Sergeant and Mrs. Smith, you're going to love this house. Is that a tub in the kitchen? There's no field manual for finding the right home. But when you do, USAA homeowners insurance can help protect it the right way. Restrictions apply. [MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to the "Tell It Abs It Is" podcast. You're home for everything Colorado avalanche on the hockey podcast network. Here's your hosts, Griffin Youngs and Christian Boule. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the "Tell It Abs It Is" podcast. I'm Griffin Young. I'm joined by Christian Boule. As always, this is a rare one because we don't have the final score yet. Game 4 is currently still going on at the time of this recording. It is 4 to 1 Dallas with four minutes left to go in the game. And we're both figuring, why not just save ourselves a little bit of time on this one? Because this sucks. This sucks a lot. The abs get their ass kicked in this game first period is one of the worst periods I've watched in my life. And stars are about to take a 3 to 1 series lead. And the abs lose two very key players. Coming into this game, Devon Tays out with an illness. And we'll just talk about it right off the bat. There's no point beating around the bush. Bound the Chuchkin is put back into the player assistance program and is by word of the NHL suspended for six months without pay cannot be reinstated until November. So it goes without saying that he will not be available for the rest of these playoffs. And he will not be available for the beginning of the next season. And I just want to say, right off the bat, that substance abuse is a brutal, brutal thing. And we will never know the demons that Val has been battling over the course of the last few months, over the last few years maybe. And I just want to emphasize right away that however frustrated you are with this whole situation, however you feel about him missing the last two playoffs and not being available here down the stretch in an important playoff series, he feels worse. He feels way worse. Substance abuse is vicious. And until you've seen it firsthand, seen someone with it, or God forbid, suffered through it yourself, it is not something that is as simple as you just stop. It's not as simple as just making a choice. It is a disease and it takes hold of everything in your life. And it's a horrible, horrible, horrible situation. And I just want to emphasize that Val is suffering and he needs help. Yeah, I mean, I think just a good way to put my feelings on everything with it, it's just sad. You feel sad for Val. You feel sad for the players in the locker room. It's just a very sad situation. Him having to go through this again is-- it's just got to be a gut punch for him. I mean, it's like you said, substance abuse, it comes in all sorts of form. There's different ways. I for one, myself, have a very addict personality. I know that about myself. I'm very routine based. I'm lucky that the worst thing I'm addicted to is nicotine. I'm lucky in that way. But like you said, it attacks people in different ways. And I mean, it's just sad, man. It feels like we're kind of going through a deja vu situation with this all over again. And it just goes to show that it's a very, very hard thing to manage. You don't never get over it. Like you said, you just manage it. And hopefully this is the time that it's the kick in the ass that he needs. And by God, we wish him the best. But it's a very sad situation. And it just sucks that this has to come out two hours before a game. One hour? Yeah. We were within an hour of pup drop when all that breaks. And I'm sure it hits the locker room even harder, which I don't want to say is a reasonable explanation for the product on the ice in this game. But it's a reason for it probably, at the very least, to have that amount of wind taken out of your sails. And for Val and the Chushkin, I just don't think there's a place right now to be talking about his future on the team, and his contract, and the future. Like we're talking about a man-- We're four hours removed from it. This thing happens at like 8.30, my time, 6.30, mountain time. It's like barely after midnight right now. The game's not even over yet, as we're currently recording. It's just-- it's not the time or place to be talking about that at the moment as future. Like it just seems so insignificant compared to what's going on here, which is a very serious struggle for a man who is a new father and has clearly been suffering with these demons for a very long time. And it is not our place to judge anybody. And I've seen a lot of very, very nasty things being said online, even a lot of passively aggressive, nasty things being said online. And I don't want this to come off as me being on a soapbox and a moral high ground. But the only thing that we can do at this moment-- he's not coming back these playoffs. He's not coming back before the beginning of the regular season. Nothing can change that anymore. That's even if the NHL lets him back in. Yeah. I mean, he has to go through this process, and he has to clear that process six months is the earliest. The only thing that we can do is offer as much support as we can as a community for a man who is at the possibly the lowest point of his life. And however frustrated you are feeling, imagine being him and being pulled from these games. And watching your team lose five to one in an important game for-- Oh, they score again? Stars just score an empty net goal to one. Awesome. Awesome. OK. Yeah, imagine being him being pulled from the game, suspended six months without pay, being a new father. All I ask is empathy and support in a situation like this. Yeah, you're allowed to be frustrated. I'm frustrated. I'm mad. This whole situation, it sucks for everybody involved. It does. It's truly awful. All I ask is just a little bit of empathy. It sucks for absolutely everybody. Yeah. I mean, you summarize pretty much my feelings on the whole thing. It's frustrating. It's sad. You do have to go through that moment where you realize, like, we're just watching a hockey game. It's a little bit different for us because we're just sitting back watching hockey. He's the one having to live day to day. And-- I mean, he's not a malfunctioning machine. He's a man. Yeah, like it's just-- It's just tough because he's so damn good. He is such a really damn good hockey player, and I just hope that he gets all he needs, and he can come back and contribute to this team because we saw earlier these playoffs, just how important that guy is to this team. So wish valid the best of luck. And it's going to be probably a lot of topic of conversation coming up this offseason about that whole situation. And like you said, it's too early to speculate on any of it. You can look through your hot takes from everyone else on Twitter of what the app should do with them. If I know the apps, they're going to be patient. Let the process play out. But that's a future thing we can deal with. But yeah, I don't know if I have much else we can chime in on that other than it sucks. It sucks. It sucks. Val best of luck, man. And hopefully, this player assistance program actually works for him this time. Yeah, I mean, that's really all you can say at this point. It's not our place to speculate. It's not our place to judge. This is a man going through something. Hopefully, none of us will ever have to experience in our lifetimes or even witness someone experience in our lifetimes. And yeah, it is an incredibly frustrating situation for everybody involved. And it's just like he said, it's just really sad. It's really sad at the end of the day. And I wish him nothing but the best through this process. And I hope we're sitting here in November, six months from now. And he is fully sober, ready to go, 100%. And plays the best hockey of his life and is available for his family. That's the best case scenario here. And I hope it's with the apps at the end of the day, even still. So I don't have much else to add to the topic. We don't have ton other information. The only other thing to add just for the people that are curious is that this is not grounds for contract termination. The NHLPA would have a field day. They would rip any attempt to terminate his contract to shreds. And so it's simply not a thing that's going to happen. I'm even shocked that it's six months without pay. That was shocking. I'm surprised the PA agreed to that. It's a weird system. I don't want to get into the whole-- I'm a new shove it. Of the NHL Player Assistance Program, I just think it's weird for increasingly greater punishments for substance abuse. It just seems like a weird policy, but I can