The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Hockey Show: Paul Maurice Stories With Adnan Virk
Fri, 20 Dec 2024
It's the final Hockey Show of the year and Roy and David are joined by Rose and Ethan to celebrate the occasion. The boys start off their slapshots, winners and losers of the week including the vibes around the Rangers, Zach Hyman's face and an emergency goalie literally running to the game. Then, Adnan Virk joins the show to discuss his conversation this week with Florida Panthers head coach, Paul Maurice, after he sat down with PoMo leading up to the Panthers game against the Edmonton Oilers. Speaking of that game, is there something to what the Panthers are doing against some of the top teams in the league? Also, is there any way out for the Rangers? Finally, we wrap with a recap of the Panthers week that included a shutout loss to the Calgary Flames, the epic win over Edmonton and a domination of the Minnesota Wild. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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70,000 people are here, and Bob Dylan is the reason for it. Inspired by the true story.
If anyone is going to hold your attention on a stage, you have to kind of be a freak.
Are you a freak?
Hope so. And starring Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan. He defied everyone.
Turn it down!
Play loud! To change everything.
Make some noise, BD.
Timothee Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro. A complete unknown. Only in theaters Christmas Day. Rated R. Under $17.99 without parent.
You know what?
I just said that.
I'm going to interrupt you. Steve Martin. We're going to start. I'm going to interrupt you. No.
I can't enter the damn show. Five, four, three, two, four, five, four, three, two, one. Welcome to the Hockey Show. My name is Roy Bellamy. That's David Dwork over there. He works for the Hockey News. Rosarius is over there in the EP chair.
I'm sorry I'm laughing, but the audience doesn't know the countdown drama that we just had trying to get the show started.
Oh, believe me, I'm going to put it there.
Yeah, okay, fine.
Ethan Podolsky, you work here. All right, so yeah. That's a good description.
I just come here, bro.
Yeah, you just come here.
I love the shirt he's got on because it looks like a 1990s era shirt, but it's quite obviously a brand new shirt.
I was born in the 90s, but I wish I lived in the 90s for real because I would have thrived. Thriven? Thrived? Thrived. You were born in the 90s.
I speak Spanish, but it's thrive.
Yeah.
That's your second language.
You knew it was thrive. Okay. English lessons with Rosie. I like it.
Slap shots.
Let's start on our hot takes there. Dave, go ahead. Okay. So my first hot take is the Rangers turnaround is starting. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. And the reason why is the coaches are now playing. With the players. Oh. So yesterday, or Thursday, as we record this, the Rangers are in Dallas. They held a practice at the Stars facility there. Peter Laviolette, head coach of the Rangers.
Michael Pekka, assistant coach of the Rangers, decided they're going to show the players how to do it in the shootout drills. I don't know how particularly well it goes, but I'm seeing this as a good sign that everybody is happy. The good vibes are back around the Rangers. The coaches are farting around and having fun. And yeah, the turnaround is coming. Do I believe what I'm saying? No.
No, I don't. But... Let's put the positivity out there. So go get them, Rangers. You're only like 14 points or whatever out of first place, but you can do it.
Yeah, all it took was the trade of Jacob Truba and Cabo Caco.
Yeah, you know, just get rid of key guys. You're good. You're good.
Okay. So now, if you have goals, you'll be successful. That's just my opinion. I think that's how hockey works. Yeah, that's how hockey works. Now, a lot of people... Love dogs, you know. In fact, I would say that most people love dogs more than they love people. You're wearing a sweater with a dog on it. That's right. Now, I'm not a big fan of dogs, but I mean, Claire does want a dog.
My wife does want a dog. So then you will be having a dog. Probably not. And like I said, like I said, you know, most people love their dogs or their pet more than most people. You know why? Because people are dumb. That's why. Sure, the average person is smart. But people, the dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, you know it. You know that. I don't like people. Yeah, I don't like people either.
I like these people.
You don't like me?
No, you guys are dumb. People are dumb. We live in South Florida. It's the communal dumbness down here.
Oh, yeah, there's a lot of stupid people down here. But putting that aside. Yeah, where are we going with this? Yeah, Sam Bennett, you know, as you know, is currently trying to save pets all over Broward County right now. He has been these buddies. He's created this foundation with the help of the Humane Society of Broward County.
