The Devils traded for a Depth D-Man, but with the trade deadline looming are more fireworks still to come? Predictions. What does Fitz do at Blake Shelton shows?
[00:00:05] Hey everyone, Mr. Devil here, Kenny Danico, three-time Stanley Cup champion of the New Jersey Devils And you're listening to The Uncle Puckers NJD Podcast, Let's Go Devils! Is that why you're divorced, Tim? No, I am going to let Bob is going to feel my wrath I'm going to crush your soul
[00:00:34] I'm already pretty funny And I put the tip back on, see? It's a little bigger now You keep going Nothing but the tip, Timmy That's a good size That's a great band name Just a tip It is a great band name Before we start, can I ask you guys a question? Of course Did you know that you can get a 40-piece McNugget from McDonald's? I did not
[00:01:05] A 40-piece? I didn't either Because 40 Yeah Because today, a kid and his buddy, he gets to the McDonald's for lunch And I ordered a 20-piece And you know, you can barely hear them They're like, did you use the app today? And you're like, whatever, no And then I order And they're like, do you want to round it up? You know, kids with cancer So I'm like, yeah, of course, round it up And then they say the price I'm like, boy, that sounds a little bit high But whatever I don't know what I just agreed to Maybe I told them to give me 10 bucks worth I don't know Now, look at the receipt
[00:01:34] It says 40-pack of nuggets And I know I didn't say Give me a 40-pack of chicken nuggets And how do I know this? Because you didn't know that they existed Exactly So I assume Being your age You understand the difference between 20 and 40 Correct Assuming I'm blaming it on the intercom system But the problem is Is that I don't eat McDonald's Like, ever But It was lunchtime Look at me I'm Bobby I'm super healthy
[00:01:59] I already committed to the double cheeseburger Before I figured out Somebody's got to eat some of these nuggets And they're good Don't get me wrong I was aware of that Because I've actually had a similar situation But The McDonald's employee Because I ordered Like, two 20s And they're like Why don't you just get a 40? And I was like What? You're like Okay I mean, it was I was like Alright Did your 40
[00:02:28] Actually come in a 40-pack? No It came in two 20s That's what mine came in So You would think they'd be like I'm sorry Did you say 20-pack? No They just went ahead and Charged me For a 40-pack Meanwhile That's a lot of nuggets I just had a Disgusting amount of nuggets I did Freddy's That was yummy You ever had Freddy's? You had their shakes I've never had their shakes But their Whatchamacallit Was I had a
[00:02:57] Just a regular old cheeseburger And Mountain Dew And some fries And their jalapeno fry dipping sauce And it was super delicious So Nice Guys We are Less than 24 hours Away from the trade deadline We are actually Like what 18 hours 19 hours Away Yep I'm getting Real Nervous here Real Nervous Now I don't know If
[00:03:26] You know I don't know Who even is available Anymore Like I don't even know What moves were made today I kind of You know Was just Busy all day And hearing Stuff that you guys Were texting back and forth And stuff But I did see That You know Tim I know you I think you would have Wanted to put it out there But I also saw it Earlier today That Rantanen Is now Scratched For tonight's game No Apparently I got Got by A Something that has Popped up On the The old Twitter box Is Fake
[00:03:56] Insider emails There is Franck Cervelli Darren Dregger Not Darren Dredger And a few others That I've seen So I got Got by Fake Darren Dregger Unfortunately So he's not Getting traded He is not getting Well he's not Getting scratched He's still Not getting scratched He's probably Not going to get Traded Maybe Maybe not I don't know I mean Carolina Yeah Yeah I mean It doesn't Matter Our GM Is at a Blake Shelton Concert Right now So
[00:04:27] How do you feel About that Bob What That he's at A Blake Shelton Concert He is Someone Someone He's Serious Oh yeah He's Serious Yeah Oh I would think There's A better 364 days Of the year You could Probably Do that Okay Well I believe The Blake Shelton Concert Is at The Prudential Center So I don't Know I don't Know If he's Watching In From his Fucking Office Then I'm Fine With that And he's Taking phone Calls And he's Just kind Of watching It through His little Monitor You gotta
[00:04:56] He's He's not The only One Obviously Working The phones Kate Madigan's There Dan McKinnon Is there Is that True DJ That he Got the Marino Deal done While he Was at A concert What Concert Was it Back This thing Up If it Was Blake Shelton And I Imagine You can Hear the Concert From his Office Anyway So I Guess You might As well Be there I mean It depends On where His office Is but Yeah I agree I agree Okay So I Guess This is Something He does He makes His He makes
[00:05:26] His deals While he's Enjoying Horrible Country Music But okay Any chance He's gotten A 30 Or 40 Goal score While at A concert Yeah No Just getting Rid of Marino Oh It was The Hanson Reunion Tour Okay That's Good Honestly I think Chris I don't Know if That's Actually A joke Or not But I Think Hopefully That's Right But I Do believe Blake Sheldon Is at the Prudential Center Tonight So I would Love to See how Tom Fitzgerald Like acted At the Hanson
[00:05:57] Concert I could Don't Know I could Just see Him You know Bopping His ass All over The place Right That's I can't Believe Have you Seen Those kids Now Like they're Like oddly Like adults It's just Very Off-putting Who were The ones That did The Stadium Series Was that That wasn't The Hansons Right That was Jonas Jonas Brothers They're from Jersey Right Yeah Yeah It was not The It was not The goons From Slapshot
[00:06:27] All right Well I mean So What do you Guys think What How about This How about We start With the Pickup That we Did get Today So Tim You want To fill Us all In Of our New Let's Take A look At Mr. Dumoulin's This is His J Fresh Hockey Card You want To pull That up
[00:07:02] Sorry Ryan Damalin Whenever Whenever We're ready So first Off This guy Has vowels There's no Cardo There's just Chris singing Oh god We done Is there Supposed to be A visual I'm waiting For you Tim All right Stop fucking Around You're gonna You're gonna Interrupt me again Aren't you I'm not gonna Sing anymore All right So first off This guy Has vowels Jesus Christ No I wasn't Singing
[00:07:32] I'm Coming dude This guy Has vowels In his name Where they Shouldn't Be and Vowels That should Be different Vowels In his name So that's The first Kind of red What are you Talking about What What vowels Are you not Happy with Whatever Fine I just There's a lot Of vowels I was trying To type it Earlier And I was Like how The fuck Do you Spell this And anyway Yeah So look You know This is his General player Card These numbers You know Are generally An accurate Representation of The guy we're Getting
[00:08:01] It's a three Year average Again Time out Aren't we Supposed to be Seeing this Card No Nothing on the YouTube Screen either Do you see It Tim I see it But I Haven't Pulled up Hang on And when The audience See it It's not There There it Comes Oh it Was there Before Yeah I Think that When you Have YouTube Open Bob It's a little Delayed You just Got to Move My screen Talking with You three Did not Have it I could Not
[00:08:31] Participate In the Discussion All right So anyway Do you See it Now Everybody See it Now Okay So this Is our New Probably Second Third Pair Lefty I'm Guessing They would Probably Reunite Hughes And Put Dumoulin With Kovacevic And Then Dillon And Nemich That's How I'm Guessing They're Going To Run This Out He's Pretty Good You know Definitely Above Average The
