Latest / Altitude Problems / 2026 Episode #5: One Very Depressing Week in Denver Sports

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2026 Episode #5: One Very Depressing Week in Denver Sports · Altitude Problems

• Big Country: Welcome into the Octitude Problems Podcast. This is episode five. ⁓ recapping up some Denver sports this week and just sports in general, along with my co-host P V. How are we doing tonight? PV: Doing pretty good, not too bad. How about yourself, big country? Big Country: I think we could I could speak for all of Denver fans in general. It's been a rough eight days or seven days. PV: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you know, obviously it's it wasn't a great week being a Denver sports fan, but you know, at least we ha we had the memories that we did for this year and we hope for a good future, but we'll get into that a bit later. So yeah. I'll go ahead and start it with some of the boring kind of ⁓ round the c ro round of the world stuff, ⁓ not necessarily Denver stuff, but Big Country: Yeah, certainly. PV: Little bit of news from F1 today. It was available on Netflix, so you might have gotten to catch some of that, but the F1 Canadian Gan Grand Prix did occur over the weekend. We saw young Kimmy Antonelli get his fourth win in a row for Mercedes and take a big leak ⁓ leap ahead of George Russell in the drivers' championship. ⁓ you know, George I don't know if you saw the race. No, probably not, obviously. But ⁓ George Russell and Kimmy Antonelli being teammates, they are both really good, both drive for Mercedes, and ⁓ one of those two is going to end up winning the championship more likely than not. And in this race, ⁓ they were competing, and George Russell ended up getting himself knocked out trying to pass Kimmy Antonelli, and so that gave Kimmy a big lead in the Drivers Championship. So as of right now, he is first and is looking to take that ⁓ drivers championship at a very young, I believe he's still nineteen years old. He might have turned twenty recently. ⁓ and then yeah, so big news from F one. ⁓ and then kinda moving forward to some more driving and racing stuff. The Indy five hundred also occurred over the weekend. I'm sure a lot of you guys caught that. ⁓ had the closest win ever by zero point zero two seconds. So pretty crazy exciting finish there at the end. ⁓ and then on to some sadder news. Unfortunately, we did ⁓ lose Kyle Bush and so it is ⁓ really tragic news. So definitely want to say rest in peace to him and Yeah. Very sad for that loss. Big Country: Yeah, definitely a rest in peace to an absolute legend of the sport. ⁓ we saw a bunch of tributes over the weekend, a lot of sad faces in the world of racing and just the world of sports in general. I mean, he was dominant, didn't give a shit what you thought, and he was a great competitor in the sport. Sad to see obviously. So yeah, let's ⁓ but let's get into some Broncos. I'm not getting too depressing today. tell me some news out of rookie camp mini camp. PV: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so ⁓ some good news coming out of Rookie Minicamp, you know. I feel like every year you're always gonna hear some pretty positive stuff coming out of Rookie Minicamp. You don't wanna hear coaches getting down on their players that early. so obviously most of what you hear is gonna be good. But ⁓ there's good word on Jonah Coleman, a lot of exciting news on him. Sean Payton's obviously very big on him. He was an early pick for a good reason, so I do think we are gonna see some big exciting action out of him. A lot of people do also think that Justin Jolly is going to be a cr a pretty big instant impact, at least this season. ⁓ maybe maybe closer to the midpoint of the season, but they do see him being a big part of our offense to at some point early on this year. ⁓ and then some exciting news. ⁓ a lot of people are really excited about the undrafted free agent Tareen York. ⁓ he had a lot of tackles through his three years as an Aggie, ⁓ so we are we have a lot of high hopes for him. He we think that he can kind of be the kind of role that Alex Singleton has been for us for all these years in getting all those tackles and stopping those runs down the middle, which is obviously something that we need to fill in. So an undrafted free agent that we've been getting some good word on and hoping for a good good rookie season from him too. Big Country: Yeah. Yeah, that's good, ⁓ good to hear from Denver side of things. ⁓ as far as, you know, outside the rest of the