leave it at that for now. Because the apps still had a game to play today. And it sucks not having Val. And they find out maybe 20 minutes after that, the montage is sick and not going to play in this game. So that's brought-- yeah, it's here two safety blankets. On both sides of the puck, gone for this game. And the abs came out in this game. They lose five to one. It goes final now. The stars officially up three to one in the series. And the abs have their back against the wall. It never at any point felt like the abs ran it. Just never at any point felt like a game that the abs were going to win. The puck dropped, and the stars won. Yeah, I mean, you would have expected a little bit more of a push from the abs to begin with. But all the shit that happens an hour before puck drop, that kind of throws off the whole game plan. I mean, you had Val and Devontave's at morning skate today. Like, they were at morning skate. So you find out all this. It's bound to be a little bit of a downer, but holy shit did they get their ass kicked in by the stars in the first period. That was an utter beat down in that first period. The abs looked like they didn't even belong on the ice with the stars, which they didn't. They didn't in this game. It's a miracle it was one nothing. Alex, what is shift? I feel like I've said this for this entire series. What is shift that has been in the playoffs from Giorgi of letting down the abs in game one to this team has failed him in a way that I can scarcely remember failing a goalie in the playoffs, where I don't know what else you want him to do. It should have been 3, 4, nothing after the first period. The fact that he won nothing. And he's lying on his back after a shorthand and turnover by Cal McCar in their own zone. I don't know what else you can possibly ask for from your goalie. And they finished the first period outshot 16 to 2. High danger chances were like 16 to 1. At that point, the one scoring chance. Lucky rang it off a post just barely, so even still they don't get bounces to go their way when they do get one. It's the kind of thing where you're down 2 to 1 in a series in the second round on your home ice. You wonder how much the sudden absence of two of your best players plays into it. But that was one of the worst periods I've ever watched in my life, one of the most one-sided periods I've ever seen. It just looked like picking right up where we left off in game three, where they're just out of sync and even worse so. Even worse so, I mean, you, I kept waiting in that first period like, okay, that was a huge save. All right, the momentum's got to swing now. Like, great penalty kill. Momentum's got to swing now, it just never swung. And the stars sense blood in the water and they fucking attacked, man. Like, my biggest takeaway from this game is just that the stars are really fucking good and the abs can't bullshit around with them. Like, we knew that going into the series. Dallas is one of the best teams in the league. You can't not give, I don't know, not give 100% maybe does apply to this game, but you just have to be on your A game and the abs were giving their C minus game. - I mean, like, maybe it's the kind of game that would have beaten the sharks. - I don't even know if that would have beaten the sharks. - I think it would have been close. I think at least be a close game. Maybe you get a point out of that game in the regular season against the bottom five team. In the second round against the team, like the Dallas stars, no shot. No team losing this game 10 times out of 10, 100 times out of 100. Wyatt Johnston had 1.7 expected goals for the stars in this game. He has two goals himself. He was torching people. - Dude, he's so good. It's unbelievable. - Unbelievable. He's turning 21 tomorrow, today, by the time you're listening to it. He cannot even celebrate this game with a beer. - Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's fucked how good that kid is. And we say it was the X factor going into the series. He's been great. He's been great. And I, like, that first goal. Like, I don't know what the fuck Kilmakar is doing, man. Like, I genuinely don't know what Kilmakar is doing. And you never say that. You never say that about Kilmakar. This was one of the worst games I think Kilmakar has ever played in his life. - This was from top to bottom for Nathan McKinnon, Mika Rancin and Kilmakar, a horrible game. - Yeah. - Horrible in every conceivable way. They were absolutely nothing in this game. Kilmakar, directly responsible for the first Wyatt Johnston goal, just completely loses the puck on pressure in his own zone. Like, okay. - How many times have we seen Kilmakar evade that pressure? - Exactly, but it's like, it's pressure. It's an NHL team pressuring a guy with the puck. And he just kind of lost it. And the stars get several chances with Johnston and Sam Steele, Georgi have stopped the first couple ones. He's on his back. And Johnston just slams the puck into the net. Nathan McKinnon slams his stick down on the ice. It's nothing but frustration, miscommunications, and sloppiness. - Sloppiness, frustration. It's been a microcosm of the series outside of the last 10 minutes of game one. Mike, this series could theoretically be over right now. Mike, it could be. Like, they still have not led for a single second in this series. They still have it. And it's just, they're frustrated. They can't get anything going. Dallas is killing them five on five, dominating them five on five. And the abs have no answer for them. They have no answer. Whatever line Dallas is throwing out there, like fuck, I think Craig Smith had chances tonight. Like when Dallas's fourth line is doing what they're doing to you, it's just, there's nothing you can do. There's absolutely nothing you can do. Like I actually thought that the trend in line was okay. They didn't get played pretty much the rest of the game after the second period, but you're just getting dominated by a team that's able to roll four lines and they execute their game plan all four lines. - Yeah, and this is a team that has depth but is built to revolve around their top guys. They live and die through their top guys. When you're top line, a McKinnon, Laconon, and Rantonon is all minus three. And it's torched every single time that they're on the ice, you're not winning. Nope, not winning those games. I don't want to be here. How good Brandon Duhame or Ross Colton's playing, like they're not going to single handedly drag you back into a game like this. And they're lacking energy too. I mean, they're, you can hardly blame them. The whole building was lacking energy in this game. - Again, it felt like this wasn't a playoff game. But I'm sitting there and I'm like, "Why am I not like on the edge of my seat?" - Yeah, like it was. - There came a point in the second intermission row that I have a show to do coming up. And I want to go to bed. I'm tired. I want to go to sleep. I'm like doing push-ups and sit-ups just to get my heart pumping and my blood moving. So I have some form of energy to do this show. 'Cause I, it's three-one going into the third period. You know, they have a chance to do something, I guess. Like I got to snap myself out of this. And the stars went into a shell in the third period and abs out, Sean, 12 to six, and they outscored them. Right, it's just, it's just the way it goes sometimes, man. When shit starts rolling downhill, it's kind of hard to stop. And right now the abs are caught in a shitstorm and they can't do anything to stop this stars team right now. I mean, yeah, like after the first period, you're down one nothing, you're thinking, "Okay, all right, that was the worst period of hockey." - Oh, like four nothing. - It did, it did. But you're thinking, okay, that was the worst period you've ever played. If you can come out for the last 40 minutes and just be competitive, like just give some effort, you may be able to tie this game up. No, not even like remotely close, remotely close. - For the third time this series, you are down three to nothing. It was cute in the regular season that you were down three nothing in Dallas and came back, it was cute in game one that you're down three to nothing and you come back, we're now game two, you're down four to nothing, but you almost come back, right? And game three, you go-- - You're going down one. - You're going down one, you tie it at one and then you're down two to one and don't really generate much in the third period. And this game, you're down three nothing again and you really don't generate much of a comeback this time. If not four, they'd come back in game one, this series is over. - Yeah, no, we're talking about