Every time he scores a goal, a pet gets sponsored for adoption, right? Currently, he has 13 goals. 13. His career high is 28. He's almost halfway there already, and we're not even at Christmas yet. So, very, very successful right now. Good for Benny. I'm very happy for him. He's saving a lot of dogs. He's making a lot of families happy. Now, while we're at this section here, talking about
Pet adoptions. I want to give a shout out to one of my best friends in the world. She is currently running a rescue adoption service as well. It's called Rescue Paws. Right now, she's trying to find forever homes for dogs right now, you know, and I just wanted to give a shout out to her and hopefully some of the listeners would like.
donate to this cause you can just log on to rescue paws fl dot org and find some dogs uh some new homes and i always wanted to say this uh have your pet spayed and neutered all right i have the greatest nicely done mr barker thank you yes what if we uh adopt a dog and call it puck and it's the hockey show dog
You've got to take care of it. Yeah, that's all you. First thing I thought of, who's taking care of the dog? It's not me.
I don't have enough room. I barely want to bring a dog home to my house.
My family's already got enough. Can we just have Willow be the hockey show dog? Willow is just the meadowlark dog. Well, because Willow is awesome and Willow is here and Willow has a loving home already.
No, she's the meadowlark. So you know what? I'm just going to go to my hot take because you people don't take me seriously. But my hot take is literally is going to be very hot in Florida. So why are we doing an outside hockey thing in Florida?
Rose, there's a dome. It's a dome.
But it's outside. It says outside. It's a dome. It doesn't make any sense.
It's a roof. I do kind of agree with Rose here because as excited as I am about a stadium series coming to Florida, it's not an outdoor game if it's in a stadium with a retractable roof where the roof is going to be closed and the windows are going to be closed.
So if the windows are open, we don't know that yet. They're going to close everything up while they make the ice and they're going to make sure it's frozen. And then once the game starts, they're going to open –
They'll open it and then close it? No, no. I think it'll depend on the day. They're praying for a good weather day, right?
It's going to rain. It is going to rain. That's what's going to happen. That would be very appropriate. You know why? Because it rained during the parade. Yeah.
That would be very appropriate.
That's how that works. That's how it always works down here because shit happens.
But how crazy is it, though? This is what's just kind of been sinking in over the last week or so since we first found out about this. The Panthers are hosting.
They're still trying to sink in that they want to sell a cup.
The Panthers are hosting an outdoor game. That's nuts. And yes, I know it's a quote-unquote outdoor game, and if it's cool enough on the day that it happens, they'll open the roof up. I'd say I'd probably take the bet that the roof will be closed and open, if we're talking odds. But who cares? This is awesome. You remember when we were just happy when they got an All-Star game?
I remember when it was like the playoff chase was what we look forward to every March. Like, oh man, they're only five points out with two games at hand. Let's go.
0-9, finished with 93 points. Was that the year that they finished tied?
Yeah, with the Capitals, I think.
The tiebreaker scenario against the Canadiens. Yeah.
That one hurt. Losing to the Flyers in game 81. I remember going to like Bo Campers or something to watch that. Yeah. Ah, it's life as good as a Panther fan. Well, now it is.
Yeah, now it is. Yeah, it can't say shit to me. Wins of the week.
Wins of the week. Okay, so my win of the week is Goalie Root. Gotta love it. Young man named Zachary Dietz, the e-bug in Ottawa, got called into action very late earlier this week.
You gotta love an e-bug.
So Anton Forsberg hurt himself during his pre-game warm-up routine. So this guy, Zachary Dietz, gets called at like a quarter to six.
Yeah.
And traffic in Ottawa, anybody that's been to a Senators game knows, like, it is nuts because there's only one road in and one road out. So he basically said, bleep it, I gotta get to the stadium. And as we're watching the video here, he picked up his bags, his gear, and he's running as all these cars are sitting in traffic trying to get in. He's guys running to the arena.
He gets there, suits up. He's on the bench for the game. This is an NHL goaltender right there, folks. And he is running with his own gear to the stadium. I thought that was so awesome. I would absolutely do the exact same thing if I was him. I would, whatever it takes, get me in that NHL bench. I'm going to sign a contract. That was so awesome.
Something that he's going to have for the rest of his life with that video and the experience. Just completely, completely cool. All encompassing my win of the week.
He hoofed it to the arena. Now, we're not talking about a position play. We're talking about a goaltender. So that's extra panic. Oh, yeah. He had a lot of gear. A lot of gear. So good for him. I went in a week. We go to Twitter, currently known as X. Mike Commodore had a tweet, and it's on the screen right now. I got to read this. So, Jacob Borchek had this tweet.
