(upbeat music) - Knocks Central Thursday. It's Dan Reicho, Satyarsha here in the Kintec Studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soarfeet, what are you waiting for? - It is a Thursday, so that means the Knocks Central Roundtable is here, and that is Bick Nizar, co-host of the post-game shows on Knocks Central after every single Knocks game, and of course, host of the People's Show on day through Friday. - I'm a Roundtable guy. - From three to four. - Love it. - We are definitely Roundtable guys here. - Yeah, and he's, and Tock has repeatedly brought up the Roundtable. - He did again this morning with Halford and Dodd. - Yeah, Halford and Dodd, yeah. - 'Cause it was not Halford and Bruff today. - Okay, before we get to the open. Yesterday, I walk into the studio. There's new signage, poking fun at my, at the great spill of 2024. - Yes, our version of like the BP oil spill. - Yesterday, we were asked. (laughing) (laughing) - Yes, deep water, horizon. - Yesterday, we were asked during overrated, underrated about cup holders yet again, alluding to my big spill and how a cup holder would have helped. And when I walk into the studio today, what do I find a cup holder fastened to the desk? Like, Cam Berra doing his best Al Borland impression, walks in here and fixates a cup holder to the side of the studio desk. Is there one on your side, Seth? - No, no. - No, so it's just, it's plainly for me. - It's, it's for you. - I'm surprised it doesn't have a name bar on it. - No, I don't think it needs one. (laughing) - Self-explanatory. - I commend you on the confidence of bringing a water bottle to work today. - So here's the problem. I bring a water bottle to work today. And it's a little bit larger than the last one. - Is it fastened? - But it is not fastened to the cup holder because it does not fit. - It's too large? - It's too large for the cup holder. So I figured, you know, the last bottle wasn't enough water to like ruin the studio. So if we do have another incident, there's gonna be more water on the table. - I can't be prepared for this. Hang on one second. - Wait, what's, what's, what's Bic doing? - What does Bic have? Anyways, so I- (laughing) - Are we going to poncho one? (laughing) - Where's the, he can't find the head hole. He brought himself a poncho. - All right. - No suffocate. - Got my poncho on? - This is, this is a real thing. - This is a real thing. - You brought a poncho. Just in case I- - I'm the one seated next to you, so I'm a little concerned. - Let me sure stop here. - Well, if you were sitting in this- - I'm not letting sat, so make sure you have some water wings to go. - Are these water wings? - Yeah. - These are water wings? - You're sorted out. I got my poncho I'm good now. - I will say, if you were sitting there during the spill the other day, you would be drenched. - Wreck. - I'd be wreck. It'd be like Billy Madison would be like- - It's cool to wet your pants. Anyways, like people will suggest that I get a sippy cup, so I have a sippy cup now. - I got to worry the armhole, not the hoodie hole. - You gotta get your arms in there, yeah. - Basically, Bic has just given himself a straight jacket. - Yeah. - Now I feel safe. - Yeah, there we go. - I won't drown this thought. - I got water wings. - Yeah, I got water wings. - The poncho got a water wings, we're good. - Yeah, we're good. - Let's get to the open. - All right, it's the open. (dramatic music) - Welcome to the open. - Oh, that's your home! Are you too good for your home? Answer me! - Are you actually gonna do the show like this? - Why not? I don't know what's gonna happen. - For me, just for water, I'm gonna be concerned. - Oh, it's so much nicer with the hoodie. - It's very wrestling, though. I might have to get you to take it off at some point. - A lot of the plastic wrap. - You were one to comment about sound effects during the wrap. - Yeah, water gushing out of a water bottle 48 hours ago. - Just like TLC, don't go chasing waterfalls off the front desk here. I'll take this off, all right. - The water wings over here. All right. So yes, the great spill of 2024, continuing to provide content to the studio. I can't believe you brought water wings in a poncho. Safety first, man. The sun is day of the year in Vancouver and anyways. - Biggest tryin' to get a workplace safe forward. - Hey, man. (laughs) I appreciate keepin' the bit goin'. So speaking of bits, today felt like a bit about Lynn Holm and Zadorov and where their next contracts are going to be and whether or not it is with the Vancouver Canucks. So the way I saw it all play out was Ian McIntyre saying that there has been traction on negotiations with Zadorov and Lynn Holm, nothing done yet, of course. But there's been some talks, maybe neither resigns, but it's possible the Canucks could keep both players. That's what Ian McIntyre had to say on Donnie and Dolly. Dolly well said there had been no talks recently with Nikita Zadorov and then Dan Milstein, quote tweeted Ian McIntyre and was fake news and everybody's on iMac now. What's going on here with Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lynn Holm? - I actually think the way this is being viewed is kind of positively by some people because it probably