A four history is written, it's played, before it's frozen in time, it's fought, one shift at a time, before it's etched in silver, it's carved into ice, what happens next, will last forever. The Stanley Cup Final on ABC and ESPN+ begins Saturday. Empower is here to help answer your financial questions and empower what's next. Because if you're like most people, you've probably had your fair share of stressors. Like will you be able to afford a third kid? Would you be able to do everything you want during retirement? And what if you outlive your savings? Join 18 million Americans and take control of your financial future. Start today at Empower.com Welcome to the Tell It Abs It Is podcast. Your home for everything Colorado Avalanche. On the hockey podcast network, here's your hosts, Griffin Yachts and Christian Boulay. Hello everybody, welcome back to another edition of the Tell It Abs It Is podcast on the hockey podcast network. I'm Griffin Young's joined by Christian Boulay. As always, we are probably like good 24 hours away from the Stanley Cup Final beginning in Florida as the Panthers take on the Edmonton Oilers to determine who's bringing home the 2024 Stanley Cup. Don't pisses me off the most about this serious Christian. This is my first draft in the playoffs for my bracket. When my first bracket, the day it came out, I was like, okay, Panther's Oilers sounds right. And for some reason, I got sucked in by the Hurricanes. I'm still mad about it. I'm still mad that I got suckered by them again. Well, we made that decision that we're not going to get suckered by them ever again. So we're holding ourselves accountable next year. And the listeners are going to hold us accountable, that we will not get sucked in by the Carolina Hurricanes thinking that this is the year they're going to make it past the second round of a conference final, let alone win a conference final game. So let alone do anything ever again. And just in pure hindsight, I just have no idea what I was thinking. I have no idea what my thought process was looking at that. You can have a spin zone here where it's like, you aren't as dumb as you think you are because you did have this initially. Like you do know hockey, you know, but also like, you know, not trusting my instincts, you know, confidence issues, all that bullshit and whatever. But it was just like, I picked them to beat the Panthers who swept them last year and then got better and then also beat the Oilers in the final, which I don't know if I can give myself points for that because that's just really dumb. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I had the abs and hurricanes in the final. So I mean, I was out two rounds ago. So I can't even be upset about it. I just just never again. I said it last year. I said it two years ago, never to say it again next year, probably never. I don't even like the hurricanes. I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. It's because you think like eventually the team's gonna finally get over the hump and there are just some teams that never get over a hump. There's probably some, like people who are just like us who thought that the San Jose Sharks were eventually going to win a cup and get over the hump and they just never did. There's some teams that they had like, at least they had like star players on the sharks. Yeah. But I think that makes it even more frustrating when they were there. Like the so many people in the early 2000s and early 2010s probably, this is the year the sharks finally do it. They're going to win the cup and they just never did. They just never did. Yep. There's always just going to be a team like that. But anyway, the series that we do have is the Panthers taking on the Oilers, Canada looking to snap a 31 year up trout, even though it's one city. Again, I said this last episode, I just, I think that's a very weird narrative and the Panthers and their second straight Stanley Cup final looking to win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history just right off the bat. I don't know how this series could possibly be bad. These are, I think the two best teams in the conferences taking each other on in the conference final. The Panthers pretty healthy. The Oilers really healthy. This just, you get McDavid Barkov right off the bat. I think that's the most interesting playoff matchup you can get in the playoffs. And then you start going down the list of all the things here is if this series is short, I just don't know what to say. You see all that? I think it's going to be very competitive, but there, there is a possibility that the series is over in five. And I think the way that happens is the Panthers are just better by that. That's the only way it could happen. I think every game is going to be close and competitive, but we've seen it with the Oilers before. They can be close to competitive. Still doesn't mean they're going to win a game in a series like look at the app series a couple of years ago. They, they were in every game and they lost all four. Like it could be a relatively quick series, but I do in a weird way think Edmonton is going to find a way to make the series go six or seven. I do still think the Panthers win, but the way that McDavid and dry side are playing right now, but I agree with you that this could be a very long and interesting series. Yeah, because this Oilers team, it's not the same one we played in the conference final two years ago where just they're a better roster at a baseline level, more developed players and just a little more depth. And also they've learned a lot of lessons from the last couple of years getting their asses thoroughly kicked by the avalanche, showing them just how much more work they had to do. And then when they had a pretty good path to the final last year, kind of getting brushed aside by Vegas and showing them that it's there's still a lot of work that has to be done. And this year, they've taken down a couple of good teams to get here. Kings were, nah, they, I wouldn't put them in that category. Vancouver, they had to really fight in that series. They had to come back and win two games to win that series and then took down a good, albeit exhausted Dallas team, but still looked very impressive while doing so, where you look at the games the Oilers win, if they just get a little bit of help from their guys, just not named McDavid, Dreyseiler, Bouchard, they get some saves from Stuart Skinner. They just get a little bit. The Oilers tend to win those games. You look at the score lines that the Oilers tend to win in games. It's like, okay, Derek Ryan decided to finally show up and do something in this series or Dylan Hunter Brown. Yeah, Hunter Brown decides to have a goal or something like that. Ryan Nugent Hopkins decides to have a game. Generally speaking, one of if not both McDavid and Dreyseiler are going to have a good game on any given night. It's pretty rare that both of them are just going to be goose eggs across the board. And you can put Bouchard in that mix too. He's at like, what, 26 points right now. So far in these playoffs, if the series goes steep, we'll probably end up having more points than McCar did in the Stanley Cup run for the absolute at 27 right now. Actually, McCar was a 29 if I'm remembering correctly. He's got to play more games. So yeah, you know, if that's also the funny thing about this series, even if either team sweeps this series, they still would have a worse record than the abs did. I won the cup, but that's enough chest beating from us right now. But even still, the Oilers get a little bit of help. I think it pushes this series deep. But I think the Panthers are just so well built and have taken down such a litany of teams to get here, whether it was the lightning who are a good team in the first round and doing it kind of easily. And the Bruins who gave him like a little trouble, but even still, the Panthers controlled that series for most of it. And the Rangers, who we were saying in the middle of that series, just looked like a team of destiny until the Panthers completely shut them down where they put him up against the Oilers. Well, I think you're going to give them a really good fight. But I just think the Panthers just have a little more. They're just a little too well built. And I just, I just don't think they're going to be denied. They just seem screams such a, a team we're going to look back on in five years, be like, how did you put that team together in the salary cap era? How did you have like four lines of just dogs, like just absolute dogs in that lineup? And it's going to be, I think another series where we just see the Panthers just dominate five off five, just dominate five on five. And they aren't, they aren't like the best when it comes to not taking stupid penalties. They take stupid penalties. I do think the Oilers are at power play is going to score some big goals in the series. And the Oilers penalty kill has been phenomenal since the first round. I think that's going to win some games for the Oilers. But ultimately, when it comes down to five on five, I just think the Panthers are going to squish the Edmonton Oilers five on five. It's just, it's not even going to be close. Yeah. Well, the thing is the Panthers had to play Tampa, who had the best power play in the regular season last round, they played the Rangers who had the third best power play in the regular season Edmonton at the fourth best power play in the regular season. But it's also a little better than it was in the regular season because the playoffs right now, the Oilers are operating at a 37% power play is pretty impressive considering the first what like five games of the Dallas series, they didn't score a power play goal. That's after the number went down. That's pretty. That's the regression to the