He said, as a flyer, I definitely think that if the Penguins make the playoffs, you got to respect Crosby, Malkin, and Letang so much more. First ballot trio. In my own opinion.
Is that tweet from like 10 years ago and it just like got caught up in his drafts and just now got sent out? Because I'm pretty sure we've known for a little while that those guys are all going to be first ballot Hall of Famers.
Yeah. Well, first of all, I personally don't have to do a goddamn thing. All right. Fuck that shit. As far as talking about, oh, first ballot Hall of Famers. I'm not saying that.
I mean, maybe Chris Letang. I don't know if Chris Letang necessarily is a first ballot Hall of Famer. He's talking about trios. Yeah, well, certainly, you know, the 2.0 of Lemieux and Yager.
Yeah, but yeah, it was basically one of those, you know how they say Magic Johnson has one of those, you know, treats that everybody deems obvious? If there was a Magic Johnson in hockey, that would be Jacob Voracek, I guess, in that situation. Maybe Jake's just trolling.
That felt like he was trolling me. That would be great. And Commodore took the bait. Yes, absolutely.
I guess so, because my Commodore, and by the way, keep in mind, they were both teammates in Columbus. So I guess they know each other very well. They might even be friends. That was a decade and a half ago when they played together. Commodore said, and I quote, like I usually do, No shit, Jake. Playoffs this year makes no difference. Stupid fuck.
Those are not my words, even though I did say fuck earlier in this segment.
Rose is just checking off all these.
You're killing me here, man.
I'm sorry.
Poor Mally.
Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry to everybody.
This is what happens when we get Roy talking about the Penguins.
This is what happens, man.
Right. Fail of the week. Yes. Segway from the Penguins to my fail of the week. My fail of the week is Zach Hyman's face. That poor man took an Evan Bouchard slap shot right off the kisser.
It was deflected.
It was still coming in hot. Yeah. And, you know, credit to him. He's a hockey player. He came back in the game with the fishbowl on his head. He's not going to miss any time because that's hockey. But so the next day, I think it was Mark Spector took a picture of him in the locker room. And we have it to pop up there. I think we do. His face was like, it was like a mean. Yeah.
He looked like a mean, like a much paler, a mean. His nose ballooned. Yeah. His whole face looked like somebody put like a, you know, what you pump up the ball with, an air pump thing. Yeah, air pump, yeah. And just stuck it in his ear. But the point at the end of the day is that he will never miss a game because of this. How many people take a slap shot off the face?
You're not going to see me for a month. Yeah. But yes, there it is. He looks like he just went 10 rounds with Rocky Marciano or something. That's crazy. So yeah, Zach Hyman's face.
Prime example of that would be Duncan Keith in the Western Conference Final against the Sharks. Puck to the face, lost 18, I believe. Four top, four bottom. Came back in there. Yeah. That's hockey, baby. That's hockey. My fail of the week is the New York Rangers defense. This is unacceptable. So in the Rangers-Predators game earlier this week, Luke Shen was in front of the net.
Now, the video is being played right now. He had six shots. Three feet, probably not even three feet in front of Igor Shostakhin. Six shots in three seconds. Not a single Ranger. They're just watching. They're just watching. They're just watching. So you know what we're talking about in practice. They're having fun right now. And all the coaches and Michael Peck is over here doing shootout drills.
They're doing that shit earlier this week. That's bad. That's bad.
No, I mean, that's good on Shusterkin. Making six saves in three seconds is pretty awesome.
And that's why he's the best no-winner.
That's what the Panthers goalies need for their save percentage is being so bad. They need to make six saves in, like, five seconds to pump it up there. But, yeah, that's bad. Like, how do you let a guy stand at the foot of your crease for more than a second with a puck right, like, whack, whack, whack, whack?
That's that's that earns them a back skate. Now, I'm not talking about what they're doing right now in this era of NHL hockey. I'm talking about actual parachutes on the backs as a skating because that was terrible.
Like 1980s Russia style.
Oh, yes, exactly. That's terrible. Now, our guests coming up and you can watch this on YouTube for the DK and audiences and then Burke. Prime Canada, Monday Night Hockey. We're going to talk Mo's stories. Paul Maurice, he had a sit-down interview with him, and he has some stories to tell us. So we'll get to that in a second.
we got here, I want to tell you a story. I'm serious here. My wife and my two daughters, they begged me to buy a Peloton. So I bought a Peloton and then I watched that Peloton sit in my office and stare at me. So you know what I did one day? I looked at it. And so I decided to get off my ass and I jumped on the Peloton because no one else was using it and I paid for it. I mean, so why not?
