 is startling, but only 1 goal in 6 games. At some point McDavid puts a Superman cape and just goes out there and gets it done, and he didn't. And this one, as much as you want to praise the likes of Bill Zito or Kevin Adams or Yarmouk Kekalainen or Jim Nill, this time you can blame a little bit of Stan Bowman. He thinks he solves the goaltending situation by jettisoning Stuart Skinner, who gets pulled in the Penguins-Flyers series. Tristan, uh, Archer-Sielovs almost saves the day. Instead, Tristan Jarry's the guy. No, sub-900 save percentage, goals against of almost 4. Connor Ingram, same thing, 3.84 goals against, sub-900 save percent. So same old story in Edmonton. The goaltending not good enough, but their offense didn't carry them either. And it's one thing to lose against Anaheim, but to do it in 6, I mean, that is genuinely surprising. Props to Joel Quenneville.

Love Q and love their young talent there, Connor Gauthier and company. Big disappointment for the Oilers, and they got 2 more years now to fix this. Otherwise, we all know Connor will be leaving that Canadian city.

Ethan believes that Stan Bowman and Chris Knobloch are going to get fired.

Do you agree with him?

I think so. I mean, listen, Knobloch, I think, felt the pressure the last couple of years. It's one thing to get to the Stanley Cup, but you got to win it. And I think this year, I wouldn't say the Stanley Cup or bust, but they at least had to get there, have a strong showing, let's say, in 7 games losing in the Western Conference. They didn't. I think Knobloch's in trouble. I think definitely Stambo. I think Ethan's right.

They're probably both out of a job.

Roy, I just want to update that. I don't just think they're fired. They have made my Jim Montgomery Memorial. Oh, they're the most fired people ever list. They are the most fired son of a bull all time. He's like Tony Soprano in the NHL.

He's just whacking guys left and right.

They are both very, very fired, especially Bowman.

That guy is— Ethan Wallnuts back there.

All right, Dave, go, man. Just go. Just go. No, no. In fact, no. Flyers. We have to get to this. That's where I was going to go, David.

So Adnan, congrats, first of all. Very cool. So much that we liked from that series, from the penalty box goal celebration to a stick getting helicoptered into the, into the lower bowl of the former Wachovia Center. Dan Vladar, as you mentioned before, just spectacular all year for the Flyers. Nice to see him getting some flowers. Post-Union Center. Flowers for the Flyers. But what's your big picture here? Because now they go into a series against Carolina who just decimated Ottawa just made them look like a lesser— like an AHL team almost. Ottawa did so little in that series. Now the Flyers, they're high-flying, they're a lot of fun. It feels like a good combination of differing ideologies. But you know, how you feeling heading into this series?

Well, I didn't expect the Flyers to make the playoffs. They had 3.8% chance of making the playoffs in early March, so I'm just thrilled the fact they even made the playoffs. Then to beat the Penguins was just— I mean, it's glorious, it's euphoric, it's, uh, every adjective you can describe. I made sure I got to to get free with my son. And, uh, how— who says Philadelphians are not nice people? As we're exiting the parking lot, it's about a 15-minute walk there to get to the actual arena because you can park at the Linc or park at Citizens Bank, etc. Guy just yells out to me and he goes, hey, he hands me a signed puck by Cam York. This is before Game 3, which we all know now Cam York scored the game winner in Game 6. I said, oh my God, thank you so much. I walk away not knowing what to think of it, and I go back, I could have some money. I go back, all I have was like $10. I go, hey man, all I have is $10, I give you $50. Oh, of course, course. And my wife is so confused.

She was— I understand why he did that. I go, what do you mean? She's, why would, why would someone hand you a signed puck of a flyer? And I said, because he saw father and son walking together. He's like, you know, he just saw a bunch of old guys. He saw father and son. Oh, it's a nice moment. I go, that shows Philadelphia truly is the City of Brotherly Love. We get in there and I'm telling them, David, I'm telling myself, we gotta get through for God Bless America. What do you mean? We gotta get chicken tenders. We're in the car for 3 hours, gotta go pee. I'm like, oh no, we gotta hear God Bless America. Lauren Hart does an unbelievable job. Can I explain to a 9-year-old Dean Hart? Anyways, She kills it. God bless America is amazing. And as you said, the big takeaway was in that second period when Brian Rust starts punching, connecting the back of the head, and you got 5 Flyers in the penalty box. There's only 2 Penguins and everyone's irate. Everyone thinks it's gonna be like 6 minutes of double minors. You're like, what's going on?