NFL, ⁓ we had eleven teams start OTAs today as we're recording this on what are we, Tuesday, May twenty sixth, you know. So definitely gonna see some new clips to get everyone overhyped, you know, about their squads, which is always great to see. ⁓ but we do have our idiot of the week. to announce Josh Jacobs of the Green Bay Packers. ⁓ I don't know if the sports world has seen it, Denver sports world in general, but how many charges did he get charged for? Was it five? PV: Too many to count. ⁓ enough to get yeah, ⁓ see. I actually saw a post about it. It was that bad. ⁓ so several charges, ⁓ one battery, disorderly conduct, strangulation. Looks like six different charges were placed on him, yeah. Big Country: Like Yeah, not not what you want see. ⁓ I think if you're Green Bay fan, obviously, but I think just an a fan of the NFL in general. Josh Jacobs is a you know, you think he was a nice person. You know, he never had any problems. Previously not that I know of, especially being a Green Bay fan myself. ⁓ ⁓ mean, ⁓ do you do if you're Green Bay? That's the real question you gotta ask. ⁓ PV: You would hope. Big Country: Especially considering he's been near Bell Cow for the past two years. He's getting a little or older. You know, he was probably on the you know, on the question of whether you cut him or keep him at the end of last year, especially with his ⁓ injuries near the end of the year. But I mean What are we doing, dude? Like PV: Yeah, I mean it obviously sucks. ⁓ you hope that it's not true. ⁓ you never know with these things. But ⁓ you know, in Green Bay's situation, like you said, the one I guess not necessarily bright side to it, but the one good thing is it might be something that they've been preparing for. Like you said, he did face a lot of injuries. and even though he was a bell cow, there was a lot of the year that you guys had to go without him last year. And so I think that over the last couple years, ⁓ not maybe over the last couple years, but especially over the last year and this offseason, given that you guys had to experience that last year, it's definitely something that I think you guys have been considering and you know, it's something that you might be ready for. And so I think that there's not necessarily someone who will stand out in particular at the moment, but I do think that you guys will be able to figure it out with the backs that you have in the room, right? Big Country: Yeah, I mean you got a couple backs in there. You didn't sign anyone, you didn't draft anyone. ⁓ probably signed a couple of undrafted free agents, obviously, but ⁓ and he gets suspended and he gets released. I mean the Packers do not like this type of stuff historically. I can see him being released honestly very very soon. But hopefully the rumors and the allegations and the charges get dropped and you know, who cares? Just go into next season. PV: Right, yeah. Big Country: Kinda doubt it, but ⁓ like you said, we do have Marshawn Lloyd, they do have Chris Brooks, absolute household names, you know, of course. You know what I'm saying? PV: Right. Yeah. Well that's how they always start, you know. ⁓ I feel like I feel like I feel like a lot of these guys, you know, ⁓ they always start out ⁓ being kind of just random backs and then they become those bell cows, those kind of unspoken ⁓ heroes. And so, you know, I I think if I think given the fact that they didn't try to pursue anyone in particular in the draft, ⁓ yeah, I mean you had the expense of Josh Jacobs, so that has a big reason why, but I think given the fact that they were trying to prepare for losing him anyway, they must feel pretty comfortable with who they have back there already. Big Country: Yeah. ⁓ I mean Marshawn Lloyd, he was so talented at a USC. and the fact that he's just been injured for the whole entire career he's had. I think he's played in one game. Past two years. So just hoping and praying he can stay healthy through training camp and, you know, make it to week one. That's all I'm really hoping for at this point. 