[00:09:17] Primarily Because He's Playing On Anaheim Or Was Playing On Anaheim Who's Just Absolutely Fucking Dog Shit The One Thing That I Really Like About Him And And These Percentiles Are Where He ranks Relative To The Rest Of
[00:09:47] Anyone
[00:10:17] To Replace Siegenthaler And If You Look At Our Five Game Moving Average Of Expected Goals Against It's Actually Been Pretty Bad So Our Defensive Process Hasn't Been Really As Good As It Was And Even In January It Really Kind Of Fell Off A
[00:10:47] Do I Think It Could Be An Excellent Pick Just Like You Said To Put Pesci Back On His Right Side With Luke Put You Know This Guy Now He Can Step In And Hopefully Take Care Of Siegenthaler's Duties I Don't Know How He Is On The Penalty Kill Or Things Like That But I Would Have To Assume Being A Good Defensive Guy He's Probably Good On The PK Curious Though Like If You Pull Up One Of The Devil Cards I've Never Seen That Before Those Cards Like That So
[00:11:17] Like Where Are We In Team And Competition Like If You Pulled Up Let's Say You Know Jack Hughes Like I'm Just Curious Like Manah Anaheim Is Out He Tweets Out The Cards Once They're Traded So Like I Don't Have Like You Know Full Access To All Of Our Cards But I Would Imagine Segent Dollars Probably Looks
[00:11:47] A little Better That's Probably About As Good As Dillon's Looks Like Right So I'd Kind Of Put Him Right There He's Maybe A Choice He's Not Going To Go Out And Try To Do Too Much Someone You Can Rely On If You're Looking At Segenthaler's Game And You Want To Kind Of Mirror At One Element Of
[00:12:39] State That's The Thing And He Was On The Penguins Forever Has Two Cups With Them So He's Been There Before You He's Not Going To Panic You Know This Avoids Us Putting Casey And Nemich Together Which Is Kind Of
[00:13:37] What Version Of Him In Le Chance So It's Like You Know Whatever And Then The Second Round Pick Like You Can Always Argue That Second Round Picks Have Value Like We've Got Yegorov In The Second Round But It's Either Winnipeg Or The Better Winnipeg Or Edmonton's Pick So It's Going To Be Probably Towards The End Of The Second Round 58 62 So I'm Fine With It No
[00:14:07] Term On This Guy Right He's UFA No Term UFA After This Anaheim Retained Half Of It So It's A Million And Change So I Think It's A Good Move To Make Heading Into The Playoffs It's Not A Swing For The Fences But It's You Know We're In The Game We Want To Play The Game So I I Jay I Think That That's Actually A Good Pick I Don't I Mean I See What You're Saying We For All Of Our Other Needs It's Like What The Hell We Just Got A Defenseman
[00:14:37] It's Like Kissing Your Sister I Get It But We You Know It Is A Pressing Need And Unknown And That's Why Yeah And That's Why You Don't Call Up Hot Cut Or Villain Or One Of Those Other Guys Because You Don't Know What They're Going To Be They Could Be Great They
[00:15:25] Just Because You Banged Your Own It's All Right I'm Slightly Depressed But That Could Go To Full On Complete If We Really Shit The Bed Tomorrow By Three O'clock In The Afternoon So I Just I I Get Everybody's I Get Everybody's Like You Know Angst About This Whole Thing It's Like You Know We Went Through This Last Year Except We Were In A Much Worse Position Than
[00:15:55] Get The Best Deal Possible When I Just Don't Know I Don't Like That Strategy I Feel Like We Knew What Was Wrong With This Team Two Months Ago We Talked About It Ad Nauseam Two Months For The Last Two Months And Now Here We Are Trade Deadlines Three O'clock Tomorrow Afternoon And We Still Don't Have The Pieces In Place All We Were Looking For Was A 3C And A Big Body Winger To Play With Jack Now Jack Is Gone And We You Know So Now
[00:16:25] It Changes Everything But That's The Thing I Don't Like If These Pieces Are In Place Does Jack Get Hurt You Don't Know You Know Everything Changes The Whole Every Game Changes With New People In Place I Just I Don't Like The Sitting Around And Waiting I Feel Like I Listen To XM All Day Tomorrow You Are Going To Be Keeping Track And You Are Going To We We And Paul Paul Mary
[00:16:56] And I Mean Is McCann Still An Option Do We Know So Everybody Else Like All The Big Names We Were Talking About Unless I And that's kind of the interesting thing that has – like none of the guys that I think we would want, like McCann, like Ryan O'Reilly, like Tuck, like Paterko, even Cousins to an extent.
[00:17:23] It just doesn't seem like those guys are necessarily available and need some more talking into and need some more convincing. And right now with what we gave up for Dumoulin and some of these other trades, like Tampa just gave up two firsts for Gordon Bjorkstrand. Like those are two guys I thought could have worked for us and our needs, but like we wouldn't have had two firsts for that. And I don't think they were worth us giving that up.
[00:17:48] You know, it's a tough seller's market, but I'm sharpening my pitchfork. I don't have it out yet for Fitz. But if he doesn't fucking fix something by tomorrow, we're storming Lafayette plays. I'm really hoping that within the next half an hour or so maybe we hear something, but I don't think so because he's apparently rocking out at a fucking Blake Shelton concert right now. Yeah. You know, the stern for a late pick, that was a weird one.
[00:18:17] I don't know why we weren't in on that. Like he would have been a clear upgrade over Lazar. He went for like a seventh round pick or maybe it was him in a seventh for a fourth. Like that seems strange. This is one thing I get the impression about Fitz and his team is that is that they get these kind of sort of almost autistically focused on certain guys and then don't pivot well or don't have like a very good plan B in place. Right.
[00:18:44] I don't know if that's true or not, if we're just kind of inferring that from his activity, but not having picked anybody up for the past two months and then not getting anybody now, even the Dumoulin deal, there's someone tweeted out that they've been working on it for a while. It's like, how the fuck does that deal take a while? Like, I don't get it. I can't believe that there's not a board in his office that is literally lined with options from their preference all the way down to the least desirable. There has to be. Yeah.
[00:19:14] Everything else that's happening behind the scenes, you know, a guy that you want, maybe that we're not even talking about, gets ticked off the radar, they knock it off their list and they keep working on the next one. And, you know, I guess, like you said, he's just, he is trying to balance the assets and all that. But at some point you do have to make some moves. I mean, if we're going to go into the playoffs and not take a full swing, right? Because I don't think you're doing that without Jack on the team. I think you're hoping that you can catch some magic and ride with it. I disagree. I disagree.
[00:19:41] And I want them to go, I want them to swing. I'm just, like I said in the last pod, I think that this move now just makes a little more sense to me. If the person you bring in has got some terms, you're also looking forward to next year. I guess we can get that winger now that's going to play with Jack next year too. But at the same time, I feel like if you do get a couple of right moves, and there's got to be two more pieces, right? You got to get two more guys at least. Minimum is two more pieces. Right. So you go out and you make some good moves.
[00:20:11] And I believe in, so, I mean, at least I'm going to bed at night knowing that at least the team is in good hands as far as coaching staff goes, unlike last year. Hang on, I was just reading, sorry. Yeah, no, and Jay, just to clarify, like Bobby's right. Like he definitely has a big board with all of his priorities, what they want, who they want for them, you know, what the asking price is, you know, what the various iterations are off of that.