getting swept right now. - But that's the thing, it's not over. You have a game five coming up in Dallas and in order to keep your season alive, you've got to win three games in a row in a series you have not led for a single second against a team that has not given you an inch of space to breathe. And there's no point crying about it, there's no point moping about it. You've got a job to do, you're still here, you're still alive, you've got to come back in game one that has kept your season alive right now. You still got to show up, you still have to go out there and play and you're not seeing that intensity right now. The kind of playoff edge, playoff intensity where it really is, if this happens again in game five, this is the definition of going out with a whimper. Winnipeg had more fight than this against us. They had way more fight than this against us but they were just completely outgunned. Okay, the apps might be outgunned here. The stars are out working them badly. - The word you're looking for is desperation. We're gonna see what type of desperation the ads have coming up for game five. I just, I'm trying to be positive. I'm trying to think that we're gonna find a way to win three in a row. It's just, it's hard to believe it right now. I will say I think they can win game five and maybe game six. But you're asking a lot of this team to win three straight when they haven't led for a single second in this series. It's tough. It's tough but I'm not gonna go down with this team. My good, it's, it may be a sinking ship right now. I'm going down with it. We're ride or die with the apps. We will both be watching that game intently for game five. We will stay up late. We will record the podcast afterwards. And who knows, man? Maybe they can come out like the hurricanes have in the past couple of games and just, just play. Actually play your game and you can find a chance. - I mean, just do something to at least trip up Dallas. Have them do anything to have to respond to you because this entire series has been the abs trying to respond to Dallas. And then when that doesn't work, then just keep ramming their head against the wall and not responding and not forcing Dallas to make any change. Like what adjustments does Dallas have to make going into game five? - I don't know. That's gonna be a tough film session for him because there's gonna be like, all right guys, you just basically played two perfect games. Yeah, he played two perfect defensive road games, film session done. And yeah, day off, guys are doing great. There's nothing to critique from Dallas aside. They're playing absolutely excellent for the abs. I mean, it might be a four hour film session, four hour bag skate, like whatever it takes to get these guys back on their feet here. It's just really tough to watch. That's an half span just to watch this team going down with a whimper like this. I'm sorry, but this quote from Jack Johnson, I'm bound to Tushkin. Did you see that? - Oh. - He said he made his decisions. That's all I'm going to say. He made his decisions. And Tushkin's name plate has already been replaced in the abs locker room. - Holy shit. - Yeah, from Jack Johnson. - Wow, that's poignant. - Yeah, that is scalding, to say the least. Holy shit. Yeah, I don't even, I don't even have a comment. - Yeah. - I mean, that's, they know the situation way better than we do. I'm not going to walk back anything I said. At the beginning, not in the absolute slightest, but that is a very important perspective. - Yeah. - The locker room on that. - Oh, and hang on just to stick with the theme. I want to give credit to who tweeted that. Corey, amazing. - I'm sure you're given credit. - Yeah. - You wouldn't want to? - Yeah, the Denver Post writer Corey. But yeah, that's, it feels kind of poignant, eh? Yeah, but yeah, we're not going to talk about that because we're stick by what we said. What were you saying before that? I just saw that tweet and I just- - Oh, that just kind of wiped my brain clean. - Yeah. - That's not, that's not, I didn't think anyone was going to say anything. - Yeah, I'm kind of experiencing that. - I got a comment out of anyone, expect Jack Johnson. - Jack Johnson. - Level-headed veteran of the game, Jack Johnson. - The dad of the team. - The dad of the team. - To drop the scalding hot thing like that. And I'm not at all critiquing Jack Johnson here. He knows better than I do, what's going on. If that is his take, then I'm certain he has his reasons for it and they're probably good. - That may be the first quote we've ever heard from Jack Johnson. - Honestly, I was trying to think of when to have we heard from Jack Johnson. - Right. - The past of him scoring a goal and being like, yeah, that was cool. - That was cool. Oh, I know what you were saying before that. What adjustments is Dallas going to make? At least nothing because they played perfect. And I will say if you're going to go out sad like this, Dallas is just playing, it's not like you're beating yourselves. I feel like Dallas is just beating the shit out of you. And that's really the first time we've said that in this run that the abs have had. But yeah, let's finish the game breakdown before we go any farther into any of this. We're in the second period. Caleb Jones comes in for Devon Taves, not his best game, not Caleb Jones best game. He looked like a guy who's played one game in the past three months, maybe two. How many games did you play in the Winnipeg series? I forgot, who do you even fill in for in the Winnipeg series? Josh Manson? - I'm trying to even remember at this point, but overall he has two penalties in the game. And the second one is a power play goal for the stars. - And that was game right there. - That was just it right there. - And there's nothing your gift can do on that one. Let me get your take on this. I for one, I saw Jesse tweet about this and I'm so glad someone who's actually played hockey and is smarter than I am says the same thing. When you break a stick, just leave the ice. Go grab some of the stick. - Yes, just get off. - It just get off because I'd rather take that than you be half a person out there. At least if it's three, you know what you can, you can at least change your dynamic. When you're half a person, it serves no purpose. I get it, Lucky, give your stick to the D-man and then get the fuck off the ice and go get a stick. Like that drives me crazy. And I thought I was just like, like, I'm a stupid fan. I fully admit that to see some more like other people being like, yeah, you just go get a stick. It's like, okay, I'm not crazy. - Either get off the ice or get a stick. You are essentially a traffic cone out there. There's no discernible point unless you like physically cannot make it to the bench. As is like an insane thing to do. Get a stick. You can do five on three for two seconds. Like it's you'll manage. - And it's not the ball was the period of a long change, but still, like honestly, I'd take a two minute man on the ice penalty and just fucking risk it. 'Cause it's basically a guarantee that once a player breaks a stick on the penalty kill, I don't know if this is an actual stat. It feels like 70% of the time, the other team scores. - Yeah. - Like just go get your stick, dude. And why Johnson? I mean, it's a great pass by Robertson. He just, he fakes out your gift because he's expecting shot from Lekkenon side and Johnson's wide open. And he bangs one in, gets a power play goal and a short hand goal in the same game. Wouldn't you believe it on ESPN? Did you know that him and Wayne Gretz get the only other players to do that in the playoff game? - Yeah. (laughs) - You just said the magic four letter word right there or this was an ESPN game. You could tell by watching it because it sucked. Horrible broadcast. The camera was awful. You could barely see the puck. They don't know how to frame. They don't know how to track the puck. You can, the high skin in goal that makes it three to nothing. You didn't even see it going the net. - No, you just saw the reaction. I think I saw the stars player celebrate in front and I was like, "Oh, okay, cool goal." - You didn't even see it. And I'm not gonna go off on another 30 minute tangent but like we can't keep doing this. Genuinely cannot keep doing it. Like and they had a stars goal graphic up for like a solid two minutes during play. It's the kind of thing where it's just like, is anyone paying any attention? - It just frustrates me more because you watch like an ESPN, like NBA broadcast or NFL broadcast and it's flawless. - Resteemed. - It's flawless. - Yeah. - But the NHL, we can't just get confident. - Yet the decrues or whatever, like people who are just