means you're not too far away. - Okay. - It's kind of the fighting that happens at the very end. We were tryin' to squeeze every dollar out. So if you want to get, if you're hopeful that the Canucks keep Zadorov, is this like not a bad sign? And usually when they've signed guys, it's been after some pressure has been exerted. And what I kind of, you know, something I heard was just kind of funny today was I got a good laugh at if it was like, a progress is a different meaning for different people. - Sure. - It can mean something different. So like, so maybe-- - Two things can be true at the same time. - Right. - So maybe for Milstein. - Don't say it for him. - I know. But I'm saying-- - It's like Milhouse stealing the line from Bart, not that you're Milhouse. - Yeah. - And this isn't something that, you know, necessarily that. - Although Milhouse had to walk through water. - He did. Traverse through it. But so I think from the stuff that I've heard is that yes, maybe Milstein doesn't see certain things as progress, but perhaps the Canucks see certain things as progress in terms of perhaps seeing a roadmap towards getting a deal done potentially. And by no means does this mean a deal is getting done, nor does it mean it's imminent or anything. But I think my takeaway after having some conversations after all this stuff kind of came out is, semantics perhaps, perhaps both sides negotiating through the media by saying different things, you know what I mean? But I do think that there has been work done. Now, I don't know how you define talks and everything. I'm not trying to go against what anybody said. But I do think like there's an understanding of what it's gonna take. And I don't think the Canucks necessarily feel they're too far off. So does it get done or not? Again, none of us really know. But I don't necessarily look at what happened today as a negative. And I don't think it's viewed negatively by people in the organization. I think people in the organization would view it negatively if there were no talks. In terms of like nothing kind of getting out and perhaps it being a sense of there isn't things aren't gonna happen here. Now, Milstein is not the agent for Eliseline Holmey is only the agent for Nikita Zadorov. So we'll focus on that. And after talking to a couple of people, the way I view it is, yeah, Milstein's trying to, as you said, Zat, maybe get a few extra dollars here out of the Vancouver Canucks. When we've talked with Earth in the past and our conversations here on the show, we've known that there's been talks, an offer on the table for Nikita Zadorov. How close that is to what Zadorov and Milstein expect them to get or what they think they can get in free agency that I'm not too sure about. But I don't think it's that far off from something that could probably get the deal done, which is why we're seeing this push. I don't think it's, I am sort of drawing lines across everywhere here, but Nikita Zadorov's wife sending out a picture last days in Vancouver. I just wonder if there's a want from the Zadorov camp to maybe see if they can get the deal done in the short term here so that they can go to their off season plans, knowing where their next destination will be for next season. That's the what I'm wondering today. - Does it feel like an NBA negotiation in a way? - Kind of, yeah. - Like the way it's playing out online? - Yes, it's how I love it, it's great. - Yeah, no, that's fantastic. - It's awesome, it's fantastic for us, but it's foreign in a way 'cause everything's usually done in the shadows and it's like a tweet drops from someone and be like, oh, potential, this gets done today and like eight minutes later, it's done. But this is, feels like a different reality and here we are in June six and still some time to get to July one. And if you're the agent, you wanna draw this out as long as you can 'cause, hey, your best offer is gonna come closer to deadlines and there's not a deadline nearby. And now every little morsel that kind of comes out, it just feels like it taps into the best selling point that Nikita Zadora has is right now the fans love him. - They do, and I think as far as the Canucks go, I think what's very clear is the Canucks, if they have a leverage, they exert it as much as possible. If there are pressure points they can use and press, they will press. They're going to exhaust everything they can to try to get as favorable a deal as possible for them for the players they wanna keep. And that's perfectly fine in how you do business 'cause so far it's worked out, like look at the contracts, how things have gone with certain players on the team, the deals that they have signed and sort of what we heard and then all of a sudden deal happened and it was kind of counter to perhaps the sense around the situation before and the right before it happened, there were some things like this kind of occurring, right? So I think in some ways, I think this is a positive if you want Lynn Holman Zadora back. - The question is what's that going to cost? - So I think the Canucks know what it's gonna take, obviously, that's not breaking news or anything. The question is what is it going to take? - Well, I would say the feeling is Zadora