Thankfully, Rust gets the extra penalty. Zegras celebrating, as you said, with those guys. Epic moment there for the Flyers and win in the game. But Vladar has been the MVP all season long. I know that Game 6 wasn't the most stellar in terms of offensive hockey. I got it. But 42 saves and like making timely save after timely save. When Martone didn't score with 3 minutes left in the first overtime, I was going to lose it. I was going to be sick to my stomach. I said, this is how they're going to lose. You've got to capitalize on those opportunities. Unfortunately, he didn't. Came York did. And the great Sally, as you mentioned, by the way, the one thing my son wanted is I got to get a Porter Martone jersey. He's wearing a Connecticut jersey. Of course, buddy, no problem. We go to the store, sold out. No number 94 Porter Martone jerseys sold. The guy's played 12 NHL games. So I did talk to Chris Pronger. He's going to do what he can with Flyers PR and try to get me a number 94 here for my son. But we did get a Porter Martone stick.

He's an unbelievable talent out there. And a long-winded answer to your question, for Carolina, they went 1-0-3 against the Flyers this year. They'd never beat the Flyers in regulation. 3 times they did so, of course, in the shootout. So the good news is the Flyers didn't lose to them all year. Yeah, Carolina is the better team, but Pittsburgh was supposed to be the better team. So it's probably Hurricanes in 6, but hope they'll be there for either Game 3 or 4, and it's going to be electric atmosphere in Philadelphia.

City of brotherly love. You talk about people in Philadelphia being nice. They booed the Philadelphia Phillies.

Roy, have you ever gone to a game with your daughter and someone just, hey, I got a puck for you signed by Bill Lindsay? Like, what a nice gesture. That was really cool.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Flyers are like, they're like Ryan Lombard or Matthew Kachuk even. Like, you love them to death when they're yours, when it's your team, when it's your fans and everybody else, it's like, no, believe them.

Well, you got that right.

Well, I can respect that. It's a great sports town. Nobody's arguing that Philly's a great sports town.

Yeah, I've been pleasantly surprised at David's point. I mean, my friends are like, hey, happy for you. Like, I don't— I'm not a fan of Philadelphia or Philadelphia sports, but happy for you. I know it's 40 years of fandom. So I think he's right. You respect it even if you don't necessarily like it.

Look, I've gone to all different kind of Phillies games as an away fan. I've been to multiple Phillies— Philly the city games, but I've been to Phillies games and Marlins here. I've been to Flyers games in Panthers gear. I used Robert Ashe's tickets back in the day wearing my Panthers gear. Good Robert Ashe reference. Yes. Uh, I've been, I went to Heat playoff games against the Sixers. Like I've been there. And the only time that we had anything thrown at us was at a Phillies game. And it was the year after the Marlins won the World Series. So to be fair, but no, I, I, I think Philly's a great town. And, and when you compare it to even like South Florida, which is a very fair weather, like what have you done for me lately town. I got a lot of respect for, for a good fan base type of city. Mm-hmm. I love it.

Love Dwork's take. Good stuff. All right.

The, the Wild eliminated the Stars and we'll move on to the second round for the first time in 11 years. If you look at the Stars performance, I mentioned this earlier, you're not going to win many series when you double your output of goals on the power play and the even strength goals are half that. So talk about the Stars performance and what the Wild are going to— they're going to run into a buzzsaw. Kyle Rahn, talk about that.

Yeah, Roy, I'm just always happy when I'm right because it so rarely happens. I actually called the Wild to win in 7, so I'm just thrilled that they won this series in 6. We knew it'd be competitive. We knew it would arguably be the best first-round series. I think Habs-Lightning has been an awesome series. Obviously 5 games decided by 1 goal, 3 of those in overtime. I wish I could stay up, but people tell me the Vegas-Utah series has been great. I just want to like really catch the highlights, to be honest with you. But in terms of Dallas-Minnesota, on paper it would be a great series, and it was. A little surprised it didn't go 7. Minnesota was the better team. And as you said, the Stars got to be better on 5-on-5. They needed that superstar. They needed that extra little mojo, that super duper guy that could take them to the promised land. They didn't have him. And guess what? Minnesota does have him. To Ethan's point, props to Billy Guerin. He swung for the fences and knew if I have to get through Dallas and Colorado, I need some horses. And he's got one, a thoroughbred in Quinn Hughes, who was tremendous.