learning on the fly. And the kind of thing is no one talking to the camera guy being like, "Hey, this sucks. "You need to zoom out. "You need to frame up. "You need to start tracking the puck." Like you are wearing a headset listening to the director. - Yes. - It's not a single person on the entire crew like, "Hey, no one can tell what's happening. "There's a solid 20-second span "where the puck is in frame for maybe four seconds." Where every single time there is a puck shot back to the point, he is completely framing it in the wrong direction where he has the guy with the puck on the right side with the goalie out of frame. But this can be solved by just watching hockey and having common sense. Like, I'm gonna leave it with this 'cause I don't wanna go on another 30-minute tangent, but it just blows my mind every single time. How like, it's not an easy job, but it's also like, you should be able to get the gist of it. - You should, you should. But yeah, we're not gonna go up whole tangent. It's just a annoyance. And we've got what, five more years of it? - Yeah, great, great stuff. It's been the worst broadcasts I've ever seen in my life for all ESPN hockey broadcasts. They're horrific. - So that was tough. But yeah, the abs go down three-nothing on a Miro Hayskine and Shout from the point. I mean, that was just the type of night it was for the abs. Like, I, Giro gift loses track of this. I don't think if he saves it, the game's any different. Like, I mean, if we're being honest, like if that doesn't go in, it's still two-one at the end of the second and the abs don't score in the third, so it doesn't really fucking matter. So you can bitch and moan about Giro gift all you want, but if it wasn't for him in the first period, you're down to six-nothing. So... - If you are blaming Giro gift for anything that's going on in this series, I don't know what to tell you, man. I really don't. - It's not Giro gift, we promise you. We promise you. He's been great. He's been great. And like you said, I think it was last episode, it's not even a question now. He's coming back next year. - Is the starting goalie next year? The goal-tenning tandem next year, barring a shocker is going to be Alexander Giro giving you a sonnet in because like Raj said, when before we came into the playoffs, is they can't afford a goalie search right now. They can't afford to really go upgrade a net and go get Linus Olmark or Jacob Marks from. It's going to be hard enough to field a solid team next year as is. Yeah, and we can save all the off-season talk for the future, but Giro gives the guy next year and he's had a fantastic playoff outside of game one. And his stats whenever these playoff finishes are not going to look great because of that one game dragging them all down, but he's been good enough for this team and they have just completely let him down in this, this series against Dallas. I mean, it's three-one in the third period. It's not out of reach. You had a three-nothing comeback already in this series. And even in game two, you were down four to nothing and you scored three goals in the third period. You can do this. You can absolutely do this. You can absolutely do this. And they have some looks. I mean, Dallas just completely retreats into a shell in the third period. They have looks of some form, some way or another. Not all of them are super dangerous. A lot of them are from the perimeter. A lot of them are just cycling pucks between defense men around at the point. And just not enough bodies in front of the net. Not a lot of, there's a lot of missed shots. And Dallas had, I think by the time they scored their goal, that was their third shot on goal. Yeah. You should have scored probably before that. You're a good mix of great save. Two on O's. Yeah. And I get you're taking chances. I mean, honestly, for game five, I just say you say fuck it. And just fucking just go balls to the wall. Fuck playing it safe. Like if you're going to go out sad, go out aggressive. Don't go out because you're dumping and chasing and your D-man can't get back in time. Just go out aggressively. Go play at least somewhat your form of your game. And they're playing, they're trying to adjust to the stars. And that's exactly what the stars want. It's exactly what they want. So the stars are perfectly comfortable going into that shell. Oh, yeah. They've shown the last two games. Like, yeah, do it. OK, you got us once. You almost got us a second time. Three times? Absolutely not. Fool me once. Shame on me. Fool me twice. Shame on you. Fool me three times. No fucking way. Like it's not going to happen. Dallas is too good for this. Dallas is simply too good for this kind of hockey. This is literally beneath them. Whereas this is almost insulting to them to even present this to them. That this is their challenge in the second round. For an abs team that's just getting out works and getting beat by a team that's right now just better. Dallas is just a better team than them. When the abs top guys are not performing at all, the stars are running circles around them. And for the abs to win three games in a row in advance to the Western Conference final, they're going to need massive games from McKinnon and Rantinen and MacArthur. And outside of game one day, they have not even come close, not at all close. Dallas has completely neutralized them completely. And Miko Rantinen has just not looked very good in this series. Nathan McKinnon, he looks like he's trying out there. Dallas has just not given him any room. And he's frustrated. He's really, really frustrated right now. And Kel McCar, the play he gives up on the shorthand and goal against is just the kind of thing where you're just, who are you? Who is this? What kind of play is that supposed to be? And it's incredibly frustrating. And he kind of throw your hands up at a certain point because like, how can you sit here and blame Miles Wood or Jakob Trenen for anything that's going on right now? I mean, the blame, if you want to point blame at people, it's got to fall on the guys at the top. They set the example where they're not going to score every single night. McKinnon's not going to have four points every single game. Rantinen's not going to have a hat trick every night. Just you want to see more from them. You want to see them pushing the pace. You want to see them have Dallas on the retreat because you can have depth all you want. But one of the things I've talked up with this app, depth, is it's the kind of thing that's so frustrating after McKinnon gets off the ice and you're finished dealing with him, is then middle stat comes on the ice. And okay, you're done with that. And okay, now here comes a really solid third line with Colton and Wood and all the speed they have and Trenen and Kebi Ronten. And then a fourth line with a guy like Trenen and do Heim guys that wear you down. But when the top line is just not there at all, that's not a problem to deal with. The team is built to be frustrating after the top line where you let your guard down once the top line is off the ice. And then those guys are going to take advantage of that. But when you have a situation like this, that just doesn't happen at all. - It doesn't. And we said after game three, you needed Nathan McKinnon to have one of those games. And I'm just going to keep saying, I mean, the stars credit to them, man. Like they're just doing a really good job shutting him down and you're getting no momentum from that line. If anything, they're losing momentum when that line's on the ice. And I don't recall ever saying that with Nathan McKinnon's line on the ice in this playoff run. I don't recall ever saying that. But they are losing momentum when that line goes on the ice. And like you would see a good shift by the fourth line. They would get a couple of cycle chances. And then the McKinnon line would come out and they just, they can't do anything. Nothing. Like they can't continue doing anything. And it's, I mean, it's still possible. Like the abs could very well figure something out and win these next three games. And we'll be going, ha, ha, ha, like what we were idiots after game four. But it's a tall mountain to climb. And unless Nathan McKinnon and Miko Rancin and put on Superman capes and get the only thing that can kill them is Kryptonite, I don't know. Because I feel like you had a decent Casey Middlestack game. Like we actually, I actually saw him tonight in this game. Like he, he was sort of active. Yeah, he scored a goal. He's somewhat effective. We haven't even mentioned it, Jonathan Duran played his first game in a month. That was the only good news we got today. And then it was followed by just another shit