[00:20:42] But, and yeah, like what Bobby said, like that's why, you know, looking at the guys with term as, like you look at the guys with term at wing. So that's like Tuck, McCann, Raquel, those guys all have term or the centers with term, which are O'Reilly or Cousins or even someone like Casey Middlestad in Colorado, who they might be getting rid of. So there are still guys out there and then God knows what's happening with Rantanen. Someone brought up to me, and actually this is a pretty cool three-way trade with us in Carolina and Vancouver.
[00:21:13] Carolina apparently has been really all over and interested in Elias Peterson, Pedersen, Pedersen for, for over a year now. So the idea is, and this is Jack of Heart on Twitter, the idea is for, for Pedersen to go to Carolina, Rantanen to come to us. And between Carolina and the Devils, we come up with a kind of joint package to send stuff back to, back to Vancouver in a three-way deal. All right.
[00:21:43] I'd be totally fine with that. I know he's a rental, but, you know, you ask on there, like, is there somebody that we would trade Nemich for that's available? I would trade Nemich for Mikko Rantanen, even if it's only for the short term. I really would. I would. I know it's brutal, but he is an absolute beast. And I think he'll fit in with this team a hell of a lot better than he's fitting in with the Canes. Back to the Canes, though.
[00:22:08] I can't see a player that would fit in worse with the Canes than Elias Pedersen. Like, I don't get why they would want Elias Pedersen. Like, Rod Brindamore is not going to put up with a dude that takes shifts off, that cries over every little fucking thing, plays about as tough as, you know, a four-year-old. Like, I'm sorry. EP, Sporty, I don't want him. I think he's a fucking head case. And, yeah, he's a soccer. He's also got a bad knee, too. And a huge contract. Something's got to be wrong with him and his contract.
[00:22:36] Yeah, we want someone with nuts, and that's why we want, like, that's why we keep focusing on Tuck. Yeah, Alex Tuck, you know, whatchamacallit, the guy from Seattle, McCann. Like, make these moves happen. Like, just because I think that this team, with or without Jack, I think when Jack uses on this, when Jack uses the focal point of this team, I think a lot of their identity goes, it's just Jack-centric. And it's not just the lines he's on.
[00:23:06] It's every line wants to play that way and transition and this and that. And I don't necessarily know if we have the team, the personnel to play that way. I trust Sheldon Keefe that he's going to be able to get some guys in here. And with our defense and with our goaltending and with Timo and Nico and Bratt and the rest of the guys that, you know, hopefully they can bring in, I do think they can do some damage. I really do.
[00:23:33] And I think they might even end up becoming a better team by the time the playoffs come without Jack Hughes. I know it sounds crazy, but I just think if they can change their identity and, like you said, Tim, play more 3-1 games, 2-1 games, lock it down. Like, that game against Dallas, that would have done so much for their confidence. If they just held on for four fucking seconds. If there just wasn't a bullshit icing call and if Eric Holla could possibly win a fucking faceoff.
[00:24:04] You know, I mean, everyone, oh, faceoffs don't matter. Watch that fucking last five seconds of the game and tell me faceoffs don't matter. Because we win that, we at least have one point. And instead, you know, one of, I think, the worst defeat of the year. So, I'm so interested to see how they come out tomorrow. What kind of new players are on this lineup. I don't know, man. I do have still a lot of faith in this team without Jack Hughes. Maybe I'll be wrong. But.
[00:24:31] I was pretty encouraged by how they played against Dallas. You know, I've said it before. Like, you know, we're not in the time to, you know, to come away with moral victories. You know, and that was pretty soul crushing to lose that way. But for two periods, we were fucking kicking the shit out of Dallas. Like, we were on the front foot. And I really liked that Timo Niko-Brat line. That line is a beautiful thing. It's just, man, like, the fourth line sucks. They're so fucking bad.
[00:25:00] Like, Lazar is so bad. He is not an NHL player anymore. Hall is not an NHL player anymore. If he can't win a faceoff, like, why is he on this team? Like, I really hope. Like. There's a lot of guys in that bottom six that you can say that about. Why are they on this team? Yeah, I know. We don't need to rehash all that. But it was a tough loss. And they need to come out. And I just, I think logistically, if they're going to make any sort of big move with roster players going one way or the other, they need to fucking do this.
[00:25:29] Because they need to get the guy here. Get him to understand even kind of the baseline basics of our system. Get him in the lineup. Get him a number. Get him a jersey. You know, figure out what they're doing. Where he's going to live. Where he's going to stay that night. You know, there's a lot of logistics behind the scenes that needs to happen to get a guy here. Like, it's fucked up. Right now. Right now. He's listening to Blake Shelton and Eric Hollis underneath his desk. Eric Hollis is just topping him off under his desk.
[00:25:59] That's it. Uncle Fitzy. Uncle Fitzy. Tell me about my eyes again. All right. He does have beautiful blue eyes. Let's do a little housekeeping. Housekeeping. It might not feel like it, but spring is right around the corner. Know how you can tell golfers are hitting the links and we have some tournaments to talk about. And if you want to do more than just talk, put your money where your mouth is. Get in all the tea degree in action with DraftKings Sportsbook. And there's something special for first timers.
[00:26:27] DraftKings customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets instantly. Just download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code THPN. That's code THPN for new customers to get $150 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. In New York, call 877-8-HOPE-N-Y or text HOPE-N-Y. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort.
[00:26:57] 21 plus age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. New customers only. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, visit dkng.co slash audio. That's DraftKings Sportsbook with code THPN. The crown is yours. Okay. Done with that. You guys watching anything good? Non-hockey?
[00:27:27] Not really, no. I've been watching Silicon Valley. Yeah. You like that show? Yeah, it's funny. It's nerdy stuff. I like it. I haven't watched the second episode of Zero Day yet. Sorry, Bobby. I've been talking so much, man. You haven't got a word in. All right, dude. I'm used to it now. We just watched really quickly Running Point, which is about basketball. Oh, I started watching the first episode and I turned it off. Really? I thought it was all right.
[00:27:57] Kate Hudson, she's still pretty good. Yeah, she's nice to look at. It was fun. I mean, it was a good quick 10 episodes. We kind of watched a lot of Gordon Ramsay shit. I just realized how much Gordon Ramsay shit I watch. When we don't have like a Netflix show that we're binging, and then meanwhile, everything's kind of recording on Fugu, and it's like Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, Master Chef, Next Level Chef. I'm like, holy shit, dude. We just keep giving everything we got to this billionaire. It's entertaining shit. I don't know. Bob J. Snow has a question for you. For me? Okay. Yeah.
[00:28:27] Can you read it or do you want me to read it? Oh, you're about 6'4". Can you play hockey? I'm six foot. Yep. And if you're referring to street hockey, sure. If you put me on ice skates, it's a fucking disaster, dude. I like what you're saying. It's a disaster. Just blow me, Eric. I'm trying to listen to Blake Shelton here. Bobby's actually a midget. Do you guys like Pat McAfee? No.
[00:28:54] No, I only see him from the treadmill at the gym, and he always seems like he's a little too over the top. Yeah. Crazy. That's really cool. No, he's on the TV. Oh, on the television. I got it now. Yeah. I don't mind him. I mean, he's all right. But he also does the color commentating for WWE, for Raw. So he does all the premium events. I see, really? So, yeah. Yeah, you know what? He is a giant douchebag.