could get somewhere around $30 million in the free agent market this summer given how well he played for the Vancouver Canucks through the second half and into the playoffs and for Lynn Holm, he is the best true center on the market. I know he didn't score a time this year, but seven by seven is something we've talked about a lot and the more you look at projections from everybody around the hockey world, if he hits free agency, it's very likely he could get up to $56 million on a seven year deal. - It feels like there's different perceptions of what Lynn Holm can get and I'd be floored if it's not at least $50 million. - And that's I think, so I don't think Lynn Holm necessarily needs the Canucks to give him every single dollar he can get elsewhere. - Right. - But I think it has to be close. - Make the attempt to get to that number and then we'll fine tune it. - And that number, to your point, let's say 56, that's eight times seven, if that's out there for him 'cause no one can go beyond seven years on July 1st, that's not a team that he's with. So eight times seven, 56 million. You probably don't want to sign for under 50. - Yeah. - So 49 probably doesn't do it for you, but it's not that you need 56. - So it's a number, like 52, 54. - Yeah. - And by that, you're talking about seven, one, seven, two, over seven. - That's a lot of no. - Seven, two, five, over seven. And 'cause I don't think the Canucks want to go to the eighth year. They didn't go with JT either, right? And I don't think they want to do it with Lynn Holm either. - Lynn Holm is gonna be 30 in December. - Yeah, it's the same as JT years. I think they might go to seven. I don't know what they've offered, but I could see them going to seven. And if they're in and trying to get Lynn Holm signed, you're not in if you're not willing to spend 50 some million. Otherwise, what are you even doing talking to him? You know what I mean? So that's how you have to also view it. So the number probably looks to me to be around somewhere around that. Now, if they get him signed for under 50 million, that's a coup considering what this guy can get on the free agent market. But that's what I wonder about. The get the deal done, 50 some million. - The byproduct of all of this too. And look, we can talk about them bringing back Lynn Holm's door off is, what does it mean for the guys? Right? - Still have to construct a roster. - Yeah, well, let's build that out a little bit, right? - Is it a Joshua coming back then to play with Lynn Holm? - What happens to comic Ireland then? - Well, who's gonna play with Zadarov? - Well, I think, so if you just look at it with the numbers we're talking about for just these two players, that would be say 12 million for argument's sake. - At least 12 million, right? So 12 million is probably a little bit, might even be a little bit under what both of them let go. - Let's say 12 'cause it's a, it's a nice round, even number between 11 and 13. - And that takes away. - And if you, let's say you give the, the Canucks a league minimum seventh defenseman and you sign Shilov's to a cheap contract and you have say, Bain's on your roster, right? And you fill your roster spots. With that, you would have about 24 and a half million left, right? So now let's say 12 million, that means after signing those two players, you have about 12 million in Cav space left, roughly. - 12 million, you still haven't signed Phillip Pronik, you haven't still figured out to code a job. - You need three more spots. - You haven't even attempted to solve the biggest need of this team has. - The top six winger. - Yeah. - Who's gonna play with Leah's Pedersen? - You still need to sign two more defenseman and one more forward, perhaps two forwards. - Yeah. It's, it's curious to me, because this team in their post season availabilities made it very clear that they don't think, that they think that they're still gotta grow a lot more. You know, maybe they did leave a little bit on the table as disappointed as they were losing in game seven to the Edmonton Oilers, but they weren't shy about the idea that, yeah, there's still another level that they have to get to. And if you're locking into those two guys at 12 million, how are you finding that other level? Like, it's almost as if you signed those two guys, I mean, are you trading Phillip Pronik? It seems like that would be difficult because there's another at least seven million dollars. So now you're left with five million to play with to go get a top six winger, bottom six guys, like Dakota Joshua's gone into free agency. It's very difficult to see how you upgrade this roster from where it was at the end of this season if you're making these, these additions. - And what did Elliot say just was a few days ago? - The Connects are trying to move salary. - Now you see, right? Like you understand like why they're trying to move salary. - But is the salary that you can move out? 