show of bad news going the abs way. I thought he's looked very injured still. He looked okay. But I thought he looked good. He definitely had some moments where he was generating something complex. I mean, he looked like he hasn't played in the playoffs since 2020, he hasn't played in front of a crowd in the playoffs, I believe it's Tampa. Went to the Eastern Conference final in 2016, whenever that was where he wants to go out there. He wants to play like he had energy. I agree, he looked a little injured, a little slow. But what can he have to even do at this point? He has to be out there. There's no, you can't hold him out at this point. You're missing so many guys. Yeah, missing so many guys. And it's, I mean, you need Casey Middlestack to play like you did tonight. And then you need Nathan McKinnon to play as well as he did, or play better than what he's given us these last three games. Yeah. And like, I like, like, Leckenin, he rings one off the post in the first period, just as anyone had enough in this series. Like, McKinnon, I haven't seen enough. McKinnon, Ranton, and even Middlestack is fine as he was in this game, and then he was fine. Like, he got beat on the fourth goal that made it 4-1 Dallas. It's fine in the game. Zach Paris, he's 39. I can't pick on him. Like, he feel bad for him in a way. This is, this is his last run. And this is, it's not trending very well at the moment, in the second round for him. He's just, no one has looked particularly great. No, I mean, but no one's looked good. Like, we've got to kill McCar looking bad. Like, it's just everyone's been bad. And yeah, the F's still have a chance. They do. And probably by the time you talk to me Thursday before the game, I will have talked myself into the fact that the F's are gonna go into Dallas and win game five. And then they're gonna come back win game six. And then they're gonna go game seven, and they're gonna find a way. Like, I'm gonna talk myself into it. Right now, you're talking to me at the lowest of lows. - I mean, but that's also a thing. Right now, we're at rock bottom. It's 3-1. And it's the only way it gets worse is if you lose, but the only way to go from rock bottom is up. It's not the first time the F's been down 3-1 to Dallas in recent memory, where they lost both their goalies in the bubble and looks completely ineffective. They're down 3-1 and managed to come back for some game seven and, you know, almost winning. We don't have to go down that rabbit hole right now. But the difference is we have Kiwi Ronta this time. - This time, we have Kiwi Ronta. So therefore that's gonna make all the difference. So as doom and gloom as this has been, the series isn't over until you lose four times. And for Dallas, the hardest game to win is the closeout game. And so the abs, they're not done yet. The series is not over. The season is not over yet. You now have to go into Dallas in win game five. You have to come back to Colorado, you have to win game six, and then you have to go back to Dallas and you have to win game seven. It is not going to be easy. You might be able to say that's damn near impossible to do. But the series is not over. It is not over until you lose a fourth game. And winning three games in a row, not impossible for this team. It's not at all impossible, but they need to have a completely different game than the ones that they have had in the first four games of the series. They need to score first in game five. They need to have a lead at some point in the game and be able to play ahead and force Dallas to have to come to them and force them to try to respond. They have to not take stupid penalties. They have to have their top guys playing at their best. Man, this is a real laundry list of things listed on right here, but they can do it. They definitely can do it. It's just the way these last two games in particular have transpired. It inspires little to no confidence, but it is not over. It's not over till the fat lady sings. - Yep. - That's just the best way of, I mean, it's not over. And you're talking to me at the lowest of lows, check back in with me Thursday. I may still be at the lowest of lows after the game on Thursday night, but at least right now, I do still think there is a chance. And like you said, it was three-one in the bubble. It was, and they look terrible in those games. And you have to go no farther back than Florida Boston, unless your Boston goes into Florida wins both games pretty convincingly, and they take a three-one series lead, and the Panthers came back and won that series. Granted, the Panthers were a lot healthier than the Avs, but it's possible. And you have Carolina and New York right now. Carolina looked deader than dead. They go into New York tonight, win game five. And now all of a sudden, the series, it's like, oh shit, they have to go back to Carolina that more than likely it's gonna be a game seven. Like, it is possible. You just have to go out there and execute your game plan. And like you said, play with the lead. We haven't seen Dallas have to put a full court press on yet. 'Cause they haven't had to, because they've literally not trailed in this series. They haven't trailed. They haven't trailed. - They've been able to retreat into a shell. It backfired one time, almost backfired a second time. The last three times has been damn near perfect. So you gotta switch it up and put Dallas on the defensive, hopefully, in this series. And the thing is, like, when you're down three to one, you win one game. And now you're coming back home and conversation starts to be had. Like, you can't get ahead of yourself, but you just have to take it one game at a time. Right now, it is game seven for the next three games. Every game for you is game seven. If you lose, you're done. That's your season. You have to play for your season every single time. You are on the ice over the next three games. If you don't, you're going home. So that's simple. And you gotta start with winning one in Dallas. That is not going to be easy, but you can do it. You've done it three times this season. I'd say you change up how you do it. You don't go down three nothing this time. And maybe you try to win this game, like, you know, five, two, pretty comfortably. And put some doubt in their head that maybe the abs woke up. And maybe this team's not gonna be easy to put away in game six. And if you win game six, game seven, anyone's game at that point. - Anyone's game, anyone's game. That's just all we're saying. That's all we're saying. You just gotta go win in one game five. You're facing elimination. The abs are literally going to have to play with desperation they haven't played with all year. Your season could literally end on Wednesday night. Go out there, execute your game plan, and just find a way. Like, we've said that every game this year is find a way to win. Find a way to win. - Yep. Just mentally, you gotta be more in it for this game. You just have to, you gotta take it to him. And if you're gonna go out, go out swinging. Don't go out passive and scared. And like, what if this doesn't work? What if it does? Play, hit, knock someone over. Get some pucks on goal. Move people out of the way. Like just go down. If you are gonna lose game five, go down with some fight. Go down at least with a little bit of pride. Go down, not regretting what could have been. 'Cause this team can win the Stanley Cup. I still believe in that. Even without Gabe Landis Gog. Even without Logan O'Connor. Even without Val Nachushkin. Is it going to be very complicated? It's going to be absent fucking lutely. It is gonna be really, really hard to come back in this series and then beat the winner of Vancouver Edmonton and then beat whoever comes out in the East. But your season is not over. It is not a zero percent chance that that can happen. This team has the firepower to do it. We have seen it all year. Yeah, they go through stretches. That was one of the big concerns that I got going to the playoffs. This team's inconsistent. When they are on the up, there's not a lot of stuff. There's not a lot teams can do to stop them. What they did to Winnipeg in the first round should not have happened. It was historic how good they were against Winnipeg. No matter how poorly Winnipeg adjusted in that series, what the app still did to them was historic. And it's just gone on a downturn against Dallas. Like they've got to shake off the frustration. They've got to shake off that oh Dallas just has her number, go play. Just go play. It can't be worse than what it was in the last two games. It literally cannot. I mean, we hope, we hope. How can't so it is worse? Okay, then you're done. Yeah, it's been a problem. Okay, it's not going to be more embarrassing if you try and still lose. Just put it all out there. In game five, you might be surprised where it takes you. Let it all hang out. Let it all hang out. But let's do official predictions for game five. I'm going to say this, and I just want everyone who's listening to know that I'm just trying to change up the strategy because maybe we'll get some good luck. I'm going to say the apps lose four to one. And if you've known me and you've followed me on Twitter, you know what I'm trying to do here. Have you had your McDonald's lately? Oh, McDonald's will be eaten before game. I just want to make sure we're on the same page and I have to go back to what I was doing for game one. I got to go back on my calendar and figure out what I was doing for game one to see if I can figure out the formula to how we can get this back. I mean, I've been wearing my socks. I've had the lamps on. I've turned the lamps off. I've moved rooms. Just hasn't worked. It's got to go back to the drawing board for game five. I appreciate what you're doing. I know what you are trying to do. I will not critique it, but I will never go out predicting a loss. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. I completely respect that. I just want you know what I'm doing. And that, yep. Just for moral reasons, I'm going to say the Avalanche win this game three to one with an empty netter. I think it's a low scoring game. I don't know if they're just going to magically break through. I don't know if that's going to happen, but I think your give is going to play strong again. I think they're going to clean up some of those mistakes. Your give might have the game of his life and steal one in Dallas and you're just going to need it. You're going to need a hero to come through. Whether it's the guys at the top or the guys at the bottom, I think they're going to just get enough for game five. And then I think game six is when things could get interesting. When they come back home, having stolen one in Dallas, confidence back, I think they could win big in game six. But for game five, it's going to be a dog fight. And your season is going to be on the line. You better be more desperate than Dallas. You better have more energy. You better have more adrenaline in Dallas. And you gotta fight for your life. Every single night, every single shift, you're fighting for your season. You don't want to go home. Fighting for your life. I like that. That's going to be the motto going in. You're fighting for your life. - Yep. - So it's what you got to do. I just want to know that if you followed me along all year, you know what I'm trying to do. You know what I'm trying to do. And I'm just loving, you're not wearing, do you have an Apple watch that you wear? - I wear a $20 Timex watch. - There's been some very rational responses in our Twitter mentions during this episode. That's my watch just been buzzing the entire time. - I took a brief look at it. And the ones I saw were relatively civil. - Yeah. Well, the problem is, is I get it from all three accounts. So I just have like, my phone's just like, just such negativity. - So obviously, I mean, there was definitely some words in my mention over the last about five hours or so. Twitter is just not a great place. - No, it's not great. It's great when your team's winning, but when that's losing. - Even then, it's not always that great. - Yeah, true. - True, 'cause you have other people coming and shitting on the parade. - Yeah. - But yeah, I mean, it's been a rough day for being an apps fan. I speak for you, I imagine with this, that I love this team. I will always cheer for this team. They've given me some of the greatest moments of my life. And I will always ride with this team. And that's where sports can be really stupid sometimes because it shouldn't affect my emotions as much as it does. But you just keep trooping along and I love the abs. I mean, they're literally permanently inked on my body. So they're not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere. This is a tough day. This has been a tough couple of games to be an apps fan, but until the nail is put in the coffin, I will not stop believing in this team. 'Cause I look at the series score. I see a distinct lack of force, not see a fourth win for the stars yet. And I still see another game on schedule for game five. So according to that, we still got another game to play. There is still business to take care of. We can be down in the dumps. We can be frustrated. We can how we can moan about how awful this team's played over the last two games. Now, seeing's on the line, they're not going to go win in Dallas. They have a chance. There's a chance they can go win in Dallas and then there's a chance they can drag it back to Colorado for game six. In game six, there's a chance, but they can win that game too. They don't know how good it is, but there's a chance for it. - There's a chance, there's a chance. - Raising your things and worse teams have gone on to come back and win series. All it takes is the stars get complacent. They think they have it in the bag and all of a sudden they can't score on your give. And the apps, they just get one through. Jake Ottinger, they just put one underneath his arm and win game five somehow, somehow, some way. And we've seen with the stars, I don't know how comfortable they are if the abs get off the mat in game five. Where they'll, I'm sure they'll feel okay, but that's there in the back of their mind where three times this year they've choked a lead against the abs. What if they do that in a series? You know, it'll be there, but you got to win game five. None of this conversation matters if you lose game five. You go home and we're switching off season talk. So you got business, you got to take care of, that's it at the end of the day. Take care of business and come back to Denver and win game six and you go from there and you go from there. It's a one game series. - Yep. I mean, as it stands right now, game five is game seven. There is no game six right now. It is not on the schedule. We don't know when it is because it doesn't exist right now. Game five is game seven. And then game six, if it happens, it's game seven. And then game seven, if that happens, is obviously game seven. So it's all the same thing at the end of the day. You're fighting to keep your season alive, you're fighting for your life. I think they do it. I have no reason to believe that. I just do. I just do. There's a chance they can do it and I think they do. - I love it. I love the positivity. I'm feeling already better about going into Thursday, Wednesday, if I can get my days correct. - And you know what? If they lose, we're not subjected to this anymore. - Nope, not subjected to it. - Not subjected to it. If they come out in game five and they play absolutely awful. Okay, that's it. - Yep. - We don't have to keep talking about how awful this team is and we can start talking about next year. But that hasn't happened yet. - Hasn't happened yet. So I think I'm good on this shit show of a game. Let's talk about the rest of the NHL playoffs because it's actually been pretty good this round outside of this app series. - Yeah, who saw this being the worst series? - Yeah, not many, not me. But yeah, here we are. Let's do East Coast Eastern Conference first. Well, I mean, Florida's beating the shit out of Boston. Like that's- - But there's talking points in that series. - Yeah, I mean, Boston is like, the thing is if you weren't paying attention, like we talked about in the last episode, the Sam Bennett play. Like, yeah, if you go in Zapruder film it, you can see that he punches Marshan, but it's Brad Marshan. Like, who cares? Like he's the dirtiest piece of shit player in the league. Like, for once he gets cheap-shotted and everyone expects the whole world to cater to Brad Marshan. Like, sorry, dude, when you swoop with everything that moves, I don't have much grace and sympathy for you. - See, 'cause also at the end of the day, before game four, they showed the other angle where it shows like Bennett punched him in the face. Like he did, he punched him. And the NHL just didn't have that footage when they were making a decision for supplemental discipline. What do you mean they didn't have that? 