[00:29:23] And I'm going to kind of get into why I think now he's a giant douchebag. Are we doing the wrestling portion so I can go get a snack? No, no, no. This is not very – like the only thing about wrestling is that Pat McAfee does the color commentating. I have one more thing about it. Saturday night – what's that, Bob? I have one more thing about wrestling when you're done. Okay. So Sunday night was the Elimination Chamber in Toronto. They do the National Anthem. The Canadians boo it.
[00:29:48] And this idiot went on just calling what a horrible – this country's terrible. And during the whole – pretty much the whole Elimination Chamber, any knock he can get in on Canada, he did. And then he got some blowback. And then on his show on Monday, he's explaining it. And he's like, look, you know, I'm in your country, you know, and I got nothing wrong – no problem with Canadians, no problem with Canada.
[00:30:16] But we'll get to the heel turn in a second. Relax. Relax. So he goes, you know, but like when I hear people booing my country, like booing my – like I just want to fight. Like that's – I don't care what you have to say. I just want to fucking punch you. I don't care. This is – you know, it's not like I go and Justin Trudeau – I listen to what he says and I get mad and then I go and I'm shitting all over Canada and this and that.
[00:30:43] Like I love my country and you fucking boo us and I'll – I am so tired. I just have to say for people like Pat McAfee and stuff like that, these like MAGA bros that do these sports shows and all this other shit, like I don't care where you stand politically. I don't – I might not agree with you, but that doesn't mean I don't like you. But that's a good question, Mike. I don't know what we're talking about and I'm the one talking. Yeah, he is.
[00:31:13] But he just goes on and he's like, shit, and I'm just like listening to this. I'm like, so somebody – you're such a little snowflake that when somebody boos the national anthem, your first reaction is to go fight. Like he wants to beat somebody up. Like I'm just like, what a fucking redneck, pencil-tucky, born and bred piece of shit. Like this guy's got fucking billion-dollar fucking contracts with ESPN and stuff and he's so fragile, his little fucking ego that if anybody boos the national anthem, he wants to fight.
[00:31:43] I just was listening to him and I was just laughing my ass off. I'm like, what a fucking little pussy. There's no other term. He's a fucking pussy. It's probably why he was a punter because he couldn't handle being an actual football player. Yes. So McAfee, he's annoying. But he's this new generation of ESPN commentator. And it's actually interesting that because yesterday was pardon the interruptions last day on air on ESPN. Oh, it was?
[00:32:11] Like that was that hour block of – I'm not pardon the eruption, around the horn. Sorry. Pardon the interruption. I already went off the air. So around the horn with Tony Reale and Max Kellerman before that. Awesome, awesome shows. Five o'clock was around the horn. Five o'clock is BTI. They had 5,000 episodes. It was every day like Woody Page, guys like that were on it. I loved that generation of ESPN. Like that was great. Now it's all these fucking assholes just yelling at each other, just trying to – it's
[00:32:41] basically like clickbait but on television now. It's just really annoying. Yeah, it's shouty shows. The one thing I will give McAfee credit for is two things. He really does a good job amplifying hockey and lacrosse and how awesome they are as sports. Yeah. Those are my two. He's the only one that talks about hockey, really. And real quick, Bob, we'll get to your wrestling question. Jay, to answer your question, in professional wrestling, the heels are bad guys.
[00:33:09] The baby faces are good guys. So when a baby face becomes a bad guy, it's a heel turn. And John Cena hasn't been heel in like 25 years. So that's why it's a big heel. All right. Get it, Bob. And he said he was never going to go heel, right? Yeah. He said that a long time ago. Why do I know that information? I don't know why I know that information. Go ahead, Bob. Because you're a closet wrestler. First of all, I like that we have an audience that quickly reminds us that we're talking about really stupid shit. We need to get back to hockey. We can go on some tangents.
[00:33:39] But no, I don't have a story, Chris. I just want to tell you we were planning our future podcast. And I told you that I've got plans tomorrow night. Unfortunately, it's because I'll be at SmackDown in Philly. Really? Yeah, it's for the kid. We're going to go as a family. Yeah, I'm going to get my first experience. And you know how I feel about it. I really don't. Bro, that SmackDown is going to be fucking great tomorrow night. I mean, we're getting as high up as we can. It's actually cheap, dude. Three tickets for like $150. That's not bad.
[00:34:09] And Cody loves it. We're going to go as a family entertainment. Cody will be discussing the heel turn and everything. And apparently he got really injured when that fucking shithole, what was his name? Kendrick Lamar? Was that the guy that did the halftime show? It was Travis. Travis. No, who was it? I can't remember what guy came out with the rock. It might have been. No, I think it was Kendrick Lamar. No, Travis Scott, maybe? I don't fucking know. It was some rapper.
[00:34:38] And he decked him in the fucking ear and apparently busted Cody's eardrum. And like, he might need surgery because this, you know, you allowed some rapper to go out and actually play professional wrestler with zero training. So yeah, that was a war games must have been awesome, dude. I would have loved to have gone to a war games. I don't know. Why couldn't we get Strom? Yeah, I don't know. That's that's the one weird one that I don't know why we weren't. We weren't in on that with Fitz and his relationship with Greer.
[00:35:07] It's a guy that we talked about, what, three, four months ago? Yeah. And the return on it. I don't understand. Like, I have to. If we didn't get him for and he was available for that, like that, that's ridiculous. But I have to think something bigger is is in the works. Like, I have to. Otherwise, it's like, what are you doing, man? Like, are you trying to get blown by Eric Holla right now? Yeah, I see. Besides getting top from Eric Holla in the M lounge right now, like, what are you doing?
[00:35:37] I think that maybe some of the hesitation is is just my opinion on what he's doing. I really think that he's kind of pushing the summer's agenda a little earlier. And the players that he's looking for are players that he feels like can be part of the organization going forward and not just right now. Or maybe at least one of the two. I mean, we knew we know the two holes we got to plug. One of the two are going to probably be a long term piece. I think Holla's plugging one of Fitz's holes right now. They're really moving up. Jeez.
[00:36:10] How about we do some predictions? Sure. All right. So a little accountability session. So, yeah. Well, actually, he's asking, like, what happened? Like, what do you think, Bob? What do you think the big move is? Like, what do you guys any ideas of what you think he's going to actually pull off? Because I have no idea at all who, like, there's not even bumbling devils are interested in talk.
[00:36:38] Devils are interested in, you know, ranting. And, oh, you did hear that from Jack of Hearts, I guess. Cousins is another guy. I would love to have Cousins on this team. And I think it's time that – I think that Fitz needs to get rid of his old mantra and allow dickheads on this team. This team needs more dickheads. And Cousins is a fucking dickhead. So I'm cool with that one. I think I'm wearing my no dickheads t-shirt. Nice. Good one. Like, who do you – like, it could just be one guy.
[00:37:07] Like, let's just play this game, right? One guy. Ask everybody in the chat, too. We can get one dude. Not asking who we're going to give up for him or anything like that. One dude that we know is available. So you can't say Conor McDavid. Yeah, no shit. We all want Conor McDavid. But we know he's available. Who do you want? I know we need a couple fuckfaces. But we only get one. So just pick one. Who do we want or do – who do we think is likely somebody that we can – Who do you want? I want.