'Cause he's a really explosive back and he could be really good in Matt LaFleur's offense. But guess we'll have to wait and see. PV: Right, exactly. Big Country: ⁓ what Josh Jacobs ⁓ what the verdict is on his ⁓ charges. ⁓ it's not gonna like it's gonna get resolved and you know, a couple hours is gonna take some time. So yeah. But that is our idiot of the week. PV: Gonna be a while. Yeah. Big Country: but let's get back into a little bit more ⁓ Colorado sports, you know, Denver sports. ⁓ let's talk about a little bit of our purple and black, the Colorado Rockies. They are losing right now. I don't know if that game is finished up yet. I believe it's close. But ⁓ they're in the bottom of the seventh down 15 to 1. PV: Not close anymore. Big Country: no. PV: Yeah, and one of the things I was gonna mention is I feel like with the Rockies, it's every other game that we're losing by a lot, you know? And maybe not necessarily losing by a lot, but it's every other game that we're giving up a lot of runs. Like I feel like if you look at the last if you look at all of May, more than sixty percent of the games we've given up seven runs plus, which is just ridiculous. ⁓ and then you have a game like today where we've already given up fifteen games, not even over. So, you know, obviously Big Country: Yeah. PV: We keep reaching it. It's always gonna be the problem, the pitching. ⁓ you doesn't matter how good your hitting is, it's never gonna really get anything accomplished if you can't pitch to save your life. So I don't know. Big Country: Yeah, certainly it doesn't help when a lot of the team is injured as well. ⁓ I mean your starting outfield. I wouldn't even say starting, I'd say two out of your third starting outfield is hurt right now. They're on the IL. Doyle, Brendan Doyle's on the I. L. Mickey Moniak went on the I. L last weekend as well. ⁓ Jordan Beck's on the I. L. Jose Cantana, you know, kind of a reliable starter that we've had for the few first few months is on the I. L. Chase Delander's on the IL. ⁓ I mean, I could just keep going, it feels like. Jimmy Hergett's on the I. L, you know, like solid contributors to the Rockies, especially, you know, defensively too, with those outfielders. And Mickey Moniak was kind of like the heart and soul of that offense. You know, you kept ⁓ everything churning, everything positive 'cause he was mashing, obviously. but you know, just now you're starting to see a little bit more youth being brought up. Not necessarily I don't think like the star started talent, obviously. I feel like they're waiting on that a little bit, but you know, everything doesn't ⁓ doesn't help the matter this hell, you know, because we're still not pitching well even with the guys we did have. So hopefully we can you know, overcome this, you know, turn into a positive, you know, 'cause May's obvious and rough, but hey, turn new page, go to June, try and get back to like near five hundred baseball for the month. 'Cause let's be honest, this is not a playoff team. Everyone knows that. I think yeah. Let's see what we can get. See we c we we could produce at the deadline, you know, and ⁓ go from there. But I think there's a lot of bright spots on this team still. So PV: For a while, yeah. So what do you realistically see the Rockies record ending at this year, at this point? Big Country: ⁓ I think it's gonna be right at a hundred losses. So like sixty-two and a hundred. And I still think that's a great jump from where we were last year. You know, obviously I'm not like satisfied with a hundred loss season. No one is. But it took massive strides this off season, the overhaul of the front office, you know, kind of the overhaul of the roster too. You know, it seems like half the roster this year. It's just a new face that we haven't seen in the pro purple pinstripes. So yeah. But ⁓ Well, we did mean we did bring up a reliever. I believe his name is Wellington Herrera. He had his first big league inning yesterday, one, two, three. That was nice to see. He was, I think, our fourteenth ranked prospect. So again, you're not like seeing these like marquee guys that are at the top of our problem system come up either. So we just just gotta play the waiting game. Rockies are not a team that gets a rebuild done in two years. They will never be, you know. So it's gonna take a while. PV: No, it's gonna take a while, but as long as we see progress. Big Country: Yeah, and even I even saw Ethan Holiday, our top prospect. He went on the IL down in single A. So just, you know, things are compacting. ⁓ yeah. Mark my words though, this will be entirely due new team come like in another month's time. You know? So ⁓ interesting to see. Got a lot of promising young prospects in AAA, double A that are gonna be moving up in the next few months, and a lot of these guys that are in the big leagues that are kind of just like you know, maybe on one year deals or just like prova deals that teams might bite on. Could see them getting moved. ⁓ and I think that's a good thing. So see ⁓ what happens. I