'Cause like, I can feel however I want about Brad Marshan and the Boston Bruins. What do you mean you didn't have the foot, you are the NHL, you didn't have that? - I'm cool with it. I mean, I know he punched him, he probably should have been suspended, but fuck Brad Marshan, and then fuck the boss. - It shows how little the NHL gives a fuck about players. Like, yeah, it's Brad Marshan and ha ha, that's funny, but it just really does sum up like, man, this league doesn't give a fuck about players safety in the playoffs, they do not care at all. And again, not a Bruins fan, but the officiating in game four was off to put it mildly. I mean, the Bruins blew a two nothing lead in the game, and the Sam Bennett power play goal, I mean, based on the rule, you're not allowed to push a guy into your goalie and impede him from making the save, and they reviewed it, and then they said it was good goal, and then put the Bruins on penalty kill, and then the Panthers, not on the power play, but pretty shortly after that, take the lead and win the game. That's not great, that, yeah. - It's not great, but-- - Not a Bruins fan, but I understand the gripe. - It couldn't happen to a better city in Boston, that's all I have to say on it, I get it, but I have zero sympathy for Boston, zero, like none, like Patrice Bergeron was the only likable player on that team, and he's gone. So I have zero sympathy for Boston, and I just think Florida's the better team. - Yeah, I mean, Florida is unquestionably the better team in the series, but it's just I hate when games are marred by officiating talking. Like if Florida's gonna win this series, which I want them to, I want it to be because they just kicked the shit out of them like they did over the last two games. It's just a shame in this game to have it marred by controversy. And maybe it'll ultimately be a good thing because we're finally talking about why are we not holding officials accountable, which is something I have been asking for for probably about four years now. - Yeah, yeah, but Florida's up 3-1. I think they closed that out in game five. I just don't see Boston winning another game. I mean, Swamans actually looked vulnerable in these past two games. So I think Florida's gonna wrap it up. They're just a better team. Like I said it last episode, if it's Florida Dallas and the Cup Final, that's a appointment view television for me. - I think Florida at all is just appointment television for game five, whether they play the Rangers or the Hurricanes in the next round and whoever they play in the final. This is an exciting ass hockey team. - They're so fun, dude. - What did they not do? - They've got hateable players. They've got superstars. I think like Bobrovsky is like their only Achilles heel because he's been... - Okay, okay. - Pretty questionable in the playoffs. I think that's their Achilles heel, but they've just, they're deep. They've got guys like Gus Forsling super underrated guys and they have hateable fucks like Sam Bennett. They think they're just full of rats and superstars. And it's such a fun brand to hockey to watch 'cause they also just do everything so well. - I just love how Vladimir Tristan goes playing what third line for him. It works. - Yeah, it works. - It's like the only situation in the league, I think just works for Vlad Terasenko 'cause I think that style just suits him best right now for where he's at in his career. - And Panthers up 3-1. I'd be shocked if we're not coming on here Wednesday talking about the Panthers in the Eastern Conference final and they're just waiting for their opponent. - Yeah, but I don't know. I sound like very like not smart when it comes to Bradmarshan but I think Bradmarshan's one of the dirtiest players in the league. And I'm sure like imagine like if the rules were reversed and like Tom, this happened to Tom Wilson. Bruins fans wouldn't give a flying fuck. They'd be laughing too. - Yeah, man, it's what it is at the end of the day. I mean, you have a hateable player, people are gonna love when bad shit happens to him. - Right, that's just kind of where I'm at with it. So it's just like that dude, Bradmarshan, is he probably the dirtiest player in the league? I think he gets voted the dirtiest player in the league. - Incidentally, I mean, he doesn't have like the decapitations. - No, that Jacob Truber has, but-- - Yeah, like the that Truber or even Wilson, like you look at the examples of guys who like try to kill people. Bradmarshan is just a rat. Whereas just like, if he hurts you, he doesn't mind. - Right. - Like when Jacob Truber is trying to defend against Kuznetsov and like throws a UFC elbow trying to knock him out of the play, like, yeah. He's trying to maybe hurt someone here. - Kind of dirt bag. Speaking of Jacob Truber, all of a sudden the Hurricanes, one too straight, three too. I thought they were dead once Truber scored that short handed tonight and the Rangers have won nothing. The Hurricanes scored four unanswered goals. Or was it five? It was four. - Four. - Four unanswered goals and win game five in New York and all of a sudden the Rangers fans that were just puffing their chest out that it's like, we are unbeatable. They have a little bit of fear going into it because at five on five, the Hurricanes have probably been better than the Rangers. I think they showed the stat that the Hurricanes been better and Igor's not making, he's still playing really good, but he's shown a little bit of weakness, a little bit. And that's all the Hurricanes needed. And Freddy Anderson was competent tonight. He didn't give up a bad goal. - Yeah, the trouble one was, I didn't like that. - It was speaking of people, but that's the only one you gave up. - Yeah. - It's the only one you gave up. So do I still think the Rangers are going to win the series? Yeah, just because it's going to be really tough for the Hurricanes, do it. - You do all of these. - But it is nice. - Still got to win two more. - Yeah, still got to win two more. And I just like the fact that the Rangers are going to be humbled a little bit going into this next series. - Yeah, they looked beatable in this game. And you look at game four, where if you went out for a bad goal, the Hurricanes don't even need that last one. And the two games, the three games they won before this were all one goal games. This was the first beyond one goal game of this whole series. And the guys who scored Jordan Stahl, whose net saw of Martin Nook and Natures had the empty netter. It's getting interesting now. Now you go back to Carolina for game six. And again, Hurricanes have probably been the better team at five on five, if they just-- - Stay out of their own way. - Figure out the specialty. Stop giving up short-handed goals. Score like every now and again on the power play. 'Cause again, they don't score on the power play in this game at all. They're probably like one for 25 in this series. - That's probably right. - If they just figure out the special teams a little bit, they might actually do this. - Yeah, I agree, I agree. But yeah, that's going to be fun. I think they're playing before the abs again on Wednesday. - They have a two-day break. So they play on the 16th. - Oh, sorry, are the abs the only game on Wednesday? - I think they are actually from what I remember from looking at this at earlier. - We play at six o'clock my time. We won't be up till fucking midnight. - Oh, all right. You know what? Things are coming up abs. - Things are coming up abs. But I'll actually be lovely. I can't wait for that. That's going to be-- - That's going to be fucking terrific. We're going to be just pointing the episode. It might be like midnight. - Yeah, I've got. I don't even want to think about that. That's just great news. - But yeah, I'm saying this now. It's going to go triple over time. - Correct, correct. That's going to be the triple overtime game. And yeah, I think the Hurricanes win game six. I just don't think they be New York four times. - I think I said after game three, that the Hurricanes were going to win the next two games. The Rangers finish it in six. I'm going to stick with that. - No, I get it. I still think Reds are going to win the series. It's just, I don't have to hear about New York for a couple of days. - Right, if this happens, I do not like the Carolina Hurricanes at all. I dislike the Rangers even more. I'm a certified Rangers hater. You all know this at this point. I do not like this team whatsoever. If they blow a three nothing lead after winning their first seven games of the playoffs. - And lose four straight, that'd be-- - And lose four straight. I will be insufferable, insufferable. Like Rangers fans avoid this show for the next five years because I will bring it up every single time. - Yep, so I can't wait for that. It's going to be fun. Moving over to the Western Conference, the shock and awe, it's just kind of a shame these games are happening so late at night. Vancouver Edmonton has delivered on everything so far. We've had the hatred, we've had the violence and the Canucks are up to one in the series. I'm