Then I realized eventually that they bought it for me. And I got to tell you, way more challenging than I could have ever imagined. Peloton coaches are walking the walk. I love the coaches. I do the Grateful Dead one. It's fantastic. They have a sub three hour marathon runner, military trained athlete, a former college basketball player, and so many other well-rounded coaches on their team.
All this experience really shows in their classes, which are never short of challenging, especially for me. So I jumped on it that first time. It was challenging, more challenging than I thought. Then I wanted to beat the bike, and so I kept jumping on it, and I absolutely love it. I mean, I'm the only one who uses it, but again, they got it for me. I mean, I had no idea.
That's a little passive aggressive, don't you think? Find your push. Find your power with Peloton at OnePeloton.com.
Okay, it's time for our monthly check-in with Adnan Virk of Prime Canada and Angel Network. He's doing Monday Night Hockey. And he has some stories from his sit-down interviews. He's been having some fun lately. Yeah, absolutely. He has the distinct pleasure to have sit-down interviews with some luminaries of the sport. And he just talked to Paul Maurice.
Apparently, he has some stories that he wants to deliver to us. So, Adnan, what did you find out from MoMo?
Well, Roy, David, a pleasure to be with you guys. And you're right. You call him Mo right out of the gate. You can't even call him Paul. He just looks like a Mo. He feels like a Mo. He talks like a Mo. And Mo was awesome. We sit down. You think it's going to be a few minutes, five minutes. Who knows how it's going to go? Eight and a half minutes. Mo's got stories for days.
And specifically, that Panthers-Oilers game, as you guys know, Game of the Year Canada, phenomenal game in terms of the back and forth action. This was in the morning of. And I just said, what's it like being here now, that moment when you won that Stanley Cup? What was the most gratifying moment? Right away he goes, oh, you're going to make me cry.
But it was that moment you look around and you see all the people that are there responsible for your success and how grateful they are and how much gratitude they have and just what a collective effort it is together. He goes, that moment, I can't describe it, I can't encapsulate it, but that's that moment when you're just hugging and crying. It's going to make me cry just watching that moment.
It was so sweet to see a guy who'd coached so many games. And then the follow-up, I said to him, I go, Moe, We all know you guys lost the previous year. If you'd lost this game, I mean, you would have been the first team ever to gag a 3-0 lead. I said, I don't know anything about X's and O's. He laughs. He goes, oh, neither do I. I said, no, don't be humble.
I said, but motivation-wise, you've got to tell this team, hey, everyone's squeezing the sticks tight. We just gagged an 0-3 lead. 3-0 lead, excuse me. Like, what are you saying? He goes, the key is you have to focus on positivity. And you guys know this, Roy and David. He goes, that game five, we were great. So I said, look at that game five. We played a great game. We can do this.
It isn't like we're playing horribly and the wheels have completely fallen off. We can do this. And the other thing I tried to tell them was be liberated if you can. I know it's hard to say have fun out there in a game seven, but try to have a little fun. Try to think in your head, hey, man, one game you win a Stanley Cup, we can do this.
And 2-1, he goes, I think we had 19 icings in the third period. He goes, so awesome.
willed it to happen but he said it was an amazing moment and you know he's a coaching lifer i said demote you have no signs of slowing down bills you know called you you were you were fishing he's like i had four straight days of great fishing some of the greatest fishing of my life and he goes bills you know kept calling it eventually got a text he goes i have to clean this up but he goes basically someone said to me pick up the bleeping phone because zito's calling you and i was like i'm good man like i'm taking this to the house it's been fun winnipeg toronto carolina hartford
And he goes, Bill would not take no for an answer. And eventually I was like, okay, fine, let's do this. And he goes, now I don't want to be anywhere else. And he goes, I know it's a cliche. I know you're not going to believe me, but Barkov is an unselfish superstar. Kachuk is an unbelievable guy.
He goes, I've been on teams where we're winners and we don't have a great room, but this is a great room and they're a winning team. And he goes, you don't have that. And I said, well, next year, barring any catastrophe, you're going to get 2,000 games. Only you and Scotty Bowman have coached 2,000 games. He said, man, I'm getting way too close to the sun. He's got nine Stanley Cups.