mean number is still hovering at 37% right now. And like you said, their penalty kill was incredible in the star series. So when you look at special teams, 100%, that's advantage for the Oilers, but five on five, the Panthers have been such a dominant force that the Oilers are going to need to score on the power play. Like they're going to need that power play that might even be better than 37%. And it very well could be because it's just that good. But the Panthers, when you also have Barkov at the top, who I'm sure is going to be stapled to McDavid at all times, you go depth for depth and while the Oilers depth is better than it's been, the Panthers just operate on a different level. The Panthers is the best of the week. It's the best of the week. And that's the reason why they're in the cup file. Yeah, we're like Evan Rodriguez, who the avalanche obviously had last year has turned into a very solid middle six guy for them. Whereas like Matt Kitchuck gets bumped down to the second line to play with Bennett just because you know, Sam Reinhardt is going to make himself a lot of money, Carter Verhage, the perfect playoff performer and like Lindell, Terasenko, Luca Rainin, Stephen Lorenz, Stenland, Doc Pozo, like guys like Nick Cousins and Lombard who aren't even playing. And I think the big difference between this Panthers team and last year's Panthers team is that they're significantly more healthy. Well, to our knowledge, they're significant Yeah, on a surface level, they're a lot healthier than they were because they got to the final against Vegas last year. And they just completely ran out of gas. Like there just came a certain point where Vegas, their goalies were hurt, but Aidan Hill came in and was better than all of them anyway. And we're pretty healthy for the most part throughout the playoffs last year. And the Panthers, Matt Kitchuck couldn't even get dressed going into the games and was somehow allowed to play in some of them. And you saw going into the regular season this year, where Ekblad had surgery. And like they had several guys missing the start of the year. That's not a problem right now where I think they got a bad, a bad draw against Vegas and the final last year where it I don't think they were going to win even if they were healthy, but five games felt harsh, where they just come pretty much got their ass kicked for the most part. This team is a lot more healthy. They have a lot more experience. They have a lot of confidence. They've beaten a lot of good teams to get here. But you can also say the same about the Oilers, where they they're pretty healthy for the most part as well. And it just feels like this series is so close in a sense that I just I can't see it being five, even six. You got to convince me. Yeah, it's going to be tight. It's I could be like overhyping the Oilers and underselling just how good the Panthers are. But I also like, I just don't really know what to expect. Because last year you had Sergei Babrowski going on just an unbelievable run of goalcending to get to the Cup final. And this year, he's been okay in the playoffs. He hasn't been great. It looks a lot more sustainable right now because he's he's operating at a 908 right now and said what the 930. He was unbelievable the first three rounds in last year's and this year he's been okay. He hasn't been great. He's been good. And you look in the other side, Stuart Skinner, he was bench for a couple games in the playoffs. He's coming off his best game. He's played in these playoffs against Dallas in game six. But like I was going to ask you about this. Is this the worst goalie match up between two Cup final teams we've seen in a while? Because like you can make the case. I know Babrowski is a Bezna finalist, but would you put Babrowski in like the top tag goalie? I know what you're saying is that the goalie match ups that we have had in recent years have been pretty good. Maybe just last year, Aidan Hill, Babrowski where Babrowski coming in was on an unbelievable run would have won the cons Mike and Aidan Hill just sometimes goalies come in the playoffs and are unbeatable. He had Vasaleski Kemper the year before where Kemper was not all that going into the series, but you had Vasaleski who more than makes up for that. You have Vasaleski and Kerry Price two pretty good goalies. You had Vasaleski CZ comes up here a lot against what was his name, Bobby Bull and I think Houdoben, Houdoben. Houdoben's way older. Yeah, I'm getting that except. Yeah, you had the right idea. Yeah. Kind of idea. Yeah. But you look at it and it's like, but Houdoben was hotter than hot to start those playoffs. Like he got a contract extension because of those playoffs. Right. He was great. So I look at this and I look at the school match minutes. It's not the hottest goal tenders in the world like with their play, but they've been solid. Yeah. I think it's something that you can take a little hope in if you're an avalanche fan where Babrowski has been good in these playoffs, but he's a 908 right now. He's not lighting the world on fire or anything. And Stort Skinner got replaced for certain games in the Vancouver series and is an 897 right now. He has had some dog shit games, these playoffs, but has had a couple of games where he's good where I think you're starting to see in recent years where it's like, if your goal is a 930, that's certainly going to help you. But if he's a 910 in that area where he's not single handedly carrying the team, if your team is well built and you have good players in front of that and good systems, you can overcome average goaltending where it felt like for several years, you just needed a goalie who is a 925 to carry you the whole way. And that will certainly help. But we've also seen a lot of hot goalies dry up in the final where it's almost better to have sustainable goaltending. And from what I saw from Georgiev in these playoffs, one bad game. Okay. One bad game that really horribly dragged down his numbers to make them look a lot worse than they were because the rest of the way, that's a goalie who can win you a cup if you play well in front of him. He's not going to carry you there, but he's going to backstop you enough that you just got to perform. You just got to play well in front of him. So for as much griping as we do about the avalanches goal tending and how they just don't have the elite goalies of the world, like sure, it helps to have a gorgeous sturkin. But the Rangers aren't in the final right now. They're not, they weren't well built enough to beat a team that was a bit of a downgrading goal with the Bropski, but was just better built in front of them. So I think that's it. Yeah, start that trend of like you just need mediocre goal tending of your teams. Well, Bill, it certainly feels that way. Doesn't know three straight final appearances for Vasilevsky. Yeah. And like you look at it and it's not saying Darcy Kemper wasn't phenomenal all regular season, but he literally was blind in one eye for majority of the playoffs and in the cup. That team was so well built. They only lost four games. Yeah. So it's, you look at it and it's because what did he end up having like a nine? The abs combined say percentage like 900. I think Kemper, I think I remember was a 902 in the end and they want a cup. So it's, it's, it's just, I think I'm still adjusting to it because it is still pretty new. And like you said, Aidan Hill was phenomenal when he came in last year. And this is really the, the first cup final. We'll see that both teams kind of just have good enough goal tending. And the teams are just really good in front of them that they're in the cup. I mean, in game six against Dallas store skinners stole that game. There are going to have to be games where your goaltender just steals one. But we've seen a lot more in recent years that doesn't need to be every single game as long as you have goal tending that is decent. Good enough to not let in shots from the point and keep it below like three goals a game. You're generally going to be all right. So long as you have a really good team in front of them. If you're the eyeliner, you're not winning with Rob ski or storage Skinner or something like that. You need good players, but the avalanche half that they have very good players. So just looking at the trends of recent years, I think that is something that you can still hold on to or like the first some people who are concerned about your gear for next year. I wouldn't be. I think we've seen enough out of him that says just play well in front of him. And he will get you to where you need to go. He'll get you where you need to go. But I'm, I'm looking forward to it. It's this golden matchup because I just think there could be games where one of them just self implodes and it's like three goals on three shots type of thing. And I think that's going to be a very fun element of this cup final. In a weird way, I trust Sergei Bobrovsky more and I never thought I'd say that. But I trust Sergei Bobrovsky more heading into this than like, I think the Oilers have the goaltending advantage or excuse me, the Panthers have the goaltending advantage. Yeah. I mean, Bobrovsky has just been more consistent. He had had a couple of games. It was just iffy. But even then there was the one I remember off top my head was game three of the Rangers series. The Panthers lost that game, but they still drag that game back to overtime where if you just get one more save, they end up winning that game. But there was still one shot away from them winning that game anyway, which they were dominating. And again, the Oilers, Stort Skinner, I mean, the conversation early in the playoffs is this has been the worst goaltender of the salary cap era in the playoffs with terrible things again. And he's stabilized to okay, where that's