'Cause look, it's not difficult to find who the guys are. - Yeah, it's Mikayev and Garland. - It's Mikayev and Garland. - And Besser, right? - And Besser, because of situation holding pattern, like I'm not expecting any movement there. - But are those guys, look, it's nice, it's a nice idea to move out salary. Are those guys, is moving them out, producing the result that you want to solve all the problems elsewhere? - Well, it depends. Like I think if you move Mikayev's entire salary out and you take nothing back, well, yeah, you get another four and almost five million. Same with Garland, really. I just don't know if you can get all the money off both those deals. - That's the thing. - You know, I think if you're, well, especially Mikayev. - If it clears up enough money to then go get someone like credible. - Well, yeah, I mean, you have to be on a higher end. - Is this the shape to brush going to be the one that's like, goes there and you're like, oh, I feel great about this. - No. - I mean, Gensl's the guy, but I mean, I can't even make that happen. That's the thing. - Well, if you're spending on these two guys, you're not getting Gensl. You probably don't have the money to get Gensl. I mean, technically you do, but then you're really pinching pennies to fill out the rest of your roster. And like, it's something I mentioned on the round table a couple of weeks ago now, or even last week. If you're signing Linholm, it's probably because you don't think you have much of a chance at getting Gensl or Marcheso or Stancoast or any of those guys. - That's part of what I was wondering about today is combine and everything. How much do you get an idea of? - What you can and can't do. - Yeah, more specifically what you can't do. - Yeah, and I think- - Or what won't happen for you. - Then if you're looking at the secondary market beyond Marcheso and beyond Stancoast and beyond Gensl, we're talking about the Dubrusks, Tyler Tofoli, the Zooker types, right? - Tarasenko, yeah. - Tarasenko, those guys gonna make anywhere from three to five million. That's gonna be the range for those guys. Now, if you're not, if you're signing one or two of those guys, you can do that. - Yeah. - It's just not as exciting as people had hoped. Now Tofoli would have people excited because of the past chemistry and people liked Tofoli here on the market. He'd be viewed as a positive addition to it. But yeah, you're right, Dubrusk, would it inspire a ton of confidence necessarily? Is it better than what you currently had? Well, yeah, I mean, you're getting somebody who wasn't on your roster if you keep your Linholm, right? But can you get a higher end guy? - And look, I like some of those players, right? Of Tarasenko, Arvidson, TerraVine, and like they're, they're strong players and they're real, like middle six players, they fit in all that, that garland realm for me, right? They're all, that's some of the more high-end than garland they get that. But for what I would like to see and what should happen for a star-level players, getting 11.6 million, put another strong player with him. Like an undeniably strong. - McDavid gets dry side sometimes. - Yeah, he gets Hyman. - He gets Hyman, well then to be fair, Hyman's five, but like he's become something more, but rented in place with McKinnon. You go through the league, star players play with star players. - But here's the thing, you can't force one of those guys, right? Like you, you're trying to add one of those players, but you can't just snap your fingers to find one. And in free agency, if a guy's not coming here, he's not coming here, right? And are you not then better off to go shorter term on a couple of guys that you feel like, like if you're bringing Lindholm back, and you go the, say, Tofoli type. - Well, I think you materially have to change then what the priorities are. If you wanted to spend money on the wings and say, hey, we need more in the top six, but you're spending all your money down the middle, then the team is just gonna like the construct of what it's supposed to be to what Alvin said is not gonna be a reality. Your strength is now down the middle. So you're gonna have to cheap out on the wings. - Well, yeah, but you can still, I mean, when if you sign couple of guys making four or five, like, yeah, it's not cheap being out. - But we're talking about one guy. - Right. - Who's playing on the other wing with Patterson? - But yeah, I mean, you can at least, you get one guy's better than having no guys last year, right? - Of course, yeah. - And then you try to cycle, you're trying to build a duo, right? And after that, you're trying to add more players. Of course, you like to get the third guy. And honestly, looking at this free agent market, and there are a lot of kind of those middle forwards, a lot of guys projected to make these an amount of money, there's not enough money to go around to everybody, man. So like, you can sign those guys. And if you wait around, do you find somebody later on in free agency that you can get in to come and be that third guy? Pretty cheap, maybe comes in for a year, trying to set himself up for next season's free agency, for instance, 'cause there will be a lot of guys left when the carousel stops, man. - Yeah, if they do go this route, and I'm curious if they're going to actually be able to get Lindholm done. Like, I know they know where the number is. I'm still a little bit hesitant on whether or not they're actually going to get there. But if you do go this route, I think it's a