mean, do you think they're gonna get to more than a hundred losses? PV: You know, I think it's definitely possible. ⁓ I think if we keep up this rancid pitching, ⁓ I could definitely foresee it, but obviously I'm hoping that we don't reach that point. I do think that it we do still have the star power that we need. ⁓ and I think that we can pull off a season that we don't have much more than a hundred wins if we do reach a hundred or not a hundred wins, a hundred losses if we do reach a hundred losses. So You know, I'm hoping for the best. I obviously still think it is possible. ⁓ but I'm hoping that we definitely see a better month next month than we saw in May. Big Country: Yeah, I I I definitely agree with that statement. and obviously we hope for the best. I mean, I'll be going to games, you know that, so I I wanna see some wins. I think my record of going to games this year is I wanna say like one in four, maybe less. It might be like two and six. Like it's not great. PV: No, it feel like last year I was like over five in the games that I went to, so Big Country: ⁓ dude. I mean, if you gotta win, you just know you were like Yeah, you were the good luck charm essentially too. but ⁓ yeah. well. ⁓ with the Rockies, just gotta hope for the best. But ⁓ let's get into a little bit of MBA, not much to wrap up on nuggets. We're still kind of looming ⁓ you know, decisions, obviously, you know. PV: Yeah, he went to one of the good ones for sure. Yeah. Big Country: I know how many names I've seen just brought up in potential trades, you know, 'cause we had the lottery a couple of weeks ago now. Like PV: Yeah, it's ⁓ it's difficult. The Nuggets ⁓ are in a real purgatory with everything that we've done to ourselves, tr the contracts, the ⁓ players that we have, ⁓ the quality of the players, you know. It's hard to trade some of the players that we have, especially given their contracts, so then it's hard to sign free agents given the money that we've spent. So, you know, ⁓ you kinda just have to roll with the punches that we get this off season and hope that maybe we can just with the same hand that we were dealt last year, just do a better job this year and really step it up. So ⁓ yeah, I don't know. There's not much that I think the rock the Nuggets are gonna be able to do this off season, but more than more so than just, you know, getting that team chemistry up and getting the team glued together somehow, some way. Big Country: Definitely. Let's talk about our ⁓ like half of our bet of the week last week. ⁓ we we took both the Thunder and Spurs and Cavs and Dix to go over in their series totals, which I believe were both at five and a half. Yeah, thanks for that, Cavs. Cavs, I I mean, we were kind of saying this before, but the fact that they lost that big lead was that in game one, I want to say it was like a 20 point lead. PV: It was game one, yeah. Big Country: It's gotta be the most deflating thing in the world. And then just to not respond and then get fucking swept and just show no fight at all. I mean, we saw Prime's prime James Harden in a elimination game right there. He's like doing nothing. So PV: Well, and it just felt like it infected the whole team, you know. After game one, they blew that game and then the rest of the game. So every time that they were anywhere near the end the end of the game, or it felt like the game was getting away from them, they just gave up, you know. Every time that they had a twenty point deficit for whatever reason, it just felt like the game was over at that point. The Cavs just stopped trying. ⁓ and it like you said, it felt like James Harden, ⁓ you know, he was playing his game seven type of game sevens in the playoffs and Big Country: Mm-hmm. PV: It really did felt feel like it affected the whole team this time around, you know. Donovan Mitchell, it felt like maybe was ⁓ the only one trying on offense, but even on defense, you know, I didn't see really anybody trying. So it it was a shame to see the low effort given by the Cavs in the series. Big Country: No. me honestly could say they just kinda ran into a butt saw the Knicks are firing at the right time. PV: Yeah. Yeah, I'll give you that. The Knicks have looked, I mean, unstoppable. I mean it it must have been disheartening for the Cavs to, you know, feel like they might have had, you know, some sort of momentum going into the series, ⁓ actually have a chance at game one and then all of a sudden just start getting blown out. So the Knicks definitely, you know, they can score in waves and