all the Oilers needed was okay. Just that's what they need for years is just stop the puck. Occasionally stop the puck and don't let in stupid goals. Don't be Mike Smith, letting in shots from the other side of the ice. Or like the the comp or goal in game three, where it just sneaks right through him. Just stop a puck every now and again, where every and every once in a while have a game for against the Kings where you win a one nothing game or have a game six against the stars where you stop 35 shots. And if you have a couple of really shitty games in between, we got McDavid trash now will score four goals for you. You'll be fine. Yeah, it's going to be a very, very fun goal time to match up. I don't know man, I keep going back and forth. I think this is going to be a long series. But then again, I just think the Panthers are so much better than everyone else. They could just go on a fucking mission and win this in five. See, because I don't I see where you're coming from with that. I just think that as you get deeper into the series, like let's say it goes to a game seven. I don't see how the Panthers lose that game. Right. I just think the way the Panthers play the physicality defensively, I can easily see them winning like a three one game seven, where they just completely lock it down. I just think they're going to be games multiple games where the Oilers special teams is just really good. And I don't know if they're going to dominate the Panthers that is dominate as hard five on five as they did the Rangers because the Oilers have much better top guys. Like they shut down Zabana Jad and cried her. It's a far cry from McDavid dry side. Like they're going to have their moments in this series. And even when the stars were on and actually playing in that series, there are moments like they slowed them down. But McDavid dry cells still had their moments where they were able to break through. And then later in the series, the the dam broke and they just completely torch them. So I think the Panthers are going to win this series just because of how much deeper they are. And Barkov is going to slow McDavid enough that he's going to keep the top lines even. And that's been the key to being the Oilers. If you if you can keep the top guys awash and they can keep up, even if even McDavid has the most points in this series, if Barkov or Kachuk can keep up with that, be close and just don't allow him to score three points a night and single handily dominate a game. The Panthers are going to be in it. Well, I mean, it's it's the same thing like shutting down McDavid isn't holding him to zero. It's holding him to a point per game. It's holding it to a manageable level. He had two points tonight. We can work with that. So like he's just a disgusting human being when he comes play hockey. It's holding him to a point. So just try your best. Try your best. I think he's going to do an okay job because you look at it in like the abs when they face the Oilers in the Western Conference. I'm pretty sure McDavid was still a point per game player, but it felt like he underperformed in that playoffs because McCarran tapes did such a good job on him. So it's going to be interesting. So you know what's funny about that playoff run is so far the Oilers have played two more games than they did. McDavid still had more points during that run. Really when they lost the abs. Yeah, he had 33 points in 16 games. Right now he has 31 and 18. Oh, he sucks. He's falling off, man. He's falling off. It's it's going to be fun. I think this is the most exciting I've been for a couple of finals since the abs, obviously, but just from like a neutral rooting fandom, like this is going to kick ass as a Stanley Cup final. I cannot wait for it. It's going to be some really, really good hockey. And I just got to keep my fingers crossed that ESPN doesn't fuck it up. I think that's really, that's really where I'm at. It's like, don't fuck this up for me, please, because this is going to be awesome hockey. Actually, do you think they're going to have a broadcast where there's no announcing and it's just the game? That would require effort. So I'm not sure. Because I would definitely watch that. Yeah, I will watch that over any broadcast. I mean, the thing is they also have to get the audio mixing, right? So it's not like a very good job with that anyway. So you get the same really shitty like audio peaks whenever the puck is near the net and then very quickly bringing it back down where it's just incredibly jarring. So is that really better? Yeah, it's a good point. It's a good point. But let's, let's finish, not finish, but who are you leaning for the consmith for both teams who wins if each team wins? I mean, the Panthers, it's interesting because Gus Forzling has been such a topic of conversation in these playoffs. But I don't know if he's going to get enough votes to win it. If the Panthers win it, I don't know how it's not bark off just because of I'm trying to think of like a like a voting perspective, media perspective where you look at the points and he's going to win a selfie already won the selfie. And they're going to look at his defensive metrics. It's just it's going to depend how he does against McDavid in this series, which I imagine is going to be really well. But right now he's a point per game, 17 and 17. I don't know how it wouldn't be bark off unless Forzling just absolutely torches this whole series. I like bark off. It's tough, man, because I just don't know. I'm trying to pull up the odds for for the consmith right now, but it's bark off or for Hagey for me right now. Yeah. And I don't feel great about for Hagey. Yeah, for Hagey's had like the clutch moments, but he hasn't had the playoff where you go most valuable guy. Like you start saying most valuable. You're talking about bark off and everything he does. I mean, yeah, it is it's McDavid's the number one on the bark off second and then Bobovski third to Chuck fifth dry style somehow at plus 950. That's the value and also the value for Bouchard as well. If he has plus 1100 for Bouchard right now. Yeah, but if you're looking to get value on consmith Evan Bouchard 100% is the value bet. See, I'm leaning more towards Dreyseld. Dreyseld will be plus 950. I mean, I agree. But if Bouchard has a really good series, he has enough points. He has enough defensive metrics that he's going to win it. He just has to have a good series with it first. He's not the favorite for a reason because he's behind McDavid and dry settled, but he can do it. And those are good. Those are good odds. Those are, I mean, they have e-bron listed on here. That's pretty cool. I mean, yeah, we're looking for him right now. He's at plus 50,000. Yeah, maybe throw a dollar on there when that I mean, there's a dollar. Yeah, this is the thing like it goes back to my point with the Panthers. The Panthers are just so good. I guess bark off would win the consmith and I guess could chuck would win the consmith, but it's not like either of them have been like phenomenal. Like, you know, knocking down the door. That's what I mean, where it's just like bark off is going to get the default if the Panthers and unless Bobrovsky has like 500 saves a game and only never allows more in like two goals in a game and it's a short series, then he might win it. Barkoff does so much that someone's going to have to really take over this Edmonton series to take the consmith from him. McDavid from Barkoff from Barkoff. It's probably going to be McDavid. Oh, it's a hundred percent going to be has let's face it. The consmith doesn't always go to the most valuable players. Sometimes there's storylines involved there where you're voting for this thing in the heat of the moment during the game, essentially, where if it's like game six and the Oilers are up four to nothing, they're voting for it during the game. Right. And there's a lot of heat of the moment stuff and they're just going to give it to McDavid because storylines Yeah, man, it's even though I like I heard somewhere like I did here. I probably read it on Twitter, some of that McDavid's in battling and injury this playoffs. And that's why he hasn't been able to score as many goals, but he's the face of the league. And if he wins his first Stanley Cup, he's winning the cons might regardless of how well Leon Dries I don't ever be sure I play. And I think that's why the odds are so crazy for both of them because there's no way Dries I do why blue also believe has 30 points these playoffs so far. Yeah, I mean, he's always been neck and neck with McDavid when it comes to playoff points. And he has of the goals to back it up. Yeah, like it's and Bushard is close as well. I think there's a reason why those odds are so crazy because let's face it, if the others want to stand the cup, Conrad David's winning the cons might trophy. Right. It's it's not even a question. Unless Leon Dries I don't has a hat trick every game. It's Connor McDavid's cons might to lose if the Oilers win it. Right. Like if dry sale takes over the series, he'll win the cons might. But the default is going to be McDavid. If it if they're splitting their contributions, it's going to be McDavid. Right. And I just think that's all McDavid really needs to. He wins this cup of the cons might. He's probably one of the top 15 greatest players of all time already. Put him up there. I mean, you look at where he's at right now, points wise, he's already starting to like uncomfortably climb that list where he's at nine hundred and eighty two points. He's hitting a thousand next year. But is he going to hit a thousand before November? Probably more than likely yes, he already has over a hundred playoff points. And he's going to be very up there. Like his if he wins a cup now before even the end of this first contract and we can