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Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 3 Predictions!! | Fantasy Hockey Podcast · Banger Management - Fantasy Hockey Podcast

0:00
Baby Bound Bow Bangor Management fantasy hockey podcast.
0:05
Whoa, whoa. That's all a.
0:08
Coop Ohe yes, that sound like Coop welcoming everybody to
0:12
Bangor Management, The Fantasy Hockey Podcast.
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Your favorite Montreal Canadiens fans out there?
0:20
Yeah. OK.
0:20
I, I just, I just we don't want to go.
0:22
We don't want to be labeled too big of homers and lose all our
0:25
credibility. But are we not the best team in
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the league right now? It's funny, I think so.
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First we got called out for being homers, and then we got
0:32
called out for being like, we're not gonna be homers, but then
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still being homers. And now we're saying we're just
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keep doubling down on saying we're not homers but also being
0:41
homers. But at this point in the
0:42
playoffs, there's only four teams that to be homers about,
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so it's OK, you know? I was gonna I was gonna say I
0:47
feel like, I feel like we do a genuinely good job at like being
0:51
non biased. You know, we have to critique
0:53
them. We critique them and we have to
0:54
be realistic. We realistic.
0:56
But we're in the semifinals, if you will, at this point, right?
0:59
Like the team is good. We're about to be happy about
1:00
it. Yeah, I'd say during the regular
1:03
season slash fantasy season, we're 100% impartial for the
1:07
most. Part like I feel like.
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We're just talking straight fantasy, straight numbers, all
1:09
that stuff. Once playoffs comes around, I
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mean, you've seen my bracket every single year.
1:13
It's always have some in the cup.
1:14
So that's the same energy I bring to the pod.
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Don't put me in the same boat. I don't know that in the.
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And we're not the same. I'm alone on this boat.
1:22
I mean, Jake, he's been rooting against us the whole whole way.
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But. Yeah, Jakey, I think he's a
1:28
doctor. Reverse psychology out here.
1:30
I feel like he always picked against the haves.
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He loves to hedge, he loves to hedge in fantasy.
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That was the the one year that he got this is probably two
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years ago he had first overall pick and I'd second overall pick
1:40
and he ended up taking Matthews first I think and I took Mcdade.
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Yeah, we all laughed at him. Yeah, and I remember talking to
1:46
him before the draft and he was saying he's like, yeah, you
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know, I I got first overall pick in like 3 of my leagues.
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I know I'm going to take McDavid those other two leagues, so I
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wanna maybe hedge my bets and go with the Matthews.
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And I was like, yeah, that's, that's great.
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You should definitely do that. And I mean, he was this, at this
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point, he was in the midst of his matches of finance.
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So, you know, they were just learning about hedging and all
2:05
that stuff. And he likes to put a lot of
2:07
time like put comparisons with like finance and stock market
2:10
and fantasy and all that. And he's like, yeah, you know,
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if he does well, I'll be happy anyways because of my two other
2:14
leagues. And I'm like, that is such a
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good point. Yeah, you should do that.
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Yeah, exactly. Make sure you hit your shares of
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Stuart Skinner and stuff too. Make sure you don't you get him
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in the second round or something.
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But exactly Jackie clearly needs to take the finance and the top
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draft Austin Matthews and fantasy.
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At least not first overall. Yeah, not first overall, but
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listen, we got a lot of good series to talk about.
2:38
Obviously we are recording this the day after the Habs
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triumphant game seven win. This is the second episode of
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that we're recording after I have game seven win.
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I mean, it just falls like that, right?
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We have no choice. But I'm not upset about it.
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No, he literally after first of all, I'm watching it with my
2:54
friends in my apartment and we're all like at this point in
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the third period, we're like we were getting dominated.
3:00
Look good. I was like I can I have
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visualizing us losing like I know I can see it.
3:05
Happening, I know. And then the goal happens and
3:08
everything, I'm just like, Oh my God.
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It's crazy. I mean, you should probably do
3:12
the intro and then we'll dive into it a bit more.
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But I have my my dad and grandparents were visiting, like
3:18
just coming to visit and see us, you know, where my new place and
3:21
all that stuff. And so we're watching the game
3:23
together and the entire time, the entire like pretty much from
3:27
mid first period to when we scored, the house were just
3:31
playing like garbage. I'll be honest, they they were
3:33
not good. And we're all just sitting there
3:35
like just put us out of our misery.
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We know it's, you know. They have two elements, though.
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Yeah 2 nothing. Texas had a breakaway that he.
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Made three breakaways, Anderson had two.
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I think yeah, yeah, it was crazy.
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But so we're just sitting there through the second and third
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period, which were awful periods for the Habs.
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And they score the first, their first goal in in the second
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period, and they scored their second and third.
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And I'm just sitting there and we're all just like, we know, we
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know it's gonna happen. And then it goes to overtime.
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Like I can't be making us stay up late just to to get
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eliminated and disappoint us and then the goes and all that's out
4:03
the window. We're the best team in the
4:04
world. Never doubted.
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Once in my life that's Josh's like model like never doubted
4:09
once. Yeah.
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But you see like the depression of the group chat like 5 minutes
4:15
earlier. Yeah yeah.
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I mean, I know I've been a little bit less present in the
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Discord. Like work has been crazy.
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I'm like training for some stuff.
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But I always pop in like before the Habs game day and people are
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asking me like the boys, like how you guys doing?
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How you guys feeling before the game And then I'll try and I'll
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be like, you know, I feel terrible by heart.
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By heart is very beating fast. And I mean yeah.
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Then I have to go with there to celebrate.
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So if you're not already in the Discord, make sure you join.
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I know it's the off season and if you're listening to this
4:42
episode right now for a die hard fan, either you're you're
4:45
missing some fantasy hockey in your life and I know it's the
4:48
offseason, but we're all. Engaged.
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Missing us you. Know yeah, that too.
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You're missing us. Speaking of missing us, Jake is
4:53
also missing us. He's caught up with some work.
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So you have to settle for Josh and I today, the two best hosts
4:59
in the trio at least you know, But you know what a win.
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OK, so let's start diving in. Before we dive in, I'll give you
5:06
a little guys, if you're watching this, we know you like
5:09
the episodes. Your fans, it's the offseason.
5:11
You don't have to listen to these, but you do.
5:12
So make sure you drop us a follow on either modifier, Apple
5:15
and on YouTube, just like subscribe, comment, all that
5:17
good stuff. And now with that out of the
5:19
way, let's talk about these matchups.
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OK, let's start with the Habs. Habs.
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Buffalo, As much as I would love to dive in, do you want to give
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a status update on the office walls and the.
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Bracket challenge. I mean, I didn't want to because
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my team is dog water, but all right, going into the brackets,
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the bracket challenge, we have a few teams that are still alive.
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Team number one Last time I did a bracket challenge update
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readers bracket reader 15 was in first place and he is still in
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first place. He has Carolina winning the cup,
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Boo and his final four is all alive.
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He's got Carolina versus avalanche.
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He did have the Oilers instead of Vegas, so that didn't happen.
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But right now he's ranked in first place.
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We got the I think I I don't think this bracket was in the
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second last time, but champ, who I believe is also a habs fan.
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So represent he's got Colorado beating Carolina in the finals
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in the finals. So yeah, fake fan.
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And then after that we have Broncos who Broncos bracket who
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is in 3rd place, but he's got the Oilers winning it all.
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So I feel like it's gonna be tough to to take it.
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But he's got the Habs making the finals.
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The two brackets ahead of him have Carolina, so maybe that
6:31
will be a little bit of a difference maker there.
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But I really feel like at this point the top 2 are the ones
6:36
that will end up taking it. I'm starting to think that
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there's an actual conspiracy theory at the NHL that they
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wouldn't let me submit a bracket.