they showed that and ⁓ they are gonna be a hard team to stop, so The question now is, ⁓ how different are they gonna look against the West? You know, they dominated the East, but everyone's always saying the East is much easier than the West, so the question is are they gonna be able to do the same to either the Spurs or the Thunder? Big Country: Yeah. The least. That's what we like to call. Yeah, I mean, I could see it being, you know, a very really good like a good series in the finals because you know whatever team comes out of the West is going to be really good. but I think it's all about like the sizing when it comes to like Wemby, you know, 'cause I think the Thunder can match up with size. Don't know how much the Knicks can match up with size. PV: Yeah, exactly. Big Country: So I feel like they're almost a little fitted to play the Thunder more than the Spurs. But I mean, is it really anyone that could stop Wimby regardless? I mean, we're seeing the Thunder doing kind of a good job. Wouldn't say a great job at stopping him. ⁓ I believe he was held to not that much today. And in there, yeah, I mean, gotta just accept that. And Chet also, I believe, had a s great start to his game in in the first quarter. I think he was four or four. PV: When he yeah. Big Country: To start out the game, so obviously helps. ⁓ I didn't catch much most of the game, but I mean I didn't see f Shea ⁓ you know, foul baiting as much. So that was nice to see. But the you know ⁓ you know, I a lot of hate gets put on Shay for his foul baiting, but dude, if that dude didn't foul bait, he's still fucking amazing. And no one seems to think of that. PV: Yeah, I mean, ⁓ he's still a great player, obviously, and I think that's just what's so frustrating about him is he doesn't need to fallibate to gre to be a great player. ⁓ so I think it's just really annoying for a lot of NBA fans watching him fall over constantly when he could just be actually trying to find the ⁓ bottom of the bucket rather than trying to find the whistle, you know. And so I think that that's kind of the main ⁓ underlying issue here is not necessarily that anyone thinks that Shea would be nothing without free throws, but I feel like they don't think that he needs to rely on it that much. And I mean I agree. I used to love Shay. ⁓ I used to make when I back when I was making sports edits, I used to make a couple edits of Shea because, you know, he has a bag. He can shoot. He can make some crazy layups inside. He used to cr jump like crazy back when he played ⁓ with in Los Angeles. So I guess it's just a shame. Yeah, exactly. It's just a shame for some of us NBA fans who really like watching that type of game and playstyle. ⁓ and obviously you can't Big Country: Mm-hmm. Used to dunk. PV: necessarily say that it's not working because if it has been obviously he won the championship last year, he's been ⁓ V P two years in a row now. So it obviously works and that's why he keeps doing it. And ⁓ you know, you can complain all you want, but it's getting him the wins and it's getting him the rings. Big Country: Yeah. Definitely. I def I definitely see that. I mean that dude's like pull up for the mid range is just disgusting. PV: Yeah. Yeah, and I mean I saw this mentioned, ⁓ I think his name is Chase Talk Sports. he mentioned the other day, like, yeah, sure, ⁓ you know, the way that these Thunder fan or these Thunder players get their fouls is ridiculous. But if you count the free throws, obviously they got basically the same amount of free throws in the last couple of games as the Spurs. So it's not that they're getting more free throws. ⁓ Obviously is the way that they're getting the free throws that people hate, but Big Country: Yeah. PV: I think the biggest impact that the ⁓ Thunder have against other teams is just look at their percentages. I mean, they shot forty eight percent from the field, I think, in game three, with forty five percent from three point range, which is just a ridiculous number to be shooting as a team. And so, you know, when you're shooting forty five percent from the three point line, it's hard to lose games. And so I think ⁓ as as they do get these unethical free throw calls, ⁓ they still know how to get the job done in other ways. So That a lot of people don't talk about. Big Country: Amount of amount of depth of depth the Thunder have compared to the Spurs as well as unmatched. So. PV: exactly. I mean you had Jared McCain drop twenty three, something like that, twenty something points the other night, ⁓ and you signed