get over Kenny, the Kenny get over the hump talks. We're already discussing where he's ranking all time. And how old is McDavid even? He's 27. Like he's still got a long way to go here. Like he's probably up there though, because that's all he needs. He has multiple art roses. He has you already want everything he needs to. Didn't win this Calder though. But who won the Calder that year? Was it Michael and Aaron? That is that's going to be a great trivia question in 30 years. Like what's the why didn't Conor McDavid win the Calder? He also broke his collarbones. That's right. That's right. He did break his collar bow. But still that is going to be a very funny trivia when you look back on it and be like, come on, David, when every word except the Calder, what happened in this record? He suck. And it's like, no, he literally broke his collarbone. But in 48 points and 45 games as a rookie. God, he's just he's I hate that he's on the Oilers. I just hate it. Actually, you know what? If he was on another team, I'd probably hate it even more. So you know what? I'm going to take that back. But I just I just wish the guy was just had a little bit more personality. Just a little bit more. Just a touch. Just a touch. That's the only complaint I have about Conor McDavid. He's a phenomenal hockey player. And if the Oilers win the cup, he's winning the cons mites and then the Panthers. I think you're right though. The default answer is bark off. Unless Kachuk or Barofsky have a massive series, it's going to be bark off, which again, like it just feels weird because can you just give a cons mites to the entire team? Because you look at the Panthers, like, I don't think one player has been just phenomenal this entire play from there. Just a really good fucking. Yeah, it feels like Vegas last year, we're like, Marsha so won the cons smite. But like that's just going to that's a weird one to look at because like he was good in the playoffs. But you could have made a very reasonable case for like six people. Yeah, we're like Mark Stone could have won it. Eichol could have won it. Aiden Hill very well could have won it. It's like Marsha so just like I actually want to see what the vote count was. I don't know if we do that for the cons mites, but I'm sure you can find it. But it was like Marsha so just scored the big goals. I thought Eichol actually deserved it. And it's kind of where you didn't get it. But I would have given it to Aiden Hill, but eight in Hill, but that's the case. Like it's the same thing. And then you go back to the abs year, you like my car won it. My kid and could easily done it. Land of Scott could easily done it. Now choosing easily got it. It wasn't as close as I thought. It was Marsha so had 80 points. Eichol had 56. Hill had 17 and Mark Stone had eight. So I mean it was he was pretty in Marsha. So back to the abs. I want to know how much Kilmer car I want to buy. Yeah, you're going to have to filibuster for me. Yeah, no, because like like the Kilmer car I think had 28 points would we say he had. The kid was great. Rancin was great. And the two skin was phenomenal. The car was unanimous for that. Yeah, he had 90 points. He had 18 first place vote, which is all of them. And McKinnon had 47. Rancin and had seven. Okay, so it wasn't even a debate, but also we just we just love that series those playoffs. So we'll just say it was closer than what it was. So I don't know, man, it's it's it's going to be a very interesting one if the Panthers win, but I do think the default is just bark off. Yeah, like there's going to be it honestly, I think it's unanimous bark off. I don't know probably but to anyone else. Forzling is going to be on ballots. But what bark off does the high prolific scoring that he does and just the he's the best two way forward in the game. He's going to win the cons might of the Panthers win this thing. Honestly, I'd have a hard time seeing him not winning it. Honestly, even if he's mediocre in the series, people are going to talk themselves into it. Because he did such a good job on McDade. I mean, because if the Panthers win, he's just going to have to do that anyway. Yeah, I agree. I agree. It's just like you said, it's weird, man. It's weird because I just I want to give the cons might to the entire team because that's how good the Panthers are, in my opinion. So that's a cons might. Let's get into series predictions. I've kind of leaned in mind. I want to say Florida and five. I want to say Florida and five, but I think regret that decision. Yeah, I agree with you. I think that the Euler specialty teams is going to make enough plays in a couple of games to win them. I'm going to go Florida and six. I'm going to go Florida and six. I just think Florida is one of the most complete teams we have seen in the salary cap era. They were very good last year, ran into a buzz saw that was Vegas. They were super beat up. They seem super determined this year. And I think even if they do have an injury to one player, they can have fill those voids. And I think the others are a great team. I just think the Panthers are just so good and they are better than everyone else in the league. And we're going to look back on this and be like, why did anyone pick against the Panthers all year? Like this team is fucking voted. I really want to go Panthers and five, but I agree with you that's going to change. I'm going to go Florida and six. I think this whole season, from the regular season, from October to now has been one of the most storyline filled seasons that I can remember. There's been so much stuff that's gone on. There's been so much for the first time, like kind of national attention on the sport, because as much as we do shit on ESPN, they do bring more eyes to the sport than NBC ever did. So there's been so much talk around the MVP stuff and are the Oilers even going to make the playoffs and the Rangers being good. This season has been unlike anything I've ever seen. It ends in a game seven for the Stanley Cup final. I think that is just a good fitting ending for it. I'm even going to say, yeah, the Panthers win this series in seven. I think they have to come back. I think the Oilers are going to be up three to two. The cup is going to be in the building in Edmonton. The Panthers are going to win that game and they're going to win game seven and they're going to go down in history as just one of the most hated teams to ever win the Stanley Cup. And I think that is going to be a very fitting way to end the year where the Oilers have some very prolific strengths. They have McDavid, they have dry settled, they have their power play and they even have their penalty kill. The Panthers are not that far behind them in several regards and depth wise, they have the edge, goaltending, they have the edge, defense, they have the edge. All they need to do is just be close to the Oilers power play and close to their penalty kill and have their top guys even close to McDavid. And I think they're going to win this series. I think there's going to be several one goal games. I think a bouncer too is going to determine this thing. I think the Panthers win this series in seven and it's going to go down probably as one of the best finals we've seen. Because there's not a lot of game sevens for the Stanley Cup. You had Vancouver Boston in 2011, St. Louis and the Bruins in 2019. They haven't been good games. That's what I'm saying. We are so long overdue for not just a game seven, but a good game seven for the Stanley Cup. Because like you were saying, 2011 was a shutout and 2019 was essentially a shutout. The Bruins were like three minutes left in a four nothing game, nothing. We are due for a good game seven. And I think a home team is going to win the game seven for the first time since the hurricanes in '06 and who they did that against. What are the Oilers? I think it's just been leading up to this moment where we have an incredible Stanley Cup final. I think the Panthers are just a little more complete, but I think the Oilers are 100% going to make me question my decision several times throughout this series. I just don't think the Panthers are going to be denied. Just the way they are. They're healthy. They were here last year. They know what it takes. They're not going to be phased by it. I just think they're right there. And I think they're going to take care of business. It's going to be a hell of a series. It really is. I like your call on saying they go down three, two, the Panthers, you and the wing gave six in Edmonton because that would just be the meanest possible thing that could happen to Canada. That's just I think that's going to happen. I think it's going to happen again just like it did in '04 where it's going to be right there. And it's just going to be taken away in the building. You got to go back to Florida again, you know, because it was Tampa in Calgary in 2004. It's going to come back to Florida. And the Panthers are just going to have too much on their side. Yeah, it's just mean. I mean, and how, like, do you think if the, like, Oilers lose a series, does the pressure get even more on Bettman than he hates Canada? It would have to be a controversy. And there will be. There will be 100% going to be, could Chuck's going to do something that's going to piss off Oilers fans? Let's be, let's be very honest here. We are not getting through this final unscathed. There's going to be some goaltender interference offside headshot that is going to be talked about for the entire off season. And Bettman hates Canada or this and that. There's going to be something that goes on here. Well, it's already starting where Pierre LeBrun tweeted like all the don't pity the refs in this series, you know, because the Oilers have such a good power play. And it is filled with replies being like, why would they