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The one year where I was just, I sniped almost everything.
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I make a bracket every year this year it was glitching on me
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nonstop. You know I've tried to I tried
6:52
to submit back like 10 times. I even shared my screen with you
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and showed you like the the login loop.
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I was getting stuck in. It wasn't working so I didn't
6:58
submit it, but this is my top four that I had so it's.
7:02
Well, you have Vegas in the. Final Four.
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I had I had Edmonton beating anime, but I had Vegas beating
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Edmonton. So this is my exact top four.
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And then I had Montreal, Colorado and obviously I had
7:13
Montreal winning at all. So we'll we'll see what happens.
7:16
But if I get cheated out of my, you know, my winnings because of
7:19
the NHL, I'll be pretty actually not.
7:22
I'll be happy anyways. If they have won the Cup, I
7:23
don't even care. Did you have Dallas beating
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Minnesota or did you have Minnesota beating Dallas?
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I had Minnesota over Dallas. Yeah, yeah.
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Well, listen, I was I'm looking at the bracket right now in the
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top bracket that has the Habs winning it all is a scare Bears
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bracket and he's got Montreal beating Colorado in the Stanley
7:41
Cup Final. He did have Oilers instead of
7:43
Vegas in the in the final four. So listen, if if Montreal wins
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at all, I'm giving the bracket challenge to Josh because
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clearly his bracket would have been the best if you did submit
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one, but Scare Bear will actually have the actual win.
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Yeah, alright, let's move to to the office pools.
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How's that going? Yeah, Office pools, we got some
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major changes I talked about. I talked about how round by
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round the scoring changes a lot with teams getting eliminated in
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other players playing more games.
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We have a new top ranked team. We have Noah Friedman who is
8:13
currently leading the Office pools challenge, has got 601
8:17
points on his team. He has most of his team is
8:20
alive. He still got he has a Hab,
8:23
Jackie has a Dobesh, obviously he's got Noah Dobson, Lane
8:27
Hudson, then the Cofield Suzuki slab.
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So he's got pretty strong with the Habs representation there.
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And he also went all in on Vegas.
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So he's got the eye called or Ofev Marner Stone and then he
8:38
has Rasmus Anderson and he also has a Colorado stack.
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So he's got like the most players alive.
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He had his four teams that he went in on were Colorado, Vegas,
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Pittsburgh and Montreal. So he lost the Pittsburgh
8:50
players. But since he has so many players
8:52
still alive, I think Vegas was a very unpopular option.
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OK, so the fact that the. Staff if the Habs beat Carolina,
8:59
sounds like he probably has it in the bag.
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I think he does. And then in second place we have
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Eric N team name is Enzo Animal. He's got he's three points
9:11
behind Noah Friedman in the standings, but he has a
9:15
significant chunk of his roster that is out of it.
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He's got Dobesh. And then he had, I mean, you had
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a lot of Minnesota and you had a lot of Utah.
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OK, dovish has to be 1. Of the best people.
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In office pools this year. I mean, we'll see what happens
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on the hubs and they make it far.
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Yeah, that's one interesting thing with the Office post
9:32
though, is that the effect of your guys getting eliminated is
9:35
not immediate, right? You have to wait an entire round
9:37
before you really kind of sets in, so.
9:39
As the guys. Alone, that's it so you have
9:41
like if he's in second place but a bunch of his guys got
9:43
eliminated he's not going to be in second place at the end of
9:45
this round. So it's a bit of a delayed
9:47
reaction there but but yeah cool.
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So. I was just gonna say Blake
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Creamer, who was leading the the office will challenge as far is
9:55
now falling to 3rd place. He's 7 points behind the top
9:58
leading candidate. He lost a lot of the, you know,
10:02
obviously the Minnesota stack and his he had some Buffalo guys
10:05
too. He still got the Carolina.
10:07
He still got the Stankovic. I understand they they could go
10:11
all the way and still play fewer games than teams that only like
10:16
how they can play fewer games than the Habs right now.
10:20
If they swept both their yeah, they obviously don't want this
10:23
to happen. But if they swept both their
10:25
next rounds or the swept and got swept, then they'd end up
10:28
playing fewer games than the haves.
10:31
And they would play crazy around more, yeah.
10:33
They're not gonna sweep the hubs.
10:35
No, no. So do we use that as our segue
10:38
to talk about the series? Alright, let's dive into what's
10:41
going on. We've got our round 3 matchups,
10:44
our conference finals. We'll start with the East
10:46
Carolina, Montreal first. Let's talk about how we got
10:48
here. I'm not going to talk about
10:50
Carolina how they got here. We talked about it last episode
10:52
because they've been essentially on ice for the past two weeks,
10:54
just waiting and hopefully, you know, getting out of shape, but
10:58
I don't. Think that's what?
10:59
Happened to me out of the. Game.
11:01
Yeah, exactly. And then we got Montreal.
11:03
We talked about it at the start of the episode.
11:05
We couldn't help ourselves. But Haves and Seven, Look, all
11:08
I'm going to say is ever since I put this license plate up behind
11:11
me, every single series that have been in, they've won in
11:14
seven. So coincidence. 2 We're seeing a
11:20
pattern. Exactly.
11:22
So no, last night was crazy. I definitely think it was one of
11:26
the worst games we played this playoffs, I don't think.
11:28
We just lost Game 7. That's it.
11:29
I was gonna say the two game sevens are two of the worst
11:31
games we played this playoffs. But that's what makes playoff
11:34
winners, right, Is when winning games that you don't deserve to
11:36
win. I will say overall in the
11:37
series, I still feel like it's a well deserved win.
11:39
Yeah, absolutely. There was some games that the
11:41
Sabres won that I thought the Habs deserved to win, and this
11:44
game the Sabres serve to win by the Habs won.
11:45
So I'm not going to take away from what we did, but it
11:48
definitely was not the most pleasant game to watch.
11:51
Until right at the end and I was watching.
11:53
My dad and I don't know, I don't know if everyone does this.
11:55
I feel like most people do, but going into overtime, you kind of
11:57
predict who you think the winner is gonna be, like who's gonna
11:59
score the OT winner? And I called Alex.
12:01
Newhook I have witnesses. I did, yeah.
12:04
I was like you for sure. He was just on fire all series,
12:06
and I felt like he had been quiet for a game or two.
12:09
And I never liked picking the top guys.
12:11
I feel like it's too obvious. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
12:14
So sniped New Hook as the game winner.
12:17
Everyone you know should have seen it come in with that huge
12:20
snipe. But honestly, see the replay
12:22
that was such a knuckle puck. That was yeah, but that's what
12:25
you need. You know, you need to bounce is
12:27
the same as game winner in game seven.
12:28
You know, it's like, yeah, that's it.
12:30
The entire that's overtime, right?
12:32
Yeah. Playoff overtime, just get the
12:33
shot on net. You never know what's gonna
12:35
happen, and that's what he did, and it was awesome.
12:38
One of my friends called the new hook goal.
12:40
I thought it'd be like a scrappy, like a kid in gully or
12:44
like a Mike Matheson type of thing where it was just like,
12:46
you know, you don't expect it and the puck goes in.
12:48
Yeah. But I mean, I did not feel
12:50
confident, obviously. No, I'm just happy we got it
12:52
done. And honestly, the sigh of relief
12:55
after my goal went in, First of all, there was lots of jumping
12:59
and lots of screaming, and that was amazing.
13:01
And I live, as some people know, as I talk myself in the past.
13:05
If you don't want to know where I live, go to the previous
13:06
episodes. But I live near to down downtown
13:09
Montreal and I have a balcony overseeing one of the main
13:12
streets and I could hear people outside going crazy.