It doesn't seem fair. But my favorite story, at least he got one story you guys are going to love. I said to him, Mo, long before the term was coined, and this is an NFL term, but you were Mr. Irrelevant. He said, yeah. He said a bunch of scouts got fired with the Philadelphia Flyers. I'm sure. 1985, the number one pick was Wendell Clark. Number 252 was Paul Maurice. And I said, tell me about it.
And he goes, listen, I was just a house league player in the Sioux. I didn't think I was anything special. I was at the bar with some buddies. And my mom was listening to the radio for updates. Because you don't have agency or any of that stuff. And my mom called and said, you got picked by the Flyers. And this was 11.15 at night. And I said...
God, I hope I'm not the last one, but I'm doing the math. He goes to the rest of the night. I was the last one to do everything. I was the last one to get a beer. Great story from Paul Maurice.
Yeah. The, the image I'm always going to have. I mean, I'm going to have this forever is when Mo was talking to Emily Kaplan, you know, the coaches interview after the Stanley cup. And then here comes Spencer Knight. He has the cup in his hands and just handed it off to Mo. And then you get that shot of him lifting the cup with his eyes closed.
That's savoring the moment of 30 years of coaching this sport.
It's crazy. He's been doing it since the 90s. He's coming up on 2,000 games now. And he's only in his 50s. Is he, what, 57 or whatever it is? It's crazy. He could do this for another 15, 20 years if he wants to. I don't know if he would.
You're right. He could coach 3,000 games. He could.
This Panthers team's not going anywhere for a little while.
Nope. And by the way, I said to him, to your point about coaching him as a young man, he goes, I said, you coach Paul Coffey. Well, I also sat down with him earlier. He goes, here's my Paul Coffey story. He said, I'm 30 years old. And he goes, it's Whalers Bruins. Every year it was like Whalers Bruins, Whalers Habs, you always lose. Because Paul Coffey was like a seventh defenseman at that point.
But I call him in and I tell him, you're not playing game one. And he goes, okay. And he tails like a total pro. He goes out and he goes, he just rides the bike like a maniac. Like I can hear him. Like he's like panting and screaming. I'm like, oh my God, this guy's fired up. And he goes, of course he was right. I was wrong. We lose the game. And I put him back in there the rest of the series.
And he was awesome. And he goes, it was a good lesson. Sometimes people are screaming and yelling and ranting. He goes, Paul Coffey, I'm telling a Hall of Famer, you're not good enough to play. And he's like, OK, I'll prove you wrong. And he was right. And as always, I was wrong. But he said it was a good memory because I was 30 years old.
He goes, you don't understand what that's like, 30 years old, and you're a head coach of a team. The way these guys are eyeing you, it's amazing.
And you mentioned the game the other night. And to me, that kind of looked like what game five would have looked like had it gone the Panthers way. Right. They kind of fell behind. Edmonton had that great 10 minute stretch and then the Panthers kind of dominated the rest of the game.
So is there something to what the Panthers are doing right now against great teams in terms of maybe they struggle against the Chicago, but they come out against Edmonton and Minnesota again the other night and just dominate these teams and win these big games?
it's a great point i think if given a choice would you rather your team plays again you you want them to win every game but if you have a choice of playing down the opposition or play your best against the best teams i'll i'll take i'll take the ladder like okay that sucks if we play bad against bad teams but guess what in the playoffs we're going to play against great teams and if we can elevate our play we can do it and honestly to score six goals in edmonton without barkoff like that that's
Especially after you've just been shut out in back-to-back games. Hadn't scored a goal in over 140 minutes. You've only been shut out once in back-to-back-to-back games.
So with that environment where you're, again, squeezing the sticks tight, no one's scoring, and you put up six, and you were down, and that quick strike offense, the ingenuity of Reinhardt on that goal, the way he circled, then just is able to bank it off a skinner, that is... You don't teach that kind of stuff. So I think if I'm a Panthers fan, again...
I know not every game is created equal, but as our friend Tim Kirchner always said, that's a circle game. Like early on, you look at the calendar, you circle that game. Cup final rematch in Edmonton. And then you win that game. Now it's a double circle game. This is motivation. This is going to keep us rolling. And they did after that.
And then I want to talk to you a little bit about the New York Rangers because I just don't know what the hell is going on with the New York Rangers.
I mean, those two trades that they made last week and the week before, I mean, that's what's going on here.
Something is amiss at Madison Square Garden, and we don't really kind of smack me in the face this morning. As I looked at the standings, they are 14 points behind the New Jersey Devils. Yeah. And it's December 20th. What the hell is going on with the Rangers? Because I've been hanging my hat on Shesterkin, it's okay, Kreider, Zibanejad. But I don't know.