change the calls just because the Oilers have a good, but we haven't even started yet. And we're already getting there. I can't wait for it, man. I get it's going to be online. There is, like, a little bit of sick, twisted enjoyment I'm going to get from not having my team in the cup final. Like, it's a decent consolation prize of just watching fan bases meltdown. I haven't really interacted with much of Panthers Twitter. I know they're out there, but I just haven't interacted with them because the apps haven't played them in anything seriously since '96. But that was what, it's almost 30 years ago. I was going to mind. So yeah, it's going to take a while for us to build that rivalry with the Panthers. And I do think it's just kind of fun because like you said, I feel like I'm the oddball here where everyone is like, fuck the Panthers. And I'm kind of like, the Panthers kind of fucking rule. Like, I think I'm in, I'm with you. I'm in the total opposite vote of everyone. If the Panthers on the way to Stanley Cup beat the lightning, the Bruins, the Rangers and the Oilers, I'm buying their jerseys. Like, I'm so on board with this team right now. They are just cleaning out all my least favorites. I am. This would be one of the greatest cup runs for me personally. I've ever seen a team do. Yeah, it's that's going to be the fun part with it. And I just feel like we're in the minority where it's like, I feel like a large portion of hockey fans like fuck the Panthers. I'm just kind of like, let's go cats, baby. I'm so on board with the Panthers. I'm sure I'm I've got some kind of subconscious bias that's not letting me see how the Oilers are going to win this series. But man, again, that's like four of my top five least favorite teams. Yeah, fuck Tampa, fuck the Bruins, fuck the Rangers and fuck the Oilers. If they beat all four of them, I'm I'm a Panthers fan next year. Well, everyone hates them and says they're cheaters because of the tax or whatever. I'm a huge Panthers fan next year. I love how people are going to say they're cheaters that their state law that doesn't affect the league at all. It's the reason they're winning. It does not matter who wins. They're always cheating somehow. Yeah. Last year, Vegas and the LTIR. What was the abs thing? How are we cheating? Was it the the offside in game one? Is that how we were cheating? Game off sides. The Oilers won the McCar one. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We cheated to beat the Oilers, obviously. The too many men. That one we were cheating. The refs love us. That's the one where the abs got the most penalties called for them in the regular season. And you know, we're just the refs favorite. So that one. Oh, we took out Bennington. That's the asterisk. That's another big one. See, because it doesn't matter. Everyone's just cheating. Tampa cheated on LTIR with Kucharov the year before. Oh, it doesn't count. It's the COVID year. The blues. How did they cheat? There was the trip in game five that led to a goal that won them that game. And I was going to say the hand pass, but that benefited the sharks. Yeah. How did the caps cheat? I feel like that's one where it was just like, fuck, no one could even be mad about that one. Well, as they played Vegas in the final, that was the complaint the time they played an expansion team in the final doesn't even down. I mean, it goes back to all of them. I get it. If it does not matter, every team that's going to win is going to be accused of having an advantage or cheating. So just cheat. It doesn't matter. You're going to be accused anyway. So we're talking about the Land of Scog stuff in the LTIR. Fucking cheat. Do it. I don't think you're going to be accused of cheating anyway, because they're like the altitude or whatever. So good. Hey, everybody. Hope you've been enjoying this episode so far. Interrupting to bring you a word from our sponsor at Draft King Sportsbook. We are this close to crowning the Stanley Cup champion. And with the action heating up on the ice, it's even hotter at Draft King Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of VNHL. And if you want to get in on the action before the season wraps up, we've got a deal for you. New customers can get a no sweat up to 1500 bucks. Just deposit at least five bucks, and you'll get a bonus bet back equal to your first bet if it doesn't hit. So what are you waiting for? Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now and use code THPN. That's code THPN for new customers to get a no sweat up to 1500 bucks if your first bet doesn't hit only on Draft King's The Crown is yours. Now back to the episode. Just do it. I'm cool with it. And then we're in a safe space here. We know this podcast is a safe space. I'm going to say something here that may be not well received by ASFANS. During the Easter conference final, there was a game that John Cooper was an analyst. He kind of fucking rules as a TV analyst. I'm just going to leave it there. For the safe space, I know people don't like John Cooper in abs country. He kind of rules as a TV analyst. Like when he retires and goes into the TV analyst business, he's going to be very good. I'm sure he would be me. He's been the coach and template for over a decade at this. I'm sure he's I don't want to save space. I wanted to tweet that out, but I was like, he kind of rules his personality is really good for TV. I bet he would be really good on TV, honestly. Like we're in a safe space. I just wanted to say that. He's one of the few coaches who I think is going to transition to TV very well. Him and Paul Maurice, but Paul Maurice already has TV experience. So I can't really say that, but John Cooper kind of fucking rules as a personality for TV. Yeah, I'd agree with that. I'll say that. But yeah, finishing up on the conversation on this daily cut file, we both have the Panthers winning. You have them in six, I have them in seven. And just ultimately, like you look at how injured could Chuck was last year, Ekblad and Montour couldn't even start the next season. Like, I think that's just such a big difference in this series. And for the Oilers, you put him up against Darnell, nurse and Cody CC. I have my concerns about that, about how they've had their moments in the playoffs for sure, were good and bad. The Panthers haven't really had that guy where you're pointing to and be like, wow, this guy, absolutely fucking sucks. And if he does, they just take him out of the lap and replace him with another quality. But another good player in the lap, we're like, nurse, I'm worried about for the Oilers CC, I'm worried about for the Oilers. And I'm a little worried about Skinner. He's been fine at some points, but I'm worried that the Panthers are just, they're just so relentless that they're going to start to get to them. They're just dogs, man. They will hound you on the four check. And like you said, the Oilers defense has been good. It's been solid. Evan Bouchard's been great. Mathias that comes been good. Darnell, nurse, Cody CC, Bo Broberg, Dejarn, why am I blanking eyes? Broberg. Hey, Harnay. Vincent Dejarnay. Dejarnay. And then like that, it's, it's not great defensively. It's not great. But you can also say the same thing about the Panthers. I feel better about the Panthers Decor with Forzeling, Ekblad, Ekmalarsen, Stenlin, like you feel better about them. Yeah, Montor, Mecola, Coola. Oh, Stenlin's a center. Why did I say that? Yeah. My brain's a little quieter. Yeah, my brain's a little bit worse. But I feel better about the Panthers Decor than I do about the Oilers Decor. I'm just saying it wouldn't shock me at all if the Panthers win this series of four or five. It wouldn't shock me because I just think the Panthers are the better team. But there are hockey's a stupid ass sport and stupid things happen where just because you're the better team doesn't necessarily mean you're going to win the game. Yeah. I mean, the Panthers should have swept the Rangers, but that's the one six because the Panthers or the Rangers just got some bounces to go their way and they got justerkin play and incredibly. I think it's a seven game series. I think the Panthers are going to win just because they're the better team. But I think this is going to be a very fun series that we talk about for a long time. We talk about for a long time and it's still just criminal that a hockey game has been played in over a week. It almost feels like it feels weird because it feels like I was already in off season mode. Now I have to be like, oh wait, there's actually like one more series to go. Well, what we were talking before we started today is the six year anniversary of the Capitals winning the Stanley Cup. It's June 7th. We haven't even started the final yet. We're going to be handed about at the latest June 24th. Like, come on, guys, that's not that's not good. We got to start wrapping these seasons up again. We were wrapping them up for an early June. Like, what changed where we'd now suddenly have to push these series back and end these seasons in late June? Probably something with TV. But other than that, I really can't think of anything. It's there will use the COVID as the excuse, but like COVID stopped be like affecting things what like two years ago. The third normal Stanley Cup, we've handed up, oh, we can't keep using that as the reason for things. Yeah, it's just crazy. But overall, man, I'm very, very excited to watch some playoff hockey again tomorrow. I get off work right when the game starts. So I may miss like a period, like half a period. But overall, I'm very excited to watch these games. And I think they're just going to be must watch TV. Yeah, I completely agree. So we both have the Panthers weighing the series and we will see how this series goes. We're still going to be recording during the series. We're