[00:37:37] It doesn't have to be – no, it doesn't have to be one player in the NHL nobody's talking about. It could be people that are being talked about. Just asking you, like, Mike, who would you want to get? A guy that – I agree with Mike. I think Cousins is, like, the number one guy we should be targeting. He's been reportedly on the market for months. Like, he can slide in perfectly in center. He's a good workhorse and a good bounce-back candidate for his production. And we can fit his full boat salary.
[00:38:06] No problem. Like, it shouldn't be an issue. And they're trying to unload him. I don't think the cost would be outrageous. Does Cousins have term? Yeah. He's got, like, I think four more years at $7.1 million or something like that. How about you, B? Well, like I said, right now, I mean, you're limiting me to one. I want Tuck. And then I would figure out a 3C to fill in for the run. But Cousins is great. If we could pull that off, I would definitely take that too. I mean, that's just great. You're going to shrink down the middle and all that.
[00:38:36] Or to Jordan Cairo. That would be good. Tuck Cairo. And St. Louis is suddenly playing well and may be buying now too. Like, it's crazy. There's literally no teams that, like, there's, like, five bad teams that should be selling. And all the guys that we would want on those teams, they're not going to give up. Fuck, it sucks out there. Like, that's also probably a large part of the problem. I just feel like it's really hard to answer your question with one person.
[00:39:03] Because to me, this doesn't work unless it's a two-person transaction. And depending on how much or how valuable of a person you get in either one of those positions first. You know, if you overpay big time to get a scoring winger with term or your center with term, then the other guy is likely going to be somebody else that doesn't require as many assets to get. So you got to balance those two out. And it may not come down to your personal choice. It may come down to which trade can actually get done first.
[00:39:33] But then you got to fill out, all right, we wanted to really go hard after tough. But we're not getting him. So we're going to go around, you know, what's his fuck that, you know, is just here for the summer. So, you know, this is actually a good question. Like, I don't know who's Revo. He writes here, not sure if you talked about it yet. But why not claim Revo? I know it's nuts. But would anyone honestly rather Tuna, Bass, or any of the AHL plugs over him? That's the question I have.
[00:39:57] Like, is our developmental system so bad that we cannot call somebody up that's better than Tatar or Lazer right now? Like, I don't understand that. Like, is it – like, that is a, you know, direct, you know, correlation to Tom Fitzgerald. And if we can't seriously develop, then we're fucked down the road. Like, we – how do we not have anybody that can help out and play better than that? I don't know. Just saying.
[00:40:25] Yeah, I mean, with Reeves, I don't think that would be the right choice. I mean, he's barely – he's barely an NHL player. I mean, there's a reason why he continues to get waived. And we already have McDermott rotten in the press box. Did he get waived, Reeves? He got waived. Is that who Revo is? Okay, that was Revo. Is Revo Revo? Okay, okay. He got put on waivers today. I don't know. A team will pick him up, you know. It's Remtard. Yeah, let's get Remtard. That's what I want. I want Saturday to be a double. Yeah, Tanev's a good.
[00:40:55] You know, bottom six guy. Brandon Tanev's a good bottom six guy. Pius Suter, Mike Reff brought up. I don't know much about him. He gave us a little trust me, bro, on this one. I don't trust this motherfucker any further than I can throw. All right. Let's do some accountability. All right, we'll start with you, Tim. So some of your predictions from – Oh, no. You can see all that. Well, you only have – you got one right. You got one right.
[00:41:25] Nate, you said last week that New Jersey would split the Golden Knights in the Utah Hockey Club games, and they did. You got that right. So you got a point there. Bob, you want to write points down just so we have them? And then you said that Timo Meier will score – I know that I can keep it keeping there. I think Tim's the only one that got a point. Timo Meier will score two goals against Utah Hockey Club. He did not score two goals. So for now, you only get the one point, and you did have something come off the board. Bobby.
[00:41:54] Wait, do I get a injury? No. Bobby, you got a lot of red. He's got one point for the entire year so far? Yes. Yeah. Okay. One checkmark. And Bobby got a lot of red. Yeah. So, Bob, I gave you this one as wrong because you said Jack Hughes will be assessed a five-minute major by the end of the season. I don't think he's going to be back, so I put that in red. You also said that John Marino would have a point against the Devils. He did not.
[00:42:23] Yeah, he's really not following the trend. That's on him. Yeah, he's not. And he also said that Austin Matthews would score two goals against the Rangers last week. He did not. So, there you go. I heard that. So, I'll take two points then. You get no points. Well, I mean, I'm the scorekeeper, so he won't know. That's true. But I can remember this is pretty easy. Tim has one. We have none. I can remember that. There's no cheating yet. Yeah, I think Lou just said that he's not going to trade him, right?
[00:42:53] I don't know what he's doing. You know, that's the thing. It's like reporters are so scared of Lou that they don't even bother fucking asking. All right. Fair enough. The latest was that he has a contract offer on the table, but they may also be looking to trade him too. So, it's like we're at the same circle that they keep running around in. Now, I had one thing come off the board, but I said – I don't know. You guys might remember.
[00:43:21] I wrote down that Jacob Markstrom would start against the Stars. Now, being – you know, I'm going to play fair. It was under the intention of that would be his first start back from injury. But I don't know if I said that. Or did I just say he would play against Dallas? Because this might not be wrong. This is a semantics thing, and the way you worded your prediction is very important. Does anyone remember if I said that would be his first game back? I would bet I did say that.
[00:43:48] I do believe the context was that it would be his first, but I don't give a shit. I'll give you the point. No, no, no. No. Rules are rules. So, no point for me. Okay. And then that's all I had come off the board. So, those were our up-to-date predictions. So, now we'll start with you, Tim. What is your first prediction of the week? The Devils will shut out the Winnipeg Jets. You fucking prick.
[00:44:18] Second prediction. Devils will shut out the Jets. Now I have to fucking come up with another one. Yeah, I'm dead serious. Ah, you prick. How about... We are both so delightfully delusional. The Devils will not have a goal scored on them against the Jets. Is that the same? Yes, I believe that is called a shutout. You are allowed to have the same question. I got to add something to it, though. It's your risk. I mean... Yeah, but I got to add something.
[00:44:47] No, you can't do the same prediction unless you change it a little bit. You got to add something. Oh, yeah. So, all right, Bobby, your first prediction. My first prediction was just very simply, we will beat the Jets. Okay. We'll win tomorrow. That's it. All right. Um... This one, I think everybody is going to think I'm crazy.
[00:45:11] And if the Devils go on a long playoff run, and I'm saying pass maybe into the third round or further, Jack Hughes will be back. That's my prediction. They make it to the third round or further, Jack Hughes will play. A lot of moving pieces on that one. Yeah, and they're all on his shoulder. Spring 2026. Yeah, I know. I know. It's just, you know, reckless optimism. So, I'm going with it. Tim, you're first.
[00:45:43] Second. Jake Allen gets traded. Ooh. Okay. Allen traded tomorrow. Or after this. By tomorrow. Well, you're saying... Yeah, like... He becomes a deadline trader. Okay. So, he will be traded at some point between now and 3 p.m. tomorrow. Got it. All right. All right. I'm going to put my...