him as as a free agent, which the Sixers just straight up traded for him. ⁓ But Sixers straight up gave up on him, and so, you know, ⁓ yeah, I agree. The depth that they have, they have AJ Mitchell, they have ⁓ Jared McCain, they have just an unbelievable amount of depth in addition to their star studded starting cast. Big Country: Traded. Okay. Yeah. I mean big contributor tonight was Hartenstein as well. He was plus twenty four. He was six right from the field with fifteen borders. I mean, you're getting that from your backup center. I mean ⁓ PV: And the thing with Hartenstein is you know, he he's just he's being he's being aggressive and that's what's that's what's holding down Wenbanyama a lot. And obviously you see a lot of these I I will have to say that Hartenstein has been fouling a lot. And he's been way he's been really, really physical in his defense. That's how you're gonna stop Wenbanyaba when d literally nobody's gonna match his size. You have to be physical with him. But ⁓ Big Country: Mm-hmm. PV: And that, you know, that's what's winning them these games and that's what's getting them these stops is him being physical. And, you know, you can definitely make the argument that he's gotten a lot of fouls that have not been called. But I mean, if they're not gonna call them, why are you gonna stop playing that way, you know? You win the game by doing what you can to stop their star player, and that's what he's doing. Big Country: Yeah. I don't know if you saw this, but Shea was sixteen for seventeen from the line today. PV: Yeah. Yeah, seventeen free throws. And you know, I feel like a big part of it does fe I feel like they feel a lot more comfortable ⁓ at home in these situations. So it does kind of feel very iffy when you see those seventeen free throws at home. ⁓ so we'll see if it's the same result when they go to San Antonio on Thursday. No. Yeah, Thursday. Big Country: Yeah, I I mean he's obviously pretty strong, you know. He's an MK player. I mean, a lot of that comes down to just maybe he's like people are just hacking him because he's too good. Maybe. I mean Wemby had twelve from the line today and he was twelve for twelve. I think Wemby also just needs to be fouled because he could dug from t you know, two feet away from the rim. He doesn't need to do anything. You know, you can just stand and just put it in. So it's just it's ⁓ it's it's weird. I'd I'd love to see just PV: Right. Right, yeah. Big Country: Like rookie Shay, like the version of him with the skills he has now, you know, that type of player. If they can somehow combo, you know, without like the bullshit that he tries to, you know, get, essentially. ⁓ but I say the bet of the week though, Pat, is I take we s I say we take Spurs, money line. PV: Yeah, right. Big Country: Get to seven. PV: I like it Spurs money line 'cause ⁓ I agree. I mean, in San Antonio, I think ⁓ whenever Wembinama's back has his back against the wall, I feel like he's a different animal. especially coming off of a rough game. You know, he did have twenty points today, but like you mentioned, twelve free throws. So twelve out of twenty points came from free throws. They were hacking him all game. I feel like he's gonna really want it next game, so I would definitely I would honestly take ⁓ money line and I would even throw in ⁓ Wemby points. 'Cause I do think he's gonna I think he's gonna have a big game. Big Country: Yeah. I mean the line's already out right now. It's minus one fifty two. I mean so at some point do do we think we just take Thunder 'cause they're plus money? I mean when you get Thunder at plus money PV: Nah, I don't think Thunder at plus money's is pretty crazy, but I don't think that the Thunder can take them in in San Antonio, especially not after a not with the San Antonio not not with San Antonio's backs against their wall. Big Country: Yeah, my I can agree with that. Should be fun to see on Thursday too, two days from now, obviously. So you listeners will ⁓ get to hear this, you know, tomorrow, day before the games make sure make sure to get that ⁓ that bet in, maybe throw a couple units on it, and then blame us if it doesn't hit. Yeah. ⁓ but now let's get down into the nitty-gritty, the depressing part of our day. The avalanche just got fucking ra raped. PV: Exactly. Big Country: And then when I sorry, not raped. they got touched like Diddy. Kidding. Yeah, because I mean I don't know what to really say. You just got manhandled and you also, you know, you came up against just an absolute buzzsaw, just kinda