13:15
Well, the Hawks were nuts, right?
13:17
Honks were nuts. Right after we saw that, I would
13:20
say 20 minutes after the end of the game, we were like, you
13:23
know, if it we're just gonna go downtown and like revel in it
13:27
with me and all my friends. We literally went that we walked
13:29
all the way downtown. It was like a 15 minute walk and
13:32
we're just there in the crowds. Everybody's honking their horns,
13:35
everybody's freaking, everybody's singing crowds
13:37
everywhere. There was a lot of calls, a lot
13:39
of police. I think there was some riots.
13:40
We had like just missed those. I saw that.
13:42
I saw videos of like riot police with tear gas and stuff like
13:45
that. It's it wasn't.
13:47
I didn't get caught up in that. I think we showed up right
13:49
after, which was I guess a blessing in disguise.
13:52
But if I live any closer, then maybe I would have been in
13:55
trouble. But honestly, it was just
13:57
fantastic. It's honestly just, I feel like
13:59
I'm talking and people are not gonna care.
14:00
But I feel it's such a privilege to live in a city that cares so
14:03
much about this, where like you see the whole city, like the
14:06
heartbeat is this team. And when it's going well and the
14:09
teams can route, like people can rally around, like this hockey
14:11
team is doing well, but there's nothing like it.
14:14
You walk down the street like even not on game days, like
14:16
everybody's got a jersey on. Everybody's excited about the
14:18
game. People have never watched
14:19
hockey, are watching hockey. Like my girlfriend is not care
14:22
about hockey. She's watching every game with
14:23
me for the playoffs and she's looking forward to the next
14:25
game. Yeah, it's honestly just a
14:27
beautiful thing how it brings people together.
14:29
And I feel very lucky that we live in a city.
14:31
I mean, I live in a city now that you that you grew up in a
14:33
city that really loves hockey the way that it does and that
14:37
has a team that liked the Montreal Canadiens.
14:39
So feel very lucky. And I'm just, I'm just happy we
14:42
made it. We deserve.
14:43
It Yeah, I, I'm glad I got to experience that experience in
14:47
2021 when we made the finals and I was living downtown because
14:51
it's really, it's crazy. You hear about, you know, the
14:54
city coming alive and all that, but to actually be in the heart
14:57
of it and feel it and just see, like you said, every single
15:00
person in the city, whether you're a hockey fan or not,
15:02
although most probably are you at this point, if the house make
15:06
it this far, everyone knows and cares and is talking about it
15:09
and is living and breathing it. So it's awesome.
15:13
And did you see like the earthquake stuff from like after
15:15
the Gold that there was like a mini earthquake that happened
15:18
because everybody jumped at the same time?
15:20
Are you serious? It actually got record.
15:21
It was like a .5 earthquake on the Richter scale or something
15:24
like that. Like got recorded was very easy
15:27
but still happened. Yeah.
15:30
Don't quote me, but I saw a post about it.
15:32
I like it. I like it.
15:33
Let's run with it. So I mean, listen, I feel like
15:38
our studs have still not really come to play yet.
15:40
And is that good that we've come this far and still, you know,
15:44
potential for more out of these guys?
15:46
Or should we start being worried and like we talked about
15:49
Carolina, almost two weeks off at this point, is that gonna
15:53
come into play? I think I think that's a
15:55
testament to how good our depth is, how well they've performed
15:59
and how many clutch depth guys we have, which obviously is
16:01
super important to get you through the playoffs.
16:03
I still am of the opinion that if the top line doesn't wake up
16:07
at even strength, we can't go all the way.
16:10
I just think it's how are you gonna beat A-Team whose top line
16:13
does show up when yours doesn't? And in the Tampa series, we gave
16:17
them the excuse that Cirelli and and Tampa system and all that
16:20
was just completely shutting them down.
16:22
And it was just kind of suffocating.
16:23
And I stand by that. You could tell by the scores of
16:25
that series versus the scores of the Buffalo games, right?
16:28
But the Buffalo games were wide open.
16:30
Every goals were flying left and right.
16:31
Obviously a lot of power play goals on both sides and the top
16:34
guys did get involved in the power play.
16:36
So we'll give them credit there, but still barely saw any 55
16:40
contribution from them. And we're going to need more.
16:43
And it's it's kind of crazy because we talk about Tampa
16:45
system being suffocating. Then Buffalo, even they don't
16:48
have that suffocating system. They do have one of the top
16:50
decors in the league. And now we're going to Carolina
16:52
who allows almost zero shots and has also plays this suffocating
16:56
system. So they're going to have to
16:57
figure it out. It's not it's never going to be
16:59
a cakewalk. It's not the regular season.
17:01
I was watching with my grandparents last night and
17:03
they're they're really funny. Every time a Coffield would do
17:06
something and just wouldn't score right.
17:07
Like this guy scored 51 goals in the regular season.
17:09
Where is he for the playoffs? I'm like, I know it's.
17:12
It's crazy. You have a lot of shots last
17:13
game though. He's having fantastic chances,
17:15
but these are the type of chances that regular season he
17:17
was putting those in the net. Yeah.
17:19
And I don't know if it's just the luck thing.
17:21
I don't know if it's a there's just that much less space out
17:24
there. I don't know.
17:25
The goal is just situational coincidence, whatever.
17:28
But he's just not putting those in the net and he needs to for
17:31
us to win. So.
17:32
So we'll see what happens with that.
17:33
And again, we talked about this last episode, Caroline is in a
17:35
kind of similar boat. Obviously the sample size is way
17:37
smaller, but their top guys haven't really done much either
17:39
at 5V5, whereas their and their top scorers are their second
17:43
line kind of like us with the with new hook.
17:46
Evans has actually been really good.
17:47
There was they said last night that Evans on A5 game point
17:49
streak. I did not realize that.
17:51
I knew it was plus 9. I knew he was amazing
17:53
defensively, but contributing on offence also was really
17:55
impressive. And yeah, it's gonna be a really
17:57
interesting series. Let's dive into the Series A bit
18:00
with this coming up. So Carolina, Montreal, Carolina
18:02
was first in the metro Montreal third in the Atlantic.
18:05
On the topic of that, Montreal finished sixth in the league,
18:07
right? Don't work for.
18:09
That no, we are unless we play. Biggest in the finals, we, if we
18:14
win this series and go against Colorado in the finals, will be
18:18
a 6th place in the entire league.
18:19
Team that made it through 4 rounds without having home ice
18:22
advantage. Because we had to play the 5th
18:24
place team. We had to play the 4th place
18:25
team. Now we're playing the second
18:27
place team and if we play Colorado, that'll be the first
18:30
place team. That's insane.
18:32
Like that's got to be the first time that's ever happened.
18:34
I can't imagine that's happened before.
18:36
I can't imagine that's happened before.
18:38
Besides if there was like an eighth seed at some point that
18:40
made a run. I don't know if the in like the
18:42
last decade it was like on those W teams that that did that, but
18:46
I don't know, man. It is honestly crazy.
18:48
I keep thinking about that. I keep thinking about how
18:49
Pittsburgh played Philly. I keep thinking about like how
18:53
how this system makes no sense. Yeah.
18:56
And it's honestly, it's a little frustrating, but at the end of
18:59
the day, listen, you play who's in front of you.
19:00
And the fact that we've already still here defeated 2, two big
19:04
teams, it's hopefully going to pay dividends now that we've
19:08
fought really hard, fought series and Carolina is going to
19:11
have a wake up call playing correctly, shoot back.
19:13
I don't know. Look, I think Caroline is still
19:16
the heavy favorite and I'll be honest, I'm still obviously
19:18
predicting the haves and rooting for the obviously.