[00:46:12] Keep my optimistic shoes on here. The Devils will win four or more games in a row for the first time in almost two years starting tomorrow. That's my second prediction. What year are you in? I'm just like... Bobby, what's your second? Sorry. Can you repeat what your prediction was? Apparently, I'm high and can't follow anything. No. I mean, Bob, your second. I jumped to you. I'm sorry. The Golden Knights will shut out the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
[00:46:43] Or Friday. Whenever they play. We're in. No pens. Okay. And then mine was that the Devils will win. Devils haven't won more than three games in a row since 2000... What was it? 22, 23 season? Right? So, Tim, you did steal Jay's idea. He's pissed. What was that? So, I said that the Devils will win four or more starting tomorrow.
[00:47:12] They're going to go on a run. They're going to band together with all this bullshit. Look at this calendar. And that's what they're going to do. So, Tim, your third and final prediction for the week. Hang on. I'm checking one thing. You know, you kind of got a good stretch while he's looking. Because you've already committed to beating Winnipeg, right? And that's the tough test. And you got the Flyers. We hate playing them. But, you know, we're due. I hate the Flyers. And we got Columbus. On a national afternoon game against the Flyers. It's always the worst. When's that?
[00:47:41] I hate that. That's Sunday. Okay. So, we're off Saturday? Yeah. Okay. And we finished up with the Oilers. We're struggling. So, yeah. I have a good one. Okay. So, Tuesday. And then Tuesday the 11th. And I think there's another game. Love it. All right. So, we have two games remaining against Columbus. Uh-huh. And we win both of those. Okay.
[00:48:08] New Jersey wins the next two against the Blue Jackets. All right. Bobby, your third and final prediction. Vasiletsky currently has 29 wins. He's going to finish the season with at least 37. 37 wins. 37 or more. Isn't he? Isn't like Hollabuck already have 37? Yeah.
[00:48:37] Something like that. All right. My third and final prediction is that Shimon Nemich will score a goal against the Flyers on Sunday. Mike's got the definite winner. It's just three more times. That's a good one. That's a hat trick. Yeah. I think actually that might be a layup. I mean, that's not really a hat trick. That's a fucking layup. Um. I mean, that's going to happen. It's just like.
[00:49:05] You fucking live in where? Maryland. And there's a comparing it to your internet connection to Saskatchewan. It's great. It's fucking great. I love it. You didn't please yet, though. I haven't frozen. I'm frozen on the YouTube version of the screen. We have the best fans. Are you frozen on YouTube? Yeah, but like, I don't know. That's more than YouTube. So. What a mess. You're moving on my YouTube. You guys are being so mean to me. I don't like it. I love it. I love it. Keep doing it. All right.
[00:49:34] Let's just trash Tim for the rest of the night. Yeah, fuck you. Nah, I'm only kidding. So, okay. So, I saw a couple of names pop up in the chat when. There's some shit on your chin. We were going. Dude. Dude. Where are these? There were some names that the guys were bringing up. I can't find them right now. Fuck it. All right. What else do you guys want to talk about? There was a scathing fucking article written about Fitz. Yeah. I want to. Tim sent it to us. I want to read it, though. Because I'm not huge on.
[00:50:06] What's it going to call it? The pucks and pitchforks articles. But this one was. Or this was all about Jersey. So, never mind. So, this was actually a pretty decent read. How was it? Oh, my God. I'm an idiot here. Sorry, guys. All right. So, he writes. This is from Jared Moore. I'll cut to the chase here. The conundrum Tom Fitzgerald faces. Where to blow his fucking load on Holla. That's the conundrum right now.
[00:50:34] Says, Tom Fitzgerald has put the New Jersey Devils in a position that they are in right now, for better or worse. Five years into his run as the general manager of his team, the Devils have made the postseason once. And for the second season in a row, a season that began with so much promise, is on life support. That might seem a bit melodramatic after all. Despite the Devils being the epitome of average at best since the Christmas break, 10, 13, and 3 to be exact, they still hold the top three playoff position in the Met.
[00:51:02] For now, they're still six points up from the playoff bubble, and most of the teams behind them are selling at the deadline. For now, and speaking of the trade deadline, that is now a little over 48 hours away at this point. The Devils could still add reinforcements, and it sounds like that is exactly what they plan on doing. Pierre LeBron has said the Devils are basically poking around every forward available. There's a joke there with holla and poking around, isn't it? And yet, it feels like the Devils are at the lowest point that they've been in quite some time.
[00:51:30] It's not just the prolonged stretch of mediocre hockey. It's not just the Jack Hughes injury and knowing you're probably not going to have your best player the rest of the way. It's not just knowing what Jack's history is when it comes to shoulder injuries. It's not the double whammy of losing Dougie Hamilton in the very next game combined with arguably the worst loss the Devils have experienced. It's opening night against Winnipeg. Opening night of 2019. We all remember that Winnipeg game. I'm not going to go into that, but we blew a 4-0 lead in the third.
[00:51:59] And then he writes, those good vibes lasted a whole 40 minutes. He's talking about the Dallas game. 40 minutes before. He's still on the Winnipeg game. Talking about shit that happened in 2019. So he's saying that for as demoralizing as losing to Winnipeg was in 2019, last night was worse. It's worse because the Devils fought back after what happened in Vegas to overcome a 3-1 deficit and tie the game,
[00:52:25] only to lose in the final seconds of regulation and get zero points out of the game when points are at a premium. Let's see. It's worse because there are some good... What are they writing? You guys are writing. I don't know if I'm going to roll. They do just write themselves. They are good. They are good. That's right. I don't even want to read this. I want to read what these guys are writing. Basically, yeah.
[00:52:56] I don't know. Well, he goes into here, just like... Of course, he writes, anything can happen if the Devils get in. I still believe in their goaltending and their defense. I believe in their coach. I do think they're capable of playing a grinded-out playoff-style game. I don't think the Devils necessarily played poorly against one of the better teams in the West in Dallas or the game before in Vegas. And I do think there is some value in the Devils playing playoff hockey. Those games are an important teaching moment for a group that clearly still has a lot to learn.
[00:53:26] Then he starts going into Tom Fitzgerald. Generally speaking, I like most of the moves that Fitz has made. It wasn't too long ago where I was praising him for having fixed the Devils' biggest issues heading into the season. I don't know if it was just fool's gold or me jumping the gun a bit, but the Devils have done their best since I wrote that to make me look like a fool. Then you remember the why when it comes to why those moves being made were made.
[00:53:49] That the Devils went out and added Pesci, Kovacevic, and Dylan to the back end because they let too much experience on the blue line walk out the door the prior summer. That the Devils traded away Holtz because they whiffed on the seventh overall pick a few years earlier. And they were trying to salvage some value from him before he's out of the league in a few years. That the Devils did get tougher and play against with players like Steppen Nason and Paul Cotter.
[00:54:15] They also had to use assets to get bottom six forwards because draft picks like Chase Stillman haven't worked out and the Devils haven't developed forwards, which is what we were talking about. Who is ultimately responsible for that? Tom Fitzgerald. He goes on about the goaltending being a mess for his five-year run. It's the same shit. He's talking about the $6 million five-year deal to Palat. He's talking about the Zetterlin getting traded. Boquist getting traded. Sharon Govich getting traded.
[00:54:44] And how all those players are playing really well. What happened with Michael McLeod and not replacing that position when you knew that something was probably going to happen with him. About Eric Holla just, you know, walking around with your cock in his mouth the entire fucking year. This sounds like a lot of retrospect. That's a lot easier to sit on the sidelines and judge. Very much hindsight. I get it.