going to be talking about all the games as we're talking about other stuff. But other stuff happening in the NHL, the big season, the big storyline for next season is going to be Utah. And what that team ultimately ends up being. But we have an idea of what the names might end up being for what is for next season, at least going to be the Utah Hockey Club. I believe that's what they're going to be called. But in terms of their full-time names, we are down to six options. We are down to the Utah Blizzard, the Utah Mammoth, the Utah Outlaws, the Utah Venom, and the Utah Yeti. And also the Utah Hockey Club is a full-time thing, which is not the worst selection of names in the world. I mean, some of them are better than others. No, it's one of those things where it's just like picking a team name. You think every single one sounds terrible. And then eventually you just get the name and it's like, oh, it's not that bad. I thought the Golden Knights was a stupid name, but I just got really used to it. Also, like, what is a flyer? If you introduce Philly today and called them the flyers, I would think that is the dumbest name in existence. Correct. Correct. And I'm sure when the abs got named, the avalanche people are like, this is fucking stupid. I don't know. Avalanche kind of kicks ass. It kind of rules, but like, I think it was Evan wrote a story about a couple of years where they were almost called the Colorado extreme. That would have been that would be the worst name in sports. But like, think about back in like the 90s when the abs came around, like, the Nordiques was just a classic name and then going to the avalanche, it's kind of like, well, fuck, that's kind of dumb. Like, what do you do? And then now it's 30 years later, and you're like, yeah, abs kind of kicks ass. Like, that's a great team name. So I'm interested to see where it goes. I hope they don't do the hockey club. I don't, I hope that just, I don't like it. It's not a hockey name. Like, okay, it's a place, it's a placeholder. It's fine for this season, but I just don't understand some people's obsession with just not having names. Yeah, it's not a, it's not a European soccer team. No, and like, you'll never get that type of a lure when it comes to, because what do you call, are we just going to call them the Utes? Yeah, because they don't have a name on the Utes. And that's the college football team. Like, that's, that's where I'm at with it. So exactly. Like, I, there's a reason that the commanders didn't stick with the Washington football team was like, I know, I know like the Washington football team, that kind of, I know some people grew attached to it, but like, there's no marketing behind that. There's no branding that you can do with the yellow W. Even then the commanders is not a great name to begin with. Commanders is the worst, worst possible one they chose. But I kind of like the Washington football team, that kind of role. The Utah hockey club just doesn't roll off the tongue. The Utah H.C. Yeah, that's just doesn't roll off. I look at those names. The venom is like the random one. That's the name of a youth rec lacrosse team. I think I played against teams called the venom when I was 12 years old. Yeah, I agree with you on that one. That, that is like a, a youth sports name. Like, I'll, I'll see those. The blizzards was another one. I don't, the only one I don't like is venom and hockey club. The rest I could live with. I have a hot take. The one I'd like the least is the Yeti, because we just did this with the crack and it's the same thing, essentially. It's a mythical beast. Words. Do we need another one of those? Where's like, I can live with, I can live with the Yeti. Also, it should be called the Yetis, not the Yeti. Agreed. I, I am partial to the Utah outlaws. I feel like they can do some really cool branding with that one. My second, I think the mammoth is the best one. I think that one ages the best. Yeah, I like the map. There's a lot of cool stuff you can do with that. And like, even with outlaws, I don't think of Utah as like cowboys, even though it is kind of in the west, like the wild, wild west. I don't think of Utah as that. Right. The mammoth would be cool. Because with mammoth, you can still theme that around like winter. Outlaws, like when you think of an outlaw, you think of the wild west and like scorching dust. Right. That doesn't work with mammoth. They were in like cold environments. The difference between a mammoth and Yeti. I know someone's probably thinking, well, what's the difference between mammoth? Mammoth were real. Like, we know they were real. They were real animals. Yeti are mythical creatures. And with mammoth, like I said, it's like, I like blizzard because you can still work with the winter theme. And you can, I like the blue color palette that they're starting to go with. I think you can still work with that with the mammoth where you can do like a purple or a blue color. I mean, you look at like mammoths, like making a mascot of a mammoth is very easy. Like, that's gonna be a cool mascot you can make. And it's just, I lean more towards like the winter theme ones because I feel like that fits Utah more. It is just funny that like all the names they're going through, like Denver already has a sports team with that name. I just find that very funny. And so hard to copy us. Yeah, because you have the Denver outlaws of the P.O.L. color, the mammoth of the N.L.L. I guess that's it. And then the Yeti is the abs head that is there a second ago for and I've seen the argument for blizzard being the same as avalanche, which again, I, I don't agree with I blizzards or they just have snow. Like, that's you can't just monopolize all the snow names. Anything involving snow is abstract mark. That's not how it works, folks. Like, I'm gonna tell you right now, it's not how it works. It's saying that hurricanes and the lightning have the same name. I think I have never thought about that. But they kind of do. They kind of do. I think you've convinced me more on mammoth. I think I like the mammoth motions because I think the branding you can do with that is going to be awesome. Yeah, I could get very used to the Utah mammoth, the mams. The mams that I could get used to that. I could get very used to the Utah mammoth. The blizzards is probably third and then the Yeti second. That's probably where I'm at. I still, I think I wouldn't mind outlaws, but I feel like it's only slightly better than venom in like a generic team name mammoth. Like, I've never really seen teams call the mammoth before. I think that works for a professional hockey club that you're hoping sticks around for 50 years. Yeah, I like that a lot. I think the mammoth is the clear number one and I hope that's the one they choose. But as we say that, they'll probably end up being the Utah venom. That's probably what they'll end up being. Just be, how do you market the venom? Like, what's your mascot snakes? I mean, if they go Utah venom, they could kind of go the same route like branding wise that the coyotes did with the jerseys. Like, the colors may not have to change too much. Yeah. But if you're going for a whole new brand, you make colors work for any name. True. Because I just like the mammoth. Yeah, go ahead. I think the mammoth is the winner, but it probably will end up being the Utah venom. And we'll be like, what the fuck? I think it's going to be down to the mammoth and the Yeti personally. I think we're, whenever we see an update next, it's just going to be down to those two names. I think the Yeti might end up being the name because I think people like the mythical creature thing. But the mammoth is for me at least 100% the best name that would age 100% the best. I think so too. I think it's the mammoth. And then I just really hope they don't go venom. But I guess I think it's mammoth. Yeti blizzard. That's where I'm going to stick with. I'm worried they're going to stick with the hockey club to just try to be different and stick out. Yeah. But then did you see that logos they did for that? They're the most basic like they look like word pop art that they created. I mean, that's what they're going to have for next year. I think that's the jerseys they're going to wear, right? Yeah, it's what they're going to wear. But I'm also at the same time. I'm kind of like, this is just boring. And I get it. If it's a one year thing, we can get by with it. But it's just kind of bland and boring. So I think people don't understand how hard it is to like actually like come up with names and trademark them and all the marketing that you got to do with it. Because it's not just like, this is our name, you got to draft up the jerseys, you got to get big marks, which is a very difficult process. And you got to also make sure nothing leaks and you got to design all the. Oh, it's going to get leaked. Like we know that's going to happen. Yeah, it's going to happen. But I get it's just hopefully it doesn't get leaked by a basketball team wearing the jersey before the jersey comes out. Yeah, or like it's putting like a Canadian store. Yeah. Fingers crossed. It happens a lot. But I mean, did you also see like the season tickets, like they've released like the view of what it's going to be like? It's going to be there's a lot of work that has to go into the arena because there's a lot of seats with not great viewing. Discounted partial ice view seats, which the Utah is going to be an experience next. It is. There's also going to be a lot more tolerance for them because there's going to be a lot more effort towards actually, right? Like they're going to make the improvements to make that arena work. It's just this year's going to be very weird. It's going to be a very weird thing. And in a weird way, I kind of like the owner. He hasn't rubbed me the