19:20
But I do still think they're heavy favorite, but have got to
19:23
have a lot of confidence after coming through two really strong
19:25
teams and Carolina. Maybe they'll underestimate us
19:29
because of the whole narrative of them.
19:31
Just everyone saying, oh, Caroline and four, you know, so
19:34
it's a maybe they'll let that get to their heads.
19:36
They've just played swept 2 series.
19:37
They must be feeling pretty high.
19:39
No shape to fill your Ottawa, but neither of them was really
19:43
expected to make the playoffs before a couple weeks into the
19:46
playoffs where they both went on decent runs.
19:48
So I don't think it's the same beast at all.
19:51
I think those are probably 2 of the easiest matchups this
19:53
playoffs. So I'm hoping that Montreal
19:55
could be a big slap in the face to Carolina.
19:58
But there's obviously the whole rest component.
19:59
But we talked about that last episode.
20:01
You know, it's going to be the big talking point.
20:02
Everyone gonna be talking about, oh, two weeks rest versus no
20:04
rests, 8 games versus 14 games. At the end of the day, I think
20:08
that whatever. I think the it's not really
20:11
going to affect the series that much.
20:12
Whoever is the better team is gonna win.
20:14
And then whoever comes out of it, they're going to the people
20:16
that if Montreal comes out, it was gonna be like, see, that's
20:18
why you wanna be more momentum. And having played more recently,
20:22
if Carolina wins, everyone's gonna say, oh, that's that's why
20:25
you want to be more well rested. But it's just going to be based
20:27
on who wins. Just be confirmation bias.
20:28
So not putting too much stock in it.
20:30
But back into the numbers, the season series between Montreal
20:33
and Carolina. Do you wanna guess or did you
20:34
already look? I already saw, but I already
20:36
knew. OK, Montreal 3, Carolina zero.
20:39
We beat them. I know the first game. 75 have
20:43
second game was 5/2 and Camber what the score of the third one
20:46
was, but those were some pretty high scoring games.
20:48
I doubt we're going to see that this series, but you never know.
20:52
And then in terms of the leaders from the regular season, Cofield
20:56
and Suzuki coffee like 51 goals, Suki 70s, two assists, 101
20:59
points versus Jarvis with 30, two goals out with 53 assists
21:03
and 80 points. So I mean, this is just a
21:06
classic rod team type of thing, right?
21:08
We talked about this a lot where they just don't have any.
21:10
They do have superstars, but they don't produce like
21:12
superstars because Rod distributes the ISO evenly.
21:15
And then looking at their goalies.
21:17
So in the regular season, Freddie Anderson was .8743
21:21
point, 05 game calls against average.
21:22
Whereas yeah, terrible, he had a terrible season right until the
21:25
last month. And then Dobish point 9.901 and
21:29
2.78 goals against average. So Dobish had the edge in the
21:31
regular season and we'll talk in a SEC.
21:33
Actually, we could just talk about the playoff, playoff stats
21:36
too. So Freddie and the playoffs so
21:38
far .95 save percentage, 1.1, two goals against average.
21:42
That's truly absurd, truly absurd, but I mean it makes
21:45
sense when you've only won all your games right, So 88 and O is
21:48
pretty you know, it's gonna lead to some pretty good goalie
21:51
stats, but those are absurd. And then Dobesh .91 save
21:53
percentage 2.5 two goals against average for two series that went
21:57
to seven. That's really impressive because
21:59
that includes all the losses That includes the 8 three loss
22:01
that we took to Buffalo right. So that's that's very impressive
22:04
and then power play ranking. Carolina finished the season
22:07
fourth Habs 10th and then penalty kill Carolina was 11th
22:10
and haves 19th. So definitely a special teams
22:13
advantage to Carolina, I felt. So close, but if you look at the
22:16
percentages like 2% difference in power play and 2% difference
22:20
in PK like it's. Very negligible.
22:22
I do feel like special teams was a big part of the Habs Buffalo
22:26
series. I felt that the games that we
22:28
lost was because of special teams, but I don't necessarily
22:32
feel the games we won or because of special teams, if that makes
22:34
sense. And I'm not saying that they
22:36
were better than us because we had a pretty great power play,
22:38
but so did they. I think they were pretty even.
22:40
But it was just the games that we lost.
22:42
It felt like their special teams showed up in our didn't and
22:44
that's made the difference. So it's a, I think you guys less
22:47
and less important as the playoffs go on because the refs
22:49
kind of swallow their whistles more.
22:51
I mean, you saw how the game sevens were refed versus how
22:54
rest of series was drafted, right?
22:56
Yeah, they completely did not call a goalie interference where
22:59
that guy just like rammed through Dobesh and the rest were
23:04
blind. I.
23:04
Guess I don't know. And it led to Buffalo second
23:06
goal, right? After sounds like not wanting to
23:09
decide the game with the penalty, but at a certain point
23:11
if it's obvious you have to call it and especially if it's on a
23:14
goal, you have to protect the goalies to what's stopping the
23:16
next guy from doing the same thing.
23:17
It wasn't called the first time, right?
23:18
So. Yeah, I mean, that already
23:20
happened earlier this this series, right, where they just
23:23
got the two-minute penalty for for ridiculous fully
23:26
interference. And it's just if you don't
23:27
punish them for goalie interference, like at the cost
23:30
of knocking out your opponents #1 goalie, he was stealing
23:32
games. Yeah, for two-minute penalty is
23:35
just. I would take that every day.
23:36
That would be telling my players, keep running the goal
23:38
because you can you. Know that guy who played a
23:40
minute 52 and yeah, the goalie? And exactly, I mean, even if it
23:44
cost you that one game by taking a bunch of penalties and knock
23:46
their goalie out of the series, and obviously this is me saying
23:49
that that shouldn't happen, right?
23:50
Yeah. But if the refs don't control
23:52
players, that what's stopping the coaches from saying that?
23:54
So, you know, the refs are ridiculous, but still, it was
23:57
really nice watching a game where they kind of just let it
23:59
let it let it play out right. It was.
24:01
It's so frustrating watching games where there's tons of
24:04
penalties on both sides. So I do, I do like that.
24:06
And I'm looking forward to hopefully the next two rounds
24:08
being less decided by the refs. So I have some serious thoughts
24:13
about this this next series though, because I feel like
24:15
Carolina gives me like a Tampa type of team vibes where it's
24:18
like, you know, they have a lot of structure, they have a lot of
24:21
system and they do what they're good at and they do it very well
24:25
type of thing. And Trayvon is not doesn't have
24:28
that. Here's our town at Tampa does.
24:29
But it kind of feels like that's the same type of team where it's
24:31
just like we'll win by playing like perfect playoff hockey and
24:35
that's what's gonna happen. And the fact that we already
24:37
beat A-Team like that encourages me.
24:40
The fact that, you know, Carolinas offence hasn't been
24:43
their stuff, have not been their studs necessarily encourages me.
24:46
It makes this kind of feel like it's a level playing field.
24:48
And I just feel like we have a big edge and goaltending, I know
24:52
Freddy's got the big stats right now.
24:54
He's played eight games, won all eight of them, but it's still
24:56
Freddie Anderson. We have a big enough sample size
24:58
of him playing hockey in recent years to know that like, if you
25:02
look at the symbol fingers, everything could go wrong and he
25:04
could fall apart. I have no doubt in my mind that
25:06
bitch will not fall apart. Look what happened against
25:09
Buffalo the other game. He bounced back.
25:10
I'm really confident in Dobesh. I feel like he's just, I've
25:14
thought like I saw people talk about it, but he's hit like
25:16
Rockstar status. Like you saw his comments after
25:18
the game, like by 40 more. Yeah, I keep keep going.
25:20
He's so cool. I know he's a rookie.