real possibility. Lecker and Mackie is a part of the squad next year. - To start the season? - I think you have to be open to the possibility 'cause he's going to be cheap, and you know that the talent is there. - Yeah, but aren't you, I don't think those guys would force them on to the team though. Like, here's the thing, like everything has been-- - I'm just struggling to find other options. - Yeah, cheap options. - Sure, but you can, I mean, you have Pew Souter and Hoaglander still. We haven't traded Hoaglander yet. So I mean, you have Pew Souter, playing with Pesser and Miller, right? And then you have Hoaglander play with, say, let's say Tifoli and Patterson. - Yeah. - You can do that to start the season. Now, is that going to be enough for you heading to the postseason? That'll be another discussion. But I don't think you have to force Lecker and Mackie into the equation unless he forces your hand. - It's just hard to find where the options are going to be and where the high end option is. The potential of a high end option is-- - If you live in the reality of Lindham's Adora, I'll come back, right? 'Cause the money is their flexibility in the rage right now that if they go to July 1st and they have 24 million, you have options. - Yeah. - But it's, if you choose to bring some guys back, then it starts to limit your options real fast. - I'm curious how much, I mean, we just heard from the coach yesterday. He was on Halford and Bruff this morning. Sorry, Halford and Dot. Probably like two of the guys he gushed about the most down the second half of the season. We're the new guys. Mackie does Adora have analyzed Lindham. I wonder how much the coach has to do with them wanting to find a way to get both of these deals done. - Well, I'm sure the coach would, I mean, I think they're-- - It's a dangerous game though, man. - Yeah, I don't think you can just listen to the coach, but I do think they like Zadora a lot. And I do think that Kana's giving up a first round pick for Lindham is an indication of their like of the player. And they said from day one they want to keep them. - Yeah. - They've always maintained even at the end of the season, we want to keep them. They've never said that, you know, it's a rental only. They've always said, yeah, we'll work comfortable if it's a rental with giving up what we gave up, but we want to keep them here long term. - And, you know, there's Adora have won. Well, both are risky, right? Like Lindham coming off back-to-back years where, you know, he didn't look like anywhere close to the 40 goal scorer he was. And it also correlates with him being away from Matthew Kachuk and Johnny Gudrow. Now, that doesn't mean he can't give you a good base level. We saw how good he can be in the playoffs and how good of a two-way player he is. I wonder if that's worth seven in change on against the cap if that's what it's going to take. And then there's Zadora who's had a very up-and-down career and just probably is coming off maybe the best stretch of his career since he got traded to Vancouver. I mean, talk about buying in on a small sample size. To me, that's what it would look like with Nikita Zadorov as much as I appreciated what he did down the stretch for the Canucks. - Are you more worried with the Lindham resigning or if both happen, with Lindham or Zadorov? 'Cause I feel like it's Zadorov. - For me, it would be a little bit more worried about Zadorov. - And so I'm worried isn't the right phrase 'cause he's a qualified player and he's played really well. - It would feel like a lesser version of the Myers contract. - Yeah, okay, I think the way I wanna say this is like, which one absorbs more risk? Because it feels like it could be Zadorov one. 'Cause there were highs and lows. It was like the middle of the Nashville series to the middle of the Edmonton series. That's a high, man. That looked fantastic. And then the back end of the Euler series looked a little bit different. - That's always been Zadorov, right? Where he gives you these flashes where you just are enamored with him and then he shows you moments where it's like nowhere near where the level needs to be for a player of his ability, right? He's gotten better, obviously, as his career's gone on, but I don't sign him if I'm the team unless you really think you can get that out of him consistently. And if they can, now you have something on your hands, right? And it's funny, he's been in the NHL for like what, 10 years now, but he's not that old. - Yep, started very early, started as a teenager. - Now, that's also a lot of miles on the tires too. You can also look at it that way. - The thing that still blows my mind is that him and Myers were teammates in Buffalo. - Yeah, it's pretty crazy. And now they're teammates again. It's crazy, it's wild. But I do think if you see the internal projection being that, okay, he's going to be a better player than you sign him. Otherwise, he's gonna be very frustrating next season. He fits exactly what Rick Talkett was talking about today with Hal Dodd of wanting to be more in the rush, creating more in the Russian. We had to find a way to get the demon up. Well, you know he does exactly that? Like he does it all off. And to your question