wrong way yet. And I think he actually cares, which is important. So I am intrigued to see how it goes. But it's going to be an experience the first couple times the abs go play their next year. Honestly, I don't know if this is a hot take or not. But I think they're going to push hard to make us rivals with them. I think that I think the first game of the season for Utah is going to be against the avalanche. I like that. Them are Vegas. Yeah. I think I think it's going to be us because I think they're going to want to push that geographical rivalry because we've already kind of had that with the coyotes. They're just not very good. So we haven't been able to do much with it. I think they're going to really start to push that in the future now that Utah is like a little closer to Colorado than Arizona. Oh, they've given the abs fits over the years where it comes right in. I think they're going to lean in with that. And if I have one prediction for the schedule, whenever Utah opens, which I imagine would just be opening night, right? Probably. It's not like it was for Seattle where they were still building the arena. So they had to wait like two weeks. If they're, if their arena is ready for opening night, I think they're just going to have the abs go there. And that's just going to be the opener. I can see that. It's a very real possibility. Very real. But it's going to be, I could see them pushing that because the nuggets and jazz rivalries pretty good. And I don't know, in the central, it kind of feels like they need some more juice in the rivalries because right now it's pretty much the abs and dowels. And that's it. Yeah. Everything else kind of lost. It's steamed the past couple of years. Everything else is just residual because no one else is very good. Yeah. So we'll see. I imagine they'll probably announce the name sometime at the end of this year. Yeah, maybe like during the season, probably. But yeah, that'll make you do about it. Yeah, they'll have a whole thing about it. But we're going to get to our mailbag questions for today as we wrap this one up. We actually have three of them, even though we recorded a little earlier today, and I couldn't tweet up the mailbag thing. But even still, we got three, the first coming from definitely not howler asking with the news that Val is playing in Russia this summer, one, do you think it's legit slash real news? And two, is he there to say also, should they bring howler and the foot back? OK, let's tackle the howler and the foot question first. I thought howler kicked ass. I can see why they got rid of him because he scared kids. And yes, bring back the Yeti foot because it makes no sense for the team. But it's nostalgia for abs fans. I think if we're going to go down this this road with Utah being our rivals and they announced the Yeti the next day howler needs to be back this day, you got to bring back the foot, you got to bring back howler and you got to make them look fucking stupid. And also, it's just cool. The Yeti foot is a great logo and howler was a great mascot. Yes. Fuck them kids. I don't care if they're crying. We got to build a hostile environment in ballerina. We got to make this place less welcoming. But I think he'd be more generally accepted now because mascots have just gotten more and more ridiculous over the years. You're telling me he's going to be scarier than gritty. That's what I'm saying. That's where it's at. And this is no disrespect to Bernie. Bernie's a great mascot, a good looking dog. But he's just living in a tough life with. They have them both. Pay two mascots have two mascots. You know, mascots can pay pretty handsomely. They do. Oh, I know. I've worked. I've worked with mascots working as sports. Those guys get paid a lot more than you think they do. Yeah, like I want to say that Rocky, the Nuggets mascot makes like $100,000 a year. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's all three 65 day and a week or three 65 seven days a week job. Right. But yeah, paid money. But even still, bring howler back and bring the Yeti foot back. Yeah, I'm looking at the Yeti foot right now. It does kick ass. It makes no sense for the avalanche, but it rules the mountain. There's Yeti's and mountains somewhere, you know, avalanche. Makes more sense than fucking Utah. Agreed. The second brother question, the vowel stuff. There was news broken that vowel was playing in like a Russian hockey league. There was some more digging done by some reporters. Basically, this league is just like a glorified pickup league. Yeah, it's basically a Russian beer league. Like if you know what the beauty league is, what that some players do in the off season, it's really that. This is hardly a league of any kind and Evan did a lot of digging on what's going on here. So basically, the season is going to happen from July 6 to August 31st. And they're pretty certain vowel is going to take part in stuff like that. So this is not like violating contracts or anything like that. And for the second part of the question, is he there to stay? No, this just stay in shape. And this is to just do something in the off season, where it's just anything surrounding the vowel is going to be controversial right now until he's either on another team or playing on this team again. And even after that, everything we're surrounding him probably for the rest of his career is going to be pretty controversial. So even something like this is going to be picked apart. Is he staying? Can you turn these contract over this? This is a beer league. This is something so that he's not just without hockey for six months and then tries to come back and sucks. So personally, it's real. It's legit news. I just don't think it matters all that much. I don't think it's a big deal or anything like that. There's what would we say 8 million reasons why he should not violate this contract? Yeah, where again, this is not a contract violation. This is staying in shape. And for all the people like, well, shouldn't he be in rehab? We don't know what this process is. No, we've never seen a player in stage three of the player assistance program. We don't know what that program is like. It's also not I don't think people really know what rehab truly entails a lot of the time. Like it's not you're not locked in a room for six months. You know, that'd be prison. It's a program. So I'm sure this has been worked out. And if it hasn't, then that's a violation of the player assistance program. And then we're not having these conversations anymore. So either way, he's either staying in shape or he's not on the team next year. If this is an actual reach of contract. So it's you put it perfectly. Anything Val does is going to be news. And when you do a little bit more digging, you realize, Oh, this is a nothing burger. Yeah, it's the Russian media league. And the word media in there should be a good like standard center. This is not a big deal. Right. He's not the KHL. This is nothing like that. This is a beer league to go play in. And honestly, they might have recommended that he go do it for something like that. Like we don't know. Like there like we in a week, we might see a picture of Val like eating a sandwich. And it'll be a whole week long controversy. Like that's just going to have to deal with this. How dare you eat a meatball sub? Like obviously you gotta eat a sandwich. Exactly. And you're like eating it at like the wrong place or whatever is like, and why is he even in public? Why is he eating it? Like it's just it's you put it perfectly. Anything Val does is going to be news. Yeah, it's just I am I am surprised. I was a little surprised to see it because I generally just thought we wouldn't hear anything from him. So every time there's going to be footage of him playing in these games. So that's going to be some stuff of conversation at least during the offseason as well. But just anything that involves the name Val Nachushkin is there's going to be a week long conversation about. Correct. Correct. Yeah. But yeah, moving on to our next one, this one coming from Ryan L asking, could Kapo Koko be a low cost option? Do you think he'll even be qualified by the Rangers? I think it could be an interesting option. Do I think he's going to be low cost? No. I still think he's going to probably make 1.5 to two. And I think the Rangers are going to keep him around. I think he still gets qualified. I think he's going to get qualified. I if he doesn't get qualified, I think I'm a little more on board with this, but I think he's probably going to cost at least a second or a third kind of other teams have more of. And I just don't know if Koko would get the opportunity that he needs here where the potential is there and the avalanche could fix a player like that. I just think I don't know if he'd fit on like a third line role. Right. He needs more minutes to get more of his potential and that's something he would not get with the abs. Yeah. I don't know if he'd be an abs fit. I'd be interested. If that somehow worked out, I would not be opposed to it. I'd like, I mean, he could be interesting on a third line with wood and Colton maybe. I think that could maybe work if he just maybe had more of a consistent role than the hodgepodge he gets with the Rangers. Maybe that would be better for him. We've seen that work for a lot of guys before, where they go that maybe he could be a burky for us, where you just you just you fix a couple of things with him. You turn him into a slightly more defensively responsible guy and he becomes a pretty solid top six player. I just don't know if we have the money for that kind of reclamation project because he's not that low value yet where you're getting him for $800,000. Hit the hit the nail where I'm the head there. I think it's regardless he's still because he made what