Like, are they are is this going to be like the biggest disappointment Ranger season we've seen in decades? This is bad, dude, that they can't get their shit together.
Yeah. To quote Yogi Berra, it's getting late early. And I'm glad you get perspective on how far back they're the devils now, because you're right. You're accustomed to saying, well, it's not 2025. Once you hit into the Christmas break, it gets go time. And I talked to Arthur Staple of Newsday about it. And I focused first on Shosturkin.
And I said, let me just start with this because I know it's not his fault. But he's been good but not great. And sometimes you guys know this. A goalie can cover up a lot of different weaknesses. He says, that's true. Him and Quick have been good, not great. But the problem really is their offense. And he goes, your Criders, your Zbigniews, if these guys aren't playing at the level they should be.
Let's talk Trouba first. Guy doesn't want to get traded because, you know, his wife is working in the medical profession in New York. New York's a great city. He doesn't want to go anywhere. They're like, no, we want to get rid of you. No, I don't want to go anywhere. No, you have to. We're going to bench you. Well, we'll trade you. You have to say yes. You have one year left, $8 million deal.
Okay. By the way, he's the fourth Ranger captain to leave unceremoniously. The last Ranger captain to just leave gracefully was Jaromir Jagr. Otherwise, it's true. It's going to get traded like it's crazy. Don't be the Rangers captain. It's not a good sign. Kreider hasn't been good, obviously. Zibanejad. Here's my thing with Kapo Kako. Why are you benching him?
Like, I've never watched a Rangers game and said to myself, oh, that third line guy, he's the problem. But once you singled him out, I love the fact he stuck up for himself. He's like, yeah, I didn't realize I was the issue. Like, you're going to make an example out of me. Like, bench Zbigniew. Bench Kreider. Bench one of the top guns. That will get everyone's attention.
Whether or not they deserve it or not, that will get people. What happened with the Flyers towards bench Mieczkoff? Didn't deserve it. Maybe it's part of the problem. And you're going to get my attention. Two games healthy scratch. Meechcox is a favorite to win the Calder Longest Celebrating. Like, if you're going to do something, do it with an impact.
Otherwise, you bench Capo Caco, who seems curiously inexplicable. Why is this happening? Then gets traded. The trade doesn't seem like you're going to get much anyways right now. So it feels like, guys, it's leading to a potential Peter Laviolette firing. I like Lavi. I think he's been a good coach. Been there a long time. Been in the NHL a long time.
But eventually, because you can't fire the players, you have to fire the coach. And to your point, David, it is getting late early. This is concerning for the Rangers. How do you win a President's Trophy and all of a sudden you're flailing around fighting to make the playoffs? It's crazy.
I have a question for you. I'm going back to the Panthers. Do you think that this season they were like, oh, we're winning Game 3, but we're not going to win 4, 5, and 6 because it will make a great movie? Yeah, no, for real. The last 15 seconds, you didn't even know if they were going to win, and they had the puck for them. So all the slow-mo and the hand-simmer music and everything.
Do you think they did it for... For music?
They did it for shits and giggles.
I like it. I like it. Excellent shout out to Hans Zimmer. I mean, he's one of the great composers of all time. A great score, can do everything. The new Superman trailer just came out. One of my friends is like, man, that's really good. Fantastic. That looks so good. Yeah. I mean, listen, it is a much better story. The fact that Panthers went seven, that was a great Stanley Cup final.
There's no question about it. You know, you go back and watch that series in its entirety. It wasn't like Florida dominated. It wasn't like them that they gagged. They were all generally close games. It was competitive. And that game seven, if you said to myself, hey. If you don't have a dog in the race, you're going to get a one-goal Game 7. How do you not root for that kind of a final?
But, yeah, it was tense the entire way through. And the fact that McDavid won Conn Smythe, that even adds more drama to it. Like, how do you think he feels? That guy is so frustrated. He just wants to win a Stanley Cup. Hey, guess what? You win a Conn Smythe on a losing team. Like, it's almost like a double blow. Like, don't give me the Conn Smythe. I didn't win the Cup. I don't want this thing.
But, yes, I think the Panthers, sure. I think Mo was like, you know what, let's make this a little bit more dramatic for the great fans of South Florida. Let's win this cup. By the way, I was wondering this, too, and Maurice kind of touched on this a bit. Like I said, everything's about winning that Stanley Cup. You know, the franchise hasn't done it. You haven't done it.