25:23
He's 24. It's crazy.
25:25
And so I really like our chances.
25:27
I still think like Carolina, like on paper they have the
25:30
edge, right? Like have performed for years.
25:32
They've been here before, They're well rested, they've won
25:34
all their games. Like this is a team that has
25:37
performed this level consistently.
25:39
So we're going to be underdogs, rightfully so, but I still like
25:41
our chances and I don't think we're gonna be big underdogs so.
25:44
Yeah, I think that's a great point on Freddie and Dobish.
25:47
I think that Carolina like the comparison to Tampa.
25:50
I think Carolina has a lot better defence than Tampa does
25:53
this year. Especially like I was talking
25:55
about before the Tampa series that although they play a very
25:57
strong defensive game, I don't think they're decor was actually
25:59
that strong. Like obviously have Reddish
26:01
Moser, but that was pretty much it felt.
26:03
Whereas Carolina I think is really strong defensively.
26:05
But the goaltending Vasilevsky versus Freddie Anderson is night
26:09
and day. And you saw what we can do
26:11
against goalies who are a bit shaky, right?
26:13
You saw we did in the Buffalo series what we did to lie and
26:15
they were switching back and forth between Lion and UPL.
26:17
So I do not believe these Freddie Anderson stats for a
26:21
second. Look, maybe I'll come to I think
26:23
it's going to be the have to break them.
26:24
But if not, it's going to be Colorado, Las Vegas.
26:27
This guy's not that good. We saw how he played.
26:29
It's not just recent years. This year he was awful.
26:32
He was afraid and talking fantasy.
26:34
Here's a free agent fantasy almost the entire year because
26:37
he was so bad. Every single day he would 7:00,
26:39
every single game he would play, he was playing terrible.
26:41
So I just don't believe it for a second.
26:43
I think he's just benefiting a lot from the Hurricanes doubling
26:46
down on their defence because it's the playoffs.
26:48
I think they had a weaker opponents and I think the Haps
26:50
are going to break him and I think we're going to see Brandon
26:52
Bussey in this series. Listen, might not be in Game 1,
26:55
he might have a seller game one, all the rest and everything like
26:58
that. It might not be Game 2, but I
26:59
feel at some point in this series he will break.
27:02
And can he bounce back after breaking like that or are they
27:05
gonna go for will he change? That's when the questions start.
27:07
Let's say he gets wrecked in game one.
27:10
Are you going to Brandon Bussey already in Game 2 after Freddie
27:12
just had eight incredible games, Do you go back to Freddy?
27:16
And then let's say he has another disappointing game where
27:18
and they still win or something like that.
27:20
Then you're like, OK, now we have the question.
27:22
At certain point you can't have the question anymore and you're
27:25
in a. Pickle, I think if Game 1 he
27:27
gets blown out, I think they still go to him Game 2.
27:30
But if he has another bad game, even if it's not a blowout, just
27:32
like a bad game, I think they put up pussy in game three.
27:35
If it's later on in the series where they have less wiggle
27:37
room, they might they might not give him that second game, but
27:40
if it's right off the bat, I could see them being like, oh,
27:42
he's rusty whatever from not playing for a bit.
27:44
So I think he's bought himself that extra game with how he's
27:47
played so far in the playoffs, but I think that's better for
27:49
us. So we'll see.
27:50
I don't wanna, I don't wanna end up biting my, you know, ending
27:53
up regretting saying this. And he has a stellar series, but
27:55
I just don't believe it with how bad he's been all year.
27:58
And I don't wanna, I don't wanna drink anything or put anything
28:02
into the universe, but I did not have Mark Stone getting hurt on
28:04
my bingo card. But I do have Freddie Anders
28:06
that get it. It would it would just be tuple
28:10
wedding. That's what happens when he
28:11
finally gets like pushed to a limit or something.
28:13
Yeah, yeah, I do not wish injury upon him.
28:15
But yeah, I would not be surprised if something happened.
28:18
Obviously either. All right, so my prediction for
28:20
this series, as it says behind me, Habs and seven, it's too
28:25
predictable at this point. They're just running it back.
28:28
I will say they have one thing that I've been very disappointed
28:30
in this playoffs is they I just feel like they have no killer
28:32
instinct. They've had so many chances,
28:34
just put away their opponents. They've been up against Tampa.
28:37
They were up 1 nothing, 21 and 3 two series against Buffalo.
28:41
They were up 2132 series in the game six, they were up three one
28:45
in game seven they were up to nothing.
28:46
All these situations where they have their opponents on the
28:48
brink of elimination and just being able to coast the rest of
28:52
this series, they falter and give their chant opponent a
28:55
chance to claw back into it. So I just don't see a way that
28:58
haves were already underdogs in the series.
29:00
Don't take it seven games to do it, but I would love for them to
29:03
learn from their mistakes and prove me wrong.
29:06
I think this series goes to six or seven games.
29:07
Obviously I also have Montreal and seven soccer, right?
29:12
But I do I do believe that the longer this series goes, the
29:15
better the Habs the chances get really.
29:18
And I I agree with you that we do not have the killer instinct
29:21
yet, but we've had two incredible tough rounds to
29:26
develop that killer instinct. And we might not have the killer
29:29
instinct, but we do have resiliency.
29:31
Have never lost two games in a row these playoffs, yet it shows
29:34
that no matter how bad we get beaten down in one game, short
29:38
term memory, the next game we're still confident and we can still
29:40
show up, which is honestly might be even more important than the
29:44
killer instinct. So I like that we have that.
29:47
Listen, if one team had to win in like 4 or five games, it's
29:50
probably going to be Carolina. But I feel like if it goes 7 the
29:53
power of friendship kicks in. So yeah, exactly.
29:57
I want to say one thing before we move on to the next series.
30:00
Yeah. And I after, as anybody would
30:04
do, when their favorite team wins a series, they will go look
30:07
at the online chatter after the game and see what everybody's
30:10
talking about. And I have not really, like,
30:12
participated in any of that ever.
30:14
But I like seeing what people are saying.
30:16
I like also I have an optimistic view about most other fan bases
30:21
that, like the majority of their fans are reasonable people.
30:24
But man, I've seen so many Leafs fans hating on us and I know we
30:28
have some Leafs fans in the discord server and I love you
30:30
guys, but man, like some of you guys are giving yourselves a bad
30:34
Rep. I've only seen like Habs are so
30:36
lucky. This team does not deserve to be
30:38
here. The one with luck.
30:40
Buffalo got shafted. So many goals ruled out.
30:43
Like first of all, the goal that they're complaining about being
30:45
ruled out. The ref whistled and the guy
30:47
poked Dobash when the puck was not even visible or anything
30:49
like that. Like you can't, you can't do
30:51
that. So I had no no qualms of like
30:54
Buffalo not getting the gold there.
30:55
I didn't think it was a goal at all.
30:57
But I just seen so many people complain about the the our goal
31:00
as well, saying it was a kicking motion or whatever.
31:02
Like have you are we watching the same tape?
31:05
Like he didn't feel he didn't even move.
31:07
His foot moved backwards because the puck hit it and he like
31:10
redirected it into the net. So I just feel like when you're
31:13
trying to argue things that seem clearly visible when everybody
31:15
else agrees at the NHL agrees, like they review it.
31:18
I don't know. I've seen a lot of salty leaf
31:20
fans that I'm seeing these salty fans argue with other people in
31:22
the comments section. And I'm just like, Dang, like
31:25
some of these people have like they're either trying to just
31:27
rage bait and get people to interact with them or they're
31:31
just really like they can't acknowledge A rival success.