earlier, I was like, hey, is this what the coach wants? I found that part interesting of what the evolution is gonna look like. And he frequently brought up of like, we gotta create more off the Russian, what Nashville did to get their defense. Not that you wanna do it all the time, but to me, like that, that's trucking is interesting. - And maybe looking for a little bit more speed on the back end. So, okay. I'm gonna do a couple of more on this hypothetical here. Because the scenario is fascinating where you bring back Lindholm and Zadorov. Does it mean that you continue down the road with Tyler Myers at, let's say, 3 million? What does it mean for Philopronic? I don't think you can, to me, if you're signing Lindholm, and you're signing Zadorov, and you're bringing Myers back, I just don't think you-- - Someone's gonna squeeze. - I don't think you bring your heronic back. And I don't think you're bringing Joshua back. - Unless we go back what we said, you move other cap space out. - It would feel like an indication that they're, at this very moment, maybe they're not certain they can bridge the gap with Ronik and his camp. - 'Cause let's do rough math again here. - Yeah. - Is that 12 million available? - Now that we wanna bore people with math, but it's important to the conversation. - Right, so let's say 12 million available, you do those two players. So, all of a sudden, not easier for you to figure out, okay, now you give three million to Myers, that means nine million left, then you give four million to Matt Roy, for instance, right? Now, you have-- - It's gonna be more than four million. - Five, let's say five, let's say five for a right defense. Who care, whoever that is? I don't, any somebody said that you've mentioned beans. I'm just throwing guys out in terms of like salary figures. I don't care about the players themselves, right? So, five million for the right defense when they sign. All of a sudden, we're talking about what, four million left? Now you give four million to PD's winger. Let's say it's the brusque, or like let's say it's a, whomever, right? Four million. - 'Cause it's very captaining. - You fill out the roster that way. - 'Cause you're a mother for me, no more, we don't know. - So, you're roster all of a sudden, you fill it out differently, right? Like now, you're essentially trading a Ronik for a better winger for Pedersen, and you're maybe balancing it out a little bit differently, right? But that's your pathway to doing so. Like, you can do this, but you can't bring everybody back. And I just fail to see a pathway for a Ronik to come back, unless you're moving salary, if you're signing a Lin-Hulmen's Adora. The other feeling that I get out of this Zadora of Lin-Hulm news, and the idea that both could be coming back, maybe the Canucks have a better sense that yes, they aren't going to be able to get Martin H.S. into Vancouver. And I know Elliot Friedman has already sort of discussed this on the Merrick Show and wherever else he's been talking about it, that Carolina just doesn't really see a trade fit with Vancouver, but I mean, that guy's an RFA, you're going to have to pay him. So if you're going down this road, it probably means the Canucks do have a sense that Martin H.S. is not really going to be a fit for them in trade with Carolina. That would be the other part that I think about this. Finals are starting on Saturday before we close up the round table, 'cause we're round table guys here. - Yeah. - Florida, Edmonton, how do we look at this series? - I feel like another one where the Oilers are being discounted and Florida is considered the favorite. - Yeah, I think when it started, I was trying to move us with George Richards about an hour ago, is when we found out who it was, I think the immediate reaction was like, "Florida, number one seed back in the spot." And I feel like as it's developed, there's like this realization of, oh, McDavid and Drycidal and Boochard look like that, you open up the scoring, it's all Oilers at the top of the player stats right now. And I don't know, I felt in the last like handful of days, maybe it's shifted that everyone's just kind of looking at Edmonton and like, this is the moment now. - Yeah, I mean, so it's kind of funny, 'cause I felt the same way initially, I think Florida, but the more I think about the series, I don't know, I kind of think Edmonton's going to pull it off. - Wow, yeah. - I don't. It's, you look at the history and sure, it's regular season game, so it's hard to take a ton from it, but it's just more about like, yeah, Sasha Barkov is going to give one of McDavid or Drycidal a really hard time at five on five. And then the second line is, oh, Sam Bennett and Matthew Kajuk. That's not much easier. So-- - And Lindell. - And Lindell goes for their third line center. So to me, Florida is as good a team, there is to match up with what Edmonton can offer, but I do, like even in the series, that they just came off of against the New York Rangers, like they did give up quite a bit. You know, even in the limited, like when they don't have the puck, they do tend to give up some pretty big chances. And if you give up those chances to a certain couple of guys on the Edmonton