like the most like the Knicks. I mean, you can honestly say like they they played so well against us, man. I mean PV: Yeah, that's better. Big Country: We scored first in I don't know how many games. I believe two out of the four, maybe three. Definitely two out of four. You know, and to lose that one going up three ⁓ in the first period to end up losing five three in game three. Brutal for one. And we also saw some crazy stats. The Aves had not lost a game after the they were leading after the second period all season long. That was including postseason and regular season. They're forty five an hour. And they lost. Like PV: Yeah, you know, it was it was just a series of constant disappointment. ⁓ you know. Obviously the first two games we felt like, okay, we didn't have Makar. Our defense is lacking because of that. which even then the first two games without Makar, you still have millions of dollars invested in your forwards and we were not scoring. And you can say that about this entire series, other than maybe the first period of game three. you know, we go up three ⁓ that fur that third game. Feels like we're finally getting a little bit of momentum and then immediately well not immediately, but progressively throughout the game, you know, we just don't score anymore. We lose the lead, end up losing game three, five to three, and I think I think obviously that game just demoralized us, demoralized our offense too much for game four. So, you know, we score ⁓ one we put the puck in the net one time tonight. ⁓ they score on us twice, you know, our defense was better, but our offense continued to be really weak. ⁓ and like you said, it felt like we just ran into a buzz haw with ⁓ the way they were playing, you know. We could never get past ⁓ ⁓ the midpoint of the court of the what do you call it, the rink. ⁓ and so it just ⁓ it just felt like, you know, we were constantly running into their defense and we can never get past them. We can never get anything going, you know. We thought maybe we had something going the beginning of game three, only for things to get completely flipped on us and Big Country: Yeah. PV: I think after things got flipped on us after game three, you know, it was over from that moment. ⁓ you know, we just we were on our heels, it felt like the entire series. Big Country: Yeah, I mean I saw the stat during tonight's game. There was a point where we had two shots on net over 25 minutes of game time. Their defense was outstanding. Props to them, but the big boys got to contribute. McKen didn't have a goal. McCarr obviously was out for two games. I'm not going to put this on him. He was battling injury. He's been battling injury, you know, for the past two series. The fact that he PV: Yeah, which with yeah. Big Country: You know, even took the ice roast in the past two games just shows how tough he is. But Kinnan took that puck to the knee in game three, still tried to give it a go on, you know, power plays and empty nets. But I mean, you you can't say that was the reason the Avs lost. And you can't even say the goaltending is the reason the Aves lost. I thought the old goaltending was pretty good. You got some unlucky bounces. You know, it's that's hockey at the end of the day. It's not like you have these point blank shots that got that went in. You know, you had horrible defense on the first goal tonight, you know, you get the one on one essentially and just beats him. Can't really get mad at him. He has no chance. There. You need your defenseman to step up there. Second one got redirected. I don't I don't know how the fuck you even say that, regardless if it's redirected. Things coming in hot, you know, like but the big boys just I feel like they didn't step up in general. Like you saying you got get a lot of money down there to get them done. And you know, a lot of it a lot of talks gonna go on Bednar after this, you know. 'Cause you know, you didn't really see like too big of like, you know, changes throughout the series, you know, and how he was playing the the lines, but I mean, we'll have to have to wait and see kinda you know, with the nuggets, same, you know, just these high expectations and ultimately falling short of the goal once again. PV: Right. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's very similar, you know, for both teams, you know, a lot of money, a lot of ⁓ investments and a lot of team chemistry. ⁓ but kinda just where do you go from here if it didn't work, you know, kind of thing. So, ⁓ especially with both of them putting up such like a such a sad showing, you know, losing in four games this series and then Nuggets losing to Minnesota when that series should have been there. So, you know. on paper we have what it should have ⁓ we should have been taking to get to the finals in both of those, but neither team was able to pull through, so kinda just have to wait and see what happens this off season. Big Country: Yeah. Definitely, definitely. Unfortunate. And ⁓ you know, I I can honestly say with like both squads, I th I kinda feel like you need a change of the helm. I don't think that's coming with the nuggets. Can maybe see what the abs now. ⁓ but everything is, you know, it's early. We're just processing this as, you know, the game was over about an hour hour ish So we'll have to wait and see. But, you know, you're only gonna have so much time with each of these great players. You know, Nicola's not getting any younger. The dog's not getting any younger either. The guys around him aren't getting any younger. Like your window is so short in the NBA. It's a little longer, it feels like in the NHL, 'cause those guys can play forever. But, you know, we keep saying it for the feels like the past three years with the Avs, like they keep going all in. You know, they kind of sacrifice the future a little a little bit with their picks, even though they're not gonna have high picks anyway. But kind of same with the Nuggets, actually. But you know We gotta find a way to get back into the cup. So it's unfortunate. Really depressing. PV: Yeah, and it just feels like we, you know, we're right there, we're just missing one piece, but you know, it's it also feels like it's impossible to get that one piece without blowing it all up. So Big Country: Yeah, I I think you kinda hit that nail in the coffin there. It's just Aves are ⁓ it's just it's just sad, you know. And I wish we had Andy on here to talk about it because he would he wouldn't you would have a little bit more insight on this. I mean, obviously we we have like a yeah, shout out to Andy. Invited him on and he blew me off. But I mean, I don't really know. PV: Yeah. Shout out to Andy. Big Country: What else you can say about the Aves after those last three games? I mean game one you were winning. You know, you were up no, you weren't winning. PV: Yeah. Yeah, it's not much. No, the only time we were winning was game three. Big Country: No. No, yeah. They went down early. So can't really. Yeah, it's just pressing, bro. PV: Yeah, you know, it was just it was just a lot of we lacked aggressiveness. Big Country: No, actually that's not true. We we were up in game two through f two periods and then they gave up three in the third. So anyways, that kind of wraps up our weekly ⁓ you know, talk about Denver sports and just sports in general. ⁓ I do have a Denver sports fun fact of the week. how many games did the Rockies win? PV: You're right, yeah. Big Country: Out of twenty two in two thousand seven to make the postseason, that'd be the when the run became known as Rock Tok. PV: Out of twenty two. Big Country: Ten the season, yeah. PV: I wanna say nineteen. Big Country: Low close, they won twenty one out of twenty two games. PV: Twenty one out of twenty two, that's crazy. I was actually I did not think it was gonna be any closer than nineteen. That's wild. They call it Rocktober for a reason, baby. Big Country: Mm-hmm. And then they swept through the playoffs to reach the first ever World Series, only to get swept. Yep. You know what's even crazier? The Rockies have never played in a game five or game six in franchise postseason history. PV: Yeah, the playoffs. Yeah, I'll never forget sweeping the playoffs just to get swept. Wow, that is actually really crazy. Big Country: Isn't that that's that's wild. PV: So they either just sweep or get swept. Huh. That is pretty funny. Big Country: I mean it's a little depressing when you say it like that, but yeah. but it is what it is. Well hey, we will see Iraqis postseason in the next three years, hopefully. PV: Ha ha ha. I hope so. We're all we're all hoping for it, that's for sure. Big Country: Yeah. But that kind of wraps it up for episode five of the Altitudes Problem Podcast. Make sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube. Spotify, you know, you catch our little clips on YouTube Shorts and TikTok as well. at Altitudes Problem Pod. So you guys have a good week. don't stress too much about the Avs game. And ⁓ hope you guys have a good rest of your week. Peace. Have a good night. PV: Good night, everyone. East.