I love that players poll that came out late in the year. You know, which defense would make for a best forward, which forward would be the best defenseman. And NHL players themselves voted Quinn Hughes. I'm like, yeah, obviously, like if this guy was a forward or a center He'd be outstanding as a defenseman. He's the best offensive defenseman short of Kyle McCarr. So he had a great series. I'm thrilled for Minnesota. First playoff series win since 2015. Are you kidding me? It's been a decade for those great fans in Minnesota. I mean, I always think of the North Stars. I think of how much they love the Gophers. But ultimately, it is the state of hockey, and they'll love the Wild. And I cannot wait for Wild-Avalanche. I'm with you, Roy. I think the Avs win in 6, but that Game 1 is always interesting to me. That rust versus rest. Colorado might need a period or two to get their legs out from under them. Maybe Minnesota steals Game 1, but Colorado should win that series.

I have a stat for you from the Dallas-Minnesota series. 11 to 6. 11 different Minnesota Wild players scored goals during that series, and only 6 Dallas players found the back of the net.

That's not good.

That's not good at all. Just the depth scoring is such a massive part of it. There's no doubt about it. And again, for Dallas, it's got to be so confounding because now for the last few years you've had this window and it's one thing to say we're among the elite teams in the Western Conference, but ultimately Gotta get to a Cup Final. Hasn't happened these last few years despite being among the top 5 or 6 teams in the league.

And they're so locked into that roster for a while. Like, they— they're like, they've got to make it work with what they have now. Otherwise they got to blow it up. And it's hard to think you're going to blow it up when you've got such talented players, but they got to figure something out. As Ethan said earlier, like, they've got to change something.

Yeah. Frustrating for Glenn Gulitz. And I don't think he loses his job yet, but he's on the clock. All right.

And the Lightning and Canadiens, they are tonight. Lightning won Game 5 in overtime. I don't see them getting out of Montreal tonight with a win. It is going to be just— it's going to be bananas in that arena, the Bell Center. What say you there, Adnan?

Roy, there's no other place to watch a hockey game, regular season or playoffs, than Center Bell. The Bell Center.

Thank you. That's the proper name. He just said the Bell Center. Thank you, Adnan. It's Center Bell. Center Bell is the proper name of the arena. That's why we bring on Adnan. That's why we bring on Adnan.

I'm just telling you what he said after Center Bell.

He said Bell Batman just dropped a little pebble into the lake and is watching it explode. Boom. Nicely done, sir. Very entertaining.

Thank you, guys. But I think it's been an awesome series. How about the fact that the Habs' lesser-known players, the ones stepping up like Texier stepping up big with goals, Jack Eye's had a terrific series. Maybe now is the game that Cole Caufield really puts together, Suzuki, etc. Getting Gallagher back, his first game in a while, he scores. Montreal's been a great story, man. I always root for the Habs because of just the passion of those fans. I love Marty St-Louis. And as far as Tampa Bay is concerned, Kucherov, this, it's honestly shocking. Speaking of stats, like David mentioned, the 11-6. How about 1 goal his last 21 playoff games? Oh my God, that can't be right. I was like, but apparently it is. Kucherov has not shown up in the playoffs. Vasilevskiy, it's a challenge to win back-to-back starts for him. And this Tampa crowd, which I believe has 430 consecutive sellouts, they've lost 10 of their last 12 games at home. It's a home disadvantage right now in Amalie Arena, and Montreal's gonna be rocking. I like the Habs.

It's not Amalie Arena anymore. No, it's not. Benchmark International. Oh God, at least we can spell that.

But yeah, to Kucherov's credit though, like with the, with the 1 goal in 11 games, not for lack of trying. Like he's averaging over 4 shots a game during that span. He's got like 22 shots in 5 games this series. So he's, he's making things happen. He's just not finding the back of the net, which is shocking to him.

One thing, if you're snakebait, it's just the fact he can't actually score. But hopefully Kuch steps up because I'd love to see the series continue. It's been so entertaining so far. All right, and then we appreciate you joining us.