31:35
I don't know. Yeah, I mean we have, you have
31:37
those in every fan base. I also go go online, look at all
31:40
this stuff and. Well, how does fans like that
31:41
too? For sure, 100% it's it's
31:43
everywhere but. It is funny when it's fans that
31:46
are not of either team that's in the series because, you know,
31:49
chiming in. But yeah, for me, if I hate
31:52
A-Team, I hate from afar. You know, I don't leave
31:53
comments. I just it's.
31:54
Yeah, but I'm also realistic. Like I I can Oh yeah, my own
31:58
opinions about the game and what happened, but I'm not gonna be
32:00
like, oh, this team is just beat Buffalo and Tampa with the pure
32:06
luck. You know, I mean, nobody wins A7
32:07
game series off of luck. Now, if you win A7 game series,
32:10
yeah, you you were the better team.
32:12
And luck is just because it wasn't chalk quote UN quote.
32:15
If it's not chalky, we're gonna say you guys got lucky.
32:17
It's not about showing up on the ice.
32:19
Anyways, all right, let's get to the Western Conference Finals.
32:25
We've got the Colorado Avalanche versus the Vegas Golden Knights,
32:28
both 1 seeds of their divisions. The season series Colorado won
32:32
two, one versus Vegas. In terms of the regular season,
32:35
McKinnon was their leader in goals, assists, endpoints with
32:37
127 points. Dorfen V was Vegas leading goal
32:40
scorer with 37. And then Eichel had the most
32:43
assistant points with 90. So big edge obviously to
32:46
McKinnon in general, but still a pretty nice numbers from Vegas.
32:50
And then for Colorado's goaltending in the regular
32:53
season it was Scott Witchwood point 9212.02.
32:55
Pretty unreal. Carter Hart in the regular
32:57
season was point 892.71. Not the most impressive but
33:00
decent. And then obviously special
33:03
teams, we talked about a lot, but power play, Colorado 28th,
33:06
this is Vegas 6th, but penalty kill Colorado one versus Vegas 6
33:10
as well. Got to keep.
33:11
I mean, it's tough because I feel like Colorado properly is
33:14
actually been really solid in the playoffs.
33:15
So obviously based on these stats, you'd give the edge to
33:18
Vegas, but colour and we're getting to the injuries.
33:21
Colorado is pretty healthy right now.
33:23
Vegas doesn't have Mark Stone or Jeremy Lewison.
33:25
Obviously the big name there is Jeremy Lawson.
33:28
Your name, there's Mark Stone again.
33:30
I said in the past, I'm not surprised he's injured, but I
33:33
also wouldn't be surprised if he comes back.
33:35
No. So we'll see what happens there.
33:37
But that's a big loss. And yeah, I think you still got
33:40
to give this specialty edge to Vegas.
33:41
But I don't think you, damn it, it's going well.
33:45
I didn't say specialty teams. I just said.
33:47
That's. True, in general, you're
33:48
improving. You're not there.
33:49
Yet. Exactly.
33:50
Yeah, Look at the special teams. Advantage to it to Vegas, but
33:53
Colorado is really putting up solid power play numbers this
33:55
playoffs and that was their one weakness.
33:57
So it's kind of scary and talking about the goalies for
34:01
Colorado real quick. I do.
34:03
Do you think starting game one, is it going to be Wedgwood or
34:05
Blackwood in the playoffs? Wedgwood has a point 9142.21
34:09
goes E average. Blackwood has a .872 and 3.2
34:12
goals E average. So wedge obviously has way
34:14
better stats, but Blackwood played the last couple games for
34:17
Colorado and got them to where they are now.
34:20
And just to give comparison on Vegas aside, they played hard
34:23
all the way point 972.917 save percentage and 2.37 goals
34:28
against average. So he's having a really, really
34:30
strong playoffs. It's tough because I think
34:35
because they won against Minnesota in five games and
34:39
they've had a decent amount of arrest.
34:41
I think they just reset and they go back to Wedgewood.
34:43
To be honest, that's what I think.
34:45
I believe I was wrong the last time I tried to predict the
34:47
goalie rotation for Colorado these playoffs, but Blackwood
34:50
has not necessarily been super impressive either.
34:53
I know he got the win under his belt, but I feel like it was
34:55
more about the team and less about his performance.
34:57
Yeah. But it's tough, like let's talk
35:01
about, I guess the how we, how we get.
35:03
Here and how we got here. So let's start with Colorado.
35:05
Colorado versus Minnesota ended in five.
35:08
I did not see that coming. I thought, I thought Colorado
35:11
was gonna win. I thought Minnesota is gonna put
35:13
more, put up more of a fight. And that's what makes Colorado
35:15
so scary to me. Look, them sweeping Ella is
35:18
nothing. That's, you know, NHL team
35:20
beating a NHL team. But but beating Minnesota in
35:24
five Minnesota is one of the scariest.
35:27
Minnesota beat Dallas, which is one of, you know.
35:29
It's like you keep having a bigger fish coming and eating a
35:32
bigger fish but. That's a serious division to
35:34
come out of pretty much unscathed.
35:36
So, and I don't want to, I'm not discrediting Minnesota.
35:39
I thought they played their hearts on.
35:41
I think they're one of the best teams this year.
35:43
So that just shows how unreal Colorado is.
35:46
Kind of feels like it's just there's to lose at this point,
35:49
not just this series but the whole playoffs and really feels
35:51
like if anyone could beat them, it would be a huge upset.
35:54
I don't know what you think about where they stand after
35:56
that series. I don't know, I mean, first of
36:00
all, I was very disappointed. Like obviously I'm happy for
36:02
Colorado, like I'm low key Colorado fan, but I was rooting
36:07
for Minnesota because I had them in my office pools and in my
36:10
bracket. But I really think that
36:12
Minnesota got shafted with the Joel Ericsson Ek injury.
36:15
I feel like that was super impactful for everything.
36:17
They're special specialty teams now they're special teams.
36:21
Everything to power place took a hit.
36:22
I think they're PK took a hit and everything.
36:24
They're five on five centre depth took a hit.
36:26
Like they were not a centre, a deep centred team already.
36:29
So the fact that you lose your best centre for the whole series
36:32
against a team like Colorado, it's just like even more
36:35
disastrous. And I really think that came
36:38
into play. I like the game four that he
36:41
choked was the the dagger. If they could have gone back
36:44
and, you know, tied that to to the series, it would have been
36:46
so. Different.
36:47
No, that was That was the one that got them eliminated.
36:49
The one they choked. That was Game 5 you're talking
36:52
about the one where they were up 3.
36:53
Nothing. 40 also choked I'm pretty sure.
36:57
Let me go check we. Talk yeah, OK yeah, but Game 5
37:00
was the one they really choked when they were up 3 nothing in
37:02
the 1st and then I went to bed because the games are late so I
37:05
went to bed, it was 31 Minnesota with about four minutes left and
37:09
I wake up to them being eliminated 4 three in overtime.
37:11
Crazy, but I think that obviously it sucks losing your
37:14
number one seat and that's a big reason slash excuse why you
37:17
perform like that. But I think it also just
37:19
highlights the glaring hole in their roster construction, which
37:23
was centred death. They knew it.
37:25
They knew it going into the trade deadline.
37:27
I think they tried to address it, but they didn't try hard
37:30
enough. I don't know what they thought
37:31
was going to happen, but when you have teams like Colorado out
37:35
there, look again, it got a magnifying glass, got put on it
37:39
because they're #1C went out and they were left with Brian
37:41
Hartman as their number one CEO. Daniel, you're off as there's
37:44
second C and who even knows 3rd and 4th C.
37:47
It's just it's it's not a recipe for success.
37:50
Centre is arguably the most important position after
37:52
goaltending. So I mean every position is
37:54
important, obviously, but they you look at a defence and it's
37:57
unreal with the with Quinn Hughes and Faber, you look at
37:59
their wingers, Kaprizov, Boldy, Zuccarello, right?