[00:55:08] But, like, he's getting killed for a pretty rough track record of first-round draft picks, which he probably can be. Like, Holtz and Stillman are – Holtz is in retrospect, I think. I think – I don't know a lot of people. Jared Moore. Sorry. Jared Moore is the A. I don't know a lot of people who were killing – there weren't a lot of people that were killing us for taking Holtz. I mean, I'm not – you know.
[00:55:37] And I have no problem with trading him either. Like, I have no – No. I mean, he didn't work. It was also the COVID years where you couldn't really scout and, you know, you couldn't – you know, you had to look at video as opposed to actually seeing guys in person. You couldn't – you know, I feel like if someone had saw him play in person, it would have probably seen the kind of character issue that has come up. That he had just something missing that wasn't going to translate to the NHL. You live and you learn. But the Mook Madulin, I don't know. He's okay in San Jose and he was part of the Timo trade.
[00:56:08] You know, there isn't a single – if someone bitches about Timo, there isn't a single fucking person in this fan base that didn't want Timo Meyer on this team. It hasn't worked out all that great so far. Hopefully it gets better. I love that. I love we got Carter on this team. I think he is – you know, I think he's going to be great and I'm really looking forward to seeing him in the playoffs. And I did not like Alex Holtz. And you guys know that. I didn't like him from day one. I didn't want him on the team. Just didn't think he had it. And apparently he doesn't.
[00:56:37] So – but, you know, the whipping on the first rounders, like Jack Hughes, Nico Heischer, Luke Hughes, Timorne Nimich. Those weren't his picks, though. Like Jack and Nico weren't his picks. You're right. I mean, Luke's a great pick. You know, Nimich, Nimich, you know, the verdict's still out. But, like, Cooley and Wright, you know, seem to kind of be more the need of what we have right now. But, you know, you can argue that. Like, what's more important is building out from defense or getting it forward. So, I don't know.
[00:57:06] But, like, Stillman's a fucking awful pick. That was just a fucking awful pick. I think that can be universally agreed upon. Some of these contracts, the Plot contract, the Hall contract. But then we have some of the other contracts, like Jack's contract and Nico's contract and Brad's contract. So, it's like there's always good and bad with every GM. And there's a good thing, too, about the Hall of contract. I mean, the Palat contract. Like, this team had nobody at the time. Like, remember that summer? We talked about it, right? He was going full bore for Johnny Goudreau.
[00:57:37] And when that didn't happen, you had a whole fan base, like, frothing at the mouth. Like, we are getting Goudreau here. We were all so excited. And when we saw his first year in Columbus, and, you know, I don't want to speak ill of the dead, but he did not play well. And we were all like, wow, he dodged a bullet there. But we all wanted him. And then when he couldn't get him, he wanted Matthew Kachuk. He was going hard. And then Kachuk leaves and goes afloat. And then, bang, it was like the next day, Palat. He signed that big money deal because he had to say fucking face.
[00:58:05] That's the only reason Palat got that deal. I think that there are probably no other teams willing to pay him even close to that. And we needed a big name in here. And Palat at the time was a big name. It was also a culture deal, a veteran deal, a deal that you knew you were risking on the back end to get him here, to bring some legitimacy here, to think that you could start to, you know, bring the young kids up and emulate his type of game.
[00:58:32] I hated the contract from a financial standpoint from the start. And I said it wouldn't age well. But I didn't hate the player. I wanted him for a couple of years to kind of be that guy. Now you hate the player. Now I hate the player. I'm done with the fucking player. I'm so done. Yeah. This guy's coming off of two cups with, you know, a great Tampa Bay team. Who wouldn't want him on their team? Of course, you know. In the right role. The pedigree.
[00:58:59] And we can still do that if we make the right moves by tomorrow. We can still get Palat playing in that right role. Yeah. Or Tampa just brought Yanni Gord back. Maybe they're looking to get the gang back together. And we send Palat back to Tampa. Vegas just got Riley Smith back. Maybe we could send Holla back to Vegas if they're looking to get the band back together. Maybe we can get Tampa to trade for Blake Coleman. And then we kidnap him on the way from Calgary. And we just keep him in the jersey.
[00:59:28] We decorate it like Tampa and everything. And then we take Blake. I would get hard to start driving to Calgary right now if we can get Blake Coleman. Maybe we can show all these players that have scored goals their entire lives that they're still allowed to do that at this level. Yeah. Maybe that shouldn't work. The one thing these guys are talking about is Casey. And I think, you know, I don't know if you guys agree with me. They hate him. I'm still of the mind. I hate Casey. I'm still of the mind. Good night, Mike. Go ahead and enjoy.
[00:59:57] Nemich is. Later, Mike. Thanks for coming, buddy. Yeah. Thanks for hanging with us, dude. What a dork. Don't alienate our four fans. No, I talked to Mike on Facebook Messenger. He's fun. He runs. He's an admin of one of the Facebook groups. And it's kind of a shit poster. He's pretty funny. I still think we keep Nemich and sell Casey. If that's the option, if someone was like, pick one, I'd say take Casey.
[01:00:25] I think that's the way to go. Well, if it's a big name, I wouldn't be surprised if he's gone tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. Casey, Allen, Holla. Get him out of here. Sorry. But, you know, then there's, you know, you put Tatar on waivers. You know, you can bury McDermott in the AHL for a little bit if you need to free out more money. We have $13 million right now to play with. So that's a lot of money to play with. That's a lot of fun money. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[01:00:54] Let's go build some hotels on Park Place. Come on. We have $13 million to play with? Mm-hmm. That's what I'm saying. You can solve. You can make a team for this run and solve a lot of problems for next year. Right. Even if you've done without this opportunity, because now you at least get them in the door. And then- But it's found money, babe. It's found money. Even if they don't fucking have term, who gives a shit?
[01:01:21] Like, if you don't have to give up a ton and maybe just take 100% of whatever's left on the deal or something, fucking do it. I think that's a huge advantage that we have right now. Yeah. Like, I still think, like, you know, Florida has Matt Kachuk's money on LTIR. I'm sure Vegas will probably, you know, break someone's leg in the middle of the night. Mark Stone hasn't been LTIR'd until tomorrow. So it's still a huge advantage.
[01:01:46] You know, Fitz has got to make the decision of whether he really wants to still go for it. You know, this year- How do you not, though? How do you tell the guys- The East is still wide open. How do you tell Nico fucking Heischer, you're not going for it? Yes. Right. Like, Jack is a huge part of this team. He's not the only person on this team. No. Like, you can't just- He was- He's a huge chunk of our offense. Was a huge chunk of our offense. We need to find a different way to win. And I still think they can. That first line that we had, that Nico, Timo, Bratline, was fucking awesome and rivals
[01:02:16] any first line in the league. We got some better pieces to build out that second, third line and do a rejiggering on the fly for now that also can help us in the future. Give up mortgage every fucking asset we have. I don't care. Like, you can fix this for now and for later. And you can make a run. That's the thing, too. And you'll be set up for a while because, like it or not, there's a core that is still going to be here for a while. And even beyond that core, I'm talking about, like, the depth of some of the prospects we have coming up.