Is there not just a slight inclination, 5% you can ease up a little bit because you're not as tight now? And he goes, it is, but in a positive way, meaning – In the past, you have put so much pressure upon yourself that you have to get it done. Once you've gotten it done, you just naturally relax, which allows you to be a winner anyways. So you start to play with more house money.
So yes, obviously winning helps you. It's not that it makes you less hungry. It makes you more relaxed, which can make you better.
Finally, the Avalanche played the Sharks last night. The Avalanche won 4-2. And both teams made a trade this week. McKenzie Blackwood and Alexander Georgiev. That was really interesting because both of the Odo goaltenders faced each other. Now, what do you think about... This trade.
So I think, Roy, that the Avalanche needed to get a goalie. And I figured that part. I thought maybe Cam Talbot, who's been, I think, underrated for much of his career. But Mackenzie Blackwood, listen, especially living here in Jersey, everyone thought he'd be the answer for the Devils. Things didn't work out that way. Colorado's a curious team.
Because I was looking at, so far, disappointments, surprises. I think the Capitals have been a genuine surprise. Best team in the Eastern Conference. Nobody saw that coming. Devils have been really good, but my partner in crime, Jason Demers, on our podcast, NHL Inscripted, said, no, I thought the Devils would be really good. I said, okay.
As far as disappointments, Rangers we've touched on, Sabres are just a disaster. You always tell one year they're going to make the playoffs and break the stretch of 13 straight seasons, but no, it's a tire fire once again.
It's not next year either.
Right. So when I look at the Avalanche, I go, you know what? They just haven't been healthy. Like if they're rolling, if you're telling me McKinnon in late March is going to be battling for the Art Ross or the Hart and they give me Rantanen. By the way, Rantanen demersed to me. He goes, he could be a Juan Soto type player. And I said, explain.
And he goes, he's not the best player in the sport, but he might get like a gigantic contract next season. I said, I didn't realize Rantanen is up after next year. Of course, McDavid's in two years from now. But. Anyways, long story short, Roy, I think they need to get an upgrade in goalie. I think when they're healthy, they'll be pretty good. But it's an odd year for Colorado.
Like, they're not going to be the team to beat, so to speak. And yet, maybe being a wildcard team might be more concerning for one of those favorites because Colorado, when it comes to playoff time, I still think they're locked and loaded. If you give me McKinnon and McCarr, watch out.
Yeah, I'm pretty high. I think Blackwood is a sneaky good goaltender that has not gotten a good run, whether it was on some not great Devils teams. I mean, the Sharks are the Sharks. They're better than they've been, but they're not a grid team. I'm pretty bullish. I think Colorado might be my new Western favorite right now.
Yeah, Colorado, for as slow of a start as they had, they're sitting in that second wildcard spot right now and they haven't even really gotten hot yet. So I can just see them getting guns blazing in the second half of the season and then just climbing up that central division. And they're actually tied on points right now with Dallas, who everybody loves Dallas, right?
And they're sitting right behind Dallas in terms of the central division. And I just see them getting hot in the second half and rolling.
Yeah, and Dallas has been pretty good without Jason Robertson being Jason Robertson. They've had other talent stepping up. Obviously, Odgers had a great season as well. So, yeah, Dallas and Colorado, I mean, God, that's like old-school 90s matchups. I can feel the ESPN theme and Gary Thorne with the call right now. Oh, yeah. Texas, little stars out. That'd be great.
All right, Ant-Man, you can catch him in Canada if you're living in Canada. On Prime Canada for Monday Night Hockey, you can catch him on NHL Network. And once baseball season starts, he's right around the corner, man. Winter ball right now. All right, Ant-Man, we appreciate you showing up, and we'll see you in January.
All right, Roy, David, my pleasure. I'll book my monthly appearance soon. I'll see you guys in January. Be well, brother. Happy holidays.
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Let's talk about the Panthers and what they did this week. On Saturday, they lost to the Calgary Flames 3-0. That was a shutout. That was a back-to-back shutout. That was a second straight shutout. On Monday, they beat the Edmonton Oilers in... One of the best games of the season, 6-5.
And on Wednesday, they beat the Minnesota Wild 6-1 in a complete beatdown of probably the best team in the league currently.
How do you go from back-to-back shutouts to 12 goals in two games against two of the best teams in the conference? Very carefully. I don't know.
I mean, they woke up.