And then Burke from the NHL Network and Prime Monday Night Hockey. And enjoy the playoffs.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

I was about to say, Rose had a question. Go ahead. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

All right, well, let's— this concludes the hockey portion of our interview. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Let's say goodbye to him first, and then you can ask a question and we can post it on social. How about that?

No, the look on Rose's face says I'm producing.

Rose, we're 10 minutes over. So wise. All right, so we'll— Rose will ask a question. You can check that out on our Instagram page and whatever social media, uh, outlets. Should be a text. Thank you, Anand. Thanks, Roy. Thank you, guys.

Rose is going to hurt you, Roy.

Okay, before we go, Rose has a new crush in her NHL life. She's gone from Alexander Barkov to Matthew Barzal. Now she wants us to guess who her new beau is.

I've been thinking about this for a couple hours now because Rose told me I have to guess when I got here today. And I think I figured it out. And it's an unsuspecting— and I think that's what makes it interesting. Is it Connor McDavid? What? No.

Oh, okay, so it's not an Edmonton Oilers.

It's not Edmonton Oilers.

Is he still playing?

They're still playing, yeah. The, the, their teams are still in— they're going to round 2.

Okay, is it Nathan MacKinnon? Uh, no. Is it an Avalanche?

Is it in the East or the West? Not Avalanche. It's in the East.

I don't know who the heck are East or West. Sorry, it will be the teams on the East Coast. Yes, I know, but I don't know which one Okay, Ethan, help me here.

Is it a hurricane? It's a West Coast team.

It's a West Coast.

Okay, is it a, is it a duck? Yes. All right, so it's a duck. Jackson Lacombe. Ah, no, he's not handsome.

Jesus. Lukas Dostal. Ah, no. Oh, but he's so handsome in his goalie mask. Close, but no. All right, well, I mean, we could keep guessing Ducks players, but how about you tell us why?

We're running out of time.

So tell us why you are Why do you like this guy? Because he's very handsome.

He's young. I'm so sorry. He's very young.

Does he have an American name or a non-American name?

Um, he scored.

He scored in last night's game.

He did. Yes, he scored in last night's game. I think he scored twice. Leo Karlsson? No.

The other one.

Uh, Troy Terry? No, the other Karlsson. John Karlsson.

You are the worst. Gothier. Okay.

Well, there you go.

Got it. Gothier.

Yeah. So that's my new crush. Alexandre Barkov. He is handsome. Yeah, I know, right?

All right, real quick. He's no Chris Kreider. Yeah, but you know, real quick.

You gotta show me him.

Sorry, real quick. Top 5, Ethan. You have—

yes, Connor Gautier is a perfect bouncing off point. This is the Matt Boldy Memorial. Quickly, names they will soon know list. They will soon know these names. Number 5, Porter Martone. Solid start. Had a great playoff series. The only reason he's down here is because I think people are starting to know him already. Number 4, Logan Cooley. Number 3, Jackson Blake from the Carolina Hurricanes. I had to throw somebody from the Eastern Conference in here, and this kid's gonna be really, really, really good. If you don't know him already, learn him now. Okay, number 2, Leo Karlsson. I could have just done the whole Ducks roster basically, but Leo Karlsson, if you don't know this name, learn it now. This kid is an absolute beast. Number 1, The McDavid stopper, Jackson Lacombe. Not handsome at all. This kid is unbelievable. He just had an amazing series. He leads the NHL in points right now, I believe. That's it. And he shut down Connor McDavid.

Eric Staal.

He is going to be an unbelievable hockey player.

That was quickly for Ethan. Yes, that was quickly for Ethan.

What am I saying?

All right, all right.

That was good. That was— I mean, that was—

speed-wise, I thought tempo-wise that was good. The names, it's—

I was expecting You're not a casual, Dave. Casuals don't watch a lot of the Anaheim Ducks. They don't watch a lot of the Carolina Hurricanes.

Programming note, The Hockey Show will be doing Stanley Cup playoff weekly watch-along starting in round 2. We would love for you guys to join us for the rest of the playoffs. Remember to subscribe to The Hockey Show YouTube page, @TheHockeyShowDLS on TikTok, @TheHockeyShow7 and on X, Instagram and Threads. @hockeyshowdls. For Ethan, for Jason, for Rosie, for David, my name is Roy Bellamy. Enjoy the rest of the playoffs.

Let's go Buffalo! We're definitely watching my crush.

What?