38:02
You're thinking, oh, this seems unreal.
38:04
You look at their centre does oh, Eric snack great Hartman,
38:07
he's a solid. I'd say he's a 5C.
38:08
Probably more of a 3C honestly. That can really step up when you
38:12
need them. To exactly, but on a true
38:14
contender that's winning the cup, he should be your 3, not a
38:16
trustee. So and then Europe a rookie.
38:19
You know, you're hoping he can grow into to see or something
38:22
like that, but he's not there yet.
38:23
And the fact that that's what you went into the playoffs with,
38:25
If you make that swing for Quinn Hughes, I feel like you gotta
38:28
make a swing for a centre at the deadline.
38:30
And so it's easy to say in hindsight, right.
38:32
If they won, this wouldn't even be a topic conversation.
38:35
So try and check myself on that. But I feel like it's just such a
38:38
glaring hole in their roster and it came to bite them with that
38:41
injury. And also your #1C the only
38:43
arguably top 6C in your on your entire team is super squishy.
38:48
Right. Is this like?
38:49
It's not. This is not the first time he's
38:51
gotten injured, not the first time this year.
38:52
It's not the first time in the last couple of years.
38:54
So how do you base your entire playoff hopes, your entire
38:57
centre depth, on a guy who very often is out of your lineup?
39:00
So I think they tried to make a roof for Robert Thomas, if I
39:03
remember correctly. And yeah, it was like Walstead
39:05
plus something else, and it got turned down.
39:07
I'm listening. Gustafson was maybe it would
39:09
have been good enough to accommodate not having walls
39:13
because also was really good. Yeah.
39:14
Playoffs, but having a Robert Thomas in line obviously have
39:17
been great. I was thinking of game or they
39:19
didn't choke, but it was like 2-2 until like halfway through
39:22
the period and then yeah, and then they let in like a kind of
39:25
Scrabby Parker Kelly goal. And then 20 meters.
39:28
Yeah, So if they would have won that 122, I feel it would have
39:31
been a big difference. But at the end of the day, I
39:33
think it was like, I don't wanna put it all in the injuries, but
39:36
it definitely impactful. But also just goes to show that
39:38
like you need everything to go right against Colorado to be
39:40
competitive. So it's going to be interesting,
39:42
but honestly, like I do like this Vegas team and we can
39:46
transition to the Vegas portion of it.
39:49
How they they they beat Anaheim pretty decisively at the end.
39:52
Then exactly what I said was gonna happen is happened.
39:54
And you and Jake were a little bit too optimistic, I think
39:56
about Anaheim and their lack of experience, I think and Vegas
39:59
just kind of like show them that we've been here before.
40:02
We do this. It's not your time yet.
40:03
Yeah, I think the same reason that I put Vegas over Utah is
40:07
the reason why I should have put Vegas over Anaheim.
40:09
What I said. Yeah, I mean.
40:11
Like, but you put Utah and then you put Vegas and you said yeah.
40:15
Exactly. I unlearned my lesson, but no,
40:19
pretty much both times I was rooting for the team that was
40:21
against Vegas. I'm not one of those people who
40:23
has a huge thing against Vegas. I just find both Anaheim and
40:26
Utah way more exciting Young. People rooting for.
40:28
Them, yeah, that's I'm saying. So I was rooting for both of
40:30
them, but at the end of the day, yes, Vegas kind of had a really
40:34
sloppy second-half of the season, let's say up until
40:37
toward release took over. But it's still Vegas.
40:39
They're they're lineup is still unreal.
40:41
Carter Hart coming in and playing like prime Carter Hart
40:45
is obviously a huge boon to them.
40:46
They're one of their biggest weaknesses has sent for a while
40:50
has been their goaltending. Aiden Hill got them a Stanley
40:52
Cup, but he's not a Stanley Cup winning goalie.
40:54
Does that make sense? You know, like he had.
40:56
He had one good. Run.
40:57
He's good, but he. Was like a Darcy Kemper wouldn't
40:59
Colorado won the Cup. It was like, yeah, it's not
41:01
because of Eden Hill, but like was good enough to.
41:03
Get he did what he needed to do to win the Cup, but he didn't
41:06
win them the Cup. And then after that he's went
41:09
back to playing how he normally plays.
41:12
Yeah. And now they got a Carter Hart
41:14
who's playing at a higher level than he'll would be playing
41:18
essentially and that's just a huge boost for them.
41:20
I think the Mark Stone injury is huge in Colorado is a
41:23
juggernaut. So but before we get into that
41:24
again, a huge props to Anaheim for what they've done.
41:26
And honestly, I've been saying, we've been saying I think all
41:29
year that we view Anaheim as one year behind the haves in terms
41:32
of their rebuild. But last year, Habs only made
41:35
it. They only want one playoff game.
41:37
Anaheim made it to round two this time.
41:39
So I still view it that way. But Anaheim's, you know, looking
41:42
even better than the Habs were last year.
41:44
So, so I think they have a very bright future.
41:46
I don't think there's any Anaheim fans.
41:47
It's a type of loss where it sucks because you made it that
41:50
far and it just sucks to lose. You want to go all the way every
41:52
year. But it's also after the dust
41:54
settles a bit, you can look back and just see what an incredible
41:57
season you had and how you exceeded expectations.
42:00
The same code that I was giving myself when I thought the haves
42:02
are going to lose last night. I was saying, I'm saying once I
42:04
get out of the, you know, meant like the emotional part of this
42:07
and I get over the loss. We did have an incredible
42:10
season, you know, but so if you had the same for for Anaheim and
42:13
yeah, Vegas is a very serious contender.
42:16
They've what was the stat? I think they've made the
42:18
conference finals something like four or five times out of the
42:20
out of the eight years of their existence or something like
42:22
that. It's it's truly impressive,
42:24
impressive and incredible what they've managed to do.
42:27
I know it was the first expansion draft in a while, so
42:29
they had a bit more favorable rules than let's say Seattle or
42:34
yeah, Seattle did. But but I still think that to
42:37
keep that going for eight years is really impressive.
42:40
And yeah, but at the end of the day, I still think Colorado
42:44
takes it. I I have Colorado and six is my
42:46
prediction. I just don't see how how anyone
42:48
could overcome this Colorado team.
42:50
I have Colorado and seven, so listen, we're both on team
42:53
Colorado here. I think it's the easy team to
42:57
pick given the performances we've seen and how strong
42:59
they've looked. But there's still gut feeling of
43:02
mind that I've had like throughout the whole playoffs is
43:05
that there were two dominant in the regular season and
43:07
everything to win the Stanley Cup.
43:09
I feel those teams never win. It always something always
43:11
happens and I feel like this is where something might happen.
43:14
I would not be surprised if Vegas Vegas ends up being like
43:17
somehow the perfect counter to what they've been doing and
43:20
Colorado has. I want a goalie question, but
43:25
I've kind of had to rotate recently in a Vegas makes them
43:27
rotate even more and they're struggling to find any
43:30
consistency there. That could be an issue.
43:31
And we what we've seen from you know, the dura fails and the
43:34
Mitch Mariners as of late is starting to get a little
43:38
dangerous. The marks don't injury might be
43:40
the one thing that holds them back early in the series.
43:42
But if you can come back, I think this Vegas team honestly
43:45
could manage to somehow be the perfect counter for Colorado.
43:48
But at the end of the day, like I'm not getting my house on it.
43:51
And if I did have to bet my house, I'd probably be on
43:52
Colorado. So yeah.
43:54
See that that Mitch Marner goal the breakaway in the.
43:57
Last few years and he threw his leg does not seem like
44:00
physically possible like. Unreal.