Oilers, they're going to make you hurt. So I think it's going to be a really close series, but I do still think Florida has the edge for me. - I just kind of popped into my head. I wonder if part of the series takes on the mold of-- - Because what's been encouraging to see or entertaining to see from Florida, like they muck everything up. - Oh my God. - It's, they are the kings of blue hosiery. - And it's all like, this is the big moment, it's been building for Edmonton to get to this. There's part of it, I wonder if like, by game three, we realized that this mirrors Vancouver Boston, of like, look at all the talent and the skill of like, this is the way the NHL is going. And here's Barkov Bennett. Like I can just picture Bennett just doing the most reckless thing. And you're like, oh man, like that's dirty, that's gross. And it's tough and it's grimy and it just, it throws a wrench in this series. And now it's like everyone's just gas lit. And if it changes the complexion of what the series feels like, and then it just like, Kachuk is going to do something. And I think it just gets nasty. I wonder if that's like Florida's way of just playing this out. And it takes the shine away from Edmonton. I like it. And part of me just like wonders, 'cause there's parallels all of a sudden there. - For sure, you're right. But the one thing I will say, I don't think any team is playing better, a better team game in the playoffs than Edmonton has. Especially since they turn things around against Vancouver. - Since like midway through the Vancouver series. So structurally, yeah, like I think you're right, like tactically on the ice. But like team game can be spiritually and connection. And like that to me to me is Florida's edge too. - And if they can bring that, but that's also a very, very hard thing to harness. You know what I mean? - But they've been doing it for 15 months. And I'm saying for you to be able to ratchet up that level, get it to the Boston. Like the Bruins got away with so much that year. Like I wouldn't-- - That's the other parallel of this series. Florida is the most penalized team in the playoffs. They also draw the most penalties in the playoffs. So they still end up with a positive differential on penalties. But if they do take a lot of penalties in this series, that's gonna be trouble. We know what Edmonton's power play can do. But if the whistles are away, that's maybe where it mirrors 2011 a little bit. - Ratcheting it up for the finals shouldn't be an issue. - No, I mean, I get it. But I was saying in terms of harnessing that type of emotion in a positive way. - True. - You know what I mean? - It's hard to harness that type of energy is what I mean. You know what I mean? And that type of way, it's a very difficult thing to do. - People try to be the bad boys, right? - But if you get the other team to be the bad boys too, and it's just chaos now? - Well the guy, you try to throw off his cane, but I mean, you know, give Kane credit. Him and Zodorov went at it. And you know, he, you know, and I think Edmonton was happy with Zodorov and Kane kind of taking each other out of the series 'cause all of a sudden the Canucks didn't have that edge. So I think Kane, at the very least, can take one of those guys away from the equation. - Final thing before we go, I know we're way late. Is the NHL ready for a team to be called the Utah Hockey Club? - Yeah, I like that more than any of the other ones. - Yes. - The other ones? - The other ones were Washington football team. I was so into that. - It's Utah Yeti. - Get out of here. - Come on. - Josh. - I like it, but like, it's also rushed. - Yes. - So just go Utah Hockey Club for a year. If you wanna change it to Utah Yeti, but like take the time to really workshop everything, don't just rush into the first name. There's nothing wrong with being Utah Hockey Club for a year. - Yeah. - And change it. There's nothing wrong with that. - Like the Washington football team did? - Yeah. - Yeah. I mean, I think that Yeti is, would be good. I think it would work. I think people will be happy with it. I think it's one of those things that would be unique. - But hockey club, unique? - Yeah. - What's unique is Utah Hockey Club. - Actually, it's not unique. - No, it's very unique. - Well, unique at the NHL level, but it's like really not a unique name. - And it feels like they're just ripping off. They were like, oh, people like the Washington football team. We should do that. - Well, then they changed it to the commanders, which is like worse. - Yeah. - Watching the football team was better than commanders. - It was. I think it would be very funny that the guy who owns Real Salt Lake would name his hockey team, Utah Hockey Club. (laughs) That would just kill me. Anyways, bick, we appreciate you. - It's been a real good time. - I'm just, thanks for bringing in the water wings for satin as well. - Yeah, I really need that. (laughs) - Again, I felt safe. - I aspire to the dumbest things that we can on the air. - You're listening to Knock Central. - Hey, it's Mike Alford and Jason Bruff. Join us for Alford and Bruff in the morning, weekdays for six to nine a.m. on sports then 650. - Or on demand anytime through your favorite podcast app.