this past year, 2.5, I think is what we said. You net ballpark. So even if he's down, I still think he's 1.5 at the least. Yeah. And I think his qualifying offer would be closer to three, right? Well, he'd have to not get qualified to get one and a half. And at that point, you think you probably have 20 teams in on him that are going to offer him probably two, two and a half to three. Exactly. I just don't think he's at that point where he's going to take like a I need to take a proof of deal. Right. So I'm interested to see what happens with him this offseason. And if he came to the abs, I can definitely talk myself into him being pretty good here. But I just don't know if that's our reclamation project to have. I think that's maybe something for a team like the sharks or the black hawks like teams towards about like the ducks, maybe where if they traded Zegris, I could see some kind of swap in there or something. But he kind of ruled on the ducks. Yeah. It's just like a team where he can genuinely get like a consistent top six opportunity. Yeah. Solid 18 minutes a game instead of the 11 he's been playing. Right. Whereas just the Rangers are not a good fair like Utah, maybe something like that. Not Utah. I don't need any one other good players coming to the central. Yeah, that's I mean, it's, you know, whatever, right? But anyway, we have one final question coming from him. Okay. Yeah. He's him. But asking, do you also feel like Evan Rodriguez got away when he went to the Panthers? Yeah, we said that when he signed, it was like this felt like something we could have easily done. But then you look at what they were able to get with Drew in and you're like, okay, like the abs are just going to be decent at signing these last minute guys. So I always liked the way he Rod played, but they kind of replaced him and Drew and was better. Yeah. I mean, I really liked Evan Rodriguez. I mean, he kind of did exactly what he did here in Florida where he just played on every single line with every single player and was perfectly good at it. And do you want to guess how many points he had this year versus in Colorado? I think he had 48 this year, didn't he? He had 39 points in Colorado and he had 39 points in Florida. Consistency is just as what he is going to do. Granted, he had he played 11 more games in Florida than he did here, but he stuck with 39 points the entire way. He had four more goals here in an abs uniform and he's been Evan Rodriguez in the playoffs or he's just good. He's just a really solid good player set set him and forget him in your middle six and he's just going to give you good solid performances pretty much every night because he's just a damn good player. And again, the the Florida tax thing does come into play where it's like he's actually getting the three million dollars he's making versus you probably have to give him three point five, maybe four if he signed here. And the abs just couldn't really afford that. Like if they kept Rodriguez instead of signing Drew in, they would have had less money. They would have not been able to sign other guys that they wanted to this season where they're they just have to pinch those kinds of pennies where they paid him two million dollars for one year here and he got three million for four years in Florida where I really wanted to find a way to keep him just because I thought he was a perfect Rover. And that's exactly what he is in Florida. But it just wasn't meant it wasn't meant to be. It wasn't meant to be it's it's okay. Yeah, you look at it when it comes to whatever he gets signed for. And you got Drew and you got wood you got Colton. I think those are all upgrades over what E broad was bringing to the team. Yeah, like an e-rod was just he was solid. It's just a solid player, but you can find guys like e-rod. Now when it comes to Drew and I don't think you can let him go. Exactly. You've had that conversation before where it's just you look at the fit. I think e-rod can fit on any team in the league and just do what he does. And I hope he wins a cup with the Panthers because I thought he was a great player here. But with Drew and the fit is just so good and natural with more upside than Rodriguez had that. I just I don't think you can have this conversation again next. Drew and it's more skilled than e-rod. Yeah, but I just I don't think you can have this conversation next year where it's like, oh, uh, Jonathan Drew and another one that got away. Yeah, can't have that conversation. Agreed. Yeah, and they're talking. They're there. They'll see. We might just like name you. We're talking. We're talking right now. They're talking. They're doing their jobs. We're doing our jobs. They're doing it. So we'll see what an answer on Drew and some here in the near future. But again, thank you to everyone for the mailbag questions for today. Again, that stuff is all in the episode descriptions is also on the Twitter page. So if you have any questions, you'd like us to answer on the show, send them in there and we will get to them on the next episode. But I think we're just about ready to to wrap this one up unless you've got any wisdom you'd like to share. Real quick, my job I'm doing for the summer, I am officiating sports. They gave me a whistle last night. And the power you have when you are whistle and officiating, it's it's awesome. I felt powerful with that whistle. I'm just going just blowing the whistle when when I wound the ball went out of bounds, point this team point that team. You feel the power. It was it was awesome. So if you haven't built the power that West Macaulay feels. Yeah, exactly. I thought I was West Macaulay for a little bit last night. So it's powerful feeling. Yeah, just you feel it starts whispering to you like the green goblin that you got to make it all about yourself. Yes, exactly, exactly. And I was doing volleyball last night and volleyball kind of kicks ass. I did not realize how great of a sport that is to watch. And just to feel officiating it is a crazy thing. Like when the ball is like out of bounds in bounds and you have everyone look at you and you just go in and you give the signal and you blow the whistle, it's a powerful feeling. You feel it. And then people are trying to like tell you like, no way that was out. And you're like, nope, it was in. It was in hit the line. Hit the line. It's a powerful feeling of your combination that you don't actually like have. I'm not making it up as you go. Correct. It was a powerful feeling. So I highly recommend it. Everyone's got to have a power trip as a ref at least once in their life. Exactly. And also people in their mid 30s take reckless sports very seriously. Oh, yeah. Very seriously. And I'm a very competitive person. That is why I will not play recreation sports, because it is a stupid thing to get upset about. Are those teams called the venom? No, there was one. I liked how I met your mother fan. So there was one that was how I set your mother like setting for volleyball. There was one team from Australia. They were all Australian. They were hearing them yell at me was very funny because like Australian people are just funny. So when they're getting angry, it's like, I, I, that was out. And you're like, no, might it was in. And you talked to them like that. Exactly like that. No, I wish I would. And I probably got punched the face. I did that. But there were some good names. The one I liked was just how I met your mother because I'm a big, how I met your mother fan. So how I set your mother was pretty good. Sounds fascinating. Yeah. So highly recommend it become an official. I'm doing the tomorrow. I'm doing the flag football championships for seventh and eighth grade. I'm going to be officiating that. And that's going to be those are those are those reps have a fun time. Those are yeah. I'm going to kick so many parents out for just saying anything to me. Get out of here. You're out. I can't wait for that. That's going to be fun. I'm so excited for you. That sounds like so much. It's going to be just bullying a bunch of middle schoolers going to be correct. Correct. It's going to be a. Back to all the gym stories you would tell. Yep. You're out of here. You're out of here, parents. Oh, I go it sits. I'm going to be eager for it. Just say that was a terrible that you you're out. Oh, you're already working on the form. Yeah, it's yeah. Get out of here. You guys can't see it because this is audio. But he's got he's got the motion down pat. He's got a. I can't wait and everything but maybe I'll do the West McCauley to like five minutes. That's what I'll do. I'll get into it. I think I found a new found love for officiating. Are we going to start being ref sympathizers in the future? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. But it is. I can see why they do it because it's powerful when everything's just writing on your call. And the best part about this is there's no replay. Like I can't get proven wrong. I'm like, I am replay. I make the decisions here. You have no power over me. Exactly. Exactly. So it's been fun. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when I get to officiate some flag football. Sounds like a blast. So we're going to let you start to to rehearse and prepare for that. We're going to wrap this one up here. Thank you all so very much for tuning in to another edition of the Teled Abzit is podcast. You can use promo code Teled Abzit is on Seakeek for $20 off your first order of $50 or more. You want to follow us on Twitter? You can follow me at G Young's NHL. You can follow Christian at Christian underscore ballet. And you can follow this show at Teled Abzit is. But again, thank you all so very much for tuning in. And we will catch you all next time. But until then, let's go Abs. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