44:03
He's leading the playoffs in points.
44:05
He's just killing it. Crazy what happens to a guy when
44:08
he gets out of Toronto. But no, it's it's honestly
44:11
unbelievable what he's doing. It's it never made sense to me
44:15
why he would disappear in the playoffs for Toronto because how
44:18
do you know you have these guys? Like obviously there's the
44:20
whole, you know, store the whole kind of reputation and all that,
44:24
the whole storyline, whatever. But at the end of the day, this
44:26
is a guy who's putting up 100 plus points every season.
44:29
And so I mean, it reminds me a bit of Michael getting out of
44:32
Buffalo and then on Vegas also right top and often they win a
44:35
cup. So it's it's looking they're
44:38
looking really good. And did you see that whole thing
44:40
with them refusing to talk to the media?
44:43
They lost their second round pick and talk, really find 100K.
44:47
And then they appealed in the NHL, left it the same.
44:49
So yeah, that's pretty crazy. That's a very big punishment, a
44:53
second round pick sending a message.
44:55
Yeah, that's what you get when you get towards as a coach.
44:57
I guess you're gonna have to deal with stuff like that.
44:59
I think they're pretty pissed about it.
45:00
And I think, listen, I don't know if something happens there,
45:04
but it's still Vegas being Vegas, I guess.
45:06
And they they truly find a way to be the villains of the NHL.
45:11
I wanna ask you who you gonna be rooting for in this series?
45:13
It's tough because if I'm thinking from the point of view
45:17
as of a Habs fan, right, and I'm thinking assuming the Habs can
45:21
beat Carolina, who would I rather face in the Finals?
45:23
I'd rather face Vegas. So in that sense, I'll be
45:26
rooting for Vegas. If I look at it, just, you know,
45:28
blank, which team do I like better?
45:30
I prefer Colorado, I just like the players on it better, but I
45:33
don't have anything against either one of these teams.
45:36
Even though Vegas is the classic villains, the NHL.
45:38
I just I think it's gonna be really good hockey as usual.
45:41
Any series that haves are not involved in I'm rooting.
45:43
It goes to seven game seven overtime.
45:46
Unfortunately, that just seems to happen to the Habs these
45:47
days, but not the other series. But yeah, no, I'd be I'd
45:51
probably be rooting for Colorado as a as a neutral.
45:54
But since the haves are still in it, maybe Vegas because that's
45:56
would rather play against. So I don't know what you think.
46:00
I feel like we're gonna have a difficult time, whether it's
46:02
Vegas or Colorado. So honestly, even as I have just
46:04
found out, I don't really care like who wins.
46:06
And I'm just looking at this. I'm like who I who I want to
46:09
root for to win the games. And I've always liked Colorado
46:11
as a team. I like their players better.
46:13
But I'm gonna be rooting for Vegas just because I wanna see
46:15
juggernauts fall. I want to see the teams that
46:17
everybody thinks are going to win, not win.
46:19
Yeah. And that just means that I have
46:21
to root for Vegas here. So it's going to be fun.
46:22
I know we have some Colorado fans in the Discord, so please
46:26
don't hate me. I'm going to be happy for you
46:28
guys if you guys win. But if I had to for team, I just
46:32
like seeing the best team lose. I don't know.
46:34
The team that everybody thinks is the best team lose.
46:36
I actually have. I've made a couple of friends
46:39
here who are big Colorado fans, so I'm gonna say Colorado so I
46:43
don't get flamed. Yeah, there you go.
46:45
Or just make sure they don't listen to this episode or they
46:47
cut that before. This.
46:48
Yeah, exactly. Cover years for this part.
46:51
Yeah, but also like I didn't have the chance to say like,
46:53
props to Anaheim as well. I think I think we're gonna have
46:57
a bright future ahead of them. And that division is looking
47:00
pretty spicy for for next year, I feel like.
47:02
There's a big overhaul coming and there's a changing of the
47:05
guard. It's there's a the future is
47:07
now, old man, you know that that whole thing I see.
47:10
I think the top three next year is gonna be a Vegas, Anaheim and
47:13
San Jose. That'd be crazy.
47:15
I mean the the era of the element in Vegas LA trio is
47:19
probably. Done.
47:21
They're not making the playoffs for a couple of years at least.
47:23
Ella is done. We know Vancouver is done.
47:25
We know Calgary is done. Yeah, I think Seattle is gonna
47:27
wanna be competitive. Seattle at best is a wild card
47:30
but they'll probably fall short and and Edmonton I think will be
47:33
a wild card. Yeah, unless they trade for a
47:36
goalie like we always talk about, they already traded for
47:38
their goalie, so. Yeah, exactly.
47:40
They have their guy. I'll just give one more
47:42
offseason for Tristan Jarry and I'm sure he'll be back in.
47:45
Yeah. Exactly on all firing off.
47:47
Alright, So what does the arrest of your bracket look like?
47:49
This. This segment is getting shorter
47:51
and shorter because we're almost at the end here, but who do you
47:54
got rest of the way? I mean, listen, obviously haves,
47:56
obviously not obviously, but if I had to pencil in it right now,
47:59
I got Vegas halves final. Wow, OK, Habs winning the
48:03
Stanley Cup in seven once again. So going back to the well.
48:06
I like it. I've got halves, Colorado and
48:09
yeah, we'll just keep going. Halves and seven, That seems to
48:12
be what they want to do. They want to play, want to talk
48:13
as possible and you know, they want to give us as much
48:16
entertainment for as long as the summer as they can.
48:18
So I appreciate it. I also really appreciate it.
48:22
I was. I was honestly prepared before
48:24
the game yesterday to just be like, I was like, what is my
48:26
life gonna be about now? Like, I don't have these games
48:29
to root for and stuff like that. Like, the city's gonna feel
48:32
deflated. Yeah.
48:33
So I'm happy I get at least like another week or 10 days to root
48:36
for my favorite hockey team. Yeah.
48:40
And listen, we talked about everything.
48:41
We're gonna start wrapping it up.
48:42
But I do want to say I feel like next, next, maybe as you listen
48:46
to the episode next week, we'll start doing more offseason
48:49
content that's besides just the Stanley Cup, the Stanley Cup
48:53
talk. Maybe we'll talk about some non
48:56
hockey stuff like some food or some movies or some TV or other
49:00
life stuff. I don't know, you guys.
49:01
Tell us what you guys. Want honestly in the discord?
49:03
Just shoot us some recommendations for random
49:07
topics you wanna hear us talk about in the off season, and
49:09
we'll have some fun with it. By the time this episode live,
49:12
maybe, maybe I'll have a post in the discord asking everybody
49:15
what they want to see from us, if they want to see some more
49:17
fun content than what we can do there.
49:18
But you can expect some more content from us in the off
49:20
season and hopefully more hockey content as the Habs go all the
49:24
way and win the Stanley Cup. Bingo.
49:28
Thanks everybody for listening. We really appreciate your time.
49:31
Hopefully we did not annoy anybody with our with our Habs
49:33
talk too much. We're just happy your team made
49:35
it this far and we get the root for them even more.
49:37
Like I said earlier, please drop us a follow on Spotify, Apple,
49:40
wherever you listen to your stuff and on YouTube if you're
49:43
watching. Thank you.
49:44
Even though Jake is not here, we really appreciate you looking at
49:46
the both of us and make sure you subscribe and leave a like
49:50
comment and I guess we'll see you on the next one.
49:53
And that's my cue to say take it away our NA.
49:57
Now Bangor Management Fantasy Hockey Podcast.
50:01
Go, Habs, Go. Woo.
50:03
Sasala coop so that like poop it's gotta go 7 right it's
50:07
gotta.