Yeah, they did that earlier this year. They lost, what, four or five or something, and then they came back and won three in a row by a score of like 17-6 against the Canes twice and the Leafs. They're good. They're just kind of streaky, and they're really good, and they show up for big games.
And they did this without Alexander Barkov, who was sick.
Yeah, Barkov missed the Edmonton game, then Sam Bennett missed the Minnesota game, and you couldn't tell that they were missing one of their key centers for either of those games. Well, maybe the Edmonton game. Maybe having Barkov there. Yeah, I know you can tell, Rose. Yeah.
I wanted to play a super cut of all 11 goals of the Oilers game because, I mean, it's just funny.
That was a lot.
That was a lot of goals. And, I mean, the Panthers had the lead three times in that game, I believe.
They did score first. It was a 1-0, 2-1. Yes. 5-4, 5-5. 6-5.
So that's basically Panthers hockey right now. For the past, I would say, five years, they've had the well with all to be able to stay in a game and be able to come back. The game is never over.
Why does Supercut make me laugh so much? You should have let me set it to the Benny Hill music.
I'm hearing the music in my head. But yeah, if you're looking at this on YouTube...
How would you guys like seven games of this again? This was good, huh? Not to travel.
No, not to... Yeah, you did not travel, so... Watching this game, I don't know about you, Roy's... Rose? Roy's. Yeah, if I'm going to refer to both of you, I'm going to say Roy's. I don't know about you guys, but when I was watching that, I was definitely having a little PTSD.
Hold on. Can I just say... I would have taken all that travel you guys did. No, no, no. Shut up. You shut up. You shut the hell up. You guys were on the ice after game seven. That was worth it. That was worth it. That was worth like one mile to do that. I don't want to hear you guys complain. You were on the ice after game seven. From all of us that were not on the ice after game seven.
Play the Sam Reinhardt goal, please. I don't want to hear it. Play the Sam Reinhardt goal. I don't want to hear it. Play the Sam Reinhardt goal. Because I want to point this out here. The Sam Reinhardt goal. Yes, that take makes me feel like the goalie. All right. So the Sam Reinhardt goal. This is a prime example of Florida Panthers hockey. And it starts on the forecheck. Because his forecheck...
Is what led to Matthias Ekholm falling down on the ice. Couldn't even handle it. Couldn't handle it.
And then he ends up in the corner. I've never seen Sam Reinhardt look as fast as he did on that play. Yeah.
I mean, you look faster when somebody falls and busts their ass. I mean, that was crazy. And then he goes to the corner and rips one off the side of the helmet. From below the goal line. Yeah, that right there.
That's disrespectful.
That is disrespectful. And I love it as a goalie. Like, if you can do that, that's hard. And then on Wednesday, Matthew Kachuk, his two goals, and the first goal, that was quintessential Matthew Kachuk.
Yeah, he loves pissing off goalies.
Oh, he absolutely did. Like, I've said it before. You remember the Ronald Test celebration that led to him elbowing James Harden?
Oh, yeah.
That's what happened to Marc-Andre Fleury.
Yeah, except that... I think there was a little intent there. He'll never admit it, and that's just my opinion, but he knew what he was doing.
And the Panthers in that game allowed 15 shots on net on 25 attempts, 11 scoring chances, 8 high danger chances in the first period. The second and third periods combined, 12 shots on goal, 26 shots attempts, eight scoring chances, and zero high-danger chances. They shut them down for the rest of the game in Minnesota. And they're playing the St. Louis Blues tonight at home.
Finally coming back home game. They don't leave the state of Florida until next year, so lucky for them. So the Panthers are 8-2-1 in the last 11. They've scored four goals per game. They've allowed 2.64 goals. It's crazy that—
Four goals a game during that stretch while two shutouts in the middle of it.
Yeah, 35% on the power play. So that's the Panthers week. This is the last episode of the year for us. We want to thank the infield, by the way. They sent us some stickers.
Oh, yeah, Savannah from the infield.
Yeah, Savannah specifically has sent us stickers.
Hold on. She specifically wanted me to give you this sticker. If we can... It's a big heart with the name Crosby in the middle. So here you go, Roy, just for you. Crosby, you see this?
You can put the camera on me. All right. We would like to thank Rose. We want to thank Ethan. We want to thank Mike and Danny. I want to thank Dave. I want to thank myself. I want to thank you for watching and listening to us here in 2024. We will see you next year. They're letting us back. Yeah, barely.
So we'll see you in two weeks.
We'll see you in two weeks. Happy holidays, everybody. Happy holidays. Goodbye.
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