shocked. I mean, I know that we're, everyone and their mom was picking the Oilers to win the series of five. The Canucks just, they fight, man. They don't give up and Brock Besser rules and this goaltender, I'm not even gonna try to pronounce his name, but she loves. He's been great, like it's getting to the point where if Demko, I don't even think he put Demko back in yet. - How many, you just made 42 saves? - Right, he just made 42 saves on 45 shots in this game where the Canucks put up 18, one, and they want, how could you possibly take him out of the crease? - You can't, you can't take him out. So maybe that's a good thing 'cause this run will end for him, it will, but if it just buys Demko a little bit more time. - We have seen this. - We have, no, I don't disagree with him. - This has happened before, where a third string rookie comes in and just no one can beat him. - Yeah, no, I completely agree. Just rags a team kicking in the screen. We saw it Matt Murray, we saw it Jordan Bington. It is not a one off. This stuff has happened before. - It's happened. - No, I don't disagree with you, but at worst case, you're buying Demko more time and more time than they thought they had. - You're letting him get healthy. And also, I think the bigger story is Stuart Skinner. - Oh, dude, he's been there. - Shit, this dude sucks. - Yeah. - And he stats, supports that. Where, in the salary cap era, he, I believe is the second worst goalie with now a 20 game sample size in the playoffs. He was an 8.83 last year and through eight games so far, he's an 8.77. - And that's with like a 35 save shut out too against the Kings in game three, or game four, if I remember, right? - That's dragged up by one of the best goaltending performances of the entire playoffs in the three against Los Angeles in the first round. 11 saves on 15 shots is unwinnable. - Yeah. - You can't win a game with that. It doesn't matter. - It just sucks even more that Calvin Pickards, they're back up. They, they don't have a better choice. - I mean, gee, I mean, if they lose this series, and then obviously that's getting ahead of ourselves, 'cause it's only two to one, but Ken Holland has got to answer for this goaltending shit. - Yeah. - Jack Campbell signed for $5 million, and he's playing in the minors and sucking in the minors. And Stort Skinner is your savior. He's fine in the regular season, but for two years in a row, he's awful and you're wasting another year of McDavid and dry settle as those contract years get closer again. If they lose this series, like that is surely he's, he's not going to be fired, but he should be fired. Like, Ken Holland should not be in charge of this team. - I agree, I agree. But yeah, we're getting ahead of ourselves. I mean, I do expect they always to win tomorrow and 2-2, but I just got to give credit to the Canucks. Like that team just fights, they just fight. Like, they're just- - I love them. - I love them. - They're fun to watch. And I would very much enjoy, like, if Vancouver won, we would never hear the end of it, but I also wouldn't be upset. Like, if I have to rank the remaining teams of likelihood of like the teams I'd be okay with winning, it's Florida one, Vancouver two, significant gap everyone else. - Yeah, yeah, those are really the only two teams I'd feel okay. - Yeah, like Florida, like Florida is, I don't care. Rangers, I hate, but- - The Canadian drought is going to end eventually. - Eventually. - We just want it to be funny. - Yes. - The Canucks end the drought while the Leafs made the playoffs nine years in a row and never came close. And the Oilers never made the Cup final, like all these super obnoxious ass teams. And it's the Canucks who for a solid 10 year stretch were the worst team in the NHL. And they get a GM for two years. And a third string goalie carries them to a cup. That's funny. That's really, really, really funny. So I would root for that over probably anything else. Yeah, they'll turn insufferable very quickly and we'll hate it, but it's probably the best case scenario. - Yeah, then work with the Panthers. That's where I'm at with it. - Yeah, the Panthers outside of the abs are 100% who I'm rooting for to win. - Yes, yes. But I just love dry side of those court afterwards. Like that dude, he just, every time he talks, he becomes more and more unlikable. They asked him about the goaltending. He goes, I didn't know good goaltending was us hitting the post. And it's like, well. - He be. - Like that's technically good goaltending 'cause he's blocking everything else. And the only thing you can hit is the post. - Well, that's not his fault, is it? - Right. Like he's just a good manager. - Brother in Christ, you shot the puck. - Right. - Right. So yeah, Landry, so every time he talks to me, it's like you are just one of the most unlikable players in the age. Like when it gets to the playoffs, he just turns into such a whiny baby. - Yeah, but great. - He is in general, just kind of a whiny baby. - Yes. - Where it's like the famous, why are you so pissy? Leon quote is funny because it came from and out of touch reported, but like, - Kind of true. - It applies in multiple situations, where it's like, man, maybe a broken clock is right twice a day. - Yeah, but that series has been very fun. The other big story, Carson Sousie and Dikita Zdoroff, just sandwich, kind of David with crossjacks. It's the, I genuinely think the only reason Sousie got to spend it is 'cause it was kind of like David. - Yeah, that happened and you had like 50 hit pieces from several different people being like, this is a disgrace to the game. Kind of thing like, I agree, this is a little ridiculous, but David initiated by going after him and slashing him and in Sousie's defense, he did not know Zdoroff. - Doraoff was cross-checking him back. - Gonna chop him in the lower part of his body and make him fall. Like, 'cause I don't think Sousie was going for his face. He was going to cross-check him in the chat. - If you look at the trajectory of it, if his face isn't coming down, it's just right in the chest. - Yeah, it's just a normal ass cross. You'd be like, dude, you slashed me, you don't do that, but that didn't happen that way. And I guess as awful as player safety is, I don't think they can let anyone get a cross-checking Connor McDavid in the face after a game. - Kind of thing and yeah, rough, real rough. - Very rough, but also I was kind of like-- - Yeah, and Sousie got a game. - Sousie got a game to Doraoff got $5,000 fine. - Yeah, I think it's a little weak to let McDavid off with nothing, but-- - It's McDavid. - Yeah. - Superstar is good, superstar. - And it's like, he's kind of fine. I mean, he initiated the thing, it was not necessary slash. Like, if you're gonna give Zdoroff a fine, you're gonna suspend Sousie, you gotta go the full way. - Yeah, agreed. - It's $5 to Connor, fucking McDavid. I mean, come on. - That's it. - Just show me some showmanship here. - Show me something, but I think that's it, man. I don't think I have anything else. Super sad day, just being an App fan, but it's not over yet, it's all we gotta say. - It is three to one, it is not four to one, the series is not over. And just to finish up on the vowel situation as a whole, we're gonna have six months to talk about this thing. You're gonna have a whole off season, regardless of how long this season and this run is for the abs to talk about this whole situation and everything that's going on with it. Like, don't empty your clip right now, less than 12 hours removed from it going out, like sleep first, come to terms with the situation, and we'll tackle it at some point. We'll find out more, I'm sure, as time goes on and we can save all of our big, bad, hot takes that are gonna generate likes until then, but I'm content to leave it with that for now. - Agreed. - Oh, so I'm ready to wrap this one up here. It's this do or die in game five, you gotta win three in a row in order to move on. Sometimes math is easy, so the abs, that's what they gotta do. And we'll be back for game five, win or lose, hopefully it's not a post-mortem, hopefully we're talking about a game six back in Colorado. But for now, that is going to do it for us on the Tell It's Abs It is podcast. You can use promo code Tell It Abs It is on seat geek for $20 off your first order of $50 or more. You know, follow us on Twitter, you can follow me @gyoungsnhshell, you can follow Christian @Christian_balay, and you can follow the show @TellIt's Abs It is. But again, thank you all so very much for tuning in, and we will catch you all next time. But until then, because it's not over yet, let's go abs. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