[01:02:44] Like, you can literally predict out what's going to happen. And you can speed that up a little bit with maybe buyouts or trades and all that kind of thing. But there's not that much that we're going to. We should be a few pieces away from now we tweak every year. You know what I mean? But this is what we're going to have for this year. And then you tweak going into that playoff run. We shouldn't be to this point where it's like, we need a 3C. We need that scoring line where we can just get it all done and then tweak for the next
[01:03:13] six years, seven years. But I really hope that the mood in the dressing room and with management up there is, guys, this is a blessing in disguise here. We can remake the fucking team because this is what they can do. And every guy in that dressing room has got to look at each other. This isn't last year when the injuries happened and we didn't go for it. I get it. We had two 19, 20-year-old guys playing first-line defensive minutes. We had no goaltending.
[01:03:43] We had major injuries and major defensive problems. This isn't that team. You didn't have Pesci and Dylan and Kovacevic and Markstrom last year. Now you do. Now you can go for it. And I think that, seriously, he can show his chops tomorrow and put together a fucking team that could still make a run and possibly compete for a Stanley Cup. But, you know, if we didn't have the money, all the other stuff, okay. You know, but you were sitting on $13 million.
[01:04:14] I mean, look, Bart is not sitting around crying that Kachuk isn't in the fucking lineup. No, they're making themselves better. Right. We can't sit around and cry at Jacks. We got to make ourselves better and go. That's actually a pretty good comparison analogy. Like, they don't have Kachuk, but they still have Barkov. We don't have Jack, but we still have Nico. Like, it's, yeah. What were you saying, Bob, before you interrupted you? I'm saying, and if the owners were okay with saying, yes, spend over that $13 million. And if it's for somebody who's not sticking around, but it gives us a run, it's my money. Don't worry about it.
[01:04:43] I want you to try to do it. Yeah. You know, because you can get, maybe you get a Rantanen for less than you have to give for some of these guys with term, but you're taking a lot more risk. So what? You have the $13 million? Yeah. And maybe Rantanen comes to Jersey and we go on a run and he turns around and says, I fucking like it here. Yeah. All right. I'll sign. We just went on a run. I went on a run. And I get to play with Jack Hughes next year? Hell yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
[01:05:12] Like, if there's someone, like, I'm not saying Jack and Nate McKinnon are the same player, but in terms of their play driving ability and how they operate in the offensive zone, they're very similar in terms of the way they play. Like, Nate's more of a bull, but in terms of their speed, agility, quickness, and how they just blow through the neutral zone, they're very similar players. And that's the kind of player that Rantanen needs to play with. He's not going to be the guy carrying the puck into the zone. He's the guy that's going to get lost and find himself open in the offensive zone.
[01:05:42] I mean, I would love to have the kid there. And before we wrap it up for tonight, what the hell was the question I was going to ask you guys? Holy shit. I had one all teed up and now I can't fucking remember it. I hate when that happens. Oh, crying out loud. There was something else I wanted to close with. Okay. I remember. This is now two years. I think we've had three years. I think that the good run, Jack was healthy. He got hurt, I think, the year before, missed a bunch of games and then last year, then this year.
[01:06:12] Like, is this something for us to really worry about? Is this something that we're going to have to deal with every year? Like, is Jack Hughes going to have to end up being a load management type of player for us where maybe we can't throw him on the ice for 82 games out of the year? I mean, unless he comes back with a winter soldier arm, I don't know what, you know, we're going to do here. So what did you say? A winter soldier arm? Yeah. I mean, I'm just curious. Is this something that worries you guys? Like, yeah. Yeah. I think it does.
[01:06:43] It does. Surgeries in two years, man. This is fucking brutal. Every time you get surgery somewhere, you're going to be more susceptible to re-injuring that. It's not getting stronger against popular opinion. If you're repairing torn muscle, it's not stronger next time through. It's not like- Stop running headfirst into the fucking boards. Yeah. That's number one. It's not Tommy John surgery, for example, you know, where that ligament actually comes through and it strengthens your arm and increases your fast forward. You're talking about a shoulder that you're trying to manually repair.
[01:07:13] And then every time you hit it, there's scar tissue there and it gets worse and worse. And he's a small frame guy. You know, a lot of people are saying put on some weight. Honestly, 10 pounds away, 20 pounds away on this guy isn't going to stop the type of injuries that he's getting. And he goes full speed all the time. When he does hit the wall, he's hitting the wall at 80 miles an hour. And both of them are because of his own skating. Like, his best asset is- Oh, and there I froze. Mike wins a chicken dinner.
[01:07:46] His best assets are skating. But, like, that's also- He's so agile on his edges that he gets up so heavy on his edges that he falls all the fucking time. And both times of the serious injuries that he required surgery for was because of that. Like, against Vegas, if you watch it kind of closely, he toe picks a little bit before he eats shit. Like, it really has nothing to do with Eichel. It's just he's going full speed, toe picks a little bit. Eichel felt terrible. Yeah. Yeah, no, I know.
[01:08:14] That was actually nice to see. I am concerned about it. I agree with Bobby. I don't think any kind of, you know, any level of muscle mass that he puts on is going to affect or help avoid that type of shoulder surgery or that shoulder surgery that it has. But back to my question, because I agree with you guys. It is worrisome. But then the question, does Jack need to- Do we need to really discuss load management with this guy? I don't think it's load management with Jack. It's the way that he plays. It's his style of play. It doesn't matter because it can happen in game one.
[01:08:43] It can happen in game 82, right? It can happen in practice. It can happen at the Olympics. It can happen with Four Nations. It could happen picking up his groceries. If that happens picking up his groceries, then we definitely need to fucking give him the phone number to Uber Eats or something. That's like a baseball player. There's a guy that- Oh, no. Sammy Sosa. Didn't he throw out his back sneezing? I don't know. I think it was probably steroids. Oh, I sneezed. It wasn't- It was a sneeze of a thousand men. No, no. No, no. He sucked my dick. I know, Gabe.
[01:09:14] All right. We're going to go. All right. It was a nice run before you froze up, Jim. Guys, thanks so much. This is always fun. Of course, we want the podcast to get more popular and more people watching, but if we ever get to a time where there's a bunch of people in this chat, I'm going to be a little bummed because I kind of like our five or six dudes that we just talked to the whole time. It's going to suck going through other people's names to find out what Mike and Jay and all the guys are saying. We'll just block everybody else. Block everybody else.
[01:09:44] But if any of those guys want to bring your friends and chat with us as well. And before we wrap it up to anybody who's still listening, we want to start getting a little fan feedback kind of thing going on the show. So any questions, comments, concerns, anything that you want us to talk about on the show, email us, please. And at unclepuckers at gmail.com. We read everything. We write back. If you are all interested in an uncle pucker sticker, like the one I am holding up right here. Again, go to the uncle puckers.com.
[01:10:14] Go on to the contact info, put your info in and we will get it out to you in the mail. ASAP. They're pretty cool. Throw them on your car, throw them on your laptop, throw them on your water bottle, whatever. Do what you got to do. Other than that, wherever you're listening, a like, a subscription, five-star review, positive comment really does help the little podcast that could. And we appreciate you guys. We're Bob and Tim. I'm Chris. We're the uncle puckers. Bye, boys. Bye. See you. That's it? Nothing about Valaket?
[01:10:44] Oh, I don't want to talk shit to Valaket anymore, man. All right. Then I will. Valaket, Tom's waiting for you. Eric's all done. It's your turn. It's over, Johnny. It's over. That'd be great. Tim's not there.